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__label__wiki	0.834161	0.834161	Around baseball, they are known at the "Core Four", but in New York Musik Forum » Grüße und Vorstellung » #1 von jinshuiqian0713 , 27.07.2018 04:11 Around baseball, they are known at the "Core Four", but in New York, amongst Yankee fans, there are truly five homegrown players who were at the centre of an incredible run that saw the "pinstripes" put together a run of 21 straight years of finishing over . Virgil Green Jersey .500. They appeared in the postseason in 17 of 18 years (excluding this year, of course), winning seven American League pennants and five World Series titles. The five include Derek Jeter, Andy Pettitte, Jorge Posada, "the Greatest Closer" of em all Mariano Rivera and Bernie Williams, who was the first to retire. Now by the end of this week, unless the Yanks pull off a miracle and make the postseason, all save for Jeter will be retired. Even Jeters future as a player is uncertain because of his age (40) and condition of his ankle. You might think all five of these players would have been high-end first-round draft picks. Except for Jeter, that was in fact not the case. Bernie Williams was signed as an international free agent out of Puerto Rico in 1985, and went on to join the ranks of great Yankee centre fielders such Joe DiMaggio. In the real June draft in 85, the Yanks chose 28th and last in the first round and took a pitcher named Anthony Balabon who is a mere footnote in history now. 1990 was the Yankees "golden" year in terms of laying the groundwork for their dynasty. That was the year they signed Mariano Rivera as an international free agent out of Panama. Then they procured two incredible late-round draft picks. Andy Pettitte, the lanky lefty, was chosen 10th in the 22nd round. In that same draft Atlanta chose Chipper Jones No. 1 overall. The Yankees selected outfielder Carl Everett and his "off the wall" personality at number 10. Baltimore grabbed right-hander Mike Mussina (a future Yankee) at number 20, while the Blue Jays selected left-hander Steve Karsay at number 22. Though Karsay didnt do much for the Jays, they were able to use him as part of a package to acquire Rickey Henderson from Oakland in 1993 at the deadline to help cement their second straight World Series victory. Still it was astounding that Pettitte lasted until the 22nd round. Even later in that 1990 draft, the 24th round to be precise, the Yankees used the 10th pick of that round to take catcher Jorge Posada. Oddly enough in the 23rd round, Houston selected a high school catcher by the name of Jason Varitek. He opted to go to college instead of turning pro, and was drafted two more times, by Minnesota in 1993 and Seattle in 94, before the Mariners ultimately traded him to Boston where he put together the kind of career that should put him in the Hall of Fame. Jeter was the true first-rounder. He was selected No. 6 overall. Houston chose 3B Phil Nevin who went on to have a solid, if unspectacular career as the No. 1 overall pick. Montreal with the third pick took a lefty by the name of Billy Wallace, and Cincinnati at number 5 took current Blue Jays hitting coach Chad Mottola, who was simply regarded as too good a hitting prospect to pass up. Besides, the Reds had Hall of Famer Barry Larkin at short and he had hit over .300 his previous three seasons and was part of a World Series winner in 1990. But can you imagine how history would have changed if the Expos had chosen Jeter at number 3? It may not be too far a stretch to say that Montreal still might have a team if that had happened. Whether you love the Yankees or hate them, youve got to admit that these five helped define a dynasty the likes of which may never be seen again. The Stretch Drive The Cleveland Indians have the inside track on the second Wild Card slot and maybe even the first. With just six games left, they are just a half-game back of Tampa Bay and a game-and-a-half up on Texas. The Tribe closes out with two at home to the White Sox starting Tuesday and then winds up the regular season on the road against Minnesota for four games. The Rays play their final home game tonight against Baltimore, then hit the road for three against the Yankees and three at Rogers Centre this weekend against the Blue Jays. The Rangers play their final seven at home, with three against Houston and four versus the Angels. The Royals, Yankees and Orioles are still alive, but really dont have a chance. It would really be something if Cleveland got the first Wild Card, and Terry Francona and got by Tampa or Texas, to face his old team Boston in the ALDS. Uchenna Nwosu Chargers Jersey .com) - The game was all punts and field goals before Kodi Whitfields catch. Kyzir White Jersey . -- Theres been so much talk about Mike Moustakas at the plate that the third baseman ignored the conversation Wednesday -- even after doing something positive. http://www.chargersprofansshop.com/Black-Kyzir-White-Chargers-Jersey.html?cat=940 . Despite Arsenals financial firepower, the 31-year-old midfielder was the only arrival in the January transfer window. Signed until the end of the season as injury cover, Kallstrom might not be fit until mid-March after arriving Friday at Arsenal having injured his back earlier in the week while training with Spartak Moscow.PORT CHARLOTTE, Fla. -- David Price didnt think he would be in Port Charlotte this spring. For much of the off-season, the Tampa Bay Rays ace expected to be traded. Instead, the 2012 AL Cy Young Award winner signed a one-year contract to remain with the only team hes ever played for, a huge deal for the small-market club. "It feels great. Everybody knows how much I love this organization and how much they love me. The way the cities of St. Petersburg and Tampa have treated me over the course of six or seven years has been nothing short of incredible," Price said Saturday. "I love it here. Im very comfortable. This is home for me The New York Jets open quarterback competition might already be case closed. Drew Brees threw three	cc/2021-04/en_head_0059.json.gz/line0
__label__wiki	0.775162	0.775162	Rue the Rueben? This video is a marvelous bit of fun, one that speaks to some issues that exist within the Jewish community. In one sense, it serves as a parable of the conflict between orthodox and reform, literal and liberal, fundamentalist and metaphorical approaches. In another sense, it reflects the conflict between east and west coasts Jewish communities, specifically between New York as an old world, elitist center where Jews remain relatively traditional and Jewish identity is very strong and overt, and Los Angeles as the new world where people feel free to leave their old identities behind, and disguise who they are. Someone once said that in New York, everyone is Jewish, even the non-Jews, and in LA, no one is Jewish, not even the Jews (I suppose it was a New Yorker who said that, though). But go ahead, take a look, it's worth your while: Over on YouTube, the write-up for A Reuben By Any Other Name is as follows: Noble Savage Productions and Sonny Boy Studios are thrilled to announce that we have completed our short comedy "A Reuben By Any Other Name." The film takes a humorous look at the differences between Orthodox and Reform Judaism played out in terms of the differences between the New York and Los Angeles versions of the Reuben sandwich. Brilliant performances are provided by an ensemble cast of familiar faces from film and television - Jasmine Anthony (Stephen King's 1408, Commander in Chief), Anita Barone (The War at Home, Daddio), Paul Ben-Victor (In Plain Sight, Entourage), Larry Cedar (The Crazies, Deadwood), Pamela Cedar, Alanna Ubach (Hung, Legally Blonde), and Matt Winston (John from Cincinnati, Little Miss Sunshine). Are you an Orthodox or Reform Reubenite? Watch the film and find out! As Reform Jews, we are not obligated to keep kosher, although we are free to choose to do so, as strictly as we would like, or to pick and choose which of the kosher laws to observe and which to disregard. For many of us, keeping kosher is not a religious obligation, but we may still have certain cultural and aesthetic tendencies towards not mixing meat and dairy, or not eating trafe. For me, as far as the Reuben is concerned, I'm pretty much with the little girl. The delis I remember from when I was growing up, including the Pastrami King in Kew Gardens, Queens, which was often referred to in the columns of famous New York Daily News columnist Jimmy Breslin, were kosher, and something like the Reuben sandwich was never on the menu. My first encounter with it was in Greek diners in New York City, although I later saw that some Manhattan delis served it as well. But I really don't see how the Reuben could be a Jewish sandwich, no more than the Philly cheesesteak, or your basic, run-of-the-mill cheeseburger. It's just not kosher! If you have a similar encounter with the Reuben, or a different one, well, feel free to share in the comment section, we'd love to hear about it! And so, the lesson is, both sides are right, both sides are wrong, and no one knows where the truth lies, so why don't we all just get along? And have a good laugh at ourselves in the process? Posted by Lance Strate at 3:10 PM Labels: comedy, Jewish cooking, Kosher laws Our New Tot Shabbat and Kiddie Kiddush A Window on Adas Emuno History We Also Welcome Our New Student Cantor Luke Hawley A Warm and Wonderful Beginning	cc/2021-04/en_head_0059.json.gz/line2
__label__wiki	0.750656	0.750656	Slovenščina Deutsch English Haupmenu - EN Photo ca. 1900 The history of the area around Eichberg does not just begin during the course of the occupation and land clearence by Bavarian and Frankish colonists at the end of the 12th century as Celts, Romans, Slavs and Avars had already settled here, in the border area, in earlier times. After armed conflicts with Hungary, the border between the Holy Roman Empire and Hungary along the Lafnitz was established in around 1043. In this area, which was poorly populated due to the border situation, the construction of a belt of castles against warlike incursions from the east began at the end of the 12th century. A royal prince took over the existing settlement with a motte and expanded it. In 1250, an Aichberger was mentioned for the first time: Konrad von Aichberg, who probably also founded Kleinschlag, which is named after him. (Khuenschlag = blow or clearing of the Kuono / Konrad). The knights of the Aichberg family resided here until the late 14th century. In 1378 the stone chapel, which today is the parish church, was built by Wulfing von Aichberg. At the beginning of the 15th century Aichberg came into the possession of the last Aichberg, a daughter, who married a Welzer, who in turn sold it on to Seyfried Steinpeiss in 1412. The following year, Steinpeiss also bought the tithe in Pinka, Friedberg, Dechantskirchen, Stegersbach, Kleinschlag, Limbach, Rohrbach and land between Lafnitz and Lungitz. The knights of the Aichberg family Steinpeiss Coat of Arms Participation in the 1469/70 nobility uprising on the side of Andreas Baumkirchner’s Reformation and Counter-Reformation: already on the occasion of the visitation in 1528, it was established that Maximilian Steinpeiss von Aichberg was one of those who were attached to Martin Luther’s new teaching. His son Christoph was punished in 1603 – after the victory of the Counter-Reformation – for having his child baptized Protestant outside the country. 1715 Extension of Land Ownership Multiple incursions by the Turks (1529, 1532, 1669, 1683), Haiducken (1605, 1621), Kuruc (1704 – 1711). Large parts of the village were burned down time and time again, the castle, the courtyard and the church were robbed and devastated, the subjects slain or kidnapped and the animals stolen. The 1715 expansion of the estate was stopped after the construction of the Vorschloss (prominent buildings in the forecourt, demolished around April 1945). The estate was in debt – due to raids, looting and the burning down of properties. This resulted in heavy debts, from which it could never really recover. After the death of the last Steinpeiss, Karl Joseph Graf von Steinpeiss in 1772, the estate was bequeathed to his cousin, Maximilian Baron von Waidmannsdorf. Erko Coat of Arms Lottery stake of 15 gulden (today around Austrian Schilling 300/Euro 22.00) His descendants leased the totally indebted estate in 1806. Finally, in 1817 it was offered for sale via a lottery with tickets of 15 gulden (today around Austrian Schilling 300/Euro 22.00). The Prague paper dealer Donat Hartmann wins and immediately sells the property to the cavalry captain Ludwig Count von Schönfeld for 200,000 gulden (the estimated value was 368,328 gulden). This Count von Schönfeld also acquired the Reitenau estate, but died soon afterwards in a riding accident in 1828. Wimpffen Coat of Arms Under the Wimpffen’s there followed in 1844 the conversion of the Loretto chapel (consecrated on November 6, 1742) to a crypt chapel in the neo-Gothic style. 1906 due to debts, the estate was sold to the Greek Prince Ypsilanti; Reitenau Castle was also sold. 1911 Prince Ypsilanti donated a piece of land for the construction of a new school building in Eichberg: replacing the 1882 single roomed converted farm building which later expanded into two rooms. Between 1914 and 1918 the accommodation housed Galician refugees, during which the Vorschloss (buildings in the forecourt) were badly damaged. The wood from the roof trusses and tower were used as firewood. 1923 and 1929 large parts of the property were sold. Slowly the castle fell into decay, but during World War II provided refuge to the civilian population and also housed the German army. Gril Coat of Arms 8234 Eichberg 1 cg@aichberg.at 47°22’43“ N 15°58’21“ O Visit us at Aichberg Castle Every Sunday from 10.00 am – 6.00 pm	cc/2021-04/en_head_0059.json.gz/line10
__label__wiki	0.500088	0.500088	WHAT TYPE OF FULL EMPLOYMENT? A CRITICAL EVALUATION OF ELR POLICY PROPOSAL Mario Seccareccia* Full Professor, Department of Economics, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada (K1N 6N5); e-mail: <mseccare@uottawa.ca>. This paper was presented at the CEA-PEF meetings at the University of Toronto on May 30, 1999. Introduction: Some Notes on Keynes's Original Policy Views to Achieve Full Employment In commenting on the socio-economic realities of mass unemployment of the 1930s, John Maynard Keynes (1936: 373) wrote: "The outstanding faults of the economic society in which we live are its failure to provide for full employment and its arbitrary and inequitable distribution of wealth and income." To both Keynes and numerous post-Keynesian writers of the post-war period, full employment was the necessary prerequisite to the achievement of a more equitable distribution of income (and wealth). Indeed, as the point is also forcefully made by Arestis and Sawyer (1998: 181), the two goals could (and should) not be seriously dissociated. This is because, to achieve full employment, policies should be put in place whose impact would be inevitably to lead to income and wealth redistribution. As it has been discussed in much greater detail elsewhere (Seccareccia 1993, 1994, 1995; and Seccareccia and Lavoie 1989), in the General Theory, Keynes had proposed a short ensemble of specific policies to achieve full employment which, in contrast with the textbook caricature of Keynesian short-term policies of "pump-priming", were of a long-term nature and whose impact would be on the long-term evolution of the functional distribution of income. These policies pertain to what Keynes had described as the "socialization of investment" and the "euthanasia of the rentier", that he believed would impact both upon the size of the economic surplus as well as on how that surplus would be divided up among social classes in a capitalist economy. For example, Keynes's notion of socializing investment is best understood in his support of the setting up of a National Investment Board (NIB) throughout most of the 1930s and early 1940s. The alleged purpose of such a Board was to achieve full employment by strategically regulating the aggregate flow of investment expenditures through the appropriate control of long-term financing. When such a NIB policy of directly intervening in the financial capital markets by redirecting investment were to be coupled with a monetary policy of pegging nominal interest rates at a very low level, the result would be that the economy would be hovering about the full employment level and, at the same time, massively redistributing income away from the rentier sector, thereby leading to the so-called "euthanasia of the rentier". To our understanding, nowhere had Keynes shown interest in achieving full employment by means of short-term policy of "functional finance" of the type first put forth by Abba Lerner during the 1940s. As pointed out by Kregel (1985), Keynes regarded operating deficits in the "normal" or "ordinary" budget of the state as a visible sign of the government's lack of a strong public investment policy to achieve full employment by means of an activist NIB. For this reason, he was careful to distinguish between the current and the capital accounts of the state. Keynes's position was that, in an expenditure-led high growth economy propelled forward by the activity of the NIB, governments should aim at running surpluses in their "ordinary" (or recurring) budgets and that these surpluses should be "transferred to the capital Budget, thus gradually replacing dead-weight debt by productive or semi-productive debt." (Keynes 1980: 277). Hence, just as a private investment ultimately bears fruit for business enterprise, such a comprehensive public investment policy would pay for itself over time by engendering surpluses in the government's operating budget. Unlike private firms, however, governments would utilize this surplus not to extinguish their debts but to expand their capital expenditures strategically. The effect of this continuing transfer of operating surpluses to capital budgets would be gradually to socialize a growing proportion of total investment expenditures. Indeed, he argued that these public capital expenditures should be significant enough to achieve full employment by stabilizing aggregate investment spending over the business cycle and, in the long run, they should be "maintained at a level which will allow the growth of capital to the point where it ceases to be scarce." (Keynes 1936: 376) To this end, he eventually envisaged as much as two-thirds or three-quarters of total investment as being under the influence of the public authorities. The implication of all of this is that Keynes's original position (with regards to policies to achieve full employment) was concerned not only with the level of public spending but also with its composition over the long term. Moreover, by means of what may be dubbed a "reflationary" growth process, his public expenditure policy had clear long-term objectives in terms of income distribution: the gradual elimination of rentier income. The Neoclassical Response: Income Supplementation Programmes without Full Employment Keynes's radical policy system would neither be favourably received by the economic establishment of his times nor of ours. As Hayek (1966: 243) put it so succinctly, Keynes was reviving the most naive "inflationist fallacies" that no scarcity exists in the labour market (except at full employment). Despite the strong neoclassical opposition, governments both during W.W.II and the early post-war period did come to subscribe to some aspects of Keynes's thinking, largely because of conjunctural factors pertaining to the balance of political forces at the time that gave rise to what some may describe as a Fordist social structure of accumulation (cf. Paquette 1999: 967-71). As a byproduct of the early post-war political commitments to full employment in Western Europe and North America, the international policy drift in favour of high employment by means of public investment and low interest rate policy did follow a general policy pattern quite compatible with Keynes's vision. However, already in the late 1950s, growing fears of a "creeping inflation" associated with high employment brought many policy makers (as noted by Lerner 1963: 229) to "retreat from Keynesianism". These fears, especially as it came to be crystallized in the Phillips curve trade-off menu and subsequently in the Friedmanite natural rate hypothesis, ultimately came to spell the end of activist state policy to achieve full employment. As has been witnessed over the last three decades, policy thinking moved full circle back to the neoclassical supply-side doctrines of the 1930s. Once again, the only appropriate role of government has now become that of ensuring its long-run monetary and budgetary neutrality and actively to remove all institutional obstacles in the labour market that prevent wages from falling in order to reduce the equilibrium level of unemployment. As understood within neoclassical theory, unemployment is the result of structural rigidities that do not allow the labour market to perform its functions in terms of allocation and clearance. Consequently, any macroeconomic policy that does not take heed of these underlying functions would generate inflationary pressures. Instead of seeking to boost progressively aggregate demand whose ultimate repercussion would supposedly be accelerating inflation, it is by dismantling various institutional obstacles in the labour market that would bring the equilibrium unemployment closer and closer to its full employment level (cf. Seccareccia 1991a, 1991b, and Bougrine and Seccareccia 1998, 1999). If problems of income distribution and poverty were to arise from the normal functioning of an unhindered and flexible labour market, the solution would be to set up a redistributive system that is presupposed to be least distortive in the sense of permitting wages to serve as the primary allocative and market-clearing device and, at the same time, not have the inherent inflationary features that were assumed to accompany Keynesian full employment policies. It is in this context that the various programmes of income supplementation such as Friedman's negative income tax and other notions of guaranteed income (GI) came to be seen as substitutes for an activist Keynesian policy of achieving full employment. As Friedman (1962: 191) pointed it out, unlike minimum wages and other similar income support systems such as unemployment insurance, a GI system would not much "distort the market or impede its functioning." This is because a GI policy would create incentives for individuals to offer their labour services while, at the same time, provide a basic income that would not hinder wage flexibility in the labour market. The idea of a GI system is quite simple. In an unfettered labour market tending towards full employment, all individuals ought still to be guaranteed a minimum basic income (MBI). However, instead of most current transfer systems which allow individuals to receive either welfare payments or work (but not both), thereby creating work disincentives, a GI system would supplement a low-wage job by taxing back only a fraction of the GI transfer. The idea is appealing since it does concern itself with some income security objectives not presently met by numerous current welfare systems, especially with regards to the working poor. However, as it has been argued elsewhere (see Iacobacci and Seccareccia, 1989, and Seccareccia 1991a), such as system would only be desirable in an ideal neoclassical world in which full employment is presupposed to have been reached. On the assumption that the minimum basic income would be set close to what are present welfare transfers to the poor and in the absence of a comprehensive minimum wage legislation and Keynesian fiscal and monetary policies to achieve full employment, the effect would be significant wage deflation with the accompanying proliferation of low wage jobs. This is because the GI policy would significantly increase the number of employable welfare recipients seeking work in labour markets already characterized by chronically high unemployment. Due to the increased propensity to accept lower-paying jobs that would be generated by what in Iacobacci and Seccareccia (1989) was described as the "compensation effect" of the income support provided by the GI programme, such a policy would only intensify the downward pressures on wages and activate forces pushing towards a low-wage/part-time economy. Of critical importance to us, at the macroeconomic level, the adoption of such GI programmes would have an important effect on the responsiveness of wages to the business cycle. As cyclical unemployment rises, the number of workers willing to accept lower-paying jobs or a cut in wages (if already employed) would also rise, due to the compensation effect. In the process, the neoclassical flexible wage system would be rehabilitated; but, as Keynes (1936) had argued, flexible labour costs do not move the economy closer to full employment. Because of the negative feedback effects on aggregate demand, just the reverse would be true, especially if the gap between wages and profits might be widening in the long run owing to the proliferation of low wage jobs. These wage deflating tendencies which would result from the above-mentioned compensation effect could exist regardless of the guaranteed minimum basic income (MBI) that would be set by the government. However, the higher the MBI, the lower would be the participation rate on the part of households, and thus the lower ought to be the underlying labour market pressures to bring down wage costs. As shown in Figure 1, where the MBI is measured on the vertical axis and the percentage employment (e) and participation (l) rates are measured on the horizontal axis, even if the employment rate remains insensitive to a small change in the MBI (because of the usual explicit assumption of "fiscal neutrality" of the GI programme [for a discussion, see Iacobacci and Seccareccia 1989: 162-63]), if the participation rate falls as the MBI rises, this would ultimately bring down the unemployment rate, reflected in the narrowing gap between e and l. In reality, however, labour demand (e) would probably not be inelastic to changes in the MBI. As the MBI moves upward, it would likely have a destabilizing effect on the wage structure as firms offering wages below the MBI would be under growing pressure to increase them, especially if labour becomes progressively scarce as the labour force participation rate (l) falls. To the extent that this positive effect on overall wages becomes significant (as the MBI rises), we could trace an upward-sloping adjusted e' curve reflecting the higher macroeconomic demand for labour arising from the increased consumption demand that ought to accompany the higher wages. It follows, therefore, that the choice of the minimum basic income is a critical factor in determining how significant would be the wage deflation bias in the operation of a GI programme. As the value of the MBI approaches MBI (or MBI') in Figure 1, it is likely that the wage deflating influence of the GI programme (due to the compensating effect) would be progressively outweighed by upward labour market pressures on wages as firms compete for qualified workers. However, as much as one may theorize about these latter effects, the dangers of inflation would be incredibly remote under current GI proposals. This is because all GI programmes are normally packaged so that the MBI is sufficiently low, usually below the poverty line and, indeed, even below existing social assistance levels (Iacobacci and Seccareccia 1989: 147-48). For this reason, not only do all proposed GI programmes meet the criterion of zero inflationary pressures that is of concern to neoclassical theorists but, as has been argued, the adoption of such programmes would have a clear deflationary bias in the labour market. Relation between MBI and Employment/Participation Rates Government as Employer of Last Resort: An Alternative to the Deflationary Bias of Neoclassical Policies? Over the last few years, a powerful alternative policy view (in which government is assumed to act as employer of last resort [ELR]) has emerged which completely stands on its head the neoclassical policy dilemma. Instead of the presumed incompatibility between inflation and unemployment that is at the core of the neoclassical policy perspective, advocates of ELR, such as Mosler (1997-98), Wray (1997, 1998a, 1998b), Forstater (1997) and Mitchell (1998), agree with Keynes in pointing out that true full employment is not only desirable but also achievable without the inflationary effects that are assumed to accompany it. Much like Keynes, full employment must be attained by means of demand-side policies and not through tinkering on the supply-side of the labour market. Furthermore, the whole notion of monetary/fiscal neutrality, so critical to the neoclassical policy system, is completely rejected since permanent deficits financed through money creation would be entirely compatible with price stability within the ELR framework (cf. Parguez 1998). According to Wray (1998a: 125-26), an embryo of the ELR proposal can be found in Minsky (1986: 308), though one can probably trace ELR roots back to the early works of Abba Lerner in the 1940s. Not unlike the GI programmes, the basic structure of an ELR policy is also quite simple. As stated by Wray (1998a: 124), it ought to rest on two key features: (i) there would exist a perfectly elastic demand for labour by government at a given ELR wage and (ii) the basic ELR wage would be a discretionary variable set exogenously by the state. Given the vagaries of private sector employment, the ELR state would be prepared to hire all unemployed workers shed by the private sector at the basic ELR wage, thereby guaranteeing effective full employment. To analyze the implications of ELR, it would be useful to address our questions within a particular Post-Keynesian or Kaleckian framework of analysis to be found in Eichner (1987), Nell (1988), and, among others, Seccareccia (1991b) and Bougrine and Seccareccia (1998, 1999). In a non-ELR world, let us assume that total income, Y, depends on aggregate expenditures which can be conveniently divided up into the discretionary (A) and the non-discretionary expenditures (C): Y = C + A (1) where A = I + D + Xn, and where I = private sector investment expenditures, D = government (non-ELR) budget deficit, and Xn = net exports. At the same time, let us suppose that total income, Y, can be classified as employment income, wL, and property income, B, so that: Y = wL + B (2) where w is the average wage rate of the combined private and public sectors, L is total employment and B is the flow of profit, interest and rent. Adopting a simple classical savings function whereby the propensity to consume out of wage income (Fw) is greater than the propensity to consume out of property income (FB), or in the extreme case that will be considered here FB = 0, we obtain that C = Fw(wL). Hence, introducing this assumption into equation (1) above, we have: Y = Fw(wL) + A (1’) Finally, specifying a simple Leontief linear aggregate production function such that Y = aL, where a is average labour productivity, we arrive at the following fundamental equation: aL = Fw(wL) + A (3) and which, when re-organized, gives the aggregate labour demand curve for (non-ELR) labour at the macroeconomic level: with the usual Keynes/Kalecki property that MLd/MW>0 and M2Ld/MW2>0; that is to say, that in contrast with neoclassical theory the wage-employment relation is necessarily positive and, in this case, also non-linear. As can be found inter alia in Nell (1988), we can illustrate graphically this aggregate labour demand curve as in Figure 2. Any increase in A or Fw, or any fall in a, would have the effect of shifting the Ld curve outward to the right and/or modifying its slope. Introducing an inelastic labour supply curve (Ls), we can thus derive the usual Post-Keynesian results. At a given average wage, w0, associated with an excess supply of labour, there exists no self-correcting mechanism to bring the economy to its full employment level at the intersection point A. Indeed, if wages were flexible downward in the sense favoured by neoclassical theory, the effect of a fall in wages would be merely to make matters worse on the unemployment front. Hence, unemployment is not the result of wages being too high. Rather it is because of a lack of aggregate effective demand due to the fact that, for a given flow of autonomous expenditures, wages are too low. Consequently, only by an increase in discretionary spending, A, and/or an accompanying rise in real wages, w, can an economy reach full employment. Macroeconomic Labour-Market Relation Before analyzing ELR policy within this framework, let us discuss more carefully the nature of the aggregate labour supply curve. It is well know on the part of neoclassical economists that labour supply (i.e., labour force participation) is not completely inelastic to movements in the real wage (see Killingsworth 1983). If one were either to conceive of it historically or compare economies internationally, it is well known that in developing economies labour force participation rates would be relatively low (that is to say, there would exist vast labour reserves), and the desire to attain the high consumption levels of developed countries would be very high. In such economies, characterized by low real wages and high levels of disguised unemployment, labour supply would be sensitive to real wage movement and positively sloped, in conformity with traditional analysis (cf. Wisman 1989: 104-5). For instance, over the last two decades, the unemployment rate of a country such as Mexico has hovered around the 3.5 per cent value with forecasted rates of about 3.5 per cent for 1999 and 2000 (See OECD Economic Outlook, December 1998). Undoubtedly, such a low official unemployment rate masks a high degree of disguised unemployment revealing vast potential reserves of underutilized labour that would quickly decline as real wages rise. However, as the real wage rises, households would be attaining progressively their targeted consumption norms (à la Duesenberry) and, concomitantly, those substantial labour reserves would become depleted. At sufficiently high real income levels, the labour supply curve would become more inelastic and could eventually become backward bending. Indeed, this latter phenomenon is actually confirmed by household behaviour in North America. Real wages have generally fallen since the 1970s but labour force participation rates have risen dramatically throughout this period. In Figure 3, we have traced a labour supply curve that depicts these specific features discussed above. Since the labour supply curve intersects the labour demand curve at two separate points, one may thus conclude that an economy can achieve full employment at two distinct levels: at a low wage level, wB, and employment level, LB, and at a high real wage, wA, and employment level LA. The intersection point B in the diagram represents a "Third World" type of solution to achieve full employment representing economies studied historically by development economists such as W.A. Lewis (1979), in which massive disguised unemployment (LA - LB) is the norm (cf. Cornwall 1977). On the other hand, the intersection point A represents a hypothetical state of veritable full employment for an advanced capitalist economy in which those potential labour reserves have essentially dissipated. As studied by Keynes during the 1930s, an advanced capitalist economy that must face a chronic shortage of effective demand would normally find itself within the shaded area of Figure 3 between the intersection points A and B, that is to say, in a state in which substantial involuntary unemployment is the norm. Low-Wage/High Wage Full Employment and Involuntary Unemployment What would be the implication of an ELR programme in such an economy? Figure 4 shows how at wELR the programme would now set a floor so that the effective labour supply curve would resemble an inverse L-shaped relation. [The reader should take note that wELR represents the ELR-weighted average wage for the economy, inclusive, therefore, of the exogenously set ELR wage.] At this level (which was selected purposely for diagrammatical illustration), it coincides with the maximum stock of involuntary unemployed labour that would have to be absorbed by the ELR programme. The economy would thus be at its tangency point E in the diagram. At any other level of ELR-weighted wage between wA and wB, the ELR-adjusted labour demand schedule would cross the labour supply curve, thereby requiring less spending to absorb the lower volume of involuntary unemployed associated with it, say, at E'. There thus emerges an apparent trade-off from our diagram. Any wELR either greater or less than wELR would entail proportionally less expenditures on the part of the state to eliminate the involuntary unemployment. However, while the financial costs might be proportionally lower, the social costs would be very different as to whether one would choose the top or bottom side of the threshold level, wELR. The lower is the selected wELR that would move the economy closer to the low-wage full employment point at wB, the higher would be the level of disguised unemployment (or rate of underutilization of productive capacity) in an economy. This is because, barring forced labour (which is outrightly excluded [see Wray 1998a: 124]), the state presumably would not be able to constrain people to work for what some workers would deem to be an unacceptable wage. Naturally, on the top side of the threshold level wELR, the higher is the ELR wage and, once again, the lower is the volume of involuntary unemployed to be absorbed by the ELR programme. In contrast with the low-level ELR, however, the lower would be the number of disguised unemployed connected with this high average ELR-weighted real wage level. Finally, as the real wage continues to rise, the economy would reach the upper turning point of the labour supply curve in our diagram at intersection A. At this high end of our aggregate real wage scale, full employment is reached without the need for ELR jobs and in which no significant labour reserves exist. ELR Full Employment From this analysis alone, the choice of wELR becomes highly critical. One could imagine two types of effective full-employment systems under ELR: a low-wage ELR programme (presumably enacted by a right-wing government) with wELR gravitating around the bottom end of our relevant average real wage spectrum, and a high-wage ELR policy (possibly decreed by a social democratic regime) with less wastage of human resources due to the lower levels of both "involuntary" ELR workers and disguised unemployment associated with wELR>wELR. Given the critical role of the ELR wage, it is rather surprising that advocates of ELR have shown little concern with this thorny issue of what actual type of full employment is socially most desirable. Should it be a low-wage ELR system tending towards wB that would be accompanied by a large wastage of human resources or should it be a high-wage full employment system with a wELR approaching wA? In going through this simple exercise, an obvious question that perhaps ought now to strike the reader is why go through this process of setting up an ELR programme in the first place. Surely, a Keynesian policy of high public investment, low interest rates, and high real wages (as described in our introduction) would take the economy close enough to the intersection point A in any case. Much like conventional wisdom, the answer that is provided by some defenders of ELR is that a Keynesian full employment policy would necessarily be inflationary as in a Phillips curve world (cf. Mitchell 1998). To his credit, Wray (1998a: 153, fn. 29; and 1998b) himself, is quite careful at times in stating that he does not necessarily endorse such an explanation of the inflationary process. However, while distancing themselves from the neoclassical explanation of inflation, it is quite clear that advocates of ELR are catering to those numerous mainstream economists who believe in a NAIRU whereby inflation is seen as the ineluctable consequence of Keynesian "tight" labour market policy (even though this mainstream view is highly disputed and, to a large extent, has been discredited [Galbraith 1997]). If one believes in some Phillips curve process, then what is needed is a policy system that would recreate "loose" labour market conditions even at full employment. Does an ELR system provide such a "loose" labour market environment? It all depends, once again, on the choice of wELR. If one chooses the low-wage ELR regime, there would be some pressure to bear on wages to move downwards toward the low ELR anchor. For instance, in a period of fiscal austerity in the public sector, what would prevent a local government concerned with the size and cost of its own employed labour force from shedding some of its workers with relatively higher wages and trade union protection and replacing them with low wage ELR workers? "Workfare" policies may, to a certain extent, be envisaged in this light, i.e. as an attempt by certain governments in North America to cut public expenditures while trying to maintain some low-end public services. Wray (1997) does seem to recognize this danger; yet there appears to be nothing that is built in the ELR system to prevent such a deflationary wage effect to occur in the public sector. In much the same way, a low-wage ELR regime could destabilize downwards private sector wages if wELR is set below preexisting statutory minimum wages. Admittedly, the political prospects of this happening would be slight, but not impossible. However, if wELR is set low enough, it is not only the weight of the "buffer stock" of ELR workers that may pull other wages (situated further up the wage scale) downwards but, as many ELR analysts seem to forget, it is also the weight of the army of disguised unemployed as the chosen wELR is set closer to wB in Figure 3. Because the ELR wage sets a floor to wages, the deflationary effect would never be as strong as with the neoclassical GI systems (cum involuntary unemployment), but such an effect cannot be excluded. Would there be a bias in favour of wage inflation under an ELR system? Once again this would depend to a large extent on the choice of wELR. The higher becomes the ELR wage (in Figure 4), and the more destabilizing would the implementation of such a programme be on the wage structure. As Keynes had understood it long ago, workers are perhaps more concerned with their relative wages than with the level of prices in the economy. Owing to these powerful normative forces in the labour market which make for a constancy of relative earnings (cf. Seccareccia 1991a: 48-49), if wELR is set relatively high, the effect would be not unlike what would happen if a statutory minimum wage is raised significantly in a fully employed economy. The effect would probably be to provoke what some may describe as a "wage-wage" spiral via the "leap-frogging" effect that it would generate. Hence, independently of the size of the ELR pool of workers associated with a given wELR, an inflation of the type which, for instance, Kaldor (1976: 708) had identified as best representing the "creeping inflation" of the 1950s and 1960s would be the most likely outcome of introducing an ELR system with a wELR that is "too high". Wray (1997, 1998a, 1998b) has insisted, however, that such a process would not be an inflation. It would produce merely a once-and-for-all jump in wages; it would not generate a "continuous pressure" on wages and prices. Regardless of one's terminology, to the extent that the setting of wELR generates an instability in the wage structure that may take a long time to wind down, economists have normally described this as an inflationary process. As shown in Figure 5, on the right-hand quadrant, we have depicted the possible relation between the exogenous setting of wELR and wage inflation, )w/w. The point of intersection on the wELR axis represents the ELR wage, w*ELR, that would preserve relative stability in the wage structure, and therefore in "wage-wage" inflation. Analogous to Galbraith's (1998) "ethical rate of unemployment" that stabilizes earnings relativities, we could conceive here of the "ethical" wELR that would least disturb relative wages. ELR Anti-Inflation Policy For the sake of the analysis, let us now assume that ELR policy makers (who have chosen a given w0ELR in Figure 5) are not satisfied with the presumed outcome in terms of generating some given level of wage inflation. The solution that would be available under ELR to deal with this undesirable inflation would be a very traditional one. In essence, government could either raise taxes and/or cut non-ELR expenditures or raise interest rates to slow down private spending so as to increase the "buffer stock" of ELR workers. Just to quote Mitchell (1998: 552): "In the face of wage-price pressures, the BSE/ELR approach maintains inflation control in much the same way as monetarism)by chocking aggregate demand and introducing slack in the non-buffer stock sector." In terms of Figure 4, the idea would be that it would shift the non-ELR aggregate demand curve to the left; or, in terms of Figure 5, this would entail an upward shift in the negative relation on the left-hand quadrant between wELR and rate of ELR employment (as a proportion of the working-age population) plus the number of disguised unemployed (DU) [also as a proportion of the working-age population], and simultaneously an upward shift in the wELR and )w/w relation on the right-hand quadrant, that is, up to the point where w0ELR is now compatible with a zero wage inflation. Under ELR, the government would thus have two tools at its disposal to combat wage inflation: (i) to choose a sufficiently low wELR so that "wage-wage" inflation would not be a significant factor in a fully employed economy; or (ii) if it does not wish to tinker with the wELR, it could wring inflation out of the system by controlling aggregate demand of the non-ELR sector. The first instrument is nothing more than a peculiar type of incomes policy that focuses on regulating the income of the lowest end of the wage scale; while the second is, of course, merely a variant of the Phillips curve or NAIRU in disguise, with the "buffer stock" of ELR workers now replacing the involuntary unemployed as the preferred mechanism of controlling wage and price movements. In the final analysis, it may therefore be argued that the mechanisms in place are not that fundamentally different when comparing the current system of controlling inflation to the proposed ELR system. Within the present institutional arrangements, the state achieves its inflation targets merely by varying the reserve army of involuntary unemployed. In the ELR case, it would be through variations in the reserve army of ELR workers caught in a situation of "loose" full employment. While the latter ELR system can be termed a "Pareto improvement" when compared, say, either to the present wasteland of human resources or even to the deflationary GI alternatives that are sometimes offered by neoclassical economists, one could still legitimately ask the question once again: is this the type of full employment that one would find socially most desirable? After over a quarter century of being offered nothing but larger and larger doses of austerity in order to fight an anticipated inflation that does not exist, it is truly refreshing that there are economists out there who have had the courage to bring to the forefront once again the full-employment objective. What is at issue among those of us who are strongly commited to full employment is not the goal itself, which neoclassical economists adamantly reject in favour of some elusive NAIRU, but rather what type of full employment do we feel is most desirable for a free and caring society that would like to see involuntary unemployment eradicated. For those of us who believe in a socially responsible economics, this question needs to be seriously addressed. As it was described in the introduction, in Keynes's original paradigm the full employment goal was not to be dissociated from the income distribution objective. By pegging interest rates at very low levels (consistent with his view on the "euthanasia of the rentier") and with a vigorous public investment policy (his so-called "socialization of investment") that would bring both employment and real wages up to point A in our Figure 3, Keynes was encapsulating these seemingly disparate goals into one key overall objective. Indeed, not only was he linking up full employment with his income distribution objective but, perhaps, even more fascinating, interest rate policy and even a preference for a specific composition of investment (and ouput) were all conceptually intertwined in Keynes's analytical framework. The ELR policy, on the other hand, would be able to achieve admirably the strict target of full employment but only by creating a "buffer stock" of ELR workers that would be needed to keep an effective lid on wage inflation. Instead of a system tending towards Keynes's full-employment point A, we have a system that can be anchored anywhere within the range of points A and B in Figure 3. As a result, this openess leaves room for competing views of ELR and perhaps, more importantly, it leaves entirely open the question of what type of income distribution. Furthermore, unlike Keynes's strong preference for public investment, the issue of the actual composition of ELR spending (and output) is also left completely open within the ELR analytics. Some may see virtue in a policy that allows so much open-endedness. However, without providing clearer objectives, especially on the income distribution side (such as offering strong safeguards against the low-wage ELR variant), one might simply be recreating an ELR system that mirrors the present system. That is to say, we would merely have changed the status of the involuntary unemployed to that of an ELR worker, but the individual's role would be substantially the same)that of preventing wage inflation and the labour market from inching upwards closer toward point A in Figure 3. Finally, it is also for reasons pertaining to income distribution that an ELR system should not be brandished in the same way as GI systems are frequently presented, that is, as an all-purpose replacement of other existing social programmes. It is quite evident why statutory minimum wages would be redundant under ELR; however, it is not clear why other social programmes, such as unemployment insurance, would also disappear under ELR. With the political dangers that a low-wage ELR system be adopted, it would be important in this case that laid-off workers have a clear choice between ELR work and a multitude of existing institutional forms of social assistance in order to prevent any possible deflationary pressures from taking hold. In more recent publications, defenders of ELR have been more careful not to sell ELR in the same way that GI systems have been marketed historically; but, this was not always so in some earlier presentations of what ELR is intended to replace (cf. 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(1966), "Personal Recollections of Keynes and the 'Keynesian Revolution'", in B. Caldwell (ed.), The Collected Works of F.A. Hayek, Vol. 9, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1995, pp. 240-6. Iacobacci, M., and M. Seccareccia (1989), "Full Employment versus Income Maintenance: Some Reflections on the Macroeconomic and Structural Implications of a Guaranteed Income Program for Canada", Studies in Political Economy, No. 28 (Spring), pp. 137-73. Kaldor, N. (1976), "Inflation and Recession in the World Economy", Economic Journal, Vol. 86 (December), pp. 703-14. Keynes, J.M. (1936), The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money, London: Macmillan. Keynes, J.M. (1980), The Collected Writings of John Maynard Keynes, Vol. 27, ed. by D. Moggridge, London: Macmillan, pp. 264-419. Killingsworth, M.R. (1983), Labour Supply, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Kregel, J.A. (1985), "Budget Deficits, Stabilisation Policy and Liquidity Preference: Keynes's Post-War Proposals", in F. 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Seccareccia, M. (1995), "Keynesianism and Public Investment: A Left-Keynesian Perspective on the Role of Government Expenditures and Debt", Studies in Political Economy, No. 46 (Spring), pp. 43-78. Seccareccia, M., and M. Lavoie (1989), "Les idées révolutionnaires de Keynes en politique économique et le déclin du capitalisme rentier", Économie appliquée, Vol. 42, no. 1, pp. 47-70. Wisman, J.D. (1989), "Straightening Out the Backward-Bending Supply Curve of Labour", Review of Political Economy, Vol. 1, no. 1 (March), pp. 94-112. Wray, L.R. (1997), "Government as Employer of Last Resort: Full Employment without Inflation", Jerome Levy Economics Institute, Working Paper No. 213, (November). Wray, L.R. (1998a), Understanding Modern Money, The Key to Full Employment and Price Stability, Cheltenham, U.K.: Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd. Wray, L.R. (1998b), "Zero Unemployment and Stable Prices", Journal of Economic Issues, Vol. 32, no. 2 (June), pp. 539-45.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0059.json.gz/line11
__label__cc	0.676361	0.323639	How to Be a Bad Boss – Page 2 of 22 – …because good guys finish last. Go Back to the Homepage/ How to Be a Bad Boss – Page 2 of 22 – …because good guys finish last. Aug 14, 2018 admin Fortune.com has included Ultimate Software on the top 100 best companies to work for. This year it was ranked among the top, as well as last year. People Magazine has named Ultimate # 3 on their list of Companies that Care. The employees feel proud to say that they work there, and with all reason! Ultimate Software has 4.5 out of 5 stars in different job platforms and excellent reviews of their staff. It is, without any doubt, a place where you can develop your career: great work atmosphere, challenging tasks, and nice feedback with coworkers and superiors. “People First!” Motto Ultimate Software puts their employees first. This motto definitely speaks for the company. Although the workload is demanding and stressful, the CEO Scott Scherr, qualified as one of the top CEOs this year and with 95% of the employees’ approval. He takes care of everyone at the company. The supportive and caring attitude of this company creates employees who, in tern, take care of the customers. Since the employees feel valued, it is easy for them to make their customers their number one priority. The company statistics of employee engagement and retention clearly show that the staff of this company is formed by competent people who also fit the “People First” culture. Benefits vs a Big paycheck When aiming for a dream job, we always look for the best salary, in the beginning. However, benefits such as health care coverage, retirement plan, and time off are important too and those perks can make such a big difference in employees’ performance and their savings balance. Ultimate Software offers a 100% coverage of an employee’s health care and his/her dependent. This plan also includes dental, vision, prescription drug subsidy and access to mental health care; free boot camp classes, reward trips for employees of all departments, two paid days to charity and more are included on the list of perks of this IT company. Work-Life Balance and Other Policies Besides the paycheck and benefits, there are some other qualities that make Ultimate Software a great company to work for. This company lets the employees to maintain a work-life balance; in addition to family care programs, like a childcare center and lactation rooms. They also allow employees to have flexible work schedules and to take days off, if needed, or work from home. Ultimate Software is an inclusive company which has a written policy that prohibits discrimination based on age, disability, ethnicity, religious beliefs, gender, and sexual orientation. Here, women represent a large percentage, 37% and 42%, among executives and mid-level managers respectively. Minorities in this company comprise 43% of the total workforce. Management at Ultimate Software The leadership at Ultimate Software strongly believe in the CEO, Scott Scherr’s, philosophy about teamwork and putting the people first. If a manager doesn’t follow this philosophy, they are probably not the right fit. The key to making this philosophy work is that the managers truly care about their employees. One manager even told her employee, “I’m not your boss, I’m your friend.” Even those who have been promoted into different areas of the company remain friends. Employees feel that their coworkers at Ultimate Software are their second family, and sometimes even their first family. They have fun at work together and this allows those friendship and family bonds to be formed. They have football, at the office, and happy hours. They go on trips to Disney together. Everyone has a level of commodore, trust, and respect with each other. Working for Ultimate Software will give you the opportunity to start and develop a career, with excellent benefits, and a comfortable work environment. You will be engaged in a fun family culture which builds relationships. You’ll love your job, the people that you work with, and even management and senior leadership. This video is a MUST SEE! Hear it from the employees: Disclaimer: Bad Boss posts are normally about how bosses get it wrong, but we also like to write about companies that get it right like Ultimate Software! 🙂 The Bullseye Boss targets his employees by blaming them for everything. Even if you get to work early, do your best work, have a healthy relationship with your colleagues, and avoid breaking any rules, these actions will go unnoticed by the Bullseye Boss. In business, you’ll find that there are bosses, and even coworkers, who will either contribute to your success, or put you down. The Bullseye Boss is a champion at putting a target on his employee’s backs and striking at any moment. Working for this type of boss will make you feel humiliated as he undermines your performance, making your efforts seem absolutely worthless. So, how do you deal with a Bullseye Boss? The below tips will help you to become well-prepared to deal with such situations. Give your Boss The Benefit of the Doubt Don’t become defensive. Give your boss the benefit of doubt by imagining that you are being too sensitive, or you are misinterpreting his tone. Your boss might not be necessarily focused on other’s feelings, but rather is concentrating on the facts. Step back and reassess the situation from an honest point of view. Try and speak with your boss in a one on one situation to reduce any chance of misunderstanding. Explain to your Boss How You Feel At times, your manager might not be aware of the impact that his statement and attitude have on you emotionally. Maybe your boss has gotten carried away by his own personal feelings, which makes him unaware of the harshness in his tone of voice. A sensitive and friendly conversation can help raise awareness on the issue. Rehearse your statements beforehand to avoid getting emotional during the conversation. Discuss the current issue, including how it has affected your work and request changes that you would like to happen. Avoid Being Personal Developing a thick skin will make it easier to put up with a boss that feels threatened by his staff. You obviously are aware that your boss is belittling others and is doing so out of his or her own insecurities. He may be acting this way to make himself feel better, or more satisfied, in his own work. If so, you can try to ignore it altogether. It will not help the situation to call him out on his behavior in front of your colleagues. Instead, find out what caused the problem, fix it, and move on with your work. This will help to avoid the problem becoming an issue again. Show What You are Capable of Perhaps, your Bullseye Boss always sees you as a fool. He totally got it wrong because there is a reason you are employed in the first place. Prove your boss is wrong, by stepping up your performance. By delivering quality work every time, your boss might see an error in his criticism. Ask your boss what he thinks that you could be doing differently. Maybe you’re not aware of some mistake that you’re making. Make him aware that you appreciate the job and want to please him. This will go a long way with your boss. Every employee deserves to be seen for what they represent and their capability. If a Bullseye boss doesn’t give you the respect that you deserve, try implementing the above tips. These tips will help to open the boss’s eyes to how valuable you are and the way that you should be treated. Disclaimer: Coping with a boss who is always blaming can be a draining situation to be in! Don’t give up. Fortune.com has named Salesforce as the best place to work, out of 100 companies, but why? What is your dream job? Are you searching for the absolute best place to work? There are a number of factors that you would consider while deciding where you would love to work, which include: the company environment, benefits, money, type of work, organizational culture, and values to name a few. Let me introduce you to a company that has proven to be an excellent employer in all of these areas. Introducing Salesforce – ranked the #1 company to work for. Salesforce is a cloud computing company with its headquarters based in San Francisco, California. Everything from the company culture to the employee benefits has been top rated by its employees. The senior management of the company is approachable and it genuinely cares about its employees, while the employee package is competitive and includes the flexibility to work from home. The company has strong values and it focuses on the growth of its employees by providing them with interesting and challenging work. The senior management’s contribution to a great work environment The senior management of every company plays a pivotal role in setting company values and standards. Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff has set exemplary standards for everyone else to follow. In 2016, he was named one of Fortune 50’s “World’s Greatest Leaders”. Salesforce was founded by Benioff in 1999 and since then he has been involved in a number of social causes and philanthropic activities, including fighting for equal pay for women and various charities. He believes in running the company with trust and a sense of purpose, which increases employee motivation and job satisfaction. Marc Benioff has introduced a 1-1-1 model in his company, which means that 1% of the employees’ time, 1% of the products, and 1% of the equity go towards social causes. This model allows himself and the employees to go above and beyond, rather than just serving the company. On the first day, every single employee of Salesforce is required to do volunteer work such as visiting a homeless shelter or a hospital, which allows them to familiarize themselves with the company values and giving back to the community. Lessons to be learned from Salesforce The exemplary work environment at Salesforce highlights the importance of trust between the company and its employees as well as the serving the community. Every company today should learn from Salesforce to integrate corporate philanthropy into its business model so that the company is not just working for profits but also to make the world a better place. The #1 Best Company to Work for: SalesForce Disclaimer: Bad Boss posts are usually about horrible companies and managers, but we also love to share with you when companies get it right like SalesForce. The Loch Ness Boss One of our readers said, “I see my boss about once a week. Sometimes not even that.” Hence the name: “The Loch Ness Boss” — because you have encountered people who SAY they have seen him, and you have even seen pictures of him, but you’ve never actually met him in the flesh. One of the most demotivating things about a job is working with a boss who is always absent from office: “Loch Ness Boss.” Many managers do travel very much with the purpose of winning new contracts or holding on to the current ones. Other managers might be going through personal or health issues that need them to be absent from their workplace a lot. When a manager is constantly absent, it will cause their employees to lack leadership and guidance, especially when they have to make some decisions that are beyond their expertise. The Huffington Post outlines the four worst habits of an absent manager as irresponsible, unresponsive, indifferent, and spontaneous. So, how do you deal with work when you have a Loch Ness boss? Implementing the below behaviors will help to make your work easier. Set up a tight schedule Whenever you are meeting with your boss to discuss vital work information, always keep up with the time that your manager will be available at the workplace. Write out a detailed list of the information that you need to discuss. It is highly important to address all the issues because you hardly meet in person with the Loch Ness boss. Help your Loch Ness boss to be prepared for any meetings ahead of time by sending him a list of the issues that you would like to address. This will also ensure that he understands the fact that you need his help and value his time. Establish rules about Emergency Situations Set up a policy with your boss on what you are supposed to do when faced with an emergency situation that you are not able to solve. For example, suppose one of the company’s major client intends to back down from an important purchasing decision. Find out how to keep in touch with your boss. Once the rule for contact during emergency situations has been set, never deviate from it. Be independent Learn to work without the contribution and guidance of your boss. Think and act like your boss when making crucial decisions. Try to imitate your boss during his presence in the office by comparing your thoughts and decisions with his. Review your performances to have the full knowledge of what your boss expects from you while absent from work. Communicate with your boss Today’s technology has made communication with people that are away from the office much easier. These communication tools, like any other technology, function effectively if used in an appropriate manner. Suppose your boss is a Loch Ness type. You can use your mobile phone to communicate during emergency situations that should be treated immediately. You should use email to address situations that are not urgent such as seeking permission to take a leave for an appointment with a lawyer. If your boss is always absent from work, it is your duty to keep things in order. Take control of your work and make the lines of communication with your boss an open one. Disclaimer: Bad boss posts are meant to be humorous and should not be taken seriously. Read more funny articles by badboss.biz. Your boss would never understand the meaning of this mug…but your coworkers would. 😉	cc/2021-04/en_head_0059.json.gz/line14
__label__wiki	0.756202	0.756202	Bigot-In-Chief: Trump tries to roll back Civil Rights protections Submitted by scharrison on Wed, 01/06/2021 - 09:09 Allowing government contracts to those who would discriminate: The Trump administration has embarked on an 11th-hour bid to undo some civil rights protections for minority groups, which could have a ripple effect on women, people with disabilities and L.G.B.T. people, according to a draft document, in a change that would mark one of the most significant shifts in civil rights enforcement in generations. The Justice Department has submitted for White House approval a change to how it enforces Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, which prohibits recipients of federal funding from discriminating based on race, color or national origin. The regulation covers housing programs, employers, schools, hospitals, and other organizations and programs. And every damn Republican who votes today to keep this jackass in office needs to be painted with that bigoted brush. This needs to be part of the arguments today, on the Congressional Record, so it will be abundantly clear what these seditious conspirators are actually supporting with their antics. And before you say it, no, Biden won't be able to easily fix this problem: The move is the latest in the Trump administration’s efforts to pare back civil rights protections for minority and other groups. It has curtailed other regulations, reversed affirmative action policies and cut government diversity training. The Justice Department effort also dovetails with a decades-long project in the conservative legal movement to push back on civil rights protections seen as going beyond the law. The Justice Department quietly submitted the change to the White House Office of Management and Budget on Dec. 21, making it one of former Attorney General William P. Barr’s final acts. It did not make the language available for public review or comment, as is typically required in the federal rule-making process, citing an exception for matters related to agency loans, grants and contracts because the rule covers organizations that receive federal funding. Should the revised language be put in place, as the White House is expected to do, progressive legal groups are likely to challenge it, setting up a potential review by a Supreme Court with a conservative majority seen as hostile to civil rights protections. The incoming Biden administration could not immediately reverse the move, but a new attorney general could delay its enactment. The change would be the Justice Department’s first substantial amendment to how it defines discriminatory behavior in Title VI since 1973, according to the draft document. After almost fifty years, they are pulling this stunt in the last two weeks of a lame-duck President's administration. Congress needs to pass a law blocking an outgoing President and his Cabinet from making any rule changes before a new administration takes over, because it is ripe for corruption and/or partisan gamesmanship. NC GOP Republican bigotry race-based discrimination LGBT discrimination	cc/2021-04/en_head_0059.json.gz/line21
__label__wiki	0.846453	0.846453	‘Pokémon Go’ Release Date, Gameplay & Rumors: New iOS and Android Game Ready for Field Testing? Pokémon fans are eager to get their hands on Pokémon Go, the augmented reality game for iOS and Android devices, which has been making a lot of noise over the past several months. New ‘Tomb Raider’ Expansion Pack with Hours of Gameplay Coming Next Week Publisher Microsoft has confirmed that the upcoming expansion pack for "Rise of the Tomb Raider," titled "Baba Yaga: Temple of the Witch," will launch on January 26. As noted by the company, this major content update will feature additional hours of gameplay Square Enix Launches Anti-Bullying Campaign with ‘Life is Strange’ Game Game publishing giant has promised to make a donation to an anti-bullying charity every time some tweets using the hashtag #EveryDayHeroes. This is part of the studio's joint campaign with non-profit organization PACER. Bones of Slain Mammoth Show Evidence of First Humans in Arctic A team of researchers from Russia studying the bones of a mammoth claims that they have found evidence of humans living in the Arctic 45,000 years ago. According to lead researcher Vladimir Pitulko of the Russian Academy of Science, the markings on the massive animal's bones suggest that the mammoth… ‘Rise of the Tomb Raider’ Director Leaves to Join Upcoming ‘Call of Duty’ Dev Brian Horton, director of "Rise of the Tomb Raider," has officially left Crystal Dynamics. And, just hours after his departure, he joined the team of development studio Infinity Ward, which is set to handle the next installment in the "Call of Duty" franchise. ‘Minecraft: Story Mode’ Coming to Wii U This Week Development studio Telltale Games has announced that the first episode for "Minecraft: Story Mode" for the Wii U will arrive on January 21. But, just like their Xbox and PlayStation counterparts, Wii U gamers will have to wait a while before they can get to play the rest of the game's episodes. New Level for ‘Doom’ Released After 21 Years After more than two decades, a new level of the cult classic "Doom" series has been released. It was created by the series' co-creator John Romero and can be played for free. Researchers Believe World’s Biggest Canyon Hidden Under Antarctic Ice What actually lies underneath the massive ice sheet of the Antarctic still remains a mystery. But recently, scientists surveying the region discovered that it might be hiding the world's biggest canyon Study Shows Living in High-Rise Buildings Affects Cardiac Arrest Survival Medical researchers explained in a new study how living on upper floors of tall buildings can significantly decrease people's chances of surviving cardiac arrests. Based on their findings, this effect is all about the time it takes for medical responders to reach the patients. Virgin Galactic Teaming up with Adidas’ Y-3 for Astronauts’ Spacesuits Acclaimed Japanese fashion designer Yohji Yamamoto, founder of the Adidas brand Y-3, has partnered with Virgin Galactic to design the next-age spacesuits that pilots and passengers will wear for the company's first commercial flight to space. According to reports, the suits were from a durable mater…	cc/2021-04/en_head_0059.json.gz/line24
__label__cc	0.536999	0.463001	The Bronx Ink News and features from New York's greatest borough Tag Archive \| "M.S. 80" Prepping for the city’s elite high schools Posted on 12 October 2011. Tags: Bronx High School of Science, Featured, M.S. 80, pictures, Science Schools Initaitive, specialized high schools, Stuyvesant High School Benedit Medina, a shy but determined 11-year-old student in the Bronx, wants to be a detective when she grows up, just like the ones she sees on the crime television show “C.S.I.” To help achieve her dream, the sixth grade student at M.S. 80 on Mosholu Parkway in Norwood hopes to attend the Bronx High School of Science, one of New York City’s top high schools. “Science is the number one thing that they study,” Benedit explained, while her mother, Natalia Gonzalez, nodded vigorously beside her. However, precedent is not exactly on Benedit’s side. School administrators said not a single student from M.S. 80 last year was accepted to any of the city’s eight elite high schools, public schools that selectively admit grade eight applicants based on their scores on the Specialized High School Admissions Test. According to the Bronx Borough President’s office, barely 6 percent of Bronx students last year were among the nearly 6,000 students across the city accepted into any of these specialized high schools, including the Bronx High School of Science in Bedford Park. That’s why Benedit and her mother were among the two dozen parents and students gathered inside the auditorium at M.S. 80 last Saturday morning, to learn more about the start of a new tutoring program aimed at preparing students for the specialized exam. Beginning Oct. 22, M.S. 80 will become the Bronx pilot site for the Science Schools Initiative, a Washington Heights-based tutoring service that provides free preparation for the exam to low-income students. The founders said the program, which will run Saturday mornings for about 60 students at the school, will help level the playing field for families who can’t afford pricey test preparation programs. “We are trying to get kids who have the ability to get into these schools, but can’t afford expensive test preparation,” said Mike Mascetti, 27, co-founder of the Science Schools Initiative and a graduate of Stuyvesant High School. “It’s almost impossible to get into these schools and not have taken a test preparation program.” The eight specialized high schools in the city, which include top-ranked schools like the Bronx High School of Science, Brooklyn Technical High School and Stuyvesant High School in lower Manhattan, admit only a handful of the nearly 28,000 eighth-grade students who write the specialized exam every year. The schools are largely seen as a gateway to prestigious colleges across the country, yet Bronx students, along with low-income black and Hispanic students, fare poorly every year. According to city data compiled by GothamSchools.org, Hispanic and black students made up just 11 percent of those admitted to the specialized high schools for the 2011-2012 academic year, a number that has been steadily decreasing. Mascetti, a Queens native, along with fellow Stuyvesant graduate Darren Guez, started the program in 2007 after realizing that many low-income students could not afford enrolling in private test preparation programs, which can cost hundreds of dollars. “We were thinking maybe we should tutor people who are a little more like us, from low-income or middle-income backgrounds, who can’t afford test preparation,” said Mascetti, a law student at City University of New York. “Going to Stuyvesant was a transformative experience for me. There isn’t any question you are going to graduate, unlike at the other schools.” Using donated classroom space at Columbia University’s medical school in Washington Heights, the program has so far helped 40 students gain entrance to a specialized high school, about a 50 percent success rate. Mascetti said that they were looking to expand the program to other parts of the city earlier this year when a frustrated Bronx resident came knocking on their doors, angered by fact that Bronx students had a poor showing among the city’s most elite schools. “The schools are rated the worst in the Bronx,” said Adaline Walker-Santiago, a former administrator in the city’s education department and chair of the long-term planning committee for Community Board 7. “These kids are just as smart as any kid in the city, but they are just not given the same opportunity for a good preparatory class.” After finding out about the Science Schools Initiative online, Walker-Santiago arranged a meeting with Mascetti and several middle school principals in the Bronx. It was decided in late spring that M.S. 80 would be the pilot site for the program, a school known for its poor test scores and high number of disabled and English-language learners. Two weeks ago, the city’s education department selected M.S. 80 for up to $2 million in federal funds from the U.S. Department of Education to help turn around its poor performance. A portion of the funds is being directed towards launching the Science Schools Initiative, said school administrators. “We’re very excited,” said Lovey Mazique-Rivera, principal of M.S. 80. “The parents love it. They are really appreciative the school is offering this service to them.” About 60 sixth and seventh grade students at M.S. 80 were selected for the program based on their eligibility for free school lunch, and their performance on a mock selective exam that Mascetti and his team administered at the end of June. Both Mascetti and school administrators hope that 50 percent of them will eventually gain entrance to one of the city’s specialized high schools. Inside M.S. 80’s auditorium, parents and students listened raptly to organizers of the Science Schools Initiative as they described the potential life-changing value, and rigorousness, of the program. “We’re here to teach you how to take the test,” said co-founder Darren Guez, addressing some of the nervous looking students. “Every one of you here is smart enough to go to the Bronx High School of Science, as long as you put in the effort.” For Juan Ynfante, who attended the meeting with her 12-year-old daughter Jaylene, the program is a chance not only to attend a better high school, but a chance for a better life. “It gives a better opportunity to go to a good college,” said Ynfante, speaking through a Spanish translator. “I want her to do what I couldn’t do.” For Walker-Santiago, the Bronx resident who brought the program to the borough, increasing the Bronx presence at specialized high schools is really a chance to improve the long-term prospects of the community. “They are the future Robin Hoods of education,” she explained, referring to the preteens starting the program. “When they are making six figures, they will come back and give to the community.” Posted in Bronx Beats, Education, Featured, Northwest BronxComments (0)	cc/2021-04/en_head_0059.json.gz/line28
__label__cc	0.567208	0.432792	Uzbekistan-Tajikistan: game over, but what is the score? By Farkhod Tolipov Uzbekistan’s and Tajikistan’s independence in 1991 raised the Shakespearean “To be or not to be?” question concerning the ambitious construction of a dam on the mountainous Vakhsh river in Tajikistan, which would embody the Rogun Hydro Power Station. Uzbekistan – a downstream country – has permanently and vigorously rejected and resisted the project referring to numerous risks associated with Rogun for all downstream countries. Uzbekistan’s president has been the principal political antagonist of this project. Two months after his death in September 2016, Tajikistan’s president has decided to move on with the project. BACKGROUND: In Central Asia, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan are up-stream countries where the region’s two major rivers originate – Sir-Darya (in Kyrgyzstan) and Amu-Darya (in Tajikistan). Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan are down-stream countries. As is well known, the up-stream countries have pursued an energy strategy when it comes to the management of rivers water flows. They need to produce more electricity during the winter season; whereas downstream countries need water for irrigation in the summer season. The conflicting interests pursued until now by Central Asia’s upstream and downstream countries with respect to sharing the waters of these two rivers were expressed most acutely and aggressively in the relationship between Uzbekistan and Tajikistan over the construction of the Rogun Hydro Power Station (HPS). Rogun became a stumbling block in the development of the overall relations between these two neighboring nations. The construction of the Rogun HPS has for a quarter century been an ideological mantra for independent Tajikistan. This project was unilaterally decided by the Tajik government and, like a shrine, turned into a matter of national pride long before its real embodiment. For Uzbekistan, on the contrary, it became a geopolitical bogey. Tashkent has taken all possible direct and indirect measures to thwart Dushanbe’s endeavor on Rogun, including diplomatic pressure and threatening signals. Due to numerous political and public campaigns, Uzbekistan mobilized domestic public opinion against Tajikistan’s plans on building the HPS. Official representatives of Uzbekistan regularly raised this issue and promoted the state’s principal position in various international organizations – from the UN General Assembly and OSCE to Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), calling for an objective international investigation of the project and its possible consequences. Meanwhile, the relationship between Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, albeit strained, has been far from completely antagonistic. In essence, this problem is of a technical character and resolvable. The author of this article wrote some time ago that “if they fail to take steps towards each other, reconcile and overcome deadlock this will be detrimental not only to their bilateral relations but also have negative consequences for the whole region of Central Asia.” Uzbekistan’s President Islam Karimov – the main opponent of the Rogun mega-project – died on 2 September 2016. In about two months after his death Tajikistan’s President Emomali Rakhmon personally launched the construction of the dam. This stirred speculations as to whether Karimov’s presence had been the only inhibitor of the Rogun construction, and whether the disappearance of that factor became a catalyst of this process. IMPLICATIONS: Surprisingly, Tashkent has so far not officially reacted to Dushanbe’s unilateral action. On the surface, it seems that Tajikistan takes revenge and Uzbekistan loses face, as if the former won the strategic game and the latter appeared to be wrong in its quarter century long anti-Rogun policy. The silence of post-Karimov Tashkent may seem tantamount to a green light to Dushanbe to start the construction of the dam. However, connecting Uzbek-Tajik tension on the dam issue only to Karimov’s personality would be a significant oversimplification. The consideration of objective national interests must not be ignored in this analysis; and obviously these include not only Tajikistan’s, but also Uzbekistan’s interests. At least two principal aspects of this dramatic situation must be taken into account. First, the permanent question of the official thumbs-down position of the Uzbek side is not yet removed from the agenda; which is why the rush of the Tajik side regarding the launch of the dam cannot but cause bewilderment on different levels, including the expert community and civil society. The power transition in Uzbekistan does not affect objective material, geographical and climatic factors as well as consumer needs and irrigational interests of this country to which Tashkent has constantly pointed when expressing its position towards the Rogun HPS. These concerns have not yet been satisfied. There are hypotheses that the Uzbek side has covertly been given assurances by the Tajik side regarding satisfaction of all concerns. If so, any agreements achieved between the two sides must be publicized, because Uzbekistan’s entire anti-Rogun stance was until recently broadly publicized and actively promoted. The negotiations and decisions made by Tashkent and Dushanbe on this highly galvanized and publicized issue can therefore no longer be kept secret or offstage. Second, the issue of compliance with international conventions on trans-boundary rivers is also not removed from the agenda. Dushanbe’s unilateral actions in this case would have been justified only if the river on which the dam is supposed to be constructed was an internal river of Tajikistan. Uzbekistan has up until now sought to lift the problem from bilateral frameworks to the international stage, calling for an international investigation of the project. However, none of the attempts at engaging external legal entities, including great power mediation between Uzbekistan and Dushanbe, have so far proven to be mutually acceptable and efficient. From this point of view, the question arises as to the implementation of the norms of international law regarding the Uzbek-Tajik water dispute. Moreover, this dispute per se, given the trans-boundary character of the river flow and the existence of international law in this sphere, probably should draw immediate international attention and reaction, which should not wait until one side of the dispute appeals to the international community for its resolution. The actual question in this context is whether the international community (the UN, for instance) can and should automatically react to any unilateral action on the part of one state affecting the trans-boundary river flow even as the other side in the dispute is silent (perhaps temporarily). The “sudden” launch of the construction of the dam revealed, among other things, what can happen when the overall bilateral relations of two countries are over-personified, non-transparent, based on a narrow understanding of well-known national interests, and dependent on the political climate inside a particular country rather than on objective, material conditions of the regional reality. CONCLUSIONS: It is timely to recall the “golden rule” of medical ethics “Primum nоn nocere!” (Do no harm!) when we discuss the post-Karimov reincarnation of the Rogun HPS construction, since none of the respective agenda items in Uzbekistan-Tajikistan relations related to this problem have yet been clarified. The would-be harmful consequences of this construction cannot be reduced or averted by the will of one leader or lack of will of another. By and large, this issue is not merely a matter of bilateral relations. Uzbekistan under Karimov had managed to correlate the water policies of three down-stream countries in Central Asia vis-à-vis two up-stream countries. What will be the policy of post-Karimov Uzbekistan in terms of this correlation? But even this question is becoming obsolete. Today, the countries of the region should go beyond such simplistic and tactical reasoning. It becomes more and more obvious that the time has come to move from the “up-stream versus down-stream” division of Central Asia to a common vision of regional perspectives, implying common, not individual development; common, not individual sovereignty; common, not individual projects. Particularly, the five countries concerned could return to the common regional integrated energy system as part of a new process towards revitalization of the frozen regional integration of Central Asia. Rationally speaking, despite the seeming unilateral approach to this issue by Tajik authorities, the launch of a construction process on such a scale necessitates a resolution of the question of mutual concessions and mutual gains. If so, the win-win outcome should not be a backroom deal because projects like Rogun are not a matter of lucrative interests of certain business circles or political classes, but a matter of common destiny of the respective nations and the entire region. AUTHOR’S BIO: Dr. Farkhod Tolipov holds a PhD in Political Science and is Director of the Education and Research Institution “Knowledge Caravan” in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. Image source: Wikimedia Commons, accessed on December 8, 2016 Read 18355 times Last modified on Wednesday, 15 February 2017 Vakhsh river dam Rogun Dam Water diplomacy in Central Asia Sir Darya and Amu Darya rivers Emomali Rakhmon Islam Karimov Managing Strategic Competition: Kazakhstan's Peacemaking Initiatives China Places Central Asia in its Gunsights Looking Beyond Armenia's Defeat in Nagorno-Karabakh The New China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan Corridor Amid Rising Crises, Turkmenistan Strengthens its Military and International Outreach More in this category: « China deepens its presence in Georgia via its “One Road, One Belt” initiative A move towards greater political participation among ethnic Azerbaijanis in Georgia? »	cc/2021-04/en_head_0059.json.gz/line30
__label__wiki	0.782502	0.782502	An Endangered Indian Language Gets a Lifeline Historically Jesuits have often made a name for themselves as pioneers and explorers in various fields of scientific enterprise and human development; and our own Campion Hall Jesuit, Vijay D’Souza, is combining the modern with the traditional in devoting his Oxford linguistic PhD studies to preserving and promoting the native language of a remote Indian people in the Hima- layan foothills. This has involved him in extend- ed fieldwork, staying in villages and recording stories, conversation, religious ceremonies and the people’s traditional songs, supported by grant from London's Endangered Languages Archive (ELAR). Here to stay Now Vijay’s patient and persistent work has been crowned by an historic event: the formal recognition and promulgation by the state legislative assembly on 1st Au- gust 2017 of an official alphabet for the tribe’s indigenous language which Vijay and his team have been developing for the past eighteen years. The assembly and its leader have assured all future support for the continuation of the work. Vijay explains: “Hrusso Aka is a highly endangered language of the Himalayan state of Arunachal Pradesh, Northeast In- dia. It has only about 4000 speakers and the number is further declining due to un- precedented language shift towards Hindi. I have been involved in community mobi- lization for the prevention of language loss. “The promulgation of the alphabet, with an alphabet song, and the launching of a mobile dic- tionary app have been accompanied by a YouTube channel and a Facebook page, all to promote the use of the native language especially among young people, and to provide a much- needed lifeline for Aka which will facilitate its survival and growth.” Reading to learn Vijay was instrumental in publishing the first- ever printed book in Hrusso Aka in 1999. He is planning to work now on textbooks so that the language can be taught systematically in the local schools. --Text courtesy the Editor, Campion News. Find a link to our current issue on the top of the News page.	cc/2021-04/en_head_0059.json.gz/line31
__label__wiki	0.920101	0.920101	Injury ReportInjury News Daily LineupsTomorrow's Lineups Full SeasonDaily StatsTeam TrendsTeam StatsOpponent AveragesSplit Stats The latest WNBA news from RotoWire's experts. Latest Injuries News Display Mode Te'a Cooper Re-signs with Sparks GLos Angeles Sparks Cooper re-signed with the Sparks on Monday, Mirjam Swanson of the OC Register reports. Subscribe now to instantly reveal our take on this news. Natisha Hiedeman Signs qualifying offer GConnecticut Sun Hiedeman signed her qualifying offer with the Sun on Friday, Charlotte Carroll of The Athletic reports. Amanda Zahui B Best season of career CNew York Liberty Zahui B averaged 9.0 points and 8.5 rebounds in 21 games played with the Liberty in 2020. Joyner Holmes Non-factor across 2020 FNew York Liberty Holmes tallied 2.9 points and 2.7 rebounds over 19 games with New York in 2020. Kylee Shook Appears in 20 games in 2020 Shook tallied 4.1 points and 2.8 rebounds per game with the Liberty in 2020. Megan Walker Non-factor in 2020 Walker tallied 3.3 points and 1.5 rebounds in 18 games played with New York in 2020. Leaonna Odom Non-factor in rookie season Odom appeared in 22 games with the Liberty in 2020 and tallied 5.5 points and 2.3 rebounds per game. Kiah Stokes Starts all 22 games in 2020 Stokes posted 5.7 points and 6.7 rebounds in 22 starts with New York in 2020. Sabrina Ionescu Makes her mark in 2020 GNew York Liberty Ionescu appeared in just three games with the Liberty in 2020 and averaged 18.3 points, 4.7 rebounds and 4.0 assists. Layshia Clarendon Career-best 11.5 ppg in 2020 Clarendon posted 11.5 points, 3.9 assists and 2.5 rebounds over 19 starts with New York in 2020. Kia Nurse Shooting woes continue in 2020 Nurse averaged 12.2 points, 2.9 rebounds and 2.3 assists over 21 games played with New York in 2020. Jazmine Jones Posts fantastic rookie campaign Jones tallied 10.8 points, 4.1 rebounds and 2.3 assists over 20 games played with New York in 2020. Paris Kea Limited 2020 season Kea played in 11 contests during the 2020 season with New York and averaged 6.9 points and 2.0 rebounds per game. Jocelyn Willoughby Shows glimpses of offensive threat Willoughby posted 5.8 points and 2.4 rebounds throughout 22 appearances with the Liberty in 2020. Shatori Walker-Kimbrough Plays inconsistent role GPhoenix Mercury Walker-Kimbrough appeared in 21 games in 2020, averaging 7.3 points, 1.6 rebounds and 1.5 assists over 19 minutes per contest. Alanna Smith Takes significant step in 2020 FPhoenix Mercury Smith appeared in 19 games in 2020, averaging 6.1 points, 3.6 rebounds and 1.2 assists over 15.6 minutes per contest. Shey Peddy Modest production with Mercury Peddy appeared in eight games with the Mercury during the 2020 regular season, averaging 4.0 points, 3.0 rebounds and 2.4 assists over 17.6 minutes per game. Alisia Jenkins Sees minimal playing time Jenkins appeared in two games with the Mercury in 2020, averaging 4.0 points and 1.5 rebounds over 11.5 minutes per contest. Remains productive with Mercury Diggins-Smith started every game for the Mercury in 2020, averaging 17.7 points, 4.2 assists and 3.3 rebounds over 30.7 minutes per contest. Sophie Cunningham Role increases in 2020 Cunningham appeared in 21 regular-season contests in 2020, averaging 5.0 points and 1.0 rebounds over 18.9 minutes per game. Tomorrow's Lineups	cc/2021-04/en_head_0059.json.gz/line33
__label__wiki	0.729481	0.729481	Don’t know your password? Costume Journal #CSFashionhour, Costume Society Ambassadors, News \| March 31, 2015 #CSfashionhour: Discussing Men’s Dress The men’s fashion industry is booming. Within the UK, the menswear market has grown 12% since 2000 and is now worth a tad over £10billion. London Collections: Men, which ran for its sixth consecutive season in January, raises approximately £40million in national and international media coverage alone. And yet, for all of their sartorial splurging, the brighter and bolder colours on the catwalk, men remained wedded to the suit, a wardrobe staple that has hardly changed since Charles II instituted an embryonic three-piece 200 years ago (7 October 1666, to be exact). The oscillations between men’s sartorial reserve and reform are the subject of various articles in the Society’s journal Costume, the back catalogue of which is now freely accessible to all members. As I prepare to take the reins for the Society’s first fashion hour on 3 April, which focuses on all aspects of men’s dress, Costume’s online archive has provided a wealth of information. Initially uncertain about what I might find, a vague search for ‘men’ produced an embarrassment of riches. At the risk of seeming partisan, I think few academic peer-reviewed journals offer such breadth of content on menswear. Mindful of my word count and the limits of your patience, Costume’s menswear articles can be grouped as follows: Detailed studies of men’s wardrobes. Elizabeth Dawson’s meticulous analysis of the closet belonging to the Duke of Windsor, an inimitable trendsetter who is no less popular today than when we died in 1972, was a particular highlight (Costume 47:2, 2013). Did you know the Duke’s posthumous collection, divided between France and America, included 55 lounge suits, 14 winter coats along with evening and sportswear? Analyses of different types of men’s clothing. Margaret Swain, for example, provides an account of the men’s nightgown, an exotic and status-defining garment that became, by the start of the nineteenth century, the more familiar and homely dressing gown (Costume 6 supplement 1. 1972). Cultural studies that explore men’s changing attitudes to their dress. Catherine Horwood explains how concerns to preserve masculine dignity (and, in part, to avoid the unattractive sight of men’s legs) kept professional male tennis players – Fred Perry included – in trousers that were as cumbersome as they were comic until the early 1940s (Costume 38:1, 2014). Where clothing conservatism is a major theme of Horwood’s article, consumerism is the focus of Ann Bailey’s study of clothiers’ attempts to use sporting stars to sell their wares. The long-established connection between fashion and sport began with men like Stanley Matthews, who became the very first ‘Footballer of the Year’ in 1948. Two years later, the ‘wizard of dribble’ signed a lucrative contract with the Cooperate Wholesale Society to use his face – or feet – to sell football boots (Costume 46:2, 2012). The rouse worked. Impatient fans broke the window of a Manchester store to get closer to their sporting hero who was waiting within. This very small selection of Costume’s menswear articles considers perspectives that remain hugely relevant within the contemporary menswear market: individuality, manliness, body image and status. In the UK, especially, it is the dynamic interaction between the ideas and values of the past and present that gives this industry uniqueness and, of course, makes it such an interesting topic to discuss and debate. So, get reading and get ready to participate in the first Costume Society fashion hour on Twitter between 1300 and 1400 (GMT), when we can continue the dialogue about men’s dress. Dr Benjamin Wild, Costume Society Ambassador 2015 NB: If you a member of the Costume Society you an access all these articles online in the membership areas Next \| Previous The always-stylish Duke of Windsor Image Credit: Thegentlemansjournal.co.uk Tennis player Fred Perry in cumbersome trousers Image credit: tennisarchives.com Diarist Samuel Pepys in a nightgown Images credit: bbc.co.uk #CSFashionhour Costume Society Ambassadors Costume Society Sign up to receive our quarterly e-newsletter © 2021 The Costume Society, 150 Aldersgate Street, London, EC1A 4AB. Registered charity number 262401 Web design by MID	cc/2021-04/en_head_0059.json.gz/line35
__label__wiki	0.692555	0.692555	Is Hillary Clinton Running For President In 2020? According To The FEC, Hillary Clinton’s Presidential Campaign Is Raising Money – Is One Last Run For The White House Coming? October 2, 2019 October 2, 2019 by Michael Snyder Could it be possible that Hillary Clinton is preparing to jump into the presidential race? According to the FEC, Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign is still active, and it actually raised $165,902.73 during the first six months of 2019. During that same period of time, the campaign spent $131,112.68, and that left her with a war chest of $650,264.43. That isn’t enough to win the Democratic nomination, but it would certainly be enough to get another run for the White House off the ground rather quickly. “Hillary For America” is the name of her official campaign committee, and during 2015 and 2016 it raised a total of $585,669,598.83, but that still wasn’t enough to beat Donald Trump. However, with impeachment mania reaching a fever pitch in Washington and with the Biden campaign fading, Hillary may sense an opening. She had a full slate of media appearances scheduled for this week, and so far she has done nothing to dispel the rumors that she may be getting into the race. (Read More...) Categories PoliticsTags Is Hillary Clinton Running For President In 2020?, Is Hillary Clinton Running For President?Leave a comment With Biden Damaged And Warren Surging, Could Hillary Clinton Still Enter The Presidential Race? September 27, 2019 September 27, 2019 by Michael Snyder Just a few weeks ago, it seemed exceedingly unlikely that Hillary Clinton would enter the race for the White House in 2020. But now the Biden campaign is deeply struggling, and the constant focus that the impeachment inquiry is putting on his son’s dealings in Ukraine has already significantly damaged his chances. Joe Biden’s numbers are sliding nationally, and in the early voting states they are really starting to plunge. The only thing that made him a strong candidate in the first place was the fact that he was Barack Obama’s vice-president for eight years, and unfortunately for Biden his weaknesses are really being exposed over course of this campaign. Meanwhile, Elizabeth Warren has been surging nationally, and she is now in first place in several of the early voting states. This has put the Democratic establishment in panic mode, because it now looks like Warren has a really good shot of actually beating Biden. But none of the other establishment candidates have been able to maintain any sort of traction whatsoever, and at this point none of them are even close to double digits in the major national polls. So that means that establishment Democrats need a savior, and it turns out that “savior” could end up being Hillary Clinton. (Read More...)	cc/2021-04/en_head_0059.json.gz/line37
__label__wiki	0.514489	0.514489	About SISS The Shanghai Institute for Science of Science (hereinafter referred to as the Institute for Science of Science) is one of China’s earliest soft science research institutes established in January 1980. The Institute for Science of Science is a public welfare institution of scientific research with serving decision-making on innovation as the tenet, sticking to demand guidance, problem guidance and application guidance, focusing on fields such as science, technology and innovation strategies, public policies and industrial technology innovation, combining soft science and hard science, integrating research and consulting, and dedicated to building a high-level professional platform-type science, technology and innovation think tank with special characteristics. It is a leader in a number of important research fields. It has gained and accumulated advantages in leadership science, science and technology statistics, science and technology annals, technology foresight, science popularization and other fields. It is an important founder of China’s leadership science research, an important pioneer in the building of China’s science and technology statistics system, an important advocate of compilation of Chinese local science and technology annals, and an important forerunner of China’s technology foresight research. It is a supporter for a number of major science and technology decisions. It has undertaken research on major strategic plans such as Shanghai’s Medium- and Long-term Science and Technology Plan, Shanghai’s Twelfth Five-Year Plan on Science and Technology Development and Thirteenth Five-Year Plan on Science and Technology Innovation and Development; carried out important research on areas such as functions of urban innovation, reform of the science and technology system and forms of innovative services, providing important support for the government’s science decisions. It is an active builder of soft science research networks. It has established cooperative relationships with related soft science research institutes in countries and regions such as America, Europe, Japan and South Korea as well as related research institutes in Taiwan region carried out strategic cooperation and collaborative research with soft science research institutes in provinces and municipalities such as Beijing, Tianjin, Chongqing, Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Anhui; establi shed close cooperative relationships with Fudan University, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Tongji University, East China Normal University, Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, Jiefang Daily and related districts and counties to jointly build Shanghai’s platform of cooperation in soft science research. It is accelerating the building of a high-level professional platform-type science, technology and innovation think tank with special characteristics. In the face of new strategic development opportunities, it focuses on Shanghai’s major need to build a science, technology and innovation center with global influence, makes efforts to push forward core competence building, management innovation, platform building and brand shaping, and keeps strengthening the building of the talent team and enhancing service and decision-making capabilities to realize development dr iven by “the three engines” of carrying out high-quality research as support, serving the government’s decisions on science, technology and innovation and serving various innovators’ development. Functional orientation - Vision: going towards the world based in Shanghai and facing China, and building a high-level professional platform-type science, technology and innovation think tank with special characteristics - Moto of the institute: studying the phenomena of nature to gain knowledge, aiding the government and benefiting the people - Core values: soberness, pragmatism, innovation, action - Research culture: sticking to demand guidance, problem guidance and application guidance, doing research with emotion, thought and depth	cc/2021-04/en_head_0059.json.gz/line38
__label__wiki	0.92701	0.92701	To understand how Carrion spawned, we talked to Phobia Game Studio's lead game and level designer Krzysztof Chomicki to get a better perspective. Chomicki talks about the challenges of Carrion, the ups and downs of working in a two-person development team, and how they shaped the monstrous indie over the years. FromSoftware games like Dark Souls helped influence and shape Carrion's level design (along with Metroid, of course) Team Phobia Studio is made up of only two people-- Sebastian Kroskiewicz and Krzysztof Chomicki-who both worked remotely to make Carrion. The devs used real-time feedback on Twitter to help shape the game. Carrion was in development for three years. Chomicki says there's a "good chance" that Carrion will release on PlayStation eventually. If Phobia ever releases on PS4, it may play on PS5 via backward compatibility. But nothing's been announced or confirmed yet. Carrion runs at 60FPS on Nintendo Switch. Switch was the first platform Phobia thought about when making Carrion. Nintendo Switch Lite - Yellow * Prices last scanned on 1/18/2021 at 10:50 am CST - prices may not be accurate, click links above for the latest price. We may earn an affiliate commission. Influences and tentacle physics When I see Carrion, I think of Cronenberg movies or The Thing. Are there any other films that have inspired this game? Of course, The Thing but I think very important ones would also be pretty much every 80s horror/action movie franchise. But the very important ones would be Alien and Predator. I think you can actually find some references to both franchises in the game. Also, we were very inspired by Alien vs. Predator games--not the movies, obviously--especially the early 2000s ones where you play as the xenomorph. That's something that hasn't been explored properly in games. When I play the game, the tentacle physics are amazing. The game flows so well. When you're moving through the corridors...I actually haven't felt anything like that. It's so smooth. How did your team create this movement system? It took a ridiculous amount of time to get it right. Basically, the first six months of development were just working on the monster, its movement, its physics, the tentacles, eating humans, and so on. At first, we really didn't know which direction we wanted to take it gameplay-wise or what genre it would be. The Metroidvania style, for example, was not decided on until we had the core movement and eating mechanic pinned down. If I'm being honest, the polish work on mechanics, movement, and the monster's eating lasted almost to the release. Up until a couple of months ago, we were still working on the eating mechanics. It was a long ongoing task of tweaking that. When it comes to working so well, it's all thanks to our game director/artist/programmer Sebastian Kroskiewicz, who's like the brains behind the project. Funnily enough, the mass, the physics are relatively simple because it's mostly a bunch of 2D spheres connected together. But getting the exact numbers right, so it flows well and that there are no major bugs, that took a lot of effort from him. It's mostly just smart physics implementation. It's not really that complex. It looks more complex than it actually is. You guys did a really good job. I'm playing the review copy right now, and it's just so satisfying flying around and eating people. Funny thing about you mentioning flying around...some people wouldn't really get that the tentacles are actually what propels the monster in the way you want to go. They thought it was just like swimming or floating in the air. So for that reason, the first chamber in the over world, the Frontier, there's a large open area with no background. That's when the player can notice that when there is no background area for the tentacles to attach to. Level design, gameplay flow, and crunchy human munching How did you get the level design to dictate the flow of the monster, or did the monster's movement dictate level design? It's kind of both. I think the characteristics of the movement of the monster, the fact that gravity isn't an issue here, and that you can get pretty much everywhere, that dictated the level design quite strongly. You don't really think about it, but in most games where you control the character directly, gravity is pretty much the main obstacle you face most of the time. Something might be unreachable because it's too high or too low where you'd die falling down. It's a super basic mechanic and part of level design that you don't really think about normally. In this case, we didn't have that, so we had to get very creative when it comes to both the layouts to make the areas look different and varied, and also with the puzzles and challenges. We had to be creative about the skills and the obstacles that it'd be more than just pulling switches and opening doors. It was kind of tricky, but it also makes it kind of unique. I think most people won't even notice it, that it's very unusual. When I'm playing the game, and I get to a save point and that giant massive disgusting tentacle flesh. Every time I see it, it just freaks me out, and I keep wondering how big can the monster get. Can it take the whole screen up? Eh, not really. It gets pretty large, and it depends on where you are in the game. There are three classes-we have this mass-based class system. The last one can get pretty big. Technically speaking, if you throw in a bunch of monsters and they all connect, because that's how it all works, you could technically fill the screen up. But we don't do that. The last monster is pretty large. I think it gets 30 times as large as the initial form. As an 80s horror fan, I see this game and think 'hey this is awesome.' I'm running around chewing people, and I kind of feel bad because it's so satisfying. Yeah, eating had to be satisfying. We worked hard on the crunchiness of it. That's a good word, crunchy. I feel the enemies can still hurt me, but I could just slam them and rip them in half, cut their heads off-whatever. It's very empowering in a very strange way. This power fantasy was very important to us, that it feels right. When I'm playing Carrion, the level design reminds me of Metroid. There's no map-I have to remember where to go, I have to think about what I'm doing. Obviously, Metroid influenced you, but are there any other types of games that influenced your team? Outside of the obvious one, Metroid...I did all the level design, so I can only speak for myself, but one of the most important influences here was the FromSoftware games, the Souls series and Bloodborne, and so on. The fact that you don't have a map there, and the levels are kind of open, but you always know where you want to go. You don't really get lost in those games. But still, if you start looking everywhere and finding shortcuts and you find out the levels are very interconnected. That's something that was definitely an inspiration for the level design here. That's interesting. When I'm playing, it's like a mix of puzzle and a mix of platformer, but there's always something engaging. You guys have done a really good job at making the game visually stimulating and also very mysterious. It's almost like I'm playing a game H.P. Lovecraft imagined. I'm glad to hear that. We really wanted to avoid over-explaining everything, like the mechanics. We wanted to keep them as short and as concise as possible and not have constant pop-ups that remind you what you can do. The same goes for the lore and plot. We wanted to make people come up with their own theories and read between the lines and make you feel like the monster. We didn't want to make you read a couple hundred pages of lost crew logs or listen to a few hours of audio logs or watch cutscenes. I love cutscenes, like Hideo Kojima-style stuff, but not for this game. We want to make the game very personal from the monster's perspective and keep the mystery intact. We do give some hints at the origin of the monster and so on, but we definitely want the players to fill in the blanks. Ever since we showed the game in the early days, gamers have come up with their own theories. Is it an alien? Is it leftover spaghetti? We definitely did not want to take that away from the community. It's environmental storytelling. You guys don't have to say much. We just play it, and we get it. Indie dev hurdles, early days of development, and level save challenges What would you say is the hardest part about being an independent developer? It really depends. I guess the size of the team is both a blessing and a curse. If you're not working, nothing's getting done. We don't have any major overlap in our duties except for maybe some sort of environmental graphics, which were mostly done by Sebastian. I did the level design and the proper texturing. I did some of that stuff, so there we have this overlap. Other than that, everyone was doing their own thing. And if you're not working, this stuff isn't progressing. On the other hand, if there were more of us, we'd have issues with communication. We'd pretty much have to have a producer just to make sure everyone's on the same page and knows what they're doing. With our small team-Sebastian, me, a sound designer and composer Chris Velasco-it was very easy to communicate and get all the ideas across even despite working remotely. We're not sitting in the same office, and we all work from home. Chris Velasco did the score, and he actually reached out to us after seeing some gifs and said, 'I have to be a part of this.' This was pretty much before we were even called Phobia Game Studio, and when we had early prototypes. After Chris, we had tens of different composers who wanted to score the game. That makes sense. It seems like this kind of weird, bizarre game is universally appealing to creative types. That's kind of interesting because we always thought Carrion as a niche game. It's not something you think would be universally appealing. But after Sebastian started posting gifs on Twitter from the early prototypes, they clicked really well. It turns out there was great interest in the game. We used Twitter to show off development progress, and the feedback helped guide which way we took the game, especially at the beginning when we didn't have a full idea of what we wanted to do. I think it'd be really interesting to see the iterations of Carrion through the years. That's something I always love to talk about, how a game started from the beginning, and was molded into the final product. Can you offer any insight on Carrion's growth? It all started on the monster's movement and eating mechanics. One of the first gifs Sebastian showed on Twitter got a lot of buzz and reaction. It pretty much looked like Katamari. It'd go up to people and automatically eat them, which was fun, but it was more like five minutes fun and not five hours fun. It wouldn't really have worked for the whole game. At first, we just had one skill at a time. There wasn't really this mass-based class system-that came a bit later, after the first prototype demo we showed at GDC and that we went out to different publishers. Carrion kind of progressed naturally from there. Another problem we had to solve early on was how to save the game. You don't really think about it, but in most Metroidvanias, enemies will respawn after you leave the chamber, so you don't really have to save that data very often. Normally, Metroidvanias just have to save where you are in the world and which skills you've already unlocked, plus some minor stuff. But in our case, we wanted to maintain this horror feeling, so we didn't want to respawn after you left the chamber because it would hardly be gruesome and terrifying if everyone just popped up back alive. That makes perfect sense. When I go back to areas I've already been, I see the horrible blood, destruction, bodies, disgusting tentacle growths, and overall mayhem that I've left behind. It's kind of like when you finish a level of Hotline Miami, right? But here we have a lot of backtracking. You have to backtrack to find all the optional skills and abilities, and we had to find a way to save all that data. That was pretty complex for us. What you think of as a very simple indie game, it's not as simple as it seems. For a long time, we weren't sure whether we'd be able to keep it all saved properly. We fought that despite having this kind of Metroidvania progression-only the Overworld, the Frontier, would be transversable with backtracking, and the levels would be closed down. Eventually, Sebastian figured out a way to save it all nicely, and we're happy with the data costs. Back then, there wasn't even an Overworld then, it was just a string of semi-open Metroidvania-ish levels, and even then, it'd be very linear. Despite us not having a map, I think we did a pretty good job at making the whole campaign flow naturally despite having to backtrack a few times. We hope it doesn't feel forced that you have to go through the same area 20 times to get anywhere. That's refreshing, I love it when a game respects my time. I go to games to have fun, and that's something that indies do. That's something Carrion does. You can just jump into it, eat a few people, solved a few puzzles, slither around. You feel like you've accomplished something in entertainment instead of having to grind. Yeah, we really didn't want the game to over-stay its welcome. Everyone was saying not to make it too long or too grindy. When I'm playing the game, I often ask myself, 'how would I even begin to make something like this?' The level design, the movement, etc. It's done pretty well. Thanks. We sometimes ask ourselves how we were even able to deliver it. There were some moments where we felt like we'd never finish. Development time, launch windows, and Switch was the first platform of choice Speaking of which, how long was Carrion in development for? Three years. We started in June 2017, so three years and a month now. We had three years' worth of interviews with 100 journalists, and even after that, we didn't get to relax. It was just Sebastian and I. Once we're done with Carrion and all the patches, we definitely need some time off. Devolver was very chill about us taking our time on the content and everything. They didn't really put too much pressure on us. But there's also the community pressure, everyone asking when the game is releasing. I think for us, the big release incentive for us was the release of next-gen consoles. We really wanted to make it in time before those launched. Everyone will be talking about the PS5 and the new Xbox all the time, and that wouldn't be a good time to release. And after that you'd have all the super next-gen games coming out, so that wouldn't be the best time. I think this release window we have now is pretty much perfect for the game. That's when we started feeling some pressure when we decided it was a summer 2020 launch. The Nintendo Switch has grown up. We've seen lots of very brutal, bloody, and violent games on the Switch, including Carrion. Indies have done tremendously well on the Switch, and I think your team will see a big surge in sales. Is that something you thought about when bringing Carrion to Switch? Early in Carrion's development, the Switch was the single platform we knew we wanted to release on. Everyone was asking about a Switch port early on, and there was this notion the Switch was the best platform for indies. Nowadays it might not be the best because it's getting crowded. But Carrion is a very Switch-friendly game. It's also 60FPS. It has perfect parity and Xbox One and PC pretty much. It works really well on Switch, and it was the single-most asked about question when we were in development. Will Carrion ever come to PS4? It wasn't until we announced the Switch version and the Xbox One version that everyone suddenly wanted a PS4 version too. Almost nobody asked for PlayStation until we announced we're releasing on everything but PlayStation. I think there's a good chance we'll release it on PlayStation eventually. It's just a matter of time and resources. It is super strenuous to release on all platforms at once as an indie developer-all the certifications, making sure everything's working everywhere, multiple QA, it's kind of difficult. Let's talk about Game Pass. The service has had a transformative effect on indie games insofar as sales and exposure. Game Pass allows subscribers to see games they otherwise might not have, and download them to try out. Is that something you hope to tap with Carrion's release? Carrion releases on Game Pass day one, both on PC and Xbox One. I think Microsoft is excited about it, and it's the main reason Phil showed up to talk to the monster during the Devolver Digital stream. We're also excited about it. But we have no idea if it will boost our exposure that much. I'm hoping with the game being so accessible by lots of Xbox owners that it does. We will see. We have no data of our own about Game Pass. But we're very happy about the deal in general. Carrion releases for Xbox One (and Game Pass), Steam, and Nintendo Switch on July 23, 2020. Carrion is currently available for pre-order here: Steam - https://store.steampowered.com/app/953490/CARRION/ Xbox - https://www.Xbox.com/en-US/games/carrion Switch -https://www.nintendo.com/games/detail/carrion-switch/ Serious Sam 4 Interview: Croteam amps chaos to 11 Warzone is the biggest thing Activision has ever done EA Motive's new Star Wars game could be a monetized live game Top 10 Games of the Decade How MMO-RTS Kingdom Under Fire II was inspired by Tekken Adam Boyes: There's a New Era of Trust & Respect at Blizzard Right of Reply We openly invite the companies who provide us with review samples / who are mentioned or discussed to express their opinion. If any company representative wishes to respond, we will publish the response here. Please contact us if you wish to respond. Team Phobia Studio	cc/2021-04/en_head_0059.json.gz/line43
__label__cc	0.510145	0.489855	Internet Verse Search Commentaries Word Analysis ITL - draft NET © Jesus 1 asked his father, “How long has this been happening to him?” And he said, “From childhood. NIV © Jesus asked the boy’s father, "How long has he been like this?" "From childhood," he answered. NASB © And He asked his father, "How long has this been happening to him?" And he said, "From childhood. NLT © "How long has this been happening?" Jesus asked the boy’s father. He replied, "Since he was very small. MSG © He asked the boy's father, "How long has this been going on?" "Ever since he was a little boy. BBE © And Jesus questioning the father said, How long has he been like this? And he said, From a child. NRSV © Jesus asked the father, "How long has this been happening to him?" And he said, "From childhood. NKJV © So He asked his father, "How long has this been happening to him?" And he said, "From childhood. he asked <3962>_, unto him <846>_? <2036> (5627)_, Of a child <3812>_. And He asked his father , "How has this to him?" And he said , "From childhood ephrwthsen V-AAI-3S T-ASM N-ASM posov Q-NSM cronov estin V-PXI-3S touto D-NSN gegonen V-2RAI-3S autw P-DSM eipen V-2AAI-3S paidioyen NET © [draft] ITL Jesus asked , “How been happening to him ?” And , “From NET © Notes 1 tn Grk “He”; the referent (Jesus) has been specified in the translation for clarity. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 ALL 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 TIP #04: Try using range (OT and NT) to better focus your searches. [ALL]	cc/2021-04/en_head_0059.json.gz/line44
__label__cc	0.512072	0.487928	When the Orange Lodge protected the local Priest (... Hugh McCall of Lisburn (1805-1897); when the Orang... Sounds for a Saturday morning - Willie Watson, Pok... Two Holestones - Ulster and Scotland Mandolin tuning - "It's never perfect, but we do t... Official Tourist Guide to County Down and the Mour... From Portaferry to Belfast to Australia When the Orange Lodge protected the local Priest (part 2) Here is the full story as told in Betsy Gray and the Hearts of Down (first published in 1896): '... THE TOWN of Lisburn not only supplied the noble and generous hearted General who commanded the troops of the United Irishmen, but it also played an important part in the short but sanguinary struggle. During the winter of 1797, a shuttle-maker who lived in an entry off High Street, Belfast, worked eighteen hours of the twenty-four in making pike-heads and handles. He and very many similar experts were, however, outdone by a Lisburn white smith, who, during the winter of 1797 and spring of 1798, forged upwards of 500 pikes without leaving undone any of his ordinary work. Many years before the rebellion of 1798 the Presbyterians of Lisburn had proposed to build a new house of worship. Lord Hertford gave them a handsome site, and subscriptions were collected towards defraying the cost of erection. Amongst the contributors were the Rev. Father Magee - the parish priest - and several members of his congregation. Father Magee gave £10, and the donation was very much prized by the Presbyterians. He was exceedingly popular, and, when any works of benevolence were to be performed, he was always beside the Rev. Dr. Cupples, Protestant rector of the parish, and the Rev. Andrew Craig, Presbyterian minister.* There was wonderful excitement in Lisburn and its neighbourhood on the night of the 12th of June, 1798. A report had been circulated that. Harry Monro and a large body of his men would that night descend upon the town and destroy it by fire. Soldiers, horse and foot, paraded the streets in large numbers; the inhabitants were ordered to close their doors and put out their lights after eight o'clock, and every measure was taken to prevent a military surprise. In a house in Market Square sat an Orange Lodge. At a late hour one of the members of this Lodge looked out of the door and saw the parish priest making his way homewards. The Orangeman was a member of the Rev. Craig's Church, and he had a kindly feeling towards Father Magee, because he remembered his kindness. Stepping up to the clergyman, he said - "You are out very late, sir, in such troublous times." "I am, indeed, my friend," replied the old gentleman. "I have been out on a sick call." "It is a mile to your house, and you can hardly get there in safety," said the Orangeman; "our lodge is now sitting, come in for a moment and we'll see about guarding you home." The priest entered the lodgeroom, where he was hospitably received, and, having remained there for some time, he was escorted home by four of the members...' *Rev Andrew Craig is another man with a fascinating story. That's a story for another day. ................................................................................... Here is a fuller account by Hugh McCall, again from this website: '... Priest Magee. Reference has been made to the kindly spirit that had prevailed in early times between the people of this town and the clergy of all sects. The Rev. John Magee, who had been curate of the chapel from 1762, and parish priest from 1770, was very popular. When the Presbyterian meeting-house in Market Square was in course of erection, he handed ten pounds to the building fund committee as his own and that of a few of his people's contribution towards the good work. Like the Rev. Edward Kelly, P.P., who has held that position in Lisburn more than one quarter of a century, and while zealously attending the duties connected with the creed of his fathers, never interfered with the private opinions of those of other denominations. Priest Magee delighted in cultivating social harmony with all around him, and by his own followers he was held in special veneration. He took much interest in the Volunteer movement, and, when leisure permitted, was among the spectators who usually assembled in large numbers to witness the parades of the local troops, as the men met for military exercise on Gough's Hill, now a portion of the Wallace Park. And at the tables of Poyntz Stewart, Commander of the True Blues; Thomas Ward, Captain of the artillery; as well as those of other Volunteer officers, Priest Magee was ever a welcome guest. With the popular rector of Lisburn and the Presbyterian minister, he lived on terms of the utmost friendliness. Among the many unwritten histories of the Irish Insurrection, the following incident, as taken by the narrator from the lips of one of the Orangemen who took part in it, will be read with some interest. The Priest and the Orangemen. An Orange Lodge was sitting in the front room of a house in Cross Row. Two members of the lodge who had come downstairs to look on the stirring scenes on the street were at the door, and while standing there they recognised the parish priest passing along on the opposite side. Both these Orangemen were well-known to Mr. Magee, and immediately on seeing that gentleman they rushed across the roadway, and, after apologising for stopping him, they added that such was the state of the town, and the excitement of party spirit, it would be very dangerous for him to attempt making his way home, "Gentleman," said the venerable clergyman, "I have been out attending a sick call; one of my people, who lives at Plantation, became suddenly ill, and I have got so far on my return. It is exceedingly kind of you to give me the information about the unsettled state of affairs, but I hope to get on my way without molestation." "We cannot permit you to go alone," replied the younger of the two; "our lodge is sitting in Jemmy Corkin's, the business of the evening has been settled, and if you come over with us we will arrange for your safe convoy home." It was then nearly seven o'clock: all was excitement in the Square, dragoons were dashing furiously round the Market House, and heavy artillery guns had been placed across the head of Bridge Street. After a few moments' hesitation, the priest said he would place himself in the hands of his friends, and on entering the lodge-room the Rev. gentleman was courteously received by the master and members. Having partaken of some refreshments, half-a-dozen stalwart men, well armed, rose and proceeded to escort Mr. Magee to his cottage home, which was situated about a mile distant on the Moira Road. It was nearly midnight when the party arrived at the priest's dwelling. A suitable entertainment followed, during which the hospitable host once again gratefully acknowledged the special attention that had been paid him; and, to the latest period of long life, the old clergyman was wont to relate the romantic story of his having been escorted to his home at Lissue by six Orangemen the night before the Battle of Ballynahinch ...' Postscript: In O'Laverty's An Historical Account of the Diocese of Down and Connor, he says that Father Magee was from Corbally in Ballee parish near Downpatrick. During his time as a priest in Lisburn he lived on the Maze Road, and was responsible for building a Catholic church at Chapel Hill in Lisburn in 1786 which was then enlarged in 1841. The tower of the building is recorded as having a plaque which read 'This chapel was built by donations from the people of every religion in the county, to preserve in grateful remembrance such Christian concord this stone is erected'. This was assisted by Dean Stannus, on behalf of the Marquis of Hertford, who gave land and money to the project. In 1792 Magee officiated at a Mass in Lisburn chapel which was attended by 'The Volunteers accompanied by many Protestants'. The Northern Star of 16 May 1797 printed this story: '...Daniel Gillan, Owen McKenna, William McKenna, and Peter McKenna, privates in the Monaghan Militia, who had been tried by a Court Martial in Belfast, were conveyed to Blaris Camp on cars, accompanied by two priests (Rev. John Magee and Rev. Peter Cassidy, C.C.Belfast) and by a strong guard of horse and foot, and shot at two o'clock. They seemed very sensible of the awful change they were about to make ; and at the same time behaved with the greatest firmness, choosing rather to die than turn informers ...' More of this story can be read here - beginning on page 11 with an account of the Portaferry-born informer, Bell Martin. Posted by Mark Thompson at Thursday, November 28, 2013 0 comments Hugh McCall of Lisburn (1805-1897); when the Orange Lodge protected the local Priest. Hugh McCall is one of the many forgotten men of Ulster history. In his day he was a renowned writer, collector of folk stories, founder of a literary society, chronicler of the linen industry, occasional editor of The Banner of Ulster and expert on the 1798 Rebellion. He also took a prominent part in the Burns Centenary commemorations in Belfast in 1859. There is a memorial plaque inside Lisburn Cathedral to him, which reads: Hugh McCall One who was given to Philanthropy Justice and Truth A Journalist without fear An Accurate historian A Painstaking Chronicler This Tablet Is placed where he worshipped To his remembrance by his friends This above all to thine own self be true And it must follow as the night the day Thou canst not then be false to any man I came across his work a few years ago. His grandfather left Argyll for Ulster, around 1714, and came to Donaghadee but then headed into the Lagan Valley area. Hugh was born at Chapel Hill in Lisburn. Joseph Carson of Kilpike regarded McCall as a 'brother poet', and wrote this verse to him: To Mr. Hugh M'Call, a Brother Poet. Lord, man, I think it dev'lish queer, We've bardies been this many a year, Baith bustling on in life's career, Unknown to ither, An' neither wrote ae line to cheer His rhymin brither. Had I but known, my cantie blade, Ye plied sae weel the "rhymin trade," I would hae some bit sang convey'd To thee lang syne, Ere friendship's lamp was quite decay'd -- Dear light divine! The dearest blessings o' mankind, Are no' to rank an, wealth confin'd -- The cottage wight an' labouring hind, Fu' aft enjoy them, While lords to mak an riches join'd. As aft destroy them. When life's lang toilsome day is o'er, The question, were ye rich or poor? Will no be asked, on death's far shore, To us poor mortals, Ere mercy opes the narrow door, -- Heaven's shining portals. Here is a great 1798 rebellion story which McCall collected, reproduced here from this website: '... In these perilous times Mr. McGhee, the Parish Priest, was going out one night to visit a parishioner in Blaris. An Orangeman, who knew the popular priest told him of his great danger owing to the mob on the road, invited him into the house where an Orange Lodge was sitting, where he remained in safety, and was afterwards accompanied by a guard of Orangemen ...' In Betsy Gray and the Hearts of Down, WG Lyttle recounts that Father Magee and some of his congregation had helped to fundraise for the building of Lisburn Presbyterian Church, giving £10, - '... and the donation was very much prized by the Presbyterians...'. The loss of stories like these impoverishes the Northern Ireland of today. Men like McCall deserve to be more widely known. Sounds for a Saturday morning - Willie Watson, Pokey LaFarge and The Cactus Blossoms Posted by Mark Thompson at Saturday, November 23, 2013 0 comments As far as I am aware, there is only one 'holestone' left in Ireland. It is near Kilbride Presbyterian Church, on the slopes of the Sixmilewater Valley of southern County Antrim (click here). There is I understand just one more in the British Isles, called the Crouse Marriage Stone or Crow Stone, near Wigtown in Galloway, Scotland (click here). If anyone can tell me of others, I would appreciate it. Posted by Mark Thompson at Friday, November 22, 2013 0 comments Mandolin tuning - "It's never perfect, but we do the best we can" When in tune, the sound is wonderful. When even slightly out of tune, it is woeful. As the man below says, "if you've been playing mandolin for 30 years, you spend 15 of those years mandolin tuning and the other 15 years playing out of tune". Official Tourist Guide to County Down and the Mourne Mountains, 1924 Image above - ©NITB I picked up a great 89-year-old book for a few pounds recently. It begins with this - "The delightful air and scenery of the County of Down, and the retention within its boundaries of so many remains from Pre-Christian, Early Christian, and Norman times, and by its people of so many characteristics of speech and manners from Plantation days, make this territory, for the tourist, one of the most interesting in Northern Ireland..." and goes on: "... One thing which will be apparent to even an unobservant tourist is the Scottish character of the people over large area; indeed until recent times, when school attendance was enforced, the language of the people in large parts of the north and east was purely lowland Scotch. The reason for this is that among the early acts of James I were the grants of large areas of land to his Scottish favourites, James Hamilton and Hugh Montgomery. Both these adventurous spirits were first knighted, and later both attained the rank of Viscount. Hamilton made his headquarters at Bangor, then a little village on the southern shore of Belfast Lough. Montgomery settled a few miles further south at Newtownards. Both men were followed by a number of their relations from Scotland, and both brought over large numbers of settlers; and all the Ards area, or say the upper half of the county to the eastward, may be said now to be peopled by the descendants of those settlers, who, as stated above, spoke, until very recently, the Scottish tongue of their forefathers ..." It is always remarkable how mainstream and understood our connections with Scotland were to previous generations. Today you'd be hard pressed to find a history teacher in a secondary or grammar school in the area who could give such a succinct and accurate account. And we wonder why Irish history is sometimes a 'battlefield' - it must be because so few really know it today. It is selectively deployed for devious reasons. "... GOLFING - County Down is one of the most important centres of the ancient and royal game of golf outside Scotland..." The descriptions of the towns and villages are packed with references to Hamilton and Montgomery, and an account of the Con O'Neill escape from Carrickfergus is included too - sitting comfortably within information about local landmarks, hotels, and recreation facilities, painting an overall picture of the places. It mentions the Bible texts which Montgomery had carved into the entrance of Newtownards Priory (the originals are long eroded, and the 1988 reproduction did not include the original texts, probably an editorial decision by some anonymous bureaucrat). The insert map as well as the text refer to St Patrick's Well at Templepatrick, south of Donaghadee, where "we get pretty views of the coast and of the Copeland Islands with the Scotch hills beyond". Bear in mind that this isn't a 400 year old document - this was published just about a decade before my parents were born - and yet popular awareness of the knowledge it contains has been almost completely lost over the past two generations! As high-level political discussions continue here in Northern Ireland which seek an agreement on 'the past' - the question arises, "What version of the past?". The one which is reduced to nothing but a "them against us" two-tribes political stereotype - or the fuller, more accurate, cultural past from which this generation and the next generation can learn so much? Posted by Mark Thompson at Wednesday, November 20, 2013 0 comments One of the joys of blogging is the contact it has allowed me to have with many people around the world. I have recently been corresponding with a man who now lives in Australia, but who was born and grew up near Portaferry. When he was a boy his family moved (back) to Belfast and much of our discussion has been about the culture shock that this caused him as a child. He has allowed me to post some excerpts here, which I will add little bits of commentary to. '...I find myself describing the cultural and geographical background of my early childhood in similar happily reminiscent terms as your article; having been born and in early childhood bred environmentally on the Ards Peninsula nearby Portaferry...' He shares my frustrations at the present-day media insistence of Ulster-Scots as a recent 'invention': '... I never had personally any impression that "Ulster" and "Scots" effects have only recently been imported from Scotland... I was born on the Ards Peninsula because my mother basically fled Belfast due to the forthcoming Blitz in the war (WW2). But back in Belfast (outer west Belfast) in 1948, my father worked the barges etc., for the Belfast Harbour Commissioners on Victoria Channel and Belfast Lough and quite a familiar familial topic my father regularly commented to us about was the "Portavogie Scots" (he called them) coming up and in effect taking jobs from Belfast's own "local" harbour workers...' His father was a man more concerned with an invasion of Portavogie men, than he was of the Russians: '... My parents were oul ones and my father's way of the oul ones was hilarious. We never had news in our house. Everybody round our direction in the 1950s had Moscow as the place of much invisible threat to our future security. But for us with my father it was grim talk at the dinner table about the perils of Portavogie ...' And he was a man with a long memory: '... One interesting rival for the much feared Portavogie in our house in the 1950s was always announced by my father in the exact same omen-fraught words. "The Norwegians are in the night". Even the Dutch were a breeze in comparison to the primeval Norwegians as far as my father was concerned. The amazing thing was it didn't matter what part of Belfast you were from out on the Lough, they all never forgot how the Norwegians came and burnt down Holywood and all along the shore towards Bangor and Donaghadee. I think it was 800 AD or round about then. Apparently my father and the other bargehands never got over that. So I always kept out of the road of the Norwegians myself when I got up...' He described himself to me as 'ethincally Celtic Irish in today's popular observations', but with 'a British birth certificate' who enjoyed childhood on the 'Norman-French estates' of the Ards Peninsula. '... When I (with my parents) moved to Outer West Belfast in 1948, I felt always an immigrant from the Ards Peninsula and the view of the Mountains of Mourne overlooking the Ards Peninsula encouraged memories of the above background, environment and geographies of the Ards when I was a child ...' So, a complex, interesting, humourous, down-to-earth series of memories and observations. I'd love to meet him some day, he sounds like a man with oceans of stories to tell. Posted by Mark Thompson at Tuesday, November 05, 2013 0 comments	cc/2021-04/en_head_0059.json.gz/line45
__label__wiki	0.659257	0.659257	STOMP at the Theatre Royal By Rebecca McRitchie Rhythmic beats and uproarious laughter filled the Theatre Royal as the skilled cast of STOMP made themselves heard. After their performance at the Closing Ceremony of the London 2012 Olympics, the skilled entertainers of STOMP are back with new choreography and new music. The musical routines are succinctly coordinated and energetically performed to the point where it is impossible not to be amazed. Various instruments are used in synchronised harmony; from hands and feet, to matchboxes and Zipper lighters, to buckets and shopping trolleys, to pipes and plastic bags, to trashcans and brooms, to newspapers and cups, to basketballs and even kitchen sinks. The clever, inventive and impressive show features a lot of audience interaction and by the end of the night you will find yourself not only thoroughly entertained but also desperately trying to clap and stomp with any resemblance of rhythm. Similarly, despite being a completely wordless performance, STOMP is incredibly funny with many of the characters on stage partaking in slapstick and mime. Fast-paced and high energy, STOMP is perfect for kids and adults of all ages. The particularly memorable routines are by far the group routines, where singular beats are soon transformed into synchronised and harmonious music. No wonder STOMP is in its 11th year in London�s West End and its 20th year on Broadway! Stomp is on at the Theatre Royal in Sydney until Saturday September 15. Tickets can be purchased here. Every Second By Jessica Leafe Win a double pass to see Anything Goes at the Sydney Opera House We have a double pass to give away to see Caroline O'Connor and Todd McKenney in Anything Goes on Sunday, 6 September at the Sydney Opera House. Jake Gyllenhaal sings on Broadway Jake Gyllenhaal has shared a sneak peek of rehearsals for the musical Sunday in the Park with George. He has gone from Nocturnal Animals to Life which he has just... Heather Mitchell on Baz Luhrmann Heather Mitchell is one of Australia's most respected actresses across film, television and theatre. She most recently starred in Baz Luhrmann's The Great Gatsby and plays Shirley Hastings in the... Steve Rodgers on his passion for food Steve�s play Ray�s Tempest was shortlisted for the Patrick White Playwrights� Award and nominated in the Best New Australian Work category of the Sydney Theatre Awards, following productions at both...	cc/2021-04/en_head_0059.json.gz/line46
__label__cc	0.685116	0.314884	21/10/2017 - Khatam Al-Quran Ceremony in Conjunction with the Golden Jubilee More than 400 members of the Women's Council took part in the Khatam Al-Quran ceremony in conjunction with the Golden Jubilee of His Majesty the Sultan and Yang Di-Pertuan of Brunei Darussalam's Accession to the Throne. The ceremony was to express gratitude, love and loyalty to His Majesty the Sultan and Yang Di-Pertuan of Brunei Darussalam who ruled the country successfully. The ceremony began with the reading of Surah Al-Fatihah led by Pengiran Datin Paduka Hajah Mariam binti Pengiran Haji Matarsat, the first Vice-President of the Women's Council. Subsequently, followed by the reading of surah khatam and tahktim as well as doa khatam led by Dayang Hajah Taibah binti Kudi, Member of the Women's Welfare Association of the Belait District. Among those participated were Datin Hajah Masni binti Haji Mohd Ali, the second Vice-President of the Women's Council and Dayang Hajah Kertini binti Orang Kaya Paduka Setia Diraja Abang Haji Abu Hanifah, the third Vice-President of the Women's Council. News courtesy of Radio Television Brunei Photo courtesy of InfoFoto	cc/2021-04/en_head_0059.json.gz/line53
__label__wiki	0.939091	0.939091	Myrtle, John: Charles Ulm’s vision and determination made him a pioneer of Australian aviation John Myrtle* ‘Charles Ulm’s vision and determination made him a pioneer of Australian aviation’, Honest History, 20 August 2018 John Myrtle reviews Charles Ulm: The Untold Story of One of Australia’s Greatest Aviation Pioneers by Rick Searle More than 80 years after the death of Charles Ulm, it is remarkable that only now do we have a detailed biography of this significant pioneer of Australian aviation. It comes in this book by Rick Searle, a freelance writer and film maker. One reason for this gap is that Ulm’s name has often been associated with and over-shadowed by that of Charles Kingsford Smith, who is generally acknowledged as the pre-eminent pioneer Australian aviator. Historically, Ulm was not a pioneer aviator but, as Searle’s biography demonstrates, he had vision and determination that established him as a genuine pioneer of Australian aviation. Charles Ulm was born in Melbourne on 18 October 1898. While he was still young his family moved to Sydney. He was a restless spirit and left school at the age of 14, commencing work as a clerk in a firm of stockbrokers. Such was his restlessness that, when the war came in 1914, he forged the signature of a parent and joined up. He landed at Gallipoli in April 1915, was wounded and returned to Australia. Eight months later he re-enlisted, this time with parental approval, and was deployed to France, where he was seriously wounded and evacuated to England for recuperation. He claimed to have undertaken flight training there, but there is no official record of this. Returning to Australia, Ulm had no verifiable flying experience and was not a licensed pilot. However, the war had shown the opportunities for aviation. Ulm was soon involved with various ventures, initially regional services in New South Wales. By 1927, he became aware of Interstate Flying Services, a company set up by two experienced wartime pilots, Kingsford Smith and Keith Anderson. The company was struggling but Ulm became business manager and reinvigorated its operations. Eventually, Kingsford Smith and Ulm fell out with Anderson, a split fuelled by Ulm’s uncompromising approach to the business. The 1927 achievement of Charles Lindbergh in flying single-handed from New York to Paris galvanised other aviators to contemplate significant long distance flights, such as the journey from the United States to Australia. The Pacific crossing was a daunting prospect with pinpoint navigation required over long stretches of ocean. The planning and execution of the historic 1928 flight from San Francisco to Brisbane by Kingsford Smith and Ulm, with the navigation and communications support of Harry Lyon and Jim Warner, is vividly related in this biography. Ulm and parents, 1914 (NLA) There were three legs in the trip: San Francisco-Hawaii; Hawaii-Fiji, and Fiji-Brisbane. The middle leg was the most perilous as the longest non-stop overwater journey yet attempted. The Southern Cross aircraft had to be modified with fuel tanks carrying four tons (over 3500 kilograms) of fuel. A photograph in the book shows the rear cabin with wicker chairs for Lyon and Warner, with a massive fuel tank blocking all access between the pilots and their support crew. The men communicated by attaching notes to a fishing rod pushed between the fuel tanks. Kingsford Smith’s skill as a pilot was critical to the success of the flight, while Ulm was a subordinate co-pilot. His real importance was his planning and organisational skill. He negotiated sponsorship and funding – and feuded along the way with various individuals and groups who he felt were threatening the project. The original intention had been for Kingsford Smith and Ulm to fly the final and shortest leg of the journey, Fiji-Brisbane, without Lyon and Warner, thus concluding the journey with an all-Australian crew. This led to an angry exchange between Ulm and Lyon and, while Lyon and Warner eventually resumed as part of the crew for the final leg, they had to sign a restrictive and patronising legal agreement. ‘Ulm’s mercenary, legalistic approach [in settling this dispute] had taken a sheen from the whole enterprise (Searle, p. 130).’ With the completion of the trans-Pacific crossing Kingsford Smith and Ulm were feted and amply rewarded. They received honorary commissions from the RAAF and payments from the federal and New South Wales governments. An American sponsor, Captain Allan Hancock, the owner of the Southern Cross, would gift the aircraft to Kingsford Smith and Ulm and settle outstanding debts from the flight. Capitalising on the success of the flight, Ulm’s ambition was to build an airline to link the capital cities of Australia. The establishment of Australian National Airways (ANA) was announced in December 1928. The Sydney-based company had a nominal capital of £200 000, with Kingsford Smith and Ulm as salaried joint managing directors. At first, ANA’s service (Brisbane-Sydney) was popular, and a daily mail service was a useful sideline. The public were attracted to a service associated with Kingsford Smith and Ulm, but Kingsford Smith was quickly bored with regular line flying and removed himself from the airline’s operations. It was Ulm who drove the operations and administration, hired the pilots and other staff, and promoted the service. Kingsford Smith’s lack of interest and involvement meant his and Ulm’s careers would follow different paths. In the words of one writer, ‘by November 1931 there were signs of disintegration in the partnership of Kingsford Smith and Ulm … It is clear that their once-cherished relationship had been souring for some time.’[1] And there were dark clouds ahead for ANA. On 21 March 1931 an ANA aircraft, the Southern Cloud, disappeared on a flight from Sydney to Melbourne. All on board perished; the wreckage, as well as the bodies of the pilot, co-pilot and six passengers, remained undiscovered for 27 years. The loss of the Southern Cloud was a body blow for the fledgling service, and there were other challenges for the airline, with increasing competition in passenger and mail services from other operators, particularly as the Great Depression impacted on business confidence. In February 1933, ANA shareholders voted to wind up the company and dispose of its assets. ANA’s demise shook Ulm. Though his personal finances were depleted he continued to work on his next aviation venture, a trans-Pacific air service from Sydney via Auckland and Fiji to Honolulu. In September 1934, he registered a new company, Great Pacific Airways, with nominal capital of £500 000 and himself as managing director. Despite having little working capital, the company acquired an Airspeed Envoy aircraft. On 3 December 1934, the plane, named Stella Australis, took off from San Francisco for Honolulu with Ulm as chief pilot and a relatively inexperienced co-pilot and navigator-communications operator. Ulm and Prime Minister JA Lyons (centre), 1934 (NLA) The aircraft never reached Honolulu and all three men perished. After Ulm’s death there was criticism of his final trans-Pacific venture, but Ernest (later Sir Ernest) Fisk, a supporter of Ulm and chairman of Great Pacific, spoke out in Ulm’s defence, stating that his objective had been ‘both patriotic and businesslike’. The short entry for Ulm in the Australian Dictionary of Biography suggests that ‘Ulm was regarded with considerable affection by those who worked with him’. While this may have been true for a small group of close associates, the reality is that, for a larger number of pilots and other employees, he was hard driving and uncompromising in his personal relations. Throughout his life Ulm seems to have been a restless individual who had an obsession with furthering his aviation interests, often to the detriment of personal relationships. Interestingly, both Ulm and Kingsford Smith had a close relationship with the controversial Sydney solicitor Eric Campbell, who was the founder and principal behind the New Guard movement in New South Wales in the 1930s. Campbell was Ulm’s personal and business lawyer and Ulm in turn seems to have strongly supported Campbell’s New Guard activities. The New Guard memoirs of Eric Campbell record a communication from Ulm: ‘The boys liked the part about kicking out Communists instead of being kicked out by Communists – you can count on both Smithy and me’.[2] For researchers, there is ample evidence of Ulm’s organisational skills and his flair for promotion and publicity. Libraries such as the National Library of Australia and the Mitchell Library in Sydney, together with the National Museum of Australia, have considerable holdings of his personal papers, photographs and other documents. These provide testament to Ulm’s promotional skills and business acumen. Searle’s biography does not say much about Ulm’s personal life. Soon after returning to Australia from the Great War, a youthful Ulm met Isabel Winter. They were married in November 1919 and their only son, John, was born in 1921. They soon separated and were divorced in 1927. Rebuilding his life, Ulm lodged in Sydney with a school teacher, Mary Josephine (Jo) Callaghan, who was to become a soulmate and later his second wife. Jo Callaghan was ‘a plain, bespectacled, academic-looking woman, regarded with universal affection’.[3] Ulm (far left) with Ellen Rogers (centre), Jo Callaghan, and others, New Zealand, 1933 (NLA) The third significant woman in Ulm’s life was Ellen Rogers, a young and glamorous secretary who met Ulm in 1928 after the historic Southern Cross flight. Ulm employed Rogers when Ulm and Kingsford Smith established ANA in December 1928 and she continued to work for Ulm until his death. Even after Ulm’s death Rogers worked to preserve his legacy.[4] This book is an important chronicle of the public Ulm, but there are other aspects of his life that remain to be uncovered. The Australian Dictionary of Biography entry on Kingsford Smith tells us that ‘his contribution to civil aviation was an effort of faith and stamina’. The same could be said of Ulm. * John Myrtle was principal librarian at the Australian Institute of Criminology, Canberra. He has produced Online Gems for Honest History, drawing upon his extensive database of references and including notes about the 1940 Canberra plane crash and the 1937 Stinson crash in Queensland, and has written a number of book reviews for us (use our Search engine). He has also explored the history of the Arthur Norman Smith lectures in journalism. [1] Ian Mackersey, Smithy: The Life of Sir Charles Kingsford Smith, Little, Brown, Boston, 1998, p. 263. [2] Eric Campbell, The Rallying Point: My Story of the New Guard, Melbourne University Press, 1965, p. 49. [3] Mackersey, pp. 90-91. [4] Ellen Rogers, Faith in Australia: Charles Ulm and Australian Aviation, Book Production Services, Sydney, 1987 ‹ Alfano, Mark: They shall not die in vain: how the Islamic State honours its fallen soldiers – and how Australians do the same Searle, Rick: Charles Ulm: The Untold Story of One of Australia’s Greatest Aviation Pioneers › Click here for all items related to: Learning and improving, The sweat of our brows	cc/2021-04/en_head_0059.json.gz/line54
__label__wiki	0.776436	0.776436	December 15th, 2020, Posted in: Uncategorized December 9, 2020 \| The Architect’s Newpaper \| Matt Hickman In 1990, a year when B. Dalton and Wet Seal reigned supreme and the seemingly indomitable American shopping mall was at its zenith, the city of Columbus, Indiana, gained its second proper enclosed shopping center—one of an estimated 19 malls to open across the United States that year. Located on the site of the old Bartholomew County Fairgrounds in the city’s core retail district, the new Fair Oaks Mall was built three miles northeast of City Center, a conventional early 1970s-era indoor shopping mall conjoined to a glass-encased civic event space known as the Commons. Both buildings were designed by César Pelli for Gruen Associates—a name synonymous with shopping malls from Culver City, California, to Waukegan, Illinois, and many points in between. In 1956, the firm’s Vienna-born founder, Victor Gruen, introduced American consumers to the nation’s first fully enclosed, climate-controlled shopping mall, Southdale Center in Edina, Minnesota. Columbus’s two-mall era, however, was short-lived. Pelli’s Commons and City Center—better known as the Commons Mall—were almost fully demolished in 2008 to make way for a downtown redevelopment project centered around a new indoor community space. The 413,000-square-foot Fair Oaks Mall, a more workaday retail destination with a decent number of mall staples and no architectural pedigree to speak of, soldiered on. Today, Fair Oaks Mall is still open and home to a modest—less than you could count on with two hands—smattering of retail and restaurant tenants with a Kmart-turned-Dunham’s sporting goods store serving as its sole surviving anchor. Mall walkers continue to utilize the concourse and the former J.C. Penny has seen a lot of action as of late. But for all intents and purposes, Fair Oaks Mall is dead. Demolition underway at the Commons Mall in downtown Columbus in 2008. (Elizabeth Nicodemus/Flickr/CC BY-SA 2.0) Like with many dying and dead malls across the country, the afterlife of Fair Oaks Mall has been predetermined ahead of the proverbial plug being fully pulled. But in a refreshing deviation from the norm, the mall won’t give way to a private mixed-use development with housing or be partially converted into a mega-church or Amazon fulfillment center. The nonprofit Fair Oaks Community Development Corporation (FOCDC), a partnership between the City of Columbus and Columbus Regional Health (CRH), now owns the 36-acre property and plans to transform the mall into a public asset: A health and recreational campus centered around “holistic well-being” where the current mall walkers and sporting goods store patrons will feel right at home. After acquiring the mall in December 2018, the FOCDC tapped Columbus, Ohio-headquartered landscape architecture and urban design firm MKSK and Perkins&Will the following June to create a master plan and long-term vision for the Fair Oaks Mall site. While the implementation of that vision is currently on hold due to the coronavirus pandemic, the master plan that emerged from the process is remarkable: a multi-faceted community center-slash-wellness hub that functions as a sort of spiritual cousin to a YMCA but with a food court and, yes, even some retail. As Lindsey Peckinpaugh, a Chicago-based practice leader with Perkins&Will’s Sports, Recreation, and Entertainment division, explained it, both CRH and the City possess “the common goal to return the mall to some sort of community and outward-facing use.” Yet both are also pursuing their own unique objectives. For the CRH, the adaptive reuse project helps it to centralize some clinical services scattered across the city into a supportive hub. The City, meanwhile, has long been in need of both indoor recreational facilities for parks department-headed programming, and additional administrative space. “I think the mayor [James Lienhoop], more than anything, was concerned about what would happen to the mall if it was just left to the private market,” added Peckinpaugh. “It probably wasn’t going to be developed in a way that was commensurate with the surrounding land use and additive to the City’s quality of life.” Empty big box store today… (Courtesy Perkins&Will) Although Peckinpaugh’s practice has experienced a flurry of interest—from both real estate developers and city managers alike—in the potential of converting defunct big box anchor stores into recreational facilities, what’s planned for the Fair Oaks Mall goes beyond turning an old Sears into a very large Equinox. Every square inch of the over 526,000-square-foot planned facility will be dedicated to health and wellness-related uses including group exercise areas and fitness studios, sports courts, a demonstration kitchen, cardiac center, hydrotherapy pool, and nutritional and clinical services operated by CRH. Because the program of the building is so diverse, there’s a sort of baked-in inclusivity that leads to all users, whether there for a pilates class or diabetic counseling, feeling welcome. … community fitness center tomorrow. (Courtesy Perkins&Will) “Something that I think is interesting that we’ve talked about as an aspirational goal—and we’re seeing it in other blended typology projects like this—is the notion of the spectrum of care or spectrum of well-being,” explained Peckinpaugh. “No matter whether you’re healthy, you’re recovering from an injury, or you’re getting treatment from a disease, everybody co-mingles as one in a community.” In addition to CRH-led outpatient health services and fitness facilities, 25 percent of the Fair Oaks Mall’s footprint will be reserved for nonprofit community partners at competitive lease rates as well as “complementary” retail—think, for example, of a yoga gear purveyor filling in the spot where The Limited used to be. The Dunham’s sporting goods store that’s still bound to an active lease has expressed interest to the city in maintaining a presence at the property post-redevelopment which, as observed by Peckinpaugh, makes sense as “it’s going to be a complementary use for them.” Other tenants might potentially include spa services, banks, and food and beverage establishments to fill out the food court. “You think about all the soccer moms who could go and get a manicure between doing something else,” mused Peckinpaugh. And, as mentioned, loyal mall walkers are taken into the account. Per the master plan, a dedicated walking track along the existing concourse would be a central feature of the reimagined and reactivated Fair Oaks Mall. “We talk a lot about in our practice about eliminating barriers to access and the fact that within our communities there are very few places where you can go as a community member and don’t have to pay for something, believe in something, or buy something,” said Peckinpaugh of maintaining an element that’s wholly accessible to the public like a mall corridor-turned-walking track. “An important tenet of the plan is that people go into the building, freely walk around, and shop if they choose to. But there will be points of access control that you need [a] membership, an appointment, or reason to be in a program.” The site plan for the reimagined Fair Oaks Mall. (Courtesy Perkins&Will) David Sheldon, a Los Angeles-based associate principal with Perkins&Will’s Corporate and Commercial practice, also noted the key role the concourse has in breathing new life into this particular dead mall and potentially others. “The interesting thing about the concourse is the potential to activate it with more thoughtful wellness leases,” he said. “The fallback is to go to Claire’s and Auntie Anne’s pretzels but I think that with concepts like this and what is envisioned for this particular property, there’s an opportunity to really make it holistic—it’s right there.” “Developers need to be thinking differently about their performance and also need to be thinking about their rent rolls a little bit differently” added Sheldon. “And that can help to better activate that armature so that everyone’s experiencing a heightened sense of the wellness opportunity.” The master plan envisioned by MKSK and Perkins&Will also extends beyond the existing footprint of the mall. The redevelopment will be anchored by a large multi-use field house located directly to the north of the mall at the site of a former satellite department store (Goody’s) that’s now leased as office space to the Columbus-based Cummins engine company; Cummins’ Kevin Roche-designed corporate headquarters, completed in 1983, are located downtown, not too far from the old Commons Mall. And that lease is maturing soon. As noted by Peckinpaugh, Columbus has long sought to establish a crowd-drawing indoor turf facility that could be used year-round to host regional tournaments for sports like lacrosse and rugby football. The idea is that such a venue, envisioned as a bustling hub for “regional youth sports tourism,” could draw enough spectators to support retail and other complementary services at the adjacent mall. While the COVID-19 crisis has forced the FOCDC to hit the pause button for the time being, the metamorphic redevelopment of Fair Oaks Mall is still very much in play. “We’ve been told by the City of Columbus that it’s not a question of if, it’s just a question of when,” explained Peckinpaugh. “They’re waiting for recovery. (A large amount of funding that had been set aside for the first phase of the project was ultimately distributed throughout the community as small business loans during the pandemic.) Like with the extensive community engagement process that informed the master plan and drew what Peckinpaugh’s estimated to be an average of 20- to-300 community members per meeting, the FOCDC is committed to a high level of transparency regarding the future of the redevelopment. (Courtesy Perkins&Will) “This is one of the biggest differences between this concept and the more typical concept of engagement about the future of these properties,” added Sheldon of the openness of the project. “Because the fact that it’s so public and is already ingratiating itself into the community—you don’t have a choice, you are in it. It’s not about anything other than how do we move something forward that has some level of consensus.” And while the Fair Oaks Mall may be in the same state of limbo (former AN executive editor Matt Shaw paid a visit Fair Oaks Mall in 2008 and even then observed it as being largely abandoned) as countless other mall properties in the country there is, of course, the fact that it’s a dead mall in a mid-sized Midwestern city internationally famous for its wealth of modernist architecture. “Working in Columbus is both an honor and a great responsibility,” said Peckinpaugh. “Just redeveloping 400 or 500,000 square feet of space in itself is a huge investment. I do think that when we get into design there will be a lot of management of expectations because this is a project being put forth by the community—and it probably won’t be the architectural gem that they want it to be, but I do know with creativity and proper management the facility can be meaningfully transformed into a facility Columbus is proud of.” Design expectations aside, Peckinpaugh and Sheldon hope that the reimagined Fair Oaks Mall doesn’t necessarily garner attention for the way it looks but for its emphasis on community-based programming that harkens back to Victor Gruen’s original vision for the American mall. “We’ve seen a fairly significant amount of malls that are looking to transform,” said Sheldon. “And we as architects come in, and we look at residential, we look at mixed-use, we look at entertainment. And then it just goes back to some sort of form of disposable retail, which will be outdated and outmoded within the next five to seven years, anyways. And so, they’re not really solving the problem.” “Our interest in this has really been born from how to take millions of square feet of properties and transform them back to our communities and do it in a different way,” he added. “And I think what we’re talking about with Columbus is a great example of that.” Tags: columbus, fair oaks mall, Indiana, mall, redevelopment, retrofit	cc/2021-04/en_head_0059.json.gz/line56
__label__wiki	0.840781	0.840781	Grindhouse (Planet Terror & Death Proof) (2007) The Muppets' Wizard of Oz (TV) (2005) Kill Bill, Volume 1 (2003) POM Wonderful Presents The Greatest Movie Ever Sold (2011) Pulp Fiction (1994) Once Upon a Time...in Hollywood (2019) Dreamgirls (2006) Miami Vice (2006) Stealth (2005) Ray (2004) Any Given Sunday (1999) The Soloist (2009) Big Eyes (2014) The 11th Hour (2007) The Aviator (2004) Gangs of New York (2002) Revolutionary Road (2008) Shutter Island (2010) The Basketball Diaries (1995) J. Edgar (2012) Black Snake Moan (2007) Snakes on a Plane (2006) Freedomland (2006) XXX: State of the Union (2005) In My Country (a.k.a. Country of My Skull) (2005) Coach Carter (2005) The Incredibles (2004) xXx (2002) Jumper (2008) Soul Men (2008) The Negotiator (1998) African Cats (2011) The War (2007) Turbo (2013) RoboCop (2014) Chi-Raq (2015) Kong: Skull Island (2017) Incredibles 2 (2018) The Last King of Scotland (2006) Mr. and Mrs. Smith (2005) Against the Ropes (2004) Predators (2010) Justified: The Complete First Season (2010) Justified: The Complete Second Season (2011) James Remar Dexter: The Second Season (2006) Dexter: The First Season (2006) Dexter: The Third Season (2009) Dexter: The Fifth Season (2011) Dexter: The Sixth Season (2006) All Superheroes Must Die (a.k.a. Vs) (2011) The Ninth Gate (1999) The Astronaut Farmer (2007) Down in the Valley (2006) Nebraska (2013) There's a case to be made that blood-spattering revenge pictures, no matter how evil the villain, are cultural poison, but if this is what it takes to [get] Don Johnson as a dyed-in-the-wool racist done up as Colonel Sanders, well, so be it. 165 min. The Weinstein Co.. Director: Quentin Tarantino. Cast: Jamie Foxx, Christoph Waltz, Leonardo DiCaprio, Samuel L. Jackson, Kerry Washington, Walton Goggins, Dennis Christopher, Don Johnson, James Remar, Michael Parks, James Russo, Quentin Tarantino, Bruce Dern, Franco Nero. Brace yourselves for Quentin Tarantino's latest provocation, the spaghetti western cum slavery epic Django Unchained. Tarantino repeats the feat of Nazi-revenge wish-fulfillment fantasia Inglourious Basterds, with subject matter yet more highly charged for American audiences. Like Inglourious Basterds, Django Unchained makes history its bitch in a way that's always audacious and entertaining, frequently funny and, at times, juvenile and repellent. That's the deal you enter into with Tarantino, so there's no point in acting surprised when he fulfills his promise. He's the king of his own genre: call it scavenger cinema. A curator of down-and-dirty pictures, Tarantino crafts mash-ups of fave flicks from the '60s and '70s (such as the 1966 spaghetti western Django, whose star Franco Nero appears in Tarantino's film). In keeping with those films, Tarantino serves up a strong graphic sensibility (hello, snap zooms!), a funky soundtrack (from John Legend to Ennio Morricone), and a hyperbolic hero in Jamie Foxx's Django. As the film opens in 1858, Django gets sprung from a chain gang by a bounty hunter named Dr. King Schultz (Christoph Waltz, reminding us why he won an Oscar for Basterds). Plainly noting, "I kill people and sell their corpses for cash," Schultz enlists Django to help him track three nasties and put them down. Django's a quick study, swiftly excelling his teacher in the art of killing. This initial mission is but prelude to Django's one true purpose: to reunite with his wife Broomhilda von Shaft (Kerry Washington) and free her from slavery. Taken with the mythic echoes of Siegfried and Brünnhilde, Schultz agrees to help Django, and they set off for Candyland, the Deep South plantation ruled with an iron fist by Calvin Candie (a convincingly Mephistophelean Leonardo DiCaprio). There, Candie subjects his male slaves to "Mandingo fighting" (the term a nod to the Ghost of Blaxploitation Past) and his female slaves to prostitution. Here, too, Tarantino introduces us to the "house Negro" Stephen, expertly played to the hilt by Samuel L. Jackson. A shameful collaborationist who has learned to shuck and jive to thrive, Stephen cackles at Candie's jokes and hovers over his shoulder obligingly. In these scenes, which also concern an elaborate ruse forcing Django to mistreat slaves, Tarantino thrillingly steps past the physical horrors and plain evil of slavery and into the moral complexities of this pre-Civil War war that also horribly pitted brother against brother. But Tarantino's greater concern, as usual, is to entertain at all costs, so Django Unchained is content to turn into Blazing Saddles for five minutes (as it takes a Coen Brothers-esque swipe at the idiocy of the pre-KKK) and to feverishly indulge Tarantino's favorite genre: the revenge picture. Like Basterds, Django Unchained arrives at an opportunity for vengeance (and, for the audience, vicarious vengeance) in a bloodsport staged with hand-rubbing, lip-licking glee and the triumph of an end-zone dance. There's a case to be made that blood-spattering revenge pictures, no matter how evil the villain, are cultural poison, but if this is what it takes to scandalize audiences with Don Johnson as a dyed-in-the-wool racist done up as Colonel Sanders, well, so be it. Try making a big-budget picture on American slave life and not being Quentin Tarantino, and see how far that gets you; meanwhile, thank goodness for not-so-small favors. [This review first appeared in Palo Alto Weekly.]	cc/2021-04/en_head_0059.json.gz/line57

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