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Barbora Kleinhamplová at SAVVY Contemporary
Artist: Barbora Kleinhamplová
Exhibition title: Sickness Report
Curated by: Karina Kottová
Commissioned by: Jindřich Chalupecký Society
Venue: SAVVY Contemporary, Berlin, Germany
Date: November 30 – December 23, 2018
Photography: all images copyright and courtesy of the artist and SAVVY Contemporary, Berlin
Note: Exhibition text can be found here
In a new film and installation created specifically for SAVVY Contemporary, the Czech artist Barbora Kleinhamplová addresses the sickness of neoliberalism through a metaphorical voyage both far ashore and into the mechanisms of building luxurious yachts and the fabrication of medications. An anthropological report of a middle-class dream-turned-into-nightmare attempts to capture the findings of a dizzy exploration, inviting viewers to consider their potential nausea as a part of something bigger:
It’s not just them or us who are sick. The whole ship trembles in nausea and discomfort. Stillness can hardly be distinguished from vertigo and acceleration boosts motion sickness of both the crew and the very deck carrying the tortured bodies and minds. For those in pain, it doesn’t sound like a solution to just wait for the boat to fall apart and then start building a better one from scratch. It might take too much time. It might never even happen. Time might bring irreversible damages. The ocean might not be very accommodating. Still, they are the ones on board, while others are drowning. More and more prescriptions of diverse medications clearly aren’t capable of bringing structural change. The symptoms are reoccurring, copy-pasted, spread out on most of the ships sailing turbulent seas. Drowsiness, dizziness, discomfort, restiveness, repetitive yawning, malaise, nausea, pallor, sweating, headaches, fatigue, chest pains or tightness, palpitations, insomnia, apathy. Reducing symptoms has proven easier than searching for causes.
Everybody participates. Even the doctors are sick. The workers in the drug factories are sick. The differences are mostly economical. Few can afford mechanisms that will excerpt their watercraft from the widespread misery. Some can afford not to be well. Some can afford the doctors and pills. And yet, they don’t really get better. The majority is working for and paying for the ship not to fall apart. In the evening, they sit down and watch it speed up, recess, stagnate. They are taught to think that sickness is their personal problem and therefore has to be treated individually. They don’t know who or what else to blame it on.
This new work was commissioned by the Jindřich Chalupecký Society and is kindly supported by the Czech – German Fund for the Future and the Czech Ministry of Culture.
Barbora Kleinhamplová (*1984) is an artist living and working in Prague. Barbora’s work is rooted in the relationship of human existence and contemporary political and economical institutions. She comments on different layers of society, posing questions as to what society is, how it works, and what its constitutive elements, illnesses, emotions and future are. Recently she has been employing a strategy we might refer to as constructed or staged situations. The script of her works is often derived from an existing format of group interaction (therapy, coaching session etc.) and the performative dimension of her projects accents the symbolic role of body politics in current systems of power.
Her work has been exhibited widely in the Czech Republic as well as internationally – including the Jakarta Biennale (2017), 11th Gwangju Biennale (2016), The Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts, New York (2016), New Museum, New York (2014), or Astrup Farnley Museet, Oslo (2014). She received a scholarship within the framework of the residency program of MMCA, Seoul, South Korea in 2015, Gasworks, London in 2016 and Residency Unlimited in 2017. In 2015 she received the Jindřich Chalupecký Award.
Karina Kottová (*1984) is a curator and theoretician of contemporary art based in Prague, Czech Republic. She is currently a director of the Jindřich Chalupecký Society. Her previous affiliations include MeetFactory international center for contemporary art (2012-15), DOX Centre for Contemporary Art (2009-12) and Museum Kampa (2007-2009). Amongst the projects she established and co-established are INI Project, an independent process-oriented project space, the Věra Jirousová Award for art critics, or UMA Audioguide. She is interested in the psychological and emotional impact of current socio-political challenges as well as in feminist theory and the subversive potential of so-called “feminine” qualities, such as empathy, irrationality or intuition.
Kottová earned a BA in Humanities from the Charles University in Prague, Czech Republic and an MA in Art and Heritage: Policy, Management and Education from Universiteit Maastricht, the Netherlands. In 2015 she defended her PhD thesis on “The Institution and the Viewer” in at Masaryk University in Brno, Czech Republic. In 2012 she was a Fulbright-Masaryk scholar affiliated with the Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts, New York.
Categories ExhibitionsTags Barbora Kleinhamplová, Berlin, Germany, Jindřich Chalupecký Society, Karina Kottová, SAVVY Contemporary Post navigation
David Czupryn at Kunsthalle Darmstadt
Agata Madejska at Kunsthalle Wilhelmshaven
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How Goma Chaudhary went from earning 30,000 rupees to 3 lakh rupees in 3 years - Blogs
Posted By Krishna Thapa on 8/23/18 5:51 AM
By Deepak Adhikari
After she moved with her school teacher husband to Salli Bazaar, a small town in Salyan district twenty years ago, Goma Chaudhary opened a small convenience store to support the family of six. Her husband, Samuj Lal Chaudhary, taught science and math at a school which took him two hours to reach on foot, earning only 16,000 rupees a month, an amount grossly inadequate to pay for his monthly expenses.
The couple had invested 50,000 rupees in the small store selling everything from cigarettes to chocolates. “But a lot of our sales were on credit. We didn’t have money to invest in a bigger grocery store,” Chaudhary recalled. At the time, Salli Bazaar had only about 40 stone and mud houses. Now the bustling highway town boasts over 100 houses most of them concrete buildings. The growth can be partly attributed to the paved road that connects Salyan with Surkhet district. The highway has attracted people from far flung areas. Samuj Lal estimated people from as many as 20 districts have settled down here.
Realising that their small business wasn’t helping them earn much, the two invested in goats. They started with two goats and now have 10 of them. Ever the enterprising entrepreneurs, the Chaudharys switched to vegetable farming after it dawned on them that they were spending some 12,000 rupees every year for vegetable alone.
Four years ago, Chaudhary sold off her tiny store and started to grow vegetables in a small plot of land in Salli Bazaar. She made 30,000 rupees selling vegetables in the first year. Over the years, her production has grown significantly.
In the beginning, she feared that she may not be able to pay the lease of 5,000 rupees for the farmland. She has now leased five ropanis of land on a vast expanse of farmland few yards from the highway. She now earns up to 3 lakh rupees selling tomatoes, beans, cabbage and cauliflower. Recently, the couple added a second storey to their concrete home in the village of Bannarjhula in Saptari district. The Chaudharys also have bought a plot in Salli Bazaar.
The 44-year-old is the chair of the 24-member all women Radha Krishna Fresh Vegetable Group. The High Value Agriculture Project group had 14 members when it was formed in 2013. The idea was to empower women so that they could join market based businesses. The HVAP did so by training the farmers on technical and management aspects and linking them to emerging markets along road corridors.
The HVAP also helped the group prepare business plan to attract funds. The most impactful initiative from the project was Business Literary Class (BLC), which brings together about 25 semi-literate women (and some men) from marginalized communities and trains them on basics of accounting. Classes include lessons on operating calculator and mobile phones. A woman trainer teaches them how to use calculator for transaction. They also learn about benefit of being part of the value chain and their role in it.
For women who missed out on education during their formative years, resulting on lack of knowhow that others take it for granted, the BLC has proved invaluable. It has brought about fundamental changes in their life, which they could have spent within the confines of their homes and farm fields, missing the opportunity that’s all around them.
Goma Chaudhary and her fellow trainees have been able to organize themselves, maintain farmers’ diary and conduct their businesses, thanks to BLC. “Earlier, there was real possibility of being cheated by traders because we didn’t know how to add or subtract. Now we know. This has boosted our confidence,” she said.
The group has benefited from the project in other ways as well. All the 14 members save 500 rupees (up from 100 rupees) a month in their collective fund, which they use for raising goats or poultry. Chaudhary and others have also taken advantage of the HVAP’s support for upgrading their vegetable farming. The project invests 75 percent for farming infrastructure such as tunnel for tomato or irrigation system. The farmers bear the reaming 25 percent of the investment.
Another aspect of HVAP’s support is technical expertise. Chaudhary recalled that until a few years ago, she grew vegetables without proper knowledge. “I used to farm in a haphazard manner. I didn’t know that beans don’t grow in the month of Chait (mid-March to mid-April),” she said. But now she can count on an agriculture expert based in Salli Bazaar. Since February, 2017, Nageshwar Nayak, a horticulturist, has been posted to Salli Bazaar to help farmers tackle diseases and other problems they face.
Indeed, farmers like Chaudhary need a lot of help. Farming is not only labor intensive, requiring constant work and vigil; a host of factors such as weather patterns, diseases, irrigation also impact the harvest. Despite the challenges, Chaudhary is already thinking of upgrading her farm. Lack of irrigation in the arid area, which largely depends on monsoon rains, is one of their concerns. But Radha Krishna Fresh Vegetable Group, under Chaudhary’s leadership, is already seeking solution to the lack of irrigation that is preventing them from increasing their yield. Options such as lift irrigation and drip irrigation have been discussed. With support from projects like HVAP, they are willing to contribute some funds to the project.
Chaudhary has endured hard times. Twenty years ago, she was a 14-year-old student at Bageshwari Secondary School in Rakam village of Surkhet when her teacher Samuj Lal started to court her after the death of his first wife. His first wife, who died of paralysis, left behind a toddler son. At the tender age, Chaudhary had to raise the two-year-old, who is now a 22-year-old engineering student. She herself gave birth to two girls and a boy. All of them have now grown up.
What makes Chaudhary happy these days is not the ripening tomato on her farm, but her daughter’s academic achievement. Her 18-year-old daughter Menuka Chaudhary is studying to become a Junior Technical Assistant, that much sought-after profession among farmers. “My wife is leading the group and she’s doing good. My daughter is studying to become a JTA. We hope to achieve prosperity from vegetable farming,” said her husband Samuj Lal Chaudhary.
Weaving success of rural women in Sabangan, Mt. Province, Philippines
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Christian History 102 Nicholas Ferrar Nicholas Ferrar Was Assumed To B
19 Apr, 2019 Free Essays 0
Christian History 102Nicholas FerrarNicholas Ferrar was assumed to be born in 1592. I have found that his most probable birth date was in February of 1593. This is due to the usual calendar confusion: England was not at that time using the new calendar adopted in October 1582. It was 1593 according to our modern calendar, but at the time the new year in England began on the following March 25th. Nicholas Ferrar was one of the more interesting figures in English history. His family was quite wealthy and were heavily involved in the Virginia Company, which had a Royal Charter for the plantation of Virginia. People like Sir Walter Raleigh were often visitors to the family home in London. Ferrars’ niece was named Virginia, the first known use of this name. Ferrar studied at Cambridge and would have gone further with his studies but the damp air of the fens was bad for his health and he traveled to Europe, spending time in the warmer climate of Italy. On his return to England he found his family had fared badly. His brother John had become over extended financially and the Virginia Company was in danger of loosing its charter. Nicholas dedicated himself to saving the family fortune and was successful. He served for a short time as Member of Parliament, where he tried to promote the cause for the Virginia Company. His efforts were in vain for the company lost their charter anyway. Nicholas is given credit for founding a Christian community called the English Protestant Nunnery at Little Gidding in Huntingdonshire, England. After Ferrar was ordained as a deacon, he retired and started his little community. Ferrar was given help and support with his semi-religious community by John Collet, as well as Collet’s wife and fourteen children. They devoted themselves to a life of prayer, fasting and almsgiving (Matthew 6:2,5,16).The community was founded in 1626, when Nicholas was 34 years old. Banning together, they restored an abandoned church that was being used as a barn. Being of wealthy decent, Ferrar purchased the manor of Little Gidding, a village which had been discarded since the Black Death (a major outbreak of the bubonic plague in the 14th century), a few miles off the Great North Road, and probably recommended by John Williams, Bishop of Lincoln whose palace was in the nearby village of Buckden. About thirty people along with Mary Ferrar (Ferrars’ mother) moved into the manor house. Nicholas became spiritual leader of the community. The community was very strict under the supervision of Nicholas. They read daily offices of the Book of Common Prayer, including the recital of the complete Psalter. every day.Day and night there was at least one member of the community kneeling in prayer at the alter, that they were keeping the word, ?Pray without ceasing?. They taught the neighborhood children, and looked after the health and well being of the community. They fasted and in many ways embraced voluntary poverty so that they might have as much money as possible for the relief of the poor. They wrote books and stories dealing with various aspects of Christian faith and practice. The memory of the community survived to inspire and influence later undertakings of Christian communal living, and one of T.S. Eliots’ Four Quartets is called ?Little Gidding.? Nicholas was a bookbinder and he taught the community the craft as well as gilding and the so-called pasting printing by means of a rolling press. The members of the community produced the remarkable ?Harmonies? of the scriptures, one of which was produced by Mary Collet for King Charles I.. Some of the bindings were in gold toothed leather, some were in velvet which had a considerable amount of gold tooling. Some of the embroidered bindings of this period have also been attributed to the so-called nuns of Little Gidding. The community attracted much attention and was visited by the king, Charles I. He was attracted by a gospel harmony they had produced. The king asked to borrow it only to return it a few months later in exchange for a promise of a new harmony to give his son, Charles, Prince of Wales. This the Ferrars did, and the superbly produced and bound manuscript passed through the royal collection, and is now on display at the British Library.Nicholas Ferrar, who was never married, died in 1637, and was buried outside the church in Little Gidding. Nicholas’s brother John assumed the leadership of the community.John did his best to make the community thrive. He was visited by the king several times. At one time the king came for a visit with the Prince of Wales, he donated some money that he had won in a card game from the prince. The kings last visit was in secret and at night. He was fleeing from defeat from the battle of Naseby and was heading north to try to enlist support from the Scots. John brought him secretly to Little Gidding and got him away the next day. The community was now in much danger. The Presbyterian Puritans were now on the rise and the community was condemned with a series of pamphlets calling them an ?Arminian Nunnery? (Ariminius was a Dutch reformer and theologian who opposed the Calvinist doctrine of predestination and election) In 1646 the community was forcibly broken up by Parliamentary soldiers. Their brass baptismal font was damaged, cast into the pond and not recovered until 200 years later. The village remained in the Ferrar family but it was not until the 18th century that the church was restored by another Nicholas Ferrar. Ferrar restored the church, shortened the nave by about 8 feet and built the ?dull facade? that Eliot spoke of.In the mid 19th century, William Hodgkinson came along and restored the church more. He installed the armorial stain glass windows, (4 windows with the arms of Ferrar, Charles the 1st and Bishop Williams inserted). He then put in a rose window at the east end (this rose window was later replaced by a Palladian-style plain glass window). Hodgkinson recovered the brass font, restored it and reinstalled it in the church. An elaborate 18th century chandelier now hangs in the church, installed by Hodgkinson.from _Little Gidding_ by T.S. Eliot If you came this way,Taking any route, starting from anywhere,At any time or at any season,It would always be the same: you would have to put offSense and notion. You are not here to verify,Instruct yourself, or inform curiosityOr carry report. You are here to kneelWhere prayer has been valid. And prayer is moreThan an order of words, the conscious occupationOf the praying mind, or the sound of the voice praying.And what the dead had no speech for, when living,They can tell you, being dead: the communicationOf the dead is tongued with firebeyond the language of the living.Here, the intersection of the timeless momentIs England and nowhere. Never and always.BibliographyEtherington ; Roberts. Dictionary–Ferrar, Nicholas – Bookbinding and the Conservationof Books A Dictionary of Descriptive Terminology. Ferrar, Nicholas ( 1592-1637 )Columbia Encyclopedia – Table Of Contents – Columbia Encyclopedia. F. Faber, FrederickWilliam. Faber, Johannes. Fabian, Saint. Fabian Society. Fabius. Fabius, Laurent. fable.fabliau, plural…Christian Biographies Commemorated in November – FOR THE FEAST OF ALL SAINTS(1 NOV) FIRST READING: Ecclesiasticus 44:1-10,13-14 (“Let us now praise famousmen….”; a commemoration of patriarchs,…A History Of The Church In England, J.R.H.Moorman, Morehouse Publishing copyright 1980The Story Of Christianity, Justo L Gonzalez, Harper Collins Publishers copyright 1984The Episcopal Church, David Locke Hippocrene Books, New York copyright 1991 44
Vampire Lestat
Charles V
A Philosophy of the Idea of Christian Liberal Arts Education
Diplomacy During the Great Northern War from 1700-1721.
American Revolution (6875 words)
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At Berry College, student-athletes live by the same motto that college founder Martha Berry lived by. “Not to be ministered unto, but to minister,” the motto says.
In 2000, a group of Berry student-athletes came together and founded Athletes Bettering the Community, an organization aimed at making an impact in the Rome/Floyd County area. Today, nearly every Berry student-athlete takes part in ABC.
Through the ABC experience, Vikings fill a variety of needs throughout the area on various service days during the year. Student-athletes have served at the Boys and Girls Club, the YMCA, after school programs at various elementary schools, assisted living homes homeless shelters and many others locations. Whether they were playing tag on the playground, reading a Dr. Seuss book, planting trees or washing ambulances, Berry student-athletes have become known throughout Rome and Floyd County for their service to others as much as for their success on the athletic fields.
Outside of ABC, several individual teams also donate their time and efforts into community service. From giving free sports clinics to spending time with school children to working with groups such as Habitat For Humanity, Berry’s teams are making their mark in the community.
One example of Berry’s selfless giving is former baseball player Tyler Coats, who was a leader in ABC, but spent countless hours on his own donating time to various projects. Coats worked with Habitat for Humanity, helped a local elementary school student improve his reading skills and served as a mentor to an elementary school student. Coats, who donates approximately 100 hours a year, was named the Top Male Amateur Athlete Role Model in the state of Georgia by the Boy Scouts Atlanta Area Chapter, and was the only NAIA recipient of the Coca Cola Community Servica All-American award, both in 2004. Coats, an Athletic and Academic All-American, is just one example of how Berry College student-athletes better the community.
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Stayin’ Alive
Did you know that the Bee Gees’ 1977 hit ‘Stayin’ Alive’ is an ideal beat to follow to perform chest compressions on a victim of a cardiac arrest? A research study in the US has found that the fast beat of the song motivated people to keep up the rate of chest compressions needed to make cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) effective. CPR can triple cardiac arrest survival when performed properly.
An author of the study said many people were put off performing cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) as they were not sure about keeping the correct rhythm. The song ‘Stayin’ Alive’ contains 103 beats per minute, close to the recommended rate of 100 chest compressions per minute.
The study by the University of Illinois College of Medicine saw 15 doctors and students performing CPR (cardiopulmonary resuscitation) on mannequins while listening to ‘Stayin’ Alive’. They were asked to time their chest compressions with the beat.
Five weeks later, they did the same drill without the music but were told to think of the song while doing compressions.
The average number of compressions the first time was 109 per minute; the second time it was 113 – more than recommended by the American Heart Association, but better than too few, according to Dr Matlock.
“It drove them and motivated them to keep up the rate, which is the most important thing,” he told the Associated Press.
A spokesman for the American Heart Association, Dr Vinay Nadkarni, said it had been using ‘Stayin’ Alive’ as a training tip for CPR instructors for about two years, although it was not aware of any previous studies that tested the song.
With thanks to BBC News (and Grannymar) for bringing this report to my attention.
Those Bee Gees in their tight jeans were enough to get my heart beating fast. I feel a touch of Night Fever coming on now!
3 Comments | health, medical | Tagged: Bee Gees, cardiac arrest, CPR, Night Fever, Stayin' Alive | Permalink
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Surprise. Delight. Exceed
An integrated digital, social and PR agency
Launch of Women's Health - one of the most successful magazine launches in South Africa
Issued by: G&G Digital
The launch of Women's Health SA in 2009 caused a stir in the publishing industry. Not only because magazine titles were getting skinnier, or worse closing down, with ad budgets being slashed in the wake of the recession, but also because Touchline Media launched the first multi-platform brand. Women's Health is much more than a magazine.
Despite industry pessimism, Gullan&Gullan Advertising leaped at the opportunity to be part of the team of communications and media service providers who assisted Touchline Media with the launch of Women's Health
The brief was to create awareness of the Women's Health brand as a multi-platform offering - a website, magazine, mobile applications, bookazines, DVDs, events and more. One of the most important objectives was to entice the target market into interacting with the brand using the full 360º communication channels, namely above the line, below the line with a strong online push. “Our most important objective was to launch the brand, not just the magazine,” said Touchline Media Group Publisher, Desiré du Plessis, “and the various collaborating teams worked well to achieve this in an integrated manner.”
The target market
Primary - Affluent women ages 25 - 40
Secondary - Media planners, buyers and brand ambassadors
Multi-platform solutions
The multi-platform brand required a multi-platform launch and Gullan&Gullan delivered a brand-centric™ 360º campaign that communicated the Women's Health brand mantra - “It's Good To Be You!”. This brand positioning was supported by the Women's Health service style editorial pillars, namely, health, fitness, nutrition & weight loss, sex & relationships, beauty & style and career & finance.
Together with the hands-on brand team at Touchline Media and Gullan&Gullan conceptualised, developed and executed two separate campaigns tailored to the two target markets. The campaign consisted of three phases,
Phase 1 - tease
Phase 2 - push to the website
Phase 3 - push to instore
Phase 4 - ongoing subscription drive.
The 360º channels included,
Online - banner campaign and direct email campaign
Above the line - print and outdoor
Below the line - POS and media packs
Mobile - SMS and MMS.
The brand was also launched via 30-second television commercial that was produced in-house by the Touchline Media team.
The rollout
Another first. Women's Health made history by launching their website prior to the magazine. The website went live on 9 September 2009, followed by on-shelf magazines on 21 October 2009. The aim was to get users interacting with the brand online to encourage subscriptions to the magazine and return visits to the site once the magazine was available. The email campaign was designed to drive traffic to the site by offering titbits of the magazine in a digital format.
The solid results
Women's Health sold 61 476 copies of its launch issue in October 2009. The website had over 28 000 unique users in November 2009. In January 2010, the magazine had secured an impressive 3 319 subscribers. A testament to a powerful launch campaign that made use of multi-dimensional brand-centric™ communications.
“It's a solid start in a very competitive market and we're thrilled that readers have responded in such a positive way to the brand. Clearly the magazine's bold, fresh approach has resonated with women looking to improve every aspect of their lives and we'll continue to build on this success both in the pages and online,” said Jason Brown, editorial director across the Rodale-Touchline titles including Women's Health, Men's Health, Runner's World and Bicycling.
The 360º brand-centric™ approach
By understanding the Women's Health brand and its values and applying these values to all touch points, Gullan&Gullan ensured that the brand's core values were expressed in a congruent, consistent manner at every touch point. These successfully communicated values guaranteed the success of the Women's Health launch.
For more about Gullan&Gullan's visit www.gullanandgullan.com or call +27 11 887 6591.
1 Mar 2010 10:30
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Tag: Ben Gavish
For the Record: Sept. 7, 2012
Posted on September 7, 2012 Updated: September 13, 2012
Annie Xiang, Physics, Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences, has received the U.S. Department of Energy Generic R&D award, a 3-year program (2012 to 2015) with a total funding of $202,500 to develop small-form-factor, high-reliability optical transmitters at the 120 Gbps range for high-bandwidth data transmission in future particle physics experiments. At SMU, she also leads the Versatile Link project, a collaboration with the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory and Oxford University, funded through U.S. ATLAS.
SMU’s Center for Alcohol and Drug Abuse Prevention has received the 2012 TIPS Award of Excellence for its anti-alcohol abuse training program. The award is presented by Health Communications, Inc., the providers of the Training for Intervention ProcedureS (TIPS) Program. SMU began implementing TIPS in early 2007 to train students in how to make sound choices when faced with challenging decisions regarding alcohol use. The Award of Excellence winner is chosen based on both volume of students certified and feedback from TIPS Trainers and student participants.
Brian Zoltowski, Chemistry, Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences, has received a $250,000 grant from the Herman Frasch Foundation for Chemical Research for his research focusing on the photoreceptor protein, one of the many proteins involved in an organism’s circadian clock. The photoreceptor protein enables plants to know when the spring and fall occur and to produce flowers or fruit at the appropriate time of year. The Frasch Foundation awards grants to nonprofit incorporated institutions to support research in the field of agricultural chemistry that will be of practical benefit to U.S. agricultural development. Grants are awarded for a period of five years, subject to annual review and approval on evidence of satisfactory progress.
Rick Halperin, Embrey Human Rights Program, Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences, has written the foreword to Echoes of the Lost Boys of Sudan, a graphic novel by James Disco about the Sudanese genocide and an international incident in which more than 20,000 children – mostly boys – ranging in age from 7 to 17 were displaced or orphaned during the Second Sudanese Civil War (1983-2005). Read more from the Huffington Post. (Right, an image from the book.)
Lori Ann Stephens, English, Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences, has written The Lingerer – a libretto based on the story The Sweeper of Dreams by Neil Gaiman – which has been chosen as a finalist in the 2012 English National Opera Minioperas competition. More than 500 librettos were entered, and 10 were selected as finalists; Stephens is the only finalist from the USA. During the next two phases of the competition, composers create music based on one of the 10 librettos, and filmmakers create videos to accompany them. Stephens has been invited to London for the final presentations in October. Listen to the music written for Stephens’ libretto by composer Julian Chou-Lambert.
Louis Jacobs, Huffington Department of Earth Sciences, Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences, has been named the winner of the 2012 Skoog Cup presented by the Science Teachers Association of Texas (STAT) as part of its STAT Awards program. The Skoog Cup is awarded to a faculty or staff member at a Texas college or university who “has demonstrated significant contributions and leadership in the development of quality science education.” Jacobs and the other STAT Award winners will be honored at the Conference for the Advancement of Science Teaching (CAST) Nov. 8-10 in Corpus Christi.
Michael Corris, Art, Meadows School of the Arts, has been named reviews editor of the Art Journal, a publication of the College Art Association (CAA). CAA states its mission as “[promoting] the visual arts and their understanding through committed practice and intellectual engagement.”
Bezalel (Ben) Gavish, Information Technology and Operations Management, Cox School of Business, has been elected a Fellow of the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS). Only 12 members of the Institute were elected Fellows in 2012. They will be honored on Oct. 15 at the 2012 INFORMS Annual Meeting in Phoenix.
Ed Biehl, Chemistry, Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences, has received the 2012 Kametani Award for achievements in the field of heterocyclic chemistry. The $3,000 award was created in 1999 and is presented annually in memory of the founder of Heterocycles, the official journal of The Japan Institute of Heterocyclic Chemistry. The award is sponsored by the Institute and the journal’s publisher, Elsevier.
Anita Ingram, Risk Management, has been voted 2012-13 president-elect of the University Risk Management and Insurance Association (URMIA). She and the other new URMIA officers will be inducted Oct. 2 at the organization’s 43rd Annual Conference in Providence, Rhode Island. URMIA is an international nonprofit educational association promoting “the advancement and application of effective risk management principles and practices in institutions of higher education.” It represents more than 545 institutions of higher education and 100 companies.
Categories: For the RecordTags: Anita Ingram, Annie Xiang, Art, awards and honors, Ben Gavish, Bezalel Gavish, Brian Zoltowski, Center for Alcohol and Drug Abuse Prevention, chemistry, Dedman College, Ed Biehl, Embrey Human Rights Program, English, faculty achievement, faculty news, Huffington Department of Earth Sciences, Information Technology and Operations Management, Lori Ann Stephens, Louis Jacobs, Meadows School of the Arts, Michael Corris, physics, Rick Halperin, risk management, TIPS
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DEBATE ON THE ADDRESS
HC Deb 29 November 1944 vol 406 cc9-56 9
§ Captain Sidney(in military uniform) (Chelsea)
I beg to move, That an humble Address be presented to His Majesty as followeth: Most Gracious Sovereign,
We, your Majesty's most dutiful and loyal subjects, the Commons of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, in Parliament assembled, beg leave to offer our humble thanks to Your Majesty for the Gracious Speech which Your Majesty has addressed to both Houses of Parliament."
I must, first, crave the indulgence of the House as this is the first occasion on which I have had the privilege of addressing it. I am deeply conscious of the honour which has befallen me so early in my Parliamentary career, and I am certain that the House will believe me when I say that my gratification is not unmixed with anxiety. My right hon. Friend the Member for Ladywood (Mr. G. Lloyd) and my hon. Friend the Member for Swindon (Sir W. Wakefield), to both of whom fell the onerous duty of making their maiden speeches on similar occasions, will, I feel sure, sympathise with me when they recall the emotions which they experienced when they rose to address the House. I realise that in honouring me the House is paying a tribute to the Army, which, in Europe and in Asia, is pursuing relentless and bitter struggles against our foes. It is an honour as well to the division which I represent here, the Parliamentary Borough of Chelsea, and I am sure that the electorate of Chelsea will be gratified that, for a second time within recent memory, their Member has moved the Address, for my predecessor, now Lord Templewood, did so some 23 years ago at the beginning of a special Session of Parliament which had been summoned to ratify the Treaty with Ireland.
Chelsea is a neighbour of the famous city in which this Palace of Westminster stands. It is small in extent, but feels no sense of inferiority on that account. Rather it prides itself that London, in its passage to the West, has flowed round and beyond its boundaries and has left Chelsea a small riverside village, with its original character and with all the local patriotism and attachments which are implicit in the life of such a community. Although we are small in extent and not very numerous, we have sent some 6,000 men and 10 women to join the Forces, and I know that to-day they will be gratified that this distinction has been conferred upon their borough. They are to be found in Belgium and Holland, in Italy and the Middle East, in India and Burma, wherever the Armed Forces of the Crown are in grim contact with our enemies. They have been taking part in those resounding events to which the Gracious Speech refers.
It is well that every now and then we should look back and gauge the distance we have travelled, and the pace at which we have moved. A year ago, Africa had been cleared of the enemy, Sicily was ours and, by our invasion of Italy, we had established ourselves on the Continent, but the Germans were still the uneasy masters of nearly all Europe. They had their outposts in the Aegean and the Arctic Ocean. Their armies still stood on Russian soil and, in the West, they felt themselves secure behind their elaborate fortifications. With the permission of the House, I will read a quotation, which, I think, is relevant to my argument: Every new landing which the enemy may undertake will pin down more shipping, and will split up the enemy's forces, giving us opportunity for counter-blows. Thus Hitler last November, on what used to be considered his annual outing at Munich. He added, in the same speech: What is it but a trial of endurance if we have to surrender a few miles, or a few hundred miles of territory, so long as we are able effectively to defend our lines so far away from the frontiers of the Reich? The Germans have had plenty of opportunity for counter-blows and plenty of scope for endurance, but some of the lines which they are now defending are inside the frontiers of the Reich. It seems a pity that the world has had no opportunity this year of hearing the German leader's comments on the situation as it is to-day. It may be that Munich beer is a little flat.
The House will remember that a year ago exactly the Prime Minister was conferring with President Roosevelt and Marshal Stalin at Teheran, and it is well, I think—in the words of the examination papers—to compare and contrast several words of the joint statement that was issued at the end of that Conference: We have reached complete agreement as to the scope and timing of the operations which will be undertaken from East, West and South. 11 We have seen translated into action that agreement, which signified the fall of Rome and the expulsion of the enemy from three-fourths of Italy. It has meant the greatest invasion in history, and the freeing of France and Belgium. It has meant that Russia has been swept clean of the invader. It has blown down the top-heavy structure of German domination in Central Europe and in the Balkans, and it has brought, after unimaginable suffering, liberation to Greece. The Alliance has not only been able to exercise enormous pressure on the so-called fortress of Europe from outside; it has also been able to aid and concert the powerful resistance movements inside the gates, so that when the day came the peoples were able to rise and rout their hateful oppressors.
I do not know whether it would be a serious breach of discipline for the cabin-boy, having so recently signed on, to say a word in commendation of the captain who has been on the bridge continuously for 4½ years in a lot of very dirty weather, but I hope my right hon. Friend will forgive me if I pay my grateful tribute to him, as the architect and contriver of the Grand Alliance, which has accomplished so much during the past year. I have been able to see something of the work of that Alliance in Italy. Last summer, after the fall of Cassino and the piercing of the two fortified lines, if one stood beside the highway which leads to Rome, one could see there Indian police directing the steadily flowing traffic up that road, Canadian tanks, United States jeeps, Polish despatch riders, French Moroccan mule teams and New Zealand sappers—all part of the great Allied and Empire force under the command of Field-Marshal Alexander, and all intent on one thing, the pursuit of the beaten and retreating Germany Army.
When the object of this Grand Alliance has been fulfilled by the defeat of our enemies, I do not underrate the difficulties which we shall experience in extending that co-operation which we have achieved for war to the more constructive purposes of peace, but I believe that it is the most fervent desire of every man and woman in this country that, after victory, peace, the "unassailable peace" which we have heard mentioned in the Gracious Speech, should be enjoyed, not only by themselves 12 but by their children. I believe that in strengthening the ties which unite the family of nations within the British Commonwealth, we can go far and do much in the service of the cause of peace. I would like to add, if I may, that I hope that the Conference of Prime Ministers which was held in this country last May, will be frequently and regularly convened in the future.
My hon. Friend who is to second the Motion will, no doubt, deal with the various and important measures which, the Gracious Speech tells us, are to be brought forward for the consideration of the House in the forthcoming Session, but I would say a word about one or two of them. I think that the most urgent problem in domestic affairs which confronts us is the grave shortage of houses. There has been a five-year gap in building, and this has been accentuated by the grievous destruction wrought by enemy bombing. So I particularly welcome the reference in the Gracious Speech to the progress which has been made in fulfilling this vital need. Local authorities will have to play a great part in our building programme and I trust that the Measures foreshadowed in the Gracious Speech for financing the capital expenditure of those local authorities will give them ample scope to fulfil their responsibilities in this field.
We are at the beginning of the sixth war-time Session. We can enter it, I believe, with pride in and thankfulness for what our country has achieved. We can undertake our tasks of preparation and reconstruction with great hope that the Session may see the defeat of Germany, and Japan following her evil partner down the hill into the abyss with ever-increasing momentum; and I believe we shall go about our tasks better for the knowledge that our country will continue to play its full part in the struggle, until tyranny, both in the East and in the West, is finally overcome.
§ Mr. Thomas Fraser (Hamilton)
I beg to second the Motion.
In rising to do so, let me first congratulate my hon. and gallant Friend the mover on a truly remarkable maiden speech. A maiden speech for any of us is an ordeal, but a maiden speech in these circumstances is a task that would not lightly be undertaken by any hon. Mem- 13 ber. It is needless for me to express the hope that we may hear much more of my hon. and gallant Friend in the future. With such eloquence, I am sure that he will try, from time to time, to catch your eye, Mr. Speaker, and that he will have no small measure of success. Let me also congratulate him on the unsurpassable distinction which he has recently won. We are very proud indeed to have among us one who has so distinguished himself in the war.
For my part, I have not worn uniform in this war, unless I should mention that old Home Guard uniform of mine; and that I have worn since those very dark days in 1940 when it consisted of a four-inch arm-band with the letters L.D.V. printed thereon. That was before the Prime Minister found us a much better name. My job has been in industry. I started work in the coalmines when I left school at 14 years of age, and for almost the first 3½ years of this war I was still working at the coal face, in the front line of the industrial front. It is quite impossible to measure the debt we owe to our Fighting Services, of which my hon. and gallant Friend is such a striking example, but let me say that I was particularly pleased to note in the Gracious Speech a phrase referring to the contribution of the civilian population in the struggle through which we have come. It may be that I would be permitted in the circumstances to take a bow on behalf of the civilian population.
I have said that I am a miner, and I recognise that my being chosen to do this job this afternoon is an honour conferred on the industry. But more especially, I understand, is it an honour conferred on my constituency. This is the first time that Hamilton has been so honoured. Hamilton itself is, I think, a rather pretty town to be centred, as it is, in the midst of so much heavy industry. It is only part of my constituency however, and I am equally proud to represent the Lark-hall and the landward areas. That part of the country is one, I suggest, which any hon. Member would be proud to represent, in view of its historical record. Fundamentally, we have always been very democratic in those parts. I am reflecting just now on the Covenanting period and the almost indescribable sacrifices the Covenanters made in defence of religious freedom. Coming to much 14 more recent history, Hamilton and Lark-hall are place-names always associated with two great Labour leaders. I refer to James Keir Hardie and Bob Smillie. These names are not unknown to any student of politics; they cannot be unknown to any hon. or right hon. Member of this House, and I am exceedingly proud to represent an area with which they were so closely associated for such a long time, and in which both had their political beginnings.
My hon. and gallant Friend has said a word or two about the war, and I shall not dwell on that at any length. But let me say that all of us are certain that Hitlerism, or Himmlerism, is doomed. None of us can say when the war in the West is likely to end. The date of the end seems to be just anybody's guess, but now that Goebbels himself is talking in somewhat despairing terms about the outcome of the war, we may be permitted a little optimism as to the end of it. Then there is the other war—or is it another war? Whatever the description, it seems to me to make no difference. Sufficient is it to say that we must continue to prosecute the war in the East with the same vigour as that with which we have prosecuted the war in the West. It must not be neglected. We must go on adding to our current victories, until the world has been really and truly freed. And at that stage we must, to quote the words used in the Gracious Speech, and repeated by my hon. and gallant Friend, undertake the task of building and maintaining "an unassailable peace."
Before returning to domestic affairs, let me say that I was gratified to see a reference to the Colonies in the Gracious Speech. We have a big responsibility towards those 60,000,000 people. I am sure all Members of the House are aware of the provisions of the Colonial Development and Welfare Act, 1940. It provided for £5,000,000 per year over a period of 10 years, to be spent on the economic and social development of the Colonies. That was a ceiling figure. Many of my very good friends have complained that the terms of the Act have not been implemented, but we have been advised that, for reasons outside the control of the Government—it may be that the war had something to do with it—only a small part of that sum has been spent. So we are delighted to learn that legislation is 15 to be introduced extending the scope of the 1940 Act. Now that the war clouds are lifting, I should imagine that the supply position may be made easier, and that before we have such legislation laid before us, the Act of 1940 will have already been extended, in relation to what has been done in the last four years.
We are much concerned about the change-over in industry, and how that is to be accomplished in this country, without having too much of an upsetting effect on the prosecution of the war. We are pleased to note that the Government are aware of the problems in commerce and industry that lie immediately ahead of us. As the demand for war supplies lessens, inevitably labour will become available, and indeed it is now becoming available, for alternative employment. It must be a risky business to turn over plant and materials to the production of household goods and the like whilst the war is still in progress, but many of these displaced workers are unsuitable for the Services; they may not be absorbed in His Majesty's Forces, and so a balance has to be struck.
The public will be heartened to learn that care is to be taken that a fair distribution of the necessary goods will be maintained so long as there is any scarcity. It is also gratifying to learn that the Government are aware of the need to maintain a high level of food production at home. The agricultural industry has shown remarkable efficiency during the war period, and it is up to us, in the days before us, to take to heart the lessons we have learned during the war. The development areas may be a little encouraged by the reference to them in the Gracious Speech, and the undertaking that their needs will be kept in mind all the time, when we are reorganising and re-equipping our industry in the difficult transition period.
All these matters inevitably raise the question of controls. Nobody wants controls for their own sake, but it seems to me sheer madness to imagine that the economic life of this country can be protected in the days immediately ahead, without some centralised guidance. This House can surely supervise that centralised authority. In the Session that has just come to a close, we have had quite a spate of White Papers, some deal- 16 ing with matters to which I have just referred, others more directly concerned with our general social services. The country has given a warm welcome to these White Papers, and I suggest that the country is keen for an implementation of the policies declared in them. We must not disappoint the country. There is every need to speed the proposed legislation on the health services and on national insurance. I am perfectly sure that in putting these Measures through the House, many of us will have to choose between offending our consciences and offending our friends, but the vested interests of a few of our friends should surely come second to the general interest of the people.
We are promised legislation dealing with family allowances, and the country is looking forward to it with eager anticipation. Then we have the proposal to replace the present Workmen's Compensation Acts, and to introduce new legislation dealing with industrial injuries. On such legislation, as in relation to family allowances, there does not seem to be any great difference of opinion on matters of broad principle. The differences seem to me to be mostly on matters of detail. That being so, we can hurry on with legislation, and get it through the House as soon as possible. Do not let us keep our people waiting any longer than is absolutely necessary. The legislation to which I have just referred is generally applicable to the whole of the United Kingdom, but there is the prospect of one Measure specially designed for Scotland. I refer to the Scottish Education Measure. I am specially interested in it because of my membership of the Advisory Council on Education in Scotland. Let it be sufficient for me to observe now that Scottish Members must take the fullest advantage of every opportunity given them in the discussions on that particular Measure to shape our legislation so that we may have in Scotland that supremacy in the field of education which we so often assume for ourselves.
In putting all these Measures through the House, we shall have a very busy time. The year of 1945 will surely be the year of victory in the war in the West at least. Let it also be the year of making good the White Paper promises of 1944. This Parliament can do the job. This Parliament has shown a remarkable 17 capacity during the war in the way we have mobilised the total resources of the country. Democracy once again has proved its superior efficiency. The country expects this Parliament—and I say this Parliament advisedly—to show the same vigour, the same sense of realism and the same singleness of purpose in tackling the tasks of reconstruction, as it has shown in dealing with the war situation.
§ Mr. Arthur Greenwood (Wakefield)
The first day of a new Session always revives one's faith in this old House of Commons. During my time in this House, covering many years now, I have never known an occasion when the mover and seconder of the Humble Address to His Majesty have not fully justified the House of Commons, and done honour to the House of Commons. In the vicissitudes of my political life I have played many parts, but I was never honoured by being allowed either to move or to second the Loyal Address. But I can imagine the feelings of trepidation of Members who are called upon to perform this essential function. To-day's speakers have been no exception to the rule. They have lived up to the high standards set by many distinguished predecessors. My hon. and gallant Friend the Member for Chelsea (Captain Sidney) showed the becoming modesty of a very great gentleman, to whom the King has thought fit to give a signal honour. My hon. Friend the Member for Hamilton (Mr. Fraser), whose experience is different, has played his part in public life. They have both spoken not only with felicity, but with modesty—a quality which, as a Member grows older, often fades into the background. Perhaps following the modesty of the mover and seconder of the Address to-day would improve the quality of the Debates in this Chamber.
Having done, in the opinion of the House, I hope, justice to the speeches that we have listened to, I now turn to the King's Speech. If an element of discord enters into the discussion to-day, it is because of the nature of the occasion. I heard with very great interest the Prorogation Speech. I think it was a great recital of great events and great achievements during the past year. It was a recital of which we all ought to be proud. It showed a developing confidence in the 18 future, and it proved the accomplishment of the past. Now we have arrived at the stage when we must think a little more about the future. There is a reference in the second paragraph of the Gracious Speech to the part we must play in the struggle against Japan. To me this is not two wars: it is a single war. I think the enemy, and our friends in all quarters of the world, ought to appreciate the view of this House, which I venture to put. It is that, as far as we are concerned, whatever our political affiliations may be, we shall march to the end of the road leading to the final destruction of the Japanese power. It is as well that some of our doubting friends should appreciate that that is the firm intention of the people of this country, and that, however long that war may last, whatever Government may be in power, this House will assure them of undivided support in the prosecution of the war in the East.
Hopes are expressed of the rebuilding of prosperity and the maintenance of an unassailable peace. Steps have already been taken, as was pointed out in the Prorogation Speech; but the nearer we march to final victory the clearer ought to be the policy adopted by Allied Nations to maintain peace and develop the world's prosperity. One hopes that the projected conference of my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister with the President of the United States and M. Stalin may take place at a fairly early date, and that when they have settled such strategic questions as may be still at issue, they will turn their minds to the building of an organisation which, when the war in the West finishes, will begin to operate for tire salvation of the world in future. I am convinced that whatever we may call the organisation which is set up now, there can be no doubt in any quarters of this House that the friends of freedom, the United Nations, are really the custodians of peace and prosperity in the future. It would be more than a crime, it would be a tragedy of the first importance, if the bonds of comradeship, forged in war, were broken, or even damaged, in times of peace.
I come to the specific proposals in the King's Speech, primarily dealing with home front matters. I should imagine that many Members of the House, certainly many of my hon. Friends, are a little disturbed about the phraseology of certain parts of the King's Speech. The 19 proposals fall into two categories: those which we are going to deal with quite definitely, because the Government say so, and those which we may deal with, because the Government intend that they should be dealt with "as opportunity serves." There is a great distinction between those two categories. A Bill will be laid before Parliament to deal with electoral reform. A Bill will be laid before Parliament to provide for the resumption of local elections at the appropriate time. We are to be invited to pass measures relating to the provision of finance for the capital expenditure which local authorities will incur, and so on, and we are to be handed out on a plate some proposals for the adjustment of local government areas in England and Wales"— which looks to me like a controversial subject, in spite of anything the Prime Minister may say about it. These matters, of course, will be welcomed; but what the country is hoping for is the fulfilment by this Parliament of the pledges given to the country by this Parliament. I realise that we may be in for very difficult times, but it is quite certain that the country would regard it as a betrayal if, when we resume party political struggles, this House and the Government did not substantially fulfil the promises that they have made and satisfy the hopes that have been raised, not only among the people at home but among the people in the Services overseas. That means that this Session is likely to be, and, indeed, ought to be, a very hard time for the House of Commons. We cannot pretend that we have overworked ourselves in this Chamber during the last five years, and it is incumbent on this House now to make it clear to His Majesty's Government that what time is needed for Parliamentary business this House will afford. So far as I am concerned—and I think I speak for many Members in all parts of the House—I would never grumble if we were worked, and worked hard. If we have to alter our hours of sitting, if we have to spend long hours in those Committee Rooms upstairs, let it be so, but let it never be thought by the people of this country that the House of Commons is unwilling to grant to the full, all the time that is necessary to imple- 20 ment the pledges and the undertakings given in the last four or five years.
I appreciate that war needs must come first. If new legislation is needed to deal with the war situation, that legislation will be gladly granted by the House. But there surges to the surface now a demand for the fulfilment of the hopes of the past five years. A day is coming—and it may come before long, for all we know—when we shall cross swords again in the political arena as men of honour, I hope, conducting the campaign on a level becoming to people who may become Members of this House, each of us pledged to serve the national interest as we see it. I am not imputing base motives to any Member of this House. I say that we have in this country kept a dignity in our political life such as is to be seen in no other country in Europe, or in the world. But in this Session, before we get back to the old strife, there is a high duty on the Members of this House to fulfil the promises which have buoyed up people, not only in the fields and in the factories but everywhere, and which have been an inspiration to our European friends who are now being liberated. It is a high duty upon us to see that, so far as we can do it, the promises that were made are implemented. It would be a sad day if we, in this House, were to complete the disillusionment which exists among people in many quarters.
There is a cynicism in some quarters in this country amongst people who think that politicians are worse than fools—that they are knaves. That view is expressed, we know, and we have to face it, but it would be a shattering blow to the prestige of Parliament, the greatest Parliament in the world and the very symbol of the freedom for which we are now fighting, if, at the end of this Session, the people came to the conclusion that we had, during these months, let them down. I appeal to the House and to the Government to make this Session one of dedication to public ends, and to the fulfilment of those promises and aspirations which the people of this country, in all quarters, so richly deserve to have realised.
§ Sir Percy Harris (Bethnal Green, South West)
It is an old tradition of this House that the representatives of the various parties should congratulate the mover and seconder of the Humble 21 Address in reply to the King's Speech. In this case, it is no mere formality. I congratulate the Prime Minister on the selection he has made. The hon. and gallant Gentleman who moved the Address, and who has won the greatest distinction which His Majesty can bestow, the Victoria Cross, was admirable in the way be put his case. It is right and proper, at a time when our soldiers are going through appalling hardships in Italy, North Africa, and, above all, in the Low Countries, in the mud and slush, that a distinguished officer fresh from active service should move the Address, and it was happy, too, to select for the seconder a member of the great army of workers. Most of us have read that remarkable document, the White Paper showing the tremendous war production of the workers of this country—greater per head of the population than any other part of the world—and the seconder is a young man from that working army, from the mines.
I cannot resist, at this particular moment, referring to the remarkable success of our French Allies. I remember that, on several occasions, I prophesied that it would not be long before we should see a resurgence of the French people. To-day, with the French flag flying over Metz and Strasbourg, we have ample evidence of that resurgence, and we have France taking her proper place in the Councils of the Nations. The visit of the Prime Minister and Foreign Secretary was a fine gesture, which will do much to encourage the French people in their resolve. Forty years after the Entente Cordiale, we now again see the hope of an intimate and close association between our two countries, and long may it last.
The next conference that will have to be arranged will be between the Prime Minister, President Roosevelt and Prime Minister Stalin. With the election behind him, President Roosevelt will be freer to enter into discussions about the future organisation of the world. After all the blood and suffering, we have a right to hope that the foundations for peace will be built on a firm basis. Fine work has been done at Dumbarton Oaks which should be generally approved, but it has only been on the official level and I hope that, before long, the subject will come before the leaders of the three Great Powers. One blemish in the White Paper on Dumbarton Oaks, in my view, is the 22 Security Council. There is a missing word—the word "voting." The Gracious Speech has referred to the maintenance of an unassailable peace, and, to establish this, the Great Powers must show their willingness to submit to the same discipline as the smaller nations, otherwise, we are in danger of being landed in another Concert of Europe, and the new machinery will suffer the same discredit as the League of Nations.
One special feature of the Gracious Speech is its brevity. Last Session we were almost snowed under by White Papers, but the nation has a right to expect that this Session these White Papers will be translated into law. When you go through the Gracious Speech, you find that there is a lack of definiteness in the constant use of that word "progress." Progress is promised, but definite achievement seems to be doubted. There must be some reason behind this. It may be that the Government's attitude is that, before we can complete the programme fore-shadowed there will be a General Election and a new Parliament will be elected, but I agree with the right hon. Gentleman the Member for Wakefield (Mr. Greenwood) that, if this House means business, it can achieve a great deal. If necessary we must be ready to change the hours of sitting and revive again Grand Committees. We have had plenty of promises from the Government, not only in White Papers, but in other ways, but what the whole House wants is to have these various schemes translated into Acts of Parliament. The same faint-heartedness is shown in another direction, and I was very glad that the mover of the Address, representing a residential part of London which has suffered from the blitz, made special reference to housing. Houses are scarce now. You cannot get a house now for love or money.
§ Viscountess Astor (Plymouth, Sutton)
They are non-existent.
§ Sir P. Harris
Yes, as the Noble Lady says, because they are non-existent. When the war is over, there will be a house famine, and I say that we want something far greater than the progress suggested in the Gracious Speech. I suppose that the appointment of the new Minister of Works, who will sit in the House of Commons, is a recognition that this House is in earnest in this matter. 23 One of the weaknesses at present is that there are too many Ministers involved. In the multiplication of Ministers is confusion. I know that some of my hon. Friends on the other side want one more Minister, a special Housing Minister, but I say that there are already too many Ministers concerned. The real responsibility for the building of these houses will not be on a Government Department but on the local authorities. What I want to see in this House is one Minister responsible for the building of these long overdue homes for Servicemen. We must also see that there is no exploitation by vested interests, and the main duty of the new Minister, I suggest, is to see that supplies of material are available at reasonable prices and that the nation is not held up to ransom.
§ Viscountess Astor
It is all right having a new Minister if you give him real power.
I agree. That is what I am saying. One Minister should be responsible. Then there is the question of timber. There is a timber famine in the land. That can only be made good by imports, but we can only get those imports if we can revive our export trade. President Roosevelt, last Friday, referring to Lend-Lease and Reverse Lend-Lease, pointed out that it should end with the war but that the United Nations partnership must go on, and grow stronger. How better than through trade—that is by exports and reverse exports? The Gracious Speech says that the Government will try to create conditions favourable to the expansion of our exports. I suggest that that is not the master touch of the Prime Minister. We want something more than the mere creation of conditions, and a better note was struck by Lord Halifax in his remarkable speech at Chicago, which seemed to me to show a tone and temper which the Government ought to adopt. I myself am a firm believer in multilateral trade as the only satisfactory way to bring about economic stability and full employment. The American Secretary of State, Mr. Cordell Hull, who has just resigned, has been a true friend of this country and a great statesman, and he for years advocated the breaking down of trade barriers. The new Secretary of State, Mr. Stettinius, 24 has a great understanding of trade conditions in this country and he can be trusted to follow in the footsteps of his distinguished predecessor. In my view it will be a tragedy if we fail to open up better trade relations with the United States. Close co-operation in industry between the United States and ourselves after this war is almost as vital as co-operation is to-day for the prosecution of the war but, if the United States will not play, we shall be forced back on the second best and be compelled to make regional agreements with other nations which will be most regrettable. In conclusion, let me say that this is the last Session of the longest Parliament in the history of our country. [HON. MEMBERS: "No."] Certainly the longest continuous Parliament. Perhaps the Prime Minister will put me right. Anyhow this is the last Session of a long Parliament and I hope that it will be marked by vigour and by vitality.
§ The Prime Minister (Mr. Churchill)
Everyone will agree with my right hon. Friend who has just sat down that this has been a long Parliament. We need not embark on historical controversy as to the claims to continuous life which would be put forward on behalf of a Parliament much longer than this, but I am very glad that the closing Session of this long ten years' Parliament should show all the respect for the traditional and ceremonial occasions which ignorant, unthinking people who have not meditated upon matters or studied the true movement of events and of forces in the human breast might easily regard as meaningless performance. Here in the Speech from the Throne and in the Debates on the Address may be seen all the workings of the British Constitution or all the principal workings. The Sovereign, advised by His Ministers, delivers the Gracious Speech. The House then proceed to express their thanks, but have a perfect right to move Amendments saying that they regret that this or that has been put in or left out of the Gracious Speech, and if they carry such an Amendment, the Government of the day are defeated on a major point of confidence, and it is not easy to conceive a situation in which they could continue to retain their office. I have on another occasion reminded the House that this Debate on 25 the Address is the beginning of what is called "the grand inquest of the nation." A new Session begins, and at this moment and in this progress of the Address, there is nothing that can be held back from discussion. Amendments can be moved on any matter and considerable periods are left by Mr. Speaker, either at the beginning or during the course of the Debate, when the Debate is general and open. There is no time similar to the period of the Debate on the Address where real trials of strength can be brought about in days of party conflict between the Government and the Opposition.
I have always been of opinion that the wishes of the House in respect to the Debate on the Address should be met by the Administration. If the House wish for a few more days to discuss the special Amendments and so forth, the Government should put no obstacle in the way within reason. Of course, we are governed by the end of the year as well as by 31st March, in regard to certain legislation. I have always felt that the Debate on the general aspects of the Address should be a considerable feature. Perhaps I am trespassing beyond my duty, but I have always rejoiced that the Debate on the general aspects of the Address was a considerable feature, because then is the time when a Member who has got no friends and has got no group can get up and speak about anything in the world which he thinks will advance his fellow creatures.
§ Mr. Quibell (Brigg)
If he catches Mr. Speaker's eye.
§ The Prime Minister
If he should catch Mr. Speaker's eye. This is customary in a Parliamentary sense, a democratic feature in our annual procedure. Of course, I must admit, as an aged Member of this House, and as one who has done some 42 years of service here—unhappily for me there was a break of two years, two Parliaments which lasted for a year apiece—that after all this long experience and service in the House, I find it very unpleasant to have the Debate on the Adjournment one day, and the Debate on the new Session the next. In the high and far-off times when I first entered this building, there was usually a six months' or five months' Recess, between the 26 grouse on 12th August and the latter part of January or the beginning of February, when the House reassembled. I do not consider those days were without their wisdom. Do not—and this has a bearing on some of the remarks which have recently been made—ever suppose that you can strengthen Parliament by wearying it, and by keeping it in almost continuous session. If you want to reduce the power of Parliament, let it sit every day in the year, one-fifth part filled, and then you will find it will be the laughing-stock of the nation, instead of being, as it continues to be, in spite of all the strains of modern life, the citadel as well as the cradle of Parliamentary institutions throughout the world; almost the only successful instance of a legislative body with plenary powers, elected on universal suffrage, which is capable of discharging, with restraint and with resolution, all the functions of peace and of war.
This digression on general topics will, perhaps, be excused by another digression which I find it my duty to make, and this is a more sober and more sombre digression. All our affairs, down to the smallest detail, continue to be dominated by the war. Parliamentary business is no exception. I must warn the House and the country against any indulgence in the feeling that the war will soon be over. It may be, but do not indulge that feeling, and think that we should now all be turning our thoughts to the new phase in world history which will open at the close of this war. The truth is that no one knows when the German war will be finished, and still less how long the interval will be between the defeat of the Germans and the defeat of the Japanese. I took occasion some months ago to damp down premature hopes by speaking of the German war running into January and February. I could see disappointment in several quarters as I looked around the House, and I followed this up quickly by indicating the late spring or the early summer as periods which we must take into account as possibilities. My present inclination is not at all to mitigate these forecasts, or guesses, as my hon. Friend the seconder of the Address said; "guesses" is the right word, for they can be little more. Indeed, if I were to make any change in the duration of the unfolding of events it would be to leave out the word "early" before the word "summer."
27 The vast battle which is in progress in the West has yielded to us important gains. The enemy has everywhere been thrust back. The captures of Metz and Strasbourg are glorious and massive achievements. The brilliant fighting and manoeuvring of the French Army near the Swiss frontier and their piercing of the Belfort gap and their advance on a broad front to the Rhine is not only a military episode of high importance, but it shows, what many of us have never doubted, that the French Army will rise again and be a great factor in the life of France and of Europe, and that the French soldier, properly equipped and well led, is unsurpassed among the nations. I had the opportunity of visiting this Army, and one had hoped to be there at the moment when its attack was delivered upon the Belfort gap, but in the night 12 inches of snow fell and everything had to be put off for three days. Nevertheless, I had the opportunity of seeing a very large number of the troops who were going to be engaged, if not in the first stage, in the second stage of this battle. For an hour or more they marched past in a swirling snowstorm and as the light faded I had a good look, at close quarters, at their faces. These are all young men from 18 to 22, average 20. What a fine thing to be a Frenchman, 20 years of age, well-armed, well-equipped, and with your native land to avenge and save. The light in these men's eyes and their alert bearing give one the greatest confidence that our nearest neighbour and long friend in war and in these great struggles of our life-time will rise in power and force from the ruins, the miseries and the disgraces of the past and will present us once more with a France to be numbered among the Great Powers of the world.
I have spoken of the fighting in the Belfort gap and I have mentioned Strasbourg, and, further to the North, the very great battles which the Americans have gained around Metz. Opposite Cologne and North of it the fighting has been most severe and it is here that the gains of ground will be most important and consequently are most disputed. The weather, which it is always customary and excusable, even legitimate, to abuse at this season of the year, in these regions has made the tasks of the American troops and those of the British on their left flank 28 extremely difficult. What is called the fourth element in war—mud—has played a formidable part. We have not yet succeeded in driving the enemy back to the Rhine, let alone have we established a strong bridgehead across it. The battle there is continuing still with the greatest vigour. Immense losses have been inflicted upon the enemy. The wearing down process here, burdensome as it has been to the United States and British Forces, has been far greater upon the enemy, and, of course, any large and effective break in the German front in these regions—Cologne and Northwards—would have the highest strategic consequences.
I may mention that in the interval between the liberation of France and that of the greater part of Belgium Field-Marshal Montgomery's group of Armies, with substantial United States assistance, drove the enemy back to the line of the Maas, or lower Meuse, and established a sure flank guard, a flank barrier, in Holland protecting the whole line of the main Armies operating Eastwards. It also opened the great port of Antwerp, which was captured intact, to the reception of large convoys of ocean-going ships, thus making an incomparable sea-base available for the nourishment of the Northern group of British Armies and the various groups of American Armies also deployed. In these operations, including the storming of the islands, which contained episodes of marvellous gallantry, grand feats of arms, the British and Canadian Forces suffered about 40,000 casualties—that is, in the interval between the two great battles. In the new battle which runs from General Montgomery's Army, broadly speaking opposite Venloo, down to the Vosges Mountains, where the French take up the long line, the whole front is held by the Americans, who are bearing the brunt with their customary distinction and courage.
I am not giving a review of the war situation. I have no intention of doing so; later on, perhaps when we meet after Christmas, it will be right to review it, and it may be very much more easy than it is now. There may be hard facts and cheering facts to put before the House. The House knows that I have never hesitated to put hard facts before it. I know the British people and I know this House, and there is one thing they will not stand, 29 and that is not being told how bad things are. If it is humanly possible to do it without endangering affairs one is always well advised to tell people how bad things are. I remember occasions when I have greatly revived the energy and ardour of the House by giving them an account of the shocking position we occupied in various quarters, and how very likely things were to get worse before they would get better.
§ Mr. Bellenger (Bassetlaw)
So did some of us.
We share the glory, but my motive in doing so was to strengthen the position of the Government. I say that I am not giving a review of the war situation to-day, but I mention these outstanding, these commanding, facts in order to dissipate lightly-founded sensations that we can avert our eyes from the war and turn to the tasks of transition and of reconstruction, or still more that we can turn to the political controversies and other diversions of peace, which are dear to all our hearts, and rightly dear to the democracies in action, because without controversy democracies cannot achieve their health-giving process. But I do not think we can look on any of these matters with a sense of detachment from the war issue, which is right over us, which weighs intensely and preponderantly upon us and upon every form of our national life. All else must be still subordinated to this supreme task. It is on the foe that our eyes must be fixed and to break down his resistance demands and will receive the most intense exertions of Great Britain, of the United States and of all the United Nations and converted satellites—all forces that can be brought to bear.
This is just the moment not to slacken. All the races which the calendar holds, or nearly all of them, are won in the last lap, and it is there, when it is most hard, when one is most tired, when the sense of boredom seems to weigh upon one, when even the most glittering events, exciting, thrilling events, are, as it were, covered by satiation, when headlines in the newspaper, though perfectly true, succeed one another in their growing emphasis and yet the end seems to recede before us, like climbing a hill when there is another peak beyond—it is at that very moment that we in this island have to give that extra 30 sense of exertion, of boundless, inexhaustible, dynamic energy that we have shown, as the records now made public have emphasised in detail. Tirelessness is what we have to show now. Here I must observe that it is one thing to feel these tremendous drives of energy at the beginning of war, when your country is likely to be invaded and you do not know whether you will not all have to die, honourably but soon; it is one thing to exhibit these qualities, which certainly the House has never been estranged from, at such a moment, and quite another thing to show them in the sixth year of a war. On the other hand we must remember that the enemy whose country is invaded has also these supreme stimuli which we ourselves responded to in the very dark days of 1940 and 1941.
I have said enough to emphasise the preponderance of the war, weighing down upon us all—the German war—and after the German war we must not forget there is the war with Japan. It is on this footing and in this mood that we must address ourselves to the Gracious Speech and to the loyal Address which it is now our duty to present to His Majesty. My right hon. Friend who spoke from the bench opposite and my right hon. Friend who spoke for the Liberal Party have both paid their compliments to the mover and the seconder of the Address. It has become almost a hackneyed phrase to say that their performances have never been surpassed. In the 42 King's Speeches—or something like it—which I have heard I think that that phrase must have been used twenty times at least and it certainly can be used on this occasion. But what is the note that is struck by those two young Members of the House of Commons? It is Youth, Youth, Youth; efficient youth marching forward from service in the field or at the coal face, marching forward to take their part in Parliament; and I am of opinion that those who have toiled and sweated, and those who have dared and conquered, should receive, whatever party they belong to, a full share of representation in any new House of Commons that may be called into being. I must say I thought they were extremely good speeches, and I cannot doubt that those two young Members will be real additions for a long period of time, as I trust and pray, to the membership of this House.
31 Remember, Sir, we have a missing generation; we must never forget that—the flower of the past lost in the great battles of the last war. There ought to be another generation in between these young men and we older figures who are soon, haply, to pass from the scene. There ought to be another generation of men, with their flashing lights and leading figures. We must do all we can to try to fill the gap, and, as I say, there is no safer thing to do than to run risks with youth. It is very difficult to live your life in this world and not to get set in old ways, rather looking back with pleasure to the days of your youth. That is quite right, and tradition is quite right. A love of tradition has never weakened a nation, indeed it has strengthened nations in their hour of peril, but the new view must come, the world must roll forward. Let the great world spin for ever down the ringing grooves of change. as Tennyson said many years ago. Let us have no fear of the future. We are a decent lot, all of us, the whole nation. Wherever you go you need have no fear. I was brought up never to fear the English democracy, to trust the people. We need have no fear in these matters, and those speeches made by those two young Members give one the feeling that there must be rich reserves in the Army, in the industries and in the workshops of men of assured quality and capacity who, whatever their differing views on political affairs, are none the less absolutely united in maintaining the historic greatness of Britain and of the British Commonwealth of Nations throughout the world.
I must now refer to several matters which concern the Business of the Session and the Business of the House before I come to topics of a more engaging character. We intend to allow reasonable time for the Debate on the Address, and under your guidance, Mr. Speaker, we shall endeavour to meet the wishes of the House in regard both to the general Debate and Debates on specific subjects, as may be desired. The course of the Debate on the Address is a matter for consultation, and the proposed arrangements will be announced in the usual Business statement. Before the end of the year it will be necessary for us to ask the House to pass the Expiring Laws Continuance Bill through all its stages, 32 as well as a short Bill to continue in operation the Local Elections and Register of Electors Act until 31st March next. The existing Act expires on 31st December, according to my right hon. Friend who has assisted me in this portion of my speech, and it will be necessary to pass that Measure before that date.
As regards the future, a Bill providing for the resumption of local elections and dealing with the assimilation of the Parliamentary and local government franchise—an important step on which both parties have agreed—is being prepared with a view to its introduction, if possible, before Christmas, and its passage into law early in the New Year. Certain Supplementary Estimates will also be required, including one to provide a grant-in-aid to Jamaica for the relief and repair of damage following the hurricane, and a special Consolidated Fund Bill must be passed for the issue of money. Any other Business will be brought forward as and when required.
I have also to inform the House that it is the Government's intention to propose a Motion to-morrow to give precedence to Government Business, to provide for the presentation of Government Bills only, and to stop the ballot for Private Members' Bills—all following the precedents of the last five years, as well as of the last war. I regret to have to ask Members again to forgo their rights and privileges. They have been induced to make this sacrifice readily, if not cheerfully, in the past when our whole energies have been concentrated upon the war. The moment has not yet arrived for us to resume our normal arrangements, and I fear I must ask for the whole time of the House to be put at the disposal of the Government in view of the heavy programmes and the many months of hard work which lie before us, into which a contingent of my hon. Friends on this side are so eager to plunge.
On a previous occasion I gave my reasons for believing that we are entering upon the last Session of the present Parliament. The Gracious Speech contains references to a number of important Measures which we hope to bring forward this Session, in continuance of the progress of the reform programme and social advancement upon which the Coalition Government embarked two years ago. If events take the course I have previously indicated, if we are to attempt to com- 33 plete our legislative programme, if we are to attempt to make any marked progress in our legislative programme, we shall require all the available time of the House. In recent Sessions Members have had many opportunities of raising matters of general interest, and we hope most sincerely that such occasions will be available from time to time. The Debate on the Address is supposed to clear a lot of things out of the way, but in Parliamentary usage we have never been reluctant to give to any large number of Members who may request a Debate on a particular topic the opportunity they deserve and desire. Of course, anyone who chooses to learn Parliamentary procedure will see that in the course of a Session there are very few topics that he cannot find occasion to vent, but careful study of the rules of procedure is recommended to those who wish to find these opportunities.
There is one further matter which concerns our proceedings to-day. It will be necessary to renew the Motion relating to the hours of sittings of the House. We must obtain this Motion to-day to regulate our future proceedings, and I hope it will be possible to adjourn the Debate on the Address at a reasonable hour in order that my right hon. Friend the Leader of the House will be able to explain and carry it.
All this may be considered to be preliminary to the very few words I have yet to say. No one can complain that the King's Speech is not heavily loaded with legislation—a more elaborate and substantial King's Speech in regard to legislation has rarely been produced. I have here a paper which sets out all the Bills—of which I think there are 12, it might easily have been 13—which figure in the programme: the great health and national insurance group—the National Health Service Bill, the National Insurance Bill, the Industrial Injury Insurance Bill; Family Allowances holds a high place; the Water Bill, the River Board Bill, Reform of Parliamentary Franchise Bill, Local Elections Bill, Public Authorities Loans Bill, Adjustment of Local Government Areas Bill—a topic which offers itself to expansive conversation—Export Credit Bill, Requisitioned Land and War Works Bill, Wages Council Bill, Education (Scotland) Bill—which has already been given a special emphasis by the 34 seconder of the Address—and Colonial Development and Welfare Bill. All these are mentioned, and that is the order in which they are mentioned in the King's Speech, but not necessarily the order in which they will be taken in our Business procedure.
I myself should like to put in a word for a decision on the Report of the Select Committee on the Rebuilding of the House of Commons, because I think a Resolution from the House on that subject would liberate certain energies, not on a large scale, which might be detached from the war—some very aged lapidaries exist who can be getting on with the work. We really will need a House to sit in, I can assure hon. Members, after this war is over, when so many great matters will have to be decided on which agreement will not be so perfect and so unanimous as it has been found to be in respect to the general structure of the new Chamber.
We shall proceed with this programme which has been unfolded in the King's Speech. We shall proceed with it as opportunity serves—one cannot do more than that—and we shall proceed with it also in accordance with the time which is left to this Parliament. Our tenure now depends upon the official end of the German war. It is a great inconvenience not to be able to forecast that date. I can only say that we shall press forward perseveringly with the great programme of legislation which this remarkable Coalition has framed, and we shall press steadily forward until the hour of our separation arrives. Hurried legislation is not usually successful; prolonged sittings do not necessarily mean rapid progress. The Dissolution undoubtedly hangs over us, and there is no question of postponing the Dissolution in order to carry a programme of legislation which, with the best will in the world, could not be carried this Session. If, most unhappily, the end of the war in Europe should be unexpectedly deferred, we shall make more progress in the social field, but if it should come to pass at dates which it is reasonable to hope, the summer, the early summer, or earlier if good fortune crowns our arms, then we cannot expéct to accomplish more than a small part of what is set down in the Gracious Speech. Much will turn on the result of an appeal to the nation conducted under extraordinary circumstances 35 out of our reverence for democracy, with many difficulties not present in peace time, with an electorate which has not voted for 10 years, and with scarcely any voter under 30 years who has had the chance to vote before. I shall not attempt to pierce the veils of the unknown. I see there are already some prophets in the field who know exactly how all these complex forces and circumstances will in the end express themselves.
§ Mr. Ellis Smith (Stoke)
One a close friend of the right hon. Gentleman.
I should like further and better particulars.
§ Mr. Smith
The right hon. Member for Rushcliffe (Mr. Assheton).
I have not had the pleasure of reading in detail his statement, but I was not aware that he had predicted results—results are, of course, often predicted by people who wish to encourage their followers—and as to the time when it would take place. It is only natural that one who is responsible for the actual marshalling of the armies should set the time and date a little in front of what may actually prove to be zero hour.
However, whatever may be the doubts as to when the election will come, and how it will finish up, and where we shall all find ourselves sitting at the end of it, and what our relations with each other will be—all these are uncertain—there is one thing which is quite certain; all the leading men in both the principal parties—and in the Liberal Party as well—are pledged and committed to this great mass of social legislation, and I cannot conceive that whatever may be the complexion of the new House, they will personally fail to make good their promises and commitments to the people. There may, therefore, be an interruption in our work, but it is only an interruption and one which must not be allowed in any circumstance to turn us from our purposes on which our resolves have been taken. This is a matter on which anyone has a right to speak for himself, irrespective of what may be the consequences of the General Election. No one can bind any future Parliament, but some of us, I suppose, will get back; and I cannot believe that any of those who have set their hands to this great social programme 36 —insurance, health, compensation and the other matters that are in it—I cannot believe that any of us, whether in office or in Opposition, who have been sponsors of this programme will fail to march forward along the broad lines that have been set forth.
As I have said, I could not at this stage lay out the exact order of priority of the various legislative Measures which have been set down. The Debate on the Address and the necessary legislation which must be passed before the end of the year will take up our time until we return. There is then a great deal of necessary financial business to be discharged, in getting you, Mr. Speaker, out of the Chair—sometimes arduous—on the Army, Navy and Air Force Votes and the Civil Service Votes. This will all take time. The Consolidated Fund Bill must be disposed of: here is another opportunity for a great many topics to be raised for which Members come along asking for special days to be given. They should just study the precedents of the past and see all the things that have been worked in on that Bill. Easter falls early this year. It falls on April Fool's Day. I hope that is not an irreverent thing to say, but in case anybody thinks it is perhaps I may be allowed to say April 1st. We must have a Budget of a more or less uncontroversial character to tide us over the election period, and as much legislation as possible will be fitted in with these obligatory features of our Parliamentary work. More than that it is premature to define.
There is one matter which was referred to by my right hon. Friend the Member for South-West Bethnal Green (Sir P. Harris). Housing is the most threatened sector in the home front. I have for some time been disquieted by the situation. During the last four or five months I have been continually referring to it by Minute and by personal discussion. The objective is painfully plain, namely, to provide in the shortest time the largest number of weather-proofed dwellings in which our people can live through this winter in reasonable comfort. The subject is divided, like ancient Gaul, into three parts—repair, prefabricated and permanent; or, using the code names which have become so common in military matters, "repair," "prefab.," and "perm." At the summit of this problem sit Lord Woolton and what I will venture 37 to call somewhat disrespectfully "the housing squad," including not only War Cabinet Ministers—it is not usual to give details of Cabinet Committees—but also some who are not ministerial at all. These collect, co-ordinate, and in a great many cases decide, subject to the War Cabinet in the last resort, what is to be done. I have reserved to myself the right to take the chair when and if at any time I think it is necessary or desirable.
That is the function, the relationship, of Lord Woolton to this general scheme. I may say that Lord Woolton has shown a very great deal of energy and grip in trying to meet the difficulties of the past, difficulties which are being continually added to by the fire of the enemy. He has taken a number of steps, but I did not consider that the situation, borne in upon me by Questions and answers which I have had to give in this House, was such that we did not require to smooth out and make more precise the arrangements for gripping this problem. Naturally, with the war going on, one's mind is drawn to the focusing of the executive forces of an emergency character upon the really serious parts of the problem. On a lower level, but of equally practical importance, an importance which outweighs the superior level, is the great field of emergency executive action.
I can say a word—and it is only a word—on this matter of the relations between the Minister of Works and the Minister of Health in this field of London repair. The Ministry of Health is the great ambassador Department which deals with local authorities, and nothing must be done to hamper that long usage. Therefore, the Ministry of Health is the ambassador for the Ministry of Works in respect of the taking over of areas, streets and so forth that really require more power than any local authority can bring to bear. For the rest, executive power will increasingly rest with the Ministry of Works which will have to discharge all the tasks of repair which cannot be undertaken, or are not being effectively undertaken, by the local authorities; which will have to produce the prefabricated houses which I spoke of at the beginning of the year but which cannot be produced in the numbers I then mentioned but, still, can be produced in very great number and of varying types. Further, they have to 38 make, with the assistance of the Board of Trade in the closest liaison, as the military would say, the fittings and parts of all kinds which must be made not only for the repairs and for the "prefabs.," but also for the "perms.," which must get forward as fast as they possibly can under the driving power of the Minister of Health and, of course, the Secretary of State for Scotland. I do not want to go more into this now, because we shall very likely have a special Debate on the subject, either on an Amendment to the Address or on the resumption, if desired, and if Mr. Speaker would permit, of the general Debate on the Address. People sometimes do not like to have an Amendment to the Address, because it must take the form of a Vote of Censure, but we are in the hands of the House and under the orders of the Chair.
I do not think it is any use for me at this time to enter upon the subject of foreign policy. I have a list of 25 countries on which I am prepared to give information about their tangled politics and their relations to ourselves, but the House may rest assured that I have no intention of doing so, as no sufficient provocation has been offered to His Majesty's Government to induce me to embark upon this lengthy excursion. After all, a Foreign Affairs Debate can be brought on as part of the Debate on the Address. All I have tried to do at this time is to give a general survey of the tasks which lie before us, of the limitations which may be assigned to our powers to discharge these tasks, of our duty to persevere in all we are pledged and committed to, and of the sense of the overlying obligations which we have to carry the war through in its closing stages with all energy and unity, not only at home among ourselves but among the great united Powers of the Grand Alliance, who, I am happy to say, were never more closely and intimately and comprehendingly united than they are at this time.
§ Sir Charles Edwards (Bedwellty)
This is the 26th Gracious Speech from the Throne I have listened to since I have been in the House. I cannot say, like the Prime Minister, that there have been any breaks in that time, although I do not know whether to call that fortunate or not. I find this Speech very much like those which have gone before. It is made 39 in the usual presentable and very careful form, inasmuch as there is always a way out for the Government if they do not, or cannot, choose to carry out by legislation what is contained in the Speech. That, I think, is a wise provision. There is the usual get-out in the word, "considering". A Government can consider for a long time; they need not do all the considering within the Session. Then the Speech states that "progress will be made" contingent on something else happening. That is another safeguard, and there is a further safeguard in the words, "as opportunity serves", which the Prime Minister mentioned just now. All this means that at the end of a Session nobody can come forward and say to the Government, "You have not done all you promised to do", because the Government have made sure that they have not burned their bridges behind them. They can always retreat with comparative safety.
There are some things not mentioned in this Speech which I think should have been mentioned. Housing, of course, has been mentioned, and the Government say they will see what can be done about it. I put a Question to the Minister of Health some time ago about local authorities building permanent houses at the same time as temporary houses. That is something which ought to be done, because temporary houses will be put up largely by unskilled labour, while skilled labour could be used to build permanent houses. So far, the Ministry have not agreed with local authorities as to the conditions under which permanent houses are to be built, or the subsidy which is to be paid, and there is still no real arrangement between local authorities and the Government as regards the building of permanent houses. We have lost five years of permanent house-building up to now, which will need a lot of making up. Large numbers of young people coming into the building industry will have to be trained. I believe that the Government have said that 1,000,000 extra people would have to come in the industry. These can only be trained by building permanent houses. I know that these negotiations are proceeding——
Full blast.
§ Sir C. Edwards
I am glad to hear that, and I hope the Ministry of Health will 40 hurry the matter up because it is important. Local authorities have been asked to secure sites, and I daresay that that has largely been done. I assume that temporary houses will not be put on the best sites, but that the local authorities will put them in odd corners and places where they will not interfere with permanent building.
I am glad to see in the Speech mention of the distribution of industry, which is of particular importance to Wales. Our coal, iron, steel and tinplate industries in Wales were so successful at one time that we did not think of anything else, but now the time has come when we should have more varied industries, and I am glad to note that this has been promised. The Government are considering the methods by which the policy of the maintenance of a high level of employment can be implemented, especially with regard to the distribution of industry in the development areas. South Wales is certainly a development area and we are hoping for a far greater variety of industry there than before.
Reverting to the question of material for house building, we have in Monmouthshire the best stone in the world. In the old days the sea walls, river walls, bridges and everything else were built of stone, and a house built 80 or 100 years ago of this material still looks well. I am surprised that it is not being used to-day. It seems to have gone out of fashion altogether, and I am not sure that you would find a stonemason now. It is a strange thing that one scarcely ever sees a stone-built house to-day. We had a quarry at Cross Keys where there would be a hundred people working with a dozen or more stone-dressers. That represented the maintenance of a large number of homes. It was an important industry. If we reconsidered the position, and brought this stone back into our building operations, we should be doing a very good thing indeed. Amalgamation and concentration have been the rule during the last few years. We have amalgamated our small places almost out of existence. I make a plea for the smaller places which have had industries and I hope to see them introduced again. A large number of people were employed in the three brickyards in my constituency, but none are employed to-day. They have been centralised, and gone into some big 41 unit elsewhere. We have carried amalgamation too far, and we should do well to get away from it, and distribute our industries much more than is done at present.
I am very dissatisfied about the Severn Bridge project. As far as I know, it is called a first priority. The Government need not worry about the priority, if they do not go on faster than they are doing to-day. I asked recently whether a site had been agreed upon, whether the plans for the bridge had been made or were being made, and whether the Government had considered the material to be used. The reply was that the site had been definitely agreed upon, but that was the only definite thing about it. They said there had been some difficulty about the bridge, and they were now considering a tunnel. If we are to consider every suggestion that is made, we shall never have a bridge. Some people say that the bridge and the Severn barrage ought to go on at the same time. If we are to wait until everyone is agreed, and the barrage is settled, we are never going to see a bridge. I do not know who is responsible for the delay, but it is time we knew where we were, and what we intended to do about it. I hope the matter will be taken up with greater determination, and that we shall get some definite arrangement to carry on the work.
I notice that there is not a word in the Gracious Speech about the health of the people. I know that the Government cannot put every detail into the Speech from the Throne but surely there should be some words about the health of the nation. It is important enough. The Welsh death rate from tuberculosis in 1901 was 1,730 per 1,000,000, which is enormously high. It came down last year to 751, which is a great reduction on the previous figure but is still very high. In the case of a hospital in Monmouthshire the medical officer of health tells us that the waiting period is six months, and for Monmouthshire people it is over three months. There are 35 children under five and 93 of school age, all in contact with persons suffering from tuberculosis and awaiting institutional treatment. That is a very serious matter. Of the 250 awaiting admission no fewer than 42 are sharing their bedroom with another person. Surely these conditions are serious enough 42 to be considered at a time like this, and put into the King's Speech.
With regard to building factories, and extending our industries, there has been a complaint that in Wales we have very little floor space. I suppose there is some truth in that because we have relied particularly upon the three industries that I have mentioned and have not had the variety of industry which could give us a lot of floor space. But we have plenty of land, and we know how to lay out a place for floor space. We have had very large experience during the war and it could easily be done. The county council has issued a little book giving interesting figures as to where factories could be put down. In my constituency there is a plot of not less than 40 acres by the main road and by the railway. There are other plots of land in the neighbourhood of 40 and 60 acres near road and railway, which would be very convenient. I hope that consideration will be given to this, and that we shall be able to secure a greater variety of industry than we have now.
Another very important point relates to the leasehold system, which I think is a disgrace to the country and ought to go. If you build a house, you pay ground rent for the whole term, and at the end of the lease it goes back to the ground landlord, though he has not spent a halfpenny in putting it up. The matter will have to be considered before long. It cannot continue very much longer. It is unjust and unreasonable.
§ Lieut.-Colonel Windsor-Clive (Ludlow)
In the Gracious Speech, the Government declare their intention of trying to maintain a high level of food production at home. During the last five years the agriculturists of this country have done a magnificent work in increasing food production at home in spite of very many difficulties, of which the shortage of labour has not been the least. The Minister of Agriculture has often urged agriculturists to be efficient. I think that all they have done in the last five years shows that they are in no way less efficient than people engaged in other industries. Good work has also been done by the war agricultural executive committees. The value and usefulness of these bodies depend very largely on the extent to which they are composed of 43 men who have a practical working knowledge of agriculture. I wonder whether it is intended that these committees shall continue in existence after the war. If so, I think it may be more difficult in peace-time to get suitable men to serve on them. A man who has to look after his farm may not be inclined to spare the time to undertake what is a thankless task.
If these committees should be composed after the war of men who are not practical agriculturists, their decisions will not be readily accepted. If they are to continue, I feel that there should be a right of appeal to a tribunal, in cases where a man is ordered to quit his farm. There was a Debate on the subject not long ago, and the Parliamentary Secretary said that he thought a man got as fair treatment if his case was investigated by the Minister of Agriculture as he would if it came before a tribunal. I am sure that the Minister would take all possible trouble to investigate every case, but we all know how important it is to make sure, not merely that justice is done, but that it shall seem to be done. Where a man has received notice to quit his farm he would be less dissatisfied if he knew that he had a right to bring his case personally before a tribunal.
After the war many farmers may want to retire on account of age or for other reasons, and new men will be wanted to take their places. New men, however, may not be forthcoming in sufficient numbers unless the future of agriculture is more clear than it is at present, that is, unless the Government declare their long-term policy for agriculture. There was a Debate on this subject about a fortnight ago, and the Parliamentary Secretary said that in his experience farmers were not very much worried about the future. That is not my experience. Wherever I go in my constituency, I am asked the same question—"When are the Government going to declare their long-term agricultural policy?" Recollections of what happened after the last war are fresh in the minds of farmers, and the longer the declaration of policy is delayed the deeper their suspicions grow. This afternoon the right hon. Member for Wakefield (Mr. Greenwood) said that he thought there was a feeling of cynicism in some quarters. I have noticed a certain feeling of cynicism among farmers, who are afraid that they 44 will be let down again. I have heard it said, "The Government will get all they can out of us while the war lasts, and when the war is over we shall be thrown aside as we were last time."
I do not believe that the Government mean to let agriculture down, but it is difficult to convince the farmers of that, and they will not be convinced until the Government declare their long-term policy. They have not very much encouragement from the Gracious Speech. All that it says is that the Government will try to maintain a high level of food production at home. That statement certainly does not err on the side of rashness. It seems rather a halting approach to the subject, and I hope that we may soon get an assurance that something rather stronger than that is intended. What we know is that prices are guaranteed for four years. During the war we have been compelled to realise that home-produced food is an essential part of national defence. The danger of war will not have finally disappeared in four years' time. We have been told that the danger period may be some 20 years hence, when those who are to-day boys in Germany, who have been educated under the Nazi system, have reached an age when they may be in control of affairs in Germany. With that menace hanging over us we must have a policy for agriculture for a great deal longer than four years.
In the last year or two, there have been many reports and memoranda published by various organisations, some of them political and some representing agricultural interests. There has been a considerable measure of agreement among those reports. I believe that there is more agreement as to what should be done for agriculture than there has ever been before. The Government have a great opportunity to-day of bringing forward a policy which will be acceptable to the nation as a whole. I hope that they will not lose this opportunity and that they will declare their policy with the least possible delay.
§ Mr. Tinker (Leigh)
The hon. and gallant Gentleman who has just spoken has taken full advantage of the King's Speech. I always look upon this day as giving an opportunity for Members to bring forward points which they cannot raise in the ordinary course of business. 45 Parliament sticks rigidly to its procedure, and unless we take advantage of an occasion like this, our chance has gone. I have a complaint to make against the Government in this respect. Hitherto, the first day has been given wholly to back benchers. At one time, it was the rule to rise on the first day after the speeches of the mover and seconder of the Address. Then the back benchers took a hand, and the Government left it to them for a while. Now the Government are taking up a good deal of the time. Last year the Deputy Prime Minister took a long time declaring the Government's policy, and to-day the Prime Minister has again taken a long time. I understand that at five o'clock the Government intend to intervene again and take more time. I want to lodge a complaint about this and to tell the Government that it is unfair to back benchers to take advantage of them in this way. I hope that the next time the Government will have regard to the men on the back benches who keep them going. It is they who, as a rule, keep the House going, while those on the Front Benches make their speeches and then go.
§ The Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs (Mr. Eden)
The hon. Member will remember that the normal peace-time practice is for the Leader of the Opposition and the Prime Minister to speak on the first day. We have not done anything abnormal to-day. Knowing exactly the desire of the House, we have arranged that back benchers shall have a chance to speak, by not having any Ministerial speeches to-morrow.
§ Mr. Tinker
I am glad that our grumblings have brought some satisfaction. I want to thank the right hon. Member for Bedwellty (Sir C. Edwards) for bringing forward some valuable points which will be of great interest to his constituents. I am pleased that the Prime Minister spoke to-day because he is in a more optimistic frame of mind than I have known him to be for some time. I gather that he believes the war position is much better now, and I hope that what he said will be justified. I have always been optimistic about the war and have many times predicted an early finish. It has not come off, but I am still very hopeful that, before very long, Germany will be beaten and that Japan will not last much longer. 46 However, whatever does happen, we have to bend all our energies in that direction, because until the war is won completely very little more will be done by way of legislation.
I want to bring forward a point with which I have always tried to deal every time I have spoken on the King's Speech. I want to mention the old age pensioners. Once again there is no mention of them in the Speech. I feel it my duty to draw the attention of the House to this important point. The agitation of the old age pensioners is for 30s. per week for all those who have passed the age of 60. That is their appeal. I have tried to find out what the actual cost would be. Assuming that there are 4,000,000 old age pensioners, I believe the cost would be £312,000,000 per annum, a tremendous figure on the face of it, but not so bad when we come to examine what it means. At the moment we pay about £163,000,000 for old age pensions, widows' pensions and all that kind of thing. I assume that with administrative expenses the cost is not far short of £200,000,000. If we try to get something on a fair basis, to give to these people some hope in life, we shall be doing good.
I would criticise the Prime Minister's speech. When he spoke of the mover and the seconder of the Motion for the Address he said that youth must have its say and the younger men must have an opportunity to display their ability. Nevertheless, we must recognise that the young men of to-day are the old men of to-morrow. Are we to have no regard to the old men of to-morrow? Does it always mean that when you have passed your zenith and proceed to a position in which you can neither toil nor spin, if you have not been able to save money to carry you on no regard is to be paid to you, as an older man, by the House of Commons?
I speak of the older men of what I call the working class and not of the older men who occupy such positions as that of Member of Parliament. Most of us, by the power of our resources and the money we get in our job, can provide for the rainy day. When age overtakes us at 65 or 70 we have no need to fear. In the House of Commons, some of the older men have no right to say that the younger men must have their chance, to the discouragement of the older people. Let me give the 47 House one or two instances. I have been to meetings of old age pensioners. At the last one, a man who was walking alongside me spoke to me after the meeting and asked me whether anything could be done for him. He made a statement, from which I would like to read. His wife has died and his family have all gone. He is left alone. This is his weekly budget: "House rent, 11s. 7d.; coal, 4s. 6d.; gas, 1s.; beef ration, 2s.; milk, 1s, 5d.; clothes, 1s.; groceries, 7s.; tobacco, 2s. 5½d." His weekly budget comes to 30s. 11½d. He gets 31s. 7d., by way of pension and supplementary pension, so he has just a few coppers left, about 8d. Do hon. Members think it is fair that a man who has brought up a family and has given all the help he can to the nation should be driven to the verge of poverty when he can no longer work? He is not actually starving, but there is no pleasure in life for such men as he. The tobacco they want they cannot get, and as for a glass of beer it is out of their reach. They cannot afford the money. I came across another man and I asked him how he was getting on. He said: "My trouble is that if I could get a little tobacco I should be happy, but I can't afford it." When a man has given his best to the State and reaches the end of his days, he ought to have some little enjoyment from life, either a glass of beer or his pipe of tobacco, but with the present allowance he cannot get it. I have pleaded in my speeches for 30s. a week, at least for the immediate needs, but I would plead for something much better to be done for them.
I put a question to the Chancellor of the Exchequer the other day asking what it would cost to increase the old age pension to 35s. a week and rent, and to give them 5s. each extra, that is to say, 45s. for a man and wife with the rent, and, for the single man, 5s., which would mean 25s. and rent. That would be a further uplift towards making things better for them. I was told that it would cost £21,000,000. Is it too much to ask in times like these for something better to be given to these aged people? I put this proposition to the House that some regard should be given to these people.
I will leave that subject for the moment. I want to deal with the mining situation. I wish the Prime Minister had been here, because I have something rather strong 48 to say on this matter. The situation is far from favourable. The men will never get satisfaction until the mines are nationalised. It may be the psychological effect that it would have, but there it is. They cannot give their whole being to the work in the mines because they believe—and sometimes it is true—that much of their labour goes to benefit people who are not entitled to it. Those are the mineowners. Until we have removed that grievance we shall never get the best out of the miners. Here is where I blame the Prime Minister. On 13th October last year during a Debate on the White Paper, he had a grand opportunity to deal with this question. The appeal from these benches was for nationalisation. The Prime Minister made a lengthy speech in which he said that until a crisis arose and made it imperative to take over the mines, the Government would not be justified in doing so, or until the country decided in that way by their votes. The Prime Minister occupies at the present moment the greatest position that any man has occupied in this country. If he had said from that Box that the time has come to nationalise the mines, it would have been done. He missed that grand opportunity and it may never come again to the Prime Minister.
There is another point, touching the mining industry but apart from the getting of coal. I come from a constituency where there has been much undermining of the land in coal-getting and many of the houses are being broken. From one part of the constituency I have a petition signed by 149 residents, who bought their own houses and plots of ground, and where mining subsidence has taken place. Many of them have had to leave their homes and others can hardly carry on because of the broken state of their houses. That is happening all over the constituency, and other mining constituencies are faced with the same difficulty. So long as the mines are privately owned there is no redress for this kind of grievance. We have tried several times in this House, and we have met with opposition from the coalowning class and have never been able to succeed. Until the mines are controlled and owned by the nation there will be difficulty in remedying this terrible defect in housing in mining areas. These are points with which I think the Government ought to be impressed.
49 There is one other point with which I wish to deal. Since war broke out, men who joined the Forces and made allotments to their wives or to their families—mothers and other dependants—have had to prove that they were sustaining their people prior to joining up, before the Government grant could be added. Some who joined up before the war, and have not been able to prove that they contributed anything to the family, cannot get anything from the State at the present time. My plea is that when a man is making an allotment to his family out of his pay that should automatically carry with it the Government allowances. We have not been able to prevail on the Government in that sense. I claim this as a right to which these men are entitled. Those are the three points I have brought forward which are not contained in the King's Speech, and which I claim ought to have been included. It is our business here to-day to take this opportunity of letting the country know what the King's Speech ought, in our view, to contain, and to press forward with all our might until we receive satisfaction.
§ Mr. Barr (Coatbridge)
I have the utmost pleasure in supporting my hon. Friend the Member for Leigh (Mr. Tinker) in those points of view he has brought before us. I entirely agree with his statements. There is another matter I would like to bring before the House and I promise to do so succinctly. We have heard something to-day about the Colonies, and the welfare of the Colonies, and I myself am most anxious that the honour of our country should be upheld, and that there should be no suggestion that we are exploiting the native peoples of the Colonies, or doing other than to contribute to their "development and welfare," to use the words of the Act. I know there are some in this House who do not think there is a real problem at all. Even the Secretary of State for the Colonies himself has spoken from his own experience on gin, and does not think that gin would do much harm, if any, to the natives, either spiritually, morally or physically. There are some who look on these matters with pious composure. I am told of a man who went on a long journey through the Colonies, and came back and said he had not seen a drunken native in all his journey. That is like 50 the man who came back from an extensive tour in America, and said he had not happened to see a funeral in the long course of his journey. Yet we have to, bear in mind, and it has been brought well before us, that in these Colonies there is, for the natives, no margin of living that can allow an indulgence of this kind.
My hon. Friend and neighbour in representation, whom I congratulate on his achievement to-day, in seconding the Address in reply to the King's Speech made fitting reference to the passing in 1940 of the Colonial Development and Welfare Act. I would remind the House that the late Lord Moyne, soon after that Act was passed, speaking of it said that they would seek to see that the words "material welfare" were interpreted in the very widest sense, to mean the spiritual, mental and moral as well as the physical uplift. These are the words he used, showing what care there should be in securing a higher level of living in every sense for these natives. He said on 5th June, 1941—it is in Command Paper 6299: I turn now to the other aspect of Government policy which I wish to emphasise, namely, the obligation to raise the standard of living of all those classes in the Colonial Empire whose standard is at present below the minimum that can be regarded as adequate. I have made some investigation of this question, and I find that while it can truly be said that drunkenness is much rarer than it was at one time, we have very sad descriptions of social customs. One bishop described the funeral ceremonies which extended over many days—for a fortnight at a time—to permit of these celebrations and said: We see a whole week in which most of the women, and even many of the children, were drunk. The late Reverend Kenneth Horn, who was a missionary of the Methodist Church, said he had seen these customs at funerals, and he had seen that they were the scene of "demoralisation and debauchery," We know that even the Missionary Churches have strongly protested against this as one of their greatest obstacles to social change and we have testimony on all hands that here is an evil we should seek to remedy.
51 I have questioned the Secretary of State from time to time on the quota that is allowed. The amount of gin or Geneva consumed last year in the Gold Coast was 9,540 gallons, whereas the quota amounted to 73,500 gallons. I questioned the Minister as to whether, in making the quota so large, he was thereby keeping a wide open door for the bringing in again, when the war was over, of these large quantities of liquor—of gin and geneva. When I questioned him in that way he said that the quota represented "what the territories normally needed" and the amount of consumption was "what they were able to get in." I would remind the right hon. and gallant Gentleman—I do not think he is present—that former Colonial Secretaries were not concerned so much with what amount of liquor could be got in, as with what could be kept out. Those who took a leading part in this question in the past were not narrow temperance fanatics. At the close of every war the conscience of the nation was aroused, and there was an effort to have drastic legislation on these matters. On 10th September, 1919, the Protocol that prohibited the giving of these liquors to natives was signed at St. Germaine-en-Laye by Arthur Balfour, Bonar Law, George Barnes and Viscount Milner.
At the close of the Boer War, in Command Paper 904, published in 1902, Lord Milner speaks in a different manner from that of our honoured friend the Colonial Secretary, who says that to have any drastic legislation of this kind would only bring in unhealthy and illicit distillation. On the contrary, Lord Milner set himself to put down illicit distillation. He said: The real fight has to come, but it will be a great fight. But while I realise the difficulties, I also feel that we are bound, by hook or by crook, to overcome them. The whole credit of the Administration is at stake in the matter, and I feel confident that His Majesty's Government will support us in the view that no effort and no expense should be spared in carrying out a policy which, if successful, shall mean a momentous triumph for civilisation in these parts of the world. When he saw by the returns how successful his policy had been he rejoiced, and said that this was something that should be made known. He said: As you know, we are going in for total prohibition up here, and I hope in time to see it extended to all South Africa. It is worth while making the most we can of so good an illustration as this Report affords of 52 the benefit of keeping drink away from the natives altogether. I often wonder, in view of our present attitude, and in view of the strong pronouncements in the past of these people, most of them from the other side of the House, whether these liquors have lost their potency, or whether we have lost our courage. Certain it is that men who have made vast fortunes in the past this way, out of the miseries of the natives, are laying their plans to make them once again; and that the trade is waiting anxiously for the open door at the present time. Therefore, I think it is not out of place to repeat the warning of Viscount Milner, which is contained in Command Paper 904, of 1902: There is no doubt that the New Administration has before it a severe struggle with one of the most powerful, as it is one of the most degraded, agencies in making money by the corruption of one's fellow-creatures.
Mr. McKie (Galloway)
I would like to say a word or two in support of the strong plea that the hon. and gallant Member for Ludlow (Lieut.-Colonel Windsor-Clive) has made, as to the necessity of the Government making known with the least possible delay their long-term agricultural policy. The hon. and gallant Gentleman, who speaks with first-hand knowledge, called attention to the necessity of keeping in being when the war is over the agricultural committees, which have done such gallant and splendid work throughout the war. He was afraid that it might not be so easy in the difficult years which will follow the war to get the same good service, and he asked the Government to bear that in mind. I support him very strongly, and I go further and say that it is imperative that, in these difficult weeks and months, with the shadow of the General Election over us, the Government should tell us what treatment our agriculturists may expect. The hon. and gallant Gentleman said that he found great depression among agriculturists because of their uncertainty about their treatment when the war is over. He said that they called attention to what took place in the 1920's, after the conclusion of the first round with Germany, when the Corn Production Act went, and many of them were in very sore straits. I am in constant touch with agriculturists in Scotland, and I would not go quite so far as my hon. and gallant Friend did, as to their depression, 53 but it is undoubtedly the case that there is this fear at the back of the minds of agriculturists throughout the length and breadth of Great Britain.
§ Mr. Sloan (Ayrshire, South)
Mr. McKie
I am very glad to have that support from my hon. Friend, who represents a constituency which is very largely devoted to agriculture. Of course, he speaks principally for the Northern end of his constituency, which contains those valuable mines in Ayrshire. My hon. and gallant Friend the Member for Ludlow said that agriculturists undoubtedly fear that they will get the same treatment on this occasion as they did before. When I hear that from agriculturists I always point out that on that occasion we had not the agreement which we, now have between the leaders of all the political parties. No matter what kind of Government succeeds this Governmentment, no matter what the composition of the new House of Commons may be, we have a guarantee from the party leaders; and I presume that the Socialist Ministers speak for their supporters. We have agreed on the necessity for keeping the agricultural industry in the position from which it ought never to have been allowed to drop at the conclusion of what I have described as the first round with Germany, over 20 years ago. I realise that the Leader of the House will not be able to speak on this subject to-day, but I have heard the Prime Minister say that the Debate on the Address is a golden opportunity for any Member to put over—as the hon. Member for Leigh (Mr. Tinker) has done to-day—any special point of view that he or she may be particularly interested in.
I remember the right hon. Gentleman, a number of years ago—I think it was before the war and he was not in office—saying that he rather deplored that the Debate should be curtailed on the opening day, and I hope, therefore, that the Leader of the House will not object this afternoon.
The other point I want to raise is a matter which is mentioned in the Gracious Speech and is one to which the Prime Minister devoted quite a long time in his speech—the question of housing. Again, I wish principally to stress the need for the Government to be up and doing with regard to housing in rural areas, and I 54 feel sure that I shall have the support of my hon. Friend the Member for South Ayrshire (Mr. Sloan) on this matter also. He must know, going about that very large constituency, as he does, that conditions there, in the rural areas, are very bad indeed. Housing conditions in Scotland, as has been said in this House, are very much behind what obtains in the southern part of Great Britain. This is true of the towns, but especially true of the housing conditions in the rural areas. Perhaps in the past we have not stressed so much the conditions of housing in rural areas, and that is why I take advantage of this opportunity to-day, following upon the remarks of the hon. Member for Leigh.
The hon. Member for Leigh concluded his speech by making an impassioned appeal for the immediate nationalisation of the mining industry, and he criticised the Prime Minister for not having taken advantage of the situation a year ago and not having nationalised the mining industry in the lifetime of the present Parliament. This Parliament is a very old institution, and it certainly has no mandate—though it has done several things without a mandate, admittedly—for such a far-reaching scheme as the nationalisation of the mining industry, or of the land or anything of that kind, and the hon. Member for Leigh must know that as well as any other hon. Member.
I urge the Government to announce at the earliest possible opportunity their long-term policy for agriculture and give a speedy indication—and this plea will be made over and over again as this long Debate proceeds—of how they intend to cope with and overhaul the arrears in our housing problem throughout the land, which so formidably confront us to-day and which the Prime Minister recognised in his speech.
§ Mr. Muff (Kingston-upon-Hull, East)
My hon. Friend who has just spoken said he wondered if the back benchers of the Labour Party would implement an agricultural policy. Seeing that the Government adopted the Labour policy, which has proved so successful during the war years, my hon. Friend can rest assured of the cordial support of the Labour Party so far as that is concerned. The mover and seconder of the Address, though dissimilar in their outlook, were harmoniously united in the common purpose they had 55 in expressing their thanks for the Gracious Speech. The mover, I think, symbolised not only the Armed Forces of the Crown but the Armed Forces of the whole of our Allies, and I wish to emphasise what is said in that Gracious Speech with regard to our relationships with our various Allies abroad, and especially those Allies who have been so recently liberated. I wish my voice could be heard in Belgium, in Greece and in other countries to try to make the burden of our Foreign Office a little easier than it is to-day. We have no right to dictate what should be the internal policy of any of our Allies who have been liberated but, when we realise that our other Allies have helped towards the liberation of these countries, without a semblance of dictation, I think we have a right to appeal to those countries to do what we have done—to agree to differ, but be in agreement on common principles of unity. If this nation had wasted its time on matters not essential and germane, this nation would have gone under, and I appeal to these people to do as we have done and be united in the common purpose of restoring the fortunes of their own countries.
I deplore the absence of any mention in the Gracious Speech of the introduction of a Criminal Law (Amendment) Bill. I should have deplored this more some time ago than I do to-day, because I will impress upon the House, and also, I hope, upon the Whips, who might bring it to the notice of the Home Secretary, that many reforms can be achieved without bringing in any Bill at all. I remind the House that our present population has gone up 10 per cent., and I would also try to bring home to the House the fact that, in those prisons which house the women, there are no facilities whatever for putting them to what I call positive or useful employment, such as growing produce on allotments which could be consumed in the prisons. We send women for nine or ten months' imprisonment, and then we find there is no real remedial employment which can rehabilitate them either morally or physically.
I have to ask the indulgence of the House to emphasise that point, because a great many reforms can be undertaken without any Act of Parliament by the Prison Commissioners themselves. One of the greatest reforms we have carried out was the establishment of the Wakefield 56 Camp, and no Act of Parliament was needed for that, but it has done a beneficent work in restoring the moral and psychological outlook of men sent there for their country's good. Again—and this is a matter of supreme importance to those who have to spend their time in visiting prisons—at the large prison which serves Yorkshire—it is what is called "an old lag's prison"—you will find 60 to 80 youths with no positive work to do.
Some of them are awaiting trial, and others are to be sent to Borstal. When they go to Borstal and have been there for two or three months, they are released to be a prey upon society again. There is no real exercise for these youths in a prison like the one we have in Yorkshire, and I want to bring this to the attention of the Home Secretary, who should bring in a Criminal Law (Amendment) Bill despite the fact that it would be eminently controversial, and he should say to his Prison Commissioners "Get on with the job."
I do not apologise for using the opportunity of the King's Speech in order to ask the House to support the Home Secretary, and especially the Prison Commissioners, to get on with this job by providing them with the means to do it, in order that we can, by having smaller prisons and more varied and positive work for the people who are incarcerated, at any rate attempt to redeem society. My hon. Friend the Member for Coatbridge (Mr. Barr) has been dwelling upon the evils of drink abroad. I do not want to dwell upon the evils of drink at home, but we have the problems of delinquency to face. We have to face the fact that there is a great increase in our prison population, and I close by emphasising the fact that there is not one bit of really constructive or positive rehabilitation available for women who are at present unfortunate to be behind prison walls.
§ Ordered: "That the Debate be now adjourned."—[Captain McEwen.]
§ Debate to be resumed To-morrow.
Back to KING'S SPEECH
Forward to SITTINGS OF THE HOUSE
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HANSARD 1803–2005 → 1960s → 1968 → February 1968 → 15 February 1968 → Lords Sitting
FOOT-AND-MOUTH DISEASE: COMMITTEE OF INQUIRY
HL Deb 15 February 1968 vol 289 cc223-30 223
§ LORD BESWICK
My Lords, with permission I should like to repeat a Statement made by my right honourable friend the Minister of Agriculture in another place. The Statement is as follows:
"I would like to report to the House on the present position of the foot-and-mouth disease epidemic.
"The number of outbreaks has continued at a low level since I last reported to the House in a debate on January 30. In the week ending at midnight last night there were seven outbreaks, almost the same number as in the preceding week. In view of this, I have been able to make substantial reductions in the size of the controlled area, releasing those parts of the country which are now distant from the remaining centres of infection.
"This is encouraging. But deafly the epidemic has not yet been stamped out. When I made my statement about meat imports on December 4, I said that, in any event, the arrangements would he reviewed in three months time; that is, by March 4. This review is being undertaken, and we are also studying the first results of the investigations carried out by my veterinary advisers into the origin of the present 224 epidemic. I propose to announce before March 4 results of the review. In the meantime the arrangements announced on December 4 will continue.
"I have already told the House that I propose to appoint a Committee of Inquiry into our policy and arrangements for dealing with foot-and-mouth disease. I am glad to say that the Duke of Northumberland has accepted my invitation to act as Chairman of this Committee of Inquiry. The terms of reference will be:
'To review the policy and arrangements for dealing with foot-and-mouth disease in Great Britain and to make recommendations.'
I hope that the Committee will make a full investigation of the circumstances of the recent epidemic and advise on the policy that should be adopted to control foot-and-mouth disease in this country in the light of the latest scientific knowledge. I am about to invite a number of other possible members to serve."
§ LORD NUGENT OF GUILDFORD
My Lords, may I thank the noble Lord, Lord Beswick, for reading out the Statement made in another place. I welcome the news that the epidemic seems to be subsiding and that the outbreaks are now at a low level; and perhaps I may express the hope that soon they will have died out altogether. May I also welcome his announcement of the name of the Chairman of the Committee of Inquiry? As the noble Lord is aware, there has been some criticism of the delay in making this announcement, but now that we have heard the name of the noble Duke, the Duke of Northumberland, we shall all agree that it was well worth waiting for.
With regard to what was said by the noble Lord, Lord Beswick, about the review, which is still going on, of the temporary ban on imported meat from sources where the disease is endemic, I note that no decision has been made yet, and I hope that the silence on this matter to-day indicates that the temporary ban will be continued during the period of the Inquiry. Is the noble Lord aware that the devastating losses that have occurred in the farming world have caused immense anxiety, and that it 225 would be a very great relief to know that this ban is to continue at any rate until a long-term policy has been decided?
With regard to the long-term policy on meat imports from sources where foot-and-mouth is endemic, will the noble Lord confirm that the terms of reference of the Inquiry, which he has read out to us, include a review of the sources of supply of our meat, including importation from sources where foot-and-mouth disease is endemic, because this could be a major factor for the Committee of Inquiry? If importation from these sources with endemic foot-and-mouth continues, the Committee of Inquiry might very well make one recommendation with regard to the best method of controlling the disease. On the other hand, if it were decided not to continue to import from such sources, they might very well recommend another method of controlling the disease in this country. Therefore, it is vitally important to them. But may I express my best wishes to the Inquiry in this very important matter?
My Lords, perhaps I may reply at once to what the noble Lord, Lord Nugent of Guildford, has just said. First, I would say that I share with him—and, indeed, I am sure, the whole House—the hope that this epidemic will shortly be completely stamped out. May I thank him, too, for the welcome which he has given to the appointment of the Duke of Northumberland. I am sure, as the noble Lord says, that the appointment will carry the confidence not only of all sections of the farming community but also of the rest of the country. I am glad to tell the noble Lord that the terms of reference are certainly as wide as those given to the Gowers Committee, and will enable the Committee of Inquiry to deal with the matters to which he referred. They can make recommendations about imports, although, of course, those recommendations will be based on animal health considerations, and the ultimate decision in these matters must necessarily rest with the Government, who must take into account all the national considerations.
My Lords, may I associate myself with everything that the noble Lord, Lord Nugent, said in relation to this Inquiry? So far as the 226 terms of reference are concerned, I think he has put his finger on a weak spot. The terms of reference can possibly be stretched to mean almost everything, but in fact they do not cover prevention. They cover dealing with the disease, and they cover control, but they do not cover prevention. I think the Government will have to think very closely about this point which the noble Lord made, because it is not enough to say that terms of reference such as were given to the Gowers Committee are wide enough for this Inquiry. They must be a little wider.
In relation to the ban, may I just say this? Obviously, the Ministry of Agriculture will have to come to a decision on this ban long before the Committee can report. I personally hope, like the noble Lord, Lord Nugent, that the ban will be extended until that time. Nevertheless, the Minister of Agriculture is under very considerable pressure from other interests, and I hope that what I may term "blackmail" from the Argentine will not be listened to too closely.
I am sure that what the noble Lord, Lord Henley, has said will be borne in mind. With regard to the Committee's terms of reference, I do not think he properly heard what I read out at the end of my right honourable friend's Statement, when he said that he hoped the Committee would make a full investigation of the circumstances of the recent epidemic and advise on the policy that should be adopted to control foot-and-mouth disease in this country…
THE MARQUESS OF ABERDEEN AND TEMAIR
My Lords, may I ask the noble Lord whether it is known how many farms there are in the restricted area which has not yet been affected by the disease?
No, my Lords. I could not answer that question without notice, but I will certainly send the information to the noble Marquess.
THE LORD BISHOP OF CHESTER
My Lords, may I, from these Benches, express a word of thanks to the Minister for the Statement that he has given to us of the Committee has been appointed will I know that the news that the Chairman give the greatest satisfaction. May I also 227 add my word to that of the noble Lord, Lord Nugent of Guildford, in wishing this Committee well? At the same time, perhaps I may remind the Minister—although I am sure he does not need any reminder—that the people concerned in this epidemic have passed through a traumatic experience, and it is therefore very important that their confidence should be restored at the earliest possible moment.
I hope that the ban on meat from countries where foot-and-mouth disease is endemic will be kept on until this Committee, possibly with an Interim Report, have been able to consider this particular issue. But may I also remind the Minister that there are other matters, which I think will probably be outside the terms of reference of the Committee, about which some assurance is needed? There are these questions of compensation, for instance, and the question of the encouragement of the employment of skilled labour, so that these men are not lost from the places where they are so greatly needed.
My Lords, the right reverend Prelate is right, of course, in saying that there are other considerations. They were touched upon in the debate which we had in this House, and I hope that what I said then indicated that the Minister is fully aware of them.
§ LORD OAKSHOTT
My Lords, may I be allowed to express my thanks to the noble Lord for repeating this Statement to-day, and also to welcome the appointment of the noble Duke as Chairman of this Committee? I think it would be difficult, if I may say so, to find a more suitable person to fill this very difficult post. The noble Lord will perhaps remember that in the debate the other day I said, I think wrongly, that I understood the Inquiry was to be held in public. But, to clear up that matter, can the noble Lord assure the House that in fact the Report of the Inquiry will be made public after the Inquiry has taken place? Also, could he say anything today about the size of the Committee, and from what fields of experience its members will be drawn? Further, can the noble Lord give me any idea when this Committee will be able to start work? He will agree, surely, that it is a very 228 urgent matter. Perhaps he can also say something about another point which I raised with him the other day, on the question whether the secretariat which will serve the Committee is already at work and preparing what one might call advance information in a dossier which will help the members of the Inquiry in their work when they get down to it.
Yes, my Lords. The Committee is expected to be about the same size as the Gowers Committee, which noble Lords will remember was eight in number, including the Chairman. It is expected that the appointment of the members will follow fairly quickly. It is a matter to be entered into after full consultation with the Chairman; but, certainly, it is hoped that the Committee will be able to start work fairly soon. I assure the House that the Working Party to which I referred when the noble Lord raised the relevant matter of getting and collating information now has a mass of information already there to be put before the Committee when it starts work.
§ LORD BYERS
My Lords, may I ask the noble Lord not to dismiss lightly what my noble friend Lord Henley said? The terms of reference used the phrase "dealing with". The statement talks about "controlling" foot and-mouth disease in the United Kingdom or in this country. What many of us are worried about is the prevention of it in the future. I submit that those two words "dealing" and "controlling" in this country do not necessarily cover prevention by the banning of imported tinned meat.
§ LORD CHORLEY
My Lords, I have just the same feeling of worry, especially when the Minister, in answering the noble Lord, Lord Henley, seemed to think that "control" was the same as "prevention". It obviously is not. "Control" assumes that the disease is there; "prevention" means not allowing it to arise. To the ordinary person who is not versed in the technicalities of this matter, one of the main elements in the problem has been the question of vaccination, which has been tremendously argued upon by lay people and which has given rise to a great deal of correspondence in the newspapers. That is very important indeed; but it might well be said that it has nothing to do with control; that it is purely 229 a question of prevention. If the Committee cannot go into this problem of vaccination then I am sure it will be a disaster. I hope that the Minister will look at the terms of reference again and make it quite clear that prevention is covered.
My Lords, I do not believe that there is any doubt in the minds of those who have spelled out the terms of reference, nor, if I may venture to say so, in the mind of the Chairman who has been appointed. The terms of reference are very wide. I spoke about "control" and other noble Lords used the word "prevention". In fact, in the terms of reference it speaks of "arrangements for dealing with". Certainly, the question of imports from abroad will be within the terms of reference of, and within those matters to be considered by, the Committee. Indeed, the Gowers Committee sent representatives, if they did not go themselves, to various countries in different parts of the world, including South America. There is no reason to believe that this Committee, if it so wishes, will not also go. The only point I made was that the final decision, in regard to the trading policy of this country, must be a matter for Her Majesty's Government.
§ LORD WOLVERTON
My Lords, while welcoming the appointment of the noble Duke as Chairman of the Committee, which I think is excellent, may I ask whether there will be an Interim Report or any time limit set on the Committee's work? Sometimes these Committees hang on for a long time. This is a matter of great urgency, and I hope that either an Interim Report will be made or that the Minister may be able to set a time limit.
My Lords, I am sure that the Chairman realises the urgency of this matter. It is not for the Government to set a time-limit; but clearly we want, on the one hand, a deep-searching and authoritative investigation and, consistent with that, a Report as early as possible.
LORD NUNBURNHOLME
My Lords, in regard to the question of preventing foot-and-mouth disease from being introduced here, may I ask whether we should not immediately ban the import of bone manure from endemic countries?
My Lords, that is an opinion which is shared by many.
§ LORD MACPHERSON OF DRUMOCFITER
My Lords, although I agree with everything that has been said this afternoon—and anything that could prevent a recurrence of this terrible disease must take first preference—may I draw the Minister's attention to the other side of this issue? I happen to know that there are £150 million worth of exports involved with South America. I should like the Minister to bear in mind the value of that trade to us. If some sort of compromise solution could be worked out, which in no way left the possibility of this disease coming back again, I think it would be worth studying. For instance, I would suggest that bone meal is prohibited, and possibly also meat on the bone; or something of that nature.
My Lords, the noble Lord indicates the other considerations that have been the reason for the delay in reaching a decision on this matter.
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HANSARD 1803–2005 → 1980s → 1984 → July 1984 → 24 July 1984 → Lords Sitting
Police and Criminal Evidence Bill
HL Deb 24 July 1984 vol 455 cc255-75 255
§ Further considered on Report.
§ [Amendments Nos. 57 and 58 not moved.]
§ Clause 24 [General arrest conditions]:
§ Lord Elwyn-Jones moved Amendment No. 59: Page 22, line 9, after ("offence") insert ("punishable by imprisonment").
§ The noble and learned Lord said: My Lords, in the temporary absence, I trust, of the noble Lord, Lord Hutchinson, whose recovery into rude health we hope to hear news of at any moment now, I beg to move this amendment. I wish that it had been a minute ago, which would have saved me the onerous responsibility of moving an amendment which is in his name but which I support enthusiastically.
§ Clause 24 deals with the important matter of arrest with general arrest conditions. Clause 24(1) reads: Where a constable has reasonable grounds for suspecting that any offence which is not an arrestable offence has been committed or attempted, or is being committed or attempted, he may arrest the relevant person if it appears to him that service of a summons is impracticable or inappropriate because general arrest conditions are satisfied.".
§ So it is a very serious and important provision creating grounds for the arrest of a person.
§ Of course, arrest is a very serious matter and one which is embarked upon only within the strict limits of 256 the provisions of the law. But the effect of the language of Clause 24, as we see it, is that the most trivial offence could well be grounds for the power of arrest which is given to a constable. The relevant words are, for suspecting that any offence … has been committed or attempted, or is being committed or attempted".
§ Already in the Bill substantial powers of arrest have been provided and it is right that they should exist in regard to the offences that really matter, such as wounding, assault, public order offences, thefts, receiving, taking and driving away cars, housebreaking implements, drugs, firearms, the Official Secrets Act, immigration and breaches of the peace. As the noble Lord, Lord Hutchinson, pointed out earlier, those matters are already provided for in the provisions of the Bill.
§ Then we suddenly find this clause providing, as the language I have read out indicates, a very substantial extension of the powers of arrest, because it is giving powers to arrest for any offence—that is to say, any offence known to the law—in certain circumstances. As I have indicated, they may be offences so trivial as to carry no penalty of imprisonment.
§ One of the justifications and explanations of the amendment which I have moved—namely, that offences should at least be punishable by imprisonment before these sanctions and powers can apply to them—is in order to avoid the merely trivial, like dropping litter in the street, or picking wild flowers, or the other minor offences known to the criminal law, which, unless this clause is amended, would remain as a ground for arrest and then, as a further step, for being taken into custody.
§ Therefore it is an important and essential amendment which should be made in order to limit the power of arrest which at present is provided by the language of the Bill. As I have said, arrest is a very serious deprivation of liberty and it must be founded only in justifiable and necessary circumstances. This amendment will come nearer to achieving that intention. I beg to move.
§ Lord Donaldson of Kingsbridge
My Lords, in the absence of my noble friend I should like to thank the noble and learned Lord for so ably moving this amendment. The position at the moment is that if somebody drops litter and a policeman tells him he must not and asks him for his name and address and that person says, "Lord Carrington, House of Lords", or whatever it may be, the policeman has no power to go further. This subsection gives the policeman the power to go further. We maintain that for trivial offences it is not necessary to give this extra power. It is an extension of the power of the police in relation to trivial offences which we believe to be absolutely unjustifiable. We wish to limit it to those offences which are punishable by imprisonment. It is as simple as that. This is a very undesirable extension of police powers. I am very happy to support my noble and learned friend on the Front Bench.
§ Lord Gifford
My Lords, I, too, support the amendment. I fear that the new power which, as the noble Lord, Lord Donaldson of Kingsbridge, has said, is being given by the clause will be a fearsome weapon for any police officer with which to harass people he 257 does not want to permit to do things which are quite trivial but technically unlawful, such as parking or camping in the wrong place, or matters of that kind. At least let us take away that weapon of harassment by limiting this clause to offences which are of sufficient seriousness to warrant a sentence of imprisonment.
§ Lord Elton
My Lords, the amendment would limit the power to arrest under the clause to offences which are punishable by imprisonment. It is sad that the noble Lord, Lord Hutchinson of Lullington, was not here to move the amendment in person. I mean no reflection on the ability of the noble and learned Lord when I say that it would have been preferable to hear it from the lips of the noble Lord, Lord Hutchinson of Lullington. I understand that his absence is due to the fact that he is not well and may be in some discomfort. I hope that his return to health, which I would not normally describe as rude, will be accomplished as speedily as possible.
I appreciate the concern which the noble and learned Lord and other noble Lords have expressed that the powers of this clause should not be used in the case of trivial offences, but I believe that what is proposed is wrong, both on the question of principle and on the way in which the noble Lord has attempted to define which offences are serious. Two balancing principles underlie this clause: first, that the police should be equipped with the powers necessary to enforce the law and, second, that the citizen should not be deprived of his liberty except when it is absolutely necessary.
For the relatively minor sort of offence with which the amendment is mainly concerned, the usual way for the police to proceed should be just as it is at present—by way of summons. To ensure that arrests do not take place where the summons procedure can be used, we have adopted the "necessity principle" proposed by the Royal Commission. An arrest may take place only if one or more of the conditions set out in subsection (3) applies. Arrest is a coercive power which we hope will not be needed, but the power should be available if the cirumstances justify its exercise. The circumstances which justify its exercise are set out in subsection (3) of Clause 24.
The circumstance which has most often been referred to is that the person who has committed an offence is unknown to the constable and his name cannot be readily ascertained by the constable, or he gives an obviously fictitious address. I am sure that the noble Lord, Lord Donaldson of Kingsbridge, did not mean to imply that if my noble friend Lord Carrington were to drop litter in Piccadilly and be stopped by a policeman and give his address as "Lord Carrington, House of Lords", anything untoward would have happened. The noble Lord omitted to say, of course, that the identity of the culprit should in this case be other than that given. But the fact remains that in some cases and in some circumstances, the use of a summons will not be practicable or appropriate.
If the law is to be enforced and society to be protected, the police must have the power to arrest where the alternative is to let a blatant offender go scot-free, whether it is a question of dropping litter, offending against the wildlife legislation, committing minor motoring offences, or cases of drunkenness. It is 258 no good putting legislation on to the statute book and then saying that people ought to obey these laws only if they feel like it. They must be required by some machinery to obey the law. If people give an obviously fictitious name or an obviously fictitious address so that a summons cannot be served against them, which is the alternative to arrest, the constable must either let them go or arrest them. If the provision is on the statute book and makes what the person is doing an offence, your Lordships are surely not going to say that it is up to the constable to decide whether Parliament was right or wrong in making it an offence.
The noble Lord, Lord Donaldson of Kingsbridge, adopts a posture which sometimes means acute attention and sometimes an intention to interrupt. I am quite happy to give way if the noble Lord wishes me to do so.
My Lords, the noble Lord is quite right in diagnosing my position. The noble Lord has described exactly the present position. We are opposed to it being altered.
Very well, my Lords. Let us, however, look at the amendment. As I was saying, if a person can flout the law with impunity under the eyes of a police officer, it brings the law, the police and, I believe, Parliament into disrepute. What is a police officer supposed to do if somebody commits a non-imprisonable offence under his nose and then declines to identify himself so that he may be prosecuted? Unenforceable laws are bad laws. If we knowingly render good laws unenforceable, we knowingly turn them into bad laws. It seems to me that that is what the noble Lord's amendment seeks to do.
By inserting the words "punishable by imprisonment" into the second line of Clause 24(1) one limits those offences for which a constable may arrest an offender if that offender puts himself into the categories set out in subsection (3) by not giving his address, or by giving an address which is manifestly false, or the other reasons there set out. The amendment would not leave the law as it is. It would actually deny the constables the power to enforce laws which are not punishable by imprisonment if the people who broke them did not want the officers to enforce them.
§ Lord Elwyn-Jones
My Lords, if the alleged offender gave his true name, which the police realised was his true name, is he still liable to the sanctions of the section?
Of course not, my Lords, because he does not then satisfy subsection (3) and therefore he is not arrestable and is proceeded against by summons. It is just possible that the noble Lords opposite and on this side actually want the same thing.
My Lords, I still submit that the substitution of the power of arrest for the power of summons is a very powerful threat to the liberty of the subject. While I know that some of the ancient towns police consolidation Acts of the early part of the century made provision for arrest without warrant, we are dealing with arrest without warrant in this provision in the clause. While the whole tendency of 259 the criminal law is moved towards arrest by summons and not by way of what is proposed in the Bill, this touches upon what I submit is a serious new encroachment of the power of arrest into a field where hitherto it has not existed. Accordingly, I have been a little pained by the way in which the perils involved have been so readily dismissed by the Minister in this matter.
Would the noble and learned Lord forgive me, and would the House permit me, to intervene in case I have not made myself clear? I am trying not to dismiss anything lightly and if I have done so it may be because I have not seen it. Clause 24(1) provides at present that, Where a constable has reasonable grounds for suspecting that any offence which is not an arrestable offence"— these are the minor offences the noble Lord refers to— has been committed or attempted, [and] … if it appears to him that service of a summons is impracticable or inappropriate becaue any of the general arrest conditions are satisfied then he has a power to arrest.
What are the circumstances under which he has a power to arrest? They are circumstances set out under subsection (3); otherwise he does not have it. The circumstances set out in subsection (3) are that the name of the relevant person is unknown to him and cannot be readily ascertained—in other words he claims to be Lord Carrington and manifestly is not—that the constable has reasonable grounds for doubting whether the name furnished is real or not; that he has not given an address at which the summons can be served; or doubts whether the address given is an address at which service would work.
There are dozens and dozens of existing powers of arrest without warrant. Clause 25 repeals them in favour of Clause 24. Therefore if we look at the clauses together we are actually reducing what the noble and learned Lord sees as a peril and saying that his power which is at present at large may in future only be used if it is essential to use it because the procedure by way of summons is either not possible or not appropriate. I hope that I have reassured the noble Lord. Perhaps he would consider between now and Third Reading whether I have reassured him. I am not trying to argue for advantage or political advancement or anything else. It seems to me that what I have said is actually a true statement of what we are doing. What we are doing is very close to what the noble and learned Lord would have us do.
My Lords, before the noble Lord sits down, may I ask this question? Would he not agree that the necessity principle that we hear so much about—I am not lawyer enough to know when you can or cannot use it—cannot apply to a trivial offence?
No, my Lords. I do not think the noble Lord is right at all. It is here applied to a trivial offence. This is what Clause 24 is about. Let me sum this up and sit down because your Lordships will want to move on soon. The noble Lord is saying that you should not apply the necessity principle to trivial offences. He is saying that you should not apply it because trivial offences should not be subject to arrest. 260 If trivial offences are not subject to arrest, they are not enforceable; if they are not enforceable there is no earthly point in having them on the statute book because as soon as people find they can commit offences under the noses of the police and waltz away saying that they are Charlie Chaplin, they will do so, and your Lordships will have brought the law into disrepute. What do you do? You either allow the constable to take the person to the police station and ascertain who he is; or you take the statute book alternative. There are dozens and dozens of such offences. People who are keen on fritillaries will not want you to sweep away the wildlife laws protecting them. If people who have broken that law should do so in front of a policeman and refuse to say who they are, or how a summons can be served, then it seems to me that they have brought arrest upon themselves.
Hear, hear!
That was a rather chauvinistic piece of support but I am trying to present this as gently as I can. I hope I have persuaded your Lordships. If I have failed, now, I shall never succeed, so I shall sit down.
My Lords, we still feel that the powers of arrest in this clause are far too wide; but in view of the undertaking of the noble Lord the Minister to look at it again—or words to that effect—or to think about it, or ponder about it—
My Lords, what may have come across through the ether, though not through my speech, is that I hope the noble and learned Lord will do some thinking about it between now and Third Reading.
My Lords, I still submit with confidence that this is far too wide a provision. There is the machinery of summons. I know that it adds difficulties to the police that there should be limitation on the power of arrest without warrant. But I think it might be useful to test the opinion of the House on this matter just to see how we are getting on.
Attlee, E. Grey, E.
Aylestone, L. Hanworth, V.
Beaumont of Whitley, L. Houghton of Sowerby, L.
Carmichael of Kelvingrove, L. Jeger, B.
Cledwyn of Penrhos, L. John-Mackie, L.
David, B. Kagan, L.
Diamond, L. Kilmarnock, L.
Donaldson of Kingsbridge, L. Kirkhill, L.
[Teller.] Lockwood, B.
Elwyn-Jones, L. Mackie of Benshie, L.
Ewart-Biggs, L. McNair, L.
Ezra, L. Morris, L.
Foot, L. Mountevans, L.
Gifford, L. Nicol, B.
Gladwyn, L. Phillips, B.
Graham of Edmonton, L. Pitt of Hampstead, L.
[Teller.] Raglan, L.
Stedman, B. Walston, L.
Stewart of Alvechurch, B. White, B.
Stewart of Fulham, L. Wilson of Rievaulx, L.
Stoddart of Swindon, L. Winchilsea and Nottingham,
Stone, L. E.
Taylor of Blackburn, L. Winstanley, L.
Underhill, L. Wootton of Abinger, B.
Allerton, L. Coleraine, L.
Ampthill, L. Colville of Culross, V.
Auckland, L. Cork and Orrery, E.
Avon, E. Cox, B.
Belstead, L. Craigmyle, L.
Blake, L. Davidson, V.
Boardman, L. Denham, L. [Teller.]
Brabazon of Tara, L. Drumalbyn, L.
Brougham and Vaux, L. Elton, L.
Broxbourne, L. Enniskillen, E.
Caithness, E. Faithfull, B.
Carnegy of Lour, B. Ferrier, L.
Gainford, L. Marshall of Leeds, L.
Gardner of Parkes, B. Norfolk, D.
Glanusk, L. Pender, L.
Glenarthur, L. Rankeillour, L.
Gowrie, E. Renton, L.
Gray of Contin, L. Rochdale, V.
Gridley, L. Saltoun, Ly.
Hives, L. Stodart of Leaston, L.
Hood, V. Suffield, L.
Hornsby-Smith, B. Swinton, E. [Teller.]
Inglewood, L. Trefgarne, L.
Ingrow, L. Trumpington, B.
Killearn, L. Ullswater, V.
Kilmany, L. Vickers, B.
Lawrence, L. Westbury, L.
Long, V. Whitelaw, V.
Lucas of Chilworth, L. Wise, L.
Macleod of Borve, B. Wynford, L.
Margadale, L. Young, B.
§ The Deputy Speaker (Lord Aylestone)
My Lords, Amendment No. 59A on the supplement to the Marshalled List: the noble and learned Lord, Lord Denning? Not moved. Amendment No. 60—
My Lords, Amendment No. 59A is to be moved. On behalf of the noble and learned Lord, Lord Denning, and at his request, I beg to move Amendment No. 59A: Page 23, line 15, leave out subsection (6). If your Lordships will turn to Clause 25, which is the next clause, you will see that all powers of arrest in any Act are to cease to have any effect. That seems to be so whether or not they are repealed by Schedule 7, which is uncertain. But some few powers are preserved by subsection (2) of Clause 25 and they are set out in the second schedule.
One wonders to what Clause 24(6) refers. What purpose is there in it? There is nothing relevant left and so according to the noble and learned Lord, Lord Denning—and I must confess that I think he is right—we should leave out subsection (6) or else specify the detail to which it refers.
The matter seems to be clinched by the Notes on Clauses. I must let your Lordships into a secret. The Notes on Clauses say that subsection (6) of Clause 24 has the same effect as subsection (8) of Clause 23. Indeed, the wording of them was exactly the same. But, at the behest of the Government, in Committee we deleted subsection (8) of Clause 23 from the Bill. So, why should we not delete subsection (6) of Clause 24 at this Report stage? I beg to move.
My Lords, in Committee we did indeed accept an amendment moved, not by the Government but by the noble Lord, Lord Elystan-Morgan, to leave out subsection (8) of Clause 23 which said exactly what subsection (6) of Clause 24 now says. The chief effect of these subsections was to preserve intact the power of the police under common law to arrest in order to prevent or deal with a breach of the peace, but we concluded that it was not necessary to have two identical subsections in different clauses to do the same thing. Accordingly subsection (8) of Clause 23 disappeared, as proposed by the noble Lord, Lord Elystan-Morgan, leaving subsection (6) of Clause 24 to do the work on its own. It also makes it clear that Clause 24 does not apply to arrestable offences or Schedule 2 powers. It is now this subsection which the noble and learned Lord, Lord Denning, seeks by proxy to leave out.
Subsection (6) of Clause 24 preserves powers of arrest conferred otherwise than by Clause 24 from the effects of that clause. The powers of arrest preserved are, specifically, the common law power of arrest, which is a power of arrest in order to prevent or deal with a breach of the peace, and the powers of arrest preserved in Schedule 2 from repeal by Clause 25. We have already discussed in connection with the amendment of the noble Lord, Lord Gifford, what forms a breach of the peace may take and it is quite clear that many breaches of the peace which ought to be preventable by the use of the power of arrest simply will not fulfil the general conditions of arrest set out in Clause 264 24(3)(d), for example. That would mean that the amendment would effectively prevent the use of arrest in many circumstances in which I am sure the noble and learned Lord would agree they should be available.
However, we are talking not only about common law powers; we are also talking about statutory powers and, in particular, the powers preserved in Schedule 2. I take only one example. I refer my noble friend to the second power listed in the schedule. This is the Protection of Animals Act 1911. Section 12(1) provides the power of arrest of a person who mistreats or causes suffering to an animal. Here again, a person who fulfilled none of the other conditions in Clause 24(3) would escape being arrested because he did not fulfil the conditions in (3)(d), which deal exclusively with people and property. It is an animal, and not a person, which is here at risk. In fact, Schedule 2 is in the Bill only because it is necessary to have a category of arrest powers not controlled by the conditions in Clause 24 because they are unsuitable for one reason or another, as I have illustrated with one example.
I hope that the example I have given serves to explain why this should be so and that my noble friend will agree not to press the amendment on behalf of his noble and learned friend but to give my reasons to him.
My Lords, I should like to thank my noble friend for his very thorough reply. Before I go any further I think I owe an apology to the noble Lord, Lord Elystan-Morgan, as I failed to attribute to him the initiative and wisdom which I attributed to the Government. I hope that my apology will be accepted by him.
My noble friend has, with his usual thoroughness and persuasiveness, given reasons for not accepting the amendment. I feel obliged, however unconvinced, to accept those reasons. I make only one further point just in case, during the long Recess, it may appeal to my noble friend. It is this. We can generally assume that nothing in any statute will prejudice anything said in any other statute. So it would seem that the words, This section shall not prejudice any power of arrest conferred apart from this section are not strictly necessary. We should always avoid writing unnecessary words into any statute. Leaving that thought in the great mind of my noble friend, I beg leave to withdraw the amendment.
Amendment, by leave, withdrawn.
§ Clause 26 [Arrest without warrant for fingerprinting]:
moved Amendment No. 60: Page 23, line 29, at end insert ("and"). The noble Lord said: My Lords, my pleasure at my noble friend's compliment being slightly alloyed by the tones in which it was delivered, I move on to move Amendment No. 60 and to ask leave of your Lordships to address also the matter of Amendment No. 61. Amendment No. 61: Page 23, line 33, leave out from ("conviction") to end of line 38 and insert ("any constable may at any time not later than one month after the date of the conviction 265 require him to attend a police station in order that his fingerprints may be taken. (1A) A requirement under subsection (1) above—
(a) shall give the person a period of at least 7 days within which he must so attend; and
(b) may direct him to so attend at a specified time of day or between specified times of day.
(1 B) Any constable may arrest without warrant a person who has failed to comply with a requirement under subsection (1) above.")
§ Clause 26 as drafted attracted a fair degree of criticism in Committee. It was pointed out by noble Lords that it was unsatisfactory that a convicted person should be liable to summary arrest for refusing to go immediately to a police station to be fingerprinted, even though he might have a very good reason for refusal, such as a prior dental appointment, and might be perfectly willing to go later that day or on the next.
§ My noble friend Lord Trefgarne undertook to bring forward an amendment to give the person a reasonable period of grace. These amendments ensure that a person who is convicted of a recordable offence, without having had his fingerprints taken in connection with it, has at least seven days to comply with the requirement to go to a police station for that purpose. I hope that they will commend themselves to your Lordships. They will ensure that the power of arrest conferred by Clause 26 is very much a power of last resort. I beg to move.
§ Lord Elton moved Amendment No. 61:
§ [Printed above.]
§ Clause 28 [Voluntary attendance at police station etc.]:
§ Lord Donaldson of Kingsbridge moved Amendment No. 62: Page 24, line 26, after ("Where") insert ("at the request of a constable")
§ The noble Lord said: My Lords, I move this as a probing amendment. I want to make sure that the rights of the accused, of the detained, or of the person helping the police with their inquiries are clearly explained to them. When we argued this point in Committee the noble Lord, Lord Elton, said that it would look pretty silly if a lady came to a police station saying that she had lost her pearl necklace and she was immediately told that she could leave if she wanted, nothing that she said would be used against her without a solicitor being present, and so on. We thought that if the phrase in the amendment were added, so that Clause 28 read: Where for the purpose of assisting with an investigation at the request of a constable a person attends voluntarily", it would get round the situation of a person who is making a complaint to the police, who clearly does not want to be told his rights because that does not arise.
§ I think that the matter is a little more serious than that. In Committee when I said that the Government seemed to have a certain reluctance about people in a police station being told their rights, I was told that that was contrary to the truth. I want to be sure that it is. 266 This is a probing amendment to see whether what is in the Bill and what is in the code of practice amounts to making absolutely certain that somebody who is asked to go to a police station after a serious accident, in which he may be in the wrong, although at that stage nobody knows who is in the wrong or who is in the right (which is normally the case when it is said that somebody is helping the police with their inquiries), is told his rights. I want to be sure that that is so. If your Lordships accept Amendment No. 63, it will be so. Amendment No. 63: Page 24, line 31, after ("be") insert ("informed as soon as practicable that he is")
§ The relevant part of the clause would then read: he shall be informed as soon as practicable that he is entitled to leave at will".
§ I want to look at the code, and I want the noble Lord to tell me that in his belief and that of the Government it is a totally and absolutely clear duty on the police to tell somebody who is at their request helping them with information in relation to an accident, fault, suspected theft, or anything else, what are his rights. There are two relevant provisions in the code. The first is paragraph 3.2, which states: At the same time the custody officer must inform him of the following rights … the right to have someone informed of his detention … the right to legal advice in accordance with section 6 below … the right to consult this and other codes of practice".
§ That does not say that the person has the right to leave the police station at once if he wants to, and it does not say that he has the right to have a solicitor. Secondly, Paragraph 11.4 states: If a person is not under arrest when a caution is given the officer concerned shall say so. If he is at a police station the officer shall also tell him he is free to leave if he wishes and remind him that he may obtain legal advice if he wishes".
§ I think that that is probably all right, but I believe that we should go through the provisions. It is extremely important that somebody who is roped in by the police, and who in fact happens to be innocent, should be told: first, that he can leave at will; secondly, that he need say nothing if he does not wish to; and, thirdly, that he is entitled to a solicitor. That is very much more clearly put in my amendment. If the noble Lord the Minister and other noble Lords are satisfied that what I have read out from the code of practice meets the case, I shall take the matter no further. I beg to move.
§ Baroness Trumpington
My Lords, I well understand the reason for the sense of worry that the noble Lord, Lord Donaldson, feels. By repeating in a way the amendment that he moved at Committee last time, he is saying that any person voluntarily attending a police station at the request of the police to assist in an investigation would have to be told that he was free to leave at will unless placed under arrest. As my noble friend explained when we debated this proposal in Committee, the Government fully agree with the intention underlying the amendments but believe they are far too wide in application.
My noble friend pointed out in Committee that many people attend police stations voluntarily for all kinds of reasons. They include, for example, victims of burglary attending to identify property and victims of assault attending to identify a suspect or provide a statement. It would be unnecessary and indeed 267 counter-productive to insist that all victims and witnesses should be implicitly threatened with arrest in the way proposed. It is easy to see how a statement of the right to leave could produce entirely the wrong impression with people who had come in to help.
I acknowledge that the noble Lord has attempted to deal with this objection and to narrow the scope of the amendment, by providing that the duty on the police should arise only when the person goes to the police station at the request of a constable. That is, excluding those cases where the first that the police know about a person is when he arrives at the inquiry desk at the police station.
However, I have to say that this still does not meet the objection that my noble friend advanced in Committee. Suppose, for instance, that a woman is attacked by a man who then runs off. A suspect is later arrested and the police want to arrange an identification parade. They ask the woman to go to the police station for this. Are they really obliged by law to go through the absurd rigmarole of telling her when she arrives that she is free to leave unless arrested?
My Lords, may I intervene at this stage? Surely it is not an absurd rigmarole to tell somebody that they need not do it if they do not want to, which is their right. If they dislike the idea of an identification parade, if they are frightened of one, they need not do it and they should be told that.
My Lords, I think that the noble Lord has misunderstood me. It was the lady who had been robbed and who was to see the people who were going through the identification parade, who would then be told that she was free to leave unless arrested. She is a totally innocent party, there for quite a different reason: to protect herself.
My Lords, I am sorry to argue this. It is not a question of being told to leave, unless arrested. Under the Bill, if she wants to leave, she does so. It is not a question of whether or not she is arrested. She cannot go if she is arrested: but arrest does not come into it. She is free to leave if she wants to leave. She is free to refuse to attend an identity parade if for some reason she objects to it, and in my view she should be told so.
My Lords, perhaps I may leave this particular lady for a moment and continue. I can assure your Lordships that in those circumstances the police, who are perfectly sensible, will of course not say anything to her. I cannot believe that your Lordships, knowing this, would amend the Bill in such a way as to require the police to be in breach of its provisions for acting in a common-sense way.
If I may get on to the particular point that the noble Lord raised, as my noble friend explained in Committee, the difficulty with the approach of the noble Lord, Lord Hutchinson, to this problem is a failure to distinguish properly between suspects and others. The addition of the words "at the request of a 268 constable" does not affect this distinction. It is of course very important indeed—and my noble friend made it perfectly clear in the Committee stage of the Bill—that any person who was at a police station voluntarily as a suspect should be fully aware of his position and his right to leave. That is to ensure that he is there voluntarily and not under a disguised compulsion.
The draft detention code of practice includes precisely this safeguard. Section 11 of the draft code requires the police to caution a person as soon as there are grounds to believe he has committed an offence. Paragraph 11.4 deals with the case of a person who is not under arrest. He must be informed that he is not under arrest, and if at a police station, the officer concerned shall also tell him he is free to leave if he wishes and remind him that he may obtain legal advice if he wishes". This provision is also found in paragraph 3.8.
I should emphasise that the code requires the caution to be given as soon as there are grounds to believe that a person has committed an offence. There do not have to be reasonable grounds. Thus a person must be cautioned and thus also told that he is free to leave the police station if he wishes as soon as he is a suspect in the eyes of the police.
The draft code thus already meets the point of substance in these amendments and I hope therefore that the noble Lord will not press them. He did say that these were two probing amendments. It would, I think, be difficult to incorporate the relevant provisions of the code into the body of the Bill without also drawing in other related matters such as the timing of the caution which are pre-eminently matters for a subordinate code. Paragraph 3.2 to which the noble Lord refers relates to detained persons. Obviously, they do not have a right to leave. Paragraph 3.8 relates to the volunteers.
As to the general question of the distribution of material as between the Bill and the codes, I repeat what was said in Committee. Throughout our proceedings noble Lords opposite have expressed the view that the codes provide a lesser degree of authority than the Bill and can be treated in a sort of easy-going way or ignored. That is not true. The codes are backed up by discipline. A translation of material from code to Bill would provide nothing additional in the way of safeguards for the suspect, since the disciplinary consequences of a breach of the code are already established by Clause 66.
The question of Bill versus code is not in itself important. If noble Lords opposite make a great issue of it, the message going out to the police service will, if material is moved from code to Bill, be that the codes are indeed less important to observe and less authoritative than the Bill. That, as I am sure all would agree, would be a regrettable result.
My Lords, I shall not take this further. It was however, important to discuss it. Paragraph 3.8 says that, Any person attending a police station voluntarily for the purpose of assisting with an investigation may leave at will unless placed under arrest". I cannot see why the code should not say, and should be informed of this right". 269 I shall not, however, press it further. Noble Lords have heard the background. It has been well discussed. I do not think that the code goes quite far enough. However, it would be unreasonable to try to put it into the Bill. I beg leave to withdraw the amendment.
§ Lord Donaldson of Kingsbridge moved Amendment No. 63:
§ The noble Lord said: Exactly the same argument applies to this amendment. Having moved it, I beg leave to withdraw it.
§ Lord Elwyn-Jones moved Amendment No. 64: After Clause 28, insert the following new Clause: ("Voluntary attendance. When a person attends voluntarily at a police station or any other place for the purpose of assisting with an investigation of an offence and that person is subsequently arrested for that offence the fact of his voluntary attendance and the period of time during which he so attended shall be entered on the custody record.")
§ The noble and learned Lord said: My Lords, this is an important amendment. It is by way of a new clause following Clause 28 dealing with voluntary attendance at police stations. The amendment provides that when a person attends voluntarily at a police station or any other place for the purpose of assisting with an investigation of an offence and that person is subsequently arrested for that offence, the fact of his voluntary attendance and the period of time during which he so attended shall be entered on the custody record. Both requirements are intended for the benefit of the person who has attended voluntarily at the police station.
§ First, for the subsequent treatment of the person concerned, the fact that he attended voluntarily is something that the courts might well take into account in later considering how he should be dealt with. But perhaps more important is the requirement that the period of time during which he has attended should be entered on the custody record. That is, of course, relevant to the elaborate provisions as to the time in which a suspect or an accused person may be held in custody and brought before the courts. The period of time in which the volunteer, so to speak, has remained in custody should clearly, in fairness to him, and so that he may benefit from the time provisions that are set out in the various clauses of the Bill from Clause 40 onwards, be counted to his advantage. That would seem to be fair and just, and, accordingly, I beg to move.
My Lords, I accept from the noble and learned Lord, Lord Elwyn-Jones, that what he has put forward in this amendment is commendable practice. But the question arises whether it should be the subject of legislation. Earlier on, and not long ago, my noble friend Lord Elton said that we should not make laws that are not enforceable; and one wonders how this law would be enforced if we were to make it. What would be the consequences for the accused person, or for the police officer who failed to make the record, if the law 270 were not obeyed? We should bear in mind factors of that kind before accepting a provision of this kind.
§ Lord Wigoder
My Lords, if I may, I should like to support the amendment moved by the noble and learned Lord, Lord Elwyn-Jones. It seems to me that the custody record—which I rather assume was known in my younger days as the charge sheet; probably it is the same document—contains a vast amount of information in any event, and to ask that it should contain these two additional items can do no harm and might be of very great advantage in the course of a trial.
It might be desirable that there should be a record made officially of whether a person had attended voluntarily. It is much more important that there should be a record made officially of the period of time during which he attended, so that that should be available during the trial if an issue arose as to whether a defendant had been put under pressure as a result of being at a police station for a very long period of time before or during his questioning. I can see no harm whatever coming from this amendment, and I think that a certain degree of perhaps rather marginal benefit might result.
My Lords, this new clause arises from the suspicion that a person may be at a police station voluntarily for a considerable period before being arrested, and that this provides an opportunity for abuse. I do not believe however that this new clause is either a necessary or a practicable means of checking such abuse.
In the first place, the new clause goes very wide indeed, and taken literally would impose a huge new bureaucratic burden on the police. Every time that any member of the public meets up with a police officer in the context of an investigation—say, a householder called home from work when a break-in is reported, or the proprietor of a shop brought back from lunch when there has been a case of shoplifting—the police officer concerned would have to note the exact time just in case he later had to arrest the person concerned for an attempted insurance fraud. This case would come within the scope of the new clause, because that person would certainly be voluntarily attending his house or shop in order to assist the police investigation. It is easy to see how heavy this new bureaucratic burden would be, which rather bears out the remarks, for which I am grateful, of my noble friend Lord Renton. While police officers keep a note in their pocket books of their daily duties, they do not do so in the detail that the new clause would require.
The situation would be no better even if the new clause extended only to voluntary attendance at a police station. Suppose that the householder goes to the police station to report the theft of his car. It is a busy Friday night and he has to wait until he can see the officer at the inquiry desk. He then has to wait to be interviewed by a CID officer. No record is being made of the time that he is waiting or when the interview starts; nor is there any reason why it should. But, again, it may be that in the course of the interview the police officer is given sufficient grounds to suspect a fraud to justify an immediate arrest.
My Lords, would the noble Baroness forgive me? Is she saying that, if she goes to a police station and reports the loss of her motor car, somebody there does not make a record of the time at which she is seen?
My Lords, surely the time is the time that this man is waiting before he is dealt with by the police for the loss of his car. Perhaps noble Lords would allow me to finish my few brief remarks. It would be very difficult for the police to know how long he had been at the station prior to arrest, and in any event that information would be entirely void of significance.
However, I hope that I can persuade your Lordships that information which might be of significance will have to be recorded without bringing in the bureaucracy of the new clause. I suggest that what matters is not the time spent at the police station as such—because, as I have demonstrated, this could happen in a wide variety of situations—but the time spent at the police station being interviewed under caution—that is, as a suspect in the eyes of the police.
Paragraph 11.5 of the draft code of practice requires a record to be made of the giving of a caution, which is the point at which a person's status changes from that of victim or witness to suspect. Paragraph 2.5 requires a record to be made of each interview with a suspect, whether or not at a police station. The record must state the time that the interview begins and ends, and the time of the caution must also be recorded in the interview record as a result of the combination of paragraphs 11.6 and 2.6. Therefore, I believe that the draft code of practice already does the job required.
If the interview record is looked at together with the custody record, the time spent under caution but prior to arrest will be apparent. The new clause is, therefore, not necessary and I hope that the noble and learned Lord will withdraw it.
§ Lord Monson
My Lords, I cannot add very much to the arguments advanced so cogently by the noble and learned Lord, Lord Elwyn-Jones, except to express great surprise that the Government are resisting this worthwhile and extremely modest amendment, which one might imagine would attract support from all quarters of the House. I cannot really believe that the bureaucracy argument holds much water.
My Lords, to call this modest proposal a huge bureaucratic burden is a huge piece of bureaucratic nonsense. It is only when the person who volunteers his attendance is subsequently arrested that these particulars are required: first, that he did attend voluntarily and, secondly, the period of time during which he so attended.
The noble Lord, Lord Renton, found some ground for thinking that the provision was unenforceable. But if later at the trial an issue arose as to the period of time spent, which ought to have been entered in the custody record, that would emerge at the trial. Indeed, if it were the case that there could be a foundation for an unlawful detention, or whatever it might be, other proceedings could produce evidence upon these matters. So in the fullness to time the record would be a valuable measure of defence for the arrested person and a valuable element in his defence.
272 I confess that, like the noble Lord on the Cross-Benches, I find the reaction to the modest proposal quite extraordinary. The provisions that were provided for in the code of practice were not, if I may say so, directly relevant to the situation with which the amendment deals. But in any event this is of great significance and importance if we are to make a reality of these elaborate rules that people who are suspect or who are later arrested shall not be kept indefinitely in police custody—a point to which we attach great importance. This is a modest provision to protect the subject against a mischief of the kind with which the amendment is inclined to deal. In the circumstances, I move the amendment and will seek the views of the House upon it.
Ampthill, L. McNair, L.
Attlee, E. Mar, C.
Auckland, L. Masham of Ilton, B.
Beaumont of Whitley, L. Monson, L.
Boston of Faversham, L. Mountevans, L.
Carmichael of Kelvingrove, L. Nicol, B.
Cledwyn of Penrhos, L. Phillips, B.
David, B. [Teller.] Pitt of Hampstead, L.
Diamond, L. Raglan, L.
Donaldson of Kingsbridge, L. Saltoun, Ly.
Elwyn-Jones, L. Stedman, B.
Ezra, L. Stewart of Alvechurch, B.
Foot, L. Stewart of Fulham, L.
Gifford, L. Stoddart of Swindon, L.
Graham of Edmonton, L. Taylor of Blackburn, L.
Grey, E. Tordoff, L.
Hanworth, V. Underhill, L.
Houghton of Sowerby, L. Walston, L.
Inglewood, L. White, B.
Kagan, L. wigoder, L. [Teller.]
Kilmarnock, L. Wilson of Rievaulx, L.
Lawrence, L. Winchilsea and Nottingham,
Lockwood, B. E.
Mackie of Benshie, L. Wootton of Abinger, B.
Allerton, L. Glenarthur, L.
Avon, E. Gowrie, E.
Belstead, L. Gray of Contin, L.
Blake, L. Hives, L.
Boardman, L. Hood, V.
Brabazon of Tara, L. Hornsby-Smith, B.
Brougham and Vaux, L. Ingrow, L.
Caithness, E. Long, V. [Teller.]
Carnegy of Lour, B. Lucas of Chilworth, L.
Coleraine, L. Macleod of Borve, B.
Colville of Culross, V. Margadale, L.
Cork and Orrery, E. Marshall of Leeds, L.
Cornwallis, L. Monk Bretton, L.
Cox, B. Morris, L.
Davidson, V. Norfolk, D.
Drumalbyn, L. Pender, L.
Elliot of Harwood, B. Rankeillour, L.
Elton, L. Renton, L.
Enniskillen, E. Rochdale, V.
Faithfull, B. Savile, L.
Ferrier, L. Stodart of Leaston, L.
Gainford, L. Suffield, L.
Gardner of Parkes, B. Swinton, E. [Teller.]
Glanusk, L. Trefgarne, L.
Trumpington, B. Whitelaw, V.
Ullswater, V. Wise, L.
Vickers, B. Wynford, L.
Westbury, L. Young, B.
§ Clause 29 [Arrest elsewhere than at police station]:
§ Baroness Trumpington moved Amendment No. 65: Page 24, line 38, after ("constable") insert ("for an offence").
§ The noble Baroness said: My Lords, Clause 29 as drafted requires that a person who is arrested should be taken to a police station as soon as practicable. While this provision is clearly right in the case where a person is arrested for an offence, we have come to the conclusion that it would lead to undesirable and unintended consequences where the arrest is otherwise than for an offence. The case of Section 136 of the Mental Health Act 1983 provides a good example. This empowers a constable to arrest a person who is apparently suffering from a mental disorder and in immediate need of care or control and to remove him to a place of safety. A place of safety may he a hospital, residential home or other suitable accommodation as well as a police station.
§ We do not want to require anyone arrested under Section 136 to be taken to a police station when it would otherwise be perfectly feasible to take him direct to a hospital. The amendment ensures that the clause does not interfere with other powers and I feel your Lordships will all welcome it. I beg to move.
My Lords, this would seem to be a beneficial provision.
§ Baroness Trumpington moved Amendment No. 66: Page 24, line 39, at end insert ("for an offence").
§ Clause 31 [Search upon arrest]:
§ Lord Trefgarne moved Amendment No. 67:
§ [Printed earlier: col. 221.]
§ The noble Lord said: My Lords, on behalf of my noble friend I beg to move this amendment, which is consequential on Amendment No. 36.
§ Lord Trefgarne moved Amendment No. 68: Page 26, line 33, leave out ("police detention") and insert ("lawful custody").
§ The noble Lord said: My Lords, may I speak at the same time to Amendment No. 72. Page 27, line 30, leave out from ("that") to ("or") in line 31 and insert ("he might use it to assist him to escape from lawful custody").
§ Clause 31(2)(a)(i) permits a constable to search an arrested person for an article which he might use to help him to escape police detention. Police detention, as defined in Clause 115(2), only begins once an arrested person is taken to a police station. Clearly it is 274 as desirable to prevent an arrested person from escaping en route to the station, as it is after he gets there. The first amendment therefore ensures that escape equipment may be seized on arrest whether it is to be used at the police station or on the way there. The second amendment is consequential. I beg to move.
§ The noble Lord said: This amendment is consequential on Amendment No. 36. I beg to move.
§ Lord Trefgarne moved Amendment No. 70: Page 27, line 2, at end insert— ("(3A) The powers conferred by this section to search a person are not to be construed as authorising a constable to require a person to remove any of his clothing in public other than an outer coat, jacket or gloves.").
§ The noble Lord said: My Lords, in Committee the noble Lord, Lord Gifford, proposed that the same rule governing search in public which is contained in Clause 2(9)(a) should apply to Clause 31. We agree. This amendment is the result. I beg to move.
My Lords, I am grateful to the noble Lord for attributing the paternity of this amendment to my noble friend Lord Gifford. We of course approve of that of which we claim paternity.
§ The noble Lord said: My Lords, this amendment is consequential on Amendment No. 36. I beg to move.
§ The noble Lord said: My Lords, this amendment is consequential upon Amendment No. 68. I beg to move.
§ Clause 33 [Limitations on police detention]:
§ Lord Trefgarne moved Amendment No. 74: Page 29, line 7, at beginning insert ("Subject to subsection (2A) below,").
§ The noble Lord said: My Lords, similar amendments were proposed in Committee by the noble Lord, Lord Elystan-Morgan. We accepted their principle. These amendments honour the undertaking then given. They will ensure that the custody officer's 275 duty to direct the release of a person in police detention if there are no longer grounds for detaining him applies even if the person is not at the police station at the time but is, say, under police guard at a hospital. I beg to move.
§ Lord Trefgarne moved Amendment No. 75: Page 29, line 7, leave out ("at a police station").
§ The noble Lord said: My Lords, this amendment is consequential. I beg to move.
§ Lord Trefgarne moved Amendments Nos. 76 and 77: Page 29, line 9 leave out ("at that station") Page 29, line 15, at end insert— (" (2A) No person in police detention shall be released except on the authority of a custody officer at the police station where his detention was authorised or, if it was authorised at more than one station, a custody officer at the station where it was last authorised.")
§ The noble Lord said: My Lords, I apologise for my earlier slip. May I move this amendment and the next one en bloc. I beg to move Amendments Nos. 76 and 77.
§ On Question, amendments agreed to.
Back to Housing Defects Bill
Forward to London Transport Bill
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The Football Association Premier League (FAPL) has won a landmark ruling in its ongoing battle to tackle illegal streaming of Premier League fixtures. The Court’s order obliges the six largest retail internet service providers (ISPs), BT, Sky, Virgin, PlusNet, EE and Talk Talk to block access to servers which allow delivery of infringing Premier League [...]
Intellectual Property, Sports, Technology - 2 years ago
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Jazz Shapers Live
White Collar Crime & Investigations
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Fraud Insights: UK Finance Figures show millions lost to authorised push payment frauds
Posted by: Claire Broadbelt
Posted on: 2 Oct 2018
Categories: Fraud
The latest figures released by UK Finance show that a total of £503.4 million was stolen by criminals through authorised and unauthorised fraud in the first six months of 2018. Further details were also provided on authorised push payment (APP) scams which show that a total of £145.4 million was lost due to APP scams, split between personal (£92.9 million) and non-personal or business (£52.5 million) accounts. In an APP scam, the account holder is tricked into authorising a payment to be made to another account.
As detailed by UK Finance, if a customer authorises the payment themselves, current legislation means that they have no legal protection to cover them for losses. The Payment System Regulator has previously confirmed plans to protect victims of payment scams and published a summary of the initiatives in place which includes a best practice standard for banks to follow when a victim reports an APP scam and more effective data sharing between payment service providers.
Mehmet Karagoz, Managing Associate in Fraud Defence says:
“Fraud continues to cause loss to tens of thousands of individuals and businesses in the UK resulting in hundreds of millions of pounds of financial losses. Unfortunately, this is likely to be the tip of the iceberg, there are likely to be many more frauds which have not yet been uncovered or which go unreported. I also expect the level of fraud losses to continue to increase in light of the ease in which money and assets could be transferred at the click of a button. I hope that the proposed changes, which are yet to be implemented by payment service providers, allowing a customer to confirm and verify the payee before making payment will assist in preventing obvious scams. The industry code clarifying the circumstances in which the victims of APP will be reimbursed by their payment providers will also assist in providing redress to some victims of fraud.“
Claire Broadbelt, Partner in Fraud Defence says:
“It is essential that victims of fraud move quickly if they discover they have been tricked into making a payment. They should inform their bank immediately to try and freeze and reverse the transaction, if possible. If the bank is unable to help, liaising with a specialist fraud solicitor as soon as possible could make a huge difference in being able to recover the funds. A specialist can advise on making an application for a disclosure order against the recipient bank to ascertain the identity of the bank account holder and potentially apply to freeze the funds in the account and request provision of the onward tracing account details In our experience, taking civil action to follow and freeze funds often has a greater chance in recovering losses for victims of fraud than simply reporting to the bank or the police.“
Shaper: Nigel Birell
Having initially joined the company as its first Non-Executive Director in 2013, Nigel Birell is CEO of the Lottoland Group, a multi territory regulated, fast growing gaming group with a workforce of 350 people in 11 locations, and nine million registered customers in its 13 markets. Nigel is also the: Non-Executive Chairman of the London [...]
Jazz Shapers - 5 days ago
Shaper: Ciro Romano
Ciro Romano is the founder and festival director of Love Supreme Jazz Festival which since its birth in 2013 now gathers 50,000 people in its weekend attendance and has become the largest jazz festival in the UK. Ciro had envisioned himself in the Music industry since a young teenager where he would attend Music festivals [...]
Jazz Shapers - 2 weeks ago
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New Stores/Hiring Events
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Cashier in Wichita, Kansas.
Floor & Decor is like no other flooring company. Founded in 2000 in Atlanta, we have quickly become one of the country’s leading flooring retailers, with dozens of stores nationwide – and more to come. A strong entrepreneurial spirit flows through our young company.
Time, Talent & Teamwork.
The remarkable success we have enjoyed could not have happened without the time, talent, and teamwork of our extremely dedicated associates. Working with equal amounts of passion and grit, we’ve become the “category killer of flooring” by revolutionizing the way people buy flooring. Our customers enjoy the largest in-stock selection of tile, wood, stone, and flooring accessories at prices no one can beat.
Opportunities to advance.
To continue our amazing growth, Floor & Decor is actively seeking gifted people with a solid work ethic and a real passion for helping others. Are you ready to make a difference at a truly groundbreaking company?
First Name 3450024b
Last Name 7b3b77e1
Email 156f49b9
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Wichita | Kansas | United States | 67207
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It’s great being part of a culture where entrepreneurship and team spirit are not just buzzwords. If you love working with a great group of people and desire the opportunity to grow, this is the place for you.
We work to ensure that each customer that shops with us has a unique experience. As a Cashier at Floor & Decor, your love for the product and great service will help create a seamless checkout experience for our customers.
You will be responsible for greeting our customers, completing transactions accurately and efficiently, and thanking every customer after a sale. You will play a large part in creating a lasting experience for Floor & Decor customers as you are their final touch.
Floor and Decor offers competitive pay, benefits, and flexible scheduling including nights, weekends, and holidays.
Acknowledge and greet customers with a positive attitude
Answer customer questions
Be available to assist in other areas of the store as needed
Stand for long periods of time
Helping complete customer sales efficiently
Equal Employment Opportunity:
Floor & Decor is an equal opportunity employer and is committed to equal opportunity for all associates and applicants. F&D recruits, hires, trains, promotes, compensates and administers all personnel actions without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sex stereotyping, pregnancy (which includes pregnancy, childbirth and medical conditions related to pregnancy, childbirth or breastfeeding), gender, gender identity, gender expression, national origin, age, mental or physical disability, ancestry, medical condition, marital status, military or veteran status, citizenship status, sexual orientation, genetic information or any other status protected by applicable law.
This policy applies to all areas of employment, including recruitment, testing, screening, hiring, selection for training, upgrading, transfer, demotion, layoff, discipline, termination, compensation, benefits and all other privileges, terms and conditions of employment. This policy and the law prohibit employment discrimination against any associate or applicant on the basis of any legally protected status outlined above.
Wichita Kansas United States Wichita, Kansas, United States, 67207 Store Sales Specialist Store Sales Specialist
It’s great being part of a culture where entrepreneurship and team spirit are not just buzzwords. If you love working with a great group of people and desire the opportunity to grow, this is the place for you. What You’ll DoDo enjoy helping custo...
Woodland Hills California United States Woodland Hills, California, United States, 91367 Customer Service Customer Service
It’s great being part of a culture where entrepreneurship and team spirit are not just buzzwords. If you love working with a great group of people and desire the opportunity to grow, this is the place for you. What You'll Do We work to ensure tha...
Command Center Associate
Wichita Kansas United States Wichita, Kansas, United States, 67207 Store Operations Store Operations
It’s great being part of a culture where entrepreneurship and team spirit are not just buzzwords. If you love working with a great group of people and desire the opportunity to grow, this is the place for you. PURPOSEThis position is responsible ...
Display Builder
Wichita Kansas United States Wichita, Kansas, United States, 67207 Store Operations Specialist Store Operations Specialist
It’s great being part of a culture where entrepreneurship and team spirit are not just buzzwords. If you love working with a great group of people and desire the opportunity to grow, this is the place for you. What You’ll DoWe work to ensure that...
Wichita Kansas United States Wichita, Kansas, United States, 67207 Customer Service Customer Service
Assistant Department Manager
Wichita Kansas United States Wichita, Kansas, United States, 67207 Store Sales Store Sales
First Name 2cedf71d
Last Name 94c835fd
Email ef5ab3bd
Department and Location fadd40d9
Departments 8e16adf4 Departments c71ecf4d Accounts Payable Admin Customer Care Operations Customer Care Services Customer Service Design Services Distribution Operations Distribution Operations Leadership Distribution Warehouse Ecommerce Inventory Merchandising Leadership Merchandising Operations Operations Pro Services Product Review Store Operations Store Operations Leadership Store Operations Specialist Store Sales Store Sales Specialist Supply Chain Systems Support & Enhancements Technology Warehouse
Locations 5334194e Locations 47f8bcc5 Albuquerque, New Mexico, United States Alexandria, Virginia, United States Arlington, Texas, United States Arlington Heights, Illinois, United States Arvada, Colorado, United States Atlanta, Georgia, United States Aurora, Illinois, United States Austin, Texas, United States Avon, Massachusetts, United States Birmingham, Alabama, United States Bloomingdale, Georgia, United States Boynton Beach, Florida, United States Bridgeton, Missouri, United States Brookfield, Wisconsin, United States Buford, Georgia, United States Burlingame, California, United States Carson, California, United States Charlotte, North Carolina, United States Chicago, Illinois, United States Cincinnati, Ohio, United States Clearwater, Florida, United States Concord, North Carolina, United States Countryside, Illinois, United States Dallas, Texas, United States Denver, Colorado, United States Devon, Pennsylvania, United States Downey, California, United States Draper, Utah, United States Edgemere, Maryland, United States El Paso, Texas, United States Everett, Washington, United States Farmingdale, New York, United States Fort Lauderdale, Florida, United States Fort Myers, Florida, United States Fort Worth, Texas, United States Fountain Valley, California, United States Fullerton, California, United States Gaithersburg, Maryland, United States Glendale, Arizona, United States Greensboro, North Carolina, United States Gretna, Louisiana, United States Gurnee, Illinois, United States Hampton, Virginia, United States Henderson, Nevada, United States Henrico, Virginia, United States Hialeah, Florida, United States Hilliard, Ohio, United States Hollywood, Florida, United States Houston, Texas, United States Indianapolis, Indiana, United States Jacksonville, Florida, United States Katy, Texas, United States Kennesaw, Georgia, United States Knoxville, Tennessee, United States Lakeland, Florida, United States Las Vegas, Nevada, United States Levittown, Pennsylvania, United States Littleton, Colorado, United States Lombard, Illinois, United States Louisville, Kentucky, United States Marietta, Georgia, United States McDonough, Georgia, United States Memphis, Tennessee, United States Mesa, Arizona, United States Mesquite, Texas, United States Miami, Florida, United States Milpitas, California, United States Mission Viejo, California, United States Moorestown, New Jersey, United States Moreno Valley, California, United States Morrow, Georgia, United States Nashville, Tennessee, United States New Orleans, Louisiana, United States Norco, California, United States North Charleston, South Carolina, United States North Richland Hills, Texas, United States Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, United States Orlando, Florida, United States Overland Park, Kansas, United States Paramus, New Jersey, United States Pasadena, Texas, United States Phoenix, Arizona, United States Plano, Texas, United States Pompano Beach, Florida, United States Port St. Lucie, Florida, United States Reno, Nevada, United States Reynoldsburg, Ohio, United States Riverdale, Utah, United States Rocklin, California, United States Roswell, Georgia, United States Saint Petersburg, Florida, United States San Antonio, Texas, United States San Diego, California, United States Sanford, Florida, United States Santa Ana, California, United States Sarasota, Florida, United States Saugus, Massachusetts, United States Savannah, Georgia, United States Seattle, Washington, United States Skokie, Illinois, United States Smyrna, Georgia, United States St. Louis, Missouri, United States Sugar Land, Texas, United States Tampa, Florida, United States Tempe, Arizona, United States The Colony, Texas, United States Thornton, Colorado, United States Tucson, Arizona, United States Utica, Michigan, United States Virginia Beach, Virginia, United States Wayne, New Jersey, United States West Palm Beach, Florida, United States Wichita, Kansas, United States Woodbridge, Virginia, United States Woodland Hills, California, United States
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First Name 09335049
Last Name a2b14462
Email 909fdb13
f6059ea9 Email me about jobs like this
Floor & Decor is like no other flooring company. Founded in 2000 in Atlanta, we have quickly become one of the country’s leading flooring retailers, with dozens of stores nationwide – and more to come. A strong entrepreneurial spirit flows through our young company. The remarkable success we have enjoyed could not have happened without the time, talent, and teamwork of our extremely dedicated associates. Working with equal amounts of passion and grit, we’ve become the “category killer of flooring” by revolutionizing the way people buy flooring. Our customers enjoy the largest in-stock selection of tile, wood, stone, and flooring accessories at prices no one can beat.
Learn More About Floor and Decor See All Jobs
© 2019 Floor and Decor Outlets of America Inc. All Rights Reserved.
flooranddecor.com
©2019 Floor and Decor Outlets of America Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Floor & Decor participates in the E-Verify program in all locations as required by law. To learn more about E-Verify and your Right to Work, please contact recruiting@flooranddecor.com.
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New and Used Ram Ram Pickup 1500 Classic for sale in Tampa/Saint Petersburg
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All Trims
All Bodystyles SUV Sedan Truck Coupe Minivan Wagon Convertible Hatchback Van
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From 2020 2019 2018 2017 2016 2015 2014 2013 2012 2011 2010 2009 2008 2007 2006 2005 2004 2003 2002 2001 2000 1999 1998 1997 1996 1995 1994 1993 1992 1991 1990 1989 1988 1987 1986 1985 1984 1983 1982 1981 1980 1979 1978 1977 1976 1975 1974 1973 1972 1971 1970 1969 1968 1967 1966 1965 1964 1963 1962 1961 1960 1959 1958 1957 1956 1955 1954 1953 1952 1951 1950 1949 1948 1947 1946 1945 1944 1943 1942 1941 1940 1939 1938 1937 1936 1935 1934 1933 1932 1931 1930 1929 1928 1927 1926 1925 1924 1923 1922 1921 1920 1919 1918 1917 1916 1915 1914 1913 1912 1911 1910 1909 1908 1907 1906 1905 1904 1903 1902 1901 1900
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From 1 1,000 2,000 5,000 10,000 20,000 30,000 40,000 50,000 60,000 70,000 80,000 90,000 100,000 110,000 120,000 130,000 140,000 150,000 160,000 170,000 180,000 190,000 200,000 500,000
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USED 2019 RAM RAM PICKUP 1500 CLASSIC SLT
granite crystal metallic clearco
12,812 Miles in Nokomis, FL
12,812 Miles Nokomis, FL
See Vehicle
15,471 Miles in Tampa, FL
15,471 Miles Tampa, FL
USED 2019 RAM RAM PICKUP 1500 CLASSIC TRADESMAN
Gv/gray
5,501 Miles in Brandon, FL
5,501 Miles Brandon, FL
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REBECCA LAUREN MIJAT T/A CASUAL SETS - BUSINESS TERMS AND CONDITIONS
Rebecca Lauren Mijat (ABN 37 607 949 778) T/A Casual Sets (referred to as we or us) provides an introductory service between (i) tennis players who are looking for a tennis hitting partner (once off or regularly) and/or a tennis player who can participate in a tennis competition on an emergency basis and (ii) other tennis players who are looking for a tennis hitting partner (once off or regularly) and/or a tennis player who is available to participate in a tennis competition on an emergency basis (Members) and a searchable directory of Members (collectively, the Services). The Services are available on our website which is accessible at www.casualsets.com.au (Site).
These Business Terms & Conditions (Terms) form a binding legal agreement between us, our directors, officers, employees, successors and assignees, and each person, organisation or entity using our Services (you, your or User). By using the Site and Services you agree to comply with and be legally bound by the terms and conditions of these Terms and Conditions (Terms). Please read the Terms carefully. Please contact us if you have any questions. You can contact us at info@casualsets.com.au.
1. Introductory Service Only
(a) The Site and Services provides an online introductory service through which Members will be able to search for other Members who are available at a required time and offer them the chance to play tennis with them (once off or regularly) or participate in a tennis competition on an emergency basis.
(b) You understand and agree that the Site is an online introductory platform only. Our responsibility is limited to facilitating the availability of the Site and Services.
(c) We are not a party to any agreement entered into between Members. We are not a referrer or booking agent and provide no such related services. We have no control over the conduct of Members and other users of the Site and Services. We disclaim all liability in this regard, as set out in the Terms.
(d) Any arrangement between Members is solely between them. It is strictly and expressly not part of your agreement with us.
2. Contract
Your use of our Site and Services indicates that you have had sufficient opportunity to access the Terms and contact us, that you have read, accepted and will comply with the Terms, that you have legal capacity to enter into a contract for sale, and that you are eighteen (18) years or older or if younger than eighteen (18) years you have the approval of your parent or guardian. If this is not correct, or if you do not agree to the Terms, you are not permitted to use any of our Services.
The Privacy Policy on our Site sets out how we collect, use and protect your personal information. This is available on our Site.
These Terms may be amended from time to time, without prior notice. Your use of our Services following any such amendments will be deemed to be confirmation that you accept those amendments. We recommend that you check the current Terms, before continuing your use of our Services. Our agents, employees and third parties do not have authority to change the Terms.
5. Online Registration
(a) Each person may have one (1) account as a Member on the Site (Account).
(b) Basic information is required when registered on our Site as a Member. Members are required to provide certain information including their name, email address, telephone number, gender, name of home tennis club, preferred region to play tennis in your state, availability to play tennis (including days and times) and experience and skill level as a tennis player.
(c) Each Member agrees to provide accurate, current and complete information during the registration process and to update such information to keep it accurate, current and complete. We reserve the right to suspend or terminate your Account and your access to the Site and Services if any information provided to us, including for the Site, proves to be inaccurate, not current or incomplete.
(d) To keep your information secure and confidential, you will be requested by us to change your passwords at regular intervals.
(e) It is your responsibility to keep your Account details and password confidential. You are liable for all activity on your Account. You agree that you will not disclose your password to any third party and that you will take sole responsibility for any activities or actions under your Account, whether or not you have authorized such activities or actions.
(f) You will immediately notify us of any unauthorized use of your Account.
6. Members and Services
(a) There is a directory on the Site which Members can search to find other Members who are available to play tennis with them (once off or regularly) or who are able to participate in a tennis competition on an emergency basis.
(b) This directory will display each Member’s first name and the initial of their last name. It will also show each Member’s availability for playing tennis and/or participating in tennis competitions. It will not display any other contact details in respect of the Members.
(c) When a Member finds another Member who is available to play tennis or participate in a tennis competition using the directory, that Member can choose to send the other Member an offer to play tennis through the Site.
(d) Members can decline or accept an offer to play tennis.
(e) A Member’s contact details are hidden to all other Members until they accept an offer to play tennis or be an emergency player. At this point that Member’s details will be disclosed to the Member whose offer they accepted so that they are in direct contact.
(f) If a Member asks another Member to play tennis or participate in a competition, any agreement entered into is between the Members. We are not a party to the agreement.
(g) You acknowledge and agree that while the Site allows Members to communicate with one another, you are not permitted to share the contact information of any Members with another Member.
(h) Each Member represents and warrants that any content that they provide:
i. will not breach any agreements you have entered into with any third parties; and
ii. will not conflict with the rights of third parties.
(i) We assume no responsibility for a Member’s compliance with any applicable laws, rules and regulations.
(j) We reserve the right, at any time and without prior notice, to remove or disable access to any Account for any reason, including Accounts of Members that we in our sole discretion, consider to be objectionable for any reason, in violation of these Terms or otherwise harmful to the Site or Services.
7. Cancellation of Registration
If you wish to cancel your registration, you will need to do so by writing an email to info@casualsets.com.au.
8. Security and Availability
(a) We have implemented and will maintain security systems for the transmission of data, consisting of password protected and an only locally accessible database server, the implementation of robust and proven login registration systems incorporating Facebook authentication and security technologies and SSL encryption across the Site and "firewall" technologies that are understood in the industry to provide adequate security for the transmission of such information over the Internet. We do not guarantee the security of the Services and we will not be responsible in the event of any infiltration of its security systems, provided that we have used commercially reasonable efforts to prevent any such infiltration.
(b) The Site is backed up via a daily, weekly and monthly snapshot. You acknowledge and agree that we are not and you are responsible for the security of data being transmitted on the Site or any other information stored on your servers, and that we are not responsible for any other party's servers.
(c) Our webhost provides a 99.9% uptime guarantee. The Site uses third party hosting services in Australia which are provided without warranties of any kind therefore we cannot ensure that these third party hosting services are provided free of defect or without interruption.
8. Copyright and Intellectual Property
(a) Our Site contains material which is owned by or licensed to us (or our affiliates and/or third party licensors as applicable), and is protected by Australian and international laws, including but not limited to the trademarks, trade names, software, content, design, images, graphics, layout, appearance, layout and look of the Site (Collective Content).
(b) Intellectual Property includes all code, algorithms, copyright, registered and unregistered, logos, slogans, designs, audio tracks, information, images, photographs, patents, know-how, trade secrets, ideas, methods, diagrams, drawings, databases, notes, documents, confidential information and any other proprietary or industrial rights relating to us (in each case whether registered or unregistered or whether capable of registration), together with any applications for registration and any rights to registration or renewal of such rights anywhere in the world and whether created before or after the date of these Terms, goodwill in the business, trade, business company or organisation names, internet domain names; and Site content, images and layout.
(c) You agree that, as between you and us, we own all Intellectual Property rights in the Site, the Services and that nothing in these Terms constitutes a transfer of any Intellectual Property rights. We own the copyright which subsists in all creative and literary works displayed in the Site and Services. The Site and Services are protected by copyright, trademark, patent, trade secret, international treaties, laws and other proprietary rights, and also may have security components that protect digital information only as authorized by us or the owner of the Collective Content.
(d) Other trademarks, service marks, graphics and logos used in connection with the Site and Services are the trademarks of their respective owners (collectively Third Party Marks).
(e) Our Intellectual Property and Third Party Marks may not be copied, imitated or used, in whole or in part, without our or the applicable trademark holder’s prior written permission.
(f) Users of the Site do not obtain any interest or license in the Intellectual Property or Third Party Marks without our or the applicable trademark holder’s prior written permission. Members may not do anything which interferes with or breaches the Intellectual Property rights.
9. User License
(a) Subject to these Terms, we grant the User a personal, non-exclusive, non-transferable, limited and revocable license to use the Site and Services for your own personal and/or non-commercial use only on a computer or mobile device owned or controlled by the Member as permitted in accordance with these Terms (User License), and not to use the Site and Services in any other way or for any other purpose, apart from local fair dealing legislation. All other uses are prohibited without our prior written consent.
(b) The right to use the Site and Services is licensed to you and are not being sold to you. You have no rights in the Site and Services other than to use it in accordance with these Terms.
(c) This Agreement and User License governs any updates to, or supplements or replacements for the Site and Services, unless separate Terms accompany such updates, supplements or replacements, in which case the separate Terms will apply.
10. Permitted and Prohibited Conduct
You are solely responsible for compliance with any and all laws, rules, regulations, and Tax obligations that may apply to your use of the Site and Services. In connection with your use of our Site and Services you may not and you agree that you will not:
(a) use the Site or Services for any commercial or other purposes that are not expressly permitted by these Terms;
(b) register for more than one (1) Account as a Member or register for an Account on behalf of an individual other than yourself;
(c) submit any false or misleading information;
(d) as a Member, offer any services that you do not intend to honour or cannot provide;
(e) as a Member, make any offers to Members that you do not intend to honour or cannot provide;
(f) as a Member, contact any other Members for any purpose that is not related to the Services;
(g) violate any local, state, provincial, national, or other law or regulation, or any order of a court, including, without limitation, zoning restrictions and Tax regulations;
(h) copy, store or otherwise access any information contained on the Site and Services or Collective Content for purposes not expressly permitted by these Terms;
(i) infringe the rights of any person or entity, including without limitation, their intellectual property, privacy, publicity or contractual rights;
(j) use our Site or Services to transmit, distribute, post or submit any information concerning any other person or entity, including without limitation, photographs of others without their permission, personal contact information or credit, debit, calling card or account numbers;
(k) use our Site or Services in connection with the distribution of unsolicited commercial email, i.e. spam or advertisements;
(l) stalk or harass any other user of our Services or collect or store any personally identifiable information about any other user other than for purposes of transacting as a Member;
(m) use, display, mirror or frame the Site, any individual element within the Site or Services, any of our proprietary information, or the layout and design of any page or form contained on a page, without our express written consent; or
(n) advocate, encourage, or assist any third party in doing any of the foregoing.
11. Content
The Site, Services and Collective Content are protected by copyright, trademark, and other laws of Australia and foreign countries. You acknowledge and agree that the Site, Services and Collective Content, including all associated intellectual property rights is our and our licensor’s exclusive property. You will not remove, alter or obscure any copyright, trademark, service mark or other proprietary rights notices incorporated in or accompanying the Site and Services or Collective Content.
You must not post, upload, publish, submit or transmit any Collective Content that:
(a) infringes, misappropriates or violates a third party’s patent, copyright, trademark, trade secret, moral rights or other intellectual property rights, or rights of publicity or privacy;
(b) is fraudulent, false, misleading or deceptive;
(c) denigrates the Site, Services or a Member;
(d) violates, or encourages any conduct that would violate, any applicable law or regulation or would give rise to civil liability;
(e) is defamatory, obscene, pornographic, vulgar, offensive, promotes discrimination, bigotry, racism, hatred, harassment or harm against any individual or group;
(f) is violent or threatening or promotes violence or actions that are threatening to any other person; or
(g) promotes illegal or harmful activities or substances.
12. User Content
Members are permitted to post, upload, publish, submit or transmit relevant information and content (User Content). By making available any User Content on or through the Site and Services, you grant to us a worldwide, irrevocable, perpetual, non-exclusive, transferable, royalty-free license to use the User Content, with the right to sublicense, to use, view, copy, adapt, modify, distribute, license, sell, transfer, publicly display, publicly perform, transmit, stream, broadcast, access, view, and otherwise exploit such User Content on, through, or by means of the Site and Services.
You are solely responsible for all User Content that you make available through the Site and Services. You represent and warrant that:
i. you either are the sole and exclusive owner of all User Content that you make available through the Site and Services, or that you have all rights, licenses, consents and releases that are necessary to grant to us the rights in such User Content, as contemplated under these Terms; and
ii. neither the User Content nor your posting, uploading, publication, submission or transmittal of the User Content or our use of the User Content (or any portion thereof) on, through or by means of the Site and the Services will infringe, misappropriate or violate a third party’s patent, copyright, trademark, trade secret, moral rights or other proprietary or intellectual property rights, or rights of publicity or privacy, or result in the violation of any applicable law or regulation.
13. Consumer Law, Limitation of Liability and Disclaimers
(a) ACL: Certain legislation including the Australian Consumer Law (ACL) in the Consumer and Competition Act 2010 (Cth), and similar consumer protection laws and regulations may confer you with rights, warranties, guarantees and remedies relating to the provision of Services by us to you which cannot be excluded, restricted or modified (Statutory Rights). Our liability is governed solely by the ACL and these Terms.
(b) Services: If you are a consumer as defined in the ACL, the following applies to you: We guarantee that the Services we supply to you are rendered with due care and skill; fit for the purpose that we advertise, or that you have told us you are acquiring the Services for or for a result which you have told us you wish the Services to achieve, unless we consider and disclose that this purpose is not achievable; and will be supplied within a reasonable time. To the extent we are unable to exclude liability; our total liability for loss or damage you suffer or incur from our Services is limited to us re-supplying the Services to you.
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To grasp the cultural essence of a country, you must first understand its journey to the present. There is no better way to achieve this than to explore its capital city. This Canberra tour focusses on Australian art and culture offering the perfect mix of cultural history, symbolism and Australian pride all in a modern and vibrant setting.
Canberra as a city is designed to showcase the cultural heritage and diversity of Australia. It achieves this by creating a number of specifically designed attractions focussing on the significant cultural elements of the country.
The Canberra Tour
Museum of Australian Democracy
This building was once Canberra’s Parliament House until the new Parliament House was completed in 1988.
Canberra’s Old Parliament House is now home to the Museum of Australian Democracy. Iconic – a place of great beauty, design and historical significance. Shed some light on Australia’s political system. How it evolved from a British colony to its current structure.
National Gallery of Australia
The National Gallery is not only Australia’s national art museum but also one of the largest art museums in the country. It holds more than 166,000 works of art. Each piece unique and each with a story to share.
The National Gallery is situated adjacent to Lake Burley Griffin within the Parliamentary Triangle.
To top off the Arts and Culture Tour, Australia’s stories will come alive at the National Museum of Australia. The Museum’s stunning architecture offers visitors an extraordinary place to explore rich, diverse stories of Australia and its people. There are many displays and exhibitions to explore.
The Canberra Attractions Tour commences immediately after the Arts and Culture Tour. Book both tours and enjoy lunch at the award winning National Arboretum before visiting the Parliament House and then off to the internationally recognised Australian War Memorial.
This Expedia clip offers an insight into Canberra, the capital city of Australia.
DEPARTURE/RETURN LOCATION As specified
Transport Guided tours
Entry fees Bottled water
Terms and conditions are available upon application.
Return to the City shopping precinct
Visit Australia's capital attractions to understand how
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Here’s What 2019 Could Look With Three Black Governors
If we show up, we will win.
Maya J. Boddie
We're on the cusp of a new wave of leaders, and guess what? They're Black.
The U.S. has only had four Black governors in history, but three states could soon changed this by electing: Andrew Gillum (D-FL), Stacey Abrams (D-GA) and Ben Jealous (D-MD). While a possible feat such as this should not be considered historic in 2018 — it is.
It's important that we keep the legacy of President Obama alive by having other elected officials rise in the political ranks. Black people are expanding their fight for representation; not just on TV screens, but in D.C. and in state governments, as well. That being said, it's also crucial that Black political representation leads to more resources for the Black community.
When it comes to combating economic inequality, improving state healthcare systems and public education, these candidates got it going on:
On Creating Economic Equality
Andrew Gillum:
When it comes to addressing economic inequality, Andrew Gillum proposes increasing taxes for corporations. His Fair Share for Florida’s Future plan involves using revenue gained from taxing wealthier corporations as a way to invest in public education, childhood education and vocational job training. He also plans on making the minimum salary for teachers $50,000 and to devote funding to vocational training that will lend itself to more high paying job opportunities for those in need.
Stacey Abrams:
As the Democratic nominee for governor of Georgia, Stacey Abrams has a strategy called the Georgia Economic Mobility plan. According to Abrams’ campaign website, this plan has five parts: “Earn, save, grow, include and protect.” When it comes to creating economic equality, the “save” aspect of this plan, in particular, involves two programs designed to increase financial literacy and encourage long-term savings for families, the Georgia FinLit Initiative and the Cradle to Career Savings Program.
Ben Jealous:
Former NAACP President Ben Jealous has a plan called Make It In Maryland, which includes raising minimum wage in Maryland to $15 an hour. Jealous’ campaign also emphasizes job creation and transforming the state into “an innovation environment that will enable more locally grown companies to remain in Maryland.”
On Health Care
Because combating high healthcare prices has become such a critical issue in Florida, Andrew Gillum plans to confront this by building off the Affordable Care Act and allowing more Floridians to opt in to Medicaid. Gillum’s campaign site also mentions wanting to pass a law that would protect “people with pre-existing conditions from being denied coverage, being charged more for their care due to a pre-existing condition, or women being charged more than men.”
When it comes to health care, Stacey Abrams aims to fund programs that support mental health, increase the amount of Georgians able to qualify for Medicaid and protect the rights of women. She also wants to increase the amount of support that is given to seniors, particularly when it comes to Alzheimer's research, especially considering how the number Georgian residents with Alzheimer's is reportedly expected to rise by approximately 190,000 by 2025.
When it comes to a Medicare-for-All system, Ben Jealous is in full support of it. Jealous, who suffered from epilepsy in his youth, knows how stressful it is to not have proper healthcare coverage while dealing with a critical, chronic medical issue. As governor, Jealous intends to implement his MD-Care plan, which — among other things — will work toward lowering the prices of medication by dealing directly with pharmaceutical companies.
On Education
Much of Andrew Gillum’s plan for education appears linked to his plan for economic equality. Through investing in public schools and vocational training, Gillum has his eyes on revitalizing public education with a billion dollar investment. When it comes to for-profit charter schools, Gillum states that he “strongly opposes” them, because of how they “use public dollars to enrich their executives.”
As the “Public Education Governor,” Abrams was to invest in childcare, public education, and help keep college students out of college debt. One of her pledges for her first 100 days as governor is to create a youth council. This council will be focused on creating summer employment and expand civil engagement opportunities for young Georgians.
In Maryland, Ben Jealous wants to fund early childhood education through the legalization, taxation and regulation of marijuana. He also wants to make community college free, and help those who do have student loans to restructure their debt.
These candidates are focusing on issues that mostly hinder growth and progress within our communities. Black students matter, Black jobs matter, but most importantly, Black lives matter.
5 Ways to Properly Vet A Political Candidate
Florida Is One Of Four States With A Lifetime Ban On Voting For Convicted Felons. Here's How Amendment 4 Can Change That.
5 Racist Tactics Black People Have To Overcome When Running For Office
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Gwen Brown is the Content Marketer at Aurora Solar, managing Aurora's development of educational solar resources like blog posts and webinars. Previously, she was a Senior Research Associate at the Environmental Law Institute. She graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Gettysburg College.
NEXTracker CEO Dan Shugar Talks Innovation, Solar’s Evolution, and More
Dan Shugar, founder and CEO of solar tracking company NEXTracker, has had an illustrious career. Despite the tumultuousness of the solar industry, Shugar has led numerous companies to great success—across sectors as diverse as C&I solar installation and module and tracker manufacturing. Add to that the fact that he has seen the industry’s growth and evolution firsthand since the 1980s, and it’s clear that Shugar has a wealth of industry insights.
After starting his career as a transmission planner at California utility PG&E, Shugar transitioned to PG&E’s R&D department in 1988 where his passion for photovoltaics was ignited. He was fascinated by the idea that something with no moving parts could produce energy with just the light of the sun. He later led research that demonstrated how solar could offer benefits to the electric grid—which contributed to the development of net metering policies.
Shugar went on to serve as President of PowerLight Corporation—which became the largest commercial installer in the U.S.—and then President of SunPower, which acquired PowerLight in 2007. He served as CEO of PV manufacturer Solaria prior to founding NEXTracker in 2013.
Aurora Solar Content Marketer Gwen Brown and Chief of Staff Sunny Wang had the pleasure of interviewing Dan Shugar at NEXTracker’s offices in Fremont, California. Read on to hear Shugar’s thoughts on how solar business dynamics have evolved, where innovation can further reduce the cost of solar, and how to build a successful company and innovative team!
Aurora Solar: Having been involved in solar since the early days of the industry, you’ve seen a lot of change and maturation. What do you see as some of the most notable ways that the business dynamics of solar have changed as the industry has evolved?
Shugar: The analogy I like to use is that you can think of the evolution of the solar industry as similar to how the automobile industry evolved. In the early days, when I was at PowerLight, our approach was kind of like Henry Ford.
When the automobile industry was super immature, it was characterized by thousands of manufacturers and unreliable, expensive products—sort of a mom-and-pop type industry. What Henry Ford did was create a standardized product and a standardized production system with few options. He radically reduced costs, improved reliability, and made the technology more prevalent through a vertically integrated model.
That's similar to where we were at PowerLight, circa 1996 through 2007. We had a vertically integrated approach. The logic of heavy vertical integration made a lot of sense back then, because the industry was in a very early place.
Today, the industry's at a real scale and vertical integration no longer makes sense. You can't be best in the world at everything when the industry is huge. Instead of making every component like Henry Ford did, modern car companies make a few components. They're really focused on overall product design, brand, marketing, financing, etc. But then they have, for instance, an electronics company making the radios and a tire company making the tires and so forth, and they bring that together.
The solar industry today, is coming to a similar point. With more companies specializing in specific areas, it doesn’t make sense to have precious management attention and capital spread over too many things. I think you need to pick your shots.
Be best in the world at one or a couple things, but don’t try to be best at everything. You can't be the best O&M company, the best manufacturer, the best developer, and do all those things at the same time.
Photo of Dan Shugar, courtesy of NEXTracker.
Aurora: What areas of innovation do you think the industry should double-down on, or start exploring, to further drive down the cost of deploying solar energy?
Shugar: We've been really focused on software for that purpose. I love the idea that without building more hardware you can get more energy out of the system. As an environmentalist, I want the most to come out of every system that gets deployed.
At NEXTracker, we’ve commercialized an adaptive tracking algorithm that is really moving the needle from a yield standpoint on the software side. The gains aren't giant numbers—it's not going to double yield—but with our TrueCapture technology, we can achieve 2 to 6% yield improvement for typical sites. That is actually a huge amount if you're doing structured finance projects.
Part of how that is accomplished is by optimizing yield on cloudy days, when you can actually produce 15-20% more energy by orienting the panels upward instead of tracking conventionally. We also developed improvements for undulating terrain. Instead of having all the trackers move in parallel like a Venetian blind—what we commercialized 20 years ago—we developed a way to have each row optimally change based on its geospatial position within the plant, using embedded sensors that establish its position relative to its neighbor. That can generate a lot more energy on an undulating site.
Just in the context of the fleet that we’ve delivered, these yield improvements are the equivalent of shutting down a couple coal plants worth of energy! I think even more can be done across the whole software category to wring more energy out of PV systems.
Photo courtesy of NEXTracker.
Aurora: Early in your career, you co-authored research that demonstrated how siting solar in strategic locations on the grid could deliver cost savings to utilities. These findings contributed to the development of net metering policies. Even today, however, the idea that solar hurts utility profits or shifts costs to non-solar customers persists. What do you think it will take to overcome this misconception?
Shugar: Yes, we proved that PV distributed in the grid can provide a lot of benefits. The research was part of a national solar research project by the U.S. Department of Energy, co-funded by a number of utilities, called Photovoltaic for Utility-Scale Applications (PV USA). We were able to empirically document the benefits solar provides to the grid when it's distributed at strategic locations.1
In terms of how we overcome misconceptions about solar’s benefits, if you look at the majority of solar being installed, which is utility scale or community solar, solar is about half the average cost of all other main forms of generation in sunny areas. We're massively lowering the cost of wholesale power, saving consumers tens, maybe hundreds of millions of dollars annually. We need to get that message out better.
One way we're doing this is through a national solar and wind job campaign tour we launched a year and a half ago, A Renewable America, with the Wind Solar Alliance. We've been doing a series of on-the-ground events, highlighting the jobs that have been created, and the savings and energy independence that solar and wind are providing customers. So it's a very concrete, tangible thing.
Aurora: Something you’ve mentioned in the past as critical to a company’s success is the strength of the team and creating a dynamic that encourages innovation. What practices do you incorporate on a regular basis to cultivate that dynamic in the companies you’ve run?
Shugar: First, in terms of team dynamic, I think being really transparent with the mission of the company is key—why we're here, why we're all putting our energies in. It's got to be bigger than just making money. For us, it's always been mainstreaming solar.
From there, it’s important to define common goals and communicate them clearly so the team can align around them. In terms of processes at NEXTacker, and my prior companies, we do periodic strategic off-sites where we define what we want to accomplish in the coming year, and break that down into a quarterly cadence.
We share those objectives really actively with all staff and each person has their own milestone system that defines what they're working on—they generate that. A benefit of that is that it engenders a valuable dialogue with their supervisor. Having that kind of framework is really helpful, especially as companies scale.
With respect to innovation, you must encourage people to take risks and try new things. We have an ethos at the company where folks know you’ve got their back. If somebody tries something new and it doesn't work, that's okay.
Additionally, allowing organic creation of ideas from anybody within the organization is really important, as well as expanding the universe in which ideas come from—especially to include customers.
We ask customers for feedback all the time. "What do you think of the product? What are your ideas? How would you like it improved? What other features and attributes would you like to see?" We really listen to what they say and evaluate those ideas. Some ideas won't work, but some will. I could show our product and point to specific features that came from customers. And we go back to the customer and acknowledge them.
We also try to think strategically about how to strip out extraneous elements. Fundamentally, we're trying to generate more energy at the lowest possible cost with the highest amount of reliability. Anything not contributing to that should go, and features that can enhance that goal should be brought in.
It doesn't matter if you're doing roof systems or ground mounted systems—having that kind of culture and format for ideas has worked across a variety of platforms.
Aurora: Given the many successful companies you’ve been a part of, are there any lessons for success you've learned that you would like to share with our readers?
Shugar: A lot of it, I think, is just being very practical, keeping it real. For me, that starts with having a mission, like “we want solar to be the largest source of power,” and being able to articulate that.
From there, it's about finding a way to add value to the customer and building an awesome team that's mission-focused, to be able to deliver that value to the customer. It’s about making sure you do the basics super well.
In terms of having a functional team, you need a process by which issues are put forward. We have a expression "bad news now." We want to know what the real issues are and not conceal them but rather deal with them—whether it's on the team or the product or the financial status of something. We want to address that practically and be able to manage expectations with the customer and follow through on our commitments.
I'm really passionate about relationships with customers and being honest. If there's a problem with the product, or the schedule, or the delivery, be super upfront about what those issues are, and customers are generally understanding.
Aurora: In addition to your day job, you’re also a musician and you and your band Groovity perform around the Bay Area (and in the 2018 Solar Battle of the Bands at Intersolar)! How did this come about?
Shugar: The backstory about how I got into music is that, when I was 16, I indicated to my father that I was interested in learning how to play guitar. His response was "Get in the car, we're going to the music store."
It was just a basic guitar he got me, but what I took from that is when people indicate interest in something—I did this with my kids—you try to make it available. Sometimes, maybe most of the time, it doesn't work out. But once in a while it does. For me, music has been a source of great joy and satisfaction, and an opportunity to relate to people on a different level. It's a lot of fun.
Music brings people together. That's what we were trying to accomplish at Intersolar 2018, and I think we got it done.
For me, having a great company is really like having a band—there's a direct analogy. Because you want to give every person space to contribute and you want to be really listening to what's happening.
I think the thing that works most in our band is that everyone's really carefully listening. That allows a fundamental structure but a high degree of improvisation that happens live, adapting as you go. When it's time to say something, you say it but then you pull back and let other people contribute and that makes the band—or company—that much more powerful. And it keeps it really interesting.
Groovity performs at Solar Battle of the Bands 2018. Photo courtesy of NEXTracker.
Dan Shugar with Gwen Brown, Aurora Content Marketer, and Sunny Wang, Aurora Chief of Staff, at the NEXTracker offices.
1 Shugar added: “It's also a fact that we were so successful in California that we actually have over ten gigawatts of solar and have changed the shape of the load curve of the fifth largest economy in the world. There’s still a lot of correlation in California, but it's less perfect than when we conducted our research.”
Please note that the views expressed in our Solar Spotlight interviews are those of the interviewee, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Aurora Solar.
Permalink: https://blog.aurorasolar.com/nextracker-ceo-dan-shugar-talks-innovation-solars-evolution-and-more
Gwen Brown Posted on February 20th, 2019
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What does gender have to do with conservation?
by Leah Duran
A woman of the Awajun Native Community of Shampuyacu in Peru, pictured above. (© Conservation International/photo by Freddy Guillen)
In a remote, arid region of southwest Madagascar, the main source of local income is women’s work.
In this case, it’s octopus fishing.
Each day, as the men of the community set sail at dawn to fish in deep waters, women wait for the tide to recede. Joined by their children and armed with well-used spears, the women venture out to the reef flats. Octopus hide in burrows or dens in the reef flat, and these women are experts at catching them, jabbing their spears into a den, twisting the spear slowly around until the octopus’ tentacles wrap together, and carefully pulling out the prize.
For years now, communities in this region have closed off certain areas of their reef flats — where reef and shoreline meet — for several months at a time to allow the fishery to recover. Yet women weren’t being included in community discussions about closing the octopus fishery, even though the closure was going to directly affect them.
“What we learned from talking to these women is that they weren’t included in the decision-making about the octopus fishery closures because of time and logistical constraints, and in many cases, they didn’t feel comfortable engaging in community decision-making,” says Kame Westerman, gender adviser at Conservation International, who was working in Madagascar at the time. “But the women had more intimate knowledge of octopus fishing, and any decisions about managing it were going to affect their ability to make money for their families and put food on the table.”
In working with these communities, Westerman says, men and women began to recognize the need to actively incorporate the women octopus fishers in meetings. The women decided they felt more comfortable meeting separately to agree on a unified plan about fishery closures, which they then presented to the larger group. Five years later, the fisheries are thriving, and the women have a say in their livelihoods.
It’s a situation that is lived out daily around the globe: Women and men experience environmental issues differently, and too often, women are excluded from decision-making processes that affect the environments they depend on — including conservation efforts aimed at helping communities adapt to climate change and resource scarcity. Change is slow to come, especially in the face of longstanding laws and social mores.
In honor of International Women’s Day, March 8, Human Nature talked to Conservation International field staff about their perspectives on why gender matters in conservation.
Question: First of all, what does gender have to do with the conservation of nature?
Dianne Balraj, Policy Manager, Guyana: Incorporating gender means understanding the needs and priorities of the entire community we work with — men and women, people of different ages and political affiliations — to help bring benefits to everyone. Gender isn’t just about women; for instance, there are girls and boys and elderly men who are also excluded from decision-making in their communities.
Candido Pastor, Technical Manager, Bolivia: It’s about efficiency — if we work with both women and men, we’ll get better conservation results. In the same way, a soccer coach must work with all the players on a team to win a game, not just the goalkeeper. At the end of the day, taking an inclusive approach — meaning women and men are included in the process equally, and their priorities are given equal weight — moves us towards a more democratic society.
Nolu Kwayimani, One Health-WASH Program Manager, South Africa: People are part of the nature that surrounds them — you can’t remove the human element and expect to have effective conservation. For instance, Conservation International’s One Health-WASH project in South Africa focuses on protecting freshwater sources as part of improving the health of people, livestock and nature. Since women traditionally fetch water for domestic use and crops, they know more about local water supplies and the conditions of their water resources. Men, on the other hand, use water primarily for their livestock. These two specific roles in the community relate to one resource that everyone needs: water.
Montserrat Alban, Environmental Services Manager, Ecuador: Incorporating gender into conservation is as essential as knowing English or computer science — it’s essential for our work and it’s the right thing to do.
SUPPORT WOMEN IN CONSERVATION
Donate to help women who work to protect nature.
Q: What are the challenges you face in advancing gender-inclusive conservation?
Whitney Anderson, Coral Triangle Initiative Program Manager, United States: Unfortunately, there are so many misconceptions about gender, and intimidating stereotypes can often prevent us from getting anywhere. When people hear the word “gender,” they assume we’re only talking about women’s empowerment.
Kwayimani, South Africa: For so long, conservationists have focused on natural science without considering how projects can benefit from including social science at the start. We want to measure the amount of land we’ve cleared from invasive species or the quality of water we’ve improved, but we also need to think about social equality and empowering communities to care for nature and improve their livelihoods. Even something as simple as holding community engagement meetings at a time that is convenient for women to attend can make a big difference in encouraging participation.
Milagros Sandoval, Environmental Policy Senior Manager, Peru: While gender and conservation are closely linked, it can be a challenge for people to realize that incorporating gender isn’t additional work — it’s fundamental to understanding the communities we’re partnering with.
Pastor, Bolivia: In all cultures, there are imbalances in relationships between women and men. We must be conscious of this and commit to change. While it’s hard for people to alter the way they think, we must take the risk of envisioning a new way forward.
Conservation International is working with women in Indonesia’s Fam Islands. This is their story.
Q: So what does gender equity look like in the communities you work with?
Sandoval, Peru: We’re working with Awajun indigenous communities in Peru to support the distinct roles of men and women related to agricultural livelihoods. We’re helping the men grow sustainable coffee and cacao, while the women came to us with the idea of creating a women’s forest where they could grow medicinal plants and preserve the forest along with their traditional knowledge. We’re also exploring creating herbal teas for sale from these medicinal plants so that the women will have extra income for their families.
Anderson, United States: One of our community partners in Papua New Guinea, Marida Ginisi, is the matriarch of her clan. She initiated a protected area around her island, which has grown an impressive giant clam garden — these clams provide food for villagers and can be four feet long! As word spread to neighboring islands, people started seeking her advice, and she is now sharing baby clams to help other islands start their own clam gardens. Though this work, Marida is inspiring neighboring communities to protect their oceans.
Balraj, Guyana: After creating a “green” loan fund for sustainable agriculture, we noticed that more men than women were accessing the fund and getting bigger loans from the bank. To find out why, we interviewed community members and discovered that some women felt intimidated because they lacked financial literacy, while others weren’t allowed to travel to the bank on their own. As a result, we’re now working with the bank — the second-largest in Guyana — to improve women’s access to the loan program.
Alban, Ecuador: In Ecuador, we’re helping women create associations for mangrove conservation, which are usually run by men. Before, when husbands came home after attending a meeting about mangroves, their wives would pepper them with questions about what they were learning. Now, men invite their wives to come to meetings. We’ve also helped start a women’s crab meat processing business and are working on commercializing other products that come from mangroves, such as handmade earrings and decorative containers.
Leah Bevin Duran is a development writer at Conservation International.
Want to read more stories like this? Sign up for email updates here. Donate to Conservation International here.
Women scientists describe challenges of careers in conservation
How climate change affects women differently — and what we can do about it
Women’s work: Fighting for nature
TAGSAmericas, International Women's Day, Madagascar, South Africa, United States
March 9, 2018 at 4:38 pm Janet Edmond says
Great blog – so amazing to see the diversity in our work and how important gender equality is to conservation success!
Pingback: Want to fight climate change? Educate girls | Human Nature - Conservation International Blog
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No time for mistakes for Omega at Olympics
Katie Reid
ZURICH (Reuters) - When Omega first kept time at the 1932 Olympic Games in Los Angeles, it had one technician and 30 stopwatches. For the 1936 Games, watchmaker Paul-Louis Guignard took one suitcase with 185 chronographs to Berlin.
Visitors stand and walk in front of the Olympic countdown clock in Beijing's Tiananmen Square June 4, 2008 after the flag raising ceremony. REUTERS/David Gray/Files
When Omega takes on the job again in Beijing in August, it will be using 175 km (109 miles) of cables and optical fiber and 420 tonnes of equipment, including transponders in shoes and GPS systems to time the 302 competitions.
This is the 23rd time Omega, part of the world’s largest watchmaker Swatch Group, will take on the role of official timekeeper, and it has an array of high-tech gadgets to make sure its results are irreproachable.
“We have to be ready and we have to make it very reliable and very accurate when it is to measure someone’s performance. The athletes are training for years,” said Christophe Berthaud, head of Swiss Timing, which is also part of the Swatch Group.
Omega is among the Games’ top 12 global sponsors and has marketing rights to use the Olympics logo worldwide.
The Games offer the watchmaker one of the most effective international marketing platforms in the world, reaching billions of people in over 200 countries and territories, including millions of brand-conscious Chinese.
Swatch, which says it expects double-digit sales growth in 2008, has benefited from rising demand for its top-range watches as part of a worldwide boom for luxury goods, including new consumers from fast-growing China.
At the 1932 Games, official results were given at 10ths of a second. Results were first recorded to the nearest 100th of a second in 1952, ushering in the era of quartz and electronics.
Things have come a long way since then.
This year, Omega will use the Scan’O’Vision photo-finish camera at the finish line of sprints, hurdles and other races, as well as new timing, scoring and false-start systems.
“The accuracy of the system that you are using to measure the timing is of utmost importance. That is why we have very sophisticated systems with the photo-finish camera,” Berthaud said.
“Every 2,000th of a second we have an image of what happens and then all these are put into the computer and at the end of the race we reveal an image on the time-base in order to exactly know at what time the breast of the athlete crossed the line.”
The company is also using technology based on global positioning systems (GPS) for rowing and sailing.
“(In rowing), we take the position of each boat five times per second and knowing this we can compare the distance between the different boats,” Berthaud said.
“We define the number of strokes per second and this is more information that you can give to the spectators ... and also to the coaches,” he said.
“They can review after the race what the strategy was, how the other (competitors) behaved and where they made a mistake.”
Marathon runners will have a transponder attached to one shoe, and radio frequency identification (RFID) will be used to track them and record their times at specific intervals as they pound the course’s 26 miles 385 yards (42.195-km).
The transponder is a tiny, lightweight electronic device that can receive and respond to a radio signal.
SWISS SOPHISTICATION
This year, Omega will also branch out into the visual media by providing services to all television channels.
“For the first time, we have a contract with the host broadcaster. It means that when you see the swimming, you will see the names of the athletes in the lanes, the flags and the world record line,” Berthaud said.
In 1968, Omega revolutionized pool events with the introduction of touch-pads that solved the problem of recording times when swimmers touched the wall at the end of a race.
Of course, being accurate does not always mean one will be popular.
But Bienne-based Omega has not been put off by the wrath of athletes who have been disqualified as a result of more advanced timekeeping technology.
It introduced new false-start detectors to the 1984 Olympics, despite violent reactions towards timekeepers after some competitors were disqualified in the 1982 Commonwealth Games swimming events, where the system was first used.
The starting systems in track events have also come a long way since the days of Jesse Owens, winner of four gold medals at the 1936 Berlin Games, where athletes dug their own starting holes with small shovels.
But the pressure on Omega is greater too, because the stakes are so high.
In Beijing, athletes will be allowed just one false start before disqualification, but if a second athlete jumps the gun when the race is restarted then that person will face immediate disqualification, even if it is the first time that he or she committed the offence.
Each set of starting blocks will have a loudspeaker linked to the starter’s pistol, meaning all competitors hear the start signal at the same time.
The false-start detection system measures each runner’s reaction time, or the gap between the sound of the starter’s gun and the response of the runner.
If the time measured is less than the time in which a person can possibly react, the timekeeper will signal a false start.
As the final days, hours and seconds before the Games tick down on Omega’s giant clock in Tiananmen Square, the Swiss watch company is hoping for a smooth start of its own on August 8.
“Its a big, big project. It’s now getting to the climax stages, the final stretch,” said Chief Executive Stephen Urquhart.
For more stories visit our multimedia website "Road to Beijing" here and see our blog at blogs.reuters.com/china
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Blue Jays' Stroman shuts down Athletics for 1st win of year
JANIE McCAULEY (AP Baseball Writer)
The Associated Press April 20, 2019, 5:40 a.m. UTC
Toronto Blue Jays pitcher Marcus Stroman works against the Oakland Athletics in the first inning of a baseball game Friday, April 19, 2019, in Oakland, Calif. (AP Photo/Ben Margot)
OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) -- Of anybody who might have cost Marcus Stroman a complete game, old pal Kendrys Morales did it with a leadoff double in the ninth.
''K-Mo, that's my guy, I love K-Mo,'' Stroman said of his teammate until Morales' trade to Oakland last month. ''He put a great swing on a bad pitch. Wish K-Mo was still here, that's my guy.''
Stroman struck out six and pitched into the ninth, Brandon Drury homered, and the Toronto Blue Jays beat the Athletics 5-1 on Friday night to snap a seven-game losing streak in the series.
Stroman (1-3) allowed six hits and one run with two walks for his first victory of the season despite a 1.99 ERA coming into his fifth start. He had received only one run of support over 22 2/3 innings before Friday.
The right-hander pitched eight innings for the first time since Aug. 11, 2017, against Pittsburgh. He had a chance for a complete game, but surrendered hit to Morales in the ninth and gave way to Ken Giles - and Stroman was visibly upset.
''I always want complete games,'' Stroman said. ''There's no one who puts more pressure on me than myself.''
Manager Charlie Montoyo told Stroman he could start the ninth, but would make a change if someone reached base.
''He deserved a chance to finish the game,'' Montoyo said.
Oakland's Ramon Laureano argued with plate umpire Laz Diaz on a called third strike to end the game and had to be held back by teammates and coaches.
Danny Jansen hit a two-run double in the second that put the Blue Jays up for good. All four Toronto sports teams won for the first time - and the big three of the Blue Jays, Raptors and Maple Leafs for the eighth time ever and first since 2002.
Jansen followed Socrates Brito, who singled to get Toronto on the board and snap an 0-for-21 streak overall with his first hit and RBI with the Blue Jays. He had been hitless in 23 straight at-bats overall dating to last season while with Arizona. Drury's first RBI of the season ended the third-longest start to a season without an RBI in franchise history.
''Obviously a four-spot's not what you want to give up at that point,'' A's manager Bob Melvin said.
Slugger Khris Davis went 0 for 4 with three strikeouts after receiving a new contract from the A's that adds $33.75 million and runs through 2021. Davis' hitless night dropped his batting average to .247 - and he has hit exactly .247 in each of his last four seasons. He even jokes about it.
The A's went ahead 1-0 in the first on Matt Chapman's double, then Stroman shut them down.
Eric Sogard, who spent 2010-15 with the A's, batted leadoff and played second in just his fourth game - and start - for the Blue Jays since being called up Monday from Triple-A Buffalo. He drew cheers before the game and when he stepped into the batter's box in the first.
Oakland starter Aaron Brooks (2-2) allowed five runs on six hits in five innings, struck out five and walked two.
He dropped to 0-3 - lowering his ERA vs. Toronto from 57.86 to 24.55 - in three career starts against the Blue Jays. He had last faced them on Aug. 12, 2015, with the A's.
The Blue Jays lost all seven meetings against the A's last season while being outscored 51-18 - the first time in club history going winless in a year against a single opponent with seven or more matchups.
Toronto avoided dropping eight in a row versus Oakland for the first time since April 26, 1998, to Aug. 15, '99.
The A's are now 6-3 against the AL East this season.
VLAD CHATTER
Everybody wants to know when top Toronto prospect Vladimir Guerrero will join the Blue Jays from Buffalo - and Montoyo doesn't mind the immense interest and constant questions.
Outside speculation is it could be early next week - perhaps Tuesday.
''That's what I like about it that I really don't know, so I'm not really lying, otherwise you'd see my nose growing,'' he said. ''I tell my GM, 'Don't tell me if you know, I want to be surprised.' He's the No. 1 prospect in baseball. I get it. I have fun with it, too. Either the first question or the last one, or in the middle. I appreciate that because we have the No. 1 prospect in baseball and it will be pretty cool when he gets here.''
Athletics: 1B Matt Olson, injured in the Japan series and almost a month out from undergoing right hand surgery, took his first swings off a tee in the hitting progression of his rehab. The timetable of 6-to-8 weeks hasn't changed for Olson's likely return.
Blue Jays: RHP Matt Shoemaker (3-0, 1.75 ERA) has allowed five earned runs over 25 2/3 innings in his first season with Toronto after pitching his initial six seasons for the Angels.
Athletics: RHP Mike Fiers (2-1, 7.06) is 6-0 with a 2.38 ERA over his last 10 outings at the Coliseum dating to June 21, 2017.
More AP MLB: https://apnews.com/MLB and https://twitter.com/AP-Sports
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Home > Archives for burney
California Trout and Lomakatsi Restoration Project held a ribbon-cutting ceremony on June 19, 2018 to celebrate the opening of a new pedestrian bridge over lower Hat Creek, one of California’s most important Wild Trout Areas, and commemorate the incredibly productive last three years of restoration work.
The ceremony marks a major milestone in the ongoing ecological restoration of lower Hat Creek. The new bridge symbolizes the work that CalTrout, Lomakatsi Restoration Project, and their project partners have done to bridge cultures and reduce the socio-economic divide in the region, as well as to support the robust native fish populations, healthy rivers, and thriving communities. It also allows anglers and hikers to access both sides of the creek without disrupting the ecological restoration work that has been done to improve conditions for wildlife and aquatic species.
“The Hat Creek project began around the legacy of our organization and fly fishing,” said Drew Braugh, Mt. Shasta/Klamath Regional Director of CalTrout, “but it has turned into so much more. This project provides conservation jobs for tribal members and training programs for young people interested in helping restore their ancestral tribal lands. These jobs are important for engaging the next generation in the long-term stewardship of Hat Creek. It’s also provided a significant socio-economic boost in the Burney area.”
CalTrout and Lomakatsi presented Streamkeeper Awards to several tribal members for their dedication to protecting and restoring the wild trout waters of lower Hat Creek.
The lower Hat Creek restoration effort is the result of a partnership among several diverse stakeholders: state and federal agencies, the Illmawi Band, landowner Pacific Gas & Electric, and the Stewardship Council, which works to protect and enhance the beneficial public values and uses of watershed lands, and to improve the lives of young Californians through connections to the outdoors. Additional project partners include the US Fish and Wildlife Service, UC Davis Center for Watershed Sciences, Waterways Engineering, Inc., National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, and Orvis.
Marko Bey, Executive Director of Lomakatsi Restoration Project, noted, “It has been an honor to work with the tribal community and traditional leaders to create a program that brings Traditional Ecological Knowledge together with ecological restoration for the implementation of a cutting-edge habitat enhancement project.” Lomakatsi creates public benefits through restored ecosystems while engaging tribal community members in the stewardship of their ancestral lands. Thirty-five tribal members were employed during the Hat Creek project.
CalTrout and Illmawi Band Elder Cecilia Silvas, along with Key Project Delivery Partner, Lomakatsi, started planning this project work in 2012. They jointly raised funding with the partners and broke ground on the effort in 2015. In addition to restoring the 160-foot historic pedestrian bridge in Carbon Flats, accomplishments to date have included planting more than six acres of riparian corridor with 5,000 native plants, shrubs and trees; constructing/improving nearly three and half miles of recreational trails; and establishing a Tribal Youth Ecological Stewardship Training and Workforce Program through the Inter-Tribal Ecosystem Restoration Network. Indeed, much of the work completed was undertaken by tribal members and supported by Tribal Elders, Tribal Staff employed by Lomakatsi, and Tribal Community Members, who were contracted as Cultural Specialists/Guest Presenters and part of the live classroom experiential learning program.
“Prior to this project, the land around Hat Creek was being abused by people driving ATVs down to the creek, shooting guns, and leaving trash,” said Cecilia Silvas, Illmawi Band Elder of the Ajumawi-Atsuge Nation, whose people are indigenous and have inhabited this land base since time immemorial.
Belinda Brown, Tribal Partnerships Manager with Lomakatsi, said: “We are honored to be part of a successful project that took dedication and teamwork; and more importantly, restored and revitalized the culture, community and economy of elders, youth, and families and the traditional values of working on the land.”
Hat Creek was the first stream in the West to be managed exclusively for wild trout. It is also the birthplace of CalTrout: In 1972, CalTrout fought to restore the creek and won a wild trout designation for Hat Creek. By 1983, it was home to more than 5,000 fish per mile.
But in the late 1980s, tens of thousands of tons of sediment accumulated in the Wild Trout Area, most likely culminating from the 1915 volcanic eruption of Mt. Lassen or through years of bank erosion through grazing. This sediment had settled in sinkholes and lava tubes, and is thought to have been flushed out during the construction of the Baum Lake Dam in the 1980s, directly above the Wild Trout Area, making the creek shallower. During the same period, cattle grazing and invasive muskrat populations caused bank erosion.
Thanks to the restoration efforts being celebrated today, Hat Creek is getting back on track. The river is naturally flushing the sediment slug downstream. Aquatic vegetation, home to the macroinvertebrates that fish eat, is starting to regrow at the tail end of the sediment slug, and especially is thriving around the large woody debris structures, which CalTrout flew in via a Firehawk helicopter as part of the project. Fishing on the Carbon Flats is better than it has been in decades.
Big thanks to CalTrout’s field reporter Mike Wier for beautifully capturing the day’s events.
Filed Under: Mount Shasta, News, Press Releases Tagged With: burney, california trout, caltrout, carbon flats bridge, hat creek, illmawi band, klamath, lomakatsi, mt shasta, pg&e, restoration, wild trout area, wild trout waters
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Fees… an impolite debate. May 27, 2010
Posted by WorldbyStorm in Culture, Irish Politics, The Left.
An interesting, if dispiriting discussion on Irish Economy between Kevin Denny of the University of Kentucky (and associated, as it says on his paper with the Institute for Fiscal Studies) and Joanna Tuffy TD. Denny has written a piece on the impact of the free fees policy at university level.
I’d meant to address this paper because while interesting it struck me as opening up a number of questions. First up Denny restricts his focus to the Universities and from the data deduces that those in low-income groups have not increased their numbers there.
That’s true to a degree, although we’d probably need more data to be clear as to the position today (given that the data used by Denny appears to come from the mid 2000s and therefore may well have changed subsequently).
He argues that:
A priori, given the high level of excess demand (with the number of applicants around twice the number of places) a reform which would stimulate demand seems unlikely to be effective.
Moreover it achieves this by changing the relative price against the population who are under-represented. The reform also clearly generates a deadweight loss: individuals who were willing to pay for an investment now benefitted from the investment at the taxpayers’ expense. An argument in favour of the policy that has been made was that the fees acted as a barrier to individuals whose parents’ income was just above the threshold to qualify for the
Higher Education grant, largely from low income white-collar backgrounds. Raising the threshold would obviously have been a more efficient solution to this problem to the extent that it existed.
One could query the issue of ‘deadweight loss’, particularly given the reality that covenants (which he mentioned) functioned as a means of offering those who nominally were paying fees a means of no entirely circuitously avoiding payment of fees. But I don’t have the costings on that, so it’s difficult to know what the impact was [addendum, here’s some data on that…].
But it’s hard not to feel that the structures once prevailing were remarkable not for their efficiency, but for their complexity, a complexity that concealed considerable transfers from state to individuals in terms of both grants and tax reliefs. It’s far from anecdotal that there were egregious inequalities in terms of the application of both.
And that being the case isn’t there something just a little cosmetic about all this? Because if the we had a system in place that had barriers of entry, however diffuse, above and beyond the issue of exam results (and I’m not ignoring those, but suggesting that their part in this particular aspect of this debate is simply not as important) then surely removal of those barriers – yes at a cost, is in and of itself a positive outcome (obviously from my own perspective I would argue that there should be no barriers at all and that costs should be recouped from general taxation, but curiously that seems to be the least preferred option these days).
Denny points, rightly in part, to the situation in second level as a predicator of success and entry to third level:
On the basis of the results in Table 3 and Figure 1 one expects to find an SES [Socio economic status] gradient with respect to points. Column 1 of Table 4 shows the results of a simple linear regression using the same covariates as in Table 315. What is very striking is the size of the coefficients on father’s SES: the child of a professional can expect to get about 92 points (about .76 of a standard deviation) more Leaving Certificate points than the child of a manual worker. For the children of other non-manual workers the advantage is smaller, but sizeable, at around 47 points. The child of an unemployed man can expect to get about 30 points fewer. This clearly explains why, in Table 3, once one controls for Leaving Certificate points, the direct effect of SES essentially disappears.
But none of this is particularly surprising – surely? The issue of expectation and tradition enters the picture here. If there is no family tradition of attendance at third level then the premium on high levels of attainment at second level will be lower. Particularly if (and I deal with this later) the option of alternative – and more traditional – career paths is available.
The data on the probability of going to university is also of concern, one would think, to almost anyone.
The first three coefficients show the socio-economic gradient: a student whose father is a professional is about 30% (i.e. 30 percentage points) more likely to attend university than one who’s father is semi- or unskilled. For the child of a father in the “other white collar” category the probability of attending university is 11% higher. That such a gradient exists is not surprising since the higher attendance at university by those of higher SES has been documented exhaustively in a series of reports published by the Higher Education Authority and initially compiled by Patrick Clancy starting in 1982, see Clancy (1982,2001) for example and O’Connell et al (2004).
The conclusion that Denny draws is intriguing:
The main purpose of this paper was to investigate the effect, if any, of the abolition of university fees in Ireland in the mid-1990s. This reform, and the possibility of reversing it, has come under renewed discussion in recent years partly because of financial pressures on the universities as well as a desire for greater financial autonomy by them. However a defence of the reform that is commonly offered is that, somehow, it lead to greater access by groups that have been traditionally under-represented in higher education in general and university in particular. On the face of it, this is highly unlikely to be true since prior to the reform many
low income students did not pay fees because they received a means tested grant covering both tuition costs and a contribution to their living expenses. In effect, the reform withdrew the one advantage that low income students had relative to high income students.
Of course the numbers are everything. Denny notes that in UCD prior to free fees 30% of students were in receipt of HE grants. Given the overall societal demography that is clearly a remarkably low number to be drawn from what he terms ‘low income’ groups. In other words the…
Defenders of the policy might to a general increase in access by low income group over-time. This is not serious evidence and ignores, in particular, the secular increase in the supply of places as universities and other higher education institutions expanded, see the numbers cited on page 5 above and Figure 1. Indeed while the absolute numbers from low SES groups rose, as a
share they remained constant17.
But that, to me at least, seems to indicate at least some level of success. Increased numbers from low SES groups, even if as a share of the overall total they remained constant (and the reference he uses dates back to the mid-2000s which would appear to be rather dated), means of necessity that more students from low income groups are experiencing third level at university level and that will provide a process of aculturation that should directly influence their own off-spring and more broadly increase the idea that that third level is a serious option for those from such groups. There’s another point which I am uncertain as to whether he has allowed for, which is that low SES groups are demographically speaking not immutable. They too are subject to growth or reduction in numbers and one could reasonably query what the impact of the economic boom of the past decade and a half had on those numbers and the consequence of that in terms of the numbers entering college from whatever category. One might hazard that in a boom rising wages and greater job opportunities might see some social mobility upwards thereby seeing a shift in numbers from one SES background to another. I don’t know though, to be honest, and haven’t had time to assess the data.
However, taking Higher Education as a whole numbers of those from low-income groups have increased significantly and this emphasis on universities may well be less important than he thinks (or indeed many of the contributors to the Irish Economy thread who seem to see this as explicit proof that free fees have not succeeded in their purpose).
Interestingly the ESRI, as early as 2004, noted the following:
The overall admission rate in higher education in Ireland has increased by an impressive 11% since 1998 and now lies at 55% of the relevant age cohort (17-19 year olds). This improvement has been shared by the various socio-economic groups with the rate for the Skilled Manual Group almost doubling to a range of 50-60% compared to 32% in 1998. The Semi and Unskilled Socio-Economic Group has improved from 23% to between 33-40% over the same period (Table 3.8). At 71%, Sligo is the county with the highest rate of admission to higher education and there has been a 13 percentage point increase in the rate of admission for Dublin (Table 5.4). Seven out of every 10 (68.3%) of those who sat the Leaving Certificate entered some form of higher education (Table 4.4a).
And quotes:
HEA Chairman Michael Kelly comments “This rise in participation is truly remarkable. In the space of a generation, participation has gone from 20% in 1980 to nearly three times that figure in 2004. Impressive progress has been made towards meeting targets set by the Government following the publication of the McNamara Report on Access in 2001 most notably the target for the unskilled group of 33% by 2006 has been surpassed – it is now between 33-40%; the number of mature entrants at 9.4% has almost reached the target of 10% set for 2006.”
In terms of raw data:
In relation to Dublin, there has been significant progress with eight postal districts having a rate above the national average compared to six in 1998. Dublin 1 (North Inner City) has gone up from 8.9% to 22.8%; Dublin 2 (South Inner City) up from 19.5% to 29.5%; Dublin 24 (Tallaght, Firhouse) up from 26.1% to 40%; and Dublin 17 (Priorswood, Darndale) up from 8.4% to 16.7%. Dublin 14 (Rathfarnham, Dundrum, Clonskeagh) at 86.5% has the highest rate of admission with Dublin 10 (Ballyfermot) at 11.7% having the lowest rate.
Even given increased places these figures seem quite convincing as indicative of some shift in terms of the perception of third level in general as a positive path and that the experience of HE at both university and IoT level is now much greater in the socio-economic groups where previously it was not.
And of course, selection of university or IoT may well be down to factors which his research cannot or does not take into account. Proximity to home, cost of attending when the university is far from home, nature of courses and so on and so forth.
Indeed there’s a counter argument that as free fees came into play perceptions of IoT’s improved (not least due to the increasing number of degree course they provided) which may have skewed the situation.
A further point. I wonder if Denny (or indeed others writing in this area recently) is correct that the abolition of fees was centrally about the ‘university’ sector rather than HE in general. The ESRI report above, and indeed Niamh Bhreathnach in various articles, both reference increased participation in HE – not the universities (albeit everyone in this debate appears to use at times the terms university, college and undergraduate fees interchangeably).
Denny references the ‘abolition of undergraduate university fees for Irish and EU students in 1996’. But of course that wasn’t the reform. The reform was the abolition of undergraduate fees for Irish and EU students across the HE sector.
And if one looks at an article Bhreathnach wrote in Public Affairs Ireland in October 2008 she was explicit that the FF/Labour Party Programme for a Partnership Government, published in 1993 promised to assist entrance to higher education, not just universities.
On a further tangent, there’s a serious issue here about the manner in which IoTs are regarded. Personally having externed and taught in both a national institution and in IoTs (up to and including MA level) I have to say that my personal – entirely anecdotal – experience has been of a much stronger and rigorous engagement in the latter in terms of contact hours, project assessments and so forth. Of course that’s not necessarily true in every and all other areas, but it makes me a little dubious about the categorisation of various levels of HE.
There’s another obvious possibility too. As was noted on the Irish Economy thread, given that the Republic went through its most sustained economic boom the likelihood was that many who might otherwise have seen the benefit of third level education went straight into the commercial sector and in particular into areas that they would traditionally have gone to. It’s striking to me, both from my own experience of third level and less directly of PLCs that the uptake in the last two years has been significantly greater than at any time over the last decade. I don’t have a breakdown of income groupings, but – again, admittedly anecdotally – the premium on third level and continued education across all groupings appears to be increasing.
And here is an unashamed anecdote. Twelve years ago I participated in a jobs fair in the community school I attended in my teens. This consisted of sitting at a table in a hall filled with others who had graduated from the school for an evening and discussing the nature of our work with pupils. Almost without exception the attitude when they discovered the wages in the industry after five or ten years, and the [general] necessity to do a degree, was one of disbelief that I, or they, would do that when other more immediate options which would be hardly less remunerative (at least as they saw it) existed. Now that’s not just about fees as a barrier, but it is indicative of an attitude that there were shortcuts one could take at that point in time which would be more profitable, and in truth this mindset has always existed, a sense that one could have wages at 17 or 19 or in ones early 20s when others didn’t. That too is a function of class expectations.
Denny notes that there have been potential other effects ’18 There is anecdotal evidence that this increased the demand for fee paying secondary schools.’.
Well, perhaps, although one presumes that it is not beyond the wit of our political classes to deal with that through taxation or other mechanisms.
Let’s also note that barriers to entry, through means testing and such like, are proven to inhibit take up of place, even when free. There’s a well developed body of research literature that fairly comprehensively demonstrates how targeted/means tested services/benefits are less likely to be taken up by those that need them than universally available ones. Why fees would be any different escapes me.
One aspect of that that always puzzles me is the almost complete lack of understanding amongst some from a middle class background as to how such barriers operate (and it’s interesting how, for example Colm Harmon of UCD, of whom I have good things to say below in terms of his approach seems to be oddly sanguine about how ‘fees don’t matter’ in this piece here). In part I suspect that this is because they tend to have much fewer inhibitions themselves as regards utilising benefits where necessary – for example, the text of the Denny article notes that the covenant system whereby income tax could be set against college fees was used widely, and by definition used by those from better off income groups. That too was a subvention, and one that was closed down when fees were abolished.
Indeed it’s absolutely dispiriting in this debate to have no sense from almost all participating in it on the Irish Economy thread that in working class communities, like the one where I went to primary and community school, there has only been a slow, what I can only term, acculturation to the concept of HE (let alone universities – and as an academic myself teaching in a national institution I’m very very leery about the concentration on the ‘universities’) being a realistic option. The idea that such deeply embedded attitudes can be changed overnight or even within a decade – particularly a decade where the traditional first option of paid employment from the time one left school was never more easily accessible – seems wildly over-optimistic.
Perhaps this is special pleading, but I think it might be interesting to give this just a little longer before we come to any clear conclusions. From my own experience in third level and that of those teaching on PLCs it is evident that since the economic downturn both areas of education are now heavily subscribed as jobs thin out and the alternative of further or improved education gains a premium.
Denny argues though that,
The policy implication that one can draw from this, and a theme that is emerging generally in the literature, is the importance of early interventions: disadvantage sets in early in life. Quite how early is unclear with some authors, notably James Heckman and co-authors, pointing to the necessity of very early interventions in life, see Doyle et al (2009) for an overview. So while this paper demonstrates that performance at the final secondary school exam is the
proximate explanation for the SES gradient with respect to university it is not able to pinpoint the ultimate explanation i.e. what accounts for the differential performance at secondary level. It may be due to the differential effects of secondary schools however this cannot be assumed. It could, for that matter, be due to differences in primary schooling. Students from higher SES backgrounds make greater use of private tuition in preparing for the Leaving Certificate but, paradoxically, it appears to have no beneficial effect, see Smyth (2009).
Perhaps it has nothing to do with schools at all but evolve from the home environment and parental investment in particular. Most likely, it is a combination of these. So while this paper can help rule out some explanations, it cannot pinpoint exactly where the disadvantage sets in. One would need much better data for this.
Indeed, and of course, there must be increased emphasis on primary and secondary levels. But that doesn’t in and of itself mean that the abolition of undergraduate fees was a mistake. What it does imply is that no single policy will deal with all the problematic issues that arise.
It’s interesting to read David McWilliams piece in the Independent where he argues from this research that:
In fact, the abolition of university fees 15 years ago did not improve the chances of poorer children getting into university. The paper also explains why this is the case. There was and still is a shortage of places in university, not a shortage of students. The poorer kids who did manage to get the points were normally on the grant anyway so they didn’t pay in the first place. The middle-class children and their families just got a subsidy for an expense that they were planning to make all along.
The most important thing is how the children do in the Leaving Cert. Poor children do badly in the Leaving full stop. For example, after 15 years of free university it is the case that if your father is a professional, you will, on average, get about 90 points more than if your father is a manual worker.
But it’s only by limiting our focus to the universities (where numbers did in fact go up albeit from all social groups more or less equally) and ignoring the non-university HE sector where numbers from lower-income groups went up significantly that he can make an argument that once more reifies universities over all other parts of the HE. More accurately we could say that the abolition of undergraduate fees clearly did nothing to block the entry of low income SES students to third level. Would I like there to be more people from lower-income groups in universities. I would indeed but I think the overall picture is still better than is being presented here.
But… it also strikes me as an odd argument to suggest that by underscoring or emphasising social distinctiveness through grants and suchlike that one will somehow improve a situation that – given the historical record – had an evident lack of success, across many decades of the fees and grant system, in enabling social mobility and access to third level.
Therefore it seems curious that the current system would be so easily dismissed after little more than a decade in place – and during, arguably, one of the most volatile and anomalous periods in Irish socio-economic history – and that a rising and rather vociferous chorus should be seeking a return, albeit with [usually] unstated modification (although as seen above Denny himself argues that increasing thresholds on HE grants would ameliorate that, though what ‘efficiency’ that measure would bring to the system is questionable), to the status quo ante.
Still, we’ll get no light from this if we are to take the following exchange from the Irish Economy thread as characteristic.
Joanna Tuffy Says: May 25th, 2010 at 10:52 pm
The question which should be considered and is not in the paper by Kevin Denny is this: Which socio economic groups were being dettered from going to college by tuition fees?
According to studies by the Higher Education Authority (HEA) between 1980 and 1992, the children of all but three social groups out of 11 improved their participation rate in college. The three social groups were the Lower Professional, Salaried Employees, Intermediate Non-Manual workers – all low-to-middle-income PAYE workers. The participation rate of children from the three social groups concerned not only did not improve but worsened from the years 1986 to 1992. According to the study of entrants in 1998 by the HEA ‘Who went to College in 1998′, that trend was reversed and their participation increased further in the years that followed. Some of those in those three groups would have qualified for a grant and many of them would have been above the income limits for grants.
According to the HEA in its most recent study of all entrants to third level ‘Who Went to College in 2004′ groups that increased participation rates between 1998 and 2004 included “the Skilled Manual Group almost doubling to a range of 50-60% compared to 32% in 1998. The Semi and Unskilled Socio-Economic Group has improved from 23% to between 33-40% over the same period (Table 3.8).”
(Who Went to College in 2004? A National Survey of New Entrants to Higher Education
By Philip O’Connell (ESRI), David Clancy (Fitzpatrick Associates) and Selina McCoy (ESRI). Published by The Higher Education Authority.)
It may well be that the HEA are due to publish a study in 2012 in relation to 2010 college entrants as its pattern has been to carry out these studies every six years and such a study will give a far more comprehensive picture of who goes to college and from what socio economic background,s than Kevin’s paper possibly can. But contrary to what he, and the people who have commented above, seem to have deduced from his paper, the abolition of fees has meant that many socio economic groups that were previously less likely to send their kids to college prior to the abolition of fees, were more likely to do so subsequent to the abolition of fees.
Joanna Tuffy T.D.
Labour
Denny unfortunately does not respond in the most positive way. Indeed – and I say this as someone who works in academia and in research – he displays a curious (that word again) attitude given that this is a matter of public policy and that he’s engaging with a public representative.
@Joanna,I don’t have much to add to Colm Harmon’s. Having said that.. my guess is that you are not familiar with the methodology behind my study and indeed all serious work in this area. Thats why you have completely misunderstood it and its relationship to the HEA reports. Did it not occur to you that you need to know what you are talking about if you are going to contradict, in public, professionals who work in this area & on an important national topic? Would you feel equally free, say, about contradicting an oncologist who produced some research on cancer? Or are we to accept lower standards of evidence? I can only infer that political expediency rather than a desire to understand the truth is behind your comment. Maybe you should consult a taxi driver.
Those HEA reports, which are invaluable & which I cite, do not allow one to identify the effect of the reform. Consequently they do not support your case. Nor do they contradict it. So you are simply unambiguously wrong as a matter of fact in inferring that the HEA reports supports your position. The O’Connell et al piece actually specifically talks about the merits of the kind of multivariate analysis that I carried out. They understand, you do not.
I hold no brief for Tuffy, or the Labour Party – in fact we’ve been fairly critical of them over the years on the CLR. But the very least he could do Tuffy, and indeed all of us others who are not gifted with his insight, the courtesy of explaining in clear terms the methodology that he uses and why he believes it to be correct. He might also explain why he feels the concentration on one sector of HE provides us with an argument sufficient to jettison the concept of free access to HE. That’s pretty basic, but it’s also the right and courteous thing to do.
It is uninspiring to see such a dismissive approach. Tuffy may be wrong, he may be right, or it may be that as with most things that the truth lies somewhere between the two, but he does his case no justice at all by simply wrapping himself in an unexplained cloak of supposed expertise. These are indeed technical matters, but they’re matters that are relatively easily explained.
Moreover, the idea that research in a social science, which indeed my own academic interests lie within albeit in a different area of it, is directly comparable with medical research, particularly when such a comparison is made seemingly in order to respond to dissent is highly unconvincing.
But given that he brings in political expediency, worth noting once more the fact that he is, as it notes on the paper, associated with the Institute of Fiscal Studies. Now no harm there, but it’s worth, as they say, noting that the IFS is regarded by some – no doubt entirely mischievously – as an effectively pro-Conservative think tank – hard to credit for an organisation founded as a direct result of, and in opposition to, the introduction of Capital Gains Tax amongst others by the UK Labour government of the late 1960s – eh? 🙂 ).
And let me give an example of what I consider a more positive discourse… Denny himself references Colm Harmon’s response to Tuffy. Here is that response.
@Joanna
Thoughtful comment but….
1. Denny work is about the University sector – the HEA report covers all HE institutions. The Denny work excluding the IoTs is correct for the task he is undertaking. IoTs students largely faced no fees due to structural fund money (indeed many received a stipend while in HE). So the fee regime change created a discontinuity for the Uni sector which is what Kevin exploits.
2. In absolute terms there are more students, and therefore more low SES students in HE, but we still have a situation where the relative share in University is largely unchanged. That is what the fee regime change was meant to change – it didn’t (and that is true of many countries as is the reverse – introducing does not lower participation – see Oz)
3. Dropouts are much higher in IoTs so who goes to college is a different question to who finishes college!
4. The Denny analysis is not a HEA report. It is a regression model, multivariate, controlling for many factors at the same time. That he finds such strong results is all the more depressing.
That’s the way to do it. That opens up the debate for further questions, some of which I try to engage with above. And that is the way to have a serious discussion free from personalisation or dubious claims of special expertise (by the way kudos to Liam Delaney of Irish Economy for very nuanced moderation and exquisite tact).
And finally, and this is crucial. There’s a notion abroad that there are absolute certainties in all these socio-economic discussions, that logic points to a single sustainable conclusion in all matters. I’m deeply distrustful of that. Indeed I’d suggest that while the data may provide certain results this does not mean that it is unamenable to interpretation. And to think otherwise is – on occasion – as self-deceiving as it self-serving.
1. Pidge - May 27, 2010
An interesting point was made in the comments of that page, which ties in with what you were saying. In the period Denny looks at, unemployment rates were (generally) incredibly low. Why go to college when there’s a job waiting for you? As the construction industry grew, the incentive to take up an apprenticeship grew, and the arguments for going on to formal higher education became more abstract.
Removing fees, to my mind, removed one of the barriers to participation in higher ed. The fact that it hasn’t made a massive difference is not evidence that the policy has failed, but merely that there are more barriers yet to be removed.
WorldbyStorm - May 27, 2010
Pidge, that’s precisely my opinion on this too. What I found a bit sad, as I mention above, is that few seemed to even comprehend that it was a barrier – not the only one, but one of them.
2. CMK - May 27, 2010
Thanks for this post WbS.
For me it’s an emotive issue having gone from unskilled manual labourer to PhD via an IoT and three different universities. As both you and Pidge note, and this is THE crucial point in the debate, because there hasn’t been a surge of working class students into universities as a result of ‘free fees’ doesn’t mean the policy isn’t working and won’t in the future lead to much greater involvment. ‘Free fees’ has created a beachhead for children from working class backgrounds to attend what are, for the most part, excellent universities.
What depresses me about this whole debate, which is gathering momentum for a return to fees, is the ‘tone deaf’ nature of middle class discourse on non-traditional participation in universities. As you alluded to with your discussion of means testing and how that is interpreted and understood according to one’s social class, the middle class here just don’t ‘get’ it; by universalising services, stigmas are removed, those from non-traditional backgrounds are empowered and equity is advanced. And as has been noted here time and again, universalising services and entitlements is more efficient. Of course, a right wing economist with time on his hands will surely pick holes in universal provision, but that’s what right wing economists with time on their do, it’s a fact of life like Icelandic volcanoes.
Also, many middle class people have no understanding, whatsoever, that for working class people universities can be, and are, deeply forbidding places. That’s lessened somewhat now, but it remains for those of my parents generation. It will take generations to unmake these institutions from the bastions of middle class privilege they currently into class-less, equitable and open places. Regardless of all the touchy-feely widening access speak at work in universities, any audit of the class backgrounds of academics would make crystal clear that it’s as narrow a social world as medicine or law, or Irish corporate life.
Alas, I think the real agenda here is that those who control the universities can see that if ‘Free Fees’ remain in place for 40-50 years, then the Irish class system as it’s currently structured will be fundamentally altered and a dynamic meritocracy may emerge. Denny’s report provides useful ammunition to the effect “well, we tried; we scrapped fees and participation from non-traditional groups only rose marginally; so, the experiment didn’t work. Let’s bring back fees and forget it ever happened.” The middle class it thinking strategically and to the future, and one clear way to buttress it’s position is to close off the dangers posed by ‘Free fees’. Denny’s supercillious response to Tuffy, on my reading, is a flash of the anxiety generated by ‘free fees’.
My final point, I’m beginning to find it nauseating to listen to certain, exceptionally wealthy, commentators opine in favour of the return of fees. 5, 10, 15 grand a year for an undergraduate degree will be nothing to them; it’ll be a minor-ish challenge for most of the middle classes; for the millions who live on or below the average industrial wage, well, I’m sure even Dr. Denny of the University of Tennesse could, eh, ‘do the math’.
3. sonofstan - May 27, 2010
For me it’s an emotive issue having gone from unskilled manual labourer to PhD via an IoT and three different universities.
Close enough for me too, except without the IoT and I still do a fair bit of the unskilled manual labour. I did my undergrad degree part-time and paid for it myself, as I did my MA (not in Ireland) – PhD was paid for via a research grant: so it probably balances.
Depressingly, and this may be one place where labour in power might make a small difference, but otherwise, I can see not just a return to fees, but differential fees, as in the UK model – UCD and TCD are desperate to pull away from the bunch and advance their international reps as heavyweight research universities. And because the -relatively few – voices of people from non-traditional academic backgrounds will be drowned in the ‘tone deaf’ bleating of the middle-classes entitled.
4. BH - May 27, 2010
The excuse will be used that it is the only way to secure further funding for the university sector, just as at any job interview you are now asked how you, the candidate, will attract funding for the university, your employer.
sonofstan - May 27, 2010
It’s really worth keeping an eye on the UK here- maybe a few years further down that line from us.
SoS, that’s another dimension to the fees debate that’s rarely covered.
As you note, UCD (and to lesser degree TCD) are desperate to emulate Harvard. And that means cultivating it’s ‘brand’; it’s mean ‘prestige’; it means cultivating a sense of ‘exclusivity’. One can’t do that while simultaneously admitting ever greater numbers of working class students who may be first, or at best, second generation university entrants and who, horror of horrors!, are paying nothing. They may get the points and so, UCD and TCD have to admit them, but if they don’t have the cash, well: problem sorted. Ergo, re-introduce fees and regardless of points attainment, significant numbers of working class won’t enter university or at least UCD and TCD.
Regarding differential fees: it’s clear, to me anyway, that both UCD and TCD will charge serious money if fees are re-introduced. And they’ll target the Chinese ‘market’ and Asian ‘market’ to supply a good proportion of undergraduates. It’d be a hard sell trying to convince a Chinese Communist Party cadre to part with 20 grand a year if the university to which their little darling is going, will be overrun by the sorts of helots who know their place in China. They know that won’t be the case in Harvard and Oxbridge, so TCD/UCD will have to be get over that little obstacle, and huge fees are an obvious solution. So, a re-introduction of fees will be one way to ‘secure the brand, going forward in a competitive global marketplace’.
I hope you’re right about Labour; but I think the cohort who pushed for the abolition of fees in the 90’s have very few analogues in today’s party. We’ll see.
alastair - May 28, 2010
Harvard is free for students from families with household incomes under 60 grand. About half the students are grant-aided or on bursaries of one sort or another.
Whatever about having to mix with ‘herlots’ in Belfield, it would appear that Harvard is not the best place if you just want to mix in the ‘right’ circles.
Garibaldy - May 28, 2010
Bursaries aren’t restricted to low-income households. You also have the issue of legacies, and the question of class divisions within the student body. The key word there is “just”, which is being used to alter the terms of the discussion. If you want to mix in the “right” circles, there is no better place to do it. It’s just that you might come across some people who aren’t from the “right” circles if you do. Although a lot of that will depend on where you live, access to fraternities etc.
It puts the lie to the notion that the Harvard ‘exclusivity’ brand is down to the wealth of it’s student intake. Harvard are (along with MIT and, to a lesser degree afaik, Princeton) pretty good on focusing on academic merit rather than cash in their intake strategy. No doubt nepotism, cliques, and the strategic use of bursaries play a role in admittance as well, but they’re pretty meritocratic as an institute when compared to other ivy league schools.
I’m not really buying the notion that there’s a special working class sensitivity about academic grant aid either. I certainly didn’t have a problem with applying for, and receiving any grants for third level study – including the awfully Dickensian sounding ‘hardship fund’.
6. Niall - May 27, 2010
This argument tends to annoy me. It’s a little like saying “Giving women the right to vote hasn’t resulted in equal representation in an equal number of TD, let’s re-introduce gender based discrimination in the area of voting rights”.
Equality of opportunity is an important end in itself (not that we have equality of opportunity now, it’s just that one barrier to it was removed when fees were abolished).
As you note, UCD (and to lesser degree TCD) are desperate to emulate Harvard
Thing is, of course, neither of them are anywhere near that yet-nor will ever be – but, instead of honestly working to get better, in UCD management anyway, there seems to be a belief that simply getting the ‘optics’ right will get you there just as well and much faster.
8. WorldbyStorm - May 28, 2010
I’m very heartened to see I’m not alone. I think Niall’s comment cuts to the core of this debate. Equality of opportunity is the core issue here, as it is across a myriad of areas in terms of social provision, and it’s disturbing to see that we may yet have to depend, as sonofstan notes, on Labour returning to power to prevent what now seems to be a concerted effort to see fees return. BH, that’s a central point as well. I work, some of the time, in a national institution and I can see how the curriculum is being reworked to incorporate the ‘more profitable’ post grad sector with little regard for whether that makes sense or how we deal with undergrads. I think CMK’s points lock right into that as well. And also the point CMK makes about how Labour itself may not have an appetite for this.
Can I add that this is also an emotive issue for me, albeit or perhaps because, I come from a background where my parents were both involved in education at national and secondary level [I’m slightly self-censoring on the details to protect the guilty – wbs]. I saw in my own education how class determined outcomes all along the way and how barriers prevented positive outcomes. I and my friends were lucky. We went to a community school where we were pushed and pushed and pushed (and another aspect of that was social mixing which was central – at a reunion in Greendale five or so years back I kept hearing from people who I’d been there with that the one thing was that we all were encouraged to do as well as we could, whether that was third level, apprenticeships, whatever. But the point was that we were pushed to achieve in a positive way. That’s great, but it’s not enough, and others didn’t have that advantage. If our socialism means anything it has to mean that we remove those barriers, all of them.
The idea that we would return to a situation, even in modified form, that produced profoundly inequitable outcomes, seems farcical. At best.
I can see how the curriculum is being reworked to incorporate the ‘more profitable’ post grad sector with little regard for whether that makes sense or how we deal with undergrads.
Yeah – I meant to make this point above. It is my fixed belief that as third level education approaches the point of being ‘mass education’ the undergraduate experience is getting much worse – and, as you noted in your original post, maybe worse in universities than in IoTs.
Also, Alastair is right to point out that Harvard is actually a fairer place in many ways than any Irish university. And, in most US colleges, you will only be accepted as a post-grad student if you can also get funding, or if they accept you, they ill also fund you: put at it’s crudest, you can’t ‘buy’ a PhD with your own or your parents’ money, although, of course, the luxury of being able to spend the much longer time it takes there still discriminates against those who need to be earning – in other words, unlike here, there isn’t the same incentive to stuff the place with fee-paying postgrads: instead, PGs cost the university money. Which is why, incidentally, a lot of Americans come here to do one year Masters degrees, as such things are a rarity there.
10. Tomboktu - May 28, 2010
The broader debate (that is, not specifically the comments on irisheconomy.ie) on this is quite dirty. The HEA commissioned the ESRI to research what level grants should be at to support a student (the maintenance grant has not kept pace with inflation for many years). The Department of Education and Science did not want the research published, and a few months ago when the HEA and ESRI ‘defied’ the Dept and decided to do a ‘low key’ launch through an invited seminar, a week or so before that seminar some selected bits of the research were leaked to the press that deal with how much students spent on alcohol.
It is worse than that. The Department of Education and Science (DES) is applying for funding from the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund (EGF) to fund higher education. The EGF was created to support workers who lose their job because of the “changing global trade patterns”. The most well-known effort to use it in Ireland is for the Dell workers, but the DES is also trying to put together a package to get EGF funds for building workers. I am told schenmes for other sectors are being put in place. The theory is that the EGF would be used to enable the redundant workers to go to third-level and acquire new skills.
However, the DES is not using the EGF to expand access to higher education. No extra lecturers or tutors will be hired. Instead, the redundant workers will, with EU funds, take places in the current or planned ‘intake slots’ and those leaving school will now be squeezed out. I await that cynicism by the DES being examined by the media or the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Education.
12. irishelectionliterature - May 28, 2010
There is an article on Diarmaid Ferriter in the Irish Times today….
In relation to this discussion the following jumped out…
“Sometimes when young academics are going in for interview, even for one-year posts, the interview is dominated by fundraising. That worries people in the humanities and it’s very legitimate.”
13. Tomaltach - May 28, 2010
The reaction on this page is mostly the left wing reflex at its worst. Presented with serious evidence that a policy failed to meet its own objective the reaction is to come out with the usual attacks on the middle classes.
CMK: “What depresses me about this whole debate, which is gathering momentum for a return to fees, is the ‘tone deaf’ nature of middle class discourse on non-traditional participation in universities.“. That the middle classes cannot understand the barriers preventing working class children participating in university is abolutely true. Yet this statement missed the target. The middle classes are not calmouring for a return to fees – they were the key beneficiary of the abolishment of fees. That is the whole point : not only did the policy fail to increase participation rates among the working class, but it proved a bonus for the previously fee-paying classes.
Later, sonofstan refers to “the ‘tone deaf’ bleating of the middle-classes entitled.”.
It is true in this country that there is an elite, an upper class, who have tried hard, and are largely succeeding, to carve into the edifice our republic, the institutions that will sustain their position of privilege. But in the main, painting all potential fee payers in a future system of fees, or those who previously paid fees, with the same brush is not just simplistic but preposterous. It equates a privately schooled, multi-millionaire, D4 lawyer with a PAYE worker just above a fees threshold. This kind of ideoligical shorthand hides more than it reveals about Irish society and is no help in any discussion.
Niall, on comment 6 makes a completely false analogy. First, giving women the right to vote rather than fail in its main aim, succeeded perfectly: it granted women the fundamental right to have an equal voice in chosing their representatives. And second, the statement “Equality of opportunity is an end in itself”. Uncharacteristically, WBS fell for the slogan in endorsing this comment. Yes, equality of opportunity is not just a valuable, but a key goal. But again, the point is, the abolition of fees didn’t achieve it. Plain and simple.
WBS, you seemed to try too hard to turn the slim pickings on the positive side from Denny into support for the policy. It may not have succeeded very well, you admit, but it may have had “some” effect. But that cannot be good enough. The cost was enormous and the evidence is overwhelming that it benefitted the better off more than the poor.
For the same price, simply increasing the old maintenance grant, raising the fees limit, and closing some loopholes could have achieve far far more – and without the net transfer from poor to rich.
The old fees and grants policy was badly flawed and so is the new. There must be some way we can design a system where those from all backgrounds will not see a prohibitive finacial barrier to third level. And with that done, we are still left with the real barriers which prevent working class and deprived children from entering college, some of which were touched on above, such as cultural capital, difficulties at primary and secondary level, and so on.
eejoynt - May 28, 2010
Should HEIs be entitled to charge the same fee as paid in the school where the applicant did their leaving cert or equivalent?
For the majority this would mean no change but it would have an effect for those parents who pocketed the free fees and spent them in fee paying second level schools
Tomboktu - May 28, 2010
Excellent idea. (Except the fees would probably switch to “voluntary donations” or some such.)
Niall - May 28, 2010
Way to misread everything I said!
I never said the point of extending to franchise to women was to ensure equal representation in parliament.
I never said that abolishing fees resulted in equality of opportunity, only that it removed a single barrier to it.
14. sonofstan - May 28, 2010
Tomaltach,
I agree with you that the issue is very complex: If the argument about fees comes up in college, I nearly always support the status quo as it obtains – but some of the counter arguments are not unpersuasive (there’s academia-speak for you!).
Someone above noted that ‘free’ third level access removed one of the barriers, but there were many more: that’s true, and I would hazard that its by no means even the biggest barrier. The obstacles go up the day a child starts primary school. With that in mind, if you offered me the choice between a package that included reduction in Primary class sizes to 20, and 15 in economically disadvantaged areas, a restoration and extension of special needs education, free books and free school meals, MUCH better teacher training, and nearly most important, a huge school building programme to include community sports facilities, libraries and evening adult education, in return for a restoration of university fees (with grants and loans built in), I know which I’d take, on the grounds of improving equality of opportunity AND outcome. Problem is, it would take a lot for a government in this country to persuade me to swap a modest good we have for an aspirational and much greater good.
15. WorldbyStorm - May 28, 2010
In one sense you’re right, it’s a small segment of what appear to be middle class and upper middle class who are arguing for doing away with free fees. But you’re incorrect that they were the key beneficiary, all benefited. As it should be.
But I’m particularly intrigued that as shown on this site, you directly charge people such as CMK and SOS who have noted from their personal experience that those barriers do exist and have a real psychological impact (in some instances in terms of dissuading people) with reflex leftism.
I also see on the IrishEconomy site you charged Joanna Tuffy, who was one of the few people to introduce dissident arguments with ‘stifling debate’. How you could draw that conclusion in the context of a debate where almost no-one demurred from Denny’s original piece escapes me.
Again, the point is that the voices calling for the reintroduction of fees are broadly speaking those in the middle classes. Sure, some of the statements are overly wide in their application of the term. But that doesn’t reduce the truth as regards the source of the push.
I think that’s a very partial reading of the data available. The point with progressive policies is that they open up the scope for engagement. It takes time for changes to come into effect. We know from ESRI reports that access from low income SES groups has increased into the HE as a whole. Therefore one can reasonably posit that the abolition of fees had some positive impact (most likely in tandem with other factors).
I actually tend to think the costs are, given what we gain from HE, far from enormous and I think there’s no end of overstatement about this. I also think that it’s entirely feasible to see revenue streams that could and should be directed towards HE and fees.
The lack of interest expressed on the IE thread in, say, using taxation as a tool to recoup costs is remarkable.
I also refer you to this:
http://www.independent.ie/opinion/analysis/free-education-457278.html
But you continue…
Hmmm… On the one hand the middle classes are characterised by you as PAYE workers just above the threshold. But now you say this is a net transfer from rich to poor. The two aren’t entirely incompatible, albeit many – indeed probably most – of those PAYE workers are on pretty modest incomes, but given that any left wing analysis would expect that transfer to be negated by increased higher taxation rather than a return to the status quo ante… which didn’t work… I find that argument extremely unconvincing.
But let’s look at your own thoughts on the grant and fees system.
A situation that is so badly flawed is not something I would seek to return to in any shape or form. Indeed the worst of it is that we know that at the points below and above levels where fees kick in there are perverse effects that affect people very badly indeed. But we know that the HE system is considerably less flawed than it was in general.
But you continue to dismiss and ignore the psychological barriers to entry, barriers that I’ve already provided evidence are very real and operate in terms of the provision of targeted benefits. You say the ‘real’ barriers, thereby implying that those are not real barriers.
Now the criticism might be raised that benefits, targeted or universal are in some way different to fees. Which is possible, but I see no lesser authority than Ferdinand von Prondzynski writing on his own blog arguing that fees sit within a conceptual framework of benefits such as health etc. http://universitydiary.wordpress.com/2010/05/28/tuition-fees-and-universal-benefits/
I think he’s wrong in his interpretation, but I’m not unhappy that he accepts there is a similarity in terms of free access to education and broader welfare and social services.
I have laid out precisely why I think Denny’s report, while interesting, is insufficient.
He starts out from a premise which is demonstrably incorrect that the goal of fee abolition was to increase university access rates. It wasn’t, or at least not specifically. It was to increase access to all HE. That the stats demonstrate occurred.
He and you seem to believe that a focus on the universities is sufficient to invalidate the abolition of fees. I disagree.
He and you appear to have no interest in the well developed literature on how targeted as distinct from universal benefits/services provide barriers to uptake. I think that’s an error.
And most curiously of all he and you appear implicitly to want to return to a system, however modified, that served us all extremely poorly, that was inequitable in terms of how it operated (and to smooth out that inequity would require some sort of band system of grant assistance from full to none passing through various stages, which again would generate further inequities), and was open to considerable abuse.
I’m no ideologue, indeed I’m fairly pragmatic in my approach. And pragmatism alone suggests that such a return makes little or no sense.
If we want to recoup costs, we can do so through general and possibly specific taxation – we could explore any number of funding mechanisms. There’s absolutely no reason start with the free fees scheme. But I would argue that the evidence suggests that free access at point of entry is one of the ways to optimise the potential for ensuring that people from low incomes increase take up in HE.
Finally, what about the attitudes of the working class itself to ‘free fees’, because their voice sure as hell isn’t being articulated in these discussions, or as here is dismissed almost out of hand as ‘reflexive leftism’. Well, I can go to the Irish Times Behaviour & Attitudes study of last November, available here: http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2009/1121/1224259236478.html
and read that…
Perhaps not surprisingly, almost half of the population is opposed to the introduction of a property tax, although one-third are in favour. The fact that as many working class as middle class individuals are opposed to the reintroduction of third-level fees (a majority in both cases) would appear to contradict the notion that free third-level education has been of little real benefit to those from the lower socio-economic groupings.
[Addendum: I should add that I’m surprised there’s absolutely no engagement with the idea that there were alternatives to potential students from lower income groups to HE in the shape of jobs during this period.]
Tomaltach - May 31, 2010
Wbs,
Though I genuinely welcome her willingness to engage in the debate, I thought Joanna’s defence was not addressing Denny’s paper head on and that she kept on repeating the same line about the socio-economic groups from 1980 to 1992. She came across as a politician defending a legacy policy that has become a sacred cow. In fact in her response to my comment Tuffy pretty much concedes that, after all, it is possible the abolition of fees didn’t really cause wider participation. She then writes “show me the evidence that free fees have made participation at third level more unequal than it was prior to the abolition of fees.”. In other words, she says, ok, but prove our policy didn’t make matters worse.” Hardly a solid defence. (As an aside: I agree with you entirely that Denny’s own dismissive, even insulting remark towards Joanna makes him very small).
You say that the policy wasn’t a trasnfer from poor to rich because all benefitted. But given the scant evidence that exists for an widening in participation, and the fact that fees were now removed from those who used to pay, I cannot accept anything other than this was a transfer of resources up the wealth chain.
My point about the left wing reflex was that I noticed the reaction jumped right away to a general condemnation of the middle classes. You are going along with the condemnation in saying the “point is that the voices calling for the reintroduction of fees are broadly speaking those in the middle classes.”. Who are these middle classes crying out for the introduction of fees? Surely that would be turkeys voting for Christmas. Apart from the really wealthy elite (which I mention in my comment) most other parents that I know in the middle class (whether guards, teachers, or even doctors) will be very happy to keep the free fees thank you very much. In fact, you contradict yourself at the end of your piece by referring to a study that shows a majority of both working class and middle class are opposed to bringing back fees.
Your point about the voices calling for fees are middle class simply means that for example the economists, politicians, or journalists who argue for it are middle class. The real point here is that the working class don’t really have a voice – certainly not a strong one in the ranks of ‘opinion-forming’ profressions. Likewise that there are politicians, journalists or economists calling for fees doesn’t mean this reflects the opinion of the middle class generally.
On your point on ‘real’ barriers. I know all about working class barriers to going to college, particularly univeristy. My working class parents reacted in disbelief when I mentioned that I wanted to go to college. None of my family had ever been to college, and it was automatically assumed that college was for the well heeled. The cultural, or pyschological barriers as you say, were immense. Thankfully may parents always wanted me to do well at school, and quickly realised that college is just an extension of education and that going further would be a great thing. So they supported me fully. The financial burden – despite the grants – was very signifcant too.
You say I want to return to a flawed system ‘however modified’ that served us poorly. But I see the ‘however modified’ as crucial. I don’t want to return to the same old system – not at all. I’m simply arguing that it is not beyond our capacty to design a much better system.
My passion is for a system that is affordable and accessable to all. But more than that, one that is sufficiently well funded to deliver the quality of third level education that Ireland requires. The current system doesn’t deliver on either count. Between maintenance grant levels that have fallen behind and increasing other costs (such as registration fees, rents etc), there is a huge extra financial burden for lower income groups. At the same time, we subsidize the better off.
True, it is possible to imagine a system of taxation that delivers extra funds to third level and which sources its revenue from extra tax higher income deciles. And if that were available I would grab it with both hands. But I believe that solution isn’t remotely possible. And rather than stick with our current broken system, I’d strongly prefer reform.
I think Tuffy’s motivation and bona fides I think are fairly clear. She has, as have I, continued to make the point that this discussion is skewed because on Irish Economy, and indeed in Denny’s report, the discussion is limited to the University sector within the overall HE sector. And she’s been misunderstood on a number of occasions by those responding to her.
Indeed Colm Harmon on the IE thread makes the same mistake as almost everyone in this discussion when he responds to her that:
That’s simply incorrect. The fee regime change wasn’t meant to increase access to university alone, it was the whole of the HE sector. If there is a problem in universities it would seem logical to me to examine specifically why such a problem might exist given the increase across the rest of the HE sector.
I’m a bit amused to see Liam Delaney ignore the HEA figures Tuffy put forward and that I referenced here (even though he also references this post), until very very late in the day where he has an epiphany and says first ‘Actually, I missed the obvious trick point out by other posters also that the HEA report refers to higher education more broadly rather than just the universities so this is an added source of confusion.’ and then that… ‘The issue of the HEA data seems potentially a better route if anyone wants to put up a more robust defence of the fees abolition. We still haven’t cleared up the issue of the different socioeconomic trend lines. Anyone willing to give a hand on this?’
That’s the argument I’ve been making from the beginning here. That it takes almost a 100 comments on this topic before this is addressed is a matter of some concern to me.
On a different matter. Got to say, and I want to keep my words moderate on-line, I was very very taken aback by the response to Tuffy.
But the lack of evidence only exists in the university sector, not HE as a whole where participation rates have increased. This really irritates me, not what you’re saying but the general tenor of the discussion on IE. I teach in the ‘college’ sector and have externed in he IoT’s and frankly the division is pointless, but more to the point, it’s self-serving in the context of the argument being made. Of course there would be transfers but taxation is the obvious means of dealing with that.
And the university sector may see less take up for a myriad of reasons which I’ve already discussed. I can well imagine that some people might be put off by the ambience of TCD or wherever. After all these have traditionally been bastions of privilege. Sure, you and I know that that’s not the whole story by now, that a lot of that is cosmetic and even where residual extant (as it is in places) we’d not put much store in it. But that’s you and I. We’ve been around the block. You and I aren’t seventeen any longer, we come from places where third level is normalised in terms of our families – your kids will most likely go to third level, at the very least, like myself with my daughter, you’d have some expectation of that.
A close relative teaches in the PLC and secondary area in the VEC in one of the more deprived parts of Dublin. The idea that the majority of children who are encountered there will ever go to third level, of any flavour, is risible. Simply getting them through second level is an achievement. They have no traditions, no background, few enough roll models, who would point in that direction. Every additional barrier to their transition to third level knocks a few more of them out. And for some, as the person who teaches there will testify, even where grants or services are available, there’s a stigma about putting the hand out. And a fear that that that handout will stay with them.
It’s grand to discuss these on Irish Economy, where largely speaking, the experience of most there is radically different to that background, or is one of success drawn from that background and therefore sometimes an inability to entirely empathise or understand the context of those who haven’t succeeded. But I think a little real-world exposure to the dynamics at play here is required.
I’m not sure you’re reading what I wrote entirely accurately, I myself pointed out that it was “some” middle class voices, and in my response to your first comment here I was explicit that both CMK and sonofstan had overegged that pudding.
I agree with you, it’s a small segment, but in the main voices raised calling for the rollback of the initiative are middle class.
I suspect there’s a dynamic here of public self-abnegation whereby some – not you I hasten to add – can wrap themselves in the ‘bring back fees’ flag as a gesture of their virtue and self-sacrifice when in truth this dovetails precisely with a political view of filtered and rationed public services. I find that a bit irritating too.
But that’s precisely the point I made in my original response to you. And yes, you’re right, the working class don’t have a voice. Except when CMK and sonofstan who both said they’re from working class background dissent from your view you belabour them for it and argue that they’re ‘reflexive leftists’. Well, maybe, or maybe they have some personal experience of these matters which informs their worldview.
But when we ask the working class, as with the B&A survey we see that the working class likes free fees. They like them a lot. And why wouldn’t they? These aren’t, despite being psychological barriers, unreal barriers. They’re very real for some and provide a massive obstacle.
I’m confused. You agree that there are ‘real’ barriers, ones thrown up by traditional perspectives, and yet you don’t seem to accept that they have a ‘real’ effect. You were fortunate, as were most of my core group of friends who I went to national school with and who have remained my friends ever since. They too came from overwhelmingly working class families and were lucky that education was valued. But you know as well as I do how that has not been the norm. The figures of take up bear that out. Except we also know that subsequent to the introduction of free fees take up has improved across the HE.
Which is precisely why I believe any policies that increase admissions are necessary.
Any ‘reformed system’ you want is one that from the off will have a barrier to entry imposed in the shape of a grant system. I simply don’t think that’s acceptable.
I genuinely think we have to move beyond this subsidizing the better off idea. As I said above, my daughter who, if she so chooses or if it’s affordable, may well go to third level. On the figures for fees that are being bandied about as it stands (80k) I’ll probably be eligible for grants, and I’d take them in an instant. I’ve never seen the dole or any bursary funding at all in any context that I didn’t like if I’m entitled to it. Not everyone is like me, and if we are to believe the information from research on targeted benefits there’s a whole heap of people not at all like me. I actually consider myself and my partner to be on reasonably okay wages. But they’re not really high. But what if like many I’m or you are 1k over, or 2k, or whatever? How does that work?
And who are the middle classes? I think it’s pernicious to those just above a grants cut off to have to pay full whack. But more to the point, the sort of wages that people get in general in this state are low and through increased taxation, levies and wage cuts are getting lower.
Which leads to another problem. As you’ll know when fees are introduced we begin then to hear about efficiencies, about who is eligible and who is not, and given that funding will always be an issue regardless of what form it takes, we’ll see a downward pressure on the amounts granted in free fees, etc. We’ve seen that in relation to other benefits across a long period of time here and elsewhere, particularly when times get tough. When one shifts from universalism paid through tax to targeted benefits the pressures to constrain and limit the latter increases and on occasion the lines can’t be held.
So we could potentially wind up in a situation where not only were the aculturation issues embedded within the working class, but that the amounts available to those on lower incomes fell. Why not? After all, there’s no science to setting the levels of income at which fees kick in. And all this ignores some other points which is that there’s something a little unreasonable about parents income dictating individuals access to HE.
Tony Blair, who I rarely quote, made a good point once in a slightly different context, that to paraphrase, simply because the middle classes benefit doesn’t invalidate the correctness of a policy. And he continued, the middle classes almost always benefit. They have social confidence on their side, an aptitude and ability to work systems, an embedded network of people who are from that class across civil, commercial and public society and so on. But so what? If the abolition of fees assisted extra numbers into HE, as it appears to have done, then good on it.
And why is it that there’s no problem in demanding the middle classes, whoever they may be and however we define them, pay fees, whereas it is impossible to demand taxation on their incomes? Any suggestion as to the latter is met with muted and hushed tones.
And the obvious riposte is that if it’s a problem in terms of subsidies and transfers to the better off, well let’s shagging tax them a little more to even it all up. Which leads to your final point.
I’m puzzled why you believe that isn’t remotely possible? A policy statement tomorrow by FG and Labour that they would do precisely that would sort it out for the next government. Since when has it become impossible to argue for slightly increased taxation at higher levels (and indeed at medium levels, and indeed I’ve no problem either with bringing all workers on all wages high or low into the tax net, indeed I think it’s crucial in terms of representation and citizenship). When did that become something we can’t push for?
If we were in many other European countries your lack of belief that we could do this would seem quite strange. I don’t mean that personally agin you, but simply think it reflects how the nostrums of the orthodoxy have permeated the debates to a point where it seems that even quite mildly progressive measures can’t be defended or expanded upon.
Before we get starry eyed about Harvard I think it’s necessary to be certain about the figures. According to Boston.com, in an article from last year, http://www.boston.com/news/education/higher/articles/2009/05/12/the_harvard_disadvantage/
Students of modest means have attended Harvard on scholarship for decades. But with the school making an unprecedented push to recruit more of them by offering virtually free rides, the number of students from families making less than $60,000 a year has surged 30 percent over the last five years – to about one-fifth of all Harvard students.
That means that in 2008 20% of those attending Harvard came from families on less than $60,000. That doesn’t strike me as better than our own system. Indeed it strikes me as arguably significantly worse.
The discrepancy between the figure alastair provides and the one above is the all important $60k. Let’s look at the figures on the Harvard College Admissions site:
http://admissions.college.harvard.edu/apply/statistics.html
Overall Financial Aid Information 2009-2010
Over half of all undergraduates receive need-based Harvard Scholarship aid, totaling over $145 million.
One-fifth of families qualify for the Harvard Financial Aid Initiative, where parents with total incomes less than $60,000 are expected to pay nothing.
Parents with total incomes between $60,000 and $180,000, and typical assets, are now asked to pay an average of up to 10 percent of their income.
Foreign students have the same access to financial aid funding as U.S. citizens, including the Initiative outlined above.
Two-thirds of students work during the academic year.
Note that in 2009 the figure on those in the lowest income percentile (relative to Harvard) remains on 20%.
So the 50% figure masks the actual socio-economic reality – I think few of us would dispute that $180k is a good wage. In Irish terms, in the raw exchange conversion we’d be talking about €145k. There are also points one could raise about broader admissions policy in Harvard, the offspring of those who went there, preferences for athletes and so forth. Once that’s factored in I suspect we’re looking at a very different model from what most of us would consider ‘fair’ or one worth emulating.
Moreover the same article notes that the psychological barriers to entry are considerable, even in a grant environment…
Socially, though, less-fortunate students must gingerly navigate a minefield of class chasms on a campus still brimming with legacies and wealth.
Now fees per se doesn’t change that, and arguably as well, the gulf in Irish HE is lesser. Indeed Harvard would appear to be pitched much further up the social scale than say UCD.
Much of Harvard has changed. Even its exclusive final clubs – once a bastion of privilege – have opened up to students from modest backgrounds. While membership costs thousands of dollars a year, many now let sought-after recruits know that financial aid is available.
But in terms of expectations and perceptions a free fees environment seems to me to offer greater opportunity of access from the off than that we see in Harvard, or that proposed by those who would return to a fees context. I’m curious as to why people believe that it is either right, or effective, to champion that?
Re some individuals not having any problem applying for grants. Of course, there are going to be different responses on the individual level. I’ve provided links to suggestive evidence drawn from literature that in general such targeted benefits do have a negative outcome on take up.
Yes, but you’re comparing one university – by some metrics, the best in the world – with all of our system.
Well, actually I can refine that comparison to one university with the university sector in Ireland – where we know the average is 30% or so from lower SES’s (cheers Dr. Denny). So surely we still come out ahead? Indeed, even allowing for individual variations, where one university had a lower figure and another a higher it would seem that Ireland (unless there are appalling distortions, i.e. 10% lower SES at TCD and 40% at UCD or somesuch) comes out ahead.
And the metrics are crucial. Aren’t we concerned about SES issues in this instance?
Harvard is still a very elitist place. I only touch briefly above on the point that if you had a parent who went there, or if you gift money to the institution, or if you are the offspring of the very wealthy or prestigious your path in is more assured than otherwise. Indeed I’d almost go so far as to posit Harvard in terms of admissions as an example of how not to do things…
Wednesday - May 29, 2010
if you had a parent who went there… your path in is more assured than otherwise.
That’s true about a lot of American universities though. Donations from alumni are an important source of their income, and one of the ways they secure those donations is by letting the children of alumni bypass the ordinary entry requirements. Funnily enough the Republicans screaming about affirmative action for minority ethnic groups don’t seem too concerned about this particular exception to merit-based admission.
On a personal anecdote, my own mother won an almost-full scholarship to Harvard but had to turn it down because the one thing they wouldn’t pay for was the cost of her getting to Boston in the first place. This is obviously going back a few years 🙂 .
Yes, but you’re still not comparing like with like: Harvard has 20,000 odd students out of a total of 14m students in the US – about 0.12% of the total or something – there are 9 universities in Ireland, so even if one or two were the ‘elite’ institutions they would like to be, their share of the student body as a whole would be much greater and representative. The point I’m trying to make is that, for a University that is always among the top 4-5 in the world by most metrics, and one that take under 7% of those who apply, it doesn’t recruit exclusively from the prep schools of New England as its image suggests: of course it’s elitist, but not quite in the way it might at first appear. A more interesting comparison would be with Oxbridge: I bet that, despite being much cheaper in terms of fees, and semi- integrated in the state system, the twin pillars of the British establishment may be less socially mixed.
I’m not arguing about this to mount a defence of the US system, or more narrowly, the clever way in which the top American Universities deflect criticism in this manner: because it is much the same kind of argument that defenders of free enterprise use when you point out the unfairness of outcomes: if a few demonstrably working-class people can rise to the top – the Bill Cullen effect- then all might potentially do so. An argument which avoids the fact that the structure of market capitalism demands that only the few shall prosper, and the odd rags to riches tale occludes the more normal ‘riches to even more riches’ one.
This discussion arose from a minor point about UCD/ TCD ambitions to become top flight research universities and the fact that in pursuing this ambition, they were ignoring this fact: however cosmetic it might be, Harvard understands the need not to be – or to appear – entirely socially exclusive and exclusionary, if it is to be as good in terms of research outcomes as it wants to be.
Wednesday, yeah, as they tend to say on MacWorld, it’s a glitch, not a feature! 😦
That’s amazing re your mother (not her getting the scholarship, but the issue about getting to Boston). What a world we live in.
The point I’m trying to make is that, for a University that is always among the top 4-5 in the world by most metrics, and one that take under 7% of those who apply, it doesn’t recruit exclusively from the prep schools of New England as its image suggests: of course it’s elitist, but not quite in the way it might at first appear. A more interesting comparison would be with Oxbridge: I bet that, despite being much cheaper in terms of fees, and semi- integrated in the state system, the twin pillars of the British establishment may be less socially mixed.
I’m unsure though why simply by dint of an institution being in the top 5 that somehow means that a clearly elitist admissions policy (even in respect of its grant funding given that only 20% are from low SES groups) is explicable. I know you’re not defending that. It doesn’t seem to me though that Harvard’s current system is better (loaded term) than the status quo ante in Ireland, indeed I’d have thought it was demonstrably worse – let alone our current one.
There are other issues as well. I tend to think that the ambitions of those here who want ‘top flight research universities’ will always crash and burn on the rock of this being a much smaller society, a lack of serious investment in that year over decades, etc… Harvard can have such excellent outcomes on certain metrics because it can pick and choose from a vast cohort, a continental cohort. I can’t see how we could emulate that. Although that’s no argument for not trying to improve matters as much as is possible. But that’s a different point entirely to the main one.
Agree entirely with you’re last para.
Irish universities need to get better, but not in the way Hugh Brady wants them to.
On the Harvard, thing: I guess we’re approaching this from different angles. I think we can both agree that, in terms of educational outcomes, starting from an economically secure background, with an expectation of achievement, is a huge advantage in this respect: and therefore one would reasonably expect that, the world being as it is, the universities most people would hold to be the most desirable ones to get into, either for simple reasons of excellence or because of the life prospects attendant on being a graduate of such a place, would be largely populated by those from the kind of background I sketched, even leaving aside the actual cost of going there. So simply the fact that some Ivy League colleges and a few other elite universities in the US do make a effort to rebalance this is to be noted. No more. But, in the light of the unrealistic ambitions of university administrators here, it ought to be kept foregrounded, because, assuredly, such considerations as equality of access are not uppermost in their minds.
Ah, I see what you’re saying. That elitism is going to be pervasive almost by definition and that the Ivy League makes attempts to tackle that and is aware of same and I presume you’re also saying that given their history that is pushing against some fairly entrenched interests, however strongly or weakly that push is. Whereas our own crew are shifting in the opposite direction and not that fussed in truth about equality of access.
That makes perfect sense.
I presume you’re also saying that given their history that is pushing against some fairly entrenched interests
Yeah, although Harvard’s own history is interesting and a bit exceptional is this regard.
What’s also striking is how in the last five or ten years, certainly since 2003 they very overtly pushed more for inclusion.
20. CL - May 31, 2010
Unequal opportunities due to social class position do not begin at the third level of education and therefore can be little ameliorated at that level.
In both Ireland and the U.S there is massive state subsidization of middle class and upper class students at third level.
State intervention to help low income children is needed much earlier in the process if the unjust disadvantage of class position is to be abolished.
21. kevin denny - June 1, 2010
Havn’t the time to reply in detail. I am quite happy with my response to the Labour TD whose contribution was nonsense and indeed arrogant.
A little research would have shown that I’m at UCD, merely visiting Kentucky (not that it matters) and only a fool would describe the IFS as pro-conservative. But if you want to be mischievous, since thinking seriously about an issue is too hard, then I guess that’s the way to do it.Its hard to take somebody seriously with such a shaky command of facts and/or logic.
22. Class and perception. « The Cedar Lounge Revolution - August 31, 2011
[…] thought, who reappeared in the papers recently but Dr. Kevin Denny. It’s cropped up here and here. Denny is an economist at UCD, and it is he who wrote a report last year entitled ‘What did […]
23. Jim Monaghan - August 31, 2011
I woul add a point. If fees are not introduced then the 3rd level bodies will be flooded with UK students. With a choice between 9000 sterling and 2000 Euro, then the choice is plain. We do not operate in an isolated state in these matters. Perhaps a grant system would deal better with access issues and avoid a more than “normal” influx of students from elsewhere.
My pont is based on realpolitic.In an ideal world/EU then a free exchange across teh EU would be great.
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Press Releases & Media Statements
Judith Hill to headline this year’s Charlotte Pride Festival & Parade
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE July 11, 2013
Matt Comer, Media Chair, media@charlottepride.org
Judith Hill to perform Sunday, Aug. 25 at two-day street festival in Uptown Charlotte
Learn more about this year’s entertainment on our Entertainment page.
CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Judith Hill will headline this year’s Charlotte Pride Festival and Parade, slated for Uptown Charlotte, Aug. 24-25. Judith Hill, who came to national stardom as a contestant on this season’s “The Voice,” will perform live on Charlotte Pride’s main stage on Sunday, Aug. 25, 2013.
“Judith has an inspiring story, a powerful voice and unique perspective she brings to the stage,” said Jonathan Hill, this year’s entertainment chair for Charlotte Pride. “Excited doesn’t even begin to describe our anticipation for Judith’s performance at our event this year.”
In addition to penning and performing her own material, Judith – who wrote her first song at the age of four – has backed such artists as the late Michael Jackson, Stevie Wonder and Elton John. Hers is one of the stories told in the film “20 Feet From Stardom.” The film, which opens in select theatres across North Carolina on July 12, shines the spotlight on the untold true story of the backup singers behind some of the greatest musical legends of the 21st century. The “20 Feet From Stardom” trailer can be seen here.
USA Today observed: “’20 Feet From Stardom’ features some of the catchiest and most memorable refrains, riffs and hooks sung by background vocalists, and tells the personal stories of some of the best voices in the business…in this film the stadium-filling rock stars play second fiddle.” Rolling Stone has praised Judith “stellar powerhouse vocals.”
Judith will join a host of other national, regional and local entertainers at this year’s Charlotte Pride. Organizers expect to top last year’s 45,000-plus attendance with the addition of the Charlotte Pride Parade, the first to hit the streets of the Queen City since 1994. For more information about this year’s events, visit charlottepride.org. Presenting sponsors for this year’s events include PNC Bank, The Scorpio, Time Warner Cable and Wells Fargo. For more information on sponsorships or vendor opportunities, email development@charlottepride.org.
To schedule advance interviews with Judith Hill prior to the festival or to schedule interviews the weekend of Aug. 24-25, please contact Matt Comer at media@charlottepride.org.
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In The Sea Around Us, her luminous 1951 exploration of the world’s oceans, Rachel Carson sought to understand the human fascination with her subject, imagining the first humans to encounter its immensity. “Standing on its shores,” she wrote, “he must have looked out upon it with wonder and curiosity, compounded with an unconscious recognition of his lineage. He could not physically re-enter the ocean as the seals and whales had done. But over the centuries, with all the skill and ingenuity and reasoning powers of his mind, he has sought to explore and investigate even its most remote parts, so that he might re-enter it mentally and imaginatively.”
Carson’s lyricism and sense of hushed sublimity is, of course, a product of its time and place, suffused by the Romanticism that has pervaded American nature writing since Thoreau. Certainly one does not have to look far to find other, less exalted attitudes to the sea and its dangers.
Yet while human attitudes to the ocean have taken many forms, there is, as oceanographer and Professor of Ocean and Climate Change at the Australian National University Eelco J. Rohling observes, no question our relationship with the ocean is almost as ancient as we are. Middens scatter the world’s coastlines, testament to our exploitation of the ocean’s resources, and not only must the ancestors of Australia’s Aborigines have developed watercraft capable of deep ocean passages at least 50,000 years ago in order to navigate the Indonesian Archipelago, it is probable these technologies existed even earlier in order to enable humans to cross the Red Sea on their way out of Africa (nor were we alone in this: although Rohling does not mention it, the supposedly primitive Homo Erectus, ancestor of Flores’ hobbits, must have made a similar passage through Indonesia, while our cousins, the Neanderthals, were crafting jewellery from shells at least 50,000 years ago).
Across the hundreds of centuries since humans left Africa the oceans have continued to shape our societies, providing resources, both economic and cultural (after animals the ocean is surely one of our richest sources of myth and metaphor), enabling travel and conquest and driving technological innovation. Simultaneously their effects on climate and geography have had a profound impact on our history, driving the rise and fall of civilizations by altering rainfall patterns and drowning entire cultures as glaciers melted at the end of the last Ice Age.
For much of our history this relationship was mostly one way. Yet over the past 150 years the human impact on the ocean has grown ever more profound. Industrial whaling, overfishing, pollution and the many-pronged effects of rising global temperatures (in particular what Rohling describes as the “silent killer”, ocean acidification) have pushed many marine environments to the brink of collapse or beyond, a process that is only accelerating as human population and consumption continues to rise.
Rohling’s book seeks to emphasise the perils of our failure to understand that not only are the oceans not limitless, or the degree to which, to borrow American historian Will Durant’s famous formulation, “civilization exists by geologic consent – subject to change without notice.” To achieve this Rohling offers a geologic perspective, exploring the origins and development of the Earth’s oceans from their origins to the present day.
His account moves from the Earth’s formation and the mystery of where the oceans came from (until the European space probe Philae landed on Comet Curyumov-Gerasimenko in 2015 it was assumed most of the water on Earth was deposited from space around four billion years ago in a process called the Late Heavy Bombardment, a hypothesis made untenable by differences in the isotopic composition of the water on Curyumov-Gerasimenko and Earth) through the emergence and development of life, exploring tectonics, currents and other large scale oceanic processes, as well as the cycles of warming and cooling driven by biological and planetary factors.
The results are genuinely exciting, even if they do prompt questions about who exactly the book is aimed at. In contrast to most popular science The Oceansavoids journalistic emphasis upon personalities or historical narrative, focussing instead upon the actual science, and meaning the book sometimes reads more like a textbook than a work aimed at the general reader. In the wrong hands that could result a work that is dry (if you’ll pardon the pun) or overly technical, but in fact the density of information and Rohling’s clear, concise explanations make for exhilarating reading, not least because Rohling’s delight in his subject matter is so palpable.
Most importantly though, Rohling’s long view makes clear the enormity of the transformation of the oceans taking place around us, underlining not just the effect of ecosystems and biodiversity, but also its geological scale.
Amidst the rising tide of awful news about the planet’s oceans, the resurgence of global whale populations is a rare good news story. Despite the growing threats facing certain populations – the Baiji, or Yangtze River Dolphin is believed to be functionally extinct, the Vaquita and Maui’s Dolphin are both critically endangered, and as warming waters drive Northern Right Whales northward they seem to be dying in increasing numbers – many whale species have rebounded spectacularly in the three decades since commercial whaling ended.
Having started studying humpback whales in the Pilbara in 1990, Australian marine scientists Micheline and Curt Jenner have observed this phenomenon first hand, a process Micheline Jenner documents in her memoir, The Secret Life of Whales. Beginning with a decade observing humpback whales off the Kimberley and Pilbara in Western Australia, they have spent time studying pygmy blue whales in the Perth Canyon, more than 70km west of Fremantle, studied dolphins along the Western Australian coast and Minke Whales on the Great Barrier Reef, and travelled to Antarctica in order to better understand the migratory behaviour of humpbacks.
Jenner’s account of her life is exultant, lit both by her endless wonder at her subjects’ magnificence and her own immense good fortune to have been able to spend a good portion of her life observing them at close quarters. And while there are times one wishes she would dial the positivity down a little – I could have done with a few less cries of “How lucky are we!” – the book offers a delightfully human portrait of life as a working naturalist and a fascinating glimpse into the complexity and mystery of the whales she loves.
Perhaps predictably many of the book’s best stories involve mishaps of one sort or another, most notably hilariously disgusting descriptions of being caught in blasts of whale mucus or covered in reeking orange whale poo (an experience that led to an important discovery about the behaviour of pygmy blue whales). Likewise Jenner’s discussion of the physiology of her subjects is always interesting, whether she is detailing the huge volumes of milk consumed by baby humpbacks (a nursing humpback mother produces 200-300 litres of milk a day, and because they do not feed during their northern migration, will lose 3600-4500 kilograms while caring for their calf) or talking about sperm whales diving up to three kilometres deep in search of food. Yet the book’s most fascinating moments are those relating to the behaviour of the whales, and in particular the evidence of complex behaviour and bonding, whether in the form of maternal commitment, altruism or grief, questions Jenner alludes to but does not pursue.
As Jenner points out toward her book’s end, many whale populations are threatened by climate change, and its potential to disrupt the life cycle of the krill upon which many whales depend (Rohling similarly points to fascinating research suggesting whales play a pivotal part in fertilising the world’s oceans, and that the decline in fish stocks may be at least partly attributable to the depletion of whale numbers from the early 1800s on).
Sadly though, for most of us these problems are essentially abstract, stories about the plight of creatures we rarely see. Yet as Jeff Goodell’s The Water Will Comemakes terrifyingly clear, the threat posed by climate change is neither abstract nor a problem for the future: instead it is real and happening all around us.
Goodell is a contributing editor at Rolling Stone, and along with The New Yorker’sElizabeth Kolbert has written some of the most intelligent and clear-eyed accounts of the politics and practical effects of rising global temperatures. In The Water Will Comehe brings these skills to bear on the most discussed but possibly least-understood dimension of climate change, rising sea levels.
As with many aspects of climate change, our capacity to effectively respond to the problem is limited by our inability to imagine its consequences. But in the case of sea level rise that problem is exacerbated by our lack of certainty around how far and how fast seas will rise.
As Goodell makes clear, this lack of certainty about how far sea levels will rise should not be confused with a lack of certainty about whether they will rise, or whether that rise will be significant. Even the absolute bottom end estimates suggest a 30cm rise by the end of the century, and many scientists now believe they are likely to rise considerably more: asked whether estimates of two metres by 2100 are too low one glaciologist responds simply, “Shit, yeah”.
There have been other books about these questions but Goodell’s account is undoubtedly one of the best, capturing not just the scale of the problem, but also, through interviews with politicians, architects, planners and real estate developers, its sheer complexity in both practical and political terms and the unequal distribution of effects between rich and poor.
Yet while one of the highlights of the book is its remarkable opening section, in which Goodell offers a chillingly plausible portrait of the destruction of Miami in a hurricane twenty years from now (a device he borrows from Carson’s seminal Silent Spring), the book’s real achievement lies in its clear-eyed assessment of the scale of the social and economic disruption that lies just over the horizon. For like Rohling, and to a lesser extent Jenner, Goodell recognises we inhabit a moment in which geological and human time scales have collapsed into each other, creating a situation where the fate of the human race and the fate of the planet are now interdependent. Or, as Rachel Carson put it more than half a century ago, “it is a curious situation that the sea, from which life first arose should now be threatened by the activities of one form of that life. But the sea, though changed in a sinister way, will continue to exist; the threat is rather to life itself.”
Originally published in The Weekend Australian, 9 February 2018.
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2017 was a big year for film, and I had so many movies on my most anticipated list that I’d planned to watch. Thanks to having a Cineworld card, I saw SO many of those films and more so now I’m going to count down my favourites of the year.
When a murder occurs on the train he’s travelling on, celebrated detective Hercule Poirot is recruited to solve the case. – from IMDb
A lot of Poirot Purists weren’t fans of Kenneth Branagh’s latest adaptation of Agatha Christie’s mystery, Murder on the Orient Express. I, personally, happened to really enjoy seeing Johnny Depp stabbed twelve times, especially by a handful of women, so I rated it quite highly. I did, however, agree that Branagh’s Lorax-style moustache was a bit much.
A dark force threatens Alpha, a vast metropolis and home to species from a thousand planets. Special operatives Valerian and Laureline must race to identify the marauding menace and safeguard not just Alpha, but the future of the universe. – from IMDb
What’s not to love? A slick science fiction film that aims to entertain and, in my case, succeeds. I can’t comment on whether it was loyal to the original source material, but I did enjoy watching it. Again, another film that didn’t seem to be very popular, except with yours truly.
Inspired by the imagination of P.T. Barnum, The Greatest Showman is an original musical that celebrates the birth of show business and tells of a visionary who rose from nothing to create a spectacle that became a worldwide sensation. – from IMDb
Again, another thoroughly entertaining film that captures the hearts of the audience and pulls you along for the ride. The musical numbers are electric and toe-tapping, and the team of Circus “Freaks” are inspiring to watch and listen to. A really great, family friendly film.
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2
The Guardians must fight to keep their newfound family together as they unravel the mystery of Peter Quill’s true parentage. – from IMDb
Another slick sci-fi flick that hauls you along for the ride, exciting you from beginning to end. Slightly soap opera-y in places, but the drama and drive of this movie has projected it into my top ten. I can’t wait for volume three to come out! (Spoiler alert: this isn’t the last Marvel movie on my wrap up!)
Rey develops her newly discovered abilities with the guidance of Luke Skywalker, who is unsettled by the strength of her powers. Meanwhile, the Resistance prepares for battle with the First Order. – from IMDb
I think 2017 has been the year for sci-fi films! I’ve seen so many amazing ones that have really entertained me, and The Last Jedi is no different. Again, lots of hardcore Star Wars fans didn’t like the newest instalment of the series, but I loved it!
Peter Parker balances his life as an ordinary high school student in Queens with his superhero alter-ego Spider-Man and finds himself on the trail of a new menace prowling the skies of New York City. – from IMDb
To be honest, when I first heard they were remaking Spider-Man AGAIN, I was worried. We’ve already had Peter Parker’s origin story made twice, but then us Marvel fans discovered that the newest instalment in MCU was to continue with the incarnations of Spider-Man we had already seen. Thank goodness for that! And it was a bloody grand effort if you ask me. Funny, charming and witty, there was nothing I didn’t love about this coming of age tale!
An adaptation of the fairy tale about a monstrous-looking prince and a young woman who fall in love. – from IMDb
Another film that I was sceptical about at first, because I love the original so much, but of course I was pleasantly surprised. The remake was true to the original and had a great cast, and included all the songs we loved. It didn’t try to make it better, it just tried to honour an already brilliant film, in the same way you’d celebrate an anniversary.
In Northern Italy in 1983, seventeen-year-old Elio begins a relationship with visiting Oliver, his father’s research assistant, with whom he bonds over his emerging sexuality, their Jewish heritage, and the beguiling Italian landscape. – from IMDb
This film was beautifully written, beautifully shot and beautifully acted, and all in all was downright BEAUTIFUL. That’s the only way I can describe this film. This film wasn’t on my radar at all, but because my sister wanted to go and see it, and asked me along with her, I went and thoroughly enjoyed myself!
Paddington is happily settled with the Brown family in Windsor Gardens, where he has become a popular member of the community, spreading joy and marmalade wherever he goes. While searching for the perfect present for his beloved Aunt Lucy’s 100th birthday, Paddington spots a unique pop-up book in Mr Gruber’s antique shop and embarks upon a series of odd jobs to buy it. But when the book is stolen, it’s up to Paddington and the Browns to unmask the thief. – from IMDb
When Paddington 2 was released, I heard rumours that it was even better than the first one… a rumour I can confirm is true! This film made me laugh, made me cry, gave me heartache and stitch all in one afternoon. It was beautiful. The Paddington movies continue to charm and shows that everyone is different and so everyone is welcome.
Imprisoned, the mighty Thor finds himself in a lethal gladiatorial contest against the Hulk, his former ally. Thor must fight for survival and race against time to prevent the all-powerful Hela from destroying his home and the Asgardian civilization. – from IMDb
I liked the first Thor movie… I didn’t like the second… but the third I LOVED! The comedy, the pace, the story, Hemsworth and Hiddleston are a duo like no other. Thor Ragnarok was by far my most favourite film of 2017. Bring on Infinity War!
So, this concludes my top ten list of films from 2017. Are there any on this list that you loved? Or do you disagree with my rankings? Let me know in the comments!
Tags Agatha Christie, avengers, baby groot, beauty, beauty and the beast, blog, blog post, blogger, blogging, blogpost, blogs, book to film, book to film adaptations, book to movie, book to movie adaptation, book to movie adaptations, call me by your name, Clare Holman-Hobbs, clarebearhh, clareholmanhobbs, creative, creative writing, creative writing blog, creative writing blogs, creator, dan stevens, disney films, emma watson, film, film blog, film blogger, films, guardians of the galaxy, guardians of the galaxy vol 2, guardians of the galaxy vol ii, hercule poirot, hugh jackman, infinity war, internet movie database, kenneth branagh, live musical film, marvel, marvel cinematic universe, mcu, michael bond, movie, movie blog, movie blogger, movie musical, movie musicals, movies, murder on the orient express, musical film, musical films, musical movie, musical movies, paddington, paddington 2, paddington brown, peter parker, poirot, pt barnam, science fiction, spider man, spider man homecoming, star wars, star wars episode 8, star wars episode eight, star wars episode viii, star wars the last jedi, the avengers, the greatest showman, the guardians of the galaxy, the last jedi, thor ragnarok, top ten, top ten films, top ten list, top ten movies, valerian, valerian and the city of a thousand planets, write, writer, Writing, writing blog, writing blogger, writing blogs
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DeVito, Frank, 93, of Cross River, NY formerly of Yonkers and the Bronx died on July 3, 2019. Frank was born in the Bronx on May 24, 1926.
He was a lifelong fan of sports, and he especially enjoyed watching the Yankees, the Giants, and boxing. As a young man Frank was athletic, excelled at baseball and even had a tryout with the Brooklyn Dodgers. Frank always worked; at age 10 he began shining shoes in his father’s store, and after leaving elementary school he took on the grueling work of delivering blocks of ice. These early experiences molded his high work ethic, a work ethic that is valued by his children.
For most of his life Frank worked in the automobile industry in leadership positions as the parts and service manager of various dealerships. Frank had a solid character built upon knowledge, experience, and integrity; he was well-respected and known as the “go-to-guy.” It was important to Frank to treat all his clients, colleagues, and employees with respect; and they all realized and appreciated Frank’s even-handed, candid method of doing business—and they, in turn, respected him greatly.
Frank is the loving father of Michael (Rosemary), Frank, Rick, Loretta and Carole Lynn—and the cherished grandfather of nine grandchildren and two great grandchildren. Frank always yearned to spend even more time with his children and grandchildren. He was affectionately regarded as a big, warm, huggie-bear and will be remembered as gentle and soft-spoken.
Frank was predeceased in 2018 by his wife, Rosalie. Without a doubt, Rosalie was the fiery center of his life. How they loved each other! Frank would say, “Your mother and I lived our life together like kids!”
The family acknowledges the crucial professional care Frank and Rosalie received during their twilight time on Earth from the doctors, nurses, and caregivers of Dumont Nursing Home, Sarah Neuman Nursing Home, Northern Westchester Hospital and Wound Care Center, and Calvary Hospital.
His family will receive friends on Wednesday, July 10th from 9:00 am to 10:30am at Clark Associates Funeral Home, 4 Woods Bridge Road, Katonah, NY.
The Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated on Wednesday, July 10th at 11:00 am at St. Mary of The Assumption Church, 55 Valley Road, Katonah, NY. Interment will follow at South Salem Cemetery, South Salem, NY.
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January 4, 2019 by P. James Clark
Sky battle of Kurukshetra
It has been my contention for a very long time, that if we were to somehow remove the Indian influence on astrology, we would have precious little left at the end of the day. Moreover, this source of wisdom goes back to the sages who composed the first of the Veda, know as the RgVeda. This would take us back perhaps 6,000 years and we can safely estimate that the oral wisdom predated even that by a considerable period of time. It is thought that Zarathustra was a Vedic priest, which would speak to the far reach of the Vedic cultures which extended also well into what is now Afghanistan.
The purpose of this article is to stimulate further research and increased dialogue with practitioners of ancient Indian astrology. However, it is merely an incomplete introduction and if it raises more questions than it answers, I shall be content with that. The title of this article is taken from Subhash Kak’s The Astronomical Code of the Ṛgveda (Third Edition) 2011 which has kindly been offered.to the public for personal use at no charge.
There are some splendid Western scholars Indian astrology, including such greats as Dr. David Frawley, James T.Braha, Hart Defouw, Robert Svoboda, Komilla Sutton, and others. At the same time, we can learn a great deal from Indian, Greek, Egyptian, Babylonian, Zoroastrian and another form of astrology as they exchanged knowledge in Alexandria. I have always seen this as a kind of alchemy wherein the end is much greater than its constituent elements. Many astrologers have found that Greek astrology, for example, seems to be missing pieces of the picture and this is complicated further by the fact that Greek astrologers didn’t provide anything like consensus to posterity.
Nevertheless, the number of Western practitioners who welcome what ancient Indian astrology may have to offer them is minuscule. I suspect that one of the chief reasons for this is a lack of knowledge regarding the background and we stall at the difficulties of transference. Most obviously, it is difficult to ask even a seasoned practitioner to adopt one of the Sidereal zodiacs. The requires one to accept different Signs for the same periods. Also, the philosophy, mythology and indeed mysticism of Rahu and Ketu and immeasurable more advanced and developed than any Traditional Western system. Again, one needs to go to the ancient sour es and attempt to understand a way of being that, according to scholars of ancient Indian astronomy, actually belongs in a different Yuga – one in which the gods lived on earth.
The astronomical accuracy of the ancient rishis is astounding. In the ‘Hidden Mysteries’, publication, Osho states:: The deepest laws of astrology were first discovered in India,” says Osho while speaking about the origins of astrology and the relationship between the sun and the human body” Ch 5, Part 1 of 6. Oshos’s assertion is impossible to deny. There is simply nothing that comes close to Ancient Indian Astrology in terms of sophistication and astronomical accuracy involving virtually unfathomable periods of time.. This implies that all other schools of astrology owe their beginnings to that tradition. Of course, the fact is, we know very little about who these rishis actually were and even less about how they attained their level of knowledge.
Pages from the Rigveda
As is the case in Persian astrology, there is sophisticated interrelatedness between the Creation stories and astrology. In my mind, the Classical pantheon as related to astrology seems rather thin and derivative. Venus, for example, is a mere caricature of the goddesses of India, Persia and the Middle East. Writing on the Nodes in the Western tradition are mostly vague and never very useful. It’s painful to read William Lilly fumble over the meaning of the Nodes. It is entirely understandable that any reader that he isn’t quite sure what to do with them. Personally, I prefer to try things out for myself and I can say that no western writer has been as clear and profound as Indian ones with regard to that topic.
One can, however, take what one has learned and apply it in the spirit of its significance rather than. with recourse to dogma. Indian and particularly Hindu culture is one in which nobody is held to account for worshipping and thinking what they see as truth. India is unique in this respect and is always amenable to diversity. Dr. David Frawley writes”India’s vibrant democracy and diversity of spiritual and religious practices is owing to its Hindu majority culture and the vast rishi and yogic values it is based upon.” This quality ought to suggest relative ease in incorporating Indian wisdom into Western astrology. As mentioned above, there are in fact significant hurdles today, which would have been far less so in antiquity.
Nevertheless, it should be borne in mind that there was indeed a great deal of transference in antiquity:
“The Vedic system of knowledge, with an assumed linkage between astronomical and terrestrial events, implies a system of astrology as well. The planetary periods [sic] evidence from the Rgvedic code is at least a thousand years before such knowledge outside India. With these dates and the attested presence of the Vedic Indians in West Asia in early second millennium BCE, it becomes easy to see how the astronomical ideas of the ¯re altars and the Rgveda could have been transmitted to Babylonia and Greece.” (See Subhash Kak. The Astronomical Code of the Ṛgveda (Third Edition) 2011. In later times, there was a reverse influence, notably from the Greeks and Persians.
Most perplexing of all is internal material in the RigVeda and what it tells us of the ancient origin of the work:
In the Rigveda, reference is made to a certain constellation of the stars which could only have occurred ninety-five thousand years ago. Because of this, Lokmanya Tilak concluded that the Vedas must certainly be even more ancient: the constellation of the stars as the Vedas described it could only have occurred at a certain moment ninety-five thousand years ago so that particular Vedic reference must be at least ninety-five thousand years old.
That particular Vedic reference could not have been added at a later period. Other, younger generations would not have been able to work out a constellation that existed many years before. But now we have scientific methods which we can use to discover where the stars were at a particular moment in the distant past.” (Osho, Hidden Mysteries, Ch 5 (translated from Hindi), Part 1 of 6.)
To accept this, we would have to radically change our concept of history – yet this ancient constellation would have to be accounted for. What possible reason could there be for the writers of RigVeda to invent such an elaborate fiction? Conversely, If we accept the internal evidence, we would have to admit that our knowledge of the distant past is sadly lacking.
It may come as a surprise that the Rigveda there “were two kinds of year in use. In one, the year was measured from one winter solstice to another; in the other, it was measured from one vernal equinox to another. Obviously, these years were solar and related to the seasons (tropical).” (Kak p. 177). Most westerners consider the Sidereal Zodiac to be of the essence in Indian astrology, but there is reason to believe that it was a later, perhaps foreign idea. The division of the year into 12 Signs and 27 Nakshatras or constellations is illustrated thus:
© Subhash Kak
The 27 Nakshatras are roughly equivalent to the Lunar Mansions (28), except the Nakshatras are considered far more in modern Indian astrology and I suspect this goes back a very long way.
A Russian by the name of …. discovered that rishis were aware of an 11 years cycle in which the Sun produced a massive explosion. He realized that the cycle was immediately connected to human life. He got into trouble for suggesting that revolutions and other major upheavals mirrored a corresponding Solar disturbance. The point here is that the outer Universe was known to be inextricably connected to all forms of human life which is the most basic definition of ancient astrology.
Pythagoras traveled to India and Egypt and was particularly impressed by spiritual practice and beliefs he found in India. From the record we have, which is by no means comprehensive, his theory of celestial correspondence appears to beat in part indebted to the essential knowledge he discovered there and that this provided the impetus to develop his own system.
It should be understood that this modest article does little more than point to the relevance of the Rigveda and Indian astrology. However, there are some things that the western astrologer can learn from Indian astrology and indeed the Vedas themselves. Most importantly is the spirit of ancient Indian astrology. It is immensely practical and deeply mystical. At this point in history, I am somewhat pessimistic about Indian and Western astrology can incorporate each other, but that is no small part due to the changes that have come to be in the unfolding of Indian astrology itself. The simple case of the sidereal and tropical zodiacs is one such barrier.
In a subsequent article, I will look more closely at how the rishis were able to achieve such extraordinary accuracy with respect to the length of the years, the yugas and planetary cycles. At least as interesting is why the felt they needed to map such massive periods of time.
The Hindu Trimurti: Vishnu, Brahma and Shiva seated on their respective mounts. (Public Domain)
This entry was posted in Constellations, Cosmology, India, Indian Astrology, Traditional Astrology.
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The No. 1 Source For Breaking Music and Film Headlines
The Raconteurs tear through “Bored and Razed” on Colbert: Watch
The band return to the Ed Sullivan Theatre for their second performance in as many nights
on June 22, 2019, 11:11am
The Raconteurs on Colbert
The Raconteurs marked the release of their first new album in 11 years, Help Us Stranger, with back-to-back appearances on the Late Show with Stephen Colbert. Following Thursday night’s performance of “Help Me Stranger”, Jack White and co. returned to the Ed Sullivan Theatre on Friday night. This time, the band turned it up to 11, delivering a loud and lively rendition of “Bored and Razed”. Bonus points to White for wearing a Cramps t-shirt. Catch the replay below.
Beginning next month, The Raconteurs will embark on an extensive US tour in support of their new album. Get your tickets here.
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Live Review: The Rolling Stones Shake Off Rust During Tour Opener at Chicago’s Soldier Field (6/21)
Stephen King, Martin Sheen, Robert De Niro, and more break down the Mueller Report: Watch
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Here’s Looking at You, Kidwell: The Tribune’s Anti-Traffic Cam Reporter Has Left the Paper
By John Greenfield, Payton Chung and Steven Vance
David Kidwell. Image: YouTube
Investigative reporter David Kidwell recently left the staff of the Chicago Tribune and will be joining The Better Government Association later this month as special projects editor. During his tenure at the Tribune, Kidwell wrote extensively about the city’s automatic traffic enforcement program. Some of his coverage of traffic camera issues was constructive and helped lead to important reforms.
However, while red light and speed cameras have been proven to save lives in cities across the country and around the world, and a Northwestern University study released last month found that Chicago’s red light cameras have significantly reduced injury crashes, much of Kidwell’s writing seemed to betray a personal bias against the cams. By downplaying the safety benefits of automated enforcement while consistently portraying them as an unfair imposition on drivers, Kidwell fanned the flames of opposition to the cams, technology that is doing its job to prevent serious injuries and deaths.
First, let’s acknowledge that Kidwell did a major service for our city by exposing the bribery scheme involving former camera vendor RedFlex and former Chicago Department of Transportation official John Bills that took place during the Richard M. Daley administration. He also deserves credit for exposing unexplained spikes in ticketing at some red light cameras, which put pressure on CDOT to be more vigilant about watching out for such irregularities in the future and immediately addressing these kind of issues as they emerge.
The Tribune also reported on the fact that at one point the city quietly changed its ticketing standard to allow red light citations to be issued after yellow lights that were a microsecond below 3.0 seconds, which was legal under state law, but should have been done with more transparency. This kind of watchdog reporting helped push the city to make some positive changes to its automatic enforcement program. (The Northwestern report has spurred some other tweaks.)
But in several cases, Kidwell misrepresented the facts about red light and speed cameras, in an apparent vendetta against automated enforcement that was counterproductive to the cause of public safety. Most egregiously, in late 2014 Kidwell and fellow Tribune reporter Alex Richards ran a long front-page story that proclaimed “Chicago red light cameras provide few safety benefits,” according to a study commissioned by the paper. They emphasisized that the study “concluded the cameras do not reduce injury-related crashes overall.”
But buried 2,000-words into the article was an acknowledgement the existence of an earlier Federal Highway Administration report that actually debunks the whole premise behind the Tribune’s analysis. Both the Tribune and FHWA studies found that red light cameras tend to prevent “T-bone” crashes with injuries, while rear-end injury crashes increase.
But since the FHWA also acknowledged that right-angle crashes are more severe and impose higher costs on society than rear-end crashes, it found that even with increases in one crash type, the benefits of red light cameras outweigh the costs, stating, “This is why looking… just at changes in total crash numbers is not correct.”
The Tribune failed to note this basic conclusion that upends the paper’s own methodology. In effect, Kidwell and Richards ignored the most important factor – the number of people killed and the severity of injuries sustained at intersections with red light cameras. Read Streetsblog’s full analysis of why the Tribune cover story was “garbage journalism” here.
In another cover story around that time, Kidwell promoted the idea that there was a safety crisis posed by Chicago using “risky” and “too short” 3-second yellow light signal timing at red light camera intersections. This was despite the fact that over 3,000 stoplights across the city have had this timing for at least 30 years.
While the Tribune provided a roundup of how different cities time yellow lights, the real takeaway was that there’s no single rule or national standard for ideal signal timing (In fact, there are even competing definitive guidebooks.) Read more on that issue here.
In late 2015, Kidwell apparently decided he hadn’t given a fair share of abuse to the city’s speed camera program, so he and reporter Abraham Epton went nuclear on the speed cams with a series of four mind-numbingly detailed articles, covering the better part of eight pieces of newsprint. They quoted a dozen or so drivers who complained that the tickets they received for speeding near parks and schools were unfair because they were issued while the parks were closed, children weren’t present in school zones, or warning signs were missing, contrary to state law and city ordinance.
None of the drivers who cried foul in the Trib‘s story claimed they weren’t speeding. And since Chicago only issues speed cam tickets to motorists going ten mph or more over the limit, we know all of the people who were ticketed in 30 mph zones were driving dangerously fast. Studies show that while people struck at 30 usually survive, those struck at 40 almost always die. Legal technicalities aside, those drivers deserved fines.
The reporters also played up the fact that, while the speed cams, which can only be installed in “Safety Zones” within an eighth-mile of parks and schools, were pitched by Mayor Emanuel as a strategy to protect children, the cameras issuing the most tickets were located on arterials where children are unlikely to be struck. While its true that the mayor’s “think of the children” argument may have been less than candid, the speed cameras have typically been installed in some of the city’s highest-crash corridors, where they’re improving safety for all road users, not just youngsters. Read more on the issue here.
So while we thank Kidwell for his more constructive reporting on Chicago’s red light camera program and wish him well in his new job, we can’t say we’re sad to see him leave the Tribune. Hopefully the paper’s future coverage will acknowledge the many studies that show that show that properly administered traffic cam programs save lives, and will be less biased by a reporter’s personal distaste for holding dangerous drivers accountable.
Filed Under: Chicago Policy, Driving, Federal Policy, Infrastructure, Automated Enforcement, David Kidwell, red light cameras, speed cameras, Traffic Cameras
Runthered
I think you’re a bit jealous of the fact that he is a real journalist, and you are a blogger. Thank God for the work that he did. Chicago’s automated enforcement has been nothing but corrupt. It was built on bribes. There was never any thought of safety. It’s been all about money, money, money. Did he also report on the speed cameras that issue tickets to parked cars? Do you think that’s OK? Do you think it’s OK that the city skirts the law, and Sons tickets to people who shouldn’t get tickets? Again, thanks to him, the crooks are going to jail.
Anne A
Well done. Thank you!
The Tribune knew their audience, which didn’t give a damn about government corruption, but did give a damn if their personal ability to speed whenever they felt like it was impeded in any way.
ChicagoCyclist
I am 100% for red light cameras and for speed cameras too. These technologies represent fair, objective, automated, efficient enforcement. The safety benefits are well-established. The only real arguments against these cameras are basically: “I want to be able to run red lights without receiving a ticket and I want others to be able to too,” and “I want to be able to speed without receiving a ticket and I want others to be able to too.”
That said, the fact that “there’s currently no national agreement on what the standard [for the duration of yellow lights] should be, and there’s no indication that Chicago’s current yellow light timing is unsafe” does NOT represent a sound argument against increasing the yellow light duration from 3 to 3.5 seconds. Similar to the situation with climate change, the LARGE MAJORITY of engineers around the country and the large majority of jurisdictions around the county have yellow light durations longer than 3 seconds. Why not follow suit here in Chicago? The only real argument against doing so, which I can think of, is: “We don’t want to slow automobile throughput.” That very old, out-of-date automobile-centric argument is NOT valid in a multimodal, urban environment like Chicago. Nor is it consistent or in keeping with the Complete Streets policy / approach that the City and CDOT have adopted, which (generally and in most locations/situations) prioritizes pedestrians and bicyclists (and transit service/users, which includes of course pedestrians) OVER automobile travel. Why? Because they (peds and bikes) are the most vulnerable roadway users. The idea is the same as the spirit behind Vision Zero, which the City has also officially adopted — namely, the goal of reducing fatalities. In my opinion, Chicago should have red light and speed cameras almost everywhere (not just school/park zones), and should ALSO increase yellow light duration to 3.25 or 3.5 seconds! Why not, I ask?
From the earlier Streetsblog post on the yellow light issue:
“True, some recent engineering guidance recommends that cities assume that drivers are usually speeding when approaching traffic signals, and such formulas find Chicago’s yellow signals to be on the short side. For example, Institute of Transportation Engineers’ formula recommends that for situations like a citywide standard (where actual travel speeds can’t be observed), adding 7 mph to the speed limit across the board — thus assuming that drivers citywide are traveling at 37 mph.
Moving forward with that assumption would endorse and enable speeding, which is a far cry from the Chicago Department of Transportation’s recent push to eliminate all fatalities from our streets. David Zavattero is head of traffic safety programs at CDOT, and oversees the red light camera program. He said that Chicago uses a three second yellow light because “we don’t believe it is a safe environment to be [in], basing your signal timing on a 40 mph vehicle traveling through the intersection.” Plus, Chicago’s citywide three second phase has a long history: The federal government’s Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices first recommended a three second minimum back in 1935, and continues to do so today.”
Thanks for responding. There are MUCH better ways to reduce speeding than sticking to a 3 second yellow. In fact, the duration of the yellow ball does not directly impact speeding (i.e. it is not, in and of itself, a ‘countermeasure’ to speeding.) As for that masterpiece of systematic, logical, and creative thinking, the great MUTCD (and I’m not being ironic), I must say that the fact is, the 2009 edition, which broke new ground for including bicycle and pedestrian travel, is itself already out-of-date and currently under revision to better serve bicyclists and pedestrians. Goodness knows, I’ve never looked at the 1935 edition :). I’d say that the long history of roadway engineering and operations practice / standards / guidance (which are thoroughly automobile-centric) is exactly what we are fighting against! Mr. Zavattero’s explanation just doesn’t make sense to me. If we have more red light and speeding cameras, then this — i.e. enforcement — will deter speeding and red light running, regardless of the yellow duration. Especially if this enforcement is combined with roads purposefully designed to keep cars traveling at or under the speed limits, which in urban areas should never be more than 30, and ideally should be around 20 mph.
JimmyJam
You misrepresent facts and delete comments you don’t agree with all of the time. Kidwell was a reporter for a reputable newspaper. Until you are on the same level playing field, you shouldn’t criticize. Your continued support of a program built on bribes and rife with corruption, as well a speed camera program that tickets parked cars shows how ignorant you are.
Stop deleting comments – what is wrong with you???
Run the Light
What, Melissa? You don’t think people care about corruption? I speed, and will continue to speed, regardless if there are cameras (I can easily hit the brakes for a few seconds) or what the speed limit is. You’re a complete disaster. Watch out lady!
He was a great reporter! Perhaps you should stop criticizing and deleting comments from people who don’t agree with you. He worked to expose one of the biggest corruptions in Chicago history. He exposed the FACT that the cameras were ticketing parked cars. And that loser Scott Kubly just said “oh well”. Do you think he’s a bad person? Why don’t you look in the mirror for once and realize that YOU don’t report FACTS. YOU push YOUR agenda and don’t like it when people disagree with you. You’re nothing but a big cry baby. When’s the next beg-athon? Donate money or the site will be shut down. I don’t know how you sleep at night. But I’m sure he sleeps well, know that he’s doing a service for the people of Chicago. You, on the other hand, are the one who doesn’t know what journalism is.
You’re a coward! Grow up!
Please see the “Conclusion: Going Forward” chapter of this new study on Red Light Cameras in Chicago: http://www.transportation.northwestern.edu/docs/research/RLC-Report-Web.pdf
I am 100% for red light cameras and for speed cameras too. These technologies represent fair, objective, automated, efficient enforcement. The only real argument, that I can see, against these cameras is basically: “I want to be able to run red lights without receiving a ticket and want others to be able to too.” and “I want to be able to speed without receiving a
ticket and want others to be able to too.” That said, the fact, stated in the article — and which I too believe is true — that “there’s currently no national agreement on what the standard [for the duration of yellow lights]
should be, and there’s no indication that Chicago’s current yellow
light timing is unsafe” does not, in my opinion, represent a sound argument against
increasing the yellow light duration from 3 to 3.5 seconds! As with a complicated issue like climate change, we must recognize that the (large) majority of engineers around the country and the large majority of jurisdictions around the county recommend/have yellow light durations that are longer than 3 seconds. Why not follow suit here in Chicago? The only real
argument against doing so, which I can think of, is in fact: “We don’t want to
slow automobile throughput.” That very old, out-of-date
automobile-centric argument is not valid in a modern multimodal, urban environment like Chicago. Nor is it consistent or in keeping with the Complete Streets policy / approach that the City and CDOT have adopted, which (generally and in most locations/situations) prioritizes pedestrians and bicyclists (and transit service/users, which includes of course pedestrians) OVER automobile travel. Why does the Complete Streets policy do this? Because they (peds and bikes) are the vulnerable roadway users. The idea is also at the heart of Vision Zero, which the City has officially adopted — which has the goal of reducing all traffic-related fatalities. Chicago, in my opinion, should have red light and speed cameras almost everywhere and should ALSO increase yellow light duration to 3.25 or 3.5 seconds. Why not?
FrancieKid
The assertion here that speed cam tickets are only issued when cars are driving 10 mph or more over the speed limit is absolutely false. Tickets are issued if the car is moving 5 miles over the limit. Starting at 11 miles over, the fine is increased to $100 from $35. That would be 31 mph in a 30 mile zone if no children are present. This story also ignores a big point made by Kidwell that is a HUGE problem. Cameras in school speed zones issue tickets on school days when NO CHILDREN ARE VISIBLE in either photos or videos. The law – and the school zone signs – clearly state there is a violation if cars go over 20 mph on school days WHEN CHILDREN ARE PRESENT. Contesting these tickets is onerous and time consuming, so most people just pay the fine. This is unjust and the city is aware of the issue. Videos on the Finance Department website have a note that claims children are present when the video clearly shows otherwise. Please fact check – and tell the whole story.
“Tickets are issued if the car is moving 5 miles over the limit.”
No. “The fine is $35.00 for a speeding violation 10 miles over the applicable speed limit, but less than 11 miles over such speed limit. The fine is $100.00 if the recorded speed limit is 11 or more miles over the applicable speed limit.” https://www.chicago.gov/city/en/depts/cdot/supp_info/children_s_safetyzoneporgramautomaticspeedenforcement/automated_speed_enforcementfrequentlyaskedquestions.html
Quote from city Speeders clocked at six to 10 mph over the enforced speed can be fined $35, although the city says that for now it is only issuing fines for those going 10 mph over the limit. That increases to $100 when the car is clocked at 11 mph or more over the enforced speed limit
6 to 10 miles over the limit gets a ticket.
The Chicago Sun-Times Hops on the Anti-Cam Bandwagon
After the Chicago Tribune’s star anti-traffic camera reporter David Kidwell left the paper last month somebody had to take up the slack, right?
Silly Tribune, Speed Cameras Aren’t Just for Kids — They Make Everyone Safer
[Today the Chicago Reader launched a new weekly transportation column written by Streetsblog Chicago editor John Greenfield. This partnership will allow Streetsblog to extend the reach of our livable streets advocacy. We’ll be syndicating a portion of the column on the day it comes out online; you can read the remainder on the Reader’s website […]
Trib Launches War on Speed Cams, CDOT Releases Data Showing They Work
The Chicago Tribune’s David Kidwell and his colleagues have written extensively about the city’s red light camera program. Some of that reporting has been constructive, including revelations about the red light cam bribery scandal, unexplained spikes in ticketing, and cameras that were installed in low-crash locations during the Richard M. Daley administration. Other aspects of the […]
When Will the Trib Get to the Bottom of Chicago’s Traffic Violence Problem?
By John Greenfield | Oct 29, 2014
Tuesday night, the Chicago Tribune hosted a discussion of its red light camera coverage with members of its investigative reporting team. During the Q & A session, I noted that 48 pedestrians were killed and 398 were seriously injured in Chicago in 2012, the most recent year that we have accurate data for. “It doesn’t seem like you […]
More Steps Emanuel Should Take to Reform Chicago’s Traffic Cam Program
By John Greenfield | Apr 15, 2015
Even if you voted for Chuy García, if you know how effective automated enforcement has been for preventing serious crashes in other cities, you may be relieved he didn’t get a chance to shut down all of Chicago’s traffic cameras. However, García and the other challengers did residents a service by drawing attention to ways that the Emanuel […]
Ken Dunkin Pushes for Legislation That Would Make Chicago Streets Less Safe
Once again, traffic enforcement cameras are being used as a political football in Chicago. Last November, 12th Ward Alderman George Cardenas showed he’s more interested in votes than reducing crashes and fatalities, when he led a protest against speed cameras on the 3200 block of South Archer in McKinley Park neighborhood, near the Mulberry Park […]
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October 17, 2010 | By USA Triathlon
October 17, 2010 - Puerto Vallarta, Mexico USA Triathlon story | results Women's Results 1. Carla Moreno (BRA), 2:04:52 2. Gwen Jorgensen (Milwaukee, Wis.), 2:05:24 3. Jillian Petersen (St. Louis, Mo.), 2:06:28 6. Margaret Shapiro (Herndon, Va.), 2:07:47 7. Rebeccah Wassner (New Paltz, N.Y.), 2:08:17 8. Annie Warner (Nine Mile Falls, Wash.), 2:08:48 11. Alicia Kaye (Maynard, … [Read more...]
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February 26, 2015 by craftymcclever
Reuters reported on Thursday that the Senate moved Wednesday to advert a shutdown of U.S. domestic security agency this weekend by voting to clear the way for funding a funding bill that does not include the immigration issue. The vote came shortly after an appeal from the current and two former Security secretaries appealed to Congress to avoid the shutdown and give full funding for the department of Homeland Security this year. The final hurdle for passage will fall to the conservative Republicans in the House of Representatives who still oppose the bill and procedural negotiations that could delay the final vote beyond Friday’s funding deadline for the department. The agency set up after 9/11 coordinates domestic efforts to combat security threats like the recent Somali based Islamic militants against U.S. shopping malls and encompasses the Coast Guard, Transportation Security Administration as well as border, immigration and several other federal agencies. The original bill would of funded the agency with $39.7 billion until Republicans against Democratic President Barack Obama’s executive order lifted deportation threats of undocumented immigrants got in the way causing Republicans to approve the bill adding a provision to ban spending on the order. This in turn caused a deadlock that lasted weeks between Republicans and Democrats leading up to Wednesday’s vote. The 98-2 vote cleared the way to take out the House’s immigration provisions and leave the vote on immigration orders for a later date under the plan designed by Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell to end the deadlock. The overwhelming bipartisan support for McConnell’s approach means there is strong support for drama free funding for Homeland Security. Democrats have called for a clean Homeland bill all along without any immigration restrictions as Obama had threatened to veto the House passed measure. House Speaker John Boehner declined to tell Reuters if he would put the bill to a House vote even thought the deadline ends at midnight Friday. If no deal is reached, then Homeland Security would be forced to furlough about 30,000 employees or 15 percent of its workforce. This translate to many of the essential personnel such as airport and border security agents would have to wait to be paid until new funding is approved. Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson and some of his predecessors pleaded at a news conference for Congress to swiftly pass the funding bill. A cut-off in funds also would suspend grants to states to support local counter-terrorism activities.
As security issues at home become increasingly worrisome, the White House has said President Barack Obama would be open to negotiating with Congress for new authorization for military force against Islamic State militants including a three year limit on U.S. military action and use of American troops, according to the AP’s Nedra Pickler, Obama open to changes to military authority against IS. After a weeklong holiday break, lawmakers returned to Washington Monday and have started to consider the proposal with some Republicans saying it is too restrictive for the mission to succeed and some Democrats wanting more limitations on Obama’s authority so the U.S. doesn’t sign on for another open ended war. Obama is open to discussing every aspect of his proposal but firmly opposed to any geographic restriction on where the U.S. military pursues ISIS with strongholds in Iraq and Syria but have been operating across international boundaries. White House press secretary Josh Earnest stated, “I’m not at all going to be surprised if there are members of Congress who take a look at this legislation and decide, ‘Well, I think there are some things that we should tweak here, and if we do, we might be able to build some more support for. So I think it is fair for you to assume that this reflects a starting point in conversations.” Obama argues he doesn’t need new authority to legally pursue the militant group as he has been launching strikes based on authorizations given to President George W. Bush after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. However, critics say Obama’s use of this authority is a stretch and the White House has taken a new position making it clear it doesn’t see reliance on this authorization as ideal. Once new authority is signed into law, the White House says Obama will mot longer rely on the 2001 approved authority to purse the group and rely solely on the new powers. The White House added that Congress could make that clear in the new authorization. The change also prevents any future president from interpreting the law the way Obama has since last year. On Wednesday, the U.S. Justice Department announced the arrest of three men accused of planning or supporting ISIS in Syria, AP’s Deepti Hajela reports, Feds: 3 accused in Islamic State plot vocal about beliefs. Two men are charged with plotting to help the Islamic State group as evident by both online and personal conversations about their commitment and desire to join the extremists, federal authorities reported. Akhror Saidakhmetov, 19, was arrested at Kennedy Airport, where he was attempting to board a flight to Istanbul, with plans to head to Syria, authorities said. Another man, 24-year-old Abdurasul Hasanovich Juraboev, had a ticket to travel to Istanbul next month and was arrested in Brooklyn, federal prosecutors said. The two were held without bail after a brief court appearance. A third defendant, Abror Habibov, 30, is accused of helping fund Saidakhmetov’s efforts. He was ordered held without bail in Florida. If convicted, each faces a maximum of 15 years in prison. New York Police Department Commissioner William Bratton said this was the first public case in New York involving possible fighters going to the Islamic State, but he hinted at other ongoing investigations. According to the federal complaint, Saidakhmetov said he intended to shoot police officers and FBI agents if his plan to join the IS group in Syria was thwarted. Loretta Lynch, who is Obama’s choice to be U.S. attorney general, said “The flow of foreign fighters to Syria represents an evolving threat to our country and to our allies.” The Islamic State group largely consists of Sunni militants from Iraq and Syria but has also drawn fighters from across the Muslim world and Europe.
While the U.S. fights to thwart and contain the Islamic State, the rest of the world has not been so lucky in keeping ISIS as bay. On Tuesday, AP’s Zeina Karam reported, Dozens of Christians abducted by Islamic militants in Syria, the Islamic State militants before dawn raided homes in a cluster of villages along the Khabur River in northeastern Syria abducting at least 70 Christians as thousands fled to safer areas. The captives’, mostly women and children, fate was unclear Tuesday as relatives said mobile phone service was cut off and land lines were not working and heavy fighting in the area was reported. The Islamic State group has a history of killing captives, including foreign journalists, Syrian soldiers and Kurdish militiamen. Most recently, militants in Libya affiliated with the extremist group released a video showing the beheading of 21 Egyptian Christians. While the U.S. and coalition of regional partners conduct airstrikes against the group, the group has repeatedly targeted religious minorities since taking a third of both Syria and Iraq. The British based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights working with a network of activist in Syria have reported the number of Christians held by the group at 90. The extremists could use the Assyrian captives to try to arrange a prisoner swap with the Kurdish militias it is battling in northeastern Syria. Hassakeh province, where a majority of the captives come from, is strategically important due to sharing a border with Turkey and areas controlled by IS in Iraq. Kurdish militiamen from the People’s Protection Units, or YPG, backed by the coalition airstrikes, have made advances in the province in a new offensive launched this week. Heavy fighting broke out in the province Monday as Kurdish fighters and IS militants battled for control of villages near the Iraqi and Turkish borders. The Kurds have been one of the most effective foes of IS, a reputation they burnished in recent months by repelling an assault by the extremists on the town of Kobani on the Turkish border. The coalition carried out hundreds of airstrikes that helped the Kurds break the siege in January.
As the world tries to get a grip on the seemingly phantom group called ISIS, the ongoing ceasefire between Ukraine and Russia seems once again to have fallen apart as fighting continues to rage and Russia refuses to loosen its grip on Ukraine. On Wednesday, AP reported Russian courts refused to release Ukrainian prisoners whose fate has attracted global attention as Moscow’s City Court turned down an appeal by Nadezhda Savchenko’s lawyers leaving her to remain behind bars pending an investigation, according to the article, Russian court refuses to release Ukrainian prisoner. Savchenko, a Ukrainian military officer captured by Russia-backed rebels in eastern Ukraine in June and put in custody in Russia, is awaiting trial on charges of involvement in the deaths of two Russian journalists in eastern Ukraine. She denies the accusations. Russia claims Savchenko voluntarily crossed the border into Russia before she was detained, but she said she was dragged across the border into the Russian custody. Savchenko has been on a hunger strike since Dec. 13 demanding her release, and her lawyers on Wednesday voiced concern about her condition. More than 11,000 people including prominent cultural figures have petitioned Russian President Vladimir Putin urging Savchenko’s release. Even while in jail, Savchenko was elected to the Ukrainian parliament and named a delegate to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. The European Union and the United States have urged her release. Pavel Polityuk and Anton Zverev reported, Kiev Says It Can’t Withdraw Weaponry As Attacks On Ukrainian Troops Persist, the Ukrainian military said Monday it could not leave the front line in the east as required by the ceasefire due to pro-Russian separatists who advanced last week were attacking its position making it difficult to withdraw heavy weaponry. A truce to end fighting that has killed more than 5,600 people appeared stillborn last week after rebels ignored it to capture the strategic town of Debaltseve in a punishing defeat for Kiev. Nevertheless, the peace deal’s European sponsors still hold out hope it can be salvaged, now that the Moscow-backed separatists have achieved that objective. Spokesman Vladislav Seleznyov said in a televised briefing: “Given that the positions of Ukrainian servicemen continue to be shelled, there can not yet be any talk of pulling back weapons.” Anatoly Stelmakh, another military spokesman, said rebel forces had attacked the village of Shyrokyne overnight, along the coast on the road to Mariupol, a port of half a million that Kiev fears could be the next big rebel target. Rebel commander Eduard Basurin denied the fighters had launched any such attack, and said the situation was calm. Nearly a million people have been driven from their homes by the war between pro-Moscow separatists in eastern Ukraine and government forces. Last week’s ceasefire was reached after the rebels abandoned a previous truce to launch their advance, arguing that previous battle lines had left their civilians vulnerable to government shelling. Kiev says the rebels are reinforcing near Mariupol for a possible assault on the port, the biggest city in the two rebellious provinces still in government hands. Defense analyst Dmytro Tymchuk, who has close ties to the military, said rebels had brought 350 fighters and 20 armored vehicles including six tanks to the area.
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Tagged Boehner, CIA ISIS, Coptic Christians, East Ukraine Truce, Egypt Libya Islamic State, Egyptians Abdel Fattah Al Sisi, FBI ISIS, homeland security, Homeland Security Funding, Isis, ISIS abductions Syria, ISIS Homeland Security, ISIS plot in US, Isis Syria, ISIS Threat, Islamic Caliphate, Islamic State, middle East, Migrant Workers, Mitch McConnell, Obama Isis, Obama war authority, POTUS, POTUS ISIS, Syria, Syria Fighting, Syria Violence, Syria War, Syria War Crimes, Syria War Crimes Investigation, Terrrorism, U.S. Congress, U.S. ISIS plot, U.S. ISIS Threat, U.S. President Barack Obama, U.S. Senate, Ukraine, Ukraine Ceasefire, Ukraine Civil War, Ukraine Crisis, Ukraine Fighting, Ukraine Peace Deal, Ukraine Pro Russia Separatists, UN War Crimes Panel, video, War Crimes ISIS, War Crimes Syria, WorldPost
October 16, 2014 by craftymcclever
Health officials on Sunday reported a Texas health care workers tested positive for Ebola after caring for a hospitalized patient who died of the virus even though she wore full protective gear, making it the first known case of the disease being contracted or transmitted in the U.S. the Associated Press reported, State health officials: 2nd Ebola case in Texas. Dr. Tom Frieden, head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said the diagnosis shows there was a clear breach of safety protocol and all those who treated Thomas Eric Duncan are now considered potentially exposed. The worker wore a gown, gloves, mask and shield while she cared for Duncan during his second visit to Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital, said Dr. Daniel Varga of Texas Health Resources, which runs the hospital. Frieden said the worker has not been able to identify a specific breach of protocol that might have led to her being infected. Duncan came to the U.S. from Liberia to visit family on Sept. 20 and first sought medical care for fever and abdominal pain on Sept. 25. He told the nurse he had been to Africa, but was sent home and returned Sept.28 when he was placed in isolation due to a suspicion of Ebola. Unfortunately, he died on Wednesday. The virus that has killed more than 4,000 people with most being in West Africa has hit Liberia the hardest along with Sierra Leone and Guinea, the World Health Organization figures published Friday reports. Texas health officials have been closely monitoring nearly 50 people who had or may have had close contact with Duncan in the days after he started showing symptoms. The health care worker reported a fever Friday night as part of a self-monitoring regimen required by the CDC, Varga said. A preliminary state test showed the worker was positive late Saturday and the CDC confirmed the result Sunday. Varga said another person is in isolation, and the hospital has stopped accepting new emergency room patients. Frieden said officials are now evaluating and will monitor any workers who may have been exposed while Duncan was in the hospital. Dr. David Lakey, commissioner of the Texas Department of State Health Services, said: “We knew a second case could be a reality, and we’ve been preparing for this possibility. We are broadening our team in Dallas and working with extreme diligence to prevent further spread.” Dallas officials knocked on doors, made automated phone calls and passed out fliers to notify people within a four-block radius of the health care worker’s apartment complex about the situation, though they said there was no reason for neighbors to be concerned. Dallas police officers stood guard outside the complex Sunday and barred people from entering. Officials said there was information that a pet was inside the health care worker’s apartment, but they do not believe the animals has contracted the disease. Frieden on Sunday’s “Face the Nation” on CBS that the CDC will investigate how workers took off protective gear and look at dialysis and incubation where tubes are inserted into a patient’s airway so a ventilator can help them breathe as both procedures can spread infectious material. A Spanish nurse assistant, who cared for a missionary priest at a Madrid hospital, recently became the first health care worker infected outside West Africa during the ongoing outbreak. More than 370 health care workers in West Africa have fallen ill or died since the epidemic began earlier this year. Meanwhile, an American video journalist, 33 year old Ashoka Mukpo, for a second day showed modest improvement after contracting Ebola, according to Dr. Phil Smith, the director of the Nebraska Medical Center’s 10 bed isolation unit. The Associate Press reports, Ebola patient shows modest improvement for 2nd day, the patient from Providence, Rhode Island, is the second Ebola patient treated at the Omaha hospital. He’s receiving an experimental Ebola drug called brincidofovir and IV fluids similar to the treatment Ebola patient Rick Sacra received during his three weeks there. Mukpo became infected while working as a freelance cameraman for Vice News, NBC News and other media outlets. He returned to Liberia in early September to help highlight the toll of the Ebola outbreak. Ryan Gorman reported Monday, Family ID’s Dallas nurse who contracted Ebola from patient who died, the nurse who contracted Ebola was identified by here family as Nina Pham, 26, of Fort Worth, by here family members. Duncan died only days before Pham’s diagnosis on Sunday after seeing a doctor for a low grade fever. Frieden on Sunday said, “Unfortunately, it is possible in the coming days we will see additional cases of Ebola. This is because the health care workers who cared for this individual may have had a breach of the same nature.” Pham, a 2010 TCU graduate, was not one of the 48 people under observation by the CDC, a source told the Dallas Morning News. News of Pham’s identity came one day after images of cleaning crews scouring her apartment were made public. It is not known if the same company used to clean the apartment Thomas Duncan was staying at was also used for Pham’s residence. Pham is in stable condition. About 70 staff members at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital were involved in the care of Thomas Eric Duncan after he was hospitalized, including a nurse now being treated for the same Ebola virus that killed the Liberian man who was visiting Dallas, according to medical records his family provided to The Associated Press. Until now, the CDC has been actively monitoring 48 people who might have had contact with Duncan after he fell ill with an infection but before he was put in isolation including 10 people known oto have contact and 38 who may have has contact such as the people he was staying with and health professionals who attended to him in the ER. Dr. Tom Frieden, director of the CDC said, “If this one individual was infected – and we don’t know how – within the isolation unit, then it is possible that other individuals could have been infected as well. We do not today have a number of such exposed people or potentially exposed health care workers. It’s a relatively large number, we think in the end.” On Monday, the AP reports, Ebola survivor donates plasma to sick Dallas nurse, that Samaritan’s Purse spokesman Jeremy Blume says Dr. Kent Brantly, the Texas doctor who survived Ebola, traveled to the Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas Sunday to donate plasma that, according to Rev. Jim Khoi, pastor of the Fort Worth church attended by Nina Pham’s family, was given to Nina Pham on Monday afternoon that contains Ebola fighting antibodies. Brantly said in a recent speech that he also offered his blood to Thomas Eric Duncan, but that their blood types didn’t match. Duncan died of Ebola on Wednesday. As of Tuesday, the nurse who was the first to contract Ebola on American soil is doing well, according to a statement released on her behalf by Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas.
In Europe, the fight against Ebola continues to present challenges to those coming home after volunteering in the outbreak zone and those who treat them. The Associated Press reported Tuesday, German hospital: UN worker dies of Ebola, a United Nations medical worker infected with Ebola in Liberia has died despite intensive medical intervention, according to the German hospital treating the 56 year old man. The St. Georg hospital in Leipzig said the 56-year-old man, whose name has not been released, died overnight of the infection. It released no further details and did not answer telephone calls. The man tested positive for Ebola on Oct. 6, prompting Liberia’s UN peacekeeping mission to place 41 staff members who had possibly been in contact with him under “close medical observation.” He arrived in Leipzig for treatment on Oct. 9 where he was put into a special isolation unit. The man was the third Ebola patient to be flown to Germany for treatment. The first patient, a Senegalese man infected with Ebola while working for the World Health Organization in Sierra Leone was brought to a Hamburg hospital in late August for treatment. The man was released Oct. 3 after recovering and returned to his home country, the hospital said. Another patient, a Ugandan man who worked for an Italian aid group in West Africa, is undergoing treatment in a Frankfurt hospital. Meanwhile in Spain, the Associated Press reported Saturday, Ebola: 3 more people under observation in Spain, three more people were under observation for Ebola at a Madrid hospital, boosting the number of those monitored to 16, while a nursing assistant infected with the virus remained in serious but stable condition. The latest three are a nurse who came into contact with nursing assistant Teresa Romero, a hairdresser who attended to her and a hospital cleaner, all of whom were admitted to Madrid’s Carlos III hospital late Friday. A government statement said none of the 16 in quarantine, who include Romero’s husband, five doctors and five nurses, have shown any symptoms. A later government statement said one of the five nurses has tested negative for Ebola, but will remain under “passive observation.” Romero, 44, the first person known to have contracted the disease outside West Africa in the current outbreak, had cared for two Spanish priests who died of Ebola at the hospital, one in August and the other on Sept. 25. Thousands of people gathered in more than 20 cities throughout Spain to show their solidarity with Romero and to protest against how Madrid authorities had euthanized her pet dog named Excalibur on Wednesday instead of placing it in quarantine.
Back in America, while hospitals try to contain the virus and prevent it from spreading, the government continues to delay action to help with containment and spread. On Saturday, Karen Matthews reports, Stepped-up Ebola screening starts at NYC airport, federal health officials said that entry screening from three West African countries at New York’s Kennedy International Airport is meant to prevent the spread of the disease and will expand to four additional U.S. airports in the next week. Dr. Martin Cetron, director of the Division of Global Migration and Quarantine for the federal Centers of Disease Control and Prevention, said at a briefing at Kennedy,”Already there are 100 percent of the travelers leaving the three infected countries are being screened on exit. Sometimes multiple times temperatures are checked along that process. No matter how many procedures are put into place, we can’t get the risk to zero.” The screening will be expanded over the next week to New Jersey’s Newark Liberty, Washington Dulles, Chicago O’Hare and Hartsfield-Jackson in Atlanta. Customs officials say about 150 people travel daily from or through Liberia, Sierra Leone or Guinea to the United States, and nearly 95 percent of them land first at one of the five airports. The article reports: “Public health workers use no-touch thermometers to take the temperatures of the travelers from the three Ebola-ravaged countries; those who have a fever will be interviewed to determine whether they may have had contact with someone infected with Ebola. There are quarantine areas at each of the five airports that can be used if necessary. There are no direct flights to the U.S. from the three countries, but Homeland Security officials said last week they can track passengers back to where their trips began, even if they make several stops. Airlines from Morocco, France and Belgium are still flying in and out of West Africa.” The CDC cited as legal authority the Commerce Clause of the Constitution, under which the government regulates trade with foreign countries. The 1944 Public Health Service Act also allows the federal government to take action to prevent communicable diseases, which include viral hemorrhagic fevers such as Ebola, from spreading into the country. Unfortunately, as the world struggles to combat and contain the disease, Sam Stein reports, Ebola Vaccine Would Likely Have Been Found By Now If Not For Budget Cuts: NIH Director, Dr. Francis Collins, the head of the National Institute of Health, said decades of stagnant spending has slowed down research on effective vaccinations to combat disease such as the current outbreak of Ebola, resulting in the international community having to play catch up on potentially avoidable humanitarian catastrophe. On Friday, Collins told Huff Post, “NIH has been working on Ebola vaccines since 2001. It’s not like we suddenly woke up and thought, ‘Oh my gosh, we should have something ready here.’ Frankly, if we had not gone through our 10-year slide in research support, we probably would have had a vaccine in time for this that would’ve gone through clinical trials and would have been ready.” Not only have vaccines been hampered by money shortfalls, Collins explains therapeutics to fight Ebola “were on a slower track than would’ve been ideal, or that would have happened if we had been on a stable research support trajectory. We would have been a year or two ahead of where we are, which would have made all the difference.” Despite the growing public health threat, the NIH has not received additional money and instead Collins and others have had to “take dollars that would’ve gone to something else” — such as a universal influenza vaccine — “and redirect them to this.” Collins said he’d like Congress to pass emergency supplemental appropriations to help with the work. But, he added, “nobody seems enthusiastic about that.” Currently, NIH is working on a fifth-generation Ebola vaccine that has had positive results in monkeys, not people. To set up a clinical trial for humans takes time and resources, and doubly so in a country whose social and political fabric is as frayed as Liberia’s. Even so, limited trials have already begun. A second vaccine is being designed in Canada, just weeks behind NIH’s schedule. But recipients have exhibited fever symptoms, which could prove problematic because elevated temperature is also a symptom of Ebola. So far, much of the focus has been on an experimental cocktail of three monoclonal antibodies known as ZMapp. But the current stockpile is not nearly great enough. Collins, a touch exasperated, said it would be all but impossible to have significant doses available by the end of the calendar year — with a lack of funding once again playing a disruptive role. There are other potential therapies. Brincidofovir has been used on an Ebola patient brought to Nebraska and on the late Thomas Eric Duncan, who was diagnosed with the disease after traveling to Dallas from his native Liberia. Unlike ZMapp, there is a large stockpile of Brincidofovir available, and the doses required are small. But, again, a clinical trial is needed in Liberia. The Associated Press reported Tuesday, CDC: Rapid response team for any new Ebola cases, the government will now send a rapid response team to any hospital where an Ebola patient is diagnosed to make sure local health workers can provide care safely. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has specialists implementing changes to protect health workers at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas as it cares for a nurse who became infected while treating Thomas Eric Duncan, the first Ebola patient diagnosed in the U.S. Frieden described the new response team as having some of the world’s leading experts in how to care for Ebola and protect health care workers from it. They would be charged with everything from examining how the isolation room is physically laid out, to what protective equipment health workers use, to waste management and decontamination.
Meanwhile on Thursday, due to increased concern over containment and spread pf the virus following another Ebola positive patient at the same hospital where Duncan died, Federal health officials were being called to testify before a congressional committee to explain what went wrong, according to Jim Kuhnhenn, US steps up domestic response to Ebola crisis. President Barack Obama directed his administration to respond in a “much more aggressive way” to oversee the Dallas cases and ensure the lessons learned there are transmitted to hospitals and clinics across the country. For the second day in a row he canceled out-of-town trips to stay in Washington and monitor the Ebola response. Dr. Tom Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said nurse Amber Joy Vinson never should have been allowed to fly on a commercial jetliner because she had been exposed to the virus while caring for an Ebola patient who traveled to the U.S. from Liberia. Vinson was being monitored more closely since another nurse, Nina Pham, also involved in Thomas Eric Duncan’s care was diagnosed with Ebola. Still, a CDC official cleared Vinson to board the Frontier Airlines flight from Cleveland to the Dallas area. Her reported temperature – 99.5 degrees – was below the threshold set by the agency and she had no symptoms, according to agency spokesman David Daigle. Vinson was diagnosed with Ebola a day after the flight, news that sent airline stocks falling amid fears it could dissuade people from flying. Losses between 5 percent and 8 percent were recorded before shares recovered in afternoon trading. Frontier has taken the aircraft out of service. The plane was flown Wednesday without passengers from Cleveland to Denver, where the airline said it will undergo a fourth cleaning, including replacement of seat covers, carpeting and air filters. Underscoring his emphasis on international action, Obama called European leaders Wednesday to discuss better coordination in the fight against Ebola in the countries of Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea and to issue a call for more money and personnel to “to bend the curve of the epidemic.” British Prime Minister David Cameron’s office said he offered to consult with the Italians to add treatment beds in Sierra Leone. On Thursday, Chinese President Xi Jinping pledged continued support for the fight against Ebola in West Africa, but made no specific new aid offers. China last month pledged $33 million in assistance to Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea and dispatched doctors and medical supplies. And France said that on Saturday, it will begin screening passengers who arrive at Paris’ Charles de Gaulle airport on the once-daily flight from Guinea’s capital. But it was Wednesday’s development in Dallas that captured political and public attention in the United States. Republican lawmakers, including House Speaker John Boehner, increased calls for travel bans or visa suspensions from the West African countries where the disease has spread and urged the administration to take other measures to secure the transportation system. The oversight subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee scheduled a Thursday hearing on Ebola with Frieden and Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health. In prepared testimony, Fauci said Duncan’s death and the infections of the two Dallas nurses and a nurse in Spain “intensify our concerns about this global health threat.” He said two Ebola vaccine candidates were undergoing a first phase of human clinical testing this fall. But he cautioned that scientists were still in the early stages of understanding how Ebola infection can be treated and prevented. Late Wednesday, Vinson arrived in Atlanta to be treated at Emory University Hospital, which has already treated three Americans diagnosed with the virus. From now on, Frieden said, no one else involved in Duncan’s care will be allowed to travel “other than in a controlled environment.” He cited guidelines that permit charter flights or travel by car but no public transportation. The second nurse identified as 29 year old Amber Joy Vinson like Pham cared for Duncan before he died and medical records showed she inserted catheters, drew blood and dealt with Duncan’s body fluids, according to medical records provided to the Associate Press by Thomas Eric Duncan’s family. Infected Ebola patients are not considered contagious until they have symptoms. Frieden said it was unlikely that other passengers or airline crew members were at risk because the nurse did not have any vomiting or bleeding. Even so, the CDC is alerting the 132 passengers aboard Frontier Airlines Flight 1143 from Cleveland to Dallas-Fort Worth on Monday “because of the proximity in time between the evening flight and first report of illness the following morning.” Officials are asking them to call the health agency so they can be monitored. The woman flew from Dallas to Cleveland on Oct. 10. Kent State said it was asking the workers related to Vinson to stay off campus for 21 days “out of an abundance of caution.” The nurse reported a fever Tuesday and was in isolation within 90 minutes, Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins said. The CDC has acknowledged that the government was not aggressive enough in managing Ebola and containing the virus as it spread from an infected patient to a nurse at a Dallas hospital. Emergency responders in hazardous-materials suits began decontamination work before dawn Wednesday at the Dallas apartment complex where the second nurse lives. Police guarded the sidewalk and red tape was tied around a tree to keep people out. Officials said she lives alone with no pets. Dallas city spokeswoman Sana Syed said a hazardous-materials crew has finished cleaning common areas of the complex and that the state was sending a crew to clean the actual apartment. At Cleveland Hopkins Airport, cleaning crews disinfected key areas of the facility. “They’re not prepared” for what they are being asked to do, said RoseAnn DeMoro, executive director of National Nurses United, a union with 185,000 members. Based on statements from nurses it did not identify, the union described how Duncan was left in an open area of the emergency room for hours. It said staff treated Duncan for days without the correct protective gear, that hazardous waste was allowed to pile up to the ceiling and safety protocols constantly changed. The first nurse stricken in the U.S., Nina Pham, who contracted Ebola after treating a Liberian man in Dallas, was being flown to the National Institutes of Health outside Washington on Thursday, while a second nurse has already been transferred to a biohazard infectious disease center at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta.
While the virus has spread minimally so far to other continents, back in West Africa, the number of dead and dying are increasing by the minute. Ryan Gorman reports, Up to 10,000 new Ebola cases expected per week as death rate hits 70 percent, World Health Organization officials have reported the death rate in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone has increased to 70 percent and there could be as many as 10,000 new cases per week within two months. At a Tuesday press conference, WHO assistant director general Dr. Bruce Aylward classified Ebola as a “high mortality disease.” He warned that if the response is not stepped up immediately, “a lot more people will die.” The past four weeks have seen Ebola diagnoses reach about 1,000 per week, he explained. The WHO is working to contain about 70 percent of the cases within the next 60 days in an effort to reverse the epidemic. The UN-affiliated organization announced Monday that the Ebola death toll has increased to 4,447 people out of the 8,914 diagnosed. All except Thomas Duncan, who passed away in a Dallas hospital, and a patient in Germany, died in Africa. Aylward called the Ebola outbreak “the most severe, acute health emergency seen in modern times.” A number of areas have seen decline, Aylward said Monday, but “that doesn’t mean they will get to zero.” Aylward said the WHO is fighting an uphill battle against West Africa’s broken health care system and was strategically setting up clinics to treat the virus instead of quarantining people.
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As the spread of Ebola continues outside of West Africa to the United States and Europe, the death toll continues to increase and more cases arise forcing areas outside thew outbreak zone to take preventative measures and contain the virus. On Friday, the infected nursing assistant, Teresa Romero who tested positive Monday for Ebola, according to a spokeswoman for Madrid’s regional health agency said on conditions of anonymity, was scheduled to start a round of the experimental anti-Ebola drug ZMapp after Spain obtained some of the drug, the Associated Press reports, Spain: Ebola nurse “stable” after serious downturn. Spanish Prime Minister Marian Rajoy visited the Madrid hospital where the nurse is being treated on Friday despite harsh criticism from unions and oppositions politicians claiming that the nation’s health system provided substandard high risk disease training and protective gear to doctors, nurses and ambulance personnel. Rajoy did announce Spain will set up a high level special commission to prevent an outbreak of Ebola that will meet daily, additionally he praised Spanish health care workers and said the World Health Organization thinks “the risk is very low that this disease will spread in the future” in Spain and Europe. Romero, 44, is the first person known to have caught the disease outside West Africa in the current Ebola outbreak. She was helping to care for a Spanish priest infected in West Africa who died at the hospital on Sept. 25. Health authorities suspect she may have been infected after touching her gloved hand to her face while taking off protective gear. Romero’s husband is also quarantined, along with a nurse who displayed possible symptoms but tested negative for Ebola in a first test and will undergo a second one. Ten people who came into contact with Romero checked themselves into the hospital voluntarily for observation for 21 days instead of staying at home. On Wednesday, the first person diagnosed with Ebola in the U.S. died despite intense but delayed treatment, forcing the government to expand airport examinations to guard against the spread of Ebola, the Associated Press reports, US Ebola patient dies; airport screening expanded. The checks will include taking the temperatures of hundreds of travelers arriving from West Africa at five major American airports. The new screenings will begin Saturday at New York’s JFK International Airport and then expand to Washington Dulles and the international airports in Atlanta, Chicago and Newark. An estimated 150 people per day will be checked, using high-tech thermometers that don’t touch the skin. The White House said the fever checks would reach more than 9 of 10 travelers to the U.S. from the three heaviest-hit countries – Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea. A delay in diagnosis and treatment for Duncan and the infection of a Spanish nurse have raised worries about Western nations’ ability to stop the disease. Obama via teleconference with mayors and local officials said: “As we saw in Dallas, we don’t have a lot of margin for error. If we don’t follow protocols and procedures that are put in place, then we’re putting folks in our communities at risk.” AP reports that health authorities scrambled to respond to the disease Wednesday:
– “In Spain, doctors said they may have figured out how a nurse became the first person infected outside of West Africa in this outbreak. Teresa Romero said she remembered once touching her face with her glove after leaving the quarantine room where an Ebola victim was being treated. Romero’s condition was stable.
-A social media campaign and a protest by Spanish animal rights activists failed to save Romero’s dog, Excalibur. The pet was euthanized under court order out of fear it might harbor the Ebola virus.
– In Sierra Leone, burial teams returned to their work of picking up the bodies of Ebola victims, after a one-day strike to demand overdue hazard pay.
– Health workers in neighboring Liberia also were threatening a strike if their demands for more money and personal protective gear are not met by the end of the week. The average health worker salary is currently below $500 per month, even for the most highly trained staff.
-The World Bank estimated that the economic toll of the largest Ebola outbreak in history could reach $32.6 billion if the disease continues to spread through next year.
In Washington, Secretary of State John Kerry made a plea for more nations to contribute to the effort to stop the disease ravaging West Africa, saying the international effort was $300 million short of what’s needed. He said nations must step up quickly with a wide range of support, from doctors and mobile medical labs to basic humanitarian aid such as food.”
Meanwhile, the hardest hit countries have seen a dramatic increase in casualties due to the Ebola outbreak and children orphaned by the deadly virus are now struggling more than ever before to survive. Liberia, a country with large, deeply religious, families, an aunty or relative usually takes in a child who lost a parent, but Ebola has changed that bond for fear of contagion and death, Krista Larson reports, How Children Orphaned By Ebola Fight For Survival. According to the U.N. children’s agency, at least 3,700 children across Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone have lost one or more parents to Ebola and the figure is expected to double by mid-October with many children left to fend for themselves and continue to live in infected homes. ON Friday, the U.N. special envoy on Ebola said the number of cases is probably doubling every three to four weeks and without a mass global mobilization “the world will have to live with the Ebola virus forever,” Edith M. Lederer reports, UN envoy: Ebola cases doubling every 3-4 weeks. David Nabarro told the U.N. General Assembly the response needed to be 20 times greater. U.N. Deputy Secretary General Jan Eliasson said in order to counteract the exponential growth of the virus, a massive scale up of financial resources, medical staff and equipment is needed. Unfortunately, only one quarter of the $1 billion the U.N. agencies have appealed for to tackle the disease has been funded. Eliasson told diplomats from most of the 193 U.N. member states, “I now appeal to all member states to act generously and swiftly. Speed is of the essence. A contribution within days is more important than a larger contribution within weeks.” Nabarro, a 35 year public heath veteran dealing with disease outbreaks and pandemics, has never encountered the challenge of such an outbreak that has moved from rural areas into towns and cities that is now “affecting a whole region and … impacting on the whole world.” Anthony Banbury, head of the United Nations Mission for Ebola Emergency Response, warned that a failure to help Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea – the three worst affected countries – “while we have the chance could lead to unpredictable but very dire consequences for the people of the countries and well beyond.” He added, “As long as there is one case of Ebola in any one of these countries, no country is safe from the dangers posed by this deadly virus.” Both Nabarro and Banbury cited the importance of traditional burial practices in the West African countries, noting that this is a time when the bodies of Ebola victims are most toxic and any touching can transmit the disease. Banbury said, “To defeat the virus we will have to change behavior. We are late, but it is not too late to fight and win this battle.” According to the Geneva based U.N. agency, the World Health Organization, reports 4,033 confirmed, probable or suspected Ebola deaths have been recorded. All but nine are int he three hardest hit countries of Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea with eight of those in Nigeria and one in the United States. The defeat of Sirleaf’s proposal in the House of Representatives came as U.S. military forces worked on building a hospital for stricken health workers in Liberia, the country that has been hit hardest by the epidemic. Liberian Lawmakers rejected the president’s proposal to give her further power to restrict movement and public gatherings and the authority to appropriate property “without payment of any kind or any further judicial process” to combat Ebola. Liberia has 2,316 recorded deaths due to Ebola, which is the most of any country as the WHO reports. Sirleaf’s government imposed a three-month state of emergency beginning Aug. 6, but critics have accused the Nobel Peace Prize winner’s approach to fighting Ebola since then as ineffective and heavy handed. In August, a quarantine of Monrovia’s largest shantytown sparked unrest and was derided as counterproductive before being lifted. The Committee to Protect Journalists has accused Sirleaf’s government of trying to silence media outlets criticizing its conduct. Meanwhile, the U.S. military was rushing to set up a 25-bed hospital to treat health workers who may contract Ebola. The arrival of 100 U.S. Marines on Thursday brings to just over 300 the total number of American troops in Liberia. The Marines and their aircraft will help with air transportation and ferrying of supplies, overcoming road congestion in Monrovia and bad roads outside the capital, said Capt. R. Carter Langston, spokesman for the U.S. mission. A priority will be transporting building materials to treatment unit sites. The U.S. has said it will oversee construction of 17 treatment units with 100 beds each. The 101st Airborne Division is expected to deploy 700 troops by late October and the U.S. may send up to 4,000 soldiers to help with the Ebola crisis, depending on what is needed. In Mali, a health ministry spokesman said two more people had begun participating in the first phase of a study for a possible Ebola vaccine. Mali has not had any cases of Ebola, but it borders the outbreak zone. University of Maryland researchers announced Thursday that the first study of a possible vaccine was underway, and that three health care workers in Mali had received the experimental shots developed by the U.S. government. Health ministry spokesman Markatie Daou said, “Today, we are at five people vaccinated. We envision vaccinating between 20 and 40 people for this first phase and the results are expected next month.”
While the world battles and struggles to control the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, ISIS also known as the Islamic State continues to besiege strategic towns on the border of Syria raising concern and criticism over Turkey’s lack of action and the effectiveness of the U.S. coalition. According to Akbar Shahid Ahmed, 3 New Findings On ISIS Weapons That You Should Know About, the Islamic State militants are wielding arms manufactured in 21 different countries including the U.S. a new report released Monday reports. Ahmed reports: “The study of ammunition captured during the Islamic State’s battles with Kurdish forces in northern Iraq and Syria in July and August highlights the diverse array of arms sources fueling the extremist group, also known as ISIS. Investigators from the arms monitoring group Conflict Armament Research cataloged more than 1,700 bullet cartridges by their country of origin and their date of manufacture. The report says most of the related arms appear to have been seized by ISIS from opposing forces — from national armies to foreign-backed rebel groups across Syria and Iraq.” James Bevan, Director of the European Union funded Conflict Armament Research, told the New York Times, “The lesson learned here is that the defense and security forces that have been supplied ammunition by external nations really don’t have the capacity to maintain custody of that ammunition.” As the article states, three key takeaways from the report are as follows:
1. Most of the Islamic State’s arms ultimately came from China, Russia and the U.S.
“Two of the biggest sources of the militants’ weaponry, the report says, are supplies wrested from the Syrian army, which possesses a significant stock of Soviet- and Russian-made arms that is still being replenished, and supplies captured in Iraq, many of which were made in America.
Between them, China, Russia, the now-defunct Soviet Union, the U.S. and Serbia provided more than 80 percent of the ammunition in the sample collected, according to a New York Times analysis of the report.”
2. Some militants in Syria are learning how to make weapons more difficult to trace.
“Numerous former U.S. officials told the Center for Public Integrity that they are already skeptical that the new supplies of U.S. weapons heading to certain Syrian rebel groups — whose arming was approved by Congress last month — will be safe from the Islamic State’s hands.
Keeping track of weaponry is unlikely to be easier this time around, one investigator indicated to the Center for Public Integrity. The investigator said that militants within Syria — he did not specify which group — are now using oxyacetylene torches to remove the serial numbers from some foreign weapons. They have even added new serial numbers. That makes it more difficult to trace the arms back to their original provider and to attempt to control their flow, the investigator said.”
3. Arms are constantly passed between various fighting groups.
“The many foreign weapons within Syria and Iraq are not only ending up with the Islamic State, the report explains. It describes how Kurdish forces have used battles against the militants to restore their own supplies of ammunition.
As if all that bad news weren’t bad enough, here’s a bonus from one of Conflict Armament Research’s earlier reports: The Islamic State appears to possess anti-tank rocket launchers, made in the former Yugoslavia, that it seized from other Syrian rebels.
The Islamic State’s weaponry — particularly heavy armaments not documented in the new report — has been a key factor in campaigns like the group’s ongoing assault on the Kurdish town of Kobani in Syria.”
On Wednesday night, Islamic State fighters launched a renewed assault on the Syrian city of Kobani as at least 21 people were killed amid riots in neighboring Turkey where Kurds rose up against the government for doing nothing to protect their kin, according to Reuters, Renewed assault on Kobani; 21 dead in Turkey as Kurds rise. Heavily outgunned defenders said Islamic Sate militants pushed into two districts of the Kurdish town, despite U.S.led air strikes that the Pentagon acknowledge would not be enough. In Istanbul and Ankara, street battles erupted between Kurdish protestors and police as fallout from the Iraq and Syrian war threatened to unravel the Kurdish peace process. Washington said its war planes hit nine Syrian targets along with coalition ally the United Arab Emirates included six near Kobani and struck five ISIS positions in Iraq. Nevertheless, Kobani remained under intense bombardment from Islamic State emplacements, within sight of Turkish tanks at the nearby frontier that have so far done nothing to help. Asya Abdullah, co-chair of the Democratic Union Party (PYD), told Reuters from inside the town, “Tonight, (Islamic State) has entered two districts with heavy weapons including tanks. Civilians may have died because there are very intense clashes.” U.S. officials were quoted voicing impatience with the Turks for refusing to join the coalition against Islamic State fighters who have seized wide areas of Syria and Iraq. Turkey says it could join only if Washington agrees to use force against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and the Sunni Muslim jihadists fighting him in a three-year-old civil war. Turkey’s own Kurds, who make up the majority in the southeast of the country, say President Tayyip Erdogan is stalling while their brethren are killed in Kobani. Others died in clashes between protesters and police in the eastern provinces of Mus, Siirt and Batman. Thirty people were wounded in Istanbul, including eight police officers. Disturbances spread to other countries with Kurdish and Turkish populations. Police in Germany said 14 people were hurt in clashes there between Kurds and radical Islamists. In Turkey, parliament voted last week to authorize cross-border intervention, but Erdogan and his government have so far held back, saying they will join military action only as part of an alliance that also confronts Assad. Erdogan wants the alliance to enforce a “no-fly zone” to prevent Assad’s air force flying over Syrian territory near the Turkish border and create a safe area for an estimated 1.2 million Syrian refugees in Turkey to return. While Turkey has taken in the wounded and displaced from Kobani, Turkey has deep reservations about deploying its own army in Syria and beyond being a target for ISIS, Turkey fears being sucked into Syria’s three year civil war.
On Friday, the AP reported, Islamic State group shells Syrian border crossing, that the Islamic State group shelled a Syrian border crossing with Turkey to try and capture it and cut off Kobani, a local Kurdish official and Syrian activists said. The official, Idriss Nassan, said Islamic State fighters aim to seize the crossing in order to close the noose around the town’s Kurdish defenders and prevent anyone from entering or leaving Kobani. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the militants shelled several areas in Kobani, including the border crossing, which is the town’s only gateway to Turkey. Nassan, referring to the Islamic State group by its Arabic acronym, said: “Daesh is doing all it can to take the border crossing point through the farmlands east of the city. They think there might be help (for the Kurdish militia) coming through the crossing so they want to control the border.” Meanwhile, Ryan Gorman reports, Iraqi journalist among more than a dozen people executed by ISIS terrorists, a dozens people on Friday evening were executed by ISIS terrorists including an Iraqi journalist and his brother. Raad al-Azzawi, 37, and an Iraqi citizen, was reportedly killed Friday evening near Tikrit for refusing to work for the terror group, according to AFP. His brother and two other civilians were also executed. The cameraman was among about 20 people captured last month in an ISIS raid on Samara, according to Reporters Without Borders (RSF). The execution of an Iraqi journalist is proof ISIS is no longer waging war on just the West, but on anyone who they fear may oppose their attempt to put a stranglehold on the region, according to RSF. U.S. journalists James Foley and Stephen Sotloff, along with a Briton and a French citizen, are among the Westerners also executed by the insurgents. In a statement, U.S. Central Command said the U.S. military conducted on Friday and Saturday six airstrikes against Islamic State militants near Kobani as well as three airstrikes with Dutch militaries against targets in Iraq near Tal Afar and Hit. In multiple airdrops near Baiji, U.S. aircraft delivered 8 tons of ammunition, more than 2,000 gallons (7,800 liters) of water and more than 7,300 halal meals, the statement said. It said Iraqi forces control Baiji, 110 miles (180 km) north of Baghdad, but Islamic State “continues to conduct operations” in the area.
Posted in 2014, activism, al-Qaida, bombing, civil rights, congress, controversial, crime, death, disease, goverment, health, hostage, human rights, insurgency, international, Iran, Iraq War, Islamic State, militants, military, news, peace, people, politics, protest, rally, terrorism, tragedy, United Nations, United States, US, video, violence, war, wellness, white house, world, world health
Tagged Ayn Al Arab, Ayn Al Arab Syria, China ISIS, Conflict Armament Research, Dallas Ebola, Dallas Ebola Fever, Dallas Ebola Patient Fever, Dallas Ebola Temperature, Ebola, Ebola Liberia, Ebola Orphans, Ebola Virus, Ebola West Africa, Isil, ISIS Arms, ISIS Weapons, Islamic State, Islamic State Ammunition Weapons, Kobane, Kobane Isis, Kobani, Kobani Kurds, Liberia Ebola, Liberia News, NBC Crew quarantine, NBC ebola quaratine, Orphans Global Motherhood, Russia Isis Arms, Syria, Syrian Civil War, Thomas Eric Duncan Fever, Thomas Eric Duncan Temperature, Turkey, Turkey ISIS, Turkey Islamic State, Turkey Islamic State Syria, US Isis Arms, video
October 7, 2014 by craftymcclever
On Monday, a nurse in Spain was the first person to be diagnosed outside the outbreak zone in West Africa, raising further concerns across the globe, according to the Associate Press, New concern worldwide as nurse in Spain gets Ebola. In the U.S., President Barack Obama said the government is weighing an order for more careful screening of airline passengers arriving from he region. In dealing with potential Ebola cases, Obama said, “we don’t have a lot of margin for error.” Already hospitalized in the U.S., a critically ill Liberian man, Thomas Duncan, has received an experimental drug in Dallas as another American video journalist who returned from Liberia arrived Monday at the Nebraska Medical Center for treatment has shown signs of improvement. Ashoka Mukpo, 33, was able to walk off the plane before being loaded on a stretcher and taken to an ambulance, and his father said his symptoms of fever and nausea appeared mild. The Spanish nurse had been part of a team that treated two missionaries flown home to Span after contracting Ebola in West Africa. The nurse only showed signs of fever, but the infection was confirmed by two tests, according to Spanish health officials. She was being treated in isolation, while authorities drew up a list of people she had had contact with. Medical workers in Texas were among Americans waiting to find out whether they had been infected by Duncan, the African traveler. In Washington, the White House continued to rule out any blanket ban on travel from West Africa. People leaving the outbreak zone are checked for fevers before they’re allowed to board airplanes, but the disease’s incubation period is 21 days and symptoms could arise later. Nancy Castles, a spokeswoman for Los Angeles International Airport, said the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has had employees on site at more than a dozen major international airports in the U.S. like LAX for many years. Screening of passengers starts with Customs and Border Protection agents, who work with CDC when they have a case they are concerned about. Obama said the U.S. will be “working on protocols to do additional passenger screening both at the source and here in the United States.” The Obama administration maintains that the best way to protect Americans is to end the outbreak in Africa. To that end, the U.S. military was working Monday on the first of 17 promised medical centers in Liberia and training up to 4,000 soldiers this week to help with the Ebola crisis. White House spokesman Josh Earnest said, “The tragedy of this situation is that Ebola is rapidly spreading among populations in West African who don’t have that kind of medical infrastructure.” The virus has taken a heavy toll on health care workers in a region where shortages of doctors and nurses before Ebola were rampant and so far the disease has killed or sickened more than 370 in the hardest hit countries of Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone. Airlines have dealt with previous epidemics, such as the 2003 outbreak in Asia of SARS, or severe acute respiratory syndrome. The U.S. didn’t ban flights or impose extra screening on passengers during the SARS outbreak or the 2009 swine flu pandemic. Both of those were airborne diseases that spread more easily than the Ebola virus, which is spread by contact with bodily fluids. The SARS death rate was about 10 percent, higher for older patients. Its new relative MERS, now spreading in the Middle East, appears to be more deadly, about 40 percent. About half of people infected with Ebola have died in this outbreak. The Ebola outbreak this year has killed more than 3,400 people in West Africa, the World Health Organization estimates, and it has become an escalating concern to the rest of the world. Mukpo is the fifth American sick with Ebola brought back from West Africa for medical care. The others were aid workers – three have recovered and one remains hospitalized. On Tuesday, Reuters reports, More cases of Ebola in Europe unavoidable: WHO, the World Health Organization believes more cases Ebola will likely occur in Europe but the continent is well prepared to control the disease. Speaking to Reuters just hours after Europe’s first local case of Ebola infection was confirmed in a nurse in Spain, the WHO’s European director, Zsuzsanna Jakab, said further such events were “unavoidable”. Spanish health officials said four people had been hospitalized to try and stem any further spread of Ebola there after the nurse became the first person in the world known to have contracted the virus outside of Africa. Jakab told Reuters via phone interview for her Copenhagen office: “Such imported cases and similar events as have happened in Spain will happen also in the future, most likely. It is quite unavoidable … that such incidents will happen in the future because of the extensive travel both from Europe to the affected countries and the other way around.” Several countries in the WHO’s European region, including France, Britain, the Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland, Norway and Spain, have treated patients repatriated after contracting the disease in West Africa, where Ebola has been raging through Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia since March. Cases have also been imported into Nigeria, Senegal and the United States. Jakab said that within Europe, health workers caring for repatriated Ebola patients, as well as their families and close contacts, were most at risk of becoming infected. With case numbers in the West Africa rising exponentially, experts say it is only a matter of time before Ebola spreads internationally, but they stress the chances of sporadic cases leading to an outbreak in Europe, the United States or elsewhere beyond Africa are extremely low. Jakab added, “If they see any need for support or advice, we are always behind them. We are well prepared. I really don’t think that at this stage we should be worried about these particular cases. This was to be expected. We expected it in other parts of the region – and it came in Spain, but it did not come totally as surprise.”
While it seems the threat of Ebola can be controlled through a coordinated effort, the threat of ISIS seems far from under anyone’s control as the group captures new territory raising concerns for Turkey. On Monday Daren Butler reports, Islamic State raises flag in eastern Kobani, Kurds say town has not fallen, the Islamic State after a three week assault has raised its flag on a building on the outskirts of the Syrian frontier town of Kobani, but the town’s Kurdish defenders said its fighters had not reached the city center. A black flag was visible from across the Turkish border atop a four story building close to the scene of some of the most intense fighting in recent days. American and Gulf State warplane air strikes have failed to halt the assault on Kobani which it has surrounded on three sides and pounded with heavy artillery. Local sources inside Kobani confirmed that the group had plants its flag, but Kurdish forced had repelled further advances. Ismail Eskin, a journalist in the town, said, “ISIL have only planted a flag on one building. That is not inside the city, it’s on the eastern side. They are not inside the city. Intense clashes are continuing. The bodies of 25 (Islamic State) fighters are there.” Despite the presence of Turkish tanks along the border and within sight of the town, Kurdish please for more effective military help have gone unanswered. Islamic State also fought intense battles over the weekend for control of Mistanour, a strategic hill overlooking Kobani. Beheadings, mass killings and torture have spread fear of the group across the region, with villages emptying at their approach and an estimated 180,000 people fleeing into Turkey from the Kobani region. Turkish hospitals have been treating a steady stream of wounded Kurdish fighters being brought across the frontier. Esmat al-Sheikh, head of the Kobani Defense Authority, said via phone early Monday: “If they enter Kobani, it will be a graveyard for us and for them. We will not let them enter Kobani as long as we live. We either win or die. We will resist to the end.” Last Week, the co-chair of the Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) told Reuters that Islamic State had a large arsenal from its de facto capital Raqqa to assault Kobani. Asya Abdullah said, “If (Islamic State) is defeated here in Kobani, it will be defeated in Raqqa and throughout Syria. We are happy about the U.S. air strikes. But really, this is not enough. We need more air strikes to be effective against (Islamic State) weapons, to eradicate and destroy (them).” On Monday, Kurdish politicians confirmed that the PYD’s other co-chair, Saleh Muslim, had met Turkish officials to urge them to allow weapons into Kobani from Turkey, although no further details were available. Over the weekend, President Tayyip Erdogan vowed to retaliate if Islamic State attacked Turkish forces, and on Monday Turkish tanks deployed along the border for the second time in a week, some with guns pointing towards Syria, apparently in response to stray fire. Last month, the Islamic State group released 46 Turkish hostages and a parliamentary motion last week renewed a mandate to allow Turkish troops to cross into Syria and Iraq leasing many to believe Ankara may be planning a more active role. According to Butler: “For three decades, Ankara has fought an armed insurgency by its own Kurdish PKK militants demanding greater autonomy in Turkey’s southeast. Analysts say it is now wary of helping Syrian Kurdish forces near Kobani as they have strong links with the PKK and have maintained ambiguous relations with Assad, to whom Turkey is implacably opposed. Against that are warnings from the leaders of Turkey’s Kurds that allowing Syria’s Kurds to be driven from Kobani would spell the end of Erdogan’s delicately poised drive to negotiate an end to his own Kurdish insurgency and permanently disarm the PKK.” Ryan Gorman reports, ‘Boots in the air’: US combat troops engage ISIS rebels as Canada deploys soldiers to Iraq, the U.S. military has begun to fight ISIS in Iraq despite Obama’s promise to not put boots on the ground as Canada sends reinforcements to help in the fight. On Sunday, Army attack helicopters began an assault on insurgent positions outside Baghdad, according to Central Command announced. Early Monday, Canadian officials announces that an advanced team of hundreds of soldiers is also on its way to Iraq. This strike changes the U.S. strategy in Iraq from one of using drones and fighter jets for targeted air strikes to combat troops directly engaging the militants. News of the escalation by the Army came shortly before Canada announced plans to send an advance team of 600 soldiers to Iraq, according to the CBC. Previous reports suggested the Canadian military would not send ground combat troops abroad. But it was also previously reported the U.S. would not engage ISIS in ground combat. Turkey’s president on Tuesday said the Islamic State is about to capture the Syrian border town of Kobani where the Kurdish forces are outgunned and struggle to repel the extremists with limited aid from U.S. led coalition airstrikes, the Associate Press reports, Turkey: Syrian border town about to fall to IS. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the coalition air campaign launched last month would not be enough to halt the Islamic State advance and called for greater cooperation with the Syrian opposition, which is fighting both the Islamic State and forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar Assad. Erdogan told Syrian refugees in the Turkish town of Gaziantep, near the border: “Kobani is about to fall. We asked for three things: one, for a no-fly zone to be created; two, for a secure zone parallel to the region to be declared; and for the moderate opposition in Syria and Iraq to be trained and equipped.” Erdogan said more than 200,000 people have fled the fighting in and around Kobani in recent weeks. Their flight is among the largest single exoduses of the three-year Syrian conflict. The Observatory, which relies on a network of activists across Syria, said Tuesday that 412 people have been killed since the Kobani fighting began.
As disease, war and famine are running rampant in much of the world and little justice can be found, the Supreme Court of the United States have finally done the best thing it could of possibly done…absolutely nothing. By the Supreme Court declining to review petitions from lower courts whose jurisdiction covers nearly a dozen states, the highest court in the land has made same sex marriage legal Monday in 11 additional states. Even though the decision was announced quietly, the resulting shock waves have reverberated across the nation, according to Ryan Gorman, Supreme Court effectively legalizes same-sex marriage in 11 more states. The court validated three federal appeals covering Colorado, Indiana, Kansas, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia, Wisconsin and Wyoming, according to Bloomberg. By declining to hear the petitions brought forth from the jurisdictions, the Supreme Court left intact appeals courts decisions to strike down same-sex marriage bans in the locales. Couples in those states should soon be able to obtain marriage licenses and be legally wed. The announcement led a large group of same-sex marriage supporters gathered outside the court to celebrate. They cheered, waved flags, hugged each other and embraced the landmark decision. Supreme Court and #SSM (a same-sex marriage hashtag) immediately shot to the top of trending topics in the United States on Twitter. A case can only be reviewed it at least four of the nine sitting justices want to hear it. The justices also did not signal if they would be willing to hear a same-sex marriage case in the future. No reason was given for the decision. The court has previously showed support for gay marriage when it struck down a federal law last year denying benefits to same-sex married couples. Refusing to hear an appeals on lower court decisions to strike down same-sex marriage bans sets a precedent. The remaining 20 states banning gay marriage will likely also be bound to appeals courts decisions should their bans be overturned. The unions are now legal in a total of 30 states, plus the District of Columbia. Same-sex couples in multiple states across America are getting married after Monday morning’s landmark Supreme Court decision to not hear same-sex marriage cases. Wyoming’s justification for not recognizing the marriage license applications is on the grounds it’s state constitution clearly defines marriage as between a man and a woman. The stipulation was originally made during the state’s founding in order to prevent polygamy. Legal experts believe an injunction will have to be granted by a federal court in order for same-sex marriages in the state to proceed. Monday’s non-decision came 16 years to the day that Matthew Shepard, a 21-year-old college student, was tortured in Wyoming for being gay. He died six days later. It is not clear when marriage licenses will be issued to couples in the other states, while the remaining 20 states have constitutional bans on the unions. The Associate Press reports, Status of gay marriage in all 50 states, the number of states where the practice is legal has skyrocketed from 19 to 30, in addition to Washington, D.C. Here’s the legal status of gay marriage in all 50 states:
WHERE GAY MARRIAGE IS LEGAL (And when it was legalized):
– CALIFORNIA (2013)
– COLORADO (Oct. 6, 2014) – Pueblo and Larimer counties began issuing marriage licenses to gay couples Monday, although official guidance from state Attorney General John Suthers is still pending.
– CONNECTICUT (2008)
– DELAWARE (2013)
– HAWAII (2013) – The state Legislature legalized gay marriage last year. Meanwhile, an appeal is pending of a federal court ruling that upheld Hawaii’s previous ban.
– ILLINOIS (June 2014)
– INDIANA (Oct. 6, 2014) – Gov. Mike Pence reaffirmed his commitment to traditional marriage but said people are not free to disobey the Supreme Court decision to reject an appeal of a ruling striking down Indiana’s gay marriage ban. County clerks issued a few licenses to same-sex couples.
– IOWA (2009)
– KANSAS (Oct. 6, 2014) – The American Civil Liberties Union says the Supreme Court decision in the 10th Circuit cases affects Kansas because it’s in that circuit; the group plans to seek a federal court ruling to block Kansas’ constitutional ban on gay marriage. Gov. Sam Brownback was defiant, saying he swore to uphold the constitution, and some same-sex couples who applied for marriage licenses were turned away.
– MAINE (2012)
– MARYLAND (2013)
– MASSACHUSETTS (2004) – The first state to legalize gay marriage.
– MINNESOTA (2013)
– NEW HAMPSHIRE (2010)
– NEW JERSEY (2013)
– NEW MEXICO (2013)
– NEW YORK (2011)
– NORTH CAROLINA (Oct. 6, 2014) – The American Civil Liberties Union of North Carolina says it will seek an immediate ruling in federal court overturning the state’s ban. North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper has previously said he wouldn’t challenge such a ruling.
– OKLAHOMA (Oct. 6, 2014) – The Tulsa County Court Clerk’s Office issued a marriage license Monday to Mary Bishop and Sharon Baldwin, the couple who successfully challenged the state’s ban on gay marriage. Several other Oklahoma counties also issued same-sex marriage licenses.
– OREGON (May 2014)
– PENNSYLVANIA (May 2014)
– RHODE ISLAND (2013)
– SOUTH CAROLINA (Oct. 6, 2014) – A lawyer for a gay couple seeking to overturn the state’s ban on gay marriage said she will ask a federal judge to immediately rule in their favor. South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson said he will continue to fight to uphold the ban.
– UTAH (Oct. 6, 2014) – Gay couples in Utah began applying for marriage licenses, and a handful of same-sex weddings occurred in Salt Lake County after Gov. Gary Herbert directed state agencies to recognize the marriages Monday.
– VERMONT (2009) – The first state to offer civil unions, in 2001.
– VIRGINIA (Oct. 6, 2014) – Gay couples started marrying in Virginia. Thirty-year-old Lindsey Oliver and 42-year-old Nicole Pries received the first same-sex marriage license issued from the Richmond Circuit Court Clerk’s office then were married by gay-rights advocate The Rev. Robin Gorsline.
– WASHINGTON, D.C. (2010)
– WASHINGTON STATE (2012)
– WEST VIRGINIA (Oct. 6, 2014) – Attorney General Patrick Morrisey was studying the implications for the state in light of the Supreme Court decision.
– WISCONSIN (Oct. 6, 2014) – County clerks began accepting applications from gay couples for marriage licenses which, by Wisconsin law, can’t be issued until after a five-day waiting period. In Milwaukee and Dane counties, where most of the roughly 500 same-sex weddings took place this summer before a federal judge’s decision was put on hold, a few couples applied for licenses.
– WYOMING (Oct. 6, 2014) – A state case, scheduled for a court hearing Dec. 15, is similar to gay marriage cases in federal court but Wyoming supporters weren’t ready Monday to declare unconditional victory. They say same-sex marriage could be legal in the state by year’s end.
WHERE GAY MARRIAGE IS NOT LEGAL AND CASES ARE PENDING:
– ALASKA
– ARIZONA – In a ruling that called into question Arizona’s gay marriage ban, a U.S. District Court judge handed a victory Sept. 12 to a gay man denied death benefits after losing his spouse to cancer.
– ARKANSAS – A state judge in May struck down the state’s ban. The state Supreme Court brought marriages to a halt and is weighing state officials’ appeal. Same-sex couples are also suing the state in federal court. The attorney general’s office has asked that proceedings in both cases be put on hold while the U.S. Supreme Court considers whether to take up a case from Utah.
– FLORIDA – A federal judge declared the state’s ban unconstitutional in mid-August, joining state judges in four counties. He issued a stay delaying the effect of his order, meaning no marriage licenses would be issued immediately issued for gay couples.
– GEORGIA
– IDAHO – State officials are appealing a federal judge’s decision to overturn the state’s ban. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel in San Francisco heard arguments Sept. 8 along with appeals from Hawaii and Nevada.
– KENTUCKY – Two Kentucky cases were among six from four states heard in the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati on Aug. 6. Rulings are pending on recognition of out-of-state marriages, as well as the ban on marriages within the state.
– LOUISIANA – A parish judge ruled Sept. 22 that the state’s ban on same-sex marriage is unconstitutional; the attorney general has appealed to the state’s Supreme Court.
– MICHIGAN – The state’s ban was overturned by a federal judge in March following a rare trial that mostly focused on the impact on children. The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati heard arguments Aug. 6, and a ruling is pending.
– MISSISSIPPI
– MISSOURI – Attorney General Chris Koster announced Monday he wouldn’t appeal a state court order that Missouri recognize same-sex marriages legally performed in other states. But two other same-sex marriage cases are pending in Missouri. One is a federal challenge in Kansas City; the other is a St. Louis case that focuses on city officials who issued marriage licenses to four same-sex couples to trigger a legal test of the ban.
– MONTANA
– NEBRASKA
– NEVADA – Eight couples are challenging Nevada’s voter-approved 2002 ban, which a federal judge upheld a decade later. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel heard arguments Sept. 8, along with appeals from Hawaii and Idaho.
– NORTH DAKOTA
– OHIO – Two Ohio cases were argued Aug. 6 in the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, and a ruling is pending. In one, two gay men whose spouses were dying sued to have their out-of-state marriages recognized on their spouses’ death certificates. In the other, four couples sued to have both spouses listed on their children’s birth certificates.
– SOUTH DAKOTA
– TENNESSEE – The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals heard arguments Aug. 6 on an appeal of a federal judge’s order to recognize three same-sex couples’ marriages while their lawsuit against the state works through the courts. A ruling is pending.
– TEXAS – A federal judge declared the state’s ban unconstitutional, issuing a preliminary injunction. The state is appealing to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans, which is soon expected to set a date for arguments.
Posted in 2014, activism, al-Qaida, bombing, conflict, congress, controversial, crime, death, disease, goverment, health, human rights, insurgency, international, Iran, Iraq War, Islamic State, law, lawmakers, LBGT, marriage, marriage equality, militants, military, news, peace, people, politics, protest, terrorism, tragedy, United Nations, United States, US, violence, war, wellness, white house, world, world health
Tagged Canada ISIS, Canadian troops Iraq, CDC, Duncan Ebola, Ebola, Ebola Liberia, Ebola Nebraska, Ebola Spain, Ebola Spread, Ebola U.S., Ebola West Africa, Iraq airstrikes U.S., Isil, Isis, Islamc State Syria, Islamic State, Islamic State Iraq, Islamic State Kobani, marriage equality, Same Sex Marriage, Supreme Court Defense Of Marriage Act, Supreme Court DOMA, Supreme Court Gay Marriage, Supreme Court same sex marriage, Texas Ebola, Turkey Erdogan Islamic State, Turkey ISIS, U.S. Syria airstrikes, U.S. Troops Iraq, Who Ebola
In Tuesday afternoon press conference, the Federal authorities and the Center for Disease Control confirmed the first diagnosed case of Ebola in the United States and the local station WFAA was the first to report the patent testing positive in Dallas, according to Ryan Gorman, First US case of deadly Ebola virus confirmed in Dallas. The male patient recently traveled to Liberia, leaving the country on September 19 and arriving in the U.S. the following day, according to the CDC’s Dr. Thomas Frieden. The person exhibited no symptoms until about five days later. He sought care on the 26th, was admitted to a hospital on the 28th and tested positive on the 30th, Frieden explained, adding the man is “critically ill.” The patient has been placed into isolation in Texas and will be treated in the state. A CDC team already on the ground in Texas will work to identify all individuals that have come into contact with the infected individual and monitor those people for the next 21 days, Frieden added. Frieden declined to say if the individual is an American citizen, but did disclose he is in the country to “visit family.” Dallas County Health and Human Services director Zachary Thompson told WFAA that the city is more than able to contain and treat the isolated patient. Health official have reported that more than 3,000 people have died during the recent outbreak in West Africa and three Americans were transported to Atlanta for treatment after contracting Ebola, but this is the first case outside that region. Frieden said, “Ebola is a scary disease. We’re really hoping for the recovery of this individual. We’re [also] stopping it in it’s tracks in the United States.” The Associated Press reports, Ebola case stokes concerns for Liberians in Texas, Stanley Gaye, president of the Liberian Community Association of Dallas-Fort Worth, said the 10,000-strong Liberian population in North Texas is skeptical of the CDC’s assurances because Ebola has ravaged their country. Gaye said at a community meeting Tuesday evening, “We’ve been telling people to try to stay away from social gatherings. We need to know who it is so that they (family members) can all go get tested. If they are aware, they should let us know.” Vice president Roseline Sayon said, “We don’t want to get a panic going.We embrace those people who are coming forward. Don’t let the stigma keep you from getting tested.” Blood tests by Texas health officials and the CDC separately confirmed his Ebola diagnosis Tuesday. State health officials described the patient as seriously ill. Goodman said he was able to communicate and was hungry. Passengers leaving Liberia pass through rigorous screening, but those checks are no guarantee that an infected person not showing symptoms will be stopped from boarding, according to Binyah Kesselly, chairman of the Liberia Airport Authority’s board of directors. Ebola is believed to have sickened more than 6,500 people in West Africa, and more than 3,000 deaths have been linked to the disease, according to the World Health Organization. But even those tolls are probably underestimates, partially because there are not enough labs to test people for Ebola. Two mobile Ebola labs staffed by American naval researchers arrived this weekend and will be operational this week, according to the U.S. Embassy in Monrovia. The labs will reduce the amount of time it takes to learn if a patient has Ebola from several days to a few hours. The U.S. military also delivered equipment to build a 25-bed clinic that will be staffed by American health workers and will treat doctors and nurses who have become infected. The U.S. is planning to build 17 other clinics in Liberia and will help train more health workers to staff them.
While the man is now receiving treatment for Ebola, new details have emerged about the days before the he was admitted to the hospital. the Associated Press reports, Dallas ER sent Ebola-infected patient home, a Dallas emergency room sent home the man with Ebola last week knowing he had told a nurse he had been to West Africa specifically Liberia and officials at the hospital are considering if they would of acted differently if they entire staff knew. The decision by Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital to release the patient, who had recently arrived from Liberia, could have put others at risk of exposure to Ebola before the man went back to the ER a couple of days later when his condition worsened. A nine-member team of federal health officials was tracking anyone who had close contact with the man after he fell ill on Sept. 24. The group of 12 to 18 people included three members of the ambulance crew that took him to the hospital, as well as a handful of schoolchildren. They will be checked every day for 21 days, the disease’s incubation period. “That’s how we’re going to break the chain of transmission, and that’s where our focus has to be,” Dr. Tom Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told The Associated Press Wednesday. The patient explained to a nurse last Thursday that he was visiting the U.S. from Africa, but that information was not widely shared, said Dr. Mark Lester, who works for the hospital’s parent company. “Regretfully, that information was not fully communicated” throughout the medical team, Lester said. Instead, the man was diagnosed with a low-risk infection and sent home. He was prescribed antibiotics, according to his sister, Mai Wureh, who identified her brother, Thomas Eric Duncan, as the infected man in an interview with The Associated Press. Duncan has been kept in isolation at the hospital since Sunday. He was listed in serious but stable condition. But the diagnosis, and the hospital’s slip-up, highlighted the wider threat of Ebola, even far from Africa. Since the man had no symptoms on the plane, the CDC stressed there is no risk to his fellow passengers. Reuters reports, Dallas Ebola patient vomited outside apartment on way to hospital, two days after he was sent home from the hospital, the man was seen vomiting on the ground outside his apartment complex as he was taken into an ambulance. The New York Times said that Duncan, in his mid-40s, helped transport a pregnant woman suffering from Ebola to a hospital in Liberia, where she was turned away for lack of space. Duncan helped bring the woman back to her family’s home and carried her into the house, where she later died, the newspaper reported. Four days later Duncan left for the United States, the Times said, citing the woman’s parents and neighbors. Airline and hotel company shares dropped sharply on U.S. markets on Wednesday over concerns that Ebola’s spread outside Africa might curtail travel. Drugmakers with experimental Ebola treatments in the pipeline saw their shares rise. A Liberian official said the man traveled through Brussels to the United States. United Airlines said in a statement that the man took one of its flights from Brussels to Washington Dulles Airport, where he changed planes to travel to Dallas-Fort Worth. As of Thursday morning, Ryan Gorman reports, Texas officials now looking at 100 people possibly infected with deadly Ebola virus, Texas State Health Department spokesperson Carrie Williams said in a statement: “We are working from a list of about 100 potential or possible contacts. The number will drop as we focus in on those whose contact may represent a potential risk of infection.” Officials previously said they were looking at about 80 people while Duncan was being cared for in a Dallas hospital. Authorities explained they are casting a wide net in order to make sure no one goes untreated and any potential outbreak can be immediately contained. In the article, US Ebola patient’s family under quarantine as he faces criminal charges in Liberia, Gorman reports that Duncan’s family has been placed under quarantine and Thomas Duncan will face criminal charges in Liberia. Officials hand-delivered the order to Thomas Duncan’s relatives Wednesday night after they reportedly violated an official request to not leave home, WFAA reported. The Liberian citizen reportedly lied on his health form to gain entry to the U.S. Duncan’s family is now under a strict quarantine until October 19. They are legally prohibited from leaving their Dallas home for any reason. Duncan lying on his health form has prompted Liberian officials to announce they will file criminal charges against him for carrying the deadly virus through Europe and two U.S. cities, the Associated Press reported.
While the U.S. now may be dealing with the deadly virus, the outbreak in Western African countries continues to grow at an alarming rate and the local health facilities are ill-equipped to deal. Eline Gordts reports, 5 People Are Infected With Ebola Every Hour In Sierra Leone, according to new data released Wednesday by the International Charity Save the Children, five people in Sierra Leone are infected with Ebola every hour. According to Save the Children, an estimated 765 new cases of Ebola were reported in Sierra Leone just last week, while the country currently only has 327 beds for patients available. Without drastic efforts to curtail the spread of the disease, 10 people will be infected every hour in the country before the end of October, Save the Children said. In a press release about the numbers, Rob MacGillivray, the organization’s director in Sierra Leone, said: “We are facing the frightening prospect of an epidemic which is spreading like wildfire across Sierra Leone, with the number of new cases doubling every three weeks.” The spread of Ebola remains persistent in Sierra Leone, according to the WHO, and there’s strong evidence that the disease is reaching new districts. According to estimates by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, the number of Ebola cases in Liberia and Sierra Leone could rise to 1.4 million by January if the disease is not effectively fought. Only 30 percent of patients survive Ebola.
Meanwhile, as protest rage in Hong Kong, Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying has refused to step down Thursday and offered to talk to defuse a week of massive demonstrations that are the biggest challenge to Beijing’s authority since China took over from Britain in 1997, according to the Associated Press, Hong Kong leader offers talks with protesters. Student leaders of the protest did not respond to Leung’s announcement, however, Occupy Central said in a statement: “[Occupy Central] hopes the talks can provide a turning point in the current political stalemate. However, we reiterate our view that Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying is the one responsible for the stalemate, and that he must step down.” The protesters want Beijing to reverse its decision that all candidates in an inaugural 2017 election for chief executive must be approved by a committee of mostly pro-Beijing elites. They say China is reneging on its promise that the city’s top leader will be chosen through “universal suffrage.” Earlier in the day, police brought in supplies of tear gas and other riot gear, and the protesters prepared face masks and goggles as tensions rose in the standoff outside the imposing government compound near the waterfront. Police warned of serious consequences if the protesters tried to surround or occupy government buildings, as they had threatened to do if Leung didn’t resign by the end of Thursday. Leung said shortly before midnight that the authorities would continue to tolerate the protests as long as participants did not charge police lines, but urged them to stop their occupation of much of the downtown area. He said, “I urge students not to charge into or occupy government buildings. … It’s not about my personal inconvenience. These few days the protesters’ occupation of key areas of the city has already seriously affected Hong Kong’s economy, people’s daily lives and government functioning.” Joanna Chiu reports, Hong Kong leader rejects protestors’ demands, Hong Kong’s free press and social media has allowed protestors a voice and exposure that may prevent China from cracking down in the same way it does on restive minorities and dissidents living in the mainland, where it is harshly punished. With dozens of bus routes canceled and subway entrances closed, Hong Kong’s police and fire department renew calls for protestors to clear the streets. Many of the protesters were born after an agreement with Britain in 1984 that pledged to give China control of the city of 7 million, and have grown up in an era of affluence and stability, with no experience of past political turmoil in mainland China. Their calls for a great say in their futures have widespread support among many in Hong Kong disillusioned by a widening gap between the city’s ultra-wealthy tycoons and the rest of the population. Didi Tang reports, No images of Hong Kong protests in China’s media, China’s government has cut off news about Hong Kong’s pro-democracy protests to the rest of the country, a clampdown so thorough that no image of the rallies has appeared in state-controlled media, and at least one man has been detained for reposting accounts of the events. By contrast, media in semiautonomous Hong Kong have been broadcasting nonstop about the crowds, showing unarmed students fending off tear gas and pepper spray with umbrellas as they call for more representative democracy in the former British colony. Censorship of microblogs – including phrases such as “tear gas” – has kept online discussion muted. The image-sharing Instagram service was shut down in China over the weekend. Activist Wang Long in the southern city of Shenzhen, who reposted news about the protests on the instant messaging service WeChat, was detained Monday by police on suspicion of causing trouble, his lawyer friend Fan Biaowen said.
While the government of China unites against a Hong Kong democracy and face off against pro-democracy protestors, the U.S. led coalition to fight ISIS continues to struggle to gain ground against the militant group as Turkey decides whether to join the fight publicly or take a background role. CNN reports, Airstrikes pound ISIS targets; bomb blasts kill 30 schoolchildren in Syria, a day after Britain’s military launched its first campaign, Turkish soldiers and tanks along the border with Syria on Tuesday gear up for a possible fight. Meanwhile, Turkey’s government put a motion before parliament asking for the authorization to take military action against ISIS. Lawmakers are expected to debate the measure in a special session Thursday before voting, Anadolu, Turkey’s semiofficial new agency, reports. Tony Abbot told Parliament in Canberra that Australian aircraft started flying over Iraq in support of allied operations Wednesday. However, the government is awaiting an invitation from Iraq before a final decision to commit Australian forces to airstrikes. Retired U.S. Marine general coordinating the U.S. led coalition against ISIS, John R. Allen told CNN, “It’s actually an important moment where so many countries from so many different backgrounds share that view (that ISIS poses a threat to the region), that this is an opportunity to create partnership across those lines of effort that would achieve real effect.” According to a military think tank, Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, the airstrikes have cost $1 billion. The U.S. military said Tuesday that it was the busiest day for airstrikes against ISIS since the military campaign began, with 28 total, including the two UK strikes. More strikes were carried out Wednesday by the United States and a partner nation, the U.S. military said, including around the predominantly Kurdish town of Kobani in Syria, known in Arabic as Ayn al Arab. Other strikes hit ISIS targets in Iraq northwest of Mosul, near the Haditha Dam and northwest of Baghdad. Tuesday, British planes helped Kurdish troops who were fighting ISIS in northwestern Iraq, dropping a bomb on an ISIS heavy weapon position and shooting a missile at an armed pickup truck, the UK’s Defense Ministry said. Britain joins the United States and France as countries that have hit ISIS in Iraq with airstrikes, while Belgium and Denmark have also said they also will provide planes. Of those nations, only the United States along with some Arab countries have struck ISIS positions in neighboring Syria. In Syria, where a 3½ year old civil war rages on between government forces and rebel groups including ISIS, twin blasts struck Wednesday near a school in the nation’s third-largest city, Homs. The death toll has climbed to 39, with at least 30 children between the ages of 6 and 9 killed, according to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. The toll was confirmed by the London-based monitoring group the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which collects information about civilian casualties in the country. Turkey’s debate over whether to step into the fray comes as the flood of refugees from Syria has escalated, with 150,000 people fleeing to Turkey in recent days. Meanwhile, ISIS fighters armed with tanks and heavy weapons advance on Kobani in northern Syria, destroying villages in their path. If ISIS takes Kobani, it will control a complete swath of land from its self-declared capital of Raqqa to the Turkish border, more than 60 miles away. On Wednesday, Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said, according to the Associate Press report, Turkey considers Iraq, Syria incursions: “In the struggle against terrorism, we are open and ready for every kind of cooperation. However, Turkey is not a country that will allow itself to be used for temporary solutions. An effective struggle against ISIL or other terror organizations will be our priority. The immediate removal of the administration in Damascus, Syria’s territorial unity and the installation of an administration which embraces all will continue to be our priority.” The motion cites the continued threat to Turkey from Kurdish rebels who are fighting for autonomy from bases in northern Iraq; the threat from the Syrian regime; as well as the newly emerged threat from the Islamic State militants and other groups in Syria and Iraq. It also cites a potential threat to a mausoleum in Syria that is considered Turkish territory. The tiny plot of land that is a memorial to Suleyman Shah, the grandfather of the founder of the Ottoman Empire, is guarded by Turkish troops. The government enjoys a majority in parliament and the motion was expected to pass despite opposition from two parties.
As the human tragedy of war unfolds in the Middle East, several credible and widely known organizations this week have released reports on the human impact on climate change that has caused wildlife populations to plummet and bodies of water to recede or disappear and the record increase of Antarctic sea ice. John Heilprin reports, Humans To Blame For Major Decline In Wildlife Populations, WWF Report Finds, that a study Tuesday from the Swiss based WWF reports that 3,000 species of wildlife around the world have see their numbers plummet due to human threats to nature with a 52 percent decline in wildlife populations between 1970 and 2010. It says improved methods of measuring populations of fish, birds, mammals, amphibians and reptiles explain the huge difference from the 28-percent decline between 1970 and 2008 that the group reported in 2012. Most of the new losses were found in tropical regions, particularly Latin America. WWF describes the study it has carried out every two years since 1998 as a barometer of the state of the planet. The latest “Living Planet” study analyzed data from about 10,000 populations of 3,038 vertebrate species from a database maintained by the Zoological Society of London. It is meant to provide a representative sampling of the overall wildlife population in the world, said WWF’s Richard McLellan, editor-in-chief of the study. It reflects populations since 1970, the first year the London-based society had comprehensive data. Each study is based on data from at least four years earlier. In the new WWF study, hunting and fishing along with continued losses and deterioration of natural habitats are identified as the chief threats to wildlife populations around the world. Other primary factors are global warming, invasive species, pollution and disease. Ken Norris, science director at the London society, said, “This damage is not inevitable but a consequence of the way we choose to live. There is still hope. Protecting nature needs focused conservation action, political will and support from industry.” Ryan Gorman reports, The world’s fourth-largest lake is almost completely dry, the vast Aral Sea has all but disappeared as seen in new satellite photos released by NASA. Officials in the Soviet Union began diverting water from the Aral Sea in the 1960s to irrigate desert land in Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan, according to the space agency. This effort has virtually drained it dry. The port cities Aralsk, Kazakhstan, and Moynaq, Uzbekistan, dependent on the lake’s 22 varieties of fish, began to crumble, officials claim. Less water led to higher concentrations of salt and other pollutants, it eventually became a public health hazard. Contaminated soil then blew off the dry lake bed onto neighboring farms and contaminated them, officials said. Less water also led to colder winters since the water’s moderating effect on the local climate was all but diminished. Kate Sheppard reports, Cutting Greenhouse Gas Emissions Could Save 3,500 Lives Per Year: Report, a study released Tuesday says that reducing greenhouse gas emissions from power plants in order to curb global warming will save up to 3,500 American lives or nine lives per day and prevent 1,000 hospitalizations. The study, by researchers at Harvard, Syracuse and Boston universities, finds that the “co-benefits” of cutting carbon include reductions in sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide, particulate matter, and mercury, which have been linked to respiratory illness, heart attacks and early deaths. The study looked at three scenarios for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. One would only require changes at power plants. The second would set a state-based standard and allow reductions to come from throughout the electricity sector. The third would require power plants to make changes up to a certain cost. The researchers said the second scenario yielded the most co-benefits, reducing greenhouse gas emissions 35 percent from 2005 levels, while cutting sulfur dioxide and mercury emissions 27 percent, and nitrogen oxide emissions 22 percent. That scenario also was the most similar to the draft standard for reducing power plant emission that the Environmental Protection Agency released in June, which calls for a 30 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030. The EPA’s own estimates of the benefits of its draft rules projected that they would prevent 2,700 to 6,600 premature deaths. The study found health benefits across the lower 48 states. Benefits were highest in places where more people are currently exposed to pollutants, and in the places with the worst air quality. Pennsylvania, Ohio, Texas, Illinois, Michigan, New York, North Carolina, Georgia, Missouri, Virginia, Tennessee and Indiana would see the most avoided deaths, the researchers concluded. Climate Central reports, Antarctic Sea Ice Just Hit A New Maximum, But That Doesn’t Mean The Continent’s Not Warming, a boom in Antarctic sea ice will surpassed 7.7 million square miles for the first time ever and will set a new record and nearly every day has set a record for the day in the satellite record for 2014, according to Ted Scambos, a senior scientist with the National Snow and Ice Data Center in Boulder, Colorado. The boom in ice around the southernmost continent in the past few years is in contract to the decades long decline of sea ice in the Arctic Ocean where the Arctic sea ice hit its sixth lowest extent at the end of this summer with the ice’s edge coming within 5 degrees latitude of the North Pole. That Arctic ice melt is robustly connected to the overall warming of the planet. The loss of reflective, white ice also amplifies the warming around the North Pole; as more dark, open ocean is exposed to incoming sunlight, the water absorbs those rays, heats even more and melts more ice. The growth of Antarctic sea ice may also, paradoxically, be connected to global warming, though the exact combination of causes is still a major area of study. And just what the causes turn out to be will affect how long the Antarctic growth will go on for. The Associated Press reports, 35,000 Walrus Come Ashore In Northwest Alaska, an estimated 35,000 walrus were photographed Saturday about 5 miles north of Point Lay, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Due to the fact these Pacific walrus cannot find sea ice to rest on in the Arctic waters, many have come ashore in record numbers to the beaches of northwest Alaska. The enormous gathering was spotted during NOAA’s annual arctic marine mammal aerial survey, spokeswoman Julie Speegle said by email. The survey is conducted with the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, the agency that oversees offshore lease sales. Andrea Medeiros, spokeswoman for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, said walrus were first spotted Sept. 13 and have been moving on and off shore. Observers last week saw about 50 carcasses on the beach from animals that may have been killed in a stampede, and the agency was assembly a necropsy team to determine their cause of death. Pacific walrus spend their winters in the Bering Sea as females give birth on sea ice and use the ice to dive for food on the shallow shelf. When the temperatures warm in summer and the edge of the sea ice receded north, females and their young ride the edge of the ice into the Chukchi Sea, north of the Bering Sea. Unfortunately, in recent years, sea ice has receded beyond the shallow continental shelf and into the Arctic Ocean water with depths that exceed 2 miles preventing walrus from diving to the bottom. The World Wildlife Fund said walrus have also been gathering in large groups on the Russian side of the Chukchi Sea. Margaret Williams, managing director of the group’s Arctic program, said via phone from Washington, D.C.. “It’s another remarkable sign of the dramatic environmental conditions changing as the result of sea ice loss. The walruses are telling us what the polar bears have told us and what many indigenous people have told us in the high Arctic, and that is that the Arctic environment is changing extremely rapidly and it is time for the rest of the world to take notice and also to take action to address the root causes of climate change.”
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Tagged Air Pollution, Air Quality, Alaskan Walrus, Animal Populations, Antarctic Ice Antarctic Sea, Antarctica, Antarctica Ice, Antarctica Sea Ice, Bejiing, California Drought, CDC Ebola 2014, Clean Power Plan, Climate Central, Climate Change, Climate Change 35000 Walrus Come Ashore, Climate Change Attribution, Co Benefits, Decline in Wildlife, Democracy Hong Kong, Democracy in China, Ebola CDC, Ebola Crisis, Ebola Death Toll, Ebola Liberia, Ebola Texas, Ebola US, Ebola West Africa, Ebola WHO, Environmental Protection Agency, EPA, Extreme Weather, Extreme Weather Floods, Floods, Generation Change, Generation Change Climate Change, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Harvard, Harvard University School of Public Health, health, Hong Kong China democracy, Hong Kong democracy rally, Ice Antarctic Sea, Ice Extent Climate Change Ice Melting, Isil, ISIS Beheadings, Isis Beheads Women, Isis Women, Islamic State, Islamic State Beheadings, Islamic State Syria, Islamic State Women, Living Planet Report, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, nature, NOAA, Ozone Pollution, Poaching, Pollution, Power Plants, Reuters, Sea Level Rise, Sixth Extinction, Syria News, Thomas Karl, Turkey Iraq, Turkey ISIS, Turkey Syria, video, Walrus Alaska, Walrus Come Ashore, Wildlife Killing, Wildlife Population Decline, Wildlife Populations, Wwf Living Planet Report, Wwf Report, Wwf Wildlife Report
Strikes on ISIS Continue As New Recruits Arrive, Democracy Protests in Hong Kong Take a Violent Turn and Police Mistrust Corroding America
Through the weekend, U.S. and British airstrikes continues to bombard ISIS installations in Syria as new recruits arrived to fight with ISIS. On Saturday, Bassem Mroue reports, US-led planes strike fighters attacking Syria town, that for the first time U.S. led coalition warplanes struck the Islamic State fighters in Syria attacking a town near the Turkish border and in the country’s east, according to activists and a Kurdish official. The Islamic State’s attack on the Syrian Kurdish town of Kobani that caused 100,000 refugees to flee to Turkey in recent days has caused Kurdish fighters from Iraq and Turkey to join the fight to defend the town. Nawaf Khalil, a spokesman for Syria’s Kurdish Democratic Union Party, or PYD, said the strikes targeted Islamic State positions near Kobani, also known as Ayn Arab, destroying two tanks resulting in jihadi fighters later shelling the town and wounding a number of civilians. The united States was joined by five Arab allies to launch an aerial campaign against Islamic State fighters in Syria early Tuesday to try and roll back the extremist group, which has created a proto-state spanning the Syria-Iraq border. During their campaigns for control the militants have massacred captured Syrian and Iraqi troops, terrorized minorities in both countries and beheaded two American journalists and a British aid worker. Syria’s Foreign Minister Waid al-Moallem told the Lebanon based Al-Mayadeen TV that the airstrikes alone “will not be able to wipe out” the Islamic State group and on Saturday said the U.S. should work with Damascus to win the war. HOwever, the U.S. has ruled out any coordination with President Bashar Assad’s government who is at war with the Islamic State group as well as Western-backed rebels. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the coalition’s strikes near Kobani came amid heavy fighting between the Islamic State group and members of the Kurdish force known as the People’s Protection Units, or YPK. The Observatory reported Friday that 13 civilians have been killed by the strikes since they began. The Observatory said other coalition airstrikes targeted Islamic State compounds in the central province of Homs and the northern regions of Raqqa and Aleppo. The group said 31 explosions were heard in the city of Raqqa, the group’s de facto capital, and its suburbs. The Local Coordination Committees, another activist group, said the strikes in the east hit the province of Deir el-Zour as well as Raqqa. The LCC also said the coalition targeted grain silos west of Deir el-Zour city. Max Blumenfeld, a spokesman for U.S. Central Command, said the U.S. airstrikes are aimed at specific Islamic State targets such as command and control centers, transportation and logistics, and oil refineries, “but not food that could have an impact upon the civilian population.” In recent days coalition warplanes had struck oil-producing facilities in eastern Syria aiming to cut off the group’s main revenue stream which generate $2 million a day in black market oil sales. The coalition striking Syria includes Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain and Jordan, and the strikes are an extension of the U.S. campaign in neighboring Iraq launched in August. Meanwhile in Washington, a week after the U.S. led airstrikes in Syria began, in a televised interview Sunday, Obama echoed James Clapper’s (head of U.S. intelligence) sentiments regarding ISIS by saying the government “underestimated what had been taking place in Syria” during its civil war, allowing Syria to become “ground zero for jihadists around the world,” according to a CNN report, Obama admits ISIS threat was misjudged as U.S. splits emerge. Speaking to CBS’ “60 Minutes,” Obama said, “Over the past couple of years, during the chaos of the Syrian civil war, where essentially you have huge swaths of the country that are completely ungoverned, they were able to reconstitute themselves and take advantage of that chaos.” Additionally, Obama said the U.S. later overrated Iraq’s security forces, which were quickly overrun by ISIS when it took over the northern city of Mosul this summer. Obama told “60 minutes,” “This is America leading the international community to assist a country with whom we have a security partnership with, to make sure that they are able to take care of their business. If we do our job right and the Iraqis fight, then over time our role can slow down and taper off.” On Friday, Danica Kirka reported, Britain joins fight against Islamic State group, Britain, Belgium and Denmark joined the fight by committing warplanes to the struggle against the Islamic State group in Iraq. British Prime Minister David Cameron made a passionate plea for action in drastic terms: “This is about psychopathic terrorists that are trying to kill us and we do have to realize that, whether we like it or not, they have already declared war on us. There isn’t a `walk on by’ option. There isn’t an option of just hoping this will go away.” British lawmakers voted 524-43 for action after being urgently recalled from a recess. Belgian also overwhelmingly approved, voting 114-2 to take part, despite widespread concerns that more terrorism may follow in their homeland as a result. Denmark’s Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt said her government would send four operational planes and three reserve jets along with 250 pilots and support staff for 12 months. Lawmakers in Denmark must also approve, but that is considered a formality. The British resolution does not include Syria, but lawmakers feel this is the next logical step. No European nation has yet agreed to join the U.S. and some Arab states in strikes in Syria. Unfortunately, 200 fighters have joined ISIS in Syria’s northern Aleppo province since U.S. President Barack Obama said the United States would strike the group in Syria, according to a monitoring group on Friday. At least 162 have joined the radical al-Qaida offshoot in northeast and eastern Aleppo in the week following Obama’s speech on Sept. 10, according to the British based Syrian Observatory for Human rights. Another 73 men have joined on Sept. 23 and 24 in the northeast Aleppo countryside since the strikes started, bringing the total to 235, the Observatory reports. Additionally, the new men come from al Qaida’s Syrian wing, the Nusra Front, were mostly Syrian and included 15 nationalities. On Monday, activists reported that U.S. led warplanes bombed Islamic State positions overnight across four provinces in northern and eastern Syria, hitting a gran silo and the country’s largest gas plant, the Associated Press reported,
US-led airstrikes hit 4 Syrian provinces.
While last week ISIS became a greater concern to country’s around the world, a long standing debate also took center stage as people marched and rallied for change in Hong Kong. Kevin Chan reports, Pro-Democracy protests expand in Hong Kong, pro-democracy protestors expanded their rally throughout Hong Kong Monday defying calls to disperse in a major push back against Beijing’s decision to limit democratic reforms in the Asian financial hub. Police officers tried to negotiate with protestors camped out on a busy highway near the Hong Kong government headquarters that was the scene of tear gas fueled clashes that erupted the previous night. An officer with a bullhorn tried to clear the way for commuters, but was met with a protestor who responded by saying that they want Hong Kong’s Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying to demand a genuine choice for the territory’s voters. China has called the protest illegal and endorsed the Hong Kong’s government’s crackdown, while Beijing has taken a hard line against threat’s to the Communist Party’s monopoly on power. The mass protests are the strongest challenge yet to Beijing’s decision last month to reject open nominations for candidates under proposed guidelines for the first-ever elections for Hong Kong’s leader, promised for 2017. Instead, candidates must continue to be hand-picked by Beijing – a move that many residents viewed as reneging on promises to allow greater democracy in the semi-autonomous territory. Lueng said, “I hope the public will keep calm. Don’t be misled by the rumors. Police will strive to maintain social order, including ensuring smooth traffic and ensuring the public safety. When they carry out their duties, they will use their maximum discretion.” The protest has been spearheaded largely but student-age activists but has gathered momentum among a broad range of people from high school students to the elderly. Protestors are also occupying streets in other parts of Hong Kong Island such as the upscale shopping area of Causeway Bay and across the harbor in densely populated Mong Kok on the Kowloon peninsula. In addition, the city’s transport department said roads in the area are closed and more than 200 bus routes have been canceled or diverted int he city dependent on public transportation as well as Subway exits that have been closed or blocked near the protest area. Authorities said some schools in areas near the main protest site would be closed. To ward off tear gas, demonstrators improvised with homemade defenses such as plastic wrap, which they used to cover their face and arms, as well as umbrellas, goggles and surgical masks. The protests began with a class boycott last week by students urging Beijing to grant genuine democratic reforms to this former British colony. Beijing’s insistence on using a committee to screen candidates on the basis of their patriotism to China – similar to the one that currently hand-picks Hong Kong’s leaders – has stoked fears among pro-democracy groups that Hong Kong will never get genuine democracy. Students and activists had been camped out since late Friday on streets outside the government complex. Sunday’s clashes arose when police sought to block thousands of people from entering the protest zone. Protesters spilled onto a busy highway, bringing traffic to a standstill. Although students started the rally, leaders of the broader Occupy Central civil disobedience movement joined them early Sunday, saying they wanted to kick-start a long-threatened mass sit-in demanding Hong Kong’s top leader be elected without Beijing’s interference. Occupy Central issued a statement Monday calling on Leung to resign and saying his “non-response to the people’s demands has driven Hong Kong into a crisis of disorder.” The statement added that the protest was now “a spontaneous movement” of all Hong Kong people. Police said they had arrested 78 people. They also took away several pro-democracy legislators who were among the demonstrators, but later released them. According to the Hong Kong Information Services Department on Monday, at least 41 people have been injured or taken to the hospital along with six police officers. The Associate Press reports, Hong Kong leader says Beijing won’t back down, that a brief statement from the Occupy Central civil disobedience movement set a Wednesday deadline for a response from the government to meet their demands for reforms after spending another night blocking the streets of Hong Kong. The requirements for ending the protest is for the city’s unpopular chief executive, Leung Chun-ying, to meet their demands for genuine democracy and for him to step down as Hong Kong’s leader. Even larger crowds are expected to flood the streets Wednesday, China’s National Day holiday. The government said it was canceling a fireworks display to mark the day. By Tuesday morning, the crowd, mostly students, continued to occupy a six-lane highway next to the local government headquarters. The encampment was also edging closer to the heart of the city’s financial district. Police said they used 87 rounds of tear gas Sunday in what they called a necessary but restrained response to protesters pushing through cordons and barricades. Officials announced that schools in some districts of Hong Kong would remain closed Tuesday because of safety concerns. The protests have been dubbed the “Umbrella Revolution” by some, because the crowds have used umbrellas to not only block the sun, but also to stop the police from hitting them with pepper spray. Political slogans calling for freedom have also been written on the umbrellas.
Meanwhile, in the United States, protests and rallies continue to surround Ferguson where a black unarmed teenager was shot by a white police officer, causing racial tensions to simmer and boil over repeatedly this past month. On Friday, the Department of Justice and officials said they personally observed Ferguson police officers not wearing name plates which is in direct conflict with Ferguson Police Department policy, but on duty officers in Ferguson were wearing wristband in support of the cop who shot and killed an unarmed teen last month, according to what the DOJ told police in St. Louis County and reported by AOL, DOJ Gets Ferguson, St. Louis County Cops To Ban ‘I Am Darren Wilson’ Wristbands. A photo posted on social media during demonstrations in Ferguson on Tuesday night appears to show an officer working crowd control wearing a wristband that reads “I am Darren Wilson.” The slogan and campaigns associated with it are in support of the Ferguson police officer who shot and killed Michael Brown and whom protestors want arrested. A grand jury currently is weighing the evidence against Wilson, and the FBI has launched a separate civil rights investigation into the case. Missouri State Highway Patrol Capt. Ron Johnson said the wristbands were “not a statement of law enforcement” and that he would have conversations with law enforcement agencies about officers wearing the wristbands. Christy Lopez, deputy chief of the special litigation section of DOJ’s Civil Rights Division, sent a letter to Ferguson Police Chief Tom Jackson on Friday indicating that Jackson had agreed to prohibit Ferguson officers from wearing “I am Darren Wilson” bracelets while in uniform and on duty. The letter said Jackson had said he would make sure the other municipal agencies working in Ferguson would prohibit their officers from wearing the bracelets as well. Lopez said St. Louis County Police Chief Jon Belmar and Missouri Highway Patrol Ron Replogle had indicated to Justice Department officials they also would ban the bracelets. According to letter Lopez wrote: “These bracelets reinforce the very ‘us versus them’ mentality that many residents of Ferguson believe exists.” In a separate letter that DOJ sent to Jackson this week that was released on Friday, Civil Rights Division officials asked him to make sure his officers were wearing name tags while on duty. The letter to Jackson states: “Officers wearing name plates while in uniform is a basic component of transparency and accountability. It is a near-universal requirement of sound policing practices and required under some state laws. Allowing officers to remain anonymous when they interact with the public contributes to mistrust and undermines accountability. The failure to wear name plates conveys a message to community members that, through anonymity, officers may seek to act with impunity.” Protests have heated up in Ferguson this week, six weeks after Brown was killed after Wilson stopped him and a friend because they were walking in the middle of the street. Jackson apologized to the Brown family and protestors this week in a video released by a public relations firm working for the city. Another component of the Justice Department, the Community Relations Service, also held meetings with Ferguson residents this week in an attempt to sooth tensions in the area. The Associated Press reports, AP Interview: Browns unmoved by chief’s apology, the parents of Michael Brown want the Ferguson, Missouri, police officer who shot their unarmed 18 year old son arrested and charged with murder and the police chief fired. In a wide-ranging interview, Brown’s mother, Lesley McSpadden said yes when asked if Chief Tom Jackson should be fired, and his father, Michael Brown Sr., said he wanted the officer who shot his son to be in handcuffs for the Aug. 9 death. Brown said, “An apology would be when Darren Wilson has handcuffs, processed and charged with murder.” McSpadden added, “There’s going to continue to be unrest until they do what should be done.” Brown’s parents are in the nation’s capital to meet with lawmakers and lobby Congress to pass a law requiring police officers to wear cameras during their interactions with the public. They also called on the Justice Department to take over the investigation into whether there should be criminal charges against the officer. The parents were invited to the annual awards dinner of the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, where President Barack Obama spoke of the mistrust between local residents and law enforcement in many communities following these episodes like Brown’s death. He said, “Too many young men of color feel targeted by law enforcement – guilty of walking while black, driving while black, judged by stereotypes that fuel fear and resentment and hopelessness.” The parents were also angry over Ferguson police wearing bracelets in support of Wilson. Obama at the Saturday dinner said: “It makes folks who are victimized by crime and need strong policing reluctant to go to the police because they may not trust them. And the worst part of it is it scars the hearts of our children. That is not the society we want. It’s not the society that our children deserve. Too many young men of color feel targeted by law enforcement – guilty of walking while black or driving while black, judged by stereotypes that fuel fear and resentment and hopelessness. Back in Ferguson, Jack Gillum reports, Ferguson demands high fees to turn over city files, Bureaucrats responding to requests under the state’s Sunshine Act to turn over government files about the fatal shooting of 18-year-old Michael Brown, are charging nearly 10 times the cost of some of their own employees’ salaries before they will agree to release any records. The move discourages journalists and civil rights groups from investigating the shooting and its aftermath. While the city under Missouri law can give away copies of records for free if determined that the material was in the public’s interest to see, the city has decided to charge high fees with little explanation of the cost breakdown. Price-gouging for government files is one way that local, state and federal agencies have responded to requests for potentially embarrassing information they may not want released. Open records laws are designed to give the public access to government records at little or no cost, and have historically exposed waste, wrongdoing and corruption. According to Gillum, since the death and ensuing protest, news organizations, nonprofit groups and everyday citizens have submitted records requests to Ferguson officials, asking for police reports, records about Brown and the personnel files of Officer Darren Wilson, who shot Brown Aug. 9.
Posted in 2014, activism, al-Qaida, bombing, civil rights, conflict, congress, controversial, crime, democracy, goverment, guns, human rights, insurgency, international, Iran, Iraq War, Islamic State, militants, military, news, peace, people, politics, protest, rally, terrorism, tragedy, United Nations, United States, US, violence, war, white house, world
Tagged Air Strikes ISIS, Americans Climate Change Poll, Barack Obama Iraq, Barack Obama ISIS, Barack Obama Syria, British airstrikes ISIS, Chicago Council on Global Affairs Poll Chicago, Climate Change, Climate Change Polls, Congress Iraq, Congress Syria, Council on Global Affairs Climate Change Poll, Darren Wilson, Democracy Hong Kong, environment, Environment Climate Change, Eric Holder, Ferguson, Ferguson Police, Ferguson police apology, Fossil Fuels, Generation Change, Global Warming Poll, Hong Kong Central Business District, Hong Kong China democracy, Hong Kong Democracy, Hong Kong democracy rally, Hong kong police, House Speaker John Boehner, I Am Darren Wilson, I Am Darren Wilson Bracelets, Isil, Isis, Isis Iraq, ISIS recruits, Isis Syria, Michael Brown, Mike Brown, New York Times Climate Change Poll, Obama corrupt police, Obama Ferguson, Peoples Climate March, police corruption Ferguson, Ron Johnson, Syria ISIS recruits, Syria ISIS recruits Aleppo, Un Climate Summit, Unfccc, US Airstrikes Syria
September 26, 2014 by craftymcclever
American Business and Politics: With Liberty and Justice for Some
On Thursday, Attorney General Eric Holder, the country’s first African American AG, announced he was leaving the Department of Justice after five and half years in the role, Ryan Gorman reports, US Attorney General Eric Holder to step down. The 63 year old will remain with the Justice Department until his successor is named, but is certain about his departure , according to NPR. While the Obama administration wanted him to stay the full eight years, the final decision was Holder’s to make. According to the source who told NPR, Holder is leery about remaining much longer over fears he “could be locked in to stay for much of the rest of President Obama’s second term.” The decision was made over the Labor Day weekend by Holder and Obama. Possible successors include former White House counsel Kathryn Ruemmler and Solicitor General Donald Verrilli, according to the Wall Street Journal. Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara’s name has also been mentioned in reports. Holder is the 82nd AG and worked as the deputy attorney general under President Clinton in the 1990s. His troublesome tenure, the fourth longest in history, was riddled with political infighting and racial divided across the nation, culminating with the Michael Brown shooting last month in Ferguson, Missouri. The AG was dispatched directly to the St. Louis suburb to handle he inquiry into the unarmed black teen’s death at the hands of white police officer Darren Wilson. Nedra Pickler reports, Holder resigning: Attorney general backed rights, in an emotional ceremony at the White House, Obama said Holder did a superb job and credited him with driving down both the nation’s crime and incarceration rate for the first time in 40 years. Obama said, “He believes as I do that justice is not just an abstract theory. It’s a living and breathing principal. It’s about how our laws interact with our daily lives.” In a speech earlier this week, Holder described the dual personal perspective he brought to the job and how it applies to the Ferguson shooting. He said he has the utmost respect for police as a former prosecutor and the brother of an officer, but added, “As an African-American man who has been stopped and searched by police in situations where such actions were not warranted, I also carry with me an understanding of the mistrust that some citizens harbor.” Holder told the Associated Press in an interview that he’s not sure whether the Justice Department will finish its investigation into the shooting before he leaves. Holder said “I don’t want to rush them” and once out of office, he will direct attention to “issues that have animated me” during his tenure, including criminal justice and civil rights. Holder said his biggest regret was “the failure to pass any responsible and reasonable gun safety legislation after the shootings in Newtown and thought after the Connecticut shooting that the nation would embrace change that was “not radical but really reasonable” on gun ownership. As the article reports: “He was a lightning rod for conservative critics and faced a succession of controversies over, among other things, an ultimately abandoned plan to try terrorism suspects in New York City, a botched gun-running probe along the Southwest border that prompted Republican calls for his resignation, and what was seen as a failure to hold banks accountable for the financial system’s near-meltdown. Stung by criticism that the department hadn’t been aggressive enough in targeting financial misconduct, Holder in the past year and a half secured criminal guilty pleas from two foreign banks and multibillion-dollar civil settlements with American banks arising from the sale of toxic mortgage-backed securities. Even then, critics noted that no individuals were held accountable.” Jim Kuhnhenn sums up the legacy of the nation’s first black attorney general and one of President Barack Obama’s longest servicing Cabinet member in his article Holder’s legacy: counterterrorism to civil rights:
“Holder declared that waterboarding was torture, ordered a review of CIA interrogations, and defended the use of drone strikes overseas. His Justice Department successfully prosecuted terrorism suspects, including Osama bin Laden’s son-in-law. He was widely criticized by Republicans and some Democrats for his plan to try professed Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and other alleged co-conspirators in New York, a plan he ultimately dropped.”
“He fought against voter ID laws, urged federal prosecutors to shy away from seeking mandatory minimum prison sentences for nonviolent criminals, introduced new clemency criteria and backed proposals to give leniency to certain drug convicts. He also advanced legal protections for gay couples, declaring in 2011 that the Justice Department no longer would defend the constitutionality of a 1996 law that prohibits federal recognition of same-sex marriage.”
“Though not a proponent of the death penalty, Holder approved pursuing capital punishment in numerous federal cases. But in the aftermath of a botched execution earlier this year in Oklahoma, Obama asked Holder to study the protocols used by states in applying the death penalty. The Justice Department already was reviewing practices used by the Bureau of Prisons and had placed a moratorium on federal executions.”
“Holder became the administration’s point man in the federal response to the police shooting of an unarmed black 18-year-old in Ferguson, Missouri. He ordered a civil rights investigation into the Ferguson Police Department. In the shooting’s aftermath, Holder also enlisted a team of criminal justice researchers to study racial bias in law enforcement.”
“Holder became the first Cabinet member to be held in contempt of Congress amid a dispute over document production in a long-running congressional investigation of a flawed law enforcement gun-smuggling probe along the Southwest border.”
MEDIA CRACKDOWN
“Under Holder’s watch, the Justice Department cracked down on news media reporting on national security matters. The department secretly subpoenaed phone records from Associated Press reporters and editors and used a search warrant to obtain some emails of a Fox News journalist as part of a separate leak investigation.”
While Obama has received several blows in recent years to his Cabinet that ended with resignations, the fight for fairness and accountability in America seems to be on an upswing regarding business practices in the public and private sector. Janet McConnaughey reports, Businesses won’t have to return BP spill payouts, a federal judge Wednesday said that the oil giant BP must stand by its agreement with companies to compensate them for losses blamed on the 2010 Gulf oil spill. BP argues that the flawed funding formula enabled nearly 800 businesses to overestimate their spill related claims. Attorney Kevin Downey argued about 150 claimants should return a total of $185 million and overpayments to the rest haven’t been calculated. U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier agreed weeks ago to change the compensation formula for any future payments, but ruled Wednesday that a deal is a deal when it comes to the money BP has already paid out. Under that deal, claimants agreed not to sue, and BP agreed that no future court action could change their payments. Company spokesman Geoff Morrell said, “BP disagrees with today’s decision and will appeal it. We asked the Court, as a matter of equity and fairness, to order the return of excessive payments.” Barbier said he would rule later on the issue of compensation for cleanup workers whose chronic medical problems weren’t diagnosed until after the deal’s cutoff date of April 16, 2012. The settlement entitled cleanup workers with chronic conditions including rashes and breathing problems to receive up to $60,700 if the problems first surfaced within days of their cleanup work. Pavel Molchanov, an energy analyst for Raymond James, said, “In 2010 and 2011, BP was willing to cut any deal necessary with anyone to reduce its legal risk. Now the company is taking a more assertive approach.” The judge’s ruling this month that BP showed gross negligence and willful misconduct added a new level of uncertainty around BP’s spill-related expenses, reducing its market value by $9 billion in a single day. BP’s total potential liabilities now include up to $18 billion in fines and penalties that could be imposed for violating federal pollution laws, and more than $27 billion BP says it has already paid to restore the coast and settle damage claims. The claims office said it has paid $4.1 billion to more than 50,700 people and businesses as of Wednesday, and it’s not done yet – the settlement fund is not capped. Meanwhile, the U.S. must pay $554 million to the Navajo Nation for mismanaging reservation resources and leaving the largest Native American tribe in the country at incredible disadvantages for decades, according to the AOL article, U.S. Will Pay $554M Settlement to Navajo Nation. The payout negotiated earlier this year is the largest payout to a tribe in U.S. history and tribal leaders say the payout is much needed, reports Ben Shelly via YouTube. Spread across Arizona, New Mexico and Utah, the Navajo Nation has more than 300,000 members. The region is rich with natural resources like oil, gas and coal, other resources like water and agriculture land are scarce, the Navajo Tourism Department state. In a video via Indian Country Today, the Navajo lawsuit from 1946 to 2012 said the U.S. didn’t negotiate the best deals from companies mining natural resources from the region and didn’t make sure the Navajos were compensated properly. A CCTV investigation in 2012 found that more than 40 percent of the nation’s members lived without running water or electricity. This is another in a long line of settlements by the Obama administration with Native Americans, who had tried in vain for generations to battle government practices and a system that dated back to the 1800s. The Washington Post reports many tribes with pending litigation wrote to President Obama in 2009 asking the administration to expedite settlements instead of going to court. On the minimum wage front, Claire Zillman reports, 101-year-old law puts minimum wage at heart of Wisconsin governor’s race, a complaint filed with thew state’s department of workplace development Wednesday, by 100 low wage workers and the group Wisconsin Jobs Now, argues that the state’s $7.25 minimum wage violates a 1913 law unique to Wisconsin that requires that the state minimum wage “shall not be less than a living wage,” which is defined as one that ensures “reasonable comfort, reasonable physical well-being, decency, and moral well-being.” The filing is an attempt to force the hand of Governor Scoot Walker on the state’s minimum wage and by law required the administration’s department of workplace development, whose secretary was appointed by Walker, must determine if there’s a basis for a minimum wage hike within 20 day. The timing of the filing comes amidst a fierce race between Walker, who opposes a minimum wage hike, and his opponent in the race for governor, Democrat Mary Burke. A Marquette Law School poll from late August showed Walker leading narrowly by three points. In a statement to Fortune, Walker’s office said the workplace development department is reviewing the complaint: “Governor Walker wants jobs in Wisconsin that pay two or three times the minimum wage. He is focused on finding ways to help employers create jobs that pay far more than the minimum wage or any other proposed minimum.” While the “living wage” law is unique to Wisconsin, there are four other states—California, Connecticut, New Jersey, and Massachusetts—that give the governor the power to increase the minimum wage, according to NELP. On Thursday, Tom Huddleston Jr. reported, Dow Jones plunges more than 260 points amid massive market sell-off, all 30 Dow companies lost value making it one of the worst trading days this year amid investor concern about global instability and the possibility of higher interest rates. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 264 points, or 1.5%, to close below the 17,000-point mark at 16,945.80. All 30 companies on the blue-chip index saw their shares drop. JPMorgan Chase JPM and UnitedHealth Group UNH saw the biggest declines among Dow Jones companies, dropping 2.4% and 2.3%, respectively. The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq fell 1.6% and 1.9%, respectively, as each index has now declined in four of the past five days of trading. The reason for the fall as Huddleston Jr. reports is due the Obama administration announcement of regulations aimed at fighting corporate tax inversions and the U.S.-led airstrikes conducted in Syria. In addition, reports of a leadership change in China’s central bank and the announcement on Thursday by Richard Fisher, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, that the U.S. Federal Reserve could start raising interest rates in spring 2015 sooner than expected has created uncertainty among investors.
While big names in the political and business arena suffered minor set back this week, the people in the trenches so to speak have been dealt an even bigger blow only adding to the already heightened racial tensions and well deserved criticism of the justice system. CNN reports, No indictment in police shooting death of Ohio man carrying air rifle, the grand jury in Ohio has decided not to indict police officers for an August shooting death of a 22 year old man carrying an air rifle at a Walmart store in Beavercreek, Ohio. On Wednesday, prosecutor Mark Piepmeier said, “The grand jury listened to all the evidence, voted on it and decided that the police officers were justified in their use of force that day.” In a statement, Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine said the U.S. Justice Department will review the shooting of Cincinnati resident John Crawford III: “Now that the state criminal investigation has finished, it is an appropriate time for the United States Department of Justice to look into whether any federal laws were violated during this shooting.” In a statement, Michael Wright, attorney representing the Crawford family, said: “It makes absolutely no sense that an unarmed 22-year-old man would be killed doing what any American citizen does every day: Shopping at a Walmart store. The Crawford family is extremely disappointed, disgusted and confused. They are heartbroken that justice was not done in the tragic death of their only son. The Crawford family feels they have been victimized all over again and once again request that the U.S. Department of Justice conduct an independent investigation into the tragic death of John H. Crawford, lll.” According to the report: “Crawford was shot and killed by police at a Walmart in Beavercreek on August 5 while carrying an air rifle through the store. Police responded to the scene after a witness called 911 and told dispatchers that Crawford was walking around with a rifle and ‘waving it back and forth.’ According to police, when officers arrived, Crawford did not comply with their commands to drop his weapon. He was shot twice, once in the elbow and once in the torso, Piepmeier said. Crawford died shortly after being transported to a nearby hospital. His death was ruled a homicide by gunshot wound to the torso, according to the local coroner’s office.” Prosecutors showed surveillance video from inside the store, which was made public on Wednesday. The two police officers involved, Sgt. David Darkow and Officer Sean Williams, have been on paid administrative leave after the shooting, but Darkow returned to active duty, according to Beavercreek city attorney Stephen McHugh. Williams will be assigned to administrative desk duty until a federal review of the circumstances surrounding Crawford’s death is complete, according to a statement. Wright said Walmart surveillance video and eyewitness accounts prove Williams “shot and killed Mr. Crawford while his back was turned and without adequate warning.” Beavercreek City Manager Michael Cornell and Police Chief Dennis Evers have requested that the FBI review the case to determine whether there were civil rights violations, the statement said. The nine-member grand jury, which convened on Monday, heard from 18 witnesses. An indictment on charges of murder, reckless homicide or negligent homicide would have required seven votes, Piepmeier said. Meanwhile, Ryan Gorman reports, White SC Trooper faces 20 years in prison for shooting unarmed black male, a newly released video shows a white South Carolina A State Trooper shooting an unarmed black male who was reaching for his driver’s license. Lance Corporal Sean Groubert, 31, was fired from the force and has been charged with a felony in the wrongful shooting of Levar Jones, who luckily survived the incident. Groubert pulled Jones over September 4 for a seat belt violation and shot the man without any provocation, according to The State. The former cop faces 20 years in prison if convicted. Jones was not armed and showed no aggression toward Groubert. Luckily, Jones was shot in the hip, but not seriously hurt and was released from the hospital by the time Groubert was fired last Friday. The disgraced officers was arrested Wednesday and charged with assault and battery of a high and aggravated nature with a bond set at $75,000, records showed. Unfortunately, the incident comes on the heels of other high profile cases that involved the shooting of unarmed black men by police this summer, most notably the killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri.
As for the Ferguson, Missouri case, 47 days after the incident, Ferguson Police Chief Thomas Jackson has apologized to the parents of the unarmed black teen shot dead by one of his cops, Ryan Gorman reports, Ferguson police chief apologizes for Michael Brown shooting — 47 days later. During a Thursday morning press conference, according to St. Louis television station KMBC, Jackson said, “I’m truly sorry for the loss of your son. I’m also sorry that it took so long to remove Michael from the street.” He added his investigators had to secure the crime scene and collect evidence, but the four hours Brown’s body laid in the street was unacceptable. Jackson ended by saying that the investigating officers meant no disrespect to the Brown family, the African American community or the people of Canfield, where Brown lived and was shot. The aftermath of the Brown shooting brought national attention as civil rights leaders and protesters took the streets to express their anger and clashed with police in the process. Regarding this matter, Jackson apologized for the inadequate protection for peaceful protesters as riots raged around them. He said, “The right of the people to peacefully assemble is what the police are here to protect. If anyone was exercising that right and is upset or angry, I feel responsible.” Things had calmed down in the weeks after Brown was laid to rest, however, flared again this week when his memorial caught fire. This lead to violence as protestors armed with guns, rocks and bottles attacked police, according to reports. Thieves vandalized and looted stores with one store was almost set on fire with gasoline. On Thursday, several protestors were arrested after Ferguson police chief Tom Jackson began marching with he crowd and a scuffle broke out near him, CNN and St. Louis television station KMOV reported. Carey Gillam reports, Police, protesters clash at rally in Ferguson, protestors have pledged continued civil unrest until Wilson is arrested and charged in Brown’s death, while a grand jury in St. Louis County is examining the case and the U.S. Justice Department. Benjamin Crump, an attorney for Brown’s parents, declined to comment on Jackson’s apology. Brown’s parents were in Washington on Thursday calling for federal legislation requiring police officers to wear body cameras to document their activities.
Posted in 2014, activism, black and white, business, civil rights, community, conflict, congress, controversial, crime, democracy, economy, finances, goverment, human rights, law, lawmakers, minimum wage, news, politics, shooting, tragedy, United Nations, United States, US, violence, white house, world, world financial crisis
Tagged american justice system, Attorney General Eric Holder, Attorney General Resigns DOJ, BP oil spill, BP oil spill settlement, cop shooting, Dow Jones plummets 2014, Eric Holder DOJ, Eric Holder resigns, Fast and Furious Holder, Ferguson and Civil Rights Protests, Ferguson Police Michael Brown, Ferguson Protests, Holder Congress, Holder Legacy, Holder Obama, Holder resigns, minimum wage law, Navajo U.S. government settlement, Ohio police shooting, Pennsylvania prison rape case, prison rape case, race related cop shootings, SC police shooting, SC trooper indictment, Stock Market 2014, Wisconsin Law, Wisconsin minimum wage
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Arkansas Supreme Court Strikes Down City’s LGBT Policy
REUTERS/Elijah Nouvelage
Mary Lou Lang Contributor
February 23, 2017 6:07 PM ET
The Arkansas Supreme Court on Thursday ruled against the city of Fayetteville’s LGBT ordinance claiming the city violated state law when it added the two categories of sexual orientation and gender identity to its policy.
The state’s civil rights laws do not include gender identity or sexual orientation, and the state’s legislature, which passed Act 137 in 2015, prohibits local governments from adding additional categories of protected classes that are not included in the state law.
Fayetteville’s Ordinance 5871 was approved by voters in 2015 and read, “The right of an otherwise qualified person to be free from discrimination because of sexual orientation and gender identity is the same right of every citizen to be free from discrimination because of race, religion, national origin, gender and disability as recognized and protected by the Arkansas Civil Rights Act of 1993,” according to Ballotpedia.
“In essence, Ordinance 5871 is a municipal decision to expand the provisions of the Arkansas Civil Rights Act to include persons of a particular sexual orientation and gender identity. This violated the plain wording of Act 137 by extending discrimination laws in the City of Fayetteville to include two classifications not previously included under state law. This necessarily creates a nonuniform nondiscrimination law and the obligation in the City of Fayetteville that does not exist under state law,” the court ruled.
Fayetteville City Attorney Kit Williams told the Associated Press that he disagreed with the ruling and will now focus on challenging the law’s constitutionality in the lower court.
“They can’t, by not using express terms, accomplish the same result which is truly what their intent was, which was to prevent the city from enacting protections for its gay and lesbian residents,” Williams said, referring to the Legislature’s passage of the 2015 law.
Another court battle over the issue will be heard by the Virginia Supreme Court next week, which parallels Arkansas’ case, according to Liberty Counsel, a nonprofit litigation organization that advances religious freedom.
The Virginia Supreme Court will hear the case of the Fairfax County School Board, which added “sexual orientation”, “gender identity” and “gender expression” to its board policies.
Virginia, like Arkansas, requires non-discrimination categories be uniform and set at the state level.
“The Arkansas Supreme Court’s ruling is on point with the Virginia law and other states that require non-discrimination categories to be set at the state level,” said Mat Staver, founder and chairman of Liberty Counsel, in a prepared statement.
“It makes no sense to have competing and conflicting laws within a state. This is the same issue that I will argue next week before the Virginia Supreme Court,” said Staver.
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All About Me: American Racism, American Narcissism, and the Conversation America Can’t Have
Boy @ The Window Pictures
Boy @ The Window Theme Music
Notes from a Boy @ The Window
Category Archives: Hebrew-Israelite
Leaving Mom and Dad Behind
Posted by decollins1969 in 1, Academia, Boy @ The Window, Christianity, culture, Eclectic, Hebrew-Israelite, Jimme, Marriage, Mount Vernon New York, My Father, New York City, Pittsburgh, Politics, Pop Culture, race, Religion, University of Pittsburgh, Work, Youth
Cleaving From Parents, Embracing Weakness, Heterosexism, Homophobia, Hotepism, Interdependence, Misogynoir, Misogyny, Needing Help, Parenting, Pitt, Respectability Politics, Teaching and Learning, UMUC, Willful Ignorance
Woodstock Leaving Home (cropped), June 13, 2019. (http://pinterest.com).
There are so many ways to write about the idea that if one is to be a grown-ass adult in this world, it requires, actually requires leaving your mother and/or father and/or any other parents and legal guardians behind. At least, dropping their worldview, their ideologies and disciplines, their ideas about life and relationships, their marital and parenting advice, the loads of abuse, baggage, and bullshit that one learned from spending so much time with them.
Yes, we should all be grateful about whatever good our parents did on our behalf to get us to adulthood and beyond. But that gratefulness should not mean a lifetime’s supply of unquestioning everything that any of us learned from those who raised us. Otherwise, any of us are but carbon copies of imperfect beings at best, total fuckups at world. Yet, somehow, so many of us present our parents to the world as if they are marble statues set on top of alabaster pedestals.
For me, it’s taken 30 years to unlearn much of the lessons and baggage I took on under my parents and legal guardian’s tutelage. My Mom “didn’t take no handouts from no one” and saw labor unions as “them bloodsuckers.” My father Jimme asked about “gettin’ [my] dict wet” from the time I was 14 until I turned 18, and called me a “faggat” everything I told him I didn’t. My idiot late ex-stepfather Maurice/Judah ben Israel talked about “making…men” out of me and Darren. He implored us to “honor thy father and thy mother, that ye may take possession of the land that the Lord thy God hath giveth thee.” Otherwise, he was “gonna whup” our “ass, jus’ like a car burn gas!” So many lessons about manliness, Black hyper-masculinity, heterosexism, homophobia, misogyny and misogynoir, about religion and child abuse, about working and self-reliance. But so many more lessons around willful ignorance as well.
By the time I went off to the University of Pittsburgh in 1987, I figured the simplest thing I could do to break free from the thinking of Mary, Maurice, and Jimme was to “just do the opposite of whatever they would do.” That’s what I would say to myself or think about whenever I had a tough-ish decision to make.
But life was never that simple. Those five days of homelessness I had at the beginning of my second year at Pitt in 1988 proved that I needed to scramble and act, and not just think differently from my parents. The most immediate lesson I learned was about needing help and learning how to ask for it. The bigger and most important lesson that took decades for me to learn was how to embrace asking for help, to not be begrudging about the process, and to be gracious when folks who could and should be helpful are not. I am still learning how to be better at embracing help and being graciousness, because, well, people are involved.
Not so with begrudging, though. We are not all on our own deserted island, each expecting to have to do everything on our own. That’s what capitalists steeped in Western individualism and my Mom would expect me to believe. We all need help, for nearly everything we want to do in life. There’s no shame in it, and there’s nothing but success, humility, being grateful and feeling recognized and loved as a result of this help.
This week is underrated in its significance to my past three decades of living this truth. This is the week my Mom and Maurice broke up for good back in 1989. The date of this year’s Father’s Day (it was a Friday in 1989) will be 30 years since the idiot feverishly packed his bags, stole some towels and frozen meats, and moved out of 616. I saw him as he packed up the last of his gear in a suitcase and an army bag. He looked scared, and looked at me with fear and shame. It was probably the only time in the nearly eleven years we lived in the same space (not counting my two years at Pitt and his separations from my Mom) where he showed how lost a person he was. Between that, and my Mom’s post-marriage spin a few months later about how Maurice had “fooled us all,” and I knew. I absolutely knew, spirit, mind, and body, that I needed to craft my own worldview, my own ideas, my own way to deal with ideology, discipline, parenting, marriage, and so many things much more complicated than putting the right amount of seasoning on my fried chicken.
Over the years, this ultimate lesson of leaving behind most of my Mom’s, Jimme’s, and Maurice ways of thinking, doing, and being in the world has made its way into my teaching and writing. It’s why I uphold no sacred cows, and can literally interrogate and question even the most cherished ideas and people in my classrooms and in my pieces. (And yes, in prayer, in between my hallelujahs and my amens, I even question God.) Which may be also why more than a few of my students might cling harder to the lessons of their parents.
A few years ago, I had a young student in one of my UMUC classes who pushed back on a lecture I gave on de-centering Western Europe from the early modern period in world history while taking a closer look at India, China, and the Ottoman Empire.
“That’s not what my parents taught me,” she said.
“Well, maybe it’s time to realize that not everything your parents taught you is true. It’s been three decades, and I’m still learning to unlearn all the things my parents taught me,” I retorted. Most of my over-24-year-old students nodded in agreement, but the not-quite 20-year-old wasn’t receptive. It showed in her evaluation of me at the end of the course.
My soon-to-be 16-year-old son, thankfully, is learning this lesson now. Although that means he will make tons of mistakes and constantly frustrates my efforts at helping him, it also means he can reach out to me and my spouse when he needs help. Being independent requires acknowledging one’s limits and one’s need for help, community, and interdependence. Learning from whom, at what time, for how much, and how deep one can go in all this is a lifelong journey. But none of it can begin without questioning one’s parent or parents, without cutting bait from their baggage and bullshit. Even if it means that we sometimes screw up in the process.
How Did I Know I Was Heterosexual?
Posted by decollins1969 in 1, Boy @ The Window, Christianity, culture, Eclectic, eclectic music, Hebrew-Israelite, Jimme, Mount Vernon New York, music, My Father, New York City, Pop Culture, race, Religion, Upper East Side, Upper West Side, Work, Youth
Asexuality, Attraction, Bible, Chastity, Colorism, Evangelical Christianity, Heterosexism, Hypermasculinity, Misogynoir, Misogyny, Self-Realization, Self-Reflection, Sexual Orientation, Sexuality, Teenage Angst
Whitney Houston’s “How Will I Know” 45 single sleeve, circa 1986. (https://medium.com)
This is more than just whether I knew I liked teenage girls and women by the time I was my son’s current age of fifteen, though. Between humping older women’s legs when I was three or four years old (too much information, I suppose), me and Diana slobbering on each other in first grade, and my crush on Ms. Shannon in third grade, that would be enough for most kids to know their orientation. But because I wasn’t “hard” like the boys I lived around at 616 and 630 East Lincoln and the young Turks who lived in public housing on Pearsall Drive, I was often the neighborhood “pussy” or “faggot.” I was mugged four times between April 1979 and the end of 1983. I spent more than one weekend dodging a hail of pebbles and rocks that the neighborhood kids pelted me with. That, and the then buried sexual assault I endured when I was six left me questioning my own sexuality, and with that, my place in the world in terms of friendships and relationships.
The whole Hebrew-Israelite thing, and the additional layers of abuse, hypermasculinity, and misogyny that came with it didn’t help my evolution one bit. One would think that a months-long crush on — really, love for — Wendy in the spring of 1982 would once and for all settle this issue. It didn’t. It didn’t because even I recognized that my love for Wendy was for the version of her who took up space in my imagination. She had become ethereal, and was detached from the flesh-and-blood human being with whom I shared little more than the confines of the classroom in the years between 1981 and 1987. I found her attractive, but had already judged myself unworthy.
Puberty, rebellion, and my switch to Christianity in 1984, and the contradictions that came with this switch over the next year, would tell me more about who I was. This was the beginning of my years of relative asexuality, at least as I presented myself in public. Since I dedicated my life to Jesus, every potential carnal thought I had or action I could take was met with self-doubt and loathing. Mostly, though, I feared for my newborn soul. I feared that somehow, I would go back to being suicidal, Hebrew-Israelite-and-going-to-Hell Donald, the one that got clowned and stoned before reaching six-foot-one.
One of my many attempts at being chaste between September 1984 and May 1985 involved toting my Bible everywhere and breaking it out to read during every idle moment. At school, which got me in trouble with my 10th grade history teacher, Ms. Zini. At home, when I wasn’t distracted by music, my younger siblings, or our fucked up living arrangement with one Balkis Makeda. As sanctimonious as it was, I was really trying to learn, to receive revelation, to understand how this 66-book, 1300-page document could transform me and my mini-apocalyptic world.
I also rode the buses and subways around the city with my red-covered Bible in hand. On many Fridays and Saturdays, whether working for my dad or hunting him down for money, or just because I needed to get away, I’d take the 2 from East 241st in the Bronx to 72nd in Manhattan, or further down, to Times Square, or sometimes, all the way out to Flatbush in Brooklyn.
No matter where I or we (when my older brother Darren would tag along) went, the most interesting part of these outings usually were the people who would be in the cars with me/us. Drunkards who reminded me of Jimme. Older Jamaican women on their way to do domestic work. Middle-aged, haggard-looking White guys who dressed twenty years too young for their faces.
Screenshot from “I Wonder If I Take You Home” video, Lisa Lisa & Cult Jam (1984/85). (https://imgue.com).
Frequently, Nuyorican or Dominican girls and young women would board somewhere between 180th and East Tremont and 149th and Grand Concourse (though because of the ethnic tensions I didn’t understand at the time, certainly not at the same time). I would look up from reading II Chronicles or Esther or Ephesians, and before I could comprehend the people my eyes took in, my dick responded. At 15, I already knew that even a mildly warm breeze was enough for me to get a hard on. I didn’t know that four or six young Latinas on a train wearing bright, tight clothes, makeup, lipstick, and perfume, and heels that would accentuate their breasts, hips, and round butts would completely counter my asexual front. Luckily for me, the Bible-toting phase of my life was during wintertime, and I could cover up my woody with my jacket.
Of course, it felt sinful, and I felt ashamed, that a second and a half of staring up from my Bible would lead to carnal stirrings. But it also gave me a sense of who I was and wasn’t attracted to, really and truly. When White girls with their voluminous ’80s hair got on the train, I hardly noticed. They were trying too hard, and their flat butts did nothing for me. When single Black women in their twenties and thirties would board, I noticed, too. I didn’t have what I would learn later to be colorism issues.
Of course, I learned that I was heterosexual, which I knew would please my Mom to no end. Which actually pissed me off. So, if I had discovered I was gay, she wouldn’t accept me? Wow!, I thought one April Saturday on way back to East 241st. At that point, my evangelical zeal for setting myself apart from the rest of world with my Bible as a baseball bat had waned. I was nowhere near ready to be involved in any kind of relationship that would lead to sex. But, I was ready to drop the idea that my eternal life completely depended on me ignoring both women and my attraction to women. I would remain publicly asexual for a few more years and endure f-bombs from my dad. Truly, it took until I was twenty to understand that whatever my orientation, no one has the right to tell me that my sexuality was anathema to my Christianity.
As A Former Hebrew-Israelite…
Posted by decollins1969 in 1, Boy @ The Window, culture, Eclectic, Hebrew-Israelite, Marriage, Mount Vernon New York, Politics, Pop Culture, race, Religion, Youth
Abuse, Bigotry, Black Israelites, Covington Catholic High School (Kentucky), Domestic Violence, Edomites, Hebrew-Israelite Years, Hebrew-Israelites, Henry VIII, Hyper-Masculinity, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Kufi, Lepers, Misogynoir, Misogyny, Natalie Dormer, Patriarchy, Polygamy, The Tudors (2007-10)
The Kufi, cute on some, a symbol of a curse for people like me, April 3, 2010.
I’m a month late with this post about the Covington Catholic High School White boys and their -isms-filled excursion across DC, including their well-filmed smirk and Native American-stereotyping confrontation with Nathan Phillips. The part of the confrontation that produced the most hype but little substance was the nearly two-hour period around the Lincoln Memorial, in which some of the privileged White-privileged-males made taunting runs the handful of people the media called “Black Hebrew-Israelites.” Clearly this was a misnomer, as if there were such a thing as White Hebrew-Israelites!
That these Black Israelites or Hebrew-Israelites could call these White boys “Edomites,” the descendants of Jacob’s suckered and inferior pink-skinned twin brother Esau, was apparently shocking for many Whites. But within a day or two, the “Black Hebrew Israelites” narrative went away, as the focus shifted to White boys shouldn’t have their lives ruined over a little bit of March for Life misogyny, racism, and intimidation.
The media dropped this line of inquiry, likely because it didn’t play to any of their typical tropes and other two-sided themes. As someone who spent three years of my life wearing kufis and yarmulke, eating kosherized meats, and understanding the meaning behind “unclean issues of blood,” I can tell you that the Hebrew-Israelites likely didn’t start the confrontation, but once taunted, were going to give as much as they got from the privileged White males from Kentucky. I can tell you that Black hyper-masculinity, misogyny, and a sort of anti-Whiteness was all part of my experience with the Shalom Aleichem crowd. White folks were either Edomites — the descendants of the less-favored Esau from Genesis, the first book of the Torah — or were “healed lepers.” Either way, Hebrew-Israelites saw Whites as a somewhere between a curse of God or God’s not-quite-as-chosen people.
To call Hebrew-Israelites a “hate group” — putting them on the same plane as the Ku Klux Klan and neo-Nazi groups — is astoundingly ridiculous and a waste of time. As a rule, Hebrew-Israelites may preach the fiery end times, but they’re not working particularly hard to make them happen. They especially want as little to do with White folk of any stripe as they can get away with. Now, at least for the sect of Hebrew-Israelites my family belonged to in the 1980s, there was support for Israel, and many certainly saw a certain degree of commonality with our Levite and Judahite brothers in Palestine, many also saw these European Jews as Edomites. To be both pro-Israel while also harboring some anti-European-Jews-as-Whites-in-disguise -isms, well, it all made sense to me sometime between October 1981 and March 1983 (no, not really).
What made more sense to me, though, was the connection between the ancient Israelites of the land of Canaan and the Ten Lost Tribes living in the US and reclaiming their birthright. Not just a homeland in Palestine, though. They claimed the practices of the ancient Israelites as well, including especially polygamy. Never mind that this practice could only work “in practice” if the man involved had the material means to provide for all of his women and for his progeny. That so many of the men didn’t possess the means but attempted this practice anyway speaks to the fact that being a Hebrew-Israelite for them merely meant easy access to women, sex, and reproduction via their sperm in a way that justified their misogynoiristic view of the world.
Jonathan Rhys Meyers as Henry VIII and Natalie Dormer as Anne Boleyn, circa 2008. (http://www.famousbirthdays.com).
My stepfather Maurice, er, “Judah ben Israel,” gleefully used the temple teachings of proper polygamy as permission to act like he was living in the time of Saul, David, and Solomon. Maurice’s was some of the worst misogyny I have ever witnessed this side of Henry the Eighth as Jonathan Rhys Meyers portrayed the portly king in Showtime’s The Tudors. He was with at least two other women in the months between January 1982 and June 1984, all while having knocked my Mom up with my two youngest siblings. All while also knocking my Mom around their master bedroom like she was a six-foot piñata. Keep in mind, for a three-year period between May 1979 and August 1982, my idiot stepfather didn’t work at all, and held down a part-time security job guarding an abandoned Vicks factory between August 1982 and October 1986.
I pretty much thought that the man was a piece of shit by the time I learned that my younger siblings has siblings of their own around the same age, sometime in 1984 or 1985. But that was the thing about a religion like this one. It attracted and still attracts a sector of Black men who otherwise feel emasculated, like strangers among strangers in a strange land, and hands them hyper-masculinity in return. It draws in Black women in search of a Yahweh, a stern and often unforgiving god who sees them as they see themselves, as unworthy of anything other than what can be drawn from family, from the men and the children and kindred sistahs in their lives.
So it’s not hard for me to believe the folks on my Twitter timeline who live in New York and in Philly feeling like they were on display at a butcher’s shop in the middle of Grand Central or Reading Terminal Market when encountering the kufi-wearing, Shalom-Aleichem set. But it’s also hard for me to believe that these privileged White boys fully comfortable with their White supremacy didn’t stoke and anger a group of Hebrew-Israelites as part of their -isms-laden tour of DC. There was enough White patriarchy and testosterone involved in these confrontations to make a lea full of sheep bald and barren.
Still, I thank God for every day I’ve had since surviving those Hebrew-Israelite years, those years of doubt, and all of that self-loathing and misogynoir. I can only hope that there are others who’ve made their way out of that malignancy.
What If You’ve Never Really Had a Crew?
Posted by decollins1969 in 1, Academia, Boy @ The Window, Carnegie Mellon University, culture, Eclectic, Hebrew-Israelite, Mount Vernon High School, Pittsburgh, Politics, Pop Culture, race, Religion, University of Pittsburgh, Work, Youth
#ThickTheBook, Academia, CMU, Collaborations, Community, Crew, Envy, Family, Friendships, Hebrew-Israelite Years, Homies, Loneliness, Loner, Misfit, Nonprofit World, Pitt, Posse, Starling, Support Systems, Tressie McMillan Cottom
My copy of Tressie McMillan Cottom’s #ThickTheBook, January 12, 2019 (Donald Earl Collins)
Tressie McMillan Cottom’s book Thick: And Other Essays, like so many of the books I’ve chosen to read over the past six years, will stay with me a while. She is brilliant, period. I feel blessed having been on the journey of reading about her experiences, her views of the world, and her Blackness and Black feminism. There are so many nuggets and witticisms in Cottom’s Thick that I should sit down and plan out a way to mine her book for actual gold and platinum. It’s rich and thick like hot chocolate with hits of cinnamon and nutmeg, something to imbibe while taking a bite of a New York-style blondie (which I specialize in cooking-wise) or slice of chocolate torte cake here and there.
But there was one sentence that stood out, before I even began reading the book in earnest. As I randomly flipped through the pages after first getting Thick, this sentence hit me hard, dazing me like the day my one-time stepfather punched me in the jaw for the first time. “Everybody needs a crew,” Cottom wrote to start her “The Price of Fabulousness” essay, adding that she has “many because I am extremely fortunate.” Yeah, no kidding!, I thought immediately after reading that sentence. For a moment, maybe even 0.68 seconds, I was envious. Not like, “Oh my God, the arrogance of this one here!” kind of jealous. Nor was I the “I wish I was her!” green-eyed monster, either. I realized that since the last weeks of sixth grade and the beginning of three and a half years as a Hebrew-Israelite, I hadn’t really had a crew as Cottom defined it at all. That was the spring of 1981, when I was eleven years old, nearly 38 years ago, by the way.
From the day I let my one-time best friend Starling beat me in a fight over my alleged decision to join the Hebrew-Israelite cult and walk into William H. Holmes ES with a white kufi on my head, I had no crew. There’s a reason I consistently refer to my middle school and high school Humanities classmates as either “classmates” or “acquaintances.” They weren’t my friends, some were genuine bullies and assholes to me and to each other, and lacked in most forms of what grown folk would call social graces. They were my academic and (sometimes) athletic competitors, they were friends with each other, but only to a point. But one thing they could never, ever be was my crew or posse or homies or anything close to what Cottom meant. That Wu-Tang Clan-level of professional collaboration and possibly personal friendship didn’t exist in the cauldron that was that magnet program within an even more hostile public school system in Mount Vernon, New York.
College at the University of Pittsburgh was where I’d find friendships again, and maybe at times, the primordial beginnings of a crew. But these proto-crews never quite came together for more than a night on the town here or there. Quite frankly, the other thing my eclectic groups of friends and acquaintances had in common was knowing me. At least, the parts of me I was willing to show folks at the time. I knew most of them weren’t ready for the real me, because I wasn’t ready for the real me. Not at nineteen, twenty, or twenty-one.
Spencer Foundation Dissertation Fellows Retreat, Berkeley, CA, February 17, 1996. (Donald Earl Collins)
Graduate school me, though, was more ready. My times at Pitt and Carnegie Mellon earning my doctorate were the closest I got to having a crew. At one point in 1994-95, I probably knew at least half of the Blacks, Africans, Afro-Caribbeans, and Latinxs on Pitt’s campus, and all of the Black diaspora students at CMU (the latter because there were so few of us there). But despite the common interests around campus climate, student and faculty diversity, mistreatment on the basis of race, class, gender, and sexual orientation, the fact remained that my crews were eclectic and transitory ones. Masters students would be gone in two or three years. My warp-drive, single-minded race toward the doctorate made certain that any bonds I forged during those years wouldn’t last. There would be no collaborations or calls for career help or advice with these disparate groups. Not even when I lived off the fumes of my last grad school stipend check the summer of 1997.
Working in the nonprofit world and as contingent faculty has often meant being on the inside, but still feeling like an outsider, anyway. Or really, a fraud, because I never fully embraced the norms of nonprofit capitalism or academia as intellectual capitalism and exploitation. I became friends with a fairly eclectic bunch in these spaces, too. But none of them shared my passion for creative nonfiction writing, or have wanted an alignment between career goals and social justice fights, or even, have had a taste for basketball as a spectator or player.
I guess one could say that my wife and son and two of my closest friends are my crew, but that’s not how a crew works. They are family, a very supportive family to be sure, but family is muck thicker than blood or a crew.
So, maybe Cottom is right. I really, really, really need a crew. I’ve made it pretty far in parts of my life without one. I’m not sure how much more Sisyphus I can do on my own, though.
The Sweet Consolation of Suicide
Posted by decollins1969 in 1, Academia, Boy @ The Window, Carnegie Mellon University, Christianity, culture, Eclectic, eclectic music, Hebrew-Israelite, Mount Vernon High School, Mount Vernon New York, music, Pittsburgh, Pop Culture, race, Religion, University of Pittsburgh, Youth
"I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" (1987), Birthday, Brittney Cooper, Contemplation, Darnell Moore, Depression, Eloquent Rage (2018), God, Heavy (2018), Kiese Laymon, Living, No Ashes in the Fire (2017), Questioning, Self-Policiing, Self-Reflection, Self-Revelation, Suicidal Ideations, Suicide, Suicide Attempt, The Joshua Tree (1987), U2
Sweet-and-sour-chicken, 2011. Source: http://www.foodnetwork.com
Well, not exactly sweet to be thinking about what you have thought about and attempted to act out in the past. In the next few hours, I turn 49, which is to say that I begin year fifty on Planet Earth. “Yay me!,” right?
Not so much this time 35 years ago. My suicidal ideations had gone on in December 1983 for nearly three weeks before my fourteenth birthday, in the aftermath of my fourth mugging in four years. That Tuesday, December 27, at 2:30 pm, coming home from C-Town in Pelham, standing on the parapet of that stone bridge overlooking the Hutchinson River Parkway, I had every intention of jumping. I played it out in my head all the different possibilities. At first, it was going to be like the second between taking a deep breath plunging myself underwater and holding my breath while feeling the pressure build up all around my head, eyes, and ears. Except that I imagined a screech, a pop of a hit, and the world turning into stars before I escaped into eternal darkness.
But then, I thought about the plausibility of surviving the 13-foot jump, only to get hit by a car or truck flying down the parkway at 60 or more. Paralyzed, brain-damaged, trapped for days, months, years, decades even, in a body that defied me once again. At this point, my knees were already bent, pretty much ready to push off the stones I stood upon anyway. The possibility of survival and suffering, though, stopped me short of taking that leap. That, and wanting sweet revenge on the stepfather and others who had driven me to this moment.
It’s all in Boy @ The Window. What isn’t in the book is that I couldn’t imagine living past my thirtieth birthday, much less to 49. What isn’t in the book is that I have had other episodes where I either attempted to take my own life via car accident or had suicidal ideations (anywhere between 1982 and 1988, as well as in the late-1990s). This isn’t the same as contemplating my own mortality or considering how much more I may be worth dead than alive (at least I think it isn’t the same, anyway). If someone had put a gun to my head, and asked me why I should keep living, I probably would’ve told them to pull the trigger. I really didn’t have any answers when I got low enough to consider best suicidal practices.
Sure, in the process of working through my own trauma while in progress, I found God, I found Jesus, I read my Bible, I embraced the Holy Spirit. But as the U2 song goes, “I still haven’t found what I’m looking for,” at least not during my Boy @ The Window years, or in the years after my doctorate, or even after a decade in the nonprofit world. Heck, I’m still a work in progress, and not quite sure what’s around the corner for me (although I’m cautiously hopeful, with fingers and toes crossed, and knocking on wood in my mind’s eye as I type this). But a focus on escape isn’t enough. Striving for perfection — including perfect chastity — wasn’t enough. Even writing my fifty-to-100-pages-too-long memoir wasn’t enough.
Two things in the past decade have been enough. One was to admit, and not for the first time, that I controlled nothing, not even my own body, and certainly not all of my thoughts. For a person who’s policed himself as much as I have over the years, this was a hard truth to finally and fully accept, and that was a little more than four years ago. Two was that I needed to let out my thoughts and feelings, no matter how fucked up or how revealing or embarrassing they could be for me. Some of that has worked through this blog and Boy @ The Window. The rest has been as a result of social media, freelance writing, and otherwise remembering that though I may be truly weird, I am also truly human.
Maybe that’s why in the past couple of years I’ve mostly read Black women writers on their trauma and intersectional experiences, between Brittney Cooper, Morgan Jerkins, Roxane Gay, Crystal Fleming, Patricia J. Williams, and a host of others. Maybe that’s why I found more solace in Kiese Laymon’s Heavy than I ever did with any of my history monographs. Maybe this is why I’m convinced that to be a better writer, I had to become an even better reader, and read across genres and disciplines like I never had before. Maybe, too, this is why I as an educator have committed to use a wider variety of materials to reach my students, even if one or two want to only read mainstream history texts and don’t want to engage in “literary analysis.”
I finished Darnell Moore’s No Ashes in the Fire two days ago. Despite his stepping out of narrative to preach “Black radical love” at least three too many times, Moore’s book reminded me of what all the other wonderful books I’ve read in the past three years have told me. Share your truth, so that others may see, hear, or react to it. Tell your story, ‘cuz ain’t no one else gonna tell it for ya. Talk about it, if only to yourself, so that you know you’re not crazy. There’s bravery in putting in words your pain, your joy, your sense of the world and sense of self, your need for a higher power (or lack thereof). There’s courage in pointing to your unique sameness relative to humanity, and your need to crystallize the dominance of systemic racism, heteronormative patriarchy, and narcissistic worshipping of dollars and billionaire elitism that is this warped-assed world.
None of this may convince someone from taking their own life. I don’t pretend that I have any specific answers, because I don’t. But many times, living begins with one question, then another, then another. Living for me is about finding the best questions to answer, to turn the embers of what was once a wall of bullshit into a forest fire of questions, for me and others. This world will never give us the right to question it, which is why we who might want to live another day must wrest that right for ourselves, every single day.
Chanukah, Christmas, My Birthdays, and No Gifting Traditions
Posted by decollins1969 in 1, Boy @ The Window, Christianity, culture, earth, wind & fire, Eclectic, Hebrew-Israelite, Jimme, Marriage, Mount Vernon New York, My Father, Pop Culture, race, Religion, Youth
Birthday Cakes, Chanukah, Christmas, Depression, Gifts, Hebrew-Israelites, Macabre Comedy, Maurice Eugene Washington, My Birthdays, No Gifts, Pittsburgh, Tragic Upbringing
A contemporary Candelabrum in the style of a traditional Menorah. United Kingdom, Chanukah service, December 2014. (Gil Dekel; http://www.poeticmind.co.uk; via 39james via Wikipedia). Released to public domain via CC-SA-4.0.
The truth is, the only holiday traditions I have come either from my wife or her family or were born out of my circumstances. Like making super-sweet, two-packs of Fruit Punch Kool-Aid and mixing it with either ginger ale or Sierra Mist for either Thanksgiving or Christmas. Or getting our son’s Christmas presents ready for him without him knowing the night before. Or me making some holiday/birthday cake for me and us (since my birthday is two days after Christmas). And often going to a soup kitchen, homeless shelter or other venue to give away clothes, toys, money, my time in knowing that no matter how I might feel about my life, plenty others have it much worse.
The truth is also more complicated than simple poverty. Up until my eighth birthday in ’77, my Mom and me and Darren (with either my father or my idiot stepfather) celebrated Darren’s birthday, Christmas and my birthday as separate or nearly separate events. Some of my best times growing up were those days. Then, when the hyperinflation of the late-1970s kicked in — along with a second marriage and two more mouths to feed — Christmases ’78 and ’79 consisted of a fake two-foot table tree, a new shirt or sweater and a new pair of slacks. There were no birthday celebrations for me.
Between Christmas ’80 and Christmas ’88, we didn’t even have the fake dwarf tree. Of course, four of those years we were Hebrew-Israelites. But see, there is this holiday known as Chanukah that also occurs in December, in which Torah believers celebrate the Festival of Lights with eight days of gifts and giving. But these were also the worst of our poverty-stricken years, and we could barely afford one candle for the menorah, much less eight or nine. The best gift I got those years was my idiot stepfather being out the apartment at 616 and on the prowl for other victims for his fast-talking nonsense about making money and living a godly way-of-life. I also attempted suicide on my fourteen birthday, not exactly a tradition worth repeating.
My running away in response to my Mom’s marriage to my stepfather Maurice on Saturday, December 2, 1978 was the start of eight consecutive years without an acknowledgement of my born day (that was part of my punishment for taking $16 in my and my older brother Darren’s savings with me). Even when the drought ended on Friday, December 27, 1985 (my 16th birthday), I had to get my own cake, with my idiot stepfather’s money, a Carvel ice cream cake on a cloudy 15-degree day. That and my father attempting to hook me up with a sex worker in ’86 was how my family reintroduced me to gifts during my last two Decembers before my 18th birthday. This was when and how I decided to celebrate my birthdays by making my own cakes. If I screwed up the cake, at least it was my screwup, and I’d still be able to eat my own screwup!
But, in December ’89, we had our first Christmas at 616 with my Mom having divorced my now idiot ex-stepfather. She bought a fake full-sized tree. I bought my four younger siblings gifts big and small for the holiday. My mom even made me a Duncan Hines chocolate cake with vanilla icing for my twentieth birthday that year. We didn’t have much, but what we did that year meant so much as we moved into the 1990s.
In all of my adult Christmases, I’ve actually only done two in Pittsburgh. One was Christmas ’98. That week, perhaps the only important tradition I’ve ever been a part of began. I moved in with my then girlfriend Angelia, mostly as a cost-cutting measure, partly out of love and concern for our respective futures. We’ve been living together and celebrating the holidays ever since!
The other one was Christmas ’15, one of the worst Xmases and birthdays I’ve ever had. It included four days of my wife and son not being able to endure my now persistent snoring, even with a divided room. It included a Xmas in one of the most culturally boring-ass White towns in the US (not counting places like Indy, Cincinnati, and Buffalo, which are even more culturally White than the ‘Burgh). It included my 46th birthday-Sunday, one that began with a summer-like rain at 68ºF. The unusually warm and wet weather helped a spark plug in our Honda Element explode out of its cylinder as I started the car so that I could pick up my mother-in-law on the way to her church. The weather then immediately turned cold, as the rainstorm turned into an ice storm and temps dropped to 33 degrees by 4 pm that day. We were stuck in Pittsburgh an additional night, as we got by on Five Guys and The O that evening.
No cake, no celebration, no gifts on my first day of year 47, my first year of middle age. Just like my Hebrew-Israelite years. Someone light a candle for me!
Posted by decollins1969 in 1, Academia, Boy @ The Window, Christianity, culture, Eclectic, Hebrew-Israelite, Marriage, Mount Vernon New York, New York City, Pop Culture, race, Religion, Youth
Birthday Cards, Child Abuse, Damsel-in-Distress Syndrome, Denial, Domestic Violence, Grinding Poverty, Limited Choices, Mama's Boy, Maurice Eugene Washington, Misogynoir, Mom, Mother-as-Best Friend, Mother-Son Relationship, Systemic Racism
Mom with my son Noah at 616, August 4, 2014. (Donald Earl Collins).
This has been a month of months, teaching three classes at two different universities with two very different models for their everyday operations. Not to mention, another Al Jazeera article taking up my time, working on my latest “book” idea, and so many familial and parental events to attend and issues to address. Where did I have the time for all this when I worked full-time in the nonprofit world? Oh yeah, that’s right — I didn’t have the time for all this back then!
But this October’s also been a historic month. Forty years ago, my Mom married my one-time stepfather Maurice Washington. Thirty years ago, I broke free from my Mom’s mantra of practicality and from being first-born son/mama’s boy/younger brother/friend/husband substitute when I changed majors from computer science to history at the University of Pittsburgh. I still feel that becoming a historian has been a mixed blessing over the years. My retirement account and bank account think so as well.
And of course, there’s today, my Mom’s 71st birthday (Happy Birthday, Mom!). I’ve written plenty about Mom on this blog over the years. Lots of what I’ve written has been in the negative, and even eye-opening to me at times. My relationship with Mom has always been complicated, because our respective lives together were hard and horrible, with few moments of joy in between. There were so many moments of boredom, of wishing for a prosperity that never came, along with stacks of violence and threats of violence. Mom was abusive and vain, could be caring and defiant, and was prayerful and profane, all while I was growing up.
So when I say I love Mom, but I don’t like her, I hope it’s something folks can understand, even relate to. Mind you, this isn’t an expectation, because I write often for two people: myself, and that random person one of my posts might help. But in the past few months, on this issue, my friends and Twitter folk have let me down a bit. At least two people I’ve gotten to know pretty well have told me that to discuss my Mom warts and all is a no-go zone. “You can’t be talmabout yo’ mama like that! Hell wrong witchu, boy? That yo’ mama, fool!” Or, the more sophisticated approach: “Your mother is a victim of systemic racism and misgynoir, Donald, so cut her some slack!”
Hmm. It’s funny having folks who otherwise don’t believe in any sacred idols (cows or otherwise) tell me how I should view Mom, as if they were in the same room with me when she beat me with an extension cord at eight years old. Or as if I haven’t spent most of my adult life as a historian and writer involved in understanding human behavior and systems that exploit race, class, gender, sexual orientation in favor of cisgender heterosexual rich White males who feign Christianity as capitalism. Hello! I absolute do get it.
Two things, three things, heck, an infinity of things can be true at the same time, even and especially if they contradict each other. Quantum theory dictates that an electron or some other subatomic particle can be in two places at once and spin in sync with each other at opposite ends of the multiverse. So too it can be true that Mom is a victim of systemic racism, misogynoir, and domestic violence. And it can be equally true that she made some of the most messed up decisions (out of a limited set of choices) a young Black woman with two kids could make in 1978. Including marrying my idiot stepfather, partly in order to “make” me and my older brother Darren “men.”
Folks, if we are to truly understand the people in our lives, we have to grant them the fulness of their humanity. That means acknowledging that the people we love are imperfect, flawed, cracked and broken, maybe even fucked up human beings. That certainly describes me in full, then and now. I think it’s fair to say much of this about Mom as well.
As for whether I love Mom or not, whether I should ever discuss Mom in terms of my growing-up and adulthood times with her or not, it’s really not for anyone to approve or disapprove. After all, so many of you flaunt your wonderful and great relationships with your moms. It’s so sweet and syrupy and sugary and sticky that it’s almost disgusting. How your mama’s your best friend. How folks best be keepin’ your mama’s name outta their mouths before you get ready to throw down. About the oceans of support and love your mamas deluged you with from the moment of conception to this very nanosecond. It’s a truly wonderful thing. I don’t question it, I nearly always applaud it. I also lament it, because even when I thought I had that kind of relationship with Mom, it was in my head, not in reality. That truth hit me harder than a bullet train on its way to Kyoto running at full speed on my PhD graduation day.
And I do love Mom. I do. At times, she did the absolute best she could. Early on, she did tell me she loved me, ever so often. She never wanted the world of racism and evil to hurt me or leave me dead. I’ve long forgiven her for her vanity, her imperfections, and her many, many tragic mistakes as a parent. (Trust me, as a father, I’ve made my own mistakes, but I’ve made a point of always owning up to them.) But I am not God, and with this long memory of mine — usually but not always a blessing — I cannot forget everything that happened on Mom’s watch. Nor can I forget the denials of such from her throughout most of my adult life.
So where am I now? In a state of constant awkwardness on the subject of Mom, especially around her birthday. It’s really difficult to find a birthday card that says “I love you” but doesn’t go into “You’re the greatest, Mom!” or “You’re the reason for every good thing that’s happened in my life” mode. So folks, please just grant me my truth. Just listen without denial, deflection, defense, justification, or excuse. And I’ll promise to keep my envy of your love-enveloping relationship with yo’ moms to a minimum.
Boy @ The Window: A Memoir
Places to Buy/Download Boy @ The Window
There's a few ways in which you can read excerpts of, borrow and/or purchase and download Boy @ The Window. There's the trade paperback edition of Boy @ The Window, available for purchase via Amazon.com at http://www.amazon.com/Boy-Window-Donald-Earl-Collins/dp/0989256138/
There's also a Kindle edition on Amazon.com. The enhanced edition can be read only with Kindle Fire, an iPad or a full-color tablet. The links to the enhanced edition through Apple's iBookstore and the Barnes & Noble NOOK edition are below. The link to the Amazon Kindle version is also immediately below:
Boy @ The Window on Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/Boy-The-Window-Memoir-ebook/dp/B00CD95FBU/
Boy @ The Window on Apple's iBookstore: https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/boy-the-window/id643768275?ls=1
Boy @ The Window on Barnes & Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/boy-the-window-donald-earl-collins/1115182183?ean=2940016741567
You can also add, read and review Boy @ The Window on Goodreads.com. Just click on the button below:
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julianmorrisonline.com
Julian Morris began acting at the Anna Scher Theatre in London. After his training under Scher, he went on to spend three seasons with the Royal Shakespeare Company, which he merits as being a major influence on his learning and craft. He has played popular characters in several of the most successful shows of the last decade: Agent Owen in Fox’s ’24’, as Dr Andrew Wade in NBC’s ‘ER’, and as part the original cast in ABC Family’s, ‘Pretty Little Liars’ and Prince Phillip in ABC’s ‘Once Upon A Time’. In film, he’s appeared alongside Jon Voight in ‘Beyond’ and Tom Cruise in “Valkyrie’, and starred in Universal’s ‘Cry Wolf’, the British smash-hit ‘Donkey Punch” and Summit Entertainment’s ‘Sorority Row’. He’s recently finished filming the lead in Universal’s, ‘Dragonheart’ produced by Raffaella De Laurentiis, and can be seen in the BAFTA winning movie, ‘Kelly + Victor’ directed by Kieran Evans. He’s currently shooting the series ‘Hand of God’ directed by Marc Forster.
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More efficiency in Higher Education is the need of the hour
Within one month after taking over the charge Basavaraj Rayareddi, Minister for Higher Education, Karnataka, is addressing the problems slowdowning the augmentation of the higher education in the State. To speedup the development, the minister has come out with 100 days of action plan for his 20-point agenda. He shared his priorities, including ambitious Master Plan for the development of higher education, in an exclusive interview with T. Radhakrishna of Elets News Network (ENN)
What is the mandate given to you by Karnataka Chief Minister?
I am thankful to our CM for inducting me into his cabinet. I have been given a freehand by the CM to do good work in higher education. I apprised him of my 100 days of action plan for my 20-point agenda in the Department of Higher Education. Out of Rs 85,375-crore annual budget for 2016-17 fiscal, the State has allocated Rs 23,000-crore for the education (primary, secondary, higher education, etc) in Karnataka. The numbers show the commitment of the State Government. The student population is one crore, which is equivalent to 1/6th population of Karnataka.
Kindly share your vision about higher education in Karnataka.
I am aware of the fact that the higher education system in Karnataka is demoralised with inside politics and dishonesty methods. We cannot blame it (on anyone) as everyone is responsible for this. The need of the hour is to strengthen the education system collectively with a clear focus on strengthening accountability, transparency, productivity and efficiency. After taking over the charge as the Minister, I held discussions with all the heads of the department. I felt that there’s a need for streamlining the system for students’ benefit. Accordingly, I have come out with a 20-point agenda, which is being pursued for next 100 days, from August 1, 2016 onwards.
Statutory Discipline
To bring order in the education system, the Department is working on several initiatives.
One, a Uniform Education Act for all 23 State Universities is proposed, for which Karnataka Governor Vajubhai Rudabhai Vala, who is the chancellor of the State-run Universities, has given consent to it. Today, coordination among all the universities has become a major concern as each State University has its own Education Act. With the introduction of new legislation, statutory discipline comes in place for better functioning of the universities.
Two, taking cognisance of the hardships faced by students each year because of delay in announcement of examination results, an order is issued to all State Universities to declare the examination results for UG courses before May 31 and for PG courses before June 30. Failure to adhere to the deadline will result in disciplinary action against the respective vice-chancellors, registrars and examination controllers. An order to this effect was issued by the Department in August and it will come into effect from this academic year. I feel it is the responsibility of the university officials to take everyone into confidence and ensure that they follow the new common calendar of events.
Three, ahead of the imminent division of Bangalore University (BU), a new committee has been constituted headed by Dr S.A. Kori, Executive Director, Karnataka State Higher Education Council, to ease the process of trifurcation. The decision was taken after convening a meeting with representatives of the BU and special officers of the two new universities, set to be carved out of the BU. I acknowledged the significant delay in the process and asked the committee and the two special officers to give an estimate and requirements of the two new universities. I have directed them to ensure that there are no hiccups in the functioning of the three varsities.
Four, to improve basic facilities at higher education institutions, a master plan for the development of higher education in Karnataka is being pursued. The State will seek an assistance of $500 million from the World Bank for this ambitious plan. A survey had already been done in 412 government colleges on basic facilities. The final report will be ready very soon. I felt that the higher education in Karnataka is lacking in quality and quantity despite Bangalore being known as knowledge capital of the country. The required (push) for the sector has not been accorded because of fiscal constraints. In order to overcome this, the master plan is being planned.
The Cabinet Minister’s 20-point agenda includes bringing in a legislation to ensure Uniform Rules and Syllabus for all 23 State-run Universities and also an ambitious US$ 500 million Master Plan for the development of higher education in Karnataka.
New Schools Plans are afoot to open new schools and introduce new courses. Karnataka has expedited the process of operations of IIT, Dharwad by registering 470 acres of land in its name. The Institute is ready for official launch in August by Union Minister for HRD Prakash Javadekar and Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah. A total of 120 students have enrolled into the IIT, Dharwad. Out of 120 students, seven are girls and 10 are from Karnataka.
Other proposed institutions include Environmental Research Institute – ERI (at Bellary district); Energy Institute – EI (at Chidradurga district); new IIIT (at Raichur district); and Ban galore School of Economics – BSE (at Bangalore Urban district). Karnataka is gifted with mineral resources. As suggested by the Apex Courts (Supreme Court and High Court of Karnataka) in their judgements that there is need for protecting the environment from the unscientific utilisation of the mineral wealth, the proposed ERI will facilitate the needful knowledge and expertise to tackle the situation. There is a need for establishment of BSE in Bangalore, which was once regarded as capital of Banking Sector with the presence of seven National Banks in the city.
Keeping the growth of Karnataka and its needs in mind, we are planning to commence an Advanced Flying School. We are open to collaborations in this regard. We all know that Kempegowda International Airport is fastest growing airport in India. The Ancillary Industry needs to be given impetus to meet the growing demands of the airport. In this regard, the support of academic and R&D is important. The proposed school will facilitate qualified pilots for the air traffic industry. Similarly, we are planning to commence railway engineering courses in the State. There is a great demand for talent with railway engineering domain knowledge in the State as Karnataka has ongoing projects of laying new railway tracks up to 4,000 km. The demand for new railway tracks is expected to grow further. The introduction of new courses in railway engineering will help the State in providing qualified engineers.
Bangalore Univeristy, Bangalore
Davanagere University, Davanagere
Gulbarga University, Gulbarga
Kannada University, Hampi
Karnataka Folklore University, Haveri
Karnataka State G.H University of Music & Performing Arts, Mysore
Karnataka State Law University, Hubli
Karnataka State Open University, Mysore
Karnataka State Women’s University, Bijapur
Karnataka University, Dharwad
Kuvempu University, Shimoga
Mangalore University, Mangalore
Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Science, Bidar
Rani Channamma University, Belagavi
Sanskrit University, Bangalore
Tumkur University, Tumkur
University of Agricultural & Horticultural Sciences, Shimoga
University of Agricultural Sciences, Bagalkot
University of Agricultural Sciences, Bangalore
University of Agricultural Sciences, Dharwad
University of Agricultural Sciences, Raichur
University of Mysore, Mysore
Vijayanagara Sri Krishnadevaraya University, Bellary
Vishweshwaraiah Technology University, Belagavi
The Department is planning to organise Karnataka State Vice Chancellors’ Summit in September and World Innovation/ Creative Forum in November this year. The objective of the Summit is to ensure quality education for Under Graduate and Post Graduate courses in Karnataka. All Vice Chancellors of 23 State-run universities have been asked to submit their vision documents before the summit. The proposed forum is planned on the lines of World Economic Forum and the World Social Forum. The last edition of the World Innovative/Creative Forum was held in Geneva, Switzerland. Karnataka Chief Minster will be the chief patron, while myself and the Director, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, will be the patron and co-patron respectively. The forum would be the first step in galvanising the R&D facilities across the State, mobilising the entrepreneurs towards innovation and focusing the higher education institutions across the state towards creativity.
New Recruitments
Our degree colleges are facing shortage of faculty (Assistant Professors) and Principals. To fill the gap, the Department is in the process of recruiting 2,160 Assistant Professors and principals for vacant positions. Efforts are also on to address the problems of 14,000 guest lecturers working in the State. The Department is also trying to facelift B.Ed programmes and Science Education for strengthening the quality standards.
What’s your plan about improving quality of infrastructure at the educational institutions?
We are working on improving the quality of infrastructure at all education institutions. With increasing quality standards, many Degree Colleges will get accreditation of National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) and compliance of All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE). This has been a continuous process in achieving quality and standards.
HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS IN KARNATAKA
No. of Universities – 50
State Universities – 17
Private Universities – 10
Deemed – 23
Polytechnical Colleges – 305
Government Colleges – 81
Aided Colleges – 44
Private Colleges – 180
Number of Colleges – 2992
B.Ed Colleges – 433
University Constituent Colleges – 24
Private Colleges – 1803
Engineering Colleges – 207
Govt Colleges – 14
Pvt Colleges- 182
Aided Colleges – 321
Govt Colleges – 411
What is your view about Karnataka Knowledge Commission recommendations?
The Karnataka Knowledge Commission (KKC), an important constituent of the Government of Karnataka, came into existence in 2008. It aims to enable the development of the vibrant knowledge based society in the State. It is headed by Dr K Kasturirangan, a former member of Rajya Sabha. The members of the Commission are drawn from diverse fields like education, science and technology, agriculture and industry. The Commission is independent of the Government and works with and for the Government in policy making and implementation. The context and development of the state of Karnataka is paramount for the work of the KKC. Presently, the KKC has identified six primary focus areas. Each of these areas has a pivotal role to play in transforming Karnataka into a vibrant knowledge society. These are: Literacy and School Education, Vocational Education, Higher Education, Humanities, Social Sciences, Law and Management, Libraries and Knowledge Networks, and Health Sector. We are committed to the KKC’s recommendations.
Related Items:Advanced Flying School, Bangalore, Bangalore University, Bangalore University Task Force, Bangalore Urban, Basavaraj Rayareddi, Bellary, Cabinet Minister, Chancellor, Chidradurga, chief minister, department of higher education, dharwad, Education, Energy Institute, Environmental Research Institute, Executive Director, Geography of Karnataka, governor, High Court, High Court of Karnataka, Hubli, Hubli-Dharwad, India, Karnataka, Karnataka State Higher Education Council, Kempegowda International Airport, minister, Raichur, S.A. Kori, School of Economics, state government, State University, Subdivisions of India, Supreme Court, Union Minister, Vajubhai Rudabhai Vala, World Bank
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3 of the Most Creative Marketing Campaigns of 2018 (so far)
2018 has only begun, but there are already some fantastic ad campaigns out there to learn from. Great ad campaigns evoke strong emotions, staying in our minds for days, weeks, or even months, influencing consumers to make purchasing decisions. They’re a first step in introducing a company to its intended audience - or reminding them of its existence. Here are three of the most creative marketing campaigns of 2018 so far.
1. ESSC- “Change the Way You See Disability”
A thought-provoking new advertising campaign from Easterseals Southern California (ESSC), an organization which assists more than 10,000 people with disabilities in several parts of California, launched a new ad campaign February first that features its own program recipients. The title of the campaign is “Changing the Way to See Disability,” and its goal is to create inclusion and encourage social change. The campaign’s slogan is ‘Celebrate. Don't Separate.'
Mark Whitley, president & CEO of ESSC, comments:
“When we unite as one, we can create social change and break down barriers. Every day, people make generalizations about people with disabilities—and many may not even realize they're doing it. We're launching a movement that helps people look beyond what they see at first glance to build a more inclusive world.”
The campaign will encompass many different channels as it rolls out throughout 2018, including print, internet, and outdoor ads, as well as a “Make the Promise” grassroots social media campaign, which will ask people to promote the message of inclusion and will use the hashtag #CelebrateDontSeparate.
Based on inclusion, the campaign challenges people to “Be Supportive. Not Sorry” and “Don’t Exclude. Include,” among other advertising slogans. The first phase of the campaign features six California residents, ranging in age from 4 to 64, including two ESSC recipients who meet through the program and are now engaged.
Easterseals has been providing services for individuals and families with special needs for over 100 years. The services provided help recipients address challenges and achieve personal goals. ESSC aids over 10,000 people each year with services such as development/early education, employment aid, veteran employment support, independent living options, and more.
2. Intuit: “A Giant Story”
Intuit, a software company that develops and sells accounting, financial, and tax preparation software for individuals and small businesses, recently launched its new brand campaign. We’ll see the first part of the campaign, an animated short about two business owners, during the SuperBowl.
The goal of the campaign is to bring all of Inuit’s brands together, including Mint, TurboTax, and Quickbooks. While millions of people use the brand’s products (46 million combined, to be exact), only four out of every thousand individuals use two or more of them. The brand wants to show that its products are best when used as a group.
Phase one of the campaign includes a four-minute animated short in Pixar style. The company’s agency, Phenomenon, created a giant robot to represent the power of the brand’s services, deciding that animation was the best way to get the brand’s idea across. The ad will run during Super Bowl LII as a 15-second teaser and drive users back to the full film online.
In terms of social media, the campaign will feature a Snapchat filter starring the Intuit Giant. The robot in the campaign is a metaphor for the way the brand’s services harness technology to make financial processes simple for its customers. It focuses on a flower shop owner named Pete, who is too busy running his business to enjoy his outside passions, and Pari, an entrepreneur and engineer who is inspired to help him by creating the Intuit Giant.
Chief marketing officer Lucas Watson, explains the target audience for the campaign in a statement, saying:
“There are 750 million people who work for themselves around the world who juggle managing their finances while pursuing their passions. With today’s economy, and the pressures of managing time and money, sometimes it can seem like the odds are stacked against them. But Intuit exists to work for them.”
The brand promises to continue the campaign throughout the year and work on additional digital channels and executions.
3. LinkedIn: “In It Together”
Powerhouse social media network LinkedIn is out to crush its current “white collar” stereotype. The brand recently launched a TV spot titled “In it Together” during the Golden Globes award show, an advertising move uncharacteristic of the brand in the past. But that makes sense since LinkedIn is trying to break away from its current perception. The “In It Together” campaign features a diverse range of peoples and businesses.
The campaign represents LinkedIn’s first real integrated marketing effort and also includes online video, digital display, paid social media, outdoor ads, podcasts, radio spots, partnerships, and search engine marketing.
Overall, the campaign will last twelve weeks and will be targeted at four core markets - San Francisco, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, and Atlanta. The company will compare LinkedIn activity in these markets with markets that have not been targeted to better understand the results of the campaign. The videos use black-and-white, documentary-style shots to showcase LinkedIn users’ success stories in their unique environments.
In an email to Adweek, Campaign Director Stacy Peralta (of Dogtown and Z-Boys) explained the impact of the campaign, stating:
“I knew from the first reading of the boards that this was one of those rare opportunities. They asked us to tell real stories about real people, they wanted it shot in black and white, and they wanted energy, enthusiasm and candor from the people involved. We found and documented many of the unique people who use the platform. We found avant-garde musicians, MMA fighters, physics teachers, animators, chefs and real-life cowboys, all of whom not only use LinkedIn but rave about its effect on their careers.”
All of the above campaigns use elements that humanize the brand, producing emotions and encouraging empathy. The tried-and-true elements of advertising remain the same, but the digital world offers us more avenues than ever before to get content in front of our target audience. Explore which avenues are the best fit for your brand.
Learn the key digital specialisms with a Professional Diploma in Digital Marketing. Download a brochure today!
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Yours in Marketing Episode 3 – ft. Tim Schmoyer
Blake Emal: Welcome to the Yours in Marketing podcast. On this week’s episode, I chat with the best and biggest YouTube content strategist on the planet. Mr. Ohio himself, Tim Schmoyer. Tim has trained hundreds of people in the was of effective YouTube content strategy and he’s worked with brands like Disney, HBO, Budweiser, eBay, and Warner Brothers.
Here’s what you’re going to get out of this episode, why video may be the medium for you or your business. We also talk about how businesses can leverage video to create human connection. He chats about the whiles and the wins of owning your own company, as well as getting comfortable with filming yourself, which is something a lot of us struggle with. And finally, how to balance family and work when you have seven kids. That’s right, seven kids.
Just a reminder to please leave an honest review. Each and every week I’m going to be shouting out some of our new reviewers by name on this very podcast. So if you want to be famous, or you just want to help out the show, please leave a review and you’ll have a chance to be mentioned by name, by me, right now on the podcast. Enough with that, let’s get straight into the interview.
Social Media Marketing World
Blake Emal: So first off, we’re here with Tim Schmoyer and the first question that I have for you is about Social Media Marketing World because that was last week right? One of the biggest conferences for social media. It’s hosted by Social Media Examiner. Is that right?
Tim Schmoyer: Right, yes.
Blake Emal: Cool. So how was that experience? Take us through what you actually did there, what kind of people were there, what you learned, what you took away from it basically.
Tim Schmoyer: Conferences have changed a lot for me over the past few years. I remember about 10-ish years ago there weren’t really YouTube conferences and things yet, but it’s all about going to the sessions and it’s all about taking as many notes as you could. And I still do go to sessions and things like that that are of interest to me, but I spend most of my time just doing my best to shake hands and meet people and have conversations and hear what they’re working on, invest as much as I can into their projects and to their goals, especially as it pertains to YouTube. And then I love just meeting people and being like, “Oh wow, yes I need to talk about this. You’re the perfect person who…” Right. And it’s more about the connections and the relationships for me now.
It’s a great conference. Have you been there yourself before?
Blake Emal: No, and I’m just up the road. I know it’s in San Diego. I’m in Orange County, so didn’t make it down.
Tim Schmoyer: Yeah. The thing that’s unique about Social Media Marketing World is that, well for me, for most of the conventions I’m at, is that there’s a lot of conventions that are very specific on a really small niche or something, but I like it that if you do anything with social media, this is like the one-stop event where you can get anything want to know about YouTube, about Facebook, about Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, LinkedIn, like whatever. It’s all right there rather than having to go to the LinkedIn conference and then Instagram conference and the Facebook conference, right, you can just go there and get your feet wet with a little bit of everything.
So it’s a pretty big event, thousands of people, most of them are business owners because it is a marketing convention after all. Some of them are small businesses that are just getting started, and entrepreneurs, all the way up to Amazon, Google, Fortune 50 companies that are present there as well, so you never really know who you’ll bump into exactly.
Blake Emal: Most of you, if you’ve ever been on YouTube trying to actually create videos, you’ve probably heard of Tim because he’s kind of famous for helping people grow their YouTube channels, that’s what he does. But if you’re not familiar with him, he’s got about a half a million subscribers on YouTube, and he’s helped other brands and other people grow their channels in the millions of subscribers, millions of views. So that’s kind of what he does, but Tim, if you were to focus on another platform other than YouTube, what would be your focus right now?
Tim Schmoyer: So the platform I actually use the most often is Twitter. I always have Twitter open as like a panel. I have a couple of monitors, and it’s the one all the way to the right, and I have the mobile version of Twitter open because it’s nice and clean, and I can have it in a small little window off to the side. So that’s always there, and I like Twitter because it forces everyone to communicate really succinctly.
So email can get really long and winded and DMs can be the same way, but if you just tell people, “Hey, Tweet me.” They’re forced to… What is now, 240 characters? So everyone’s forced to be pretty to the point, succinct and I feel like I can serve as many people pretty quickly by being able to use a platform that forces everyone to be to the point, direct and succinct. Maybe that’s just the guy part of me, just wanting… like get it done, crank it out. It’s really quick, and you get in touch with people who normally might not be as accessible via email or other means. So I like Twitter a lot for not only for interacting with more people who are in my community, but also reaching out to others.
Blake Emal: So it would be the same for professionally as well, you would prefer Twitter?
Tim Schmoyer: Well if I was going to dive somewhere next professionally, it probably would be LinkedIn for me just because it’s there, I use it, it’s a thing, but I wouldn’t say I’m using it strategically for anything right now. But I know there’s a lot of opportunity there.
Building a Business While Building a Family
Blake Emal: Definitely. So let’s take a step back here for a second. A lot of people are going to know you as, first and foremost, a family man because you have seven kids. Right?
Tim Schmoyer: Yeah.
Blake Emal: Okay, so through all the years, all the responsibilities that you’ve had doing Video Creators, doing all of these different things, how have you been able to juggle that? Because I’m sure that there are a lot of people listening that have families, or their just starting families, and they have no idea how they’re going to juggle being a leader, having a family, having kids, so how have you been able to juggle the responsibilities and relationships and still do your work?
Tim Schmoyer: Not well at some points, you know, just to be really honest. So I started Video Creators about five years ago, but I’ve been doing YouTube content strategy and consulting professionally since 2009, so 10 years now. And what I’ve found is that having a family and trying to grow a business and trying to make sure I have time for my wife and all the things that are demanding my time is, I actually needed a few things that have been helpful for me.
Tim Schmoyer: One is, rather than thinking about it in terms of balance, I just think about it in terms of priorities. I know some people don’t really like that, but it’s just kind of like, “What are the priorities? Let’s list them in order, and anything that falls below the red line just doesn’t get done.” And it is what it is. Right?
So that’s been pretty freeing to me to know like, this, if it doesn’t get done, yeah we might lose some money, or we might not be able to build that networking connection, or we might not be able to attend that event that would really good or whatever. But there’s just too many good things to do, you just can’t do all of them. So it forced me to say, “Is spending time with my family more important than spending time with that networking connection that could potentially be really lucrative. It’s like, “Yeah.” Because now I’m putting a price tag on my family, I’m saying the family is more important, right.
Now it’s not to say I can’t… there’s not times where the family is like, “Dad’s just really busy right now.” Because there are seasons of that, but I think it becomes really easy for the work to kind of take over and the family’s always sacrificing. One of the things that I believe is that my family is not here to serve my business, it’s actually the other way around. My business is here to actually serve my family and I have to remember that.
I know the temptation for guys like me is to just keep growing the business to be bigger, and badder, and reach more people and more customers and grow the revenue and things. But I’m the sole… Well, my wife and I are technically 50/50 owners of the business for tax purposes, but I’m the only one who owns and operates the company. We’re doing just fine personally, so I want to continue to grow this thing and reach more people and help them change their lives, but not at the expense of the lives of people in my family suffering.
“My Family is a Part of My Business, My Kids are Actually Assets”
Tim Schmoyer: So number one is just having those priorities set, and then the second thing, for me, is just knowing why. Like having a vision for both my business and for my family that actually converge in some way. I think it’s really easy for us to live pretty compartmentalized lives where this is my entertainment life, this is my personal life, my career life, my business life, my educational life for example. And we found that when the more buckets we have, the crazier and hectic life becomes. So we actually try to live like… this is going to sound a little bit weird but you asked the question, so it’s like… try to integrate things better.
So my family is a part of my business, my kids are actually assets. We had seven kids in eight years, but rather than seeing them as liabilities the way most people do, I’m like, “What if I actually turned them into assets?” So they get paid as child actors now on our families blogging channel. Our business pays them to an IRA so they get paid tax-free, when they take it out tax-free, right.
So they actually do contribute to our families economy that way. That was very intentional and YouTube is one of the places for us that allows us to really integrate, like my wife and I working together on business stuff, my kids being able… they shoot and edit their own stuff with iMovie now, so they got their own little channel going. So yes. And we homeschool our kids is another way of saying, “I don’t have enough time to do everything, so let’s spend time with our kids while we educate them.” So instead of sending them away to school, we can spend more time with them here at home and we can integrate education and family time together that way. Right.
So there’s a lot of examples I could give, but just doing like, this is our vision for our family, where we want our family to be in five, 10, 15, 20 years. And doing the same thing for our business which I think most people are used to thinking of that same strategy and that same perspective in terms of their business or career, but we apply those same principles to both if that makes sense.
Blake Emal: So for your kids, do you see it being like this is something that they would want to do as well in the future? Do you have any inkling if this would be a career path that they’d want because never before has this been something that’s actually viable right? Where you could grow up thinking, “I want to make a living on YouTube.” But now you can do that. So do you think that is a possibility for your kids or do you think that they are going to be done with it once they…
Tim Schmoyer: I don’t know. Yeah, it’s a possibility. I’m not pressuring them, I don’t think, one way or the other. They don’t watch TV really, they go and turn on our… They got a smart TV and they open up the YouTube app right away, and they just go and watch their favorite creators. They’re actually the ones that came to me saying, “Dad I want to make videos. Can I make a video?”So we’re like, “Sure.”
So we got them an indestructible GoPro and they edit… They shoot their own videos, they edit them themselves. I taught them how to use iMovie, but they edit, they pick their own thumbnails, they upload them, they write their own titles and descriptions and tags. My wife or I have to approve the video before it’s published, just to make sure there’s nothing sensitive or inappropriate or something like that. But after we approve it, then they publish it.
And I told them, “Once you start making money on it, you guys can keep the money and put it into a savings account or something that…” They still have a little bit of ways to go before they get there, but they’re approaching it much faster than I thought they were going to be, going to get there. They are learning the skills, if they want to use those professionally, that’s up to them one day really.
Blake Emal: When you’re giving them advice, is it the same Youtube content strategy advice that you’d give to a client?
Tim Schmoyer: No, not really. I mean my oldest is nine, my youngest is one, so right now beginning… And this actually is true for people who are getting started on YouTube, I’m just like, “Just learn the skill of creating content. Just learn how to shoot, use the camera. Just learn how to use iMovie. Just learn how to upload this, and just get into a habit of being able to create value for people.” Rather than jumping straight to the strategy part where… Most people jump straight to the growth part without having developed the skills they need to actually grow.
I want my kids to just learn the skills you need first of all, and do it a lot, do it often, publish a bunch of videos, make a lot of mistakes, and then when it’s time to actually start growing this thing, then we can start focusing on strategy. So right now I don’t really give them too much input.
Blake Emal: Well, you mentioned the first skill you’d want them, or anybody else to learn, is how to create content. So how did that come about for you? When did that click for you when you started, and why did Youtube content strategy become interesting to you?
Tim Schmoyer: Yeah, let me rephrase that a little bit. So what I want them to actually learn how to do is how to solve problems. I think that’s what any good business is actually based on, is solving a problem for someone and then selling them a solution. I think with video there’s a lot of problems they need to figure out. One, how do I use the camera? How do I turn it on? For them, it was how do I get the footage off of the camera once I’ve recorded it and onto the computer? There’s just a lot of problem solving that you have to think in logical, sequential steps in order to do and in order to create a video.
How Tim’s Creative Career Began
Tim Schmoyer: I was homeschooled my whole life, as well, growing up, k through 12. One of the skills I think I got from that is that I learned how to not just memorize information, but I learned how to be self-taught and figure out solutions to problems that I wanted to solve, such as YouTube back in the early days. I ultimately want my kids to think entrepreneurially, and if that applies to video or not, then that’s fine.
My first creative endeavor actually started, well it depends on how far back you want to go, I mean when we were kids we’re all building forts in the woods, and stuff like that. But what kind of started the trajectory that lead to where I am today is, when I was younger, shortly after I was born, I developed a tumor in my left ear and I had to have a bunch of surgeries, and ultimately that lead to me not being able to move as much because my equilibrium was all thrown off because that’s all in your ears. So I spent a lot of time on the couch.
I remember when I got closer to teenage years, my dad had gotten a computer, it was a Pentium 386. I heard about this thing called AOL, which we never got. Looking back it was probably a good choice, but then we ended up with a local internet company. My dad didn’t know what we were doing, what we were signing up for, “Why am I paying for this?” But I found Netscape Navigator, and it had a little thing in there called Composer. Do you remember all this from back in the day?
Blake Emal: Yes. Briefly.
Tim Schmoyer: Yeah. I think I might be a bit older than you, but yeah. So there’s this thing called Netscape Composer, and that was a tool that let you build HTML pages. And so our internet provider provided like 20 meg of free website space, which is more than you could ever possibly use at the time. 20 meg, that was huge. So I just started making these little web pages about random stuff and putting them up there, and that lead to me starting to figure out how to build websites and how those worked back then.
Then when I was in Graduate School, I was bored one night and started a little website called TimSchmoyer.com and put up WordPress version 1.5 on it, I remember. This was pre-Facebook days, I just kind of wanted to use it the same way most people use Facebook today. My family was half-way across the country, so I’d just post updates on what I was doing, what I was eating for dinner the night before and how it made me feel. You know, the same we use Facebook today.
Blake Emal: So basically you invented Facebook.
Tim Schmoyer: Basically I missed out on a couple billion. Yeah, no biggie, whatever. But I wanted to that. It was all public on a WordPress blog, and so that blog ended up turning into… I was a youth worker at the time working with teenagers and their families. It ended up, kind of accidentally, turning into the most widely read blog on the internet in the youth and family space. And I started making a living off of that, and it provided for my family and I for a few years. Ended up with a few book deals, and speaking on all those stages, and working with a lot of people in the youth and family space, which was really fun and exciting.
But coinciding with around that time is when I started dating. Before I got married I was dating this girl and wanted a way to introduce her to my family, and so YouTube had just started a few months before, in 2005. So my first video was March 2, 2006. I just wanted to know, could I get the video footage off of my camera and onto the computer. That was step one, could I just do that. It was like one of those old-school cameras that use ribbon. Remember like magnetic tape? It was an 8-millimeter camera.
Blake Emal: Yep.
Tim Schmoyer: Half the time it would eat the tape and I’d lose everything, but I managed to get it off and I’m like, “You know what, this wasn’t so bad.”
So I got it up there March 2, 2006, with my first video. Then I just started making little videos with my girlfriend who… Like now, we would know them as vlogs, but back then that was just being awkward in public with a camera, you know. We’d make little videos going out to eat, going out to the restaurant, going out to the movies, going out to the park or whatever, and we’d post them on YouTube and I would put them on my blog for my family and friends to see back home.
That’s when I started getting into YouTube because at first, I thought I was just publishing these videos just for my friends and family, but then other people started watching and other people started coming to my videos and started commenting and I’m like, “Who is catlicker69? Should I be concerned if they keep commenting on my videos?” I’m like, “Where are these people coming from?”
In those days, it was during Myspace days, but Myspace was really big and people were really nervous, you didn’t use your real name on the internet. If you did and people found out who you were, for some reason there’s lots of media attention on people being hunted down and killed and tracked because some stalker found them online. So I was a little bit nervous and wanted to figure out how are they finding my videos, why are they watching, where do they come from, what keeps them coming back?
I started asking other people. They’re like, “We don’t know Tim. This whole YouTube thing is really new, but if you figure it out, let us know and we’d love to learn this with you.” So I said, “Okay.” Started working on it, and soon thereafter started doing a lot of YouTube education videos about teaching people what I was learning about how YouTube was working. And people were like, “Hey, check out this guy Tim. He’s figuring it out. Really helpful.” And pretty early on I started doing YouTube strategy for Disney, Warner Brothers, eBay, Budweiser, Century 21, like a lot of Fortune 50 companies all the way down to new creators who are just starting out.
Eventually, make a long story short, is I ended up marrying that girl. We had seven kids in eight years. We live in Cincinnati, Ohio now, and I started a company called Video Creators that now our clients that we’ve worked with, we’ve helped them organically earn over 14 billion views and 61 million subscribers so far and counting. So that is a lot of-
Blake Emal: Not too bad.
Tim Schmoyer: … change and impact happening around the world, so I love it.
Blake Emal: No, that’s awesome. You mentioned Disney, HBO, Budweiser, huge companies you’ve worked with, so what’s the difference in advising companies like that, or working with them, versus helping a new creator? How is the Youtube content strategy approach different? What were your key takeaways from working with brands like that?
Tim Schmoyer: Key takeaways is that they move really slow. Like annoyingly, frustratingly slow. There’s a lot of red tape, a lot of moving parts to kind of make some things that would normally be pretty simple changes, and ultimately none of them really did too much of what we said to be honest. Maybe I shouldn’t have mentioned the names. But whereas you work with the smaller creators, or the smaller businesses and things, tend to be a little bit more nimble. They tend to be able to make changes pretty quickly and if you charge them enough, they actually do what you tell them to do and then they get the results that they want, so I learned a lot.
But the Youtube content strategy advice itself, like the way you grow on YouTube isn’t really that much different if you’re a Fortune 50 company versus a beginning, new channel. People are people, you’re reaching people either way and people consume content in value and look for it regardless of whatever your background is.
Blake Emal: When you were starting creating videos, your first video was your girlfriend at the time, wanting to introduce her to your family via video. Were you uncomfortable being on video at that point? Was there ever a point where you were like, “This is kind of awkward to be on video.”
Tim Schmoyer: Absolutely. In fact, I even say that in the video. It’s only 31 seconds long, and half of it is like, “Wow this feels really uncomfortable.” And I said in the video, I’m like, “This feels like I’m sitting down and just talking to a fire hydrant. I’ve never talked to an inanimate object before. It’s really weird.” I think I’ve done 4,000 some videos since then, so you kind of get used to it after a little while. But even the thought of just hearing my own voice played back to me was like, “That’s not what I sound like.” And I had to get used to that too.
Blake Emal: It’s really weird, yeah. Well if you were talking to somebody that was really uncomfortable being on camera, really uncomfortable coming on a podcast, what advice would you give them? Would it just be, “Just keep doing it. Repetition is what’s going to make it all better,” or is there anything else that you could offer there?
YouTube Content Strategy – Become More Comfortable on Camera
Tim Schmoyer: Yeah there’s a lot of different things. I mean one, yes, repetition for sure. Just doing it over and over and over again, and you get the point you’re like, “Eh, that wasn’t perfect but it’s good enough.” You know, “I’ll publish it. It would cost me a lot more and take me a lot more time to re-do it.” So you just get comfortable over time, just like anything, the more you do it the more comfortable you get. First time you were behind the wheel of a car you were probably super nervous, and now after you’ve been driving for a few years, you don’t even think about it. You literally don’t even think about it, you just get in and you’re still thinking about something else.
I think that’s part of it. For someone who really wants to overcome some anxiety of being on camera, I actually have a course on this, but I have a friend of mine who is an acting coach who works with theater actors who are transitioning to do television commercials and on-screen stuff, and sometimes they have a similar type of thing. So he works with theater actors and helps them transition to being comfortable on camera. So taking some acting classes could probably help, and learning how to present yourself and talk confidently, and memorize lines if that’s necessary for your content, things like that. But acting classes could help as well.
Blake Emal: Well for your videos, do you memorize things or do you just speak off the cuff?
Tim Schmoyer: I bullet point, so I have a general outline of what I want to say, otherwise I just ramble and the videos… It’s hard to deliver the value if it’s just like, “Let me just sit down and talk for a little while.” I mean you can do that with podcasts and things, but there’s a different expectation on YouTube where people are like, “I clicked because I want to consume a particular value and you’re not really delivering on that. I’m out of here.” So, I do bullet point and then I sit down and I look at each point and I kind of get in my head what I want to say, and then I deliver it. Then I look at the next point, get it in my head, deliver it and I just keep doing that back and forth until the videos done.
Blake Emal: I would think that one of the key difficulties for leaders out there that are looking to create videos, whether it’s for thought leadership where it would actually profit their business or anything like that. It’s just coming up with ideas on a consistent basis that are actually worthwhile. You kind of reference this, but putting out videos for the sake of having videos out there, not the most effective Youtube content strategy, you really want to provide some kind of value. So what could you tell people that are saying to themselves, “I’m not creative, I don’t know how I’m going to put out good ideas, good videos on a consistent basis.”
How to Brainstorm New Content
Tim Schmoyer: I think it just applies to any other problem you’re trying to solve in your business, you got to put a good system in place, a good method in place for it. If you’re just like, “Hmm, what should I talk about today? Ah, I can’t think of anything good.” I think you need systems in place that generate ideas for you. One of the ways I do that, for example, is I pay attention to what’s happening in my space, not Myspace, but into the YouTube space. And that platform’s evolving so rapidly, there’s always something new that’s changing or being updated to talk about. So I have an RSS reader, I have, every week there’s over 1,000 different blog posts and articles I could read. I usually just skim the titles and headlines, but there’s always content fodder that comes out of there where it’s like, “Oh here’s this big change and update, I could talk about this in my industry. Or here’s this person who had this experience, I could add my two cents about that.”
So just going through industry news and articles and updates generates a lot for me. I also generate ideas from consultations that we do, whether it’s a one on one for an hour session, or if it’s the more ongoing clients that we work with. There’s always situations that they’re bumping into, and facing, and questions they have, and so I can often like, “Oh yeah, that would be a good question to turn into a video.” So I have a Trello board where I keep screenshots and links and ideas and whatever, about different content ideas that I could possibly do. Then when it’s time to shoot, I sit down and I look at that list and I’m like, “Oh yeah, I want to do that one.” Or, “I have two more ideas about that one now,” just kind of, maybe about once a month I’ll sit down and just shoot a bunch.
Blake Emal: You were doing YouTube content strategy before Google purchased YouTube right?
Tim Schmoyer: Right. Yeah. I was doing even before Google video actually.
Blake Emal: What was that transition like? Was there anything that was massively different when they purchased YouTube and then all of sudden, was the algorithm any different? Were there any tweaks to the experience, the interface?
Tim Schmoyer: Not at first. If I remember correctly, when Google bought YouTube it was… Yeah, nothing really changed for a little while. The biggest hurdle, I think, is when they migrated all of the user accounts to be integrated with Google accounts. So you had to link your YouTube account to your Google account and that was a pretty painful process if I remember correctly. Obviously, that’s not an issue anymore. At first, nothing really changed. I remember when the subscribe button became a thing. That was a huge change, you know. When you can now subscribe and you go to one place and rather than having to use your browsers bookmarks to bookmark all the channels you wanted to see and go back manually and check each one and see if they had a new video or not, like you could just hit subscribe and find all the videos in one spot. Like, “Oh my gosh, that is revolutionary.”
Blake Emal: How on earth was that not a part of the original platform. That’s crazy.
Tim Schmoyer: Yeah, well…part too was the yellow button with brown text. Now it’s a red button with white text. And back then it was above the video too, the upper right. It wasn’t below with the video with the title like it is now. So the title and the button were above the video. A lot’s changed and Google keeps testing. They’re all about data and the more data they have, the more changes they make it looks like.
Blake Emal: Absolutely. Well, do you have any premonitions about what the future of YouTube is, or the future of video in general?
The Future of Youtube
Tim Schmoyer: Yeah. I actually just shot a video about that right before sitting down to record this. There’s a couple trajectories that YouTube is heading on. One of them is been a trajectory they’ve been on for a little while, but it’s really starting to take off now, which is mobile.
Most people watch YouTube on a mobile device, and so when we craft our content we have to make sure that we are really considering tiny screens and teensy speakers for our productions. So if you’re using text, you got to make sure it’s a little bit bigger than you would normally make it. If it looks fine on your 4K TV, the object that you’re… that’s on a really wide shot, that object might be a little bit too small to see on a tiny iPhone screen comparatively speaking. So you got to keep that…
Sound is really important. Whether they’re either listening to it on headphones, so it’s blaring right into their skull, or it’s through these tiny little, teensy speakers. So you got to really take a lot of different viewing environments into consideration. And mobile especially in some of these developing countries where they don’t have access to computers and things, but they have mobile devices and they can get to a WiFi hotspot, download the videos and then watch them later offline and then sync back up again later.
Especially in Asia-Pacific, there’s the kind of growth that the western societies, in the US and things were experiencing a few years ago online and social media is where Asia-Pacific is now. So they’re definitely growing very rapidly in the space. But keeping those audiences in mind can be advantageous depending on what your goals are on YouTube.
So mobiles big, those developing countries are also big and then third I’d say that the tactics that used to grow channels a few years ago are not the same ones that are as effective today.
The platform has been maturing a lot, very rapidly. People’s expectations for what they’re watching have definitely shifted and changed over the years, and the search and discovery algorithm systems have gotten a lot better. So today and going forward, especially in the next few years, the channels that are really blowing up and exploding are not the ones that ones that have figured out perfect keyword research and metadata and got all their tags right, and are making content on $20,000 cameras with a full production studio, it’s still not that. It’s people who have, and creators, who have figured out how to tell a meaningful story that really reaches people and impacts them in some way.
Those people who are integrating stories well into their content, whether it be educational content or entertainment based content, those are the types of videos that are more likely to hold someone’s attention, give Google that viewer signal that they really want, which is more watch time. And it gets that person to not just like the brand or the company, but actually love the brand or the company as they tell better stories. And it gets the viewer to be more likely to return and watch more videos. It gets them to watch a longer viewing session of videos on that channel. All of these are viewer signals that Google would really, really love, and that’s how they determine the value of a video and who they surface it to, and how many people it gets surfaced to.
So if you can really attract some of these human signals from your viewers by telling meaningful stories, that seems to be the skill that’s separating the people who are just blowing up from the people who are just still doing the same tactics that worked a few years ago.
Blake Emal: That’s really interesting because I got my start more in SEO. So that’s kind of where my background is, and looking from it… Google, obviously, is huge in SEO, it’s like it’s the main search engine you should be going for. When you’re looking at what they’re looking at for SEO now, for blogging, or for whatever it may be, it’s all towards user experience now. It’s not nearly as much technical… I mean it still has… like not using tags in your YouTube videos, not using titles, obviously that’s going to be detrimental to YouTube, to SEO, to whatever. But that’s no longer something you just manipulate. It’s all about the user experience, it’s all about the human element that you’ve mentioned. So it’s like everything that Google touches now is pointing towards is it helping answer a question? Is it useful? Does it help the user experience? Way more than the technical side of it.
Tim Schmoyer: Yeah, I know. On YouTube, the technical side of stuff isn’t actually that important anymore. So rather than crafting a title that has all your keywords in it, it’s better to have a title that just says Do This, and then the thumbnail is maybe like an arrow pointing to something like, “Wow!” Right, it creates a… people are going to click right.
Just the other day my six-year-old daughter, actually the other week now at this point, she wanted to learn how to draw a cat, and so she’s like, “Dad can I watch a video on how to draw a cat?” So I searched for how to draw a cat on YouTube, and one of the top results was actually a video for how to draw a husky puppy. And I’m like, “What?” Then videos number four, five and six are all like how to draw a cat easy, you know, the types of things you’d expect. But the thumbnail of that video, the husky actually looked like a cat, and to my six-year-old, she’s like, “Oh I want to draw that cat,” and I’m like, “Well that’s not a… Nevermind, sure. Go draw that cat.”
But because of the viewer, Google will learn that if someone searches for how to draw a cat, this must be relevant result because this gets a high click-through rate on this video. And it’s because of the thumbnail, not because they had all their keywords matched right. It delivered the value that someone who was searching for how to draw a cat, it delivered the value that they wanted, so Google learned that it was a relevant result even though the metadata was actually about a dog.
Same thing if you search YouTube for music videos, you’ll likely get results for Billboard top 100 and things like that. Again, no keyword matching, but as you’re familiar, user intent. Google knows what the intent of the user is, so they surface content based on that.
Blake Emal: So I guess what you’re saying, if there’s a key takeaway from what you said for B2B listeners, is don’t optimize your content around technical things as much anymore. Optimize it around what people are actually going to care about so that they’ll click through. Because if you’re creating videos, on YouTube especially, if you can just be convincing and persuasive as to this is going to help answer your question right now, that’s going to be way more valuable than stuffing your keywords in there, or getting all the perfect tags. That’s going to have a way bigger impact.
Tim Schmoyer: Yeah. The way… What we say here at Video Creators is to optimize for people, not robots.
Blake Emal: Love it. So do you think YouTube could at all go the way of IGTV? Instagram just launched IGTV and now it’s all vertical video. Do you think that could ever be integrated as kind of a different kind of function for YouTube, or do you think they’ll still with what they have?
Tim Schmoyer: It already is part of YouTube. So if you upload a vertical video, a nine by 16 video to YouTube, it will play in vertical mode, and if you’re on your phone it will take up the whole screen just like an Instagram story will.
Blake Emal: On desktop, though, will it still show a full widescreen and then it’ll be like the bars in the middle?
Tim Schmoyer: It had black bars on desktop, yeah.
Blake Emal: Yeah. Interesting. Well, I guess, anyway, it’s going all mobile anyway, so eventually, it’s not going to matter. We’re not going to use desktops in 10 years probably. Maybe we will.
Tim Schmoyer: I have no idea
Blake Emal: Maybe we will, I don’t know. We’ll see. All right, well I have some rapid fire questions for you.
Tim Schmoyer: Okay.
Rapid Fire Questions With Tim Schmoyer
Blake Emal: I want to end on this, okay. As quickly as you could possibly answer these, I’m just going to fire them off, okay. So, rapid fire round question number one, texting or phone call? What do you prefer?
Tim Schmoyer: Text.
Blake Emal: Favorite day of the week and why?
Tim Schmoyer: Friday evening because we shut down all of our computers and my family and I spend 24 hours just resting and having fun together every Saturday. Or Friday night to Saturday night, we protect that time.
Blake Emal: Favorite country you’ve ever visited?
Tim Schmoyer: Israel. I was just there. That was awesome.
Blake Emal: Wow, that’s fantastic.
Blake Emal: Favorite city in the United States besides Cincinnati, Ohio?
Tim Schmoyer: Dallas, Texas.
Blake Emal: Oh, okay. Well let’s follow up. Why Dallas, Texas?
Tim Schmoyer: That’s where my wife and I started our relationship and got married. It was my first job. And I like the cost of living is also pretty low, just like Cincinnati’s, so I love that. And you get everywhere you need to be relatively quickly, and I like the people, and the weather was too hot in the summer, but it is what it is.
Blake Emal: Apple music, Spotify or YouTube music?
Tim Schmoyer: I’m actually still in Google music. I tried YouTube music and I have it, but man, I just don’t like it. So I’m waiting. I’m just on Google music play now.
Blake Emal: Last song you listened to?
Tim Schmoyer: Probably some ABC, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star type of something. [inaudible 00:36:46]
Blake Emal: Yeah, that makes sense. I have a young daughter and she’s obsessed with Daniel Tiger, so that’s all that’s ever stuck in my head is songs from Daniel Tiger.
Tim Schmoyer: Yeah, I’m sorry.
Blake Emal: Would you rather be able to speak every language in the world, or be able to talk to animals?
Tim Schmoyer: Someone else asked me the other day. I originally said animals, but then I was thinking later I wanted to change my answer to speak every language in the world because connecting with people is always better than talking to animals, you know. I think, I don’t know actually. I haven’t talked to-
Blake Emal: What would make the better YouTube channel, being able to go around the entire world speaking every single language, or being able to speak to animals?
Tim Schmoyer: If I wanted to get kids, probably talking to animals and adults are probably talking to adults. Yeah, I don’t know.
Blake Emal: All right, fill in the blank, Gary Vaynerchuck is…
Tim Schmoyer: I don’t really follow him that closely so… I’m more of a Marcus Lemonis guy myself. But he’s great. Yeah. I’ve shot videos with him and he’s going to be in one of my upcoming videos and stuff too, so let’s say very inspirational. How about that?
Blake Emal: Is he a nice guy?
Tim Schmoyer: Yeah. Totally. Yeah, he’s a good guy. Yep.
Blake Emal: Cool. All right, would you rather have invisibility or super strength?
Tim Schmoyer: Invisibility. Whenever I play RPGs I’m always, like I always got to be like the back line guys who are manipulating things. Not necessarily the super strong guys up front.
Blake Emal: Yeah. I think that a lot of people say invisibility to that one, which is kind of shocking. I’d think more people would want super strength, but invisibility is really useful.
Tim Schmoyer: Maybe it’s business owners who’ve been in… [inaudible 00:38:17] versus being the hero, you know.
Blake Emal: Yeah, definitely. All right, I want to end on this. You mentioned that you use Twitter a lot, other than YouTube, that would be your platform. Do you have any idea what your very first Tweet was?
Tim Schmoyer: Nope. Do you?
Blake Emal: I do. I have it right here. Okay, well technically this is your second Tweet because your first Tweet was setting up your Twitter. Like everybody sent out that Tweet, “I’m setting up my Twitter.”
Tim Schmoyer: Oh yeah. Yeah, yeah. I think that was the default one they had you send out just to learn how to use it.
Blake Emal: Yeah. But I’ll give you the next one and then we’ll follow up on it. So your first real Tweet was, “Writing my freebie Friday blog post for this week.”
Tim Schmoyer: That’s right, that-
Blake Emal: What was freebie Friday all about?
Tim Schmoyer: That was that blog that turned into a full-time gig for me. Every Friday I would give away… I would either create or get from someone else, a free resource to make available for other youth workers to download, and so it was freebie Friday. And I did that for a few years straight, every single Friday I’d give away another free resource for youth workers.
Blake Emal: Very nice. Cool. Well, this has been a great interview. I’ve really enjoyed talking to you. I would love to give you a chance to shout out your company Video Creators and then pitch anything else that you’ve got going on right now. You can talk about anything you want people to know about.
Tim Schmoyer: If you’re looking to learn more about how to grow your audience and reach people with YouTube, I have a weekly podcast myself every Tuesday. You just search for Video Creators or Tim Schmoyer or something like that, it’ll show up. And subscribe to our podcast on iTunes, SoundCloud, Stitcher, Google Play, Spotify, Google Play, again, anywhere there’s podcast you can find us there. And every week at YouTube.com/videocreators we publish a new video every Thursday just to help creators learn how to reach people, impact their lives, and grow their audience, and monetize, and everything they need to know to really grow their YouTube body. And it’s mostly from a strategy perspective that we focus on there. So YouTube.com/videocreators.
Blake Emal: Cool. All right, we’ll make sure to include all that in the show notes, so you guys can click on the links right now. Tim, thank you so much for coming on. Tim is like a powerhouse on YouTube, so this is a super special opportunity for us to be able to talk with him, and it’s been a pleasure.
Tim Schmoyer: Cool man, thanks for having me.
Blake Emal: Yeah. Thank you.
Thank you for listening to Yours in Marketing, I’m Blake Emal. If you would please do us the favor of subscribing to the podcast if you found value in this, and tell your friends, tell other B2B leaders, tell other people that need to hear about this. If you have a website, if you are in marketing, or out of marketing, if you just want to learn how to build your website, how to build your business online, or if you just want to learn more about interesting people in general in the B2B space, please subscribe to this podcast. You definitely will get your money’s worth because it’s free.
Content Podcast
Content MarketingDigital MarketingStrategy
Blake Emal
Account Manager, Yours in Marketing Host
I love marketing. I love podcasts. I also love sports of all kinds, speaking French, and a delectable little pastry called Millefeuille.
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MWCN Report: More Companies are Starting, Staying in Utah
Salt Lake City—With the dizzying number of funding rounds, mergers and acquisitions announced by Utah companies, it certainly seems like the market is thriving. MountainWest Capital Network’s annual Deal Flow Report confirms it.
The 23rd annual report, released Tuesday, shows an increase in the number of capital transactions between 2016 and 2017—up to 514 last year, from 423 the previous year. Leading the charge is Utah’s tech industry, which claimed the top two spots in transactional dollars. Ivanti’s transactions totaled $1.1 billion last year, while DigiCert had a single deal valued at $950 million.
Tech companies also claimed the top three private placement transactions with Nikola Motor Company at $520 million, Qualtrics at $180 million and Domo at $115 million. However, the consumer retail segment has also been growing steadily, with Younique LLC, Woodside Homes, Inc., and Neutraceutical International Corporation all placing within the top 10 mergers and acquisitions within the consumer retail category.
The annual report is a good opportunity to take a pulse on Utah’s thriving economy, said Katie Chandler, senior audit manager with Tanner LLC and this year’s MWCN Deal Flow Chair.
“There’s always takeaways from every book and every year,” she said.
The biggest one from the past year is the decreased number of companies being taken out of Utah through mergers or acquisitions, she said.
“Historically, Utah’s been a great incubator for startups that often end up in the [mergers and acquisitions] section of our book, being bought by large out-of-state companies,” she said. “It’s good to mention that we are holding on to companies longer. Even with these out-of-state companies, [the Governor’s Office of Economic Development] tries to get them to retain their Utah presence.”
In addition to those efforts to get companies to stay, Chandler noted several Utah companies have been bucking the trend of being acquired by larger national companies. Instructure, for example, is a homegrown tech company now trading at three times its initial IPO and is the on the acquisitions end of the transaction. DigiCert’s massive deal was acquiring the much larger Silicon Valley-based Symantec Corp., which now bears the DigiCert name.
GOED uses the report often in trying to recruit companies to come and stay in Utah, said Thomas Wadsworth, director of corporate growth and business development for the Governor’s Office of Economic Development, who spoke at the event releasing the 2017 report. It helps show with easy-to-interpret data and concrete examples what residents already know—that the Beehive State is the place to do business, he said.
“We’ve got all kinds of statistics and figures that we can throw at people, but a lot of times, that doesn’t resonate with people,” he said. “There’s still some insecurity. [Companies] don’t want to be the only game in town. We can just throw the deal report in front of them. It gives them the confidence that Utah’s going to be a great place to invest for years to come.”
The report also reflects the changing face of doing business in Utah, said Herbert “Bud” Scruggs, managing director of The Cynosure Group, who was the keynote speaker at Tuesday’s event. Thirty years ago, he said, the bulk of Utah’s economy rested more or less on ten local giants and their families, but today’s landscape is far different.
“You’re seeing a very different breed of high-net worth individuals in the state that are bringing a lot of diversity and a lot more opportunities to the state,” Scruggs said. “We’re seeing a lot of growth in Utah and we’re going to be seeing a couple new unicorns I’m sure we’re going to be talking about soon.”
Chandler said the report shows some areas that could use improvement—IPO launches were thin last year, though that’s rumored to change this year—but also some categories in which local companies are rising above struggles common around the nation and beyond.
“The story globally is that early stage companies are having a hard time finding funding—a lot of investors are going for late-stage investments where they can get out faster,” she said. “We really just haven’t seen that in Utah thanks to a couple of early stage funds.”
The full report, complete with interactive graphs, can be viewed at www.mwcn.org/deal-flow/.
By: Lisa Christensen, Utah Business
Link to original article
MWCN Report: More Companies Starting, Staying in Utah
Utah Business Fri, 05/18/2018 - 09:45
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Archive for the 'brain/insane' Category
Lambert, Hendricks & Ross “The Best of Lambert, Hendricks & Ross”
Categories: 1960s, 1970s, A New Beginning, brain/insane, cool jazz, Excess, explanations, Greatest Hits Records, groove, Imortality, jazz, mellow, sublime and Uncategorized
Tags: 1959, 1974, Annie Ross, Dave Lambert, Jon Hendricks, Lambert Hendricks & Ross, Liner Notes, Questions, Summertime, Toledo, Twisted
I feel like I had another record by them awhile back, and I feel like I wrote about it, but I can’t find it. I picked up this one fairly recently—a little against my better judgment because it’s a “best of” record—and the cover (a stylized silhouette drawing of three howling cats) made me think this was released like, yesterday. Also because it’s a very clean copy. It’s also on that most common of all labels, the red Columbia one. So I was kind of shocked to see the record came out in 1974—that’s 45 years ago! Oh, now looking at the small print… this record was previously released as their record, “The Hottest New Group in Jazz” in 1959—so it’s essentially a re-release. So, as an object, it’s brand new—that is, if 1974 was now, but, well, the music… that makes more sense to me… it sounds like 1959.
The music on this is all good, I like every song, and I can listen to this at every meal. Lambert, Hendricks & Ross are—well, you know—a vocal group consisting of Dave Lambert, Jon Hendricks, and Annie Ross. (I’m not sure if they considered calling themselves: Annie, Jon & Dave.) I first heard one of the songs from this record, Annie Ross’ song, “Twisted,” when Woody Allen used it as the title song in his movie, Deconstructing Harry (1997)—along with jump cuts of Judy Davis in a murderous rage. It’s the best opening of any of his movies (well, except for maybe Manhattan). Though the very first place I ever saw her was acting, playing a singer in Robert Altman’s Short Cuts (1993). I believe you can find some old footage of her, maybe on YouTube (I’ll look), yeah, on some kind of old TV show that is made to look like a casual party, where you know, Count Basie happens to be playing and people (Annie Ross, then Lambert and Hendricks and Joe Williams) break out into some jazz singing. I’ve already said something else is the “best thing on the internet”—but really, this may be. It’s great. And this album’s not bad, either—like I said, all the songs here are good—they’re fun, and all pretty unique while fitting together like anything. My favorites here being Cloudburst, Twisted, and, really, just all of them. And Summertime (some day I will make a mix tape of all the versions I can find, and this is a particularly killer one).
I just noticed that there are some extensive liner notes on the back cover, written by Jon Hendricks, which I failed to read before, so I will now—written for this re-release in 1974 (he mentions Watergate)—really good liner notes, kind of a poetically conveyed history of the band, ending with his poem (“the shortest jazz poem ever heard.”) “Listen.” I’m going to steal that. That’s perfection, poetry-wise. But where do you go from there? I guess imperfection, which is also beautiful, and contained in all my favorite stuff. As part of his brief history of each of them, and them getting together, he tells us that he’s from Toledo, Ohio (interesting to me since I’m from non-literally a stone’s-throw from there), home of Art Tatum, among others, and also the expression “Holy Toledo”—which he says: “derives from the fact that there are only two bad weeks in show business: Holy Week and a week in Toledo. And if you happen to be booked in Toledo during Holy Week, well—’Holy Toledo!’”
Ten Years After “Cricklewood Green”
Categories: 1960s, 1970s, Blues, brain/insane, Excess, Stoner Album Covers, Uncategorized and wank
Tags: '68 Comeback, 1970, Blues Rock, forensics, Ten Years After, The Black Keys
Ten Years After is another one of those bands from the Sixties whose name is familiar—but I know absolutely nothing about them. Their biggest hit song was “I’d Love To Change The World” which I’ve heard 1768 times, and it always stimulated that part of my sensibility where song hooks sink in—a nice guitar part, and then the rest of it, including a chorus that sounds like they recorded it through an aluminum vacuum cleaner extension. That song also always made me a little queasy, too, because, just what are they saying? But anyway, that song came out ONE YEAR AFTER this album, Cricklewood Green (1970), which is a record my parents would have had if they listened to folk or rock in the Sixties, but they just didn’t get suckered in until John Denver. This record came out TEN YEARS AFTER I was born, and I was in my Bubblegum period at that time (though soon to transition to Glam and Glitter). By the title, I probably would have thought this was a Kinks record. We had a creek running behind the house where I grew up, but we called it a “crick”—that’s how we pronounced it—I wonder to what extent that’s a regional thing? Not important. I did 46 seconds of internet research on the naming of this band, and read that they called it that because they were Elvis fans and they formed TEN YEARS AFTER some peak Elvis period. I’m not sure I buy that, but it did make me wonder if the band ’68 Comeback (referring to Elvis’s ’68 Comeback Special) was somewhat in reference to the naming of Ten Years After? Also, not important. It also made me direly wish I had some ’68 Comeback vinyl to write about, and made me vow to put a little more effort and dollars into my record collection.
The band at this point consisted of the principal songwriter, lead guitarist, and singer Alvin Lee (not his birth name), drummer Ric Lee (not related), on bass Leo Lyons (not a Leo), and keyboards, Chick Churchill (a guy). Bunch of comedians. I guess Lee is one of those names that if you’re afflicted with the blues you kind of want to have, either as a first name, a last name, or most desirable of all, the middle of a three name name. Like, if I decided to grow my wig out again, go back to electric guitar and lite strings, and just give into that terminal blues rock black t-shirt purple drank wankiness (believe me, it would come too easily, though I’m not saying I’d be any good), I could change my name to R. Lee Speen. I continue to pile sandbags against that particular midlife crisis levee compromise though by closely examining the efforts of the guys who came ten years before me.
The thing about blues based hard rock is that there is a fine line between a blistering hot guitar part and noodle wet wankiness, and FOR NO TWO PEOPLE is that fine line the same. That fine line is as unique as a fingerprint. It could be used in forensics—well, it probably has been. The first two songs have the word “road” in the titles, and the third song is called “50,000 Miles Beneath My Brain.” Then there’s one called “Year 3,000 Blues.” The last song starts with the word “As,” and there is indeed a song called “Circles.” Only eight songs, and two of them are over seven minutes long, which means there is a good chance they go on for too long. One of those fades out, finally, only to fade back in for some more—a joke which wore out its welcome the first time anyone conceptualized it. There’s a song that sounds like they needed to wear bowler hats and suspenders to play it, and a jaunty blues song that makes you feel like you’re at the Times Square TGI Friday’s. When there’s finally a song I think I might like, it reminds me of The fucking Black Keys, which is no fault of Ten Years After, I guess, but I guess you could say The fucking Black Keys are partially the fault of bands like Ten Years After. Maybe I’m being too harsh—at least they avoided doing a train song, and they didn’t let anyone get ahold of the dreaded harmonica. Also, it’s a cool album cover, which is why I bought it, sucker that I am.
Black Sabbath “Master of Reality”
By rayspeen 1 Comment
Categories: 1970s, brain/insane, explanations, Frightening, garage rock, Guitar Gods, heavy metal, Imortality, large collars, Lycanthropic, Nostalgia, Speenish, Stoner Album Covers, sublime, Uncategorized and wank
Tags: 1971, basil, Black Sabbath, Questions, The Trap Set, weed, Westworld
A record that made a huge impression on me as a kid—I don’t remember when I bought it, but pretty close to when it came out in 1971. The first chords of “Sweet Leaf” still send me right into the time machine. And this was three full years (an eternity to a teenager) before I first smoked marijuana! Those had to be some yearning years—or maybe Carly Simon said it best (interestingly, from the same year)—“Anticipation”—which is about waiting for that damn ketchup to come out of the bottle—so a similar sentiment. We all know what “Sweet Leaf” is about—it’s the best song ever written about my favorite plant, thing that grows, food, smell, and God’s creation: basil. I love basil so much, if I could, I’d marry it—but that isn’t going to happen anytime soon because straight people are just so small minded. Anyway, this song! Whoever wrote these lyrics is of a like mind, though, obviously. At the end of the second verse lies what I consider one of the greatest lyric lines in all of rock music: “I love you sweet leaf—though you can’t hear.” Indeed.
“Children of the Grave” may be the first song I ever heard where the guitar does that thing that I can’t really put into words—but it’s kind of like chugging along, you know—chug-chugging along—dum-di-di-dum-di-di-dum-di-di… I’m not crazy about it. But then there is also this really weird kind of percussive sound that I have no idea what it is—I mean, it’s most likely drums, but it doesn’t sound like any kind of normal drums… it’s this kind of flapping noise, like the rear quarter panel of your car is loose. Or maybe it’s like some old gothic church shutter is hanging by a nail and flapping somewhat rhythmically to Satan’s whim. It also makes me think of the sound those androids made—I mean when you saw them alone—maybe it’s what they were hearing, actually—in the original Westworld movie (1973). It’s got to be drums, though, right? And I did listen to the conversation with Sabbath drummer Bill Ward on Joe Wong’s The Trap Set podcast—but I can’t remember if he shed any light on that song, so I’m going to have to listen to it again.
It really is one of the best stoner records of all time, regardless of what you’re smoking. You don’t even need to be high to appreciate it—it will make you high. I wonder, like back when this came out, how much really inferior weed got a free pass just because this record was doing all the heavy lifting. I’m pretty sure there’s one of those 33 1/3 books about it, and I might consider reading it—those books are all over the place, so you’ve just got to try each one. And I forgot to mention the cover—it’s one of the best album covers ever. I don’t have to describe it, do I? The wavy, block letters, slightly raised, on a black background. BLACK SABBATH in this really kind of low-key purple, and then MASTER OF REALITY in black—so it’s black on black! I think I’m as impressed with it now as I was when I was 11. Though maybe I’m still 11.
Endless Boogie “Long Island”
Categories: brain/insane, Excess, garage rock, North Woods, Other People's Records, Speenish and Uncategorized
Tags: 2013, Endless Boogie, Harriet the Spy, Long Island Iced Tea, shrinkwrap
Uh oh, the next one is another Endless Boogie double album. That’s okay, it’s good… I’m listening now. This one has a cover image that looks like it could be a creepy landscape, like a huge hill, kind of a Lord of the Rings, unnatural, geological formation that is a hill and also a dude’s head. The first thing I saw was the head, in silhouette, and a face, big nose, long hair, beard and mustache, and one white glowing eye. I only know the record is called Long Island because of a sticker on the front, on the plastic shrink-wrap which is still intact, which also keeps me from opening up the album cover to see what’s on the inside. (Like song titles, credits, a poem, more stoner art?) I can’t open it though, so I try to peer in the crack—it looks like it might be a treasure map or possibly pornography, but who will ever know with this shrink-warp? Goddamn record collectors. I shouldn’t complain, since I’m a guest here at the cabin, and it’s nice of the owners to let me listen to the stereo. But it does make me think about the kind of toy collectors who collect toys that are still in the packages, never opened. Something about that seems totally wrong. I think there is a special place in Hell for those kind of toy collectors, and that is: Commander and Chief of Hell.
At least it’s possible to look at the label, which tells us that the band is Endless Boogie and the album is called Long Island (which makes me think of two things: one of the sequels to Harriet the Spy, The Long Secret; and Long Island Iced Tea, a cocktail I first drank c.1986 in a sleazy Eighth Ave/42nd Street cocktail lounge with cockroaches crawling on the liquor bottles. (I think the New York Times might be in that spot now.) Also, the year the record is released, and an infinity symbol/two dimensional rendition of a Mobius Strip. And song titles, my favorites being: “Taking Out the Trash,” “The Artemus Ward,” and “The Montgomery Manuscript,” which aren’t necessarily my favorite songs—I haven’t matched them up yet—I haven’t gone that deep—and I’m not going to, because I want to move on to the third big shadowy head record.
Grateful Dead “Workingman’s Dead”
Categories: 1970s, brain/insane, Excess, explanations, Growing On Me, Guitar Gods, Imortality, Lycanthropic, mellow, North Woods, Other People's Records, Speenish, Uncategorized and wank
Tags: 1970, Grateful Dead, hippies, lyricist, Robert Hunter, Workingman's Dead
I know less about the Grateful Dead’s discography than about fine wines—totally, exactly, nothing—but I’d like to know more, and I’d like to find a way to like them someday, because I feel like they could be an acquired taste—that is acquired through listening to them—but putting in the time might pay some kind of dividends consisting of a pleasurable knowledge and depth of appreciation. But for now, to me, they still sound like a bunch of annoyingly stoned commune hippies. What a great band name, though!—who was around on band naming day? I can never get a handle on their sound—I can’t pick out individual singers or musicians—its a large band, but they usually sound like just a few people are playing. This record is another one like that—it all kind of blended together like a way too healthy smoothie—the exception being the last song, which is that famous, “Ridin’ that train, high on cocaine,” song, which is named, “Casey Jones”—I never knew that.
The first time I ever heard one of their songs, that I’ve been aware of, was on this early-seventies collection I bought—sold to me by TV commercials—when I was like 11, and it had the song “Truckin’” on it, which pretty much fascinated me, the breezy style of playing and singing, but even more, the lyrics—something about a salt machine, and livin’ on reds, vitamin C, and cocaine. The lyrics are all credited to someone named Robert Hunter, which fascinated me, as he was not a musician in the band. I read somewhere (probably Rolling Stone magazine) that he was the Dead’s lyricist, which seemed so bizarre to me… though, same thing with Elton John and Bernie Taupin, right? But this Robert Hunter, what was he like? I wanted to find out more, but we were a long way off from having the internet, not unlike me here in the “North Woods”—and, in fact, it occurs to me that the perfect scenario would be for the Grateful Dead (I mean, in a perfect world where they were still together and all still alive) to join me here in this cabin and play for about 12 hours straight while I put this old turntable to rest for awhile. I suppose if that happened I’d become either a huge fan or the harshest critic, but I’m guessing they’d all be cool and we’d have a good time and I’d finally gain some crucial insight into this music.
Endless Boogie “Focus Level”
Categories: brain/insane, Excess, groove, Growing On Me, Guitar Gods, Speenish, Stoner Album Covers, Uncategorized and wank
Tags: 2008, Endless Boogie, guitar, heavy metal, The Internet, wankiness
Another double album, though there are only 11 long songs, some mostly instrumental, and some with singing that reminds me a little of the Chinese Electrical Band (my first band, not at all Chinese). I can’t make out a single lyric to save my life. The cover opens up to reveal, inside, a huge painting of a party consisting of a bunch of young people in an era several centuries past; it actually looks to me like a computer generated photo collage treated to look like a painting, but I don’t know, really, and honestly don’t care; I kind of like it, but then there was always something annoying to me about albums that opened to reveal more art—you’ve got the front and back cover! And then there is one of those annoying one sheet inserts for the credits, but it’s mostly more art and tells you very little, like who’s in this band and playing what?
Or who is even in the band. I heard one of these guys—or was it two?—or is there only one?—on the WTF podcast and it was pretty interesting, but I don’t remember any of the details. I’m not supposed to remember things, that’s what the internet is for! Anyway, some of these songs make me think of an annoying roommate who you want to take the guitar away from. But then some of them remind me of the first few times I went to see punk bands in Cleveland (at the Drome) and some of them sounded more like hard rock than punk, but that was okay because it was pretty severe, and heavy, and it was live. And then some of the other songs make me think of high school, going to see a local hard rock cover band at the marina or the county fair; one of those bands who has a cobbled together, homemade “light show” and is playing stuff like that “Slow ride, take it easy,” song (Foghat?) and that “Now you’re messin’ with a… sonofabitch,” song (Nazareth?)—not that any of this is a bad thing, it’s all about positive and visceral memories. In fact, those county fair bands made a much bigger impression on me than Blue Oyster Cult at a sports arena, capacity 12 billion. I thought BOC were pretty wanky, actually, though the bad pot didn’t help, nor the fact that they followed Bob Seger and ZZ Top. Anyway, I really like a lot of this stuff. There’s a fine line between wankiness and art, and if you take the chance to be wanky, sometimes, you might be able to make art you wouldn’t have been able to come up with if you didn’t venture into wankyville.
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/ Collection
/ About the Online Collection
Welcome to the latest version of the DMA’s Online Collection. The objects contained in this database represent the Dallas Museum of Art’s entire accessioned collection of over 24,000 works of art from all cultures and time periods, spanning 5,000 years of human endeavor.
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Jalaj Gupta Georg Speyer Haus
Angel R. Nebreda
Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB Barcelona), Spain
Ph.D. in Microbiology/Molecular Biology, University of Salamanca, 1986
ICREA Research Professor at the Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB Barcelona), Barcelona, Spain
Publications (since 2007)
Gupta, J., del Barco Barrantes, I., Igea, A., Sakellariou, S., Pateras, I. S., Gorgoulis, V. G. and Nebreda, A. R. (2014). Dual function of p38alpha MAPK in colon cancer: suppression of colitis-associated tumor initiation but requirement for cancer cell survival. Cancer Cell 25(4): 484-500.
Urosevic, J., Garcia-Albeniz, X., Planet, E., Real, S., Cespedes, M. V., Guiu, M., Fernandez, E., Bellmunt, A., Gawrzak, S., Pavlovic, M., Mangues, R., Dolado, I., Barriga, F. M., Nadal, C., Kemeny, N., Batlle, E., Nebreda, A. R. and Gomis, R. R. (2014). Colon cancer cells colonize the lung from established liver metastases through p38 MAPK signalling and PTHLH. Nat Cell Biol 16(7): 685-694.
Urosevic, J., Nebreda, A. R. and Gomis, R. R. (2014). MAPK signaling control of colon cancer metastasis. Cell Cycle 13(17): 2641-2642.
Trempolec, N., Dave-Coll, N. and Nebreda, A. R. (2013). SnapShot: p38 MAPK signaling. Cell 152(3): 656-656 e651.
Perez, Y., Maffei, M., Igea, A., Amata, I., Gairi, M., Nebreda, A. R., Bernado, P. and Pons, M. (2013). Lipid binding by the Unique and SH3 domains of c-Src suggests a new regulatory mechanism. Sci Rep 3: 1295.
Trempolec, N., Dave-Coll, N. and Nebreda, A. R. (2013). SnapShot: p38 MAPK substrates. Cell 152(4): 924-924 e921.
Tormos, A. M., Arduini, A., Talens-Visconti, R., del Barco Barrantes, I., Nebreda, A. R. and Sastre, J. (2013). Liver-specific p38alpha deficiency causes reduced cell growth and cytokinesis failure during chronic biliary cirrhosis in mice. Hepatology 57(5): 1950-1961.
Amata, I., Maffei, M., Igea, A., Gay, M., Vilaseca, M., Nebreda, A. R. and Pons, M. (2013). Multi-phosphorylation of the intrinsically disordered unique domain of c-Src studied by in-cell and real-time NMR spectroscopy. Chembiochem 14(14): 1820-1827.
Tormos, A. M., Talens-Visconti, R., Nebreda, A. R. and Sastre, J. (2013). p38 MAPK: a dual role in hepatocyte proliferation through reactive oxygen species. Free Radic Res 47(11): 905-916.
Pereira, L., Igea, A., Canovas, B., Dolado, I. and Nebreda, A. R. (2013). Inhibition of p38 MAPK sensitizes tumour cells to cisplatin-induced apoptosis mediated by reactive oxygen species and JNK. EMBO Mol Med 5(11): 1759-1774.
Ho, K. K., McGuire, V. A., Koo, C. Y., Muir, K. W., de Olano, N., Maifoshie, E., Kelly, D. J., McGovern, U. B., Monteiro, L. J., Gomes, A. R., Nebreda, A. R., Campbell, D. G., Arthur, J. S. and Lam, E. W. (2012). Phosphorylation of FOXO3a on Ser-7 by p38 promotes its nuclear localization in response to doxorubicin. J Biol Chem 287(2): 1545-1555.
Joaquin, M., Gubern, A., Gonzalez-Nunez, D., Josue Ruiz, E., Ferreiro, I., de Nadal, E., Nebreda, A. R. and Posas, F. (2012). The p57 CDKi integrates stress signals into cell-cycle progression to promote cell survival upon stress. EMBO J 31(13): 2952-2964.
Hu, P., Carlesso, N., Xu, M., Liu, Y., Nebreda, A. R., Takemoto, C. and Kapur, R. (2012). Genetic evidence for critical roles of P38alpha protein in regulating mast cell differentiation and chemotaxis through distinct mechanisms. J Biol Chem 287(24): 20258-20269.
Furlan, A., Lamballe, F., Stagni, V., Hussain, A., Richelme, S., Prodosmo, A., Moumen, A., Brun, C., Del Barco Barrantes, I., Arthur, J. S., Koleske, A. J., Nebreda, A. R., Barila, D. and Maina, F. (2012). Met acts through Abl to regulate p53 transcriptional outcomes and cell survival in the developing liver. J Hepatol 57(6): 1292-1298.
Hu, P., Nebreda, A. R., Liu, Y., Carlesso, N., Kaplan, M. and Kapur, R. (2012). p38alpha protein negatively regulates T helper type 2 responses by orchestrating multiple T cell receptor-associated signals. J Biol Chem 287(40): 33215-33226.
Llopis, A., Salvador, N., Ercilla, A., Guaita-Esteruelas, S., Barrantes Idel, B., Gupta, J., Gaestel, M., Davis, R. J., Nebreda, A. R. and Agell, N. (2012). The stress-activated protein kinases p38alpha/beta and JNK1/2 cooperate with Chk1 to inhibit mitotic entry upon DNA replication arrest. Cell Cycle 11(19): 3627-3637.
Warr, N., Carre, G. A., Siggers, P., Faleato, J. V., Brixey, R., Pope, M., Bogani, D., Childers, M., Wells, S., Scudamore, C. L., Tedesco, M., del Barco Barrantes, I., Nebreda, A. R., Trainor, P. A. and Greenfield, A. (2012). Gadd45gamma and Map3k4 interactions regulate mouse testis determination via p38 MAPK-mediated control of Sry expression. Dev Cell 23(5): 1020-1031.
Barry, A. O., Boucherit, N., Mottola, G., Vadovic, P., Trouplin, V., Soubeyran, P., Capo, C., Bonatti, S., Nebreda, A., Toman, R., Lemichez, E., Mege, J. L. and Ghigo, E. (2012). Impaired stimulation of p38alpha-MAPK/Vps41-HOPS by LPS from pathogenic Coxiella burnetii prevents trafficking to microbicidal phagolysosomes. Cell Host Microbe 12(6): 751-763.
del Barco Barrantes, I. and Nebreda, A. R. (2012). Roles of p38 MAPKs in invasion and metastasis. Biochem Soc Trans 40(1): 79-84.
Ronkina, N., Menon, M. B., Schwermann, J., Arthur, J. S., Legault, H., Telliez, J. B., Kayyali, U. S., Nebreda, A. R., Kotlyarov, A. and Gaestel, M. (2011). Stress induced gene expression: a direct role for MAPKAP kinases in transcriptional activation of immediate early genes. Nucleic Acids Res 39(7): 2503-2518.
Swat, A., Dolado, I., Igea, A., Gomez-Lopez, G., Pisano, D. G., Cuadrado, A. and Nebreda, A. R. (2011). Expression and functional validation of new p38alpha transcriptional targets in tumorigenesis. Biochem J 434(3): 549-558.
del Barco Barrantes, I., Coya, J. M., Maina, F., Arthur, J. S. and Nebreda, A. R. (2011). Genetic analysis of specific and redundant roles for p38alpha and p38beta MAPKs during mouse development. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 108(31): 12764-12769.
Ruiz, E. J., Vilar, M. and Nebreda, A. R. (2010). A two-step inactivation mechanism of Myt1 ensures CDK1/cyclin B activation and meiosis I entry. Curr Biol 20(8): 717-723.
Lemaire, M., Ducommun, B. and Nebreda, A. R. (2010). UV-induced downregulation of the CDC25B protein in human cells. FEBS Lett 584(6): 1199-1204.
Ferreiro, I., Joaquin, M., Islam, A., Gomez-Lopez, G., Barragan, M., Lombardia, L., Dominguez, O., Pisano, D. G., Lopez-Bigas, N., Nebreda, A. R. and Posas, F. (2010). Whole genome analysis of p38 SAPK-mediated gene expression upon stress. BMC Genomics 11: 144.
Santamaria, P. G. and Nebreda, A. R. (2010). Deconstructing ERK signaling in tumorigenesis. Mol Cell 38(1): 3-5.
Cuadrado, A., Corrado, N., Perdiguero, E., Lafarga, V., Munoz-Canoves, P. and Nebreda, A. R. (2010). Essential role of p18Hamlet/SRCAP-mediated histone H2A.Z chromatin incorporation in muscle differentiation. EMBO J 29(12): 2014-2025.
Mouron, S., de Carcer, G., Seco, E., Fernandez-Miranda, G., Malumbres, M. and Nebreda, A. R. (2010). RINGO C is required to sustain the spindle-assembly checkpoint. J Cell Sci 123(Pt 15): 2586-2595.
Cuadrado, A. and Nebreda, A. R. (2010). Mechanisms and functions of p38 MAPK signalling. Biochem J 429(3): 403-417.
Cuenda, A. and Nebreda, A. R. (2009). p38delta and PKD1: kinase switches for insulin secretion. Cell 136(2): 209-210.
Swat, A., Dolado, I., Rojas, J. M. and Nebreda, A. R. (2009). Cell density-dependent inhibition of epidermal growth factor receptor signaling by p38alpha mitogen-activated protein kinase via Sprouty2 downregulation. Mol Cell Biol 29(12): 3332-3343.
Git, A., Allison, R., Perdiguero, E., Nebreda, A. R., Houliston, E. and Standart, N. (2009). Vg1RBP phosphorylation by Erk2 MAP kinase correlates with the cortical release of Vg1 mRNA during meiotic maturation of Xenopus oocytes. RNA 15(6): 1121-1133.
Lafarga, V., Cuadrado, A., Lopez de Silanes, I., Bengoechea, R., Fernandez-Capetillo, O. and Nebreda, A. R. (2009). p38 Mitogen-activated protein kinase- and HuR-dependent stabilization of p21(Cip1) mRNA mediates the G(1)/S checkpoint. Mol Cell Biol 29(16): 4341-4351.
Wagner, E. F. and Nebreda, A. R. (2009). Signal integration by JNK and p38 MAPK pathways in cancer development. Nat Rev Cancer 9(8): 537-549.
Dinarina, A., Santamaria, P. G. and Nebreda, A. R. (2009). Cell cycle regulation of the mammalian CDK activator RINGO/Speedy A. FEBS Lett 583(17): 2772-2778.
Cuadrado, M., Gutierrez-Martinez, P., Swat, A., Nebreda, A. R. and Fernandez-Capetillo, O. (2009). p27Kip1 stabilization is essential for the maintenance of cell cycle arrest in response to DNA damage. Cancer Res 69(22): 8726-8732.
Dolado, I. and Nebreda, A. R. (2008). Regulation of tumorigenesis by p38α MAP kinase. In: Stress-Activated Protein Kinases. Springer: 99-128.
Dinarina, A., Ruiz, E. J., O'Loghlen, A., Mouron, S., Perez, L. and Nebreda, A. R. (2008). Negative regulation of cell-cycle progression by RINGO/Speedy E. Biochem J 410(3): 535-542.
Hernandez-Torres, F., Martinez-Fernandez, S., Zuluaga, S., Nebreda, A., Porras, A., Aranega, A. E. and Navarro, F. (2008). A role for p38alpha mitogen-activated protein kinase in embryonic cardiac differentiation. FEBS Lett 582(7): 1025-1031.
Jagemann, L. R., Perez-Rivas, L. G., Ruiz, E. J., Ranea, J. A., Sanchez-Jimenez, F., Nebreda, A. R., Alba, E. and Lozano, J. (2008). The functional interaction of 14-3-3 proteins with the ERK1/2 scaffold KSR1 occurs in an isoform-specific manner. J Biol Chem 283(25): 17450-17462.
Heinrichsdorff, J., Luedde, T., Perdiguero, E., Nebreda, A. R. and Pasparakis, M. (2008). p38 alpha MAPK inhibits JNK activation and collaborates with IkappaB kinase 2 to prevent endotoxin-induced liver failure. EMBO Rep 9(10): 1048-1054.
Ruiz, E. J., Hunt, T. and Nebreda, A. R. (2008). Meiotic inactivation of Xenopus Myt1 by CDK/XRINGO, but not CDK/cyclin, via site-specific phosphorylation. Mol Cell 32(2): 210-220.
Dolado, I. and Nebreda, A. R. (2008). AKT and oxidative stress team up to kill cancer cells. Cancer Cell 14(6): 427-429.
Posas, F. and Nebreda, A. R. (2008). Topics in Current Genetics series featuring review articles by several authors. In: Stress-Activated Protein Kinases (SAPK). Springer, 326.
Dolado, I., Swat, A., Ajenjo, N., De Vita, G., Cuadrado, A. and Nebreda, A. R. (2007). p38alpha MAP kinase as a sensor of reactive oxygen species in tumorigenesis. Cancer Cell 11(2): 191-205.
Cuadrado, A., Lafarga, V., Cheung, P. C., Dolado, I., Llanos, S., Cohen, P. and Nebreda, A. R. (2007). A new p38 MAP kinase-regulated transcriptional coactivator that stimulates p53-dependent apoptosis. EMBO J 26(8): 2115-2126.
Zuluaga, S., Alvarez-Barrientos, A., Gutierrez-Uzquiza, A., Benito, M., Nebreda, A. R. and Porras, A. (2007). Negative regulation of Akt activity by p38alpha MAP kinase in cardiomyocytes involves membrane localization of PP2A through interaction with caveolin-1. Cell Signal 19(1): 62-74.
Ventura, J. J., Tenbaum, S., Perdiguero, E., Huth, M., Guerra, C., Barbacid, M., Pasparakis, M. and Nebreda, A. R. (2007). p38alpha MAP kinase is essential in lung stem and progenitor cell proliferation and differentiation. Nat Genet 39(6): 750-758.
Meissner, J. D., Chang, K. C., Kubis, H. P., Nebreda, A. R., Gros, G. and Scheibe, R. J. (2007). The p38alpha/beta mitogen-activated protein kinases mediate recruitment of CREB-binding protein to preserve fast myosin heavy chain IId/x gene activity in myotubes. J Biol Chem 282(10): 7265-7275.
Zuluaga, S., Gutierrez-Uzquiza, A., Bragado, P., Alvarez-Barrientos, A., Benito, M., Nebreda, A. R. and Porras, A. (2007). p38alpha MAPK can positively or negatively regulate Rac-1 activity depending on the presence of serum. FEBS Lett 581(20): 3819-3825.
Casado-Vela, J., Ruiz, E. J., Nebreda, A. R. and Casal, J. I. (2007). A combination of neutral loss and targeted product ion scanning with two enzymatic digestions facilitates the comprehensive mapping of phosphorylation sites. Proteomics 7(15): 2522-2529.
Lafarga, V., Cuadrado, A. and Nebreda, A. R. (2007). p18(Hamlet) mediates different p53-dependent responses to DNA-damage inducing agents. Cell Cycle 6(19): 2319-2322.
Cuadrado, A. and Nebreda, A. R. (2007). New insights into RSK activation and hematopoietic cancer. Cancer Cell 12(3): 187-189.
2 Protocols published
Induction of Colitis and Colitis-associated Colorectal Cancer (CAC)
Authors: Jalaj Gupta and Angel R. Nebreda, date: 11/20/2014, view: 10149, Q&A: 0
Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) including Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis are characterized by chronic, progressive and relapsing inflammatory disorders. Existing evidence indicate that IBD is associated with a higher risk of developing CAC, ...
Analysis of Intestinal Permeability in Mice
The intestinal epithelial layer serves as a barrier against pathogens and ingested toxins, which are present in the lumen of the intestine. The importance of the intestinal epithelial barrier is emphasized by the alterations in paracellular ...
Esther Mezhibovsky
Dear Dr. Gupta,
Do you know if FITC-Dextran will interfere with immunofluorescence staining performed on tissues after the assay?
8/21/2018 9:44:10 AM Reply
More protocols >
0 Protocol feedback
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I’ve been working on stories and pictures and news projects every day for the last week, and tomorrow I get up at 6 a.m. to go to the Berlin Police Department to cover the police log. I wonder if journalists anywhere consider it just a job.
I love this, but anyone who knows me knows I often have a hard time balancing the things I love. I have burned out of a number of jobs, from working as an EMT to ski patrol to climbing (not really a job). My wife and I have both been going all out lately, and we’ve felt the effects.
She works with nonprofits, another field it is easy to burn out on. She has been thinking, “what is the next step,” while I’ve been diving headlong into mine. I’m working every day at least a few hours and she’s bored with the lack of diversity in her work. It seems sometimes it is all or nothing.
Tomorrow is one more day at the office, but I think in order to maintain an adequate level of enthusiasm for such a demanding job it’s important to take some days off. Saturday I drove to Gorham at 7 p.m. to shoot a few photos and get a story about high school students sleeping in boxes. Maybe that was the one I should have passed on to create the right amount of separation between my life and my work. Although on a week shortened by a holiday that might be easier said than done.
Passion for work and passion for life: two things I’ve never been great at balancing. What do other people do to keep themselves afloat? Both my wife and I could use some suggestions.
By erikeiselein Life May 31, 2009 289 WordsLeave a comment
This morning I interviewed the CEO of a Tamworth company, Our Town Biodiesel, for a piece I’m working on a piece for NHPR News. Our Town was started by a 25 year old in his dad’s garage. It turns waste vegetable oil from restaurants into biodiesel and sells it as home heating oil.
It makes me wonder what it takes to succeed. Forrest Letarte graduated from Plymouth State two years ago and works in Boston. He comes home every weekend to run the business. He runs it out of his dad’s garage with his dad Hank’s help. Hank fired up a tractor powered by biodiesel — it smells like barbecue chips and runs 70 percent cleaner than regular diesel.
Forrest and Hank sold 4,500 gallons last year and expect to double that this year. At $3 a gallon it’s a good weekend job; if the price goes up further it could become lucrative.
New Hampshire has such incredible diversity, between the southern, central and northern parts of the state, but I’m still waiting to happen upon this type of entrepreneurial venture in Berlin, but I’ve got hope. There is room for creative thinking up there. Between the low cost of property and the diesel powered industries (i.e. logging) being mostly off-road (you don’t have to pay IRS gas tax for offroad operation like a skidder) someone could be reasonably successful running a similar business. I don’t see anyone getting rich, but in a region looking for this type of investment and the low costs of launching such an operation, it seems it could make someone a living wage.
In Tamworth, Forrest comes home every weekend to make his business thrive while also making an environmental difference. Where are the entrepreneurs returning to Berlin to make a difference, ecologically or economically?
By erikeiselein NHPR May 31, 2009 November 20, 2013 296 WordsLeave a comment
Long Day
The police arrested someone for arson and possession of stolen property, there was a fire started by a small child, the city held a public hearing about the 2010 budget, there was an open house for a program house built by high school students in the vocational program, and there was an event for the local after school program.
And that’s just Berlin. I am also supposed to cover Gorham, Dummer, Milan and other area towns. I stopped by the police department to ask about the 18 year old man arrested for arson and wound up talking with the detectives there for a while. We started talking about some of the larger problems Berlin is facing, and I started to wonder how the city manages with only two papers.
Only two? Does that sound strange? It is strange, because a daily paper and a weekly paper are more than many towns and cities have. But I am only writing eight to twelve stories a week, including the police log and covering city events. Today there were five events I found worth covering. That was today. I don’t have the time to cover everything, so luckily the daily paper covers some of those responsibilities. But still, there is enough happening, enough going on around Berlin, much less the surrounding communities, to warrant two daily papers and two weekly papers. Maybe the old model of the morning and evening paper would work well here, plus a weekly paper to dissect larger topics.
I feel like a throwback here, like someone who belongs in Chinatown or On the Waterfront. This seems absurd today, that a city of 10,300 should have three newspapers, but now, working in that exact environment, that’s what I feel would get the job done.
And what should it be worth to people? At tonight’s city council meeting there were references to stories in both papers, statements made by councilors and residents making it clear they were reading the papers. They pay 50 cents a week for the Berlin Reporter and nothing for the daily paper. Is that what it’s worth? Would people pay $26 a year to know what is happening in their community? I would think so. I know people who pay $3 a day for coffee. It doesn’t seem so far fetched to pay as much $3 a day for news. I know the Internet is taking over, I know people see papers as passe, but the idea, the concept of print journalism, is timeless.
I was talking to a detective about the man who was arrested last night, and I asked if I could talk to him in jail. He looked at me and said, “You really like to dig, huh?”
Who else out there is digging? I don’t know that I like to do it, but it is what I am in Berlin to do. And I would hate to live in a world where no one did it. I intend to talk to everyone I can, not just take someone else’s word for any fact. I hope a model can be developed to do my job in a twenty-first century medium, and I am thankful the Reporter is still willing to do it in print. I hope the citizens of Berlin are thankful as well. I hope I earn their 50 cents.
By erikeiselein journalism May 28, 2009 550 WordsLeave a comment
Morning Edition and Pulitzer Prizes
On the way to work today I listened to a Morning Edition interview with Alexandra Berzon from the Las Vegas Sun. Mrs. Berzon won the Pulitzer prize for public service for her reporting on construction deaths in Vegas. It was an interesting interview, worth listening to, and it fits well with my last post — what’s a community to do without print?
By erikeiselein journalism May 28, 2009 61 WordsLeave a comment
The Latest Fire
One more weekend, one more fire. Today I made it over to the garage that burned Saturday night. The garage was behind an empty house, and it caught the neighboring house where someone was sleeping on fire. The woman got out unharmed, but the house needs repairs. Firefighters were able to save it, and Karen Bradley, the owner, was amazed at how effectively they fought the fire. The garage, however, didn’t fair so well, and several cars were also badly damaged or destroyed.
Now the big question: how does it all get fixed? Mrs. Bradley has insurance, but the remains of the garage are leaning on her house, and she doesn’t know who owns it. She is a lifelong Berlin resident, and this city isn’t big enough for anonymity. The owner most likely lives out of state or out of the area, which is the central challenge for Berlin. As I wrote in my last post, it is often worth it for landowners to walk away from burned out properties instead of fix them up. But where does this leave the landowners who want to rebuild? Usually it doesn’t matter, because if a house burns down it only affects itself, or even if it catches other houses on fire it doesn’t stick around for the cleanup. But Mrs. Bradley needs the garage moved before she can go to work. If this property owner is like many in the area, this may prove a challenge.
Berlin has a host of challenges, between fires, absentee landlords and property owners, job losses and a declining population. My job, as I see it, is to sort them all out for the citizens of Berlin. It is amazing to watch this large group of people, all with the same general goal but with a million competing specific self-interests, wrestle to work together.
The fire department can’t tear down houses because they’re private property. The property owner can’t rebuild because she needs the abutting owner to raze his property. The landowner might not want to put money into a property essentially devoid of value, and for the city to tear it down it’s a year long process and takes $25,000 to complete.
Last week, at the meeting about the fires that almost no one showed up to, people were complaining about a property on Gilbert Street. I stopped there today as part of a story I’m working on. At first I couldn’t tell which property they were talking about — there were too many abandoned properties on Gilbert Street. But then I looked around, and the one they were upset about became obvious. But what is the city to do? It is private property, and they can’t just tear it down. And what is a landowner to do? In this incendiary environment every vacant house looks like a target. No one wants to be the next Mrs. Bradley.
How do you sort out competing interests all headed in the same direction? How can the city preserve the rights of out of state landowners and the safety of residents? They have to stay within the law, they can’t just bulldoze all the empty properties in the city, of which there are more than 100. The city and its residents are caught in a battle fighting themselves for the same goal.
I’m working on a piece about this for next week’s paper, but it is hard to put all these issues into one story. The fires, the long distance landlords, the city’s efforts and the residents’ fears all coalesce into something too big for a thousand words. But it’s hard to imagine who will tell it in cities and towns across America if print journalism fails.
Pick up the Berlin Reporter and there is a week’s worth of conversations and interviews, events and insights from the residents of Berlin and Gorham. I find it hard to understand how this city, or any city for that matter, can function without a paper. Too much goes on every hour, every day and every week in any town or city for people to just pick it up. People can filter the world through the Internet, or television, or radio news, but that doesn’t filter the local. And the local doesn’t matter, perhaps, until you wake up at 2 a.m. to your dog barking and your house burning. Then, all the sudden, what the reporters in your town are doing matters.
By erikeiselein Berlin NH, Fires, journalism May 27, 2009 November 20, 2013 736 WordsLeave a comment
Fire Number Four
The fourth fire in two weeks happened over the weekend. It started in the garage of an abandoned house and damaged the house next door. I don’t know if the fire marshal has declared the fire incendiary or not yet, but either way it still touches on an issue that is central to Berlin: what to do about burned buildings.
I talked to Berlin Fire Chief Randall Trull, as well as city manager Pat MacQueen and housing coordinator Andre Caron about it today. Berlin is in a unique situation — if a building burns, the leftover property is often worth less than the total of cleanup costs. This results in landlords walking away from their properties. Chief Trull, Mr. MacQueen and Mr. Caron all pointed to RSA 155B as the best means to move forward in this situation. The law allows the city to do something about these abandoned properties, even though the city doesn’t own them. In addition, sometimes the law can even incentivize landlords to clean up properties they otherwise would have walked away from. It isn’t perfect, Mr. MacQueen said, but recent changes to the law are making it possible for the city to move forward with destroyed properties at less cost to taxpayers.
Berlin used to have 22,000 residents. Now there are 10,300. That means there is a wealth of infrastructure for a dearth of population. The empty houses are only one symptom; the closing schools are another. In a city where there are ample vacant properties for arsonists to burn there are also schools closing for lack of students. The Bartlett school will close in about two weeks, and not just for the summer. The new superintendent will be in charge of only four schools, where the current superintendent is in charge of six.
At the same time there are signs of improvement. The Gill Building, on Main Street, former home of Gill’s Flowers, is now available for rent. David Morin, one of the investors who bought and renovated the building, showed me around the four beautiful apartments and downstairs office space. It is the type of place any young professional would love to rent — well built, quiet, efficient and inexpensive. StoryCorps has jumped on the opportunity to rent the apartments for the first month. Now Morin and his partners are looking for a few people in search of quality office and living accommodations in the downtown. It is a promising move forward in a city Mr. Morin said is often making lateral movements.
Check out next week’s Berlin Reporter for an in depth look at these stories.
By erikeiselein Berlin NH, Fires May 26, 2009 430 WordsLeave a comment
Kids in Berlin play baseball in the fields next to the old smoke stack and boiler from the mill. The mill is gone, and this massive structure is all that’s left. The kids grow up in the shadow of Berlin’s success, hearing stories about it and seeing traces of its past without ever knowing it. Laidlaw, an alternative energy company, is trying to build a biomass power station in the site of the old mill, using the smoke stack. The city council is against the idea. Mayor David Bertrand said a massive industrial facility in the center of town is the city’s past, not its future. But the biomass plant would bring 40 jobs to the area; 40 jobs the area needs. Clean Power, another company working to build a biomass facility, does not raise the same objections Laidlaw does within the council. As the newest city councilor Ryan Landry said, if Laidlaw wanted to build the plant on Jericho Road on the outskirts of town there would be no problem. But they aren’t. They own the land in the center of town with the boiler, and that is where they want to build. The city has decided to retain Downs, Rachlin and Martin, a law firm out of Vermont for around $295 an hour in preparation of the legal battle. They expect to spend $100,000 in the fight. The city councilors are torn between 40 jobs now with a 19th century downtown or an empty downtown now in hopes of a cleaner future. Right now, they are betting on the future.
For more information on Berlin, NH, check out the Berlin Reporter.
By erikeiselein Berlin NH May 24, 2009 November 20, 2013 268 WordsLeave a comment
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Rhetoric Fall Colloquium - Tissue of the World: On Stoic Sympathy: A Lecture by Brooke Holmes, Professor of Classics, Princeton University
Colloquium | October 24 | 5-7 p.m. | 370 Dwinelle Hall
Speaker/Performer: Brooke Holmes, Princeton University
Sponsors: Department of Rhetoric, Department of Classics
Co-sponsored by the Department of Classics.
The concept of cosmic sympathy, highly developed by the Stoics, is at once deeply foreign to us in its claims regarding a mind fully immanent in the world and intriguing, as we struggle anew with imagining communities that bring together humans and non-humans. This talk investigates the contours, the stakes, and the internal tensions of cosmic sympathy for the Stoics in order to argue that sympathy puts front and centers the challenges of thinking the cosmos on analogy with the organism and, at the same time, the paradoxes of Nature once it is understood as transindividual and agential. It raises the question, too, of what place the Greeks might have in philosophies of nature today.
Brooke Holmes is Robert F. Goheen Professor in the Humanities and Professor of Classics at Princeton University, where she also directs the Interdisciplinary Doctoral Program in Humanistic Studies (IHUM) and the Postclassicisms Initiative (www.postclassicisms.org). She has published widely on the history of the body, Greek science, medicine, and philosophy, Greek literature, gender and sexuality, and the reception of Greek philosophy in continental philosophy.
Event contact: rfa@berkeley.edu, 510-642-1415
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Visit Temple, Texas 2600 S First St
TBI students conduct research on cancer, cosmetics and more
Women who want to purchase make-up face an overwhelming variety of choices. So how are they to know which products are really the best for their skin?
Alexis DeGraff, who will be a senior at Temple High School this fall, has always been interested in make-up. So when she had a chance to conduct a summer research project, DeGraff decided to study the physical properties of liquid foundation. Her goal was to find out which foundations are better for certain skin types based on their physical properties.
“Make-up is not regulated by the FDA the way drugs are,” DeGraaf said. “Foundation is applied directly to the skin, but companies are not required to provide much information about what is in it.”
DeGraff is one of 16 area high school students who conducted research this summer as part of a program sponsored by the Texas Bioscience Institute’s Middle College program. The students worked with faculty mentors from a variety of local institutions, including Baylor Scott & White Health, Texas A&M College of Medicine, Texas A&M University-Central Texas, the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor, the City of Killeen, and the Veterans Administration Research Lab.
DeGraff conducted her research with Dr. Ruth Ann Murphy, a professor of chemistry at the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor. She studied properties of three different brands of foundation – CoverGirl, Maybelline and NYX. Within each brand, she tested a light foundation, a medium one, and a dark one.
DeGraff determined the pH levels, density, viscosity and dehydration rate for each of the products.
“I wanted to know if brand makes a difference in physical properties,” she said.
Dehydration rate is important, DeGraaf explained, because if you have dry skin, you want a foundation that holds in moisture more. But a product that holds in moisture more could cause pimples to grow faster.
Before she conducted her research, DeGraaf said she was using CoverGirl foundation. But as a result of her research, she found that a Maybelline foundation would be better for her because she has oily skin.
As a result of her work, DeGraff was able to help Murphy develop a new lab she plans to use in her freshman chemistry classes this fall.
DeGraff said she hopes to work with Murphy again next summer, before attending Texas A&M University to study chemical engineering.
Arleth Subiria, a classmate of DeGraff’s at Temple High School, also worked in Murphy’s lab over the summer. Subiria, who is an aspiring dentist, studied the physiochemical properties of eight different mouthwashes.
“Knowing the physiochemical properties of mouthwash can help people select the most suitable product for them,” she said.
For example, Subiria said, people who have a dry mouth — a condition known as xerostomia — need to avoid mouthwashes with ethyl alcohol, which can increase dry mouth.
Subiria said after conducting her research, she also decided to switch to a different brand of mouthwash.
Killeen High School student Lee Horton had the opportunity to work with Dr. Mienie DeKock Roberts, an associate professor of mathematics at Texas A&M University-Central Texas, on a real-life prosthetic hand project.
Through a Google + community that is dedicated to helping people who need prosthetics, the two found a 19-year old man in California who was born without a hand. Using mathematics and 3-D printing, they were able to fashion a prosthetic hand for the man for less than $50 – a fraction of the cost of medical-grade prosthetics.
Horton, who is interested in medicine, said the summer experience confirmed his desire to be able to work with patients.
Other students participating in the summer research program conducted research on a wide variety of topics, including cancer, computer software and water quality in the City of Killeen. The students presented their research Aug. 8 at a public event held at the TBI campus.
Other students who participated in the summer research program were:
Zachrieh Alhaj of Harker Heights, who worked with Dr. Nasir Uddin from the Texas A&M College of Medicine.
Malaika Ali of Academy, who worked with Dr. Matthew McMillin from the Veterans Administration Research Lab.
William Cody Bradley of Troy, who worked with Dr. Christine Jones from Texas A&M University-Central Texas for the second year in a row.
Zachary Hunt of Temple, who worked with Dr. Sanjib Mukherjee from the Texas A&M College of Medicine.
Amira Lambertis of Killeen, who worked with Dr. Binu Tharakan of Baylor Scott & White Health and Texas A&M College of Medicine.
Sonia Lopez of Harker Heights, who worked with Dr. Lee Shapiro from the Texas A&M College of Medicine.
Madigan McDaniel of Harker Heights, who worked with Dr. Anitha Chennamaneni from Texas A&M University-Central Texas.
Yasmeen Patel of Killeen and Joshua Queen of Academy, who worked with Dr. Fengfei Wang from Baylor Scott & White Health.
Hannah Peterson of Harker Heights, who worked with Kristina Ramirez, director of environmental services for the City of Killeen.
Daisy Rodriguez of Killeen, who worked with Dr. Laura Weiser Erlandson from Texas A&M University-Central Texas.
Gwyneth Udy of Harker Heights, who worked with Dr. Shannon Glaser from the Veterans Administration Research Lab.
Michae’ Villegas of Killeen, who worked with Dr. Phyllis Tipton from Baylor Scott & White Health.
The TBI Middle College Program offers high school juniors and seniors the opportunity to earn up to 60 college credit hours in STEM–focused classes (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) through Temple College. For more information on the program, visit http://templejc.edu/tbi/middle-college.
MORE PHOTOS AVAILABLE here.
The post TBI students conduct research on cancer, cosmetics and more appeared first on Temple College.
Ellen Davis
Director of Marketing and Media Relations
ellen.davis@templejc.edu
About Temple College
© Copyright 2018, Temple College.
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The Raven: Legacy of a Masterthief – A Murder of Ravens Review
September 22, 2013Lucy Ingram0 Comments
Filed UnderPC Reviews Steam
NB: Whilst we have tried to keep it as spoiler-free as possible, please make sure you have played the previous chapters before reading this review.
Following on from where The Raven: Legacy of a Masterthief: Ancestry of Lies left off, Nordic Games’ final chapter A Murder of Ravens manages to tie loose ends up by finally uncovering the mystery and revealing the secrets everyone’s been dying to find out. Just who is The Raven? What role do the passengers on board the luxurious cruise ship play amongst the biggest heist of all time? Just how will the legacy of The Raven come to its end?
In this third and final chapter, you take on the role of Adil’s fiancé Alex, and we learn about the events that occurred before and after the murder of the Baroness, as well as discover the identity of the culprit, all at the same time as having a history lesson about the heritage animals of a variety of cities. There isn’t really anything that sets this chapter apart from its predecessors other than the gripping finale and the opportunity to see events unfold by switching from one perspective to another, but it most definitely manages to deliver when you look at the game as a complete entity.
During this chapter, you also discover what really happened at the museum in Cairo, and just who is the mastermind behind all of this. Taking on the role of Adil once more, he leads us into the finale’s exciting climax as paths start to cross-over and the truth behind the heist begins to unravel…
As intriguing as this all sounds though, I still feel The Raven would have benefited having been released as the complete game rather than in instalments. Playing through the whole game will set you back a good twenty hours or so overall, but dividing the three chapters into three separate parts gave the impression that both of the previous chapters were rushed into completion in order to meet their set release dates. Luckily, this is mostly a moot point now as anyone buying the game after the third chapter is released will immediately get the other chapters at no extra cost, which leads me to believe that perhaps the game was not developed to be released as separate chapters in the first place.
As a whole, The Raven is an exceptionally captivating point-and-click adventure, combining an engaging story and an assortment of entertaining puzzles which in turn amounts to an enjoyable and rewarding experience as an outcome. Overall, if you’re planning on buying The Raven, now is definitely the time to do so, as you will benefit from a game that is charming, clever and a delight to play, complimented by a great narrative told from three diverse character perspectives.
The Raven: Legacy of a Masterthief is a worthwhile purchase that will not disappoint.
A captivating storyline told from three different perspectives
Outstanding voice-work
A fantastic orchestral soundtrack
An array of interesting and unique characters
Crisp, clean graphics and beautifully detailed art
Puzzles are few and far between in the last half of the game
Slight animation shortfalls
OVERALL RATING: 4 out of 5
For those who missed this fantastic interactive graphic novel set in the same world four years prior to The Raven: Legacy of a Masterthief, you can learn how the young French Investigator Nicolas Legrand singlehandedly prevents the masterthief from pulling off a coup, followed by a pursuit across the rooftops of Paris in 1960.
Available to play online or download the mobile version for iOS and Android.
Tagged WithA Murder of CrowsPCpoint-and-click adventuresteamThe Raven
Compulsion - Their approach to DLC and will there be a We Happy Few 2?
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Edmondson Avenue Branch, Enoch Pratt Free Library
Colonial Revival Architecture and a Community Institution
By Eli Pousson
Since 1951, the Edmondson Village Branch of the Enoch Pratt Free Library at the corner of Edmondson Avenue and Woodridge Road has served as a treasured community institution for nearby residents and readers. The building's Colonial Revival architecture reflects the design of the adjacent Edmondson Village Shopping Center whose developers, Jacob and Joseph Meyerhoff, originally donated the space for the library.
The first proposal to build a library in the area came a different developer, James E. Keelty, who erected thousands of the rowhouses in the area between the 1920s and the 1940s. In 1927, James Keelty offered to donate the lot at the northwest corner of Edmondson Avenue and Edgewood Street to build a new branch library. He even planned to "erect a library building on the lot and give the city its own time in which to pay for the structure." His generosity won support from the area's City Council member, Thomas M.L. Musgrave, who remarked:
People living in the Ten Hills, Rognel Heights and Hunting Ridge sections have been trying to get a branch of the Pratt Library for some time, and it now looks like all they need is the cooperation of the city and the library trustees to supply it immediately.
But the gift came with one big condition. Keelty also wanted the city's permission to put up a new building at the southwest corner for "moving pictures, stores and bowling alleys" at a time when residents in Baltimore's segregated white residential neighborhoods fiercely opposed most commercial development. Likely responding to this opposition, Mayor Broening vetoed the proposal in July 1928 and the library was never built.
Fortunately, local residents, led by members of the Edmondson suburban group of the Women’s Civic League, stepped up to the challenge of creating a library for their community. In 1943, local residents from Ten Hills and Edmondson Village came together to start a lending library they called the Neighborhood Library Group. The effort grew quickly and the organizers asked the developers of Edmondson Village Shopping Center to donate a space for the community. The Enoch Pratt Free Library took charge of the small “library station” and, with strong support from neighborhood residents, opened a small Colonial Revival branch library in 1951. Renovated between 2008 and 2010, the library remains a beloved and vital destination for readers and other library users today.
Edmondson Avenue Branch – Enoch Pratt Free Library ~ Source: Enoch Pratt Free Library ~ Date: 2010
Edmondson Avenue Branch – Enoch Pratt Free Library ~ Source: Enoch Pratt Free Library ~ Date: 2010 June
Entrance, Edmondson Avenue Branch ~ Source: Enoch Pratt Free Library ~ Date: 2010 June
Grand Re-Opening Celebration, Edmondson Avenue Branch – Enoch Pratt Free Library ~ Source: Enoch Pratt Free Library ~ Date: 2010 June
4330 Edmondson Avenue, Baltimore, MD 21229
Edmondson Avenue Branch - Enoch Pratt Free Library
Eli Pousson, “Edmondson Avenue Branch, Enoch Pratt Free Library,” Explore Baltimore Heritage, accessed July 17, 2019, https://explore.baltimoreheritage.org/items/show/304.
Libraries of Baltimore
Edmondson Avenue
Edmondson Village Red Line Station Area
Enoch Pratt Free Library
Ten Hills
Women's Civic League
Woodridge Road
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Significant Digits For Thursday, Nov. 17, 2016
Nov. 17, 2016 , at 7:57 AM
Number of times Bob Dylan will go to Stockholm, Sweden, in December to accept the Nobel Prize. The Svenska Akademien (Swedish Academy) knew what they signed up for when they picked Dylan as a winner. But he’s got six months starting Dec. 10 to give a lecture to the Nobel crowd — that’s the only requirement. [Svenska Akademien]
Metropolitan Transportation Authority officials announced Wednesday that the price of a MetroCard swipe could rise from $2.75 to $3.00 in March. And why not? After all, where else can you get phoned-in train service without all the amenities that come standard in every other metropolis? Where else will you find subway cars packed so tight that ass-grabbing is a given? What other transit authority could we find that treats weekend line closings as top secret? The best thing to happen to the M.T.A. is its proximity to the active fire hazard that is the Washington D.C. Metro. [The New York Times]
Percent of female employees who rated as “engaged” in their work, compared to 29 percent of male employees. [Gallup]
208 miles per hour
A 19-year-old in Oklahoma was arrested after driving 208 miles per hour on the Kilpatrick Turnpike in Oklahoma City on Saturday, just over 200 mph short of the “wheel-driven” land-speed record. [Fox News]
Proposition 300
Denver voters passed a citywide proposition allowing people to consume marijuana in public spaces such as bars, restaurants and other businesses that get the OK from neighbors. (The vote was so close it took a week to settle the results.) As a New Yorker, this seems insane to me. Sure, Denver residents still can’t smoke marijuana in these spaces — they can only “consume” it — but the notion of doing anything fun in public besides eating and drinking was beaten out of New York by the end of the Bloomberg Administration. [The Associated Press]
8,711,000 Facebook interactions
Number of shares, reactions and comments on Facebook generated by the top 20 fake election stories in the last three months of the campaign. Hoax sites and partisan fabulists eclipsed real news during the stretch run of the 2016 election on Facebook: There were only 7,367,000 shares, reactions and comments on the top 20 stories from 19 major, fact-based publications during the same period. Come on y’all, be a part of the solution and like us. [Buzzfeed]
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Pen-Ek Ratanaruang's latest film makes Thailand premiere
11 February 2019: Thai political party withdraws nomination of princess for prime minister
14 January 2017: Fighter jet crashes during Children's Day airshow in Thailand
4 December 2016: Maha Vajiralongkorn becomes the king of Thailand
4 December 2016: Interpol arrest Karachi fire suspect in Bangkok
25 August 2015: UK judge withholds report from Thai death penalty defendants
Location of Thailand
From left, Lalita Panyopas, Apinya Sakuljaroensuk and Pornwut Sarasin, chat with the press.
Following a world premiere during the Director's Fortnight at the Cannes Film Festival, the latest film by Thai auteur Pen-Ek Ratanaruang made its Thailand premiere on Tuesday night in a screening for the press and celebrities.
Before the screening of the new film, Ploy, the director and his stars took the rostrum for a question-and-answer session, during which Pen-Ek pulled out a digital camera and took photos of the presenter, the press and the actors.
Film plot
Ploy is a drama film, about a middle-aged Thai-American couple, portrayed by popular Thai soap opera actress Lalita Panyopas and Pornwut Sarasin, a first-time actor whose day job is working as vice president of Thai Namthip, the distributor of Coca Cola in Thailand. The couple have returned to Thailand for the first time in many years to attend the funeral of a relative.
They arrive at Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi Airport at 5 a.m. after a long-haul flight from the U.S., and check in to a hotel. The wife, Dang, just wants to sleep, but the husband, Wit, wants some cigarettes, so he goes to the hotel bar to buy some. There, he strikes up a conversation with a 19-year-old girl named Ploy (17-year-old first-time actress Apinya Sakuljaroensuk), who's waiting at the hotel for her mother.
Wit then invites the girl to his and Dang's room, so she can take a shower and relax. This poor judgment by Wit ignites feelings of jealousy and anger in Dang, and causes the couple to review their marriage of seven years.
Lao-Australian leading man Ananda Everingham is in a supporting role as the hotel bartender. As a counterpoint to Wit's and Dang's bickering, the bartender engages in an erotic tryst with a hotel maid (model-actress Porntip Papanai) in a nearby room.
Pen-ek Ratanaruang, second from left, snaps photos with his digital camera, during a press conference for his new film Ploy, which co-stars, starting third from left, Ananda Everingham, Porntip Papanai and Thaksakorn Pradabpongsa.
Censorship fears
The press screening was held at SF World Cinemas at CentralWorld shopping mall in Bangkok. Given the presence of Coca-Cola's Pornwut in the cast, it was perhaps not a coincidence that cans of Coke Zero, a new soft drink that is just being introduced in Thailand, were being doled out for free.
According to early reviews at Cannes, Ploy contains a high level of nudity and eroticism, which is uncommon for a Thai film, because Thailand has no film-ratings system and instead adheres to a strict censorship code that excises nakedness and sex scenes.
Ahead of its Thailand premiere, Aphiradee Iamphungphorn, co-producer for Five Star Production, said she knew the film would have to be re-edited for Thailand, but "hopefully not more than we can bear." To get past the censors, Pen-ek created a special Thailand edit of the film, in which the sex scenes are toned down.
Ploy is the director's sixth feature film since he made his debut in 1997 with Fun Bar Karaoke, which premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival. Since then, his films are regularly featured on the festival circuit, and are submitted by Thailand's film industry for consideration by the Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film.
Pen-Ek's latest film is a return to screenwriting, after his previous two films, Last Life in the Universe and Invisible Waves, were scripted or co-scripted by Thai writer Prabda Yoon. It also marks a reunion with leading actress Lalita, who starred in his second feature, 1999's black comedy, Ruang Talok 69, as well as Porntip, who co-starred in Pen-Ek's 2001 musical-comedy-drama Monrak Transistor.
Ploy opens in Thailand cinemas on Thursday.
Kong Rithdee. "When local means global" — Bangkok Post, June 1, 2007
Todd Brown. "Cannes Report: Ploy Review" — Twitchfilm.net, May 23, 2007
Lee Marshall. "Ploy (Cannes review)" — Screen Daily, May 22, 2007
Russell Edwards. "Ploy (Cannes review)" — Variety (magazine), May 22, 2007
Wikipedia has more about this subject:
Ploy
Ploy at the Internet Movie Database
Retrieved from "https://en.wikinews.org/w/index.php?title=Pen-Ek_Ratanaruang%27s_latest_film_makes_Thailand_premiere&oldid=2541618"
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state of the United States of America
As Maine goes, so goes the nation. ~ Anonymous
Maine (IPA: /meɪn/; French: État du Maine) is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States, bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the east and south, New Hampshire to the west, and the Canadian provinces of Quebec to the northwest and New Brunswick to the northeast. Maine is the easternmost state of the US, and the northernmost state of New England. It was admitted to the Union under the Missouri Compromise on March 15, 1820, as the 23rd state. It is the 39th most extensive and the 41st most populous of the 50 United States.
Dirigo
I felt like I'd been misplaced in the cosmos and I belonged in Maine. ~ Terry Goodkind
I can say I didn't find anyplace I'd rather live than Maine. ~ Angus King
I direct (or alternatively, I lead, I guide)
Official state motto, on the State Seal, beneath a stylized north star.
As Maine goes, so goes the nation.
Anonymous political proverb, since the late 19th century
To the memory of Dr. Olfert Dapper, who saw a wild unicorn in the Maine woods in 1673, and for Robert Nathan, who has seen one or two in Los Angeles.
Peter S. Beagle, on the dedication page of The Last Unicorn (1968)
They were walking along a roadway of great slabs of stone set down one after another, the beginning and end of which they could take in at a glance, a road rising from and heading toward nowhere now.
"You can't get there from here," William said, using a Down East accent.
"Anymore." Maine, they thought of Maine, then. Evidently this truncated road could still carry them as far away and as long ago as that.
Nancy Clark, in A Way from Home: A Novel (2007)
There was a young lady from Gloucester
Who complained that her parents both bossed her,
So she ran off to Maine.
Did her parents complain?
Not at all — they were glad to have lost her.
John Ciardi, in The Hopeful Trout and Other Limericks (1989)
You can't get there from here.
Marshall Dodge, in his "Which Way to Millinocket?" Bert & I humor routine
I will not listen to childcare lectures from a man who put his daughter in a box and shipped her to Maine.
Jane Espenson, in lines written for Regina (the Evil Queen) to David Nolan (Prince Charming), in the "We Are Both" episode of Once Upon a Time (7 October 2012)
I felt like I'd been misplaced in the cosmos and I belonged in Maine.
Terry Goodkind, as quoted in Moving to Maine : The Essential Guide to Get You There and What You Need to Know to Stay (2007) by Vicki Doudera, p. 13
When people asked me in a RV park, "What do you do?" I just said, "I'm a retired state employee from Maine."
Angus King, on his job description to strangers, as a former Governor, in "Bowdoin Lecturer is King of the Road in 'Governor's Travels'" in Academic Spotlight (2 August 2011)
The Southwest was spectacular, but I have no interest in moving there. North Carolina is beautiful in spring and fall. But I can say I didn't find anyplace I'd rather live than Maine.
Angus King, in "Bowdoin Lecturer is King of the Road in 'Governor's Travels'" in Academic Spotlight (2 August 2011)
My grandfather once told her if you couldn't read with cold feet, there wouldn't be a literate soul in the state of Maine.
Marilynne Robinson, in Gilead (2004)
I looked along the San Juan Islands and the coast of California, but I couldn't find the palette of green, granite, and dark blue that you can only find in Maine.
Parker Stevenson, as quoted in Maine (2010) by Margaret Dornfeld and Joyce Hart, p. 6
Bowdoin College
Look up Maine in Wiktionary, the free dictionary
Wikivoyage has a travel guide for:
Maine State Guide, from the Library of Congress
Maine government
Maine Office of Tourism
Portland Magazine
Maine at DMOZ
Maine Historical Society
Comprehensive compilation of media sources in Maine
Retrieved from "https://en.wikiquote.org/w/index.php?title=Maine&oldid=2441863"
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UnNews:Police seize $37 billion cash in Federal Reserve Bank raid
The Federal Reserve Bank Building of San Fransisco: one of the largest bank buildings in the entire United States. Nobody knew what unbelievable chicanery was going on behind closed doors, until this very morning.
SAN FRANSISCO, CALIFORNIA: Acting on consumer tips and long-held suspicions of possession of large quantities of US currency by the Federal Reserve Bank in San Fransisco, California State Police conducted a massive early-morning raid early this morning. The amount of money found in the bank's vault alone was approximately 37 billion dollars ($37,000,000,000), mostly in the form of $100 Federal Reserve Notes.
One such piece of suspicious currency showed up about six months ago at a local candy store with hand-written markings reading "To my second-favorite grandson on his 9th birthday!", apparently some sort of secret code indicative of illegal activities. After the store owner panicked and alerted the authorities, investigators successfully traced the bill back to the bank of issue by decoding a prominent letter "L" printed on its front side. This one and only piece of tangible evidence was all they needed to successfully extract a warrant of invasion and broad discretionary powers from Governor Newsom (D, California) over his strenuous objections.
The raid was initiated when an undercover detective passed a hand-written note to a bank teller with the cryptic message "Hey hotstuff, wanna show me yer juicy boobs?". This caused a flurry of nervous activity behind the counter, which was sufficient distraction for ten squadrons of police cars to surround the building, block off all emergency exits, and infiltrate all points of entry and windows in a massive display of force. Many injuries and severe ink stains were suffered by riot-control officers and employees, but none were life-threatening. Most of the bank's staff were immediately arrested and are currently being held without bail in downtown San Fransisco for charges of money laundering and possession of various items and equipment not normally considered illegal. The bank's president Mary "Bailey" Daly (cup size D++) eluded capture and remains at large.
Some of the enormous piles of money seized by law enforcement agents. Federal Reserve bankers could offer no immediate justification for possessing such huge quantities of cold hard cash.
California Police Chief Fernando Juanito Haciendos (R, Fresno) was flabbergasted by the magnitude of the covert money-stockpiling operation occurring right under everybody's noses. "I for one am flabbergasted at the magnitude of the operation we uncovered", he said. "My God, there were bundles of factory-fresh one-hundred dollar bills everywhere, mostly with the serial numbers still in numerical order. We thought only drug dealers and hard-core pornographers would be capable of having that kind of cash on hand!" Follow-up searches on the premises for illicit drugs were made by a pack of vicious drug-sniffing police dogs, but their findings were inconclusive. An additional search by a pack of vicious porn-sniffing dogs was also attempted, but they all escaped and are currently roaming about the so-called "red-light" district of downtown Bueno Vista.
What with our modern computer-chip-driven economy, United States Federal Reserve bank notes are rarely used for legitimate business transactions these days. A single 100-dollar note alone ("C-note", "Big Benny", or "hundred" in criminalish jargon) has an estimated street value of two grams of purified cocaine, or even as many as twenty Double Whoppers with Cheese. "Very few people can afford Double Whoppers these days", Chief Haciendos explained, "and there is no other good reason that I can imagine for innocent civilians carrying that kind of money around in the first place. I mean, you could be mugged or something!".
The estimated 45 tons of cash is scheduled to be burnt to crispy ashes in industrial-grade incinerators at the privately-owned California Steel Plant in Fontana (the same site where hard-core right-wing book seizures and marijuana seizures are similarly incinerated on a regular basis) to preclude it from falling into the wrong hands.
Retrieved from "http://en.uncyclopedia.co/w/index.php?title=UnNews:Police_seize_$37_billion_cash_in_Federal_Reserve_Bank_raid&oldid=5928302"
UnNews
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(Redirected from Assumptions)
Look up assumption in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
Outside discussions of logic, Assumption usually refers to the Assumption of Mary, a Christian tradition of the taking up of the Virgin Mary into heaven. Assumption may also refer to:
2 Arts, entertainment, and media
4 Logic
Places[edit]
Assumption, Alberta, Canada
Assumption, Illinois, United States
Assumption Township, Christian County, Illinois
Assumption Island, Seychelles
Assumption Island Airport
Assumption, Minnesota, United States
Assumption, Nebraska, United States
Assumption, Ohio, United States
Assumption Parish, Louisiana, United States
Arts, entertainment, and media[edit]
"Assumption" (short story), a 1929 story by Samuel Beckett
Assumption of Moses, a Jewish apocryphal pseudepigraphical work of uncertain date and authorship
Churches[edit]
Assumption Chapel, Minnesota, United States
Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary Church, Michigan, United States
Assumption – St. Paul, New York, United States
Cathedral of the Assumption (disambiguation)
Church of the Assumption (disambiguation)
Logic[edit]
Closed-world assumption, the presumption that a statement that is true is also known to be true, and a statement not known to be true is false
Open-world assumption, assumption that the truth value of a statement may be true irrespective of whether or not it is known to be true
Tacit assumption, belief applied in developing a logical argument or decision that is not explicitly voiced nor necessarily understood by the decision maker
Presupposition, a tacit assumption about the world or background belief relating to an utterance
Unique name assumption, in logics where different names always refer to different entities in the world
Schools[edit]
Assumption College, Kilmore, Victoria, Australia
Assumption College, Warwick, Queensland, Australia
Assumption Catholic Secondary School, Burlington, Ontario, Canada
Assumption College School, Windsor, Ontario, Canada
Assumption College School (Brantford), Ontario, Canada
Assumption University (Windsor), Ontario, Canada
Assumption College, Changanasserry, Kerala, India
Assumption Junior College, Osaka Prefecture, Japan
Assumption Antipolo, Philippines
Assumption College of Davao, Davao City, Philippines
Assumption College San Lorenzo, Makati City, Philippines
Assumption Iloilo, Iloilo City, Philippines
University of the Assumption, Pampanga, Philippines
Assumption English School, Singapore
Assumption College Sriracha, Chonburi Province, Thailand
Assumption College (Thailand)
Assumption University (Thailand), Bangkok, Thailand
UK (Northern Ireland)
Assumption Grammar School, Ballynahinch, County Down, Northern Ireland
Academy of the Assumption, Florida, United States
Assumption Catholic School, Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Galveston–Houston, United States
Assumption College, Massachusetts, United States
Assumption College for Sisters, New Jersey, United States
Assumption High School (Iowa), United States
Assumption High School (Kentucky), United States
Assumption High School (Louisiana), United States
Assumption High School (Wisconsin), United States
Assumption Preparatory School, Massachusetts, United States
Assumption School, Illinois, United States
Assumption School (Millbury), Massachusetts, United States
Assumption School (Minnesota), United States
Dormition (disambiguation)
Asunción, the Spanish word
Assumption Cathedral (disambiguation)
Debt Assumption, the US policy under Alexander Hamilton to assume the war debt of some states
Entering Heaven alive
L'Assomption River, Quebec, Canada
List of churches consecrated to Santa Maria Assunta ("Assunta" is the Italian for Assumption)
Presupposition
This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the title Assumption.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Assumption&oldid=904522771"
Place name disambiguation pages
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Furman v. Georgia
(Redirected from Furman vs. Georgia)
Find sources: "Furman v. Georgia" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (December 2007) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)
United States Supreme Court case
Argued January 17, 1972
Decided June 29, 1972
Full case name
William Henry Furman v. State of Georgia
408 U.S. 238 (more)
92 S. Ct. 2726; 33 L. Ed. 2d 346; 1972 U.S. LEXIS 169
Cert. granted, 403 U.S. 952.
Subsequent
Rehearing denied, 409 U.S. 902.
The arbitrary and inconsistent imposition of the death penalty violates the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments, and constitutes cruel and unusual punishment.
Court membership
Warren E. Burger
Associate Justices
William O. Douglas · William J. Brennan Jr.
Potter Stewart · Byron White
Thurgood Marshall · Harry Blackmun
Lewis F. Powell Jr. · William Rehnquist
Case opinions
Burger, joined by Blackmun, Powell, Rehnquist
Blackmun
Powell, joined by Burger, Blackmun, Rehnquist
Rehnquist, joined by Burger, Blackmun, Powell
Laws applied
U.S. Const. amends. VIII, XIV
Furman v. Georgia, 408 U.S. 238 (1972), was a criminal case in which the United States Supreme Court struck down all death penalty schemes in the United States in a 5–4 decision, with each member of the majority writing a separate opinion.[1]:467–8 Following Furman, in order to reinstate the death penalty, states had to at least remove arbitrary and discriminatory effects, to satisfy the Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution.[1]:468
The decision ruled on the requirement for a degree of consistency in the application of the death penalty. This case led to a de facto moratorium on capital punishment throughout the United States, which came to an end when Gregg v. Georgia was decided in 1976 to allow the death penalty.
The Supreme Court consolidated Jackson v. Georgia and Branch v. Texas with the Furman decision, thereby invalidating the death penalty for rape (this ruling was confirmed post-Gregg in Coker v. Georgia). The Court had also intended to include the case of Aikens v. California, but between the time Aikens had been heard in oral argument and a decision was to be issued, the Supreme Court of California decided in California v. Anderson that the death penalty violated the state constitution. The Aikens case was dismissed as moot since all death sentences in California were reduced to life imprisonment.
2 Decision
3 Dissents
4 Aftermath
Background[edit]
In the Furman v. Georgia case, the resident awoke in the middle of the night to find William Henry Furman committing burglary in his house. At trial, in an unsworn statement allowed under Georgia criminal procedure, Furman said that while trying to escape, he tripped and the weapon he was carrying fired accidentally, killing the victim. This contradicted his prior statement to police that he had turned and blindly fired a shot while fleeing. In either event, because the shooting occurred during the commission of a felony, Furman would have been guilty of murder and eligible for the death penalty under then-extant state law, according to the felony murder rule. Furman was tried for murder and was found guilty based largely on his own statement. Although he was sentenced to death, the punishment was never carried out.
Jackson v. Georgia, like Furman, was also a death penalty case confirmed by the Supreme Court of Georgia. Unlike Furman, however, the convicted man in Jackson had not killed anyone, but attempted to commit armed robbery and committed rape in the process of doing so. Branch v. Texas was brought to the Supreme Court of the United States on appeal on certiorari to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. Like Jackson, Branch was convicted of rape.[2]
Decision[edit]
In a 5–4 decision, the Court's one-paragraph per curiam opinion held that the imposition of the death penalty in these cases constituted cruel and unusual punishment and violated the Constitution.[3] However, the majority could not agree as to a rationale. There was no opinion of the court or plurality as none of the five justices constituting the majority joined in the opinion of any other.
Justices Potter Stewart, Byron White and William O. Douglas expressed similar concerns about the apparent arbitrariness with which death sentences were imposed under the existing laws, often indicating a racial bias against black defendants. Because these opinions were the narrowest, finding only that the death penalty as currently applied was cruel and unusual, they are often considered the controlling majority opinions. Stewart wrote:
These death sentences are cruel and unusual in the same way that being struck by lightning is cruel and unusual. For, of all the people convicted of rapes and murders in 1967 and 1968, many just as reprehensible as these, the petitioners are among a capriciously selected random handful upon whom the sentence of death has in fact been imposed. My concurring Brothers have demonstrated that, if any basis can be discerned for the selection of these few to be sentenced to death, it is the constitutionally impermissible basis of race [see McLaughlin v. Florida, 379 U.S. 184 (1964)]. But racial discrimination has not been proved, and I put it to one side. I simply conclude that the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments cannot tolerate the infliction of a sentence of death under legal systems that permit this unique penalty to be so wantonly and so freakishly imposed.
Justices William Brennan and Thurgood Marshall concluded that the death penalty was in itself "cruel and unusual punishment," and incompatible with the evolving standards of decency of a contemporary society.
Dissents[edit]
Chief Justice Warren Burger and Justices Harry Blackmun, Lewis F. Powell, and William H. Rehnquist, each appointed by President Richard Nixon, dissented. They argued that a punishment provided in 40 state statutes (at the time) and by the federal government could not be ruled contrary to the so-called "evolving standard of decency."
Aftermath[edit]
The Furman decision caused all death sentences pending at the time to be reduced to life imprisonment, and it was described by scholars as a "legal bombshell."[4] The next day, columnist Barry Schweid wrote that it was "unlikely" that the death penalty could exist anymore in the United States.[5]
Attorney Mark Lane was the author of the 1970 book Arcadia in which he detailed the effort to prove that James Joseph Richardson, a black migrant worker in Florida, had been falsely accused in 1967 of killing his seven children by poisoning. Richardson was convicted of the murders through corrupt means used by the authorities involved. Richardson had been on death row for five years for the crimes, escaping execution by virtue of the Furman decision. Nineteen years after Lane's book was published Richardson received a hearing in which all the charges were dropped, thanks to the interventions of Lane and Miami's then-prosecutor, Janet Reno.[6] Richardson was released from prison after 21 years, and the Richardsons' babysitter, who was on parole at the time for killing one husband and was also alleged to have killed another husband, confessed to the children's murders before her death from dementia.[6]
The Supreme Court's decision forced states and the U.S. Congress to rethink their statutes for capital offenses to ensure that the death penalty would not be administered in a capricious or discriminatory manner.[7]
In the following four years, 37 states enacted new death penalty laws aimed at overcoming the court's concerns about the arbitrary imposition of the death penalty. Several statutes that mandated bifurcated trials, with separate guilt-innocence and sentencing phases, and imposing standards to guide the discretion of juries and judges in imposing capital sentences, were upheld in a series of Supreme Court decisions in 1976, led by Gregg v. Georgia. Other statutes enacted in response to Furman, such as Louisiana's (which mandated imposition of the death penalty upon conviction of a certain crime), were struck down in cases of that same year.
Capital punishment in the United States
List of United States Supreme Court cases, volume 408
Gregg v. Georgia
Baze v. Rees
Glossip v. Gross
^ a b Criminal Law - Cases and Materials, 7th ed. 2012, Wolters Kluwer Law & Business; John Kaplan, Robert Weisberg, Guyora Binder, ISBN 978-1-4548-0698-1, [1]
^ "Branch v. Texas". TheFreeDictionary.com.
^ Cornell University Law School. "Furman v. Georgia (No. 69-5003)". cornell.edu.
^ Barry Latzer (2010), Death Penalty Cases: Leading U.S. Supreme Court Cases on Capital Punishment, Elsevier, p.37.
^ The Free Lance-Star - Jun 30, 1972 : "New laws unlikely on death penalty," by Barry Schweid
^ a b Frail and aged, man returns to Arcadia and a hurtful past, Sarasota Herald Tribune, Ian Cummings, October 27, 2013. Retrieved June 2, 2019.
^ "Furman v. Georgia - The Oyez Project at IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law". oyez.org.
Hull, Elizabeth (January 2010). "Guilty On All Counts". Social Policy. 39 (4): 11–25, 15p – via EBSCOHOST.
Oshinsky, David M. (2010). Capital Punishment on Trial: Furman V. Georgia and the Death Penalty in Modern America. University Press of Kansas. ISBN 978-0-7006-1711-1.
Smith, Stephen F. (2008). "The Supreme Court and the Politics of Death". Virginia Law Review. 94 (2): 283–383.
Works related to Furman v. Georgia at Wikisource
Text of Furman v. Georgia, 408 U.S. 238 (1972) is available from: Cornell CourtListener Google Scholar Justia Library of Congress Oyez (oral argument audio)
United States 8th Amendment case law
Weems v. United States (1910)
Robinson v. California (1962)
Rummel v. Estelle (1980)
Solem v. Helm (1983)
Harmelin v. Michigan (1991)
Ewing v. California (2003)
Lockyer v. Andrade (2003)
Graham v. Florida (2010)
Miller v. Alabama (2012)
Montgomery v. Louisiana (2016)
Wilkerson v. Utah (1879)
Louisiana ex rel. Francis v. Resweber (1947)
McGautha v. California (1971)
Furman v. Georgia (1972)
California v. Anderson (Cal. 1972)
Gregg v. Georgia (1976)
Coker v. Georgia (1977)
Lockett v. Ohio (1978)
Godfrey v. Georgia (1980)
Spaziano v. Florida (1981, 1984)
Enmund v. Florida (1982)
Pulley v. Harris (1984)
Glass v. Louisiana (1985)
Skipper v. South Carolina (1986)
Ford v. Wainwright (1986)
Tison v. Arizona (1987)
Lowenfield v. Phelps (1988)
Maynard v. Cartwright (1988)
Thompson v. Oklahoma (1988)
Penry v. Lynaugh (1989)
Stanford v. Kentucky (1989)
Whitmore v. Arkansas (1990)
Herrera v. Collins (1993)
Atkins v. Virginia (2002)
Tennard v. Dretke (2004)
Roper v. Simmons (2005)
Bigby v. Dretke (5th Cir. 2005)
Oregon v. Guzek (2006)
Hill v. McDonough (2006)
Kansas v. Marsh (2006)
Panetti v. Quarterman (2007)
Baze v. Rees (2008)
Kennedy v. Louisiana (2008)
Hall v. Florida (2014)
Glossip v. Gross (2015)
Corporal punishment or injuries
Jackson v. Bishop (8th Cir. 1968)
Gates v. Collier (5th Cir. 1974)
Ingraham v. Wright (1977)
Hudson v. McMillian (1992)
Hope v. Pelzer (2002)
Trop v. Dulles (1958)
Powell v. Texas (1968)
Estelle v. Gamble (1976)
South Carolina v. Gathers (1989)
Payne v. Tennessee (1991)
Helling v. McKinney (1993)
Farmer v. Brennan (1994)
Brown v. Plata (2011)
Excessive bail and fines
Excessive Bail Clause
Stack v. Boyle (1951)
United States v. Salerno (1987)
Excessive Fines Clause
Browning-Ferris Industries of Vermont, Inc. v. Kelco Disposal, Inc. (1989)
United States v. Bajakajian (1998)
Timbs v. Indiana (2019)
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Furman_v._Georgia&oldid=902128197"
United States Supreme Court cases
Cruel and Unusual Punishment Clause and death penalty case law
Capital punishment in Georgia (U.S. state)
1972 in United States case law
20th century American trials
Legal history of Georgia (U.S. state)
American Civil Liberties Union litigation
United States Supreme Court cases of the Burger Court
Articles needing additional references from December 2007
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(Redirected from UC Berkeley)
"Berkeley University" redirects here. It is not to be confused with Berkeley College, Berkeley College (Yale University), or Berklee College of Music.
Public university in California, USA
University of California (1868–1958)
Fiat lux (Latin)
Motto in English
Public research university
March 23, 1868 (1868-03-23)
Parent institution
$4.6 billion (2018)[1]
Carol T. Christ
42,519 (fall 2018)[2]
Total 1,232 acres (499 ha)
Core Campus 178 acres (72 ha)[3] Total land owned 6,679 acres (2,703 ha)[4]
Berkeley Blue, California Gold[5]
NCAA Division I FBS
Am. East
Oski the Bear
www.berkeley.edu
The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California[6][7]) is a public research university in Berkeley, California.[7] It was founded in 1868 and serves as the flagship institution of the ten research universities affiliated with the University of California system. Berkeley has since grown to instruct over 40,000 students in approximately 350 undergraduate and graduate degree programs covering numerous disciplines.[8]
Berkeley is one of the 14 founding members of the Association of American Universities, with $789 million in R&D expenditures in the fiscal year ending June 30, 2015.[9][10] Today, Berkeley maintains close relationships with three United States Department of Energy National Laboratories—Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and Los Alamos National Laboratory—and is home to many institutes, including the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute and the Space Sciences Laboratory.[11] Through its partner institution University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), Berkeley also offers a joint medical program at the UCSF Medical Center.[12]
As of October 2018[update], Berkeley alumni, faculty members and researchers include 107 Nobel laureates, 25 Turing Award winners, and 14 Fields Medalists. They have also won 9 Wolf Prizes, 45 MacArthur Fellowships,[13] 20 Academy Awards, 19 Pulitzer Prizes, and 207 Olympic medals (117 gold, 51 silver and 39 bronze).[14] In 1930, Ernest Lawrence invented the cyclotron at Berkeley, based on which UC Berkeley researchers along with Berkeley Lab have discovered or co-discovered 16 chemical elements of the periodic table – more than any other university in the world.[15][16][17] During the 1940s, Berkeley physicist J. R. Oppenheimer, the "Father of the Atomic Bomb," led the Manhattan project to create the first atomic bomb. In the 1960s, Berkeley was particularly noted for the Free Speech Movement as well as the Anti-Vietnam War Movement led by its students.[18][19][20] In the 21st century, Berkeley has become one of the leading universities in producing entrepreneurs and its alumni have founded a large number of companies worldwide.[21][22][23][24][25]
For 2018–19, UC Berkeley ranks 5th internationally in the Academic Ranking of World Universities, 28th in the QS World University Rankings, 15th in the Times Higher Education World University Rankings, and 4th in the U.S. News & World Report Global University Rankings.[26] [27] [28] [29] Berkeley has been consistently cited as one of the six most prestigious universities in the world by Times Higher Education World Reputation Rankings.[26][27][28][29][30]
1.1 Founding
1.2 First half of 20th century
1.3 Second half of 20th century
1.4 21st century
2 Organization and administration
2.2 Governance
3.1 Undergraduate programs
3.2 Graduate and professional programs
3.3 Faculty and research
3.4 Library system
3.5 Rankings
3.6 Admissions and enrollment
4 Discoveries and innovation
4.1 Natural sciences
4.2 Computer and applied sciences
4.3 Companies and entrepreneurship
5.1 Architecture
5.2 Natural features
5.3 Environmental record
6 Student life and traditions
6.1 Student housing
6.1.1 University housing
6.1.2 Cooperative housing
6.1.3 Fraternities and sororities
6.2 Student-run organizations
6.2.1 Associated Students of the University of California (ASUC)
6.2.2 Communications media
6.2.3 Student groups
7 Notable alumni, faculty, and staff
7.1 Faculty
7.2 Alumni
8 Controversies
View from Memorial Glade of Sather Tower (The Campanile), the center of Berkeley—the ring of its bells and clock can be heard from all over campus
Main article: History of the University of California, Berkeley
In 1866, the private College of California purchased the land comprising the current Berkeley campus in order to re-sell it in subdivided lots to raise funds. The effort failed to raise the necessary funds, so the private college merged with the state-run Agricultural, Mining, and Mechanical Arts College to form the University of California, the first full-curriculum public university in the state.
Upon its founding, The Dwinelle Bill (California Assembly Bill No. 583) stated that the "University shall have for its design, to provide instruction and thorough and complete education in all departments of science, literature and art, industrial and professional pursuits, and general education, and also special courses of instruction in preparation for the professions".[31][32]
Ten faculty members and almost 40 students made up the new University of California when it opened in Oakland in 1869.[33] Frederick H. Billings was a trustee of the College of California and suggested that the new site for the college north of Oakland be named in honor of the Anglo-Irish philosopher George Berkeley.[34] In 1870, Henry Durant, the founder of the College of California, became the first president. With the completion of North and South Halls in 1873, the university relocated to its Berkeley location with 167 male and 22 female students[35] where it held its first classes.[36]
Beginning in 1891, Phoebe Apperson Hearst made several large gifts to Berkeley, funding a number of programs and new buildings and sponsoring, in 1898, an international competition in Antwerp, Belgium, where French architect Émile Bénard submitted the winning design for a campus master plan.
First half of 20th century[edit]
In 1905, the University Farm was established near Sacramento, ultimately becoming the University of California, Davis.[37] In 1919, Los Angeles State Normal School became the southern branch of the University, which ultimately became University of California, Los Angeles.[38] By 1920s, the number of campus buildings had grown substantially, and included twenty structures designed by architect John Galen Howard.[39]
Berkeley students participate in a one-day peace strike opposing U.S. involvement in World War II on April 19, 1940
Robert Gordon Sproul served as president from 1930 to 1958.[40] In the 1930s, Ernest Lawrence helped establish the Radiation Laboratory (now Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory) and invented the cyclotron, which won him the Nobel physics prize in 1939.[41] Based on the cyclotron, UC Berkeley scientists and researchers, along with Berkeley Lab, went on to discover 16 chemical elements of the periodic table – more than any other university in the world.[16][17] In particular, during World War II and following Glenn Seaborg's then-secret discovery of plutonium, Ernest Orlando Lawrence's Radiation Laboratory began to contract with the U.S. Army to develop the atomic bomb. UC Berkeley physics professor J. Robert Oppenheimer was named scientific head of the Manhattan Project in 1942.[42][43] Along with the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley was then a partner in managing two other labs, Los Alamos National Laboratory (1943) and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (1952).
By 1942, the American Council on Education ranked Berkeley second only to Harvard in the number of distinguished departments.[40] During the McCarthy era in 1949, the Board of Regents adopted an anti-communist loyalty oath. A number of faculty members led by Edward C. Tolman objected and were dismissed;[44] ten years passed before they were reinstated with back pay.[45]
Second half of 20th century[edit]
In 1952, the University of California became an entity separate from the Berkeley campus. Each campus was given relative autonomy and its own Chancellor. Then-president Sproul assumed presidency of the entire University of California system, and Clark Kerr became the first Chancellor of UC Berkeley.[40]
Sather Tower (the Campanile) looking out over the San Francisco Bay and Mount Tamalpais
Berkeley gained worldwide reputation for student activism in the 1960s with the Free Speech Movement of 1964[46] and opposition to the Vietnam War.[47] In the highly publicized People's Park protest in 1969, students and the school conflicted over use of a plot of land; the National Guard was called in and violence erupted. Then governor of California Ronald Reagan called the Berkeley campus "...a haven for communist sympathizers, protesters, and sex deviants".[46][48][49]
In 1982, the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute (MSRI) was founded on the Berkeley campus at the request of three Berkeley mathematicians – Shiing-Shen Chern, Calvin Moore and Isadore M. Singer—and with the support of the National Science Foundation.[50] The institute was later moved to the Berkeley Hills. The institute is now widely regarded as a leading center for collaborative mathematical research, drawing thousands of visiting researchers from around the world each year.[50][51][52]
21st century[edit]
Modern students at Berkeley are less politically radical, with a greater percentage of moderates and conservatives than in the 20th century.[53][54] Democrats outnumber Republicans on the faculty by a ratio of 9:1.[55] On the whole, Democrats outnumber Republicans on American university campuses by a ratio of 10:1.[56]
Entering the 21st century, as state funding declined,[57] Berkeley turned to private sources: BP donated $400 million over 10 years to develop biofuels,[58] the Hewlett Foundation gave $113 million to endow 100 faculty chairs,[59] the Simons Foundation gave $60 million to establish the Simons Institute for the Theory of Computing,[60] and, in 2016, Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan pledged $600 million (shared with UCSF and Stanford University) to establish the Biohub. The 2008–13 Campaign for Berkeley raised $3.13 billion from 281,855 donors.[61]
Organization and administration[edit]
The original name, University of California, is frequently shortened to California or Cal. UC Berkeley's athletic teams date to this time are referred to as the California Golden Bears, Cal Bears, or just Cal. Today, the term "University of California" refers to the statewide school system, of which UC Berkeley is a part. The university discourages referring to the University of California, Berkeley as UCB, University of California at Berkeley,[62] Cal Berkeley, U.C. Berkeley, and UC-Berkeley.[63] Berkeley is unaffiliated with the Berklee College of Music or Berkeley College.
The University of California is governed by a 26-member Board of Regents, 18 of which are appointed by the Governor of California to 12-year terms, 7 serving as ex officio members, a single student regent and a non-voting student regent-designate.[64] The position of Chancellor was created in 1952 to lead individual campuses. The Board appointed Nicholas Dirks the 10th Chancellor of the university in 2013 after Robert J. Birgeneau, originally appointed in 2004, announced his resignation.[65] 12 vice chancellors report directly to the Chancellor. The Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost serves as the chief academic officer and is the office to which the deans of the 14 colleges and schools report.[66]
On August 16, 2016, Dirks announced he would step down as chancellor after months of heavy criticism from faculty over his management of university finances and his handling of a string of sexual misconduct cases involving high-profile faculty.[67] Dirks said he would step down upon the selection of a successor, who will be picked by a search committee of a dozen university leaders.[68] In March 2017, his successor, Carol T. Christ, was confirmed by the UC Regents and assumed the position on July 1, 2017.[69]
The 2006–07 budget totaled $1.7 billion; 33% came from the State of California. In 2006–07, 7,850 donors contributed $267.9 million and the endowment was valued at $2.89 billion.[70]
Haas School of Business
UC Berkeley employs 24,700 people directly and employees are permitted to unionize and are represented by AFSCME, California Nurses Association (CNA), CUE-Teamsters Local 2010 (formerly the Coalition of University Employees (CUE)), UAW, UC-AFT, and UPTE.[70][71]
Funding[edit]
See also: University of California finances
Berkeley receives funding from a variety of federal, state, and private sources. With the exception of government contracts, public money is proportioned to Berkeley and the other 9 campuses of the University of California system through the UC Office of the President.
State funding has, historically, been very high at the University of California. In 1987, the state provided 54% of Berkeley's budget. However, educational appropriations to the university have declined significantly over the last few decades,[72] with general state support dropping to 12% of the university's total revenues in 2013.[73] To be sure, Berkeley has long benefited from private philanthropy, with considerable gifts from members of the Flood, Hearst, Durant, Strauss, Lick, Harmon, and Bacon families in the 19th century and from the Hearst, Doe, Sather, Rockefeller, Cowell, Haviland, Bowles, Boalt, and Stern families, among others, in the first half of the 20th century. More recently, helping to offset the decline in state funding, alumni and their foundations have given generously to the school, with major contributions from, among many others, the Haas family (Haas, Goldman, Koshland); Gordon Moore (BS, 1950, over $110 million over the past two decades, primarily through multiple grants by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation); the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation (Flora Lamson Hewlett, BS, 1935, a total of over $140 million since 2000, most notably a $113 million gift announced in 2007); William V. Power (Class of 1930, multiple gifts, including a $26 million gift in 1999 and his $46.5 million bequest in 2003); the Simons family—over $110 million from James Harris Simons (PhD, 1961—multiple gifts, including a $60 million grant through the Simons Foundation to establish the Simons Institute), Mark Heising and Elizabeth Simons (both alums, over $32 million through the Heising-Simons Foundation over the past decade), and Nathaniel Simons (BA, MA in mathematics) and Laura Baxter-Simons (BA, MA); F. Warren Hellman (BA); Donald Fisher (Class of '51) and Doris Fisher; Sanford Diller (Class of '48) and Helen Diller ('50); Laura and Stephen D. Bechtel, Sr. (both Class of 1923); Sehat Sutardja (MS, PhD) and Weili Dai (BS); Gerson Bakar (BS); Edward and Carol Spieker (both of the Class of '66); Pehong Chen (PhD); Cornelius Vander Starr (attendee); Paul E. Jacobs (BS, MS, PhD); Richard C. Blum (BS); and Kevin Chou (BS, 2002), the youngest major alumni benefactor in the school's history.
Outside of alumni, Berkeley has also benefited from the generosity of friends, corporations, and foundations, notable among which are Mark Zuckerberg and Dr. Priscilla Chan (pledged $600 million, shared with UCSF and Stanford University, to form the Biohub); BP (pledged $400 million to research biofuels); the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (over $60 million in a series of grants since the foundation's creation), billionaire Sir Li Ka-Shing (multiple gifts, most notably a $40 million gift in 2005), Israeli-Russian billionaire Yuri Milner, and Thomas and Stacey Siebel.
Over the years, anonymous donors have given hundreds of millions of dollars to the school, including a 1999 gift of $50 million to support molecular engineering and a 2018 gift of $50 million to support STEM faculty.[74]
In 2014, Cal presented a plan to the Board of Regents that would create a venture capital fund that would fund student and faculty startups.[75]
Valley Life Sciences Building
A T-Rex replica at the UC Museum of Paleontology
Wheeler Hall
Hearst Mining Building
From left to right: Stanley Hall, Tan Hall and College of Chemistry Plaza
Berkeley is a large, primarily residential research university with a majority of its enrollment in undergraduate programs but also offers a comprehensive doctoral graduate program.[76] The university has been accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges Senior College and University Commission since 1949.[77] The university is one of only two UC campuses operating on a semester calendar (the other is UC Merced). Berkeley offers 106 Bachelor's degrees, 88 Master's degrees, 97 research-focused doctoral programs and 31 professionally focused graduate degrees.[78] The university awarded 7,565 Bachelor's, 2,610 Master's or Professional and 930 Doctoral degrees in 2013–2014.[79]
Berkeley's 130-plus academic departments and programs are organized into 14 colleges and schools in addition to UC Berkeley Extension.[3] Colleges are both undergraduate and graduate, while Schools are generally graduate only, though some offer undergraduate majors, minors, or courses.
College of Chemistry
College of Environmental Design
College of Letters and Science
College of Natural Resources
Graduate School of Journalism
Goldman School of Public Policy
School of Information
School of Optometry
School of Social Welfare
UC Berkeley Extension (currently has three locations in downtown Berkeley, downtown San Francisco and Belmont)
Berkeley does not have a medical school, but the university offers the UC Berkeley – UCSF Joint Medical Program with the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), a standalone medical school that is also part of the University of California. The institutions also share the UC Berkeley – UCSF Bioengineering Graduate Program. Berkeley and UCSF have a long history of affiliation in medical research and are the two oldest campuses in the UC system. UCSF manages the UCSF Medical Center, the top-ranked hospital in California.[80]
Undergraduate programs[edit]
The four-year, full-time undergraduate program has a focus on the arts and sciences with a high level of co-existence in undergraduate and graduate programs. Freshman admission is selective but there are high levels of transfer-in.[76] 107 Bachelor's degrees are offered across the Haas School of Business (1), College of Chemistry (5), College of Engineering (20), College of Environmental Design (4), College of Letters and Science (67), College of Natural Resources (10), and other individual majors (2).[78] The most popular majors are Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Political Science, Molecular and Cell Biology, Environmental Science, and Economics.[70]
Requirements for undergraduate degrees come from four sources: the University of California system, the Berkeley campus, the college or school, and the department. These requirements include an entry-level writing requirement before enrollment (typically fulfilled by minimum scores on standardized admissions exams such as the SAT or ACT), completing coursework on "American History and Institutions" before or after enrollment by taking an introductory class, passing an "American Cultures Breadth" class at Berkeley, as well as requirements for reading and composition and specific requirements declared by the department and school.[81] Three-hour final examinations are required in most undergraduate classes and take place over a week following the last day of instruction in mid-December for the Fall semester and in mid-May for the Spring semester.[82] Academic grades are reported on a five-letter scale (A,B,C,D,F) with grade points being modified by three-tenths of point for pluses and minuses.[83] Requirements for academic honors are specified by individual schools and colleges, scholarly prizes are typically awarded by departments, and students are elected to honor societies based on these organizations' criteria.[84]
Graduate and professional programs[edit]
The north facade of Doe Library with Memorial Glade in the foreground
Morrison Library
Berkeley has a "comprehensive" graduate program with high coexistence with the programs offered to undergraduates, but no medical school.[76] The university offers graduate degrees in Master's of Art, Master's of Science, Master's of Fine Art, and Ph.D.s in addition to professional degrees such as the Juris Doctor, Master of Business Administration and Master of Design.[85] The university awarded 963 doctoral degrees and 3,531 Master's degrees in 2017.[86] Admission to graduate programs is decentralized; applicants apply directly to the department or degree program. Most graduate students are supported by fellowships, teach assistantships, or research assistantships.[86] The 2010 United States National Research Council Rankings identified UC Berkeley as having the highest number of top-ranked doctoral programs in the nation.[87] UC Berkeley doctoral programs that received a #1 ranking include Agricultural and Resource Economics, Astrophysics, Chemistry, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Computer Science, English, Epidemiology, Geography, German, Mathematics, Mechanical Engineering, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Genetics, Genomics, and Development, Physics, Plant Biology, and Political Science. UC Berkeley was also the #1 recipient of National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowships between 2001 and 2010, with 1,333 awards.[86]
Faculty and research[edit]
Main articles: List of UC Berkeley faculty; Research centers and laboratories at UC Berkeley; and List of Nobel laureates associated with University of California, Berkeley
The College of Natural Resources: Wellman Hall, flanked by Giannini and Hilgard Halls
Berkeley is a research university with a "very high" level of research activity.[76] In fiscal year 2015, Berkeley spent $789 million on research and development (R&D).[9] There are 1,620 full-time and 500 part-time faculty members among more than 130 academic departments and more than 80 interdisciplinary research units.[88] The current faculty includes 235 American Academy of Arts and Sciences Fellows, 3 Fields Medal winners, 77 Fulbright Scholars, 139 Guggenheim Fellows, 73 members of the National Academy of Engineering, 149 members of the National Academy of Sciences,[89] 8 Nobel Prize winners, 4 Pulitzer Prize winners, 125 Sloan Fellows, 7 Wolf Prize winners and 1 Pritzker Prize winner.[88][90][91] 107 Nobel laureates have been affiliated with the university as faculty, alumni or researchers, the most of any public university in the United States and third most of any university in the world.
Library system[edit]
Main article: University of California, Berkeley Library System
Berkeley's 32 libraries together make up the fourth largest academic library in the United States, surpassed by Harvard University Library, Yale University Library and University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign Library.[92] However, considering the relative sizes and ages of these University libraries, Berkeley's collections have been growing about as fast as those at Harvard and Yale combined: specifically, 1.8 times faster than Harvard, and 1.9 times faster than Yale. In 2003, the Association of Research Libraries ranked it as the top public and third overall university library in North America based on various statistical measures of quality.[93] As of 2006[update], Berkeley's library system contains over 11 million volumes and maintains over 70,000 serial titles.[94] The libraries together cover over 12 acres (4.9 ha) of land and form one of the largest library complexes in the world.[95] Doe Library serves as the library system's reference, periodical, and administrative center, while most of the main collections are housed in the subterranean Gardner Main Stacks and Moffitt Undergraduate Library. The Bancroft Library, has over 400,000 printed volumes and 70 million manuscripts, pictorial items, maps and more, maintains special collections that document the history of the western part of North America, with an emphasis on California, Mexico and Central America. The Bancroft Library also houses The Mark Twain Papers,[96] The Oral History Center,[97] the Center for the Tebtunis Papyri[98] and the University Archives.[99]
Rankings[edit]
ARWU[100]
Forbes[101]
Times/WSJ[102]
U.S. News & World Report[103]
Washington Monthly[104]
QS[106]
Times[107]
National Program Rankings[109]
Biological Sciences 1
Clinical Psychology 2
Earth Sciences 2
Economics 1
Fine Arts 27
Mathematics 2
Physics 3
Public Affairs 7
Social Work 3
Global Program Rankings[110]
Arts & Humanities 7
Biology & Biochemistry 4
Clinical Medicine 127
Economics & Business 4
Environment/Ecology 1
Geosciences 6
Immunology 72
Materials Science 6
Molecular Biology & Genetics 12
Neuroscience & Behavior 20
Plant & Animal Science 4
Psychiatry/Psychology 32
Social Sciences & Public Health 15
Space Science 3
2018 QS World Ranking by Subject
4 Art and Humanities (OVERALL)
4 English Language
8 Philosophy
8 Engineering and Technology (OVERALL)
4 Computer and Information System
3 Chemical Engineering
2 Civil and Structural Engineering
3 Electronic and Electrical Engineering
=4 Mechanical Aeronautical & Manufacturing
7 Natural Sciences (OVERALL)
2 Chemistry
1 Environmental Sciences
6 Mathematics
3 Material Sciences
5 Physics & Astronomy
7 Social Sciences & Management (OVERALL)
8 Accounting & Finance
10 Business & Management Studies
=6 Communication & Media Studies
4 Economics & Econometrics
8 Education & Training
8 Law
9 Political & International Studies
4 Statistics & Operations Research
Berkeley is often ranked as a top-ten university in the world and the top public university in the United States,[111][112][113][114][115][116][117][118][119] as well as the top public university producing Nobel laureates and billionaires.
Globally, for 2018–19, Berkeley is ranked 5th in the world by the Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU), 17th internationally in the QS World University Rankings, 15th internationally in the Times Higher Education World University Rankings, and 4th internationally by U.S. News & World Report.[120] Additionally, for 2018–29, Berkeley is cited as the 6th most prestigious university in the world by the Times Higher Education World Reputation Rankings, and it has been consistently recognized as one of the world's "six super brands" along with Cambridge, Harvard, MIT, Oxford and Stanford.[26][27][28][29][30] The Center for World University Rankings (CWUR) ranked the university 6th in the world based on quality of education, alumni employment, quality of faculty, publications, influence, citations, broad impact, and patents in 2018–19.[121] In 2016, the Nature Index ranked Berkeley as the 6th university in the world based on research publication output in top tier academic journals in the life sciences, chemistry, earth and environmental sciences and physical sciences based on publication data from 2015.[122] It was ranked as the 9th institution in 2017 by the Nature Index, which measures the largest contributors to papers published in 82 leading journals.[123][124]
Nationally, the 2018–19 U.S. News & World Report "Best Colleges" ranked Berkeley second among public universities and 22nd among national universities.[120] Washington Monthly ranked Berkeley 7th among national universities in 2016, with criteria based on research, community service, and social mobility. The Money Magazine Best Colleges ranking for 2015 ranked Berkeley 9th in the United States, based on educational quality, affordability and alumni earnings.[125] For 2015 Kiplinger ranked Berkeley the 4th best-value public university in the nation for in-state students, and 6th for out-of-state students.[126] The 2018 Forbes America's Top Colleges report ranked Berkeley 14th among all universities and liberal arts colleges in the United States.[127] In 2014, The Daily Beast's Best Colleges report ranked Berkeley 11th in the country.[128] The 2013 Top American Research Universities report by the Center for Measuring University Performance ranked Berkeley 8th over-all, 5th in resources, faculty, and education, 9th in resources and education, and 1st in education.[129] Berkeley was listed as a "Public Ivy" in Richard Moll's 1985 Public Ivies.[130]
Admissions and enrollment[edit]
Demographics of student body (Fall 2018)[2][131]
U.S. Census
3.3% 3.5% 6.5% 13.2%
39.2% 17.7% 14.4% 5.5%
Non-Hispanic White
Hispanic (of any race)
14.7% 7.7% 38.6% 17.7%
0.4% 0.5% 1.7% 1.2%
13.1% 27.4% N/A N/A
For Fall 2018, Berkeley's total enrollment was 42,519: 30,853 undergraduate and 11,666 graduate students, with women accounting for 52.6% of undergraduates and 46.4% of graduate and professional students.[2] The acceptance rate for freshmen was 15.0%. Of enrolled freshman, nearly 54% were women and approximately 60% self-identified as persons of color. Enrolled freshman had an average weighted secondary school GPA of 4.45[132] (unweighted GPA of 3.89) and had an average SAT score of 1415 (average ACT score of 31). The interquartile range for SAT scores was 1300–1530, with 640–740 for reading/writing and 660–790 for math.[133] Berkeley and other campuses of the University of California do not superscore.
In 2014, Cal instituted a strict academic standard for an athlete's admission to the university. By the 2017 academic year 80 percent of incoming student athletes must comply with the University of California general student requirement that they have a 3.0 or higher high school grade point average.[134]
Fall Freshman Profile
Applicants[133][135][136][137][138]
86,805 85,057 82,571 78,923 73,794 67,713 61,702 52,953
Admits[133][135][136][137][138]
Admit rate[133][135][136][137][138]
Enrolled[133][135][139][140]
6,018 6,379 6,253 5,832 5,813 5,848 5,365 5,640
[133][135][141][142][143][144][145][146]
ACT average
GPA (unweighted)
3.89 3.91 3.86 3.87 3.85 3.86 3.84 3.83
Students and prospective students of UC Berkeley are eligible for a variety of public and private financial aid. Generally, financial aid inquiries are processed through the UC Berkeley Financial Aid and Scholarships Office. Some graduate schools, such as the Haas School of Business[147] and Berkeley Law,[148] have their own financial aid offices. Berkeley's enrollment of National Merit Scholars was third in the nation until 2002, when participation in the National Merit program was discontinued.[149] For 2016–17, Berkeley ranked fifth in enrollment of recipients of the National Merit $2,500 Scholarship (136 scholars). 33% of admitted students receive federal Pell grants.[150]
Discoveries and innovation[edit]
Simplified evolution of Unix systems and BSD forks
A number of significant inventions and discoveries have been made by the Berkeley faculty and researchers:[151]
Natural sciences[edit]
Atomic bomb – J. Robert Oppenheimer professor of physics at UC Berkeley was the wartime director of Los Alamos National Laboratory and the Manhattan Project.
Carbon 14 & Photosynthesis – Martin Kamen and Sam Ruben first discovered carbon 14 in 1940, and Nobel laureate Melvin Calvin and his colleges used carbon 14 as a molecular tracer to reveal the carbon assimilation path in photosynthesis, known as Calvin cycle.[152]
Carcinogens – Identified chemicals that damage DNA. The Ames test was described in a series of papers in 1973 by Bruce Ames and his group at the University.
Chemical Elements – 16 elements have been discovered at Berkeley (astatine, neptunium, plutonium, curium, americium, berkelium, californium, einsteinium, fermium, mendelevium, nobelium, lawrencium, dubnium, seaborgium, technetium, and rutherfordium).[153][154]
Covalent bond – Gilbert N. Lewis in 1916 described the sharing of electron pairs between atoms, and invented the Lewis notation to describe the mechanisms.
CRISPR gene editing – Jennifer Doudna discovers a precise and inexpensive way for manipulating DNA in human cells.
Cyclotron – Ernest O. Lawrence created a particle accelerator in 1934, and was awarded the Nobel Physics Prize in 1939.[155]
Dark energy – Saul Perlmutter and many others in the Supernova Cosmology Project discover the universe is expanding because of dark energy 1998.
Flu vaccine – Wendell M. Stanley and collegus discovered the vaccine in the 1940s.
Hydrogen bomb – Edward Teller, the father of hydrogen bomb, was a professor at Berkeley and a researcher at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory & the Los Alamos National Laboratory.
Immunotherapy of cancer – James P. Allison discovers and develops monoclonal antibody therapy that uses the immune system to combat cancer 1992–1995.
Molecular clock – Allan Wilson discovery in 1967.
Neuroplasticity – Marian Diamond discovers structural, biochemical, and synaptic changes in brain caused by environmental enrichment 1964
Oncogene – Peter Duesberg discovers first cancer causing gene in a virus 1970s.
Telomerase – Elizabeth H. Blackburn, Carol Greider, and Jack Szostak discover enzyme that promotes cell division and growth 1985.
Vitamin E – Gladys Anderson Emerson isolates Vitamin E in a pure form in 1952.[156]
Computer and applied sciences[edit]
Berkeley RISC – David Patterson leads ARPA's VLSI project of microprocessor design 1980–1984.[157]
Berkeley UNIX/Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD) – The Computer Systems Research Group was a research group at Berkeley that was dedicated to enhancing AT&T Unix operating system and funded by Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. Bill Joy modified the code and released it in 1977 under the open source BSD license, starting an open-source revolution.
Deep sea diving – Joel Henry Hildebrand used helium with oxygen to mitigate decompression sickness.[158]
GIMP – In 1995, Spencer Kimball and Peter Mattis began developing GIMP as a semester-long project at Berkeley.
Polygraph – invented by John Augustus Larson and a police officer from the Berkeley Police Department in 1921.[159]
Project Genie – DARPA funded project. It produced an early time-sharing system including the Berkeley Timesharing System, which was then commercialized as the SDS 940. Concepts from Project Genie influenced the development of the TENEX operating system for the PDP-10, and Unix, which inherited the concept of process forking from it.[160] Unix co-creator Ken Thompson worked on Project Genie while at Berkeley.
SPICE – Donald O. Pederson develops the Simulation Program with Integrated Circuit Emphasis (SPICE) 1972.[161]
Tcl programming language – developed by John Ousterhout in 1988.[162]
Three-dimensional Transistor – Chenming Hu won the 2014 National Medal of Technology for developing the "first 3-dimensional transistors, which radically advanced semiconductor technology."[163]
Vi text editor – Bill Joy created the first Vi editor in 1976.[164]
Wetsuit – Hugh Bradner invents first wetsuit 1952.[165]
Companies and entrepreneurship[edit]
Main article: List of companies founded by UC Berkeley alumni
UC Berkeley alumni and faculty have founded a large number of companies, some of which are shown below.[166][22] UC Berkeley has often been cited as one of the universities that have produced most entrepreneurs.[22][167][168][169][170]
Activision Blizzard, 1979 (as Activision), co-founder Alan Miller (B.S) and Larry Kaplan (B.A)
AIG, 1919, founder Cornelius Vander Starr (Attended)
Apple, 1976, co-founder Steve Wozniak (B.S)
Coursera, 2012, co-founder Andrew Ng (PhD)
eBay, 1995, founder Pierre Omidyar (Attended) [171][172]
Gap Inc., 1969, co-founder Donald Fisher (B.S)
HTC Corporation, 1997, co-founder Cher Wang (B.A)
Intel, 1968, co-founders Gordon Moore (B.S) and Andy Grove (PhD)
Marvell Technology Group, 1995, co-founders Sehat Sutardja (M.S, PhD) and Weili Dai (B.A)
Morgan Stanley, 1924 (as Dean Witter & Co.), co-founder Dean G. Witter (B.A)
Mozilla Corporation, 2005, co-founder Mitchell Baker (B.A, J.D)
Renaissance Technologies, 1982, founder James Simons (PhD)
Rotten Tomatoes, 1998, founders Senh Duong (B.A), Patrick Y. Lee (B.A) and Stephen Wang (B.A)
SanDisk, 1988, co-founder Sanjay Mehrotra (B.S, M.S)
Softbank, 1981, founder Masayoshi Son (B.A)
Sun Microsystems, 1982, co-founder Bill Joy (M.S)
Tesla, 2003, co-founder Marc Tarpenning (B.S)
VMware, 1998, co-founders Diane Greene (M.S) and Mendel Rosenblum (PhD)
Main article: Campus of the University of California, Berkeley
The Berkeley campus encompasses approximately 1,232 acres (499 ha), though the "central campus" occupies only the low-lying western 178 acres (72 ha) of this area. Of the remaining acres, approximately 200 acres (81 ha) are occupied by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory; other facilities above the main campus include the Lawrence Hall of Science and several research units, notably the Space Sciences Laboratory, the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute, an undeveloped 800-acre (320 ha) ecological preserve, the University of California Botanical Garden and a recreation center in Strawberry Canyon. Portions of the mostly undeveloped, eastern area of the campus are actually within the City of Oakland; these portions extend from the Claremont Resort north through the Panoramic Hill neighborhood to Tilden Park.[173]
View looking west from Wurster Hall
To the west of the central campus is the downtown business district of Berkeley; to the northwest is the neighborhood of North Berkeley, including the so-called Gourmet Ghetto, a commercial district known for high quality dining due to the presence of such world-renowned restaurants as Chez Panisse. Immediately to the north is a quiet residential neighborhood known as Northside with a large graduate student population;[174] situated north of that are the upscale residential neighborhoods of the Berkeley Hills. Immediately southeast of campus lies fraternity row, and beyond that the Clark Kerr Campus and an upscale residential area named Claremont. The area south of the university includes student housing and Telegraph Avenue, one of Berkeley's main shopping districts with stores, street vendors and restaurants catering to college students and tourists. In addition, the University also owns land to the northwest of the main campus, a 90-acre (36 ha) married student housing complex in the nearby town of Albany ("Albany Village" and the "Gill Tract"), and a field research station several miles to the north in Richmond, California.
The Summer PreCore Program for community college transfers to the Haas Undergraduate Program, hosted at the Innovation Lab (est. 2013), founded by Linda (BS '67) and Mike Gallagher (MBA '68), under the California Memorial Stadium.
The campus is home to several museums including the University of California Museum of Paleontology, the UC Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, and the Lawrence Hall of Science. The Museum of Paleontology, found in the lobby of the Valley Life Sciences Building, showcases a variety of dinosaur fossils including a complete cast of a Tyrannosaurus Rex. Campus resource spaces for innovation and entrepreneurship such as the Big Ideas Competition (Blum Center for Developing Economies), SkyDeck, the Sutardja Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology, and the Berkeley Haas Innovation Lab can also be found at UC Berkeley.[175]
Outside of the Bay Area, the University owns various research laboratories and research forests in both northern and southern Sierra Nevada.
360-degree-view of the UC Berkeley campus
Architecture[edit]
South Hall (1873), one of the two original buildings of the University of California, still stands on the Berkeley campus
What is considered the historic campus today was the result of the 1898 "International Competition for the Phoebe Hearst Architectural Plan for the University of California," funded by William Randolph Hearst's mother and initially held in the Belgian city of Antwerp; eleven finalists were judged again in San Francisco in 1899.[176] The winner was Frenchman Émile Bénard, however he refused to personally supervise the implementation of his plan and the task was subsequently given to architecture professor John Galen Howard. Howard designed over twenty buildings, which set the tone for the campus up until its expansion in the 1950s and 1960s. The structures forming the "classical core" of the campus were built in the Beaux-Arts Classical style, and include Hearst Greek Theatre, Hearst Memorial Mining Building, Doe Memorial Library, California Hall, Wheeler Hall, (Old) Le Conte Hall, Gilman Hall, Haviland Hall, Wellman Hall, Sather Gate, and the 307-foot (94 m) Sather Tower (nicknamed "the Campanile" after its architectural inspiration, St Mark's Campanile in Venice), the tallest university clock tower in the United States.[177] Buildings he regarded as temporary, nonacademic, or not particularly "serious" were designed in shingle or Collegiate Gothic styles; examples of these are North Gate Hall, Dwinelle Annex, and Stephens Hall. Many of Howard's designs are recognized California Historical Landmarks[178] and are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Built in 1873 in a Victorian Second-Empire-style, South Hall, designed by David Farquharson, is the oldest university building in California. It, and the Frederick Law Olmsted-designed Piedmont Avenue east of the main campus, are two of the only surviving examples of the nineteenth-century campus. Other notable architects and firms whose work can be found in the campus and surrounding area are Bernard Maybeck[179] (Faculty Club); Julia Morgan (Hearst Women's Gymnasium and Julia Morgan Hall); William Wurster (Stern Hall); Moore Ruble Yudell (Haas School of Business); Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects (C.V. Starr East Asian Library), and Diller, Scofidio + Renfro (Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive).
Natural features[edit]
The south fork of Strawberry Creek, as seen between Dwinelle Hall and Lower Sproul Plaza
Flowing into the main campus are two branches of Strawberry Creek. The south fork enters a culvert upstream of the recreational complex at the mouth of Strawberry Canyon and passes beneath California Memorial Stadium before appearing again in Faculty Glade. It then runs through the center of the campus before disappearing underground at the west end of campus. The north fork appears just east of University House and runs through the glade north of the Valley Life Sciences Building, the original site of the Campus Arboretum.
Trees in the area date from the founding of the University in the 1870s. The campus, itself, contains numerous wooded areas; including: Founders' Rock, Faculty Glade, Grinnell Natural Area, and the Eucalyptus Grove, which is both the tallest stand of such trees in the world and the tallest stand of hardwood trees in North America.[180]
The campus sits on the Hayward Fault, which runs directly through California Memorial Stadium.[181] There is ongoing construction to retrofit the stadium. The "treesit" protest revolved around the controversy of clearing away trees by the stadium to build the new Student Athlete High Performance Center. As the stadium sits directly on the fault, this raised campus concerns of the safety of student athletes in the event of an earthquake as they train in facilities under the stadium stands.[182]
Environmental record[edit]
Through its Office of Sustainability and Energy, UC Berkeley works to implement sustainability initiatives on campus. The university encourages green purchasing when possible and installing energy-efficient technologies.[183] UC Berkeley has a green building policy. Nine buildings on campus are LEED Gold, five are LEED Silver, and one is LEED Certified.[184] Multiple building spaces have been repurposed for alternative use, and waste from construction projects is reduced. Water conservation technologies have been installed across campus, and the university employs a variety of techniques to manage storm water.[183] UC Berkeley heats, cools, and powers its lab equipment with power from an on-campus natural gas plant.[185] UC Berkeley's efforts toward sustainability earned the school an overall grade of B+ on one sustainability report card.[183]
Student life and traditions[edit]
Sather Gate
The official university mascot is Oski the Bear, who debuted in 1941. Previously, live bear cubs were used as mascots at Memorial Stadium until it was decided in 1940 that a costumed mascot would be a better alternative. Named after the Oski-wow-wow yell, he is cared for by the Oski Committee, whose members have exclusive knowledge of the identity of the costume-wearer.[186]
The University of California Marching Band, which has served the university since 1891, performs at every home football game and at select road games as well. A smaller subset of the Cal Band, the Straw Hat Band, performs at basketball games, volleyball games, and other campus and community events.[187]
The UC Rally Committee, formed in 1901, is the official guardian of California's Spirit and Traditions. Wearing their traditional blue and gold rugbies, Rally Committee members can be seen at all major sporting and spirit events. Committee members are charged with the maintenance of the five Cal flags, the large California banner overhanging the Memorial Stadium Student Section and Haas Pavilion, the California Victory Cannon, Card Stunts and The Big "C" among other duties. The Rally Committee is also responsible for safekeeping of the Stanford Axe when it is in Cal's possession.[188] The Chairman of the Rally Committee holds the title "Custodian of the Axe" while it is in the Committee's care.
The Cal Mic Men, a standard at home football games, has recently expanded to involve basketball and volleyball. The traditional role comes from students holding megaphones and yelling, but now includes microphones, a dedicated platform during games, and the direction of the entire student section.[189] Both men and women are allowed to fulfill the role, despite the name.
View of campus from Evans Hall, as San Francisco and Oakland are seen in the background
Overlooking the main Berkeley campus from the foothills in the east, The Big "C" is an important symbol of California school spirit. The Big "C" has its roots in an early 20th-century campus event called "Rush," which pitted the freshman and sophomore classes against each other in a race up Charter Hill that often developed into a wrestling match. It was eventually decided to discontinue Rush and, in 1905, the freshman and sophomore classes banded together in a show of unity to build "the Big C".[190] Owing to its prominent position, the Big "C" is often the target of pranks by rival Stanford University students who paint the Big "C" red and also fraternities and sororities who paint it their organization's colors. One of the Rally Committee's functions is to repaint the Big "C" to its traditional color of King Alfred Yellow.
Cal students invented the college football tradition of card stunts. Then known as Bleacher Stunts, they were first performed during the 1910 Big Game and consisted of two stunts: a picture of the Stanford Axe and a large blue "C" on a white background. The tradition continues today in the Cal student section and incorporates complicated motions, for example tracing the Cal script logo on a blue background with an imaginary yellow pen.[191]
The California Victory Cannon, placed on Tightwad Hill overlooking the stadium, is fired before every football home game, after every score, and after every Cal victory. First used in the 1963 Big Game, it was originally placed on the sidelines before moving to Tightwad Hill in 1971. The only time the cannon ran out of ammunition was during a game against Pacific in 1991, when Cal scored 12 touchdowns.[192]
Student housing[edit]
Main article: Housing at the University of California, Berkeley
Students at UC Berkeley live in a variety of housing that cater to personal and academic preferences and styles. The immediately surrounding community offers apartments, Greek (fraternity and sorority) housing and cooperative housing, twenty of which are houses that are members of the Berkeley Student Cooperative.
University housing[edit]
The International House was opened in 1930 with the funding of John D. Rockefeller.
Christian Hall
The university runs twelve different residence halls: seven undergraduate residence halls or complexes, both with and without themes; family student housing; re-entry student housing; and optional international student housing at the International House, built with a gift from John D. Rockefeller, Jr. and the erstwhile home of six Nobel laureates. Undergraduate residence halls are located off-campus in the city of Berkeley. Units 1, 2 and 3, located on the south side of campus, offer high-rise accommodations with common areas on every other floor. Units 1 and 2 share a common dining hall, Crossroads. The oldest unit, Unit 3, has its own dining hall, Café 3, on the first floor.[193] At the beginning of the 2018–2019 school year, a new building called Blackwell Hall, was opened across the street from Unit 3. These buildings share a dining hall. Further away and also on the south side of campus is Clark Kerr, an undergraduate residential complex that houses many student athletes and was once a school for the deaf and blind.
In the foothills east of the central campus, there are three additional undergraduate residence halls: Foothill, Stern, and Bowles. Foothill is a co-ed, suite-style hall reminiscent of a Swiss chalet. Just south of Foothill, overlooking the Hearst Greek Theatre, is the all-women's traditional-style Stern Hall, which boasts an original mural by Diego Rivera. Because of their proximity to the College of Engineering and College of Chemistry, these residence halls often house science and engineering majors. They tend to be quieter than the southside complexes but often get free glimpses of concerts owing to their proximity to the theater. Bowles Hall, the oldest state-owned residence hall in California, is located immediately north of California Memorial Stadium. Dedicated in 1929 and on the National Register of Historic Places, this residence hall is known for its Collegiate Gothic architecture and large rooms ("quads") that can accommodate four students.
Bowles Residential Hall
The Channing-Bowditch and Ida Jackson apartments are intended for older students.[194][195] Family student housing consists of two main groups of housing: University Village and Smyth-Fernwald. University Village is located 3 miles (4.8 km) northwest of campus in Albany, California, and Smyth-Fernwald is near the Clark Kerr campus.
Clark Kerr Residential Campus
Cooperative housing[edit]
Main article: Berkeley Student Cooperative
UC Berkeley students, as well as students of other universities and colleges in the area, have the option of living in one of the twenty cooperative houses of the Berkeley Student Cooperative (BSC), formerly the University Students' Cooperative Association (USCA) and formerly a member of the national cooperative federation, NASCO. The BSC is a nonprofit housing cooperative network consisting of 20 cooperative homes and 1250 member-owners.[196] The UCSCA (as the BSC was known by at that time) was founded in 1933 with the assistance of then-director of Stiles Hall, Harry Kingman. The birth of the UCSCA, as well as many other cooperative organizations around the country, coincided with the Great Depression precisely as a response to scant resources. By living together in large houses and pooling together resources, members found that their monetary resources could go further to pay for their cost of living than living separately. In the 1960s, the USCA pioneered the first co-ed university housing in Berkeley (excluding a short-lived "experiment" at Barrington Hall), called the Ridge Project (later renamed Casa Zimbabwe). In 1975, the USCA founded its first and only vegetarian-themed house, Lothlorien. In 1997, the USCA opened its African-American theme house, Afro House, and in 1999 its LGBT-themed house, named after Irish author and poet Oscar Wilde.[197]
Notable alumni of the BSC include Marion Nestle, professor at New York University and author of Food Politics, and Beverly Cleary, a writer of children's books.
Fraternities and sororities[edit]
The residence of the Sigma Phi Society of the Thorsen House, located across the street from the university's International House.
University-sanctioned fraternities and sororities comprise over 60 houses that are accredited to one of four Governing Councils, all under the umbrella organization of CalGreeks.[198][199] One fraternal organization does not participate in any of the governing bodies or in any of the campus-wide fraternal activities, the Sigma Phi Society of the Thorsen House, which acts instead as an independent secret society.
Fraternities (IFC)[200]
Sororities (PHC)[200]
Alpha Delta Phi
Alpha Gamma Omega
Kappa Alpha Order
Nu Alpha Kappa
Omega Phi Beta
Sigma Psi Zeta
Student-run organizations[edit]
Associated Students of the University of California (ASUC)[edit]
Main article: Associated Students of the University of California
Wellness Room sleep pods: part of a program created by the ASUC, UC Berkeley's official student association
The Associated Students of the University of California (ASUC) is the official student association that controls funding for student groups and organizes on-campus student events. It is considered one of the most autonomous student governments at any public university in the U.S. The two main political parties are "Student Action"[201] and "CalSERVE."[202] The organization was founded in 1887 and has an annual operating budget of $1.7 million (excluding the budget of the Graduate Assembly of the ASUC), in addition to various investment assets.
The ASUC's Student Union Program, Entertainment, and Recreation Board (SUPERB) is a student-run, non-profit branch dedicated to providing entertainment for the campus and community. Founded in 1964, SUPERB's programming includes the Friday Film Series, free Noon Concerts on Lower Sproul Plaza, Comedy Competitions, Poker Tournaments, free Sneak Previews of upcoming movies, and more.
In April 2013, in an 11–9 vote, the ASUC Senate passed a Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions resolution for the UC system to divest from companies that are assisting in Israel's "...illegal occupation and ensuing human rights abuses".[203][204]
Communications media[edit]
UC Berkeley's student-run online television station, CalTV, was formed in 2005 and broadcasts online. It is run by students with a variety of backgrounds and majors. Since the mid-2010s, it has been a program of the ASUC.[205]
UC Berkeley's independent student-run newspaper is The Daily Californian. Founded in 1871, The Daily Cal became independent in 1971 after the campus administration fired three senior editors for encouraging readers to take back People's Park. The Daily Californian has both a print and online edition. Print circulation is about 10,000. The newspaper is an important source of information for students, faculty, staff, and the surrounding City of Berkeley.
Berkeley's FM Student radio station, KALX, broadcasts on 90.7 MHz. It is run largely by volunteers, including both students and community members.
Berkeley also features an assortment of student-run magazines, most notably Caliber Magazine. Founded in 2008, Caliber Magazine promotes itself as "the everything magazine" by featuring articles and blogs on a wide range of topics. It has been voted "Best Magazine on Campus" by the readers of the Daily Cal[206] as well as "Best Publication on Campus" by the ASUC.
Student groups[edit]
"DeCal" redirects here. For other uses, see DeCal (disambiguation).
Berkeley Dance Marathon, one of the campus's student-led fundraising events
Zellerbach Hall, home of the Cal Performances theater group
UC Berkeley has a reputation for student activism, stemming from the 1960s and the Free Speech Movement. Today, Berkeley is known as a lively campus with activism in many forms, from email petitions, presentations on Sproul Plaza and volunteering, to the occasional protest. During the 2006–07 school year, there were 94 political student groups on campus including MEChXA de UC Berkeley, Berkeley American Civil Liberties Union, Berkeley Students for Life, Campus Greens, The Sustainability Team (STEAM), the Berkeley Student Food Collective, Students for Sensible Drug Policy, Cal Berkeley Democrats, and the Berkeley College Republicans. Berkeley sends the most students to the Peace Corps of any university in the nation.[207]
The Residence Hall Assembly (RHA) is the student-run residence hall organization that oversees all aspects of residence wide event planning, legislation, sponsorships and activities for over 7,200 on-campus undergraduate residents. Founded in 1988 by the President's Council, it is now funded and supported by the Residential and Student Service Programs department on campus.[208]
UC Berkeley also has a rich history of student-run consulting groups. The Berkeley Group[209] is a student consulting organization, founded in 2003, affiliated with UC Berkeley and the Haas School of Business. Students of all majors are recruited and trained to work on pro-bono consulting engagements with real-life nonprofit clients. The oldest consulting group on campus is Berkeley Consulting, founded in 1996, which has served over 140 companies across technology, retail, banking, and non-profit sectors.[210] Net Impact Berkeley, founded in 2005, has consulted for over 100 social enterprises, nonprofits, and impact driven businesses, and is sponsored by Haas School of Business, Center for Responsible Business, and the ASUC.[211]
ImagiCal[212] has been the college chapter of the American Advertising Federation at Berkeley since the late 1980s. Every year, the team competes in the National Student Advertising Competition. Students from various backgrounds come together to work on a marketing case provided by the AAF and a corporate sponsor to college chapters across the nation. Most recently, the UC Berkeley team won in their region in 2005, 2009 and 2012, going on to win 4th and 3rd in the nation in 2005 and 2009, respectively.
The Berkeley Forum is a student organization that hosts panels, debates, and talks by leading experts from many different fields.[213] The organization is nonpartisan and has brought a wide variety of speakers to campus, including Senator Rand Paul, entrepreneur and venture capitalist Peter Thiel, Khan Academy founder Salman Khan, and many others.
UC Berkeley Symphony Orchestra
Democratic Education at Cal, or DeCal, is a program that promotes the creation of professor-sponsored, student-facilitated classes through the Special Studies 98/198 program.[214] DeCal arose out of the 1960s Free Speech movement and was officially established in 1981. The program offers around 150 courses on a vast range of subjects that appeal to the Berkeley student community, including classes on the Rubik's Cube, blockchain, web design, metamodernism, cooking, Jewish Art Through the Ages, 3D animation, and bioprinting.[215]
In addition, UC Berkeley is home to a quidditch team, Cal Quidditch.[216] Drawing inspiration from J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter book series, Cal Quidditch was founded in 2009 and competes in national tournaments, recently earning a ranking of 24th at US Quidditch Cup 10, held in Kissimmee, Florida.
There are many a cappella groups on campus, including Drawn to Scale, Artists in Resonance, Berkeley Dil Se, the UC Men's Octet, the California Golden Overtones, and Noteworthy. The UC Men's Octet is an eight-member a cappella group founded in 1948 featuring a repertoire of barbershop, doo-wop, contemporary pop, modern alternative, and fight songs. They are one of only two multiple time champions of the ICCA, having won the championship in both 1998 and 2000. The California Golden Overtones, founded in 1984, have a very similar repertoire to the Octet. Noteworthy competed in Season 5 of America's Got Talent. It is a tradition for every Berkeley a cappella group to perform under the campus' Sather Gate each week at different times during the week. In addition to a Capella, Berkeley is host to a myriad of other performing arts groups in comedy, dance, acting and instrumental music. A few examples include jericho! Improv & Sketch Comedy, The Movement, Taiko drumming, BareStage student musical theater, the Remedy Music Project, Main Stacks, AFX Dance, and TruElement.
Since 1967, students and staff jazz musicians have had an opportunity to perform and study with the University of California Jazz Ensembles. Under the direction of Dr. David W. Tucker, who was hired by the Cal Band as a composer, arranger, and associate director, but was later asked to direct the jazz ensembles as it grew in popularity and membership, the group grew rapidly from one big band to multiple big bands, numerous combos, and numerous instrumental classes with multiple instructors. For several decades it hosted the Pacific Coast Collegiate Jazz Festival, part of the American Collegiate Jazz Festival, a competitive forum for student musicians. PCCJF brought jazz luminaries such as Hubert Laws, Sonny Rollins, Freddie Hubbard, and Ed Shaughnessy to the Berkeley campus as performers, clinicians, and adjudicators. The festival later included high school musicians. The jazz ensembles became an effective recruitment tool. Many high school musicians interested in strong academics as well as jazz found that the campus met both interests. Numerous alumni have had successful careers in jazz performance and education including Michael Wolff and Andy Narell.
UC Berkeley also hosts a large number of conferences, talks, and musical and theatrical performances. Many of these events, including the Annual UC Berkeley Sociological Research Symposium, are completely planned and organized by undergraduate students.
Main article: California Golden Bears
California Memorial Stadium
The interior of Haas Pavilion during a basketball game
Hellman Tennis Complex
The athletic teams at UC Berkeley are known as the California Golden Bears (often shortened to "Cal Bears" or just "Cal") and are primarily members of the NCAA Division I Pac-12 Conference (Pac-12). Cal is also a member of the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation in several sports not sponsored by the Pac-12 and the America East Conference in women's field hockey. The first school colors, established in 1873 by a committee of students, were Blue (specifically Yale Blue) and Gold.[217][218] Yale Blue was originally chosen because many of the university's founders were Yale University graduates (for example Henry Durant, the first university president). Blue and Gold were specified and made the official colors of the university and the state colors of California in 1955.[217][219] However, the athletic department has recently specified a darker blue, close to but not the same as the Berkeley Blue now used by the school.[220][221]
The California Golden Bears have a long history of excellence in athletics, having won national titles in football, men's basketball, baseball, softball, men's and women's crew, men's gymnastics, men's tennis, men's and women's swimming, men's water polo, men's Judo, men's track, and men's rugby. In addition, Cal athletes have won numerous individual NCAA titles in track, gymnastics, swimming and tennis. On January 31, 2009, the school's Hurling club made athletic history by defeating Stanford in the first collegiate hurling match ever played on American soil. Berkeley teams have won national championships in baseball (2), men's basketball (2), men's crew (15), women's crew (3), football (5), men's golf (1), men's gymnastics (4), men's lacrosse (1), men's rugby (26), softball (1), men's swimming & diving (4), women's swimming & diving (3), men's tennis (1), men's track & field (1), and men's water polo (13).
California finished in first place[222] in the 2007–08 Fall U.S. Sports Academy Directors' Cup standings (Now the NACDA Directors' Cup), a competition measuring the best overall collegiate athletic programs in the country, with points awarded for national finishes in NCAA sports. Cal finished the 2007–08 competition in seventh place with 1119 points.[223] Most recently, California finished in third place in the 2010–11 NACDA Directors' Cup with 1219.50 points, finishing behind Stanford and Ohio State. This is California's highest ever finish in the Director's Cup.[224]
In particular, the Golden Bears' traditional arch-rivalry is with the Stanford Cardinal. The most anticipated sporting event between the two universities is the annual football game dubbed the Big Game, and it is celebrated with spirit events on both campuses. Since 1933, the winner of the Big Game has been awarded custody of the Stanford Axe. Other sporting games between these rivals have related names such as the Big Splash between the water polo teams.[225]
One of the most famous moments in college football history occurred during the 85th Big Game on November 20, 1982. In what has become known as "the band play" or simply The Play, Cal scored the winning touchdown in the final seconds with a kickoff return that involved a series of laterals and the Stanford marching band rushing onto the field.
Notable alumni, faculty, and staff[edit]
Further information: List of University of California, Berkeley alumni; List of University of California, Berkeley faculty; and List of Nobel laureates affiliated with the University of California, Berkeley
As of 2018[update], 34 alumni and 40 past and present full-time faculty are counted among the 107 Nobel laureates associated with the university.[226] The Turing Award, the "Nobel Prize of computer science", has been awarded to 11 alumni and 12 past and present full-time faculty, with Dana Scott being an alumnus and a faculty member.[227]
Earl Warren, BA 1912, JD 1914, 14th Chief Justice of the United States; 30th Governor of California
Steven Chu, PhD 1976, Nobel laureate and former United States Secretary of Energy
Jennifer Granholm, BA 1984, First female Governor of Michigan
Pedro Nel Ospina, BA 1882, President of Colombia 1922–1926
Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, BA 1950,[228] 4th President of Pakistan, 9th Prime Minister of Pakistan
Robert Reich, Professor of Public Policy, 22nd United States Secretary of Labor
Christina Romer, Professor of Economics, 25th Chairperson of the President's Council of Economic Advisers
Steve Wozniak, BS 1986, cofounder of Apple Inc.
Gordon Moore, BS 1950, cofounder of semiconductor company Intel
Eric Schmidt, MS 1979, PhD 1982, Executive Chairman of Alphabet
Edmund Gerald "Jerry" Brown, Jr, BA 1961, Governor of California, former California Attorney General
Gregory Peck, BA 1939, Academy Award-winning actor
Natalie Coughlin, BA 2005, multiple gold medal-winning Olympic swimmer
Mostafa Chamran, Ph.D. 1963, Iranian scientist, Vice President and Defense Minister of Iran
Haakon Magnus, Crown Prince of Norway, BA 1999[229]
Robert McNamara, BA 1937, President of World Bank (1968–81), United States Secretary of Defense (1961–68), President of Ford Motor Company (1960)
Daniel Kahneman, PhD 1961, awarded the 2002 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics for his work in Prospect theory
Harold Urey, PhD 1923, Nobel laureate and discoverer of deuterium
Pete Wilson, JD 1961, 36th Governor of California and former United States Senator from California
Janet Yellen, professor emeritus at the Haas School of Business, 15th Chair of the Federal Reserve
Faculty[edit]
Shiing-Shen Chern, a leading geometer of the 20th century and a faculty member of the Berkeley mathematics department, co-founded the renowned Mathematical Sciences Research Institute at Berkeley in 1981 and served as the founding Director until 1984.[230][50]
Berkeley physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer was the scientific director of the Manhattan Project that developed the first atomic bomb in the world during World War II, and was the founder of the Berkeley Center for Theoretical Physics.[231]
Faculty member Edward Teller was (together with Stanislaw Ulam) the "father of the hydrogen bomb", who laid important foundations for the establishment of Space Sciences Laboratory at Berkeley.[232]
Ernest Lawrence, a Nobel laureate in physics who invented the cyclotron at Berkeley, and founded the Radiation Laboratory on campus, which later became the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.[233]
Gilbert N. Lewis, a former Dean of the College of Chemistry, was nominated 41 times for Nobel Prize in Chemistry.[234][235] He mentored and influenced numerous Nobel laureates at Berkeley including Harold Urey (1934 Nobel Prize), William F. Giauque (1949 Nobel Prize), Glenn T. Seaborg (1951 Nobel Prize), Willard Libby (1960 Nobel Prize), Melvin Calvin (1961 Nobel Prize) and so on, turning Berkeley into one of the world's major centers for chemistry.[236][237]
Nobel laureate Glenn T. Seaborg discovered or co-discovered 10 chemical elements at Berkeley and served as the Chancellor of UC Berkeley from 1958–1961.[238][239]
Hans Albert Einstein, the first son of Albert Einstein and a world's leading scholar in hydraulic engineering, was a long-time faculty member at Berkeley.[240]
Former United States Secretary of Energy and Nobel laureate Steven Chu (PhD 1976), was Director of Berkeley Lab, 2004–2009.
Janet Yellen, the 15th Chair of the Federal Reserve Board, is a professor emeritus at Berkeley Haas School of Business and the Department of Economics.[241][242]
Alumni[edit]
The computer mouse was invented by Turing Award laureate Doug Engelbart, B. Eng. 1952, Ph.D. 1955
Berkeley alumni have served in a range of prominent government offices, both domestic and foreign, including Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court (Earl Warren, BA, JD); United States Attorney General (Edwin Meese III, JD); United States Secretary of State (Dean Rusk, LL.B.); United States Secretary of the Treasury (W. Michael Blumenthal, BA); United States Secretary of Defense (Robert McNamara, BS); United States Secretary of the Interior (Franklin Knight Lane, 1887); United States Secretary of Transportation and United States Secretary of Commerce (Norman Mineta, BS); United States Secretary of Agriculture (Ann Veneman, MPP); scores of federal judges and members of the United States Congress and United States Foreign Service; governors of California (George C. Pardee; Hiram W. Johnson; Earl Warren, BA and LL.B; Jerry Brown, BA; and Pete Wilson, JD), Michigan (Jennifer Granholm, BA), and the United States Virgin Islands (Walter A. Gordon, BA); Chief of Staff of the United States Army (Frederick C. Weyand, Class of 1938); Lieutenant General of the United States Army (Jimmy Doolittle); Vice Admiral of the United States Navy (Murry L. Royar, Class of 1916); Major General of the United States Marine Corps (Oliver Prince Smith); Brigadier General of the United States Marine Corps (Bertram A. Bone); Director of the Central Intelligence Agency and Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission (John A. McCone, BS); chair and members of the Council of Economic Advisors (Michael Boskin, BA, PhD.; Sandra Black, BA; Jesse Rothstein, PhD; Robert Seamans, PhD; Jay Shambaugh, PhD; James Stock, MA, PhD); Governor of the Federal Reserve System (H. Robert Heller, PhD) and President and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York (William Dudley, PhD); Commissioners of the SEC (Troy A. Paredes, BA) and the FCC (Rachelle Chong, BA); and United States Surgeon General (Kenneth P. Moritsugu, MPH).
Foreign alumni include the President of Colombia 1922–1926, (Pedro Nel Ospina Vázquez, BA, Mining Engineering); the President of Mexico (Francisco I. Madero, attended 1892–93); the President and Prime Minister of Pakistan; the Premier of the Republic of China (Sun Fo, BA); the President of Costa Rica (Miguel Angel Rodriguez, MA, PhD); and members of parliament of the United Kingdom (House of Lords, Lydia Dunn, Baroness Dunn, BS), India (Rajya Sabha, the upper house, Prithviraj Chavan, MS), and Iran (Mohammad Javad Larijani, PhD); Nigerian Minister of Science and Technology and first Executive Governor of Abia State (Ogbonnaya Onu, PhD Chemical Engineering)
Alumni have also served in many supranational posts, notable among which are President of the World Bank (Robert McNamara, BS); Deputy Prime Minister of Spain and Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (Rodrigo Rato, MBA); Executive Director of UNICEF (Ann Veneman, MPP); member of the European Parliament (Bruno Megret, MS); and judge of the World Court (Joan Donoghue, JD).
Robert Laughlin, BA 1972, Nobel laureate
Alumni have made important contributions to science. Some have concentrated their studies on the very small universe of atoms and molecules. Nobel laureate William F. Giauque (BS 1920, PhD 1922) investigated chemical thermodynamics, Nobel laureate Willard Libby (BS 1931, PhD 1933) pioneered radiocarbon dating, Nobel laureate Willis Lamb (BS 1934, PhD 1938) examined the hydrogen spectrum, Nobel laureate Hamilton O. Smith (BA 1952) applied restriction enzymes to molecular genetics, Nobel laureate Robert Laughlin (BA math 1972) explored the fractional quantum Hall effect, and Nobel laureate Andrew Fire (BA math 1978) helped to discover RNA interference-gene silencing by double-stranded RNA. Nobel laureate Glenn T. Seaborg (PhD 1937) collaborated with Albert Ghiorso (BS 1913) to discover 12 chemical elements, such as americium, berkelium, and californium. David Bohm (PhD 1943) discovered Bohm Diffusion. Nobel laureate Yuan T. Lee (PhD 1965) developed the crossed molecular beam technique for studying chemical reactions. Carol Greider (PhD 1987), professor of molecular biology and genetics at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, was awarded the 2009 Nobel Prize in medicine for discovering a key mechanism in the genetic operations of cells, an insight that has inspired new lines of research into cancer. Harvey Itano (BS 1942) conducted breakthrough work on sickle cell anemia that marked the first time a disease was linked to a molecular origin.[243] While he was valedictorian of UC Berkeley's class of 1942, he was unable to attend commencement exercises due to internment.[243] Narendra Karmarkar (PhD 1983) is known for the interior point method, a polynomial algorithm for linear programming known as Karmarkar's algorithm.[244] National Medal of Science laureate Chien-Shiung Wu (PhD 1940), often known as the "Chinese Madame Curie," disproved the Law of Conservation of Parity for which she was awarded the inaugural Wolf Prize in Physics.[245] Kary Mullis (PhD 1973) was awarded the 1993 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his role in developing the polymerase chain reaction,[246] a method for amplifying DNA sequences. Daniel Kahneman was awarded the 2002 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics for his work in Prospect theory. Richard O. Buckius, engineer, Bachelor's in Mechanical Engineering '72, Masters '73, PhD '75, currently Chief Operating Officer of the National Science Foundation. Edward P. Tryon (PhD 1967) is the physicist who first said our universe originated from a quantum fluctuation of the vacuum.[247][248][249]
John N. Bahcall (BS 1956) worked on the Standard Solar Model and the Hubble Space Telescope,[250] resulting in a National Medal of Science.[250] Peter Smith (BS 1969) was the principal investigator and project leader for the NASA robotic explorer Phoenix,[251] which physically confirmed the presence of water on the planet Mars for the first time.[252] Astronauts James van Hoften (BS 1966), Margaret Rhea Seddon (BA 1970), Leroy Chiao (BS 1983), and Rex Walheim (BS 1984) have orbited the earth in NASA's fleet of space shuttles.
Undergraduate alumni have founded or cofounded such companies as Apple Computer,[253] Intel,[254] LSI Logic[255] The Gap,[256] MySpace,[257] PowerBar,[258] Berkeley Systems,[259] Bolt, Beranek and Newman[260] (which created a number of underlying technologies that govern the Internet), Chez Panisse,[261] GrandCentral (known now as Google Voice),[262] HTC Corporation,[263] VIA Technologies,[263] Marvell Technology Group,[264] MoveOn.org,[259] Opsware,[265] RedOctane,[266] Rimon Law P.C.,[267] SanDisk,[268] Scharffen Berger Chocolate Maker,[269] VMware[270] and Zilog,[271] while graduate school alumni have cofounded companies such as DHL,[272] KeyHole Inc (known now as Google Earth),[273] Sun Microsystems,[274] and The Learning Company.[275] Berkeley alumni have also led various technology companies such as Electronic Arts,[276] Google,[277] Adobe Systems,[278] Softbank (Masayoshi Son) and Qualcomm.[279]
Turing Award laureate Ken Thompson (left), BS 1965, MS 1966, and fellow laureate and colleague Dennis Ritchie (right), created Unix together
Berkeley alumni have developed a number of key technologies associated with the personal computer and the Internet.[280] Unix was created by alumnus Ken Thompson (BS 1965, MS 1966) along with colleague Dennis Ritchie. Alumni such as L. Peter Deutsch[281][282][283] (PhD 1973), Butler Lampson (PhD 1967), and Charles P. Thacker (BS 1967)[284] worked with Ken Thompson on Project Genie and then formed the ill-fated US Department of Defense-funded Berkeley Computer Corporation (BCC), which was scattered throughout the Berkeley campus in non-descript offices to avoid anti-war protestors.[285] After BCC failed, Deutsch, Lampson, and Thacker joined Xerox PARC, where they developed a number of pioneering computer technologies, culminating in the Xerox Alto that inspired the Apple Macintosh. In particular, the Alto used a computer mouse, which had been invented by Doug Engelbart (B.Eng 1952, Ph.D. 1955). Thompson, Lampson, Engelbart, and Thacker[286] all later received a Turing Award. Also at Xerox PARC was Ronald V. Schmidt (BS 1966, MS 1968, PhD 1971), who became known as "the man who brought Ethernet to the masses".[287] Another Xerox PARC researcher, Charles Simonyi (BS 1972), pioneered the first WYSIWIG word processor program and was recruited personally by Bill Gates to join the fledgling company known as Microsoft to create Microsoft Word. Simonyi later became the first repeat space tourist, blasting off on Russian Soyuz rockets to work at the International Space Station orbiting the earth.
In 1977, a graduate student in the computer science department named Bill Joy (MS 1982) assembled[288] the original Berkeley Software Distribution, commonly known as BSD Unix. Joy, who went on to co-found Sun Microsystems, also developed the original version of the terminal console editor vi, while Ken Arnold (BA 1985) created Curses, a terminal control library for Unix-like systems that enables the construction of text user interface (TUI) applications. Working alongside Joy at Berkeley were undergraduates William Jolitz (BS 1997) and his future wife Lynne Jolitz (BA 1989), who together created 386BSD, a version of BSD Unix that runs on Intel CPUs and evolved into the BSD family of free operating systems and the Darwin operating system underlying Apple Mac OS X.[289] Eric Allman (BS 1977, MS 1980) created SendMail, a Unix mail transfer agent that delivers about 12% of the email in the world.[290]
The XCF, an undergraduate research group located in Soda Hall, has been responsible for a number of notable software projects, including GTK+ (created by Peter Mattis, BS 1997), The GIMP (Spencer Kimball, BS 1996), and the initial diagnosis of the Morris worm.[291] In 1992, Pei-Yuan Wei,[292] an undergraduate at the XCF, created ViolaWWW, one of the first graphical web browsers. ViolaWWW was the first browser to have embedded scriptable objects, stylesheets, and tables. In the spirit of Open Source, he donated the code to Sun Microsystems, inspiring Java applets( Kim Polese (BS 1984) was the original product manager for Java at Sun Microsystems.) ViolaWWW also inspired researchers at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications to create the Mosaic web browser,[293] a pioneering web browser that became Microsoft Internet Explorer.
Robert Penn Warren, M.A. 1927 – novelist and poet, who received the Pulitzer Prize three times
Alumni collectively have won at least twenty-one Pulitzer Prizes. Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Marguerite Higgins (BA 1941) was a pioneering female war correspondent[294][295] who covered World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War.[296] Novelist Robert Penn Warren (MA 1927) won three Pulitzer Prizes,[297] including one for his novel All the King's Men, which was later made into an Academy Award-winning[298] movie. Pulitzer Prize–winning cartoonist Rube Goldberg (BS 1904) invented the comically complex—yet ultimately trivial—contraptions known as Rube Goldberg machines. Journalist Alexandra Berzon (MA 2006) won a Pulitzer Prize in 2009,[299] and journalist Matt Richtel (BA 1989), who also coauthors the comic strip Rudy Park under the pen name of "Theron Heir",[300] won the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting.[301] Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Leon Litwack (BA[302] 1951, PhD 1958) taught as a professor at UC Berkeley for 43 years;[303] three other UC Berkeley professors have also received the Pulitzer Prize. Alumna and professor Susan Rasky won the Polk Award for journalism in 1991. USC Professor and UC Berkeley alumna Viet Thanh Nguyen's (PhD 1997) first novel The Sympathizer won the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction[304]
Alumni have also written novels and screenplays that have attracted Oscar-caliber talent, including The Call of the Wild author Jack London. Irving Stone (BA 1923) wrote the novel Lust for Life, which was later made into an Academy Award–winning film of the same name starring Kirk Douglas as Vincent van Gogh. Stone also wrote The Agony and the Ecstasy, which was later made into a film of the same name starring Oscar winner Charlton Heston as Michelangelo. Mona Simpson (BA 1979) wrote the novel Anywhere But Here, which was later made into a film of the same name starring Oscar-winning actress Susan Sarandon. Terry McMillan (BA 1986) wrote How Stella Got Her Groove Back, which was later made into a film of the same name starring Oscar-nominated actress Angela Bassett. Randi Mayem Singer (BA 1979) wrote the screenplay for Mrs. Doubtfire, which starred Oscar-winning actor Robin Williams and Oscar-winning actress Sally Field. Audrey Wells (BA 1981) wrote the screenplay The Truth About Cats & Dogs, which starred Oscar-nominated actress Uma Thurman. James Schamus (BA 1982, MA 1987, PhD 2003) has collaborated on screenplays with Oscar-winning director Ang Lee on the Academy Award-winning movies Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Brokeback Mountain.
Emmy and Golden Globe Award winning actress Kathy Baker, BA 1977
Collectively, alumni have won at least 20 Academy Awards. Gregory Peck (BA 1939), nominated for four Oscars during his career, won an Oscar for acting in To Kill a Mockingbird. Chris Innis (BA 1991) won the 2010 Oscar for film editing for her work on best picture winner, The Hurt Locker. Walter Plunkett (BA 1923) won an Oscar for costume design (for An American in Paris). Freida Lee Mock (BA 1961) and Charles H. Ferguson (BA 1978) have each[305][306] won an Oscar for documentary filmmaking. Mark Berger (BA 1964) has won four Oscars for sound mixing and is an adjunct professor at UC Berkeley.[307] Edith Head (BA 1918), who was nominated for 34 Oscars during her career, won eight Oscars for costume design. Joe Letteri (BA 1981[308]) has won four Oscars for Best Visual Effects in the James Cameron film Avatar and the Peter Jackson films King Kong, The Two Towers, and The Return of the King.[309]
Alumni have collectively won at least 25 Emmy Awards: Jon Else (BA 1968) for cinematography; Andrew Schneider (BA 1973) for screenwriting; Linda Schacht (BA 1966, MA 1981), two for broadcast journalism;[310][311] Christine Chen (dual BA's 1990), two for broadcast journalism;[312] Kristen Sze (BA), two for broadcast journalism;[313] Kathy Baker (BA 1977), three for acting; Ken Milnes (BS 1977), four for broadcasting technology; and Leroy Sievers (BA),[314] twelve for production. Elisabeth Leamy is the recipient of 13 Emmy awards. [315][316][317]
Alumni have acted in classic television series that are still broadcast on TV today. Karen Grassle (BA 1965) played the mother Caroline Ingalls in Little House on the Prairie, Jerry Mathers (BA 1974) starred in Leave it to Beaver, and Roxann Dawson (BA 1980) portrayed B'Elanna Torres on Star Trek: Voyager.
Former undergraduates have participated in the contemporary music industry, such as Grateful Dead bass guitarist Phil Lesh, The Police drummer Stewart Copeland,[318] Rolling Stone Magazine founder Jann Wenner, The Bangles lead singer Susanna Hoffs (BA 1980), Counting Crows lead singer Adam Duritz, electronic music producer Giraffage, MTV correspondent Suchin Pak (BA 1997),[319] AFI musicians Davey Havok and Jade Puget (BA 1996), and solo artist Marié Digby (Say It Again). People Magazine included Third Eye Blind lead singer and songwriter Stephan Jenkins (BA 1987) in the magazine's list of 50 Most Beautiful People.[320]
Alumni have also participated in the world of sports. Tennis athlete Helen Wills Moody (BA 1925) won 31 Grand Slam titles, including eight singles titles at Wimbledon. Tarik Glenn (BA 1999) is a Super Bowl XLI champion. Michele Tafoya (BA 1988) is a sports television reporter for ABC Sports and ESPN.[321] Sports agent Leigh Steinberg ( BA 1970, JD 1973) has represented professional athletes such as Steve Young, Troy Aikman, and Oscar De La Hoya; Steinberg has been called the real-life inspiration[322] for the title character in the Oscar-winning[323] film Jerry Maguire (portrayed by Tom Cruise). Matt Biondi (BA 1988) won eight Olympic gold medals during his swimming career, in which he participated in three different Olympics. At the Beijing Olympics in 2008, Natalie Coughlin (BA 2005) became the first American female athlete in modern Olympic history[324] to win six medals in one Olympics.
Berkeley alumni—often generous benefactors—have long been among the billionaire ranks, giving rise to many of the campus' eponymous schools, pavilions, centers, institutes, and halls, with some of the more prominent being J. Paul Getty, Sanford Diller and Helen Diller, Donald Fisher, and members of the Haas (Walter A. Haas, Rhoda Haas Goldman, Walter A. Haas Jr., Peter E. Haas, Bob Haas), Hearst, and Bechtel families. There are at least 18 living alumni billionaires: Masayoshi Son (SoftBank),[325] Gordon Moore (Intel founder), James Harris Simons, Jon Stryker (Stryker Medical Equipment),[326] Bill Joy (computer programmer and Sun Microsystems founder), Eric Schmidt (Google Chairman), Michael Milken, Bassam Alghanim (wealthiest Kuwaiti), Kutayba Alghanim,[327] Charles Simonyi (Microsoft), Cher Wang (HTC, wealthiest Taiwanese), Robert Haas (Levi Strauss & Co.), Carlos Rodriguez-Pastor (Interbank, Peru),[328] Fayez Sarofim, Daniel S. Loeb, Paul Merage, Victor Koo, and Lowell Milken.
Controversies[edit]
Originally, military training was compulsory for male undergraduates and Berkeley housed an armory for that purpose. In 1917, Berkeley's ROTC program was established[329] and its School of Military Aeronautics trained future pilots, including Jimmy Doolittle, who graduated with a B.A. in 1922. Both Robert McNamara and Frederick C. Weyand graduated from Berkeley's ROTC program, earning B.A. degrees in 1937 and 1938, respectively. In 1926, future fleet admiral Chester W. Nimitz established the first Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps unit at Berkeley. During World War II, the military increased its presence on campus to recruit more officers, and by 1944, more than 1,000 Berkeley students were enrolled in the V-12 Navy College Training Program and naval training school for diesel engineering.[330] The Board of Regents ended compulsory military training at Berkeley in 1962.
Various human and animal rights groups have conflicted with Berkeley. Native Americans conflicted with the school over repatriation of remains from the Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology.[331] Animal-rights activists have threatened faculty members using animals for research.[332] The school's response to tree sitters protesting construction caused controversy in the local community.[333]
Cal's seismically unsafe Memorial Stadium reopened September 2012 after a $321 million renovation. The university incurred a controversial $445 million of debt for the stadium and a new $153 million student athletic center, which it planned to finance with the sale of special stadium endowment seats. However, in June 2013 news surfaced that the university has had trouble selling the seats.[334] The roughly $18 million interest-only annual payments on the debt consumes 20 percent of Cal's athletics' budget; principal repayment begins in 2032 and is scheduled to conclude in 2113.[335]
On May 1, 2014, Berkeley was named one of fifty-five higher education institutions under investigation by the Office of Civil Rights "for possible violations of federal law over the handling of sexual violence and harassment complaints" by the White House Task Force to Protect Students from Sexual Assault.[336] Investigations have continued into 2016, with hundreds of pages of records released in April 2016, showing a pattern of documented sexual harassment and firings of non-tenured staff.[337]
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^ "Athletics Brand Identity Guidelines: Color". Retrieved July 19, 2014.
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^ "Director's Cup results 07–08". Archived from the original (PDF) on March 8, 2012. Retrieved March 2, 2012.
^ "Director's Cup results 10–11" (PDF). Retrieved March 2, 2012.
^ Yen, Ruey (November 9, 2017). "Big Splash + Big Kick: Cal vs. Stanford in Men's Water Polo and Men's Soccer". California Golden Blogs. Retrieved March 10, 2018.
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^ "Dana Scott's Career Highlights". www.cs.cmu.edu. Retrieved March 13, 2016.
^ "Zulfikar Ali Bhutto". Encyclopædia Britannica Online.
^ "Her Norwegian heritage drew her to projects with the Norwegian Consulate in San Francisco and the Norwegian American Cultural Society, and she hosted a party for Crown Prince Haakon Magnus when he graduated from UC Berkeley in 1999." Carolyne Zinko (July 3, 2008). "Sigrun Corrigan, Bay Area arts patron, dies". San Francisco Chronicle.
^ "12.06.2004 – Renowned mathematician Shiing-Shen Chern, who revitalized the study of geometry, has died at 93 in Tianjin, China". www.berkeley.edu. Retrieved March 8, 2016.
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^ a b Maugh, Thomas. "Harvey Itano dies at 89; researcher whose studies provided a breakthrough on sickle cell disease". LA Times. Retrieved May 12, 2014.
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^ Weinstock, Maia. "Channeling Ada Lovelace: Chien-Shiung Wu, Courageous Hero of Physics". Scientific American. Retrieved May 12, 2014.
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^ Impey, Chris (2012). How It Began: A Time-Travelers Guide To the Universe (First ed.). New York, United States: W.W. Norton & Company. p. 411. ISBN 978-0-393-08002-5.
^ Parsons, Paul (2001). The Big Bang: The Birth of Our Universe. London: DK Publishing, Inc. p. 36. ISBN 0-7894-8161-8.
^ a b Hipwell, Deirdre (September 1, 2005). "Obituaries – Professor John Bahcall". London: The Times(United Kingdom). Retrieved May 27, 2010.
^ University of Arizona University Communications (March 18, 2008). "Peter Smith Named Thomas R. Brown Distinguished Chair in Integrative Science".
^ "NASA Spacecraft Confirms Martian Water, Mission Extended". NASA. July 31, 2008.
^ Apple Computer was co-founded by Steve Wozniak( BS 1986). Harriet Stix (May 14, 1986). "A UC Berkeley Degree Is Now the Apple of Steve Wozniak's Eye". Los Angeles Times.
^ Intel was co-founded by Gordon Moore (BS 1950). Jose Rodriguez (July 17, 1996). "Intel chairman awarded UC Berkeley's highest honor at Silicon Valley tribute". University of California at Berkeley Public Information Office.
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^ The Gap was founded by Donald Fisher (BS 1951), who served as its inaugural president and chairman of the board. "Business Visionary Don Fisher, BS 51". Obituaries. Cal Business. University of California, Berkeley, Haas School of Business (Fall 2009). Retrieved January 16, 2015.
^ MySpace was cofounded by Tom Anderson (BA 1998). Owen Gibson (June 23, 2008). "200 million friends and counting". London: The Guardian (publication in the United Kingdom).
^ PowerBar was cofounded by Brian Maxwell (BA 1975) and his wife Jennifer Maxwell (BS 1988). "Cal mourns passing of Brian Maxwell, former coach, runner, PowerBar founder, and philanthropist". UC Berkeley News. March 22, 2004.
^ a b Berkeley Systems and MoveOn.org were cofounded by Joan Blades (BA 1977). Hawkes, Ellen. "Joan Blades". Women of the Year 2003. Ms. Magazine (Winter 2003). Retrieved January 16, 2015.
^ Bolt, Beranek and Newman was cofounded by Richard Bolt (BA 1933, MA 1937, PhD 1939). Leo L. Beranek (1979). "Acoustical Society of America Gold Medal Award – 1979 Richard Henry Bolt". Acoustical Society of America. Archived from the original on June 9, 2012.
^ Chez Panisse was founded by Alice Waters (BA 1967). Martin, Andrew. "Alice Waters". New York Times. Retrieved May 27, 2010. ; and Marian Burros (August 14, 1996). "Alice Waters: Food Revolutionary". The New York Times.
^ GrandCentral (known now as Google Voice) was cofounded by Craig Walker (B.A. 1988, J.D. 1995). "A Symposium on Intellectual Property and Entrepreneurship March 7–8, 2008 – Speakers". Berkeley Center for Law & Technology, Berkeley Technology Law Journal. 2008. Archived from the original on May 16, 2008.
^ a b HTC Corporation and VIA Technologies were cofounded by Cher Wang (BA 1980, MA 1981). Laura Holson (October 26, 2008). "With Smartphones, Cher Wang Made Her Own Fortune". New York Times.
^ Marvell Technology Group was founded by Weili Dai, (BA Computer Science 1984) and her husband Sehat Sutardja (MS 1983, PhD 1988 EECS) and brother-in-law Pantas Sutardjai (MS 1983, PhD 1988 ). Sarah Yang (February 27, 2009). "Dedication of new CITRIS headquarters marks new stage of innovation to help fuel economic growth". University of California, Berkeley and the UC Regents.
^ Opsware was cofounded by In Sik Rhee (BS EECS 1993). David Sheff (August 2008). "Crank it up". Wired Magazine.
^ RedOctane was cofounded by brothers Charles Huang (BA 1992 ) and Kai Huang (BA CS 1994). Don Steinberg (October 1, 2008). "Just Play – Guitar Hero". Inc Magazine.
^ Ward, Stephanie Francis (September 12, 2012). "Moradzadeh and Silberman Maintain High-Tech, No-Pomp Practice". ABA Journal. Retrieved February 25, 2016.
^ SanDisk was cofounded by Sanjay Mehrotra (BS 1978, MS EE 1980). "Corporate Officers". SanDisk.
^ Scharffen Berger Chocolate Maker was cofounded by John Scharffenberger (BA 1973). Jessica Kwong (January 29, 2009). "Berkeley Scharffen Berger Factory to Close". Daily Californian.
^ VMware was cofounded by Edward Wang (BS EECS 1983, MS 1988, PhD 1994), along with Diane Greene (MS CS 1988) and her husband Mendel Rosenblum (MS 1989, PhD 1992). "VMware Leadership". VMware.
^ Zilog was cofounded by Ralph Ungermannn (BSEE 1964). Lawrence M. Fisher (February 19, 1988). "Business People: Ungermann-Bass Chairman Finds a Merger He Likes". New York Times.
^ DHL was cofounded by Larry Hillblom (Law 1969). Saul Hansell (May 23, 1995). "Larry L. Hillblom, 52, Founder Of DHL Worldwide Express". New York Times.
^ KeyHole Inc (known now as Google Earth) was cofounded by John Hanke (MBA 1996). "Haas Alumnus Maps the Future at Google Earth". University of California, Berkeley.
^ Sun Microsystems was cofounded by Bill Joy (MS 1982). "2009 Goff Smith Lecture: Bill Joy, The Promise of Green Technologies". University of Michigan College of Engineering. October 16, 2009. Archived from the original on October 21, 2009.
^ The Learning Company was cofounded by Warren Robinett (MS 1976). Kuekes, P. J.; Robinett, W.; Williams, R. S. (September 2006). "Effect of Conductance Variability on Resistor-Logic Demultiplexers for Nanoelectronics". IEEE Transactions on Nanotechnology. 5 (5): 446–454. Bibcode:2006ITNan...5..446K. doi:10.1109/TNANO.2006.880405. ISSN 1536-125X.
^ John Riccitiello (BS 1981) has served as the CEO of Electronic Arts since 2007, and previously served as the president and COO of the company from 1996 to 2003. He is also the cofounder of Elevation Partners (with U2 singer Bono). HarmonyService (Fall 2007). "University of California Berkeley, Haas School of Business – John Riccitiello, BS 81". Haas School of Business, University of California Berkeley.
^ Eric Schmidt (MS 1979, PhD 1982) has been the CEO of Google since 2001. Pescovitz, David (May 27, 2014). "Eric Schmidt Searches and Finds Success (Again)". Lab Notes: Research from the Berkeley College of Engineering. College of Engineering, University of California, Berkeley. 3 (1 (Jan/Feb 2003)). Retrieved January 16, 2015.
^ Shantanu Narayen (MBA 1993) has been the CEO of Adobe Systems since 2007. University of California Berkeley, Haas School of Business (2009). "Shantanu Narayen MBA 93". University of California Berkeley, Haas School of Business.
^ Paul Jacobs (BS 1984, MS 1986, PhD 1989 EECS) has been the CEO of Qualcomm since 2005. Abby Cohn (November 2008). "Mobile Phone Metamorphosis". "Innovations" by UC Berkeley College of Engineering.
^ "Berkeley Unix worked so well that DARPA chose it for the preferred 'universal computing environment' to link Arpanet research nodes, thus setting in place an essential piece of infrastructure for the later growth of the Internet. An entire generation of computer scientists cut their teeth on Berkeley Unix. Without it, the Net might well have evolved into a shape similar to what it is today, but with it, the Net exploded." Andrew Leonard (May 16, 2000). "BSD Unix: Power to the people, from the code". Salon.com. Archived from the original on December 4, 2005.
^ Deutsch was awarded a 1992 citation by the Association for Computing Machinery for his work on Interlisp( "ACM Award Citation – L. Peter Deutsch". Archived from the original on May 4, 2012. )
^ L. Peter Deutsch is profiled on pages 30, 31, 43, 53, 54, 66 (which mentions Deutsch beginning his freshman year at Berkeley), and page 87 in the following book: Steven Levy (January 2, 2001). Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution. Penguin Books. ISBN 0-385-19195-2.
^ L. Peter Deutsch is profiled in pages 69, 70–72, 118, 146, 227, 230, 280, 399 of the following book: Michael A. Hiltzik (March 3, 1999). Dealers of Lightning: Xerox PARC and the Dawn of the Computer Age. Collins Business. ISBN 0-88730-891-0.
^ "Fellow Awards – Charles Thacker". Computer History Museum. 2007.
^ Michael A. Hiltzik (March 3, 1999). Dealers of Lightning: Xerox Parc and the Dawn of the Computer Age. Collins Business. p. 70. ISBN 0-88730-891-0.
^ Elizabeth Weise (March 15, 2010). "Charles Thacker wins Turing Award, computing's 'Nobel prize'". USA Today.
^ Lawrence M. Fisher (February 27, 1994). "Sound Bytes; On Building a Better Highway". The New York Times.
^ Andrew Leonard (May 16, 2000). "BSD Unix: Power to the people, from the code". Salon.com. Archived from the original on December 4, 2005.
^ Rachel Chalmers (May 17, 2000). "The unknown hackers – Open-source pioneers Bill and Lynne Jolitz may be the most famous programmers you've never heard of". Salon.com. Archived from the original on November 9, 2005.
^ E-Soft Inc (January 1, 2012). "Mail (MX) Server Survey". Security Space.
^ "eXperimental Computer Facility's proud present and impressive past". Engineering News. February 10, 2003. Archived from the original on May 17, 2008. Retrieved February 13, 2009.
^ Pei-Yuan Wei's contributions are profiled on pages 56, 64, 68, and 83, in the World Wide Web creator's autobiography ( Tim Berners-Lee (November 7, 2001). Weaving the Web. Collins Business. ISBN 0-06-251586-1. )
^ Tim Berners-Lee (November 7, 2001). Weaving the Web. Collins Business. pp. 68, 83. ISBN 0-06-251586-1.
^ "General Walton H. Walker had ordered her out of Korea..... Like many another soldier, old and young, General Walker was convinced that women do not belong in a combat zone... General Douglas MacArthur reversed Walker's ruling. To the Herald Tribune, MacArthur sent a soothing telegram: 'Ban on women correspondents in Korea has been lifted. Marguerite Higgins is held in highest professional esteem by everyone.'" "The Press: Last Word". Time. July 31, 1950.
^ "The Press: Pride of the Regiment". Time. September 25, 1950.
^ "Columnists: Lady at War". Time. January 14, 1966.
^ Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. (2008). "Robert Penn Warren". The Biography Channel. Archived from the original on August 30, 2010.
^ Nominated for seven Academy Awards, All the King's Men won Oscars for Best Picture of 1949, Best Actor (Broderick Crawford), and Best Supporting Actress (Mercedes McCambridge) Bosley Crowther. "All the King's Men – Review Summary". The New York Times. Retrieved May 27, 2010.
^ Shannon Lee (April 23, 2009). "Journalism School Alumna Part Of Pulitzer-Prize Winning Staff". The Daily Californian.
^ Vance, Ashlee (April 12, 2010). "Matt Richtel". The New York Times. Retrieved May 27, 2010.
^ "Matt Richtel". The Pulitzer Prizes. 2010.
^ Cathy Cockrell (September 14, 2005). "Leon Litwack Rocks". The Berkeleyan and the UC Berkeley NewsCenter.
^ Cathy Cockrell (May 8, 2007). "Leon Litwack's last stand". UC Berkeley NewsCenter (University of California, Berkeley).
^ "The Pulitzer Prizes". The Pulitzer Prizes – Columbia University.
^ Freida Lee Mock (BA 1961) won an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature in 1995 for Maya Lin: A Strong Clear Vision. "Behind the Lens – Extended Interviews with POV Filmmakers". Public Broadcasting Service and American Documentary Inc. March 4, 2011.
^ Charles H. Ferguson (BA 1978) won an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature in 2011 for Inside Job. Andrew Pulver (February 28, 2011). "Oscars 2011: Inside Job banks best documentary award". The Guardian (United Kingdom).
^ Jawad Qadir (March 31, 2010). "UC Berkeley Professor Mixes Sound for Award Winning Films". The Daily Californian. Archived from the original on November 5, 2012.
^ "Talk of the Gown – Blues in the News". California Magazine. Cal Alumni Association. June 2003.
^ Sandra Fischione Donovan (March 12, 2010). "Beaver County native wins fourth Oscar for visual effects". Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.
^ "Haas NewsWire, February 20, 2001". Haas School of Business and the University of California, Berkeley. February 20, 2001. Archived from the original on June 12, 2008.
^ "Television Program Faculty and Lecturers". Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism and the Regents of the University of California. Archived from the original on April 12, 2009.
^ "Asian Hall of Fame – Induction Ceremony". Robert Chinn Foundation. 2007.
^ "Meet the Team – Kristen Sze". KGO News. Archived from the original on December 10, 2008.
^ "Colon Cancer Claims Veteran Journalist Leroy Sievers". ABC News. August 16, 2008.
^ "MegaMetro NewsCenter Story Archives June–August 2000". MegaMetro TV NewsCenter. MegaMetro TV NewsCenter. Retrieved November 7, 2014.
^ Maynard, John (June 19, 2005). "Youth Is Served At Local Emmys". The Washington Post. Retrieved November 7, 2014.
^ "Elisabeth Leamy Bio". ABC News. ABC News Internet Ventures. Retrieved November 7, 2014.
^ Rovi of All Movie Guide. "Stewart Copeland". The New York Times.
^ "SuChin Pak Biography – Reporter, Host and Interviewer – MTV News". MTV.
^ "Stephan Jenkins: Musician". People Magazine. May 10, 1999.
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^ Daniel Roberts and Pablo S. Torre (April 11, 2012). "Jerry Maguire aspires to be you". Sports illustrated.
^ Jerry Maguire was nominated for 5 Academy Awards, and won for Best Supporting Actor (Cuba Gooding, Jr.).
^ "The six medals she won are the most by an American woman in any sport, breaking the record she tied four years ago. Her career total matches the third-most by any U.S. athlete." Jaime Aron (August 17, 2008). "Coughlin's 6 medals most by a US woman". Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Archived from the original on May 11, 2011.
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University of California, Berkeley at Curlie
Coordinates: 37°52′12″N 122°15′32″W / 37.870°N 122.259°W / 37.870; -122.259
Located in: Berkeley, California
"The Play"
Academic buildings
Bancroft Library
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Doe Memorial Library
Dwinelle Hall
Etcheverry Hall
Evans Hall
Gilman Hall
Hearst Memorial Mining Building
Jacobs Institute for Design Innovation
LeConte Hall
Leuschner Observatory
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South Hall
Berkeley Art Museum
Botanical Garden and Julia Morgan Hall
Lawrence Hall of Science
Sather Tower
Sproul Plaza
Hearst Greek Theatre
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Zellerbach Hall
Haas Pavilion
Tightwad Hill
Evans Diamond
Bowles Hall
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Heuristic Squelch
Caltopia
Free Speech Movement
Occupy the Farm
UC Davis Medical Center
UCLA Medical Center, Santa Monica
UC San Diego Medical Center, Hillcrest
UC San Diego Jacobs Medical Center
Benioff Children's Hospital
UCSF Betty Irene Moore Women’s Hospital
UCSF Bakar Cancer Hospital
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (20%)
Los Alamos National Laboratory (25%)
Natural Reserve System
W. M. Keck Observatory (50%)
UC Libraries
student regent
UC Student Association
Presidents and Chancellors of the University of California, Berkeley
Henry Durant (1870)
Daniel Coit Gilman (1872)
John LeConte (1875)
W.T. Reid (1881)
Edward S. Holden (1885)
Horace Davis (1888)
Martin Kellogg (1890)
Benjamin Ide Wheeler (1899)
David Prescott Barrows (1919)
William Wallace Campbell (1923)
Robert Gordon Sproul (1930)
Chancellors
Clark Kerr (1952)
Glenn T. Seaborg (1958)
Edward W. Strong (1961)
Martin E. Meyerson # (1965)
Roger W. Heyns (1965)
Albert H. Bowker (1971)
Ira Michael Heyman (1980)
Chang-Lin Tien (1990)
Robert M. Berdahl (1997)
Robert J. Birgeneau (2004)
Nicholas Dirks (2013)
Carol T. Christ (2017)
# denotes an interim chancellor
Men's soccer affiliate
Wrestling affiliates
CSU Bakersfield Roadrunners
Little Rock Trojans
America East Conference
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VMI Keydets (men's and women's)
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Association of American Universities
Boston U
Canadian (public)
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New Mexico State
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Association of Pacific Rim Universities
Australian National
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USTC
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Far Eastern Federal (FEFU)
Seoul National
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Ernst Strüngmann Institute
Nijmegen Radboud
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American Baptist Seminary of the West
Dominican School of Philosophy and Theology
Jesuit School of Theology of Santa Clara University
Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary
San Francisco Theological Seminary
Starr King School for the Ministry
Dinner Center for Jewish Studies
Center for Islamic Studies
Shingal Center for Dharma Studies
Center for the Arts, Religion, and Education
Center for Swedenborgian Studies
Center for Theology and the Natural Sciences
Institute of Buddhist Studies
New College Berkeley
Patriarch Athenagoras Orthodox Institute
School of Applied Theology
John Dillenberger
Claude Welch
Michael Blecker
Robert Barr
Glenn Bucher
James Donahue
Riess Potterveld
Sherman Johnson
Judith Berling
Margaret Miles
Arthur Holder
California Lutheran University
Religious Groups Represented
Buddhist Churches of America
Eastern Orthodox Church
Episcopal Church (United States)
Swedenborgian Church
United Churches of Christ
Unitarian Universalist
Berkeley Marina
Cragmont
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Gourmet Ghetto
La Loma Park
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North Berkeley
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South Berkeley
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Primary and secondary schools
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San Pablo Avenue (State Route 123)
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List of people from Berkeley
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San Jose City College
Silicon Valley University
(including subsidiaries
and defunct companies)
Access Systems Americas
Adobe Inc.
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HomePosts tagged 'Homeland Security'
The Department of Homeland Security created and controlled by the Jesuits [video]
5.10.2016 14.11.2018 farnesius Constantinian Order, Homeland Security, Jesuits, Knights of Columbus, Knights of Malta, Vatican
Here are some of the key persons in the history of the Department of Homeland Security, and their Jesuit/Vatican connections:
John C. Gannon, said to have been the key man behind the creation of the DHS. Jesuit trained and a former member of the Jesuit Volunteer Corps.
Following graduation from Holy Cross, Gannon served in Jamaica as a member of the Jesuit Volunteer Corps. Earning his Ph.D. from Washington University in St. Louis, Mo., he began his government career as a political analyst, specializing in Latin America.
Holy Cross honored Gannon with the Sanctae Crucis Award in 2002.
http://www.holycross.edu/departments/publicaffairs/hcm/summer04/class_notes/3.html
Tom Ridge, first Secretary of Homeland Security. A Roman Catholic and allegedly a Knight of Columbus, like Jeb Bush who he endorsed in the 2016 presidential election primaries.
Michael Chertoff, second Secretary of Homeland Security. His wife Meryl Chertoff is a prominent member of the Jesuit Georgetown University faculty.
Meryl Justin Chertoff is Director of The Aspen Institute’s Justice and Society Program. She is an Adjunct Professor of Law at Georgetown Law, where she teaches about state government, intergovernmental affairs and state courts.
From 2006-2009, Ms. Chertoff was Director of the Sandra Day O’Connor Project on the State of the Judiciary at Georgetown Law, studying and educating the public about federal and state courts. At Georgetown Law, she also developed educational programs for visiting judges and other government officials from overseas.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/author/meryl-chertoff
Janet Napolitano, third Secretary of Homeland Security. Jesuit trained at Santa Clara University.
Michael P. Jackson, third Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security. Jesuit trained and later a professor at Georgetown University.
Jane Holl Lute, fifth Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security. Jesuit trained at Georgetown University.
Alejandro Mayorkas, sixth and current Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security. Jesuit trained at Loyola Marymount University.
Emilio T. Gonzalez, former Under Secretary and director of USCIS, the immigration department of the DHS. Gonzalez is a Knight of Malta and a Knight of the Sacred Military Constantinian Order of Saint George.
Randy Beardsworth, former Under Secretary and one of the founding figures of the DHS.
Prior to joining DHS, Beardsworth was director for strategic planning, budget, and workforce development for the Immigration and Naturalization Service’s Detention and Removal Program. Before that he was director of the International Security Program at Georgetown University’s Carib-bean Project. He also served as director of defense policy for the National Security Council.
http://www.govexec.com/magazine/magazine-homeland-security/2004/02/randy-beardsworth/16015/
http://letsrollforums.com//homeland-security-michael-chertoffs-t17930.html
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HomePosts tagged 'International A4'
International A4
A Manic Monday Quiz.
May 25, 2015 May 25, 2015 fasab Questions, Tests A4, americans, area code, beer, boss, by area, call, cat, Citrix, city, cloud computing, coffee, Crete, daughter, drink, earth, eat, education, Entertainment, Equatorial, escape, Fart Proudly, feathers and wax, Florida, flying, Founding Fathers, Founding Fathers of the United States of America, general knowledge, Geography, geometry, Greek Mythology, Gulf Stream, history, HMS Ark Royal, HMS Cossack, Humboldt, instrument, International A4, Kennedy Space Center, Kit Kat, largest area, largest country, letter, link, literature, Manic Monday, math, mathematics, maths, milk, multiplayer board game, music, musician, nationality, nature, paper format, percentage, prairie wolf, professional boxing, questions, quiz, quizzes, Random, Reversi, Richard Clayderman, right-angled triangle, Russians, salary, science, scientific, Shakespeare, Shakespearian, sinking of the Bismark, size of population, somewhere to go, South America, spirits, sport, stormy weather, survey, survived, tea, technology, test, tests, The Harbor City, too close to the Sun, tragedy, UK, underwater, United States, Unsinkable Sam, volcanoes, Walk Like An Egyptian, weight divisions, Wet Willie, wings, work
A manic Monday quiz it is indeed.
Twenty questions covering the usual wide range of subjects, so hopefully there will be one or two that you find easy and one or two that you find a lot more difficult.
But remember, as always if you get stuck, you can find the answers waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay down below, but please NO cheating!
Q. 1: According to a survey conducted by Citrix, what percentage of people thought that stormy weather affects cloud computing?
a) 1% b) 15% c) 51% d) 85%
Q. 2: What city is known as ‘The Harbor City’ ?
Q. 3: What is another name for the prairie wolf?
Q. 4: If your boss cuts your salary by 10% but offers to let you work 10% more to make up for it, should you accept?
Q. 5: Six men are widely accepted to be the Founding Fathers of the United States of America. What were their names? (You get a point for each correctly named and a bonus point if can correctly name all six.)
Q. 6: A follow-up question to # 5, which one of these Founding Fathers once wrote a scientific piece called ‘Fart Proudly’ ?
Q. 7: What percentage of the Earth’s volcanoes are underwater?
a) 10 % b) 30 % c) 50 % d) 70 % e) 90 %
Q. 8: In Greek mythology who attempted to escape from Crete by means of wings that his father constructed from feathers and wax, but flew too close to the Sun and perished when the wax melted?
Q. 9: And when we’re on the subject of flying, what area code would you use if you wanted to call the Kennedy Space Center in Florida?
Q. 10: What do you call the three sides of a right-angled triangle? (Hint, you get zero points for answering ‘A’, ‘B’ and ‘C’.)
Q. 11: This one is the name of a famous Shakespeare tragedy and a multiplayer board game based on the popular game Reversi. What is it?
Q. 12: What nationality is the famous musician Richard Clayderman and what instrument is associated with him? (A point for each correct answer.)
Q. 13: ‘Equatorial’, ‘Gulf Stream’ and ‘Humboldt’ are names give to what?
Q. 14: Russians consume about 6 times as much what as Americans?
a) milk b) coffee c) tea d) beer e) spirits
Q. 15: Which paper format has the largest area, the ‘International A4’ as used for example in the UK or the ‘Letter’ format used in the United States?
Q. 16: There are seven main weight divisions used in professional boxing, what are they? (You get a point for each one you can name correctly and three bonus points if you get all seven correct.)
Q. 17: What is the link between something to eat, something to drink, somewhere to go and something to call your daughter?
Q. 18: What was the name of the cat that survived the sinking of the Bismark, HMS Cossack and HMS Ark Royal?
a) Kit Kat b) Wet Willie c) Unsinkable Sam
Q. 19: What is the largest country in South America (a) by area and (b) by size of population? (A point for each correct answer.)
Q. 20: Who had a ‘Manic Monday’ and went on to ‘Walk Like An Egyptian’ ?
A. 1: Unbelievably the correct answer is c) 51%.
A. 2: Sydney, Australia.
A. 3: Coyote.
A. 4: You should NOT accept the offer. This is a percentage question. For example, if you made $10 per hour, a 10% cut in your salary would leave you with $9 per hour. Adding 10% back would only be 10% of $9, or 90 cents so you would end up with only $9.90.
A. 5: The six men are widely accepted to be the Founding Fathers of the United States of America are George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, Alexander Hamilton and, of course, Benjamin Franklin.
A. 6: Benjamin Franklin wrote a scientific piece called Fart Proudly. It was all about farts.
A. 7: The correct answer is e) 90% of all volcanoes are underwater.
A. 8: Icarus.
A. 9: The telephone area code for the Kennedy Space Center in Florida is ‘321’ which imitates the countdown before liftoff. It was assigned to the area, instead of suburban Chicago in November 1999 after a successful petition led by local resident Robert Osband. Try it out, call the Kennedy Space Center on (321) 867-5000.
A. 10: They are called ‘opposite’, ‘adjacent’ and ‘hypotenuse’.
A. 11: Othello.
A. 12: Richard Clayderman is French and he is a pianist.
A. 13: Ocean currents.
A. 14: The correct answer is c) tea, Russians also consume about 6 times as much tea as Americans.
A. 15: A4 has the largest area. (A4 is 210 mm (8.25”) wide and 297 mm (11.75”) long or 62,370 m2, and US Letter is 216 mm (8.5”) wide by 279 mm (11”) long or 60,264 m2.)
A. 16: Although modern additions have been added, the seven main weight divisions used in professional boxing are ‘Flyweight’, ‘Bantamweight’, ‘Featherweight’, ‘Lightweight’, ‘Welterweight’, ‘Middleweight’ and ‘Heavyweight’.
A. 17: Margarita.
A. 18: The correct answer is c) Unsinkable Sam.
A. 19: The correct answers are (a) Brazil with an area of 8,514,877 Km2, and (b) Brazil with a population of more than 195.5 million.
A. 20: The Bangles.
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As No One Watched, Trump Pardoned 5 Megabanks For Corruption Charges
Posted by stevew | Jan 13, 2018 | 2018, Conspiracy, Cabal, Daily Blog | 0 |
ActivistPost
By Rachel Blevins
While Americans celebrated the holidays, President Trump followed in the footsteps of his predecessors by acting in the interest of Wall Street and using the distraction to do something that was not in the best interest of the American people. He pardoned five megabanks for rampant fraud and corruption, which is especially notable because of the amount of money he owes them.
Trump has been using Deutsche Bank since the 1990s, and Financial Times has reported that he now owes the bank at least $130 million in outstanding loans secured in properties in Miami, Chicago, and Washington. However, the report claimed that the actual number is likely much larger at $300 million.
Reports claimed that Deutsche was the only bank willing to lend Trump money after his companies faced multiple bankruptcies. The relationship has continued over the years, and an analysis from the Wall Street Journal claimed that Trump has received at least $2.5 billion in loans from Deutsche Bank over the last 20 years.
There have been concerns about Trump’s ties to the bank becoming a conflict of interest, dating back to the 2016 election, and the evidence to support those concerns is now becoming clear.
During the week of Christmas, the Federal Register announced that the Trump Administration had issued waivers to Citigroup, JPMorgan, Barclays, UBS and Deutsche Bank—all megabanks facing charges of fraud and corruption.
The banks were involved in the LIBOR Scandal, in which they colluded to deliberately depress the rate at which they paid out on investments. By suppressing the London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR) at the beginning of an economic crisis in 2007, the megabanks were able to boost their earnings and to give their customers a false sense of security.
Deutsche Bank pled guilty to wire fraud in a U.S. court in 2015, and it went on to pay $3.5 billion for its role in the LIBOR scandal—more than any other bank involved—before it reached a $7.2 billion settlement with the Justice Department in early 2017.
Then in June 2017, Deutsche Bank trader David Liew, who is based in Singapore, pleaded guilty to conspiring to spoof gold, silver, platinum and palladium futures in federal court in Chicago, confirming that the biggest banks in the world have conspired to rig precious metals markets.
While Trump granted 5-year exemptions to Citigroup, JPMorgan, and Barclays, and 3-year exemptions to UBS and Deutsche Bank, it should be noted that his administration is not the only one to have done this. As International Business Times noted, “In late 2016, the Obama administration extended temporary one-year waivers to five banks,” which just happened to be the same ones Trump has now extended the exemptions on—revealing the real rulers in DC.
Not surprisingly, the latest decision to pardon the banks comes in stark contrast to one of Trump’s most applauded campaign promises—that he would finally stand up against Wall Street and demand that the most powerful banks be held accountable to the public.
“I’m not going to let Wall Street get away with murder. Wall Street has caused tremendous problems for us. We’re going to tax Wall Street,” Trump said during a campaign rally in January 2016.
PreviousTracy Beanz on Fusion GPS Dossier: Part I: Fusing the Story [VIDEO]
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George Reich™
George Frank Reich Memorial, December 15, 1926 – May 4, 2013
George Reich
Director, Choreographer, Dancer, Actor
“Slow…quick…quick, Mary”
George Reich….. Director, Choreographer, Dancer, Actor
George was born in Patchogue, Long Island, New York. He danced with The Ballet Markova Dolin Company and appeared on Broadway in several Broadway musicals. Mr. Reich signed a six-month contract with Don Arden to dance at The Lido de Paris in France. George danced at The Lido de Paris for two years and had the glorious honor of being the first male dancer to wear a mirrored g-string costume on stage for a number choreographed by the fabulous Gwen Verden.
George joined The Roland Petite Ballet Company and danced in the film “The Glass Slipper” with Leslie Caron in 1953 at the MGM. He was then offered a seven year contract to stay with MGM Studios, however George refused the contract because he wanted to return to Paris, France. He ended up staying in France for 18 years.
George then form his own ballet company “Le Ballet Ho” in 1955. George danced at the Moulin Rouge, The Olympia Music Hall and The Ballet De Paris. In 1957 George Danced and choreographed Josephine Baker’s show “Paris Mes Amour” at the Olympia De Paris with his dance company “Les Ballet Ho”. During this time, he continued touring with his own dance company, “Les Ballet Ho”, and also choreographed numerous television specials in Spain, Germany, Italy and England. He has choreographed and directed shows for such stars as Josephine Baker, Marlene Dietrich, Edith Piaf, Brigitte Bardot, Lillian Montevecci, Line Renaud, Michele Richard and Muriel Millard, as well as The Follies Bergere in Paris and New York, and major casinos from Monte Carlo to Las Vegas.
George choreographed and directed many highly successful production shows that ran from coast to coast from Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Reno, and Lake Tahoe to Atlantic City, Valley Forge, New York City to Miami Beach, also including Montreal, Puerto Rico, the Bahamas, and the Cruise Lines. His award-winning shows are still garnering much applause on many of the Carnival Cruise Lines’ vessels.
George Reich’s choreography and direction is still the mainstay for most of the Carnival cruise ships, and has been since the first large-scale shipboard production show !George through his magnificent shows influenced and inspired many dancers, singers, and performers and molded their lives along the way……………………………. “C’est Magnifique” !!!!
Thank you for visiting George Frank Reich’s website.
For additional information or to provide feedback about George’s site.
Please email: anthony@georgereich.com
George Reich on IMDb
George Reich on IBDB
Join George Frank Reich on Face Book
This site and all content herein Copyright © 2011 - 2017 Anthony Morgann. All rights reserved. Built by Anthony Morgann from anthonymorgann.com
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Tag Archives: Alyas Robin Hood farewell week
action, drama, entertainment, Philippines, television
The Final Week of Alyas Robin Hood
February 21, 2017 ralphierceA Love to Last, A Love to Last ABS-CBN, A Love to Last national ratings, A Love to Last ratings, ABS-CBN, Alyas Robin Hood, Alyas Robin Hood closing episode, Alyas Robin Hood closing week, Alyas Robin Hood controversies, Alyas Robin Hood criticisms, Alyas Robin Hood farewell episode, Alyas Robin Hood farewell week, Alyas Robin Hood final episode, Alyas Robin Hood final week, Alyas Robin Hood finale, Alyas Robin Hood GMA, Alyas Robin Hood issues, Alyas Robin Hood last episode, Alyas Robin Hood last week, Alyas Robin Hood national ratings, Alyas Robin Hood ratings, Alyas Robin Hood vs. Arrow, Andrea Torres, Ang Probinsyano, Ang Probinsyano ABS-CBN, Arrow, Arrow DC Comics, Arrow series, Arrow U.S. series, Dingdong Dantes, Encantadia, Encantadia 2016, Encantadia GMA, FPJ's Ang Probinsyano, FPJ's Ang Probinsyano ABS-CBN, GMA, GMA Network, GMA Telebabad, Magpahanggang Wakas, Magpahanggang Wakas ABS-CBN, Magpahanggang Wakas national ratings, Magpahanggang Wakas ratings, Megan Young, My Dear Heart, My Dear Heart ABS-CBN, My Dear Heart national ratings, My Dear Heart ratings, Robin Hood, Robin Hood character, Robin Hood variations, Robin Hood versions, Suzette Doctolero 7 Comments
‘Alyas Robin Hood’ is coming to a close.
Friday, February 24, will be the show’s final episode, and for those who stuck with ‘Alyas Robin Hood’ throughout its run, they will have plenty of stories to tell for this hooded hero. However, it was not all smooth sailing for this GMA action-drama series.
Just weeks before its premiere, many doubted ‘Alyas Robin Hood’, particularly its similarities to another Robin Hood-inspired character ‘Arrow’. Though creative head Suzette Doctolero tried her best to differentiate the two, it was clear from the beginning that the criticisms surrounding ‘Alyas Robin Hood’ would linger on during its run.
‘Alyas Robin Hood’ premiered on September 19, and was pitted against another newcomer in ‘Magpahanggang Wakas’. Though the latter’s subpar ratings did alarm ABS-CBN for a while, the former failed to take advantage, at best closing to within 1% of ‘Magpahanggang Wakas’.
The series also failed to get past ‘A Love to Last’ (during its brief two-week run at the second slot) and ‘My Dear Heart’ despite getting decent ratings of 20% or better. Overall, even with a total of 115 episodes and strong hype over the controversy, ‘Alyas Robin Hood’ still fell short of expectations.
The fact is, the superhero genre that GMA advocated in ‘Alyas Robin Hood’ no longer works in today’s primetime scene. Many prefer the more realistic and inspiring plots that ABS-CBN produces in series such as ‘Ang Probinsyano’ and ‘My Dear Heart’ rather than the fantasy leanings of ‘Encantadia’ and ‘Alyas Robin Hood’.
It also puts into question GMA’s casting choices. Let’s face it, Dingdong Dantes is in a starring role for way too long and should’ve given way to younger talent, but as it turns out, GMA wanted him because there is no other capable actor who can portray the lead role in ‘Alyas Robin Hood’.
And while Megan Young and Andrea Torres are worthy supporting actors in this series due to their youth, giving them a younger male lead would’ve helped ‘Alyas Robin Hood’. In the end, GMA made a grave mistake by putting over an actor with over a decade of service as a leading man, thus continuing a path of overusing veterans.
Come this Friday, ‘Alyas Robin Hood’ will be in a fight of his life. But whether or not it will make a lasting impression at the end remains to be seen.
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Tag Archives: Innamorata GMA
The Half-Sisters Joins the ‘One-Year Serye’ Club
June 11, 2015 ralphierceABS-CBN, Afternoon Prime, AGB Nielsen, AGB Nielsen Ratings, Andre Paras, Ang Lihim ni Annasandra, Ang Lihim ni Annasandra GMA, Barbie Forteza, Be Careful with My Heart, Be Careful with My Heart ABS-CBN, Dading, Dading GMA, Eat Bulaga, Eat Bulaga GMA, Elmo Magalona, Eula Valdes, Flordeliza, Flordeliza ABS-CBN, GMA, GMA Afternoon Prime, GMA Network, GMA teleseryes, Healing Hearts, Healing Hearts GMA, Innamorata, Innamorata GMA, Jean Garcia, Jomari Yllana, Kailan Ba Tama ang Mali, Kailan Ba Tama ang Mali GMA, Kantar, Kantar Ratings, Mel Martinez, Moon of Desire, Moon of Desire ABS-CBN, Ryan Eigenmann, The Half-Sisters, The Half-Sisters 1st anniversary, The Half-Sisters GMA, The Half-Sisters one-year anniversary, Thea Tolentino, Vanness del Moral, Villa Quintana, Villa Quintana GMA, Winwyn Marquez, Yagit, Yagit GMA 6 Comments
Welcome to the ‘one-year serye’ club, ‘The Half-Sisters’.
The highly popular teleserye on GMA’s Afternoon Prime block celebrated its one-year anniversary last Tuesday, June 9. As of today, June 11, ‘The Half-Sisters’ has a total of 262 episodes aired, with more to come as the series continues to progress.
With the milestone of reaching a year on the air, ‘The Half-Sisters’ joins a very exclusive club of local drama series with a run of at least a year. The most recent series to join the club was ABS-CBN’s ‘Be Careful with My Heart’, which aired for over two years.
‘The Half-Sisters’ premiered on Monday, June 9, 2014 as the lead-off program of Afternoon Prime. The series replaced the remake of ‘Villa Quintana’, which starred Janine Gutierrez and Elmo Magalona.
At the time of its premiere, ‘The Half-Sisters’ was joined by ‘Innamorata’ in the Afternoon Prime block. Since then, a total of five other teleseryes (‘Dading’, ‘Ang Lihim ni Annasandra’, ‘Yagit’, ‘Kailan Ba Tama ang Mali?’ ‘Healing Hearts’) have aired alongside ‘The Half-Sisters’, with ‘Yagit’ by far the longest-running of the five to date.
The pilot episode of ‘The Half-Sisters’ registered an 11.5% rating on AGB Nielsen, and a 7.3% on Kantar. Its opponent at the time, ‘Moon of Desire’, registered a 9.2 and 10.2%, respectively.
While ‘The Half-Sisters’ had a slow start early in its run, by the middle of the -ber months, it began a steady climb atop the afternoon ladder. The series ranked as the top-rated program in the weekday afternoons at the end of 2014.
Not even a new opponent in ‘Flordeliza’ can slow ‘The Half-Sisters’ down, even though the series’ criticism regarding its lengthy run began to grow. Today, ‘The Half-Sisters continues to rank among the top ten programs in the country in both Kantar and AGB Nielsen.
Typically the lifespan of a modern-day teleserye lasts four to eight months, depending on ratings and critical acclaim. But ‘The Half-Sisters’ are a different breed, a throwback to the teleseryes of the old days.
That said, expect more twists and turns to develop as ‘The Half-Sisters’ continues.
Starring Barbie Forteza, Thea Tolentino, Jean Garcia, Jomari Yllana, Ryan Eigenmann, Eula Valdes, Andre Paras, Mel Martinez, Vanness del Moral and Winwyn Marquez, ‘The Half-Sisters’ airs weekdays after ‘Eat Bulaga’ on GMA’s Afternoon Prime.
Notes: From the Tube will take a break tomorrow, June 12, in commemoration of Independence Day in the Philippines. Regular posts resume on Monday, June 15.
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Auschwitz 'In Memoriam'
BlueComet
Postby BlueComet » 1 decade 11 months ago (Sat Jul 26, 2008 7:59 pm)
Nice job. Your very complete in your evaluations. Keep it up.
Re: Auschwitz 'In Memoriam'
Postby astro3 » 8 years 11 months ago (Sat Jul 24, 2010 6:25 am)
http://www.wintersonnenwende.com/script ... money.html
Money used at Auschwitz
In 2001, Jennifer White argued in The Barnes Review, that in Auschwitz and other German camps,
prisoners were relatively well-treated, compensated for their hard work and allowed to purchase luxuries to which even the German public did not have ready access...This scrip (the special money) was not negotiable outside of the camp for which it was issued. This decreased the chance of a successful escape and made it impossible for the general public to purchase some of the rare luxuries available in the camps... Inmates were not paid for the work but were given "coupons" now and then to buy things in the "Kantine".... As the war progressed badly and the number of workers declined, the worker potential became important. Offers of "premiums" and other advantages were made to the inmates, tobacco was offered and even visits to bordellos.... In order that these scrips could not be used outside the camps, special money was printed.
Postby astro3 » 8 years 10 months ago (Tue Aug 31, 2010 2:01 pm)
Here is a good summary of material on this thread:
http://www.rense.com/lets_stop_with_the ... s.htm.html
'Let's stop with the Auschwitz lies'
Alas many of the images are damaged, let's hope they get repaired.
Of the industrial labour it says:
Auschwitz was a major work camp that had forty different industries. The true reason for the existence of the Auschwitz camp is revealed in these little shown pictures of the industrial complex which surrounded the camp - most of it within full view of the interior of the camp itself.
Right The Monowitz industrial complex, where most of Auschwitz's inmates were put to work in a variety of heavy industries, ranging from rubber manufacture, medical supplies, armaments and, as illustrated in the picture right, clothing. This photograph shows the tailor's workshop at Auschwitz 1, where prisoners would make up clothing for use by the German army.
Challenge: Can you find the swimming-pool on Google-Earth?
Answer: input 'Auschwitz ('Oswiecim'), then go South-South West to the main base-camp, you see all the labels. Centre it and zoom in - at the back you'll see a dark unmarked rectangle long and thin - that's it! Its not labelled and hasn't got much detail.
industrial work-places
'Arbeit macht Frei' - but where did they go to work each day? Go North -West of the main base-camp half a mile or so and you'll see what is the remains of an arms-manufacturing camp.
Then, go more or less due East of the main base-camp a mile or two and you come to remains of the huge industrial area 'Monowitz,' wierdly unlabelled. Why isn't it labelled?
Ok, now change over to Google Maps, put in Auschwitz again. Go due East again and you'll see the same area, but with roads drawn in. It labels the huge industrial plant (Buna rubber manufacture) Auschwitz chemical plant.
Postby astro3 » 7 years 2 months ago (Wed Apr 25, 2012 4:07 pm)
Memories of Auschwitz
Taken from Spielberg’s Shoah Foundation video interviews, ….
(hopefully this video will embed)
<iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/xm8UmMuRSSw" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
http://youtu.be/xm8UmMuRSSw
* One 'survivor' recalls having been an orchestra musician. A grand piano was brought into Block 1, and downstairs from it there was the Theatre. The inmates made a stage-curtain. They staged plays which were ‘very peaceful,’ and some composed music –
* From Block 10, her group went out to pick leaves, and made tea for the whole camp.
* There was a library with newspapers. A violin quartet came to play in the barracks. They even ‘made a movie’ in the camp. Some evenings they brought in German movies.
* Twice a month they could write home, once with a postcard. They had some money they could use: the ‘jewish community from Vienna' sent everyone some money, with which they could buy postage stamps, sometimes cigarettes at ‘cantina,’ and sometimes it sold weak beer. Also they had to pay to see the movie.
* Later they would pay in coupons given out by the camp, redeemable in the cantina.
* There was a soccer team. In Monowitz 1944 soccer games were well-organised, we see pictures of them cheered by civilian fans. SS teams played soccer with inmates. There was a British POW soccer team at Auschwitz. (NB soccer field right next to so-called gas chambers, it would have been in full view.)
* Art: a lady recalled painting a country scene image on a large wall – make it look like some colourful Spanish view. In response to some child requests, she painted snow-white story images on the walls. The kids enjoyed the dwarf images and some wrote a play inspired by her pictures – it was very successful, especially the girl playing snow-white; some SS men watched.
Postby truth » 7 years 2 months ago (Sun Apr 29, 2012 4:07 pm)
One should make a study about the people who live near Auschwitz, or similar places
1. How do they feel about what happened there?
2. Do they experience any prejudice?
3. Are they being blamed like the Germans for the camp?
4. Do people project antisemitism on the innocent public of today although they are just tired of this morbid form of profit oriented tourism?
5. I wonder who build the camp in the first place?
6. How is it living near these Villages (that includes Dachau, for instance as well?
7. How is life today there?
8. Do people of today get some income from this enterprise, if so how much profit is the Auschwitz worth?
I am sure it is much nicer to live in a spa-town in Europe which are spread far and wide all over these countries. I wish Germany and the rest of Europe would become famous for their life industry instead of their morbid "death industry?"
Unless the system of money changes - nothing will ever change for the good and benefit of the world. In a thousand years what happens today is irrelevant... for our crimes against humanity will never stop unless we as a species evolve further than crude force.
borjastick
Postby borjastick » 7 years 1 week ago (Fri Jul 06, 2012 3:43 am)
Truth. I have been to Dachau and what is most surprising when you arrive is that it is in a built up area, a little out of munich. The access to the camp is along a road with large blocks of well to do well kept apartment blocks. It appears to be surrounded by normality. Normal suburban life, schools, work, buses etc. The so called gas chamber block which also houses the crematorium is down in the far left hand corner which is quite a walk from the main block. But even from here one can see buildings in current occupation outside the camp. It has a really strange, bizarre almost surreal feel to the whole place, not due to its history but due to Munich being right outside the place.
'Of the four million Jews under Nazi control in WW2, six million died and alas only five million survived.'
'We don't need evidence, we have survivors' - israeli politician
Sandy92
Postby Sandy92 » 6 years 10 months ago (Mon Sep 03, 2012 1:34 am)
Thank you so much for the article. The more small details you learn the clearer the whole picture of Auschwitz get.
how to convert mov to avi
Postby EtienneSC » 6 years 9 months ago (Wed Sep 26, 2012 1:38 pm)
Here is an interesting non-revisionist documentary on the Frankfurt Auschwitz Trial in the early 1960s:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5cz_G2AEN_8[/youtube]
(German with sub-titles)
It's full of interesting throwaway bits of evidence, e.g. the judge who was a social democrat saying he thought the trial should have a political function, an interview with the wife of a defendant saying she thinks him innocent and the information that many eye-witnesses at Frankfurt had sat through the Eichmann trial in Jerusalem (a possible explanation for similarities in thier testimony).
Postby astro3 » 6 years 7 months ago (Fri Dec 14, 2012 2:30 pm)
the Truth about Auschwitz
Published on Aug 25, 2012: Real survivors testimonies who refused to lie to camera. Song: Du bist als Kind zu heiß gebadet worden ('You're too hot to have been dropped as a child.')
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pl ... cEyhQAS7hs
Even weak beer sold in the Cantina! But after a while the money stopped, so everyone was given 'coupons; instead' - 'redeemable in the cantina.'
1944 well-organised soccer teams - when Germany was losing the war, the inmates had more freedom.
SS even played soccer 'with us.' Polish team Vs German teams. The SS Kommandant joined in.
This soccer field was in full view of so-called 'final solution' gas chamber...
Postby cold beer » 5 years 10 months ago (Fri Sep 13, 2013 5:26 am)
astro3 wrote: Auschwitz In Memoriam
To counteract the Greatest Lie Ever Told, I suggest focusing on concrete details of how the wartime labour-camp functioned. For example, an aesthetically elegant swimming-pool clearly exists, and was built by the inmates. Unable to deny this, the authorities have erected a sign saying, ‘Fire brigade reservoir built in the form of a swimming pool.’ This absurd notice is also given in Hebrew - but even that won’t make it true.
When was this sign erected?
Postby Hannover » 5 years 10 months ago (Sat Sep 14, 2013 1:41 pm)
cold beer wrote:
Apparently it's not known exactly when the sign was made, my guess would be after the demise of the USSR and the Polish labor / transfer camps became more available for scrutiny. Here's some good information about this laughable "fire brigade reservoir".
http://www.heretical.com/miscella/swimpool.html
Robert FAURISSON 20 July 2001
(with addendum of 27 July)
The Auschwitz Swimming Pool
The German-Australian revisionist Frederick Toben has brought to our attention the fact that today, beside the swimming pool at Auschwitz I, there stands a signboard bearing, in Polish, English and Hebrew, a notice intended to have the visitor believe that the pool was in fact a simple reservoir for the fire brigade. It reads as follows:
Fire brigade reservoir built in the form of a swimming pool, probably in early 1944.
He asks when exactly this signboard appeared. I myself have no idea but the inscription is just as fallacious as any number of the Auschwitz museum's other allegations or explanations. One fails to see why the Germans, rather than settling for an ordinary reservoir, would have made one in the fashion of a swimming pool... complete with diving board.
The pool was a pool. It was meant for the detainees. Marc Klein mentions it at least twice in his recollections of the camp. In an article entitled 'Auschwitz I Stammlager' he wrote:
The working hours were modified on Sundays and holidays, when most of the kommandos were at leisure. Roll call was at around noon; evenings were devoted to rest and to a choice of cultural and sporting activities. Football, basketball, and water-polo matches (in an open-air pool built within the perimeter by detainees) attracted crowds of onlookers. It should be noted that only the very fit and well-fed, exempt from the harsh jobs, could indulge in these games which drew the liveliest applause from the masses of other detainees (De l'Université aux camps de concentration: Télmorgnages strasbourgeois, Paris, les Belles-lettres, 1947, p. 453).
In his booklet Observations et réflexions sur les camps de concentration nazis he further wrote:
Auschwitz I was made up of 28 blocks built of stone laid out in three parallel rows between which ran paved streets. A third street ran the length of the quadrangle and was planted with birch trees, the Birkenhaller intended as a walkway for the detainees, with benches; there also was an open air swimming pool (booklet of 32 pages printed in Caen, 1948, p. 10; its text is a reproduction of the author's article published in Etudes germaniques, n° 3, 1948, pp. 244-275).
M. Klein, professor at the Strasbourg medicine faculty, took care to point out that his first statement had been submitted "to the reading and scrutiny of Robert Weil, professor of science at Sarreguemines lycée," who had been interned in the same camps as himself (p. 455).
In 1985, at Ernst Zündel's first trial in Toronto, I spoke of M. Klein's recollections but the real specialist on the history of the Auschwitz I swimming pool was at that time none other than the Swedish revisionist Dietlieb Felderer. If I remember correctly, the Canadian press headlined an article on his testimony about it. Moreover, in his writings he often returns to this and other quite concrete, quite precise subjects just as disquieting for the supporters of the exterminationist argument.
N.B. The water of the swimming pool can obviously be used by firemen in case of emergency. In his booklet, M. Klein wrote that "there were firemen at the camp with very modern equipment" (p. 9). Amongst the things that he had not expected to find on arriving, in June 1944, "at a camp whose sinister reputation was known to the whole world thanks to the Allied radio broadcasts," one may note, for the detainees, "a hospital with sections specialised in line with the most modern hospital practices" (p. 4), "vast and well fitted-out wash houses along with communal W.C.'s built according to the modern principles of sanitary hygiene" (p. 10), "the micro-wave delousing process which had just been created" (p. 14), "the mechanical bakery" (p. 15) the legal aid for the detainees (pp. 16-17), the existence of "dietetic cooking" for some of the sick, with "special soups and even a special bread" (p. 26), "a library where numerous reference works, classic textbooks, and periodicals could be found" (p. 27), the daily rolling by, next to the camp, of "the Krakow-Berlin express" (p. 29), a cinema, a cabaret, an orchestra (p. 31), etc. M. Klein also notes the horrible aspects of life in the camp and all the rumours, including the "horrific stories" of gassings which he seems not really to have believed until after the war, and then only thanks to the testimonies in the "various trials of war criminals" (p. 7).
Addendum of 27 July. A wartime detainee and, like M. Klein and R. Weil, a Jew himself, confirmed, in a short testimony written in 1997 entitled "Une Piscine à Auschwitz," that he saw, in July 1944, dozens of his fellow prisoners busy at work on the said pool which, he pointed out, had "a diving board and an access ladder"; he could have added "along with three starting blocks for races." He wrote that towards the end of that month "a newsreel director had some deportees filmed swimming there." As one might expect, he enlivened his account with the regular stereotypes of the SS men's or kapos' brutality and he saw in the making both of the pool and of the film nothing but a propaganda operation. His report ends with two interesting remarks. First, that in 1997 no guide was "aware" of the pool (which nonetheless was before the guides' very eyes and of which a photograph accompanies the article: we read that this picture, showing a swimming pool full of water, was taken in that year) and that the author would like to know just where the newsreel might be today. His question is akin to those put by some revisionists: might the film not be "at the headquarters of the International Red Cross"? Doubtless he meant: at the International Tracing Service (ITS) located at Arolsen-Waldeck in Germany and operating under the direction of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), with headquarters in Geneva. Since 1978, this body has barred revisionists from its archives, which are known to be an exceptionally rich resource. For its part, the Auschwitz State Museum probably possesses documentation relevant to various aspects of this swimming pool's construction, e.g. the project, the plans, the financing, the requests for and the supply of building materials, the requisition of labourers, the inspection visits.
(Reference for this account: R. Esrail, registration no. 173295, « Une piscine à Auschwitz », in Après Auschwitz (Bulletin de l'Amicale des déportés d'Auschwitz), n° 264/octobre 1997, p. 10).
Swimming Pool, Auschwitz Camp, June 1996. ‘Inmates from Auschwitz and surrounding camps enjoyed swimming and sunbathing beside the pool on Saturday and Sunday afternoons. Although not as popular as sports like soccer, some competition was organized where inmates from different countries of origin, and different camps, raced in individual and relay events.’ Above photo and caption from http://www.air-photo.com, below photo provided by an anonymous donor.
Postby Zulu » 5 years 10 months ago (Sat Sep 14, 2013 4:57 pm)
Hannover wrote: Swimming Pool, Auschwitz Camp, June 1996. ‘Inmates from Auschwitz and surrounding camps enjoyed swimming and sunbathing beside the pool on Saturday and Sunday afternoons. Although not as popular as sports like soccer, some competition was organized where inmates from different countries of origin, and different camps, raced in individual and relay events.
About that swimming pool, there is also the testimony of Alfred Nakache, a French jewish swimming champion who was deported to Auschwitz. He returned to France and participated to the Olympic Games of London in 1948. His biography doesnt' miss mandatory melodramatic inserts like
No doubt helped by an exceptional physical constitution, he withstood all abuses, including the humiliation imposed by the guards who forced him to pick with his teeth a dagger they threw in the bottom of the pool (actually a reservoir of water due to fires). His own Resistance was to defy his tormentors by improvising without their knowledge sessions in the swimming pool with a few friends.
Le Nageur d’Auschwitz, Documentary by Christian Meunier, 2001
http://www.filmsdocumentaires.com/films ... -auschwitz
Extract: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rDcEyMPD3Jc
http://www.la-croix.com/Actualite/Sport ... -25-740217
Also a Book: Alfred Nakache, Le Nageur d’Auschwitz by Denis Baud
http://www.amazon.com/Alfred-Nakache-na ... 1379194127
Postby cold beer » 5 years 9 months ago (Mon Sep 30, 2013 6:40 pm)
Hannover wrote: Apparently it's not known exactly when the sign was made, my guess would be after the demise of the USSR and the Polish labor / transfer camps became more available for scrutiny. Here's some good information about this laughable "fire brigade reservoir".
Thanks for the reply, I found this interesting...
The daily rolling by, next to the camp, of "the Krakow-Berlin express"
I wonder if they would have been able to see the big open pit cremation fires blazing away at Birkenau as they rolled by.
Barrington James
Postby Barrington James » 5 years 8 months ago (Fri Nov 01, 2013 12:20 pm)
Friday, November 15th 9:00 am and 12 noon at Ray Friel 2.
Saturday, November 16th 8:00 am at Ray Friel 2.
Please pardon my late contribution, but has anyone mentioned the fact that when it became obvious to the Nazis that they would very soon have to abandon Auschwitz to the rapidly approaching Soviet army , they gave the internees a choice: come with us back to Germany and Bergen-Belsen, or wait here for the Soviets. Otto Frank who survived the holocaust, and his family, including Anne and Margot who died there, and Eli Wiesel and his family who all survived the Holocaust , and most of the other internees all chose to go with the Nazis back to Germany. Unfortunately for them typhus and /or starvation were killing hundreds of internees at BB every day and would continue to do so for six weeks after the Nazis turned the camp over to the British. The Brits could not stop the dying, either despite the fact they had DDT, water, food, medicine , doctors and nurses, and relatively good sanitation.
But the point is that Auschwitz and the Nazis could not have been the place nor the people that the naive have been led to believe , whether Auschwitz had, as we believe, a swimming pool, a library, a brothel, playing fields, relatively good food, medical care, and several orchestras or not.
You can fool too many of the people most of the time.
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Pension Inequality
Mr Bob Seely (Isle of Wight) (Con)
1. What steps the Government are taking to support women facing pension inequality. [911870]
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (Will Quince)
Before I respond, may I say, on behalf of our Front-Bench team and, I hope, of the whole House, how proud we are of the Lionesses for their exceptionally inspirational performance in the women’s World cup?
Recent state pension reforms have meant that by 2030 more than 3 million women will be £550 a year better off on average. Automatic enrolment has helped to equalise workplace pension participation, and the Government’s gender inequality road map sets out our proposals to tackle financial instability in later life.
Mr Seely
Equalising the pension age has been very painful. We understand the reasons for it, but it is very painful for many of my constituents—females born in the 1950s. What has the Minister’s Department done to mitigate against that? What more can be done to avoid hardship for that age group?
My hon. Friend is a strong advocate for his constituents. This Government have already introduced transitional arrangements costing £1.1 billion; this concession reduced the proposed increase in state pension age for more than 450,000 men and women, and means that no woman will see her pension age change by more than 18 months, relative to the original Pensions Act 1995 timetable. For those experiencing hardship, the welfare system continues to provide a safety net, with a range of benefits tailored to individual circumstances.
Chi Onwurah (Newcastle upon Tyne Central) (Lab)
The Minister must recognise that, particularly for working-class women in the north-east who started work earlier, sometimes at the age of 14 or 15, and are in manual trades, which take a huge toll on the body, this pension inequality is really affecting lives. What is he doing to meet the just claims of the WASPI—Women Against State Pension Inequality Campaign—women and provide support for those women so disproportionately affected?
As I say, the Government have already introduced transitional arrangements costing £1.1 billion. We have considered the alternative options and found that there are substantial practical, financial and legal problems with all alternative options offered by stakeholders so far to mitigate the impact on those affected.
Alison Thewliss (Glasgow Central) (SNP)
In addition to the Lionesses, will the Minister also congratulate the Scottish women’s football team on their efforts and wish the Scottish Thistles netball team all the best in the netball world cup, which is coming up this week?
The WASPI women have already been cheated out of their pensions by this and previous Governments, but a further issue is emerging, with the Association of British Insurers talking of £20 billion of unclaimed pensions, in 1.6 million pension pots. That will disproportionately affect women, as they are more likely to have changed jobs multiple times during their careers. What is the Minister going to do to make sure that those women do not also lose out on pensions to which they should be entitled, in unclaimed pension pots?
I will certainly echo the comments made by the hon. Lady about those sporting teams in Scotland. Her question is better related to the Pensions Minister, so I will ensure that he responds fully to the points she raises. However, I would say, on WASPI women, that any amendment to the current legislation that creates a new inequality between men and women would be unquestionably highly dubious as a matter of law, and the Government’s position on the changes to the state pension age remains clear and consistent.
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SIDS research confirms changes in babies' brain chemistry
Posted on Sep 15 2017 by a1223903
The University of Adelaide researchers have confirmed that abnormalities in a common brain chemical are linked to sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS).
In the first study of its kind looking at babies outside the United States, researchers from the University of Adelaide’s Adelaide Medical School investigated 41 cases of SIDS deaths and discovered striking abnormalities in chemical serotonin within the brain.
Serotonin, otherwise known as 5-HT, is a neurotransmitter found in different parts of the human body, including the central nervous system. Among its many roles, serotonin is involved in the regulation of sleep, and also control of the cardiovascular and respiratory systems.
This latest research, published in the Journal of Neuropathology & Experimental Neurology, confirms and supports the concept that brainstem dysfunction, resulting in significantly altered serotonin expression, is associated with some SIDS deaths.
SIDS is the sudden unexpected death of an infant under one year of age that cannot be explained after a thorough investigation, including an autopsy. It is the leading cause of death in infants between one month and one year of age in Australia and the developed world.
The research was conducted by PhD student Dr Fiona Bright under the supervision of the University of Adelaide Professor of Pathology Roger Byard. Dr Bright graduated with her PhD earlier this week.
Her work builds on research conducted in the United States at the Boston Children’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, where Dr Bright was based for 18 months during her combined studies.
"Our research is significant because it has confirmed that abnormalities in serotonin in the brain are most definitely linked to cases of SIDS. This helps to support the findings of the American research," Dr Bright says.
"Serotonin is a key neurochemical that plays an important role in the control and management of the complex respiratory, cardiovascular and autonomic systems within the human infant brainstem.
"Our research suggests that alterations in these neurochemicals may contribute to brainstem dysfunction during a critical postnatal developmental period. As a result, this could lead to an inability of a SIDS infant to appropriately respond to life-threatening events, such as lack of oxygen supply during sleep.
"Notably, the SIDS cases we studied were all linked to at least one major risk factor for SIDS, with more than half of the infants found in an adverse sleeping position and having had an illness one month prior to death," Dr Bright says.
Professor Byard says: "Better understanding of the complex role of these neurochemicals, and the exact causes of their dysfunction in the brain, will help future research to develop potential biomarkers for infants at increased risk of SIDS.
"Ultimately, we hope that this work will lead to improved prevention strategies, helping to save baby's lives and the emotional trauma experienced by many families."
This research was funded under a Fellowship established by the River’s Gift SIDS charity.
"River’s Gift’s primary objective is to fund world-leading SIDS research to make a tangible contribution to the discovery of a cure for this heart-breaking loss of life," says River’s Gift General Manager Karl Waddell.
"The University of Adelaide research is a significant step towards achieving that objective."
Tagged in Research
← The Dr Roneal Naidu Memorial Prize 2017
2017 Florey Postgraduate Research Conference Prize Winners →
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Make the lie big, make it simple, keep saying it, and eventually they will believe it. — Adolf Hitler
Heroes and Heroic Deeds of the Great War - D. A. Mackenzie
Battles with Sea-Raiders
Several German war-vessels conducted raids upon British shipping. The most notorious of these was the cruiser Emden, which was under the command of Captain von Muller. It could steam at 24 knots an hour, carried twelve 4-inch guns, and had a crew of 361.
Shortly after war commenced she slipped out from the German port of Tsing-tao, in China. Then for about three months she roved the seas, obtaining coal and supplies from steamers that were met at various places by appointment. Guided by spies, and wireless telegraphic messages from Germany, she suddenly appeared, early in September, in the Bay of Bengal while British war-ships were conducting transports with Indian soldiers towards the Suez Canal.
Among the first of the Emden's victims was a British trading-steamer. One day her captain received a wireless message, asking if he knew anything of a German cruiser in the Bay. He replied: "It does not exist." To his astonishment he was then informed: "Oh yes, it does! I am It." Soon afterwards the Emden, from which this humorous and tantalizing message had been sent, hove in sight. The captain and crew of the trader were arrested and taken off and the vessel was sunk. Five other steamers were disposed of in like manner. A seventh was captured and used as a prison ship. Captain von Muller was very courteous, and on each occasion apologized for having to send the vessels to the bottom. He waited for the City of Rangoon, a large liner, which was to sail from Calcutta, but the authorities were warned of the Emden's presence in the Bay of Bengal by an Italian captain, and her sailing was postponed.
On 22nd September the German cruiser began to bombard Madras. But the forts opened fire on her and she retired speedily.
Two oil tanks were ignited by shells and three persons were killed. On the last day of the month five vessels were sunk by the Emden off Ceylon.
H.M.S. Yarmouth went in pursuit of the raider and captured two of her supply-ships. The Emden managed, however, to double back and captured seven vessels. Five were sunk, and 7000 tons of coal taken off one of them. On 27th October a Japanese liner was sunk near Singapore.
Next day the German raider appeared off the picturesque British town of Penang, on Prince of Wales Island, at the north entrance of the Straits of Malacca. The people there had been anxiously awaiting news of her capture. H.M.S. Yarmouth, which was using the port as a base, was known to be searching for her.
Dawn was breaking when the sound of big-gun firing broke out suddenly like a tropical thunderstorm. Windows rattled, and here and there panes were shivered to pieces. The whole town was awakened, and along the shore many heads were thrust out from windows to ascertain what was happening.
A grey mist hung over the sea, and everything was blurred and indistinct.
"What is happening?" someone asked gruffly.
"Battle practice, I suppose," suggested another.
There were a few war-ships in the bay—a small Russian cruiser, a French gunboat, and two torpedo-boats.
"The Russian is firing heavily," said the first speaker; "but what other vessel is that coming in and blazing away?"
Through the scattering mist loomed the dark hull of a war-ship with four funnels.
"It must be the Yarmouth," the other remarked.
"That's a German cruiser," a woman exclaimed excitedly. "Don't you see it's firing at the Russian. There—a shot has struck." A cloud of black smoke obscured the small cruiser for a few seconds.
"It can't be the Emden," urged the man who thought the new arrival was the Yarmouth. "The Emden has only three funnels."
This was quite true. But Captain von Muller had rigged up a sham extra funnel to mislead those who sighted his vessel, which approached the bay at full speed, flying the British flag. Suddenly the British flag was hauled down and the German one hoisted. Then the firing commenced.
When the spectators on shore—who had been roused from sleep by the thunder of the guns—realized that a German vessel was giving battle the excitement became intense. As the sky brightened they obtained a better view of the approaching war-ship. It kept up a fierce cannonade, and the shells fell thick about the Russian cruiser. Volumes of smoke drifted across the waters, and sometimes the contending vessels were completely obscured. It soon became evident that the Russian was doomed. The German vessel was more than a match for her. Indeed the fire from the Russian was slow and inaccurate compared with that of the Emden.
But all the German shots were not well placed. Occasionally a shell landed on the beach. One burst over a house, but fortunately no one was injured by the scattering fragments.
"Surely the German is not going to bombard the town," exclaimed a stout man who had been leaning out at an open window and started back suddenly as the shell crashed above the roof.
"Where in the world is the Yarmouth?" growled a friend who had entered the room. "Look! look!" cried the stout man's wife as she peered towards the harbour; "the Russian cruiser is on fire."
Through the smoke haze a tongue of crimson flame was seen shooting up from the doomed vessel, which had begun to sink. Shells continued to burst on it and near it, and for a time it was completely hidden in the heavy clouds of black smoke. When the air cleared again the Russian had vanished.
"She has gone!" cried a woman with trembling voice.
"Sunk to the bottom," her husband said, horror-stricken and amazed.
"Will the Yarmouth never come!" exclaimed someone anxiously.
"Where is the Yarmouth?" men asked one another.
Several people rushed to boats to rescue the Russians who were seen swimming about in the harbour. One volunteer, who had hastily dressed himself in his uniform, took command of a steam ferry-boat and was the means of saving a good many lives.
The Emden made no attack on the town. She began to retire slowly about 6 a.m., and when nearly 3 miles out seemed to linger as if looking for some expected vessel. A British steamer was stopped, but after a short period was allowed to pass in to the harbour. Then at 7:20 more firing was heard.
"Has the Yarmouth returned?" many asked.
In a few minutes the firing ceased. It appears that a French torpedo-boat had been out scouting. When the Emden was sighted the daring commander raced against her at full speed, endeavouring to get within torpedo-range. A shower of shells pounded his vessel to pieces, and the Frenchman went down like a diving whale. Everyone on board perished. Then the Emden steamed away, and faded on the horizon.
But by this time the days of the German raider were numbered. British, French, Russian, and Japanese cruisers were searching for her. One November morning she approached the Cocos or Keeling group of islands to obtain a supply of fuel from a collier which she had arranged to meet there.
These islands are situated in the Indian Ocean, south of Sumatra, and were discovered by Captain William Keeling in 1609. Their "king" owes allegiance to Great Britain. He is the great-grandson of Captain Ross, an adventurous Scotsman who deserted from the British navy in the eighteenth century and for several years led the life of a privateer. He afterwards settled on Direction Island, and became "king" of a mixed community of run-away Malay slaves and others. One of the curiosities of the Cocos is a great and wonderful land-crab which can climb trees and open coconuts. It is referred to by Darwin in his Voyage of the "Beagle".
The Cocos group is now of great importance as a link of Empire. Direction Island is the headquarters of the Eastern Extension Cable Company, whose employees there number about 200. The cables connect Australia and other eastern countries with the rest of the world. There is also a wireless station, which is of great service to the British navy.
As soon as the Emden arrived off Direction Island, Captain von Muller sent out an armed party to cut the cables and destroy the wireless station. But before the Germans were able to render the wireless instruments useless a brief message, intimating the arrival of the Emden, was tapped out by a cool-headed operator. It was picked up and transmitted hither and thither. Ere the wireless station was destroyed the Emden's presence at the Cocos was known as far off as Melbourne.
Fortunately H.M. Australian cruiser Sydney was at the time scouring the seas for German raiders, and acting in consort with other war-ships to protect the trade routes. A transport carrying British troops to Egypt was only about 100 miles distant from the Cocos on that fateful day.
A rather curious fact may here be mentioned regarding the Sydney. Its commander had arranged the night before that battle practice should be held, beginning at 9:30 a.m. About 7 a.m. came the wireless telegraphic message regarding the Emden's arrival at the Cocos. The Sydney at once hastened to meet her, getting up a speed of 20 knots. It made a record dash, and its gunners began to give battle at 9:40 a.m. Little did they think on the previous night, that their target was to be a German cruiser.
The Emden was anchored beside the collier, and the landing-party was engaged wrecking the wireless station when the Sydney's smoke appeared on the horizon. Captain von Muller at once gave orders to get to sea and clear for action. He was not certain of the four-funneled cruiser's identity. At first he thought it was the Yarmouth. Then an officer perceived that it flew the Australian flag. The captain smiled. "If she's an Australian," he declared, "I'll sink her." Apparently he was not aware that several of the gun-layers on board had served in the Imperial navy, and that the Australian "tars", as a whole, were quite smart, although mostly young.
The Emden got up speed and went briskly into the fight. Her first three shots struck the Sydney. One of them destroyed the range-finder, which was rather unfortunate. Another pierced the side of the Australian cruiser and fell back into the sea. A stoker who was standing in the wardroom got a glimpse of the nose of the shell coming through. He scampered away to escape the explosion, and when he returned saw only a handy "peep-hole", which gave him glimpses of the battle. The Sydney's armour-plate was too thick for the Emden's shots. An officer on deck had a narrow escape. A shell whizzed over his head, displaced his cap, and killed a man behind him.
All this happened in a few seconds. With her eight 6-inch guns the Sydney was more than a match for the German with her twelve 4-inch guns. Ere long the Australian gunners got the range, and their shells did great havoc. First the Emden's foremost funnel went down; then her fore mast followed with a crash. How the young bluejackets cheered! Then the second funnel was swept away. Again they cheered.
"Keep cool, boys!" exclaimed the older hands.
"Bang, bang, bang!" went the Sydney's guns.
"There goes the last funnel!" shouted the Australians, some of whom were not more than eighteen years old.
The Sydney was being cleverly manoeuvred. She was able for most of the time to keep out of range of the Emden's guns. During the hour and a half that the battle continued she covered about 56 miles and increased her speed to 26 knots. Down below stokers and engineers worked with tremendous energy. The chief engineer was suffering from appendicitis, but he stuck to his post grimly, and never spared himself.
The Emden made a vain effort to escape northward, but the Sydney hung on to her like a British bulldog. At length the stern of the German was shattered, and she began to settle down. She was consequently turned towards the beach on North Keeling Island, steaming at 19 knots, and grounded with such violence that the man at the steering-wheel was killed.
The Sydney fired two broadsides in rapid succession, wrecking the last of the Emden's guns, and then turned away to follow the collier, which by this time had taken flight. In less than an hour this vessel was overtaken and ordered to "heave to". She turned out to be a captured British steamer, named the Buresk, which had been manned by an alien crew consisting chiefly of Germans and Chinamen. When the Australian "tars" boarded her she was found to be in a sinking condition, for the German officers had opened and damaged the sea-cocks. After taking off the entire crew the Sydney hastened the end of the Buresk by pounding her with four shells.
The Emden was again visited towards evening. "She still had her colours at the mainmast-head," Captain Glossop of the Sydney has reported. "I enquired by signal, International Code, 'Will you surrender?' and received a reply in Morse: 'What signal? No signal-books.' I then made in Morse: 'Do you surrender?' and subsequently: 'Have you received my signal?' to neither of which did I get any answer. The German officers on board (who had been taken prisoners off the collier) gave me to understand that the captain would never surrender, and therefore, though very reluctantly, I again fired at her at 4:30 p.m., ceasing at 4:35, as she showed white flags and hauled down her ensign by sending a man aloft."
By this time it was growing dark, and the Sydney turned away to pick up two boats from the collier. Then Captain Glossop sent a boat to the Emden saying he would return to give assistance next morning. It was unknown whether or not the German cruiser Konigsberg was in the vicinity.
Meanwhile the armed landing-party which had destroyed the wireless station on Direction Island, having seen the Emden disposed of, seized a small schooner, named the Ayesha, and set sail for the open sea.
Next morning the Emden was boarded by the Australian victors. She presented a terrible spectacle. The deck was strewn with the mangled bodies of nearly 200 men. Only one gunner remained alive. All the survivors were suffering badly from thirst.
The first British officer who boarded saluted Captain von Muller and said: "I think you fought splendidly, sir;" and received in answer a gruff "No." So he turned away. The Emden's captain, after a few minutes had elapsed, walked after the Sydney's officer and said: "It was very kind of you to say we fought splendidly. I was not satisfied myself, and still think we could have done much better. It was lucky for you that at the very outset one of your shells destroyed our voice pipes."
The whole day was spent removing the wounded and prisoners to the Sydney. Among the latter was a German prince, a relative of the Kaiser's, who was serving on the Emden as a junior officer. He had taken refuge in the torpedo-room. When brought out, after the battle had ended, it was thought he was dead. But he had only fainted.
One of the most remarkable happenings in connection with the fight was the rescue of a German sailor. He was one of seven who had been blown overboard by the explosion of a shell from the Sydney. For eight hours he kept afloat in the shark-infested sea before he was observed and picked up. His escape from death seemed a miracle.
Among the heroes of the Sydney were two Australian boys who had volunteered for active service from a training-ship a few weeks previously. Captain Glossop did not want them, but, as they were keen and enthusiastic, decided to accept their services. An officer relates as follows how they conducted themselves during the fight with the Emden: "One little slip of a boy did not turn a hair, and worked splendidly. The other boy, a very sturdy youngster, carried projectiles from the hoist to his gun throughout the action without so much as thinking of cover. I do think, for two boys absolutely new to their work, they were simply splendid."
THE LAST OF THE EMDEN.
The German cruiser Konigsberg, which had vanished from Far East waters, fled to German East Africa. She was located hiding in shoal water about 6 miles up a river opposite Mafia Island. Part of her crew landed and entrenched themselves. H.M.S. Chatham bombarded the concealed raider and rendered her unseaworthy. The British commander also took the precaution of sinking colliers in the only navigable channel, completely blocking it. So ended the career of another German raider.
Lord Kitchener
General Joffre
Field-Marshall French
Matchless Fighting-Men
A Group of Heroes
Brave French Boys
Indians' Daring Feats
The Fighting Flying-Men
The Light Side of War
Heroic Army Doctors
Admiral Lord Jellicoe
Humane, Fearless Seamen
How Oceans were Made Free
The Heroes of Gallipoli
British Military Ascendancy
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Fresh Perspectives on Higher Learning
Mamie Voight
Vice President of Policy Research, Institute for Higher Education Policy
Mamie Voight is the vice president of policy research at the Institute for Higher Education Policy (IHEP). She leads IHEP’s projects on affordability, transparency, and postsecondary data policy and works with the organization’s senior leadership team to inform the strategic direction of the organization. Voight and the policy research team launched and manage the Postsecondary Data Collaborative (PostsecData), which brings organizations together to advocate for the use of high-quality postsecondary data to advance student success and educational equity. At IHEP, she has co-authored more than 10 reports and briefs on higher education topics.
Before joining IHEP, Voight was a research and policy analyst and assistant director for research and policy at The Education Trust (Ed Trust), an organization that works to promote high academic achievement for all students, with a particular emphasis on closing opportunity and achievement gaps. At Ed Trust, she researched college access, success, and affordability issues, advocated for policies that would enhance equity in America’s higher education system, and was lead author on several publications.
Before entering the field of education policy, she worked as an engineering consultant for departments of transportation in multiple states. Voight holds her B.S. in civil engineering from Villanova University, her M.S. in civil engineering from the University of Delaware, and her M.P.P. from Georgetown University.
Authored Posts
Why Better Data Holds the Key to Improving Student Outcomes: A Q&A with Mamie Voight of the Institute for Higher Education Policy
Mamie Voight May 16, 2019
Insights & Outlooks: How has the national conversation around outcomes in higher education evolved in recent years?Mamie Voight: For…
Learn about our staff contributors and submission guidelines
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Dyche continues to buck trends with very British Burnley
Coach thinks teams do not need to invest in a foreign legion
Published: May 06, 2019 13:33 Reuters
Sean Dyche Image Credit: Reuters
Burnley: In the cosmopolitan Premier League, with around two thirds of regular starting players drawn from across the globe, Burnley are unusual for their reliance on English players and manager Sean Dyche says that is unlikely to change next season.
The Clarets have secured Premier League football for a fourth straight season with a regular starting line-up that features nine Englishmen, an Irishman and a New Zealander.
While he will look to strengthen the Burnley squad this close-season, Dyche thinks the notion that investing in European players is an automatic route to success is flawed thinking.
“You don’t have to look very far this season for clubs that have spent heavily in Europe and they’ve gone down,” Dyche said at Burnley’s training centre.
Fulham invested over £100 million (Dh481 million) in multinational players while Huddersfield Town’s more modest outlay was also focused mainly on European players.
“There’s a bit of a myth that you pre-suppose every European player is better than every English player. And it’s dying a little bit now because there’s obviously a resurgence in the [England] national side, the Under-19s, the Under-20s and so on,” he added.
Dyche believes the demands of the Premier League mean technical skill is not sufficient to succeed in England’s high-tempo, physical game.
“Our club don’t want to take a gamble, so they don’t want to sign a £15 million French player who’s never played in the Premier League, who’s 21, and then that ends up being a £4 million French player going back the other way,” he said.
“If you look through the Premier League there are a lot of those stories.” Burnley’s squad does feature some European talent but their most expensive signing, Belgium international Steven Defour, struggled initially to adapt to the physical demands of the Premier League before shining last season.
“That was a top, top player for a club like Burnley who still took six months to get used to it ... and he’s no mug,” said Dyche.
“It is not easy to adapt and the thing is we haven’t got that much time you can’t spend £30 million on two European players who then take eight months to get involved in what we do.
“But the big clubs can, they can carry those players for an amount of time,” he said.
Dyche’s side have gained a reputation for playing what some view, in the era of Pep Guardiola and the preference for short passing, as ‘old school’ English football — a 4-4-2 formation, solid defending and a tendency to play quickly to their forwards.
While that image ignores some of the good football Burnley have played at times under Dyche, the 47-year-old former lower league defender, makes no apologies for his approach.
“I don’t want just pure roll out of the back four. I want productive mixed play ... how many ways can you affect a game?
“Manchester United at their pomp, they could fight it out, they could play their way out of it, they could counter attack, they could win with a set piece. They were fit, they were strong, all the things you want to represent a very good football side,” he said.
“We try many different ways of working but you do get put in a box sometimes, that is just one of them things and it is certainly not something I lose sleep over.” The results for a club that spent four decades out of the top flight speak for themselves, with Dyche twice taking Burnley out of the Championship before three seasons of stability in the Premier League.
“Six and a half years, the change in this football club is enormous, enormous. You can’t just put that on to ‘oh they just get the ball forward’ because you need to see the whole thing to know what we actually do,” he said.
Dyche’s work is certainly appreciated by the club’s fans who showed little discontent, even when the team was in the bottom three at the halfway stage this season.
“I think there is an earthiness to this area and that is a positive thing,” said Dyche.
“I think they trust me. I tell them every season is going to be a tough season but not in a negative way. They have been fantastic this season because they could easily have cracked against the team and gone ‘right change everything’.
“They knew this team deserved the credit of them standing by them and they have been rewarded because since Christmas we have been first class.”
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about: All Jennifer Lopez’s shows are always doomed to success! She conquered stadiums and palaces with thousands of fans who adore her energetic rhythm and dynamic dances. What a great idea to book the tickets at GuruTickets, reserve your energy and make for area with J-Lo concert and enjoy the most fantastic performance.
View Jennifer Lopez concert list 2019
Jennifer Lopez Tour Schedule
Jenny from the block is stirring up a lot of hype for her residency at Planet Hollywood’s The Axis theater in Las Vegas! Performing her greatest hits in one of the greatest cities, this is one concert experience you don’t want to miss. Check out the J-Lo performance schedule above, and decide on a date to see this legend live!
About Jennifer Lopez
J-Lo is the quintessential Renaissance woman, and she’s only getting bigger and better. With her latest Hollywood hit, The Boy Next Door and her upcoming TV series Shades of Blue, Jenny is owning the entertainment industry. After all, she is the highest paid Latin star with over fifty million records sold worldwide!
Songs on J. Lo tour dates are performed in both English and Spanish, proving the multi-cultural appeal of this unique artist, and she often highlights hits from her back catalog. Comparisons to artists such as Mariah Carey(tickets here), Britney Spears have been rampant in recent years, but Lopez remains an icon to both the Latin and the English-speaking communities.
Jenny from the block owns both clothing and jewelry lines, and even a swish restaurant in a glitzy area of Pasadena, California. Together with her film appearances and music, she constitutes a veritable powerhouse of industriousness. Her timeless music is the fruit of years of dedication and discipline, from teenage singing and dance lessons, to appearances on TV shows and working as a backing singer for Janet Jackson.
Jennifer Lopez tickets will not last long, so secure your seats soon to her residency in Las Vegas! It’s sure to be the party of a lifetime.
Jennifer Lopez Discography
On the 6 (1999)
J.Lo (2001)
This Is Me… Then (2002)
Rebirth (2005)
Como Ama una Mujer (2007)
Love? (2011)
A.K.A. (2014)
Posted in ConcertTagged Hip hop, Latin, Pop, R&B
11 Ideas What Show to Visit at Next Week
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Andy Devine
Andy's Gang
Andrew Vabre Devine (October 7, 1905 – February 18, 1977) was an American character actor known for his distinctive raspy, crackly voice and roles in Western films.wikipedia
The Roy Rogers ShowRogersthe famous cowboy
He is probably best remembered for his role as Cookie, the sidekick of Roy Rogers in 10 feature films. His notable roles included Cookie, Roy Rogers's sidekick, in 10 films; a role in Romeo and Juliet (1936), and Danny in A Star Is Born (1937).
His productions usually featured a sidekick, often Pat Brady, Andy Devine, George "Gabby" Hayes, or Smiley Burnette.
Dale EvansAndy DevineTrigger (horse)Pat Brady (actor)Smiley Burnette
(The Man Who Shot) Liberty Valencefilm of the same nameThe Man Who Shot Liberty Valance'' (1962)
He also appeared alongside John Wayne in films like Stagecoach (1939), The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance and How the West Was Won (both 1962). He appeared in several films with John Wayne, including Stagecoach (1939), Island in the Sky (1953), and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962).
The supporting cast features Vera Miles, Lee Marvin, Edmond O'Brien, Andy Devine, John Carradine, Woody Strode, Strother Martin, and Lee Van Cleef.
John FordJohn WayneVera MilesAndy DevineEdmond O'Brien
A Star Is Born (1937 film)
A Star Is Born1937 film of the same name1937
He is also remembered as Jingles on the TV series The Adventures of Wild Bill Hickok from 1951 to 1958, as Danny McGuire in A Star Is Born (1937) and as the voice of Friar Tuck in the Disney Animation film Robin Hood (1973). His notable roles included Cookie, Roy Rogers's sidekick, in 10 films; a role in Romeo and Juliet (1936), and Danny in A Star Is Born (1937).
The supporting cast features Adolphe Menjou, May Robson, Andy Devine, Lionel Stander, and Owen Moore.
Robert Carson (writer)Janet GaynorAndy DevineAdolphe MenjouA Star Is Born (1954 film)
Stagecoach (1939 film)
Stagecoach1939 filmStagecoach'' (1939 film)
When the stage driver, Buck (Andy Devine), looks for his shotgun guard, Marshal Curly Wilcox (George Bancroft) tells him that the guard is off searching for a fugitive.
John FordWestern (genre)Claire TrevorJohn WayneDudley Nichols
Island in the Sky (1953 film)
Island in the SkyIsland in the Sky'' (1953 film)movie of the same name
He appeared in several films with John Wayne, including Stagecoach (1939), Island in the Sky (1953), and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962).
Unlike most Wayne movies, the picture is an ensemble piece, also featuring Andy Devine, Lloyd Nolan, James Arness, and Paul Fix.
Andy DevineWilliam A. WellmanJohn WayneJames ArnessJimmy Lydon
Zebra in the Kitchen
His film appearances in his later years included roles in Zebra in the Kitchen (1965), The Over-the-Hill Gang (1969), and Myra Breckinridge (1970).
It also stars Martin Milner and Andy Devine, with co-stars Joyce Meadows and Jim Davis.
Jay NorthAndy DevineIvan TorsJim Davis (actor)Martin Milner
Romeo and Juliet (1936 film)
Romeo and Juliet19361936 film
His notable roles included Cookie, Roy Rogers's sidekick, in 10 films; a role in Romeo and Juliet (1936), and Danny in A Star Is Born (1937).
The film stars Leslie Howard as Romeo and Norma Shearer as Juliet, and the supporting cast features John Barrymore, Basil Rathbone, and Andy Devine.
George CukorRomeo and JulietTalbot JenningsAndy DevineLon McCallister
He was a long-time contract player with Universal, which in 1939 paired him with Richard Arlen for a series of fast-paced B-pictures (usually loaded with stock footage) that mixed action and comedy; they made 14 over a two-year period.
In 1939, Universal teamed him with Andy Devine for a series of 14 B-pictures, mostly action-comedies with heavy reliance on stock footage from larger-scale films.
Wings (1927 film)Andy DevineHoly Cross Cemetery, Culver CityRipcord (TV series)Jobyna Ralston
Robin Hood (1973 film)
Robin HoodDisney cartoon versionPrince John
He is also remembered as Jingles on the TV series The Adventures of Wild Bill Hickok from 1951 to 1958, as Danny McGuire in A Star Is Born (1937) and as the voice of Friar Tuck in the Disney Animation film Robin Hood (1973).
Robin Hood (Disney character)Phil HarrisAndy DevineRoger MillerKen Anderson (animator)
How the West Was Won (film)
How the West Was WonHow the West Was Won'' (film) How the West Was Won
He also appeared alongside John Wayne in films like Stagecoach (1939), The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance and How the West Was Won (both 1962).
Corporal Peterson (Andy Devine) assures them the conflict will not last very long.
Carroll BakerKarl MaldenDebbie ReynoldsGregory PeckEli Wallach
Hiya Kids!
He hosted Andy's Gang, a children's TV show, on NBC from 1955 to 1960.
Andy's Gang was a children's television program broadcast on NBC from August 20, 1955, to December 31, 1960, hosted by the actor Andy Devine.
Andy DevineBilly GilbertVito ScottiFroggy the GremlinPac-Man Fever (album)
Character actor
character actresscharacter rolescharacter role
Andrew Vabre Devine (October 7, 1905 – February 18, 1977) was an American character actor known for his distinctive raspy, crackly voice and roles in Western films.
Some character actors play essentially the same character over and over, as with Andy Devine's humorous but resourceful sidekick, while other actors, such as Sir Laurence Olivier, have the capacity of submerging themselves in any role they play.
Leading actorAndy DevineSupporting actorExtra (acting)Vincent Schiavelli
The Over-the-Hill Gang
Chill Wills, Edgar Buchanan, Andy Devine, and Jack Elam play supporting roles.
Andy DevineThe Over-the-Hill Gang Rides AgainBurt MustinWalter BrennanPat O'Brien (actor)
Guy Madison
Devine worked extensively in radio and is well remembered for his role as Jingles, Guy Madison's sidekick in The Adventures of Wild Bill Hickok, which the two actors reprised on television.
In 1951 he was cast as the title character in the television series The Adventures of Wild Bill Hickok (1951–58), co-starring Andy Devine as his pal, Pete "Jingles" Jones.
The Adventures of Wild Bill HickokHenry WillsonTill the End of Time (film)Honeymoon (1947 film)Texas, Brooklyn and Heaven
The Jack Benny ProgramBennyThe Jack Benny Show
Devine appeared over 75 times on Jack Benny's radio show between 1936 and 1942, often in Benny's semiregular series of Western sketches, "Buck Benny Rides Again".
Andy Devine – was a regular on the show during the late 1930s, for "Buck Benny Rides Again" sketches, a weekly spoof of cowboy Westerns. Devine always greeted Benny with the expression, "Hiya, Buck!"
Pat O'Brien (actor)Mary LivingstoneComic timingCBSNBC
Myra Breckinridge (film)
Myra Breckinridge1970 film of the same nameMyra Breckinridge'' (film)
Andy Devine as Coyote Bill
Raquel WelchFarrah FawcettRex ReedTom SelleckList of films considered the worst
Friar Tuck
TuckBrother Tuckfriar
In the 1973 Disney animated Robin Hood, Friar Tuck is a badger, voiced by Andy Devine.
Maid MarianMerry MenAlan-a-DaleThe Merry Adventures of Robin HoodAvon Saxon
Flipper (1964 TV series)
FlipperTV seriesFlipper'' television series
He played Hap Gorman, a character likewise given to tall tales, in five episodes of the NBC TV series Flipper, during its 1964 season.
Hap Gorman, Andy Devine appeared five times in the show's first season as an old salt and marine carpenter named Hap Gorman. Hap was something of a bungler who tried Porter's patience. Hap, in the traditional vein for Andy Devine, enjoyed spinning yarns and tall tales about bejeweled maharajahs, faraway kingdoms and exotic ports for the amusement of skeptical Sandy and gullible Bud.
Bottlenose dolphinLuke HalpinBrian Kelly (actor)Flipper's New AdventureFlipper (1963 film)
Pete Kelly's Blues (film)
Pete Kelly's Bluesmovie of the same namePete Kelly's Blues'' (film)
Devine was generally known for his comic roles, but Jack Webb cast him as a police detective in Pete Kelly's Blues (1955), for which Devine lowered his voice and was more serious than usual.
Detective George Tennel (Andy Devine), who is trying to take McCarg down, tries to enlist Kelly's help but is refused.
Peggy LeeJack WebbAcademy Award for Best Supporting ActressEdmond O'BrienJayne Mansfield
Pencil Thin Mustache
His name also appears in the song "Pencil Thin Mustache" by Jimmy Buffett, which describes the pop culture of his youth, and in Frank Zappa and The Mothers of Invention's song "Andy" on their 1975 album "One Size Fits All".
Buffett refers to a number of other persons, characters, and products of the period including Ricky Ricardo, Andy Devine, Sky (King)'s niece Penny, (American) Bandstand, Disneyland, Ramar of the Jungle, Bwana, flat top, dirty bop, Errol Flynn, the Sheik of Araby, and Brylcreem.
Living and Dying in 3/4 TimeAndy DevineBoston BlackieBuffett Live: Tuesdays, Thursdays, SaturdaysRamar of the Jungle
The All American (film)
The All AmericanThe All-AmericanThe All American'' (film)
The All American (1932) as Andy Moran
The film stars Richard Arlen, Andy Devine and Gloria Stuart.
Andy DevineRichard ArlenJames GleasonPreston FosterJune Clyde
KingmanArizona (Kingman)Hilltop
He grew up in Kingman, Arizona, where his family moved when he was one year old.
Andy Devine (1905–1977), actor, was raised in Kingman, where his father opened the Beale Hotel. One of the major streets of Kingman is named "Andy Devine Avenue" and the town holds the annual "Andy Devine Days".
Mohave County, ArizonaArizonaNew Kingman-Butler, ArizonaGolden Valley, ArizonaInterstate 40
The Barbara Stanwyck Show
He played the role of Jake Sloan in the 1961 episode "Big Jake" of the acclaimed anthology series The Barbara Stanwyck Show, also on NBC.
Barbara StanwyckAnthology seriesStuart RosenbergLeon AmesMichael Ansara
Law and Order (1932 film)
Law and OrderLaw and Order'' (1932 film)
Law and Order (1932) as Johnny Kinsman
Law and Order is a 1932 American pre-Code Western film starring Walter Huston, Harry Carey, Andy Devine, Russell Hopton and Russell Simpson.
Russell HoptonAndy DevineRussell Simpson (actor)Walter HustonJohn Huston
Three Wise Girls
Three Wise Girls (1932) as Jimmy Callahan, the chauffeur
The supporting cast features a young Andy Devine.
William BeaudineJean HarlowAndy DevineMae ClarkeMarie Prevost
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History Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for historians and history buffs. Join them; it only takes a minute:
Did the Ottoman government rationalize the Armenian Genocide and other instances of ethnic cleansing as a response to Russian expansion?
The course I took on Ottoman history was 2-3 years ago and relatively short, so please correct any and all inaccurate statements I make. Also, I want to emphasize that neither genocide nor ethnic cleansing is ever justified.
EDIT: I want to emphasize that the Armenian genocide should not be equated with the other instances of ethnic cleansing mentioned below. The people who are ultimately responsible for the Armenian genocide are and always will be the people who orchestrated it and implemented it. There was no justifiable excuse for those actions. The number of mass killings and systematic race- and religion-based murders was, to the best of my knowledge, at that time unprecedented. The Armenian genocide cannot itself be considered a "population transfer" inasmuch as the vast majority of Armenians were brutally and unjustifiably killed, rather than displaced. What I was trying to ask is whether the Young Turk government used, in part, Russian expansionism as a rationalization for their atrocities. Russia conquering the Ottoman empire still would have been a better outcome than what actually happened, namely the Ottoman government senselessly and brutally murdering millions of its own citizens. Rationalizations rarely, if ever, amount to legitimate excuses or justifications of the actions in question, and I believe that this case is no different. /EDIT
As I recall, after the Russian Empire's Caucasus War in the late 19th century, the Muslim Circassians were almost entirely displaced from the Caucasus, with the Ottoman Empire absorbing the majority of refugees.
1. Did the architects of the Armenian Genocide during World War I plan their actions in part as a reciprocal population transfer (i.e. to force Russia to absorb the Christian Armenians the same way Russia forced the Ottomans to absorb the Muslim Circassians)?
I remember reading that during World War I, all Armenians, even those loyal to the Ottoman Empire, were under suspicion by the government for being a "fifth column" supporting Russia. This paranoia was exacerbated by the participation of Russian Armenians in the War in the Caucasus Front.
The Armenian Genocide, by killing millions of people, vastly diminished the presence of Armenians in eastern Anatolia and caused their modern-day concentration in the Caucasus. This is the opposite of the effect of the Russian ethnic cleansing of the Circassians, which effectively removed the Circassians from the Caucasus and displaced them to Anatolia. Thus, combining the two events, it seems possible that it was another instance of reciprocal ethnic cleansing (euphemistically referred to as "population transfers") which occurred between the Ottoman Empire and its Christian neighbors (and former subjects) during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
2. To what extent can the reciprocal ethnic cleansings between the Ottoman Empire and Greece and Bulgaria, respectively, be traced to Russian influence?
I know that during this time period the Russian Empire wanted to project itself worldwide as the leader of all Orthodox Christians and all Slavic peoples, in part to justify their expansion at the expense of the Ottoman Empire.
It is well established that imperial Russia was one of the most fervent supporters of the Greek independence movement, with Catherine the Great trying to install her grandson as the King of Greece, and if I remember correctly Russian intervention playing a decisive role in a crucial naval battle.
Was the movement to oust Muslims from the newly independent Greece in part spurred on by imperial Russia wanting a client state more pliable to its claims of moral leadership of Orthodox Christians, which would have been undermined by a religiously diverse Greece?
Also I remember reading that Bulgarian nationalism was relatively non-existent outside of intellectual circles, and that as a result the political impetus for Bulgarian independence came primarily from Russian expansionism and concomitant military and political support for Slavic nationalist movements.
Was the reciprocal population transfer in Bulgaria also motivated by Russian desires for a more homogeneously Slavic and Orthodox Christian client state, i.e. so as to more effectively exert influence?
I remember being confused during the course about why ethnic tensions suddenly flared up in the Ottoman empire during this time period and why such extreme episodes of ethnic cleansing were suddenly acceptable to people who only centuries or decades before had seemingly very little to no sense of ethnic identity, much less nationalism.
Only recently did it occur to me that the sudden development of such "us vs. them" mentalities could have been provoked by the existential threat the expansion of the Russian empire posed to the Ottomans at the time (the dream of the former being to capture Istanbul/Constantinople and justify their claim of being the "Second Byzantium").
Of course Russian expansion at the expense of the Ottomans had been nothing new, with the Crimean Khanate being lost and the establishment of a Russian Black Sea fleet already occurring as early as the 18th century (I think), but only during the late 19th and early 20th centuries were the Russians really on the cusp of conquering Istanbul and Anatolia itself, with the only force preventing this from occurring being the interventions of the British.
(Although there was also the time when the Egyptian province almost conquered Istanbul, advancing all the way into Anatolia, and forcing the sultan to beg the Russians to intervene, since the British refused -- so at the point the Russians probably could have taken Istanbul under the guise of protecting it from the Egyptians but stopped short of doing so for unclear reasons.)
Only recently did it occur to me that there might be a connection between all of this and the Russian War in the Caucasus and the subsequent ethnic cleansing of the Circassians, prompting me to ask this question.
europe religion russia ottoman-empire ethnicity
Chill2Macht
asked Dec 5 '16 at 6:54
Chill2MachtChill2Macht
Even though what you say is mostly correct. I would not ignore the effect of nationalism in the equation and the civil war in Russia stating on 1917. Because if we assume that during that civil war Russia was unable to influence beyond its frontiers, then the Greek ethnic cleansing in Anatolia was and independent phenomena of Russia. Besides, we must remember that the communism (the new philosophy in Russia) was against nationalism, because it was an international movement. – Santiago Dec 5 '16 at 12:29
IMO, the answer is "yes", the Russian colonial expansion can be seen as the source of these problems. IMO, the British Empire should receive even more blame. Neither of these groups were peacemakers, both sought to destroy the pluralism of the Ottoman empire though "raising national awareness" – axsvl77 Dec 5 '16 at 14:33
@axsvl77 Except Europe had its own issues with rising nationalism with their own minorities in the 18-1900s. I don't doubt outside empires exploited this, but it is completely wrong to pin it solely on them. The Ottoman Empire was an EMPIRE, made up of many ethnic groups and religions. They always had issues, but were once strong enough to deal with them. The Ottos weakened, and started having internal interference from European powers. To me, the Genocide always seemed like what an empire in their position wanted to do, and WWI just gave them an opportunity to do it without interference. – user2259716 Jun 13 '17 at 14:57
Perhaps the idea of rationalization is unneeded. "Whenever a massacre of Armenians is reported from Asia Minor, everyone assumes that it has been carried out "under orders" from somewhere or another; no one seems to think that there are people who might like to kill their neighbors now and then." - Saki (H.H. Munro) – jamesqf Jan 3 '18 at 18:28
It is always difficult to name one reason for a complicated historical event. Usually there are many reasons. The point of view expressed in your question is defended at least by some historians. For example
Sean McMeekin, The Russian origins of the first world war, Harward UP, 2011
has a chapter (Chapter 6, p 141-174) on the role of Russian policies in the Armenian genocide.
This is a great reference, thank you! Also I apologize for making it sound like there is/was only one reason -- as you correctly point out any such statement is almost certainly too reductionistic. – Chill2Macht Dec 5 '16 at 15:15
This question can be very much opinable, but I want to address some points:
Did the architects of the Armenian Genocide during World War I plan their actions in part as a reciprocal population transfer.
Armenians were not expelled from their homes, they were exterminated. It was not a population transfer. If Armenians are now concentrated in the Caucasus and not in Eastern Anatolia, it is because the ones in Eastern Anatolia were killed en masse and the ones in the Caucasus were not, not because they moved from one area to the other.
I remember being confused during the course about why ethnic tensions suddenly flared up in the Ottoman empire during this time period.
One word: decadence. Racial and religious tensions were there1 but there was a strong power that kept the status quo (so minorities would not rebel, and Ottomans would not have to use heavy handed tactics to suppress them).
And it was not so sudden: check rebellions like the Migrations of the Serbs, the Orlov Revolt, etc. While fighting was not continuous, at no time I would call the situation "pacific".
Was the movement to oust Muslims from the newly independent Greece in part spurred on by imperial Russia.
First time I have heard about that.
Remember, Greek people were rebelling (again) on their own against Ottoman power and fought a pretty brutal war against them, so they likely had very little sympathy for anyone who could side with Istambul. And the reason that they were rebelling was because they wanted to live in a Greek state, under Greek law (and, at the time, law included religion).
It was the time when the ideal was the "nation state": a single, unified national identity under the same state.
Really, there is no need to look for2 external factors to explain that.
I remember reading that during World War I, all Armenians, even those loyal to the Ottoman Empire, were under suspicion by the government for being a "fifth column"
And with good reason. The Empire had lost almost all of its European territories to breakaway minorities (some of them supported by Russians), and the Armenians had their own.
On the other hand, an overlooked Russian (and Western) influence was the use of the rights of Christian minorities as an excuse to wage war against the Ottoman Empire. Any time a Christian power wanted a casus belli, an incident or a riot would be used to justify a new war, a new defeat of the Ottoman Empire, and new territorial losses and concessions.
This could have greatly increased the appeal3, to the Ottoman empire leadership, of building a Turkish only state.
TL/DR The initial situation of the Ottoman Empire was far from being as ideal as you describe it. While to some degrees the politics of the Porte may have been influenced by the actuation of foreign powers, adscribing all of what happened to Russian (or even all the combined foreign) influence without considering the internal situation of the Empire is too much of a stretch, unless there is solid documental evidence.
1 While more tolerant with minorities than others, the Ottoman Empire was always the Empire of Ottoman Turks over other, second-class citizens belonging to minorities.
2 Anyway, I will not claim that Russia did or did not have a hand at this. I only claim that, even if there were no foreign intervention, the process is not difficult to understand, so I would like to see some documentats that justify claiming that it was Russia fault.
3 Again, the nation state was already the ideal model.
SJuan76SJuan76
The "nation state" model was also used to support the break up of Yugoslavia and the establishment of some new nation states ... which eventually came to pass – KorvinStarmast Dec 5 '16 at 19:46
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HomeNewsTrailer and Two New Clips from Gus Van Sant's RESTLESS
Trailer and Two New Clips from Gus Van Sant's RESTLESS
October 14, 2011 Bat News 0
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e9DIR0PGB04[/youtube]
From Imagine Entertainment comes a powerful and emotional coming of age story, a remarkable film told with honesty and originality that will leave audiences moved. In the film, two outsiders, both shaped by the circumstances that have brought them together, forge a deep and lasting love. Directed by Gus Van Sant, one of the most astute observers of people living life on the edge, comes a take on friendship and young love as engaging and true as it is provocative and stirring.
Starring Mia Wasikowska and Henry Hopper, RESTLESS hits cinemas Friday 21st October 2011.
Check out the two new clips below
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M8bu1k45BK4[/youtube]
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U_44jGQDX_k[/youtube]
Henry Hopper
Stunning camerawork features in new ‘Stoker’ clip, plus new behind the scenes featurette
February 22, 2013 Matt Wavish News 0
We really are being blessed with greatness this week as a second clip from Park Chan-wook’s first English language thriller, Stoker, has arrived. After the chilling first clip, the second features Mia Wasikowska […]
Create Your Own Doppelganger Character Poster with THE DOUBLE
April 10, 2014 Bat News 0
Do you have a double? Create your own doppelganger character poster to celebrate the release of Richard Ayoade’s THE DOUBLE, in UK cinemas now, by visiting www.whoisyourdouble.com The site is called Who’s Your Double? and […]
First clip from ‘Crimson Peak’ reveals this haunted house to be “unsafe”
September 17, 2015 Matt Wavish News 0
The first clip from Guillermo del Toro’s haunted house horror has arrived, and is a clever choice as it doesn’t deliver any full on scares, but nicely sets the mood. Clearly from the early part […]
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For SCOTUS Rulings on Gay Marriage, It Isn't Always Black and White
by Shawn M. Griffiths in Other Jun 20, 2013
Credit: Wikimedia Commons[/caption]
The United States Supreme Court is expected to rule on the Defense of Marriage Act (Windsor v. United States) and California’s Proposition 8 (Hollingsworth v. Perry) in the next few days. There is a good possibility the decision on these two cases will be reserved for last.
The Washington Post offers an easy to follow graphic on the potential rulings and what the implications would be for each decision. It also provides status for marriage rights in each state. Check it out.
The Supreme Court can either uphold DOMA or they can strike it down as unconstitutional. If the justices decide the law is unconstitutional, federal benefits currently offered to heterosexual couples will be extended to homosexual couples in twelve states and the District of Columbia.
Hollingsworth v. Perry is not a black and white case. There are a number of different routes the high court can go with this case.
The Supreme Court could strike down Prop 8 and rule that a state cannot withdraw marriage rights to gay couples once those rights have already been offered. This decision would only affect California.
The justices could decide states cannot offer marriage benefits under a civil union, but withhold the label ‘marriage.’ This decision would have slightly broader implications as it would affect seven states.
California, Colorado, Hawaii, Nevada, Oregon, Illinois, and New Jersey currently allow same-sex couples to join in a civil union and can receive the same benefits a heterosexual married couple is eligible to receive, but the union cannot be legally labeled a marriage. If the high court rules a state cannot withhold the marriage label if they offer marriage benefits for civil unions, California is not the only state that will have to alter its laws.
More states will be affected if the Supreme Court rules Proposition 8 to be unconstitutional. If it the justices decide a state cannot deny same-sex couples the right to marry, it will impact marriage bans in 35 states. There are certainly regions in the United States where this decision would be extremely unpopular.
If the high court upholds Prop. 8 or decides it lacks standing, the only state affected is California. Obviously, if Prop. 8 is upheld, gay marriage will be banned in the state. If it is decided Prop. 8 lacks standing, same-sex marriage will continue in California and it could open the door for additional litigation challenging marriage bans nationwide.
Shawn M. Griffiths
Shawn is the Election Reform Editor for IVN.us. He studied history and philosophy at the University of North Texas, and joined the IVN team in 2012. He has several years of experience covering the broad scope of political and election reform efforts across the country, and has an extensive knowledge of the movement at large. A native Texan, he now lives in San Diego, California.
Read more by Shawn M. Griffiths
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Sorry I’m late, it’s all down to my chronobiology
Individuals differ in terms of their chronotype – that is to say whether you are morning oriented or evening oriented, or somewhere in the middle.
We are well into party season as the holidays approach, with dinners, drinks with friends and similar festive cheer. But in the midst of all the fun there is also an annoyance: the latecomer.
Everyone knows someone who is always late. Maybe you’re one of those people yourself. Theories on why some individuals are late on a regular basis come from a variety of perspectives – anthropological, cultural, neurological and psychological. But are there scientific explanations for chronic lateness?
We are all governed by our circadian clocks. The study of this internal clock comes under the heading of chronobiology. “Circadian rhythms are internal 24-hour rhythms created by the Earth spinning on its axis within a 24-hour period,” says Dr Andrew Coogan, a chronobiologist at NUI Maynooth.
“Life has evolved to take advantage of that. Through evolution we have adapted a time-keeping mechanism. Animals and organisms can anticipate changes in their environment and then react appropriately. It’s important particularly for preyed-upon animals, who know to get home before it’s dark.”
The existence of circadian rhythms was first demonstrated in the 1960s when human subjects were placed into a timeless environment – a concealed former second World War bunker to be exact – with no time-reference points, clocks, natural light and so on.
It was found that the volunteers still expressed 24-hour rhythms through their internal clock. They had energy at appropriate times, slept at night time and were awake during the day.
But circadian rhythms affect individuals differently and can lead to inclinations towards “morningness” or “eveningness” and, in turn, “lateness”.
“Individuals differ in terms of their chronotype – that is to say whether you are morning oriented or evening oriented, or somewhere in the middle,” says Coogan.
“This is both an individual characteristic but also changes across the lifespan so small children generally are morning oriented, teenagers tend towards eveningness, then back towards the morning in adulthood.
“This affects the time of day we are most alert and our cognitive prowess is best set up for. Such individual differences seem to be down in part to genetics, but may also be driven by environmental factors – TVs, computers in bedrooms and street lighting at night might all make for a tendency toward ‘eveningness’.
“It might also explain in part lateness. If you are trying to get out of bed and get to school early yet your body clock is not attuned to that rhythm you may struggle and end up being late. So some of us may be predisposed to be late at different times of the day – probably most pertinent to the morning.”
The inclination towards morningness and eveningness also relates to personality. Eveningness tends to be associated with creativity and impulsiveness.
“Plus if you’re a strongly creative person you lose a sense of time when you’re in the middle of something you find very interesting – otherwise known as the absent-minded professor effect,” says Billy O’Connor, professor of physiology in the Graduate Entry Medical School in the University of Limerick.
“People get so engrossed in what they’re doing, they lose any sense of time. It’s actually a sign of good mental health. But it can be very frustrating for other people.”
Morning people, on the other hand, tend more towards conscientiousness and better organisational skills.
“Some people are future oriented so time is very important to them,” says Coogan. “Those who live in the present are not so bothered with being late.”
Being late for a flight or an important meeting is stressful and some people get addicted to that feeling. “Creating a stressful environment can be used by people to up their game,” says O’Connor. “It helps some people focus but you can become addicted to stress, more specifically the hormone cortisol. Its release gets you whizzing along when you need it most.
“Chronic stress ages the body and the brain. So this kind of behaviour works in the short term and does help some people get more done in their lives. But the brain performs optimally when it is calm and focused.”
There is, of course, one other reason why 3pm means 3.30pm to some people. “It can be a power thing,” says O’Connor. “In a business meeting setting, for example, which is a complex social gathering with multiple agendas and strict rules of engagement. They are not casual affairs so being constantly late for a meeting without a valid reason may be regarded as discourteous in a group.
“It may also be regarded as attention seeking, selfish behaviour and signs of a disorganised mind, and will more than likely result in social exclusion,” he says.
This article appeared in the Irish Times 19-12-12
Image Credit: Getty Images
Posted in: Lifestyle | Tagged: being late, chronobiologist, chronotype, cortisol
Your brain on marijuana
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Tag Archives: Polish Actors
Actor, Film, Reviews, Interviews & Features!
Poland’s Maja Lakomy shines light on mental illness in acclaimed film
August 8, 2018 pressva Leave a comment
Growing up in Kielce, Poland, Maja Lakomy was always fascinated by performing. Whether it be in a film or on a stage, she found herself constantly impressed by what actors were capable of and the effects they could have on the audience. She began to realize even at a young age that she wanted to become like one of those incredible actors and do the same thing to the audience. She was encouraged to choose a career that could make her happy, and acting was therefore the only option for her.
Throughout her career, Lakomy has worked on a number of successful projects. Recently, her award-winning film Diminuendo saw critical acclaim at many prestigious international film festivals and is expected to continue to do so throughout the year. She also shot a music video for Andrea Bocelli, the Grammy nominated and Golden Globe winning Italian musician who has collaborated with greats such as Celine Dion, Ed Sheeran, and more. Lakomy is doing what she wished for as a child and loves every day she steps onto a set.
“I imagine that it hardly ever happens that people are so lucky to do what they love as a career. Nevertheless, I went that direction and knew I would never give up and would always keep working towards my dream. Now, I am one of those lucky people who have their passion as their job,” said Lakomy.
One of Lakomy’s first tastes of international success came from her work on the film Star House. The film was uploaded on Vimeo, the online platform for video-sharing in December 2017 and is available worldwide. The project also received attention from the prestigious Berlin Fashion Film Festival. The representatives of the festival wrote a comment, that’s visible under the video on Vimeo, leaving a compliment about the project and offering participation in the festival under the category “Fashion, Lifestyle and Beauty Film – Emerging Talent”.
Star House follows two girls who break into an intriguing home they come across in the woods and decide to stay until the owner returns. The story is very unpredictable with a fun twist, something for the audience to look forward to. The drama also showcases two distinctive characters, with a disturbing and surprising realness to their psychological construction.
“I think that a lot of women could identify with the story and the message of it. Nearly everybody has some part of themselves that they don’t accept and makes them feel weak. Everybody has somebody like my character in their lives, who let their insecurities drive their mental health to the line where sane meets insane. This story shows how obsessive one can become while pursuing perfection. It’s also a sort of commentary on body dysmorphia and the dynamic among females who have the tendency to constantly compare themselves to one another. I think all of these aspects are very important,” said Lakomy.
Lakomy’s character, Cleo, is very interesting and complex. She lacks everything that the other charactor, Rose, possesses: confidence, beauty, spontaneity. Rose also has a certain type of control over Cleo. Cleo was mesmerized and infatuated by Rose. The irony, however, in this story was that the girls look very alike, but Cleo is only able to notice her own flaws and insecurities that she believes Rose does not possess, which is why she was so compelling and perfect in Cleo’s eyes. The idea of perfection that Rose represented was only in Cleo’s head, and that is what makes this story touching.
Lakomy excelled when presenting Cleo’s feelings and what she goes through, knowing the importance of her character and story for females in the audience who may feel similarly.
“I hope women that watched it or any other film with a similar message realize that being a perfectionist is not healthy and we need to accept ourselves as we are and not let other people criticize us, bring us down and objectify us,” she said.
After being hand selected for the role by the Director, Allison Bunce, Lakomy was eager to begin playing such an insecure and controlled character, offering a challenge she had not encountered yet in her esteemed career. She had previously played a similar character in the play Angels in America, and therefore applied the same principles when it came to portraying Cleo; this time, however, in front of a camera.
“Acting with the other lead actress opposite of me was very interesting when you’re aware her character doesn’t really exist. At the same time, she was one hundred percent real to my character, so I had to focus on remembering that,” Lakomy described.
Star House was also shot on 16mm film and a Super8 camera, so it had a very unique visual style to it. Lakomy had previously never worked with this type of camera equipment and she now says she is a fan of the style. The best part of the experience for the actress, however, was those she worked with.
“Working on this project was truly a magical experience. I loved working with such a professional crew. Every single person on the set has been committed, successful, and excels at what they do. It was a great pleasure to be around them and learn from them. I think we made up a great team,” Lakomy concluded.
Check out Star House on Vimeo to see Lakomy’s outstanding performance.
actingActressFilmFilmmakinginternational TalentPolish Actors
Actor, Actor Profile, international Talent
Actor Profile: Poland’s Diana Matlak
Polish Actress Diana Matlak shot by Luis Ruiz
In the world of show business, success in one discipline is never easy to accomplish. Yet for Diana Matlak, success has come her way in two very demanding performance arts: dancing and acting.
Early on in her life Diana made her mark on the performing world as an international competitor in Latin dancing, before going on to be recognized as a versatile actress in both Europe and the United States thanks to the multitude of leading roles she has landed in high-profile films, television shows and commercials.
Diana resembles the classic beauty of yesteryear. Her natural looks are reminiscent of the classic cabaret era where a woman’s beauty could shine through from her talent and stage presence, not needing flashy costume or hair to make a scene. Whether fully dolled up in makeup and a dress or made to look like a poor villager, she emanates a look that gives the viewer an ability to relate and empathize with her characters.
As a dancer in Poland, her native country, Diana excelled to the top ranks of competitive Latin dancing, an area of performance that she competed in for over 15 years. Her remarkable reputation in the industry established her as a highly sought-after performer where she was respected for her precision and determination to be one of the best.
After stepping away from the world of competitive dance, Diana’s love for performing remained strong; and, after landing a few standout television roles in Poland including the country’s longest-running primetime drama Na dobre i na złe (For better and for worse), Diana decided to take her acting career to the next level.
She moved to Los Angeles shortly after where she has not wasted any time making a name for herself. Over a relatively short period of time she has landed spots on network TV shows such as Bones, Scandal and American Crime Story. She has also starred in several American films playing everything from a flirtatious girl to a depressed woman and a challenging role in the film Red House by the Crossroads where she played Deena Kravitz, a young woman struggling to keep her family together.
Diana is also continually seeking better knowledge, and has sought the best mentors in LA to help her succeed. She has studied the Meisner technique extensively, a style of acting that many of the greats from Anthony Hopkins to Robert Duvall, as well as more contemporary veteran actresses such as Helen Hunt and Hilary Swank rely on in their craft. She is also currently studying at Ivana Chubbuck Studio in Los Angeles.
Matlak says, “Ivana Chubbuck is a great teacher who has been in the business for years. She used to coach stars like Charlize Theron who won the Oscar Award for Monster, Brad Pitt and Halle Berry who won an Oscar for the Monster’s Ball.”
The intense physical training necessary to be an accomplished dancer helps set Diana apart from other actresses. Aside from the obvious physical benefits of being in shape, mastering her dance skills was no easy feat. Rising to the top of any field takes hard work, discipline, and relentless passion. For Diana, these qualities are long instilled and have carried over to her acting career where she has excelled in roles that are diverse and impactful. In addition to her accomplished dance background, Diana has a multidisciplinary athletic background, having earned certifications in snowboarding, skiing, and even combat training – allowing her to train and perform for many demanding roles. She can also speak Polish, German, and Russian in addition to English.
Recently Diana has been working with director Aditya J. Patwardhan on several projects, the most notable being Red House By The Crossroads, a drama that premiered at the world-famous Cannes Film Festival. She also starred in the music video “Katra, Katra” directed by Patwardhan, which allowed her acting and dancing talents to seamlessly collaborate.
Diana continues to stay busy. Coming up next for her is the the lead role of Lotta Ditsy-Flirt in the film Maneater, directed by Stephanie Moningka, set to release in January 2016. She is always seeking new challenging roles that can push her craft further, inspiring audiences around the world.
2015 Cannes Film FestivalActor ProfileActress Diana MatlakAditya J. PatwardhanCompetitve DanceFor Better or For Worse TV SeriesInternational PerformerKatya Katya Music VideoLatin DancerLotta Ditsy-FlirtNa dobre i na złe TV seriesPolish ActorsRed House by the CrossroadsStay film
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Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) attends a news conference to discuss 'a comprehensive plan to address the immediate humanitarian needs in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, and ensure that the islands are able to rebuild in a way that empowers them to thrive on November 28, 2017 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images)
Web Only / Features » December 5, 2017
Why the Sanders-Warren Plan for Puerto Rico Is a Model for Climate Legislation
To repair after disasters—and prevent future ones—we can’t be afraid to spend public money on things people need.
Building in more democratic control of the Puerto Rican economy could also be a way to head off corporate interests that tend to swoop in post-disaster.
Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren last week unveiled a bill proposing the creation of a $146 billion “Marshall Plan” to recover and repair the storm-ravaged economies in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands—by relieving the territories’ overwhelming debt and investing heavily in low-carbon, storm-resilient economic development.
As Republicans all but abandon the guise of deficit hawkishness with their trillion-dollar-plus tax plan, such ambitious spending proposals could be a model not just for disaster response, but for Democratic policymaking going forward. There are few paths to dealing adequately with climate change that won’t involve large-scale public investment. In that, Sanders and Warren’s “Marshall Plan” could model a way that U.S. policy can help pick up the pieces after climate-fueled storms—and help stop Hurricane Maria-style heavy weather from becoming more likely.
“Many are struggling to get clean drinking water, and more than 100,000 people have left Puerto Rico alone,” Sanders said in a press conference with several of the bill’s co-sponsors last Tuesday morning. “This is not acceptable, and we are here today to tell the people of Puerto Rico and tell the people of the Virgin Islands that they are not forgotten, they are not alone, and that we intend to do everything possible to rebuild those beautiful islands.”
More than two months on from Hurricane Maria, up to 60 percent of residents in the U.S. Virgin Islands remain without electricity and several basic services, according to a late November report from the Department of Energy. Large swathes of Puerto Rico remain without power as well.
The plans laid out in the bill are wide-ranging. It stipulates that $51 billion would be devoted to economic development on the island, and $27 billion would go toward rebuilding downed, damaged and neglected infrastructure—including the island’s long-beleaguered electric utility. An additional $62 billion would go to repaying Puerto Rico’s at least $74 billion in municipal debt. Specific provisions cover everything from grants for local agriculture to parity for Medicaid and Medicare payments to additional funds for the Department of Veterans Affairs to financing for a rapid scale-up of the island’s renewable energy capacity. The plan also hands control of restoration programs over to Puerto Ricans, stating that “the people of Puerto Rico and their elected representatives should determine the long-term future of the island.”
Building in more democratic control of the Puerto Rican economy could also be a way to head off corporate interests that tend to swoop in post-disaster. “We’ve all read Naomi Klein’s The Shock Doctrine,” said Sanders’ climate and energy advisor Katie Thomas, who worked extensively on the bill. “[Sanders] said we need to do everything we can to prevent the Shock Doctrine-ization of this situation. He wanted information on what had happened after Katrina, when so much of the public infrastructure was either privatized or eliminated. We wanted to be clear that we don’t want anything like that to happen in the future in Puerto Rico or the Virgin Islands.”
According to Thomas, the bill emerged in part from the Senator’s October trip to the island and a series of “really productive roundtable conversations with dozens of labor leaders, mayors and leaders wanting to rebuild Puerto Rico back stronger than it was before.” While the bill initially came about as a way to deal with the island’s electricity grid—virtually leveled during Maria and in dire disrepair before that—that visit and subsequent talks with people on the island pushed them to consider a broader strategy, Thomas told In These Times.
Even before Maria hit, the U.S.-appointed fiscal control board in Puerto Rico—the body now overseeing the island’s finances—had its eye on privatizing the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (PREPA), the island’s monopoly electric utility. “The junta,” as the control board is known colloquially on the island, is charged with restructuring Puerto Rico’s debt. The bill that created the junta, PROMESA, was intended to act as a mediator between creditors and the Puerto Rican government. While it’s kept the vulture funds that hold Puerto Rico’s debt at bay from demanding total repayment, that protection has come at the expense of deep cuts to the island’s public services and a push to sell public entities off to private bidders. PREPA was at the top of the control board’s privatization wish list before Maria. After the storm hit, the board took several more steps in that direction.
Sanders’ bill would bar the privatization of any public entity receiving funds from the U.S. government, effectively making it impossible to privatize PREPA for the foreseeable future.
Thomas also explained that one of the bill’s main priorities is not having U.S. officials decide what recovery looks like in either of the territories aided by the bill or public entities like PREPA. “It’s really important to us that the federal government is not making decisions for the people of Puerto Rico,” she said by phone. “We didn’t think it was appropriate for us to say what the future of PREPA should be, because we don’t think that’s an appropriate role for the federal government.”
Instead, the bill would entrust the Puerto Rico Energy Commission—the regulatory body that oversees PREPA, created in 2014—with overseeing plans for power restoration, with its counterpart performing the same function in the U.S. Virgin Islands. Rather than restoring PREPA to its status pre-storm, the bill would further prioritize both getting power online as quickly as possible and transitioning rapidly over to renewable fuels, which are both less expensive and more storm resilient for the import-dependent island. While an outage at a fossil fueled central station generator can leave thousands of people without electricity, panels can often remain online and provide power amidst grid failures.
For David Ortiz, the Latino climate action network director for El Puente, expanding renewable energy goes hand-in-hand with expanding economic opportunities in Puerto Rico, where he lives. Ortiz, who consulted with Sanders’s office on the bill in the lead-up to its release, told In These Times, “Economically we’ve really been hit, almost destroyed.
“What we need to do is be able to think of multiple ways of generating renewable energy so that folks have access to it,” Ortiz continued, “be it through small community grids or through rooftop solar. But we also need to prepare our workers for that shift, and continue to have employment and support for them. What we don’t want is for other companies from outside to come into the island, because we’ll continue to have more money go outside of the island.”
He described going recently to a usually-busy part of Old San Juan with his wife and family, and finding the normally packed parking lot they use filled with just a few cars, and several stores in the area’s main business district shuttered. “You can’t help but to worry about the future of Puerto Rico’s economy,” he told me. Ortiz sees the bill as a “really holistic approach to dealing with the crisis.”
There’s nothing particularly radical about the idea of spending public funds on the kinds of things that get economies back on their feet, from job creation to massive infrastructure investment. Republicans and even Democrats tend to swat down ambitious spending proposals as wasteful. The faint silver lining of the GOP’s success with the tax bill is that they can’t claim with any authority to care much at all about the size of a federal deficit they just pledged to increase by as much as $2 trillion over the next 10 years.
Though several details of the initiative would be left up to officials in Puerto Rico, the new Marshall Plan’s structure lays out an attractive model for ambitious climate policy on the mainland—that is, democratic climate action and disaster response that talks more about what it will do for workers and the economy than for the planet. If we have the money for tax cuts for corporations and the ultra-wealthy, then we have the money to make the kinds of pro-worker economic transformations the climate crisis demands. With Sanders and Warren’s bill, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands could show the way forward to a Democratic Party that isn’t afraid to spend money on the things we need.
We Have a Dental Care Crisis. Medicare for All Could Solve It.
Ranked Choice Voting Is On a Roll: 6 States Have Opted In for the 2020 Democratic Primary
Biden and the Obama Admin Are Finally Getting the Reckoning They Deserve
Any Dem Who Wants to Be President Should Reject War with Iran, Not Hide Behind Process Criticisms
Why aren't they looking into how Cuba survived the hurricane that went over the entire island. They were prepared. Within days there was a complete damage report and materials for repairs were one their way to the places most in need. Within weeks things were pretty much back to normal and if it wasn't for the shortages caused by the embargo work on all the damage would have been underway. As it was Cuba was accepting tourists within weeks.
Posted by Jim Klimaski on 2017-12-09 16:09:36
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The Annals of Iowa
Home > SHSI > ANNALS-OF-IOWA > Vol. 16 > No. 2 (1927)
Emmons Johnson
An obituary for politician and bank president Emmons Johnson.
No known copyright restrictions.
"Emmons Johnson." The Annals of Iowa 16 (1927), 153-153.
Available at: https://doi.org/10.17077/0003-4827.5135
United States History Commons
State Historical Society of Iowa
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Tamilarasi, R., Department of Community Medicine, Government Stanley Medical College, Chennai (India)
Tan, Grace, James Cook University, Singapore (Singapore)
Taneja, Gunjan, Public Health Specialist, IPE Global, New Delhi, India (India)
Taneja, Neha, Department of Community Medicine, North Delhi Municipal Corporation Medical College and Hindu Rao Hospital, New Delhi, India
Taneja, Neha, Department of Community Medicine, St. Stephens Hospital, Tis hazari, Delhi (India)
Taneja, Neha, North Delhi Municipal Corporation Medical College and Hindu Rao hospital, New Delhi (India)
Taneja, Neha, Department of Community Medicine, St. Stephens Hospital, NewDelhi (India)
Tania, Fatema, Department of Applied Sociology, ASA University Bangladesh, Shyamoli, Dhaka (Bangladesh)
Tanios, Alain, School of Medicine, Lebanese American University, Beirut (Lebanon)
Tankhiwale, Nilima S., Department of Microbiology, Datta Meghe Institute of Medical Sciences, Sawangi, Meghe, Wardha, Maharashtra, India
Tanwar, Ruchi, Department of Community Medicine, Rohilkhand Medical College and Hospital, Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh (India)
Tapare, V. S., Department of Preventive and Social Medicine, B.J. Govt. Medical College, Pune, Maharashtra, India (India)
Tapare, V. S., Department of Preventive and Social Medicine, BJGMC, Pune (India)
Tapare, Vinay S., Department of Preventive and Social Medicine, B.J. Govt. Medical College, Pune, Maharashtra (India)
Tarachandani, Rajesh, Department of Medicine, Gandhi Medical College, Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh (India)
Tarannum, Farha, Department of Community Medicine, Hind Institute of Medical Sciences, Barabanki, Uttar Pradesh (India)
Tarao, M. Shyami, Department of Community Medicine, Jawaharlal Nehru Institute of Medical Sciences, Imphal, Manipur, India (India)
Tariq, Syed Maaz, Sindh Medical College, Jinnah Sindh Medical University, Karachi, Pakistan (Pakistan)
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Tarun Teja, P. B., Department of Community Medicine, SRM Medical College and Research Centre, Tamil Nadu, India
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Fear the Future Tour Alterations to Existing Schedule
Beginning 2018 much as 2017 ended, St. Vincent’s “Fear The Future” tour continues to leave critics and audiences spellbound. About her first show of the new year, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette raved “St. Vincent is demonstrating that she has no use for the rules of indie-rock …she plays guitar like a demon….a ridiculous amount of talent for one human.” With that said and with her fans in mind, some changes have been made to the current tour.
To kick off her return to Texas, St. Vincent has announced a new date at the House of Blues in Houston, TX on February 20. Tickets for the show go on-sale TODAY at 9AM CT: http://found.ee/HTX
Shows previously scheduled for Charlotte, NC (March 1), Richmond, VA (March 2) and Norfolk, VA (March 3) have been rescheduled, with new dates listed below. All venues remain the same.
All previously purchased tickets will be honored and new buyers can find tickets here:
Charlotte, NC – May 21: http://found.ee/CNC
Norfolk, VA – May 22: http://found.ee/NVA
Richmond, VA – May 23: http://found.ee/RVA-1
St. Vincent regrets to inform her fans in Chattanooga, TN (2/16), Birmingham, AL (2/18) and Baltimore, MD (3/4) that due to unforeseen production and scheduling issues, these performances have been cancelled.
For cancelled shows and for fans unable to attend the rescheduled shows, refunds are available at points of purchase. Fans who purchased tickets online will receive an automatic refund to the original form of payment, with no additional action needed.
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HomeAsiaIndia is hitting the United States with more tariffs
India is hitting the United States with more tariffs
posted on Jun. 16, 2019 at 5:00 am
The tariffs on several US products will go into effect on June 16, India's Finance Ministry said in a statement Saturday. The goods targeted include American apples — which will be hit with a 70% tariff — as well as almonds, lentils and several chemical products.India first announced plans to impose new tariffs a year ago in retaliation for increased US import duties on Indian steel and aluminum. But it repeatedly delayed imposing them while the two sides held a series of trade talks.The Indian government did not specify the value of the goods targeted in its statement, but previously told the World Trade Organization that they were worth around $241 million. The two countries exchange goods and services worth about$142 billion a year, but the relationship has soured in recent weeks after the Trump administration ended India's participation in a preferential trade program earlier this month. The program exempted Indian goods worth more than $6 billion from US import duties in 2018. One of President Donald Trump's biggest priorities has been reducing the United States' trade deficits with countries around the world.Last month, his administration increased tariffs to 25% from 10% on $200 billion worth of Chinese goods, and it's threatening to target another $300 billion of exports from the world's second largest economy. Business is warning of damage to the US economy.
Romeo and Juliet director dies
Priests wear hard hats in first mass in Notre Dame since fire
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An Honorable Defeat
The Last Days of the Confederate Government
Davis, William C., 1946-
Book - 2001 | 1st ed.
In February 1865, the end was clearly in sight for the Confederate government. Lee's defeat at Gettysburg had dashed the hopes of the Confederate army, and Grant's victory at Vicksburg had cut the South in two.An Honorable Defeat is the story of the four months that saw the surrender of the South and the assassination of Lincoln by Southern partisans. It is also the story of two men, antagonists yet political partners, who struggled during this time to achieve their own differing visions for the South: Jefferson Davis, the autocratic president of the Confederate States, who vowed never to surrender whatever the cost; and the practical and warm General John C. Breckinridge, Secretary of War, who hoped pragmatism would save the shattered remnants of the land he loved so dearly.
Pulitzer Prize nominee William C. Davis traces the astounding flight of these men, and the entire Confederate cabinet, as they flee south from Richmond by train, then by mule, then on foot. Using original research, he narrates, with dramatic style and clear historical accuracy, the futile quarrels of Davis and Breckinridge as they try to evade bands of Northern pursuers and describes their eventual--and separate--captures. The result is a rich canvas of a time of despair and defeat that is exciting and highly readable, a charged tale full of physical adventure and political battle that sweeps from the marble halls of Richmond to a dingy room in a Havana hotel.
A study of the final days of the Confederacy at the end of the Civil War focuses on two men--Jefferson Davis, the autocratic president of the Confederate States, and his Secretary of War, General John C. Breckinridge.
Harcourt Publishing
In February 1865, the end was clearly in sight for the Confederate government. Lee's defeat at Gettysburg had dashed the hopes of the Confederate army, and Grant's victory at Vicksburg had cut the South in two. An Honorable Defeat is the story of the four months that saw the surrender of the South and the assassination of Lincoln by Southern partisans. It is also the story of two men, antagonists yet political partners, who struggled during this time to achieve their own differing visions for the South: Jefferson Davis, the autocratic president of the Confederate States, who vowed never to surrender whatever the cost; and the practical and warm General John C. Breckinridge, Secretary of War, who hoped pragmatism would save the shattered remnants of the land he loved so dearly.
Davis (history, Virginia Tech) explores the final days of the American Civil War, when it was obvious to most the days of the Confederacy were numbered. Noting that the nature of peace is conditioned by the nature of the end of wars, he explores the debates within the highest levels of the Confederate government on how to end the war even as they fled northern troops in attempts to avoid capture. For the author, the debate centered around two men Jefferson Davis, characterized as irrationally clinging to an ideal of no surrender, and General John C. Breckenridge, who attempted to convince Davis that some concessions might be wrung from a war-weary North, if the Confederacy were to surrender. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
& Taylor
A study of the finals days of the Confederacy at the end of the Civil War focuses on two men--Jefferson Davis, the autocratic president of the Confederate States, and his affable, practical Secretary of War, General John C. Breckinridge--who played key roles in the Confederate government. 50,000 first printing.
Publisher: New York : Harcourt, c2001.
Characteristics: xiv, 496 p., [16] of plates : ill. ; 24 cm.
› Contributor biographical information
› Publisher description
Read more reviews of An Honorable Defeat at iDreamBooks.com
Davis, Jefferson, 1808-1889.
Davis, Jefferson, 1808-1889 — Captivity, 1865.
Confederate States of America — Politics and Government.
Richmond (Va.) — History — Siege, 1864-1865.
United States — History — Civil War, 1861-1865 — Peace.
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About JCM
Heterogeneously Vancomycin-Resistant Staphylococcus epidermidis Strain Causing Recurrent Peritonitis in a Dialysis Patient during Vancomycin Therapy
Krzysztof Sieradzki, Richard B. Roberts, David Serur, Judie Hargrave, Alexander Tomasz
Krzysztof Sieradzki
Laboratory of Microbiology, The Rockefeller University, New York, New York 10021, 1 and
Richard B. Roberts
Laboratory of Microbiology, The Rockefeller University, New York, New York 10021, 1 and The New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center, New York, New York 10021 2
David Serur
The New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center, New York, New York 10021 2
Judie Hargrave
Alexander Tomasz
Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus epidermidis (MRSE) was recovered over a 2-month period from the dialysis fluid of a peritoneal dialysis (PD) patient who experienced recurrent episodes of peritonitis during therapeutic and prophylactic use of vancomycin. Characterization of five consecutive MRSE isolates by molecular and microbiological methods showed that they were representatives of a single strain, had reduced susceptibility to vancomycin, did not react with DNA probes specific for the enterococcal vanA orvanB gene, and showed characteristics reminiscent of the properties of a recently described vancomycin-resistant laboratory mutant of Staphylococcus aureus. Cultures of these MRSE isolates were heterogeneous: they contained—with a frequency of 10−4 to 10−5—bacteria for which vancomycin MICs were high (25 to 50 μg/ml) which could easily be selected to “take over” the cultures by using vancomycin selection in the laboratory. In contrast, the five consecutive MRSE isolates recovered from the PD patient during virtually continuous vancomycin therapy showed no indication for a similar enrichment of more resistant subpopulations, suggesting the existence of an “occult” infection site in the patient (presumably at the catheter exit site) which was not accessible to the antibiotic.
With the global spread of methicillin-resistant strains, glycopeptide antibiotics have become the mainstay of chemotherapy in both coagulase-negative staphylococci as well as Staphylococcus aureus infections worldwide. Loss of the antistaphylococcal efficacy of this family of drugs would pose a serious challenge to the treatment of methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) infections. Such a situation may emerge by the transfer of enterococcal glycopeptide resistance genes to staphylococci, which often cocolonize wound infection sites with enterococci. In fact, transfer of the vancomycin resistance from Enterococcus faecalis to anS. aureus strain has already been demonstrated under simulated laboratory conditions (11). An additional concern relates to the increasingly frequent detection of coagulase-negative staphylococcal isolates with reduced susceptibility to glycopeptide antibiotics in clinical specimens associated with a variety of clinical diseases, particularly in patients undergoing continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis (CAPD) (8, 13-15). Clinical failure of vancomycin therapy in an MRSA-infected patient has already been described in Japan (9). Soon after that, MRSA infections for which the vancomycin MICs showed a similar range (∼8 μg/ml) were also reported in the United States (2, 3).
In this communication, we describe the characterization of five consecutive isolates of a single methicillin-resistantStaphylococcus epidermidis (MRSE) strain with reduced susceptibility to vancomycin and teicoplanin, recovered from the dialysate of a peritoneal dialysis (PD) patient who experienced recurrent episodes of peritonitis during an extended period of therapeutic and/or prophylactic use of vancomycin. Ominously, the PD catheter site (as well as several other body sites) of the patient was also colonized by a vancomycin-resistant E. faecalisstrain carrying the vanA gene. Nevertheless, the MRSE isolates did not react with the vanA DNA probe but appeared to carry a distinct glycopeptide resistance mechanism. The vancomycin MICs for the five MRSE isolates, as determined by broth dilution, were in the range of 2 to 16 μg/ml. However, population analysis showed that cultures also contained bacteria for which the vancomycin MICs were as high as 25 and 50 μg/ml at significant frequencies (10−4 to 10−5). Enrichment for these subpopulations occurred without difficulty under laboratory conditions.
Bacterial strains were grown in tryptic soy broth (TSB; Difco, Detroit, Mich.) at 37°C with aeration. Organisms were identified to the species level by the API test system (bioMerieux Vitek, Inc., Hazelwood, Mo.). A preliminary determination of MICs of vancomycin was performed by a broth microdilution method, with TSB (Difco) and incubation of samples at 37°C for 24 and 48 h. The vancomycin (and methicillin)-susceptible S. aureus strain NCTC 8325 was always used as a susceptible control. Population analysis profiles (PAPs) were done for a more accurate and quantitative evaluation of antibiotic susceptibility (19). Overnight cultures of bacteria (≥109 CFU/ml) were plated at a series of dilutions on tryptic soy agar plates containing antibiotic-free medium or twofold dilutions of the test antibiotic within the drug concentration range of 0.75 μg up to 100 μg/ml in the cases of vancomycin and teicoplanin and up to 800 μg/ml in the case of methicillin. Plates were incubated at 37°C for 48 h, and the number of bacterial colonies was counted. Plotting colony counts against drug concentrations provides a graphic display (PAP) of the composition of the bacterial culture in terms of the homogeneity or heterogeneity of the antibiotic susceptibility phenotype. Methicillin and glycopeptide MICs for the majority and for subpopulations of cells were determined by inspection of PAPs.
Preparation of chromosomal DNA for pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) and separation ofSmaI-restricted fragments in a contour-clamped homogeneous electric field (CHEF) apparatus (CHEF-DRII; Bio-Rad, Richmond, Calif.) were carried out as described previously (7). Autolysis was induced by suspending bacteria in buffer containing Triton X-100 (6). The titer of vancomycin in the growth medium was determined with a bioassay (16). Aggregation of cells and the ultrastructure of bacteria were determined by phase-contrast microscopy and electron microscopy with a procedure previously described (18).
Clinical history.A 34-year-old female first developed renal failure of unknown etiology in 1985, and by 1988, she required hemodialysis. Two years later, because of inability to maintain a vascular access, she was placed on long-term PD. A year later, in 1991, she developed peritonitis, and over the next 6 years, she had recurrent episodes of peritonitis associated with fever, chills, nausea, vomiting, and abdominal pain. By 1994, the episodes became more frequent and severe, and S. epidermidis was first isolated from cloudy dialysate. She was placed on vancomycin (30 mg per liter) in each dialysis exchange for 10 to 60 days (5 exchanges per day) when symptoms or cloudy dialysate appeared. S. epidermidis was frequently recovered from her dialysate prior to each therapeutic trial. Because of the increasing frequency of her episodes and the need to continue peritoneal dialysis, she was placed on prophylactic vancomycin (30 mg per liter) in each dialysate exchange for 3 weeks of each month (5 exchanges per day) from January to June of 1997. Because of the identification of S. epidermidis with intermediate resistance to vancomycin (Table 1), the peritoneal dialysis catheter was removed on 16 June 1997, and she was placed on hemodialysis thrice weekly. Except for one intravenous dose associated with vascular access surgery, she did not receive vancomycin from 16 June until 10 September 1997. During this time period, she felt well and showed no clinical signs or symptoms of peritonitis, although she continued to have minimal drainage from the PD catheter site.
Properties of bacterial isolates recovered from a PD patient
Properties of the bacterial isolates.Table 1 summarizes the relevant properties of bacteria recovered from a variety of body sites and the PD fluid. Cultures of peritoneal dialysate collected between 27 March and 28 May yielded pure cultures of MRSE (isolates RR4 through RR8) with reduced susceptibility to vancomycin and teicoplanin. Vancomycin-resistant enterococci, consisting of an E. faecium strain (isolate RR1) carrying thevanB gene and E. faecalis strains (RR2, RR3, and RR9 through RR11) carrying the vanA gene, were also detected at several body sites of the patient.
PFGE indicated that the five consecutive S. epidermidisisolates (RR4 through RR8) were identical, and tests with DNA probes specific for the enterococcal vanA (and vanB) probe showed no hybridization signal (Fig.1).
PFGE patterns of isolates recovered from the PD patient. Chromosomal DNA was prepared, SmaI restricted, and separated by PFGE (see Materials and Methods). The bottom panel shows results of hybridization with a probe for vanA. E. faecium strains EFSK2 (vanB) and EFSK33 (vanA) were used as controls. l.m.w., low molecular weight.
Heterogeneity of vancomycin resistance.Evaluation of the broth dilution vancomycin MICs for the S. epidermidisstrains after 24 and 48 h of incubation allowed detection of modest increases in MICs with extended incubation time. A more detailed characterization of overnight cultures of the fiveS. epidermidis isolates by population analysis showed that they were heterogeneous with respect to susceptibility to vancomycin, teicoplanin, and methicillin (Fig.2). While the MIC of vancomycin for the majority of cells in these cultures was between 3 and 6 μg/ml, the cultures also contained bacteria for which the MICs were more substantially increased at low but significant frequencies. For instance, cultures of isolate RR4 contained subpopulations of cells capable of growing on plates that contained 12 μg of vancomycin per ml (MIC, 25 μg/ml) at a frequency of 10−4. Cells that formed colonies on 25 μg of vancomycin per ml (MIC, 50 μg/ml) were also present (frequency, 10−5).
Phenotypic expression of methicillin (A), vancomycin (B), and teicoplanin (C) resistance of consecutive isolates of S. epidermidis strains recovered from the PD patient.
Selection and stability of the highly vancomycin-resistant subpopulations.It was relatively easy to increase the proportion of these subpopulations under laboratory conditions. Colonies of isolate RR4 that were capable of growing on 6 μg of vancomycin per ml were dispersed in drug-free growth medium and used at very low cell concentrations (approximately 100 cells per ml) as inocula. Upon replating for population analysis, the majority of the culture showed an increase in the vancomycin MIC from 6 μg/ml for the original isolate, RR4, to 12 μg/ml. A separate colony of RR4 picked from the 25-μg/ml vancomycin plate yielded a culture in which the MIC of vancomycin shifted up to 25 μg/ml. Both of these cultures also became more homogeneous with respect to vancomycin susceptibility (Fig.3A).
Enrichment of S. epidermidis cultures for subpopulations of bacteria for which the vancomycin MICs were elevated. Isolate RR4 was plated for population analysis on agar containing increasing concentrations of vancomycin (○). Bacterial cells capable of forming colonies on the agar containing 6 and 25 μg of vancomycin/ml (A, 6∗ and 25∗, respectively) were picked, diluted in drug-free TSB, grown overnight, and subsequently plated for population analysis. Symbols indicate cultures grown from a colony picked from the 6-μg/ml plate (░) or from the 25-μg/ml plate (■). A culture of RR4 was diluted into TSB con- taining increasing concentrations of vancomycin (eventually 25 μg/ml), grown overnight, and then plated for population analysis on agar plates containing vancomycin (B) or teicoplanin (C). Open circles (○) represent population profiles of the original culture.
In an additional experiment, a small aliquot of strain RR4 culture was diluted into TSB containing 6 μg of vancomycin per ml. After overnight growth, this culture was reinoculated into TSB with 12 μg of vancomycin per ml and, subsequently, into medium containing 25 μg of vancomycin per ml. Figure 3B shows that this procedure also resulted in the selection of the originally minor, highly vancomycin-resistant subpopulation, which became the major component of the enriched culture, for which the vancomycin MIC was in the range of 25 to 50 μg/ml. The teicoplanin MIC for the same culture increased from the original 25 to 50 μg/ml to greater than 100 μg/ml (Fig. 3C). The elevated MIC for such highly vancomycin-resistant bacteria was retained during extensive passage (over 70 generations) in drug-free medium.
Enrichment of S. epidermidis cultures for bacteria for which the vancomycin MIC was increased during exposure to a bactericidal concentration of the antibiotic. S. epidermidisisolates RR4 and RR8 were grown in TSB. At a cell concentration of about 5 × 106 CFU/ml, both cultures received 30 μg of vancomycin per ml, and viable titers were determined at hourly intervals (Fig. 4 [top]). After 7 h of incubation with the antibiotic, the viable titers of the cultures were reduced to about 5 × 104 and 5 × 103 CFU/ml in strains RR4 and RR8, respectively. The drop in viability was not accompanied by any change in optical density of the cultures. Upon further incubation (6 to 7 days), both cultures increased in viable titer (and optical density), to reach a stationary-phase concentration of about 5 × 109CFU/ml. Population analysis done at the beginning and at the end of this experiment showed increases in the vancomycin MICs from 6 μg/ml to 50 μg/ml in RR4 and from 3 μg/ml to 25 μg/ml in RR8 (Fig. 4).
Selection for bacteria with increased vancomycin resistance during the bactericidal action of vancomycin. (Top panel) Effect of vancomycin (30 μg/ml added at the time indicated by arrow) on the viable titers of strains RR4 (○) and RR8 (■). (Bottom panels) Population analysis of the two strains before (○) and after (■) the massive population shift caused by vancomycin treatment.
S. epidermidis isolates (RR4 through RR8) grown in the presence of one-half of the respective MICs of vancomycin from small inocula in TSB containing the antibiotic showed several properties reminiscent of a highly vancomycin-resistant S. aureuslaboratory mutant, VM (16), and several coagulase-negative staphylococcal isolates (12, 17) described recently. Thus, isolates RR4 through RR8 grown from small inocula in the presence of one-half the respective MICs of vancomycin for them showed the following. (i) There was aggregation easily visible to the eyes. (ii) Electron microscopy of RR4 through RR8 grown in the presence of vancomycin indicated formation of multicellular aggregates and the production of excess surface material similar in staining properties to that of cell wall (not shown). (iii) The results of biochemical tests (not shown) indicated that vancomycin completely inhibited autolysis of the cultures. (iv) Titration of the supernatants with a bioassay for free antibiotic showed that each of the cultures was capable of quantitatively removing vancomycin from the growth medium (data not shown).
These in vitro studies demonstrate unequivocally that the heterogeneous cultures of isolates RR4 through RR8 represent potential reservoirs of staphylococci for which the vancomycin MICs are above therapeutically achievable levels. The ease with which selection of these subpopulations occurred in the laboratory suggests that such subpopulations may also emerge in vivo, depending on the pharmacokinetics of vancomycin, the dosage regimen used, and the size of the pathogen population at the infection site(s). For these reasons, it was surprising to find that there was no significant upwards shift in the vancomycin MICs or PAPs among the consecutive surveillance cultures (RR4 through RR8) recovered from the patient during 2 months of extensive vancomycin prophylaxis.
The medical records allow one to estimate that between January and June of 1997, the patient received a total of close to 29 g of intraperitoneal vancomycin delivered in doses of 3 weeks of continuous administration per month. Despite this extensive exposure, the sameS. epidermidis strain with a virtually identical hetero-resistance profile to vancomycin was recovered from each of the five dialysate samples, collected through a 2-month period of extensive vancomycin prophylaxis.
These observations allow two conclusions. (i) They clearly document failure of vancomycin prophylaxis to provide bacteriological cure of the PD infection. (ii) In contrast to the results of the in vitro studies, the in vivo use of vancomycin did not cause elevation of vancomycin resistance levels in the isolates, suggesting that the “core” S. epidermidis culture responsible for the repeated infections of the patient was not fully accessible to the antibiotic, most likely because of its localization at the catheter exit site. Relatively poor access of antibacterial agents to staphylococci adhering to artificial surfaces affecting reduced susceptibility to antibiotic killing has been demonstrated repeatedly (1, 4, 5, 10, 20). In fact, the episodes of recurrentS. epidermidis peritonitis of the patient described here only ceased upon subsequent removal of the dialysis catheter.
In view of the concern over the transfer of vancomycin resistance genes from enterococci to staphylococci under clinical conditions, it was an ominous sign that the PD catheter site (and several other body sites) of this patient was, at times, also colonized by vancomycin-resistant strains of E. faecalis (vanA) and E. faecium (vanB). It is conceivable that the overproduction of cell walls associated with the staphylococcal resistance mechanism may serve as a barrier to such interspecific gene transfers (16).
This report underscores the urgent need to delineate the mechanism(s) of the unique staphylococcal vancomycin resistance, to continue surveillance for the possible interspecific transfer of resistance genes to staphylococci, and to define the role of therapeutic and prophylactic dosing regimens in the selection of highly vancomycin-resistant staphylococcal strains.
Partial support was provided by the Bodman/Achelis Fund, the Lounsbery Foundation, and the Cary L. Guy Foundation.
Received 20 July 1998.
Returned for modification 31 August 1998.
Accepted 21 October 1998.
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Journal of Clinical Microbiology Jan 1999, 37 (1) 39-44; DOI:
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Director of Development and Marketing
San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus
Salary: $125,000-$150,000, com
For over forty years the San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus (SFGMC) has affected the lives of millions through its performances, tours and educational and outreach activities. The Chorus initiated the gay chorus movement, and its performances are stronger than ever and its outreach program is groundbreaking. The organization has purchased its first permanent home, an historic four-story, Art Deco building located in the heart of San Francisco, in which it is creating the National LGBTQ Center for the Arts.
The mission of SFGMC is: “To lead by creating extraordinary music and experiences that build community, inspire activism, and foster compassion at home and around the world.” The Vision is: “a world inspired and unified by the music we create.”The values of SFGMC are: we believe in the transformative power of music to heal, to enlighten and to foster unity; we embrace the life affirming changes we create within and beyond our chorus community; we evolve society’s views toward LGBTQ+ people through our commitment to excellence; we honor all who came before us and whose sacrifices made it possible for us to raise our voices.
Singing an average of 30 appearances a year, the chorus has performed over 1,000 concerts at iconic venues across the country and around the world, performing to sold-out audiences each year. The Chorus is a family, a community, and an agent for change through its powerful music.
The Chorus has an historic opportunity to capitalize on its recent purchase of a new home that is destined to become a world-wide icon of civic pride for all communities. A lead gift has provided a strong foundation for a capital campaign that will finalize the purchase and renovation of the property and provide endowment funds to support operations; the campaign is being coordinated by specialized counsel and will interface with ongoing operational fundraising efforts.
As an integral part of the SFGMC team, the Director of Development & Marketing (DoDM) is tasked with achieving the organization’s fundraising goals to ensure it can continue its mission. The Director will partner closely with the Leadership Team to build overall organizational health and effectiveness, while delivering the departmental goals in alignment with SFGMC’s Strategic Plan and Capital Campaign. He/she/they will be charged with securing charitable contributions and other revenues, providing vision and outlining strategy to ensure adequate and growing financial resources, brand management and leverage, and maintaining a high level of community engagement. As a thought partner and collaborator with the Executive Director, the DoDM will analyze trends and identify ways to increase donor participation, as well as oversee a Development budget and staff team which includes all Resource Development lines of business. The DoDM will personally manage and develop a prospect portfolio aimed at significantly increasing major gift support and will work with the Marketing Manager and staff to implement Marketing and Communication plans.
SFGMC is seeking an exceptional Development professional with at least 10 years’ experience in non-profit fundraising, including work with Capital Campaigns and budgets of up to $10M. A very competitive salary and benefits package will be provided to the ideal candidate.
To apply, send a specific cover letter and resume to execsearchsfgmc@thirdsectorcompany.com.
SFGMC is seeking an exceptional Development professional with at least 10 years’ experience in non-profit fundraising, including work with Capital Campaigns and budgets of up to $10M. The successful candidate will have directly relevant work history demonstrating senior-level leadership and management experience as well as non-profit development, gift planning, financial management and donor relations. This dynamic professional will be well equipped to develop, refine, and articulate a vision and strategy for the Department. A proven track record in annual giving, special events, and/or donor relations, and strong sales/closing skills, as well as in motivating a professional staff with a focus on measurable outcomes is a must. The ability to enjoy and nurture a highly collaborative and professional environment within the organization will enable this person to build relationships by employing strong communication, problem-solving and mentoring skills. The successful candidate will also have demonstrated success working in concert with non-profit Board members and volunteers.
The DoDMwill be an enthusiastic, self-motivated leader who possesses a passion for the Arts, LGBTQ+ rights, and advancing the work of SFGMC. We seek a professional who is curious in nature, analytical in approach, diplomatic and strategic in developing and managing relationships, and committed to our mission. An energetic and creative professional who has the ability to function both independently and as part of a close-knit team in a fast-paced, deadline-driven environment will perform well in this role. A high level of individual initiative and commitment to exceeding goals is essential, as is a well-developed sense of personal integrity and a positive, confident, “can do” attitude. Other key characteristics which will enable success include assertiveness, creativity, humor and cheerfulness, resourcefulness, and flexibility.
Familiarity with the LGBTQ+ community and related social/political issues is highly desirable, as is a track record of fundraising amongst LGBTQ+ donors. Of prime importance is a commitment to the goals and mission SFGMC. An undergraduate degree (or equivalent experience) is required. Proficiency with Salesforce (PatronManager) is preferred.
Other requirements include
Comprehensive knowledge of technologies supporting nonprofit fundraising and marketing, including database, analytical tools and emerging media; demonstrated ability to handle sensitive information effectively and confidentially; excellent written and verbal skills;
Self-directed and proactive; holds one’s self accountable;
A strong customer focus and service orientation;
Major gifts solicitation experience (CFRE preferred);
Knowledge of the SF Bay Area and California communities and culture (experience in nation-wide donor development a plus); awareness of giving patterns and drivers;
Commitment to SFGMC’s core values;
California driver’s license and reliable vehicle.
Additional Salary Information: A comprehensive benefits package, including health, dental, vision, retirement and life insurance will be provided.
About San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus
Founded in 1978 as the very first chorus to identify as gay or lesbian, it has been the torchbearer for the LGBT choral movement around the world. Singing an average of 30 appearances a year, the chorus has performed over 1,000 concerts at iconic venues such as Louise M. Davies Symphony Hall, the San Francisco War Memorial, the historic Castro Theater, Walt Disney Symphony Hall, and world-renowned Carnegie Hall. The Chorus is a family, a community, and an agent for change through its powerful music performing to sold-out audiences each year.
Athletics Events & Marketing Coordinator (10 month - no benefits) Hamilton, NY, USA
Colgate University Today
ADVANCEMENT MANAGER (DEVELOPMENT AND MARKETING) Rockville, Maryland
German International School Washington D.C. Today
Communications Marketing Specialist Lexington, Kentucky
University of Kentucky Yesterday
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5 Best Moments From Kelsea Ballerini’s Opry Induction
Grand Ole Opry LLC. Chris Hollo
It was a magical evening on Tuesday night (April 16) as Kelsea Ballerini officially became a member of the Grand Ole Opry.
It was an emotional night, too — Ballerini was reduced to tears both on stage and behind-the-scenes. After she performed a well-rounded set of "Peter Pan," "In Between" and "Miss Me More," she was inducted by one of her idols and fellow Opry members, Carrie Underwood.
Here are five of the best moments from Ballerini's induction into the Grand Ole Opry:
1. "I rarely looked up"
After Underwood did the honors of officially welcoming Ballerini into the Opry family, the young star delivered a speech filled with thankfulness and gratitude. Ballerini shared how she moved to Nashville with ambitious dreams, many of which have already come true, and in her whirlwind career, it's not often she has time to step back and soak in the magnitude of her accomplishments.
"We can all agree that life moves really fast," Ballerini began. "There's rarely been a moment that's made me just stop and take it in and be grateful and look up. One that I remember is Feb. 14, 2015 and that is when I made my Opry debut," she said tearfully. "And one is right now."
2. "This is better than all of that"
Underwood's presence as she walked onstage to do the honors of inducting Ballerini drew a roar of applause from the crowd, and she instantly brought Ballerini to tears by calling her a "talented, incredible, smart, sweet, beautiful woman." Her speech echoed the sentiment of Garth Brooks' words when he welcomed Underwood into the Opry family 11 years ago, both reflecting on the weight of its meaning. "You have accomplished so much in your career and you will undoubtedly accomplish infinite amounts more in your career and in your life," Underwood said glowingly, referring to fans, awards and No. 1 songs. "This is better than all of that. The Opry has been and will always be here, the heart and soul of country music — a family — and you are in it."
3. Underwood and Ballerini duet
The two power women made the evening even more special by teaming up for a surprise duet of Trisha Yearwood's "Walkaway Joe." Ballerini explained that as they were reflecting on the female icons whose pictures hang on the walls in the Women of Country Music dressing room backstage at the Opry, they wanted to perform a song that honored the women who came before them, selecting Yearwood's classic hit as one they both admire. The duet made for a pure moment, their beautiful voices capturing the emotion of the song as the crowd attentively absorbed every lyric and met the end of the performance with resounding applause, the singers sharing another embrace even after the curtain came down.
4. "Forever home"
Backstage after the show, Senior Vice President of Programming and Artist Relations for the Opry, Sally Williams, described the hallowed hall as Ballerini's "forever home," a sentiment that the singer touched on earlier in the night. Ballerini explained how she made her first trip to the Opry as a teen, venturing from her home in Knoxville, Tenn., with her mom to see Josh Turner perform on the show. She also reminisced on when she signed her record deal with Black River Entertainment and compiled an "intensive goal list" of what she wanted to achieve in her career, making her debut at the Opry was on the top of that list.
"To be able to play this stage once is a dream, but to be able to know that I can play this stage in 30 years when the radio quits me and when touring quits me, it's really comforting and it's really beautiful," she said through tears.
5. Displaying her plaque
One of the many significant honors an artist experiences on Opry induction night is mounting their plaque onto the wall that features the names of the many other members of the revered institution. Armed with a pink bedazzled screw driver, Ballerini gave her best attempt at screwing the plaque into the wood panel, managing to only screw in one nail. But much like her growing legacy in country music, it allows her to stand out. "You can just leave it as one," she said. "It'll tell the story."
The Magic of the Grand Ole Opry: See Pictures Through the Years
Source: 5 Best Moments From Kelsea Ballerini’s Opry Induction
Filed Under: carrie underwood, grand ole opry, Kelsea Ballerini
Categories: Celebrity News, Entertainment, Music News
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Loved by generations of women worldwide, Little Women is a truly universal coming of age story. Set against the backdrop of the Civil War, the story follows sisters Jo, Meg, Beth and Amy March on their journey from childhood to adulthood. With the help of their mother, Marmee, and while their father is away at war, the girls navigate what it means to be a young woman: from sibling rivalry and first love, to loss and marriage.
Based on the classic novel by Louisa May Alcott, this three-part adaptation from the award-winning creator of Call the Midwife Heidi Thomas (Cranford, Upstairs Downstairs) will be directed by Vanessa Caswill (Thirteen, My Mad Fat Diary).
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Jack TaylorJack Taylor
Slow it Down: Cities with the Most Speeding Tickets
For many motorists, the speedometer becomes an afterthought when they hit the roads. Here’s which cities have the most drivers guilty of speeding.
Seeing a car driving well over the speed limit is a daily occurrence on the streets. Whether the offender is doing it out of necessity because they are late for work, or just driving quickly for the thrill of it, it seems that drivers these days simply can’t slow down. In fact, in a 2017 survey conducted by the National Safety Council, 64 percent of motorists admitted they were comfortable speeding.
Of course, even though exceeding the speed limit is a common sight, it is still against the law. Enough violations can result in a suspended license, and ticketed drivers are hit with hefty fines, and black marks on their driving records. These violations can hurt the wallet in other ways, raising insurance costs for offenders and making it much more difficult to get a cost-friendly plan.
To further investigate speeding in America, data scientists at Insurify, a website to compare car insurance quotes, decided to analyze the numbers to discover which areas are the most guilty of driving too quickly. Here are the 20 cities with the highest proportion of speeding drivers.
National averages. Nationwide, 10.27 percent of drivers have at least one speeding ticket. Additionally, 12.43 percent of drivers had a prior accident, while the mean proportion of speeding-related fatalities was 3.58 per 100,000 people.
A rural problem. Urban areas feature more stop lights and traffic, which theoretically makes it more difficult to speed. The data backs this up. The top 20 list heavily features rural areas. Remarkably, 60 percent of the cities on the list have a population of less than 100,000, and none have more than one million people. In fact, just one of the 35 most populous cities in the U.S. makes our top 20.
Repeat offenders. The cities with the biggest speeding problems certainly weren’t spread out all over the country. In fact, the 15 cities with the highest proportions of drivers with speeding tickets were concentrated in just three states—South Carolina, Virginia, and Iowa. And two of those states were home to 14 of those 15 cities.
To determine which cities have the most speeding drivers, the research team at Insurify, a website to compare car insurance quotes, took a look at some numbers from its database of 1.6 million car insurance applications. To get quotes, applicants enter personal information and driving history, including whether or not they have been ticketed for speeding in the past seven years. The number of drivers with a speeding ticket was analyzed against the total number of drivers in each city to determine the proportion of drivers with a speeding ticket. The top city in each state was then selected and the top 20 are reported here. Additionally, data on the percentage of drivers with a prior accident was also gathered from the Insurify database, while the number of speeding-related fatalities per 100,000 was obtained from data collected in 2017 by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). Finally, data on city populations was gathered by the United States Census Bureau in 2017.
20. Indianapolis, Indiana
Percentage of drivers with a speeding ticket: 14.22%
Percentage of drivers with a prior accident: 13.46%
Speeding-related fatalities per 100,000 people (statewide): 3.21
19. Lincoln, Nebraska
18. Cheyenne, Wyoming
17. Rockville, Maryland
16. Kansas City, Missouri
15. Gresham, Oregon
14. Cordova, Tennessee
13. Dover, Delaware
12. Jacksonville, North Carolina
Percentage of drivers with a prior accident: 13.9%
11. Wichita, Kansas
10. Madison, Wisconsin
Percentage of drivers with a prior accident: accident: 16.52%
9. Nampa, Idaho
8. Orem, Utah
7. Hinesville, Georgia
6. Spokane, Washington
Percentage of drivers with a speeding ticket: 17.6%
5. Loveland, Colorado
4. Canton, Ohio
3. Des Moines, Iowa
2. Portsmouth, Virginia
1. Beaufort, South Carolina
Recommended for Your
2019 99.9 KEKB is part of the Taste Of Country Network, Townsquare Media, Inc. All rights reserved.
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Votes and Legislation
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U.S. Service Academy Nominations
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Congressman Kevin McCarthy
Representing the 23rd District of CALIFORNIA
A Problem 'Too Big to Ignore' — How Years of Congressional Wrangling Led to a Water Compromise
Sarah Wire
Few people expected a California water fight in the final days of a lame-duck Congress, and fewer still expected landmark water legislation to pit the state’s U.S. senators against each other in the last moments of their 24-year partnership.
It took years of negotiations, and the right political timing, to bring the first major water policy affecting California in decades through the House and Senate. Over frayed feelings and filibuster threats, both chambers overwhelmingly passed the bill, which changes how much water is pumped from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta to San Joaquin Valley farmers and Southern California.
How did things get to this point?
California’s congressional delegation has long disagreed over how to respond to the Golden State’s water crisis, balancing protecting endangered species and preserving waterways against agricultural demand and drying wells.
Still, the state’s 14 Republican lawmakers met off and on with Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer and a handful of House Democrats to try to forge a compromise.
“Every time it slipped away, we never let it die,” House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Bakersfield) told The Times in an interview in his office. “Every time we’d get mad at each other, we’d come back at it.”
One of the most visible slips away was last December, when McCarthy added California water policy language to a federal spending bill and mistakenly released a statement that Feinstein was on board.
She and other California Democrats were furious, saying the draft legislation wasn’t ready.
“I thought we were there. I submitted it and then that blew it up,” McCarthy said.
Fingers were pointed. It would be months before the group seriously discussed water policy again.
Feinstein tried to go it alone, introducing a 184-page bill in February based on the years of negotiations. She called it “the hardest thing I’ve done.”
The Energy and Natural Resources Committee held one hearing on the measure, then a second. But the legislation couldn’t get traction. Colleagues warned Feinstein she needed Republican buy-in before anything would happen.
With her bill still not moving any closer to a Senate vote, Feinstein turned again to McCarthy and the House members.
“What was I supposed to do? Give up and do nothing?” Feinstein told The Times. “We’re in the sixth year of drought, and people are frightened and the economy is being affected by it. Jobs have been lost.”
It was at that first meeting with Feinstein on July 7 that McCarthy began pitching his plan to include portions of her bill in the massive water infrastructure bill.
That measure, the Water Resources Development Act, had been negotiated over two years in the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. It authorizes hundreds of water projects across the country, including restoration projects connected to the Los Angeles River, Salton Sea and Lake Tahoe, and more than two dozen other California projects.
Boxer, who had for years served as a foil to attempts to pull more water from the Delta, also happened to be the committee’s highest-ranking Democrat, and along with Chairman James Inhofe (R-Okla.) co-wrote the legislation.
The House and Senate passed different versions of the bill in September. That meant both sides would have to reconcile them to pass it, a chance to add a few new things.
“I knew this was a perfect opportunity. If we had gotten all of our work together, if we could come to an agreement. We were always close,” McCarthy said.
The infrastructure bill was becoming a must-pass for Republicans and Democrats alike, especially after authorization was added for new infrastructure to fix longstanding lead issues in the water in Flint, Mich., an issue Congress had failed to address for more than a year.
The Californians knew there were enough other enticing items in the water infrastructure bill that their state and national colleagues wanted that it would be difficult for Boxer to stop their efforts.
Rep. Jim Costa (D-Fresno), who has negotiated for years for more water for his Central Valley district, said he didn’t hesitate about the fact it was Boxer’s landmark bill and a finale ahead of her retirement.
“She’s not been helpful at all in recent years to try to solve any of the difficult issues on regional basis affecting California water,” Costa said. “I appreciate her support for the environmental community, but unless you’re able to reach some level of consensus and understand the nature of these very complex issues, then you’re not adding value to the legislative solutions to this very difficult challenge we face in California.”
Rep. John Garamendi (D-Walnut Grove), who has been part of the discussions for years, said if Democrats weren’t at the table, they chanced Republicans writing the bill alone next year, especially with a president more willing to sign it.
“They control the whole game,” Garamendi said. “You cannot stand back and do nothing, because they, the exporters, will write the bill and it will override the Endangered Species Act.”
After a final meeting shortly before Thanksgiving, and a last check with the White House that President Obama wouldn’t threaten to veto the bill over their move, McCarthy pulled the trigger Dec. 5 and inserted the language, taking many by surprise.
Boxer, who was looking forward to a last week in Congress full of goodbye speeches and watching her final bill pass, was apoplectic. The changes to the amount of water allowed to be pulled from the Delta were an unacceptable end run around the Endangered Species Act and would have dire consequences for salmon fishermen, she said.
“What right does anybody have to do that in the middle of the night?” Boxer said.
McCarthy said it wasn’t meant to be a personal affront.
“There was not a slight to Boxer in any way, shape or form. This is the water infrastructure bill, this is the place for it to be,” McCarthy said.
He praised Feinstein for always sticking to negotiations, even when they disagreed.
“I know there were times when we were at odds with one another, but that never stopped us from wanting to get a solution,” he said. “In the end, we found this problem was too big to ignore.”
The Dec. 5 announcement was the first major split in years for Boxer and Feinstein. And the tension was noticeable, as each tried to avoid directly criticizing her colleague of more than two decades.
“As far as I knew, she knew,” Feinstein said of Boxer. “My intent is after three years of work to try to get something done, and I knew I had to get it. We are not in charge, and I knew I had to get Republicans in both Houses to support this.”
Throughout the week, Boxer studiously laid the blame at McCarthy’s feet.
“Someone over there named Kevin McCarthy dropped [it] in there in the dead of night!” she said on the Senate floor, pointing toward the House chamber. “It is a disgrace.”
Boxer threatened to filibuster her own infrastructure bill, and spent days urging colleagues to kill it, or at least strip the California provisions. But after seeing it pass the House 360-61 (and House members leave for the year), she knew it was an uphill fight to stop it in the Senate.
Her pleas during hours speaking on the Senate floor Friday about what the bill could mean for the Endangered Species Act weren’t enough to sway her Senate colleagues raring to leave for home.
In the early morning hours Saturday, Boxer cast her final Senate vote. She opposed her own legislation, watching as the Senate voted 78 to 21 to send it to Obama’s desk.
2468 Rayburn House Office Building
Bakersfield District Office
4100 Empire Drive
Hours: M-F 8:30am - 5:00pm
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Fight Breaks Out In Court When Murder Victim's Family Attacks Her Killer
A sentencing hearing at a court in Youngstown, Ohio erupted into chaos when two family members of the victim attacked the man who admitted to killing her. The family of Elizabeth Pledger was preparing to read their impact statements to the court when two of Pledgers' sons jumped Dale Williams. They began to kick and punch Williams, who was handcuffed, as police officers rushed in to pull them apart.
Officers had to use Tasers to subdue one of the two men. They were both taken into custody after deputies gained control of the situation. Williams was taken to the hospital and his sentencing hearing was postponed.
Williams is facing 23 years to life in prison for shooting Pledger, who was his ex-girlfriend. He admitted to crashing his car into hers and then shooting her to death when she exited her vehicle.
Officials did not release any information about the charges the two men will face.
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THQ's New Boss Says No More uDraw, Primary Focus Will Be AAA Games
Filed to: ThqFiled to: Thq
Oh, THQ. Is there any more embattled video game company that you right now? Its financial woes have led some to believe that the company may not be exist in the near future. But new president Jason Rubin isn't one of them. The Naughty Dog co-founder gave an interview to Games Industry International that gives a glimpse of what he feels the company should focus on and what THQ will be avoiding in the near future.
How THQ Went From Bad to Very Bad
In 2007, shares in publisher THQ were going for over $30 a piece. Today, in 2012, they're…
The interview reveals that Rubin's seen most of the major games currently in development for the publisher and how he feels the company's slate can still do well:
THQ's 2014 Lineup is Alive and Well (On Paper, At Least)
Further distancing the company from rumors that its 2014 lineup had been canned, today's third …
Take a look at [South Park] Stick of Truth. A lot of people are talking about it, excited about it. That's not a blockbuster. Graphically, it's not going to compete with Call of Duty, but it's a really cool game. Metro's gotten a lot of nominations for Best in Show. Company of Heroes, the sequel to the highest rated RTS of all time. There are good things to do. [Saints Row developer] Volition, has an incredible amount of talent. I think that if they had been fostered in the same way that Naughty Dog was at Sony, given the tools that they needed to succeed, that there would be a much much more successful title there.
Rubin also says that he plans on maximizing those successful THQ franchises, ignoring mobile platforms like iOS and Android for the present and avoiding some of the riskier bets that the company's made in the past, like the uDraw tablet:
The uDraw is Completely Dead to THQ
Blaming the poor sales of the uDraw tablet on a dismal third quarter of 2012, THQ has officially…
One of the things I plan on doing is making a much more concise portfolio. I will not expand into the money I have because I want to keep this money around for a rainy day. So THQ is going to be a lot more careful with what it does and a little less cavalier. You won't be seeing another uDraw. We're not going to be doing side projects in mobile or casual. You're not going to see that stuff.
THQ's new bossman also mentions Guillermo Del Toro's inSane and unannounced titles that are in the pipeline as well, so it seems that it won't just be sequels coming from the publisher in the near future.
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“…and they lived happily ever after?”
Written by Super User on 21 May 2018 .
By Sergio Guerrero Rosas, Guerrero y Santana, S.C.
For that statement to be true, we must have control of what we want for our family and our heritage before any eventuality. If this is not the case, let's not allow our dream to become our worst nightmare; foreseeing possible disagreements is the best way to prevent them from happening.
Advanced Planning Will Minimize or Eliminate Estate Taxes
Written by Super User on 14 January 2016 .
By Allen Kutchins, Kutchins, Robbins & Diamond LTD
Advanced estate planning during one’s lifetime will minimize or eliminate estate taxes. It is a continual process and is most effective when a plan is in place and it works over a period of time. Following are some of KRD’s favorite planning techniques; however, there are many more available. Implementing these can assure that high networth clients will minimize or pay no federal estate taxes.
An Instrument for Asset Succession – The Family Pool
Written by Super User on 02 April 2019 .
By Brigitte Jakoby, Jakoby Dr. Baumhof – Wirtschaftsprüfer Steuerberater Rechtsanwälte
The term “family pool” can not be found in any legal text. It is not a legal term. Basically, it defines a company, in which the family assets are collected, hold and handed over in an easy way to the fol-lowing generations. Purposes of these family companies can be the preservation of the family assets on the one hand, the fair treatment of heirs, an useful designed asset succession regarding tax law or the efficient management of the family assets. Depending on the respective family assets, the em-phasis on the aforementioned target parameters can be very different.
Blocking a family member's involvement in a business
Written by Super User on 21 June 2013 .
In developed economies, just as in emerging markets, most companies are born as family businesses. However companies or businesses in which a family owns a majority stake often face an unpleasant reality. In fact, the probability that they will prosper in the long term is low, given that, according to statistical data, only 5% continue to generate value for the shareholders after the third generation. One of the risks faced by these companies arises from the fact that the generations succeeding the founder do not always inherit the same leadership and entrepreneurial vision.
College Supplies in Check: What about Critical Documents?
By Emily Kirtley Hanna, Dressman Benzinger LaVelle psc
When preparing to send a child over the age of 18 off to college or into the workforce, parents often overlook the need to ensure certain estate planning documents are in place. If the young adult were to get ill while at school or get injured on the job, parents are no longer provided with legal authority, as a natural guardian, and may not have the ability to speak with medical professionals or make decisions on their behalf, without the proper authorisations in place.
Written by Super User on 06 September 2017 .
By Dennis L. Nerland, Shea Nerland LLP
A Family Limited Partnership (“FLP”) is nothing more than a limited partnership, created as a vehicle to transfer income and title to assets from the family head to other family members, rather than to a non-family business associate. When the owner of a business is in a high income tax bracket, this transfer can drastically reduce any personal liability and taxes.
Important aspects of the amendments to the legislation on trusts proposed by the Panamanian Superintendence of Banks
Written by Super User on 19 March 2013 .
By Oliver Muñoz, Quijano & Associates
The Superintendency of Banks in the Republic of Panama has recently submitted the following documents for the consideration of the companies that have a Panamanian trust licence (i.e. "trust companies"):
(i) A bill of amendments to Law 1 of 1984 regulating Trust in Panama, and
(ii) A bill stipulating rules for the regulation and supervision of trust companies and the trust business in Panama.
Individual savings, personal pension plan… what’s new in the UK?
Written by Super User on 09 February 2015 .
By Bérangère Hassenforder, Anthony & Co UK Ltd
As a reminder, an individual savings account provides a tax free environment for savings. On 1 July 2014, all ISAs became New ISAs or NISAs. The government changed the name to reflect the increased limits and flexibility that are available to account holders. From 1 July, the annual allowance is increased and individuals are able to save up to a maximum of GBP 15,000 in this efficient tax wrapper for the 2014/15 tax year.
Islamic Trust (Endowment) or WAQF
Written by Super User on 04 December 2016 .
By Mohammed Aweidah, Al Zarooni Tureva, Auditors, Accountants, Advisors
What is a Waqf? The word Waqf is derived from an Arabic root which means ‘to hold back’, ‘to stand still’ and ‘to tie’. Waqf is also known as an “Endowment”.
Italy: An urgent call for estate planning
Written by Super User on 04 October 2016 .
By Prof Stefano Loconte and Michele Cecchi, Loconte & Partners
A draft bill has been recently introduced to the Italian Parliament which aims to amend the currently levied gift tax and inheritance tax. Although the hearings on the proposed bill have not started yet, it is true that there has been a lot of talk regarding this issue lately, and it is highly foreseeable that in the very near future, a radical change will be applied to the legislation to such an extent that will be considerably detrimental to taxpayers (possibly by means of a sudden intervention by the Government instead of a long discussed reform by Parliament).
Italy: Natural becomes legitimate
By Patrizia Giannini, S4B Solutions 4 Business
Revolutionary reforms to laws of hereditary succession, No. 219/12: The Italian Parliament has recently enacted a new law, No. 219/12, which became effective on 1 January 2013. This has amended the provisions of the Civil Code relating to filiation (wills and hereditary descent), eliminating all distinctions between "legitimate" children (born in wedlock) and "natural" children (born outside of marriage).
Jersey Limited Liability Partnerships
By Kate Anderson, Voisin
Limited liability partnerships ("LLPs") were introduced to Jersey in 1998, when the Limited Liability Partnerships (Jersey) Law 1997 (the "Law") came into effect. However, despite being hailed as an exciting new structure, Jersey LLPs were targeted at large professional partnerships, and as such the Law contained a requirement that a £5 million bond or similar financial provision ("Financial Provision") was maintained for the benefit of creditors upon the winding up of the LLP.
Key Estate Planning Concepts for International Clients
By Patrick J. McCormick, Drucker & Scaccetti, P.C.
Estate and gift tax techniques that are the foundation of common planning strategies do not necessarily apply to noncitizens or nonresidents.
Key estate planning issues for foreign residents in Mexico
Written by Super User on 01 August 2014 .
The issue of estate planning should be of importance to anyone who owns anything from a home to a car, from savings accounts to a nice electric guitar. As a result, we should all be aware of the processes involved in the preparation of wills and trusts, and be concerned not to die intestate (if at all), that is to say, without having given direction for the distribution of property and possession.
Life Insurance in Luxembourg
By Christophe Maulny and Alexane Palide, Anthony & Cie
As part of our International Family Office core business, we often work on interesting creative wealth strategy as well as real estate planning that would have been very difficult to envisage before meeting the person at the source of inspiration.
New Zealand Foreign Trusts under the spotlight
By Bethan Boscher, Morrison Kent
Following the recent media attention to the New Zealand Foreign Trust (“NZFT”) industry, John Shewan, appointed by the New Zealand Government to conduct a review on the product, has released his report and recommended that the NZFT offering is retained but with a significant increase in disclosure requirements. But what does this mean in practice for NZFTs and can New Zealand continue to maintain its high international reputation by continuing its NZFT industry?
Retirement planning needs detailed plans, not magic numbers
By Paul Gambles, MBMG Investment Advisory Co., Ltd.
There are many theories of how to calculate the amount of money you need to retire. Despite the plethora of formulae and algorithms, it primarily takes a clear head and accurate, detailed planning to get it right.
Royal Court Awaits Hastings-Bass Ruling
Written by Super User on 01 July 2013 .
By Nigel Pearmain and Daniel Walker, Voisin
This was an application by the Trustee requesting the Royal Court to set aside and/or confirm to be invalid as having been made by mistake a deed of amendment, a deed of exclusion and a deed of appointment. This was the first time the Court in Jersey has had to consider the continued applicability of the rule in Hastings-Bass since the English Court of Appeal decision in Pitt -v- Holt and Futter -v- Futter.
Saving Estate Taxes with an Irrevocable Life Insurance Trust
By Robert S. Jacobson, Kutchins, Robbins & Diamond, Ltd. (KRD)
Few people realize that, even though they may have a modest estate, their families may owe hundreds of thousands of dollars in estate taxes because they own a life insurance policy with a death benefit that could exceed the current estate tax exemption of 5.43 million dollars. This is because life insurance proceeds, while not subject to federal income tax, are considered part of your taxable estate and are subject to federal estate tax.
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kwize
Quote of the day | Topics | Authors | Sources
Ray Bradbury quotes
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“The good writers touch life often. The mediocre ones run a quick hand over her. The bad ones rape her and leave her for the flies.” Ray Bradbury, “Fahrenheit 451” - 1953
“We have everything we need to be happy, but we aren't happy. Something's missing.” Ray Bradbury, “Fahrenheit 451” - 1953
“He was moving from an unreality that was frightening into a reality that was unreal because it was new.” Ray Bradbury, “Fahrenheit 451” - 1953
“Maybe the books can get us half out of the cave. They just might stop us from making the same damn insane mistakes!” Ray Bradbury, “Fahrenheit 451” - 1953
“Our civilization is flinging itself to pieces. Stand back from the centrifuge.” Ray Bradbury, “Fahrenheit 451” - 1953
“Stuff your eyes with wonder . . . live as if you'd drop dead in ten seconds. See the world. It's more fantastic than any dream made or paid for in factories.” Ray Bradbury, “Fahrenheit 451” - 1953
“Some people turn sad awfully young . . . No special reason, it seems, but they seem almost to be born that way. They bruise easier, tire faster, cry quicker, remember longer and, as I say, get sadder younger than anyone else in the world. I know,...” Ray Bradbury, “Dandelion Wine” - 1957
“It doesn't matter what you do . . . so long as you change something from the way it was before you touched it into something that's like you after you take your hands away.” Ray Bradbury, “Fahrenheit 451” - 1953
“A stranger is shot in the street, you hardly move to help. But if, half an hour before, you spent just ten minutes with the fellow and knew a little about him and his family, you might just jump in front of his killer and try to stop it.” Ray Bradbury, “Something Wicked This Way Comes” - 1962
“there were a lot of lovely books once, before we let them go.” Ray Bradbury, “Fahrenheit 451” - 1953
“The first thing you learn in life is you're a fool. The last thing you learn in life is you're the same fool.” Ray Bradbury, “Dandelion Wine” - 1957
“They blended religion and art and science because, at base, science is no more than an investigation of a miracle we can never explain, and art is an interpretation of that miracle.” Ray Bradbury, “The Martian Chronicles” - 1950
“No one has time any more for anyone else.” Ray Bradbury, “Fahrenheit 451” - 1953
“We Earth Men have a talent for ruining big, beautiful things.” Ray Bradbury, “The Martian Chronicles” - 1950
“If you hide your ignorance, no one will hit you and you'll never learn.” Ray Bradbury, “Fahrenheit 451” - 1953
“you can't wait to become perfect, you got to go out and fall down and get up with everybody else.” Ray Bradbury, “Something Wicked This Way Comes” - 1962
“Everything that happens before Death is what counts.” Ray Bradbury, “Something Wicked This Way Comes” - 1962
“That's friendship, each playing the potter to see what shapes we can make of the other.” Ray Bradbury, “Something Wicked This Way Comes” - 1962
“The books are to remind us what asses and fools we are.” Ray Bradbury, “Fahrenheit 451” - 1953
“If they give you ruled paper, write the other way.” Ray Bradbury, “Fahrenheit 451” - 1953
“If you don't want a man unhappy politically, don't give him two sides to a question to worry him; give him one. Better yet, give him none. Let him forget there is such a thing as war.” Ray Bradbury, “Fahrenheit 451” - 1953
“Books were only one type of receptacle where we stored a lot of things we were afraid we might forget. There is nothing magical in them at all. The magic is only in what books say, how they stitched the patches of the universe together into one...” Ray Bradbury, “Fahrenheit 451” - 1953
“There must be something in books, things we can't imagine, to make a woman stay in a burning house; there must be something there. You don't stay for nothing.” Ray Bradbury, “Fahrenheit 451” - 1953
“So few want to be rebels any more. And out of those few, most, like myself, scare easily.” Ray Bradbury, “Fahrenheit 451” - 1953
“A book is a loaded gun in the house next door. Burn it. Take the shot from the weapon. Breach man's mind. Who knows who might be the target of the well-read man?” Ray Bradbury, “Fahrenheit 451” - 1953
“We cannot tell the precise moment when friendship is formed. As in filling a vessel drop by drop, there is at last a drop which makes it run over, so in a series of kindnesses there is at last one which makes the heart run over.” Ray Bradbury, “Fahrenheit 451” - 1953
“And when he died, I suddenly realized I wasn't crying for him at all, but for the things he did.” Ray Bradbury, “Fahrenheit 451” - 1953
“Those who don't build must burn. It's as old as history and juvenile delinquents.” Ray Bradbury, “Fahrenheit 451” - 1953
“They show the pores in the face of life. The comfortable people want only wax moon faces, poreless, hairless, expressionless. We are living in a time when flowers are trying to live on flowers, instead of growing on good rain and black loam.” Ray Bradbury, “Fahrenheit 451” - 1953
“But that's the wonderful thing about man; he never gets so discouraged or disgusted that he gives up doing it all over again, because he knows very well it is important and worth the doing.” Ray Bradbury, “Fahrenheit 451” - 1953
“We must all be alike. Not everyone born free and equal, as the Constitution says, but everyone made equal. Each man the image of every other; then all are happy, for there are no mountains to make them cower, to judge themselves against.” Ray Bradbury, “Fahrenheit 451” - 1953
“She didn't want to know how a thing was done, but why. That can be embarrassing.” Ray Bradbury, “Fahrenheit 451” - 1953
“Truth is truth, to the end of reckoning, we've cried. They are never alone that are accompanied with noble thoughts, we've shouted to ourselves.” Ray Bradbury, “Fahrenheit 451” - 1953
“Sometimes I ride the subway all day and look at them and listen to them. I just want to figure out who they are and what they want and where they're going.” Ray Bradbury, “Fahrenheit 451” - 1953
“With school turning out more runners, jumpers, racers, tinkerers, grabbers, snatchers, fliers, and swimmers instead of examiners, critics, knowers, and imaginative creators, the word 'intellectual,' of course, became the swear word it deserved to be.” Ray Bradbury, “Fahrenheit 451” - 1953
“I'm seventeen and I'm crazy. My uncle says the two always go together. When people ask your age, he said, always say seventeen and insane.” Ray Bradbury, “Fahrenheit 451” - 1953
“A good night's sleep, or a ten-minute bawl, or a pint of chocolate ice cream, or all three together, is good medicine, Doug.” Ray Bradbury, “Dandelion Wine” - 1957
“Bees do have a smell, you know, and if they don't they should, for their feet are dusted with spices from a million flowers.” Ray Bradbury, “Dandelion Wine” - 1957
“I'll hold on to the world tight some day. I've got one finger on it now; that's a beginning.” Ray Bradbury, “Fahrenheit 451” - 1953
“Nobody listens any more. I can't talk to the walls because they're yelling at me. I can't talk to my wife; she listens to the walls. I just want someone to hear what I have to say. And maybe if I talk long enough, it'll make sense. And I want you...” Ray Bradbury, “Fahrenheit 451” - 1953
“Death doesn't exist. It never did, it never will. But we've drawn so many pictures of it, so many years, trying to pin it down, comprehend it, we've got to thinking of it as an entity, strangely alive and greedy. All it is, however, is a stopped...” Ray Bradbury, “Something Wicked This Way Comes” - 1962
“That's the good part of dying; when you've nothing to lose, you run any risk you want.” Ray Bradbury, “Fahrenheit 451” - 1953
“I'm alive. . . . Thinking about it, noticing it, is new. You do things and don't watch. Then all of a sudden you look and see what you're doing and it's the first time, really.” Ray Bradbury, “Dandelion Wine” - 1957
“I want to feel all there is to feel, he thought. Let me feel tired, now, let me feel tired. I mustn't forget, I'm alive, I know I'm alive, I mustn't forget it tonight or tomorrow or the day after that.” Ray Bradbury, “Dandelion Wine” - 1957
“For a little while I'm not afraid. Maybe it's because I'm doing the right thing at last.” Ray Bradbury, “Fahrenheit 451” - 1953
“The autumn leaves blew over the moonlit pavement in such a way as to make the girl who was moving there seem fixed to a sliding walk, letting the motion of the wind and the leaves carry her forward.” Ray Bradbury, “Fahrenheit 451” - 1953
“He stood breathing, and the more he breathed the land in, the more he was filled up with all the details of the land. He was not empty. There was more than enough here to fill him. There would always be more than enough.” Ray Bradbury, “Fahrenheit 451” - 1953
“no man's a hero to himself.” Ray Bradbury, “Something Wicked This Way Comes” - 1962
“The home environment can undo a lot you try to do at school.” Ray Bradbury, “Fahrenheit 451” - 1953
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Fahrenheit 451 (35)
Dandelion Wine (6)
The Martian Chronicles (2)
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Kelsey Museum Returns Artifact to Egyptian Museum in Berlin
Funerary stela of Ptahmose
The Kelsey Museum of Archaeology at the University of Michigan recently returned a 3200-year-old Egyptian artifact to the Ägyptisches Museum in Berlin after research revealed that the piece had been looted from the Berlin Museum during World War II.
The artifact, a glazed stone funerary stela made for a man named Ptahmose around 1250 B.C., came to the Kelsey Museum as part of a donation of the collection of Samuel A. Goudsmit, an internationally known physicist and enthusiastic amateur Egyptologist. Goudsmit served in Germany at the end of World War II as part of the Alsos Project, an American mission that was investigating German nuclear energy and weapons development, and acquired the artifact from a private collector in Germany in 1945. The artifact came to the Kelsey in 1981 as part of the donation of Goudsmit's collection after his death.
Recent research by Dutch Egyptologist Nico Staring noted the similarity of the artifact to an object from the Berlin Ägyptisches Museum, assumed to have been lost in the bombing of the museum in World War II. Staring, with the assistance of Kelsey Museum curators Janet Richards and Terry Wilfong, ultimately proved that the Kelsey artifact was, in fact, the Berlin stela, apparently looted from the damaged museum and later sold to Goudsmit.
Upon this discovery, the Kelsey Museum alerted the authorities in Berlin, who investigated further and confirmed that this was indeed their artifact. The Kelsey Museum curators were in immediate agreement that the artifact had to be returned to Germany. The University of Michigan supported the Kelsey Museum's desire to return the artifact and, after a formal process to de-accession the piece from the Kelsey, plans were made for its return. On April 26th, Kelsey Museum Collections Manager Sebastián Encina took the artifact to New York, where Ägyptisches Museum director Dr. Frederike Seyfried was waiting. After a formal hand-over of the artifact, Dr. Seyfried took it back to Berlin, where it will soon go on display again, some seventy years after it was last on view in Germany.
The German authorities have been very appreciative of the Kelsey Museum's efforts to return the artifact, and have offered to make a 3-D scan of the piece, from which we can create a replica for display in Ann Arbor. In this virtual form, the artifact will continue to teach us about Egyptian funerary art and practice, but will also serve as a reminder of the complex paths museum artifacts travel and the value and importance of provenance.
Kelsey; Collections
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Middle East Religion / Church Uncategorized Worldview
“The harvest is ripe, but the labourers are few.
QUESTION: How are John the Baptist and the Ayatollah Khomeini alike?
I talked to a friend from Iran today; he had just returned from that region and he told me some amazing facts and stories. But first, a little background.
I first drove across Iran in 1970 and it impressed me as being much better developed and generally a more advanced civilisation than either Turkey to the west or especially Afghanistan to the east. The roads were good; there were attractive public places,; new buildings and the people were fashionably dressed.
What I didn’t see was the seething unrest and hatred for the Shah and SAVAK, his secret police (with 60,000 employees!) who had tortured and killed hundreds of thousands of Iranian citizens. That intense hatred was also aimed at the countries that put the Shah in power. (This is where Brits and Americans hang their heads.)
America and Great Britain conspired together in 1953 to assassinate the elected Prime Minister of Iran, who wanted to charge more money for Iranian oil. so they could replace him with a sympathetic ruler who would not demand higher royalties. The PM was duly assassinated and Shah (or King) Mohammad Reza Pahlavi was installed.
Towards the end of his reign, he also wanted more money from American and British oil companies, so support for him was withdrawn and an Islamic Revolution filled the vacuum. The Ayatollah Khomeini arrived from Paris to a vast crowd of rapturous followers in 1979 and immediately declared that Iran was henceforth an Islamic Republic.
The promised joy, peace and prosperity never materialized and the people of Iran gradually realised that they had exchanged one tyrannical system for another. Instead of SAVAK, they had religious police and an extensive network of informers linked together via the mosques. Sharia law did not produce the promised liberation.
Though Khomeini died in 1989, his successor, the Ayatollah Khamenei has continued the tradition of the religious “Supreme Ruler”, and discontent has saturated Iran.
So, back to my conversation earlier today: My friend visited bordering nations where Iranian followers of Jesus come steadily and in large numbers for Bible training. There are millions of Iranian exiles around the world and where ever they are, there are Iranian churches. So, many are coming to faith, but then they say, “What now?” We are working to get discipleship training and Bible knowledge to them.
One of the men my friend met with, in a country near Iran, oversees three to four thousand underground churches in Iran. He says what they all say. “The Islamic Republic has shown them the true nature of Islam and they want nothing to do with it.” He said that the mosques that used to be overflowing with young people are now deserted. His estimate is that about 70% of the mosques have no young people at all.
As you would expect, though, not all of them are coming to faith in Jesus. Atheism is popular and even Satanism has become evident. Here it is important to remember one of the clearest commandments Jesus gave us. “The harvest is ripe, but the labourers are few. So, pray that the Lord of the Harvest will send more labourers!”
To illustrate the nature of the ripe harvest, my friend mentioned today that just a few years ago, when he talked to Iranians about Jesus, they would typically ask questions like: “Mohammed came after Jesus, so how can you say he was wrong and Jesus was right?” Or they might state, “We know that the early Christians changed the stories to make Jesus out to be God, but he never claimed that, so how can you believe the Bible?” Now, he said, they never mention those objections; they just want to know more.
So, how are John and Khomeini alike? They both “prepared the way of the Lord”. John brought a message which demanded a change of heart from legalistic religion to the Lordship of Jesus. The Ayatollah showed the people of Iran how ugly a legalistic and coercive religious system can be. Then Jesus came.
TagsChristians • discipleship • Iran • lynn green • Middle East
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Saturday Night Music Byte
Paper Lace
Paper Lace was a Nottingham, England based pop group, formed in 1969. They are known to Americans as a one-hit wonder; however, in the UK they were a “classic two and a half hit wonder”. The core of the band originally formed in 1967 as Music Box, but changed their name to Paper Lace when Phil Wright joined as drummer and lead singer.
The band took their name from lace products created from a special grade of high quality paper manufactured in Nottingham, their hometown. Paper Lace was one of hundreds of pop bands in England looking for the big time while slogging their way through small club gigs and brief television appearances. A season at Tiffany’s, a Rochdale club, led to more television appearances, but a passport to the charts did not arrive until a 1974 victory on Opportunity Knocks, the ITV talent contest series.
According to drummer and lead singer Phil Wright:
“Opportunity Knocks was pretty much the 70s version of The X-Factor. There was a huge audition week in 1970 at the Bridgford Hotel, which is now the Rushcliffe Borough Council building near the City Ground. And there were thousands of people queuing up. We turned up in our best suits, did a few numbers, and were told that they liked us but not to expect to go on straight away. When they finally got back to us in 1973, we thought; do we really need this now? But they were getting viewing figures of 7 million, so we went for it. And we won five weeks on the trot! There were two songwriters (Mitch Murray and Peter Callender) who got in touch with our management and offered us “Billy Don’t Be a Hero”, with the possibility of more songs if it took off. We went down, recorded it, and they said “Hey, this is a great song, it’s going to be a hit”. And the song proved to be stronger than the band, because everyone knows it, they just can’t remember who recorded it. Except in Nottingham, of course…”
Thanks to that show, songwriters/producers, Mitch Murray and Peter Callender quickly signed them. The smash hit “Billy Don’t Be a Hero” spent three weeks at Number one on the UK Singles Chart in March 1974. It was followed by an equally catchy story song, which reached the Number 3 called “The Night Chicago Died”. Another release, “The Black-Eyed Boys”, took Paper Lace to Number 11 in late 1974.
With their subject matter about the American Civil War, it was logical that “Billy Don’t Be a Hero” should become a hit in the United States; however, Bo Donaldson and the Heywoods were the first to release “Billy” in the United States, and Paper Lace had to be content with a #96 placing. However, the follow-up song “The Night Chicago Died”, set in the Prohibition era with reference to Al Capone, was untroubled by any such competition and topped the Billboard Hot 100. It sold over three million copies, and was awarded a gold disc by the R.I.A.A. in August 1974.
According to Phil Wright,
“Well, that [Chicago song] was even more successful. Number 1 in America. I got a platinum disc for that… and I certainly didn’t give that away! I remember us being on Top Of The Pops and Elton John shaking my hand backstage and congratulating us on a US No.1, which he hadn’t achieved at the time! The really strange thing was we couldn’t even perform the song in America, due to some contractual hassles. And the label told us that they could make it a hit without us having to be there. We did a few radio stations, but that’s all.”
The group released two albums, Paper Lace and Other Bits of Material (1974) and the strangely titled second album, First Edition (1975); however, they quickly faded from the public eye as the band’s popularity waned. Philip Wright and Cliff Fish carried on as Paper Lace, with other musicians filling in for the missing band members. In 1978, they surfaced briefly with a sing-along version of “We’ve Got the Whole World in Our Hands” with their local football team, Nottingham Forest F.C. (Sendra, 2006). The 7″ single, with “The Nottingham Forest March” as the B-side, reached Number 24 in the UK chart but bizarrely went Top 10 in the Netherlands.
In 1997, Wright rejoined Sons and Lovers, the band he left to join Paper Lace; however, he does occasional gigs billed as Philip Wright’s Paper Lace.
They were the most successful band Nottingham ever produced, and were invited to perform on the Royal Variety Performance in front of the Queen Mother.
Please enjoy this music video of Paper Lace performing their hit, “The Night Chicago Died”.
Posted in Songs, Uncategorized
Tags: Paper Lace, Songs, The Night Chicago Died
Hey Tea-Baggers, Don’t Eat The Brown Acid!
Any day that you can repeat the famous “Don’t Eat The Brown Acid” line from the 1968 Woodstock festival is a good day for Lynnrockets’ Blast-Off. Today, we can thank the Tea Party and its membership of Tea-Baggers for the opportunity. Unfortunately, the warning may be too late. It appears that they have been tripping on something bad for the last eighteen months since their manufactured creation. Oh, and “what a long, strange trip it’s been”!
The Des Moines Register (Iowa) reported this week that,
An event described as the “Woodstock” of tea parties is planned for Sept. 11 at the Monona County Fairgrounds in Onawa in western Iowa. Craig Halverson of Griswold, who is helping to organize the event, said supporters hope to attract at least 1,000 people from Iowa, Nebraska, South Dakota, Minnesota and other states. He said they are inviting prominent conservative speakers and plan to have bands perform patriotic music.
The event will have a “Take back our country” theme, Halverson said. Although the activities will occur on the ninth anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, he said organizers don’t plan to spend the day reflecting on those events.
The whole idea of a group of socially awkward, old, white, conservative men gathering together is far more reminiscent of the early bird dinner hour at an AARP convention than the wildly famous counter-cultural youth phenomena which was Woodstock. The fact that the organizer only expects a group of “at least 1000 people” underscores the insignificance of the event. To add insult to injury, the gathering is scheduled to take place on September 11th. That tragic day will be remembered by all Americans and the horrible events that took place had absolutely nothing to do with taxes, bailouts, health care reform or anything else having to do with “taking back our country”. The Tea-Baggers should be ashamed of themselves for trying to capitalize on that day of tragedy.
Then again, what could we expect? The Tea-Baggers have been tripping on some sort of hallucinogen since their creation which has blurred and warped their perception of historical events. They have stripped founding father Thomas Jefferson from the history books. They think it is patriotic for their states to secede from the union. They deny that Medicare was created as and continues to be, a government program. Consequently, is it that much of a stretch for them to believe that September 11th was the day when taxes or bailouts went out of control? The Tea-Baggers are certainly suffering from a bad trip. Heck, their de-facto Queen, Sarah Palin named her oldest son Track after the marks left behind from intrvenous drug use and her grandchild (?) is named Tripp. How appropriate.
At least the event will allow the rest of us to laugh our collective asses off at all of the Tea-Baggers’ now famous misspelled signs.
Magical Mystery Tour song link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hnrsqf33MXA
THE TRAGICAL MISERY TOUR
(sung to The Beatles song “Magical Mystery Tour”)
Roll up, roll up for the tragical misery tour. Step right this way.
Roll up, roll up for the misery tour
Roll up AND THAT’S AN INVITATION, roll up for the misery tour
Roll up, DON’T NEED NO EDUCATION, roll up for the misery tour
The tragical misery tour is eating your brain cells away
Eating your brain cells away
Roll up, WE DON’T CARE IF YOU CAN’T READ, roll up for the misery tour
Roll up, SO LONG AS YOU CAN SCREAM, roll up for the misery tour
The tragical misery tour will even pay you for the day
Even pay you for the day
(The misery trip is waiting)
Roll up, TO MAKE A RESERVATION, roll up for the misery tour
Roll up, FOR INSANE CONVERSATION, roll up for the misery tour
The tragical misery tour wants insurers to keep their payday
Please help them to have their way
The tragical misery tour is hoping that you die away
After you make your co-pay, make your co-pay
Posted in Fox News, Republican, Sarah Palin, Songs, Tea Party, Town Hall Protest Tour
Tags: fox, Fox News, news, palin, right wing, Sarah Palin, Songs, Tea Party, Tea-Baggers
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Tag Archive: European
Photos of our vacation in Europe: Prague – the loveliest city in Europe! A
Filed under: LINEAR B, MEDIA by vallance22 — 1 Comment
These photos speak for themselves. Prague was Mozart's favourite city. No Wonder!
Wait until you see the photos of Prague in the next two posts!
Tags: art, books, ceiling, ceilings, Central Europe, city, Czech, Czech Republic, Diana, digital photography, Europe, European, fresco, Frescoes, frescos, goddess, libraries, library, painting, paintings, photo, photography, photos, Prague, Rococco
7 more photos from Vienna (2 in both colour & B&W), from our vocation in Europe, June 2015: Click on each photo to ENLARGE:
Tags: architecture, caryatids, Central Europe, classical, classical music, digital photography, eagles, Europe, European, Mozart, museum, museums, music, palace, park, parks, photography, photos, Schoenbrunn, Vienna, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Significant Phonetic Variations in the Pronunciation of the L & R + Vowel Series as Reflected in the Linear B & Linear C Syllabaries
Filed under: LINEAR B, LINEAR C Arcado-Cypriot by vallance22 — 2 Comments
Comparison of the Mycenaean Linear B & the Arcado-Cypriot Linear C Syllabaries: Click to ENLARGE
Where the phonetic values of the syllabogram series R + vowel series (the L series missing in Linear B) do sound somewhat different in the two syllabaries, Linear B & Linear C, there is in fact a very sound phonetic reason for this.
But first, let me tell you a little story. If there were such a thing as time-travel into the past or the future, modern Greeks from Athens travelling back to the city in 500 BCE would indeed be shocked at how Greek was pronounced then. Ancient Greeks thrust into the future would have the same reaction – utter disbelief. I myself put this hypothesis to test while I was in Greece in May 2012. I could read modern Greek fairly well even then. But when I tried to communicate with some folks I met in a restaurant with my own plausible version of the ancient Attic dialect (there are actually 3 or 4 possible versions), no-one could understand scarcely a word I spoke. And when I asked my colleagues to speak modern Greek to me, I was equally at a loss. But I could read the menu with no problem.
Moving on then.
Although the Mycenaean Greeks were apparently unable to pronounce the letter “L”, nothing in fact could be more deceptive to the unwary Occidental ear. It all comes down to a matter of our own ingrained linguistic bias in our own social-cultural context. To us, the Arcadians & Cypriots indeed appear to have already made the distinction between L & R, given that their syllabary contains syllabograms consisting of both of these consonants (L & R) followed by vowels. But I stress, to us, we cannot be sure how they pronounced L & R, or to what extent they had by then become phonetically separate. Looking at the Linear C Syllabary, you can see the distinction right away. See above.
Now some of you may already be aware of the “fact” that to our ears in the West, the Japanese seem utterly incapable of pronouncing either L or R, but appear to be pronouncing something half-way between the two, which sounds like mumble-jumbo to our ears. Since the Linear B syllabary has no L + vowel series of syllabograms, the Mycenaeans too might have conflated L and R into one consonant in a manner similar to the way the Japanese pronounce it, at least in the early days of the Mycenaean dialect (possibly from 1450-1300 BCE). On the other hand, since the Arcadians and the Cypriots had apparently already made the distinction between L & R from as early as 1100 BCE, their immediate forebears, the Mycenaeans, might have already been well on the road to being able to pronounce L & R distinctly as consonants by 1300-1200 BCE, although they still may have been confusing them from time to time. However, they probably could see no point in adding an L + vowel series such as we see in Arcado-Cypriot Linear C, given that they had already used the Linear B syllabary for at least 2 and half centuries (ca 1450 – 1200 BCE). I am inclined to accept this hypothesis of the gradual emergence of L & R towards the end of Linear B's usage ca. 1200 BCE, in preference to a hypothetical Japanese-like pronunciation based on the assumption that the L+R concatenation is a merging of L & R as semi-consonants. Still, either scenario is perfectly plausible.
Allophone English speakers invariably find the pronunciation of L & R in almost all other Occidental languages (French, Spanish, Italian etc.) much too “hard” to their ears. This is because the letters L & R in English alone are alveolars, mere semi-consonants or semi-vowels, depending on your perspective as an English speaker, which is in turn conditioned by the dialect you speak. There are some English dialects in which the letter R is still pronounced as a trilled consonant, but for the most part, allophone English speakers pronounce both L and R very softly – at least to the ears of allophones from other European nations. Practically all other modern European languages trill the letter R, making it a consonant in their languages. But not English. This is due to the “Great Vowel Shift” which occurred in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries in English, whereby the earlier trilled R was abandoned in favour of the much softer semi-consonant or semi-consonant R we now use in English. For this reason and others besides, English alone of the Germanic languages is not guttural at all. At the same time, L, which had previously been pronounced just as in other European languages, became a semi-consonant.
You can put this to the test by pronouncing either letter aloud, paying close attention to where you touch the interior of your mouth with your tongue. Your tongue will instantly feel that the semi-consonant L scarcely makes any contact with any firm area of the mouth, but is pronounced almost the same way the vowels are – almost, but not quite. On the other hand, R, which is a true semi-vowel, at least in Canadian and American English, does not make any contact with any firm part of the mouth, in other words, it is pronounced just as the vowels are – no contact. So it really is a vowel. But English scholars and linguists in the sixteenth century could see no point in changing R to a vowel, any more than the Mycenaeans could be bothered with a new series of syllabograms beginning with L.
But it matters little, if at all, whether or not we pronounce L & R as semi-consonants or semi-vowels, as in English, or as separate consonants as in the other European languages, since we all pronounce them as distinct letters. This ingrained linguistic bias greatly colours our perceptions of how others pronounce the “same” letters, if indeed they are the same at all. So it all boils down to just one thing: it all depends on your socio-culturally conditioned perspective as a speaker of our own language.
This state of affairs leaves me forced to draw the inescapable conclusion that to the Japanese it is we who have made a mess of things by separating the pronunciation of L & R, which sound identical to their ears, in other words as one consonant (which is neither a semi-consonant nor a semi-vowel). To assist you in putting this into perspective, consider the Scottish pronunciation of the letter R, which is also clearly a consonant, and is in fact the pronunciation of R before the Great Vowel Shift in Middle English. This is not to say that the Scottish pronounce their consonant R anywhere near the way the Japanese pronounce their single consonant, to our ears an apparent conflation of our two semi-consonants L & R.
Again, the whole thing comes down to a matter of linguistic bias based on the socio-cultural conditions of two very distinct meta-cultures, Occidental and Oriental. In that context, the languages in their meta-classes (Occidental versus Oriental) are symbolic of two entirely different perspectives on the world. Need I say more?
In conclusion, it is extremely unwise to draw conclusions for phonetic distinctions between the socio-culturally “perceived” pronunciation of any consonant or any vowel whatsoever from one language to another, especially in those instances where one of the languages involved is Occidental and the other is Oriental. The key word here is “perceived”. It is all a question of auditory perception, and that is always conditioned by the linguistic norms of the society in which you live.
This still leaves us up in the air, so to speak. How can we be sure that the Mycenaean Greeks apparently could not pronounce their Ls “properly” (to be taken with a grain of salt). We cannot. Since we were not there at the time, our own linguistic, socio-cultural biases figure largely in our perception of what the so-called “proper” pronunciation was. If we mean by proper, proper to themselves, that is an altogether different matter. But what is proper to us was almost certainly not proper to them, of that we can pretty much rest assured. The same situation applies to every last ancient Greek dialect. What was proper pronunciation and orthography to the Dorian dialect most certainly was not for the Arcado-Cypriot dialect any more than it was for Attic Greek. To be perfectly blunt, we cannot ever be quite sure how anyone in ancient Greek pronounced their own dialect of the language, again because we weren't there.
Tags: alveolar, Ancient Greek, Arcado-Cypriot, consonants, Cypriot, English, European, French, Great Vowel Shift, Homeric Greek, Italian, LINEAR B, Linear C, LinearB, Linguistics, Middle English, Mycenaean, Mycenaean Greek, pronunciation, Romanian, semi-consonant, semi-consonants, semi-vowel, semi-vowels, Spanish, syllabary, syllabic scripts, syllabograms, vowels
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Top 10 Shortest Wars
Jamie Frater September 28, 2007 0
Since Biblical times and before, man has been constantly fighting. It seems that never a year goes by without one war or another starting or finishing. Some of these wars take many years and have very high death tolls, but there have also been some extraordinarily short wars. This is a list of the ten shortest wars since 1800. I have not included wars that ended in ceasefire, wars of revolution or independence, or wars that occurred during the First or Second World Wars.
10. Falklands War 42 days
Year Fought: 1982
Between: Argentina vs United Kingdom
Outcome: British victory
The Falklands war was fought in 1982 between Argentina and the United Kingdom over the disputed Falkland Islands, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands. The Falkland Islands consist of two large and many small islands in the South Atlantic Ocean east of Argentina, and their name and ownership have long been disputed. The war was triggered by the occupation of South Georgia by Argentina on 19 March 1982 followed by the occupation of the Falklands, and ended when Argentina surrendered on 14 June 1982. War was not actually declared by either side. The initial invasion was considered by Argentina as the re-occupation of its own territory, and by Britain as an invasion of a British overseas territory, and the most recent invasion of British territory by a foreign power. The political effects of the war were strong in both countries. A wave of patriotic sentiment swept through both: the Argentine loss prompted even larger protests against the military government, which hastened its downfall; in the United Kingdom, the government of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher was bolstered. It helped Thatcher’s government to victory in the 1983 general election, which prior to the war was seen as by no means certain.
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9. Polish-Lithuanian War 37 days
Between: Second Polish Republic vs Lithuania
Outcome: Polish victory
This war was fought not long after both nations had regained their independence. It was a part of wider conflict over the disputed cities of Vilnius, Suwa?ki and Augustów. Poland claimed victory and signed an agreement to stop hostilities, but reneged shortly after and created the puppet state of the Republic of Central Lithuania. Centered around the historical capital of Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Vilnius, the state was short-lived and did not gain international recognition. For eighteen months the entity served as a buffer state between Poland, upon which it depended, and Lithuania, which claimed the area. Finally, on March 24, 1922, following the general elections held there, it was annexed to Poland. The elections were not recognized by the Republic of Lithuania.
8. Second Balkan War 32 days
Between: Bulgaria vs Greece, Serbia, Montenegro, Romania, Ottoman Empire
Outcome: Bulgarian defeat
The Second Balkan War was fought in 1913 between Bulgaria on one side and its First Balkan War allies Greece and Serbia on the other side, with Romania and the Ottoman Empire intervening against Bulgaria. The outcome turned Serbia, an ally of the Russian Empire, into an important regional power, alarming Austria-Hungary and thereby indirectly providing an important cause for World War I. Despite stabilising the front in Macedonia, the Bulgarian government’s acceptance of an armistice was driven by events far from Macedonia. Romania invaded on 27 June/10 July, occupying the undefended Southern Dobruja and marching through Northern Bulgaria to threaten Sofia. The Ottoman Empire also took advantage of the situation to recover some of their former possessions in Thrace including Adrianople (which the Bulgarians abandoned on 23 July without firing a shot). Bulgaria lost most of the territories gained in the First Balkan War including the southern Dobrudja (to Romania), most of Macedonia, and Eastern Thrace (to the Ottomans), while retaining Western Thrace, its Aegean outlet, with the port of Dedeagach. The boundary settlements of the Treaties of Bucharest and Constantinople were only temporary; ten months later the fighting was renewed with the start of the First World War.
7. Greco-Turkish War 30 days
Between: Greece vs Ottoman Empire
Outcome: Greek defeat
The Greco-Turkish War of 1897, also called the Thirty Days’ War, was a war between Greece and the Ottoman Empire, under its ruler Sultan Abdul Hamid. Its immediate cause was Greek concern over the situation in Crete, where the Greek population was still under Ottoman control. In late 1896 a rebellion broke out on Crete, and on January 21, 1897 a Greek army landed in Crete to unite the island with Greece. The European powers, however, intervened, and proclaimed Crete an international protectorate. The Ottomans defeated the Greeks within weeks. They were prevented from keeping their conquests by the European powers’ intervention but Greece had to pay a large indemnity. This war was the only conflict between Greeks and Turks in the century where Greece was forced to cede land to Turkey. Some credit for the success of the Ottoman army in this war is given to the reforms put in place by the German Pasha Baron von der Goltz.
6. Sino-Vietnamese War 27 days
Between: China vs Vietnam
Outcome: Both sides claim victory
The Sino–Vietnamese War or Third Indochina War was a brief but bloody border war fought in 1979 between the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. The PRC launched the offensive largely in response to Vietnam’s invasion and subsequent occupation of Cambodia, a war which ended the reign of PRC-backed Pol Pot’s Khmer Rouge. After a brief incursion into Northern Vietnam, PRC troops withdrew about a month later. Both sides claimed victory. The legacy of the war is lasting, especially in Vietnam. The Chinese implemented an effective “scorched-earth policy” while retreating back to China. They caused extensive damage to the Vietnamese countryside and infrastructure, through destruction of Vietnamese villages, roads, and railroads.
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5. Georgian-Armenian War 24 days
Between: Georgia vs Armenia
Outcome: Mutual administration of disputed district
Georgian-Armenian War was a border war fought in 1918 between the Democratic Republic of Georgia and the Democratic Republic of Armenia over the parts of then disputed provinces of Lori, Javakheti, and Borchalo district, which had been historically bicultural Armenian-Georgian territories, but were largely populated by Armenians in the 19th century. By the end of World War I some of these territories were occupied by the Ottomans. When they abandoned the region, both Georgians and Armenians claimed control. The dispute degenerated into armed clashes on December 7, 1918. The hostilities continued with varying success until December 31 when the British brokered ceasefire was signed, leaving the disputed part of Borchalo district under the joint Georgian-Armenian administration which lasted until the establishment of the Soviet rule in Armenia in 1920.
4. Serbo-Bulgarian War 14 days
Between: Kingdom of Serbia vs Kingdom of Bulgaria
Outcome: Bulgarian victory
The Serbo-Bulgarian war was a war between Serbia and Bulgaria that erupted on November 14, 1885 and lasted until November 28 the same year. Final peace was signed on February 19, 1886 in Bucharest. As a result of the war, European powers acknowledged the act of Unification of Bulgaria which happened on September 6 1885. On November 28, the Viennese ambassador in Belgrade, count Kevenhueller-Metsch, visited the headquarters of the Bulgarian Army and demanded the ceasing of military actions, threatening that otherwise the Bulgarian forces would meet Austro-Hungarian troops. Bulgaria’s victories on the battlefield played the main role in defending the Bulgarian unification. They spread Bulgaria’s name and infused respect towards united Bulgaria on behalf of its neighbors.
3. Indo-Pakistani War 13 days
Between: India vs Pakistan
Outcome: Bangladesh becomes an independent state
The Indo-Pakistani War of 1971 was a major conflict between India and Pakistan. The war is closely associated with Bangladesh Liberation War (sometimes also referred to as Pakistani Civil War). The Bangladesh liberation war was a conflict between the traditionally dominant West Pakistanis and the majority East Pakistanis. The war ignited after the 1970 Pakistani election, in which the East Pakistani Awami League won 167 of 169 seats in East Pakistan, thus securing a simple majority in the 313-seat lower house of the Pakistani parliament. There is an argument about exact dates of the war. However, the armed conflict on India’s western front during the period between 3 December 1971 and 16 December 1971 is called the Indo-Pakistani War by both the Bangladeshi and Indian armies. The war ended in a defeat for the Pakistani military in a fortnight.
2. 6 Day War 6 days
Between: Israel vs Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Iraq
Outcome: Israeli victory
Following Israeli threats against its Syrian ally, Egypt amassed 1000 tanks and 100,000 soldiers on the border of the Sinai Peninsula, closed the Straits of Tiran to all ships flying Israel flags or carrying strategic materials, and called for unified Arab action against Israel. On June 5, 1967, Israel launched the an attack against Egypt’s airforce. Jordan then attacked western Jerusalem and Netanya. At the war’s end, Israel had gained control of eastern Jerusalem, the Gaza Strip, the Sinai Peninsula, the West Bank, and the Golan Heights. The results of the war affect the geopolitics of the region to this day. Overall, Israel’s territory grew by a factor of 3, including about one million Arabs placed under Israel’s direct control in the newly captured territories. Israel’s strategic depth grew to at least 300 kilometers in the south, 60 kilometers in the east and 20 kilometers of extremely rugged terrain in the north, a security asset that would prove useful in the 1973 Arab-Israeli War six years later.
1. Anglo-Zanzibar War 45 minutes
Between: British Empire vs Zanzibar
The Anglo-Zanzibar War was fought between the United Kingdom and Zanzibar on 27 August 1896. With a duration of only 45 minutes, it holds the record of being the shortest war in recorded history. The war broke out after Sultan Hamad bin Thuwaini, who had willingly co-operated with the British colonial administration, died on 25 August 1896, and his nephew, Khalid bin Bargash, seized power in what amounted to a coup d’état. The British favoured another candidate, Hamud bin Muhammed, whom they believed would be easier to work with, and delivered an ultimatum ordering Bargash to abdicate. Bargash refused. While Bargash’s troops set to fortifying the palace, the Royal Navy assembled five warships in the harbour in front of the palace. The British also landed parties of Royal Marines to support the “loyalist” regular army of Zanzibar. Despite the Sultan’s last-minute efforts to negotiate for peace via the U.S. representative on the island, the Royal Navy ships opened fire on the palace at 9 am on 27 August 1896 as soon as the ultimatum ran out. With the palace falling down around him and escalating casualties, Bargash beat a hasty retreat to the German consulate where he was granted asylum. The shelling stopped after 45 minutes. The British demanded that the Germans surrender the erstwhile Sultan to them, but he escaped to sea on 2 October 1896. He lived in exile in Dar es Salaam until captured by the British in 1916. He was later allowed to live in Mombasa where he died in 1927. As a final act, Britain demanded payment from the Zanzibar government to pay for the shells fired on the country.
Some other interesting short wars that either failed to meet the criteria set out for this list, or were slightly longer than those above are: Sino-Indian war, Austro-Prussian war, Neapolitan war, Second Italian war of Independence, the Hundred days war, Spanish-American war.
Sources: Wikipedia
Technorati Tags: wars
Jamie Frater
Jamie is the owner and chief-editor of Listverse. He spends his time working on the site, doing research for new lists, and collecting oddities. He is fascinated with all things historic, creepy, and bizarre.
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10 Historical British Massacres That Outdo ‘Game Of Thrones’
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93 F. 3d 1241 - Price v. City of Charlotte North Carolina
93 F3d 1241 Price v. City of Charlotte North Carolina
93 F.3d 1241
71 Fair Empl.Prac.Cas. (BNA) 1289
Darrell A. PRICE; David H. Holland; Robert A. Holl;
Oswald D. Holshouser; Raymond T. Carlton; S.
Vance Elstrom; Mark E. Corwin,
Plaintiffs-Appellees,
Ronald M. Hayes; Randy Hagler, Plaintiffs,
CITY OF CHARLOTTE, NORTH CAROLINA, Defendant-Appellant,
North State Law Enforcement Officers Association, Defendant.
No. 95-1263.
United States Court of Appeals,
Fourth Circuit.
Argued April 1, 1996.
Decided Sept. 3, 1996.
ARGUED: Frank Lane Williamson, Womble, Carlyle, Sandridge & Rice, Charlotte, North Carolina, for Appellant. Louis L. Lesesne, Jr., Lesesne & Connette, Charlotte, North Carolina, for Appellees. ON BRIEF: Jim D. Cooley, Womble, Carlyle, Sandridge & Rice, Charlotte, North Carolina, for Appellant.
Before ERVIN, NIEMEYER, and WILLIAMS, Circuit Judges.
Affirmed in part and reversed in part by published opinion. Judge WILLIAMS wrote the opinion, in which Judge ERVIN and Judge NIEMEYER joined.
WILLIAMS, Circuit Judge:
Appellees, seven white police officers, sued Appellant, the City of Charlotte, North Carolina, pursuant to 42 U.S.C.A. § 1983 (West 1994), contending that promotions practices for advancement in the Charlotte Police Department violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. The district court agreed, see Hayes v. City of Charlotte, 802 F.Supp. 1361 (W.D.N.C.1992), and enjoined the City from employing any race-based criteria in reaching its employment decisions; we affirmed in part, see Hayes v. North State Law Enforcement Officers Assoc., 10 F.3d 207 (4th Cir.1993). While we affirmed with respect to liability, we remanded the case to the district court to limit the scope of the injunction and to resolve issues stayed during the appeal. On remand, the district court enjoined the City from using unlawful racial preferences regarding promotions to sergeant within the police department, and a jury awarded each Appellee $3,000 in compensatory damages for his injury in being subjected to the unconstitutional promotions practice.1 Accordingly, the district court entered judgment in Appellees' favor, denying the City of Charlotte's motions for judgment as a matter of law, see Fed.R.Civ.P. 50.
In this appeal, we must decide the propriety of awarding compensatory damages for Appellees' emotional distress flowing from the knowledge that the City excluded them from consideration for promotion to sergeant because of their race. Contending that Appellees would not have been promoted regardless of their race, the City contends that the district court erred in ruling that Appellees have standing to sue to recover compensatory damages. Additionally, the City posits that the evidence is insufficient to support the award of compensatory damages for Appellees' emotional distress. We conclude that Appellees have standing to sue to recover compensatory damages for emotional distress, but that the evidence is insufficient to support the verdict. Accordingly, we affirm in part and reverse in part.
The facts are recited in Hayes, and we need address them only briefly here. In February 1991, the City promoted twenty-one police officers from patrol officer to police sergeant. Police Chief D.R. Stone determined that four of the twenty-one promotions would be awarded exclusively to African-Americans, regardless of the ranking on the promotions roster. The first eighteen promotions were awarded based on ranking, but only one of the promoted officers was African-American. In order to meet his quota of promoting four African-Americans to police sergeant, Chief Stone disregarded qualified white applicants for the remaining three promotions and selected three African-American applicants, whose rankings on the promotions roster were twenty-nine, sixty-two, and seventy-four, respectively. All seven Appellees outranked candidates sixty-two and seventy-four, as did forty-one other white applicants. A substantial number of white officers who were not promoted had rankings superior to those of any of the Appellants. Even if an invidious factor--the race of each candidate--had not entered the promotions calculus, Appellees would not have been selected for promotion to sergeant.
On remand, Appellees asserted claims of emotional distress, seeking compensatory damages. The City unsuccessfully sought summary judgment respecting the emotional distress claims, contending that their roster rankings did not qualify them for promotion to police sergeant, and they thus were not entitled to individual relief in the form of damages. Consequently, the issue of individual relief went to trial. At trial, Appellees sought to prove their claims of emotional distress by testifying that they experienced degradation and betrayal as a result of the City's unlawfully discriminatory promotions policy. Appellees' evidence of their emotional distress consisted exclusively of their own testimony. According to Appellees, they "had played by the rules," but the City "deceived" them by not basing its promotions on grounds of competence.
At the close of Appellees' case-in-chief, and again at the close of the evidence, the City moved unsuccessfully for judgment as a matter of law pursuant to Rule 50. A jury returned a verdict in favor of each Appellee for $3,000 compensatory damages. Following entry of judgment, the City again unsuccessfully moved for judgment as a matter of law. Thereafter, the City appealed both from the final judgment and the order denying its post-trial motion for judgment as a matter of law.
On appeal, the City advances two arguments regarding compensatory damages. First, the City asserts that it is not liable for any damages because Appellees are entitled solely to injunctive or declaratory relief. Second, the City posits that even if it is liable for compensatory damages, the evidence is insufficient to sustain the verdict. We address these arguments in turn.
The City asserts first that Appellees lack standing to seek compensatory damages because they would not have been promoted to sergeant regardless of the unconstitutional racial criterion. According to the City, Appellees are not entitled to any damages because they suffered no compensable loss that can be satisfied by damages. A violation of equal protection is Appellees' sole injury, the City posits, and the remedy for such a violation is exclusively injunctive or declaratory relief. The City's position is that because there was only a "technical foul," Appellees are precluded from recovering damages.
Appellees contest this position, maintaining that the actual injury they suffered was their race-based exclusion from equal consideration for the promotion to sergeant, not the fact that they failed to obtain a promotion. According to Appellees, their injuries derive from the City's unconstitutional use of race to decide promotions in the police department, not from an ultimate denial of a promotion. Appellees' compensatory damages, therefore, are to redress the ignominy of denial of consideration for promotion solely because they are white.
Concluding that Appellees had standing to seek compensatory damages, the district court denied the City's motions for judgment as a matter of law on this basis. We review the district court's ruling de novo, see Trandes Corp. v. Guy Atkinson Co., 996 F.2d 655, 661 (4th Cir.), cert denied, 510 U.S. 965, 114 S.Ct. 443, 126 L.Ed.2d 377 (1993), and affirm.
We conclude that Supreme Court precedent forecloses the City's argument that Appellees are precluded from recovering any damages because they would not have been promoted regardless of the unlawful promotions scheme. In Carey v. Piphus, 435 U.S. 247, 98 S.Ct. 1042, 55 L.Ed.2d 252 (1978), the Court concluded that § 1983 "was intended to '[create] a species of tort liability' in favor of persons who are deprived of 'rights, privileges, or immunities secured' to them by the Constitution." Id. at 253, 98 S.Ct. at 1047 (alteration in original) (quoting Imbler v. Pachtman, 424 U.S. 409, 417, 96 S.Ct. 984, 988-89, 47 L.Ed.2d 128 (1976)). Thus, damages awarded pursuant to § 1983 often find their genesis in the common law of torts, and the gravamen of tort law is "compensation for the injury caused to plaintiff by defendant's breach of duty." Id. at 255, 98 S.Ct. at 1047 (internal quotation marks omitted) (emphasis added in part). Thus, "damages are available under [§ 1983] for actions 'found ... to have been violative of ... constitutional rights and to have caused compensable injury ....' " Id. at 255, 98 S.Ct. at 1047 (quoting Wood v. Strickland, 420 U.S. 308, 319, 95 S.Ct. 992, 999, 43 L.Ed.2d 214 (1975)). In endorsing an award of damages, Carey explained that the courts must not lose sight of the fact that such a plaintiff suffered a constitutional violation, and the federal courts must provide a remedy for the wrong suffered. See id. at 266, 98 S.Ct. at 1053-54.
While Carey concluded that damages for emotional distress are available under § 1983, the Court held that for a plaintiff to recover more than nominal damages, his injury must have actually been caused by the challenged conduct, and the injury must be sufficiently proved:
[W]e foresee no particular difficulty in producing evidence that mental and emotional distress actually was caused by the [constitutional violation]. Distress is a personal injury familiar to the law, customarily proved by showing the nature and circumstances of the wrong and its effect on the plaintiff. In sum, then, although mental and emotional distress caused by the [constitutional violation] itself is compensable under § 1983, we hold that neither the likelihood of such injury nor the difficulty of proving it is so great as to justify awarding compensatory damages without proof that such injury actually was caused.
Id. at 263-64, 98 S.Ct. at 1052. Extrapolating from the common law of torts, the Carey Court thus concluded that a constitutional violation is indeed compensable with damages for emotional distress, declining to relegate an otherwise undamaged plaintiff to equitable remedies.
In expounding on the propriety of compensatory damages, the Carey Court explained that compensatory damages for emotional distress must be attributed to the actual constitutional violation, as opposed to denial of the ultimate benefit, and must be proved by a sufficient quantum of proof demonstrating that the violation caused compensable injury. Thus, the Court observed that if the plaintiff's injury is caused by "a justified deprivation, including distress, [it] is not properly compensable under § 1983." Id. at 263, 98 S.Ct. at 1052. The injury, therefore, must flow from the actual constitutional violation. A plaintiff's failure to prove compensatory damages results in nominal damages, typically one dollar, see id. at 266-67, 98 S.Ct. at 1053-54, the rationale for the award of nominal damages being that federal courts should provide some marginal vindication for a constitutional violation. Carey, therefore, teaches that compensatory damages for emotional distress are available for a constitutional violation, but must be attributed to the invidious discrimination, not to the deprivation of an ultimate benefit; to recover more than nominal damages, actual injury caused by the constitutional violation must be proved by sufficient evidence.
The Court reiterated the teachings of Carey in Memphis Community School District v. Stachura, 477 U.S. 299, 106 S.Ct. 2537, 91 L.Ed.2d 249 (1986). Stachura reaffirmed the conclusion that § 1983 is akin to tort law and that determining damages pursuant to § 1983 is governed by principles of the common law of torts, with the hallmark of these principles being one of compensation for actual injury. See id. at 307, 106 S.Ct. at 2543. In describing the types of injury for which compensatory damages may be recovered pursuant to § 1983, the Stachura Court observed that "out-of-pocket loss and other monetary harms [and] 'impairment of reputation ..., personal humiliation, and mental anguish and suffering' " could be awarded. Id. at 306, 106 S.Ct. at 2542-43 (quoting Gertz v. Robert Welch, Inc., 418 U.S. 323, 350, 94 S.Ct. 2997, 3012, 41 L.Ed.2d 789 (1974)). After explaining that damages for emotional distress can be recovered under § 1983, the Court reaffirmed Carey by stating that " 'the basic purpose' of § 1983 damages is 'to compensate persons for injuries that are caused by the deprivation of constitutional rights,' " id. (quoting Carey, 435 U.S. at 254, 98 S.Ct. at 1047), and to receive compensatory damages, a plaintiff's damages must be "grounded in determinations of plaintiffs' actual losses," id. at 307, 106 S.Ct. at 2543. Hence, Stachura reaffirmed the holding that the purpose of § 1983 is to compensate a plaintiff whose constitutional rights have been violated; to recover compensatory damages for such violations, a plaintiff must suffer actual, demonstrable injury.
The Court applied the principles of Carey and Stachura in Northeastern Florida Chapter of Associated General Contractors of America v. City of Jacksonville, Fla., 508 U.S. 656, 113 S.Ct. 2297, 124 L.Ed.2d 586 (1993), in holding that the injury required to recover compensatory damages for a constitutional violation springs from the impermissible conduct of the Government in perpetrating invidious discrimination, not from the consequence of denial of plaintiff's ultimate goal. In Northeastern, contractors challenged a set-aside program that awarded black- and Hispanic-owned businesses construction work, regardless of whether such businesses submitted the lowest bid. See id. at 659, 113 S.Ct. at 2299-300. Asserting that the set-aside program violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, the contractors sued, seeking declaratory and injunctive relief. See id. Rather than address the merits of the contractors' suit, the Eleventh Circuit concluded that they lacked standing to challenge the set-aside program because they failed to demonstrate that but for the set-aside program, they would have obtained the contracts through successful bidding. See id. at 660, 113 S.Ct. at 2300.
Reversing the Eleventh Circuit, the Supreme Court concluded that the contractors possessed standing to sue. Analogizing from Regents of University of California v. Bakke, 438 U.S. 265, 98 S.Ct. 2733, 57 L.Ed.2d 750 (1978), the Court concluded that the contractors possessed standing because the requisite injury was the inability to compete equally for contracts simply because the contractors were neither black nor Hispanic. See id. at 666-68, 113 S.Ct. at 2303-04. In Bakke, Bakke was denied admission to medical school because he was white, and the Court held that this denial constituted the requisite injury because Bakke was not "permit[ted] ... to compete for all 100 places in the class simply because of his race." Bakke, 438 U.S. at 281 n. 14, 98 S.Ct. at 2743 n. 14. Thus, "even if Bakke had been unable to prove that he would have been admitted in the absence of the special program, it would not follow that he lacked standing." Id. at 280-81 n. 14, 98 S.Ct. at 2743 n. 14. Just as Bakke suffered injury, the Northeastern Court held the contractors suffered injury in fact because they were denied equal protection:
When the government erects a barrier that makes it more difficult for members of one group to obtain a benefit than it is for members of another group, a member of the former group seeking to challenge the barrier need not allege that he would have obtained the benefit but for the barrier in order to establish standing. The "injury in fact" in an equal protection case of this variety is the denial of equal treatment resulting from the imposition of the barrier, not the ultimate inability to obtain the benefit.
Northeastern, 508 U.S. at 666, 113 S.Ct. at 2303. Specifically applied to set-aside programs, the " 'injury in fact' is the inability to compete on an equal footing in the bidding process, not the loss of a contract." Id.
Rounding out the Carey-Stachura-Northeastern trilogy for recovering damages based on a § 1983 equal protection claim is Adarand Constructors, Inc. v. Pena, --- U.S. ----, 115 S.Ct. 2097, 132 L.Ed.2d 158 (1995). Adarand challenged a federal set-aside program that awarded government contracts to businesses owned by minorities, regardless of whether the minority-owned business submitted the lowest bid, contending that this program violated the Equal Protection Clause. See id. at ----, 115 S.Ct. at 2104. In addition to seeking declaratory and injunctive relief to prevent future discrimination, Adarand sought compensatory damages for losing a contract that went to a hispanic-owned business. The Government asserted that the program was constitutional and asserted further that Adarand lacked standing to sue for future relief. See id. Holding that Adarand had suffered injury in fact with respect to both compensatory and declaratory or injunctive relief, the Supreme Court rejected the Government's contention:
[W]e must consider whether Adarand has standing to seek forward-looking relief. Adarand's allegation that it has lost a contract in the past because of a subcontractor compensation clause of course entitles it to seek damages for the loss of that contract.... But as we explained [previously,] the fact of past injury "while presumably affording[the plaintiff] standing to claim damages ..., does nothing to establish a real and immediate threat that he would again" suffer similar injury in the future.
Id. (quoting Los Angeles v. Lyons, 461 U.S. 95, 105, 103 S.Ct. 1660, 1666-67, 75 L.Ed.2d 675 (1983)) (second alteration in original). In reaching the conclusion that Adarand had standing to maintain the suit, the Court relied on Northeastern, specifically rejecting the Government's contention that "Adarand need ... demonstrate that it has been, or will be, the low bidder on a government contract. The injury in cases of this kind is that a 'discriminatory classification prevent[s] the plaintiff from competing on an equal footing.' " Id. (quoting Northeastern, 508 U.S. at 667, 113 S.Ct. at 2304).
We applied these principles in Burt v. Abel, 585 F.2d 613 (4th Cir.1978) (per curiam) in the context of a due process violation. Burt was terminated from her position as a teacher, but the termination was effected without affording Burt due process. Pursuant to Carey, we remanded the case to the district court to determine whether Burt could establish compensatory damages for her § 1983 claim. In remanding, we observed that in order to recover such damages, Burt must prove that her injury flowed from the denial of due process, not from termination of her teaching position, the denial of her ultimate benefit. See id. at 616. In remanding to determine the propriety of awarding compensatory damages, we explained that "to recover more than nominal damages" for emotional distress, a plaintiff "must also prove that the procedural deprivation caused some independent compensable harm." Id. at 616. Likewise, our sister circuits have applied the rationale of Carey and its progeny to sustain compensatory damages awarded pursuant to § 1983. See, e.g., Miner v. City of Glens Falls, 999 F.2d 655, 663 (2d Cir.1993) (sustaining an award of compensatory damages based on emotional distress claim for a due process violation); United States v. Balistrieri, 981 F.2d 916, 933 (7th Cir.1992) (rejecting the very argument that the City advances here and affirming an award of damages for emotional distress under the Fair Housing Act), cert. denied, 510 U.S. 812, 114 S.Ct. 58, 126 L.Ed.2d 28 (1993).
Applying these precedents, we conclude that Appellees have standing to recover compensatory damages, provided their injuries resulted from the constitutional violation and are sufficiently proved. Carey and its progeny demonstrate that the injury Appellees suffered is the ignominy and illegality of the City's erecting a racial bar to promotions, and more importantly, that this injury can be compensable by damages, not merely declaratory or injunctive relief. Similar to the plaintiffs in Bakke, Northeastern, and Adarand, Appellees were not competing on a level playing field--the cards were unlawfully stacked against them--and this denial of equal protection constitutes injury in fact capable of supporting compensatory damages. These precedents also hold that Appellees may be entitled to compensatory damages for emotional distress, the precise type of injuries claimed here. In accordance with these precedents, however, Appellees must establish that their injury is grounded in the denial of equal protection, not their lack of promotions. Provided, therefore, that the jury awarded Appellees damages predicated on their unconstitutional treatment, rather than the ultimate deprivation of promotion to sergeant, Appellees can recover compensatory damages for emotional distress, the issue to which we now turn.
At trial, some Appellees attempted to prove their compensatory damages for emotional distress by testifying that they suffered ignominy as a result of the City's invidious discrimination and the consequences this discrimination visited on their lives. Some Appellees testified in the most generic of terms that they were "humiliated," "betrayed," and "deceived" by the City's invidiously discriminatory promotions policy. In mustering the evidence of their compensatory damages, Appellees proffered only their vague, conclusory testimony, but despite the ephemeral nature of this evidence, the jury awarded each Appellee $3,000 in compensatory damages for his emotional distress.
Challenging the amount of the award of compensatory damages with respect to each Appellee, the City posits that the evidence is insufficient as a matter of law to sustain the verdict. According to the City, the evidence completely lacks any probative quality and is entirely speculative. Given these fatal flaws, the City argues that on no principled basis can the award of compensatory damages be sustained. The district court erred, therefore, the City reasons, in denying its motions for judgment as a matter of law.
Appellees advance two arguments respecting the sufficiency of the evidence. First, they maintain that we are procedurally barred from reviewing the sufficiency of the evidence because the City failed to raise and preserve adequately this issue in its Rule 50 motions. Second, even disregarding the procedural bar to reviewing the sufficiency of the evidence to sustain the compensatory damages, Appellees assert that the evidence is adequate to sustain their modest awards. According to Appellees, therefore, the district court properly denied the City's motions for judgment as a matter of law. We address these arguments in turn.
Traditionally the City is required to have raised the reason for which it is entitled to judgment as a matter of law in its Rule 50(a) motion before the case is submitted to the jury and reassert that reason in its Rule 50(b) motion after trial if the Rule 50(a) motion proves unsuccessful. See Singer v. Dungan, 45 F.3d 823, 828-29 (4th Cir.1995). Thus, a Rule 50(a) motion is a prerequisite to a Rule 50(b) motion because the City must apprise the district court of the alleged insufficiency of Appellees' suit before the case is submitted to the jury. See Tights, Inc. v. Acme-McCrary Corp., 541 F.2d 1047, 1058 (4th Cir.), cert. denied, 429 U.S. 980, 97 S.Ct. 493, 50 L.Ed.2d 589 (1976). Hence, if the City completely failed to question the sufficiency of the evidence supporting compensatory damages in its Rule 50 motions, absent plain error, we would "not review the sufficiency of the evidence because implicit in the [City's] failure to move for judgment as a matter of law is the belief that the evidence created a jury issue, and the [City] 'should not be permitted on appeal to impute error to the trial judge for sharing that view.' " Bristol Steel & Iron Works. v. Bethlehem Steel Corp., 41 F.3d 182, 187 (4th Cir.1994) (quoting Little v. Bankers Life & Casualty Co., 426 F.2d 509, 511 (5th Cir.1970)).
Our review of the record compels us to conclude that the City sufficiently raised and preserved the sufficiency issue for appellate review. First, in its Rule 50(a) motion at the close of Appellees' case-in-chief, the City contended "there's no legally sufficient evidentiary basis for a reasonable jury to find for the plaintiff on any of the issues brought before the court." (J.A. at 196.) Also, in arguing its Rule 50(a) motion, the City specifically reiterated that "there's really been no evidence from which a reasonable jury could conclude that they did, in fact, suffer mental and emotional distress that can be related to the constitutional violation they complained of." (J.A. at 199.) Denying the City's motion, the district court concluded that the sufficiency issue was raised: "I believe there is sufficient [evidence]--in the light most favorable to the plaintiff to go to the jury." (J.A. at 203.) We likewise conclude that the sufficiency issue was assuredly raised, given that we have reviewed sufficiency challenges under less compelling circumstances. See Singer, 45 F.3d at 828 (reviewing an improperly raised sufficiency challenge under Rule 50 and excusing the impropriety because the district court stated that there was sufficient evidence to send the case to the jury). We find no merit, therefore, in Appellees' contrary contention; accordingly, we conclude that we may review the sufficiency of the evidence.
In reviewing a Rule 50 determination, our review is circumscribed with respect to any facts the jury found, but plenary with respect to any legal conclusions underlying the verdict:
Judgment as a matter of law is proper "when, without weighing the credibility of the evidence, there can be but one reasonable conclusion as to the proper judgment." 5A James W. Moore, Moore's Federal Practice p 50.07, at 50-76 (2d ed. 1994). The movant is entitled to judgment as a matter of law "if the nonmoving party failed to make a showing on an essential element of his case with respect to which he had the burden of proof." Bryan v. James E. Holmes Regional Medical Ctr., 33 F.3d 1318, 1333 (11th Cir.1994) (internal quotation marks omitted). While our review of this motion is plenary, it is also circumscribed because we must review the evidence in the light most favorable to [the nonmoving party]. See Lama v. Borras, 16 F.3d 473, 477 (1st Cir.1994).
Singer, 45 F.3d at 826-27. Because federal courts do not directly review jury verdicts, constrained, as we are, by the Seventh Amendment, the City bears a hefty burden in establishing that the evidence is not sufficient to support the awards. See Bristol Steel & Iron Works, 41 F.3d at 186-87. In determining whether the evidence supports the awards, we review the evidence, and all reasonable inferences to be drawn therefrom, in favor of Appellees. See Malone v. Microdyne Corp., 26 F.3d 471, 475 (4th Cir.1994). Recognizing that we may not substitute our judgment for that of the jury or make credibility determinations, see Murdaugh Volkswagen, Inc. v. First Nat'l Bank, 801 F.2d 719, 725 (4th Cir.1986), if there is evidence on which a reasonable jury may return verdicts in favor of Appellees, we must affirm, see Wyatt v. Interstate & Ocean Transp., 623 F.2d 888, 891 (4th Cir.1980). While we are compelled to accord the utmost respect to jury verdicts and tread gingerly in reviewing them, see Mattison v. Dallas Carrier Corp., 947 F.2d 95, 99 (4th Cir.1991), we are not a rubber stamp convened merely to endorse the conclusions of the jury, but rather have a duty to reverse the jury verdicts if the evidence cannot support it, see Singer, 45 F.3d at 829.
While Carey concluded that compensatory damages for emotional distress are compensable under § 1983, such damages may not be presumed from every constitutional violation, but must be proven by competent, sufficient evidence. See Carey, 435 U.S. at 262-63 & n. 20, 98 S.Ct. at 1051-52 & n. 20. The emotional distress, moreover, must find its genesis in the actual violation, not in any procedural deficiencies that accompanied the violation, see id. at 263, 98 S.Ct. at 1052, because damages for violations of civil rights are intended to "compensate injuries caused by the [constitutional] deprivation," id. at 265, 98 S.Ct. at 1053 (emphasis added). See also Stachura, 477 U.S. at 308, 106 S.Ct. at 2543 (holding that there is no right to damages other than nominal damages for violation of a constitutional right unless actual injury is proven). Consequently, Appellees are required "to convince the trier of fact that [they] actually suffered distress because of the [equal protection violation] itself," Carey, 435 U.S. at 263, 98 S.Ct. at 1052, and failure to succeed in establishing "actual injury" based on sufficient evidence will result in the award of only nominal damages, typically one dollar, id. at 266-67, 98 S.Ct. at 1053-54. In expounding on the availability of compensatory damages for emotional distress for a constitutional violation, Carey observed that such damages are "customarily proved by showing the nature and circumstances of the wrong and its effect on the plaintiff," id. at 263-64, 98 S.Ct. at 1052, and such injury "may be evidenced by one's conduct and observed by others," id. at 264 n. 20, 98 S.Ct. at 1052 n. 20. Carey, therefore, requires evidence of emotional distress sufficient to convince the trier of fact that such distress did in fact occur and that its cause was the constitutional deprivation itself and cannot be attributable to other causes. A verdict supported by competent evidence, therefore, is a prerequisite to recover compensatory damages for a constitutional violation. This remedial scheme comports with Carey 's holding that remedies for constitutional violations "should be tailored to the interests protected by the particular right in question," Carey, 435 U.S. at 259, 98 S.Ct. at 1050 (emphasis added), which, of course, comports with the Carey Court's grounding its decision for analyzing constitutional violations in the common law of torts, see id. at 258-59, 98 S.Ct. at 1049-50, the body of law to which we now turn.
Traditionally, common law courts have been reticent regarding compensatory damages for emotional distress in the absence of physical injury. See W. Page Keeton et al., Prosser & Keeton on The Law of Torts Ch. 2, § 12, at 64 (5th ed. 1984). This reticence originated from "the elementary principle that mere mental pain and anxiety are too vague for legal redress," Southern Express Co. v. Byers, 240 U.S. 612, 615, 36 S.Ct. 410, 411, 60 L.Ed. 825 (1916) (internal quotation marks omitted). Not only is emotional distress fraught with vagueness and speculation, it is easily susceptible to fictitious and trivial claims, see Consolidated Rail Corp. v. Gottshall, 512 U.S. 532, ----, 114 S.Ct. 2396, 2408, 129 L.Ed.2d 427 (1994), and the intrusion of the federal courts into proscribing societal etiquette, see Pope v. Rollins Protective Servs. Co., 703 F.2d 197, 204 (5th Cir.1983). Empathizing with the trepidation of common law courts in analyzing such claims, the federal courts have recognized that emotional distress claims arising from constitutional violations are not immunized from the nebulous, speculative character that plagues their common law analogues. See, e.g., Ramsey v. American Air Filter Co., 772 F.2d 1303, 1313 (7th Cir.1985) (noting the paucity of evidence in reviewing damages for a § 1981 claim based on emotional distress and noting further that the proffered evidence was so general and vague that remittitur was required); Cohen v. Board of Educ., Smithtown Cent. Sch. Dist., 728 F.2d 160, 162 (2d Cir.1984) (holding that a claim of emotional distress supported only by the plaintiff's testimony could not support an award of "substantial damages"); Dougherty v. Barry, 604 F.Supp. 1424, 1443 (D.D.C.1985) (ruling that damages for emotional distress based on a constitutional violation could not be awarded for want of exactitude). Guided by these principles, we analyze the specific claims presented by this appeal.
Here, as we set out infra at 1254-57, the only evidence of Appellees' emotional distress was their own testimony. A survey of the case law reveals that a plaintiff's testimony, standing alone, may support a claim of emotional distress precipitated by a constitutional violation. See, e.g., Biggs v. Village of Dupo, 892 F.2d 1298, 1304 (7th Cir.1990); Rakovich v. Wade, 819 F.2d 1393, 1399 & n. 6 (7th Cir.) (Rakovich I) vacated on other grounds, 850 F.2d 1179 (7th Cir.1987) (en banc), on reh'g, 850 F.2d 1180 (7th Cir.) (Rakovich II ) (en banc), cert. denied, 488 U.S. 968, 109 S.Ct. 497, 102 L.Ed.2d 534 (1988); Spence v. Board of Educ. of Christina Sch. Dist., 806 F.2d 1198, 1201 (3d Cir.1986); Chalmers v. City of Los Angeles, 762 F.2d 753, 761 (9th Cir.1985); Cohen, 728 F.2d at 162; Williams v. Trans World Airlines, Inc., 660 F.2d 1267, 1272-73 (8th Cir.1981); Nekolny v. Painter, 653 F.2d 1164, 1172-73 (7th Cir.1981), cert. denied, 455 U.S. 1021, 102 S.Ct. 1719, 72 L.Ed.2d 139 (1982); Dougherty, 604 F.Supp. at 1443; see also see also Bolden v. Southeastern Pa. Transp. Auth., 21 F.3d 29, 34-36 & n. 3 (3d Cir.1994) (generally endorsing this view, but specifically holding that medical evidence was not necessary to prevail on a claim for emotional distress); Marable v. Walker, 704 F.2d 1219, 1220 (11th Cir.1983) (holding that plaintiff's own testimony of emotional distress was sufficient to warrant an evidentiary hearing and award of compensatory damages).
Equally, however, the case law reveals that courts scrupulously analyze an award of compensatory damages for a claim of emotional distress predicated exclusively on the plaintiff's testimony. See, e.g., Biggs, 892 F.2d at 1304 (remitting compensatory damages based on emotional distress claim for want of sufficient evidence); Spence, 806 F.2d at 1201 (affirming remittitur of compensatory damages because plaintiff's testimony was too speculative to support the verdict of $22,060); Cohen, 728 F.2d at 162 (holding that plaintiff was not entitled to recover "any substantial sum" based on emotional distress because proof was so lacking); Nekolny, 653 F.2d at 1172-73 (reversing a damages award for emotional distress for a First Amendment violation because the evidence was insufficient to support it); see also Hetzel v. County of Prince William, 89 F.3d 169, 171-72 (4th Cir. 1996) (reversing and remanding excessive compensatory damages award in a Title VII and § 1983 suit where it was based "almost exclusively" on plaintiff's conclusory testimony); Morgan v. Secretary of Hous. & Urban Dev., 985 F.2d 1451, 1459 (10th Cir.1993) (reversing a $5000 verdict for emotional distress brought under the Fair Housing Act because the verdict was not supported by substantial evidence). If, as in the instant appeal, "the injured part[ies] provide[ ] the sole evidence [of mental distress, they] must reasonably and sufficiently explain the circumstances of [their] injury and not resort to mere conclusory statements," Biggs, 892 F.2d at 1304 (internal quotation marks omitted) (third alteration in original), and seriatim recitations of "depression" or "hurt feelings" as evidence of emotional distress offered by the plaintiff fail to meet this standard, see Hetzel, 89 F.3d at 173; Morgan, 985 F.2d at 1459; Nekolny, 653 F.2d at 1172-73. A plaintiff asserting a constitutional violation, therefore, must produce evidence of "demonstrable emotional distress," see Rakovich I, 819 F.2d at 1399, or "demonstrable mental anguish," George v. Bourgeois, 852 F.Supp. 1341, 1353 (E.D.Tex.1994) (dicta). In addition, Appellees must demonstrate a causal connection between the constitutional violation and their demonstrable emotional distress to recover compensatory damages. See Gore v. Turner, 563 F.2d 159, 164 (5th Cir.1977). Appellees, therefore, cannot automatically recover compensatory damages for emotional distress simply because they proved a violation of a constitutional right. Thus, while a plaintiff's testimony, standing alone, can support an award of compensatory damages, the evidence of the emotional distress must be demonstrable, genuine, and adequately explained.
Various courts have applied these precepts to reverse or remand compensatory damages awards. For instance, in Biggs, Biggs, who was discharged and brought a First Amendment claim against the Village of Dupo, was told that he behaved in a manner " 'unbecoming a police officer,' " and "was unworthy to represent [the defendant,] Village of Dupo," Biggs, 892 F.2d at 1305. According to Biggs, these statements caused him emotional distress, and in presenting the evidence of his emotional distress, he "testified that he was affected emotionally by being fired, and that he was concerned over 'the idea of my family going through it.' " Id. at 1304 (quoting testimony). Except for his own conclusory testimony, Biggs "made no offer of proof, and no other direct testimony concerning mental distress was introduced." Id. The Seventh Circuit vacated and remanded Biggs's compensatory damages award of $60,000 unless Biggs accepted a remittitur of $29,970 so that he recovered only his lost wages. See id. at 1305. According to the court, Biggs had failed "reasonably and sufficiently [to] explain the circumstances of his injury," and therefore his conclusory, inadequate testimony could not support compensatory damages for emotional distress. Id. at 1304 (internal quotation marks omitted). Because Biggs's testimony did not show "demonstrable emotional distress," id. at 1305 (internal quotation marks omitted), but at most consisted of "mere conclusory statements," id. at 1304 (internal quotation marks omitted), the court held that Biggs's evidence of his emotional distress was insufficient to support the verdict. See id. at 1305.
In Ramsey, the Seventh Circuit again addressed the issue of demonstrable evidence of injury in the context of an excessive compensatory damages award. A jury awarded Ramsey $75,000 in compensatory damages for emotional distress based on racial discrimination. Ramsey, 772 F.2d at 1313. Ramsey's evidence of his emotional distress consisted of his testimony and that of a former colleague, Arthur Freeze, and Ramsey's physician, Dr. Robert Wells. See id. According to Ramsey, "he felt humiliated," " 'about as low as any man could feel,' " " 'slap[ped] ... in the face,' " and " 'insulted.' " Id. (quoting testimony) (alteration in original). Likewise, Freeze testified that Ramsey "felt 'disgusted' " as a result of his being singled out for disparate discipline ostensibly based on Ramsey's race. Id. (quoting testimony). Thus, Ramsey and Freeze testified regarding the violation, but not about any demonstrable evidence of emotional distress. According to Dr. Wells,2 Ramsey "was concerned about finding a job," explaining that Ramsey's unemployment " 'preyed on him psychologically because he doesn't like [the] position his unemployment has put him in.' " Id. (quoting testimony) (alteration in original). Despite testifying that Ramsey's unemployment was a source of concern, Dr. Wells never "treated [Ramsey] for depression or prescribed any drugs for emotional distress." Id. After observing the "paucity of references to any emotional harm that [Ramsey] suffered as a result of defendant's discrimination" and "the absence of any evidence that [Ramsey] was treated for emotional harm or that he became depressed for any sustained period of time," the court concluded that the $75,000 compensatory damages award was "excessive compensation for the humiliation that [Ramsey] experienced," id., and accordingly vacated and remanded the damages award, conditional on Ramsey's accepting remittitur of $35,000 for his emotional distress, id. at 1314. In reaching this holding, the court relied on cases explaining that compensatory damages awards for constitutional violations require that the plaintiff demonstrate some objective manifestation of his emotional distress, such as " 'sleeplessness, anxiety, embarrassment and depression,' " id. at 1313-14 (quoting Block v. R.H. Macy & Co., 712 F.2d 1241, 1245 (8th Cir.1983)), or instances "in which the plaintiff suffered 'seventeen months of incessant humiliation, harassment, and feelings of isolation,' " id. (quoting Carter v. Duncan-Huggins Ltd., 727 F.2d 1225, 1238 (D.C.Cir.1984)).
Similarly, in Nekolny, the Seventh Circuit reversed compensatory damages awards for emotional distress based on the plaintiffs' testimony that they were " 'very depressed,' " " 'a little despondent and [lacking] motivation,' " and " 'completely humiliated.' " Nekolny, 653 F.2d at 1172 (alteration in original). According to the court, this conclusory testimony was "insufficient to constitute proof of compensable mental or emotional injury" because "[a] single statement by a party that he was ' "depressed," ' ' "a little despondent," ' or even ' "completely humiliated," ' ... is not enough to establish injury...." Id. at 1172-73. In reaching this conclusion, the court considered the facts and circumstances surrounding the challenged action, opining that they were not very egregious. See id. Nekolny, therefore, teaches that evidence to support a compensatory damages award based on a constitutional violation must be explained with competent testimony, not merely be a recital that emotional distress resulted from a constitutional violation; the injury must be demonstrable and capable of articulation.
Echoing the concerns of Biggs, Ramsey, and Nekolny, the Second Circuit in Cohen affirmed the district court's awarding no damages for a claim of emotional distress for a due process violation because the only evidence consisted of the plaintiff's own testimony, which is naturally "subjective" and subject to "vagueness." Cohen, 728 F.2d at 162. In reaching this ruling, the Second Circuit noted that Cohen testified respecting psychiatric consultations, but proffered no objective evidence of his emotional distress. See id. The Cohen court's affirmance where subjective emotional distress is unsupported by objective evidence comports with the precept that any emotional distress be demonstrable.
Also demanding evidence of demonstrable emotional distress to recover compensatory damages for a constitutional violation is the Third Circuit's decision in Spence. Spence brought a First Amendment claim against her employer, contending that her transfer had been in retaliation for voicing her opinion, and a jury awarded her $25,000 in compensatory damages. See Spence, 806 F.2d at 1199. Spence's evidence of her emotional distress "consisted chiefly of [her] own testimony that she was depressed and humiliated ... and that she lost her motive to be creative." Id. at 1201. Specifically, "[t]here was no testimony that [Spence's] peers held her in any less esteem," nor was there evidence that Spence "suffered physically from her emotional distress or that she sought professional psychiatric counselling." Id. Not only did Spence offer no proof of physical or psychological injury, but she "suffered no loss of job or reduction in pay. Thus, she did not suffer emotional distress resulting from loss in income." Id. Given that Spence's evidence did not sufficiently explain her emotional distress, the Third Circuit concluded that "neither the circumstances nor the testimony established that there was 'a reasonable probability, rather than a mere possibility, that damages due to emotional distress were in fact incurred as a result of [the challenged action].' " Id. (quoting district court order). Accordingly, for want of sufficient evidence of emotional distress, the court affirmed the remittitur of Spence's compensatory damages to $2940, thus compensating only Spence's actual damages for travel expenses and wage taxes. Comparable to Biggs, Ramsey, Nekolny, and Cohen, the Spence court explained that emotional distress for a constitutional violation must be sufficiently demonstrable and capable of articulation as a prerequisite to recover compensatory damages.
Recently, in Hetzel, we expressed our reservation regarding an excessive compensatory damages award for emotional distress pursuant to Title VII and § 1983. Asserting that she was discriminated against on the basis of sex and national origin, Hetzel brought a variety of claims against her employer. Hetzel, 89 F.3d at 170-71. A jury returned verdicts in favor of the employer, but found that Hetzel's superior, Police Chief Charlie Deane, retaliated against Hetzel for engaging in protected speech and awarded compensatory damages of $750,000 for emotional distress, which the district court remitted to $500,000. See id. Hetzel's evidence of her emotional distress "consisted almost exclusively of [her] own, brief conclusory statements." Id. at 171. In fewer than ten pages of transcript, she merely recited that she had "headaches, stress, trouble reading to her daughter, and problems with her family life as a result of [her employers'] actions." Id. In reversing and remanding the award of compensatory damages, we explained that while Hetzel's evidence of emotional distress entitled her to "minimal damages," id., there was "insufficient evidence" to support an award of $500,000, id. at 172. Citing the paucity of evidence to support such an award, we observed that "Hetzel presented no evidence corroborating the existence of any of her supposed specific harms," "remain[ed] ... in good standing with the police department," displayed "no observable injuries or physical ailments," and had "never once seen a doctor, therapist, or other professional, or even sought the counsel of a friend, to help her deal with her what is supposedly an enormous problem overshadowing all aspects of her life." Id. at 171.
Amalgamating these principles, we conclude that a plaintiff's testimony, standing alone, can support an award of compensatory damages for emotional distress based on a constitutional violation; however, the testimony must establish that the plaintiff suffered demonstrable emotional distress, which must be sufficiently articulated; neither conclusory statements that the plaintiff suffered emotional distress nor the mere fact that a constitutional violation occurred supports an award of compensatory damages. In marshaling the evidence necessary to establish emotional distress resulting from a constitutional violation, Carey instructs us that "genuine injury" is necessary. Carey, 435 U.S. at 264, 98 S.Ct. at 1052.
While the substance and content of testimony regarding a plaintiff's emotional distress are considered in awarding compensatory damages for emotional distress based on a constitutional violation, the federal courts examine other considerations in determining whether substantial evidence supports an award of compensatory damages for emotional distress. For instance, in affirming the remittitur of compensatory damages, the Third Circuit in Spence considered four factors: (1) the plaintiff did not lose the esteem of her peers; (2) the plaintiff suffered no physical injury as a consequence of her emotional distress; (3) the plaintiff received no psychological counseling; and (4) the plaintiff suffered no loss of income. See Spence, 806 F.2d at 1201. The Second Circuit followed Spence and considered the same factors in reviewing an award for a like claim challenged on sufficiency grounds. See Miner, 999 F.2d at 663. In Fitzgerald v. Mountain States Telephone and Telegraph Co., 68 F.3d 1257, 1265-66 (10th Cir.1995), the Tenth Circuit contemplated the following factors in analyzing a claim for emotional distress premised on a constitutional violation: (1) the degree of emotional distress; (2) the context of the events surrounding the emotional distress; (3) the evidence tending to corroborate the plaintiff's testimony; (4) the nexus between the challenged conduct and the emotional distress; and (5) any mitigating circumstances. Various courts also consider medical attention, if any, that the plaintiff received as a result of the emotional distress, see, e.g., Hetzel, 89 F.3d at 171-72; Fitzgerald, 68 F.3d at 1266; Miner, 999 F.2d at 663; Ramsey, 772 F.2d at 1313-14, and psychological or psychiatric treatment, if any, that the plaintiff received, see, e.g., Hetzel, 89 F.3d at 171-72; Spence, 806 F.2d at 1201; Ramsey, 772 F.2d at 1313. All of these factors aid triers of fact in determining the propriety of awarding compensatory damages for emotional distress, as well as appellate courts in reviewing sufficiency challenges to such awards.
In this appeal, we express the same trepidation as our sister circuits regarding conclusory testimony with respect to the sufficiency of the evidence supporting an award of compensatory damages based on emotional distress for a constitutional violation. We conclude that the evidence is not sufficient to support the awards and hence reverse. Here, the evidence simply fails to show any demonstrable emotional injury; the evidence of Appellees' emotional distress consisted exclusively of their own conclusory statements, which did not indicate how their alleged distress manifested itself. For instance, in articulating his emotional distress in testimony that spanned only a few pages of transcript, Officer Holl testified that he felt "betray[ed]," "[e]mbarrassed," and "[d]egraded ... and passed over." (J.A. at 118.) Officer Holl stated, however, that he did not "change [his] procedures whatsoever," with respect to performing his duties. (J.A. at 119.)
Officer Corwin, whose pertinent testimony was approximately one and one-half pages in length, testified that he "guess[ed]" he felt "betrayed," "disappointed and embarrassed," explaining that he "wasn't aware that race was going to play any part" in the promotions practice. (J.A. at 124.) While testifying that he was betrayed, disappointed, and embarrassed, Officer Corwin also testified that he "tried not to let it affect me at all." (J.A. at 124.) Moreover, on cross-examination, Officer Corwin testified that he did not know his rank on the promotions roster.
In a like vein, Officer Elstrom testified that he felt "devastated" by the City's "perpetrat[ing its] deceit," explaining that he felt "used as a pawn," and "betrayed, lied to, used." (J.A. at 131, 134.) According to Officer Elstrom, he simply was unsure whether he had faith in his superiors in the police department because they told him there was no invidious discrimination regarding promotions, when, in fact, there was. Summarizing his claim, Officer Elstrom stated that his "self-esteem went from rather high. My confidence was up and all of a sudden it just drops." (J.A. at 134.) He did not testify that any consequence resulted from his drop in self-esteem.
Officer Holshouser stated that he had "been lied to [and] ... deceived. [He felt] like a lot of [his] time, a lot of [his] personal time, personal stress, personal stress on [his] family" was a consequence of the City's unconstitutional conduct. (J.A. at 175.) According to Officer Holshouser, he "lost all respect for Chief Stone" and "for a lot of people in the department that were in the upper echelon of the command." (J.A. at 167-68.) More revealing is the fact that on cross-examination, Officer Holshouser stated that had he known that race played a role in the promotions practice, he would not have "spen[t his] own money to buy the books [for preparing for the promotions exam]," "spen[t his] own personal time to read the material," or "spen[t his] own personal time to participate in training that the department provided." (J.A. at 180.) These conclusory statements are the only evidence of these officers' emotional distress.
Analyzing these claims, we hold that the compensatory damages cannot stand. Here, Officers Holl, Corwin, Elstrom, and Holshouser never offered evidence of any need for medicine, see Hetzel, 89 F.3d at 171-72; Ramsey, 772 F.2d at 1313; physical symptoms, see Spence, 806 F.2d at 1201; Ramsey, 772 F.2d at 1313; psychological disturbance or counseling, Hetzel, 89 F.3d at 171-72; Spence, 806 F.2d at 1201; loss of income or pecuniary expense, see id.; a description of their emotional distress, see Biggs, 892 F.2d at 1304; or how their conduct changed or if others observed their conduct change, see Carey, 435 U.S. at 264 n. 20, 98 S.Ct. at 1052 n. 20. Also conspicuously absent from their evidence is any corroboration of their emotional distress or any manifestation it may have assumed. See Hetzel, 89 F.3d at 171-72 (observing that the plaintiff displayed "no observable injuries or physical ailments"). Also, as opposed to Hetzel, in which there were ten pages of testimony regarding the emotional distress, here, there was often less testimony. Given this paucity of explanation or description regarding their emotional distress, we conclude that Appellees' evidence fails to show "genuine injury" evidenced by "nature and circumstances of the wrong and its effect" under Carey. In addition, Appellees' evidence fails to exhibit any of the factors that the Spence, Miner, and Fitzgerald courts considered in assessing emotional distress claims for constitutional violations. Here, we are confronted with the bald, conclusory assertions that Appellees felt betrayed and deceived, but there was no evidence concerning any demonstrable injury suffered. Such vague, conclusory statements do not constitute sufficient evidence, see Biggs, 892 F.2d at 1304-05; Nekolny, 653 F.2d at 1172-73, and we reverse the compensatory damages awards with respect to Officers Corwin, Holl, Elstrom, and Holshouser. In our opinion, this testimony does not satisfy the requirement that Appellees show actual injury by sufficient evidence; their injuries, if any, are properly characterized as disappointment with their superiors, rather than emotional distress. Accordingly, the compensatory damages awards rendered in favor of Officers Corwin, Holl, Elstrom, and Holshouser are reversed.
In reaching our conclusion, we do not hold that compensatory damages for emotional distress can never be awarded based exclusively on a plaintiff's testimony, see, e.g., Hetzel, 89 F.3d at 171-72; Rakovich I, 819 F.2d at 1399 & n. 6; Chalmers, 762 F.2d at 761; Williams, 660 F.2d at 1272-73, but we simply hold that in this case, the testimony was insufficient to support an award of damages. Here, these officers did not "reasonably and sufficiently explain the circumstances of [their] injury," but rather "resort[ed] to mere conclusory statements," which cannot support an award of compensatory damages. See Biggs, 892 F.2d at 1304. Because these Appellees did suffer a constitutional violation, but failed to prove emotional distress warranting compensatory damages, we award them nominal damages in the sum of one dollar each. See Carey, 435 U.S. at 266, 98 S.Ct. at 1053-54 (sua sponte awarding one dollar in nominal damages because civil rights plaintiffs failed to prove actual damages); Cohen, 728 F.2d at 162 (stating that the "better practice" is to award one dollar nominal damages for a constitutional violation if the plaintiff's evidence cannot support "any substantial sum" for damages and sua sponte awarding such nominal damages on appeal).
The compensatory damages awarded to Officers Carlton, Price, and Holland are likewise problematic because in our view, the evidence these Appellees provided tends to support the conclusion that their damages arose not from emotional distress as a consequence of invidious discrimination, but rather from the City's failure to promote them. Because none of the Appellees would have been promoted even in the absence of a violation, however, they are not entitled to damages due to the denial of promotions.
For example, Officer Carlton, whose testimony is roughly four pages in length, related his emotional distress to the fact that he was the victim of the City's quota system: Having achieved exceptional ratings, he felt that he should have been promoted to sergeant, yet was not. For instance, Officer Carlton stated that he felt "slapped ... in the face" because, according to him, he was "more qualified to be a sergeant" than some of those who were promoted to sergeant. (J.A. at 155.) Despite his supposed emotional distress, Officer Carlton testified that he continued to perform his duties just as he had prior to this litigation, explaining that he was "a professional." (J.A. at 156.)
Officer Price's testimony reveals that he was upset that black officers who scored lower on the evaluations criteria for promotion to sergeant were promoted, while he was not, simply because he was Caucasian. According to Officer Price, he "d[idn't] know what to believe. And after a while it kind of takes the wind out of anything that you're doing." (J.A. at 161.) Summarizing his testimony, Officer Price stated that the City's conduct was "a giant step backwards" because "[t]here just seems to be a problem with the fact that [the promotions practice] applies to one race and not to the other. And I take that very seriously." (J.A. at 161.)
Officer Holland's testimony establishes the same principle, and hence the same infirmity. According to Officer Holland, he was displeased by the fact that different criteria applied to different races regarding promotions, specifically asserting that he should be compensated for the time spent in preparing for the promotions exam. Explaining his emotional distress, Officer Holland stated that he "felt kind of like a patsy" because "one set of rules applied to white officers," but if "the need arose or the testing procedure didn't deliver the expected number of minority candidates, a new set of rules were imposed." (J.A. at 184.) On cross-examination, Officer Holland stated that he should be compensated for preparing for the promotions examination, thereby establishing that at least part of his damages were not based on invidious discrimination. Officers Carlton, Price, and Holland cannot separate their claims of emotional distress from their failure to receive promotions; accordingly, they cannot recover compensatory damages.
Even accepting the contention that the officers' claims of emotional distress are exclusively grounded in the constitutional violation, their testimony is equally vague and conclusory. The evidence of Officer Carlton's emotional distress was that he felt "slapped ... in the face" as a result of the violation, but he offers no other explanation or evidence of his emotional distress. According to Officer Price, he was fearful of the police force and lost faith in it, but there is no testimony describing the emotional distress he suffered. Officer Holland complained that he felt like a "patsy," but, like his colleagues' testimony, there is nothing more regarding his emotional distress. Like Officers Holl's, Corwin's, Elstrom's, and Holshouser's, Officers Carlton's, Price's, and Holland's testimony cannot support an award of compensatory damages. Accordingly, we reverse their compensatory damages awards. Again, we do not hold that a plaintiff's testimony standing alone is insufficient as a matter of law to support an award of compensatory damages, but in this case, the testimony was not sufficient to do so. Like their colleagues, Officers Carlton, Price, and Holland are entitled to one dollar nominal damages.
We hold that Appellees had standing to sue, and they were not limited to injunctive or declaratory relief. Rather, they were entitled also to recover compensatory damages for demonstrable emotional distress if their injuries could be attributed to the actual constitutional violation. Appellees, however, failed to offer sufficient proof of emotional distress. Accordingly, the award of compensatory damages in favor of Appellees is reversed, and we award each Appellee one dollar in nominal damages.
AFFIRMED IN PART AND REVERSED IN PART.
None of the Appellees asserted a denial of promotion, and the City did not appeal awards of compensatory damages to plaintiffs who were denied promotions because of their race. Appellees here are police officers who would not have been promoted regardless of a racially discriminatory promotions practice
According to the Ramsey court, Dr. Wells treated Ramsey principally for a lung condition several years before the litigation and performed annual physicals for Ramsey. As far as the opinion reveals, Ramsey did not seek treatment from Dr. Wells for any afflictions stemming from the constitutional violation
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Full Text Contents
Mini-Review Article
HIV/AIDS Prevention: Reducing Social Stigma to Facilitate Prevention in the Developing World
Elizabeth Armstrong-Mensah1*, Kim Ramsey-White1, Carlos A.O. Pavão1, Sarah McCool1 and Keisha Bohannon2
1Georgia State University, Atlanta, Georgia, USA
2Karna LLC, Atlanta, Georgia, USA
*Corresponding author: Dr. Elizabeth Armstrong-Mensah, School of Public Health, Georgia State University, Atlanta, Georgia, USA, E-mail: earmstrongmensah@gsu.edu
Received: October 3, 2017 Accepted: October 18, 2017 Published: October 25, 2017
Citation: Armstrong-Mensah E, Ramsey-White K, Pavão CAO, McCool S, Bohannon K. HIV/AIDS Prevention: Reducing Social Stigma to Facilitate Prevention in the Developing World. Madridge J AIDS. 2017; 2(1): 12-16. doi: 10.18689/mja-1000103
Copyright: © 2017 The Author(s). This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
An approach to preventing new HIV infections is the expectation that people living with the virus will disclose their status to their partners, healthcare providers, and family members. While this expectation would most logically contribute to reductions in new HIV infections, it is widely known that disclosure of status often results in problems for the person infected with the virus. Too often, status disclosure is not treated as confidential information and people become stigmatized, ostracized from society, and discriminated against. This is particularly true in developing countries where much is not known about the disease, and where being infected with HIV is an automatic sentence for social isolation. If strides are to be made towards reducing HIV incidence and prevalence in the developing world, then attitudes towards persons living with the disease have to change, so as to encourage free reporting and the seeking of appropriate medical care and counseling. This paper highlights the continued global burden and trends of HIV/AIDS, discusses the role, barriers, and effects of social stigma on HIV/AIDS prevention efforts, and proposes strategies for the reduction of stigma and other negative attitudes that inhibit HIV/AIDS prevention efforts in developing countries.
Keywords: HIV/AIDS; Stigma; Discrimination; Prevention; Developing countries; HIV counselling and testing; People living with HIV/AIDS.
Since 1981, the human immune-deficiency virus (HIV), which causes acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS), has infected about 78 million people [1-3]. and claimed the lives of 35 million people. Currently, 36.7 million people are living with HIV, the majority of which reside in developing countries [4]. While some countries have made considerable strides in slowing down the transmission of HIV, others have not been as successful. Given that there is no cure for HIV/AIDS, preventing new infections is a key global strategy that is reflected in the just expired Millennium Development Goal 6 and the newly launched Sustainable Development Goal target 3.3, which seeks to "by 2030, end the epidemics of AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria and neglected tropical diseases and combat hepatitis, waterborne diseases and other communicable diseases" [5].
An approach to preventing new HIV infections is the expectation that people living with the virus will disclose their status to their partners, healthcare providers, and family members. While this expectation would most logically contribute to reductions in new HIV infections, it is widely known that disclosure of status often results in problems for the person infected with the virus. Too often, status disclosure is not treated as confidential information and people become stigmatized, ostracized from society, and discriminated against. This is particularly true in developing countries where much is not known about the disease, and where being infected with HIV is an automatic sentence for social isolation. If strides are to be made towards reducing HIV incidence and prevalence in the developing world, then attitudes towards persons living with the disease have to change, so as to encourage free reporting and the seeking of appropriate medical care and counselling. This paper highlights the continued global burden and trends of HIV/AIDS, discusses the role, barriers, and effects of social stigma on HIV/AIDS prevention efforts, and proposes strategies for the reduction of stigma and other negative attitudes that inhibit HIV/AIDS prevention efforts in developing countries.
Global HIV/AIDS Incidence and Prevalence
The human immune-deficiency virus causes AIDS. The virus is transmitted by having unprotected sex with infected persons, sharing infected needles, receiving infected blood and blood products, and mother to child transmission during pregnancy or breastfeeding. The virus attacks and compromises the body's immune system, specifically the CD4 cells (T cells), and reduces the body's ability to fend off infections and opportunistic diseases [6]. AIDS is diagnosed when an HIV positive person has a CD4 count less than 200 cells/mm3.
As of 2016, 36.7 million people of all ages were living with HIV/AIDS globally, and an estimated 10 million suffered from HIV-related illnesses worldwide [2]. The annual incidence of new HIV infections in 2016, was 1.8 million globally, 39% lower than in 2000 [7]. Over 95% of the new HIV infections occurred in developing countries, with about two-thirds in sub-Saharan Africa, where over 28 million people are living with HIV [8].
In 2015, Eastern and Southern Africa were the region's most affected by HIV in sub-Saharan Africa. These regions are home to about 6.2% of the world's population and accounted for over 50% of the total number of people living with HIV globally [9]. These regions had 960,000 new HIV infections, about 46% of the global total [3]. South Africa alone accounted for 40% of the region's new infections, while Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Uganda, the United Republic of Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe accounted for 50% of the new infections in sub-Saharan Africa [3].
HIV/AIDS and Social Stigma
Social stigma is extreme disapproval of a person or group of people based on certain characteristics that distinguish or make them undesirable by other members of society. It is also a set of negative and often unfair beliefs that a group of people have about something [10]. HIV-related stigmas are the negative beliefs, feelings, and attitudes towards people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA), their families and people who work with them [11]. These negative beliefs, feelings, and attitudes often reinforce existing social inequalities, cause discrimination, render people powerless, create greater differences, and diminish a person's social status and self-worth [12]. HIV-related stigma is the result of a lack of understanding of the disease, negative media and social portrayal of the disease, the fact that AIDS is incurable, and prejudices caused by cultural beliefs [13].
While HIV-related stigma in developing countries has declined to some extent in the past few years, it continues to be a barrier to HIV prevention. Indeed, in 2016, the AIDS & Rights Alliance for Southern Africa (ARASA) described progress made towards HIV-related stigma as "inconsistent and uneven"[14]. Cultural beliefs about HIV create discrimination and discourage people from seeking counselling, getting tested, sharing their HIV positive status with loved ones, seeking care, and sticking to treatment regimens [15]. Studies conducted by the African Sex Worker Alliance in Kenya, South Africa, Uganda, and Zimbabwe, found that, sex workers experienced very high levels of stigma, and were for that reason, unwilling to disclose their occupation to healthcare providers [14]. Thus, stigma and discrimination are major barriers to HIV testing in this population.
Social Stigma and HIV Prevention Efforts
Even though numerous efforts have been made at the global level to reduce the HIV/AIDS pandemic, many countries and regions continue to experience little or no change in their infection rates, and subsequent deaths [16] [17]. In developing countries, especially those in Eastern and Southern Africa, large-scale HIV/AIDS prevention programs have focused on HIV education, counseling and testing, condom use, voluntary medical male circumcision, and antiretroviral treatment (ART). Nonetheless, these HIV/AIDS prevention efforts have not resulted in projected reductions in new infections, due in part to HIV-related stigma [18].
HIV-related stigma and discrimination create barriers, which negatively impact the ability of PLWHA to protect themselves and to stay healthy. The fear of stigma, discrimination, and potential violence, undermines their ability to access and adhere to treatment and prevention efforts such as condom use and needle sharing. HIV-related stigma causes PLWHA to develop low self-esteem and thus, resort to negative motivation for self-protection; they engage in risky sexual behavior, have multiple sexual encounters in an attempt to seek self-validation, or use alcohol or drugs. It also results in negative health behaviors including the unwillingness to seek voluntary testing, and obtaining appropriate treatment, care, and support [18].
In Southern and Eastern Africa, men who have sex with men, sex workers, transgender people, drug users, and key affected populations often experience increased levels of stigma and discrimination. Research shows that young men who have sex with men are disproportionately bullied at home, in schools, and in communities compared to their heterosexual counterparts [14]. The stigma associated with HIV/AIDS also causes people to lose their houses and jobs, and to be badly treated by some healthcare providers. It must be noted that, the extent to which people experience HIVrelated stigma varies across countries and within communities.
HIV-related stigma discourages vulnerable populations from seeking information and programs, for fear it will be taken to mean that they have HIV, are promiscuous, are unfaithful, or are members of populations associated with HIV, like people who inject drugs, sex workers, and gay men [11]. Consequently, people are less likely to inquire about their sexual partners HIV status, use clean needles, or access biomedical prevention options such as male circumcision and pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP). [11].
Practical Steps to Address Stigma and Promote HIV/AIDS Prevention
Over three million people living with HIV/AIDS in developing countries now receive ART. However, close to seven million people in sub-Saharan Africa are still in need of ART and are awaiting access [19]. This gap in access to medical and diagnostic pathways contributes significantly to the continued challenges of reducing new HIV infections. Prevention is key, but it cannot be effective if stigma and discrimination impede people from seeking counselling and testing, and taking the deliberate steps needed to prevent potential transmission. If people are anxious about disclosing their status, they will not obtain the help they need.
The devaluation of identity and discrimination associated with HIV-related stigma does not occur naturally. Indeed, they are socially constructed by individuals and communities, who generate and perpetuate stigma as a response to their own fears [20]. Given that HIV-related stigma exists at various levels, a social-ecological framework can assist in our approach to better understand and establish appropriate interventions at both the micro and macro levels of human interactions. Practical steps to promote prevention efforts must be targeted at these levels. A simultaneous multi-level approach must be used. The Social-Ecological model of health purports that individual health behavior cannot effectively be addressed without taking into account the macro and environmental underpinnings of health [21]. With that in mind, to examine best practices in dealing with HIV-related stigma, a multi-level approach would help to inform prevention efforts. To further identify an in-depth understanding of how stigma and discrimination can be addressed for PLWHA, we also suggest that future research, using a community-based participatory research framework, be implemented to obtain stronger empirical evidence of how stigma and discrimination is experienced and what steps are necessary to be taken at both micro and macro levels, to help reduce personal and structural barriers to prevention.
Individual Level
At the individual level, PLWHA must be educated on how they can transmit HIV and what they can do prevent further transmission. They also need to be provided with information and given access to services that can protect them and their human rights when they feel that they have been betrayed by people they disclosed their status to. A study conducted in South Africa found that while some PLWHA experienced stigma through insults and arguments from family members during disagreements, they knew that disclosing the status without their consent was a crime. In these instances, threatening to go to the police, or sometimes actually calling the police, allowed PLWHA to fight back and maintain their self-esteem [22].
Community Level
At the community level, social and structural interventions to change societal beliefs about PLWHA [23]. should be implemented. Current research on HIV-related stigma suggests that interventions to reduce stigma in healthcare settings or in communities have primarily been directed at raising HIV/AIDS awareness [23] [24]. Promoting antidiscrimination policies, and protecting the human rights of PLWHA [23] [25]. But none of the interventions were specifically directed at the families of PLWHA. National governments in developing countries need to introduce and implement bold initiatives, and embark on campaigns that target families and communities, with the intent of educating and creating awareness on the need for them to be more supportive of their loved ones in the event that they test positive for HIV/AIDS. The link between stigma, negative behavior towards PLWHA, and potential increased infection should be highlighted.
Wohl et al. (2011) examined social stigma in their article "A youth-focused case management intervention to engage and retain young gay men of color in HIV care" [26]. At the social level, the authors explored some of the difficulties faced by PLWHA including stigma and isolation from community members, lack of social support and, the limited access to needed resources including transportation, mental health services, housing, and employment assistance. The treatment of HIV requires lifelong management of the disease, thus interventions are needed that can help these populations access and adhere to needed services. The authors concluded that structural barriers can have a direct effect on health care access. Given that there is a solid understanding of the structural barriers that PLWHA face, research should be conducted and aimed at methods of reducing some of these barriers, so treatment adherence can be optimal.
Policy Level
Mechanisms to eliminate anti-discriminatory practices against PLWHA should be introduced and enforced. In Ghana for example, the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice, the Ghana AIDS Commission, and the Health Policy Project have developed a web-based mechanism that PLWHA can use to report discrimination at the workplace, and in health care, educational, and other settings. These reports are anonymous, and result in mediation, investigation, and legal resolution by human rights and legal organizations [27].
Health Care Level
The creation of awareness programs and the education of health workers to deliberately increase their knowledge and understanding of stigma and its detrimental effects on HIV/ AIDS prevention efforts are essential. Stigma is already a pressing concern among PLWHA, and this concern can be magnified when perpetuated by health care providers, ultimately affecting access to care, treatment adherence, and overall quality of life. Health workers' phobias and misconceptions about HIV and how it is transmitted must be dispelled and addressed, as the fear of acquiring HIV through everyday contact with infected persons, causes some providers to take unnecessary and often stigmatizing actions. The creation and implementation of an HIV/AIDS health care provider stigma instrument that is culturally sensitive, is one way of assessing HIV-related stigma amongst health care providers. Results from these assessments can be used to inform training, awareness creation, and education efforts to reduce stigma [28]. Research efforts in these aforementioned areas should focus on effectiveness, and the most effective training, awareness and education programs can then be modeled and duplicated in various settings. Efforts intended to increase awareness and education need to provide health workers with complete information about how HIV is and is not transmitted, and how treating PLWHA humanely can help with the prevention of potential new infections. The awareness creation efforts should also aim at getting health workers to separate persons living with HIV from the behaviors considered as improper or immoral.
Program Level
Programs that address negative perceptions and assumptions about HIV/AIDS are vital to confronting perceptions that promote stigmatizing attitudes toward PLWHA. Programs need to target and speak to the shame and blame directed at PLWHA.
Research Level
While numerous studies have been conducted on HIVrelated stigma, and literature abounds on what PLWHA can do to stop HIV/AIDS transmission, there is a dearth of research on the perceptions and lived experiences of PLWHA on HIVrelated stigma, and how discrimination and social isolation impact their role in HIV prevention efforts. If HIV/AIDS prevention is to be successful in developing countries, it is important that research be conducted with PLWHA as partners, to obtain their views and strategies on how best to address issues of stigma, discrimination and isolation, the three factors that current research tells us have such a negative impact on HIV/AIDS prevention efforts. Collaborating with PLWHA on examining stigma from their perspectives allows the researcher to collect narratives at the micro level of the social-ecological model and to use this information to inform prevention efforts designed at the individual level.
To begin to understand how to effect change regarding stigma, discrimination and isolation at the macro-environmental level, further research on policy implications at the community, healthcare, and program levels needs to be conducted. It is no surprise that policies at all of these levels can exacerbate stigma, discrimination and isolation for PLWHA. By focusing data collection efforts on PLWHA and their perceptions of structural barriers at the macro level, interventions and policy reviews will be specifically targeted at the direct and indirect forces that perpetuate the stigma, discrimination, and isolation experienced by PLWHA. Additionally, current interventions and policies that focus on reducing HIV-related stigma in developing countries need to be assessed for their content, cultural sensitivity, and the extent to which they embody practices that inherently increase stigma related bias towards PLWHA.
Globally, prevention is vital in the fight against HIV/AIDS, but the stigma associated with the disease constricts prevention efforts and makes significant decreases in new HIV cases difficult to achieve, particularly in developing countries. Prevention efforts that are framed using the social ecological model may be one approach to addressing the multi-level antecedents that perpetuate the negative effects of stigma. As previously stated, stigma affects individual's selfimage and ability to properly advocate for themselves, thereby limiting disclosure of their status to practitioners and even their partners. Allaying fears and myths about HIV/AIDS with family and community support will also serve to help reduce the deleterious impact of stigma. In developing countries where the use of prevention efforts do not seem to achieve the desired reduction in new cases of HIV, research and a strategic focus on reducing social stigma, isolation, discrimination, and other negative attitudes towards PLWHA may be the most appropriate next steps.
Conflicts of interest statement: Attached for each co-author
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Shisana O, Rehle T, Simbayi LC, Parker W. South African National HIV prevalence, HIV incidence, behaviour and communication survey. Human Sciences Research Council: Cape Town; 2005.
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Bob Hoffman Collection
Series 2: Books and Local Publications
Series 3: Miscellaneous Documents
H.R. Hoffman
Bob Hoffman
H.R. “Bob” Hoffman was born April 5, 1928 to parents Martha and W.R. Hoffman. He grew up in Brandon and moved to Toronto at age 15. There, he joined the Merchant Marines and sailed with Shell Oil from age 16 to 25. After this, he returned to Brandon to work with his father selling typewriters. He eventually took over the business and H.R. Hoffman Limited became the largest office equipment dealership in Western Manitoba. Hoffman married Elsie Neilson and had two sons, Cal and Brad. After retiring from the office equipment business, Hoffman owned and operated a Health and Fitness Club, was part owner of Metev Woolen Mills, worked for the Federal Business Development Bank, and was Chairman of the Westman Media Co-Operative Board of Directors. He was also a member of many different community organizations including the Brandon Kinsmen Club, the K-40, the Brandon Flying Club, the Royal Canadian Legion, and the Masonic Lodge. Hoffman passed away in Brandon, Manitoba on March 8, 2001.
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The Americans..
30th-Mar-2014 02:47 pm
.. Not trying to be mean about this show. I've desperately tried to like it, because Matthew likes working on this show so much. But I just don't like this show. And I don't know what it is.
I think I can compare watching this show with a comedy with a 'laugh-tape' underneath. I don't need to hear the laughter to get that there's a joke, but I won't laugh at the joke if the joke isn't funny. With "The Americans" I can see it, but not 'feel' it.
Maybe that a lot of that feeling is due to Elizabeth. This is by no means some dig at Keri's acting. I think she's doing a good job, I get where Elizabeth is coming from, I can understand her worries for her kids etc, but I don't give a sh**. If she is concerned/worried/scared about something, I just end up rolling my eyes and think 'get over yourself, drama-queen'. I think it's because Elizabeth has been an ice-berg for too long, that her about-turn just feels incredibly fake to me. I'm more concerned/have more compassion for Sandra, Nina or Martha.
Maybe it's knowing that Philip/Elizabeth will always get out of it alive, is what takes the sting out of these episodes as well. Like watching an episode of the A-team, you just know that, regardless how well the trap, they will get out of it. No worries. (Unfortunately the 'ways out' for P/E aren't half as entertaining as the A-team's. :S)
I think that Matthew is doing an phenomenal job in showing off his acting talents, he makes each character a different one and I watch in awe of his subtlety, the nuances on his face, the way that he uses his body and everything, but I'm not engaged in Philip at all. Again, there's no need to be worried about him either.
If Matthew hadn't been in it, I would stop watching this show. And though I know that Matthew likes this role, because he does get to slip in all these different disguises and I want him to be happy and with a steady job and such, a part of me wouldn't shed a tear if this show got cancelled tomorrow.
Tags:2014, actor - matthew rhys
22 shared glasses
30th-Mar-2014 09:56 pm (UTC)
I'm finding it difficult to enjoy this season. I think that the switch over from it being about a couple of spies living out their lives under the umbrella of an 'all-American family' to it being about a family where the parents have unusual jobs has pretty much killed it for me. I didn't want a family drama, I wanted espionage, the thrill of the chase, the living life on the edge and I feel as though it's been taken away.
I don't like what they've done with Elizabeth: keep her in the mindset that she's in now and she'd be done for inside of 12 months...if she lasted that long. I much preferred her when she'd get all fired up over nothing and the war between the Jennings' was probably more true to RL.
I'm not as hooked on Philip as I was last season; the acting's great, I love the characters, but sometimes the storylines fall flat and are less than believable (particularly between the Jennings) and time frames seem to be 'out'. IDK, maybe it's me and knowing that they have more use of body doubles kind of puts me off - it's not as though there are any potentially lethal scenes being executed of late.
I will, however, say that I DID enjoy the last episode; it was more along the lines of Season One...though some scenes, whilst humourous, were decidedly out of place and the Jennings new 'handler' isn't a patch on Claudia and in real life would probably get them shot.
All in all I'm not entirely sure where they're heading with this show anymore. I'll continue to watch it as Matthew's in it but one viewing of each episode is more than enough time to give over to a show that has gone from 'I can't get enough of it' to 'what's the weather doing? Raining again. I'll watch The Americans!'
31st-Mar-2014 12:38 am (UTC)
ihrtmr
Interesting, I was excited for it last season, though I did find it a bit more challenging to sit through. It somehow became more palatable for me this season. I guess no one likes this show? Well,I take that back. Apparently there's a bunch of odd balls posting on the gossip columns that seem to like it well enough, but clearly those folks aren't posting here.... :)
It's not so much that I don't like it, I'm just not as keen as I was last season, it doesn't meet the expectations I had for it...whether that's because they've taken a side-step and changed the theme instead of improving on what they'd already given us IDK.
I hadn't considered it much, but you're right it is different. I rather like the role reversal with Philip being the more domineering agent and even showing that strength with a stronger hand when it comes to parenting. With Liz wearing the pants in the family last season, he came off as the weaker of the two somehow. Well, that's no longer the case, by a mile. I suppose I like that shift in dynamics... I wish it was more popular, but that probably stems from looking for that commonality among MRO members we all had way back when, more than actual surprise about how this particular show has been received, if that makes any sense...
I do like that the dynamics seem more equal and that Philip is more often 'taking charge', rather than trudging after Elizabeth, but 'emotional Elizabeth' is just as annoying as 'iceberg Elizabeth'.
I had high hopes for this show, I liked the pilot despite some 'things'.
I'm sure that I'm just in a minority, because plenty of people DO seem to like the show and it's frustrating, because I want to be able to like it too.
31st-Mar-2014 02:23 pm (UTC)
You're not in the minority, your reaction is completely normal. You can tell just by the comments you've received. That doesn't mean that I don't have my fingers crossed that you'll find a way to like it one day (or parts of it) If you stick with it, just focus on how hot Matthew is looking and maybe you'll enjoy it a little better :)
I am compared to the board on IMDB and reactions that I read in other places, such as recaps, interviews and such.
I love Matthew's acting, but with my head and not heart. I see how well played the character is and the many layers that are to Philip and I see how well Matthew manages all those different emotions, I almost study it, :) but unlike his parts in for instance B&S, Drood, Death comes to Pemberly or House of America I don't get drawn in, I don't FEEL it.
Maybe it's indeed, as Laira says, that I can't bring up much empathy for the characters aside from Martha and the kids. This doesn't mean that the acting isn't good, because it is.
toveb
I like the show. A lot. I feel very lonely in this, at least here among my fellow MR fans. Other people seem to like the show too and for all the actors and characters, from what I understand.
There's definitely change in this season compared to he previous one. I still feel that Keri is the weak part and some scenes stand and fall with her lack in the acting department. But in the US she is the big star, so they're sort of stuck with her...
Oh, don't feel lonely. I don't mind if you love the show. I'm perhaps more envious of that feeling than you can imagine. :)
I agree that Keri/Elizabeth is the weaker part in this, I guess that is where I have the most issues as well. I feel, as a woman, I SHOULD feel some sympathy for her, especially knowing about her past and the fact that she got raped (always traumatic) and all the emotions that she can't deal with and all that stuff with Gregory, I think it SHOULD have driven me to tears, create emotion, but it just doesn't.
But, please, continue to love the show, sometimes reading what someone else is saying can change your own perspective on something.
Don't feel lonely. I'll watch it with you. I suspect I don't like it quite as much as you. It's a little bit tailored to intelligent minds and I'd like to think I'm reasonably so, but it has complex story lines, an awful lot of reading of captions and requires more thought/analysis/ remembering of details to follow it than I usually care to invest in a show. So my 'beef' with it is entirely different than the other commentators. That said, it seems I like it much more than the average poster, and I absolutely intend to continue watching...
laira26
Don't feel lonely. The show is critically acclaimed. All the critics love it. So, we are the weird ones :) It's so great to love a show, so enjoy it and don't let our comments to spoil your fun :)
I'm not a quitter. :) And I just ran into my words on MRO that "I've sat through season 5 of B&S, how bad can the Americans be?" And, no, the show is NOT as bad as season 5 of B&S, with all it's inconsistencies, bad story-lines and too much Suc. But the Americans is becoming too predictable. It is time for another near-hit on Philip/Elizabeth by Beeman & Co, or at least 'something' like that.
lol! Season 5 of B&S, that was a really crazy time :D
I think the difference with the Americans is that even if season 5 of B&S was really bad, we still loved the characters. They were different from the previous seasons but I loved the Walkers and they were people with real feelings very easy to identify with them.
I think that self-identification and empathy with the characters is one of the reasons that keep people watching a TV show every week. In the case of "The Americans" it's almost impossible to feel something for these characters, they are mostly a group of assassins, so except for the children and maybe Martha there is nobody that people can feel anything for them. IMO this is the reason of the bad ratings, even if the show is very well written and with great acting.
and empathy with the characters is one of the reasons that keep people watching a TV show every week. In the case of "The Americans" it's almost impossible to feel something for these characters,
I completely agree with this. :)
Interesting comment, I hardly never watch shows where I feel empathy for characters. I avoid chick flicks like the plague. I am drawn to action, fantasy, sci-fi and generally speaking genre's that are not based on any form of reality. I get a kick out of The Following with James Purefoy and he's a psychopath that makes The Americans look like they're playing patty cake. My point being this, if you are looking to empathize, then I can see why this show is frustrating. In my case, since I don't typically watch shows with empathetic characters, that aspect doesn't phase me, which explains a little more why some are responding to it, while others don't.
1st-Apr-2014 07:31 am (UTC)
I see what you mean. I prefer to watch shows with people that I find 'interesting', the character has to 'grab my attention and hold it' and I don't care if it's a psychopath or a house-wife.
Of course a lot depends on the sort of show/movie. I love slasher-movies and horror-movies that doesn't have vampires or zombies or aren't devil-related.
I don't watch a movie like "Conan, the Barbarian" to feel empathy for Arnold Schwarzenegger. I just want him to slice his opponents to bits. :) I usualy don't care much about the big-boobed 'virgins' that end up being killed by Jason Voorhees or Freddie Krueger or some chainsaw carrying madman. I'm watching for HOW they get killed, not IF they killed.
However, I also like shows like Criminal Minds where I love to get a view into the mind of the serial killer and his/her reasoning of being/becoming a serial killer. I can realize that they have their own demons and I can still be glad that the murderer gets shot in the end, or feel sorry that they get shot in the end.
I enjoy my psychopats like crazy, but there has to be 'that certain something' that drives me to watch them. I don't like to watch a show about some killer, who does it for the killing only and doesn't offer anything to sink my teeth in.
Which is why I do tend to not look at romantic movies or comedies, because those characters usually have as much depth as a piece of paper.
I think that 'The Americans' wants (nearly insists) me to feel for the characters. Yet, all I can do is roll my eyes and be annoyed with how I cannot 'feel' them, even when I recognize that it's all well-filmed, fairly well-written and well-acted...
Oh no, (the last bit). Well, I didn't think this would happen but you've finally convinced me.....I suppose this show is just not for you. I'm not one to change people's minds. I really wasn't trying to. Just pointing out a few positives and possible reasons why some dislike it....well, I tried anyway....
· The Americans.. [+22]
· claire1968 - (no subject) [+16]
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Jim Henson Honored With Interactive Muppets Google Doodle [VIDEO]
By Ben Parr 2011-09-23 21:01:15 UTC
Google has rolled out a new Google Doodle to honor the 75th birthday of Jim Henson, the famous puppeteer who created The Muppets.
This is not just any Google Doodle, though. The Jim Henson Company and The Creature Shop partnered with Google to create an interactive doodle to honor his legacy. Using the Henson Digital Puppet Studio (yes, there is a digital muppet studio), they designed and animated the characters, which users can then manipulate using a mouse and keyboard. A YouTube video detailing the work that went into designing and creating the Doodle is embedded below
And, as with all good things, there are lots of easter eggs to discover. We're still busy trying to find them all.
To play with the Doodle yourself, head over to google.com.
BONUS: More Google Doodles
Top 10 Animated Google Doodles
The Christmas Google Doodle
Each package gets larger with a mouse-over, and a click on it returns search results pertinent to a specific country or the particular items featured in a scene. This one is from December 24, 2010.
Charlie Chaplin Google Doodle
The Google Doodle team stars in an homage to the silent film era's greatest star's 122nd birthday, April 15, 2011.
Google Logo Repelled by Cursor
This one's done in HTML5 and was published Sept. 7, 2010. To get the full effect, here's one you can interact with.
John Lennon Google Doodle
This Doodle commemorated John Lennon's 70th birthday in October 2010.
Debuting May 10, 2011, this Google Doodle marks dance choreographer Martha Graham's birthday.
Robert Bunsen
Commemorated the birthday of the inventor of the Bunsen burner, German chemist Robert Bunsen on March 31, 2011.
The great inventor's birthday was honored on February 11, 2011.
Marking Independence Day 2010.
Pac-Man's 30th Anniversary
A real crowd pleaser was this playable Pac-Man game, which appeared on May 21. 2010. Here's a playable version.
Topics: Entertainment, Google, google doodle, Television, Video
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2013 Preview: Los Angeles Dodgers
By D.J. ShortMar 16, 2013, 11:28 AM EDT
Between now and Opening Day, HardballTalk will take a look at each of baseball’s 30 teams, asking the key questions, the not-so-key questions, and generally breaking down their chances for the 2013 season. Up next: The Los Angeles Dodgers.
The Big Question: Will the big spending lead the Dodgers back to the postseason?
It’s a new world in MLB and the Dodgers are playing by their own rules. While the mighty Yankees are making plans to get under the luxury tax threshold, that’s not a concern for the new ownership group in Los Angeles. The Dodgers are projected to have a payroll around $225 million this season, the highest in major league history. Having a new $7 billion cable deal helps.
After adding big names like Hanley Ramirez, Adrian Gonzalez, Carl Crawford and Josh Beckett in trades last season, the Dodgers signed Zack Greinke to a six-year, $147 million contract over the winter and committed $61.7 million to sign Korean left-hander Hyun-Jin Ryu. But for all the spending, the Dodgers still have their fair share of questions.
After ranking 26th in runs scored last season, the offense should be better, but by how much? Matt Kemp is coming off shoulder surgery while Crawford is still rehabbing his elbow following Tommy John surgery. Adrian Gonzalez is healthy by all accounts, but he hasn’t shown much power since his shoulder surgery two offseasons ago. Luis Cruz has a lot to prove after playing well in a small sample last year. And yes, Andre Ethier still can’t hit lefties.
Clayton Kershaw is arguably the game’s best starting pitcher, ranking second in the majors in ERA and first in WHIP and strikeouts over the past two seasons. Greinke’s upside is obvious, but it looks like he’ll get a late start to the season following a sore elbow. Beckett had better results after coming over from the Red Sox last season and should benefit with a full season in the easier league. However, things get a little dicey after that. Ryu is an unknown quantity and hasn’t been overly impressive this spring. The Dodgers are hoping that the ulnar collateral ligament in Chad Billingsley’s elbow will hold up, but they have Chris Capuano, Aaron Harang and Ted Lilly in reserve in case things go awry.
It’s easy to envision a scenario where the Dodgers run away with things in the National League West, but like with any team, there are also ways that things could go wrong here. Injuries. Underperformance. It happens. This is baseball. Still, the pressure will be on after they came up short last year. If the Dodgers aren’t playing in October, manager Don Mattingly will likely be out of a job.
What else is going on?
The Dodgers’ spending hasn’t been exclusive to the talent on the field. They have also directed roughly $100 million in improvements to Dodger Stadium, including the return of hexagonal scoreboards, upgrades to the sound system, bathrooms, and concourses, the construction of a new clubhouse for players and bullpen overlooks which will create standing-room views for the game. Much-needed upgrades for a stadium which is now the third oldest in the majors behind Fenway Park and Wrigley Field.
Can Luis Cruz keep the starting third base job? There’s reason to be skeptical. After hitting just .261/.296/.394 over 12 seasons in the minor leagues, the 29-year-old delivered a surprising .297/.332/.431 batting line in 78 games with the Dodgers last season. The crash back to Earth could be ugly. Moving Hanley Ramirez back to third base (where he likely belongs) could give Dee Gordon another chance at shortstop, but the young speedster still carries plenty of questions of his own.
After posting a 2.30 ERA in 28 appearances after coming over from the Mariners last July, Brandon League was retained this winter on a three-year, $22.5 million deal and is expected to open the season as the Dodgers’ closer. The contract is questionable enough, but Kenley Jansen is the best pitcher in this bullpen if healthy. The contract probably gives League some job security out of the gate, but with the Dodgers determined to win now, don’t be surprised if there’s a change at some point.
With all the money flying out the door, when will Kershaw get his piece of the pie? The soon-to-be 25-year-old is under team control through 2014, but there is mutual interest in getting a long-term extension done. He remains the best bet to be the game’s first $200 million pitcher.
Vin Scully, 85, is set to begin his 64th season of announcing Dodgers games. Enjoy it.
Prediction: It should be a close race with the Giants, but I have the Dodgers in second place in the NL West. They will secure one of the two Wild Card spots, though.
Tags: Aaron Harang, Adrian Gonzalez, Andre Ethier, Brandon League, Carl Crawford, Chad Billingsley, Chris Capuano, Clayton Kershaw, Dee Gordon, Hanley Ramirez, Hyun-Jin Ryu, Josh Beckett, Kenley Jansen, Los Angeles Dodgers, Luis Cruz, Matt Kemp, Ted Lilly, Zack Greinke
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