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92-year-old woman kills son for trying to put her in nursing home
Anna Mae Blessing told the police that her son wanted to move her to a nursing home because she was becoming difficult to live with.
By Namrata Tripathi
Updated On : 22:06 PST, Mar 8, 2020
Tags :Arizona
(Source:Police Department)
A 92-year-old woman from Arizona allegedly shot her son and killed him on Monday after he attempted to place her in an assisted living facility, according to reports.
The woman, identified as Anna Mae Blessing of Fountain Hills, reportedly appeared in court in a wheelchair and orange jumpsuit on Tuesday. Blessing is charged with first-degree murder, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and kidnapping, according to Daily Mail.
Blessing shot her son Thomas with one of the two weapons she had hidden under her bed in her room, which was in his girlfriend's condo. Thomas, who was 72-years-old, moved to his girlfriend's condo with his mother six months ago and his mother was worried that the couple was planning to move her to a nursing home.
Reports state that Blessing, on Monday morning, hid two pistols inside her house robe and walked into her son's room and shot him twice. One of the bullets hit his neck while the other pierced through his jaw. Blessing then moved towards Thomas' 57-year-old girlfriend with the gun pointed at her, but then the woman swiftly wrestled the weapon out of the nonagenarian's hand. The incident, however, was not over. Blessing took out another gun from her robe but the girlfriend also managed to wrestle the second weapon out of her hand.
Reports state that without any weapons, Blessing then sat back in a recliner chair and waited for police to arrive at the scene.
After Blessing was arrested, she proclaimed: "You ended my life, so I'm taking yours." She reportedly also told the officers that she wanted to kill herself but she was not left with any more weapons. When the officials asked her what she thinks should happen to her now, she reportedly "replied with she should be 'put to sleep' as a result of her actions."
She told the detectives that both the guns used in the incident — a revolver and a .25 caliber pistol — were hers and that she had not used either of the weapons since the 1970s before Monday's incident. Thomas, her son, had reportedly been arrested for harassment and assault previously.
Maricopa County Sheriff Paul Penzone said that police had been called previously to at least one other case of domestic violence which involved Blessing and her son. However, Penzone did not divulge any further details regarding the incident.
Penzone, while talking to KSAZ-TV, said: "It is always concerning when domestic issues escalate to violence or tragic outcomes. They are often isolated and neither predictable nor preventable." Blessing's bond has reportedly been set at $500,000 and she is due to reappear in court on July 10.
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Father stabs 10-month-old son to death because he saw the child 'having a 666 on him'
The arrest report said that the child's mother had left the apartment for a little while to run some errands and had put Hidalgo in charge of watching the infant and another child
By Varsha Vasudevan
Updated On : 00:00 PST, Mar 19, 2020
Tags :Utah
(Source:Getty Images)
A man was arrested by Ogden authorities in Utah after being linked to the death of his infant son, whose body was discovered in a trash can in their house with stab wounds on his neck last Friday.
Thirty seven-year-old Alex Hidalgo was arrested early on July 22 morning on suspicion of aggravated murder, obstruction of justice, and abuse or desecration of a dead human body.
According to Ogden Police Captain Danielle Croyle, 10-month-old Alex Hidalgo Jr., was found in a trash can at Madison Manor Apartments, 2434 Madison Avenue, around 4 pm on July 20. The infant was immediately taken to a nearby hospital where medical personnel pronounced him dead.
Records from the prison showed that the father was arrested and booked into the Weber County on suspicion of aggravated murder, obstruction of justice, and abuse or desecration of a dead human body.
The authorities had initially named Hidalgo as a person of interest in the case but were not able to find him till July 21 evening.
The arrest report said that the child's mother had left the apartment for a little while on some errands, and had put Hidalgo in charge of watching Hidalgo Jr. as well as another child. When she got back home, she found Hidalgo sitting on the couch and reading a Bible while watching a religious video.
To the mother's horror, Hidalgo said that he had built an altar "like they had talked about" when she enquired about the whereabouts of their son. The report also stated that when Hidalgo finally started talking about their son, he said that he saw the child "having a 666 on him" and that he was dead, reported Newsweek.
The frantic mother searched the entire apartment and finally found her son's body in a garbage can in a closet in the apartment. According to the report, Hidalgo left the apartment shortly after that. One of the neighbors along with the infant's mother started performing CPR on the child until the paramedics arrived at the apartment and took the child to McKay Dee Hospital.
Reports stated that after investigators responded to the call from the home they found blood in multiple areas inside. They were also able to find evidence of what looked like efforts to clean up the scene after the crime. Later, a medical examiner said that the infant had died after receiving three stab wounds to the neck. Authorities found Hidalgo at around 9:30 pm on July 21 in an abandoned residence near 539 22nd Street. He was found with blood on his clothes, hands and arms, and his wrist as well. He was immediately taken into custody and booked into jail.
According to court documents, Hidalgo has a long criminal history dating back to 1999, and which includes a child sexual assault case from 2003 that was later dismissed by the court due to a lack of evidence.
Croyle said that the Weber County Homicide Task Force, Weber-Metro Crime Scene Investigators and the Utah Division of Child and Family Services all assisted with the investigation.
In another horrifying incident, a 36-year-old father who has been accused of brutally murdering his five-year-old son, was allegedly treated at two separate mental health institutes and then turned away from the third one just days before his son was killed.]
The man was charged soon after it was found that he had allegedly stabbed his son to death at a home in Carlingford, north-west Sydney, Australia. The alleged attack took place early on June 8. The young child's grandmother was in hysterics and fled with the boy in her hands for about 400 meters before she finally remembered to dial the emergency services. Paramedics who responded to the scene immediately rushed the boy and his grandmother to the nearest hospital but the child, unfortunately, died of his injuries right after reaching the hospital, the Daily Mail reported.
Reports from The Daily Telegraph said the accused murderer had gone to a hospital in Sydney last week because he was getting more and more concerned about his mental health. It's been alleged that he was turned away from the facility. The man went on to allegedly murder his son just a few hours later. The man had got himself treated for his mental health issues at two separate mental health facilities over the last few months.
A mechanic by profession, the 36-year-old father reportedly told the authorities that he believed his five-year-old son was "the devil". He claimed that this is why he had attacked the young child after the mother left for work on June 8. The grandmother, 60, was the one who found the "sweet boy" with stab wounds on his body and fighting for his life. She tried to save him by running away from the scene of the attack in desperation. Once she felt she was a safe distance away from the home, she called the emergency services.
The father appeared for his hearing at the Parramatta Bail Court on June 9 through a video link from the Amber Laurel Correctional Center. The court heard that the man's family has actually tried to find the father some help just a few days before he launched the alleged attack against his child.
9News reported that the father had only recently taken some personal time off of work. He was turned away from the third mental health facility that his family had tried to check him into because the facility did not have any more beds. The grandfather of the child said: "There is a lot more to this." When the father appeared at the hearing through the video link, he was reportedly very confused and asked: "Where am I?"
Neighbors who live close to the home where the incident took place told the Daily Mail that the father "cared for that boy very much". One of the witnesses spoke about how the grandmother's attempt to get her grandson to safety as "brave". Another neighbor who lived close by, Hank, told the publication: "He was a very sweet little boy. The relationship between the father and son was a doting relationship. [He] ran to his father when he wanted help."
Rob Critchlow, the New South Wales Police Superintendent, only had words of praise for the grandmother's act of bravery but said that "despite her best efforts, there was nothing more she could have done". He described the level of violence done to the little boy as "horrendous".
The investigation into the stabbing murder is currently in its early stages. The officer said at the scene of the crime on June 8: "The fact a young boy — five years of age — has died from being injured in his home, it's probably about as bad as it gets." The boy, studying in elementary school, was rushed to the Westmead Children's Hospital but he could not be saved. The father will appear in court on July 30.
Disclaimer : This is based on sources and we have been unable to verify this information independently.
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Latest News - #Donetsk People's Republic
The chair called the Crimea "Ukrainian"
Actor and showman Nikita Dzhigurda in the air YouTube channel "vs Vласть Vлащенко" called Crimea "legally Ukrainian."
"Legally, the Ukrainian Crimea is actually Russian, that's my position," said Dzhigurda.
#UN
#Sevastopol
#Republic Of Crimea
#Nikita Dzhigurda
#Donetsk People's Republic
#Show business
Security forces twice violated the ceasefire, said DNR
Ukrainian security forces violated the truce for Monday, told reporters the self-proclaimed representative of the Donetsk people's Republic in the Joint center for control and coordination of ceasefire (SCCC).
Earlier on Monday, the DNR office at SCCC said the lack of attacks from the Ukrainian security forces in the Donbass for the last days.
#SCCC
#Donbass
#The situation in the DNI and LC
In LNR called the idea of U.S. military assistance to Ukraine by fomenting war
The initiative of us senators about the allocation of military assistance to Ukraine testifies to the escalation of the conflict in the Donbass, said the representative of the self-proclaimed Luhansk national Republic in the political subgroup Rodion Miroshnik.
Earlier, a group of senators of the Republican and Democratic party, introduced a bill providing for an annual allocation of $ 300 million to Ukraine for military assistance, including the provision of lethal weapons.
#Rodion Miroshnik
#Luhansk People's Republic
Kravchuk called elections in the Donbass
Elections in Donbass require compliance with several conditions, including control of the Kiev on the state border with Russia, said Friday the ex-President of Ukraine, the new head of the delegation of Kiev in the contact group on settling the situation in the Donbass Leonid Kravchuk.
Earlier, the former President of Ukraine Leonid Kuchma stopped work in the contact group. On Thursday the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky has signed a decree which authorized the Kravchuk delegation to represent Kiev in the group.
#Vladimir Zelensky
#Leonid Kravchuk
#Leonid Kuchma
The opposition accused Zelensky in continuing the conflict in the Donbass
The President of Ukraine Vladimir Zelensky and his team emulate the cessation of hostilities in the Donbas and do everything so that the conflict lasted, said on Friday Ukrainian party "the Opposition platform For life".
27 July in Donbass came into effect extra measures to ensure ceasefire. These measures include a complete ban of fire, placing weapons in the settlements and near them, offensive and reconnaissance and sabotage actions. Orders ceasefire, containing measures for its maintenance, should be valid until full settlement of the conflict. Meanwhile, command of the operation United forces of Ukraine said Monday on recorded attacks by DNR in the first hour from the moment of entry into force of additional measures. In DND and LNR called the charges a provocation.
#The situation in Ukraine
Kravchuk spoke against granting special status to the Donbass
The ex-President of Ukraine, the new head of the delegation of Kiev in the contact group on settling the situation in the Donbass Leonid Kravchuk has said he would not support a special status for the region, we can only talk about the "special system".
Earlier, the former President of Ukraine Leonid Kuchma stopped work in the contact group. On Thursday, the Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky has signed a decree which authorized the Kravchuk delegation to represent Kiev in the group.
Kravchuk stated willingness to compromise on Donbas
The first President of Ukraine Leonid Kravchuk, who led the delegation on the eve of Kiev on the negotiations of the contact group on the Donbas, said in an interview with RBC-Ukraine about the readiness to compromise in conflict resolution.
"Mission one is to end the war to Ukraine was peace, that we may live peaceful: no blood, no horror, no loss, no damage. That's my mission remains to Donbass and Ukraine was the world. I'm going to do everything I can. Let's compromise..." - said Kravchuk, did not elaborate on what the compromise is about.
#Minsk
The Ukrainian foreign Ministry has sent Russia a note of protest
The Ukrainian foreign Ministry has sent Russia a note of protest due to the dispatch of humanitarian aid to the Donbass, said the press service of the Ministry.
EMERCOM of Russia reported on Thursday that the next humanitarian convoy has delivered humanitarian aid to residents of Donbass.
#Russia's EMERCOM (Ministry for civil defence, emergencies and elimination of consequences of natural disasters)
#The Ministry of foreign Affairs of Ukraine
In the office Zelensky told about the situation in the Donbass
The escalation of offensive operations in the Donbass after the announcement of the armistice, no, single attacks are not a system, said Thursday the press service of the office of the President of Ukraine following the meeting chaired by President Vladimir Zelensky.
On Monday in Donbass came into effect extra measures to ensure ceasefire. The commander of the joint forces of Ukraine Vladimir Kravchenko said that the opponents violated the ceasefire in the region on the first day of entry into force topmar its enforcement. Representation of the self-proclaimed Donetsk people's Republic in the Joint center for control and coordination of ceasefire (SCCC) and the national police LNR named these statements provocation. Later Zelensky said that in the Donbass, despite the declared truce, are "single shots", and warned that the Ukrainian security forces will respond to the firing.
In DND, the number of people infected with coronavirus has increased to 1728
The number of identified cases of infection with coronavirus COVID-19 in the self-proclaimed Donetsk people's Republic over the past day has increased to 18, up to 1728, announced Thursday in a press-service of the Ministry of health DND.
Earlier the Ministry reported about 1710 laboratory-confirmed cases of infection with coronavirus in the territory of the Republic.
#Coronaviruses
#The spread of a new coronavirus
#Denis Pushilin
#The Ministry of health DND
#Coronavirus COVID-19
In Parliament said the lack of an alternative to the "Minsk-2"
Speaker of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Dmitry Razumkov believes that in the near future, the alternative to Minsk agreements on Donbass does not appear, however, in terms of their implementation should be guided solely by the interests of Ukraine.
On Monday in Donbass came into effect extra measures to ensure ceasefire. The commander of the joint forces of Ukraine Vladimir Kravchenko said that the militia violated the truce in the region on the first day of entry into force doper. Representation of the self-proclaimed Donetsk people's Republic in the Joint center for control and coordination of ceasefire and the people's militia LC named these statements provocation. The President of Ukraine Vladimir Zelensky said that in the Donbass, despite the declared truce, are "single shots", the Ukrainian military will respond to the firing.
#Dmitry Razumkov
In LNR accused the Ukrainian forces of violating the truce
Ukrainian security forces first fired on the territory of the breakaway Lugansk people's Republic after the introduction of additional measures to control the truce in the Donbass, said at a briefing on Thursday, head of the national police LNR Yan Leshchenko.
Agreed by the contact group on additional measures for the security of the truce, entered July 27, suggest a complete ban of fire, placing weapons in the settlements and near them, offensive and reconnaissance and sabotage actions. The commander of the joint forces of Ukraine Vladimir Kravchenko said that the militia violated the truce in the region on the first day of entry into force doper. Representation of the self-proclaimed Donetsk people's Republic in the Joint center for control and coordination of ceasefire and the people's militia LC named these statements provocation.
#Sergey Leshchenko
#OSCE SMM
The DNR said one ceasefire violations by security forces for days
Ukrainian security forces once broke the truce in the Donbass for the last day, said on Thursday to journalists by the representative of the self-proclaimed Donetsk people's Republic in the Joint center for control and coordination of ceasefire (SCCC).
Wednesday at the DNR office at SCCC, said the absence of violations of the ceasefire by the Ukrainian security forces.
Russian convoy with humanitarian aid arrives in Donetsk
The humanitarian convoy of the EMERCOM of Russia arrived in Donetsk, said Thursday in the MOE self-proclaimed Donetsk people's Republic.
"The DNI has arrived 97-th humanitarian convoy from EMERCOM of the Russian Federation", - told RIA Novosti in the MOE DND.
#Lugansk
#Donetsk (Donetsk oblast)
In the LC we hope that Kiev will "find the strength" to observe a truce
The official representative of the people's militia self-proclaimed Luhansk people's Republic Yakov Osadchiy expressed the hope that Kiev will "find the strength" to observe a truce in the Donbass.
#The Ministry of defense of Ukraine
#The armed conflict in Eastern Ukraine
#Yakov Osadchiy
Zelensky reported "sporadic gunfire" in the Donbass
The President of Ukraine Vladimir Zelensky said that in the Donbass, despite the declared truce, are "single shots", the Ukrainian military will respond to the firing.
On Monday in Donbass came into effect extra measures to ensure ceasefire. The commander of the joint forces of Ukraine Vladimir Kravchenko said that the opponents violated the ceasefire in the region on the first day of entry into force topmar its enforcement. Representation of the self-proclaimed Donetsk people's Republic in the Joint center for control and coordination of ceasefire (SCCC) has named these statements provocation.
The DNR on Thursday awaiting the arrival of humanitarian convoy of the EMERCOM
The Ministry of emergency situations of the breakaway Donetsk national Republic is expected to arrive in Donetsk on Thursday, the 97-th humanitarian convoy of EMERCOM of Russia.
"The thirtieth of July in the DNI arrives 97-th humanitarian convoy from EMERCOM of Russia. According to preliminary data, the composition of the humanitarian convoy will include humanitarian aid in the form of medicines and medical property," - said the press service of the emergencies Ministry DND.
The DNR restored the water supply after attack
The utility had repaired the shelling water lines of the channel "Seversky Donets-Donbass", the water supply self-proclaimed Donetsk people's Republic is fully restored, said on Wednesday the press service of the Ministry of construction and housing and communal services of the DNI.
Earlier in DND stated that as a result of shelling by Ukrainian security forces on July 22 in the area of Gorlovka were damaged conduits channel "Seversky Donets-Donbass". The water supply to the Republic was reduced by a third.
DND accused Ukrainian forces of violating the truce
First Ukrainian security forces violated the ceasefire in the Donbass from July 27, when entered into force a set of additional measures for its control, said Wednesday the official representative of the self-proclaimed Donetsk people's Republic in the Joint center for control and coordination of ceasefire (SCCC).
Agreed by the contact group on additional measures for the security of the truce, which came into force on 27 July, suggest a complete ban of fire, placing weapons in the settlements and near them, offensive and reconnaissance and sabotage actions. In addition, they provide for disciplinary liability for the violation of the ceasefire. Orders ceasefire, containing measures for its maintenance, should be valid until full settlement of the conflict.
#Avdeevka
The number of identified cases of infection with coronavirus COVID-19 in the self-proclaimed Donetsk people's Republic over the past day has increased by 41, to 1710, said Wednesday in a press-service of the Ministry of health DND.
Previously, the Agency reported 1669 laboratory-confirmed cases of infection with coronavirus in the territory of the Republic.
In DND, the second day do not record attacks by the security forces
Ceasefire violations by the Ukrainian security forces in Donbass for the last day is not fixed, has informed on Wednesday to journalists in the representation of the self-proclaimed Donetsk people's Republic in the Joint center for control and coordination of ceasefire (SCCC).
On Tuesday, the DNR reported no attacks by the Ukrainian security forces.
In the Donbass per day recorded 111 violations of silence regime
Special monitoring mission (SMM) of the OSCE in Ukraine recorded the 111 violations of the ceasefire in the Donbass after the entry into force of additional measures on provision of the armistice on July 27, according to the daily mission report.
"After the meeting of the trilateral contact group on 22 July, on which agreement was reached on additional measures for strengthening of cease-fire from 00.01 on 27 July, the SMM observed 111 violations of the regime of silence, all in the Donetsk region, including 21 an explosion," says the report, released by the press service of the OSCE.
In DND called Kuchma constructive negotiator in the Donbass
The ex-President of Ukraine, the representative of Kiev in the contact group Leonid Kuchma is one of the few Ukrainian negotiators, who constructively approached the meetings on Donbass, his receivers have to make the right conclusions from its work on conflict resolution, said the envoy of the self-proclaimed Donetsk national Republic in the contact group, foreign Minister DND Natalia Nikonorova.
Kuchma on Tuesday stopped work in the contact group on conflict settlement in the Donbass. The second President of Ukraine this year will be 82 years old.
#THE MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS DND
#Natalia Nikonorova
Zelensky has created a military-civilian administration in Severodonetsk
The President of Ukraine Vladimir Zelensky has created a military-civilian administration in Severodonetsk, Luhansk region, the corresponding decree published on the website of the head of state on Tuesday.
In accordance with the decrees of the Ukrainian President informed, had created a number of civil-military administrations in the settlements of Donbass.
#Lugansk region
#Severodonetsk
The head of the Luhansk region spoke out against local elections in the Donbass
The head of Lugansk regional administration Sergei Gaidai stated that he opposes the holding of local elections in the settlements close to places of armed clashes in the Donbas, this was discussed at a briefing on Tuesday.
Earlier, the Parliament of Ukraine appointed on 25 October, the next local elections, they will not take place in uncontrolled Kiev territory of Donetsk and Lugansk regions. Also will not hold elections to the regional councils controlled Kiev territory of Donbass. These areas will continue to obey the civil-military administrations.
Named the reason for the departure of Kuchma, the contact group on Donbass
The source of the newspaper "New time" in the Office of the President of Ukraine explained why the former head of state Leonid Kuchma came out of the trilateral contact group on conflict settlement in the Donbass.
According to the interlocutor of the edition, the cause of death was old age of the former President. Kuchma this year will be 82 years old.
Meeting of the subgroup on safety in the Donbas began in video mode
An extraordinary meeting of the safety subgroup of the contact group on conflict settlement in the Donbass began in the videoconference, told reporters in the representation of the self-proclaimed Donetsk people's Republic in the Joint center for control and coordination of ceasefire (SCCC).
Earlier in DND announced that at the extraordinary meeting of the subgroup on Tuesday is scheduled to discuss the implementation of additional control measures the existing cease-fire, the involvement of a coordinating mechanism to respond to violations of the ceasefire regime, as well as coordination of mine action and withdrawal forces.
In DND, the number of people infected with coronavirus has reached 1669
The number of identified cases of infection with coronavirus COVID-19 in the self-proclaimed Donetsk people's Republic over the past day has increased by 21, to 1669, said Tuesday the press service of the Ministry of health DND.
Because of the threat of coronavirus in the DNR introduced the mode of increased readiness. The decree of the President of the Republic Denis Pushilin prohibited events, prohibited the entry of citizens without registration or confirmation of permanent residence, and for arrivals from countries identified by the staff to prevent the spread COVID-19 countries with unfavourable epidemiological situation, compulsory isolation for 14 days. In addition, DPR citizens were obliged to comply with social distance.
Meeting of the subgroup on safety will be held on Tuesday, said DNR
The implementation of measures to ensure the truce in the Donbass will be discussed at an extraordinary meeting of the subgroup on safety on Tuesday in a videoconference, told reporters in the representation of the self-proclaimed Donetsk people's Republic in the Joint center for control and coordination of ceasefire (SCCC).
Additional measures to ensure that the ceasefire came into force in Donbass on Monday. These measures include a complete ban of fire, placing weapons in the settlements and near them, offensive and reconnaissance and sabotage actions. In addition, they provide for disciplinary liability for the violation of the ceasefire. Orders ceasefire, containing measures for its maintenance, should be valid until full settlement of the conflict.
In DND accused the security forces placing weapons in residential areas
Ukrainian security forces in violation of additional measures to ensure the ceasefire in the Donbass has placed weapons in the settlements on the territory controlled by Kiev, said on Tuesday to journalists by the representative of the people's militia self-proclaimed Donetsk people's Republic.
#The armed forces of Ukraine
LC no recorded attacks by the security forces during the day
The people's militia self-proclaimed Luhansk people's Republic has not recorded attacks by Ukrainian security forces since the beginning of the additional measures of control over the ceasefire in Donbas entered into force on 27 July.
"According to the observers mission of the LC in the Joint center for control and coordination (JCCC) during the last day violations of the cease-fire by the AFF (armed forces of Ukraine - ed.) is not fixed," - said Tuesday the press service of the defense Ministry of the Republic.
Ukraine stood in the uncomfortable position
Vladimir Zelensky after a long break, called Vladimir Putin. The sides discussed issues of implementation of agreements reached by leaders of 9 December 2019 in the framework of the "Norman format" and also welcomed the agreement on a full ceasefire in the Donbass in the framework of the Contact group — this information is available on the websites of both presidents.
The rest of the accents differ.
#The Verkhovna Rada Of Ukraine
#Petro Poroshenko
#The authors
To "save face". Why in Kiev changed her tune after talking with Moscow
After Vladimir Putin and Vladimir Zelensky discussed the conflict in the Donbass, Kiev suddenly agreed to fulfill Minsk agreements signed in 2015. Before that Ukrainian officials have regularly stated that "Minsk" is irrelevant and should be deleted. In the zone of conflict was declared a truce. Whether Ukraine intends to fulfil its obligations — versed RIA Novosti.
A telephone conversation between the leaders of Russia and Ukraine took place on Sunday evening. Was initiated by Kiev. After the conversation, the office of the President released a sensational statement.
#The presidential elections in Ukraine
#Sergey Belasco
#The Federation Council of the Russian Federation
In Kiev held a rally demanding to prevent the "surrender" in the Donbass
A rally demanding to prevent the "surrender" in the Donbas has ended on Monday outside the offices of the President of Ukraine in Kiev, the correspondent of RIA Novosti.
Monday in the Donbass entered additional measures to maintain peace. The commander of the joint forces of Ukraine Vladimir Kravchenko said that the opponents violated the ceasefire in the region on the first day of entry into force topmar its enforcement. Representation of the self-proclaimed Donetsk people's Republic in the Joint center for control and coordination of ceasefire (SCCC) has named these statements provocation. On Monday, the public organization "resistance Movement surrender" organized a rally at the office of the President.
DNR accused Kiev in the organization of infocompany of destabilization in the Donbass
Kiev launched an information campaign to destabilize the situation on the contact line in the Donbass, told reporters the self-proclaimed representative of the Donetsk people's Republic in the Joint center for control and coordination of ceasefire (SCCC).
The Department explained that in the summary of operations of the joint forces of Ukraine refers to two violations of the cease-fire supposedly from the DNR. One of these facts were recorded on the night of 27 July in the area of the settlement Water, the second at lunchtime, near the village of Lenin on Gorlovka direction. The DNR fact both denied and said that in the area of Gorlovka at the Kiev time the violations were carried out repair work on the pipeline section damaged by the fire. At that time in the place were mirrored patrols of the OSCE SMM and task force DNR to SCCC, which recorded the full observance of the regime of silence. The restoration of the water pipeline passed in a regular mode.
In the office Zelensky said that the ceasefire in the Donbass operates
The ceasefire in the Donbas works, reported the press service of the office of the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky.
On Monday in Donbass came into effect extra measures to ensure ceasefire. While the commander of the combined forces of Ukraine Volodymyr Kravchenko claimed a violation by the opponent of the truce in the Donbass in the first day of entry into force topmar its enforcement. Representation of the self-proclaimed Donetsk people's Republic in the Joint center for control and coordination of ceasefire (SCCC) has named these statements provocation.
In the Russian Orthodox Church pray for the success of the truce in the Donbass
Russian Orthodox Church supported the announcement of a ceasefire in the Donbass, and praying for his success, said Monday the employee of the Department for external Church relations of the Moscow Patriarchate deacon Feodor Shulga.
"From the Russian Church we pray for the success of the peace initiatives", - said Shulga at a press conference in MIA "Russia today".
#Religion and ideology
#News - Religion and ideology
In DND I doubt in the long-term effect of the ceasefire
Kiev's actions forced the self-proclaimed Donetsk people's Republic doubt the long-term compliance with Ukrainian security forces of the ceasefire regime in the Donbass, said Monday the Deputy of the DNR people's Council Vladislav berdichevskiy.
Earlier, the commander of the combined forces of Ukraine said that units of the DND allegedly violated the truce in the first hours after the entry into force of additional measures. The DNR office in the Joint center for control and coordination of ceasefire (SCCC) has called the charges a provocation.
#Vladislav Berdichevskiy
Embassy of Canada in Ukraine, hopes for a lasting truce in the Donbass
Embassy of Canada in Ukraine hopes that the ceasefire in the Donbas will be complete and lasting, and noted that the current week will determine whether it is possible to hope for a peaceful settlement of the situation in the region.
The DNR responded to the accusations from Kiev of violating the truce
The DNR called a provocation allegations from Kiev of violating the ceasefire in the Donbass. The purpose of the security forces was to destabilize the situation in the region, say the militias.
"Units of the militia DND, strictly observe its obligations. In the period from 0:10 to 0:45 (same as GMT. — Approx. ed) monitoring group SCCC have been a number of explosions of unidentified explosive devices near the settlement Water, which is under the control of the armed forces of Ukraine", — said the representative of the Republic in the Joint center for control and coordination of ceasefire (SCCC).
The DNR said that it is ready to creation of a mechanism to monitor the truce
Representation of the self-proclaimed Donetsk people's Republic in the Joint center for control and coordination of ceasefire (SCCC) has stated its readiness to create an effective mechanism to monitor the truce.
Agreed by the contact group on additional measures for the security of the truce suggesting a complete ban of fire, placing weapons in the settlements and near them, offensive and reconnaissance and sabotage actions. In addition, they provide for disciplinary liability for the violation of the ceasefire. Orders ceasefire, containing measures for its maintenance, should be valid until full settlement of the conflict. Meanwhile, the operation of the United forces of Ukraine said Monday on recorded attacks by DNR in the first hour from the moment of entry into force of additional measures. The DNR called a provocation allegations from Kiev of violating the truce in the Donbass.
#Ruslan Yakubov
LC no recorded attacks by the security forces over the past day
Representation of the self-proclaimed Luhansk people's Republic in the Joint center for control and coordination of ceasefire (SCCC) is not recorded attacks by Ukrainian law enforcers over the past day, said Monday to RIA Novosti in the press service of the LPR militia.
According to the representation of the LC in SCCC, July 25 Ukrainian security forces once broke the silence.
In Kiev said that will not reduce the number of military in the Donbass
The commander of the joint forces of Ukraine Vladimir Kravchenko said that the number of military in the Donbass will not decrease after the entry into force of additional measures on cease-fire.
Agreed by the contact group on additional measures for the security of the truce suggesting a complete ban of fire, placing weapons in the settlements and near them, offensive and reconnaissance and sabotage actions. In addition, they provide for disciplinary liability for the violation of the ceasefire. Orders ceasefire, containing measures for its maintenance, should be valid until full settlement of the conflict.
#Yuri Kravchenko
In Berlin welcomed the truce in Ukraine
The German government welcomes the agreed at the level of the trilateral contact group's ceasefire in Ukraine, calls for the full implementation of the Minsk agreements, said at a briefing in Berlin, Deputy spokesman of the government of Germany Ulrike Demmer.
"The German government welcomes the agreement in the trilateral contact group, which consists of representatives of Ukraine, Russia and the OSCE, the additional measures which operate with the night. These include a ban on heavy weapons, drones and trying to sabotage the coordination mechanism of violations of the ceasefire regime and the special protection of civilian objects. Urge all parties to fully support the ceasefire, to follow the General commitments under the Minsk agreements", - said Demmer.
#Vladimir Putin
#Ulrike Demmer
In DND announced the restoration of two damaged fire water lines
The utility has restored two conduit channel "Seversky Donets-Donbass", damaged in the shelling to repair the third plan within a few days, said Monday in a press-service of the Ministry of construction and housing of the self-proclaimed Donetsk people's Republic.
In the state Duma assessed the cease-fire in the Donbass
The duration of the ceasefire regime in the Donbass and the peace process in the South-East of Ukraine, first and foremost, depend on the policy of the management in Kiev, says member of the Duma Committee on international Affairs Sergei Zheleznyak.
Since July 27, the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk people's republics go to a full permanent cease-fire. The relevant orders issued control of the militia DND and LNR. Last week the contact group in Minsk agreed on additional measures to ensure the truce in the Donbass. They include a ban of offensive and acts of sabotage, fire, including sniper, placing weapons in the settlements and disciplinary liability for violation of the ceasefire.
#Sergei Zheleznyak
#The state Duma of the Russian Federation
The LC said the lack of attacks in the Donbas since beginning of ceasefire
The people's militia self-proclaimed Luhansk people's Republic has not recorded attacks by Ukrainian security forces since the beginning of the additional measures of control over the ceasefire in Donbas entered into force on Monday.
The Orthodox Church called to pray for the continuation of the truce in the Donbass
Pray for the preservation of the ceasefire in the Donbass urged the faithful Chancellor of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC-MP) Metropolitan Antonii of Boryspil and Brovary, said in a statement on the website of the information Department of the UOC.
Since July 27, the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk people's republics go to a full permanent cease-fire. The relevant orders issued control of the militia DND and LNR. This week the contact group in Minsk agreed on additional measures to ensure the truce in the Donbass. They include a ban of offensive and acts of sabotage, fire, including sniper, placing weapons in the settlements and disciplinary liability for violation of the ceasefire.
In Kiev declared a ceasefire in the Donbass
The commander of the joint forces of the armed forces of Ukraine Serhiy New Sunday issued an order on compliance with the ceasefire in the Donbass from 00.00 (same as GMT) on Monday, announced the press center of the operation of the joint forces.
A videoconference of the contact group on the Donbas held on July 22. The parties agreed to a ceasefire on the line of demarcation in the Donbass from July 27. Commander of the Armed forces of Ukraine Colonel-General Ruslan Homchak said yesterday he was satisfied with the preparations for the ceasefire in the Donbass, adding that in case of need the Ukrainian military will be able to give a "proper rebuttal" violators of agreements.
#Sergey New
#Ruslan Homchak
The DNR said about eight ceasefire violations by the security forces on Sunday
Ukrainian security forces eight times violated the ceasefire regime in Donbass on Sunday, told journalists on Monday in the representation of the self-proclaimed Donetsk people's Republic in the Joint center for control and coordination of ceasefire (SCCC).
On the eve of the DND reported that on Saturday, the Ukrainian security forces violated the truce in the Donbass.
Pushkov told about the fear Zelensky
Senator Alexei Pushkov commented on the demand of the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky decrypt each item of the Minsk agreements, noting that he is afraid to say Berlin and Paris on the refusal from their implementation.
According to him, the Ukrainian leader does not wish to perform the Minsk agreement, and therefore stalling. The Senator is convinced, to revise the document Zelensky will not.
#Dmitry Peskov
#Alexei Pushkov
#Berlin (city)
In the Donbass, there are additional measures ceasefire
Donbass and Kiev with Monday needs to cease fire and to put in place additional measures to maintain peace. They will act until the full settlement of the conflict in the region.
A package of additional measures was agreed at the meeting of the contact group on Wednesday and signed by the parties to the conflict. It includes a ban on conducting any type of fire, location of heavy weapons, offensive and subversive actions, and also provides for the disciplinary responsibility for violations of the agreements. It is expected that the implementation of these measures will ensure a full ceasefire in the Donbass.
#LC
#Vladislav Danego
#Andrey Taranov
#DNR
In DND stated about the readiness to respond to ceasefire violations
The representation of the self-proclaimed Donetsk national Republic (DND) in the joint centre for control and coordination of ceasefire monitoring the situation on the contact line and are ready to react to violations of the truce, told reporters the head of the representative Ruslan Yakubov.
Earlier it was reported that during last Wednesday's meeting of the trilateral contact group in the negotiations on the Donbass was able to sign a document containing additional measures to control the ceasefire. Among others the document contains requirements on the prohibition of offensive and reconnaissance and sabotage actions, a ban on the use of drones and the location of weapons and equipment in the settlements and in close proximity to infrastructure. Also approved a set of measures requires the use of disciplinary punishment of perpetrators of violations of the truce. The document also notes that the return fire is possible only on the orders of the armed forces of Ukraine and leadership of the armed forces of the LC and the DNI and only after unsuccessful attempts to use a coordinating mechanism to respond to ceasefire violations. The document comes into effect from 00.01 Moscow time on July 27.
Turkey has welcomed the cease-fire in the Donbass
Ankara expresses its satisfaction at the approval of new measures on ceasefire in the Donbass, said the official representative of the foreign Ministry of Turkey Hami Aksoy on Sunday.
The meeting of the contact group was held on Wednesday in the video. The press service of the foreign Ministry of the breakaway Donetsk national Republic declared that the contact group on conflict settlement in the Donbass agreed to additional measures to monitor the ceasefire, which come into effect from July 27.
#Turkish foreign Minister
#Hami Aksoy
The DNR issued the order on a truce in the Donbass
The people's militia self-proclaimed Donetsk people's Republic issued the order on ceasefire on July 27.
Earlier in DND stated that the national police from July 27 to initiate a full permanent cease-fire, the relevant orders are communicated to personnel.
The LC urged the OSCE to facilitate the implementation of the armistice Kiev
The official representative of the people's militia self-proclaimed Luhansk people's Republic Yakov Osadchiy called Special monitoring mission (SMM) of the OSCE to promote the implementation of the Kiev commitments on additional measures for the ceasefire in the Donbass.
Earlier Wednesday, a meeting of the contact group in the video. The press service of the foreign Ministry of the breakaway Donetsk national Republic declared that the contact group on conflict settlement in the Donbass agreed to additional measures to monitor the ceasefire, which come into effect from July 27. The OSCE Chairman, the Prime Minister of Albania EDI Rama on Thursday welcomed the agreement on ceasefire on the line of demarcation in the Donbass.
The Pope welcomed the announcement of a new cease-fire in the Donbass
Pope Francis welcomed the announcement of a new cease-fire in the Donbass.
"The only way to restore confidence and to create preconditions for the much-needed and much-anticipated people of reconciliation," said Pope Francis.
#The Pope
In the DNI and LC announced the full indefinite cease-fire on July 27
From 27 July the Donetsk and Luhansk people's republics go to a full permanent cease-fire. The relevant orders issued control of the militia DND and LNR.
"All military personnel
The LC unit was ordered permanently to cease fire in the Donbass
The people's militia self-proclaimed Luhansk people's Republic issued the order on an indefinite ceasefire from midnight on 27 July in the framework of agreements on additional measures to monitor the ceasefire in Donbass, agreed upon in the meeting of the contact group on Wednesday.
Power DND has ordered a complete cessation of fire
The order of complete ceasefire in the Donbass from July 27 published and communicated to personnel of the people's militia self-proclaimed Donetsk people's Republic, said Sunday the head of Department Denis Chinenkov.
The contact group on Wednesday agreed gomery to ensure the truce in the Donbass. They include a ban on offensive and sabotage actions, the fire, including sniper, the placement of weapons in the settlements and disciplinary liability for violation of the ceasefire. The foreign Ministry of the DPR said that the orders for the ceasefire to come into effect from July 27 until the full settlement of the conflict.
#Denis Chinenkov
DNR will open the crossing on the line of contact in Donbas on July 27
Checkpoint "Elenovka" on the contact line in the Donbass will be opened on July 27, controlled self-proclaimed Donetsk people's Republic territory will be admitted only under special permission to enter, said Sunday in an interdepartmental operational headquarters to prevent the spread COVID-19.
Previously, the government DND has decided to stop civilian traffic and pedestrians across the line of contact because of the situation with COVID-19 on the Kiev-controlled territory. Later the traffic was resumed on certain conditions, but after a while, the checkpoint was again closed.
#Donetsk oblast
The DNR said three ceasefire violations by the security forces for days
Ukrainian security forces three times broke the truce in the Donbass for the last day, said on Sunday to journalists in the representation of the self-proclaimed Donetsk people's Republic in the Joint center for control and coordination of ceasefire (SCCC).
On Saturday, the DNR reported five ceasefire violations by the Ukrainian security forces.
In LNR said about the shelling of one per day by the security forces
Ukrainian security forces once per day violated the ceasefire by firing at the territory of the breakaway Lugansk people's Republic, told RIA news representative of the LC in the Joint center for control and coordination of ceasefire (SCCC).
Earlier in LNR said about the shelling on Saturday by the Ukrainian law enforcers residential area controlled by the Republic of the village of Golden-5, resulting in a corrupted house.
Ukrainian security officials reported on the preparations for the ceasefire in the Donbass
Ukrainian security officials said they were preparing for a full ceasefire in the Donbass, such events were not for the entire period of operation of the joint forces.
A videoconference of the contact group on the Donbas held on Wednesday. The parties agreed to a ceasefire on the line of demarcation in the Donbass from July 27.
In DND ready to meet the requirements of additional measures of the armistice
Units of the self-proclaimed Donetsk people's Republic ready to meet the requirements of additional measures to monitor the ceasefire, said the head of the representative office of the DNI in the joint center for control and coordination of ceasefire Ruslan Yakubov.
At last Wednesday's meeting of the trilateral contact group in the negotiations on the Donbass was able to sign a document containing additional measures to control the ceasefire. Among others the document contains requirements on the prohibition of offensive and reconnaissance and sabotage actions, a ban on the use of drones and the location of weapons and equipment in the settlements and in close proximity to infrastructure. Also approved a set of measures requires the use of disciplinary punishment of perpetrators of violations of the truce. The document also notes that the return fire is possible only on the orders of the armed forces of Ukraine and leadership of the armed forces of the LC and the DNI and only after unsuccessful attempts to use a coordinating mechanism to respond to ceasefire violations.
The number of identified cases of infection with coronavirus COVID-19 in the self-proclaimed Donetsk people's Republic over the past day has increased to 34, up to 1645, said on Saturday the press service of the Ministry of health DND.
The DNR reported five ceasefire violations by the security forces for days
Ukrainian law enforcers five times violated the truce in the Donbass for the last day, told reporters the self-proclaimed representative of the Donetsk people's Republic in the Joint center for control and coordination of ceasefire (SCCC).
Friday at the DNR office in SCCC said one violation of the ceasefire.
Kiev claims that militias in the Donbass region block the passage of the OSCE mission
Ukrainian security officials said that the militias continue to block the passage of representatives of the OSCE mission through the gate for uncontrolled Kiev territory of Donbass.
"The occupation authorities continue to block the passage of representatives of the OSCE mission through the checkpoints of entry and exit. So, crossing the boundary line from the government-controlled Ukrainian territory every time they get rejected... in the passage in the temporarily occupied territory. The occupiers are motivated by the refusal of carrying out of quarantine events (pandemic coronavirus - ed.)", - said the press center of operations of the combined forces in Facebook on Friday.
The DNR said the number of ceasefire violations by the security forces during the year
Ukrainian law enforcers about 4 thousand times violated the ceasefire regime in the Donbass since the indefinite ceasefire declared on Friday to journalists by the Deputy head of the people's militia self-proclaimed Donetsk national Republic Eduard Bacurin.
July 21, 2019 in the Donbass acts consistent contact group a perpetual truce.
#Eduard Basurin
DNR urged not to allow the failure of Kiev agreements on truce
The envoy of the self-proclaimed Donetsk national Republic in the contact group, foreign Minister DND Natalia Nikonorova called on the guarantors of the Minsk agreements and the international community to prevent the failure of the Kiev agreements on additional measures to ensure the truce in the Donbass.
Earlier the President of Ukraine Vladimir Zelensky said that the contact group agreed to additional measures to ensure the truce in the Donbass must be signed by the representatives of the countries-participants of the Normandy format (Ukraine, Russia, France, Germany).
The number of identified cases of infection with coronavirus COVID-19 in the self-proclaimed Donetsk people's Republic over the past day has increased by 36, to 1611, said Friday in a press-service of the Ministry of health DND.
The expert told how Zelensky trying to circumvent the Minsk agreement
The President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky, demanding to decipher the Minsk agreement on the Donbas, invents ways not to honor them, said the Deputy Director of the CIS Institute Vladimir Zharikhin.
"Of course, the document is not difficult to understand. Not the case, from my point of view, Zelensky want to understand not the plain meaning of the document he wants to understand how it can be avoided, as it can not run, despite the fact that officially not give up in the implementation of this agreement," said Zharikhin RIA Novosti.
#Maria Zakharova
#Vladimir Zharikhin
UN Secretary General urges to respect fully the agreements on Donbass
UN Secretary-General calls on the parties to the conflict in Ukraine to fully respect the agreements reached by the contact group on Wednesday, the statement of the official representative of the Secretary General Stefan Dujarric.
The contact group on Wednesday agreed to additional measures to secure truce in the Donbass. They include a ban on offensive and sabotage actions, the fire, including sniper, the placement of weapons in the settlements and disciplinary liability for violation of the ceasefire. The foreign Ministry of the DPR said that the orders to cease fire, containing measures to maintain the truce, due to come into effect from July 27 until the full settlement of the conflict.
#António Guterres
#Stefan Dyuzharrik
Zelensky demanded decrypt each item of the Minsk agreements
President Vladimir Zelensky said about the need to decipher the Minsk agreement.
On Thursday, the head of state together with Swiss President Simonetta Sommaruga visited the pedestrian bridge near the checkpoint "Stanitsa Lugansk".
#Simonetta Sommaruga
The head of the defense Ministry of Ukraine commented on the ceasefire in the Donbass
The Minister of defense of Ukraine Andrei Taran said that Kiev has political will for a ceasefire in the Donbass from July 27, and also expressed hope for reciprocity from the other party.
#Andrey Taran
The Prosecutor General's office DND opened ten cases against the Ukrainian security forces
The Prosecutor General of the breakaway Donetsk people's Republic has opened 10 criminal cases under article "terrorist attack" against the Ukrainian security forces after the shelling of the DPR on 21 and 22 July, said Thursday in a press-Department service.
"The investigative Department of the Prosecutor General of DNR investigated 10 criminal cases against the commanders of the 57-th separate motorized infantry brigade of the APU, 36-th separate brigade of Marines, 35-th separate brigade of Marines, as well as their subordinate in the military were in fact committing terrorist acts", - said the press service of the Prosecutor General DND.
#Kominternovo
In DND, the number of people infected with coronavirus has risen to 1575
The number of identified cases of infection with coronavirus COVID-19 in the self-proclaimed Donetsk people's Republic over the past day has increased by 25 up to 1575, announced Thursday in a press-service of the Ministry of health DND.
The DNR said 17 violations of the armistice security forces for days
Ukrainian law enforcers 17 times violated the ceasefire in Donbass for the last day, said on Thursday to journalists in the representation of the self-proclaimed Donetsk people's Republic in the Joint center for control and coordination of ceasefire (SCCC).
On Wednesday, the DNR reported four ceasefire violations by the Ukrainian security forces.
SBU detained an alleged member of the killing Zakharchenko
The security service of Ukraine detained the former strongman Andrew Baydala, told the Agency the Agency UNN.
It specified that the investigators reported the man on suspicion under article "Illegal handling of weapons and ammunition, committed by a group of persons", and arrested him.
#The security service of Ukraine
#Alexander Zakharchenko
Gryzlov: the decision of Parliament on local elections contradict the Minsk agreements
The Verkhovna Rada resolution on holding the local elections contradict the Minsk agreements, said the Russian presidential envoy in the contact group on Donbass Boris Gryzlov following the results of conference.
"The discussion of all other issues in the political, economic and humanitarian spheres, in environment where the highest legislative body of Ukraine adopted a decision excluding the settlement of the conflict based on the Minsk agreements, are devoid of meaning. We are talking about the resolution of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine from July 15, to hold local elections in which the quality of elections in the Donbass, conditions that directly contradict the Minsk agreements", - he said.
#Boris Gryzlov
Security forces shelled a residential area of the village in the Donbass, said in the LC
Ukrainian security forces on Wednesday opened fire from weapons BMP-2 on a residential area controlled by the self-proclaimed Luhansk people's Republic, the village of Znamenka in the Donbass, told reporters the official representative of the national police LNR Yakov Osadchiy.
The meeting of the contact group is held on Wednesday in the video. The press service of the foreign Ministry of the breakaway Donetsk national Republic declared that the contact group on conflict settlement in the Donbass agreed to additional measures to monitor the ceasefire, which come into effect from July 27.
In LNR said about the destruction of the position of the security forces after attack
The people's militia self-proclaimed Luhansk national Republic destroyed position of the Ukrainian security forces, which fired on the village of Znamenka in the Donbass, said the official representative of the defense Ministry LNR Yakov Osadchiy.
Earlier in LNR said about the shelling on Wednesday by the Ukrainian law enforcers residential area of the village of Znamenka, which was damaged a house.
Kyiv has blocked the work of the contact group on Donbass
Kiev refused to explain its position on the local elections in the Donbass, thereby blocking further work of the contact group, reported the press service of the foreign Ministry of the breakaway Donetsk people's Republic.
On Wednesday held a video conference of the contact group on Donbass.
Gryzlov commented on the measures are agreed on ceasefire in the Donbass
Russia is satisfied with the agreement of the ceasefire between Kiev, Donetsk and Lugansk, said the Ambassador of Russia in the contact group on Donbass Boris Gryzlov following the results of conference.
"Finally after nearly five months of resistance, the Ukrainian side found the courage to agree on the measures to cease-fire that was repeatedly offered the Donetsk and Lugansk. In this regard, it is impossible to feel anything but satisfaction. Measures to ensure a cease-fire between Kiev and Donbass should enter into force on 27 July," - said Gryzlov.
#Dmitry Kozak
SBU detained a possible party to the murder Zakharchenko
The security service of Ukraine detained a former law enforcement officer Andrew Baydala which representatives of the breakaway Donetsk national Republic was accused of murdering the former leader of the DND Alexander Zakharchenko, reported the press service of the Ministry.
Earlier, representatives of the DND stated that he had established the names of the members of the Ukrainian secret services involved in the murder of the first head of the Republic Alexander Zakharchenko. At the same time, it was noted that Bagala gave the orders to commit murder in the NPT.
The contact group had agreed on measures to monitor the truce in the Donbass
The contact group on conflict settlement in the Donbass agreed to additional measures to monitor the ceasefire, said on Wednesday the press service of the foreign Ministry of the breakaway Donetsk people's Republic.
The meeting of the contact group is held on Wednesday in the video.
The Ukrainian defense Ministry said six attacks of positions of security forces in the Donbass
The Ministry of defence of Ukraine said on Wednesday about six attacks of positions of Ukrainian law enforcers in the Donbass, the information on victims is not specified.
Earlier, Ukrainian law enforcers said about the nine attacks on their positions in the Donbass for the last days.
The fire water could be a humanitarian catastrophe, said in DND
The shelling of Gorlovka water from the side of the Ukrainian security forces may become a humanitarian disaster, told reporters the self-proclaimed representative of the Donetsk people's Republic in the Joint center for control and coordination of ceasefire (SCCC).
Earlier in DND stated that the Ukrainian security forces this morning shelled the outskirts of Gorlovka, the result was a damaged section of the pipeline and stopped pumping station.
The DNR reported four ceasefire violations by the security forces for days
Ukrainian security forces four times violated the truce in the Donbass for the last day, told reporters the self-proclaimed representative of the Donetsk people's Republic in the Joint center for control and coordination of ceasefire (SCCC).
On Tuesday the DNR office in SCCC said five of the violations of the cease-fire.
In DND said about the shelling of Gorlovka security forces
Ukrainian security forces on Wednesday morning fired at suburbs controlled by the self-proclaimed Donetsk people's Republic, Horlivka, damaged the water pipeline stopped pumping station, told reporters the head of the city administration Ivan Prikhodko.
"The shelling of the Russian Federation (on the outskirts gorlovki - ed.). Three houses burn. Getting into the channel "Seversky Donets-Donbass", near the village of "6/7" (6/7 village mines on the outskirts of Gorlovka - ed.) the damage to the water phase of the pipeline. At 06.55 (GMT) halted pumping station", - said Prikhodko.
#Ivan Prikhodko
#Gorlovka
Expert: Zelensky negotiating with terrorists is easier than with the DNI and LC
The President of Ukraine Vladimir Zelensky was easier to negotiate with hostage takers in luck than with representatives of the self-proclaimed DND and LNR, said Russian expert, member of the Council for interethnic relations under the RF President Bogdan Bezpalko.
Zelensky previously complied with the men who seized hostages in a bus in Lutsk, and called on all in Facebook to watch the film "Earthlings" on the problem of animal cruelty. After the man was detained, the President had deleted the post in Facebook. While Kiev for more than five years conducting a military operation in the Donbass against the LC and the DNI, which declared independence after a coup in Ukraine in February 2014. Authorities of Ukraine called the militia terrorists. In direct negotiations with Donbass, Kiev is not.
#The taking of hostages in luck
#Bogdan Bezpalko
Elysee Palace: the date of the meeting, "Norman Quartet" is not defined
Date of the next meeting of the leaders of "Norman Quartet" is not defined yet, have informed RIA Novosti the press service of the Elysee Palace.
Earlier the President of Ukraine Vladimir Zelensky said that the date of the meeting in the "Normandy format" in Berlin will be determined in the near future. According to him, "in principle, we have confirmation from the German side, the confirmation from the French side and agreed that Russia is not against to meet."
The DNR said that handed over the body of the deceased strongman of the Ukrainian side
The body of the deceased in the Donbass Ukrainian security officer was assigned to Kiev-controlled territory, told journalists the representative of the self-proclaimed Donetsk people's Republic in the joint center for control and coordination of ceasefire (SCCC).
"The twenty-first of July at 11: 00 (same as GMT) at the checkpoint of entry-departure "Kargil-Marinka" task force representative of the DNI in the SCCC and in the negotiation process when interacting with a humanitarian mission "the Evacuation of 200" the Ukrainian side was transferred to the body of the soldier AFF (armed forces of Ukraine - ed.). The procedure happened in a regular mode", - said the representative office.
Zelensky said that he will visit the Donbass President of Switzerland
The President of Ukraine Vladimir Zelensky said that Thursday together with the President of Switzerland Simonetta Sommaruga visit the Donbass.
"The day after tomorrow Madame President will jointly visit the Donbass and our citizens in the frontline. For me, a very valuable and important when the world leaders who come to Ukraine with me heading East and see firsthand how much misery it brought to Ukraine war. Madam President stressed that the government of Switzerland is willing to actively help the Ukrainian Donbass, in particular in the provision of drinking water through the modernization of infrastructure projects," said Zelensky at a press conference following the meeting with President of Switzerland in Kiev.
In DND stated that the security forces were preparing to undermine the car patrol OSCE
Ukrainian security forces were preparing to undermine the car patrol of the special monitoring of the OSCE mission at the contact line in the Donbass, told reporters the representative of the people's militia self-proclaimed Donetsk people's Republic.
According to the Agency, the command of the 35th brigade of the Ukrainian security forces were preparing a provocation with the purpose of prosecution units of the DNI.
Zelensky hopes that the contact group will agree on a truce in the Donbass
The President of Ukraine Vladimir Zelensky expects that following the meeting of the contact group on Donbass on Wednesday will decide on a ceasefire in the region.
"Today a meeting of the four subgroups, and tomorrow the finalization of this stage of the Minsk process. I expect to tomorrow at the end was the decision on the cease-fire, which is very important for Ukraine to save the lives of our people," said Zelensky at a briefing after a meeting with President of Switzerland in Kiev on Tuesday.
The number of identified cases of infection with coronavirus COVID-19 in the self-proclaimed Donetsk people's Republic over the past day has increased by seven, to 1534, said Tuesday the press service of the Ministry of health DND.
The humanitarian sub-group on Donbass started talks in video
The humanitarian sub-group in the negotiations on the Donbass started to work in a videoconference mode, has informed journalists the representative of the office of the Ombudsman self-proclaimed Donetsk people's Republic.
"Began the meeting of the working group on humanitarian issues of the trilateral contact group on conflict settlement in the Donbass. The negotiations are in the mode of videoconference", - said the representative office.
The political sub-group on Donbass started talks in video
The political subgroup of the contact group on conflict settlement in the Donbass began talks in the video, said Tuesday the press service of the foreign Ministry of the breakaway Donetsk people's Republic.
"Working group on political Affairs began work in the format of videoconference", - said the foreign Ministry DND.
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Insights into History - The Dark Ages
by Michaela Berquist
What does it mean to study medieval history? The word itself has an ugly ring; to a child’s ears, it seems to say that we are amid “evil”. And yet it actually means the middle age or period. But that itself begs the question: the middle age between what? Modern historians conjure up images of a bleak and backward world in which filthy serfs are beaten and starved into submission by evil overlords, usually bearing as many Catholic symbols (miters, croziers, and crusader crosses) as possible. Looking only at secular history, one is led to believe that, thanks to the rise of an oppressive Catholic patriarchy, the once erudite Greco-Roman world was plunged into barbaric backwater. This world is painted as emerging nearly a thousand years later in the glittering brilliance of a conveniently melded Renaissance/Reformation, inspired by rediscovering the ancient wonders and gratefully freed from Catholic shackles either by brave Protestant resistance, or by the harbingers of an enlightenment that would one day bring a postmodernity that could reject anything that came out of western civilization.
Can this be true? And if so, why even bother to study the medieval time; why not draw the veil over stagnant tragedy and move on to better and brighter times? We, rightly, shy away from sharing too much of the dark and ugly with young children. We want to form them in what is good and noble and beautiful. Young children should have a firm grasp of what is good, before they are presented with what is evil. And even if one rejects the bleakest view of the medieval world, as presented by modern secular historians, and can, thanks to better historians, see the undeniable bright glimmers of truth and greatness within this medieval world, wouldn’t it be easier—better even—to save the study of such a dark time for an age that is capable of a more nuanced study, an age that can separate the light of Catholic truth from the darkness of this bleak period?
But one cannot. Medieval history is fundamentally important to the modern—in the broadest sense of the word—understanding, because the medieval world saw the development of western civilization within the Christian framework, and this is valuable for two reasons. First, the greatness of the medieval world was built upon what was truly good and noble in the ancient world. Second, the ancient, pre-Christian world had failed and the medieval Christian world was here to provide a better and clearer path to the truth. One cannot properly appreciate the medieval history without some understanding of the ancient world. Nor can one transition from the glories of the ancient world to the modern, without passing through the clarifying lens of Christian medieval Europe!
Without such a context, and in reaction to the modern take, one could plunge directly into the ugly underbelly of history and consider how moral decay had permeated the once glorious ancient world before Christ was even born. One could study how, by the time the early Church was rising in Rome, Rome herself was sinking under the weight of her own vices. One could stress that Christ’s own handpicked apostles were martyred by the fifth emperor of Rome—her carefully balanced republic long since dismantled. And that when Rome finally fell, it was to wave upon wave of barbarian attacks that relegated once cultivated, albeit corrupted, cities to ransacked morgues. But this is truly the stuff of nightmares and these are stories that would rob even jaded adults of sleep. Should young children have to endure this ugliness in order to reach the truth? There is a time and a place for more graphic details, but twelve and thirteen-year-olds do not need such horrific imagery.
There is a better path for transitioning from the ancient into the medieval world and beyond and this is a path which Laura Berquist’s history syllabi have clearly laid out. When one begins with what is beautiful in the ancient civilizations, a path for appreciation is laid. One can glory in the remarkable technological achievements of the ancient Egyptians. Their pyramids and mummies point to scientific secrets that modern man still struggles to replicate, architectural masterpieces that boggle the mind, and a profound belief in the afterlife that consumed a whole nation, generation after generation, for a millennium. Their careful charting of the stars—another thing they did for thousands of years—connected to the precisely timed flooding of the Nile, expanded by their irrigation systems enriching their once arid farmland. And it was only two hundred years ago that “modern man” finally cracked the code to better understand this profoundly developed culture. These are cultural moments worth relishing. The entire world was enriched in so many ways by this ancient pagan culture, one which our students know crossed paths with the Chosen people on more than one occasion.
As one moves from Egypt to Greece, glimmers of tragedy appear in Draco’s harsh, though valuable, written laws. But then one can celebrate the glories of Greek government, philosophy, literature, art, and architecture and then watch these marvels adopted by Rome. Rome’s humility is evident in that she could rightly appreciate what was good and noble in others and adopt it, embracing and absorbing Greek philosophy, theology, art, and literature, Carthaginian ship-building, and Egyptian astronomy and music. But then, in her greatness, Rome added to these either by promotion or perfection, such as converting the Greek phalanx into the impenetrable Roman tortoise, or adding the corvus to ships allowing Rome to bring her superior infantry to bear upon naval warfare, or reforming the calendar under Julius Caesar. Even today, one can see the still functional Roman aqueducts that brought clean water, or Roman roads that allowed men to traverse ancient Europe in a matter of days. It is right and good to celebrate such truth, beauty, and goodness in the ancient world!
For it is on the shoulders of these giants that the Middle Ages, the medieval period, truly shines, but one must understand, as so few modern historians are willing to admit, she did not receive them as giants. Rather, she rebuilt them from shattered ruins, restoring them to their former glory and then illuminating them with her own light. The greatness of Egypt, Greece, and Rome had been destroyed in equal parts by their own corruption and by wave upon wave of incoming barbarian hordes. There was a dark period, a dark age, if you will, between the ancient and the medieval world. But Christianity was not the cause of this fall! That Christians (or in many cases Arian heretics) were at the helm of the western Roman empire when it was dissolved in the face of overwhelming barbarian assaults speaks not to the failure of Christianity as a moral code or governing principle, but rather to the heel of Roman hedonism that had plagued the empire long before Christians rose to guide and govern. That Christians could have risen to such peaks, in such a dark time, speaks to the remarkable rise of a tiny Jewish sect that preached compelling truth to every element of Roman society.
That Rome fell is sufficient for this age group; one can and should return to the nuances of this topic in high school and then again in college and beyond. But for twelve and thirteen-year-olds, what matters—as it does in their daily lives—is what, when confronted with tragedy, one does next. And a good medieval history program should begin with saints like Patrick, Benedict, and Boniface. Why? Because these are men who spanned the end of the tumultuous Roman era and in the face of great sacrifice and persecution chose to bring the shattered bits of Christian Roman culture to their barbarian attackers, offering them not just forgiveness but the glorious truth. When confronted with wave upon wave of barbarian hordes, one could build walls to keep out the enemy, but how much greater to go out into the enemy’s territory and offer him the greatest thing one possesses, God’s grace and truth, and make him a friend. This is in many ways the heart of the Middle Ages. In the very darkest moments of the dark ages, one after another, men of disparate languages, cultures, customs, and places, with no human knowledge of each other but united in the body of Christ, reached out heroically to their worst enemies and brought the truth. Patrick, raised in Christian Romanized England, brought the faith to Ireland in the fifth century. In the following sixth century, Augustine brought the faith back to an England that had been overwhelmed by new barbarian hordes. Boniface brought the faith to Germany in the eighth century, and Cyril and Methodius in the following ninth century brought the faith to the Slavic peoples. So many of these men were martyred, but in such suffering watered the faith in these lands with their blood mingled with the blood of Christ and brought about a rich harvest. These words are not lightly said, for each one of these men had to fight down personal demons before going out on such missions, and in doing so won a world for Christ. They were truly a light in the darkness properly illuminating this age.
Out of their heroism, often unsung but also frequently inspiring many followers, came the monasteries, another often maligned and badly misunderstood element, but one that was fundamental to the revival of western civilization in Europe. Rather than dwell on the darkness, children at this age need to see what is good, and the monasteries were, by and large, truly good. Benedict of Ursa was raised in Roman culture and grew up in the midst of a Rome that would suffer repeated brutal sacks. His response was to create a place where the light of truth would be sheltered and protected so that it could shine out as a light to the world. And these were lights that lived on long after the founders had died, lights that spread their light not just to other monasteries, but also to the burgeoning medieval communities. They were not only places of worship, but centers of learning. These monasteries were schools, farms, hospitals, and hostels for poor travelers. The monasteries ministered to body and soul. They brought grace through sacraments, they brought the scripture in illuminated manuscripts, they brought farming techniques that revolutionized agriculture across Europe. Monasteries like Monte Cassino, Clanmacnoise, Glendaloch, and Bangor revived life, both naturally and supernaturally.
We jokingly celebrate the invention of the wheel and what a difference that must have made to early man. But we often quickly skip over the intervening inventions until the industrial era and the far more exciting modern inventions. And yet the invention, development, and distribution of medieval technology like plows revolutionized farming in Europe, producing greater agriculture yields and in turn greater health, population, and wealth, and the attendant improvements. Think back to those barbarian hordes who destroyed the Roman Empire. Within a few hundred years those same “barbaric” people were living a different life. Under the influence of Christian monks and Catholic social teaching, they built castles to protect themselves and their vassals, they cultivated fields and flocks for food and clothing, they developed literature and art which was spread throughout Europe by traveling minstrels. They built massive majestic Romanesque churches in which to worship God and monasteries with vast libraries, storehouses of knowledge. In another few hundred years they built dizzyingly high Gothic cathedrals, architectural marvels that still boggle modern minds, replete with fantastic stained glass windows and beautiful works of art on canvas and plaster, wood and stone. They founded schools, colleges, and universities that were—long before the Renaissance—studying Greek and Roman philosophy and literature and then expanding upon those to develop Christian doctrine. Pre-eminent amongst these medieval scholars is Thomas Aquinas, who would synthesize all of Catholic theological teaching in the light of Aristotelian philosophy recently brought back to Europe through Arabic Muslim philosophers.
The modern historian conjures up images of a medieval world governed by evil kings or tyrannical nobles brutally enforcing their will. But when one actually delves into the medieval world, one finds it well-informed by the principles of Greece and Rome and enlightened by Christian social teaching. Kings and feudal systems had arisen of necessity—in response to brutal barbarian invasions—but as things stabilized within these societies, the principles of good government emerged. Representative bodies, such as parliament or the Cortez, were set up alongside charters like the Magna Carta, outlining the rights of the Church and the people alongside the authority of the ruler. These were not simple monarchies, but ones which acknowledged the dignity of each man, and the importance of the many various classes of society. Under this broader framework, these men set up centers of commerce, established towns outside the feudal system, complete with charters and self-government. They developed trade routes across Europe and off into the Middle East and Asia. They charted maps and sailed off around Africa and to Iceland.
This is not a dark world! Were there periods of darkness, gloom, and misery within this world? Yes, as one would expect in any time. Certainly one can look at plagues or heresies sweeping through the countryside, and one can find particular cruel kings overstepping their authority, and even demons within the Church. But in every case—more so than perhaps in any other era—this darkness was always met with light. Saints—average men and women who answered the call of God—went out and cared for the victims of plagues, preached against heresy, and led lives of heroic virtue. They stood up to kings and even popes and preached the truth. This is history at its finest. A great world had been broken into pieces. But, by the grace of God, it was broken in the lap of a young and vibrant Christian community who rose to the challenge. They were ordinary men and women who were not immune from ordinary mistakes, but they rebuilt that world into something far greater.
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Bush, Clinton Ag Secretaries: U.S. Needs American Ag Company to Counter Foreign Competition
By Mike Johanns & Dan Glickman
January 30, 2017 at 5:00 am ET
As former U.S. secretaries of agriculture from both sides of the aisle, we know firsthand that the contributions made by farmers and agribusinesses of all sizes are rarely given the credit they are due. American farmers help to drive the U.S. economy and create new opportunity in rural communities. They contribute almost $1 trillion to U.S. gross domestic product each year and exported $129.7 billion worth of American-grown and -made products in fiscal year 2016 alone. By 2050, a growing global population will need twice as much food as the world can produce today, which presents even more new opportunities for American farmers.
With new opportunities come new challenges. Looking forward, we see headwinds acting against the livelihoods and future global competitiveness of American farmers and the security of our national food supply: the unmanageable cost of innovation and the need for a strong, focused American-owned agriculture company.
There is no greater imperative for global agriculture than science and technology. Mother Nature throws farmers an endless stream of curve balls, from new weather patterns to spreading pests. As the challenges evolve, the needs of farmers for new products and services evolve, too. Those who grow and consume food depend on tools focused on reducing water usage and raising drought resistant crops; nutritional advancements that assure the hungry are fed and improve overall health and well-being; better planting techniques and conservation and tillage practices that improve and preserve soil health; practices that reduce post-harvest loss and food waste; and new seed varieties that can stand up and thrive under the most difficult conditions, among others.
But as costs of discovery and commercialization rise, and agriculture has become both more global and more competitive, fewer and fewer companies have the scale to afford the costly, end-to-end process from discovery through development and regulatory approval that is required to bring new products to farmers. With fewer and fewer companies having the capability to do so, farmers everywhere face the prospect of limited choices and fewer new products.
Innovation in food and agriculture comes from companies of all sizes – from the army of experts our industry employs and from scientific discoveries by numerous creative farmers, university labs and startups that are then developed by mid-sized firms and multinationals. These different groups depend upon one another, just like an ecosystem, to move new ideas through the long, expensive processes of development and regulatory approval before they can be delivered to farmers. Larger companies depend on smaller ones and vice versa.
To do enough to meet farmers’ requirements for more innovation and greater choice, and overcome the emerging innovation bottleneck that is holding them back, large companies with scale and focused resources are a necessary part of that creative system. That is what is causing some of the shifts in the inputs marketplace we are seeing today, including the number of companies seeking to merge with one another. Some of these companies are foreign-owned and seeking to take control of American companies.
Dow and DuPont are each huge conglomerates within which their relatively small agriculture businesses must compete for resources against other businesses. By coming together, they intend to then create a single, independent, U.S.-based and -owned pure agriculture company capable of competing effectively against their still larger global peers.
Given the current landscape, now more than ever America’s farmers need what Dow and DuPont are proposing – a strong, focused American agriculture company that is American-owned, championing the interests of the American farmer in a marketplace that may soon be dominated by foreign-owned behemoths. Without such an enterprise, totally and completely focused on agriculture, with every minute of every day devoted to working in partnership with farmers and the full range of entities working to feed an ever-expanding need for sustainable food sources, the American farmers who grow our food lose out – and the people who eat it do, too.
For farmers across this great nation – and around the world – the stakes are real. They all want a faster, bigger and better stream of new products, techniques and tools because they need them. They want to seize business opportunities by putting food on tables, at home and abroad. This will mean hard work for America’s farmers, which they will do with humility and excellence, as they always have. They need a strong, American-owned agriculture company by their side.
Johanns is a former governor and U.S senator from Nebraska, and served as agriculture secretary under former President George W. Bush. Glickman represented Kansas for 18 years in the U.S. House of Representatives and served as agriculture secretary under former President Bill Clinton.
Morning Consult welcomes op-ed submissions on policy, politics and business strategy in our coverage areas. Submission guidelines can be found here.
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National Broadband Ireland (NBI), the company rolling out the new high speed fibre broadband network under the Government’s National Broadband Plan (NBP) today announced that surveying works in several areas of Fingal, Co. Dublin, are well underway.
In Dublin, there are 13,429 premises in the Intervention Area (IA), which includes homes, farms, commercial businesses and schools. This equates to 2% of all premises in the county. Under the National Broadband Plan, Dublin will see an investment of €48M in the new high speed fibre network. This will enable e-learning, remote monitoring of livestock or equipment, e-health initiatives, better energy efficiency in the home, and facilitate increased levels of remote working.
NBI crews have made substantial progress in Fingal, the following areas are being surveyed: Castleknock, Blanchardstown, Clonsilla and Ongar.
The following areas are also being surveyed across Dublin: Chapelizod, Ballyfermot, Cabra, Bluebell, Finglas, Adamstown, Lucan, and Clondalkin.
In advance of the fibre to the home roll out, the NBP provides for the delivery of BCPs nationwide. Over 60 of these sites are now ‘live’ and have both internal and external broadband access. These facilities - which include sports clubs, community centres and tourist sites – will provide free public access to high speed internet in the rollout area.
These will pave the way for rural communities to receive the benefits of broadband, from mobile working, e-learning and mobile banking, to digital tourism. A full list can be found at /bcp-map/ Primary schools in the Intervention Area are also being connected for educational access as part of the NBP. Locations of Broadband Connection Points in Fingal will include Fingal Ravens GAA Club and Newbridge House and Farm.
NBI Chief Executive Officer Peter Hendrick commented: “We started physical work on the ground last January and despite the challenging environment caused by Covid-19, we’ve grown and mobilised the team to have over 800 people working on the project across all 26 counties and making good progress. We are acutely aware that people want access to high-speed broadband as soon as possible, and our goal is to deliver that.
“Survey designs are an important part of mapping out how every home and business will be connected, and these will provide the blueprint for how the NBI fibre is laid. The BCPs are also a key milestone in delivering access to high-speed internet in the Intervention Area, and we’re delighted to see these being connected for access – internally and externally - right across the county.”
Surveying for National Broadband Plan continues across Kildare
In Kildare, there are 13,859 premises in the Intervention Area (IA), which includes homes, farms, commercial businesses and schools. This equates to 15% of all premises in the county.
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2+2=You
Join our 2+2=YOU Program, graduate with a four-year degree and spend less on your education. How?
The 2+2= YOU partnership allows all past and future North Country Community College graduates who enroll full-time at Paul Smith’s College to pay state-level tuition rates, providing you with an affordable option to earn both an associate’s and bachelor’s degree while remaining in the Adirondacks.
You’ll pay no more than $7,500 per year in tuition for your two years at NCCC, and no more than $9,000 per year in tuition for a minimum of two years at Paul Smith’s. This is achieved under the new Tuition Scholarship Program between the public North Country Community College and the private Paul Smith’s College when a graduate enrolls in a full-time bachelor’s degree program.
For comparison, a typical PSC student would pay $29,000+ in tuition before scholarships and financial aid.
Which degree programs participate?
There are over 20 pathways for you to choose from once you enroll at PSC. For example, graduates of North Country’s Wilderness Recreation Leadership program can pursue a bachelor’s degree in Psychology, Parks & Conservation Management or Recreation, Adventure Education, and Leisure Management at Paul Smith’s. NCCC’s Environmental Science program tracks to the Fisheries & Wildlife Sciences, Ecological Restoration, Environmental Science or Environmental Studies at Paul Smith’s. Sports and Events Management program graduates at North Country could transfer to Paul Smith’s College to study Hotel, Resort and Tourism Management. In addition, NCCC graduates with Business Administration degrees can move into the Management program at Paul Smith’s College.
For a complete list of Paul Smith’s College programs, call PSC’s Admission Office at (888) 873-6570 or email admissions@paulsmiths.edu.
To learn more about 2+2=YOU, begin the enrollment process, or simply discover more about what it’s like attending college in the Adirondacks, call us at 888-TRY-NCCC, or, e-mail us at:atuthill@nccc.edu
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Sit & Sink
Bet It All
The City That Reads
Better Company
The Evergreen - EP
New Atlantic
My American Heart
Time Tells All
Self Against City
Spitalfield
The Junior Varsity
About The Graduate
Not to be confused with the similarly named new wave outfit that morphed into Tears for Fears during the early '80s, the Graduate are an anthemic emo-pop band from Springfield, IL. Formed in late 2005 out of the remains of two local acts (Best of Winter and Jack), the group consists of lead singer Corey Warning, guitarists Max Sauer and Matt Kennedy, bassist Jared Wuestenberg, and drummer Tim Moore. Inspired by the likes of Coldplay and Death Cab for Cutie, the guys developed their sound quickly, signing with the Icon label and releasing their debut EP, Horror Show, in the spring of 2006. By the end of the year, the band's online presence and heavy touring had garnered enough buzz to land the Graduate on the front cover of CMJ New Music Report. The Graduate's full-length debut, Anhedonia, followed in April 2007, with Only Every Time appearing three years later. ~ Stewart Mason
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Must Bet NFL Games in Week 2 in 2020
Written by Henry Watkins on August 24, 2020
When the new NFL schedule is released, we all tend to do the same things. First, we take a look at the schedule for the team that we follow, trying to figure out how the season is likely to go. Secondly, at least if you love to wager on the NFL, we start to look at which games might be the ones that require our attention throughout the season. Of course, the games that we deem to be important and high on the betting list will change once the games actually start being played, but it is still fun to look ahead and pick out the big games on the schedule in all 17 weeks of the season. We have already had a look at Week 1, so let’s now jump ahead to Week 2 of the upcoming NFL season so you can start planning ahead your bets against their NFL odds.
NFL Betting Preview for Games in Week 2
Cincinnati Bengals at Cleveland Browns
The Thursday night game in Week 2 is an AFC North clash that may not seem all that glamorous at first glance, but which is particularly crucial for the Browns. The Baltimore Ravens are the team to beat in this divisions, but with 7 playoff spots now available, finishing in second might just be enough to secure a Wild Card spot. The Cleveland Browns have been a team on the brink of having a successful season for a couple of years now, but can they finally live up to the promise? This is a game that they should win against a rebuilding Bengals team, so we might just learn what Cleveland is all about this season in this one.
Atlanta Falcons at Dallas Cowboys
Atlanta is coming off a 7-9 season, and while many believed that it would be the end of the road for coach Dan Quinn, a 4-game winning streak to end the year quite possibly saved his skin. Whether the Falcons can carry that momentum over into the new season remains to be seen, but this is a stern test that should give us some idea. The Dallas Cowboys were all over the offseason headlines, but they now have a team that has to be considered a contender in the NFC. Can they get off to a fast start and make believers of the doubters?
Baltimore Ravens at Houston Texans
This one features a pair of division winners from last season, with both looking to repeat and perhaps do a better job in the playoffs. The Baltimore Ravens have been one of the most exciting offensive teams in the league over the past couple of season, but they have made early postseason exits in both of those years. The Texans took advantage of a weak AFC South last season and did win in the playoffs before exiting. Both teams will be looking to set the tone early in the coming season, and a win here would be huge.
New Orleans Saints at Las Vegas Raiders
The NFL officially lands in Sin City on Monday night in Week 2, with the New Orleans Saints on the road to face the Raiders. While some of the glitz and glamor of this event is going to be missing with no fans in attendance, it’s still a game worth watching. The Raiders had some moments last season when they looked ready to compete, but can they take a step forward this season? This will be a tough home test for them, as the Saints look to be locked and loaded again.
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United States and France express interest to collaborate on construction of superconducting particle accelerator at Fermilab and the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment
December 19, 2018 | Kurt Riesselmann and Andre Salles
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), the French Atomic Energy Commission (CEA) and the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) have signed statements this month expressing interest to collaborate on high-tech international particle physics projects that are planned to be hosted at DOE’s Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory.
The three agencies indicated plans to work together on the development and production of technical components for PIP-II (Proton Improvement Plan-II), a major DOE particle accelerator project with substantial international contributions. In addition, CNRS and CEA also plan to collaborate on the construction of the Fermilab-hosted Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE), an international flagship science project that will unlock the mysteries of neutrinos — subatomic particles that travel close to the speed of light and have almost no mass.
DOE Undersecretary for Science Paul Dabbar (left) and Vincent Berger, Director of Fundamental Research at the CEA, at the signing ceremony in France on Dec. 11. The signing with CNRS took place on Dec. 19.
The construction of a 176-meter-long superconducting particle accelerator is the centerpiece of the PIP-II project. The new accelerator upgrade will become the heart of the Fermilab accelerator complex and provide the proton beam to power a broad program of accelerator-based particle physics research for many decades to come. In particular, PIP-II will enable the world’s most powerful high-energy neutrino beam to power DUNE. The experiment requires enormous quantities of neutrinos to discover the role these particles played in the formation of the early universe. The first delivery of particle beams to DUNE is scheduled for 2026.
“The collaboration on PIP-II and DUNE is a win-win situation for France and the U.S. Department of Energy,” said DOE Undersecretary for Science Paul Dabbar. “Scientists in France and the United States have a wealth of experience building components for superconducting particle accelerators and are contributing substantially to developing key technologies for DUNE. France’s expression of interest brings into the fold for the projects a partnership that has already seen great interest and contributions from across the globe.”
Two French institutions — the departments of the Institute of Research into the Fundamental Laws of the Universe (Irfu), part of the French Atomic Energy Commission, and the CNRS IN2P3 laboratories: Institute of Nuclear Physics (IPN) and Linear Accelerator Laboratory (LAL) — are expected to build components for PIP-II. They both have extensive experience in the development of superconducting radio-frequency acceleration, which is the enabling technology for PIP-II, and are contributors to two major superconducting particle accelerator projects in Europe: the X-ray Free Electron Laser (XFEL) and the European Spallation Source (ESS).
“For IN2P3, the DUNE experiment is of major scientific interest for the next decade, and this interest naturally extends to the PIP-II project, which actually aligns perfectly well with our experience on superconducting linac technologies,” said IN2P3 Director Reynald Pain. “Our scientific and technical teams are very excited to start this collaboration.”
At the heart of the PIP-II project is the construction of an 800-million-electronvolt superconducting linear accelerator. The new accelerator will feature acceleration cavities made of niobium and double the beam energy of its predecessor. That boost will enable the Fermilab accelerator complex to achieve megawatt-scale proton beam power.
“Irfu physicists are strongly involved in neutrino physics,” said Vincent Berger, Director of Fundamental Research at the CEA. “In this field, the DUNE experiment is particularly promising. In that context, contributing to the PIP-II project would be very interesting for our accelerator teams, who have strong experience in superconducting linacs. Our first discussions with Fermilab staff have been very stimulating.”
In addition to France, other international partners are making significant contributions to PIP-II: India, the United Kingdom and Italy. DOE’s Argonne and Lawrence Berkeley National laboratories are also contributing key components to the project.
“France brings world-leading expertise and capabilities to the PIP-II project,” said PIP-II Project Director Lia Merminga. “It is a tremendous opportunity and honor to work with them and apply their demonstrated excellence to our project.”
French scientists also plan to contribute to building the DUNE detector, a massive stadium-sized neutrino detector that will be located 1.5 kilometers underground at Sanford Underground Research Facility in South Dakota. Construction of prototype detectors are currently under way at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), the European particle physics laboratory located near the French-Swiss border. These prototypes include key contributions from French institutions in developing the dual-phase technology for one of the two ProtoDUNE detectors.
“French scientists were among the founders of the DUNE experiment,” said Ed Blucher, DUNE collaboration co-spokesperson and professor at the University of Chicago. “Their enormous experience in detector and electronics development will be crucial to successful construction of the DUNE detectors.”
This 40-second animation provides an overview of the PIP-II project, and this two-minute video provides an overview of DUNE. For more information, visit fnal.gov/dune.
Tagged: accelerator, Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment, DUNE, dune-international, France, international partnership, international relations, internationality, neutrino, PIP-II
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New Research: Americans Still Searching for How Much Their Care Will Cost
As Americans increasingly bear a significant share of their health care costs out of pocket, research from Public Agenda, funded by the New York State Health Foundation and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, shows that some people are using price information to save money, but more work needs to be done to achieve widespread adoption and use of price information.
National survey and surveys in New York State, Florida, Texas, and New Hampshire point to a need for more actionable price information
Contact: Michele McEvoy, 212-292-7293, mcevoy@nyshealth.org
April 6, 2017 (New York) – Americans are trying to find out how much their health care will cost, according to a newly-released national survey with supplemental surveys in New York State, Florida, Texas, and New Hampshire. As Americans increasingly bear a significant share of their health care costs out of pocket, research from Public Agenda, funded by the New York State Health Foundation and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, shows that some people are using price information to save money, but more work needs to be done to achieve widespread adoption and use of price information.
“With life’s essentials, such as housing, education and health care, becoming unaffordable for many Americans, we need to find ways to help contain these costs,” said Will Friedman, President of Public Agenda. “That’s why we were happy to conduct this research in partnership with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the New York State Health Foundation. While price transparency alone is not enough to make health care affordable, it does have the potential to help people manage their health spending and save some money.”
The research found that:
Fifty percent of Americans have tried to find out how much their health care would cost them before getting care. Similarly, about half of New York State residents—48 percent—have tried to find price information. In other states, an even greater percentage of people have tried to find price information: 56 percent of Floridians, 57 percent of New Hampshire residents and 59 percent of Texans.
Just over half of people who compared prices saved money. Most people who tried to find price information did not actually compare multiple providers’ prices. But of the one in five Americans who tried to compare prices when they sought price information, 53 percent say they saved money.
Despite recent efforts by insurers, state governments, employers and other entities to make health care price information more easily available, 63 percent of Americans say there is not enough information about how much medical services cost.
Most Americans don’t think saving money on health care means skimping on quality. Seventy percent of Americans say higher prices are not a sign of better quality care.
Websites are not the most commonly used source for price information. Online health care price information tools have proliferated in recent years. But among the 50 percent of Americans who have tried to find health care price information, websites are not the most commonly used source. Fifty-five percent of people who have tried to find price information asked a friend, relative or colleague, and 48 percent contacted their insurance company by phone or used their insurer’s website to find prices. Just under half of people who tried to find price information asked their doctor, and roughly the same percent asked a receptionist or other staff in their doctor’s office. Only 20 percent used the internet other than their insurance company’s website.
A surprising number of people do not know that providers charge different prices for the same services. Just under half of Americans are aware that hospitals’ prices can vary, and just under half are aware that doctors’ prices can vary.
“Timely, reliable price information is more important than ever before, especially as consumers—burdened by rising out-of-pocket costs—are increasingly expected to shop around for health care services,” said David Sandman, Ph.D., President and CEO of the New York State Health Foundation. “New Yorkers mirror the rest of the country in needing pricing information from trusted or independent sources. Doctors, employers, health plans and state governments all have a role to play to make price information more transparent so that patients and their families can seek and receive high-quality, affordable care.”
The research also found that, with many states considering whether to make prices more transparent, 80 percent of Americans agree that it is important for their state governments to provide comparative price information. Most also say that it is a good idea for doctors and their staffs to discuss prices with patients, although few people have actually discussed prices with their providers.
“In order for any of us to make informed decisions that meet our own health care goals and needs, we must have clear and transparent information. And while price information is just one part of that equation, this research points to a real and important gap between what people want and what they have access to,” said Andrea Ducas, MPH, program officer at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. “Price transparency is a critical part of making the health care system more accountable to the people it is serving.”
Survey findings are summarized in the new report, “Still Searching: How People Use Health Care Price Information in the United States, New York State, Florida, Texas, and New Hampshire.” The research was supported by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the New York State Health Foundation. Findings are based on a nationally representative survey of 2,062 U.S. adults and on representative surveys of 802 adults in New York State, 808 adults in Texas, 819 adults in Florida and 826 adults in New Hampshire, all conducted in July to September 2016, as well as on focus groups in Texas and New Hampshire. The report from Public Agenda updates a 2015 report, which was the first nationally representative survey of how Americans seek and use health care price information.
About Public Agenda
Public Agenda helps build a democracy that works for everyone. By elevating a diversity of voices, forging common ground, and improving dialogue and collaboration among leaders and communities, Public Agenda fuels progress on critical issues, including education, health care and community engagement. Founded in 1975, Public Agenda is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization based in New York City. Find Public Agenda online at PublicAgenda.org, on Facebook at facebook.com/PublicAgenda and on Twitter at @PublicAgenda.
About the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
For more than 40 years the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation has worked to improve health and health care. We are working with others to build a national Culture of Health enabling everyone in America to live longer, healthier lives. For more information, visit www.rwjf.org. Follow the Foundation on Twitter at www.rwjf.org/twitter or on Facebook at www.rwjf.org/facebook.
About the New York State Health Foundation
The New York State Health Foundation (NYSHealth) is a private, statewide foundation dedicated to improving the health of all New Yorkers, especially the most vulnerable. Today, NYSHealth concentrates its work in two strategic priority areas: building healthy communities and empowering health care consumers. The Foundation is committed to making grants, informing health policy and practice, spreading effective programs to improve the health care system and the health of New Yorkers, serving as a neutral convener of health leaders across the State, and providing technical assistance to its grantees and partners. Find NYSHealth online at www.nyshealth.org and on Twitter at @nys_health.
Follow us on Twitter @nys_health
Childbirth Complications More Than Twice as Likely among Black Women as White Women in New York State
New York mothers have high rates of serious complications related to childbirth, with significant disparities across racial and ethnic groups.
New York State Health Foundation Commits $5 Million for COVID-19 Response Efforts
NYSHealth has committed an additional $3 million in funding to support COVID-19 response and relief efforts throughout New York State
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Home > Fresh Talent: Steffany Beck
by Ben Mollison
Fresh Talent: Steffany Beck
With the many commitments of a dual-life juggling full-time employment and evening work as a singer-songwriter, some might find the artistic process overwhelming. For Christchurch artist Steffany Beck this is evidently not the case; moreover, her sights are set at the peak. With a self-driven 2019 EP under her belt and now a newly released single, I Have A Dream, Steffany continues to push for her music to reach the widest audience possible.
Inspired by watching the Oscars as an 8-year-old, Steffany began writing songs motivated by the influence and accomplishments of the on-screen stars. She then turned her focus to pop-star icons like Alanis Morissette, Dua Lipa and Taylor Swift – an artist she aspires to reach the same level of prominence as. From this early fascination of celebrities, Steffany says the inspiration for most of her writing has shifted, more broadly, to observing people.
“The motivator, or my main source of inspiration for my music, is people and how people treat each other, interact with each other, how they love each other and, also, I guess in reverse as well, how people hate each other sometimes.
“With music, I really feel it’s such an impactful way that you can send good messages and motivate change or change your mood.”
Her latest single, I Have a Dream, is a prime example of such influences. The song was entered in a national songwriting competition promoting mental health awareness. Her upbeat melody and uplifting lyrics about a peaceful, harmonious vision of the future were a winning combination – the prize, a funded trip to Auckland to record her song at Hill Street Studios, with mentorship from Johnny Barker and Jared Kahi.
“I just got a taste of what it’s like to be a rockstar during that weekend! You’re recording… over here you’ve got to do some music video shots, [do] an interview… It was three days of beautiful chaos!”
Steffany’s songwriting typically begins alone, after her day job as a health and safety manager at a construction company. Because of her packed schedule, setting time aside is essential to continue creating and producing music. She defines her sound as a fusion of rock, pop and country. Song ideas can be triggered by anything from day-to-day experiences or something as random as a YouTube clip. She fleshes ideas out on a whiteboard and develops the beginnings of her songs. She says ideas often pop into her head while driving, or even in dreams.
“I have dreamed a whole, entire song before, and I wake up and I’m like, ‘I have to write this down before I forget it’”
Collaboration with mentors was an integral part of producing her new single. Going into the studio with a demo recording, from there each session musician had the freedom to develop their own instrumental contribution. One key addition was the chorus breakdown – a section consisting of stomping, clapping, and a chorus sung by all those contributing to the single.
Actively looking for a compatible producer, Steffany met Christchurch musician Eddie Simon after a concert of his, and learned he was a songwriter and owner of Acoustic Wave studios based in Christchurch. The two began co-writing and came up with her 2019 single Destined To You’. From there she continued writing the other five songs on her 2019 EP ‘Blue Eyed Girl’, which Simon produced.
With an accompanying music video for I Have a Dream ready for release, Steffany says she’s already looking towards releasing her next single and working on her next project.
“I’m quite a positive, upbeat person. I just want to make a difference, and I think music is the best way to do that.”
Ekko Park: Playing With Words
Lontalius: Dual Carriage Way
Fresh Talent: Nadia Reid
Review: Fender Tone Master Deluxe Reverb Amp
eddie simon
hill street studios
jared kahi
johnny barker
steffany beck
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Pawlentimentum
Matt Drudge Names Another Potential Romney Veep Pick
By Hunter Walker • 07/16/12 11:22am
Tim Pawlenty campaigning with Mitt Romney in New Hampshire in January. (Photo: Getty)
Just four days after claiming Condoleezza Rice was the “frontrunner” in Mitt Romney’s veepstakes, the Drudge Report is claiming Mr. Romney has “made his decision” and decided on former Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty.
The Drudge Report’s proprietor, Matt Drudge reportedly has a close relationship with Mr. Romney’s campaign manager Matt Rhoades. Mr. Drudge’s close connections to the Romney campaign make it possible he has some inside information about the vice presidential vetting process, but it has also led to speculation he may be trying to shift the conversation away from the continuing controversy over Mr. Romney’s departure from Bain Capital.
This time around, Mr. Drudge pegged his claim to a New York Times report that Mr. Romney is considering tapping Mr. Pawlenty. Officially, the Romney campaign is not commenting on the veepstakes rumors.
“We don’t discuss VP speculation,” Romney campaign spokeswoman Andrea Saul told The Politicker.
Mr. Pawlenty came very close to being tapped to run on the Republican ticket with John McCain in 2008. Last year, he began a presidential campaign for this year’s race, but he dropped his White House bid just a few months later after coming in third in the Iowa straw poll last August. Since then, Mr. Pawlenty, who finished his second term as Governor of Minnesota in 2010, has aggressively campaigned for Mr. Romney.
Other politicians who have been floated as potential running mates for Mr. Romney include; Ohio Senator Rob Portman, Wisconsin Congressman Paul Ryan, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, New Hampshire Senator Kelly Ayotte and Florida Senator Marco Rubio. Like Mr. Pawlenty, all of the other entrants in Mr. Romney’s veepstakes have also hit the campaign trail for the Republican nominee. According to the Times report on Mr. Pawlenty’s vice presidential prospects, “several Republicans close to the campaign believe Mr. Pawlenty and Mr. Portman stand out among those being considered.”
Update (12:05 pm): The Drudge Report has now changed their headline linking to the Times article from “HE’S MADE HIS DECISION!” to the decidedly more tentative “NYT: HE’S ‘MADE HIS DECISION.'”
Filed Under: Politics, Mitt Romney, campaign 2012, Paul Ryan, Matt Drudge, Minnesota, Bobby Jindal, Tim Pawlenty
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Home Ideology The German Ethical Revolution 1800-1945: Part II
The German Ethical Revolution 1800-1945: Part II
Arnar Styr Björnsson
OPINION. This is part 2 of 2 of Arnar Styr Björnsson’s essay on the German ethical awakening beginning in the early 19th century.
Adolf Harnack built on the ideas of Schleiermacher and Hegel, about a century later. He was the pre-eminent German theologian of his time and is one of the greatest church historians of all time. He said that even though Jesus still upheld the moral rules of his time, he was progressing toward the idea that the highest morality superseded all external moral rules. Although Jesus upheld the Law of Moses, said Harnack,
the love and freedom that were so evident in his words and parables and the love and freedom he steadfastly set over the Law showed his disciples the paths they had to follow and gave them the courage to break with the Law which Jesus himself still had to allow to remain in force.
In this historicist line of thinking, Jesus foreboded a complete break with the Law although the time had not yet come while he lived. Thus, Harnack asserted that there could never be any conflict between the realms of God and Caesar: “God and Caesar are the lords of two quite different provinces.” Historical progress is made through the use of force in the realm of Caesar. State authority is “based on force, and this is the very reason which, in Jesus’ view, puts them outside the moral sphere […] Law and legal ordinance, as resting on force only, on actual power and its exercise, have no moral value.” Private morality, however, belongs to the realm of God.
He thought of history as the progressive domination of the material world by the spirit, working through man.
What we strive after in the study of history is not the understanding of a mass of individual facts, however important or unimportant, but we want to understand past life in its material and spiritual structure, and we want to understand it as progressive objectification of the spirit and so as progressive mastery of the material.
For the private individual, the political realm has no morality that he can acknowledge. But the political realm has its own morality. The duty of the state is to act with honesty and clarity of purpose. The state decides itself what is moral, and its object is to advance itself and move history forward. The individual’s goodness consists not in fulfilling any law of righteousness, an idea he associated with the Pharisees rather than Christ. Rather,
[…] the Good is life in love and reverence, it springs out of a profound sense of being apprehended by something living and sublime – it is the feeling of being lifted above this fleeting world of time and sense at the same time, the longing to give out in love to the smallest of God’s creatures: it is, finally, the sense of eternal security and repose, as the gift of this Redeeming Love. This feeling alone, which affects both the disposition and the will, is the Good, and a man is only so far ‘good’ as he has something of this spirit in his heart. Virtue, however, which consists in fulfilling some law of righteousness or another, or even all laws that exist (if there ever were such a virtue), has nothing whatever to do with the truly good, but is a poor human, worked-up affair, or at its very best, it is only a kind of ‘substitute’ for real goodness.
The “material and spiritual structure of past life,” revealed through the study of history, are manifested in the institutions which earlier generations produced.
In them the achievements of the generations live on. The historian is therefore chiefly concerned with the social and political order, codes and traditions of law, schools, churches, and cultural institutions. Because they are produced by ideas and because their history is the history of the mind, they can be understood and judged.
One thing learned from his historical study is that war is an essential part of the structure of life. It is required by nature. This line of thought is also found in Schleiermacher, according to whom even wars for increased Lebensraum are morally justified:
Every state needs a sufficiency of soil because it ought not to be dependent [on others] for its essential needs. These essential needs increase, however, if the community of peoples gains in size. The state strives to push back its frontiers, in order to acquire what is lacking; these are wars of need. Thus we can distinguish three different sorts of natural warfare: wars of unification which form the state, frontier wars, or wars which maintain a state of equilibrium, and wars of need which defend the state; the usual distinction, on the other hand, between offensive wars and defensive ones, is an entirely empty one.
The term Lebensraum was first used in a political sense by the German ethnographer and geographer Friedrich Ratzel. In the essay Der Lebensraum, he wrote:
There is a contradiction between the movement of the life that never stops and the space of Earth that doesn’t change. The struggle for space is born out of this contradiction. […] The much-abused and even more misunderstood term “struggle for life,” in fact means first of all “struggle for space.”
According to Ratzel, the differentiation of both organic life and of human societies and states are governed by the same laws. He claimed that: “[Every] new form of life needs space in order to come into existence, and yet more space to establish and pass on its characteristics.” A true science of life cannot separate it from its spatial requirements. However uncomfortable the question of Lebensraum is, it is an inescapable reality that must not be avoided. Like biological life, political and moral life is a struggle:
The given space of every age has decided how far countries have had to expand in order to become in reality ‘world powers’, i.e., to span the earth; and in this general process, every single country, even the smallest, has had its position continually modified by the growth of the whole. Since the size of the earth’s surface sets limits to this development, the zenith can be reached by only a few states at the same time.
One of Harnack’s insights was that the only thing that gives permanence to ephemeral human life are institutions. By that he meant “contracts, constitutions, law codes, school curricula and organization, Church organization, liturgies, catechisms, etc.” These are the concrete results of diplomacy, politics, science, art, religion and war. He was emphatic that,
[…] nothing at all, not even great men and the genius, makes a lasting impression on the human community that has not taken form in institutions. […] However impressive the effectiveness of the individual, however immeasurable the influence of person on person, the totality which social groups as such represent is influenced permanently only by an institution which, whether written or unwritten, gives clear expression of itself in the form it imposes, the goals it inspires and the authority it exercises.
Therefore warfare and military give permanence to life, without which it would be in a fleeting state and would go out of existence. Harnack was aware of this and stated: “Army and science are the two pillars of Germany’s greatness; their cultivation must never cease or stand still.” But the ethical value of warfare resides not only in its function of preserving life from outside factors; it also toughens human life internally. Hegel writes in The Phenomenology of Spirit that a spirit of individualism dominates the youth and is destructive to the nation if it is not suppressed. At the same time however, the power of youth must be recognized as the power of the nation. The nation is individuality, “for itself by other individualities being for it.” The individuals within must be suppressed in seeking their own ends, in order that they become active outwardly toward a national end. War is a force that suppresses the individual personality and thus preserves the whole. For Hegel, war is the moment of truth. For in peacetime the Lockean illusion arises that the purpose of the state is the maintenance and protection of property and private interests, and that political society exists for individual life and property. But in war, men realize that the state is the community in which they achieve their identity. The state is the end of private life, not the other way around. Hegel states further that, in war, “[the] brave youth in whom woman finds her pleasure, the suppressed principle of corruption, now has his day and his worth is openly acknowledged.” Therefore we see excited women in video footage of the Wehrmacht marching into the Rheinland or Austria, for example. For, in a nation with a healthy world view, women rightly see the military as an extension of their reproductive organs in an ethical sense. The military, like procreation, forms an integral part of the ethical process which preserves and furthers life.
Shortly before the outbreak of World War One, a Prussian General, Friedrich von Bernhardi, wrote a book called Germany and the Next War (1911), in which he delineated the moral aspect of war. He regretted that modern man had become accustomed to see war as an evil and refused to “recognize it as the greatest factor in the furtherance of culture and power.” He warned against the proliferation of pacifism:
This desire for peace has rendered most civilized nations [anemic], and marks a decay of spirit and political courage […] This aspiration is directly antagonistic to the great universal laws which rule all life. War is a biological necessity of the first importance, a regulative element in the life of mankind which cannot be dispensed with, since without it an unhealthy development will follow, which excludes every advancement of the race, and therefore all real civilization. “War is the father of all things.” The sages of antiquity long before Darwin recognized this. The struggle for existence is, in the life of Nature, the basis of all healthy development. All existing things show themselves to be the result of contesting forces. So in the life of man the struggle is not merely the destructive, but the life-giving principle. […] Without war, inferior or decaying races would easily choke the growth of healthy budding elements, and a universal decadence would follow. “War,” says A. W. von Schlegel, “is as necessary as the struggle of the elements in Nature.”
The acquisition of more Lebensraum becomes necessary for the excess population, as the strong and healthy nations increase in numbers. The new land is obtained at the expense of others, since almost every part of the earth is inhabited. “The right of conquest is universally acknowledged.” Von Bernhardi describes how this at first happens peacefully through emigration. The process is much like our current dispossession. The emigrants, “submit to the legislature of the new country, but try to obtain favorable conditions of existence for themselves at the cost of the original inhabitants, with whom they compete. This amounts to conquest.” The Greeks, the Vikings and the colonizers of North America, all engaged in this sort of colonization and conquest. If they had not, most of us would not exist. Von Bernhardi not only argues that the acquisition of Lebensraum at the cost of the inferior nations is not unjust, but it is a duty. The primordial injustice is in fact a primordial justice.
Oswald Spengler agreed with Bernhardi’s ethical aspect of war: “If few can stand a long war without deterioration of soul, none can stand a long peace.” Peace, he said had rendered the white man “self-satisfied, covetous, void of understanding, and incapable of bearing misfortune. We see the result in the Utopian conceptions and challenges which form part of every demagogue’s program.”
Adolf Hitler’s understanding of ethics as that which preserves and advances life was very clear and he stands out as a living ideal. The ideal and the practical were merged in his very own being. He writes in Mein Kampf:
What we must fight for is to safeguard the existence and reproduction of our race and our people, the sustenance of our children and the purity of our blood, the freedom and independence of the fatherland, so that our people may mature for the fulfillment of the mission allotted it by the creator of the universe. Every thought and every idea, every doctrine and all knowledge, must serve this purpose. And everything must be examined from this point of view and used or rejected according to its utility. Then no theory will stiffen into a dead doctrine, since it is life alone that all things must serve.
Like von Bernhardi, Hitler saw struggle as an eternal law of nature, governing the life of nations:
Struggle is the father of all things. Only through struggle has man raised himself above the animal world. Even today it is not by the principles of humanity that man lives or is able to preserve himself above the animal world, but solely by means of the most brutal struggle. As it is with the individual so it is in the destiny of nations. […] A Weltanschauung that denies the idea of struggle is contrary to nature and will lead a people that is guided by it to destruction. […] For if you do not fight for life, then life will never be won.
Clearly, as has been shown, these ideas were not new by the time of the National Socialists, but have deep roots in German thought. It is the struggle for life that is the basis of ethics.
In the Lectures on the Philosophy of History (1837), Hegel wrote: “It is in religion that a nation [Volk] gives itself the definition of what it holds as the true.” From religion the German idealists extracted concepts that were central to their philosophy, like the eternal and the divine or sacred. Without concepts, ideals and spirit, and ultimately love, that has its origin in religion, all struggle, all hope for nationalism, is in vain. This is of course anathema to many on the right, conservatives, reactionaries, and others who denounce it as immanentization of the eschaton. But what have they achieved? Their fruits are as lifeless as the ruins of the Temple Mount, that no amount of weeping and gnashing of teeth can bring to life. Nothing has been reversed. They have simply resigned themselves to the sidelines of history, while others move on. The weepers can’t let go of the empty shells and dead corpses that once held life in them. But extracting the core concepts from religion, separating them from the dead past, and putting them to the service of life is what must be done. I will end this essay with words from Johann Gottlieb Fichte’s famous lectures, Addresses to the German Nation (1808):
Love, to be truly love and not merely a fleeting desire, never clings to the transitory, but awakens and kindles and resides only in the eternal. Man cannot even love himself unless he conceives himself as eternal; he is unable even to respect or approve himself. Still less can he love anything outside himself, unless, that is, he embraces it in the eternity of his belief and his soul and joins it to this eternity. He who does not regard himself first and foremost as eternal has no love at all; nor can he love a fatherland, for nothing of the kind exists for him. He who perhaps regards his invisible life as eternal but not his visible life may well possess a heaven and in this heaven his fatherland; yet here on earth he has no fatherland, for this too is seen only under the image of eternity, of visible eternity rendered perceptible to the senses, and he is unable therefore to love his fatherland either. If such a man has none, he is to be pitied; but he who has inherited one, and into whose heart heaven and earth, the invisible and the visible, interpenetrate and thus for the first time create a true and worthy heaven – he fights to the last drop of his blood to bequeath this precious possession undiminished to posterity.
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The Two World-Concepts in Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf – Part 2
Editorial Staff - October 7, 2019
GUEST WRITER. Fellow Icelandic comrade Arnar writes about his impressions of Mein Kampf and the struggle between Marxism and National Socialism. This is part...
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Why Study Behavior?
Why Study Fathead Minnows?
Research Article| March 01 2013
Minnows as a Classroom Model for Human Environmental Health
Daniel N. Weber;
Daniel N. Weber
1DANIEL N. WEBER is Senior Scientist at the Neurobehavioral Toxicology Facility, Children’s Environmental Health Sciences Core Center at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, 600 E. Greenfield Ave., Milwaukee, WI 53204; e-mail: dweber@uwm.edu.
Renee Hesselbach;
Renee Hesselbach
3RENEE HESSELBACH is Outreach Specialist in Science Education at the Environmental Health Sciences Core Center of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Milwaukee, WI 53201; e-mail: hesselba@uwm.edu.
Andrew S. Kane;
Andrew S. Kane
4ANDREW S. KANE is Associate Professor in the Aquatic Pathobiology Laboratories, Department of Environmental and Global Health, College of Public Health and Health Professions University of Florida Gainesville, FL 32611; e-mail: kane@ufl.edu.
David H. Petering;
David H. Petering
5DAVID H. PETERING is Distinguished Professor of Chemistry and Director, Children’s Environmental Health Sciences Core Center at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, 600 E. Greenfield Ave., Milwaukee, WI 53204; e-mail: petering@uwm.edu.
Louise Petering;
Louise Petering
6LOUISE PETERING was Education and Content Specialist with the Science Education Partnership Award, a community outreach program of the Children’s Environmental Health Sciences Core Center, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Milwaukee, WI 53201; e-mail: l.petering14@att.net.
Craig A. Berg
2CRAIG A. BERG is Professor of Science Teacher Education at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, 281 Enderis Hall, WI 53201; e-mail: caberg@uwm.edu.
https://doi.org/10.1525/abt.2013.75.3.9
Daniel N. Weber, Renee Hesselbach, Andrew S. Kane, David H. Petering, Louise Petering, Craig A. Berg; Minnows as a Classroom Model for Human Environmental Health. The American Biology Teacher 1 March 2013; 75 (3): 203–209. doi: https://doi.org/10.1525/abt.2013.75.3.9
Understanding human environmental health is difficult for high school students, as is the process of scientific investigation. This module provides a framework to address both concerns through an inquiry-based approach using a hypothesis-driven set of experiments that draws upon a real-life concern, environmental exposures to lead (Pb2+). Students learn how scientists use model organisms to understand basic biological concepts, and how these models relate to human and environmental health. Students observe how Pb2+ alters fish behaviors. Because many levels of biological organization are involved, this module has application for multiple units within general and advanced biology classes. Beginning with what is known about Pb2+ toxicity, students develop testable hypotheses about how it may affect behavior, apply this knowledge to human populations, and identify the “next experiment.”
Behavior, environmental health, fish, inquiry-based learning, lead, minnow, model
Perhaps more than any other poison, lead (Pb2+, the ionic form most commonly used in research) from residential, commercial, and industrial sources (Silbergeld & Patrick, 2005; Del Bene Davis, 2007; Chen et al., 2011; Mielke et al., 2011) conjures up images of lower IQs, behavioral disorders, and sensory-motor deficits – and with good reason. This pollutant has been associated with a range of childhood behavioral problems at ever lower levels of exposure (Bellinger, 2004, 2008; Olympio et al., 2009; Winneke, 2011; http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/csem/csem.asp?csem=7&po=8). For most students, these dangers remain largely abstract because they are outside their normal set of experiences. The challenge is to get students to internalize issues of environmental health through real-world, engaging, and interactive science experiences. After 15 years of experience using this module with middle and high school students, including some who were lead-poisoned themselves, followed by a rigorous, professional evaluation protocol, we have found that students are fully engaged in conducting the experiment while gaining empowerment over issues surrounding their own health.
Behavior results from integrated neurological and hormonal processes responding to external environmental stimuli (Weber & Spieler, 1987). Because behavior is observable and measurable, students are actively engaged in hypothesis testing, data collection, and assessing cause and effect. First, students use animal activities to model their own behavior. If Pb2+ changes fish behavior, students have a strong, visual example of what that might mean for them. Second, chemical-induced behavioral disorders have a physiological context, thus demonstrating the integration of different levels of biological organization. Third, behavior is sensitive to contaminants. Observing and analyzing these changes can be accomplished with inexpensive, reusable laboratory equipment. Fourth, students develop the concept that pollutant-induced changes in the development and expression of behavior can be just as harmful as physical damage. Fifth, it is fun and engaging. Live animals in the classroom provide a means by which students learn affective skills of patience and teamwork, as well as cognitive skills of observation, data collection, and data analysis.
Fathead minnows (Pimephales promelas) provide information on fundamental principles of biology while simultaneously allowing students to identify effects of environmental contaminants within the time and space constraints of classrooms. Minnows are an excellent model for classroom studies of environmental health because they are easy to maintain under classroom conditions. Of importance to this module, fathead minnows are sexually dimorphic: males exhibit a suite of secondary sexual characteristics and a repertoire of easily observed and recorded reproductive behaviors.
High school students are generally able to use deductive reasoning and recognize connections between explanations and evidence. Therefore, we designed, tested, and implemented a classroom module to investigate substances harmful to human health using a hypothesis-driven experiment with a live animal model and well-defined set of variables centered around the impact of Pb2+ on reproductive behaviors. Using an inquiry approach, students learn basic concepts and principles of living organisms (e.g., behavior) while applying this knowledge to a real-world problem.
Choosing observable and measurable variables. When studying behavior, it is crucial to identify and clearly define the variables of interest. To accomplish this, students begin with a training video provided by the authors that allows them to define and practice observing specific behaviors (Table 1) that are requisite for minnows to attract a mate and guard the developing eggs. An alternative method is to use the fish in the control tank to help students, with guidance from the teacher, generate their own behavioral categories and definitions.
A guide to fathead minnow breeding behaviors (modified from McMillan & Smith, 1974).
Activity .
Description .
Hovering Occupying upper space under spawning structure, regardless of activity.
Nest Preparation Contacting spawning structure ceiling with head or physically removing debris or dead eggs.
Spawning Side-by-side interaction between male and female under spawning structure associated with egg deposition. Male will flip female upside-down to allow her to deposit eggs while he fertilizes them.
Chase Male swims rapidly after female; sometimes female chases male.
Patrol Male swims outside spawning structure to feed, chase, or display behavior not directed to reproductive activity.
If you build it (correctly), they will breed. Before assembling the tank, students should think about what a minnow needs to survive, grow, and reproduce and what variables should be recorded. By dividing the list into constants (e.g., temperature, date, and time) and variables (e.g., treatment regimen), students learn the complexities of, and multiple interactions between, the physical and biological world and how different species balance those interactions. Only then can they begin to appreciate the changes induced by Pb2+.
To create an artificial environment that will be conducive to eliciting breeding behaviors, students identify relevant characteristics about minnows. Female minnows are fractional spawners that sequentially oviposit a fraction of their eggs in more than one nest over many days or weeks. During breeding activity, males display secondary sex characteristics of dorso-ventral color bands, dorsal epithelial pads, and rows of tubercles on the snout (Figure 1). Females are smaller, lack the darker banding coloration, possess no tubercles or epithelial pads, and, when, sexually mature, display an ovipositor (tube through which eggs are deposited) between the pectoral and anal fins.
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Fathead minnow sexual dimorphism. (A) Adult male fathead minnow in breeding condition, showing tubercles, epithelial “fat” pad, and vertical banding pattern along the body. (B) Adult female fathead minnow, typically smaller than mature males, and lacking tubercles, epithelial pad, and banding coloration. Drawings by Joseph Tomelleri, with permission. (C) Photograph of mature male fathead minnow in breeding condition. Note epithelial pad (arrows) and tubercles. (D) Dorsal view of male fathead minnow, showing tubercles of various sizes (arrowheads) and nares (arrows). Photos by Andrew Kane.
Males use the underside of any object in slow-moving water as a nesting site. After cleaning it with their tubercles, mouth, and fins, they spend time attracting females to their nest. If a female enters the nest, the male will attempt to flip her so that she can lay her eggs (200–500 day–1; Figure 2) on the structure’s ceiling. Sperm is then released from the testes (Figure 2) by the male to fertilize the eggs, after which females leave. Males remain to tend to the eggs (e.g., egg fanning to increase oxygen flow and removing dead embryos) until they hatch (female students like the idea that male minnows are responsible for ALL parental care!). All behaviors and structures are quantifiable and easily observed, making recording of data easy for students.
Ventral view of dissected male (left) and female (right) adult fathead minnows revealing testes (T), swim bladder (SB), ovaries (O), and anterior kidney (AK). Photos by Andrew Kane.
To ensure that minnows will enjoy their home, students consider what physical components of that home are needed (e.g., oxygen, clean dechlorinated water – chlorine will kill fish – and places to lay eggs). To stimulate specific reproductive behaviors, photoperiod, temperature, and food must be considered. For minnows, a 16 hours light:8 hours dark photoperiod with water temperatures of 19–25°C provides optimum conditions to stimulate breeding. Connecting these physical necessities with specific aquarium structures enhances students’ comprehension of life’s complex interactions.
Each 10-gallon tank (1 control with no Pb2+, 1 treated with Pb2+/16 students) requires an aquarium light (standard fluorescent bulbs are sufficient) attached to a timer. Because minnows begin breeding activity at lights on and continue for about 2 hours, the teacher can manipulate peak activity depending on the time of day that class(es) will be doing observations. For example, if class period begins at 9:15 AM, lights should go on at 9 AM and off 16 hours later. Water is maintained at 20°C with a submersible aquarium heater. Air is pumped in to ensure sufficient oxygen and to distribute heat evenly throughout the tank. Feeding with frozen brine shrimp is done daily at the beginning of the light period.
Because aquarium filters contain activated charcoal that removes Pb2+ from the water, no filters are used in the tanks. Therefore, every other day, 50% of the water is siphoned to reduce ammonia levels and remove uneaten food and feces. Dechlorinated water is used to reestablish the 20-L volume and, by adding the appropriate amount of stock solution, to reestablish Pb2+ concentrations (1 mg/L). Because minnows remove almost all Pb2+ within 2 days (Weber, 1991), waste water can be poured directly down the drain. Blood lead levels of laboratory fish exposed to this concentration for the 2 weeks of this module are similar to that found in lead-poisoned children (Weber et al., 1997). All water is dechlorinated before fish are placed into the aquarium by letting the water stand in clean plastic gallon jugs uncovered for 48 hours.
Breeding substrates require a structure with a ceiling to which the female will attach her eggs. A 4-inch-diameter PVC pipe cut lengthwise and then into 4-inch sections works well, is easy to clean and store, and allows viewing of breeding behavior from both sides of the tank. Perforated, transparent aquarium dividers are inserted into the tank to create three sections, each with one male: female breeding pair and one breeding substrate (Figure 3). This makes it easier for students to follow each fish and collect their data.
(A) Male fathead minnow under breeding substrate. Male is “hovering,” with female in background. Photo by Daniel Weber. (B) Complete aquarium setup. Photo by Michael Mullen, Menomonee Falls High School, Menomonee Falls, WI.
A more complete description of fathead minnow husbandry techniques can be found in Denny (1987) and can be obtained at no cost through the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (http://nepis.epa.gov/Exe/ZyPURL.cgi?Dockey=2000HU6Q.txt).
Planning timetable. Minnows (≥120 days old) are obtained from our laboratory or scientific supply vendors to ensure that the fish have not been exposed previously to any toxicant. If there is a private or government bioassay laboratory near the school that uses minnows for testing, they are often willing to donate their unused fish. A genetic variation of fathead minnows commonly sold by vendors or pet stores that would be a suitable substitute is called Rosy Red. Although teachers who participate in our workshop receive all supplies at no cost, our experience is that some teachers have been able to take advantage of donations from their school’s PTA to purchase these items or have received items directly as donations to the school.
Advanced teacher preparation of aquaria is required, including Pb2+ exposures and successively longer light regimens necessary to support sexual maturation and associated breeding behaviors. Teachers can request that fish be sent that are pre-acclimated to a 14 hours light:10 hours dark photoperiod (14L:10D) to reduce class acclimation time. Once the fish have arrived, teachers should place all the fish into a single large tank set up and maintained as described above. Each week, the timers should be shifted to lengthen the photoperiod by 1 hour until a photoperiod of 15L:9D is achieved. At that time, males and females can be differentiated (males show their dorsal fin spot; Figure 1), and the test tanks can be set up with one male:female pair placed into each section per tank (Figure 3). Lead treatment begins at that time. Student enthusiasm is generated through observations of week-to-week changes in fish body coloration and size as the photoperiod increases. Knowing that the hormonal basis of sexual behavior is similar for fishes and humans solidifies, in the students’ minds, the value of using minnows to model human environmental health as they gain an appreciation for the many commonalities between living organisms.
Students will observe effects of Pb2+ within days after exposure, which become more pronounced over time. Therefore, observations should continue for at least 2 weeks to clearly document the effects of Pb2+ exposure. Comparing these data to those reported in human studies will enhance student appreciation of the dangers of pollution.
Safe handling of Pb2+. Teachers should handle lead salts with utmost caution, wearing gloves (latex or nitrile), lab coat, and protective eyewear. If any solution should splash on the skin, wash with water immediately and thoroughly. For more safety information (e.g., what to do in case of a spill), check http://www.sciencelab.com/msds.php?msdsId=9927204.
Lead (as PbCl2, PbNO2, or Pb acetate; from Fisher Scientific, VWR, etc.) stock solutions (100 mg Pb2+/L distilled water = 100 parts per million [ppm]) acidified with HCl to allow the Pb2+ to dissolve are made ONLY BY THE TEACHERS and stored in labeled plastic bottles at pH 2. The final concentration of Pb2+ in the aquaria is 1 ppm (i.e., 1 mg Pb2+/L of dechlorinated tap water). This will amount to 200 mL of the stock solution going into the 20 L of water in the aquarium. For a 2-week experiment, 2 L of stock solution is needed for each treated aquarium. Although lower concentrations of Pb2+ can produce similar results over longer time frames (Weber, 1993), the tight schedules of many science curricula require teachers to use the higher concentration to produce quicker results.
Caution:Students Should Never Handle The Pb2+Solutions!
Students should calculate how much Pb2+ is needed to make the solution. It is important to have students understand what “parts per million” means and that these small amounts of toxic exposures are very dangerous. Proportional thinking and use of ratios is a difficult concept for many high school students. Therefore, equivalents such as 1 second in 11 days (not much from your spring break!) are useful.
Each group has an observer and recorder. During each 3- to 5-minute observation session (length related to size of class and length of class period), the observer calls out each behavior when noticed and the recorder marks it on the data sheet (Figure 4). Because there are three pairs of breeding fish per tank, each separated by the perforated tank divider, students can view multiple breeding pairs within a class period or there can be multiple groups observing each tank simultaneously to maximize the number of students able to record data during each class period.
Sample data-collecting table.
Observations can be made up to 2 hours after lights go on. Thus, consecutive classes can use similar sets of tanks for collecting data. Using this observation method allows all students to view the fish, even within a 40-minute class period.
At the end of the daily observation period, check the underside of each breeding substrate for eggs that may have been deposited. The eggs can be removed by one student (wearing nitrile gloves for protection against lead-contaminated tank water or bacteria from fecal material) gently rubbing them off the substrate while another student uses a squirt bottle with dechlorinated tap water to wash loosened eggs into a beaker. Using a transfer pipet, eggs can be collected and counted as an assessment of reproductive success.
Graphing is important for visualizing patterns and communicating data to others. Many high school students have difficulties constructing or interpreting graphs (e.g., unscaled axes and randomly choosing which axis to use for the dependent and independent variables; Berg & Phillips, 1994; Berg & Smith, 1994). The module allows students to generate data, express results graphically, and understand the context of what they are graphing.
Students draw their graphs (Figure 5), depending on the questions they want to answer – for example, do behaviors change over time? The students are now ready to interpret their data, identify trends, compare their data to published scientific findings, make a new set of hypotheses based on their data, and suggest possible new experiments for their new set of questions. These last two steps are critical to the module’s inquiry approach (i.e., applying the process of science in which the student identifies new gaps in our knowledge and the next steps of scientific investigation).
Example of a student-generated graph. (Mikey Pflughoeft, Menomonee Falls [WI] High School.)
The module introduces environmental health issues by engaging students in three aspects of science learning: (1) skills in scientific inquiry and processes, (2) knowledge and application of biological and environmental concepts and principles, and (3) understanding science as an endeavor that addresses human problems and issues. Scientific inquiry is embedded into the module. Students articulate and refine their own broad questions about the effects of environmental agents; become acquainted with appropriate tools and techniques to conduct a controlled experiment; gather and analyze data regarding reproductive behaviors of control and experimental organisms; interpret data to draw conclusions and generate explanations and predictions; gain and use skills in scientific processes and reasoning as they generate and clarify questions, conduct investigations, and gather and analyze data; and make critical connections between evidence and explanation.
Use of minnows as a model allows students to learn the negative consequences associated with chemical exposure (e.g., lowered reproductive success due to decreased breeding behaviors; for a more complete discussion, refer to Weber, 1993) as they gain deeper insights into science as a human endeavor that seeks to characterize health impacts of human action on environments. Using their appreciation of the role of a model system in biology, students are now in a position to link changes in fish behavior to those observed among children their own age who have been exposed to Pb2+ and how the scientific process is able to address the environmental health issues that affect them. Students can go to http://www.epa.gov/lead/ for additional information.
Module activities foster thinking, understanding, and growth toward goals for students as defined in both the National Science Education Standards and the emerging Next Generation Science Standards (Pratt, 2012), which serve as primary guides for key and essential elements of a K–12 science curriculum (Table 2). When studying impacts of environmental agents on minnow reproductive behaviors, students learn basic concepts and principles of living organisms, including structure and function, regulation and behavior, and populations and ecosystems. By this process, students meet specific standards for high school science education.
Comparing a science education framework (Pratt, 2012) to module activities.
Practices Essential to K–12 Science .
Module Activities .
Asking Questions, Defining Problems:
Scientists formulate answerable questions to establish what is already known and to determine what questions are not yet satisfactorily answered. Students progress through defining a research question, methods and data collection, results, conclusions, and next series of scientific questions.
Developing, Using Models:
Science often involves the construction and use of models and simulations to help develop explanations about natural phenomena. Minnows are a model to represent how Pb2+ affects behavior and reproduction. Students apply knowledge gained to other chemical agents.
Planning, Doing Investigations:
Planning and conducting systematic investigations requires identifying variables and clarifying what counts as data. Controlling variables and filtering out non-important factors is critical to reaching conclusions about effects of Pb2+ on minnows.
Analyzing, Interpreting Data:
Scientific investigations produce data that are analyzed to identify significant patterns. Students identify and compare normal minnow behavior versus environmental agent-exposed reproductive behaviors of fathead minnows using data tables and graphs to determine effects.
Using Math, Information/Computer Technology, Computational Thinking:
Math and computation are fundamental tools for representing variables and their relationships. Quantitative comparisons serve as evidence of the presence or absence of effects of Pb2+ on minnows.
Constructing Explanations, Designing Solutions:
Develop hypotheses that provide explanatory accounts of the natural world. Students are immersed in activities and discussions regarding data, how science regards a hypothesis, and weighing solutions to problems caused by environmental contaminants.
Arguing From Evidence:
Reasoning and argument clarify strengths and weaknesses of evidence and identify best explanations for natural phenomena. Students present their research, which is reviewed by students in order to receive feedback on strength of method, data collection and analysis, results, and conclusions based on critical thinking skills.
Obtaining, Evaluating, Communicating Information:
Science advances when findings are shared. Students communicate findings using papers, posters, and presentations to peers.
This article was supported by a Science Education Partnership Award (SEPA) grant (award no. R25RR026299) from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences of the National Institutes of Health. The SEPA program at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee is part of the Children’s Environmental Health Sciences Core Center, Community Outreach and Engagement Core, funded by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (award no. P30ES004184). The authors thank the teachers and students for invaluable feedback on this module, and Barbara Goldberg, who was instrumental in our evaluation procedures. The use of animals in this module was approved by the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee.
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Southwest Airlines Closes Acquisition of AirTran Holdings, Inc.
Orlando, Press Releases
Airlines will operate separately until receipt of Single Operating Certificate
In the near term, Customers will continue to interact exclusively with their ticketed carrier
AirTran aircraft to be converted to Southwest brand starting in 2012
Southwest's Bob Jordan will serve as President of AirTran during integration
Mon, May 02, 2011 – DALLAS, TEXAS – Southwest Airlines [NYSE:LUV] announced today that it has closed on its purchase of all of the outstanding common stock of AirTran Holdings, Inc. [NYSE:AAI], the former parent company of AirTran Airways (AirTran).
"The successful closing of this transaction is a significant accomplishment and marks a great day in the history of Southwest Airlines. I want to thank the People from both Southwest and AirTran who helped us achieve this important milestone," said Gary Kelly, CEO, Chairman, and President of Southwest Airlines. "Our first order of business is to welcome our new friends from AirTran to the family in a truly Southwest Airlines way.
"The acquisition of AirTran represents a unique opportunity to extend our network into key markets we don't yet serve, such as Atlanta and Washington, D.C., via Ronald Reagan National Airport. It gives us the opportunity to serve more than 100 million Customers annually from more than 100 different airports in the U.S. and near-international destinations, providing Customers more low-fare destinations as we diversify and expand the well-known 'Southwest Effect' to hundreds of additional low-fare itineraries for the traveling public. Today, we also celebrate the promise of expanding our presence at New York LaGuardia, Boston Logan, Milwaukee, and Baltimore/Washington, as well as extending our service to many smaller domestic cities that we don't serve today, with access to key near-international leisure markets in the Caribbean and Mexico," Kelly said.
"The timing of today's closing in the current market environment could not be more important," he continued. "With soaring fuel costs putting many airlines, yet again, in the red, Southwest brings many strengths to bear. Southwest not only brings profitability and financial strength to make this deal feasible, but it also positions the combined companies with an industry-leading investment grade balance sheet to weather the energy-price storm. In addition, it currently positions Southwest to offer improved job security, compensation, and benefits to AirTran Crew Members who join the Southwest family. Further, Southwest's profitability and financial strength, along with the United States' largest Low Fare network, puts AirTran Crew Members in a position to be part of a growing company again, once AirTran is integrated into Southwest."
Based on the average of Southwest Airlines' closing prices for the 20 trading days ending three trading days prior to May 2, 2011, of $11.90, the transaction values AirTran common stock at approximately $7.57 per share, or $1.0 billion in the aggregate, excluding shares issuable upon conversion of AirTran's outstanding convertible notes*. Each share of AirTran common stock will be exchanged for $3.75 in cash and 0.321 shares of Southwest Airlines' common stock. Assuming no conversion of AirTran's outstanding convertible notes*, AirTran stockholders will receive 44 million shares of Southwest Airlines common stock, which will represent 5.6 percent of the Southwest Airlines common shares outstanding. Additionally, they will receive cash of $518 million. Including the existing AirTran net indebtedness (including outstanding convertible notes) and capitalized aircraft operating leases, the total transaction value is $3.2 billion.
The transaction, including the anticipated benefit of net synergies, but excluding the impact of one-time acquisition and integration costs, is expected to be accretive to Southwest Airlines pro forma fully-diluted earnings per share in the first twelve months after today's close and strongly accretive upon full realization of net synergies. Net annual synergies are estimated to exceed $400 million by 2013. One-time costs related to the acquisition and integration of AirTran are currently estimated to be approximately $500 million.
AirTran revenues and operating income for the twelve months ending December 31, 2010, were $2.6 billion and $128 million, respectively. Southwest Airlines revenues and operating income for the twelve months ending December 31, 2010, were $12.1 billion and $988 million, respectively. As of March 31, 2011, the combined unrestricted cash and short-term investments of the two companies was approximately $5.0 billion. Southwest's funding for the transaction will be from its cash on hand. In addition, Southwest Airlines has a fully available, unsecured revolving credit facility of $800 million.
Southwest Airlines is committed to keeping all stakeholders updated on the progress of the integration process and intends to provide an update, in that regard, in conjunction with its second quarter earnings announcement, currently scheduled for August 4, 2011.
Bob Jordan, Southwest's Executive Vice President of Strategy and Planning, will serve as President of AirTran effective today. Bob Fornaro, who has served as Chairman, President, and CEO at AirTran, will move to a new key role today as a full-time consultant for the integration of the two airlines, working closely with Kelly and Jordan to ensure a smooth transition. As previously announced, Southwest Airlines' headquarters will remain in Dallas, with plans for AirTran's operations and presence in both Orlando and Atlanta still under review. Additional announcements during the integration will be made as plans unfold.
Jordan will continue to serve on the joint Integration Board consisting of Kelly, Fornaro, Mike Van de Ven (Southwest Executive Vice President & Chief Operating Officer), Loral Blinde (AirTran Senior Vice President Human Resources and Administration), and Jeff Lamb (Southwest Senior Vice President of Administration & Chief People Officer). The Integration Board will continue to provide overall direction of the integration efforts.
Until a Single Operating Certificate (SOC) is secured from the Federal Aviation Administration, AirTran operational Departments will continue operating under the AirTran operating certificate with the full authority of its operating teams led by Klaus Goersch, AirTran's Executive Vice President Operations and Customer Service. Goersch will report directly to Jordan, and will work closely with Mike Van de Ven.
The remainder of the leadership structure will be communicated at a future date.
Southwest and AirTran will immediately begin the work to integrate AirTran into Southwest Airlines. However, AirTran will continue to operate under the AirTran brand with its same policies, procedures, and product features for a period of time. Southwest plans to integrate AirTran into Southwest Airlines over time by transitioning the AirTran fleet to the Southwest Airlines livery, developing a consistent Customer Experience, and transitioning the operations of the two carriers onto a Single Operating Certificate. Southwest currently expects it will obtain a SOC in the first quarter of 2012 and estimates it will take several years to fully transition AirTran into Southwest Airlines to become one airline.
In the near term, Customers can expect to interact with each carrier as they always have. Customers flying on AirTran will continue to make reservations or check in at airtran.com or by calling 800-247-8726, and visit AirTran kiosks and ticket counters. AirTran Crew Members (employees) will assist on scheduled AirTran flights. Customers flying on Southwest will continue to make reservations or check in at southwest.com or by calling 800-435-9792, or at Southwest kiosks and ticket counters. Southwest Employees will assist on scheduled Southwest flights. Customers will continue to earn and redeem through the respective frequent flier loyalty programs, as they do today, until those programs are combined over time.
Southwest plans to provide the ability for Customers to connect across the networks and integrate key Customer Service policies for a more consistent Customer Experience, in the fall or early next year, depending on both companies' readiness. Any changes to the Customer Experience on either carrier will be communicated in advance via southwest.com, ai
rtran.com, and in direct Customer communications.
Celebrating our Employees
"Today's closing is an important first step to fulfilling our mission to spread low fares farther and increase competition throughout the airline industry," Kelly said. "Our progress, to date, on integration planning has been outstanding. Without our Employees' hard work and enthusiasm about this acquisition, we would not have reached this point. As we now take it to the next level and begin to implement our integration plan, their continued efforts will be key to our success. I have confidence in our People and their ability to successfully execute these plans."
Kelly, Jordan, Fornaro, and leaders from both airlines today will host celebratory events in all mainland locations for both Southwest and AirTran. Following the closing, the three executives departed Southwest's Dallas headquarters for Atlanta, AirTran's largest Crew Member (employee) location, onboard an AirTran jet. The team will host an afternoon event for Employees at AirTran's maintenance hangar there. The event will be webcast live for Employees and watched in such locations as Baltimore/Washington, Milwaukee, and Orlando, where the carriers each have a significant presence.
Southwest and AirTran will provide a multimedia, live stream webcast of the day's events in Dallas and Atlanta, as well as other video material featuring Southwest Leaders and Employees of both carriers, at http://www.ustream.tv/channel/southwest-airlines-headquarters. The material will be archived and available to view later on the same site.
Additional photos, videos, fact sheets, and other resources are available at lowfaresfarther.com and at Southwest's digital newsroom, swamedia.com.
About Southwest Airlines
In its 40th year of service, Southwest Airlines continues to differentiate itself from other low-fare carriers–offering a reliable product with exemplary Customer Service. Southwest Airlines is the nation's largest carrier in terms of originating domestic passengers boarded, now serving 72 cities in 37 states with the addition of service to Newark Liberty International Airport on March 27, 2011. Southwest also is one of the most honored airlines in the world known for its commitment to the triple bottom line of Performance, People, and Planet. To read more about how Southwest is doing its part to be a good citizen, visit southwest.com/cares to read the Southwest Airlines One ReportTM. Based in Dallas, Southwest currently operates more than 3,400 flights a day and has more than 35,000 Employees systemwide.
About AirTran Airways
AirTran Airways is a wholly owned subsidiary of Southwest Airlines Co. and has been ranked the top airline in the Airline Quality Rating study twice in the past four years. AirTran is the only major airline with Gogo Inflight Internet on every flight and offers coast-to-coast service on North America's newest all-Boeing fleet. AirTran's low-cost, high-quality product also includes assigned seating, Business Class and complimentary SiriusXM Satellite Radio on every flight. To book a flight, visit airtran.com.
*Pursuant to the terms of theindenturesgoverningAirTran's 5.50% Convertible Senior Notes Due 2015 and 5.25% Convertible Senior Notes Due 2016, holders of such notesmay surrender their notes for conversion at any time during the applicable make-whole conversion period. That period began on April 11, 2011 and ends on a date that will be publicly announced in a Notice to be sent to each Holder within 15 business days after today. Including shares issuable upon conversion of these series of outstanding convertible notes, AirTran stockholders will receive 57 million shares of Southwest Airlines common stock, which will represent 7.1 percent of the Southwest Airlines common shares outstanding. Based on AirTran's common shares outstanding and assuming conversion of AirTran's outstanding convertible notes, AirTran stockholders will also receive $671 million in cash.
Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Statements
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Share this Story: Blue Roses documentary shines light on Ottawa rooming houses
Blue Roses documentary shines light on Ottawa rooming houses
"It's an important contribution to helping us understand those people who are marginalized."
Blair Crawford
Bob Jamison, middle, the central character in Blue Roses, poses for a photo with filmmakers Danielle Rolfe and Ed Kucerak. Photo by Tony Caldwell /Postmedia
“There’s no such thing as palliative care in our neighbourhood. What we see are people who are sick, who are suffering, and then they die,” Robert Jamison says, choking back tears as he speaks. “A lot of folks don’t really want palliative care. Because death’s kind of welcomed after you’ve suffered so many years in poverty, so many years as a chronic substance user, so many years out here on the street.”
Jamison is a peer support worker with Ottawa Inner City Health and he’s speaking at a workshop on end-of-life care for the “precariously housed” — the unknown number of people who live in hundreds of Ottawa’s licensed and unlicensed rooming houses. It’s one of the many powerful, unvarnished moments in the documentary Blue Roses, which follows Jamison — or “Bobby J,” as he’s known to many on the street — and other peer support and health professionals with Ottawa Inner City Health and the Somerset West and Centretown community health centres as they make the rounds of hundreds of rooming houses that serve as the last stops before utter homelessness.
Blue Roses documentary shines light on Ottawa rooming houses Back to video
The documentary will be shown at a special screening next Saturday, Dec. 7, at the main branch of the Ottawa Public Library. It’s an encore presentation co-hosted by Ottawa Inner City Health, which sponsored the film, and Compassionate Ottawa,a volunteer organization that aims to improve quality of life for the frail elderly and those facing life-threatening illnesses. A screening of Blue Roses last spring at the Mayfair theatre quickly sold out.
“I’ve heard from so many people who said they weren’t able to get in, so I’m glad that we’re going to have another chances to show it,” said Compassionate Ottawa’s chairman, Jim Nininger. “It’s something we don’t tend to think about. It’s an important contribution to helping us understand those people who are marginalized. It tells that beautiful story of Bob, the social connector who would visit people and talk to them and brings everyone together.”
In the film’s opening scene, Jamison gathers friends together in an Ottawa park at a memorial service for a woman named Krystal, who died alone and without family.
“This is what we’re trying to do at Compassionate Ottawa,” Nininger said. “To have neighbours helping their neighbours who are dealing with dying and loss and grief. We’ve abdicated that to the medical side and we need to reclaim that.”
Filmmakers Danielle Rolfe and Ed Kucerak say they knew little about Ottawa’s rooming houses before they began work on the documentary in the spring of 2018.
“In terms of issues of poverty and access to healthcare, that I knew about,” said Rolfe, who worked as a health researcher before becoming a filmmaker. “But seeing it first hand? I’d never walked into a rooming house. Bob had to prepare us for some of the stuff we’d encounter: bedbugs, the violence … It was life-changing for me. You can’t go back to your old ways of thinking after seeing what I saw.”
“I’m still trying to recover from the experience,” Kucerak added. “Some of the things we saw. Some of the things we heard. Every time I see that movie, I see something that brings back another memory. When you think of Ottawa, you think of a capital, the power of the federal government, beautiful parks, the wonderful, historic canal, all the green space … but we forget about this population, that it’s not all this magical, beautiful city.”
For five months in the spring and summer of 2018, the filmmakers followed Jamison and others on their rounds of Ottawa’s rooming houses, checking on the well-being of people who live in such trying conditions that even minor infection a or a broken leg can be fatal. Many struggle with mental illness and addiction on top of crushing poverty. For Jamison, the work is a kind of therapy, a way to help others after having been helped himself.
“If someone is in crisis, if they’re having a breakdown, it’s a lot easier to help them if you know their name already,” says Bob Jamison, an outreach worker with Ottawa Inner City Health. Photo by Tony Caldwell /Postmedia
Abandoned by his parents as a child, Jamison grew up in dozens of foster homes and was eventually sent to the notorious St. Joseph’s Training School in Alfred, Ont. He lived on the streets, rode with a motorcycle club and spent “30 or 40” years as a drug user. He finally kicked drugs when he was sent into treatment as part of a court-ordered diversion program.
“In treatment they kind of break you down,” he said. “They tackle old traumas and break you down until you’re pretty raw.”
After treatment, Jamison found himself drug-free for the first time in decades and looking at the same streets where he’d grown up.
“I was raw as raw could be, and people were dying all around me. For me, it was so emotional. Everything I experienced so intensely. I just started doing what I could. It was almost working in triage. What I learned really quickly is that it wasn’t all the stuff going on. For most folks it was their loneliness. That’s what started it for me. Helping with the little things. Helping people with their isolation.”
Jamison’s street experience helps him reach people who might not otherwise respond to social workers or health care providers. Peer support, primarily as a volunteer with Inner City Health and more recently on staff at Somerset West Community Health Centre, was a natural fit.
“For me, someone who’d quit substances and was covered in tattoos, it wasn’t like I was going to go out and find a great job,” he said, wryly. “To stay off dope, I had to go out and get engaged and connected.I realized the benefit of peer engagement. If someone is in crisis, if they’re having a breakdown, it’s a lot easier to help them if you know their name already.”
Blue Roses screens in the auditorium of the Ottawa Public Library Main Branch at 120 Metcalfe St. on Dec. 7 at 1:30 p.m. Those with library cards are asked to register online at biblioottawalibrary.ca, although you can still attend even if you don’t have a library card. Doors will open at 1 p.m.
The film will be followed by a panel discussion moderated by Wendy Muckle, executive director of Ottawa Inner City Health.
bcrawford@postmedia.com
Twitter.com/getBAC
Correction: Robert Jamison worked primarily as a volunteer with Ottawa Inner City Health during the filming of Blue Roses and later as an employee at Somerset West Community Health Centre. An earlier version of this story contained incorrect information.
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Black Panther Review
Black Panther has been my most anticipated Marvel film ever since it’s announcement. Marvel Studios is on top of the world right now. The proof is in the money. But, not only are they on top, they’re still working hard to stay on top. Each movie seems to be increasing in quality, and they’re allowing directors to inject their own vision into these films now. That’s evident with Guardians of the Galaxy 2 and Thor Ragnarok. Black Panther is a step above everything though. Why? Well, there are a myriad of reasons, but the main one is representation. Never has a black film been attached to a brand this big. Marvel Studios is the biggest movie franchise ever and one of the biggest brands in the world right now. Some may argue that last point, but it’d be tough. This film isn’t the first to invite fans into the black experience, because technically every black film does, but this is the first time where white people around the world were truly intrigued by the idea of the black experience. Sure, most will say they only care about the superhero aspect or maybe the action. But the fact is that if you sat down to watch this film, you’re interested in black voices somewhat. Whether you respect them or not is another matter. The buzz around this film was unlike any before it. Marvel marketed the hell out of it, and every media outlet was talking about it. As I sat down in the theater, I couldn’t help but smile with joy. Ryan Coogler, Chadwick Boseman, Michael B Jordan, Lupita Nyong’o, Angela Bassett, and so many more talented people were a part of this film. Safe to say my expectations were extremely high. And they were exceeded in ways I never thought they could be.
Let’s get this out of the way. First off, there isn’t much wrong with this film. It’s visually stunning, has a tight story, heavy themes, and not one person is wasted in the film. The one thing this film could have done better was be a bit longer. I know that’s a bit nitpicky, but this film could have easily been three hours long and I think it needed to be. Some scenes were edited a bit weird and didn’t have enough time to breathe. I would have loved to spend more time with the main villain, Killmonger. And at the beginning, the ritual fight could have been a bit longer, and just some other moments felt a bit rushed. This doesn’t take away from the film really at all, just something I noticed. I had to think of something I didn’t like, but honestly there isn’t much.
WAKANDA FOREVER
The film revolves around this idea of tradition vs. innovation. Wakanda is in a transition phase when this film starts. Both literally and figuratively. In Civil War, T’Challa, played by Chadwick Boseman, became the Black Panther when his father died at the hands of Zemo. Now, he must officially become the king of the great nation of Wakanda, the most advanced civilization on Earth. The opening of the film talks about how Wakanda was formed and why they hide from the rest of the world. We learn about the powerful element vibranium and how it helped Wakanda become technologically superior to other nations. Then, we see a flashback to 1992 where King T’Chaka, T’Challa’s father, confronts his brother N’Jobu for helping an outsider steal from Wakanda. His brother has been a spy in America and has witnessed firsthand the mistreatment of black people in the states. He wants to use Wakanda’s resources to help the rest of the world, but T’Chaka says no. This opening scene was perfect because it establishes the theme of the movie instantly.
The rest of the first act can only be described with one word. Magical. Wakanda is a beautiful country and Coogler and his team put in a tremendous amount of effort into making Wakanda look just as majestic as it sounds. We’re introduced to Shuri, Ramonda, Nakia, and Okoye as well. The women in this movie steal the show. Okoye is the general of the Dora Milaje, bodyguards of the king and protectors of Wakanda. Nakia is spy who operates outside of her country. She holds rigid values about freedom and equality and she intend on making a difference outside of Wakanda. Ramonda is T’Challa’s mother and Shuri is his baby sister. Her energy is infectious and the chemistry between her and T’Challa is undeniable. There’s a scene where they are together in her lab, and it’s just laugh after laugh. This film balanced that well. There weren’t too many jokes, but the ones that showed up were funny. During the first act, we’re also introduced to M’Baku who is from a distant tribe in Wakanda known as the Jabari. He challenges T’Challa for the throne but is defeated. Still, his presence on screen is undeniable and he later ends up being one of the best parts of the film. As I said, this first act does an amazing job of establishing Wakanda, but also letting you know what this story is really about by showing you the scene in Oakland.
The next part of the film sees the plot progress towards the main villain’s involvement. T’Challa is the king but he now has to rule. Ulysses Klaue is played by Andy Serkis and has been a thorn in Wakanda’s side for a long time now. This film did a great job balancing everything and the car chase scene in Korea was a great example of that. My favorite part of this scene was seeing Nakia and Okoye shine. Okoye handled her golden staff with such grace in this film and I was damn near jumping out of my seat as she was beating up Klaue’s goons. This scene was also cool because of Shuri’s involvement. I mentioned earlier that her energy is infectious, and this scene was no different. The visuals were nice during this scene as well. Everything was well lit, and Korea felt unique within the Marvel Universe. Overall, this film had great action but that’s not why it was good. This film has one of the best comic book villains to date in Erik Killmonger. His story is a personal one for me, and I’m sure most black men related to it as well. But, his story is directly tied to the failures of Wakanda as a nation and anyone, no matter your race, can identify with feeling like your country has let you down.
KILLMONGER
In truth, this film is more about Killmonger than it is T’Challa. Killmonger is played by Michael B. Jordan in this film. T’Challa, as a character has been through a lot when we first see him in Civil War. He’s been training for the role of Black Panther, he’s been learning everything he can, and he’s already a mature man when we meet him. But, something that Civil War and this film have in common, as it relates to T’Challa’s character? His father. T’Challa’s main arc in both films has been about overcoming the death of his father. In Civil War, we saw a man who was filled with rage and anger. If he decided to kill Bucky or Zemo, no one in Wakanda would’ve cared. They would have considered it a fair trade for the death of their king. However, he decided to not let vengeance determine how he ruled as king. It was a bold move and produced one of the coolest moments in the MCU. In this film, he’s a lot more grounded and still struggles with avenging his father. Okoye reminds him of his status during the Korea scene, and it was one of many times, where the women in this film showed such great inner strength and resolve. This film is about T’Challa overcoming his father’s death emotionally. When he is made king, he visits his father in the ancestral plane and almost breaks down. The pain of not having his father is too much. It’s something anyone would feel if they lost a father at an older age, and it doesn’t help that T’Challa had his father on a pedestal, ethically speaking.
Opposite of T’Challa is Killmonger. Originally Erik Stevens. Erik in this film is the son of N’Jobu. Midway through the film, we find out that N’Jobu was killed by T’Chaka when he tried to pull a gun on his brother instead of going back to Wakanda to stand trial. That by itself is a questionable decision, but T’Chaka makes one of the worst decisions I’ve ever seen next. Erik was young when his father was killed. T’Chaka chose to leave Erik in America with no one to raise him. No money, no family, nothing. This leads Erik down a vengeful path, and his life is dedicated to getting revenge on Wakanda but also carrying out his father’s dream, but in a much more radical way. This alone makes for a good character, but where this character becomes personal for me is the way Ryan Coogler portrays Killmonger. He’s educated, well spoken, and highly intelligent. And not only that, his views aren’t 100 percent wrong. Wakanda, as a nation, has failed black people around the world. They had their reasons of course, but over time, they decided to stick with their old ways instead of helping the world. N’Jobu obviously didn’t like that, and he was killed for it. Killmonger was raised in a rough neighborhood in Oakland, California. As a black man in America, it’s hard enough growing up anywhere, but Killmonger was raised in the hood and was aware the entire time. That’s hard to go through. I’ve gone through that exact thing in my life.
At about 12 or 13 years old, I began to question things in society such as race, politics, and what not, and at about 18 or so I started to really understand my place in this country and society. I’m a person first, and I respect myself for that reason alone, but the rest of the country and the world sometimes doesn’t see it that way. That’s a fact. My identity is rooted in stereotypes and pain to some people. It’s a hard thing to accept. It’s hard to accept that you may walk into a job interview and not get it because of your skin color. It’s hard accepting you might not even get a call back because of your name. Racism in America isn’t a simple thing to understand. It takes time, patience, and a lot of self-understanding. The beautiful part about Killmonger’s character is that he had all of this. He was “woke” as the kids like to say. But where Killmonger lost that balance was not having a father. Because educating yourself on racism and who you are simply isn’t enough. That’s because the more you understand racism and how deep it goes, it tends to make you angry. And that’s a natural feeling, to be honest. It’s okay too. No one should tell you not to be angry about these things, because anger can lead to positive action. What you do need though is someone helping you along the way to help keep that anger in check. Killmonger never had that. He was a tragic character in that he realized his full potential as a scholar, warrior, and intellectual, but he never had a father to help him along the way. And for black men, that means everything. Growing up I too struggled with anger. And I really liked Star Wars. I remember that I got into a fight with a white kid at school who was saying racist stuff and my dad would remind me to try and be more of a Jedi and not a Sith, in times like that. Cheesy, I know but man that little bit helped me because I realized how I could fight racism with my mind and words, rather than my fists, even though sometimes, violence is inevitable.
I know I rambled a bit there, but this is important to understanding why this film is different. No superhero film has had these types of themes before, and not only that, they’re right there to be seen. N’Jobu clearly states his problems with Wakanda and so does Killmonger. When Killmonger shows up to declare the throne his, the room is tense. The second ritual fight compared to the second one is much darker. Only a handful of people are there to witness it, the sun is setting, and the overall tone during this scene is sadness. As Killmonger is removing his shirt for the fight, he’s talking about all that he’s done to get here. He’s killed, lied, stole, and has given into anger more times than he can count. The fight is brutal and ends with T’Challa being thrown off a waterfall, with Killmonger becoming the new king. A powerful scene and one of my favorites in the film.
Some superhero films struggle with their third act, but I don’t think this one did. A heartbreaking scene happens right after Killmonger becomes king. Just like T’Challa he goes to the ancestral plane to speak with his father. But they’re in his old apartment and Killmonger turns into the boy he was when his father died. I have to commend Sterling K. Brown here. He played N’Jobu and his emotion during this scene had me sobbing like a baby. Killmonger is a boy because this is the moment in his life where his innocence was lost, but also because it’s how his father remembered him. Killmonger is crying because he misses his father. N’Jobu is crying because he misses his son yes, but also because he knows who his son is now. He knows that he has failed his son as a father by not being there for him when he needed him most. And you can see the pain and shame on Brown’s face as he puts his head down and continues to cry.
The last part of the film is where M’Baku steals the show and it’s the first part where we start to see Wakanda become united. M’Baku’s speech during the first ritual showed how displeased he was with T’Challa as king and Wakanda in general. He’s a traditionalist who lives in the mountains with his tribe away from the city. But, Ramonda, Nakia, Shuri, and Agent Ross need his help to dethrone Killmonger. Instead of taking the herb and having the power for himself, he shows them T’Challa’s body, which he found in the river. Not only is this scene shot well, but M’Baku’s personality is on display here too. It was a cool moment that showed how mature he was, and how important a united Wakanda was to him. After this, we’re treated to a very fun battle between W’Kabi’s tribe and the Dora Milaje. T’Challa reappears and fights with Killmonger, who actually kills a member of the Dora Milaje during the fight. Shuri, Nakia, and Okoye once again are the best things about this fight. Each one has a different style and are very entertaining to watch. The fight with Killmonger and T’Challa takes them down into the vibranium mines where eventually T’Challa fatally stabs Erik in the stomach. I do wish that this fight was a bit longer because I enjoyed it.
The end of the fight sees W’Kabi surrender (thanks to some help from M’Baku. What a scene that was!) and T’Challa taking Killmonger outside to witness a sunset over the mountains. When Killmonger was stabbed, the emotions came pouring out of him. He knew he was going to die, and immediately he starts crying and thinking of everything he missed out on in life. When they go outside, a powerful moment happened as T’Challa says to Erik clearly, “We can heal you.” Obviously, he meant physically, but the way he said it, I thought he meant emotionally. One of the best things about T’Challa’s character is the growth he goes through in this film. By the end of this movie, he’s his own man. Not defined by his father’s mistakes or the mistakes of kings before him.
“Why did you leave the boy?” Those were the first words T’Challa spoke to his father when he saw him in the ancestral plane a second time. Clearly, T’Challa’s heart hurt for Erik. But the sad thing about this scene is that even if T’Challa meant heal him emotionally, Killmonger wouldn’t know sincerity if it slapped him in the face. His life has been filled with so much pain, struggle, and racism, that he trusts no one. As he pulls the knife from his stomach, he alludes to his ancestors jumping from the ships, saying that death is better than bondage. A part of me wanted Killmonger to stay alive, but I know that his death helped the story in so many ways. His death helped T’Challa move forward as king and it helped Wakanda move forward as a nation. More importantly, it showed that while Killmonger’s cause was rooted in nobility, ultimately, he was fueled by anger, and that will always lead to your destruction. He and Nakia are two sides of the same coin and that’s an important message because they’re levels to people you may consider a revolutionary. This country tends to think that every black person who’s “angry” with the system is Killmonger. I’m telling you right now, that the majority of us are Nakia. Angry but calculated. In the end though, T’Challa ends up showing the world the real power of Wakanda and creates an outreach program in America. The last scene of the film is a flabbergasted kid staring at T’Challa in awe, and you can see the cycle being broken in some way. T’Challa can’t father every boy in Oakland or the world, but he can inspire one to strive to be a king. That’s all that matters.
I can’t even talk about everything I liked in this film. I’d be writing all day. Marvel Studios did a great job with this film. They took their time with it, got the right people behind it, and it showed in the final product. Ryan Coogler said in an interview that he wanted black people to walk away from this film not afraid to embrace their African side. This film embraces African culture completely from the costume design, the score, and even the way it’s shot. Coogler also did a great job showcasing the women in this film too. Okoye was my favorite, but each woman represented a part of Wakanda. The queen, the general, the scientist, and the spy. Each has different roles, but when they are working in unison, nothing can stop them. T’Challa looked to them more than once in the film, whether it was for wisdom, knowledge, or love and their relationship with him felt respectful. I think it’s important for films to continue to do this because women need more representation in superhero films. Seeing women be so diverse and strong in this movie should pave the way for more women in the future. There’s so much I didn’t talk about including Angela Bassett, Forest Whitaker, and Martin Freeman who all gave solid performances in their roles. This film is about a lot of things, and that’s awesome. Whatever you take away from this film, just remember that this is only the beginning of representation on the grand scale. The impact this film has had on the world can’t be overstated either. Communities came together so children could see the film, it’s on track to make one billion dollars at the box office, and Disney even donated one million dollars to help fund STEM centers in Oakland. Black people haven’t been able to celebrate themselves so openly before with a film and every minority group deserves this. And I think we’re starting to see these cultural films of celebration take place more often with films like Black Panther and Coco. Overall though, this film is fantastic, and I really wouldn’t change much. A relatable villain, great visuals, and an authenticity that won’t be replicated any time soon.
Thanks for staying with me during this long-winded review. This film meant so much to me and I’m glad it’s finally out. If you enjoyed this review, please follow me on Twitter @peacelovecomics for my thoughts on everything going on in the comic book world. Until next time, everyone!
March 7, 2018 Peace, Love, and Comics
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Celebration Photographs
Derrick Rose and Kyle O'quinn
by Nathaniel S. Butler
Nathaniel S. Butler
NEW YORK, NY - DECEMBER 2: Derrick Rose #25 and Kyle O'Quinn #9 of the New York Knicks celebrate during a game against the Minnesota Timberwolves on December 2, 2016 at Madison Square Garden in New York City, New York. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and/or using this photograph, user is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2016 NBAE (Photo by Nathaniel S. Butler/NBAE via Getty Images)
celebration nba basketball sport derrick rose usa horizontal match madison square garden new york city
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The Boy Who Drew Monsters (MP3 CD)
By Keith Donohue, Bronson Pinchot (Read by)
Special Order—Subject to Availability
From the New York Times bestselling author of The Stolen Child comes a hypnotic literary horror novel about a young boy trapped inside his own world, whose drawings blur the lines between fantasy and reality.Ever since he nearly drowned in the ocean three years earlier, ten-year-old Jack Peter Keenan has been deathly afraid to venture outdoors. Refusing to leave his home in a small coastal town in Maine, Jack Peter spends his time drawing monsters. When those drawings take on a life of their own, no one is safe from the terror they inspire. His mother, Holly, begins to hear strange sounds in the night coming from the ocean, and she seeks answers from the local Catholic priest and his Japanese housekeeper, who fill her head with stories of shipwrecks and ghosts. His father, Tim, wanders the beach, frantically searching for a strange apparition running wild in the dunes. And the boy's only friend, Nick, becomes helplessly entangled in the eerie power of the drawings. While those around Jack Peter are haunted by what they think they see, only he knows the truth behind the frightful occurrences as the outside world encroaches upon them all.In the tradition of The Turn of the Screw, Keith Donohue's The Boy Who Drew Monsters is a mesmerizing tale of psychological terror and imagination run wild, a perfectly creepy read for a dark night.
Publisher: Blackstone Audiobooks
Occult & Supernatural
Horror - General
Kobo eBook (October 7th, 2014): $10.99
Compact Disc (October 7th, 2014): $90.00
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PETER LOVE
Over the years Peter has served the University as Chair of the Department of Social and Political Studies; President of the Swinburne Branch, National Tertiary Education Union; as a member of the Academic Board, the Board of Research, the Higher Degrees Committee, and numerous other Faculty and School Committees. In 2007, Peter wrote a history of the university, Practical Measures: 100 Years at Swinburne; his Labour and the Money Power (1984) remains the definitive account of Australian labour populism. Peter retired in 2015 but maintains an affiliation with the Politics and History discipline.
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New sanctions are placed on Venezuela’s oil company
There was a time when PDVSA, Venezuela’s state-owned oil company, commanded respect in the industry. Over the past two decades it has become little more than a despot’s piggy bank. The firm’s oil exports to America are the principal source of new dollars for Nicolás Maduro’s beleaguered government.
PDVSA’s vital role in buying the support of the armed forces for Mr Maduro explains the decision by the US Treasury on January 28th to impose further sanctions on it. The risk is that such measures will increase the misery for Venezuelans in a country that has lost nearly half of its economic output since 2013. About a tenth of the population has fled hyperinflation and shortages of food and medicines.
PDVSA has been mismanaged for years. In 2003 Hugo Chávez, Mr Maduro’s predecessor, sacked almost half of the company’s staff. He went on to take controlling stakes in international firms’ projects in the country. ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips left. Instead of reinvesting PDVSA’s profits to boost production, Chávez tapped it to fund welfare spending. Production declined during Chávez’s presidency, but it has plunged during that of Mr Maduro: output in 2018 was 30% below what it was a year earlier, according to OPEC.
Professional employees have mostly left. A purge in 2017 saw around 70 PDVSA staff arrested, including its president. It is now run by a general with no oil expertise. It has defaulted on most of its debt and its domestic facilities are regularly robbed by staff and roaming gangs.
As a result, the PDVSA piggy bank is almost empty. According to calculations made by Siobhan Morden of Nomura, a bank, before the latest round of sanctions, PDVSA was set to produce less than 1m barrels per day over the course of 2019. After deducting all the other claims on that output, including payments in kind to Russia and China, she reckons that the regime would have been left with only $234m to help pay for the loyalty of the armed forces.
Now even this amount is under threat. Despite its woes, PDVSA continues to eke out some barrels. In October Venezuela exported 570,000 barrels a day to America, more than all but Saudi Arabia, Canada and Mexico. The new sanctions block company assets under American jurisdiction. American companies can still buy Venezuelan crude, but payments will be placed in escrow accounts. PDVSA will obtain access to those accounts only after the company comes under the control of Juan Guaidó, who declared himself acting president on January 23rd, or of a democratically elected leader.
If Mr Maduro were to continue to make sales to America, in other words, he would be weakening himself and creating a pot of money that his rival could use to entice the armed forces to his side. So Mr Maduro must search for export markets elsewhere, most probably in Asia, which will mean a reduction in revenue, due to higher transport costs. Importantly, the Treasury seems also to be prohibiting American firms from selling diluents, products that PDVSA mixes with its viscous crude so that it can be transported through pipelines. Without American diluents, PDVSA will have to buy them from elsewhere, probably at a higher cost. That will squeeze PDVSA’s margins further, along with the amount of money available to the armed forces. The vice around Mr Maduro steadily tightens.
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Virtual Porch Broadcast: Violin Masterclass with Ilya Kaler
Jul 30, 2020 - 04:30 PM EDT
Join Event Log in to Register
Today's violin masterclass features Ilya Kaler. Ilya Kaler is one of the most outstanding personalities of the violin today, with a career ranging from that of soloist and recording artist to chamber musician and professor. He is the only violinist in the world to win the Gold Medal at three of the world’s most prestigious international violin competitions: the Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow (1986), the Sibelius Competition in Helsinki (1985), and the Paganini Competition in Genoa (1981). Watch and listen as three of our MFSO scholarship students perform a short work, after which there will be a give and take between teacher and student. The focus of the work will be how best to help the student improve as a player, a musician and an artist. Sonata Op. 27, No. 6................Eugene Ysaye (1858-1931) 8 minutes Jesus Linarez, violin Violin Concerto in D Major, Op. 35..................Pyotr Tchaikovsky (1840-1893) 8 minutes I. Allegro moderato Kenichi Kiyama, violin Sonata Op. 27, No. 3....................................Eugene Ysaye (1858-1931) 8 minutes Matthew Adams, violin Shannon Hesse, piano Akiko Konishi, piano Jason Hurlbut, video editor
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Connecticut Department of Transportation
Current: Chester - Hadlyme Ferry
Doing Business With CTDOT
Bikes and Pedestrians
Search Department of Transportation
Abbreviated Season for 2020
June 20 through October 25
Ferry Service Schedule
Monday Thru Friday 7:00 a.m. to 6:45 p.m.
Saturday & Sunday 10:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
Closed: Thanksgiving Day
$5.00 Per Vehicle weekdays(Car,SUV,Truck,Motorcycle or Similar)
$6.00 Per Vehicle weekends
$3.00 Commuter Rate
(Requires Pre-Purchased Commuter Coupons priced at a book of 20 for $60.00)
$2.00 Walk on Rate for Pedestrians and Bicyclist
*** Weather conditions, water levels, or mechanical issues can
sometimes impact the operation of the ferry ***
If the ferry is closed for any reason during the regular operating season, it will be listed on our real-time travel information website CTTravelSmart
The Chester - Hadlyme Ferry, which began service in 1769, was orginally operated by Jonathan Warner who owned the land on both sides of the Connecticut River. Warner's Ferry, as it was called back then, connected King's Highway in Fort Hill, Parish of Chester to Norwich Road in Lyme. The ferry was often used throughout the Revolutionary War to transport needed supplies across the river.
The Original ferry was pushed across the river using long poles. A steam-powered barge began to serve the ferry crossing in 1879. The ferry was named the Chester-Hadlyme Ferry in 1882 while it was operated by the Town of Chester.
In 1917, the ferry was turned over to Connecticut Department of Transportation. The present ferry, the Selden III,was built in 1949. It is an open, self-propelled craft, 65 feet long and 30 feet wide. The vessel can accommodate 8 to 9 cars and 49 passengers. The Selden III provides a convenient, direct link between Chester and Hadlyme at Route 148.
The 65-foot-long diesel-run ferry is a quaint wonder and a convenience for business and pleasure conducted across the river. For tourists, attractions include Gillette’s Castle in Hadlyme on the east side, and, on the west side of the river, the Essex Steam Train. The ferry ride is actually a continuation of scenic Route 148, from Chester to Hadlyme. Traveling east it’s a real distance-saver to take the ferry when driving from Chester to Lyme: it’s 20.3 miles overland via the East Haddam bridge, but only 8.3 miles via the ferry and then some. Continued...
For Additional Information Contact:
Bureau of Public Transportation
Ferry Operations
Master Captain John Marshall
John.Marshall@ct.gov
CT Visit
In Hadlyme
From the East Side of the Connecticut River
Route 148 off Route 82
Follow Signs to Ferry landing
In Chester
From the West Side of the Connecticut River
Route 9 South or North
To Exit 6, Route 148
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Email: info@periobasics.com
Periobasics A Textbook of Periodontics and Implantology
Text Book of Basic Sciences for MDS Students
Dental implants: Mandibular neurovascular considerations
periobasicsImplantology, Recent Posts
Introduction to implant placement in the mandible
An ideal alveolar ridge with adequate bone height and width is essential for successful dental rehabilitation. One of the most difficult surgical challenges for the implant surgery is severe resorption of the posterior mandible processes 1. The knowledge of the intra-osseous course of inferior alveolar nerve and vessels is mandatory for placing an implant in the body of the mandible. Damage to the inferior alveolar nerve can lead to motor and sensory abnormalities. So, the intra-osseous distribution of the inferior alveolar nerve is important in making an accurate pre-operative planning for the placement of mandibular implants 2. In an atrophic mandible, implant placement can be done in two ways, One, by increasing the bone level above the inferior alveolar canal by use of autogenous bone grafting, allografts, xenogeneic, or alloplastic materials with or without guided bone regeneration and distraction osteogenesis 3. Another method is by nerve lateralization 4. It carries a risk of epineural damage or ischemic stretching.
Anatomy of mandibular nerve
Mandibular nerve is a branch of the trigeminal nerve. Before we read in detail about the mandibular nerve and inferior alveolar nerve, let us discuss briefly the trigeminal nerve.
The trigeminal nerve is the largest of all the cranial nerves. It is a mixed nerve providing sensory supply to the face, the greater part of the scalp, the teeth, the nasal and oral cavity, the dura mater, the blood vessels of the cerebrum and motor supply to the muscles of mastication, mylohyoid and the anterior belly of digastric. It originates from the brainstem at the lateral surface of the pons, near its upper border, by a smaller motor and a larger sensory root. It exists the brain entering the trigeminal ganglion or Gasserian ganglion, where it gets divided into three major branches. The upper branch of the trigeminal nerve is the ophthalmic nerve (V1). It passes forward in the lateral wall of the cavernous sinus and gains access to the orbit via the superior orbital fissure. The middle branch is the maxillary nerve (V2). Maxillary division exits the middle cranial fossa through foramen rotundum and enters into the pterygopalatine fossa where it gives off several branches for the ……….Contents available in the book………..Contents available in the book………..Contents available in the book………..Contents available in the book………..Contents available in the book…….
The mandibular nerve is the largest branch of the trigeminal nerve. As already stated it contains both afferent and efferent fibres. It leaves the skull through the foramen ovale and enters the infratemporal fossa where medial to the lateral pterygoid muscle it divides into a smaller anterior trunk and a larger posterior trunk.
Anterior trunk of mandibular nerve
This division presents a larger amount of motor nerve fibers than sensory ones. It gives the following branches:
Masseteric nerve:
It is responsible for the motor innervation of the masseter and probably for sending tiny branches that supply the temporomandibular joint (TMJ).
Nerves to the lateral and medial pterygoid:
These nerves also arise from the anterior division of the mandibular nerve and they supply the motor innervation of these muscles. Both of these muscles play a vital role during masticatory cycle.
Deep temporal nerves:
In a number of two, one anterior and one posterior, they supply the anterior and posterior parts of the temporal muscle, respectively.
Buccal nerve:
Although pertaining to the anterior division, it bears sensitive nerve fibers. It supplies the cheek skin and mucous membrane, except that of the region supplied by the posterior superior alveolar branches from the maxillary nerve.
Posterior trunk of mandibular nerve
This division has a larger amount of sensory nerve fibers than the motor ones. It has following branches,
Auriculotemporal nerve:
It usually has 2 roots, arising from the posterior division of the mandibular nerve. It encircles the middle meningeal artery and runs posteriorly passing between the sphenomandibular ligament and the neck of the mandible. It carries somatosensory and secretomotor fibers of the mandibular nerve and the glossopharyngeal nerve.
Lingual nerve:
The lingual nerve lies between ramus and medial pterygoid, within the pterygomandibular raphe. It passes inferior and medial to the mandibular 3rd molar alveolus. It provides sensation to anterior 2/3rds of the tongue, lingual gingiva, floor of mouth mucosa, and gustation (chorda tympani).
Nerve to mylohyoid:
The mylohyoid nerve branches from the inferior alveolar nerve before it enters the mandibular canal. It provides motor nerve fibers to these muscles and sensitive nerve fibers to the neighboring skin.
Inferior alveolar nerve:
This branch enters the mandibular foramen. It supplies the mandibular teeth and the associated periodontium. It is a very important nerve as far as implantology is concerned. Let us now, discuss this nerve in detail.
Inferior alveolar neurovascular bundle
The mandibular nerve enters the mandible through the mandibular foramen on the medial surface of the ascending mandibular ramus. After passing through the mandibular foramen, the nerve is called the inferior alveolar nerve. Within the mandibular canal, the inferior alveolar nerve runs forwards in company with the inferior alveolar artery, vein, and lymphatic vessels and together they are called as inferior alveolar neurovascular bundle. The inferior alveolar nerve runs in the mandibular canal as a single trunk, giving branches for molar and premolar teeth. In the premolar region, the nerve gives the incisive nerve for premolar, canine and incisor teeth and the mental nerve. The buccolingual positioning of the inferior alveolar nerve has been studied well. In a recent study, Kim et al. (2009) 10 classified the buccolingual location of the inferior alveolar nerve into 3 types,
In most of the cases (70%), the inferior alveolar nerve canal follows the lingual cortical plate of the mandibular ramus and body. In 15% of cases, the inferior alveolar nerve canal is located in the middle of the mandibular ramus posterior to the second molar. It then runs lingually to follow the lingual plate. In 15% of cases, the inferior alveolar nerve canal is located ……….Contents available in the book………..Contents available in the book………..Contents available in the book………..Contents available in the book………..Contents available in the book…….
Periobasics: A Textbook of Periodontics and Implantology
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Peculiarities of mental foramen (clinical anatomy)
One of the most challenged regions for implantation in the mandible is mental foramen region. This is because there are many variations with regards to the size, shape, location and direction of the opening of the mental foramen. The shape of mental foramen can be round or oval: diameter ranges from 2.5 to 5.5 mm 11-14. The outer end of the mental canal occupies a higher and more posterior plane than its inner end. One study found different shapes of the mental foramen in the mandibles of Zimbabwean subjects: round in 14 of 32 (43.8%) mandibles and oval in 18 of 32 (56.3%) jaws 15. The average size of the mental foramen has been estimated to be 3.47 mm (range: 2.5 to 5.5 mm) in height and 3.59 mm (range: 2 to 5.5 mm) in width 16.
The mental foramen is usually located near the apex of the second mandibular premolar or between the apices of the premolars. However, anatomical variations occur concerning the mental foramen’s location 17, 18. After extraction of teeth, the resorption of alveolar bone takes place because of which mental foramen comes closer to the alveolar crest 13, 19.
In extreme situations, the mental foramen and mandibular canal can be adjacent to the crest of the alveolar ridge 20. Mental foramen is usually located more coronal than the mandibular canal. It has also been reported that more than one mental foramen may be present 17, 18. One study assessed the frequency of accessory mental foramina in skulls in four population groups which included American Whites (frequency of accessory mental foramen = 1.4%); Asian Indians (frequency of accessory mental foramen = 1.5%); African Americans frequency of accessory mental foramen = 5.7%); and pre-Columbian Nazca Indians (frequency of accessory mental foramen = 9.0%) 18. The most common emergence pattern of the mental foramen of the mental canal is usually in a posterior direction. However, a study done on Zimbabwean subjects frequently detected a right-angled exit path 15.
The section of the nerve in front of the mental foramen and just before its ramification to the incisive nerve can be defined as the anterior loop of the inferior alveolar nerve. Although the length of the anterior component of the mental canal is not given, it is implied that it is consistently present. During implant placement, any violation of this loop may result in neurosensory disturbances in the area of the lower lip and chin. The radiographic examination provides the clinician, the information about mandibular canal and mental foramen. But, the ability of conventional two-dimensional ……….Contents available in the book………..Contents available in the book………..Contents available in the book………..Contents available in the book………..Contents available in the book…….
Mental nerve CT scan
To avoid nerve injury, it is desired to place an implant, leaving a 2-mm safety zone above the nerve and if the implant is placed anterior to the mental foramen, then the distal surface of the implant should be ≥2 mm mesial to the mental foramen 23.
Nerve injuries
Seddon (1943) 24 described three types of nerve injury-neurapraxia, axonotmesis, and neurotmesis based on the severity of tissue injury, the prognosis for recovery, and time for recovery.
Neurapraxia:
It is conduction block resulting from a mild insult to the nerve trunk. There is no axonal degeneration, and sensory recovery is complete and occurs in a matter of hours to several days. The sensory deficit is usually mild and characterized by a paresthesia, with some stimulus detection but poor discrimination and disturbed stimulus interpretation.
Axonotmesis:
It is a more severe nerve injury as compared to neurapraxia. Afferent fibers undergo degeneration, but the nerve trunk is grossly intact with variable degrees of tissue injury. Sensory recovery is good but incomplete. The time course for sensory recovery depends on the rate of axonal regeneration and usually takes several months. The sensory deficit is characterized by a severe paresthesia.
Neurotmesis:
This is the most severe kind of nerve injury where complete disruption of the nerve takes place. Sensory recovery is not expected except when the nerve courses through a canal like the mandibular canal. The sensory deficit is characterized by anesthesia.
Healing following the nerve injury
After an injury, the nerve tries to repair itself by sprouting regenerating nerve units. These regenerating nerve units, then try to grow down the nerve to re-innervate muscle or skin. The nerves regenerate at a rate of 1 inch per month. During regeneration of the nerve, if the ……….Contents available in the book………..Contents available in the book………..Contents available in the book………..Contents available in the book………..Contents available in the book…….
Inferior alveolar nerve lateralization
In many cases, there is an insufficient bone for implant placement in the posterior mandibular region. The inferior alveolar never is the limiting factor, which should not be injured during the surgical procedure. To overcome this problem the inferior alveolar nerve lateralization procedure has been described. This surgical procedure involves the surgical exposure of the inferior alveolar nerve, releasing it from the inferior alveolar canal and placing it on the lateral aspect of the implant after the implant has been inserted up to the desired level in the bone.
Surgical procedure:
In 1987, Jensen and Nock 25 were the first to publish this technique developed for the translocation of the mental foramen. A detailed description of the nerve lateralization procedure has been given in “Clinical procedure for dental implant placement”. This procedure is associated with the risk of temporary or even permanent irritation of the nerve, which may lead to anesthesia, hypesthesia or paresthesia. Various studies have been done to investigate the resolution of sensory complications which demonstrate variable results 26, 27. Because of the variability in results reported, further investigations of the long-term neurosensory outcome of this procedure are needed. The patient must be told about the complications before attempting the procedure. Six to eight weeks of lasting paresthesia of the mental nerve and the possibility of a permanent paresthesia should be told to the patient.
The in-depth knowledge of the mandibular nerve is essential during placement of implants in the mandibular posterior area. Although we have various radiographic methods to identify the course of the mandibular nerve, but care must always be taken during implant placement because all imaging techniques have their own limitations. Inferior alveolar nerve transposition is a useful adjunct for managing the atrophic posterior mandible with dental implants. CT scans are necessary to accurately locate the mandibular canal before undertaking nerve repositioning for implant placement, and it is important that only well-experienced surgeons perform this surgery. Because of the benefits of the inferior alveolar nerve lateralization procedure, it is becoming more and more popular procedure. Lastly, it is the experience and efficiency of the operator which plays an important role in the overall success of this treatment.
References are available in the hard-copy of the website.
Bavitz JB, Harn SD, Hansen CA, Lang M. An anatomical study of mental neurovascular bundle-implant relationships. International Journal of Oral & Maxillofacial Implants. 1993 Sep 1;8(5).
Karacayli U, Mas N. Oral territorial neurovascular considerations in implant surgery. Implant Dentistry–A Rapidly Evolving Practice. 2011 Aug 29:3-18.
Juodzbalys G, Wang HL, Sabalys G. Anatomy of mandibular vital structures. Part I: mandibular canal and inferior alveolar neurovascular bundle in relation with dental implantology. Journal of oral & maxillofacial research. 2010 Jan;1(1).
Juodzbalys G, Wang HL, Sabalys G. Anatomy of mandibular vital structures. Part II: mandibular incisive canal, mental foramen and associated neurovascular bundles in relation with dental implantology. Journal of oral & maxillofacial research. 2010 Jan;1(1).
Monteiro DR, Silva EV, Pellizzer EP, Magro Filho O, Goiato MC. Posterior partially edentulous jaws, planning a rehabilitation with dental implants. World Journal of Clinical Cases: WJCC. 2015 Jan 16;3(1):65.
Bone considerations in dental implant therapy
Diagnosis of an implant patient
Periodontal maintenance (Supportive periodontal therapy)
Orthodontic-periodontal interrelationship
Periodontic-endodontic interrelationship
Furcation involvement and its management
Piezosurgery in periodontics and oral implantology
Basic Periodontology
Clinical Periodontology
This website is a small attempt to create an easy approach to understand periodontology for the students who are facing difficulties during the graduation and the post-graduation courses in our field. The information presented in this website has been collected from various leading journals, books and websites.
Periodontal maintenance (Supportive periodontal therapy) May 29, 2020
Orthodontic-periodontal interrelationship May 23, 2020
Periodontic-endodontic interrelationship May 18, 2020
Furcation involvement and its management May 17, 2020
Piezosurgery in periodontics and oral implantology May 16, 2020
Basic Periodontology (32)
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PhD EssaybusinessCorporationSubsidiary: Sony Corporation of America
Subsidiary: Sony Corporation of America
Category Corporation, Sony
Sony Corporation of America, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of Japan, concentrates on producing electronic products from gaming consoles to laptops and digital cameras in the domestic market of United States. As a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of Japan, Sony Corporation of America is being expected to include their financials into the books of Sony Corporation of Japan and adhere to the federal laws of the United States.
Furthermore, Sony Corporation of Japan will have 50 percent voting stock on Sony Corporation of America for the former to have voting power on the decision making process and other matters concerning the operations of Sony Corporation of America in the United States. In short, a subsidiary is still under the influence of their parent company though it has a different sent of legal identity.
In order for Sony Corporation of America, and other subsidiaries of Sony Corporation of Japan, to develop the skills and talents of their employees and managers in the field of international operation, Sony Corporation of Japan established the Sony University wherein managers and employees from its subsidiaries will participate in global networking programs. The said strategy of skill development of Sony Corporation of Japan enables the key personnel of their subsidiaries, including Sony Corporation of America, become expose to various international influences that might affect the operation of their respective companies.
Haven’t found the relevant content? Hire a subject expert to help you with Subsidiary: Sony Corporation of America
The global networking program provides forum for dialogue between participants from various subsidiaries and top management of Sony Corporation of Japan which at the end of the day produces new innovative action plans for the entire company regarding their international operations. In 2006, around 72 managers and employees from various subsidiaries around the globe attended the said program. Furthermore, Sony Corporation of Japan provided a training program to all of its subsidiaries that will improve the skill level of their employees and senior executives suitable to the country or region where they operate.
One possible training program that Sony Corporation of Japan provides to Sony Corporation of America, and so with other subsidiaries, would be the technological training and business training that encompasses group training sessions, e-learning, and correspondence courses which depends on the objectives of a given subsidiary. The said training provides enough room for Sony Corporation of America’s managers to develop their ability to improve the skills of their subordinates through “Management Basics” under the Business Training Program of Sony Corporation of Japan.
Due to these training programs of Sony Corporation of Japan, Sony Corporation of America has been able to maintain their good performance in their international operation and on how to respond to various forces in the international market. On the other hand, regarding the issues concerning Sony Corporation of America, one possible issue that it presently faces would the defected batteries of their laptops in the market. An accident happened in Illinois where a user of Sony VAIO received minor degree burn after his laptop exploded due to the overheating of its battery.
As a response to this issue, Sony Corporation of America launched the Sony VAIO Battery Replacement Program to swap all of the substandard batteries that they released in the market (Support. sony. com, 2008). Actually, it is not only in the Sony Corporation of America where Sony VAIO Battery Replacement Program was launched, almost all of the subsidiaries of Sony Corporation of Japan provided the said program to their respective customers to answer their concerns regarding the overheating incidents of Sony’s lithium ion notebook computer battery packs.
Therefore, despite of the quality issues that Sony Corporation of America currently faces, it still remain responsible on covering the adverse effects of their defected products in the market through replacing them with new ones.
Support. sony. com (2008). Sony VAIO Battery Replacement Program. Retrieved May 30, https://esupport.sony.com/
Subsidiary: Sony Corporation of America. (2018, Aug 17). Retrieved from https://phdessay.com/subsidiary-sony-corporation-of-america/
Sony Case 1991-2003
Exploring Corporate Strategy CLASSIC CASE STUDIES Restructuring Sony Vivek Gupta and Konakanchi Prashanth The electronics and media giant Sony was struggling through the late 1990s and early part of the.
Sony Ericsson Sustainabiliy Report 2011
Essay type Report
2011 Sustainability Report Contents About Sony Ericsson About the report Financial results 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 10 12 14 16 18 19 20 21 Corporate A.
Sony’s Environment Analysis
Essay type Analysis
Executive Summary Sony Corp. acquired Ericsson’s shares in their 50-50 joint venture Sony Ericsson early this year and rebranded it into Sony Mobile, a wholly own subsidiary of Sony Corp..
Sony: SWOT analysis
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The industry where Sony Inc operates both in its entertainment industry and electronics technology industry are both high keenly competitive. The challenge facing the corporation is how to integrate.
Business Analysis on Sony Corporation
Business Analysis on Sony Corporation for the years between 2001 and 2011 Overview Looking back on the past decade of Sony Corporation, opportunities walked along with challenges. The “combination of.
China Is the fastest growing battery manufacturing market In the world. Overseas companies desiring to hit into this remarkable prospective should recognize the development and impact of the Chinese battery.
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The Orlons - South Street
Photograph Provided by Charles J. Cizek
The album cover for “South Street” made its Philadelphia associations clear with the depiction of the city’s distinctive skyline in the background of the Orlons quartet: Stephen Caldwell, Shirley Brickley, Marlena Davis, and Rosetta Hightower. Also on the album cover is the logo of Philadelphia-based Cameo Parkway Records, where the Orlons also recorded their earlier hits “Wah-Watusi” and “Don’t Hang Up.” While “South Street” helped to make a Philadelphia thoroughfare famous, local listeners also could find hometown references in the lesser-known song saluting another Philadelphia location: “Between 18th and 19th on Chestnut Street.”
Overbrook High School
PhillyHistory.org
The Orlons formed at Overbrook High School in West Philadelphia in the 1950s. The school at Fifty-Ninth Street and Lancaster Avenue, which became known as “The Castle on the Hill,” is shown here in 1926, two years after its construction. The school was designed by Irwin T. Catherine, the chief architect of Philadelphia public schools from 1920 until 1937. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1986.
In addition to the Orlons, Overbrook High School’s famous alumni include Wilt Chamberlin, inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in 1979, and actor/musician Will Smith.
Saks Fifth Avenue Advertisment for Orlon Fabric
Hagley Museum Digital Archives
The Orlons took their name from the fabric of one of Stephen Caldwell’s sweaters—the DuPont product, Orlon. DuPont created and trademarked the first acrylic fibers in 1941 using the name Orlon. Orlon fabric was promoted as a stable, resistant to shrinkage, soft, and warm alternative to cotton and other natural fibers. The idea of using a fabric for the group name came from another West Philadelphia vocal group with which the Orlons sometimes traded gigs, the Cashmeres.
This 1954 advertisement by Saks Fifth Avenues for Orlon clothing states: “There’s nothing quite like it … the comfort and the soft, rich touch of these easygoing sportshirts. Yet for all their feeling of luxury, they’re completely washable. Dry without any need for shaping or special care. Moths have no appetite for “Orlon” acrylic fiber, either. In navy, grey, white, tan, copen, canary, black; with contrasting trim.”
Rock and Roll (Early Years)
Rock Music and Culture (Late 1960s to Present)
TSOP (The Sound of Philadelphia)
Twist (The)
South Street (YouTube)
The Orlons Discography
Hippest Street in Town, Circa 1766 (Hidden City Philadelphia)
Between 18th and 19th on Chestnut Street (YouTube)
South Street (Song)
By Jack McCarthy
“South Street,” a hit song for the Philadelphia vocal group the Orlons in 1963, celebrates an iconic Philadelphia thoroughfare and is among a select group of songs that came to define the city in popular culture in the late twentieth century. The song’s catchy opening line—“Where do all the hippies meet? South Street, South Street”—became a well-known refrain for generations of Philadelphians.
“South Street” featured a snappy mid-tempo dance beat and with a short but rocking saxophone solo in the middle. (Photograph provided by Charles J. Cizek)
“South Street” reached number three on the pop music charts in April 1963 and brought national attention to a street whose history as a lively Philadelphia entertainment and commercial corridor dates to the mid-eighteenth century. South Street formed the southern boundary of the city of Philadelphia until 1854. Beginning in the 1750s theaters were established on the southern side of South Street, immediately outside the city limits and beyond the legal reach of conservative city officials and Quaker leaders who viewed theater as an immoral activity.
In the first decade of the nineteenth century, African Americans began to concentrate in the area around Sixth and South Streets, creating Philadelphia’s largest predominantly black neighborhood. Mother Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church, established in 1794 one block to the north at Sixth and Lombard, drew many of Philadelphia’s free blacks to settle in the area. As the city’s African American population grew in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, fueled in large part by the Great Migration of southern blacks to cities of the North, the African American community extended westward beyond Broad Street to the Schuylkill River. All along South Street east and west of Broad were black restaurants, theaters, clubs, and businesses. At the same time, the eastern section of South Street became home to other ethnic groups, including Irish, Italians, Poles, and Jews, many of whom arrived as poor unskilled immigrants in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and found employment and cheap housing in the area.
The South Street that the Orlons sang about in 1963 as “the hippest street in town” represented another phase in the street’s long and colorful history. The emergence of South Street as a countercultural center in the 1960s was an indirect result of government plans announced in the 1950s to build a crosstown expressway along the South Street corridor that would link the I-95 and Schuylkill expressways. With the demolition of much of South Street imminent in the late 1950s and early 1960s, property values declined significantly and the area became a low-rent haven for bohemians and artists. A lively counterculture took shape along South Street, while a group of local residents and business owners actively fought the expressway plans. Their efforts were ultimately successful, and South Street survived as a funky urban thoroughfare populated by artists, musicians, hipsters, and the businesses and arts organizations that served them. It was the early stages of this culture that the Orlons celebrated in their 1963 song. The word “hippie” featured so prominently in the song was then just beginning to come into common usage. “South Street” may in fact be the first song in which the word was ever used. At the time, “hippie” referred not to the long-haired free spirits of the late 1960s, but to their precursors, the beatniks and hipsters of the 1950s and early 1960s.
The Orlons were not the only famous alumni from Overbrook High School—others included Wilt Chamberlin, inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in 1979, and actor/musician Will Smith. (PhillyHistory.org)
The Orlons were an African American vocal group that formed at Overbrook High School in West Philadelphia in the 1950s. The group went through various personnel changes over the years but during its early 1960s heyday it was a quartet consisting of singers Stephen Caldwell (b. 1942), Shirley Brickley (1944–77), Marlena Davis (1944–93), and Rosetta Hightower (1944–2014). The group took its name from the fabric of one of Stephen Caldwell’s sweaters—the Dupont product, Orlon. The idea of using a fabric for the group name came from another West Philadelphia vocal group with which the Orlons sometimes traded gigs, the Cashmeres. The Cashmeres later became the Dovells and had several hits with the Philadelphia record label Cameo Parkway Records beginning in 1961.
At the suggestion of Dovells lead singer Len Barry (real name Leonard Borisoff, b. 1943), the Orlons auditioned for Cameo Parkway and eventually got a record deal with the company. After two unsuccessful releases, the Orlons hit big with “Wah-Watusi” and “Don’t Hang Up,” which in 1962 reached numbers two and four, respectively, on the Billboard Top 100 charts. “South Street,” released in early 1963, entered the charts in February and remained there for thirteen weeks, peaking at number three for two weeks in April. Two other Orlons songs—“Not Me” and “Crossfire”— reached the Top 20 in 1963, but that was the end of the group’s recording success. Personal issues and changing musical tastes in the mid-1960s led to the Orlons’ decline. The group disbanded in the late 1960s (although some members reunited and began performing as the Orlons again in the 1980s).
“South Street” was written by songwriter Kal Mann (real name Kalman Cohen, 1917–2001) and guitarist, arranger, and producer Dave Appell (1922–2014), two of the main architects of the very successful Cameo Parkway sound of the late 1950s and early 1960s. Along with company founder, pianist and record producer Bernie Lowe (real name Bernard Lowenthal, 1917–93), they were responsible for a long string of hits in this period. Cameo Parkway’s success was helped in no small part by Lowe’s close friendship with Dick Clark (1929–2012), host of the enormously popular Philadelphia teen music and dance TV show American Bandstand, which broadcast nationally from Philadelphia from 1957 to 1964. Clark regularly showcased Cameo Parkway artists such as the Orlons on his program.
“South Street” featured a snappy mid-tempo dance beat and a rather simple small combo musical arrangement, with a short but rocking saxophone solo in the middle. It is the vocals that make the song: the tight female harmonies, set off by Hightower’s soaring lead vocal, Caldwell’s “frog voice” deep bass interjections, and occasional shout-outs from Brickley and Davis. A lively, engaging tune, “South Street” was a longtime favorite at area dances and took its place as a key song in the Philadelphia pop music canon.
Jack McCarthy is a music historian who regularly writes, lectures, and gives walking tours on Philadelphia music history. A certified archivist, he recently directed a major project for the Historical Society of Pennsylvania focusing on the archival collections of the region’s many small historical repositories. Jack serves as consulting archivist for the Philadelphia Orchestra and the Mann Music Center and worked on the 2014 radio documentary Going Black: The Legacy of Philly Soul Radio. He gave several presentations and helped produce the Historical Society of Pennsylvania’s 2016 Philadelphia music series, “Memories & Melodies.”
Cummings, Tony. The Sound of Philadelphia. London: Methuen, 1975.
Gillette, Charlie. Sound of the City: The Rise of Rock and Roll. Cambridge, Mass.: Da Capo Press, 1996
Homer, Sheree. Dig That Beat! Interviews with Musicians at the Root of Rock ‘n Roll. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland & Co, Inc., 2015.
Jackson, John A. American Bandstand: Dick Clark and the Making of a Rock ’n’ Roll Empire. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999.
Moore, Dave and Jason Thornton. The Philly Sound—Philadelphia Soul Music and Its R&B Roots: From Gospel & Bandstand to TSOP. Stockholm: Premium Publishing, 2016.
Musso, Anthony M. Setting the Record Straight: The Music and Careers of Recording Artists from the 1950s and early 1960s . . . in Their Own Words, Volume 2. Bloomington, Ind.: AuthorHouse, 2009.
Former home of Cameo-Parkway Records (building demolished in 2015; high-rise hotel building under construction in 2017), 309 S. Broad Street, Philadelphia.
South Street, Philadelphia.
A fun and informative essay, Jack. Thanks for a great story on my ‘hood!
Bob Skiba Posted May 30, 2017 at 10:47 am
Nice to know this music history from the city of brotherly love on Philly Hall of Fame day. Were the Orlons inducted?
Marty Jordan Posted October 22, 2019 at 2:06 pm
Did I miss this? Who played the saxophone solo?
Jerry Sandy Posted August 27, 2020 at 3:06 am
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Fredo Santana Dead at 27
The Chicago drill rapper and older cousin of Chief Keef has died following a seizure
Fredo Santana photo by Johnny Nunez/WireImage
Fredo Santana has died. The Chicago drill rapper born Derrick Coleman, who released songs alongside artists such as Kendrick Lamar and Migos, passed away following a seizure, as TMZ reports. He was 27 years old. Santana was also the cousin of fellow Chicago artist Chief Keef; he was referenced in the lyrics for Keef’s breakout single “I Don’t Like” (“Fredo in the cut, that’s a scary sight”) and subsequently signed to Keef’s Savage Squad Records. He most recently released the mixtape Fredo Kruger 2 in the fall of last year. In 2013, Santana became known to wider audiences after making an appearance in Drake’s “Hold On, We’re Going Home” video.
Last fall, Santana was hospitalized for kidney and liver failure. In an Instagram post uploaded at the time, he announced the news and thanked fans for their support.
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By Jazz Monroe
New York Dolls Guitarist Sylvain Sylvain Dead at 69
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The Life of Malcolm X
Jul 16, 2019 in Analysis
Malcolm X was a significant figure in the history of the United States. His autobiography provides the reader with an opportunity to learn much information about his life and the way African Americans lived in the middle of the twentieth century. Malcolm’s childhood and youth were full of difficulties. For example, he lost his father early and, short after that, his mother became insane, so he was separated from his brothers and sisters. Even though he was still a child, he managed not to obsess over these troubles. His grades were good enough to choose a decent profession, but at that time, the color of his skin prevented him from making any choice concerning his future career. The lack of possibilities led him to move to another city and become engaged in criminal activities. Considering that he was close to people whose lives were far from being decent, Malcolm became addicted to drugs and eventually, got into prison. His life was extremely tough, but all these events made him stronger, helped him to learn how to regain control over his life and to make a great contribution into fighting against racism.
Malcolm’s childhood was extremely difficult, and it was not surprising that it leaded him to self-destructive behavior in his youth. When he described his childhood, the reader can understand that those times were really awful for the minorities. For example, he wrote that most African American parents tended to love children with light skin more than those with dark one. First, these words make the reader become astonished. It is clear that most people realize that such concept as racism is extremely terrible and its effects are negative. However, probably few people are aware of the deepness of its roots, and the fact that a parent can give more love to a child whose skin is lighter demonstrates its deepness. As the reader can see from the text, at those times, there were many children in African American families. Thus, there was a big chance that one of the children in one family has lighter skin. If parents treat this child better than others, then other children will notice it sooner or later. It will not only make them feel abandoned, but it can also be a huge stress for the rest of their lives. Firstly, they are not mature enough to understand that they are not at fault that their parents do not love them as much as they should. Secondly, even parents may not realize that they do not like children with darker skin due to the years of misery of the whole race. In the case of Malcolm, his parents’ treatment was different; his mother hated his light color of skin while his father loved him more for that. Taking into account that he remembered it, this difference was noticeable even for a small child. Therefore, since a very young age, he found out that the skin color can make people love as well as hate him.
Malcolm’s family influenced him much. When his father died, all children in their family had to grow up very fast. In this situation, it is not easy for the reader to understand the behavior of his mother. He described that their family lacked money. There were two insurances, but one of the firms refused to pay them. He suspected that the reason for the refusal was the fact that they were African Americans and probably he was right. Thus, his mother stayed alone with many small children and without a job. Although she went to work, it is not very clear why she treated social workers in a bad way. As Malcolm explained, “What I later understood was that my mother was making a desperate effort to preserve her pride – and ours”. On the one hand, she made the situation worse eventually: social workers began to visit their family oftener, ask more questions, and try to find a way to make their lives more difficult. On the other hand, she showed her children what the pride was. As a result of this demonstration, Malcolm probably inherited this trait, which helped him in the future. Taking into account that his mother was in a no-win situation, she, a single woman with many children, still managed to fight with the system. It was a bright example for Malcolm. He mentioned these events for a reason; they had a deep impact on him. Thus, he probably realized that if one woman could struggle, then he had no choice but do the same. The first thing that comes to the reader’s mind concerning his mother is judgment for letting down her children. However, if to think about it, eventually, her pride influenced many people’s lives through Malcolm’s deeds.
The necessity to grow up fast sharpened Malcolm’s personality. For example, he began shooting rabbits with a rifle. Afterwards he sold them to the neighbors who bought them only because they felt sorry for this poor family. Shooting is certainly not an appropriate pastime for a child. It is dangerous even for adults, not to mention children. Firstly, he could easily hurt himself. Secondly, he could hurt someone else accidentally. It was great luck that rabbits were the only victims of such entrepreneurship. Still, it had its positive sides. For example, it might help Malcolm to develop certain qualities such as attentiveness, responsibility, and masculinity. Thus, shooting was not that bad, but unfortunately, the situation of their family worsened because of Malcolm’s behavior. They had to take free food from a special depot, and children from their school found out about it. Naturally, it was embarrassing for them. At schools, children can be rather cruel, and it is true for all times. This cruelty exists in today’s schools, as well. Although today this problem remains serious and as a result of the technological progress, there appeared cyber bullying, there is a big difference as nowadays a person may get into huge trouble for any kind of racism while it was a common thing at that time. Therefore, it is easy to imagine what the members of this family felt; people despised them not only for the color of their skin, but also for their social status. People’s cruelty had a negative effect on Malcolm: “The more I began to stay away from home and visit people and steal from the stores, the more aggressive I became in my inclinations”. The poor child probably thought that if people had some right to treat him and his family as if they did something wrong, then he had the right to do something wrong, too. That is why he began stealing, which was the first step towards the criminal life.
The difficult childhood made Malcolm stronger and helped him to learn how to adjust to various situations in life. The reader can observe that he got into many troubles, but there was something positive about it; these troubles were lessons which he remembered. Later in life, these lessons could be very helpful. For example, when he started to work for the first time, he earned little money. However, even being at an early age, Malcolm realized that there were various possibilities to increase the amount of the money that he had. The reader can notice that such way of thinking was rather surprising for a little boy. If he could understand such a thing as the increase of profits, even though he tried to do it via gambling. It meant that he had a huge potential and it was necessary to develop it. At that moment, he failed to get more money, but he learned a very important thing: “This was my first lesson about gambling: if you see somebody winning all the time, he is not gambling, he is cheating”. Later on, Malcolm lived in the world of gamblers, so it was beneficial that he learned that lesson earlier. In childhood, he lost a small sum of money, but if he could not determine whether a person was cheating or not, he could later lose much money and get into a dangerous situation. Probably that quick and painful lesson saved his life more than once, eventually. Moreover, he realized that cheating was necessary to survive, so he started doing it, as well. For example, when he already lived with a foster family, they went hunting rabbits. The grown-ups knew a certain strategy how to shoot a rabbit for sure, and they shared this information with Malcolm. He cheated, changed their strategy a little, and managed to catch the rabbits that the adults were supposed to catch. This move was so smart that the adults did not even realize what he did. Thus, a number of sets of circumstances taught Malcolm how to be more skilful.
Malcolm blamed the authorities for destroying his family, and it had a deep impact on his future ideas. To some extent, he was right. The society of those times was rather cruel towards people who were somehow different from others. Malcolm experienced this at an early age, and that is why he blamed the authorities. Truly, his father was probably murdered because of the hatred towards African Americans. If the authorities were stricter concerning the violence towards the minorities, such situation would not happen. In this case, it is clear that nobody even tried to search for the murderers. Moreover, one of the insurance companies dared to claim that it was a suicide. Naturally, seeing the insanity of the authorities, Malcolm began to hate them, and he could not get rid of this feeling to the rest of his life. There was no possibility for African Americans to find justice, and it was unfair. Probably Malcolm blamed the authorities for making his mother go crazy, as well. On the one hand, the reader might think that the authorities could not influence the woman’s mental health in any way. On the other hand, the woman was already more underprivileged than others only because she was African American. The authorities would treat better a white woman in such a terrible situation, with so many children and without a breadwinner. Malcolm’s family did not receive the second bigger insurance only because of their skin color. Maybe his mother counted on that sum; maybe it would have sufficed for them to live better for a longer period. Malcolm did not mention the sum, but after not receiving it, the state of his mother’s health worsened very fast. Thus, the authorities did contribute to ruining his family, and that is why Malcolm began to be strongly against white people.
In Malcolm’s life, there was a very offensive conversation that probably predetermined his future. His teacher asked which occupation he would like to choose. In each person’s life, such conversations are rather significant. Firstly, people tend to respect their teachers. They are aware that teachers are very intelligent people and they can give good advice. Secondly, teachers know their students well, including their strong and weak points, and their interests. Therefore, a teacher can take into account all the necessary information before giving advice concerning a student’s future occupation. Malcolm was not lucky to receive valuable advice. Of course, the teacher tried to sound friendly, but such words cannot be compared to friendliness: “But you have got to be realistic about being a nigger. A lawyer – that is no realistic goal for a nigger”. These are the most terrible words that a child can hear from someone he or she respects. On the one hand, Malcolm did not consider becoming a lawyer at that time, he said it because he did not expect this question and did not want to seem that he had no plan for the future. On the other hand, these words can hurt a person’s feelings in any case. The boy was already aware that his possibilities are limited only because he was African American. However, the fact was that they were not limited to that extent. He could try to become a lawyer, maybe he would succeed. When Malcolm described this situation, he raised a very serious problem. At that time, there were many similar teachers and many African Americans who received similar pieces of advice. Thus, racism did not only prevent the representatives of the minorities from pursuing their dreams, but it did not even let them at least try. It is difficult to imagine how much goodness the world lost because of this. There could be so many brilliant doctors, scientists, lawyers, and all of them could be useful to the society, but a teacher advised them to become carpenters or something like that. It is frustrating, but similar situations kept occurring for so many years. Surely, if there appeared more white-collar workers of African American origin earlier, then there would be fewer reasons for white people to consider them to be worse, less intelligent, and incapable to succeed. Still, later on in his life, Malcolm managed to prove that his teacher wrong. He became someone significant and influenced people’s lives instead of becoming a carpenter.
When Malcolm was still very young, he saw the things that the boy of his age should not see, and it made him even more mature. He had to start earning money early, and his first job was not decent at all. When the reader finds out that he began to polish shoes, he or she may feel a little relieved that the boy found a way to earn some money. However, it turns out that the boy had to do other things such as providing people with alcohol or helping them to get in touch with a pimp. This environment is far from being normal for a teenager. Moreover, observing all of this can lead to a psychological trauma. To some extent, Malcolm managed to stay out of trouble longer than an average person would do. When the reader notices that a young boy gets into the world of gamblers and prostitutes, he or she may easily predict his future. Thus, it is possible to suppose that the boy would become addicted and die, or that he would lose a big sum of money and have to commit a crime to wipe off a debt. In general, many unpleasant things can happen to a boy who, so to say, has no parents and gets familiar with such things. Eventually, bad things happened to him; he became addicted to drugs and he got into prison. Still, it is surprising that Malcolm managed to somehow avoid these events for a long time. Moreover, he adjusted as he learned how to earn more money, and how to deal with criminals. When he had money, he did not forget to help his siblings at least a little; this deed deserves respect. It is possible to conclude that he turned out more skillful than others, as there existed the whole neighborhoods where African Americans lived even more miserable lives: “I had seen a lot, but never such a dense concentration of stumblebums, pushers, hookers, public crap-shooters, [..] just a few blocks from the White House”. Basically, African Americans had not so many options of how to live their lives at that time. Thus, most of them, like Malcolm’s family when he was a child, lived in a complete poverty; only few of them managed to live a more or less decent life while others had to be engaged in various criminal activities, which rarely leaded to something good. Although during some time Malcolm belonged to the latter group, it had some advantages in the future. He saw the worst things, and he lived among those things. Observing the bottom helped him to realize the extent of poorness of the condition of African Americans as a race at that time.
When Malcolm was in prison, which was one of the most challenging periods in his life, he succeeded to get many benefits out of it, as well. Thus, it was the first time long after school when he remembered about the importance of knowledge. When he was in prison, he began reading many books and practicing in writing letters. It was very significant because before getting in prison, he mentioned that his vocabulary became rather poor. The lowering of the level of his vocabulary was natural considering types of people he dealt with. As Malcolm stated, “All of our experiences fuse into our personality. Everything that ever happened to us is an ingredient”. He was right, his life was full of various experiences and even though they were mostly negative, he succeeded in turning them into positive results. In its essence, getting into prison is far from being positive in any person’s life. Few people manage to reconsider their behavior in life. Moreover, there are many instances when after leaving prison people cannot find their place in life and choose criminal activities again, thus spending most of their life in prison. For Malcolm, this negative experience influenced his personality in a positive way. Instead of turning towards degradation, he turned towards knowledge. If he stayed the way he was before prison, he would probably fail to contribute anything into the American history.
To sum up, the whole Malcolm’s life was far from being easy. Since early childhood, he started to experience the consequences of being a representative of the African American race. These consequences destroyed his family and made him become self-dependent quite early. He kept getting into various troubles. Sometimes this happened because he did not try to change anything, but in most cases, it occurred because of the prosperity of many forms of discrimination at that time. As the reader can observe, Malcolm remained strong even in the most challenging situations. As a result of constant fighting with destiny, he learned how to stand up and keep moving towards his goal. If he did not manage to overcome all obstacles, his personality would not become forceful enough to fight against discrimination at that time. Everything negative that happened to him created a leadership capacity which allowed him to influence history.
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Amyloid deposition in younger adults is linked to episodic memory performance
Neurology. 2016 Dec 13;87(24):2562-2566. doi: 10.1212/WNL.0000000000003425. Epub 2016 Nov 11.
Gérard N Bischof 1 , Karen M Rodrigue 2 , Kristen M Kennedy 2 , Michael D Devous Sr 2 , Denise C Park 2
1 From the Center for Vital Longevity (G.N.B., K.M.R., K.M.K., D.C.P.), School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences, University of Texas at Dallas; Multimodal Neuroimaging Group (G.N.B.), Department of Nuclear Medicine, University Hospital Cologne; Cognitive Neuroscience (G.N.B.), Institute of Neuroscience and Medicine (INM-3), Research Center Jülich, Germany; and Department of Radiology (M.D.D.), University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas. gerard.bischof@uk-koeln.de.
2 From the Center for Vital Longevity (G.N.B., K.M.R., K.M.K., D.C.P.), School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences, University of Texas at Dallas; Multimodal Neuroimaging Group (G.N.B.), Department of Nuclear Medicine, University Hospital Cologne; Cognitive Neuroscience (G.N.B.), Institute of Neuroscience and Medicine (INM-3), Research Center Jülich, Germany; and Department of Radiology (M.D.D.), University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas.
Objective: To examine the relationship of β-amyloid (Aβ) deposition to episodic memory in younger (30-49 years), middle-older (50-69 years), and older adults (70-89 years). We hypothesized that subclinical levels of amyloid would be linked to memory in adults across the lifespan in a dose-dependent fashion. Of great interest was whether, within the younger group, a relationship between amyloid level and memory performance could be established.
Methods: A total of 147 participants from the Dallas Lifespan Brain Study, aged 30-89, underwent PET imaging with 18F-florbetapir and cognitive assessment. We assessed the relationship between age group and amyloid and tested whether Aβ differentially affected memory performance across the 3 age groups.
Results: We report a significant association of age to amyloid burden for younger and middle-older adults (r = 0.57 and 0.28, respectively), but not for the oldest group, although absolute level of amyloid increased across the age groups. Importantly, the youngest group showed a significant decrease in recall (r = -0.47, p = 0.004) and recognition memory (r = -0.48, p = 0.003) as a function of increases in Aβ burden, whereas this relationship was absent in the middle-older and oldest group (all p > 0.23).
Conclusions: These results indicate that variance in subclinical levels of Aβ in younger adults is meaningful, and suggest that higher SUVRs relative to one's peers at a younger age is not entirely benign.
© 2016 American Academy of Neurology.
Alzheimer Disease / diagnosis
Alzheimer Disease / metabolism
Amyloid beta-Peptides / metabolism*
Memory, Episodic*
Neuropsychological Tests
Radiopharmaceuticals / metabolism
Amyloid beta-Peptides
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K.J. Wright Pete Carroll Kirk Cousins Adam Thielen Dalvin Cook Alexander Mattison D.K. Metcalf Mike Zimmer Chris Carson Eric Wilson Russell Wilson Will Dissly Sports Athlete injuries Athlete health Professional football Football NFL football
Minnesota Vikings Seattle Seahawks
Late Wilson magic gives Seahawks 27-26 win over Vikings
By TIM BOOTH - Oct. 12, 2020 12:44 AM EDT
Seattle Seahawks' DK Metcalf, right, catches the ball in the end zone for a touchdown as Minnesota Vikings' Anthony Harris defends near the end of the second half of an NFL football game, Sunday, Oct. 11, 2020, in Seattle. (AP Photo/John Froschauer)
SEATTLE (AP) — By this point, Russell Wilson piecing together more late dramatics that ends with the Seattle Seahawks erupting in celebration seems almost expected.
Another late drive. Another touchdown throw by Wilson. Another Seahawks victory.
“I don’t know how anybody could ever be better than what he continues to show us in those situations,” Seattle coach Pete Carroll said. “He’s as good as you can get.”
Wilson capped a 94-yard drive with a 6-yard touchdown pass to DK Metcalf on fourth-and-goal with 15 seconds left, and the Seahawks beat the Minnesota Vikings 27-26 on Sunday night.
Seattle improved to 5-0 for the first time in franchise history with Wilson providing more prime-time magic and yet another late comeback on a soggy October night in an empty stadium.
In his career, Wilson has 34 career game-winning drives when tied or trailing in the fourth quarter and overtime — regular season and playoffs combined.
And this will rank among his best.
"I believe this is like one of the top three or four most impressive things I’ve seen this team do,” Seattle linebacker K.J. Wright said.
Wilson was 20 of 32 for 217 yards and three touchdowns. It wasn’t his best performance — he had a pass intercepted by Eric Wilson on a careless attempt midway through the fourth quarter — but he made the key throws late.
Seattle’s last drive included a fourth-and-10 conversion on a 39-yard pass to Metcalf early in the possession. Seattle appeared to get a winning TD to Metcalf on second-and-goal, but he lost the ball as he was hit from behind. Given another chance on fourth-and-goal, Metcalf flashed open cutting across the end zone and Wilson delivered a fastball into a tiny opening.
“It came down to a clutch moment ... and I just saw DK run across the field and just tried to zoom it in there to him in a tight window,” Wilson said. “He just made an unbelievable catch, unbelievable play.”
Minnesota's Kirk Cousins was 27 of 39 for 249 yards and two second-half TD passes to Adam Thielen. Alexander Mattison rushed for a career-high 112 yards in place of Dalvin Cook after he suffered a groin injury on the opening possession of the second half. But Mattison was stopped on fourth-and-1 at the Seattle 6 with 1:57 left, setting the stage for yet another Wilson comeback.
It’s a decision by Minnesota coach Mike Zimmer that certainly will be questioned. A field goal would have given Minnesota a 29-21 lead and forced Seattle to score a touchdown and a 2-point conversion just to force overtime.
Instead, the Vikings (1-4) were tagged with another crushing loss in a challenging start to the season.
“It was about a half a yard. If we got the half a yard, we win the game. So I was trying to go win it,” Zimmer said. "I told ’em on the headset, ‘We didn’t come here for this. Let’s go win it.’”
Meanwhile, the Seahawks head into their bye week riding the best start in franchise history. Not even the 2013 team that went on to win the only Super Bowl title for the franchise started 5-0.
It didn’t seem another Wilson comeback was possible with Minnesota leading 13-0 at halftime. But Seattle suddenly ignited in the third quarter, with a 21-point barrage that took less than 2 minutes. Wilson hit Will Dissly and Metcalf on TD passes sandwiched around a fumble by Cousins. After Cousins' pass was intercepted by Wright, Chris Carson rumbled 29 yards and Seattle had a 21-13 lead.
It took just eight combined plays and suddenly a 13-point deficit was an eight-point lead.
But Cousins didn’t fold. Mattison proved to be a more than capable replacement for Cook, and Cousins got hot. He was 6 of 8 for 64 yards and a 3-yard TD pass to Theilen on Minnesota’s next drive cutting the deficit to 21-19.
After Seattle punted for a second time inside Vikings territory, Cousins led Minnesota 97 yards, capping the drive with a 6-yard TD pass to Thielen. The 15-play drive took 8 minutes off the clock and gave Minnesota a 26-21 lead with 7:08 remaining.
Over the two drives combined, Cousins was 10 of 13 for 104 yards and two TDs.
“A lot of plays we’d love to have back, and that’s kind of the nature of this business when you lose,” Cousins said.
KEEP COOK(ING)
Cook’s first quarter TD run gave him a TD in every game this season. He joined Mike Evans and Tyreek Hill as the only player to score in each of the first five games this season. Cook is the first Minnesota player to accomplish the feat since Randy Moss in 2004. But he left in the third quarter with a groin injury. He tried to return for one play, but was running gingerly and remained on the sideline the rest of the game.
Zimmer said Cook would have an MRI on Monday.
SHUTOUT STREAK
Seattle was shut out in the first half for the 10th time in Carroll’s tenure. This is the first time the Seahawks have won. They were 0-8-1 in the previous nine.
TD MARK
Wilson now has 19 touchdowns through five games. That's second-most in league history. Peyton Manning had 20 TDs through five games in 2013.
Vikings: Minnesota returns home to host winless Atlanta next Sunday.
Seahawks: Seattle has its bye next week before traveling to Arizona on Oct. 25.
By Dennis Waszak Jr. 3 minutes ago
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17 Biggest Unsolved Mysteries
By David Samuel July 2, 2019 No Comments
Introduction:- Biggest Unsolved Mysteries. The world we live in is filled with lots of mysteries, many of which are yet to be solved or proffer sensible solution to. So, what are the biggest of these unsolved mysteries of the world? Here’s a list we have compiled of 17 of the biggest unsolved mysteries of the world.
Through time, man has made some outstanding discoveries that shook the world. But, no matter how much discoveries that have been made, there are still some mysteries that are yet to be solved.
Often times, most of these unsolved mysteries are due to the destruction of the archaeological locations, or loss of important excavated materials that would have helped in one way, by providing the relevant information that is needed for that case.
Hence, leading to a lack of answers, which, also makes these cases more intriguing. Here are 17 of the biggest mind-boggling unsolved mysteries of the world…
Mind-blowing Unsolved Mysteries Of all Time
17. What Happened to DB Cooper?
Our first biggest unsolved mysteries is about a man who attempted to hijack a plane. The man, who was identified as Dan Cooper, was to go on a 30-minute flight on Northwest Airlines Flight 305, from Portland to Seattle.
After takeoff, he reportedly handed one of the air hostesses a note (which is also part of the mystery) and instructed her to read it. His words to her were “Miss, you’d better look at that note,” Dan Cooper told her, “I have a bomb.” Pretty shocking right? Bomb on a plane!
And so, he made demands for $200,000 ransom money, four parachutes, and a fuel truck standing by in Seattle to refuel the plane on arrival. His demands were met, he let off all passengers and two flight attendants, and the plane took off after two hours headed to Mexico with one further refuelling stop in Nevada following his orders.
But, what’s shocking was when the plane landed in Reno, Cooper was nowhere to be found, along with the parachute and ransom money. He was never seen or heard from again. One more mysterious thing, the ransom money was never used.
16. What is going on inside Area 51?
The U.S Military base in Southern Nevada has sparked a series of suspicions and curiosity. Area 51 is believed to be a research and development military location for testing of experimental aircraft and weaponry.
However, the entire landmark of the area is not found on public satellite images such as Google maps. Even those who possess security clearance to enter the area are strictly transported via a private airline called ‘Janet’ to the place. The journey, which is a filled with anxiety will leave you with nothing to speak off, as the windows of the planes are shut upon descent.
There are rumors that surround this area of secrecy, with many who believe the government uses the place to house UFOs crashed on earth and also conducting lab tests and experiments on aliens. Others believe more deep scientific research like time travel experiments, teleportation, even meetings with extraterrestrials go on in Area 51.
None of these theories and suspicions has been proven just yet. But, people do love a good conspiracy theory. which leads to one of the biggest unsolved mysteries of all time.
15. What is the Voynich Manuscript?
In 1912, a 250-page book was purchased by a Polish dealer named Voynich. The book, which was carbon-dated back to 1400 contained languages and writing-system that were completely unknown and not understood by anybody who tried to study the book, but there were hunches it includes illustrations of plants that appear different from any of our known species.
The book, which was named after Voynich after he purchased it, earlier belonged to Georg Baresch (1585–1662), an alchemist from Prague and was believed to have been proposed for medical purposes. Voynich claimed that the book was authored by Albertus Magnus (an alchemist) or Roger Bacon (an early scientist), but some believed that the book and all its history were faked by Voynich.
As time went on, more and more dupery of the text were proposed, but none of it did try to explain the carbon-dating of the paper nor the ink. To date, the Voynich Manuscript is still impenetrable and inexplicable as ever.
14. Why do we sleep?
https://www.firstbeat.com/en/blog/why-good-sleep-hygiene-really-matters-in-elite-sport/
I know it may sound obnoxious to include this on our list, but there have been several attempts by scientist to provide definitive reason(s) as to why humans need to sleep at night but are yet to arrive at an answer.
Sleep is a necessity for every human to keep both our physical and mental health intact. It is regarded as an energy saver and also the price we pay for learning. It is, based on theory, that sleep helps us to flush our brain of unnecessary information.
However, the idea for such theory is spurred on suggestions that with sleep, the neural connections that are created when we learn are easily correlated with the other information stored in our brain. But, no one has been able to prove that it is necessary for us to sleep in order for any of these processes to work.
Whatever the case may be, one thing is certain, we must sleep. We have ranked this unsolved mystery as the 14th biggest unsolved mystery in the world.
13. Who was Jack the Ripper?
Growing up there were stories about the serial killer notoriously known as Jack Ripper. It was recorded in 1888 that he killed at least five women in London, and went on to mutilate their bodies.
More reports showed that the Ripper supposedly sent letters to police officers taunting their efforts to finding him. But, whether he wrote the letters or not, remains a mystery. And what’s more mysterious is, he was never found.
Even after a series of investigations and arrests. A woman identified as Lizzie William was even suggested to the Ripper, but experts on the Ripper’s case frowned on such claims. To date, it appears more uncertain that the Ripper’s identity will ever be known. This mysterious case ranks 13th on our list of biggest unsolved mysteries of the world.
12. Who murdered JFK?
Our 12th biggest unsolved mystery is one of America’s biggest unsolved cases of murder to date. The murder of the 35th President of the United States of America, John F. Kennedy in November 1963. It took place in Dallas in the Presidential rally.
Although Lee Harvey Oswald was arrested and charged with the murder of the president, there are still some who don’t believe he was the only shooter. Lee Harvey was shot two-days later by Jack Ruby (a night club owner) before he could stand trial. Jack Ruby died of lung cancer on the 3rd of January, 1967.
11. Where is Cleopatra’s tomb?
Historians have come out to say that Cleopatra VII and her lover, Anthony who were both buried together in a tomb after their death, but the location of the tomb remains unknown and is believed to be somewhere near Alexandria.
[Check out: 17 Facts About Catacombs of Paris ]
The couple who died in 30 BC, was buried in a tomb believed to contain many treasures such as gold, silver, emeralds, pearls, ebony, and ivory. It was penned down by historical writers Suetonius and Plutarch that the couple was defeated by the Roman leader Octavian, who later permitted the couples to be buried together.
The site which is now called Taposiris Magna contains several other tombs that date back to the period when Cleopatra was the ruler of Egypt. And even though numerous archeological findings have been made, and a series of excavation done near the site, the exact location of the tomb of Cleopatra VII is yet to be discovered. Researchers believe that, even if the tomb is found to have survived till this day, it may be despoiled and unidentifiable.
10. Is the Copper Scroll treasure real?
Next on our list of biggest unresolved mysteries of the world is another treasure tale that probably isn’t real and possibly can’t be resolved. It’s the mystery about the copper scroll and its hidden treasures. The scroll was found by archeologists in 1952 in a cave at the site of Qumran.
The writings on the scroll were carved unto the copper scroll which had records of huge amounts of treasures, golds, and diamonds in excess. Too good to be true right? Some scholars still doubt the possibility of the existence of such. The copper scroll dates back to the time the Roman Empire conquered the Qumran 1,900 years ago.
As at that time, series of attempts to kick against Roman rule was made, and so the scroll was used as a map to safeguard the location of the treasures to be hidden from the sight and hands of the Roman Forces. However, whether the treasure is real or false, where exactly it is hidden, and whether or not if it still exists are mysteries that may never be solved.
9. What’s the fate of the Ark of the Covenant?
The Ark of the Covenant was used to carry tablets that recorded the 10 commandments of God. However, when King Nebuchadnezzar II conquered the city of Jerusalem with his Babylonian army in 587 B.C, he destroyed the First Temple, which was a building used to worship God by the Jews.
What happened to the Ark remains uncertain, as historical records argue that the ark was either taken to Babylon after the attack, destroyed during the attack, or it was hidden from the Babylonians before they initiated their attack on Jerusalem.
Whichever it is, the fae of the ark today remains unknown as to its location as well. However, there have been series of stories and legends about the arks’ fate, with some saying the ark was taken to Ethiopia where it’s kept safe, others believe the ark is mysterious hidden and will only be revealed when the Messiah arrives.
8. Is there a City of Atlantis?
It is believed that there is a lost city of Atlantis, hidden away deep inside the depths of the Atlantic Ocean. The belief spawns from the writings of one of the greatest philosophers in history, Plato, who told stories about an ancient land called Atlantis which existed right inside the depths of the Atlantic. However, the city was said to have disappeared beneath the waves after a battle broke out against prehistoric Athens.
[Check Out: 17 Powerful Mythical Creatures]
Scholars and academics have doubts about these tales from one the earth’s greatest mind, but there are some who are of the opinion that maybe Plato’s writings were inspired, drawn from actual events that occur in ancient Greek history. One possible link to this mystery and existence of an underwater city is the Minoan Civilization (as it’s now called).
The city is said to have dwelled on an island in Crete until about 1400 B.C and is believed to be a source of inspiration for the great Greek philosopher. However, Crete is not located anywhere near the Atlantic ocean, but in the Mediterranean.
Furthermore, archeological findings have shown that the Minoan were forced to join another group of settlements known as the Mycenaeans who were based on mainland Greece. To date, the existence of this mysterious city that lies in the depths of the Atlantic remains unclear and unlikely to be proven.
7. Is the Bermuda Triangle really swallowing Ships and Airplanes?
Our 7th biggest unsolved mystery is one that has really caught the attention of scientists and people from across the world. It’s the unsolved case of the Bermuda Triangle and the mysterious disappearances that occur around the region in the ocean.
[Check out : Fact About the Bermuda Triangle]
The Devil’s Trap as it also called, which is located in the middle of the Athlantic Ocean, connecting San Juan, Miami, and Bermuda, has been linked with the strange disappearances of ships, boats, and even planes are said to fall from the sky when they fly into the Bermuda airspace, anything that comes close it seems to disappear into thin air.
Over the years, scientists have tried to explain the possibility of these strange occurrences being caused by the Triangle and provide concrete proof. But, to date, the mystery behind the power of the triangle remains unsolved. Even the lost city of Atlantis is believed to be buried inside the Devil’s Trap (Maybe that’s why the city is yet to be discovered. That too remains a mystery).
6. The Bog Bodies
Another biggest unsolved mysteries of all time is the unsolved discovery of the Bog bodies (corpses of the Bog people). Ordinary, bodies of the dead are meant to decompose months after death if not well preserved in the morgue. But, mysteriously, the corpses of people believed to be from Bog that died centuries ago, were somehow preserved naturally, with their skin and internal organs all intact.
Furthermore, the bodies which were found in thousands revealed signs of being murdered. It is believed that the people were used as sacrifices for rituals by Pagans as punishments for their crimes. Although archaeologist and historical researchers have provided reasons why the bodies were found in mass, they are yet to provide explanations as to how the bodies were preserved all through the years.
5. The Flannan Isles Lighthouse disappearances
The disappearances which occurred in the Flannan Isles Lighthouse comes as our 5th unsolved mystery. It is believed that strange circumstances surround the disappearances of the three-man crew which manned the lighthouse.
The men; Thomas Marshall, James Ducat, and Donald MacArthur all mysteriously disappeared without a trace in 1900. The fourth person, a man rotating from shore believed to be the relief keeper arrived at the lighthouse on Boxing day, December 26th of 1900, only to discover that none of the three men posted to man the lighthouse were present.
The only sign to proved something strange had happened was an overturned chair. But evidence of a struggle, or the bodies of any of the men were ever found. This had led to a series of speculation and theories, some even believed they were abducted by foreign spies, or a ghost ship (which sounds totally ridiculous). But whichever the case may be, what exactly happened to them remains unknown to date.
4. The Big Grey Man
For our next biggest unsolved mystery, we will be heading to Scotland, where one of the strangest mysteries is said to have taken place. The Big Grey Man (or the Am Fear Liath Mòr; as known in the Scottish language) is a giant inhuman creature that is said to haunt the summit and passes of Scotland’s second highest peak, Ben Macdui.
The creature, which is referenced to the likes of the Bigfoot and Yeti (or Sasquatch), is claimed to have been seen by several eyewitnesses. What’s even more bizarre about this creature is that it doesn’t have the physical resemblance of a bear, so when seen, eyewitnesses can’t dismiss it at bear-sightings.
According to eyewitnesses, they say the Big Grey Man is a tall, human-like, short-haired creature with really broad shoulders and pretty long arms. There are also claims that it made sounds like gravel crunching beneath the falls.
However, scientists have tried to look for explanations about the sightings and sounds of this mysterious creature but to no avail. For now, all about the Big Grey Man remains unsolved and still a mystery.
3. What was Jesus really like?
Two-thousand years after his departure from the earth, Scientists and archeological experts are still working, in search of answers as to what the ‘Son of God’ was like in real life? where he lived or grew up in? Did the stories about him really take place?
And although, the earliest surviving gospels were discovered hundreds of year after the life of Jesus, it was recently announced that an earlier (more of a first century text) has been found. Is that a break through for researchers? Not quite! But we continue to wait on researchers to provide more information about the life of the Christian Messiah.
Even though some scholars believed it unlikely they will ever understand what he was, Jesus, like in real life.
2. The Man in the Iron Mask
The Man in the Iron Mask is one of the oldest French mysteries of all-time, spanning over three centuries. In 1669, a man was imprisoned in the Bastille and other French jails for more than three decades, until his death in 1703.
But the mystery lies in the identity of the man, which was never known, even after his death. This was due to his face, hidden behind an iron mask. The story was even further popularized in the 1998 film “The Man in the Iron Mask” – starring Leonardo di Caprio.
Is his identity ever going to be known? That remains a mystery to be uncovered as we await science experts.
1. Edward Mordrake
Now to the last biggest unsolved mystery of the world, this one, quite unusual and pretty scary as well. It’s about a man named Edward Mordrake. Edward Mordrake was born c. 1890, with a strange disfigurement as a face at the back of his head.
Although the face could not utter full words, it was able to show some expressions like a smile, a cry, and make several other strange noises without Edward’s control. Edward claimed that the second face spoke to evil words to him at night and begged doctors to have his second ‘Demon-face’ removed, but no doctor would dare attempt it.
Sadly, Edward committed suicide at the age of 23 due to he could no longer bear the presence of his second face. But what the second face kept telling him that made him take his own life remains one of the biggest unsolved Mysteries to date. A story, which has fascinated readers even despite the author of the article was a known fictitious writer.
Which of these biggest unsolved mysteries is more mind-blowing to you?
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David Samuel
David Samuel is the Senior Writer for Porumba. He is a writer, Economist and loves research.
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Unions Finally Catch a (Small) Break
The NLRB, protector of management rights when Republicans are in charge and protector of labor rights when Democrats are in charge, announced today that it plans to change the rules governing union recognition elections in order to “curb unnecessary litigation, streamline procedures before and after elections, and enable the use of electronic communications, such as requiring employers to give union organizers access to electronic files containing workers’ addresses and emails.” Sounds boring. So why should you care? I’ll let Peter Kirsanow, an avowed labor-phobe, explain:
In a nutshell, the NLRB’s proposed rules would implement “quickie elections,” a process that would allow unions to organize a workplace as easily as they could have had the Employee Free Choice Act (also known as “card check”) passed.
This is a very big deal….Right now, initial elections normally are conducted within 38–40 days of the filing of a petition by the union….That’s not much time for the employer to get his message out. Indeed, in 2009 and 2010 unions won approximately 68 percent of elections (this does not include the number of petitions withdrawn by unions). Yet the “quickie election” rules proposed by the NLRB will shorten the time frame to a mere 10–20 days. Make absolutely no mistake: That’s not enough time for even the largest and most sophisticated employers to counter what the union has been telling employees while organizing them for the last 6–8 months. The union win rate will far exceed 68 percent. In fact, it’s likely that many employers will choose to not even go through the expense of an election that he’s sure to lose, but will simply voluntarily recognize the union upon a showing of authorization cards.
Sounds good to me! And don’t get too excited about that two-thirds rate of union victories, either. It’s true that in 2009 unions won 66% of all NLRB elections compared to 51% in 1997, but that’s 66% of 1,304 elections compared to 51% of 3,261 elections. Contra Kirsanow, organizing a new workplace has gotten so hard in recent years thanks to corporate-friendly NLRB rule changes and increasingly aggressive union avoidance campaigns, that unions simply don’t bother waging all that many recognition elections anymore. They
know that most of them are hopeless. The result is that the net number of election wins has dropped nearly in half in just the last decade alone.
That’s not good enough for Kirsanow and his allies, of course, who would like unions to disappear completely. But among workers themselves, the anti-union skepticism of the 70s and 80s has mostly disappeared in the face of stagnant wages and skyrocketing executive pay. Survey research a few years ago by Harvard’s Richard Freeman suggests that “if workers were provided the union representation they desired in 2005, then the unionization rate would be about 58%” — almost eight times higher than the actual private sector rate of 7.4%. The fact that so many workers would welcome union representation but don’t have it is compelling evidence that far from being unfair to management, the current legal regime for union elections is tilted dramatically in their favor. For workers, rule changes that slightly reduced that tilt and once again gave unions a fighting chance to organize workplaces would be a welcome change.
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Providence and Worcester Railroad Held Liable for Arrest
May 30, 2004 Railfanning.org News Wire
WORCESTER, Mass. – A jury has found the Providence and Worcester Railroad Company liable for more than $310,000, plus interest, in a civil rights violation lawsuit stemming from a February 1996 arrest. A subsequent motion for a new trial was denied May 25, 2004. A judge, however, reduced the award to $319,058.95, down from the $319,558.95 the jury awarded. The lawsuit stems from an incident in February 1996 when the plaintiff, George W. O’Leary, was arrested for trespassing on the Company’s right of way in East Providence, R.I., by a member of the Company’s police force, which was deactivated in
UP Announces Settlement to Class Action Suit
OMAHA, Neb. – A settlement has been reached in a class action suit filed against Union Pacific following a May 27, 2000, derailment near Eunice, La., the railroad announced Tuesday (May 25, 2004). Union Pacific, subject to court approval, has agreed to a payment of $65 million in exchange for a release of all claims for damages involved in this litigation. At the time of the settlement, over 10,000 formal claims had been filed. The railroad’s insurers will reimburse Union Pacific for this payment. The settlement will not impact the Company’s earnings, the company said in a news release. According
Suspicious Device Placed in SEPTA Yard by Employee
PHILADELPHIA – An “electronic motion detector” discovered May 5 in SEPTA’s Powelton Rail Yard was placed there by an employee for personal use, the railroad and the FBI said in a joint statement. The unidentified employee, who works full time for SEPTA and part-time for a security alarm company, told the FBI he put the device by the tracks to alert him of approaching foot traffic, “presumably his supervisors,” the statement indicates. “In light of the high degree of attention being devoted to public transportation security, we consider this to be a very serious matter,” SEPTA and the FBI said
Hamberger: Freight Business Booming, Intermodal Top Revenue Source
WASHINGTON ― Railroads are experiencing a surge in traffic volumes for all commodities, including coal, and, for the first time, intermodal freight is the industry’s top revenue source, Association of American Railroads President and CEO Edward R. Hamberger said in a speech at the National Press Club. Carload freight is growing at a rapid pace and is up more than 3 percent this year, with grain traffic rising 10 percent and coal up 3 percent. Coal remains the bedrock of the industry, accounting for the largest source of tonnage by a wide margin. “Freight railroads have crossed a new threshold
SEPTA Employee Finds Suspicious Device, Not Linked to Terrorism
PHILADELPHIA – A device, described as a “commercial motion detector,” was found in a Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA) rail yard, arousing suspicions among officials. A SEPTA employee discovered the device on May 5 and a week later it was turned over to the FBI for analysis. SEPTA Transit Police, Philadelphia police and the FBI are continuing to investigate the device discovered along a track in a rail car storage yard near 30th Street Station. “The investigation, to date, shows no indication of any threat to the security of the SEPTA rail system,” SEPTA and the FBI said in a
Terrorism/Security
Department of Homeland Security Announces New Measures to Expand Security for Rail Passengers
Washington – The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on May 20, 2004 issued Security Directives (SD) requiring protective measures to be implemented by passenger rail operators. The directives, which will be administered by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), will take effect on May 23 and apply to all passenger rail owners/operators. These include light rail systems, inter-city passenger rail systems such as Amtrak, commuter rail operations such as the Maryland Rail Commuter and Long Island Railroad, as well as subway systems nationwide. “Millions of Americans travel by rail every day and recent world events highlight the need to ensure they
NEWSWEEK: ‘Perfectly Formed’ Fingerprint Found on Plastic Bag Containing Bomb Materials Hours After Madrid Bombing; Logged Unexpected Hit With FBI Computer Archive
NEW YORK – Hours after four railway bombs exploded in Madrid last March 11, Spanish investigators found a piece of evidence in a white van 20 miles from the blast that they did not reveal: on a plastic bag containing bomb materials, investigators found a “perfectly formed” fingerprint they couldn’t identify, a Spanish official tells Newsweek. Spanish police didn’t find a match for the print, but when the FBI ran it through its archive, the computer unexpectedly logged a hit: the mystery print, U.S. authorities say, belonged to Brandon Mayfield, a small-time lawyer who lived in Portland, Ore. Mayfield had
Perth Public Transport Authority Selects Honeywell for Urban Rail Safe Project; Honeywell Digital Video Manager at Core of Centralized CCTV Monitoring System
SYDNEY, Australia – Honeywell Building Solutions on May 13, 2004, announced it has received a $7.1 million order from the Public Transport Authority of Western Australia (PTA) for the design and construction of a centralized closed circuit television (CCTV) monitoring and digital recording system for Perth’s urban railway network. The new system is part of the Western Australian Government’s multi-million dollar TrainSafe Program to increase patron confidence in safety and security when traveling on Perth’s urban rail network. The order will see Honeywell connecting to 800 cameras across the network within the next 12 months, providing 24-hour, live vision to
Railfanning.org Launches www.thecrosstie.com
ATLANTA – Railfanning.org has launched www.thecrosstie.com, a website for the e-zine The Cross-Tie. The Cross-Tie began its online publication in January 2003 and 10 issues were released in its first year. Five issues have been released to date in 2004. “This is a big step for The Cross-Tie,” Publisher Todd DeFeo said. “This web site will give people the opportunity to easily access the e-zine’s official web page.” Railfanning.org posts regular news updates on its News Wire web page. The monthly e-zine is available on Railfanning.org and through Train Kept A-Rollin’ – its Yahoo Group, which is open to the
Air and Rail Machinists March to Protect Jobs in ‘Day of Action’
WASHINGTON – Airline and railroad workers represented by the International Association of Machinists & Aerospace Workers (IAM) participated in march and rally in Washington, D.C. on May 12 to bring attention to the union’s Fight for Transportation Jobs. Specifically, the IAM is protesting what it says are the government’s anti-worker policies and encouraging strong union member participation in this year’s presidential election. IAM members are also hand-billing passengers at major airports around the country. “The attack on transportation workers began within weeks of President Bush taking office,” IAM International President Tom Buffenbarger said. “Rail negotiations screeched to a halt. Elected
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Ing Liang Wong
Lecturer, Civil Engineering and Environmental Management
Emailiwo1@gcu.ac.uk
70 Cowcaddens Road, Glasgow Caledonian University
Dive into the research topics where Ing Liang Wong is active. These topic labels come from the works of this person. Together they form a unique fingerprint.
Insulation Engineering & Materials Science
Risk Management Business & Economics
Facades Engineering & Materials Science
energy demand Earth & Environmental Sciences
Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) Business & Economics
Blended Learning Business & Economics
Construction Industry Business & Economics
Office buildings Engineering & Materials Science
Energy performance evaluation and comparison of sampled Brazilian bank buildings with the existing and proposed energy rating systems
Wong, I. L., Loper, A. C. M., Krüger, E. & Mori, F. K., 15 Oct 2020, In: Energy and Buildings. 225, 12 p., 110304.
Classification and energy analysis of bank building stock: a case study in Curitiba, Brazil
Wong, I. L., Krüger, E., Loper, A. C. M. & Mori, F. K., May 2019, In: Journal of Building Engineering. 23, p. 259-269 11 p.
Transparent insulation materials: an overview on past, present and future developments
Paneri, A., Wong, I. L. & Burek, S., 15 May 2019, In: Solar Energy. 184, p. 59-83 25 p.
Aerogels
A review of daylighting design and implementation in buildings
Wong, I. L., Jul 2017, In: Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews. 74, p. 959–968 10 p.
Comparing energy efficiency labelling systems in the EU and Brazil: implications, challenges, barriers and opportunities
Wong, I. L. & Krüger, E., Oct 2017, In: Energy Policy. 109, p. 310-323 14 p.
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The Evening Shift
Repost: A ‘vibrational astrology’ interlude
Post author By David Muir
No Comments on Repost: A ‘vibrational astrology’ interlude
(Reposted from May 5 post. I graduated from the Vibrational Astrology program in September. I will be writing more about Vibrational Astrology relatively soon.)
I am currently finishing up an astrological program in a new form of astrology called vibrational astrology (this is a particularly brilliant David Cochrane concoction, based on 45 years of research, and is ‘evidence-based’ — in other words, the conclusions he’s made are based on what he’s actually observed). Several students are already in the process of setting up practices and have their own websites — here, here, and here. (Some other students were already astrologers with practices before they started the program).
It’s an exciting time for all the students as graduation’s happening in a few months. In some ways, I’ve decided to follow my own heart and continue my specialty, although the things I learned in vibrational astrology pertaining to relocation astrology (we spent a semester on it) definitely added to my understanding of it. But becoming a specialist rather than a generalist speaks to my heart.
Vibrational astrology really is fascinating, though. Much of the bedrock of vibrational astrology is about harmonics, in that vibrations in some sense are synonymous with harmonics. Some of you know what these are, but for those that don’t, this is for you.
Imagine the birth chart wheel, all 360 degrees of it. Divide 360 into 5, and you get 72 degrees — 1/5th of the circle. 72 degrees is known as a quintile. And 144 degrees is a biquintile. These quintiles and biquintiles are generally associated with creativity, and, according to David Cochrane, even how you play. (He noted that people with strong quintile patterns — as, for example, I do with my Venus, Saturn, and Pluto as well as my Sun, Uranus, and relocated-to-Colorado Midheaven, tend not to like drudgery and have to come up with more creative ways of making money).
The basic idea about harmonics is that the 5th harmonic multiplies the distance between planets by 5. So two planets 10 degrees apart are 50 degrees apart in the 5th harmonic. And two planets 72 degrees apart are — 360 degrees, or, basically, conjunct. (So two planets 36 or 108 degrees apart basically become oppositions in the 5th harmonic, or vibration — 36 x 5 = 180, and 108 x 5 = 540, reducing to 180.)
Each of the harmonics has its own ‘theme.’ The 7th harmonic — all of this is more David Cochrane’s research — has to do with quiet discipline, introversion — think of the young child who studies piano for hours each day in order to become a concert pianist. The 9th harmonic has to do with how one places oneself in one’s community. The 8th harmonic is about your driving force. If someone has a ‘strong’ harmonic, it is because they have several — at least three — planets aspecting each other.
Going a little further out, someone with a strong 17th harmonic is likely to be empathic and interested in the stories of others. Or, from his publication, “The First 32 Harmonics” (© 2012 Cosmic Patterns Software, Inc.)
Incorporating insights, perspectives, beliefs, customs, habits, and different viewpoints wherever they can be found, without prejudice and without lots of a priori assumptions. Especially inclined towards acting and theatre but also arts, literature and cultural experiences of all kinds. A non-linear way of thinking that incorporates different views and approaches. Interest in the way people understand, experience, interpret, and find meaning in their lives.
Cochrane talked a lot about the 17th harmonic a lot in class, and he revealed a whole host of other (minor?) characteristics about the 17th harmonic, almost as asides.
He once quipped, ’17th harmonic isn’t always there for you’ — meaning, someone with strong 17th harmonic isn’t always there for you (UNLESS they have some other strong harmonic that would allow the subject to be there for you!) He also once mentioned that 29th harmonic can ‘win people’s hearts’.
And that is the thing. You can actually go pretty high with these harmonics! 29th harmonic has to do with an optimistic sense of the universe as an evolving, improving system. Or:
Able to adopt different points of view. Interest in how different people live and experience the world. Gaining a perspective outside the usual frame of reference of most other people. Incorporating styles, habits, or customs of other people. A realistic and mature view that does not offer simple answers and is able to see that there is beauty and grace in many different cultures and life styles,. There are no simple
answers to solving the world’s problems, but it is important to understand that we can adopt new attitudes and we can choose a way of relating to the world that enables us to
evolve, develop, grow, learn, and love in greater measure. We can re-create ourselves by allowing ourselves to restructure our lives and develop the habits, life style, and way of relating to others that expresses our higher ideals and vision of what is possible. A positive attitude that we can make our lives better by relating to the world in a more authentic way.
There’s so much we learned in his 2 1/2 year long course, far too much to write in my blog (and his publication is essential reading) and just as importantly, far too much for most people, including myself, to retain in memory — but he was able to make conclusions for harmonics for prime numbers as high as 43 and for harmonic multiples that included 35, 55, 77, 128 and others! One of the fascinating prime number harmonics he found out about was 37. Another was 43. I include these because they are both pretty strong in me. These prime number harmonics were presented at the 2019 Vibrational Astrology Conference by Starlene Breiter (PAC), another astrologer who graduated from Cochrane’s program some time ago.
What I recalled in her presentation about 37 had to do with the subject preparing sort of a ‘witches’ brew’ in one’s creative endeavor. The 37 harmonic has been thought to be ‘bad-ass.’ These are nice things to hear about oneself, and most neatly manifest in my radio show (KGNU-fm), but also in other creative work I’ve done in the past, if memory serves me, or just my thought patterns in general. (The higher harmonics tend to deal more with abstract things).
The 43rd harmonic is just as interesting. The subject with a strong 43rd harmonic, if they’re in the process of diving deep into themselves, often finds — nothing! (This is exactly what happened during my guided — and I do mean guided, I didn’t do this alone — psilocybin trip last October in Oakland, CA). The person with a 43rd harmonic often has a weak sense of their own identity.
Step back for a second and contemplate what it means to have a strong 43rd or 37th or 35th harmonic — in the technical, mathematical sense, the sense of the chart wheel itself. A harmonic chart is not a ‘real’ chart, it is a magnification of the real chart meant to draw out patterns. So somebody with two planets 10 degrees apart in the natal chart has them 430 degrees apart in the 43rd harmonic, which reduces to 70 degrees apart.
The 43rd harmonic will show oppositions, squares, sextiles and trines, semisextiles, quincunx, semisquares and sesquiquadrates. Two planets in opposition in the 43rd harmonic are basically planets that are an odd multiple (1, 3, 5, 7, etc.) of “43 x 2, or 86, divided by 360.” (Even multiples, 2, 4, 6, etc. would be conjunctions.) If you step back and contemplate how far-fetched this might sound not only to the layperson, but also to many serious students of more ‘normal’ astrology, if you are either of these, you might be compelled to think of it as bullcrap.
But the research has been done, generally of people who have reached some level of fame, and the conclusions are seen to be sound when we combine their truth with the truth that you might feel when you’ve discovered you have a strong 19 harmonic and what that actually means to you personally. It is yet more of the “ID card from the universe” that your astrological chart actually gives you.
By David Muir
David Muir recieved his PAC as a 2020 graduate of the Avalon School in Vibrational Astrology. He has been a practicing astrologer having studied astrology since 1997. He specializes in relocation astrology, particularly in terms of how both one's character and external influences change in a new location. He has interests in compatibility, and just generally “getting the necessary information out there for you,” which can entail personology as well as different interpretations in general. David writes a 2x/weekly blog in both relocation astrology and other astrological topics of interest, on relocationastrology.guide.
David received a BA from Carlow University in 2011 with concentrations in philosophy, writing, and political science. He does a 2x/month radio show and has lived in Denver, CO since 2016.
← Mars, per house placements (aspects to come later) → Jupiter and Saturn and why this hasn’t happened in six centuries
© 2021 Relocation Astrology
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Southern Cross graduate takes video art to another dimension
It’s pure magic: the classical facade with stern columns and heavy architectural lines transformed into a brilliant moving garden, as shapes of light and colour dip and combine in dazzling, hypnotic patterns, growing into flowers that bloom and burst and transform into a sky of fireworks, a flock of doves, a gargoyle and back into geometrical patterns once more. The colours move across the bodies of the spellbound viewers, drawing them into this extraordinary, magical display. This is the work of Radiance, the name in art of Southern Cross University visual arts graduate and artist, Rose Staff.
Radiance is the reflection or emission of light and the name was not an accidental choice. Rose’s large scale installations are a gorgeous visual feast of light and movement that have featured in some of the most well-known festivals and contemporary galleries around the country and internationally – from Vivid in Sydney to the UK’s Glastonbury Festival and Athens Digital Art Festival in Greece, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Montreal and The Australian Centre of the Moving Image.
Rose’s work uses experimental hybrids of traditional and digital art, that might take the form of 360 degree immersive dome projections inside a circular architectural space or motion tracking of the physical body to manipulate and alter visual imagery, drone photography or even animations with synchronised soundscapes to creative audio visual installations.
It’s an art form that has enjoyed a surge of recognition lately, says Rose. “Visual mapping and my kind of video art has really exploded over the last five years – I think the internet has been a major influence in this – people come to the show, take videos and that spreads.
“Many of the projection mapping installations I have created are impermanent and exist for a short time – sometimes just one night or a week. It’s the documentation of these that is shared on video platforms which means people who were not present at the time can still experience the work even though the artwork itself doesn’t physically exist anymore. ”
Rose says the visual arts training she experienced at Southern Cross was critical to establishing her practice, which became the bedrock for her career.
“Creative thinking was a very strong element in the course, the technical stuff I picked up later but being able to think about WHY you are doing something is very important. People put their time and energy into you and your practice for three years and that is very valuable,” she says.
Rose sees self-belief and a commitment to practice as fundamental to making a successful career as an artist. “I had always made art as a child and my family supported me in the degree but it took a few years to establish my practice. Some people might discourage you from pursuing a course in Fine Arts as they worry about your employment opportunities at the end. However the value of doing the degree is immense and it’s a pathway to many other opportunities. The first few years after graduation are critical, some people just give up. But the rewards for persevering and establishing your practice are there.”
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The Geopolitical Hegemony of the Anglo-Saxon Empire in Latin America
The Military Presence to Maintain Neo-colonialism, Instability and Poverty
by Luis R. Miranda
By obtaining its independence, the colonies were preparing for what will inevitably come: the road to development and modernization. Many countries, was suggested, would be developed quickly; politically and economically. But these nations soon realized the sad reality. The dream would not be realized. Underdevelopment in Latin America found strong allies: the colonizers and their new social, economic and military agendas to ensure that those who had recently proclaimed its independence did not come out of their reach.
The Anglo-Saxon empire, mainly supported by a banking system without military or economic boundaries, swallowed the first semi-democratic bastions left in the planet now known as G7, and once these were controlled, it was a matter of time before the rest of the planet was well absorbed. Working through proxy governments like the United States, Canada, France, Spain, England, Italy, Australia, Colombia and more recently Iraq and Afghanistan, the empire used mainly three tools: the model of dependence, foreign aid and military hegemony .
With the dependency model, the empire was guaranteed, and still is today, that countries could not compete with their former owners. The unit includes illegal policies of protectionism, subsidies, establishing trading programs (FTAA, NAFTA, CAFTA)-to flood markets with cheap products, which together amount today to a perpetual trade imbalance tilted to favor bankers. This resulted in the fact that developing countries were never competitive in international markets and rather remained as subjects of the Anglo-Saxons to a greater degree. Developing countries continued to be territories where the globalist-controlled developed nations got their materials to perpetuate their development, while taking advantage of third world countries’ cheap labor to strengthen the corporatist system that has ruled the planet for nearly 200 years.
With financial aid, the corporatists inflicted a second blow that destroyed more dependent countries on the intentions of reaching the much desired development. When third world countries failed to develop, it just seemed like a great idea to borrow money to boost their economies towards development. However, the trojan horse with this new method was to keep the borrowing countries deep indebted to prevent their development. Most of the money from the World Bank, IMF and governments dominated by European bankers were given as loans. These loans are so attractive because of the time is provided for the repayment, but at the same time are brutal due to their high interest rates of 30%, 40%, etc., which makes it mathematically impossible to pay the accrued interests, let alone the capital. This effectively tied up the wings of any development momentum the third world had. Along with high-interest loans, the agreements contained in them also requires the adoption of austerity policies that further restrict governments from encouraging development; less money is spent on education, health, infrastructure, creation of projects that in turn generate jobs, etc.. Also attached to these limitations exists an obligation on the part of the debtors to pass on the debt to three or four generations to ensure that countries cannot allocate resources and/or plan ahead.
While the globalists plundered -and continue plundering resources-, developing are also the markets for selling finished products with added value, which transformed them not only in slaves, but also in mindless consumists molded through the Madison Avenue hollow propaganda. Then, a third strategy was implemented. The creation of military conflicts in the region by where corporatists simply collapsed large areas, almost the entire continent. This is very clear in Latin America today. The U.S. proxy government, led through the decades by various puppets of the Anglo-Saxon empire, flooded Latin America officially and unofficially, using his terrorist organizations like the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). They used for operations in countries like Colombia, Mexico, Venezuela, Panama, Argentina and others to create resistance movements to destabilize the nations. This is one of the most common strategies used to create divisions among the people who end up eating away any country that shows a vestige of independence. The corporatists also ensure that only their pawns are elected presidents in these countries. Only those who attend the most famous universities in the U.S. and Europe, where they are indoctrinated or bribed, have a real chance to “steer” the destinies of their people.
The existence of common understandings through these governments ensures access to the country, establishing policies that assure more underdevelopment and the continued plundering of more resources. Today, the bankers who control the U.S. government has established military bases throughout Latin America. Along with this armies, the implementation of aid packages and coporatist policies, have also secured access to unlimited sources of energy, water and biodiversity. Some of the most influential are: the Plan Colombia, the FTAA, Plan Puebla Panama, and soon in 2010, the new carbon emissions agreement to be negotiated in Mexico under the command of the Prince of change, Barack Hussein Obama .
The military hegemony and the exercises that assure it are practiced in various countries by the Southern Command, which is an American paramilitary organization that for years has eaten away the independence and sovereignty of all countries in which it operates. Its main purpose is to train Latin American militaries to fight “terrorism”; that deluded idea created during the administration of George Bush and that is based on the assumption that Islamic extremists want to destroy the American dream and that if it was achieved, we would all suffer. Military exercises are conducted throughout Latin America, with recruits from countries like Brazil, Argentina, Peru, Paraguay, Chile and Bolivia. The most notorious example of these military exercises took place in 2001 when international troops invaded the Argentine territory of Salta to practice against suspected insurgents. New military bases are opened each year through the signing of new agreements for the establishment of more bases in Latin American and Caribbean territories. “The plan of economic and political domination, which has spearheaded the U.S. military dominance, goes also to monitor and control the dynamics of popular movements in the region or, as the Mexican teacher Ana Esther Cecena calls, deter, prevent the enemy from forming. ”
The creation of military and naval bases is the daily bread for more and more Latinos. The facilities vary in names and sizes: the Tres Esquinas, Colombia; Iquitos, in Peru, Manta in Ecuador; Palmerola, Honduras; Comalapa, El Salvador, Queen Beatrix, on the island of Aruba, Liberia, Costa Rica. Resistance by many Latino citizens has had few positive results. In Brazil and Argentina, the banker controlled Washington, DC has developed a possible handover of the base of Alcantara, installed in Brazilian territory, and the possibility of installing a base in Misiones, on the triple border between Argentina, Paraguay and Brazil is almost a reality as well. The military hegemony not only consolidates the imperialist war power, but also enables the control of resources in the region. As bankers have done it in Asia, Latin America is also a source of precious materials. The 21st century colonialists who are the same for the past two centuries, have sacrificed the lives of millions of people in their desire to grab more territory. The United States in particular, has mechanisms of domination and overexploitation of the FTAA and NAFTA policies promoted by the IMF and World Bank, which are agencies of the Anglo-Saxon imperialist power. And why is there so much interest in what Latin America can provide? “Latin America and the Caribbean possesses 11 percent of the world oil reserves and produces nearly 15 percent of the oil extracted in the world,” cites the website visionesalternativas.com. “In addition, Latin America accounts for about 6 percent of natural gas reserves, large coal reserves – enough for about 288 years of exploitation – and abundant hydro-energy resources, estimated at over 20 per cent the global potential.
The Latin American natural wealth should be added to the fact that the globalists seek to implement more comprehensive policies in order to get more control over the population. Brazil, for example, has already adopted the RFID technology to impose property taxes on animals and in 2010 for the identification of individuals. Also in Brazil, the president recently signed a law that transferred huge tracts of land in the Amazon to the hands of the UN. A new “green police” also limits the development of projects and land use for food crops, thereby jeopardizing the supply of products to local and international markets. Mexico is currently the country with the continent’s most oppressive government where citizens are targeted by the military and paramilitaries, both groups are funded and controlled by the United States in order to ensure easy traffic of drugs to North America. Mexican cartels that do not obey the imperialists are exterminated and those who do pay their share of the goods and profits are free to murder anyone who opposes their reign. Just as in Afghanistan and Colombia, the U.S. army trained and armed Southern Command, controls the planting, harvesting and selling of tons of drugs that are then sent in the U.S., Canada, Europe, and of course in Latin America. The proceeds are then laundered through the big banks on Wall Street. The Anglo-Saxons have also hijacked the continent through the imposition of restrictions on commerce and military agreements between Latin American countries and other competitors such as China and Russia.
And what is the common denominator of imposing economic, political and military rules on the continent? The result is very clear. All you have to do is to review the overall state of the countries to realize that the objective of limiting or nullifying the development has been reached. According to the World Bank, the external debt only from the Mercosur countries increased from $185 million in 1990 to $325 million in 2005. The crime continues to increase in countries like Costa Rica, Mexico, Brazil, Colombia, Argentina, where gangs and drug cartels control populations on the outskirts of the metropolis, and remains highly stable in Guatemala, Honduras, Dominican Republic, Haiti and others. But perhaps the clearest result of policies imposed on Latin America is the underdevelopment in which all countries are maintained. No country in this block is considered to be developed after having proclaimed themselves independent nations for decades. Poverty in Latin America has gotten worse in many countries due to their internal and regional conflicts as well as corrupt governments that serve the globalists.
A recent study by ECLAC, an organization of the UN reveals that at least 182 million people live in poverty in Latin America, and the number of those living in extreme poverty reached 12.9 percent. The study reveals that the number of people regarded as poor increased due mainly to higher inflation and higher food prices. The poverty rate is divided into four groups. The first highlights countries whose levels are below 22% such as Argentina, Chile, Uruguay and Costa Rica, the second poorest group includes Brazil, Mexico, Panama and Venezuela, the third and even poorer has Colombia, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador and Peru, and the fourth is composed by the worse off countries such as Bolivia, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Paraguay.
Neo-colonialism does not allow developing countries to prosper, that’s a fact. The patent monopoly, control of natural resources and energy sources stop any progress. The use of military and paramilitary terrorism by globalists also stifles the nations and makes them victims of a system that is aimed at undermining the sovereignty and independence of any State. However, there is another fact that does not help in implementing development policies in Latin America. The legal and illegal choice of tyrants like Hugo Chávez in Venezuela, Fidel Castro in Cuba, Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua, and puppets like Oscar Arias, Ernesto Cedillo, Luis Inacio da Silva, Kristina Fernandez, Felipe Calderón, Alvaro Uribe and many others, contributes to all countries in Latin America continued in the hands of the imperialists. The tyrants, restrict progress because of their thirst for power denies their people the real benefits of development. Venezuela and Cuba are hit daily with attacks on freedom of speech, assembly, property rights and others. The puppets also limit development because they follow directly and indirectly imposing on the continent the plans that seek to restrain their countries from developing at all costs. It is a deadly combination of corruption and selfishness.
We must remember that the Anglo-Saxon plan’s main objective is to increase their control over the rest of the planet, and thereby promote and impose their policies on the nations of Latin America and beyond by using their own governments or organizations such as Mercosur, the North American Union, the African Union, Asian Union and of course the UN, the European Union, the World Health Organization, the World Trade Organization. The only way to start the path to development is thus breaking any existing relationships with these organizations to which all countries subject their decisions.
No organization has power over any country. This power that seems so hard to break is only valid if people let it rule them. In Iceland for example, Congress is about to vote on a measure to not pay external debt incurred in with the World Bank and IMF which was created through their illegal schemes of development loans. In the U.S., member states have and continue to proclaim their independence from the federal government which is bound to them by the system of slavery of the globalists. In Europe, at least half of the countries question the installation of malicious scanners at airports under the pretext of terrorism. When we understand that we are free to do what our Constitution allows, and that this is the only document that governs each of our lands, is when we will hold the Anglo-Saxon imperialists at bay. Therefore, progress, independence and freedom are realistic and achievable goals that are will come when each of the citizens as individuals make the decision to educate themselves, to understand how to the globalists deceive them with names, ideologies, political parties, false choices and even with religious extremism to keep them as slaves. No individual, no ideology, no political party, no politician or religion is the solution to progress by itself. The solution begins with each one of us first as thinking individuals and groups of active citizens demanding their governments the results for which they were elected.
Sources for this article include but are not limited to the following:
United States Imperialism in Latin America
http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/40/index-dca.html
US Interventions in Latin America Since 1823
http://www.mindfully.org/Reform/2003/US-Interventions-1823.htm
Neocolonialism: a bibliography
http://science.jrank.org/pages/7920/Neocolonialism.html
U.S. Military Aid Before and After 9/11, Region Breakdown
http://projects.publicintegrity.org/militaryaid/regiondetail.aspx?REGION=Western Hemisphere
The Bush Effect: U.S. Military Involvement in Latin America Rises, Development and Humanitarian Aid Fall
http://www.commondreams.org/views05/1105-21.htm
Qué es el ALCA?
http://www.visionesalternativas.com/militarizacion/geoestrategia/alca.htm
El Plan Puebla Panama
http://www.visionesalternativas.com/militarizacion/geoestrategia/ppp.htm
El Plan Colombia
http://www.visionesalternativas.com/militarizacion/geoestrategia/pcolom.htm
La Triple Frontera
http://www.visionesalternativas.com/militarizacion/geoestrategia/3front.htm
US Navy Deploys Around Latin America
http://rinf.com/alt-news/war-terrorism/us-navy-deploys-around-latin-america/3375/
Honduras deal a boost for US influence in Latin America http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Americas/2009/1030/p06s19-woam.html
US Navy Re-establishes Fleet for Caribbean, Latin America http://rawstory.com/news/afp/US_Navy_re_establishes_fleet_for_Ca_04242008.html
US builds up its bases in oil-rich South America
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-builds-up-its-bases-in-oilrich-south-america-1825398.html
US launches major military exercises in the Caribbean as a warning to Venezuela and Cuba
http://www.handsoffvenezuela.org/us_military_exercises_venezuela_cuba.htm
Filed under World Tagged with afghanistan, African union, aid package, anglo-saxon empire, asian union, banking system, Banks, Brazil, CAFTA, canada, cheap labor, CIA, coal, collapse, Colombia, colony, Communism, congress, constitution, corporatism, currency, deflation, dependence, developing countries, drug trafficking, drug war, economic, Economy, exploitation, Fascism, feudalism, financial reform, France, FTAA, G7, GATT, George Bush, globalism, globalist, IMF, independence, inflation, interests, Iraq, Italy, Latin America, loans, mexico, Military, military bases, NAFTA, natural gas, NAU, neocolonialism, North American Union, Obama, Oil, Plan Colombia, poverty, proxy government, resources, Socialism, Southern Command, spain, terrorism, UN, Unites States, War, WHO, World Bank, WTO
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Not Everyone Loves Rush’s ‘Headlong Flight’
Some thoughtful, constructive criticism of “Headlong Flight”
The track was mixed too loud. The parts seem stitched together. The lyrics aren’t that interesting. The drumming is tedious. The sound hearkens too much back to the 1970s.
Mixed in with the rave reviews of “Headlong Flight” on Amazon are a few negative reviews, not by Rush critics but by long-time fans who say the track could have been better had Alex, Geddy, and Neil worked with a producer who had come in with a more objective ear. In the spirit of spurring the band to always improve their work, here are some views of “Headlong Flight” that provide thoughtful, constructive criticism. Taking into account even negative views that have something to say is always better than just blindly praising something.
Of course, most of the reviews are great. Check those out, too.
The reviews below were edited slightly for grammar.
Nick R is a disaster
“I hate to title a review so critically, but Rush’s current producer has taken them in a disappointing direction. Rush used to evolve, each album presenting a different style and concept. The period from Permanent Waves through Presto is an excellent example. Listen to ‘Natural Science’ or ‘Entre Nous’ from Permanent Waves and compare to ‘Scars’ or ‘Available Light’ from Presto, or ‘Prime Mover’ from Hold your Fire and the consistency is in the creativity and craftsmanship of the songs. And, more important, they’re fun to listen to. Snakes and Arrows and now the first songs from Clockwork Angels are dreary and pounding. The producer wants their sound to go back to the early seventies. What results is something sounding dated and an almost forced hardness. It’s a shame. Rush could have capped their career with something special, instead they’ve turned up the volume without providing much substance.”—solosurfer
Pointless Nostalgia
“This causes me some pain, but ‘Headlong Flight’ is just not a good song. The choruses that tie it to the larger story of the album are annoying, and not because it’s a fictional character speaking. Rush pulled that off to great effect with ‘Red Barchetta,’ just to take an obvious example. No, this song is so obviously about their own sense of having lived a great adventure that the switch to the chorus feels forced. (Besides, the whole ‘steampunk’ storyline of the album is a bit overwrought.) What’s worse, though, is that the whole song is a big nostalgia trip. Rush is a band that has never gone back to try and repeat what they did in the past, but in this song, even more than the other two from CA, we have nothing but a long, incoherent retrieval of their ‘old style.’ Consider its echoes of ‘Bastille Day’, and it’s waw-waw driven guitar solo over a bass/drum pattern that obviously rips off ‘By Tor and the Snow Dog,’ just to take a couple of examples, and you’ll hear that it’s an attempt to replay that past. At the same time, as at least one other reviewer has noted, the song feels slapped together. Geddy Lee himself has said that this grew out of what was to be an instrumental jam, but he so loved one of Peart’s lyrics that he had to work out a melody for them and reorder the song. Now, they’ve pulled off quick turn-arounds before (‘Force Ten’ comes to mind, along with ‘New World Man’), but the result was always a short, tight song. Of late, they’ve just slapped together bloated pieces like this. This points to a deeper problem. Over the last little while, they’ve had a producer who is also a fan. This does not seem to work for them. Terry Brown never had a chance to be a fan before he came in to save their lives by working out the sound for their first album. Their other great producer, Peter Collins, had never heard much by them before working with them on Power Windows. He went on to produce two of their most adventurous albums, Hold Your Fire, and Test for Echo. Not only did he know how to work with the right engineers to get their sound right, he also pushed the three of them to greater ambition and precision. He pushed Peart to greater lyrical complexity and depth. All in all, he was better for them. They need someone objective, ambitious, and with a will to push back against them. Their current producer is such a fan, so in love with everything he thinks they did in the past, that he is letting them get away with laziness. Just look at the lyrics to this song. They are not simple so much as just ugly. And the vocal melody does in fact feel like it was written in five minutes. None of it works as a whole, nor does it have the feel of a suite like some of their longer songs. No, this is just mediocre. So, yes, I’ll see them live, but I’m worried this album will be a dud.”—T. Hall
Headlong Flight to Boredom
“I cannot agree with the reviews of this track or the ones for ‘Caravan’ or ‘BU2B.’ I am not against their new music. Vapor Trails (in spite of the bad sound) is my favorite CD since Hold Your Fire. I felt that Rush has made some good tracks on the albums from HYF to VT, but the albums themselves are forgettable. I want back the Rush that I love and which made great music in the 70s and 80s and that were great with gems like ‘The Pass,’ ‘Resist,’ ‘Driven,’ ‘Dreamline,’ ‘Bravado,’ and ‘Ghost of a Chance,’ most of Vapor Trails, and half of Snakes and Arrows in the 90s and 00s. S&A was good and had they edited it by removing the four duds the album would be as much better. To me, ‘Faithless,’ ‘Bravest Face,’ ‘Good News First,’ and ‘Spindrift’ should have been dropped. Read the three-star comments under S&A where many other Rush fans have said it better than I could about what is missing or wrong with S&A. Unless they remix these singles from CA, it is going to be a 2.5-star release and something I will not listen to that often. What I find hard to figure out is the 5 star reviews of these tracks. The music is just not there. At least, it’s not up to Rush’s old standards. I cannot believe how anyone can compare S&A or CA to Moving Pictures or their classic CDs. All you have to do is put on ‘La Villa Stragiato’ or’ YYZ’ and then listen to ‘The Main Monkey Business’ or ‘Malignant Narcissism’ and the comparison ends there. You can do the same with many of Rush’s standards and do the same with the songs from Presto, Roll the Bones, Counterparts, Test for Echo, or S&A and you’ll understand my frustration with comparing CA’s first three songs with old Rush. What I hate about ‘Headlong Flight’ is how crappy it sounds. Sometimes Geddy reminds me of the lead singer of Queensryche (which is not good). The drumming is tedious and, overall, it sounds soulless and boring. The bass lines are cool and Alex shows he can still play, but AHHHHHHH!! the chorus is so frigging annoying and the song seems slapped together. How is this good? I hope this is not my review of CA on 6/12/12.”—Rush1982
Go ahead . . . flame away . . . but the engineering / mix / mastering on this BLOWS!
“Remember the VT fiasco? Well, apparently they don’t, ’cause once again we have a wall of compressed distorted noise! ARGH! WTF is with these guys? Why can’t they hear that their engineers are absolutely destroying their music? Sorry, folks, but it’s time we stopped accepting these garbage recordings as the norm. Rush should hold themselves to a much higher standard. OK, for the record. I love these guys. I’ve been to 39 shows, going back to Hemispheres. I don’t even want to think of how many thousands of dollars I’ve spent over the years all told. But many. These guys and their music have been a major part of my life. Period. And that makes this all the more frustrating. Even the previous releases of ‘Caravan’ and ‘BU2B’ were loud, but they had a lot more dynamic range. I’ve been flipping back and forth between them, and the difference is night and day. This is muffled loud and flat with lots of overly distorted noise. At least ‘Caravan’ and ‘BU2B’ had SOME clarity. I’ve read that this was not mixed by the same guy (Nick). I don’t know if that is true, but it sure sounds worse. They’re all just SO LOUD! Stop, please. Let us use our own volume knobs! I will also say that all I have is the 256k mp3 release, ’cause that’s all that is available. And the word is that this is going to be released in 96hz/24bit HD. As soon as it is, I will see if it is any better and, if so, change this review accordingly. But even though it’s only an MP3 right now, it’s hard to see with the amount of abuse here how it will be made up. Also for the record, the musicianship here is top notch. These guys are at the top of their game still, playing-wise. Lyrics are great, too. Again, all the more frustration for those of us clambering for good, solid dynamic music. Want to hear a great recording of theirs? Sonically, you need to go back to Counterparts. It was the last great. Please, Rush, don’t ruin another great album! Fix it before you release it! Major disappointment.”—Robert W
More about “Headlong Flight”
~ by rvkeeper on May 11, 2012.
Tags: Headlong Flight
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Book Review: Allegiant by Veronica Roth (3/5) A reminder not to change your narrator in the final book of a trilogy.
If you’ve been following, you saw me fly through Veronica Roth’s Divergent trilogy. I read Divergent and Insurgent not that long ago and on Saturday was able to finish Allegiant. I’m glad I read these so close together and didn’t have to wait for a release and I didn’t have to wait that long for this last book to disappoint me.
Allegiant by Veronica Roth
Tris and Tobias have made it outside the wall. Now they are being forced to come to terms with what is beyond their known world and it’s a big surprise for them to find they’ve been inside a genetics experiment their entire lives. According to the Genetics Bureau, scientists in the distant past tried to create people with preferred genetics, getting rid of genes that led people to violence or a low intellect. The experiments backfired and the genetically damaged (GDs) were created. The lack of a certain gene in their bodies amplified other negative qualities. Those with pure genes (GPs) started work to help eliminate passing on damaged genetics and large experiments were set up in formerly thriving cities such as Chicago and Indianapolis. Tris, Tobias, and their friends have just escaped from the most successful experiment in Chicago. However, the violence in the city is threatening the future of the experiment and the Bureau is thinking of resetting the experiment by erasing the memory of all of those inside. Tris and Tobias are appalled to see that the lives of their families and friends can be manipulated by these men so easily and develop a plan to stop them.
The first thing that struck me about this book was that Roth decided to change her point of view from Tris to a shared POV between Tris and Tobias. This bothered me from the beginning and started me off in a bad place while reading this book. Because of the changed setting, I felt like this book was very separate from the first two. The enemy seemed to be very different and it was hard for me as a reader to learn all the new characters in the Bureau so quickly. This book seemed like a blur to me and not a lot of it stuck very well.
I like that Roth used this world to deal with deep issues. The first book spoke to me about family and love. The second dealt with censorship and standing up for what is right instead of what is easy. This final book spoke about not limiting your self and sacrifice and I think Roth addressed these in ways that are accessible to her YA audience. Kudos to her for that.
A lot of the book dealt with sacrifice. Tris feels that sacrificing herself for her family and faction is brave and since a Dauntless strives to be brave, she should make the sacrifice. She speaks with Tobias who reminds her the Abnigation only believed in self-sacrifice if it was the ultimate way to show someone who you loved them. Her self-sacrifice to Erudite in the previous book did not do this and she started to see that it was not brave. When someone is needed to sacrifice them self to stop David from resetting the experiment, she doesn’t volunteer and when Caleb does, she tries to reason with herself that it’s not revenge to see her brother die, but the only way he can show he loves her. I like how Roth defined self-sacrifice for this series because it made me think about why we give up the things we love and if it’s the right reason to do so.
When Tobias finds out that he is a GD, he instantly begins to doubt himself and try to limit his own abilities because he lets this label define him. Tris challenges him not to limit himself and though it takes him a while to see the truth, he is able to do this. I really like this message and I think it subtly addresses discrimination. I’m a woman but that label shouldn’t define me. Those of any minority that are told they are less because of who they were born to be shouldn’t listen. You have to stand on your own two feet and your own abilities to be who you are and never let someone define you. Tobias believed in himself before his genes were analyzed but when his own identity changed, he lost faith. Tris was his rock that helped him believe in himself.
I’m going to stop my comparison to The Hunger Games after reading Allegiant. While Katniss and Tris are both fighting against their governments to gain some freedom for their friends and family, I feel Katniss was more out for herself, trying to survive. She didn’t want to be the Mockingjay of the revolution and was always asking after her mom and sister. Tris, on the other hand, sacrifices herself and knows it will hurt the one person who is the closest to her for the good of the community. Tris is a lot more selfless, fitting of an Abnigation born.
Writer’s Takeaway: It was clear by the end why Roth decided to have multiple POV in this book, but it was really distracting for me. Having read the first two very soon before this one, I was used to Tris narrating everything and as soon as I got into Tobias’s head, I would be confused and checking the beginning of the paragraph to see who was talking. Their voices were too similar. I didn’t like such a drastic change in narrator so deep into the trilogy. What if Gale narrated half of Mockingjay? Yeah, not cool.
I thought Tris was very trusting of certain characters, Matthew in particular, which seemed out of character for her. In the first book, she was very slow to trust anyone, even Christina. If there was a character change that should have supported this, I didn’t see it.
Overall it was a fitting end to the story but the style of it retracted from my enjoyment. 3 out of 5 stars.
Until next time, write on
Allegiant – Veronica Roth | No Thanks, I’d Rather Read
Allegiant by Veronica Roth- Review by Meredith Sizemore | Nerdy Book Club
Allegiant by Veronica Roth | Review | The Librarian Who Doesn’t Say shhh!
Why Allegiant by Veronica Roth Didn’t Work For Me- It’s Not The Reason You Think | Moon in Gemini
Tags: Allegiant, Book Review, Divergent, Family, Genetics, Love, Point of View, Self-Sacrifice, Veronica Roth
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Book Review: We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver (5/5) One of the darkest and scariest books I’ve ever read. →
3 Responses to “Book Review: Allegiant by Veronica Roth (3/5) A reminder not to change your narrator in the final book of a trilogy.”
beautiful loser March 14, 2014 at 12:23 PM #
This book to me was the most dissappointing book of the year. The multiple narrators was just too distracting to me, I barely made it through,…..
Sam March 14, 2014 at 12:28 PM #
Completely agree. I can’t relate so much because I wasn’t a fan before the final book came out, but even as a casual reader, I was hugely disappointed.
mystiagrl March 15, 2014 at 7:12 AM #
Stopped reading review as on book two and finishing “mockingjay” also. So will just have Ho get disappointed later sounds like. Loved “Divergent” so makese sad this like the hunger games trilogy will end poorly.
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Linda Hummel Meets Challenges Head On
by SA Woman | Sep 30, 2004
Linda Hummel is a self-confessed overachiever with a rare talent for focusing completely and passionately on whatever she is involved in. As chief executive officer of the South Texas region of Humana Inc., she is responsible for the overall management and strategic...
Building On Their Strengths: Women play important roles in architecture, real estate development, home building and construction industries
The world of real estate development, home building and design is filled with big plans, dynamic projects and busy experts. Behind the earth movers and real estate shakers is a vital support system of professional organizations striving to keep their members informed...
Reaching for the Top High-ranking women of corporate San Antonio
Back in 1972, when Karen Jennings first joined what was then Southwestern Bell Telephone Company, she thought she would work for a few years, then probably quit to marry and have babies. And although she did all three at some point — quit, marry and have a son — she...
Blueprint for Success: Architect goes her own way to grow her own business
You can hear Madeline Anz Slay coming down the hall. Office carpet can't muffle the sound of a pair of determined heels in fast motion. "My husband says, ‘Madeline doesn't walk, she marches,'" the 34-year-old architect says, as she swoops into a seat at the head of...
Ready to Make Music Again: The Symphony has a new CEO, a new plan and new hope
On April 19, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Leif Clark approved the San Antonio Symphony's reorganization plan, permitting the venerable but troubled organization to emerge from Chapter 11 and a year of silence and uncertainty. "Let's go make music," the judge said. Now the...
Santa Fe in San Antonio: Home echoes New Mexico architecture and warmth
Vacations in Santa Fe and Taos were foremost in the minds of Dorothy and Ray Berend when they built their home enchantingly hidden midst lush greenery on a serene cul de sac within a North Central San Antonio gated community. Ray is a certified public accountant and...
Pesca: Seafood lovers, take note
Kick me under the table if you've heard this before, but the best fish is frequently not at places billing themselves as seafood restaurants, and this is as true in San Antonio as anywhere. If I'm feeling fishy, it's Le Rêve, Las Canarias or Boudro's I often think of....
Yo-Yo No More: Understanding the emotions that make us fat
In all forms of media we are told about our nation's obesity problem. And San Antonio is one of the fattest cities in the United States. At the same time, we are bombarded with advertisements and information about losing weight. Most solutions include some combination...
Skin That Looks as Young as You Feel
You slather on sunscreen religiously. The only tan you ever have is out of a bottle. You drink enough water to hydrate the Chihuahuan Desert. You don't smoke; you drink alcohol only occasionally. You exercise and stay fit. In fact, you don't feel your age at all —...
Changing Lives Through the Power of Work
There are so many negative influences in our lives. And we magnify those messages in our minds. But it just takes one positive voice, and the limits come off. Suddenly, the things we never thought we could do become possible." The words of Amber Alonso, soon to be...
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ST. Bernard Sheriff's Office Keeping St. Bernard Safe
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St. Bernard Sheriff’s Office searching for missing Chalmette teen
Posted: December 9th, 2020 | Filed under: News Releases | Tags: sbso
The St. Bernard Sheriff’s Office is asking for the public’s help finding a Chalmette teen who has been missing since Nov. 7, Sheriff James Pohlmann said.
Tiani Arrieta, 15, was last seen by her mother at their home in the 2300 block of Marietta Street in Chalmette shortly after 10 p.m. on Nov. 7 when she told her mother she was tired and going to bed. Tiani has not been seen or heard from since.
Tiani is a hispanic female with brown hair and brown eyes. She is 5’5” tall and weighs 180 llbs. Tiani was last seen wearing a cream colored hooded sweatshirt, and red jogging pants.
Anyone with information regarding the whereabouts of Tiani is asked to contact the St. Bernard Sheriff’s Office at (504) 271-2501.
#sbso
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UPDATE: Missing teen has been located.
ST. CLAUDE AVENUE BRIDGE (LA 46)
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ construction of a new guidewall adjacent to the St. Claude Avenue Bridge will require daily closures of the right lane of the eastbound roadway and the adjacent pedestrian walkway (along the south side of the bridge), as shown in the closure schedule below.
St. Claude Avenue Bridge – Traffic Closure Schedule:
Eastbound Roadway (Right Lane Only) &
South Pedestrian Walkway (near the Mississippi River)
November 30th – December 10th (including Saturday & Sunday)
The westbound roadway and the north pedestrian walkway (near the Lock) will not be affected by the construction activities, and the bridge will operate normally for marine traffic. Motorists should expect delays and pedestrians are urged to use the walkway along the north side of the bridge.
From Sheriff James Pohlmann and the men and women of the St. Bernard Sheriff’s O
From Sheriff James Pohlmann and the men and women of the St. Bernard Sheriff’s Office Happy Thanksgiving.
St. Bernard Sheriff’s Office participates in annual Veterans Day parade
Posted: November 8th, 2020 | Filed under: News Releases | Tags: sbso
The St. Bernard Sheriff’s Office joined forces with several other agencies, including Parish Government and the Fire Department, to participate in the parish’s annual Veterans Day parade held Sunday, Nov. 8 in Chalmette, Sheriff James Pohlmann said.
Coordinated by St. Bernard Parish Government, the celebration is held each year to show appreciation for veterans of all branches of the military who have served in the past, as well as those who serve and protect today.
The parade, which began at 9 a.m. near the corner of West Judge Perez Drive and Old Hickory Avenue, disbanded at the Frederick J. Sigur Civic Center in Chalmette. Several veterans groups as well as The Shriners participated in the parade along with school marching groups and Honor Guard, Color Guard and ROTC.
Immediately following the parade, parish officials honored veterans during a ceremony in front of the Veterans Monument at the Civic Center.
St. Bernard Sheriff’s Office Drug Take-Back Day set for Oct. 24
Posted: October 13th, 2020 | Filed under: News Releases | Tags: sbso
St. Bernard Parish Sheriff James Pohlmann encourages residents to properly dispose of unwanted or expired prescriptions and over-the-counter medications on Saturday, Oct. 24 as the Sheriff’s Office participates in the annual National Prescription Drug Take-Back.
Narcotics officers with the St. Bernard Sheriff's Office will accept unwanted medications from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Special Investigations Division substation, 7001 W. Judge Perez Drive in Arabi, near the corner of Aycock Street.
"Residents should take this opportunity to clean out their medicine cabinets and get rid of unused drugs so they don't fall into the hands of youngsters who might misuse them or thieves who could sell them on our streets," Sheriff Pohlmann said.
The initiative, part of a national effort spearheaded by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, has seen more than 4.8 million pounds of prescription drugs collected since its inception in 2010.
For those not able to make the Oct. 24 event, the Sheriff’s Office also has a drop box located year-round at the substation at 4700 Paris Road in Chalmette.
The drop box located at the Paris Road substation was installed as part of an initiative by state Attorney General Jeff Landry, Blue Cross Blue Shield and the National Association of Drug Diversion Investigators. The goal of the initiative is to have a location in every Louisiana parish where residents can drop off unwanted medications at any time in an effort to fight the opioid epidemic.
St. Bernard Sheriff’s Office arrests two youths in connection with vehicle theft
Posted: September 25th, 2020 | Filed under: Arrested, News Releases | Tags: sbso
St. Bernard Sheriff’s Office arrests two youths in connection with vehicle thefts in Arabi
St. Bernard Parish Sheriff James Pohlmann urges residents not to let a stranger’s youth lure them into a false sense of security after detectives with the Criminal Investigations Bureau arrested a couple of youths from New Orleans in connection with two vehicle thefts that occurred Thursday, Sept. 24 in Arabi, Sheriff James Pohlmann said.
The two females, ages 15 and 11, were both booked Friday, Sept. 25 with simple robbery, two counts of theft of a motor vehicle, and one count of theft. The 15 year old also was booked on an outstanding warrant out of St. Bernard for theft of a motor vehicle from an incident that occurred in July in Arabi.
On Thursday, Sept. 24, at approximately 4 p.m., Sheriff Pohlmann said, deputies responded to a call about a vehicle theft in the 300 block of Angela Avenue.
When deputies arrived on the scene, they were met by an elderly male victim who said two young females knocked on his door and asked if they could come inside and use his phone. While inside the residence, the girls stole the victim’s keys and when they left the residence, they took his vehicle as well.
A few hours later, Sheriff Pohlmann said, deputies responded to another call about a vehicle theft, this time in the 2100 block of Aycock Street in Arabi.
When deputies arrived on the scene of this incident, they met with an eldery female who said two young females knocked on her door and asked to use her phone. After the girls left, the female victim noticed both her keys and wallet were missing, along with her vehicle.
Detectives with the Criminal Investigations Bureau were able to identify the suspects through eyewitness accounts and video surveillance.
Once in custody, both females admitted to the thefts and were transported to the St. Bernard Parish Prison Juvenile Detention Center to be booked accordingly.
Sheriff Pohlmann encourages citizens to remain vigilant, and report any suspicious activity in their neighborhood.
Citizens who want to share information with detectives about criminal activity pertaining to St. Bernard Parish or any of its residents, can do so anonymously through the St. Bernard Sheriff’s Office Criminal Investigations Bureau’s new tip hotline, (504) 271-TIPS or 8477.
If a detective isn’t available to answer, the Sheriff said, callers can leave a detailed message, and either choose to provide their contact information, or remain anonymous.
The Sheriff said residents who feel they are in danger or in need of immediate assistance should call 911. Non-emergency issues such as requesting to speak with a deputy also can be handled by calling (504) 271-2501.
St. Bernard Sheriff’s Office Dep. Richard Scheuermann
Posted: September 22nd, 2020 | Filed under: News Releases | Tags: sbso
receives Kiwanis Club Life Saver Award
St. Bernard Sheriff’s Office Dep. Richard Scheuermann received the 2020 Kiwanis Club of St. Bernard-Arabi Life Saver Award at a banquet hosted by Kiwanis today (Sept. 22) at Rocky and Carlo’s Restaurant in Chalmette, Sheriff James Pohlmann said.
Dep. Scheuermann, a seven-year veteran of the Sheriff’s Office who works in the Field Operations Bureau Patrol Division, was honored for his efforts to save a woman who attempted to end her life in June, 2020.
On June 6, Sheriff Pohlmann said, Dep. Scheuermann responded to a call about an adult female who was wanting to commit suicide.
When Dep. Scheuermann arrived on the scene, the female was becoming increasingly agitated and physically uncooperative so he placed her in handcuffs for her safety and had her sit in the front seat of a family member’s vehicle.
As emergency medical technicians were trying to tend to the female, she ran from them and dove into Bayou Bienvenu while still handcuffed. Without hesitation, and in full uniform and duty rig, Dep. Scheuermann jumped in the Bayou after the female and was able to safely help her out of the water, saving her life.
The female was then transported to an area hospital for treatment.
Lt. Richard Barr, Dep. Scheuermann’s supervisor, said he is not surprised by his deputy’s actions.
“Dep. Scheuermann always gives me 100 percent each and every day,” Lt. Barr said. “The fact that he did this does not surprise me at all.”
Dep. Scheuermann, who comes from a family of law enforcement officers, said he just did what comes naturally to him.
“Honestly it all happened so fast that nothing went through my mind. I jumped in after her because it’s what we as law enforcement officers do,” he said. “We don’t always have time to think about what to do sometimes. We just have to do it.”
Helping others is something that is just in his blood, said Dep. Scheuermann, whose father and uncle also are in law enforcement. His father, Dep. Randy Scheuermann, has been a police officer for 51 years.
“Other than growing up looking up to the greatest man and police officer I know (my Dad) and wanting to be just like him, I have always had a thing for helping those in need and putting others first and trying to make a difference in the world any way possible,” he said.
Receiving the LifeSaver award is an honor, Dep. Scheuermann said.
“It’s a small reminder of why I wake up and put on the badge, and, at the end of the day, it reminds me why I chose this career in the first place, to help those in need!” he said.
Knowing he is making a difference in his community means a lot to him.
“It felt good to know that someone called because they were in need of help and I was one of the officers to show up, and at the end of the day, a life was saved,” he said.
Dep. Scheuermann who has been in the Patrol Division for two years, also worked in Corrections at St. Bernard Parish Prison for five years and is a member of the SWAT team.
“I actually would like to work in every division in the department at some point in my career to gain as much knowledge as the job has to offer,” he said. “I love waking up in the morning knowing that I won’t be doing the same thing that I did yesterday, but also not knowing what the day will bring.”
Kiwanis Life Saver Committee Chairman Sam Catalanotto said the Kiwanis Club started presenting these awards more than a decade ago as a way to recognize first-responders in the parish for the work they do to protect the public. The award is presented quarterly to parish first responders chosen by the Sheriff's Office and Fire Department, he said.
"They are the first people through the door, and usually the last ones out, in an emergency, putting their lives on the line everyday,” Catalanotto said.
Anyone interested in joining the St. Bernard/Arabi Kiwanis Club community service organization is welcome to attend one of its luncheons each Tuesday at noon in the Rocky and Carlo’s Sicilian Room, 613 W. St. Bernard Highway in Chalmette. For more information, call Robby Showalter at (504) 616-7312.
St. Bernard Sheriff’s Office warns residents of phone scam
St. Bernard Sheriff James Pohlmann would like to inform residents of a phone scam that has been brought to his attention.
Victims have reported receiving phone calls stating they must pay money or a warrant will be issued for their arrest due to their failure to appear in court.
The caller, who claims to be a deputy with the St. Bernard Sheriff’s Office, instructs the victim to send money to void the warrant and avoid arrest for being in contempt of court.
The Sheriff also warns the number seen on caller ID may not be accurate and could be spoofed by the caller.
Sheriff Pohlmann wants residents to know the majority of the time a valid arrest warrant is served in person by law enforcement officials; however, in some circumstances a law enforcement official may call you if you have a warrant, but under no circumstances will that officer ever ask anyone to give them money by any means or form of payment.
If you have received a call from someone claiming to be a deputy with the St. Bernard Sheriff’s Office asking you for money to avoid arrest, call the Sheriff’s Office at (504) 271-2501.
St. Bernard Sheriff’s Office investigating shooting in eastern St. Bernard
Posted: August 23rd, 2020 | Filed under: News Releases | Tags: sbso
The St. Bernard Sheriff’s Office is investigating the shooting of an adult male victim that occurred shortly before 6 p.m. on Monday, August 17 on the East Judge Perez Drive extension near Torres Drive in St. Bernard community, Sheriff James Pohlmann said.
The victim was transported to an area hospital to be treated. The extent of his injuries are not known at this time.
Anyone with information about this incident who would like to share it with detectives can do so anonymously through the St. Bernard Sheriff’s Office Criminal Investigations Bureau’s tip hotline, (504) 271-TIPS or 8477, or by calling Crimestoppers GNO at (504) 822-1111. Tipsters can remain anonymous, do not have to testify and could be eligible for a cash reward.
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30 September 2019 / SF News / Jay Barmann
Bay Area Man Charged With Acting As Spy For China
According to a criminal complaint made public Monday, a Hayward man has been arrested and charged with espionage after allegedly working over multiple years as an agent for Chinese intelligence.
The man, Xuehua "Edward" Peng, 56, operated tours for Chinese visitors and students, and he was taken into custody Friday. U.S. Attorney David L. Anderson said in a Monday press conference that Peng had engaged in "a combination of age-old spycraft and modern technology" during six trips he made between the San Francisco Bay Area and Columbus, Georgia between 2015 and 2018.
"The charges announced today specifically regard the use of an American citizen to remove classified national security information from the United States to the People's Republic of China," Anderson said. "An American citizen acted as a secret agent of the People's Republic of China against the United States here in the Northern District of California."
As the Associated Press reports, Peng's m.o. was to rent hotel rooms to use as "dead drops" where he would leave $20,000 and then have an exchange with an FBI agent who was supposedly working as a double agent for China. The agent would collect his or her cash and leave behind SD cards containing seemingly important, purportedly classified national security information about U.S. Peng is then accused of traveling to Beijing on multiple occasions where he would hand over the SD cards to officials with China's Ministry of State Security.
Per the New York Times, "At a moment of trade and military tensions with Beijing, the indictment [of Peng] is just one more potential irritant, but also a brief view into the constant, low-level intelligence war underway each day."
Peng's arrest comes after a multi-year investigation, as CBS News reports, and Peng was arrested at his home in Hayward on Friday. If convicted, he could face up to 10 years in prison for acting as a foreign agent.
Peng became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 2012 after arriving in the Bay Area on a temporary business visitor visa in 2001. He holds a license as a registered acupuncturist in California.
He is due in court on Wednesday and he is currently in custody in San Francisco being held without bond, per the AP.
Lowell High Rocked By Yet Another Wildly Racist Incident, This Time In an Online Class
Set of Three Storms Move Into Bay Area Beginning Early Friday
Mittened Bernie Sanders Meme'd on BART, Cable Car
Day Around the Bay: Giants Unveil Big Plans for Parking Lot Revamp
The Santa Clara DA is seeking the public's help in finding a convicted child molester who is on the loose, Trump has posted over 1,800 ads on Facebook about the impeachment inquiry, and the Mill Valley Film Festival kicks off this week.
Fatal Fentanyl Overdose Spike Prompts SROs To Train Residents to Revive People
With an estimated 30 percent of fentanyl overdoses taking places in SROs, Mayor Breed sets aside a few hundred grand to train residential hotel staff and tenants to properly administer Narcan.
Jay Barmann
Jay C. Barmann is a fiction writer and web editor who's lived in San Francisco for 19 years.
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By Fred Harrison on 17 March 2014 in
Thesis Number: #10 (Page 2 of 8)
The task of social reconstruction begins by understanding culture, that matrix of values, rituals and institutions which are transmitted so that each generation does not have to “reinvent the wheel”.
Pre-civilised people were extraordinary because they cast their minds to the outer regions of the visible stars to work out the principles for what would become the cultural mainframe for sustaining their lives on Earth. As populations grew into larger settlements with new techniques for nurturing food from the soil, it was the genius of preliterate peoples that they could evolve techniques for disciplining the behaviour of themselves and others. They fused an ethical economics into the cultural mainframe. Onto this they embossed the exotic features that dovetailed them into their landscapes. So long as they adhered to their ethical economics, they could sustain ever larger agglomerations of people in increasingly complex settlements.
Every generation relied on the wisdom embedded in the legacy of their ancestors.
In traditional societies, elders told stories around camp fires to inspire new perceptions of what was humanly possible.
In the first city civilisations, priests conducted rituals in sacred spaces to elucidate the divine guidance that secured the Good Life.
In classical Greece, playwrights explored morality in amphitheatres to integrate personal behaviour with the ideals of the democratic state (Sternberg 2006).
Culture emancipates people to push the boundaries of their accomplishments. But it is all jeopardised when some individuals are allowed to capture culture and turn it into a private asset. That anti-social process unfolds when people’s right to share their natural habitats is grabbed for the exclusive benefit of a minority. To unravel the damage this inflicts, and to heal our civilisation, we need prophetic language to renew our visions of what is humanly possible.
Prophetic Voices
We know from past episodes that change tends to be inspired by people with the courage to challenge authority. Their voices were generally suppressed. Occasionally, they were heard. If we listen carefully, we can hear those voices in our midst today.
Language of the divine
Heads of the Christian churches are beginning to engage with the pain of the marginalised millions. Their declarations, however, do not suggest a deep appreciation of the structural causes that fragment our societies. But by re-reading their sacred texts, they can reactivate the mission that inspired their religion. In their midst they would find people like John Dudley Davies, an English chaplain who worked in Africa for 15 years.
On his arrival, Davies witnessed the way in which indigenous peoples were schooled into serving white masters. “At its worst, it is represented by Bantu Education in South Africa, which is designed to limit the black people to function in menial roles devised for and on behalf of the white minority” (1979: 15). He participated in a church group which reviewed the apartheid government’s proposals for land reform in Zululand. The “reforms” were purely political, with no consideration for the well-being of either the people or the land. When he returned to Britain, this experience “on the ground” led Davies to emphasise the events from antiquity that informed the bible’s teachings. Nehemiah’s intervention “recalled the people, especially the leaders, to the proper stewardship of the land. He saw that when ordinary people have too little power, they lose their contact with the land, they lose their security of housing and work, they risk becoming slaves, they get into hopeless debt, they have value only as producers of wealth for the benefit of the rich. On the other hand, the rich decide how much anything is worth, especially how much any land is worth, because they have the spare wealth to pay for it” (Davies 1993: 29). We are reminded that the mission on which Jesus embarked was to find and nurture the dispossessed poor, who had been displaced to the margins of society, “and the task of his followers is to take an awareness of it to the so-called centre” (Davies 2002: 157).
Induced Ignorance & Social Change
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Lakers Present Kobe Bryant With 4.87-carat Diamond Retirement Ring
by Adam Colbert April 20, 2016
Kobe Bryant added another diamond ring to his collection of Lakers bling. Before his final game as an NBA player, Lakers owner and president Jeanie Buss presented the 20-year superstar with a dazzling diamond retirement ring in a private ceremony with his wife, Vanessa — who received a matching ring — and their daughters, Gianna and Natalia. Bryant, in true Hollywood style, scored an astounding 60 points in his final contest.
“You changed history," Buss told Bryant in a segment captured by Time Warner Cable SportsNet. "There is no going back and comparing you to anybody, because nobody’s ever been like you. And we’re so fortunate that you were part of our franchise and part of our history.”
According to a Lakers press release, the ring was designed by renown jeweler Jason of Beverly Hills and features round white diamonds with a total carat weight of 4.87 carats set into 70 grams of 14-karat yellow and white gold.
On the sides are Bryant’s two jersey numbers and his nickname “Black Mamba” with a swirl of black snakeskin. Between his first and last names on the front of the ring are 20 diamonds representing every season Bryant spent with the Lakers. The top depicts the Larry O'Brien championship trophy and five larger diamonds for each title won.
On one side, "TWENTY YEARS" sits above a No. 8 Lakers jersey along with the years 1996 and 2005, the timeframe during which it was worn. The other side features a No. 24 jersey and the years 2006 and 2016.
Bryant remarked, "Wow, are you kidding me?" while opening the ring box.
Buss' brother and Lakers co-owner, Jesse Buss, honored Bryant on Facebook with a heartfelt tribute. Reflecting on his youth, Buss recalled a family trip to the beach when he was 8 years old. His dad, then-owner Jerry Buss, was walking to and from telephones talking to then-general manager Jerry West, who was raving about a draft prospect named Kobe Bryant. When he returned to his family, Jerry Buss told them, "There's this kid, Kobe, who is going to be the next great player, and I think we can get him."
“At the time, I didn't realize what the business of the NBA really meant, or how teams were put together, so it didn't really dawn on me how much this would mean for the @lakers," Jesse Buss wrote. "I can tell you now that watching Kobe play for the last 20 years has been nothing but jaw-dropping and inspiring to me, and to so many basketball fans around the world and especially amongst the Purple and Gold. I'm thankful for everything Kobe brought to our beloved franchise and to the game of basketball... The one thing that saddens me is that I wish my Dad was here for this moment, and that he could give Kobe one last hug on his way off the court. I hope he leaves the game with no regrets, and truly from the bottom of our hearts: THANK YOU KOBE! We all love you. #kb20 #lakers"
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Pearl Jam: Top 50 Songs Ranked
Dave & Chuck the Freak
Adam 12
Al Beck
Checkpoint XP Boston
Full Show On Demand
Dave & Chuck the Freak Tasty Bits
Catchphrases You Should Know
Dave & Chuck the Freak Podcast
Nerd Radio
ROCK 92.9 Backstage Club
“Alexa, Open ROCK 92.9”
Work With ROCK 92.9
Brian Ives // Managing Editor, Beasley Media December 23rd, 2020
With the impending release of Pearl Jam’s eleventh LP, Gigaton, it’s the perfect time to go through the band’s catalog and choose our favorite songs.
We’re pulling from albums, EPs, Christmas singles, B-sides and even alternate versions (since they’ve remixed every song on Ten, we specified what our favorite versions were.)
Of course, with a catalog like theirs, there are still tons of songs that we’ve missed. We’re sure you’ll let us know what we got wrong.
50. “I Got ID” from ‘Merkin Ball’ (1995)
Always a highlight of Pearl Jam’s live shows, most of Pearl Jam actually don’t appear on the song. It’s Eddie Vedder on guitar and vocals and Jack Irons on drums, with Neil Young on guitar and producer Brendan O’Brien on bass.
49. “Indifference” from ‘Vs.’ (1993)
The closing song from the band’s second album, it’s quiet and spiritual. The best versions of this song are the live ones, particularly when Ben Harper joins the band and duets with Eddie Vedder.
48. “Deep” from ‘Ten – Redux’ (1991/2009)
‘Ten’ is a classic album with not an ounce of fat on it, but ‘Deep’ is one song that could qualify as a, ahem, ‘deep track.’ It’s one last blast of intensity before ‘Ten’ wraps with ‘Release.’ Some fans have postulated that Eddie Vedder wrote the lyrics about Andrew Wood, the late singer from Stone Gossard and Jeff Ament’s pre-Pearl Jam band, Mother Love Bone.
47. “Elderly Woman Behind The Counter In A Small Town” from ‘Vs.’ (1993)
An acoustic ditty that you might have thought was a cover of an obscure R.E.M. song. Eddie Vedder sings warmly about a woman who never got out of her small town. She sees an old lover who moved on; she barely recognizes him and he probably doesn’t recognize her. More than a few fans may have seen themselves in these lyrics.
46. “Do The Evolution” from ‘Yield’ (1998)
A punk riff-inspired jam composed by Stone Gossard (who also plays bass on the track) fuels this rocker. The song inspired the band’s greatest music video, an animated epic by comic book creator Todd McFarlane, which tells the history of humanity in less than four minutes.
45. “Oceans (remix)” from ‘Even Flow’ single (1991)
One of many songs that references Vedder’s love for the ocean and surfing. According to an interview that Eddie Vedder did with Seattle Sound magazine, he wrote the lyrics while accidentally locked out of the studio. ‘It was drizzling and I wasn't dressed for an outing in the rain. I had a scrap of paper and a pen in my pocket, and they were playing this song [inside]. All I could hear was the bass coming through the wall, this window that was boarded up. So I wrote the song to the bass.’ This remixed version is rawer than the one used on the album, and was a B-side to the ‘Even Flow’ CD single.
44. “Smile” from ‘No Code’ (1996)
All that hanging out with Neil Young really rubbed off on the band; this song sounds like a Crazy Horse outtake. Jeff Ament wrote the music and also played guitar. (Live, he straps on the six string when they perform this, and Stone Gossard fills in on bass).
43. “Sonic Reducer” Christmas single (1992)
Some of Pearl Jam’s best covers are of lesser-known artists (see Victoria Wlliams’ ‘Crazy Mary’). This rendition of the Dead Boys’ 1977 punk rock classic brought the cult act to a much wider audience.
42. “Red Mosquito” from ‘No Code’ (1996)
Co-written by the entire band -- Stone Gossard, Jeff Ament, Mike McCready, Eddie Vedder and drummer Jack Irons -- ‘Red Mosquito’ sounds a bit like Mike McCready was auditioning for the Allman Brothers Band; his slide guitar is incredible. Vedder’s lyrics were inspired by a 1995 Pearl Jam show in San Francisco. He was unable to finish the gig due to food poisoning. The band’s friend and mentor Neil Young stepped in for him. The song’s end refrain “If I had known then, what I know now,” might have deep meaning for fans, but for Vedder it was probably just about wishing he’d avoided some tainted food.
41. “Release” from ‘Ten’ (1991)
The closing track from ‘Ten,’ it’s the only one that all of the members - Stone Gossard, Jeff Ament, Mike McCready, Eddie Vedder and drummer Dave Krusen - wrote together. For Vedder, it was about transcending the family issues of his past, for Gossard and Ament, it was about transcending after the death of Mother Love Bone singer Andrew Wood.
40. “Spin The Black Circle” from ‘Vitalogy’ (1994)
By 1994, Pearl Jam, and Eddie Vedder in particular, seemed focused on establishing their punk rock cred. This jam, influenced by underground punk, is a hard driving ode to vinyl. Stone Gossard wrote the music and it was intended to be a bit slower, but he sped it up at Vedder’s request.
39. “Garden” from ‘Ten – Redux’ (1991/2009)
A Stone Gossard/Jeff Ament composition, it features some of Eddie Vedder’s most vague lyrics, but ‘I don't question/Our existence/I just question/Our modern needs,’ was an early example of him railing against trendiness.
38. “Last Kiss” Christmas single (1998)
Pearl Jam’s most surprising radio hit: it’s a cover of a song originally released by Wayne Cochran in 1961.That version didn’t climb the charts, but a few years later when J. Frank Wilson and the Cavaliers covered it, it was a hit. Decades later, Pearl Jam recorded it for their Christmas single in 1998, and it ended up becoming one of their biggest hits.
37. “Yellow Ledbetter” B-side (1991)
This is Pearl Jam’s second most surprising radio hit. During the ‘Ten’ era, they were so popular that fans and radio programmers were desperate for new music. This song started getting requested on the radio, even though it wasn’t even on the album. It’s McCready at his most Hendrixian (he co-wrote the music with Jeff Ament). Eddie Vedder’s lyrics are fluid and he often changes them in concert.
36. “W.M.A.” from ‘Vs.’ (1993)
Possibly Pearl Jam’s funkiest jam, it was composed by Jeff Ament and then-drummer Dave Abbruzzese. The lyrics were among Eddie Vedder’s most politically charged. In a legendary appearance at Jay-Z’s Made In America festival in 2012, the legendary rapper joined them for a medley of this song and his own ‘99 Problems’ (that live version was later released as one of Pearl Jam’s Christmas singles).
35. “Amongst The Waves” from ‘Backspacer’ (2009)
One of many songs where Eddie Vedder - an avid surfer - references the ocean and waves. This song seems to compare relationships to waves, and many fans have taken it to be about the band’s bond. As Vedder told the Toronto Globe and Mail: "On the strength of this album, we feel good about where the band is at. Our relationship is long-standing, but it's turned into a forthcoming relationship. We're open and honest. Things go pretty easy – we feel like a gang. We feel like a galvanized group of individuals. As far as waves, I think we're up there."
34. “Come Back” from ‘Pearl Jam’ (2006)
An Eddie Vedder/Mike McCready co-write, it’s the closest Pearl Jam has come to doing a classic soul song. Vedder has said that it’s about the same character he wrote about in ‘Man Of The Hour’ from 2003’s ‘Big Fish’ soundtrack.
33. “Severed Hand” from ‘Pearl Jam’ (2006)
Eddie Vedder started writing this on the same night that he wrote ‘I Am Mine,’ the first song he penned after the Roskilde Festival tragedy where nine fans lost their lives at a Pearl Jam performance. Stone Gossard told Billboard, ‘That song is pretty intense in terms of the perspective of someone who says, 'F*** it. I'm going to go lose my mind. That's how I want to live right now.’
32. “The Fixer” from ‘Backspacer’ (2009)
Matt Cameron co-wrote the music with Mike McCready and Stone Gossard, and Eddie Vedder wrote the lyrics, which have a Joe Strummer-ish sense of defiance: “If something’s old, I wanna put a bit of shine on it/When somethings gone, I wanna fight to get it back again.”
31. “Man Of The Hour” from ‘Big Fish’ (2003)
Pearl Jam wasn’t the obvious choice to collaborate with film director and goth favorite Tim Burton. But Eddie Vedder saw a screening of the earnest ‘Big Fish’ and turned around the song a day later. It turned out to be the perfect fit (and if you haven’t seen the film, check it out!)
30. “Superblood Wolfmoon” from ‘Gigaton’ (2020)
It’s not as surprisingly different as ‘Dance Of The Clairvoyants,’ but it does have more of a new wave influence than most Pearl Jam songs and shows that, even after being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Pearl Jam is trying new things.
29. “Wash” B-side (1991)
Pearl Jam had so many great songs for ‘Ten’ that even the outtakes were better than most band’s best songs. “Wash” might have gotten more attention, but “Yellow Ledbetter” was the biggest hit of the ‘Ten’ era B-sides. Still, the slow-burn rocker has made Pearl Jam’s setlist nearly 100 times over the years.
28. “Present Tense” from ‘No Code’ (1996)
Like many songs of this era, the lyrics saw Eddie Vedder coming to terms with Pearl Jam’s fame. Ironically, as ‘No Code’ was released, their popularity was shrinking as times and tastes were changing. The music, composed by Mike McCready, seemed to demonstrate that you can get through tumultuous times: it starts out slow, gets a bit frantic, and then slows down again.
27. “Sirens” from ‘Lightning Bolt’ (2013)
Mike McCready wrote the music, it’s one of his most accessible songs. Eddie Vedder’s platinive vocals make this one of Pearl Jam’s best ballads.
26. “I Am Mine” from ‘Riot Act’ (2002)
The first song that Eddie Vedder wrote after the Roskilde Festival tragedy where nine fans lost their lives at a Pearl Jam performance. At a show at Madison Square Garden in 2003, Vedder introduced the song thusly: ‘This song’s about personal safety, and the feeling of being secure, and even free.’
25. “Jeremy” from ‘Ten – Redux’ (1991/2009)
Co-written by Jeff Ament (music) and Eddie Vedder (lyrics), “Jeremy” was a disturbing song that was based on two stories: one, from a newspaper article about a 15 year old boy named Jeremy Wade Delle from Richardson, Texas who shot himself in front of his teacher and his English class. The other from Vedder’s junior high school classmate who fired a gun in a classroom. Weirdly, this was the song that brought Pearl Jam to MTV and mainstream fame, but it showed that they didn’t flinch when looking at dark subjects.
24. “Long Road” from ‘Merkin Ball’ (1995)
The second song from Pearl Jam’s 1995 EP “Merkin Ball,’ the companion piece to the Neil Young/Pearl Jam album ‘Mirror Ball.’ The Vedder composition is a tribute to loved ones we’ve lost. This recording features Vedder singing and playing guitar, Neil Young on organ and backing vocals, Jeff Ament on bass and then-new-drummer Jack Irons. Vedder recorded another version with Pakistani Qawwali singer Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan for the 1996 ‘Dead Man Walking’ soundtrack. Perhaps the best version, though, was the one that featured Vedder, Young and Mike McCready on the post-9/11 “Tribute To Heroes” televised concert special.
23. “Just Breathe” from ‘Backspacer’ (2009)
One of Pearl Jam’s best ballads. Written by Eddie Vedder, it’s been covered by Willie Nelson, and it’s one of the few post-2000 songs that makes his sets. It’s also been covered by Jennifer Warnes (yes, the one who sang ‘I’ve Had The Time Of My Life’ from ’Dirty Dancing,’ and who duetted with Joe Cocker on ‘Up Where We Belong’.)
22. “Thin Air” from ‘Binaural’ (2000)
Another one of Pearl Jam’s loveliest ballads. Written entirely by Stone Gossard (including the lyrics) it’s also one of their few openly romantic songs. It’s also one of the few songs that we can think of with the word ‘byzantine’ in the lyrics!
21. “Nothing As It Seems” from ‘Binaural’ (2000)
A moody, almost Pink Floydian song, it was written by Jeff Ament (including the lyrics). It was an odd choice to be the first radio single from ‘Binaural,’ but by 2000, Pearl Jam were definitely not looking to make things easy for themselves or their team. The song is always a concert highlight, as it allows Mike McCready to stretch out and play some wild solos.
20. “Rats” from ‘Vs.’ (1993)
One of Pearl Jam’s funkiest songs, it’s composed by Jeff Ament. The lyrics imagine a world where rats have taken over, and quotes from an early Michael Jackson ballad ‘Ben,’ from the 1972 film of the same name. It’s about a colony of rats taking over the human world. Ben is the lead rat who befriends and protects a sick young boy with heart trouble.
19. “Love Boat Captain” from ‘Riot Act’ (2002)
Co-written by Eddie Vedder and Pearl Jam’s then-new collaborator, keyboardist “Boom” Gaspar, it addresses the 2000 tragedy at the Roskilde Festival in Denmark, where nine fans died. Quoting the Beatles’ “All You Need Is Love,” it’s a sad and bittersweet eulogy to “nine friends we’ll never know.”
18. “Crazy Mary” from ‘Sweet Relief’ (1993)
This has become an in-concert favorite, but many fans may not be aware that it’s a cover. At the least, when Pearl Jam released this song in 1993, between ‘Ten’ and ‘Vs.’ when their popularity was at fever peak, it’s unlikely that many of their fans knew who Victoria Williams was. A critically hailed Americana singer-songwriter, her career was taking off in 1992 when she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. That led to the formation of the Sweet Relief Musicians Fund, to help musicians in need of health care. The ‘Sweet Relief’ album featured Soul Asylum, Lou Reed and Matthew Sweet, but Pearl Jam’s presence undoubtedly brought a lot of money and attention to the cause. Williams hadn’t released her own version of the song yet. That’s her on backing vocals.
17. “Dance Of The Clairvoyants” from ‘Gigaton’ (2020)
‘Gigaton’ probably won’t be Pearl Jam’s ‘Achtung Baby,” but the first single from the album was as different to anything Pearl Jam had done before as “The Fly” was to U2’s previous work. They really switched things up here: Jeff Ament is playing keyboards and guitar, and Stone Gossard plays bass; Talking Heads and Gang Of Four seem to be primary influences. Besides being a great song, it showed fans -- and the music industry -- that, over a quarter of a century into their career, Pearl Jam still has something to say and they still have surprises up their sleeves.
16. “Why Go” from ‘Ten – Redux’ (1991/2009)
Many songs from ‘Ten’ are built around monster riffs by Stone Gossard; ‘Why Go’ is built around a monster riff by Jeff Ament. Like many of Pearl Jam’s songs, the lyrics address an outsider being treated unfairly. This one appears to be a girl who has been institutionalized against her will, with the help of her parents.
15. “Footsteps” B-side (1992)
The same song, with different lyrics, was released as ‘Times Of Trouble’ on Temple Of The Dog’s album. It’s a testament to both Chris Cornell and Eddie Vedder’s talents as lyricists and singers that both versions are classics. ‘Footsteps’ is the final part of the ‘Mama/Son’ trilogy, which also features ‘Once’ and ‘Alive.’
14. “Porch” from ‘Ten – Redux’ (1991/2009)
The one song that Eddie Vedder wrote by himself for ‘Ten,’ it was one of the highlights of their live shows early on. The long instrumental break always led to -- and still leads to -- some incredible jamming. Vedder no longer ventures into the audience as he used to, but the song hasn’t lost any of its excitement.
13. “State Of Love And Trust” from ‘Ten – Redux’ (1991/2009)
This version is different than the one from the ‘Singles’ soundtrack. This version was recorded during the ‘Ten’ sessions with original drummer Dave Krusen (the ‘Singles’ version was later recorded with drummer Dave Abbruzzese). A Mike McCready/Jeff Ament composition written for ‘Singles,’ it’s one of the band’s most straight-ahead rockers.
12. “Black” from ‘Ten’ (1991)
A gorgeous ballad composed by Stone Gossard and featuring one of Eddie Vedder’s most emotional vocal performances. “I know someday you'll have a beautiful life,” he sings. “I know you'll be a star in somebody else's sky, but why can't it be mine?” Even the “doo-doo-doo-doo-doo-doo-doos” are incredibly moving.
11. “Wishlist” from ‘Yield’ (1998)
Or, ‘How Eddie Vedder Learned To Relax And Deal With Success.’ On ‘Yield,’ Pearl Jam found themselves, for the first time, pretty far from not only pop culture’s zeitgeist, but also rock’s. By now, many of Vedder’s peers had quit their bands, and in some cases, started getting “real” jobs. Pearl Jam was still an arena-headlining band, and this simple and sweet song saw Eddie Vedder seeming to realize that success might not be so bad after all, as he sings, “I wish I was as fortunate as me.”
10. “Daughter” from ‘Vs.’ (1993)
Pearl Jam’s first top 40 single. It also topped the Billboard’s Album Rock and Modern Rock charts. It’s an acoustic-based jam composed by Stone Gossard, but the upbeat tone contrasted with the lyrics by Eddie Vedder, where he takes an empathetic look at young people with learning disabilities. As he told Melody Maker, “It's only in the last few years that they've actually been able to diagnose these learning disabilities that before were looked at as misbehavior; as just outright rebelliousness, but no one knew what it was. These kids, because they seemed unable or reluctant to learn, they'd end up getting the s--- beaten out of them. The song ends, you know, with this idea of the shades going down, so that the neighbors can't see what happens next. What hurts about s--- like that is that it ends up defining people's lives. They have to live with that abuse for the rest of their lives. Good, creative people are just… destroyed."
9. “Once” from ‘Ten’ (1991)
If you picked up Pearl Jam’s debut album, ‘Ten,’ on the release date, it was probably because you were a fan of Stone Gossard and Jeff Ament’s previous band, Mother Love Bone, or Stone, Jeff and Mike McCready’s supergroup Temple Of The Dog with Soundgarden’s Chris Cornell and Matt Cameron. Both of those projects had pretty slick production, as opposed to the dirty garage sound of most of the other Seattle bands. And ‘Once’ is a pretty produced jam -- the intro almost sounds like a Peter Gabriel record. But the song -- one of many on the album that is powered by Stone Gossard’s incredible riffs -- packs a hell of a wallop, which is fitting, as it’s about someone on the edge of insanity… or maybe a few steps past that point.
8. “Given To Fly” from ‘Yield’ (1998)
In their early years, Pearl Jam seemed like a classic rock band trying to prove their indie cred. Lead guitarist Mike McCready -- supposedly one of the nicest guys in the music business -- never appeared to struggle with that. So it’s no surprise that he wrote the music here, which veers very close to Led Zeppelin’s “Going To California.” And, as it turned out, it was one of their most successful songs on radio.
7. “Not For You” from ‘Vitalogy’ (1994)
One of many songs written by Eddie Vedder during the band’s early era where he struggled with their incredible popularity. On some level, though, he must have known that things would be changing -- he sings, “All that’s sacred, comes from youth.” Fortunately, though, he lived long enough to grow old(ish). But then, as now, he still clings to punk rock ideals, which is a big reason why Pearl Jam and their new music still matter.
6. “Animal” from ‘Vs.’ (1993)
In Pearl Jam’s early days, Stone Gossard cranked out incredible riffs that propelled some of the band’s greatest songs, and “Animal” is one of the best. A semi-title track to ‘Vs.,’ the album was originally going to be called ‘Five Against One,’ based on this lyric. When Pearl Jam performed this song at the 1993 MTV Video Music Awards just days before the release of ‘Vs.,’ fans knew that they were about to get another classic album; Pearl Jam was not going to be a one-off phenomenon.
5. “Alive” from ‘Ten’ (1991)
In the early ‘90s, there was a fair amount of resentment among alternative-rock purists, and fans of lesser-known Seattle bands, about Pearl Jam’s success. The smoother production of the ‘Ten’ album was partly to blame, and so was this song: a mid-tempo ballad/anthem that had a Springsteenian sense of transcendence. Eddie Vedder’s lyrics and Stone Gossard’s music gave an ambivalent generation a jam that recognized how awful the world could be, but reminded everyone that you could get through it. That wasn’t Vedder’s original intent: as he said at the band’s episode of VH1 Storytellers, ‘In the original story, a teenager is being made aware of a shocking truth that leaves him plenty confused...It was a curse: 'I'm still alive.'’ But the fans changed the way Vedder viewed the story. ‘They lifted the curse,’ he said. ‘The audience changed the meaning for me." Mike McCready’s solo at the end is one of his best.
4. “Better Man” from ‘Vitalogy’ (1994)
One of their most obvious hits (Eddie Vedder loosely based the song on the English Beat’s ‘Save It For Later’), the band actually rejected the song when it was submitted for ‘Vs.,’ according to Rolling Stone. Ah, the ‘90s - the era where the bands in the spotlight struggled with whether or not they wanted to be popular, and whether or not radio hits were ‘cool.’ We’re glad they listened to reason and finally agreed to release the song on ‘Vitalogy.’
3. “Even Flow” from ‘Ten – Redux’ (1991/2009)
‘Ten’ is filled with incredible Stone Gossard riffs, and this might be the best one. Inspired by funk acts like Parliament-Funkadelic, his playing here drives the song, while Mike McCready channels Stevie Ray Vaughan on his iconic solo. The song is about a homeless man, who might be struggling with mental illness: he sleeps ‘on a pillow made of concrete’ and ‘looks insane,’ which is understandable, as his ‘thoughts arrive like butterflies/Oh, he don't know, so he chases them away.’
2. “Rearviewmirror” from ‘Vs.’ (1993)
The bands from Pearl Jam’s generation, and particularly from their hometown, definitely had a dark and depressing vibe, even if it was packaged in anthemic rock chords. One thing that set Pearl Jam apart was a Clash-like sense that you don’t take crap lying down, you don’t accept it, and if you fight and hang in there, things might get better. “Rearviewmirror” is a great example of that: in the song Eddie Vedder sings (over a fantastic, propulsive R.E.M.-ish riff) about transcending darkness, literally leaving it in the rearview mirror.
1. “Corduroy” from ‘Vitalogy’ (1994)
Another song that saw Eddie Vedder struggling with fame. In an interview with The Onion’s AV Club, he said, “That song was based on a remake of the brown corduroy jacket that I wore. I think I got mine for 12 bucks, and it was being sold for like $650. The ultimate one as far as being co-opted was that there was a guy on TV, predictably patterned, I guess, after the way I was looking those days, with long hair and an Army T-shirt. They put this new character on a soap opera, so there was a guy, more handsome than I, parading around on ‘General Hospital.’ And the funny thing is, that guy was Ricky Martin.” Over the years, many of Pearl Jam’s peers couldn’t cope with the spotlight and imploded (or worse.) Others fell out of favor and got day jobs. We’re glad that Stone, Mike, Jeff, Matt, and Eddie figured it out: they never broke up, and they’re still headlining stadiums and arenas today. “Corduroy” remains their most powerful anthem; it’s about living life on your own terms and not being for sale. It could be the band’s theme song, it certainly seems to have been their mantra for three decades.
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Oceans Away by Skye McNeil
Goodness gracious do the men on this Iowa farm know how to handle their wood! For chopping that is!
Adopted as an infant, Ireland Leighton grew up in the heart of the Midwest. After inheriting millions from her biological parents, she is determined to help others any way she can. The only string is a business engagement with another millionaire. Ireland returns to Iowa years later to plan her brother’s tropical wedding. The festivities would be easier if her sexy ex-boyfriend stayed out of reach and her future wasn’t already planned.
Time suppressed his feelings for the girl next door, but Gideon Taggart isn’t about to let Ireland escape again. Farmer by day, veterinarian by choice, his second chance with his first love is far from easy. He soon discovers that no matter how much he loves Ireland, she’ll always choose her family over a future with him.
What struck me most with this novel was Ireland’s constant struggle between who she is now, and who she was six years ago when she first set out from her small Iowa hometown. Adopted at a young age, she grew up in a rather humble home, but was surrounded by a family who loved her. The sexy farm boy next door, Gideon, also showed her all the love in the world. But when Ireland becomes an adult she discovers the wealthy lineage of her deceased birth-parents, as well as a grandmother who is still alive and ready to show her the ropes of the family business. Ireland is drawn to the allure of this new millionaire lifestyle, and ultimately decides to pursue it by leaving Gideon behind, in spite of his pleas for her to remain. Fast-forward six years, and she’s finally coming back home for the first time since she left at the news that her brother is about to get married. What will it be like for this multi-millionaire businesswoman to return to her humble roots, not to mention see her sexy farm boy again after six years apart?
Needless to say, Gideon is rather resentful that she abandoned him in the dust all those years ago in pursuit of wealth. Surprisingly though, her family also makes a few jabs about her new lifestyle, specifically in regards to the paparazzi who are in constant pursuit of her. Now, it’s true, when Ireland traveled off to faraway places six years ago, she did lose touch with those she left behind, but I couldn’t help but feel that some of their resentment was misplaced. After all, this is a girl who went for years without knowing anything about her birth parents. Can they really fault her for wanting to discover more of herself, and take advantage of opportunities that weren’t available to her before? Yes, she lost touch with them, but in a way they also lost touch with her. We never really hear mention of them trying to reach out to her during that time, or help her adjust to what must have been a very emotional and confusing time.
With this first foray into travel, freedom, indulgences and massive wealth, it seems Ireland engaged in some questionable acts that got her plastered across the tabloids. When Ireland returns home, this spoiled party girl image is the one Gideon and her family call to mind. Never mind the fact that she has since adjusted into a responsible adult, taking the reigns of her family business and growing her wealth and success to incredible heights. She’s obviously matured into her role as a businesswoman, as well as philanthropist helping those less fortunate, and yet surprisingly her friends and family still seem to view her as a rather spoiled princess. It’s as though they judge her for those few initial mistakes she made upon the discovery of wealth rather than who she was her entire life up until that point, as well as the successful person she’s become since then.
Iowa vs. the World
Now, I know what you’re probably thinking. A romance novel set in a small mid-western Iowa farm town. How exactly is this a beach read? Well don’t worry, our story takes place about half the time down on the farm, and the other half down in Barbados. This change of scenery is a crucial feature, as it hearkens back to the moment when Ireland and Gideon first called it quits. Upon discovery of her birth-family’s wealth, the endless possibilities of the world called to Ireland in a way they never had before, probably because now they could become a reality rather than just a pipe-dream.
For Gideon, the responsibilities of his family’s farm keep him grounded to the land. She pleads with him to go with her, he pleads with her to stay. Compromise never seemed to be part of the picture, and we see this struggle hold true even after Ireland returns home. The question of Iowa vs. the world was always a question of one over the other. You can’t help but be surprised that with Ireland’s immense wealth, not to mention access to a private plane, that the possibility of her splitting time between Iowa and Barbados never really entered the equation. Again, considering how much of this novel is split between her traveling back and forth from Iowa to Barbados, you’d think she’s demonstrating rather effectively how things could have been a compromise rather than a competition. Although…if you ask me there’s certainly no competition between the two!!
Jealousy Rears It’s Ugly Head
When Ireland comes back home, Gideon can’t keep away from her, or prevent himself from teasing flirting with her any chance he gets. When her soon-to-be business partner, Mason, arrives on the farm to get to know and see Ireland in her home environment, Gideon’s jealousy kicks into overdrive. A few growls ensue, as well as some make out sessions thrown up against a barn stall door. He tries to show her that the chemistry between them is stronger than anything she might have for Mason, and that despite the last six years apart their feelings for each other are just as strong as ever. Just when Ireland starts to warm up to the idea of a future with Gideon, of working out the limitations of distance to their relationship, what does Gideon do? He pushes her away. Harrrrrd.
Gideon is convinced that Ireland has her sights set on Mason, and that his immense wealth will draw her to him more than Gideon’s wholesome Iowa ways ever could. He believes Mason would provide Ireland with all the things she could ever want in life, whereas his lack of money would be a disservice to her. Interestingly, this not only highlights Gideon’s own self-deprecating view of himself, but once more a rather negative view of Ireland that money would mean more to her than love. As though his love and her own massive amounts of wealth would never be enough for her, but that she’d turn her back on love in favor of even more wealth than she’s already built for herself. True, she turned her back on him all those years ago, but when she comes back to him, declaring her love, demonstrating through both words and actions how she feels, he turns his back on her. It seemed rather unfair and hurtful to her emotions for him to initially reel her in towards him through his initial bouts of jealousy, then just when she’s ready to fall into his arms he pushes her away.
Series: The Atlas Series, book 2.
Final Impressions: I think one key aspect we were missing here was the goodbye scene of six years ago. What exactly was said at the moment when Gideon and Ireland were on the cusp of ending their relationship? Perhaps a prologue featuring their goodbye would have provided an added window into the hurt that Ireland’s actions had on Gideon. The fact of the matter is all we really see firsthand is Ireland’s devotion to those less fortunate, to her family, and to continuing a successful career as a businesswoman. This made it difficult to understand the “spoiled princess” title that others placed on her. I think we also needed to see some additional scenes of Ireland interacting with her grandmother who she didn’t even know existed for the majority of her life, and more of an explanation on why it took so long for her grandmother to reach out to her. It’s briefly covered at the end, but we never see a conversation play out between these two women. Maybe even a moment showing her grandmother interacting with her adoptive family would have been enlightening!
Smut Level: Hot daaaaang!! Ireland loves to get her hands on Gideon’s many tattoos, and he knows just how to make her moan aloud in ecstasy.
Posted in Comedy, Contemporary | Tagged beach reads, bibliophile, book blog, Contemporary Romance, romance books, romance novels, romance reviews | 2 Comments
On the Market by Audrey Wick
She’s a vegetarian. He owns a barbecue joint dedicated to all things meat. They say opposites attract! Let’s put that saying to the test.
Valerie Perry has just inherited her grandmother’s home in Last Stand, Texas, a far cry in the country from her city life as an organic grocery buyer in San Antonio. Her methodical daily routine suits her just fine, so she aims to freshen up the property, sell it, and take her funds back to the city. She’s only got two weeks during her vacation to make this happen. Now is the time to cash in and get out.
The oldest Hutchinson son, who people around town know as “Hutch,” is a third generation local who is poised to take over the family business with his brother, Cole. The barbeque brothers have very different ideas about the future of their restaurant, “The Hut.” Just when he thought his biggest headache was his job, Hutch meets Valerie and both their worlds are upended. He’s drawn to this fish out of water, but Valerie’s time in Last Stand has an expiration date.
Their sweet and saucy styles don’t mix, but can they both find the recipe to a happy future?
This is a sweet romance that will put a smile on your face, and is the perfect beach read. The progression of Valerie and Hutch’s relationship seemed so cute and natural that it almost felt like we were witnessing the romance of two friends rather than two fictional characters. At first they engage in some light verbal sparring after Hutch fells a tree into Valerie’s yard. It’s definitely some good-natured sparring, and never crosses the line into rude or demeaning. Valerie’s “…ability to dish right back what Hutch was serving was a trait he probably wasn’t used to in women”, and this unique feature of her personality draws him in and won’t let go.
As Hutch attempts to fix her yard after the damage he caused, Valerie sees a sweet side to this barbecue boy, and it doesn’t take long before they both can’t stop thinking about each other. They slowly get to know each other, and open up about personal details of their lives. We never see anything over-the-top sexual, and there are no instances of being pushed up against a wall in a fiery moment of passion. Instead we see delicate kisses in the warm Texas countryside with fireflies flitting about. Soft touches and intimate caresses. We’ve really been provided with a window into the developing relationship between this couple.
The relationship we see between these barbecue brothers was just as interesting as the relationship forming between Valerie and Hutch. They may be brothers, but they’re at odds over the future course of their family’s restaurant. One is steeped in tradition, the other is dedicated to changing with the times. Both have the best interests of their family’s legacy at heart, and yet it causes a rift to form between them in regards to which avenue they should pursue. The combative nature of these two brothers was quite entertaining, and perhaps a bit more focus on them having open and honest conversations about their wishes for the restaurant would have been a delightful addition. We see them have heated arguments, which perhaps highlights the true nature of their relationship rather than one of sweet brotherly affection. Towards the end of the novel they do find a kind of compromise, but just one more scene of them conversing one-on-one in a non-argumentative manner would have been great.
What is a Home?
One feature that this novel focuses on at length is the question of what is a home. For Valerie, home is merely a place. It’s wherever you hang your hat for any period of time, and while she’s putting the finishing touches on her grandmother’s house she sees herself as biding her time before she can return back “home” to San Antonio. For Hutch, home is much more significant than the four walls that might surround you. It’s about the community that surrounds you. It’s about the people as much as it is about the place, and this small town of Last Stand is and always will be his home. When he discovers how vastly different Valerie’s concept of home is to his own, he questions if their differences might be more serious than simply the hurdle of physical distance which separates Last Stand from San Antonio. Perhaps their values in life pose more of an issue. However, as Valerie starts to transform her grandmother’s home into one of her own, and this small community also starts to envelop her as one of their own, perhaps her values might be changing to a point where she could envision a future in this small Hill Country town.
Series: The Texas BBQ Brothers, book 1. I can’t wait to see what’s in store next for Hutch’s brother, Cole!
Final Impressions: This is a quick read that’s ideal for the beach. It never gets too steamy, but instead there’s a sweet side to the natural romance developing between Valerie and Hutch. The community of Last Stand is an integral part of this relationship, and the additional aspect of Hutch and his brother fighting over the future of their family’s business was just as intriguing. Overall it’s a cute read that will leave you hungry for barbecue and sweet tea!
Smut Level: No sex, but we get some pleasant kisses between our vegetarian and our carnivore.
Get it on Amazon: Click Here. $3.99 Kindle Price. Tule Publishing. 180 Pages.
Posted in Contemporary | Tagged beach reads, book blog, books, Contemporary Romance, romance books, romance novels, romance reviews, southern romance, texas romance | 1 Comment
July 7, 2019 by romance4thebeach
Bed of Roses by Nora Roberts
Emma is a picky dater who seeks the “spark”. When one of her closest friends breaks her spark-o-meter with their first kiss, she knows he’s someone to hold onto.
Wedding florist Emma Grant gets to play with flowers every day and work with her three best friends in the process. She couldn’t ask for a better job. And her love life seems to be thriving. Though men swarm around her, she still hasn’t found Mr. Right. And the last place she’s looking is right under her nose.
But that’s just where Jack Cooke is. He’s so close to the women of Vows that he’s practically family. Now though, the architect has begun to admit to himself that his feelings for Emma have developed into much more than friendship. And when Emma returns his passion—kiss for blistering kiss, they must trust in their history—and in their hearts…
Whenever we have a romance featuring friends who become something more intimate, the most enchanting feature is uncovering that one moment where things change. Perhaps one finally sees an alluring physical quality they hadn’t noticed before; maybe it’s a moment of comfort following a difficult situation, or hell, maybe it’s just copious amounts of alcohol and a good rain storm. Unfortunately we don’t really see any of that here. Emma and Jack have been mutually attracted to each other for some time now, though neither has voiced their inner desires aloud due to the close nature of their immediate friend group. I was wondering what key moment would have sparked these two into action after so many years of silent yearning.
However, we really don’t get a sudden light-bulb moment of attraction. There’s no surprising burst of passion that draws them both up in the moment where they can’t keep their hands off each other. Instead we see them slowly start to flirt more than they had before, with no one clear reason coming to the forefront to explain why now was suddenly different than before. They have logical discussions about what it would mean to start dating…and then they do. Don’t get me wrong, there are some steamy moments built in there, but it wasn’t quite the startling unexpected switch from friends to lovers I was expecting. We never really get an answer to the question of, “why now”?
While Jack and Emma’s years of friendship allow them to settle quite naturally into a physical relationship, they both have some crippling fears which prevent them from opening up whole-heartedly. Jack has never been one for serious relationships, so his fear of commitment has quietly seeped into his interactions with Emma. He definitely cares for her (that is never part of the issue), but rather his inner struggle of where he sees this relationship leading to in the future. As for our heroine, she’s afraid to admit how much she truly loves Jack in case he should see it as a reason to put their developing relationship on hold. Beyond this though there’s also the insinuation that Emma fears that which doesn’t live up to her ideal. She works in a high-demand industry which requires perfection. It seems when her personal life has an aspect that isn’t perfect, she cuts it out of her life. If a kiss or a date didn’t score high on her “spark-o-meter” she knew it was a done deal, and she’d do whatever she could to set the guy up with another woman.
We also see this play out in her relationship with Jack towards the end of the book. When he doesn’t welcome her presence into his home after a long and trying day, it sparks an argument that finally reveals how much she loves him, yet also doesn’t feel welcome in his home. It doesn’t just stop at an argument, but rather escalates to the point where she breaks off their relationship, demanding that he not speak to or seek her out to resolve things. He wasn’t meeting her expectations of feeling fully incorporated into his life, so rather than discuss how they might move to remedy that situation, she takes the fast approach to just ending things completely. While her frustrations were warranted, it seemed like a rather rash decision to try and remove him from her life. The question then becomes if Jack will be able to move past his fear of commitment to acknowledge what she truly means to him, and find the strength to win her back.
Series: Bride Quartet, book 2. This sequel has started laying the groundwork for our final 2 romances. While one seems like it will be somewhat of a repeat of this story line where longtime friends become something more, I can’t wait to see what fun might ensue when meticulous planner Parker falls for a local mechanic.
Final Impressions: Overall I’d say I liked this second novel much more than the first one. It still focused on the wedding planning details a bit too much for my taste, but was a significant reduction compared to book one. This is probably a good series for soon-to-be brides to read in order to see how much care and attention goes into the behind-the-scenes support of a wedding. Not to mention things to keep in mind to avoid being labeled MB (monster bride), or heaven forbid upgraded to MBB status (monster bitch bride). Ultimately the bond of friendship between the four ladies of this wedding planning business is really coming to the forefront as the most endearing and entertaining characteristic of the series.
Smut Level: We get some passionate moments mixed in that will make you clap your hands in delight, but nothing over the top erotic that will make you fan yourself off from the heat.
Get it on Amazon: Click Here. $5.99 Kindle Price. Berkley Publishing. 370 Pages
Posted in Contemporary | Tagged beach reads, book blog, books, bride quartet, Contemporary Romance, nora roberts, romance books, romance novels, romance reviews | Leave a comment
Beyond Farwin Wood by Drea Damara
Wickrits, stroomphblutels, and skithers oh my!
Agatha Blinney’s curse is unleashed when Franci Doltman dresses up as her favorite movie star. Now the storeowners on Blinney Lane must rally together to save Franci before the possession claims her forever.
Valerie Millville is tired of her controlling mother, disappointing men, and being misunderstood. Determined to escape her life on Blinney Lane, she and troublemaker Ricky Allister volunteer to find a cure by venturing inside one of the cursed weeping books.
From mythical lands to peculiar allies to other worldly creatures, Valerie learns not all stories are written in stone—or even in one dimension. Can she and Ricky save Franci in time or will their friend become another casualty of the curse that binds Blinney Lane? Will Farwin Wood show them secrets undiscovered or are mysteries merely in the eye of the beholder? Get ready for an adventure that will transport you into the pages of a fantasy world beyond reality.
This book was almost like if Dr. Seuss had an influence in creating the world from the NeverEnding Story. Needless to say, there’s some interesting lands and creatures to discover here! The residents of Blinney Lane exist in what we would identify as the present day, albeit with some intense supernatural elements at work, as they are impacted by an old witch’s curse that restricts them to living within a 3 block radius of this small Salem town. However, some of the residents have successfully traveled to a faraway place: the land of Farwin Wood. This world is more fantastical yet also historical in nature, and it doesn’t exist in this dimension. Rather, one must fall asleep on top of a magical weeping book which describes this fictional world in order to go there.
At first, I wondered where the heck this story was going! We have so many characters introduced rather quickly that exist in two different worlds linked together through magic and the written word. I wasn’t sure who or where the focus would lie. However, it’s when we see these two worlds collide that the story truly comes alive. Farwin Wood ended up being a delightfully intriguing world that I couldn’t get enough of! We didn’t know what might lie around the corner in wait for our characters with every turn of the page. We feel like we’re going on the adventure right along with them discovering new lands, new creatures, new maladies, and even new passions.
So let’s do a crash course in the plot of this book. We begin with Franci, who is a bit of a misunderstood wall flower on Blinney Lane. She’s just lost her mother, and is desperate to break out of her shell. Franci decides to dress up as her favorite movie star from the golden years of Hollywood in the hopes of acquiring just a bit of her moxie. But because this is Blinney Lane, where the curse of a witch from hundreds of years before haunts its residents, Franci becomes literally possessed by the personality of this long lost Hollywood starlet, and her friends on Blinney Lane fear the real Franci might be lost to them forever. They have only one option. Some of them must travel to the mystical book world of Farwin Wood in the hopes of finding a magical remedy to Franci’s possession.
Enter Valerie and Ricky. Valerie ends up being our primary female lead character. She has a background in potions, lotions and herbal remedies, so she feels she’s the best person to travel to Farwin Wood in search of a cure. She’s also looking for an escape from her overbearing mother, as well as the monotonous day-to-day of being trapped on Blinney Lane. She’ll need a guide to get her through the book, which is where Ricky comes into play. He’s the younger nephew of the lead character from book one, and has been to Farwin Wood before. I initially assumed we’d see a romance develop between Ricky and Valerie, but there’s actually a man of Farwin Wood whose path she’s about to cross. This is when the adventure truly begins!
Ranthrop is one of the rulers of Farwin Wood, looking for adventure following the end of a war which had been waged throughout the land for over 20 years. This violent war ended at the end of book one, and peace now reigns supreme. He’s restless, and desperate for something to capture his attention. Who should come along but two visitors from the mysterious faraway land of Blinney, looking for a cure to help their friend back home. Ranthrop knows where this cure might be found, but it’s a several day’s journey to another land which the residents of Farwin Wood fear above all else. He’s determined to accompany Valerie on her quest, not just because it will provide him with some action following the end of the war, but also because he can’t deny his immediate attraction to the young and outspoken woman who has ventured into his world.
Where Worlds Collide
This was such a fun adventure, and I can’t deny that I wore a stupid smirk on my face for a large portion of this read. The chemistry between Ranthrop and Valerie was enchanting, and you can’t help but be seduced by their verbal sparring matches. She’s convinced upon first meeting that he’s a brute, seeings as he initially mistook her for a new wench in his castle keep. However, throughout their journey she starts to discover the caring and selfless side to his character. Valerie also sees how Ranthrop must confront the errors and guilts of his war-filled past with each passing day. Their journey may have started off with Ranthrop acting as Valerie’s protector, but by the end their roles have almost been reversed. She must step in to comfort him as he faces all the pain he’s caused others through years of war. Valerie questions if she can really be falling for a man in a story book. Surely he’s pure fiction, but then why do the feelings she’s starting to develop for this soldier seem so real?
I must say I was personally enamored with Ranthrop. He’s obviously a very masculine and physically strong character, yet he also has this kind of sweet innocence and genuine curiosity about his nature. You can tell he’s eager to learn everything about something new he happens upon, so when Valerie makes her way into his world he’s immediately enthralled. As for Valerie, she’s outspoken and full of spunk. Far from the demure and soft-spoken ladies that you’d expect to find in Farwin Wood. She’s not afraid to speak her mind in front of Ranthrop, and let him know when he’s being an ass. For his part, Ranthrop can’t quite understand what it is about her that intrigues him so, but by the end of their journey he’s come to realize that he’s finally met his match in a woman. His other half. You couldn’t ask for a more entertaining couple.
Back on Blinney Lane
At the same time that Valerie and Ranthrop are roaming the world of Farwin Wood, we have another side romance happening between Franci and another character back in the real world of Blinney Lane. At first I was worried how these multiple story lines would blend together, especially considering we have the couple from the first novel coming back into play as well. I wondered if it would be too many story lines going on at once. I will admit, at the beginning it was kind of tricky to keep all the plots and various characters straight, but over time you really do get to know everyone, and know them well.
We become fully invested in every story, and you really don’t want any of them to end. Throughout the book we would focus on Valerie and Ranthrop in one scene as their journey through Farwin Wood progressed, and then we’d switch back to see the progression of Franci’s madness on Blinney Lane, as well as how a young man becomes fully invested in helping her survive. To see how this man starts to develop deeper feelings for Franci, a woman whose friendship he’d always taken for granted, was just as entertaining as the journey through Farwin Wood. It was a fun dynamic back and forth between these two worlds that never felt forced or unnecessary.
Series: Blinney Lane, book 2. I would probably recommend reading book 1 before starting with this one. It helped that I received a crash course of the events from book 1, but even then I felt like I missed out on some of the background details for our character’s personalities. That being said, I’m fully in love with Farwin Wood, and can’t wait to visit again in the future.
Final Impressions: It takes a bit of time to set up our story and learn how to distinguish all of our characters, but once we see Valerie fall through the book into Farwin Wood it really does become a fun adventure. Farwin Wood was such a unique world full of fun and entertaining characters, I really didn’t want to leave it! Although, if I actually happened to find myself within this mystical world full of wickrits and skithers, I’d probably want to get the heck out of there as fast as possible!
Smut Level: Very tasteful. Nothing overly smutty.
Get it on Amazon: Click Here. $7.99 Kindle Price. BHC Press/Indigo. 288 Pages.
Posted in Fantasy, Suspense | Tagged beach reads, bibliophile, book blog, book reviews, books, Fantasy, fantasy romance, romance books, romance novels, romance reviews | 3 Comments
Dirty English by Ilsa Madden-Mills
A man who can analyze the themes and characters of Pride and Prejudice? Hell yeah!
A scarred fighter.
A girl with rules.
One night of unbridled passion.
There are three things you need to know about Elizabeth Bennett: she’s smart as a whip, always in control, and lives by a set of carefully crafted rules. She’s learned the hard way that people you love the most always hurt you in the end. But then she meets Declan Blay, the new neighbor at her apartment complex.
A tattooed British street fighter, he’s the campus bad boy she’s supposed to avoid, but when he saves her from a frat party gone bad, all her rules about sex and love fly out the window. She gives him one night of unbridled passion, but he longs for more. With only a cardboard-thin wall separating their bedrooms, he dreams of possessing the vulnerable girl next door forever. One night. Two damaged hearts. The passion of a lifetime.
Our opening scene presents us with waking up the morning after a night of sex. Unfortunately it’s not the post orgasmic bliss we’d hope to see at the start of a romance novel. Instead we see Elizabeth wake up the night after prom to the realization she’s been assaulted and raped by her boyfriend, Colby. She blames herself for the events of that night, for being drunk and not saying no to whatever drugs and alcohol Colby pushed on her. Fast-forward two years, and we find Elizabeth in college. She admits to herself that the events of that night didn’t ruin her sexuality, but rather impacted her trust of men. She’s established rules since then involving how she interacts with men. Elizabeth isn’t afraid to hook up with men for a one-night stand, but she vows to never hook up with popular, rich, or hot guys. She has to make the first move, and she has to be on top. Essentially we see that she’s built walls around her heart to keep it from breaking again, and has established rules to keep most men at a distance. But rules, as they say, are meant to be broken. Will a bad boy Brit convince her to throw her rule book out the window?
The Sentimental Fighter
At first glance, Declan is entirely wrong for Elizabeth. He’s smolderingly sexy, he’s a fighter, and he’s well-known on campus. The two are neighbors, and also happen to be in a Pride and Prejudice class together, which means try as she might Elizabeth can’t ignore him for long. There’s a link drawing them together, and as she gets to know him more than the fighter he is on the outside, Elizabeth discovers there’s a sentimental and kind-hearted man lying beneath the surface. Declan might be a fighter, but he can’t fight the pull that’s continually putting him and Elizabeth in the same path. He knows she has her rules, and he slowly starts to put the pieces of her past together to realize someone hurt her emotionally and physically to be so distrustful of others. Maybe he can convince her that he’s worth taking a chance on.
I definitely enjoyed the initial back and forth between Elizabeth and Declan as they warred with their mutual desire for each other. In the beginning they both try to fight their attraction, and this is more so on Elizabeth’s side since she worries about how much Declan could hurt her if she opens her hear to him. As a fighter Declan insists he doesn’t need a distraction to his focus like Elizabeth. Eventually they can resist no longer, and after having sex (on the mats of his gym no less!) there’s further debate between them over whether or not their relationship will continue beyond that one night. Personally, I think this is when their back and forth started to feel too repetitive, and the story dragged on for a bit too long.
Needless Repetition
Declan is seemingly dead set on making things work between them, whereas Elizabeth insists on keeping to her rules of one and done. This is compounded by the fact that Declan’s ex keeps sniffing around trying to insert herself back into his life. It raises all of Elizabeth’s insecurities, and she tries to convince Declan that she doesn’t feel anything for him other than lust. This understandably makes him a bit…moody. But then the back and forth begins where Elizabeth tries to make amends, Declan tries to show that he’s moved on, and then when he realizes she was making an effort he tries to get her back. But then she remembers how he said no so she turns away from him, which makes him get all snippy again. I mean my God people just rip off your clothes and have sex with each other already. Play time is over, you both like each other, let’s move on from all this petty high school drama.
You can definitely understand each person’s hesitancies. Elizabeth is overcoming a lot of shit in her life, from a crappy mom with a slew of endless boyfriends, to the tragic events in high school at the hands of someone she thought she loved and trusted. We can’t fault her for putting up walls around her heart. As for Declan, he’s putting himself out there as much as he can, but in the constant face of rejection from Elizabeth he wonders if she’ll ever be able to overcome her past, or if she truly feels nothing on an emotional level for him. Look, I get it! But having this constant back and forth where neither was on the same page at the same time turned it into a repetitive circle of misunderstandings and snippy comments like, “well what do you care anyway?”Again, too high school for me.
Coming Forward
“Why had I let a mere boy destroy me?” One of our main goals with this read, other than to see Declan and Elizabeth find a happily ever after together, is for Elizabeth to bring her ex, Colby, to justice for what he did to her all those years ago after prom. This little douche monkey can’t possibly get away with what he did to her. At several points in the story it seems like the decision to open up about Colby’s past transgressions might be taken out of Elizabeth’s hands entirely. Her deadbeat mother and her mother’s boyfriend of the month are desperate for money, so they come up with a plot to blackmail Colby’s senator father.
They’re convinced that he’ll be willing to pay big bucks to prevent them from revealing to the press what his son did all those years ago. In this moment we are presented with such an interesting dichotomy because while he want Colby to pay for his crimes, we don’t want it to happen in this way. It has to be on Elizabeth’s terms. It has to be her story to tell. Not theirs. However, Elizabeth seems so determined to keep the events from that night buried deep in her past. Surely the sick weasel won’t get off scot-free? Eventually Elizabeth can’t ignore that night anymore, especially when she realizes Colby is transferring to her school.
Series: British Bad Boys, book 1. Declan’s brother Max was probably my favorite character in the whole book. Can’t wait to see what’s in store for him next!
Final Impressions: A sad initial start, but this story definitely had a strong overall beginning. The connection between Declan and Elizabeth is undeniable, and you’re rooting for Elizabeth to overcome her past trauma to let love back into her life. Towards the halfway point though the book started to fizzle and drag for a bit as our couple constantly danced around their feelings for each other.
Smut Level: Dirty English indeed. He’s quite adamant about…licking her up clean.
Get it on Amazon: Click Here. $4.99 Kindle Price. Little Dove Publishing. 272 Pages.
Posted in Alpha Males, Contemporary, Dirty Talkers, New Adult | Tagged beach reads, bibliophile, books, Contemporary Romance, new adult romance, romance books, romance novels, romance reviews | Leave a comment
Chasing Fire by Nora Roberts
Jumping out of a plane in general doesn’t hold much appeal for me. Doing it with a raging fire burning below? No thank youuuuu!
Little else in life is as dangerous as fire jumping. But there’s also little else as thrilling—at least to Rowan Tripp. Being a Missoula smoke jumper is in Rowan’s blood: her father is a legend in the field. At this point, returning to the wilds of Montana for the season feels like coming home—even with reminders of the partner she lost last season still lingering in the air.
One of the best of this year’s rookie crop, Gulliver Curry is a walking contradiction, a hotshot firefighter with a big vocabulary and a winter job at a kids’ arcade. And though Rowan, as a rule, doesn’t hook up with other smoke jumpers, Gull is convinced he can change her mind…
But everything is thrown off balance when a dark presence lashes out against Rowan, looking to blame someone for last year’s tragedy. Rowan knows she can’t complicate things with Gull—any distractions in the air or on the ground could be lethal. But if she doesn’t find someone she can lean on when the heat gets intense, her life may go down in flames.
This book has three main areas of focus. 1) The developing romance between Rowan and Gull, 2) the mystery person who seems intent on blaming Rowan for the death of her jump partner the year before, and 3) the logistics and intricacies of jumping fire. While points one and two were entertaining, I must say I felt there was almost too much focus on the details of jumping fire, as well as the process involved to put out a forest fire. Now, I know what you’re thinking. The book is called Chasing Fire, what the hell did you expect the book to be about?!
I know, I know, I should have expected some background information as to what that involved, but after awhile it just got to be too much. One too many metaphors comparing the fire to a dragon, cutting off the head and tail, flanking it, jumping it, drowning it, cutting down trees with saws, etc, etc. Let’s just say if you wanna know the ins and outs of putting out a forest fire, this is definitely the book for you. I could definitely appreciate the hard work and research which undoubtedly went into making these details as accurate as possible, but it almost overtook the book at times.
Coming Together Through Fire
It might be against Rowan’s personal code to get intimately involved with a fellow fire jumper, but we all knew it was just a matter of time before she and Gull went for a tumble in the sheets. All that heat and adrenaline was all the kindling that was needed to set their loins a burnin’. Ok, ok, enough with the fire+sex puns. While Rowan was insistent in the beginning that nothing could happen between them, as the summer progresses and the dangers of fire and their mystery assailant continue to grow, Rowan and Gull developed a kind of connection and closeness which was deeper than that between mere teammates.
Gull is determined to protect Rowan from whoever is taunting and blaming her for the death of her former teammate the year before. As the threats against her grow in intensity, I must say I appreciated that they didn’t just sit back and wait for the cops to give them information about the case. Although hell, considering how quickly gossip and info spreads in this small Montana town they really didn’t need the cops at all to start contemplating possible suspects and motives! While they didn’t necessarily do their own sleuthing (which would have seemed unrealistic given their strenuous day job), they did plenty of their own hypothesizing. They were very logical with their thought processes, but almost too methodical at times. Whenever they would come together to discuss possible culprits, they almost lacked emotion in their exchanges, as though they were reading from a list of clues from top to bottom. It was a bit too robotic at times.
From opening bell I identified three main suspects as to who I thought might be behind Rowan’s torment. One is murdered fairly early on, so that narrowed it down a bit. The cops in the novel were so focused on one particular character, and you couldn’t help but feel that the answer can’t be that cut and dry. Once we do finally uncover the identity of the killer, and said killer is subdued (let’s face it we’re dealing with happy endings here), I can’t say it was incredibly satisfying. It was actually kind of a tragic conclusion. We see what can happen when someone is overcome with pain and the loss of a loved one. It can drive them to do crazy things, and commit heinous acts, all in the name of love or justice. Gull manages to show a bit of sympathy towards this villain, which was really quite endearing. As for Rowan though, she always has been and always will be a tough-as-nails woman. The way she sees it, this person put her team in danger, and threatened the lives of her comrades. She’s one to constantly look forward rather than back, so in her mind it’s not something to cry about. I can appreciate her strength in the face of all this danger, but her response was also a tad heartless when all was said and done.
Tales of Romance
This book was kind of loooong. There was a side story of romance involving Rowan’s father and his new lady love that felt somewhat unnecessary in my opinion. I mean, good on ya buddy for finding a woman to make you happy, both in and outside of the bedroom, but what does this have to do with the overall story? We see how there’s an attempt to link it back to Rowan, and her inability to cope with another woman in her father’s life. I won’t necessarily try to bring Freud into the discussion here…but Gull certainly did! I did find it funny that the romance between Rowan and Gull was, in a way, less romantic than the other one we see playing out with her father. For Gull and Rowan, their relationship definitely starts off as a horny itch that needs scratching. They do respect each other, and there’s a definite admiration for the other’s strength and ability to jump fire. However, at the end of the day there was something lacking in their exchanges that just didn’t make me feel all warm and tingly.
Final Impressions: In a word I’d say it was an ok read. It starts and ends on a suspenseful and fiery note, but some of the central story elements started to feel repetitive after a while. The identity of our mystery villain wasn’t too big of a surprise, although I will say I was surprised at how emotional this read became at the end. If this book were 100 pages shorter I think it could have been a big improvement.
Smut Level: You’d think these two would be too exhausted to get down and dirty after jumping fire, but it seems they can always find a bit of extra strength. They also have the delightful tendency for shower sex. Nothing like washing off the dirt and grime of one blaze merely to start another blaze between them.
Posted in Contemporary, Stand-Alone, Suspense | Tagged beach reads, book reviews, books, Contemporary Romance, nora roberts, romance books, romance novels, romance reviews, romantic suspense, Suspense | Leave a comment
The Rookie by Abigail Owen
Aidan has convinced himself that he’s not worthy of ever finding a mate. And yet the need he feels for Sera is undeniable. When he discovers she carries the sign of being a dragon mate, he starts to hope that Sera could be his.
To escape exile, Aidan Paytah has had to prove himself worthy. Every second of every damn day. He fought with everything he had to earn his precarious place on the Huracán team of dragon shifter enforcers. He can’t fail or afford distractions, no matter how temptingly sweet. Total loyalty to the clans and dedication to his team is the only way.
Sera Morrison lost her parents and her husband in short order, leaving her a single mother running her family winery alone. Nothing could ever have prepared her for the discovery that she’s a destined dragon mate. But once she finds out, there’s only one man she wants—the one who walks away.
However, the Alliance Council has its own agenda. They want to use her as a political pawn and force a mating that could ultimately kill her to save the High King. Aidan has no choice but to kidnap her, even if it means their close proximity reinforces their own mating bond. And mating with him could end up being a far worse fate for Sera….
It’s pretty clear to us readers that Sera isn’t just your average widow looking to protect her young son, Blake. She’s a dragon mate, and her mate is Aidan. Bada boom bada bing. No mystery there. That being said, it’s still a fun ride to see the process of Sera and the rest of the Huracán enforcers discover the truth of what she really is. Something I really appreciated about this book was that it added some surprise elements which truly distinguished it from the previous two novels in the series. We aren’t just dealing with another woman who discovers she has a significant role to play within the world of dragons.
The sign of being a dragon mate is that the brand of the dragon clan the mate is destined for suddenly appears on the woman’s neck. The fact that Sera has not just one dragon clan brand on her neck, but three, throws everyone for a loop! What could it mean? Could she pick and choose anyone from among those three clans? Could she possibly have three mates instead of one? Not to mention we all question what her sign as a dragon mate might mean for her young son, who is a mere mortal. The truly brilliant aspect of this novel though was that we didn’t just see these events carry out from Sera and Aidan’s perspectives. There’s a third villainous character whose identity remains a mystery, but he’s convinced that Sera is meant for him. She appears to him in his mind, and he’ll do anything to have her as his mate in real life. The added problem is that we learn he’s one of Aidan’s fellow dragon shifter enforcers. Duh duh duhhhhh.
The Risk of Mating
Sera has always been wary of the connections she’s felt to Aidan, which is stronger than any she’s ever felt before. Even when compared with her late husband, and the father of her son. However, she and Aidan have an undeniable chemistry, and when she’s told that one of the dragon brands on her neck is the blue color of Aidan’s clan, she starts to wonder if they’ve been destined to end up together all along. The fellow enforcers inform her that she’ll feel the link with her one true mate in her gut, and her thought immediately goes to Aidan. The fact that he’s always treated her son Blake as a treasure rather than a nuisance makes her realize the importance of her mate accepting her and her son as a package deal. And yet, there’s still a sense of doubt.
She’s fully aware of the dangers of what could happen if Aidan isn’t her mate, and the two attempt to come together. She’ll burst into flames, die a painful death, and Aidan would be able to do nothing but watch on as she turns to Ash in his arms. Not the prettiest picture here! When Sera realizes the distinct possibility of death should she choose the wrong mate, she really doesn’t express any immediate concern over her own life. Instead she immediately thinks of Aidan. The pain it would cause him to watch her die in his arms, and the loss of half his soul should it turn out that they aren’t actually mates. She worries about how he’d survive after something like that. Who would comfort him? The fact she was more concerned with his well being rather than her own demonstrates how truly selfless she is. She can’t help but notice though that Aidan doesn’t seem too excited at the thought of seeing his clan’s blue color on the back of her neck.
From Dreams to Reality
As for Aidan, you’d think that the frequency of sex dreams he’s had recently featuring Sera would have been a sure indicator to him that this human was his mate. However, he just assumes she’s the star of his wet dreams because of his physical desire for her. He never allowed himself to hope that it signified she belonged to him. After all, he’s an orphan. A nobody. He’s had to fight his way up to become an enforcer and earn the trust of his teammates. The death of his parents when he was a youngster turned him into an outsider within his former community. Never in his wildest dreams, even though they featured Sera, did he every think he’d be worthy to be selected as someone’s mate. That must be an honor reserved for those who are leaders in their community. Especially when he discovers that one of the three clan brands she carries on her neck belongs to the High King who is near death for lack of a mate. Surely an outcast orphan like himself could never stand a chance compared to the king of kings.
A Broken System
The broken system of the mating process really comes to the forefront in this book. It was hinted at previously in books one and two, but really wasn’t as much of a focus as we see here. We’re starting to understand a bit more regarding the inner workings of this world, and the political aspirations of the Alliance Council which brings possible dragon mates together for the official mating process. In addition, we see how the sheer desperation of these male dragons to find a mate is so strong that it even has the ability to pit teammates again each other. This Huracán team consists of dragon shifters that have fought and flown together for years. They are brothers in every sense of the word. And yet, when Sera appears with the brands of three different dragon clans on the back of her neck, each team member of the relevant clan is overcome with an intense feeling of jealousy and possession over the right to mate with her.
They’re desperate to finally feel that pure emotional and physical connection with another, and the fact it stops them from aging is an added bonus. We can understand how this desperation which has been built into their society could impact one’s ability to determine if someone was actually their true mate, or if their hope at finding her would turn into an unhealthy desire to mate with anyone who might give them that link. The repercussions of mating with someone who isn’t your true mate brings disastrous and traumatic consequences to the extreme. Seeing someone you were convinced was your one true mate burn to ash in agonizing pain in front of you. To live through that, and then be presented with the possibility of another mate? It’s clear how that might make someone go crazy with need.
The Hidden Villain
This brings us to our “villain”. I must say the constant hinting as to the hidden identity of this person was brilliant!! We don’t know who it might be, but then we see the list of possibilities narrowed down to being just one of the other two men whose brand she wears on her neck. While we see things from his point of view, and hear his delusional inner musings about how Sera must be his destined mate, his identity is kept a secret until the very end of the book. Just when you think that maybe a chapter or scene will end with a big reveal of who is thinking these thoughts, we switch to focus on something else. It ramps up the suspense to an amazing level!
I was constantly switching back and forth from thinking it was one dragon, and then in the next scene you start to wonder if it might be the other one. Talk about suspicion whiplash!!! Throughout so much of the book we see this “villain” as someone who has lost grip with reality. You want Aidan and Sera to figure out who it is, and for them to succeed in realizing that they are destined mates. But by the end you see how easy it could be in this world to be overcome with the hope of finding a mate that you could go slightly crazy in the search for it. That desire ultimately pitted this man against his brothers, and it was such a heart breaking realization for him to make in the heat of battle. It’s eventually a surprisingly emotional and touching reveal, I definitely had tears in my eyes.
Series: Fire’s Edge, book 3. Why isn’t book 4 in my hands right now? I have a feeling the next one is going to be an emotional roller coaster from start to finish.
Final Impressions: I really appreciated the fact that this book started to tear away at the intrigue and political deviousness of the Alliance Council. It’s something that’s been hinted at and touched upon quite briefly in the previous books, which were much more focused on the process of a dragon finding his human mate, the shifting process, etc. We also finally uncover the identity of the spy within this group of enforcers. In spite of all the espionage and political discussions at play here, I was shocked at how emotional of a read this book ended up being. I was NOT expecting that at all, and it knocked my socks off.
Smut Level: It might take a while for Sera and Aidan to come together in the waking world, but these two engage in some dream sex that is guaranteed to set the sheets on fire!
Get it on Amazon: Click Here. $3.99 Kindle Price. Entangled: Amara. 298 Pages
Posted in Alpha Males, Fantasy, Paranormal, Suspense | Tagged abigail owen, beach reads, bibliophile, book blog, Fantasy, fantasy romance, paranormal romance, romance books, romance novels, romance reviews | 2 Comments
All I Want by J. Daniels
This is a slightly bizarre romance in that you’re almost rooting for our lead couple to not end up together.
Luke Evans is a heartbreaker.
I didn’t want to give mine to him. Not when he kept me out.
He gave me enough, just enough to make me fall in love with him. I say this to convince myself. But I know the truth.
I would’ve fallen in love with him at a distance.
Handing my heart over to Luke was the easiest thing I’ve ever done. I was naive when I wished for more, when I hoped he wanted the same things I did.
I try to hate him. I try to forget him.
But it’s not that easy.
Love is a ruthless bitch, and I’m her latest victim.
Tessa Kelly is a man-eater.
When she sets her sights on you, she doesn’t just consume your heart, she goes for your soul.
What we had was perfect, real, and all I would ever want.
But she destroyed it.
She destroyed us.
I try to hate her. I try to forget her.
Love is for people who have hope, and I have none.
Tessa and Luke have a bit of a topsy-turvy relationship. They dated for a brief period of three months before Tessa broke it off for two primary reasons that unfortunately she never really bothered to tell Luke about directly. 1) Luke never opened up with her about anything personal. During all of the time they spent together he would always change the subject whenever she asked him anything personal about his own life, especially when asked about his parents. The most personal thing she ever learned about him in three months was probably the fact that he had a slight obsession with raw cookie dough. And that’s not even because he told her outright. It was just an easy observation. 2) Tessa had a false pregnancy scare, and when she tried to feel out whether or not Luke ever wanted a wife and family he answered with a firm and resounding “no”. Who would have thought that the one time he admitted something personal about himself it would signal the end of their relationship? Now, I’ll admit it was pretty shitty of her to end their relationship so abruptly, with no explanation to Luke as to why she was ending things. However, that doesn’t change the fact that they had a rather toxic relationship in many other respects.
An Attempt to Move On
In the opening scene of this book we learn it’s been almost a year since Tessa broke off her relationship with Luke, and since then they’ve been awkwardly trying to avoid each other. Whenever they do happen to find themselves in close proximity, they snap at each other before eventually blowing things out of proportion into a massive argument. Tessa has finally decided she’s had enough wallowing over her failed relationship with Luke, and that it’s time to move on. Watch out online dating, here comes Tessa! Poor girl. Little does she how many weirdos and creeps are waiting out there to connect with her. Now, while it seems like Tessa isn’t fully over her break up with Luke, she realizes that the best way to move on is to start interacting with other men. Not to mention they might be able to help her scratch the horny itch that has been plaguing her since things ended with Luke.
Granted, having an adult conversation with Luke about why their relationship wasn’t working for her, and that it was time to move on probably would have helped her in getting over him more fully. However, online dating seemed like an easier option. As for Luke, he has been cursing Tessa’s name ever since she ended things between them. Sure, he still desires her body, but he’ll admit to anyone willing to listen that she’s a man-eater, and that he hates her. So the fact that Tessa’s decision to start dating again sparked a jealous rage within Luke that made him want to get her back underneath him in bed didn’t really scream romance to me, but rather it sort of screamed immaturity. Especially because, again, he doesn’t choose to have a conversation with her about how seeing her flirt with other men makes him realize he still desires her. Instead he gets all territorial on her whenever she brings another man into their friend group. He might as well have just lifted his leg and peed all around her.
Wait, Seriously?
Another aspect of their relationship which didn’t sit right with me was that their bickering over their past, and Tessa’s new foray into the dating world, would oftentimes lead to angry sex. Sometimes angry sex can be sexy, but with this read it left a bad taste in my mouth. There is one scene in particular where Luke and Tessa are about to have sex again for the first time since they broke up the previous year. They both seem pissed off about their continued desire for each other, but Luke seems determined to stake his claim, while Tessa seems like she just wants to have some mind-blowing orgasms before they both go their separate ways again. Right before they do the deed, Tessa realizes that Luke isn’t wearing a condom.
Seeing that she had a pregnancy scare last year, not to mention the fact that it’s a PERFECTLY REASONABLE REQUEST, she asks Luke to grab a condom before they go further. Luke throws a bit of a hissy fit, asking why he needs to wear one if they’ve done it before without one, and she knows how much he doesn’t like the feel of wearing a condom while having sex. Tessa stands firm and asks that he wear one, and his childish response is that if she wants him to wear one so bad she can go grab it herself and put it on for him. Ummm…what…the…fiddleberries?!?! I’m sorry, that’s just a ridiculous and demeaning demand. The fact that Tessa went and did his bidding sort of made it impossible for me to fully support either of these characters going forward. I mean, good for her for not giving into his bullying and proceeding without a condom, but you can’t help but feel that these two should probably just call a spade a spade, and move on.
Overcoming the Past
Luke has certainly had a troubled upbringing. His father is an alcoholic who went off the deep-end following the death of Luke’s mother. At the age of 15 Luke not only lost his mother, but in a way he also lost his father to the bottle. When Tessa first came into his life last year, it was the first time in years that he felt a sense of hope for the future, and her mere presence calmed him in a way he’d never felt before. Here’s the problem. He NEVER shared that with Tessa. I understand that they weren’t dating for very long, simply a matter of three months, and that’s pretty early to look back on the darkness from his childhood. Here’s my problem though. Tessa may not have explained to him back then why she was ending things, but in the span of this book she clearly states on multiple occasions that his inability to share certain personal details of his life with her is the primary reason why a relationship didn’t work between them back then, and won’t work now. Luke seems determined to have Tessa back in his life, and yet he still seems completely unwilling to open up with her about anything. Honestly, this was one of the main reasons why I felt they simply didn’t belong with each other.
Tessa made it clear what she needed from him in a relationship, and he refused to give that to her. At one point Luke actually does share with Tessa the details of how his mother died when he was young. Tessa is fully present to comfort him in any way possible, but when she starts to ask about his dad he completely closes up and decides to move out of town without telling her that he’s going, or where he’s going. Dude! A bit dramatic are we? He refuses to answer any of her phone calls, and tells all his friends not to tell her his whereabouts. Again, this isn’t how adults deal with drama! Sit down and have an honest conversation already!! When Luke finally does come back into town we see that Tessa is the one apologizing to him for “pushing him” too hard, and we never really see him say he’s sorry for leaving her with no explanation. She says she’s fine with going back to the perfect relationship they used to have the year before, and I couldn’t help but feel like she was giving up some of her convictions to be with him. We never really see Luke open up fully with Tessa, and he even declares that if his father should fall off the wagon again he’s going to keep her out of it. Tessa basically says oh hell no, and they move on, but it seems like Tessa is giving up an awful lot to keep Luke happy, when he hasn’t really made any significant compromises to be with her.
Series: Alabama Summer, Book 2. While book one in this series wasn’t my favorite book ever, I have to say I liked the relationship of those characters much better than the one we see presented here between Luke and Tessa.
Final Impressions: I’m not gonna lie, this book did hold my attention pretty steadily from start to finish. However, it wasn’t so much because I was rooting for Luke and Tessa to succeed in getting back together, but rather because I was genuinely wondering if this book would end with them going their separate ways. Compromise seems like a standard feature to most relationships, but when it comes to these two it appears as though Tessa was willing to compromise her own beliefs to win over Luke’s affection, whereas he was much more closed off to the prospect of change. He’s determined to make Tessa his again, and knows what it will take to make that happen, yet he stubbornly refuses to open up to her. I feel like we as the audience end up knowing more about Luke and his past demons than he ever confesses to Tessa.
Smut Level: There’s quite a big of angry sex in this book. Tessa and Luke are determined to hate each other, but they also can’t deny the underlying frissons of lust which keep drawing them back to each other.
Get it on Amazon: Click Here. $3.99 Kindle Price. JD Publishing, LLC. 318 Pages.
Posted in Contemporary, New Adult | Tagged alabama summer, beach reads, book reviews, books, Contemporary Romance, j. daniels, romance books, romance novels, romance reviews | Leave a comment
Beautiful Entourage by E.L. Todd
Why would a successful, beautiful woman feel the need to employ a male escort? This contemporary romance explores the reasons.
Being a professional escort comes with its vices. To keep women from getting too clingy, stop them from dropping their panties, and silence them before they can blurt the L word, Rhett has made certain rules. He never breaks them. Ever.
1. No Kissing.
2. No Feelings.
3. And definitely, absolutely, no sex.
But when Aspen, a beautiful brunette, hires him to help repair her image to her family, things get complicated. Rhett’s never had a problem separating work from pleasure. But now work and pleasure seem to be one and the same.
This book has everything I could possibly want when it comes to having a male escort as one of the lead characters. How did he ever make his way into such a career, and how is the exchange of funds managed to reduce the awkwardness? In this little diddy we get the full back story on how Rhett started his own escort service, as well as the typical day-to-day operations involved. In addition, throughout his dates with various women, and even a few men, I felt we could identify two primary reasons why someone who could obviously find a date on their own would go to such lengths as to hire a male escort. Sure, there are a few exceptions to the rule, but the vast majority seemed to fall within one of two categories.
First and foremost, a woman is trying to get her family off her back for being single. My goodness can I sympathize with this. Maybe I should look into hiring an escort for my next trip home. I know it can be hard for some people to understand, but not everyone feels an immediate or intense need for companionship. It doesn’t make us bizarre weirdos, it just means we’re comfortable enough with ourselves to be alone with ourselves in our free time. The second apparent reason for the success of the male escort business is more about jealousy, specifically in order to make an ex jealous after a break up. As for our female lead in this book? She falls into the more popular first category: family pressure. Her father gives her an ultimatum. Either she finds a suitable man to appear with her at corporate functions, or she forfeits the possibility of ever being made head of the company she and her father work for. In a word, her dad is quite the ass.
The Supportive Escort
You’d kind of expect that the mere fact Rhett is an escort would bring a kind of undeniable sensuality to their relationship. Something that pleasantly surprised me with this read was that while Rhett and Aspen are certainly drawn together, they succeed in building the foundations of a friendship first. They’re able to laugh and play with each other, whether it’s over a bowl of ice cream, or while engaged in a competitive game of Battleship. If anything, his job as an escort prevented things from moving too fast between them, or having their relationship be built solely around sex. Through the contract Rhett has devised for all of his employees, escorts are limited in their physical interaction with their clients, and can only go so far as holding hands, light caresses, and perhaps a kiss on the cheek. If they take their physical contact to the next level, or if either voices their true feelings for each other, their contract is immediately void.
Rhett is determined to help Aspen succeed in obtaining her father’s business. Nothing like having a male escort as your primary cheerleader in life. In addition to his desire to see Aspen succeed, both Aspen and Rhett have come to appreciate the emotional connection they’ve developed through their friendship, and neither wants to lose the presence of the other in their life. Therefore, in order to ensure there is no breach of contract, they both keep quiet over the fact that they’re starting to feel something more. Considering there’s basically a “no sex” addendum to their budding relationship, I wondered if this simmering lust they couldn’t act upon would feel like the only reason they were inclined to pursue an actual relationship with each other. Thankfully, that was never the case here. Aspen wasn’t a conquest to be won. She started off the same as any other client, one Rhett couldn’t become romantically involved with. Only by spending more time together, having fun together do they establish a solid friendship which eventually ignites into a romance. It was truly a beautiful development.
The Family From Hell
The main impetus behind Aspen’s father giving her this dating ultimatum was over the fact that her ex fiancé recently broke up with her in order to have sex, and eventually become engaged to, her cousin. When we look at the response of Aspen’s family and social circle of acquaintances to her break up, I must say it crossed the line into downright unbelievable. Now, I can kind of understand her dad’s initial response, even though it’s completely unforgivable and signifies an unloving father. He essentially sees her inability to keep a man, and the subsequent gossip surrounding the break up, as a stain on his own character. Losing face and what not. Again, not saying it’s justified, but I can kind of get why he’s upset his daughter, and therefore his family, are the talk of the town.
The rest of the family though? Cheese and monkeys were they over the top. They seem to revile Aspen’s very existence, even though she was the one who was cheated on. Her cousin, Isabella, constantly mocks her, bragging about how she stole away her fiancé, and unlike Aspen she can keep him sexually satisfied. It’d be one thing if Isabella talked about how they couldn’t keep their feelings of love a secret any longer, or that they were destined to be together. But for her to brag over the fact that she was the one he chose to cheat with? Yeah, that’s the grounds for a really successful relationship (cue eye roll). She also goes out of her way to torment Aspen, which I guess can be a realistic situation, but for the rest of Aspen’s family to treat her as though she were trash? It just seemed like an entirely baseless kind of resentment. At one point Isabella practically forms a high school clique to make fun of Aspen, and in one scene declared “let’s go get her” before going out of their way to find and ridicule Aspen at a party. Her villainy was so cartoonish that we can practically picture her with devil horns and a tail. Again, a bit too over-the-top in my opinion.
Series: Beautiful Entourage, book 1. I’ll be continuing with the series to hopefully enjoy the romances of Rhett’s other escort buddies.
Final Impressions: Overall I really enjoyed this one. It was entertaining, and I appreciated the development of Rhett and Aspen’s relationship from one that was kind of professional, to one of friendship, and eventually love. The only negative thing to point out in terms of the plot was that many of the dramatic elements were resolved almost too easily at the end. At one point I even remember thinking, “mkay are we gonna find out at the very last moment that this last chapter has all been a dream?” It was almost too perfect of a conclusion. That being said, this is still a fun read. Rhett and Aspen are an adorable couple, they both support each other wholeheartedly, and they’re close friends above all else.
Smut Level: I must say I was kind of disappointed we weren’t treated to a round of strip Battleship considering how often these two played it. Due to their professional contract, it does take a while for them to fall into bed together, but once they do it’s full of steamy passion.
Get it on Amazon: Click Here. FREE. Fallen Publishing. 313 Pages.
Posted in Contemporary | Tagged beach reads, beautiful entourage, books, Contemporary Romance, el todd, romance books, romance novels, romance reviews | Leave a comment
Craving-Heart Christmas by Mariah J. Roberts
An untimely homecoming brings back painful memories for Mariah, but a chance meeting with her high school hero changes everything.
James rescued Mariah from the worst moment of her life, but that night still affects her life ten years later. After what happened to Mariah that night she’ll never be whole again, and she has to keep moving. Then the hero who saved her walks back into her life and she agrees to couch surf at his place during the holidays. Sparks ignite, winter heats up, lust roars and cravings bloom but both her career and her past demons drive her to keep moving; if she’s never still, she’ll never get hurt… so how can she stay?
Mariah has returned to Indiana to care for her sick father, and shortly after arriving back into town she runs into a man who she hasn’t seen in years. A man who changed her life. A man she’s never had the chance to thank…until now. Years before, James rescued Mariah from a traumatic rape at the end of their high school careers. After that fateful night she fled this small town for the wide open roads of the country where nobody knew the troubles of her past. She’s avoided coming home for years. There’s simply too many painful memories of that night, not to mention an unloving father who doesn’t seem to give a damn about her.
She’s always remembered James as the man who rescued her, and he’s always thought of her in the back of his mind as well. Seeing each other again after so many years, James has some initial difficulty placing this young woman who seems so familiar to him for some reason, and then the event comes flooding back into his memory. His instinct to protect and care for Mariah comes back full force, especially when he discovers she’s only in town for a short time, and living out of the van she travels around the country in. Will he be able to convince her to spend the rest of her visit in the safety of his home, and will he have enough time to show her that she really belongs in his bed?
A Slow Burn
The connection between Mariah and James is strong and immediate, but they are surprisingly slow to cross the line into a physical relationship. You’d think that James’ invitation for Mariah to stay with him in his apartment for the rest of her visit would have quickly resulted in a tumble under the sheets. James can’t deny that he’s drawn to her, but he’s insistent that they not take things too far too quickly to a point where she’s no longer comfortable with him. After all, Mariah has never been intimate with another man before, and the only physical experience she’s encountered in her past was an extremely traumatic one. That last thing he wants to do is scare her off. That being said, the prospect of taking that next step with Mariah fills James with excitement, and he desires to teach her all there is to know about pleasure. He’s also determined to show her how he likes to be touched, stroked…and even sucked.
From the Hospital to the Bedroom
Surprisingly, the thing that sort of kick-starts their physical relationship into high gear was the continuously failing health of Mariah’s father. The two have never had a strong or loving relationship, and it’s in those moments when he is so near death that Mariah wants to find a way to celebrate life. In her mind, the best way to do that is to develop a physical bond with James. I will admit it was kind of shocking to see a sad hospital scene followed so closely by a sex scene filled with some rather explicit dirty talk. It’s sort of an emotional whiplash to go from crazy sad to crazy sexy so quickly, but in a bizarre way you can kind of understand it in the same vein.
While neither necessarily admits to themselves that this is just a passing fancy or one-week fling, in the beginning they both sort of agree to just live in the moment. To be with each other and have fun. Yet again, we see that Mariah’s father has an unexpected influence on changing the outlook of their relationship. It’s in the moment when James is first introduced to this gruff and unloving father of hers that he realizes how important Mariah is to him, and that he wants to be her protector from now on. He’s falling for her, and he wants to keep her in his life from here on out. There’s just one major problem with his plan of a happily ever after. Mariah is a traveling musician. Her life is one on the road, and her time in Indiana is limited, which means that her time in his life has a fast-approaching expiration date.
I do wish we had learned more about Mariah’s pursuit of a musical career. Apparently back in high school she was more artistically driven in terms of drawing. She always carried around a sketchbook that she’d constantly pull in and out of her backpack. The night when James rescued her she left her backpack and drawings behind after fleeing the pain of that night. When James sees her again all these years later she’s suddenly a musician, and has apparently given up drawing. That’s pretty much the end of the discussion, and I just wish we could have brought things back around to that switch from drawing to singing. Especially considering that James had found and kept her backpack of sketches from that sad night. If we could have seen him reunite her with that sketchbook again? My goodness I would have died!! This area, and a few others as well, could have used an added layer of depth and exploration to bring the story fully to life.
When James ultimately discovers that Mariah intends to leave town right after the New Year he is desperate to try and change her mind into staying with him. In his mind the best way to do that is to give her as many orgasms as possible. He assumes that by keeping her pleasantly satiated she won’t want to leave him. As his best friend so intelligently tells him though, women don’t think like that. James doesn’t want her to leave, but the last thing he wants is to prevent her from following her dreams to be a musician. How can he support her career aspirations, yet also convince her to stay with him at the same time? A puzzling conundrum to be sure, and you can’t help but admire that he simultaneously wants to keep Mariah in his life, but still encourage her to follow her dreams.
*A copy of this audiobook was provided for an honest review*
Final Impressions: This is a quick holiday romance between two lovers who come together years after a traumatic event. I appreciated how James never pressured Mariah to move their physical intimacy at a speed she was uncomfortable with. Normally I love when a book alternates between the male and female points of view, but surprisingly enough I think I almost would have preferred if we’d only had James as our storyteller. His scenes often provided more of a struggle between his inner desires and how he wanted to act in front of Mariah. He was a captivating narrator, and at times I even wondered if his physical urges would override his common sense. I do wish we could have brought certain elements from their high school interaction back full circle into their time together as adults. Perhaps we could have seen an added exploration into the immediate aftermath of how they dealt with such a jarring and frightening experience. It could have helped to add one more layer of depth to their relationship.
Smut Level: They may have taken their sweet time before finally deciding to engage in a physical relationship, but once they do? Holy crap, let’s just say Mariah is a fast learner, and James is an avid teacher. He also has a dirty little mouth on him 😉
Get it on Amazon: Click Here. $0.99 Kindle Price or $6.95 Audible Price. Eminent Press. 140 Pages or 2hr 20mins Audiobook.
Posted in Contemporary, Stand-Alone | Tagged beach reads, books, christmas romance, Contemporary Romance, new adult romance, romance books, romance novels, romance reviews | Leave a comment
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Archive for October 31, 2010
Posey Poke
I take time off from watching the fourth game of the World Series to write about Buster Posey’s peg to second base to throw out Josh Hamilton, then head back to watch more, only to see him head into the dugout after hitting a home run over Hamilton’s head. He’s something.
Categories: Baseball
Simon on Sondheim
Even if you’re not a fan of Stephen Sondheim (and I know some aren’t, but I don’t understand how that’s possible), you may enjoy today’s NYT review of his new book Finishing the Hat: Collected Lyrics (1954-1981) with Attendant Comments, Principles, Heresies, Grudges, Whines and Anecdotes. It’s the Sunday featured review, for which the editors called on Paul Simon. I read it, and write this, as I listen to the cast album from the Broadway revue Sondheim on Sondheim.
I just love the photo above of Sondheim at the piano in the mid-1930s, drawn from the book and reprinted in the NYT review. Speaking of which, here’s a review excerpt:
“Company,” one of my favorite Sondheim musicals, is often cited as another example of his cerebral, cold writing. The plot is a bitter examination of the “joy” of marriage and the existential loneliness of its unmarried protagonist, Bobby. Some have speculated that Bobby is an auto biographical stand-in for Sondheim, although he dismisses this as the trap of attributing the character of the art to the character of the artist. It’s harder to read autobiography into the words of a composer who writes for theater than it is for a pop music counterpart. A song from “the heart” of a character has to be truthful, but if it isn’t, it’s not the author’s lie — it’s the character’s. But if a pop singer or songwriter writes a love song, a song of regret or even a bit of inscrutable doggerel like “Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard,” it’s autobiography. The lyricist in a musical is writing the art of the character. Both are pathways to a truth, but there is a profound difference in process.
To be fair to Sondheim’s critics, the heart/mind dilemma is a constant for many songwriters, myself included. If a writer composes a lyric with a complex thought or vivid image and fails to say it well, then the lines seem pretentious. If the songwriter goes for the heart and misses, then it’s sentimental. Sondheim is the farthest thing from a sentimental songwriter that I know, but his songs of the heart are shaded with rueful sorrow (“Send In the Clowns”) and translucent compassion.
Categories: Books, Music, Theater
Posey Peg
I should be watching the fourth World Series game rather than writing about it, but I just have to say — did you see that throw Buster Posey made to throw out Josh Hamilton attempting to steal second and end the 4th inning? It was perfect. Stunning.
Posey’s only 23, and he looks even younger. He’s had a sensational rookie year. I look forward to watching him for many years to come.
Halloween Miscalculation
We seem to be a popular house on Halloween. Gail buys full-sized candy bars to hand out, and judging by the response of the trick-or-treaters, this makes us special. We were handing out a hundred or more a few years ago. But more recently, two and three years ago, we began to have leftovers.* So this year Gail bought less. We had about 70 available. Two little girls came around 5:40, then no one for a while, and then between 6:00 and 6:40 the candy mostly disappeared.
I took a moment at that point to count what was left — 13 bars. The doorbell rang again, I opened it, two swarms appeared in quick succession, and the 13 were gone.
We’ll buy more next year.
*Last year, we were away. Halloween is the day that we left Grenoble first thing in the morning, took three trains, and arrived in Venice around 7:30 at night. It was fun to take the vaporetto from Ferrovia (the train station) to our hotel, watching Halloween celebrants get on and off at each stop.
Categories: Holidays
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Out of the Park Baseball 20 Released Worldwide
November 9, 2019 March 22, 2019 by Sim Sports Gaming
https://youtu.be/wBmkkWPPflc
Official Press Release–Out of the Park Developments, an official licensee of Major League Baseball (MLB), the Major League Baseball Players Association, and MiLB.com, announced that Out of the Park Baseball 20 is available worldwide today! OOTP 20 is the 20th anniversary edition of the award-winning baseball strategy game, the culmination of two decades of sports strategy gaming excellence with dozens of exciting new features and deep improvements.
Out of the Park Baseball 20 includes:
For the first time ever – integrated live services all season long! Start a new MLB game any day during the regular season and Postseason with up-to-date rosters, standings, stats and player ratings, or to update player ratings in your current game based on their current performances.
All new motion-capture-powered 3D animations, driving a supercharged in-game experience
Ultra-modern baseball strategies, including ‘openers’ and ‘followers’ as today’s game continues to evolve – plus advanced in-game smarts to counteract these moves!
Improved AI for trades, scouting, contracts, roster-building, and player evaluation
Upgraded prospect and minor league ratings, thanks to the biggest and most hands-on roster evaluation team yet!
2019 roster sets with all Opening Day MLB rosters, as well as the complete minor league system from Triple-A to rookie leagues as well as the Arizona Fall League. All major league (and over a thousand minor league) player ratings will be based on the popular ZiPS player projection system.
12 international leagues, as well as several independent minor leagues in the US and internationally, with accurate rosters
Perfect Team mode 2.0, the next generation of the wildly popular online competitive mode – including all-new tournaments, hundreds of more cards, collection missions, upgraded auction house, additional league levels, and new content release every week all year long!
Many more improvements, all built upon the incredibly deep award-winning Out of the Park Baseball engine that has accurately simulated the World Series winner the past two seasons on MLB Network and produced deep simulations for FiveThirtyEight.com!
In addition, this summer, Out of the Park Developments will unveil our exciting new mobile app OOTP Go, a completely revamped on-the-go experience that allows you to enjoy OOTP and Perfect Team mode anywhere, any time!
Out of the Park Baseball 20 can be ordered through this link.
Out of the Park Baseball 20 is also available on Steam & Origin. Purchasers of the game via these channels will receive 10% launch discount, which expires March 29.
Out of the Park Baseball 20 will be available as part of the Origin Access Premiere service starting on April 9, 2019.
All customers who have pre-ordered or who now purchase the game and register a Perfect Team mode account prior to March 29 will receive one bonus Perfect Team mode Gold Pack.
OOTP 20 runs on PC/Mac/Linux and features the American League and National League logos, the World Series trophy, official logos and jerseys for all 30 MLB teams, over 150 Minor League Baseball league and team logos, and historical MLB logos.
Quotes from OOTP Developments executives
“We are so proud to release Out of the Park Baseball 20,” said lead developer, lifelong baseball fan, and Out of the Park Developments CEO Markus Heinsohn. “It is the culmination of two decades’ worth of work – not just from our internal development team, but our entire community. We’ve always strived to bring everything a baseball fan could ever want to the game, and OOTP 20 is the result of that community-driven approach. We are grateful and humbled by our success – and can’t wait to keep building on all of it!”
“Out of the Park Baseball 20 is the most ambitious game we’ve ever made,” said Out of the Park Developments CMO Richard Grisham. “Thanks to the investments in infrastructure, live services, and AI over the past few years, Out of the Park Baseball 20 offers something for every possible kind of player – and it will evolve all season long and into the future. It is a full realization of a multi-year design and development strategy.”
About Out of the Park Developments
Out of the Park Developments is the developer of the award-winning OOTP and MLB Manager series of baseball management simulations, Franchise Hockey Manager, and Front Office Football. German-based OOTP Developments was founded by Markus Heinsohn and Andreas Raht in 1999. OOTP Developments has consistently produced games that have met with critical acclaim, including winning Metacritic’s coveted “PC Game of the Year” for the 2016 version of OOTP and “Game of the Year” for the 2007 edition of OOTP, which remains the second highest-rated PC game on Metacritic of all-time. Further information on the company and its games is available from the OOTP Developments website, http://www.ootpdevelopments.com
Major League Baseball Players Association
The Major League Baseball Players Association (www.mlbplayers.com) is the collective bargaining representative for all professional baseball players of the thirty Major League baseball teams and serves as the exclusive group licensing agent for commercial and licensing activities involving active Major League baseball players. On behalf of its members, it operates the Players Choice licensing program and Players Choice Awards, which benefit the needy through the Major League Baseball Players Trust, a charitable foundation established and run entirely by Major League baseball players. In 2017, the MLBPA launched Infield Chatter, an innovative social media app created by the Players for the fans and available in the App Store and Google Play. Follow: @MLB_Players; @MLBPAClubhouse; @MLBPlayersTrust.; @InfieldChatter
Categories Game: OOTP Baseball Tags OOTP Baseball 20, OOTP Developments Post navigation
Roundtable: What’s Your College Sports Gaming Fix During the NCAA Tournament?
Antonio Brown Headed to Oakland
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Feral Attraction: Art, Becoming and Erasure,
Feral Attraction: Art, Becoming and Erasure Foreword Foreword In the summer of 1999 we (Bryndís Snæbjörnsdóttir and Mark Wilson) undertook a nine-day hike in Hornstrandir, an uninhabited and remote coastal area in the far north of Iceland. It was July and at that time of year, in that region there is 24-hour daylight. Remarkably however, for virtually the entire hike, we were submersed in a shroud of dense mist. Consequently, despite the general light, for over a week we were unable to see much beyond a few paces, either back from where we had walked, or ahead in the direction we were going. At the time, paradoxically, this had been a heady experience close to epiphanic in its effect. Where the physical activity of walking in ‘wild’ landscape for that length of time is normally associated with retinal reward, with ‘views’ to draw the eye into a distancing and objectifying relationship with the terrain and away from the immediacy of bodily locus, in this case, because of the mist, our attention was entirely held in an enforced myopia. Unable to draw upon the reassuring and conceptual certainties of a commanding view and so (dis)placed beyond the controlling apparatus of representation we were cast instead into the stumbling blindness of uncertainty, of indeterminacy, instinct, intuition, of saving our skin – in short, into the awkwardnesses of close terrain negotiation, survival and most significant of all – into the ontology of ‘the moment’. Though revelatory, it was so in ways we could not easily express. We discussed it as a form of cerebral locking-in, where the deprivation of seeing either forward or back left us in a state of temporal suspension. The terrain remained to be negotiated, (we were driven with increasing anxiety by the imperative of an arranged rendezvous with a boat many miles south of our starting point) but this necessitated navigational means, which were suddenly and lastingly bereft of the faculty of vision. Like most people, we have experienced conditions of uncertainty and fear many times but this was altogether more all consuming and immersive. Simultaneously and crucially it must be said, it was also exhilarating. The point of this is as a reference from which to suggest that there are other ways (involving the relinquishment of control) of experiencing and understanding the world beyond what is deliverable to us by means of language, semiotics and whatever means we customarily deploy in order to control. The story touches on ideas relating to the familiar and unfamiliar in the landscape. It turns the attention to methods we might use when confronted with the unknown, in order to soothe and calm anxiety and to populate our perceptual world instead with representations stripped of threat. It is no exaggeration to see the fear that prompts us to protect ourselves as being a key driver behind the acquisition of knowledge. The need to bring everything into the realm of what is understood and ‘known’, has led us to cut ourselves adrift from things which otherwise would tax us. But the reductionism implicit in this process has without doubt left us impoverished in other ways. Our insulation from environments beyond our urban or agrarian control has robbed us in turn of the know-how of how to be, not just ‘in’ the world, but ‘with’ the world. In the context of this chapter, what we propose is that the attraction of a feral condition lies in contradictory feelings provoked in us, in a disruption of order and an escape from what is known, named or contained. It turns things upside down and calls into question the otherwise indisputable. It speaks of the intentionality of ’things’ and like the arrival of sudden, heavy snow in the city, reminds us that things remain beyond human control. The condition that the feral state stirs in us, between uncertainty and exhilaration, or more practically between a sense of inconvenience or the opportunity to see things anew, is its compelling attraction. Introduction Feral Attraction explores the disconnection between empiricism and cultural determinacy and consider the effects of cultural blindfolding in a context of environmental fatalism. The project focuses on the site of the Vestfjords, a remote area in the North West of Iceland, which became the theatre for the enactment of urban/rural ideological tensions and ultimately, a frenetic and awkward resolution involving the herding and eventual eradication of a community of feral animals. The Vestfjords is an environment, which during the twentieth century has been increasingly host to controversy surrounding the inexorable population drain from a rural to urban way of life involving two gradual processes. One was the migration of people from farming regions into coastal towns (including Reykjavík) and the abandonment of farms in large parts of the Vestfjords. The second was the persistent out-migration from the region as a whole, including its coastal towns, both small and large. The herding narrative that follows in some way mirrors the management of remote farming families and small communities, the continuing presence of which came to be considered from an administrative perspective, to be an unsustainable drain on the wider National project. Our art research project focuses on the significance of imagery in the story and on the particular resonance of visual information in the accumulation and instrumentalisation of knowledge as the events unfolded. Feral Attraction examines the particular incident in which, a flock of feral sheep, resident for several decades on the remote mountain peninsula of Tálkni in Iceland, was finally and with great difficulty rounded up in order to satisfy agricultural protocols and the legal subordination of farmed animals in Iceland. As recently as the 1920s, although not strictly considered good farming, it was not unusual in Iceland to keep sheep out and grazing through the winter months – a custom known in Icelandic as ‘útigangur’. For a number of reasons including the increased capability for haymaking through mechanization and the need to address widespread land degradation and soil erosion, during the twentieth century the practice fell increasingly out of favour. Anyone now who allows the sheep to overwinter in the mountains not only transgresses what is thought of as good practice, but indeed is in breach of the law itself. What began as a way of exercising more control over stock eventually came to affect perceptions of the animal itself and its relationship to its environment of over a thousand years. This was signified by a reduced estimation of its capacity to survive in its adoptive land and a concomitant increase therefore in the assumed responsibilities of its keepers. As artists, our enquiry engages with environmental and relational discourse and so a scrutiny of the representation of others and other species is central to our work. In an earlier art project, nanoq: flat out and bluesome (2001-6) , concerned with the killing and capture of polar bears by British expeditions over the last two hundred years, we mapped a transition in the culturing of a ‘wild’ phenomenon. In Feral Attraction we follow in reverse, the passage of the Tálkni sheep, from farmed to feral beings, acknowledging their independent survival in a wild landscape. In respect of both transitions (polar bear or sheep) the association with man anticipates a fatality, veiled in a representational transformation. Amongst other intentions, our work critiques the still prevalent primacy of human interests and environmental exceptionalism together with the apparent impossibility of humankind to divorce itself from its solipsistic regard to self-survival, both practically and theoretically. Instead we lean towards a relational and ecological paradigm in which the species Homo sapiens is accepted as merely a player amongst a multitude of players. Through Icelandic history the polar bear has been an occasional visitor to the island shores; folklore has generally recorded horrific accounts from these meetings . Far from seeking to underestimate the danger of polar bears under these circumstances, we want to take a step back to reflect and consider alternative and what we consider more measured and inquisitive approaches and behaviour towards the ‘aberration’ of unexpected arrivals and migrations in the landscape. In Svalbard, a territory in which the encounters between polar bear and man are frequent, legal constraints are in place, to avoid polar bear deaths whenever possible. The right of the indigenous animal to this landscape, which the Spitzbergen human community has come also partly to occupy, is paramount, instilling and reflecting a different sense of respect and environmental order. Whilst on an artists’ residency in Longyearbyen, Svalbard in 2010, the local radio reported a group of tourists in crisis; a polar bear had shown up around their camp and was not responding to air rifles, flares and other customary measures used to scare bears away. But instead of tranquilizing the animal and airlifting it to a new location, as might normally be the case, the ombudsman/sysselman ordered that the tourists instead be relocated by helicopter. In respect of these examples on Svalbard and Tálkni, the potency of the encounter between ‘man’ and ‘animal’ signals complexity in the perceived constitution of environmental order and protocols. Australian ecofeminist Val Plumwood (2000), in her reflections on her experience of being attacked and nearly killed by a crocodile in the East Alligator Lagoon in Kakadu, northern Australia, highlighted a significant ethical perspective by recording her determination that contrary to the normal response following such attacks, the animal in question should not be hunted down and killed, believing herself to be an intruder into its territory. In taxonomic and other human systems designed to underpin the human position in relation to other beings, the differences between a crocodile, a polar bear and a sheep are clear. But what can be compared usefully is our approach and attitude here to any species testing the margins of what we consider to be ‘our’ territory. In our inability to adjust to the signals of environmental threat (a condition sustained by such anthropocentrism), it is and will remain impossible to distinguish or redraw our taxonomic biases of significance. Dust, plants, animals, minerals, biomass, particles, waves, oxygen, cold, densities are oceanic in their combined effects and mutuality. In this light, importance may not be measured in their apparent individuality, nor indeed in their ‘human significance’, but in their infinitely complex behavioural associations and interactions. Historical context There is a history to ‘feral’ sheep being on Tálkni. The flock initially came from a farm called Lambeyri, whose owner, due to personal circumstances, is thought not to have been managing his sheep strictly in accordance with the law. In the early 1970s he stopped farming, leaving the farm to his family. They chose to keep the house and the land, but did not wish to keep farm animals. It is understood that by that time, the remaining sheep at the farm had already taken to the mountain. In accordance with Icelandic law, landowners of registered farmland have a duty to contribute to herding sheep generally in their district. In the Vestfjords this involves negotiating the many steep mountains characterizing this landscape. It is a dangerous job, requiring detailed knowledge of the area as well as substantial agility and fitness. The first officially recorded and acknowledged existence of the sheep in Tálkni was in 1984, when there was an outbreak in Iceland of the neurodegenerative disease scrapie (‘riða’ in Icelandic). At the time it was thought that between forty and sixty sheep were on the mountain. An argument concerning the presence, or otherwise, of the disease ensued between local farmers and the Chief Veterinary Officer. The farmers wanted proof that the disease was in their area before agreeing to cull their sheep. The veterinary officer was unable to provide such evidence, but pointed to the unregulated sheep on Tálkni as being amongst those that might have crossed the district borders in question and so were possible carriers of the disease. In the end, the Chief Veterinary Officer ordered these sheep to be culled. To fulfill the task, he called on a special division of the Icelandic Coastal Guard known as the ‘Viking Squad’ to shoot the sheep on the mountain from a helicopter. This was something at which this special squad was not expert. To make matters worse, the expedition hit bad weather, resulting in it having to be aborted, leaving some sheep dead but many more badly wounded. A few days later, when the weather had calmed down, the local rescue team then went over to the mountain and found, as reported by Lilja Magnúsdóttir when we interviewed her in Reykjavík on 25th of June 2010 “thirty sheep either dead or dying”. In respect of these animals, the team had no choice but to finish what had been started. They also took photographs at the scene, which locals would reference in support of their opposition to further remote directives of the Chief Veterinary Officer back in Reykjavik. This visual evidence prompted two consequences; it helped constitute an identity for the remaining flock of sheep as ‘Tálknafé’ (Tálkni-sheep) and it galvanized the identity of the local farmers, affirming the division between themselves and the authorities based in the Capital. Twenty-five years later, in October 2009, news came that the flock of feral sheep on Tálkni had once more been targeted, but on this occasion they had been herded from the mountain and slaughtered. As the story of their capture unfolded through the media, it revealed a fascinating tale of human dominion. A group of the best herders (‘smalar’) of the area, together with their sheepdogs, had risked their lives in climbing the mountain to retrieve the sheep. The adventure was undertaken by order from the chief legislative officer in the area. The consequence was that from a flock of twenty-five, fourteen sheep were captured alive, five perished as they fell from the cliffs in their attempts to avoid capture and six managed to escape. The fourteen captive sheep were loaded on board a boat that had brought the herders to the mountain and taken to the nearby town of Patreksfjord where they were immediately slaughtered. In addition to the ewes there were four rams and retrieved from the other side of the mountain, three yearling rams. The six remaining sheep, two rams, three ewes and one ewe lamb were retrieved a few months later in January 2010, thus ending for the time being at least, the existence of sheep on Tálkni. Art and Relationality The story caused considerable controversy in Iceland at the time, and for some, provided a new focus for environmental concerns. In order to find out more, we visited the Tálkni area in the summer of 2010, together with Dr. Karl Benediktsson, Professor of Human Geography at the University of Iceland and Unndór Jónsson, an independent artist and researcher and recorded a series of interviews with people who’d been connected to the events. We gathered images, documentation and other material along the way. On location we interviewed; Ásgeir Jónsson, Ásgeir Sveinsson, Þröstur Reynisson, Sveinn Eyjólfur Tryggvason and Ragnar Jörundsson and on our return to Reykjavík, we interviewed Lilja Magnúsdóttir another local inhabitant temporarily residing in Reykjavík as well as previous Chief Veterinary Officer Dr. Sigurður Sigurðarson, and Dr. Ólafur Dýrmundsson, whose specialism is the Icelandic sheep, and who works for the Icelandic Farmers’ Association. Ásgeir Jónsson is a member of the local council, who had also for some years been responsible for organising the autumn roundups of sheep. His role was important, but complicated, in that for many years he had turned a blind eye to the sheep being on the mountain. Due to his official capacity, when the court order came, he was forced to take part in the clearance. He also had valuable information for this project in that due to a recent minor accident he was stationed back in the boat to receive the animals during the herding, which meant that he had physical contact with each sheep captured. Ásgeir Sveinsson, a sheep farmer, who lives and farms with his brother and elderly father. At the time of interview he had a flock of 800 sheep. He has a reputation as an excellent ‘fjármaður’ (shepherd) and is the owner of exceptionally well-trained sheepdogs. Ásgeir’s interview provided a detailed description of the sheep’s unique behaviour and their unusual reaction to humans and dogs. He is very knowledgeable about sheep breeding and is the proud keeper of the only remaining known descendant of the sheep from Tálkni. This ewe was the progeny of a sheep that had escaped to Tálkni but which he had managed to herd back from the flock. His description of the characteristics of this animal was of further interest. He told us that in spring, when released, she heads to the top of the nearest local mountain and spends the summer there, apparently alone. Þröstur Reynisson took part in the herding as an employee of the town council and the owner of a good dog, prepared to stand its ground. His role was to be at the foot of the mountain with his dog to stop the sheep escaping along the beach. He talked about the wariness of the flock, reasoning that from time to time the sheep had been shot at by locals, some for target practice and by others for meat. Sveinn Eyjólfur Tryggvason was recruited by the governor of the local council and had been put in charge of the herding operation. He selected the men who went on this trip. In the interview he discussed the different characteristics of this flock and why the dogs did not work as they might in other sheep herding exercises. He did not consider it unusual that some sheep fell from the cliffs, as it is behaviourally characteristic of sheep when cornered on a mountain. He talked from the perspective of animal welfare and observed that the flock would have been much larger had it been kept in the right conditions. He mentioned that only one sheep of the nineteen caught, had been earmarked, as all farmed sheep are. This animal had been on Tálkni for four years, indicating that it had chosen to join the feral flock. In our interview with Ragnar Jörundsson, the governor of the municipality of Vesturbyggð, to which the village of Patreksfjörður (Patreksfjord) belongs, he talked about the police involvement and how the local council established jurisdiction to clear the area of sheep. He discussed the division between the local people and city dwellers “who don’t know anything about sheep”. He also accused the media of reporting the incidents in a particularly frenzied way in order to stir up opposition, deeming their reportage to be misinformed. He talked about the responsibilities of the district council towards sheep that are unclaimed and therefore ‘in need’. These sheep by default belong to the council. He said the council takes advice from the Chief Veterinary Office and the Farmers Union and that both thought it best to clear the sheep of the area. Lilja Magnúsdóttir was born and raised at the farm opposite Tálkni. She was part of the first serious attempt of gathering the Tálkni sheep, which took place in 1992. She is interested in the breeding of Icelandic sheep and described the physical appearance of the sheep both as livestock and as meat during and after the 1992 gathering. In our interview her description concerned the particular shape of the feet, observing them to have been higher and thicker than in normal sheep. She also described their body as being longer and more slender. As produce she described the location of fat as being in the muscles themselves and under the skin, whereas in the farmed Icelandic sheep the fat is around the abdomen. She proposed that such sheep would not have survived, as they would too easily have been caught up with and trapped in the heavy snow. Her theory concerns ‘natural selection’ as she calls it – saying that the sheep originating from the Lambeyri stock – the ones that were ‘abandoned’ as it were when the farm closed – were more suited to the landscape and the weather and that this was the reason the majority of the flock looked as it did, despite newer additions. Ólafur Dýrmundsson’s comments were from what he considers the perspective of animal welfare. He put forward various reasons why sheep are not able to take care of themselves. He pointed out that one out of every four sheep taken in 2009-10 were from other farms around the area. Despite that, he acknowledged that the majority was of a colour no longer prominent in Icelandic sheep. He says that this had caused difficulties for the coast guard elite squad when attempting to shoot them from the helicopter, because the colour blends with the landscape – making the animals difficult to see. He went on to say that this colour is the dominant outcome when mixing with white and that the presence of a flock of sheep in Tálkni would always encourage other sheep to join the group, it being such a difficult area to herd. In this respect he was sympathetic with farmers at not being able to go after them. While, he denied there being any such thing as ‘feral sheep’, he estimated that of 470,000 sheep in Iceland, approximately 500 are not accounted for. Jón Þórðarson was one of the owners of the surrounding land closest to Tálkni. He was against the herding of the sheep, wanting instead to keep them on the mountain. At the time of our visit he was living in the nearby town of Bíldudalur and from there he runs a tourist and fishing business together with guesthouse and art gallery/residency. His idea was that they could have become a tourist attraction. He tried to stop the sheep being herded by declaring them to be on his land; however by law, in order for this to be acknowledged, he would have had to build shelters for them on the site and so his claim was dismissed. From the beginning of our research in Iceland, the role of the image was of great importance. Images were crucial in cementing the identity of the sheep as a ‘special flock’ by their unique appearance on the one hand and on the other, by means of the television footage documenting their attempts to escape capture on this inhospitable mountain. This footage, stood in contrast and conflicted with an image of domesticated, living produce destined for the slaughter and consumption normally associated with ‘réttir’, the autumnal roundup. In the imaginations of many who protested from near and far, these sheep instead were independent beings of note, deserving of their right to live out their lives. The imaged embodiment of the animal in an effectively non-human landscape seems to challenge the scope of human representation by means of a paradigm shift. In its apparent self-determination, the animal in question can be seen to have grown into ‘its larger self’ through its adoption of this landscape as a permanent home beyond human accessibility and control. The (albeit perhaps reluctant) acceptance of this by locals in the surrounding area for so long, eventually in itself became a bone of contention prompting the central government office to make demands for the flock to be recovered. In further comparison between the polar bear and the Tálkni sheep in the context of the Icelandic landscape, it has always been deemed necessary to kill the polar bears arriving in the country, because the Icelandic wilderness is considered not to be their natural environment. As a non-native species and a carnivore, the polar bear is considered a danger to other Icelandic beings and impossible to contain humanely and securely. The Tálkni sheep on the other hand did not threaten anyone or anything. The land they occupied was not managed, occupied or indeed coveted by anyone else. In fact, the family who owned Tálkni was quite comfortable with the flock of sheep remaining there. This however raised the legal necessity to erect houses for their shelter and upkeep – itself, an impossible task, considering the nature of the land and its limited accessibility. Paradoxically, this would in turn have undermined the independence of the flock and therefore defeated the purpose of any armistice. There are different ways of interpreting what happened on the mountain the day the flock was herded, leaving five sheep dead and six still at liberty. There are many questions to be asked regarding animal consciousness – whether for instance that in the context of new circumstances, jumping from a cliff is indicative of the exercising of choice. There are the complicated distinctions to be made between what is seen as a ‘noble’ and an ‘ignoble’ killing – the affront to the many Icelanders who protested was triggered by what was seen to be a bungled and, as a consequence, inhumane, exercise of shepherding. Was this perhaps an unconscious conflation of the idealized concepts of tidiness and seamless erasure? When humans slaughter animals, their imposed departure is one of transformation, not normally regarded as one of eradication. In order to preserve a sense of vital continuity, within Western culture, particularly Anglo-American, it has been a characteristic that insofar as we are eaters of animal flesh we focus on meat as opposed to the extinguishing of life that such consumption necessitates. This death is a byproduct of our desire to eat, but its visibility has been discreetly minimized in deference to this more culturally palatable focus of attention. Everywhere in the story, and not least in our interviews, there are contradictory perspectives and conflicting ideals. There is the unquestioning belief by some in the need for adherence to existing legislation. There are environmental perspectives; those based on animal rights; and there are matters of professional and moral pride and the desire of farmers, to be seen to be ‘taking care’ of the animals in their charge. Exposition and process From an early stage in the examination of this story and in the research material we accumulated, we stumbled again and again on the claim that something odd had happened to the sheep during their time on Tálkni. In the media, in popular accounts, and in the interviews we conducted with those on the ground, there is repeated mention of an adaptation in the sheep’s physiology. A natural, adaptive, even evolutionary process had occurred, due apparently to their constant negotiation of this demanding mountainous terrain. This adaptive response to the topographic constitution of the landscape that ensured their relative isolation and insulation from humans for so long, seems to have been most conspicuous in a lengthening of their legs. But in the absence of concrete evidence, how is this ever to be tested? In art, there is often more significance in one identifiable and well-articulated detail than can be relayed in a wealth of information, particularly where such a detail exposes a flaw, a fluctuation, or break in the rhythm of cultural (and human-specific) affairs. Relationality is key to our artworks and projects. It is reflected in the research process by which we seek to gather information and evidence through contact with individuals and organisations concerned. These meetings are often recorded or documented through photography, video or audio and are often pivotal in influencing the structure and the development of an artwork. The biggest significance of this story is in the exposure of the insecurities of ‘expert’ culture. Those who felt they should have power felt their power usurped. In managing the evidence (the disposal of the flock and subsequently of the carcasses and bones), the community of experts involved, reduced the physical signs by which the history of this event (this nomadic becoming) could be remembered or told. In the absence of relics and data, all fact and fiction is conflated, all borders between them are blurred and therefore subject, potentially, to wholesale dismissal as myth. But by ascribing greater significance to materiality and ensuring its strategic absence, the perpetrators of this act perhaps underestimated the ripple effect of that removal – into every void, the imagination will pour its will or its questions. Without the hard evidence to provide a satisfactory backstop to such suspicion, the impertinence of the questions is always likely to exceed what facts alone might have tempered or quelled. In this work, the value of the leg and its transformation pertains to its role in the extruded and extruding process of liberation – the sheep remained out and over time became better capable of being so by a process of adaptive response to the environment. The symbolic driver – in representational terms is in a retrieved relic – even (by necessity) a faked relic, designed and made in order to give value to something observed but allowed neither to survive nor be measured and corroborated by instruments of science. For this artwork, the bone is extended in correspondence with the lengthening of the legs as was reported by some observers of the sheep. The gap of significance, is bridged by a hoop of silver, a material we accept culturally as being ‘of value’. The human representation and symbolic conferral of importance may even be seen as a compromise here, in deference to the semiotics of a culture that often fails to recognize intrinsic value. Here, silver gives presence to the missing, valuable, phenomenological and symbolic apparent ‘effect’. It signifies the change that is intrinsic to a) a period of time, b) a specific location c) the transitional condition of ‘becoming’ and in addition, both d) a theft and e) a possible conspiracy where all evidence of the flock and its bodily remains was eradicated deliberately, before biologists (for example) had the chance to examine them. Broadly it is the embodiment of difference – in opinions and of the contested claim that the sheep adapted as a consequence of having become feral. As there was no opportunity for scientific study to be conducted on the flock before or after slaughter, we mark a space in which this extension hovers between being a memorial and a relational corollary of being feral in a mountainous landscape. With this intervention, we keep alive the story of a community of domestic animals, which despite climatic inclemency and the seeming impenetrability of this landscape, survived without human care for three decades and indeed showed every sign that they might have continued to live there in perpetuity. After-lives The flawed nature of this enterprise, that is the inefficient and messy nature of the herding of the Tálkni sheep, had a retrospective after-effect, calling into question the validity of the enterprise itself. The very representational tropes which ennoble human agrarian enterprise, for example the promotion of efficiency in the management of land and animals of the kind implicit in historical paintings, (Thomas Gainsborough’s Mr & Mrs Andrews, Paul Potter’s Bull, and innumerable 17th Century livestock paintings), throw the dubious nature of the reclamation of the herd into sharp relief. Whilst involving a starkly different kind of relationship to our ‘landscape others’ there are parallels also to be drawn (and they have been described above in this text) between the controversy and contradictions embodied in this episode and those prompted by what has become an intermittent but recurrent phenomenon in northern Iceland – the arrival of ‘stray’ polar bears. Tidiness and order is threatened by the presence of the feral animal on the one hand and the appearance of the exhausted and dangerous alien wild animal on the other. Rather than engaging with complexity and being open to the opportunities it may offer, the default position of local and national governmental authorities seems to be to excise the agent that would test its borders, thereby allowing the maintenance of the status quo. The resultant human fault-line seems to run between two ideologies – a national, establishment view on one hand, in which the integrity of Icelandic farming (and perhaps culture) is an imperative. On the other, there is a growing lobby of those whose interests can perhaps be said to be less locally rooted and who are able at this point to exercise little direct power, but whose collective voice increasingly coheres around environmental ideas extending far beyond nationhood. In another art project from 2010 entitled, Uncertainty in the City, we explored the idea of contested ‘human’ environments with specific relation to the presence of other species. The project hinged on an (albeit unwritten) assumption of neutral interspecific claim to territory and we conducted interviews with hundreds of participants in relation to their encounters with animals within and around the margins of their home. Along with an invitation to retell their stories we invited them to consider ideas of ownership, colonization and encroachment in this context. Given the space to objectify the experiences there was surprising openness towards questioning the rationality of their responses and to confront the emotional inconsistencies within such experience. The garden – a piece of land we suggested was a surrogate, albeit altered tract of ‘nature’ – is a kind of cultural epidermis by which tolerances and affections for others moving through, were tested and analyzed. In this project and more widely we use aberrant exemplars to challenge accepted behavioural and cultural tropes. In the Uncertainty project, non-human encroachment on human systems was often, although not always, viewed as a negative occurrence. Typical cases were the presence of ants for instance around the door to a house – the margins of tolerance were drawn in relation to the proximity to threshold or perceived infringement either towards or across that line. Urban foxes and seagulls are amongst the most consistently contested species and their presence is alternately construed as pleasant, desirable or offensive, according to the experience and/or conditioning of the humans concerned. In the case of the Tálkni sheep, however, the migration away from the human, in giving further dimensionality to the phenomenon of human/nonhuman entanglements, reminds us that our presence is neither necessarily crucial nor desirable for most species, even ones we’ve domesticated and trained to be reliant upon us. The feral flock was a thorn in the side of the agricultural community – not necessarily those in the local area in question, but more starkly and tellingly, from a remote, central-administrative perspective. But in the resistance of something, particularly an entity that is normally attributed with little self-determination, as artists we see something much more interesting, in that it breaks the mould of our expectations – it draws our attention. The expression and enactment of capabilities beyond what we are given to believe is expected, forces us to re-examine our perception of that thing, and our initial reasoning for arriving at such a perspective. Did we believe we had modified the behaviour and capacities of the domestic sheep to the extent that it had indeed become an unreconstructed model of our projected will upon it? Just as we might enjoy the frisson of being lost when we believe that it is a temporary condition, so too do we find fascinating the idea that our constructed world-view is in some way destabilized by the will of another. In the same way therefore, when such aberrant behaviour is suppressed, there is a sense that an injustice is done. Something, which appeared to us to offer a new perspective – rather than being acknowledged and valued, preserved and observed – is eliminated purely in order that the status quo is restored and the behaviour-model is reaffirmed. Such action is based on an anthro-utilitarian approach that sees adaption or evolution within systems we have engineered around other adopted organisms as running counter to our interests and therefore undesirable. Simultaneously of course the phenomenon exposes the mythic projections we deploy in order to uphold our utilitarian requirements: if an organism is useful for this and that, then anything – any capacity, behaviour or inclination that does not support that function-set – may, if noticed, be deemed undesirable and may be subject to extirpation. This thinking is the basis of intensive breeding programmes and the kind of genetic modification that gives us for instance, hairless cats and seedless grapes. It is this single-mindedness that in modernity has caused us increasingly to consider things, places and beings in isolation. This has been to the detriment of possible developments towards a more coherent and complex world-view, which might privilege, instead, an understanding and appreciation of ecologies and the acknowledgement of material interconnectivity. There is a tension between what we hold culturally as being right and proper and what we observe as a bid by another agent to disrupt that order. At the heart of this case is something that may be dismissed by many to be trivial and inconsequential; for us, in ways resonant with those ideas proposed by Jane Bennett (2010) in her book Vibrant Matter, it serves as a vital pointer to expose how human systems suppress the inclinations and capabilities of ‘things’, seeing instead only what we have designated for them. We have a tendency to blind ourselves to the wills of those outside our systems whose actions do not correspond with, or seem at odds with, our own – who are simply not compliant in the human enterprise at hand. When the animal agent is one with which we technically coexist, (a domestic animal) the oversight seems particularly acute. A lack of porosity is evident – a resistance to ideas or indicators of change – a reactionary dismissal of knowledge concerning environment and the adaptability of denizens – the shaping of existence by environment – the capacity of discrete environments to model not only new biological permutations but to spawn new behavioural possibilities as a consequence of introductions or migration – a failure on our part still to acknowledge that a condition of ‘becoming’ is actually the norm – in nature, stability and material independence are illusionary. Bryndís Snæbjörnsdóttir and Mark Wilson May 2013 Acknowledgements: Professor Karl Benediktson for his assistance and support of this research. Unndór Jónsson for transcription of interviews and research assistance. References: Bennett, J. (2010) Vibrant Matter: A Political Ecology Of Things. Durham, Duke University Press. Plumwood, V. (2000) Being Prey in J. O’Reilly, S. O’Reilly, and R. Sterling (eds), The Ultimate Journey, Berkeley, CA Magnúsdóttir, L. Interviewed by: Snæbjörnsdóttir/Wilson. Reykjavík, 25th June 2010 Snæbjörnsdóttir/Wilson. (2006) nanoq: flat out and bluesome, London, Black Dog Publishing Snæbjörnsdóttir/Wilson. (2010) Uncertainty in the City. Berlin, The Green Box
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The Young And The Restless Spoiler Video: Jeanne Cooper
An incredible life.
On Tuesday in Genoa City, family and friends will celebrate the life of the late Jeanne Cooper (Katherine Chancellor). Watch a sneak peek below.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gVGRYWCs4v4&w=400&h=300]
Read Soaps.com's Remembering Jeanne Cooper. Vote on who can help AMC's JR.
Join us on Twitter @soapoperafan and Facebook. Come tweet and Facebook with us about "The Young and the Restless," all the other soap operas, "Dallas," "Glee," "Grey’s Anatomy," "Pretty Little Liars," "Revenge," "Vampire Diaries," and "Venice The Series."
Header photo: CBS
- Candace Young
The Young And The Restless Saturday...
Y&R Daytime Emmy Reels: Melissa...
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The Divorce Is Official: Now Chrishell Stause Can *Really* Move on From Justin Hartley
Amy Mistretta
Jill Johnson/JPI
After a few years of heartache, the drama surrounding two soap alums is finally over.
When they married in October 2017, former The Young and the Restless actor Justin Hartley (ex-Adam) and fellow soap star Days of Our Lives’ Chrishell Stause (Jordan) thought they’d have their happily ever after. Unfortunately, that was not the case. A couple years later, Hartley announced his split from the actress and filed for divorce.
Their very public separation has caused much heartache and confusion for Stause, who revealed back in August that Hartley had sent her a text message about wanting a divorce. Much of the drama played out on her Netflix reality series Selling Sunset, as well as on the internet when word came that he had started dating former Young & Restless actress Sofia Pernas (ex-Marisa).
Now another milestone in the saga has been reached. US Weekly is reporting that Hartley and Stause’s divorce has officially been finalized. An insider told the magazine, “Both parties entered into a confidential settlement as to terms of the divorce, including spousal support,” and that Stause never signed a prenup.
Now that the divorce is all said and done, both actors can move on with their lives, and Stause hasn’t kept it a secret that she is already happily doing so with Dancing With the Stars pro Keo Motsepe, who she interacted with during the latest season as a competitor.
More: Look back on Hartley and Stause’s relationship timeline
On December 31, Stause posted a collage containing her Top Nine moments of the year, including romantic ones of her and Motsepe, and shared, “I love seeing what my #topnine are each year. Looking at this I see friendship, love, family, loss, beginnings, and endings. It was quite a year! Thank you from the bottom of my heart for all the support throughout 2020. 💕It’s been a crazy journey. I am grateful for so many things, & hopefully will be able to learn from the things I can’t say anything nice about🙏🏼”
A post shared by Chrishell (@chrishell.stause)
While we wish the actors our very best going forth, they weren’t the only ones in daytime to get caught up in a scandal. View our photo gallery below of other real-life soap couples’ makeups and breakups that rocked our world.
Get your free daily soap-opera fix for The Young and the Restless — and all of the other daytime dramas — delivered straight to your email inbox by signing up for Soaps.com’s newsletter.
Image: Jill Johnson/JPI
<p>How General Hospital didn’t hook up Nikolas and Brenda during their portrayers’ long runs on the show, we’ll never understand. A more gorgeous couple, there might never have been. In real life, the former castmates became much closer than they did on screen and were even briefly engaged.</p>
Image: Lisa Rose/JPI
<p>After being paired by Passions as Theresa and Fox in 2003, sparks flew between the co-stars, they started dating and, within six months, were engaged. It wasn’t until nine years and several other shows (Days of our Lives, Revenge, etc.) later that irreconcilable differences tore apart the golden couple.</p>
Image: Ali Goldstein/JPI
<p>During the future Glee star’s short run as Adam on As the World Turns, he popped the question to the future ex-Mrs. Justin Hartley, who at the time was playing All My Children’s Amanda. But “I decided to break off our engagement,” she told Star, “because I believed…he just wasn’t ready to fully commit.”</p>
<p>Couples didn’t get much couple-ier than these former One Life to Live castmates. They were paired on the soap as Rex and Gigi, they appeared together on the reality show Dirty Soap, and, of course, they were one another’s significant other when the cameras weren’t rolling, too. But after five years, their real-life storyline ended.</p>
<p>Days of our Lives struck pay dirt in more ways than one when it paired these two as Nicole and Brady — the co-stars lost their hearts to one another off screen as well. Only after 12 years of marriage did Zucker and Lowder (who now plays Rex) divorce. She’s since begun a romance with another of her leading men, Shawn Christian (ex-Daniel).</p>
<p>As the World Turns brought together Barbara’s portrayer with her future husband when he was cast as Brian McColl in 1984. Though he moved on to other soaps (most notably Another World, where he played Grant for nearly a decade), their marriage endured — for almost 23 years — until she filed for divorce in 2010.</p>
<p>After meeting at General Hospital during his stint as Johnny, Barash (who now plays Days of our Lives’ Jake) and Storms (GH’s Maxie) revealed to People in August 2013 that they’d not only secretly wed but were expecting a daughter. “It feels,” he told the magazine, “like a fairy tale.” Sadly, the fairy tale ended, albeit amicably, in 2016.</p>
Image: ABC
<p>As we were falling in love with General Hospital’s Ned and Lois in the mid-1990s, their portrayers were falling for each other. But alas, two years after marrying, Kurth (who currently appears on not only GH but Days of our Lives as Justin) and Sofer (who now plays The Bold and the Beautiful’s Quinn) untied the knot.</p>
Image: John Paschal/JPI
<p>Soapdom’s It couple during the mid-’80s, the Emmy winners (who at the time were playing Days of our Lives’ Frankie and Santa Barbara’s Eden, respectively) split after two years. “He needs — and deserves — a lot of everything,” she told Soap Opera Digest in 1988. “I was just not the person who was able to give it to him.”</p>
<p>Though they married in 1993 and divorced in 2006, General Hospital’s Felicia and Frisco have remained close. In fact, the parents of two sons not only re-teamed on the soap for its 50th anniversary in 2013, they’ve also co-starred together on the Hallmark Channel’s When Calls the Heart.</p>
Chrishell Stause DAYS Justin Hartley Y&R
Ticked Fans of Young & Restless'...
What Moses Winters' Unexpected...
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South Carolina Treasurer Curtis Loftis Named to Leadership Positions with Nationwide Entities
COLUMBIA, S.C. (Jan. 10, 2018) – State Treasurer Curtis Loftis has taken on leadership roles with two advocacy organizations.
Treasurer Loftis is the 2018 Southern Vice President of the National Association of State Treasurers (NAST) and a new executive board member for the College Savings Plans Network (CSPN). He began both new roles on Jan. 1.
NAST seeks to provide advocacy and support to enable states to pursue and administer sound financial policies and programs benefiting U.S. citizens. Membership is composed of state treasurers or state finance officials with comparable responsibilities from the United States, its commonwealths, territories and the District of Columbia.
CSPN provides resources for families of all income levels to plan, save for college and reduce reliance on student loans. The network brings together state administrators of 529 savings plans, as well as private sector partners, and is dedicated to framing national policy affecting 529 plans.
“The Treasurer’s Office has a number of important duties while functioning as the state’s banker, such as assisting with financing on infrastructure projects, promoting ABLE accounts for individuals with disabilities and touting the benefits of 529 college savings accounts,” Treasurer Loftis said. “By providing state treasurers with support on these issues, NAST performs a critical role in the fiscal well-being of our country.
“In addition, I’m a big believer in CSPN’s goal of making college savings more affordable and accessible for all families,” he added. “I’m excited to be a part of both NAST and CSPN.”
State treasurers are elected to NAST leadership positions based on their policy background and expertise. In their roles, the incoming group of committee chairs and vice chairs will help shape the association’s 2018 legislative priorities and platforms, and will work closely with NAST’s new executive committee.
CSPN executive board members work to devise and implement programs to promote 529 plans.
Loftis was first elected South Carolina Treasurer in 2010 and re-elected in 2014. During that time the S.C. Treasurer’s Office has:
· Saved the state nearly $400 million dollars through the refinancing of debt;
· Restructured the investment portfolios of state monies it manages, resulting in improved performance, yield and credit quality, with an increased yield of 66 percent between 2015 and 2017, from $137.5 million to $228 million;
· Returned more than $121 million in unclaimed funds to South Carolinians; and
· Increased the number of enrollees in the Future Scholar 529 College Savings Plan to 145,000 accounts from fewer than 90,000.
“State treasurers are among the nation’s most important consumer advocates, and I’m excited to be a part of the leadership of these important entities,” Treasurer Loftis said.
Loftis is the outgoing President of the National Association of Unclaimed Property Administrators, the group responsible for returning more than $42 billion in unclaimed property to U.S. citizens.
For more information on the S.C. Treasurer’s Office, please visit www.treasurer.sc.gov.
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PSAC STARS & SPURS Gala raises more than $1.2 million net
CALGARY, AB (January 23, 2018) – The Petroleum Services Association of Canada (PSAC) proudly held its 24th annual STARS & Spurs Gala bringing the total funds raised to over $15 million for the Shock Trauma Air Rescue Service (STARS) since its inception. This year’s gala raised more than $1.2 million net.
“Allies like PSAC help us soar. It is this support that fuels our passion and innovation as we deliver critical care to our patients,” said Andrea Robertson, President and CEO, STARS. “PSAC’s generosity and commitment has never wavered during times of growth and change, and for that, we are incredibly grateful. With a record-setting total raised at the gala this year, we have much to celebrate as we look back on this 24-year partnership built on purpose, community spirit and commitment to excellence.”
The surprise of the night came when headliner Brett Kissel spontaneously joined the live auction to donate a private house concert and a trip to Nashville. When each experience landed near $40,000, Kissel added an extra trip and an extra concert to raise a total of $160,000 in 15 minutes. Kissel’s father was airlifted by STARS last year, so the event was both personal and emotional for him.
More than 1250 guests attended the PSAC STARS & Spurs Gala on Saturday, January 20, at the BMO Centre, Stampede Park and included the Honourable Margaret McCuaig-Boyd, Alberta Minister of Energy and her Chief of Staff, Matthew Williamson. Gala guests enjoyed dinner, an outstanding performance by Brett Kissel, raffles, live and silent auctions, dancing and the chance to network.
“While safety incidents in the sector are fortunately down, PSAC members and their customers continue to appreciate STARS being available should disaster strike,” said President and CEO of PSAC, Mark Salkeld. “Notwithstanding three of the most difficult years this industry has ever seen, oilfield services companies and their customers, the E&P companies, showed overwhelming support and appreciation for STARS generously giving to ensure the continued success of this critical service that is delivered with the highest levels of competence, skills and compassion.”
Gala guests also toasted the 2018 Honourary Patron Doug McNeill, with Stream-Flo Industries, who was recognized for his contributions to the oilfield services sector and success of PSAC.
In addition to representatives from the energy sector, the event was attended by a number of STARS’ crew members and volunteers and Very Important Patient (VIP) Lorna White, who was seriously injured when a bouncing boulder landed on her while she stopped to take a picture during a hike.
Shock Trauma Air Rescue Service (STARS) provides specialized emergency medical care and transportation for critically ill and injured patients. STARS physicians, nurses, paramedics and pilots work with a team of dedicated support staff and community partners to save lives. STARS has bases in Calgary, Edmonton, Grande Prairie, Regina, Saskatoon and Winnipeg.
Fatima Khawaja | STARS Communications
1-866-966-8277 | mediainfo@stars.ca
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Wendy-don't-speak
I suppose I should write something about Labour's total meltdown over an independence referendum, but I'm almost speechless (a state of being Gordon Brown must wish Wendy Alexander would emulate for a few days). It's extraordinary how this issue has crept up on everyone - in retrospect it all started with Wendy's appearance on the Politics Show, but as you can see from my post on Sunday, what she said on the subject of a referendum didn't even leap out at me as being the most noteworthy part of the interview.
On an unrelated political matter, I was saddened to hear of the death of Ray Michie, the former Liberal Democrat MP for Argyll and Bute. She was one of the last of a dying breed of politicians who seemed almost too nice and principled to be in parliament (and I mean genuine nice, not any sort of 'Blair Babe' synthetic niceness).
Labels: independence referendum, Labour, Liberal Democrats, politics, referenda, Scottish politics, Wendy Alexander
Wendy-speak
In Scotland today, there are four notable languages spoken - Gaelic, Scots, English and Wendy-speak. Fortunately, the latter of these is the easiest to learn. It's almost identical to English (albeit with a strange system of tones and related facial expressions that are known to grate on non-native speakers), but with one key difference - if you want to convey that you don't have a bloody clue what the answer to a question is, you instead say "well what I'm saying to you is..." Witness the textbook examples on Newsnight Scotland tonight.
"Ms Alexander, do you want an independence referendum to be held in twelve months' time?"
"Well, what I'm saying to you is..."
"If Alex Salmond said let's compromise and have a referendum in 2010, that would be all right with you, would it?"
"So when do you want a referendum?"
Labels: Labour, languages, politics, Scottish politics, Wendy Alexander
What is the point of PR for the London Assembly?
On the day Boris Johnson becomes master of all he surveys, it's worth pondering this point. The principal rationale for proportional representation is 'majority rule', ie. no more compulsory ID cards imposed by New Labour on the basis of 35% of the popular vote, and no more unfettered Thatcherism on 42% of the vote. But how is the London voting system supposed to achieve that objective? The key problem is that for the only substantive decision the London assembly is permitted to take - to reject or amend the Mayor's budget - a two-thirds majority is required. This means the Mayor can be elected on a minority vote (quite probable on the supplementary vote system, since in practice most second preference votes are non-transferable) and then exercise total control provided that his party has a blocking minority in the assembly, which only requires 33% of the vote. All in all, the practical effect of 'electoral reform' in London looks suspiciously similar to first-past-the-post to me.
Labels: Boris Johnson, democracy, elections, electoral reform, politics, proportional representation
Stalin or Hitler?
It's the debate that's raged for decades - was Stalin worse than Hitler? Is communism intrinsically even more evil than fascism? This story settles the matter conclusively. It seems fascist countries could only win the Eurovision Song Contest by cheating. Communism may be responsible for the deaths of millions, but one thing is beyond dispute - it won its sole victory at the Eurovision by talent (ahem) alone.
I'm sure no-one needs reminding, but the song in question was "Rock me, baby" by Riva, which won for Yugoslavia in 1989. As with the seemingly corrupt Spanish victory in 1968, it was the UK that was edged into second place with the (really quite good) "Why Do I Always Get It Wrong?". To clarify in the words of the Swiss host on the night - "that isn't my question, it's the name of song from United Kingdom..."
Labels: Cliff Richard, communism, Eurovision, Eurovision Song Contest, fascism
Something's afoot...
Oooh, what's going on? First, Wendy Alexander says on the Politics Show that she won't "rule out" a referendum on independence, now Douglas Alexander says he is "not afraid" of one. When the Alexanders achieve something vaguely approaching inter-sibling co-ordination, you know something's afoot. Rest assured, though, by next week they'll have changed their minds again and decided that a referendum is "a distraction from the people of Scotland's priorities" after all (translation - we've had a proper think about it and we are actually quite scared).
Curiously, Wendy is continuing with her stubborn insistence that the one thing she won't countenance is Alex Salmond's suggestion of an STV-style multi-option referendum. But surely that's what would suit her best? The alternative is a straight yes/no vote, and all the polls show that format produces the most favourable outcome for independence, and sometimes a majority in favour. Is Wendy shooting herself (and the Union) in the foot here?
Labels: Alex Salmond, Douglas Alexander, independence referendum, politics, referenda, Scottish politics, Wendy Alexander
Just one thing, Wendy...
Scottish Labour leader Wendy Alexander appeared on the Politics Show on Sunday, and took the opportunity to crow about her party increasing its share of the vote by 5% in the Abbey local council by-election on Thursday. That more than makes up for total annihalation throughout England and Wales, apparently. She also claimed that the SNP's vote in the by-election had flatlined (translation - it was exactly the same as the record high last year). But strangely, she neglected to mention there were in fact two by-elections in Scotland on Thursday - and that the SNP won the other one with a whopping 15% increase in its vote share. Funny that, must have completely slipped her mind.
Labels: elections, Labour, local by-elections, local elections, politics, Scottish politics, SNP, Wendy Alexander
Morality tales in Marrakech
Snooker is one thing, but why do I suddenly also find myself hooked on The Apprentice, a programme whose central world view I utterly loathe and despise? (That world view being not so much that backstabbing and ruthless ambition are desirable qualities, but more that Sir Alan Sugar is some sort of top bloke who we should all be in awe of, and perhaps even have a secret crush on.) I'm going to be generous to myself and believe that the reason must be that I'm a hopeless idealist who yearns to see a little bit of justice done in the least promising places. And, if the rumours are true, I'm at least temporarily going to get my wish - the resident bullies Jenny C and Jenny M are going to get their comeuppance on Wednesday's episode after making the innovative tactical decision to bribe a street-trader in Marrakech. For one week only, The Apprentice reinvents itself as Christian morality tale.
Labels: Christianity, morality, reality TV, Sir Alan Sugar, television, The Apprentice
Snookered by the cynics
It was refreshing to read this article in the Sunday Herald reflecting on the ongoing therapeutic and life-affirming effect of watching snooker. I know, I know, I feel quite stupid for even having written those words. But the thing is, it's become a bit depressing each year at this time (and it's felt like this for at least fifteen years now) to read the ritual articles about how the glory days of the sport are long since past. Apart from anything else, it always leaves me with the alarming feeling that I'm wasting my life spending hours being gently hypnotised by something that's just so 1980s and past its prime. I'm also tormented by the knowledge that I probably failed one or two important exams in the 1990s because I was too busy willing Stephen Hendry or John Higgins to victory at the Crucible. There I part company with the writer of the Herald piece, though, because during the same period she was apparently willing the likes of Higgins and Hendry to fail against the so-called more 'charismatic' players like Jimmy White and Ronnie O'Sullivan. But if O'Sullivan's probable third world title tomorrow is what it takes to make others start to nod in agreement with her more general sentiment, I might just say it's worth it.
Labels: snooker, sport, Sunday Herald
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Is Davidson PLUNGING towards CALAMITY? Second YouGov poll in as many days shows Ruth's Tories facing MELTDOWN
How the mighty have fallen. Just two years after her 'spectacular triumph' in the general election (ie. 'only' losing to the SNP by 8%), it genuinely does now look possible that Ruth Davidson is about to lead the Scottish Tories to an all-time electoral low. A second YouGov subsample in as many days has the Tories on just 10% of the Scottish vote for the European Parliament, which even with the help of proportional representation wouldn't be quite enough to retain the one seat they currently hold.
Britain-wide voting intentions for the European elections (YouGov):
Brexit Party 23% (-4)
Labour 22% (n/c)
Greens 10% (n/c)
Liberal Democrats 9% (n/c)
Change UK 8% (+2)
UKIP 6% (-1)
SNP / Plaid Cymru 5% (+1)
Scottish subsample: SNP 42%, Greens 13%, Labour 11%, Conservatives 10%, Brexit Party 9%, Liberal Democrats 7%, UKIP 6%, Change UK 4%
Now remember these are just subsamples, and can't be regarded as reliable estimates of Scottish public opinion. But the pattern of low numbers for the Tories has been so consistent that it's hard to believe it doesn't reflect something real - and in any case YouGov appear to structure their Scottish subsamples more carefully than other firms do.
You know the drill by now - just regard this as "a bit of fun", but here is what the seat allocation would look like if the subsample happened to be exactly accurate...
SNP 4, Greens 1, Labour 1
The Tories would miss out altogether after being pipped for the final seat by the SNP. For what it's worth I think it's pretty unlikely that the SNP will take four seats in the real world. In past European elections they've tended to underperform what the opinion polls suggested, so it's easy enough to imagine them ending up in the low 30s, which hopefully would still be enough to take three of the six seats - the most they've ever had.
At Britain-wide level, the four-point drop in Brexit Party support in the space of one day looks a bit odd. It could just be random sampling variation, but I wonder if it was caused by respondents for today's poll only being asked the Euro-election question after being asked for their Westminster preferences. That might have put them into more of a 'Westminster mindset', which would be less favourable for Farage's mob. If the datasets are to be believed, yesterday's poll didn't appear to ask for Westminster voting intentions.
Strangely, there's also a ComRes poll out today that has the Brexit Party lagging in third place for the Euro elections. When I first saw it I wondered if it was a phone poll, because that would have been the most obvious explanation for such a wide disparity between two firms. But no, it's an online poll just like YouGov's, so the true position is anyone's guess.
DEVASTATION for Davidson as BOMBSHELL YouGov poll suggests the Scottish Tories could be WIPED OUT in the European elections
As they say on reality TV shows, I've "been on a journey" over the last few days. At the start of the weekend I was stating quite confidently - and I think with a fair bit of justification - that the Tories were likely to take two of the six Scottish seats in the European elections. Now it appears the limit of their realistic ambitions is to hold the one seat they currently have, and it's far from clear they will even manage that. The reason? Simply that voters who would probably be solidly Tory in Westminster, Holyrood or local elections appear to be deserting the party in droves for the Euro-vote, to send a message about Brexit.
Brexit Party 27% (+12)
Greens 10% (+2)
Liberal Democrats 9% (+1)
Change UK 6% (-1)
SNP / Plaid Cymru 4% (-2)
Scottish subsample: SNP 35%, Labour 16%, Greens 13%, Brexit Party 13%, Conservatives 10%, Liberal Democrats 5%, UKIP 4%, Change UK 3%
Now, of course no individual Scottish subsample can be regarded as reliable, but this is the latest of several in a row to put Ruth Davidson's party at an abysmally low level for the European elections, and well below what they routinely score in Westminster subsamples. That's unlikely to be a coincidence, so it seems that Tory support - even in Remain-dominated Scotland - is heavily dependent on a hard Brexit vote that is now ready to punish the party for a perceived betrayal. It's rather satisfying to see Davidson finally get some long-overdue comeuppance for her near-comical flip-flops over the Brexit issue, although in all honesty this would probably still be happening no matter what she had done.
Just for "a bit of fun", here is what the Scottish seats allocation would look like if the YouGov subsample happened to be bang-on accurate.
SNP 3, Labour 1, Greens 1, Brexit Party 1
Yup, that's right. Zero for the Tories. Nothing. Nada. Zip. Whisper it gently, but there's a chance that, just this once, Ruth Davidson won't be winning the Scottish Politician of the Year award. Indeed it's very hard to imagine how her adoring fans in the media would cope with the discovery that it's actually possible for the Tories to go backwards on Ruth's watch. For example, this would be a significantly worse performance than Annabel Goldie managed in 2009, when the Scottish Tories took 17% of the vote and one seat. In terms of the popular vote, it would be the worst Scottish Tory performance in any Euro-election ever - not even John Major and Ian Lang managed to fall this low.
Although the Brexit Party surge has largely come at the expense of the Tories, it's also a cause of concern for the SNP in an indirect way, because it's possible that the SNP will be in a dogfight with an anti-Europe party for the final seat (as happened last time around). It would have been far more helpful if the Brexit vote had remained split down the middle, but it looks like the BBC's lavish coverage for Farage last week has done the trick, and from now on the previous UKIP vote will move across wholesale to the Brexit Party.
There's good news and bad news for the Scottish Greens: this subsample shows them winning a seat, but as it shows the Brexit Party winning a seat as well, it directly contradicts the careful messaging that there's some sort of straight choice between a Green MEP and a far-right MEP (with the implication presumably being that supporters of other parties should 'lend' their vote to the Greens to stop Farage). Ironically, the last YouGov subsample showed neither the Greens nor the anti-Europe parties winning a seat. The reality is that, because of the way the voting system works, it's very difficult to tell for sure which party is best-placed to prevent the Brexit Party taking a Scottish seat - assuming it's even possible to do that at all.
Probably the media line on any Scottish Tory collapse will be that this is a freakish one-off caused by unusual circumstances, and voters will come home to the Tories for the general election. That's true, but perhaps only up to a point - we know from past experience that Farage is capable of carrying over at least a portion of his European Parliament successes into a general election. That may not win him any Westminster seats under a first-past-the-post system, but it's certainly possible that it could cost the Tories a lot of seats, including in Scotland. Things might suddenly be looking up for the SNP in their former heartland of the north-east.
Equating a Westminster veto with "legality" is a dangerous game
Like most of us, I hold Michael Russell in the highest regard, but I'm rather troubled by his article over the weekend calling for "patience". Apart from anything else, it seems to rewrite history by suggesting that the only reason the 2014 independence referendum was ever held was because David Cameron agreed to it. What actually happened was that the Scottish government spent the initial period after the 2011 election planning for a referendum that it believed it could hold within Holyrood's existing powers, but eventually entered into negotiations with London to put the legal position beyond dispute and to ensure a direct question could be put on the ballot paper. The Edinburgh Agreement did not constitute some sort of acknowledgement from the Scottish side that London had been right all along and that there had never been any power to hold a referendum without permission. Given that we were never forced to concede that point at the time, it seems more than a touch odd that we'd be needlessly and voluntarily conceding it now.
Now OK, we get it, the current SNP leadership is not attracted to the idea of a consultative referendum held without a Section 30. That much has been plain for some time. But unless you can be absolutely sure that neither you, nor any leadership that succeeds you, will ever need to keep that option in reserve, why would you adopt unionist language by essentially saying that a referendum can only be "constitutionally" or "legally" held if it is approved by Westminster? I suspect the leadership are so preoccupied with curbing the enthusiasm of their own side that they're forgetting that others are hearing their words and are preparing to quote them back in future, in much the same way that happened with "once in a generation opportunity". The most important reason of all for not recklessly stating or implying that a consultative referendum would be illegal is the simple fact that it wouldn't be. The UK is not Spain, and people do not go to jail in this country for organising democratic consultations.
Russell's argument also drives a coach and horses through the principle of self-determination. It's rather reminiscent of the people who used to say that everyone in Britain should have a vote in the independence referendum because it was a matter for the whole UK, or the people who used to say that of course Catalonia could become independent just as soon as the whole of Spain voted in favour of it. The ultimate counsel of despair is to say that Scotland will be independent when the SNP gains control of Westminster.
Melissa Iacone pointed out on Twitter that there's a contradiction between Russell's stated belief that Theresa May is only refusing a referendum because she thinks Yes would win, and the apparent insistence of SNP strategists that an indyref cannot be held too soon because Yes would lose. Is Theresa May wrong to think there's a majority for independence? If she isn't wrong, why don't we get on with holding a referendum? And if a referendum can apparently only be brought about if there's a majority for Yes but without anyone in Westminster actually noticing, how is Russell proposing to thread that needle? If he wants us to be patient, I'd suggest he needs to offer us a means of achieving independence that has somewhat better odds than a lottery ticket.
I really fail to understand what would be so wrong with the clarity of the message that an exercise in self-determination is going to happen, we'd much rather it happened with London's agreement, but sooner or later it's going to happen anyway.
Are the European elections about to hand Ruth Davidson a major setback?
First things first - I've got an article in the Sunday National today about the voting system for the European elections. You can read it HERE. As you can see, one point I made at the end, which at the time of writing I thought was fairly uncontroversial, was that the Tories were likely to win two of the six Scottish seats, and that the SNP were likely to win either two or three. I'm already going to have to downgrade my level of certainty on that prediction, because two fairly remarkable opinion polls appeared over the course of yesterday which suggest that all bets could be off. This, for example, is YouGov's estimate of Britain-wide voting intentions for the Euro-elections...
European Parliament voting intentions (Britain-wide, YouGov):
Brexit Party 15%
UKIP 14%
Change UK 7%
SNP / Plaid Cymru 6%
Scottish subsample: SNP 49%, Conservatives 12%, Labour 11%, Brexit Party 8%, Liberal Democrats 7%, UKIP 5%, Greens 3%, Change UK 3%
If that subsample were to be taken seriously, it would mean the SNP are on course to win an incredible four of the six seats, and Labour and the Tories are set to take one apiece. Now, of course, it's only a subsample, and no individual subsample should be assumed to be reliable. I'm particularly sceptical about the SNP's very high vote, especially bearing in mind that they've tended to underperform expectations in European elections over the last twenty years. But what I think we do need to take seriously is the possibility that the Scottish Tories could fall well short of their performances in the local and Westminster elections of 2017, simply due to massive numbers of their pro-Brexit supporters switching to either UKIP or Nigel Farage's new party for one day only, just to send a message. As the same trend can be seen in the Britain-wide numbers, there's no particular reason to think that the Scottish subsample is leading us astray about it. I had assumed that the Scottish Tories might be more resistant to the Faragist menace than their colleagues south of the border, because that was the case five years ago, but it appears that things have changed.
The SNP, meanwhile, don't show any sign of leaking pro-Brexit votes, so this could be a perfect storm for Ruth Davidson - if the Tory vote share actually goes sharply down while the SNP gain in terms of both votes and seats, it would be a stunning reversal of the narrative of the last couple of years that the media have fallen head over heels in love with. It could be the beginning of the end for the myth of Ruth and her magic powers.
It's hard to work out whether Farage's intervention in this race is counterproductive from his own point of view - the poll figures seem to suggest that all he's succeeded in doing is splitting the hardline Brexit vote, and preventing UKIP from emerging once again as the largest single party, thus squandering the chance of saying that the establishment have been punished for their "Brexit betrayal". But it's possible that the lavish coverage he's been given by the broadcasters in recent days is just the start of a bandwagon effect that will help squeeze the UKIP vote and propel the Brexit Party into first place.
UPDATE: Someone in the comments section queried the seats projection from the YouGov subsample and suggested that the SNP would need to be at nearly 65% to win a fourth seat. That's categorically untrue. As explained in the Sunday National piece, the D'Hondt formula is effectively slanted in favour of larger parties, which means the SNP would have a chance of winning four seats even on 40% of the vote. At 65% they'd be more likely to win five seats, although that would depend on how the remainder of the vote is split between the other parties.
To demonstrate the point, here is how the D'Hondt calculation would play out for each individual seat if the YouGov subsample is right.
First count: SNP 49, Conservatives 12, Labour 11, Brexit Party 8, Liberal Democrats 7, UKIP 5, Greens 3, Change UK 3
SNP win first seat
Second count: SNP 24.5 (49 ÷ 2), Conservatives 12, Labour 11, Brexit Party 8, Liberal Democrats 7, UKIP 5, Greens 3, Change UK 3
SNP win second seat
Third count: SNP 16.3 (49 ÷ 3), Conservatives 12, Labour 11, Brexit Party 8, Liberal Democrats 7, UKIP 5, Greens 3, Change UK 3
SNP win third seat
Fourth count: SNP 12.3 (49 ÷ 4), Conservatives 12, Labour 11, Brexit Party 8, Liberal Democrats 7, UKIP 5, Greens 3, Change UK 3
SNP win fourth seat
Fifth count: Conservatives 12, Labour 11, SNP 9.8 (49 ÷ 5), Brexit Party 8, Liberal Democrats 7, UKIP 5, Greens 3, Change UK 3
Conservatives win fifth seat
Sixth count: Labour 11, SNP 9.8 (49 ÷ 5), Brexit Party 8, Liberal Democrats 7, Conservatives 6 (12 ÷ 2), UKIP 5, Greens 3, Change UK 3
Labour win sixth seat
Final tally: SNP 4 seats, Conservatives 1 seat, Labour 1 seat
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China Exclusive: Bumpy road for Beijing’s anti-smoking drive
BEIJING, Sept. 16 (Xinhua) — A haze of second hand smoke may continue to hang heavily over Beijing if the latest draft amendment for controls on cigarette smoke remains unchanged.
Wang Qingbin, an associate law professor at the China University of Political Science and Law, said the draft amendment for Beijing’s anti-smoking regulations is quite disappointing.
The revision only bans smoking in “shared indoor public places,” compared to a previous draft that banned smoking in all indoor public areas, he said.
Wang made his remarks at a seminar in Beijing on Monday, where an anti-smoking group gathered to discuss ways to get the amendment changed.
“By banning smoking only in ‘shared’ indoor public areas, the legislators are giving officials with their own offices a chance to smoke, which is against the spirit of equality,” Wang said, adding that it will only make law enforcement all the more difficult.
Beijing is headquarters for many central government departments and institutions. Enforcement bodies, which are under the jurisdiction of Beijing Municipality, are unlikely to enter offices of their bosses and stop them smoking.
The previous regulation draft, unveiled in April, significantly expands smoke-free areas. It bans smoking in all indoor public places, workplaces and public transport vehicles. It also bans smokers from open-air areas of kindergartens, schools, children’s centers and historical sites.
The draft proposed designating smoking areas in outdoor places of universities, stadiums, fitness centers, medical institutions, tourism sites and parks.
However, the August draft amendment permits smoking rooms in hotels and waiting lounges of airports in the capital city, which will do harm to many lodgers and passengers, said Wu Yiqun, deputy director with ThinkTank Research Center for Health Development, a Beijing-based non-government organization.
“The amendment should be changed to the previous draft to contain smoking in the capital city,” Wu said.
With no national law on smoking control established, some cities, such as Shanghai, Harbin and Hangzhou, have local smoking bans. As the national capital, Beijing is expected to set an example, said Yang Gonghuan, deputy head of Chinese Association on Tobacco Control.
China is home to over 300 million smokers, with more than one million people dying as a result of tobacco-related illness a year, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
The country signed the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) in 2003 and it became effective in 2006. According to the FCTC, China should have banned smoking in indoor public areas completely by 2011. However, it is not unusual to see smokers puff away in restaurants, bars and other public areas.
Local producer to make a horror film about smoking, 22/04/11
Bigger Warnings on Tobacco Products From Next Year, Rules Court
Baby dies after being poisoned by nicotine vaping liquid as experts question dangers of e-cigarettes
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News Roundup: Traffic Violence
Posted on November 26, 2014 November 26, 2014 by Zach Shaner
Photo courtesy Puyallup Police Department
Metro is fined $3,500 for serious L&I violations relating to operator restrooms. Some bus drivers had taken to bringing pee jars or wearing diapers.
Do your part for social engineering with these train-themed holiday events for kids.
Tall and thin: new 50-story hotel coming to the small surface parking lot at 5th & Stewart. ($)
Car2Go looks set to get some competition as the city anticipates 2-3 new market entrants and seeks to expand “free-floating carsharing” from 500 to 3,000 permits.
Pamela is off! The second southbound TBM takes off from Northgate.
The momentum for a rechannelization of Rainier Ave S continues. It’s long overdue.
Sound Transit heard our readers loud and clear in the comments on its Long Range Plan SEIS. Thank you!
More traffic violence. An allegedly intoxicated 19-year old woman hit a person biking in Puyallup on Monday. The 66-year old male is in critical condition at a Tacoma Hospital.
The City of Seattle has been sued for $2.5M relating to a 2012 collision in which Councilmember Clark left-hooked a Tacoma cyclist while on official city business. Clark stayed with the victim and paid all appropriate fines, but the incident had previously been unreported. ($)
We finally have some numbers on just how many people Amazon plans to employ in Downtown Seattle: 71,500.
Though in the abstract sports stadiums are a pretty inefficient use of urban land, downtown stadiums are thriving.
This is an open thread.
115 Replies to “News Roundup: Traffic Violence”
Glenn in Portland says:
Re: train events in the area:
Somewhat further away (but reachable by Amtrak Cascades), down here in Portland we are doing this:
http://www.orhf.org/the-holiday-express/
Cascades will have added service for Thanksgiving, but only two added round trips this year.
http://amtrakcascades.com/News.htm
The stadium story mostly refers to new sockor arenas. Interestingly enough the new home for the 49ers Levi Stadium, is in Santa Clara – not the most transit accessible site in the region.
In Atlanta, there are plans to relocate the Braves to a new suburban stadium even though Turner Field isn’t 20-years old. There’s quite a bit of outrage since a lot of public money was used to build TF.
RossB says:
While I’m not thrilled with the way that the stadium situation played out in Seattle, I am very grateful that we at least built them downtown. A suburban stadium or even having the Tacoma Dome host the Sonics would have been a traffic disaster for the area. I would say the biggest mistake was building two stadiums instead of one. Candlestick used to host both baseball and football, so I don’t understand why you couldn’t do the same here. It is less than ideal, but not the end of the world for either sport. Ideally you would move the Sonics there as well, but that is probably trickier. Regardless, it is crazy that we built a new football stadium (two if you count the Huskies) and a baseball stadium and yet still saw our oldest franchise leave the city. Nuts. Speaking of the Huskies, we could have saved an enormous amount of money if the Huskies just played in Seahawk stadium. The only argument against it is that right now, a huge percentage of folks walk to the game (from the campus or close to it).
All in all, it makes for, as you said “an inefficient use of urban land”. But if the stadiums were shared, this wouldn’t be the case. Between football (pro and college), baseball, soccer and other assorted events (car shows, home shows, motocross, etc.) you could probably have an event there 200 times a year. 25 – 50,000 people in one area is pretty efficient, in my book.
The worst thing about the area is the excess parking. I personally don’t know why anyone would drive to a game, unless public transportation is worse than I think. It seems to me that if you live in the suburbs you should drive to a park and ride and pick up the shuttle bus. If that is horribly inconvenient, then the city and county ought to address that. Meanwhile, we should sell off the parking lots and watch the big buildings go up.
“Candlestick used to”
There’s your answer. If it had worked well, they’d still be doing it.
You only need to look at how bad some Sounders games have been the day after a Seahawks game (or vice versa) to see that having that many events isn’t good for field quality. Not to mention that a multipurpose stadium for football/baseball or basketball/hockey has to sacrifice some sightline quality for the fans. (I can’t think of one event in the Tacoma Dome that fits that space perfectly. Hockey and basketball certainly didn’t and football still leaves something to be desired.)
So adding to that, if you have the Huskies and Seahawks share CenturyLink, it presents a couple issues. One, college football and professional football have different line markings. You could either have both sets on the field at the same time, which would look cluttered, or you would have to schedule the games so they weren’t home on the same weekend. (Along with this, if you had both sets of markings down, you’d have to pull them up and lay them back down each time there was a Sounders game.)
Two, some of the equipment is different. They use different-sized goalposts which would require them to keep both sets (and spares) at all times and change them out after every game.
Three, while not unprecedented, you don’t find pro and college teams sharing venues because of money. If the Huskies don’t have their own stadium, are they paying rent to play at CenturyLink? Is that more than the revenue it would generate for the school? Are the Huskies getting any concession money? How much is UW spending transferring equipment from campus, where they would still be practicing, to downtown every weekend there was a game? How are the players, the band, the staff, etc., getting downtown? Why create a need for all that transportation when it isn’t necessary?
Yes, having unique venues is a bit ridiculous and a space eater but, if you think those teams are civic income drivers, having the highest quality field and stadium will accomplish bringing that income in the best way.
In the 1970’s, you started to see multipurpus stadiums being built such as Three Rivers in Pittsburgh, the Metrodome in Minneapolis & of course the Kingdome. There is a serious drawback with such facilities & that’s scheduling conflicts. it’s less an issue if you are dealing with an arina seating 20K vs MetLife Statium that seats 82K.
Taking the Kingdome as an example, the Seahawks could only have a home game if the M’s were on the road or if the M’s were home on Sunday the Seahawks could only play at home if there game was on Monday. This way both teams could be home on the same day without conflict – traffic not withstanding.
kpt says:
The new husky stadium was built with private donations (though using the public bond capacity of UW, to be fair).
I do agree that it’s an awful use of the land right on a subway station, though.
Mike Orr says:
We had a better multipurpose stadium and we blew it up so the team owners could get more profits with sport-specific, luxury-box rich, player-portraits-serving-as-wall-ads stadiums. At least CenturyLink has an event center as well as a two-sport stadium. Safeco Field is a throwback to sixty years ago when baseball was king, and it’s just vain and lame to have no multipurpose features but a retractable roof. Good riddance to the Sonics for demanding a “me too” separate stadium, but credit to them for asking only for public financing rather than public funding.
As to the practical problems raised by M changing stadium configurations for different sports, there must be ways to mitigate that if they design the flexibility into the stadium at the beginning.
“if you think those teams are civic income drivers”
They are not civic income drivers except to the extent they bring in out-of-towners. Locals merely switch their spending from one place to another. A lot of housing and businesses could fit in to the space occupied by the stadiums, so their impact has to be compared to those. However, the stadiums are boosting Link ridership significantly, and presumably some of those are new to transit or use it only when they go downtown.
poncho says:
Anyone know, what was on the site before the Kingdome? Railyards? Historic buildings and urban fabric?
Al Dimond says:
I think it would be interesting to at least see a new multipurpose stadium design. The unattractiveness of the old ones is at least partially tied up in the unattractiveness of so much architecture of the mid-20th century. Architecture has changed since then and stadium design has changed since then.
Teams have become richer since then and the specific needs of each league have grown more specific (I read an article about the NFL’s decision to move last week’s snowed-out Buffalo game to Detroit, and how all the non-NFL sites were essentially ruled out early because of the sheer amount of stuff that needs to be in place to put on a game). Maybe no pair of teams would accept even a great multipurpose stadium. Maybe today’s NFL, in particular, needs stadiums that basically sit around empty waiting for the next NFL game 350 days per year or more.
But if that’s what the NFL needs, it’s not going to find a home in places like urban NY or SF. The development that will take place on the old Candlestick site is more valuable and better suited to the city/region’s needs than a single-use football stadium there. That’s why both NY football teams play in New Jersey, too.
Yeah, like Mike said, it is all good and well to say that the Candlestick model doesn’t work that well, but we are the ones paying for it. As long as we are paying for it, of course the teams want the best facilities possible. Why wouldn’t they? But to suggest that it is somehow unprofitable is ridiculous. There is no free market, otherwise I’m sure a lot of teams would share stadiums. It would make financial sense to do so. If we consider this a public good (and we do, otherwise we wouldn’t pay for it) we have to ask whether we are getting our money’s worth. The simple answer is that we aren’t. We lost our oldest franchise, and (surprise, surprise) the Mariners attendance is completely dependent on their record. Despite having a state of the art stadium, we were 23rd in the league (and that was when we made a pennant run). In 1997, when the old Kingdome was around, attendance was about about a million more for the year. Meanwhile, our soccer team plays on field-turf*, in a football stadium, and has way better attendance than anyone else in the league. It isn’t the venue. It is the team, and the enthusiasm for the sport.
As for the Huskies, they could share the stadium the same way that the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum has been (at times) shared between two major college teams (USC and UCLA) as well as two NFL teams (the Raiders and Rams). The concept is not out of date because it doesn’t work, it is out of date because universities, like sports teams, have different priorities. If it worked in L. A. (a much, much bigger market than Seattle) then it could work here.
Sports franchises leverage their monopoly by exploiting the local population and forcing them to subsidize additional amenities to satisfy their richest clients. With colleges it is a lot trickier. They are essentially in an arms race to compete with other schools in providing the facilities that will entice student athletes to attend their university (so that they can leverage their monopoly on the students to exploit their talents). If they are successful, then other student athletes get a free ride, and other students get good sporting amenities. If not, then the students might pick up the slack (paying more in fees) or other student athletics get cut. Again, I’m not sure if the UW will be successful or not, but I wouldn’t bet a lot of money on it working out great for everyone. The vast majority of the money did not come from private donors, but came from bonds. For the sake of the university athletic department (and the university, and the state) let’s hope that football remains popular, otherwise people will look back at the decision to rebuild as a big mistake.
* One of the arguments for a new football stadium was that it would natural grass, which would entice the new, so called, Major League Soccer to give us a new team. It turns out that wasn’t necessary.
I don’t know how many Seahawks fans know this, but the reason why MetLife stadium was awarded the superbowl last year was do to the fact that the Giants & Jets payed for the stadiums construction & no public money was used. Meanwhile the bonds that went to pay for the original Giant stadium in 1976 are still being paid for according to the NYT.
One of the most interesting sidebars to MetLife is the redevelopment of the Medowlands including a giant shopping & entertainment complex “American Dream” adjacent to the stadium. The stories on this are legendary & have risen beyond the point of ridiculousness. You’ll find the coverage at http://www.northjersey.com AKA the Bergen Reccord.
I was wondering about the Santa Clara statdium too, because I was there when it was under construction. Is it well used? Does it have any events besides football?
My first impression was it’s a horrible suburban place for a stadium. My second impression was it may be the best location outside of downtowns because a several transit modes converge there. VTA light rail goes to SJ, south SJ, Mountain View, and Milpitas. Amtrak goes to SJ, Oakland, and Sacramento. ACE goes somehere in the eastern hinterlands. Buses go to west SJ and Santa Clara. Caltrain has indirect access via Mountain View, and BART via the Great America bus and future Milpitas station.
Jeff Pittman says:
Sean made the comment that with 2 stadiums both the Mariners and Seahawks can play at home on the same day and that is not true. There is an agreement with the city that the 2 teams cannot play at home on the same day unless there is at least 4 hours between the end of one event and the start of the next event at the stadiums. And with national television requirements it is doubtful that the 2 teams can meet the 4 hours requirement. The agreement also has the Mariners requesting from major league baseball that 2 Sundays be kept open so that the Seahawks can play at home on those days and with the Mariners playing on the road.
There have been occasions when the Mariners and Sounders have played at home on the same day but one team would play in the afternoon and the other one at night. On rare occasions those 2 teams have played at the same time but with the Sounders only using half the capacity of CenturyLink Field combined with the attendance at the Mariners game was equivalent to a full house for a Seahawks game. .
I didn’t know that rule existed, thanks for the correction.
Didn’t mean to fumble there – is coach Pete Carrol going to bench me?
Matthew Johnson says:
In the downtown stadium story, the picture of the interior of CenturyLink was taken by STB reader and Seattle Subway member Tiffany. There was a game last year where my wife couldn’t make it and Tiffany lives DT so it was easy for her to come last minute. The picture is taken from my seats, 121 LL 8-9.
How weird is that?
Strictly speaking, stadiums are an inefficient use of land. But presuming that sports are going to happen (this is America, after all), I’d much rather have the stadium located in a transit-accessible, central location in the urban core rather than in an edge suburb. At least for CenturyLink, development is actually shrinking the stadium footprint.
As far as utilization, most developments are not used anywhere close to 24/7/365. I guess jails (24/7 occupancy) and gas stations (high sales per square foot), for example, would qualify as very high utilization development but they don’t generate the kind of density that sustains cities.
Obviously people can only be in one place at a time so 100% residential utilization is impossible, but I’m home less than 40% of the time, mostly sleeping. Office buildings are worse (best case, they are used 1/2 of ~260 days/year and daytime only). Only 2-3 shift industrial plants are close to fully-utilized and nobody wants to live by them.
The same low-utilization criticism can be levied against the Convention Center, Benaroya Hall, the Central Library, museums, churches, and schools. Even bars & clubs are only busy ~20 hours/week.
Zach Shaner says:
I think our professional stadia are pretty good by national standards, being on the periphery of the core, transit accessible, and without the massive adjacent parking craters you see elsewhere. Stadia are really more of a problem when they displace the potential for badly needed dense housing, like (cough cough) Husky Stadium. Hundreds or thousands of people have to commute further because a prime piece of university land has been taken for 7-8 Saturdays of football and tailgating every year. At least with CLink you have dual-use, and with Safeco you have a guarantee of 81 days of use per year.
Gordon Werner says:
Do they use it for anything else that football and graduation?
One of the writers for the Seattle Times made a very good case for the Husky football team playing its games at Seahawk Stadium. This was a sports writer, by the way. A guy who is well aware of the nostalgia and charm of Husky Stadium. But even he thought expanding there was nuts, when the area could obviously be used for better purposes (like expanding the hospital).
As I said above, the one argument for having the Stadium on (or close to) campus is the fact that so many of the fans (and participants) can walk to the game. Mass transit is great, but if half your fans (30,000 people or so) can walk back home after a game instead of trying to get on a bus (or train) it is better. To me, that argument doesn’t outweigh the other one, which is that it was a huge waste of money. But the UW sports department believes that football can carry the rest of the sports, and is putting all their eggs in that basket. I personally don’t believe that (and I think T. V. is far more important than gate revenue) but I’m more of a basketball fan myself.
The UW has a lot of lighly-used sports fields, actually, more than I remember when I was a student. There are dedicated fields for football practice (2, actually, with the indoors one), softball, baseball, soccer, and track plus a golf driving range and a bunch of tennis courts. Only Hec Ed is truly multipurpose and even it is only booked ~60 nights/year for sports.
Don’t get me started on cemeteries, though. We have acres of prime real estate in the middle of the city that are used for absolutely nothing, in perpetuity.
@Gordon — So far as I know, Husky Stadium isn’t used for much, other than what you mentioned. They removed the track, so track and field moved indoors. I think there is the occasional intramural type activity in there, but that doesn’t involve fans (I’ve played soccer there once). Speaking of soccer, there is a separate soccer stadium. At least the soccer stadium is used for two sports (men’s and women’s soccer). Hec Ed is used by men’s and women’s basketball, women’s volleyball and women’s gymnastics (the UW doesn’t have a men’s volleyball or gymnastics team).
The stadium could certainly host other events, but with two other stadiums in the city, and the Tacoma Dome not that far away, it has trouble competing. When it had a track it could host big track events — I think it hosted the Goodwill games once — but now that distinction is gone. In general, that part of the campus is a huge waste. At best you could consider it part of general parkland, but most of it is boring. Walking through upper campus is a lot more interesting (interesting buildings, interesting plants, art, etc.). The best part of lower campus is the waterfront — but that is the one part of the area they really can’t mess up (OK, they could mess it up by denying access). The little ponds on the NE end are pretty nice (as a park) but nothing like what is in the other direction, across the ship canal (the arboretum). Because of the big structures, it is difficult to walk through (unlike upper campus). You can skirt the edges (via the waterfront or the street) but you can’t easily walk through. It’s obvious that it was designed with cars in mind and that is really a big mistake.
Which leads me to my last point. It is easy to look at the stadium as a waste, or all of the fields as a waste, or the parking for the stadium (right next to the new train station) as a waste. But if you look at the area as whole, the parking for the intramural area is the mother of all wastes. That thing is enormous. It dwarfs everything else in the area. Hopefully someday they will build something (anything) there.
Kyle S. says:
I recall that the intramural parking lot is unsuitable for building—it’s either a filled-in swamp, or a Superfund site, or both.
@Kyle — Good point. It wouldn’t surprise me if it is all landfill (much of that area was). But then again, somehow they built Husky Stadium, so I’m not sure what the issue is.
Even if you can’t build there, you can make better use of the land then a parking lot. Just make it a park. It is not an area that needs a park (since there is plenty of parkland nearby) nor does it need a big pathway (since the Burke Gilman is across the street) but maybe a “northern arboretum” would work or a sculpture park.
asdf says:
Or get a bus lane added to Montlake Blvd.
Then we have the Moda Center (this year’s name for the arena where the Portland Trailblazers play). Seriously? A vast windowless structure that could just as easily be shoved underground and serve all its intended uses, and have something useful on top that needs windows?
d.p. says:
With a wider span of operating hours, users representing a broader cross-section of the population, and a more consistent stream of people crossing its thresholds in both directions at all hours than any other non-retail building you could fathom, public or private, I have a hard time imagining why you would include the Central Library on your “low utilizations” list. It is anything but.
Similarly, a mid-sized convention center that is well run, consistently booked, and integrated into the shared civic spaces that constitute a multiplicitous urban core evades any charges of underutilization. It is only when tunnel-visioned bureaucrats attempt to wholly commandeer multi-block swaths of the center city, in pursuit of the kind of mega-conventions that come more rarely than football games, that the charge is apt.
The Central Library is used, but it very badly underuses the land it sits on. It could easily fill the bottom floors of a large office or residential building. Instead we used an entire city block in the most valuable part of the city for the library and nothing else.
As for the convention center, it does get a lot of visitors (412k visitors in 2013) but that works out to an average of only 8,000 visitors/week. That isn’t particularly impressive considering the amount of land it sits on. The attendance is a lot less than either stadium hosts in a given year. But that’s just scratching the surface.
WSCC isn’t actually profitable without a $57MM hotel tax subsidy. It pays no property taxes on some very valuable land ($134MM worth according to its 2013 financial statements). And all of the economic activity it “generates” presupposes that those full hotel rooms wouldn’t get filled with other non-convention visitors. That may be true in February, but not in July. It also certainly ignores the opportunity cost of using that land for a convention center instead of high-density residential. Bottom line – convention centers are a poor business model, which is why private companies don’t build them.
I most strongly agree with your paragraph on the hotel tax and the economic activity that is displaced rather than generated, which is why I’m so adamant that the plan to expand the convention center into a 7-block behemoth is a boondoggle and an apotheosis of terrible urbanism.
The mid-sized center we have now, though, is comparatively well-used, including in the off-season. Hopefully the additional downtown hotel capacity about to come online will alleviate the displacement it sometimes causes in the summer. I would tend to agree with you that the entire convention industry belongs to the “useless bullshit” sector of modern Capitalism, but as long as it continues to exist, I’d rather it commune with the bustling downtowns of engaging cities than be relegated to fortresses on the far fringes of downtown Chicago or occupying a paved-over swamp in Kissimmee, Florida.
(The current WSCC could stand to commune better with the city, of course, and probably would if downtown in general were less pedestrian-hostile and worth wandering on foot past the Cheesecake Factory/Fox Sports Grill Suburban Visitor Entrapment Zone.)
Re: your reservations about the library… Meh. Not every inch of downtown needs to be a skyscraper. In fact, the best ones aren’t, and most of the ones that are become Weekday Professional monocultures (this includes the tallest parts of our own).
The problem — like most of Seattle’s real problems — is that our “central urbanized area” is so limited in scale and scope that anyone could be inspired to lament a well-used and iconic public amenity taking up a single block.
Do you think anyone in Vancouver regrets the (much larger) block devoted to its art museum? Or the flagship public libraries in Boston and New York, two of the greatest public buildings in the Western Hemisphere, both on footprints much larger than ours and neither with towers above them? No! Because all of those cities have a whole lot more city than we do, so not every block must be furiously code-maximized.
Calling the library “wasteful” because it isn’t an anonymous cubicle monolith betrays a stunningly limited understanding of what cities are for.
(Besides, if you really wanted to go after wasted space, you’d look right across the street at the branch courthouse of the 9th Circuit, occupying a tiny footprint on an otherwise-abandoned block, and which only so much as turns the lights on about 2 weeks per year.)
At least Seattle isn’t stuck with two such vast wastes of space, along with a publicly subsidized convention center hotel.
““useless bullshit” sector of modern Capitalism”
The article is blind to the real problem. The reason people are working more than 15 hours a week is to avoid homelessness and starvation. You need $5400 to live decently in Seattle (the point at which you can rent a $1500 apartment), and you’re not going to get that working 15 hours a week. In order to move beyond the treadmill, society has to move beyond the point that people have to work just for basic food and shelter and public transit. The people creating bullshit jobs think they’re worthwile; the people calling them bullshit really have no idea which ones are needed or not; and the workers are just there for a paycheck.
What keeps economists and the Fed up at night is worrying about what will happen if these tons of jobs actually do become obsolete to automation as predicted. There’s a gap between the mass unemployment and the utopia when the machines are producing everything for free. Piketty has some interesting things to say, namely that a “career job” is only 150 years old. Before that the masses worked for bread, and the aristocracy made more more on invstments (rent and government bonds) than they ever could by working. He points to some early 19th-century novels where upwardly-mobile men considered being a lawyer or banker but it still wouldn’t get them more than a mediocre life, and it would waste time from finding an heiress to marry that would make him several times richer. Now in the 20th-21st century the richest men are self-made, but he thinks that era is coming to an end, both because entrepreneurship/CEOness won’t pay so much and because the children of the Forbes 400 will be heirs. The New Deal and labor laws and such were to mitigate the worst problems of capitalism, and if mass unemployment becomes the norm it’s hard to see how such things won’t eventually be extended — eventually reaching a point where people don’t have to work, and where working brings in so little it’s laughable to do so, like our 18th-century non-lawyer.
One of the reasons for raising the minimum wage is, what’s the public good of people working full time but they’re still on food stamps or working a second or third job? Are jobs that pay so little really worth existing? And if tons of jobs become obsolete, won’t that put more and more jobs into that category?
$54,000 annually
There’s space above and around the stadium buildings that could have been used for other purposes. Developers have put big-box stores inside larger buildings; why not stadiums too?
The Montlake parking lot is on top of a landfill, or what would be called a toxic waste dump now, so it would be expensive to clean up for other uses.
Come to think of it, I’m seeing a lot of “12”s around town, including on swank new apartment buildings. I have to think at least a few of those people would be interested in a unit right at their favorite team’s stadium. Of course it would be a noisy environment around game times — but these people would be part of the noise anyway.
EHS says:
Stadiums may be an inefficient use of land, but they’re great arguments for good transit. Transit is about maximizing land use value by increasing capacity. Sporting events, precisely because they happen rarely but bring huge numbers of people to a small area, come with huge capacity problems, especially in parking (think about it – how did tailgating come to exist, and get the name?).
They’re also a great introduction to mass transit for a broad section of society. An overcrowded bus on the way to work? Pain in the ass. An overcrowded bus full of fellow amped up fans, everybody in you’re home team’s colors and regalia? Awesome!
Our urban stadiums, much as I don’t personally like sports or think the associated public subsidies make any sense, are located exactly where they should be. When Link reaches the northern and easter suburbs, too, it will be THE way to get to games. And unlike so many stadiums, providing service does not mean a distracting dead-end line to nowhere, every other day of the year.
When the new Yankee stadium was built, it was assumed that most fans would be driving from Westchester County or New Jersey. Truth is the privately operated garages with there backed bonds mostly went broke as most customers used public transit. The numbers even surprised the heads at the MTA especially those at Metro-North.
The cyclist is suing the City of Seattle for $2.5 million. Not Sally Clark personally
Yeah, first they go after her insurance, then they go after the city’s insurance. I doubt they would go after her, just because she probably doesn’t have that much money. On the other hand, the city will probably settle, because at some point, it isn’t worth the risk or the attorney fees.
I’m no fan of Clark, but in this case, I am very sympathetic. Lots of bikers drive, and plenty of them get in close calls, or end up hitting bikes. It sucks, which is why it is important to keep pushing for safer streets for everyone. From what I know of her record, Clark has been solid in this regard.
Looks like Kinkisharyo’s factory problems in Los Angrles have been sorted out. http://www.progressiverailroading.com/passenger_rail/article/Kinkisharyo-to-expand-railcar-facility-under-new-agreement-LA-Mayor-Garcetti-says–42720?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter
Speaking of Kinkisharyo…
Sound Transit has enough LRV’s for service from UW – Angle Lake… but when will a new order need to be placed? Does the extension to Northgate warrant the purchase additional LRV’s… or will Sound Transit be able to stretch the fleet until East Link goes into service?
I believe there is budget for some LRVs in Northgate Link. They’ll probably wait until closer to the service date so they can piggyback an order for East Link and Lynwood Link.
They also need someplace to put the new LRVs, so they’ll need to coordinate the delivery schedule with an expansion of the OMF and building of the OMSF.
From http://www.soundtransit.org/Documents/pdf/news/reports/apr/201409_Q3_LinkLightRail.pdf
40 LRVs will be acquired for Northgate Link (p. 25)
Budget is $259M (p. 26)
I didn’t see any schedule for the vehicle procuremnet, but the OMSF won’t be ready before 2020 (p. 73)
Charles B says:
In addition to the downtown amazon numbers, I have heard multiple rumors of amazon acquiring land in Ballard.
Just thought you folks might like to know ;)
If they want an alley vacation in Ballard or something, maybe we could ask for a small contribution to the public good? Maybe a $250m contribution to expedite Ballard Link? ;)
Where? The office building that will replace the gas station and Burger King at 15th and Market? I find this rumor a bit suspect.
Mdnative says:
I think they have some office space near 15th and leary. IIRC, there was an article in one of the local business journals
Scratch that, it was Apple
No city’s economy has ever gotten itself into trouble by overreliance on a single corporate entity with suspect business practices and questionable adaptability!
Well, if they collapse, at least they will leave a lot of cheap office space in their wake. This is much better than Boeing, which may well leave us with unused factories, an airport that divides the southern end of the city (which I would argue should be removed) and a few quaint office buildings. Microsoft, meanwhile, may leave us with a huge, sprawling set of suburban offices. At least Amazon is building in the city, so I really don’t see a problem with that. Their bubble may pop, but as long as the state keeps investing in the UW, I figure we will be OK with whatever is left behind. At worst you could simply convert the offices to housing.
You can’t just remove the Boeing airport. It would piss off the 0.001% too much.
71,000 for Amazon. In 1990 they were saying 50,000 was the entire city center population (Uptown to First Hill).
djw says:
How many do they presently employ in Seattle?
smp belltown says:
I probably missed it somewhere, but has there been an official declaration by Amazon that all of these building projects will be used only by Amazon, and that none of the new space will be leased out to other tech firms or similar companies?
The article about the new hotel mentioned the monorail, which got me thinking. With Link poised to get the U-District (and then soon after Northgate and Bellevue) I could easily see the monorail becoming a lot more popular. Take a train to Westlake and transfer to the monorail for the Seattle Center event. This brought up many questions:
1) Why doesn’t the monorail take ORCA. I know it isn’t a huge hassle to buy the ticket at the counter, but that seems silly. Ideally you would have a discounted, if not free ride when you transfer as well.
2) The monorail seems to go every ten minutes. Can it go more often?
3) Why doesn’t Google consider this “transit”. I doubt anyone can answer this one (unless they work for Google and on the Google Maps team) but it is strange to me. It may not show up on “Get Directions” because the monorail folks never added an API, but it seems like you could screen scrape to figure out when it is actually open or not. It seems to me like Google Maps should at least add the route (with a link to the schedule) on the “transit” layer of their map.
It is easy to see the monorail as a “toy”, like a Ferris Wheel or the Space Needle, but it is a useful piece of transportation. Just because riding a ferry is fun doesn’t make it any less useful. In the case of the monorail, it is by far the fastest way to get from Westlake to the middle of the Seattle Center. Yet I know a lot of people don’t know about it. I talked to a guy who was from out of town and rode the train into downtown. Then he walked to his place close to the center. He complained about the lack of rail to the area (after all, Seattle is all about the Space Needle). He should probably have taken a bus, but when I asked if he considered taking the monorail, he had no idea what I was talking about.
I know it isn’t a huge hassle to buy the ticket at the counter
Au contraire, buying a ticket requires finding cash first, which I almost never have. If the choice is between going to a BECU ATM 6 blocks away to buy a cash ticket for the monorail vs taking a 1/2/3/4/13/D for free with my employer paid pass, I’ll choose the slower bus or just walk, every time.
I assumed they took credit cards. I guess they don’t. Wow, that is stupid.
If they took cards, I’d use it a few times a year. If they took ORCA, I’d probably use it weekly.
This is what privately operated transit looks like.
The merchant fees per transaction for credit cards are too high to make much money on this type of thing, so credit cards aren’t taken. ORCA is probably the same way: too much money expended on the infrastructure for too little remaining income.
It’s unfortunate, but if the primary motive is operating for a profit, then to maximize the profit it usually means hitting a spot other than maximum ridership.
Yup. But it’s city-owned. And it’s so much faster than the Denny/Broad crawl. And it has oodles of excess capacity.
That it has never been seriously considered as an option for the holders of existing monthly fare products — a demographic likely to be 99% mutually exclusive from its current tourists-and-suburban-family-daytrippers ridership base — is actually a bit concerning.
z7 says:
I’m not a fan of having to go through a food court (or getting lost in staircases / Seattle Center) to access transit. Still, if it were free with employer ORCA, I might take it more and get lost less.
I don’t quite understand how not taking credit cards helps them maximize profit. As it is, the monorail has so much excess capacity — wouldn’t taking cards let them increase revenue without any increase in expense?
I can only speculate on the credit card thing. Small restaurants and bars take credit cards because they need the business. If I walk into a bar and it has a sign saying “cash only”, I may check my wallet and do exactly what Zach said. I’ll walk to the bar next door. But some really successful bars and restaurants are “cash only”. They figure you are there mainly for them, and aren’t worried about the business.
Judging by these comments and the capacity, it is obvious that the monorail is not as successful as they could be. They shouldn’t feel like they are the “hot restaurant”, but they do. They feel like they are a destination, rather than a means of transport. If I get in line for the Space Needle and see a sign saying “cash only” then I will scramble around and find cash. Basically, the city treats the monorail like an amusement ride, and assumes that the only reason one would ride it is because “it’s fun”. This is wrong, and it hurts everyone. We are wasting a lot of capacity on an area that doesn’t have a lot of excess bus capacity. It would benefit everyone if Zach rode the monorail, instead of riding the bus.
Even for the tourist, this is less than ideal. A lot of people want to check out the Seattle Center once in a while. It makes sense to take the bus (or train) into downtown, then ride the monorail back and forth. But that is basically three trips, all of them separate, and thus the whole thing is costly. So a lot of people won’t hassle with the monorail (for the reasons mentioned) and will only visit the Seattle Center. These people will probably drive, especially if they are coming from the north. When Link comes to Northgate, the north end visitor would have a much better, much more interesting and much more fun trip on public transit. But unless the rules change, some of these visitors will still drive. That is nuts.
It’s owned by the city, but the operator is a private corporation. The company and the city split the profits.
I’m not saying it is best, but it’s what makes a profit.
How often would you use the monorail if the price for using a card were $0.50 more? That’s what one of the convenience stores near me charges. Another charges that if the total charged is less than $8.
Of course for those that cash, but don’t have passes or transfers, the Monorail is actually 25 cents cheaper than a Metro bus. Soon to increase to 50 cents in a few months.
I totally understand why the private Seattle Monorail Services doesn’t want to accept the Puget Pass that most of us have loaded onto our ORCA cards. I don’t expect that to happen.
What I don’t get is why they can’t deduct fares (with no discount) from the ePurse on ORCA, like Washington State Ferries?
I realize there are likely some administrative costs to accepting ORCA and the monorail would need to buy the handheld ORCA readers (like the ones used by the King County Water Taxi and fare inspectors), but I would think the increase in passengers should cover those costs in the long run.
Maybe ORCA acceptance needs to be written as a requirement into the next operating contract issued by the City of Seattle.
Maybe the City of Seattle should consider leveraging its wholly-owned resources for the public good, especially when so much of Metro’s core network beneath is detrimentally impacted by bunching conditions (and routing choices) partially related to demand for the very trip that this underutilized one-mile shuttle mirrors.
Yeah, what d.p. said, especially when the city is spending millions on bus service, and millions on a streetcar and for all we know, a lot of these changes would actually be revenue neutral, if not make us money. The city should just should treat a ride on the monorail like it does with the streetcar. You can use your ORCA card, and transfers are accepted. Not only is this an underutilized form of public transportation, but it serves two key areas that are extremely important for Seattle — our downtown, and our publicly owned Seattle Center. Why, in ten years, the city would make it much easier and cheaper for someone to get from Northgate to Bellevue Square instead of Northgate to the Seattle Center is beyond me. I’m guessing they really haven’t thought about it. Like the guy I met in the bar, they forgot about the monorail (or didn’t know it existed), even though it is right there, across the street from our most popular station (Westlake).
Another argument for getting the most out of the monorail is that it reduces the desire for light rail to Ballard to do the same. A stop a couple blocks from the Seattle Center compliments the monorail really well. The light rail serves the neighborhood, while the monorail serves the Seattle Center. Trips to the center are similar to trips to the ball park — they aren’t commuting, and their tend to be big spikes in attendance (Folklife, Bumbershoot, etc.). If you aren’t commuting, then the connection from Westlake to the monorail isn’t that big of a deal, especially if you know that there is a huge crowd, which means that driving isn’t a decent alternative.
Chad N says:
The City has a contract with the private operator of the Monorail. At the end of the contract term, the City can require whatever improvements it wants for renewal.
Integrating the Monorail into Orca is a no brainer. It needs to be done. The monorail could operate at 3 minute frequencies, if capacity required it. The City needs to require these the next time around – and use some SDOT budget to subsidize operations if required.
P.S. WIth Orca fare integration, I would jump the cash fare up to “tourist gouging” level to offset the cost impact of accepting Puget Passes.
Turns out the Seattle City Council Parks, Seattle Center, Libraries and Equity Committee will consider a a ten year concession agreement with Seattle Monorail Services for operation, maintenance, marketing, and administration of the Monorail System on Tuesday.
Here’s the agenda item: http://clerk.seattle.gov/~public/meetingrecords/2014/parks20141202_4a.pdf
If you have any suggestions that you want considered before the agreement is sent to the full council, I suggest contacting the councilmembers on the committee (Godden, Harrell and Rasmussen).
And it appears the intention is to perpetuate the status quo (the monorail will abstain from any participation in the mass transit system for the benefit of Seattle residents) for another ten years, and possibly twenty.
Drat.
Yup. Small income trumps long term public benefit, and possibly significant savings in other transit forms.
Which is unfortunate as it could be useful for a lot of people. Extending it to Ballard could be far more economical than digging a subway tunnel. They can climb fairly steep hills so a bridge over the canal no longer is out of the question.
Or, figure out how to extend it south, so there is an alternative north-south mode beyond the transit tunnel, and maybe you can wait a few years before digging the second tunnel.
Not to support the past monorail proposals or anything, but it already connects two pretty heavily served areas and thus could become a pretty nice link in the transit system, of it were thought of that way.
Thanks Ricky. So, I want to get involved, and I want to push the council to treat the monorail fare just like it treats the streetcar. That is a pretty simple proposal, and I think with enough publicity, we could get plenty of people to write the council. I read your link, but it doesn’t look like a meeting agenda as much as a proposal. Do you know more about the process, and how this legislation will be pushed forward? If it isn’t too late, I think we can get this changed, just because what we are asking for is so simple. One sentence, really:
Have the monorail accept ORCA cards, just as the streetcar does.
That’s it. Here is what the streetcar fare is: http://www.seattlestreetcar.org/slu.htm#orca
Other than the specific pricing, this is what I want for the monorail. It is even better for the monorail than for the streetcar. Keep the ticket booths, and issue tickets, but otherwise, the ORCA card works just like it does on the streetcar.
Adding ORCA support for the monorail should be fairly easy, from a practical and legislative standpoint. It could simply be an amendment added to the agreement (which is otherwise fine by me). I would like to write a Page 2 post, which would hopefully be elevated to full STB status (or someone at STB could write one). I would also like to contact Keith Kyle, at Seattle Subway, as I’m sure he would like this. They have a very extensive set of email addresses, so the message would reach a lot of people. With any luck, The Stranger or The Seattle Times could address the issue. But before I write something, I would like to know more about the process. At worst I can simply ask anyone to write the council members you mentioned, but it would be helpful if I knew more (are they going to meet to discuss this? Is the meeting public?, etc.).
@Chad — “The monorail could operate at 3 minute frequencies, if capacity required it.”
Holy Sh**, Really! Wow! I didn’t realize that. I had no idea what the thing was capable of (from a technical standpoint) but that is incredible. Nothing in our system is capable of that. No bus, no train, no streetcar, nothing. An express, grade separated line from downtown to the Seattle Center every three minutes is fantastic. There are definite flaws with the system in how it integrates with the neighborhood and other transit, but that kind of performance can more than make up for that. Meanwhile, for those who actually going to the Center (as opposed to the populous and growing neighborhood that surrounds it) there is nothing close.
If the Monorail took my Orca pass, I would use it not only to get to Seattle Center, but all over Queen Anne. Even upper Queen Anne is a nice stairclimb from the Seattle Center, while Belltown is not as interesting to walk through and involves a lot more waiting at stoplights.
Not that again, Glenn. You shouldn’t go there; we shouldn’t go there; this thread shouldn’t go there.
The moment you extend or revise or alter the monorail even one iota, you’re looking at the costs of upgrading its antiquated structures and systems. It isn’t easy and it isn’t cheap. It isn’t even slim and sleek. The Seattle Monorail Project failed mostly because it started from the same misplaced cost assumption that you just did.
As it exists, the monorail is a slightly absurdly routed vestigial oddity, which happens to connect downtown to the node a mile north, along an not-perfect-but-sorta-close-enough parallel route to the overtaxed 3rd Ave corridor, and happens to do it with a speed and ease that would make it worth integrating with existing transit, at least for regular transit users (i.e. holders of ORCA monthlies).
It isn’t the start of something greater. That ship has sunk.
I just want to reiterate a couple of points:
* The Monorail is publicly owned… but it’s privately run by Seattle Monorail Services.
* The Monorail makes a profit.
* Seattle Monorail Services pays the City of Seattle a fee to run the monorail. Under this contract they pay the greater of $550,000 per year or 2/3 of net operating income. Seattle Monorail Services keeps the rest.
* If there is a problem (say another crash) and the company earns no money, they still have to pay. They bear all the risk in this arrangement.
Even if it served the common good, allowing pass riders would likely cut into that profit… and hurt Seattle Monorail Services (a local small business). That would likely necessitate a change where Seattle pays Seattle Monorail Services a fee to run the monorail.
That being said… I think the Monorail should accept ORCA… but in the same way WSF does:
No puget pass, no employer passes, just ePurse.
Also, I sent an email to the general manager… he said they are looking into “electronic fare collection” and hope to start accepting credit cards by next summer. But, he seemed pessimistic about accepting ORCA since they are a private, for-profit company.
It would be really interesting to know just how much the ORCA card readers cost. It shouldn’t be that much, but since the system is now owned by Cubic they can probably charge new agencies that are added to the system whatever Cubic wants to charge.
On the other hand, there might be an extra portable card reader or two out there. If I remember right, SoundRunner (the ferry briefly operated by the Port of Kingston) would accept ORCA. If they haven’t sold the readers to someone else by now that might be a good solution without having to get new readers from Cubic.
About that 3 minute frequency: It takes about 2 minutes for a monorail train to go from one end of the line to the other, so there is 4 minutes per round trip. Boarding and detraining might take another 30 seconds or so at each end if it is well organized. So, there is 6 minutes per round trip, and with two trains that is one trip every 3 minutes.
The problem is that I’m not sure how easy it would be to actually accomplish that 30 seconds or so turnaround at the Westlake end with the way it has been rebuilt. There isn’t a platform for the track on the east side, so they have to use extenders that reach across the track on the west side to get to the train on the east track. The walkways to do this are narrow, so there is a bit of platform congestion due to what is essentially turning the car doorways into 10 foot long hallways of the same width. If integrating it into the rest of the transit network makes it popular enough, it will be necessary to consider reworking how that whole south platform area works.
The good news is that the Seattle Center station is extremely well designed, and with a little effort could probably turn trains around in a very brief time. It’s set up so that there is a middle platform that serves both trains, and two side platform that serves the other side of the trains. If you really want to see how fast people can board and detrain, this is the arrangement to have. The way this is done at places such as Sé on the São Paulo metro (which can see several hundred thousand passengers per day) is that the doors on the middle platform would open first so that exiting passengers would start to deboard. Several seconds later the doors on the boarding platform side open an the train only boards from the one side. It sounds like a fairly simple thing to do and that it would not really help that much, but the times that I have been through Sé I was extremely impressed with the sheer volume of passengers they run through there, and their primary means of getting such fast boarding and detraining seems to be based around eliminating traffic flow conflicts by those detraining and those boarding.
@Ricky — Thanks for the information. I want to be clear. I am not suggesting that “the small local business” absorb the entire cost of ORCA. I am suggesting that it be negotiated with them. That may mean the city pays for all of the cost, or that the cost is split between the city and county (like the streetcar). Depending on how the deal is negotiated, it might not cost the city (or county) much money at all.
The fact that it makes money for the city is nice to know, but not a huge concern, in my book. The agreement removes any risk for the city, but limits the reward and the value of the system to the public. Imagine if Link was run that way. Once the construction is complete we could just hand it over to some company that runs it, maintains it, and then we don’t have to worry about it breaking down. My guess is that fares to the airport would be a lot higher, the park and rides would be a lot bigger, and there would be a lot fewer riders. The monorail is owned by the city. It is less than ideal (for various reasons) but as a stand alone system, I figure it is worth around a billion dollars (give or take a few hundred million). Cost should be a consideration, but as in all similar cases, it should only be one consideration.
I agree that your suggestion would be a significant improvement, but I still think we should go the whole way with this. Riding the monorail should not be significantly different than riding the streetcar. I know a lot of other people feel the same way. I’m just not sure how I should contact my representatives, which is why I want to know more about the legislative process you mentioned. I can’t find anything about the meeting you mentioned, which is supposed to occur Tuesday. I also don’t know exactly how to word a letter. I have no problem muddling along (and will muddle just fine, personally) but if I write something on Page 2 (or someone else writes something) it would be really nice if we get our details straight.
Also, if this ten year agreement has not been reached yet, then I think we can bargain from a position of strength. We should consider operating it like we do the streetcar. Maybe not exactly like it, but similar. With the streetcar, Metro contributes 75% of the operating costs, net of farebox revenue, and we pay the rest. I wouldn’t mind if the city pays more. I also wouldn’t mind contracting with this company to do the maintenance (rather than the county). But I’m not sure if the current setup (they take all the profits, but absorb all the risks) makes sense for a transportation project. It makes sense for something like an amusement park (the old Fun Forest) or a private museum, but it doesn’t make sense for an important, valuable transportation option. I’m sure there is at least one member of the council probably wonders why it is we are letting a private company make money off of a public asset (even if we make a little money off of the deal).
OK, I think I found the links myself (sorry it took me so long). So, basically, here is the meeting agenda for Tuesday for the Parks, Seattle Center, Libraries, And Gender Pay Equity committee: http://tinyurl.com/lygu96j
The fourth item on the agenda is the approval of the concession agreement, as summarized in that page, and described in more detail in the memo Ricky mentioned earlier (http://tinyurl.com/k2urw9e).
So, basically, I will write the members of this board to ask them to attach an amendment to this agreement. I’m no lawyer, nor do I know how this process works. I’m assuming that after this board approves the deal, it goes to the full council, and they (along with the mayor) approve the deal. Can anyone confirm (or refute this)?
Also, I would like to suggest a plan that is fair and reasonable for both sides. The simplest solution is the one Ricky suggested. We could simply mandate that they accept ORCA cards, and receive full compensation (full fare) for each use.
But as I’ve said, I would like to go further. I would like ORCA on the monorail to be like ORCA on the streetcar, even though it is operated by a private company. This would mean that the city would need to compensate the company for each use. I think charging the city full fare for each ORCA use in this case is excessive (and hard on the city). Technically speaking, it is the county that would benefit as much as anyone from this increased use, anyway (since riders would otherwise take the county owned buses). This is why the streetcar model makes more sense (with the county paying 75% of the cost). But I think it is way too late for the city and county to try and figure out how to come to some sort of agreement (especially since the county is short of money). But if the city comes up with the full cost, what exactly is fair? A dollar for each ORCA user? If it is technically possible, then this would only apply to transfers and other “free” usage (otherwise the SMS gets the full fair). Does it make sense to come up with a pilot program?
This brings me to the last point. Ten years is a long time if you haven’t even figured out how to integrate ORCA payment. It may be too late to come up with a solid plan (this should have been considered a long time ago). Again, I think this is because people think of the existing monorail as an amusement ride rather than an important, fairly high quality form of public transportation (which would explain why this is not part of the transportation committee). But either way, I would like to see an amendment added to this agreement that allows for full fledged ORCA use. Anyone else have any ideas? It would help if anyone who knew the council could comment on this.
I’ll probably have something on Page 2 by the end of the weekend, but the more people comment here, the better that post will be.
The legislative process for the City Council works like like most legislative bodies:
A proposal is considered by a committee and voted on.
If it’s passed out of committee, it goes to the full council for consideration and a vote.
if it’s passed by the full council, it goes to the mayor who can sign it, allow it to go into law without signature, or veto it.
So even if this proposal passes out of committee (it probably will), you still have plenty of time to contact (phone, email) your councilmember (assuming you’re a resident of Seattle) or the councilmembers on the committee.
Now to your proposal… to accept passes would likely require the concession agreement be rewritten as a contract for operation, maintenance, marketing, and administration of the monorail. That would require a full restart of the process, including putting the contract back out to bid (a months long process) and money being found in the city or county budget to cover the operating deficit with taxpayer funds.
I just don’t see that happening.
I do think that you can lobby the committee to require that the Monorail investigate accepting ORCA ePurse. Passengers can use their ORCA card and the monorail still gets $2.25 from each passenger. Heck the monorail can even sell its separate $45 monthly passes on ORCA cards if they want.
That’s the easiest way to bring the monorail into the ORCA system and won’t require any large spending of taxpayer funds.
Thanks, Ricky. That is what I thought.
I agree that the easiest thing to do is require Seattle Monorail Services to accept ORCA ePurse. But even that would require reworking the contract. But it wouldn’t cost either side much money, so there wouldn’t be much push back from either side.
Another alternative is to simply shorten the contract. Ten years is a very long time. This makes sense if you are simply contracting out an ordinary service. But that isn’t the case here. The folks who drew up this contract left out an essential piece — they didn’t consider ORCA. If it is really too late to negotiate a fare system that is satisfactory, then we should adopt a short term contract now, then start negotiating a new (perhaps longer) one after we settle this important issue.
The more I think about it, the more I would consider something like this: Setup an ORCA payment system and compensate SMS full fare if the user is charged full fare, and two dollars if not (e. g. for a transfer). Have this be an experimental two year system, which can then be renewed (or altered) after that. This seems like a big giveaway to this private company, but keep in mind that the current contract gives the city “the greater of 2/3 of net operating income or $550,000 per year”. So basically, if lots of people use ORCA cards, and lots of those people use it for free, we would end up getting close to two thirds of that subsidy back. This would mean it would cost us about 66 cents a rider (for those that get a free ride using ORCA).
I keep going back to the streetcar, because the monorail is very much like the streetcar. Some view it as a toy, while others view it as a form of transportation. But either way there are easy, obvious alternative bus routes. Price the streetcar like you do the monorail and usage would plummet. I don’t see why we want to do that, nor do I see why we have set up that system with the monorail. I agree that the ePurse idea may be all that we can do at this late date, but I don’t think we should lock ourselves into a system that is so flawed.
The lazy, institutional-inertia thinking encapsulated by Ricky above — it makes money as a tourist tilt-a-whirl, the city gets a (nominal) payout, opening it up as a useful asset to public mobility would eat away at that — is negated by two facts I have already repeatedly mentioned:
1) The monorail has oodles of excess capacity, even at current frequencies, for about 359 out of 365 days per year.
2) Current tourist/daytripper usage is mutually exclusive from any potential ORCA riders, especially those carrying monthly passes. These are precisely the people who are not willing to add significantly to their costs for the last mile, and who therefore avoid the present option even when it might be of use to them.
We could open the monorail up to monthly passholders on a trial basis, and the current concessionaire would be unlikely to see a dime of current revenue lost.
Brent makes this case even more thoroughly below.
And Ricky,
How many of those “monthly monorail passes” do they sell every month? Seven? Fifteen? Zero?
They market it as a “park and ride” option, but it’s not like all-day parking is especially cheaper around the Seattle Center than in other peripheral parts of downtown, and it’s not like Mercer is an especially easier place to exit to the highway at the end of the day. And even if you lived right on the first blocks of the slope behind Roy, a monorail-only pass makes no sense unless you work within a couple blocks of Westlake.
The “problem” of competing monthly passes seems like a massive red herring here.
EastsideRider says:
I love Metro’s drivers, I really do… but last night, on a crush loaded 255 going north on I-5 to 520, for some unfathomable reason (to me anyway), our driver decided to move from the rightmost lane into the next lane over and travel in that lane to 520. As all 520 commuters know, and all Metro drivers too I’d think, that 2nd lane over is backed up by I-5 North traffic while the rightmost lane flows freely onto 520. We sat there in that lane for what seemed like hours getting passed on the right by every ST 545 bus on the planet, along with the occasional 311, 252, and even some pedestrians I think.. maybe I was imagining them. WTF!!!
OK, I feel better now. Thanks for listening. My trip in this morning was wonderful as usual.
Al S. says:
It should be rather concerning to the STB that Metro is getting this fine. It suggests that there are poor scheduling practices and layover strategies by Metro. I’m not sure if the scheduling department is just being lazy or what, but with real-time bus arrival information it should be readily apparent where problems exist. Are the schedulers too lazy to adjust the bus cards to more recent congestion data?
The planners just reacted to the findings of the performance audit, as directed to do by the county council. Reduce layovers and you can tighten up the schedules and save money. Then pay out the money saved in fines.
The problem is the cost-cutting measures caused by the anti-tax advocates and the audit they insisted on, as well as the the recession. Metro preserved bus service by squeezing layover time, and that led to these ultra-short rest periods, and even the remaining breaks get wiped out when a bus is late and the next run starts as soon as the bus reaches the last stop. Restoring layover time, and padding the schedule enough to accomodate average delays, will cost money that will have to come from bus service or other funds (which have also been squeezed).
Mark Dublin says:
Question for you. Mike. What do you think would be the best thing for the County Council to do if Labor and Industries, or some court, orders them to give their drivers the bathroom breaks they need to preserve their health?
Or if their own Risk Management people tell them that the cost of multiple disabilities from kidney disease is going to make their rates knock the moon out of orbit?
This is a serious question that I think STB readership is as qualified to answer as any consultant. And this civic contribution might save them enough money that transit can have both healthy work-force and unspent consultants’ fees.
Above discussion of the monorail needs to check out Wikipedia and whatever other sources they can find about the days when Metro Transit operators ran the service. Until 1994, when the City turned the monorail over to a private contractor.
Anybody who wants the monorail to be taken seriously might start by returning it to public operation- and operating personnel. Whatever its faults as part of an extended system for citywide transit, the monorail serves an irreplaceable purpose as a horizontal elevator connecting two parts of Downtown Seattle.
Of course, as the Gary Larson “Caveman Plumber” says as he checks out a hole and a forked stick holding a roll of toilet paper: “Ooh! This not be cheap!” A one way ride will show anyone the amount of repair the line needs for serious transit. When these changes are made, installing ORCA should be a snap.
Mark Dublin
The layover/bathroom scheduling problem, like so many ongoing Metro structural issues that cannot be fixed merely by pouring more money into a flawed network, is directly attributable to the fragmented routing structure and its resultant strains for reasonable frequency.
When your system continues to be structured around innumerable one-seat sloggers with relatively low clock-face frequencies, you’re going to find yourself in a “too much or too little” layover conundrum on many of those routes. 10 minutes recovery time is way too little; 40 minutes on every run is way too much; our network is designed to eradicate the happy medium. And erring on the side of excess every time can bump the cost of even a basic coverage route by up to 50%.
This is just yet another reason to pursue massive rationalizations and restructures, Prop 1 windfall and lazy stasis-oriented campaign pledges be damned. Cities whose networks are built around 5-to-10-minute core services and shorter feeders in less traffic-prone areas do not experience these problems. Redundancy on the service corridor and flexibility of driver scheduling are built into those networks.
Don’t blame Metro or the auditors or even the anti-transit tightwads for this outcome. Blame the Route 2 crazies.
Mark: I believe drivers should have adequate rest breaks, of course, and if it has to come out of the service hours, then it has to come out of the service hours.
DP: clock-ignoring schedules are fine when headways are 15 minutes or less, but it’s a pain when buses are every 25 minutes or every 45 minutes, and you have to remember which hours they’re on the :15 and which hours they’re not. Or if you don’t know, you don’t take the bus at all, and then it’s both lost ridership and you having to find another way or foregoing the trip.
Yup. Which is why the enemies of rationalization/restructures are the enemies of quality transit in Seattle.
In any rationalized system, heavy-lifting core routes that run way more often than 4 times per hour, and that represent the bulk of all urban and core inter-suburban services, and that have plenty of inherent overlap redundancy for their operators, and that have actual stuff (with bathrooms) at the termini, would be absolute fucking no-brainers.
Seattle: desperately clinging to worst-possible transit practices since 1973.
I’ve been looking over the proposal for the Seattle Streetcar’s Center City Connector… and I have one big question… why the stop for the closest to the ferry dock is on 1st between Spring and Madison and not 1st between Marion and Madison?
If the station was moved to 1st between Marion and Madison… passengers could cross directly from the median platform to the Colman Dock bridge in a “barn dance” walk phase. Also the Madison BRT project is proposed to run on Marion and Madison… so a station between those streets, would make transfers easier.
The Urbanist blog with an update on Madison BRT:
Madison BRT: The Stakeholder Sessions
http://www.theurbanist.org/2014/11/26/madison-brt-the-stakeholder-sessions/
Madison Street is probably the most important east-west corridor through and out of the Central Business District, and needs as effective transit as possible. But the term “Bus Rapid Transit” worries me.
For instance, I’d like to know the steepest grade, and the narrowest corridor, that what’s now termed “BRT” has ever had to run. And as well as difficulties such as lane reservation, diversion to any parallel street will certainly complicate and slow down service.
Recalling the Downtown Seattle Transit Tunnel, I think our system is capable of designing the most efficient electric transit system humanly possible up and down that hill, and through the critical neighborhood.
But as soon as possible, I would like to see a set of representative drawings accurate enough that actual working drawings can originate from them. And I’d like to see a permanent advisory group of Metro’s best engineers, and Atlantic Base operators and supervisors, and overhead design and installation crews start work before the first drawings are dry.
If the Millenium means anything, it’s historically considered the beginning of a new state of affairs. For transit in Seattle, with all the spirit and imagination this particular project needs- it has to start in the real world.
I’m not sure if I would agree with your first sentence. I think Cherry or Yesler are more important, but Madison is still very important. As far as BRT goes, I think Wikipedia gives a very good definition. Just as light rail can be stuck in traffic, and operate just like a very slow streetcar, the same can be said for BRT. The Institute for Transportation and Development Policy surveyed a bunch of cites and their BRT systems (https://www.itdp.org/recapturing-global-leadership-in-bus-rapid-transit-a-survey-of-select-u-s-cities/). Some of them got a ranking of “Not BRT”. I’m not sure where our existing RapidRide would rank — I’m guessing somewhere between “bronze” and “Not BRT”.
From a technical standpoint, I don’t think there is any difference between the capability of a regular bus or a BRT bus. I suppose that some of the BRT buses (those with more doors and level boarding) might be a bit different, but you could say that about one model bus and another. Either way, I don’t think that hill will be a problem in terms of steepness. That is one of the advantages of a BRT system over a rail system — it can handle the hills.
I’m not sure where our existing RapidRide would rank — I’m guessing somewhere between “bronze” and “Not BRT”.
The Washington Street portion of Boston’s Silver Line received a rating of “Not BRT”, on account of its lack of off-board payment and insufficient enforcement of its bus-only lanes.
RapidRide has a multitude of not-even-stations along its routes, suffers significant delays from cash payment on account of weak smartcard adoption rates, and barely has any bus lanes in the first place.
How do you think it ranks?
K H says:
A follow up from last weeks news round-up.
I spotted the 88 year old metro operator who was assaulted a few weeks ago back in service tonight on his run on the 2/13.
That’s good news. I hope they caught the assailant and that he is locked up.
I saw a Sound Transit sign at the Bellevue Transit Center that said something like, “Something Out of Place? Call us. But call 911 if it’s an emergency.” Then it gave a phone number to call if you see something that’s “out of place.” Can anyone give me a few examples of what they’re talking about? What’s something that would be out of place or suspicious, that you would call Sound Transit about, but doesn’t rise to the level of calling 911?
Some suspicious looking guy that goes around asking other TC patrons rhetorical questions?
In Tel Aviv, if the driver finds, say, a little cloth bag on the rear seat, at his next terminal, he pulls the bus into a huge yard surrounded by cyclone fence, goes into a trailer and calls the bomb squad.
An officer arrives in full armor, makes sure no one is withing 300 feet of the bus, and rigs a system of cords and pulleys to the stanchions by the door. He then attaches the object to the pulley, gets off, trails the cord out 300 feet and yanks it.
Night I was there, the bag fell apart and some dirty children’s clothes scattered out. So what classes as suspicious, in countries engaged in a long-standing shooting war, like Israel, or very long-standing domestic terror, like Spain, is every single thing left on a bus.
But this unarguable level of clear and present danger makes preventive measures a lot more routine and a lot less of a big deal than here. And people go around a lot less scared- largely because the facts of the situation leave ordinary people very clear about the the threat, and what do do about it.
Everyone knows what to look out for, whom to alert, and how to stop bleeding and clear airways when the damn thing goes off.
Fortunately the truth is also that we the American people are a lot less panicked than a lot of our politicians would like. Close-up reaction to the Boston Marathon bombing showed our real homeland security.
As did the way our air traffic controllers landed a whole continental sky-full of jetliners without a scratch in 2001. With no orders from D.C., which probably saved many lives.
And evidently, as did the passengers on Flight 93. And the way ordinary people generally automatically organize themselves to deal with an emergency on the street.
The “Something Suspicious” warnings are worse than useless. Deliberately or not, they seek to generate free-floating fear among a population whose main terror-fighting need is some first-aid training and a lot more solid information all around. But like terror itself-in this country, for enough people, official scare tactics don’t work either.
I was going to say “my keys! I can’t find them anywhere. I usually put them by the door but there not there”, but I like your answer better. Well said.
I’ve got one! A LINK train going all the way through the Tunnel without once getting stuck in the Tunnel behind fare collecting buses, and the blood chilling message: “The train is being held due to traffic ahead….”
If that ever happens, everybody aboard will know they’re about to die in a place where they can’t text even an OMG! And then, survivors will find on their screens: “DLAD!” Referencing a canine way to go! Even worse when they add: “LOL!”
Haven’t heard from the Bailoman for a while. I hope he’s all right. He will tell us when he moves to Yakima or Kennewick, won’t he?
I would have signed that Graham Station petition if I’d known about it.
Lucas W says:
Can’t you still sign it? https://www.change.org/p/sound-transit-board-reinstate-the-graham-st-light-rail-station
Sorry to be late to the monorail discussion. I would love to see the monorail transformed from a tourist curiosity into a public transit asset.
I have to strenuously disagree with the assertion that integrating the monorail fares with ORCA, inter-agency transfers, and the PugetPass, would be a money-loser for the monorail. The vast majority of people who will take advantage of using ORCA on the monorail are currently *not* riding the monorail. The riders who start riding the monorail because their ORCA transfer or pass pays for it are essentially free money for the monorail, once a few ORCA reader installations are paid for.
If the monorail adds ORCA readers, but does not integrate with PugetPass or transfers, nobody will use the ORCA option. So, money will have been spent on capital improvement, for no increase in ridership.
I have to, simultaneously, discourage comparisons to the streetcar, which has been propping up ridership for years by letting anyone with an ORCA card ride for free. A more relevant comparison is the fares on Link, or on Metro buses, where fare is actually collected. But the listed fares are all in the same ballpark. I would simply match the monorail fare to the Metro off-peak fare, complete with low-income fare category, of course.
The reasons to forestall a new 10-year concession contract, and instead grant maybe a 6-month extension, are:
1) The monorail would serve a lot more people, including Seattle denizens, by integrating with the other transit agencies’ fare system.
2) The monorail would turn a larger profit.
3) It will take a little time to look at the feasibility of installing the readers and integrating the fares. Hence, an extension of a few months.
Let’s not let haste cause us to lose the monoral as a public asset for another 10 or 20 years. We can reclaim the monorail for public use, and make a profit in the process.
I agree, Brent, I am leaning this way too. I think simply extending the current contract with the current company for six months while this issue is resolved makes the most sense. It is simply too complicated to work itself out within a very short period of time. I independently wrote about this option above. Because we are dealing with a private company, the options are a lot more numerous.
As to your other points, I agree with them, but maybe not to the same degree. Folks here have said that if they allowed ORCA ePurse, they would use it. These same people have said they avoid it because they don’t accept credit cards, either. But I would agree that the number of additional users is tiny in comparison to those that would use it if transfers or PugetPass applied.
I kept comparing it to the streetcar because I assumed that ORCA cards were accepted, and worked much the way that bus fare did. I stand corrected. I own an ORCA card, but don’t have PugetPass, so I guess it is basically a free ride for me. Wow, I had no idea. I’ve never ridden the streetcar, now that I know it is free I might try it sometime.
So yes, a better comparison is Link or any of the other transit systems (other than the ferries) that are served by ORCA. The fare as it stands right now is almost exactly the same as an off peak bus; exactly the same for regular fare, and within a quarter each way for reduced fares (http://metro.kingcounty.gov/fares/ and http://www.seattlemonorail.com/information/) so I think we are good there.
Regardless of how ORCA is integrated (like the ferries or like a bus) it would increase ridership substantially. But compensating the private company that runs the monorail for the fare is not obvious. It isn’t clear to me if the increased ridership (from paying ORCA riders) would compensate for the free riders (those that have PugetPass or those that rode a bus first). It is quite possible that it would, or quite possible that the deal could be reworked so that it doesn’t matter. For example, if it costs the SMS a bit, then we can compensate them with a higher percentage of the revenues (10% versus 5%).
The goal is obvious — to treat the monorail like Sound Transit, Metro Transit, or any of the other transit agencies. But the compensation and negotiation between the city, county and the SMS is not.
One other minor point: While PugetPass and transfer riders might see themselves as riding the monorail free, the monorail would still get revenue for every ORCA tap, based on the same pro rata division other agencies use, of the PugetPass’ value divided by total ride values that rider took during that month, or however the e-purse revenue gets divided among multiple rides within a 2-hour window. I may not be describing the formulae quite right, but from the standpoint of the ORCA-accepting service, there is no such thing as a free ride.
Granted, the monorail may be getting less than half the face value of a trip from a typical ORCA tapper, but it is still revenue the monorail was not otherwise going to get.
Thanks Brett. I had no idea how the cross-agency system worked. I’m not sure if I understand the particulars, so let me throw out a couple examples:
Joe Schmoe buys a monthly pass (PugetPass) for $50. He rides Sound Transit ten times and Metro ten times. Both agencies charge the same amount. At the end of the month, Sound Transit gets $25 and Metro gets $25
Jane Schmoe buys a regular ORCA card with ePurse. She rides the Metro Bus one day, and then transfers to a Sound Transit bus. Both agencies charge the same amount. She gets charged $2.50 (for a single ride) but both agencies split that (each agency gets $1.25).
If so, that makes a lot of sense. Even if I don’t have the formula just right, the agencies have already worked out a deal, so the Seattle Monorail Service company should just be another partnering agency. That makes a lot of sense and should simplify the negotiations. As you, and many others have said, it is quite likely that SMS would come out ahead. Very few people who currently ride the monorail have ORCA PugetPass or transfer from another bus. This is working out to be a lot simpler and a lot more beneficial for everyone than I thought.
That’s the gist of it. Read https://seattletransitblog.com/2011/06/20/how-orca-fare-revenue-is-apportioned/ for more details.
I could not possibly agree more.
With the possible exception of Bumbershoot weekend, the idea that any locals who have already paid for their connecting transit are presently paying additional amounts to ride the monorail is fanciful. Today’s monorail ridership has zero overlap with public transit ridership.
Integrating this public amenity with the rest of our transit network should not infringe on its profitability in the slightest.
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Anarchism: Experts and Sources
4 Sources Experts & Spokespersons
27 Sources Select Resources
3 Sources Bookshelf
Sources Experts & Spokespersons
Center for Socialist History
Ulli Diemer
Sources Select Resources
Connexipedia
Anarcho-capitalists hold that "anarchy", meaning "without rulers", implies that people should be free to own property and engage in business. They hold that preventing them from voluntarily doing so w...
Anarcho-naturism
Anarcho-naturism (also anarchist naturism and naturist anarchism) appeared in the late 19th century as the union of anarchist and naturist philosophies. Mainly it had importance within individualist a...
Anarchy After Leftism
Black, Bob
CAL Press
Connexipedia Article
People who engage in protests wearing black clothing and masks and engaging in property damage. The tactic was developed in the 1980s by anti-nuclear activist autonomists, and was subsequently adopted...
Black Bloc Provocateurs Set Strasbourg Hotel on Fire
Legitimate anti-NATO protesters are determined to use non-violent civil disobedience to block the summit. In order to provide an excuse to use batons and rubber bullets against them, agents provocateu...
American anarchist; the author of the books The Abolition of Work and Other Essays, Beneath the Underground, Friendly Fire, Anarchy After Leftism, "Defacing the Currency," and numerous political essay...
Black Guards
Armed groups of anarchist workers in the Russian Revolution in 1917-1918.
Bomb in hard disk sent to Italian newspaper journalist reporting on protests
Claudio Laugeri
Newssafety.org
A bomb concealed as a hard disk could have killed someone: 120 grams of explosive powder were pressed inside a hard disk, which also had a small cable for connecting it to a computer. It was addressed...
Confession to Tsar Nicholas I
An excerpt from the 'confession' Mikhail Bakunin wrote in prison to explain his revolutionary goals and his ideas about how to organize a revolution. He writes: "I wanted to transform all Bohemia into...
Emma Goldman: A life of controversy
Selfa, Lance
International Socialist Review (ISR)
More than six decades after her death, the anarchist Emma Goldman still stirs passionate political debate. Goldman made headlines in January 2003 when University of California, Berkeley, officials ref...
Goodman, Paul
American sociologist, poet, writer, anarchist, social critic, and public intellectual. (1911-1972).
Hamilton anarchist space, The Tower, has been vandalized
Carter, Adam
The city's local anarchist social centre, The Tower, has been vandalized. The damage comes days after a masked mob that dubbed itself "The Ungovernables" caused $100,000 in damage during a vandalism s...
I wrote the Anarchist Cookbook in 1969. Now I see its premise as flawed
Powell, William
Forty-four years ago this month, in December 1969, I quit my job as a manager of a bookstore in New York City's Greenwich Village and began to write the Anarchist Cookbook. My motivation at the time w...
Left-libertarianism
A doctrine that has a strong commitment to personal liberty and egalitarianism.
A socialist political orientation which promote a non-hierarchical, non-bureaucratic, stateless society without private property in the means of production. Libertarian socialism is opposed to coerciv...
Manifesto of the Sixteen
Sources Select Resources Encyclopedia
A document drafted in 1916 by eminent anarchists Peter Kropotkin and Jean Grave which advocated an Allied victory over Germany and the Central Powers during the First World War.
La Mano Negra (The Black Hand)
La Mano Negra (Spanish, in English, "The Black Hand") was an alleged secret and violent anarchist organization that was founded in Andalucia, Spain at the end of the 19th century.
1919 United States anarchist bombings
The 1919 United States anarchist bombings were a series of bombings and attempted bombings carried out by anarchist followers of Luigi Galleani from April through June 1919. These bombings fueled the ...
No Grades in Higher Education Now!
Is the Revolution any closer?
Rancourt, Denis
Author and social scientist Stuart Tannock has recently published a historical and critical overview of the practice of grading in education.
Noam Chomsky - Everyday Anarchist
Wilson, Michael S.
Modern Success
Interview with Noam Chomsky.
Other Voices: The Connexions Newsletter - January 29, 2015
Land seizures and land take-overs
Diemer, Ulli (editor); Khan, Tahmid (production)
Serial Publication (Periodical)
This issue of Other Voices focuses on the issue of land seizures and land take-overs. Also included: Greece's solidarity movement, and the challenges and opportunities it faces after the election of a...
Radical Digressions
Diemer, Ulli
Ulli Diemer's website/blog featuring comment from a radical left-libertarian Marxist perspective.
Red Menace #3
Volume 2, Number 2 - Spring 1978
Libertarian Socialist Collective
A Libertarian Socialist Newsletter
Sacco and Vanzetti
Labourers and anarchists who were tried, convicted and executed in Massachusetts in 1927.
What Is the Common Good?
Humans are social beings, and the kind of creature that a person becomes depends crucially on the social, cultural and institutional circumstances of his life. We are therefore led to inquire into the...
Who Controls The Black Bloc Anarchists?
Watson, Paul Joseph
Whose interests do the violent actions of the black bloc benefit? The interests of the general public in using free speech as a means of political change? Or the interests of the authorities in provid...
American anarchist-primitivist.
Sources Bookshelf
George Orwell: A Life
Crick, Bernard
A biography of George Orwell.
A Paradise Built in Hell
The Extraordinary Communities That Arise in Disaster
Solnit, Rebecca
The most startling thing about disasters, according to Rebecca Solnit, is not merely that so many people rise to the occasion, but that they do so with joy. That joy reveals an ordinarily unmet yearni...
Real Utopia
Participatory Society for the twenty-first century
Spannos, Chris (ed.)
Real Utopia identifies and obliterates the barriers to an egalitarian, bottom-up society, while convincingly outlining how to build it.
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Young Israelis and Palestinians remain hopeful despite divisions
AMERICA with Jorge Ramos and Ted Hesson
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu apologized on Monday for controversial comments he made last week about Arab citizens voting in "droves" in the country's parliamentary elections.
"I know that the things I said a few days ago hurt some citizens in Israel, the Arab Israeli citizens," Netanyahu said. "This was not my intention and I am sorry."
Netanyahu, known as Bibi, survived a hard-fought challenge last week to retain his position as prime minister. The victory, however, did not come without its bruises. Netanyahu's comments during the election drew consternation from leaders around the world, including President Barack Obama.
"We indicated that that kind of rhetoric was contrary to what is the best of Israel's traditions," Obama told The Huffington Post in an interview that aired on Saturday.
Netanyahu's election rhetoric, which the White House called "divisive," could have an impact on the broader political climate in the Middle East, including the contentious issue of Palestinian statehood. Speaking with The Huffington Post, Obama would not comment on whether he would continue to block Palestinian efforts to procure statehood through the United Nations.
The president did say he spoke with Netanyahu after the election and told the Israeli leader "it is going to be hard to find a path where people are seriously believing that negotiations are possible."
Some young Israelis and Palestinians still remain hopeful. Fusion's America with Jorge Ramos visited the West Bank city of Ramallah in February and spoke with Fadi Quran, a 26-year-old tech entrepreneur who worked in Silicon Valley before returning to Ramallah to launch an alternative energy startup.
Life in the West Bank can be intense. As they drove past an Israeli military compound, for instance, Quran warned Ramos that the Israeli military might aim a rifle's laser pointer at them.
"How is it for you as a young Palestinian to live in Ramallah?" Ramos asked Quran.
"You feel you are under a system of apartheid and a system that discriminates against you because of the language you speak and the color of your skin and a system that's seeking to forcibly move you, cleanse you, from your land," he replied.
"Do you think about occupation everyday?" Ramos asked.
"It's not that you think about occupation everyday you live occupation every day," he replied.
Still, Quran found a way to remain optimistic.
"I see peace coming," he told Ramos.
"Really? You're hopeful?" Ramos asked.
"I see peace coming if we work for it strategically," Quran said. "I'm hopeful because you have to be hopeful to achieve change."
Jorge Ramos reporting from Israel and the West Bank will air on Fusion on Tuesday, April 28, at 10 p.m. ET.
Ted Hesson was formerly the immigration editor at Fusion, covering the issue from Washington, D.C. He also writes about drug laws and (occasionally) baseball. On the side: guitars, urban biking, and fiction.
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Justia › US Law › US Case Law › US Supreme Court › Volume 61 › Whyte v. Gibbes
Whyte v. Gibbes, 61 U.S. 541 (1857)
Whyte v. Gibbes, 61 U.S. 20 How. 541 541 (1857)
Whyte v. Gibbes
61 U.S. (20 How.) 541
Where the defendant appeared to a bill in chancery and defended the suit, and no want of jurisdiction appeared in the record, and then the complainant died, an objection that the defendants were citizens of another state comes too late when made to a bill of revivor, which is only a continuance of the suit.
Moreover, a plea to the jurisdiction comes too late after a mandate has gone down from this Court to the court below.
CROSS-APPEALS FROM THE CIRCUIT COURT OF THE
UNITED STATES FOR THE DISTRICT OF MARYLAND
MR. JUSTICE NELSON delivered the opinion of the Court.
The case in principle is similar to the case of Williams v. Executors of Robert Oliver, in which the opinion has just been delivered, with the exception of a question made upon a bill of revivor.
The suit was originally brought by John Gooding, Jr., administrator de bonis non of the estate of John Gooding, Sr. After the determination of the cause by this Court reversing the decree below and sending it back with directions to enter a decree for the complainant and to take an account, the complainant died. Thereupon, Whyte, the present complainant, was appointed administrator de bonis non, and filed a bill of revivor of the original suit and presented a petition to the court praying that, as the defendants were residents of the City of New York, the subpoena may be served upon the counsel of the defendants in the original suit, which was granted. The defendants appeared and filed an answer to the bill of revivor under protest and insisted that the court had not jurisdiction of the original suit, as the complainant in that suit was a citizen and resident of Virginia and the defendants were residents of New York. There does not appear to have been any order of the court upon the question presented in this answer, but the cause proceeded before the master, where it was pending at the time of filing the bill of revivor and answer to the same.
The point is now taken that as it appears the defendants were citizens and residents in New York at the time of the filing of the original bill, and also the bill of revivor, the court below had no jurisdiction in the case.
The answer to this objection is that no want of jurisdiction appeared on the face of the original bill, and the defendants appeared and defended the suit, and, as the bill of revivor is but a continuance of that suit, the residence of the parties at the time it was filed is altogether immaterial.
This question arose in the case of Clarke v. Matthewson, 12 Pet. 164, and was decided in conformity with the rule above stated.
In respect to the other objection, that the court had not jurisdiction in the original suit, we may add, in addition to what we have said, it comes too late after the mandate has gone down to the court below. 44 U. S. 3 How. 413.
The decree of the court below affirmed.
MR. JUSTICE GRIER dissented.
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Contact: Trish McAllister
Texas Access to Justice Commission
tmcallister@texasatj.org
AUSTIN – The Texas Access to Justice Commission with its co-sponsor, the State Bar of Texas, honored veterans throughout the state at the Virtual 2020 Champions of Justice Gala Benefiting Veterans. More than $422,000 was raised to help provide civil legal services to low-income Texas veterans.
Proceeds are distributed by the Texas Access to Justice Foundation and dedicated to the provision of civil legal services for low-income Texas veterans.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the annual Gala was held as a virtual event. The Gala featured video remarks from guest speakers Supreme Court of Texas Chief Justice Nathan Hecht, Supreme Court of Texas Justice Brett Busby, Mr. Terry Tottenham, and the distinguished keynote speaker, General Raymond A. Thomas III. Throughout the evening, the speakers underscored the importance of welcoming our veterans home into a community of support.
The Champions of Justice Gala was pleased to welcome the 11th Commander of the U.S. Special Operations Command, General Raymond A. Thomas III as keynote speaker for the event. Justice Brett Busby, Deputy Liaision to the Texas Access to Justice Commission, introduced General Thomas and thanked him for dedicating his time to honor and support Texas veterans.
General Thomas spoke with conviction about his past experience in military service and how he has a profound understanding of the issues facing our veterans. General Thomas delivered his remarks with kidness, levity, and care as he discussed the grave reality for veterans in Texas as they return from deployment and seek help with their legal issues. A particularly noteworthy part of General Thomas’ speech was a story he shared about Mary, a veteran who was denied housing assistance after hurricane Harvey but was able to secure housing through the help of a legal aid lawyer. General Thomas’ address underscored the importance of the Champions of Justice Gala and reminded attendees that their support unites us all during a difficult time.
General Thomas touched on the role of the Texas Access to Justice Commission in helping veterans tranisition to civilian life by saying, “The vast majority of them (veterans) are extremely proud and vibrant human beings who want to contribute to society, just like they did in the armed forces. Some of them are returned worse for the wear and tear and have special needs and requirements. That’s where this effort and this Commission plays significant role.”
Champions of Justice Gala Benefiting Veterans
Gala co-chairs include prominent Texas attorneys who donated their time and talents for the 2020 effort: Jerry K. Clements with Locke Lord LLP; Randall M. Ebner with Exxon Mobil Corporation; Thomas S. Leatherbury with Vinson & Elkins LLP; David R. McAtee II with AT&T Inc.; Richard W. Mithoff with the Mithoff Law Firm; Stephen C. Mount with H-E-B; and Carlos M. Zaffirini, Jr. with AHCV.
Harry M. Reasoner, of Vinson & Elkins LLP, serves as chair of the Texas Access to Justice Commission.
Texas Legal Aid
Approximately 5.6 million Texans qualify for civil legal aid, but only 10 percent of the legal needs are actually met due to inadequate funding resources. Since its inception in 2001, the Texas Access to Justice Commission has steadily championed efforts to increase financial and pro bono resources to improve access to civil justice for vulnerable Texans. Legal aid organizations help more than 150,000 Texas families each year.
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The Texas Access to Justice Commission was created in 2001 by the Supreme Court of Texas to develop and implement policy initiatives designed to expand access to and enhance the quality of justice in civil legal matters for low-income Texans. The Commission has created several initiatives to increase resources and awareness of legal aid. For more information, please visit www.TexasATJ.org.
Champions of Justice Annual Gala
Champions of Justice Gala
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Fantasy & Science Fiction — September/October 2013
Wednesday, 7 August 2013 10:58 am August 7, 2013 Posted byChuck Rothman
The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Sept./Oct. 2013
“Hhasalin” by Susan Palwick
“Myphone20” by Robert Grossbach
“The Queen of Eyes” by Rachel Pollack
“Un Opera Nello Spazio” by Oliver Buckram
“The Collectors” by Albert E. Cowdrey
“The Shore at the Edge of the World” by Eugene Mirabelli
“Affirmative Auction” by James Morrow
“After The Funeral” by Daniel Marcus
“The Game Room” by KJ Kabza
“Rosary and Goldenstar” by Geoff Ryman
“Bemused” by Marc Laidlaw
“Half as Old as Time” by Rob Chilson
Reviewed by Chuck Rothman
Fantasy and Science Fiction has come up with a strong issue for its September/October offering.
Susan Palwick starts it off with “Hhasalin,” the story of Lhosi, a member of a race of aliens with the ability to create things out of thin air. Lhosi is limited in what she can do, and is weak and childlike, but is part of a human family that took her in from the equivalent of an orphanage. Her family is kindly, but she starts to discover the dark secret under which her race has suffered. Lhosi is a fascinating character and very sympathetic; the slow unveiling of the situation and her reaction when she discovers the truth make this a strong beginning to the issue.
The mood lightens a bit with “myPhone20,” where a grandfather struggles to keep up with his grandchildrens’ technology. They have to have the latest and greatest, the myPhone20, which offers all the features they might want, and then tease their grandfather about his reluctance to move with the times. But then the phone begins to have problems. . . . Robert Grossbach expresses the “kids these days” mentality of some older people, and the story is light and entertaining and maybe just a little bit of vicarious revenge for the older generation.
Rachel Pollack contributes a first-class fantasy in “The Queen of Eyes,” a story of Jack Shade, one of the Traveler’s Aid Society – which, despite its mundane name, deals with supernatural events. He’s something of a detective, and when a woman comes to him to report her mother is missing, he quickly realizes her mother is the Queen of Eyes, with the ability to see everything at once, and a major power in the world. The story describes Jack’s search for her. It’s filled with imaginative details and characters, treachery and mystery and is spellbinding from start to finish.
We next move to the purest space opera in “Un Opera Nello Spazio” – yes, an actual opera . It’s a synopsis of an opera set on a spaceship, where Orlando the orangutan longs for Flora, a human. Arias are mentioned (I was especially tickled by Allarme Ross! (Red Alert). This is the type of story that is either a tour de force or which fails utterly, but Oliver Buckram avoids the potential pitfalls to create an entertaining diversion.
“The Collectors” is a story about a bit of Nazi war booty that makes its way to modern day New Orleans. It’s a monstrance, stolen from a church by Hermann Goering, ends up in the hands of Alvin Hymel, who, years later, decides it’s time to cash it in. Albert E. Cowdrey often writes of New Orleans, and this turns out to be a lighthearted horror story, as Alvin discovers that it’s best to do the right thing.
I’ve known Gene Mirabelli for many years, taking a creative writing course from him in the 1980s. At the time, he was unsure of how the group would handle science fiction and fantasy, and I’m delighted that he’s been publishing in the genre. “The Shore at the Edge of the World” is a quirky story about a man who shows up at a fishing village and who may be a messenger from the gods, warning the villager that the world is going to be round, not flat. He starts interacting with one of the families there in a story that is full of subtle wonders.
“Affirmative Auction” is typical Jim Morrow: a strange situation described with a deadpan matter-of-fact voice. This is about a spaceship that lands at a slave auction in Charleston in 1801 to lecture against slavery. The reaction is not what might be expected in a situation like this. It was a pleasure to read the story, and I enjoy Morrow’s style, but I’m not really sure what he is trying to say here.
“After the Funeral” of her husband Robert, a college professor, Alice Osseuse goes home and tries to think about what to do next with her life, when she is visited by one of his students, Professor Sam. Sam is an uplifted dog, whose work Robert used to further his own career. Daniel Marcus writes about the weird relationship budding between the two. Good characterization and an ending that is ambiguous but funny and satisfying.
KJ Kabza‘s contribution, “The Game Room,” deals with strange doings in a family’s house: things start to happen. Rooms go missing, and strangers show up, confused that things have changed around them. Levi and his siblings try to make sense of it all. I thought there was a lot of imagination in the use of the random elements, and the story is generally about moving on and letting go of the past.
“Rosary and Goldenstar” starts out with some tenuous speculation. It appears that two relatives of Tycho Brahe visited England in 1592; their names were Rosenkrantz and Guildenstierne, and it’s possible that Shakespeare knew of them. Geoff Ryman spins out a yarn from this thin cloth. The strongest part is the depiction of the confusion caused by a language barrier, but most is just philosophizing and playing games with the concept. Despite its attempts to say something, the story is very slight.
“Bemused” by Marc Laidlaw is a nice fantasy adventure, part of a series about Gorlen the musician and Spar, who’s a type of gargoyle referred to as a Goyle. Gorlen is taken to a castle where he is asked to play, but beneath the merriment there is a dangerous threat. The story juggles its elements well and shows a good deal of imagination.
Rob Chilson shows a vision of far future humanity in “Half as Old as Time,” where Wrann has journeyed long distances to the Last City to find Crecelius, the Last Man, an almost godlike immortal. The story slowly reveals the reason for the quest. I like the sense of hidden superscience and the personality of Crecelius, as well as the atmosphere of the city whose only inhabitant is an immortal who has seen it all.
The magazine, as usual, shows high quality throughout and the stories were all a pleasure to read.
Chuck Rothman’s novels Staroamer’s Fate and Syron’s Fate were recently republished by Fantastic Books.
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The Umbrella Academy Season 3: Cancelled?
admin Leave a Comment on The Umbrella Academy Season 3: Cancelled? Posted in Entertainment
The Umbrella Academy is an American origin sci-fi superhero fantasy black comedy-drama series. The series is crafted by Steve Blackman.
IS THE UMBRELLA ACADEMY SEASON 3 CANCELLED??
Netflix has not made any official confirmation about the famous show The Umbrella Academy with the next season three as of now the fans of this show have come up with there speculation about the third season which is unavoidable. This series’s last season finale episode in the second season has left the fans with a lot of questions which are not answered to them and are unexplored; there is a lot of the story which are not answered and that it would almost not to be logical for the fans to not come up with another season of this series.
Though with all this news going around, Netflix is not famous for it, canceling its shows from anywhere, the second season of this famous series The Umbrella Academy was one of best series it also Topped on the Ten Watch List of the platform of Netflix for many of the weeks, since it was broadcasted this year. There were a lot of good reviews and a growing mysterious storyline for the fans that it does want to go with, it is quite sure that the show will come back for another season probably.
THE UMBRELLA ACADEMY STORYLINE!!
The first season of this famous show The Umbrella Academy had the plot from the first series of the Dark Horse comic, The Apocalypse Suite, and the second season of this have been made. With all this information around, there is a probability of which that third season of this how will come again.
Whereas of which parts of this series third season plot will adapt and the second season revealed to the fans that they are going to watch more of the mysterious Sparrow Academy in the next season. While there has not been any featuring in the comics yet, and there is a thought that they appear to be a more good form of their Umbrella parts. As shown in Hotel Oblivion, their main character is Luther without the ape body but the role of Ben is visible to occupy their role in the show.
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Reckoning With DadJWTAdmin2020-05-10T15:47:48-07:00
Reckoning with Dad
Explore those moments in our lives when we either make peace or war with our fathers. Anyone who has a father, or is a father or knows a father, will love this show.
Curated & Produced by Ronda Spinak
Directed by Ellyn Gersh Lerner
Dramaturge Lisa Rosenbaum
South Bay Producer Liz Altman
San Francisco Producer Carol Kirsh
Associate Producers: Barbara Koletsky, Susie Yuré & Rose Ziff
Carmunication
Written by Cindy Chupack. Performed by Lauren Aboulafia or Jessica Carleton, Robert Trebor, Melanie Chartoff and Lisa Robins.
Path of Least Resistance
Written by Bara Swain. Performed by Melanie Chartoff, Robert Trebor and Lisa Robins.
Dad Comes By
Written by Gail Israel. Performed by Lisa Robins.
Dad Was in the Army
Written by Ellen Switkes. Lauren Aboulafia or Jessica Carleton and Robert Trebor.
Written by Arla Sorkin Manson. Performed by Melanie Chartoff.
Written by Lisa Rosenbaum. Performed by Robert Trebor and Lisa Robins.
Written by Barbara Bottner. Performed by Lauren Aboulafia
or Jessica Carleton and Robert Trebor.
Bag of Cherries
Written by Leah Kornfeld Friedman. Performed by Lisa Robins.
Dad, Me & Carnegie Hall
Written by Michele Brourman. Performed by Melanie Chartoff and Robert Trebor.
An Apology
Written by Jessica Newman. Performed by Lauren Aboulafia or Jessica Carleton.
Matzohrella Fella
Written by Melanie Chartoff. Performed by Melanie Chartoff, Robert Trebor, and Lisa Robins.
Tribute to My Father
Written by Rosanne Ziering. Performed by Lisa Robins.
True Little Poem
Written by Alison Luterman. Performed by Melanie Chartoff.
LAUREN ABOULAFIA (Actor)
LAUREN ABOULAFIA (Actor) is thrilled to be a part of the Jewish Women’s Theatre, as her two loves are theatre and Jews. Lauren graduated from the University of Washington with a BA in theatre and studied at the British Drama Academy in London, where she played Rosalind in As You Like It, one of her favorite roles. Lauren has performed onstage at Interlochen and the Williamstown Theatre Festival and has participated in comedy troupes at the Groundlings and UCB. She recently appeared on Mistresses and Mixology on ABC and was one of the leads in the indie comedy $50K and a Call Girl: A Love Story. She’ll be performing her solo show, Moving On Up, at JWT this year.
BARBARA BOTTNER (Writer)
BARBARA BOTTNER (Writer) writes for adults and kids. Her over forty books for children and teenagers have garnered national awards, appeared on the New York Times bestseller list as well as the ‘best of’ lists from Bank Street, Amazon and others. Her award-winning animations appeared on the Electric Company and Sesame Street and Jim Henson sang her lyrics. She’s written for children’s television, full length features and was staff for a CBS prime time sit-com. Her short stories appeared in Cosmopolitan, Playgirl, essays, humor and criticism in the LAWEEKLY, The Miami Herald and New York Times. Her editorial art was used in the New York Times Op Ed section as well as in Ms. Magazine. As an actress, she traveled through Europe with Ellen Stewart’s Café La Mama, and worked with Sam Shepherd and many others. She’s an award-winning teacher, currently to a talented bunch of LA authors. She is completing a free-verse YA novel, I See Thunder.
MICHELE BROURMAN (Writer)
MICHELE BROURMAN (Writer) is a Johnny Mercer Songwriter Award winner whose songs have been recorded by Reba McIntyre, Olivia Newton-John, Donny Osmond, and more. Her best-known song, “My Favorite Year,” recorded by Michael Feinstein, Cleo Laine, and Margaret Whiting, has become a cabaret standard. Broadway World recently wrote: “Brourman is an unquestionably amazing talent whose music should be heard by the whole world.” She composed the score for Dangerous Beauty, produced at the Pasadena Playhouse, with lyricist Amanda McBroom. She and McBroom have created the songs for seventeen animated features for Universal Studios, including the beloved Land Before Time series. Her musical I Married Wyatt Earp, with lyrics by Sheilah Rae, was produced Off-Broadway, and her songs have been featured in television and film. Michele is particularly proud that her songs have been included in several recent productions by the Jewish Women’s Theater. A gifted musical director, she’s worked with exceptional artists like Dixie Carter, Tovah Feldshuh and Bernadette Peters, and played piano in Bob Dylan’s band. Michele’s CD, Fools and Little Children, is available online.
JESSICA HONOR CARLETON (Actor)
JESSICA HONOR CARLETON (Actor) is an actress and writer who has been honored to win three National Daytime Emmy Awards, including Outstanding Performer in a Children’s Series (2014). Carleton was a series regular, head writer, and the puppet/makeup designer on more than 400 episodes of the national children’s TV show Green Screen Adventures (MeTV). She’s written for various animated series as well, including Curious George, Martha Speaks, and Nature Cat. Performance TV credits include Chicago Fire and Svengoolie. A Chicago native, Carleton’s theatre credits include The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter at Steppenwolf Theatre (playing Mick Kelly), In the Company of Men at Profiles Theatre (Christine), and Crippled Sisters in the New Stages Series at Goodman Theatre. Carleton is a graduate of Northwestern University in theatre and creative writing for the media. Thanks to Rose for making this LA dream possible, and to Jewish Women’s Theatre for inviting me into your artistic community.
MELANIE CHARTOFF (Actor/Writer)
MELANIE CHARTOFF (Actor/Writer) is an inventor of stories and characters for the page, stage, and screen. As an actress, she’s best known for roles in series such as ABC’s late-night comedy show Fridays, Parker Lewis Can’t Lose, The Newhart Show, Ally McBeal, and Touched by an Angel. She won a Dramalogue Award for the LA premiere of March of the Falsettos and acclaim for her performances in ACT San Francisco’s Sunday in the Park with George, The Vagina Monologues in Chicago, and Beyond Therapy at LA’s Coronet Theater. She can be heard daily somewhere in the world voicing characters such as Didi on Nickleodeon’s long running Rugrats and its spin-offs, movies, and games. She’s written lyrics and book and costars in her upcoming two-character play with music, Fine Lines, and is a columnist for the Huffington Post and the Jewish Journal. She hails from the East Coast stages of Long Wharf Theater, Yale University, and off- and on Broadway (Scapino, Via Galactica, Do I Hear a Waltz). She currently enhances people’s public personae in her Charismatizing Improvising Coaching and Classes. For more information, visit her websites: (www.melaniechartoff.com)(www.chartoffteaching.com).
CINDY CHUPACK (Writer)
CINDY CHUPACK (Writer) has won two Emmys and three Golden Globes as a TV writer/producer whose credits include Modern Family, Sex and the City, and Everybody Loves Raymond, and she’s currently in New York working on an upcoming HBO show called Divorce starring Sarah Jessica Parker and Thomas Hayden Church. A longer version of this story about her dad appears in her New York Times bestseller “The Between Boyfriends Book,” and her new comic memoir about marriage “The Longest Date: Life as a Wife” is now available in paperback.
LEAH KORNFELD FRIEDMAN (Writer)
LEAH KORNFELD FRIEDMAN (Writer) received her MFA from Brooklyn College and has been a lecturer at Smith College, SUNY Albany, and Brooklyn College. In addition to three Yaddo Fellowships, Leah was a playwright-in-residence at the University of Pittsburgh and has won numerous awards, including the New York Foundation for the Arts Playwrights Fellowship and the National Foundation for Jewish Culture Playwrights Award. Her plays have been produced at the American Jewish Theatre, Theatre for the New City, National Jewish Theatre, Cherry Lane Theatre, and the Gaslamp Quarter Theatre, among others. Her screenplay, Should’ve Been Romeo, features Ed Asner, Carol Kane, Paul Ben-Victor, and Michael Rappaport. Her book, Essie Finkelstein, Monologues for an Actress, has recently been published. Leah is proud to be the Playwright-in-Residence for 2015 at the 13th Street Repertory Theatre in New York City, where every month one of her plays is given a staged reading.
GAIL ISRAEL (Writer)
GAIL ISRAEL (Writer). Gail Israel’s love of writing began in the second grade with her unexpectedly poignant short story The Very Lonely Latke. Since then she has written poetry, short stories, picture books, and two young adult novels. She recently received an MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults from Hamline University and is currently working on a collection of short stories. Her poems have been recognized for distinction by Writer’s Digest. She is grateful to be a longstanding member of Barbara Bottner’s master class for writers. Gail is married and has two amazing adult children.
BARBARA KOLETSKY (Associate Producer)
BARBARA KOLETSKY (Associate Producer) has most recently worked on the production side of Jewish Women’s Theatre. Prior to that, for three seasons she was responsible for catering. Now Barbara is thrilled to be moving into stage management for JWT at The Braid. Barbara is also the owner of RSVP Party Planning, where as an experienced party planner she has produced many events, specializing in charitable organizations but with many corporate and private clients as well. Barbara was born in New York and moved to California for a career in marketing and promotions for Polygram Records and Elektra Atlantic Corp. She regularly volunteers at the Grossman Burn Center with her service dog, Rodney.
ELLYN GERSH LERNER (Director)
ELLYN GERSH LERNER (Director), a native Angeleno, has directed several salon shows for JWT, including Oh Mother, The Art of Forgiveness, and God Plans and Woman Laughs. Last year Ellyn co-wrote a play on artist and activist Ivy Bottini and is a frequent respondent for the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival. A longtime faculty member at California State University Northridge, Ellyn has taught courses in theatre and the humanities and is particularly fond of integrating theatre into interdisciplinary courses like The Idea of Story. Ellyn is a graduate of Occidental College, Ball State University, and UCLA, where she earned her PhD in theatre. Among the plays she has directed are the off-Broadway premiere of The Pretender, William Inge’s Bus Stop at the University of Michigan, Sophocles’ Electra at the University of North Te
JAMIE LEVINSON (Technical Director)
JAMIE LEVINSON (Technical Director) graduated from Santa Monica High School in 2010. At Allegheny College he acted in two productions, The Cherry Orchard, where he played Yepikhodov, and Servant of Two Masters, where he played Florindo. During his primary education, he appeared in numerous talent shows.
ALISON LUTERMAN (Writer)
ALISON LUTERMAN (Writer) has written books of poems that include The Largest Possible Life (Cleveland State University Press), See How We Almost Fly (Pearl Editions), and Desire Zoo (Tia Chucha Press). She has published poems in The Sun Magazine, Prairie Schooner, Nimrod, Rattle, The Atlanta Review, and many other journals and anthologies. Two of her poems are included in Billy Collins Poetry 180 project at the Library of Congress. Her personal essays have appeared in Salon, The Sun Magazine, The L.A. Review, The New York Times’ Modern Love, and elsewhere. Five of her essays have been collected in the e-book Feral City, published at www.shebooks.net. She has also written half a dozen plays, including a musical about kidney transplantation. Alison has taught and/or been poet-in-residence at New College in San Francisco, Holy Names College in Oakland, the Writing Salon in Berkeley, Esalen and Omega Institutes, the Great Mother Conference, and at various writing retreats all over the country. Check out her website www.alisonluterman.net for more information.
ARLA SORKIN MANSON (Writer)
ARLA SORKIN MANSON (Writer) has written numerous television pilots, including Destiny and Me (ABC), Far from Where (ABC), The Shack (ABC), In the Mood (CBS), Loveland (CBS), and Bethany Gibbs (NBC), and has also written for the television series Against the Law (FOX) and Saved (TNT). Her TV-movie credits include The Wedding Dress (CBS) as executive producer, Mind Games (ABC) as writer/executive producer, and Acts of Contrition (CBS) as supervising producer. Arla’s contributions to Broadway theater include being co-producer on Beth Henley’s The Wake of Jamey Foster and production executive on Christopher Durang’s Beyond Therapy, Tom Dulack’s Solomon’s Child, and the Craig Carnelia musical Is There Life After High School? Arla has served on the board of directors and is currently on the advisory council and the selection committee of the Ojai Playwrights Conference. She dedicates this reading to her husband, David Manson, and her daughter, Lainie Sorkin Becky.
JESSICA NEWMAN (Writer)
JESSICA NEWMAN (Writer) is from Denver, Colorado. By day she serves as the principal at West Career Academy, a public high school that works to graduate students who have dropped out or struggled in regular schools. By night she and her wife, Courtne, are the mommies to a very brand new little boy named Jasper John Newcuff, and will do everything she can to ensure that he enjoys the Colorado outdoors, art and culture, traveling, and following his own little heart as much as she enjoys these things herself.
LISA PEARL ROSENBAUM (Writer/Dramaturge)
LISA PEARL ROSENBAUM (Writer/Dramaturge) is the author of the novel A Day of Small Beginnings (Little, Brown & Co., 2006). Her family history with the 1950’s McCarthy era blacklist inspires her next novel, The King of Cahokia. Lisa lives in Pacific Palisades with her husband, Walt Lipsman. They have two daughters, Ariana and Maya.
RONDA SPINAK (Producer)
RONDA SPINAK (Producer) created and produces JWT’s At-Homes Salon Theatre Series, now in its seventh season. She has curated more than 20 original Jewish-themed salon shows for JWT, as well as adapted many of the pieces performed. She graduated from Stanford University, and holds degrees from UCLA (MBA) and USC (Masters in professional writing). Ronda’s plays include Stories from the Fringe and festival-winner Oscar Wilde’s Wife, a favorite at the Ashland New Play Festival and Dayton’s FutureFest. She has written for the Emmy Award-winning children’s show Rugrats and authored the critically acclaimed nonfiction book ProBodX: Proper Body Exercise (HarperCollins, publisher). Ronda is on the board of the Association for Jewish Theatres and is a member of the Dramatists Guild. She feels blessed to be working with the many talented and inspiring women who give so generously to Jewish Women’s Theatre.
BARA SWAIN (Writer)
BARA SWAIN (Writer) Bara’s plays and monologues have been performed in more than 100 venues in 16 states. NYC theaters include Barrow Group, Abingdon Theatre, Urban Stages, Sam French OOB Festival, Artistic New Directions, Project Y, Kaufmann, Gallery Players, Turnip Theatre, and Ego Actus. Give and Take, Beyond a Reasonable Doubt, Critical Care, and Prized Begonias are published in the Smith & Kraus Best Ten-Minute Play anthologies. Other presses include Applause Books, Original Works Publishing, Meriwether, and Art Age Press. Critical Care is reprinted in the new college textbook Serious Daring: Creative Writing in Four Genres, by Lisa Roney (Oxford U. Press), and serves as a key reading for the craft of playwriting. Honors include Heideman Award Finalist for Aboard the Guy V. Molinari; 2013 City Theatre National Award Finalist for Short Playwriting for The Hotel Lobbyist; and, by special invitation from Burt Reynolds, An Evening with Bara Swain, directed by Mr. Reynolds.
ELLEN SWITKES (Writer)
ELLEN SWITKES (Writer) was founder/producer of Cornucopia, a personal storytelling show that ran for three years at Actors Workout Studio in North Hollywood. For the past eight years she has volunteered with Koreh LA, the literacy program of the Jewish Federation, working with children in LAUSD. Prior to entering the storytelling world, she was an associate producer on Entertainment Tonight and a talent coordinator on The Late Show Starring Joan Rivers.
ROBERT TREBOR (Actor)
ROBERT TREBOR (Actor) had critically acclaimed major roles in John Frankenheimer’s 52 Pick-Up, Oliver Stone’s Talk Radio, Roland Emmerich’s Universal Soldier, and Rob Zombie’s The Devil’s Rejects. He recently finished working on the new Coen Brothers film Hail, Caesar! He is best remembered for playing The Son of Sam opposite Martin Sheen in Out of the Darkness, and Salmoneus on the Hercules and Xena TV series. He began his theatre career in 1973 (with Robin Williams) and more recently won awards for his work in the world premieres of Ravensridge, La Ronde de Lunch, and his one-man show The Return of Brother Theodore. Bob is the author of Dear Salmoneus: The World ‘s First Guide to Love and Money, and And They Pay You for That?? An Actor’s Unreliable Memoir. This latter tome is looking for a publisher. Bob is a recent recipient of bone marrow from an unrelated donor. If you can, please join the National Bone Marrow Registry; it truly is a mitzvah and a lifesaver. Bob is proud to be an artist-in-residence with JWT.
SUSIE YURÉ (Associate Producer)
SUSIE YURÉ (Associate Producer) has volunteered for 30 years in non-profit organizations, in which she has held leadership roles in fundraising, event planning, facilities coordinating, programming, membership, marketing, and administration. Susie has produced musical theatre productions, classical concerts, and cabaret performances and has been intensely involved in the world of theatre for over 20 years. She holds a BA and MA in elementary education from USC, along with her California lifetime teaching credential. Her favorite role is as mom to her two talented (grown) children, who are both professional (and working) musicians.
ROSANNE ZIERING (Writer)
ROSANNE ZIERING (Writer) is a person of many talents and interests and an active philanthropist supporting social, cultural, and environmental causes and institutions. She currently serves on the boards of the Broad Stage in Santa Monica and the Southern California Foster Family and Adoption Agency, in addition to the Los Angeles Review of Books and the Wolf Connection. Rosanne has a strong commitment to social change. In 2008 she became aware of the horrendous issues surrounding foster youth in Los Angeles, particularly youth who were exiting the system due to reaching age 18. To address these, she founded a co-mentoring project called FACE (Foster Alumni Co-Mentoring Experience). The project is still going strong, touching over 50 youth and growing. Rosanne has worked as an environmental educator for the Santa Monica Conservancy, is an avid supporter of the NRDC (National Resources Defense Council) and a member of the Los Angeles NRDC’s Leadership Council. She earned a BS in conservation of natural resources from the University of California, Berkeley, and an MPW (Masters of Professional Writing) from the University of Southern California.
ROSE ZIFF (Associate Producer)
ROSE ZIFF (Associate Producer) is new to performing arts. She came out of retirement after working at UCLA Medical Center for 33 years, where she functioned as “den mother” to more than 1000 interns, residents, and clinical fellows at UCLA, the VA, and Olive View-UCLA Medical Centers, providing resources and support. Rose is currently serving on the Board of Directors for Lev Eisha, a Jewish women’s non-profit religious organization and spiritual community. Her hobbies include gardening, dog training and hosting a monthly book club.
Artistic Director Ronda Spinak and Director Ellyn Gersh Lerner
Lauren Aboulafia explains her father’s method of communication in Cindy Chupak’s “Carmunication.”
Lisa Robins recalls an unexpected visit from her father in Gail Israel’s “Dad Comes By.”
Lauren Aboulafia and Robert Trebor in Ellen Switkes’ piece, “Dad Was in the Army”
Lisa Robins remembers her black-listed dad in Lisa Rosenbaum’s”The Family Secret.”
Melanie Chartoff remembers her father’s love of food in her own piece, “Matzohrella Fella”
Robert Trebor writes a World War II song in Michele Brourman’s “Dad, Me & Carnegie Hall.”
Appreciative audience
Cast takes a bow
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Home » Local » School Choice and Aid to Private Schools
School Choice and Aid to Private Schools
On: 9/17/2004, By , In: Local
The following is part of an occasional series of voter education articles prepared by Catholic Citizenship to help the laity respond to the call to faithful citizenship.
According to the “Catechism of the Catholic Church,” parents are “those first responsible for the education of their children.” The education of children includes not only preparation for future employment, but also preparation to be moral and virtuous adults. The Catechism notes further that it belongs to parents to raise their children according to parental values and beliefs, and “to choose a school for [their children] which corresponds to [the parents’] own convictions.” Schools thus act in furtherance of the parents’ role as educators.
As the Second Vatican Council noted in the Declaration on Religious Liberty, “The civil authority must therefore recognize the right of parents to choose with genuine freedom schools or other means of education.” The American Catholic bishops recognized in their statement on Faithful Citizenship that “No one model or means of education is appropriate to the needs of all persons.” Parents should therefore be able to choose whatever means of education is best for their children, “including private and religious schools.” The “genuine freedom” to select an option other than public education means that there should not be penalties for private, religious or home schooling, and these options should be available even to “families of modest means.”
The rights of parents are also “violated if their children are compelled to attend classes which are not in agreement with the religious beliefs of the parents.” Schools play an important role in the formation of character. Public education as well as private should “provide students with opportunities for moral and spiritual formation to complement their intellectual and physical development,” according to the U.S. Bishops’ statement on Principles for Educational Reform.
This statement acknowledges that “While a commitment to religious liberty excludes mandatory instruction in a particular faith, the religious liberty of students and parents is also violated by an “attitude towards religion … so theoretically neutral as to be anti-religious in practice.” Thus, in any given community, “it is possible to reach consensus” on basic moral and ethical principles, “and teach these shared values” without “teaching a specific religious faith.”
Parents’ duties in choosing schooling for their children extend beyond the selection of a school. The “Code of Canon Law” states, “It is incumbent upon parents to cooperate closely with the school teachers to whom they entrust their children.” Correspondingly, “teachers are to collaborate closely with parents who are to be willingly heard” regarding the education of their children. Parents have not only a right but a duty to be aware of the content of their children’s instruction, whether it is provided by public, private or religious schools.
Special Edition: Catholic Sisters Week 2020
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Fish discarding is environmental vandalism, says North Devon MP Nick Harvey
February 2, 2011 by the Devon Week
Nick Harvey, MP for North Devon has joined the chorus of disapproval calling for an end to EU mandated fishing discards.
“The situation is crazy,” said Nick. “The very system that was put in place to safeguard fishing stocks actually causes needless waste. Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s Fish Fight Campaign is rightly highlighting this issue. However you look at it, forcing fishermen to discard excess quotas and non-commercial species is little more than environmental vandalism.”
Even Defra recognises that the situation is wrong, in an official statement the department said: “Discarding is not good for the environment and is costly for fishermen. It is also seen as a destructive and wasteful practice. We are involved in discussions to ensure that new ways of reducing discards can be taken up at European Community level.”
Nick said: “I am currently lobbying Caroline Spellman, Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs urging her to bring greater pressure on Brussels to review the situation in the run up to the reform of the Common Fisheries policy in 2012.”
Filed Under: News Tagged With: environment, North Devon
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Tim Galpin is a best-selling author, Senior Lecturer of Strategy and Innovation and Academic Director of the MBA program at Saïd Business School, University of Oxford. Audiences of Tim’s speaking engagements and participants in his courses come away with practical know-how, pragmatic actions, and field-tested tools and frameworks to immediately increase cash flow and transform their organizations by:
Maximizing a Strategy’s Full Potential
Securing Exceptional Value from Mergers and Acquisitions
Building M&A as a Core Competence Across the Process
Achieving Fast Paths to Cash as a Start-up
Creating a Culture of Innovation
With over three decades of international professional experience as a management consultant and senior executive, combined with his academic experiences since 2005, Tim Galpin regularly consults to boards and senior management in various industries around the world. Tim helps management to successfully plan and implement complex efforts, including strategy formulation and execution, M&A due diligence and integration, business restructuring, and organizational culture change. His clients have included numerous Fortune 500 and FTSE 100 companies including: Verizon, Newmont Mining, Harrods, UBS, Bank of America, Woodward, Tampa Electric, Macrovision, and Cargill.
Tim has authored five management books which have been published in five languages. Tim has also authored numerous articles for publications including: Mergers & Acquisitions, Strategy and Leadership, Journal of Business Strategy, The Handbook of Business Strategy, World Journal of Entrepreneurship, and Corporate Governance. Tim Galpin’s latest book is Winning at the Acquisition Game, published by Oxford University Press.
As a recognized expert on strategy formulation and execution, mergers and acquisitions, workforce productivity improvement, organizational transformation, and culture change, Tim is often asked by the business media to provide insights on these topics. He has been featured on CNBC, Reuters Television, National Public Radio, and quoted in various publications throughout the world.
Tim Galpin holds a Ph.D. in Organization Development from UCLA and is a former Instructor at the National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS).
University of Oxford Future of Business Podcasts
We sit down with Timothy Galpin, best-selling author, Senior Lecturer of Strategy and Innovation and Academic director of the MBA program at Said Business School to discuss what drives M&A, the problems encountered, and the waves of M&A over the years.
Tim Galpin discusses M&A: Past, Present and the Future
Tim Galpin is included in:
The Guru Guide: The best ideas of the top management thinkers
“A savvy guide to the ideas driving business conversation” – Fast Company
The Guru Guide is a concise digest of the key ideas from 79 of the world’s most influential management experts. It provides instant access to the best thinking on leadership, managing change, teamwork, managing and motivating people, business strategy, and other management topics of crucial importance to any business professional.
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The difficult decisions to make in old age
I recently received a difficult but thoughtful post from a dear old friend in Chicago. It poses the kind of important decision all of us must face from time to time; hers has come at the time of the approaching New Year.
When I say “dear,” I mean we have been friends for 62-plus years. When I say “old,” I mean on the cusp of 90. Now, she is in an assisted living facility in that same city, fighting kidney disease. In her case, the body is weak, but the mind is strong. Very strong. And that’s her dilemma for Rosh Hashanah.
Friend Bobbie has two daughters — one in Pennsylvania, the other quite close to her in Chicago. The nearby one has Parkinson’s. She would now like to relocate to be closer to her sister and three nieces in the same area; she has a good husband and one daughter (but she is away at college) and is anticipating need for support for herself as her disease progresses. She herself has been her mother’s primary support for a long, long time, and she wants to take her mother along with her.
Bobbie is nothing if not a realist. “I’m really not wanting to move,” she writes, “and they all know that. My friends are all gone now. My daughter and son-in-law are all the family I have here, and I’m not strong enough to live without them nearby…too many runs to the ER. And it’s a toss of the coin now when I will go into end-stage 5 kidney failure.”
Dialysis would be the only thing to keep Bobbie alive at this point, and she doesn’t know yet if that’s even a possibility — or if she would even want it if it is. In a few days, the vascular surgeon will determine if her veins are strong enough to handle a fistula — and that would take up to three months of healing before it’s ready for use. “They could make an entry into my stomach,” she writes. “Then I could do my own dialysis at home every evening. But it may mean there’s already too much calcification for anything to be done. If so, I’ll be gone within a month.”
Her mind is still 100 percent, which she now calls both a strength and a curse. She hasn’t even said she’d want dialysis, given the advanced gravity of her disease. “I have to educate myself more on the subject to make an informed decision,” she says. “On the positive side, I still have some time ahead of me. But I’m physically feeling my age, and I’m fighting a kind of depression: I’d like not to have to think about this all the time, but that’s impossible, since everything I do is a constant reminder…”
My old friend Bobbie has never been a quitter. She’s faced some very difficult life situations — a sad divorce; an addicted son she’s had to cut entirely out of her life to ensure her own peace and safety. This current dilemma shows she isn’t quitting now. She’d like to live, but she doesn’t yet know if there’s much time left for living, or if the strain of a major move might take the greater part or all of it. That’s her reality.
The one thing she has never mentioned is wanting to die. Some in her position might wish for death, might even think suicide. Not Bobbie. But “This live-or-die stuff is getting to me,” she says. “It’s as though the Sword of Damocles is hanging over my head…” Yet her sign-off tells me she’s getting ready to go to her living facility’s Labor Day party!
What’s the best response to a post like that? “Shanah Tovah” certainly can’t be right. But I’ll send her what support I can over the miles as she makes the (perhaps final) decision(s) of her life. So I ask: Please add my friend to your own prayer lists. Debbie Friedman’s prescient words, “for renewal of (body and) spirit,” invoke the only thing possible now.
Post category:Columnists / In My Mind's I by Harriet Gross
Interesting shofar facts
Rachofsky’s genius will be missed
More Holocaust stories coming to light lately
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tracing the arctic regions
Crowdsourcing a Census for a Celebrated Book of Arctic Photography
September 1, 2015 September 18, 2015 / GP
The Arctic Regions is a celebrated 1873 book that represents the first photographic survey of Greenland’s western coast.
Part of a dissertation project at Stanford University, undertaken in the Center for Spatial and Textual Analysis and the Department of Art & Art History, this website hosts a dynamic census, a current list of all known extant copies of the book. If you know of copies not listed below, please contact George Philip LeBourdais to make an addition. NB: The locations and identities of private collectors will remain confidential.
The Arctic Regions: Illustrated with Photographs Taken on an Art Expedition to Greenland was produced by William Bradford (1823-1892), an accomplished marine painter from the maritime hub of New Bedford, Massachusetts. Among his crew were the distinguished Arctic explorer Dr. Isaac Israel Hayes and two Boston-based photographers, John L. Dunmore and George Critcherson. With Bradford’s direction and cooperation, they produced an impressive collection of glass plate collodion negatives with large wooden view cameras. While Bradford projected these images from the expedition in popular lectures on his time in “The Frigid Zone,” The Arctic Regions itself was a luxury publication for private art collectors, measuring 20 x 25 inches and combining narrative text with 141 albumen photographs depicting glacial landscapes and native “Esquimaux” peoples.
As such the volume marks the end of a golden age of photography, during which glass negatives were hand printed and set into the text of large-format books. While the Fleet Street, London-based publisher planned for 300 copies – Queen Victoria and glacier scientist John Tyndall were among the initial subscribers – far fewer copies were completed, due in part to the hefty price tag of 25 guineas (more than $5,000 USD in today’s currency). Thanks to the New Bedford Whaling Museum, the book was republished in a smaller, more accessible format in 2013.
Embracing innovative techniques in the digital humanities, this census makes an important contribution to scholarship on William Bradford, the history of photography, and American art. The information it compiles will be analyzed in the dissertation and represented in a series of digital maps. Sharing and forwarding the link to this site will help to expand knowledge of The Arctic Regions, as well as of the swiftly changing place it depicts.
American Art, arctic, Art, Art History, Digital Humanities, exploration, photography
arctic, art history, glacier, Greenland, iceberg, Inuit, Libraries, Museums, ocean, photography, Research, sailing, Stanford University
One thought on “Tracing “The Arctic Regions””
Good blog you have got here.. It’s difficult to find high-quality writing like yours
these days. I really appreciate individuals like you!
arctic art history glacier Greenland iceberg Inuit Libraries Museums ocean photography Research sailing Stanford University
Quincy on Tracing “The Arctic…
glebourd [at] stanford [dot] edu
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Posts About "Marty Turco"
Top 3 All-Time Stars Goalies
January 5th, 2021 Arguably the most important position in sports, a goalie can steal a game or playoff series. A goalie can also break the hearts of loyal fans and cost a coach their job. An NHL goalie is the ultimate last line of defense. There has been a lot of talk about the Dallas Stars goaltending over the past few seasons. And today we review...
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June 22nd, 2018 From Todd Harvey, the teams inaugural draft pick in 1993, to Dylan Ferguson, its most recent draft pick in 2017, and everything in between, the Stars have made a total of 203 selections in its 25 year history. Choosing five of the best wasn't easy. Before you get upset when you realize that Mike Modano, Neal Broten, Derian Hatcher, or...
A Brief History of Puck-Moving NHL Goalies
November 14th, 2017 There’s more to goaltending than stopping the puck. Like any other player on the ice, NHL goalies read the play in order to contribute to puck movement and defensive zone breakouts. Pioneering netminders like Jacques Plante added puck movement to the goaltending repertoire, while later goalies like Ron Hextall ventured out of the...
5 Best Late Round Draft Picks of the Dallas Stars
May 25th, 2015 The 2015 NHL draft is a month away (June 25th & 26th) in Sunrise, Florida. It will be the Stars 23rd draft since moving to Dallas. Draft day marks the culmination of a yearlong scouting effort. While the 1st round garners most attention, often times it is a hidden gem in the late rounds that leads to organizational...
The Best #26-37 in Dallas Stars Franchise History
February 17th, 2015 Inching closer to the trade deadline, the Stars recently switched up their goalie tandem in a trade for the Sabres' Jhonas Enroth. With goaltending on the mind, we look at the jersey numbers 26 through 38. Some of the best and most notorious goaltenders in Dallas Stars and Minnesota North Stars history held these numbers, and it’s time...
The Four Senators Drafted Ahead of Daniel Alfredsson
November 22nd, 2012 written by @iancmclaren A quick look at the 1994 NHL Draft board reveals that the standout player of that particular class is, without question, Daniel Alfredsson. In 1131 games played (second only to Ryan Smith's 1151) the man known simply as Alfie has amassed 416 goals & 666 assists for a total of 1082 career points, a clear...
Will Ray Emery Supplant Corey Crawford in Chicago?
October 2nd, 2012 It hasn’t been since the 2007-08 NHL season that the Chicago Blackhawks played the entire season with a true #1 goaltender. Even during that season, starter Nikolai Khabibulin only played in 50 of the team’s 82 games, losing a significant amount of ice time due to injury. Since the end of the 2008 season, the ‘Hawks have...
Top 30 Ice Hockey Bloopers (Part II - Picks 16-30)
August 1st, 2012 A little bit over a month ago, I made a list of the top 15 ice hockey bloopers. While some bloopers might not have made the top 15 list, several more videos were compiled in order to give hockey fans a few more laughs when looking at the lighter side of the sport. Since hockey can be such a demanding sport for players and coaches, it is...
Much Ado About Flames Goalie #2
July 13th, 2012 The Calgary Flames have certainly addressed one area of concern this offseason, as the additions of Jiri Hudler, Roman Cervenka, and Dennis Wideman have certainly elevated the skill level of the team. The Flames have relied on gritty Sutter-esque hockey for the good part of a decade and are finally beginning to employ players whose...
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March 13th, 2012 Jim Neveau, Senior NHL Columnist Even though it feels like they get together every week or so, the 30 General Managers of the NHL are meeting yet again in Boca Raton, Florida for a summit on rule changes that they want to add to the game. There aren’t any major ones on the docket (changing the way standings points are allocated,...
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March 11th, 2012 By Bob Mand, Contributing Editor The Boston Bruins dropped their second consecutive matinee game to the Pittsburgh Penguins, 5-2 in the Steel City thanks to some porous first-period defense (three goals allowed) and the losses of four players for all or part of the game due to injury. The Penguins won their ninth consecutive game...
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Entertainment Arts Alia Shawkat apologises for saying N-word during 2016 interview
Alia Shawkat apologises for saying N-word during 2016 interview
Instagram post in the midst of the Black Lives Matter protests in the United States
Alia Shawkat apologised for using the N word. Picture:Instagram
Lydia Koh
EntertainmentArtsCelebrityLifestyle
Actress Alia Shawkat, 31, has apologised after a 2016 video clip of her saying the N-word reappeared recently.
Alia, whose father is Arab, is believed to be the girlfriend of Brad Pitt, 56.
In an apology on Instagram, she said that felt “ashamed and embarrassed” for using a line that had a racial slur from Drake and Soulja Boy’s 2013 single We Made It. The actress said she should not have said the word as it is not to be used by someone who is not black. She had used the line in an interview at the South By Southwest Festival four years ago.
In the video, the context of which is not known, she responded to a query: “I mean, everyone was so excited when we all came back. Like we were all in the penthouse together and everyone was looking around like, ‘N***a we made it’. You know what I mean?”
The apology came in the midst of the Black Lives Matter protests in the United States.
Alia said she took full responsibility, that it was reckless of her and that she hoped to learn from the experience. She also said that she regretted using a word that is attached to pain and history to black people.
Alia Shawkat used a racist slur which caused a backlash. Picture:Instagram
Alia then talked about the lessons she had been going through recently. She said she had been learning a lot about what it means to be an ally and how the voices of black people must be amplified and heard.
She stressed how important it was to be hyper-vigilant in the spaces in which she existed.
Recently, Alia has been showing her support for the BLM movement. The movement was revived following the death of a black, George Floyd, at the hands of a police officer. /TISG
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Home > Exhibition > Oliver Jones: Divine
Oliver Jones Divine (detail)
studio image of work in progress, 2016. Photo: the artist
Oliver Jones is known for his photorealist chalk drawings, which consider how the media advertises, manipulates and exploits imagery of flesh. For his solo exhibition at The New Art Gallery Walsall, Oliver has created a new large-scale multi-panel work, Divine (2016), taking the studio of the tattoo artist as its subject.
Emblematic of a religious altarpiece, the triptych refers to Laocoön and His Sons, an ancient marble sculpture in the Vatican regarded as an icon of human agony and suffering. Through the work, Oliver prompts questions about the psychology of extreme procedures in the attainment of physical perfection.
Oliver Jones was born in Shropshire in 1985 and works from his studio in Birmingham. In 2014 he presented ‘Love the Skin You’re In’, his first North American solo show at GUSFORD| los angeles, and was shortlisted for the Young Masters Art Prize. His work continues to be shown nationally and internationally including notable collections in Los Angeles, Frankfurt and Istanbul and was also shortlisted for the 2015 John Ruskin Prize.
Watch the video: Artist Oliver Jones discusses the Divine installation at The New Art Gallery Walsall.
5 August — 20 November 2016
Oliver Jones, Divine, 2016. Triptych, chalk pastel on paper.Photo: David Rowan.
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About The Prairie News
Contact WTAMU
The Prairie News Staff
The PRAIRIE
LGBTQ members speak out about community
Savannah Wesley
Members of Spectrum during one of their weekly meetings. Meetings are 7 p.m. Thursdays in the Classroom Center Room 335.
Allegra Mora, Senior Reporter
Spectrum, the gay-straight alliance on campus has been a leader in bringing awareness and acceptance into the campus community. Members of Spectrum push for the rights and liberties of the LGBTQ community across campus and elsewhere in the area. Coming out is a monumental point in time in many people’s lives. Many have felt tension and anxiety when coming out, but so many more are welcomed with open arms.
Senior Carolina Brea originally came to West Texas A&M University to be an equine industry and business major but chose English before the start of her freshman year.
“I also liked the size of WT,” Brea said, “and the fact that Palo Duro Canyon is very close.”
Brea identifies as bisexual and has felt accepted on campus and throughout the community. She is from Dallas and didn’t know what to expect coming to a smaller town, but she said she was pleasantly surprised.
“Of course there are still some places and people who aren’t as welcoming,” Brea said. “But I’ve found it easy to avoid negativity and focus on positive attitudes.”
Freshman Danny Abbott identifies as a bisexual and transgender. He said he’s lived in Canyon his entire life so West Texas A&M University was an easy choice to make.
“Though I was initially timid about staying home, I found a great support system at Spectrum WT,” Abbott said.
According to Abbott, his parents have always been supportive of him, even when he came out. His parents have always been accepting and understanding but Abbott knows that not everyone thinks the same way as his parents do.
“I frankly don’t care if strangers accept me or not,” Abbott said. “Not everybody is going to accept who I am, but strangers aren’t important, friends and family are.”
Abbott feels accepted both on campus and in the community. He recently confided in a professor who was very open and accepting with him.
“Since we live in West Texas, there’s a certain expectation that not everybody has an open mind, but that’s simply not true,” Abbott said. “I just had to look in the right places for support.”
As far as politics goes, Abbott said he does feel some anxiety about the current political climate.
“A lot of people are standing up for their rights nowadays, including the LGBTQ community,” Abbott said, “as long as there are people willing to fight for LGBTQ rights, I don’t believe they can ever be completely taken away.”
Junior dance major Alice Kaia identifies as transgender, demisexual and lesbian.
“I was looking for a cheap art school,” Kaia said. “I wanted something that was completely different from where I’d grown up.”
Coming out, Kaia’s mother was the one who initially approached her about it. Kaia was originally skeptical about coming out to her father, because she was unsure how he would respond.
“My mother has been completely accepting,” Kaia said.
Kaia is definitely worried how the current political climate will affect her future. She worries about how certain laws could eliminate her rights as a transgender woman.
“I don’t know what that could do,” Kaia said. “If people are just gonna be quiet about it then other people are just going to do it.[pass new laws]”
Kaia is part of a podcast called “Users Guide to ____”. Kaia started this podcast with fellow WTAMU student, Annie Godinez. She says the purpose of the podcast is to clear misconceptions and spread a message of knowledge and positivity. In regards to the current political climate, Kaia released a statement on the podcast regarding the current administration and what needs to be done in order to create change.
“Since then [the announcement of new laws] they’ve made moves to deconstruct the progress and the rights that we obtained during the Obama administration,” Kaia said. “It is our responsibility to use whatever platforms we have available to us.”
Spectrum’s goal is to create a community for people to come together and share their ideas and broaden the knowledge of the LGBTQ community.
“We are no different where it really matters,” Kaia said. “We’re all just trying to be happy in the way we see fit.”
I’m Allegra. I am an English Education major and I am also in the Gender Studies program. I really like writing and getting people’s stories out there....
Savannah Wesley, Editor-in-Chief
My name is Savannah Wesley and I am the Editor-in-Chief for The Prairie News. I am a broadcast journalism major and a senior from Tulia, Texas. I want...
The politics of wearing a mask
Kylie Scott named WTAMU Intern of the Year
Conservatives flood alternative social media platforms
The paws that walked the halls of the White House
COVID-19 continues to spread on campus
Randy Ray: From bass player to professor
Homecoming during a different time
Media Communication Association Online Event
Communication Department Head Dr. Trudy Hanson set to retire from WTAMU
Greenlighting season during COVID-19
Serving the West Texas A&M University community since 1919.
Sybil B. Harrington Fine Arts Complex Room 268
Mailing: WTAMU Box 60754
Canyon, Texas 79016
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Mexico Cannabis Legalization Could Change The Industry
by The Real Dirt | Dec 1, 2020 | 420 News, Blog, Cannabis Law, Cannabis Law and Compliance, Culture
The United States will soon be sandwiched between two nations with federally legalized cannabis.
The United States of America is close to becoming stuck between two countries with legal cannabis. Canada legalized cannabis in 2018, and Mexico is currently moving forward legislation that would legalize cannabis across the country.
The U.S. missed the opportunity to get its own markets, the NASDAQ and the New York Stock Exchange, involved when Canada legalized due to the Department of Justice’s leadership at the time. However a legal cannabis market in Mexico would be bigger, and likely already well-established due to the illicit markets there compared to Canada.
United States Legalization
The full blown legalization of cannabis on the federal level in the United States hasn’t even become a part of the conversation. While likely president-to-be Joe Biden has said he wants to decriminalize cannabis, and the MORE Act sits in the House aiming to do the same thing, a federal legalization that would establish an nationwide legal marketplace, tax system, etc. is not on the horizon yet.
Many don’t see an issue with the country’s lack of legalization at this point considering there are only six states left in the Union that still keep cannabis fully illegal, i.e. not decriminalized, medical or recreational. That means that the other 44 states all have cannabis laws on the books that either reduce penalties for cannabis or legalize it medically or recreationally.
The real issue is that if Mexico does indeed legalize cannabis, the country would have a massive cannabis industry. Due to the current laws in the United States, we would be missing out on a huge opportunity. Unfortunately that is looking like the most plausible outcome at the moment.
Interstate commerce in the cannabis industry doesn’t even exist in the U.S., let alone a system that would allow American cannabis companies to work alongside, collaborate or do business with Mexican cannabis companies. If the Mexico cannabis legalization passes, it should be a wake up call to the U.S. government that we are missing out on massive financial opportunities with our neighbors to the north and the south.
Mexico Cannabis Legalization
The Mexico cannabis legalization bill will establish a regulated cannabis market to allow those eighteen and older (the drinking age in Mexico is also eighteen) to purchase and possess up to 28 grams of cannabis. It also allows a personal cultivation provision for individuals to cultivate up to four plants for personal use.
While the bill is looking promising, there are still some technical requirements that need to be hammered out before outright passage, including whether or not the government should be able to track personal cultivation use. Mexico seeks to regulate and legalize the plant, put strict controls on ownership and the supply chain in place, and to engage in domestic and, most importantly, international commerce surrounding cannabis.
International commerce surrounding cannabis in which the United States likely won’t be allowed to participate. However it won’t be an easy path for Mexico either.
Mexico has a long history of drug-related crime ran by gangs known as cartels which control distribution of a plethora of narcotics to entire regions of the country and South America. Cannabis has been a staple of cartels for decades, and took a major hit when states in the U.S. began to legalize, followed by Canada’s federal legalization which did even more damage.
While it is too soon to say who will be running and operating in the industry when/if it becomes federally legal, it is likely a safe guess that some cartels will “go legal” and distribute their cannabis across the country legally in order to profit again.
The Growing International Cannabis Industry
Mexico wouldn’t be the first neighbor to our south that has legalized cannabis. Uruguay legalized cannabis for recreational use all the way back in 2013. It wouldn’t be until 2017 that the country began sales of legal cannabis, but the country has seen success.
Additionally in Latin America, some form of medical cannabis is allowed in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Paraguay, and Peru. Ecuador has reformed its Criminal Code, which opens the door to developing access to cannabis for “therapeutic, palliative or medicinal” purposes. A legal market in Mexico could encourage more Latin American countries to follow suit, creating a new international cannabis industry.
The United States has been a leader in cannabis reform and legalization despite cannabis still remaining illegal on the federal level. However with Canada to the north and Mexico to the south, that could all change. As these markets develop and grow, they will be able to compete, outpace and outperform the American cannabis industries that still operate at the state level.
If Mexico cannabis legalization goes through, the entire conversation surrounding cannabis legalization in the U.S. will likely shift. We have to decide if we want to stay stuck in the past with dated, discriminatory laws that do more harm than good, or move forward with our neighbors and the rest of the world as cannabis becomes an unstoppable global industry.
The Shady Politics of the MORE Act Vote and Cannabis Legalization [Opinion]
by Travis Crane | Sep 23, 2020 | 420, 420 News, Blog, Cannabis Law, Cannabis Law and Compliance, Culture, Opinion, Stranger Than Fiction
Has cannabis always been political?
While in most of our lifetimes cannabis has been illegal, it wasn’t always that way. In fact it was the complete opposite until the early 1900s.
Believe it or not, cannabis has been used for thousands of years, with traces of the plant being smoked as far back as 2,500 years. Its first use dates all the way back to 2727 BC in China where it was considered a legitimate medication. Traditional uses of cannabis for medicine might not have been as popular in the west, but that doesn’t mean the cannabis plant wasn’t just as essential.
A very brief prohibitionist history
Not only was cannabis legal prior to the 1930s, it was an essential crop. The ships that brought the colonists to America had sails made entirely from hemp fibers. Colonists were “encouraged” by law from the Queen to grow hemp as one of their staple crops.
In the 1700s and 1800s, extractions from the hemp and cannabis plant were used for medicine all over the country. In 1830, it was used to treat insomnia and migraines, and it acted as a pain reliever. From 1850 to 1942, the United States Pharmacopoeia recognized it as a legal medicine by the name “Extractum Cannabis.”
It wouldn’t be until the 1920s that the United States government would begin to lay restrictions on cannabis cultivation in the form of taxes put on farmers. After a racist, propagandized anti-cannabis movement led by Henry Anslinger, the government eventually created the Marihuana Tax Act of 1937. This made it basically impossible for farmers to buy, sell or profit off of cannabis production.
The rest, as they say, is history.
The rise of the cannabis movement
Cannabis use and production certainly continued in the illicit markets across the country after prohibition in the United States. Almost 40 years after cannabis was made illegal, genetics and cultivation techniques from Europe (Holland specifically) where hydroponics was a rapidly growing industry made their way to the states.
This revolutionized how we cultivated cannabis, creating more potent cannabis with higher yields. An explosion in cannabis consumption during the 60s and 70s when the “hippy” movement took off created a perfect storm that birthed a new and booming, albeit illegal, industry in the U.S..
With a growing interest in cannabis came a renewed desire to look at why it became illegal in the first place. The reality being that the main propaganda used to make cannabis illegal was based on racist ideologies against Latinos and African Americans. A thirst for justice and the knowledge of a shameful past created a movement that continues to this day.
The movement to legalize cannabis.
The politics of cannabis legalization
The United States is a unique beast. It is the collation of 50 different states, all of which can create their own laws as long they abide the federal law put forth by the federal government. This is why half the country has legal cannabis, and the other half will still throw someone in jail for years just for having a little bit of cannabis in the car.
In a way this makes sense, as the people of the state dictate how the politicians vote. This would imply that in states where cannabis is still illegal, the people there must want it that way. But this is rarely the case. In fact, roughly two-thirds of Americans support legalization of cannabis.
So if the majority of people think cannabis should be legal, and over half the states in the country have gone ahead and just done it themselves, why hasn’t the federal government done anything?
Well that answer is easy…politics.
This article was written shortly after the news of the House of Representatives delaying their vote on the MORE Act. This bill would remove cannabis from the controlled substances list (where it is currently listed as Schedule 1 alongside heroin) and expunge criminal records of those convicted of small cannabis-related crimes.
In the United States, Democrats are considered the “progressive” party. Meaning they are the party that would normally push for something like cannabis legalization. The MORE Act itself was drafted with bipartisan efforts from Republicans and Democrats alike. Yet it was moderate democrats that voted to postpone the vote on the bill.
Why would this be? After all, the Democrats hold the majority in the House and could easily vote the bill through to the senate to begin deliberations.
Additionally the Democrats didn’t decide to postpone the vote just a few days or a couple weeks, they postponed it until at least after the election in November between now sitting President Donald Trump and Joe Biden. It might seem irrelevant, but there’s a real, shady, shitty reason that they did this.
The “BIG” announcement
You see, it just so happens that coincidentally, and totally by chance, that the same day that the House of Representatives (i.e. Democrats) decided to postpone the vote, Joe Biden and his running mate Kamala Harris (the Democrat nominees) pledged to decriminalize cannabis, remove it from the scheduled substances list and expunge criminal records.
It’s almost as if the Democrats postponed their House vote until after the election, so that Biden can use it to score points and gain more votes from those who want legal cannabis.
Now, if you haven’t gotten any hints of opinion thus far in this piece, here comes some.
I have a prediction.
Call me crazy, but I think there’s just a slim chance (that’s sarcasm) that if Biden is elected, the House will pass the bill through to the Senate the same week. But if Biden loses, the bill will sit dead in the House for eternity, while Democrats blame Republicans for not letting it pass.
That, my friends, is the true politics of cannabis legalization. It isn’t about figuring out if it’s safe, or can be taxed, or if it’s profitable. We know all of that is true already.
It’s about who gets to take credit, and the letter (D or R) next to their name. For politicians, legalization isn’t about the people. It isn’t about the hundreds of thousands of people in jail for small-time cannabis crimes.
It’s about them!
Are ALL Dispensaries Essential?
by Travis Crane | Mar 25, 2020 | 420 News, Blog, Business, Cannabis Law and Compliance, Culture, Opinion, Stranger Than Fiction
Cannabis dispensaries are being labeled “essential”. Should that also mean legal?
COVID-19, also known as Coronavirus, has completely changed the way we all live. As much as we don’t want to admit it, our everyday lifestyles are changing pretty drastically and the nation, its states, and businesses big and small are all struggling to find a solution.
With several states beginning to shut down “non-essential” businesses, the decision has to be made what businesses are essential. There’s the obvious essential businesses like grocery stores, doctors offices and pharmacies.
But one business most people probably didn’t expect to be marked essential is cannabis dispensaries.
Cannabis dispensaries are essential?
While most states are shutting down all non-essential businesses, exceptions have been made for a variety of businesses in different states. Most states are permitting restaurants to stay open for carry-out only, and in Colorado, you can now get alcohol to go from restaurants that serve beer.
Now in Los Angeles, amid an entire state-wide stay-in order, cannabis dispensaries have been deemed essential businesses that can remain open.
Unfortunately for recreational users, the rule only applies to medical dispensaries, which makes sense. People with a doctor’s prescription for medical cannabis, especially those with serious or debilitating conditions still need access to their medicine.
But if medical dispensaries are essential, and New York has even deemed liquor stores essential, then why shouldn’t recreational dispensaries be essential too?
The question that this really beckons to be answered though, is if medical cannabis dispensaries are essential businesses, why shouldn’t they be federally legal?
A sign we should legalize?
The fact that state governments across the country have deemed medical cannabis dispensaries essential and sales of recreational cannabis have skyrocketed over the past two weeks should be a sign that it is a product that is in great demand, right?
But that doesn’t mean recreational cannabis is as essential as medical cannabis, and as much as we hate to say it here at The Real Dirt, even alcohol.
The reason liquor stores are being permitted to remain open is likely due to the 15 million people across the country who suffer from alcoholism, and a smaller minority that suffers from serious addiction that could lead to serious health problems if they were to quit drinking cold-turkey.
If we continue to insist that cannabis is non-addictive (or at least not as harmfully addictive as alcohol and other pharmaceuticals), then there is no reason for recreational cannabis businesses to be deemed essential.
Nobody needs recreational cannabis to survive, unlike those with medical cards who could seriously rely on it. Where the debate lies, is in the differences between medical and recreational cannabis and how the line drawn between the two is so subtle and blurry.
Where does this lead?
A day after I started writing this, Colorado announced a stay-in-order, including the closure of liquor stores and recreational dispensaries. Not even four hours later, they were forced to walk it back.
There was so much backlash that the Governor of Colorado has now made recreational dispensaries and liquor stores essential businesses.
So while only medical dispensaries are deemed essential in California, recreational dispensaries are added to that list in Colorado. If other states follow behind Colorado and include recreational and medical dispensaries in their essential business orders, it could be a big bargaining chip in the fight for legalization.
If every state with medical and legal cannabis deems the businesses as essential — just as essential as grocery stores, doctor offices, and pharmacies — then how someone seriously argue that it should be illegal? We know the fight we’re in, however, and we know it won’t be that easy.
A more likely advancement that cannabis consumers can get excited about is the rise of cannabis delivery. Colorado is only allowing the first medical dispensary in Boulder to deliver starting this spring, with plans for recreational to follow in 2021.
But with current developments and a need to provide cannabis to thousands of consumers, more dispensaries will start to ask the government to move faster.
The fact remains that cannabis dispensaries are the only business across the country that have been deemed essential, while also being federally illegal. It’s pretty crazy when you really think about it. Read that first sentence again for maximum impact.
Virginia Marijuana Laws Might Be Changing
by Travis Crane | Feb 12, 2020 | 420, 420 News, Blog, Cannabis Law, Cannabis Law and Compliance, Culture
When you think of cannabis friendly, Virginia definitely isn’t one of the states that comes to mind. But that could be changing.
The state House on Monday passed HB 972, a decriminalization bill, with bipartisan support. Delegates voted 64-34 for the measure, with a number of Republicans joining Democrats in favor. The state Senate is expected to pass its own version shortly.
If passed, the legislation would scrap criminal charges for possessing marijuana and replace them with small fines. Supporters have argued the measure is needed in part because African Americans are disproportionately charged with drug crimes.
Virginia Marijuana Laws
Virginia marijuana laws have always been strict, with the most minor offense having the potential of jail time for possession of a half ounce. Right now, a person who is found with half an ounce of the drug can be jailed for up to 30 days and/or be fined $500. The second time it happens, jail time is increased up to a year and the fine increases up to $2,500.
To make matters worse, the state has a proven track record of negatively impacting minority communities with Virginia marijuana laws, specifically people of color. In fact, people of color are currently three times more likely to be arrested for cannabis possession than white people. But the reality is that no matter their skin color, people arrested for cannabis in Virginia are less likely to find jobs and housing.
If the new bill passes through the State Senate, it will be a big step in the right direction for the state after killing a full-blown legalization bill in 2019.
What is HB972?
House Bill 972 is a very simple bill. All it would do is decriminalize possession of a half ounce of cannabis, resulting in just a $25 fine if caught. With a simple, straight forward goal, it’s easy to see why the bill was able to garner bipartisan support.
Of course there are those who are against the bill, some of whom are surprisingly pro-legalization groups. The ACLU for example claims the bill doesn’t do enough, and that more people will be incarcerated for not being able to pay the $25 fine. Frankly this is asinine. If you can afford to buy a half ounce of cannabis, you can afford a $25 fine, or you shouldn’t be buying cannabis because you don’t have your priorities straight.
So the question that is being asked now that decriminalization seems likely is, when can we expect legalization?
Virginia Cannabis Legalization
It’s probably safe to say right now that Virginia marijuana laws won’t be moving toward legalization in 2020. Right now, Virginia lawmakers sent the idea of legalization to a non-partisan committee to study, they say that the study could take a year. The results may give lawmakers guidance on whether they want to re-visit legalization in 2021.
In the meantime, Virginians trying to access cannabis medically are in for quite a struggle. Virginia technically doesn’t even have a functioning medical marijuana program. What they do offer is an Affirmative Defense clause for patients who given permission by their physician to use cannabis.
However, not many doctors are prescribing cannabis because of the legal risk and lack of incentive. Not that patients would really benefit from permission anyway.
All Virginia marijuana laws allow currently are CBD oil and THC-A oil, neither of which are psychoactive or regulated. This leaves patients who are given permission very few options, including traveling across state lines to states like Maryland to obtain medical cannabis with the risk of getting arrested upon re-entry to Virginia.
Suffice to say Virginia won’t be turning into a cannabis haven any time soon, but residents can hopefully rest easy soon knowing they’ll no longer risk jail time for half a little bit of cannabis.
Should Drug Tests Include Cannabis?
by Travis Crane | Jul 16, 2019 | 420, Blog, Cannabis Law and Compliance, Cannabiz, Culture
It’s time for drug tests to change. That’s just reality.
Drug tests have probably gotten more innocent cannabis consumers knocked out of the running for a job more than any other drug on the controlled substances list. At a certain point we have to ask, “What is the point?”.
Most commonly, drug tests for employers will test for cannabis, cocaine, phencyclidine, amphetamines and opiates. Now obviously if you have a prescription from your doctor for opiates you’re off the hook, but what about people with prescriptions for cannabis? And a better question, what about those that don’t?
Drug Tests Shouldn’t Include Cannabis
At this point it’s a no brainer. In the United States currently, there are only 10 states out of 50 that haven’t decriminalized or legalized cannabis in some form. With more than half the country having medical cannabis laws on the books, how is it that people can still miss out on job opportunity for cannabis use?
People who take prescribed painkillers that are prone to abuse don’t miss out on job opportunities. Even alcoholics don’t miss out on job opportunities as long as they can cover it up on the job. Yet if you used cannabis once in the last two weeks, with a medical card granted by the state you live in, the job you are applying to can still say no if you show positive on their drug tests.
Now I may not be an expert on fairness, but I think it’s safe to say that just isn’t fair. And it’s even worse for recreational cannabis consumers.
Legal States and Drug Tests
This has been an even hotter topic than medical cannabis users and drug tests as of late. Cannabis is now fully legal in 11 states. A lot of these states passed laws that are meant to regulate cannabis just like alcohol.
So, if cannabis is supposed to be regulated like alcohol, why do cannabis users lose out on job opportunities even in these states, while alcohol consumers have nothing to worry about? People who choose to use cannabis over alcohol, which by all standards is the safer option of the two, are now suffering because of it.
Some states like Nevada have passed laws that prohibit employers from firing employees or not hiring potential employees for testing positive for cannabis on drug tests, and that’s a great start. But it only starts to address the problem. If cannabis is still on the drug test, and potential hire tests positive, the employer legally can’t reject them for that reason. But that doesn’t mean the employer can’t see that information and just decide that the potential hire isn’t right for the position for “some other reason”.
This is why cannabis needs to be removed from cannabis completely, at least in legal and medical cannabis states.
It’s Time for Change
Here’s the bottom line. Nobody should be excluded from job opportunity for the medicine they choose to use legally. Nobody should be excluded from job opportunity based on what they decide to do in their free time in a legal cannabis state.
It’s that simple. If it were any other pharmaceutical drug that was FDA approved and legal on the state level, it wouldn’t be a question. It wouldn’t be on a drug test. Yet cannabis still is. I understand there’s still states that have cannabis completely illegal and states that only have it decriminalized, and people who work in those states need to be aware of their laws.
But if you live in a medical cannabis state or a legal cannabis state, and you lose out on a job because you tested positive for cannabis, that’s just not right, and you should consider taking action.
Colorado Cannabis Delivery and Social Consumption Makes Big Moves
by Travis Crane | May 3, 2019 | 420, 420 Culture & Travel, 420 News, Business, Cannabis Law and Compliance, Culture
Cannabis has been legal in Colorado since 2012. But it’s been hard to figure out where it’s safe to consume it.
Unless you owned a home or had a cool landlord, you would be at a loss trying to find a safe place to consume the cannabis you just bought. Since legalization, it has been illegal to consume cannabis in a public setting in Colorado.
The only place that was legal to consume was a private residence. As mentioned before, if you’re renting and your landlord puts a “no cannabis” rule in the lease, you’re out of luck (as someone in that situation I can vouch for the inconvenience).
But finally, that’s all about the change.
Under this new bill, dispensaries will be able to apply for a tasting room license similar to the one used for breweries in this state, while businesses such as hotels, restaurants, music venues, art galleries and yoga studios can apply for private consumption licenses and limited cannabis sales.
Mobile cannabis lounges such as tour buses and limousines would also be licensed but could not sell cannabis. Social consumption businesses would have to apply for a license through the state Marijuana Enforcement Division, and would be exempt from the Colorado Clean Indoor Air Act, a state law that bans public indoor smoking.
“In expanding access to regulated spaces for adults to consume cannabis, we are taking the responsible approach to cannabis consumption in a safe environment,” says Senator Vicki Marble, one of the bill’s prime sponsors, in a statement about the bill. “HB 1230 protects the will of voters who asked for the freedom to choose marijuana as an alternative and to curb dealing and use in parks and on the street.”
Nothing is Final
There are still some hurdles before cannabis cafes can open in your town. Governor Jared Polis still needs to sign the bill into law, which appears to be pretty likely at this point.
However, even if Polis signs the bill, local governments would have to opt in to the new licensing program, and could modify it to ban certain forms of consumption, such as indoor smoking. And the City of Denver’s social marijuana consumption licensing program, which already has its own location qualifications and bans indoor smoking, would remain unaffected by new stipulations in the bill, unless Denver City Council or the mayoral administration decide to alter it.
Baby Steps are Still Steps
If there’s anything the members of the cannabis community have learned through the years, it is that cannabis regulation moves slow. While counties in Colorado will be able to begin the application process in January of 2020, should Polis sign the bill, counties can still make their own regulations.
It’s likely that many places will still ban indoor smoking even with the new law permitting this with the proper licensing. However a big driving force behind this bill specifically was the cannabis tourism industry in the state. With current laws, out-of-state visitors who legally purchase cannabis cannot consume it in hotels.
With House Bill 1230, hotels and other local businesses could gain additional tourism revenue by getting on board and applying for a public consumption license.
Dispensaries in Colorado could start using free delivery as a sell point if the new cannabis delivery bill passes.
Cannabis Delivery in Colorado
The day before the passing of House Bill 1230, House Bill 2019-1234 passed the state Senate with a vote of 20-14, and the state House with a vote of 38-27. The bill allows for “marijuana delivery permits” for licensed medical marijuana dispensaries and “transporters” to deliver their products to private residences once a day only.
Should the bill get the final signature from Polis, medical cannabis delivery would start in 2020, with recreational delivery following soon after in 2021. A $1 surcharge would be tacked on to each delivery made and would then be funneled back into local law enforcement for the sole purpose of administering local marijuana laws.
Those licensed to make such deliveries would also be protected from criminal prosecution while on the job. Similarly to the other bill, local county governments and city councils could still restrict deliveries.
Proponents of cannabis delivery in Colorado site those medical patients that cannot make it to a dispensary due to immobility or other issues and a desire to eliminate the illegal delivery market currently operating in the state, while opponents worry that cannabis delivery could damage in-person dispensary sales and even open the opportunity for big players like Amazon to eventually take over.
Nevertheless it looks like a bright future lies ahead for cannabis consumption in Colorado, and it’s about time. For over 6 years cannabis consumers in the state have had to hide or find somewhere secluded enough that they wouldn’t get caught.
Hopefully these bills will get the final signature from Polis and we can begin to move forward into the next phase of legal cannabis in Colorado.
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The Salvages x Mary Ellen Mark 'Boomboxes' T-Shirt
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The Salvages x Mary Ellen Mark 'Boomboxes' T-Shirt.
White Junior and Justin with their boomboxes, Seattle, 1983.
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Mary Ellen Mark was an American photographer most notable for her documentary images of individuals who are away from mainstream society throughout 1960’s to 2010’s. She has achieved worldwide visibility through her numerous books, exhibitions and editorial magazine work. She published photo-essays and portraits in such publications as LIFE, New York Times Magazine, The New Yorker, Rolling Stone, and Vanity Fair. For over five decades, she traveled extensively to make pictures that reflect a high degree of humanism. She is recognized as one of our most respected and influential photographers. Today, the artist’s works are held in the collections of the Cleveland Museum of Art, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, the Getty Museum and the Philadelphia Museum of Art among others.
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Save RDU Forest issue: RDU gets $49.5 million in coronavirus relief funding. Public hearing on quarry set for June 23
Raleigh-Durham International Airport has received $49.5 million in federal funding for the coronavirus crisis. Airport CEO Michael Landguth said in a news release that the money will help the airport stay afloat. “The CARES Act provides relief to airports at a time when revenue has dropped to unsustainable levels,” Landguth said. “The federal funding combined with our ‘survival budget’ will help RDU keep the lights on and financially stable during this unprecedented time in our industry.” RDU’s board approved the funding from the federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act) on May 1. The boost comes to RDU as the proposed quarry on the 105-acre Odd Fellows tract by William B. Umstead Park goes to public comment. In March 2019, over the protests of local residents and the Umstead Coalition, the nonprofit that preserves the park, RDU leased the property to Morrisville-based Wake Stone Corp. to mine for $24 million in royalties over 35 years. On April 8, Wake Stone applied for a mining permit on the tract. Park supporters have said …
How The ArtsCenter has changed is the saddest thing to happen to Carrboro
The lights keep going out in Carrboro. What will happen if The ArtsCenter’s toxic Jones Ferry project is actually built?
Articles / picks / Uncategorized
Northgate Mall does not have to close. Thoughts on the announcement
In early March, Northgate Mall had some of the best food and the most down to earth businesses in Durham. So why is it closing?
The Durham City Council has been busy during the lockdown! Part 3: Affordable housing gets $4.5 million
The Durham City Council is earmarking $4.5 million to help fund three projects on affordable housing, with one major development in the downtown area. That is a new apartment building proposed by Self-Help Credit Union called Ashton Place Apartments, estimated to cost $10 million. Planned for 310 Jackson St., adjacent to the Durham Station, Ashton Place will have 51 apartments available to residents who are at or above 55 years old, with income at or below 60 percent of area median income, according to Self-Help. The project is being co-developed by Self-Help and Raleigh-based DHIC Inc., or Downtown Housing Improvement Corporation. The two organizations are also co-developing the Willard Street Apartments, which will have 82 affordable apartments when it is slated to open in 2021. Jenny Shields, spokeswoman for Self-Help, said in an e-mail this week that the project is dependent on the award of the low-income housing tax credit by the N.C. Housing Finance Agency. “While the Durham City Council has approved $1.8 million to support this project, those funds will only be expended …
The Durham City Council has been busy during the lockdown! Part 2: Council approves $7.7 million in road improvement projects
Durham is moving ahead with about $7.7 million in road improvement projects, including $3 million for work on manholes. That includes an additional $1.1 million for the West Club Boulevard utility project that will cover the Ninth Street area up to West Club Boulevard, increasing the project to a total of $1.9 million. The council also approved $1.6 million for street repairs and repaving in 2020, and a combined $3 million for a comprehensive Manhole Rehabilitation Project. The city council approved these projects at their April to May meetings. According to Jennifer Smart, spokeswoman for the Department of Water Management, the Manhole Rehabilitation project will cover 1,550 manholes throughout the city. Workers will spray a cement liner to the inside of the manholes to provide structural support and seal up leaky spots. The comprehensive project is split into north and south portions. Work is slated to begin in June and is expected to wrap up in seven months for the north portion, and one year for south. Smart said in an e-mail this week that …
Chapel Hill’s Design Commission petitioning Town Council for more control over downtown changes
Starting in February, passersby on Franklin Street might have noticed a new structure going up on the roof of the building that houses Sutton’s Drug Store. That is a nightclub. According to plans filed with Chapel Hill town planners, it will be called “StillLife Nightclub.” The owner of the building, 144 Properties LLC, wants to build an open-air bar overlooking Franklin Street. Site plans were approved in May 2019. Although Sutton’s Drug Store has been open since 1923, and the two-story Strowd Building at 159 E. Franklin St. is on the National Register of Historic Places, the plans did not have to go through the Historic District Commission or the Community Design Commission, or get a special use permit. So Chapel Hill’s Community Design Commission is petitioning the town council for better control over the changes that happen in downtown. The commission discussed the first draft of the petition at its April 27 meeting. “Nobody is reviewing buildings,” said Design Commission member Susan Lyons at the meeting. Lyons drafted the petition along with member Chris …
Parkour club making jumps at N.C. State
By Matt Goad Asked if he’s ever hurt himself, Tegan Kelleher, president of the N.C. State Parkour, Freerunning and Tricking team, and he says, “Oh yeah. Right there.” Kelleher points toward a brick wall with a ledge about a foot height maybe 10 feet away. He tried to jump from the ledge to the top of the wall, but it was too far. “I head butted a brick rail,” he said. But luckily no concussion was involved. At the time, Kelleher, now a sophomore studying philosophy, was not even in college but was a high school student in Raleigh training with the State club, and didn’t have a lot of parkour experience. Kelleher and Alec Hobbs, the club’s secretary gave The Spring Magazine a demonstration of what they can do, bouncing and flipping around the State campus on Monday. The club has about 15 members, both State students and others, but many have gone home for the coronavirus closure. Kelleher and Hobbs, though, are both from Raleigh. That fear of getting hurt is always there, …
The Durham City Council has been busy during the lockdown! Part 1: Reclassifying the Eno River as a water source, to build a low dam and pump directly into Teer Quarry
The Durham City Council has approved another step to building a low dam and new water pump on the Eno River to pump directly into Teer Quarry. This would be the first active pump on the Eno in memory.
Save RDU Forest issue: Opponents of quarry and State Sen. Wiley Nickel request public hearing, or a delay until they can be held
The efforts of opponents to a proposed quarry next to William B. Umstead Park have attracted the support of Democratic state Sen. Wiley Nickel of Wake County, who recently expressed concerns about Wake Stone Corp.’s mining permit application because of the difficulties surrounding public hearings during the coronavirus crisis.
“Public hearings are an imperative part of permitting procedures. They allow the public a chance to react to plans for new development and raise awareness of potentially disastrous environmental or social impacts,” Nickel said in a recent news release. “On April 8, in the midst of an international public crisis, Wake Stone Corp. filed a mining permit application request… .”
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Articles, current stories
The Trump administration’s $4 billion Farmers to Families program. What is it? How does it work?
When the lockdowns from the coronavirus started happening this year, Gaye Walker and her husband, Dave Walker, who own Walker Farm in Hillsborough, immediately lost the ability to sell to restaurants.
And what made the first months even more panic-inducing, the farmers’ markets they participated in also closed, leaving the Walkers with just the produce stand at their farm as their only reliable source of income.
“We had a new business – a new farm that opened up around the corner of us. We were real concerned that between the pandemic and them, it was going to really affect us business-wise,” Walker said.
These are the kinds of problems that the $3 billion Farmers to Families Food Box program, launched in April, seeks to alleviate. In August, President Donald Trump and advisor Ivanka Trump also announced during a visit to distributors in Mills River that it would get $1 billion more in funding, for a total of $4 billion. Ivanka Trump, along with U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue, also made a surprise visit to speak on the program at the State Farmers Market earlier this month.
The Walkers participated in donation drives to feed the hungry in Orange County. But six months later, their income still has not stabilized.
“We have one restaurant that’s now purchasing from us, but he’s purchasing a third, or maybe a fourth of what he purchased last year,” Gaye Walker said. “The restaurants, I’m really concerned about with this pandemic.”
Farmers to Families has gone through two rounds. The first round purchased $1.2 billion from May to June, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The second round, which began in July, purchased $1.5 billion. In July, USDA also announced the third round, with distributions planned to occur September to October.
The program is administered by the USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service and is part of the $16 billion Coronavirus Food Assistance Program. To date, the USDA announced on Tuesday, Farmers to Families has distributed 100 million food boxes nationwide.
“I would say that the program has been extremely successful,” said William Kelley, director of the Henderson County Cooperative Extension with N.C. State University. “It has provided food to millions of people that needed it. And in the process, farmers who weren’t able to otherwise sell or distribute, or move their products had been able to move their products because of this program. It was a win-win situation.”
Kelley also praised how quickly the program was launched. “The farmer in Henderson County that’s doing this, he’s never seen a program get into place as quickly as this one did,” Kelley said. “He thought that by the time the paperwork was done, the pandemic would be done.”
Help for small farmers
The program allows distributors and nonprofits to distribute the boxes, and any nonprofit can sign up to be a recipient as long as they can show they have the ability to store and give out the perishable boxes.
Both producers and recipients are tied to the distributors, who are the ones to submit the applications. Most recipients have been school systems, food banks and churches.
Baptists on Mission, the Cary-based organization highlighted by Trump’s visit, is also distributing in the state in the third round. Other distributors serving North Carolina in this round are Greensboro-based Foster-Caviness Inc., Gargiulo, Frank M. & Son Inc., and Military Produce Group, among others.
Kelley said the program could be improved when it comes to helping more small farmers.
Farmers to Families requires participating farms to have GAP audits, which stands for Good Agricultural Practices. Those are voluntary but costly, and are more normally used by large farms selling products over long distances. Small farms selling at produce stands, farmers’ markets and participating in CSAs, or community-supported agriculture, usually do not have GAP audits.
Kelley said if the safety requirement could be adjusted to FSMA, it could open up the program to more small farmers. FSMA is the Food Safety Modernization Act, a U.S. Food and Drug Administration law passed in 2010.
“They required all the suppliers to be GAP-certified. That requires a lot of record-keeping and inspections and so forth,” Kelley said. “The reason was to make sure the products that were getting distributed met all the food safety requirements. But with FSMA, they could have included more people.”
On Aug. 24, President Donald Trump announced in Mills River $1 billion in additional funding to the Farmers to Families program. Baptists on Mission is a Cary-based organization that has been distributing the food boxes in North Carolina. Source: The White House
The National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition stated in June that the program had seven percent participation rate from small farmers. The Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit, which advocates for sustainable practices and organic growers said the USDA fell short of the 10 percent goal it had set.
Wes King, a senior policy specialist with NSAC who wrote the blog post, said he had arrived at the 7 percent figure by looking through the USDA’s contracts in the first round.
“I and a few others painstakingly researched every entity that received a contract in the first round and made what amounts to professional judgement calls as to whether or not we thought the contractor was a local and regional food systems entities,” King said in an e-mail on Tuesday. “For some it was obvious they were farms who normally engaged in sales to local schools, restaurants and to consumers through farmers markets and CSAs; for others it was less straightforward.”
The FSMA also notably has an amendment by the late North Carolina Democratic Sen. Kay Hagan, who worked with Sen. Jon Tester, D-MT, to give small farms exemption from the new federal rule. The amendment defines small farms simply as those farms selling less than $500,000 a year and who sell 50 percent of their goods within state or within a 400-mile radius.
The Tester-Hagan amendment leaves small farms back under the oversight of local and state entities.
Orange County closed the Eno River Farmers’ Market in Hillsborough in March. The market stayed closed through North Carolina’s phase 2 reopening in May, and had customers do pre-orders and pick-ups only. It will not reopen until October. In its most recent newsletter in September, the market stated even that reopening will be “soft,” with fewer vendors.
The Hillsborough Farmers Market, a smaller market run by UNC Healthcare, remains closed.
Distributors’ enthusiasm
When the lockdowns began in March, the demand for produce at restaurants “absolutely collapsed,” said Debbie Hamrick, director of specialty crops with the N.C. Farm Bureau Federation in the Triangle.
And because of the way agriculture is run, producers could not go from selling to restaurants to selling directly to consumers.
“You buy them 25-30 pounds at a time. That supply chain that was set up to supply tomatoes now all of a sudden had no sales outlets. The demand shifted overnight,” Hamrick said. “We were at 52 or 53 percent, from the economic research at USDA – almost half of the meals for Americans were out of the house. All of a sudden, that was gone and Americans were eating at home.”
“The farmers in that production channel were just absolutely screaming,” she added. “And milk, cheese, meat. These products, you don’t just go from packing a bulk product to packaging for the consumer – from 50 pounds to half pound, wrapped, paper products like a butcher shop product – instantaneously. It was a massive disruption and the USDA wanted to do something.”
Like Kelley, Hamrick praised the USDA for putting the program together so fast.
“They got it out there and it was not perfect, but it’s been iterative and they’ve improved it,” she said. “We all get surprised when we hear government does something good. But there are some really good people. USDA, man, they got a bunch of money and had to put in a billion-dollar program that had never been done before. And somehow, it’s not perfect, but it has happened.”
Courtney Tellefsen, founder and CEO of The Produce Box, a Raleigh membership-based service that delivers weekly groceries, participated in the first two rounds of Farmers to Families by linking up with Baptists on Mission to build their boxes.
“They had a network of churches. … So they had an easy way to get the boxes from us to people who needed them. And they already had the logistics and trucking and everything,” Tellefsen.
Tellefsen said her company submitted its own application to be a distributor to the USDA for the third round, but was rejected.
Joey McNeill, vice president of Ward’s Produce in Raleigh, said his company delivered more than 634,000 boxes from May to September. The company had participated in the first two rounds to deliver produce boxes, but not for the third, which is asking for combination boxes of produce, dairy and meat.
McNeill said that as a result of the program, his company not only retained its workforce but even hired new workers this year.
“Given the quickness of the program rolling out, the mobilization on the USDA was nothing short of incredible,” McNeill said. “We were able to hire more people to help us with packing. There are so many food insecure families out there that it was a godsend. We worked with 90-plus unique nonprofits in terms of referring products to people, the end use recipients.”
“We went from 40 employees at the time of the shutdown and then we were operating with 55-60 employees while the program was in place,” he said.
Ward’s Produce delivered boxes to numerous organizations, including: the Food Banks of Central and Eastern North Carolina in Raleigh and Durham and other food banks in the state, Durham Rescue Mission, PORCH in Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill Public Housing, Orange County Social Services, school systems in Johnston, Person and Vance counties, the Inter-faith Food Shuttle in Raleigh, and churches across the state.
McNeill said he hopes the USDA will keep the program going.
“I hope (the USDA) will do something similar to this because there will still be food insecure people in this country after COVID passes,” he said.
This entry was posted in: Articles, current stories
Tagged with: Donald Trump, farmers to families, henderson county, hillsborough, ivanka trump, nc farm bureau, nc state cooperative extension, small farms, the produce box, us department of agriculture, ward's produce
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“Oh My Giddy Aunt!” – 50 Years of Troughton
November 7, 2016 rasiler Leave a comment
On November 5, 1966 the first episode of Doctor Who to feature Patrick Troughton as the Doctor was broadcast on BBC. Nothing in the show’s history has quite equaled the impact of that moment – not even the rise of Dalekmania. Had it not been for the producers taking a chance on reshaping the series with such a drastic recasting of the lead role, and had the audience not taken to this new characterization, we would most likely now only be talking about Doctor Who in the same way we do Time Tunnel: with affection, but rather infrequently. Troughton’s impact on the show, and the writers’ and producers’ response to it, is what ensured the continuance of this quaint little show for five subsequent decades and beyond.
The Troughton era of the show is the one that has suffered the most from the BBC’s lack of archival foresight. Huge swathes of his episodes have been missing from the BBC’s holdings for decades, and there are numerous stories that haven’t been seen since their original broadcast. Those fortunes have seen a bit of reversal in recent times, with the recovery of “Enemy of the World” and “The Web of Fear” in 2013, and the newly animated restoration of Troughton’s debut serial, “Power of the Daleks”.
If you’re new to the Second Doctor era, here is a list of five serials that will introduce you to the sheer magic that is Patrick Troughton:
1. “Power of the Daleks”
The debut story is one of the most unsettling in the history of the show. The most obvious change comes in the new Doctor, who talks about his previous self in the third person and who seems to intentionally confuse his companions (Polly and Ben) in order to test their trust. But the Daleks go through a bit of a transformation as well from the pen of former Doctor Who script editor, scriptwriter and novelist David Whitaker. Whitaker had been already been writing the Daleks for the TV Century 21 comic strips; under his influence, the Daleks we see in “Power” differ in significant ways from their previous appearances, written by their creator Terry Nation: here, they’re cunning, manipulative, insidious and calculating – and they’ve rarely been more terrifying in their 53-year history. At six episodes, the tension is allowed to build at a gradual pace. That BBC Worldwide has invested considerable resources into restoring this serial is hopefully a sign that more such releases will follow. “Power of the Daleks” will be released on DVD in January, in theatres across America and Australia on November 14, broadcast in episodic format (once per week) on BBC America starting November 19. Sadly, nearly the entire rest of Troughton’s first season remains unaccounted for in the BBC Archives. Let’s hope that “Power’s” follow-up, the Season Four finale “Evil of the Daleks”, will receive a similarly animated release at some point.
2. “Tomb of the Cybermen”
When it was one of the great missing treasures of the Troughton era, it was lauded as the crowning achievement of 60s Doctor Who – atmospheric, creepy, with body horror aplenty and genuine scares throughout, plus an electrifying performance by Troughton, better than anything and everything produced in the 70s and 80s. When the serial was finally rediscovered in 1991, at least one of those things turned out to be true. The story proved to be a bit clunkier and just a little bit more racist than anyone who saw it on broadcast seemed to remember. However, the core story is quite exciting, the sets are gorgeous, and the dialogue sparkles. Troughton is at his impish best in this one and has a few scenes that absolutely defines and encapsulates what his Doctor was all about, especially when talking to Victoria about his family, consoling her on the recent loss of her father. The location filming in the first episode lends the story a wonderfully expansive sense of place. While it didn’t fully live up to its impossible reputation, it is still one of the gems in the crown and a highly enjoyable watch. Just ignore the duck sounds the Cybermen make.
3. “Enemy of the World”
One of two stories newly recovered in 2013. Unlike “Tomb,” “Enemy” did not enjoy such a stellar reputation during its missing years. In a season loaded with monster stories, this one seemed rather plain, slow, average and in no way outstanding. Like all missing Doctor Who serials, a complete audio recording existed, but it proved that “Enemy” was the big clunker of the season. But something magical happened when the episodes were recovered and released – we found that there was so much magic in the actors’ performances, in the gorgeous sets, in Barry Letts’ outstanding direction, that this story had been wrongfully disregarded the whole time. A gripping political drama unlike anything else in the Second Doctor era, Troughton gives a gripping portrayal of the Doctor, Salamander, the Doctor impersonating Salamander, and Salamander impersonating the Doctor, and somehow gives each part it’s own nuances. Frazer Hines as Jamie gets some really meaty material to work with as well and turns in one of his finest performances. Sadly, chopping vegetables is about the most significant contribution to the story Deborah Watling as Victoria gets to make.
4. “The Mind Robber”
One of the trippiest Doctor Who serials ever, this romp through the Land of Fiction takes the TARDIS team completely out of reality and into a realm where the only things that are real and the unreal, populated by fantasy characters like Gulliver, a Minotaur, a Unicorn, Rapunzel, and a 21st Century comic strip character called the Karkus. It’s full of clever ideas, both scripted in advance and invented on the spot (like the brilliant in-story solution to Frazer Hines unexpectedly coming down with chickenpox). The antagonist is revealed to be a person referred to as ‘the Master’, but is related in no way to the later Time Lord figure of the same name introduced in Jon Pertwee’s second season. It begins with a very surreal one-episode bridge from the previous story into “The Mind Robber” proper, caused by the previous serial being reduced by one episode, but this last minute addition provides one of the most atmospheric and creepy episodes in the show’s history. And recent TARDIS addition Zoe Heriot, who usually exercises her brain, here gets to pull off some mighty karate flips. An amazing story from start to finish.
5. “The War Games”
One of the most significant stories in the whole of Doctor Who, “The War Game” brings the Doctor to his home planet for the first time and introduces the audience to his people. It starts off like any other historical adventure from this period but quickly turns audience expectation on its head as a chariot full of Roman soldiers comes charging into the scene of a World War I battle. At a massive ten episodes, the writers (Terrance Dicks and Malcolm Hulke) throw enough curveballs and continuously introduce new characters and settings that the story remarkably never bogs down or grows stale. It’s one of the most incredible feats of televisual storytelling – especially when you consider that the whole thing was the result of two final proposed scripts – a 4-parter and a 6-parter – fell through and a 10-parter had to be written at the very last minute to take their place. In fact, the ending of the story hadn’t even been conceptualized when filming on Episode One began. It’s one of the most epic send-offs any Doctor received, and Troughton is up to the challenge, delivering possibly his most commanding performance ever. To say that “The War Games” is brilliant does it a disservice. Set aside an afternoon or two and indulge in one of the finest serials Doctor Who ever produced.
And if you watch these and enjoy them, by all means, don’t stop there! There are so many great Troughton stories to partake of. For stories that exist in complete form, there’s “The Ice Warriors” which introduces us to the invaders from the Red Planet; there’s “The Invasion”, one of the greatest Cyberman stories of all time; there’s “The Abominable Snowmen” and “The Web of Fear”, both of which feature the Yeti and the Great Intelligence. If you want to dig a little deeper, then scout around on YouTube for the Loose
Canon reconstructions of the missing stories. There you will find “The Highlanders”, Jamie’s first story, “The Macra Terror”, “The Faceless Ones”, “Evil of the Daleks”, and other great stories.
And if you’d like to read more of my ramblings about great Doctor Who stories, check out my book, Doctor Who’s Greatest Hits: An Unauthorized Guide to the Best Stories From Time and Space It covers the 55 best stories from 1963 up through the first season of Peter Capaldi.
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Review: ‘The Diary of River Song’
January 8, 2016 rasiler Leave a comment
“I had a chance encounter today with an interesting woman. A rather remarkable woman. An archaeology professor (part time!) called River Song. Initially she came across as aloof, distant, with an air of superiority. It was obvious that she possessed a great intellect, as wide and deep as The Boundless Sea; it seemed that she had traveled much farther than any of us could have dreamed. But she also had a bit of a naughty side to her, something I can only describe as a mischievous nature. And she had the most bizarre implement. She called it a . . . sonic trowel. I’ve no idea what she meant by that. How can a trowel be sonic? Continue reading →
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The War Doctor Returns
On May 18, 2013, in the final seconds of “Name of the Doctor” at the end of the seventh series, something pretty extraordinary happened: We were introduced to an incarnation of the Doctor that we’d never met nor heard of before. Six months later in“Night of the Doctor” we saw how this extra incarnation came to be, and a week after that in the 50th anniversary episode “Day of the Doctor” we watched this incarnation interacting with his Tenth and Eleventh selves (or would that now be Eleventh and Twelfth?) in the final adventure of his life before regenerating into the Ninth Doctor. But what about all the stuff in between? We know that this incarnation fought for a pretty long time in the Time War, since we see him in the form of a fairly young John Hurt in “Night” and far older in “Day.” Now, thanks to Big Finish Productions, we get to hear the War Doctor in action, embroiled in the Time War, in three brand-new linked stories collectively called Only the Monstrous.
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An End (or two!) for the Sixth Doctor
December 28, 2015 rasiler Leave a comment
I’ve always thought of the Sixth Doctor as “my Doctor.” My introduction to Whodom was the original broadcast of “The Five Doctor,” so I was immediately introduced to the first five (more or less) incarnations of the Doctor and the concept of regeneration. My PBS station at that time was in the middle of a run of Tom Baker stories, so after “The Five Doctors” they jumped back into the next Tom (which, for the record, was “The Masque of Mandragora”). From there I watched the rest of Tom and all of Peter Davison as the station broadcast them. I saw Tom regenerate into Peter, and that was thrilling, but since I’d already seen Peter in action, it didn’t have the big impact it could have. The first new regeneration I ever experience was Peter into Colin Baker. The Sixth Doctor was loud, bold, brash, irreverent, all qualities I enjoyed.
Doctor Who: “The Husbands of River Song”
I should start this review by providing a little bit of context: As a generality, I don’t like the Christmas episodes. Most of them are schmaltzy and overly trite. I don’t even like the idea of Doctor Who doing Christmas episodes. So it is with that bit of information fully divulged that I declare openly how much I loved this episode. It’s not only the strongest and most enjoyable Christmas episode we’ve had, it caps off the strongest season of modern era.
12th doctor6th doctoralex kingstoncolin bakerdavid tannantdoctor whomatt smithpeter capaldiriver song
Doctor Who: Reflections on Season 9: What Made it Great
On December 5th the Ninth Series of Doctor Who (or as we old-timers call it, “Season 35”) came to a close, giving us Peter Capaldi‘s second outing as the Doctor and bringing to a close the Doctor’s friendship with Clara Oswald. It was a season that gave us Daleks (no big surprise there), a return of Davros, a major reappearance of the Zygons, and a brilliant new encounter with The Mistress, as well as some new monsters and one particularly important new recurring character. I found myself enjoying the show in ways that I hadn’t in previous seasons, my excitement growing each week. As I wrote reviews of each episode I found myself, more than halfway through the season, still referring to it as “the best season of the Modern Series.” But now that the whole season is complete, including the big trilogy of episodes that loosely make up the finale, do I still feel that way? Is it still the best season of New Who?
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Doctor Who: Reflections on Season 9: “Hell Bent”
December 7, 2015 rasiler 1 Comment
Doctor Who has always been about rebellion. It has been about the Doctor rebelling against the society in which he was born. It was always said that the Doctor stole a TARDIS and left Gallifrey because he was bored, because he staunchly disagreed with his people, the Time Lords, who held immense powers but refused to use those powers to aid others. He has repeatedly come into conflict with the Time Lords because of his chosen lifestyle; at times they’ve opposed him and actively sought to end his adventuring, and at other times they’ve taken advantage of it and used him to accomplish something that they couldn’t be seen to be involved in. In “Hell Bent”, the Doctor, after billions of years, steps out onto the surface of Gallifrey to commit his boldest act of rebellion yet. Because, you see, while this episode looks like it’s about Time Lords, and about Gallifrey coming back into the universe, and about the political fallout of the Time War, and about the fulfillment of the prophecy of the Hybrid, it really isn’t. It’s really only about one thing: a man who is losing his best friend and will take any action necessary to rescue her and keep her safe. Even if that means defying his own people. Even if that means threatening all of time and space.
claradeadly assassindoctor whogallifreyinvasion of timejamiejenna colemanleelapeter capalditime lordswar gameszoe
Doctor Who: Reflections on Season 9: “Heaven Sent”
November 30, 2015 rasiler 2 Comments
With “Heaven Sent” we have a unique occurrence in the history of Doctor Who — an episode featuring the Doctor and no other character. We’ve had other similarly unusual situations in the past: “Ark in Space” part 1 includes only the Doctor, Sarah Jane and Harry, with no guest characters. Same with “The Mind Robber” part 1 with the Doctor, Jamie and Zoe. The Season One 2-parter “The Edge of Destruction” features only the main cast for the entire story. The one-episode adventure “Mission to the Unknown” does the opposite trick, featuring only supporting characters with no involvement by the Doctor or his companions. But we’ve never had a story to feature the Doctor — or any single character — exclusively. That premise alone is an enticing one that immediately brings a million exciting possibilities to mind. But what we’re given here is a mostly quiet narrative on loss mixed with some new revelations about the Doctor, the reintroduction of some of the threads from earlier in the season, and a set up for the season finale. That’s quite a lot of material to deliver with only one actor on hand (that must have made for quite an interesting table read!)
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Doctor Who: Reflections on Series 9: “Face the Raven”
Doctor Who does Diagon Alley.
The thing about Doctor Who, or any long-running show, is that everything eventually comes to an end. And with “Face the Raven”, we reach the not-well-kept secret of the end of Clara Oswald.
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Doctor Who: Reflections on Series 9: “Sleep No More”
November 15, 2015 rasiler 1 Comment
Well, that was . . . interesting.
And no, that’s not intended to be snark. It really was interesting. It has certainly sparked a lot of discussion and debate around ye ol’ internet. But there’s a huge difference between debating deep meaning or interesting philosophical points and debating because no one quite can figure out what the hell is going on.
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Tag Archives: wii
Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection Comes To A Close
Earlier this year we were warned by Nintendo that their Wi-Fi Connection online multiplayer service would come to a close. Well, today is the day. From today onward, all games that used Nintendo Wi-Fi connection for online multiplayer will be going offline. All of these games were released on the original Nintendo DS and Wii. Wii U and 3DS games will be unaffected as they use Nintendo Network for their online infrastructure. Nintendo has a list of games on their website, but it only cites games they themselves have published. There’s a bigger list of all games, both first and third party on both Wii and DS, that show what is affected. There is a there is also this list of games affected, but you’ll see that it goes way beyond Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection and further explains why this is happening.
This entry was posted in Gaming News and tagged DS, Gamespy, Mario Kart DS, Mario Kart Wii, nintendo, Nintendo DS, Nintendo WFC, Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection, wii on May 20, 2014 by Steven T..
Today Marks The End Of Several Long-Time Wii Services
Forecast Channel. News Channel. Everybody Votes. Check Mii Out. Nintendo Channel. These were several of the channels the original Wii offered to owners, some since launch. Forecast Channel reported on the weather. The News Channel fed you news straight from the AP. Everybody Votes presented questions for owners to answer and tallied them up. Check Mii Out gave you a chance to showcase the Miis you created to others worldwide. And finally Nintendo Channel was, in a way, the precursor to one-half of the current Nintendo eShop experience with videos, trailers, and the ability to rate the games you’ve played. From this day forward, these channels will cease to function.
This entry was posted in Gaming News and tagged Check Mii Out, Everybody Votes Channel, Forecast Channel, News Channel, nintendo, Nintendo Channel, wii on June 28, 2013 by Steven T..
Pandora’s Tower U.S. Trailer And New Release Date
Dubbed the black sheep of the Rainfall titles, Pandora’s Tower may very well be the last big release on the Wii. The company making the game, Ganbarion, doesn’t have the pedigree of Monolithsoft or Mistwalker, didn’t have stellar sales like Xenoblade and The Last Story, and critical reception was pretty average. However its premise and association with Operation Rainfall might make it a cult hit.
The story follows a girl, Elena, who has been cursed and is slowly turning into a monster. A soldier for the kingdom Athos, Aeron, takes Elena away from the festival they were in so that the townsfolk don’t kill her. In the trailer, we hear what Aeron has to do to lift the curse from Elena. We also get a glimpse of the relationship focus the game has with Elena questioning Aeron’s acceptance and love for her.
Pandora’s Tower was originally set to release on March 26th. However, according to Amazon, it’s been delayed to some time between April 22nd-April 26th. A pretty far delay, but makes sense considering what’s getting released this month. It hurts a bit, but a wise move nonetheless.
Pandora’s Tower 1st Official US Trailer [Youtube]
This entry was posted in Gaming News and tagged Ganbarion, jrpg, nintendo, operation rainfall, oprainfall, pandora's tower, wii, XSEED on March 11, 2013 by Steven T..
The Last Story Sells Well For XSEED, Sells Second Prints For $30
Despite the somewhat shaky launch of The Last Story, XSEED sent out a press release celebrating the game as their most successful title ever. This prompted XSEED to go ahead to the production of a second printing of the game without the artbook in it and sell it for $30. Even better, the launch copies of the game (the ones with the artbook) that might still out there will now sell for $40. So if you haven’t bought the game yet, now’s a good time to get it, and you might even be lucky if you find those launch copies. Also, to all you Wii U owners out there. The game might like better if you have an HDMI cable. While the Wii U doesn’t upscale Wii games, its passing via HDMI might be somewhat beneficial and make things look less like an .mpeg on an HDTV.
Hopefully Nintendo’s seeing this. While a success for XSEED might not have the same definition for Nintendo, they don’t have to put their expectations so damn high to the point that it’ll be unattainable. And you don’t have to spend a crapton on marketing. So Nintendo, especially NoA, don’t be so damn stingy with the games in Japan.
The Last Story is XSEED’s Most Successful Title [Operation Rainfall]
This entry was posted in Gaming News and tagged hironobu sakaguchi, jrpg, mistwalker, nintendo, nobuo uematsu, operation rainfall, RPG, the last story, The Last Story Sales, The Last Story successful, wii, XSEED on November 26, 2012 by Steven T..
Original Donkey Kong Country Trilogy Games To Be Removed From Virtual Console After Thanksgiving
In the midst of all the hoopla surrounding the launch of the Wii U comes a silent announcement that starting on November 25th, 2012, Donkey Kong Country 1, 2, and 3 will be removed from the Wii’s Virtual Console. News of this came first from Nintendo Life from Twitter user NintenDaan who received a notice on the Wii Shop Channel. It states, “Hello, We would like to let you know you that the following titles will become unavailable for purchase on 25/11/12: Donkey Kong Country, Donkey Kong Country 2, Donkey Kong Country 3.” There was no prior warning as to why these titles were being pulled. Initially it seemed to only affect Europe. But it’s been confirmed that NA’s Virtual Console will also be lacking the Kongs.
There are already questions swirling if it has something to do with Rare being the original developers of these games. For those people who believe this, go here. It’s kinda sad to see these apes go. Without ’em on the VC, I wouldn’t have been able to play DKC 1 again after it bit the dust in my childhood. Or play DKC 2, the one game that’s eluded me for an extremely long time. Yeah yeah there’s emulators, but it’s nothing compared to actually playing these on a TV screen. If you haven’t played these games yet and have no plans to get the original carts, buy these three now before November 25th. If you have them still, hold on tight to them. And be sure your little Pikmin friends transfer those games safely to your shiny new Wii U if you get one!
Donkey Kong Country Games To Be Removed From Wii Virtual Console [gamrConnect]
Donkey Kong Country Trilogy To Be Pulled From Wii Virtual Console [Nintendo Life]
This entry was posted in Gaming News and tagged diddy's kong quest, Dixie's Double Trouble, dkc, DKC 3, DKC Trilogy, donkey kong country 2, donkey kong country 3, Donkey Kong Country DKC 2, Donkey Kong Country Tilogy, I love you too miz1q2w3e, nintendo, rare, rareware, SNES, virtual console, wii on November 18, 2012 by Steven T..
The Captains Speaketh: Wii U Expectations
The launch of the Wii U is almost upon us. Since its reveal, the latest Nintendo console has garnered the most skepticism since the reveal of the original Xbox. Almost every facet of this console has been monitored by both press and fans alike. “What’s the CPU?” “What’s the tablet gonna be like?” “Are the games gonna suck again?” Now, it’s our turn. What do we hope Nintendo does with the Wii U? What games, features and tablet controls do we want to see? Hit the jump to see what we speaketh.
This entry was posted in General Articles and tagged 3ds, Advertising, bayonetta 2, Dead Space Extraction, Disaster: Day of Crisis, Expectations, fire emblem, madworld, nintendo, operation rainfall, platinum games, The Wonderful 101, wii, wii u, ZombiU on November 16, 2012 by TheWiredFishStaff.
Kevin Butler Actor Was Sued By Sony
Of the many titles Kevin Butler has donned during his tenure at Sony, VP of Lawsuit Defendant would probably be the last thing on his mind. The lawsuit was sparked after Jerry Lambert, who plays Kevin Butler in Sony’s Playstation 3 ads, appeared in a Bridgestone commercial as one of the scientists testing out tires. The ad was part of Bridgestone’s GameOn campaign where a tire purchase could net you a free Nintendo Wii. In the commercial itself, the scientists, including Lambert, are seen playing Mario Kart Wii. Sony wasn’t too fond of the man playing and advertising a competitor’s game and console, and on September 11th they filed a lawsuit against him citing IP violation. Bridgestone proceeded to remove Lambert’s image from all of their ads for the remainder of their campaign. This begs the question though: are they suing him for portraying a very similar character, or are they suing him for that plus associating himself with a competitor. I have a feeling that they would’ve let him be if he was doing something else as the character. But since he was playing a Wii, that probably wasn’t flying with Sony.
Either way, it looks like both parties might be coming to an out-of-court settlement. In a filing, the lawyer representing Sony called the courtroom deputy and said that they were coming to an agreement. The court then ordered Sony, “by October 12, 2012, to either: (1) withdraw the ex parte motion; or (2) file a status update describing the current status of the dispute and whether a ruling on the motion will be necessary.” So currently the case is still ongoing, but it looks like it’ll all come to an end soon. I guess we can rule out Kevin Butler being in Playstation All-Stars then huh?
SCEA sues Bridgestone and Jerry Lambert (Kevin Butler actor) over Game On promotion [NeoGAF, via VentureBeat]
This entry was posted in Gaming News and tagged Bridgestone, Jerry Lambert, Kevin Butler, law, Lawsuit, Mario Kart Wii, nintendo, Sony, Sony Computer Entertainment, Sony VP of Marketing, wii on October 7, 2012 by Steven T..
Somehow, In Some Way, This Person Has A Wii U
A member of the Fragdolls somehow managed to snag herself a Wii U according to her tweet. Not sure how exactly she got it nor which convention she attended to get it. From the tweets, it looks like PAX but then says something about a Gamestop Convention (didn’t even know they did those). She also seemed to be involved with Ubisoft (either as a rep or just hanging around the area, I’m leaning on the former). In some more good WiiU related news, one of her earlier tweets says that ZombiU did well at the crowd. Ubisoft might have an early hit on their hands with the Wii U. Let’s just hope it’s not another Red Steel moment.
[via KAT Twitter]
This entry was posted in Gaming News and tagged FDC_BOOTY_STAR, FDC_BOOTY_STARR, Fragdolls, KAT, nintendo, Ubisoft, wii, wii u, WiiU, zombi u, ZombiU on August 30, 2012 by Steven T..
New Nintendo Direct In Japan Set For Tomorrow
Looks like Nintendo’s gonna do another Nintendo Direct. According to the message on the streaming page, they’ll only be focusing on Wii and 3DS software. They make it very clear that there will be no Wii U news on this. I have a feeling this is primarily going to be a 3DS showing as the Wii is on its last legs. If they’re going to show anything on the Wii, it’ll probably be extra stuff for games currently released, maybe some Fatal Frame II and Kirby 20th Anniversary news, etc. Remember, this is the Japanese Nintendo Direct, so any news coming out of this may not necessarily apply to the U.S. But who knows, maybe Iwata might break the flow, become aware of the U.S. audience watching it, and suddenly announce at the last minute that Pandora’s Tower‘s coming to the U.S.!
Since the broadcast starts at 8PM JST, using a timezone converter, that means it’ll start at… 7AM EST? Huh… I think I might have to wake my ass up early for this then. Use this. If I’m wrong, please correct me.
[Japanese Nintendo Direct Site]
This entry was posted in Gaming News and tagged 3ds, Fatal Frame II, japan, kirby 20th anniversary, nintendo, nintendo direct, wii on August 28, 2012 by Steven T..
The Last Story Launch Hits A Little Snag [UPDATE]
Yesterday I got dressed and was ready to haul ass to Gamestop in the Hub of South Bronx to pick up The Last Story. I called the Gamestop to make sure it was there. As soon as I asked the question, I was immediately responded with “It should be here tomorrow.” And I mean he immediately answered me, like he was asked that already by someone else. Considering how pompous I feel, being a gamer of such refined taste as I in a neighborhood such as this, I thought I was the only one in the neighborhood to preorder the game. I mean, I was the only one that preordered Xenoblade here and I had to make a second trip some days later for the artbook. I also preordered The Last Story that first day too. Certainly I deduced that I was remembered.
But I digress. I equated this to Gamestop being up to their old shenanigans again. But just out of curiosity I checked to see if other gamers were having this issue. And lo and behold, I wasn’t the only one. In fact, this was affecting many Gamestops and other stores in the U.S. Confirmation of shipping delays came straight from XSEED’s Twitter. Even Canada was having issues. So if you didn’t get The Last Story yesterday, check today. But do call ahead to make sure. Looks like Gamestop’s off the hook… for now.
This entry was posted in Gaming News and tagged delay, hironobu sakaguchi, jrpg, launch, mistwalker, nintendo, operation rainfall, oprainfall, the last story, tls, wii, XSEED on August 15, 2012 by Steven T..
Gonna Play Dragon Quest X? Better Keep Playing, Or Else…
Wii MMO Dragon Quest X was just released in Japan last week with much acclaim. Not only is it the first MMO for the Dragon Quest series, it’s also the first (and only) MMO for the Wii. One aspect that wasn’t quite touched upon was that you have to keep playing the game, otherwise your character data would be deleted. In other words, it you don’t sign in to Dragon Quest X for 3 months, your character’s data will be kaput. This most likely is a measure to make sure that data keeping is fresh for the server to save and not have orphaned and dormant accounts clogging the server. But at the same time this could have severe repercussions for those that want to come back and play for a while after being gone for so long. Who’s to say someone won’t be able to play the game because of school or work (more on this later today) and finally find the time to play, only to be greeted with a deletion message. Oi vey…
So far this only applies to Japanese gamers as the game has yet to come out in the States. Only time will tell if this measure will carry over to the worldwide release.
Use It Or Lose It, “Dragon Quest X” Will Delete Online Data If Not Being Used [Complex]
This entry was posted in Gaming News and tagged DQX, Dragon Quest X, MMO, MMORPG, nintendo, square enix, wii on August 7, 2012 by Steven T..
Nintendo Wii Could Help Cancer Patients With Fatigue
Doctor Mii at your service!
Amy Hoffman, a nursing researcher at Michigan University’s College Of Nursing, is getting a grant of $379,741.00 and a Nintendo Wii console to help lower the risk of fatigue her lung cancer patience suffer from, especially after surgery. NSCLC (Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer) is the most common lung cancer by about 85% and icauses life threatening risks alone, but even the treatments can also cause high risks. So Hoffman’s been looking for a solution as she mentioned “Nearly half of all Americans live with at least one chronic illness, and nearly a quarter of Americans having multiple chronic illnesses. The needs of the chronically ill are not being met, and a common challenge noted by patients with cancer is self-management of symptoms.”
This entry was posted in Gaming News and tagged amy hoffman, cancer, health, medical, nintendo, NSCLC, rehab, wii, wii fit, wii fit plus on July 17, 2012 by venusbull.
Gamer Review: No More Heroes
The Justic League tried to set up a branch in San Diego. It…didn’t pan out.
There comes along, once in a while, a game that utterly stuns you with its uniqueness. It resides so far outside the bounds of what you, or others for that matter, are used to that even as you play it, you sit slack-jawed in disbelief. I’m not talking about a game with new, unique gameplay features or a boundry-pushing technological advancement. I’m talking about an air, a mood, a certain…something that lends it an aura of the special or the strange.
Looking through the catalogue of one Goichi “Suda 51” Suda, you will find several games that fit this category. His most recent contribution to gaming, Shadows of the Damned, was reviewed a ways back by my companion Suiko on this very site. Still, even that gem was diluted somewhat by the (not unappreciated) presence of Shinji Mikami. Suda’s games tend to be a bit rougher around the edges, both in terms of content and the game’s actual construction. Regarding his style, his magnum opus is probably Killer7, a horrifically dark and strange little gem that defies any real attempt at description. Being part surreal horror, part rail shooter, and 100% crazy and unique, not to mention touching on some rather ugly issues (terrorism, cult mentality, the variability of reality, child trafficking, suicide, rape), it handily shows Suda’s propensity for wholly individual and utterly unrestrained expression.
His other opus, No More Heroes, is similarly unbound, but for entirely different reasons. Where K7 was dark and disturbing, NMH is ridiculous and over-the-top. Where K7 asks you questions about the world around you, NMH just tells you to strap in for the ride. Where K7 casts you as seven psychotic killers, NMH casts you as one really, REALLY expressive one. And it is good, it is all good. NMH is one of the most enjoyable, fun and wholly unique experiences from this generation of consoles, and deserves to be played by anyone with an open mind and a taste for the eccentric.
This entry was posted in Review and tagged assassin, bad girl, mature, nmh, No More Heroes, nsfw, otaku, swearing, travis touchdown, wii on July 10, 2012 by Hachi76.
I Stand On My Soapbox: It Wasn’t Team Ninja’s Fault
I Stand On My Soapbox is a series of editorials that cover more specific topics in the games industry and community. These articles are a little more extreme than normal editorials published here, and could just degenerate to outright ranting. Have fun and enjoy the show!
Okay, I’m not going to beat around the bush here. This is about Metroid: Other M, the one game many consider the only bad game in the Metroid canon. When it was released, it set the entire Nintendo, and gaming, world on fire, and for all the wrong reasons. Many did not like the submissive portrayal of Nintendo’s intergalactic bounty hunter, Samus Aran, in this this game. From the trailers and gamplay footage preceding the release, this looked to be Nintendo biggest game yet, and they would be teaming up with Tecmo’s Team Ninja (from Dead or Alive and Ninja Gaiden fame) to make this happen. A lot of gamers were anticipating this game. But once it was released, the flame wars ensued. You had people defending the game, berating it, wanting Team Ninja and Tecmo to burn in hell, etc. Much of the derision came from how poorly written the story of the game was and how much of a black eye it gave the Metroid franchise. Gamers had their reasons to dislike the story, and I’m not here to defend Metroid Other M. However if there’s one thing that was wrong with the story, it’s that this was, in no way, Team Ninja’s fault.
This entry was posted in General Articles and tagged editorial, Metroid, Metroid Other M, nintendo, opinion, soapbox, Team Ninja, Tecmo, wii, Yoshio Sakamoto on July 10, 2012 by Steven T..
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Joanne Newman
Joanne Newman asked in Politics & GovernmentLaw Enforcement & Police · 2 months ago
Is it possible to fail a lie detector test when telling the truth?
dewcoons
Favourite answer
Yes. That is why they are not admissible in most courts of law. The test can not measure lies or truth. It can only measure body reactions. It checks things like pulse, temperature, etc. If those raise, that is usually an indication that you are lying. But it can also be caused by your being nervous. Or many types of medical conditions.
A few years back a friend of mine who was a police officer was given a lie detector test to try to see if he was prejudice against black people. He was told that was the purpose of the test, and it would be looking for body reactions when in a series of phots he was shown a black person. Of course, knowing that he did not dare to react to a picture of a black person, his nervousness made him reaction by trying not to react. The person being tested was black. So it seems unlikely that he would be prejudice against black people. But the test showed that he was because he was warned not to react which assured that he would react.
Lie detectors are not always accurate. They often are, but not to were they can be used in courts.
(Interesting the side note. The inventor of the lie detector was also the creator of Wonder Woman and wrote the her comic series for over 20 years.)
Yes, because people can just look at the results and computers make mistakes, plus the fact that good liars can get away with lying is another piece of evidence to the puzzle. I don't want to answer to what others are saying but that is why these aren't admissible in court. I never took a lie detector test but I looked at videos where people are getting looked at or watched, usually lie detector tests are used to prove if someone is cheating on them. All the computer can do is read emotions and stress levels and convert them to a threshold, then they will determine whether it is a lie or the truth. Since computers are inaccurate most of the time, it's usually one of the reasons that these are the machinery that I do not trust. People can also change the algorithm or results as well. Even though I hardly see that happen, I hate lying as I have no reason to lie. If you are telling the truth then you'd best better have evidence as well like a recording for proof because people will look at that. What happens depends on the situation and severity of the offense as where you are failing the test, like if you are charged with murder and they use lie detector tests which is a high severity case, and you claim your innocent, the judge can't go by the lie detector, they need full proof that you murdered someone with fingerprints and all that necessary evidence that they use, whether someone got it on film or found a knife or firearm registered with your serial number or name. Otherwise if it is for something that is not as offensive like, 'your girlfriend saying she is cheating on you' or 'you stole a pack of gumballs, (in case you ask) the worst that can happen is you getting humiliated and dumped by your girlfriend or (getting probation for theft of stolen item), hopefully you don't see cameras around, usually you will. Unless your girlfriend is forgiving and you can work it out later, then you would be able to say look, "I never cheated on you, I can't lie and I wouldn't lie to you, I swear by the bible and God, that I would never cheat on my loved one." If you are in this situation, just respectfully say "I did whatever it was that they said you did or didn't do", then work it out later. The last thing you want is to be looked at as a liar or accrue more unnecessary attention, God knows whether you are telling the truth or not, People wouldn't be able to tell if I am lying because I get stressed and emotional almost every day from work. People can say you lie or feel you lie, but that is their reasoning. However, another example, is if you stole a pack of gumball, since it requires you to go to court, they can't use a lie detector test to put you in jail and you can't go to jail for stealing a gumball, because that isn't sufficient evidence or valued enough to be theft to put you in jail. Why do you think they have cameras in stores?
yes and because it is they are not admissible 8n court
Obi Wan Knievel
That's the exact reason polygraph tests aren't admissible in court.
Sure it is possible. Happens all the time. Lie detectors are fake machines. There are numerous ways to screw up the recording. They are used to intimidate people and that is their only use. The law can and does lie to people in investigations and interviews, But if you tell just one lie, that is a felony. Keep your mouth shut and refuse any lie detector. That is your right.
YES. if you are not confident about what you are saying then that machine can tell
You are lying even though you are saying truth.
All that machine does is measure your response & reactions. So I wouldn't even call that response measuring machine a ' Lie detector "
You can get away with lie with you are very good Liar. I have tried it & proud to say that I got away with lies 😉😛😎
Albannach
All a "lie detector" does is detect a strong emotional reaction to a question could evoke said reaction. A well trained, experienced polygraph operator would be able to discern if a reaction was indeed a lie or just a reaction to the question. i.e. "Do you ever watch pornography?".....Could be that your vehemently opposed to porn and it causes a detectible reaction to the question. (For those of you that say that lie detector results are not admissible in court....For the most part that's true, BUT they ARE allowed in Federal Court.)
Foofa
Yes, polygraphs are notoriously unreliable, which is why they're not admissible in court.
YES. In fact I did ... MULTIPLE TIMES.
Scientific research on the polygraph show that it is NO BETTER THAN CHANCE at detecting truth or lie in MOST situations. There are a few narrow applications where it does better than chance, but still has an unacceptably high false positive and false negative rate.
In short, it's worthless. Even it's INVENTOR denounced his own invention late in life. It was created based on NO EVIDENCE whatsoever that heartrate, perspiration, and breathing rate correlated with lying. Many of the most damaging spies in US history passed MULTIPLE polygraph tests, like Aldritch Ames.
So why do they use it? A retired FBI official once told me that they only use it to intimidate people they already know are lying. So for example, say a prison inmate suddenly claims he can identify where Hoffa was buried in exchange for time off his sentence. The FBI knows he's full of sh_t, and to spare themselves the work of having to prove it, they challenge him to take a poly under penalty of perjury. Because he believes the poly is real, he withdraws his claim.
But the intelligence community is still using it as a condition for employment to many jobs. Why? Because in the hands of a skilled interrogator, the fake psychological pressure that the poly creates can cause people to be more honest EVEN IF IT DOESN'T ACTUALLY WORK. It's a bluff.
It happens a lot, as a so called lie detector only measures physical body responses to a question. Not if someone is actually telling the truth.
Can anybody 'force' me to wear a face mask outside in public ?
If someone breaks into your house late at night and you shoot them, does it make a difference if they were armed or not?
If your teenage daughter told you that her dad downloaded movies without paying for them, and she has already filed a report, is she right?
Well, the BLM race riots, looting, and burning are still occurring. Will Joe Biden throw our men and women in blue under the bus as always?
What would happen if I pooped on the floor at Gamestop ?
What would happen if I let out a very smelly fart at Gamestop, causing the customers to leave the store and Gamestop misses out on the sales?
Why my mom don’t want me being a police officer when I grow up?
Accused of domestic violence but not arrested in MA?
Has a civilian jail or prison ever been invaded?
What would happen if I peed on the floor at Little Caesar's ?
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Human rights/equalities, Inquiries, System design
Grenfell – an administrative justice case study, one year on
Posted by M Doyle ⋅ June 12, 2018 ⋅ 2 Comments
Filed Under CEDR, Emotion, Grenfell, Hillsborough
This week is the one-year anniversary of the fire at Grenfell Tower. The fire led to the deaths of 72 people; it has been called a tragedy and a preventable mass fatality, both terms implying different degrees of accountability of public bodies. We have learned much over the past year about the causes of the fire and the consequences for its residents and their neighbours and families. We have also seen the start of a public inquiry looking into the circumstances leading up to and surrounding the fire.
As UKAJI said in its Research Roadmap, published in February this year, the fire was an illustration of the interconnected nature of administrative justice and shows the real-world impact of complex issues of accountability, trust, complaints handling, the role of the state in ensuring people’s welfare and safety, and the potential implications of cuts to local authority budgets, de-regulation, and the pressures on public service decision-making in times of financial constraints. The decision to have a public inquiry into the fire, its causes and the wider context, and the design of that inquiry, are also matters of administrative justice.
Ad hoc design
Three years ago, UKAJI published on its blog a piece by Karl Mackie of CEDR about the design of public inquiries. Mackie noted that ‘No single court process or act of Parliament can match the approach and issues explored in a public inquiry, which provides an understanding of what has taken place, from an inquisitorial as opposed to adversarial perspective; a public catharsis; as well as wide-ranging recommendations for future action.’ As such, ‘ the process by which public inquiries meet their goals should not be neglected.’
Mackie was writing about the publication of guidance on setting up and running a public inquiry, produced by CEDR in 2015. The guidance sets out considerations for setting the terms of reference, identifies the various stakeholder groups and their concerns, and explores aspects of running an inquiry. A section is devoted to ‘Emotions’ – a reflection that this is an area with which inquiries frequently struggle. The guide gives a number of reasons why it is important for an inquiry to prepare for and make space for the expression of emotions:
‘Emotion is important in itself as an issue. It is often important for a witness’s own confidence in the Inquiry process that they feel that a significant emotion is recognised as well as helping the Inquiry to understand the importance of what the person is feeling about a situation and perhaps why. It can be a vital part, sometimes the vital part, for the witness in the enunciation of their story.
Emotion and its management can also change the way a story is told or events remembered and affect readiness for a solution. It can also obfuscate the issue and the solution to the problem. And it can influence perceptions of the fairness or objectivity of an Inquiry process. Whilst people are focussed on emotion, they are less able to understand a problem, find a solution or listen ‘objectively’ to others. It is extremely difficult to consider something to have finished/been resolved, if you still feel emotional about it to the same degree. Pent-up emotion is a serious obstacle to progress or moving on from previous incidents.’
Calls for public inquiries are becoming more frequent, yet their design has had little attention from researchers. Mackie noted that as a result of ad hoc development, inquiries often slip into a default court-like mode and become adversarial and defensive. One of the biggest criticisms of public inquiries is that they haven’t involved those who have the deepest interest in the outcomes.
Design of Grenfell inquiry
The Grenfell inquiry has been deliberately designed to learn the lessons from Hillsborough and to respond to doubts about the integrity of the process. Phil Scraton, of Queen’s University Belfast and primary author of the 2012 Hillsborough Independent Panel Report, noted last year that in his experience, ‘the Grenfell inquiry will not have the confidence of the community unless it demonstrates a profound understanding of the context, circumstances and aftermath of the tragedy, engaging directly and meaningfully with families and survivors’.
In ‘The legacy of Hillsborough: liberating truth, challenging power’, Scraton writes about the ‘view from below’, the alternative accounts (of bereaved families and survivors) that were hidden by the official discourse about Hillsborough. ‘In establishing ‘the truth’ of what happened, distinct and contrasting versions are presented from different physical, intellectual and emotional standpoints‘, and these standpoints are assigned different weight according to perceived status. Scraton notes that in seeking redress for harm, ‘victims or survivors do not necessarily demand criminal prosecutions, retribution or punishments but invariably they expect acknowledgement‘.
There was initial concern among Grenfell residents and the groups working with them that the inquiry personnel, including its chair, did not understand or represent the community. The decision to start the inquiry with two weeks of initial ‘commemoration hearings’, focusing on ‘pen portraits’ of the victims, signalled a recognition that the victims need to be at the centre of the inquiry and that Grenfell tower was both a community and a collection of individuals and families with rich lives and stories to tell. This ‘humanising effect‘, brought about with respect and dignity, helps to frame what will be a gruelling search for the truth, for hard facts and for accountability.
There have been criticisms that the inquiry will not look at potential underlying causes, such as the attitude of the state to social housing tenants. It has been suggested at the inquiry that institutional racism should form part of the inquiry’s terms of reference. In addition, Baroness Lawrence has referred to the treatment of social housing tenants as one of ‘institutional indifference’. She draws a link between the Grenfell inquiry and the inquiry into her son Stephen’s murder; in both, she says, race and class play an undeniable part, and she notes that we are seeing similar issues play out in the Windrush generation scandal. Six months ago, the Equality and Human Rights Commission announced it was undertaking an investigation into the fire – not to replicate the work of the inquiry but ‘to ensure the human rights and equality dimensions of the fire and surrounding circumstances are not overlooked’. One issue being explored by the EHRC is whether a duty on government to have due regard to the socio-economic impact of its decisions, had it been in force, would have made any difference to what happened, and whether a stronger socio-economic duty is required.
Through the lens of administrative justice
What does a focus on administrative justice bring to this? At the heart of the inquiry lies a search for a ‘truth’ about the extent to which the state (manifested particularly in the local council and the arms’ length Tenant Management Organisation) was responsible, about the adequacy of building regulations and their enforcement, about whether residents were listened to regarding risks, and the responses of the fire brigade during the fire and the government immediately following. This alone requires that we see the work of the inquiry as a matter of administrative justice. Perhaps more fundamentally is a need to examine the way that the principles underpinning administrative justice are key to our understanding of what happened and why. These principles are the values that are fundamental to the system and to peoples’ trust in the worth of the system and its ability to provide justice. Such principles include independence, fairness, transparency, accountability and respect for human dignity, equalities and human rights, matters that are central to the core requirements of the rule of law.
Researchers have a role to play here in examining principles, practice and especially design through the lens of administrative justice. The CEDR guide emphasises the importance of paying attention to the significance of process and the importance of good process design and argues that design of public inquiries should be part of law and governance courses covering a range of topics, including the methodological challenges of managing Inquiries and making effective recommendations. There might also be potential for sharing across administrative justice mechanisms, including drawing on the work of ombuds in using lesson-learning to improve initial decision-making by public bodies.
As the CEDR guide notes, ‘more careful design should be undertaken, including design advice sought from process experts, at the preliminary stage of setting up a Public Inquiry, particularly focusing on key ‘fault-line areas’ where purpose and practice/capability may diverge. A ‘purpose and design statement’ should be issued at the outset of an Inquiry to indicate that there has been analysis of purpose and process choices rather than committing simply to a process based on default thinking.’
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2 thoughts on “Grenfell – an administrative justice case study, one year on”
Have you thought about a case study of the 350 avoidable deaths a week in the NHS? No media feast for friends and relatives of this injustice.
Posted by Brenda Prentice | June 14, 2018, 9:07 am
Pingback: Public inquiries in Japan: Inquiries into the Fukushima nuclear disaster from a UK law perspective | UKAJI - September 16, 2019
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Is McCain A Lot Sicker Than We Know?
version 12 years ago
McCain and Sarah Palin: Till Death Do Them Part? And If So, How Soon? Is McCain A Lot Sicker Than We Know?
By ALEXANDER COCKBURN
https://www.counterpunch.org/cockburn10122008.html
In the crucial final weeks of the campaign John McCain is mostly doing only one event a day. This is the man of whom his primary care physician at the Mayo Clinic in Arizona, said to journalists in a conference call last May 23: “At the present time, Sen. McCain enjoys excellent health and displays extraordinary energy.” He looked tired and sick in the second debate in Nashville. As Sarah Palin rabble-rouses the crowds with calls for Obama to be forthright, she may be wondering, “how forthright has John McCain been with me? If he wins on November 4, will I be president in six months or a year?”
But if McCain’s battle with melanoma has suddenly turned critical, wouldn’t his doctors feel compelled to divulge their knowledge about the candidate? The answer is No. The legal penalties under HIPPA (the medical privacy act) for disclosure of protected health information, without that patient’s consent, are extremely serious.
No one is more under day-to-day scrutiny than the President. When Reagan ran for re-election he already knew he had colon cancer and that was kept quiet until after he won. In health matters, secrecy often wins out in the political crunch. What follows are the essentials of a story by Fred Gardner and myself in the latest issue of our CounterPunch newsletter.
In the past fifteen years, John McCain has had four melanomas removed. The most dangerous was the one taken from his temple in 2000, classified by his doctors as an invasive melanoma, stage IIA, on a standard scale that makes stage IV the most serious.
The 2000 surgery left McCain not only with a puffy jaw but also with a scar down his neck. Dr Eckstein’s public statement, released May 24 of this year, stated:
“Regarding his past skin issues, the Senator has received skin care at Mayo Clinic in Arizona since August, 2000. Four malignant melanomas were surgically removed in the past. Three of these were ‘in situ’ melanomas, meaning they were limited to the top layers of the skin and were not invasive. These three early melanomas on his left shoulder, left arm and left nasal sidewall, were removed in 1993, 2000 and 2002, respectively. A fourth melanoma that was invasive was removed from his left lower temple in 2000.
“Each melanoma was a new primary melanoma and did not represent a recurrence of any previous melanoma. There was and is no evidence of recurrence or metastasis, meaning spread of the invasive melanoma nearly eight years after surgery. Other less serious skin cancers have been removed over the years without complication. These have been non-melanoma basal cell and squamous cell cancers.
“Many questions have been asked about the removal of the invasive melanoma from Senator McCain’s left lower temple in August 2000… To summarize, we continue to find no evidence of metastasis or recurrence of the invasive melanoma as we approach the eighth anniversary of that operation. This was most recently confirmed with his comprehensive examination and tests in March 2008 and with Dr. Connolly’s skin examination on May 12, 2008. The prognosis for Senator McCain is good because the time of greatest risk for recurrence of invasive melanoma is within the first few years after the surgery.”
A press conference at the same time received relatively upbeat treatment. The New York Times’ medical correspondent, Dr. Lawrence Altman, sharing a byline with Elisabeth Bumiller, informed readers the next day, May 24, 2008: “Sen. John McCain, 71, is in excellent health and shows no evidence of the recurrence of the melanoma skin cancer that led to extensive head and neck surgery in 2000, McCain’s doctors said Friday.”
The McCain campaign had just allowed three-hour access by a group of reporters to 1,173 pages of medical records. They were not allowed to make any copies or take any of the materials out of the room. Reporters did note that two pathologists at the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology who examined the melanoma specimen from McCain’s left temple in 2000 suggested there were two melanomas on his temple, not one, as his doctors had said publicly at the time.
“Two experts in the field, who reviewed the report,” wrote Altman and Bumiller “said it was unclear whether the melanoma on McCain’s temple had metastasized from another, or whether there was one new primary melanoma. If the spread was through the nearby melanoma, then there is greater risk to McCain than the public has been led to believe, said Dr. Lynn Schuchter, a melanoma expert at the University of Pennsylvania, and Dr. Mohammed Kashani-Sabet, director of the Melanoma Center at UC San Francisco.”
For stage IIA melanoma, the survival rate 10 years after diagnosis is about 65 per cent. But the outlook is much better, as McCain’s doctors noted, for patients who have already survived more than seven years.
Dr. Suzanne Connolly, McCain’s dermatologist at the Mayo Clinic, told reporters that there was “no crystal ball to predict with certainty” if McCain’s cancer would return, but she put the chance at less than 10 per cent at this stage in his life.”
On September 20, 2008, CounterPunch was contacted by a reader in Washington, D.C., reporting conversations pointing to a dramatic, recent worsening in McCan’s medical condition and prognosis.
Though pressed by CounterPunch the reader insists on remaining anonymous. Over the course of several exchanges with our reader, we can report the following. An official in the National Institutes of Health, well known to our reader, has confided to her that in an informal conversation with a doctor in a California hospital the NIH official had learned that there had been a metastasis of McCain’s melanoma, and that this had come to light in a checkup in the past few weeks.
Urged to reconfirm this news and to provide further details, our reader pressed the NIH official for more details and reported back to us on September 26 that after she had asked the NIH official to verify the details, the official:
“decided this was important, and contacted her doctor friend to get what info she could. So here it is. John McCain recently was diagnosed with a melanoma recurrence, with a metastasis to the lymph node, in his latest, most recent cancer checkup, which took place at John Wayne Cancer Institute in California.”
Attempting to confirm this intelligence, CounterPunch contacted four physicians, none of whom want to be identified. Two remarked the subsidence of swelling in McCain’s left jaw in recent months. A UC San Francisco cancer specialist said, “It looked to me like he had something going on in his left jaw for a long time, and then it appeared much less puffy in the last few months. My theory was that he had gotten some radiation therapy. It was way pooched out compared to what it is now. He used to not show his left side on camera. And then he appeared to be going head-on. So my guess was that he had had some radiation.”
An East Coast oncologist said of John Wayne Cancer Institute in Santa Monica, California, “That would be the place he’d go because the world’s expert surgeon for melanoma, Donald Morton, is there.” Dr. Morton, while head of surgical oncology at UCLA, developed a technique that minimizes the number of lymph nodes that must be removed during biopsies.
A Los Angeles radiologist put the question of McCain being treated directly to two colleagues at John Wayne. “They said ‘no,’ but I had the strong impression they weren’t being forthright. I’ve known these guys 30 years and I sensed from their tone that they weren’t leveling with me.”
You can get the full article by myself and Fred Gardner by subscribing to our newsletter. So subscribe now.
Threat of Martial Law
On October 2, Representative Brad Sherman, a California Democrat and opponent of the bailout, stated in the House that members of Congress were threatened that “there would be martial law in America if we voted no.” A day earlier, here onCounterPunch, Doug Valentine had pointed out that George Bush was equipped with such powers, having issued in May 2007 National Security Presidential Directive 51 and Homeland Security Presidential Directive 20. These directives gave Bush the authority to assure the “Continuity of Government” in the event of a “Catastrophic Emergency”— which resulted in, among other things, some extraordinary disruption of the economy.
By a pleasing coincidence amid these dramatic events, the Army Times reported on September 30 that the 3rd Infantry Division’s 1st Brigade Combat Team, lately in Iraq, would be employed October 1 on US soil “under the day-to-day control of U.S. Army North, the Army service component of Northern Command, as an on-call federal response force for natural or manmade emergencies and disasters, including terrorist attacks.” This new mission, wrote the Army Times’ Gina Cavallaro, marks “the first time an active unit has been given a dedicated assignment to NorthCom.”
Obama helped arm-twist recalcitrant Democrats, particularly in the Congressional Black Caucus, to vote for the Paulson bailout, in the national interest, the line urged on House members by Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and Barney Frank.
Sarah Palin’s Tax Returns
Professors of accounting are being wheeled on to denounce the Palins for improper deductions and unreported income. What mostly interests me is that the Governor Palin and the First Dude use H&R Block to prepare their returns. I’ll bet Joe Biden, always eager to assert his credentials as a regular working stiff, doesn’t use H.&R. Block. Biden claims he spends a lot of time at Home Depot and I doubt that too, because if he did he wouldn’t have shown up for his debate with Sarah. He ‘d still be somewhere halfway down Aisle 19 in a Home Depot, waiting for someone to help him find the tile grout.
Anyway, Sarah should hire Arianna Huffington’s accountant, assuming the fellow has time for any other client.
McCain and Palin are whacking Obama for his ties with the Weather Underground. Obama’s defenders point out that at the time Bill Ayers and his wife Bernadine Dohrn were active in the 1960s, Obama was 8. So? I remember an antiwar newspaper some time in the late 1960s featuring a photo of a young kid standing beside a railroad line holding a chunk of metal and the caption said something like, “Youngster holds the steel pipe with which he derailed an arms cargo.”
Is Sarah a racist? We had a piece on this site last week by Linn Washington Jr citing jazz musician Charles Greg Royal as saying in the National Press Club in Washington, DC that in 1990, when performing with the Duke Ellington Band in Anchorage, trombonist Royal struck up a conversation with a woman at a fast food restaurant who initially identified herself as Sarah. During that conversation, according to Royal. Sarah told him her last name was Heath, He also says Sarah’s whole manner changed when fellow band members came over. He asked her if anything was wrong. According to Royal, Heath’s response to his inquiry was, “Excuse me, but I don’t mess with black men.” Royal says he told Heath, “I’m a black man” and Sarah responded, “But, you’re not really black.” Royal, who told Washington he was trying to “hit on” Sarah, says he ended the conversation telling her not to worry about it and have a nice day.
Hmm. Eighteen years… Young Sarah certainly made an impression on Royal. How much do you remember what you said to anyone after a concert eighteen years ago? And how does this charge of racism square Palin’s enthusiasm for the Kenyan witch exorcist? On the other hand, her gubernatorial record on minorities and natives in Alaska is poor. Odd, considering the First Dude is a quarter Yup’ik.
I’ve had a few notes chiding me for seeming indulgence towards the governor of Alaska. My take is more or less that of a friend of Steve Conn, who quite rightly congratulated him for his excellent pieces on Palin on this site. The friend wrote to Conn:
Loved your recent piece on anti-Palinism in Counterpunch. I wish there were more people like you on the left.
I’ve been saying for a while that much of the Palin-bashing is just bourgeois working-class-bashing.I was recently at a dinner party in Beverly Hills, where I listened to several very rich women (Hollywood execs and the wife of a real estate mogul) complain about Palin’s accent, her hairstyle, her lack of education, etc. The capper, from the wife of the real estate mogul, who owns a chunk of Rodeo Drive: “I can’t believe anyone likes her. She has NO CLASS.”
The left needs to be as anti-anti-Palin as it is anti-Palin.
Biden is the guy who pretty much singlehandedly, on behalf of MBNA — the largest employer in Delaware, also the largest independent credit card company in the world, major contributor to Biden and sometime employer of Biden’s son — swung the Democrats in the Senate behind the credit card bill in 2005 which makes it impossible for Americans to go bankrupt and get clear of their debts. Think how many people are going to go bankrupt in the years ahead. As Eric Nguyen points out in an Friday NYT op ed:
Lenders have been foreclosing on about 250,000 homes every month this year — one every 10 seconds. And among the hardest-hit Americans have been families with school-age children. Many of those families file for bankruptcy; indeed, nearly two-thirds of those trying to save their homes in bankruptcy have young children. Yet our laws make it especially difficult for families to keep their homes.
Thank you, Joe Biden. Of that bankruptcy bill Biden said in the debate, “I though the glass was half full; Obama thought it was half empty.” And then of course Obama voted against establishing interest rate caps and said of the bailout that it should NOT include bankruptcy reform.
Posted in Geopolitics
Please Write To MPs Opposing A Free Trade Deal With The US.
Fri Oct 17 , 2008
This is a chilling scenario for NZ —– Original Message —– From: CAFCA Sent: Thursday, October 16, 2008 3:40 PM Subject: Please Write To MPs Opposing A Free Trade Deal With The US. CAFCA In September the Government took the country by surprise by announcing it was opening negotiations for […]
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Mandibular fractures: an analysis of the epidemiology and patterns of injury in 4,143 fractures
Christopher Morris, Nicolas P. Bebeau, Hans Brockhoff, Rahul Tandon, Paul Tiwana
PURPOSE: The objective of this study was to complete a comprehensive retrospective review of the epidemiology and patterns of injury in mandibular trauma based on the Parkland Memorial Hospital trauma database over a 17-year period. The authors identified 4,143 fractures in 2,828 patients from the databank. In mandibular trauma, the mechanism of injury and several other variables can be an important point of differentiation with regard to fracture pattern. By showing the statistical relation between these and fracture pattern, the authors hope to provide surgeons with a better understanding of such a relation.
MATERIALS AND METHODS: Mandibular fracture data were collected from the Parkland Memorial Hospital trauma registry using International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision codes (802.21 to 802.39). Information included fracture type, age, gender, mechanism of injury, and associated injuries. The Parkland Memorial Hospital trauma registry yielded 4,143 mandibular fractures in 2,828 patients managed at Parkland Memorial Hospital from 1993 through 2010.
RESULTS: Based on retrospective analysis, results were obtained for age, gender, monthly distribution, anatomic distribution, and mechanism of injury. The average age was approximately 38 years, with most patients (33%) in the third decade. An overwhelming majority of patients were men (83.27%), with only 16.27% consisting of women. Most injuries occurred in the summer months, with July being the most common month of occurrence. The mechanism of injury predominantly involved low-velocity blunt injuries (62%) compared with high-velocity blunt injuries (31%). The anatomic distribution of fractures evaluated was the angle (27%), symphysis (21.3%), condyle and subcondyle (18.4%), and body (16.8%).
CONCLUSION: This study helps provide and support the relation between several variables associated with many common traumatic injuries seen in the mandible. This analysis can be used to help surgeons identify and anticipate injuries based on age, gender, and mechanism of injury.
951.e1-951.e12
Journal of oral and maxillofacial surgery : official journal of the American Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.joms.2015.01.001
Published - May 1 2015
10.1016/j.joms.2015.01.001
Fingerprint Dive into the research topics of 'Mandibular fractures: an analysis of the epidemiology and patterns of injury in 4,143 fractures'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.
Mandibular Fractures Medicine & Life Sciences
Epidemiology Medicine & Life Sciences
Nonpenetrating Wounds Medicine & Life Sciences
Mandibular Injuries Medicine & Life Sciences
Registries Medicine & Life Sciences
Surgeons Medicine & Life Sciences
Databases Medicine & Life Sciences
Morris, C., Bebeau, N. P., Brockhoff, H., Tandon, R., & Tiwana, P. (2015). Mandibular fractures: an analysis of the epidemiology and patterns of injury in 4,143 fractures. Journal of oral and maxillofacial surgery : official journal of the American Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons, 73(5), 951.e1-951.e12. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.joms.2015.01.001
Mandibular fractures : an analysis of the epidemiology and patterns of injury in 4,143 fractures. / Morris, Christopher; Bebeau, Nicolas P.; Brockhoff, Hans; Tandon, Rahul; Tiwana, Paul.
In: Journal of oral and maxillofacial surgery : official journal of the American Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons, Vol. 73, No. 5, 01.05.2015, p. 951.e1-951.e12.
Morris, C, Bebeau, NP, Brockhoff, H, Tandon, R & Tiwana, P 2015, 'Mandibular fractures: an analysis of the epidemiology and patterns of injury in 4,143 fractures', Journal of oral and maxillofacial surgery : official journal of the American Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons, vol. 73, no. 5, pp. 951.e1-951.e12. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.joms.2015.01.001
Morris C, Bebeau NP, Brockhoff H, Tandon R, Tiwana P. Mandibular fractures: an analysis of the epidemiology and patterns of injury in 4,143 fractures. Journal of oral and maxillofacial surgery : official journal of the American Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons. 2015 May 1;73(5):951.e1-951.e12. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.joms.2015.01.001
Morris, Christopher ; Bebeau, Nicolas P. ; Brockhoff, Hans ; Tandon, Rahul ; Tiwana, Paul. / Mandibular fractures : an analysis of the epidemiology and patterns of injury in 4,143 fractures. In: Journal of oral and maxillofacial surgery : official journal of the American Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons. 2015 ; Vol. 73, No. 5. pp. 951.e1-951.e12.
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title = "Mandibular fractures: an analysis of the epidemiology and patterns of injury in 4,143 fractures",
abstract = "PURPOSE: The objective of this study was to complete a comprehensive retrospective review of the epidemiology and patterns of injury in mandibular trauma based on the Parkland Memorial Hospital trauma database over a 17-year period. The authors identified 4,143 fractures in 2,828 patients from the databank. In mandibular trauma, the mechanism of injury and several other variables can be an important point of differentiation with regard to fracture pattern. By showing the statistical relation between these and fracture pattern, the authors hope to provide surgeons with a better understanding of such a relation.MATERIALS AND METHODS: Mandibular fracture data were collected from the Parkland Memorial Hospital trauma registry using International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision codes (802.21 to 802.39). Information included fracture type, age, gender, mechanism of injury, and associated injuries. The Parkland Memorial Hospital trauma registry yielded 4,143 mandibular fractures in 2,828 patients managed at Parkland Memorial Hospital from 1993 through 2010.RESULTS: Based on retrospective analysis, results were obtained for age, gender, monthly distribution, anatomic distribution, and mechanism of injury. The average age was approximately 38 years, with most patients (33%) in the third decade. An overwhelming majority of patients were men (83.27%), with only 16.27% consisting of women. Most injuries occurred in the summer months, with July being the most common month of occurrence. The mechanism of injury predominantly involved low-velocity blunt injuries (62%) compared with high-velocity blunt injuries (31%). The anatomic distribution of fractures evaluated was the angle (27%), symphysis (21.3%), condyle and subcondyle (18.4%), and body (16.8%).CONCLUSION: This study helps provide and support the relation between several variables associated with many common traumatic injuries seen in the mandible. This analysis can be used to help surgeons identify and anticipate injuries based on age, gender, and mechanism of injury.",
author = "Christopher Morris and Bebeau, {Nicolas P.} and Hans Brockhoff and Rahul Tandon and Paul Tiwana",
doi = "10.1016/j.joms.2015.01.001",
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T2 - an analysis of the epidemiology and patterns of injury in 4,143 fractures
AU - Morris, Christopher
AU - Bebeau, Nicolas P.
AU - Brockhoff, Hans
AU - Tandon, Rahul
AU - Tiwana, Paul
N2 - PURPOSE: The objective of this study was to complete a comprehensive retrospective review of the epidemiology and patterns of injury in mandibular trauma based on the Parkland Memorial Hospital trauma database over a 17-year period. The authors identified 4,143 fractures in 2,828 patients from the databank. In mandibular trauma, the mechanism of injury and several other variables can be an important point of differentiation with regard to fracture pattern. By showing the statistical relation between these and fracture pattern, the authors hope to provide surgeons with a better understanding of such a relation.MATERIALS AND METHODS: Mandibular fracture data were collected from the Parkland Memorial Hospital trauma registry using International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision codes (802.21 to 802.39). Information included fracture type, age, gender, mechanism of injury, and associated injuries. The Parkland Memorial Hospital trauma registry yielded 4,143 mandibular fractures in 2,828 patients managed at Parkland Memorial Hospital from 1993 through 2010.RESULTS: Based on retrospective analysis, results were obtained for age, gender, monthly distribution, anatomic distribution, and mechanism of injury. The average age was approximately 38 years, with most patients (33%) in the third decade. An overwhelming majority of patients were men (83.27%), with only 16.27% consisting of women. Most injuries occurred in the summer months, with July being the most common month of occurrence. The mechanism of injury predominantly involved low-velocity blunt injuries (62%) compared with high-velocity blunt injuries (31%). The anatomic distribution of fractures evaluated was the angle (27%), symphysis (21.3%), condyle and subcondyle (18.4%), and body (16.8%).CONCLUSION: This study helps provide and support the relation between several variables associated with many common traumatic injuries seen in the mandible. This analysis can be used to help surgeons identify and anticipate injuries based on age, gender, and mechanism of injury.
AB - PURPOSE: The objective of this study was to complete a comprehensive retrospective review of the epidemiology and patterns of injury in mandibular trauma based on the Parkland Memorial Hospital trauma database over a 17-year period. The authors identified 4,143 fractures in 2,828 patients from the databank. In mandibular trauma, the mechanism of injury and several other variables can be an important point of differentiation with regard to fracture pattern. By showing the statistical relation between these and fracture pattern, the authors hope to provide surgeons with a better understanding of such a relation.MATERIALS AND METHODS: Mandibular fracture data were collected from the Parkland Memorial Hospital trauma registry using International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision codes (802.21 to 802.39). Information included fracture type, age, gender, mechanism of injury, and associated injuries. The Parkland Memorial Hospital trauma registry yielded 4,143 mandibular fractures in 2,828 patients managed at Parkland Memorial Hospital from 1993 through 2010.RESULTS: Based on retrospective analysis, results were obtained for age, gender, monthly distribution, anatomic distribution, and mechanism of injury. The average age was approximately 38 years, with most patients (33%) in the third decade. An overwhelming majority of patients were men (83.27%), with only 16.27% consisting of women. Most injuries occurred in the summer months, with July being the most common month of occurrence. The mechanism of injury predominantly involved low-velocity blunt injuries (62%) compared with high-velocity blunt injuries (31%). The anatomic distribution of fractures evaluated was the angle (27%), symphysis (21.3%), condyle and subcondyle (18.4%), and body (16.8%).CONCLUSION: This study helps provide and support the relation between several variables associated with many common traumatic injuries seen in the mandible. This analysis can be used to help surgeons identify and anticipate injuries based on age, gender, and mechanism of injury.
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JF - Journal of oral and maxillofacial surgery : official journal of the American Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons
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Tool’s New Album Had a Bigger Debut Than Kanye West’s New Album
Some of the most highly anticipated albums of the decade have been released in 2019. Tool’s newest album, Fear Inoculum, broke a 13-year dry spell, while Kanye West’s Jesus Is King sent hip-hop fans into an anxious whirlwind with false release dates. However, it was Fear Inoculum that experienced the bigger first-week sales.
Jesus Is King debuted at No. 1 in the Billboard 200, allowing Kanye to tie Eminem’s chart record of the most consecutive No. 1 albums with a total of nine. Despite mixed reviews, Jesus Is King debuted strong with 264,000 units moved its first week, with 109,000 coming from pure album sales.
Tool’s Fear Inoculum, which was released in August, had an even more successful first week than Kanye’s new record. Tool moved 270,000 copies of the album its first week, selling a staggering 247,000 pure albums. Furthermore, the limited edition copies of Fear Inoculum completely sold out its first week, which means Tool could have landed even bigger numbers if they had further stocked shelves.
According to Chart Data, Fear Inoculum remains the sixth-biggest debut across all music genres in 2019, beating out juggernaut acts like BTS, Khalid and the Backstreet Boys.
Only 13 albums have debuted with over 100,000 pure sales in 2019, and two of those are metal albums. Along with Tool’s Fear Inoculum, Slipknot’s We Are Not Your Kind broke the six-figure mark, selling 102,000 physical copies its first week.
Top 30 Metal Frontmen + Frontwomen in the 21st Century
Source: Tool’s New Album Had a Bigger Debut Than Kanye West’s New Album
Filed Under: Tool
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Disha Act by Andhra Pradesh Govt: ( 5 Indian laws for Women Safety )
The Andhra Pradesh Government has taken a historic decision to protect women and child from the rising crime. It is proposed to complete the case along with the punishment within 21 days of the registration of the FIR. The cabinet has passed the draft bill. The AP government has taken this decision after the gang rape of a doctor in Hyderabad recently.
This decision was taken in the cabinet meeting held on under the chairmanship of Chief Minister YS Jaganmohan Reddy. There is no provision in the law of the country to give the death penalty to the rape accused. Therefore, it will become the first state in India to give death sentences in rape cases if this bill is passed in the Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly.
5 Indian Laws for women safety
1. The Criminal Law (Amendment) Act, 2013:
It is also known and the Nirbhaya Act which was passed by the Parliament of India on March 21, 2013. The act provides maximum imprisonment of a life term for Acid Attack. It also provides imprisonment of not less than five years that can extend to seven years in case of an attempt to acid attack. This act is believed as one of the stringent acts to ensure women's safety in India. It also ensures rigorous imprisonment for up to three years or fine or both in the sexual harassment cases.
2. The Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act, 1956:
It provides safeguard to the women in India against trafficking and prostitution. The act provides punishment for a term of two years or ten years if someone over the age of 18 years living on the earning of prostitution.
3. Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013:
The act ensures the safety of women at the workplace and provides safety to the women at their workplace. The act describes sexual harassment as the use of language with sexual overtones, subtle touches, invasion of private space.
4. Indecent Representation of Women (Prevention) Act, 1986:
This act provides a safe representation of women through advertisement or in publications, paintings, writings, figures, messages or in any other manner. The punishment for the offence shall be between 2 to 7 years with a fine between Rs one Lakh to Five Lakhs.
5. The Dowry Prohibition Act, 1961:
As per the provisions of this act, giving or taking dowry is a punishable offense. It is one of the major challenges of Indian society to stop taking or giving dowry, however, the law allows the imprisonment of a minimum of five years to seven years or fine of the value of dowry.
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An anonymous phone call and a safe word – is this the chilling future of theater?
by Ruth Walker July 10, 2020 October 9, 2020
“Thank you for volunteering to represent the Etcetera Helpline,” the email read. “This is a reminder of your upcoming shift.”
Be alone, it instructed. In private. In a dimly-lit bedroom.
It added, ominously: “During your shift, you will interact with a caller/callers with whom you may explore personal themes and/or make difficult decisions. If you wish to end a shift at any time, communicate the phrase ‘TRAFFIC LIGHT’ to do so.”
A safe word? What had I just agreed to?
As theater companies all over the world experiment with virtual experiences, Candle House Collective is way ahead of the game – it’s been creating remote, interactive experiences since 2018. In the age of COVID, it’s found its niche.
Claws is the story of Danny, whose father is at work and who has locked a monster in his closet. He’s calling for help – and I’m his best bet. This is not a passive piece of theater; it is deeply immersive, dark, and suspenseful. And I may have just confided in a monster about my problematic relationship with my mother.
Nothing can replace the shared experience of live theater, and I ache for its return. At least, I ache for the return of the good stuff; the pieces I fell asleep to, or wished my life would end rather than stay until curtain, I can live without. This is something different: this is a uniquely intimate moment in time that forces the audience of one to look inward. And it’s only 35 minutes long. Now all I need is for the rest of you to do it too, so we can go to a bar after and discuss it!
“Who are we serving? We’re serving individuals who have been told for a very long time by other systems that you’ll never amount to anything, that you can’t do things. They come from a life of instability, a life without much support, a life of poverty, a life of a lack of access to the things that some of us take for granted, like a decent education, health care, and a family who loves them.”
I spoke to Muzzy Rosenblatt this week. The CEO and president of BRC, he presided over the recent move of 100 men with mental health needs from the Boulevard shelter in East Harlem to the Cachet Boutique Hotel on W42nd St. Amid complaints of harassment and drug dealing attached to the policy of relocating the residents of homeless shelters into hotels, he explains who lives there, why, and what happens next.
DO THESE THINGS
My favorite virtual dance party is meeting again tonight. The category: Come Sail Away. Batten down the hatches and rock the boat. See you on board!
Lincoln Center at Home presents the New York Philharmonic’s presentation of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Carousel, featuring Kelli O’Hara and Nathan Gunn in a concert version of the 1945 musical, and NYCB principal dancers Tiler Peck and Robert Fairchild in the dance sequences. Watch it here.
You don’t have to be an expert to try your hand at juggling. Bryant Park’s summer program of activities is starting, and all levels of expertise are welcome (equipment is provided, and sanitized between each use). There’s a class tomorrow at noon. Start tossing.
How can we, as activists, nurture an environment of physical and mental health to fight everyday? That’s a big question … and one The Mixed Space will attempt to address at its meet up tomorrow. RSVP here.
The Irish Arts Center hosts a rockin’ rhymes event tomorrow for families. It’s free … and you’ll hear nursery rhymes as you’ve never heard them before. Sit on your tuffet and get started.
Got writer’s block? I know the feeling. Join this free communal writing workshop tomorrow and work with others. It’s followed by a meditation focused on hands. Find out more here.
Circus Abyssinia’s Ethiopian Dreams is streaming for a one-time-only tomorrow. Watch in wonder as tumblers, contortionists, and jugglers tell a mystical tale, accompanied by Ethiopian music. It’s followed by a Q&A with the show’s creators here.
If we need anything right now, it’s this. Watch a series of 10-minute readings on faith at this free streaming evening on Sunday.
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1 Killed, 5 Injured When Crane Topples on Dallas Apartments
(Photo by Yana Paskova/Getty Images)
DALLAS (AP) — A construction crane buffeted by high winds during a storm toppled on a Dallas apartment building Sunday, killing one woman in the building and injuring five other people, two of them critically, a fire official said.
Crews searching the Elan City Lights building found the body of a woman inside after the crane collapsed and ripped a large gash into the side of the five-story structure, Dallas Fire-Rescue spokesman Jason Evans said during a press briefing.
"The building itself has suffered multiple collapses in different areas of the building to include residential spaces and the parking garage," Evans said.
Of those injured, two were listed in critical condition, two suffered serious injuries and one suffered minor injuries and was later discharged from a hospital, Evans said. Earlier, he had said that six people were injured but said the figure would likely change.
First responders searched every apartment they could reach and found no other victims, Evans said. He also said that every resident of an apartment damaged by the crane was either out at the time or was among those taken to hospitals.
Crews were called to the site of the collapse just before 2 p.m., after the National Weather Service issued a severe thunderstorm watch for the Dallas/Fort Worth area and warned of winds up to 70 mph (113 kph). Evans said the reason the crane fell is unknown but there is a "strong possibility" that the winds "played some role in the collapse."
Across Dallas the storm felled mature trees and knocked out power Sunday, leaving many areas without working traffic lights.
Isaiah Allen told the Dallas Morning News he was in his apartment when he heard what he thought was a deafening thunderclap. "I saw that the crane had actually fell straight through the building and had destroyed a good eight to 10 apartments and so there's like floors and stuff falling through," he said.
Allen told the paper he saw a bloodied woman trapped in her apartment on the second floor.
Yesenia Bosquez's family had moved into their top-floor apartment just two weeks ago. She returned from a shopping trip to find her apartment, where she'd left her husband, Jay, to recover from a shoulder injury, crushed by the twisted metal.
It took about 30 minutes for authorities to tell her that her husband had been rescued alive and had been holding their dog while medics worked on his injuries.
"It felt like a year," Bosquez said.
Video shows that the downed crane ripped a large hole in the east side of the building and landed on an adjacent parking garage.
The company that owned the crane, Bigge Crane and Rigging Co., said in a statement it was mobilizing personnel to the site to find out more about the crane collapse and would cooperate with any investigation.
Evans said "every single level of the parking garage in part has collapsed" and that multiple vehicles were damaged. He said he was not sure if anybody was in the garage at the time of the collapse.
Rescue personnel used dogs to try to find people who might be trapped inside the rubble.
Filed Under: crane collapse, dallas
Categories: Associated Press, News
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The International Bureau of Weights and Measures in Sèvres, France. The home of the international metric system.
The metric system is a number of different systems of measurement with length based on the metre, mass on the gram, and volume on the litre.[1] This system is used around the world. It was developed in France and first introduced there in 1795, 2 years after the execution of Louis XVI. The metric units are based on decimal groups (multiples of ten). At first the metric system was based on two quantities: length and weight. The basic units were called the metre and the gramme.
In 1866, the United States started to use the metric system, and is widely used except by the public.[2] By 1875, many countries in Europe and in Latin America had changed to using the metric system. In 1875, seventeen countries signed the Metre Convention agreeing to share responsibility for defining and managing the metre and kilogram standards.[a] The prototype[b] copies of the metre and of the kilogram were called the "international prototype metre" and "international prototype kilogram". A new organization called the International Bureau of Weights and Measures (BIPM) was set up. The international prototype metre and kilogram were kept at the BIPM headquarters. In 1960, the rules for the metric system were revised. The revised system was called the "International System of Units" (which is often called "SI" for short). The definition of SI also included rules for writing SI quantities. These rules are the same for all countries. In the 1970s, many people in the United Kingdom and the rest of the Commonwealth started using the metric system in their places of work.
1.1 Unit names
1.2 Prefixes
2 How big
2.1 Length
2.2 Mass
3 British and American spelling
4 Administering the metric system
4.1 The Metre Convention
5.1 French Revolution
5.2 First attempt to metricate France
5.2.1 France abandon the metric system
5.3 Second attempt to metricate France
5.4 Wider adoption of the metric system
Road sign on a Chinese motorway close to Beijing. The sign uses the international symbol "km" for "kilometres".
One litre has the same volume as the volume of a cube with edges of 10 cm (3.9 in). One kilogram is about the mass of one litre of water at the melting point of ice.
A thermometer calibrated in degrees Celsius. Water freezes at 0 °C (32 °F) and boils at 100 °C (212 °F).
The metric system is a decimal-based system of measurement. The system has units of measure for each quantity. The names of most units of measure in the metric system have two parts. One part is the unit name and the other part is the prefix. For example, in the name "centimetre", the word "centi" is the prefix and the word "metre" is the unit name. Sometimes, as with metre, litre and gram, there is no prefix.[3]
In the metric system, all units have a "symbol". Symbols are a shorthand way of writing the names of units. All the countries in the world use the same symbol for a unit, even though they might have different ways of writing out the unit name in full. For example[4]
People write "kilometre" in the United Kingdom.
People write "kilometer" in the United States.
People write "quilómetro" in Portugal.
People write "một kí lô mét" in Vietnam.
People write "χιλιόμετρα" in Greece.
People write "километр" in Russia.
People write "公里", "千米", or "粁" in China.
People write "キロ" or "㌔" in Japan.
People write "킬로미터" in South Korea.
Everybody uses the symbol "km" for "kilometre".
Unit names
The metric system was first developed in France during the French Revolution. A French law passed in 1795 defined five units of measure. Three of these names are still in use today. They are the metre which is the unit of length, the gram which is the unit of mass[c] and the litre which is the unit of volume.[5] Since then many other units of measure have been developed and many definitions changed. The metric system now has units of measurement for energy, power, force, electric current, radioactivity and many others.[6] The most commonly used units of measure in the metric system are listed below.[d]
In the metric system, length is measured in metres. The symbol for the metre is the letter "m". The metre was originally defined as being 1⁄10,000,000 of the distance between the North Pole and the Equator on the meridian that passed through Paris. In 1799, a platinum bar that was equal to this length was made and became the "prototype metre"[b]
In the metric system, volume is measured in litres. The symbol for the litre is "L".[e] In 1795 the French Government defined one litre as being the same volume as the volume of a cube which had sides that were 10 centimetres (3.9 in).[5]
In the metric system, mass[c] is measured in grams. The symbol for the gram is the letter "g". In 1795 the French Government defined the gram as the mass of one cubic centimetre of water at the freezing point of ice.[5] This was difficult to measure, so in 1799 the French Government made a "prototype kilogram"[b] (1,000 grams or 35 oz) mass.
In the metric system, temperature is measured in degrees Celsius. The symbol for degrees Celsius is "°C". Water freezes at "0 °C (32 °F)" and boils at "100 °C (212 °F)".
In the metric system, the unit of time is the seconds. The second was first used as part of the metric system by Carl Friedrich Gauss in 1832.[7]
The definitions of the units are often being changed. In 1960 the definition of the metre was changed. Since then it has been defined in terms of the speed of light.[8] In 2019, the kilogram is redefined in terms of the Planck constant.[9]
If the numbers are too big or too small, the metric system uses prefixes to make it easier to understand the numbers.[3]
The prefix milli is used to show that a measurement is 1⁄1000 (or 0.001) of the base measurement:
There are 1000 milligrams (mg) in a gram.
There are 1000 millimetres (mm) in a metre.
There are 1000 millilitres (mL) in a litre.
The prefix centi is used to show that a measurement is 1⁄100 (or 0.01) of the base measurement:
There are 100 centimetres (cm) in a metre.
There are 100 centilitres (cL) in a litre.
The prefix kilo is used to show that a measurement is 1000 times as large of the base measurement:
There are 1000 grams in a kilogram (kg).
There are 1000 metres in a kilometre (km).
There are a lot of other prefixes. Some of them are:
micro which means one millionth (1⁄1,000,000). The symbol for "micro" is the Greek letter μ (called "mu").
deci which means one tenth (1⁄10). The symbol for "deci" is "d".
mega which means one million (1,000,000). The symbol for "mega" is "M". Care must be taken not to get "m" (for "milli") and "M" (for "mega") mixed up.
How big
Four everyday measuring devices that have metric calibrations: a tape measure calibrated in centimetres, a thermometer calibrated in degrees Celsius, a kilogram weight, and an electrical multimeter that measures volts, amperes and ohms.
These tables will help one to estimate the size of different lengths or masses in the metric system. In these tables:
The word "Imperial" is short for Imperial units which are the units of measure that have traditionally been used in the United Kingdom.
The word "Customary" is short for U.S. customary units which are units of measure that have traditionally been used in the United States.
Imperial/
1 km 0.621 miles
1094 yd The Mall (from Trafalgar Square to Buckingham Palace)
Niagara Falls (Bank to bank)
100 m 109 yd Length of a gridiron football, association football (soccer) or rugby field
Length of four-coach train
10 m 33 ft Width of a tennis court (10.97 m)
100 cm 1.0936 yd
39.37 in Length of a baseball bat (maximum = 1.067 m)
Length of a cricket bat (maximum = 0.965 m)
10 cm 4 in Width of a human palm
1 cm 2⁄5 in Width of an average acorn
1 mm 0.04 in Thickness of denim cloth[10]
100 μm 0.004 in Thickness of a piece of photo-copier paper
(1 tonne) 2205 lb
0.984 tons (UK)
1.102 tons (US) A small motor car - for example one with an engine of between 1.0 and 1.2 L
100 kg 221 lb A large man - About 15% of white US males exceed 100 kg[11]
10 kg 22.05 lb Average mass of a 12-month old child[12]
1 kg 2.205 lb One litre drink (not counting the mass of the container)
100 g 3+3⁄4 oz Heavier than a tennis ball (~58 g) but lighter than a cricket ball (~160 g) or a baseball (~145 g)
10 g 2⁄5 oz A large coin
$0.50 - 11.34 g
£2.00 - 12.0 g
€2.00 - 8.50 g[13]
1 g 15.4 grains Two peanut seeds[14]
British and American spelling
Some names in the metric system are spelt differently in British English and in American English.
The word metre is used in British English while the word meter is used in American English.
The word litre is used in British English while the word liter is used in American English.
The word gram is used in both British English and in American English. The word gramme can also be used in British English, but many British people think that this is old-fashioned.
Administering the metric system
Seal of the BIPM
The Metre Convention
Main page: Metre Convention
In 1875 representatives from the governments of twenty different countries met in Paris to discuss weights and measures. Seventeen of the countries signed a treaty about weights and measures. The treaty was called "The Convention of the Metre". The countries that signed were: Argentine Confederation, Austria-Hungary, Belgium, Brazil, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Peru, Portugal, Russia, Spain, Sweden and Norway, Switzerland, Turkey, United States and Venezuela.[15]:75-76 They agreed:[16][17][18]
To set up an inter-governmental organisation to administer the treaty. This organization was called the International Bureau of Weights and Measures (BIPM).
France was to have responsibility for acquiring suitable premises for the BIPM. These premises would become neutral territory. The BIPM offices and laboratories would be located on the site.
To make 40 identical copies of the kilogram. One was chosen as the prototype (or primary) copy. This copy was known as the "International Prototype Kilogram". It replaced the Kilogramme des archives as the world's primary copy of the kilogram. The Kilogramme des archives would be kept at the BIPM premises.
To make 30 identical copies of the metre. One was chosen as the prototype (or primary) copy. This copy was known as the "International Prototype Metre". It replaced the Metre des archives as the world's primary copy of the metre. The Metre des archives would be kept at the BIPM premises.
To give one copy of the metre and one copy of the kilogram to each country. These would be called "national prototype metres" and "national prototype kilograms".
To compare the national prototype metres and kilograms against the international prototypes at regular intervals.
To promote the use of the metric system.
The United Kingdom and the Netherlands went to the conference but did not sign the treaty at that time. After further consideration, the United Kingdom did sign the treaty in 1884[15]:75-76 and the Netherlands became a member in 1929.[19]
In 1889 the copies of the kilogram and the metre were ready to be given to the different countries that signed the treaty.[18]
The United States Congress ratified the treaty in 1878.[20] The United Kingdom signed the treaty 1884.[21] Neither country passed laws making it compulsory to use the metric system.[22]
In 1921 the Metre Convention was extended to include all physical measurements including time, electricity and temperature.
In 1960 the BIPM published the "International System of Units" (or SI). SI clarified a number of areas of the metric system, particularly in science and in engineering. The BIPM also standardized the way in which SI was written making it the same for all languages.[8]
Woodcut dated 1800 explaining the new decimal measures in France.
There are 16 US fluid ounces in a US pint but there are 20 imperial [UK] fluid ounces in an imperial pint. The US fluid ounce is larger than the imperial fluid ounce, but the imperial pint is larger than the US pint.[23] In the 1700's this type situation was common across Europe. Each country measured length, weight/mass and volume in its own way. Sometimes different countries or cities used the same name for different measurements. Sometimes different cities in the same country had different ways of measuring things. In 1789 there were a quarter of a million different units of weight and measure in France.[24]:2–3
During the French Revolution, French scientists decided that it would be better to have a new system of weights and measures. The system would be the same in all French provinces and cities. They also decided that it would be easier if the new system used 10's instead of 12's, 16's or 20's, because people normally count in 10's. The new system became the official system of measurement in France in 1799.[25]:71–72 One of the French leaders, the Marquis de Condorcet declared that "[the metric system] is for all people for all time".[24]:1
The metre was originally defined to be one ten millionth of the distance between the North Pole and the Equator through Paris.
They decided that the new system would be for everybody on Earth and that the new unit of length would be called a "metre". They decided there would be 10,000 kilometres (6,200 miles) between the North Pole and the equator. Between 1791 and 1798 two surveyors, Pierre Méchain and Jean-Baptiste Delambre, measured the distance between the cities of Dunkirk to Barcelona using old French units, and used the stars to measure their latitudes. They used this information to work out that the length of the metre should be 443.296 lignes.[Note 1] In 1798 the French scientists made a bar of platinum that was exactly one metre long. They stored this bar in the French archives. It was called the metre des archives. People who made one metre rulers were able to check that their rulers were the same length as the metre des archives. Other scientists made a kilogram weight from platinum which was also put in the archives. This weight was called the kilogram des archives.[24]:266
First attempt to metricate France
In 1799 the metric system was made compulsory, meaning people were made to use it by law, in the region around Paris. This caused a lot of confusion because the police enforced the new measures but customers preferred the old ones. So shopkeepers had to have both. People became worried the new measures were used to cheat them. Politicians tried to educate and convince people to use metric, but the people rejected the metric system. In 1800 the government tried to make the system acceptable by changing the names of the units back to the simpler names used before metrication. For example, the decimetre, centimetre, and millimetre were renamed to palme (hand), doigt (finger) and trait (trace).[24]:270–275
In 1799 Napoleon became the leader of France. By 1812 he had conquered most of Europe. He introduced the metric system to the countries that he conquered. In 1815 he was defeated at the Battle of Waterloo. After Napoleon was defeated, most of the countries started using their old systems of measurement again.[26]
During this time, the metric system was still the official system of measurement in France. And it still had simplified unit names. But the French people continued to use the measures they were used to. The French government tried to persuade the people to convert. They mass-produced metric rulers. They tried to teach the people to use metric measures, and commanded the police to punish people who would not cooperate. Eventually the government stopped trying and withdrew the metric system.[24]:332–333
France abandon the metric system
On 12 February 1812, France stopped using the metric system and started using a new system called mesures usuelles. The new system was based on many of the old pre-metric units. The old units were redefined to be round numbers or fractions of the withdrawn metric units. For example the livre (pound) was reintroduced and changed from 489 grams to 500 grams. The toise was redefined as 2 metres. The toise contained 6 pied (feet), changed from 324.8 mm to 1⁄3 of a metre (333.33 mm). The pied had 12 pouces (inches) and the pouce had 12 lignes.[15][24]:334
Second attempt to metricate France
In 1837 the metrication laws were revived in France. And in 1840, the system did become compulsory throughout France, almost 50 years after it was first introduced.[24]:451
Wider adoption of the metric system
During the nineteenth century many small countries started cooperating with each other. In 1815 the Kingdom of the Netherlands was formed from seventeen small states. Each state had its own system of measurement. In 1820 they decided that it would be better if everybody used the metric system.[27]
In 1815 the German Confederation was formed. It was an association of 39 different states. Each state had its own system of measurements. In 1834 the German Confederation formed a customs union called the Zollverein. In 1851 the Zollverein decided to use metric units for trade between the various states. In 1871, most of the states in the German Confederation were joined together to form the German Empire. The German Empire continued to use the metric system.[27]
In the same year, Italy was also formed from a large number of small states. Italy also decided to use the metric system rather than choosing one of the old systems of measurement.[27]
By 1875 many European and Latin American counties were already using the metric system. These countries included France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, Peru and Columbia. Between 1875 and 1914 many more countries including Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Paraguay, Philippines and Vietnam started to use the metric system. In 1917, during the Bolshevik Revolution, the USSR (now Russia) adopted the metric system. By the start of the Second World War most non-English speaking countries had adopted the metric system.[27]
In 1866, after most of the South American countries started to use the metric system, the United States passed a law that allowed people to use either the metric system or United States customary units for trade. Before 1893 the yard was defined as the length of the "standard yard" which was kept by the United States Treasury. The pound was defined as being the mass of the "standard pound". In 1893 the United States Congress passed the Mendenhall Order. This order defined the yard as being exactly 3600⁄3937 metres and the pound as being exactly 0.4535924277 kilogram. The order only changed the definitions of the pound and the yard. It had no other effect on people's lives.[28]
In 1975 the Metric Conversion Act started a formal metrication process. Metrication was to be voluntary. It was to be coordinated by the U.S. Metric Board. In 1988 the Omnibus Trade and Competitiveness Act said that metric units had to be used for all federal projects.[29] The Act did not apply to state projects. Some states demanded that metric units be used but other states did not. Some industries changed to using metric units but others did not. Soft drinks are sold in metric quantities. Milk is sold in customary units. Metric units are widely used in the design of motor cars.[30] Aircraft such as the Boeing 787 Dreamliner were designed using mainly customary units.[31]
Some people in the United States want to complete the change-over to the metric system. They say that it will make things easier for everybody.[32] Other people say that it will cost too much money.[33] Some people want to use the metric system because it will make it easier to export goods.[34] Other people say that metrication can only work if all fifty states metricate at the same time. This will not happen unless the Federal Government takes the lead.[35]
In 1897 the United Kingdom passed a law allowing people to use either the metric system or Imperial units for trade.[36] By the late 1960s three quarters of British exports were to countries that used the metric system. However people in the United Kingdom still used imperial units.[37] The Metrication Board was set up in 1969 to help Britain change to the metric system. Each company had to pay their own expenses. Some companies saved a lot of money by changing to the metric system because they could make the same goods for export as they made for sales in the United Kingdom.[38] For example, almost all motor cars use metric-sized nuts and bolts. Other companies lost money because they had to make many changes but did not have any benefit from the changes.
When the Metrication Board was closed down in 1981 most of government and industry had changed to the metric system but a lot of everyday things like road signs had not been changed.[39] A survey taken in 2013 showed that metric units and imperial units were both widely used by British people in their private lives.[40]
International System of Units, describes more advanced aspects of the metric system
↑ The ligne was an old French unit of length. There were 12 lignes in a pouce and 12 pouce in a pied. This made the metre 3 pieds, 0 pouce and 11.296 lignes long. The pied was 1.065746 English feet, the pouce 1.065746 English feet and the ligne 1.065746 English lines, so the metre was 3 feet, 3 inches 4.441 lines long
↑ There are 1,000 grams (35 oz) in a kilogram.
↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 The word "prototype" means "primary copy".
↑ 3.0 3.1 "Mass" and "weight" are often confused with each other. "Mass" is the amount of material in an object. "Weight" is the force on the object due to gravity. Thus an object will have less weight on the Moon than on Earth, but will have the same mass on both.
↑ The definitions given below are the original definitions.
↑ The original symbol of the litre is "l". However, people often confused it with "1".
↑ "Oxford Dictionaries". http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/us/definition/american_english/metric-system?q=metric+system.
↑ "The Metric System in the U.S.". http://www.ebsinstitute.com/OtherActivities/EBS.qs2df2.html.
↑ 3.0 3.1 International Bureau of Weights and Measures (2006), The International System of Units (SI) (8th ed.), p. 121, ISBN 92-822-2213-6 , http://www.bipm.org/utils/common/pdf/si_brochure_8_en.pdf
↑ Directive 1999/94/EC relating to the availability of consumer information on fuel economy and CO2 emissions in respect of the marketing of new passenger cars. European Parliament and of the Council. 13 December 1999. Annex II, section 2. http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=CELEX:31999L0094:en:NOT. Retrieved 121 February 2014.
↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 "Decree on weights and measures". 7 April 1795. http://smdsi.quartier-rural.org/histoire/18germ_3.htm. "Gramme, le poids absolu d'un volume d'eau pure égal au cube de la centième partie du mètre , et à la température de la glace fondante." English translation: "Gramme: the absolute weight of a volume of pure water equal to the cube of the hundredth part of the meter, at the temperature of melting ice."
↑ International Bureau of Weights and Measures (2006), The International System of Units (SI) (8th ed.), pp. 111-120, ISBN 92-822-2213-6 , http://www.bipm.org/utils/common/pdf/si_brochure_8_en.pdf
↑ International Bureau of Weights and Measures (2006), The International System of Units (SI) (8th ed.), p. 109, ISBN 92-822-2213-6 , http://www.bipm.org/utils/common/pdf/si_brochure_8_en.pdf
↑ 8.0 8.1 International Bureau of Weights and Measures (2006), The International System of Units (SI) (8th ed.), ISBN 92-822-2213-6 , http://www.bipm.org/utils/common/pdf/si_brochure_8_en.pdf
↑ Mills, Ian (27 September 2010). "Draft Chapter 2 for SI Brochure, following redefinitions of the base units". BIPM. http://www.bipm.org/utils/common/pdf/si_brochure_draft_ch2.pdf. Retrieved 6 March 2014.
↑ Harmer, S.W.; Rezgui, N.; Bowring, N.; Luklinska, Z.; Ren, G.. "Determination of the Complex Permittivity of Textiles and Leather in the 14-40 GHz, mm wave band using a Free-W ave Transmittance Only Method". IET Microwaves, Antennas & Propagation: 8. https://uhra.herts.ac.uk/dspace/bitstream/2299/2418/1/902311.pdf. Retrieved 2011-10-08.
↑ Halls, Steven B.; Hanson, John (2008). "Men's Weight Chart". http://www.halls.md/chart/men-weight-w.htm. Retrieved 2011-09-17.
↑ Halls, Steven B.; Hanson, John (2008). "Child Growth Charts of height weight and body mass index". http://www.halls.md/chart/child-growth/pediatric.htm. Retrieved 2011-09-17.
↑ "€ - our money - Common sides". European Central Bank. 2011. http://www.ecb.int/euro/coins/common/html/index.en.html. Retrieved 2011-09-17.
↑ Wang, Ming; Pittman, Roy (6 August 2008). "Resveratrol Content in Seeds of Peanut Germplasm Quantified by HPLC". Plant Genetic Resources: Characterization and Utilization. (United States Department of Agriculture - Agricultural Research Service) 7 (1): 80–83. http://www.ars.usda.gov/research/publications/publications.htm?seq_no_115=230823. Retrieved 12 October 2011.
↑ 15.0 15.1 15.2 Hallock, William; Wade, Herbert T (1906). "Outlines of the evolution of weights and measures and the metric system". London: The Macmillan Company. pp. 66–69. https://archive.org/stream/outlinesofevolut00halluoft/outlinesofevolut00halluoft_djvu.txt.
↑ "The Treaty of the Meter". National Institute of Standards and Technology. 3 September 2009. http://gsi.nist.gov/global/index.cfm/L1-5/L2-47/A-160. Retrieved 6 February 2014.
↑ "Photo of the International Bureau of Weights and Measures in Sevres". National Institute of Standards and Technology. http://museum.nist.gov/object.asp?ObjID=35. Retrieved 6 February 2014.
↑ 18.0 18.1 Judson, Lewis V (Oct 1963). Weights and measures standards of the United States: a brief history. NBS Special publication 447. Washington, DC: National Bureau of Standards. pp. 14-16. 76-600055. https://books.google.com/books?id=GXWfglKg11MC&pg=PA15. Retrieved 6 February 2014.
↑ "The Kingdom of the Netherlands". BIPM. http://www.bipm.org/en/convention/member_states/nl/.
↑ "The United States of America". International Bureau of Weights and Measures. http://www.bipm.org/en/convention/member_states/us/. Retrieved 26 February 2014.
↑ "The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland". International Bureau of Weights and Measures. http://www.bipm.org/en/convention/member_states/gb/. Retrieved 26 February 2014.
↑ Velkar, Aashish (2012). Markets and Measurements in Nineteenth-Century Britain. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 62. ISBN 978-1-107-02333-8 . https://books.google.com/books?id=gG_Easy3KnsC&pg=PA63&lpg=PA63&dq=worboys+metric+system&source=bl&ots=UBzck_TE4s&sig=aIcUlRWRTCrcGVGw4ZfJ6y0_oOM&hl=en&sa=X&ei=C2MQU6eIH6SP7Aaej4DgAw&ved=0CHYQ6AEwCQ#v=onepage&q=worboys%20metric%20system&f=false.
↑ NIST Handbook 44 – Specifications, Tolerances, and Other Technical Requirements for Weighing and Measuring Devices. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). 2013. Appendix C. General Table of Units of Measurement. http://www.nist.gov/pml/wmd/pubs/upload/AppC-12-hb44-final.pdf.
↑ 24.0 24.1 24.2 24.3 24.4 24.5 24.6 Alder. The Measure of all Things – The Seven-Year-Odyssey that Transformed the World. ISBN 978-0-349-11507-8 .
↑ Tavernor, Robert (2007). Smoot's Ear: The Measure of Humanity. Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-12492-7 . https://books.google.com/books/yup?id=8kg-t6xsv48C&pg=PA16.
↑ Wolfgang Appell (2002). "Königreich Frankreich" (in German). Amtliche Maßeinheiten in Europa 1842 [Official units of measure in Europe 1842]. Website based on Alte Meß und Währungssysteme aus dem deutschen Sprachgebiet
Template-specific style sheet:
ISBN 3-7686-1036-5. http://www.spasslernen.de/geschichte/groessen/mas1.htm. Retrieved 6 February 2014.
↑ 27.0 27.1 27.2 27.3 Page, Chester H; Vigoureux, Paul, eds. (20 May 1975). The International Bureau of Weights and Measures 1875 - 1975: NBS Special Publication 420. Washington, D.C.: National Bureau of Standards. p. 244. https://books.google.com/books?id=nOG0SxxEu64C&pg=PA240.
↑ Barbrow, Louis E.; Judson, Lewis V. (October 1963). "7. The Mendenhall Order". Weights and Measures Standards of the United States: A brief history – NBS Special Publication 447. US Department of Commerce, National Bureau of Standards. pp. 16–20. http://physics.nist.gov/Pubs/SP447/sec07.pdf. Retrieved 1 March 2014.
↑ Smith, David (Summer 1995). "Metric Conversion: How Soon?". Public Roads (United States Department of Transportation - Federal Highway Administration) (1). https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/publications/publicroads/95summer/p95su14.cfm. Retrieved 1 March 2014.
↑ Greenslade, Joe (July/August = 2012). "Why Specify ISO Standards For Metric Fasteners?". American Fastener Journal (Scotsdale, Arizona): 48–55. ISSN 1064-3834 . http://www.bluetoad.com/publication/?i=120069&p=50. Retrieved 16 August 2013. ""The decision by General Motors, FORD, and Chrysler to adopt the metric system of measurement in design impacted all industrialized countries in the world. The car manufacturers wanted to be able to source products anywhere in the world and have the components be compatible regardless of where the parts were made, purchased or assembled."".
↑ Reisman, Lisa (16 August 2011). "Not So Fast, Comac: C919 is DOA, But Boeing and Airbus Duopoly Dead Anyway". MetalMiner. Azul Partners. http://agmetalminer.com/2011/08/16/not-so-fast-comac-c919-is-doa-but-boeing-and-airbus-duopoly-dead-anyway/. Retrieved 16 August 2013.
↑ De Simone, Daniel. "Background and Perspective". Metrication - Managing the Industrial Transition. American Society for Testing and Materials. p. 5. ISBN 978-0-8031-0516-4 . ASTM STP 574.
↑ "Guidance Position Statement: Metrication". Washington DC: American Public WOrks Association. 15 August 2013. http://www2.apwa.net//Documents/Advocacy/metrication.pdf. Retrieved 3 March 2014. ""Problems cited include the cost of conversion ...""
↑ U.S. Manufacturers with products conforming to metric standards: An analysis. Gaithersburg, MD: NIST. October 1999. NIST GCR 99-783. http://www.nist.gov/pml/wmd/metric/upload/thomas2.pdf.
↑ Zeiter, William (January 1978). "A Progress Report on U.S. Metrication - Will Timely State Adoption of a Metric Conversion Implementation Act Save Us From a Troubled Conversion Effort?". The Business Lawyer 33 (22): 641-692. https://www.jstor.org/stable/40685853.
↑ "untitled". The London Gazette (26968): 3135–37. 20 May 1898.
Page 3135, Page 3136, page 3137
↑ White Paper on Metrication (1972) – Summary and Conclusions. London: Department of Trade and Industry Consumer and Competition Policy Directorate. para 41. http://ukma.org.uk/sites/default/files/met1972.pdf.
↑ White Paper on Metrication (1972): Summary and Conclusions (para 100). London: Department of Trade and Industry Consumer and Competition Policy Directorate. 1972. §100. http://ukma.org.uk/sites/default/files/met1972.pdf.
↑ Final Report of the Metrication Board (1980). London: Department of Trade and Industry Consumer and Competition Policy Directorate. http://ukma.org.uk/sites/default/files/met1980.pdf.
↑ Paice, Robin (2014). "Still a mess - The continuing failure of UK measurement policy". UK Metric Association. Apopendix B - The UKMA/YouGov survey: tabulations. ISBN 978-0-9552351-1-5 . http://ukma.org.uk/docs/sam.pdf.
Retrieved from "https://wiki.kidzsearch.com/w/index.php?title=Metric_system&oldid=4980835"
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Nonapples
Revision as of 08:20, 13 July 2013 by Halfwitz (talk | contribs)
A nonapple is a proposed object, tool, technique, or theory which is defined only as being not like a specific, existent example of said categories. It is a type of overly-general prescription which, while of little utility, can seem useful. It involves disguising a shallow criticism as a solution, often in such a way as to make it look profound. For instance, suppose someone says, "We don't need war, we need non-violent conflict resolution." In this way a shallow criticism (war is bad) is disguised as a solution (non-violent conflict resolution, i.e, nonwar). This person is selling nonapples because "non-violent conflict resolution" isn't a method of resolving conflict nonviolently. Rather, it is a description of all conceivable methods of non-violent conflict resolution, the vast majority of which are incoherent and/or ineffective.
The set "apples" is much narrower than the set "not apples". Apples form a compact cluster in thingspace, but nonapples vary much more widely in price, and size, and use. When you say to build a wagon using "wood", you're giving much more concrete advice than when you say "not wood". There are different kinds of wood, of course - but even so, when you say "wood", you've narrowed down the range of possible building materials a whole lot more than when you say "not wood".
— Selling Nonapples
Selling Nonapples
A Human's Guide to Words (sequence)
This article is a stub. You can help Lesswrongwiki by expanding it.
Retrieved from "http://wiki.lesswrong.com/index.php?title=Nonapples&oldid=13172"
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Police arrest second suspect in killing of Nashville nurse
A second suspect has been arrested in connection with the fatal shooting of nurse Caitlyn Kaufman, Nashville police said.
James Cowan was arrested at an apartment complex in Antioch, Tennessee, on Tuesday evening, police announced on Twitter.
Kaufman, 26, was shot and killed on December 3, 2020, while driving to work on Interstate 440.
Undercover Metropolitan Nashville Police Department detectives, along with agents from the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, trailed Cowan as he went to the apartment complex from a local motel, the tweet said.
Cowan, 28, is alleged to have been with co-defendant Devaunte Hill, 21, when shots were fired from their vehicle into Kaufman’s car. Hill was arrested December 11 on a charge of criminal homicide and remains in custody, authorities said.
An arrest warrant for Cowan on a charge of criminal homicide was issued earlier this month.
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Submitted by martin on 11 January, 2018 - 8:01 Author: Martin Thomas
Here's a 2015 letter (not from one of us) to the US magazine The Nation:
"I’m respectfully requesting that you retract the slur 'Trotskyite' in Richard Kreitner’s column on Bill Kristol. Kreitner incorrectly uses this derogatory word in reference to Kristol’s father, Irving.
"The difference between 'Trotskyite' and 'Trotskyist' is a bit like the difference between the 'N-word' and 'black' or 'African-American'. As I recall, the pejorative 'Trotskyite' was coined by Stalinists, casting Left Opposition followers of Trotsky as anti-Soviet fifth columnists and/or fascist agents. The slur 'Trotskyite' is thus a sort of etymological character assassination of the man and his supporters.
"The word 'Trotskyist', on the other hand, is a neutral term that merely refers to an adherent of Leon Trotsky. It does not deride or endorse those it refers to and/or Trotsky’s theory of permanent revolution, etc."
To which some words should be added.
The term "Marxism" was coined by opponents of Marx; the term "Luxemburgism", by denigrators of Luxemburg after her death; "Leninism", after Lenin's death by Stalin and others trying to claim Lenin's authority for ideas very different from Lenin's; and "Trotskyism", by opponents of Trotsky.
It was first used on a large scale in the denunciations of Trotsky and Luxemburg sent resounding through the Communist Parties as Zinoviev, Kamenev, and Stalin worked to tighten them up and make them "monolithic" after Lenin's death in 1924. The campaign was called "Bolshevisation".
Trotsky and his comrades of the Left Opposition rejected the idea that they had a special "-ism": they were just defending, and continuing as best they could, the basic ideals of Bolshevism on the basis of which the 1917 revolution had been made.
After a while, as with the term "Marxist", the comrades had to shrug and say: "Want to call us Trotskyists? Or Marxists? OK. We'd prefer a different term, but let's accept your term and move on to the substantive political arguments".
(The term "Stalinist", by the way, was put into wide usage not by our comrades or by hostile commentators, but by Stalin himself and his own followers, as they built up what would later be called "the cult of the personality").
"Trotskyite" came into wider usage a bit later, as the Stalinist terror unfolded. The first Moscow show trial in 1936 was labelled: "Case of the Trotskyite-Zinovievite Terrorist Centre".
In the denunciations of 1924, Zinoviev was one of the leading polemicists against "Trotskyism", and the arguments, however shoddy, were understood on all sides as one between different ideas within the revolutionary workers' movement. By 1936 Zinoviev was bracketed with Trotsky as the second demon of "the Trotskyite-Zinovievite Terrorist Centre". The Stalinists were denouncing "Trotskyites" not as mistaken comrades but as fascist agents. And in the following years they were murdering them en masse.
That is why "Trotskyite" has a different connotation from "Trotskyist".
The forerunner group of Workers' Liberty defined what Trotskyism means to us in the following words, in 1967:
"Trotskyism is the basic Marxist programme of the conquest of power by the international working class. It is the unfalsified Programme, method and experience of the Bolshevism of Lenin and Trotsky. It embodies the world experience of the workers' struggles' including the defence and development of Bolshevism by Trotsky and the Left Opposition in battle against the Stalinist counter-revolution in the Soviet Union.
"Trotskyism is the only developed working class alternative to venal Stalinism and supine Social Democracy. It means reliance on the self-controlling activity of the masses of the working class, which it strives to mobilise on the Programme of transitional demands as a bridge to the overthrow of capitalism and the attainment of workers' power. It is the Programme of the workers' revolution, organically linked with the practical struggle to aid its development.
"It is not only a programme, but the struggle to build a revolutionary party to fight for that programme.
"Its traditions are those of the Bolsheviks and the Left Opposition: workers' democracy, unremitting struggle for theoretical clarity, revolutionary activism, unbending hostility to and struggle against capitalism and those within the labour movement who stand for its continuation".
We'd still stand by that.
To us, "Trotskyism" is not a particular personal school of thought, but a broad political tradition, finding its origins in the very start of the workers' movement, in which Trotsky was an important leader and writer during a particular phase.
To us, the idea that "Trotskyism" could mean uncritical devotion to every particular view that Leon Trotsky had, or some belief that Trotsky said the last word on political issues, is utterly contrary to the spirit of real Trotskyism.
We've also concluded that since the 1940s "Trotskyism" in the general sense has divided into at least two distinct broad currents, one that called itself "Orthodox Trotskyism" and the other which could be called "Heterodox" or "Third Camp" Trotskyism. See here, for example. Our origins as a group were within a strand of "Orthodox Trotskyism", but we now believe that the "Heterodox Trotskyist" current offers better political anchor-points.
A socialist vote for Biden
The socialist case to vote for Joe Biden.
Study notes on Trotsky's "The Revolution Betrayed"
Chapter-by-chapter study notes for Trotsky's "The Revolution Betrayed"
80 years after a Stalinist agent murdered Trotsky
Leon Trotsky was murdered by a Stalinist agent 80 years ago. He was attacked with an ice...
How the Bolsheviks governed
Until 1919, Sovnarkom functioned as a cabinet government, but went beyond bourgeois...
Previously untranslated articles by Trotsky on antisemitism
Trotsky on antisemitism and Jewish questions.
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Access the Platform
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Opening Keynote Speakers, Oct. 27
We’re trying a new, more dynamic format with this year’s opening ceremony. To provide a broader view of the emergent movement to create a sustainable economy, 3 leaders will each share a concise, high-impact story of their work and how higher education can contribute. With these opening keynote leaders, Varshini Prakash, our Student Summit keynote, and Bill McKibben, our closing keynote, our keynote addresses are sure to inform, inspire, and energize attendees. You won’t want to miss these featured speakers as we explore this year’s theme, “Co-Creating a Sustainable Economy.”
Shevanthi Daniel-Rabkin
The Democracy at Work Institute
Shevanthi Daniel-Rabkin (Shev) is Director of Programs at The Democracy at Work Institute (DAWI) the think-and-do-tank that expands worker cooperatives as a strategy to address economic and racial inequality. Working to expand economic development models and practices that advance equity and broad-based employee ownership, Shev directs the strategy and growth of programs at DAWI. Her work brings together city municipalities, business advisors and capital providers to strategically advanced equity, broad-based employee ownership across large metropolitan cities around the country. Shevanthi has successfully managed and implemented large scale oriented programs in labor organizing and worker justice campaigns with SEIU1199 NW. While at the Center for Inclusive Entrepreneurship, Shevanthi launched worker cooperative management certificate program and prior to that co-founded the O’Dell Education Center, nonviolent direct action and leadership academy in Washington State. She currently serves on the board of Refugee Women’s Alliance (ReWA) and served as Board President at the Center for Women in Democracy, strengthening women’s capacity and leadership in the public and private sector. Shevanthi has an MBA in Sustainable Business from Pinchot University and dual degrees in History and Anthropology from the University of Washington.
Aaron Tanaka
The Center for Economic Democracy
Aaron Tanaka is a Boston-based community organizer, economic development practitioner, philanthropic adviser, and impact investor. As the co-founder and director of the Center for Economic Democracy, Aaron stewards funding and capacity building programs to social movement collaboratives that advance alternatives to capitalist economics in the US. CED is best known for its role in incubating the Boston Ujima Project, an emerging national model for the democratization of local finance capital.
Before co-founding CED, Aaron served as the startup manager for the Boston Impact Initiative, Boston’s first impact investment fund, directing loans and equity investment in Boston’s working-class communities of color. Between 2013-2014, Aaron was the Lead Organizer for Boston’s first-ever Participatory Budgeting process, which empowered local youth to allocate city funds. Until 2012, Aaron was co-founder and executive director of the Boston Workers Alliance (BWA), a grassroots organization nationally regarded for its statewide Ban the Box policy victory in 2010.
Aaron is a former fellow with BALLE, Echoing Green, Green For All, and Tufts Dept. of Urban Planning, and is a former Commissioner for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts under the Patrick Administration. He currently serves on the boards of the Boston Impact Initiative, Foundation for Civic Leadership, Neighborhood Funders Group and the New Economy Coalition. Aaron is also a co-founder and worker-owner of Olio Culinary Cooperative, an employee-owned catering and restaurant group. Aaron holds a BA from Harvard University and an MS in Community Economic Development from Southern New Hampshire University.
Marcus Renner
Marcus Renner, a doctoral candidate in Geography at UC Davis, previously coordinated sustainability efforts at two different college campuses and currently coordinates UC Davis’ Community Economies Collaborative, a faculty/student reading group. With a background in environmental studies and playwriting, Marcus’ current focus is on the intersection of local economies and the arts, and how UC-Davis can facilitate the development of community economies in the surrounding region.
Closing Keynote Speaker, Oct. 29
Author, Environmentalist, Activist
Bill McKibben is an author and environmentalist who in 2014 was awarded the Right Livelihood Prize, sometimes called the “alternative Nobel.” His book The End of Nature (approaching 30 years in print) is regarded as the first book for a general audience about climate change and has been translated into 24 languages. TIME Magazine has called him “perhaps the planet’s best green journalist,” and he’s lectured and organized on every continent, including Antarctica. His latest book—Falter: Has the Human Game Begun to Play Itself Out?—offers a piercing look not only at our environmental challenges but at the existential questions that come with new technologies like artificial intelligence.
In his heartfelt, hopeful talks, McKibben offers realistic approaches to saving our planet, as individuals, certainly, but also as thoughtful members of a mobilized group. When it comes to building a movement, we should consider “being a little bit less of an individual,” he says. Together, we can build “the right kind of pressure” in order to make a change, like convincing college campuses to divest from fossil fuels. Audiences will be inspired and uplifted by McKibben’s stories of people all over the world engaged in making the planet a more environmentally just, sustainable place. These talks “give people a sense that even in their deep worry—they are not alone,” he says.
McKibben’s writing has earned him numerous awards, including membership in the Literature section of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the John Steinbeck prize. The Schumann Distinguished Scholar in Environmental Studies at Middlebury College and a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, McKibben was the 2013 winner of the Gandhi Prize and the Thomas Merton Prize, and he holds honorary degrees from 18 colleges and universities.
Explore the full conference schedule!
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Health Minister Dr. Duane Sands tenders resignation letter to prime minister
EyeWitness News Breaking News May 4, 2020 at 6:32 pm Sloan Smith
NASSAU, BAHAMAS – Accepting responsibility for the breach of protocol, Health Minister Dr Duane Sands has tendered his resignation letter to Prime Minister Dr. Hubert Minnis today. The resignation comes after a shocking revelation last week that six American permanent residents were allowed to disembark a plane along with a donation of COVID-19 test kits and swabs amidst the country’s border closure. Sands initially told reporters that only two people disembarked the plane, advising during a press conference that he was not sure whether there were more. However, during a national address on Sunday, Minnis revealed there were six people allowed to disembark and characterized the entry as a breach of protocol. Sands posted the resignation letter to his Facebook page today. “I accept responsibility for this breach of protocol,” he said. “I acknowledge that I acted outside of the scope of my authority in this matter. “My actions were guided by my great desire to obtain the much-needed testing swabs which are in short supply both here and internationally and which are key to our efforts to trace the spread of the coronavirus so as to better focus our responses. “I acted at all times in good faith. “Nevertheless, I acknowledge that my actions have caused embarrassment for which I express sincere regret.” Sands said the he believes that his continued presence on the Cabinet may serve as a “distraction” from the government’s effort to manage the spread of the virus in the country. “Hence I offer my resignation from your Cabinet”, he said. “I thank you for the opportunity to serve our great country.” The prime minister does have the option to deny the resignation.
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Health Minister Adrian Dix announces the province’s commitment to building a new ICU facility at the Nanaimo Regional General Hospital for a cost of $33.85 million on Wednesday, Nov. 21. (NICHOLAS PESCOD/NEWS BULLETIN)
B.C. looking into vaccination registry due to measles outbreak, minister says
Parents would have to register whether their child is or is not immunized
Feb. 21, 2019 5:45 p.m.
The B.C. government is considering a mandatory vaccination registration program similar to that in Ontario in the wake of an outbreak of measles in Vancouver, Health Minister Adrian Dix said Thursday.
Such a system would be aimed at boosting the proportion of residents in the province who are vaccinated against the highly contagious disease, he said.
“While there are some people who are expressing opposition to immunization, and others who can’t be immunized for medical reasons, some people simply fall through the cracks of the system,” Dix told reporters. “We want to make it harder for that to happen. So action is coming.”
Dix stopped short of saying a plan is in place or when it might be announced, but he noted that some of the groundwork has already been done: the idea of a vaccination records registry had been contemplated after an outbreak of 343 cases of measles in B.C.’s Fraser Valley region in 2014.
In the meantime, said Dix, “the message is for parents to immunize (their children).”
There have been nine confirmed cases of measles in Vancouver in recent weeks, including eight at two French-language schools in Vancouver, a cluster that began after an unvaccinated B.C. child contracted the disease during a family trip to Vietnam. The other case is unrelated.
READ MORE: B.C. mom’s petition to make measles vaccines mandatory at 35,000 names
Measles is nothing to sneeze at: complications include blindness, ear infections that can lead to deafness, pneumonia and encephalitis, or inflammation of the brain. The disease can also be fatal. In 2017, there were 110,000 measles deaths, most among children under age five, the World Health Organization says.
Infection with the virus begins with a high fever, cough, runny nose and red eyes, followed by a blotchy rash that spreads from the face and neck to the rest of the body. The virus is spread through air-borne droplets after an infected person coughs or sneezes.
Public health officials say the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine is the most effective way to prevent infection.
However, some people — infants, those with certain underlying health conditions and patients undergoing chemotherapy — cannot be vaccinated and must rely on high vaccination levels within their community to be protected from infection by so-called “herd immunity.”
Dix said Ontario’s system makes it more difficult for those eligible for vaccination to miss getting their shots — and he wants to see B.C. with a similar model.
In Ontario, vaccination against measles, mumps and rubella is required by law for all children attending school, although parents can seek an exemption on religious or conscientious grounds. The Immunization of School Pupils Act requires parents or guardians to provide proof of vaccination before their child can attend school.
Earlier this week, 33 children and staff at the two measles-affected Vancouver schools were ordered to stay home until at least March 7 because they either hadn’t been vaccinated or weren’t able to provide proof of immunization.
Two boys saved after falling through ice in Coquitlam
Broken axle caused New Hazelton train derailment: TSB
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News & Publications/
American College of Trial Lawyers Condemns Violence in Response to Electoral College Vote
NEWPORT BEACH, CALIF. (January 6, 2021) – The American College of Trial Lawyers (ACTL) abhors the violence that has disrupted the orderly process of transferring power pursuant to the will of the electorate. Blame for the actions of the demonstrators rests not just with the demonstrators themselves but also with those who have fomented and encouraged it. The ACTL calls on our leaders to do everything in their power to put a stop to the violence now.
The United States is a nation founded on the rule of law. Our differences are decided at the ballot box and through debate, not with guns and armed conflicts in the streets and the halls of democracy. While peaceful demonstrations are rightfully protected by the Constitution, those who refuse to peacefully accept the Constitutional process for transfers of power injure our Nation and threaten the fabric of our democracy with anarchy. We call on every lawyer to speak out and take action to advance the rule of law and put an end to this travesty of our Constitutional processes.
The College strongly supports the independence of the judiciary, trial by jury, respect for the rule of law, access to justice, and fair and just representation of all parties to legal proceedings.
About the American College of Trial Lawyers
The American College of Trial Lawyers is composed of preeminent members of the trial bar from the United States and Canada and is recognized as the leading trial lawyer’s organization in both countries. Founded in 1950, the College is an invitation only fellowship. The College thoroughly investigates each nominee for admission and selects only those who have demonstrated the very highest standards of trial advocacy, ethical conduct, integrity, professionalism, and collegiality. The College is dedicated to maintaining and seeking to improve the standards of trial practice, professionalism, ethics, and the administration of justice through education and public statements on important legal issues relating to its mission. For more information about the College, visit its website at www.actl.com.
Dennis J. Maggi, CAE, Executive Director
dmaggi@actl.com
Etre Communications
Leslie Strickler
leslies@etrecommunications.com
Federal Criminal Procedure Committee Issues Statement
Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure Committee of the American College of Trial Lawyers issued a statement calling for a moratorium on the executions Read More
December eBulletin is Now Available
The latest issue of the eBulletin is now available. Read More
October eBulletin is Now Available
ACTL Mourns the Loss of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg
NEWPORT BEACH, CALIF. (September 19, 2020) - The American College of Trial Lawyers (ACTL) mourns the loss of Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States Ruth Bader Ginsburg, a trailblazing advocate, a meticulous jurist, a true patriot, and an Honorary Fellow of the College.
Chief Justice of the U.S. John Roberts said, “She was a justice of historic stature and a tireless and resolute champion of justice.”
Recently Justice Ginsburg joined Justices Alito and Breyer, and jurists from the United Kingdom, in a U.K.–U.S. legal exchange sponsored by the ACTL to discuss common issues in support of the rule of law and access to justice, even across international boundaries.
“Her commentary during those days together was both insightful and inspiring. In an era when uncertainty is so much a part of our national narrative, hers was a call to our ‘better angels’ and a meaningful challenge at a time that calls for equal protection to all persons and causes,” said ACTL President Douglas R. Young.
The College commends Justice Ginsburg’s career as an accomplished and courageous trial and appellate lawyer while in private practice and a person of deep faith committed to the best our countries have to offer. The world is enriched by her example. We are humbled and inspired by her spirit.
The American College of Trial Lawyers is composed of preeminent members of the trial bar from the United States and Canada and is recognized as the leading trial lawyer’s organization in both countries. Founded in 1950, the College is an invitation only fellowship. The College thoroughly investigates each nominee for admission and selects only those who have demonstrated the very highest standards of trial advocacy, ethical conduct, integrity, professionalism, and collegiality. The College is dedicated to maintaining and seeking to improve the standards of trial practice, professionalism, ethics, and the administration of justice through education and public statements on important legal issues relating to its mission. The College strongly supports the independence of the judiciary, trial by jury, respect for the rule of law, access to justice, and fair and just representation of all parties to legal proceedings. For more information about the College, visit its website at www.actl.com.
Dennis J. Maggi, CAE
Ohio State Committee of the ACTL Applauds Chief Justice Maureen O'Connor's Statement in Response to the Ohio Republican Party's Attack on Judge Richard A. Frye
DAYTON, OHIO (September 18, 2020) - An independent judiciary is crucial to protecting the rights embedded in the United States Constitution and in the constitutions of the 50 states. Although the principle of an independent judiciary emerged from the Founders’ earliest writings, it may be the most underappreciated and least understood of our basic Constitutional rights. Under our system of government, state and federal judges are empowered to provide the final word on the validity and enforceability (constitutionality) of legislation and of actions by the executive branch of government, which is known as the principle of judicial review.
The Ohio State Committee of the American College of Trial Lawyers (ACTL) – which is composed of preeminent members of the professionally and politically diverse Ohio trial bar – strongly supports the independence of the judiciary, respect for the rule of law, and the fair and just representation of all parties to legal proceedings. In keeping with this mission, we write to condemn the Ohio Republican Party’s (ORP) statement, which it tweeted on September 16, 2020, regarding Judge Richard A. Frye’s decision in Ohio Democratic Party v. Frank LaRose, Franklin C.P. No. 20 CV-5634. Equally important, we applaud Chief Justice Maureen O’Connor for her swift and thoughtful rebuke of the ORP’s “disgraceful, deceitful piece,” in which the ORP “accuses Judge Frye of colluding with the Ohio Democratic Party and labels him a ‘partisan judge.’” See Statement by Chief Justice Maureen O’Connor of the Supreme Court of Ohio (September 16, 2020).
While the ORP has every right to disagree with the decision and to seek review on appeal, it demeans the judiciary and the rule of law by making a baseless character attack on a judge. As noted by ACTL President Douglas R. Young: “Such attacks undermine the public’s confidence in the judiciary and have no place in political discourse”.
We are proud of Chief Justice O’Connor for her courage and leadership in condemning the ORP’s statement and safeguarding public confidence in fair and impartial courts.
Ohio State Committee Chair
Susan Blasik-Miller
Freund, Freeze & Arnold
sbmiller@ffalaw.com
Ohio State Committee Vice Chair
William G. Porter
wgporter@vorys.com
Fall 2020 Journal Now Available
The latest issue of the Journal can now be viewed online. A print version will be arriving in the mailbox soon. This issue features a report from outgoing President Douglas R. Young and incoming President Rodney Acker is introduced. The first three women Fellows of the College are profiled and we get an inside look at arguing a case before the U.S. Supreme Court during the pandemic. Click here to view.
Equality and Justice Award Created
NEWPORT BEACH, CALIF. (September 15, 2020) - The American College of Trial Lawyers (ACTL) has created a new award which will honor persons who have fought for equality and justice and against racism. The award, to be presented from time to time whenever worthy recipients are identified, will recognize those who have been champions of justice and equality in all forms, including but not limited to race, ethnicity, gender and sexual orientation.
In announcing the award, ACTL Regents Joe R. Caldwell, Jr. and Richard H. Deane, Jr. who co-chaired the committee that determined its parameters, observed:
“Recurring issues of race and inequality are again at the forefront of our public discourse. Both the U.S. and Canada have long grappled with these issues through much of our history. Now, the tragic deaths of George Floyd and too many others have again put a spotlight on injustices and inequalities that continue to plague our pursuit of equality and justice for all... The College wishes to recognize champions who have fought for equality and justice and against racism in keeping with standards for such an award to be established by the College."
ACTL President Douglas R. Young said, "This new award is more than just a public statement; it represents a significant and lasting commitment to equality and justice. Each time the award is considered and each time it is presented will be a reminder that all persons are worthy of respect and equal access to justice in our societies."
“The award will be named after a visionary leader whose name will represent courage and incomparable dedication and commitment to the struggle for equality and justice. The College expects the first award to be made in 2021.
The American College of Trial Lawyers comprises the best of the trial bar from the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico and is widely considered to be the premier professional trial organization in North America. Founded in 1950, the College is an invitation only fellowship. The College thoroughly investigates each nominee for admission and selects only those who have demonstrated the very highest standards of trial advocacy, ethical conduct, integrity, professionalism and collegiality. The College maintains and seeks to improve the standards of trial practice, professionalism, ethics, and the administration of justice through education and public statements on important legal issues relating to its mission. The College strongly supports the independence of the judiciary, trial by jury, respect for the rule of law, access to justice, and fair and just representation of all parties to legal proceedings.
étre Communications
New Interim Guidelines Published
The College’s Task Force on Advocacy in the 21st Century, chaired by Regent John Day has released two more “interim guidance” papers relating to the administration of justice during the pandemic: Issues to be Considered When Preparing for and Conducting a Civil Jury Trial During the Pandemic and Constitutional Protections Implicated by the Reopening of Criminal Courts in the Face of the COVID-19 Pandemic. As has been reported earlier, the Task Force has also produced five other documents to assist the Bench and Bar during this period: Conducting Appellate Arguments by Use of Remote Video; Conducting Nonjury Trials by Use of Remote Video; Conducting Remote Hearings by Use of Remote Video; Mastering Zoom Advocacy; Remote Video Depositions and Examinations for Discovery.
Each document is labeled an “interim guideline.” The Task Force will continue to gather resources and experiences from around our colleagues in both Canada and the United States and these works will be modified, as appropriate over time, in light of experience.
In addition to reviewing these papers, please also share them with members of your firms and lawyers and members of the judiciary in your community and in your State or Province. Should you have recommendations for improvements to these guidelines, including those based upon experiences in your courts, the Task Force will be grateful to have them. Interested parties may be directed to actl.com/advocacy to easily locate the materials.
The work of the Task Force is one of the important efforts the College has launched in 2020, largely in response to the pandemic but also in recognition that the ways in which advocacy is conducted in our courts in coming years will be affected in myriad ways as new technologies and ways of interacting evolve. The College has the expertise to offer particularly useful recommendations with regard to these developments, and your observations will be important additions to the dialogue. Thank you for your help.
August eBulletin is Now Available
Summer 2020 Journal Now Available
The latest issue of the Journal can now be viewed online. A print version will be arriving in the mailbox soon. This issue features a recap of the speakers from the 2020 Spring Meeting in Tucson. Learn more about our newly inducted Fellows as well as the newest members of the Access to Justice Distinguished Pro Bono Fellows Project. In "Fellows Share War Stories," Fellows talk about facing the jitters. In "Heroes Among Us," one Fellow comes face-to-face with history during his visit to Normandy for the fifty-fifth anniversary of D-Day. Click here to view.
Meeting The Challenges Ahead
Events have moved at breakneck speed the last several days as a world already facing down a pandemic and economic uncertainty has witnessed (repeatedly, and even in slow motion) the senseless killing of George Floyd. The days and nights of social protest and violence have left many uneasy, sad, and even disheartened. Read More
June eBulletin is Now Available
Wyoming State Committee Comments On The Proposed Wyoming Chancery Court Rules
The Wyoming State Committee issued a comment on the Wyoming Rules of Civil Procedure for the Court of Chancery. The Committee believes that certain aspects of the currently proposed chancery Court rules are of potential concern. Read More
ACTL Selects Tulane Law School Women's Prison Project As 2020 Emil Gumpert Award Recipient
The American College of Trial Lawyers (ACTL) has selected the Tulane Law School Women’s Prison Project (WPP) as the 2020 Emil Gumpert Award recipient. WPP is being recognized for its proposal to create an inaugural Access to Justice Fellow who would spend 18 months dedicated to a project that expands access to justice for incarcerated women. Read More
Creation of Compassionate Release Clearinghouse COVID-19 Project
The College has been asked to support NACDL, FAMM, and the Washington Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs, in collaboration with the Federal Public and Community Defenders, in a partnership to recruit attorneys and other professionals to work on compassionate release motions for those prisoners most vulnerable to COVID-19: the elderly and chronically ill. Read More
April eBulletin is Now Available
The latest issue of the eBulletin can be viewed online. Read More
M. David Lepofsky Receives Samuel E. Gates
Litigation Award
The American College of Trial Lawyers (the College) has presented its Samuel E. Gates Litigation Award to M. David Lepofsky during the 2020 Spring Meeting in Tucson, Arizona. The award honors a lawyer or judge who has made a significant contribution to the improvement of the litigation process. In its 40 years of existence, the award has been extended previously only 25 times. Read More
92 New Fellows Inducted During 2020 Spring Meeting
The College welcomed 92 new Fellows during the Saturday, March 7 Induction Ceremony at the 2020 Spring Meeting in Tucson, Arizona. See the complete list.
Expert Speaks on COVID-19 At 2020 Spring Meeting
With all the information coming in each day about COVID-19, the College was fortunate enough to have Pia MacDonald, PhD, MPH, CPH, an infectious disease specialist and epidemiologist with RTI International, speak during the 2020 Spring Meeting in Tucson. Her remarks were titled, "COVID-19 Epidemic: The Good, The Bad, The Ugly." Read More
The American College of Trial Lawyers Issues Statement Opposing Attacks on Judges
The American College of Trial Lawyers (The College) today issued a statement opposing attacks on United States Supreme Court Justices, stating that such attacks are a direct threat to judicial independence. Read More
ACTL Issues Statements Opposing Attacks on Judges
The American College of Trial Lawyers (The College) issued a statement opposing attacks on judges, stating that such attacks are a direct threat to judicial independence. Read More
Spring 2020 Journal Now Available
The latest issue of the Journal can now be viewed online. A print version will be arriving in the mailbox soon. This issue features a recap of the speakers from the 2019 Annual Meeting in Vancouver. It also features a new section, "Meet Our New Inductees," and a story on three Fellows and their connection to the B-17 "Flying Fortress" of World War II. Click here to view.
February eBulletin is Now Available
Fellows Travel to Saipan for Pacific Judicial Council Trial Practice Training
Fellows traveled to Saipan to participate in the 3-day Pacific Judicial Council's Trial Practice Training. Read More
View 2019 Newsroom Items
Task Force on Mentoring Publishes New White Paper
The latest white paper, “Mentoring the Next Generation of Trial Lawyers,” looks at how ACTL and other organizations can help the next generation of trial lawyers gather the trial lawyering skills and confidence they need in spite of the diminishing number of trials. Read More
Arizona State Committee Issues Statement on Governor's Comments Regarding Judge Wake
The Arizona State Committee issued a statement voicing "concerns about Governor Doug Ducey's recent comments regarding United States District Court Judge Neil Wake." Read More
Chief Judge Jonathan Lippman Receives Inaugural Beverley McLachlin Access to Justice Award
The American College of Trial Lawyers presented the Honorable Jonathan Lippman, Chief Judge, New York Court of Appeals (Ret.) with the inaugural Beverley McLachlin Access to Justice Award at its 2019 Annual Meeting in Vancouver, British Columbia, on Saturday, September 28, 2019. Read More
69 New Fellows Inducted During 2019 Annual Meeting
The College welcomed 69 new Fellows during the Friday, September 27 Induction Ceremony at the 2019 Annual Meeting in Vancouver, British Columbia. Read More
College Elects New President, New Regents
The American College of Trial Lawyers (ACTL), one of the premier professional organizations comprised of preeminent trial lawyers from the U.S. and Canada, has installed Douglas R. Young of Farella Braun + Martel LLP in San Francisco, CA, as its 70th President to lead the College during the coming year.
The College also elected three new members to its Board of Regents at its 69th Annual Meeting in Vancouver, British Columbia. Read More
The latest issue of the Journal can now be viewed online. A print version will be arriving in the mailbox soon. This issue features a profile on 2019-2010 Douglas R. Young of San Francisco, California. It also includes a thought-provoking article on the case for nolo contendere, and updates on two new programs - the Distinguished Pro Bono Fellows Project and the Trial Advocacy Programs. Click here to view.
Two New Trial Advocacy Programs Invite Applicants
The American College of Trial Lawyers is inviting applicants for two new trial advocacy programs. These no fee programs will focus on diversity in the courtroom and in-house corporate litigation attorneys. Read More
Alaska Fellows Issue Statement in Response to Governor's Veto of Court System Budget
The Alaska Fellows of the American College of Trial Lawyers object to the Governor's veto of the budget the Alaska legislature had enacted to fund the Alaska Court System. Read More
The latest issue of the Journal can now be viewed online. A print version will arriving in the mailbox soon. This issue recaps the speakers and events of the 2019 Spring Meeting in La Quinta, California. It features tributes to two Past Presidents and an article on Fellows as mentors. Click here to view.
Bloomberg Law Publishes Insight Article From President Leon
Bloomberg Law publishes Insight: Defense Counsel's Role in Democracy--Representing Those Accused of Heinous Crimes, written by President Leon on behalf of the College. Read More
New White Paper from Federal Criminal Procedure Committee
The Federal Criminal Procedure Committee released a new paper titled Statement on Criminal Justice Reform. Read More
ACTL Responds to Decision By The Ontario Government To Slash Funding To Legal Aid Ontario
The mission of improving the administration of justice requires the American College of Trial Lawyers to speak to the current decision by the Ontario government to cut funding to Legal Aid Ontario. Read the full response
New White Paper from Task Force on Judicial Independence
The Task Force on Judicial Independence released a white paper titled The Need to Promote and Defend Fair and Impartial Courts. Read More
New White Paper from Jury Committee
The Jury Committee has published a new white paper titled Improving Jury Deliberations Through Jury Instructions Based on Cognitive Science. Read More
Pro Bono Students Canada’s Indigenous Human Rights Program Receives 2019 Emil Gumpert Award
The American College of Trial Lawyers has selected the Indigenous Human Rights Program of Pro Bono Students Canada as the 2019 Emil Gumpert Award recipient. Pro Bono Students Canada (PBSC) is being recognized for its groundbreaking proposal to create two pilot Indigenous Human Rights clinics in Ontario, Canada’s most populous province. The clinics will be staffed by volunteer law students and pro bono human rights lawyers who will provide culturally-sensitive legal services to Indigenous peoples. Read More
Honorable Neil M. Gorsuch of the Supreme Court of the United States Receives Honorary Fellowship
The American College of Trial Lawyers (ACTL) presented Honorable Neil M. Gorsuch of the Supreme Court of the United States with Honorary Fellowship at its 2019 Spring Meeting in La Quinta, California, on Saturday, March 2, 2019. Read More
Stephen B. Bright Receives Griffin Bell Award for Courageous Advocacy
The American College of Trial Lawyers has presented its Griffin Bell Award for Courageous Advocacy to Stephen B. Bright during the 2019 Spring Meeting in La Quinta, California. The award honors trial lawyers who have persevered in the pursuit of an important cause despite substantial personal danger, fear, unpopularity, opposition or other extreme difficulties. In its 55 years of existence, the award has been extended previously only 15 times. Read More
The College welcomed 73 new Fellows during the Saturday, March 2 Induction Ceremony at the 2019 Spring Meeting in La Quinta, California. Read More
The latest issue of the Journal can now be viewed online. A print version will be arriving in the mailbox soon. This issue recaps the speakers and events of the 2018 Annual Meeting in New Orleans, Louisiana. It features a new series titled "Heroes Among Us," Fellows as ministers, and the new Access to Justice Distinguished Pro Bono Fellows Pilot Project. Click here to view.
Special eBulletin Edition Highlights New Task Force on Mentoring
Dating back at least 15 years, the College has expressed concern over the "vanishing trial" and the consequent need to take action in order to ensure that the trial continues as the preferred means of resolving disputes. This requires junior lawyers to have the opportunity to get sufficient trial experience in order to hone their skills and become experienced trial lawyers. It is also essential for the College to continue to be able to identify junior trial lawyers who might qualify for Fellowship. It is in this context that the College formed its Task Force on Mentoring. Read More
Pilot Launched in Ontario To Speed Civil Justice
In an effort to speed up Ontario’s civil justice system, on Feb. 1 the Ontario Superior Court launched a case management pilot called the One Judge Model. The pilot grew out of the report from the Judiciary Committee of the American College of Trial Lawyers called “Working Smarter But Not Harder in Canada: The Development of a Unified Approach to Case Management in Civil Litigation.” Read More
The Hugh F. Culverhouse Jr. School of Law at the University of Alabama Wins National Moot Court Competition
The Hugh F. Culverhouse Jr. School of Law at the University of Alabama won the final round of the 69th Annual National Moot Court Competition held January 31 at the New York City Bar Association. The winning team was comprised of Lindsey Barber, Cory Church, and Anne Miles Golson. The Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law was the runner-up, with a team comprised of Linda Qiu, Clayton Faits and Lois Ahn. ACTL co-sponsors the competition with the National Moot Court Competition Committee of the New York City Bar. President Jeffrey S. Leon was among the judges who heard arguments during the final round. Read More
ACTL Foundation Grants $50,000 To Advance Kansas City Veterans Initiative
The American College of Trial Lawyers (ACTL) Foundation recognized the success of the Kansas City Metropolitan Bar Foundation’s (KCMBF) signature legal program “Legal Connection: Military Matters.” Read More
ACTL Issues Statement in Support of Response By Chief Justice John Roberts to Remarks By President Trump Concerning Federal Judiciary
The American College of Trial Lawyers, a non-political organization composed of the leading trial lawyers in the United States and Canada— civil and criminal lawyers representing civil plaintiffs and defendants and criminal prosecutors and defense lawyers, of all political affiliations—today issues a statement in support of the response by Chief Justice John Roberts to remarks by President Trump criticizing “an Obama judge” referencing a federal district trial judge serving within the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals for the United States, for a decision that issued a temporary restraining order blocking the barring of migrants who illegally cross into the United States from seeking asylum. The College considers such an attack as a direct assault on judicial independence, the backbone of our constitutional democracy. Read More
ACTL Responds to Decision to Close Pro Bono Ontario's Court-Based Services for Unrepresented Litigants by the End of 2018
The mission of improving the administration of justice requires the American College of Trial Lawyers to speak to the current decision of the Board of Directors of Pro Bono Ontario to close its court-based services for unrepresented litigants by the end of the year due to inadequate funding. Read More
ACTL Holds One-Day Seminar in British Virgin Islands
Five College Fellows traveled to the British Virgin Islands (BVI) to lead the full-day program “Being A More Effective Advocate: In And Out Of Court” on Friday, November 2, 2018. The program had around 100 participants, including legal practitioners – civil, criminal, regulatory, commercial or arbitration – as well as judges and magistrates discussing the practical aspects of effective advocacy, ethics, and civility. Read More
ACTL Creates the Beverley McLachlin Access to Justice Award to Honor The Right Hon. Beverley McLachlin, P.C.
The American College of Trial Lawyers (the College) has announced the creation of the Beverley McLachlin Access to Justice Award to The Right Honourable Beverley McLachlin, P.C. The award, named in her honor, is to be presented to a judge or a member of the bar in the United States or Canada, whether or not a Fellow of the College, who has played an exceptional role in creating and promoting access to justice. The award will recognize innovative measures or extraordinary personal commitment and professional dedication which have enhanced access to justice in the United States or Canada. Read More
Andrew J. Savage III Receives Griffin Bell Award for Courageous Advocacy
The American College of Trial Lawyers (the College) has presented its Griffin Bell Award for Courageous Advocacy to criminal defense attorney Andrew J. Savage III. The award honors trial lawyers who have persevered in the pursuit of an important cause despite substantial personal danger, fear, unpopularity, opposition or other extreme difficulties. In its 54 years of existence, the award has been extended previously only 14 times. Read More
The Honourable Madam Sheliah L. Martin, Judge of the Supreme Court of Canda, Receives Honorary Fellowship
The American College of Trial Lawyers (the College) presented The Honourable Madam Justice Sheilah L. Martin of the Supreme Court of Canada with Honorary Fellowship at its Annual Meeting in New Orleans, Louisiana, on Saturday, September 29, 2018. Read More
86 New Fellows Inducted During Annual Meeting
The College welcomed 86 new Fellows during the Induction Ceremony at the 2018 Annual Meeting in New Orleans, Louisiana. Read More
The American College of Trial Lawyers (ACTL), one of the premier professional organizations comprised of preeminent trial lawyers from the U.S. and Canada, has installed Jeffrey S. Leon, LSM of Bennett Jones LLP in Toronto, Ontario, as its 69th President to lead the College during the coming year. He is the second Canadian to serve as President.
The College also elected four new members to its Board of Regents at its 68th Annual Meeting in New Orleans, Louisiana. Read More
The latest issue of the Journal can now be viewed online. A print version will be arriving in the mailbox soon. This issue features a profile on incoming President Jeffrey S. Leon, LSM, shares the story of one Fellow's work with the thalidomide saga in Canada, and pays tribute to Past President Jimmy Morris. Click here to view.
Texas Fellows Offer All-Day Litigation CLE Program
As a follow up to last year's successful CLE program in Houston, the Texas Fellows will offer on October 5, 2018 an all-day Litigation CLE program focusing on the first steps of a jury trial. The program, Jury Trials: First Steps - Voir Dire and Opening, will consist of real-life trial demonstrations of voir dire and opening, and will be conducted by Fellows of the College. Read more.
The latest issue of the eBulletin can be viewed online. Read more.
ACTL Foundation Grants $50,000 to Community Legal Services of Philadelphia
ACTL Foundation has awarded a $50,000 grant to the Youth Justice Project of Community Legal Services of Philadelphia (CLS). Read more.
Special Edition of the eBulletin Provides Update on Efforts to Help U.S. Veterans
In honor of Canada Day and Independence Day, a special edition of the eBulletin highlighting the work Fellows have done for U.S. veterans was published. Click here to view.
The latest issue of the Journal can now be viewed online. The print version should be arriving in your mailbox soon. This issue recaps the speakers and events of the 2018 Spring Meeting in Phoenix, Arizona. Click here to view.
Fellows Continue Fight for Veterans
Despite a recent victory in a federal appellate court, the legal fight for veterans who endure lengthy delays for decisions on disability claims appeals continues for Georgia Fellows John Chandler and Beth Tanis, who are leading the pro bono suit. Read more.
The latest issue of the eBulletin can be viewed online. Click here to view.
Fordham Law School's Feerick Center for Social Justice Receives 2018 Emil Gumpert Award
The American College of Trial Lawyers has selected the Feerick Center for Social Justice at Fordham Law School as the 2018 Emil Gumpert Award recipient. The Feerick Center is being recognized for providing pro bono legal counsel to asylum-seeking women with children in Dilley, TX along with its partner, the Dilley Pro Bono Project (DPBP). Read more.
Northern California State Committee Issues Statement on Judicial Selection
The chair of the Northern California state committee writes that the judiciary should "be independent of the two political branches and follow the law, not the vagaries of partisan politics." Read more.
April 10, 2018 The latest issue of the eBulletin can be viewed online. Click here to view.
Wake Forest Wins National Trial Competition
The Wake Forest School of Law won the National Trial Competition on April 8, 2018 in Austin, Texas, with not one, but two teams competing in the final round. Read more.
President Franklin Issues Midterm Message
Click here to watch President Franklin's midterm message to Fellows.
Canadian Supreme Court Justice Becomes Honorary Fellow
The College presented The Honourable Mr. Justice Malcolm Rowe of the Supreme Court of Canada with Honorary Fellowship at its Spring Meeting in Phoenix, Arizona, on Saturday, March 3, 2018. Read more.
ACTL Statement Regarding Criticism of Canadian Federal Judge Included In The Lawyer's Daily Article
The appointment of Justice John Norris, a former lawyer to Omar Khadr, a child soldier who was indoctrinated into al-Qaeda by his father, to the Federal Court bench may have received criticism on social media, but legal associations came forward in support of the decision. Canadian associations were not the only legal groups voicing support for Justice Norris. ACTL released a statement calling the criticism of Justice Norris “unjustified” and “misplaced.” Read more.
ACTL Presents Sandra Day O'Connor Jurist Award To Florida Supreme Court Justice
The American College of Trial Lawyers has presented its Sandra Day O’Connor Jurist Award to Florida Supreme Court Justice the Honorable Barbara J. Pariente. The award recognizes a judge for his or her exemplary judicial independence in the performance of his or her duties. Justice Pariente is only the third recipient of the award. To view her presentation, click here. Read more.
New White Paper From Attorney-Client Relationships Committee
The Attorney-Client Relationships Committee has published a new white paper to serve as a key resource on current trends in attorney-client privilege. Read more.
The latest issue of the Journal can now be viewed online. The print version should be arriving in your mailbox soon. This issue recaps the speakers and events of the 2017 Annual Meeting in Montreal, Quebec. Click here to view.
Ninety-Five New Fellows Inducted at 2018 Spring Meeting
The College welcomed 95 new Fellows during the 2018 Spring Meeting in Phoenix, Arizona. Read the complete list.
The College Issues Statement on Latest Round to Defund Legal Services Corporation
The mission of the College requires the College to speak to the 2019 proposed budget of the Administration regarding the defunding of the Legal Services Corporation (LSC). LSC provides, for those who cannot afford a lawyer, access to the courts in civil cases. We have spoken to Fellows in many States and the conclusion is that completely defunding the LSC would impede the rights to fair and just representation and access to the courts for the poorest among us. Read more.
The College Responds to Criticisms Concerning the Appointment of John Norris to the Federal Court of Canada
The College considers criticism that has been published over the past several days concerning the appointment of John Norris to the Federal Court of Canada unjustified and entirely misplaced. Those criticisms have been made on the basis that during the course of his long and distinguished career as a lawyer, Justice Norris represented people who were accused of serious crimes. Read more.
Northwestern Law Wins National Moot Court Competition
Northwestern Pritzker School of Law won the final round of the 68th Annual National Moot Court Competition held February 1 at the New York City Bar Association. The winning team was comprised of Brendan Gerdes, Taylor Mullaney and L.J. Pavletic. The USC Gould School of Law was the runner-up, with a team comprised of Zoe Steinberg and Rachel Yang. ACTL co-sponsors the competition with the National Moot Court Competition Committee of the New York City Bar. Read more.
Fellows Lead Three-Day Workshop in Guam
Eleven College Fellows traveled to Guam to lead the 2018 American College of Trial Lawyers Workshop for Judges and Lawyers from Jan. 17 through Jan. 19, 2018. The program exposed more than 100 participants, including judicial officers, attorneys general, public defenders and lawyers from Guam and neighboring islands, to the trial and advocacy skills for which Fellows of the College are known. Read more.
Fellows Head To Guam For 2018 American College of Trial Lawyers Workshop for Judges and Lawyers
With social media use in the mainstream, the question of curbing jurors' use of social media across the different platforms was raised during a session at the 2018 American College of Trial Lawyers Workshop for Judges and Lawyers. The Pacific Judicial Council held the first of a three-day workshop Wednesday at the Hilton Guam Resort & Spa in Tumon. Read more.
KUNR Features ACTL in Story on the Legal Debate Over How Schools Use Title IX
In 2011, the Education Department's Office for Civil Rights issued a Dear Colleague Letter that instructed colleges to use a specific standard in their investigations: preponderance of the evidence. It's the standard used in most civil cases, and lawyers generally agree it means whoever has the most evidence on their side -- 51 percent to 49 percent -- wins. Read more.
Reply Briefs Filed as ACTL Continues To Seek Justice For Disabled Veterans
The College, through the efforts of the Special Problems in the Administration of Justice (U.S.) Committee, filed reply briefs December 12, 2017 in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. Many dedicated Fellows have been working to help with the deprivation of due process for veterans in the failure to adjudicate appeals of disability claims in a timely manner. Read more.
North Carolina Chapter Issues Statement On Senate Bill 698
The North Carolina Chapter of the College adopted a statement regarding Senate Bill 698 currently before the North Carolina General Assembly. Read more.
ACTL Partners With American Academy of Appellate Lawyers For First Time
The Teaching of Trial and Appellate Advocacy Committee partnered with the American Academy of Appellate Lawyers to present a program to public interest lawyers. Read more
Seventy-Eight New Fellows Inducted Into College
The College welcomed 78 new Fellows during the Induction Ceremony at the 2017 Annual Meeting in Montréal, Québec. Read the complete list.
NPR Features College in Article on Looking at a Better Way to Handle Campus Sexual Assault
Immediate Past President Bart Dalton was interviewed by NPR in an article titled, Is There A 'Better Way' To Handle Campus Sexual Assault? From the article: "Some want [Secretary of Education Betsy] DeVos to convene a diverse committee to help hash out new rules, as the ABA task force and The American College of Trial Lawyers did. But there is even disagreement in what those groups concluded; the ACTL recommended that the standard of evidence should be raised. Read More
ACTL Installs New President
The American College of Trial Lawyers (ACTL), one of the premier professional organizations composed of preeminent trial lawyers from the U.S. and Canada, has installed Samuel H. Franklin, of Lightfoot, Franklin & White, LLC in Birmingham, Alabama, as its 68th President to lead the College during the coming year. The College also elected five new members to its Board of Regents at its 67th Annual Meeting in Montreal. Read more.
The latest issue of the Journal is now available. The print version will be arriving in your mailbox soon. The issue introduces 2017-2018 President Samuel H. Franklin and features an article on jury nullification and other Fellow written articles. Click here to view.
Applications Invited for 2018 Gumpert Award
Applications are now being accepted for the 2018 Emil Gumpert Award. The deadline is October 2, 2017.
The award was established in honor of the late Honorable Emil Gumpert, chancellor-founder of the American College of Trial Lawyers. Judge Gumpert, throughout his more than half-century career as an eminent trial lawyer, state bar president, and trial judge, substantially and effectively devoted himself to the administration of justice and to the improvement of trial practice.
A single grant of up to $100,000 will be awarded to a program, public or private, whose principal purpose is to maintain and improve the administration of justice. The program may be associated with a court, law school, bar association, or any other organization that typically provides such a program.
Refer to the ACTL website for complete program guidelines. Download the instructions and applications here.
Fellows File Consolidated Briefs in the Federal Circuit on Behalf of Veterans
Two briefs were filed yesterday in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit by Fellows in support of the College's efforts to seek justice for disabled veterans. Read more.
Journal, Annual Report Receive International Award
The American College of Trial Lawyers was named the winner of a Gold Stevie® Award in the Best House Organ – For Customers (Public Enterprise, Government, Association) category in the 14th Annual International Business Awards today. The College was also named the winner of a Bronze Stevie® Award in the Best Annual Report – Print - Non-Profit or Government Organizations category. Read the full press release.
Richmond Times-Dispatch Runs College Opinion on Campus Sexual Assault Investigations
Immediate Past President Michael W. Smith and Regent Elizabeth N. Mulvey co-wrote an opinion titled, "To be fair to all, campus sexual misconduct investigations need reform." It was published on the front page of the Commentary section of the Richmond Times-Dispatch. Read the full opinion.
Complex Litigation Committee Publishes New Book
The Complex Litigation Committee has published a new book, Demonstrative Aids At Trial. The book is available through the Bloomberg BNA website. Read more details.
Summer 2017 Journal Issue Now Available
June 22, 2017 The latest issue of the Journal can now be viewed online. The print version should be arriving in your mailbox soon. This issue recaps the speakers and events of the 2017 Spring Meeting in Boca Raton, Florida.
June eBulletin Now Available
June 2, 2017 The June eBulletin was sent out to all Fellows. View the latest issue here.
College Issues Statement on Defunding Legal Services Corporation
The American College of Trial Lawyers has as its mission the improvement of the administration of justice through education and public statements on important legal issues relating to that mission. The College strongly supports the independence of the judiciary, trial by jury, respect for the rule of law, access to justice and fair and just representation of all parties to legal proceedings. Read more.
New Standards for Campus Sexual Assault Investigations
The American College of Trial Lawyers (ACTL) recommended new standards for campus sexual assault investigations that would ensure basic fairness for both the complaining party and the accused student. The recommendations are based on the findings of its Task Force on the Response of Universities and Colleges to Allegations of Sexual Violence (the Task Force), which are published in a new report that is available on the ACTL website. Read more.
Sixty-Five New Fellows Join College Ranks
The College welcomed 65 new Fellows at the 2017 Spring Meeting in Boca Raton, Florida. Read the full list.
Fellow Receives Griffin Bell Award for Courageous Advocacy
Judy Clarke, Fellow and criminal defense attorney, was presented the Griffin Bell Award for Courageous Advocacy at the Spring Meeting in Boca Raton, Florida on Saturday, March 4, 2017. The award is the highest honor conferred on a single individual by the College. In its 53 years of existence, the award has been extended previously only 14 times. Read the press release.
The Honourable Mr. Justice Russell Brown, Judge of the Supreme Court of Canada, received Honorary Fellowship from the College at its Spring Meeting in Boca Raton, Florida, on Saturday, March 4, 2017. Read the press release.
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War on the Korean Peninsula is not inevitable
Despite Pyongyang’s indifference to the suffering of its own people, further sanctions could still prevent all out war.
Alexander Gillespie
Alexander Gillespie is a professor of international law at the University of Waikato, New Zealand.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un watches the launch of a Hwasong-12 missile in this undated photo released by North Korea''s Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on September 16, 2017 [Reuters]
The drums of war are beating. North Korea has sent a second missile, without Japan’s consent, over the top of Japanese territory. This comes only a few days after they exploded a nuclear device which was over 10 times larger than what destroyed Hiroshima in 1945. They then threatened their neighbour, “the four islands of the archipelago should be sunken into the sea by the nuclear bomb of Juche. Japan is no longer needed to exist near us”.
INSIDE STORY: Do sanctions work? (25:00)
In this extreme climate, rather than walk away and believe that war is inevitable, the international community must remain calm, speak with one voice and continue to ratchet up the sanctions on North Korea. Sanctions are designed to cause pain to a country in an attempt to make them change their direction. They can start off very soft, covering a small list of luxury items and then escalate to being very hard, covering every aspect of a country’s existence. Although the pain caused by sanctions is regrettable, they are always preferable to war and this option must always be fully explored before considerations of violence are raised. Violence can never be anything but the last resort. If war breaks out on the Korean Peninsula there will be no winners, only degrees of loss between extreme and cataclysmic.
The Charter of the United Nations gives the Security Council the right to insist that all countries apply the sanctions they deem necessary to bend a country to the will of the international community. Such efforts represent the collective will of the global community to pressure, without violence, dangerous or highly disagreeable countries. Although such sanctions should not cover medicine or food, everything else is on the table.
READ MORE: North Korea tensions – All the latest updates
The UN first applied sanctions on North Korea for their nuclear and missile programme in 2006. Since that point, with every significant breach of the demands of the Security Council, the sanctions have been increased. We are now at the point where the sanctions have reached a height which is near unprecedented compared with those applied to other countries over the last seven decades.
Although unprecedented, there is still room to increase the sanctions even further. First, the current cap put on North Korean workers outside of their country could be reduced to zero. Second, a complete travel ban covering all North Korean citizens, including students and sports teams, right to the top of its leadership could be implemented. Third, all diplomatic relations could be severed with all of the foreign embassies in Pyongyang closed, and matched by the declaring of all North Korean diplomatic staff abroad persona non-grata. Fourth, the current cap on oil imports could be reduced to zero. Reducing oil to belligerent and aggressive nations is always very provocative as few measures can do more to disrupt modern military forces than removing their fuel source. Tanks and planes find it very hard to move when powered by coal.
The problem with all of these additional options is that for sanctions to work the leadership of the targeted country must be susceptible to the pain the measures cause. Sanctions worked on Iran because it wanted to be connected to the international economy, it was cosmopolitan in outlook, and its leaders could hear the discontent that the sanctions were causing on their population.
This is not the case in North Korea. This regime is deaf to their population and naturally isolationist in character. From the famines in the 1990s through to the human rights abuses in the 21st century, the Kim family dynasty has no counterparts in terms of repression. A 2014 UN Commission of Inquiry found that the gravity, scale and nature of their systematic, widespread and gross human rights violations and crimes against humanity do not have parallel in the contemporary world. Their crimes include extermination, murder, enslavement, rape, forced abortion and other sexual violence. Secretive prison camps hold opponents and/or critics, in which torture, starvation rations and forced labour are common. In North Korea, there is no freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of religion, free trade unions or any independent civil society. Even freedom of movement to other countries is increasingly rare. Political opposition is prohibited. Arbitrary arrest, collective punishments and public executions maintain an environment of fear and control.
The problem that the international community now faces is that this North Korean regime which is impervious to pain, is the very one that it is trying to bend to its will with sanctions. While Vladimir Putin was probably correct when he said that North Korea’s Kim Jong-un would rather have his people “eat grass” before giving up his nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programme, the reality is that if recourse to war is to be avoided, the option of further sanctions applying maximum pressure on North Korea must first be exhausted. War is not inevitable.
Alexander Gillespie is professor of international law at the University of Waikato, New Zealand. His research focuses on laws of war and armed conflict. He is the author of the three-volume set “A History of the Laws of War” and the three-volume set “The Causes of War”.
The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial policy.
Alexander Gillespie is a professor of international law at the University of Waikato, New Zealand. His research focuses on laws of war and armed conflict. He is the author of the three-volume set "A History of the Laws of War" and the three-volume set The Causes of War.
From: UpFront
North Korea: Are we on the brink of war?
We debate how likely war between N Korea and the US is, who’s to blame for the latest crisis and how to de-escalate.
North Korea missile test angers Japan, South Korea
Japan PM sees ‘no bright future’ for North Korea ‘on this path’ while South Korea leader orders live-fire missile drill.
New Zealand was warned a terror attack was possible
The end of INF: Another nuclear treaty bites the dust
One big reason North Korea is not too eager to denuclearise
War doesn’t have to be nuclear to kill indiscriminately
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Wunmi In Trouble Again
Popular actress, Hassanat Taiwo Akinwande a.k.a. Yetunde Wunmi, is in trouble again, we can reveal Investigations revealed that the actress, who was handed a one-year jail term with an option of N1 million fine for peddling hard drugs last year, is currently being trailed by drug barons for recording a true life story tagged Egboogi Oloro (Hard Drugs). NFC learnt that the top actress ran into trouble after the preview of the film at the Eko Reel Mix Multipurpose Hall, Agidingbi, Lagos. Speaking from a hideout in Ibadan, Oyo State, Wunmi said “I have been receiving anonymous calls, threatening that if I release the film, I would be in trouble because I want to reveal the secret behind drug peddling.” Also, the marketer of the film, Alawaye Ventures, told us that he has been having problems in every area from the Censors Board, to dubbing and marketing of the film. Alaga Bam-bam, as he is fondly called, said those who do not want the film released “have been planting their people all over the place but we will go ahead and release the film no matter what, next week.” Hassanat, however, appealed to well-meaning Nigerians to help in anyway to make sure that the film is released. “I want to tell my true life story and to prevent others from falling into my kind of mistake in future,” she stressed.
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St. Martin de Porres (Feast: November 3)
Born in Lima, Peru on December 9, 1579, Martin was the illegitimate son of Juan de Porras, a noble Spanish knight, and Ana Velázquez, a freed black slave from Panama.
To his father’s great displeasure, Martin had inherited his mother’s features and dark skin, and while he acknowledged him as his son, soon after the birth of Martin’s sister Juana, Juan de Porras left the children to the care of their mother.
At the age of twelve, his mother apprenticed Martin to a barber-surgeon from whom he learned not only the duties of a barber but also how to draw blood and to prepare and administer medicine. Three years later, he entered the Dominican Priory of the Holy Rosary in Lima where he applied himself to the lowliest tasks.
After many years, under obedience to his religious superiors, he was compelled to accept the habit of a professed lay brother, an honor that he had considered too great for himself.
Devoted to Our Lord’s Passion from his childhood, he lived a life of almost constant prayer. His charity, humility and obedience were extraordinary and he practiced unbelievable austerities. As almoner, Martin was charged with distributing the Priory’s alms to the poor.
Oftentimes, it was noted that when the food was insufficient for the needs at hand, it miraculously increased. His skills as a surgeon were also in great demand within and outside the Priory walls and he was put in charge of caring for the sick, a duty he exercised with unfailing patience. With equal charity he ministered to Spanish nobles and the lowliest slaves, recently arrived from Africa. Cures became too numerous to count. But it was as much by his prayers as through his medical ability that he cured the most daunting diseases.
Although he never left Lima once he entered the Dominican Order, Martin was seen in foreign countries by people who knew him well. He was known to bilocate to the bedside of the sick, consoling them in their sufferings, often curing them of their infirmities; he reserved his most tender solicitude for the dying. During prayer, he was often seen in ecstasy before the Blessed Sacrament, suspended in midair and surrounded by light.
St. Martin was a contemporary and close friend of both St. John Massias and St. Rose of Lima. Before his death, among other works of charity, he who had been abandoned by his own father founded a residence for orphans and abandoned children.
He died on November 3, 1639 after a long and painful illness. The entire population of Lima, high-born and low, flocked to his funeral, at which the Prior himself officiated. Four of the humble lay brother’s closest friends – the Viceroy, the Archbishop of Mexico, the Bishop of Cuzco and the Judge of the Royal Court – carried his body to its resting place.
Martin was beatified in 1837 and canonized in 1962.
DAILY QUOTE for January 21, 2021
All the strength of Satan’s reign is due to the easy-going...
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All the strength of Satan’s reign
is due to
the easy-going weakness of Catholics.
Pope St. Pius X
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Even pagans were moved to tears at the sight of the radiant...
Agnes was born around 291 in a Christian, patrician family of Rome, and suffered martyrdom in the terrible persecution of Diocletian.
As a young maiden, she pledged herself to Christ and defended her virginity to the death.
Exceptionally beautiful, she turned down numerous suitors, but when she refused Procop, the Prefect’s own son, things became very complicated. Procop tried to win Agnes with gifts and promises but she answered: “I’m already promised to the Lord of the Universe. He is more splendid than the sun and the stars, and He has said He will never leave me!”
Angered, Procop took the maiden before his father, and accused her of being a Christian. The Prefect tried to turn her from her Faith first by cajolements, and then by placing her in chains, but she only rejoiced.
The pagan official, set on overcoming Agnes by any means, next had her taken to a house of prostitution but she was visibly protected by an angel.
Finally, Agnes was condemned to death, but she was happy as a bride about to meet her bridegroom. Even pagan bystanders were moved to tears at the sight of the radiant maiden going to her death, and begged her to relent, to which she retorted: “If I were to try to please you, I would offend my Spouse. He chose me first and He shall have me!” Then praying, she offered her neck for the death stroke.
St. Agnes is one of seven women besides the Blessed Virgin to be mentioned in the Canon of the Mass. She is the patron of chastity, young girls, engaged couples, rape victims and virgins. She is depicted holding a lamb as her name in Latin means “lamb”, “agnus”. But the name “Agnes” is actually taken from the Greek “hagne” meaning chaste, pure, sacred.
Agnes’ relics repose beneath the high altar of the Church of Sant’Agnese Fuori le mura, built upon the place she was originally buried. This church was built in her honor by the daughter of the Emperor Constantine, and is one of the oldest in Rome. St. Agnes’ skull is in the Church of Sant’Agnese in Agone at Piazza Navona.
WEEKLY STORY
One night, the Blessed Virgin appeared to him and told him h...
Mary and the Muslim
Don Octavio del Monaco was a wealthy citizen of 17th century Naples. Like many of his class, Don Octavius had several Muslim slaves in his household. These children of Islam were amazed at the kindness of their “master.” He fed and clothed them better than they received in their native land. In return, his slaves attended to their tasks with diligence, as Don Octavius did not over work them, but assigned them duties in keeping with their dignity as children of God.
If these Muslim slaves had any reason for complaint, it was the gentle persistence with which their master and his wife exhorted them to give up their false religion and become Catholics. Don Octavius even went so far as to invite the slaves to join his family in the chapel to worship the one true God with them!
Our story today is about one young slave in particular. His name was Abel, like the slain son of Adam and Eve. He felt drawn in a peculiar way to a lamp that burned in front of a shrine to Holy Mary. Abel would purchase the oil needed to keep the lamp lit from his own meager stipend. As he continued to practice this humble devotion, he would say, “I hope that this Lady will grant me some great favor.”
One night, the Blessed Virgin appeared to him and told him he must become a Christian. At first the Turk resisted. But she placed her hand upon his shoulder, and said to him: “Now no longer resist, Abel, but be baptized and called Joseph,” conferring on him a name that was very dear to her Immaculate Heart indeed.
On August the 10th, 1648, there was much rejoicing in Heaven, for on that day “Joseph” and eleven other Muslims converted to the Christian faith and were baptized. Their conversion was brought about by the kindness shown by Don Octavius and the special intercession of the Mother of God.
Our story does not end here. Even once this son of hers was safely baptized, Mother Mary delighted in visiting him. Once, after having appeared to him, she was about to depart. But the Moor seized her mantle, saying, “Oh, Lady, when I find myself afflicted, I pray you to let me see you.” In fact, she one day promised him this and when Joseph found himself afflicted he invoked her, and Mary appeared to him again saying, “Have patience", and he was consoled.
From the Glories of Mary, by St. Alphonsus Maria de Liguori.
One night, the Blessed Virgin appeared to him and told him he must become a Christian.
Title Mr. Mrs. Miss Dr. Fr. Sr. Deacon Br.
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