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Earthly joy of the most powerful woman in the19th-century China
GOVT.CHINADAILY.COM.CN|ENGLISH.GOV.CN
DISCOVERING CHINA
Home>Specials > Nine Stops at Palace Museum
Palace of Gathered Elegance:
Updated: Oct 08, 2018 Print
Interior view of the Hall of Gathered Elegance [Photo/www.dpm.org.cn]
The Hall of Gathered Elegance (Chuxiu gong) and its adjacent compounds witnessed the rise of the Empress Dowager Cixi (1835-1908) from an average imperial concubine to the power-wielding regent of the late Qing dynasty. The layout of the compound of the Hall of Gathered Elegance dates back to her fiftieth birthday in 1884, when the entire compound was extensively renovated and expanded by demolishing barrier walls to expose neighboring compounds. The Empress Dowager Cixi lived here after marrying the Xianfeng Emperor (r. 1851-1861) and giving birth to Zaichun, the only son of her husband and the future Tongzhi Emperor (r. 1862-1874). This was the starting point of her upward mobilization to a prominent position. She then lived in the nearby Hall of Eternal Spring (Changchun gong) for more than a decade but eventually returned here at fifty as a widow who outlived her husband and son. The rooms today are restored to their former interior decor and furnishings. Although entrance to them is restricted, through glass and opened doors they present the luxurious life of the most powerful woman in 19th-century China.
The Palace of Gathered Elegance is situated in a cluster of living quarters known as the Six Western Palaces (Xi liugong) where imperial wives and consorts lived during the Ming and the Qing dynasties. Different from the grand halls lying in the central route, courtyards in this area are less majestic and understated in magnitude, but shine with delicacy and exquisite detail. Many of the halls’ interiors have been restored and furnished to their former appearance, in contrast to the Six Eastern Palaces (Dong liugong) that were converted into exhibition space.
Nine stops you can't miss at the Palace Museum
53 world heritage sites in China
About the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of the People's Republic of China
China National Tourism Administration
Beijing Tourism
Tianjin Tourism
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Netanyahu allows Knesset members to storm Al-Aqsa
25/08/2017 National News, Politics 5,000 Views
Jerusalem/PNN/
Israel’s Channel 2 reported that yesterday Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gave authorisation for Knesset members to storm Al-Aqsa Mosque next Tuesday.
Netanyahu issued an order prohibiting members of the Knesset from entering Al-Aqsa Mosque in October 2015, since the outbreak of the uprising in Jerusalem. In July he temporarily lifted the ban following a legal petition by far-right Knesset member Yehuda Glick.
This decision was made after security considerations determined that the storming of Al-Aqsa by Israeli groups, including ministers and MKs, are a major factor in provoking Palestinians. The Al-Aqsa Mosque is the third holiest site in Islam.
Dozens of settlers storm the mosque with the protection of the Israeli police on a daily basis. UNESCO deemed Al-Aqsa Mosque an Islamic heritage last October.
In protest to the ban Yehuda Glick organised a raid at Al-Aqsa Mosque yesterday in which 135 right-wing Israelis stormed the compound under the protection of Israeli police while Glick performed prayers outside the holy site’s gates.
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Ken MacRae
Click Here To Return To The Inductee Page
DR. KEN MACRAE
In a recent interview, Dr. Ken MacRae reflected on his three-decade service to the Ellensburg Rodeo. “Well, the Ellensburg Rodeo was, after my family and veterinary medicine, the most important thing my life,” he recalled. “We directors all took our responsibility very seriously. The all-important goal was to present the very best rodeo in our power.”
“Ken MacRae came on board and he cared about the cowboy’s side and sort of educated us about the cowboy’s needs,” remembered retired Ellensburg Rodeo Board member Allen Faltus in an interview with the late John Ludtka. At its inception in 1923, the Ellensburg Rodeo Board of Directors was a diverse group, with ranchers and farmers serving alongside businessmen and other town-dwelling professionals. As a ranch-raised Idahoan, college bull-riding champion and roper, and Doctor of Veterinary Medicine, Ken MacRae brought a varied and unique perspective to long and distinguished service as Arena Director of the Ellensburg Rodeo.
Born November 11, 1934, to Bill and Mae MacRae, Ken MacRae was raised on the MacRae Sheep Company’s cattle, sheep, and agricultural ranch in Paul, Idaho. Bill died in 1944, Mae later remarried, and the family moved to another remote locale, the historic Kane Ranch, a range cattle and hay operation near Salmon, Idaho. They later relocated to northeast Washington State, where Ken finished high school. “I had my own horse at an early age about 4, and that interest has continued to the present,” Ken recalls. “I started competing in amateur rodeos while in high school and finally retired from Steer Roping at the end of the season in 2010.”
Entering Washington State College (now WSU) in Pullman as an undergraduate in 1953, Ken joined the rodeo team, winning the 1956 Pacific Coast Region Bull Riding Championship; going on to the College National Finals Rodeo in Colorado Springs, he finished 3rd in the National Intercollegiate Rodeo Association standings.
Ken’s rodeo career continued as he earned his RCA (Rodeo Cowboys Association, now PRCA) card and transitioned from roughstock to timed events—steer, team, and tie-down (calf) roping competitions. Over four decades, he won titles and day money at most of the northwest rodeos, including Joseph, Eligin, and Pendleton (OR), Eaton (CO), and Walla Walla. He qualified for the Columbia River Circuit Finals (in Steer Roping) several years, including 2006 when he was 72 years of age. Ken won the year-end Championship in the Northwest Steer Roping Association in 1978 and 1989 and also won go-rounds and titles in Senior competitions. “My best memories,” MacRae says, are friendships with “many of the people that have made up the rodeo world for three generations.”
After earning his B.S. in Animal Science in 1957, Ken married Sandra Selden and entered WSC’s Veterinary College, where he earned a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degree in 1961. Then the MacRae family—including children John, Alan, and Mary—moved to Ellensburg where Ken worked with, and later assumed, the large animal practice of Dr. Leonard Newman. He successfully practiced Veterinary Medicine until his retirement in 1997 and still has hundreds of former clients and friends scattered across Kittitas County.
It did not take the Ellensburg Rodeo Board long to tap the many talents of Dr. Ken MacRae. Ken joined the Board in 1969 and assumed the vital post of Arena Director in 1971, following in the footsteps of the local legends Art Driver and Tex Taliaferro. MacRae served as Arena Director for 29 years, longer than anyone else in the history of the Ellensburg Rodeo.
As Arena Director, MacRae pursued the “cowboy side” and “cowboy needs” Allen Faltus referred to above. Alongside saddle bronc riding, rodeo experts call roping events “ranch related” because they utilize historic skills that were, and still are, necessary for working ranch cowboys. MacRae aimed to increase the Ellensburg Rodeo’s connection to these ranch related events.
He led the 1978 volunteer effort to upgrade and relocate the roping chutes to the center of the west grandstands. Soon thereafter, in 1981, he advocated and won inclusion of Team Roping as part of Ellensburg Rodeo program. Like Team Roping, Steer Roping is a skill built on range cattle droving techniques; in 1988, Steer Roping became a moneyed event at the Ellensburg Rodeo, scheduled annually during morning “slack” roping and attracting steer roper super stars like Guy Allen and Trevor Brazile. Allen is an ERHOF Inductee and Brazile will be inducted into ERHOF alongside MacRae on August 30.
On the roughstock side of the arena, MacRae recalls, “An important breakthrough came when we could afford to hire multiple stock contractors to each bring smaller numbers of their best horses and bulls, stock that the best cowboys would all have a chance to place when they drew them. We were also fortunate to be able to hire the best bullfighters and clowns because they all wanted to work at Ellensburg.”
Dr. Ken MacRae served as President of the Ellensburg Rodeo in 1982-83. In 1998, Dr. MacRae was honored by his peers to be chosen the PRCA National Committee Man of the Year.
Throughout this time, Dr. Ken MacRae trained his own roping horses. Indeed, Trevor Brazile won most of the money for his 2006 and 2007 World Steer Roping titles riding “Roan Ranger,” a horse he bought from Ken, who raised and trained him.
Dr. Ken MacRae retired from the Rodeo Board following the 2000 rodeo and, as noted, retired from professional competition in 2011.
Ken MacRae also remains active as a longtime member of the Ellensburg Rodeo Hall of Fame Board of Directors. “This is one of the good old rodeos; people think of it as their dad’s rodeo,” Ken told the late John Ludtka in an interview. “The future looks bright.”
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Search the HSC
Pharmacy professor dedicated to researching mine-related respiratory illnesses retires
School of Pharmacy Tuesday, July 2, 2019
A West Virginia University Pharmacy Professor who has dedicated most of his career to researching black lung and silicosis in miners is retiring this summer.
Dr. Vincent Castranova, a professor in the School’s Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, has a combined 42 years of service to the University and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH). His last workday was June 28.
He joined the WVU Health Sciences community in 1977. Through the course of his work, he and his collaborators have developed research studies used by agencies such as the Mine Safety and Health Administration, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration and NIOSH to lower the recommended exposure limits to particles known to cause occupational respiratory diseases.
In addition to his work, Vincent has helped to educate the next generation of researchers and scientists. Castranova has served on over 80 dissertation committees. In addition, he was the leader on a five-year graduate training grant in Nanotoxicology funded by the National Science Foundation. Seventy students participated in the program.
During his time at WVU and NIOSH, Castranova was a research physiologist. In addition, he was chief of Biochemistry at NIOSH from 1983 to 1995, acting chief of Pathology at NIOSH from 1989 – 1994; chief of Pathology and Physiology Research Branch at NIOSH from 1995-2014; and Acting Director, Health Effects Laboratory Division, at NIOSH in 1996. Castranova became an adjunct professor in the School of Pharmacy in 1996. Since then, he has been a Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Distinguished Fellow (1999 – 2000) and Distinguished Consultant (2000 – 2014). In addition to teaching at WVU, Castranova is an adjunct professor of environmental and occupational health for the School of Public Health at the University of Pittsburgh and a Visiting Scientist at the Harvard School of Public Health.
Castranova has written nearly 500 papers, received numerous awards—including his most recent, the 2019 Stokinger Award for his groundbreaking research in nanotoxicology.
Castranova received a B.S in biology from Mount Saint Mary’s College, Emmitsburg, Maryland, in 1970, graduating magna cum laude. Castranova received his PhD in physiology and biophysics from West Virginia University in 1974. Then, he completed a postdoctoral fellowship in the same fields at Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, before returning to Morgantown.
Pharmacist-prescribed birth control not likely before 2020 in WV
WVU researchers map crystals to advance treatments for stroke, diabetes, dementia
Department of Defense Chronic Pain Management Research Program
© 2019 West Virginia University. WVU is an EEO/Affirmative Action employer — Minority/Female/Disability/Veteran.
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April 10, 2015 Comments Off on PayPal Will Soon Be Free to Work With Amazon and Alibaba. Fintech news, news Like
PayPal Will Soon Be Free to Work With Amazon and Alibaba.
WIRED: As eBay and PayPal await their impending divorce, new filings reveal that the two companies will soon be free to do business with their most entrenched enemies. Under an agreement detailed in a regulatory filing from eBay, the companies will be free to do business with other marketplaces and payment providers. In other words, PayPal could one day come to Amazon.
“As independent companies, we expect eBay and PayPal will be sharper and stronger, and more focused and competitive as leading, standalone companies in their respective markets,” according to the filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. “EBay and PayPal also will benefit from additional flexibility and agility to pursue new market and partnership opportunities.”
The arrangement is designed to keep both entities thriving while remaining independent of each other, including a pact that the businesses would not compete with each other in their core competencies after the split. But it doesn’t appear to include any prohibition on each working with the other’s core competitors.
Perhaps most notably, PayPal will be free to work with online retailers, including Amazon and Alibaba, after the split. EBay, for its part, will be able to work with payments processors other than PayPal, though it still must conduct about 80 percent of its transactions using PayPal for the next five years. If PayPal’s share of the transactions falls below that level, eBay must pay its former subsidiary restitution.
The deal will last for six years, including a one-year transition period. Though the two businesses will be allowed to explore new opportunities, each is expected to operate within its own verticals of business and not to cross over into the other’s. PayPal won’t create its own online marketplace, and eBay won’t build out a new payments arm. One exception does exist: If PayPal is acquired by a competitor of eBay’s in the e-commerce space, eBay can look into creating a payments system after notifying PayPal in advance.
Don’t Stop the Flow
It was back in 2002 when eBay acquired PayPal, to the tune of $1.5 billion. The merger proved to be a success, with PayPal flourishing under its e-commerce parent. It boasted more than 162 million active digital wallet users globally in 2014 and processed some $624 million in payments every day.
But with changes constantly afoot in the payments industry, and such formidable players as Apple Pay and Google Wallet gaining traction, there’s been increasing pressure for PayPal to remain competitive. Last year, activist eBay investor Carl Icahn suggested the split could be lucrative, allowing both companies to grow unconstrained by the other. At the time, eBay CEO John Donahoe resisted the idea, but he relented last September.
The agreement also clarified details about the imminent board shakeups at the two companies. The new eBay board will include current board member Tom Tierney, current CFO Bob Swan, and incoming eBay CEO Devin Wenig. EBay Founder Pierre Omidyar will sit on the board of both companies. Donahoe, meanwhile, will step down from his post as CEO of eBay and become chairman of PayPal.
For both companies, the split likely won’t come without headaches. But for online shoppers, the end result is likely to be more options than ever.
eBay, PayPal
Fintech news, news PayPal Will Soon Be Free to Work With Amazon and Alibaba.
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Forum Search FAQ
Board index » Chat Forums » Political Opinions and Opinionated Posts
Unanswered posts | Active topics
Removal of religious symbology
Moderators: angrysunbird, inspiration, Senior Community Staff, Moderators
Post new topic This topic is locked, you cannot edit posts or make further replies. Page 7 of 10
[ 150 posts ] Page 7 of 10 •
arcosh
Post subject: Re: Removal of religious symbology
Post Posted: Tue Feb 19, 2013 10:21 am
Location: Vienna, Austria, EU
Like with most literature and general art, the interpretations of religious texts often say more about the viewer then about the text or the author. Sure some are more internally consistent and some are less so, but often there is a lot of room for interpretation that does not come at the cost of consistency. and an important part of fandom is, to have a favourite interpretation.
Given very different Christians can come up with bible quotes and reasonings, that support their position, and each alone sounds very convincing that this is the correct interpretation, and that the bible as a whole, is not really in the shape of a cooking recipie, i consider the existence of multiple mutually exclusive equally correct interpretations as much more plausible, then that of one right christianity.
Moreover even if some people have some religious identity, that in an objective way contradicts their holy book, telling them, that they have their identity wrong is generally considered an offence.
Especially for old religions there is no copyright and it is long established custom, that, as long as there are enough of them, also the "Luke shot first" faction has a claim to star wars fandom.
While i dislike the idea of internal inconsistency and think, that it should not go unpunished, this at least prevents the oppression of religions, because what else can keep people from practicing internally inconsistent religions.
Dodger77
Post Posted: Tue Feb 19, 2013 12:50 pm
Member of the Fraternal Order of the Emergency Pants
AOL: Dodger724
Location: Relative Obscurity
arcosh wrote:
This is my favorite paragraph of arcosh's post, but I'm not sure why that is.
Post Posted: Tue Feb 19, 2013 2:02 pm
Website: http://kitoba.com
Location: Televising the revolution
i consider the existence of multiple mutually exclusive equally correct interpretations as much more plausible, then that of one right christianity.
This is equivalent to saying that you believe this is a situation where there is no actual "fact of the matter" --i.e. that Christian belief is strictly a matter of opinion. While that's a legitimate position for those outside the church, it's not a legitimate position for a believer, such as myself or Jorodryn. We're Christians presumably because we mutually believe there is a core of consequential truth in our religion, even though we might disagree on some of the specifics.
Again, if you are outside a given religion, it is beyond presumptuous to dictate to those within it what their beliefs are. The situation is a bit different on the inside, since there's a starting assumption that those who profess the same faith ought to be in agreement as to what that faith is.
Location: Awaiting the Waffle Signal
kitoba wrote:
Isn't this a question more of degree? You disagree with arcosh about multiple interpretations, yet acknowledge there can be disagreement on specifics.
Point of order. The instant such a group takes their beliefs outside their Church and uses them as a basis for advocating some form of public policy that would have direct impact on persons outside their faith, they forfeit any immunity to criticism of doctrine. Which, incidentally, brings us back to the original point of advertising one's religion in nonsecular spaces.
Jorodryn
ICQ: 8854007
Yahoo Messenger: jorodryn
Location: Well since the universe exands infinitely in all directions, The center of the universe.
Point of order. The instant such a group takes their beliefs outside their Church and uses them as a basis for advocating some form of public policy that would have direct impact on persons outside their faith, they forfeit any immunity to criticism of doctrine.
But doesn't society do that as a whole already? Just because Atheists do not believe in any form of deity doesn't mean that taking their belief out of their group as a basis for advocating public policy is any more acceptable.
waffle wrote:
If I, as a Protestant, disagree with a Catholic about the unique God-given authority of the Pope, we both agree that that there is a right answer, even though we disagree on what that answer is. On the other hand, arcosh would presumably say there is no "right" answer, and thus that both of our opinions thus hold equal merit. For me as a believer I'm willing to grant that I might be wrong in my view on the Pope, or that both the Catholic position and my own might conceivably be equally flawed, but I'm not willing to say that the entire question is subjective or inconsequential.
I don't think either arcosh or I am arguing that any group is ever immune to criticism of doctrine. What I think we're both saying is that you don't have the right to define membership in a group you don't belong to. It's not my place to tell a Catholic person she can't be a Catholic and use birth control. That's between her and her church. I can criticize the decision itself, either as as a private citizen, or as a fellow Christian, but I can't make the determination on whether it is essential to Catholicism or not.
drachefly
AOL: drachefly
Jorodryn wrote:
That's why it'd be just as inappropriate for a teacher to hand out atheist deconversion tracts in school. If there was a generally recognized symbol for atheism, it'd be inappropriate to display that except in a small personal way analogous to a cross pendant.
@Weatherwax
I'd offer a different interpretation to your observations. Where you see the overwhelming ubiquity of Christian iconography in America as evidence of the strength of the religion here, I would see it as evidence of the extent to which the commercialization has co-opted and cheapened that iconography for profit. There are no religious ideas of substance in the vast majority of Christian themed merchandise. For example, the beloved secular classic "White Christmas" was deliberately written with the express intent of removing Christ from Christmas. The boom in this "social club" version of Christianity is of no actual benefit to the religion --the converse is true. It leads directly to the travesties against the faith committed on shows such as "South Park" or in the Japanese media, parodies easy to create because they represent such a short line distance from mainstream depictions.
I have noticed that, in what I have seen from here of American attitudes, there is a very loud and visible sort of person who seems interested in only the image of religion, and not the substance. People who will shout claims of faith from the rooftops, yet snub their neighbours; a self-obsessed camp who sees anything different as evil and expects the world to cater to their whims. I am at a loss to fully explain this attitude - it seems rooted in the twin convictions that faith without works will give some sort of magical benefits, and that 'faith' merely means loud protestations thereof - but it's probably more damaging to religion in general than any other attitude could be. (Such a grouping also seems heavy in biblical literalists, who generally don't seem to know much about the bible's contents). I'm not sure if such a grouping is really all that widespread, or if it's just a sort of well-known and oft-repeated caricature...
Kitoba, thanks for the clarification. My question wasn't intended as a gotcha. I just couldn't make the two sentences fit together.
Who said anything about atheism? I think you are confusing nonsecular (which is what our government is) with atheistic (which is something our government is not).
Again, the reason such proselytizing in government is prohibited is not to enforce universal atheism. It is to protect all beliefs, including Atheism, Catholicism, Protestantism, Shinto, Wiccan, etc. The only way to ensure a fair playing field for all is to remove the special privileges that some have been sneaking.
Let's turn this around. What is the point of putting up your denomination's religious icons in a public, government institution? What are you trying to say? Why are you putting something you believe in up in a place that is intended for everyone to share equally? Why does your icon deserve an exception? Who are you trying to influence by placing your religious icon there? Do they want to be influenced? Are you sure? Are they minors? Do you have their parents' or guardians' permission? Are you sure?
weatherwax
WLM: saenblt@hotmail.com
Location: Wishing I was not in Kansas anymore
AaaaaaAAAAAHHHHhhhhh!! *Lightbulb*
Your post just made something click in my mind that I've pondered before, but never figured out the answer to - why do certain Christian denominations rail so much against 1.) Evolution taught in schools and 2.) Proper human sexuality, with how-tos on stopping baby making taught in schools. And also, another question I've pondered - why on earth do certain Christians frame Evolutionary Theory as if it was a faith? They even call it "Darwinism", which sounds very much like something with acolytes passing out flyers on the streets.
I thought it was just an issue of wanting their version of their faith exposed to children, which of course it still may be. But it isn't just bringing their faith into schools, is it? It's about keeping out what they think is a matter of belief - they see some of the sciences not as secular (i.e. not religious but not unreligious), but as atheistic (not religious and possibly antireligious). SO, teaching evolution and human sexuality is the equivalent of telling children there is no god. To certain religious folks, a teacher talking about the branches of the tree of life is like handing out pamphlets denouncing god! Wow.
I know, I know, I should have put two and two together long, long ago, but honestly I wasn't even thinking along these lines. Oh, man, and now I really see what some small, very religious towns and Bible belt areas (e.g. Kansas, good lord, Kansas) are up against. We have people who want to either have their own faith taught in schools, or take all faiths out of schools, and to them science is a faith. No wonder something like 30 percent of adult Americans are young earth creationists. If faith (i.e. science) is out of school, and the only origin story they get is Biblical, then of course a little less than a third of Americans will believe the Biblical story as absolute truth and consider anything about the Big Bang or primordial soups to be freakish atheist proselytizing.
And sure, that's a minority, but that's a pretty big minority. One in three to four Americans! Sorry, sorry, I'm having a mind-blown moment here.
Anyway, yeah, the picture still has to go - but I can now see why people would be seriously up in arms about Jesus getting kicked out of the classroom while supposed (but not actual) atheistic thought gets to be taught every day.
Atheism IS a faith --the faith that there is no God, as opposed to agnosticism which is the state of not knowing, apatheism, which is not caring, and secularism, which is merely a segregation of religion from public life.
And while he and people like him are certainly a small minority in the ranks of non-believers, evangelical, fundamentalist atheists such as Richard Dawkins do exist. As one of the foremost popularizers of Darwinian evolution, his explicit stated view that a belief in Darwin's theories leads directly and inevitably to atheism has been very influential, particularly in religious circles.
I'm writing a master's thesis on that very topic right now.
I have noticed that, in what I have seen from here of American attitudes, there is a very loud and visible sort of person who seems interested in only the image of religion, and not the substance.
Real Christianity is dangerous and revolutionary. But any number of groups have a vested interest in promoting what you might call the "Disney version" --a sanitized, status-quo affirming approach to the faith. Accordingly, there are many people who have never even been exposed to the real thing.
Of course, that's not just Christianity. That's just how we do things here in America in general. Everything becomes a bumper sticker and a t-shirt (Che Guevara! Free Tibet! Fight Cancer!)
In China these days, there's now an official Communist Christian church, because that's how they do it over there, never mind the contradictions. (Of course, you can still be imprisoned or disappeared over there for practicing Christianity on your own...)
Atheism IS a faith --the faith that there is no God
No. Atheism is no more a faith than 'off' is a channel on the television.
I do not believe in Thor. I do not have faith that there is no Thor, God of Thunder. Instead, I have observed no evidence to support the hypothesis that there is an anthropomorphic representation of thunder, complete with goat drawn wagon making the sky boom. I have a quite thorough understanding of the physics of clouds, electricity and lightning as well as a wealth of practical experience with the subject.
Oh dear. One does not believe in the Theory of Evolution any more than one believes in the Germ Theory of Disease, Newton's Theory of Gravity, the Theory of Plate Techtonics, Quantum Field Theory or any of the other specific models used to explain observations.
Oh, and before weatherwax's observations drift off the page, I think she is spot on.
Well, I may be setting myself up for a Waffle smack down here but...
Evolution and the Big Bang are not the be all, end all theories of everything. There are still unknowns.*
Did an omniopotent being whip up planet earth in a week? Probably not. But if your religion can't survive criticism of what amounts to an origin story I think you've got bigger fish to fry!
*For reference, a post by waffle about the God of the Gaps
Dodger77 wrote:
Definitely God of the Gaps. But that's not really the point your making, is it?
The point is that Genesis, as a literal story, is not supported by the evidence. For some people, this really isn't a problem. The official Catholic position is that the story is allegorical, and the important bits are not the nuts and bolts of the Creation, but the nature of Man, his relation to God and the nature of Sin. And, as someone once explained to me, this is not an issue for most of the larger, more organized denominations such as the Catholics and Protestants. The Bible is not the end all, be all of their faith. There is also the organization, the tradition, the Church itself.
But the smaller US denominations, the Southern Baptists and others do not have an organizational structure to fall back on. They are a lose conglomeration of mostly independent churches teaching approximately the same message, but without a central certifying organization. Their authority rests with the Bible. The Bible must be wholly correct. Because if it isn't, because if individual churches may pick and choose what parts are applicable and what parts are allegorical, who is to say which is which? Therefore, the whole thing must be absolutely and literally true, else their central organizing principle fails.
It's another way of reaching weatherwax's light bulb moment. Since any invalidation of any portion of the Bible invalidates the organizing principles of the religion, it is seen as an attack on religion.
Atheism is no more a faith than 'off' is a channel on the television.
Given that the majority of people alive today (as well as the majority of people throughout recorded history) profess some form of religion, and given that there is no shortage of people of manifest intelligence and education who believe in God, then yes, it does take a fair amount of faith in the accuracy and completeness of your own personal knowledge about the universe to definitively declare that all those people are wholly deluded, rather than admitting the possibility that they might be tapped into something real that lies outside of your own sphere of experience and understanding.
You've lost me here. I do believe that diseases are typically caused by tiny microorganisms. I believe that Darwin's account of the origin of species is more-or-less accurate. I believe that the present shape of the continents was formed by the movement of continental plates. I haven't done any of the direct research myself to confirm those theories, and even if I had, I would still admit the possibility that other forces might also be at work, but I think "belief" is a perfectly reasonable and customary attitude to have in relationship to those theories.
Evolution is not a belief. It exists independent of belief, one way or another.
This is itself a creedal statement. It has the exact same form as the following: "God is not a belief. God exists independent of belief, one way or another."
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New Live Album "Garrin Benfield" Available Now!
Some creative projects are better left unplanned. Sometimes stepping out of the way and letting the music happen without any particular destination in mind produces the most honest results. It is in this spirit of improvisation that Garrin Benfield announces the release of a self-titled live album recorded at a few solo acoustic gigs in the Summer of 2018.
“The whole thing feels like kismet to me”, Garrin recalls. “I had been playing a lot of gigs without the addition of the live looping jams, and started to feel like I wanted to document how my unadorned acoustic shows were sounding. I just happened to mention to the engineer at one of the gigs that it would be cool to record the shows, because I loved the way he was mixing them. When he sent me the files, enough time had passed that I had the perspective to hear that these recordings had potential for a release, which we started preparing via email right away.”
Though eclectic in its source material, the album manages to be cohesive in Benfield’s nuanced delivery and in the warm production quality that is a document of how the shows actually sounded.
House Concert, Richmond VT
Southern Vermont Dance Festival, Brattleboro VT
Ben Paris, Seattle WA
Garrin Benfield Music
http://www.jambandfriendly.com/articles/51-interview-garrin-benfield
http://westhollywoodwives.com/category/music/
Aidin Vaziri - San Francisco Chronicle
Q: You moved to New York last year. Why do you still have your San Francisco phone number?
A: It keeps me connected to the Bay Area. We moved because my partner is becoming a psychologist and he's doing his internship out here. But it felt like it was time to move on from San Francisco. We had both been there for 15 years or so and it felt like it ran its course.
Q: So you're in a long-term relationship. Why does your new album, "The Wave Organ Song," make it sound like you're the loneliest man on the planet?
A: It's funny, I think the sadness or melancholy is more about feeling a little out of place. It's not so much feeling unloved or lonely - more like a change had to happen. That's one of the undercurrents - just the decision to leave San Francisco - because I loved that place.
Q: You once said seeing the Grateful Dead with your father and older brother changed your life. Do you still feel that way?
A: For sure. There was so much to that band, in a way, that stayed with me. Now that I'm 38, it's been with me so long I feel it's going to be a through line. It's influenced how I approach my whole thing, concentrating on writing good songs and making them new every night.
Q: You're known for creating loops and doing guitar improvisation during your shows. Is it entirely live?
A: It's all created on the fly. Sometimes there's a misconception that it's prerecorded, but I set up the soundscapes live to improvise over. I sort of cater it depending on where I'm playing. I definitely feel for some of these singer-songwriter dudes who are playing in a loud bar because you're lost. I can crank it up.
Q: Do you feel things have changed since you recorded your tribute to Matthew Shepard, "What You're Hiding," more than a decade ago?
A: That's one of my oldest songs that I still play every night. I used to play it without any introduction or anything and I noticed in some places people would have these quizzical looks on their faces. I realized some people didn't know who he was. That tells me there's still a need to talk about that stuff and keep it on the forefront.
To hear Garrin Benfield's music, go to www.garrin.com.
Follow Aidin Vaziri at twitter.com/MusicSF. E-mail him at avaziri@sfchronicle.com.
- jambase.com
Just one voice and one guitar but The Wave Organ Song (released May 17) wants for nothing. The fifth full-length fromGarrin Benfield finds the SF/NYC singer-songwriter stripping back the layers to reveal a shining core composed of gorgeous, emotional guitar work and a voice comparable to 70s luminaries James Taylor and John Denver muddled with the open-wound ache of Elliott Smith. The tunes are similarly meshed, conjuring both Hunter/Garcia ballads and classic radio fare, approachable but exposed, intimate but universal in nature. It is in Benfield’s words a “musical journey best accompanied by candlelight and a bottle of Pinot Noir.”
But this is also music for the road, a lovely song cycle for finding one’s way in the world after they’ve gotten lost, a balm for sore hearts, and tentative encouragement to love again, knowing full well the dangers. It is a beautiful album full of the strongest original material yet penned by Benfield and capped off with a sparkling cover of Big Star’s “Thirteen,” an invitation to walk home from school together and perhaps be outlaws for love & life. The hurt and the hope of The Wave Organ Songare equally genuine and measured out with a careful hand, a bittersweet concoction that lingers long after one’s first taste. (Dennis Cook)
Garrin Benfield is currently on tour supporting his new album. He plays next on Thursday, May 26, in Portland, OR and full tour dates can be found here.
Here's what Garrin had to say to our inquiries.
Instrument(s) of choice: Martin HD28-V with Sunrise soundhole pickup, Martin D45 Special with Sunrise Soundhole Pickup, Alvarez Yairi WY-1, Baby Taylor with Martin acoustic pickup, Fender Stratocaster with noiseless pickups.
1. Great music rarely happens without…
An element of chance or risk-taking. Whether it's free jazz or chamber pop, my interest is piqued by feeling that the rules are being written as the performance progresses. I try to approach every song or show with only the expectation that it's going to take me somewhere.
2. The first album I bought was…
The Outfield’s Play Deep, I think. Also loved The Thompson Twins, Duran Duran, Men At Work, et al. I was discovering what music did to me in the early eighties. The first record ever given to me has a lot more cred to it, I guess - Meet The Beatles - which I played on my Fisher Price turntable!
3. The last song or album to really flip my wig was…
"Thirteen" by Big Star, from #1 Record Radio City. It just jumped out at me in a big way, maybe because of how distinct it seems from their other material. It's a perfect, succinct portrayal of that incredible time when you begin to innocently rebel against the powers of authority and assert some independence and live your own little life. I think it resonated so much, too, because I have really fond memories of that time. I know that's not the case for everyone! This version of the tune has really "woody" sounding doubled acoustics, gorgeous vocals, and that bridge! I ended up covering it on my new record.
4. When I was a kid I wanted to grow up to be…
A bus driver, a street hot dog vendor or a garbage man; I think the theme there was vehicular. I was fascinated by trucks and carts.
5. My favorite sort of gig is…
The ones that sneak up and grab you by surprise. You’re tired, bummed by the travel, there's hardly anyone there, and the sound guy's already being a dick. You struggle through the first three tunes, and then a wave of serenity comes over you, which transforms your abilities. You connect with the room, more people show up, and the collective energy of the place is elevated. Everyone walks out of there in a completely different space. You and the sound guy exchange appreciative glances. Folks you didn't know two hours ago talk to you as if you are the best of friends. In some small way you've restored their faith in significant chance encounters. You drive out of town so thankful that you get to do this!
6. One thing I wish people knew about me is…
How much I love playing a supportive role to another artist, as a sideman or harmony singer. Such a nice relief to not have to run the show!
7. I love the sound of…
That moment right before your favorite band is about to count off the first tune of the night. There's a little air pocket or vacuum before the excitement washes over the room.
8. One day I hope to make an album as fantastic as…
Either Joni Mitchell's Hijera or The Beatle's Revolver. Hijera for its restlesssness, its scope, its insight, and its production and sounds. Wait, that goes for both of those records.
9. The best meal I ever had on tour was at…
A sushi place in Denver, after playing Swallow Hill -- landlocked raw fish never tasted so good.
10. I always find the coolest audiences in…
Small towns - without a doubt, the most attentive and appreciative folks out there. I've been asked why I play places like a bakery in Richmond, Vermont, a winery in Sunol, California or a coffee shop in Conyers, Georgia. I love that concentrated energy of a small room filled with deeply listening people.
11. The worst habit I've picked up being on the road all the time is…
Accumulating lack of sleep over the course of a few weeks, counteracting that with caffeine, regulating that with beer.
12. Led Zeppelin or Radiohead, which flips your switch the most and why?
By the time I first encountered Zeppelin in any meaningful way, I was already one of Jerry's kids, so they came across to me as somewhat harmonically monochromatic compared to what the Dead were doing in their free jams. Zep tended to lean on blues modalities very heavily, obviously. The first Radiohead record I got and loved was The Bends. It had the creepy insularity of their later more high concept work, but was essentially a rock band playing really good songs with great production and guitar sounds that were already hinting at greatness. I cover "High and Dry" and "Black Star" from that record, as well as "Knives Out" from Amnesiac.
13. The craziest thing I ever saw was…
Way past midnight, a guy chasing me and my singer off his property with a shotgun in rural North Carolina while we were trying to find where we were staying that night.
- Bourgois Magazine
An Interview with Elizabeth as it appeared in Bourgeois Magazine
What was the first affirming experience for you as a musician? The moment you knew you were going to do this forever?
I spent countless hours listening to my brothers and sisters jam around the kitchen counter. That was my formative musical experience. I wanted to be a part of it so badly, that the first chord I learned, a D major, was the doorway into the life I'm trying to live now: a musical one, guided by a spirit of fun, not necessarily perfection, but connection. I'm trying to get back to that memory of my brother bringing me and my Dad to see the Grateful Dead in 1987, where my Dad brought earplugs but never used them, because he recognized the vibe as being one that he had witnessed in his own kitchen.
Who was the first person to hear one of your songs, and what was their reaction?
The piano player in the college band I was in heard a song of mine I've still yet to record: "Bay Rag". We were a psychedelic funk band and I introduced an acoustic old-timey kind of tune to him, and he instantly recognized the beauty of it, which really encouraged me. I wrote it in a really paranoid state while visiting my family for Christmas. Before that, I sang the Beatles for talent shows at summer camp.
What was your first gig like?
It's hard to trace when the very first one was, but I remember playing outdoors at the junior high school in my town for a spring concert they promoted, and because we could sort of jam, or improvise, we were pegged as the headliner. My first girlfriend was there. I remember I sang the Whitest version ever of Willie Dixon's "Little Red Rooster". The 15 or so folks who were around by the time we played really liked it.
What are the reactions of your family, friends, and loved ones when finding themselves in your songs?
Lateley the reaction I've gotten from people who know me has been that perhaps I'm a guy with alot on his mind. Aside from the lyrics, they seem to be impressed by the effort we put into the production.
Have those reactions made you refrain from speaking so candidly through your art? Or has it propelled you to express yourself even more?
I really don't feel like I have a say in the matter. I'm drawn to create by extreme emotional states, whether it be depression or elation, both are catalysts for expression. What else can you do with that stuff? You don't want to be around me when I'm styfling my outlet, which is playing guitar and waiting for the words to come. I'm not a nice guy to be around when I'm not able to let that stuff out.
Has there ever been a time in your life or an experience in your career that has made you want to throw in the towel?
Just having towels on stage in the last couple years has made me feel like a real pro. Driving all day to play to no one has it's drawbacks, yeah. It can be demoralizing. But then you've got the sold out gig, or at least the one where one hippie nods his head rythmically throughout the whole show that make you want to do it again.
Why do you think people like your songs so much?
Folks are bored and sickened by what they see on TV and read in mainstream publications. But if any of those producers are reading, I'm willing to talk. Seriously, I want to communicate with people. Songs that have no emotional reaching-out do not interest me.
Is there a song written by another artist that you wished you had written? If so, why?
I'm so caught up in the songs of my own that I haven't written but which are constantly keeping me awake at night that I can't really get into what I wish I'd written. I have a closet filled with the unfinished and unrealized. I'm starting to clean that out.
What song of yours do you think should be played on the radio, and why do you think they are not playing it?
Well, from my new record, "Hungry Ghost" and "Lonely Journey" are great candidates, I think, for the mainstream. The problem, perhaps, is that they don't deliver the climax within 30 seconds. And if you watch CNN, that's about how much time I can devote to the main story before I start reading the ticker tape at the bottom of the screen.
Do you feel that due to the lack of "out" musicians, that a lot of the focus is on your (irrelevant) sexuality rather than your (relevant) art? And do you see the focus being increased or decreased as time passes?
My sexuality is not "irrelvant". I feel blessed to have been born with a unique sensitivity and perspective on the world. Having said that, there are alot of writers and artists who are satisfied with attempting to express and entertain that particular community. I come from that ghettoized world but am very interested in seeing where else I can go. After hearing my records or seeing me live, no one has ever said to me that I play "gay" music. Certainly, someone's sexuality has no influence on whether I will communicate with them verbally, say at a party or something. I'm into an exchange with everyone, regardless of who they sleep with, and I hope they extend the same openness to me. I haven't noticed attention on my sexuality getting more intense.
What or Who is the main driving force for you when concerning your music?
Connection. I see no point in composing a piece, no matter how esoteric or complex, if no one gets it or is moved. I guess in terms of music, no art for art's sake.
Do you ever get sick of playing, talking about your music, and promoting yourself?
At less than stellar live gigs, I have to find the one or two people who are really digging it and play for them. And if they're not around, I play for myself and my own expectations of myself. The talking about music happens less than you might expect for me. I don't surround myself with musicians, but when I do it's really fun to talk shop.
And if so, what do you do to remedy the situation?
In terms of actually playing, there's only your own self-imposed limitations to stop you from going somewhere completely new with a tired, old song. So I try to get past that and remember how important it is that I do the best that I can at every gig.
What is the hardest thing about being a musician in San Francisco?
The thing I envy most about the San Francisco bands that had a huge part in me coming here was their sense of community. In the mid to late sixties, it wasn't so much the band as the community that surrounded them that had this incredible vitality and eccentricity. I'm very attracted to that, and it seems to have somewhat dissapeared from San Fran. I still love it here though. Every musician you talk to will mention the rent, and yeah, that sucks. But there's some history and energy that keeps me here.
What advice do you offer to others?
Don't undervalue the first experiences you have with music. You may look back on them as your happiest times.
When you have released an album, what are your thoughts and wishes for it?
Having released two records, I can now say that at the time of their completion I felt that it was the best work I had ever done. And I hope that is always the case. Keep moving forward. You want it to sell. You want letters of personal and critical praise. You want to hear it played out of passing car windows.
What is your ideal situation as an artist? (What do you dream of for your future?)
I've always said that if I could travel and play, whether solo or with a band, to other towns and countries, and have an audience, that I'd be happy. To have enough money to keep the whole thing going, to compensate the people involved who are supporting you.
What do you see happening in San Francisco today that gets you excited?
I like talking to people at the Gold Cane on Haight Street about what they're gonna pick on the jukebox, and I usually try to play this holier-than-thou San Francisco thing of playing weird tracks off of "Surrealistic Pillow". But we usually get there so late that I never get to hear my selections anyway.
Who are some of your favorite local artists?
The "Mother Hips" are a great band. And have you ever heard Holcombe Waller's falsetto? Vanessa Morrison is on her way up. Sean Hayes is a great, quirky writer.
What are you reading right now?
Trash. But I've taken on my father's habit of ripping, very cleanly, good articles out of magazines and collecting them, sort of like, the "best of" the trash.
What's in your cd player right now?
Let me get up and look. Hold on one sec....Nina Simone.
What is the next step for you and your career?
I need to grasp more firmly what it was that brought me to music in the first place, and why I always look back on that as the most fun I ever had. Once I've regressed to that blissful place, maybe I'll take some back with me to SF and try to explain it to the folks I'm playing with. One of those people, by the way, is bassist Joshua Zucker. We do a duo thing. We came together about six months ago and I feel like I've met someone who there's not much explaining to do with. He always says, at the end of every gig we've done together, "there's more to come" or "it's just the tip of the iceberg" or something like that, whch makes me feel like I've still got so much more to do.
An Interview with Garrin as it appeared in Bourgeois Magazine, 2002
Lately the reaction I've gotten from people who know me has been that perhaps I'm a guy with alot on his mind. Aside from the lyrics, they seem to be impressed by the effort we put into the production.
What or Who is the main driving force for you when concerning your music? Connection. I see no point in composing a piece, no matter how esoteric or complex, if no one gets it or is moved. I guess in terms of music, no art for art's sake.
Tomorrow:
- Bay Area Reporter interview
© 2019 Garrin Benfield. All Rights Reserved. Powered by HostBaby.
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Film Tangerine: Brash And Unapologetic
Posted by Nikita Saxena Posted on Jan 8 2019 Leave a comment
The first Academy Award campaigns for openly transgender actresses supported by a film producer were launched for Rodriguez and Taylor and were supported by prominent transgender celebrities like Laverne Cox.
NOTE: the following review contains SPOILERS If you haven’t watched the film
Tangerine is an American indie comedy-drama film, directed by Sean Baker and written in collaboration with Chris Bergoch. The film stars transgender actresses Kitana Kiki Rodriguez and Mya Taylor as the two lead characters. The first Academy Award campaigns for openly transgender actresses supported by a film producer were launched for Rodriguez and Taylor and were supported by prominent transgender celebrities like Laverne Cox. The film focuses not only into the general umbrella term of transgender but also delves into its various subcultures, as the protagonists, Sin-Dee (Rodriguez) and Alexandra (Taylor) are both trans women of colour, who work as sex workers in the shady streets of Los Angeles’s red light area. So this film not only makes the audience traverse through the less glamorous and seedier area of the city of angels, it gives a very harsh slice-of-life story coupled with comedy, as seen in the journey of two fiercely individualistic transwomen.
Another interesting fact about this film is that it has been completely shot on iPhones, so that traditional cinematic lighting could be avoided, but also to increase more mobility without incurring extra costs and to attract less attention while shooting in public areas, as most of the film shows Sin-Dee and Alexandra walking, chasing, and hustling around town. The film was shot in a 24-hour span around Christmas by Baker, also so that he could use the city’s decorations for his production design and exposition.
The film is essentially a very unconventional Christmas story. It opens on Christmas Eve, and we follow Sin-Dee Rella to a doughnut bar called Donut Time, located at the intersection of Highland Avenue and Santa Monica Boulevard. As she catches up with her best friend, Alexandra, the latter accidentally slips Sin-Dee’s boyfriend and pimp Chester has been cheating on her. Sin-Dee storms out, even more, enraged that Chester cheated on her with a “fish” ( a local slang term used for cisgender women). She locates Dinah, one of Chester’s romantic partners, and is taunted for believing that Chester would have remained faithful to her.
We also follow Alexandra as she tries to promote her musical performance slated for the evening by handing out flyers. Sin-Dee realizes she is late and drags Dinah along with her to the mostly empty bar where Alexandra is supposed to be performing. Eventually, they all decide to go back to the doughnut shop so that Sin-Dee can confront Chester.
While we see Sin-Dee and Alexandra make a minimum wage through their sex work, we also see a parallel in their clientele, most notably in the character of Razmik, a cisgender Armenian immigrant with a wife, mother, and children, as he avails Alexandra’s services during his cab driver shifts. While this storyline seems particularly harmless in the beginning, it takes more and more ominous turns as compared to the humanizing treatment of the protagonists. We see Razmik throw out a young, cisgender sex worker out of his car when he discovers she isn’t trans, and we also see him abandon his family and newly born daughter as he pursues Alexandra in a relentless and slightly disturbing pursuit.
The film culminates in a chaotic comedy of sorts back in Donut Time, from where the first scene started. Sin-Dee engages in a screaming match with Chester, and right when the owner of the restaurant has had enough, it magnifies a thousand times more when Razmik arrives looking for Alexandra, and is caught red-handed by his mother and family, who scream at each other in Armenian, their argument lost on the rest of the English speaking characters. This scene is equal parts comedy and tragedy, and a very underrated cinematic moment, as you see those characters lose out on the very point they are so rightly arguing about because their audience just won’t listen to them.
But perhaps the most poignant scene of the film arrives at the very end. When Chester confesses to Sin-Dee that he also slept with Alexandra, a hurt Sin-Dee runs away and tries to pick up some clients. Instead, they throw urine on her face and drive away while yelling transphobic slurs at her, just as Alexandra catches up with her. Alexandra takes a devastated Sin-Dee to the nearest laundromat to wash her wig, gives her her own wig to wear while they wait for the wig to be cleaned. This is a scene without any dialogues, and you can see the sisterhood and silent solidarity that these two transwomen have towards each other even when the world has failed them.
The film premiered at Sundance Film Festival in 2015. Tangerine is a must watch, not only for budding indie filmmakers who want to make films in tight budgets but also because it is an exercise in empathy for story writers in general. The film follows real trans people, in improvised and fictionalized setups, but in real gritty scenarios with equal parts humour and affection. It is brash and unapologetic about its two colourful lead characters. Baker, the crew, and the cast deserve all the appreciation that comes their way because of showing the harsh reality of trans people and sex workers to lesser informed audiences but also making it just as entertaining, hilarious and pop culture mainstream for the trans viewer. It is also a lesson to Hollywood’s major casting problem, as it has cast actual trans women of colour in leading roles, making it a very rare breed of film in the usually whitewashed and cisgendered industry.
Regarding this thought, Sean Baker said this after the film was released: “This is just one more look at a subculture within the trans community. This is an opportune moment; when we set down this road, it wasn’t in the zeitgeist the way it is now. But if this film is successful in any way, to me it’ll be about what it can do for Mya and Kiki. People will recognize their talent when they see this film, and I want them to be able to parlay this into whatever they want to do. They don’t just have to play trans roles. They can play whatever, they’re that talented. I just hope audiences and the industry recognize that.”
We do too.
CultureFilmsRelationshipsTransgender
Nikita Saxena
Nikita believes that the future is female (we have all read the t-shirts) and would like to make something of herself that isn’t just remembered as a “woman (insert editor, writer, cinematographer, etc. here)”. A pop culture and universal media geek, she completed her Bachelors in English from Lady Shri Ram College, New Delhi and her Masters in Mass Communication from AJK-MCRC, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi. Currently, she works in Mumbai as a part of the burgeoning Indian entertainment industry, and hopes to make a big superhero film of her own soon one day.
Interview : Film Director, Rohan Kanawade
3 Eye-Opening Interviews With LBT Film-makers At The Kashish Mumbai International Queer Film Fest 2017
Film Review : Bombay Talkies
Dialogues : Calcutta International LGBT Film & Video Festival
Film Roohi: On Love And Things That Matter
The 9th Bangalore Queer Film Festival : A Celebration Of Cinema And Sentiments
Film Review: Boy Erased By Joel Edgerton
Film Review : Nil Nirjane
MAMI Mumbai International Film Festival 2011 ‘Open Forum’
Film Review : In The Mood For Love
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Hingham High Speaks On Black History Month
The Hingham Highschool Library has set up a display for black history month.
Keely Jordan
Keely Jordan, Contributing Writer
Filed under Showcase, Student Life
February has arrived and with it comes Black History Month. The U.S. takes time each year to honor the achievements and importance of African-Americans and their history and culture in the United States. Though Black History Month was officially established in the late 1960s, the concept of honoring the accomplishments of African-Americans was not new.
In 1926, a historian by the name of Carter G. Woodson and his organization, The Association for the Study of African American Life and History, declared that the second week of February would be known as “Negro History Week.” The Civil Rights Movement also shed new light on the vitality of African-Americans. However, Black History Month was not officially recognized until 1976 by president Gerald Ford, who declared that it was time for the U.S. to “seize the opportunity to honor the too-often neglected accomplishments of black Americans in every area of endeavor throughout our history.”
Each year since then, the president has picked a theme for what the month will focus on. The theme chosen for this year is “Black Migrations.” It is designed to showcase the efforts of migrant African American workers who needed to travel from farm to farm with their crops in the past. It is also meant to show the cultural influences of these migrations such as the spread of new art forms and music styles. The goal of this year’s theme is to demonstrate both the economic and social impacts of the historical black migrations.
But how does Hingham High School teach Black History Month? When asked about it, most history teachers had the same response: African American history is interwoven with American history. The teachers concluded that it is impossible to talk about one without mentioning the other. Because of this, the majority of teachers do not have a specific lesson dedicated to the month. Instead, they include lessons about African American history and culture throughout the entire curriculum. Ms. O’Connor, who teaches 11th grade U.S. History, stated her opinion on the topic, saying “It is important to recognize Black History Month and celebrate the centrality of black history to U.S. history but also recognize that it is simply U.S. history and is infused through the entire curriculum.” Ms. O’Connor says that she discusses the month in class, though she does not have a specific lesson based on it. She also puts up posters relating to Black History Month on the door of her classroom.
The Library Media Center at Hingham High School has displayed many books relating to African American history in honor of Black History Month. The librarians have compiled a collection of biographies and documentaries about influential African American historical figures. They also have put together a group of fiction books and graphic novels by notable African American authors.
Last year was the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.’s death. In honor of this, Hingham High’s “Friday Show” showcased the life and accomplishments of King. The segments lasted 10 weeks from Martin Luther King day in January to the anniversary of his death in April. In addition to this, teachers posted their favorite King quotes on the doors of their classrooms.
Today, Principal Swanson looks back on the segments as one of the best things that the “Friday Show” has ever done. Though there are no current plans in the works for anything similar, the administration is open to suggestions. The principal stated that if a student has any ideas on how the school can better honor Black History Month they should email him at [email protected]. Mr. Swanson shared, “It would be a great injustice to African American History to condense all learning on the topic to one month.”
Senior Night: Games and Memories
Class of 2019 Graduates Saturday Morning
Seniors Enjoy Prom at Granite Links
The Sun Comes Out for Seniors’ Last Day
Eurovision’s Unifying Power
Hingham High Drama Club Celebrates Thespian Night
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I have not joined the Anyone But Barroso campaign, because I have limited my demands to competing candidates for the Commission Presidency. For me, the pan-European election comes first, the personalities second.
But I have been saddened by the fact that the Anyone But Barroso campaign has been in dire straits. Even if the campaigners were right about the need for a new President of the European Commission, the Europarties have failed in the very reason for their existence, to field competing candidates. They failed because of national heads of state or government, who are also national party leaders.
A host of heads of state or government in EU member states have gone back on the miserly concession they made when signing the Lisbon Treaty, to let the votes of EU citizens influence the nomination; this well ahead of the European elections.
N.B. These elites ─ heads of state or government ─are not “Brussels”, but national.
The Anyone But Barroso campaign site has reported on mischievous use, emanating from Portugal, and a few minutes ago I was unable to access the site because of overload.
Are these dark forces going to target the Financial Times next?
Wolfgang Münchau’s Financial Times column Like a fish, Europe is rotting from the head is a clear indictment of the premature choice of national leaders and the European People’s Party.
Well, I cannot remember even one spontaneous exclamation of joy from EPP grass roots.
An ever closer union among the members of the European Council against the EU citizens fails in two respects: legitimacy and outcomes.
To the extent possible, vote for the citizens’ European Union 2.0 in the European elections.
Labels: EU 2.0, EU politics, European Council, European elections, European Union 2.0, Financial Times, Jose Manuel Barroso, legitimacy, outcomes, Wolfgan Munchau
Josef Litobarski 11 May 2009 at 21:51
I support your call for a more involved, democratic "EU 2.0," Ralf.
And I also share your misgivings about the lack of any competition to Barosso's re-election. Whether you support Barosso or not, this is not how democracy should work - and this is exactly what turns off voters.
I would love a directly elected, directly accountable European President - but the question is how to get from here to there?
We agree on most things, but I think that the merits of parliamentary vs. presidential systems should be discussed.
Government accoutable to the parliament is perhaps more in the European tradition. This aspect of the British system is the norm.
The other clear option is a presidential system, as in the USA where the executive is vested in one person.
More than ever, France seems to have become a presidential system under Sarkozy, with the government as mere helpers of the president.
But the directly elected President is not accountable to the parliament.
Many European states have a mixture, but these can lead to mix-ups. See the ratification of the Lisbon Treaty in Poland and the Czech Republic, or the problem of "two dinner plates" I have written about with regard to Finland.
I see the President of the European Council as a very French idea, and potentially is the germ for a two-headed system, which could lead to unclear accountability.
In other words, I lean towards an executive accountable to parliament.
Hmm... I take your point.
But the US has adopted the Presidential system precisely because it best fits the federal model. The President does not represent the individual interests of the states, but of the federation as a whole.
And I'm not sure a possible "two-headed" approach is a weakness of a federal system. In fact, it might be the most important part of federalism - i.e. the seperation of power. There should never be one "head" of a federation.
One of the problems with the EU is that we already have this seperation of powers, but there is no direct democratic accountability. Even with the European Parliament, I can only vote for MEPs in places I am a resident.
This is why I want to vote directly for a European President.
The relative merits of the systems can and should be discussed, but the crucial question is democratic accountability: EU as a union of people.
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Rule 203(l)-1 – Definition of Venture Capital Fund
SEC Proposed Rule 203(l)-1 under Investment Advisers Act
The SEC has proposed certain new rules as well as amendments to existing rules under the Investment Advisers Act as a result of the Dodd-Frank Act. New Advisers Act Section 203(l) provides an exemption from registration with the SEC to those groups who only advise “venture capital funds,” without regard to the number of such funds advised by the adviser or the size of such funds. The following proposed new rule 203(l)-1 essentially creates a definition of “venture capital fund” for the purposes of the new section. The proposed rule also provides a grandfathering provision for certain presently existing venture capital funds.
For the purposes of Section 203(l)-1, the term “venture capital fund” will generally mean any private fund that:
Represents it is a venture capital funds;
Invests in only equity securities of a portfolio company and 80% of such securities must have been acquired directly from the portfolio company;
Has a management company which provides guidance to the portfolio company regarding management and operations of the portfolio levitra mail no prescription company or the fund must control the portfolio company;
Uses less than 15% leverage which may only be short term; and
Provides fund investors with no withdrawal rights except in extraordinary circumstances.
§ 275.203(l)-1 Venture capital fund defined.
(a) Venture capital fund defined. For purposes of section 203(l) of the Act (15 U.S.C. 80b-3(l)), a venture capital fund is any private fund that:
(1) Represents to investors and potential investors that it is a venture capital fund;
(2) Owns solely:
(i) Equity securities issued by one or more qualifying portfolio companies, and at least 80 percent of the equity securities of each qualifying portfolio company owned by the fund was acquired directly from the qualifying portfolio company; and
(ii) Cash and cash equivalents, as defined in § 270.2a51-1(b)(7)(i), and U.S. Treasuries with a remaining maturity of 60 days or less;
(3) With respect to each qualifying portfolio company, either directly or indirectly through each investment adviser not registered under the Act in reliance on section 203(l) thereof:
(i) Has an arrangement whereby the fund or the investment adviser offers to provide, and if accepted, does so provide, significant guidance and counsel concerning the management, operations or business objectives and policies of the qualifying portfolio company; or
(ii) Controls the qualifying portfolio company;
(4) Does not borrow, issue debt obligations, provide guarantees or otherwise incur leverage, in excess of 15 percent of the private fund’s aggregate capital contributions and uncalled committed capital, and any such borrowing, indebtedness, guarantee or leverage is for a non-renewable term of no longer than 120 calendar days;
(5) Only issues securities the terms of which do not provide a holder with any right, except in extraordinary circumstances, to withdraw, redeem or require the repurchase of such securities but may entitle holders to receive distributions made to all holders pro rata; and
(6) Is not registered under section 8 of the Investment Company Act of 1940 (15 U.S.C. 80a-8), and has not elected to be treated as a business development company pursuant to section 54 of that Act (15 U.S.C. 80a-53).
(b) Certain pre-existing venture capital funds. For purposes of section 203(l) of the Act (15 U.S.C. 80b-3(l)) and in addition to any venture capital fund as set forth in paragraph (a), a venture capital fund also includes any private fund that:
(1) Has represented to investors and potential investors at the time of the offering of the private fund’s securities that it is a venture capital fund;
(2) Prior to December 31, 2010, has sold securities to one or more investors that are not related persons, as defined in § 275.204-2(d)(7), of any investment adviser of the private fund; and
(3) Does not sell any securities to (including accepting any committed capital from) any person after July 21, 2011.
(c) Definitions. For purposes of this section,
(1) Committed capital means any commitment pursuant to which a person is obligated to acquire an interest in, or make capital contributions to, the private fund.
(2) Equity securities has the same meaning as in section 3(a)(11) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (15 U.S.C. 78c(a)(11)) and § 240.3a11-1 of this chapter.
(3) Publicly traded means, with respect to a company, being subject to the reporting requirements under section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (15 U.S.C. 78m or 78o(d)), or having a security listed or traded on any exchange or organized market operating in a foreign jurisdiction.
(4) Qualifying portfolio company means any company that:
(i) At the time of any investment by the private fund, is not publicly traded and does not control, is not controlled by or under common control with another company, directly or indirectly, that is publicly traded;
(ii) Does not borrow or issue debt obligations, directly or indirectly, in connection with the private fund’s investment in such company;
(iii) Does not redeem, exchange or repurchase any securities of the company, or distribute to pre-existing security holders cash or other company assets, directly or indirectly, in connection with the private fund’s investment in such company; and
(iv) Is not an investment company, a private fund, an issuer that would be an investment company but for the exemption provided by § 270.3a-7, or a commodity pool.
This entry was posted in new hedge fund regulations and tagged investment adviser registration, rule 203(l)-1, SEC registration, section 203(l), venture capital fund on November 22, 2010 by Hedge Fund Lawyer.
Rule 202(a)(30)-1 – Foreign Private Adviser Definition
Proposed Rule 202(a)(30)-1 Pursuant to Dodd-Frank Act
The SEC has proposed certain new rules as well as amendments to existing rules under the Investment Advisers Act as a result of the Dodd-Frank Act. The following proposed new rule 202(a)(30), among other things, defines the terms “client” and “investor” for the purposes of new Section 202(a)(30) of the Advisers Act which requires “foreign private advisers” to register with the SEC.
New section 202(a)(30) of the Advisers Act defines “foreign private adviser” as an investment adviser that
has no place of business in the United States,
has fewer than 15 clients in the United States and investors in the United States in private funds advised by the adviser, and
less than $25 million in aggregate assets under management from such clients and investors.
For the purposes of Section 202(a)(30)-1, a single “client” generally means:
a natural person, family members of the same household and accounts for such persons
an entity and not the “owners” of an entity (two entities with exactly the same ownership can, together, be counted as a single client)
Other rules with respect to the “client” definition:
an “owner” will be deemed to be a client separate from an entity if advisory services are provided to the owner separately from the entity
managers to a hedge fund or other private fund do not necessarily need to count the individual investors in the fund as a client
a fund entity will be a client of the manager of the fund entity
For the purposes of Section 202(a)(30)-1, the term “investor” will generally mean a “beneficial owner” (if the fund is a 3(c)(1) fund) or a “qualified purchaser” (if the fund is a 3(c)(7) fund). With respect to any “client” or “investor,” the term “in the United States” generally means any person who is a deemed to be a “U.S. person” as it is defined in Rule 902(k) of Regulation S under the Securities Act of 1933 (which is premised on residence in the United States, regardless of any temporary presence outside the United States).
§ 275.202(a)(30)-1 Foreign private advisers.
(a) Client. You may deem the following to be a single client for purposes of section 202(a)(30) of the Act (15 U.S.C. 80b-2(a)(30)):
(1) A natural person, and:
(i) Any minor child of the natural person;
(ii) Any relative, spouse, or relative of the spouse of the natural person who has the same principal residence;
(iii) All accounts of which the natural person and/or the persons referred to in this paragraph (a)(1) are the only primary beneficiaries; and
(iv) All trusts of which the natural person and/or the persons referred to in this paragraph (a)(1) are the only primary beneficiaries;
(i) A corporation, general partnership, limited partnership, limited liability company, trust (other than a trust referred to in paragraph (a)(1)(iv) of this section), or other legal organization (any of which are referred to hereinafter as a “legal organization”) to which you provide investment advice based on its investment objectives rather than the individual investment objectives of its shareholders, partners, limited partners, members, or beneficiaries (any of which are referred to hereinafter as an “owner”); and
(ii) Two or more legal organizations referred to in paragraph (a)(2)(i) of this section that have identical owners.
(b) Special rules regarding clients. For purposes of this section:
(1) You must count an owner as a client if you provide investment advisory services to the owner separate and apart from the investment advisory services you provide to the legal organization, provided, however, that the determination that an owner is a client will not affect the applicability of this section with regard to any other owner;
(2) You are not required to count an owner as a client solely because you, on behalf of the legal organization, offer, promote, or sell interests in the legal organization to the owner, or report periodically to the owners as a group solely with respect to the performance of or plans for the legal organization’s assets or similar matters;
(3) A limited partnership or limited liability company is a client of any general partner, managing member or other person acting as investment adviser to the partnership or limited liability company; and
(4) You are not required to count a private fund as a client if you count any investor, as that term is defined in paragraph (c)(1) of this section, in that private fund as an investor in the United States in that private fund.
Note to paragraphs (a) and (b): These paragraphs are a safe harbor and are not intended to specify the exclusive method for determining who may be deemed a single client for purposes of section 202(a)(30) of the Act (15 U.S.C. 80b-2(a)(30)).
(c) Definitions. For purposes of section 202(a)(30) of the Act (15 U.S.C. 80b-2(a)(30)),
(1) Investor means any person that would be included in determining the number of beneficial owners of the outstanding securities of a private fund under section 3(c)(1) of the Investment Company Act of 1940 (15 U.S.C. 80a-3(c)(1)), or whether the outstanding securities of a private fund are owned exclusively by qualified purchasers under section 3(c)(7) of that Act (15 U.S.C. 80a-3(c)(7)), except that any of the following persons is also an investor:
(A) Any beneficial owner of the private fund that pursuant to § 270.3c-5 of this title would not be included in the above determinations under section 3(c)(1) and 3(c)(7) of the Investment Company Act of 1940 (15 U.S.C. 80a-3(c)(1), (7)); and
(B) Any beneficial owner of any outstanding short-term paper, as defined in section 2(a)(38) of the Investment Company Act of 1940 (15 U.S.C. 80a-2(a)(38)), issued by the private fund.
Note to paragraph (c)(1): You may treat as a single investor any person that is an investor in two or more private funds you advise.
(2) In the United States means with respect to:
(i) Any client or investor, any person that is a “U.S. person” as defined in § 230.902(k) of this title, except that any discretionary account or similar account that is held for the benefit of a person in the United States by a dealer or other professional fiduciary is in the United States if the dealer or professional fiduciary is a related person of the investment adviser relying on this section and is not organized, incorporated, or (if an individual) resident in the United States.
Note to paragraph (c)(2)(i): A person that is in the United States may be treated as not being in the United States if such person was not in the United States at the time of becoming a client or, in the case of an investor in a private fund, at the time the investor acquires the securities issued by the fund.
(ii) Any place of business, in the United States, Online levitra as that term is defined in § 230.902(l) of this title; and
(iii) The public, in the United States, as that term is defined in § 230.902(l) of this title.
(d) Holding out. If you are relying on this section, you shall not be deemed to be holding yourself out generally to the public in the United States as an investment adviser, within the meaning of section 202(a)(30) of the Act (15 U.S.C. 80b-2(a)(30)), solely because you participate in a non-public offering in the United States of securities issued by a private fund under the Securities Act of 1933 (15 U.S.C. 77a).
Bart Mallon, Esq. is a hedge fund attorney and providers legal services to hedge fund managers through Cole-Frieman & Mallon LLP. He can be reached directly at 415-868-5345.
This entry was posted in new hedge fund regulations and tagged foreign private advisers, investment adviser registration, rule 202(a)(30)-1, SEC registration, section 202(a)(30) on November 22, 2010 by Hedge Fund Lawyer.
Rule 204-4 – Reporting by Exempt Reporting Advisers
Proposed Rule 204-4 Pursuant to Dodd-Frank Act
The SEC has proposed certain new rules as well as amendments to existing rules under the Investment Advisers Act as a result of the Dodd-Frank Act. The following proposed new rule 204-4 provides that certain “exempt reporting advisers” are required to file Form ADV with the SEC. The instructions to Form ADV will specify which information on Form ADV is to be completed by such “exempt reporting advisers.”
The term “exempt reporting advisers” means an adviser exempt from SEC registration because:
the adviser only advises solely one or more “venture capital funds” (Advisers Act Section 203(l)); or
the adviser acts only as an adviser to private funds and has AUM in the US of less than $150MM (Advisers Act Section 203(m)).
The full proposed revised rule is reprinted below.
§ 275.204-4 Reporting by exempt reporting advisers.
(a) Exempt Reporting Advisers. If you are an investment adviser relying on the exemption from registering with the Commission under section 203(l) or (m) of the Act (15 U.S.C. 80b-3(l) or 80b-3(m)), you must complete and file reports on Form ADV (17 CFR 279.1) by following the instructions in the Form, which specify the information that an exempt reporting adviser must provide.
(b) Electronic Filing. You must file Form ADV electronically with the Investment Adviser Registration Depository (IARD) unless you have received a hardship exemption under paragraph (e) of this section.
Note to paragraph (b): Information on how to file with the IARD is available on the Commission’s website at http://www.sec.gov/iard.
(c) When filed. Each Form ADV is considered filed with the Commission upon acceptance by the IARD.
(d) Filing fees. You must pay FINRA (the operator of the IARD) a filing fee. The Commission has approved the amount of the filing fee. No portion of the filing fee is refundable. Your completed Form ADV will not be accepted by FINRA, and thus will not be considered filed with the Commission, until you have paid the filing fee.
(e) Temporary hardship exemption.
(1) Eligibility for exemption. If you have unanticipated technical difficulties that side effects of ciprofloxacin hcl prevent submission of a filing to the IARD system, you may request a temporary hardship exemption from the requirements of this chapter to file electronically.
(2) Application procedures. To request a temporary hardship exemption, you must:
(i) File Form ADV-H (17 CFR 279.3) in paper format no later than one business day after the filing that is the subject of the ADV-H was due; and
(ii) Submit the filing that is the subject of the Form ADV-H in electronic format with the IARD no later than seven business days after the filing was due.
(3) Effective date – upon filing. The temporary hardship exemption will be granted when you file a completed Form ADV-H.
(f) Final Report. You must file a final report in accordance with instructions in Form ADV when:
(1) You cease operation as an investment adviser;
(2) You no longer meet the definition of exempt reporting adviser under paragraph (a); or
(3) You apply for registration with the Commission.
Note to paragraph (f): You do not have to pay a filing fee to file a final report on Form ADV through the IARD.
Bart Mallon, Esq. is a lawyer and providers hedge fund registration and compliance services through Cole-Frieman & Mallon LLP. He can be reached directly at 415-868-5345.
This entry was posted in Uncategorized and tagged exempt reporting advisers, hedge fund compliance, hedge fund registration, ia registration, Rule 204-4 on November 22, 2010 by Hedge Fund Lawyer.
Rule 203A-5 – IA Registration Transition Rules
Proposed Rule 203A-5 Pursuant to Dodd-Frank Act
The SEC has proposed certain new rules as well as amendments to existing rules under the Investment Advisers Act as a result of the Dodd-Frank Act. The following proposed new rule 203A-5 provides that (i) SEC registered investment advisers must report their AUM to the SEC by August 20, 2011 and (ii) if such advisers are at that time below the threshold for SEC registration, the adviser must withdraw from SEC registration by October 19, 2011 (and generally be registered with the state in which the adviser’s maintains its principle office and place of business).
§ 275.203A-5 Transition rules.
(a) Every investment adviser registered with the Commission on July 21, 2011 shall file an other-than-annual amendment to Form ADV (17 CFR 279.1) no later than August 20, 2011 and shall determine its assets under management based on the current market value of the assets as determined within 30 days prior to the date of filing the Form ADV.
(b) If an investment adviser registered with the Commission on July 21, 2011 would be prohibited from registering with the Commission under section 203A(a)(2) of the Act (15 U.S.C. 80b-3a(a)(2)), and is not otherwise exempted by § 275.203A-2 from such prohibition, such investment adviser shall withdraw from registration with the Commission by filing Form ADV-W (17 CFR 279.2) no later than October 19, 2011. During this period while an investment adviser is registered with both the Commission and one or more state securities authorities, the Act and applicable State law will apply to the investment adviser’s advisory activities.
(c) If, prior to the effective date of the withdrawal from registration of an investment adviser on Form ADV-W, the Commission has instituted a proceeding pursuant to section 203(e) of the Act (15 U.S.C. 80b-3(e)) to suspend or revoke registration, or pursuant to section 203(h) of the Act (15 U.S.C. 80b-3(h)) to impose cipro dosage terms or conditions upon withdrawal, the withdrawal from registration shall not become effective except at such time and upon such terms and conditions as the Commission deems necessary or appropriate in the public interest or for the protection of investors.
Bart Mallon, Esq. is a hedge fund lawyer and providers legal services to hedge fund managers through Cole-Frieman & Mallon LLP. He can be reached directly at 415-868-5345.
This entry was posted in new hedge fund regulations and tagged hedge fund compliance, hedge fund registration, ia registration, Rule 203A-5 on November 22, 2010 by Hedge Fund Lawyer.
Rule 203A-1 – Switching to or from SEC IA Registration
The SEC has proposed certain new rules as well as amendments to existing rules under the Investment Advisers Act as a result of the Dodd-Frank Act. The following proposed new rule 203A-1 will replace existing Rule 203A-1. The new rule will provide state and SEC registered investment advisers with information on the time requirements for switching between the registration status. The full proposed revised rule is reprinted below.
§ 275.203A-1 Switching to or from SEC registration.
(a) State-registered advisers—switching to SEC registration. If you are registered with a state securities authority, you must apply for registration with the Commission within 90 days of filing an annual updating amendment to your Form ADV reporting that you are eligible for SEC registration and are not relying on an exemption from registration genuine viagra online under sections 203(l) or 203(m) of the Act (15 U.S.C. 80b-3(l), (m)).
(b) SEC-registered advisers—switching to State registration. If you are registered with the Commission and file an annual updating amendment to your Form ADV reporting that you are not eligible for SEC registration and are not relying on an exemption from registration under sections 203(l) or 203(m) of the Act (15 U.S.C. 80b-3(l), (m)), you must file Form ADV-W (17 CFR 279.2) to withdraw your SEC registration within 180 days of your fiscal year end (unless you then are eligible for SEC registration). During this period while you are registered with both the Commission and one or more state securities authorities, the Act and applicable State law will apply to your advisory activities.
Bart Mallon, Esq. runs the hedge fund law blog and provides hedge fund registration and compliance services to managers through Cole-Frieman & Mallon LLP. He can be reached directly at 415-868-5345.
This entry was posted in new hedge fund regulations and tagged hedge fund compliance, hedge fund registration, ia registration, rule 203A-1, SEC registration, state registered investment adviser on November 21, 2010 by Hedge Fund Lawyer.
SEC Proposes New IA and Hedge Fund Registration Rules
Seeks Public Comment on Proposed Regulations
On November 19, the SEC released proposed rules with respect to the new hedge fund registration requirement under the Dodd-Frank act. The major proposals include the following:
Rules with respect to the manner and process of registration of hedge fund and private equity fund managers.
Reporting requirements for registered hedge fund and other private fund managers. This will include:
Basic organizational and operational information about the funds they manage, such as information about the amount of assets held by the fund, the types of investors in the fund, and the adviser’s services to the fund.
Identification of five categories of “gatekeepers” that perform critical roles for advisers and the private funds they manage (i.e., auditors, prime brokers, custodians, administrators and marketers).
Reporting requirements for non-registered private fund managers (including venture capital funds). This will include:
Basic identifying information for the adviser and the identity of its owners and affiliates.
Information about the private funds the adviser manages and about other business activities that the adviser and its affiliates are engaged in that present conflicts of interest that may suggest significant risk to clients.
The disciplinary history of the adviser and its employees that may reflect on their integrity.
Exempt reporting advisers would file reports on the Commission’s investment adviser electronic filing system (IARD), and these reports would be publicly available on the Commission’s website.
Defining the term “venture capital fund” and the term “foreign private adviser”.
Providing guidance on SEC to state registration for managers who will no longer be allowed to register with the SEC due to increase in registration asset threshold
We will have the opportunity to fully review these proposals over the next few days and will be providing a report on the proposed regulations and will outline the comments we intend to send to the SEC. Public comments on the proposal will be due to the Commission in early January 2011.
The SEC summary of the proposed regulations can be found discount viagra soft gels here. The full texts of the two sets of proposals are below:
Rules Implementing Amendments to the Investment Advisers Act of 1940
Exemptions for Advisers to Venture Capital Funds, Private Fund Advisers With Less Than $150 Million in Assets Under Management, and Foreign Private Advisers
Bart Mallon, Esq. runs the hedge fund law blog and provides registration and hedge fund compliance services to managers through Cole-Frieman & Mallon LLP. He can be reached directly at 415-868-5345.
This entry was posted in new hedge fund regulations and tagged hedge fund compliance, hedge fund registration, ia registration on November 20, 2010 by Hedge Fund Lawyer.
GSEC to Stop Clearing for Small Hedge Funds
According to a recent Bloomberg article, and a couple of my recent clients, Goldman Sachs Execution and Clearing (GSEC) will no longer act as the custodian and clearing agent for most small hedge funds with less than $5 million in AUM. As a quick background, smaller funds which do not have the minimum asset size or strategy to establish a direct relationship a major prime broker will generally establish an account with a mini-prime broker. The mini-prime broker will act as the relationship manager and will interface with the fund manager while the fund assets will be custodialized at the major prime broker.
This move will only affect the very small fund launches and will limit the mini-primes that small funds can use as some mini-primes only execute through GSEC. Current funds utilizing GSEC are not likely to be affected, but those funds which are just now establishing their accounts with GSEC should discuss this issue with their contact at the mini-prime.
This entry was posted in Business Issues and tagged GSEC, mini-prime, mini-prime broker, small hedge fund on November 14, 2010 by Hedge Fund Lawyer.
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Pay Attention to that Man behind the Curtain
Posted by Seth Hoy | Apr 10, 2009 | Demographics, Economics, Elections, Legislation, Reform
As right-wing political pundits questioned the Obama administrations’ renewed commitment to comprehensive immigration reform yesterday, the Wall Street Journal pulled back the curtain to reveal White House Chief of Staff, Rahm Emanuel, as a new committed ally in the fight for immigration reform.
Billed as a brilliant political strategist by Janet Murguia of the National Council of La Raza (NCLR), Rahm Emanuel has taken a new direction in setting the political stage for comprehensive immigration reform to pass. Most recently, Emanuel had a heavy hand in ushering the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) bill through Congress. SCHIP is a program which extends health care benefits to legal immigrant children and pregnant women.
While Mr. Emanuel once predicted that comprehensive immigration reform wouldn’t be considered until the second term of a Democratic president, he now says conversations on the issue will begin this year to lay the groundwork for possible action in 2010. The issue is also likely to arise next week when President Barack Obama travels to Mexico to meet with President Felipe Calderón.
Part of Rahm Emanuel’s new immigration strategy is based on the sheer numbers and impact of the Latino vote, according to the Wall Street Journal:
Mr. Obama, who pledged during his campaign to act on immigration, won with strong support from Latino voters. While Democrat John Kerry won 53% of the Hispanic vote in his 2004 run, Mr. Obama took 67% in 2008.
Many of yesterday’s critical headlines drew from White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs’ briefing statement that President Obama’s commitment to immigration reform is a priority that Obama had already promised on the campaign trail. But what is most notable, however, is that the Obama administration actually intends to keep that promise—“the President believes that there’s only one way to solve this problem, and that is through comprehensive immigration reform.”
Everyone on both sides of the aisle admit that our immigration system is broken, unfortunately, the Lou Dobbs of the media love to put words like “open border blanket amnesty” in the mouths of people who want a fair, common sense and comprehensive solution to the 12 million undocumented immigrants who live in this country.
Fortunately, Rahm Emanuel and the Obama administration understand that comprehensive immigration reform is not only the right thing to do, it’s also the politically and economically smart thing to do.
Photo by studio08denver.
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Seth Hoy
Seth Hoy was a former Online Communications Manager at the American Immigration Council.
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Allowing Spouses of H-1B’s to Work Makes America More Competitive
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Advanced Chemistry Development, Inc. (ACD/Labs) develops desktop and enterprise software solutions for chemical, biochemical, and pharmaceutical R&D. Our expertise lies in vendor-neutral spectroscopic data processing and prediction, physicochemical and ADMET property prediction, analytical knowledge management, interactive reporting, and integrating analytical data with chemical structures to help protect and leverage valuable research knowledge.
Find definitions of properties predicted for ChemSpider using ACD/PhysChem Suite below.
The Partition Coefficient (LogP) is the equilibrium distribution of a solute between two liquid phases, the constant ratio of the solute's concentration in the upper phase to its concentration in the lower phase.
The Distribution Coefficient (LogD) is the ratio of the amounts of solute dissolved in two immiscible liquids at equilibrium. The distribution coefficient (logD) equation accounts for all possible partition coefficients (logP) that a system can obtain. For compounds containing a single ionizable group (acid/base) there are two partition coefficients or a single distribution coefficient accounting for the relative concentration of each species within each of the two possible phases.
The Boiling Point of a liquid is the temperature at which the liquid and vapor phases are in equilibrium with each other at a specified pressure. Therefore, the boiling point is the temperature at which the vapor pressure of the liquid is equal to the applied pressure on the liquid. The boiling point at a pressure of 1 atmosphere is called the normal boiling point.
The Flash Point is the lowest temperature at which the vapor of a combustible liquid can be made to ignite momentarily in air.
Vapor Pressure is the saturation pressure exerted by vapors which are in equilibrium with their liquid or solid forms. One of the most important physical properties of a liquid, it enters into many thermodynamic calculations and underlies several methods for the determination of the molecular weights of substances dissolved in liquids.
Polar Surface Area (PSA) is the measure of how much exposed polar area any two- or three-dimensional object has.
Freely Rotatable Bonds (FRB) exist between any single (sigma) bonded pairs of atoms. The FRB descriptor is a count of the number of single-bonds contained within a molecule. Some implementations of FRB also exclude additional bonds from the FRB count, so don't be surprised if you get three different results for FRB from three different vendors.
Hydrogen Bonds are an intermolecular attraction in which a hydrogen atom lies between two strongly electronegative atoms with lone pairs of electrons. Specifically Hydrogen Bonding is limited to the elements N, O, and F.
Number of Hydrogen Bond Donors (NHBD) are the number N-H, O-H, and F-H fragments present in a compound
Number of Hydrogen Bond Acceptors (NHBA) are the number of N, O, and F atoms with free lone pairs of electrons
Molecular Weight (MW) is the sum of the atomic weights of all the atoms in a molecule. Also called formula weight or molecular mass.
Parachor is the molecular weight of a liquid times the fourth root of its surface tension, divided by the difference between the density of the liquid and the density of the vapor in equilibrium with it; essentially constant over wide ranges of temperature.
Index of Refraction is the ratio of the speed of light in a vacuum to the speed of light in a medium under consideration. Also called refractive index.
Density is the mass per unit volume of a material. The term is applicable to mixtures and pure substances and to matter in the solid, liquid, gaseous, or plasma state. Density of all matter depends on temperature; the density of a mixture may depend on its composition, and the density of a gas on its pressure. Common units of density are grams per cubic centimeter, and slugs or pounds per cubic foot.
The Specific Gravity of a material is defined as the ratio of its density to the density of some standard material, such as water at a specified temperature, for example, 60°F (15.6°C), or, for gases, the basis may be air at standard temperature and pressure.
Surface Tension is a property of liquids arising from unbalanced molecular cohesive forces at or near the surface, as a result of which the surface tends to contract and has properties resembling those of a stretched elastic membrane.
Molar Volume is the volume occupied by one mole of a substance in the form of a solid, liquid, or gas. Also known as molal volume; mole volume.
Dielectric Constant of a solvent is a relative measure of its polarity.
Polarizability is the electric dipole moment induced in a system, such as an atom or molecule, by an electric field of unit strength.
Molar Refraction is the equation for the refractive index of a compound modified by the compound's molecular weight and density. Also known as the Lorentz-Lorenz molar refraction.
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Are Self-Pubbed Authors Killing the Publishing Industry?
Self-published authors have created a devaluing of the written word, and, some of them are scrambling to see how low they can go to get noticed.
Let us list the ways: 99-cent price point for ebooks. Free ebooks via KDP Select program. Unedited work. Kindle giveaways to get attention and bulk up sales. And lastly, nasty reviews from other authors with the sole purpose of driving down customer ratings.
Why are self published authors selling their work so cheap? In short, mismanaged expectations. Many self-published authors hear about the outliers who earn hundreds of thousands of dollars, and they’ll do anything to try and reach that pinnacle. The plain fact is that most of them never will.
The Guardian.uk recently reported that, “Despite the splash caused by self-publishing superstars such as Amanda Hocking and EL James, the average amount earned by DIY authors last year was just $10,000 (£6,375) – and half made less than $500.” That was backed up by a recent poll of authors who have 2 or less 99-cent ebooks on the market that revealed that 75% of authors are selling less than 100 ebooks per month at that rate, with 46% selling less than 10 ebooks per month.
Yes, there are 99-cent anomalies. A recent headline on GalleyCat reported that, “99-Cent Sale Sweeps Self-published Bestseller List”. Yes, Stephanie Bond did achieve bestseller status with three of her titles, all listed for 99 cents but what most independent authors fail to realize is that Stephanie was previously traditionally published and has a following in place. As a new author, that’s very difficult to match.
Although many do try, and not just by giving away books for less than a buck. Many authors are now relying on gimmicks to gain sales. They’re giving away Kindles and iPads in exchange for reviews and as raffles during sales promotions. Traditionally published authors aren’t stooping to these tactics. Why are indies? The short answer is that with over 1 million ebooks published each year, it’s difficult to make a mark.
The lesson may be that if independent authors don’t value their work, chances are no one else will either. Readers want, and deserve, quality books, and they’re used to paying for them. Think about it: pennies for pages didn’t exist before ebooks and self-publishing were viable.
Does this mean that self-published authors are killing the publishing industry? Yes, in a sense it does. What can be done about this devaluing of the written word? How can self-published authors change this scenario and help make self-publishing, as a whole, shine and earn as respectable of a reputation as traditional publishing?
Goals of self-published authors vary. Some dream of wealth, while others simply want to get their stories read. Some writers are now afraid to self-publish because of the reputation that self-published works are garnering. If self pubbed authors are going to make their mark, they’ll need to band together, put out reputable works, and stop looking for get-sales-quick gimmicks. The cycle of pricing books lower than the next author is a dangerous one. After all, there’s nowhere left to go after “free”.
Melissa Foster is the award-winning author of three International bestselling novels, she is a community builder for the Alliance of Independent Authors and is a touchstone in the indie publishing arena. When she’s not writing, Melissa teaches authors how to navigate the book marketing world, build their platforms, and leverage the power of social media, through her author-training programs on Fostering Success. Melissa is the founder of the World Literary Café, Fostering Success, and the Women’s Nest. She has been published in Calgary’s Child Magazine, the Huffington Post, and Women Business Owners magazine. Connect with Melissa on her website, Twitter, Facebook, or Pinterest.
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Tropical Cyclone Riley Strengthens to Equivalent of Hurricane/Typhoon
Tropical Cyclone Riley strengthened into the equivalent of a hurricane/typhoon on Friday. At 4:00 p.m. EST on Friday the center of Tropical Cyclone Riley was located at latitude 17.2°S and longitude 116.9°E which put it about 415 miles (675 km) north-northeast of Learmonth, Australia. Riley was moving toward the west at 5 m.p.h. (8 km/h). The maximum sustained wind speed was 80 m.p.h. (130 km/h) and there were wind gusts to 100 m.p.h. (160 km/h). The minimum surface pressure was 976 mb.
Tropical Cyclone Riley strengthened, but the distribution of thunderstorms was asymmetrical. The strongest winds were occurring in a band the curled around the northern half of the center of circulation. Storms in the band were generating upper level divergence which was pumping mass away from the tropical cyclone. Other bands of showers and thunderstorms were present in the western half of the circulation, but the bands in the eastern half of Tropical Cyclone Riley consisted primarily of showers and lower clouds. Winds to hurricane/typhoon force extended out about 35 miles (55 km) from the center of circulation and they were occurring mainly north of the center of Riley. Winds to tropical storm force extended out about 130 miles (215 km) from the center.
Tropical Cyclone Riley was moving around the northwestern part of an upper level ridge. The ridge was producing easterly winds which were blowing toward the top of the circulation. Those winds appeared to converge with the upper level divergence on the east side of Riley to produce sinking motion in that part of the tropical cyclone. The sinking motion was bringing drier air to the lower levels and it appeared to suppressing convection in that region.
Tropical Cyclone Riley may be close to its peak intensity. Riley is currently over water where the Sea Surface Temperature is near 28°C, but it will move over cooler water during the next few days. The upper level ridge will continue to produce easterly winds which will blow toward the top of the circulation. Those winds could strengthen which would cause more vertical wind shear. Riley could intensify during the next 24 hours, but it is more likely to gradually weaken during the next two or three days.
The ridge will steer Tropical Cyclone Riley toward the west-southwest during the next few days. On its anticipated track Riley will remain north of the coast of Western Australia, However, watches and warnings are in effect for portions of the coast in case the Tropical Cyclone Riley moves more toward the south. A Tropical Cyclone Warning is in effect for the portion of the coast from Whim Creek to Onslow including Karratha and Dampier. A Tropical Cyclone Watch is in effect from Onslow to Exmouth.
Elsewhere around Australia, a Tropical Low was dropping heavy rain over portions of northern Queensland. At 1:00 p.m. EST the center of the Tropical Low was located at latitude 13.8°S and longitude 141.3°E which put it about 80 miles (125 km) north-northwest of Pormpuraaw, Australia. It was moving toward the southeast at 6 m.p.h. (10 km/h). The maximum sustained wind speed was 35 m.p.h. (55 km/h) and there were wind gusts to 45 m.p.h. (75 km/h). The minimum surface pressure was 1002 mb. Locally heavy rain could cause floods in parts of northern Queensland.
This entry was posted in Australian Region, Indian Ocean, Tropical Cyclones and tagged 11S, 95P, Gulf of Carpentaria, Queensland, SH11, Tropical Cyclone Riley, Tropical Low, Western Australia on January 25, 2019 by jay_hobgood.
Tropical Low Prompts Warning for Northern Queensland
A tropical low over the Gulf of Carpentaria prompted the issuance of warnings and watches for northern Queensland on Thursday. A Tropical Cyclone Warning was in effect for the portion of the coast from Mapoon to Karumba. A Tropical Cyclone Watch was in effect for the portion of the coast from Karumba to the border between Queensland and the Northern Territory including Mornington Island.
At 7:00 p.m. EST on Thursday the center of the tropical low was located at latitude 13.0°S and longitude 139.9°E which put it about 135 miles (220 km) west of Weipa, Australia. It was moving toward the north at 5 m.p.h. (8 km/h). The maximum sustained wind speed was 30 m.p.h. (50 km/h) and there were wind gusts to 40 m.p.h. (65 km/h). The minimum surface pressure was 1002 mb.
The circulation around the tropical low exhibited more organization on Thursday. A band of showers and thunderstorms wrapped around the western and northern sides of the center of circulation. Other bands of showers and thunderstorms were developing over the Gulf of Carpentaria. Storms near the center of circulation began to generate upper level divergence which was pumping mass away in outflow channels to the northwest and southeast of the tropical low.
The tropical low will move through an environment favorable for intensification. It will move over water where the Sea Surface Temperature is near 30°C. The tropical low will be in an area where the upper level winds are weaker and the vertical wind shear will be limited. The tropical low is likely to intensify during the next 24 to 36 hours and it is forecast to become a named tropical cyclone.
The tropical low is under the northeastern portion of an upper level low. It is in a small region where the steering winds are weaker and the tropical low meandered over the eastern Gulf of Carpentaria on Thursday. Northerly winds blowing around the upper level low are forecast to steer the tropical low toward the south during the next day or two. On its anticipated path the tropical low is expected to move over the eastern Gulf of Carpentaria near the coast of Queensland. If the tropical low follow its anticipated track, it will make landfall on the south coast of the Gulf of Carpentaria in about 48 hours. However, any eastward deviation would bring the tropical low inland over Queensland much sooner.
Elsewhere, Tropical Cyclone Riley strengthened northwest of Australia. At 7:00 p.m. EST on Thursday the center of Tropical Cyclone Riley was located at latitude 16.5°S and longitude 118.8°E which put it about 265 miles (425 km) north of Port Hedland, Australia. Riley was moving toward the west at 4 m.p.h. (6 km/h). The maximum sustained wind speed was 60 m.p.h. (95 km/h) and there were wind gusts to 75 m.p.h. (120 km/h). The minimum surface pressure was 985 mb. A Tropical Cyclone Watch was in effect for the portion of the coast from Whim Creek to Onslow, Australia including Karratha and Dampier.
This entry was posted in Australian Region, Indian Ocean, Tropical Cyclones and tagged 11S, 95P, Gulf of Carpentaria, Mornington Island, Queensland, Riley, SH11, Tropical Cyclone Riley, Tropical Low, Weipa, Western Australia on January 25, 2019 by jay_hobgood.
Tropical Cyclone Riley Forms West of Australia
Tropical Cyclone Riley formed west of Australia on Wednesday. At 4:00 p.m. EST on Wednesday the center of Tropical Cyclone Riley was located at latitude 16.7°S and longitude 121.2°E which put it about 110 miles (175 km) northwest of Broome, Australia. Riley was moving toward the west-southwest at 14 m.p.h. (22 km/h). The maximum sustained wind speed was 40 m.p.h. (65 km/h) and there were wind gusts to 50 m.p.h. (80 km/h). The minimum surface pressure was 997 mb.
The circulation around a tropical low off the coast of Western Australia strengthened on Wednesday and the Australian Bureau of Meteorology designated the system as Tropical Cyclone Riley. A band of thunderstorms wrapped clockwise from northwest to southeast around the center of circulation. Additional bands of showers and thunderstorms were developing around the western side of the circulation which was over the open water of the south Indian Ocean. The bands on the eastern side of the circulation were weaker, but portions of those bands were still over Western Australia. Thunderstorms around the center of circulation were generating upper level divergence which was pumping mass away from the tropical cyclone.
Tropical Cyclone Riley will move through an environment favorable for intensification during the next several days. Riley will move over water where the Sea Surface Temperature is near 30°C. It will move through an area where the upper level winds are weak and there will not be much vertical wind shear. Tropical Cyclone Riley is likely to intensify steadily and it could intensify rapidly once an eye forms and the inner core is well developed. Tropical Cyclone Riley is likely to strengthen into the equivalent of a hurricane/typhoon within 24 to 36 hours.
Tropical Cyclone Riley will move along the northwestern edge of a subtropical ridge during the next 48 to 72 hours. The ridge will steer Riley in a general west-southwesterly direction. On its anticipated track Tropical Cyclone Riley will move parallel to the coast of Western Australia. However, a southward deviation of the track could bring Riley closer to the coast.
This entry was posted in Australian Region, Indian Ocean, Tropical Cyclones and tagged 11S, Australia, Broome, Port Hedland, Riley, SH11, Tropical Cyclone Riley, Western Australia on January 23, 2019 by jay_hobgood.
Tropical Cyclone Desmond Brings Wind and Rain to Mozambique
Tropical Cyclone Desmond brought wind and rain to Mozambique on Monday. At 4:00 p.m. EST on Sunday the center of Tropical Cyclone Desmond was located at latitude 18.8°S and longitude 36.3°E which put it about 25 miles (40 km) west of Conceicao, Mozambique. Desmond was moving toward the west-northwest at 12 m.p.h. (19 km/h). The maximum sustained wind speed was 40 m.p.h. (65 km/h) and there were wind gusts to 50 m.p.h. (80 km/h). The minimum surface pressure was 1000 mb.
Tropical Cyclone Desmond made landfall in Mozambique near Ponta Timbue on Monday. Thunderstorms developed on the western side of the circulation where the winds were blowing toward the land. Those thunderstorms were dropping heavy rain over parts of Mozambique. The strongest winds were occurring along the coast of Mozambique and over the Mozambique Channel. Winds to tropical storm force extended out about 100 miles (160 km) on the eastern side of Tropical Cyclone Desmond. Wind speeds were slower over land.
Tropical Cyclone Desmond will move around the eastern end of a subtropical high pressure system over southern Africa. The high will steer Desmond toward the north-northwest. On its anticipated track Tropical Cyclone Desmond will move farther inland over the Zambezi River toward southern Malawi. Desmond will drop locally heavy rain over parts of the lower Zambezi River basin and flooding could occur in some locations.
This entry was posted in Indian Ocean, Tropical Cyclones and tagged 10S, Desmond, Malawi, Mozambique, SH10, Tropical Cyclone Desmond, Zambezi River on January 21, 2019 by jay_hobgood.
Tropical Cyclone Desmond Forms Over Mozambique Channel
Tropical Cyclone Desmond formed over the Mozambique Channel on Sunday. At 4:00 p.m. EST on Sunday the center of Tropical Cyclone Desmond was located at latitude 21.3°S and longitude 39.0°E which put it about 250 miles (400 km) south-southeast of Quelimane, Mozambique. Desmond was moving toward the north at 6 m.p.h. (10 km/h). The maximum sustained wind speed was 45 m.p.h. (75 km/h) and there were wind gusts to 60 m.p.h. (95 km/h). The minimum surface pressure was 997 mb.
Thunderstorms developed closer to the center of a low pressure system over the Mozambique Channel on Sunday and the system was designated Tropical Cyclone Desmond. The distribution of thunderstorms around Desmond was very asymmetrical. Most of the stronger thunderstorms were occurring in bands southeast of the center of circulation. Bands in other parts of the circulation consisted of showers and lower clouds. An upper level trough just southeast of Africa was producing northwesterly winds which were blowing toward the top of Tropical Cyclone Desmond. Those winds were causing moderate vertical wind shear and they were probably the reason for the asymmetrical distribution of thunderstorms.
Tropical Cyclone Desmond will move through an environment somewhat favorable for intensification during the next 24 to 36 hours. Desmond will move over water where the Sea Surface Temperature is near 29°C. The upper level trough is forecast to move eastward and the vertical wind shear could decrease. Tropical Cyclone Desmond could strengthen when the shear decreases, if it is still over water.
Tropical Cyclone Desmond will move around the eastern end of a subtropical ridge in the middle levels over southern Africa. The ridge should steer Desmond in a north-northwesterly direction. On its anticipated track Tropical Cyclone Desmond will move toward Mozambique and it could make landfall within 36 hours. However, there is another low pressure system near northern Madagascar. If the circulations of the two low pressure systems interact, then Desmond could be pulled farther to the north.
This entry was posted in Indian Ocean, Tropical Cyclones and tagged 10S, Desmond, Madagascar, Mozambique, Quelimane, SH10, Tropical Cyclone Desmond on January 20, 2019 by jay_hobgood.
Tropical Cyclone Mona Turns Back Toward Fiji
Tropical Cyclone Mona turned back toward Fiji on Saturday. At 10:00 p.m. EST on Saturday the center of Tropical Cyclone Mona was located at latitude 14.9°S and longitude 179.2°E which put it about 250 miles (400 km) north of Suva, Fiji. Mona was moving toward the east-southeast at 16 m.p.h. (26 km/h). The maximum sustained wind speed was 40 m.p.h. (65 km/h) and there were wind gusts to 50 m.p.h. (80 km/h). The minimum surface pressure was 1002 mb.
After being strongly sheared and making a slow clockwise loop on Friday, Tropical Cyclone Mona resumed a course toward Fiji on Saturday. An upper level trough west of Fiji was producing northwesterly winds which were blowing toward the top of Tropical Cyclone Mona. Those winds were causing moderate vertical wind shear and they were also causing the distribution of thunderstorms around Mona to be asymmetrical. The strongest thunderstorms and winds were occurring in bands southeast of the center of circulation. Bands in the other parts of the circulation consisted primarily of showers and lower clouds.
Tropical Cyclone Mona will move through an environment marginally favorable for intensification during the next 24 hours. Mona will move over water where the Sea Surface Temperature is near 28°C. The upper level trough west of Fiji will continue to cause moderate vertical wind shear which will inhibit development. Tropical Cyclone Mona could strengthen a little bit on Sunday, but it is likely to remain close to its current intensity.
The upper trough will steer Tropical Cyclone Mona toward the south-southeast during the next 12 hours. The trough is forecast to cutoff and make a transition to an upper low. The low will steer Mona more toward the south between 12 and 36 hours into the future. Tropical Cyclone Mona will turn more toward the southwest on Monday. On its anticipated track the center of Mona will pass near the northeastern end of Vanua Levu in about 12 hours.
Tropical Cyclone Mona will bring wind and rain to Vanua Levu and the eastern islands of Fiji. Locally heavy rain could cause flash floods in some locations.
Elsewhere, Tropical Cyclone Penny was moving over the Coral Sea back toward Queensland. At 10:00 p.m. EST on Saturday the center of Tropical Cyclone Penny was located at latitude 17.2°S and longitude 154.8°E which put it about 605 miles (980 km) east of Cairns. Penny was moving toward the southwest at 14 m.p.h. (22 km/h). The maximum sustained wind speed was 45 m.p.h. (75 km/h) and there were wind gusts to 60 m.p.h. (95 km/h). The minimum surface pressure was 996 mb.
This entry was posted in Australian Region, South Pacific, Tropical Cyclones and tagged 08P, 09P, Australia, Cairns, Coral Sea, Fiji, Mona, Penny, Queensland, SH08, SH09, Suva, Tropical Cyclone Mona, Tropical Cyclone Penny, Vanua Levu on January 6, 2019 by jay_hobgood.
Tropical Cyclone Mona Stalls North of Fiji
Tropical Cyclone Mona stalled north of Fiji on Friday. At 4:00 p.m. EST on Friday the center of Tropical Cyclone Mona was located at latitude 13.3°S and longitude 176.3°E which put it about 365 miles (590 km) north-northwest of Suva, Fiji. Mona was moving toward the north-northeast at 8 m.p.h. (13 km/h). The maximum sustained wind speed was 45 m.p.h. (75 km/h) and there were wind gusts to 60 m.p.h. (95 km/h). The minimum surface pressure was 1000 mb.
Northerly winds blowing around the western end of an upper level ridge over the South Pacific Ocean strengthened on Friday. Those upper level winds blew across the top of Tropical Cyclone Mona and they caused strong vertical wind shear. The wind shear blew the upper portion of the circulation south of the circulation in the lower and middle levels of Tropical Cyclone Mona. As a result, Mona was steered by the winds lower in the atmosphere, which caused it to stall.
New thunderstorms were redeveloping near the center of Tropical Cyclone Mona. However, many of the bands revolving around the center of Mona still consisted primarily of showers and lower clouds. The strong upper level winds were shearing the tops off of many of the thunderstorms that developed. The upper level winds were also preventing the storms near the center of circulation from generating upper level divergence.
Tropical Cyclone Mona could intensify if the upper level winds weaken. Mona will move over water where the Sea Surface Temperature is near 29°C. The upper level ridge will continue to produce northerly winds, but those winds are forecast to weaken a little during the weekend. If the upper level winds weaken and the vertical wind shear lessens, the Tropical Cyclone Mona could strengthen. However, if the stronger upper level winds persist, then Mona could weaken further.
Tropical Cyclone Mona will meander north of Fiji as long as the wind shear prevents the development of a core of taller thunderstorms. If Mona strengthens as forecast, then the upper level ridge will steer the tropical cyclone toward the south. On its anticipated track Tropical Cyclone Mona could approach Fiji in about 48 hours. Some guidance is suggesting the Mona could be the equivalent of a hurricane/typhoon at that time.
Elsewhere over the South Pacific Ocean, Tropical Cyclone Penny was meandering over the Coral Sea. At 4:00 p.m. EST on Friday the center of Tropical Cyclone Penny was located at latitude 15.9°S and longitude 155.8°E which put it about 670 miles (1080 km) east of Cairns,, Australia. Penny was moving toward the north at 2 m.p.h. (3 km/h). The maximum sustained wind speed was 50 m.p.h. (80 km/h) and there were wind gusts to 65 m.p.h. (105 km/h). The minimum surface pressure was 993 mb.
This entry was posted in Australian Region, South Pacific, Tropical Cyclones and tagged 08P, 09P, Australia, Cairns, Coral Sea, Fiji, Mona, Penny, Queensland, SH08, SH09, Tropical Cyclone Mona, Tropical Cyclone Penny on January 4, 2019 by jay_hobgood.
Tropical Storm Pabuk Brings Wind and Rain to Southern Thailand
Tropical Storm Pabuk brought wind and rain to southern Thailand on Friday. At 5:00 p.m. EST on Friday the center of Tropical Storm Pabuk was located at latitude 8.7°N and longitude 98.5°E which put it about 60 miles (95 km) northeast of Phuket, Thailand. Pabuk was moving toward the west-northwest at 10 m.p.h. (16 km/h). The maximum sustained wind speed was 45 m.p.h. (75 km/h) and there were wind gusts to 60 m.p.h. (95 km/h). The minimum surface pressure was 997 mb.
Tropical Storm Pabuk made landfall near Sichon in southern Thailand. Pabuk brought gusty winds to much of the Isthmus of Kra. It also dropped heavy rain over parts of southern Thailand. Tropical Storm Pabuk weakened when it crossed the Isthmus of Kra, but the core of the circulation appears to have remained intact. Pabuk is moving over the Andaman Sea and it still has a well defined low level center of circulation. Several bands of showers and thunderstorms are revolving around the core of the tropical storm. Additional bands of showers and thunderstorms are located in the northeastern part of the circulation which is over the Gulf of Thailand.
Tropical Storm Pabuk will move into an environment favorable for intensification during the next 24 to 36 hours. Pabuk will move over water where the Sea Surface Temperature is near 28°C. An upper level ridge over the Western North Pacific Ocean will produce southeasterly winds which will blow toward the top of the circulation. Those winds will cause moderate vertical wind shear, which will inhibit intensification. However, the wind shear may not be strong enough to prevent Tropical Storm Pabuk from strengthening.
Tropical Storm Pabuk will continue to move around the western end of the ridge over the Western North Pacific Ocean. The ridge will steer Pabuk toward the west-northwest for another 24 to 36 hours. Pabuk will turn more toward the north when it reaches the western end of the ridge. On its anticipated track Tropical Storm Pabuk will reach the Andaman Islands in about 36 hours.
Elsewhere over the Western North Pacific Ocean, Tropical Depression 01W formed southeast of the Marshall Islands. At 4:00 p.m. EST on Friday the center of Tropical Depression 01W was located at latitude 4.9°N and longitude 174.0°E which put it about 250 miles (400 km) southeast of Majuro, Marshall Islands. It was moving toward the northwest at 15 m.p.h. (24 km/h). The maximum sustained wind speed was 30 m.p.h. (50 km/h) and there were wind gusts to 40 m.p.h. (65 km/h). The minimum surface pressure was 1004 mb. Tropical Depression 01W is forecast to move toward the west-northwest and strengthen. On its anticipated track it could move toward Majuro, Kwajalein, Ujelang, and the Marianas.
This entry was posted in Indian Ocean, Tropical Cyclones, Western North Pacific and tagged 36W, Andaman Islands, Andaman Sea, Guam, Gulf of Thailand, Kwajallein, Majuro, Marianas, Marshall Islands, Pabuk, Phuket, Rota, Saipan, Thailand, Tinian, Tropical Depression 01W, Tropical Storm Pabuk, Ujelang, WP01, WP36 on January 4, 2019 by jay_hobgood.
Tropical Storm Pabuk Nears Southern Thailand
Tropical Storm Pabuk neared southern Thailand late on Thursday. At 10:00 p.m. EST on Thursday the center of Tropical Storm Pabuk was located at latitude 8.0°N and longitude 101.0°E which put it about 110 miles (170 km) southeast of Sichon, Thailand. Pabuk was moving toward the west-northwest at 16 m.p.h. (26 km/h). The maximum sustained wind speed was 60 m.p.h. (95 km/h) and there were wind gusts to 75 m.p.h. (120 km/h). The minimum surface pressure was 988 mb.
Tropical Storm Pabuk exhibited more organization on Thursday. A broken ring of showers and thunderstorms surrounded the center of circulation. Stronger thunderstorms were occurring in the western part of the ring, while weaker storms and showers comprised the rest of the ring. Several bands of thunderstorms were on the western side of Tropical Storm Pabuk. Bands of showers and thunderstorms were also on the eastern side of the circulation. Storms near the center of circulation were generating upper level divergence which was pumping mass away to the northwest of the tropical storm. Winds to tropical storm force extended out about 100 miles (160 km) from the center.
Tropical Storm Pabuk will move through an environment favorable for intensification for the next six to twelve hours. Pabuk will move over water where the Sea Surface Temperature is near 28°C. It will move around the western end of a subtropical ridge over the Western North Pacific Ocean. The ridge will produce southeasterly winds which will blow toward the top of the circulation. Those winds will cause moderate vertical wind shear which will inhibit intensification. Pabuk could intensify during the short term. It will reach the coast of southern Thailand in less than 12 hours. Tropical Storm Pabuk will weaken when it moves across the Isthmus of Kra. Pabuk could strengthen again when it moves over the Andaman Sea in a day or so.
Tropical Storm Pabuk will move around the western end of the subtropical ridge, which will steer the tropical storm in a northwesterly direction. On its anticipated track Tropical Storm Pabuk will make landfall on the coast of southern Thailand near Sichon in a few hours. Pabuk will move across the Isthmus of Kra and into the Andaman Sea in a day or so. Tropical Storm Pabuk could reach the Andaman Islands within 60 hours.
Tropical Storm Pabuk will bring gusty winds and heavy rain to southern Thailand. Heavy rain could cause flash floods, especially in areas of steeper terrain.
This entry was posted in Tropical Cyclones, Western North Pacific and tagged 36W, Andaman Islands, Andaman Sea, Burma, Isthmus of Kra, Malaysia, Myanmar, Pabuk, Thailand, Tropical Storm Pabuk, WP36 on January 4, 2019 by jay_hobgood.
Unusual Development Possible Southwest of Baja California
Unusual development of a tropical or subtropical cyclone is possible southwest of Baja California during the next few days. The National Hurricane Center (NHC) issued a special Tropical Weather Outlook on Thursday afternoon for a weather system southwest of Baja California. NHC indicated that there is a 50% probability of development of a tropical or subtropical cyclone during the next five days. No tropical cyclone or subtropical cyclone is known to have developed over the Eastern North Pacific Ocean in January. The record extends back to 1949, but it is most complete for the era of Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites (GOES) which extends from 1970 to the present.
A broad area of low pressure was located about 1300 miles (2100 km) southwest of the southern tip of Baja California. Clusters of showers and thunderstorms were occurring in parts of the low pressure system. Visible satellite images were not showing evidence that the showers and thunderstorms were forming into rainbands. There was a broad area of low pressure, but there was no evidence of a distinct low level center of circulation.
The broad area of low pressure will move through an environment somewhat favorable for the formation of a tropical or subtropical cyclone during the next few days. It will move over water where the Sea Surface Temperature is near 27°C, which means that there will be enough energy in the ocean to support a tropical cyclone. An upper level low is northwest of the broad surface low pressure system. The upper level low is producing strong southwesterly winds which are blowing across the top of the broad low pressure system. Those winds will cause moderate vertical wind shear, which will inhibit the formation of a tropical cyclone. If the winds weaken, a tropical cyclone could form, but if the wind shear remains stronger, a subtropical cyclone could develop. As mentioned above, the National Hurricane Center indicates that there is a 50% probability of development of a tropical or subtropical cyclone.
The broad area of low pressure is forecast to move slowly toward the north during the next several days. If a tropical or subtropical cyclone develops with taller thunderstorms, then the southwesterly winds blowing around the upper low will steer the cyclone toward Baja California. The system could bring gusty winds and heavy rain to Baja California and northern Mexico in a few days.
This entry was posted in Eastern and Central Pacific, Tropical Cyclones and tagged 90E, Baja California, Eastern North Pacific, EP90, Mexico, Tropical Weather Outlook on January 3, 2019 by jay_hobgood.
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Papa Doo Run Run•Songlist
Papa Doo Run Run
Formed in 1965, the now legendary California band, PAPA DOO RUN RUN, quickly discovered their forte - they sounded like the Beach Boys! That sound led them to surf music legends, Jan & Dean, and from 1976-80 Papa toured North America with the duo. In the 80s Papa graduated from J&D to the Beach Boys, and toured and recorded with members of that band throughout the next 2 decades. The group also had an unprecedented 15-year run as the "Celebrity House Band" at Disneyland from 1975-90! Papa’s 1975 Top 40 hit “Be True To Your School” reached No. 1 in California. Their ground breaking CD “California Project” (1985) exploded onto the Billboard Hot 100 Chart at no. 17 and earned the band their second Gold Record and a Grammy Nomination. Additionally, Papa Doo Run Run appeared in, and recorded the soundtrack album for the CBS-TV movie “Deadman’s Curve”. The band currently has 7 CD releases and a full length DVD. Today, Papa Doo Run Run still averages about 100 dates a year, worldwide. Their act encompasses all the great Classic Rock hits of the 60's and 70's, with a special emphasis on their award winning re-creation of the hits of the Beach Boys. Their best kept secret... Papa Doo Run Run is who the Beach Boys call when they need someone to fill in in their band. Click here for songlist
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Juke The Mighty
The Official Weblog for Gregg Juke & The Mighty No-Stars (Maximum Blues, Soul, and Roots-Rockin' R&B); featuring news and information from and about the band, and all things Gregg Juke-related...
Christmas and New Years' Reflections, 2009
Hello All-- Visitors, Members of the No-Star Nation, Friends, and Band-Mates;
We've had our ups and downs, it's been a wild ride, and it's not over yet! Yes people, Gregg Juke & The Mighty No-Stars are six years old (as a band... we usually act at least 7 years old emotionally and intellectually on a daily basis). Our first rehearsal together was in December of 2003! I want to thank Bruce, Joel, Bret, and of course Bill, Greg C, Guy, Paul, Adam, Harry, JJ, and our newest Mighty No-Sub, Frank, for a great six years; I'm really looking forward to many, many more making outstanding music and having the times of our lives. I want to thank all of the other cats who have come through the band in the last six years, we've learned something about music, about you, and about us through our time together. I want to offer an extra-special "thank you" to Susan, who really does work tirelessly to promote and book us, and devotes a lot of her personal time to taking care of the things (y'know, details) that flighty musicians often miss. I need to thank all of our families, for sharing your loved ones and giving of your time to make this music happen. You are on-stage with us wherever we go, and you are in the songs that we write and record, and without gettin' too corny, you are always on our minds. We need to thank all of our friends and supporters who are continually there for us, and who have helped us through some difficult emotional times.
I'd like to thank the Blues Society of WNY for their hard-work in supporting and promoting the scene here in the Buffalo and WNY area. I'd like to thank Bob, our radio promoter, and all of the DJ's, radio stations and programs, and media outlets that have given us exposure over the last few years-- your support is critical and so very appreciated. I'd like to thank Paul at Alt-Brews, Jack Civilletto, Donna Rose, Judd Sunshine, Joanne at Queen City, and Brookes at the Double Diamond in Ellicottville for being early and strong supporters of the band. You gave us, a bunch of "no-stars," a shot, and we'll always be grateful.
I want to thank God for the gift of music, and for giving me such great, talented, and interesting people to be around.
I want to thank my parents for raising me right, and for teaching me to value music, and that I could do whatever I set my mind to.
We need to thank all of the club-owners and promoters for booking the band and working with us all of these years-- we're looking forward to many, many more.
I'd like to thank all of our corporate associates, endorsing partners, local and national music vendors, and our friends at "Drum!" magazine for your help and generous support; we look forward to a continued, mutually-beneficial relationship!
We'd like to thank our friends in other bands in the music scene, both in and out of the Blues genre for your support and the fun we've had together.
We need to thank ALL OF YOU, the members of the No-Star Nation, those of you that come out to see the band, buy CD's and digital downloads, visit the website, call radio stations and request our music, sign-up for our e-mail list, send e-mails of support and encouragement, book us for your private parties, and just generally offer us your good will. Thanks so much; it makes all of the travel and the late night drives and the hours that go into a project like this, worth it.
I'm sure I'm missing lots of people and will be editing this post for days to come, but in this moment of clarity and reflection, I just wanted to thank all of you for the ways you've impacted us and have empowered us to make real music together. Onward & Upward, and looking towards and incredible 2010...
God Bless & Good Blues, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year,
Posted by GJ at 8:07 AM No comments:
Tuff Enuff...
...For Sure.
Kim Wilson and the Fabulous Thunderbirds put on a nice show tonight at the Bear's Den in Niagara Falls. Lots of new material with a very young band; Kim was in great voice and his harp work is always spectacular. Bruce, Susan, and I went, and we enjoyed the band and the well-handled sound situation (not too loud, but plenty of lows and high-end sparkle). Also, ticket prices were pretty reasonable, by today's standards, anyway...
Added bonus-- Spotting the Who's Who of Buffalo area Blues musicians, including Joney James, Joe Beard, and members of the Blues Hounds.
It's nice to see another good band play every once in awhile!
God Bless & Good Blues,
Posted by GJ at 8:32 PM No comments:
Nashville Cats...
...Apparently do play "clean as country water" and "wild as mountain dew." After a rough week and a crazy start to the weekend (a late night gig at Vizzi's on Friday), I took off for Nashville, Tennessee, oblivious to the Bills' presence; I was there all weekend for a conference put on by Chris Mara and his associates at a relatively new studio down there called Welcome to 1979. Wto79 specializes in retro-style recording (2" analog, lots of vintage tube gear and instruments, and a healthy respect for "live" off-the-floor recording). The conference (called the Producers and Engineers Summit) featured a whole weekend's worth of break-out sessions, clinincs and panels on everything from DIY and vintage gear and "found sounds" to basic music business savvy and two live-to-two-track recording sessions (Saturday night's recording group was the Justin Kaulk Orchestra-- check them out on the web; very cool!).
All of the presenters were top-notch pros (engineers, producers, mastering engineers, musicians, and a major mic company rep), and I did enjoy the whole thing (as much as I could on 35 hours with no sleep), but two of my high-lights were meeting Mark Rubel, a producer from Illinois who shares my passion for whacked-out found sounds and vintage lo-fi noise-makers, and meeting and listening to Bob Ohlson, an engineer/producer/mastering engineer with a storied career that started with him as a 17-year old assistant engineer at the legendary Motown/Hitsville studio in Detroit.
If you're into any of this stuff at all, it would be a great idea to get down there next year and attend this event. Just make sure you don't have a gig the night before...
Posted by GJ at 4:26 AM 2 comments:
A light went out over Niagara Falls...
...Or at least it should have. That would have been a humble representation of the light that went out this week, one of Western New York's premier musicians, Niagara Fall's own Chu Nero.
Chu distinguished himself over the past four decades as an example of the finest that the Buffalo/WNY area has produced-- a singer, songwriter, sideman, bandleader, pianist, and saxophonist unparalleled in ability and enthusiasm, and as a stage presence, always humbly entertaining. Chu's roots, and perhaps his heart, were in Jazz music, in which he excelled, but he also played the Blues (for the last several years with partner-in-melody Tommy Z), Rock and Pop, Gospel, and Contemporary Christian music, all with an unmistakeable sound and incredible flair. His considerable chops were always in service of the music, and the soul of the moment, never over-used or over-the-top. I had the pleasure of playing and recording with Chu on a number of occassions over the years, and I was always blown-away by his talent and musical humility.
Chu distinguished himself over the decades outside of the music business and the dimly-lit stage-- many do not know of his humanitarian efforts and his attempts to bring the Gospel to life for disadvantaged people throughout the Western New York area. Chu was involved in prison ministry for many years, at times at great expense to himself and his family.
Chu made mistakes, just like the rest of us, and it was hard to find out that a "hero" (in this case, one of mine), was in reality a human just like the rest of us-- clay feet and all. There was a time when we were pretty close friends. Sometimes friends drift apart for different reasons, sometimes maybe people were only meant to come together for a short time. But I have great memories of gigs together, sharing family times with his wife and kids, and of a few times where I might not have made it through without the support of someone who understood. That someone was Chu.
He is survived by the mother of his children, and a true saint, Mary Nero, and his sons Judah and Solomon, and his daughter Julia.
Godspeed Brother, and Straight Ahead.
Early November Update
Hey No-Star Nation;
A few early-November items for you:
1) A couple of important benefit performances are happening in the next few weeks, and we'd love to see those of you that are in the Buffalo/WNY area come out and support these causes.
The first is a fundraiser being put on by our friend and master jazz drummer, Dan Hull, this coming Tuesday night, 11/10 at the new Bobby McGee's (the old Dakota Grill) on Maple Road in Amherst. Danny has been running his weekly star-studded jazz jam session for over 10 years now, and this week's performance's proceeds and any in-coming donations will be to benefit our old aquaintance, and Tommy Z sideman Chu Nero (Blues, Jazz, and Gospel saxophonist, keyboardist, and vocalist extraordinaire). Chu has been battling cancer, is currently undergoing more treatment, and has had to virtually stop working in order to concentrate all of his strength on his fight. Let's face it folks-- full-time musicians don't have a lot in the way of safety nets in this day and age, and Chu has a lot of mounting medical bills as well as daily practical needs to take care of. Chu has been a blessing to many folks through his music for many years; hopefully, we can give some of that back to him in support. Tuesday night at the new Bobby McGee's, at 7:00pm.
Bruce and I will be playing a benefit for a dear friend, vocalist Roseanne Perez, on Sunday the 29th of November in South Buffalo (check your No-Star Update E-mails and our website schedule for upcoming details). Roseanne has been fighting a similar battle as Chu's-- she has been unable to sing or work a day job for months, due to extensive (and expensive!) chemo and radiation treatments. Fortunately for Roseanne, she has some pretty talented friends... Performers at the benefit (besides yours truly and Bruce Rounds) will include Donna Rose, Dolly D, Big Wheelie, Sam Gaurino, Nick Veltrie, Sam Gambino, Jack Civiletto, and many more. Tickets are only $25, and this is going to be quite a show. Stay tuned for more details, and e-mail us directly (Gregg@MightyNoStars.com) if you don't think you can attend, but would still like to make a financial contribution...
2) Look for my byline in this month's issue of Drum! Magazine (issue #162); my debut with the publication as a product reviewer is a feature on the new line of Meinl frame drums, for those of you in a percussive frame of mind (pun intended). Coming soon in an upcoming issue, a review of some very hip, hand-made/boutique djembes and congas from a company called DrumSkull Drums.
3) The band has been laying low lately, dealing with rehearsals and pre-production for our next CD, getting ready for upcoming Christmas shows, and the like. But we've got a gig at Vizzi's next week, Friday the 13th of November. Be there or be extremely square. Vizzi's is always a fun gig (especially if you like sirens). We hope to see you in the crowd (maybe you'll get to dance with Ralph!).
4) Speaking of laying low; not so much! Almost immediately following the gig on Friday, I'm flying down to Nashville for the weekend for a record producer's/engineer's summit at a new retro/analog recording studio called Welcome to 1979. Producers and engineers who have worked with major names in Rock, Pop, R&B, Indie, and yes, of course Country will be there to share experience, tools, and tricks of the trade. We're doing a recording session with a local band on Saturday night (reminds me of the old joke-- How many producers does it take to make the recording session happen? I don't know; what do you think?), and Telefunken is bringing a bunch of microphones that I'll never be able to afford. Sweet! Hopefully, we'll have pictures, annecdotes, and the full skinny for you up on the website when I get back.
Thanks for your attention, and we'll see you at a gig soon.
THE ANNUAL CUT & PASTE AWARDS!!!!!!!!
Cut & Paste here:
http://www.bestofwny.com/bma2009/public/survey.php?name=2009_bma
End of Summer Update 2009
Hey There, No-Star Nation;
We had a great time on the Summer Tour '09! We played "Blues In The Valley" again in Warsaw, NY. We will play that show every year they ask us, honest. One of the best-run events we've had the pleasure to be involved with, and we really enjoyed the other acts on the bill this year (big-ups to The Todd Eberwine Band and the Junkyard Dogs). We also had a great time in Attica, Orchard Park (thanks again for all your help, Don from the Boys of Summer), Boston, Hamburg, at St. Christopher's (the Spirit Ride and the Summerfest this year), the Wild & Blue Outdoor Festival, a new event in Farmersville called the Smokey Bones Music Festival, the Genesee County Fair, and of course at the Double Diamond in Ellicottville and at Joanne's Queen City Grille in Tonawanda. We also thoroughly enjoyed a few multi-band shows we played this past Spring (Jimmy's Jam and the Blues in March event). Thanks to all the fans, event promoters, and our supporters in the Blues Society of WNY for making this a great season of live shows for us! And many, many thanks to our agent and den-mother in-residence, Susan Fischer for her un-ending assistance and energy in the cause of all things Mighty and No-Star...
Don't forget, the upcoming WBFO Blues CD will feature an advance version of one of the tracks on our forthcoming second album ("Memories of Rage" by Bruce Rounds).
A new news-item from the No-Stars' press office-- I'll be writing some reviews and articles for the very popular percussion-oriented publication, Drum! Magazine, so watch for the Gregg Juke byline in an issue coming your way soon!
Once again, it's time for a little R&R (rest and relaxation, in this case). We'll take a little time off to recouperate and regroup and catch a little Summer vacation before getting back on the old "Jetson's treadmill." We're playing a private event in early September, and we've got some Fall dates scheduled at a few of our favorite local venues, but we're planning on taking time over the next several months to get a lot more work done on our upcoming sophomore CD release before the holiday season (it'll be here before you know it, folks).
In the meantime, we hope you really enjoy the rest of your summer; we'll be back at'cha and on stage in no time. Thanks again to all the members of the No-Star Nation for your unwavering support.
Until then-- God Bless & Good Blues...
LT, NP...
...Which stands for Long Time, No Post; I know. Sorry. Lots happening. We have begun work on our next album, but due to outside constraints have had to push-back the release date. Rest assured it will be killer, and we'll let you know when it's ready. In the meantime, there are still a few copies left of "Blues Power," so pick 'em up while you can! CDBaby is temporarily out-of-stock, but you can get a copy from the home website (http://www.mightynostars.com/) or get the whole album or individual tracks through iTunes, Amazon.com, or a host of other digital on-line retailers. We have a lot of new t-shirts available, which can be purchased from the site or at a live show. You can also get a copy of "WBFO Gives Me The Blues, Volume VII" at the wbfo.org website; the new disc features a track by Bruce Rounds that will appear on our forthcoming new disc ("Memories of Rage").
July and August feature a pretty full concert/live gig schedule, so come out and see the band.
There's a bunch of stuff (tunes, shows, plans) in-the-works, so more info is on the way. Until then, and as always, God Bless & Good Blues, and enjoy your summer!
www.MightyNoStars.com
http://www.MySpace.com/GreggJukeandtheMightyNoStars
Gregg Juke & The Mighty No-Stars EPK (electronic press kit)
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Do Diet Pills Work?
Ciaran Fairman, CISSN
October 25, 2018 • 9 min read
Here's a look at some of the most common weight-loss ingredients—and what they will and won't do for you.
The basics for fat loss are pretty simple: Eat a little less and move a little more. It's a simple concept that's been around for ages— yet we still search for that magic pill that will make our fat-loss dreams come true.
You can drastically change your body composition from diet and exercise alone. If you're skipping these important steps to look for a quick fix, chances are you're going to be disappointed. Fat-loss supplements are a tiny percentage of the equation, and should be treated as such. If you're taking a fat-loss supplement that helps burn an extra 80 calories per day, but you're consuming an extra 500 calories a day in muffins and lattes, it's time for a shift in focus.
Not every diet pill is the same, needless to say. Some of the ingredients work, and some aren't worth giving a second glance. Learn some of the common ingredients found in diet pills, and what may actually help in your fat-loss efforts.
Claims: Burn more fat, increase metabolism, or melt away fat
Common Ingredients: Caffeine, green tea extract, green coffee extract, guarana
People looking for a little extra help with their weight-loss efforts often turn to stimulants, which may help increase calorie burn and provide a boost of energy during workouts.
Caffeine is the world's most common stimulant, so it's no surprise that it's found in almost every type of diet pill. Research supports its ability to increase rates of fat burning while also allowing your body to use more fat, rather than carbohydrates. Caffeine also has a short-term effect on resting metabolism.1
The ergogenic effect of caffeine is strongly linked to habitual caffeine consumption. If you're going through pots of coffee a day, you may not see any additional benefit from supplementation.
Stimulants may help increase calorie burn and provide a boost of energy during workouts.
Green tea extract has also been shown to aid weight loss by increasing fat oxidation and metabolism.2,3 Just make sure to pay attention to the amount of epigallocatechin gallate, (EGCG) in the product. EGCG is the active antioxidant in green tea and responsible for its fat-burning properties.
Another popular ingredient, green coffee extract, comes from coffee beans that have not yet been roasted. These beans contains higher levels of chlorogenic acid compared to regular roasted coffee beans, and are believed to help aid weight loss by preventing carbohydrate uptake from the intestines after a meal. Although generally safe for use in healthy individuals, its benefits do not appear to be as potent as ingredients such as caffeine and EGCG.
Guarana comes from the seeds of a fruit-bearing tree, and is used primarily for it stimulant properties as well as its ability to increase fat oxidation. Guarana contains a high level of caffeine. However, because a majority of the research has been done in animal models, it's difficult to say if guarana aids weight loss in humans.4
Stimulants can cause increased heart rate, dizziness, trouble falling asleep, nausea, and make you feel jittery.
Suggested Dosage
200-400 mg of caffeine, 600 mg EGCG, 600-1,500 mg of green coffee extract (containing 200 mg of chlorogenic acid), 50-75 mg of guarana
JYM:
Shred JYM
Hydroxycut Hardcore
Cellucor:
Super HD
* Ratings as of article's date of publication
Claims: Curb appetite, kill hunger pangs, and keep you feeling full off fewer calories
Common Ingredients: Hoodia, yerba mate, chromium picolinate
Appetite suppressants are designed to help you ward off cravings, promote normal appetite levels, and support your weight-loss goals. In addition to caffeine, there are several other ingredients that claim to help blunt hunger signals while giving you better energy levels and increasing your metabolism.
Hoodia gordonii, a small plant traditionally used by various indigenous hunter-gatherer people of southern Africa as an appetite suppressant to help them survive harsh desert conditions, has made its way into the weight-loss market. In theory, this plant would work wonders in a diet pill, but the majority of hoodia's research on appetite suppression has been conducted on rats.5-7 Between the unsupported effects in humans and the unknown toxic effects, there's just not enough data yet to support its use.8
Yerba mate is another herbal stimulant commonly found in tea and pill form. It claims to work by forcing your stomach to retain food longer, making you feel full for a longer period of time after eating.
Chromium picolinate claims to decrease appetite, burn more calories, drop body fat, and boost muscle mass. Despite promising claims blown out of proportion by the media, there's no substantial evidence supporting its effect on body composition.9,10
Chromium can cause GI issues like gas, bloating, and diarrhea, as well as heart arrhythmias and seizures. Insomnia, irritability, and headaches have also been reported with chromium picolinate and yerba mate.
The research on appetite suppression is weak. To date, there's no single ingredient found in common weight-loss supplements or fat burners that will suppress appetite at a given dose without causing potential negative side effects. Additionally, Yerba Mate has repeatedly been associated with upper-digestive-tract cancers. Although the severity of the association is somewhat weak, it is worth noting.
Appetite suppressants are designed to help you ward off cravings.
Claims: Flush fat off the body, cleanse your body of toxins
Common Ingredients: Cascara, senna, psyllium
In a sense, most of these fibers interact with the intestinal tract to improve intestinal motility and increase the frequency or quality of bowel movements. Psyllium is able to bind to fatty acids and cholesterol from the diet, and is thought to be a gentler laxative than senna and cascara.
Due to laxatives' limited effect on weight loss, taking them is not recommended unless you are experiencing constipation and consequential intestinal discomfort or pain. Additionally, it is recommended that these be taken for no longer than 7 days.
Besides the obvious—having to spend the day glued to the toilet—the use of laxatives can also cause dehydration and GI distress.
1-2 g of senna (standardized to 10-30 mg of active sennosides), 5 g of psyllium taken 3 times a day, 325 mg of cascara
Other Popular Weight-Loss Ingredients
Be Wary Of "Proprietary Blends"
These blends may contain your favorite ingredient, but without knowing the exact amounts, it's nearly impossible to evaluate a product's true effectiveness. Ingredients will be listed by largest relative dose to least, but other than that, we get nothing other than the total dose of the blend. This can be particularity unsafe when proprietary blends contain stimulants, such as caffeine or yohimbine, as consuming too much of these ingredients can lead to nasty side effects. Try ing the company and asking for specific doses within the blend. If they won't provide the information, move on.
Chitosan, guar gum
These ingredients are touted for their ability to block the absorption of fats and cholesterol. Although chitosan has been shown to have a small effect on fat absorption, these effects are negligible, leaving claims of weight loss unsubstantiated.11,12 Possible side effects include upset stomach and GI distress
Supposedly, CLA helps you lose body fat and increase muscle mass. This ingredient is a regular in weight-loss supplements, although evidence from long-term trials (mostly done in obese individuals) suggests the effects are minimal at best.13-15 Suggested doses fall in the range of 3,200-6,400 milligrams daily. I strongly recommend taking it with meals to avoid an upset stomach, nausea, and loose stools.
7-keto DHEA
7-keto DHEA is said to help boost metabolism so you burn more calories throughout the day. Studies do exist indicating 7-keto-DHEA may be effective as a weight-loss aid in normal and overweight adults.16,17 It has been reported that 200 milligrams of supplementation can aid in attenuating the decrease in RMR associated with caloric restriction, in addition to weight loss and a decrease in body fat.
This chemical that comes from—you guessed it, raspberries—shows some promise of lipolysis and fatty-acid oxidation at the molecular level, but there is no human data to support just yet.18 Translating the dose used in animal studies to human levels leads to an extremely high dose (anywhere from 90-300 milligrams per kilogram of body weight).19
A small fruit usually used in cooking, garcinia cambogia is a good source of hydroxycitric acid (HCA), which is purported to aid weight loss. We're starting to see a trend here; supplementation shows promise in animal-model research, but human studies are variable at best, with mixed results in weight loss. Some studies show a small benefit (around 3 pounds over 3 months), but others show no benefit at all.20-22 As with raspberry ketones, the daily doses used in human research (>1000 milligrams) are substantial.
Yohimbine
Yohimbine is said to increase testosterone levels and aid fat loss. Research on yohimbine and weight loss is relatively inconclusive, although doses of 0.2 milligrams per kilogram of body weight have been shown to improve fat loss.23 Because yohimbine works by increasing adrenaline levels in the body, side effects may include elevated heart rate and anxiety.
Two Ingredients to Avoid
While it's always a good idea to consult with your physician before taking any of the ingredients listed above, there are two you should use with extreme caution. Bitter orange—which contains synephrine, an ingredient related to ephedra—can be dangerous for people with heart conditions, since it tends to raise blood pressure.
Additionally, ephedra (aka ma huang) has been banned by the FDA since it was linked to serious side effects including heart attack, arrhythmia, stroke, seizures, and death.
There's no shortcut to quality, sustained body-composition improvements. You can jam all the supplements you want down your throat, but unless you're training appropriately and paying attention to your dietary choices, you're literally throwing away your money. Some of these ingredients may complement your fitness efforts, but they won't replace them!
Jeukendrup, A. E., & Randell, R. (2011). . Obesity Reviews, 12(10), 841-851.
Maki, K. C., Reeves, M. S., Farmer, M., Yasunaga, K., Matsuo, N., Katsuragi, Y., ... & Cartwright, Y. (2009). . The Journal of Nutrition, 139(2), 264-270.
Roberts, J. D., Roberts, M. G., Tarpey, M. D., Weekes, J. C., & Thomas, C. H. (2015). . Clinical Nutrition, 24(6), 1019-1028.
van Heerden, F. R., Horak, R. M., Maharaj, V. J., Vleggaar, R., Senabe, J. V., & Gunning, P. J. (2007). . Phytochemistry, 6(20), 2545-2553.
Smith, C., & Krygsman, A. (2014). . Journal of Ethnopharmacology, 155(2), 987-991.
Smith, C., & Krygsman, A. (2014). . Journal of Ethnopharmacology, 155(2), 1284-1290.
Lee, R. A., & Balick, M. J. (2007). . Explore: The Journal of Science and Healing, 3(4), 404-406.
Vincent, J. B. (2003). . Sports Medicine, 33(3), 213-230.
Lukaski, H. C., Siders, W. A., & Penland, J. G. (2007). . Nutrition, 23(3), 187-195.
Gades, M. D., & Stern, J. S. (2003). . Obesity Research, 11(5), 683-688.
Gades, M. D., & Stern, J. S. (2005). . Journal of the American Dietetic Association, 105(1), 72-77.
Kamphuis, M. M., Lejeune, M. P., Saris, W. H., & Westerterp-Plantenga, M. S. (2003). . International Journal of Obesity, 27(7), 840-847.
Kreider, R. B., Ferreira, M. P., Greenwood, M., Wilson, M., & Almada, A. L. (2002). . The Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research, 16(3), 325-334.
Chen, S. C., Lin, Y. H., Huang, H. P., Hsu, W. L., Houng, J. Y., & Huang, C. K. (2012). . Nutrition, 28(5), 559-565.
Zenk, J. L., Frestedt, J. L., & Kuskowski, M. A. (2007). . The Journal of Nutritional Biochemistry, 18(9), 629-634.
Kaiman, D. S., Colker, C. M., Swain, M. A., Torina, G. C., & Shi, Q. (2000). . Current Therapeutic Research, 61(7), 435-442.
Park, K. S. (2010). . Planta Medica, 76(15), 1654.
Morimoto, C., Satoh, Y., Hara, M., Inoue, S., Tsujita, T., & Okuda, H. (2005). . Life Sciences, 77(2), 194-204.
Heymsfield, S. B., Allison, D. B., Vasselli, J. R., Pietrobelli, A., Greenfield, D., & Nunez, C. (1998). . JAMA, 280(18), 1596-1600.
Kim, J. E., Jeon, S. M., Park, K. H., Lee, W. S., Jeong, T. S., McGregor, R. A., & Choi, M. S. (2011). . Journal of Nutrition, 10(1), 94.
Vasques, C. A., Schneider, R., Klein?Júnior, L. C., Falavigna, A., Piazza, I., & Rossetto, S. (2014). . Phytotherapy Research, 28(6), 887-891.
Ostojic, S. M. (2006). . Research in Sports Medicine, 14(4), 289-299.
Ciaran Fairman
Ciaran received his M.S. in Kinesiology and is working towards a doctorate. He holds certifications through the ACSM and CISSN.
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VENOM INC. In Ottawa, Canada
By Andrew Depedro, Ottawa Corespondent
Tuesday, May 14, 2019 @ 6:22 AM
Name Your Poison: Venom Inc. Get Black In The Saddle Again And Hit The Satanic Big Leagues At Mavericks, Ottawa, Canada, May 1, 2019
Photos By Andrew Depedro
The reigning kings of the blackest of the extreme black metal scene since its inception in the late 70’s have been at war with their ever-changing lineups almost as often as with the Horned One to the point that they’ve been touring under a slightly-amended name for the past three decades. And while I was barely a teen at the time to truly appreciate the original genuine evilness of Welcome To Hell and Black Metal, I was at war with having to endure more babysitting sessions which mostly included putting up with my niece’s 40th Netflix marathon of watching the entire Trolls series, so this was as good as an excuse as any to catch this show which included some local and co-headlining acts (give or take a missing drummer or two) making their way to the satanic big leagues.
Plus, I had a ticket reserved for me for the show anyway.
The Mavericks bill was comprised of five bands including two opening bands who both either captured the headliners’ raw DIY punk ethos or their bombastic power thrashing heaviness. With song titles such as “Crusty Cum Rag” and “Sperm Warriors” and a guitarist who could pass off as the twin brother of FUBAR’s Terry Cahill, it’s safe to say that Gatineau-based non-PC crossover punk trio TOTAL GARBAGE lean towards the first definition. Their 16-song set were comprised of 2 minute long by- the-numbers punk pounders whose lyrics referenced mostly sperm, suicide, the infamous 2009 Manitoba Greyhound Bus Killer and even more references to sperm. During the course of their two-year existence as a band, they’ve released a demo and played alongside the likes of DAYGLO ABORTIONS. Turns out that the market for fast crossover punk with lyrics about sperm is greater than what most people give it credit for. That said, it’s the fast and furious playing and their frontman also being the drummer that should be of the greatest appeal of this band with the low-hanging-fruit name. The drummer’s insane precision and skill is comparable to a young Gil Moore of TRIUMPH – that is, if TRIUMPH wrote songs about sperm. Still, credit to the Garbagemen for having the magic power of the music in them and laying it on the line for just one night during their performance even when their drummer’s house in Gatineau was heavily damaged by the recent floods in town.
https://www.facebook.com/totalgarbagepunk/
Going from TOTAL GARBAGE’s fast-playing goofy crossovercore to the eight-minute Wagnerian sagas and flashy guitar solos of local power metal quartet LYCANTHRO is a bit like watching AVANTASIA playing after ANAL CUNT. Neither band have much in common musically but that won’t prevent or deny their audience a high energy show. And LYCANTHRO fulfill their promise here even if their stage space is restrictive by about two dozen feet or so. At least this wasn’t the UDO show when they were denied use of the stage entirely. Their setlist may be short of the number of TOTAL GARBAGE’s songs by ten, but LYCANTHRO can still be just as appealing to the growing crowd numbers with their Skyrim-inspired tracks such as “The Raven”, “Crucible”, “Fog Of War” and an ambitious cover of IRON MAIDEN’s “Futureal”. Frontman/guitarist James Delbridge was even polite enough to ask the crowd the two-part question before playing the song at least:
“How many of you like IRON MAIDEN?”
*applause*
“And now….how many of you like Virtual IX?”
*mixed response before the song is played anyway*
Thanks to LYCANTHRO’s stellar performance of the song, the Blaze Bayley era of IRON MAIDEN was able for at least one night to be moderately more popular than songs about sperm. Keep breaking that stigma, guys!
https://www.facebook.com/Lycanthrokills/
The town of Ashtabula, Ohio doesn’t quite have the music appeal of Cleveland for want of Ian Hunter’s will to proclaim how much it rocks, but given that the average age of the members of up-and-coming metalcore quintet HOMEWRECKER is about 29 (including their guitarist Matt Barnum who celebrated his birthday on the same day as their Ottawa debut), they likely don’t seem all that bothered about the comparisons. Formed in 2008 and touring in support of their third studio album Hell Is Here, the band’s mix of late 80’s death metal and modern metalcore has the pit activated to near-full capacity. Not bad for a band whose road crew didn’t seem to believe in the concept of visible lighting, making photos difficult to take half the time. I get a bit of the whole mystique thing but you’d think that Papa Emeritus was going to come out by the side stage and duet with the band on “Square Hammer” after the third song. Otherwise, HOMEWRECKER’s demolition men kept a solid affair and connection with the audience that would make the creators of Ashley Madison and Tinder want to retire. Credit the heavy and fast-pounding tracks such as “Buried In Suffering”, “Land Of The Damned”, “Burden Of Self”, “Worms And Dirt” and the neck-wrecking closer “Perpetrators”. And they also had a singing drummer – Matt Izzi, on loan from the band SCORCHED, though it appears that he’ll be more of a permanent fixture in their lineup – on half of the songs (seriously, what is it with TRIUMPH and their appeal among newer extreme metal bands who sound nothing like them these days?). So, while “Ashtabula Rocks” doesn’t quite roll off the tongue compared to Cleveland, there’s plenty about HOMEWRECKER’s catalogue that shook many foundations that night.
https://www.facebook.com/HomewreckerOH/
Up next and straight from the battlefields of southern California (and who have likely shared as many victorious Skyrim skirmishes with the members of LYCANTHRO as they have shared stages) would be thrashing warmongers EXMORTUS – or at least three out of the four members anyway. Hot on the hooves of promoting last year’s The Sound Of Steel album, their show was delayed for about a couple of minutes as their drummer Adrian Aguilar had gone missing; a miscommunication between their road crew and staff later revealed that the band’s drummer was missing from the Canadian leg of the tour as he had been denied entrance into the country (presumably for something more serious than declaring to CBSA officers that he could out-drum Gil Moore of TRIUMPH on any given day of the week), which frontman/guitarist Jadran "Conan" Gonzalez would eventually admit to as they opened with the raging number “Feast Of Flesh” with programmed drum tracks. Sure, it did look odd for Jadran and his other two colleagues Philip Nunez (bass) and Chase Becker (guitar) to be playing their battle hymn classics such as “Foe Hammer”, “Into The Maw Of Hell”, “Moonlight Sonata (Act III)” and the closing number “Metal Is King” to recorded drum tracks when they couldn’t get a fill-in drummer at the last minute (I’m as surprised as you are given the wealth of skilled tub-thumpers on this bill) to sub for their absent colleague, but they were not the type of band to shy away from a challenge or battle that they knew would be easily winnable. And TRIUMPH-er, triumph they did. To be honest, I’d say that most of us were staring at the black T-shirts bearing the logo of Ottawa’s first heavy metal themed restaurant The Koven the band members were wearing during their set than at the fact that they were slimmed down to a trio. A thousand hails to EXMORTUS for making haste to go on with the show even if their drummer was briefly in and out of the country.
https://www.facebook.com/exmortusofficial/
https://exmortusmusic.com/
Just about to lift up your feet and relax after over four hours of non-stop moshpit action? Be prepared to lay down your soles for the gods of rock ‘n roll once more as headliners VENOM INC. take the stage and belt out “Metal We Bleed” from 2017’s Avé. The current lineup is looking somewhat different from the original lineup from 1981 which comprised of bassist/vocalist Conrad “Cronos” Lant, guitarist Jeffery “Mantas” Dunn and drummer Anthony “Abaddon” Bray – particularly since Cronos and Abaddon have been absent from the band for about two decades, their roles respectively taken over by Tony “Demolition” Dolan (ex-ATOMKRAFT) and Jeramie Kling (ex-sound engineer for EXODUS and SEPULTURA, THE ABSENCE). You’ll also wonder why the band has been billed as VENOM INC. for some time and it’s got nothing to do with Demolition’s tattoo collection. Not surprisingly, back in the day, the split between Mantas and Cronos over differing musical directions wasn’t on the most acrimonious of terms, with Cronos securing publication rights to the original band name (under which he still tours to this day). Even Abaddon’s time with VENOM INC. was abruptly cut short – reportedly over a dispute over maternal leave when he found out he would be a father for the first time – following a series of side projects including PRIME EVIL and b>M-PIRE OF EVIL which led to the eventual forming of this current lineup. But, regrettable as the soured relationship between the three original parties had become, the set was otherwise a whirlwind celebration of the classic 80’s era of VENOM for both the veteran diehards and the aspiring tryhards who saw the band put the “extreme black” in “extreme black metal”.
With openers “Metal We Bleed” and “War” comprising the more recent songs from a catalogue spanning 40 years under the VENOM moniker, the lineup of VENOM INC. showed that they – and particularly Mantas – continued to have a vested appreciation in the music. Demolition cut an intimidating figure with his shaven head, his tattooed brawny physique and his perfectly replicated Cronos-style growl as he plowed his way through classics such as “Witching Hour”, “Black Metal”, “Welcome To Hell”, “Bloodlust”, “In League With Satan” and “Countess Bathory”. He even got the rambunctious crowd to form the famous Wall Of Death twice which the bearded biker VENOM fan in his 60’s next to me was lucky to have survived both times after catching an elbow to the side of the head during “Witching Hour”, reminding me why I’ve long since left the fury of the pit to a more younger generation. Mantas looked and sounded in his prime as he delivered a mighty axe attack to the classics and recent numbers, his chemistry with Demolition just as solid and vibrant as it was during the PRIME EVIL/M-PIRE OF EVIL years if not more. Finally, drummer Jeramie Kling may be the latest addition in the ever-changing lineup but his primal rapid fire beats and precise rolls and slams spoke more of a veteran musician rather than a veteran sound engineer though his work with Michigan-based death metallers THE ABSENCE certainly invokes much of the blackened brutality of much of VENOM’s own early work so it’s easy to see why he can count clients such as EXODUS and SEPULTURA as among his biggest fans of his sound production work. EXMORTUS should’ve cut him a quick deal to sub for their drummer during the Canadian leg of this tour.
With the actual witching hour upon us, VENOM INC. ended their show on a loud and fast note as they tore through “Countess Bathory” and left the masses sore and battered from much moshpit excess – but satisfied that in spite of the numerous lineup changes that the gods of black metal have endured over time, VENOM INC. both cut and bled the metal game they’ve always claimed to play to the extreme.
“Metal We Bleed”
“Die Hard” (Venom)
“Welcome To Hell” (Venom)
“Live Like An Angel (Die Like A Devil)” (Venom)
“Blackened Are The Priests” (Venom)
“Carnivorous” (Venom)
“Parasite” (Venom)
“Warhead” (Venom)
“Don’t Burn The Witch” (Venom)
“Lady Lust” (Venom)
“Leave Me In Hell” (Venom)
“Black Metal” (Venom)
“Sons Of Satan” (Venom)
“Witching Hour” (Venom)
“Bloodlust” (Venom)
“In League With Satan” (Venom)
“Countess Bathory” (Venom)
https://www.facebook.com/VenomIncOfficial/
http://www.venom-inc.com/
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June 17, 2019 Comments (0) Cinema, Trends, TRIBE Social Magazine Like
Although at first they may seem distant, if not complete opposites, in actual fact, the two sagas Harry Potter and Star Wars have a basic storyline that unites them more than one might think.
The classic “heroic journey”
A young boy conducts an “ordinary” life, in a routine that, deep down, makes him feel secure. But he wants more, so he sets off on an adventure . Although hesitant at first, it then takes him to the point of no return, forcing him to leave his old life behind him. During his adventure, our hero meets a mentor who guides him on his journey, also with the help of several friends who share his experience with him. In the end, the protagonist is a changed person and triumphant, just like a real hero. Don’t you think this storyline fits both Star Wars (taking only the initial trilogy as an example) and Harry Potter?
Harry and Luke Skywalker are similar
While the previous storyline might apply to a large number of sagas, Harry Potter and Luke Skywalker unexpectedly have other things in common: both are orphans and both have been brought up by their aunt and uncle (even if in Luke’s case, they are more caring), and neither of them are aware of their amazing origins. Finally, both of them are called on to carry out feats that, at first, they believe to be much greater than they are.
A “helper” for both
And what about Hagrid and Obi-Wan Kenobi? Both start to take care of their protégés under the advice, respectively, of Dumbledore and Yoda. Then they both have the task of telling their family story, and thus to shed light on their identity. Obi-Wan is certainly far more balanced than the clumsy Hagrid, but in substance they are the same: both have the task of accompanying the protagonists on their adventures.
The friends of Harry and Luke
Both Harry Potter and Luke Skywalker can count on a group of friends that play an active part in the adventure. The famous young wizard has Ron and Hermione on his side, while the Jedi of the galaxies turns to Han and Leia for help. These “travel companions” are often real co-protagonists, but are also ready to step aside in the crucial moments of the story: for example, when Harry faces Voldemort and when Luke confronts firstly his father and then the emperor.
The old mentors
As already mentioned, Dumbledore and Yoda are true guides for the two protagonists. Both are wise, charismatic and “human” (in the empathic sense of the word). They have the important role of preparing Harry and Luke for the arduous tasks that lie ahead.
The ‘baddies’
In spite of the evident differences between Voldemort and Darth Vader, they also have a few things in common: both are driven by the same feelings of hatred and revenge, but this characteristic is shared by many of the “great baddies” in films and comics. What makes them particularly similar, is that fact that they have both suffered serious physical damage that almost destroyed them, and above all that they are inextricably bound to the two heroes. Voldemort, for example, is linked to Harry Potter through the horcrux that lives within him, while Vader is in fact the father of Luke Skywalker.
Harry Potter and Star Wars, similar also in their technological version
If the similarities on the big screen are not enough, discover what Harry Potter and Star Wars have in common also in their technological version, proposed by Tribe! Numerous accessories, including the famous USB memory sticks, which are faithfully inspired by the most beloved characters of the two sagas.
Like Cinema, Trends, TRIBE Social Magazine What do Harry Potter and Star Wars have in common?
The story behind the success of Frozen!
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Sat. April 14, 2018
No Team Scoring
at Queensborough Relays
Bayside, N.Y.
Mount St. Mary
vs Merchant Marine
Kings Point, N.Y.
vs Coast Guard
West Point, N.Y. (Superintendents' Trophy Contest) @ West Point, N.Y.
Aug, 24 | Men's Soccer vs. TCNJ (Scrimmage) (TBA)
Aug, 24 | Women's Volleyball at Kean (Scrimmage) (10:00 AM)
Aug, 27 | Men's Soccer vs. NYU (Scrimmage) (TBA)
Aug, 30 | Men's Soccer at John Jay (4:00 PM)
Aug, 30 | Women's Volleyball vs. Lehman (7:00 PM) LS
Sep, 04 | Men's Soccer at Ramapo (7:00 PM)
Sep, 05 | Women's Volleyball at Brooklyn (7:00 PM)
Sep, 07 | Men's Cross Country Trinity Invite (10:30 a.m.)
Sep, 07 | Women's Cross Country Trinity Invite (10:30 a.m.)
Sep, 07 | Football vs. FDU-Florham (12:00 PM) LS
Sep, 07 | Women's Volleyball at Montclair St. (1:00 PM)
Sep, 07 | Women's Volleyball vs. Stevens (3:00 PM)
Sep, 08 | Men's Soccer vs. Ithaca (12:00 PM) LS
Sep, 10 | Women's Volleyball vs. Hunter (7:00 PM) LS
Sep, 11 | Men's Soccer at Centenary (NJ) (4:00 PM)
Sep, 12 | Women's Volleyball vs. Coast Guard (6:00 PM)
Sep, 14 | Men's Cross Country Bill Fritz Invitational (12:30 p.m.)
Sep, 14 | Women's Cross Country Bill Fritz Invitational (12:30 p.m.)
Sep, 14 | Women's Volleyball vs. Maine Maritime (10:00 AM) LS
Sep, 14 | Men's Soccer vs. Coast Guard (12:00 PM) LS
Sep, 14 | Women's Volleyball vs. Mass. Maritime (2:00 PM)
Sep, 15 | Women's Volleyball vs. SUNY Maritime (2:00 PM)
Sep, 17 | Women's Volleyball vs. Yeshiva (7:00 PM)
Sep, 18 | Men's Soccer vs. Amherst (7:45 PM) LS
Sep, 20 | Women's Volleyball vs. Pratt (7:30 PM) LS
Sep, 21 | Football vs. SUNY Maritime (1:00 PM) LS
Sep, 21 | Men's Soccer vs. Sarah Lawrence (5:00 PM)
Sep, 22 | Men's Cross Country York Invite (10 a.m.)
Sep, 22 | Women's Cross Country York Invite (10 a.m.)
Sep, 25 | Men's Soccer at SUNY Maritime (7:00 PM)
Sep, 25 | Women's Volleyball at Purchase (7:00 PM)
Sep, 26 | Women's Volleyball at SUNY Maritime (7:00 PM)
Sep, 28 | Women's Volleyball vs. Rutgers-Newark (11:00 AM)
Sep, 28 | Football at Maine Maritime (12:00 PM)
Sep, 28 | Men's Soccer vs. St. Joseph's (L.I.) (12:00 PM) LS
Sep, 28 | Women's Volleyball vs. Moravian (3:00 PM) LS
Oct, 01 | Men's Soccer at Purchase (7:00 PM)
Oct, 01 | Women's Volleyball vs. Mount St. Mary (7:00 PM)
Oct, 03 | Women's Volleyball at Farmingdale State (6:00 PM) LS
Oct, 05 | Football vs. MIT (12:00 PM) LS
Oct, 05 | Men's Soccer at Old Westbury (12:00 PM)
Oct, 07 | Women's Volleyball vs. Mount St. Vincent (7:00 PM)
Oct, 09 | Women's Volleyball at Manhattanville (7:00 PM)
Oct, 09 | Men's Soccer vs. Farmingdale State (7:45 PM) LS
Oct, 12 | Men's Cross Country Regional Border Battle (11 a.m.)
Oct, 12 | Women's Cross Country Regional Border Battle (11 a.m.)
Oct, 12 | Men's Soccer at Mount St. Vincent (12:00 PM)
Oct, 12 | Football at Norwich (1:00 PM)
Oct, 15 | Men's Soccer at St. Joseph's (Brooklyn) (7:00 PM) LS
Oct, 15 | Women's Volleyball vs. St. Joseph's (L.I.) (7:00 PM)
Oct, 16 | Men's Soccer at Lehman (3:30 PM)
Oct, 17 | Women's Volleyball at St. Joseph's (Brooklyn) (7:00 PM) LS
Oct, 19 | Football vs. Springfield (2:00 PM) LS
Oct, 19 | Men's Soccer vs. Manhattanville (7:00 PM) LS
Oct, 21 | Women's Volleyball at Old Westbury (7:00 PM)
Oct, 22 | Men's Soccer at Mount St. Mary (7:00 PM)
Oct, 23 | Women's Volleyball vs. Sarah Lawrence (7:00 PM) LS
Oct, 26 | Football at WPI (2:30 PM) LS
Oct, 27 | Men's Cross Country Skyline Championship Meet (9 a.m.)
Oct, 27 | Women's Cross Country Skyline Championship Meet (9 a.m.)
Oct, 27 | Men's Soccer vs. Yeshiva (12:00 PM)
Nov, 02 | Men's Cross Country ECAC Championship Meet (9 a.m.)
Nov, 02 | Women's Cross Country ECAC Championship Meet (9 a.m.)
Nov, 02 | Men's Soccer at Skyline First Round (TBA)
Nov, 02 | Women's Volleyball at Ramapo (11:00 AM)
Nov, 02 | Women's Volleyball vs. Lehman (1:00 PM)
Nov, 05 | Women's Volleyball at Skyline First Round (TBA)
Nov, 06 | Men's Soccer at Skyline Semifinals (TBA)
Nov, 07 | Women's Volleyball at Skyline Semifinals (TBA)
Nov, 09 | Men's Soccer at Skyline Finals (TBA)
Nov, 09 | Women's Volleyball at Skyline Finals (TBA)
Nov, 09 | Football vs. Catholic (12:00 PM) LS
Nov, 14 | Women's Volleyball at NCAA First Round (TBA)
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House of Mecklenburg-Strelitz
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Duchess Olga
The Hereditary Prince
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HomeHistoryGrand DukesDuke Georg
Duke Georg
Duke Georg, Dr. rer. pol. was born on 5 October 1899 at the Oranienbaum Palace, near St Petersburg. He was the youngest child and only son of Duke Georg Alexander and his wife Countess Natalia Feodorovna of Carlow.
Life in Russia
Duke Georg was christened into the Lutheran Church with the names Georg Alexander Michael Friedrich Wilhelm Albert Theodor Franz. Among his godparents were his great uncle and great aunt, the Grand Duke Friedrich Wilhelm and his wife Grand Duchess Augusta. As his parents had not sought official dynastic recognition for their marriage, at birth Duke Georg derived his status and title Count of Carlow from his mother who had been created Countess of Carlow on 18 March 1890 by Grand Duke Friedrich Wilhelm.
As a second generation member of the family to be born in Russia, Duke Georg spent his childhood in St Petersburg with his family at their river embankment mansion 46 Fontanka, which his father had acquired after selling the Mikhailovsky Palace. The family also owned the Oranienbaum Palace, located on the Gulf of Finland near St Petersburg, which provided an idyllic childhood for Duke Georg and his sisters. For his secondary education Duke Georg studied at Imperial Lyceum in St Petersburg.
With the sudden and unexpected death of his father in 1909, Duke Georg’s uncle Duke Carl Michael was appointed the guardian of Duke Georg and his sisters by Grand Duke Adolf Friedrich V. Despite having grown up in Russia and not officially being a member of the Grand Ducal Family, Duke Georg grew up connected to Mecklenburg and his relations there. On his last visit to Germany before World War I broke out he joined the Grand Ducal Family at the small mourning ceremony in Berlin that was held days after the death of Grand Duke Adolf Friedrich V in June 1914.
Too young to serve in the First World War, Georg’s involvement was restricted to helping victims of the war through the hosting of charitable events at Oranienbaum. The overthrow of the Russian monarchy in February 1917 brought about great upheaval on Georg and his family. With the internal situation in Russia deteriorating Georg and his mother left St Petersburg in the summer of 1917 travelling to Kislovodsk in the Caucasus region of Russia where they joined his surviving sisters and their families. His late father’s siblings, Duke Carl Michael and Princess Helene of Saxe-Altenburg, joined them in the autumn. In late 1917 the Russian assets of the family were nationalised.
With the Bolsheviks success in the Russian Civil War it soon became too dangerous for Georg and his family to remain in Russia. Faced with the encroaching Red terror Georg and his family left Russia in April 1919 aboard a British ship. In exile the family separated, Georg, his mother, widowed sister Princess Maria Galitzine and her young children initially settled in Southern France, his eldest sister Princess Katharine Galitzine settled in England with her husband Prince Vladimir Galitzine and their children. His uncle and aunt, Duke Carl Michael and Princess Helene of Saxe-Altenburg, settled in Denmark.
Beginning of a life in exile
Now safely in Western Europe, Georg was married on 7 October 1920 in Geneva to fellow Russian exile Countess Irina Mikhailovna Tolstoy, the widow of Count Aleksandr Mikhailovich Tolstoy (1888-1918) who she had married on 23 October 1915 in St Petersburg and by whom she had two children, Irina (1917-1998) and Mikhail (1918-2004). On 18 November 1920 Georg converted from Lutheranism to Roman Catholicism. His wife followed suit on 18 July 1921 converting to Roman Catholicism from the Eastern Orthodox faith.
During their time in France, Georg and his wife lived on the Promenade des Anglais in Nice. It was here on 27 August 1921 that the couple welcomed their first child Georg Alexander. In 1922, Georg, his wife and newborn son moved to Germany taking up residence at Schloss Remplin in Mecklenburg-Schwerin, a property owned by his uncle Duke Carl Michael. Over the next couple of years Georg and his wife welcomed two more children, Alexander, born 1922, who only lived for a few weeks and a daughter Helene (1924-1962). During this period Georg studied for firstly a Diplom in Political Science and then a Doctorate in Political Science from the University of Freiburg.
Duke of Mecklenburg
Since the death of Grand Duke Adolf Friedrich VI in February 1918, Georg’s uncle Duke Carl Michael was the head of the House of Mecklenburg-Strelitz. As his uncle was the sole male dynast in order to secure the survival of the grand ducal house on 11 September 1928 he adopted Georg and his family as his heirs. The adoption was legally recognised by a court in Malchin on 5 October 1928, Georg’s 29th birthday. As a result of the adoption Georg, his wife, and children all became members of the House of Mecklenburg-Strelitz acquiring the title Duke/Duchess of Mecklenburg.
On account of the close ties between the Russian branch of the House of Mecklenburg-Strelitz and the House of Romanov, the Russian Emperor-in-exile Grand Duke Kirill Vladimirovich was notified of the adoption and on 18 July 1929 bestowed the style Serene Highness on his cousin Georg and his family.
After his adoption and so to honour the memory of his late mother Georg proposed retaining use of the title Count of Carlow for himself as his secondary title. On this basis the adoption was recognised on 23 December 1929 by the head of the senior branch of the House of Mecklenburg, Grand Duke Friedrich Franz IV of Mecklenburg-Schwerin. Henceforth Georg was styled as His Serene Highness Duke Georg of Mecklenburg, Count of Carlow. He also adopted the Mecklenburg-Strelitz coat of arms and family motto ‘Avito viret honore’, meaning ‘He flourishes with hereditary honours’.
Duke Carl Michael who had fought for Russia in the First World War ended his Danish exile in 1930 and joined Georg and his family at Schloss Remplin. In 1933 Georg and his wife became parents for the final time with the birth at Remplin of another son, Carl Gregor. When Duke Carl Michael died at Remplin on 6 December 1934, Georg duly succeeded him as head of the House of Mecklenburg-Strelitz.
During the 1930s Georg, who had been denied German citizenship, began to face persecution at the hands of the ruling Nazi Party who viewed him with suspicion due to his Russian roots, royal status and perceived involvement in ‘political Catholicism’. In exile Georg never forgot his Russian roots. Having spent his youth in Russia and with his family closely related to ruling House of Romanov, Georg learnt firsthand a number of interesting and little known stories about the Romanov’s. With this knowledge he maintained close contact with various historians of Russian history including Karl Stählin whose multi volume work on the history of Russia included suggestions made by Georg.
He also remained close to his Romanov cousin’s in exile. In January 1938 he hosted a dinner at the Bristol Hotel in Berlin for Grand Duchess Kira Kirillovna of Russia and Prince Louis Ferdinand of Prussia to celebrate their engagement. While in October of that year he attended the burial of Grand Duke Kirill Vladimirovich in the mausoleum of Coburg.
Under the threat of expropriation Georg was forced by the Nazi Party to sell of his land holdings, which consisted of forests and fields, to the state for a nominal price well below its real value. As such by the time the Second World War broke out all that remained was Schloss Remplin itself. However even the Schloss was not safe as on the night of 10-11 April 1940 it was largely destroyed in a fire instigated by the local Nazi Party official (Gauleiter). After the fire Georg was forced to sell everything to the state for a minimal price on the assurance that once he agrees to the sale they will discuss the estate of the late Grand Duke Adolf Friedrich VI. The estate which amounted to around 6 Million marks was to give Georg the opportunity to buy another residence in Mecklenburg. Schloss Weisdin, located near to Neustrelitz, was identified as a suitable property however the purchase never went through as the Gauleiter reneged on the agreement and forced Georg to leave Mecklenburg.
In what he hoped would only be a temporary move before he could someday return to Mecklenburg, Georg and his family took up residence in a Villa located at 4 Nikischstrasse in the Grunewald quarter of Berlin where they became a fixture of high society, often entertaining ambassadors, generals and fellow royalty at lunch with the Jesuit priest and former Crown Prince of Saxony, Father Georg, a particularly close friend. As Father Georg could not trust normal post on account of his anti-Nazi views, Duke Georg was instead entrusted to convey his correspondence to General Friedrich Olbricht, later a leading figure in the 20 July 1944 plot against Adolf Hitler. Duke Georg also provided Father Georg with refuge at his Grunewald villa while the Gestapo carried out searches of his room at Canisius Kolleg, the Jesuit college in Berlin.
Duke Georg and family remained in Berlin until February 1944 when their villa was destroyed during an Allied bombing raid. Following the loss of their second home in the space of four years Georg and his family moved into Schloss Birstein in Hesse, the Schloss was home to Georg’s son in law Prince Franz Ferdinand of Isenburg who had married his step daughter Countess Irina Tolstoy at Remplin in 1939.
In August 1944 after having attempted to use his contacts with military officers to gain bail for two catholic priests, Georg was arrested by the Nazi secret police, the Gestapo. After a period incarcerated in the Gestapo headquarters in Prinz-Albrecht-Straße in Berlin, Georg was sent to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp where he was held until February 1945, gaining his freedom only after the intervention of a Papal nuncio. Following his release Georg and his family moved to Sigmaringen in Southern Germany at the invitation of Princess Margarete of Hohenzollern the sister of the late Father Georg of Saxony who had died in mysterious circumstances on 14 May 1943 while swimming in the Groß Glienicker Lake.
With the end of the Second World War Georg’s hoped for return to Mecklenburg became impossible due to the partition of Germany into West and East. Having been forced out of first Russia and now Mecklenburg by communism, Georg and his family remained in Sigmaringen making the Prinzessinnen-Palais located at 9 Karlstrasse their home. In the post war period to support his family Georg started working as a translator.
Because of confusion in some quarters regarding his status as head of the House of Mecklenburg-Strelitz due to his parent’s non dynastic marriage, Hereditary Grand Duke Friedrich Franz of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, who himself entered into a dynastic marriage in 1941 to Karin von Schaper who was of equivalent rank to Georg’s mother and wife, definitely clarified the situation on 18 December 1950. He and Duke Adolf Friedrich (the only other Schwerin male Duke Christian Ludwig being imprisoned in Russia at the time) issued a letter that was sent to the other German princely houses confirming that Georg was head of the House of Mecklenburg-Strelitz and that he and other members the house were entitled to the style of Highness in line with all members of the House of Mecklenburg.
After thirty four years of marriage Georg was widowed on 22 January 1955 when his wife Duchess Irina passed away in Sigmaringen aged 62. The Duchess was the first member of the grand ducal family to be buried in the family crypt in the chapel at Inzigkofen, Sigmaringen.
In May 1956 Duke Georg’s engagement to Archduchess Charlotte of Austria, the daughter of the last Austrian Emperor Karl and his wife Empress Zita, was announced. In the presence of members of the German and Austrian royal houses and media from around the world, on 25 July 1956 Duke Georg and Archduchess Charlotte were married in the baroque church at Pöcking, the civil service having taken place on 21 July. After the ceremony the newlywed couple spent five hours on the terrace of the villa of Charlotte’s brother Crown Prince Otto to receive the congratulations of the five thousand Austrians who had made their way to Pöcking. Georg’s second marriage was childless.
Georg died on 6 July 1963 in Sigmaringen aged 63. He was interred alongside his first wife in the family vault in Inzigkofen, Sigmaringen. Georg’s elder son Georg Alexander succeeded as head of the House of Mecklenburg-Strelitz. His widow Charlotte survived him by twenty six years dying on 23 July 1989 at the age of 68.
Head of the Mecklenburg-Strelitz House Order of the Wendish Crown
Grand Cross with the Crown in Gold of the Mecklenburg-Schwerin House Order of the Wendish Crown
Bailiff Grand Cross and Knight of Devotion of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta
Grand Cross of the Order of St Sylvester, Holy See
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Will Rogers was a vaudeville performer, actor, humorist and Cherokee-American cowboy. During a period in the mid 1930s he was the highest paid movie star in Hollywood. In 1932 Clarence Darrow wrote to Rogers on behalf "a kinsman of mine, Mr. Whitney Darrow, who is one of the heads of" the Charles Scribner's Sons publishing company. Darrow told Rogers that the publisher was "anxious to have a book" by Rogers published. "The Papers of Will Rogers: The Final Years, August 1928 - August 1935", at 347, by Will Rogers, et. al. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, LC-USZ62-20553.
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Monday 24th June 2019 - George Citroner , Healthline View Article Here
Experts say vitamin D won’t improve cardiovascular health, but it can strengthen bones and improve overall health.
The benefits of regular vitamin D consumption has received a lot of attention in recent years.
Among the health improvements associated with this nutrient are better bone development and a stronger immune function.
But new researchTrusted Source has concluded that a lower risk of heart disease isn’t among the vitamin’s many benefits.
The analysis of previous studies states that vitamin D doesn’t help prevent cardiovascular disease.
However, experts who spoke to Healthline emphasize the vitamin is still an essential part of a healthy diet.
Vitamin D provides a broad range of benefits including building healthy bones, regulating sugar metabolism, and maintaining a healthy brain and nervous system.
Due to many recent studies that found vitamin D supplementation doesn’t affect heart health, researchers at Michigan State University decided to combine the results of 21 randomized clinical trials with a total of 83,000 participants to find if there really isn’t any cardiovascular benefit.
This type of study is called a meta-analysis, a research method that can provide a more precise estimate of the effect of a treatment or risk factor for disease than any individual study.
“The use of vitamin D supplements has been increased substantially in the last few years in the United States and there was a belief that it could have some cardiovascular benefit. Multiple randomized trials have been published recently about vitamin D and cardiovascular disease,” Mahmoud Barbarawi, MD, a clinical instructor at Michigan State University’s College of Human Medicine and lead study author, told Healthline.
“This is why we decided to conduct a meta-analysis with enough power to clarify if vitamin D does or does not have a protective effect on cardiovascular health,” he added.
Dr. Barbarawi said that while vitamin D has been found ineffective as a potential strategy to prevent cardiovascular diseases by other researchers, the results of that research had too many variables.
“This meta-analysis is very important to provide the most recent information about any cardiovascular benefit vitamin D may have,” he said.
After analyzing the data from previous studies, the research team’s results “showed no cardiovascular and mortality benefit of vitamin D that contradict the general prevalent concept from previous research,” Barbarawi said.
Sreenivas Gudimetla, MD, a cardiologist at Texas Health Harris Methodist Hospital in Fort Worth, agreed with the study’s conclusions.
“With the exception of bone health, there is no direct study data that definitively concludes that vitamin D has other significant health benefits,” Dr. Gudimetla told Healthline.
Essential for bone health
This doesn’t mean that vitamin D supplementation has no role in maintaining health.
Vitamin D deficiency was once the cause of a bone development disorder called rickets (osteomalacia) that affected children in the 19th and early 20th century.
The ailment causes bone to soften and develop improperly and can also causeTrusted Source cramps, seizures, and breathing problems. It’s still an issueTrusted Source in developing countries.
According to Barbarawi, while vitamin D supplementation shouldn’t be taken for the purpose of preventing cardiovascular disease, there are reasons for some people to use it.
“This does not mean that patients should not take it if they need it to improve their low vitamin D levels,” he said, “as this will help to maintain good calcium levels and prevent diseases that include osteoporosis, osteomalacia, and chronic kidney disease.”
But according to Mark Peterman, MD, a cardiologist at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital, the nutrient may still benefit cardiovascular health indirectly.
“Vitamin D has positive effects on bone health and quality of life, in so much as these facilitate an active lifestyle, cardiovascular health should also improve,” Dr. Peterman told Healthline.
Increased asthma risk
According to the Centers for Disease Control and PreventionTrusted Source, 1 in 12 children in the United States has asthma.
Findings from a 2017 studyTrusted Source suggest that being vitamin D deficient could significantly increase a child’s risk of developing asthma.
“The move over the last 100 years from most people working outdoors to most staying indoors and the adoption of sunscreens to prevent skin cancers has magnified the problem of vitamin D deficiency despite supplementation in milk and bread,” Peterman said.
Further researchTrusted Source conducted on 560 children in Puerto Rico ages 6 to 14 and living with asthma found that those deficient in vitamin D were two and a half times more at risk of having worsened symptoms.
Vitamin D may even help prevent children with asthma from experiencing attacks due to air pollution, according to recently publishedTrusted Source research.
“Asthma is an immune-mediated disease,” Sonali Bose, MD, assistant professor of medicine, pulmonary, critical care, and sleep medicine at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York and lead author of the study, said in a statementTrusted Source.
“From previous studies, we knew that vitamin D was a molecule that may influence asthma by impacting antioxidant or immune-related pathways,” Dr. Bose said.
Gudimetla agreed.
“It’s believed that vitamin D may have a role in improving immune responses and even levels of parathyroid hormone,” he said.
Best ways to get vitamin D
Gudimetla said the best way to get vitamin D for optimal health is through a health-conscious diet.
“A diet with a lot of fruits and vegetables, whole grains, fat-free or low-fat milk and milk products, and even certain oils is recommended by the National Institutes of Health,” he said.
He emphasized that certain proteins such as fatty fish, lean meats, poultry, eggs, beans, peas, nuts and seeds, and soy products are a great way to get sufficient amounts of this vitamin.
Gudimetla cautions that while vitamin D may not directly prevent cardiovascular disease, watching what you eat can.
“Being wise about dietary choices is important, like limiting foods that are high in saturated or trans fats and monitoring calories and salt intake,” he said.
Previously recommended as a vitamin that could prevent heart disease and stroke, recent research finds no association between taking vitamin D supplements and lowering the incidence of cardiovascular disease.
However, vitamin D has many other health benefits and can still improve heart health indirectly by optimizing bone and immune health.
Experts say the best way to get vitamin D is by eating a healthy diet that includes fruits and vegetables, whole grains, and low-fat or fat-free dairy.
Back to Newsvitamins
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Addressing Race Issues through Song
[box] Today we are pleased to present yet another engaging post written by Over My Shoulder Foundation Intern Sarah Gross. One of my favorite quotes about music by Jimi Hendrix is a driving force behind our mentoring organization. The quote reads, “If there is something to be changed in this world…it can only be done through music.” With keen insight, Sarah writes about how Lenny Kravitz’s new album mentors his listeners with a poignant message to replace all lingering racial discrimination with a joyful celebration of the common ground that can unify all people, all races. Enjoy!
-Dawn Carroll, Over My Shoulder Foundation Co-Founder[/box]
Black History Month recognizes the history of racial tensions between blacks and whites alongside celebrating the achievements and impact African Americans have had on the country. While we commemorate Blacks in the shaping of the nation, we do so with the backdrop of racial strife. We are cognizant of the inequality between different races, an issue which was addressed but not quite remedied with the Civil Rights Act of 1964. With each passing decade, legal measures are passed to improve equal treatment among the races, and yet the scars left by discrimination do not fully fade. We strive to overcome these scars through awareness and communication; a most potent form of communication is music.
Music, the lyric and the melody, encourages oneness or togetherness, and inevitably unifies people from a variety of backgrounds. Music speaks to people on a transcendent level, where words sung can convey meaning more effectively than plain words spoken.
From Smokey Robinson to Marvin Gaye to Michael Jackson, many African American musicians have used music as a form of communication to speak to broad audiences with great resonance. Recently, successful musical artist Lenny Kravitz released an album titled “Black & White America,” which targets conflicts between race and society.
With themes of hope, inspiration, and unification, Kravitz’s album comments on continued racial discord with positivity. That is, Kravitz conveys positive messages in “Black & White America” to uplift and inspire his audience rather than remind them about the pain of negative racial discord.
For Kravitz, “Black & White America” is an opportunity to personalize his experiences through song—experiences of home life, of culture, and of racism. He hopes to revitalize people’s belief in goodness through songs that are a “celebration” of life. “Anybody listening is going to feel it and be uplifted by the spirit of the music,” he avers. This sentiment rings true with all of the tracks on the album, which carry lively beats and catchy phrases that are full of life and spirit. The title track achieves both goals of positive energy and social commentary:
The future looks as though it has come around
And maybe we have finally found our common ground
We’re the children of our father,
if you’re looking back, don’t bother
We’re black and white America
In an artistic move that plays with innovation and nostalgia, Kravitz weaves his personal story into a broad social message. His own experience as the child of mixed race parents models the successful unity between blacks and whites in spite of surrounding discrimination and prejudice. The “future”—peaceful and equal relations between blacks and whites—has reached Kravitz through the loving bond of his family, and his lyrics strive to reach out and inspire other people to appreciate their bonds of family and friendship. Kravitz does not advocate black solidarity (perhaps this is implied in “looking back”), but rather black and white togetherness. “Looking back” to the past reminds us of racial strife, but only looking forward, only the “future,” can promise progress. We are black and white America, Kravitz declares, as a personal sentiment but also as a prediction of the future. He envisions an integrated country, free of racism and segregation, which stands on common ground where blacks and whites relate to one another in terms of similarities rather than differences.
Kravitz’s album achieves a remarkable duality. Not only does his music reflect on the past, but it looks to the future. He perceives that future in a positive light and his message is one of hope and optimism. Poetry is often thought by scholars to predict the future, where the poet possesses divine intuition and thus can foretell the state of society. Musicians, a different strand of poet, seem to possess this intuition. Kravitz may be blessed with the gift of predicting the future, as his lyrics resonate so powerfully with the past and the present. The songs of “Black & White America” guide and mentor Americans toward a more tolerant and hopeful manner of existing in the world. Through the medium of music, Lenny Kravitz inspires kinship and commonality. As he describes his album as a “celebration,” he is communicating the true purpose of Black History Month: a celebration of blacks, striving for and achieving unity with people of all different races.
To learn more about Lenny Kravitz and his new album, visit www.lennykravitz.com.
John Greene - A Mentor for...
History in Motion: The...
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Take 5 with "Thacker Mountain Radio: The Documentary"
The 7th annual Oxford Film Festival is getting closer every day. Before we kick off another fun-packed festival, we thought we would take five with filmmakers and get to know them just a little better.
Mary Warner is a familiar face as a former Oxonian. Recently a transplant to Atlanta, Warner is the former producer of Thacker Mountain Radio. Working with documentary filmmaker Joe York, Warner took on a familiar subject with her documentary, "Thacker Mountain Radio: The Documentary."
The film screens Saturday at 12:30 p.m.in Mississippi Documentaries. Mary Warner is scheduled to attend.
OFF: In 10 words, describe your movie and why someone should see it.
MW: Communities are disappearing exponentially. Here's one that's alive and well.
OFF: Biggest lesson learned in getting the film made? Best part in getting
the film made?
MW: Filmmaking requires a sort of problem solving that is entirely different from what I use for my other profession as a writer. Once I changed my mindset set from a linear way of thinking to the kind of dynamic thinking this film required, everything fell into place. For me, the film is a love letter to the people I served while producing Thacker Mountain Radio. For years, the show provided me with a community that was nurturing and supportive, and it was through working on the show that I realized the real value of community. This film is my way of giving back and honoring the people who put their blood and sweat into the shows production week in and week out.
OFF: Tell us about you. What is your movie making background?
MW: I learned about film making as a graduate student in Southern Studies at the University of Mississippi largely under the direction of Joe York. Part of my thesis was a film about Thacker Mountain Radio. Joe York saw my thesis film and asked if he could work with me on a new feature-length version. Although I have since moved to Atlanta, GA, we've been working together on it since the summer of 2009. I'm still making films. Currently, I'm wrapping up a short film on sustainable building and design technologies for one of my clients.
OFF: What’s your dream distribution plan for the film?
MW: I hadn't really thought of the big picture with this film. My hope is that people will see this film and its correlation to their own town's community events.
OFF: What’s the future hold in store for your film and for you?
MW: I've been working on this film for a while and it's time for me to switch gears to finish the manuscript for a book about Thacker Mountain Radio for University Press of Mississippi. The message of both the film and the book is that we must create these community events to sustain the various cultural landscapes across America. A Prairie Home Companion does for the Midwest what I think Thacker Mountain Radio does for the south, that is celebrate regional culture. I've been in touch with the producers of other radio shows that are similar to Thacker Mountain Radio, and they are interested in viewing the film, so we'll see what happens.
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UNIT 9 MODERN STATE AND WELFARE
9.2 Welfare State
9.3 From Charity to Welfare: The English Experience
9.3.1 Elizabethan Poor Laws
9.3.2 Poverty and Charit y : Differing Perspectives
9.3.3 Relief to Services: Change to Welfare
9.4 Social Legislation for Social Control: Germany under Bismarck
9.5 From Benevolence to Community Centred Welfare: The Case of Japan
9.5.1 Taking care of the Urban Poor: Wealthy Merchants and Charity
9.5.2 Confucian Piety and Self-Help: The Ideas of Ninomiya Sontoku
9.5.3 Meiji Welfare Polices: Saving the Samurai or Charity begins at Home
9.5.4 Relief and the Poor: The Dangers of Dependence
9.5.5 Influence of Western Ideas on Japan
9.5.6 National Objectives and Welfare: Strengthening State Control
9.5.7 Private Charity: Emperor and Christian Groups
9.5.8 New Ideas about Relief: Public Responsibility of the State
9.5.9 The Ministry of Health and Welfare: Furthering the War Effort
9.6 Summary
Unit 4 of Block 2 (Theories of State) informed you about a new type of state that had emerged in the wake of industrialization. This Unit goes into a discussion of one important feature and function of the modern state: welfare and social responsibilities. The Unit will argue that in the pre-modern time charity and welfare were tasks that were generally performed by the family, community or the religious establishment. In modern times, however, the state looks upon welfare as a part of its responsibility and handles it in an institutionalized manner.
This Unit will discuss the concept of welfare state and then take up three examples of welfare states - England, Germany and Japan. In all the three models, the policy makers faced the same dilemmas on the questions of charity and welfare. For instance, who should be the real recipients of relief and help from the state? Does relief genuinely help the poor or promote indolence and idleness among them? How to ensure that the benefits of relief reach only those who need it? And, how to ensure that it does not
create a group of parasites who would soon become a liability on the system? These 27
The Modern State and
questions came up for debate in the context of welfare in the three countries discussed. These questions are relevant even today. This Unit will give you some idea about how these unresolved questions were debated by the thinkers and philosophers and what were the type of welfare measure and institutions, evolved by the three modern state systems.
9.2 THE WELFARE STATE
One of the defining characteristics of the modern state is seen in the responsibility it takes for the welfare of its citizens. The state regulates social and economic relations to ensure the well being of all its people. This change from a time when charity and relief provided by the family, community or Church to social welfare is seen as the process by which the modern Western European State has progressed and this history is inextricably linked with the creation of a modern sensibility. In the premodern period, it is argued, the individual could only appeal to the Church or religious groups, family or the community when faced with poverty or illness and the causes of poverty were often seen either in fate or in individual failure. Communities or individuals in distress could then appeal to the charity or benevolence of the rulers or that of their family or community. Industrialisation brought with it economic growth but also the growth of urban centres where an increasing class of people lived at subsistence levels. The modern state began to tackle the social problems that arose out of this through measures that grew in coverage both out of a strong sense of humanitarian concern as well as because of a fear of social unrest. This body of legislation developed the welfare state where not just the poor but all citizens were entitled to a variety of social benefits such as a minimum wage, access to public health systems and schemes were established for social insurance such as old age pensions, or unemployment benefits. The state moved from moral exhortation to providing assistance to help the disadvantaged and as it did so it took positive steps to reduce income disparities through taxation and special schemes to benefit those who were economically or socially disadvantaged.
How does this process take place? Is it a natural progression as societies modernise and develop? What underlies this humanitarian concern? Some historians would explain disinterested reform as serving class interests so that the ascendancy of a new class led people to think in terms of social legislation. Is there a convergence so that all societies slowly emulate the experience of the European states? The European experience has become the norm against which to measure the progress of all states but it can be argued that the history and traditions of a country can act as equally important influences on the shape and character of welfare policies and the philosophy that underlies them.
Contemporary debates about entitlements and welfare policies both in the United States and Western Europe as well as in India and other developing countries have been sharp and acrimonious criticising state assistance for removing incentives for work as well as for placing an intolerable burden on the state exchequer. Critics have also seen help to the disadvantaged as a form of ‘reverse discrimination”. These debates highlight the different approach that countries have followed and an examination of the history of social legislation will allow us to understand that there is not one ideal system to which all countries have to aspire to emulate. An examination of English and German social legislation shows the differing approaches and objectives that the two countries had so that even when we talk of the West it is important to bear in mind the diversity that this word often hides. The history of social legislation in Japan shows how a non-Western society that developed within the period of Western dominance was able to develop a welfare system that owed as much to the new doctrines and ideas coming from the
West as to its own historical traditions. By considering both Western and non-Western
countries it will be possible to see the complex strands that have contributed to shaping the nature of welfare in the modern world.
England was the first European country to come under the spell of industrialisation. As a consequence, it took the lead in modern institutions like democracy and a modern representative state system: England also had a long tradition of charity. These features placed England at the centre of any debate on welfare state. In this section we will look at the English experience of charity and welfare.
The European experience has been heavily influenced by the experience of Britain which has had a long history of public assistance to the poor and private charity. The poor were in earlier times wards of the Church but by Elizabethan period in the sixteenth century laws were enacted to establish a national system of relief that provided legal and compulsory help to the poor. The Poor Laws were codified in 1597-1598 and re- enacted in 1601 and under these laws the parish became the basic unit of administration to manage relief work. A compulsory tax was imposed on each household and this money was used to provide relief to the aged, the infirm but not the ‘sturdy beggar’. The able-bodied poor were punished. Social reformers and social legislation was concerned with discouraging dependence on charity that would lead to idleness. They did this through forced work or punishments such as whipping. The principle that the poor laws were based on was ‘work for those that will labour, punishment for those that will not, and bread for those who cannot.”
In economic thought the idle poor also represented an intolerable drain on the wealth of the nation and consequently many schemes were devised to put them to work. Reformers wrote about workhouses and labour camps and the condition in the workhouses was designed to be worse than outside. Part of the concern about the drain of wealth was due to the expenditure on relief works which rose to astronomical heights from £665,000 in 1685 to £900,000 in 1701 and by 1711 it was over £2 million and that for a population of 6 million!
It was this background that put England far ahead of the other European states in its concern and policies for the poor. Many travellers were impressed and wrote glowingly of these polices. Benjamin Franklin came to England in 1766 and praised the way England looked after her poor but he also raised the question that was much debated in contemporary England, and which continues to evoke a debate even today. He wrote, “There is no country in the world where so many provisions are established for them[the poor]; hospitals, almshouses, a tax for the support of the poor…In short, you offered a premium for the encouragement of idleness, and you should not now wonder that it has had its effect in the increase of poverty.
Alexis de Tocqueville, a French scholar visited England in 1833 and wrote a Memoir on Pauperism (1835) where he wrote “with indescribable astonishment…[that]..one- sixth of the inhabitants of this flourishing kingdom live at the expense of public charity”. He was astonished because he saw England as a developed, prosperous country, the very “Eden of modern civilisation” and noted that other European countries were poorer and the poor in England rich compared to the European poor but English poverty was
Modern State and
of a different type. This poverty amidst plenty had nothing to do with subsistence but for the English “the lack of a multitude of things causes poverty”. This was, he wrote, also accompanied by a commitment to alleviate poverty for ‘society believes itself bound to come to the aid of those who lack them. These changes brought about a more reasoned and systematic form of social action to mitigate poverty. It transformed what was private charity oven out of a moral duty into a legal obligation. Like Franklin before him Tocqueville noted that the guarantee of the means of subsistence removes the incentive to work and will promote idleness. Tocqueville, as a result, came out openly in defence of private charity. Public charity, by marking the recipient as a pauper, he wrote, stigmatises the recipient as well as creates incentives for idleness. The poor had to write their names in poor rolls and Tocqueville found this to be, “a notarized manifestation of misery, of weakness, of misconduct on the part of the recipient.”
9.2.2 Poverty and Charity : Differing Perspectives
Economic development as well as social dislocation marked the capitalist transformation of the world between 1750-1850. In this situation ideas about relief and charity also began to change. The reform sentiment that gathered momentum during this period effected a range of social policies but perhaps the movement against slavery was the most dramatic of these. Electoral reforms allowed greater participation and in turn parliament was made more sensitive to popular opinion and became the vehicle for realising social legislation. The reforms of 1834 set up a Central Poor Commission to supervise the administration of poor relief that had become inefficient and corrupt. The able-bodied poor were kept out of relief system through the workhouse test since conditions in the workhouse were always harsher than outside. Yet these reforms did establish a system that carried social legislation further by regulating hours and conditions of work in factories and mines.
Concern for public health had become particularly necessary because of the cholera epidemics of 1831-3 and 1847-8 but the untiring efforts of Edwin Chadwick were equally important for a better organisation of urban life. An Act of 1848 established a central board of health on the lines of the Poor Law Commissioners that had the power to establish local boards. Other Acts enforced regulations governing education, prison conditions, and working conditions for children and women. The New Poor Laws gave rise to intense debates that centre around a distinction between the poor and the pauper. The laws it was argued was ‘pauperising the poor’. This was because the laws gave an allowance to the poor. The funds for this allowance were generated through extra rates levied on tax payers. It was argued that not only did this work as a disincentive to work but it drove wages down, led to a fall in productivity, and was a burden on those who paid the extra rates but did not benefit from it. Because of this burden these people were driven to swell the ranks of unemployed agricultural labour.
The question of who are the poor was central to much of the debates and proposals for social legislation. At the end of the eighteenth century Edmund Burke had objected to the phrase ‘labouring poor’ arguing that there were ‘labouring poor’ who worked for their subsistence and the ‘poor’ who were the sick, infirm, or those orphaned in their infancy or incapacitated by old age. The Church had given alms regardless of whether the recipient laboured or not as did the Elizabethan poor laws. It was John Malthus who introduced an idea of ambiguity. Malthus argued against the idea that an expanding industrial economy would produce sufficient wealth to provide for the ‘happiness and comfort of the lower orders of society’. Industrial growth would lead to a growth in population but agricultural production would not rise leading to a worsening of conditions for those struggling for subsistence. Any relief given to these paupers would increase their population and consequently worsen the situation as there would be a decrease in
food available for the entire poor population. The only way to break out of this vicious cycle was through the exercise of ‘moral restraint’.
It was this type of thinking that supported and sustained programmes of social amelioration and created a division among social reformers. It was this thinking and these debates that are reflected in Disraeli’s comment that in England now “Poverty is a crime” or in Thomas Carlyle’s statement that these laws put a ‘bounty on unthrift, idleness, bastardy and beer drinking.’ The debates however, also had a positive effect as they shifted concerns from poverty narrowly defined to larger issues of the obligations of state and society, of the causes of social inequality, the basis of law and obligation. Thinkers such as Karl Marx and Friedrich Engles argued that inequities in the system could only be changed through revolutionary change that would give the full value of his labour to the worker, others sought to return to the old community based systems that had disintegrated and some others sought to bring about legal restrictions that would regulate factory work, public health and mitigate the effects of early industrialisation.
As the general condition of the working class began to improve the stigma attached to poverty began to change and disappear. It was now narrowly focussed on the urban vagrant whom Henry Mayhew characterised as the ‘peculiar poor’ marked by a
‘distinctive moral physiognomy’. This differentiation of the poor was taken further by
Charles Booth who through careful household surveys, (published as Life and Labour of the People of London between 1889-1903 in 14 volumes) made a distinction between the very poor (paupers, street folk) and the comfortable working class. He drew a poverty line and laid the basis for providing social legislation to help this category of deserving poor and they benefited from subsequent legislation such as the Old Age Pensions Act of 1898 or the National Insurance Act of 1911.
Poverty and its relief were now transformed into a social problem that required a different approach. It was no longer a matter of providing relief but services and these not just to a particular group of people but to all citizens. Moreover, these were not the bare minimum required but would soon be set at what the 1945 Labour Party manifesto called the ‘optimum standard’. Comprehensive social legislation was made a reality with the Liberal party in 1905 under the leadership of the younger generations of liberals, Herbert Asquith, David Lloyd George and Winston Churchill and the pressure of trade unions. They were committed to waging a war against misery and squalor. Under their leadership an impressive array of legislation was enacted: Workers Compensation Act (1906), Old Age Pension Laws (1908), Trade Board Acts (1909) that was empowered to set up special commissions to fix a minimum wage for workers. The National Insurance Act (1911) which was a contributory scheme for all workers was modelled on Bismarck’s scheme of 1883-9 and made friendly societies and trade unions ‘approved societies’ to administer the scheme reflecting the cooperation between state and voluntary bodies. Similarly measures for town planning were influenced by German laws and the Education Act of 1902 was an attempt to catch up with the German and French systems that were far more advanced.
The Liberals also enacted laws to clear slums and build proper houses for the poor in
1909. This aside from improving living conditions also fuelled a construction boom in the coming years. Lloyd George’s proposed budget of 1909 which was defeated in the House of Lords was written reflecting this new philosophy of welfare. He provided for an increase in income tax as well as a super tax on the incomes of the rich. He proposed to confiscate 20 per cent from unearned increment of land values as well as levied a heavy tax on undeveloped land. These revenues were to be used for old age pensions as well as other forms of social insurance. They would also go towards changing the
social structure by breaking the monopoly of the rich nobility. There were many big landowners among the nobility, for instance the Duke of Westminister owned over 600 acres in London at this time. Though defeated the Liberals managed to enact many of these measures when they came back to power in 1910.
The post war years influenced by the economic crisis and unemployment before the war and this sense of crisis during the war fuelled the resurgence of left wing movements all over Europe. People increasingly demanded that the state had an obligation to secure the well being of its citizens. In 1942 Sir William Beveridge’s Report on Social Insurance and Allied Services (1942) laid out a practical plan for a comprehensive public protection of the individual. It was on the basis of this that the Labour government of 1945 enacted laws that ended the old poor law system and created a social security system that brought together earlier elements as well as allowed for voluntary schemes as well. Education had been reorganised through the Butler Act of 1944 and in 1945 a system of family allowances was started.
9.4 SOCIAL LEGISLATION FOR SOCIAL CONTROL : GERMANY UNDER BISMARCK
In Europe Germany presents an example where a different philosophy helped to determine the nature of the welfare system. Poor relief had traditionally been left to the communes but in Prussia systematic efforts were made to provide relief for the poor. In the Rhine provinces an unsuccessful attempt had been made in 1824 to restrict working hours of children in factories. They became more concerned when they realised that these provinces were not contributing their full quota of troops because of physical problems in the population. The powers to control industry had been taken away from the guild but after the middle of the century they were given the function of social insurance. A system of state sponsored education was also developed.
Germany under the leadership of Otto von Bismarck was the first country to adopt comprehensive social legislation. Bismarck was motivated by a political vision glorifying the nation and an economic vision that stressed national self-sufficiency and paternalism. He also sought to counter the threat posed by the demands of a socialist movement. In the Reichstag he stated clearly that the purpose of enacting legislation to provide insurance against sickness and old age to workers was so that ‘these gentlemen [Social Democrats] will sound their bird call in vain. The workers health was important to the nation because the worker was also the soldier that protected the state. The duty of the State, according to Bismarck was to regulate all aspects of life in the national interest. To make the nation strong it was necessary to help the weaker citizens.
The logic of the Bismarckian view can be traced to the changes brought about during the French Revolution when the levee en masse or universal conscription was introduced in August 1793 and then continued in the Law of Conscription 1798. The state now had the right to call up all its citizens to defend it. Now wars became conflicts between nations so that in democratic societies just as the state could call up all its citizens to defend it, it became the duty of the state to look after the welfare of its people. The scope of the revolutionary government in France reflected this new relationship as it carried out policies to improve and assist its people even abolishing slavery in the colonies. As David Thompson writes, “This connection between the necessities of warfare and the development of welfare was to remain constant throughout subsequent European history.”
Bismarck’s motives have been debated and it has been noted that he never mentioned social legislation in his memoirs. However, that is not a reliable guide because even as
Minister President of Prussia in 1862-63 he had begun to think of insurance plans for workers so that the subsequent legislation he initiated grew out of this earlier thinking. Certainly Bismarck tried hard to eradicate socialism, just as hard as he tried to control the Catholic Church, as a force in German political life. The anti-Socialist law of 1878 however failed to curb the growth of socialism and was allowed to lapse in 1890.
The German welfare system codified earlier voluntary activities by guilds, parishes and benefit societies through laws passed between 1883 and 1889, sought to provide insurance for urban workers against sickness, accident and problems of old age. These were further extended in 1911 to non-industrial workers such as agricultural workers and domestic servants so that in 1913 around fourteen and a half million people were insured. Laws regulating factories and child labour came in 1914 and unemployment insurance for workers only in 1924. In fact the German welfare system provided the most comprehensive protection to workers in all of Europe and became a model that many copied.
State Preserving Policies: Combating Socialism through Legislation
During 1883-84 Germany enacted social legislation that provided for factory inspection, limited the employment of women and children, fixed minimum hours of work, established public employment agencies and insured workers for their old age. Except for unemployment insurance Germany under Bismarck had adopted all the elements of welfare legislation. These measures were adopted because as the Emperor stated in the Reichstag in February 1879, while introducing the anti-socialist law of 21 October,
1878 that this House would not refuse its cooperation to the remedying of social ills by
means of legislation. A remedy cannot alone be sought in the repression of socialist excesses; there must be simultaneously the positive advancement of the welfare of the working class. And here the care of those workpeople who are incapable of earning their livelihood is of the first importance. The statement added to the Accident Insurance Bill, March 1881 explained the motives of the legislation in clear terms that the state: should interest itself to greater degree than hitherto in those of its members who need assistance, is not only a duty of and Christianity - by which state institutions should be permeated - but a duty of state-preserving policy, whose aim should be to cultivate the conception - and that, too, amongst nonpropertied classes, which form at once the most numerous and the least instructed part of the population - that the state is not merely a necessary but a beneficent institution. These classes must, by the evident and direct advantages which are secured to them by legislative measures, be led to regard the state not as an institution contrived for the protection of the better classes of society, but as one serving their own needs and interests.
In Europe other countries also followed this path to cope with the democratisation of politics. France enacted a law to regulate the employment of women and children and it fixed ten hours a day as the maximum for all workers. Working hours were further reduced in 1905. Other laws instituted free medical services, protection to labour unions and compensation for work related injuries from the employers and finally in 1910 an old age pension system. The Italian government also passed similar laws, except it did not provide free medical services though it encouraged co-operative stores and provided nationalised life insurance.
Unlike these polices that were marked by obligatory help on a long term basis in pre- modern Japan ideas of welfare were based on an ideology of benevolent rule where the ruler helped to mitigate the suffering of his people through timely help. To demonstrate
his compassion and re-assert his moral authority the ruler would provide relief. Relief usually followed bad harvests and often vast sums were used to purchase rice that was distributed to the people. By the early nineteenth century such aid was supplemented by construction projects that provided work. The nature of this relief was grounded in a hierarchical relationship between the lord and his people but this was also reinforced by the demands of political stability. Peasants hit by famine posed a threat to social and political stability so benevolence became a vital political instrument.
The rulers saw the political necessity of ameliorating the effects of disaster but their benevolence was not unlimited. The people who could be helped were limited to those who had no one to turn to such as orphans and the destitute. It was not meant for the able-bodied for whom moral exhortations to be diligent and thrifty were the favoured panacea. Relief measures were carried out mostly through the family and the community. Since taxes were paid collectively the richer families were motivated to help the weaker and poorer. However, the authorities, domain or central actively encouraged and helped to set up institutions to provide help in calamitous times. In some domains granaries were set up in villages to provide rice during emergencies and charity was encouraged by official commendation.
Pre-modern Japan had a high proportion of its population living in urban centres. The capital Edo (now called Tokyo) had over a million people at its height and Kyoto and Osaka a population of approximately half a million each and there were over dozen large castle towns. These urban centres attracted people from the countryside and inevitably a class of vagabonds and those with no fixed work grew. The cities mostly administered directly by the Shogunate set up relief shelters in the mid-seventeenth century. These provided temporary help after which the people were sent back to their villages. These gradually became permanent facilities by the late seventeenth and early eighteenth century. In the late eighteenth century a type of workhouse was started in Edo where the aim was to help those without a criminal background to learn new skills and become gainfully employed. This was in part a reaction to famine as well as urban riots. The inmates were also given a course of practical ethics to ensure that they were provided the appropriate moral basis to develop their lives.
Along with this a fund was created for providing temporary relief during emergencies as well as on-going help for the aged, children and the ill without relatives. The scale of the help provided can be gauged from the fact that in 1805 about 4 out of 1,000 townspeople in Edo received help. This relief system was sustained by a special tax and managed by wealthy merchants. This was then compared to Shogunal benevolence a more public and sustained relief system than the measures practised in the villages that tended to deal with specific emergencies.
9.5.2 Confucian Piety and Self-Help: The Ideas of Ninomiya
Sontoku
The development of such institutions was accompanied by ideas about how to tackle poverty and provide aid to the downtrodden, poor and destitute. Ninomiya Sontoku (1787-1856) was the most famous of the philosophers coming out of a prosperous farming family who advocated self-help. He and other reformers like him preached Confucian ideas of filial piety and diligence but they did not see the social order as static. They argued that even poor peasants by working hard, being thrifty and improving productivity by using new agricultural methods could improve their lot and become wealthy. However, it must be noted that while promoting self-help they did not see the
self as the individual but rather as the community. This led them to be critical of charity as counterproductive and they placed their emphasis on mutual assistance as well as interest free loans. So in 1830 Ninomiya Sontoku wrote, “Grants in money, or release from taxes, will in no way help them in their distress. Indeed, one secret of their salvation lies in withdrawing all monetary help from them. Such help only induces avarice and indolence, and is a fruitful source of dissension among the people.”
These were the different strands that together with the new ideas coming from the West that shaped the intellectual and institutional forms that welfare measures would take in the modern period. What does emerge is that certain key elements had been clearly formulated and these underlie much of the contemporary writing on the subject. These elements are that the problem of poverty can only be resolved through the joint efforts of the community and the state, the fear that relief would lead to laziness and dependence on state help and that moral suasion was an important element in resolving the problem of poverty.
The creation of the modern state in Japan began after the restoration of 1868 when the Tokugawa Shogunate was overthrown and the Meiji Government established. The Meiji government instituted a series of measures to set up the institutional structure of a modern state system grounded in the belief that it was the responsibility of the state to create a strong and prosperous country. As in many other areas the idea of welfare was heavily influenced by the earlier notions of giving relief to the needy thus the government responded to disasters and helped those without support. The biggest beneficiaries of state aid by the new Meiji government were the samurai, the erstwhile ruling group that as a class had seen its incomes decline. The government alive to the potential of political disruption instituted a scheme to commute their land rents into government bonds that would enable them to make the transition.
Government practices were also influenced by the examples now available to them from Europe. Thus the Agricultural distress fund Law of 1880 which set up reserve funds to provide grants or loans to those affected by bad harvests was modelled on regulations in effect in Prussia. Under this law during 1881-1886 over three million affected people were helped and another million families received grants. The success of this was praised in German newspapers of the day but this fund was severely curtailed after 1890 when the state withdrew its contributions. Other groups of poor who did not constitute a political threat were not so generously looked after.
9.5.4 Relief and the Poor: Dangers of Dependence
The Meiji government’s centralisation policies found in civic institutions alternative centres of power that needed to be curtailed. Thus the fund managed by the wealthy merchants of Edo was abolished in 1872 despite the massive relief work it had done during the turmoil of the Meiji restoration. The basic law that looked after the welfare of the poor was the Relief Regulations of 1874. This law aimed to provide small assistance to the poor but because conditions for giving relief were so stringent that actually very few received it. In 1876 only 2,521 received it and by 1892 it had gone up to only 18,545 and this despite years of recession and distress. The idea that state welfare could debilitate the recipient remained very strong. Thus the Home Ministry wrote that ‘if the elderly, sick, poor and decrepit grow accustomed to relief, in the end, will not good people lapse into idleness and lose their spirit of independence and, in particular, become reliant on the government.”
Politics 9.5.5 Influence of Western Ideas on Japan
Ideas about poverty began to be influenced by western writings where the influence of John Malthus Essay on Population gave rise to a vast literature against public assistance programmes. In books such as Henry Fawcett’s Pauperism: Its causes and remedies it was argued that poverty was due to individual failing and the answer was in self- improvement rather than government assistance. Similarly, Fukuzawa Yukichi, arguably one of the most influential Meiji thinkers, argued for a national relief law, on the basis of England’s New Poor Law of 1834 but only if it served to take people off state assistance. This thinking was reflected, in the reduction of public relief by state bodies. In 1881 the Tokyo Prefectural assembly stopped funds for free medical treatment and the first popularly elected Imperial Diet of 1890 attacked the government’s poor relief bill.
English liberalism and ideas of laissez-faire (non-interventionism) helped to buttress government desire to reduce expenditure on poor relief. The government sought to ensure that relief would be managed through the community and the family and in this the Civil Code of 1898 provided explicit support. In other words the state intervened to force family and neighbours to aid the poor. The state worked through private relief efforts in time of emergencies and this policy proved successful because Japan was still largely an agrarian society. The number of farm households declined slowly till WWII and this meant that family, community and mutual assistance networks continued to function effectively.
The mid-1880’s witnessed economic recession and social problems so much so that the question of poverty and how to eliminate it became a central focus of discussion and debate. The influence of Bismarck’s social policies in Germany provided an alternative route for some of the leading Japanese thinkers and bureaucracy involved in formulating policy. They argued that it was the responsibility of the State to raise productivity and maintain order and for this the health and well being of its population was an integral element. Bureaucrats influenced by these ideas wanted a European style welfare programme in which public assistance and social insurance for workers would be provided. The first attempt to modify the Relief Regulations, along European lines, where central funds would be disbursed through municipalities was defeated.
Redefining Japanese Welfare: The Difference from Europe
In Japan in 1902 when another attempt to propose a poor relief bill was made critics argued that it would encourage indolence, drain resources and increase the number of poor. A man who represented this new thinking was Inoue Tomoichi, who had made a close study of the welfare systems practised in Europe and written extensively on them. In his various official positions he was to exercise a great influence on policy formation. Now they began to define Japanese policy in terms of its difference from England, Germany and other European countries. Their concern was how to prevent the rise of poverty that seemed to accompany industrialisation and for this they argued that welfare is not a right but an act of mercy by the State and will be given by the central government. The healthy poor will be excluded unlike Europe where there was an on-going relief system for the healthy and able bodied poor.
Here arguments were advanced that Japan was different from the West because in Japan the family was the important unit rather than the individual. This was the reason for a low population of poor and helped to keep relief expenditure by the state down as well. They saw England as the prime example of escalating welfare expenditure. In this they were successful as the number of welfare recipients was brought down so that in
1903 it was only 3 in 10,000 Japanese. There were subsequent cuts in the central
36 budget and the responsibility was shifted to municipalities so that even as the population
rose and inflation grew welfare expenditures fell. Government efforts were directed at preventing poverty through moral instruction.
The idea that poverty could be reduced through a proper moral curriculum and training was in part a product of the influence of the British Fabian socialists Beatrice and Sydney Webb. Beatrice Webb’s Minority Report to the Royal Commission on the Poor Law (1905-1909) argued for abolishing the Poor law. Their jointly written book The Prevention of Destitution, (1911) suggested that while preventive measures such as minimum wages, education, medical services were important there was also an equally important need to reform the habits of the unemployed. In line with this thinking the Webbs when they visited Japan emphasised to their hosts the need to prevent the poor from developing the idea that relief was a matter of right.
9.5.6 National Objectives and Welfare: Strengthening State
The period after the Russo-Japanese war (1904-1905) saw government policies successfully integrating and linking the individual and the state. Policies were directed at directing individual effort to fulfil national objectives and welfare polices too were drafted within this framework. Rather than poor relief the government focussed in rebuilding the community as with urbanisation and industrialisation community and village bonds had loosened if not withered away. The growth of slums in urban centres reflected the growing numbers of poor workers. In the Local Improvement Campaign (1906-1918) the government used municipalities as well as private organisations to organise community groups such as the local “repaying virtue societies (hotokusha) The government also encouraged local leaders to undertake social work and to that end sponsored seminars at the national and local level to teach them how to go about doing this. It also established in 1908 a central Charity Association to study issues of poverty and carry out relief work.
The government guided private work because as they said unlike the West Japan did not have a long tradition of private charity. Christian groups played a very important part both in setting up orphanages and other charitable institutions and in influencing government policy on moral reform. It was Christians such as Tomeoka Kosuke, a social reformer who were active in introducing the ideas of Ninomiya Sontoku that hard work and thrift would eliminate poverty.
The Imperial household also played a large role in contributing to welfare activities through donations. These were directed through private organisations and often motivated by a desire to curb radical political movements. Thus the largest donations were made in 1910 when twelve socialists were executed for allegedly trying to kill the Emperor. In terms of the amount of money spent private institutions continued to play a major role but the state managed many of the voluntary bodies often forcing people to donate. The thinking behind government policies continued to be that relief was not a matter of right.
The years following WWI saw the emergence of Japan as a major political actor on the international scene. Internally the expansion of the economy also helped to sharpen social problems. Japanese bureaucrats as well as reformers began to now look for welfare models in Britain, Weimar Germany and the United States. Relief work had been supervised by the Bureau of Local Affairs but by 1920 a Bureau of Social Affairs was established which looked after poor relief, veteran’s assistance, children’s welfare
and unemployment. The bureaucrats in these offices had a different viewpoint. They argued that in these new times it was no longer possible to rely on family or neighbourhood for relief. The state must spend resources on ensuring public assistance. They saw society as the unit at which poverty could be tackled and this view was grounded in social theories emanating from Europe that said the state had a public responsibility. However, even while the state’s obligation to relieve poverty now became the key element in social policy earlier ideas were not jettisoned and the family system continued to be stressed. Also the idea that public assistance must not create dependency continued to be a major strain in official documents as well as in the thinking of reformers.
The Bureau managed to institute labour exchanges (1921) workers health insurance (1922) restrictions on work hours for children, women (1923) mandatory retirement age and severance pay (1936) and seaman’s insurance (1938). While debates continued about what system to adopt and various commissions studied European practices the district commissioner system developed in Osaka was an innovative contribution. In each school district the government selected a local notable or person of virtue. Each of these unpaid commissioners was responsible for two hundred households. They in turn elected representatives to an Executive Council which met once a month. The commissioners surveyed the poor in their area, provided counsel and helped organise relief funds or medical care and other social services. This system spread so that by
1931 district commissioners were in 43 prefectures and by 1942 there were nearly
74,560 commissioners (4,537 of them women). Nearly all the municipalities had adopted this system by 1942.
The district commissioner system became the cornerstone of social policy because it was cost effective and allowed timely intervention to help families in a variety of ways ranging from advice on better household management to medical care or providing relief. The commissioners could also help to correct household registers as they tracked down relatives who could provide support to destitute relatives. These commissioners came from the middle classes rather than the local notables who had been the earlier focus of relief systems.
9.5.9 The Ministry of Health and Welfare: Furthering the War
The district commissioners system was followed by the Relief and Protection Law (1929) which was not in any way different in its assumptions from the earlier relief regulations but with the war in China the government established the Ministry of Health and Welfare, at the suggestion of the Army Ministry. The military wanted an efficient health policy for not only its soldiers but for the people from whom it drew its soldiers. The revised Military Assistance Law of 1937 provided for assistance with minimal requirements. Moreover, the assistance was not channelled through the family and the recipient did not lose his right to vote. Unlike earlier systems this did not make it difficult for the poor to seek state relief. Through the war all systems including the district commissioners system were directed towards the war effort. This helped in providing welfare facilities for the general population rather than just the poor. For instance, day care centres were provided for all children, as was medical care allowances to fatherless families and finally in 1938 a National Health Insurance Law that covered the whole population was passed. The war years while they did see a broadening of the scope of social legislation did neglect the destitute and infirm because it concentrated on the mobilising the nation for the war effort.
Japan’s social legislation did not achieve the levels of Britain, the United States or many countries in Europe till after WWII. The history of its pre-war system shows that indigenous institutions and practices played an important role in shaping social legislation
often incorporating and building on West European and United States policies. Equally
Japanese policy makers changed and adapted these ideas to suit their objectives.
Surveying the history of state concern for the welfare of the people shows the varying paths that countries have taken influenced by their histories and traditions. The traditional concerns whether of relief and charity or of benevolence guided the thinking of rulers and ruled in their understanding of how to better the conditions of the poor and infirm. In the eighteenth century the capitalist transformation of the world created a global economy. The expansion of the economies of the European powers not only allowed them to carve the world into colonial enclaves but also created a larger class of people who benefited from this expansion within their own countries. The British Reform Acts of 1867 and 1883, for instance, expanded the electorate from 3 per cent to 29 per cent. This expansion changed the terms of political debate forcing the state to forge new forms of legitimacy.
Humanitarian concerns became politically important. Earlier such concerns had been expressed through the family or community, particularly religious organisations, or had been seen as acts of benevolence in times of calamity. Now the state began to see the need to provide social legislation to not only provide relief during disasters but also to improve living conditions and reduce subordination and exploitation and accommodate increased political participation. This did not follow a uniform pattern. In Germany and Japan social legislation became a vital element in the policy of social control. In this welfare legislation was a way of strengthening national power. However, the general democratisation of politics and greater political participation through the electoral process changed the forms of social control and placed greater reliance on internalised moral and cultural mechanisms. Relief and charity expanded and were transformed through social legislation that sought to provide for the needs of all its citizens from ‘cradle to grave’. The questions that were raised when these policies were initially formulated still remain, namely, does state support lead to dependence and loss of initiative, are the financial costs placing an unacceptable burden on those who do not benefit from these policies, and do entitlements or reservations create special interest groups. These questions are still with us and are far from resolved, one way or the other. Even though we do not have the answer, we at least know that these questions are important even today and will continue to attract attention so long as economic disparities persist in the world.
9.7 EXPERIENCE
1) How was welfare as practised in Britain different from that practised in Germany?
2) What were the various ideas that were propagated on the concept of welfare?
3) Write an essay on the welfare measures taken in Japan.
Labels: history
All about Father of the Nation...
UNIT 32 CONSUMERISM
UNIT 31 ECOLOGY
UNIT 30 DEMOGRAPHY
UNIT 29 VIOLENCE BY NON-STATE ACTORS
UNIT 28 TOTAL WAR
UNIT 18 COLONIALISM
UNIT 16 MIGRATIONS AND SETTLEMENTS
UNIT 15 CONQUEST AND APPROPRIATION
UNIT 14 UNDERDEVELOPMENT
UNIT 13 SOCIALIST INDUSTRIALIZATION
UNIT 12 CAPITALIST INDUSTRIALIZATION
UNIT 11 COMMERCIAL CAPITALISM
UNIT 10 NATIONALISM
UNIT 8 DEMOCRATIC POLITICS
UNIT 7 BUREAUCRATIZATION
UNIT 6 THE SOCIAL STRUCTURE
UNIT 5 CAPITALIST ECONOMY AND ITS CRITIQUE
UNIT 4 THEORIES OF THE STATE
UNIT 3 CRITIQUES OF ENLIGHTENMENT
UNIT 2 THE ENLIGHTENMENT
UNIT 1 RENAIASSANCE AND THE IDEA OF THE INDIVIDUAL...
THE EARTH DATA
SOLAR SYSTEM - STATISTICS
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NameAbbie ShippImage FirstnameAbbieLastnameShippOffice Phone817-257-7558
Emaila.shipp@tcu.edu
VitaeDownload Vita
Position:Professor of Management, Director of Adaptive Leader Executive Education ProgramDepartment:Management and Leadership DepartmentOffice:TOC 229Role:FacultyEducation
Ph.D., University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
MBA, Oklahoma State University
BSBA, Oklahoma State University
The experience of time at work (e.g., psychology of time, time use, etc.)
Person-environment fit over time
Employee engagement over time
Job attitudes over time
Experiencing and leading change
The Boeing Company, Human Resources
TV Guide, Human Resources
Engaging and Empowering Employees (MBA)
Neeley & Associates Consulting (MBA)
Organizational Management (Undergraduate)
The Leadership Challenge (Undergraduate)
Leading Change (Executive Education)
Adaptive Leadership (Executive Education)
Leading at the Next Level (Executive Education)
Jansen, K. J., & Shipp, A. J. Fitting as a temporal sensemaking process: Shifting trajectories and stable themes. In press at Human Relations.
Shipp, A. J., & Aeon, B. (2019) Temporal focus: Thinking about the past, present, and future. Current Opinion in Psychology, 26, 37-43.
Eldor, L., Fried, Y., Westman, M., Levi, A. S., Shipp, A. J., Slowik, L. H. (2017). The experience of work stress and the context of time: Analyzing the role of subjective time. Organizational Psychology Review, 7(3), 227-249.
Methot, J. R., Lepak, D. P., Shipp, A. J., & Boswell, W. R. (2017). Good citizen interrupted: Calibrating a temporal theory of citizenship behavior. Academy of Management Review, 42(1), 10-31.
Jansen, K. J., Shipp, A. J., & Michael, J. H. (2016). Champions, Converts, Doubters, and Defectors: The impact of shifting perceptions on momentum for change. Personnel Psychology, 69, 673-707.
Cole, M. S., Shipp, A. J., & Taylor, S. (2016). Viewing the interpersonal mistreatment literature through a temporal lens. Organizational Psychology Review, 6, 273-302.
Leroy, S., Shipp, A. J., Blount, S., & Licht, J. G. (2015). Synchrony preference: Why some people go with the flow and some don’t. Personnel Psychology, 68, 759-809.
Shipp, A. J., & Cole, M. S. (2015). Time in individual-level organizational studies: What is it, how is it used, and why isn’t it exploited more often? Annual Review of Organizational Psychology and Organizational Behavior (Volume 2).
Shipp, A. J. & Fried, Y. (Eds.). (2014). Time and Work: How Time Impacts Individuals (Vol. 1) and How Time Impacts Groups, Organizations, and Methodological Choices (Vol. 2) in the Current Issues in Work and Organizational Psychology Series. East Sussex, UK: Psychology Press.
Shipp, A.J., Furst, S. A., Harris, T. B., & Rosen, B. (2014) Gone today but here tomorrow: Extending the unfolding model of turnover to consider Boomerang employees. Personnel Psychology, 67, 421–462.
Bergeron, D. M., Shipp, A. J., Rosen, B., & Furst, S. A. (2013). Organizational citizenship behavior and career outcomes: The cost of being a good citizen. Journal of Management, 39(4), 958-984.
Dunford, B. B., Shipp, A. J., Boss, R. W., Angermeier, I., & Boss, A. D. (2012). Is burnout static or dynamic? A career transition perspective of employee burnout trajectories. Journal of Applied Psychology, 97(3), 637-650.
Zimmerman, R. D., Boswell, W. R., Shipp, A. J., Dunford, B. B., & Boudreau, J. W. (2012). Explaining the pathways between approach-avoidance personality traits and employees' job search behavior. Journal of Management, 38(1), 129-163.
Shipp, A. J., & Jansen, K. J. (2011). Reinterpreting time in fit theory: Crafting and recrafting narratives of fit in medias res. Academy of Management Review, 36(1), 76-101.
Shipp, A. J., Edwards, J. R., & Lambert, L. S. (2009). Conceptualization and measurement of temporal focus: The subjective experience of the past, present, and future. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 110(1), 1-22. (Lead Article)
Boswell, W. R., Shipp, A. J., Payne, S. C., & Youngcourt, S. S. (2009). Changes in newcomer job satisfaction over time: Examining the pattern of honeymoons and hangovers. Journal of Applied Psychology, 94(4), 844-858.
Edwards, J. R., Cable, D. M., Williamson, I. O., Lambert, L. S., & Shipp, A. J. (2006). The phenomenology of fit: Linking the person and environment to the subjective experience of person-environment fit. Journal of Applied Psychology, 91(4), 802-827. -Finalist for the 2007 Owens Scholarly Achievement Award, Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology.
Awards / Recognition
2019 Full-time MBA Students’ “Favorite Professor”
2017 Neeley Outstanding Undergraduate (Core) Teaching Award
2015 Outstanding Reviewer Award, Academy of Management Journal
2014 Outstanding Reviewer Award, Organizational Behavior Division of Academy of Management
2014 Innovation in Teaching Award, Neeley School of Business, TCU
2011 Invited Presenter, Wharton OB Conference
2011 Best Paper Finalist, Academy of Management Review
2010 Mays Business School Research Grant, Texas A&M University
2009 Lockheed Martin Excellence in Teaching Award, Mays Business School, Texas A&M
2008 National Federation of Independent Business(NFIB)Award for Excellence in Research, Babson College Entrepreneurship Research Conference
2008 Top 20 Poster, Society of Industrial and Organizational Psychology (SIOP) Annual Conference
2007 Finalist for Owens Scholarly Achievement Award, SIOP
2007 Center for Human Resource Management Research Grant, Mays Business School, Texas A&M University
2006 Outstanding Ph.D. Student, Kenan-Flagler Business School at UNC
2005 SIOP Scholar, SIOP
England, Scotland, Mexico, Italy, Canada, Morocco, South Africa.
Texas Transportation Institute
Inspirus
ZOE (Board Member)
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Appeals Court: Police can violate our rights without fear of being sued
Delivered by The Daily Sheeple
For those of you that claim we don’t live in a police state, I give you this recent Michigan Appeals Court ruling.
In 2015, Deputy James Dawson went to Joshua Brennan’s home and knocked on his door trying to obtain a breath sample. When Brennan did not answer, Dawson spent an hour and a half knocking at his doors and windows.
Officer Dawson also put crime-scene tape over Brennan’s security cameras to conceal his actions and used his siren and cruiser lights in an attempt to rouse him.
When Brennan finally opened his door, officer Dawson forced him to take a breathalyzer and arrested him for a probation violation even though he blew a 0.000.
All of this was done without a warrant. (Warrantless breathalyzer tests was not a condition of Brennan’s probation.)
If you think, it is obvious to any reasonable person that his rights were violated. Then you don’t know how the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals interprets the Constitution. The fact that this even went to an Appeals Court, speaks volumes about our justice system but I digress.
Let’s get back to the ruling; judge John Nalabandian said that officer Dawson did violate Brennan’s Fourth Amendment rights by searching him without a warrant. All is good so far, right?
Not quite, Nalabandian went on to say “police actions that violate the Constitution do not lead to liability.”
The court also ruled that since officer “Dawson’s implied license was not clearly established” and because of that old police standby, “deficient training” he cannot be sued.
To say that the court’s reasoning is frustrating is an understatement. The court said that because “Wilson and Clare County were not on actual or constructive notice that the deputy training was deficient they could not be liable.”
Does anyone really think police are held to a higher standard when they constantly use the “deficient training” excuse?
If you are upset by the court’s ruling that police are not liable for violating the Constitution I warn you, it only gets worse.
Citizens must prove to judges that violating out rights is unlawful
According to the Sixth Circuit and this speaks volumes about our justice system “the plaintiff bears the burden of proving that the right was so well settled that every reasonable official would understand that what he is doing is unlawful.”
In other words, citizens must prove to a “reasonable official” [judge] that a police officer violating the Constitution is unlawful.
The Sixth Circuit claimed that since the Hardesty v. Hamburg Twp. ruling did not set a limit on how long a police officer can harass people at their homes Brennan cannot sue the police. Even though they admitted that “absent a warrant a police officer has no greater license to remain on the property than a Girl Scout or trick-or-treater.”
The ruling repeatedly admits that “Dawson arguably violated the Constitution.” but states for a second time that “even if a government official violated a constitutional right, that official is entitled to qualified immunity.”
The Sixth Circuit refused to view the “constitutionality of the officer’s conduct or the continuing viability of Hardest and Turk.”
Not only did the Appeals court rule that Brennan cannot sue the police for violating his rights but they dismissed his unlawful arrest claim as well.
Only one judge, Karen Moore dissented and agreed like any “reasonable official” should, saying Brennan’s rights were violated and the officer could be sued.
Why is the media silent when rulings as egregious as this are taking place across the country?
Proving to “reasonable officials” that violating our rights is unlawful? America is fast on its way to becoming a police state.
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Teacher Suspended After ‘Morality Test’ Goes Awry With Incest, Puppy-Killing Questions
After an Ohio parent blew the whistle on a morality test given to a high school class, the Hilliard City School District sent the teacher who gave the test to time out.
Students were given a 36-question test about various ethical situations in which they were asked to choose what actions were OK and which were not.
But the questions, given to a 10th-grade language arts class at Hilliard Bradley High School, crossed a line as far as parent Todd Sandberg was concerned, The Columbus Dispatch reported.
Sandberg said the test was graded in a way that it would tell students their “moral foundation” and their political leanings.
“What does the teacher need to know that information for?” he asked. “The questions are so out of line for high school language arts.”
Some questions asked about typical conflicts and dilemmas, but some were more disturbing and involved sex and violence.
One question talked about a scenario in which “A man kills a baby rabbit with a knife” on a live TV show. As with all the questions, students had to grade the comment on a scale from “Not OK” to “OK.”
In another instance, according to Fox News, students were asked to respond to this statement: “Using both a condom and a pill, a brother and a sister decide that they want to sleep with each other — just once, to see what it would be like.”
“Sarah’s dog has four puppies,” another scenario read, according to Fox News. “She can only find a home for two of them, so she kills the other two with a stone to the head.”
Sandberg pointed out the questions on a Facebook site for parents.
“My job was to point it out,” Sandberg said. “It is clearly evident that it’s out there in the public. The public eye is aware of it. I knew it was going to cause a firestorm.”
The teacher was placed on administrative leave while the district sorts out what to do next, WTTE reported.
The school district then issued a public apology, according to WTTE.
“Last night, we were made aware of a classroom activity that should never have taken place,” the district stated. “We absolutely share the outrage of our parents and community.”
The statement called the test “an isolated incident, and an activity of this nature would never be considered acceptable.”
Sandberg said the underlying issue is that parents need to talk with their children about what’s going on in school.
“Hey, parents, be on the lookout,” he said. “I love the district. This is an isolated case.”
According to the Canton Repository, documents released by the district said the teacher who gave the test is named Sarah Gillam and she has taught at the school since 2007.
Trump, Educated by Heartland, Makes Bold Pitch for Climate Realism
by James Taylor
President Trump has stood up more firmly for sound science and climate realism than any prior president.
President Donald Trump this week stood firm when subjected to a 60 Minutes interrogation on climate, making a bold pitch for climate realism. The Heartland Institute was happy to help the president in his successful efforts.
60 Minutes journalist Leslie Stahl began the interrogation by asking Trump if he thought climate change is a hoax. While declining to use the word “hoax,” Trump cast doubt on the notion that humans are creating a global warming crisis.
“Something’s changing and it’ll change back again…. But I don’t know that it’s manmade,” said Trump.
Trump referenced the economy-killing schemes proposed to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, as well as the $100-billion-annual wealth transfers to developing nations under the Paris climate agreement.
“I don’t want to give trillions and trillions of dollars. I don’t want to lose millions and millions of jobs. I don’t want to be put at a disadvantage,” Trump explained.
When Stahl attempted to argue that scientists at NOAA and NASA make alarming global warming predictions, Trump immediately countered, “We have scientists that disagree with that.”
Scientists affiliated with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and NASA have joined scores of other scientists making the case for global warming skepticism at The Heartland Institute’s International Conference on Climate Change series. Thousands of other scientists have signed the Oregon Petition, expressing similar skepticism about global warming alarmism.
Trump also noted that climate change has been a natural occurrence for millions of years.
Trump followed up his schooling of Leslie Stahl with an interview this Tuesday with the Associated Press.
Responding to a challenge about hurricanes, Trump observed the many hurricanes 50 or more years ago that were as strong or stronger as recent hurricanes.
“We had worse hurricanes in 1890. We had a worse hurricane 50 years ago. We’ve gone through a period, actually, fairly recently, where we have very few,” said Trump.
“What I’m not willing to do is sacrifice the economic well-being of our country for something that nobody really knows,” Trump insisted. “And you have scientists on both sides of the issue. And I agree the climate changes, but it goes back and forth, back and forth. So we’ll see.”
When presented with a “scientists say” question, Trump quickly saw through the misleading generalization and corrected it.
“No, no. Some say that and some say differently,” Trump noted.
The Heartland Institute has been happy to help President Trump understand the truth about climate change, as well as see through the traps the media constantly tries to spring on climate realists. During the White House transition after Trump’s election in November 2016, The Heartland Institute – at the request of Trump’s top staff – put together a PowerPoint presentation on climate change for the president’s viewing. His bold and powerful messaging on the topic and citation of global warming facts closely reflects The Heartland Institute’s views and published information on the topic.
President Trump has stood up more firmly for sound science and climate realism than any prior president. We look forward to helping him do more of the same throughout his presidency.
Personhood of a Transhuman and the Data Dilemma
by Gourav Krishna Nandi, Montana State University - Bozeman, MT
{An interesting 2014 article on what might constitute personhood in a transhuman- ED}
[“Data” refers to the anthropomorphized android from Star Trek]
Personhood is often thought to be a characteristic possessed by those who can make decisions, have moral worth and responsibilities, and can participate in civil and political rights. Are these attributes exclusive to the naturally born and naturally maintained humans? If we, in the foreseeable future, are to adapt to the assimilation of individuals with technological enhancements in society, how should we regard the personhood of such enhanced sentient beings? In this paper, I use Hume's distinction between an idea and a belief to analyze our differences in the perception of personhood in a naturally born human and a transhuman. Using the instance of Julian Savulescu’s intelligent and independent observer and Gene Roddenberry’s android character Data, I argue that personhood is an evolving idea that does not depend on strict social constraints, but is similar to the mathematical definition of infinity, an abstract approximation.
This paper explores the notion of anthropocentric bias against a transhuman individual
As neuro-informatics and cognitive sciences continue to flourish and impact the average citizen, the analysis of new technology driven social standards is paramount. I focus on a contemporary issue concerning personhood as a set of societal beliefs that would play such a role, if we are, in the foreseeable future, to adapt to a transhuman society. At the outset, the paper analyzes the classical attributes of personhood from the lens of ideas and beliefs proposed by David Hume. Owing to the scope of this work, I limit the definition of personhood to its empirical association with the existence of the human, where personhood is an elementary entity that differentiates a human from a non-human; hence, personhood is inseparable from the human. The existence of a human implies the existence of personhood in them. The contrapositive states, if an individual does not possess personhood, they cannot be a human. Furthermore, considering the limits, I concentrate on how transhumanism fits.
into human society. In other words, can we consider a transhuman to be a human-individual who possesses personhood? How would technology affect such an idea? In an attempt to answer this, I contrast the separation of the human and the natural, from an oriental perspective proposed by Ryuichi Ida in his essay “Should we Improve Human Nature? An Interrogation from an Asian Perspective.”4 Lastly, I examine a concrete instance of what it means to be a human by using Gene Roddenberry’s android character Data from Star Trek: The Next Generation to argue that being human and possessing personhood is an intangible idea, a mathematically and materialistically unreachable quantity, which is founded on the conceptions laid down by social constraints.5
2. Of Beliefs and Ideas:
According to David Hume, the belief of a concept is a subset of the idea of the concept itself.6 Every aspect of a belief is constrained in the set of ideas. 7 Mathematically, this results in the possible existence of the certain properties of a concept in which we can conceive and not believe. Hume further hypothesizes that the notion of both our ideas and our beliefs as molded by our experiences is empirically
4. Ida, Ryuichi. Should we Improve Human Nature? An Interrogatio n from an Asian Perspective., Savulescu, Julian; Bostrom, Nick, eds. Human Enhancement. Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, 2009: 59-70.
5. Roddenberry, Gene. Star Trek: The Next Generation.
6. “The idea of an object is an essential part of the belief of it, but not the whole.” Sec. vii Of the Nature of the Idea or Belief. A Treatise of Human Nature.
7. “We conceive many things, which we do not believe.” Sec. vii Of the Nature of the Idea or Belief. A Treatise of Human Nature.
axiomatic.8 An idea of a concept is an immediate result of the sensory experiences of the world and its possible logical consequences, whereas, the belief of a certain idea is dependent on the objective laws that the world is subjected to, in accordance to our senses. Hume provides the examples of a companion proposing the events concerning the death of Caesar in his bed, and mercury being heavier than gold.9 According to the proposed conjecture, the idea of Caesar’s death on his bed is conceivable through our sensory inputs, but the experience of the world with the historical evidence suggests otherwise.10 Caesar’s death on his bed is thus merely an idea , owing to the definition of death, a bed and our acquaintance with Caesar. I dismiss it as a belief because history disproves it.
To equate this characteristic to the idea of transhumanism, I perform an empirical analysis. Let us begin with an example of a conception along Hume’s distinction of relations of ideas and matters of fact.11
Ideas/ Caesar’s death on his bed
Beliefs/ Caesar’s death by Brutus
Where does the personhood of a Transhuman lie in this venn diagram?
8. Hume, D. Sec. vii Of the Nature of the Idea or Belief. A Treatise of Human Nature.
9. Sec. vii Of the Nature of the Idea or Belief.
A Treatise of Human Nature. “more fusible, than lead, or mercury heavier than gold; it is evident, that notwithstanding my incredulity, I clearly understand his meaning, and form all the same ideas, which he forms ... is it possible for him to conceive any idea, which I cannot conceive; nor conjoin any, which I cannot conjoin.”
10. Julius Caesar (100 BCE - 44 BCE) was assassinated in the Roman senate
11. Hume, D. Sec. vii Of the Nature of the Idea or Belief. A Treatise of Human Nature.
In the Enquiry (1748), Hume states that all ideas are derived from their impressions, which he maintains are the results of sensations.12 What I deduce from experience are therefore copies of my sensations. He reasons that even the basic axioms require oneself to possess knowledge which are the results of the accumulation of sense experiences, impressions, that cannot be exclusively deduced by reason.13 The idea of a green grass-blade, for an instance, consists of several components, all of which may be reduced to the senses. The perception of the color of the grass-blade is dependent on my visual senses. The visible light waves, consisting of various wavelengths reflect from the blade. The color that I perceive as green is the result of the absorption of all other wavelengths by the grass-blade. The shape of the blade is subjected to my touch senses. As such, the idea of a grass-blade is dependent on the conception of its various components. The existence of the grass blade in my mind is what Hume calls an idea.14 The components of the conception of the blade are constant in me as a result of previous experiences. However, the capability to stretch the idea of the grass blade in accordance to my conceptions is what I further contemplate, as the idea of personhood and its relation to the concept of transhumanism. The belief of the grass, on the other hand, includes just the possibility of the occurrence of the idea. For instance, my brain has noticed in the past, the presence of snow on a grass-blade. But, it never contemplates the existence of a white grass-blade, for it is in the domain of an idea and not a belief. The green-ness of the blade is a component of its concept, and I
12. Hume, D.An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals.
argue that such contemplation of notion of a white grass blade is similar to the concept of a human transhuman, an individual who is transhuman despite possessing the properties of personhood. Let us contemplate the accepted notions of being a human. Humans are born naturally; they have naturally endowed characteristics, which a transhuman does not possess. Hence, I have a socially held belief on whom to assign the “human” tag. Transhumanism underscores the idea of surpassing the natural order, in order to improve the physical and the mental faculty of the human.15 In the next chapter, I use the analogy of Hume’s empirical propositions to classify physical enhancements and broadly the notion of personhood, as an approximation.16
2.1 Ryuichi Ida’s concept review
It might be assumed as an axiom, under the constraint of our technological and sociological progress, that a human becomes a transhuman only after the application of enhancements, which would not have been present without the existence of present technology.
Ryuichi Ida asserts that the concept of enhancements that pertains to physical and mental enhancements are artificial; a nano-chip inserted into the brain to increase
15. I describe the natural order as is done by Ida: enhancing the individual in a way that wouldnot have been possible without the humans.
16. Approximation is equivalent to limiting value in calculus. I use the word to attribute the abilityof, say ‘n’ to reach a value ‘b’. When we state that n is an approximation to the value b, it impliesthat n limits toward the value of b, but never reaches b. Mathematically, n ~ b, but n not = b.
memory and to aid in extensive learning can provide an instance in this regard.17 The existence of the humans is paramount to the existence of the nano-chip. The nano-chip needed the humans to be in the current state of technology. According to Ida, the enhancement using the nano-chip is not natural, i.e, had the humans been absent from the chain of events, the chip would never have existed. However, this stance does not affirm that the existence of the humans is unnatural.
Now, every mention of an improvement in the physical and mental capabilities of a human underscores an artificial enhancement. Ida asserts there is a difference between natural enhancements and artificial enhancements of an individual. He provides an objective illustration: A candidate studying every day for a demanding examination and being rewarded with the highest grade can be termed as the realization of the person using their naturally given capabilities. The mental enhancement that results from a continuous practice using the natural endowments of a person is what, according to the Ida, constitutes the oriental definition of a natural enhancement. However, he opposes the view, where an examinee uses genetic enhancement to improve their performance in the examination. Such a modification, according to Ida, is artificial and accounts for the “control and management of nature through knowledge and technology.”18 I may conclude that Ida’s position implies that every enhancement that is possible due to the presence of the modern humans and
17. Ida, Ryuichi. Should we Improve Human Nature? An Interrogation from an Asian Perspective.
Savulescu, Julian; Bostrom, Nick, eds. Human Enhancement. Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, 2009: 59-70.
their technological growth is termed as unnatural. Here, the usage of the word “modern” is important, as the enhancements caused due to pre-historic agricultural and urban settlements are considered by Ida as natural.19
3. Enhancements as beliefs and concepts
Despite Ida’s perception of technology as artificial, he maintains that the humans are fundamentally natural. However, the way the humans have used the natural resources during their evolution to develop technology has separated them from nature, and is thus, unnatural. As such, transhumans can exist if only we develop artificial enhancements. Such individuals cannot be termed as natural and therefore personhood cannot be associated with a transhuman. In the Venn diagram of ideas and beliefs, Ida would place the personhood of a transhuman outside the domain of beliefs. Humans are thought to have a natural order, and the enhancements acts as a deviation from the natural to create a transhuman is unnatural.
3.1 Savulescu’s independent observer
Extending Ida’s premise of the natural human, I state two possible attributes of being human: it is an attainable state of existence or it is a mathematical state of approximation.20 If the notion of personhood an intangible concept, like infinity, personhood can be approximated to, but never reached physically. Whereas, if it is an
19. Ida considers agriculture, which involves the cultivation of the land and the manipulation of the
natural order in the land ecosystem. His concerns begins with technology. I consider, in a later section, the definition of technology. Should any tool making be termed as technology, or is it just the modern improvements? In other words, how different is the building of a chisel to that of a computer?
20. I use the terms being human and personhood interchangeably
attainable state, there is a set of clauses, obtaining which, an individual can possess personhood. Moreover, if human nature is a mathematical approximation of propositions, individuals whom I consider transhumans in the contemporary society, may be defined as humans in a transhumanist society, for a change in the social paradigms would witness the growth of the set of beliefs. Here, I reason that enhancement cannot make us any more or any less human, using the view of an independent observer, a view which is against the oriental perspective as asserted by Ida.21
3.1.1 The Natural and the Artificial to the Independent Observer
The differentiation of the human and the natural underscores the separation of the two. It asserts the East Asian perspective upheld by Ida, who considers living amidst nature, but excludes the human when considering natural.22 However, the differentiation of the unnatural from the natural enhancement is a propensity that is historically evident in both the Eastern and the Western traditions, where philosophers have sought to distinguish between the natural and the human.
In an attempt to nullify this distinction, I consider Savulescu’s independent observer. Let us contemplate a hypothetical scenario where there exists an intelligent species on a different star system, who apparently, have developed warp drive and traveled to Earth to observe human activities. From the perspective of our visitor,
21. Savulescu, Julian. Prejudice and Moral Status of Enhanced Beings. Savulescu, Julian; Bostrom, Nick, eds. Human Enhancement. Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, 2009: 59-70.
anthropocentric values are inconsistent; their superior intelligence affirms that our technological developments and the reworking of the Earth’s surface, to them, is synonymous to our view of say, the chimpanzee using tools and displaying empathy. Savulescu terms such an observer, an independent one, who is not only devoid of my anthropocentric biases, but is also able to comprehend human intelligence. Our premise examines if the independent observer would consider our creations natural. We often attribute the same characteristic of animals using tools to the chimpanzee who uses a tool and the hummingbird who builds its nest. I reason that the association of our building of a modern city and the building of the ant-hill by the army ants to the intelligent observer is coherent and logically consistent with the premise that the observer is more intelligent than both the species. To them, without the presence of the army ants on the planet, the ant colonies and the ant-hill would never have existed, as would a city of humans without the humans. The hypothesis is also a reminder to us that our creation of advanced tools and computer technology is but a better manipulation of the natural resources available to us. The army ant uses its own armor (its natural endowment) and twigs (utilization of natural resources) to dig the soil and create the ant-hill. Similarly, we use advanced iron ore, and bricks and cement (advanced utilization of natural resources) to create buildings in a city. Evidently, to the observer, the distinction between the ants and the humans is in the advancements of tool making. As such, when we invent physical enhancements to create a transhuman, the inherent nature of the device would be termed natural to such an observer. The argument bridges the gap between the human and the natural, which in the first place existed because of our human-centric approach to the problem. The transhuman, I can
reason, is a natural product, owing to the advanced use of the natural resources available to us.
To return to the initial argument concerning the beliefs and the ideas of a natural and an artificial enhancement, I conclude that the enhancement as a natural process is an idea for Ida, which exists as a belief to the independent observer. So far, I have concluded that the enhancements required to create a transhuman are natural; let us now explore the personhood of a transhuman. Due to the scope of this paper, I limit myself to the attribution of personhood to the transhuman individual. I assume personhood as a natural characteristic of the human individual owing to its development in us without any unnatural process. The human tag is associated with an individual who possesses personhood, as I discussed in the introduction. To analyze the possibility of a transhuman to be perceived as a human, in the following section, I study the fictional character Data from Star Trek: The Next Generation.
4. Data and Personhood
Data is an android character created by Gene Roddenberry for his popular science fiction series. The android is anthropomorphic in its appearance and functions. Data is programmed to evolve, and his goal is to become more and more human. According to Gene Roddenberry, the character was to be the closest one can be to a human without being a human.23 Nevertheless, the quintessential requirement to be a human, as mentioned above, is the possession of personhood. Data is a transhuman;
23. Savulescu, Julian. Prejudice and Moral Status of Enhanced Beings.Savulescu, Julian; Bostrom, Nick, eds. Human Enhancement. Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, 2009: 59-70.
he has capabilities, which transcends the physical and mental capacities of the average human. He is stronger, can think faster, and though made of silicon, he is able to evolve. At the outset, I shall consider Data a life form, as urged by Roddenberry.24 Besides, according the prevalent NASA’s definition of life, Data is capable to reproducing and evolving in a Darwinian approach. However, is Data a person? To answer this question, I retreat to Hume’s ideas and beliefs to differentiate between Data’s personhood considering our social paradigms.
4.1 Beliefs and Ideas concerning transhumanism
According to Ida, Data does not possess the characteristics about the ideals of personhood, owing to his artificial birth. I shall analyze Data’s status quo as a human, despite his physical differences. Ida’s foremost appeal towards a human person is arguably an attempt to nullify the idea of unnatural improvements. In the previous two sections, we have concluded that from the view of an unbiased, independent observer, the improvements are natural, even if they include an enhancement using technology.
According to the Star Trek canon, given the right circumstances, Data acts like a human.25 Alan Turing pioneered the idea of a machine imitating a human in his famous experiment where the machine is able to fool the human into making him think that the machine was a human. He delved into the idea of a thinking machine. Data’s nature is similar to the dichotomy I analyzed in the first section. Firstly, he is an android. He is made of silicon chips rather than flesh and blood. He lacks the accepted definition of a human, but Roddenberry came up with the idea of an emotion chip, a device when
24. Roddenberry, Gene. “Datalore”. Star Trek: The Next Generation, Paramount, 1987. Web. 20 Apr. 2013.
25. Roddenberry, Gene. Star Trek: The Next Generation.
placed in Data’s circuits makes him “experience” human emotions.26 Often, Data is incapable of handling the emotions that he is subjected to due to their mathematical complexity, but the fact that he can experience a new emotion that is not controlled by the machine acts for the argument of assigning personhood with Data. He is able to think, to sacrifice, to love, to feel pain and even get confused with the emotion chip. As such, with the device implanted in Data’s body transforms the android into an individual having personhood. But should such an individual be called a human being? It can be argued that Data acts as a nonhuman with the subtraction of a certain chemical in their brain, but I reason that the lack of certain chemicals in the human brain can render a naturally born human, a non-person. As such, the criteria I discussed about Data’s personhood is consistent with humans as well; the fact that it’s an emotion chip that prevents Data from being a human is compatible logically.
4.2 Personhood as an approximation
As such, I can reason that the concept of transhuman is just an idea of an extended human. It’s a trans-person, someone more capable in some respect and less capable in other aspects of an individual socially accepted as a human. This is especially true for those who claim that being human cannot be reduced to a set of specific clauses; it is an intangible property.
At the beginning of the paper, I limited myself to the empirical association of personhood to being human. Every individual who is a human possesses personhood. This condition does not necessarily imply that every possessor of personhood is a human. Rather, anyone not having personhood devoid themselves off the idea of being
26. Roddenberry, Gene. “Generations”. Star Trek: The Next Generation, Paramount, 1987. Web. 20 Apr. 2013.
a human. Data, on the other hand, as I concluded, has personhood. He shows every characteristic that would tag him the notion of being a human. As such, being human has a necessary condition in personhood. Since, I have concluded that personhood is limited mostly by my acceptance of ideas into beliefs, I reason, there are no set of reducible clauses that would define the personhood of an individual.
The essay began with an inspiration in popular science fiction, and how the ideas relating to personhood apply to Data, the anthropomorphized android from Star Trek.27
I borrow the idea of mathematical infinity to reflect upon his goal. Infinity, for all its uses in
calculus, has never been defined. It is the abstract notion of a number which is larger than every other number imagined by the human mind. From Hume’s empirical point of view, infinity is not in the domain of a belief, for it’s incoherent with human experience. The only way I can define infinity is by limiting myself to the idea. As an instance a statement in symbolic mathematics,
“limn --> infinity 1/ n = 0”
implies that the value of 1/ n is 0, when n tends to infinity. Here, n is an integer; it never actually reaches infinity for an integer is presumed to be in the domain of a belief, it has an empirical existence in the human mind. As such, despite the immensity of its value, n always represents a number, which excludes the possibility of being infinite. The above expression, thus is concerned about the value that 1/n obtains, as n becomes larger,
27. The choice to include Data ahead of C3PO or other androids is based on Data’s goal throughout the Star Trek series: to become as close to being a human without becoming a human.
which is 0. In other words, the statement doesn’t prove the equivalence of the value of
n to infinity but of the equivalence of the value of 1/n to 0.
The analysis of Data’s personhood has synonymity in the definition of his goal: to become human.
Ideas/ Personhood of Data
Beliefs/ Accepted notion of personhood
The figure points out two constraints:
•to be a member of the set of beliefs, a concept has to be a set of ideas (Hume’s definition).
•the set of beliefs and the set of ideas are not necessarily equal. In other words, there are ideas which may not be beliefs.
Data’s personhood would be recognized by the social constraints as I learn that from an independent observer’s position, it’s our limitations that would not confer personhood on Data in the present society. I have drawn the set of beliefs in dotted lines to represent an ever changing set of the societal paradigms and our acceptance of who is a human; a notion that, in time, will broaden enough to include the personhood of Data. Personhood, as such, is alike infinity which is abstract, on its own, but tends to function when applied to a physical object to which I am acquainted. As I, from an unbiased approach define the relationship of Data and the notion of being human, I
observe an equivalence between Data and a human, as he evolves towards his personhood.28
Mathematically,
“limData --> Personhood Data = Human”
PAGE 17: REFERENCES
•Hume, D. Sec. vii
Of the Nature of the Idea or Belief. A Treatise of Human Nature.
•Hume, D., An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals.
Of the Nature of the Idea or Belief. A Treatise of Human Nature
.•Ida, Ryuichi. Should we Improve Human Nature? An Interrogation from an Asian Perspective.
•Ida, Ryuichi. Should we Improve Human Nature? An Interrogation from an Asian Perspective.
•Manzo, Silvia. "Francis Bacon: Freedom, Authority and Science." British Journal for the History of Philosophy 14.2 (2006): 245-73. ProQuest.Web. 29 Apr. 2013.
•Morris, John. "Pattern Recognition in Descartes' Automata." Isis 60 (1969): 451-60. ProQuest.
Web. 29 Apr. 2013.
•Rozemond, Marleen. "Descartes's Case for Dualism." Journal of the History of Philosophy
33.1 (1995): 29-63. ProQuest. Web. 29 Apr. 2013.
•Roddenberry, Gene. Star Trek: The Next Generation.
•Savulescu, Julian. Prejudice and Moral Status of Enhanced Beings. Savulescu, Julian; Bostrom, Nick, eds. Human Enhancement. Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, 2009: 59-70.
•Roddenberry, Gene. “Datalore”. Star Trek: The Next Generation. Paramount, 1987. Web. 20 Apr. 2013.
•Roddenberry, Gene. “Generations”. Star Trek: The Next Generation, Paramount, 1987. Web. 20 Apr. 2013.
•Taub, Liba. Ptolemy's Universe: The Natural Philosophical and Ethical Foundations of Ptolemy's Astronomy., 1993. ProQuest. Web. 28 Apr. 2013.
•Xenophanes, Clement of Alexandria, Book V. 110.
1. I generalize the notion of a transhuman, where an individual with any form of enhancement that enables them to better their functioning, physically or mentally, is called a transhuman.
Also, considering that our understanding is materialized by perception, I consider bias to be an a-priori tautology. We perceive matter, as it were, through the senses. In other words, spatial and temporal occurrences in nature trigger the stimulus that engender into (engender into?) the perceptions we undergo. What we perceive as physical objects are the result of the reactions due to events that cause the materialization of the physical objects.
2. “Personhood” is often taken to have a very special and specific meaning in philosophy —those things with personhood have moral latency; that is, they are objects of moral concern, are worthy of being cared about, have rights, have responsibilities, etc. Persons often are thought to be those things that can make decisions, or, at the very least, are things that we make decisions about legally and morally, because they are important and worthy of moral judgment.
3. Personhood => Human
not (Human) => not(Personhood)
[Note: Amazing -- another plunge into philosophy -- this time by a transhumanist using a modern philosopher (Hume-the-empiricist and utilitarian) and a special mathematical formula to justify Posthuman “Personhood” -- specifically, the “personhood” of Data, the Star Trek android! If ever there was an example of someone using the subject matter and method of one field (math) while trying to analyze the subject matter of a different field (philosophical anthropology, or how to define “a human being”) it is this article -- and apparently he doesn’t even know that he is violating the division and methods of the “sciences”! (Same weird phenomenon with engineers, physicists and mathematicians doing human genetics in biology!). E.g., you can’t study math with a microscope, and you don’t have a bus driver perform brain surgery! Another sizzling failure of NanoBioInfoCogno. (Whoever thought that up?!).
Not to mention that all “modern” philosophies (including utilitarian bioethics) are riddled with problems that real philosophers are fully aware of, and Hume is no exception -- especially the theoretically devastating “mind/body split”. Additionally, David Hume (1711-1776):
“ ... questioned common notions of personal identity, and argued that there is no permanent “self” that continues over time. He dismissed standard accounts of causality and argued that our conceptions of cause-effect relations are grounded in habits of thinking, rather than in the perception of causal forces in the external world itself. ... In the philosophy of religion, he argued that it is unreasonable to believe testimonies of alleged miraculous events, and he hints, accordingly, that we should reject religions that are founded on miracle testimonies. ... In moral theory, against the common view that God plays an important role in the creation and reinforcement of moral values, he offered one of the first purely secular moral theories, which grounded morality in the pleasing and useful consequences that result from our actions. He introduced the term “utility” into our moral vocabulary, and his theory is the immediate forerunner to the classic utilitarian views of Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill.” Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, at: http://www.iep.utm.edu/hume/
But this writer is apparently clueless as to the “cons” of Humean philosophy or of utilitarian bioethics which render irrelevant this writer’s wished-for conclusion below --including the “cons” of transhumanist/bioethicist student of Peter Singer, Savulescu. In a real philosophical analysis it is required to acknowledge both the “pros” and the “cons” of any particular philosophical position and respond to those “cons” before adopting that philosophical position as your own -- otherwise your opponent will gladly hurl them at you. You can’t just pick and choose bits and pieces of a particular philosophical tradition that please you and gets you where you want to go, and ignore the bits and pieces that you don’t want.
And while some “personhood” standards and definitions of "a human being" are simply matters of "evolving" social constructions (such as that proposed in the following article), not all “personhood” standards are. Indeed, some are inherently empirically grounded in our objective knowledge of human beings -- whole human beings, that is. [See Irving, “Philosophical and scientific expertise: An evaluation of the arguments on ‘personhood’”, Linacre Quarterly February 1993, 60:1:18-46, at: http://www.lifeissues.net/writers/irv/irv_04person1.html; also "What is 'bioethics'?" (June 3, 2000), at: http://www.lifeissues.net/writers/irv/irv_36whatisbioethics01.html].
I do wonder what kind of “academic” organization would even want to post the following hypothetical space-alien perspective of the "independent observer" using symbolic mathematical/utilitarian philosophical/bioethical “analysis” to argue for the possible social-constructed “personhood” for posthumans based on infinity. But I’m sure NBIC and WTEC -- and Roddenberry -- will love it. PS -- if you can’t follow the “logic” of the following article, or get dizzy, it’s not you. The article first appeared here. -- DNI]
Today's Bible Lesson
In today’s world with President Trump getting hit daily I decided a little Bible Lesson might be
appropriate. Remember what Jesus said: 'Goats on the left, sheep on the right' (Matthew 25:33).
Jesus also told Peter that if he wanted to catch fish do it from the right side of the boat He did and filled the boat with fish.
John 21:6 (NIV) ... He said, "Throw your net on the right side of the boat and you will find some." When they did, they were unable to haul the net in because of the large number of fish."
Origin of Left & Right..
I have often wondered why it is that Conservatives are called the "right" and Liberals are called the "left".
By chance I stumbled upon thisverse in the Bible: Ecclesiastes10:2 (NIV) - "The heart of the wise inclines to the right, but the heart of the fool to the left."
Thus saith the Lord.
It surely can't get any simpler than that.
Spelling Lesson: The last four letters in American......... I Can
The last four letters in Republican:....... I Can
The last four letters in Democrats:....... Rats
End of lesson! ...Test to follow on November 6, 2018.
Remember, November 2018 is to be set aside as Rodent Removal month.
Please share this Bible Lesson with all your friends and email buddies to help achieve that
goal.
Never grow a wishbone where a backbone ought to be.
Winning the Ultimate Lottery
by Gerald Weston
We are hearing this week of a record mega-lottery here in the United States. Some people tweeted the following answers to the question, “What would you do if you won a billion dollars?” One said he would build the wall between Mexico and the U.S. Another said he would rebuild Mexico Beach on the Gulf coast, destroyed by Hurricane Michael. And another said he would give some to charity and spend the rest of his life hunting and fishing.
Perhaps you dream about what you would do with a billion dollars, or a significant fraction of that amount. After all, one hundred million, or even ten million, will go a long way! Many people, when asked the question, say they would give a portion to charity. I’m sure they are sincere in saying this, but would they really build the wall or give it all to rebuild a destroyed city? Maybe, but probably not.
Have you ever considered that, in principle, you have already won the lottery? Let me explain.
Jesus made it plain that His message was not understandable by the majority. For example, Jesus said, “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him” (John 6:44), repeating this truth to His disciples shortly afterward (v. 65). How few understand this! Consider also, why did Jesus speak in parables? It is not the reason I heard in Sunday school. Jesus’ own disciples asked Him this very question. Here was His answer: “Because it has been given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given” (Matthew 13:11). A parallel account on this same occasion adds, “But without a parable He did not speak to them. And when they were alone, He explained all things to His disciples” (Mark 4:34).
If you understand these things you are part of a very small group of people. You understand, not because you are more intelligent or better than others, but because God has specially selected you to do His end-time Work. He opened your mind to precious truth not generally understood by billions on earth today! No, it is not a lottery based on chance. It is selection by the Creator of the universe! But as with lotteries, only a precious few win, and you have been called to win!
Jesus’ parables reflect the value of knowledge you receive from Tomorrow’s World and the Living Church of God, the sponsor of Tomorrow’s World. “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and hid; and for joy over it he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking beautiful pearls, who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had and bought it” (Matthew 13:44–46).
The Apostle Peter wrote an encouraging passage regarding the difficult and painful things we experience in life. “In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials, that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 1:6–7). And Paul wrote, “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us” (Romans 8:18).
These passages and parables all point to one great truth: Everything physical will perish, but the choices we make in life and the faith in God that we express by our actions are of far greater value than the things for which most people crave. As John instructs us, “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever” (1 John 2:15, 17).
We do not like to think about it, but we will all come to the end of this physical existence, and the end of the trail comes sooner than we once thought. Young people may know this academically. Older folks measure the days (Psalm 39:4).
What if you did win the mega-lottery? How long would it last? What would you do with it? What truly lasting value would hunting and fishing give you in the end? Now please understand. Hunting and fishing have worthy recreational value, and I personally try to take off a few days each year to go fishing, but should that be the purpose of one’s life? What happens when the end of the trail comes? Then what?
The fact that you are reading this indicates you are probably one who sees more to life than another fishing trip, a game of golf, or winning the mega-lottery. Your contributions and your prayers show your love for God and your love for others (Matthew 22:35–40).
Our offices around the world receive a continual stream of letters from individuals thanking us for what we give them free of charge. We also receive some not too flattering letters, but that is fine. We know that we are reaching beyond the choir! However, I want to share a few comments with you, because you make them possible and these people want to thank you. I have embolden a few words for emphasis.
Here is a letter from Colorado from a reader who appreciated our booklet explaining the purpose of life. “Good Day. I just want to thank you for the Booklet: Your Ultimate Destiny! Awesome!!! Really opened my mind! Keep up the Good Work! GOD Bless You All.” If you have not read this booklet, please let us know and we will send you a free copy. It explains the very purpose of life straight from the pages of the Bible. Can there be any more valuable truth?
A writer from South Africa wants you to know how much he appreciates you. “I just want to thank you for the booklet and the Bible Study Course. Thanks for all the People at Tomorrow's World. You are Highly Appreciated! GOD Bless!”
A woman shared her thoughts by e-mail regarding a Tomorrow’s World article. “I read ‘Which Jesus Do You Worship,’ and it left me wondering and wanting to know more. Cause it is my heart’s desire to follow Christ Jesus. Thank you for waking me up.” You make the magazine possible, so we share her thanks with you!
Earlier this year someone from Perth, Australia wrote regarding Dr. Roderick C. Meredith’s series on the Protestant Reformation. “I am in receipt of May-June 2018 T/W magazine, for which as always, I am deeply grateful. . . . May Almighty God through Christ Jesus, continue to Bless each of you in this Wonderful Work that you are doing, and [I] look forward to receiving a copy of Dr. Meredith’s brilliant work.”
A subscriber from Toronto, Ontario wrote to express his appreciation. “Thank you so much for your ministry, you are helping people to understand we are living in the last days, and we have to live a life according to God’s Word. Thank you again. God Bless this Ministry.”
Some of our subscribers are in prison for serious sins committed earlier in life. This man writes from Hunlock, Pennsylvania. “Thank you for your magazine, Tomorrow’s World. . . . I am a life sentence prisoner serving a life without parole sentence. I have 30 years served so far. Your magazine helps me to keep my sanity in a world with so much misinformation and injustice. Your publication keeps me aware of what’s truly important.”
Another prisoner, this one from Marino, Ohio writes regarding Tomorrow’s World, “This magazine has been truly one of the most consistently read pieces of Christian literature in my 13½ years of incarceration. You guys are truly a blessing and exemplary of what a Christian today is to ‘look like’ and ‘sound like.’”
There are so many more I could share with you, but I’ll give just one more. This one is from Gatundu, Kenya. “I have been transformed by your magazines. The word of God is real, [and has] become simpler and clearer each day.”
Okay, I cannot resist. Here is one more, from a woman in Johnstown, Pennsylvania. “Other than the Holy Bible itself, I have been searching for a teaching program [that] teaches ‘Sound Christian doctrine.’ I applaud your ‘FREE’ teachings that other programs want to charge a lot of money for. How else would poor people be able to understand this wicked world?”
Once again, thank you for your part in making it possible to reach people of all races, nationalities, economic conditions, and ages. I pray that God fully opens your minds and hearts to the very purpose of life and that you will stand before the Son of God upon His return. You are making a difference through your tithes, offerings, and heartfelt prayers! Thank you dear friends!
Hillary Caught Making Claim About Kavanaugh That Was Already Proven False by Fact-Checkers
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton doubled down Wednesday on a claim Sen. Kamala Harris made regarding Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh’s views on birth control that multiple fact-checkers have already determined to be false.
“I want to be sure we’re all clear about something that Brett Kavanaugh said in his confirmation hearings last week. He referred to birth-control pills as ‘abortion-inducing drugs,'” Clinton tweeted. “That set off a lot of alarm bells for me, and it should for you, too.”
“Kavanaugh didn’t use that term because he misunderstands the basic science of birth control—the fact that birth control prevents fertilization of eggs in the first place. He used that term because it’s a dog whistle to the extreme right,” she added.
Hillary ClintonVerified account @HillaryClinton Sep 12
I want to be sure we're all clear about something that Brett Kavanaugh said in his confirmation hearings last week. He referred to birth-control pills as "abortion-inducing drugs." That set off a lot of alarm bells for me, and it should for you, too.
20,281 replies 41,031 retweets 137,358 likes
Hillary ClintonVerified account @HillaryClinton
Kavanaugh didn't use that term because he misunderstands the basic science of birth control—the fact that birth control prevents fertilization of eggs in the first place. He used that term because it's a dog whistle to the extreme right.
6:14 AM - 12 Sep 2018
The Washington Post awarded Harris with four Pinocchios for sharing a selectively edited video about Kavanaugh while arguing that he is “going after” birth control.
The California Democrat tweeted footage of an exchange Kavanaugh had with Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas during the judge’s confirmation hearing last week before the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Cruz asked Kavanaugh about his dissent in the 2014 Priests for Life case before the Washington, D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals involving the Affordable Care Act’s contraception mandate.
The nominee answered by recounting the plaintiff priests’ position in the case regarding filling out a Department of Health and Human Services form to obtain a waiver from the contraception mandate, which, if accepted by HHS, required health insurance providers to offer the coverage free of charge to those who were interested.
Kavanaugh told Cruz, “They said filling out the form would make them complicit in the provision of the abortion-inducing drugs that they were, as a religious matter, objecting to.”
Harris’s video omitted Kavanaugh saying, “they said,” making it appear that he was offering a statement about his views on the matter, and even birth control more broadly.
Harris wrote of the exchange in a tweet on Friday.
Kamala HarrisVerified account @SenKamalaHarris
Kavanaugh chooses his words very carefully, and this is a dog whistle for going after birth control. He was nominated for the purpose of taking away a woman’s constitutionally protected right to make her own health care decisions. Make no mistake - this is about punishing women.
11:45 AM - 7 Sep 2018
15,061 Retweets
8,538 replies 15,061 retweets
Kamala HarrisVerified account @SenKamalaHarris Sep 8
Here is Kavanaugh's full answer. There's no question that he uncritically used the term "abortion-inducing drugs," which is a dog whistle term used by extreme anti-choice groups to describe birth control.
Kavanaugh explained to Cruz that the reason he dissented in the case was based on the Supreme Court’s Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores decision, which found business owners have the right not to provide contraception coverage to employees if it runs contrary to their sincerely held religious beliefs.
It should be noted that Hobby Lobby’s owners did not object to providing birth control coverage, which they were in fact doing, but did object to providing contraceptives they believe cause abortions, including “morning-after pills” and two types of intrauterine devices.
There are 16 other FDA-approved contraception methods that the company did not object to, as they prevent the egg from being fertilized in the first place.
However, the four methods of contraception at issue in the case “may have the effect of preventing an already fertilized egg from developing any further by inhibiting its attachment to the uterus.” Thus, the concern was that by providing these abortifacients, they would be facilitating abortion.
After receiving significant criticism for her misleading tweet, Harris included Kavanaugh’s comments in context in a subsequent post, but argued, “There’s no question that he uncritically used the term ‘abortion-inducing drugs,’ which is a dog whistle term used by extreme anti-choice groups to describe birth control.”
The Washington Post was not buying the senator’s explanation.
“Harris’s decision to snip those crucial words (‘they said’) from her first post on the video is certainly troubling,” wrote Post fact-checker Glenn Kessler.
Regarding her follow up tweet, he added, “But there was no acknowledgment by Harris that the original tweet was misleading.”
Kessler concluded, “She earns Four Pinocchios — and her fellow Democrats should drop this talking point.”
Politifact also found Harris’ Twitter post in error.
“In Harris’ tweet, Kavanaugh appears to define contraception as abortion-inducing. But the video failed to include a crucial qualifier: ‘They said,’” Politifact reported.
“In fact, he was citing the definition of the religious group Priests for Life. He has not expressed his personal view,” the fact-checker added. “We rate this statement False.”
David FrenchVerified account @DavidAFrench
David French Retweeted Hillary Clinton
Hillary Clinton comes barreling back into the conversation with a timely reminder that she’s one of the more prolific liars in modern American politics.
David French added,
Hillary ClintonVerified account @HillaryClinton
I want to be sure we're all clear about something that Brett Kavanaugh said in his confirmation hearings last week. He referred to birth-control pills as "abortion-inducing
drugs." That set off a lot of alarm bells for me, and it should for you, too.
Show this thread
175 replies 652 retweets 2,373 likes
National Review’s David French chastised Clinton for grabbing onto Harris’ claim against Kavanaugh, which she should have known to be false.
He tweeted, “Hillary Clinton comes barreling back into the conversation with a timely reminder that she’s one of the more prolific liars in modern American politics.”
A fuel-economy change that protect freedom and saves lives
If finalized the proposal by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to freeze fuel-economy targets at 2020 levels through 2026 is good news for anyone concerned about consumer choice, vehicle affordability, and highway safety.
Acting EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler’s determination freezing fuel-economy standards would benefit the American people should surprise no one, because in April EPA announced it would revoke the Obama-era standards requiring cars and light trucks sold in the United States to achieve an average of more than 50 miles per gallon (mpg) by 2025.
President Obama signed off on the 50 mpg standards just before leaving office in December 2016, two years before the previous standards were scheduled to be reviewed. Studies show the 50 mpg standard would substantially increase the price of cars, change the composition of the nation’s automobile and light truck fleet, and put lives at risk.
The “Safer Affordable Fuel-Efficient (SAFE) Vehicles Rule for Model Years 2021-2026 Passenger Cars and Light Trucks” is a culmination of EPA’s consultation with NHTSA to determine how fuel-economy standards can best balance consumers’ concerns about automobile affordability, vehicle safety, and fuel economy.
“Our proposal aims to strike the right regulatory balance based on the most recent information and create a 50-state solution that will enable more Americans to afford newer, safer vehicles that pollute less,” Wheeler said.
“There are compelling reasons for a new rulemaking on fuel economy standards for 2021-2026. More realistic standards will promote a healthy economy by bringing newer, safer, cleaner and more fuel-efficient vehicles to U.S. roads and we look forward to receiving input from the public,” stated Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao.
EPA calculates freezing fuel-economy standards at 2020 levels through 2026 will save more than 500 billion dollars in societal costs over the next 50 years and reduce highway fatalities by 12,700 lives.
Fuel standard mandates began in 1975, when Congress established Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards to reduce dependence on foreign oil following the 1973–74 Arab oil embargo. The law required car manufacturers to meet mandated fuel-economy targets or else pay a hefty tax on gas-guzzling sedans. What happened? Some people bought smaller, more fuel-efficient cars. Others, however, started driving trucks, and new categories of vehicles were born: SUVs and minivans.
Over the years, compact cars have become less popular because of low fuel prices, underpowered engines, and lack of passenger and storage space. Most full-sized cars and trucks can seat five adults, and minivans and many SUVs can seat between seven and nine people. Numerous SUVs, trucks, and minivans offer ample cargo space and are capable of hauling a trailer or boat, which no subcompact can do safely.
Ironically, the high popularity of trucks, SUVs, and minivans is at least partially a result of environmentalists’ efforts to reduce the appeal of large, powerful cars. EPA’s stringent fuel-economy standards didn’t apply to trucks, SUVs, or minivans, which didn’t then exist. So, to keep the features they liked, millions of people replaced the family sedan or station wagon with an SUV or truck. As fuel efficiency increased and driving became cheaper, people drove more miles — thereby negating the marginal gains of owning more-fuel-efficient vehicles.
CAFE standards did not reduce America’s dependence on foreign oil — it would take the fracking revolution to do that — but they did have deadly unintended consequences. To meet federal fuel-economy guidelines, carmakers reduced vehicle size, weight, and power. By doing so, manufacturers compromised cars’ safety, resulting in tens of thousands of unnecessary injuries and deaths in vehicle crashes. For every 100 pounds shaved off new cars to meet CAFE standards, between 440 and 780 additional people are killed in auto accidents, amounting to 2,200 to 3,900 lives lost per year, according to researchers at Harvard University and the Brookings Institution. As a result, CAFE has resulted in more deaths than all U.S. soldiers lost in the Vietnam War and every U.S. military engagement since then.
The laws of physics will never change. In a vehicle crash, larger and heavier is safer than lighter and smaller. EPA’s fuel-economy freeze will prevent unnecessary deaths while protecting consumer choice.
If fuel economy is the driving force behind your purchasing decisions, nothing changes under EPA’s decision to freeze current fuel-economy standards. You are free to continue buying the electric, hybrid, or clean diesel vehicle of your choice. If, however, comfort, power, vehicle safety, and the ability to haul a boat or ferry a little league team are your goals, EPA’s CAFE freeze ensures you can continue to make that choice as well.
Ain’t freedom grand!
Utility Double Whammy as KGS Joins the 2018 Rate Hike Request Bandwagon
by Allen Williams
Kansas Gas Corporation is back for another rate increase in just two years, Docket No.:18-KGSG-560 RTS The last one having been approved in 2016. KGS is a subsidiary of ONE Gas. ONE Gas Inc is another large conglomerate supplying Oklahoma, Eastern Kansas and parts of Texas where guaranteed levels of income are desired regardless of overall consumption.
Breitbart reports that Electric, Gas, and Water Rates Falling Due to Trump Tax Cuts
“The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act cut the corporate rate from 35% to 21%.. Utility companies are passing on the tax savings in the form of lower rates for customers,” – Americans for Tax Reform.
But this phenomenon is apparently not true in Kansas where utility rates continue to rise.
The ONE Gas financial report at http://investor.onegas.com/news/news-releases/news-details/2018/ONE-Gas-Announces-First-quarter-2018-Financial-Results/default.aspx shows:
Net margin increased by $0.8 million compared with first quarter 2017, which primarily reflects:
A $5.1 million increase from new rates primarily in Texas and Kansas;
A $2.5 million increase from the impact of the weather-normalization mechanisms in Kansas and Oklahoma;
A $2.5 million increase due primarily to higher transportation volumes;
A $1.2 million increase attributed to net residential customer growth in Oklahoma and Texas;
A $0.9 million increase due to a compressed natural gas excise tax credit that was enacted in February 2018 and retroactive to 2017; and
A $0.8 million increase in rider and surcharge recoveries due to a higher ad-valorem surcharge in Kansas, which is offset with higher regulatory amortization expense; offset by
A $12.3 million decrease related to the deferral of potential refund obligations from the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017.
So KGS admits revenues are up from a combined increase in Texas and Kansas but it’s NOT enough! There appears to be no end to KGS rate and new cost factor requests, the latest being the Kansas Gas System Reliability Surcharge which now is to include Cyber attacks. Why not include impact from the stock market impact in a cost factor as well?
SOURCE: http://investor.onegas.com/investors/financial-reporting/earnings-and-guidance/default.aspx
“ONE Gas 2018 net income is expected to be in the range of $167 million to $178 million, or $3.15 to $3.35 per diluted share. The midpoint for ONE Gas’ 2018 net income guidance is $172 million, or $3.25 per diluted share.”
Requests for Kansas utility rate increases are a revolving door chiefly to guarantee satisfactory dividends to ONE Gas investors. The current KGS request increase is a 10% rate hike to consumers when inflation currently stands at 2.3%.
Is there ANYTHING the rate payer is NOT being asked to fund? Where is the promise of lower rates to get the earlier rate increase approvals? Just lies as the market for gas has improved revenues rather than diminished them. Instead rate payers are asked to pay dividends of $3.35 a share. But why stop there? Why not $5.15 or even $10 a share?
General Motors a for profit corporation is paying just $0.38 cents per share as of their 1st Quarter 2018 financial report: http://quote.morningstar.com/stock-filing/Quarterly-Report/2018/3/31/t.aspx?t=:GM&ft=&d=8ba56ee4bdd422dcb28a39f579bc9cda while Kansans are forced to pay dividends in the dollar range. WHY?
Extraneous surcharges mask the true price users pay for gas services and in effect are automatic rate bumpers that increase consumer bills unfairly for such things as weather, reliability etc. It is an effective hedge against conservation. These charges are designed to keep utility bills from advantaging consumers by being too low. The KGS COG delivery charge is an example. In Sept of 2018 the service charge was 0.4 MCF at a stated rate of $3.85 per 1000 ft3.
This $0.4*1000 ft3 * $3.8523/1000 ft3 = $1.54 COG
So the ratio of gas consumption to the charge for providing it is $16.70/$1.54 or 10.84 nearly 11 times the cost of the gas which illustrates my point. Now KGS wants to increase the delivery service charge from $16.70 to $22.66 which is $22.66/ $1.54 or 14.7 times the cost of the gas.
The result is that KGS customers will pay nearly 15 times as much for the gas to be delivered to their home as for the actual gas consumed not to mention all the other ‘hedge factors’. The rest of the bill is local taxes. When service charges exceed the cost of a product by double digits the company is gouging consumers.
BreitBart continues: “Thus far, ATR has found 102 utility companies that have lowered rates or ceased rate hikes due to President Trump’s tax cuts.”
Why do ONE Gas/KGS customers have to fund dividends at a higher rate than General Motors, #21 on the 2017 fortune 500 list despite a record federal tax cut?
I seriously question the company’s claim that it has “experienced increases in payroll expenses and supplier costs” to justify their current rate request. These cost claims appear to be creative paper expenses towards the end of providing investor dividends.
102 other utilities have either decreased rates or ceased rate requests but not Kansas?
Commission Consultants are not tantamount to citizen ratepayer oversight of a regulated monopoly
The KGS rate increase is nothing short of rubber stamp legalized robbery.
Trump Orders Declassification of FISA Docs and Comey Texts
WASHINGTON, DC - SEPTEMBER 17: U.S. President Donald Trump participates in the inaugural meeting of the Presidents National Council for the American Worker in the Roosevelt Room of the White House on September 17, 2018 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Oliver Contreras - Pool/Getty Images)
President Donald Trump ordered the declassification of several documents and texts related to the FBI’s Russia investigation during the 2016 presidential election.
Included among the documents are the 21 pages of the FISA court application used by the FBI to obtain a warrant to surveil Trump campaign advisor Carter Page, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said in a statement on Monday.
Sanders added that the president has also directed the release of all reports by the FBI of interviews with Justice Department official Bruce Ohr in relation to the Russia investigation.
Steve Herman ✔ @W7VOA
FISA documents declassified by @POTUS.
9:27 PM - Sep 17, 2018 · Washington, DC
Trump further ordered the public release of all text messages concerning the Russia investigation, “without redaction,” from former FBI Director James Comey, former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, former FBI agent Peter Strzok, former FBI attorney Lisa Page, and Ohr.
The House Intelligence and House Oversight and Government Reform committees have both been seeking the unredacted FISA applications on Carter Page for months.
Fox News reported sources familiar with the matter do not know how soon the documents will be released, but the release covered “pretty much everything that (House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes) wanted … and the text messages are a bonus.”
Nunes stated on FNC on Sunday, “If the president wants the American people to really understand just how broad and invasive this investigation has been to many Americans and how unfair it has been, he has no choice but to declassify” key documents.
House Majority Whip Steve Scalise praised Trump’s decision to release the FISA documents and text messages, tweeting, the president “made the right call. Americans deserve the truth about these egregious actions by government officials.”
Freedom Caucus chair Rep. Mark Meadows tweeted after Trump’s announcement, “Transparency wins.”
“It’s time to get the full truth on the table so the American people can decide for themselves on what happened at the highest levels of their FBI and Justice Department,” he added.
House Intelligence Committee ranking member Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., accused Trump of “ordering the selective disclosure of classified materials he believes helpful to his defense.”
“The DOJ and FBI have previously informed me that release of some of this information would cross a ‘red line,’” he wrote.
On Monday morning, Trump tweeted about a Fox News report concerning Lisa Page’s testimony before the House Intelligence Committee in July during which she stated the FBI had found no evidence of Russia collusion by May 2017, when special counsel Robert Mueller was named to take over the investigation.
“Therefore, the case should never have been allowed to be brought. It is a totally illegal Witch Hunt!” wrote the president.
In another tweet, he wrote, “Immediately after Comey’s firing Peter Strzok texted to his lover, Lisa Page ‘We need to Open the case we’ve been waiting on now while Andy (McCabe, also fired) is acting.”
“Page answered, ‘We need to lock in (redacted). In a formal chargeable way. Soon.’ Wow, a conspiracy caught?” Trump wondered.
Randy DeSoto
Summary More Info Recent Posts
Randy DeSoto is a graduate of West Point and Regent University School of Law. He is the author of the book "We Hold These Truths" and screenwriter of the political documentary "I Want Your Money."
@RandyDeSoto
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Cowell, Cage, and Crumb: An avant-garde piano show at the Barnes
November 10, 2017 - Margaret Darby
The Barnes Foundation is sponsoring a very high-level series of musical performances, which connect visual arts and music. Robert Whalen and his wife, Katherine Skovira, who are music directors for the Barnes, have put together programs which are inspired by visual arts – bringing the images to the fore within the abstract aura of music.
If you were hoping for a cozy little concert with harpsichords and Mozart, this series is not for you. Last Wednesday’s concert, sponsored by music enthusiast Anthony B. Creamer, III, was hard core. The musician, Singaporean Margaret Leng Tan, is a formidable pianist who has devoted her performances to nonconventional modern music.
The program was entitled Cowell, Cage, Crumb – Pioneers of the Avant-Garde Piano. Tan performed John Cage’s long piece for prepared piano, The Perilous Night, which he wrote in 1944. Cage, known for his unconventional gimmicks, created this piece of relatively conventional sounds, excepting the bell-like sounds produced by the prepared instrument, and he ended it in a sort of rock rhythm and tunefulness that was a harbinger of the 1950s American popular style.
Tan also played four pieces by Henry Cowell, John Cage’s teacher. The compositions were haunting, the bass chords of The Tides of Manaunaun (1917), the gusts of glissandi which Tan produced by using a tumbler on the strings inside the piano for the Aeolian Harp (1923), the keening of The Banshee (1925), and the Advertisement, listed as 1914 and 1959, which had many many similarities to the style of Francis Poulenc.
George Crumb was in the audience for the Philadelphia premiere of his latest work, Metamorphoses, Book 1 (2015-2017) for amplified piano, toy piano, auxiliary percussion, and voice. (Note: all of these implements were used by Tan alone – not an orchestra.) This work was written as homage to ten of Crumb’s favorite art works. The projection of the art works was prepared by Monica Duncan, who presented first the actual work, then other images related to the work. Exempli gratia, Duncan showed a picture of Vincent van Gogh’s Wheatfield with Crows (1890) and shortly thereafter projected an image of a crow’s wing which was definitely NOT van Gogh’s pencil-squiggle crow style.
Tan employed many implements and instruments to create the sounds Crumb composed: mallets, glass tumbler, a wire brush, a small chain, wood blocks, a yarn mallet, and her own voice. For The Persistence of Memory (1931) by Salvador Dali, she played Amazing Grace with one hand on a toy piano and hummed the tune one note behind what her fingers were playing. During the ten pieces, she also cawed like a crow, wore a clown nose for Clowns at Night (1957) by Marc Chagall and played a huge number of notes, stooping down to set the pedals or leaning in to arrange her score inside the open lid of the grand piano between movements.
Tan’s elegance and poise and the appeal of the clear enunciation with which she uses her rich alto voice are quite striking. Her knowledge of avant-garde music and her devotion to its performance is vital to making these works known to the public and the beauty of her voice added yet another dimension to the panoply of sounds and images that washed over the audience.
Music, Reviews - Tags: George Crumb, Henry Cowell, John Cage, Katherine Skovira, Margaret Leng Tan, Robert Whalen - no comments
Theater in the Galleries: Renegade and the Barnes collaborate with SUBJECT: WOMEN The Barnes Foundation and the Renegade Company are collaborating on a series of 15 minute theatrical interpretations of the works in the Bar... by Christopher Munden
FringeArts Progress Report: The latest on the High Pressure Fire Service Building of 1903
Since my initial tour of the new FringeArts headquarters in August 2012, the projected opening (originally set for the Spring of 2013, then for the 2013 Festival in September) has been subject to delays and controversy, and the construction costs have increased from an estimated $4.5 million to $7 million. But progress has been made and the partially restored 10,000-square-foot High Pressure Fire Service Building of 1903, at the corner of Race Street and Columbus Boulevard, began hosting events early this month. more…
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News / Special Reports
On 9/11: Motorcycles roar through the streets to honor fallen
By Stacey Kilpatrick on September 11, 2014 at 10:26 pm
John Mora, 43, of Hackensack, N.J. sits on his bike after the 9/11 commemorative ride Thursday morning. Photo credit: Stacey Kilpatrick
by Stacey Kilpatrick
In honor of those who were lost during the September 11th, 2001 attack 13 years ago, hundreds of motorcyclists rode the streets of Manhattan Thursday morning from Rescue 1 firehouse to the site of the fallen towers.
“I’ve never seen so many [bikers],” said John Mora, 43, of Hackensack, N.J.
A first-year participant, Mora joined representatives of both the FDNY and the NYPD along with Gov. Andrew Cuomo on a ride from the Rescue 1 firehouse in Midtown to the memorial site. None of the 11 firefighters from Rescue 1 who worked on September 11th survived.
“It’s a ride that we do to commemorate the fallen from 9/11.”
Mora explained that he was invited to join the ride by New York City’s Renegade Pigs Motorcycle Club, a non-profit organization that hosts charity events in support of law enforcement and their families.
“My club is the Untouchables Motorcycle Club of New Jersey and we’re also a law enforcement club of first responders,” he said. “I felt that on this day, 9/11, that we should pay respect.
It was also Mora’s birthday.
Mora saw the attack first-hand from the roof of the hospital where he worked in New Jersey in 2001.
“It doesn’t matter if you have any relatives or anything, anybody who was here and saw – it affected them,” he said.
“We never forget,” Mora added. “Never forget those souls.”
Army veteran, Brian Sommers, 46, of Albany, N.Y., also expressed his gratitude in the bike ride with the Combat Veterans Motorcycle Association, which is comprised of veterans from all branches of the United States Armed Forces.
Sommers and his friends are full-time military veterans who have been deployed in combat and were asked to join the ride by other friends involved.
“It was a great experience, very organized,” Sommers said. “It was a great feeling to be a part of it.”
Robert Helfant, 61 of Virginia Beach, Va. and a retired firefighter, also rode for the first time, having biked from Virginia yesterday. With an American Flag bandana covering his head, he also donned a handful of patriotic pins and patches on his black vest, including a Fallen Heroes patch showcasing the towers and first responders.
Retired firefighter Robert Helfant, 61, of Virginia Beach, Va. Helfant rode in his first 9/11 commemorative ride Thursday morning. Photo credit: Stacey Kilpatrick
“I have a friend that’s a retired FDNY and he was going on this ride and I asked if I could come along and they invited me. I came up from Virginia and I’m leaving now,” Helfant said.
Born and raised on Long Island, N.Y., Helfant moved to Virginia when he was 16-years-old and worked there as a firefighter for almost 30 years.
“[The ride] was extremely rewarding,” Helfant said.
On September 11th, 2001 Helfant was actually working at the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., waiting to attend a staff meeting. He was working a fire-training session as an instructor. As part of the FEMA taskforce, he responded to the Pentagon to help facilitate rescues. That particular mission had about 80 personnel that responded, Helfant said.
When asked how September 11th had affected him, he took a five-second pause and breathed, “That’s a tough one. I can’t explain it. As a firefighter, we lost a lot of guys, men and women, you know, a lot of citizens from around the country and it’s heartbreaking why people want to do this to us. We’re a giving country. A lot of people want to come in and destroy it.”
But the turnout for the ride lifted his spirits.
“Seeing all the citizens standing on the side of the street, you know applauding and taking pictures and giving us a thumbs-up, it doesn’t get any better than that,” he said.
Author: Stacey Kilpatrick
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Marine Fisheries - Dolphin
Coryphaena hippurus
AKA: dolphinfish, mahi mahi
Description: The dolphin has bright turquoise, green and yellow patterns, which fade almost immediately upon death. Its body tapers sharply from head to tail and has irregular blue or golden blotches scattered over the sides. Dolphins have a single dark dorsal fin extending from just behind the head to the tail.
Size: Dolphins are common up to 50 pounds. Citations are given for fish weighing 35 pounds or more.
Sometimes confused with: pompano dolphin, bottlenose dolphin
Habitat: Dolphins are found in offshore warm waters and are attracted to Sargassum, a seaweed, which serves as a hiding place and source of food. As shallower Continental Shelfwaters warm in the summer, the fish move closer to shore, and are occasionally found within 10 miles of the coast.
Eating habits: Dolphins feed on food associated with Sargassum, such as small fish, crabs and shrimp. They may also pursue fast-swimming fish, such as flying fish or mackerels. Often man-made garbage is entangled in the floating Sargassum and is consumed by dolphins, which mistake the trash for food. Plastic wrappers, small light bulbs, rope and string have been removed from the stomachs of dolphins. Dolphins serve as an important forage species for many of the ocean’s predators, such as marlins and sharks.
Life cycle: Dolphins spawn off North Carolina in the Gulf Stream in June and July. They are a fast-growing fish with a short life span of about 6 years. The species matures at an early age, estimated as early as 3 months. Adult females are smaller than males.
Fishing tips: Sport fishermen catch dolphin by trolling artificial and natural baits from large boats. Bailing, another popular method, consists of keeping one live fish in the water to attract others to the boat and incite them into a frenzy.
Dolphin tagging program info
Dolphin tag reporting form
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Tag Archives: galaxy
New screenshots: Galaxy map, planets, system window and planet exploration
November 18, 2012 Game Design, Graphics, Screenshots
There are some big announcements coming in the next week or so for Predestination, but until then we have some new screenshots of the game in action. These screenshots show the three main parts of the game: Galaxy Management, Planetary Exploration, and Tactical Fleet Combat. All three areas are still work in progress, but they’re really starting to come together. Read More
Tagged 3d, 4x, development, galaxy, game, game design, game development, game-design, gaming, graphics, indie, indie game dev, indie game development, master-of-orion, moo2, planet, planets, predestination, sci-fi, screenshot, screenshots, space, tactical-combat
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oRVbvG-TpJc Predestination 4X game Galaxy Map: System window demonstr
Predestination 4X game Galaxy Map: System window demonstration
Please watch fullscreen (1080p available). The video’s a bit darker and a lot blurrier than the actual game because YouTube is bloody awful at encoding videos, but you get a clear enough idea of the effect in fullscreen. Read More
Tagged 4x, devblog, galaxy, game, game development, gamer, gamers, gaming, graphics, indie, indie game dev, indie game development, map, master-of-orion, moo2, predestination, video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_QCmvsKSXic A video of the 3D galaxy map for Predestination. Please w
A video of the 3D galaxy map for Predestination. Please watch it in 720p fullscreen, otherwise a lot of important small details like the lines between stars and the galactic plane are lost. Read More
Tagged 3d, 4x, galaxy, game, game development, gamer, gaming, graphics, indie, indie game development, map, master-of-orion, moo2, predestination, space
4X game galaxy map, 2D or 3D?
January 5, 2012 Uncategorized
Space 4X games are typically played on a 2D map, not because of any technical limitation but for gameplay reasons. 3D maps are difficult to visualise and strategise on, for example they make it more difficult to see the area of space owned by a particular enemy. Those games that do have a 3D map tend to mechanically simplify it with a “star lane” mechanic where ships can only travel along set paths between certain stars. For all intents and purposes, that isn’t a 3D map any more; it has eliminated any mechanics that actually use the third dimension. The alternative is to use a 2D map (like this one below), which is requires a bit more suspension of disbelief.
While I don’t want to diverge too heavily from the fundamental mechanics of the genre’s previously successful games, I do want to have a crack at bringing a third dimension to the map in a way that avoids these problems. If you’re interested in space 4X games, please leave a comment on this post about whether you’d want a 2D map or 3D, or answer the post with anything else you’d like to add. I’d really appreciate it! Read More
Tagged 4x, development, galaxy, game, game development, gaming, indie, indie game dev, indie game development, map, master-of-orion, moo2, predestination, wii-hacks
An example of the playable galaxy map screen when it’s generated in 2D. It would also be possi
An example of the playable galaxy map screen when it’s generated in 2D. It would also be possible to generate the map in 3D and then flatten it to 2D, this shouldn’t cause overlapping stars but might make the distances between stars unintuitive. Read More
Tagged 3d, galaxy, game, game development, gameing, graphics, indie, indie game dev, indie game development, map, master-of-orion, moo2, predestination, screenshot
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Black hat for girls
Where can i buy a red shirt
Suit pants men
Double aa bra
Windbrakers
Due to rationing during World War II , their prevalence declined, but their popularity has gone in and out of fashion from the s onwards. This was popular in the Edwardian era, as a feature of formalwear such as frock coats carried over to informalwear, but is now rare. The acid test of authentic tailoring standards is the wrinkle that comes from poor tailoring.
In and , some Mormon women participated in "Wear Pants to Church Day", in which they wore trousers to church instead of the customary dresses to encourage gender equality within The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. In , Turkey's parliament ended a ban on women lawmakers wearing trousers in its assembly. Also in , an old bylaw requiring women in Paris, France to ask permission from city authorities before "dressing as men", including wearing trousers with exceptions for those "holding a bicycle handlebar or the reins of a horse" was declared officially revoked by France's Women's Rights Minister, Najat Vallaud-Belkacem.
In , an Indian family court in Mumbai ruled that a husband objecting to his wife wearing a kurta and jeans and forcing her to wear a sari amounts to cruelty inflicted by the husband and can be a ground to seek divorce.
In , The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints announced that its female employees could wear "professional pantsuits and dress slacks" while at work; dresses and skirts had previously been required. Pleats just below the waistband on the front typify many styles of formal and casual trousers, including suit trousers and khakis.
There may be one, two, three, or no pleats, which may face either direction. When the pleats open towards the pockets they are called reverse pleats typical of most trousers today and when they open toward the fly they are known as forward pleats. Trouser-makers can finish the legs by hemming the bottom to prevent fraying.
A fly is a covering over an opening join concealing the mechanism, such as a zipper , velcro or buttons, used to join the opening. In trousers, this is most commonly an opening covering the groin , which makes the pants easier to put on or take off. The opening also allows men to urinate without lowering their trousers. Trousers have varied historically in whether or not they have a fly.
Originally, hose did not cover the area between the legs. This was instead covered by a doublet or by a codpiece. When breeches were worn, during the Regency period for example, they were fall-fronted or broad fall. Later, after trousers pantaloons were invented, the fly-front split fall emerged. Most flies now use a zipper, though button-fly pants continue to be available.
At present, most trousers are held up through the assistance of a belt which is passed through the belt loops on the waistband of the trousers. However, this was traditionally a style acceptable only for casual trousers and work trousers; suit trousers and formal trousers were suspended by the use of braces suspenders in American English attached to buttons located on the interior or exterior of the waistband.
Today, this remains the preferred method of trouser support amongst adherents of classical British tailoring. Many men claim this method is more effective and more comfortable because it requires no cinching of the waist or periodic adjustment.
In modern Western society, males customarily wear trousers and not skirts or dresses. There are exceptions, however, such as the ceremonial Scottish kilt and Greek fustanella , as well as robes or robe-like clothing such as the cassocks of clergy and the academic robes, both rarely worn today in daily use.
See also Men's skirts. Based on Deuteronomy in the Bible "The woman shall not wear that which pertaineth unto a man" , some groups, including the Amish, Hutterites, some Mennonites, some Baptists, a few Church of Christ groups, and most Orthodox Jews, believe that women should not wear trousers, but only skirts and dresses.
These groups do permit women to wear underpants as long as they are hidden. By contrast, many Muslim sects approve of pants as they are considered more modest than any skirt that is shorter than ankle length. However, some mosques require ankle length trousers for both Muslims and non-Muslims on the premises. Among certain groups, low-rise, baggy trousers exposing underwear became fashionable ; for example, among skaters and in s hip hop fashion. This fashion is called sagging or, alternatively, "busting slack.
Cut-offs are homemade shorts made by cutting the legs off trousers, usually after holes have been worn in fabric around the knees. This extends the useful life of the trousers. The remaining leg fabric may be hemmed or left to fray after being cut. In , a law requiring women in Paris, France to ask permission from city authorities before "dressing as men", including wearing trousers with exceptions for those "holding a bicycle handlebar or the reins of a horse" was declared officially revoked by France's Women's Rights Minister, Najat Vallaud-Belkacem.
Wearing jeans on this day, 22 April, has become an international symbol of protest. In Sudan, Article of the Memorandum to the Penal Code prohibits the wearing of "obscene outfits" in public.
This law has been used to arrest and prosecute women wearing trousers. Thirteen women including journalist Lubna al-Hussein were arrested in Khartoum in July for wearing trousers; ten of the women pleaded guilty and were flogged with ten lashes and fined Sudanese pounds apiece.
Lubna al-Hussein considers herself a good Muslim and asserts "Islam does not say whether a woman can wear trousers or not. I'm not afraid of being flogged. But it is insulting.
In May , in Louisiana , Democrat and state legislator Derrick Shepherd proposed a bill that would make it a crime to appear in public wearing trousers below the waist and thereby exposing one's skin or "intimate clothing". It is not clear whether, with the same coverage by the trousers, exposing underwear was considered worse than exposing bare skin, or whether the latter was already covered by another law. The law passed in the Virginia House of Delegates.
However, various criticisms to it arose. For example, newspaper columnists and radio talk show hosts consistently said that since most people that would be penalised under the law would be young African-American men, the law would thus be a form of racial discrimination.
Virginia's state senators voted against passing the law. In California , Government Code Section From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. This article is about the clothing item. For the British film, see Trousers film. For undergarment, see Underpants. For the object in topology, see Pair of pants mathematics.
This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. July Learn how and when to remove this template message. Retrieved 9 June Retrieved 6 December The Persian Army — BC. Archived from the original on 29 April Retrieved 21 January Thames and Hudson, , Retrieved 10 October Some rare jackets can have as few as two buttons, and during various periods, for instance the s and 70s, as many as eight were seen.
Six buttons are typical, with two to button; the last pair floats above the overlap. The three buttons down each side may in this case be in a straight line the 'keystone' layout or more commonly, the top pair is half as far apart again as each pair in the bottom square. A four-button double-breasted jacket usually buttons in a square. For example, if the buttons are too low, or the lapel roll too pronounced, the eyes are drawn down from the face, and the waist appears larger.
The jacket's lapels can be notched also called "stepped" , peaked "pointed" , shawl, or "trick" Mandarin and other unconventional styles. Each lapel style carries different connotations, and is worn with different cuts of suit. Notched lapels are the most common of the three are usually only found on single-breasted jackets and are the most informal style. They are distinguished by a 75 to 90 degree 'notch' at the point where the lapel meets the collar. Double-breasted jackets usually have peaked lapels, although peaked lapels are often found on single breasted jackets as well.
Shawl lapels are a style derived from the Victorian informal evening wear, and as such are not normally seen on suit jackets except for tuxedos or dinner suits. In the s, double-breasted suits with notched lapels were popular with power suits and the New Wave style. In the late s and s, a design considered very stylish was the single-breasted peaked lapel jacket. This has gone in and out of vogue periodically, being popular once again during the s, [ citation needed ] and is still a recognised alternative.
The ability to properly cut peak lapels on a single-breasted suit is one of the most challenging tailoring tasks, even for very experienced tailors. The width of the lapel is a varying aspect of suits, and has changed over the years.
The s and s featured exceptionally wide lapels, whereas during the late s and most of the s suits with very narrow lapels—often only about an inch wide—were in fashion. The s saw mid-size lapels with a low gorge the point on the jacket that forms the "notch" or "peak" between the collar and front lapel. Current mids trends are towards a narrower lapel and higher gorge.
Lapels also have a buttonhole , intended to hold a boutonnière , a decorative flower. These are now only commonly seen at more formal events. Usually double-breasted suits have one hole on each lapel with a flower just on the left , while single-breasted suits have just one on the left. Most jackets have a variety of inner pockets, and two main outer pockets, which are generally either patch pockets, flap pockets, or jetted "besom" pockets.
The flap pocket is standard for side pockets, and has an extra lined flap of matching fabric covering the top of the pocket. A jetted pocket is most formal, with a small strip of fabric taping the top and bottom of the slit for the pocket.
This style is most often on seen on formalwear , such as a dinner jacket. A breast pocket is usually found at the left side, where a pocket square or handkerchief can be displayed. In addition to the standard two outer pockets and breast pocket, some suits have a fourth, the ticket pocket, usually located just above the right pocket and roughly half as wide.
While this was originally exclusively a feature of country suits, used for conveniently storing a train ticket, it is now seen on some town suits.
Another country feature also worn sometimes in cities is a pair of hacking pockets, which are similar to normal ones, but slanted; this was originally designed to make the pockets easier to open on horseback while hacking. Suit jackets in all styles typically have three or four buttons on each cuff, which are often purely decorative the sleeve is usually sewn closed and cannot be unbuttoned to open. Five buttons are unusual and are a modern fashion innovation.
The number of buttons is primarily a function of the formality of the suit; a very casual summer sports jacket might traditionally s have had only one button, while tweed suits typically have three and city suits four. In the s, two buttons were seen on some city suits. Although the sleeve buttons usually cannot be undone, the stitching is such that it appears they could. Functional cuff buttons may be found on high-end or bespoke suits; this feature is called a surgeon's cuff and "working button holes" U.
Certainty in fitting sleeve length must be achieved, as once working button holes are cut, the sleeve length essentially cannot be altered further. A cuffed sleeve has an extra length of fabric folded back over the arm, or just some piping or stitching above the buttons to allude to the edge of a cuff. This was popular in the Edwardian era, as a feature of formalwear such as frock coats carried over to informalwear, but is now rare.
A vent is a slit in the bottom rear the "tail" of the jacket. Originally, vents were a sporting option, designed to make riding easier, so are traditional on hacking jackets, formal coats such as a morning coat , and, for practicality, overcoats. Today there are three styles of venting: Vents are convenient, particularly when using a pocket or sitting down, to improve the hang of the jacket, [30] so are now used on most jackets.
Ventless jackets are associated with Italian tailoring, while the double-vented style is typically British. Waistcoats called vests in American English were almost always worn with suits prior to the s. Due to rationing during World War II , their prevalence declined, but their popularity has gone in and out of fashion from the s onwards. A pocket watch on a chain, one end of which is inserted through a middle buttonhole, is often worn with a waistcoat; otherwise, since World War I when they came to prominence of military necessity, men have worn wristwatches, which may be worn with any suit except the full evening dress white tie.
Although many examples of waistcoats worn with a double-breasted jacket can be found from the s to the s, that would be unusual today one point of a double-breasted jacket being, it may be supposed, to eliminate the waistcoat. Traditionally, the bottom button of a waistcoat is left undone; like the vents in the rear of a jacket, this helps the body bend when sitting. Some waistcoats can have lapels, others do not.
Suit trousers are always made of the same material as the jacket. Even from the s to s, before the invention of sports jackets specifically to be worn with odd trousers, wearing a suit jacket with odd trousers was seen as an alternative to a full suit.
Trouser width has varied considerably throughout the decades. After , trousers began to be tapered in at the bottom half of the leg. Trousers remained wide at the top of the leg throughout the s.
By the s and s, a more slim look had become popular. In the s, suit makers offered a variety of styles of trousers, including flared, bell bottomed, wide-legged, and more traditional tapered trousers. In the s these styles disappeared in favour of tapered, slim-legged trousers. One variation in the design of trousers is the use or not of pleats. The most classic style of trouser is to have two pleats, usually forward, since this gives more comfort sitting and better hang standing.
The style originally descended from the exaggeratedly widened Oxford bags worn in the s in Oxford, which, though themselves short-lived, began a trend for fuller fronts. However, at various periods throughout the last century, flat fronted trousers with no pleats have been worn, and the swing in fashions has been marked enough that the more fashion-oriented ready-to-wear brands have not produced both types continuously. Turn-ups on the bottom of trousers, or cuffs, were initially popularised in the s by Edward VII , [34] and were popular with suits throughout the s and s.
They have always been an informal option, being inappropriate on all formalwear. Other variations in trouser style include the rise of the trouser. This was very high in the early half of the 20th century, particularly with formalwear, with rises above the natural waist, [35] to allow the waistcoat covering the waistband to come down just below the narrowest point of the chest.
Though serving less purpose, this high height was duplicated in the daywear of the period. Since then, fashions have changed, and have rarely been that high again with styles returning more to low-rise trousers, even dropping down to have waistbands resting on the hips. Other changing aspects of the cut include the length, which determines the break, the bunching of fabric just above the shoe when the front seam is marginally longer than height to the shoe's top.
Some parts of the world, such as Europe, traditionally opt for shorter trousers with little or no break, while Americans often choose to wear a slight break. A final major distinction is made in whether the trousers take a belt or braces suspenders. While a belt was originally never worn with a suit, the forced wearing of belts during wartime years caused by restrictions on use of elastic caused by wartime shortages contributed to their rise in popularity, with braces now much less popular than belts.
When braces were common, the buttons for attaching them were placed on the outside of the waistband, because they would be covered by a waistcoat or cardigan, but now it is more frequent to button on the inside of the trouser. Trousers taking braces are rather different in cut at the waist, employing inches of extra girth and also height at the back. The split in the waistband at the back is in the fishtail shape.
Those who prefer braces assert that, because they hang from the shoulders, they always make the trousers fit and hang exactly as they should, while a belt may allow the trouser waist to slip down on the hips or below a protruding midsection, and requires constant repositioning; also, they allow, indeed work best with, a slightly looser waist which gives room for natural expansion when seated. Suit trousers, also known as dress pants in the US, are a style of trousers intended as formal or semi-formal wear.
They are often made of either wool or polyester [37] although many other synthetic and natural textiles are used and may be designed to be worn with a matching suit jacket. Suit trousers often have a crease in the front of each pant leg, and may have one or more pleats.
Suit trousers can be worn at many formal and semi-formal occasions combined with a shirt that has no tie and a more relaxed fashion, which can be considered smart casual dress. As an alternative to trousers, breeches or knickers in variations of English where this does not refer to underwear may be worn with informal suits, such as tweed.
These are shorter, descending to just below the knees, fastened closely at the top of the calf by a tab or button cuff. While once common, they are now typically only worn when engaged in traditional outdoor sports, such as shooting or golf. The length and design is closely related to the plus-fours and plus-sixes etc. They are usually designed to be worn with long socks meeting just below the knee, but riding breeches, worn with long boots such as top boots , are long enough to meet the boot and display no sock.
Accessories for suits include neckties , shoes , wristwatches and pocket watches , pocket squares , cufflinks , tie clips , tie tacks, tie bars, bow ties , lapel pins , and hats. Throughout the 20th and 21st centuries, Italy has been a leader in the design of men's suits. Typical fabrics include lightweight flannel, a wool and mohair blend, and linen or chino cloth for hot weather.
Elsewhere in the Mediterranean , suits are considered impractical without constant air conditioning. As a result, most non-conservative businesses, regardless of size or wealth, tend to use casual clothes even in formal meetings. Similarly, some Israeli branches of American firms tend to imitate their American counterparts' style of clothing.
In 20th century China, the Communist regime encouraged citizens to wear the Mao suit due to its egalitarian and utilitarian design. Although less common now than it once was, the Mao suit is still in widespread use in rural areas.
After independence of India , there was a backlash against Western fashions due to their association with the previous colonialist regime. Please turn it on so that you can experience the full capabilities of this site.
Our dress pants for men are available in an assortment of colors and patterns to easily pair with a variety of slim fit dress shirts , sport coats, blazers and jackets. Crafted from fine materials like crisp cotton and classic wool, our dress trousers are business-ready must-haves for any man.
And, whether you prefer plain-front or pleat-front dress pants in cuffed, uncuffed or unfinished styles, Brooks Brothers offers a wide selection of fits ranging from extra slim to relaxed.
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The battle between Washington and Silicon Valley over encryption
Story by Sara Sorcher & illustrations by Erick Montes
When Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson arrived in San Francisco for one of the world’s largest technology conferences, it was almost like a foreign emissary entering enemy territory.
The epicenter of the country’s technology community has been openly hostile toward its government ever since whistleblower-turned-fugitive Edward Snowden revealed two years ago the National Security Agency was collecting troves of Americans’ communications records and hacking into the Internet backbone. Mr. Johnson had arrived at the RSA Conference, an annual gathering of thousands of influential cybersecurity professionals, with an olive branch. He sought to encourage collaboration between Washington and the nation’s tech industry, including by announcing a new Homeland Security office to work with what he called “friends” in Silicon Valley.
But it wasn’t just the long shadow of the Snowden revelations that Johnson had to overcome. Another battle between the Obama administration and the tech community was just beginning to heat up, as senior US officials called on major tech companies such as Apple and Google to weaken encryption technology so that law enforcement and national security agencies have easier access to their customers’ data.
After the Snowden leaks, those companies moved to deploy stronger default encryption on products such as the iPhone or Android operating system, sparking the ire of national security officials.
At the RSA Conference in San Francisco, Jeh Johnson was in the belly of the beast. (Photo courtesy of RSA Conference)
“Encryption is making it harder for your government to find criminal activity, and potential terrorist activity,” Johnson told the conference in late April, echoing National Security Agency chief Adm. Mike Rogers and FBI Director James Comey, who want companies to build into their products a secure channel for the US government to access the encrypted data. “We need your help to find the solution,” Johnson said.
However, to an audience of security professionals whose careers depend entirely on their ability to secure software and hardware products — and whose fervor for protecting them from criminal hackers borders on religious — Johnson’s call for cooperation was pure heresy. To them, purposefully building in what they see as a vulnerability into otherwise strong security measures so someone, even the US government, can more easily access people’s information is anathema.
And just bad business.
“Let’s take away the emotion for a moment,” says Scott Montgomery, vice president and chief technology strategist for Intel Security. “Imagine you want to protect your house, and I’m going to sell you a deadbolt. That deadbolt is absolutely perfect. It’s the best deadbolt that’s ever been made. No one can break in … . Except, I’ve put in one method by which someone can break in.”
He asks: “Would you buy it?”
The answer, Mr. Montgomery and many other senior industry officials feel, is unequivocally: No.
Now, companies and technology advocacy groups are vehemently arguing against the back door proposal at industry meetings, public forums, and in private meetings at the highest levels in government.
The fray has reached the highest ranks of the White House. President Obama is still deciding his position, sources say, and his administration is divided — despite the strong stands from the national security apparatus in recent weeks that have led some observers to believe the US government position is unified. (Mr. Comey, for instance, will head to the Senate Intelligence and Judiciary committees on Wednesday to make his case for why the proliferation of commercial encryption is challenging the FBI’s lawful investigative tools.) While none of the dissenting officials appear to have opposed high-profile advocates such as Comey in public, behind the scenes, sources say, Obama’s advisers have been preparing a range of policy options for the president to review.
During this process, encryption has become so controversial that many people are unwilling to expound upon the debate on the record. Yet this article, which relies on interviews on and off record from more than two dozen officials from tech and security companies across the country, reveals the American business community worries such a policy, if enacted, would threaten the competitiveness of their businesses.
They are concerned it would unnecessarily put their customers’ personal security and privacy at risk as criminal hackers grow increasingly sophisticated and governments seek to eavesdrop. At the same time, many companies are already trying to estimate the high cost of dealing with any regulation that would mandate access to encryption — including potential losses in revenue and the tougher-to-measure consumer trust. As such, some are already contemplating how to find loopholes and other ways around any new US rules to build back doors, including by taking business overseas.
At a macro level, companies are concerned about the global implications if other countries seek their own channels to access customers’ data using the US policy as a precedent. How the most powerful government in the world decides to proceed on encryption will have a profound effect not just on development of consumer technologies but the rights of Internet users in the future, they say. And the encryption debate comes at a time when the US government and the American tech sector need each other more than ever as advanced computing and digital security become increasingly key for the country’s economy and national defense. The squabble over encryption, however, may end up standing in the way — and the principles each side decides to fight for could set the tone for the future of the Surveillance Age.
Back doors not in the business plan
After the Snowden leaks began in June 2013, American businesses learned that perceptions of insecurity can hurt their sales.
After the Snowden leaks, major companies such as Apple and IBM spent billions of dollars building data centers overseas to combat the impression the US government would have unfettered access to foreign customers’ data. Many countries in Europe and elsewhere pushed for laws requiring their citizens’ data to be stored locally as international trust in US products and services dipped. Overseas competitors — in some cases using what they claimed was “NSA-proof” technology as a marketing scheme — swooped up suspicious customers, according to a New America think tank paper last year on the global business impacts of the surveillance revelations. It also detailed some lost opportunities, such as when Brazil, for instance, awarded a major contract for fighter jets to Swedish company Saab over Boeing, the American company that had previously been the frontrunner. In the cloud computing space, Forrester Research had estimated US businesses could lose as much as $180 billion by 2016.
At the same time, security teams across the country prioritized defending against a semi-omniscient “Global Passive Adversary” — now code for the NSA — above other potential threats. Unlike a criminal exploiting WiFi at a Starbucks, for instance, the US government could have a much wider aperture to monitor communications, with agents tapping into the Internet backbone, lurking at the data centers, and armed with big data analytics tools to connect the dots.
One way communications companies could prove they would be able to protect customers’ data was by building stronger encryption. Last year, Apple updated its privacy policy to reflect that under its new mobile operating system for the iPhone 6, personal data such as e-mail and messages would — automatically — be so strongly encoded the company would not even be able to access the key to unlock it.
Companies aimed to bolster consumer security by default. (Ann Hermes/The Christian Science Monitor) | Pictured above: Apple CEO Tim Cook. (Jeff Chiu/AP)
Therefore, as Apple’s privacy terms clarified, “it’s not technically feasible for us to respond to government warrants for the extraction of this data from devices in their possession running iOS 8.” Google is implementing similar data encryption; Yahoo recently rolled out a new end-to-end encryption extension for Yahoo Mail.
The moves by some of the most influential US companies to set a new standard for security were hailed as milestones for consumer protection at a time when data breaches were proliferating and exposing reams of personal information from Social Security Numbers to credit cards — and as a way to keep other countries with advanced cybersecurity capabilities from trying to undertake similar activities.
And companies will not be giving up the security high ground so easily, especially after the Snowden leaks put them in a difficult position.
“It’s clear that other countries would just not accept American products that have a back door built into them for the US government,” says Alex Stamos, former chief information security officer for Yahoo who just started as Facebook’s chief security officer. “There’s no way they’re going to be OK with that.”
At this point, though, major companies are trying to project how much they would lose if such a policy went into effect. “Do we lose 90 percent of our business in Germany? Or 20 percent? No idea,” one senior official from a major multinational tech company said. Either way, says the official, who was not authorized to speak on the record, “that’s a big deal.” Chinese telecommunications company Huawei has struggled, for instance, to win major projects in the US and around the world amid fears something is embedded within the hardware by the government there. US companies worry they could end up in a similar category of mistrusted, or totally shunned, products around the world.
It’s not just large companies that would feel the effects of such a policy. Take Vormetric, a relatively small but influential data security company that sells both encrypted hardware and software to protect high value data. Nearly 80 percent of its business is in the US, but its clients include 17 of the Fortune 30 companies — and many of them have an entrenched business presence overseas. “So, if we are working with an insurance company that sells around the world, and it’s American-based, what’s going to happen to their business in Japan if this law gets passed, and they’re known to be using American-made technology?” says Alan Kessler, Vormetric’s chief executive officer. “It would negatively impact them … and us.”
It would, however, leave the door open for international competitors to capture more of the market. “Absolutely it’s an opportunity for us,” says Trent Telford, chief executive officer of Australian-based data security company Covata, which has offices in Reston, Va., and London. “Until the American software companies duke it out with the US government, I think there’ll continue to be more opportunity for us … . Because my code started offshore and remains offshore, I haven’t had to tackle the question.”
Several US companies said they would consider developing a separate version of their products just for American users if a mandatory back door policy went into effect. That way, they could keep their international business. But this would come with a social cost. “The companies would very likely say, ‘Alright, fine, Americans don’t have security, but everybody else in the world does,” explains Jon Callas, chief technologist of the encrypted communications company Silent Circle. “So now you have a situation where if you are in Saudi Arabia, you can get encryption — but you can’t in the United States.”
Americans could also have a harder time buying security products based overseas. Silent Circle left the US for Switzerland over concerns about government surveillance. But if a back door law passed, says Mr. Callas, who cofounded the company with Phil Zimmerman, creator of the most widely used e-mail encryption software in the world, “we would have no choice” but to scrap the company’s North American business that makes up 20 percent of its sales.
That’s not an option for most major US tech companies. As Apple Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook maintains in the company’s privacy statement: “We have never worked with any government agency from any country to create a back door in any of our products or services. We have also never allowed access to our servers. And we never will.” Mr. Cook even told The New York Times the NSA “would have to cart us out in a box” before that happens.
So some companies are already pondering contingency plans for how to entirely avoid legal requirements that would require back doors, including by opening subsidiaries overseas — even though this venture on a mass scale, according to the senior tech official, could cost even more than complying or creating a separate system for the US. The senior official, whose company currently operates in almost every country around the world, said American businesses would thus have to make hard decisions about which markets to serve and whether some would be worth the extra cost and effort. “If we had to stand up 160 data centers” in different countries to get around the US law, the official said, “there’s a lot of countries we wouldn’t serve or it’d be too expensive.”
American industry officials do not want to be diplomats
The encryption debate turned Mr. Stamos into a social media folk hero among techies, cryptographers, and privacy advocates. While representing Yahoo at a cybersecurity conference, he publicly challenged NSA chief Admiral Rogers on the global business implications of building back doors into encryption.
Yahoo has 1.3 billion users around the world. “Once we open the door an inch for the US government, there are a number of countries that want to kick that door open,” Stamos told Passcode. “Once you give up that high ground for the US, then it’s a matter of companies deciding which countries get what they want. Or don’t.”
The government’s push for access to secure data isn’t uniquely American. And the appetite for that kind of access is only increasing after Snowden exposed what the US government was doing in secret.
China, for instance, has been pushing ahead with an antiterrorism proposal that would require tech firms to give encryption keys and install back doors to allow local law enforcement access for counterterrorism investigations. And, citing the Paris terror attacks on Charlie Hebdo magazine earlier this year, British Prime Minister David Cameron made it one of his campaign promises to ban encrypted online messaging apps such as WhatsApp — unless the government gets back door access. “We can’t only use China as a boogeyman,” Stamos said. “Even allies and democracies might be asking for intentionally weakened products in the future. The best thing the US can do is say, ‘American companies build the most secure products for consumers, and that’s the right thing to do.’ ”
President Obama came out strongly against the Chinese proposal, insisting it be changed before American companies would do business with that country, but did not publicly break with Prime Minister Cameron’s sentiments in public comments after two days of joint meetings in Washington earlier this year.
As US president, choosing which countries to support in their demands for back doors is Obama’s prerogative. But officials at American companies say it’s “parochial” or “myopic” — or even “hypocritical” — for the government to put companies in a position, effectively, of sideline American diplomats.
“If we are going to make a technological system that will let [FBI Director] Comey catch the bad guy that he wants to catch — then we have to let the Chinese get those awful people with umbrellas who were assaulting police and blocking pepper spray,” says Callas of Silent Circle. “We have to let the Iranians get the green dissidents there. We have to let everybody who is a state actor clamp down and be able to get what they want.”
And most US companies wouldn’t want to be in a position where users’ data, if they turn it over to other countries, could be used to prosecute — or potentially kill — them. “I don’t want to have to be the person who is judge, jury and executioner,” Callas says. “If I hand it over, it’s [people’s] secrets. You can’t pull it back.”
“I don’t want to have to be the person who is judge, jury, and executioner.” — Jon Callas, Silent Circle
What’s more, if it becomes the norm for dominant world powers to demand back door access, the future Internet may become even more politicized.
Governments — the ones with enough markets to compel companies to serve them regardless of their restrictive policies — could have jurisdiction over users within their borders. This balkanization could have a massive impact on the global economy. Products that currently are interoperable and work all over the world, could only work within certain countries that accept them.
“The IT industry, including Cisco, has thrived on a model where we develop technology once and then sell it around the world,” says Eric Wenger, director of cybersecurity and privacy policy at Cisco, the world’s largest maker of networking equipment. “We urge the government to avoid adopting policies that would break, or threaten, that model. We have to make sure our customers have a strong degree of confidence in the things we build. That means we continually work to detect and defend against any threats to our products and services — regardless of their source.”
Crypto Wars 2.0
NSA director Rogers floated a proposal this year to create a “front door” to access the data with multiple “big locks.” Decrypting the data under this plan, as described in a Washington Post article, would require merging multiple keys, created and stored away from the user, so that no one entity could access the protected information alone. In this process, known as “split keys,” it would take both key holders — for instance, both the FBI and Apple — to access the data with a court order.
But experts contend there’s no such thing as secure encryption with a channel for an outside party to access. Under any circumstances. “There’s no VIP room; it doesn’t exist,” Intel’s Montgomery says. “If there’s a back door, there’s a back door for everybody.”
It reminds security pros of the 1990s “crypto wars,” when the Clinton administration raised a similar idea, to keep a master key for the government or a trusted third party to decrypt voice communications. But it didn’t take long for Matt Blaze, currently a computer science professor at the University of Pennsylvania, to expose fundamental weaknesses in the so-called “Clipper Chip” designed by the NSA when he was working at AT&T Bell Laboratories. The government backed down.
But two decades later, Callas says there’s still no way to implement this kind of split-key system. “If we had a way to do a two-key system, we would be able to sell that to corporations so their data could be unlocked,” he said. “People would buy that.”
What’s more, as industry officials point out, encryption technology is not built by superheroes. It’s built by people in cubicles. “Somebody has to write the code to support that,” says Chris Eng of Veracode, a cybersecurity firm. “A split key is obviously better than one shared key in a safe somewhere. But each layer is going to increase the complexity. The more complex it is, the better chance somebody’s going to mess up. It’s going to be something you can exploit.”
“The more complex it is, the better chance somebody’s going to mess up. It’s going to be something you can exploit.” — Chris Eng, Veracode
And, Mr. Eng says, trying to crack that system would be a challenge eagerly accepted by every adversarial nation. “It’s going to be, all of the sudden, the most valuable system in the world. So you’re going to have nation-states with pretty much unlimited budgets trying to break that system,” he said. And if they break it, they would gain access to a treasure trove of the most intimate details of people’s personal lives, from, say, their conversations with loved ones, online political organizing, e-mailed business plans, and financial information.
Pictured above: James Comey. (Jose Luis Magana/AP) | Below: Congress held hearings on encryption. (Courtesy of House Oversight and Government Reform Committee)
From cryptographer confabs to Congress
In recent weeks, the encryption debate has expanded beyond the halls of tech conventions such as the RSA Conference. Congressional hearings and social media debates have helped form a coalition of tech companies, civil society groups, and technologists to organize and come out strongly against the push for back doors.
Still, the most ardent proponents for government access to encryption, such as FBI Director Comey, are undeterred.
“I think these folks don’t see what I see or they’re not fair-minded,” he said of the tech industry’s backlash. “Either one of those things is depressing.”
Comey projects that Apple and Google’s move toward stronger encryption will only become more pervasive in an interconnected society. Recent default encryption settings, and encrypted devices and networks, Comey has said, mean the country’s protectors are “going dark” in their pursuit of predators, violent criminals, terrorist cells using social media to recruit, plan and execute attacks.
Since the companies, even under subpoena, would not even be able to unlock the original customer data protected by the strong encryption such as photos, documents, e-mails and recordings on the device they would be ordered to turn over, law enforcement and intelligence officials fear they could miss potentially valuable leads and evidence that could help catch and prosecute criminals and terrorists. And he says that cracking today’s high-level encryption would be nearly impossible even with supercomputers. “All of our lives will be covered by strong encryption,” Comey told a Washington audience in late May. “Therefore all of our lives … including the lives of criminals and terrorists and spies, will be in a place that is utterly unavailable to court-ordered process. And that, to a democracy, should be utterly concerning.”
Many tech executives say they sympathize with law enforcement’s plight. They realize it’s much harder for them to access the communications they want because of the stronger technologies they created.
But they also suspect that if the US government wins the increasingly public debate over back doors, it won’t just drive innocent customers overseas; the craftiest criminals and terrorists US officials are likely trying to catch would have plenty of other ways to communicate besides the products they know have back doors for the government. They, too, could use encryption on devices from other countries that don’t require those standards. “If I’m a terrorist, I’ll stop using American products,” says Tsion Gonen, a vice president at digital security company Gemalto, which is headquartered in Amsterdam. “I’m not sure I understand [why the US would announce] ‘Everyone, we have a backdoor! Please consider using this for your terrorist attack.’ ”
What’s more, says Daniel Ford, chief security officer at Silent Circle, “It’s not up to us to make it easy for the government to do the investigation. It’s up to them to provide the burden of proof — and develop talent to get into these systems.” Otherwise, he says, the US should use other investigative techniques to get the information it needs. After all, cracking “encryption is just one way to go after somebody,” Mr. Ford says. “To build in a back door is just an easy button.”
It seems that Congress may agree with that sentiment, too. In a sign of political will — and, perhaps, a sign they are already hearing American industry’s concerns — the Republican-controlled House of Representatives passed an amendment to a major appropriations bill in June seeking to stop the government from forcing tech companies to build back doors or otherwise alter their products to allow for more electronic surveillance.
It passed 255-174.
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Steel, John Henry – “A Manual of the Diseases of the Elephant and of his Management and Uses” (1885)Chapters include; The Pathology of the Elephant; On the General Diseases of the Elephant; On the Circulatory System; On the Alimentary System; On the Respiratory Apparatus; On the Urinary Apparatus; On the Nervous System;...
9 – Letter to Mary Ann Smith from Frederick Smith, 24 Jan 1900This letter has several sections redacted in black ink, which are assumed to be on personal subjects and not related to Smith's work in South Africa. In this letter, Smith writes on the following subjects: 24 Jan - Smith hearing that the night raid by the British was successful,..
Manuscript notes made by Smith, whilst a student at the Royal Veterinary CollegeThis notebook contains manuscript notes and sketches made by Smith, during his study at the Royal Veterinary College in 1873 to 1874. The notes are about the eye and the foot of the horse. Smith presented these notes to the library of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons...
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28 – Letter to Fred Bullock from Frederick Smith, 30 Mar 1913
30th March 1913 /0 Comments/in 04 – Correspondence sent and received in 1913 /by Helena Clarkson
Smith writes about the results of his research at the British Museum studying the Harley 3535 manuscripts and the works of Ruffus, and his need to consult Moule’s work further. Smith mentions that Dr A S Lea would like to…
http://rcvsvethistory.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/featFS.3.1.4.28-1.jpg 1054 1426 Helena Clarkson http://www.rcvsvethistory.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/VH-newlogo-v2.png Helena Clarkson1913-03-30 14:45:512017-04-19 10:38:0228 - Letter to Fred Bullock from Frederick Smith, 30 Mar 1913
33 – Letter to Fred Bullock from Frederick Smith, 3 Apr 1913
3rd April 1913 /0 Comments/in 04 – Correspondence sent and received in 1913 /by Helena Clarkson
Smith writes about various subjects including: pamphlets and books sent to Smith by Leon Moule; research of Harley 3535 manuscripts with extracts by Bruce-Whyte; planning the next stage of veterinary literature research;…
http://rcvsvethistory.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/featFS.3.1.4.33-2.jpg 269 1219 Helena Clarkson http://www.rcvsvethistory.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/VH-newlogo-v2.png Helena Clarkson1913-04-03 10:37:382017-04-19 10:40:3833 - Letter to Fred Bullock from Frederick Smith, 3 Apr 1913
34 – Letter to Frederick Smith from Fred Bullock, 8 Apr 1913
8th April 1913 /0 Comments/in 04 – Correspondence sent and received in 1913 /by Helena Clarkson
Bullock writes about the results of his research into the Veterinary Papyrus of Kahun, and the work of Leon Moule on the subject, with accompanying manuscript notes. Bullock also mentions sources for the ancient laws of…
http://rcvsvethistory.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/featFS.3.1.4.34-3.jpg 1206 996 Helena Clarkson http://www.rcvsvethistory.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/VH-newlogo-v2.png Helena Clarkson1913-04-08 10:39:272017-10-04 16:56:5734 - Letter to Frederick Smith from Fred Bullock, 8 Apr 1913
Smith writes about various subjects including: the Veterinary Papyrus of Kahun; book bindings; the illness of Dr A S Lea; a source for the Ancient Laws of Wales; and the works of Robert Klee.There are manuscript notes on the reverse of the letter…
http://rcvsvethistory.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/featFS.3.1.4.35-2.jpg 1413 1085 Helena Clarkson http://www.rcvsvethistory.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/VH-newlogo-v2.png Helena Clarkson1913-04-09 10:57:582017-04-19 10:43:3135 - Letter to Fred Bullock from Frederick Smith, 9 Apr 1913
36 – Letter from Leon Moule, with translation by Fred Bullock, 12 Apr 1913
12th April 1913 /0 Comments/in 04 – Correspondence sent and received in 1913 /by Helena Clarkson
Based on the Bullock translation – Moule writes about the Veterinary Papyrus of Kahun, and his writing on the subject; and Hindu manuscripts dealing with veterinary medicine, presented by Dr Kajendralala Mitra to the Asiatic…
http://rcvsvethistory.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/featFS.3.1.4.36-1.jpg 141 673 Helena Clarkson http://www.rcvsvethistory.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/VH-newlogo-v2.png Helena Clarkson1913-04-12 12:43:082017-04-19 10:42:4736 - Letter from Leon Moule, with translation by Fred Bullock, 12 Apr 1913
79 – Letter to Fred Bullock from Frederick Smith, 23 Jul [1913]
23rd July 1913 /0 Comments/in 04 – Correspondence sent and received in 1913 /by Helena Clarkson
Smith writes about various subjects including: writing to Sir Clements Markham about Gervase; uncorrected proofs of Smith’s ‘Early History of Veterinary Literature’ going to print; visiting the Wellcome Historical Medical Museum,…
http://rcvsvethistory.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/featFS.3.1.4.79-4.jpg 144 1181 Helena Clarkson http://www.rcvsvethistory.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/VH-newlogo-v2.png Helena Clarkson1913-07-23 15:27:432018-12-12 13:03:0079 - Letter to Fred Bullock from Frederick Smith, 23 Jul [1913]
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Reynolds Financial Inc
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Andrew Reynolds a - CEO and Secretary/Treasurer of Reynolds Financial Inc. attended public schools in <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />Dallas, and later received a degree from Northlake College, located in Irving, Texas. Andrew worked for Tom Thumb Grocery in the Dallas area for almost 20 years, of which the last 10 years were spent in management.
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Frank Graham has spent the last 35 years in the real estate business. Having spent his first few years working for Campbell Company of Dallas, one of the leading Commercial Real Estate companies in the area, he eventually went into the real estate development business under the name Saco Development Inc. He was responsible for building several shopping centers, as well as over 600,000 square.feet of industrial warehouses in not only the Dallas area, but several cities in Florida. Frank moved to the Tyler area in 1990 and did not care for retirement, and soon became active in selling farms and ranches under the franchise of United Country. He eventually retired again but was talked out of retirement by Andrew to start Reynolds Financial Inc. With his background in real estate, Frank is a very influential part of the business. He plays a major role in the financial aspect as well as constructing creative business deals with Reynolds Financial Inc.
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Home>New Use for Coal Ash
New Use for Coal Ash
Coal ash is a byproduct of burning coal to generate electricity and is often stored in ponds near power plants. But when coal ash spilled out of a Duke Energy storage pond into the Dan River, it focused attention on the problem of storing coal ash. While some is currently used in concrete, NC A&T Researchers are finding a new use for coal ash as a super strong building material.
GREENSBORO — What’s happening outside a lab at North Carolina A&T State University’s Center for Composite Materials Research may be part of the solution to the state and the nation’s coal ash problem.
“This material stands out as superior,” explains Dr. Robert Sadler, a professor in the Center for Composite Materials Research, as lab technicians aim a blow torch at a panel that is held upright in a metal framework. A metal wall encloses the entire system and everything is sitting atop a wheeled cart.
The technician turns the valve on a tank of propane. You can hear the gas flow. He flicks an igniter in front of the torch and the flame ignites, blasting the center of the panel with a 2,000 degree flame.
A white ring grows in the center of the panel. It is obviously hot and getting hotter. However sensors on the back of the panel report the temperature is just over 100 degrees.
Before the test, Dr. Sadler explained the panel that was being tested is called Eco-Core, which features an unexpected primary ingredient.
“Eco-Core is 95% fly ash that is held together with a liquid polymer resin, or binding material. The paste is then poured into a mold where it is hot pressed into the desired shape."
“I think this is miracle material,” explains Dr Sadler. “When we first started working on this for the Navy, the main objective was to create a material that was fire resistant. But we found out this stuff is strong, it resists sea and fresh water, and it has a compressive strength of 4000 psi.”
That’s pounds per square inch, which means you could stand up a car on a square inch of Eco-Core and you would not crush it.
Coal ash is the same material that poured out of the storage pond at a Duke Energy power plant and into the Dan River in February. Coal-fired powered plants produce two forms of ash. There’s heavy bottom ash, which stays in the furnace, and lighter fly ash, which is a refined component of coal ash and is captured in the smokestack. The two types of ash are dumped into storage ponds at power plants across North Carolina and the nation.
Ironically, the engineers decided to experiment with using fly ash as a building material as they were driving past a power plant on the way back from meeting with the Navy.
“We were discussing possible materials to use in the process when I happened to see the power plant in the distance and I said what about fly ash,” says Dr. Kunigal Shivakumar, Director of the Center for Composite Materials Research. “It has silica, because it is primarily ceramic, and it has hollow bubbles, which would be nice.”
“So that’s it,” Dr. Shivakumar adds as he holds up two tiny bottles with the ingredients of Eco-Core. “Eco-Core is made of two materials, the fly ash, which is very lightweight and has the hollow ceramic bubbles, and a binder.”
It turns out the little micro amounts of trapped air in those hollow bubbles that make up the fly ash are very important for heat and fire resistance.
“The grade of fly ash we use is little hollow spheres, and these range from 100-300 microns,” says Dr. Sadler, as he pours a small amount of fly ash into his palm. You can just barely discern the spheres. “We’re interested in the hollow spheres because we want thermal insulation and lightweight, and the spheres are what provide that. If it was solid, it wouldn’t do the things we want it to do.”
At the microscopic level, the recipe for creating Eco-Core calls for coating the tiny bubbles of fly ash with as thin a layer of polymer as possible. In addition, the polymer is the only place where the bubbles touch. And that’s what gives Eco-Core all of its properties, because there is as much trapped air as possible in the material, and it fits tightly together.
“It’s kind of like pushing ball bearings together,” explains. Dr. Shivakumar.
Fly ash is almost immune to fire because of the intense heat of power production. Researchers boosted the fire resistance even more, up to Navy standards, by heating Eco-Core in an oven.
The engineers spent almost a decade working on the Navy project and perfecting the properties of Eco-Core. The resulting material is useful as the interior part of a wall or ship’s hull. But after testing Eco-Core every way imaginable, its creators believe the uses for Eco-Core are almost limitless.
“There’s a big market for this kind of material out there, somewhere," says Dr. Sadler. "There has got to be, because we have not found anything this material cannot do, and there is plenty of fly ash to make it with.”
But the trouble is, the engineering team can only produce a small amount of Eco-Core in their lab. They’re looking for a manufacturing expert who can figure out how to produce it commercially, on a large scale.
The team admits it won’t solve the coal ash problem, but it will help.
Reporter's Blog: Leveraging the Leftovers
Teacher Resources: New Use for Coal Ash
Eco-Core
NC A&T State University
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Is Julian Assange being murdered?
0 Views |
He may have days to live according to one source.
RICHARD GALUSTIAN
Submitted by Richard Galustian…
A great champion of human rights and injustice, Caitlin Johnstone, seems to be one of only a handful of people reporting on the very serious medical condition of Julian Assange.
Julian Assange’s Swedish lawyer Per Samuelson has told the press that “Assange’s health situation last Friday was such that it was not possible to conduct a normal conversation with him.”
This jarring revelation has been reported by a only a small handful of outlets.
To compound Assange’s persecution in relation to the clearly bogus Swedish assertions, Sweden, obviously on instructions from America and Britain, are refusing Samuelson’s request for a postponement of a scheduled hearing regarding Assange’s detention en absentia for a “preliminary investigation” of rape “allegations”.
The fact that the imprisoned WikiLeaks founder is so ill that he can’t converse is itself far more significant than the postponement refusal, yet headlines mentioning Samuelson’s statement focus on the Swedish case, de-emphasizing the startling news from his lawyer of Assange’s rapidly declining health.
As of this writing it is impossible to find any news outlets reporting this.
The Sydney Morning Herald covered the story thus without even mentioning illness in headline, instead going with “Swedish court rejects effort to delay Assange hearing”.
The much smaller alternative media outlet World Socialist Website has been the only outlet I’ve found so far which reports on Samuelson’s statement in anything resembling its proper scale, publishing a good article titled “Despite Assange’s ill-health, Swedish court rejects delay to hearing” a few hours ago.
This news has been so under-discussed and under-appreciated as of this writing that Caitlin Johnstone didn’t find out about it until hours after the story broke.
A report that Julian Assange was so sick he could barely speak surfaced last Friday and yet still there is no news about how he’s doing.
Caitlin Johnstone (and I) are calling on everyone who cares about Assange, press freedom, government transparency or peace activism to urgently be active through their individual networks.
According to Johnstone, another part of this story has gone completely uncovered in all English-language media. That is the news that Assange has actually been transferred to the hospital wing of Belmarsh prison. This was in a way ironically only reported by the Swedish outlet ‘Upsala Nya Tidning’, a newspaper published in the same district court Assange is scheduled to call in to for his hearing. The report was also based on a statement to the press by Per Samuelson.
The article reports the following, per machine translation:
“Wikileaks founder Julian Assange’s Swedish lawyer wants the arrest hearing on Monday in Uppsala to be postponed. According to the lawyer, who has now visited his client in British prison, Assange is admitted to the medical department and was unable to make a call.
It continued “Last Friday, Assange’s Swedish defender, lawyer Per E Samuelson, visited his client in prison. In a letter to Uppsala District Court, the lawyer says that they met for just under two hours. According to the lawyer, Assange’s state of health at the meeting was such that ‘a normal conversation with him was not possible’. Julian Assange is said to have been taken to the prison’s ward, but there is no more detailed information about his state of health.”
This story was picked up from Upsala Nya Tidning by Danish outlet ‘Politiken’, which per machine translation titled its story “Weakened Assange hospitalized in London prison: ‘Impossible to have a normal conversation with him’”. These two news outlets are understood to be as reputable as any other mainstream western outlet, yet they remain the only publications to be reporting that Assange has been hospitalized.
Why? Question why? Is there a D Notice on the subject in Britain?
LATEST, NEWS
Julian Assange sentenced to 50 weeks in jail for jumping bail in UK
Now we’re seeing all sorts of rumors circulating about how Assange is faring in prison, and it gets difficult to sort out fact from fiction. It appears that it would be difficult to find a more reliable source on the state of his health than his own lawyer, however.
Caitlin Johnstone asserts that it has long been an established fact that Assange was in failing health while in the Ecuadorian embassy in London; doctors who visited him published an article months ago in the Guardian, in January 2018, saying “We examined Julian Assange, and he badly needs care but he can’t get it”.
Renata Avila, an activist and author who has worked with and written about WikiLeaks, tweeted in response to the new revelations, “He needed urgent assistance after his expulsion from the Embassy. Instead, he was not allowed to receive adequate medical treatment.
We have been watching the slow-motion assassination of Julian Assange. The State, the UK Government has acted despicably and with zero integrity, quite the opposite. One can say the UK government has acted like a Orwellian totalitarian State, nothing less.
In effect Assange it would seem is being slowly murdered by psychological tactics, as surely as if the UK Government had placed a noose tied around his neck, not just in Belmarsh Prison but even prior to his imprisonment, by completely isolating him in the London Ecuadorian embassy.
It is not a ‘conspiracy theory’ to say outright that the police, intelligence, judicial and military agencies of the UK are carrying out his death sentence (by order of their masters in America).
As when the US conducts ‘regime change’, first came the smears (propaganda), then came the siege (sanctions), and then they stage their coup (dragging him out of the embassy) and now they’ve got him in their clutches and they can do what they want with him behind closed doors. That’s how you ‘kill’ a nation while still looking like a democracy, and that’s how they’re killing Assange.
Assange’s life may depend on the people taking to the streets now outside Belmarsh Prison and undertake whatever protests are necessary if even that means lobbying their MP’s in UK
https://theduran.com/is-julian-assange-being-murdered/
Is Julian Assange being murdered? 0 Views | MAY 2...
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Home→Far from Las Vegas→Far from Las Vegas: U.S. once had a gay president, and vice president, too
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Far from Las Vegas: U.S. once had a gay president, and vice president, too
Posted on June 18, 2019 by William P. BarrettJune 18, 2019
President James Buchanan (via Wikipedia)
Over the weekend, Pete Buttigieg, the only openly gay presidential candidate for 2020, told a TV interviewer that it was “statistically almost certain” that the U.S. already has had a gay president.
I can do a lot better than that. Not only has the U.S. had a gay president, it also had a gay vice president, although not at the same time. But amazingly, the two were an item for many years.
Don’t worry, you didn’t miss this sleeping through your high school class on American history. This kind of stuff just wasn’t in the curriculum in the old days.
Before becoming New To Las Vegas, I was New To Seattle. As visitors to this space may know, I like to explore history. Just as I wrote here about the colorful origins of Clark County, I wrote about the colorful origins of King County, in which Seattle sits. And that’s when I documented the interesting long-ago background of some folks in high office, from which much of the material in this post is drawn.
Vice President William R. King (via Wikipedia)
King County was originally named in 1852 for William Rufus DeVane King, a veteran Alabama U.S. senator and major slave-owner (he founded the later-to-be-infamous city of Selma). King had just been elected Vice President on the ticket of President Franklin Pierce, but died weeks after taking office the following year. (In 1986 the shocked liberals around Seattle changed the historical basis for the county’s name to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.)
Bill King was first elected to the Senate in 1819. He was a popular figure with his colleagues, although, as Time Magazine once wrote, he was a “foppish dresser who wore powdered wigs long after they were fashionable.”
King never married or had children. Eventually, he became the roommate in Washington, D.C. of another senator, James Buchanan of Pennsylvania, five years his junior, who also never married or had children. They lived together for 16 years, interrupted in 1844 for two years when King was ambassador to France.
A number of writers and historians believe it very likely that King and Buchanan were in some kind of a committed relationship. The own words of the politicians are quoted. “I am selfish enough to hope you will not be able to procure an associate who will cause you to feel no regret at our separation,” King suggestively wrote Buchanan from Paris, as quoted in Presidential Sex: From the Founding Fathers to Bill Clinton, by Wesley O. Hagood.
According to Affairs of State: The Untold History of Presidential Love, Sex and Scandal, 1790-1900, by Robert P. Watson, shortly after King’s death, Buchanan wrote one female friend, “I am now ‘solitary and alone’ having no companion in the house with me. I have gone a wooing to several gentlemen, but have not succeeded with any of them.” The implication seemed clear. Various associates described the two men using other euphemisms of the era for homosexuals, such as “Siamese twins,” slang then for a gay couple.
In 1852 the Democratic ticket of Pierce and King trounced two others to win the White House. But as it turned out, King had tuberculosis and was dying. Looking for a cure, he traveled to Cuba and was actually sworn in as vice president there in March 1853–the only national leader to take such an oath on foreign soil. He soon returned to the U.S. and, at 67, died a day later on his plantation in Selma. King was in office just 46 days and never presided over the U.S. Senate as vice president or otherwise took up his duties.
As for Buchanan, he was elected President in 1856–beating, among others, John C. Frémont, the fledgling Republican Party’s first national candidate (and in my opinion, a war criminal) and the man for whom Fremont Street in Las Vegas is named. Buchanan’s supporters fended off rumors about his personal life by noting he once was engaged to a woman (who, for some reason, killed herself). But in office Buchanan did such a lousy job that his one term ended with the start of the Civil War.
To this day, Buchanan and King remain the only bachelors among U.S. presidents and vice presidents. But of course, same-sex marriage didn’t become a universal legal right in the U.S. until a U.S.Supreme Court ruling in 2015.
In the TV interview, Buttigieg punted when asked to name a past gay president. “My gaydar even doesn’t work that well in the present, let alone retroactively.” he said. Undoubtedly, Buttigieg, a well-read fellow, knows about Buchanan’s background. But given that Buchanan is routinely ranked by historians among the very worst U.S. presidents ever, I can’t blame Buttigieg for relying on statistics rather than names. Not all precedents are good ones.
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YWCA TechGYRLS Summer Camp
YWCA and NEW Water teamed up on August 14 this week to educate girls on water quality issues - as well as offer a message into a hot career track underrepresented by girls: STEM.
Jobs in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) fields are increasing across the nation, with the trend expected to continue, according to national labor statistics. Right here in Green Bay, the YWCA is preparing girls for this new workforce. The YWCA TechGYRLS® program was developed in response to the widening gender gap in exposure to and interest in STEM for girls. This year's summer camp is focusing on empower women in STEM through hands on projects, speakers, and fieldtrips. The program is supporting over 25 girls in grades 3rd-8th. This week-long camp provides the girls with a glimpse into some of the up and coming career options available to them in their futures.
"The YWCA's mission of empower women is embodied in this camp through its hands on approach," said Amie Thiel, YWCA TechGYRLS® Coordinator. "The camp reaches girls on a level that they can understand and provides a way to show them that math and science can be fun. It takes the learning outside of the classroom and promotes STEM careers to a group of young women that may not have considered this career path."
NEW Water, the brand of the Green Bay Metropolitan Sewerage District, will be on hand at this year's camp to offer girls a hands-on fun educational session on water quality, while informing them of what types of careers are available in the clean water industry.
NEW Water treats about 38 million gallons of water per day. Doing so requires a highly specialized workforce, such as engineers, chemists, biologists, mechanics, and computer techs.
"NEW Water has an aging workforce. Over the next decade, we will have many retirements, and will need to fill positions with people qualified in STEM categories," said Tom Sigmund, Executive Director of NEW Water. "We are delighted to partner with the YWCA's TechGYRLS® Summer Camp to not only get out the important message about water quality, but to also offer girls a glimpse into what kinds of careers are available right here in their backyard."
About the YWCA
The YWCA is dedicated to eliminating racism, empower women and promoting peace, justice, freedom and dignity for all. The YWCA Green Bay-De Pere first opened its doors to women in 1919 as a place for women to meet, have lunch, and socialize. Today, the YWCA has become more than a meeting place, offering fitness memberships, empowerment programs, and meaningful volunteer experiences to better our community. For more information please visit: www.ywcagreenbay.org
About NEW Water
The mission of NEW Water, the brand of the Green Bay Metropolitan Sewerage District, is to promote public health and welfare through the collection, treatment, and reclamation of wastewater. In conjunction with others, the organization will encourage pollution prevention and support programs to help ensure that water contaminated by human activity is returned clean to the environment. For more information please visit: www.newwater.us
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Politics / Legalization News
Join Directory
Banking/Payments
Sister Kate: Forming a Sisterhood of Cannabis Nuns
Sister Kate is the founder of Sisters of the Valley, a collection of self-described cannabis nuns who grow CBD-rich cannabis in California.
Continued after the jump.
a word from our sponsors:
Activism, healing, empowerment — these are important foundations for the Sisters of the Valley, a group of self-described cannabis nuns in Merced County, California that grow and distribute CBD products including salves, tinctures, oils, and more.
After the recent release of a documentary highlighting the sisterhood, founder Sister Kate joined our podcast host TG Branfalt to share her story and address some misconceptions perpetuated by the film. In the following interview, Sister Kate discusses her unique life story, talks about founding the religiously unaffiliated Sisters of the Valley, describes her many advocacy efforts and success stories, shares some of her more painful struggles, and a whole lot more!
You can tune in via the player below or scroll further down to read a full transcript of this week’s Ganjapreneur podcast episode.
Read the transcript:
Commercial: This episode of the Ganjapreneur podcast is made possible by 420 friendly service providers in the Ganjapreneur business directory. If you need professional help with your business from accounting to legal services to consulting, marketing, payment processing, or insurance, visit ganjapreneur.com/businesses to find service providers who specialize in helping cannabis entrepreneurs like you. Visit the Ganjapreneur business directory today at ganjapreneur.com/businesses.
TG Branfalt: Hey there, I’m your host TG Branfalt and thank you for listening to the Ganjapreneur.com podcast where we try to bring you actionable information and normalize cannabis through the stories of ganjapreneurs, activists, and industry stakeholders.
And today I’m absolutely thrilled and a little bit nervous joined by sister Kate. She’s a founder of Sisters of the Valley, subject of the documentary Breaking Habits. She produces CBD products in Merced County, California. She has an amazing story. The film that she was the subject of was, I mean it gives me chills just sitting here sort of thinking about it. I mean, when we talk about activists, we really have, I mean one of the best. A truly remarkable person, Sister Kate, thank you for coming on the show. How are you today?
Sister Kate: Thank you. That was a really warm welcome Tim. Thank you. I’m glad to be back here. And I think when you’re saying somebody’s an activist, you don’t say they are good. You say they’re a bad ass.
TG Branfalt: I’m a little bit tongue-tied. So before we sort of get into, you know, what’s going on, and without giving too much away, so people you know, want to, you know, watch the film. Tell me a little bit about yourself and, you know, your background.
Sister Kate: So I had a pretty, you know, I got my degree in business education in Wisconsin, a red state. I came out of University a Republican because that’s the way they make you sometimes when you don’t know very much about the world. And I mean, I even voted for Ronald Reagan once. So I was pretty like, in my own bubble. I believed a lot of the bologna about, you know, that poor people are poor because they don’t work hard enough.
And I just believed a lot of bologna, that was just not true. Very, very solid misconceptions about America, and how the deck is stacked against the poor in America. And even in the, you know, seventies, and I think I graduated from university in ’81 you know, there was still this sort of hostility and was I sort of on the side of the stupid. I took, down the road, I took an assignment in Europe, I ended up spending almost a decade in the Netherlands with my children.
And you don’t really get to see America for what America is out until you leave it. Sometimes you can’t see your own family for what it is until you leave them. Sometimes you can’t see your own enclave or business for what it is until you leave them. So it was leaving and living in Europe and getting like, a fresh perspective on my country, it totally changed me, but it also gave me a fresh perspective on functional socialism, sitting side by side with functional capitalism.
And so it changed how I felt about things. And then when I came back to America in 2007 right before the banking crisis, I could see that my country, I had done a lot of traveling in Europe with my children and my husband, and we could easily see the difference between a conquered peoples and the conquerors. So look at England, look at Ireland. Ireland’s a shabby version of England. Look at Malta, look at Sicily. Malta’s a shabby version of Sicily.
Everywhere you go in Europe, you could see the difference between the conquered people and the conqueror. When I came back to America, it looked like we were conquered people. It looked to me like we’d become the Middle East where we had no history of cooperating with our government, no history of working together, that the people work against the government. Government works against the people and now here we are sort of in the country with trash from sea to shining sea.
TG Branfalt: It’s super insightful. You describe yourself in the film as an anarchist and is that representative of sort of your political philosophy at this point?
Sister Kate: No, it’s not. Not really because when people think of anarchists, they think about throwing tea over the harbor and I wish we wouldn’t have thrown the tea because then we would at least have national health care. Right?
And so anarchists usually think of not paying taxes where we’re all about paying taxes. We think our farm towns are creating generations of meth addicts because there’s nothing for our children to do in these small towns. And so we’re about paying taxes. 14% of every dollar we earn goes in taxes in some form or another. So we’re not really anarchists from that standpoint, but we are anarchists against the patriarchy. We are anarchists against those who are marginalized. We’re anarchist in the way that we started our business without a permit and four and a half years later, we still don’t have a permit. Even though we’re paying our sales tax and our payroll tax and our federal taxes and blah, blah, blah.
We don’t have a local permit to operate here, which is also a part of the theme of the movie. And it’s four and a half years into it and we still don’t have a permit, but neither has anyone tried to shut us down. So from that stand point we get to claim anarchists, I guess, we’re anarchists from the standpoint that our county says it is not legal to grow cannabis plants outdoors.
You have to pay PG&E for fake lighting to grow something that’s natural. And we go, oh no, no, no, we’re growing 36 and we’re growing them outdoors, but we’re not like the cartel where we have 36 acres. So we have our 36 represent like, an eighth of an acre of plants. Right? And so we are anarchist. I think we can claim the title in sort of a grade school way.
TG Branfalt: You told me about, you know, how your thinking sort of evolved on America, right? Due to living in Europe. How did your thinking evolve ultimately on cannabis, you go from voting to Reagan?
Sister Kate: Yeah. It’s the same stuffing. Yeah. No. I remember the first guy that, I had a starter husband that lasted 18 months in Chicago. The Iran Contra affair lasted longer than that marriage did. But, I remember that when I went to visit him, I arrived at his apartment for the first time. I was actually spending the weekend at his apartment in Chicago and I arrived and he had a roommate, and his roommate was a rolling a joint at the kitchen table and I went straight through into the bedroom, locked the door, called him at work, and asked him why he would leave me alone in an apartment with a rapist and a druggie.
And so I really, I equated the fact that he’s smoking weed. I am alone in this apartment. He’s going to rape me. Honest to God, that’s how juvenile my thinking was when I was about 20 years old.
So it was living in… It was later realizing that I come from a long line of alcoholics, my father’s an alcoholic. At any one time I have relatives trying to heal themselves through alcoholism. So it was really about the age of 24 or 25 that I went, you know, hangovers are stupid and I like to party and I’m in business and there’s a lot of partying that goes on in business and I’m done.
And I started smoking weed as recreational in place of drinking alcohol. And then it wasn’t until much, much later that I was going through menopause and my doctor in the Netherlands said… I couldn’t sleep. And he said, “Do you smoke weed?” And I said, “Yeah.” And he goes, “Well not enough. You need to smoke more, you need to cut out the alcohol, cut out the caffeine, and smoke the whole joint before you go to bed at night.” And I was like, okay.
And then my symptoms magically went away. And that started, I was like 40 some years old. So at that started to give me an appreciation of the cannabis plant as more than just an alternate rate recreational drug, but also as something that could actually be beneficial. But that was sort of my own self journey.
TG Branfalt: So it’s funny you mentioned alcohol. I actually don’t drink alcohol. And I consume cannabis and I, you know, and it’s because I had a problem and I used cannabis as sort of an exit drug from alcohol. In your… In the documentary, you know, we do get a look at your son who struggles with addiction and ultimately uses cannabis, it appears, as an exit drug.
Is… What was that like for you as a parent and, you know, somebody who has such a deep personal relationship with cannabis?
Sister Kate: Well, I think that the movie makes it look like the cannabis was the gateway drug that got him to meth. And then cannabis was the gateway drug off of meth. And I think the movie completely misses the point. My son was 15 years old and came home with his eyes dilated and thinking the roof was talking to him, from school, from some random pharmaceuticals that at 15 years old, someone, he got in high school, someone just gave him.
So it was at that age that I said to Alex, “Don’t do that.” I tell it to all my boys, quit relying on the world out there to give you clean meds, you’re going to die from this and if you grow I will let you smoke whatever. So I sort of made a deal with my son at that point. So that all happened with my son long before the sisterhood, and the movie kind of tosses my life into like, sisterhood soup in my opinion.
So you don’t really get a feeling for how things went down. It was at that point that we, I had a family meeting with the boys and the 15-year-old was the youngest and said, “Look, if you grow me vegetables, you can grow weed, and you can smoke all you want as long as you take four core classes.” Some of them were in high school, some of them were college, four core classes, English, science, social studies, math. As well as a foreign language, as well as a musical instrument. And do one volunteer service a week that lasts three hours.
And do you have to do this, this, and this as far as chores around the farm. And if you do all of that, I will not regulate your cannabis use. So my vision of what happened with my 15 year old son was first the pharmaceuticals got him and then I use cannabis to make sure the pharmaceuticals didn’t get to keep him.
And then that was at 15 and then at 20 he’s at university thinking he’s buying Molly, and the Molly man’s selling him meth, which he should’ve known better anyway. That any college kids trust any drug dealer to come in with something they’d score to put in their body — that’s just so appalling to me.
But he did the same and came out of school his second year a full blown meth addict. But he wasn’t living with me at the time. And I kind of believe that if that kid would have always had access to weed, he would have never done that ever. But he wasn’t allowed to have weed. They weren’t even allowed to smell like weed in the university.
And if he ever tried to get weed, he was always getting in trouble. So he goes for the stuff that doesn’t smell and that won’t get you in trouble, but that will make you die. Molly cut with meth or Molly, meth fakely called Molly.
TG Branfalt: So I mean, I didn’t… When I was watching the film I didn’t sort of get that sense that you know, cannabis, but I’m also, you know, a very cannabis positive person who have seen, you know-
Sister Kate: You didn’t get the sense that me being cannabis caused my son to go be a meth addict?
TG Branfalt: I did… I personally did not get that sense.
Sister Kate: Okay, good.
TG Branfalt: But, I do want to ask, you know, I grew up in a household that, you know, my mother abhorred drinking and I drank a lot, you know, to excess all of the time. And you know, she always said I would much rather you smoke cannabis. So, so I grew up in a very cannabis positive household. Can you sort of tell me about your experience raising children in sort of a cannabis positive household?
Sister Kate: I just, my kids were real smart little kids being raised in Holland and going to school where they had to speak only Dutch. So I just remember when we had to come visit America, I would have a little talk with them and explain that Americans are insane. And you know, those little cigarettes that Mama has on her desk that you guys see every once in a while? They were like, yes.
If they know in America that Mama has this, they’ll take me away from you forever. They’ll put me in jail and throw away the keys. And my little kids, they’re like, second third fourth graders with their mouths open like, “wow.” Yeah, it’s insane. So we can’t talk about it when we’re over there.
So I guess I started conditioning my children at a young age to cultural differences. And I also told them when they get mad at me, you know, you could just turn me into American police, and they would always look at me like I’m insane.
But yeah, no, it was just kind of like, this is an herb, this is my mamas medicine. And I, but also I smoked cigarettes. And it wasn’t until I discovered CBD cannabis that I was able to use that to give up cigarettes. And my children, children from like 10 years old or younger, know how harmful tobacco is, thanks to our propaganda machine.
But they don’t know that maybe this cannabis is helping you give up addictions. And there’s many, many, many… I get a kick out the newspapers, they asked me how many people I got off addictions with cannabis. And I’m like, personally, eight people. Now there’s thousands of people that have written us and told us, but there’s only eight that have personally come to us and said, “Sisters help me get off my meth or my heroin or whatever.”
And we’re like, okay dude, we’re going to turn you into a stoner though. And you have to be okay with that for some period of time. And, then we work with them.
TG Branfalt: And so you have people in the sisterhood, the age range, you know, and then you have the children. I mean, who are adults now, but what did you notice sort of from generation to generation with the people that you sort of deal with, the people who you help as it relates to cannabis? Are there a lot of differences in how people think…?
Sister Kate: Well I find that the kids… My kids that went to universities that stayed at UC campuses and went through university are so much more careful, cautious, and paranoid. My millennium, than I ever was. I mean I smoked weed in every major airport in the world. I always positioned myself about 10 feet upwind from the nearest cops or security and I would pull out my joint and smoke it everywhere.
And my son got so mad at me for vaping in an airplane. We just took a trip together and he’s 26 now and he’s an engineer on the coast. And I say to him, because there’s a bunch of turbulence and we’re on this plane that’s about to land. And I know he’s got a vape pen and I’m not very much of a fan of vape pens. I like my joints. I’m old school, but I’ll have them if I’m nervous or upset or something.
So I say to him, “Can I have a hit of your vape pen, this turbulence is getting to my stomach?” And he says to me, “Oh, for crying out loud, we’re landing in 15 minutes. You can just wait.” Like he’s the dad and I’m the kid.
And his girlfriend poked him and said, “Give your mother your vape pen.” So I just think they’re far more conventional. And I think that the university, I blame the universities for taking the hippy free loving spirit out of our millennials.
TG Branfalt: So in the film too, there’s this one scene where you’re having sort of a conversation with a Christian, I’m not sure, a religious person and-
Sister Kate: Pastor, a street pastor.
TG Branfalt: I’m wondering how often does that happen to you? And then on the flip side, how often do regular people mistake you for a Catholic nun?
Sister Kate: Okay, so first of all, we don’t go out much. All of our medicine is made in a clustered environment here on the farm at a private address. We rent a number of public addresses. All of our medicine goes through the mail to the U.S, and around the world.
So our lives are pretty, we’re not out much to be running into the public. Yet, we are activists, so we go out to protests. When we’re out at protest, we’re with our own people now, and maybe it wasn’t like that four years ago, but whenever we’re at a protest, we’re with our own people.
No one confuses us for Catholic nun, and they all know who we are. It wasn’t always like that, but that’s how it is now. Yes, we get, I’d say I haven’t been accosted by a street minister since that filming. That was like, the last one have because most people now know who we are and we’re more likely to get the question, “Are you the real Weed Nuns? Are you those Nuns from California?” I say now, it’s more likely that a Catholic Nun will be asked if she’s a Weed Nun than it is if we’ll be asked if we’re Catholic.
TG Branfalt: Did you have any hesitations about being filmed for that documentary?
Sister Kate: I hated it. I hated every moment of it and I found it was so invasive and I felt like I was being manipulated all the time even though I probably wasn’t. It was just paranoia that, “What do you want and why is your camera in my face? And why did you have to follow us walking past palm trees? And don’t tell us we’re brilliant. Quit telling us we’re brilliant. We handle really hard problems. Walking under palm trees in a row does not make us brilliant.”
So, I found everything about the filming annoying and yet with the calling, everyone here, all of us Sisters serving together, we all feel seriously that we have a calling or we wouldn’t do this. And so, our calling requires that we pretty much say “Yes” to any media opportunity, whether they’re going to be nice or hostile, whether they’re going to flip us or not. They’re putting our face out there and we do have a lot of trust in the people not to believe everything they see.
We feel like with the entering in the age of the divine feminine comes the entering in of the age of divine truth and authenticity. We feel that the reason we have Trumps and the reason we have racist leaders right now is because of this need for authenticity. They’re horrible, but they’re honest. And right now, people want that.
So I think, yeah, I didn’t want to do the film. I didn’t like anything about it. I was getting a lot of offers. I chose Rob because he was a well respected BBC documentary filmmaker. And I chose him because I felt like the content needed an outside of America view. The valley needed an outside of America view and I think he gave me all that.
TG Branfalt: So, you mentioned sort of briefly your sort of overarching philosophies and you do have vows of some sort. Can you tell me more about those philosophies and the vows and just sort of the life that you live in the sisterhood?
Sister Kate: Yeah. I said this terrible thing to a UK Times reporter yesterday. I so regret it. Sometimes, I just need someone around to lever my mouth for me. So, he was here for four hours and I never had anybody dig into me so much, like so much detail on timelines and stuff. So, he had really worn me out. And as he was leaving, he stopped three times and said to me, “Sister, do you seriously see yourself doing this for the rest of your life?” And I said, “Yes, absolutely.” And then we got to like the second house where he had to pick up his equipment and he said, “Seriously, Sister. Do you seriously see yourself doing this for the rest of your life.?” And I went, “Yes. I told you I do.” And the third time when we were walking out the front door, he asked me, I said, “Why not?” I said, “I’m sure at some point I’m going to have my own apartment and two young men taking care of me or something equally as awful.” And I know that’s going to end up like being on the punchline to his story in England.
Could you take that Iphone? It might be banking solutions, so just tell them… Sorry about that.
TG Branfalt: It’s okay.
Sister Kate: So anyway, yes. We take vows. Yes, we’re serious women. So, we are patterned after our Beguine mothers. And the reason we’re patterned after them is because they were the first organized nurses in the castles of Europe starting in about the year 600. And they farmed, so they had an off the grid farming operations, but they also had an apartment in every castle where they tended to the sick and provided their hemp soaps, hemp textiles, cannabis medicines and other herbal medicines. Just like the Beguines in the castles of Europe, when they had to step back when the king’s son had epilepsy and they had to step back and let the White pasty middle-aged balding men come in and put leeches on the king’s son while they had herbal medicine that would have helped him in their basket, we feel in kinship with them because we have to stand back and watch the medical system put harmful pharmaceuticals and chemo and radiation into people without acknowledging all the benefits of plant based medicine.
So, we’re in kinship with them that way. We’re in kinship with them because they basically went extinct after the inquisition or turned into Catholic nuns because it was either be Christian or die and the Beguines were scholars of all religions and they would not affiliate themselves with any one religion. They believed in women owning property and women owning businesses. So, they were creating paths for women to own stuff, so then women could have political power too.
So, we are not nuns. We are really Beguine revivalists. We are the precursors to the nuns. I believe that there is no coincidence between the fact that Saint Scholastica founded her order in 880 and about that same time, Gutenberg came out with his press and the first book ever printed was the Bible. And now, all of a sudden you’ve got the inquisition ramping up and I believe that Saint Scholastica was actually in her heart a Beguine sister from Beguine enclave or wanted to be a Beguine and she had to create an order that had the women living in isolation, not having access to books or study, living poor and off the alms of the people, living celibate. She created something to survive the inquisition. That’s what she created.
But I think that if she could have been born again after the inquisition, she would have created something much more in line than what I’ve created, which is a spiritual operation, a women empowering operation, and a path to women ownership of businesses, which is in the path to being able to make laws, which is in the path to creating compassion for people in the planet.
TG Branfalt: I wish they had talked more about that in the film.
Sister Kate: They didn’t because they got as far as the shooting and that’s all they wanted to talk about. And now, they want to do a followup and I don’t want to. I’m like, “No. No.” That was painful the way it was, and I lost banking because of that film. January 8th, the trailer was released. And January 8th, we got a letter from our bank of four and a half years saying, “Sorry, you’ve got a bank elsewhere.” And they gave me a multitude of reasons, and I bought it for four months, but last night at midnight we lost banking. We essentially have to shut down our business or beg. So we’re on Go Fund Me and we’re begging right now, and if you don’t mind me plugging, it’s called Save-The-Sisterhood. It’ll pop up. It’s us. Ours is save the sisterhood from banking attack, he other one is saved the some mouse that needs to get an operation. So whatever. That’s the world of Go Fund Me.
But I want to get back to answering your question. Yes. The movie treated us like we’re… I think the little gangster. But them putting the gun in my hand when we’re not gun women, that I felt very manipulated over. And I let them talk me into it based on the fact that I really did have a gun to guard my first crop. I really did do that. So they were like, “Sister Kate, you’ve got a gun to guard your first crop, so you should let us at least get one image of you with a gun in your hand.” But they weren’t supposed to put me in the film that way and they weren’t supposed to be putting things I said like, “I’ll do whatever it takes to protect what I’ve built” when I was thinking about running for sheriff. When I said those words, I was thinking about running for sheriff. I wasn’t thinking about shooting anybody. So, that’s what I meant about feeling manipulated and not really want to do it again.
But, back to our vows. Let’s talk about our vows, okay? Because you asked about it.
TG Branfalt: Okay.
Sister Kate: We take six vows and they spell the acronym SOLACE, so service to the people, number one. Second is obedience to the cycles of the moon and the quarters of the year. We call them the corners of the year. And today is Beltane, by the way. So, happy Beltane.
TG Branfalt: Thank you. Happy Beltane to you.
Sister Kate: Thank you. So, service, obedience to the cycles of the moon and the quarters of the year, living simply, activism, that’s spending some time every week and month involved in fighting for the marginalized or holding our politicians accountable, anything in that category. Chastity: our vow of chastity is about privatizing our sexuality for a number of reasons. One, we think the energy of sexuality and the energy of healing are opposite energies. Two, we feel like Muslim women are the only women that are dressing as our ancestor mothers did and that makes them objects of persecution. Three, dressing as our ancient mothers is a morning meditation and being in touch with them and making them proud because many of them were burnt at the stake for being scholars and for being medicine makers. And there’s probably more.
TG Branfalt: It’s super inspiring, really. And so, I-
Sister Kate: Oh, sorry. My last one after chastity and privatizing is ecology, and that is that every January, we take a major step towards reducing our footprint. So, it’s usually a fourth quarter project where we’re gearing up and spending money for whatever we have to do to convert to a more sustainable footprint. Growing more food, canning, we’ve got a plastic crushing machine so we can take our plastic coconut bottles and turn them into bricks and maybe build a chapel out of it. I don’t know; we haven’t decided. But essentially, every January 1st, our whole New Year’s thing is all about another step towards living in better harmony with Mother Earth and less pollution and less footprint.
TG Branfalt: … You are living your best life, and I am super jealous.
Sister Kate: Well, you’re going to have to come visit us sometime. Bring your Mama.
TG Branfalt: She’ll never leave.
Sister Kate: That’s okay. Then you’ll have a bunch of Weed Nun aunts.
TG Branfalt: I can’t wait to call her after this. At one time, did you cultivate THC plants?
Sister Kate: Of course. Of course.
TG Branfalt: So, can you tell me about your experience, now that you’re doing CBD only versus when you did THC and your philosophies on the role of each in wellness?
Sister Kate: Yes. So the CBD we’re growing is no different than the THC I always grew. And when I say “I”, I use that word very loosely because I always have brothers or sons or agricultural people around me, usually men, who do the growing and I claim all the credit. But so, I don’t actually… I mean, I’m more of a business woman. I’m more the person who creates the legal environment so that we can do this. And I’m a great appreciator of both THC and CBD. And I think that we are selling half the medicine to the people. We are half medicine women because we give out half the medicine, but we’re doing what we can to get it to the most amount of people in whatever form we legally can do it in. But I grew THC and ran a nonprofit delivery service for three and a half years or four years. That was like, before Sister Occupy and sort of during Sister Occupy.
As I became Sister Occupy, I realized the nun uniform made a very a safe armor for me when I went into places that were very unsafe to deliver cannabis. And I realized I could go into the core, I could go into places where the hookers hung out, and if I was Sister Occupy, no one bothered me. So, the personas started to mix during those years when I was running a THC business and I was really discovering my inner nun. I mean, I was taking medicine to dying people, people who couldn’t sit straight, people who were seizuring so bad that when I’d get there, I’d sit and roll, get the cannabis in the pipe. Sometimes, I would inhale it and blow it into their mouth to get them to calm down enough or to stop seizuring enough or shaking enough that they could get the weed. I’d bring in the same guy a cigarette so he can have some tobacco who was hardcore all his life and now he’s shaking so much, he can’t even have a cigarette. You know, doing whatever it did to reduce suffering in a nonjudgmental way, that taught me how to be a nun.
So, it was really back in those days, I was growing THC, I was delivering THC. I didn’t talk about CBD in those days. In those days, all the conversation was Indica or Sativa. That was it. And I didn’t know hybrid or or more pure strength. I didn’t know anything else. In 2014 though, after the fallout with my brother and after I had put down the nonprofit and I would still have a calling to the cannabis plant. I was like, “Damn. I don’t want to go anywhere. I want to stay here in poor California and grow weed.” I had such a calling for it and I was so sad for the year or two in there that I didn’t have a crop. I was genuinely sad and depressed that I didn’t have a crop. Nothing else bothered me as much. The loss of my brother, the loss of my family, the separation with my children, nothing bothered me as much as not having a crop growing. And I realized then that I have a calling and I have to make this happen.
So, I started doing research and I went, “You know what? I want to be to the Central Valley with the early pomegranate and almond farmers and peach farmers who are, when they came from Spain and Italy, they didn’t just grow for themselves. They grew to export to bring money from the outside world to help them set up schools and streets in this core Central Valley. I want to be like them and bring outside money into the Central Valley.” So, that’s when I started researching strains that wouldn’t get you high, researching saps and tinctures that I might be able to ship to the rest of the world and might be able to bring in new money to this poor, poor farm community.
TG Branfalt: Unbelievable that you were thinking so far ahead with regard to why you wanted to grow CBD. None of the reasons that you’ve given me for anything are the same reasons other people have for things, which is outstanding. What are your opinions on California legalization?
Sister Kate: Well, that’s funny because we were for Prop 64. We believe that if everybody would vote in their own self interests, democracy would actually work. And so, we voted for Prop 64 for a very simple reasons. We’re not in the THC business, none of those laws affect us. We even had the Bureau of Cannabis Control tell us that “You are”… we know we’re not industrial hemp. We know we’re medical hemp, but they’re like, “For now, you’re industrial hemp, because we don’t know where to put you.” So, sorry. What was the question? I’m sorry.
TG Branfalt: What’s your opinion on legalization as a whole?
Sister Kate: Oh. So, when it came to Prop 64… Sorry. When it came to Prop 64, we took the simple position that we get visited by media all around the world and it is illegal for me to hand over to the French reporter who’s 38 years old a THC joint when he comes to visit me. It’s illegal. I could go to jail for that. So, for the longest time, the media visited us and they always ask… the media always wants to know everything about our smoking habits. So, we got sassy and started asking them.
So, when a camera guy is here and he says, “Do you smoke weed every day, Sister Kate?” I’ll be like, “Yes I do. Do you, Mister reporter man?” So, we always ask the question right back of them, and funny, you know, probably 50% of those people smoke weed. So then we’d say, “Well, we can’t give it to you. We can’t give you a joint with THC in it because we could go to jail. But if you steal one off our desk, we won’t report you.” You know what I mean? Silly games. So, we voted for Prop 64 just because we think anybody over 21… we actually think anyone over 14, has the right to have cannabis as a medicine and make their own decisions about that.
TG Branfalt: What about the Federal Farm Bill that passed last year? You know, you don’t grow THC plants. Did that give you any security with regard to any federal enforcement that you might have been worried about?
Sister Kate: Yes. Yes. The Farming Bill helped us because we get concentrates from a farm in Colorado and we bring in clamp from Oregon because we outgrew our own ability. And also, the law here won’t let us grow more than our little bit that we grow, violating the law and our kits that we are, our 36 plants. They won’t let us grow, so we import a lot of stuff. So, we’ve taken cover from the Farm Hemp Bill for years now. It went through some kind of official thing recently, but it’s always kind of been there for the last couple of years. So, there were Farm Hemp certified farms and we’d work with them. We make sure we work with only the certified farms for our plant material. We’re not certified, so that’s another way we break the law. Once a year, we make a batch with plants from our own backyard and we’re not certified. But we try to work with those, and that does give us some cover, but it hasn’t helped us with banking. It hasn’t helped us keep our banking.
TG Branfalt: And that’s … I mean, that’s something that’s coming at a federal level. I mean, I know that there was some talk in California about them basically building a state bank for canabusinesses. Have you heard anything about that?
Sister Kate: Yeah, I just this morning called our sales tax, you know, entity. The guys who are responsible for collecting sales tax. The guys we pay every month or they come out after you like the mafia, right?
TG Branfalt: Yeah, yeah.
Sister Kate: I got off the phone with them to say, “My sales tax was due yesterday and I can’t pay you because my bank account was shut down yesterday.” They said, “You’re going to have to convert your operations to cash.” I said, “The reason why we don’t need guns here or security here, and the way the Sisters feel safe here, and we can sleep in RVs and yurts, the reason why we’re safe is because we have no cash and no THC weed.” And she said, “I’m sorry. We have no solutions. All the businesses are bringing us cash.” And I’m like, “Dang. We should just go rob a sales tax office.”
You know?
TG Branfalt: Taxation is theft anyway.
Sister Kate: Yes, it is.
TG Branfalt: I want to switch gears here quite a bit. Can we just briefly talk about your car?
Sister Kate: Oh, isn’t Bessie a beauty? That is Sister Bessie.
TG Branfalt: Oh, I knew she had a name like Betsy. Tell me about the car.
Sister Kate: Sister Bessie.
TG Branfalt: She’s a Sister?
Sister Kate: She’s a 1962 Impala. She was born the same year as Sister Sierra, so they have a special affinity.
TG Branfalt: Oh, how perfect.
Sister Kate: Sister Sierra and Bessie are featured in a music video called Sex Weed TV done by Ollie Problemas who is an up-and-coming LA singer who wants to be a Sister.
TG Branfalt: How long have you had that car?
Sister Kate: We’ve had it … Brother Dwight bought it for us. Brother Dwight bought it for us. First all of, we would be too ashamed to buy a car that fuel efficient when we have to take a vow of ecology.
TG Branfalt: Yeah.
Sister Kate: So, we couldn’t buy it for that reason, but the Brothers can buy us things. So, Brother Dwight bought it for us, Brother Dwight had the vanity plates put on, and Brother Dwight keeps her in an auto mechanic shop where she’s well taken care of and well protected. We just bring her out like on Sundays. She’s old and she doesn’t want to be on the firing line, but we bring her out for Sunday drives. We bring her out for sometimes a ride to the coast to go to dispensaries. She’s our special events driver.
TG Branfalt: I mean, with the car, right, the guns, you know, I mean you’re not growing THC but you’re still growing cannabis. The documentary did sort of make you seem gangster.
Sister Kate: I know.
TG Branfalt: And that can’t be further from the truth. You know, when I was watching it, I was like, “She is a badass.” Right? You know, I was raised by a badass woman. You remind me of my mother vis a vis. What’s happened since the film wrapped up? Has your life changed because of it?
Sister Kate: Yeah, because … Well, right now, we’re like at threat of being put down because the bank took our banking away and we think that’s directly related to the film. So, there’s that crisis that we’re dealing with. Fortunately, during crisis you get to see the colors of people, right? Some people bail and some people rise to the top. We just are getting the most amazing outpouring of support from like investment bankers in the UK who want to just move a big amount of money into our account so we can survive this. So, it’s heartwarming, the support we’re getting, but it’s in result to the fact that we’re being put down, and that’s a result of the fact of the movie making us look very gangster. My bank didn’t care about us until they saw the gun in my hands.
TG Branfalt: I teach a media studies class and knowing … I mean, I’m going to use this whole thing as a case study.
Sister Kate: You should. You should because it’s a very … We decided to come out. I really didn’t want to come out about this because usually when I tangle with banks … And because I was a business analyst. I worked with banks. I worked with Deutsche Telekom. I worked with some of the biggest banks in London as a consultant, as an analyst, as a problem solver when they got stuck with internal debates. Like, “Is this pipe that carries customer data from Moscow, to Amsterdam, and we’ve headed over to the Middle East, is everything going to fall apart and are we going to get sued?”
So, somebody had to go in and look at their plans and bless them and those were the kinds of things I did in banks. So, normally, my policy of banks is they kind of run the world, and you don’t out them, and you don’t be mean to them, and you don’t protest them. Not if you want it. But I had to come out about this even though I haven’t named my bank. I had to come out about this because essentially every day we are piling up money on the stratosphere with MasterCard, Visa, Discover, and American Express, and they’re sitting on about $40,000-$45,000 of our money, and we have no way to take that money and spend it right now. Because the bank just closed down. They will only deposit that money into a business account and they just closed my business account. They will not deposit it in the personal account because the credit card companies, after all, are working by rules too. Banking rules.
They are collecting the money under the name of Sisters of the Valley, LLC. They cannot just dump into Christine Meeusen’s account. So, you know, we’re caught in this horrible, horrible situation. But let’s say that the world bails us out. Let’s say that the calvary is coming. The bankster men of the patriarchy are going to find a solution for the weed nuns and the public is going to support us through our GoFundMe Save the Sisterhood for the two to four weeks it’s going to take this to figure out.
Then let’s talk about how the film changed our lives, because it has from the standpoint of I never before had media call me and demand an exclusive story on us. That was hilarious. We’re like, “We’re a movement. Why would we ever give anybody an exclusive on anything?” But the fact that we have an interview either onsite or on the phone every day for the next 10 days. The fact that we’ve been gone on Chatter, and what else? Where were we in LA?
Speaker 1: KTLA.
Sister Kate: KTLA, LA. That was hysterical. I know so little about LA that I went down to be on KTLA, their largest morning show. A TV program in LA with millions and millions of users and I didn’t even put makeup on because I thought it was a radio thing. So, I’m like, “Who cares?” And then I get there and I find out that it’s a panel of people, and it’s big TV. So, yeah, the change in our life from this way, I think the movie is helping us gets introduced to the Sisters and the Brothers that can form enclaves around the world. I think that’s incredibly important, and as much as I don’t like hearing my voice or seeing my face, as much as I don’t like the implications of being made gangster, the message of what I’m doing has resonated with so many others who have done the same thing or had similar experiences, that overall, I think it’s going to be great for the Order.
TG Branfalt: Do you think that … You know, I know that you said the filmmakers wanted to do a follow-up. But do you think that you might approach maybe another documentary if it were somebody who you did have time to get to know, and that did sort of back, you know, had the same philosophies as you? Would that change?
Sister Kate: No, I want some editorial control is all. I just want editorial control. It’s my story, so if I do do a film, and I know these documentary filmmakers can’t. So, if I do a film, it’s going to be like, “No, I get to say what comes and goes because I don’t like you guys messing with my brand.” Here’s the project we really want to do, and it’s really close to our heart, and we think we have the right production team for it now is like a Sisters of South Park kind of animated series. Of course, it wouldn’t be South Park, as we don’t have the right to that, but when I say Sister of South Park, that paints a picture to people. The weed nun series, that we can be politically edgy, we can deal with every latest thing, but you need a creative team that’s turning that around real quickly. So, Trump tweets something stupid, we get to respond to that.
Sort of a venue for me to share all my batshit sister stories. I have a blog, actually, called Sister Mary Batshit Crazy.
TG Branfalt: Wait, you have a blog called Sister Mary Batshit Crazy?
Sister Kate: No, no. I have a blog called Cannabis Gates in California. My latest article that I did was called Sister Mary Batshit Crazy. In that article, I listed all the forms of Sister Mary Batshit Crazy I’ve seen since I’ve started this Order. Because it’s hilarious. There are funny, funny things that have happened. Out of respect for my sisters, I never talk about them because no one’s going to want to become a Sister if the Head Nun is blabbing about everything that goes on in the Order. So, instead I save my stories and every once in a while, you know, release a burst of crazy, and that got me the top rated animated production company’s attention to say, “Hey, we want to talk about this because this would be funny.”
Like, and the Sisters are very, very, very witty. They’re a very witty group of women. People who survive really hard times get chiseled into having sharp wit. We were leaving LA … Just to give you an example, this just cracked me up. We were leaving LA, and we had this candle, big candle for the Moon Ceremony in LA that I didn’t want to haul back. We had so much stuff to haul back. I’m like, “This candle is staying here at Evan’s house.” It’s an Airbnb. I said, “Do you think Evan will want to keep it or he’ll throw it away?” Because I was a little concerned because it was a sacred candle from a sacred ceremony. And Sister Sierra … I mean, Sister Alice says, “I think he’ll keep it because I scratched off the Jesus figure.” And without missing a beat, Sister Theresa says, “Yeah, but it’s Easter, he’s just gonna return in three days.” Like everybody just fell off their chair.
TG Branfalt: Sister Kate.
Sister Kate: And then the nicknames for our plays. Like Sister Sierra recently named it, dubbed us The Game of Crones. Sister Alice called our garden the … What does she call it?
Speaker 1: The Garden of Weedin.
Sister Kate: The Garden of Weedin. No, I mean, we have a lot of fun playing with words. We also have 420 music practice every day. The film, we’re-
TG Branfalt: What do you play?
Sister Kate: We sing. We’re like a barbershop quartet and we sing anarchist activist songs like “Please Don’t Fuck Up the World, Mr. President.” Sung like Marilyn Monroe to “Happy Birthday, Mr. President” but this is “Please Don’t … ”
Can I say that on here? I’m sorry if you have to beep me. That’s the name of the song. I didn’t write it. Ollie did. We sing “Cavanaugh.” We sing “There’s Nothing like the Wall.” We sing “All About His Bass.” So, we have like a repertoire of songs that we sing and now we’re getting requests to take that on the road. So, I think the film has been overall good for getting the message out, even if it makes me look gangster. I think we’re in the age of authenticity and people don’t really care if I look gangster, it’s what it seems.
TG Branfalt: Sister Kate, I’ve got to thank you for being so authentic. This has been a truly incredible opportunity for me. We have to cut this short. Where can people find that Kickstarter and find your products? Just give me all the plugs.
Sister Kate: So, it’s GoFundMe, Save-The-Sisterhood. There’s more to it from banking attack, but if you put in “Save-The-Sisterhood” our campaign’s going to pop up, so you can help us just get survival bridge money while we’re under attack from the banks. Or if you know somebody in the banking industry that can help us, write us at [email protected] If you’re interested in growing in your own Order in your own corner of the world, we have Orders in New Zealand, England, Canada, and Mexico. Sisters … Also wrote [email protected] Our website, we’re still up, we’re still selling products, SistersofCBD.com.
TG Branfalt: Sister Kate, thank you so much for taking the time.
Sister Kate: Thank you, Tim, and I will be on your show anytime. And seriously, you and your mom need to come out for a Moon Ceremony.
TG Branfalt: I think we need a Moon Ceremony. I think the world needs more Moon Ceremonies.
Sister Kate: So, this has been lovely. Thank you so much.
TG Branfalt: Thank you.
You can find more episodes of The Ganjapreneur on dotcom Podcast in the podcast section of Ganjapreneur.com and in the Apple iTunes store. On TheGanjapreneur.com website, you will find the latest cannabis news and cannabis jobs updated daily along with transcripts of this podcast. You can also download TheGanjapreneur.com app in iTunes and Google Play. This episode was engineered by Trim Media House. I’ve been your host, TG Branfalt.
TG Branfalt
TG is a journalist by trade and has covered cannabis industry news for Ganjapreneur.com since 2014. He teaches media studies at an upstate New York university and is also the host of the Ganjapreneur Podcast.
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When the Russian Soul Sings
Best Russian Songs: Nezhnost’ (Tenderness)
Vladimir Zakharov
On the 55th anniversary of the first manned space flight, The Russianist remembers Gagarin’s favorite song, and one of the best Russian songs ever written.
“You keep flying, and stars share with you all their tenderness . . .”
—N. Dobronravov, S. Grebennikov, “Tenderness” (translation by V. Zakharov)
On the chilly morning of April 12th, 1961, Russian test pilot Yuri Gagarin called out “Poekhali!” (“Let’s go!”) and became the planet’s first astronaut (or, rather, cosmonaut), turning the page in the history of space exploration.
Four years later, poets Sergey Grebennikov and Nikolay Dobronravov and composer Alexandra Pakhmutova wrote a song dedicated to all Russian aviators and cosmonautst, which turned out to be one of the best Russian songs of all time. Performed by the peerless Maya Kristalinskaya, it captures everything that was good about the Soviet music scene: lyrical, sensuous (but not sensual), breathtaking and throat-lumping.
One look is worth a thousand words:
Notice how Kristalinskaya, with nothing but her eyes, makes all the underfed and underclothed starlets of our time pale in comparison.
We can only guess if it really was Gagarin’s favorite song as an urban legend claims, but we know for sure that the cosmonaut did love it. In Pakhmutova’s own words:
We were good friends with the family of test pilot Georgy Mosolov. Once, we were celebrating his birthday. It was 1967. Gagarin called Mosolov, congratulated him, and asked me. I picked up the phone, and he said: “Alechka, I want to tell you that, right before the launch, Volodia Komarov asked me to thank you and Kolia [Nikolay Dobronravov] for ‘Tenderness.'” It was Komarov’s last flight . . .
Below is my loose translation of the first verse of the song—although it miserably fails to convey the piercing power of the original lyrics.
Earth is empty when you’re not around;
Minutes flow like hours, and hours like days.
Still, the orchard leaves keep falling down,
And the cabs keep rushing on their ways.
Oh, how empty has the world become without you.
And you, you keep flying, and stars
Share with you all their tenderness . . .
Note how the writing moves from more or less conventional rhymes in the beginning to almost prose in the end. This creates an effect akin to moving from imagination to reality; to an almost tangible feeling of loneliness.
Interestingly, the music of this song preceded its lyrics and was written by Pakhmutova on a request from Tatyana Lioznova, the director of Three Poplars at Plyuschikha. But Dobronravov admits that the first line—”Earth has become empty without you”—was born in his mind right after he heard the music. The fact that Pakhmutova and Dobronravov were (and still are) spouses probably helped.
There exists a “male” version of the song, telling the same story from the perspective of the astronaut who had left his loved one on the ground:
In the age when partings rule the world,
Life is tougher yet for those who stay,
For to wait is harder than to risk
For the billion stars dividing us.
As the radiation storm is raging below,
I still feel you down there on Earth
Sending me all your tenderness . . .
There are many covers of “Tenderness” — perhaps (?) more than of any other Soviet-era song. But my personal favorite is the one by the punk-rock band Priklyucheniya Elektronikov, which gives it a heavy (but still very romantic) twist:
This is just one example that shows that the Soviet legacy lives on in the modern Russian culture. Which, if you ask me, is a good thing, for the USSR was not only about repressions and restrictions, but also about ambitions and aspirations. And sometimes even tenderness.
Vladimir is a professional translator, a connoisseur of both the English and Russian languages, and the creator of The Russianist.
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You are here: Home News Science Is Mars' Methane Spike a Sign of Life? Here’s How We’ll Know
Is Mars' Methane Spike a Sign of Life? Here’s How We’ll Know
Last Wednesday, the Curiosity rover detected in Mars’ atmosphere a high concentration of methane, a gas which is usually associated with microbial life on Earth. While it’s too early to determine whether the gas was produced by Martian microbes or geological processes, the discovery prompted NASA scientists to reschedule Curiosity’s weekend to perform follow-up experiments. If the high concentration of methane is confirmed by Curiosity and orbiters around the Red Planet, the next step would be to locate the source of the gas and determine how it was produced.
This will require challenging data analyses, and possibly sending a new generation of instruments to Mars, so a definitive answer is unlikely to arrive anytime soon. But Curiosity’s observation has sparked a furor of speculation because it is perhaps the most promising avenue for determining if life once existed on our planetary neighbor.
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Last modified 1204 days ago (March 31, 2016)
Janet D. “Jan” Smith, 66, died March 24 at St. Luke Living Center.
A funeral service was Tuesday at Burdick United Methodist Church, with interment following in Lincolnville Cemetery.
She was born Sept. 27, 1949, to Frank H. and Irene D. (Kos) Werner in Brooklyn, New York.
On July 3, 1971, she married Phillip Smith, and had three children.
She worked for 17 years at the Marion County Courthouse in the appraiser’s and clerk’s offices.
She is survived by her husband, Phil, of Lincolnville; her children, Amy of Lost Springs; Mark of Lincolnville; and Jesse of Pilsen; her mother, Irene Werner of Marion; her siblings, Frank Werner of Marion; and Kathryn Werner of New York; and four grandchildren.
A memorial fund has been established for Burdick United Methodist Church.
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Schools in the parish
This page will provide information regarding Schools in the Parish of St Brendan's
Back to Parish Information
Chanel College
Conducted by the Marist Fathers
Coolock Village
Malahide Road
Telephone number: 01-8480655
Fax number: 01-8486330
Email: chaneloffice@eircom.net
website: www.chanelcollegeonline.com
Chanel College was founded in 1955. It is a Catholic Secondary School under the trusteeship of the Marist Fathers.
Our mission in Chanel College is to enable our students to reach their full potential so that they will make a positive difference in today's world. We strive to create a sense of community within the school and an informal but respectful atmosphere between students and staff members. In this pastoral environment, students are encouraged to take responsibility for themselves and for their learning.
St. Peter Chanel (1803 - 1841)
Chanel College is named after St. Peter Chanel who was born near Lyons, France on 12th July 1803. As a child, Peter Chanel found learning difficult and preferred to help his father on the farm. However, he eventually completed his education and decided to become a priest. He was ordained in 1827.
Two ideals dominated Fr. Chanel's life: a deep devotion to Mary, the mother of God and a desire to become a missionary. He worried about his capability, as he was rarely successful in any job he was given to do. When he worked as a teacher, for example, he found it difficult to keep order in class and he was often criticised for being too weak.
Fr. Peter Chanel volunteered to join the first group of eight Marist missionaries to the Pacific islands. The little group set sail from Le Havre, France on Christmas Eve 1836, knowing that they would probably never see their families and homeland again. Fr. Chanel's best friend since childhood, Fr. Claude Bret, died during the perilous sea journey and was buried at sea. Finally, after almost a year of travelling, Fr. Chanel and Brother Marie Nizier-Delorme arrived on the small Pacific island of Futuna. The local people, about nine hundred in all, were engaged in constant fighting. The missionaries found it very difficult to communicate with them as they did not speak their native language. Futuna's chief, Niuliki was friendly sometimes but more often he was hostile. He feared losing his hold over the people if they accepted the new religion.
Fr. Chanel worked hard, enduring poor living conditions, hunger and intense heat without protest. His patience and kindness impressed the people and they began to call him "the man with the good heart". His success as a missionary was limited, however. After four years, he had only managed to convert about forty people to Christianity. The climax came in 1841 when the chief's eldest son, Meitala turned to Fr. Chanel for advice. Rumours began to spread that Meitala had asked to become a Christian. The chief was outraged and gave permission for the missionaries to be put to death. On the morning of 28th April 1841, Fr. Chanel was alone in his hut when a fierce-looking group of men arrived, dressed as warriors. They clubbed and hacked him to death.
Peter Chanel's life and death as a Marist priest could be described as "the triumph of failure". Within months of his death, the people of Futuna begged for another priest to be sent to them. Two Marist priests replaced Fr.Chanel and with the help of Brother Nizier set about converting the island. Within three years, all the islanders had requested baptism.
On 12th June 1954 (the Marion Year), Fr. Peter Chanel, the first martyr of Oceania, was canonised by Pope Pius XII.
The goal of education is to get people to believe in their lives. Our mission in Chanel College is to enable students realise their potential in order to make a difference in today's world.
The Marist Order was founded in 1836. Chanel College began in 1955 and celebrates it's 50th anniversary in 2005. It is a Catholic boys school, under the trusteeship of the Marist Fathers. It strives to create a sense of community within school and respectful, informal atmosphere between pupils and teachers. In this pastoral environment pupils are encouraged to take responsibility for their learning and for their personal lives.
Telephone 000353-01-8480888/01-8480290
FAX 00353-01-8480163
St. Brendan's Drive,
Malahide Rd.,
Electronic mail info@mercycoolock.ie
website: http://www.mercycoolock.ie
Mercy College was established in 1963 by the Mercy order. Over the years Mercy has provided an excellent education for girls from many parts of North Dublin. The overall educational philosophy of Mercy College is the full human development of the student. We strive to develop confident, articulate and caring young women. We pride ourselves on the results and achievements of our students. In recent years pupils have gone on to study Medicine, Engineering, Nursing, Law, Primary and Secondary Teaching, Accounting Science, Arts and a range of other disciplines.
We have especially close links with Dublin City University through the North Dublin Access Program. However, we are equally proud of our strong pastoral care system and the sense of self-esteem developed in all the girls. Students and parents also get the benefit of our highly successful Home School Liaison scheme and parents can participate in a range of adult education classes. We foster a sense of care for others by involving students in community and charitable projects. Students of TY and LCVP get a taste of the working world and a chance to develop their entrepreneurial skills. In all, we strive to provide students with a happy and healthy experience in secondary school, one where each girl will fulfill her true potential.
Scoil Chaitriona
Scoil Chaitriona Infants,
Measc Ave.,
Coolock,
Tel: 8480142 Fax: 8674131
e-mail: naiscoil@eircom.net
website: http://www.scoilchaitriona.com
Scoil Chaitriona Infants is under the patronage of the Catholic Archbishop of Dublin and is conducted in accordance with the religious and educational philosophy of the Sisters of Mercy. The school caters for girls and boys from Junior Infants to First Class. There is a Special Needs Class for children who are diagnosed with mild general learning disability.
The curriculum is that which is laid down by the Department of Education and Science and comprises of English, Irish, Maths, Music, Physical Education; Social, Personal and Health Education; Social, Environmental and Scientific Education and Drama. Religious Education is also taught in the school.
Facilities at the school include Computer Room, Art Room, P.E. Hall and Library.
A meeting for the parents of new applicants is held each year in May and further details are available in the school's information booklet.
The Sisters of Mercy, founded by Catherine McAuley, came to teach in Coolock / Artane in 1955. The Mercy Order had acquired Coolock House, the former house of their foundress. They used the house as a school while Scoil Chatriona as we know it now, was being built. This was an historic moment for the sisters. They were in fact returning to their roots, the house where the dream of Mercy was born. Many fine sisters have come and gone over the years. they answered the need in the spirit of Catherine McAuley. When the Primary School had got under way and was well established in the new building the sisters saw the need to a Secondary School. Once again part of Coolock House, where the sisters were now living, was used to set up Mercy College or Virgo Clemens as it was then known. Finally the new building was completed and another dream became a reality!
The sisters continue to be involved in Coolock through education, visitation and the running of Mercy Centre (basement of Coolock House!) in the spirit of Catherine McAuley.
Parish Information Chanel College
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WHO IS TEGLA
TEGLA LOROUPE’S ACHIEVMENTS
PEACE BUILDING AND CONFLICT MITIGATION PROGRAM
EDUCATION FOR PEACE PROGRAM
REFUGEE SUPPORT PROGRAM
“I see myself competing one day one time in a higher level. Right now I am participating with the champions and now this is my time I have to polish my talent and to show people in the world that a refugee can make it.”
Anjelina Nadai (left), a member of the Refugee Olympic Team in the 1500m, and Rose Nathike, also a member of the Refugee Olympic Team in the 800m, run during a training session in which the Refugee Team joined the Kenya Athletic Team practice in Nairobi, Kenya, on July 25, 2017. ; The Rio Olympics in 2016 represented the first time in Olympic history athletes were able to compete in the games as refugees. Today UNHCR continues to work with refugee athletes across the world to ensure they have the same opportunities as those with a country to represent.
Refugee athletes from Kenya are heading to London to compete in the IAAF (International Association of Athletics Federations) World Athletics Championships on August 4th. It is the first time in the 34-year history of the competition that refugees will take part.
Ahmed Bashir Farah, Anjelina Lohalith, Dominic Lobalu, Rose Lokonyen and Kadar Omar, will be participating under the Athletes Refugee Team.
The athletes are thrilled at the opportunity to compete internationally after months of training in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi.
19 year-old Ahmed who fled violence in Somalia with his mother and two sisters when he was just 9 years old, and has been refugee in Nairobi ever since, will compete in the 800 metres.
“I feel great going to London. We only have a few days left. I want run my best time and qualify for the next stage. You know this is my first big international race so it’s normal, you have to feel a little nervous and scared but once I’m on the field, the fear will leave me.”
← Tegla Loroupe Peace Foundation supports Paris 2024 ‘No home, no flag and no national anthem’ – the first refugee squad at the World Athletics Championships →
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St. Paul of the Cross Retreat Center
About St. Paul’s
Directions to the Retreat Center
Promoting St. Paul’s
Tips for Promoters
Support St. Paul’s
Meet the Staff of St. Paul’s
About the Passionists
History and Research
Passionist Saints
Passionist Communities
Retreat and Events Calendar
Retreat House Monthly Calendar
About Our Retreats
What is a Retreat Really Like?
Father Michael Salvagna, C.P.
Home » About St. Paul’s » Meet the Staff of St. Paul’s » Father Michael Salvagna, C.P.
Fr. Michael Salvagna, C.P. was born and raised in New York City and joined the Passionist Congregation in 1962. After his ordination in 1969 Fr. Michael began his ministry of preaching parish renewals and retreats while also being available for spiritual direction and prayer for inner healing. From 1991 – 2002 he served as Director of St. Paul of the Cross Retreat Center.
From 2003-2008, Fr. Michael was the Director of Passionist Communications that produces THE SUNDAY MASS for television from Pelham, NY. In 2003 he also became Director of St. Ann’s Media that produced the televised daily Mass from St. Ann’s Basilica in Scranton, PA. In 2008 Fr. Michael was assigned as parochial vicar at St. Ann Basilica Parish in Scranton, PA.
St. Paul of the Cross Staff Members
Father Gerald Laba, C. P.
Father Timothy Fitzgerald, C. P.
Father Joseph Sedley, C.P.
Fr. Junesh Vakapadath Xavier, C.P.
Ben Cornelius-Bates, Music Director
Mr. John Colaizzi
Ms. Mary Ann Laba
148 Monastery Drive
Women’s Retreat, September 13-15, 2019
Men’s Retreat, September 20 – 22, 2019
Women’s Retreat, September 27 – 29, 2019
More About the Passionist Community
Passionist Communities in the U.S. and Beyond
St. Paul of the Cross Monastery
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Eating Animals – a review of the documentary
March 30, 2018 April 2, 2018 ~ Tobias Leenaert ~ 9 Comments
I had the chance to see an early screening of Eating Animals, the documentary after the book by Jonathan Safran Foer. Apparently, Natalie Portman, who is the narrator of the documentary, turned vegan after reading Foer’s book. Together, they approached filmmaker Christopher Quinn, whose work they liked, and asked him to turn the book into a movie. Eating Animals will be out in theatres in North America in June, and later on Hulu; so, it seems that it could reach a pretty large audience. That would be well-deserved, as it is a beautiful movie.
I think Eating Animals is one of the best food documentaries I’ve seen so far. As a seasoned vegan who is quite familiar with the issues, I had not expected to see or hear much that was new. But the documentary managed to surprise me, and offers more than just another catalogue of animal agriculture-related problems. For one thing, it gives us some history of how intensive animal farming came into existence and explains how corporations like Tyson came to be. And, it also tells us stories of people caring – in different ways – for and about animals. It tells these stories very well, and with a lot of heart.
One of these is the story of veterinarian and scientist James Keen, who worked at the U.S. Meat Animal Research Center (USMARC), a huge livestock research facility in Nebraska, and became a whistle-blower after witnessing practices with animals he could not condone. Keen leaked the information to a journalist, which resulted in a long New York Times expose, which in turn led to a federal investigation, bills, and reforms. Eating Animals makes it very clear that all that Keen did he did at great expense to his own life and happiness. Keen had to move, and eventually saw his marriage break down under the pressure his whistle-blowing had created. It is hard not to admire the man for his courage and for following his conscience.
There’s also the story of a contracted chicken farmer and his family. He testifies about how difficult that kind of life was, and how he felt a slave to the corporation that contracted him. We see him move through a huge barn of chickens, picking up the dead ones and showing to the camera the health problems they suffer from. While this man is or was instrumental in exploiting chickens, he was himself exploited. It is hard not to feel compassion towards him.
Finally, there’s turkey farmer Frank Reese, who already featured in Foer’s book. Frank tells us a lot about turkeys. He talks about how breeding and selecting the traditional Thanksgiving turkeys for meat has made them “stupider”, and how his breed of turkeys is a lot smarter. Actually, his goal is to keep certain old breeds of turkeys alive. And, if you want to keep them in existence, they have to be part of the food chain, he says.
Now, me and most other vegans will not agree to this, obviously. First of all, I do think that, if we deem this important, we can keep breeds alive without the animals necessarily having to have a certain economic or food value (apart from animals in sanctuaries, there probably will have to be some value, but this value can be in terms of companionship or aesthetics). Secondly, why would one insist on keeping certain breeds alive in the first place? The extinction of a species can obviously have negative ecological consequences, and it may somehow look sad when a species goes extinct (particularly if it’s humans’ fault), but to me it is the individual welfare that matters, not the value of the species. Which is why I don’t always understand well-meaning efforts to reintroduce certain species of wildlife in an area, unless this would increase overall happiness and well being.
The eventual fate of Frank’s turkeys is the same as all other turkeys: they end up in the slaughterhouse. It seems undeniable, however, that these birds have a much better life than the average turkey, and very probably also a better life than many or most animals in the wild. To many vegans these may seem like “welfarist” non-arguments. Any of these vegans, however, would, any day, choose to be a turkey with Frank above being your average turkey, and one has to be blind not to appreciate the difference this kind of life makes. More philosophically, I have lately started to think more and more about the question of whether being killed by humans negates all the happiness of an animal’s life that came before that moment. I know this is vegan heresy (but, then, I’m some sort of vegan heretic), and I plan to explore this question more in depth in another post.
I don’t know the man personally, but it seems clear that Frank Reese cares for his turkeys (though not enough not to kill them – vegans might quickly add). I had the chance to have a drink with the director after the screening of the movie, and he told me that Frank finds the whole transportation and slaughtering process horrible, and is a great proponent of developing more humane ways of slaughter.
You may get the impression from all this that the movie advocates happy meat. Certainly, it is not as unequivocally vegan or abolitionist as say Earthlings or Forks over Knives, but at no time did I get the impression that people would come away with the idea that it’s just a matter of switching to better meat, and that this better meat can be found in every supermarket. Indeed, the director told me that Frank’s turkeys cost 150 dollars per bird. The way Frank Reese raises his turkeys is exceptional, which is one of the reasons why Foer picked him out.
Also, the film includes several appearances by long time vegan activist Bruce Friedrich, presently CEO of the Good Food Institute. Bruce openly asks the question of whether we need to eat animals at all.
The movie has some beautiful cinematography, with wonderful shots of agricultural landscapes and farms, and the scenes with Frank and his turkey’s are amazing – especially the final one. On the other hand, there’s a significant amount of graphic footage (most of it archival images) to swallow; so, be warned.
I’ll finish with the beginning of the movie, which consists of a few harrowing lines spoken in Natalie Portman’s beautiful voice. I asked the director whose words they were, and he said they were his own, based on conversations he had had during his research into animal suffering. This is not an exact quote (I didn’t write it down), but it should be pretty close:
If animals don’t dwell on the past or ponder the future, they have only the present. And, if their circumstances brought them to a present in which they suffer, then suffering is the totality of their existence.
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Is Dementia Linked to Fitness?
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A new study recently published in the medical journal of Neurology, discovered that women with high stamina during exercise had an 88% lower risk of dementia compared to women who were moderately fit.
Helena Hörder, a professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Neurochemistry at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden stated,
“I was not surprised that there was an association, but I was surprised that it was such a strong association between the group with highest fitness and decreased dementia risk,”
An estimated 50 million people worldwide have dementia, with around 10 million new cases each year.
The study was comprised of 191 women, years 38 to 60, who completed an ergometer cycling test to evaluate their cardiovascular fitness.
“The level that you are so exhausted that you have to interrupt the test is a measure, in watts, of your work capacity,” Hörder said. “Cardiovascular fitness or endurance can also be tested in a submaximal test where you don’t push the person to maximal capacity.”
From the 191 women involved, 59 were in the “low fitness” group, 92 were in the “medium fitness” group, and 40 were in the “high fitness” group.
The cycling test was performed in 1968, and the women were followed for 44 years until 2012. Researchers found that 44 women developed dementia (23%), yet the women whose test had to be at submaximal workload, that percentage doubled to 45%.
“Many of those who interrupted the test at submax, very low watt level, probably had indications for a poor cardiovascular health status,” Hörder said. “This might indicate that processes in the cardiovascular system might be ongoing many decades before onset of dementia diagnosis.”
Furthermore, researchers also discovered that the average age of onset for dementia was 11 years older in the “high fitness” group compared to the “medium fitness” group.
More research is needed before any final conclusions can be made, however the bigger picture of this research is the importance of fitness in midlife, not just in old age.
According to the Alzheimer’s Association, people could try to decrease cognitive decline by involving themselves in regular exercise, eating healthy, and getting a sufficient amount of sleep.
https://www.cnn.com/2018/03/14/health/dementia-risk-fitness-study/index.html
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Categorized | Columnists, D'var Torah
Wisdom of the heart: 3 cognitive abilities
The main topic in the latest Torah readings of Exodus is the construction of the Sanctuary and all its attractive vessels. The previous chapters of Terumah and Tetzaveh relate the instructions for the structure, while the most recent, Vayakhel and Pekudei, concern the execution of the commands.
Creating a sacred environment is all about choosing the right type of people, those willing to work hard and to give, as well as knowing how to maximize each person’s skillset. Specific instructions alone would not have sufficed to permit any person to participate in constructing the Sanctuary — talented artisans were needed.
Moses informed the entire congregation of Israel that God named Betzalel to do the job, and “filled him with the spirit of God, with wisdom (chochmah), understanding (binah) and knowledge (daat), and with [talent for] all manner of craftsmanship.” (Exodus 35:31)
In this verse, the Torah first mentions three cognitive abilities called chochmah, binah and daat, distinct powers of the mind, which are expounded throughout traditional Jewish literature. Each of these intellectual faculties has precise functions and limits.
Chochmah, usually defined as wisdom, involves our ability to reach inside the mind and “pull” an idea from the storehouse of information into consciousness, like drops of water surfacing from an underground wellspring. This power manifests as a flash of insight. The essential idea is initially perceived but has yet to take form. To get that mental spark to stick, long enough to examine it within the mind, necessitates concentration and curiosity.
The second power, binah, translated as “understanding,” involves the process of analysis. This ability develops the seed of insight (chochmah), to discern and pick up distinctions, as the rules and logic become more revealed, until the breadth of the concept can be comprehended clearly with words.
Though distinct, these two powers usually work quickly together as a pair. It is possible, however, for someone to tap into creative insight, while struggling to develop or explain what is seen. Let’s give a practical example in a visual context: Looking at a painting hanging on the museum wall or admiring a building, one may be struck by its magnificence (chochmah) yet unable to explain that impression to someone else (binah).
“Wow, look at that! I can tell it’s created by a master,” she says.
“What exactly makes it so great?” the other person asks.
“I’m not sure, but I can see this is something special.”
That recognition is chochmah without developing into binah. By gazing longer, or gaining more knowledge of art history and architecture, one comes to understand the reason for the initial perception — how the positioning of figures, or proportions or combination of colors, all combine to create the desired effect on the viewer.
Daat, the third faculty, is the central power of the mind, translated as “knowledge” or integration. Two people, for example, may possess the same capacity to perceive (chochmah) and analyze (binah), yet one person is pulled toward the subject, able to focus for hours, while the other is less interested. This personal connection to the subject learnt relates to the sense of daat.
The main function that daat serves is to bridge intelligence to emotions, which then becomes a motivation to act — to enact what we understand and feel. This is a crucial step to bring our inner world into outer reality. In this way, it is perhaps the most important in all-inclusive power of the soul.
The heart metaphor
The heart is often used as a symbol for character traits. We speak of someone who is caring or courageous, for example, as having a “big heart,” or the cruel as having “a heart of stone.” On the surface, mind and heart, intelligence and emotions, appear to be two opposite forces — though they certainly complement one another. The mind is relatively cool and collected, the heart hot and excited. The keen mind strives to be objective and detached, to observe reality as it is. The dynamic heart, in contrast demands experience — what this does to me.
The heart is also concerned with the other person. The Hebrew term chesed conveys a simple love, the natural desire to do good to another, while compassion or empathy enables one to feel the other’s situation. The goal in character refinement is to build a smooth bridge between the mind and the heart. We all know cases where people’s intelligence, emotions and actions are disconnected. But wisdom, when it’s complete, must influence character.
From the other angle, a rectified heart receives guidance from the mind — a heart that seeks to do acts of kindness yet can also discern good from evil. Combining intellectual and emotional traits in one term conveys a healthy exchange between these two inner islands.
The wise of heart
Returning to our biblical scene, in the passages describing those chosen to build the sanctuary, Moses continues to explain how God gave Betzalel and his assistant, Oholiav, “a wise heart.” (Exodus 35:35) This quality of wise-heartedness distinguished those able to build from those who could not: “Everyone with a wise heart among you shall come and do all the work.”
When reading these lines, the immediate question is: What is meant by a “wise heart”? Is it some additional acumen, an instinct or intuition? After all, wisdom belongs to the mind, distinct from feelings inside the heart. For some, the phrase “a wise heart” may invite associations with a more recent term that’s gained popularity in psychology — “emotional intelligence” — the ability to identify and be aware of emotions inside oneself, and in others, and to deal with them in a healthy way, manifesting in successful interpersonal relationships.
But this context, dealing with construction, suggests something more in line with divinely-inspired artistry, wherein cognition and creativity merge. The commentaries explain that Betzalel was able to intuit what God wanted in the craftsmanship of the Sanctuary, independent of Moses’ command.
This ability is even reflected in his name, as described in the Talmudic narrative, where Moses responds to Betzalel’s suggestion by saying “Were you betzel El, in the shadow of God, that you know this?” Nachmonides further notes that his ability to craft all these vessels was a kind of miracle, since during the centuries of slavery in Egypt, the Jews had no access to precious metals such as gold, silver and copper.
Concerning those who donated toward the sanctuary, the Torah uses a different description: “Every man whose heart uplifted him came, and everyone whose spirit inspired him to generosity…The men came with the women; every generous-hearted person (nediv lev)… And all the women whose hearts uplifted them with wisdom, spun the goat hair.”
The full spectrum
Thus, in just a few lines the Torah communicates a timeless message about what it takes to build a community and house of prayer: a collective effort, utilizing the full spectrum of the congregation’s abilities — from wisdom to generosity to action. The final chapter of Exodus, therefore, fittingly closes with this collaboration, completing the specific requirements of the sanctuary. All its components were then brought to Moses, who erects it and anoints it, initiating Aaron and his four sons.
The wise and noble choices of created beings — in this case the Israelites devoting their property, their bodies and their souls toward the construction of the Mishkan — evokes the ultimate divine response: “And the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the Lord filled the Sanctuary.”
Rabbi Dan Lewin is director of the nonprofit Maayan Chai Foundation. For information, visit www.maayanchai.org.
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Home > Probate & Trust Law
Divorce, Dead Men, and ERISA
James W. Cushing, Esq. on 7/11/2011
Law Office of Faye Riva Cohen, P.C.
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Last month Upon Further Review published an article I submitted called “Till Death Does Your Stuff Part” (which can be found here) regarding the latest development in the law regarding the interaction between divorce litigation, estate litigation, and the death of a litigant. I am now following up that article with the instant one because within a few days of publication, I received some pretty interesting and clever responses to the aforesaid article, and I would like to address them here as I think the issues they raise are food for attorneys’ thought.
One of the responses inquired about the application of the Dead Man’s Act to a divorce matter where one party dies after divorce grounds have been established. The Dead Man’s Act (42 Pa.C.S.A. § 5930) deals with the admissibility of evidence against a decedent by the parties to a contract in which the decedent was also a party. The Act serves to restrict the surviving members of a contract from presenting testimonial evidence against the decedent, also a member of the same contract, of anything that occurred before his death. The precise interpretation of the Act by the Court is complex, storied, and beyond the scope of this article. Suffice it to say here, however, that the Act does pose an interesting question vis-à-vis divorce. Generally speaking, Pennsylvania views marriage as a contract and if marriage is a contract, and one of the spouses (i.e.: parties to the marriage contract) dies, can the other party to that contract (i.e.: the surviving spouse) present any evidence against the decedent spouse under the Act? The cases in Pennsylvania on the subject are rather unclear, generally very old, and largely irrelevant as they do not account for the change in Pennsylvania law (i.e.: 23 Pa.C.S.A. § 3323(d.1) and 20 Pa.C.S.A. § 2106(a)(2)) as described in my previous article mentioned above. The cases, for the most part, involve a spouse trying to provide testimony regarding the other spouse in an attempt to elect against the decedent spouse’s estate. The cases regarding a surviving spouse’s testimony provided to attempt to elect against a decedent’s estate are nearly universal in their opinions that the testimony is inadmissible under the Act (or something similar thereto). Despite this, the cases also seem to tend toward allowing a surviving spouse to provide testimony as the existence of the marriage relationship. Under 23 Pa.C.S.A. § 3323(d.1) and 20 Pa.C.S.A. 2106(a)(2), if divorce grounds are established, the only avenue for the surviving spouse for a decedent’s spouse’s property is through equitable distribution, therefore there is a question as to whether these cases still apply.
At present, the cases do not shed light as to what sort of testimony will be permitted to be provided at an equitable distribution hearing involving a decedent spouse. A strict reading of the Dead Man’s Act would seem to imply that testimony regarding the decedent spouse by the surviving spouse is inadmissible; however, logically speaking, this seems to be obviously contrary to what would appear to be the intent of the legislature in passing 23 Pa.C.S.A. § 3323(d.1) and 20 Pa.C.S.A. § 2106(a)(2). Further, pursuant to 42 Pa.C.S.A. § 5927, in actions brought by one spouse against another to recover separate property, the testimony of one spouse is deemed “fully competent.” As above, how this interplays with the Dead Man’s Act and equitable distribution is not clear, but it would seem to lean toward allowing the surviving spouse to provide testimony.
In my opinion, I do not think it makes much sense to specifically take a divorce matter involving a decedent spouse out of estate litigation (where testimony is specifically prohibited by case law) and place it into equitable distribution only to have the testimony of the surviving spouse deemed inadmissible under the Dead Man’s Act; indeed, cui bono? It seems logical to me to discern from the legislature’s decision regarding the placement of a case into equitable distribution that it also intended testimony regarding the decedent spouse and the marriage contract by the surviving spouse to be admissible and, perhaps, to expand 42 Pa.C.D.A. § 5927 to cover all property at issue in a divorce. Otherwise, 23 Pa.C.S.A. § 3323(d.1) and 20 Pa.C.S.A. § 2106(a)(2) are simply exercises in academic futility. Please note that what I have provided above is simply my opinion; I do not know exactly how this will all pan out. It will be interesting to see how the Court resolves this seeming conflict between the 23 Pa.C.S.A. § 3323(d.1) and 20 Pa.C.S.A. § 2106(a)(2) and the Dead Man’s Act.
Before I move to the next issue, I would note that despite the 23 Pa.C.S.A. § 3323(d.1) and 20 Pa.C.S.A. § 2106(a)(2), the Dead Man’s Act appears to remain applicable regarding testimony by a surviving spouse about a decedent spouse and a Pre and/or Post Nuptial Agreement.
The next issue presented to me by the readers of Upon Further Review is the application of ERISA to 23 Pa.C.S.A. § 3323(d.1) and 20 Pa.C.S.A. § 2106(a)(2). This matter seems much more straight forward than the Dead Man’s Act. ERISA, as a Federal law, preempts Pennsylvania divorce law; there is no dispute about that. Under ERISA, once a spouse dies the terms of the insurance policy and/or pension become “locked in” as it were. Therefore, even if a party is in the midst of a divorce and the decedent spouse intended to remove the surviving spouse as a beneficiary of his/her pension and/or insurance policy but does not due to his/her death, the surviving spouse remains as beneficiary regardless of the intent. At this point, of course, the surviving spouse can attempt to receive whatever survivor’s benefits s/he may be entitled to receive. Therefore, the appropriate response by the estate of the decedent spouse is to file for an injunction against the surviving spouse to prevent him/her from receiving the benefits. It should be remembered that the estate of the decedent spouse takes the place of the decedent spouse in the divorce litigation if divorce grounds are established (if no grounds are established, the divorce litigation may no longer proceed regardless). The estate, as a result, may proceed through equitable distribution as if the decedent spouse were so doing. Consequently, through equitable distribution it would seem that the estate of the decedent spouse may still secure a Qualified Domestic Relations Order regarding the insurance policy and/or pension covered by ERISA.
The final issue raised to me was the application of Pennsylvania’s hearsay rules to equitable distribution hearings regarding a decedent spouse. Under Pa.R.E. 804(a)(4), death, perhaps obviously, is considered one of the ways a witness can be “unavailable” for testimony. Under this Rule, if a witness is unavailable, hearsay testimony of the statements made by the unavailable witness may be admissible under certain circumstances. Under Pa.R.E. 804(b)(3), a statement made by a decedent against his/her own interest may be admissible as evidence. Further, under Pa.R.E. 804(b)(4), the testimony of a dead (i.e.: unavailable) witness is admissible with regard to various issues of his/her own family history. Of course, the weight and credibility of this testimony is still to be weighed by the fact finder, but it seems that the mere death of one of the divorcing spouses is insufficient on its face for an objection based on hearsay to be sustained. However, it does seem that eliciting such testimony may be problematic; it will be interesting to see how the Court elects to rule in these sorts of cases.
I hope the above sheds some additional light on the application of 23 Pa.C.S.A. § 3323(d.1) and 20 Pa.C.S.A. § 2106(a)(2). I greatly appreciate those readers who took the time to contact me regarding these issues and I hope, through our mutual efforts, we can make the practice of Pennsylvania law clearer and more effective.
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Clarity Brought to Durable Powers of Attorney By Adam S. Bernick, Esq. on 12/16/2014
Inheriting Digital Assets By Adam S. Bernick, Esq. on 4/3/2013
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Category Archives: Architectural
Beyond history: How Does Armenia’s Capital City Resolve Its Soviet Past with Its Capitalist Present?
Text Dina Akhmadeeva
In her film My Pink City, Greek-Armenian film director Aikaterini Gegisian examines Yerevan as a place where the past meets the present. What does it look like when Armenia’s politics have changed but the physical remnants of the city’s communist past refuse to be brought into submission?
How are our impressions of urban space constructed? What happens to a place when its monuments outgrow their function of supporting an ideology that is no longer the official line? Can a city ever really break with its past, or does it take on a life of its own that resists and spills out from beyond the confines of its official representations? My Pink City (2014), Greek-Armenian artist Aikaterini Gegisian’s filmic portrait of Yerevan, Armenia’s capital city, combines archival photography and film, location footage, voiceover narration and images filmed from a television screen. It interrogates the city as a nexus of memory and amnesia, the official and the personal, Soviet past and Yerevan’s present, visualising its ability to disorient time and resist the official narrative of a smooth transition from past to present.
While the politics of Armenia have changed, the physical remnants of the city’s communist past refuse to be brought into submission
The city is animated by the movement of a female fruit and nut seller, a voice that proclaims: “Her past is an undigested and indigestible meal, which sits upon her stomach.” Could the protagonist be speaking about Yerevan itself as much as about the woman? Like that indigestible meal, the city’s Soviet past presses onto its present, in the form of now-derelict or disused public spaces and recognisable symbols of communist ideology. Only the washing that blows in the wind or the occasional bored woman leaning on her elbow rupture the rhythmic patterns formed by row after row of windows and balconies of Yerevan’s modernist housing blocks.
In 1920, with the founding of the Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic, Yerevan became the site of rapid urban transformation in accordance with the state’s new ideology. Such high-rise building blocks replaced the bazaars, baths, mosques and churches that had made up the fabric of the city. Much like in other post-Soviet states, these blocks remain the predominant source of housing.
READ MORE: A visit to New Belgrade, the town caught outside time
A disused and unkempt open-air Soviet-era theatre, complete with an abandoned mattress, is a place without use in present-day Yerevan, but which nonetheless persists and refuses to disappear from the landscape or the memory of the city. The distinctive modernist circular control tower of Zvartnots Airport’s Terminal 1, built in 1971 as part of the Soviet architectural “rebirth” between the 1970s and 90s, no longer functions as part of the city’s infrastructure, having closed in 2011. The building, now an abandoned and unmaintained Soviet ruin, with cracks quickly forming in the concrete, is technically useless. Nonetheless it remains within the fabric of the city, remaining in place, stubbornly recalling the country’s Soviet past and inadvertently acting as a testament to the impossibility of having full control of the topography of the city from above. While the politics of Armenia have changed, the physical remnants of the city’s communist past refuse to be brought into submission.
Yet how different are these two systems? Pink tufa hammer and sickle carvings appear in various locations around the city, one after another, as the still-visible signs of Yerevan’s Soviet past. Contrast this with Yerevan’s present-day landscape — the garish, luminous signage of casinos and supermarkets. In one shot in Gegisian’s film, a supermarket sign sits on an archway framed by two communist symbols. How different are the mechanics of each system that offer up images for consumption, even in the service of two conflicting ideologies? For Gegisian, this became one of the main threads of the film. She comments that, “the idea of the […] transitional narrative is hardly ever a radical break with the past. Maybe the forms of the ideology have changed but the way power is articulated is more or less the same. In the film I wanted to point to such complexities especially through destabilising the idea of the transition and the break with the past.”
Posted in Architectural, Post-Socialist, Yerevan on June 9, 2019 by mshiva.
Rustavi, Georgia: History of a Mono-Town
Soviet factory towns have turned out to be unworkable under a globalised market economy – but these cities continue to live. I traveled to Georgia’s metal town of Rustavi to find out more.
Olga Pinchuk
Inside Rustavi’s metal plant Source: Author
One legacy of the Soviet-era is the continued existence of factory towns and villages which sprang up in their hundreds throughout the 20th century. Under the Soviet Union, these population centres served the official goal of total industrialisation – and helped urbanise vast territories. But after the Soviet collapse, many industrial facilities had to downsize or close down completely. This uniquely Soviet urban geography of small, scattered factory towns had no place under the new market economy, where many of the factories had become totally uncompetitive.
Rustavi, a town hastily flung up to support one of Soviet Georgia’s largest heavy industrial plants, is typical of these former factory towns and villages. Once an enormous complex with tens of thousands of workers, for the past 25 years, the Rustavi metallurgical plant has lingered in a precarious state.
The fall of a mighty complex
Rustavi is not far from Georgia’s capital Tbilisi – a 20-minute minibus ride and you’re already passing the rows of pastel high-rise blocks that line the road.
Some of their facades are decorated with bright murals. At first sight, Rustavi seems like a pleasant and orderly settlement. The “new town”, with its animated streets and up-to-date infrastructure, is full of multicoloured buildings, shopping centres and outdoor and indoor cafes. But then it suddenly turns into wasteland. An unattractive clearing followed by a bridge over the river Kura makes for a natural border between the “new” and the “old” town. Totally symmetrical straight lines of buildings in monumental Stalinist “Empire” style line the “old” town’s main street, forming a kind of gate into it.
Inside Rustavi local history museum | Source: Author
Here, in the “old town”, built in the Soviet era at the same time as the factory, the streets are lined by low-rise buildings interspersed by narrow lanes. It’s recently been painted in warm colours – orange, light blue, green, pink. The smooth, clean pavements, the relative lack of traffic and the leisurely passers-by produce the impression that the wasteland and bridge have transported you to another town, or possibly another time, 50 years ago.
Posted in Architectural, Post-Socialist, Tbilisi on June 9, 2019 by mshiva.
Of Anxious Rooms and Modernist Architecture
Et tu, brutalism: of anxious rooms and modernist architecture
Posted on April 27, 2019 by Chiragh Dilli
Grafting utopias
The annual festival of Delhi’s oldest architecture school is called Utopia. When I ask the students why it is called so and if they know what it means, they look confused. One exclaims, ‘Utopia is what we will create… it’s the perfect place, the perfect city…’ So I ask them, ‘But does it exist? And if it does, where is it?’
Generation after generation of architecture school students are fed on the idea of architects as the creators of perfect houses, cities and townships. They are taught about master plans that will save the world, from itself; they are trained to build townships with glimmering sharp-edged buildings, which no one can clean; they are taught about the deliverance of the world through architecture. This could be a deliverance based on emulating the glass facade high-rises of Dubai, London, Shanghai or the dull concrete corridors of Cold War era buildings across South Asia, Eastern Europe and the erstwhile USSR. Such prototypes reflect a deep and determined utopian imagination that continues to be entrenched in architectural planning and practice. Modernism and brutalism made a promise, a social contract of being architecture for the people, for their needs. Yet they failed in many ways either through buildings that people cannot use or those to which people have to fit themselves.
Is modernist architecture adaptive or normative? Can it accommodate the expansions of desires and the accumulation of years? Does it fabricate buildings for people or people for the buildings? The utopian world delivered by architecture or ‘the city of the future’ as Corbusier called it was believed to have the power to get rid from the world all its social evils. This imagination needed a frame that could avoid the disorder of the real world and yet be perfect in totality. The modernist plan was precisely this frame, which provided relief to architecture’s anxieties about the chaotic world. The axiom of the modernist frame—‘perfect cities make perfect citizens’—allowed architecture to not have to engage with the disorderliness of the social at all and superimpose the idea of a utopian future in blueprints and master plans, which could actually never be implemented in entirety but perfected and completely controlled in their internal form.
Of architectural anxieties
Three main anxieties have continued to haunt architecture: first, the presence of human beings; second, how to control humans and their actions; third, who will be the master controller (planner) of the future. Where are these anxieties coming from?
Posted in Architectural, Comparative, Theory on May 2, 2019 by mshiva.
Speaking Stones
http://speakingstones.jumpstart.ge/en
ABOUT SPEAKING STONES
Listen! See! Say!
Speaking Stones is a tool by JumpStart Georgia which allows you to explore, compare, and engage in the old and new faces of different places, districts, regions, cities, and countries.
Using the slide bar, you can drag the photos overlapping each other so that you can see how places, buildings, statues, nature, or people have changed over time.
You can share your observations and discoveries with us using the comment section below every picture.
At the moment, Speaking Stones only has photos from Tbilisi. However, JumpStart Georgia plans to widen the scope of the project and add photos from all over Georgia, and maybe beyond.
You, too, can participate in making Speaking Stones better for everyone. Wherever you are in the world, in or out of Georgia, if you have old pictures sitting in your closet, scan them, take new pictures of the same area and send them to us. Giving you the credit, we will add their story to Speaking Stones and share them with the world.
If you have any other ideas, comments, or questions, please, give us a shout at:
info@jumpstart.ge
+ 995 032 214 29 26
5, Shevchenko St, Apt 2
Tbilisi, Georgia 0108
Posted in Architectural, Tbilisi on January 13, 2019 by mshiva.
In/formal architecture and Tbilisi
Tbilisi Architecture Biennial
Can Informal aArchitecture Save The City?
Text: Samuel Goff
Image: Tako Robakidze, Anka Gujabidze, Sandro Sulaberidze
The Calvert Journal
In the early 1990s, a nationalist paramilitary group called the Mkhedrioni stripped Tbilisi of its central heating infrastructure, pipes and all, and sold it illicitly in Turkey. To this day, most buildings are heated by private boilers. At the same time, tens of thousands of internally displaced people (or IDPs) were pouring into the capital, fleeing civil war in separatist Abkhazia, occupying whatever empty buildings they could find. Many are still in place. Then there was the 2002 earthquake that destroyed or destabilised much of the Old Town. Many formerly Soviet cities suffered in the years immediately after the collapse of the Union, but Tbilisi got a rougher deal than most.
What purpose does an architecture biennial serve in a city like this? The high-end example of self-important institutions like Venice won’t cut it here. Tbilisi is a relatively small city and its architectural scene is close-knit, but its problems are profound, and they need intellectual as well as practical solutions. The inaugural Tbilisi Architecture Biennial (TAB), held in October and sponsored in part by Creative Europe, attempted to offer some. The artistic directors — Tinatin Gurgenidze, Gigi Shukakidze, Otar Nemsadze, and Natia Kalandarishvili — decided to make “informality” the central theme of the event, with the title Buildings Are Not Enoughreinforcing that TAB was as much about ideas as the built environment.
Informality has been a buzzword in architecture for years now, but what took place in Tbilisi was not an exercise in taste-making. The city’s appearance is defined by a million private modifications and extensions, responses to natural disasters, economic hardships, and population flux. Nowhere is this more evident than in Gldani, the Soviet suburb where the Biennial was based. Here, the uniform, prefab nature of the rows of apartment blocks is constantly and conspicuously disrupted by informal interventions: balconies bricked in against the cold, heating pipes knocked through walls, endless garages erected out of scrap metal.
Posted in Architectural, In/formality, Post-Socialist, Tbilisi on December 17, 2018 by mshiva.
Soviet Kitchens Dissent
How Soviet Kitchens Became Hotbeds Of Dissent And Culture
THE KITCHEN SISTERS
A typical Russian kitchen inside an apartment built during the early 1960s, when Nikita Khrushchev led the Soviet Union — what later became known as Khrushchev apartments.
Courtesy of The Kitchen Sisters
When Nikita Khrushchev emerged as the leader of the Soviet Union after Stalin’s death in 1953, one of the first things he addressed was the housing shortage and the need for more food. At the time, thousands of people were living in cramped communal apartments, sharing one kitchen and one bathroom with sometimes up to 20 other families.
“People wanted to live in their own apartment,” says Sergei Khrushchev, the son of Nikita Khrushchev. “But in Stalin’s time you cannot find this. When my father came to power, he proclaimed that there will be mass construction of apartment buildings, and in each apartment will live only one family.”
They were called khrushchevkas — five-story buildings made of prefabricated concrete panels. “They were horribly built; you could hear your neighbor,” says Edward Shenderovich, an entrepreneur and Russian poet. The apartments had small toilets, very low ceilings and very small kitchens.
But “no matter how tiny it was, it was yours,” says journalist Masha Karp, who was born in Moscow and worked as an editor for the BBC World Service from 1991 to 2009. “This kitchen was the place where people could finally get together and talk at home without fearing the neighbors in the communal flat.”
These more private kitchens were emblematic of the completely new era of Soviet life under Khrushchev. “It was called a thaw, and for a reason,” says Karp.
“Like in the winter when you have a lot of snow but spots are already green and the new grass was coming,” says Russian writer Vladimir Voinovich. “In Khrushchev times it was a very good time for inspiration. A little more liberal than before.”
The exterior of Khrushchev-era apartments in Kazan, Russia.
Kitchen Table Talk
Posted in Architectural on September 10, 2018 by mshiva.
Memory Politics in Baku
Memory Politics: The Post-Soviet Memory Landscape in Baku
AUTHORS: Saadat Abdullazade and Vagif Abasov
Baku and the Soviet Heritage: Memory and Oblivion
The collapse of the Soviet Union launched the search for a new identity and the creation of new narratives in Azerbaijan just as in the entire ex-Soviet space. We cannot cover all aspects of the memory politics in Azerbaijan during and after the Soviet period in a single article. Instead, we highlight the most significant sites of the Soviet memory landscape of Baku and their post-Soviet transformations within the new politics of memory.
The Nagorny Park Named After Sergey Kirov
The monument to Sergey Kirov. Location: Nagorny Park, Baku, Azerbaijan. Date of the Photo: 1978. Photo Credits: Isaac Rubenchik, taken from ourbaku.com.
Immediately after the Sovietization of Azerbaijan, the urban development of Baku took a Soviet turn. In September 1920, the special committee on the development of city gardens in the Absheron peninsula created a plan on changing the appearance of the city. It included the development of the English Park in the place of the Chemberkent cemetery[1]. Later it became part of the Nagorny[2] Park.
In 1939, the Nagorny Park took the name of Sergey Kirov, a prominent political figure whose death of at the end of 1934 had made him one of the central heroes of the politics of memory of Soviet Azerbaijan[3]. Kirov’s monument was installed in the Nagorny Park as the latter dominated the panorama of Baku with a view on the bay. Kirov’s massive figure raising his hand over the city was placed at the center of a memorial that remained a prominent landmark of Baku until the collapse of the Soviet Union (Bertanitski 1971, 138-140).
The Architectural Complex Lenin Square
The design of Baku’s new central square began with the construction of the House of the Soviets (“Dom Sovietov” in Russian) or the Government House. Intended to accommodate large-scale events and serve the purpose of an ideological center, the square was the largest one in the USSR at the time of its completion (Bertanitski 1971, 146-149).
The Government House. Location: Then Lenin Sqaure, Baku, Azerbaijan. Date of the Photo: 1977-80. Photo Credits: Leonid Kondratyev, taken from pastvu.com.
The construction of the House began in 1930 and was completed in 1952. According to the architects of the House, the exterior of the building was designed in the Baroque style, using also elements of the national Azerbaijani architecture. This style was reflected in the three rows of columns located along the edges of the building, the prototype for which was the colonnade of the reception hall of the medieval Shirvanshah palace in Baku. The construction of the adjacent Lenin Square ended in the Fall of 1951. It became an ideal location for military parades and demonstrations of workers. The first large-scale event took place on November 7 of 1951 on the commemoration of the October Revolution of Bolsheviks.
The House of the Soviets itself was designed as a “memorial-building” dedicated to the “father of the revolution” Vladimir Lenin. His monument was installed in the square on November 6 of 1954. For many years, the expressive 11-meter bronze sculpture of Lenin, the leader of the proletariat, portrayed at the time of addressing the people, was the central element of the whole complex. The last Soviet demonstration in the square took place in May 1987. The mass rallies in the following years went down history as the events that contributed to the collapse of the USSR.
Posted in Architectural, Baku, Cultural Heritage, Monuments on September 1, 2018 by mshiva.
Armenian Soviet Monuments
Soviet Monuments in Armenia
The dirt shone red-orange in the car headlights, the road little more than a trench cutting through endless miles of dry terrain. Night had caught us by surprise, still hours from our destination. We sped through the moonlit wilderness, one single light in a rocky land dotted with pylons, ruined churches, and every few miles or so, looming ghostlike out of the darkness, the vestigial remains of Armenia’s Soviet monuments.
Somewhere near the village of Dashtadem, down in the southwest corner of Armenia, we lost the road altogether. The tarmac, half hidden under dust, took a sudden, sharp turn to the right while we carried on straight ahead. The car shuddered into the dirt, bouncing to a violent halt; and the small halo of light that had surrounded us erupted into a glowing cocoon of dust and smoke.
Nearby, an invisible siren whooped. In all these empty miles we had managed to plough into the verge just a stone’s throw from a police patrol car (I wondered how long it had waited there, like a trapdoor spider, for anyone to pass), and now we were due for a reckoning.
As one officer leaned down to the driver window, we told him we didn’t speak Armenian. We might have just about got by in Russian, but we told him – in English – that we didn’t speak that either. We assumed that the harder we made this, the more likely the police would just send us on our way… and it worked, though not without one final test to pass.
This Armenian police officer motioned the driver to get out of the car, then he cupped his hands and mimed a gesture of breathing into them. Our driver – an American – did as he was told, he emptied his lungs into the man’s palms and the officer took a good hard sniff. If he’d been expecting vodka breath, he was pleasantly surprised: we weren’t drunk, just tired.
As we reversed back onto the road the two police officers had a good laugh at our expense. They waved us off, muttering something that I can only guess meant “Stupid tourists.”
Monument to Mother Armenia (Architect: Rafik Yeghoyan, Sculptors: Ara Sargsian & Yerem Vartanyan, 1975). Gyumri, Armenia.
Armenia has an incredible number of monuments, and many of those that stand today were built between 1922 and 1991 in what was then known as the Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic. According to Garnik S. Shakhkian, author of the 1989 collection Architectural Monuments in the Soviet Armenia, more than 40,000 such structures were built.
Posted in Architectural, Monuments, Yerevan on August 29, 2018 by mshiva.
Tbilisi’s Megaprojects
Is There Any Way to Stop a Billionaire-Backed Megaproject?
A battle over the fate of one of Europe’s oldest city centers has pitted preservationists and urban planners against a powerful oligarch.
STORY BY David Lepeska
If you were looking to cast the villain in an urban development battle, you’d be hard-pressed to find a better candidate than Bidzina Ivanishvili.
Worth about $5 billion, or a third of Georgia’s gross domestic product, he’s the country’s wealthiest person by a long shot. A former prime minister and the founder of the ruling party, he’s also Georgia’s most powerful figure, infamous for pulling government strings from behind the scenes since leaving politics in late 2013. His name appeared several times in the Panama Papers, a cache of leaked tax documents revealing how the world’s richest people exploit tax havens. He’s eccentric enough to dig up and ship a lone 650-ton tulip tree across the Black Sea, and his Tbilisi home is tailor-made for an evil mastermind: a 108,000-square-foot steel and glass palace, poised on a hill overlooking the city and complete with helipad and shark tank.
No surprise, then, that not only is Ivanishvili behind the largest real estate development in Georgia’s history — a controversial project known as Panorama Tbilisi — until recently he owned some of the land slated for development. If all goes as planned, Panorama would bring three new hotels, two cable cars, 1,800 underground parking spaces, luxury residences and a convention center to the Georgian capital. The project has become a lightning rod amid a nationwide boom that has attracted international developers, including one Donald Trump — who until January had planned to back construction of the country’s two tallest towers.
As rapid construction has taken hold in the capital, Tbilisians have watched green space shrink in the city center and the horizon crowd with towers. The number of cars in this city of 1.5 million people has doubled in the past seven years. Meanwhile, Georgia’s per-capita rate of air pollution-related deaths ranked number one among the world’s nations in a 2012 report from from the International Energy Agency.
As construction begins on Panorama, locals fearing more congestion, deadlier pollution and the loss of their beloved Old City have rallied to the cause. Some want to kill the project, but most would be happy to move it to a different location, or shrink it to better fit to its surroundings. “Look at Amsterdam, Paris, you don’t have great skyscrapers in the main heritage areas in those cities,” said Tbilisi urban planner and architect Irakli Zhvania.
The municipal government, meanwhile, finds itself squeezed between modernization and preservation, between an oligarch who controls the purse strings and power and an electorate increasingly concerned about the impact of unfettered development. “The result is that city officials don’t want to upset the public, or Ivanishvili, and are always looking to find a balance,” Erekle Urushadze, program manager for the anti-corruption program at Transparency International Georgia, said in a recent interview in a Tbilisi cafe.
That balance is rarely found. As a result, Georgians are learning the extent to which committed citizens can participate in development, if at all, in the face of an all-powerful developer-oligarch. And whether Ivanishvili is indeed a villain.
Posted in Architectural, Tbilisi on August 28, 2018 by mshiva.
Kond: A City Within a City
By Arpine Haroyan , Hovhannes Nazaretyan
Old stairs and narrow alleys from Proshyan, Saryan, Paronyan and Leo streets lead you into a hidden city within a city. As you enter what appears to be an uncharted world, wooden doors, walls constructed of asymmetric bricks and labyrinthine lanes take you on an adventurous journey to old Yerevan. Residents, with their doors and hearts open, welcome you and often forcibly invite you to have a cup of coffee. While your eyes try to grasp and remember every single intricate detail, they start to tell you the history of their life and proudly proclaim that they are the residents of Kond – the oldest district of Yerevan.
Historically, Kond was one of the three main districts of Yerevan. Perched above the city, it gets its name from the Armenian, which means “long hill.” In the 18th century, the main residents of Kond were Armenians engaged in farming, cattle-breeding and gardening. Later, when Persians and Turks captured Yerevan, the district was renamed Tapabashi (Turkish for “top of the hill”). Throughout the centuries, Kond was one of the most vibrant districts of Yerevan and was home to several ethno-religious groups. Other residents included Boshas or Caucasian/Armenian gypsies. Historian, literary critic and folklorist Yervand Shahazis, in his book about Yerevan (published in 1933) notes that 46 families lived and worked in the territory of Saint John the Baptist Church (Surb Hovhannes) and actively participated in city life. According to ethnographer Hamlet Sargsyan, in 1830 of the 4,300 residents of Kond 1,568 were Armenians, 2,537 Tatars, and 195 Boshas (Caucasian Gypsies).
Melik-Aghamalyan Family
Kond was also the residence of the aristocratic Melik-Aghamalyan family. According to Shahazis, the family owned numerous buildings and land in the territory of Kond. For several centuries, Surb Hovhannes was known as their ancestral church and the family donated money to rebuild it after it was destroyed in the earthquake of 1679; their name is inscribed on one of the walls of the church. Famous for their participation in several battles in the territory of Yerevan, the Aghamalyans were considered one of the richest and well-known families of Old Yerevan but for the current residents of Kond, the Aghamalyans are famous for their kindness and generous support to the survivors of the Armenian Genocide. As Kondetsis recall, the Aghamalyan family provided shelter to the orphans and immigrants from Western Armenia.
However, the descendants of the Aghamalyans suffered tremendously during the Stalin repressions. The last member of the aristocratic family, Sasha Aghamalyan was ousted from his home in Kond during the Stalin purges and died in a small basement apartment.
Currently, there is a gold watch kept in the Yerevan History Museum that was presented to the Melik-Aghamalyans from Russian Tsar Nikolai I for their contribution to the Russian-Persian war. Their princely residence constructed of black tufa stone, standing half-ruined near the entrance of the quarter, is the only reminder of the family’s existence.
Posted in Architectural, Cultural Heritage, Yerevan on August 13, 2018 by mshiva.
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All That Is Evident Is Suspect: Readings from the Oulipo: 1963 - 2018 (Hardcover)
By Ian Monk (Translator), Daniel Levin Becker (Translator), Marcel Duchamp (Contribution by)
Since its inception in Paris in 1960, the OuLiPo--ouvroir de litt rature potentielle, or workshop for potential literature--has continually expanded our sense of what writing can do. It's produced, among many other marvels, a detective novel without the letter e (and a sequel of sorts without a, i, o, u, or y); an epic poem structured by the Parisian m tro system; a story in the form of a tarot reading; a poetry book in the form of a game of go; and a suite of sonnets that would take almost 200 million years to read completely.
Lovers of literature are likely familiar with the novels of the best-known Oulipians--Italo Calvino, Georges Perec, Harry Mathews, Raymond Queneau--and perhaps even the small number of texts available in English on the group, including Warren Motte's Oulipo: A Primer of Potential Literature and Daniel Levin Becker's Many Subtle Channels: In Praise of Potential Literature. But the actual work of the group in its full, radiant collectivity has never before been showcased in English. ("The State of Constraint," a dossier in issue 22 of McSweeney's Quarterly Concern, comes closest.)
Enter All That is Evident is Suspect: the first collection in English to offer a life-size picture of the group in its historical and contemporary incarnations, and the first in any language to represent all of its members (numbering 41 as of April 2018 ). Combining fiction, poetry, essays and lectures, and never-published internal correspondence--along with the acrobatically constrained writing and complexly structured narratives that have become synonymous with oulipian practice--this volume shows a unique group of thinkers and artists at work and at play, meditating on and subverting the facts of life, love, and the group itself. It's an unprecedentedly intimate and comprehensive glimpse at the breadth and diversity of one of world literature's most vital, adventurous presences.
DISCUSSED: Sharks as poets and vice versa, the Brisbane pitch drop experiment, novel classifications for real or imaginary libraries, the monumental sadness of difficult loves, the obsolescence of the novel, the symbolic significance of the cup-and-ball game, holiday closures across the Francophone world, what happens at Fahrenheit 452, Warren G. Harding's dark night of the soul, Marcel Duchamp's imperviousness to conventional spacetime laws, bilingual palindromes, cartoon eodermdromes, oscillating poems, m tro poems, metric poems, literary madness, straw cultivation.
Publisher: McSweeney's
Publication Date: November 13th, 2018
Anthologies (multiple authors)
Absurdist
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Justice, District 3
Treasurer — State of California
The state's banker: Manages the state's investments and assets. Coordinates the sale of state bonds.
For this office, only the two candidates who get the most votes in the primary election advance to the general election. The two candidates may be from the same political party.
Interview with State Treasurer Candidate Fiona Ma
— September 28, 2018 Cal Channel and the League of Women Voters of California
Interview with State Treasurer Candidate Greg Conlon
Fiona Ma
CPA / State Board of Equalization...
Manage/safeguard our state's assets by investing wisely...
Promote good corporate governance models and hold...
Continue to aggressively combat the Underground Economy...
U.S. Senator Kamala HarrisCalifornia State Treasurer John ChiangU.S. Senator Dianne FeinsteinSacramento BeeSan Francisco ChronicleSEIU CaliforniaCalifornia Professional FirefightersCalifornia Democratic PartyCalifornia State University Employees UnionCalifornia Federation of TeachersCalifornia League of Conservation VotersSan José Mercury-NewsLos Angeles TimesCalifornia Small Business AssociationEquality CaliforniaPlanned Parenthood Affiliates of CaliforniaCalifornia Teachers AssociationCalifornia Nurses Association
Greg Conlon
Businessman CPA Veteran
Reform Public Pension Unfunded Liabilities of over...
Improve the State's Credit Rating from fourth to last...
Work to eliminae the $800 minimum State income tax...
California Republican PartyState Senator John MoorlachChairman of Stanislaus County Board of Supervisiors--Jim DeMartiniSue Caro-Vice President of the California Republican Partty for the San Francisco Bay AreaSan Mateo County Republican Central CommitteeSan Joaquin County Republican Central Commitee
CPA/Taxpayer Representative
7,825,587 votes (64.1%)WinningCheck
Manage/safeguard our state's assets by investing wisely in sound investments vehicles with full transparency and accountability.
Promote good corporate governance models and hold corporations accountable for their actions and don't gouge/take advantage of people to meet their bottom lines or to make excessive profits.
Continue to aggressively combat the Underground Economy to ensure everyone pays their fair share of taxes to fulfill our commitment to our retirees & provide quality/accessible education, healthcare, affordable housing to all.
Profession:CPA / State Board of Equalization Member-District
Member - District 2, California State Board of Equalization — Elected position (2014–current)
Majority Whip & Speaker Pro Tempore, California State Assembly - District 12 — Elected position (2006–2012)
Member - District 4 (Sunset District), San Francisco Board of Supervisors — Elected position (2002–2006)
Advisory Board Member, California Earthquake Authority — Appointed position (2002–2006)
Commissioner - Alternate Member, San Francisco Assessment Appeals Board — Appointed position (1994–1998)
Pepperdine University — Masters in Business Administration (M.B.A.), Finance (2000)
Golden Gate University — Master of Science (M.S.), Taxation (1993)
Rochester Institute of Technology — Bachelor of Science (B.S.), Accounting (1988)
Immediate Past President / Board Member, California Women Lead (2010–current)
Honorary Chair, San Francisco Hep B Free - Bay Area (2007–current)
Honorary National Co Chair / Honorary California Chair / Honorary SF Chair, New Leaders Council (2003–current)
Aspen-Rodel Fellow - Class of 2009, Aspen Institute (2009–current)
Executive Board Member / Delegate, CA Democratic Party (1995–current)
Here is the excerpt from my SF Chronicle endorsement: https://www.sfchronicle.com/opinion/editorials/article/Chronicle-Recommends-Fiona-Ma-for-state-treasurer-12870656.php
Fiona Ma isn’t promising to do for the State Treasurer’s Office what she helped do for her current post. That would mean all but eliminating it.
Since joining the Board of Equalization, Ma has seen the dysfunctional state tax panel reduced to a shadow of itself. And she says she would support a constitutional change to abolish it altogether.
In backing the reforms that brought the board to the brink of oblivion, the 52-year-old San Francisco Democrat showed a sense of responsibility to taxpayers that would suit the job she’s seeking. Along with her background in finance and politics, it makes her the best candidate to succeed State Treasurer John Chiang, who is running for governor.
A certified public accountant with master’s degrees in taxation and business administration, Ma worked for then-state Sen. John Burton before being elected to San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors. She went on to serve three terms in the state Assembly, where she championed legislation to ban potentially toxic chemicals from children’s products.
Elected to the Board of Equalization in 2014, Ma joined State Controller Betty Yee, an ex-officio member, in questioning the board’s mismanagement of funds and staff. She called for audits and ultimately Gov. Jerry Brown’s intervention, which led to legislation that shifted most of the board’s powers and staff to the governor.
Ma seems equipped to take more principled stands if, for example, California’s next governor lacks Brown’s penchant for fiscal responsibility.
Featured Endorsements
U.S. Senator Kamala Harris
California State Treasurer John Chiang
U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein
SEIU California
California Professional Firefighters
California Democratic Party
California State University Employees Union
California Federation of Teachers
California League of Conservation Voters
San José Mercury-News
California Small Business Association
Equality California
Planned Parenthood Affiliates of California
California Teachers Association
California Nurses Association
Total money raised: $2,746,699
Employees of Advanced Nutrients
AFSCME California
California Labor Federation
Northern California Carpenters Regional Council
Employees of Oakmont Senior Living
SEIU Local 1000
Southern California Pipe Trades District Council 16
Nevada 1.51%
District of Columbia 1.08%
Texas 0.90%
Fiona Ma, CPA
California Statewide Candidate Statement
State Treasurer: June 5, 2018
CPA/Taxpayers Representative
My name is Fiona Ma. I have been a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) since 1992. I stand for greater transparency, checks & balances and accountability. That’s why I led the major overhaul to restore trust in the State Board of Equalization. I have balanced budgets at the local level, at the state level during the Great Recession, and have overseen the collection of $60 billion in state revenues. As a CPA with experience in tax law and in balancing budgets I am qualified to serve as State Treasurer from Day 1 and will be able to manage California’s investments with full accountability and transparency. I will create a robust first-time homebuyer program to make housing more accessible to all Californians. I will work to alleviate high student loan debt. I was born with a preexisting health condition and personally understand the urgent need for quality, accessible and affordable healthcare. Because my husband is a firefighter I know first-hand how important it is to invest in our first responders. As State Treasurer, I will oversee investments in affordable housing, infrastructure, schools, hospitals, environmental protection and transportation. Most importantly I will continue to safeguard our tax dollars, invest wisely to ensure positive returns and make sure government works with accountability and transparency. I’m proud to have the support of U.S. Senator Kamala Harris, California Teachers Association, California Professional Firefighters and California Small Business Association. I would be honored to have your vote. Thank you for your consideration. To learn more, visit www.FionaMa.com.
Every Voice Matters: It Could Have Been Me or My Mother or My Grandmother.
My last two bills signed by Gov Brown were the most heart wrenching and difficult ones I sponsored but today 100+ women are free. https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/every-voice-matters-domestic-violence-prevention_us_59cecec6e4b034ae778d4a8a
“He was my knight in shining armor…He was the most excitement I ever had in my life…And it all started with a slap and being thrown across the room like I was nobody…All I wanted to do was to protect myself and it cost me life in prison.” I heard the screams, pictured the horror, and felt the terror these women experienced as I watched their stories unfold in the Sin by Silence documentary by Olivia Klaus; a passionate movie describing the plight of incarcerated battered women throughout California. Brenda Clubine, who starred in the movie and was the survivor that created the support group for the women in jail, and producer Olivia Klaus approached me about her plight and of the others still in jail. They introduced the documentary that started me down the road towards justice for these women. This was not an episode of “Law and Order: Special Victims Unit” or “Big Little Lies,” these stories are horrifyingly true and these women survived being battered and abused, only to be put into prison for defending themselves. According to the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence, 32.9% of women and 27.3% of men in California experience intimate partner physical violence, intimate partner sexual violence and/or intimate partner stalking in their lifetimes. The emotional journey I experienced while watching the “Sin by Silence” documentary inspired me to help other survivors by introducing AB 593 and AB 1593, my “Sin by Silence” bills. At the time, I was the Chair of the Select Committee to End Domestic Violence and the first Asian-American woman Assembly Speaker pro Tempore in California history, so I was in a position where I could be a voice through legislation to try to help these domestic violence survivors. AB 593 allows victims of domestic violence, whose expert testimony was limited at their trial court proceedings, to re-file for a writ of habeas corpus to allow this expert testimony to weigh in on their defense. It also gave survivors more time to receive legal representation. AB 1593 allows survivors who have suffered Intimate Partner Battering (IPB) a chance to present their evidence in an effective way during the parole process by giving great weight to any information or evidence that proves the prisoner experienced IPB and its effects at the time the crime was committed, and that the information that is submitted to the Legislature is specific and detailed.
Ultimately, I spent most of 2011 and 2012 fighting for the rights of these survivors. I attended emotional, heart-wrenching parole hearings; I hosted informational hearings to understand the issues and challenges faced by domestic violence survivors, and I spoke to the women and heard their stories first-hand. On this five year anniversary of the bills’ passage into law, I’m proud to say two other states, Oregon and New York, are focusing on similar legislation. I remember Glenda Virgil who, in 2013, was the first woman from the film to be released as a result of my bills. I was able to give a voice to the voiceless and give these women a fighting chance for justice. It was the right thing to do.
SIN BY SILENCE August 21, 2012 - Board Member Fiona Ma, then Assembly Speaker Pro Tempore, with Brenda Clubine and other supporters of the “Sin by Silence” legislation.
nfortunately, not everyone is a survivor. Each year, my office hosts a Silent Witness display as part of the Silent Witness National Initiative, to remember the victims that lost their lives at the hands of domestic violence. These displays remind us of the sobering statistics that, according to the National Network to End Domestic Violence (NNEDV), nearly one-third of all women murdered in the United States in recent years were murdered by a current or former intimate partner. In 2010, 1,017 women – more than three a day – were killed by their intimate partners. Every year when I see these displays, I am reminded of Claire Tempongko who was brutally murdered in front of her two young children by an ex-boyfriend who had been arrested on five prior felony counts, but was nonetheless released. I remember when I was on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors and I vigorously led the effort to finish the Justice Information Tracking System (JUSTIS) to connect the different San Francisco law enforcement agencies so information could be shared to document the pattern of abuses.
A survivor’s safety and well-being is most at risk during episodes of violence, and when attempting to leave an abuser. Domestic violence shelters are a key part of safety planning to prepare ahead of time and to be as protected as possible once that decision is made to escape an abusive relationship. During my six year tenure in the Legislature, I heard several stories about how California domestic violence shelters were forced to turn away women and children due to a lack of funding. In 2013, NNEDV conducted a 24-hour survey of domestic violence programs across the nation and reported that 66,581 adults and children had found refuge and assistance; however an additional 9,641 requests for services were unanswered because of a lack of resources. Each one of those unmet requests is another lost opportunity to break the cycle of violence. Last year, Governor Brown signed AB 1399 (Baker), which created a checkoff box on California personal income tax return forms to allow Californians to donate to the newly created Domestic Violence Victims Fund. Domestic violence shelters will be able to apply for a grant from the new fund, administered by the California Office of Emergency Services, to help provide critical assistance to victims. From January to August of 2017, the fund had more than $130,000 in contributions.
October 17, 2016 – Executive Director of the San Francisco Domestic Violence Consortium Beverly Upton, members of the Filipina women’s Network, San Francisco Supervisor Katy Tang, Board Member Fiona Ma, Assemblymember David Chiu, and community activist Debra Walker stand with the Silent Witness display.
We have to continue to speak out. Raise awareness. Break the cycle of silence. On October 4th, I’m hosting an event in San Francisco to help Willpowered Woman, a nonprofit that assists women affected by intimate partner abuse, and also educates students about prevention. Speaking with me is Crystal Wheeler, Executive Director of Every 9 Seconds, a nonprofit organization for abused women, founded by her former cellmate and fellow survivor, Brenda Clubine. Crystal was choked, beaten, tormented, and isolated by a violent husband who forced her to quit her job as a training law enforcement officer. One night she fatally fought back, which lead to her serving 22 years in prison, simply for defending herself. After spending time in prison, Crystal was aided by my “Sin by Silence” bills, allowing her to finally get the justice she deserved.
Every voice matters. Shout out into the silence and make your voice heard. Shows like “Big Little Lies” and “Law and Order: Special Victims Unit” help bring awareness into the public eye, but you can help too. October is “Domestic Violence Awareness Month” and you can make a difference. Donate to, or volunteer at a domestic violence shelter. Help a survivor. Wear purple to raise awareness for domestic violence prevention. Help turn California purple and break the cycle of silence. The chance you offer a survivor might be their last.
A vital resource for someone experiencing domestic violence is the National Domestic Violence Hotline. Highly trained advocates are available 24/7 to talk confidentially at 1-800-799-SAFE (7233).
#CATurnsPurple #DVAM2017 #SinBySilence #PreventDomesticViolence
Golden Gate University: Profiles in Prominence 2010: FIONA MA, THE DUTIFUL DAUGHTER
This story was written by Tasia Neeve, Director of Marketing and Communications at Golden Gate University on May 24, 2010. This article has been edited to meet the 2,000 word limit.
Born in New York in 1966 Fiona Ma and spent much of her life before politics as a self-proclaimed “dutiful daughter” in a Chinese American household.
Growing up, she was a tomboy, interested in sports, Girl Scouts and academics. Fiona was concurrently captain of the basketball, volleyball, tennis and softball teams in high-school while maintaining straight A’s. After speaking with her, even briefly, you get the impression that she doesn’t like to lose at anything–and rarely does.
A product of New York public schools, she attended Baker Elementary and Great Neck North Middle and High schools. Education was highly prized in the Ma household. “Dad always told us school is the number-one equalizer; knowledge is the gateway to success and with proper preparation and diligence, the sky is only the stepping stone,” she recalls. As a result the family is highly accomplished academically. “It’s true that education is the one thing no one can take away.”
Her father was a mechanical engineer with a bachelor’s degree from Canada, a master’s degree from National College, London, England and a PhD. From the University of Glasgow, Scotland. After entering the business world in New York, he realized that he needed more knowledge in running successful business enterprises, so when Fiona was six year old, he went back to Columbia University and earned a MBA. He is a licensed Professional Engineer by trade.
He founded or co-founded six companies and holds four patents on mechanical devices in solid waste compaction. He was President and Chairman of the Board of a public company and later specialized in construction claims and litigation before his recent retirement.
Her mother had both a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in fine arts education from the City University in New York City and taught art at a public high school for 20 years before moving the family to San Francisco to be closer to her parents.
When counseling his children on their education and eventual careers, Fiona’s father encouraged an “honorable” profession–one that fit “the LEAD” (Doctor, Engineer, Accountant, Lawyer). Ever the dutiful daughter, Fiona received a bachelor’s degree in accounting at Rochester Institute of Technology with a listing in the Who’s Who Among Students in American Universities and Colleges in 1988 honoring the nation’s most noteworthy graduates of high learning, a master’s degree in taxation from Golden Gate University, a MBA from Pepperdine University and her CPA license to practice. Her younger brother Mike says that Fiona’s role in the family is as a “trailblazer” who always leads by example.
In 1993 she was at Ernst and Young–one of the “big six” accounting firms at the time–and while she hadn’t yet hit the glass ceiling, she saw it looming. There were no female partners and few female managers. She decided it probably wasn’t going to be a good place to seek her future and decided to leave.
She and an associate started their own accounting practice. A scary prospect for some, but Fiona was influenced by her father’s entrepreneurial spirit and her parents’ encouragement growing up to “go for it” no matter what. In 1994 she was elected president of the Asian Business Association and found herself at San Francisco City Hall and at the state capitol in Sacramento lobbying for business issues that affected women and minorities.
Had she always dreamed of being a politician? Not even close. “I was exposed to the political process about once a year when my dad forced us to watch the presidential State of the Union address. I thought it was so boring!”
As a result of her work on behalf of the Small Business Association, she was elected in 1995 as a delegate to the White House Conference on Small Business under President Bill Clinton. As her interaction with Washington, D.C. and lawmakers increased at a national level, she began to believe in the importance of government and its ability to create positive change. Fiona’s advocacy work in that role helped lead to socially responsible contracting for minorities and women in San Francisco. She saw firsthand how, through politics, she could make a contribution to the community and help people. She was hooked.
Fiona also applied for and was appointed by the San Francisco Board of Supervisors to the Assessment Appeals Board and began to understand what she had to offer the world of politics.
That year Fiona embarked on her public-service career as a part-time district representative for then-State Senator John Burton. When considering the job, she found herself again pulled between duty and aspiration: to continue to please her parents or to follow what her heart had begun to tell her was a life-long passion–her calling. After some negotiation with her parents, who most certainly had not dreamed of having their first-born daughter become an American politician, a compromise was struck. She would continue to practice as a CPA and work part-time for Senator Burton. For the next seven years she served on the senator’s staff about two-and-a-half days a week. Her task was to help constituents with Medi-Cal, Workers’ Compensation, Unemployment Insurance, Franchise and Employment Development Department taxes, and professional licensing. A funny thing happened during her “part-time” work though, and she found herself spending virtually all her free time campaigning, researching and otherwise working in politics.
It was time to enter the political arena as a career; and at thirty-four, her parents were ready to let her go. In 2002 Fiona Ma was elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, and from 2002 to 2006 represented District 4, which encompasses the Central Sunset, Outer Sunset, Parkside, Outer Parkside and Pine Lake Park. “My parents always said ‘go ahead, give it a try’ about everything while we were growing up and then made us feel good about the attempt, regardless of the outcome. Entering politics full-time wasn’t scary for me. Failure never occurred to me. I’m sure that was an advantage.”
Starting with her small-business advocacy and continuing in her service on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, a pattern of giving voice to those without, creating equality where none exists, improving the human condition, and standing up for what she believes to be right, emerged in the politics of Fiona Ma. As a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors her major legislative push was to shut down massage parlors that were involved in illegal trafficking of immigrants for purposes of prostitution. Following the passage of Proposition 209, which barred public institutions from considering sex, race or ethnicity, she led the effort to create San Francisco’s Disadvantaged Business Enterprise program, which enables small businesses to more easily participate in public-works projects. As a direct result of her work, the San Francisco Public Transportation Authority now states: “The Authority and its employees shall not discriminate on the basis of race, national origin, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, age, or disability in the award and performance of Authority contracts.” This measure broadens the scope of inclusion, leveling an important playing field for small businesses in San Francisco.
What Fiona considers one of her most important legislative wins–something she hopes will become part of her lifetime legacy–is helping to protect the nation’s toddlers from toxic toys. The years-long effort, which culminated in federal law enacted in 2009, bans phthalates, which are known to be harmful to human health. It started with Fiona Ma in San Francisco City Hall.
She watched as a member of the California State Assembly tried, and failed, to pass a bill that would have prevented these chemicals from being used in the state. Fiona explains that she knew the San Francisco Board of Supervisors with their guideline to err on the conservative side where detriment to human health is concerned, would have no problem passing what was an obviously needed piece of legislation. She decided to start at the local level and then to use that as leverage, putting pressure on the statehouse. Ordinance Number 060107 amended the San Francisco Health Code to “prohibit the manufacture, sale, or distribution in commerce of any toy or child-care article that is intended for use by a child under three years of age if it contains bisphenol-A or other specified chemicals, and to require manufacturers to use the least toxic alternative to those substances.” As Fiona had predicted, the ordinance passed the San Francisco Board of Supervisors easily. The next step would be at the statewide level. As it happened, Fiona Ma would be the one to shepherd it through.
In November 2006, Fiona got elected to the California State Assembly District 12, which includes San Francisco, Daly City, Colma and Broadmoor—some 420,000 constituents. She was appointed the Majority Whip, making her responsible for marshalling votes to ensure the passage of crucial legislation to improve public education, expand healthcare access and protect the environment.
During her first year in office she introduced what came to be known as the “Rubber Duck” bill, so named because the phthalates are often used in the manufacture of soft plastic toys and other baby products such as bath books, rubber ducks, and baby teethers. AB 1108 virtually mirrored the San Francisco ordinance she’d sponsored four years earlier. At the time she said, “California continues to lead the nation in protecting children from dangerous chemicals and in safeguarding our environment. AB 1108 sends a clear message to the Consumer Product Safety Commission that if the administration won’t act, states will.” Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed the bill into law in October 2007; it took effect on January 1, 2009. Other states followed suit, and act, the administration ultimately did.
In March 2008, Fiona Ma’s bill was used as a model in federal legislation when California Senator Dianne Feinstein wrapped a ban on phthalates into the U.S. Senate version of a Consumer Product Safety Commission bill that Congress passed in February 2009 and which went into effect the following August. As Fiona observes, “Banning phthalates across the whole country and helping keep kids healthy. That’s pretty good work, right?”
And that brings us to number three on her “legacy list.” At the age of twenty-two, Ma learned she has hepatitis B (HBV), a virus that causes 80 percent of all liver cancer if left untreated and one that shows no symptoms until it’s almost too late. Almost 1.4 million Americans are infected with HBV, and more than half are Asian/Pacific Islander Americans. An estimated one in ten is chronically infected with the virus. Like most Asian Americans, Ma contracted the disease from her mother at birth via perinatal exposure. San Francisco has the highest rate of liver cancer in the nation because of its high Asian population, and HBV-related liver cancer is the leading cause of cancer death among API men living in California. In true Fiona fashion, she decided to tackle the issue head-on and call as much attention to it as possible—a big jolt to a community that had attached such stigma to the illness it was considered best to keep it quiet.
As the “poster child” in the fight against hepatitis B, Ma serves as unofficial chairperson for San Francisco Hep B Free– the largest, most intensive healthcare campaign for APIs in the U.S. and one that is looked upon as a model for the nation in eliminating HBV. "How amazing would it be to help eradicate a disease?” she asks. Amazing indeed.
Fiona loves what she does–and for the foreseeable future she wants to keep on doing it. Oh, and her advice? “Don’t waste time being something someone else wants you to be–listen to your heart.” The duty is necessary, the passion wins.
I'm Fiona Ma...CPA for Treasurer
— May 25, 2018 Fiona Ma for Treasurer 2018
Fiona Ma CPA, Running for CA State Treasurer: Goes beyond dollars and cents...it's the people who count; will ensure the budget is balanced and accountable so we can invest in the people of CA.
Fiona Ma, CPA for CA State Treasurer
— May 25, 2018 Fiona Ma for State Treasurer 2018
Why Fiona Ma, CPA is running for State Treasurer and what she wants to accomplish.
Website: fionama.com
Email - fiona@fionama.com
Businessman/CPA
4,376,816 votes (35.9%)Check
Reform Public Pension Unfunded Liabilities of over $300 billion by starting a new Defined Benefit Pension plan for new employees only.
Improve the State's Credit Rating from fourth to last to an acceptable rating of AA or above by addressing the unfunded pension liabilities problem.
Work to eliminae the $800 minimum State income tax to help start-up companies get on their feet.
Profession:Businessman CPA Veteran
Business Consultant, Self-employed (2001–current)
Of-Counsel Attorney, Mark C. Watson, P. C. Law Firm (2017–current)
Chairman, Finance Committee of the City of Atherton — Appointed position (2010–2014)
President or Commissioner, California Public Utilities Commission — Appointed position (1993–1999)
Commissioner, California Transportation Commission — Appointed position (1995–1998)
President of the California Public Utilities Commission, California Publice Utilities Commission — Appointed position (1995–1997)
Partner, International Public Accounting of Arthur Andersen & Co. (1959–1991)
Partner, Arthur Andersen & Co (1959–1991)
Captain and Air Force Pilot, U S Air Force (1956–1959)
University of Utah, Business and Accounting Degree and University of San Francisco Law School J D Degree — B A Degree in Business/ Accounting at U of Utah 1955, Law Degree at U of San Francisco Law School 2000., Public Accounting resulting in my CPA, Certified Publice Accounting certificate (2000)
University of Utah — The University of Utan Degree had a major in Business and Accounting (1955)
Chairman and Treasurer, California Industry Education Counsel (1988–current)
Board of Directors and Treasurer, Self Help for the Elderly Social Service Agency (1988–2000)
As a businessman and CPA Conlon has the necessary experience and qualifications to keep this state's finances viable to prevent the state from going broke. He worked for 30 years for a top-ranked international public accounting firm. As a partner in the firm he dealt with Fortune 500 clients learning the financial lessons that only experience can provide: determining smart investments, evaluating financial risk and understanding the financial process of issuing financial bonds and other instruments. He was appointed to the California Public Utilities Commission where he served as Commissioner for six years, including two years as President. At the CPUC he evaluated the capital structure of regulated utility companies, which again provided him with excellent knowledge of financial risk. Governor Pete Wilson also appointed him to the California Transportation Commission where he served for three years. He holds a business degree from the University of Utah, an Executive Training Certificate from U C Berkeley School of Business and a law degree from the University of San Francisco. His background supports his “voice of experience” motto.
California Republican Party
State Senator John Moorlach
Chairman of Stanislaus County Board of Supervisiors--Jim DeMartini
Sue Caro-Vice President of the California Republican Partty for the San Francisco Bay Area
San Mateo County Republican Central Committee
San Joaquin County Republican Central Commitee
Employees of Jelly Belly Candy Company
Employees of O'brien Homes
Voxara
Employees of Craig Robinson Realty
Conlon’s experience as a businessman and CPA helped form his conservative political philosophy. He believes in operating within a balanced budget and not taking undue risk that could jeopardize the State's Bond and Credit Rating. California’s credit rating of fourth from last in the nation is a disgrace to one of our country’s wealthiest states and the fifth largest economy in the world. His political philosophy would not put up with the $300 billion of unfunded pension liability the State has today from its public employees’ and public teachers’ pension plans. Without correcting this serious financial situation, the state's economy will slowly decline to a catastrophic level. Conlon believes the State needs a conservative Treasurer with enough tested experience to monitor and control the level of spending that will keep our State on solid financial footing. He believes his fiscally conservative philosophy will have a positive impact on California’s economic vitality and long-term viability and improve the State's credit rating.
Is The U C System on a Crash Course Financially?
Is The U C System on a Crash Course Financially? Greg Conlon gives ideas for a solution to fiancial problems.
Presented by Greg Conlon former Candidate for California State Treasurer
Before the Kiwanis Club of Menlo Park on August 2, 2016”
Let me start this discussion at 50,000 feet with the question, “What are the most important sectors of California from both a political and economic basis?” I believe there are several such sectors:
First, is the agriculture industry which is the top exporter of agriculture products in the world.
Second, is the entertainment industry which is also the top such industry in the nation and the world.
Third, is the Hi-tech industry which is known to us as Silicon Valley, which is the greatest economic engine in the State and probably the Nation. Without Silicon Valley’s economic success California would be like the country of Greece. One of the candidates in the U S Senate debate indicated the number of jobs added in the last 20 years in the Los Angeles Basin was close to zero.
Fourth, is the public Higher Education System in the State, which is second to no other state or for that matter probably to no other nation. The University of California System, known to us as the U C System, along with the California State Universities known as the CSU System, combined represent this Higher Education System in California.
I could talk about how each of these industries are faring in our economy but I believe the four mentioned above are the most important industries and I consider the crown jewels of the State. But there are also the tourism and the aerospace industry which round out most of the State’s economy. I am only going to discuss the blight of the UC System and the Cal. State Universities known as the CSU System as one of the crown jewels of the State.
This subject is becoming more and more popular as you read the daily newspapers. It came to my attention during my campaign for the June 7th 2016 Primary Election for U S Senate. Probably the most startling fact that got my attention was that the U C System was being forced because of insufficient funding by the State of California in its annual budget to admit more out-of-state students. This is because the non-resident students pay approximately three times what the in-state residents pay, $12,240 compared to $37,000 a year, for tuition alone. According to a recent study by the League of Women Voters of California, the State has decreased the level of funding from the General Fund each year from approximately 18% in 2000 to about 11% or 12% this year. This is a one-third reduction in the level of funding.
The actual number of out-of-state or out-of-country non-residents is approximately 18,000 in academic year 2014-15. According to a recent audit by the California State Auditor Report this increase in non-resident student tuition generated over $700 million, a growth of $400 million from fiscal year 2010-11. To give you a perspective of total costs of the UC System the total employee salaries for the same 2014-15 fiscal year was $13.0 billion.
Based on information in a recent study by the Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC) the expenditures in the last 10 years for higher education, both UC System and CSU System, has fallen 9 percent from 18 to 11% of state total general fund expenditures. Meanwhile general fund expenditures for corrections and rehabilitation have increased 26%, with California spending more on corrections and rehabilitation than it does on its public universities (UC and CSU combined). It should be noted according to the State Auditor’s Report that prison population increased by 1% while UC and CSU enrollment increase by 13 percent.
Getting back to the overall subject of the financial decline of the Universities overall: we need to be sure our best and brightest students in California have every opportunity to succeed in these schools and be able to grow our State into a leadership position in the nation and in the world.
Are we giving our best and brightest resident students the opportunity to learn at California’s best public university systems?
The answer is NO because there are over 18,000 non-resident students, from both out of state and out of the nation, being admitted to the two university systems to provide for the higher tuition. The tuition is three times higher, again $12,242 versus $37,000 tuition per year per student. We are in effect selling one of the great crown jewels of the State to the non-residents because we believe, the State government believes, we can’t afford to support the two higher education systems in the state—UC and CSU.
What about the other public schools in the State?
At the same time, we are taking care of the K-14 schools, including the community colleges, with about 40% of the state general fund expenditures guaranteed under Proposition 98 passed several years ago. Prop 98 provided an increase of $3.9 billion last year to support the K-14 schools over the prior year, while UC and CSU each received about a $25 million increase in comparison. This leads to no other conclusion by me than that we are not adequately funding these university systems and there are allegations that the non-resident students who are being admitted are not as well qualified academically as the resident students who are not being admitted. The recently issued California State Auditor’s Report goes into this allegation in depth.
What has been done recently by the State legislature to address these issues?
Assemblyman Kevin McCarty, from the Sacramento area, in the most recent legislative session sponsored Assembly Bill AB1711 that attempted to address the underfunding of the higher education universities. This bill originally had established a cap on the number of non-resident students allowed to be admitted to the UC System. I believe it was 15% each year. It passed the Assembly Education and Appropriations Committee and passed the Assembly without any negative votes.
It then was taken to the California Senate Education Committee where it was modified and a hearing was held on the merits of the bill. It was modified to remove any cap on the number of non-residents to be admitted each year and only required that the number of non-residents admitted had to have academic qualifications equal to the median level of the top half of the resident students who admitted in the same year.
Because I felt passionately about this issue I recently testified before the California Senate Education Committee as a private citizen to support AB 1711. As I just discussed the original bill attempted to put a specific cap on the number of non-resident students who could attend the UC System schools. It was modified in the Senate to only specify that the non-resident student applicants had to have academic scores at least equal to the median scores of the top half of the resident students applying.
In my testimony that I submitted in the AB 1711 hearings, I included two recommendations.
1. I recommend that the members of the legislature that support AB 1711 consider an amendment to the bill that would provide an automatic increase in state appropriations to the UC System Universities. This increase should be proportionate to the required percentage increase under Proposition 98 each year for K-12 and Community Colleges.
2. I recommend that in order for the UC System to receive the increased appropriations, it would have to adjust its operating expenses downward by one half of the increase in appropriations required in the first amendment above for at least the first three years to get the UC System’s financial condition on a sound basis.
After lengthy hearings on the Bill that included my testimony, which I also submitted to each member of the Committee, the Bill AB1711 was defeated by a vote of 4 to 3.
But it should be noted that earlier in the Annual Budget Act there was wording requiring the Universities to increase the number of resident students in the upcoming academic year and asking the U C System to establish a cap on admission of non-resident students. Recent Press Releases indicated that the U C System is going to admit 1,000 more resident students this forthcoming year than the previous year. Time will tell whether the UC System establishes a cap.
What are the Options that I believe should be considered in the future to address this issue?
The American Dream of excellent higher education for the best and brightest of our California high school students advancing to California’s public higher education universities must be improved. This is necessary to provide the graduate students from the universities to fill the more sophisticated jobs of the future. We need diversity in the universities to enrich the education environment of the students attending the schools. But we do not want to sell the opportunity of the resident students to attend these higher education universities to raise enough funds from the non-resident students to pay for the total cost of providing the education at these universities. The State of California needs to step up and increase the funding of the resident students’ education and provide for a larger number of resident students to attend the UC System and CSU System.
Following are the three alternative solutions I believe the State should consider:
First, the most logical would be to increase the appropriations from the General Fund back to the 18% it was 10 years ago compared to the 11% today. As I mentioned earlier there has been about a 13% increase in the number of students overall in the last 10 years per the State Auditor’s Report with a decrease in funding of 9%. This compares to corrections and rehabilitation funding that had an increase in appropriations of 26% but an increase in prisoners of only 1%, again per the Auditor’s Report.
Second, have the Legislature or a group of citizens put forth a new Proposition similar to Proposition 98, which provides 40% of the General Fund to K-14 grades. This new proposed proposition, call it a new Proposition 98, would provide an adequate amount of funds by increasing the funding from 11% to 15% or 18% of General Fund Expenditures that it once was 10 years ago.
Three, have the legislature or a group of citizens put forth a new proposition that would expand the scope of the original Proposition 98, in force today, to include both the UC and CSU schools as well as the K-14 grades it covers today.
Summary Comments:
Another alternative solution could be a cap on the number of non-resident students. This would only help the admission of resident students if funds were provided to make up for the loss of tuition from decreasing the number of non-resident students NOT admitted.
Obviously this is a very difficult challenge for the State and the Universities to solve. One of the Legislative Offices suggested I meet with the President of the
U C System, Janet Napolitano, to discuss my ideas and see if there is anything I could do to help pursue any of the proposed possible solutions I discussed and get her input on the solutions she is pursuing. I would also appreciate any input from people in the audience for me to consider.
Greg Conlon - Helping Start Ups
— November 1, 2018 DW & Associataes
Greg Conlon talks about how we can help Starts ups by getting rid of the $800.00 tax on them.
Greg Conlon - Reduce Californias Unfunded Pension Liabilites and Increase our Credit Ratings
— November 1, 2018 DW & Associates
Greg Conlon talks about how we can reduce California's Unfunded Pension Liabilites and increase our Credit Rating.
Greg Conlon - Finacial Experience and Expertise
Greg Conlon talks about his finacial expereice and expertise and why he is the person for the job of State Treasurer.
Greg Conlon 30 second commercail English
— November 1, 2018 DW & Assocites
Greg Conlon talks about the problems California is facing and how his experience is needed to create solutions that work.
Greg Conlon 30 second Ad Spanish
Greg Conlon outlines major issues California is facing and his solutions for the problems.
Website: gregconlon.com
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Shadow of mordor dlc, die polizei 2010 на русском
The Trials of War is a challenge map for Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor, . The True Lord of the Rings is the final main mission in The Bright Sony will release an enhanced version of the original PS4 this Holiday. The new PS4 is being called the PlayStation Pro and will feature improved hardware compared. Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor is an action-packed adventure-RPG inspired by J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. Exploring an original. Buy Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor Game of the Year Edition. Please note: The GOTY Edition of Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor and the previously available Premium.
Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor wiki at IGN: walkthroughs, items, maps, video tips, and strategies. Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor is an open world action-role playing video game developed by Monolith Productions and published by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment. Game Fixes: Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor - GOTY v1951.27 MULTI8 Fixed Files; Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor v1808.19 MULTI8 Fixed Files. PC Game Trainer for Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor (+11 Trainer) LinGon. The official PlayStation®Store - Buy the latest PlayStation® games, movies and TV shows for your PS4™, PS3™ Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor The Bright Lord DLC · Sauron Boss Fight Mission: The True Lord of the Rings - As Celebrimbor, wield the might PC Game Trainer for Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor (+13 Trainer) LinGon. Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor +19 trainer for PC and supports STEAM. Legendary Modification Continued – Effect Chip modes compatible NOTE Full Nukaworld 2LM Suite added. Everything I could find that people might. Were you disappointed when you found out the gunboard in the opening menu, wasn't in game? I was. So I did something about it. Countless hours later The family of Talion, a ranger of Gondor responsible for guarding the Black Gate of Mordor, is killed by Saurons armies, but Talion is revived with wraith-like.
Downloadable content refers to content released separately from Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor. Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor is an action-packed adventure-RPG inspired by J.R.R. Tolkien s The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. Exploring an original. It allows you to play as Celebrimbor, the Wraith that had infested Talion in Shadow of Mordor. This DLC will task you with some interesting missions to help you. Dec 17, 2014 But the meat of the DLC is in the gross new monsters it adds to Shadow of Mordor: variations on the original game's lion-like caragors and the. Feb 24, 2015 The Bright Lord, Shadow of Mordor's new DLC campaign, promises an epic showdown with Lord of the Rings head honcho Sauron. Mar 5, 2015 . I'm looking at getting shadows of mordor on the steam sale but don't know if I should get the premium edition No one can ever accuse the Shadow of Mordor of not being story driven, because it's probably one of the most story-heavy action-RPGs out there
Feb 24, 2015 Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor - The Bright Lord Review In this DLC, Monolith goes out of its way to make up for the lackluster final boss. Apr 29, 2015 Shadow of Mordor Game of the Year Edition Announced, Comes With All The action game and all of its DLC, together in one package. Notice: The Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor - GOTY Edition Upgrade and the previously available Season Pass are the same product. Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor is an open world action-role playing video game The final DLC for Shadow of Mordor (The Bright Lord) is set 3,000 years. Buy Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor Game of the Year Edition PC CD Key from cdkeys.com. Instant downloads. Fantastic prices.
Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor is an action game from Monolith Productions. Players take the role of Talion, a valiant ranger whose family is slain. Ratbag has a history with Talion, the hero of Shadow of Mordor. This video demonstrates how Ratbag came to be, and how you can take control of your enemies.
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Air Matters Mold Testing
Renee founded Air Matters in 2002. Since that time, it has become the mold testing firm of choice in the Triangle. Over 90% of the company's business comes from repeat clients and personal referrals. She is frequently recognized as a mold expert and top small business influencer in social media. Renee is also a volunteer for AllExperts.com, where she has a perfect feedback rating for her mold expertise.
Previously, Renee managed safety, ergonomic and environment programs for Nortel Networks. She also spent 15 years with Travelers Insurance in safety, ergonomics, and industrial hygiene where she consulted for numerous Fortune 100 companies. She began her environmental safety career at the GTE headquarters in Durham in 1986.
Renee earned both her Bachelors and Masters degrees in Industrial Engineering from North Carolina State University. She is a long standing member of the Indoor Air Quality Association and the American Industrial Hygiene Association.
On a personal note, Renee is the proud mother of three sons. She is an active school, church, and youth sports volunteer. She has championed family mission efforts in Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic and managed St. Baldrick's fundraising efforts that received national recognition. Renee enjoys travel, challenges that get her out of her comfort zone, and is a breast cancer warrior.
Copyright © Renee Ward. All rights reserved.
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Home > News > 2014 Directory > September 2014
September 2014 News and Matters of Interest
Remember to check our Highlights for new postings on other areas of Teru Talk.
Neste Oil to Recover CO2 at its Singapore Renewable Biodiesel Refinery
Neste Oil Singapore Pte Ltd and National Oxygen Pte Ltd (NOX), a wholly owned subsidiary of Japan company Taiyo Nippon Sanso Corporation, have signed an agreement to install a carbon dioxide (CO2) recovery and liquefaction plant at Neste Oil's renewable diesel refinery in Singapore. Construction is planned to commence in the fourth quarter of 2014 and the plant, which will process an average 40,000 tons of CO2-rich gas from the refinery yearly, is expected to be completed and fully operational by the fourth quarter of 2015. Jussi Hintikka, Vice President in Energy in Neste Oil: " I am very happy to announce this agreement with NOX. The new recovery plant will improve the refinery's resource efficiency and see one of our sidestreams become a valuable raw material for NOX." 09/29/2014
Republic Services Opens Two Bay Area Landfill Gas-To-Energy Projects
Arizona based Republic Services, Inc has announced its latest Landfill Gas-To-Energy (LGTE) projects at its Forward and Vasco Road Landfills in the San Francisco, California Bay Area. The combined projects will generate 8.6 megawatts of energy for the local electric grid, equivalent to enough energy to power more than 5,100 area homes annually. These projects involve extracting gas from within each landfill, processing the extracted gas, and then distributing the processed gas to a generator where it is converted into energy that supplies the local electric grid. The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimates that 8.6 megawatts of energy produced from landfill gas is equivalent to removing carbon emissions from 47.6 million gallons of gasoline consumed. Republic Services partnered with Ameresco, Inc on the design, development and management of the new projects. Republic Services and Ameresco have partnered on seven other projects nationwide, generating more than 65 megawatts of power. 09/29/2014
Anaergia Biogas System Starts Up at California’s Victor Valley WWTP
The Victor Valley Wastewater Reclamation Authority (VVWRA) held a Ribbon Cutting Ceremony on Friday, September 26, 2014, to mark the successful start-up of its new OmnivoreTM biogas production system, supplied by Anaergia Inc. The new biogas system was funded in part by the California Energy Commission’s (CEC) Public Interest Energy Research (PIER) program. The start-up of the VVWRA Omnivore project is significant to the CEC and to Anaergia because it demonstrates how wastewater treatment plants can increase digester loading and biogas production using existing infrastructure. The innovation includes Anaergia’s high solids mixers and recuperative thickener, which change an ordinary digester into a high-solids OmnivoreTM digester. The OmnivoreTM retrofit enables VVWRA to triple the digester’s solids content and biogas production rate. VVWRA will convert the additional biogas into electricity to meet part of the wastewater treatment facility’s electrical demand. Though Anaergia has provided high solids digestion technologies to meet the needs of customers in Europe, the VVWRA retrofit is the first in North America. 09/29/2014
Due 10/09/2014: Comments to Placer County APCD on Biochar Carbon Offsets
The Placer County Air Pollution Control District (APCD) partnered with the International Biochar Initiative and the Prasino Group to adapt the Biochar Carbon Offsets Methodology currently undergoing the evaluation and approval process with the American Carbon Registry (ACR) for potential use in California. Placer County's APCD is seeking to adapt the protocol for use in the California Air Pollution Control Officers Association Greenhouse Gas Registry (CAPCOA GHG Rx). Upon adoption by Placer County, the protocol will be available for adoption by any California county. A webinar to review the protocol was held on September 6 for Placer County stakeholders; the agency’s website contains a recording of the webinar, a copy of the draft protocol, a link to the PowerPoint presentation utilized during the webinar, and a link for further information on the CAPCOA GHG Rx on its website. Comments are due on or before October 9, 2014 and may be emailed to. 09/29/2014
DOE BETO Schedules Waste-to-Energy Roadmapping Workshop
The US Department of Energy (DOE) Bioenergy Technologies Office (BETO) wants to identify and address key technical barriers to the commercial deployment of liquid transportation fuels from waste feedstocks. As a part of this effort, BETO is organizing a Waste-to-Energy Roadmapping workshop. Workshop participants will join facilitated breakout sessions to discuss anaerobic digestion, hydrothermal liquefaction, and other processes that make productive use of wastewater residuals, biosolids, foodstuffs, and organic municipal solid waste. These discussions will be synthesized and used in developing a waste-to-energy technology roadmap. Information gathered during the workshop on the challenges and barriers related to the efficient production of biofuels and bio-based chemicals from wet waste feedstocks will be summarized in a report to be made publically available several weeks after the event. The workshop is scheduled for November 5, 2014 at the DoubleTree Hotel Crystal City in Arlington, Virginia. On the morning of November 6th, an optional tour of DC Water’s Blue Plains Facility is available for those who are interested. The tour is expected to conclude by noon. Registration for this workshop is free, but space is limited. To register, please visit the Waste to Energy Roadmapping Workshop registration webpage. 09/28/2014
GranBio Begins Producing Second-Generation Cellulosic Ethanol in Brazil
Brazilian biotech company GranBio Investimentos S.A. has initiated production at the first commercial-scale plant for second-generation (2G) ethanol in the Southern Hemisphere. The Bioflex 1, unit built in São Miguel dos Campos, Alagoas, Brazil, has an initial production capacity of 82 million liters of ethanol per year. The 2G ethanol produced by GranBio makes it possible to increase Brazilian production capacity per acre by 50% using agricultural waste such as straw and bagasse, without need of expanding the cane fields. It is the cleanest fuel produced on a commercial scale in the world in carbon intensity - 7.55 gCO2/MJ, an indicator confirmed by the Air Resources Board (ARB), from California. GranBio’s facility uses the PROESA® pre-treatment technology from the Italian company Beta Renewables (a company in the M&G Group), enzymes from Novozymes in Denmark, and yeast from DSM in Holland. GranBio is a Brazilian industrial biotech company, controlled by GranInvestimentos S.A. 09/28/2014
Southwest Airlines Will Purchase Jet Biofuel from Red Rock Biofuels
Texas based Southwest Airlines® Co. has signed an agreement with Colorado company Red Rock Biofuels LLC (RRB) to purchase low carbon renewable jet fuel, made using forest residues. The airline's agreement with RRB covers the purchase of about three million gallons per year. The blended product will be used at Southwest's Bay Area operations with first delivery expected in 2016. RRB's first plant will convert approximately 140,000 dry tons of woody biomass feedstock into at least 12 million gallons per year of renewable jet, diesel, and naphtha fuels. RRB's proven process technology platform is based on gasification, Fischer-Tropsch conversion and product upgrading, producing renewable, ASTM-specification jet and diesel fuels. Southwest is a long-time member of Commercial Aviation Alternative Fuels Initiative (CAAFI) which is a government and industry coalition for the development and deployment of alternative jet fuel for commercial aviation. 09/28/2014
Proterro Will Conduct Waste CO2 to Sucrose Pilot at Bunge's Brazil Facility
New Jersey based Proterro, Inc and Bunge Global Innovation, LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Bunge Limited (Bunge), will conduct a pilot study of Proterro’s sucrose-production technology in Brazil under a joint development agreement. A pilot plant is now being commissioned at Bunge’s Moema Fazenda sugarcane mill, where two of Proterro’s photobioreactors have been installed to cultivate Proterro’s cyanobacteria for production of fermentable sugars for ethanol production. Proterro's technology uses a patented, scalable biosynthetic process to convert waste CO2, sunlight, and water into a fermentation-ready sucrose stream, rather than a mixture of sugars, allowing simple, low-cost downstream processes. The Bunge pilot plant will replicate the operations of Proterro’s US pilot plant in Orlando, Florida, where four photobioreactors are currently deployed. 09/27/2014
USDA Awards Vega Biofuels' JV Pilot Plant a $200,000 Producer Grant
Georgia based Vega Biofuels, Inc has announced that its Allendale, South Carolina Joint Venture (JV) project with Agri-Tech Producers, LLC (ATP) has been awarded a Value-Added Producer Grant from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) in the amount of $200,000. Vega recently announced it has entered into the JV to build and operate a pilot manufacturing plant in Allendale to produce Bio-Coal. When completed, the manufacturing plant will use special torrefaction technology to produce the Company's green-energy Bio-Coal product from timber waste and bio-crops that will then be sold to power companies around the world. An alternative to traditional coal, Bio-Coal has a high energy density of up to 13,000 BTUs/Lb and is considered a renewable energy fuel, which meets the Renewable Portfolio Standards and Renewable Energy Credits (RECs) in the United States. 09/27/2014
Cambi System Will Treat 50 Dry Tonnes/Day of Sludge at Greek WWTP
The Greek construction company Aktor has awarded Cambi a contract for the installation of Cambi’s Thermal Hydrolysis THP B6 system at Psyttalia Island Wastewater Treatment Works in Athens. Serving 5.6 million people, Psyttalia is the largest wastewater treatment plant in Greece and one of the largest in Europe. When operational in 2015, the Cambi system will treat about 50 dry tonnes of biological sludge per day. Ioannis Margiolos, Aktor’s Water Business Unit Director: "The most important reasons for choosing the Cambi process is that it will drastically improve the dewatering efficiency, reduce the energy need for the existing drying plants and increase the gas production from biological sludge. Overall it will result in a strong reduction of energy consumption and reduced disposal costs." 09/25/2014
CEC Schedules Workshops on ARFVTP Grant Solicitation Process
The California Energy Commission (CEC) has scheduled five staff workshops to share information and answer questions about the Alternative and Renewable Fuels and Vehicle Technology Program (ARFVTP) grant funding process. The purpose of these workshops is to reach a broad and diverse set of potential applicants, and to assist them in understanding how to find and apply for ARFVTP grant funding opportunities from the CEC, and to serve as a forum for questions and answers relating to the general ARFVTP grant solicitation process. Participation in one of the workshops is encouraged, but not required for application to any ARFVTP grant solicitations. The workshops are scheduled on October 6, 2014 in Oakland, October 7, 2014 in Los Angeles, October 8, 2014 in San Bernardino, October 13, 2014 in Fresno with Live Video Feeds in Modesto and Bakersfield, and October 14, 2014 in Sacramento, The Sacramento workshop will also be available online via WebEx. 09/25/2014
UK Partners with Metro Vancouver for 'Love Food Hate Waste' Campaign
In her blog, Dr. Liz Goodman, CEO of the United Kingdom's (UK) Waste & Resources Action Programme (WRAP), announced that their organization has secured a partnership with Metro Vancouver, Canada to bring the UK's Love Food Hate Waste campaign to British Columbia. WRAP's food waste minimization effort is based on the voluntary 2005 Courtauld Commitment to reduce waste in the grocery sector, and the agreement is timed to coincide with Metro Vancouver's sustainable waste management efforts, and their Zero Waste Conference that began September 16, 2014. 09/25/2014
Iona Capital Invests in Second MT-Energie Biogas Plant in Scotland
Iona Capital Ltd has completed an investment in a second anaerobic digestion (AD) plant in Scotland. Iona has once again teamed up with MT Energie, the German AD specialist and Scotia Gas Networks (SGN) who will source the network entry equipment and oversee the projects connection to the gas grid. The plant, located at Charlesfield near St Boswells in the Scottish Borders, will process a mixture of farm based feedstocks and inject biomethane directly into the local gas grid. This project follows on from Iona’s first Scottish project at Coupar Angus, Perth, which is expected to start its commissioning process shortly. The Charlesfield, St Boswells plant is Iona’s eleventh AD project in the United Kingdom (UK) and its second gas to grid facility. The plant is expected to be operational by the end of Q2 2015 and will produce over 3m m3 of biomethane per annum which will be injected directly into the local gas grid. The project was initiated and developed by Iain MacKinnon and Trevor Jackson of Charlesfield First LLP.Biogas Power will be responsible for the day to day operation of the plant. Waverley Farm Contracts Limited sources local feedstock supplies on a long term basis for the plant. 09/25/2014
New York Initiative Calls for BCA for Distributed Energy Resources
In its proceeding on Reforming the Energy Vision, the New York State Public Service Commission has undertaken an initiative to improve the efficiency of the New York electricity system through the promotion of distributed energy resources (DER). This initiative calls for a new, comprehensive benefit-cost analysis (BCA) framework that will provide the Commission and other stakeholders with the information necessary to determine which resources will be in the public interest and will best meet the Commission’s energy policy goals. As part of the initiative, the Advanced Energy Economy (AEE) Institute commissioned a study by Synapse Energy Economics that lays out the BCA framework describing the universe of benefits and costs that should be taken into account and how they can be incorporated, even if they may be hard to quantify. The full report is now available with on-line registration. 09/25/2014
MagneGas Enters Final Test Phase with New York City's Fire Department
Florida based MagneGas Corporation (MagneGas) has announced that it has received formal confirmation from the Fire Department of the City of New York (FDNY) that it has commenced final testing of MagneGas® for use as a replacement to acetylene. MagneGas has identified fire departments and first responder units as ideal customers for the use of its gas due to the speed of the MagneGas® cut and concentration of the heat affected zone. The reduced heat affected zone as compared to acetylene means the potential for less impact on human life in the vicinity of a cut during extractions. Terry Vernille, Senior Vice President Sales & Distributor Relations for MagneGas: "The FDNY has been conducting testing using MagneGas® for over one year, studying both the safety of the fuel as well as the potential impact on human life during extractions. In addition, the Company has been working with FDNY to design backpacks that can be used with MagneGas® during a fire. The cylinders are lighter than acetylene, making them easier to carry and the fuel dissipates in the event of a leak. This makes MagneGas safer to use in fire zone areas." 09/24/2014
Gaelectric Group Acquires Imperative Energy to Enter Biomass Market
Ireland based Gaelectric Group has announced that it has acquired Imperative Energy Ltd., a leading provider of biomass energy solutions in Ireland and the United Kingdom. Founded in 2007, Imperative Energy Ltd has completed over 70 biomass installations totaling over 40MW in energy capacity, with an additional 10 projects currently under construction. With the Imperative Energy acquisition, Gaelectric Group now has an established presence in four key renewable energy sectors, namely onshore wind on the island of Ireland and the USA, offshore wind in the Irish Sea, energy storage, and biomass energy. Gaelectric Group CEO, Brendan McGrath: "We are delighted to enter the biomass business with the acquisition of Imperative Energy, one of the leading providers of biomass energy solutions in Ireland and the UK. We view this as an important strategic step for Gaelectric that provides us with diversification across renewable energy sectors and access to significant growth opportunities in a biomass market that is continuing to evolve." 09/24/2014
Biogen Becomes First Producer of Certified Biofertilizer in Wales
Biogen’s GwyriAD food waste anaerobic digestion (AD) plant near Caernarfon has become the first in Wales to achieve the Publicly Available Specification PAS 110 status for its biofertilizer. The 11,500 tonne anaerobic digestion (AD) plant at Llwyn Isaf completed commissioning in 2013 and processes food waste from homes and commercial food producers to generate a valuable liquid fertilizer (digestate) and enough renewable electricity each year to power more than 700 homes. Biofertilizer certification demonstrates compliance with the PAS 110 specification, which means that the biofertilizer derived from the AD process is of consistent quality and fit for its purpose, i.e. for spreading to farmland as a replacement for fossil fuel derived fertilizers. Of the 50 food waste AD plants currently operating in the UK, only 18 of these have achieved PAS 110 so far. Julian O’Neill, CEO Biogen: "We are delighted that GwryiAD has become our third AD plant to achieve PAS 110. The fact that the biofertiliser produced by our plants can now be defined as a product rather than a waste can only help boost confidence in our AD process with our partners in the farming community." 09/24/2014
CARB Hosts 2nd 2014 Low Carbon Fuel Standard Advisory Panel Meeting
The California Air Resources Board (CARB) has scheduled the second 2014 meeting of the Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS) Advisory Panel for October 6, 2014 from 9:00 am to 4:00 pm at the Cal/EPA Building in Sacramento. The CARB approved the LCFS regulation on April 23, 2009, and it became law on January 12, 2010. Title 17, California Code of Regulations, section 95489 requires that the Executive Officer of the CARB complete and present to the Board two reviews of the LCFS regulation. The regulation requires the Executive Officer to establish an advisory panel for these reviews. The first meeting of the Advisory Panel was held on May 19, 2014. At this second meeting, CARB staff will review the Bagley-Keene Open Meeting Act, cover the purpose of the panel, and conduct a Panel discussion. The public may attend the meeting in person, or via webcast or teleconference. 09/23/2014
The Biochar School Announces Its Inaugural Session in California
The Biochar School has announced that registration is open for its first session on "Appropriate Technology for Small Farms." The session will be held at Swallow Valley Farm in Valley Ford, California on November 7-11, 2014. The course is designed for small farmers; home, community, commercial gardeners; and anyone interested in soils, plants and small scale biomass energy. The faculty consists of 12 experienced biochar practitioners who will present a series of lectures and demonstrations. Labs will be offered on Saturday, Sunday and Monday. You may sign up for the whole school (3 full and two half days) or just sign up for the days you are most interested in. Sign up by October 15th to receive the early bird full rate. Space is limited to 50 persons. 09/23/2014
Bion Files Patent for Next-Gen Livestock Waste Treatment Technologies
New York based Bion Environmental Technologies, Inc has announced that it has filed a new patent application for its next-generation livestock waste treatment technologies. This technology platform incorporates advancements that will reduce capital costs while increasing system performance for wet livestock waste applications such as dairy and beef cattle. Bion’s next-generation technology platform has been under development for the past two years at the Kreider Farms dairy installation, as well as other offsite locations. The patent application is based on Bion’s "Separate and Aggregate" strategy that was previously announced in August 2012. Bion’s proprietary onsite data-based software that was central in securing verified credit regulatory status at the initial Kreider Farms installation, provided the insight that has driven this technology development program. Final pilot testing will be completed this fall/winter prior to a full-scale installation. 09/22/2014
IEA Bioenergy Task 42 Releases Global Biorefinery Status Review
The International Energy Agency (IEA) Bioenergy Task 42 on Biorefining team has released a review of the global status of biorefinery development completed earlier this month. The report provides detail on 30 operating biorefinery examples from participating countries and provides a summary of more than 100 other efforts on the sustainable and synergetic processing of biomass into marketable food & feed ingredients, chemicals, materials and energy (fuels, power, heat). The report's release is time to coincide with the 2014 European Forum for Industrial Biotechnology and the Biobased Economy (EFIB 2014), taking place in Reims, France from September 30 to October 2, 2014. IEA Bioenergy is an international collaboration set up in 1978 by the IEA to improve international co-operation and information exchange between national bioenergy RD&D programs. 09/22/2014
Community Support Aids 2014 Restoration Efforts in Kaibab National Forest
The Kaibab National Forest has had a successful summer managing wildland fires, thanks to the commitment of its employees to the important work of forest restoration and to the ongoing support from the communities of northern Arizona. At the heart of the public/private Forest Landscape Restoration Collaboration process (FLRC) is the linkage between newly-approved federal plans enhancing carefully managed wildfires, community scale biomass removal, conversion to energy and fuels, and the close mutual cooperation of a community-to-agency, public private partnership. Following on one of the worst wildfires in this southwestern US region's history, the Kaibab's supervisor Mike Williams has released a short editorial praising the constant community support that enabled significant restoration to proceed. It is important to recognize that our millions of acres of overgrown forest lands cannot be properly managed by past methods, nor by a single new method such as residuals removal for bioenergy, but must engage and integrate all resources including community support. Mr. Williams' op-ed piece should serve as a wake-up call for the rest of our forest lands management, and especially in the western region as one after another raging firestorm consumes everything in its path. 09/21/2014
DoD Authorizes Defense Act Awards for Production of 100 MGY of Biofuels
The US Department of Defense (DoD) has completed the award process for three new contracts under the Defense Production Act Title III for the production of over 100 million gallons per year (MGY) of drop-in, military compatible biofuels. Initial production is scheduled to begin in 2016. Contracts for development and production of waste and biomass to drop-in fuels were authorized for: (1) Fulcrum Bioenergy's Sierra Biofuels plant under development in Storey County, Nevada for conversion of municipal solid waste using modifications of the thermal technology licensed from InEnTec, (2) Emerald Biofuels LLC, toward their Emerald One advanced conversion of fats, oils, and grease (FOG) using the Eni Ecofining biodiesel production technology licensed from Honeywell, and (3) Red Rock Biofuels (IR1 Group) gasification of woody biomass to syngas, catalytic conversion to raw liquid fuels, and hydroprocess refining to drop-in fuels. Under the contracts the biofuels will have a weighted average price of less than $3.50/gallon and at least 50% lower lifecycle greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions than that of conventional fuel. The new contract significantly strengthens the $105 million loan guarantee from the USDA to Fulcrum announced earlier this month. Completion of the award process was announced at the White House by Secretary Mabus, Secretary Vilsack, and Deputy Secretary Poneman on September 19, 2014. 09/21/2014
ReEnergy Celebrates Restart of Ashland Maine 39 MWe Bioenergy Plant
ReEnergy Holdings LLC will be celebrating the restart of its Ashland, Maine, 39 megawatt biomass to electricity plant on for October 2, 2014 between 10 am and 2 pm, which has stood idle since March of 2011. The Ashland facility generates renewable energy from responsibly harvested forest residue biomass and is rated to produce up to 284,000 MWh of electricity each year. The public restart event is also intended as an early celebration of National Bioenergy Day, which will take place October 22nd. As part of this second-annual National Bioenergy Day, companies engaged in biomass management, forestry products, and wood fuel pellet production are joining trade associations, schools, and universities across the country and in Canada to hold events celebrating nature's energy source and raising awareness about the benefits of bioenergy. To attend the restart event, register online, or RSVP to Andrea Hadfield at (207) 473-7592 or <>. 09/19/2014
FCC Environment Will Convert Wigan Council's Residual Waste to RDF
United Kingdom based FCC Environment has signed a 25 year residual waste contract with Wigan Council to divert an estimated 90% of the borough’s non-recyclable waste from landfill. From April 1, 2015, FCC Environment will process around 80,000 tonnes of post-recycling residual waste a year The waste will be converted to an engineered refuse derived fuel (RDF) to generate energy in UK's waste to energy facilities. It is estimated that this will save Wigan Council approximately £1 million each year. FCC Environment will continue to manage the council’s Kirkless transfer station in Ince and three household waste recycling centers (HWRCs) in Atherton, Ince, and Leigh. The layout and infrastructure of the HWRCs will be redeveloped to increase the range of materials which can be recycled. The transfer station in Kirkless will be improved to maximize recycling as well as for the production of RDF. The RDF production is part of the Wigan Council's 2009 to 2030 Waste Management Strategy. 09/18/2014
Canada’s Clean50 Names This Year's Sustainability Champions
For the fourth year, Canada’s Clean50 organization has selected 50 outstanding leaders across 16 categories of Sustainability, 10 "Emerging Leaders" from across Canada ranging in age from 15 to their early 30s, and 15 innovative projects. The projects have been undertaken by organizations in the past two years that have the ability to inform, and the power to inspire Canadians and help them understand that sustainability does not equal more expense. Among the awardees in the Clean Technology category are dPoint Technologies, whose membrane technology developed for hydrogen fuel cells, is now being applied to energy recovery in buildings to recapture over 50% of the energy lost from ventilation, and Eco-Tec, advancing its ion exchange platform capable of recovering solid, liquid, and gaseous commodity materials from waste streams. In the Primary Resources Category are the chemical recovery firm Fielding Chemical Technologies, the materials recovery facility (MRF) Canada Fibers, and used battery materials recovery team at Raw Materials Company, all focused on recovery and return to the marketplace of foundation materials from waste. Everyone’s favorite this year however has to be 20-year old Adam Noble, whose start-up Noble Purification has developed filtration processes for converting algae blooms into feedstock for biofuels, while purifying wastewater and recovering silver nanoparticles, the underlying cause of the algal bloom, to be “repurposed” as a treatment for a childhood form of leukemia. 09/18/2014
New Generation Power Announces 34.5 Megawatt Biomass Project in Japan
Chicago-based New Generation Power International (NGPI) and Japanese company Nippon Energy Solution, Inc (NES) will develop three 11.5 Megawatt (MW) wood biomass plants in Japan. Together, the companies will launch a new wood-based biomass energy generation venture that will construct three separate facilities located in the Japanese regions of Miyazaki and Kagoshima. Expected to break ground around April 2015, the project will be capable of generating 248 GWh of electricity annually, the equivalent of powering 44,000 households and cost an estimated $169.67 million USD. The three biomass plants will use 15,000 tons of woodchips per month through long-term supply contracts with domestic contractors that will supply roughly 50 percent of the materials. In addition, roughly 10,000 tons of palm kernel shells (PKS) will be imported each month from the overseas market. The 34.5 MW wood biomass project is scheduled to be commissioned by the fourth quarter of 2016. 09/17/2014
DONG Energy and Horsens Bioenergie Inaugurate New Danish Biogas Plant
The mayor of Horsens, Denmark cut the ribbon at the inauguration ceremony for a new biogas plant on September 10, 2014, following four years of work and dialog with local and national authorities and the community. Horsens Bioenergi owns the biogas plant and DONG Energy owns the upgrading plant that prepares the produced biogas for sale and distribution to the customers. The plant will process approximately seven million cubic metres of bio methane annually, corresponding to the consumption of more than 4,000 natural gas-fired homes. Horsens Bioenergi purchases biomass from Danish Crown's large slaughterhouse in Horsens, Denmark. In this way, local resources will be used instead of transporting the waste for treatment much further away. Klaus D. Johansen, CEO of Horsens Bioenergi: "It's been four years since we initiated the work on this environmentally sound biogas plant. Now, the plant is a reality and the location is perfect. We've got a lot of farming and plenty of food industry in the neighborhood, and we're close to the Danish natural gas grid." 09/17/2014
ElectraTherm Green Machines Generate Power from Waste Heat in Oregon
Nevada based ElectraTherm, Inc has commissioned its second Green Machine 4400 at an integrated wood products mill in Wallowa, Oregon. Together, the two machines operate off the waste heat of a biomass boiler to generate emission-free electricity. Integrated Biomass Resources (IBR) processes small-diameter timber into various wood products, such as firewood and fence posts at its Wallowa mill. The site uses residuals from its wood products to fuel a Uniconfort dual stage gasification boiler, creating hot water for process heat used for drying. The excess heat in the form of hot water is used to fuel the two Green Machines for onsite power generation. Since the commissioning of the second machine in July, both Green Machines now operate in tandem with the biomass boiler. The boiler sends hot water to the Green Machines at 205°F, which generates a combined output of more than 65 kWe net for the site. 09/17/2014
US DOE Expands Initiative to Increase Clean Energy Manufacturing
The US Department of Energy (DOE) has announced expansions of its Clean Energy Manufacturing Initiative in support of the American manufacturing sector and a new initiative to support the administration’s goal of doubling energy productivity by 2030. By advancing the development of innovative manufacturing technologies, investing in substantial energy efficiency upgrades at production plants across the country, and training American workers for the advanced manufacturing jobs of tomorrow, the Department of Energy is helping make America’s manufacturing sector even stronger in an intensely competitive global market. Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz announced the partnership at the Energy Department’s 2014 American Energy and Manufacturing Competitiveness Summit, jointly sponsored by the Council on Competitiveness. 09/17/2014
Pacific Ethanol Contracts to Sell CO2 From Its Columbia Plant in Boardman
California based Pacific Ethanol Inc has announced its agreement with Kodiak Carbonic, LLC to sell CO2 from the Pacific Ethanol Columbia plant located in Boardman, Oregon. Kodiak plans to construct a liquefaction and dry ice processing plant adjacent to the Columbia facility and expects to purchase up to 200 tons of CO2 per day to sell to food processing and beverage producers. Neil Koehler, the company's president and CEO: "The opportunity to utilize the CO2 from our ethanol production process as another co-product for sale further diversifies our revenues and improves Pacific Ethanol's profitability. We anticipate the new CO2 processing plant in Boardman to begin operations in early 2015 and to contribute approximately one to two cents per gallon in operating income." 09/16/2014
2G CENERGY Supplies Biogas CHP System to Yuengling Brewery
Florida based 2G CENERGY Power Systems Technologies Inc has installed a Biogas Combined Heat and Power (CHP) Energy Conversion System at Yuengling®, the Nation's oldest brewery. The plant will provide about 20% of Yuengling®'s total electricity needs at the brewery, and the heat generated by the plant will be used to heat the brewery's pasteurization process. The methane gas is generated at an anaerobic digester at the brewery's wastewater treatment plant. 2G CENERGY® supplied the gas treatment system to dehumidify the saturated gas, and to remove H2S contained in the raw biogas. The CHP system has been designed as dual fuel module and can be operated on low BTU biogas, as well as pipeline quality natural gas. 09/16/2014
ESA Launching First Biowaste Strategy - Circular Organics
The United Kingdom (UK) based Environmental Services Association (ESA), the voice of the UK’s waste and resource management industry, is launching its first biowaste strategy, ‘Circular Organics: Biowaste in a Circular Economy’, at this year’s RWM Show. The main purposes of the strategy are to address the key challenges faced by the biowaste treatment sector, set out the ESA’s vision for the way forward, and offer a set of concrete actions that the ESA believes will move the sector closer to a Circular Economy. Among the recommendations: develop and adopt one Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) toolset, develop a Code of Practice for monitoring contaminants, and create a cross-sector working group to establish a coherent regulatory approach. The ESA is "working to transform waste and resource management in the UK, to turn Britain’s waste into valuable resources whilst protecting the environment." 09/15/2014
Mtech Awards $2.3MM to 18 Research Partnerships to Commercialize Tech
The Maryland Industrial Partnerships (MIPS) program, an initiative of the Maryland Technology Enterprise Institute (Mtech) at the University of Maryland (UM), has awarded $2.3 million to 18 project teams comprised of University and private company researchers, primarily start-up companies. Companies contributed $2.4 million in matching funds; the Maryland Department of Natural Resources and the US Environmental Protection Agency also provided additional funding. Five projects worth $1.9 million are investigating various processes for converting poultry manure to energy, including anaerobic digestion, gasification, and combustion and washing, while keeping nitrogen and phosphorous in poultry litter from polluting Chesapeake Bay. Each would potentially produce electricity and heat, while some create additional salable byproducts, such as fertilizer, soil amendments or algae feedstock. Assistant Professor Stephanie Lansing, UM's College Park campus, received funding for two proposals, the first with Columbia-based The Crimson Group LLC to develop a system that gasifies poultry litter waste into energy, and the second with Berlin-based Planet Found Energy Development LLC to develop a poultry manure-to-energy system that combines anaerobic digestion and a nutrient capture system to produce renewable energy and recover nitrogen from the poultry litter in the form of salable fertilizer. From the University of Maryland Eastern Shore faculty, associate professor Jennifer Timmons will team with Salisbury-based AHPharma Energy Systems Inc. to develop a manure-to-energy, closed-loop geothermal heating system for poultry houses. This is the 54th round of MIPS grants. The program has supported research projects with more than 500 different Maryland companies since 1987. 09/15/2014
Celtic Renewables Wins Motor Industry Award for Whisky Draff to BioButanol
Scottish company Celtic Renewables Ltd has been recognized by the motor industry, winning a top honor at the Low Carbon Vehicle Partnership's (LowCVP) annual Low Carbon Champions awards. The company won the LowCVP’s award for Low Carbon Innovation by an SME at a gala dinner in Milton Keynes. The award is the first from the motor industry to recognize Celtic Renewables contribution to the effort to lower carbon emissions in the global motor industry. It is one of only 14 awards accredited by the Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA), which qualifies Celtic Renewables for the prestigious EU bi-annual European Business Awards for the Environment. Announcing the award the judges commented: "Celtic Renewables’ practice of turning industrial waste into biofuel, solvents and animal feed is an excellent example of an environmentally and commercially sustainable business model. They have taken known technology and adapted it to current market conditions, attracting the investment and partners required to scale up to industrial production." Celtic Renewables has already proved the concept of producing biobutanol from draff – the sugar rich kernels of barley which are soaked in water to facilitate the fermentation process necessary for whisky production – and pot ale, the yeasty liquid that is heated during distillation. The company is currently working with Tullibardine distillery to commercialize the process. 09/15/2014
Atikokan Coal Generating Station in Ontario Now Operating on Biomass
Ontario Power Generation (OPG) has announced that its Atikokan Generating Station (GS) is operating on biomass instead of coal, and is now the largest power plant in North America fuelled by 100 per cent biomass. Tom Mitchell, OPG President and CEO: "The biomass conversion and solutions developed for the Atikokan GS are cutting edge and OPG is at the forefront of this innovative technology. The project is the first of its kind in Ontario and will bring economic benefits to northwestern Ontario for years to come.” OPG entered into an agreement in 2012 to convert the existing coal-fired facility to biomass. The project was a key element of the McGuinty Government's plan to eliminate coal-fired plants by this year. 09/13/2014
NFR BioEnergy Plans $312MM Bagasse to Pellet Project In South Louisiana
Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal and Frank Randazzo, Chief Operating Officer of NFR BioEnergy, LLC have announced the company plans to make a $312 million capital investment to install biorefineries at more than 10 sugar refining hubs in south Louisiana, subject to completing lease and biomass agreements with sugar mills. NFR BioEnergy will convert sugar cane waste, known as bagasse, into hardened energy pellets for use as fuel at global power plants. NFR BioEnergy has begun development of the first biorefinery in White Castle, Louisiana, where it is co-locating the facility with the Cora Texas Sugar Mill. Pending the sugar mill agreements, NFR BioEnergy will construct a series of biorefineries across South Louisiana’s sugar cane-growing region and create 450 new direct jobs. Louisiana Economic Development estimates the project will result in an additional 1,903 new indirect jobs, for a total of more than 2,300 new jobs in the state. The conversion of sugar cane biomass into energy pellets through a torrefaction process has been aided by research at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette’s Energy Institute (LED). LED began working with NFR BioEnergy on the potential project in March 2013. To secure the project, the State of Louisiana offered the company a competitive incentive package that includes a performance-based, $500,000 Economic Development Award Program grant. 09/13/2014
Biodiesel Initiative for City Vehicles Makes Sense for Honolulu
According to Oregon-based Pacific Biodiesel, the Honolulu City Council adopted a Resolution 14-169 on September 10, 2014 requesting the Department of Transportation through its public-private partnership with Oahu Transit Services, Inc Services develop a City Biodiesel Initiative for the city's mass transit diesel vehicles. The Initiative will require a minimum use of B5 Biodiesel (5% Biodiesel with 95% Petroleum Diesel) with a goal of steadily increasing the blend to B20 Biodiesel by 2018. Introduced by Stanley Chang, Chair of the Committee on Public Works and Sustainability, the resolution passed through committee late last month for the full Council’s consideration. Pacific Biodiesel, one of the only commercial biofuels producers in the State of Hawaii, notes that since 2004, the City has successfully integrated B20 biodiesel in a large segment of its municipal fleet, including waste collection trucks. In 2012, the city completed a pilot project with 20 of its fixed route buses. The adoption of resolution 14-169 will allow the Department of Transportation and the City to look to further the use of biodiesel in TheBus and TheHandi-Van fleets comprised of more than 650 vehicles. 09/12/2014
UK Cuts Red Tape for Use of Agricultural Residue in Anaerobic Digesters
The United Kingdom (UK) Environment Agency has released a Briefing note clarifying that anaerobic digestion (AD) facilities accepting only agricultural residue do not need an environmental permit. AD plants that do take materials classified as "wastes" will continue to be required to obtain and keep current their waste management permits. The agency states that for many types of feedstock, the question of whether or not they are wastes is very straightforward. For some types of feedstocks, for example crop residues, it is not. The clarification separates "production residues" not classified as waste from pre- and post-consumer food waste digestion, which does need a permit. Examples of crop residues would include misshapen, bruised or undersized fruit and vegetables separated out on the farm or in a pack-house, as being unsuitable for sale as food for consumption, and parts of fruit and vegetables such as leaves, roots and toppings that are removed as part of the processing for sale in a pack-house or at a farm. Food wastes includes surplus or reject fruit and vegetables from supermarkets, and food leftovers or scraps from restaurants or households. The Renewable Energy Association (REA) has noted that previously, the addition of even a small quantity of these by-products into the AD process would require operators to apply for expensive permits and implement the same waste handling controls as a commercial food waste AD plant. The change to the regulations follows sustained campaigning from the REA on this issue, including a letter to Environment Secretary Owen Paterson in June of this year. 09/12/2014
Liquid Light Raises $15MM to Advance CO2 Conversion to Chemicals
New Jersey based Liquid Light, Inc has announced that it has closed a $15 million Series B financing. New investors include Sustainable Conversion Ventures, which focuses on renewable fuels and chemicals investments. Existing investors VantagePoint Capital Partners, BP Ventures, Chrysalix Energy Venture Capital, and Osage University Partners also participated in this round. Liquid Light develops and licenses process technology to make major chemicals from low-cost, globally-abundant carbon dioxide (CO2). The new financing will be used to complete process development at pilot scale, providing the information needed for further scale up to a tons-per-day plant. The scale-up work is also aimed at validating the quality of the chemicals produced by the process, to confirm their suitability for use in key applications such as the PET used to make plastic soda bottles. 09/11/2014
AVA-CO2 Achieves Breakthrough in Phosphorus Recovery
Switzerland based AVA-CO2 Schweiz AG has announced development of the "AVA cleanphos" process to recover phosphorus directly from the char resulting from hydrothermal carbonization (HTC) of sewage sludge. This method allows for a phosphorus yield of over 80%, with less use of acid, reduced energy costs, and lower investment costs. In addition, the "AVA cleanphos" solution enables the production of phosphoric acid that is free from heavy metals and without an additional cleaning stage. The "AVA cleanphos" process is a simple, three-stage method that uses tested and well-known technologies such as acid leaching, nanofiltration, and concentration. HTC char is fundamentally different from the slag produced by sewage sludge incinerators. An energy-intensive grinding system does not have to be used for preconditioning, since HTC char is not slag with corresponding vitrification. A simple grinding system, not unlike a kitchen mixer, is sufficient, which leads to considerable energy savings. 09/11/2014
Energos to Install Gasification System for Derby Waste Conversion Plant
United Kingdom company Energos has secured a £65m contract to supply gasification systems for the £145 million integrated waste management centre in Derby. The contract was awarded by Interserve Construction Ltd following acquisition of construction funding by Resource Recovery Solutions (Derbyshire) Ltd (RRS), a joint venture between Shanks Group plc and Interserve Group plc. The integrated mechanical biological treatment plant's gasification waste conversion platform is intended to process up to 140,000 tonnes of refuse derived fuel (RDF), produced by RRS from municipal residual, non hazardous waste to generate 11.05 MWe of green electricity, sufficient to power 14,000 homes. The entire facility is expected to divert up to 98% of residents’ residual waste from landfill and is scheduled to be completed by April 2017. 09/11/2014
Neste Oil Will Build Biopropane Plant at Rotterdam Refinery
Finland based Neste Oil has announced that it will build a EUR 60 million biopropane plant at its Rotterdam refinery, with sales of biopropane scheduled to begin by the end of 2016. The new plant will purify and separate biopropane from the sidestream gases produced by the refinery. The process will increase the added value of this sidestream significantly, as the gas in question has been sold as fuel for power plant use up until now. When the new unit is complete, biopropane production is expected to total 30,000-40,000 t/a. Biopropane has a comparable set of properties to fossil propane and is suitable for use in existing liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) applications. 09/11/2014
Eco Waste Solutions Named Defense Energy Technology Challenge Finalist
Ontario, Canada based Eco Waste Solutions (EWS), a manufacturer of thermal waste conversion and energy recovery technologies, has announced that it was selected as a finalist in the 5th bi-annual Defense Energy Technology Challenge (DETC). The Clean Technology and Sustainable Industries Organization (CTSI) selected the top 14 technologies from over 200 entries for presentation at the Summit in Hawaii. Each submission was reviewed in several areas including solution fit, strengths of technology, challenges of implementation/adoption, positioning guidance, and strength of potential collaboration opportunities. Challenge awardees will present their energy technologies to a high-level panel of military and defense energy leadership during the Pacific Defense Energy Summit on September 15-17 in Honolulu, Hawaii. Energy security and independence are critical to America's national security and are two goals at the heart of the US Military's investment in clean energy technologies. 09/10/2014
EESI Hosts Briefing to Update Carbon Accounting and Vehicle Fuel Research
The Washington DC based Environmental and Energy Study Institute (EESI) has announced a panel briefing examining recent research regarding the carbon dioxide (CO2) intensity of transportation fuels, such as crude oil and ethanol. The panel will also consider the economic costs and benefits of renewable fuels as a CO2 reduction strategy. There is a growing body of research concerning the carbon intensity of both petroleum-derived and renewable fuels. Carbon intensity refers to the amount of greenhouse gases (including CO2, nitrous oxide, and methane) that are released per unit of fuel. “Wells to wheels” assessments are calculated by adding the emissions at each production step. For biofuels, this includes emissions and/or carbon sequestration as well as impacts to land use associated with growing biofuel feedstocks. The speakers include Michael Wang, Senior Scientist, Energy Systems, Argonne National Laboratory; Steffen Mueller, Principal Economist, Energy Resources Center, University of Illinois at Chicago; and Dean Drake, President, Defour Group, LLC. The briefing is free to the public and may be attended in person on September 18, 2014 at 3:00pm EST or via live webcast. 09/10/2014
Council Approves Peel Environmental's North Yorkshire Energy Centre
United Kingdom (UK) based Peel Environmental, a division of The Peel Group, has announced that the North Yorkshire County Council’s Planning and Regulatory Functions Committee has granted approval of Peel's £200 million Energy Centre to be located at Kellingley Colliery. The proposed facility will make use of existing industrial land at the colliery, near Beal, and will use residual waste to generate both low carbon electricity and heat which could be supplied directly to nearby users. The facility will generate up to 26MW of low carbon electricity by operating an efficient Combined Heat and Power (CHP) system using commercial, industrial and possibly household waste to produce energy. The facility will save around 95,000 tonnes of CO2 each year, compared with sending the waste to landfill. The consent is another landmark in Peel Environmental’s roll out of energy recovery centres across the UK. It comes in the same week that Tamar Energy received consent for an Anaerobic Digestion facility at Peel’s Wardley site as part of a five site deal with the company. 09/10/2014
Marks & Spencer to Buy Biomethane Certificates to Reduce Carbon Footprint
London based Marks & Spencer (M&S) has agreed to purchase 35,000 Mega-Watt hours of biomethane certificates from Future Biogas, a move which will reduce its carbon footprint by over 6,400 tonnes and source the equivalent amount of energy to heat 15 M&S Simply Food stores all year round. The biomethane gas will be produced at the Vulcan Renewables anaerobic digestion (AD) plant near Doncaster using break crops (non-commercial crops used for soil regeneration) from farms across Yorkshire and the North East. The gas is then pumped into the national grid. M&S’ agreement with Future Biogas funds the production and M&S benefits from the carbon reduction through the certification scheme. It also provides significant revenues for farmers, giving break crops a commercial route to market not previously available. 09/09/2014
Braskem Joins Amyris and Michelin for Renewable Isoprene Development
Amyris, Braskem, and Michelin have jointly announced that Braskem is joining a collaboration already launched in 2011 between Michelin and Amyris. This collaboration was initiated to develop and commercialize renewable isoprene, sourced from various biomass as an additional sustainable pathway to produce isoprene. Under the terms of this agreement, Braskem, Michelin, and Amyris will work together to develop a technology to utilize plant sugars, such as those found in Brazilian sugarcane or cellulosic feedstocks, to produce renewable isoprene. Adding the expertise of Brazilian company Braskem, the largest petrochemical company in the Americas and global leader in the production of biopolymers, will accelerate the industrialization of renewable isoprene. Braskem entered in a similar agreement last fall with Genomatica for the development of bio-based butadiene. 09/09/2014
New AERTOs Project Focuses on Lignin and Algae Processes for Biorefineries
VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland (VTT) has announced that Associated European Research and Technology Organisations (AERTOs) has begun a 2-year research project to stimulate the development of the bio-based economy in Europe and overcome technical hurdles in the innovation value chains. The focus areas of the new project are development of lignocellulosic biomass processes for modern biorefineries and the extraction of algae. The goal is to create new, valuable lignin products and cheap technical sugars for the production of bio-based chemicals. The AERTOs Bio-based Economy (BBE) project will combine different technologies available from the following partners: VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, Tecnalia, Fraunhofer, Sintef, CEA, TNO and SP. The R&D work in the programme will be funded by the partners with a total budget of EUR 2.6 million. The programme is being coordinated by Research Professor Kristiina Kruus from VTT: "The project gives us a great possibility for close research collaboration in the very topical area of bioeconomy. We are very excited about it." 09/09/2014
UK Acknowledges Aluminum Packaging Recovery Protocol
The Aluminum Packaging Recycling Organisation (Alupro) has announced that the United Kingdom (UK) has acknowledged a new protocol addressing recovery of aluminum from incinerator bottom ash (IBA). Developed by the Alupro in collaboration with the UK's Environment Agency, the protocol will allow governmental Packaging Recycling Note credits (PRNs) to be issued for aluminum recovered from IBA and returned back into the marketplace. Alupro has shown that at least 50% of the metals recoverable from IBA are aluminum, indicating that as much as 10,000 tonnes per year could be counted toward government's targets for recovery of materials from aluminum packaging. The development of the protocol is part of Alupro’s strategy to try to ensure that all of the aluminum packaging collected for recycling is counted to arrive at the “true” recycling rate. Alupro represents the leading aluminum packaging producers and reprocessors in the UK. 09/06/2014
USDA Loan Guarantee Closes for Fulcrum Facility to Turn Waste to Jet Fuel
US Department of Agriculture (USDA) Secretary Tom Vilsack announced that the USDA has closed on a loan guarantee to Fulcrum Sierra Biofuels, LLC to build a biorefinery to produce jet fuel from municipal solid waste. USDA is awarding Fulcrum a $105 million Biorefinery Assistance Program loan guarantee through Bank of America, N.A. to construct a facility in McCarran, Nevada, to convert municipal solid waste to jet fuel. The USDA committed to the conditional loan guarantee in August 2012. USDA Rural Development's loan guarantee represents less than half of the $266 million project cost. Fulcrum secured commitments for $175 million in December 2012 toward financing the plant construction and to fund further commercialization of its advanced gasification technology. The plant is expected to produce 11 million gallons of fuel annually. Fulcrum will produce synthesis gas (syngas) from 147,000 tons of municipal solid waste and catalytically convert it to synthetic paraffinic kerosene/jet fuel through a proprietary technology. The plant will be the first of what the company expects to be several bio jet fuel plants throughout the country. 09/06/2014
Oberon DME Receives EPA's 1st Biogas-Based Fuel Approval Under the RPS
California based Oberon Fuels Inc (Oberon) has announced that the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has approved its biogas-based dimethyl ether (DME) fuel for inclusion under the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS). Oberon's biogas-based DME is now eligible for high value D-Code 3 (cellulosic) and D-Code 5 (advanced) renewable identification numbers ("RINs") under the RFS. The EPA determined that biogas-based DME produced from the Oberon process resulted in an approximate 68% reduction in greenhouse gases when compared to baseline diesel fuel. Oberon's co-founder and COO Elliot Hicks: "One of the exciting attributes of DME is that, at its core, DME is a simple fuel. It requires a simple diesel engine and has simple propane-like handling properties." Oberon uses its proprietary small-scale process to make DME, a clean-burning diesel alternative, and methanol from methane and carbon dioxide. In 2013, Oberon Fuels' pilot plant in Brawley, California produced the first fuel-grade DME in North America, which is currently being used by Volvo Trucks. 09/06/2014
MagneGas to Demo Manure Sterilization System for Major Indiana Hog Farm
MagneGas® Corporation (MagneGas) has announced signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with a large hog farm in Indiana for a 30 day demonstration of the MagneGas sterilization system. The hog farm plans to offer a safer sterilized pig manure to the surrounding agricultural community by using the MagneGas system while co-firing MagneGas® with propane or natural gas to reduce energy costs. The MOU provides that following a successful demonstration, the hog farm will buy a MagneGas sterilization system and will become an exclusive distributor for MagneGas products in the agricultural industry for Indiana, Michigan and Ohio. The hog farm will also be available as the MagneGas demonstration center for the agricultural sector. Established in 1996, the hog farm is on the leading edge of the pig industry with procedures in place to control disease and contamination, resulting in a product of higher quality. Raising over 40,000 pigs per year, this farm has a minimum of 18,000 pigs on hand at any given time making it one of the largest in the tri-state region with future expansion planned. 09/05/2014
Vega Biofuels' Pilot Torrefaction Plant to Use Dual Use Biomass Feedstock
Georgia based Vega Biofuels, Inc has announced that its Joint Venture (JV) partner, Agri-Tech Producers, LLC (ATP), has developed a new, patent-pending process that dramatically reduces the cost of some of the biomass feedstock for Vega's pilot torrefaction plant. Vega recently entered into the Joint Venture to build and operate a pilot manufacturing plant in Allendale, South Carolina to produce Bio-Coal, among other torrefied products. As a way to dramatically reduce biomass feedstock costs, ATP has developed a new, patent-pending, combined Site Remediation Biomass and Bio-Coal Production (SRBBP) Process, which uses the phytoremediation powers of the roots of certain fast-growing trees and bio-crops that have been planted to clean contaminated sites. Then, using a partner company's patented leaching process to remove the toxins and other problematic substances from the biomass; the biomass is torrefied to make Bio-Coal and other bio-products. Michael K. Molen, Chairman/CEO of Vega Biofuels: "Through ATP's SRBBP Process, we will be planting certain trees and bio-crops and using them twice, effectively cutting their cost in half for both the remediation and the torrefaction processes. I congratulate ATP for its creativity, as this will certainly have a positive impact on our sales and bottom line." When completed in Q1 2015, the plant will use patented torrefaction technology to produce the Company's green-energy Bio-Coal product from plant and wood biomass, which will then be sold to power companies around the world. 09/04/2014
Lahti Energia and Valmet Will Continue to Develop Finnish Gasification Plant
Finland based Lahti Energia Oy and Valmet Corporation have agreed to continue development of Lahti Energia's Kymijärvi II demonstration gasification power plant that has been in operation for slightly over two years. Since it was the first operational power plant of its kind, the design was based on data obtained through pilot plants. It has now become clear that most of the design solutions are successful. Lahti Energia and Valmet have agreed on joint further development of the power plant. The work started in Tampere in 2002, and has proceeded to a commercial solution via various demonstration stages. The waste-to-energy combined heat and power power plant produces electricity and heat from post-recycled municipal solid waste. The electricity production capacity of the plant is 50 MW and the heat production capacity is 90 MW. The harmful components contained in the waste can be safely removed before the gas is utilized in a conventional power plant process. Juhani Isaksson, Head of Valmet's gasification technology: "We have learned a lot thanks to this plant, particularly regarding long-term operations, which are impossible to test in a small scale. The experiences obtained have clearly helped in further improving Lahti Energia's plant. This knowledge also helps us in designing future power plants." 09/04/2014
Cambi to Install THP Solution to Process Sludge at Beijing's Largest WWTP
The Cambi Group has announced that its United Kingdom based subsidiary has been awarded a contract by Beijing Drainage Construction Co. for installation of the Cambi Thermal Hydrolysis Process (THP) at Beijing’s largest wastewater treatment plant, Gaobeidian WWTP, owned and operated by the Beijing Drainage Group (BDG). This is one of the largest wastewater treatment plants in China and serves a population of more than three million residents. The strategic cooperation between the Beijing Drainage Group, Beijing Drainage Construction Company, and Cambi represents a major and innovative step to bring Chinese sludge treatment into the 21st century. The Gaobeidian wastewater treatment plant will be fitted with the Cambi THP solution and be operational sometime during 2016. The Cambi THP-plant will process all the sewage sludge produced at the plant, doubling existing digester loading and freeing eight of 16 existing anaerobic digesters, increase biogas production, produce a high dry solids bio-fertilizer, and replace a planned drying facility. BDG is planning to build another four large-scale sludge projects using Cambi's THP during 2016-2017. 09/03/2014
Hormel Drives Motorcycle from Minnesota to California on Bacon Grease
The National Biodiesel Board (NBB) has provided news of a bacon-powered motorbike's journey from Hormel Foods headquarters in Austin, Minnesota to the International Bacon Festival in San Diego, California. The custom diesel motorcycle was fueled by converting the grease left behind from frying up bacon into biodiesel. The bacon driven bike built by CSE Engineering was sponsored by Hormel and the Minneapolis marketing firm BBDO. The bacon bike whistle stop was filmed for a movie short called "Driven by Bacon", and shown on August 29th at the Bacon Festival. Hormel representatives say the marketing push is an exciting opportunity to spread the word about Hormel’s Black Label Bacon brand and will likely be used as a promotional tool in the future. 09/03/2014
Group of Companies Develops Methodology to Assess Product Social Impact
A group of companies collaborating as members of the Roundtable for Product Social Metrics (RPSM) has announced publication of the Handbook for Product Social Impact Assessment, now available for download. Social impact is the effect of a product on three stakeholder groups: workers, consumers, and local communities. The manual correlates the impact upon the stakeholder groups with the different life cycle stages of the product: sourcing, manufacturing, when the consumer uses the product, and product end-of-life when discarded, refurbished for reuse, recycled, incinerated or landfilled. The innovative Product Social Impact Assessment methodology enables concrete, objective research, and analysis at a product level. The large, multinational organizations participating in the Roundtable include Ahold, Akzo Nobel, BASF, BMW Group, DSM, L’Oréal, Marks & Spencer, Philips, RB, Steelcase, The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company, and a chemical company. The group is led by sustainability consulting firm PRé Sustainability. 09/02/2014
Methes Energies Selects Dorf Ketal to Manufacture New Pretreatment Catalyst
Nevada based Methes Energies International Ltd recently extended their modular biodiesel production system line to encompass pretreatment methods that now enable use of high free fatty acid (FFA) feedstock such as non-food grade corn oil. The company introduced Methes PP-MEC catalyst for this pretreatment to ensure availability and effectiveness. Methes has selected Dorf Ketal Specialty Catalysts LLC (Dorf Ketal) as the exclusive manufacturer of Methes PP-MEC Catalyst. Working with Dorf Ketal allows Methes to depend upon a reliable manufacturer of specialty catalysts with an experienced management team who can provide that catalyst to Methes or its customers on a world-wide basis. John Loewen, COO of Methes: "I believe that the market potential is enormous for this new process so we wanted to make sure that we had a catalyst manufacturer that would be able to follow our growth not only in North America but around the world." 09/02/2014
Viet Nam Shrimp Pond Waste Project to Produce Electricity with Fuel Cells
The VietNamNet online newspaper has reported that a new project funded by the Japanese government will create renewable green energy from organic waste discharged in industrial-agricultural activities in Mekong Delta region. The project will be carried out by the Viet Nam National University-HCM City's (VNU-HCM) Laboratory for Nanotechnology (LNT) in co-operation with Japan's Kyushu University. Researchers at LNT and Kyushu University have proposed using sludge and bio-wastes from shrimp ponds to produce electricity with a new generation of fuel cells developed by Kyushu University. The waste would be pumped out of ponds and transferred to methane-fermentation reactors to produce bio-gas, he said. Bio-gas would be supplied to solid-oxide fuel cells to produce electricity, which would then be used for air supply systems, pumps, and water-circulating systems of shrimp ponds. With technology support from Kyushu University, Viet Nam can develop a closed-cycle shrimp farm model, where electricity and heat energy are produced from bio-gas (from waste in shrimp farming) at high efficiency (90 per cent) over a large area. 09/01/2014
Due 10/15/2014: Statements of Interest for Clean Tech Funding to SDTC
Sustainable Development Technology Canada (SDTC) has announced that its SD Tech Fund™ and SD Natural Gas Fund™ are accepting Statements of Interest (SOI) from August 27 to October 15, 2014. The SD Tech Fund™ supports projects that address climate change, air quality, clean water, and clean soil. The SD Natural Gas Fund™ supports the development and demonstration of new downstream natural gas technology. SDTC seeks to fund the critical stages of development and demonstration, the points at which technologies leave the laboratory and undergo conclusive real-world testing. This first phase of the funding process is designed to provide SDTC with a good sense of proposed technologies without imposing an arduous application process. Successful projects will then be asked to submit a proposal. Workshops are scheduled for prospective applicants interested in applying to SDTC for funding with key information and practical guidance. The workshops will be presented in cities across Canada, co-hosted with regional incubators and partnered with universities. 09/01/2014
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Encylcopedia of Freemasonry & its kindred Sciences
This is one of the most important and significant Symbols in Freemasonry. As such, it is proper that its true form should be preserved. French Freemasons have almost universally given it with one leg longer than the other, thus making it a carpenter's square American Freemasons, following the incorrect delineations of Brother Jeremy L. Cross, have, while generally preserving the equality of length in the legs, unnecessarily marked its surface with inches; thus making it an instrument for measuring length and breadth which it is not. It is simply the trying square of a stone-mason, and has a plain surface; the sides or legs embracing an angle of ninety degrees, and is intended only to test the accuracy of the sides of a stone, and to see that its edges subtend the same angle.
In Freemasonry, the square is a symbol of morality. This is its general signification, and is applied in various ways:
1. It presents itself to the neophyte as one of the Three Great Lights.
2. To the Fellow Craft as one of his Working-tools.
3. To the Master Mason as the official emblem of the Master of the Lodge.
Everywhere, however, it inculcates the same lesson of morality, of truthfulness, of honesty. So universally accepted is this symbolism, that it has gone outside of the Order, and has been found in colloquial language communicating the same idea. Square, says Halliwell, Dictionary of Archaic and Provincial Words, means honest, equitable, as in "square dealing." To play upon the square is proverbial for to play honestly. In this sense the word is found in the old writers.
As a Masonic symbol, it is of very ancient date, and was familiar to the Operative Masons. In the year 1830, the architect, in rebuilding a very ancient bridge called Baal Bridge, near Limerick, in Ireland, found under the foundation-stone an old brass square, much eaten away, containing on its two surfaces the following inscription, the U being read as V: I. WILL. STRIUE. TO. LIUE.—WITH. LOUE. & CARE.— UPON. THE. LEUL.—BY. THE. SQUARE., and the date 1517. The modern Speculative Freemason will recognize the idea of living on the level fled by the square This discovery proves, if proof were necessary, that the familiar idea was borrowed from our Operative Brethren of former days.
The square, as a symbol in Speculative Freemasonry, has therefore presented itself from the very beginning of the revival period. In the very earliest catechism of the eighteenth century, of the date of 1725, we find the answer to the question, "How many make a Lodge?" is "God and the Square, with five or seven right or perfect Masons." God and the Square, religion and morality, must be present in every Lodge as governing principles.
Signs at that early period were to be made by squares and the Furniture of the Lodge was declared to be the Bible, Compasses, and Square.
In the public lecture of Brother Herbert A. Giles, Worshipful Master of Ionic Lodge, No. 1781 at Amoy, delivered in 1880 and entitled Freemasonry in China, says:
From time immemorial we find the Square and Compasses used by Chinese Writers to symbolize precisely the same phases of moral conduct as in our system of Freemasonry. The earliest passage known to one which bears upon the subject is to be found in the Book of history embracing the period reaching from the twenty-fourth to the seventh century before Christ. There in an account of a military expedition we read:
"Ye officers of government, apply the Colllpasses!"
In another part of the same venerable record a Magistrate is spoken of as:
" A man of the level, or the level man"
The public discourses of Confucius provide us with several Masonic allusions of a more or less definite character. For instance. when recounting his own degrees of moral progress in life, the Master tells us that only at seventy-five spears of age could he venture to follow the inclinations of his heart without fear of " transgressing the limits of the Square." this would be 481 B.C. belt it is in the works of his great follower, Mencius, who flourished nearly two hundred years later, that we meet with a fuller and more impressive Masonic phraseology. In one chapter we are taught that just as the most skilled artificers are unable, without the aid of the Square and Compasses to produce perfect rectangles or perfect circles, so must all men apply these tools figuratively to their lives, and the level and the marking-line besides, if they would walk in the straight and even paths of wisdom and keep themselves within the bonds of honor and virtue. In Book iv we read:
"The Compasses and Square are the embodiment of the rectangular and the round, just as the prophets of old were the embodiment of the due relationship between man and man"
In Book vi we find these words:
"The Master Mason, in teaching his apprentices makes use of the Compasses and the Square Ye who are engaged in the pursuit of wisdom must also make use of the Compasses and the Square. In the Great Learning, admitted on all sides to date from between 300 to 400 years before Christ, in Chapter 10, we read that a man should abstain from doing unto others what he would not they should do unto him, this", adds the writer, "is called the principle of acting on the Square. "
In all rites and in all languages where Freemasonry has penetrated, the square has preserved its primitive Signification as a symbol of morality.
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To the content
About The Bobs
Winners 2004-2010
Jury and People's Choice Winner
پنجره التهاب
Arash Sigarchi's blog "Window of Anguish" is well-known and widely read in the Persian community. While in Iran, he was arrested several times for the content he published on his blog and was eventually sentenced to 14 years behind bars. Sigarchi received the Hellman/Hammett award in 2007 for his work in the field of journalism in Iran.
sigarchi.net/blog/
Best Use of Technology for Social Good
Jury winner
خريطة التحرش الجنسي
Harassmap takes aim at sexual harassment in Egypt. It allows victims to report incidents of harassment and maps them by type and location. Reports can be made via the website or text message. Harassmap also sponsored a campaign to raise awareness of sexual harassment via a Twitter hashtag, displaying tweets on the website and by asking people to blog for the cause on a particular day. Harassmap uses the Ushahidi platform.
harassmap.org/
People's Choice winner
Веб-наблюдатель
After witnessing widespread voting fraud during parliamentary elections, many engaged citizens in Russia decided they would only rely on themselves when it came to observing the presidential election on March 4. One way they could do it was with the "Web Election Observer" app for iPhones and Android. The simple and easy-to-use app lets observers document any irregularities they see and record them on an interactive map. Information and laws regarding elections and observers was provided to the app's developers by the "Golos" non-governmental organization.
webnabludatel.org/
Best Social Activism Campaign
الحرية للمدونة رزان غزاوي
The Syrian blogger Razan Ghazzawi was arrested on December 4, 2011 as she was on her way to Amman to attend a workshop on press freedom in the Arab world. Somewhat ironically, Razan’s last blog post before her arrest was to celebrate the release of Syrian blogger Hussein Ghrer, who was held by the Syrian authorities for 37 days. She is also one of the few bloggers in Syria who writes using her real name, advocating for the rights of bloggers and activists arrested by the Syrian regime. The Free Razan campaign was launched after her arrest calling for her release with a Facebook page that was launched on the same day of her arrest. After her release she was taken into custody again on February 16, 2012, then released three days later. This page is now dedicated to call for the release of her male colleagues at the human rights and press freedom organization SCM, who have been detained since February 16, 2012. The campaign is an example of a number of similar campaigns that have sprung up in the past year across the Arab world calling for the release of bloggers and activists including Alaa Abdel-Fattah from Egypt and Ali Abdulemam from Bahrain and others.
www.facebook.com/freerazan
আসিফ মহিউদ্দিন’এর বাংলা ব্লগ
On October 1, 2011, news broke that blogger Asif Mohiuddin had been arrested because of his involvement in a popular student movement. Asif remained detained for the night before being released. Asif Mohiuddin’s blog received huge attention when he started writing against a particular university’s so-called “development fee,” which poor students were unable to pay. His writing inspired the students to unite and after a series of protests, the government was forced to change the decision to impose the fee.
www.somewhereinblog.net/blog/realAsifM
Reporters Without Borders Award
আবু সুফিয়ান’এর ব্লগ
Abu Sufian raises his voice against injustice of many kinds in the society. Currently he is focusing on the state of law and order, particularly the recent killing of the journalists Sagar and Runi. He is also promoting the “Right to Information” act, which would force the government to become more transparent. He has been vocal against the extra-judicial killings that plagued Bangladesh. While many in the mainstream media ignore the issue that costs thousands of lives, Abu risks his own life to report on the crimes in detail.
blog.bdnews24.com/author/abusufianIR
看不见的西藏
Beijing-based blogger Woeser reports about the current situation in Tibet. Woeser, an outspoken critic of Chinese government policies in Tibet, has written about a series of recent self-immolation among monks and arrests of Tibetan intellectuals in western China.
woeser.middle-way.net/
Best Video Channel
哐哐哐
Pi San is the creator of this mischievous cartoon series whose main character goes by the name Kuang Kuang. One of Pi San’s satire works has provocatively evoked China’s social ills. “Little Rabbit, Be Good,” made last year, tells the story of rabbits that suffer endless abuses under the rule of tigers who promise to “build a harmonious forest.” Rabbit babies die from drinking poisoned milk, and in another episode a reckless tiger driver kills a rabbit in a hit-and-run and boasts about his high-level police protection.
www.tudou.com/programs/view/pbnY8O-BqaM/?fr=rec1&FR=LIAN
Internautismo
Since 2007, this video channel has lived by the motto of “laughing in order to avoid crying.” Aware of the problems in the society, its creators say that it will be difficult to change the world. But then they go ahead and try it. Their method is to laugh about what needs changing and to make people forget these circumstances for a couple of minutes a day with a mixed from self-produced videos and other Internet material.
www.youtube.com/internautismocronico?gl=ES&hl=es
Special Topic Award Education and Culture
Fasokan
Fasokan in Mali promotes local languages and cultures on his bilingual, personal blog. He introduced village people to the Internet and basic search on the Web during an educational cruise on river Niger in Mali.
fasokan.com
Гражданин поэт
The 2011-2012 campaign in Russia provided ample material for political satire, which due to censorship of traditional media found a home on the Internet. “Citizen and Poet” is a brilliant example. The poet Dmitry Bykow regularly reinterpreted the works of Russian and other classic poets and used the late poets' words to comment on the previous day’s events. The actor Michail Efremov presented the parodies in a series of videos. In addition to laughter, the videos also had a role in generating an interest in politics among young Runet users. The project was originally broadcast on the Internet TV station “Rain” but was pulled after five episodes, presumably because of the dicey political content. The F5.ru online platform currently holds first broadcast rights.
www.youtube.com/user/GrazhdaninPoet
People's Choice for Arabic
خالد صافي
Khaled Safi is a Palestinian blogger and Web designer living in Gaza. He blogs about Palestine as well as social media, marketing, and Internet privacy.
www.KhaledSafi.com
People's Choice for Bengali
সুড়ঙ্গ – নিয়াজের ভুবন
Dr. Niaz Mowla's blog is a good mixture of history, culture and social issues. His blog on his journey to Libya was rewarded with an excellent response on the part of the viewers. Niaz also analyzes historical events from a different angle.
niazmowla.wordpress.com
People's Choice for Chinese
iGFW
iGFW provides some of the most detailed and complete information on how to break through Internet censorship in China, as well as how normal users can effectively "share" this information. The site is a real headache for the censors.
igfw.net
People's Choice for English
The Chronikler
Written by multiple authors, The Chronikler “seeks to shed an alternative light on contemporary events and ideas, from the controversial to the comic.”
www.chronikler.com
People's Choice for French
Kamer Kongossa
Florian Ngimbis is a young writer and blogger living in Yaoundé, Cameroon. With great wit, his blog chronicles the big and small stories in Cameroon, from presidential elections to a catastrophic date with a lady friend who happened to wear a wig during a pelting rain.
kongossa.mondoblog.org/
People's Choice for German
Jule’s Blog
A personal blog written by a very young woman who became a paraplegic after an accident when she was 15. She provides a very blunt and unfiltered look into her life.
www.jule-stinkesocke.blogspot.de/
People's Choice for Indonesian
Dhiora Bintang was born on December 26, 1989 in Sukabumi, Indonesia. His interest and passion for writing brought him numerous honors. This personal blog features him blogging on peace and pluralism issues in Indonesia.
dhioradanbintang.blogspot.com
People's Choice for Persian
Narenji is one of the most famous Iranian group blogs on gadgets.
narenji.ir/
People's Choice for Portuguese
Brazilians call it a Catraca livre, roughly a “free turnstile” when you don’t pay for a trip on the bus. But it’s also the name of a collective journalism project about free services and cultural activities in Sao Paulo and the surrounding area. “The greatest human adventure is the adventure of lifelong learning,” according to Catraca Livre. With its reports on what’s free and available, the site aims to “tear down walls.”
People's Choice for Russian
Здесь в… Блог Стаса Кулеша
Vicariously live the romantic and worry-free life of a world traveler. Moscow today, China tomorrow and New Zealand the day after. While many people dream of traveling the world, few take the chance to live such a life. Stas Kulesch is one of the people who made the leap. Born in Russia, he’s lived for over six years in New Zealand and keeps up a blog where he shows videos of his live on the other side of the world and shares his thoughts on dreams and making them come true.
staskulesh.com/
People's Choice for Spanish
Chino Chano
Chino Chano provides another point of view about China. In the author’s opinion, media only present part of the reality of the country. He tries not to be polarized and influenced by international interests and look for the other side of China. The normal, daily lives people in in the country live.
chinochano.zoomblog.com/
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Why sad songs say so much (to some people, but not others)
September 15, 2016 4.01pm EDT
Tuomas Eerola, Durham University
Tuomas Eerola
Professor of Music Cognition, Durham University
Tuomas Eerola receives funding from Academy of Finland (grant # 270220 for Sweet Sorrow - understanding the mechanisms involved in deriving pleasure from sad music).
Durham University provides funding as a founding partner of The Conversation UK.
Melancholic or moved? avemario/Shutterstock
Tear-jerkers such as Adele’s Someone Like You frequently top the charts these days, while gloomy classical compositions like Mozart’s Requiem have moved people for centuries. Both portray and bring about a strong sense of loss and sadness. But our enjoyment of sad music is paradoxical – we go out of our way to avoid sadness in our daily lives. So why is it that, in the arts, themes such as loss can be safely experienced, profoundly enjoyed and even celebrated?
Researchers have long been puzzled about this phenomenon and it’s not until fairly recently that we have started to gain some insight into how we enjoy music. Now, a new study by colleagues and me, published in Frontiers in Psychology, has discovered why some of us enjoy sad music more than others – and it’s got a lot to do with empathy.
Research has already shown that open individuals typically score highly on musical sophistication, while “systemisers”, those with a strong interest in patterns, systems and rules, tend to prefer intense music such as rock and punk.
But what about sad music? Surely nobody would like it unless the emotion experienced is not actual sadness but some kind of transformed version of it? Based on large surveys of what people experience while listening to sad music, we know that these experiences typically fall into different categories.
For some, sad music actually deepens and amplifies the feelings of sorrow and loss – emotions that are connected to personal events and memories. These experiences are far from pleasurable and therefore do not offer an explanation for the paradox. For others, sad music brings about feelings of melancholia, the kind of sentiment you might have on a rainy day after your favourite team lost.
The mystery of being moved
The most curious type of experience, however, is the feeling of being moved, which we think is the basis of our fascination with sad music. This experience can be difficult to describe verbally, but it is often intense and pleasurable. However, not everyone seems to be able to experience it. So who would? Intuitively, it would make sense that those who easily feel empathy are also easily moved.
To test this hypothesis, we recruited a nationally representative sample of 102 participants to a listening experiment. We played them a piece of instrumental sad music, Discovery of the Camp by Michael Kamen, which was briefly played in the drama miniseries Band of Brothers. In an initial pilot study, the vast majority of people couldn’t recognise it.
Our decision to focus on instrumental music that participants would be unlikely to have heard previously was to rule out any external sources of emotions, such as specific memories they might have for a particular piece of music or interpretations of the lyrics. In other words, we wanted to be sure that the participants’ emotional responses would be brought about by the music itself.
The listeners were also asked to reveal a wide range of background measures including how prone they were to dwell in nostalgia and what their current mood, health, and quality of life was. We also profiled their music preferences and used standard trait empathy measure, “the interpersonal reactivity index”, to evaluate how much empathy they had.
The experiences generated by this particular music ranged from feeling relaxed or moved to sometimes being anxious or nervous. Participants who experienced being moved reported intense, pleasurable, and yet sad emotions at the same time. Crucially, we found that the people who were moved by the piece also scored highly on empathy. Conversely, those with a tendency of being low on empathy hardly ever reported being moved by this music.
Pleasure from sad music may be a reward for empathetic concern. Dragon Images/Shutterstock
What’s more, our findings suggest that the key to the enjoyment is not only the ability to empathise with the sad emotions expressed by the music, but also the ability to self-regulate and distance oneself from this process. This specific component of empathy is known as “empathic concern”. While empathising means responding to somebody’s perceived emotion by experiencing a similar feeling, empathetic concern means also feeling tenderness, compassion and sympathy for them. This specific trait best predicted whether our participants reported being moved by the sad music.
Understanding the results
The research adds to a body of work suggesting that music appreciation involves social cognition. People sensitive and willing to empathise with the misfortune of another person – in this case represented by the sad music – are somehow rewarded by the process. There are a number of theories about why that is.
The reward could be purely biochemical. We have all experienced the feeling of relief and serenity after a good cry. This is due to a cocktail of chemicals triggered by crying. A recent theory proposes that even a fictional sadness is enough to fool our body to trigger such an endocrine response, intended to soften the mental pain involved in real loss. This response is driven by hormones such as oxytocin and prolactin, which actually induce the feelings of comfort, warmth and mild pleasure in us. This mix of hormones is probably particularly potent when you take the actual loss and sadness out of the equation – which you can often do in music-induced sadness.
It is also possible that the effect is mainly psychological, where those who allow themselves to be emotionally immersed in the sad music are simply exercising their full emotional repertoire in a way that is inherently rewarding. The capacity to understand the emotions of others is crucial for navigating the social world we live in, and therefore exercising such an ability is likely to be rewarding – due to its evolutionary significance.
Music could almost be compared to a powerful drug. If empathy lies at the core of transforming this “drug” into pleasure or pain, could music itself be used to train people to be more empathetic?
We do not yet know, although music therapy is commonly used to rehabilitate people with emotional disorders, such as depression and low self-esteem. Understanding the emotional transformations induced by sad music could certainly help us to understand how musical interventions could be used for those suffering from emotional disorders.
While we may not have fully cracked the code of these transformations, the new study is a first step. But it certainly seems that allowing yourself to be transported and immersed in a musical journey into tragedy and sorrow may be just what your social mind craves and needs to keep in shape.
Why do we like sad music?
‘I’m walkin’ on sunshine, whoooa oh! And don’t it feel good!‘ Daniele Zedda/Flickr (cropped)
Chills and thrills: why some people love music – and others don’t
Hip-hop artists such as American rapper Method Man are often accused of creating music than incites anti-social behaviour. Jazmin Million/Flickr
Getting a bad rap: why problem music isn’t really a problem
Not everyone is drawn to horror movies, but some seem to luxuriate in frightful experiences. Flood G./Flickr
Trick or treat? The psychology of fright and Halloween horrors
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Home Pen & Pad Ethiopian Journalists Forum (EJF) warns leaders of three Journalists Associations
Ethiopian Journalists Forum (EJF) warns leaders of three Journalists Associations
Posted about 5 years ago | Comments Off on Ethiopian Journalists Forum (EJF) warns leaders of three Journalists Associations
By Betre Yacob.
Ethiopian Journalists Forum (EJF), the newly established journalists association in Ethiopia, warned leaders of three journalists associations operating in the country.
In a statement issued yesterday, the association accused the officials of Ethiopian journalists Association (EJA), Ethiopian National Journalists Union (ENJU), and Ethiopian Free Journalists Association (EFJA) of fabricating false accusations against the association and members of media organizations.
Ethiopian Journalists Forum is a nonpartisan and independent professional association intended to defend the freedom of speech and of the press in Ethiopia.
The press statement says that the officials have been deliberately engaged in fabricating false accusations ranging from terrorism to conspiracy— aiming to intimidate journalists and members of the association. “They are trying to spoil the name of our association, which is getting a wider acceptance among journalists and media workers”, the statement explains.
“For instance, in an interview published at Addis Admass weekly newspaper issued on March 30, 2014 they said that journalists had been preparing to commit terrorism against the nation and its citizens. They also accused two unnamed countries of backing the journalists. In another article published at Reporter, a weekly newspaper, issued on March 9, 2014 they once again said the same thing accusing journalists”, it further explains.
The statement says the association doesn’t have a response for the groundless accusations of these depraved individuals—who are barking to retain their own cheep benefits. It says it only would like to warn them once and for all to refrain from their unlawful acts.
The EJF was established on 20 January, 2014 considering the harsh working conditions of journalists in Ethiopia; and the importance of a unified media workers and journalists’ voice. In a few months only, the association has been able to get acceptance among journalists and media institutions.
Particularly, the EJF has been welcomed by almost all journalists operating in the free press. Its formation has been good news to those who wish to see an independent institution—which is loyal only to the journalists.
The EJF is supposed by many to be a best framework to work against the deteriorating press freedom in the country and bring about change on the safety of journalists. It is, however, seen as a threat by EJA, ENJU, and EFJA. According to the association, it has begun to experience their accusation since its inception.
The EJF has a vision to become a leading professional association in Ethiopia, which defends the freedom of speech and of the press as well as the rights of journalists.
The Wake of Non-operational Associations
Ethiopian journalists Association (EJA), Ethiopian National Journalists Union (ENJU), and Ethiopian Free Journalists Association (EFJA) were in active for a long period. They came to the stage following the formation of EJF.
Both the associations are accused of being loyal to the regime and of failing to play their role. None of them have ever been seen doing anything to bring about change on the deteriorating press freedom and safety of journalists.
Despite the fact that journalists are still subjected to violence, EJA, ENJU, and EFJA believe freedom of speech and of the press is respected in Ethiopia, and accuse CPJ and other international organizations of defaming the name of the country.
They also accuse Ethiopian journalists of using their rights to incite violence in the country. They even don’t accept the journalists, who are currently behind the bar in the country, are prosecuted because of their job.
Tags: and Ethiopian Free Journalists Association (EFJA), Ethiopia, Ethiopian journalists Association (EJA), Ethiopian National Journalists Union (ENJU), journalism, Journalists, Journalists Association
BetreYacob
Betre Yacob Getahun is an Ethiopian journalist. He received his BA Degree in Journalism and Communication from Bahir Dar University in 2008.
View all posts by BetreYacob →
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10 Little-Known Types of Insurance to Protect You and Your Business
Personal Finance Advice from
You can shield your finances from just about any type of disaster imaginable. But not all niche policies are good values.
By Tim Lemke
If you read Wise Bread frequently, you know how important insurance is as part of a sensible financial plan. It makes sense to insure your home, your car, and carry health insurance. But over the years, insurance companies have developed policies to protect customers against all kinds of trouble, ranging from natural disasters to identity theft and getting thunked by a foul ball at a baseball game.
See Also on Kiplinger: 10 Insurance Mistakes to Avoid
Here are 10 of the most unique insurance policies we've come across:
1. Hole-in-One Prize Insurance
Have you ever seen a charity golf tournament where they gave away a car or cash prize to anyone who got a hole in one? Tournament organizers usually protect themselves with insurance policies to cover the cost of prizes, just in case someone actually gets lucky.
Prize indemnification is its own industry, and is often used for similar promotions, like half-court shot contests in basketball, or field goal contests in football. Premiums for these insurance policies are relatively cheap due to the low odds of winning. One company, InsureEvents, says it has insured a $1 million hole-in-one contest for a mere $300.
2. Athlete "Loss of Value Insurance"
During the recent NFL Draft, several players reportedly collected payouts from insurance policies after they weren't drafted as early as they had hoped. ESPN reported that Jaylon Smith, a linebacker from Notre Dame, received $900,000 from such a policy after slipping to the 34th pick in the draft due to concerns over a knee injury. He could have received as much as $5 million had he been drafted higher.
3. Body Part Insurance
We all want to cover our body parts. But for some people, it's not just about clothes. Many people — often famous athletes or entertainers — will insure certain body parts that they depend on for their livelihood. Rocker Bruce Springsteen has reportedly insured his voice with Lloyds of London for a cool $6 million. And when football player Troy Polamalu signed a deal to endorse Head & Shoulders shampoo, Procter and Gamble took out a $1 million policy on his flowing mane. There are reports of policies for taste buds, fingers, buttocks and nearly every other body part you can think of.
4. Riot Insurance
In 2010, the country of Thailand was afraid of losing tourism dollars due to political upheaval and protests. So it offered up to $10,000 to anyone experiencing loss or damage due to the turmoil. It also offered tourists up to $100 per day for travel delays caused by demonstrations.
See Also on Kiplinger: Travel Insurance to Protect Your Vacation
5. Insurance for a "Change of Heart"
It's a real bummer if your family spends thousands on a wedding only to have you break off the engagement. To protect against this possibility of cold feet, a company called Wedsure offers insurance that includes coverage for a "change of heart." In other words, you get your money back if the bride and groom decide to go their separate ways. There are a few catches, though. The coverage only applies to "innocent financiers," such as the bride or groom's parents, not the bride and groom themselves. And the wedding must be cancelled at least 365 days in advance of the scheduled date.
(Editor’s Note: Wedding insurance is one of five types of insurance policies that Kiplinger suggests you don’t need.)
6. Multiple Birth Insurance
Having twins is exciting, but it's also expensive. In Great Britain, it's possible to hedge against the possibility of having more than one baby by buying special insurance. In essence, parents can buy insurance at the early stage of a pregnancy and then receive a lump sum of cash if they have a multiple birth. This insurance might make sense if you have a family history of twins, or if you've already had a multiple birth and can't fathom adding two or more children.
7. Insurance Against Death by Laughter
Lloyd's of London is known for covering a wide range of things, but the funniest might be the effort to insure a comedy troupe in the event that an audience member died from laughter. According to the BBC, this comedy troupe was so confident in its humor that it asked Lloyd's for insurance just in case the group was fatally funny.
8. "Essential Employee" Insurance
Imagine being so valued by your employer that the company actually takes out an insurance policy in case you leave or pass away. Often called "key person" or "keyman" insurance, this policy offers a lump sum to cover costs like loss of business or training of successors. Usually, these insurance policies are designed to cover the loss of someone who plays a key role in generating profits or who has a unique skill set.
See Also on Kiplinger: 10 Surprising Things Insurance Covers
9. Lottery Insurance — For Companies
Imagine that you own a company and a large group of your employees entered a lottery pool, and won. You'd be excited for them, right? Well, that excitement might not last if half of your staff decides to retire on the spot. Lloyd's of London is among the companies that offers insurance for such a scenario, to cover loss of productivity and the hiring of temps and new staff.
10. Kidnapping and Ransom Insurance
It sounds like something out of a movie, but it's an actual thing. You can protect yourself if you've been kidnapped, and get reimbursed for any ransom money and expenses once you're freed. Truthfully, these policies are geared more toward businesses with high-profile employees. But individuals can get policies as well. Traveler's Insurance calls this policy a "must-have," and even produced a two-minute video about it.
This article is from Tim Lemke of Wise Bread, an award-winning personal finance and credit card comparison website.
More From Wise Bread
4 Reasons You Should Splurge on Experiences, Not Things
9 Big Companies That Offer Benefits for Part-Time Workers
Repair the Car or Spend the Cash?
7 Ways to Increase Your Credit Score Quickly
5 Reasons You Definitely Need Renters' Insurance
This article is from Wise Bread, not the Kiplinger editorial staff.
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Heartbreak in Orlando: A Reflection of Our Future?
Already so much as been written about the murder of 49 innocent people at a gay oriented but not exclusive nightclub in Orlando Florida, along with 50 wounded. All were just ordinary young men and women there to unwind, relax, and have some fun. Then, like thunder tearing through the darkness of night, their lives were ended or forever changed. Who or what gave the shooter, Omar Mateen, a man of only 29, the right to end their lives? We're told he was a closet homosexual since he had been coming to Pulse, a bar and dance club for months. We're told he had been "radicalized" by the ISIS, the latest incarnation of psycho killers, and who have a habit of impaling or throwing gays off rooftops. He even took a break during the carnage to phone a local TV station to declare his allegiance to ISIS (and ISIS accepted responsibility) before resuming his "Allah Akbar" rant amid the gunfire. Now the CIA Director, John Brennan, has told a Senate Intelligence Committee that Mateen really wasn't aligned to ISIS despite the killer saying he was and ISIS giving their stamp of approval. I guess this is another example of who to believe---the murderer and those he's supposedly aligned with or the CIA Director and a government that has a habit of lying? He was married...and divorced. Supposedly he had a bad temper and was abusive. Supposedly he wanted to be a cop or INS agent, yet he repeatedly failed and ended up as a security guard at some point. He attempted to obtain large amounts of high powered ammo and weapons, but was refused due to his mannerisms, which gave him away as potentially a nut job (three cheers to the gun store owners for their careful observations of human behavior).
Be certain that the corporate media was quick with "the facts" of course, though as usual, mostly wrong. While Republicans and conservatives were quick with their standard "more security less Muslims" rant, the Democrats and Liberal didn't miss a beat with their usual gun control (read "seizure"), stronger restrictions and background checks. A few have even demanded that guns be taken from all current and former military personnel since they were potentially "mentally maladjusted" due to their military training and, thus, potentially "dangerous". Personally, I think those individuals need to be dragged out to the street and introduced to a can whoopass, but that's just me speaking as a potentially maladjusted former military guy. Some on the Left see this latest incident as an clarion call to at least remove "military assault" rifles like the AR-15, which was used in this and other shootings, along with high powered ammo from the marketplace.
Before I give my opinion on this, let's understand what "assault" rifles really are. These are basic ordinary hunting firearms in a fancy "cool looking" frame. Some come with longer clips, which means more bullets. They are the "street rods" of the domestic firearms industry. They are semi-automatic, which means they can only shoot as fast as your finger can pull the trigger. They are not full auto, nor do they have a select button or lever which would allow someone to go from semi to full auto like military grade weapons do. Most of these weapons use high powered .223 ammo since they are designed to take down larger game. Some of these weapons, however, take smaller caliber ammo like 22 longs. These would be for smaller game, and while this type of ammo is more economically for target shooting, any size ammo can be used for target shooting. So, by eliminating so-called "assault" rifles, they might as well eliminate ordinary hunting rifles in the same caliber too. But, even if they did, let's not forget that any rifle or pistol can kill or wound, regardless of what it's called, looks like, or caliber of the ammo. For that matter, what about BB or pellet guns? They potentially can injure or kill to if you know where to aim. So can crossbows, hunting bows, nunchucks, hammers, hatchets, knives, sticks, rocks, screwdrivers, ice picks, and so on. Let's face it, as a species, we're natural born killers. Give us about two minutes, and we'll find something to use. When it comes to death and destruction, we're the "MacGyver's" of the animal kingdom.
Besides, if the Left were to try to confiscate guns, they would likely be unsuccessful since they would have to search damn near every single house, not once, but repeatedly as people will hide whatever it is that they have, even if they've never used it or ever plan to use it since the very thought of surrendering our guns---or 2nd Amendment right----goes against our collective nature as Americans. Then there human nature. We instinctively know that without guns, the bad guys---the ones who are trying to rob, beat or rape you---will have guns. I mean, c'mon, they're called crooks for a reason! Do you think they are going to turn in their guns? Do you think that when they see a "Gun Free Zone" or "No Weapons" sign they are going to turn around and leave? As for expecting the police to arrive in time to save us, it ain't gonna happen. Can you imagine asking some burglar to wait around for 15 or 30 minutes for the police to arrive? More often than not the police are there just for the cleanup and taking reports. Another likely scenario, should the Left attempt to seize our weapons, is that they will not find a willing populace. People will vigorously defend their right to own and possess a gun. I could see this getting ratcheted up in a hurry to an all out civil war. But, then again, we know the police have been getting militarized for several years now and increasingly see ordinary people as "potential criminals" as they tool around in armored personnel carriers with battle grade body armor and helmets. We know too that every single federal agency has been on a hand-over-fist ammo buying frenzy, and they aren't buying low power ammunition either. They are buying high power ammo. Their explanation has been that they've simply been buying in bulk to save on costs and/or for target practice, yet this type of ammo is way too expensive to use for target practice and is being acquired by agencies that have little or no practical use for it in the first place. So, perhaps this is simply in anticipation for a possible civil war and/or the imposition of martial law.
While I can see the logic of denying armor piercing shells from hunters (not many deers or Elk wear flak jackets, though I can think of one particular groundhog who should consider it) or the general public, as well as the ability to buy body armor, removing "assault" weapons or high caliber rifles and pistols won't change a thing; neither will the seizure of guns in general. Criminals will always find a way and they can be counted on to seek out the weakest target. What may help is more thorough background checks for used as well as new gun purchases, completion of gun safety courses (especially first time buyers), limitation of purchases for both guns and ammo (which is already being done), shorter clips, and no sells to anyone who can't prove citizenship or has a valid work permit (green card) with automatic reviews every six months in ensure that the gun wasn't bought for Cousin Louie who is here illegally). And while I'm making a wish list of sorts here, how about vigorous prosecution of government officials and agents who sold or sell guns to known criminals?
As for the terrible incident in Orlando, I expect we see more, though we've already had far too many. Despite being an obvious terrorist attack done in the name of ISIS and it's misguided ideology, President Obama continues to bury his head in the sand and refuses to call it what it was. Instead, he hides behind words like "domestic terror", "unstable", "localize", and so forth. Just as he did on other terrorist attacks, such as Fort Hood or San Bernardino. President Obama is afraid of calling these attacks on innocent Americans "Islamic" or "ISIS inspired" terrorist attacks. For some reason, he is in complete and total denial, which is a dangerous think for a president or head of a nation to be. A leader must be unafraid of naming the enemy, regardless of their personal feelings. If one is unwilling to acknowledge the enemy, we lose the advantage. We lose the ability to search for specific clues that might help us anticipate their next move. Thus, we leave ourselves open to more and perhaps worse attacks (what if FDR had said that we were attacked by possible Asians on December 7th, 1941 instead of the Empire of Japan?). Some, on both the Left and Right, have argued that Obama is a Muslim, and as such, his sympathies are with them. Personally, I don't know if he is or not.
From what little information that is available about his background, we know that his paternal side was/is Muslim. We know he attended a Muslim school as a child and that he identified as a Muslim through at least his teens, and that's something which is hard to overcome. We know he attended a black supremist or "liberation" church for many years which was sympathetic to the Muslim cause. We've seen how he relates to Muslim leaders and then how he relates to Israeli leaders. We've witnessed his willingness to bring Muslims from these the Middle East---though not necessarily from war zones--- and without adequate vetting while at the same time restricting Chaldean and Assyrian Christians as well as Kurds and Yazidis, who are the targets of mass murders for the majority and slavery for a few; a move still supported by some of in GOP, including House Speaker Paul Ryan who doesn't want a restriction either. We've seen how he has behaved with regards to the situation in the Middle East, and repeated attempts to get US boots on the ground in Syria against President Assad, which means supporting militia groups who are also on our national intelligence radar as terrorists. How can that be? How can these groups be potential allies on one hand and enemies on the other hand? Has this become our foreign policy in the region now?
Maybe the Obama White House is trying to justify its actions by bombing only the groups that Russia supports and who want Assad to remain in power and generally favor the West while the ones we support mostly hate the West but they hate Russia too. Personally, I think this is a bridge that should have never been crossed militarily starting with George Bush Jr. against the militarily impotent Saddam Hussein. With regards to Obama's self-censoring refusal to admit that the murderers who are committing these atrocities on US soil are doing so in the name of the faith of at least his youth may too be a bridge that Obama, as a man, is unable to cross, and that is dangerous for America. As the investigation into the tragedy in Orlando continues to unfold, many of the issues and questions raised here will begin to taken on increasing importance. Hopefully we can learn from them before it's too late.
No 'direct link' between Orlando shooter and foreign terror groups
http://www.aol.com/article/2016/06/16/no-direct-link-between-orlando-shooter-and-foreign-terror-groups/21396506/?icid=maing-grid7%7Cmain5%7Cdl1%7Csec1_lnk2%26pLid%3D-888708991_htmlws-main-bb
Orlando Gunman Was 'Cool and Clam' After Massacre, Police Say
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/14/us/orlando-shooting.html?_r=0
Orlando attack: 'I am the lone wolf who terrorizes the Infidels'
http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Middle-East/2016/0613/Orlando-attack-I-am-the-lone-wolf-that-terrorizes-the-infidels
ISIS Statement on Orlando Shooting Attack
http://www.businessinsider.com/isis-statement-orlando-shooting-attack-2016-6
Labels: 2nd Amendment, Assault rifles, Democratcs, Gun Control, ISIS, Middle East, Moslem terrorists, Obama, Omar Mateen, Orlando shooting, Paul Ryan, Radical Islam, Republicans, Terrorists
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Alleged Discrepancies
Deity of
Inspiration of
Islam and Other World Religions
Issue Features
Abortion and the Ungodly Irrationality Surrounding Unwanted Infants
Response to “Insect Wing Evolution Revealed In Recycled Genes”
Giant Human Bones and Bogus E-mails
Advanced Reader Series Released
Reason and Revelation Volume 30 #6
by Eric Lyons, M.Min.
To say that the descendants of Abraham were growing in number is an understatement. According to Exodus 1:7, while in Egypt “the children of Israel were fruitful and increased abundantly, multiplied and grew exceedingly mighty; and the land was filled with them.” The more the Egyptians afflicted them, “the more they multiplied and grew” (1:12; cf. 1:20). As Jehovah had promised, the “few” had become a “mighty” nation of “many” (Genesis 46:3; Deuteronomy 26:5)—so many, in fact, that the “Egyptians were in dread of the children of Israel” (Exodus 1:12). Even Pharaoh became alarmed to the point that on two different occasions he called for the slaughter of all male Israelite newborns. In an attempt to thwart Divine Providence’s promised growth of Israel (Genesis 12:2; 22:17; 46:3), Pharaoh took it upon himself to call on “all his people” to throw Israel’s neonatal sons into the river (Exodus 1:22). Infanticide ensued. “Drown the Hebrew infants.” “Destroy those abominable babies” (cf. Genesis 43:32). “Feed them to the crocodiles.”
Some 80 years later, God severely punished Egypt for their wrongdoings. He brought ten dreadful plagues upon Pharaoh and all his land (Exodus 7-12). Moses described God’s “great” and “mighty” judgment upon Egypt as “the chastening of the Lord your God” (Deuteronomy 7:19; 11:2). The psalmist wrote how God “cast on them [the Egyptians] the fierceness of His anger, wrath, indignation, and trouble, by sending angels of destruction among them. He made a path for His anger; He did not spare their soul from death, but gave their life over to the plague, and destroyed all the firstborn in Egypt” (78:49-51). Granted, Egypt’s sins were many—from their idolatry, to their mistreatment of the Hebrews, to their refusal to let God’s people leave Egypt—but do not think for a minute that Jehovah had forgotten Egypt’s massacre of Abraham’s innocent descendants. Those precious children were “a heritage from the Lord” (Psalm 127:3). Jehovah had “graciously given” them to Israel (cf. Genesis 33:5). He created them in His own image and gave them life (Genesis 1:26-27; Acts 17:25; Ecclesiastes 12:7)—life that Pharaoh had no right to choose to take from them (only God has that right; see Butt, 2009, 29[12]:89-95).
Three thousand six hundred years ago, Egypt was plagued with baby murderers. From the tyrannical king, to all those who assisted him in drowning Israelite infants in the Nile River, Egypt revealed itself as a bloodthirsty country. (Interestingly, the first punishing plague God sent upon Egypt was turning water to blood, while the last was striking down all of Egypt’s firstborn.) Scripture repeatedly affirms that God detests the sin of murder. In patriarchal times, murder was wrong, and punishable by death: “Whoever sheds man’s blood, by man his blood shall be shed” (Genesis 9:6). Under the Law of Moses, the prohibition of murder was listed as one of the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20:13), and likewise carried a punishment of death (Numbers 35:30). The wisest man who ever lived (aside from Jesus, of course) noted in the Old Testament book of Proverbs: “[T]he Lord hates...hands that shed innocent blood” (6:16-17; cf. 1 Kings 3:12). According to the New Testament, governments have the God-given authority to take away the physical life of murderers (Romans 13:4). Furthermore, impenitent murderers will also “have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death” (Revelation 21:8). From Genesis through Revelation, God emphasized the sanctity of human life, while simultaneously making clear His hot displeasure with those who disregard it.
CREATED IN THE IMAGE OF GOD
In ancient Egypt, only Pharaoh was considered to be like a god, the supposed incarnation of the Sun god, Ra. Pharaoh also was thought to be the sole person who bore “the image of god.” The Egyptian canal digger and the merchant, the taskmaster and the Hebrew slave, all were thought innately inferior because they were not divine image bearers (or so they had been told). Such a designation was not applied to the common man in Egypt, nor anywhere else for that matter. Outside the Bible, archaeologists and historians have never found where mankind in general was said to have been created in the “image” of a particular god. Three Akkadian texts from the Sargonic period of Assyria’s history use the Akkadian cognate of tselem (“image”), but it is employed only in a context where kings are being discussed (Miller, 1972, 91:294-295). The rulers of empires were the sole beings referred to as “images” of gods.
According to the first chapter of the Bible, however, the Creator of the Universe has honored all humans by endowing them with certain qualities that are intrinsic to His nature. Genesis 1:26-27 describes all mankind with language that previously had been applied only to the supreme rulers of nations:
Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female
He created them.
Make no mistake: “In the day that God created man, He made him in the likeness of God” (Genesis 5:1). [For a discussion of what being made in the image of God means, see Lyons and Thompson, 2002.] Thousands of years after Creation, James warned Christians not to curse men because they “are made after the likeness of God” (3:9, ASV, emp. added). [NOTE: The English verb “are made” (ASV) derives from the Greek gegonotas, which is the perfect participle of the verb ginomai. The perfect tense in Greek is used to describe an action brought to completion in the past, but whose effects are felt in the present.] Although Adam and Eve are the only two humans to have been specially created by God (Genesis 2:7,21-22), all humanity shares the honor of being made in God’s likeness—which is why God condemns murder. Following the Flood, God said, “Whoever sheds man’s blood, by man his blood shall be shed; for in the image of God He made man” (Genesis 9:6, emp. added). Murder is forbidden because man is made in the image of God.
The newborns that Pharaoh drowned in ancient Egypt were Divine image bearers. Likewise, the infants that Herod slew some 1,500 years later also bore the likeness of God (Matthew 2:13-17). They were all 100% human beings. They were not rocks or plants. They were not animals. They were not merely blobs of living tissue. They were humans who had been given living spirits by “the Father of spirits” (Hebrews 12:9). What’s more, these babies were pure and sinless. They were (by creation) children of God, who had never separated themselves from Him (Ezekiel 18:20; cf. Matthew 18:3-5), and who now live in the afterlife in paradise (cf. 2 Samuel 12:23).
Pharaoh slaughtered infants for population control purposes. Herod butchered babies in hopes of killing the King of kings. These men were wicked rulers who implemented hideous policies and practices. However, what is taking place in America today is no less revolting. The morally inept leadership of the United States, and those who willfully chose to put them into office, are just as guilty as the bloodthirsty, tyrannical baby killers of the past. Why? Because every year in America far more babies are brutally murdered than were killed in Egypt and Palestine in the days of Moses and Jesus.
More than one million innocent, unborn children are slaughtered each year in the United States of America (“Facts...,” 2008). In 2008, Guttmacher Institute reported that “from 1973 through 2005, more than 45 million legal abortions occurred” (“Facts...”). Forty-five million! That is more people than currently reside in Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and Tennessee...combined. The murder of unborn children has occurred with such frequency since the Supreme Court legalized abortion in 1973 that few people ever stop to consider the brutality involved. I recently became aware of one high school student who went to school pregnant, left to have an abortion, then returned to finish the school day. (No, her parents were not informed of her “choice” beforehand.) “Just a casual procedure in a doctor’s office, that’s all it was.”
In truth, there is nothing casual about the slaughter of an innocent child. Have you ever considered what mothers and doctors do in order to abort a baby? (Most abortionists don’t want you to know, much less see, how abortions are performed!) In a murderous abortion procedure called “suction aspiration,” doctors use a knife-like device, and suction from a powerful hose and pump (“29 times more powerful than a household vacuum cleaner”—“Abortion Methods,” 2010), to chop and suck a baby out of the mother’s womb. In the “dilation and evacuation” abortion procedure, doctors actually use plier-like devices to twist and tear four-month-old unborn babies into pieces. Usually this requires crushing the baby’s skull and snapping the child’s spine in order to extract them. When mothers choose to abort their unborn babies who are older than four months, doctors often use a procedure called “saline injection” (i.e., salt poisoning). The strong salt solution that doctors inject through the mother’s abdomen acts as a corrosive and burns the baby inside and out. Normally, the child will suffer for an hour or more before dying. However, in some cases the children survive and are born alive. In most of these instances, they are helplessly left to themselves to die outside the womb. Still, a few have survived and lived to tell their story (see “Gianna Jessen,” 2006). When performing partial-birth abortions doctors normally deliver all of the baby except the head, then puncture the base of the skull with a pair of scissors, before removing the child’s brain with a hollow tube (“Abortion Methods,” 2010). This is sick! This is sadistic! Today’s abortions make Pharaoh’s command to cast the neonatal Israelites into the river sound like compassionate killing. No doubt, the cries of America’s innocent infants are being heard by the Creator. The shed blood of these blameless babies has been witnessed by our holy, just God who “hates...hands that shed innocent blood” (Proverbs 6:16-17).
THE HUMANITY OF THE UNBORN
Some people believe that unborn humans at various embryonic stages are more animal-like than human. Ernst Haeckel first proposed this idea in the latter part of the 1800s. He insisted that what lived inside a woman during her pregnancy was not human until the latter part of the gestation period. Even though science disproved Haeckel’s ridiculous idea long ago, it is a myth “popular culture has never fully abandoned” (Gould, 2000, 109[2]:44). Sadly, some pro-abortionists still try to comfort themselves by insisting that the human embryo may be going through the stages of our alleged evolutionary ancestors, and thus they supposedly are not really human when aborted (see Jackson, n.d.). Other pro-abortionists seem happy to just take a “leap of faith” and hope that what is inside a pregnant woman is not a living, human being. Still others, like pro-abortion President Barak Obama, claim not to know when an unborn child is fully human. In a Presidential Candidates Forum on August 16, 2008, President Obama declared that knowing when an unborn child deserves human rights is “above my pay grade” (“Saddleback...”). Though the President claims ignorance on the matter, his hypocritical actions speak volumes: he still strongly supports pro-abortion policies. If President Obama truly does not know when an unborn infant deserves human rights, then why is he “a consistent champion” of allowing millions of Americans to mutilate their unborn children (“Women,” 2009)?
The fact is, common sense, science, and Scripture all show that an unborn embryo/baby is a living, human being. Do nonliving beings hiccup, suck their thumbs, or respond to touch, pain, cold, sound, and light? Of course not. Yet unborn babies do all of these things (see “Fetal Development,” 2003). They have a beating heart and a working brain. They are, beyond any doubt, living, human beings! Only the cold, callous heart would think otherwise. [For information on life beginning at conception, see Major, 1995.]
Although she recanted her views about abortion several years ago, relatively few people know that “Jane Roe,” the pseudonym that Norma McCorvey assumed as the lead plaintiff in the infamous Roe v. Wade case, no longer supports abortion. After over 20 years of supporting the pro-abortion platform, McCorvey suddenly began opposing abortion and has been for several years now. Why did this pro-abortion poster child become pro-life? What led to her change in thinking? Why does she now adamantly oppose the slaughtering of innocent unborn babies? According to McCorvey, the “straw that broke the camel’s back” came while she was working in an abortion clinic and was instructed to enter a room where aborted fetuses were kept. Her assignment was to count the body parts of an infant that had just been aborted—to make sure the doctor had retrieved the entire baby from the mother’s womb. McCorvey, who had previously worked in at least three other abortion clinics, stated, “I went back to the parts room, and I looked at this tiny little infant, and I freaked” (as quoted in McGrew, 2002, emp. added). “Jane Roe,” the woman who symbolized a woman’s right to have an abortion (i.e., Roe v. Wade), was forced to look upon the body parts of an aborted “fetus” and became convinced that it was a human being. Why? Because it looked like a human being. Unborn babies look like humans beings because they are human beings!
When Samuel Armas was a 21-week unborn baby, USA Today photojournalist Michael Clancy snapped what arguably would become the most famous pre-natal photograph ever. On August 19, 1999, Dr. Joseph Bruner, of Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tennessee, performed spina bifida surgery on Samuel while he was in utero. During the surgery, Samuel, who was only about half way through the normal gestation period, was pictured with his tiny hand resting on one of the doctor’s fingers. Samuel was born 15 weeks later. When Samuel’s surgery was first reported more than 10 years ago, many eyes were opened to the preciousness and humanity of early unborn children (for more information, see Miller, 2009). More recently, however, another baby, who further testifies to the humanity of unborn children, captured the headlines. Her name: Amillia Sonja Taylor. She was born on October 24, 2006 in south Florida. What makes Amillia so special? Doctors believe she “spent less time in the womb than any other surviving infant” (“Florida Baby...,” 2007). Amillia’s mother, Sonja, carried Amillia for less than 22 weeks. At delivery, she was only 9½ inches long and weighed less than a can of soda. But, she was a living human being. Four months later, Amillia weighed 4½ pounds, was 15½ inches long, and was almost ready to go home for the very first time (“Doctors Extend...”). Two years later, she was a healthy toddler (“Amillia...”).
Amillia did not turn into a human 15 to 18 weeks later—when most babies are delivered—she was a human at 22 weeks, had been human since she was conceived, and deserved rights like any other human. She was not lifeless matter—a mere blob of tissue. She was not a plant. She was not an animal. She was a living, growing human being. Millions of “Samuel Armases” and “Amillia Taylors” have been brutally mutilated on the holy grail of a “woman’s right to choose.” How can anyone look at pictures of an unborn child such as Samuel Armas, or a 10-ounce baby such as Amillia Taylor, and come to the conclusion that at 22 weeks old they are not human beings?
Consider some things that science has discovered about unborn babies in the first trimester of a mother’s pregnancy.
Day 22—heart begins to beat with the child’s own blood, often a different type than the mother’s
Week 5—eyes, legs, hands begin to develop
Week 6—brain waves detectable; mouth, lips present; fingernails forming
Week 7—eyelids, toes form; nose distinct, baby kicking and swimming
Week 8—every organ in place; bones begin to replace cartilage, fingerprints begin to form
Weeks 9 and 10—teeth begin to form, fingernails develop; baby can turn head, frown
Week 11—baby can grasp objects placed in hand; all organ systems functioning; the baby has fingerprints, a skeletal structure, nerves, and circulation
Week 12—the baby has all of the parts necessary to experience pain, including the nerves, spinal cord and thalamus (“Diary of an Unborn Baby,” n.d.).
In addition to the support that common sense and science give for the living humanity of unborn children, Scripture is equally clear on the subject. Seven hundred years before Christ, the prophet Isaiah said of himself: “Before I was born the Lord called me; from my birth he has made mention of my name” (49:1, emp. added). Similarly, several years later, the prophet Jeremiah spoke of how the Lord knew of him in utero: “Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying: ‘Before I formed you in the womb I knew you; before you were born I sanctified you; I ordained you a prophet to the nations’” (Jeremiah 1:5, emp. added). The Creator of life has testified through inspiration that He views pre-born infants as living, human beings—real people whom He calls, sanctifies, and ordains. Had the mothers of Isaiah and Jeremiah aborted them, they would have been unlawfully taking the lives of precious children.
God made this equally clear in the Law of Moses. In fact, he specifically addressed the life and value of an unborn child in Exodus 21:22-23. He informed Moses: “If men fight, and hurt a woman with child, so that she gives birth prematurely, yet no harm follows, he shall surely be punished accordingly as the woman’s husband imposes on him; and he shall pay as the judges determine. But if any harm follows, then you shall give life for life.” Notice how God equates the life of all humans—both the unborn and the already born: “life for life,” He said. If God did not view a “premature” baby as a living human being, then one could not take “life for life.” Rather, it would be more like “a living human for a blob of matter.” But unborn children are not merely blobs of tissue; they are lovely, living, human beings (cf. Miller, 2004).
When the angel Gabriel informed Mary about the pregnancy of her cousin, Elizabeth, the angel of God said that she had “conceived” (Luke 1:36). Conceived what? What was inside of Elizabeth? A mass of meaningless matter? A non-living non-human? An animal evolving into a person? What had Elizabeth conceived? Gabriel informed Mary that Elizabeth had “conceived a son.” What’s more, when Mary went to visit Elizabeth prior to the births of John the Baptizer and Jesus, Luke, the physician, called the unborn baby in Elizabeth’s womb a “babe,” and even noted that he “leaped in her womb” (Luke 1:41,44). Luke used this term (Greek brephos) at least four other times. Twice he used it in reference to Jesus lying in a manger after His birth (Luke 2:12,16), once when referring to young infants whose parents had sought the Lord’s blessings (Luke 18:15), and once in reference to the babies that Pharaoh had exposed in ancient Egypt (Acts 7:19; cf. Exodus 1:22).
In each of these cases, brephos refers to children, to boys and girls, to sons and daughters—to living human beings whom the psalmist said are fearfully and wonderfully made, formed, and woven by Almighty God (139:13-16). Man should be careful tampering with Jehovah’s creation whom He fashions in His image!
AMERICA, ABORTION, AND THE ABSURD
Mommas Can Murder, But Daddies Can’t?
Few things enrage a community more than finding out that a pregnant woman has been murdered. Towns struck with such an atrocity often rise up and declare that justice must be served: “Violators should be charged with two counts of murder, not just one.” In recent times, men committing such heinous crimes have been charged with double murder. From Missouri to California, from Ohio to Utah, prosecutors have been pushing for maximum penalties by charging men, who allegedly have killed their pregnant wives (or girlfriends), with two counts of murder. Just last year, a California man was convicted of murdering both a mother and her unborn baby after he brutally stabbed the mother (and child) repeatedly with scissors (Ertelt, 2009).
It is encouraging to know that our judicial system has seen fit to prosecute those who murder unborn babies, and to make the guilty pay the highest penalties allowed. In these situations, our judicial system has treated the unborn baby as he/she really is—a human being. “A person guilty of murdering an unborn child is guilty of murdering a person.” This is what we are being told over and over again by those who seek to charge men, who take the lives of a woman and her unborn baby, with double murder.
But wait a minute! How can an unborn child be considered a human being in one situation (when a man takes the life of a woman and her baby), but then, when a pregnant woman wants to take the life of her unborn child, the baby becomes an “appendage” of the mother’s body? “The baby is not a human being, just an extra lump of tissue that the mother can discard at will.” If the father intentionally kicks a baby while in the mother’s womb, killing the child, he likely will be sentenced to prison, or possibly to death (and rightly so—Genesis 9:6). On the other hand, if a mother goes to an abortion clinic and pays a doctor to insert an instrument into her uterus literally to pull and shred the baby into pieces, snapping the spinal cord, and crushing the skull, she has done nothing illegal.
How, in the name of common sense, can our courts rule that when a woman takes the life of her own child, “it is a choice,” but when someone else takes that life, “it is murder”? Such reasoning makes no sense. Abortion-rights activists, at least, are consistent in this regard. As Heather Boonstra, senior public policy associate at the Alan Guttmacher Institute, stated: “The law cannot hold both that a pregnant woman is two persons and at the same time allow her to have an abortion” (as quoted in Simon, 2001).
Inhumane to Kill Dogs, but not Humans?
In August 2007, many people, including myself, were disappointed to learn that a well-known professional football player (Michael Vick) plead guilty to sponsoring, financing, and participating in the brutal sport of dog fighting. Vick even admitted that he was partly responsible for hanging and drowning a number of dogs that did not perform well in certain “test” fights (see United States v. Michael Vick). For his crimes, Vick was sentenced to 23 months behind bars, most of which were served in a federal prison in Leavenworth, Kansas.
I certainly believe that Vick’s actions (i.e., the drowning of dogs, etc.) can be described as appalling and somewhat sadistic. What’s more, he knowingly participated in a sport which has been outlawed in every state in America. He deserved some kind of punishment for his actions. But, we must recognize that Vick’s acts were done against animals. Though dogs may be “man’s best friend” (and I happen to love dogs), they still are just animals—not humans. They are every bit as much an animal as cows, crows, chickens, deer, monkeys, horses, and pigs.
How absurd, inconsistent, and immoral is the United States’ judicial system when a person must serve nearly two years in prison for fighting, hanging, and drowning animals, yet,
if a woman slaughters a 22-week-old unborn human, she supposedly is blameless. The fact that doctors in the United States can legally rip unborn babies to pieces, chop them up with knife-like devices, or puncture their skulls with a pair of scissors before sucking out their brains, is atrocious. Are we to believe that Vick’s actions against dogs were “inhumane,” but what happens to approximately one million innocent, unborn babies every year in America is not? What could be more inhumane than willfully, selfishly, arrogantly, and brutally taking the life of a human—one of God’s image-bearers (Genesis 1:26-27; 9:6)? Baby murderers freely walk the streets of America every day, but dog fighters are jailed for inhumane acts—against animals? How absurd!
Overpopulation Problem?
Don’t Pollute the Planet with Babies?
More than 3,500 years ago, Pharaoh observed that the children of Israel were growing and multiplying so rapidly that he became fearful of problems such a large number of slaves might cause. Exodus chapter one makes clear that Pharaoh gave two separate execution orders upon Israel’s newborn sons because of what he perceived as an overpopulation problem. Sadly, such “reasoning” is still used today.
In 2006, evolutionary environmentalist Dr. Eric Pianka was named the Distinguished Texas Scientist of the Year. At his award ceremony in Beaumont, Texas, attendee Forrest Mims reported how Pianka
began laying out his concerns about how human overpopulation is ruining the Earth. He presented a doomsday scenario in which he claimed that the sharp increase in human population since the beginning of the industrial age is devastating the planet. He warned that quick steps must be taken to restore the planet before it’s too late. Professor Pianka said the Earth as we know it will not survive without drastic measures. Then, and without presenting any data to justify this number, he asserted that the only feasible solution to saving the Earth is to reduce the population to 10 percent of the present number.... His favorite candidate for eliminating 90 percent of the world’s population is airborne Ebola (Ebola Reston), because it is both highly lethal and it kills in days, instead of years (Mims; cf. Butt, 2008).
Most people find Dr. Pianka’s suggestions insane. Who in his right mind would propose spreading airborne Ebola around the planet for the purpose of reducing the world’s population? Ridiculous? Before dismissing Texas’ 2006 “Distinguished Scientist” as a raving lunatic, consider a more palatable form of population reduction.
In 1977, Paul and Anne Ehrlich and John Holdren (who currently serves as President Obama’s “science czar”) penned a book titled: Ecoscience: Population, Resources, and Environment. In the book, Holdren and the Ehrlichs assert that “there exists ample authority under which population growth could be regulated.... [U]nder the United States Constitution, effective population-control programs could be enacted” (p. 1280). What kind of “population-control programs” exactly? They specifically noted: “compulsory population-control laws, even including laws requiring compulsory abortion,” which “could be sustained under the existing constitution if the population crisis became sufficiently severe to endanger society” (p. 1280, emp. added). Is there really much difference between the Pharaoh of Exodus one and President Obama’s science czar (cf. Matthew 5:21-22; 15:18)?
The United Kingdom’s Daily Mail ran a story a few years back about a woman (Toni Vernelli) who “terminated her pregnancy in the firm belief she was helping save the planet” (as quoted in Courtenay-Smith and Turner, 2007, emp. added). According to Vernelli, “Having children is selfish.... Every person who is born uses more food, more water, more land, more fossil fuels, more trees and produces more rubbish, more pollution, more greenhouse gases, and adds to the problem of over-population” (2007). Vernelli indicated her desire to “save the planet—not produce a new life which would only add to the problem.” She went on to describe procreation as “something negative” and claimed that there were many others with similar planet-saving ideas. The Daily Mail concurred, saying, “Toni is far from alone” (2007).
Thirty-one-year-old Sarah Irving was in complete agreement with Vernelli. “[A] baby,” she said, “would pollute the planet.... [N]ever having a child was the most environmentally friendly thing I could do” (2007, emp. added). Sarah and her fiancé Mark Hudson told the Daily Mail, “In short, we do everything we can to reduce our carbon footprint. But all this would be undone if we had a child.... It would be morally wrong for me to add to climate change and the destruction of Earth” (emp. added). In the minds of environmentalists and atheists, including Freedom from Religion’s President Dan Barker, murdering unborn children can be considered “progress” and a “blessing” (see Barker, 1992, p. 135; see also Barker and Rankin, 2006), while bringing children into the world may be “negative” and “morally wrong.”
Some 2,700 years ago, the prophet Isaiah warned of those “who call evil good, and good evil; who put darkness for light, and light for darkness; who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter...who are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight” (5:20-21). Sadly, Isaiah’s description of the ungodly fits America to a tee. In this country, we call unbridled lust “love,” we describe immodest apparel as “stylish,” we refer to homosexuals as being “gay,” and baby murderers we call “pro-choice”—protectors of “women’s rights.” (Whatever happened to children’s rights?)
What will become of those who “call evil good, and good evil”? What is God’s reaction to those who “rejoice in iniquity” rather than truth (1 Corinthians 13:6)? Isaiah spoke of God’s judgments and punishment:
Therefore, as the fire devours the stubble, and the flame consumes the chaff, so their root will be as rottenness, and their blossom will ascend like dust; because they have rejected the law of the Lord of hosts, and despised the word of the Holy One of Israel. Therefore the anger of the Lord is aroused against His people; He has stretched out His hand against them and stricken them, and the hills trembled. Their carcasses were as refuse in the midst of the streets (5:24-25).
According to the psalmist, “The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God” (9:17).
Both the Bible and history teach us that God does not tolerate wicked, bloodthirsty nations forever. He destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah with fire from heaven. He raised a mighty army to punish the wicked inhabitants of Canaan (Deuteronomy 9:4; 18:9-12). He sent “angels of destruction” upon Egypt, and gave them “over to the plague, and destroyed all the firstborn” (Psalm 78:49,51). What will be America’s fate? If our “Christian” country’s murderous methods do not cease, what can we expect? We can expect that God will severely judge our nation in this life, while individually rendering “each one according to his deeds” in the afterlife (Romans 2:5-10). In the meantime, may our longsuffering Savior grant Christians the courage to “take up the whole armor of God” and “be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might” (Ephesians 6:13,10).
“Abortion Methods” (2010), http://www.lifesitenews.com/abortiontypes/.
“Amillia Turns Two” (2008), http://growingyourbaby.blogspot.com/2008/10/amillia-taylor-turns-2.html.
Barker, Dan (1992), Losing Faith in Faith: From Preacher to Atheist (Madison, WI: Freedom From Religion Foundation).
Barker, Dan and John Rankin (2006), “Evolution and Intelligent Design: What are the Issues?” http://www.ffrf.org/about/bybarker/ID_Debate.mp3.
Butt, Kyle (2008), “The Bitter Fruits of Atheism [Part 1],” Reason & Revelation, 28[7]:49-55, July, http://www.apologeticspress.org/articles/3740.
Butt, Kyle (2009), “Is God Immoral for Killing Innocent Children?” Reason & Revelation, 29[12]:89-95, December.
Courtenay-Smith, Natasha and Morag Turner (2007), “Meet the Women Who Won’t Have Babies—Because They’re Not Eco Friendly,” Daily Mail, November 21, http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/femail/article.html?in_article_id=495495&in_page_id=1879.
“Diary of an Unborn Baby” (no date), National Right to Life Foundation, http://www.nrlc.org/abortion/facts/fetusdevelopment.html.
“Doctors Extend Hospital Stay of Tiniest Premature Baby” (2007), Associated Press, February 20, http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,252878,00.html.
Ehrlich, Paul, Anne Ehrlich, and John Holdren (1977), Ecoscience: Population, Resources, and Environment (San Francisco, CA: W.H. Freeman and Company), http://www.scribd.com/doc/22480029/Ecoscience-Population-Resources-Environment-1649-Pgs-John-holdren.
Ertelt, Steven (2009), “California Man Convicted Killing Both Pregnant Girlfriend and Unborn Child,” http://www.lifenews.com/state4210.html.
“Facts on Induced Abortions in the United Sates” (2008), Alan Guttmacher Institute, http://www.agi-usa.org/pubs/fb_induced_abortion.pdf.
“Fetal Development: From Conception to Birth” (2003), National Right to Life, http://www.nrlc.org/abortion/facts/fetaldevelopment.html.
“Florida Baby Delivered at 21 Weeks Won’t Go Home as Planned” (2007), Associated Press, February 20, http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2007-02-20-tiny-baby_x.htm.
“Gianna Jessen” (2006), http://www.abortionfacts.com/survivors/giannajessen.asp.
Gould, Stephen Jay (2000), “Abscheulich! (Atrocious),” Natural History, 109[2]:42-50, March.
Jackson, Wayne (no date), “The ‘Link’ Between Evolution and Abortion,” Christian Courier, http://www.christiancourier.com/articles/958-the-link-between-evolution-and-abortion.
Lyons, Eric and Bert Thompson (2002), “In the ‘Image and Likeness of God’ [Parts I/II],” Reason & Revelation, March/April, 22:17-23,25-31.
Major, Trevor (1995), “The Value of Early Human Life,” Reason & Revelation, 15[2]:9-15, February, http://www.apologeticspress.org/articles/259.
McGrew, Jannel (2002), “‘Jane Roe’ Tells Story of Change at Fundraiser,” Prattville Progress, May 1.
Miller, Dave (2004), “Abortion and Exodus 21,” http://www.apologeticspress.org/articles/2598.
Miller, J. Maxwell (1972), “In the ‘Image’ and ‘Likeness’ of God,” Journal of Biblical Literature, September, 91:289-304.
Miller, Joshua Rhett (2009), “Ten Years Later, Boy’s ‘Hand of Hope’ Continues to Spark Debate,” Fox News, May 6, http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,519181,00.html.
Mims, Forrest (2006), “Dealing with Doctor Doom,” The Citizen Scientist, http://www.sas.org/tcs/weeklyIssues_2006/2006-04-07/feature1p/index.html.
“Saddleback Presidential Candidates Forum” (2008), August 16, http://www.clipsandcomment.com/2008/08/17/full-transcript-saddleback-presidential-forum-sen-barack-obama-john-mccain-moderated-by-rick-warren/.
Simon, Stephanie (2001), “Debate Grows on Whether Fetuses Should Have Special Legal Status,” Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 6A, June 17, http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1683&dat=20010617&id=G8AaAAAAIBAJ&sjid=XjAEAAAAIBAJ&pg=6739,6695111.
United States v. Michael Vick (2007), 3:07CR274, http://sports.espn.go.com/photo/2007/0824/vicksummary.pdf.
“Women” (2009), The White House, http://www.whitehouse.gov/agenda/women.
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Dinosaur Poster: "Down" (James 3:7)
Receiving the Gift of Salvation
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Imonti Modern
Imonti Modern seeks to recount a previously untold narrative of East London’s Coloured and African locations after the Second World War and before these communities were ripped apart in the early 1960s by apartheid-era forced removals. Photographs, poems and oral accounts by former residents portray their public and cultural life in the city’s locations on the East and West Banks of the Buffalo River. In their own words and through their own pictures, these stories reveal how African residents created their own styles and forms of dress, music, leisure and home-making to forge a unique urban culture. How they created and occupied public spaces at the beach, in the dance hall, on the rugby pitch, in the boxing ring and at church and school. How they forged new social identities from the forms of consumption and aspiration that they found in the surrounding city. It also shows how their popular imagination was fired by the cultural and political example of black America, which offered hope for greater civic participation in a modern, developing world.
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State Representative Bryan Terry
New Year, New Session, New Hopes
The results of the most recent election cycle are set to take effect this month as the latest round of federal elected officials were sworn in at our nation’s Capitol last week and our state officials will be sworn in today in Nashville. With significant change at the state and federal levels including a new Governor and General Assembly, renewed hope springs for citizens across the state and across the nation. While I have serious doubts and reservations for progress at the federal level with Pelosi as the Speaker of the House, Tennessee is in position to further improve our standing as a leader in our nation. I’m looking forward to the opportunity and the challenge.
Throughout my time in service to our community, our shared values have been consistent and I expect this session to have a strong focus on many of our concerns. Below is a primer for this session with some topics I expect to be discussed.
Safety: School safety and judicial reform will be on the agenda.
Health: TennCare oversight and review may lead to some significant improvements in the system. Health insurance and prescription costs will be discussed. Mental health, opioids, and medical cannabis will, also, be on our agenda.
Affordability: Keeping Tennessee a low tax state will be a priority.
Recreation and Tourism: A sports gambling bill has been offered and will be discussed.
Education: Testing, funding, teacher recruitment, school choice, and higher education costs are expected to be discussed.
Voice: Transparency, accountability, and open government will garner more attention, as citizen groups continue to bring awareness to these issues.
Agriculture: With hemp legalization at the federal level and agricultural medicine becoming a booming market, I expect there to be discussions on the impact on Tennessee and how we can help our rural communities compete.
Liberties: I expect free speech, second amendment, and personal liberties to experience legislation on various fronts. A “red flag” bill has already been proposed.
Unborn: More pro-life legislation is expected to be filed this session. One can look at recent successful measures from other states to ascertain what to expect.
Economy: Removing barriers to employment and entrepreneurship will be amongst the priorities of the General Assembly.
Security: Democrats may attempt to attract illegal immigration to Tennessee, but don’t look for those bills to gain much traction.
More than likely, there will be over 1000 bills filed. As we get into session, look for my weekly update on Facebook.
With Liberty,
Dr. Bryan Terry
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Filed Under: NEWS Tagged With: Bryan Terry, Dr. Bryan Terry, Representative Bryan Terry
Rep. Bryan Terry and Sen. Mark Green Aim to Block In-State Tuition for Illegal Aliens
NASHVILLE, March 19, 2018– While others are looking to pass in-state tuition for illegal immigrants, Representative Bryan Terry (R-Murfreesboro) and Senator Mark Green (R-Clarksville) are fighting against it with their own bill, HB 2101/SB 2031, which is set to be heard this week in the House and Senate Education Committees.
Current federal law defines post secondary education assistance from state funds as a state benefit. Illegal immigrants are prohibited from receiving a state benefit unless a state explicitly defines an exclusion. Current state law references the federal code, but does not codify post secondary assistance as a state benefit. Senator Green and Representative Terry are looking to clearly define that in-state tuition is a “state or local benefit” which will reaffirm that illegal immigrants are not eligible for in-state tuition in Tennessee.
“Tennesseans have made it abundantly clear that they do not want their tax dollars to subsidize college tuition for those who are in our country illegally,” Green stated. “Families across our state are struggling with the ever-rising costs of tuition, and the last thing they want to see is their tax dollars being used to pay tuition for illegal aliens.”
“In-state tuition only covers between 25-75 percent of the cost to provide the college education. Taxpayer funds support the rest. That is clearly a state benefit,” explained Terry. “Any attempt to exclude post secondary assistance in the definition of a state benefit is contrary to the facts and our bill will ensure taxpayers are protected.”
Though not specifically mentioned, Representative Terry’s comments allude to the current effort by other lawmakers to provide in-state tuition for illegal immigrants. That bill, HB 2429/ SB 2263, attempts to subvert federal and state law by exempting post secondary assistance from the definition of a state benefit.
(d) The exemption from paying the out-of-state tuition in this section affirmatively satisfies the express eligibility requirement of 8 U.S.C. § 1621(d).
“There are U.S. citizens who live out of state, but pay business or property taxes in Tennessee. They still must pay out of state tuition,” continued Terry. “We shouldn’t be incentivizing illegal immigrants to take advantage of Tennessee taxpayers when we don’t even provide a courtesy to Americans who are investing in our state.”
“It’s particularly outrageous for illegal aliens to receive in-state tuition while the child of an American veteran who lives in another state has to pay the full cost of tuition to attend our colleges and universities. As President Trump has made clear, it’s time to put America first,” concluded Green.
The bill is set to be heard on Tuesday in the House and Wednesday in the Senate. You can contact your representative or senator with the information on the Tennessee General Assembly’s website and ask for them to co-sponsor HB 2101/ SB 2031. http://www.capitol.tn.gov
Filed Under: NEWS Tagged With: Bryan Terry, College Tuition, Dr. Bryan Terry, Dr. Mark Green, Illegal Immigration, Mark Green, Representative Bryan Terry, Senator Mark Green, Tennessee
Physician Legislators Bryan Terry & Steve Dickerson Take Aim at Tennessee’s Opioid Crisis
Rep. Bryan Terry, MD (District 48)
(NASHVILLE) Aug. 7, 2017— With Tennessee and the entire United States in the middle of an opioid crisis, State Representative Bryan Terry, MD (R-Murfreesboro) and Senator Steve Dickerson, MD (R-Nashville) are working on new legislation in order to curb unlawful production and distribution of powerful opioids like fentanyl, sufentanil, and carfentanil.
Fentanyl is 100 times more potent than morphine; sufentanil and carfentanil are respectively 1,000 and 10,000 times more potent than morphine. Terry and Dickerson are both anesthesiologists who have extensive experience working with these drugs in their medical practices. They understand the appropriate uses for each, as well as potential side effects and dangerous risks associated with them.
“The budgetary funding proposal brought forth by President Trump and Congress, as well as the Opioid Task Force created by Tennessee House Speaker Beth Harwell (R-Nashville) has raised awareness of the severity of opioid abuse and the health risks associated with these drugs for our residents,” said Representative Terry. “As Chairman of the Health Subcommittee and the only member of the House who has extensively used these medicines in treating patients, I am looking at ways to help address this growing epidemic.”
“No one in the Tennessee General Assembly understands these medications better than Dr. Terry and I,” said Senator Dickerson. “When they are used properly, these medications provide tremendous benefits to patients; when they end up on streets in our communities across Tennessee, they become very dangerous. This new legislation enables us to address our state’s opioid crisis from a new angle.”
While fentanyl and sufentanil are readily available in hospitals across Tennessee, they and carfentanil are reportedly being manufactured in other countries and brought into the United States illegally where they are sold to Tennesseans. There are reports of these opioids being used to lace heroin, cocaine, and marijuana. This can increase the risk of addiction, death, and babies born with Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome (NAS). Recently, a Tennessee drug bust resulted in the confiscation of over 100,000 pills containing fentanyl.
“Not only do we have an opioid problem from prescription drugs in Tennessee but we have an addiction problem as well,” said Representative Terry. “We need to work on that end of the equation; however, if we don’t also address high-powered narcotics like fentanyl and sufentanil on the streets, then we won’t be working on all sides of this issue.”
Terry stated that the legislation he and Dickerson are working on is currently in draft form, and they are waiting to file it. In the meantime, they will continue to work with the Opioid Task Force, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI), the Tennessee Association of Chiefs of Police (TACP), medical organizations, and the governor’s staff in an effort to find comprehensive solutions to address this dangerous epidemic.
“With the opioid crisis paralyzing Tennessee, my colleagues and I will leave no stone unturned as we work to combat this serious issue,” said Speaker Harwell. “Representative Terry and Senator Dickerson’s knowledge and expertise will help us find solutions once and for all, and I appreciate their efforts in helping us address this matter.”
Bryan Terry, MD serves as Chairman of the House Health Subcommittee, as well as a member of the House Health and Civil Justice Committees. He lives in Murfreesboro and represents House District 48, which includes the eastern half of Rutherford County. Terry can be reached by calling (615) 741-2180 or emailing: Rep.Bryan.Terry@capitol.tn.gov.
Filed Under: NEWS Tagged With: District 48, Dr. Bryan Terry, Dr. Steve Dickerson, Opiod, Representative Bryan Terry, Rutherford County, Senator Steve Dickerson, Tennessee
DR. TERRY: MEETING THE GOALS OF OUR COMMUNITY
AUGUST, 2016– Rep. Bryan Terry’s process to find solutions has been well documented. His businesslike approach involving identifying the premise, goals, and feasibility of options has provided District 48 with consistent and proven representation. As his method works for finding solutions, Dr. Terry states that voters can use the same process when selecting a candidate for which they will cast their vote and knowing one’s goals is instrumental in being satisfied with their choice.
“Voters of all demographics have different needs and priorities. District 48 is very unique in that we have suburbs, MTSU, farms, and some inner city areas. Having walked the district multiple times speaking to thousands of constituents allows me to understand the needs and priorities of our community. Identifying the goals of our citizens allows me to better serve our district,” explained Rep. Bryan Terry
One such group of citizens is millennials. Echoing the feelings of many his age, Beau Brown, a current MTSU student and graduate of Central Magnet, stated “Millennials like me want to be heard and not discounted. It means something to us for our elected officials to actually listen to us. We, also, are concerned about debt and the economy. We want careers when we graduate, and not to be burdened by high taxes to pay off debt.”
Brown went on to say that Rep. Terry has done a great job of reaching out to our youth. Rep. Terry worked with Central Magnet students to co-sponsor the “Right to Try Act” and with MTSU students to co-sponsor the “Racial Profiling Prevention Act”. He was the only legislator to work with students in such a capacity. He, also, hosts an art contest for high school students. Whether attending forums at MTSU or giving talks to high school and college students, Rep. Terry has been actively involved with our youth. This fall he is slated to speak at the annual Urban Youth Leadership Conference and to the MTSU College Republicans.
Carla Marston, a Wilson Elementary parent, said her goals are being met. “As a parent of students in public school and someone involved with school activities, I want my elected official to listen to parents and advocate for our concerns. Rep. Terry has been very active at the Capitol. He’s very responsive, and definitely willing to take a stand.” She cites Rep. Terry’s willingness to not only stand up for parents, teachers, and students at the state level, but at the local level, as well. Whether it is filing amendments and bills or speaking directly to the Governor or the school board, Rep Terry is known for speaking up and getting results.
Jackie Archer, a long time resident of Rutherford County, said, “As a grandparent, I’m mainly concerned about two issues: my grandkids and stretching out my retirement. Rep. Terry has done an admirable job as a representative and has been effective in helping with those goals.” As a constituent, Mrs. Archer teamed with Rep. Terry to effect change change with the textbook adoption process. Together, they were able to get the Tennessee Department of Education change their process in order to have more parental input at the local level. Mrs. Archer, also, praises Rep. Terry earning the title of Taxpayer Hero from American’s for Prosperity.
Wendy Hiett, a nurse, and Mike, her husband and MTSU professor, own a farm in Christiana. “We farm, and we vote. It’s encouraging to have a representative that supports our rural community, but, also can articulate the needs of the entire district including MTSU,” said Wendy. Echoing those sentiments Mike stated, “Bryan is the kind of statesman that people want and that we need.”
Rep. Bryan Terry grew up in a blue collar auto salvage family with a family farm, and is currently a physician at St. Thomas Rutherford Hospital. He is the only Native American in the Tennessee General Assembly and is the current State Representative for District 48. “It’s my hope that people can see that with such a diverse district, that we need someone who is able to meet the goals of the constituency. I think that when people know my background and see my results, they know I am doing just that,” explained Rep. Terry.
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Filed Under: NEWS Tagged With: Bryan Terry, District 48, Dr. Bryan Terry, Representative Bryan Terry, Tennessee
Rep. Bryan Terry: Review Of 3rd Annual 2016 Empower Women Event
Rep. Sheila Butt Honored At 3rd Annual Empowering Women Event
MURFREESBORO, May 3, 2016– The 3rd Annual Empowering Women Event, hosted by Rep. Bryan Terry and Rep. Dawn White, was held Saturday, April 30 at Sportscom in Murfreesboro. A multitude of women attended to learn about how they can get involved at the local and state levels, as well as how they can make a positive impact on policy and procedures. The event featured keynote speaker Republican Majority Floor Leader Sheila Butt. Other speakers included Rutherford County Chamber of Commerce Vice President of Operations Stephanie Brackman, and MTSU College Republican President Jami Averwater.
“By all accounts, the event was a success. Our speakers did a fantastic job inspiring our attendees, and showing them where and how to get involved. It’s my hope to continue to grow the event to help women of all ages in our community know the impact that they can make,” stated Rep. Bryan Terry
Rep. Butt gave a moving speech that drew praise from the hosts and attendees. From job creation to pro-life issues to Constitutional rights, she covered a wide array of issues with a message on how one can and should be bold and unafraid to take a stand. With several Rutherford County General Sessions judicial candidates in the audience, she spoke of the negative effects of judicial activism and the need to elect judges that are Constitutionally sound.
“I was honored to take part in such a great event. It is very encouraging to see leaders like Representatives Terry and White host this kind of community outreach, and it was even more encouraging to receive such positive feedback from women after the event,” commented Rep. Butt.
The event attracted women of all ages including college students and retirees. Jami Averwater, a MTSU senior, spoke to the crowd about various avenues to get involved. She spoke of our current situations in society and how women of all ages can make a difference for the future of Tennessee. Rep. White, in her comments, reiterated and expanded on the speech of Averwater explaining the various opportunities for women in the community for women.
Stephanie Brackman, in an engaging speech which included some of her struggles during her youth, spoke of building relationships in the community and how these relationships can impact everything from one’s business to public policy. With her diverse background and road to becoming Vice President of Operations of the Rutherford County Chamber of Commerce, she provided attendees with an example of how one can use their skills to lead and get involved.
With his training in Self Governance, Rep. Terry echoed the importance of relationship building as one looks to impact policy or influence one’s elected officials. Terry encouraged all those in attendance to reach out to their elected officials and build a relationship with them. “As citizens, we have the Constitutional authority to have our voices heard, but having a positive relationship with our elected officials improves the chances that the elected official will take action. I, always, enjoy having the opportunity to teach others how to exert control over government,” commented Rep. Terry.
With Tennessee having many Republican women leaders, from Speaker Beth Harwell to Rutherford County GOP Chairman Donna Barrett, the event highlights the continued commitment from GOP leaders to encourage and recruit women at the grassroots level.
Filed Under: NEWS Tagged With: Bryan Terry, Dr. Bryan Terry, House District 48, House of Representatives, Murfreesboro, Rep. Bryan Terry, Rep. Dawn White, Representative Bryan Terry, Republican, Rutherford County, Tennessee
Rep. Terry: End Of 2016 Session Review: Common Core, Landfills, Planned Parenthood & More
April 29, 2016– The 109th Tennessee General Assembly has adjourned “Sine Die” which means that the TGA does not have any specific day for future meetings. It has been an honor and a humbling experience to represent District 48. As I have not been able to record a video summary these past two weeks, I wanted to summarize some of the events. I look to have a complete session summary out soon, as well.
First and foremost, I have been working for the District. This session, I worked on a bill to improve community access to the inspections of the Middlepoint Landfill. I worked with the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation, as well as with representatives from Republic on this matter. In the end, TDEC will notify me of impending inspections of the landfill. I will be able to attend inspections randomly. TDEC will provide me with the results of the inspections, and I will be able to get the information out to the community probably via a new Facebook page designed for our district. This should begin in May. It should be noted that Republic and TDEC worked to improve the situation surrounding the landfill and I appreciate them listening to our concerns. And I appreciate those in the community for stepping up!
Secondly, on behalf of the Rutherford County Commission and the Rutherford County Election Commission, I was honored to be able to carry HB 2125. This bill has now been signed into law by Governor Haslam and will allow Rutherford County to participate in the state’s first ever Voter Convenience Center Pilot Program. Many in Rutherford County know that we have 7 convenience centers during early voting. Rutherford County will have 30 convenience centers on Election Day. This program will save Rutherford County over $25,000 per election and hopefully increase voter turnout. This bill earned praise by many members of the General Assembly, and I would like to thank Alan Farley for his help on the bill.
Over the passed two weeks, I passed four other pieces of legislation, HB 2126, HB 1909, HB 1856, and HB 1654. HB 2126 dealt with medical office dispensaries. Many patients enjoy the convenience of a one stop shop when it comes to their medical care. This bill cleaned up language in our code to improve the regulatory system surrounding these dispensaries. It received widespread bipartisan support.
HB 1909 was a clean up bill for a law we passed last year. Unintended consequences from last year’s law were discovered as it relates to Tennessee’s medical spa registry. The registry is designed to track owners of medical spas to protect patients in the event of harm or malpractice. Unfortunately, as it had been designed, some physicians and their groups were inadvertently being required to register. The bill corrected the unintended consequences, and created a level playing field in the industry.
Hb 1856 will help patients with Binge Eating Disorder. Last year, the FDA approved Lisdexamphetamine to be used in the treatment of BED. Unfortunately, our code and the current regulations did not recognize the use of this medication for that medical condition. Physicians who were seeing these patients were unsure of their prescriptive authority. The bill gave physicians the authority to prescribe this medication for its FDA approved use and overwhelmingly passed.
Lastly, I passed HB 1654 which dealt with abortion clinics and fetal tissue as it relates to research, experiments, and photography. Last year, following the national uproar surrounding Planned Parenthood and other abortion clinics concerning the selling of fetal tissue, I began to look into the issue, especially Tennessee law. I found that our code required prior knowledge and consent of the mother if research, experiments, or photography occurred. Anyone in the medical profession understands that a consent can include implied consent, general consent, or even a phone consent. The law did not specify that the consent be written. Additionally, in the event that an employee or other person took photographs with the belief that an abortion clinic was violating state or federal laws with respect to fetal tissue, the law potentially would have required the woman’s consent.
I worked with TN Right to Life, the Administration, and even Planned Parenthood on this bill and issue. In the end, the bill would require a paper trail in the event that any research or experiments occurred, as well as clarify immunity for any person taking photographs with the belief that a state or federal law was being violated with respect to fetal tissue. It is my understanding that HB 1654 may be unprecedented in that it is the only bill surrounding abortion laws in Tennessee that passed not only unanimously, but never even received a “no” vote even in the committee process. This is proof that one can take a controversial topic, open dialogue with all sides of an issue, and pass bipartisan legislation.
I am, also, told that I did something else unprecedented in the Tennessee General Assembly. Last year when we passed HB 1035 to set up new education Standards Recommendation Committees, I brought forth an amendment that required legislative confirmation of the committee appointments. In the off season, I had some people look into the appointments, some of which we found were previously Common Core coaches. The confirmation process did not occur as I had been told, and as I looked into it further, I determined that the process was completely inadequate. As such, I spearheaded an external confirmation process that resulted in the delaying of all the confirmations until certain questions could be answered.
I was informed that something like this had never occurred before, and truth be told, I was a bit taken aback when I heard this. I was sent to the Capitol to represent District 48, ask questions, and take action which I did. I work with, but do not represent the Governor, the Speaker, the Lt. Governor, the TNGOP, nor others. However, I did receive support for my actions and it set forth discussions about improving our confirmation processes in the future.
Ultimately, the confirmation process proceeded, but I did not confirm all the appointments. In the end, I am not sure what the education standards will look like, but time and time again, the committee members told me that the standards would be unique to Tennessee. One member told me that they looked at the standards as an evolving process that we in the General Assembly will need to review on an ongoing basis. I expressed this on the House floor and I am looking forward to bringing forth legislation that will set up a long term review and evaluation process of these new standards.
As always, I am honored and humbled to represent District 48. It is my hope that you find these write ups informative and useful. Knowledge is power, and power is with the people.
Rep. Bryan Terry
Filed Under: NEWS Tagged With: Bryan Terry, District 48, Dr. Bryan Terry, House District 48, House of Representatives, Murfreesboro, Rep. Bryan Terry, Representative Bryan Terry, Republican, Rutherford County, Tennessee
Dr. Bryan Terry On The Issues
Leading With Shared Values & Proven Results
Individuals and businesses value safe communities to live, work, and raise a family. As a legislator, I’ve consistently worked to ensure that our law enforcement, firefighters, and military are appreciated and have to tools to protect our freedoms and communities.
As Chairman of the House Health Subcommittee, I’ve been leading our state on health related issues like the opioid crisis, mental health, children’s health, care of our elderly, cannabis extracts, medical transparency, health care costs, and improved access. I have consistently offered solutions to the health care problems facing Tennessee.
District 48 includes many farms and families enjoying a rural way of life. As someone who grew up with a family farm, I understand the love and passion for rural living. I have consistently supported our agriculture families by co-sponsoring legislation like the Rural Economic Opportunity Act. I will continue to fight to keep the rural way of life that citizens in the 48th district enjoy.
Recreation and tourism
In addition to an educated workforce and affordability, employers look for recreational activities as one of the criteria for their employees and associates when looking to locate their businesses. Recreation and tourism are multi-billion dollar industries that are vital to the economic success of Tennessee. Protecting and promoting and environment that attracts tourists and businesses is a priority to ensure that our unemployment rates stay historically low.
Though Tennessee has shown improvements in our student growth, there have been a multitude of unacceptable failures. I have been a leading voice for having a fair, consistent, and valid system that improves our education outcomes while working to ensure morale and confidence in the system amongst students, parents, and teachers is present. Students, parents, and teachers know that I will continue to be their advocate in trying to fix a flawed system.
Diverse background
District 48 is one of the most diverse districts in Tennessee, as such, we need representation that understands and can relate to a wide variety of issues and concerns. Having grown up working in a blue collar, auto salvage family with a horse farm and earning my way to becoming a medical professional who owns a small business and is an associate affiliated professor in the UT Medical system, I’ve been able to understand and advocate for our unique needs as a district.
In order to be an effective representative and advocate, one must understand that there is Value Of Involving Citizens Everyday. From sponsoring legislation for students, constituents, or the county to providing frequent legislative and community updates, I have worked to be the voice that District 48 needs. I will continue to do so.
Low taxes and a low cost of living ensures that our Tennessee families continue to receive more bang for their buck. We are one of the lowest taxed states per capita with the lowest debt. I have consistently fought for the taxpayer and have been named a Taxpayer Hero.
Liberties
Having been named a Protector of the Constitution, I have been a leader in protecting our liberties and freedom. I have consistently fought to ensure equal protection under the law while ensuring maximum freedom of Tennesseans.
When there is life, it begins at conception. As such, we must protect that which is sacred. I’m proud to have been and continue to be a proactive voice for the unborn.
By decreasing unnecessary regulations leading to a freer market, Tennessee has historic low unemployment rates with job growth 1.5 times the national average. By supporting measures like the Right to Earn a Living Act and the Fresh Start Act, we are building an economic engine for our individuals and families.
Illegal immigrants cost Tennessee at the state level 793 million dollars per year while the total cost federally is 116 billion(fairus.org). This attack on our system drains valuable resources that could provide health care for our most vulnerable and greater security in our schools. As a legislator, I have stood to strengthen our laws against illegal immigration. Security of person and property is a fundamental human right. As such, the right to keep and bare arms shall not be infringed. I will continue to ensure that our rights are protected.
Filed Under: HOME Tagged With: Bryan Terry, District 48, Dr. Bryan Terry, House of Representatives, Representative Bryan Terry, Rutherford County, Tennessee
VOTER GUIDE
Need to know when, where and how to vote in Tennessee House District 48?
Use the resources below!
Connect With Dr. Terry
Contact Dr. Bryan Terry
Personal: Bryan@BryanTerry4TN.com | 615.801.2999
Capitol Office: Rep.Bryan.Terry@Capitol.TN.gov | 615.741.2180 | Website
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Tennessee State House District 48
The Geographical Center of Tennessee Rests Within Tennessee House District 48.
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Paid for by Bryan Terry for State Representative | Treasurer: Matt Perkins | Built By Red Ivory Strategies LLC © 2017
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Flagler college sporting events information and news services
Created in 1917, Flagler County is located in the state of Florida. This small county incorporates a human population of 83,084 and has been named after Henry Morrison Flagler. Henry Morrison Flagler was a well-known and very successful tycoon who had contributed significantly in the growth of the east coast in Florida. A real estate and railway developer, he was the founding father of the Florida East Coast railway.
Presenting a 4 year course in liberal arts studies is Flagler College. More popularly referred to as Flagler, this college is located in St. Augustine in Florida. An integral part of the Independent Colleges and Universities of Florida, Flagler College was reported to be one of the best institutions in south east United States to present studies in liberal arts. It’s also listed among Americas best collages. This college is additionally recognized for its beautiful campus and the Princeton Review has included it in its Best 366 College Rankings.
Having a proven record of academic success, Flagler College also partakes in several sports and athletic activities. Among varsity sports they participate in a dozen categories of the Division II in the NCAA. Basketball, golf, soccer, cross country and tennis are games that enjoy participation from both men and women. Baseball is played by men exclusively and Volleyball is played only by the women from the college. The Flagler sports teams go by the name of the Saints.
The Flagler sports teams or the Saints possess a official dedicated club known as the Saints Club. Working with the same principles as those of Flagler College, they aim towards giving their athletes the top experience in sports with the same focus as that of academics. They strive towards developing well rounded and complete individuals who graduate on to becoming individuals with integrity and sportsmanship.
The Saints Club continues to be a key component in taking Flagler College to the Division II in the NCAA because of their consistent performance of their athletes who have won conference championships and also have gone on to play post season matches. They are monetarily helped by the members who include parents, alumni and friends through their significant contribution to the club. These resources assist in providing scholarships, bear travel expenses and meet equipment costs, thus delivering all the support that they require.
The Flagler College also holds strength and conditioning programs that help in nurturing and exploring an athletes total potential. This program not only reaches to strength and endurance training but also helps with building the athletes mental framework. This program employs specific training programs that concentrate on in season, post season and pre season preparations. The agenda of such training programs is always to build their athletes complete potential by making them more flexible, strong, agile and fast.
Flagler College has additionally been in news reports because of its several athletic venues and facilities. Of those, their Tennis centre is considered to be one of the finest amongst all the small collages within the whole State of Florida.
The college has a single newspaper publication called the Gargoyle and an annual literary journal called the Flagler Review that provides all the news and information on the college. They’ve got a very active website called flagler.edu that keeps users up to date on the sports news along with other academic developments that take place within the college campus.
bet tips
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UNESCO » Culture » World Heritage Centre » About World Heritage » The Committee » Committee Decisions
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Decision : 39 COM 7A.11
Rainforests of the Atsinanana (Madagascar) (N 1257)
Having examined Document WHC-15/39.COM/7A,
Recalling Decision 38 COM 7A.44, adopted at its 38th session (Doha, 2014),
Welcomes the restated political commitment of the State Party, which was also reiterated by the President of Madagascar at the 2014 IUCN World Parks Congress to address the illegal trafficking of natural resources, in particular rosewood and other precious timber species;
Acknowledges the progress made in implementing the CITES Action plan, in particular the preparatory studies, which were carried out in order to achieve the liquidation of all remaining rosewood stockpiles in the country and develop a forestry sector which is transparent and respectful of the law and regulations;
Requests the State Party to fully implement the CITES Action Plan and recommendations and to ensure that all stockpiles be confiscated as soon as possible as a conservatory measure, their legality established, and that holders of illegal stockpiles be prosecuted;
Takes note of the recommendations of the “Utilization Plan for precious timber stockpiles”, which was submitted to CITES in December 2014 and which proposes to sell most of the stockpiles through international auctions, and urges the State Party to strictly adhere to the recommendations which will be issued by the CITES Standing Committee after its review, to guarantee the transparency and international oversight over any possible sale and to ensure that a substantial part of any revenue generated from possible sales is made available for the conservation of the property;
Expresses its concern that, while illegal rosewood logging in the property has diminished slightly in 2014 compared to 2013, it is continuing to affect the property and in particular Masoala National Park, and also urges the State Party to intensify efforts to immediately crack down on the remaining centers of illegal logging and trafficking;
Further takes note of the progress towards achieving the Desired State of Conservation for the Removal of the Property from the List of World Heritage in Danger (DSOCR), but considers the announced policy by the Government of zero stocks, a zero tolerance toward illegal trafficking and the elimination of illegal logging of rosewood needs to be effectively implemented to guarantee the integrity of the property and achieve the DSOCR;
Notes that the Reactive Monitoring mission requested at the 38th session in 2014 was postponed at the request of the State Party and in agreement with the World Heritage Centre and IUCN, to provide more time for addressing the stockpile issue in accordance with the CITES recommendations, and reiterates its request to the State Party to invite a joint UNESCO/IUCN Reactive Monitoring mission to the property to assess progress achieved in the Desired state of conservation for the removal of the property from the List of World Heritage in Danger (DSOCR), and to update, if necessary, the corrective measures and the timetable for their implementation;
Also requests the State Party to submit to the World Heritage Centre, by 1 February 2016, an updated report, including a 1-page executive summary, on the state of conservation of the property and the implementation of the above, including an evaluation of the implementation of the corrective measures, and information on progress made towards achieving the DSOCR, for examination by the World Heritage Committee at its 40th session in 2016;
Decides to retain Rainforests of the Atsinanana (Madagascar) on the List of World Heritage in Danger.
Decisions Report
Context of Decision
WHC-15/39.COM/7A
Decision Code: 39 COM 7A.11
Themes: Conservation, List of World Heritage in Danger
States Parties (1): Madagascar
Properties (1): Rainforests of the Atsinanana
Session: 39th session of the World Heritage Committee (39 COM)
State of conservation reports:
2015 Rainforests of the Atsinanana
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From Zero to Hero: Wreck-It Ralph wins friends and influences characters
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Celebrity Gyaan
Celebrity News and Gossips!
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Charles DuhonIrene CarpenterHutch HenryDennis WalkerObituary Archive
Obituaries from the July 11 paper.
Charles Duhon
Charles Duhon, 75, of Lake Charles died Wednesday, July 3, 2019, in a local Hospice facility.
Mr. Duhon was born in Lake Charles and raised in Grand Lake, where he graduated from Grand Lake High School. He lived in New Iberia for several years and lived most of his life in Lake Charles. He worked over 30 years as a Crew boat Captain, retiring from McCall & Sea Corp. Mr. Duhon was a member of Christ the King Catholic Church.
He is survived by his children, Jeff Duhon and wife Shelly of Iowa, Melissa Day and husband John, Cheryl Duhon, Jennifer LeDoux, all of Lake Charles, Cindy LeJeune and husband Joe of Grand Lake, Travis LeDoux and wife Michelle, of Sulphur; three sisters, Margaret Hebert of Lake Charles, Lula Belle Barrilleaux of Moss Bluff, and Jennifer Duhon of Waco, Texas; 14 grandchildren; and 21 great grandchildren.
He is preceded in death by his parents, Alverd and Enola (Fontenot) Duhon, and sister Jeanette Duhon.
Funeral services were Saturday, July 6, in the Johnson Funeral Home Chapel. The Very Reverend Anthony Fontenot officiated.
Irene Carpenter
Irene Thelma Etienne Borne Carpenter, 91, of Grand Lake, died Saturday, July 6, 2019 in a local care facility.
Mrs. Carpenter was born Dec. 12, 1927 in Centerville, where she graduated from high school. She lived in Franklin for a number of years, until moving to Grand Lake in 1962. She was a member of Our Lady of the Lake Catholic Church, attended Christ the King Catholic Church and was a member of the Lion’s Club.
Mrs. Carpenter is survived by her daughters, Genny Broussard and husband Larry of Sweetlake and Charlene Carlile of Grand Lake; 4 grandchildren; and 3 greatgrandchildren.
She was preceded in death by her first husband, Homer Borne, Sr.; second husband, LeRoy Carpenter; son, Homer Borne, Jr.; parents, Albert and Augustine Etienne; and siblings, Albert Etienne, Archie Etienne, August Etienne, Rose Conley, Sarah Theriot, and Amy Reynaud.
Her funeral service was held Wednesday, July 10, at the Johnson Funeral Home Chapel. Monsignor James Gaddy officiated. Burial followed in Highland Memory Gardens.
Hutch Henry
Hutch Phillips Henry, 90, passed away peacefully in a local care facility on July 4, 2019. Hutch, a direct descendant of the Cameron Parish family of Samuel P. and Harriet McDonald Henry was the son of Leroy and Bertie Phillips Henry. He was born on September 19, 1928 at St. Patrick’s Sanitarium in Lake Charles. Hutch grew up in Cameron and Lake Charles and attended Central School. He graduated from Lake Charles High in 1946 where he lettered in both Track and Football, and played under Coach R. S. Killen.
Following graduation from Lake Charles High, Hutch enrolled at John McNeese Junior College earning a Varsity M in Track and Football. Earning his Diploma from McNeese, he went on to enroll at Southwestern Louisiana Institute of Liberal and Technical Learning (SLI) in Lafayette. He lettered in football at SLI where “the big lineman, extremely fast for his weight, has made a habit of appearing in the enemy backfield after the snap of the ball and stopping opposition ball carriers before they can get started.” He also was appointed as a Cadet First Lieutenant in the United States Air Force ROTC while attending SLI. Hutch graduated from SLI in 1951 with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Business Administration.
In July of 1951, Hutch enlisted in the United States Air Force. He completed training in the OSI and was assigned as a Second Lieutenant Special Investigator Office with the 14th Air Force. During his time in the service, he was assigned to Barksdale Air Force Base in Bossier City. It was during his time at Barksdale, that he went on a blind date with Maebeth Daniels. Hutch and “Bebe” were married on January 22, 1952, and were together for 62 years. Hutch was Honorably Discharged from the Air Force in July of 1953, and they moved to Cameron where he worked for Mobil Oil before moving to Denver, Colo. While in Denver, he was a gas station owner and attended gunsmithing school. Returning to Louisiana in 1965, Hutch worked for Mobil Oil in Cameron until retiring.
Hutch was an avid sportsman, a serious collector of things related to the era of Western expansion, and a self-taught food critic. Whenever you cooked for Hutch, he didn’t hesitate to let you know how well you did. He and Bebe raised four girls so you can imagine what it was like in the house. As time went on, Hutch eventually lost his sight, but never his quick wit. He devoured Louis L’Armour books on tape and enjoyed listening to Elvis, often singing along. He was a man that lived life as full as he could.
Hutch was preceded in death by his mother and father, as well as his older brother Peter Cameron Henry. The love of his life, Bebe, died in 2014, and he lost a grandson, Samuel Andrew McDonald.
Hutch is survived by his four daughters, Cheryl Krull and her husband Bill, Jackie Adkins and her husband Charlie, Sandy Fuselier and her husband Eric, and Merri McCoy.
He is survived by seven grandchildren, Shannon Barber (Todd), Jeremy Adkins (Sarah), Adam McDonald (Tina), Christie Webre (Ryan), Sarah Simmons (Zack), Colin Royer, and Jacob Fontenot. He is also survived by ten great-grandchildren; Jack, Luke, and Lyle Adkins, Emily, Christopher, and Brady Barber, Charlie Webre, Dominica and Ava McDonald, and soon to be born, “Peanut” Simmons.
The family would like to express gratitude to Morgan, Fabinne, the staff of the Rosewood Nursing Home and Brighton Bridge Hospice for their care of Hutch.
Visitation for those wishing to remember Hutch will be held at 12:30 p.m. - 1:30 p.m. in the Chapel at St. Michael and All Angels Episcopal Church on Thursday, July 11. A private family service will be held in the Chapel following the visitation period at 2 p.m. with burial to follow in Highland Memory Gardens.
Donations in Hutch’s memory may be made to St. Michael and All Angels Episcopal Church, 123 West Sale Road, Lake Charles, La. 70605.
Words of comfort to the family may be expressed at www.johnsonfuneralhome.net.
(Paid Memorial)
Dennis Walker
Dennis Lee Walker, 75, of Hillman, Mich. died Monday, June 24, 2019 at University Hospital in Ann Arbor.
Dennis was born Feb. 27, 1944 to Rev. Ernest and Pearl (Hebert) Walker in Lake Charles.
Memorial services will be held from 4-7 p.m. on Tuesday, July 16, at the Sale Street Baptist Church Fellowship Hall, in Lake Charles.
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Golf Fore the Cure
Pink hair, pink gear, pink everywhere. Each year, hundreds of women transform the lush green lawns of golf courses across Canada into a sea of pink to have fun and raise funds to conquer breast cancer. This is the spirit of Golf Fore the Cure – a program created by Golf Canada to drive women’s participation in the game of golf and raise money to support the fight against breast cancer.
Golf Canada's partnership with the Canadian Cancer Society - through Golf Fore the Cure - has raised more than $4 million to support the Society's breast cancer research and support programs. From east to west and as far north as the Northwest Territories, thousands of women have been making a huge difference in the lives of Canadians affected by breast cancer, one round at a time.
Jeff Thompson, Golf Canada’s Chief Sport Officer, recalls the origins of the program. “Initially, we simply wanted to get more women involved in golf. We knew that there was about a 3:1 participation difference in men and women playing the game, and we felt the need to create a platform specifically for women that would be appealing and motivate more of them to play. So out of that, Golf Fore the Cure was born.”
This signature fundraising program has grown from just over 50 events in 2006 to nearly 180 in 2014. Each year, site coordinators invest many hours in planning, coordinating and hosting local golf events. While the women who participate get involved for various reasons, they share a common goal of defeating breast cancer.
Golf Canada expects to see even more women participating in the program this year. “While the philanthropic focus of the program underpins its success, we haven’t lost sight of the goal of getting more women to play golf. In fact, more women playing translates into even more funds generated for breast cancer research, awareness and support,” says Jeff Thompson.
Full partnership story.
Golf Canada – and all the women who have made Golf Fore the Cure the success it is each year – can be proud of their invaluable contribution to the advancements made in breast cancer research, and to providing women with physical, psychological and emotional support throughout their cancer journey. The hard work and dedication of all our Golf Fore the Cure volunteers and donors has had a tremendous impact on the scientific world and on the lives of thousands of Canadian women, their families, friends and caregivers in communities across Canada.
The 5-year survival rate for breast cancer, which today stands at 87%, underscores the impact of their support on breast cancer research. And many women have benefited from the Society’s support programs like the Peer Support Service, Community Services Locator, Cancer Information Service and transportation and wig programs.
“I’m extremely grateful to the Canadian Cancer Society for funding my research with an Innovation Grant."
Read Shawn's story
“We realize that our efforts cannot even be compared to what women face when they hear the words ... ‘you have cancer’.”
Read Eleanor's story
“Slowly, it dawned on me that I, too, could be a survivor."
Read Catherine's story
Our impact funds
We recognize the following clubs for their outstanding fundraising efforts and have named a breast cancer impact fund in their honour.
Alberta Springs Golf Course (Elga’s Ladies)
Blue Heron Golf Club (Blue Heron Cares for the Girls)
Club de golf Le Fontainebleau
Elk Ridge Resort
Fernie Golf & Country Club
Fredericton Golf Club
Golf New Brunswick
Green Hills Golf Resort
Hollinger Golf Club
Petitcodiac Valley Golf & Country Club
RedTail Landing Golf Club
Rideau Lakes Golf & Country Club
Sandy Hook Golf Club
Southside Golf Course
Sunningdale Golf & Country Club
Sussex Golf & Curling Club
Willow Park Golf & Country Club
“Championing such a worthy cause year after year is quite remarkable. It says a lot about the mutuality of the relationship we share with the Canadian Cancer Society. And, of course, the support of Subaru as presenting sponsor of the program cannot be overstated. Subaru is as passionate about health and well-being as both Golf Canada and the Society are. And so seeing an alignment in terms of shared values, they ‘came out swinging’ from the outset.” Jeff Thompson
The Society recognizes that it cannot fulfil its mission without funding from supporters like Golf Canada, yet this partnership extends far beyond the dollars. It’s about building awareness and empowering Canadian women. It’s about changing lives and attitudes. Indeed, this is a winning strategy for both Golf Canada and the Society – one that the Society is extremely proud of and tremendously grateful for.
So, thank you Golf Canada, for sharing our vision and having the foresight to step forward. Thank you to every site coordinator for their labour of love in dedicating time and effort to host an event. Thanks to every golfer for every round played and for mobilizing your network of family, friends and acquaintances to donate to this worthy cause. And, of course, to lead sponsor – Subaru – whose investment in the program each year makes it all possible.
Get involved and organize your own Golf Fore the Cure event to support the fight against breast cancer.
Learn more about the program at golfcanada.ca/golfforethecure
Email: gftc@golfcanada.ca
Toll-free: 1-800-263-0009, ext. 495
Printed: July 18, 2019
The information that the Canadian Cancer Society provides does not replace your relationship with your doctor. The information is for your general use, so be sure to talk to a qualified healthcare professional before making medical decisions or if you have questions about your health. We do our best to make sure that the information we provide is accurate and reliable but cannot guarantee that it is error-free or complete. The Canadian Cancer Society is not responsible for the quality of the information or services provided by other organizations and mentioned on cancer.ca, nor do we endorse any service, product, treatment or therapy.
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by libertec April 24, 2013
What are polymer capacitors? Polymer capacitors are capacitors which use conductive polymers as the electrolyte. They use solid polymer electrolytes instead of liquid or gel electrolytes that are found in ordinary electrolytic capacitors. By using solid electrolyte, the electrolyte drying is completely avoided. Electrolyte drying is one the factors that limit the lifetime of ordinary electrolytic capacitors. There are several types of polymer capacitors, including aluminium polymer capacitors, polymerized organic semiconductors and conductive polymer capacitors. In most cases, polymer capacitors can be used as direct replacements for electrolytic capacitors, as long as the maximum rated voltage is not exceeded. The maximum rated voltage of solid polymer capacitors is lower than the maximum voltage of classical electrolytic capacitors: usually up to 35 volts, although some polymer capacitors are made with maximum operating voltages of up to 100 volts DC. Polymer capacitors have a number of qualities superior to ordinary electrolyte capacitors: longer lifetime, higher maximum working temperature, better stability, lower equivalent series resistance (ESR) and a much safer failure mode. These qualities come at a price of lower maximum voltage rating and a narrower capacitance range, as well as a higher cost compared to wet electrolyte capacitors. This type of capacitor is not that new: production started in the 1980s and since then, they have been used in many applications including server motherboards and computer graphic accelerator cards. Polymer capacitor definition A polymer capacitor is a capacitor which uses solid polymers as the electrolyte. They have a number of superior qualities including a safer failure mode, lower losses and a longer lifetime than electrolytic capacitors. Characteristics Equivalent series resistance Compared to ordinary electrolytic capacitors, polymer capacitors have a lower equivalent series resistance. This allows polymer capacitors to withstand higher ripple currents during normal operation. A ripple current is the AC component...
What are film capacitors? Film capacitors are capacitors which use a thin plastic film as the dielectric. This film is made extremely thin using a sophisticated film drawing process. Once the film is manufactured, it may be metallized or left untreated, depending on the needed properties of the capacitor. Electrodes are then added and the assembly is mounted into a case which protects it from environmental factors. They are used in many applications because of their stability, low inductance and low cost. There are many types of film capacitors, including polyester film, metallized film, polypropylene film, PTFE film and polystyrene film. The core difference between these capacitor types is the material used as the dielectric, and the proper dielectric must be chosen according to the application. PTFE film capacitors, for example, are heat-resistant and used in aerospace and military technology, while metallized polyester film capacitors are used in applications that require long term stability at a relatively low. Cheaper plastics are used if cost is a bigger concern than performance. Film capacitor definition A film capacitor is a capacitor that uses a thin plastic film as the dielectric. They are relatively cheap, stable over time and have low self-inductance and ESR, while some film capacitors can withstand large reactive power values. Characteristics Film capacitors are widely used because of their superior characteristics. This capacitor type is not polarized, which makes them suitable for AC signal and power use. Film capacitors can be made with very high precision capacitance values, and they retain that value longer than other capacitor types. This means that the aging process is generally slower than in other capacitor types, such as the electrolytic capacitor. Film capacitors have a long shelf and service life, and are very reliable, with a very low average failure rate. They have...
by libertec April 5, 2013
What are supercapacitors? Supercapacitors are electronic devices which are used to store extremely large amounts of electrical charge. They are also known as double-layer capacitors or ultracapacitors. Instead of using a conventional dielectric, supercapacitors use two mechanisms to store electrical energy: double-layer capacitance and pseudocapacitance. Double layer capacitance is electrostatic in origin, while pseudocapacitance is electrochemical, which means that supercapacitors combine the workings of normal capacitors with the workings of an ordinary battery. Capacitances achieved using this technology can be as high as 12000 F. In comparison, the self-capacitance of the entire planet Earth is only about 710 µF, more than 15 million times less than the capacitance of a supercapacitor. While an ordinary electrostatic capacitor may have a high maximum operating voltage, the typical maximum charge voltage of a supercapacitor lies between 2.5 and 2.7 volts. Supercapacitors are polar devices, meaning they have to be connected to the circuit the right way, just like electrolyte capacitors. The electrical properties of these devices, especially their fast charge and discharge times, are very interesting for some applications, where supercapacitors may completely replace batteries. Supercapacitor definition A supercapacitor is a specially designed capacitor which has a very large capacitance. Supercapacitors combine the properties of capacitors and batteries into one device. Characteristics Charge time Supercapacitors have charge and discharge times comparable to those of ordinary capacitors. It is possible to achieve high charge and discharge currents due to their low internal resistance. Batteries usually take up to several hours to reach a fully charged state – a good example is a cell phone battery, while supercapacitors can be brought to the same charge state in less than two minutes. Specific power The specific power of a battery or supercapacitor is a measure used to compare different technologies in terms of maximum power output...
What are tantalum capacitors? Tantalum capacitors are a subtype of electrolytic capacitors. They are made of tantalum metal which acts as an anode, covered by a layer of oxide which acts as the dielectric, surrounded by a conductive cathode. The use of tantalum allows for a very thin dielectric layer. This results in a higher capacitance value per volume, superior frequency characteristics compared to many other types of capacitors and excellent stability over time. Tantalum capacitors are generally polarized, which means that they may only be connected to a DC supply observing the correct terminal polarity. The downside to using tantalum capacitors is their unfavorable failure mode which may lead to thermal runaway, fires and small explosions, but this can be prevented through the use of external failsafe devices such as current limiters or thermal fuses. Technology advances allow tantalum capacitors to be used in a wide variety of circuits, often found in laptops, automotive industry, cell phones and others, most often in the form of surface mounted devices (SMD). These surface mount tantalum capacitors claim much less space on the printed circuit board and allow for greater packing densities. Tantalum capacitor definition Tantalum capacitors are electrolytic capacitors which use tantalum metal for the anode. They are polarized capacitors with superior frequency and stability characteristics. Characteristics General characteristics Tantalum capacitors are made with capacitance values ranging from 1nF all the way to 72mF and they are much smaller in size than aluminum electrolytic capacitors of the same capacitance. The voltage rating for tantalum capacitors varies from 2V to more than 500V. They have an equivalent series resistance (ESR) ten times smaller than the ESR of aluminum electrolytic capacitors, which allows for larger currents to pass through the capacitor with less heat generated. Tantalum capacitors are very stable over time and...
What are electrolytic capacitors? An electrolytic capacitor is a type of capacitor that uses an electrolyte to achieve a larger capacitance than other capacitor types. An electrolyte is a liquid or gel containing a high concentration of ions. Almost all electrolytic capacitors are polarized, which means that the voltage on the positive terminal must always be greater than the voltage on the negative terminal. The benefit of large capacitance in electrolytic capacitors comes with several drawbacks as well. Among these drawbacks are large leakage currents, value tolerances, equivalent series resistance and a limited lifetime. Electrolytic capacitors can be either wet-electrolyte or solid polymer. They are commonly made of tantalum or aluminum, although other materials may be used. Supercapacitors are a special subtype of electrolytic capacitors, also called double-layer electrolytic capacitors, with capacitances of hundreds and thousands of farads. This article will be based on aluminum electrolytic capacitors. These have a typical capacitance between 1µF to 47mF and an operating voltage of up to a few hundred volts DC. Aluminum electrolytic capacitors are found in many applications such as power supplies, computer motherboards and many domestic appliances. Since they are polarized, they may be used only in DC circuits. Electrolytic capacitor definition An electrolytic capacitor is a polarized capacitor which uses an electrolyte to achieve a larger capacitance than other capacitor types. Reading the capacitance value In the case of through-hole capacitors, the capacitance value as well as the maximum rated voltage is printed on the enclosure. A capacitor that has “4.7μF 25V“ printed on it has a nominal capacitance value of 4.7μF and a maximum voltage rating of 25 volts, which is never to be exceeded. In the case of SMD (surface mounted) electrolytic capacitors, there are two basic marking types. The first one clearly states the value in microfarads...
What are ceramic capacitors? A ceramic capacitor uses a ceramic material as the dielectric. Ceramics were one of the first materials to be used in the producion of capacitors, as it was a known insulator. Many geometries were used in ceramic capacitors, of which some, like ceramic tubular capacitors and barrier layer capacitors are obsolete today due to their size, parasitic effects or electrical characteristics. The types of ceramic capacitors most often used in modern electronics are the multi-layer ceramic capacitor, otherwise named ceramic multi-layer chip capacitor (MLCC) and the ceramic disc capacitor. MLCCs are the most produced capacitors with a quantity of approximately 1000 billion devices per year. They are made in SMD (surface-mounted) technology and are widely used due to their small size. Ceramic capacitors are usually made with very small capacitance values, typically between 1nF and 1µF, although values up to 100µF are possible. Ceramic capacitors are also very small in size and have a low maximum rated voltage. They are not polarized, which means that they may be safely connected to an AC source. Ceramic capacitors have a great frequency response due to low parasitic effects such as resistance or inductance. Ceramic capacitor definition A ceramic capacitor is a capacitor which uses a ceramic material as the dielectric. The two most common types are multi-layer ceramic capacitors and ceramic disc capacitors. Characteristics Precision and tolerances There are two classes of ceramic capacitors available today: class 1 and class 2. Class 1 ceramic capacitors are used where high stability and low losses are required. They are very accurate and the capacitance value is stable in regard to applied voltage, temperature and frequency. The NP0 series of capacitors has a capacitance thermal stability of ±0.54% within the total temperature range of -55 to +125 °C. Tolerances of the nominal capacitance...
What are air capacitors? Air capacitors are capacitors which use air as their dielectric. The simplest air capacitors are made of two conductive plates separated by an air gap. Air capacitors can be made in a variable or fixed capacitance form. Fixed capacitance air capacitors are rarely used since there are many other types with superior characteristics. Variable air capacitors are used more often because of their simple construction. They are usually made of two sets of semicircular metal plates separated by air gaps. One set is fixed and the other is attached to a shaft which allows the user to rotate the assembly, therefore changing the capacitance as needed. The larger the overlap between the two sets of plates, the higher the capacitance. The maximum capacitance state is achieved when the overlap between the two sets of plates is highest, while the lowest capacitance state is achieved when there is no overlap. Variable air capacitors are used in circumstances where the capacitance needs to be varied. They are sometimes used in resonant circuits, such as radio tuners, frequency mixers or antenna impedance matching applications. Another use for variable capacitors is while prototyping an electronic circuit design. Sometimes, it is simply easier to find the appropriate capacitor value by trial and error instead of calculating it exactly. Air capacitor definition Air capacitors are capacitors which use air as the dielectric medium located between conductive plates. Characteristics The dielectric constant value of a material is a measure of the amount of electrical energy stored in a material for a given voltage. Since capacitors are devices used to store electrical energy, higher dielectric constants are favorable. However, the dielectric value of air is approximately that of vacuum, which is the lowest dielectric constant possible for a material and equals εo = 8.854 * 10-12...
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Technology, software & digital
Teletriage is helping people access healthcare across the world
Dr Charles Young
A 111-style service can improve clinical outcomes and provide efficiency within a healthcare system, according to Dr Charles Young, Senior Medical Officer, Capita, in a recent article in the World Healthcare Journal.
Around the world, healthcare systems are facing similar challenges presented by ageing populations. As we live longer, these systems face greater demand from patients with increasingly complex conditions. Across the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region, sedentary lifestyles and consumption of sugary foods has led to a prevalence of non-communicable diseases (NCDs), particularly diabetes.
Overuse of costly emergency care services is also a pressing issue. In the UAE, for example, despite a large number of primary healthcare centres, emergency departments are faced with high numbers of minor complaints. In Abu Dhabi, data from 2012 illustrated that more than 75 per cent of cases in emergency departments (Eds) were non-urgent. These cases represent huge savings that can be made to healthcare organisations if over reliance on emergency services is reduced.
Across the GCC there is also a large discrepancy in accessibility to healthcare, with many people living in remote locations. Going forward, if the pressure on healthcare organisations is to be alleviated, it is important that people can access healthcare that enables them to manage their chronic conditions at home, without continued readmission to hospital.
Technology will be a key asset in tackling these problems
One such technology solution is the adoption of computerised decision support algorithms and teletriage software. These digital tools enable clinicians and non-clinicians to quickly and accurately assess the urgency and severity of a patient’s symptoms. The result of this triage could be the provision of self-care advice, referral to local health services, or the dispatch of emergency personnel.
The adoption of computerised decision support algorithms and teletriage software also fosters a proactive approach to care, allowing people to access advice instantly, which may prevent a condition worsening to the point where emergency care is needed. In diverting people away from the emergency department, beds are made available for more serious cases, pressure on physicians is reduced, waiting times in emergency departments decrease, and healthcare costs are reduced.
Since computerised decision support algorithms and teletriage software have been introduced, they have been developed and improved to meet the needs of a wide range of health triage scenarios, from snake bite to heat stroke. Using a validated teletriage system also offers consistency in the assessment and prioritisation of care across the service.
Healthcare providers focused on delivering patient-focused care should be able to integrate patient data from multiple systems to provide truly individualised care, ensuring any assessment and advice given are specific to the patient and not just the condition.
Assessment via telephone is also an effective way of providing care to people with NCDs, either at home or a nearby facility, reducing the need for patients to use high-cost hospital care where possible. Patients with chronic conditions can be monitored remotely, and when all information relating to a patient is stored in a single record, a better continuity and consistency to co-ordinating their care can be achieved.
In addition, by using technology commonplace in everyday life, the health service removes socioeconomic barriers that might otherwise prevent someone accessing care, such as lack of transportation.
Teletriage enables populations to gain access to the right care advice at the time they need it, in turn improving clinical outcomes for patients, increasing the efficiency of healthcare organisations, and empowering people to look after their own health. In essence, teletriage has the potential to radically transform care delivery and improve public health.
Teletriage in action
Globally, organisations using Capita’s Healthcare Decisions (CHD) teletriage solution have carried out over 100 million patient assessments.
CHD’s decision management software enables the creation and deployment of end-to-end technology solutions in remote patient assessment and triage. The combination of TeleGuides (telephone triage), and WebGuides, (patient self-triage over the web, mobile app, or SMS), provides a robust, efficient and intuitive solution helping to relieve the burden placed on emergency services.
In an existing UK national triage service underpinned by CHD’s technology, CHD has created a significant change in the way the population accesses healthcare. CHD software combines a patient record and relationship management solution with sophisticated clinical decision support protocols. Instead of dialling the national number for the emergency services, people with an urgent but non-life-threatening medical concern can dial an alternative national number and get help from a fully trained advisor 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Looking for a robust, safe way of allowing patients to self-triage and where appropriate self-care, in combination with the free telephone helpline, the Australian state governments wanted to deploy a web triage system. The Healthdirect web self-triage service and national triage service, powered by CHD’s software, are now an important integral part of the Australian health system helping to alleviate pressure on GPs, emergency departments and ambulance services, especially in the after-hours periods.
First published by World Healthcare Journal.
(ISSN Number: 2517-2662)
Senior Medical Officer, Capita
He trained in medicine in London and continues to practice as an emergency physician for one day each week at St Thomas’ hospital, London. For the last 16 years, he has spent the majority of his time in a range of editorial, evidence-based medicine, clinical decision support and healthcare IT strategic leadership roles.
Connect with Charles
We bring together talent and technology to power healthcare decision making
How technology accelerates administrative healthcare and in turn reduces pressure on frontline clinical staff
A new direction in population health management?
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Francois Clouet
Elisabeth of Austria,queen of France (mk05)
1510-1572 French Francois Clouet Locations The earliest reference to him is a document dated December 1541 (see Jean Clouet), in which the king renounces for the benefit of François his father estate, which had escheated to the crown as the estate of a foreigner. In this document, the younger Clouet is said to have followed his father very closely in his art. Like his father, he held the office of groom of the chamber and painter in ordinary to the king, and so far as salary is concerned, he started where his father left off. Many drawings are attributed to this artist, often without perfect certainty. There is, however, more to go upon than there is in the case of his father. As the praises of Francois Clouet were sung by the writers of the day, his name was carefully preserved from reign to reign, and there is an ancient and unbroken tradition in the attribution of many of his pictures. There are not, however, any original attestations of his works, nor are any documents known which would guarantee the ascriptions usually accepted. To him are attributed the portraits of Francis I at the Uffizi and at the Louvre, and various drawings relating to them. He probably also painted the portrait of Catherine de Medici at Versailles and other works, and in all probability a large number of the drawings ascribed to him were from his hand. One of his most remarkable portraits is that of Mary, queen of Scots, a drawing in chalks in the Bibliotheque Nationale, and of similar character are the two portraits of Charles IX and the one at Chantilly of Marguerite of France. Perhaps his masterpiece is the portrait of Elizabeth of Austria in the Louvre. This piece made an important impression on Claude Levi-Strauss. In particular it helped inspire his theory of the mod??le reduit, or of works of art as simplifications and scale models of the realities they represent, and other theories of artworks, in his book The Savage Mind. Clouet resided in Paris in the rue de Ste Avoye in the Temple quarter, close to the Hotel de Guise, and in 1568 is known to have been under the patronage of Claude Gouffier de Boisy, Seigneur d Oiron, and his wife Claude de Baune. Another ascertained fact concerning Francois Clouet is that in 1571 he was summoned to the office of the Court of the Mint, and his opinion was taken on the likeness to the king of a portrait struck by the mint. He prepared the death-mask of Henry II, as in 1547 he had taken a similar mask of the face and hands of Francis I., in order that the effigy to be used at the funeral might be prepared from his drawings; and on each of these occasions he executed the painting to be used in the decorations of the church and the banners for the great ceremony. Several miniatures are believed to be his work, one very remarkable portrait being the half-length figure of Henry II in the collection of J. Pierpont Morgan. Another of his portraits is that of Francois, duc d Alençon in the Jones collection at South Kensington, and certain representations of members of the royal family which were in the Hamilton Palace collection and the Magniac sale are usually ascribed to him. He died on the 22nd of December 1572, shortly after the massacre of St Bartholomew, and his will, mentioning his sister and his two illegitimate daughters, and dealing with the disposition of a considerable amount of property, is still in existence. His daughters subsequently became nuns. His work is remarkable for the extreme accuracy of the drawing, the elaborate finish of all the details, and the exquisite completeness of the whole portrait. He must have been a man of high intelligence, and of great penetration, intensely interested in his work, and with considerable ability to represent the character of his sitter in his portraits. His coloring is perhaps not specially remarkable, nor from the point of style can his pictures be considered especially beautiful, but in perfection of drawing he has hardly any equal.
Wood,14 1/4 x 10 1/4''(36 x 26 cm).Formerly in the collections of Roger de Gaignieres and Louis XV;entered the Louvre in 1817
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May 22, 2018 by Kiko Martinez
Starring: Rachel McAdams, Rachel Weisz, Alessandro Nivola
Directed by: Sebastián Lelio (“A Fantastic Woman”)
Written by: Sebastián Lelio (“A Fantastic Woman”) and Rebecca Lenkiewicz (“Ida”)
After earning an Oscar this year for his compassionate foreign-language drama “A Fantastic Woman” (“Una Mujer Fantástica”), Chilean director Sebastián Lelio makes his American film debut with “Disobedience,” a seductive and mature love story between two women with ties to an Orthodox Jewish community in London.
Esti Kuperman (Oscar-nominated actress Rachel McAdams) and Ronit Krushka (Oscar-winning actress Rachel Weisz) have been close friends since childhood. Growing up together in the synagogue where Ronit’s father was a well-respected rabbi, their lives parted ways as young women when Ronit “disappeared” to New York to become a photographer.
Many years later, Ronit finds herself back in London to pay her respects after her father dies, although she admits she was never as close to him as he was to his students. Early on, Ronit is surprised to learn that Esti has married their mutual childhood friend Dovid (Alessandro Nivola), one of the rabbi’s prodigies. Ronit assumes it is a marriage of convenience, however, since she knows Esti, whom she has been intimate with in the past, has always been attracted to women.
Ronit’s arrival — you guessed it — reignites something inside Esti that she has kept dormant for a long time. As the two women begin to re-embrace their passion for one another, the Jewish community around them begins to stir. Already having an unfavorable opinion about Ronit for leaving her father and her faith behind, those closest to the rabbi question her motivation for returning to a society that ostracized her long ago.
Adapted from the 2006 novel of the same name by English writer Naomi Alderman, “Disobedience” is an absorbing, well-written narrative that explores the conflict between free will and religious obligation effectively and in a thought-provoking way. In Ronit, Esti and Dovid, Lelio introduces audiences to a cast of three-dimensional, adult characters who are given choices, have conversations and never overdramatize the uncomfortable situation they find themselves in. In a less capable director’s hands, a film like this would likely amount to a worn-out love triangle, but Lelio identifies the nuances within the relationships and allows them to breathe on their own. He also avoids turning the outspoken Ronit into a she-devil stock character who waltzes into Esti’s life to cause trouble like some biblical serpent — especially since the film opens with her father sermonizing on the “desires of the beast.”
While Nivola blends Dovid’s anger, empathy and disappointment perfectly, “Disobedience” belongs to McAdams and Weisz in their most provocative roles to date — from Ronit’s condemnation of Jewish traditions to Esti’s pent-up sexual frustration that she releases in one erotic afternoon. We could have done without the couple listening to The Cure’s “Lovesong” (too on the nose), but every other moment they spend together feels honest.
Tags: 2018, 2018 movie review, Alessandro Nivola, Disobedience, kikoreview, Orthodox Jewish, Rachel McAdams, Rachel Weisz, Rebecca Lenkiewicz, Sebastian Lelio
February 22, 2018 by Kiko Martinez
Starring: Rachel McAdams, Jason Bateman, Jesse Pleamons
Directed by: John Francis Daley (“Vacation”) and Jonathan Goldstein (“Vacation”)
Written by: Mark Perez (“Accepted”)
What happens when a seemingly normal evening goes awry? It’s a trite comedy formula that has lived through plenty of cinematic reiterations over recent years, many of which center around an adult-orientated party, the heavy consumption of hard liquor and a lot of poor decision making. When all is said and done, movie characters usually end up doing something stupid like accidentally killing a prostitute or stealing a tiger from Mike Tyson.
The so-so 2010 comedy “Date Night” starring Steve Carell and Tina Fey attempted to put more of a nerdy, everyday spin on the subgenre and ask what would happen if an ordinary, middle-aged married couple went for a night out together and got caught up in some seedy activities. The new “Game Night” aligns more with this pair of square characters than it does with those looking to snort coke off strippers. “Game Night,” however, takes the idea of average couples doing average things and runs with it. With broad strokes of self-awareness, a screwy screenplay that sometimes crosses the line into parody, and one specific supporting character that steals the entire movie, “Game Night” is more gratifying than hearing an opponent say, “You sunk my battleship!”
In “Game Night,” Oscar nominee Rachel McAdams (“Spotlight”) and Jason Bateman (“Bad Words”) star as Annie and Max, a married couple that share a love for competitive games. The two meet-cute when they simultaneously answer a random question about Teletubbies during a trivia event at a bar. Although their lives are more fun than a barrel of monkeys, Annie and Max are having trouble conceiving a child. Max’s stress-related fertility problems are stemming from the issues he has with his hotshot brother Brooks (Kyle Chandler). The only way to overcome his shortcomings is to confront him head on.
Luckily, with Brooks back in town, he can join the regular rotation in Annie and Max’s weekly game night where some of their friends come over to partake in games like charades and Pictionary. Little do Annie and Max know that Brooks has planned a special surprise for them during one of their game nights when he hires a local entertainment company to pull off a simulated murder mystery, so everyone can search for clues and play along. When Brooks, however, is actually kidnapped by masked men who break into his house during the game, Annie and Max think the incident is all part of the elaborate contest until they finally realize it’s not. With a pair of armed criminals making demands, the friends find themselves wishing their lame night ended with some warm wine and Yahtzee instead.
Although they failed in their attempt to reboot the Chevy Chase vehicle “Vacation” in 2015 with Ed Helms in the lead role, don’t hold it against directors John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein for too much longer. The filmmaking duo, who also wrote both “Horrible Bosses” movies, turn a real corner with this dark comedy partnership that feels edgy without going into places that are out of sync with the tone. Yes, “Game Night” is rated R, but it really isn’t a full-throated hard-R like some might imagine. Instead, the film leaves room for some heart and internal exploration, although it might be difficult to think too deeply with all the well-earned laughter, especially in the film’s first half.
Although it’s McAdams and Bateman leading their cast of misfits through the story, a major secondary player in the game is actor Jesse Plemons (“Observe and Report,” “The Master”). Plemons plays Gary, the couple’s creepy police officer neighbor who once attended game nights with his wife at Annie and Max’s house before their divorce, a fact that doesn’t deter him from making things awkward by asking when the next game night is and ultimately forcing Annie and Max to avoid contact with him. Make no mistake; as a character, Gary’s got the goods and Plemons delivers a perfect comedic performance in only a few short scenes. In a dry, dour and unsettling kind of way, he’s that impressive.
All in all, the raucous comedy is more enjoyable than, well, a traditional game night. With sharp jokes and queasy-worthy violence, some nicely timed movie and celebrity references, and a lively electronic score by Cliff Martinez (“Contagion,” “Drive”), “Game Night” scores.
Tags: 2018, 2018 movie review, Game Night, Game Night movie review, Jason Bateman, Jesse Pleamons, John Francis Daley, Jonathan Goldstein, kikoreview, Mark Perez, Rachel McAdams
Starring: Michael Keaton, Mark Ruffalo, Rachel McAdams
Directed by: Tom McCarthy (“The Visitor”)
Written by: Tom McCarthy (“The Visitor”) and Josh Singer (“The Fifth Estate”)
It might not have all the complexity of journalists tracking down a serial killer, like in the 2007 crime thriller “Zodiac,” or the melodrama needed to spur scribes into breaking open a story on the suspicious death of a congressman’s mistress, like in the 2009 political thriller “State of Play,” but the relevancy of a newspaper reporter’s job is made evident in the sincere, insightful, fair and extremely well-paced “Spotlight.”
In a news industry where Buzzfeed headlines and Kardashian selfies are constantly trending for the mainstream masses, it’s refreshing (and equally discouraging) to know a majority of wordsmiths just a decade ago cared more about reporting the truth than creating click-bait content. Not only is “Spotlight” great cinema, it also has the power to remind audiences that a hard-hitting exposé should always be a crucial element of the ever-changing media landscape. Without professionals doing this kind of work (and not just recording grainy cell phone footage), how can anyone be held accountable?
Directed and co-written by Oscar nominee Tom McCarthy, whose track record has been so impressive (“The Station Agent,” “The Visitor” and “Win Win”) since breaking out in 2003 that we might one day forgive him for whatever the hell last year’s Adam Sandler vehicle “The Cobbler” was supposed to be. Spotlight brings the filmmaker back to true form. Set in the early ’00s, the drama tells the story of the Boston Globe‘s investigative “Spotlight Team” of reporters who uncovered a global sex abuse scandal and cover-up rooted deep inside the Catholic Church that ultimately spawned criminal accusations against 250 Roman Catholic priests. For their work, the team was honored with the Pulitzer Prize for public service.
That journalistic determination leading them to the source of the crimes is the main focus of “Spotlight.” While the stories of the individual victims and perpetrators is paramount in breathing life into the story, it’s the Globe’s writers’ efforts to deliver these remarkable revelations that serve as the lungs of this compelling narrative. Oscar-nominated actors Michael Keaton (“Birdman”) and Mark Ruffalo (“Foxcatcher”) lead this impressive ensemble cast, including Rachel McAdams (“Southpaw”) and Liev Schreiber (“Pawn Sacrifice”) as the Globe‘s new earnest editor who wants the paper to concentrate more on local coverage. What they find at the core is a corrupt system where the crimes of Catholic priests had been swept under the rug for years.
Where McCarthy and co-writer Josh Singer (“The Fifth Estate”) shined most with the screenplay is in the fact they did not sensationalize the subject at hand, respected everyone involved and stayed fiercely objective (even the Vatican’s official radio station called the film “honest”). In doing so, “Spotlight” is also able to point out the faults of its hero reporters and show that despite the immense accountability they inherit when they choose to take on an assignment like this, they are still flawed human beings that make mistakes. Nevertheless, this isn’t a film about the people, per se, as much as it is about the procedure. “Spotlight” takes the research, analysis, interviews, red tape, dead ends and backroom politics of investigative journalism and turns it into an art form.
Tags: 2015, Boston Globe, Brian d'Arcy James, John Slattery, Josh Singer, kikoreview, Mark Ruffalo, Michael Keaton, Rachel McAdams, Spotlight, Spotlight Team, Stanley Tucci, Tom McCarthy
November 1, 2013 by Ashley Lopez
Filed under Ashley, Reviews
Starring: Domhnall Gleeson, Rachel McAdams, Bill Nighy
Directed by: Richard Curtis (“Love Actually”)
Written by: Richard Curtis (“Love Actually”)
What never fails to makes a great love story is genuineness. It’s what all the greats – “Annie Hall,” “When Harry Met Sally,” “Love Actually,” – have it in common. Simple, authentic storylines with relatable characters and relationships are what really make a romance, well, romantic. Encompassing all that and more is writer/director Richard Curtis’ “About Time.” It’s a film that just might find itself somewhere on the list of greatest rom-coms of all time, but probably not for the reasons you’re thinking. A heartwarming story about one man and his ability to time travel, “About Time” reminds you just how much life and love inevitably go hand in hand.
On his 21st birthday, Tim (Domhnall Gleeson) learns from his father (Bill Nighy) he has the inherited ability to time travel. Initially set on using his newly-found talent to find a girlfriend, Tim soon discovers his skills at time travel may give him the power to do so much more. After meeting the beautiful yet insecure Mary (Rachel McAdams), Tim travels back in time to make her fall in love with him again and again after their first encounter doesn’t go as planned. Depicting the events of their life together over the span of a decade, Tim is eventually forced to realize his gift cannot fix everything wrong in his relationship after all.
Luckily, “About Time” does not revolve around the topic of time travel, and therefore is nothing like “The Time Traveler’s Wife,” which is great news for anyone that has seen how horrible that movie is. And sorry ladies, but it’s really not even a movie about finding your soul mate. Setting itself apart from the great love stories out there, Curtis writes a delightful and wonderfully surprising screenplay about the relationship between a father and son and, even more so, about the journey of life, how majestically messy it can be and how love can make it all worthwhile.
Portraying the ordinary and naive character of Tim, Gleeson hits the mark and graces the screen with an honest performance. One can only hope, after watching this movie, he is given the continued opportunity to earn more roles throughout his career. While McAdams complements Gleeson with their undeniable chemistry, Nighy transforms this story into what it is. Creating a unique and memorable takeaway for the audience, Gleeson and Nighy work together effortlessly and create a strikingly close picture of what it’s like for a son to idolize his father and what it’s like to be a parent who loves their child more than anything in the world.
There are scenes in “About Time” where Tim decides to time travel one too many times, making it feel a little repetitive. It’s easy to overlook that, however, with a perfectly paced screenplay filled with an abundance of quick and much appreciated comedy, not to mention its sporadic artistic cinematography. With many moments guaranteed to leave you breathless, “About Time” will have you walking on air.
Tags: 2013, About Time, ashleyreview, Bill Nighy, Domhnall Gleeson, Rachel McAdams, Richard Curtis
May 3, 2013 by Kiko Martinez
Starring: Ben Affleck, Olga Kurylenko, Rachel McAdams
Directed by: Terrence Malick (“Tree of Life”)
Written by: Terrence Malick (“Tree of Life”)
In the quickest follow-up to a film in his 30 year career, director/writer Terrence Malick delivers “To the Wonder,” a drama so polarizing it earned a series of boos and cheers when it debuted at the Venice Film Festival last September. “To the Wonder” comes after Malick’s Oscar-nominated – albeit still as dividing – “Tree of Life” starring Brad Pitt and Jessica Chastain. While it might be considered a companion piece to “Tree,” “Wonder” is less experimental and far less emotionally gratifying than its predecessor. In fact, of the six films Malick has directed since 1973’s “Badlands,” it’s the only one I cannot recommend.
As with every Malick film, viewers can insert their own personal meaning behind the thinly-plotted “Wonder.” Ben Affleck stars as Neil, a man who falls in love with single mother Marina (Olga Kurylenko) in France and brings her and her daughter back to Oklahoma to start a new life together. When things don’t work out (it’s not evident why they don’t since all Affleck does is stare into the distance for most of the film), Marina moves back to France and Neil rekindles a romance with Jane (Rachel McAdams), a childhood friend who is now a rancher. When that relationship ends, Marina comes back. Plotted sloppily between the love triangle is a secondary storyline about a priest (Javier Bardem) who has lost his faith. In perfect Malick form, he walks around aimlessly trying to find it.
For a majority of the film’s 112-minute run time (a short film for Malick’s standards), not much happens. Affleck has tickle-fights with Kurylenko and McAdams on beautiful backdrops as Wagner, Hayden and Rachmaninoff music blend with sparse, meaningless dialogue. There is also verbose narration in French and Spanish that tries hard to be poetic, but proves ineffective. Malick shoots Kurylenko and McAdams like a father who is chasing his twirling toddlers with a video camera he just got for Christmas. It was probably great footage in his mind, but no one else is going to want to see it.
Of course, you can’t dismiss the beauty of “Wonder” with Mexican cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki (“Tree of Life,” “The New World”) at the helm again. Here, he makes a field of grain and a parking lot at a Sonic Drive-Thru restaurant look immaculate. Still, “Wonder” is exactly why Malick detractors don’t give him a fair shake. And this time they’re right. The imagery is incredible, but it’s a pretentious mess. With three more projects already in the canon for the next two years (“Knight of Cups,” “Voyage of Time,” and an untitled piece), here’s to hoping Malick’s sudden craving for rapid filmmaking isn’t his downfall.
Tags: 2013, Ben Affleck, Javier Bardem, Kiko Martinez, kikoreview, Olga Kurylenko, Rachel McAdams, Terrence Malick, To the Wonder
February 11, 2012 by Cody Villafana
Filed under Cody, Reviews
Starring: Channing Tatum, Rachel McAdams, Scott Speedman
Written by: Michael Sucsy (debut), Marc Silverstein (“He’s Just Not That Into You”), Abby Kohn (“He’s Just Not That Into You”), Jason Katims (“The Pallbearer”)
Directed by: Michael Sucsy (debut)
If you’re in a serious, long-term relationship, there’s a good chance that at some point you’ve discussed with your significant other if they would stand by you through anything that happened. You’ve probably cooked up the most absurd scenarios ever, promising to stay with them even if they encountered an event ranging from a minor cosmetic abnormality through full-on incontinence. “The Vow” takes a shot at one of those tests of true love, but fails to fulfill its promise of being a satisfying date-night movie.
Inspired by true events, “The Vow” opens with a car accident that causes Paige (Rachel McAdams) to lose the previous five years of her life, erasing her husband Leo (Channing Tatum) from her memory completely. When Paige’s estranged parents (Sam Neill and Jessica Lange) come back into the picture, Leo is left to try to convince Paige of their previous feelings for each other and make her fall in love with him again, while trying to keep her last known boyfriend Jeremy (Scott Speedman) at bay.
If you took the over in the “Channing Tatum shirtless” office pool, you’ll come out a winner. Tatum is good enough in the role of Leo. He’s convincing in showing that he truly cares for Paige, but like with most of his performances he leaves something to be desired on the acting front. McAdams proves herself to be pretty charming in her short-lived pre-accident moments. But once the accident happens, she reverts back to her old self which makes sense in theory, but robs her of the personality she establishes early on. One of the biggest issues facing “The Vow” is the seemingly lazy effort put into creating any interesting secondary characters. The random vindictive intentions of ex-fiance Jeremy are forced and misplaced given his outward behavior. In fact, the forcedness of all of the characters who are foils to the romance make the already weak characters that much more stale.
While the plot of the film might seem similar to 2004’s “50 First Dates”, it is a little different in that Tatum’s character doesn’t have to reintroduce himself to his love on a daily basis. But perhaps that’s why “The Vow” fails to strike a chord. Though Leo goes through the big spectacles and far-fetched ideas to reignite their love, his sense of frustration kicks in and the passion isn’t felt as strong as something like “50 First Dates” where Adam Sandler’s character refuses to give up. After the accident, Paige has changed, and no longer has chemistry with Leo. Unfortunately for “The Vow,” watching someone try to force a relationship on someone else does not make for a good romance.
Coming out just in time for Valentine’s Day, “The Vow” knows its exact target audience. Although it occasionally comes off as sincere, the story is too schmaltzy, the humor is too flat and the characters are too flimsy to stand on their own.
Tags: Abby Kohn, Channing Tatum, codyreview, Jason Katims, Marc Silverstein, Michael Sucsy, Rachel McAdams, Scott Speedman, The Vow
June 9, 2011 by Kiko Martinez
Starring: Owen Wilson, Rachel McAdams, Marion Cotillard
Directed by: Woody Allen (“Vicky Cristina Barcelona”)
Written by: Woody Allen (“Vicky Cristina Barcelona”)
Have you ever wondered what it would be like if you had been born in another time period? Imagine experiencing the Renaissance in the early 16th century or witnessing the birth of Hollywood’s silent film era in the late 1880s.
The idea is something three-time Oscar-winning filmmaker Woody Allen (“Vicky Cristina Barcelona”) experiments with in his new film “Midnight in Paris,” a smartly-written, whimsical romantic comedy that just so happens to include a charming little time-traveling storyline that fits in wonderfully.
In “Midnight in Paris,” Owen Wilson (“Marley & Me”) stars as Gil, an American screenplay writer and self-described “Hollywood hack,” who travels to France with his boorish fiancée Inez (Rachel McAdams) and her parents and ends up going on an adventure on his own. Gil enjoys Paris well enough, but he wonders what it would’ve been like to be there during the Roaring 20s when art and literature were at a historical peak.
When Gil decides he no longer wants to hang out with Inez and her snooty friends (Michael Sheen plays a know-it-all intellect to perfection), he decides to take in Paris by himself by going on a late-night stroll through the city. In a magical and Cinderellaeque twist, Gil steps into a mysterious car at the stroke of midnight and is somehow transported back in time to the 1920s where he meets the like of F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, and Pablo Picasso, all of whom inspire his own work as an aspiring novelist.
The time traveling scenario happens every night at the same time and Gil takes full advantage of his newfound friends. He even gets writer Gerturude Stein (Kathy Bates) to read over his own manuscript and give him some priceless constructive criticism. During his nightly trips back to the era (the time-traveling scenario happens every night and every night Gil somehow returns home without explanation), Gil ends up meeting one of Picasso’s mistresses (Marion Cotillard), a French socialite who also wishes she could have been born in another era, specifially the Belle Epoque.
As picturesque as most of Allen’s past work that embraces particular cities like New York and Barcelona, “Midnight in Paris” is a refreshing fantasy that takes being inspired to a whole new level. It might not reach the greatness of some of Allen’s classics, but “Paris” easily arouses the artist’s passion in all of us.
Tags: 2011, kikoreview, Marion Cotillard, Midnight in Paris, Owen Wilson, Rachel McAdams, Woody Allen
Starring: Rachel McAdams, Harrison Ford, Diane Keaton
Directed by: Roger Michell (“Notting Hill”)
Written by: Aline Brosh McKenna (“The Devil Wears Prada”)
If “Morning Glory” were an actual segment on a news program it would be the equivalent of the fluff piece that comes somewhere during the show when the anchor replays a YouTube video of a parakeet whistling old TV show theme songs. It pointless, harmless, and sometimes even a little funny, but is also usually always forgettable.
What saves “Morning Glory” from becoming totally unmemorable after leaving the theater are the charming performances it features from most of the cast. It starts with Rachel McAdams (“The Notebook”) who plays Becky Fuller, a New Jersey morning show senior producer who is dealt a heavy blow when she is let go from her position after some restructuring.
Her unemployment, however, doesn’t last long when a struggling news station in New York City calls upon her lead their understaffed and underfunded morning show back into contention. It’s no “Today Show,” but Becky accepts the job and commits to it. Although most people don’t think she’ll last, including longtime co-anchor Colleen Peck (an underutilized Diane Keaton), there’s no denying her tenacity.
When Becky is left with an empty co-anchor seat, she seeks out veteran newsman Mike Pomeroy (Harrison Ford) to bring in some journalistic integrity onto the set. But when Mike’s arrogance begins to get in the way of the show (he refuses to cover news stories he feel are beneath him and uses words like “aggregated” on air), Becky must try to find a way to make everyone happy before their show gets cancelled in favor of game show reruns.
Directed by Roger Michell (“Notting Hill”), “Morning Glory” doesn’t try to be something it’s not. While there are hints the film will examine how the media industry is evolving in this new century, this isn’t’ a film like “All the President’s Men” or even last year’s underappreciated “State of Play” (another media-based movie McAdams stars in).
Instead, “Morning Glory” is a peppy movie that follows the same blueprint as a film like “The Devil Wears Prada,” both of which are written by screenwriter Aline Brosh McKenna who, like in “Prada,” trips up the flow of the narrative with an cliché love story that benefits no one.
What “Morning Glory” needed to do was stay within the confines of the newsroom and make those relationships feel more authentic. It would have been nice to see more of a give and take between Harrison and Keaton, who butt heads whenever they share the spotlight. It would have been nice to know a little more about Becky aside from her failed attempts at dating and gluttony for work.
But McKenna and Michell take the easy way to the finish line. While the cast manages to stay likeable (even Ford’s unlikeable anchorman is fascinating in a pompous, Meryl Streep in “Devil Wears Prada” sort of way), the script comes together sporadically and without paying much attention to the multi-dimensional value of any of its characters. It all adds up to lighthearted entertainment that isn’t as newsworthy as it should have been.
Tags: 2010, Aline Brosh McKenna, Diane Keaton, Harrison Ford, kikoreview, Morning Glory, Rachel McAdams, Roger Michell
December 24, 2009 by Kiko Martinez
Starring: Robert Downey Jr., Jude Law, Rachel McAdams
Directed by: Guy Ritchie (“RocknRolla”)
Written by: Anthony Peckham (“Invictus”), Simon Kinberg (“Jumper”), Michael Robert Johnson (debut)
It’s really not necessary to walk into the hip new version of “Sherlock Holmes” knowing anything about the legendary 19th century detective stories written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Actually, it might benefit moviegoers to forget anything about the English gumshoe they might have learned in prep school.
While there are some glimpses of Doyle’s source material, director Guy Ritchie (“RocknRolla,” “Snatch”) attempts to amp up this Holmes tale for the next generation, but fashions it around a mass-appealing storyline that becomes more soupy that scholarly.
That shouldn’t take anything away from two-time Oscar nominee Robert Downey Jr.’s stylish portrayal of the title character. As Holmes, Downey Jr. commands the screen as the world’s most famous, fist-fighting detective. Here, he is matched up nicely with actor Jude Law, who is a solid casting choice for Holmes’ sidekick, Dr. Watson. Despite the impressive paring and chemistry, screenwriters Anthony Peckham (“Invictus”), Simon Kinberg (“Jumper”), and newcomer Michael Robert Johnson can’t match the magnetism of Downey Jr. or the menacing art direction that turns London into a tarnished locale.
In the film, Holmes and Watson are on the heels of Lord Blackwood (Mark Strong), a serial killer involved in black magic who apparently rises from the dead after the duo watch him hang for the murders he committed. From there, the film falls into a tale of world domination that is hardly unique on any level. Blackwood wants to bring down Parliament with a chemical weapon. Holmes must find him before he does. Where’s Guy Fawkes when you need him?
An under-used Rachel McAdams (“The Notebook”) plays Irene Adler, a secondary character only mentioned in one of Doyle’s numerous writings but is undoubtedly high on the Holmes hierarchy. The always-reliable Eddie Marsan plays Scotland Yard’s Inspector Lestrade with his usual bitter approach to his characters.
Set pieces aside, “Sherlock Holmes” goes as far as the supernatural-themed narrative allows it. There are some highlights in the film including the rousing action sequences Ritchie is known for, which work well for a while before we’re reminded that all the loose ends and twists still have to be revealed before the bloated story pops. Then, there’s the fantastic score by Hans Zimmer that is far removed from his usual extravagant musical offerings. The funky piano playing throughout reminds us that not every period blockbuster needs a swelling orchestra to be effective.
But when a film feels like all it’s doing in the final act is setting up for a sequel, something is wrong with its cinematic logic. There’s far more story to tell in the mystery series, but it’s insane for “Holmes” to stop short without a concrete promise of a follow-up or without earning the right to dole out cliffhangers. It really acts more self-important than it should. Just be thankful Holmes never utters the word “elementary” or things could have gotten really ugly on Baker Street.
Tags: 2009, Anthony Peckham, Guy Ritchie, Jude Law, kikoreview, Michael Robert Johnson, Rachel McAdams, Robert Downey Jr., Sherlock Holmes, Simon Kinberg
April 15, 2009 by Kiko Martinez
Starring: Russell Crowe, Ben Affleck, Rachel McAdams
Directed by: Kevin McDonald (“The Last King of Scotland”)
Written by: Matthew Michael Carnahan (“Lions for Lambs”), Tony Gilroy (“Michael Clayton”), Billy Ray (“Breach”)
There will never be another newspaper film like “State of Play.”
While it might be a bit extreme to say Russell Crowe and Rachel McAdams are on the same tier as Dustin Hoffman and Robert Redford’s Woodward and Bernstein in the 1976 media epic “All the President’s Men,” no one has ever come as close to capturing the true meaning of investigative journalism in the print media. Even with some sensationalism thrown in for flavor, “State of Play” is smartly done.
For the generation who like their news in short blurbs written by bloggers who use Wikipedia as their main source, this definitely won’t resonate with you. For those who still value the art of in-depth reporting and the way an actual newspaper still feels between your fingertips, “State of Play” is as tightly written as a front-page story grinded out on an unapologetic deadline by a veteran reporter.
Based on a 2003 British TV miniseries of the same name, “State of Play” follows old-school Washington D.C. scribe Cal McAffrey (Crowe) in the middle of a political scandal that slowly reels him personally and professionally. The mistress of his old college friend, Congressman Stephen Collins (Ben Affleck), has died of an apparent suicide, but with some exceptional fact digging, Cal uncovers other circumstances that could prove to be damaging to some governmental bigwigs and to himself on an ethical level.
There to pick up the slack as their scowling editor (Helen Mirren) keeps a sharp eye on her staff is internet reporter Della Frye (McAdams), whose blogging abilities are just impressive enough to provoke Cal’s traditional stance on his lifelong career. “I’m just trying to help you get a few facts in the mix the next time you upchuck online.”
Still, a little new blood never hurt anyone especially with someone as hungry for a newsworthy story as Della. Crowe and McAdams’ chemistry blends well from the start and only strengthens as the political thriller dashes in and out of some sharp turns and detailed storytelling. It’s easily the best newspaper movie since 2003 “Shattered Glass” and the most intelligent film to be released in the first third of the year.
Tags: 2009, Ben Affleck, Billy Ray, drama, Helen Mirren, Kevin McDonald, kikoreview, Matthew Michael Carnahan, Rachel McAdams, Russell Crowe, Tony Gilroy
The Lucky Ones
September 14, 2008 by Kiko Martinez
Starring: Tim Robbins, Rachel McAdams, Michael Peña
Directed by: Neil Burger (“The Illusionist”)
Written by: Neil Burger (“The Illusionist”) and Dirk Wittenborn (“Fierce People”)
Not original enough to make a pro-war statement, and too contrived to make an anti-war statement, “The Lucky Ones” seems comfortable in passing itself off as road trip flick about friendship. It’s unfortunate, however, that the screenwriter’s efforts are impractical and flat.
In “The Lucky Ones,” three U.S. soldiers, Colee (Rachel McAdams), Cheever (Tim Robbins), and T.K. (Michael Peña) meet each other in the airport when they are sent home for leave. While Colee and T.K. are deployed home for 30 days because they have sustain injuries (she’s shot in the leg and he’s nursing a shrapnel wound to his scrotum), Cheever has completed his service in the military and is looking forward to spending time with his family.
As luck would have it, their trip starts poorly when they land in New York and cannot make a connecting flight to their respective cities because of a blackout. Instead of waiting for the airport to reschedule their trips, the trio decides that it would be faster to rent a car and drive cross country to their destinations – St. Louis for Cheever and Las Vegas for the others. Colee’s plan is to return her dead friend’s guitar to his family in hopes that she can stay with them, while T.K., who is suffering from impotence because of his below-the-belt nick, is looking for a prostitute to help him with his little problem before he goes home to his fiancée in Florida. (I guess streetwalkers don’t live in the Sunshine State).
But when Cheever gets home and finds out his wife wants a divorce and his son needs money to go to Stanford University, it only make sense that he continues traveling with T.K. and Colee to Vegas so he can win his son’s tuition playing blackjack (I guess they’ve never heard of student loans).
They are all brainless ideas that implode on paper and even more so when McAdams, Robbins, and Peña, all good actors in their own right, try to help director Neil Burger explain who military men and women are by putting a name and face on these universal characters. The problem is that Burger and writing partner Dirk Wittenborn have created a set of stories far too unbelievable to latch onto in any way.
Through their journey we never really learn what is going on inside the heads of these three soldiers or what it’s like coming home knowing the stay is only temporary. It’s obvious that Burger wants to say something about the emotional state of the soldiers once they hit American soil, but instead of connecting us to them thoughtfully, he throws too many obstacles in their way that don’t benefit the overall importance of the story. Why write a scene where Cheever locks the keys in the car when, five minutes later, they find someone to open it with a slim Jim? It feels like Burger and Wittenborn have strung together skits to form a hybrid dramedy that goes nowhere and wastes valuable time.
Tags: 2008, Dirk Wittenborn, kikoreview, Michael Pe�a, Neil Burger, Rachel McAdams, The Lucky Ones, Tim Robbins
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Gary Stein
Marine Sgt. Gary Stein speaks with reporters in front of the federal court building Friday, April 13, 2012, in San Diego. U.S. District Judge Marilyn Huff on Friday, April 13, 2012 denied a request to block discharge proceedings of Stein, who faces being kicked out of the military and loss of benefits for criticizing President Barack Obama on Facebook.
Photo Credit: The Associated Press
SAN DIEGO — A sergeant will be discharged for criticizing President Barack Obama on Facebook in a case that called into question the Pentagon’s policies about social media and its limits on the speech of active duty military personnel, the Marine Corps said Wednesday.
Sgt. Gary Stein will get an other-than-honorable discharge and lose most of his benefits for violating the policies, the Corps said.
The San Diego-area Marine who has served nine years in the Corps said he was disappointed, and argued that he was exercising his constitutional rights to free speech.
“I love the Marine Corps, I love my job. I wish it wouldn’t have gone this way. I’m having a hard time seeing how 15 words on Facebook could have ruined my nine-year career,” he told The Associated Press.
Gary Kreep, an attorney for Stein, said he would pursue administrative appeals within the Marine Corps but anticipates the effort will fail. He said he planned to file an amended complaint in federal court.
“As long as he wants to pursue this, we will be supporting him,” said Kreep, who is executive director of the United States Justice Foundation, an advocacy group.
The Marines acted after saying Stein stated March 1 on a Facebook page used by Marine meteorologists, “Screw Obama and I will not follow all orders from him.” Stein later clarified, saying he would not follow unlawful orders.
Brig. Gen. Daniel Yoo, the commanding general of the Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego, said Wednesday that evidence supported a recommendation to
discharge Stein.
Tom Umberg, a former Army colonel and military prosecutor, believes the decision to discharge Stein will have limited impact because the vast majority of Marines would never consider such postings.
“I think 99 percent of the soldiers and Marines currently on duty understand the duties of supporting the chain of command and understand their rights of free speech are limited,” he said. “To that 1 percent who don’t know their rights to free speech are limited once they take the oath, this is a loud and
clear message.”
Printed on Thursday, April 26, 2012 as: Case explores military free speech
Published on April 6, 2012 at 9:27 am
CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. — A Marine facing dismissal from the military for his Facebook comments went as far as posting superimposed images of President Barack Obama’s face on a donkey, a prosecutor said Thursday.
Prosecutor Capt. John Torresala said the behavior by Marine Sgt. Gary Stein repeatedly violated Pentagon policy limiting the free speech rights of service members. Stein’s security clearance was taken away and he has no future in the Marine Corps because he can’t do his job without that clearance, Torresala said.
The government submitted screen grabs of Stein’s postings on one Facebook page he created called Armed Forces Tea Party, which the prosecutor said included the image of the “jackass,” and another page used by Marines such as Stein who work as military meteorologists.
Defense attorney Marine Capt. James Baehr said during the hearing that prosecutors were trying to dredge up any damaging information they could against Stein. “There is no basis in this case,” Baehr said. “Sgt. Stein has broken no law.”
Stein said his statement about Obama was part of an online debate about NATO allowing U.S. troops to be tried for the Quran burnings in Afghanistan. In that context, he said, he was stating that he would not follow orders from the president if it involved detaining U.S. citizens, disarming them or doing anything else that he believes would violate their constitutional rights.
Printed on Friday, April 6, 2012 as: Free speech for military on trial after Marine lambastes Obama
David Glazier
Marine Sgt.
Published on March 8, 2012 at 9:07 am
SAN DIEGO — Marine Sgt. Gary Stein first started a Facebook page called Armed Forces Tea Party Patriots to encourage service members to exercise their free speech rights. Then he declared that he wouldn’t follow “unlawful” orders from the commander in chief, President Barack Obama.
The Marine Corps is determining if he violated the military’s rules prohibiting political statements by those in uniform and broke guidelines regarding social media. Stein said his views are constitutionally protected.
“I think that it’s been pretty well established for a long time that freedom of speech is one area in which people do surrender some of their basic rights in entering the armed forces,” said former Navy officer David Glazier. “Good order and discipline require the military maintain respect for the chain of command. That includes prohibiting speech critical of the senior officers in that chain of command — up to and including the commander in chief.”
According to Pentagon directives, military personnel in uniform can’t sponsor a political club; participate in any TV or radio program or group discussion that advocates for or against a political party, candidate or cause; or speak at any event promoting a political movement. Commissioned officers also may not use contemptuous words against senior officials.
Last week, Stein said his superiors told him he couldn’t use social media sites on government computers after he posted the message.
Stein said his statement was part of an online debate about NATO allowing U.S. troops to be tried for the Quran burnings in Afghanistan. In that context, he said, he was stating that he would not follow orders from the president if those orders included detaining U.S. citizens, disarming them or doing anything else that he believes would violate their constitutional rights. Stein said he respects the office of the president, but he does not agree with Obama’s policies.
“Just because I’m a Marine doesn’t mean I don’t have free speech or can’t say my personal opinion about the president or other public official just like anybody else,” Stein said. “The Constitution trumps everything else.”
Stein said it’s positive when service members are well-versed on the Constitution and current events.
“When we know what we’re fighting for, we fight harder,” he said.
The Marine Corps said Stein is allowed to express his personal opinions, but not in his official capacity as a Marine. Spokesman Maj. Michael Armistead said the Corps is taking a closer look to ensure Stein has not crossed that line.
“At this time, he has not been asked to take down the statement on his page,” he said.
Marine Sgt. Jerret Wright, who liked Stein’s page, said Stein “probably skirted the line a little bit” with his latest message, but his boldness has been refreshing in a community that often feels silenced.
“People assume that we’re zombies with an on-and-off switch, and that we listen to orders and do nothing else,” Wright said.
Military observers point out that the Pentagon policy is necessary in preventing political and religious debates that could divide a unit and disrupt the strong working relationship that is needed to carry out missions, Glazier said.
“There are plenty of examples in the world of militaries heavily involved in influencing political events that have shown that is not conducive to civilian rule of law,” he said.
Printed on Thursday, March 8, 2012 as: Marine's Facebook page starts debate on military free speech
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Using Geographic Information Systems: A Different Perspective on Data
Laura Kaufmann
Image courtesy of Shutterstock
Geographic Information Systems (GIS) technology allows users to engage with large, relational datasets in a map format. GIS adds another dimension of understanding to traditional databases through its emphasis on location. This technology significantly enhances business intelligence in three key ways: data integration, visualization, and spatial analysis.
The label “GIS” can be applied to any computer system that stores, displays, and manipulates geographic or spatial information. Spatial analyses have been employed as problem-solving techniques long before the digital age. Today, GIS technology can be applied to a wide variety of situations, from township zoning to cell phones and GPS units to international crises. In 1999, the third Wednesday in November was set aside to mark International GIS Day, a celebration of GIS technology, its users, and its applications.
How GIS Works
GIS allows users to operate at any scale, from single neighborhoods to the entire globe, making it a useful analysis tool for any sized business. These computer systems are able to store geographic data in vector formats. This type of data is geometric; it maintains spatial information as points, lines, and shapes (or polygons). Vector data can be used to identify “attributes” (or map features) including specific locations, road networks, and political boundaries. Groups of related attributes are stored together in a single “layer.” For example, all road line segments comprise a single layer that is separate from other attributes such as business locations or county boundaries. By stacking multiple layers onto a single display, GIS can reveal more thorough and nuanced business trends than a dashboard full of one or two variable charts and graphs.
Over the last 20 years, businesses and industries have seen an exponential growth in digital resources, including the storage and transmission of large data sets. Even moderately sized businesses can afford to implement off-the-shelf customer relationship management (CRM) software, which documents not just sales but customer details and contact records as well. All CRMs frequently record geographic information, including IP locations, customer addresses, or address parts (e.g., ZIP codes).
A company’s CRM system is the first and most valuable data repository, but it is not the only one available. Many government agencies and international organizations publish open-source data, which is freely available to any individual or entity. A national census can provide essential information regarding demographic patterns, while World Bank data can speak to the distribution of wealth across a continent. If the necessary data sets aren’t freely available, there are many research and aggregation firms that can pull data for a nominal fee.
When combining multiple data sources, assigning a common indexing key for joins is an early but critical requirement as different data providers may conceptualize the same field in different ways. GIS can combine a variety of data sources—client-owned, open-source, and paid research—without direct links among the data sets. While traditional databases rely on key fields to establish and maintain relationships, geo-databases can also use spatial proximity as a method of linking objects to one another. Proximity does not require a matching key, only that each database is connected to some kind of geography (e.g., states, counties or latitude/longitude coordinates).
Objects from each database, mostly tables and queries, can be displayed on the same map, even if they don't reference the same geography. Displaying multiple layers at once can identify trends, explain why those trends are occurring, and determine how long those trends have been in place. Maps are different from traditional analysis visualizations (i.e., charts, graphs, etc.) because they are able to display several large data sets over both space and time.
GIS analysis capabilities don’t end with mapping displays. Most GIS software also includes toolboxes for analysis and predictive modeling. Every business unit’s budget is finite—using spatial analysis helps teams work more efficiently to ensure intelligent decision-making rooted in reliable data.
While the analytical toolbox is typically diverse and adaptable, here are three examples of improved client outcomes:
Consumer Location Assessment
Any corporate communication, whether internal or external, depends on connecting the best messages with the appropriate audience. The GIS toolbox can help marketers find their audience and target them specifically, minimizing cost and maximizing audience attention.
A regional entertainment attraction for families with young children was interested in generating a regional admission coupon across three states representing their key audience—New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. With a limited budget prohibiting complete coverage across the three states, the client employed both owned and open- source data to prioritize the best areas for coupon distribution.
According to previous seasons’ attendance records, approximately 80% of visitors reported home zip codes within a 90-mile radius of the client’s sole venue. The client already had other media investments in the market, including radio, print, and television, and decided that the coupon should circulate in areas where other media coverage was light. Zip codes with complete coverage from more than one media outlet were removed from consideration. These two parameters created a “donut” of opportunity. The remaining zip codes were within 90 miles of the venue, but tended to be outside of a 30- mile radius, where media coverage was heaviest.
As a family-friendly arts-focused attraction, the client’s target audience is mainly comprised of mothers with young children (ages 3-9) or older adults who might have grandchildren in the target age range. It was recommended that the client distribute coupons more heavily in areas that had high populations of women, families, and/or older adults. ZIP codes with high percentages of the target populations were identified using open-source U.S. Census and American Community Survey data and then ranked according to statistical significance.
To test the efficacy of the areas selected, the client recorded the number of coupons returned in conjunction to the visiting party’s zip code. As part of the post-analysis, the number of coupons sent to each zip code was compared to the number redeemed to calculate the rate of return. To optimize couponing and other marketing initiatives planned for the following year, these calculations were added to a map identifying areas which responded well and which didn’t.
Selecting a New Branch Location
A business’s physical locations in the marketplace have a dramatic effect on the types of customers they attract. GIS has several tools that assist in situating new branches in areas that are easily accessible to the desired consumers.
A financial clients, a regional bank, serves both B2C consumers and B2B investors. While they already had three branches in the region, they were looking to open another. Approximately 85% of visitors to branch locations were B2C clients, but B2B investments accounted for nearly 65% of the bank’s total business.
Because B2B clients represented such a significant percentage of business, the client wanted to prioritize access from other companies in the region. This had the added benefit of allowing the employees of those companies easy access before or after work as well as during the lunch hour. The North American Industry Classification System, a limited access data set produced by the U.S. Census Bureau, identified the locations and approximate sizes of business in the region. Areas with a high density of businesses above a certain size were given first priority for potential selection.
Mapping the home addresses of current B2C customers against American Community Survey data determined that the average median household income for bank patrons was greater than $45,000 per year. Using census tracts, one of the smallest geographic unit published by the U.S. Census Bureau, Klunk & Millan was able to precisely identify areas where the population matched this criterion.
According to customer addresses, more than 60% of customers lived within a 20 minute drive of the nearest location. When selecting the location of the newest branch, all areas within that drive time to pre-existing branches were excluded.
As the new facility was opened, Klunk & Millan worked closely with the client on outreach to qualified, nearby businesses and consumers. The client continued to record customer information, especially home or business addresses. In the post-analysis, this data was displayed on a map to confirm that this location followed the same visitor and business trends that the older branches displayed.
Managing Sales Territories
Sales and service territories must maintain a delicate balance of workload and sales potential while also maximizing efficiency. GIS can be used as a predictive modeling tool to delineate the most appropriate geographic regions for a business.
A rapidly growing industrial manufacturer produces devices used extensively in the power utilities and oil/gas industries. This company wanted to organize their expanding sales team with territories that balanced the workflow of current customer service and nurtured future opportunities. They used GIS to establish their nationwide sales territories.
The first step in this process was an analysis of the company’s recent sales, particularly the customer’s billing address and their purchase history. Customers were grouped by county according to their address. Open source data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) provided counts of employees by industry and employment projections for all counties in the United States. An algorithm that appropriately weighed current customers’ purchase history was developed that populated recent industry counts and projected future growth. As a growing company with an expanding customer base, this client prioritized cultivating opportunities. Each county in the United States was assigned a “score” which weighted the volume of both current customers and future prospects.
These scores were displayed on a map to show the client where they had already attracted a large number of customers and where there was potential for more growth. Every county across the nation was grouped together so that the sum of their scores fell into approximately the same range. No one territory contained significantly more customers or prospects than another, creating a balanced workflow for every member of the sales team.
Team members were also provided with additional insights regarding their assigned territories. Some regions contained more potential prospects than current customers, while others contained more oil/gas than power utilities consumers. Even within a region, certain cities and counties showed more promise than others.
To test the efficacy of the new sales territories, the client was assisted in instituting a robust CRM system that recorded information pertaining to both lead generation and sales. Of particular interest was the contact’s billing address, industry (power utility or oil/gas), and their progress toward or completion of purchases. In the first year post-analysis, this information was displayed on a map to ensure that the distribution of opportunities was balanced across territories. In under-performing areas, regional managers were assisted in refining messaging that better connected with the industrial composition of the territory.
Enhanced Business Intelligence
GIS and geospatial analysis techniques are inherently flexible and can be customized to suit any company. In addition, analyses can be carefully tailored to any budget, geographic region, or set of goals. GIS technology allows users to engage with large, relational data sets in a map format to add another dimension of understanding to traditional databases through emphasis on location. When used appropriately, this technology can significantly enhance business intelligence.
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Contraband Arrests at GDC Facilities
As of July 2010, The GDC Office of Professional Standards, in conjunction with local & federal law enforcement partners, have investigated or arrested approximately 620 staff and civilians for introducing contraband into prisons throughout the state.
1) On February 4, 2014, a Calhoun Sheriff Deputy stopped and questioned the driver of a vehicle, civilian Bobbie Victoria Davis, which was parked outside the courthouse. On suspicion the Deputy then drove to Calhoun State Prison and saw civilians Tyrone Sutton Jr. and Patrick James standing at guard line. After questioning the civilians, civilian Patrick James took off running towards the highway and was picked up by civilian Bobbie Victoria Davis. Deputy placed civilian Tyrone Sutton Jr. in his car and called for assistance. The Arlington Police Department stopped the vehicle driven by Bobbie Victoria Davis. All three civilians were arrested and taken to the Calhoun County jail for dropping off contraband at the facility. A package containing 19 bundles of tobacco, rolling paper, and a cell phone were found on the guard line.
2) On February 9, 2014 at Macon State Prison, visitor Tracy Willis was stopped at a K9 check point for smelling of marijuana on her person when she came to visit an inmate. Staff conducted a search of visitor Willis as well as of her vehicle. Staff found less than an ounce of marijuana and two small bottles of alcohol in her vehicle. Visitor Tracy Willis was arrested by Macon County Sheriff's Department.
3) On February 9, 2014 at Telfair State Prison, intelligence was received that there may be an attempt to introduce contraband over the fence. A search was conducted and a small hole was found in the perimeter fence. Visitor Donald Ladd was arrested by the Telfair County Sheriff's Office after admitting that he attempted to introduce the contraband. Staff confiscated two backpacks which contained one pair of bolt cutters, one pair of binoculars, nine bundles of tobacco wrapped in duct tape (approximately 5 pounds), 19 packs of rolling papers, 17 cell phones, 20 cell phone chargers, four packs of flavored cigars, 4.28 grams of marijuana, six lighters, one hacksaw blade cut in half, one screwdriver, two driver bits, two tubes of superglue, and one bottle of axe shower gel.
The Department of Corrections is committed to identifying and pursuing prosecution of those persons who attempt to introduce contraband into state facilities.
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Truth & Movies: The Desert of the Real
Posted in: Features, Film, Journalism
First published in Little White Lies.
On the release of JFK in 1991, Norman Mailer noted that film had the power to make new history. With multiplexes overrun with stories borrowing from the great and the good, what counts for truth in cinema?
The popularity of the filmed biopic with both producers and audiences shows no sign of abating, with over 30 movies in production and Awards ceremonies most recently championing Natalie Portman’s performance in Jackie. This is far from a recent development, with representations of real life having long fed the insatiable fires of Hollywood. In the course of his research for a book on history and celebrity, critic George Custon observed a commonality across over a hundred film biographies that had been shot between 1927 and 1960. In every single example, the lives being portrayed on the screen featured narratives that charted triumph over adversity. This adversity was contrived from childhood trauma, or born of personal relationships, substance abuse, economic difficulties or the conquest of bigotry. In each of the films he looked at – with subjects ranging from Joan of Arc to Al Jolson – hinged the development, achievement and decline of their protagonist to one event; a singularity of history.
In his study of historical film, Mark Carnes noted that “Hollywood history sparkles because it is so historically ambiguous, so devoid of tedious complexity,” an observation as true to Defiance, Daniel Craig’s recent portrayal of Jewish resistance in the eastern provinces of Poland during World War Two as it is to Stephen Soderbergh’s Che. As Marnie Hughes-Warrington observed, “mainstream film is characterised as offering a closed, completed and simple past.” History has to be simplified in order to cram the entirety of being into a two-hour running time; multi-faceted lives recast into an easily digested narrative.
This codification has the power to disseminate entirely new myths of figures and events some distance from history and, perhaps more surprisingly, serve to reconstruct their subjects’ identity entirely. The private and public lives of celebrities cross-pollinate, and life and performance blur. On the release of Eight Mile where Eminem played rapper B-Rabbit, critics leapt at the film as autobiography. Representation had become interchangeable with reality. This assumption has been cemented by that veritable stamp of cinematic authenticity, the Academy Awards, drawn to iopics year after year like moths to a flame – from Sissy Spacek’s Patsy Cline in the Coal Miner’s Daughter, to Joaquin Phoenix as Johnny Cash in Walk the Line and Marion Cottilard as Édith Piaf in La Vie en Rose.
Sam Riley’s performance as Joy Division’s Ian Curtis in Anton Corbijn’s Control epitomised the importance of this perceived authenticity to audiences. The overcooked, high contrast black and white cinematography was intended to reflect both the period and the spirit of the moment, while the music within the film was notably played by the actors rather than making use of original recordings. Despite all of this, the band’s Stephen Morris commented to the NME after the film’s premiere that, “none of it’s true, really.”
“The great thing about a biography is that you can’t escape the facts,” explains Nick Moran, who brought the story of British record producer Joe Meek first to the stage, and later adapted the work to the screen in Telstar. “The history of our country is full of amazing stories from incredible characters. So many truly great British movies tend to be biographies, from Lawrence of Arabia to Elizabeth, that I think fiction should be a last resort for us – let the Americans do that, they’re great at making stuff up.”
The film charts Meek’s decline from his revolutionary work in the recording studio, to the tragic decline though drug addiction and a terrible paranoia which eventually resulted in the murder of his landlady, Violet Shenton, and his own suicide. “The best way to pick Joe’s life apart was through the work,” he explains, detailing the process of writing the script. “I like to think we got close to what happened in the last moments of Joe and Violet’s life. Obviously no one really knows what happened, but we had the facts, the state of mind, and we know the conclusion. If you go through the songs it becomes clear what was going on in his life and in his head, especially if you look at what was going on in the world outside the flat. His character seemed to permeate every aspect of his life, and his homosexuality was something that informed his every decision. The great thing about a biography is that you can’t escape the facts, and when that biography features a musician, audiences are able to connect that story to something that they may already know about, or have an emotional attachment to. The Meek story is totally unique, stranger than fiction, and has all of those timeless themes of Shakespearean tragedy; love, loss, and the fall of a king.”
More recently Jackie is one of a slew of films centered around the US presidency. Ron Howard, no stranger to historical film having directed Apollo 13 and Hunt/Lauda biopic Rush, brought the historical legacy of Richard Nixon back into the realms of popular culture with Frost/Nixon. Much as David Frost’s televised interviews – on which Peter Morgan’s stage production and adapted screenplay for Howard were based – had achieved on their initial broadcast thirty years earlier. As with Gus Van Sant’s Milk, which leapt from actual footage from the seventies to Sean Penn’s portrayal of the titular character, Howard’s film outlines the complex relationship with past and present by blending historical record with speculative conjecture in its opening few minutes. Fictional footage is mixed with documentary and news archive, together with audio recordings taken from the White House taping system. David Edelstein noted in an article for New York Magazine that Morgan’s script elevated the interviews into “a momentous event in the history of politics and media.” Howard’s film worked hard to embellish the events with lines of dramatic dialogue that both ramped up the tension and the very significance of the interviews themselves.
An entirely fictional scene, where Nixon telephones Frost in the middle of the night, was crucial in its foreshadowing of Nixon’s admissions in the final interview. The scene had a sense of truth, seeded from the many late night telephone calls Nixon made during his career, but the call sat uncomfortably in the film as a whole. It borrows its confused, dutch-angled aesthetic from Oliver Stone’s earlier biopic Nixon, and the conversation serves to reinforce this cinematic reality of Nixon, making the suggestion that he was dependant on drink and drugs and raise doubts as to his memory and integrity. In his study, George Custon suggested that the biopic serves as an accessible version of history, satisfying an audience’s desire for “a loose code of realism”. He stated that films that recounted historical events made only an assertion of truth, but that this an assertion has the power to become embodied in popular culture. This vision of Nixon, crazed and irrational, rather than thoroughly rational and acting criminally, is elevated and concretized by Frost/Nixon.
In a strange slip of its own self-referentiality Sam Rockwell, playing Frost advisor Jim Reston on whose book both play and film were loosely based, observes in the closing scene that television simplifies, and film simplifies even further. He suggests that the many failings of Frost’s original interviews would not only be forgotten, but cease to exist entirely. Much to the despair of historians, in Reston’s terms film takes the place of folklore with the shared experience of the past represented in cinema constantly in flux and, more often than not, in opposition to history.
Stone’s account of Nixon attempted to exempt itself from the critical scrutiny which had been applied to JFK, stating a disclaimer in the titles that the film made “an attempt to understand the truth based on numerous public sources and on an incomplete historical record”, making much of the missing minutes of the Whitehouse tapes. Jean-François Richet does the same in Mesrine each part of which opens with a simple title which acknowledges, “All films are part fiction. No film can faithfully reproduce the complexity of a human life. Each to his own point of view.”
The greatest danger of the historical film is perhaps best expressed by that master of the form. In an interview with Newsweek, James Cameron stated his hope for Titanic; “will become the truth, the visual reality that a generation will accept.”
Tags: biopic, Feature, jackie, jfk, little, natalie portman, presidency, US Presidents, white lies
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Spiderman movie torrent
Spiderman movie torrent. Spider Man Homecoming 2019-05-05
Sunday, May 05, 2019 4:28:23 AM Odell
Spiderman The Movie Game « PCGamesTorrents
Parker stops his college's academic decathlon team to spend more time focusing on his crime-fighting actions as Spider-Man. On the night of the dance, Parker learns that Liz is Toomes' daughter. Ned and Parker disable the tracker Stark implanted in the Spider-Man suit, and unlock its advanced capabilities. When a tracking device on Schultz leads to Maryland, Parker rejoins the decathlon group and accompanies them to Washington, for their national tournament. Eight decades after, Peter Parker is drafted into the Avengers by Stark to assist with an internal challenge, but resumes his research in the Midtown School of Science and Technology if Stark informs him he isn't yet prepared to develop into a complete Avenger.
Spiderman The Movie Game [2002] (download torrent)
I'm little confused about that. During filming, Watts, Christopher Ford, Chris McKenna, and Erik Sommers were revealed as additional screenwriters, and more cast members were confirmed. I already have 32 bit colour mode on. Being the mainstream continuity of the franchise, it began publication in 1963 as a monthly periodical and was published continuously until it was relaunched with a new numbering order in 1999. Spider-Man: Homecoming is an upcoming American superhero film based on the Marvel Comics character Spider-Man, produced by Columbia Pictures and Marvel Studios, and distributed by Sony Pictures Releasing. Parker attempts to stop Toomes from stealing weapons from a Damage Control truck, but is overpowered and trapped within the truck, causing him to miss the decathlon tournament.
Download Spider
Amazing Zlenny, amazing torrent really! The title ended its 50-year run as a continuously published comic with issue 700 in December 2012. The following June, Holland was cast as the title character, while Watts was hired to direct, followed shortly after by the casting of Tomei and the hiring of Daley and Goldstein to write the script. Stark returns Parker's suit, which he puts on at his apartment just as his Aunt May walks in. . In Spider-Man: Homecoming, Peter Parker tries to balance being the hero Spider-Man with his high school life.
The film is directed by Jon Watts, with a screenplay by Jonathan M. Zlenny thanks for the upload but from reading your comment of 'a shame she doesn't know Spidey is not Peter. Spider-Man Parker can escape the rubble and intercepts the plane, steering it to crash on the beach near Coney Island. Captainelliotspencer said it works on vista so i gave it a shot,but it don't,can you help me??? Director : Writer : Jonathan Goldstein screenplay by , John Francis Daley screenplay by , Jon Watts screenplay by , Christopher Ford screenplay by , Chris McKenna screenplay by , Erik Sommers screenplay by , Jonathan Goldstein screen story by , John Francis Daley screen story by , Stan Lee based on the Marvel comic book by , Steve Ditko based on the Marvel comic book by , Joe Simon character created by: Captain America , Jack Kirby character created by: Captain America Actors : Keywords : Spider-Man: Homecoming yts subs, Spider-Man: Homecoming yts subtitle, Spider-Man: Homecoming subscene, Spider-Man: Homecoming subs, Spider-Man: Homecoming sub, Spider-Man: Homecoming yify sub, Spider-Man: Homecoming yify subtitle, Spider-Man: Homecoming yify subs, Spider-Man: Homecoming yts sub, Spider-Man: Homecoming movie subtitles. The following June, Holland was cast as the title character, while Watts was hired to direct, followed shortly after by the casting of Tomei and the hiring of Daley and Goldstein to write the script.
The film is directed by Jon Watts, with a screenplay by Jonathan M. Principal photography began in June 2016 at Pinewood Atlanta Studios in Fayette County, Georgia and continued in New York City before concluding in Berlin the following October. Or is this some spoiler where Peter was never Spidey? But beware - the city's villains won't be pleased to see a new hero on the scene. For example: The Amazing Spider-Man 311 The Amazing Spider-Man 311b Peter Parker 146 The Amazing Spider-Man 311c Web of Spider-Man 47 First is normal issue, the other 2 what are they?? Assume the role of Parker as he adapts to his new powers and becomes Spider-Man. During the dance, Parker realizes Toomes is planning to hijack a Damage Control plane transporting weapons from Avengers Tower to the team's new headquarters. What is b,c,d etc after issue number?? Parker nearly drowns intervening, and can be rescued by Stark, who's tracking the Spider-Man lawsuit he gave Parker and cautions him against participation with the dangerous offenders.
During filming, Watts, Christopher Ford, Chris McKenna, and Erik Sommers were revealed as additional screenwriters, and more cast members were confirmed. Synopsis Thrilled by his experience with the Avengers, Peter returns home, where he lives with his Aunt May, under the watchful eye of his new mentor Tony Stark, Peter tries to fall back into his normal daily routine - distracted by thoughts of proving himself to be more than just your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man - but when the Vulture emerges as a new villain, everything that Peter holds most important will be threatened. Gargan has heard that Toomes knows Spider-Man's real identity, but Toomes denies this. He and Toomes engage in an open confrontation that ends with Parker saving Toomes' life from his very own unstable equipment, and leaving him for law enforcement together with the plane's cargo. Evading local authorities, Parker saves his buddies, including his fellow classmate and crush Liz. Principal photography began in June 2016 at Pinewood Atlanta Studios in Fayette County, Georgia and continued in New York City before concluding in Berlin the following October. Spider-Man: Homecoming is an upcoming American superhero film based on the Marvel Comics character Spider-Man, produced by Columbia Pictures and Marvel Studios, and distributed by Sony Pictures Releasing.
The Amazing Spider
In Spider-Man: Homecoming, Peter Parker tries to balance being the hero Spider-Man with his high school life. At the lair, Toomes destroys the building's support beams and leaves Parker to die. All Official issues of The Amazing Spiderman. After her father's arrest, Liz moves away, and Parker declines an invitation from Stark to join the Avengers full time. He's first ambushed by Schultz, but defeats him with the assistance of Ned.
All Tie-ins and Sagas included If you appreciate the torrent and work, leave a comment. Before clicking the download button make sure you have torrent client on your device and it is turned on, otherwise magnet link won't work out. In a mid-credits scene, an incarcerated Gargan approaches Toomes in prison. Deducing Parker's secret identity, Toomes threatens retaliation if he interferes with his plans. It worked before, but i cant remember what i did to make it work, now it wont. The title has occasionally been published biweekly, and was published three times a month from 2008 to 2010.
Spider-Man: Homecoming trailer on YouTube: Sharing: 238 Downloading: 348 Movie Size: 2. The Amazing Spider-Man is an American comic book series published by Marvel Comics, featuring the adventures of the fictional superhero Spider-Man. Enraged at being pushed from business, Toomes motivates his workers to maintain the Chitauri technology they've already scavenged and utilize it to produce and sell innovative weapons. In 2003 the series reverted to the numbering order of the first volume. He dons his previous homemade Spider-Man suit and races to Toomes' lair. . .
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Mr. LI Chen
Patent Attorney, Attorney-at-Law
Mr. Li received, from Tsinghua University, his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering in 2000 and Ph.D. in Optical Engineering in 2004, respectively. He had five years' scientific research experience as an assistant professor in Tsinghua University from 2004 to 2009. He is co-inventor of more than 20 inventions in China or United States. He qualified as a Patent Attorney in 2007 and as an Attorney-at-Law in 2008, respectively. In 2009, he joined China Patent Agent (H.K.) Ltd. He is familiar with technical fields including mechanics, optics, and electronics, such as mechanical engineering, automatic control, precision instruments, optical engineering, lasers, fiber communication, MEMS, optical storage, and automobile. Working languages: Chinese and English.
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LIVE-ACTION TEEN TITANS SERIES SET FOR 2018 PREMIERE
Warner Bros and DC officially confirm the coming of a live-action adaptation series of "Teen Titans" and it will be released in 2018
A live-action adaptation of the long-running series "Teen Titans" has just been confirmed by Warner Bros and it will be released online sometime in 2018.
The "Titans" series, according to Polygon, is going to be released in Warner Bros and DC Entertainment's upcoming digital service platform, which is scheduled to go live in 2018 - possibly alongside the series. It is going to be written and produced by Greg Berlanti of "Supergirl" and "The Flash"; DC Entertainment's president and DC Comics' chief creative officer Geoff Johns and Akiva Goldsman.
"Titans" series will star many of the well-known characters that fans have seen in the Cartoon Network adaptation "Teen Titans." It includes the lead female superhero Starfire, the cloaked goth Raven and Dick Grayson also known as Nightwing but previously known as Batman's vigilante sidekick, Robin.
"'Titans' follows a group of young soon-to-be Super Heroes recruited from every corner of the DC Universe," Warner Bros wrote in the press release. "In this action-packed series, Dick Grayson emerges from the shadows to become the leader of a fearless band of new heroes, including Starfire, Raven and many others."
No official word yet coming from the network as to when "Titans" and the Warner Bros and DC Entertainment online streaming platform will go live.
Meanwhile, the live-action adaptation of "Teen Titans" is not the only show that fans are waiting for on the streaming service. The third season of the hit Cartoon Network show, "Young Justice," is also set to go live on the platform with the official title "Young Justice: Outsiders."
On the third season, fans can expect to see the teenage superheroes face their greatest threat as they try to take on "meta-human trafficking and the terrifying threat it creates for a society caught in the crossfire of a genetic arms race spanning the globe and the galaxy."
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Home TECHNO TRICKS
Amazing Device. How Much Gasoline Is Inserted In The Tank? Will Tell Your Mobile.
LM Baraiya October 03, 2018 TECHNO TRICKS Leave a Reply
Now the Datousole games will not be able to run on petrol and diesel pumps. For this, PhD students of the Mechanical Department of Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) have invented a special kind of device (fuel quantifier). It can be installed in a car or bike tank. The nozzle of the petrol-diesel pump machine will be in the tank from the inside of the device. With this help, only the actual diesel-petrol will be detected in the tank. It has cost only Rs 1500 to 2000 rupees. The Institute has patented this research.
Devices made to check quality
Specialists of IIT are making a device to investigate adulteration in petrol and diesel. It has been named Fuel Quantifier Advance. The device has been tested in the lab. The process of patenting him is going on.
The device is designed in the angle size. It can be easily appliedin the tank. Experts say that the circuit can be connected to a blue tooth device or Wi-Fi. There is also a small battery in the circuit. Readings can come on mobile screens in a few moments. Can also be installed on a screen dashboard separately. The researcher said that the app is also preparing for launch.
Preparation for startup
Preparing for startup with the help of IIT's specialist device. There is also planning to open a company for this. Talking to Gurujram's car company The company has also done a survey of the device.
Does such work work?
The Fuel Quantifier device measures the oil per unit time. It measures the flow rate of oil. Whether the speed of going to the oil from the nozzle to the tank is fast or slow, it does not have any effect. Professor of Mechanical Department Under the supervision of Nachiketa Tiwari, PhD students Madhavrao Londhe and Mahendra Kumar Gohil have prepared the equipment. According to them the device has many sensors. First of all, the oil goes into the magnetic rotor. There are a number of negative and positive blades in it. The reading of the oil flow will move into the Micro Processor Unit as the blades rotate.
read this news click
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Machinery Orders Show Largest Gain in November Durable Goods Report
Related: Durable Goods, Economic Conditions, Economic Data, Economy, Manufactuing Sector, Manufacturing Data
New orders for manufactured goods in November, up four of the last five months, increased $0.2 billion to $477.6 billion, the U.S. Census Bureau reported. This followed a 0.8 percent October increase. Excluding transportation, new orders increased 0.2 percent.
Shipments, up four of the last five months, increased $2.0 billion or 0.4 percent to $483.7 billion. This followed a 0.3 percent October increase.
Unfilled orders, up five of the last six months, increased $1.1 billion or 0.1 percent to $984.5 billion. This followed a 0.3 percent October increase. The unfilled orders-to-shipments ratio was 6.14, down from 6.23 in October.
Inventories, down two consecutive months, decreased slightly to $615.2 billion. This followed a slight October decrease. The inventories-to-shipments ratio was 1.27, down from 1.28 in October.
New orders for manufactured durable goods in November, up six of the last seven months, increased $1.7 billion or 0.8 percent to $220.9 billion, revised from the previously published 0.7 percent increase. This followed a 1.1 percent October increase.
Machinery, up three consecutive months, had the largest increase, $0.9 billion or 3.0 percent to $31.9 billion.
New orders for manufactured nondurable goods decreased $1.5 billion or 0.6 percent to $256.7 billion.
Shipments of manufactured durable goods in November, up four of the last five months, increased $3.5 billion or 1.6 percent to $227.0 billion, revised from the previously published 1.5 percent increase. This followed a slight October increase.
Transportation equipment, up two of the last three months, had the largest increase, $1.4 billion or 2.2 percent to $65.6 billion.
Shipments of manufactured nondurable goods, down following four consecutive monthly increases, decreased $1.5 billion or 0.6 percent to $256.7 billion. This followed a 0.5 percent October increase. Petroleum and coal products, also down following four consecutive monthly increases, drove the decrease, down $2.3 billion or 2.9 percent to $75.1 billion.
Unfilled Orders
Unfilled orders for manufactured durable goods in November, up five of the last six months, increased $1.1 billion or 0.1 percent to $984.5 billion, unchanged from the previously published increase. This followed a 0.3 percent October increase.
Transportation equipment, also up five of the last six months, had the largest increase, $1.9 billion or 0.3 percent to $579.6 billion.
Inventories of manufactured durable goods in November, up thirty-four of the last thirty-five months, increased $0.8 billion or 0.2 percent to $374.8 billion, unchanged from the previously published increase. This was at the highest level since the series was first published on a NAICS basis in 1992 and followed a 0.3 percent October increase.
Transportation equipment, also up thirty-four of the last thirty-five months, had the largest increase, $0.8 billion or 0.7 percent to $114.4 billion.
Inventories of manufactured nondurable goods, down two consecutive months, decreased $0.8 billion or 0.3 percent to $240.4 billion. This followed a 0.6 percent October decrease. Petroleum and coal products, also down two consecutive months, drove the decrease, down $1.1 billion or 2.1 percent to $53.1 billion.
By stage of fabrication, November materials and supplies increased 0.1 percent in durable goods and decreased 1.2 percent in nondurable goods. Work in process increased 0.5 percent in durable goods and decreased 0.3 percent in nondurable goods. Finished goods increased 0.1 percent in durable goods and 0.2 percent in nondurable goods.
Read the full news story on U.S. Census Bureau
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E-Budo.com > Gendai Budo > Shorinji Kempo > Religion in Japan - where does Kongo Zen fit in?
View Full Version : Religion in Japan - where does Kongo Zen fit in?
Tripitaka of AA
4th November 2003, 13:37
It gets mentioned on here occasionally, so how about a thread dedicated to exploring this topic? I’d appreciate some learned discourse on this subject, as it is often brought up when non-Kenshi start talking about Shoriji Kempo.
I know next to nothing, so I'll go first :D
As I understand it (Secondary School RE classes), Shinto is the oldest religion still practiced in Japan. It emphasizes the “Spirit” in natural objects, like a big tree, or a mountain, or a waterfall, etc. It also covers the little shrines that you see above doorways in people’s houses, doesn’t it? But not the Butsudan, where photographs of relatives and Family ancestral spirits are given gifts of fruit, etc. The Butsudan is a Buddhist thing isn’t it?
So in Japan, Shinto is the oldest. Buddhism was brought in from China, then later on the Portugese that settled in Macao brought Catholic Christianity. The first two live side-by-side (families will be Buddhist for Funerals and Shinto at Weddings. Visiting Shrines and Temples as appropriate), without apparent hypocrisy involved. Christianity (and Judaism and Islam) depend heavily on a devoted and unquestioning belief that there is only One God (I may be wrong, but I don’t think that all three religions recognise the Same God… or do they!). This must make it difficult – obviously, for a reason – to simultaneously declare a belief in the teachings of Buddha or the rites of Shinto, and the One God.
Well, perhaps it is easier for some people to find a happy mix of these elements to make their own belief system. Others find it easier to dismiss ALL forms or religion as foolish wastes of time and merely bureaucratic systemic opiates for the masses.
Where does Kongo Zen fit into the picture? Where does a “Religious Organisation” like the Sohonzan Shorinji fit in with a world where half the people go around chanting “There is only One God, thou shalt worship no other”?
Some of the more obvious statements have been given in many recent threads, particularly in the Members Lounge, and there is space here for them. It would be better if people try to limit themselves to one attempt to push each idea, to avoid repetitious tit-for-tat posting.
Mizuno Sensei once called himself a part-time Monk (I think that’s what he said, I was only half in the room at the time), are there any other BSKF members who have decided that they want more of the Kongo Zen side of the art? Are there any other “part-time Monks”? Shorinji Kempo is a Japanese Zen Martial Art, I know of many Kenshi who are Martial, I know Tony Kehoe is Japanese, are there any Zen Buddhists out there?
I may be wrong, but I don’t think that all three religions recognise the Same God… or do they
Religion is a complex thing as there may be Christians who also practice Buddhism, and certainly Shinto's who practice other religions.
As to the worship of the same god - generally speaking it doesn't quite work that way.
Shinto is a folk religion and a form of animism, the reverence of spirits in nature. There are many different sects, but as far as I know - none of them are monotheistic.
Buddhism is very complex too as there are many many different sects. Many buddhist sects worship no god or gods, some have many gods. Some are a form of secular humansim.
Christianity certainly has varying degrees and sects too. Generally the belief is that there is one true god, and Jesus is either an incarnation of god, or the son of god,or an aspect of god. Christianity began as a sect of radical Judaism that worshipped Jaweh a tribal god that was believed carried around inside the ark of the covenant. Originally Judaism was not monotheistic as the first commandment reads ," thou shalt have no strange gods before me," and not, "there's no such thing as other gods."
Catholic patron saints could be likened in a way to kami, or bodhisattvas, although the parallels are not 100%
So I don't have a definitive answer for you on the religion scale. Most religions have some beliefs in common. We are, after all, human beings with common problems, wants, needs, and concerns.
Originally posted by Tripitaka of AA
I know Tony Kehoe is Japanese, are there any Zen Buddhists out there?
I should, of course, include a Smiley with that statement... :smilejapa
dkw1998
As far as I am aware, Kongo Zen doesn't make any specific assumptions about the existance (or lack thereof) of God(s). The f_ukudoku hon mentions 'Dharma' as a 'source of universal law', I assume people with strong religous convictions would interpret this as meaning God, others can view them as the laws of physics etc.
I view Kongo Zen as a philosophy, not a religion (in the sense of involving worship of a god or gods). Then again, I'm sure other people have different views on what constitutes a religion...
What differentiates Kongo Zen from other brands of Zen or Chan Buddhism?
Kimpatsu
Originally posted by CEB
The purpose of Kongo Zen is self-improvement. "Kongo" is an old Japanese word for a diamond, and polishing the facets of your character is analogous to polishing the facets of a diamond.
Originally posted by Kimpatsu
The purpose of Kongo Zen is self-improvement.
I should have thought that all forms of Zen are concerned with self-development.
Kongo Zen emphasises physical as well as spiritual development. Like other forms of Zen we practise zazen (seated) meditation. However, unlike other forms of Zen, we also practise 'ekkin gyo' ; development both physical and spiritual through physical training with a partner.
How did it get officially recognized by the Japanese government as a religion? What is the Japanese government criteria for "religion?" Since it is certified by the government as a religion, why do adherents insist that it is not a religion (it was, after all, an adherent who originally got it officially recognized)?
Wabujitsu
Originally posted by Jeff Cook
A religion is Japan is no more than charitable certification. In addition to Shorinji Kempo, other "religions" in Japan currently include a chain of hot spas and a car dealership. The reason Kaiso registered Shorinji Kempo as a religion in 1947 was to get around the Allied ban on martial arts; the new, American-drafted constitution guaranteed freedom of religion.
Tony, thanks. Is it still registered as such? Is there some sort of tax break for that? And if so, why doesn't the government close the loophole?
It gets mentioned on here occasionally, so how about a thread dedicated to exploring this topic?
Actually the subject of religion rears its (ugly??) head a lot on e-budo.....
Usually in the lounge about christianity.....
But also there is a dedicated forum for Shinto and shintoism (http://www.e-budo.com/vbulletin/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=26)
Also a dedicated forum for The history and traditions of Japan (http://www.e-budo.com/vbulletin/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=14) which encompasses religion.
Finally a dedicated forum for Philosophy and ethics in the martial arts (http://www.e-budo.com/vbulletin/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=27)
Why not ask the same questions there..... you will not get so many views, but the views/comments you do get may have more substence.
Yes, Jeff, you get big tax breaks for registering as a "religion". As to closing the loophole, politicians in Japan seem blithely unconcerned. They're too busy lining their own pockets.
A religion is Japan is no more than charitable certification.
You seem to imply that Kongo Zen Sohonzan Shorinji exists purely for cynical reasons, i.e. to avoid paying tax. As a member of WSKO I would hope that this is not the case. It also does not explain the existance of Shadan Hojin Nihon Shorinji Kempo Renmei.
(note: There are two Shorinji Kempo organisations in Japan; the first mentioned being the 'religious' one, and the second a secular organisation).
see http://wsko.econ-net.or.jp/history/7.html for further info.
Originally posted by Indar
Not at all. I said the law exists the way it does. Registration as a religion certainly confers tax advantages; it's the reason why so many organisations register as religions, including hot spas and car dealerships. Zaidan Hojin also receive tax concessions, but registering creates an umbrella resulting in zero taxation.
Indar, Tony said that they are only registered as a religion "to get around the Allied ban on martial arts," the ban that the US imposed during the occupation of Japan immediately after WWII.
That was almost 50 years ago. So why is it still registered as a religion if they are not a religious organization, and the ban no longer exists?
Don't forget there are still tax concessions, Jeff, and Shorinji Kempo is a teaching organisation, so it fits the paradigm of a Shukyo Hojin.
As you'll appreciate, this is a complex question, and I don't think that Tony's answer was very helpful.
It really depends on what you mean by 'religion'. In simple terms, Kongo Zen offers guidance rather than telling people what to think.
As an example, in our creed we say 'by committing evil you defile yourself, by avoiding evil you attain purity'.
The idea behind this is that you have to consider your own actions, and take responsibility for those actions, rather than than acting in a certain way because you will be punished otherwise.
Indar, thanks. I understand the philosophy; it's the whole religion thing about it that never seems to be adequately explained, unless it is just the tax break, as Tony says.
Tony, I think you know that I am not trying to argue about it this time, but I am trying to understand it. Thanks for your patience. The topic fascinates me.
Gassho.
Of course you don't think my answer helpful, Indar. If I say fire engines are red and the sky is blue, you'll disagree because it's me. However, everything I said is accurate.
I have told Jeff repeatedly, here and on Budoseek (www.budoseek.net) that Shorinji Kempo is not a religion, it is a code of ethics. This is because Jeff, and English speakers in general, equate "religion" with "theism". They take the term to mean worship or recognition of a supernatural entity with the ability to mete out treats and punishments. It therefore behooves people to supplicate themselves to said entity through prayer, in order to win favour. As recent experiments have proven, (http://www.randi.org/jr/110703.html) however, prayer does not in any way affect the recovery of patients. God works at the same speed as modern medicine.
The Japanese word for religion (sic) is "Shukyo", the characters of which actually mean "teachings of the sect/group". The key term here is "teachings". Now, for many theists, the notions of religion (in the Western sense: worship of a god or gods) and teachings, specifically moral teachings, are intertwined, because religion (worship) is the sine qua non of a moral life. As atheists, freethinkers, humanists, and other brights (http://www.randi.org/jr/110703.html) know, and prove through their daily lives, this is not the case. No superstition is required to be a good person. The Kanji used for "shukyo", however, gives a completely different impression: that what the word really means is "moral teaching", and has nothing to do with theism or edification. For this reason, translating "shukyo" as "religion" is an unhappy translation at best. It leads to misunderstandings, as evidenced by Jeff's assumptions that drive his question. Shorinji Kempo is no more a religion in the Western sense than the chain of hot spas that are also recognised as Shukyo Hojin in Japan. Classification as Shukyo Hojin is nothing more than a recognition on the part of the Japanese government that the organisation in question is teaching something of benefit to the people of Japan. (In Japan, constant moral teaching--habit formation--is defined as the primary goal of the Ministry of Education, and Japanese people are encouraged to be taking extra-curricular classes in something, anything, throughout there lives. This is for two reasons: 1. Social control, and 2. Because extra layers of morality--which is code for conformity to the supposed "Japanese ethic" as defined by those in power--is never viewed as a bad thing. The main objective of the Japanese government is to have everyone bleating "four legs good, two legs bad" in unison.) By contrast, classification as a religion in the West means something else entirely. It always involves a theistic dimension, be it the Catholic church, the Anglican hierarchy, or a small wacky cult in Wako with no more than 200 members, or the dozen or so members of Heaven's Gate. Calling both a Shukyo Hojin and the Cathloic Church "religions" is to muddy the waters, as the two terms mean very, very different things. It would be better to refer to the Catholic Church as a religion, and use "shukyo" whenever referring to the Japanese definition, which is an ethical one, devoid of prayer or superstition (theism).
When I first entered University, Dr. Breen told me that to call oneself "mushukyo" in Japanese ("atheist") was to imply that you were not human, a statement I took with a pinch of salt at the time. However, he was absolutely correct--when you view the Japanese word in the context of Japanese conceptualisation. Basically, to call oneself "mushukyo" doesn't mean "without gods"; it means to be "without ethics". And what separates humans from other animals is the sense of ethics--the notions of right and wrong. An ape, or an amoeba for that matter, doesn't care or even understand the ethical implications of its actions, any more than a cheetah cares about the implications for the herd of wildebeest when it kills a straggler; such analysis is a purely human thing, and to call oneself "mushukyo" is to say (according to the Japanese mindset) that you are incapable of such understanding--which makes you an animal, not a human being.
Kaiso himself said that he didn't know if there was a god, and anyway, it didn't matter; the important thing was how you live your earthly life, eyes front, not perpetually raised to heaven in an attempt to curry favour for an afterlife that may not even be there. How can such a claim be the central tenet of a religion? Answer: it can't, but it can certainly be the lynchpin of a shukyo. Because, and I can't repeat this often enough, shukyo is NOT the same as the Western term "religion".
Shorinji Kempo is not a religion, it's a shukyo, and as such, in its teaching capacity, its mission to educate, it is registered as a shukyo hojin in Japan. Heck, if Shorinji Kempo was really a religion in the Western sense, we'd register as such in America and Britain, and get big tax breaks--breaks to which we are currently not entitled--in those countries too. Instead, we're registered as a charity. The problem lies not with the definitions, but with the preconceptions (driven by the word "religion") of those native English speakers who assume facts not in evidence regarding the notion of shukyo, and thus of Shorinji Kempo. Transliterating from a dictionary is no good, because genuine translation requires not the rendering of words from one language to another, but the building in the listener's mind of the image that the speaker wishes to convey. The problem here is that some concepts are immediately apprehendable in one language--they are so core to the culture, that though complex, they are expressed with a single word--whereas in the target language, the concept is more exotic and requires lengthy, sentence-long explanations, but people are impatient, and want a one-to-one correlation. Hence the misunderstanding. The Japanese see nothing wrong with getting married in a Shinto shrine and being buried in a Buddhist temple, because they see themselves as members equally of both "religions", whereas my cousin who mistakenly calls herself "Catholic" although she never attends weekly services (what she really means is that she is born into a family with a lineage of Catholic affiliations--see: shorthand again) got married in a Catholic church and is now having her baby baptised in one. Anglican will not do, because she's a Catholic (sic). Such tribalism mystifies the Japanese, as they equate "religion" more with ethics than with ritual. That said, the word "shukyo" is sufficiently broad as to also incorporate the theistic meaning, so what we really have here is inadequate language--the bane of all translators. My purpose is to build in your minds the image intended to be conveyed by the Japanese use of "shukyo", not a one-to-one correlation of "shukyo" (ethics) with the English "religion" (theism). It's like taking a piece of music written using only the white keys on the piano, and trying to reproduce it faithfully on a piano that only has black keys. The closest you will ever get is an off-key approximation. And that's what happens when you transliterate "shukyo" as "religion": discord.
As for me, I have seen the light and know that the one true religion is Liverpool FC. Now I just have to proselytise the rest of you...
Kesshu.
I have told Jeff repeatedly, here and on Budoseek (www.budoseek.net) that Shorinji Kempo is not a religion, it is a code of ethics. This is because Jeff, and English speakers in general, equate "religion" with "theism". They take the term to mean worship or recognition of a supernatural entity with the ability to mete out treats and punishments.
That's rather rude; I should think that Jeff can speak for himself on this matter.
However, the rest of your post is both interesting and (fairly) intelligently argued; proof that you do have a brain, you just don't bother to use it most of the time.
That's my punishment for dealing with the likes of you.
no......your punishment is waiting in your next life
Well, that's no problem then, as there is no next life. Getting through this one is hard enough.
By contrast, classification as a religion in the West means something else entirely. It always involves a theistic dimension
So Westerners are all so stupid, (apart from you), that they are incapable of understanding that Buddhism is a religion ?
Main Entry: re·li·gion
4 : a cause, principle, or system of beliefs held to with ardor and faith
(merriam-webster dictionary: http://www.m-w.com/home.htm)
Jeff: The actual answer to your question is simple. The reason that Shorinji Kempo is registered as a religion in Japan is because it can be (and is by many practitioners) viewed as a religion. As Tony explained, Asian people may have a different view from Westerners as to what this implies, however I think that many Westerners are sophisticated enough to understand the Asian viewpoint.
If I say fire engines are red and the sky is blue, you'll disagree because it's me.
Well......
Fire engines are green (yes the firemen are on strike again...) ;)
The sky is grey (well it is england after all...) ;)
But seriously, Indar and Tony do have an obvious history......
If you cannot be civil to each other then don't respond to each other at all, ok.......
I think the 2 issues of most importence are:
The view of a "religion" to the Japanese is very different to the western view.
The tax-breaks are an obvious reason for keeping the classification.
Why do you think so many individuals/companies apply to be classified as a "charity" in the west..... it is a similar situation.
Iron Chef
http://www.e-budo.com/vbulletin/attachment.php?s=&postid=236747
Indar, thanks for the sympathy, but it is not needed. Tony is not being rude, he is being direct. Unfortunately he is incorrect. I have repeatedly stated that I was arguing that it is a NON-THEISTIC religion. I don't think that "religion" always equals "theism." Perhaps I am incorrect. Tony probably "forgot" that part of my argument. ;)
With that aside, I am not interested in getting into somebody else's pissing contest.
Tony, great answer, and thanks for taking the time to explain. It does make a lot of sense.
Now, can you please tell me how "non-theistic religion" is defined? That is the one sticking point I have with this. Thanks for tolerating my ignorance.
Now, can you please tell me how "non-theistic religion" is defined?
There is an on-going argument/discussion about the differences between philosophy and religion.
I like the quote from Karl Marx; 'Philosophers have interpreted the world; our job is to change it.'
My view would be that religion requires action on the part of the practitioner. Many people practice Shorinji Kempo as a hobby, but many other people practice with a more serious intention. If your purpose for practice is to change society then I would see this as being more than just a philosophy, which to me implies a passive way of interpreting the world.
As Tony said the problem is that these words have so many connotations it is easy to end up talking at cross purposes, although we may share a common aim.
Indar, thanks for the sympathy, but it is not needed. Tony is not being rude, he is being direct. Unfortunately he is incorrect. I have repeatedly stated that I was arguing that it is a NON-THEISTIC religion.
Surely "non-theistic religion" is an oxymoron? It's saying "non-theistic theism". A non-theistic moral code is called ethics.
Northern Zen Buddhism isn't a religion; it's a code of ethics. Esoteric Buddhism is a religion, because it involves prayers and offerings to the gods. On his death bed, the Buddha told his followers not to deify him, but unfortunately, some chose not to heed his words and elevated his memory to godhood. Northern Zen gets back to the roots of Buddhist teachings, which is self-improvement without divine help. You've undermined your own position, Indar, with the quotation from the dictionary:
with ardor and faith
There is no leap of faith required in Shorinji Kempo; its teachings are axiomatic. Ergo, Buddhism is not a religion according to your own definition.
Now, back to proselytising for Liverpool FC...
Tony, apparently this is an argument without end. There are a lot of people more educated than I (like yourself) who state that Buddhism is a non-theistic religion: http://www.shambhalasun.com/Archives/Columnists/Ray/july_01.htm Here is a brief quote from the article: "Briefly put, non-theism in Buddhism means that what is ultimately true and real cannot be found in any external god or being. Any such being has location, qualities and some kind of existence, and is therefore subject to causes and conditions. There is, according to Buddhism, something far more fundamental than this."
And from http://www.freud.org.uk/Religion.htm we have this quote: "As opposed to either Hindu or Judeo-Christian religion, the Buddha taught that there is no self ('Annata'), and no 'supra-ordinate transcendent being' that we can be reunited to. A truly non-theistic religion which makes Buddhism unique amongst the great religions and perhaps difficult for the Western mind to attune to. Provocatively she argued that there is a 'fundamental incompatibility' between theistic and non-theistic religion, and made no secret of which one she felt was the most sensible choice!"
There appear to be many other sources to support the idea of "non-theistic religions." A lot of the sources parallel what you said in your earlier post, Tony. Perhaps it is just a question of semantics?
It's very much semantics, Jeff, but I maintain that "non-theistic religion" is an oxymoron. Indar himself posted the definition as requiring faith, so if no faith is required, how can the movement in question be a religion? As I posted above, Buddhism is not a religion, it's a shukyo, and the two are not the same. You're playing the piano in the wrong key again. Ask yourself this: if Shorinji Kempo is a religion, then what is the Catholic Church? The two are too disparate to be lumped together, so to call one a religion is to de facto exclude the other, the same way that you cannot be a married batchelor, or have a square circle. So which is it: is Shorinji Kempo a religion, or is Christianity? And if Shorinji Kempo is a religion, how do you define Christianity?
Perhaps it is just a question of semantics?
I don't wish to hog the bandwidth, but I have spent the better part of today pondering Jeff's last post, and in particular, the final sentence quoted above. The problem is that the sentence is an oxymoron, like the oft-abused "only a theory". In science, a theory is the gold standard. It is what we arrive at after subjecting a hypothesis to rigorous testing, and has passed every test. If a hypothesis fails a test, it is discarded as false, and a new hypothesis, one that better explains the facts, must be formulated. This is why in science there are no absolutes; unlike in religion, with its ex cathedra pronouncements, even the most solid scientific theories--gravity, heliocentrism, evolution, to name but three--are potentially falsifiable. When people colloquially say "theory" I wince, for what they really mean is hypothesis. To say that something is "only a theory" is an oxymoron, like saying that an athelete is "only an Olympic gold medal winner". Similarly, to say that something is "just a question of semantics" is oxymoronic because semantics--the definition of meanings--is what gives you and me, and every other English speaker in the world, the ability to communicate. (Communication is here defined as the ability to build in the listener's mind the image that the speaker wishes to convey.) Whilst no two people share an identical grammar (not even identical twins), we can share enough grammar and vocabulary--semantics--in common to give meaning to utterances. (The branch of linguistics called "pragmatics" deals with this subject.) Anthropologically, religion is defined as any body of ritual that invokes the supernatural--which Shorinji Kempo does not do. Ergo, Shorinji Kempo is not a religion. It is, however, laden with ritual, from the mutual gassho rei exchanged between Kenshi to the formal grading examinations. The big problem with colloquial definitions, as can be seen from these examples, is that they are sloppy, because they are too broad in range to be meaningful. If a guess, hypothesis, and theory can all be called a "theory", then the word "theory" becomes meaningless. If "religion" can be used to define theism, ritual, and appeals to the supernatural, then the word "religion" is too broad to be meaningful. To denigrate attempts at accuracy as "just semantics" is therefore to imply that accurate, narrow definitions are not worthy in and of themselves, because they give us no wiggle room in which to agree; but surely, pinning down terms as narrowly and clearly as possible should be the ultimate goal of all language, as it eliminates barriers to misunderstanding? If we can't agree on the terminology, then all debate becomes impossible as we sink into a pool of our own confusion. I may think of a round, orange-coloured fruit when I say "orange", but if you're thinking of a long, yellow fruit, which I call a "banana", then no reply to the question "what's your favourite fruit?" will ever be satisfactory.
But then again, empirically, I can't be sure that anyone has even understood this rant; i.e., have I succeeded in building in your minds the very image that I wish to convey?
And, more importantly, have any of you come to worship Liverpool FC as the one true religion yet?
I would have never guessed you were from Liverpool Tony, or are you yet another plastic scouser :rolleyes:
I think the Japanese Government considers Shorinji Kempo to be a positive influence in society.
Originally posted by tb055
My father was born and raised in Liverpool, and I have family there still.
Originally posted by David Dunn
Yes, as an educational organisation.
Plastic scouser it is :D
Why plastic? :confused:
tony leith
OK, I'm not going to wade into too much of what has gone before. I (pause for drum roll) actually agree with a surprising amount of what Kimpatsu says. I however am capable of defining for myself what religious expression means in the context of my own life, and I imagine others might say the same. I disagree that a non theistic ethical position requires no element of 'faith' or at least belief - the position that human life, indviduallly or collectively, has instrinsic value is a belief which is not validated by the external universe. Nevertheless, it is at the core of Kongo Zen.
Ask yourself this: if Shorinji Kempo is a religion, then what is the Catholic Church? The two are too disparate to be lumped together
You may remember that when Ms Yuuki So (WSKO President) visited Europe in 1999 she had a private audience with the Pope, arranged by the Italian SK Federation.
And I shook hands withthe Catholic priest who conducted my counsin's wedding ceremony. What's your point?
Originally posted by tony leith
I disagree that a non theistic ethical position requires no element of 'faith' or at least belief - the position that human life, indviduallly or collectively, has instrinsic value is a belief which is not validated by the external universe.
Richard Dawkins disagrees with you. (http://www.world-of-dawkins.com/Catalano/temp/church-schools.htm)
Since language is an artificial construct, and thus prone to widely varying interpretations based upon individual and group experiences, I can accept that under your definition it is not a religion.
Your argument almost convinced me, except for the one linguistic fact I mentioned above. Semantics exist and thus are NOT oxymoronic. Semantics serve a purpose: to put the artificial construct of language into a relative understanding of context based upon the various experiences of those using an imperfect method of communication, acknowledging that the communicators may have different frames of reference upon which their interpretations are based. Relativity in language is necessary, simply because absolutes DO NOT work! You may not agree with different definitions, but you cannot deny that different definitions for words exist and are valid within the proper context.
"In science, a theory is the gold standard. It is what we arrive at after subjecting a hypothesis to rigorous testing, and has passed every test."
It can't be much of a gold standard; Einstein's general and special theories come to mind. Much of his theoretical reasoning was unproven, because science at the time had no empirical method of testing it. He invented mathematical formulas to support his hypothesis. When means became available to test certain aspects of it, many many false assumptions were discovered.
Theoretical reasoning in the absence of empirical evidence often degrades into mere poll-taking. If you ask the right questions when taking a poll, then apply certain accepted, but SLANTED, standards to analyze the data, you can come up with the conclusion you want, not necessarily an objective conclusion.
At any rate, I do hear what you are saying. I can't say that I agree with you yet.
Absolutes do indeed work; the problem is firstly, homonyms, and secondly, the very problem that I'm trying to illustrate: in the very next paragraph, you misuse the word "theory". Note also: I didn't say that semantics are oxymoronic, I said that the phrase "just semantics" is oxymoronic, because there is no "just" about the importance of the meaning of utterances.
Misuse of "theory" when you mean "hypothesis". Besides, the theories of relativity can be proven mathematically, and mathematical proof is inviolable. It is a gold standard unto itself. Even before Einstein's hypotheses could be verified by observation (gravitational lensing wasn't actually observed until after his death), the mathematics still held water, so we knew that Einstein was right. And note again how you've misused "theory"; the above sentence should read, "much of Einstein's hypotheses remained unproven", which is axiomatic; once demonstrated, they became theories.
I don't understand this statement. At any rate, it's not how science works. We don't poll people on which scientific facts we want to keep, and which to change. We can't repeal the law of gravity, for example, and we can't poll test data. In science, we formulate a hypothesis that best fits the known data, and then experiment to see if the hypothesis is correct. If the hypothesis is not falsified by experiment, it becomes a theory, which is far stronger, but all theories, even ones you take for granted such as heliocentrism and gravity, are forever open to the possibility of falsification. It would undermine everything we think we know about the universe to undermine heliocentrism or evolution, for example, both of which theories are supported by mountains of evidence and have passed every test thrown at them, but the potential for falsification still exists, and always will. Similarly, to belittle semantics using the qualifier "just", as if it were unimportant, is to do the whole field of linguistics a great disservice, as it assumes that there is some better way of communicating than a shared grammar and semantic praxis.
OK, I'm not going to wade into too much of what has gone before. I (pause for drum roll) actually agree with a surprising amount of what Kimpatsu says.
Hey, a two-Tone effort. :D
I however am capable of defining for myself what religious expression means in the context of my own life, and I imagine others might say the same. I disagree that a non theistic ethical position requires no element of 'faith' or at least belief - the position that human life, indviduallly or collectively, has instrinsic value is a belief which is not validated by the external universe. Nevertheless, it is at the core of Kongo Zen.
What makes you say that the intrinsic value of human life is not validated by the external universe?
When Tony Kehoe is capable of writing such compelling and convincing pieces, I can't begin to understand why he can churn out so much drivel in a normal day. All those posts where the word count is less than the number of words in his Sig.
I have seen enough threads and posts about theism and ethics to qualify for an EU subsidy (payable to all writers willing to not write about those subjects), and yet here there has been some progress, I feel.
For a start, I've discovered the proper uses of the words "theory" and "hypothesis" ;) .
More importantly, I've been given some material to read, which has allowed me to understand more than I did before. I can choose to agree or disagree, change my opinion or remain the same. I actually have something to read, real writing to get my teeth into. Not just a game of Quote-Ping-Pong.
Thanks Kimpatsu, for finally ignoring the Enter key, and focussing on the other ones for a bit.
Huh? :confused: :D
:D ;)
This beats my one-word posts, David; you've posted using no words at all!
Kehoe has only got one word
Indar has two but they can't be heard
Williams has sim'lar problems
And Noble has no balls (err... words) at all!
Kongo Zen is well served by your continuing presence... in Japan! :D
Now I'm speechless... :o
I'm ignoring my own advice. Still, I have so many words in my Sig, it usually takes two or three sentences to get over Par.
Tony. Does anyone in Japan think of Shorinji Kempo as a Religion? By that I mean, is there recognition of Sohonzan Shorinji Monks as Monks in the same sense as the monks of other Buddhist Orders? Do people understand that there are such things? Do regular Japanese people know anything about Shorinji Kempo, or is it just the "karate" club that their son/daughter does at Uni?
What place does Kongo Zen have in the general mental/social wellbeing of the population at large?
I ask you, as a representative of someone living in Japan.
Over par? There you go, hitting balls again, David.
Tony. Does anyone in Japan think of Sjorinji Kempo as a Religion? By that I mean, is there recognition of Sohonzan Shorinji Monks as Monks in the same sense as the monks of other Buddhist Orders? Do people understand that there are such things? Do regular Japanese people know anything about Shorinji Kempo, or is it just the "karate" club that their son/daughter does at Uni?
They think of Shorinji Kempo as shukyo, not as a religion in the same sense that Xpianity or Judaism are religions. What differentiates Shorinji Kempo is that we don't pray. Regular Japanese people have absolutely no idea about Shorinji Kempo, and think of it as just the "karate" (sic) that their kids do. To qualify that statement, people outside any art know no more about it than your average Westerner. They can't even tell apart the different styles of Karate (Shotokan, Goju, Wado, etc.), let alone distinguish between Karate and Shorinji Kempo. Interest in Western action movies is at an all-time high, and Japanese perceptions of MA are now as distorted as those of your average 14YO American or British kid who wants become a ninja "becasue they're cool". (Blame the influx of American culture for this.)
Japanese children used to have to study kendo in junior high school (it was compulsory) until a family of Japanese Jehovah's Witnesses successfully sued a school in Kobe about 11 years ago on the grounds that compulsory "violence" (sic) such as this was against their religion. As a result, all schools nationwide dropped compulsory MA from their curricula, and such activities are now only after school, and optional. The one point on which the Japanese are more clued in than their Western counterparts is that if I say I practice Shorinji Kempo, people have at least heard of it, whereas I am normally met with blank looks in the West. But the understanding is no greater than that it's budo.
Absolutely zero. Kongo Zen is only of benefit to those people who practice it. And like with anything, Shorinji Kempo is looked upon as too much like hard work by many people. When we give demonstrations, sometimes 200 people come to spectate, and you'll be lucky to get two who stay to train. Shorinji Kempo, like anything, requires sustained commitment, in terms of time, money, and effort--and most people are just to lazy to stick to a regimen like that. It's so much easier to stay at home and watch the TV. Japan, like the West, is witnessing increasing obesity and the rise of the couch potato. Try explaining Shorinji Kempo and Kongo Zen to people, and watch their eyes glaze over. They're just not interested. Not enough car chases, death-defying stunts, or fights to the death. Surely, that's the real way to build a better world? Not this boring stuff about "handling small violence" (Mizuno Sensei's words). If you can't disarm a hulk with a machine gun, then what use is it?
And so, unrealistic expectations fostered by too much fantasy TV, and disappointment at the real world, has set into Japan as much as in the West. The root causes of this are something on which I'd also like to pontificate, but I think I'll leave that polemic for another day, as it's not germaine to thie topic of this thread.
Kongo Zen is only of benefit to those people who practice it.
????? What happened to 'half for yourself and half for others' ?
Shorinji Kempo, like anything, requires sustained commitment, in terms of time, money, and effort--and most people are just to(o) lazy to stick to a regimen like that.
Perhaps because they don't have any faith.
OK, I'll rephrase:
Kongo Zen is only of active benefit to those who practice it. Other people can be passive recipients of the activist's largesse, but that is entirely dependent upon the activist's willingness and ability to give. For example, I can offer to carry my neighbour's shopping up three floors to her apartment for her, but her receipt of my munificence is dependent upon my presence and willingness to assist her. This is not the same as her being able to perform the task for herself.
Faith in what? And why should faith in anything be a prerequisite for action? Given that more people in the world are theists than humanists, statistically, more theists than humanists are couch potatoes. What does that do for your argument?
jonboy
just wondering if it is the fact Shorinji Kempo exists as shukyo that enables certain practitioners to perform wedding ceremonies? Or is that a licence that anybody can get their hands on?
I'm not big on weddings anyway, so I don't actually know how things work over here with registry offices and such like. I would assume you just have to get a licence because the whole point of a registry office (to me at least) is that you can have a non-religious ceremony.
Originally posted by jonboy
Gassho, Jon.
Anybody can perform a wedding ceremony in Japan, because to make a marriage legal all you need is for the bride and groom to sign a form and submit it to the local town hall. Divorce is equally easy. This is completely different from Britain, where only Xpian priests, Jewish rabbis, secular celebrants, or town hall registrars can perform legal weddings.
Thanks Tony. Speedy responce.
Gassho, Jon. You're just lucky that I'm online, that's all.
Kongo Zen is only of active benefit to those who practice it.
Is that what Kaiso taught?
'the purpose is to nourish in them the courage and enthusiasm that will allow them to act aggressively to achieve a peacefully and prosperously ideal society'
(WSKO website: http://wsko.econ-net.or.jp/kaiso/)
Faith in what?
Faith in the teachings, faith in our teachers, and most importantly, faith in ourselves.
'We co-operate in an endeavour to establish an ideal world'
Establish an ideal world? Surely that requires a huge leap of faith ? It also provide the link between what Kaiso taught, and the teachings of Jesus and Mohammed.
As an example, some time ago, with some other Kenshi, I visited an Arabic TV station, based in London and broadcasting to the Middle East in Arabic. The purpose was to video a short demo of Shorinji Kempo. We discussed Kongo Zen philosophy with the station manager, and used the example of ' live half for yourself and half for others'. He said; 'we have the same ideal in Islam; we say 'live half the day for yourself, and half for Allah.''
The point being that it may be more constructive to focus on our similarities, rather than our differences.
I'm not going to quote, because my computer at work won't let me use the e-budo quote facility and Kimpatsu will have a hissy fit, but I agree with Indar that where mutual understanding is possible it is surely preferable to actively seeking conflict. By this I don't mean that an agnostic or an atheist should be apologetic about their views in discussion with theists, just that if there are affinities in the ethical standards we're all striving to uphold these shouldn't be discounted whatever their metaphysical foundations.
How people actually behave is in my view at least as important as what they ostensibly believe. I heard a Christian Right commentator from the US explaining on the radio the other morning that Islam sadly lacks the tradition of tolerance present in Christianity - I tell you I almost choked on my cornflakes. Islam from my very limited knowledge incorporates a rich and diverse heritage, right from the barking mad paradise grows from the barrel of an AK47 loonies to the Sufi tradition (which from what I've seen is pretty Zen for a notionally theistic belief system).
What I meant by saying that the value of human life is not externally validated is simply that to assign moral qualities to the universe at large seems to me to be typical human pretension/megalomania - the universe is too big for that. Our morality/ethics have to be realised in the context of our relations with each other. To me the ultimate basis of ethics is recognising that the suffering of others is equivalent to your own - again this is something that is grounded in your individual experience and your actual relations with other beings rather than abstract principle. You can argue your way from compassion, I think it's harder to argue your way to it in any incontrovertible way (obviously you can reach for the standard utilitarian arguments, but I find these ultimately unsatisfactory..)
Now you're being obtuse. If the purpose of Kongo Zen is to "nourish in them the courage and enthusiasm that will allow them to act aggressively to achieve a peacefully and prosperously ideal society", then the receipients of such benefits are passive. Those who work to achieve such benefits are active.
But let's get something straight, here: you're only arguing because it's ME who's writing this, anyone else, and you would be agreeing with them. Right?
That's not faith, it's belief. I believe in the teachings, believe in our teachers, and most importantly, believe in myself. Faith is the great copout, because it is belief without evidence. Often, faith is belief in something contrary to the evidence. Faith is contrary to Kaiso's teachings, because it requires blind acceptance of a tenet without evidence. Now, I believe the sun will rise again tomorrow, based on what I know about the solar system and because it has risen for every day over the past four and a half billion years. Such "faith" is not blind, because it has a rational basis for believing it. There is a possibility that the sun won't rise tomorrow, but the odds are against it.
By contrast, asking me to have faith in something which has never been demonstrated, and which runs counter to the body of knowledge we do have, is bonkers, quite frankly. I believe in the teachings, because they are axiomatic, or otherwise independently verifiable. I believe in my teachers, because they can do what they say they can do. They don't claim to be able to dodge bullets, but they do claim they can block a punch expertly, and they have proceeded to demonstrate this to me many times. And I believe in myself, because I know only too painfully my own limits.
Establish an ideal world? Surely that requires a huge leap of faith ?
No, that requires no leap of faith at all. It is demosntrable through actions that have already been performed by adherents to the philosophy. You're confusing faith and belief again, just like you did earlier, and Jeff confused hypothesis with theory.
It also provide the link between what Kaiso taught, and the teachings of Jesus and Mohammed
The teachings of Jesus and Mohammed? Such as:
Women are deficient in mind and religion.
Mohammed asked some women, "Isn't the witness of a woman equal to half that of a man?" The women said, "yes," He said, "This is because of the deficiency of the woman's mind. " Vol. 3:826
Mohammed to women: "I have not seen any one more deficient in intelligence and religion than you." Vol. 2:541
The majority of people in hell are women.
Mohammed said, "I was shown the Hell-fire and that the majority of its dwellers are women. " Vol. 1:28, 301; Vol. 2:161; Vol. 7:124
Women are a bad omen.
Mohammed said, " Bad omen is in the woman, the house and the horse." Vol. 7:30
Women are harmful to men.
Mohammed said, "After me I have not left any affliction more harmful to men than women." Vol. 7:33
Women may not wear wigs.
Mohammed said, " Don't wear false hair for Allah sends His curse upon such ladies who lengthen their hair artificially." Vol. 7:133
SEX AND MARRIAGE
Mohammed's sexual strength is equal to 30 men.
Anas said, "The prophet used to visit all his wives in an hour round, during the day and night and they were eleven in number." I asked Anas, "Had the prophet the strength for it?" Anas replied, "We used to say that the prophet was given the strength of thirty (men). " Vol. 1:268
Mohammed married a 6 (SIX!!) year old girl and had sex with her when she was 9 (NINE!!) Mohammed was clearly a paedophile!
"Narrated Aisha that the prophet married her when she was six years old and he consummated his marriage when she was nine years old." Vol. 7:64
Allah hurries to please Mohammed's sexual desires.
When the Quranic verse that allows Mohammed to postpone the turn of any wife was revealed, and when Mohammed said that Allah allowed him to marry his adopted son's wife, Aisha (one of his wives) told him, "O Allah's Apostle I do not see but that your Lord hurries in pleasing you. " Vol. 7:48
When a woman is divorced irrevocably, she can not return to her husband until she marries (including having sexual intercourse) with another man.
"Narrated Aisha: The wife of Rifaa Al-Qurazi came to Allah's Apostle and said, 'O Allah's Apostle, Rifaa divorced me irrevocably. After him I married Abdur-Rahman bin Az-Zubair Al-Qurazi who proved to be impotent.' Allah's Apostle said to her, 'Perhaps you want to return to Rifaa? Nay (You cannot return to Rifaa) until you and Abdur-Rahman (the impotent man) engage in sexual intercourse! '" Vol. 7:186
Islam is to be imposed by force.
Mohammed said, "I have been ordered to fight with the people till they say, "None has the right to be worshipped but Allah, and whoever says, " None has the right to be worshipped but Allah , his life and property will be saved by me." (otherwise it will not). Vol. 4:196
Apostasy is punishable by death.
Mohammed said, "Whoever changes his Islamic religion, kill him." Vol. 9:57
A Muslim must not be killed if he kills a non-Muslim.
Mohammed said, " No Muslim should be killed for killing a Kafir" (infidel). Vol. 9:50
Ethnic cleansing is practiced.
Mohammed said to the Jews, "You should know that the earth belongs to Allah and His Apostle (Mohammed) and I want to expel you from this land (The Arabian Peninsula), so, if anyone owns property, he is permitted to sell it." Vol. 4:392
Mohammed's last words at his deathbed were: "Turn the pagans (non-Muslims) out of the Arabian Peninsula." Vol. 5:716
No assurance of Salvation.
Mohammed said. "By Allah, though I am the apostle of Allah, yet I do not know what Allah will do to me." Vol. 5:266
God punishes a deceased if his relatives weep.
Mohammed said, "The deceased is punished because of the weeping of his relatives." Vol. 2:375
When you speak badly about a deceased, the deceased will go to hell.
Mohammed said, "You praised this, so Paradise has been affirmed to him, and you spoke badly of this, so hell has been affirmed to him. You people are Allah's witnesses on earth." Vol. 2:448
Urine on your clothes will bring punishment from God.
Mohammed said, "The deceased person is being tortured in the grave not for a great thing to avoid, it is for being soiled with his urine. " Vol. 2:460
Holy war (Jihad) is a guarantee of heaven.
Mohammed said, "The person who participates in (Holy battles) in Allah's cause and nothing compels him to do so except belief in Allah and His Apostle, will be recompensed by Allah either with a reward, or booty (if he survives) or will be admitted to paradise (if he is killed). " Vol. 1:35
Drinking camel's urine will make you healthy.
"The prophet ordered them to follow his camels, and drink their milk and urine , so they followed the camels and drank their milk and urine till their bodies became healthy." Vol. 7:590
Fever is from the heat of hell.
Mohammed said, " Fever is from the heat of hell, so put it out (cool it) with water." Vol. 7:619
A fly in your drink is a cure.
Mohammed said, "If a housefly falls in the drink of anyone of you, he should dip it (in the drink), for one of its wings has a disease and the other has the cure for the disease. " Vol. 4:537
How the baby's looks are determined.
Mohammed said, "As for the child, if the man's discharge precedes the woman's discharge, the child attracts the similarity of the man, and if the woman's discharge precedes the man's, then the child attracts the similarity of the woman." Vol. 5:275
If you eat garlic don't come to the place of worship.
Mohammed said, "Whosoever ate from this plant (i.e. garlic) should not enter the mosque." Vol. 1:812
Effect of evil eye
Mohammed said, "The effect of an evil eye is a fact. " Vol. 7:636
Which shoe you should put on first.
Mohammed said, "If you want to put on your shoes, put on the right shoe first, and if you want them off, take the left one first." Vol. 7:747
Breathing in your drink is bad.
Mohammed said, "Don't breath into your drinking utensil." Vol. 1:156
God frightens his devotees with eclipses.
Mohammed said, "The sun and the moon are two signs amongst the signs of Allah and they do not eclipse because of the death of someone but Allah frightens His devotees with them. " Vol. 2:158
THE KORAN IS FULL OF HATRED
· "O believers, prescribed for you is retaliation, touching the slain; freeman for freeman, slave for slave, female for female . . . In retaliation there is life for you, men possessed of minds; haply you will be godfearing." Surah II
· "And fight in the way of God with those who fight with you. . . . And slay them wherever you come upon them, and expel them from where they expelled you; [your own] persecution is more grievous than slaying [others]." Surah II
· "Whoso commits aggression against you, do you commit aggression against him like as he has committed against you . . . " Surah II
· "Prescribed for you is fighting, though it be hateful to you." Surah II
· " . . . take not to yourselves friends of them [the disbelievers] until they emigrate in the way of God; then, if they turn their backs, take them, and slay them wherever you find them . . . " Surah IV
· "This is the recompense of those who fight against God and His Messenger, and hasten about the earth, to do corruption there: they shall be slaughtered, or crucified, or their hands and feet shall alternately be struck off, or they shall be banished from the land." Surah V
· "Fight them [the unbelievers], till there is no persecution and the religion is God's entirely." Surah VIII
· "It is not for any Prophet to have prisoners until he make wide slaughter in the land." Surah III
· "Slay the idolaters wherever you find them, and take them, and confine them, and lie in wait for them at every place of ambush." Surah IX
· "Fight those who believe not in God and the Last Day." Surah IX
· "And fight the unbelievers totally even as they fight you totally; and know that God is with the godfearing." Surah IX
· "O believers, fight the unbelievers who are near to you, and let them find in you a harshness; and know that God is with the Godfearing." Surah IX
· "The recompense of evil is evil the like of it . . . " Surah XLII
· "When you meet the unbelievers, smite their necks, then, when you have made wide slaughter among them, tie fast the bonds; then set them free, either by grace or ransom, till the war lays down its loads." Surah XLVII
· "Mohammed is the Messenger of God, and those who are with him are hard against the unbelievers, merciful one to another."Surah XLVIII
· "Thou shalt not find any people who believe in God and the Last Day who are loving to anyone who opposes God and His Messenger." Surah LVIII
· "O Prophet, struggle with the unbelievers and the hypocrites, and be thou harsh with them." Surah LXVI
Not a very nice person, this Mohammed.
Jesus isn't much better, and many of his reputed good acts were for questionable motives... and that's assuming they are accurately reported in the first place! Kaiso lived, we have people alive today who knoew him and a wealth of records and testimonials. Jesus is mentioned nowhere outside the Bible, and the earliest of the New Testament books was written years after his supposed death and ascent to Heaven. Kaiso was a real man, and a lot better than either Mohammed or Jesus.
Indar, that claim is not the same as Kaiso's "live half for yourself and half for others". It says live half for yourself, and half for a mythical being in the sky. It says nothing about looking out half for your fellow man. That guy you spoke to either didn't understand what Kaiso meant, or he's pulling the wool over your eyes.
Besides, the history of the Koran makes compelling reading. In the beginning, when Islam was a small religion with few followers and no power, the Koran is full of sweetness and light towards one's neighbours, but as Islam grew in power and wealth, and Mohammed grew richer and more powerful, the verses grow increasingly strident and demand jihad, death to infidels, and that all non-converts (mostly Jews) living under Islam to be treated as second-class citizens. In other words, Mohammed was corrupted by the power; Kaiso never was. (Either that, or Mohammed was cynical enough to know that the art of diplomacy is saying "nice doggy" until you can find a large rock. Take your pick.) Even after Shorinji Kempo grew wealthy and powerful, Kaiso never advocated dojo breaking. Kaiso was offered membership of all the main political parties, and safe parliamentary seats, but he turned them all down. "Did this in Ceasar seem ambition?" He could easily have joined the LDP, brought 1.2 million fellow travellers along as a power base, and passed laws to close down all non-Shorinji Kempo dojos as a threat. He never did.
Comparing a real-life person to an unverifiable myth on the one hand (Jesus) and a tyrant on the other (Mohammed) is muddled thinking at best.
Tony (K),
Where did you get this information?
Could it have come from http://www.islamreview.com/articles/incredibleteachings.shtml
You need to be more careful with your sources of information.
The info comes from an anti-Islamic website, apparently run by Christian fundamentalists. Have you ever heard of 'hate crimes' ?
I disagree. Surely it is as important to understand the motive behind an action as the action itself. If I do the right thing for the wrong reason, it is still the wrong reason; in other words, that the outcome has been a "good" one (from the purely subjective standpoint of the recipient of said action), then that is merely coincidence. To be certain that the outcome of an action is good every time, then the motives behind the action must also be good. Of course, it is possible that a well-intentioned action may end in disaster, but that is not the same as intending for a bad outcome that turned out good by chance.
As you know, Tony, I am an unapologetic, militant atheist. This, however, has nothing to do with my morals, because as I said earlier, the notion that theism is the sine qua non of moral virtue is a strawman. If you like, I can write a lengthier essay on why this is so. Note that I do not say "why I believe it to be so", for the existence of one virtuous freethinker in the world--and there are many--is living proof that the theistic argument is a strawman. Surely it is far better to teach people to do the right thing because it is the right thing; not because if they don't, the Big Bad Juju in the Sky will punish them? Seeking accommodation with those who rule over the ethical behaviour of others by coercion is the real deal with the Devil. At some stage, it will inevitably turn round and bite you in the arse. (He says, gaily mixing his metaphors.)
How people behave is predicated upon what they believe. For example, the Xpian Rightwinger wouldn't have said what he did (speaking is an action) if he didn't believe what he did--namely, that Islam is a lie, and the Bible is literally true. However, he was right about the intolerance of Islam as described by the Koran itself--see my post above. The irony is that Xpianity is equally intolerant.
When you say "How people actually behave is in my view at least as important as what they ostensibly believe", you're talking about the cognitive dissonance between what people really think, and what they claim to think. A case in point are those myriad American televangelists, who preach a smarmy kind of love, but rip off money from those who can afford it the least. This is because while they say they believe in universal love, what they really think is that they are closer to god than anyone else, and hence superior. As Kaiso said, you need eyes that can reach to the far side of the paper (i.e., read between the lines). You need to be able to see through all the BS they spout to judge what they're really thinking.
What I meant by saying that the value of human life is not externally validated is simply that to assign moral qualities to the universe at large seems to me to be typical human pretension/megalomania - the universe is too big for that.
Interesting; now you're making a humanist/freethinker argument, but there is a flaw to your argument. You're right in that the universe is neither moral nor immoral; it is amoral. How could it be otherwise? The universe is pitilessly indifferent to the burden of awareness possessed by humankind because the universe itself is not sentient. It just IS. It exists for no purpose, no reason. That doesn't mean, however, that for us as human beings (or, in my case, anthropoid ape), life is pointless. And here is where the flaw in your reasoning lies. One of the great advantages of sentience is the ability to reason. Now, our brains are Darwinian mechanisms designed for Darwinian survival, and given how weak we are as a species (not fleet of foot, not strong as an elephant, not with the stamina of the ox or the warm pelt of a bear), our survival in the long term is best assured by cooperation over competition. In other words, we can override short-term Darwinian goals (kill neighbour, take his food) for a longer-term economic strategy (pool resources, gain greater chance to survive longer). This is the beginning of caring for others. Gradually, this action has taken on (in the case of the species) and takes on (in the case of the individual) greater meaning: that caring for another is intrinsically good, and not for the selfish reason that is enhances my own opportunities. But don't you see? This is because human morality is not only externally validated, it is mandated by the universe, because if the universe were any other way, we would not be here. Humankind could not have arisen any other way--with morals and ethics--as we are a product of the external universe. Through evolution, we have grown to be exactly the way we are, driven from behind down the aeons by the pressures of natural selection. The more a person adopts ethical codes, the better their chances has always been of passing on their genes to the next generation, so ethics becomes a necessity to ensure your own personal genes' survival. For example, a thief was likely to be hanged in the past, or at the very least banged up in prison, so there was no opportunity for their genes to be passed on. Ethics is not only externally validated by this; it is essential to humanity.
To return to your original point about seeking accommodation: The science I have described above directly undermines the faith of the theist in the idea that humankind is the "Crown of Creation"; god's crowning achievement. You say that "to assign moral qualities to the universe at large seems to me to be typical human pretension/megalomania", but that is precisely what theists do: assume that they are special in god's creation, and that the universe was created for us to be here. But the universe wasn't created for us; we adapted to it (evolution). To reject this anthropocentric notion is de facto to be at war intellectually with all those who claim that morality comes from an external superbeing they call god. There can be no accommodation with that. (Although, admittedly, this is going to upset a lot of people, who are into the fuzzy, warm idea that all religions are basically about being decent to your neighbour and cherry-picking superficial similarities between creeds, rather than acknowledging that both the Bible and the Koran are full of bloodthirsty tales of battle and exhortations to smite nonbelievers/infidels in the name of Yahweh/God/Allah/Ronald MacDonald).
Our morality/ethics have to be realised in the context of our relations with each other. To me the ultimate basis of ethics is recognising that the suffering of others is equivalent to your own - again this is something that is grounded in your individual experience and your actual relations with other beings rather than abstract principle. You can argue your way from compassion, I think it's harder to argue your way to it in any incontrovertible way (obviously you can reach for the standard utilitarian arguments, but I find these ultimately unsatisfactory..)
Just as a matter of interest, and to keep the discussion going, why do you find the utilitarian argument to be unsatisfactory? (I agree with you that it is, but I'm curious to know whether your reasons are the same as mine, so I won't lead you by giving you my reasons until after you've supplied yours.)
When you say, "the ultimate basis of ethics is recognising that the suffering of others is equivalent to your own", you are describing empathy (another key word, that). Nurturing empathy is again a Darwinian survival mechanism. The better you can read and anticipate the emotions of another person, which is a key to predicting their actions, then the better you will be at least at knowing when to duck or get out of the way! In other words, living half for others is ultimately better for your own personal welfare, and not for something as nebulous as the "warm glow of self-righteousness you feel inside". There are concrete benefits to mutual cooperation, but none of them based in blind faith.
No, I got it from a more moderate site (which I can't find again now), but hoiw can quoting from the Koran itself be a hate crime? To be a hate crime, I would have to do what the fundies then do and extrapolate this to mean that Muslims must be killed or coerced into proselytization. I advocate neither. I merely quoted from the Muslims' own book. Now, how can anyone object to that?
No, I got it from a more moderate site (which I can't find again now
It's actually very easy for anyone to check, they just need to follow the link.
Do you know what plaigarism is?
There is no copyright on the Koran. The list is published by myriad sites for this reason.
Do you have something worthwhile to contribute to this discussion, or are you just goign to be snippy with me for the rest of your life?
There is no copyright on the Koran.
But according to the source of your info you are not quoting from the Koran.
'Mohammed's teachings are included in what is called "Hadith." The "Hadith" is a record of Mohammed's words and deeds according to his wives, relatives, and companions. Next to the Quran, it is the most important part of Islamic law; its teachings are just as binding.'
(Source:http://www.islamreview.com/articles/incredibleteachings.shtml)
Why don't you quote the source of your information, especially considering the inflammatory nature of your post.
If you are going to insult an entire religion, and the founder of that religion, you had better be sure of your facts.
OK, so I'm quoting from the Hadith. This is like mixing up the Old and New testaments. It is no big deal, as the content is substantively correct.
If you are going to insult an entire religion, and the founder of that religion, you had better be sure of your facts. Insult what? The quotes are accurate. You are one of these fuzzy thinkers who believes that one shouldn't criticise a religion, that religious claims are somehow not to be examined. This is nonsense. Try reading Religion's Misguided Missiles (http://www.world-of-dawkins.com/Dawkins/Work/Articles/2001-09-18misguidedmissiles.htm) and, particularly, Time to Stand Up, (http://www.world-of-dawkins.com/Dawkins/Work/Articles/2001-09time_to_stand_up.htm) both by Richard Dawkins. But first you have to jettison the notion that religions can't be criticised.
This is a reprint verbatim of your previous post. My reply still stands. :rolleyes:
The quotes are accurate.
Are you an Islamic Scholar?
Do you read Arabic?
Have you studied this book in the source language?
Do you have any personal knowledge of Islam, or is your view based on prejudice and superstition (believing something without personal evidence) ?
Clearly the information that you have posted was cut and pasted from a website run by Christian fundamentalists. Doesn't a belief in science require some kind of consistency ?
bruceb
The Fifty Stanzas of Guru Devotion ... have any of you read this piece of writing that goes back to about 100 B.C.?
We were discussing this, over on the Aikido Journal, and the Behavioral Conditioning it imposed upon the Human Conditon.
Human beings seem to have a variety of ways to understand and adapt to the natural phenonmena of the world around them, and in some ways it is absolutely incredible how far the imagination needs to go to find an anchor to ground some of observations and experiences that have no percievable explanations to that individual. The examination of the religious aspects of human behavior is one of finding patterns of behavior and interpreting thought processes that give some explanation to the behavior.
Consider these ancient instructions from a student who explains that he has attained Enlightenment, or Buddha consciousness in his writings of the "Fifty Stanzas of Guru Devotion" but consider the many superstitious and methods of behavioral conditioning used to modify the thought process of the student through physical and mental modifications in the experiences and observations of the student. The applications of comparisons to what we consider modern religion, even the comparisons of worship and adaptations of behavioral conditioning found in todays religions is not as far fetched as you might think.
Instead of holding up the values of what each of us believes in, or the worship of our religion compared to another religion, cut to the heart of the comparisons and realize that human beings have created methods and means to deal with the unexplainable and observations of the world around them. Many of the modifications and laws found in religion are created because of human behavior and the cognizant thinking of one or more leaders who think they can contain a form of behavior or correct a misbehavior within a set of ideas that set the path for behavioral conditioning that will correct or keep a clear path in which others can follow.
The examination of a question like "Where does Kongo Zen fit in?" is both a question for the outsider who is interested in the application of Kongo Zen in relation to the other pratices of religion in Japan, and it is a question of self reflection for the insider or practitioner who should go beyond the practice but understand their practice of Kongo Zen in relation to the religion or non-religious practices.
Don't spend all your time listing the observations of physical differences or written text, but how does the practice of this subject affect the people involved as a means of behavioral condtioning? If you think about it .... the behavior of the individuals involved are the core to the discussion, despite the outcrys of denial from the "brights", who will never award the 1 million dollar prize from the J. Randi foundation, because there is only science we do or don't understand and no such thing as supernatural. Every type of lifestyle, religion, and thought process is a form of behavioral conditoning .... if you believe there is a describable parameter to describe a normal human being.
Check the Fifty Stanzas of Guru devotion and see if it provides some clarity to the strange and ways that have changed over the years in both religion, and martial arts.
No, I have not studied the book in its source language, but I have read an English translation of the Koran. And I don't have any superstitions. Nor am I prejudiced; this is the typical strawman of the apologist. Take off the kid gloves and examine all the monotheistic religions for what they are: anti-humnaist patriarchal superstition. You can't take the high ground with me, Indar, because it isn't you's to take. You're the bigot here, attacking rational intllectual inquiry as "blasphemy" (which is an absurd notion in itself). Religions cannot be accorded any special privileges. Why don't you wake up to this fact?
Clearly the information that you have posted was cut and pasted from a website run by Christian fundamentalists.
No, it was taken from a more liberal website, as I have told you before. You're not even to me, and you clearly haven't read the Richard Dawkins articles.
Doesn't a belief in science require some kind of consistency ?
This is an ad hominem logical fallacy: attacking me personally rather than the argument. :rolleyes:
The info comes from an anti-Islamic website, apparently run by Christian fundamentalists. Have you ever heard of 'hate crimes' ? If this is the case, how come my article is three times as long as the one to which you've linked? Where did the rest come from?
OK I'm going to discount the flame war threatening to break out between Indar and Kimpatsu - I hope this isn't seen as rude, I just don't want to go there. Don't have time for a detailed riposte to Kimpatsu's earlier critique of my arguments, but I do want to reply to his contention that I'm missing the point about the evolutionary basis of ethical behaviour. Of course there is an evolutionary basis to ethics - our entire behavioural repertoire has evolutionary origins, albeit with culture overlaid. however, our capacity for selfish evil also has an evolutionary foundation. from my point of view, our unique place in dharma - the burden of sentience - is the ability to choose what kind of behaviour you're going to follow.
I spoke to him; you didn't.
Yet you know better than me what was in his heart ?
I'll leave it to each individual to decide for themself on this.
You are one of these fuzzy thinkers who believes that one shouldn't criticise a religion
Fuzzy thinker ?
Well..... I just graduated with an MSc (Internet Engineering).
Maybe the people who say that standards at British universities are dropping are right after all.
Actually I'm one of those people who believe that before you criticise anything it's usually a good idea to do some research.
If this is the case, how come my article is three times as long as the one to which you've linked? Where did the rest come from?
Don't you know ?
You posted it.
Confused ? You certainly are.
Well, Tony, I turn my back and I see that the previously valuable discussion has degenerated a bit. I wanted to argue with you about theoretical reasoning and it's shortcomings, dialectical development, etc, and the value of empirical data, but I guess that will have to wait for another day.
Thanks for making me think!
Jeff;
In view of your links to The Christian Karate Association, perhaps you would be good enough to provide a Christian perspective.
There was a quote posted recently saying that a committed Christian could never practise Shorinji Kempo. Is this correct ?
Indar, I am not qualified to give the Christian perspective. Non-Christians were members of the CKA; I was affiliated as I was a student/instructor at a CKA school. The karate was good; I had no involvement with the ministry part of it.
shugyosha
the thought of kaiso about that is here:
http://wsko.econ-net.or.jp/kaiso/7.html
some question arises:
what is the dharma? (what is the matrix?;) )
how ones "awaken?" ?
i used to hate religion, much more than kimpatsu, yes its possible, but i met my sensei, he's christian, but not anything like any christian i met, he told me:
"the bible is only about meditation"
"shorinji kempo is the surface of the iceberg, kongo zen is the whole thing in deep water"
i still believe religion are just a tool to enslave the mind of the man, not because of the teaching, but because it is use by the governement.
i did not read the koran though, but i have some muslim friend, and i notice that the women tend to have the upper hand at home :D :D
once again it is the peaple, the peaple that matters, peaple make religion, governement, delusions, war...
from kaiso:
"we can dive into the ocean"
i dont think this comparaison is inocent, sensei always told me we are part of the ocean, that meditation is returning to the ocean...
"Each one of us is a splendid person holding a portion of the Dharma"
sensei also use to say that the drop
n the water can not claim beein the ocean, however it is part of it
Why ae you so pissy?
You posted here what you claim the man said. I took that at face value and deconstructed the sentence. Why can't you understand that?
And how does an MSc qualify you to analyse anthropology? You remind me of Kent Hovind, who thought that a high court judge would make a good member of a science revieqw committee. (http://home.austarnet.com.au/stear/kent_hovind's_phony_challenge.htm) Expertise in one area does not equate to expertise in all areas.
Another ad hominem attack, and one I can demonstrate is totally unwarranted! Do I get paid every time you commit a logical fallacy?
You cliamed I copied the list from the web site of a hate group, to whom you supplied a link. If you visit the hate groups's web site, however, you will see that their list is only about a third as long as mine. So, if I copied freom them, where did the other two-thirds of the list come from? The only explanation is that I didn't obtain my information from the hategroup's website. QED.
Originally posted by shugyosha
Don't have time for a detailed riposte to Kimpatsu's earlier critique of my arguments, but I do want to reply to his contention that I'm missing the point about the evolutionary basis of ethical behaviour. Of course there is an evolutionary basis to ethics - our entire behavioural repertoire has evolutionary origins, albeit with culture overlaid. however, our capacity for selfish evil also has an evolutionary foundation. from my point of view, our unique place in dharma - the burden of sentience - is the ability to choose what kind of behaviour you're going to follow.
Yes, that was my point exactly: that the capacity for both good and evil exist is evident, but as long as evolutionary good exists, then the notion of ethics is definitely validated by the external universe because it was caused by that very universe.
Do you think you'll have time to write a detailed response later?
And while Kimpatsu is asleep (The Undead do sleep, don't they?), could we get any other views on the general topic or any of its offshoots. Perhaps there are those who know more, or have different views. Speak now, while the air is still.
Is it time for an explanation of the terms Doin and Dojo?
Am I going to regret having my name on another thread that descends, unchecked, into a mire of bickering, sickening, grown-ups behaving badly. I have been pleasantly surprised by some of the content so far. It would be a shame to lose the goodness for the sake of an argument that has been done elsewhere.
Sorry, I'm still online. I am omnipresent. I know what you're thinking. I can destroy you with thunderbolts. Ha ha ha! :D
A doin is simply a dojo registered as a shukyo hojin, rather than a zaidan hojin. There is no substantive difference. I've found recently that many branches in Japan which are registered through the zaidan hojin arm of Shorinji Kempo still refer to themselves as doin. Whilst technically incorrect, it makes no practical difference, and I personally prefer the term "doin" to "dojo", for the terribly unscientific reason that I think it sounds nicer, and the kanji is cooler. (I find the "in" part (‰@) a joy to write.)
Now, I'd best go find my coffin...
Indar, in all fairness, the quote came from the website of a fundamentalist group that views all organisations not affiliated with their own as the tools of Satan. More moderate Xpian groups don't make that claim.
Next time, I'll check who's online before I post :nin:
Thanks for the definition Tony. I could suggest that your definition seems to shape the details to meet your personal view of Shorinji Kempo. Others may see a more obvious distinction between Doin and Dojo based on the two halves of the organisation, previously described as the religious branch and the non-religious. I daresay there are examples to match your view... does this mean that there are examples that might fit the alternative view? Am I getting tongue-tied?
Tony, have you met Japanese Kenshi who are more into the religious(sic) side? What do they make of your views? Are you willing to share any stories with us....
I have been fascinated and much rewarded by your contributions on this thread. I do so enjoy it when we get some real depth to the posts.
""the bible is only about meditation"
i'm sory that i am not christian, and my knowledge of the bible is to
limited too give a complete explanation. i was also surprise when i heard sensei say that.
all i can say his that sensei wanted us to understand that the bible provided the method to open the counsciousness, by correcting the actions, the thought, and speach, pretty much the same as what tought budhism actualy, because meditation is a "vessel" as said my sensei, but to embark this vessel one has to get rid of the weight of the ego, or one will sink.
i can repeat how sensei explain to me meditation in 8 stages:
2: faith (define by a clear confidence in love)
3: asana (posture of body and mind, behaviour)
4: pranayama (ki ryoku, qigong, breathing work)
5: withrawal from the five sens
6: concentration (of the mind)
7: meditation
8: Satori (enlightenement, temporary or permanent)
i hope this is of litle use and not too confusing...
to answer the topic quesiton, zen means meditation in japanese,
kongo zen "diamon meditation"
so how can a meditation be a religion?
but a person can create a religion and call it "meditation" or kongo zen, its up to peaple
In practical terms, I haven't seen any real difference. Mori Sensei at the Rakuto Doin is a bona fide Kongo Zen priest, but online I notice the Hollywood branch master is more likely to push the shukyo side of Shorinji Kempo.
And I wouldn't worry too much about getting tongue-tied. I talk drivel all the time, and I'm still here... :p
The most "religious" (sic) person in Japanese Shorinji Kempo has been someone who was more interested in musing intellectually on the deeper social ramifications of Shorinji Kempo philosophy by playing "what if" games (what if Kaiso were Prime Minister, what if Shorinji Kempo teaching were compulsory, etc.), rather than the actual physical training. I haven't seen him for many eyars, however, so I don't know whether he's still training.
In general, the philosophy doesn't make much of a blip in people's consciousnesses. I've been known to stop and ask myself, "what's the Shorinji way to handle this situation?", so I presume other Kenshi do the same, but as to lengthy pondering, I had for more in-depth discussions with Gerry Rixen Sensei than I've had in Japan.
Jimi, don't be sorry for not being a Xpian; I'm not, either. Nothing wrong with rejecting superstition.
Please tell your Sensei from me that I disagree completely that the Bible is a way to open the consciousness; it is full of far too many instructions to kill people for picking up sticks on the Sabbath, homosexuality, "uncleanliness in the sight of the Lord" (i.e., physical deformity), it permits slavery, and advocates murder of people who don't believe. Not much that's spiritually uplifting or morally virtuous there. Your Sensei would be better off choosing an author with some genuine insight into the human condition, such as Shakespeare or Gabriel Garcia Marques.
I however am capable of defining for myself what religious expression means in the context of my own life, and I imagine others might say the same.
Tony, I don't really understand this statement. Could you clarify it, please?
A doin is simply a dojo registered as a shukyo hojin, rather than a zaidan hojin. There is no substantive difference.
A doin is a Shorinji Kempo branch at which the branch master is a Buddhist Priest. A dojo is a Shorinji Kempo branch at which the branch master is not a Buddhist priest.
As far as I know, most SK branches in Japan are doin. Outside Japan it's more difficult to say; the majority of branches are probably dojo, although a number are doin; usually, but not always, those with Japanese branch masters.
The reason for this is that Shorinji Kempo encompasses both those individuals who regard SK as a humanist philosophy, and those who regard it as a religion.
But my branch master's a policeman, not a priest, and we're a doin.
It's certainly true that most branches are called doin; this may have something to do with the registration procedure at Hombu, as compared to the procedure for branches outside Japan.
[B...
The purpose of Kongo Zen for the individual is:
a healthly body
The first two are self evident. The third element is more difficult to define, and really the subject of our discussion.
I would see religion, in it's true sense, as being a method for spiritual development. Obviously religion can be, and has been, used for other reasons, both good and bad; as a method of social control, as a way of ensuring cohesion within a group of people; but I don't think that these are the reasons that humanity originated religion. I believe that religion started as a way of trying to understand our existance. This is the link between all religions, and the reason why Shorinji Kempo is a religion in the same sense as Christianity and Islam. Note that this does not mean that religion has to be 'good' or ethical. Satanism is also a method for attempting to understand and control our existance.
Religion, like science, is a tool for us to use in interpreting the world around us. Science is a wonderful tool, and has many benefits, however science and religion are not mutually exclusive, nor is science automatically a superior tool to religion.
It's better to understand than disease can be caused by germs in our drinking water, and therefore to drink clean water, rather than imagining that disease is caused by demons, and therefore we should bless the water before we drink it. Science is a great way of understanding the physical world; it's not such a good way of undestanding ourselves. The previous example of getting married illustrates this; religion provides us with a framework for this kind of social interaction. If you lose this framework then you get all kinds of social problems; if marriage is not a binding committment, then what will happen to the children if the marriage breaks up? These are the kind of questions that cannot be answered scientifically.
Indar, the essence of Kongo Zen are healthy mind, healthy body, and self defence. Where did you get "spiritual development" from?
Where did you get "spiritual development" from?
I dunno, it just seemed to happen.
'To say, "We seek a way," may sound exaggerated or overdone, but the reason you are all staying to the end is that when you do Shorinji Kempo you're seeking for something. Having joined, you began to understand things'
Kaiso Doshin So
(source: WSKO website; http://wsko.econ-net.or.jp/kaiso/12.html)
'Buddhism is originally a teaching of human mutual esteem. To respect another requires that one first respect oneself. The characters with which "person" can be written in Buddhist philosophy mean "spirit" and "stopping." To put it into religious terms, that means that, if anything, people are spirits who contain in themselves a portion of the Dharma --- and I believe it is only when one awakens to this fact that one is capable of respecting oneself. The great change in my outlook on life came because I truly understood the meaning of this.'
(source: WSKO website; http://wsko.econ-net.or.jp/kaiso/7.html)
I would see religion, in it's true sense, as being a method for spiritual development.
First rant: Please learn the difference between "it's" (contraction of "it is" and "it's" (possessive). (Rant OFF.)
As I said earlier, anthropologically, "religion" is defined as an appeal to the supernatural. Spiritual development is the province of spirituality. If you refer to spiritual development as "religion", then what word do you use to describe appeals to the supernatural?
Obviously religion can be, and has been, used for other reasons, both good and bad; as a method of social control, as a way of ensuring cohesion within a group of people; but I don't think that these are the reasons that humanity originated religion. I believe that religion started as a way of trying to understand our existance.
That last sentence is spot on. All religions are pre-scientific attempts to explain the existence of the universe, and the existence of life. They are a cosmology and a biology. And, as modern science has amply demonstrated, they are all totally wrong.
Further, social control is at the core of religion, based upon the principle of the Ladder of Deception. (http://www.eclipse.co.uk/thoughts/ladder.htm)
Viz.: We can use our five senses to determine that there is no car or truck coming and that it is thus safe to cross the road. But what if I tell you that there are invisible cars that will kill you if you do not hold your nose when you cross the road? If you are brave enough, you might try crossing the road without holding your nose, and upon safely reaching the other side, conclude that there are no such things as invisible cars. But this is where the descent down the ladder begins.
"There is an invisible car that will kill you sometimes if you do not hold your nose when you cross the road."
"There is an invisible car that will not kill you now, but the invisible injuries it causes will make you die young if you do not hold your nose when you cross the road."
"A car will suddenly materialise and kill you if you do not hold your nose when you cross the road, like the old lady yesterday; she did not hold her nose properly."
"Some wicked people may tell you that there is no such thing as an invisible car. They are speaking for Satan. You may have doubts yourself. That is Satan talking in your ear."
"Even if you do hold your nose properly, you may still be hit by an invisible car (unforseen accident or illness) and die young. But the purpose of life is to die and go to Heaven, so don't worry. The really important thing is that you hold your nose when you cross the road." (Because that is where my power to control you socially comes from.)
Of course, in pre-scientific society, all attempts at cosmology and biology were inevitably bound up with the "will of the gods", as that was the only way pre-scientific people could explain natural phenomena. We now know that lightning is not Zeus tossing thunderbolts, and earthquakes start years before--sometimes millenia before--as tectonic stresses build up in the Earth's core, so they are not sudden punishments from a wrathful god. The element of control, however, remains, because no one in authority wishes to yield the power that they hold. Such is human nature.
This is the link between all religions, and the reason why Shorinji Kempo is a religion in the same sense as Christianity and Islam. Note that this does not mean that religion has to be 'good' or ethical. Satanism is also a method for attempting to understand and control our existance.
Shorinji Kempo is NOT a religion, because it makes no appeal to the supernatural. It is an ethical code. It makes no unverifiable statements, such as you will go to Heaven if you die. Xianity and Islam are religions because they make just such an appeal. Authority is vested in a cleric, imam, or preacher whose word may not be questioned.
To continue, there are three types of theist (for brevity, I shall henceforth use this term to describe Muslim clerics and imams, and Xpian clergy). Richard Dawkins referred to them as Know-Nothings, Know-Alls, and No Contests. (http://www.world-of-dawkins.com/Dawkins/Work/Articles/1994-12religion.htm) The broad majority of ordinary people ("civilians", if you like, as opposed to theists) fall into the "no contest" category. In the paragraph below, Indar does the same, and I shall return to the No Contests below, but as a quick definition, No Contests believe that there is no conflict between science and religion, that science and religion are simply about these things. Stephen J. Gould, who was also a No Contest, fell into this category. He coined the term NOMA (Non-Overlapping MAgesteria) to describe it. He was wrong, but as I say, I shall return to the issue below.
Know Nothings are the theists who accept that their holy book--mostly the Bible--does not contain any genuine science, and feel offended if you should even ask. They accept that the Bible or the Koran is not factually accurate. The world was not created in six days, about 6,000 years ago, and nor was there ever a global flood. Instead, they maintain that the Bible is a collection of allegories designed to illuminate human nature, like using a fairy tale such as Jack and the Beanstalk to illustrate a moral point. This is like those people who cry when a character in their favourite TV show dies, or those who write letters of condolence to the either cast characters.
Finally, there are the Know-Alls. At least they are more honest than the Know-Nothings. They accept that the Bible (or the Koran) was written as an attempt to explain origins, and they cling fast to the belief that it is literally true. Despite the overwhelming mountains of scientific evidence to the contrary, fundamentalists maintain that there is a literal Heaven and Hell, and that their particular Holy Book is 100% accurate in all details. Personally, I think they're candidates for a rubber room, but you evidently can't lock people up just for expressing opinions, no matter how daft.
Religion, like science, is a tool for us to use in interpreting the world around us.
Perhaps, but what on earth makes you think that religion has anything valid to say on the subject? That the Sun is at the centre of the solar system, that disease is caused by microbes too small to be visible to the naked eye, that the immune system can be stimulated to ward off disease, are all interpretations due to science. Religion is a bogus cosmology and biology that has been falsified time and again. Remember my explanation of hypotheses? We test them, and if they fail the tests, then we reject the hypotheses in favour of ones that better explain the data. So why, I must ask, is it any different for these thoroughly discredited biology and cosmology of the Abrahamic religions? What possible advantage can there be to accepting notions as barmy as a six-day creation or a flat earth?
Science is a wonderful tool, and has many benefits, however science and religion are not mutually exclusive, nor is science automatically a superior tool to religion.
And why on earth would you make such a claim? Science is demonstrably superior to religion, because its explanations regarding causation of natural phenomena and our origins are all correct. What religious claims have ever been bourne out by the evidence? As I linked to earlier, praying doesn't work, and all the religious explanations for phenomena have been invalidated. So what on earth do appeals to the supernatural (religion) have to offer?
It's better to understand than disease can be caused by germs in our drinking water, and therefore to drink clean water, rather than imagining that disease is caused by demons, and therefore we should bless the water before we drink it. Science is a great way of understanding the physical world; it's not such a good way of undestanding ourselves.
Why not? All we need are better, more accurate models by which to evaluate hypotheses. When Newton first attempted to calculate the diameter of the Earth, he got a figure that was far too small, because he didn't have the appropriate tool--calculus. After he invented calculus, he tried again, and this time got it right. But at no time did he need to pray to find the answer.
The previous example of getting married illustrates this; religion provides us with a framework for this kind of social interaction. If you lose this framework then you get all kinds of social problems;
I have to interrupt you mid-sentence here for making such a blatantly ridiculous remark. Religion is not, and need never be, the social glue that holds a people together. As the Ladder of Deception illustrates, religion in the social sphere is all about control. It also punishes those who dare to question or oppose its teachings or attempt at control. Further, the corrollary to your statement is that a non-theistic society cannot function, which is blatantly false. It also implies that brights and other freethinkers are somehow morally less developed than theists, which I personally find offensive. When was the last time a suicide bomber acted in the name of atheism? You can be as superstitious as you like, but don't try to force your superstitions on me. Attempting to claim religion (superstition) as a moral framework is to disenfranchise all those of us who are sincere in a desire for a better world, but don't see any reason to appeal to the supernatural to achieve it. It also puts you in the Know-All camp, because you somehow thing that appeals to the supernatural are A GOOD THING for society, even though the message they preach may be factually wrong. (Martin Luther called this the "noble lie".) Personally, I'd rather face the stark truth, no matter how unpalatable, than be fed a sugar-coated falsehood. You personally may be different, but the assertion in the above paragraph is an attempt to force the pill on all of us. You don't have the right to infringe my personal liberty in that way, and nor do you have the right to decide for me what is in my best interest. And that's where the greatest social problem with religion lies: it assumes that not only does it operate in everyone's best interest, it automatically knows what that best interest is. No matter how messy a free society may be, with marital breakdowns and all, I still prefer it to a theocracy.
... if marriage is not a binding committment, then what will happen to the children if the marriage breaks up? These are the kind of questions that cannot be answered scientifically.
This is a false dilemma. Firstly, it assumes that secular marriages will inevitably break up, but this is not the case. And plenty of church marriages dissolve as well. But let's return to the crux of your argument: that religion somehow has something to contribute to the children of a failed marriage? What exactly? Science can supply them with food to eat (without science, we would still be stuck with peasant agrarian subsistence farming), with clothes to wear (mass production means they don't have to catch and skin their own animals for clothing), light, heat, and an education. It can also supply them with the means of transport to and from school. If you took away science, there would be no transport faster than the horse, no lighting other than natural light, no doctors other than witch doctors. Religion has resulted in centuries of oppression, crusades, genocide, and has generally held back humankind. Science is already studying the nature of love (biochemical response), and could one day provide us with a complex mathematical formula to explain just how long a marriage might be expected to last. And your final sentence betrays an ignorance of what science actually IS (strange for an MSc):
These are the kind of questions that cannot be answered scientifically.
This sentence should read, "science cannot answer this question yet (but may be able to do so in the future)". And why shouldn't it? We are only meachines made of meat; if we can retroengineer a complex piece of machinery such as a fighter plane's guidance system, then we can one day do the same to the human brain. And then we'll really know why love is blind.
Yeah, that's what I said when I was asked why I got married. ;)
Actually, the Japanese for "healthy mind" as used in Shorinji Kempo (these terms are fixed, after all) is "seishin shuyo". "Shuyo" means to nurture or develop, and "seishin" is defined by the Kojien as "mind or spirit". But this is only because, in pre-scientific Chinese biology, the "spirit" was thought to be a supernatural energy that inhabited the body and gave rise to awareness. When you died, your spirit left your body, and thus you were no longer sentient. We now know that this is a load of baloney. The mind is dependent upon the physical organ of the brain, and loss of sentience is due to brain death. So purely from the standpoint of what we know of modern anatomy, "mind" is a better translation than "spirit", for which I would reserve the Japanese word "tamashi" (soul), and which is used in such phrases as, "Yamato damashi banzai!" (Long live the spirit of Japan!)
Certainly, Buddhism is the only creed still extant that places mutual self esteem based upon a sense of personal self worth at its core, but just because 2,000-year-old Chinese characters for "person" are written with a radical meaning "spirit" doesn't mean that we should assume there is such a thing as a spirit. Remember, these characters reflect the cosmology and biology of the people who created them, people who had no knowledge of anatomy or medicine as we do today. In history, to assume that ancient peoples had the same set of values and ethics, predicated upon a similar understanding of the universe, as we do is called the "sin of present-mindedness". The second part of Kaiso's statement above is best taken metaphorically, not literally.
Gassho,
The second part of Kaiso's statement above is best taken metaphorically, not literally.
So you know more than Kaiso ????????
source : Shorinji Kempo Fukudoku-Hon page 2; Kongo Zen Sohonzan Shorinji, World Shorinji Kempo Organisation First principles of Shorinji Kempo (Self-defense, spiritual growth, and a healthy body
Do you also know more than WSKO ?
Kesshu
What I said about the history of kanji is fact. How you choose to interpret that fact is up to you.
That quote is taken from the American version of the Fukudokuhon, which contains so many mistranslations it has now been yanked from publication. The correct translation of "Kenko zoshin, seishin shuyo, goshin rentan" is "Sound mind, healthy body, self defence", for the reasons I explained above.
Moriat Sensei has said on more than one occasion that, based on my ability to articulate Shorinji Kempo philosophy, I certainly do know more than the "country bumpkins" at Hombu. This is because I'm a translaotr by preofession, the ability to see behind the actual words to what the speaker really wants to say is a prerequisite for my job. How could the monolinguals at Hombu know how to correctly translate "Kenko zoshin, seishin shuyo, goshin rentan"? I do, because it's my vocation. What's your excuse?
Note also that I'm not disagreeing with Kaiso; nowhere does he say his statement is not to be taken metaphorically. You're creating a false dilemma of antagonism where there is none. Back to Logical fallacies 101 (http://www.datanation.com/fallacies/) for you.
The correct translation of "Kenko zoshin, seishin shuyo, goshin rentan" is "Sound mind, healthy body, self defence", for the reasons I explained above.
Would anyone else like to provide a translation ?
Aran, Anders, Michael Eastwood ?
Just a brief interjection from the sidelines of the flame war that seems to have erupted between Messrs Kehoe and Picton Howell. Religious expression is a term I would use (like Indar) to describe the struggle to define a moral definition of my being I can live up to. I know Kimpatsu may well erupt in a froth of indignation at this, as well as the use of words like 'spirit', which again I think can be a handy shorthand for concerns that go beyond the pervasive materialism (meant in the colloquial sense) of advanced capitalist society. Frankly I'm not that concerned at this. I don't see why matters of the spirit should be the exclusive preserve of new age crackpots and the ideologies/power structures embodied in the major religions, and I also don't share Kimpatsu's abhorrence of metaphorical and allusive language.
As I said earlier, I have come to the conclusion that believing that human life has some ultimate value is when it comes right down to it a question of belief and empathy (yes, I understand the meaning of that word, and I am not abashed about saying that I think it is the only viable basis for an ethical approach to life.
Just as a purely trechnical point about rhetoric, Kimpatsu might just find his laudable causes bettter served if he experimented with modes of discourse other than the declamatory. Just a thought.
it is full of far too many instructions to kill people for picking up sticks on the Sabbath, homosexuality, "uncleanliness in the sight of the Lord" (i.e., physical deformity), it permits slavery, and advocates murder of people who don't believe. Not much that's spiritually uplifting or morally virtuous there. Your Sensei would be better off choosing an author with some genuine insight into the human condition, such as Shakespeare or Gabriel Garcia Marques.
what about "thy shall not kill" :p
i think the problem is not inside the "holy" books, but the interpretation that peaple make of it, i realy think the bible is like a mess to understand, and probably as been rewriten by the church to suit the need of control to the society, but all of this as been done by peaple, it is the person that decide the meaning, you can always take something good from anything, any book, it is up to the person.
even shorinji kempo is not execption, this very thread is a good example, now we have different peaple saying different interpretation of one teaching! this is becoming very religious, any others subject would be answer like:
"ok, maybe, that's a point of view"
but because this is kongo zen, because there is such attachement to what is "true" and what is "wrong" peaple would fight to define there own interpretation as the "one"
what if kaiso didnt mean to be reglious nor atheist?
maybe he just wanted that every person, each person could make his own judgement, his own belief, whatever the religion, the origin?
indar wants to point out that the "why" (religion) is all that mather,
while kimpatsu shows that the "how" (science) can solve anything.
hohoho, sounds like neo fighting Smith
:p :p
"why?, why M. anderson, why do you go on fighting?!"
Yet each man kills the thing he loves
By each let this be heard,
Some do it with a bitter look,
Some with a flattering word,
The coward does it with a kiss,
The brave man with a sword!
--the Ballad of Reading Gaol, by Oscar Wilde.
See? Same sentiment, much better poetry. As a writer, god betrays insecurity in her work. She repeats herself often, and contradicts herself. As I said before, you're better off with Shakespeare.
indar wants to point out that the "why" (religion) is all that mather, while kimpatsu shows that the "how" (science) can solve anything.
I have to take issue with this statement. Religion gives us the "why" of nothing. Zilch. Zip. Nada. All it does is replace one unknown (why does the universe exist?) with another, less parsimonious unknown (why does god exist?). And Occam's Razor forbids us from unnecessarily complicating the hypothesis with unnecessary layers. (Or, as Einstein said, "Everything should be made as simple as possible, but no simpler".) Or as Richard Dawkins put it, "Why do you thing religion holds the answer to anything? Why not the cook, or the gardener, or the parlour maid?"
Science answers the "why" as well as the "how": For example, "how do you boil water?"
--You heat it.
"Why does it boil?"
--Because the heat agitates the molecules, which collide together and the resulting friction raises the temperature.
Or, like when Napoleon asked the French astronomer, "But Monsieur LaPlace, where is god in your model of the universe?", LaPlace replied, "I have no need of that hypothesis".
Often, people (and I guess that Indar is among them) feel that a god is necessary to explain existence. But, and to end with another quotation, again from Richard Dawkins: "I suspect that today if you asked people to justify their belief in God, the dominant reason would be scientific. Most people, I believe, think that you need a God to explain the existence of the world, and especially the existence of life. They are wrong (emphasis mine), but our education system is such that many people don't know it. "
Tony, without meaning to be an arse, please don't supply incorrect scientific reasoning when you are trying to argue your point about science being able to explain all. I personally agree with your sentiment though. In case you are wondering what I'm getting at, water (and other liquids) boil because the vapour pressure of the liquid reaches the pressure of the surrounding gas. Hence the reason why when you go up a mountain, you need to supply less heat to boil the water (the water needs not to reach such a high vapour pressure).
God........
(or non-demonational deity ;) )
I am away for a couple of days and come back to 4 new pages of (mostly) drivel........
Did I not tell TonyK and Indar to play nice??
Guys, if this thread does not start making sense (or at least talking less crap) then I will close it.
Anders is in Japan, and I am not able to get online every day, so PLAY NICE.
Granted, Jon, I pared this down because my point lay elsewhere; namely, that no appeal to the supernatural is needed to explain the "why".
That's actually what I already said:
Originally posted by Steve Williams
It also implies that brights and other freethinkers are somehow morally less developed than theists, which I personally find offensive.
Well; Steve and a number of other people reading this thread know both TonyK and myself personally. Would anyone like to comment?
As Kaiso said, ultimately it all depends on the person.
Then by definition, Shorinji Kempo cannot be a religion, as it would be unable to admit card-carrying atheists like myself as a member.
Thank you, Jimi.
For example, a thief was likely to be hanged in the past, or at the very least banged up in prison, so there was no opportunity for their genes to be passed on. Ethics is not only externally validated by this; it is essential to humanity.
What you say is correct, but only half correct.
The stupid thieves are caught, and their genes are removed from the gene pool. The clever thieves survive and reproduce. Thieves become more and more clever. Darwinian selection works in both directions.
True; but in order for us to have a useful discussion there have to be rules. You quote information that appears on a Christian fundamentalist anti-Muslim website in order to support your pro science argument. If you want to argue scientifically, shouldn't you use scientific evidence, and document the source of that evidence?
If you want to argue with a computer programmer you need to start with some understanding of logic
This is because I'm a translaotr by preofession, the ability to see behind the actual words to what the speaker really wants to say is a prerequisite for my job.
But not your ability to spell words in your native language?
How is business? No wonder you have so much time to spend on E-budo.
Anyone know who said that?
I pared this down because my point lay elsewhere
So science doesn't have to be right or wrong, it can be 'pared down', i.e. 'sort of correct, in a fuzzy way' ?
Not content with correcting the mistakes made by Kaiso and WSKO, you now correct the mistaken assumptions made by the whole scientific community.
Clive Anderson to Jeffrey Archer
Is there no beginning to your talents?
True, but the pressures of natural selection work to drive them all out of the gene pool ultimately. The problem with an analogy is that it has limits; I used criminals as an example here, but of course, criminal traits are not genetically inherited, so a new generation of criminals arises with each new generation. The basic comparison, however, remains intact.
You've missed the point, Indar; the quotation appears not only on a fundie website, but on other, perfectly respectable websites as well. And the content wasn't written by the fundies; all they've done is appropriate it for their own ends. My original point still stands. You cannot deny these are all words that are attributed to Mohammed by the Hadith. That being so, what are we to make of them? Quite simply, if you study the history of Islam, it started off preaching tolerance when it was small and weak, and grew increasingly bellicose as it grew in strength and power. These are undeniable facts. So now tell me how you can claim Islam is about peace? (Also, did you read "Time to Stand Up"? It's well worth it.)
Yeah, business is in the toilet at the moment. And my spelling is excellent. (Don't confuse inability to spell with typos.)
Ralph Waldo Emerson. And it is one of the most misapplied quotations on the internet. The operative word isn't "inconsistency", it's "foolish". Or are you arguing that consistency is a priori bad? If so, you must write some bizarre programming code... and I don't believe you do.
No, you miss my point entirely, probably through wilfull ignorance. My point is that evreyone in school learns the "molecular friction" reason for boiling water (which is later overturned at A-Level chemistry, if you go that far). I wanted readers to focus not on the actual scientific argument given, but on the fact that Jimi was wrong regarding NOMA; in fact, science gives us both the how AND the why, wheras the Great Juju in the Sky explains nothing. Clearly this strategy backfired, becasue Jon Cruikshank's a clever dick. (Hello, Jon! :wave: ;))
Now you're accusing me of something I've never done. When have I ever corrected Kaiso or the scientific community? You're reading things that aren't there. So blinded by your hatred of me, you're not even fololowing my arguments! My point is that I am
validated by the very quotations from Kaiso that you have published here! When did Kaiso ever say an atheist couldn't be a Shorinji Kenshi? When did he ever insist that all Kenshi had to convert to a different religion? NEVER! Proof--if any more were needed--that Shorinji Kempo is NOT a religion--for no appeal to the supernatural, by definition, ever included a bright or other freethinker.
Won't you please try actually reading and understanding my posts before rushing intemperantly into condemning me? After all, such a headlong gallop isn't really the behaviour one expects from a Kenshi--now, is it?
O.K.; lets move on;
'Human divinity and the moral nature of Dharma'
This is one of the questions in the sandan syllabus; a grading that you recently passed. Could you give us your views on this subject?
And btw, some time ago you promised to explain how sokai ranks work within SK.
Actually, the question in Japanese is better translated as "human mind (seishin) and the moral nature of Dharma". I really don't know who translated the English, but I'm willing to bet it was a Japanese native speaker. (The giveaway is their use of the redundant "on" in such questions as "On the meaning of bu and the essence of budo"; it's a transliteration of the Japanese "ni tuite".)
So: Human mind and moral nature. I hold that morality is self-evidently separate from any religion, as proven by the lives being led by perfectly ethical atheists and other brights around the world. I also wrote earlier in this thread how human morality has been driven by evolution.
I've got the full essay that I submitted at home somewhere; I'll have to dig it out and write a much fuller answer. Obviously, the examiners thought my answer was perfectly acceptable, as I passed.
Yes, I shall get around to doing that at some stage. But first, I'm bound to supply another lengthy answer to a seprate debate in the Members' Lounge, on the subject of democracy.
PS: Could you clear something up for me? Are you of the opinion that atheists should cannot, or should not, be Shorinji Kenshi? TIA.
O.K., to answer your question (for the third time):
If I may return to some thoughts that have been simmering (not boiling ;) ) beneath my surface;
"People outside Japan hear that Shorinji Kempo is a Religion (in part, or parts of it are, or it has a religious element, etc) and this changes the way they think about it, approach its study, develop their studies. Japanese Kenshi don't have quite the same problem, as they already know the word that Kimpatsu taught us, Shukyo (wasn't it?)"
Agree? Disagree?
This was part of why I think it was important for us to understand how Kongo Zen fits into Japanese society. I would have liked a few other Japan-Resident E-Budoka to add their comments, if only to validate what Kimpatsu has told us (scientific experiments that can be repeated with the same results, etc (yawn)).
Oh and did you catch;
I'm just picturing Tony L pondering how many ways to rephrase "stop being an !!!".:) :D :laugh:
Actually, the question in Japanese is better translated as "human mind (seishin) and the moral nature of Dharma".
Sorry to be so pedantic, but the question does appear both in the English language syllabus published by WSKO and the BSKF syllabus as approved by Mizuno Sensei as originally quoted:
Human divinity and the moral nature of Dharma
Or are you going to tell us that both Mizuno Sensei and Hombu are mistaken on this? Did you see the thread on Hokei?
thy shall read this:
http://www.thebricktestament.com/
and thy shall love your neighbour if thy want to be at peace:o :o ;)
happy? No, I would like a YES or NO answer to a YES or NO question:
Do you personally believe that atheists should be forbidden to practice Shorinji Kempo?
BTW, I looked up the actual wording to the 'Human divinity and the moral nature of Dharma'; in Japanese it reads, "Dharma no tokusei to ningen no reisei", which is better rendered as "The ethics of Dharma and human spirituality". As I said, I gaven't seen the English translation of the topics, but some of them seem to be mistranslations to me.
David (and Tony), I use affirmations because I have no time for the weasel words. Of course, I could pepper my polemics with "I think", "I believe", "In my opinion...", but why should I? They don't actually contribute to the statements I have to make; they serve only to pad out the paragraph and show how I can use subordinate clauses. (If writing an essay in a foreign language exam, however, it is highly advisable to use these phrases to lubricate and pad out the sentence, but that's another matter. ;) )
Jeff Cook was right when he said it's only being direct; they sarve no real function other than social lubrication (which is why Indar mistakenly thinks that sentence without them are rude). This is why Microsoft manuals are written in the declaatory: "Turn ON your PC, and click the BUGGEROFF Icon on the Desktop. An option menu will be displayed. Select the DICKHEAD button, and then click the ENTER Button." When writing technical manuals or polemics, anything in which you wish to press home your point, the declamatory is to be preferred. Even Strunk and White agree on that point.
Or are you going to tell us that both Mizuno Sensei and Hombu are mistaken on this?
Yes, I beleive they are. This is a mistranslation in my expert opinion. I suspect that Mizuno Sensei had to look up "tokusei" and "reisei" in a dictionary, but we're back to playing the black keys on the white piano again. And I know for a fact that there are no professional J to E translators at Hombu, which is why they always outsource translations--to companies with no background knowledge of Shorinji Kempo! This has already led to complaints from native English-speaking Kenshi, but they don't complain to their Japanese branch masters or to Hombu; they complain to me, as if my language skills gave me an inside to the WSKO "country bumpkins" (ahem!). Perhaps you could ask Mizuno Sensei about this for me, Indar? Who translated the titles? Remember: translation should always be for meaning, which means building in the listener's mind the same image as that held in the speaker's. And language is culturally driven. Consequently, when translating between such disparate cultures and English and Japanese, straight transliteration will not serve. It takes someone au fait not only with both languages, but with the subculture of Shorinji Kempo as well, in addition to the wider cultures of both Japan and Britain. I stand by my assertion, but will willlingly discuss it with Mizuno Sensei if I ever see him again.
...because Jon Cruikshank's a clever dick
Sorry about that Tony :D
I corrected you only because I liked your argument and wanted it to be accurate.
science gives us both the how AND the why
Indeed it does, but I would say that.
Remember: translation should always be for meaning,
This is very difficult Tony. Why should there be a one-to-one correspondence between words in different languages? I think that essays or articles written in other languages shouldn't be shy about trying to explain meaning and context (not just Shorinji ones either). Sometimes it isn't possible. Sometimes we adopt words because of this, such as shadenfraude, zeitgeist etc.
(btw - the translator at the FFSK's 30th anniversary was something to behold. He translated Japanese into French, English and Spanish one after another, all day. )
As for the argument, there is another thread on the same subject somewhere. As far as I'm concerned science is the only epistemologically sound process of discovering the workings of the physical universe. Understanding human beings and their inter-relationships is not in the realm of science, because science is unable to account for the dual subject-object nature of human beings. Or in plain English, humans are able to make of themselves what they want, individually and collectively. That includes constructing our own consciousness. Some consciousness is false, such as creationism.
We do sometimes adopt words from other languages; cross-pollination happens all the time. Japanese is a case in point. My argument is that one needs to translate for meaning, and the words to borrow, with their attendant cultural baggage, have yet to make their way into English, so we're stuck with working in a language with no one-to-one correspondance. Consequently, errors do creep in.
Back when I was captain of Brixton, Mizuno Sensei used to ask me my opinion of certain WSKO translations into English, and I would find errors and correct them "Dharma no tokusei" never came up, though; I think it's because Mizuno Sensei didn't want to burden me with translations for howa concepts that I had yet to study, but whether that's truly the case I don't know.
What was his name?
As for the argument, there is another thread on the same subject somewhere. As far as I'm concerned science is the only epistemologically sound process of discovering the workings of the physical universe.
So do I.
No need to apologise, Jon. Never be sorry for being right. (That's why I'm NEVER sorry! Ha ha! :D )
And to be fair, I did call you a cleverdick in return. ;)
No, I would like a YES or NO answer to a YES or NO question:
I, Indar Picton-Howell, being of sound mind (and strangely enough I do happen to have a letter from my doctor to confirm this) believe than no-one should be forbidden from doing anything that does not cause harm to another person.
Why do you ask? Isn't this something that you should confirm with Hombu?
And why do you think that I don't like atheists? My Father was an atheist and I liked him.
That's still not a yes or no answer, but I guess it will have to do.
I was asking for your personal opinion. I already know Hombu's take on this.
Gem_C
Firstly, I apologise if this disrupts the present course of thread, but I have only just joined the forums and there is so much in this thread that I feel I should address. I restrained myself and only jumped back a page or two. ^_^
I completely agree. However, you are ignoring a key point to be considered when discussing the origin and creation of any religious and/or spiritual belief; what is it about human nature/psychology that has caused entirely isolated communities across the world to create similar religions, beliefs, and moral codes?
I DO agree that deities were given roles so that primitive societies could explain the world around them, but it would be naive and, dare I say, dangerous (from a theological point of view) to view this as the only cause. There is something we cannot define about the human mind and/or human nature that causes the willful creation of religion and faith; such is human nature.
Agreed. Indeed, (and I can see this has been partly addressed already) many who study Eastern Philosophy and religions argue whether Buddhism is a religion at all, for the very reason you state here.
The core teaches of Buddhism as a whole are moral guidelines. There are no rules laid out by a superior force, and therefore no divine ruler or leader. Enlightenment is attained through personal effort, not because of the will of another, divine or otherwise. One must make a personal and wholly individual decision to work towards Enlightenment, and in this way Buddhism is nothing but the paving stones across the lake of Samsara.
Someone mentioned previously how some sects or schools of Buddhism have deified The Buddha, Siddartha Gautama. This is false.
The Buddha has not been DEIFED, per se, but sects that have developed from the original Mahayana (meaning "Great Vehicle") school view the Buddha as a spiritual, or celestial, being. This does not make him a god, and, indeed, that goes against the whole foundation of Buddhist teachings, as even gods are trapped within Samsara, and for the Buddha to be a god this would mean that he would never have escaped Samsara and therefore never achieved enlightenment.
There's much more I could say on this topic, but I fear I'm pulling the threadoff track. If anyone is interested, please just give me a nudge and I'll be only to glad to elaborate.
To continue, there are three types of theist
I'm assuming you mean three MAIN groups of theists. I don't think assigning labels to a theological group is ever a good idea when those labels are so general. I see your point, however, but I feel like you're treading on dangerous ground here, i.e. it's all a bit too vague really.
isdemonstrably superior to religion, because its explanations regarding causation of natural phenomena and our origins are all correct.
Science is only superior to religion in areas such as the natural world and the known universe, but you fail to recognise that religion can give us incredible insights to the developing human mind; to human nature, to emotions, morality, social behaviour. . . . religion has the potential to teach us so much when viewed in a logical and critical light. Science can tell me about my hormones and how they effect my emotions, but it has yet to DEFINE emotions, and can only theorise as to why exactly we have them.
Just as does religion.
Don't discredit religion so easily as "superstition", as you're liable to miss some fascinating observations on the developing human mind.
When was the last time a suicide bomber acted in the name of atheism?
Firstly, many suicide bombers from religious backgrounds come from extremist environments wherein the religion has been mainipulated and falsified to support a political agenda. Therefore it moves from the range of "religion" to "politics", and although those who DO kill themselves for the "cause" do so in the belief that they are supporting and furthering their religion, those in power know that what they are doing is for political reasons. Such people have usually been brainwashed since they were mere children, but it's so much easier for us in the west to see the religious name and not even bother to investigate the individual group working through or by that name.
Secondly, although your point was to prove the danger of religion, it's also important to note that religion can also stop people from committing crime due to its moral foundation. Most major world religions share a common moral code, and it is only through politics and the selfish agendas of others that have distorted this code throughout history.
But good religious folk being good religious people just doesn't make the headlines.
Attempting to claim religion (superstition) as a moral framework is to disenfranchise all those of us who are sincere in a desire for a better world, but don't see any reason to appeal to the supernatural to achieve it.
But religion IS a moral framework, however, not one that should be applied to everyone. Like I said earlier; the morality is a base one (which brings up interesting debates in regards to innate morality being an essential part of human nature) but the way in which a religion might enforce such morality might not be correct.
You don't need to be religious to be moral, but most societies HAVE been shaped by the original religious moral code of that providence, state, or country.
Originally posted by Gem_C
The alpha male complex. All tribes and groups of primates group themselves around the alpha male, who demands obeisance but acts as the strong-willed leader, providing shelter and comfort, assuming the burden of command, for the group. It's a pecking order. So are religious hierarchies. The Abrahamic religions are patriarchial, as were the pantheons of ancient Greece, Rome, and Egypt. Zeus is a greater god than Apollo, who in turn is above Mercury. So, when something such as sickness came or lightening threatened, tribal members turned to their alpha male to protect them but he couldn't, and anthropomorphism (which is all the gods really are) led to the conclusion that there had to be an even stronger alpha male--a supernatural, divine alpha male--"up there" showing his displeasure. Humans are hardwired to group tribally for the best opportunities for continued survival (see my posts on the pressures of natural selection above). Remember also that religion is a meme, and the human brain is a Darwinian organism. It is programmed to be fantastically gullible, so that when young, children can learn the tools of survival from their parents: don't pick up snakes, don't eat red berries, don't play with fire, etc. The problem is that any mechanism that gullible is vulnerable to parasitisation, and can thus be infected by the religious meme. What is most telling in this scenario is that people inherit the religion of their parents. They don't choose a religion based on the best hymns, or the most fun holy days, or even those with the most persuasive arguments; they take up the religious mantle of their parents. Why? Because they have inherited it, the same way that they can inherit asthma or cystic fibrosis. It's the same principle on which computer viruses work; being fantastically gullible, the OS is conned into passing on the virus and wiping the hard drive while it's at it. The problem with evolution through natural selection is that it's not always the optimum solution to a problem, only the best solution for the quick fix required at the time.
You've just committed the cardinal sin, Gemma; you've assumed that something that cannot be explained now will never be explained, and is incapable of rational explanation. Just because we cannot fully define the human mind (human nature arises from the Darwinian mechanism of the brain, which is the physical organ required for the mind) at present, doesn't mean we never will. Your brain is merely a machine made of meat. A fantastically complex machine, but a machine nonetheless, and that means that not only CAN we retroengineer it, given enough time, we inevitably will.
There are some small esoteric sects that have deified the Buddha, although I find their rationalisation specious. They argue from the assumption that there just has to be a god to explain the existence of the universe (see earlier posts for my rebuttal to this teleological argument from first principle), and if there must be a god, that it just has to be the Buddha. Their first and fatal flaw is the assumption that you need a god to explain the existence of the universe, and of life, which you don't. But as I said, these sects are small and rather unpopular. That's not to say that their small numbers de facto makes them wrong, but their flawed arguments certainly do.
Find me a theist who doesn't fall into one of the three groups (Know Nothing, Know All, and No Contest). Their justifications for supporting religion are inevitably one of the three. If you can think of a fourth, please let me know.
But you said it yourself, only the emphasis should be on a differnt word: Science has YET to define emotions. Doesn't mean that it can't, or won't. And now, RANT MODE ON. Your final clause in the above paragraph should read, "Science can only hypothesise as to why exactly we have (emotions)". (Rant mode OFF.) In fact, emotions are hormonal responses to various stimuli that are again a product of Darwinian evolution to maximise our chances of survival, so the basics ARE already known. It's really only a question of filling in the blanks (although, admittedly, that's still a pretty big undertaking).
As to the rest, I totally disagree. You want insights into human nature, to emotions, morality, and social behaviour, try psychology and other soft sciences. What makes you thing that belief in the Great Juju in the Sky has anything valid to offer in the way of understanding these subjects? There are greater secular writers throughout history who don't claim to be either gods or divinely inspired whose works have shown far more insight into the human condition. Shakespeare, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, and even J. K. Rowling of Harry Potter fame. You're better off studying them for insight.
No. See the above paragraph for why.
Religion IS superstition; it is claims about the natural world that are not bourne out by the evidence, and it claims that supernatural intercession can be received in the form of miracles (i.e., through the suspension of natural physical laws), which is a paranormal claim. Such is the definition of superstition.
ALL religion is brainwashing; read the paragraph above on religious parasitization (the religious meme). Atheism is the antidote to religious credulity; in response to the virus that death through martyrdom means 70 virgins in paradise, critical thinking is the innoculation. We need to spread the skeptical meme.
But the moral code does not require religion to be effective. In fact, I would argue that religion does NOT have any moral code; it threatens believers with all manner of dire punishments (hell and damnation) for bad behaviour (the stick), and offers the carrot of heaven and salvation for good behaviour. But if someone is only operating out of fear, then how moral can they really claim to be? Far better the atheist, who does the decent thing because they believe it to be right, and like the kind of world in which decency exists, than the righteous theist who's constantly aware of Big Brother looking over his shoulder and wielding a big stick.
Neither do all the good deeds done by brights. In that we're truly equal.
No, religion is not a moral framework, because it takes away the free will to act morally for the reason that to do so is the right thing. It puts a gun to your head and says, "well, you can do what you like, but if you choose the wrong course of action (one of which I disapprove), I'll pull the trigger and send you to hell." Coercion through fear of damnation is not the way to inculcate morals.
No, they have been shaped by the superstition of said province, state, or country. That morality becomes intertwined is an adjunct. I'm really tired right now (it's almost 11:30 here), but I'll write a longer essay as to why tomorrow.
Great to have you on board, and don't let David Dunn or Jon Cruikshank give you a hard time, OK? ;)
Hello Gemma, and welcome to e-budo. Not all of the threads get like this.
On your point:
Science can tell me about my hormones and how they effect my emotions, but it has yet to DEFINE emotions, and can only theorise as to why exactly we have them.
It's hard to define something like emotions, precisely because of the subjectivity of them. There are some who argue, quite well, that emotions are constructed to a large extent.
Your brain is merely a machine made of meat. A fantastically complex machine, but a machine nonetheless, and that means that not only CAN we retroengineer it, given enough time, we inevitably will.
I have to completely disagree Tony. This is a degraded view of humanity. The fact that we are conscious, and social beings that defy purely biological explanations is what scientists have struggled with. We are different things in different times and places.
I suggest you read "Man, Beast and Zombie: what science can and cannot tell us about human nature", available here (http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0753812959/ref=sr_aps_books_1_2/202-2005979-7131833) .
When was the last time I did that, or Jon for that matter? :laugh:
In fact, I would argue that religion does NOT have any moral code; it threatens believers with all manner of dire punishments (hell and damnation) for bad behaviour (the stick), and offers the carrot of heaven and salvation for good behaviour.
I have to pick up on this statement. Apart from the heaven bit, this is exactly what the society that we all belong to does. Does society have a moral code, with or without religion? Yes. It tells you that if you commit a crime (and get caught) then you will be punnished. Granted it's not the same as hell and damnation, but the incentive is there.
As an aside I went to a convent school where I was taught by nuns. I am not catholic, although most people there were. Yet I have no doubt I learnt about morals whilst at that school, without the threat of going to hell.
I have to completely disagree Tony. This is a degraded view of humanity. The fact that we are conscious, and social beings that defy purely biological explanations is what scientists have struggled with. And I have to completely disagree Dave, because I agree with Tony. We can't explain things yet. Perhaps we never will be able to, but only because I think the necessary controls for the experiment are unethical.
George Hyde
And I have to completely disagree Dave, because I agree with Tony. We can't explain things yet. Perhaps we never will be able to, but only because I think the necessary controls for the experiment are unethical.
I think that David's choice of words "degraded view of humanity" are possibly to blame here. True, the human brain 'amounts' to much more than a biological machine but it does not "defy purely biological explanations" - they're just inadequate and will likely always be so. It's fair to say that all psychological phenomena have neural correlates, but it is equally fair to say that a purely reductionist approach will fail to offer any meaningful explanation thereof. Whilst reverse engineering may produce the ability to link psychological phenomena to a particular physical representation in the biology of the brain, that physical representation does nothing to explain the phenomena unless it is coupled with social context.
For example - give a bunch of chimps amphetamines and their behaviour will change in dramatic yet inconsistent ways. A biological explanation can describe what's going on in the brain, but not the behaviour. However, once you consider the social hierarchy, you discover that the bizarre behaviour is actually the dominant members of the group being extra dominant and the lesser members exaggerating subservient behaviours. Now - change the social structure by removing the dominant males or adding more junior members and you'll see a significant change in behaviour - yet the biology remains constant.
Despite our highest hopes for the future of science, I don't see a time when science can point to the neural representation of being embarrassed about farting in public (for such surely exists) and for that representation to be common to all cases of my farting in public, let alone to all individuals experiencing similar circumstances.
:toot
Posting this feels a bit like coming back into the pub a full half hour after the argument and uttering the above words, but I just can't help myself. I'm not going to try and address all of the foregoing discussion, but I will attempt to respond to some of the points that I intervened on earlier...
Indar's reply
You're both wrong, IMNSHO. The notions of any ethical system being 'validated' by evolution is just the same fallacy that the social Darwinists fell into - the fact that it isn't the kind of error that can give aid and comfort to fascism makes it less worrying, but it doesn't make it more true. In neither instance described above are we seeing anything that could fairly be called natural selection. True Darwinian natural selection does not embody a teleology. If you start selecting which members of a population are going to survive to reporduce on the basis of any conscious criteria you're engaged in selective breeding, not an evolutionary process. Horrifyingly enough, this kind of logic helped precipitate the Holocaust, as it occured to leading Nazis that the kind of undesireables they couldn't work to death in the labour camps were really dangerous, and would just have to be exterminated outright. What this does point up is that human beings are arguably not subject to the kind of evolutionary pressures imposed on other animals by the environment
I'm not claiming that humanity stands apart from the rest of nature in any supernaturally mandated sense, just that the advent of a cultural heritage as sophisticated and powerful as our as fundementally altered our relationship with our environment (at least in the kind of timescale that we can get to grips with). If we're going to achieve some kind of a balance with the rest of nature, we will have to do consciously, as a matter of choice. I personally don't go along with the apocalyptic rhetoric of much of the green movement, another example of how caterwauling that the sky is falling in leads to diminshing returns sooner rather than later. I doubt very much that we have the capacity to destroy life on this planet. I do suspect that we have the ability to make it unlivable for ourselves, however. The point here is that again I think it is up to us to what we are going to do with our unique place in dharma.
Actually, I think it's one of the vexing issues of science. Science deals with objects, and laws that govern those objects, and their evolution/interaction. Humans are objects insofar as we are animals. Hence our biological functions, or physiology, how our eye works, how it transmits information to the brain, are all questions that science can tackle, with ultimate success. I have faith in that ;)
On the other hand humans are also subjects, in that we are self-determining, conscious, moral and so on. I don't believe that the methods of physical sciences can really be brought to bear on understanding human societies, and how individuals develop inside them. I cannot recall the precise details, but early studies of primitive societies showed no evidence of schizophrenia, which led scientists to think of it as a product of a particular form of society.
Originally posted by George Hyde
So George-san, you agree completely. I didn't mean that humanity is degraded (a nonsensical position for a humanist to take), I meant the view of humans as merely machines is degraded. As degraded as the 'merely animals' point of view. Human history is more than either of those things. You can't write down a scientific law that governs human history, but rather you have to develop analytical tools which are up to the task.
As a famous BSKF seihanshi once said, dog society hasn't changed since the middle ages.
This is a case in point. It isn't a biological reaction to be embarassed about farting in public, it's a conditioned response.
You're both wrong, IMNSHO. The notions of any ethical system being 'validated' by evolution is just the same fallacy that the social Darwinists fell into...
I agree with TonyL. People aren't thieves because of genetic problems or evolution, and they aren't locked up to protect the gene pool. They're locked up precisely because they are autonomous agents who have stepped beyond the rights accorded to them by society.
I don't believe that the methods of physical sciences can really be brought to bear on understanding human societies, and how individuals develop inside them.
I am inclined to agree, because of the size of the task, not because it is not possible. A brain is a product of it's environment. Trouble is the variations in environment between each indivdual are too great.
this kind of logic helped precipitate the Holocaust, as it occured to leading Nazis that the kind of undesireables...
Surely this is an example of Godwin's Law (http://info.astrian.net/jargon/terms/g/Godwin_s_Law.html) :D Only heard of that the other day. Thought I'd share it with you all.
The Abrahamic religions are patriarchial, as were the pantheons of ancient Greece, Rome, and Egypt. Zeus is a greater god than Apollo, who in turn is above Mercury. So, when something such as sickness came or lightening threatened, tribal members turned to their alpha male to protect them but he couldn't, and anthropomorphism (which is all the gods really are) led to the conclusion that there had to be an even stronger alpha male--a supernatural, divine alpha male--"up there" showing his displeasure.
I did not consider this argument. My educational background is largely theological, and although I have a keen interest in biology it tends to take a backseat to my knowledge and views of Theology.
Your point is most definitely supported in the world today, and I am inclined to agree, however, a large number of primitive societies worshiped a female deity originally or adjacent to a male god with both deities holding equal power. It is only in later development of said cultures that the male god takes precedence, maybe a delayed reaction to an alpha male response? Perhaps the main and obvious idea of fertility became overcome by the instinct for a strong and therefore (for that time) masculine leader?
It's also interesting to note that although the majority of today's world religions are patriarchal, throughout history there have ALWAYS been more female followers.
You've just committed the cardinal sin, Gemma; you've assumed that something that cannot be explained now will never be explained, and is incapable of rational explanation.
Actually I did not, you merely assumed I have. I recognise religion as a phenomena to be studied and analysed objectively in order to give insights into human nature. This does not mean that I disregard science or feel that science will never find an answer to that which aludes us now. I have great faith and trust in science, but the difference between our attitudes is that I don't see religions VERSUS science or vice versa. They need not be mutually exclusive from an analytical standpoint.
I know science will find the key answers before religion ever will, but this doesn't make religion any less important as a key element/area of our history as an evolving species.
There are some small esoteric sects that have deified the Buddha, although I find their rationalisation specious. They argue from the assumption that there just has to be a god to explain the existence of the universe (see earlier posts for my rebuttal to this teleological argument from first principle), and if there must be a god, that it just has to be the Buddha.
Ah, I was not aware of these sects. Do you have any links or references for me to investigate? I'd appreciate it.
But you said it yourself, only the emphasis should be on a differnt word: Science has YET to define emotions. Doesn't mean that it can't, or won't.
And I never said it would not. You're misreading me because of your own personal bias.
You want insights into human nature, to emotions, morality, and social behaviour, try psychology and other soft sciences. What makes you thing that belief in the Great Juju in the Sky has anything valid to offer in the way of understanding these subjects?
Because whether you agree or not, religion is a HUGE part of our culture and history, and therefore incorporates elements of philosophy, superstition, myths, instinctual human nature, societal pressures; you name it and it is right there waiting for us to analyse it and work out WHY it is that people all over the world have faith; how this faith developed and WHY.
There are greater secular writers throughout history who don't claim to be either gods or divinely inspired whose works have shown far more insight into the human condition. Shakespeare, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, and even J. K. Rowling of Harry Potter fame. You're better off studying them for insight.
And I DO study a number of such writers. Although I'm not too sure about your mention of J.K.Rowling; she doesn't exactly inspire any great insights, but I suppose that's a different conversation, eh? ;)
Yes and no. The majority of religious beliefs are superstitious in nature and, yes, I suppose this makes RELIGION superstitious in nature. But most religions are so deeply connected to history that one might miss key events that explain and help us understand why religious beliefs occurred and how they originated if we pass them off so flippantly using the negative connotations of the word "superstitious".
Plus there IS a difference between faith and superstitious nature, though it's a minor and tricky one, though none the less important.
ALL religion is brainwashing; read the paragraph above on religious parasitization (the religious meme).
Religion does not become an ACTIVE tool for brainwashing until those in power use it as such. Otherwise it merely has the potential to be so damaging. A Rottweiler has the potential to be a vicious animal trained to kill, but one does not immediately erradicate it and view it negatively until it acts in a way that confirms your suspicion.
Religion in itself is neither dangerous nor propaganda, but it certainly can and HAS been used this way throughout history, usually resulting in the religious structure being vitally changed and pulled away from it's original source.
Atheism isn't a cure; it's a state of being; a belief, or indeed LACK of belief. Rationalism, logical thought, objective analyse; THOSE are closer to a "cure", although I dislike this analogy.
But if someone is only operating out of fear, then how moral can they really claim to be? Far better the atheist, who does the decent thing because they believe it to be right, and like the kind of world in which decency exists, than the righteous theist who's constantly aware of Big Brother looking over his shoulder and wielding a big stick.
Again, yes and no. I do agree that one should make moral decisions because of a belief in right and wrong, and that religion does use a nice juicy carrot as bait to the sinful donkeys. ;) BUT. . . I wonder where these base IDEAS of morality came from as the religion was being structured. I don't believe for a second that a deity commanded such rules, so why did humanity create them freely, and then add their own regulations to them?
That was my main point; that religions were built on a foundation of moral values that humanity voluntarily created.
Religion has adapted so much over the years that few believe that ALL traditional "sins" will lead to damnation. Indeed, the more prevalent view is like any atheist; it's more important to do what you feel is right, and if you DO make a decision you know was wrong, you fix this. For the majority, people realise they're not in the Dark Ages anymore and have a much more compassionate approach to religion, although there will always be exceptions.
No, they have been shaped by the superstition of said province, state, or country. That morality becomes intertwined is an adjunct.
I disagree. The morality occured first and the religion followed. But I'll wait for your essay so we can debate on this further. :)
Thank you, and no worries; they're both very evil men but I'm sure they can learn to behave. ;)
Oh, of course. My main point was that there are things that science cannot explain as of yet, and whilst this is the case other areas of our history and social behaviour might be able to give us some insights or indeed assist science.
Intangibles, that which we cannot reach out and touch or directly study in a physical sense, will always be a challenge and I feel that relying on one avenue, such as only science, to explain such things is foolish. Why not use other avenues, other ideas, other theories? If one fails, than at least another can take it's place, and neither should necessarily warrant more credit than another until the results have been obtained.
And thanks for the welcome. :)
As an aside I went to a convent school where I was taught by nuns.
In your zeal to converse about theism..... or whatever, you all missed this little "gem" from Jon.......
Now a catholic school I can understand, but the last time I checked a "convent" is something frequented by WOMEN........
Something you want to share Jon...... or is it JoAn?? ;)
What is degrading about admitting we have are physical beings? If I replace a neuron in your brain with an artificial one that functions identically, are you still you? Of course. So if I replace two neurons, no problem? Three? At what point do you cease to be you? Answer: you don't. You will still always be you. The fact that your machine of meat has been replaced with a machine of silicon doesn't change that at all. And your statement above needs qualifying: "The fact that we are conscious, and social beings that CURRENTLY defy purely biological explanations is what scientists have struggled with." No reason to think we won't answer the question in the future.
You didn't say that we were physical beings Tony. That's indisputable. You said that the brain is "merely a machine". That point of view is as degraded as any 'human nature' argument - the 'alpha male' theory being in the same category. You might as well go the whole hog and say that we have no free will, and that consciousness is an illusion, or even that burglary is determined by your chromosomes.
I am not me. This brain that I call my own, is not my own. It's part of a whole human society, and this consciousness has been constructed only through its interaction with other human beings, and therefore somehow through the whole of human history. The unethical experiment to do is to leave a newborn baby to its own devices, feed it, but leave it devoid of other interaction. By the age of six it will probably never be able to learn language. Since language and consciousness are pretty much the same thing, it will never become conscious.
My statement needs no qualification. Consciousness is not in the realm of a study of an object. It needs analysis of subject and its interaction with the objective world, and that's the realm of philosophy. All attempts so far to treat consciousness in the same way as a physical science have been abject failures.
Tony, I think you're taking a robust defence of science into the territory of scientism.
I did notice that too Steve, but you told us to keep the discussion on-topic :laugh: :beer:
I have to pick up on this statement. Apart from the heaven bit, this is exactly what the society that we all belong to does. Does society have a moral code, with or without religion? Yes. It tells you that if you commit a crime (and get caught) then you will be punished. Granted it's not the same as hell and damnation, but the incentive is there.
Did you read my earlier description of the Ladder of Deception, (http://www.eclipse.co.uk/thoughts/ladder.htm) Jon? I think it described the difference between secular and religious morals quite well. The point of religion is to enforce power to control (you must hold your nose when you cross the road). Once the read the article, get back to me on that one. TIA.
My experience of Catholic primary school (ages 5 to 11--the formative years) was that all teachings of morality and ethics were predicated upon the notion of divine punishment. The Catholic church has currently stopped preaching the doctrine of Hell--it's bad for business, I guess-but they threaten extended periods of exile in purgatory, ranging from a few years to all eternity, for those who fail to hold their nose when they cross the road. One less-than-fond memory from when I was seven was the teacher drawing two hearts on the blackboard and labelling them "souls". (The fact that they were heart-shaped is already emotive, as it associates emotions with behaviour, a classic pathetic fallacy.) She them said that Tim went to church but got there late, and added a black spot to his "soul". Then he teased his sister. (Another black spot.) Then he stole a magazine from the newsagent. (Yet another black spot.) She continued in this vein until there were about a dozen black spots on a soul that was mostly still white, then turned to the other "soul", and said, "John got up early, but didn't go to church", and shaded the entire soul black. In case the message wasn't clear, she then explicated: "Although Tim committed these sins, he still went to church, so his soul was still mostly in a state of grace."
In other words, by far and away the worst sin of all is not to follow the church. Morality and punishment derive directly from the priest's power. Humanism--caring for people because you beleive it to be the right thing to do, not because you fear divine retribution--didn't get a look in.
And people wonder why I loathe the Catholic Church.
The issue of free will is a vexed one, because there is a cosmological argument regarding the block universe, which is basically saying that since the events we are living through now have already happened elsewhere, they are in fact predetermined. Personally, I'd like to think that we have free will, but I can't prove it. I still feel, however, that the brain IS a machine. Follow my reasoning, and tell me where you disagree.
1. Consciousness is dependent upon the physical organ of the brain.
2. If I replace a single neuron with an artificial neuron made of silicon, which mimics the function of the original neuron exactly, you are still you.
3. If I replace a second neuron, you are still you.
4. Then a third.
5. It therefore matters not if I replace every single neuron in your brain with silicon ones, because there will be no change to either your personality or behaviour.
6. As such, the brain is indeed no more than a machine made of meat.
Now, where's the problem with that?
Actually, language is a secondary, perhaps even tertiary, level of communication with others. Consciousness and communication are NOT the same thing. Even Einstein was known to be a confusing communicator (he rambled in lectures and conversations, and seemed always unable to find the mot juste with which to express himself. On one occasion, he also admitted that language had nothing to do with the way he thought and pieced together his mathematics.) Language is an attempt to articulate consciousness. Isolating a child until the age of six will stunt their linguistic skills, but their consciousness will remain intact. The problem is that without stimulation, their awareness of the external world will also be stunted--but this does not mean that language equates to consciousness.
Your statement above does need qualifying, with the modifier "currently". Without the adverb, the sentence reads as if we will never be able to define consciousness precisely, as if consciousness lay beyond the scope of empiricism. Consciousness is a product of a physical organ--the brain--so once we understand the brain, we will understand the phenomenon of consciousness.
There you may be right. ;)
It's a bit late to post. But ... the alpha male theory is a crock of bull. Even if it applies to primates, it says more about the proponent of the theory than it does about human society. Perhaps someone could explain one of the great events of the twentieth century in terms of it. Perhaps the rise of National Socialism in 1930s Germany? This really dominant male pushed the whole of society around and made them commit untold atrocities.
ps - TonyK, I'll get back to your points after some zzzz's. For now, consciousness is is a product of a society of brains, not just one.
pps - I was also brought up catholic. It's an abhorent religion, and the soon to be ex-pope and his lifelong crusade against contraception has a lot to answer for. It looks like he'll get away with it. At the same time the many catholics that I've met are thoroughly decent people.
I disagree. Society is all about Alpha Males. Just because one took it to the extreme says nothing for the basis of the theory itself. And what hypothesis better fits the nature of religions? If you have one, I'd like to hear it.
(Snip.)For example - give a bunch of chimps amphetamines and their behaviour will change in dramatic yet inconsistent ways. A biological explanation can describe what's going on in the brain, but not the behaviour. However, once you consider the social hierarchy, you discover that the bizarre behaviour is actually the dominant members of the group being extra dominant and the lesser members exaggerating subservient behaviours. Now - change the social structure by removing the dominant males or adding more junior members and you'll see a significant change in behaviour - yet the biology remains constant.
But can't social hierarchy also be explained in terms of how we as primates are hardwired by evolution to arrange ourselves thus, on the basis that it improves our chances of survival (the goal of every organism)? As such, the behaviours of dominanants and juniors on speed can be explained in terms of their biological programming.
You're both wrong, IMNSHO. The notions of any ethical system being 'validated' by evolution is just the same fallacy that the social Darwinists fell into - the fact that it isn't the kind of error that can give aid and comfort to fascism makes it less worrying, but it doesn't make it more true. In neither instance described above are we seeing anything that could fairly be called natural selection.
I'm not a social Darwinist, Tony; the problem with analogy is that it can only take you so far. My point was that creatures that are prevented from breeding for whatever reason--isolation from their peer group (imprisonment) or sickness (less viable genetic traits in the constant competition for resources) leads to their being unable to pass on their genes to the next generation. don't read too much into the "prisoner" thing, Number Six. ("I am not a number..." ;) )
I cannot recall the precise details, but early studies of primitive societies showed no evidence of schizophrenia, which led scientists to think of it as a product of a particular form of society.
I'm in two minds as to whether you're right. :D
So George-san, you agree completely. I didn't mean that humanity is degraded (a nonsensical position for a humanist to take), I meant the view of humans as merely machines is degraded.
Even if it happens to be the truth?
As degraded as the 'merely animals' point of view. Human history is more than either of those things. You can't write down a scientific law that governs human history, but rather you have to develop analytical tools which are up to the task.
Have you ever read the Lensman series by E. E. "Doc" Smith. (The doctorate was in engineering.) The Arisians were a race capable of advanced cogitation, and had modelled the whole of human history before it started becasue, they argued, governed by genetic predeterminism, we were bound to commit certain acts at certain times. They predicted the rise of the Mongols and Genghis Khan the way we can predict the next eclipse. Their game lay in seeing how accurate their model was, by comparing it to actual human events.
Not particularly germaine to this discussion, perhaps, but an entertaining read. (Though be warned: Smith writes with all the subtlety of a wrecking ball.)
But can't we argue that conditioned responses such as this one lubricate society, thereby once again maximising our chances of survival? So ultimately, it is the genetic drive to survive that determines the rise of social mores.
Or am I talking out of my arse again? :p :cool:
See my note on the next page as to why that was an anology, and the boundaries to it. ;)
I notice that with two Davids (Dunn and Noble--sounds like a clearing house) and two Tonys (Kehoe and Leith--sounds like a dodgy firm of down-at-heel solicitors :D ), people have taken to writing DavidD, DavidN, TonyK and TonyL. To clear up any confusion, I think I'll change my name to Hieronymous... :p :cool:
(Snip.)Your point is most definitely supported in the world today, and I am inclined to agree, however, a large number of primitive societies worshiped a female deity originally or adjacent to a male god with both deities holding equal power. It is only in later development of said cultures that the male god takes precedence, maybe a delayed reaction to an alpha male response? Perhaps the main and obvious idea of fertility became overcome by the instinct for a strong and therefore (for that time) masculine leader?
Matriarchal religions are primitive forms of animism, in which the earth mother, seasonal cycles, and agriculture are equated with female fertility. As to more women followers than leaders, I think that stems from the simple fact that men are more often than not able to dominate women physically. Simply put, the men in society wouldn't stand still and let physically weaker women tell them what to do.
Gemma, you didn't use the qualifier "yet" in your sentences, so they read as absolutes ("we will never..."). I know I'm nitpicking, but everyone who's been around on these boards awhile knows I'm anal retentive about grammar. ;)
From a social historical standpoint, yes, the development of religions is an interesting field of study, but something worthwhile to contribute? I still don't see what benefit invocations to the supernatural have.
Unfortunately, all my material dating from my MA is in storage at the family home in Liverpool, and I'm in Japan. When I next make a pilgrimage home, I'll dig them out and get back to you on this point.
No, I'm being a grammar Nazi again. ;)
I don't deny the enormous impact that religion has had; I challenge that said impact has been of any benefit. The smallpox virus has had a great impact upon cultures globally down through the millenia, right until 1977, when it was finally eradicated; its impact, however, was universally negative.
I added Rowling as a joke. My point is that if you want literary insight into the human condition, writers such as Shakespeare and Marquez are far better than the Bible.
ALL religious beliefs are superstitious in nature; they are invocations to the supernatural, in defiance of the laws of science. Understanding why a religious belief arose does not validate that belief. I'm not arguing against the study of religions; I just want you to take their claims (transsubstantiation, geocentricity, etc.) with a grain of salt.
Faith is belief in something for which there is no evidence. Superstition is belief in the power to defy the laws of physics.
Religion is a parasitic meme that uses the built-in "trust" of the mind--to defer to those in power-- to spread itself. Name one good thing to come out of religion that could not have been achieved secularly. In fact, early laws were secular, in ancient Greece and Rome. (Not sure about the Code of Hammurabi; I'll have to check.) It was only with the spread of the Xpianity meme during the Dark Ages that laws came to be embodied by the Church.
Rottweilers are bred as attack dogs; that they can be restrained doesn't say anything expcet that they CAN be restrained by those with greater power over them. (Even so, they've been known to bite the hand that feeds them.) Same with the Church, which has only demonstrated self-restraint in the face of opposition. The other thing about the Church is that it is political, and sometimes being an eminance grise is a more effective way to gain domination than an overt crusade.
Religion is intrinsically dangerous, because it is the antithesis of learning and reason. Appeals to superstition and scientific knowledge are mutually exclusive; the question you have to answer is which one you choose as correct. And I think we all already know the answer to that.
Atheism is a lack of belief. It is the rejection of groundless faith. As such, it is the default position of those who favour reason over superstition. Skepticism (the umbrella for "rationalism, logical thought, and analysis") always leads to atheism, because it leads to a rejection of claims for which there is no evidence.
BTW, why do you dislike the analogy?
Firstly, claims that the rules came from god will always give said rules more weight among the credulous than to say, "I drafted these rules because I think they're a jolly good idea". This fact is lampooned in Kissing Hank's A$s. (http://www.jhuger.com/kisshank.mv) Secondly, I've already argued that morality arises as a Darwinian imperative, to maximise our individual chances of survival. The intertwining of religion and morality comes from primitive cosmology, in that everything requiring an explanation was explained in terms of the supernatural. A medieval European, for example, didn't think of a rose as red to attract pollinating insects, and having thorns for self defence, to deter predators; to the medieval mind, the rose was red for the blood of Christ and had thorns for the crown of thorns. Everything was viewed through the filter of the Bible, with humanity at its precious core. (This anthropomorphic argument holds true for all religions, but I'm just choosing a classic example.)
As to the question of humanity creating the rules "freely", how free are we really to make those choices, and how much is determined, either genetically and/or by the block universe theory? It's a vexed question, but I'd welcome your input.
I think it more likely that, given the cosmologies of prescientific societies in which everything had a supernatural explanation ("it's the will of the gods"), the religion (appeal to the supernatural) and the code of ethics evolved together, intertwined like a caduceus, rather than that the ethics came first, and proved to be the building blocks for the supernatural cosmology.
But that's my beef with religion entirely; if you actually read the Abrahamic holy books, they all prescribe damnation for transgresssors and unbelievers. The church has softened its message in an attempt to win modern audiences in direct contradiction to their own holy texts. Modern people quite rightly find a literal interpretation of the Bible barbaric, and also laughable (six day creation, etc.). As I said earlier, though, the Bible is meant to be read literally; at least, that was the intention of its myriad authors. They were writing down creation myths that they believed to be literally true. Same for the laws, which we find repugnant today. For the Church to claim these writings are meant to be allegories is disingenuous at best, and downright dishonest at worst. They are softening the barbarity to suit the sensibilities of a modern audience, when the Abrahamic religion to which they subscribe was never meant to be adulterated in this way. It's like adding ginger ale to a 12-year-old single Malt. (:D) Terribly unpalatable. But they know that if they told the truth about their holy books, not only would such texts seem barbaric to the people of today, they would seem totally irrrelevant to modern life. ("Seething a kid in its mother's milk"? Pshaw!) The clerics who have studied these texts in depth know this and are lying to you if they say otherwise. Those who sincerely believe these tales are allegories have switched their brains off. Not much to respect in there.
See the preceding paragrpah for the explanation of intertwined evolution.
Ha! She's got your number, chaps!
She them said that Tim went to church but got there late, and added a black spot to his "soul". Then he teased his sister. (Another black spot.) Then he stole a magazine from the newsagent. (Yet another black spot.) She continued in this vein until there were about a dozen black spots on a soul that was mostly still white, then turned to the other "soul", and said, "John got up early, but didn't go to church", and shaded the entire soul black. In case the message wasn't clear, she then explicated: "Although Tim committed these sins, he still went to church, so his soul was still mostly in a state of grace."
In other words, by far and away the worst sin of all is not to follow the church.
It's an allegory.
Tim committed 'sins', but when he went to church he acknowledged what he had done, and took responsibility for his actions.
John may or may not have committed 'sins'; his problem is that he didn't examine his own actions, and did not learn from his mistakes.
In Shorinji Kempo we call this Kyakka shoko
I agree that to tell anyone, especially children, that they will burn in hell if they don't do what they are told is barbaric. The responsibility for this, in the case that you quote, starts with the person that taught you. Don't you think that each individual has to take responsibility for their own actions?
But isn't it a pre-requisite to be objective in a spirit of scientific enquiry? Assuming that such a thing is possible, which you appear to believe is not, since we are all programmed by our genes?
No, Indar, the moral of the story was that going to church keeps you sweet with god. Tim didn't do anything wrong other than not go to church, whereas John was a thief and a bully, but he's still holier in god's sight because he went to church. God's wisdom at its finest. :rolleyes:
Absolutely, but the point I was trying to make was the the Roman Catholic church is about indoctrination. See the Ladder of Deception for details.
Behaviour is determined by the interaction of genes with the environment. If you lack genes for a certain capability, however, you will never develop that trait no matter how much you may wish to; genes are an expression of potential; the environment provides the surroundings by which to fulfill that potential.
Wrong; Some-one who does not believe in God is an agnostic. An atheist is someone who believes that God does not exist. In order to believe that something does not exist (in a 'real' sense) you clearly have to believe that it does exist as a concept; how can you disbelieve in something that doesn't exist? That is illogical.
Likewise with skepticism. Since no-one has yet proved the non-existance of God, the default position for a skeptic is agnosticism.
Are you saying that something does not exist unless we have evidence that it does? So bacteria did not exist before we had microscopes?
Society is all about Alpha Males.
But Shorinji Kempo is led by a woman.
Wrong; Some-one who does not believe in God is an agnostic. An atheist is someone who believes that God does not exist.
What a load of rubbish! An agnostic is uncertain whether or not a god exists; atheists are sure she doesn't.
In order to believe that something does not exist (in a 'real' sense) you clearly have to believe that it does exist as a concept; how can you disbelieve in something that doesn't exist? That is illogical.
This is a wonderful piece of sophistry, but it simply isn't true. I recognise the concept of a god, and I am firmly convinced that such a concept is impossible. Same with unicorns. I understand fully the concept of a unicorn, and I'm utterly, implacably convinced of its non-existence.
Not true, again. It is impossible to prove a negative, except in cases where the concept is mutually contradictory (married batchelors, square circles, etc). As the notion of an omnipotent being is inherently self-contradictory (can god create a rock too heavy for him to lift?), the concept of the omnipotent god is a nonsense. This is best summed up by the riddle of Epicurus, which has never been satisfactorily answered:
Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able?
Is he both able and willing?
Then why call him God?
Are you saying that something does not exist unless we have evidence that it does?
So bacteria did not exist before we had microscopes?
Can you not tell the difference between existence and a discovery?
I recognise the concept of a god, and I am firmly convinced that such a concept is impossible. It is impossible to prove a negative, except in cases where the concept is mutually contradictory
Logic 101.
It is impossible to prove a negative, except when it isn't?
Please translate 'impossible' into a language that a human can understand.
I agree 10% :)
The thread has, naturally, drifted away from the original post, but in a genuinely thoughtful and interesting way. I thank all the participants and would like to make special praise for Kimpatsu for really applying himself to the topic with full gusto. Full answers and not so many cheap insults, much more entertaining than the stuff that fills the Members Lounge..
I am struck by two observations;
People in Japan don't seem to have so many hang-ups about religion.
People who despise the misuse, abuse and authoritarian torture of Religion have often been to Catholic Schools.
Yes, that's what I said.
So actually we do agree.
The only issue left then is that when I agree with you think that I am talking rubbish. Seems like a no-win situation.
Nothing to add to the thread right now as I need to think some more, but I feel the need to answer this
Now a catholic school I can understand, but the last time I checked a "convent" is something frequented by WOMEN........ Whilst there does exist some evidence of me, for instance, training in a dress (for comic relief I'll have you know) I'd like to point out that I went to a convent school, not a convent. There was a convent on the school grounds and we were taught by the inhabitants, as well as some 'regular' teachers.
Something you want to share Jon Not really sensei. I'm not even going to mention what happened when we were naughty ;)
I'm in two minds as to whether you're right.
So what's that got to do with schizophrenia, Tony?
You know, if you stopped being snide and actually behaved like a kenshi for a moment, you might actually contribute something positive to this thread. I am absolutely SICK TO DEATH of your shitty behaviour. You would NEVER behave like this in front of Mizuno Sensei. If I could e-mail you privately, I'd give you chapter and verse on why your behaviour is TOTALLY UNACCETPABLE, kohai. I'm pissed off to the gills with it. Either start contributing postively, or f*ck off and study how to be a real kenshi. Until then, I don't ever want to see you on this board. Clear?
If you mean me David, then I didn't. I went to a secular state school. I went to a catholic primary school, but my dad didn't want me to go to a secondary school where monks would beat me up. I didn't know what he meant at the time. My understanding of Catholicism under pope jp2's hegemony stems from a critical analysis of it from a materialist point of view. That is politics, not religion.
The only time the church upset me personally was at my grandpa's funeral. The priest said "ours is not to judge the life of men", and steadfastly refused to say anything about his honesty, decency, kindness. If he was lucky God would let him into heaven. No wonder he spent his last few days crapping himself, which is pretty much the state the other old folk at the service were in by the end of it.
I don't have time to post as promised above. If anyone is interested, the argument I was going to put forward is not mine, but you can see it here - 'an admirable truly humanist work.' (http://www.kenanmalik.com/top/books.html)
Human nature is neither an illusion, nor simply an expression of our rootedness in nature. It is a concept that only makes sense if we understand it historically, and normatively. The human essence is not something simply given to us but is also made by us. In this sense, human universals are also, paradoxically, historically contingent.
The unique character of human universals arises out of the existence of humans as rational, social beings with the power to act as political subjects - with the power, in other words, to transform themselves and their societies through reasoned dialogue and activity. All animals have an evolutionary past. Only humans make history. The existence of humans as a uniquely history-making species has moulded the relationship between universals and particulars in human society, between human nature and human differences. Humans are able both to create social distinctions (and to view them as natural or fixed) and to ignore natural differences (as irrelevant to social intercourse).
Discussions about the relationship between human nature and human differences, however, whether rooted in natural or cultural views of human behaviour, have paid insufficient attention to the transformative character of human life. The conflation of the debate about universals and differences with the nature-nurture debate has established a dichotomy between biological universals and cultural differences, a dichotomy within which the sense of human agency has been lost....
To restore balance to the discussion of human commonalities and human differences, we need to do three things: first, to distinguish the debate about universalism and relativism from nature-nurture debate; second, to understand human nature not simply in naturalistic terms but also as historical created; and thirdly to restore the concept of human agency into the discussions of both human nature and human differences.
From here (http://www.kenanmalik.com/papers/sshb_universal.html)
I think I should amplify my last answer to Indar.
Trying to draw parallels between Xpianity and Kongo Zen is ultimately futile, for the reason I cited earlier: motive.
The Catholic church has never had a concept of kyakkashoko (here defined as "being sory beforehand", as described by Korean/Amwerican anthropologist Y. S. Pak). Trying to forcefit the teacher's statements to Shorinji Kempo philosophy is pointless--and inaccurate. In Catholicism, the emphasis is on the fact that you have already done wrong, and will always do wrong,
because you are a sinner in the eyes of god. The attempts to draw parallels and then claim that all religions are really "about the same thing" is warm, fuzzy, modern liberal nonsense. Just taking the Abrahamic religions, if Xpianity is right, Islam and Judaism are de facto wrong. Either Jesus is god, or here's merely a prophet. There can be no middle ground.
Anyway, back to the question of sin.
The whole point of Catholicism is that you are always and constantly guilty. (This is how the Catholic church extends its power over people.) As such, it is in direct opposition to the Buddhist notion of innocence, but that's by-the-by. The important thing to remember is that as a "sinner", you are damned unless you can plea bargain your way out of heaven. The Tim and John story was to illustrate how failure to obey the Catholic church's rules was a greatre sin than stealing, bullying, or laziness. As I said, trying to forcefit your own ideology upon their's is not only pointless, it's just plain wrong, because that was not how the teacher--or the church--intended it. That wasn't the message they wanted to convey.
Always look at the motive.
Not really sensei. I'm not even going to mention what happened when we were naughty ;)
OOhh, nuns! What a turn-on! :D
Thak you, David.
How's Bristol dojo doing?
Follow your own advice.
When you treat the least of us any less than the best of us, you defame all of us.
Gassho Tony,
both well it is fair to say. Soon they'll have to add 'west of england' to the london, south coast and scotland. Mind you NW and NE seem to be planting acorns too.
OK, I want to discuss some of the substantive issues that have been raised above. First I want to say directly to Kimpatsu that in my view you have totally blown whatever pretensions you might have had to holding the moral high ground vis a vis your argument with Indar. Your remarks (which I refuse to quote as they've had enough currency)were offensive and arrogant in the extreme. It is to put it mildly revealing that you repeatedly use 'kohai' as a term of abuse. It is also undeniably true that the rest of us seem to manage to stay within the bounds of reasonable courtesy however heated the discussion gets. You by your own account have beeen expelled from the member's lounge on e-budo, and from budoseek. This needless to say you have represented as being through no fault of your own, a construction on events which in the light of your recent conduct is frankly implausible.
I also know for a fact that your behaviour is actually dissuading people from participating in these forums, as it's like being trapped in a lift with a particularly boorish pedant. Anybody who won't take responsibility for their own behaviour and its consequences is no senior of mine in either Shorinji Kempo or Kongo Zen. Feel free to go ahead and threaten me with violence again, Tony: I've been dealing with that kind of pig ignorant behaviour from bullies since I was at primary school, and it's long since ceased to concern me.
The pity of Mr. Kehoe's infantilism is that it undermined completely the credibility of his participation in what had been an interesting debate. I'd like to come back to the discussion about the nature of consciousness.
Consciousness as I understand it is indeed a phenomenon which physically resides in the brain, but I do think it's somewhat 'fuzzier' than that. Human consciousness is a social phenomenon - we have to be socialised into awareness of ourselves and how we stand in relation to other individuals and our wider societies. The hypothetical feral child might well be a human animal, but would it be a human being in any developed sense? I would suggest not. Our beings have to be articulated through our relations with others. The relational nature of consciousness probably won't be a surprise to anyone reading this, it's pretty much Buddhism 101.
The other observation I have to amke concerns 'brainwashing'. I was once told be Mizuno Sensei that he was indeed brainwashing us, but for the good of society. So that's alright then. Kongo Zen does not reside on metaphysical foundations, but I personally have embraced it as something which helps to give moral and ethical sructure to my life. This seems to be an aspect of most religious practice. I would prefer to live in a world weher people didn't rely on metaphysics for their moral/ethical premises, but I suspect I'm not going to get there by going up and shouting in their face 'You're wrong! You're wrong!' until their ears bleed..'
On that note, I'm off. No doubt I'll return on Monday and have another dozen pages of this to read, but thankfully the distance between me and a switched on PC is going to be great until then.
Have a good weekend all.
ps - TonyL, consciousness itself is a societal phenomenon. I couldn't have it without you. So I reckon I owe you a pint :beer:
[B]It's a bit late to post. But ... the alpha male theory is a crock of bull. Even if it applies to primates, it says more about the proponent of the theory than it does about human society.
I'm actually a tad embarrassed about this now. It sounded so feasible to me at first but after discussing the matter with a Biologist friend of mine, I'm inclined to agree with you, Dave.
Although, I'd love for you to elaborate so that a/ I can hear a second opinion, and b/ give the board a chance to understand WHY the theory is "bull".
As much as I hate to do this, I'm afraid I too will be absent for a few days due to deadlines and whatnot.
I do have a few points for/in regards to Kimpatsu, however. :)
-In regards to women often being the most faithful believers, some of this is because of patriachal societies. However, this means that it is a result of social situations, not mental, and that women found the greatest faith in something that promised them reward based on merit; a worthy goal, and one most of us adopt today.
Religion, despite it's patriarchal structure, was also an area of control for women. By being faithful a whole other world opened up to women, and indeed this is why we see female saints and believers being the most extreme in areas of asceticism, particularly in regards to fasting/starvation, as food was an area of life they had control over.
Just an interesting fact (well, I find it interesting anyway).
-Considering how entwined religion is with history and human nature, yes, the study of religion definitely has something to contribute to the world today. And even a NEGATIVE impact is one we can learn from, indeed, most of histories most negative events have resulted in a more keen awareness in the generations that followed.
-Yes, you are indeed a grammar Nazi. I shall be watching myself. ;) But you also have a very obvious bias against religion. You are entitled to your opinion, but for one who stresses rational thinking, maybe a little objectivity in regards to ALL areas of life might be of use.
-I dislike your analogy of atheism as a "cure" because religion is not a disease to be erradicated, and such a view is extremely ignorant and arrogant. You find nothing of worth in centuries worth of religion therefore it IS worthless and should be erradicated? I think not.
-Atheism is a lack of belief in god or other higher, supernatural powers, and the supernatural altogether. This doesn't instantly make all atheists more rational. One could be an atheist and still believe in totally foolish ideas founded in nothing but lies and imagination. You're applying too much worth to a simply term.
-The Rowling thing was a joke? *gasp!* Well, I never. ;)
And now, I shall depart for a few days. I look forward to coming back and discovering how the thread has developed.
Have to disagree here - if anything, society is a conscious phenomenon. Society, its rules, regulations and machinations are possible because we are conscious beings. Many aspects of our consciousness are evident in our construction of our society - many aspects of our society are evident in the construction of our personal identities. However, to say that we owe the faculty of consciousness (rather than certain aspects of it) to society is just plain wrong.
The 'feral child' noted above would be conscious, for consciousness requires only 'a self in the act of knowing'. There may not be much for the poor mite to know in her solitary world, but that she would know it and herself is indisputable.
OK, I take your point re. 'consciousness' in it's most basic sense as denoting awareness of a 'self' however conceived in relation to its environment. However, in this sense all animate beings are conscious after their own fashion. Goldfish, rhinos, whatever - the higher primates evidently do share much of our weltanschauung, possibly up to and including the ability to tell us about it, if you accept that chimpanzees using sign language are doing more than apeing (sorry, I couldn't help myself) their trainers
My point is that you can't disentangle human being from human society. Many other animals manage pretty well without self awareness in any sense that is recogniseable to us, including in the construction of quite intricate societies with many of the organisational characteristics that some commentators (e.g. Marx) have taken as the signifier of an advanced level of development in human history. Many of the features of modern industry have been pretty well anticipated by the social insects.
The point that I am trying to make is that the content of the self depends to a very large extent on the cultural capital present in the individual's environment. Our hypothetical feral child might not even be able to pass a Turing test to demonstrate the existence of her consciousness, depending on just how lacking in social stimuli her environment was.
I'm all for individualism BTW, just not the kind of atomistic alienated model of individualism which is so prevalent in capitalist society.
why are you so angry kimpatsu?
what are you scared of?
peace will come when you answer those question i think
your behaviour is TOTALLY UNACCETPABLE, kohai
Kohai?
I am older than you, and graded before you.
A lesson in Japanese etiquette please.
Gassho, David.
Where in the Northwest? Liverpool, Manchester, or points beyond? (Say not Runcorn, surely? :D )
This is unacceptable.
Yes Indar, you are older, but I think you will find that TonyK joined long before you, and (I could be wrong on this) graded before you also.
Maybe I should have stepped in earlier..... but this thread did show some words of wisdom.
Anyway, it ends now.
You know, the reason I enjoy this forum is that grade is not really an issue.......
We have branch masters and 4th kyu kenshi, all sharing meaninful discussion (and yes, sometimes even irreverent humour!!) and that is what makes it so interesting and enjoyable.
Also to have the input of other martial artists, makes it all a richer experience.
That some people cannot keep this element of fun and that good natured experience really worries me.
Have you learned nothing from your practice of the martial arts??
Do you take nothing of our philosophy (and the philosophy of other martial arts is included here also) to your heart??
Argueing and disagreement is fine, but you should not lose your respect, or (if you do not hold much respect for the other person) then at least comon decency.
If you do not agree with something that is said then by all means object...... but keep your common decency in mind, and if you have any respect for the other person then show it.
DO NOT BE BLINDED BY YOUR PAST EXPERIENCE.......
"We pledge to leave our past aside..." (So-Doshin, Kaiso, Shorinji Kempo)
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Home High School Sports Montesano’s Ellefson, Cain and Prante Take Second Place, Bulldogs Finish Third in...
Montesano’s Ellefson, Cain and Prante Take Second Place, Bulldogs Finish Third in State Wrestling Meet
Gail Wood
Seven of the members of the Montesano High School wrestling team placed at state.
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By Gail Wood
His team’s season had just ended Saturday evening and Montesano High School’s wrestling coach Jeff Klinger could hardly wait until next year.
Based on how his team did at the 1A state wrestling championship on Saturday – the Bulldogs placed third – he’s got reason for optimism and excitement.
Six of his seven wrestlers who qualified for state are returning. All three Bulldogs who reached the finals and placed second – Jacob Ellefson, Austin Cain and Kyler Prante – will be back. It’s Montesano’s best finish since 1976.
“We’re excited about where our program is right now,” Klinger said. “We only lose one of our placers, who is a senior. But we’ve got six of them coming back.”
In his 10 years as Montesano’s head coach, Klinger never had a wrestler reach the finals. Klinger watched three of his Bulldogs make the finals this year and the program is on a rise. Of the 14 kids on the team, seven qualified for state. Klinger is feeling Bulldog Fever.
“It’s been a work in progress trying to get the numbers up,” Klinger said. “We really have a good core group right now.”
Both Cain, a sophomore, and Prante, a junior, finished their seasons with 33-4 records. Ellefson, a sophomore, finished at 34-3. All are records worth cheering about. But none of them felt like cheering when they lost in the finals.
It wasn’t like any of them weren’t facing a tough opponent. Ellefson’s opponent at 120 pounds – Lakeside’s Dalton Young – is a returning state champ.
“The kid Jacob wrestled is a stud,” Klinger said.
Last year as a freshman, Ellefson placed third at state and lost to Young in the semifinals. Ellefson lost by the same score, 7-0.
Montesano’s Jacob Ellefson tries to get a takedown in the opening moments of the 120-pound finals.
“I think I’ve improved from last year,” Ellefson said. “I’ve gotten stronger. Also, I got a better head space.”
In the 145-pound finals, Cain faced Zilla’s Diego Hernandez, the defending state champ. After a scoreless first period, Cain gave up an escape and trailed 1-0 and ended up losing 3-1.
“He was right there,” Klinger said. “At 3-1 and a chance to score, we’ll take that every time.”
Cain isn’t a stranger to pressure matches. He’s been wrestling since he was five and wrestles year around, competing in freelance and Greco-Roman during the summer. Cain’s father, Darrel, is an assistant coach on Montesano’s team.
“Austin knows how to wrestle,” Klinger said. “He’s been wrestling a long time. I don’t know if we have a kid who has done more. He knows what he’s doing.”
Cain, while only a sophomore, is building an impressive resume. Last year, he placed seventh at state and at regionals this year he took second. Two summers ago, he was an All-American in Greco-Roman wrestling.
In the opening of 145-pound finals, Montesano’s Austin Cain looks for the takedown.
“I look for the pin when it’s there,” Cain said. “It all depends.”
In his 170-pound final, Prante scored on a takedown and led 2-0 with 49 seconds left in the first period. But midway through the second period, Prante got flipped to his back and was pinned by Colville’s Ben Knight.
“He walked into it,” Klinger said. “He knew it was coming. He wrestled exactly how we wanted him to wrestle to that point. He did a good job.”
Prante, who placed third at state last year and is a year around wrestler, came into the season with high expectations.
“Kylar is another one who wrestled a lot as a kid,” Klinger said. “We knew what we had in him. He’s solid. He’s a pinner when he gets his guy on his back.”
Besides Ellefson, Cain and Prante, Montesano had four other state placers in Tony Williams, Anthony Louthan, Tyler Izatt, and Taylor Rupe.
In the 170-pound state finals, Kylar Prante tries to outmaneuver his opponent.
At 113 pounds, Williams won his first two matches with a 16-0 technical fall and then by a pin. After losing 15-3, Williams bounced back to win his next two matches by pins to place third.
Louthan lost his first match at 182 pounds with a score of 3-2 and then won 4-1, 8-3, 5-0, and 1-0 before losing 3-2 to place fourth.
Izatt placed eighth in the 113 pound bracket, next to his teammate Williams. He lost to Manuel Cisneros of Highland for the 8th place spot.
Rupe pinned his first opponent at 220 pounds and then lost 2-1. Rupe then strung together three straight pins and then won 3-1 in the consolation finals to place third.
It was a good day to be a Bulldog.
“We went from never having boys in the finals to having three,” Klinger said. “I think we’re going to be stronger next year. I think this is going to light some fire under us. Hopefully, next year we’re the ones with our hands raised and have a shot at the team title.”
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You are here: Home > Neighborhoods > Upper West Side
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City Council Green Lights Bjarke Ingels’ 57th Street Pyramid Project
posted on Wednesday, March 6, 2013 in Affordable Housing, Architecture, Bjarke Ingels, Legal Issues, Manhattan, New Developments, New York City, Residential, Upper West Side, Urban Planning, Zoning
Affordable Housing, Architecture, Bjarke Ingels, Legal Issues, Manhattan, New Developments, New York City, Residential, Upper West Side, Urban Planning, Zoning
Environmental Artist Sells LEED-Inspired Upper West Side Penthouse for $1.7M
posted on Monday, November 28, 2011 in Green Real Estate, Green Roofs, LEED-EB, Manhattan, New York City, Residential, Upper West Side
Green Real Estate, Green Roofs, LEED-EB, Manhattan, New York City, Residential, Upper West Side
The Great NYC Heating Oil Changeover (Is Not Why You’re Sweating)
posted on Friday, July 22, 2011 in Buildings, Energy Efficiency, Green Building, Green Building Law, Legislation, Most Recent, Neighborhoods, New York City, Residential, Upper East Side, Upper West Side
Buildings, Energy Efficiency, Green Building, Green Building Law, Legislation, Most Recent, Neighborhoods, New York City, Residential, Upper East Side, Upper West Side
It’s Complicated: New York City Green Buildings Balk At, Earn LEED Certification
posted on Tuesday, February 22, 2011 in Green Building, Green Real Estate, Green Rentals, Higher Education, LEED-CS, Manhattan, New York City, Upper West Side, Weiss/Manfredi
Green Building, Green Real Estate, Green Rentals, Higher Education, LEED-CS, Manhattan, New York City, Upper West Side, Weiss/Manfredi
posted on Friday, November 5, 2010 in Architecture, Buildings, Commercial, Design, Energy Efficiency, FXFOWLE, Green Building, Green Office Space, Green Roofs, LEED, LEED-CI, Manhattan, Most Recent, Neighborhoods, New York City, Public, Rating Systems, Residential, The Bronx, Upper West Side
Architecture, Buildings, Commercial, Design, Energy Efficiency, FXFOWLE, Green Building, Green Office Space, Green Roofs, LEED, LEED-CI, Manhattan, Most Recent, Neighborhoods, New York City, Public, Rating Systems, Residential, The Bronx, Upper West Side
Down On The Riverside: Scott Stringer Unloads On Extell’s Riverside Center Mega-Development
posted on Wednesday, September 1, 2010 in Affordable Housing, Architecture, Buildings, Commercial, Design, Green Building, Green Real Estate, Green Schools, LEED, Legal Issues, Manhattan, Most Recent, Neighborhoods, New York City, Public, Rating Systems, Residential, Upper West Side, Urban Planning
Affordable Housing, Architecture, Buildings, Commercial, Design, Green Building, Green Real Estate, Green Schools, LEED, Legal Issues, Manhattan, Most Recent, Neighborhoods, New York City, Public, Rating Systems, Residential, Upper West Side, Urban Planning
posted on Friday, August 27, 2010 in Affordable Housing, Architecture, Cook + Fox, Design, Green Building, Green Construction, Green Real Estate, Green Rentals, Green Roofs, LEED, Manhattan, Most Recent, Neighborhoods, New York City, Public, Rating Systems, Residential, The Bronx, Upper West Side, Urban Planning
Affordable Housing, Architecture, Cook + Fox, Design, Green Building, Green Construction, Green Real Estate, Green Rentals, Green Roofs, LEED, Manhattan, Most Recent, Neighborhoods, New York City, Public, Rating Systems, Residential, The Bronx, Upper West Side, Urban Planning
Plans For Extell’s Riverside Center Receive Another Thumbs Down
posted on Wednesday, August 4, 2010 in Affordable Housing, Buildings, Commercial, Green Building, Green Construction, LEED, LEED in NYC, Manhattan, Most Recent, Neighborhoods, New York City, Public, Rating Systems, Residential, Upper West Side
Affordable Housing, Buildings, Commercial, Green Building, Green Construction, LEED, LEED in NYC, Manhattan, Most Recent, Neighborhoods, New York City, Public, Rating Systems, Residential, Upper West Side
Extell Feeling Heat On Upper West Side Mega-Development Riverside Center From… Upper West Siders
posted on Monday, March 22, 2010 in Green Real Estate, LEED, Manhattan, New York City, Upper West Side
Green Real Estate, LEED, Manhattan, New York City, Upper West Side
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Movie Review: The House with 100 Eyes
@Lcfremont visits The House with 100 Eyes...
The Poughkeepsie Tapes was kind of the next Hostel in the sense that word of mouth would have you believe it was the movie that was so fucked up that you would never be the same after seeing it. I can only speak for myself, but The Poughkeepsie Tapes proved to only be excruciating in the fact that I had to keep watching it. Enter The House With 100 Eyes. It’s hard not to compare the two films because they both operate on the idea that a bunch of videotapes randomly ended up in the hands of someone who decided to piece all of this nonsense together and make a full film out of it.
Coming together as the journey that a husband and wife team make in an effort to do something extraordinary, a snuff film with three kills, this is a movie with tons of potential. That’s right kids, you will see three kills in one night and it will all be 100% authentic. With a very subtle touch of comedy, we watch our protagonists go on the prowl for victims and see them banter with one another. After finally securing “two girls and a stud” for their groundbreaking movie, the couple successfully ply the young kids with alcohol and drugs under the guise of simply doing a porn film for $500 a piece. The token “fat” girl has the unfortunate gift of knowing that something isn’t right and tries to leave the situation. She is then taken to a room where she will be tortured and maliciously fat shamed. This girl is referred to as “piggie" and “fattie" and forced to eat her own fat. All at the hands of a man who will not be winning a Mr. Fitness contest any time soon. This was exceptionally grating because it’s just so exasperating to see the regular, soft, balding American guy demand that women live up to specific standards despite the fact that they can’t be bothered to do the same.
The interesting thing about this movie is that they do force you to spend time with the characters in an effort to make you sympathetic to the victims and, perhaps, to the killers as well. The woman, Susan, is very sweet and proper and it’s easy to believe that you would be confused by her referring to you as sweetie as she restrains you to a chair so her husband can torture you. Unfortunately, like all female serial killers, she seems to have some sort of nursing background and a proclivity towards killing people with poison. Boring. Shannon Malone really did a fantastic job of bringing a human element to her character and I actually felt a teeny bit bad for her when she learned something ugly about her husband. Also, I have no doubt that her bundt cakes are delicious.
The husband in question, Ed, is a lot like a greasy car salesman or a guy you see on late night informercials. He’s just this side of charming, but there is something a little bit off. He explains that in seventh grade he began capturing and torturing cats for fun. Now, his house is a giant cage where all of the rooms are sound proof and escape proof. Just in case you didn’t quite understand that he’s a psychopath, you are treated to a scene of him masturbating to his own snuff film. Granted, there is absolutely no gratuitous nudity in this film, but everything else that is gratuitous becomes overwhelming and not in a good way. At this point I would like to point out that Ed is played by Jim Roof who is also one of the writers and the director of the movie. The makeup and special effects are definitely something to write home about, but the smarmy overacting overshadows it at times.
Although not an entirely new and clever concept, it is, mostly, well done with some truly wonderful practical effects. Despite putting in the effort to make the viewer care about the characters, none of them are very likable and this does not lend itself to a satisfying denouement. All of this being said, however, Roof has done something very interesting on varying levels and it will be fun to see what else he brings to the horror genre.
Lisa Fremont
Twitter: @lcfremont
Available on June 16 2015.
Images provided by Artspolitation films & IMDb.
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The Ewin Early Learning Centre Inc. is a not-for-profit community group operating a long day-care centre in Kununurra. Our membership includes parents and interested individuals who assist the service's management team and staff.
Our Board of Directors has overarching responsibility for the successful operation of the service and works as a team, with every member encouraged to participate. Everyone’s skills and experience are valued, and together, contribute to the successful delivery of our service.
The Board's role is to provide guidance and support on strategic and policy issues to ensure the Centre provides a level of service that meets community expectations; and that the Centre is compliant with all legal requirements; and remains financially viable.
The Board delegates day-to-day responsibility and management to the General Manager, whilst providing them with direct support. The support is particularly aimed at areas such as Human Resources, Grants & Funding, Fundraising, Finance and Building Maintenance.
Being a member of the Board gives families the opportunity to contribute to the centre through systems such as Policy development, Philosophy review and continuous improvement.
Monthly meetings are held with the General Manager, and anyone interested in joining is encouraged to contact the centre to discuss further. Meetings are usually held on the 2nd Tuesday of each month at 5.00pm.
The current Board is made up of a Chairperson, Vice Chairperson, Secretary, Treasurer and 2 general members.
Family involvement is very important at a management level of a community based centre as it assists in ensuring that the centre is meeting the needs of the families and community.
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<< Back Monty Panesar: The Full Monty by Monty Panesar
Monty Panesar: The Full Monty by Monty Panesar
9781526754509 White Owl
Having spent 5 years learning his trade in County Cricket, Monty Panesar established himself with England in 2006, quickly becoming a national hero, with his trademark black turban, wide eyes and eager fielding. Monty was a different type of spinner to those which had gone before, here was someone who was not afraid to 'give it some air' and attack batsmen. For a time, he was considered the saviour of English spin bowling.
His commitment and enthusiasm for the sport made him stand out. His performances encouraged others to hone their skills to the extent that others emerged and took his place. The England team saw glimpses of him after that, most notably when Graeme Swann and Monty combined in Mumbai in November 2012, dubbed the "dust devils" as they returned joint figures of 19 for 323, in one of the greatest England spin double acts in history, only the fourth occasion that England spinners had combined to take 19 wickets or more wickets in a Test and the first time for 54 years.
As Monty's career declined however, so did his health. He struggled with a tiresome shoulder injury before struggling with mental health issues.
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Melisa Goldie on being ambitious
Melisa Goldie is the Chief Marketing Officer of Calvin Klein, Inc., overseeing all global consumer-facing marketing initiatives for the iconic $8 billion lifestyle brand. Since joining nearly 15 years ago, Melisa has risen through the organization, first as a key member of Mr. Klein’s team, before assuming his role as the brand’s creative marketing leader. This mother of three graduated with honors from Pratt Institute with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Photography and strives to inspire, support and encourage other women in the workplace.
When I was very young, I wanted to be a go-go dancer! No really! I didn't know what it was when I was 6 years old, but I had white patent leather boots and I would put them on and do dance shows for my family. I also grew up doing art, ceramics and clay, all that sort of stuff. My mother’s best friend was an art teacher and I spent an enormous amount of time with her and always thought I’d be an artist of some kind.
Who would you invite to your dream dinner party?
Gloria Steinem, the American feminist, journalist, and social/political activist who became nationally recognized as a leader and spokeswoman for the feminist movement in the late 1960s. She's the real deal.
I’m less about books and more about experiences. I'm very much inspired by the mash-up of life and the unexpected things that I run into, whether it's movies or music, that sort of thing.
The time I would like to go to bed is 10pm but it doesn't always work out that way. I have two children so things change easily and it also depends on what's going on from a work perspective. I get up around 5:30am.
What is your favorite time of the working week?
I like Tuesdays. On Mondays, I'm usually trying to get my act together. By Tuesday, I've got my mojo going and I'm in it.
I came to New York when I was 18 and attended the Pratt Institute where I got a BFA in Photography. I had all the desires to be an artist and had no interest in fashion, but once I finished college I took the first job I could get because I had rent to pay. I got a job working for a fashion photographer, and that set the stage for what was to come. I recognize that I was very proactive and ambitious, but ambitious in a good way – I had to make sure that everything was taken care of properly. The creativity part supported that and I really enjoyed working with a creative entity because I understood the vision part of it, but then I also had this great skill of putting things together in a really smart way. So that's how I started.
With the theme of image making in my career, I went from working with photographers to working for the great Peter Arnell. He's an incredible fashion creative director and I became his executive producer at a very young age. He was very creative and I was able to support bringing his vision to life.
Then I had a bit of an epiphany and I thought that if I was going to be in fashion, then I wanted to make sure I was working for the best image maker out there. In fashion there was no better image maker than Calvin Klein. I found out that they were looking for someone to join the company and the day that position became open, I picked up the phone to someone I knew here and said, "I want that job." So I went for it. It took about 9 months, but I got the job.
I started at Calvin Klein as the Vice President of Production, Film and Print and then worked my way up to the CMO position after serving here for 15 years. I think my success has been in large part because I have a balance of skills in strategy and creativity. I’ve also just thrown myself at the roles I’ve been given, but not in an aggressive way. It’s certainly been a great fit for me because I’m extremely passionate about the work and creating amazing images. I thrive in the space of cultural tension and feel very comfortable with guiding the cultural conversation that happens around the brand.
15 years is a long time to be with an organization, but what's interesting about Calvin Klein as an organization is that it's gone through many transitions. When I started, I worked for Mr. Klein and it was a private company. Then we were acquired by PVH Corp. Working for a public company is very different. Now we're in an interesting transition where we're starting to buy back some of our licenses, so it’s becoming more of an operating model which is a completely different way of approaching business. Even though it's the same brand, I feel like I've actually worked at three different companies, which has kept me inspired.
Personally my obstacle is being comfortable with my ambition and understanding that ambition is not necessarily a bad word. Ambition doesn't mean that you're going to knock people down along the way. You can be ambitious and you can be supportive of everybody around you so that you all thrive.
We all have ambitions to live very robust, full, creative lives, so getting comfortable with that and being able to ask for what you want is only going to be a positive thing. For a long time I was afraid of how that would be perceived to others, but I’ve grown very comfortable with it. I’m sure it's a female thing and we're all struggling with it, but I'm really proud of how it's gone for me because I think I've been very uplifting to the rest of the team and hope I’ve inspired others to go for it and not be afraid.
Doing the best work I can every single day. And having fun. I want to walk in the office everyday and have a good time.
What advice will you give your children at the start of their career?
Be confident. I have two girls and it's hard. I see my eleven-year old daughter and notice patterns of behavior that remind me of when I was a kid. I have an unconventional situation at home where I go to work everyday and my husband stays at home. What's really special about that is that my daughters have this incredibly strong male role model who is doing the untraditional stuff at home and it's really fantastic.
I asked my daughter recently, "Are you comfortable with the fact that we have a different family set-up than other families in terms of the traditional roles?," and she said, "No Mommy, because you're an incredible role model and I want to grow up and be like you." So for me, what motivates me everyday is coming in and doing great work for my daughters. I want them to be totally confident and know that they can do whatever they want.
Being a mother to my children. At the end of the day I have to feel good about who I am when I walk through the doors at home. I have to feel good about what I've accomplished. It's really hard to leave work, go home and do that other job but my greatest accomplishment is my children and my family, and never losing sight of that.
How do you manage work and family life?
It's a struggle. I wish I could say that I have it all figured out but I don't. It's really organic and I just have to listen to my family and listen to myself. I don't have a regime but I try not to go out multiple nights in a row for work. I try to delegate to the team – it's incredibly important – and I try to delegate at home. I can't do it all but I do my best and am really honest with my family.
For me, my career path has involved never accepting no for an answer, being very proactive about what I want and having confidence in my ability to get there. I’ve also been comfortable with not knowing everything but have embraced every challenge and just gone for it.
The other thing that's been really important to me is being truly authentic to who I am. I aim to show up here everyday, be who I am as a person and celebrate where I came from. A lot of people come here and think they have to act a certain way. I've never done that.
What is the most important lesson life has taught you?
I think about all the years I wasted not being confident in who I am as a person. It was a flat out waste of time because at the end of the day, no one else really cares. It's only you. I still somewhat struggle with it. There are days I wake up and I'm like, ‘What the hell am I doing?’
I think being sensitive and emotional are positive traits that women can bring to the workplace that have been lacking for years. People want to come to work everyday and know they are cared about. In a weird way, I kind of feel like I'm a mom here and I believe it’s important to care about people. It doesn't have to be cutthroat.
My husband.
It’s a huge responsibility to keep a 47-year-old brand relevant. What's next is about making sure we're doing that everyday and constantly communicating and understanding who our consumer is. It's such an incredible time from a media landscape and we must always be ahead of the curve. We need to make sure that we maintain the legacy of the brand whilst keeping it fresh and top of mind. It's a little scary and it's a huge responsibility but it's fantastically exciting and I’m really enjoying my job right now.
As told to Caroline Hugall at Calvin Klein, Inc.’s New York City Headquarters on Wednesday 15th of July.
Tags Melisa Goldie, Calvin Klein, Marketing
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Quakalackin'
Deschamps, Sharp to Iowa
Posted on March 31, 2009 by J.P. Hoornstra
The Ducks signed free-agent center MacGregor Sharp two a two-year contract and assigned him to Iowa today, along with 2008 second-round draft pick Nicolas Deschamps.
Sharp, 23, tied for fourth in the nation in scoring with 26-24=50 points in 43 games with the University of Minnesota-Duluth (UMD) of the Western Collegiate Hockey Association (WCHA) this season. The 6-foot-1, 180-pound center also finished second in the country in goals, tied for fourth in game-winning goals (4), and tied for ninth in power-play goals (9).
Named to the 2009 WCHA All-Tournament team and 2008-09 All-College Hockey News second team, Sharp helped lead the Bulldogs to the 2009 NCAA West Regional final against Miami University (Ohio). During the Bulldogs’ 6-1 postseason run, he compiled 6-3=9 points in seven games, including a hat trick in UMD’s 4-0, WCHA Final Five title victory over the University of Denver on Mar. 21.
A native of Red Deer, Alberta, Sharp missed only one of 158 games with UMD over the last four seasons. In 157 career games, Sharp scored 50-58=108 points with 19 power-play goals and 109 penalty minutes (PIM), leading the Bulldogs in scoring the past two seasons. Named to the WCHA All-Academic Team in 2006-07 and 2007-08, the 6-1, 195-pound center concluded his UMD career on an 11-game point streak (12-7=19), which included two hat tricks.
Check out his career stats here.
Deschamps, 19, had 24 goals and 65 points in 65 regular-season games for Chicoutimi of the QMJHL, as well as three goals and an assist in four playoff games. His stats are here.
This entry was posted in Anaheim Ducks/NHL by J.P. Hoornstra. Bookmark the permalink.
About J.P. Hoornstra
J.P. Hoornstra covers the Dodgers, Angels and Major League Baseball for the Orange County Register, Los Angeles Daily News, Long Beach Press-Telegram, Torrance Daily Breeze, San Gabriel Valley Tribune, Pasadena Star-News, San Bernardino Sun, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin, Whittier Daily News and Redlands Daily Facts. Before taking the beat in 2012, J.P. covered the NHL for four years. UCLA gave him a degree once upon a time; when he graduated on schedule, he missed getting Arnold Schwarzenegger's autograph on his diploma by five months.
View all posts by J.P. Hoornstra →
The day the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim hosted the Ducks.
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Phoenix 7, Ducks 4.
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Andrew Gordon’s Teemu Selanne connection.
Thiet ke web on Getzlaf chosen for players’ committee.
letsgoducksdotcom on Hiller activated from IR; Pielmeier to Elmira.
letsgoducksdotcom on Ducks 4, Vancouver 3.
J.P. Hoornstra on Ducks 4, Vancouver 3.
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GhanaForum.com - Ghana Discussion Forum > News & Articles > News & Articles > Oil Production In Ghana, What Does It Mean To The People Of Ghana?
View Full Version : Oil Production In Ghana, What Does It Mean To The People Of Ghana?
23rd February 2011, 11:35 PM
http://photos.peacefmonline.com/photos/news/200910/1867746_807911.jpg
Traditional dancers celebrated in front of a cardboard replica "oil boom." 120,000 barrels of oil a day is calculated. Pleasure is mounted in Ghana about the oil discovery and production of oil.
A dream has come true. During the ceremony, the dancers moved on rubber boots and carrying the wax jackets, oil field workers about the colourful costumes. In 2007, large oil reserves found off the coast of Ghana.
Ghana oil field now, "cheers" (the Jubilee) officially opened. Ghana is now entering the ranks of the oil-exporting countries.
"This is a gift from God, resource that belongs to all the people of Ghana, including the generations yet to be born. I've always said and will say further the money that will come from oil will benefit all Ghanaian people, and not just a few." said President John Evans Atta Mills on the occasion of the beginning of the promotion.
The oil field is estimated to a volume of 1.8 billion barrels, 120,000 barrels a day, in three years time the production will shoot up to 250,000 barrels a day, more than double. The oil export commenced in January. How much falls ultimately to the state is unclear. Estimates range between 400 million and a billion dollars. Ghana's budget currently stands over 5 billion. "A historic event," Ghana government newspapers cheered when the president symbolically opened the oil production.
The past has shown, however, that oil discoveries in developing countries are not just a blessing. Especially in nearby Nigeria (with an estimated oil reserves of around 37 billion barrels), it always comes back to violent attacks by rebels: Pipelines are destroyed with dynamite and hand grenades, workers taken hostage. The reason is, the money from the oil reaches everywhere, except in the pockets of the Nigerian people. Due to this dissatisfaction many Nigerians sympathize with the rebels. Also in Angola, it came after the oil discovery (13.5 billion barrels) to civil war-like conditions.
"It is hoped and assumed that the oil production in Ghana would be very peaceful more than any other oil producing country in Africa, because the democratization of Ghana is one of the best and advanced in African. The country is stable and as the second largest gold and cocoa exporter in Africa, has experience in the trade.
BUT !! BUT !! BUT !! Corruption and transparency, which is the biggest danger in the country is still haunting the majority of the Ghanaian people, even though somewhere a month or two ago „Ghana Petrol Revenue Management Act“: a law to manage oil funds was approved in Ghana.
Very unfortunately the relevant body appointed to manage Ghana oil funds are only persons appointed directly by President Mills. The flabby laws passed over the management of the oil fund does not contain any key distribution. It is therefore open as to what will happen to the money. This makes the Ghana Petrol Management Act (law) sounds like a tactic to deceive the people of Ghana.
The worst of all is using the oil profits in the future for loans as collateral which could generate a big heat in the near future when the Ghanaian people will reprove the collateral agreements by the government and the Ghanaian population will feel deceived.
Already there is a problem that, most of the oil workers are provided by the Irish exploration company, Tullow Oil, according to Tullow oil Ghana hasn't got enough qualified personnel.
What does the oil production in the country mean to it's people, if Ghanaian individuals are not even aware of how much money or profit the country will get and secondly the Ghanaian citizens can't benefit from the oil production in terms of jobs?
Everything in the oil production "that is good for the geese can equally be good for the gander."
Source: FRANCIS TAWIAH (Duisburg - Germany)
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The man behind the illustrated Ottoman manuscripts: Seyyid Lokman
August 03 2013 00:01:00
Niki Gamm
The Accession of Mehmed II in Edirne in the Hunarname by Lokman.
The miniatures from the classical Ottoman period are familiar for the most part, many of them produced and reproduced in books and magazines in Turkey, Europe and elsewhere. However, we usually forget that these were illustrations in manuscripts and little is reported about the contents of these manuscripts, let alone the authors of the books in which these miniatures originally appeared. These are the famous şahnames (court histories), of course, in which the exploits of the Ottoman sultans were described and praised.
The most important influence on Ottoman şahnames was derived from the great Shah-nama of Firdausi, a Persian poet who lived around the year 1000. His epic work, comprised of some 50-60,000 couplets, started with the creation of the world and ended with Persia’s being conquered by Arab armies during the expansive period of Islam in the seventh century A.D. Iran considers it the country’s national epic although it glorifies pre-Islamic times. Firdausi’s work served as the example par excellence for all future şahnames.
The first of the Ottoman writers of şahnames, known as şahnamecis (court historians), were Fethullah and Eflatun. Fethullah who was from Iran wrote poetry in Turkish as well as Persian in the time of Yavuz Sultan Selim (r. 1512-1520) and served as the şahnameci into the reign of Sultan Süleyman. He died in 1553 and in his place a man from Sirvan named Eflatun was appointed to be şahnameci. When he died in 1569/1570, the most prolific of all the şahnamecis in Ottoman times, Seyyid Lokman ibn Huseyin ibn al-Asuri al Urmevi, was appointed to replace him by Sultan Selim II. The sources are silent about his life and background or even how he came to the attention of the sultan.
Of the fifteen şahnames produced, ten were written and illustrated while Seyyid Lokman was the court historian. These were produced during the reigns of Sultans Suleyman, Selim II and Murad III that is from the mid-sixteenth century into the beginning of the seventeenth. Included are the Zafername from the last years of Süleyman, the Şahname-I Selim Han which is related to the sultanate of Selim II and the Sehinsehname that covers the first years of the reign of Murad III.
Historical events, hunting, moralty
Actually we know as much if not more about the manuscript illustrators such as Nakkas Osman than we do about the writers. Nakkas Osman collaborated with Lokman on the Hunername (Book of Accomplishments) and the Zubtedu’t tevarih (The Cream of Histories). The Hunername starts with the Seljuks and continues to the end of the reign of Yavuz Sultan Selim with more than 500 pages in two volumes and 110 miniatures. In 1579 the first volume was started and in 1588 the second volume was finished. Not only did the Hunername cover historical events and victories achieved, but it provides information on hunting, customs, justice, charity and morality. Complimenting the writing are the miniatures which include historical events and aspects of Ottoman life on a background of architectural styles of the times. Seyyid Lokman’s Zubtedu’t tevarih is a history of the world up to that time and starts with the creation of the universe, continues with the lives of the prophets, the life of the Prophet Mohammed and the Muslim dynasties and concludes with the founding of the Ottoman Empire up to the time of Sultan Murad III.
Whether the post of court historian actually existed as a full-time, salaried position has been disputed, particularly by Emine Fetvaci who has examined archival materials into the day-to-day work of Seyyid Lokman. Nakkas Osman wasn’t the only artist with whom Seyyid Lokman collaborated. Each of the projects taken up had first to be approved by the sultan. Then it was a matter of selecting who was going to be part of project team which had to include the calligrapher, the artist or artists and even at times the person who prepared the gold ink that was used in the illustrations. Fetvaci makes a solid case for Lokman’s not just being the writer but his also being in charge of gathering the team and materials and ensuring that the group worked together. He kept a notebook in which he recorded salaries and even extra compensation. The records show also that he was authorized to bring in people to work on the manuscripts who weren’t regularly employed although there was a royal workshop. In addition, Fetvacı throws doubt on the idea that there actual was a physical workshop on or near Topkapı Palace that was used for the production of manuscripts.
Ottoman history written by chroniclers
The position of the şahnameci was discontinued after 1605 and the court historian changed. From then on, Ottoman history was written by chroniclers who recorded day-to-day occurrences. The sehname, even during Lokman’s tenure, changed. The original idea had been to publicize the Ottoman dynasty and its heroic sultans but the two sultans under whom Lokman worked never led the Ottoman armies to battle. As Fetvaci has pointed out, it is difficult to lionize a sultan who doesn’t behave like a lion. Her close examination of the illustrations revealed that more and more the courtiers became important and the sultan receded into the distance. That suits Lokman’s case. His initial patron had been Grand Vizier Mehmed Sokollu Paşa; however, he was assassinated in 1579. Lokman was left having to find a new patron but he seems never to have won over Koca Sinan Paşa who would become grand vizier in 1579 for the first of five times that he held the post. Between the death of Mehmed Sokollu Paşa and 1605 when the position apparently lapsed there were 25 grand viziers, including the five times for Koca Sinan Paşa. Lokman can hardly be blamed for not knowing to whom to turn.
After Seyyid Lokman, only two others were appointed to be şahnameci, one of whom, Talikizade Mehmed Subhi Efendi was a protégé of the same Koca Sinan Pasa whom Lokman had been courting. It must have been very disheartening for him but Talikizade, according to Ahmed Refik, chose to work with Lokman on the Tacuttevarih (The Crown of Histories) by Hoca Sadeddin Efendi. It was now the reign of Sultan Mehmed III (r. 1595-1603) who set forth in 1596 on campaign to fight the Austrians in Hungary. Talikizade and Lokman went with the army but the latter was ordered to return to Istanbul and finish the manuscript before the army got back. Presumably he did since the two men worked together for the next six years. In 1601 Seyyid Lokman was appointed to a treasury position and that’s the last we hear of him. But we still have the magnificent manuscripts he had a hand in producing.
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Liam Returns the Favour at IRONMAN 70.3 Geelong
IRONMAN racing is evidence that ‘Anything is Possible’ and together the Baker Institute’s health experts and 28 year old Melbourne athlete Liam Kirkman are set to prove that it is more than a catch phrase, it is a daily reality.
Diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at age 11, Liam has always managed to be active and his passion as a youngster was get out on his road bike with his mum to keep fit, a skill that came in handy later in life when he eventually discovered the world of triathlon.
"Type 1 diabetes doesn’t discriminate," Liam said. "One week as a kid I just got really sick. I was drinking a lot of water, going to the toilet a lot and something obviously wasn’t right. Being diagnosed was a bit of a shock for an eleven year old with all the restrictions of not being able to eat certain foods, can’t go to the shops with your friends and get lollies after school and things like that. It just provided me with another layer of things to learn about."
"I did a few smaller sprint triathlons when I was younger and really liked it and the idea of the three disciplines. Until a couple of years ago I was playing footy and kept getting injured and spent a bit more time in hospital than what I did at work. It wasn’t like I was playing professional footy, I was just a weekend warrior so it just wasn’t worth it."
"I needed something where there was a bit less contact and I could look after myself a bit better. I got stuck into the longer distance triathlon with the IRONMAN 70.3 Sunshine Coast last August. It was something to do over the winter and I wanted to challenge myself a bit and see if I could do it. It was unbelievable crossing the finish line and it was such a great moment to realise that I had completed a goal that I had set for myself. It was six months of training, through the Melbourne winter and the freezing cold. Trying to do open water swims in Port Phillip Bay in 9 degree water," he said. Under care of specialists since he was eleven, since moving to Melbourne Liam has engaged the help of the Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute to assist him manage his diabetes and get the most out of himself as an athlete.
"The Baker Institute really are the best in the business at what they do and since moving to Melbourne I have been seeing their endocrinologists and diabetes educators on a three monthly basis and have had some really good results."
"They are really professional in how they treat their patients. They are really on your team about trying to get you the best results they can. I have made a lot of adjustments with medication and different techniques for my eating and diet and the results have been fantastic."
With the Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute the title sponsor of the IRONMAN 70.3 Geelong, Liam said it was only logical that he join their ‘TEAM TO BEAT’, wear the Baker Institute kit and raise funds for their internationally renowned medical research.
"I can’t really thank them enough they have been really good to me. So, 70.3 Geelong provides the opportunity to give something back to them. I have been doing fundraising and the family and friends are all on board and on the bandwagon and have chipped in. A local pub in St Kilda, Freddie Wimpoles, is also donating profits from Saturday afternoon sale of all Coopers Pale Ale and Thatcher’s Cider. Any profit from those barrels they are donating to the Baker Institute. So that was a win," Liam said.
Making the step up to IRONMAN 70.3 training and racing puts an amount of stress on any athlete’s body, and while having type 1 diabetes added an extra dimension for Liam to manage, he said triathlon has been very beneficial for his health.
"People say there are four disciplines in triathlon, swim ride, run and nutrition but for me managing the blood sugar levels for me is the fifth leg. It is a constant thing that is always on my mind, especially during races and long training sessions. You really can’t perform at your best if your sugar levels aren’t stable. I don’t let it get to me, but it is something I need to be careful of and maintain for my overall health."
"The long distance aerobic exercising really levels out and stabilises my sugar levels compared to a sport like AFL that is high stress, high contact and the sugar levels are up and down all the time. You spike and fall and don’t feel that great if it is not under control. Triathlon has been good for stabilising my blood sugars and I have had really good results since I have been training for Sunny Coast and now 70.3 Geelong."
"I am in reasonable fitness and feeling good. The training has been really consistent and that is the main thing and I am just ticking off the boxes as the days go by. I am feeling confident in all three disciples and I am just hoping for a good solid race. I’d like to break my previous time but to just finish and feel good is another goal. I am just looking forward to it and I am excited to race Geelong," he said.
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Posted: Mon Feb 20, 2017 4:47 pm Post subject: Aga Khan Firm Equips Teachers With New Skills
Tanzania: Aga Khan Firm Equips Teachers With New Skills
Tanzania Daily News (Dar es Salaam)
By Jimmy Lwangili
The Aga Khan foundation has trained over 1,000 headteachers of nursery and primary schools from Lindi and Mtwara regions through its project that seeks to improve education in the East Africa Regions (AKU-IED, EA).
The free training that involved headteachers from Kilwa, Lindi, Nachingwea and Newala districts had benefited from various training of teaching techniques including how to prepare the relevant subjects.
The AKU-IED,EA Project Manager, Mr Ronald Kimambo said the project is well known as 'the project of consolidation of professional and supporting education systems in improving learning outcomes'. This was revealed on Friday during the fourth graduation ceremony since the establishment of the project.
"This is a five year project that sponsored by the government of the Canada and the Aga Khan foundation ... and it's expected to complete at the end of this year," Kimambo briefed during the occasion held in Kilwa District.
According to him, since the establishment of the project has helped bring positive change among teachers and pupils, as well as strengthen government's efforts in improving the education sector. "We hope these teachers will serve as a springboard for their fellow teachers through knowledge sharing," he said.
The main project facilitator, Dr Abdallah Mohamed, said the teachers were taught two courses: Leadership and administration and training, monitoring and assessment of students. He said the courses were taught for six months and provided for three phases, theory, practical and the third is the teachers to meet with trainers to present feedback.
At the same occasion, Planning Officer in the Kilwa District, Mr Francis Kaunda has urged the graduates to use the training for building good understanding capacity to the pupils in their schools. "This is the great opportunity to you guys, use it well and we are so dependent on you to share the skills with the teachers who did not benefit from this project," said Kaunda.
The Acting Director of Training for the Ministry of Education, Science, Technology and Vocational Training, Basiliana Mrimi urged the graduates to actively use the training in improving education by solving teaching challenges in their areas.
One of the graduates, Alfa Milanzi, a headteacher at Madangwa Primary School said the training had helped him get positive change, and that he hopes to perform better in his career than before. "Through these training course I have well understood how to prepare different subject concepts better than before," he said.
http://www.businessinsider.com/r-eu-mergers-and-takeovers-feb-24-2017-2?IR=T
For complete text see link
EU mergers and takeovers (Feb 24)
Feb. 24, 2017, 11:25 AM
BRUSSELS, Feb 24 (Reuters) - The following are mergers under review by the European Commission and a brief guide to the EU merger process.
Qatar Airways to acquire a 49 percent stake in Italian carrier Meridiana (notified Feb. 21/deadline March 2
Posted: Sat Apr 29, 2017 6:44 am Post subject:
http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/aga-khan-foundation-bags-swachh-award/article18308879.ece
Aga Khan Foundation bags ‘Swachh’ award
PTIUpdated: April 29, 2017 19:14 IST
The Aga Khan Foundation has bagged an award for implementing a development model that aims at improving access to water and sanitation for marginalised communities across urban and rural areas of the country.
The Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN) of the prestigious foundation received the FICCI-India Sanitation Coalition prize for the initiative that seeks to contribute towards building an open-defecation free India by 2019 under the ‘Swachh Bharat’ mission, the Foundation said on Saturday.
‘Help for 1 lakh families’
The Foundation’s CEO, Tinni Sawhney, and other dignitaries from the Aga Khan Rural Support Programme (AKRSP) received the award from Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu on Thursday.
“The initiative aims at improving access to water and sanitation for marginalised communities across urban and rural India, including helping 1,00,000 families and 538 schools, as well as building toilets in the States of Bihar, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Telangana and Uttar Pradesh,” the Foundation said.
Piloted in Bihar
“The model that we have implemented is a collaborative initiative, working in close partnership with the district and the [respective] State government, prioritising a strong behavioural change component to ensure sustained use and maintenance of sanitation facilities,” Ms. Sawhney said.
The integrated block-level sanitation model is being piloted in rural Bihar.
kmaherali
Posted: Sat Apr 29, 2017 5:55 pm Post subject:
AKDN Comprehensive Water & Sanitation Initiaitve
Aga Khan Foundation UK
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3IHyOFrMKE8
From Tree to Trade: Cashews in Mozambique
This blog reflects highlights from a conversation with Sarah Heddon, Program Associate at Aga Khan Foundation. She recently visited Mozambique to oversee MozaCajú, a three-year project implemented jointly by TechnoServe and the Aga Khan Foundation with funding from U.S. Department of Agriculture.
http://www.akfusa.org/our-stories/from-tree-to-trade-cashews-in-mozambique/
The Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN) and its agencies actively seek to co-operate with like-minded institutions in the design, implementation and funding of innovative development projects. They therefore need and welcome institutions and individuals throughout the world as partners to attain shared objectives. Individual AKDN agencies also work closely with local, state and national governments in each country in which they are active. The following institutional partners contributed financially or materially to the programmes of individual AKDN agencies. Many more contributed practically and intellectually to their work. All of these contributions are gratefully acknowledged.
http://www.akdn.org/about-us/our-partners
Raising cocoa farmer incomes
Improving the cocoa value chain in Madagascar
https://spark.adobe.com/page/5gXE1/
Extract:
In response to these challenges, in 2015, the Aga Khan Foundation began piloting a cocoa value chain initiative in Madagascar's northern Diana region. Its aim is to improve the quality of cocoa and demonstrate to private sector buyers that the Diana region has the potential to become a significant producer of quality cocoa. In doing so, over time this initiative aims to increase exports and, ultimately, raise the incomes for thousands of farmers. Initially, working alongside 125 farmers, the programme is focusing on three key initiatives.
Posted: Sun Jun 18, 2017 1:19 am Post subject: AKDN Achievements
AKDN Achievements to 2016
News AKDN
works in over 30 countries around the world.
employs approximately 80,000 people.
The majority of 80000 are based in developing countries.
annual budget for non-profit development activities is approximately US$ 925 million.
project companies of the Ismaili community generated revenues of US$ 4.1 billion
Helping 8 million poor people
Provides access to finance to 17 million people
1.3 million people were provided with clean safe drinking water.
All surpluses are reinvested into further development activities.
AKDN Values in Action
Recalling 60 years of His Highness the Aga Khan's work in realising goals and values of the Ismaili Imamat through the work of the Aga Khan Development Network.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lqYy-N20fb0
Aga Khan anniversary: Aga Khan Development Network vows to continue making people's lives better
The Aga Khan Development Network has vowed to continue funding and supporting both Social and Economic Sectors in Uganda as well as advocating for a pluralistic Society World Over. This information was revealed at the Diamond Jubilee Celebrations of His Highness the Aga Khan to mark 60 years since he inherited the title of Imam in 1957.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uPNkaLRKb_U
60 years of improving the quality of life
http://www.akdn.org/sites/akdn/files/media/documents/dj_press_kit/brief_-_60_years_of_improving_the_quality_of_life_eng.pdf#page=2
Posted: Wed Aug 16, 2017 5:44 am Post subject: President Mamnoon lauds development initiatives of Aga Khan
https://dnd.com.pk/president-mamnoon-lauds-development-initiatives-of-aga-khan/133003
President Mamnoon lauds development initiatives of Aga Khan
DND -
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan: President Mamnoon Hussain on Wednesday said the continued efforts of Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN) through its multiple projects in the country were making a visible difference in the lives of the people and infrastructure.
The President expressed these views while talking to President of Aga Khan Council for Pakistan Hafiz Sherali who called on him at the Aiwan-e-Sadr in Islamabad to handover a letter from Prince Karim Aga Khan in response to the President’s letter of felicitation on the diamond jubilee of the former’s Imamat.
The President appreciated the role of Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN), Aga Khan Foundation and Aga Khan Health Services role in promoting many important social services projects, especially in northern areas of Pakistan.
He said Prince Karim Aga Khan like his grandfather focused his efforts concerning the quality of life of Muslims all around the world.
In areas of health, education, cultural, revitalization, and economic empowerment, Prince Karim Aga Khan worked to inspire excellence and improve living condition and opportunities in some of the world’s most remote regions, he added.
The President also underlined the role of Aga Khan’s grandfather Sir Sultan Shah Aga Khan in the Pakistan Movement as the first President of All India Muslim League.
In his message, acknowledging his family’s strong ties dating back to the foundation of Pakistan, Prince Aga Khan highlighted the long-established collaboration of the AKDN with public and private institutions to improve the quality of life, create opportunity and build a strong and vibrant civil society in the country.
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He expressed gratitude to the President and the Government of Pakistan for their continued support and partnership which led to a number of pioneering initiatives in the country.
Hafiz Sherali apprised the President about AKDN’s recent activities and its focus to alleviate poverty, provide increased access to finance for education, health and housing, early childhood development, and infrastructure (principally, water and energy) projects in developing countries.
The President also conveyed best wishes for Prince Karim Aga Khan from the Government and People of Pakistan.
Posted: Fri Sep 15, 2017 9:12 pm Post subject: AKDN Iringa
http://www.thecitizen.co.tz/News/Water-project-to-benefit-more-than-6-000-villagers-in-Iringa/1840340-4093020-vtdq01z/index.html
Water project to benefit more than 6,000 villagers in Iringa
The project has been made p;ossible through contribution from Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN).
By By Gadiosa Lamtey @gadiosa2 glamtey@tz.nationmedi.com
At least 6,000 people living in Mapogolo - Idodi and Itunundu - Ikorongo villages in Iringa Region can now easily get water from wells through solar water pumping systems installed recently.
Minister for Lands, Housing and Human Settlements Development, Mr William Lukuvi, who is also MP or Ismani Constituency in Iringa, thanked AKDN and Ismaili community for making the projects a reality.
The projects were part of other humanitarian assistance by the Ismaili community this year to commemorate the 60th diamond jubilee celebrations of His Highness, the Aga Khan.
AKDN is a non – profit organisation founded and guided by his Aga Khan. For than a century it has been contributing to the social, economic and cultural development in Tanzania, which includes rural support of agricultural programmes, hospitals and health centers, schools and others.
The inauguration of the two wells was also attended by Regional and District Commissioners from Iringa and other village council leaders from Mapogolo and Ikorongo villages as well as the Vise President of the Ismaili community in Tanzania and other officials from Ismaili council of southern region.
Posted: Thu Sep 28, 2017 5:28 pm Post subject:
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-qatar-airways-italy-meridiana/qatar-airways-expands-airline-investments-with-italys-meridiana-idUSKCN1C32CC
September 28, 2017 / 10:45 AM / Updated 12 hours ago
Qatar Airways expands airline investments with Italy's Meridiana
Alexander Cornwell
REUTERS/Naseem Zeitoon
DOHA (Reuters) - Qatar Airways said on Thursday it had acquired a 49 percent stake in AQA Holding, the new parent company of Italy’s Meridiana, adding to its growing portfolio of investments in foreign airlines.
Previous sole owner Alisarda retains 51 percent, the major Middle East airline said in a statement.
Loss-making, Sardinia-based Meridiana is Italy’s second largest carrier behind Alitalia [CAITLA.UL], which is partly owned by Abu Dhabi’s Etihad Airways. Alitalia filed for administration earlier this year.
The value of the Meridiana acquisition was not given, and the deal was finalised after protracted negotiations that formally started more than a year ago.
“We are delighted to formalize this important partnership, which will help increase Meridiana’s competitiveness in the European market,” Qatar Airways Chief Executive Akbar al-Baker said.
Italian Foreign Minister Angelino Alfano said the deal represented a turnaround for Meridiana and would help Italy’s tourism industry, especially in the poorer south of the country.
Transport Minister Graziano Delrio said it would ensure job security for Meridiana workers, and created the potential for future job growth.
Alisarda Chairman Marco Rigotti has been appointed chairman of AQA Holding, and Francesco Violante has been appointed as chairman of Meridiana.
A new strategy and chief executive for Meridiana would be announced in “due course,” but al-Baker said Qatar Airways would work with Meridiana to improve its connectivity to Italy, other European destinations, and to the United States.
Al-Baker has said Meridiana would use Boeing 737 MAXs ordered by Qatar Airways, with 20 to be delivered to the Italian airline from the second quarter of 2018.
Meridiana, which offers flights to and from Sardinia and other destinations in Italy, was until now fully owned by the Aga Khan, a businessman and spiritual leader of the Ismaili Muslims.
Qatar Airways bought the Meridiana stake nearly four months into a Gulf political crisis that has seen some Arab states cut ties with Qatar, and the airline banned from flying to some Middle East cities.
Qatar Airways also owns minority stakes in British Airways parent International Airlines Group (IAG) and South America’s LATAM Airlines.
Earlier this year, Qatar Airways tried to add American Airlines (AAL.O) to its portfolio of minority stakes but later backed away after being rebuked by American’s management. It has also expressed interest in Royal Air Maroc [RAM.UL].
Qatar Airways has said it buys stakes in airlines that it believes are good investments, and lets them operate as businesses distinct from the Gulf carrier.
Posted: Sat Sep 30, 2017 6:28 pm Post subject:
Ngowi challenges young entrepreneurs to be more creative
Dar es Salaam. Tanzania’s budding entrepreneurs have been challenged to come up with apt business plans in a bid to secure sufficient grants from donors, which will help them run their businesses efficiently.
This was said by Prof Honest Ngowi of the Mzumbe University when addressing participants of the National Tanzania Scale Forum yesterday. The forum carried the theme “Young Entrepreneurship for Social Impact”.
Besides Prof Ngowi called on financial institutions to support the young entrepreneurs by providing them with soft loans or grants to enable them to grow their businesses.
The National Tanzania Scale Forum, which was organised by the Aga Khan Development Network Agencies (Aga Khan University and Aga Khan Foundation), brought together over 100 young entrepreneurs from across the country to discuss and share experience in entrepreneurship.
For his part, the Director of East Africa Institute of Aga Khan University, Mr Alex Awiti said the programme was crucial because it provided the young entrepreneurs with the skills and experience about entrepreneurship.
http://www.thecitizen.co.tz/News/Ngowi-challenges-young-entrepreneurs-to-be-more-creative/1840340-4116452-bnfkr6/index.html
Posted: Sat Nov 18, 2017 6:06 pm Post subject:
Reaching out to disadvantaged communities
To understand the impact of the Aga Khan Foundation (AKF), one has to look at specific programmes. The foundation has improved the lives of many people on Kenya’s ocean coast for example.
In Mombasa and the neighbouring counties of Kilifi and Kwale, the AKF has been engaged in pre-primary and primary education for almost four decades. Several million dollars have been spent, and various partners, including the Canadian government, have been involved.
In 1982, the Aga Khan visited Mombasa, where he met Muslim leaders. They told him there was a need to improve childhood education. The situation was dire in Mombasa, because fewer Muslim children than Christian children went to primary and secondary schools, and the performance of those that did was not as good as their counterparts’ performance in the Christian schools.
The parents knew that the problem began very early. Due to shaky foundations built in their children’s early years, it was not a surprise that they failed their primary and secondary school exams. It certainly could make it to university. Because they failed in formal education, their fate was to be stuck in the vicious cycle of ignorance, illiteracy and poverty. In 1983, researchers confirmed this view. According to their study, “quality pre-school education for three-to-six year-olds was critical to their future development”. The AKF became involved.
In the meantime, more than 250,000 children have benefited from the programme. Not all of them were Muslims. The AKF does not promote sectarian approaches but spreads the message of communities living peacefully together.
On the Kenyan coast, the AKF also has a history of improving food security. Its rural support programme started out with model projects in three of the region’s poorest sub-counties. According to an AKF official, the places concerned “face harsh climatic conditions, are geographically remote and generally have low access to government services”. Many residents still lack access to clean drinking water, infrastructure is poor, and there is limited access to education and health care.
Over a 15-year period, the programme has grown from four village organisation to 195, with over 230,000 members. The AKF reports that the programme helped to build 121 dams and small farm reservoirs that provide access to water for domestic and productive use in the target communities. As a result, many households were able to increase their agricultural production and incomes. The programme also helped to improve access to water, sanitation and hygiene in 50 schools for 30,000 children.
Another achievement is that 24,000 community members now rely on 47 kilometres of water pipes. Families were encouraged to establish kitchen gardens for improved nutrition. Moreover, 250,000 trees were planted. The foundation says it has trained over 200,000 Kenyan farmers on how to increase their productivity. Such numbers are impressive.
In rural Tanzania, the AKF is taking a similar approach. The target group is smallholder farmers in the remote Lindi and Mtwara regions, which are near the Mozambican border. “The programme supports multiple economic activities that improve agricultural production by mainly enhancing productivity and educating farmers on better marketing practices,” the AKF spokesperson reports. “Its key focus has been on the rice and sesame value chains, as well as on increasing access to financial services through community-based savings groups.” The savings groups allow households to pool their funds and take small loans.
As of 2014, the foundation reports, a total of 54,000 smallholder farmers had doubled their rice and sesame yields while strengthening environment-friendly agriculture skills. The microfinance initiative has seen more than 120,000 people save a total of US$ 2.2 million as at the end of 2013. (as)
https://www.dandc.eu/en/article/tangible-aga-khan-programmes-east-africa
FAITH-BASED INITIATIVES
Helping families to escape the cycle of poverty
The list of countries where Aga Khan institutions operate features countries where life is hard, poverty is dire and more help is needed. Because of the institutions’ excellent reputation, other development agencies appreciate cooperating with them.
In a grainy video from 1957, a man of 20 years age is escorted to the throne, crowned and made the leader of what today is a vast community of an estimated 20 million Ismailis, a branch of Shia Islam. The youngster went up to the throne as Prince Karim al Husseini Shah and came down as His Highness the Aga Khan IV.
He is an unusual monarch in the sense of not having a geographic realm. His personal fortune is kept secret. Forbes estimated it at $ 800 million in 2010. Today, his nationality is British, his background is South Asian and he lives in France. Passed on to his young shoulders in 1957, was not just a title but also a ton of responsibilities that were initially defined by his grandfather.
Today, the impact of his tenure and his work dots every sector of society in nearly 30 countries. The Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN) and the Aga Khan Foundation (AKF) are important institutions. They are difficult to describe in one word or one sentence. Philanthropy doesn’t quite fit, nor does entrepreneurship. Social enterprise comes close. The Aga Khan frowns upon such framing because it doesn’t tell the whole story.
https://www.dandc.eu/en/article/aga-khans-approach-development-emphasises-long-term-community-empowerment
Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN)
AKF Digital Savings Groups are groups of 15-30 members who operate a savings group over a nine-month to one-year cycle on average, just as CBSGs have always done. However, DSGs are entirely cashless and paperless, while maintaining the social aspect.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CIF7YFWtW_0
AKDN EVENTS 2017
http://www.akdn.org/press-centre/events?from=1483225200&to=1514329140
Oxford Centre for Comparative and International Education
Re-Examining the Meaning of Education in an Uncertain World
Department of Education and St. Antony's College, University of Oxford
Supported by the Aga Khan Foundation
The Centre for Comparative and International Education, in the Department of Education, at the University of Oxford has partnered with the Aga Khan Foundation and launched a new programme of research that seeks to examine two pressing concerns:
First, that the rise globally of political and economic uncertainties has invited conflicting expectations of the role of education, and second that the world crisis in education has produced uncertainty about the meaning of learning and conflicting perspectives about where we learn, what we learn, when we learn, and how we learn.
We believe that now, more than ever, there is a critical need to reconsider the debates about the role of education and the meaning of learning in an uncertain world. We must think again about the shape of the institutional frameworks in which education is given and interrogate more robustly the discourse that seeks to define education – as being of good quality or not, inclusive or not, effective or not.
And that it is right to explore the tensions between the efforts that value the development of open-mindedness, of intercultural understanding and of comfort with diversity, and those that look towards education to retract in favour of singularity, of certainty and of definitive standards, at a time when the debate on this is at its most heightened.
The research programme in its inaugural year intends to inspire new conversations, scholarly papers, and empirical studies about the role of education and the nature and meaning of learning in a world in flux.
​More...
http://www.oxfordcie.org/
Posted: Thu Jan 18, 2018 2:03 pm Post subject:
AKDN Most shared images of 2017
http://www.akdn.org/gallery/most-shared-images-2017
Images from around the world help tell the stories of how people are working to help improve the quality of life for millions of people in partnership with AKDN. Over the last year, partners and friends have submitted photographs from around the globe. As we mark the Diamond Jubilee of His Highness the Aga Khan, we have brought together a collection of 60 of the most-shared pictures from AKDN projects around the world.
From an inside look at economic empowerment programs for women in Central Asia, to flying broomsticks in Naryn, Kyrgyz Republic, to the restoration and conservation of buildings in India and Pakistan, to stories of collaboration and service in the U.S. and Canada, here are some highlights of people working to make a difference.
Thank you to all our partners, staff, volunteers and friends who are part of this story of positive impact around the world.
AKDN comprehensive sanitation initiative in India
http://www.akdn.org/ar/video/akdn-comprehensive-sanitation-initiative-india
India, 24 April 2017 - An integrated block-level sanitation model is being piloted in rural Bihar, India. The approach focuses on community-led initiatives for ensuring universal sanitation coverage at the village and block level, real time tracking of household sanitation coverage, monitoring improvements in key hygiene behaviours using a mobile-based app, and strengthening the sanitation supply chain through training of masons, including making available required materials for toilet construction.
AKDN IN INDIA
AKDN activities span the states of Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Delhi, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Telangana and Uttar Pradesh. They address a spectrum of development issues ranging from cultural restoration to education, financial inclusion to healthcare, agriculture and environment to civil society strengthening. These initiatives include schools and educational centres, a 162-bed multi-specialty acute care hospital in Mumbai, a rural support programme that has benefited over 1.5 million people in six Indian states and the restoration of a World Heritage site in the nation’s capital.
Slide show:
http://www.akdn.org/where-we-work/south-asia/india
Posted: Tue Feb 06, 2018 7:15 am Post subject:
ICT devices easing learning in rural Uganda
ARUA, Uganda--Feta James Harold is eight years old pupil of Rigbo Primary school in Arua district. He is in Primary two. The school is a rural area near the river Nile North east of Arua town. His father is the deputy head teacher and a class teacher of P2 in the school.
He likes drawing things on sand and naming them thereafter shows the teacher his work on the ground but this was in the past.
When the computer/tablets were brought to the school by Aga Khan Foundation (AKF) this boy developed an interest in learning how to use them. As a result when ever his father holds the laptop he comes besides him to see what the father was doing.
In the process of being close to the laptop, the boy has developed skills of navigating the digital stories, games and quizzes installed in the laptop and tablets to the extent that he now assists/ trains and guide his peers whenever they face challenges in class. Some of the unique skills he has acquired include; locating stories, navigating between stories, doing quizzes, dragging and tracing among others. He has become a champion pupil in the school.
He has picked up reading very well as such his elder brother Desire Hannington who is in P4 is learning reading Lugbarati and English from him.
Feta said ; “I want to become a pilot because one of the stories in the laptop talked about a girl who was a pilot” His father said the presence of the computer had accelerated his learning in spellings, reading, drawing, reasoning, peer interaction and speaking. Thanks to Aga Khan Foundation.
http://www.busiweek.com/index1.php?Ctp=2&pI=6172&pLv=3&srI=69&spI=221&cI=11
Posted: Wed Feb 14, 2018 10:47 am Post subject:
EU and Aga Khan Foundation Tanzania launch $2 million rice project
The Aga Khan Foundation (AKF) Tanzania with support from the European Union (EU) on Thursday launched a Tsh 4.1bn rice project in Morogoro Region, Tanzania.
Working with the Rice Council of Tanzania (RCT), the four-year project is dubbed ‘Enhancing Competitiveness of Smallholder Rice Farmers in Morogoro’ and aims to strengthen the capacity of smallholder farmers and value chain actors in the rice sector.
The EU has funded the project in support of the Southern Agricultural Growth Corridor of Tanzania (SAGCOT)’s goal of fostering inclusive, commercially successful agribusiness.
“The project will contribute to shifting from small-scale subsistence farming towards small-scale ‘commercial’ farming, by targeting the existing challenges and gaps within the value chain, particularly limited knowledge among farmers on post-harvest practices, and their minimal control over the process after harvest,” said
“Smallholder farmers will be enabled to produce a product that is of good quality and in sufficient volume at a lower cost of production,” he added.
The project facilitates collective marketing through farmers groups’ to ensure that trading is fair. It further adds entities to work with millers and buyers to improve milling, grading, packaging, branding and marketing of rice.
The initiative will also work on raising awareness on standards and policies as well as promote learning and policy improvement in the rice value chain.
https://asokoinsight.com/news/eu-and-aga-khan-foundation-tanzania-launch-2-million-rice-project
http://www.busiweek.com/index1.php?Ctp=2&pI=6258&pLv=2&srI=9&spI=7&cI=11
Kampala City partners with Aga Khan on Childhood development
KAMPALA, UGANDA- The Aga Khan Foundation and Kampala City Council Authority have signed a Memorandum Of Understanding (MoU) for the implementation of a project intended to improve the wellbeing of boys and girls aged 0-8 in Central Uganda.
The project is co-financed by AKF and ELMA Philanthropies and implemented by AKFU. The M.o.U is to formalize a collaboration with KCCA to deliver on the objectives of the project as shown below;
The two and half year project is geared towards improving care practices including cognitive stimulation and nutrition, among caregivers of boys and girls aged 0-3 years, strengthening capacity of caregivers to support primary school readiness for boys and girls aged 3-5 years, increasing capacity of primary schools to support successful transition and retention of children aged 6-8years and enhancing learning and coordination between ECD service providers within KCCA.
The signing event was attended by the Aga Khan Foundation team led by Dr. Akim Okuni and the KCCA team was led by Juliet Namudu, Director Legal, Acting Deputy Director Public and Corporate affairs Peter Kawuju and Deputy Director Social Services.
Juliet Namudu the Acting Deputy Executive Director of KCCA said “Today we are here to sign an MOU with the Aga Khan Foundation to look after the children form the age of 0 to 8 years of age in several ways of health and nutrition plus preparing them for education at the lower level, the hops is that this intervention will keep the children in school longer. We are very thankful to the Aga Khan Foundation for choosing KCCA to work with us in the aspects of health and education. We look forward to a very good partnership where we are going to make a difference in the life of our children”.
Dr. Akim Okuni the Country Director of the Aga Khan Foundation noted that “Early Childhood development in Uganda is characterized by limited access, I thinks it’s between 12% to 15% of the children in Uganda who access Early Childhood education in a formal context, the other is that they are generally poor services and inadequate coordination between service providers in addition to lack of capacity of human resource, so this project in the districts where we shall be implementing this project including KCCA our intension is to tackle some of these issues.”.
By EABW REPORTER, Thursday, February 15th, 2018
Georgia General Assembly recognizes the Ismaili Muslim community at the Ethics in Action: The Aga Khan Development Network exhibition at the Georgia State Capital georgia.gov
https://www.facebook.com/theismailiusa/posts/519148101819267
AKDN Winter Newsletter: Pakistan edition (2018)
His Highness the Aga Khan inaugurates state-of-the-art healthcare education centre In Karachi
Aga Khan Agency for Habitat organises international workshop on disaster risk reduction
Meet the young innovators from Chitral
Serena: Benefitting people and places
AKDN and Government of Canada celebrate 35 years of partnership in Pakistan
Aga Khan Medical Centre, Gilgit expands capacity to provide quality care to critical patients
Profit distribution from Shigar Fort and Khaply Palace
Synergies and local energies
No electricity or internet, but still connected to the world
AKAH,P and UNOCHA join hands to train the Disaster Assessment and Response Team
Young Pakistan Rises to the AKU Challenge
http://www.akdn.org/publication/akdn-winter-newsletter-pakistan-edition-2018
Aga Khan Foundation launches Ksh117 million project in Kisii County.
Expectant mothers, newborns and children under five years in Kisii County are set to benefit from a KShs.117million Maternal and Child Health project.
On March 21, Kisii Deputy Governor Joash Maangi laid the foundation stone for a new maternal and child health block and a theatre at Kenyenya Sub County Hospital in Bomachoge Borabu.
The project funded by the Aga Khan Development Network and dubbed ‘Access to Quality Care through Extending and Strengthening Health Systems (AQCESS)’ will significantly boost availability, quality and utilization of essential services for expectant mothers, newborns and children under five.
The four-year project whose implementation began in 2016 will also benefit 10 community units through improvement of facilities and capacity building for health workers.
https://www.lolwe.tv/news/aga-khan-foundation-launches-ksh117-million-project-kisii-county/
Aga Khan foundation donates ksh. 3.5m worth of training equipment
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nyIOcMgh1_0
Jubilee Insurance Cup 2018 to stir excitement among cricket lovers
LAHORE: The Jubilee Insurance Cup 2018 is set to spark excitement among our cricket loving nation with the T20 cricket series just around the corner. Jubilee Life, Pakistan’s largest life insurance provider in the private sector is the title sponsor of this upcoming event being played between Pakistan and West Indies.
This comes following the much applauded Pakistan Super League (PSL) series with the final being gloriously concluded in Karachi. The Jubilee Insurance Cup 2018 to is scheduled for 3 T20 matches from April 01 to April 03, 2018 at the National Stadium, Karachi. This announcement was made during a press conference held in Lahore.
https://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2018/03/29/jubilee-insurance-cup-2018-to-stir-excitement-among-cricket-lovers/
Posted: Thu Apr 12, 2018 11:40 am Post subject:
https://www.the-star.co.ke/news/2018/04/13/aga-khan-donates-equipment-to-tvet_c1742603
Aga Khan donates equipment to TVET
By STEPHEN ASTARIKO @stephen.ASTARIKO
(old photo) President Mwai Kibaki greets Highness the Agha Khan during a State banquet hosted by President Museveni to mark the 50th anniversary of Uganda's independence at Sate House, Entebbe. Looking on is Benin President Dr.Thomas Yayi Boni. Photo/ PPS
The Aga Khan Foundation yesterday handed over Sh3.5 million equipment to the Garissa vocational training centre.
The equipment — including sewing machines, fabric, electrical and beauty therapy products — were received on behalf of the institution by area deputy Abdi Dagane.
Hasma Awadh of the Aga Khan Foundation said the equipment were purchased by funds they received from the EU. She said the three-year project will improve the socio-economic opportunities for youth in Northern Kenya. Dagane said youth enrolment to the centre was still low despite the county’s support.
The government set aside more than Sh2 billion for the 47 counties. It will fund student capitation of Sh15,000 each for tuition, training materials, skills completion and co-curricular activities.
Last edited by Admin on Thu Apr 12, 2018 11:44 am, edited 1 time in total
http://www.kbc.co.ke/aga-khan-foundation-donated-equipment-worth-3-5-million/
Aga Khan Foundation donates equipment worth Ksh3.5 million
Written By:Carol Kamau
The Aga Khan foundation has donated equipment worth 3.5 million shillings to the Garissa vocational training centre.
The equipment which included tailoring machines, materials, electrical and beauty therapy products were received on behalf of the institution by area Deputy Governor Abdi Dagane.
The donation is part of a 3 year project meant to improve the socio-economic opportunities for the youth in Northern Kenya.
Rising unemployment among the youth in Northern Kenya has been described as a time bomb waiting to happen, a state of affairs that also makes them a soft target for recruitment by gangs and terrorists. It’s probably informed by this that various stakeholders are coming up with projects to create opportunities for the youth in the area.
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Hasma Awadh of Aga Khan Foundation said the 3.5 million shillings equipment were purchased by funds they received from the European Union saying this will be a 3 year project meant to improve the socio-economic opportunities for the youth in Northern Kenya.
Also Read Winnie Mandela memorial service to be held in Nairobi
Deputy Governor Abdi Dagane reiterated that the county government was committed to ensuring that institutions that provide skills and opportunities to the youth are well funded.
He however expressed disappointment that the enrollment especially by the local youth was still low.
Also Read Nairobi County workers demolish stalls in Ngara
He urged the members of the county assembly to help in a campaign to encourage the local youth to enroll adding that learning was free.
Elijah Mwaniki, director of vocational education training said the department is revising the current curriculum to ensure that the skills the youth acquire can also allow them work in modern industries apart from being self-reliant.
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Jump to: Select a forum JUBILEE & DIDARS AGA KHAN IV----------------Diamond Jubilee Padhramnis & DidarsOther Diamond Jubilee Activities and NewspapersPadhramnis, Mulaquats and Didar other than JubileesOther Golden Jubilee ProjectsThe Heritage Golden Blood ProjectThe Heritage Golden Salwaat Project THEOLOGY----------------THIS FORUM - RULES ETCDoctrinesRites and CeremoniesGinansQasidas & GeetsIsmaili Law Documents and Other Historical DocumentsKhojki Heritage HISTORY----------------Pre-AdamPre-fatimidFatimid PeriodAlamut and Post-AlamutContemporary SOCIAL----------------Current IssuesImamat/ Noorani Family ActivitiesInstitutional ActivitiesJamat ActivitiesCustoms and Traditions OTHERS----------------DID YOU KNOW?Art, Architecture, MusicPeopleBooksPlacesPen Pal and Contact info.Lost and FoundAnecdotesInspirationPrivate Ismaili Cultural Event for All
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Alex Bellos on The Royal Society Winton Prize Shortlist
Judge Sarah Waters: “The best science writers can move and thrill us just as much as Austen or Dickens”
The Royal Society has announced the shortlist for The Royal Society Winton Prize for Science Books 2015, the only major international prize that celebrates science writing for a non-specialist audience.
The shortlist in full (in alphabetical order by author surname):
• THE MAN WHO COULDN’T STOP by David Adam (Picador)
• ALEX THROUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS: HOW LIFE REFLECTS NUMBERS AND NUMBERS REFLECT LIFE by Alex Bellos (Bloomsbury)
• SMASHING PHYSICS: INSIDE THE WORLD’S BIGGEST EXPERIMENT by Jon Butterworth (Headline)
• LIFE’S GREATEST SECRET: THE STORY OF THE RACE TO CRACK THE GENETIC CODE by Matthew Cobb (Profile)
• LIFE ON THE EDGE: THE COMING OF AGE OF QUANTUM BIOLOGY by Johnjoe Mcfadden and Professor Jim Al-Khalili (Bantam Press)
• ADVENTURE IN THE ANTHROPOCENE: A JOURNEY TO THE HEART OF THE PLANET WE MADE by Gaia Vince (Chatto & Windus)
Chair of judges Ian Stewart said: “While these books vary widely in their subject matter, they all excel at telling the human story, making science accessible and real without dumbing it down. Whether it’s through Gaia Vince’s reports of her ecological Adventures in the Anthropocene, finding out what it’s like to work at the Large Hadron Collider in Smashing Physics, or Bellos’s infectious enthusiasm in Alex Through the Looking-Glass, these books provide wonderfully engaging entry routes into complex topics.”
Founded in 1988, (and previously known under different banners including the Aventis Prize and Rhône-Poulenc Prize), the Prize celebrates outstanding popular science books from around the world and is open to authors of science books written for a non-specialist audience. Over the decades it has championed writers such as Stephen Hawking, Jared Diamond, Stephen Jay Gould and Bill Bryson.
Chair of judges Professor Ian Stewart is a mathematician and Royal Society Fellow, also known for his Science of Discworld series which he co-wrote with Terry Pratchett and Jack Cohen. He is joined on the judging panel by Guardian Books Editor Claire Armitstead, Channel 4 lead anchor Krishnan Guru-Murthy, Electronic Engineer and recipient of a Royal Society University Research Fellowship Dr Jo Shien Ng, science broadcaster and author Dr Adam Rutherford, and award-winning novelist Sarah Waters.
The winner will be crowned at an evening ceremony on 24th September and will receive a cheque for £25,000, with £2,500 awarded to each of the five shortlisted authors. Professor Brian Cox OBE, currently The Royal Society’s Professor of Public Engagement in Science, will be hosting the awards ceremony.
A Double Win in Italy for Alex Bellos
Colouring-in books boom continues with volume of mathematical patterns from Alex Bellos
Alex Through the Looking Glass
Bloomsbury, 2014
Alex's Adventures in Numberland: Dispatches From The Wonderful World of Mathematics
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Tag: Celia Dropkin
Poet’s passion shines
From the moment I read Pat Johnson’s interview with Faith Jones prior to last year’s Limmud, I knew I wanted to read The Acrobat: Selected Poems of Celia Dropkin (Tebot Bach, 2014).
The title of the collection wasn’t mentioned but the topic was: “erotic Yiddish poetry.” Jones, who translated Dropkin’s work into English with Jennifer Kronovet and Samuel Solomon, gave an overview of the poet’s background, which is explained in more detail in The Acrobat. That Dropkin writes with and about such passion is notable given her life’s circumstances. Born in Belarus in 1887, she and her family had to rely on the charity of relatives after her father died. While difficult, it meant that she could receive an education, and she became a writer. In 1909, she married Shmaye Dropkin, a Bund activist whose political activities forced him to flee czarist Russia, and, in 1912, Dropkin (and their son) joined him in New York.
“There,” reads the Translators’ Note, “inspired by the foment of Yiddish culture she found, Dropkin shifted from writing in Russian to writing in Yiddish…. She became a part of the thriving Yiddish literary scene, publishing widely in Yiddish newspapers and literary journals. Yet, she was publicly criticized by her male contemporaries for the perceived extremity of her work. All this time, Dropkin raised five children; a sixth died in infancy. She occasionally wrote stories and novellas in serialization for money, especially during the Depression when her family needed the income. Although the bulk of her oeuvre dates from the 1920s and ’30s, Dropkin never stopped writing poems. She wrote almost until her death in 1956.”
The Acrobat is not a comprehensive collection, but rather, as Jones explained in an interview with Leah Falk at yivo.org, the translators “chose the ones that we thought we could make into good poems in English…. The poems, even some of her quite important poems, that we did not think we knew how to work with, or that lost something in the translation that we didn’t think would be regained, we didn’t keep…. We weren’t able to capture them in the way that we felt really did them justice.”
A page-facing translation – i.e. the Yiddish poem is on the page facing the English version – those who understand Yiddish can not only engage in discussions about a poem’s meanings, but its translation. For example, the title poem, which is generally translated as “The Circus Lady,” gives an idea of the complexity of language, and the different images that are conjured by words that basically mean the same thing.
Dropkin’s poems more than withstand the test of time. Eighty-plus years later, they retain their immediacy. As Edward Hirsch writes in the foreword, Dropkin’s “lyrics come fully loaded. They are erotically frank and emotionally unabashed, deeply engendered, relentlessly truthful. They are terse and musical, like songs, and carefully constructed to explode with maximum impact.”
More than a decade in the making, The Acrobat is, remarkably, the first collection of Dropkin’s work in English, and she could not have gotten a better group of translators. Their love of the poetry comes through, as does their skill. One could almost be forgiven for thinking that Dropkin wrote in English. The Acrobat is truly an inspiring – and sometimes challenging – read. But it is more than that.
In speaking to Johnson, Jones admitted another objective. “I would like people to think about re-envisioning our forbearers as people who were more like us,” she said. “We need to really explore the people in our past and, as a historian, this is what I hope for most: that people will explore the past, understanding that these people were not like us, but in other ways were very much like us.”
In this, she and her colleagues also succeed. This is your bubbe’s poetry, as much as it is yours. And, while thought may be a little unsettling, given some of the subject matter, it is also very cool.
He and She
by Celia Dropkin (from The Acrobat)
He is a branch;
she – the green leaves on the branch.
From him to her flows
dark power, thick fertile sap.
She shudders with each touch of wind,
whispers and laughs,
turns the silver
of delighted eyes.
He is simple, mute.
Autumn dyes her deep
colors. The cold wind cruelly
exiles her from the branch,
while he remains the same, simple,
robust, mute.
Posted on February 27, 2015 February 26, 2015 Author Cynthia RamsayCategories BooksTags Celia Dropkin, Faith Jones, Jennifer Kronovet, poetry, Samuel Solomon, Yiddish
First-ever B.C. Limmud
Yiddish erotic poetry. It’s not a phrase that trips off the tongue, perhaps because Celia Dropkin may have been its only practitioner. There were Yiddish poets and writers in Eastern Europe and America who addressed risqué topics, but few, if any, in ways as explicit as Dropkin.
Faith Jones (photo from Faith Jones)
Faith Jones, a Vancouverite who teaches library science and who was previously a Yiddish bibliographer in the New York Public Library’s Jewish division, will discuss Dropkin and the craft of translating Yiddish erotic poetry at the first-ever Limmud Vancouver Feb. 9, one of 42 presentations on a hugely diverse array of topics over a full day. With two other scholars, Jones translates Dropkin’s work into English.
Dropkin (1887-1956) came to New York from Belarus in 1912, and immersed herself in the Bohemian life that was thriving there. It was at this time, as well, that she shifted from writing in Russian and began a career as a noted Yiddish poet and writer. This switch in vernacular appears to have been for practical reasons, not cultural or political ones, Jones explained.
“She wrote in Russian because she was educated in the gymnasium, in the Russian education system, and her literary influences were largely Russian,” said Jones. “To her – she came from a very poor family – being able to go to gymnasium was really quite an accomplishment and the Russian language was itself a status symbol. Her ability to use it artistically was something that she would have been very proud of.”
Once in New York, though, her audience would have been overwhelmingly Yiddish-speaking, and so it was probably a practical decision to switch. “I don’t think Yiddish to her was the beginning and end of being Jewish,” said Jones.
While nobody appears to have become rich writing poetry in Yiddish, Dropkin was comparatively a “commercial” success in terms of being widely read. She made some cash, particularly during the Depression, writing relatively mainstream short stories. Nevertheless, said Jones, “Her poetry was her real art, but you could not make a living on Yiddish poetry.”
Why, though, was this traditionally educated woman so apparently ahead of her time on sexual matters?
“She was educated in this different way – she was educated in a Russian way, not in a Jewish way,” Jones noted. “She also had a fair bit of freedom.” Dropkin’s father died when Celia was a child, and her mother was not particularly religious. The household appears to have been fairly open-minded and attuned to modernity. Her writing was different as well, Jones speculates, because she was a woman and also because she did not have the traditional Hebrew education that male poets of her time did.
“She was kind of freed because of being a woman,” said Jones. “She didn’t have a classical Hebrew education and so she was able to make up a different way of being a writer and wasn’t as constrained by expectations that, if you are a Jewish writer, your writing would be laced with references to the Bible and things like that.”
There were other poets writing about sexual matters, but in a much more veiled manner. A female Orthodox poet, for example, expressed her sensual ideas through depictions of hair, which would have resonance from an Orthodox female perspective. Dropkin was not so subtle.
“Dropkin had a poem, for example, in which it certainly seems to me that what she is describing is sadomasochistic sex. I don’t think she’s at all attempting to cover that up,” Jones said. “Other poets would just refer to the bed and some longing and maybe there is a stroke.”
Dropkin was published in the Yiddish journals of the day, despite the sometimes-scandalous nature of her work. “A scandal is always good for circulation,” Jones laughed. “So they were happy to have it. They were Bohemians, so they were going to publish that sort of thing.” There was a sense, among male critics and other poets, Jones said, that Dropkin’s work might bring disrepute to the Jews – even though, because it was written in Yiddish, only Jews could have read it. But criticism of Dropkin from other Jews, mostly male, was probably due to more straightforward reactions.
“It was shocking, a woman speaking about her physical body, her desires, her lust,” Jones said. “That was too much for them.”
Dropkin’s art, it seems, imitated her life. “She was really, really a Bohemian,” Jones said. “She really lived that life pretty fully, notwithstanding being married, which did not appear to have been any kind of difficulty. So, for example, I was able to meet with [Dropkin’s now deceased oldest son] many times and interview him, and I asked at one point, ‘Was your father at all upset by your mother’s sort of freewheeling life, having lovers, having a social life that was sort of separate from his?’ He said, ‘No it didn’t really bother him,’ and I had the impression that, you know, it went both ways.”
Jones warns attendees at next month’s Limmud conference that her session will not be appropriate for those who blanch at strong language and sexual imagery. But while the topic is erotic poetry and the craft of translating it, Jones said she has a broader ambition in presenting the topic.
“I would like people to think about re-envisioning our forbearers as people who were more like us. We need to really explore the people in our past and, as a historian, this is what I hope for most: that people will explore the past, understanding that these people were not like us, but in other ways were very much like us.”
About the same time that Dropkin was writing steamy poems in New York, the klezmer scene was heating up Montreal. Emily Lam, an independent researcher dedicated to the history of Jewish music in Montreal, will present on the subject at the Limmud conference – and some of her findings will surprise.
Emily Lam (photo from Emily Lam)
One of the first things to understand about klezmer music is that those who traditionally played it didn’t call it klezmer, Lam said. The word klezmer simply means musician. So when musicians were performing a tune, they called it by the kind of tune it was – a freylech, a doyna, a hora. For present-day practitioners of the traditional Jewish tunes, however, as for the rest of us, klezmer is a handy shorthand.
“It’s what they call it because everybody calls it that these days,” said Lam, who has interviewed as many Montreal musicians from the early part of the 20th century as she has been able to track down. Among these artists, mostly now in their 80s and 90s, the “true” klezmorim were those from Eastern Europe and the musicians who learned directly from those masters. What we call klezmer, according to Lam, is a music that represents “homeland and folk … synonymous with a particular place and time that was physically left behind, yet … instantly accessible through the music’s soundscapes, which connected the Jewish immigrant to their shtetl and the Yiddishkeit of their ancestral past.”
As klezmer has seen a dramatic revival in recent decades, Lam said her interviewees are pleased that the music is being performed and heard again, but they invariably say something is missing.
“Everybody is very happy that more people know about this kind of music, more people know about the history of it,” Lam said. “My interview subjects are happy that they still get to hear it if they choose to. They can go to concerts, they can go to festivals and events. They’re really happy about that. However, they feel that when they hear it, something about it isn’t the same. They always express that there is a lack of a certain feeling, a feeling within the music that they can’t hear, that they did hear with other musicians – their predecessors, their mentors. So when they hear things from the so-called revival, while they enjoy it, something about it is lacking and they always express … there’s just this feeling that’s missing.”
The progression of klezmer involved the original immigrants teaching it to their children, with a predictable downturn as the decades passed. “New immigrants want to carry on those traditions because that’s what they know,” Lam said. “There was a tradition that you learn this music and how to play it from your father and your uncles, relatives. The people that I interviewed were the children of the true klezmorim [the immigrants who brought the music from Eastern Europe]. They carried out the tradition but, obviously, as times change, people’s interests, especially children of new immigrants, what they wanted, how they see their lives, was different from Eastern Europe.”
Second-generation Canadians might have wanted the traditional tunes at their weddings, perhaps because their parents wanted it, but they also wanted more contemporary, popular music.
“As time progressed, there were less traditional tunes and more contemporary tunes,” said Lam. “It’s part of being an immigrant and having children in a new country. You try to instil these traditions. They’re going to choose their own path.”
But traditions can morph in unexpected ways. Weddings and bar mitzvahs may be a showcase for klezmer, but making a living in early- to mid-20th century Montreal as a musician meant being ready to take any gig that came along. Fortunately, klezmer can be a heavily improvisational musical form, similar to the vibrant jazz scene that was emerging in Montreal.
“If you were a klezmer, you were a versatile musician,” Lam said. “So [for] lots of Jewish musicians, especially going into the ’30s and onward, there’s lots of crossing over with jazz music in Montreal.”
Lam started her research during her undergraduate studies at the University of Ottawa, mentored by Prof. Rebecca Margolis, who specializes in Yiddish culture in Canada, among other topics. Lam, who grew up in Peterborough, Ont., is the daughter of immigrants who fled Vietnam during the war there. She does not directly attribute her interest in this subject to her family’s experience, but she sees a parallel. “I certainly can understand this sort of looking for something that reminds you of your homeland,” Lam said.
Many people can name the most famous Jewish baseball players – precisely because there have been so few of them. Despite this, there are striking parallels between the practice of Judaism and the practice of baseball, according to Vancouver rabbi and University of British Columbia faculty member Hillel Goelman, who will present at the Limmud conference.
Hillel Goelman (photo from Hillel Goelman)
“I’m not going to just talk about Sandy Koufax and Hank Greenberg,” he said. “That’s not what the discussion is about. The discussion is that there are aspects of Jewish spiritual understandings, about deeper meanings of Judaism and some of the deeper meanings of baseball and that we can learn about one from the other.”
There is a teaching in Jewish spirituality that views everything as being at an intersection of time and space and a journey of the soul, said Goelman. “Our whole history is about a journey through space, whether it’s Abraham to Egypt, or the Jewish people coming out of Egypt, or making aliyah to the Land of Israel,” he said. “In Jewish spirituality, in kabbalah, we believe that there are different realms of reality and that each of those can correspond to another level of reality that you can get higher and higher and higher until you end up at the highest, which is getting back home, and home is in the wholeness and the holiness of the home space.”
Baseball is also about an individual’s odyssey, he said. “Baseball is really about the individual, where it’s the individual who scores the points, scores the runs. The ball doesn’t have to go into a hoop or a net or anything like that. It’s the individual who goes through a journey through space,” he said.
There’s also an intergenerational aspect, he added, in that Judaism is passed down from parents to children. The love of baseball is also conveyed transgenerationally. In addition, Judaism and baseball both have “two aspects of gaining knowledge,” Goelman said. One aspect focuses on the legalistic proscriptions – “what you’re commanded to do, commanded not to do, the appropriate behaviors” – the other is a very rich mythological lore.
“There is a mythology in Judaism, there is a mythology in baseball, that goes beyond the literal meaning of what’s happening,” he said. “Judaism gives us some very powerful metaphors and images and practices, which really resonate very deeply with us in terms of what is the Sabbath and why is that important and what are the High Holidays and why are they important, what is a bar mitzvah and why is that important, why is a wedding ceremony important. There is a lot of symbol and symbolism and mythology. And in baseball, as well, there’s a lot of symbol and symbolism and mythology. I think that’s why many of us find it so riveting.”
The recent news of New York Yankee Alex Rodriguez’s use of performance-enhancing drugs offers a vignette into another aspect of mythology.
“Here’s another giant among us who has fallen, who has succumbed to whatever kind of temptation it was, of ego, of achievement, of seeing himself above and beyond the rules,” Goelman said. “And this is sort of the karmic consequences of someone who exceeds the boundaries and doesn’t really understand the beauty and the mythology of the game.”
LimmudVan ’14 is the first annual Limmud event here. The phenomenon, which began in London, has spread to dozens of cities worldwide. The Vancouver conference, which sold out weeks in advance, will feature more than 40 separate presentations on a huge array of topics. See next week’s issue for more on Limmud. Full details at limmudvancouver.ca.
Pat Johnson is a Vancouver writer and principal in PRsuasiveMedia.com.
Posted on January 24, 2014 April 27, 2014 Author Pat JohnsonCategories LocalTags Celia Dropkin, Emily Lam, Faith Jones, Hillel Goelman, Jews in baseball, klezmer, Limmud, LimmudVan
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