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الصفحة الرئيسية > الأخبار والتقارير > A journalist is...
A journalist is being asked to disclose sources of news information
Journalistic Freedoms Observatory rejects the pressure and duress methods that are being used by some governmental institutions and provincial councils on journalists and reporters to reveal their sources.
Fadhil Rashad, Al-Hayat, London’s newspaper correspondent in Najaf, told the Journalistic Freedoms Observatory, that the Najaf provincial council filed a lawsuit against him afterwards he published a report in Al-Hayat newspaper on Sunday concerns the removal of (Baathists) from the province after the bombings that hit the city giving them one day time limit.
Rashad was summoned to the security committee in the provincial council where one of the officials asked him to reveal the names of people who open cast their press statements so as to withdraw the case submitted to the Court of Najaf in return, but Rashad refused categorically.
Rashad also told the Journalistic Freedoms Observatory that he is committed to the professional codes of ethics which prohibit him from disclosure of sources of information. He had received via his personal mail the statement of the Provincial Council for the removal of Baathists, just like other reporters and journalists, then he made a report about it.
The holy city of Najaf have experienced harassments and attacks against journalists last week, where a number of journalists were prevented from practicing their job and their hospital admission to follow up with those injured in the bombings of the city last week, a number of policemen of the commandership of Al-Najaf police severely beat journalists, photographers and technicians. Colleagues Haydar Husain Yaly, “Afaq” satellite TV channel cameraman; Ali Algam, “Al-Fayha’a” satellite TV channel cameraman and Haydar Salih, “Al-Ettijah” satellite TV channel correspondant, were beaten and insulted which led to injuries and bruises on the face and parts of the body. Also colleague Ali Al-Tayar, (freelance journalist) was verbally abused, called names and his camera was taken and broken.
And also the way that one of the checkpoints dealt with (Alhurra Iraq) satellite channel in preventing them from entering the city.
The Journalistic Freedoms Observatory calls upon the Council of Najaf province to act transparently enough with the journalists and the media, not to practice pressure against them to reveal their sources, and to be committed to the Iraqi constitution, which calls for the respect of privacy and freedom of expression.
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Mumbai: Juxtaposition of the Flat and Unflat World
My trip to Mumbai last week brought me back to the realities of a large city in a developing world. Mumbai is on the west coast of India. It is the old Bombay, the 'gateway' of India for generations of English and other traders and plunderers. Having just left Bangladesh last June after 4 years, coming to Mumbai and being confronted with poverty and population made me feel homesick for the streets of Dhaka once again.
Mumbai has about 17 million people. But there is no way to tell the exact number. Many people (40% we were advised) are living in slums. Housing is expensive and non-existent for dwellers in the 'unflat world'. People are drifting in from the villages to find work and food.....but competition to survive is fierce. The city is in crisis with major building and reconstruction work going on to fix flooding and drainage problems and to provide better infrastructure to support the millions of dwellers. There is a rising middle class and a rich upper class...another reason why housing and rental prices have gone through the roof recently. We were quoted something like $2000 per square foot per month to rent an apartment.
My colleagues and I stayed in an average local hotel. Chosen for the price and location to the ASB Unplugged conference at the American School of Bombay. It was clean, and had hot water most days. Wireless network did not work most of the time, but at least it was there! Outside the hotel door was a street of activity with cars, bikes, motorbikes, street vendors, open-air stalls and shops.
Executive Enclave Hotel street view
On a tour through Mumbai after the conference we experienced the usual street vendor/beggar selling and soliciting. We went to the (being renovated) Gateway of India structure right in front of the magnificent Taj Mahal hotel and experienced grandeur. We went to a Jain Temple, Ghandi's house, the Hanging Gardens, the Dhobi Ghat open air laundry and then the calm 'Bombay Blue' restaurant for lunch.
Dhobi Ghat Laundry
What is holding this city back from becoming a flattened world? As Friedman discusses in 'The World is Flat' there are two main forces causing an 'unflat' condition in countries such as India and China. These are illness (such as AIDS) and poverty-related sickness, and also dis-empowerment. The average person in Mumbai is dis-enfranchised from the decision making world. Life is a struggle. Literacy rates are still low, despite the push for education and the need to learn English (the global language), for many of the people living and surviving in Mumbai their lives have not changed dramatically, if at all, for generations. The world may be flattening around them, there may be officially no caste system, there may be officially a requirement that all children attend school, however the reality is still a long way off. In the cesspool of life that is Mumbai change comes slowly, but it is coming. Our tour guide shared with us the many changes over the past 5 years, we could see this significance but in a city of un-repaired buildings and poverty juxtaposed with flash shopping malls and hotels, but we could also see the need for further changes and empowerment through education and strong leadership.
Concierge at the Taj Mahal Hotel, Gateway of India
Meanwhile, at the amazing ASB Unplugged conference where we indulged in conversations about educational reform, 21st century learning and 1:1 programs it seemed that most presentation mentioned the 'flat world' and referred to Friedman's book as a beacon, a landmark for understanding the past and providing direction for the future. It was my chance to be smug also as I mention to colleagues, yes, I have heard of Friedman's book.....well, actually I am in it! (page 501-503), in the chapter about if you are not doing it, it is not happening. So, here I am doing it once again, but this time in Mumbai, in this country that has an amazing history of intellect, of survival, of business acumen and of grasping opportunities.
'The World is Flat', for sale at the Mumbai ASB Unplugged conference
See more images from our trip to Mumbai on my Flickr
Technorati Tags: mumbai asbunplugged flatworld thomasfriedman
Posted by Julie Lindsay on Friday, March 07, 2008
Charlie A. Roy said...
The world is flat. Flattening also brings about other moral considerations. For example if multi-national corporations now have free reign to seek the highest priced markets for good delivery and to find the cheapest production costs to whom do they owe their allegiance? stock holders? nations of origin? employees? Where do they pay taxes? How do they help put people over profits? Or do they?
Pope Benedict's coming encyclical is on the topic of globalization. It should be interesting to see the religious leader of 1/5 of the world's population weigh in on the discussion. The Catholic Church if anything is multi-national.
I heard Joseph Stiglitz (Nobel winner in Economics and also was the Chief Economist at the World Bank)while in India, speaking on many TV channels and to the news media as well, how the so-called globalization benefits have by-passed 3/4 of the Indian population, which is close to 600 million poeple!! So, though Friedman loves to paint a rosy picture of globalization in India and China, the majority of their population have been left out of the "progress" and "develpoment," fold of gobalization. But ofcourse, Joseph Stiglitz doesnt find a mention in Friedman's Flat World book!
Two books to read, which offer a counterperspective to Friedman's "The World is Flat."
The Harvard Professor, Pankaj Ghemawat's latest book, "Redefining Global Strategy," is more academically inclined. I read an article of his published in the journal, "Foreign Policy", where he argues that the world is, at best, only semi-globalized. His argument being that Cultural, Administrative, Geographic and Economic aspects of a nation come in the way of total globalization from taking place and cites examples of the same.
The other small, but interesting book, is by Aronica and Ramdoo, "The World is Flat? A Critical Analysis of Thomas Friedman's New York Times Bestseller." It is a small book compared to the 600 page tome by Friedman, and aimed at the common man and students alike. As popular as the book may be, some reviewers assert that by what it leaves out, Friedman's book is dangerous. The authors point to the fact that there isn't a single table or data footnote in Friedman's entire book. "Globalization is the greatest reorganization of the world since the Industrial Revolution," says Aronica. Aronica and Ramdoo conclude by listing over twenty action items that point the way forward, and they provide a comprehensive, yet concise, framework for understanding the critical issues of globalization.
You may want to see www.mkpress.com/flat
and watch www.mkpress.com/flatoverview.html
for an interesting counterperspective on Friedman's
"The World is Flat".
Also a really interesting 6 min wake-up call: Shift Happens! www.mkpress.com/ShiftExtreme.html
There is also a companion book listed: Extreme Competition: Innovation and the Great 21st Century Business Reformation
www.mkpress.com/extreme
http://www.mkpress.com/Extreme11minWMV.html
Janell B said...
Your blog on Mumbai was very informational to me. I am embarrassed to say this but, I am like many Americans in the fact that I do not find myself thinking on a global scale. I really have no idea what it would be like to live in such poverty stricken, disease ridden place. I also cannot imagine a place where large amounts of people will never know the pleasure of picking up a good book and getting lost in it or being able to read text useful in everyday life. I think that quality of life should be shared around the world. I realize that this may never happen but it okay to hope. I believe that the future will bring solutions to some of the world’s problems but I do not see the population growth slowing anytime soon so this dream may be fighting a losing battle.
A Sense of Urgency: A Good Reason to Retreat
Adventures in Online Synchronous Communication
My Life in Qatar: A Tall Spike in an Unflat World?...
What's Worth Fighting For in Your School?
Conference 2.0: The Global Stage Awaits
Mumbai: Juxtaposition of the Flat and Unflat World...
ASB Unplugged: Meet Dr Scott McLeod
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» Legends
» Charles D. Barrett
Major General Charles Dodson Barrett (16 August 1885 - 8 October 1943) was the first Commanding General of the 3rd Marine Division. He was killed accidentally while on duty in the South Pacific, 8 October 1943. He was posthumously awarded the Distinguished Service Medal in recognition of his outstanding service during World War II.
Charles Dodson Barrett was born on 16 August 1885, at Henderson, Kentucky. He graduated from high school in Alexandria, Virginia. He was commissioned a U.S. Marine Corps second lieutenant on 11 August 1909. He was assigned duty at the Marine Officers School, Port Royal, South Carolina, the following month. In January 1911, he began a few months duty at the Marine Barracks, Boston, Massachusetts, and was detached on 23 May 1911 to report to the U.S. Naval Academy, Annapolis, Maryland, to command the Marine detachment aboard the USS Indiana. On 3 September 1911, he transferred to the USS New Jersey.
Barrett landed with the detachment of the USS New Jersey at Vera Cruz, Mexico, on 22 April 1914, and participated in the capture of that city. He was detached from the New Jersey on 13 December 1914 to the Marine Barracks, Norfolk, Virginia.
Barrett's World War I duty included detached service with the U.S. Army in France from 25 September 1918. He participated in the Meuse-Argonne Offensive of November 1-3, 1918, and in the spring of 1919 was in command of the 2nd Battalion, 367th Infantry at LeMans, France. Detached from the Army in April, he reported to the Commanding General, 4th Brigade, Marines, at Nieder Bieber, Germany, and was detailed as Adjutant from 11 April. He arrived back in the United States on 3 August 1919.
From 1921-1922, General Barrett served in Santo Domingo and from 1924-27 was a member of the American Battle Monuments Commission, Washington, D.C. He then returned to France to study at the Ecole de Guerre in Paris, and from 1929-33 served as an instructor at the Marine Corps Schools, Quantico, Virginia. During the next two years, he was assigned to the Division of Operations and Training, Headquarters Marine Corps, Washington, and from 1935-36 served aboard ship as Division Marine Officer of Battleship Division 4, U.S. Battle Force.
Upon completion of sea duty with the Battle Force, the Barrett spent two and one-half years in the War Plans Section, Office of the Chief of Naval Operations, Washington, D.C.; and from August 1939 to June 1940, commanded the 5th Marines, 1st Marine Brigade, Fleet Marine Force. He returned to Headquarters, Washington, in July 1940, serving first as Director of the Division of Plans and Policies. Later, he served as Assistant to the Commandant of the Marine Corps, Lieutenant General Thomas Holcomb, from November 1941 to March 1942.
In March 1942, General Barrett assumed command of the 3rd Marine Brigade, and the following month embarked with the Brigade for Samoa, where he welded his command into a fighting unit. He was ordered to the United States in September 1942 to assume command of the 3rd Marine Division, then being organized at Camp Elliott, San Diego, California, and was promoted to major general on assuming this command.
Early in 1943, he embarked with elements of the 3rd Marine Division for Auckland, New Zealand. By August 1943, he had all the major units of his division stationed on Guadalcanal, training intensively for the Bougainville operation.
On 15 September 1943, General Barrett relinquished command of the 3rd Marine Division; and on 27 September 1943, MajGen Barrett replaced General Alexander Vandegrift as the commanding general of the First Marine Amphibious Corps (IMAC) (headquartered on Noumea, New Caledonia) when Vandegrift was to return to Washington, D.C. to become the 18th Commandant of the Marine Corps. In this capacity, he continued with the planning for the assault on Bougainville until his death three weeks later. Accidentally injured following a cerebral hemorrhage, he died on 8 October 1943 at the base hospital. (The sudden death of General Barrett resulted in Vandegrift's recall to the Pacific to resume command of IMAC) General Barrett was buried in the American cemetery in New Caledonia. Following the war, he was reinterred in Arlington National Cemetery. The Basic School (TBS), Quantico, Virginia, where all marine Corps officers receive extensive training following commission, is located at Camp Barrett, which was named in his honor.
William Earl Barber (1919-2002) was an officer in the United States Marine Corps awarded with the Medal of Honor for his actions in the Battle of Chosin Reservoir during the Korean War. With only 220 men under his command, Barber held off more than 1,400 Peoples Republic of China soldiers during six days of fighting.
Private First Class William Bernard Baugh (July 7, 1930 - November 29, 1950) was a United States Marine, who at age 20, earned the Medal of Honor in Korea for sacrificing his life to save his Marine comrades. The nation's highest decoration for valor was awarded the young Marine for extraordinary heroism on 29 November 1950, between Koto-ri and Hagaru-ri, when he protected the members of his squadron from a grenade by smothering it with his body.
Richard Earl Bush (1924-2004) was a United States Marine who received the Medal of Honor as a corporal for heroism on Okinawa in World War II. On April 16, 1945, Cpl Bush threw himself on a live grenade, absorbing the force of the explosion, to save the lives of fellow Marines. During World War II, 27 Marines similarly used their bodies to cover exploding grenades in order to save the lives of others.
Harold Glenn Epperson was born 14 July 1923 in Akron, Ohio. As a member of the 1st Battalion 6th Marines, Private First Class (PFC) Harold Glenn Epperson shared in the Presidential Unit Citation awarded his organization for its service at the Battle of Tarawa during World War II. PFC Epperson died in action against the Japanese on Saipan on 25 June 1944 when he threw himself upon an enemy grenade in order to save the lives of his fellow Marines.
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Tribunals, Courts and Enforcement Act 2007
Lands Clauses Consolidation Act...
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Revised Version 30/11/2014
Correction Slip - 16/08/2011
Changes over time for: Section 7
Tribunals, Courts and Enforcement Act 2007, Section 7 is up to date with all changes known to be in force on or before 18 July 2019. There are changes that may be brought into force at a future date. Changes that have been made appear in the content and are referenced with annotations.
Revised legislation carried on this site may not be fully up to date. Changes and effects are recorded by our editorial team in lists which can be found in the ‘Changes to Legislation’ area. Where those effects have yet to be applied to the text of the legislation by the editorial team they are also listed alongside the legislation in the affected provisions. Use the ‘more’ link to open the changes and effects relevant to the provision you are viewing.
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Pt. 1 Ch. 2A inserted by 2018 c. 33 Sch. para. 41
s. 16(3)(a) word inserted by 2015 c. 2 s. 85(3)(a)
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s. 16(3A)(3B) inserted by 2015 c. 2 s. 85(4)
s. 49(6)(aa) inserted by 2018 c. 33 Sch. para. 42(3)(b)
Sch. 5 para. 3(3)-(8) inserted by 2018 c. 33 Sch. para. 44(3)
Sch. 5 para. 28A inserted by 2018 c. 33 Sch. para. 45
Sch. 7 para. 6(1)(e) words substituted by 2013 c. 22 Sch. 14 para. 13(2) (Sch. 7 was already repealed when this amendment came into force)
Sch. 7 para. 6(4)(b) words substituted by 2013 c. 22 Sch. 14 para. 13(2) (Sch. 7 was already repealed when this amendment came into force)
7(1)In section 91 of the Lands Clauses Consolidation Act 1845 (proceedings in case of refusal to deliver possession of lands) for “levied by distress” substitute “ recovered by using the procedure in Schedule 12 to the Tribunals, Courts and Enforcement Act 2007 (taking control of goods), ”.E+W
(2)This paragraph extends only to England and Wales.
I1Sch. 13 para. 7 in force at 6.4.2014 by S.I. 2014/768, art. 2(1)(b)
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Brenner, men's & women's squads earn USTFCCCA academic honor
By Logan Butts
USTFCCCA Release
NEW ORLEANS – The Lipscomb cross country squad has earned another accolade for the 2018 fall campaign as the men’s and women’s squads as well as junior Courtney Brenner were honored with All-Academic awards by the United States Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) on Thursday.
Brenner pulled off a rare double feat in 2018 by winning both the ASUN Individual title and being named the conference’s Scholar-Athlete of the Year.
She won the ASUN title with a blazing time of 17:42.7 in the 5K, helping lead the women to their seventh ASUN title in the last eight seasons.
The California native also earned All-Region honors at the NCAA South Region Championships after placing 19th overall with a time of 21:09.4 in the 6K.
The Dietetics major compiled a perfect 4.0 GPA in the classroom in route to being named the ASUN Scholar-Athlete of the Year.
In order to qualify for All-Academic distinction, student-athletes must have a cumulative GPA of at least 3.25 on a 4.0 scale and finish in the top-25 (or 10 percent) at the NCAA Regional Championships or as an All-American at the NCAA Championships.
The men’s squad had a top-10 cumulative GPA in the nation at 3.57. Southern Illinois’ 3.67 topped the chart.
The women’s squad a top-15 placement in the country with their team GPA of 3.71. Radford led the nation with a 3.87 mark.
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Country's Best. Past & Present
Hatfield & McCoy
Chad Taylor
Jacob Beals
Jeremy Riesenberg
KJJY Mobile App
Cumulus Cares
Sweet Deals-FAQ’s
Digital | C-Suite
Tim McGraw’s Creative Process? “I’m Always Watching People Trying to Figure Out Their Story”
After topping the country charts with more than 30 No. 1 singles, Tim McGraw is climbing a new chart—the New York Times Best-Sellers List—with his co-authored book, Songs of America, which debuted at No. 2 in the Hardcover Nonfiction category.
photo by Curtis Hilbun, AFF-USA.com
In addition to his work in the aforementioned genres of music and writing, Tim has carved out a respectable career as an actor over the last 15 years. The Louisiana native has co-starred in a number of mainstream flicks, including Friday Night Lights, Four Christmases, Country Strong, The Blind Side and more.
The accomplished singer, author and actor recently sat down with Kix Brooks of American Country Countdown to chat about his multi-medium creative process, including how he prepares for his various acting roles.
“You know, if we’re at a restaurant or if I’m walking around with my daughters and they’re shopping and I find a bench to sit on, I’m always watching people trying to figure out their story or try to make up a scenario that’s going on,” says Tim. “I think that’s part of the creative process, and I think that also helps me as an artist, helps me as an actor, is to put those scenarios together and sort of create this world that you see.”
Tim is on the road this summer with more than 15 tour dates, including stops in Atlantic City, Las Vegas, Phoenix and more.
written by Jim Casey | @TheJimCasey | published June 24, 2019 11:40 am
category: NCD News | related posts: actor, American Country Countdown, Author, Kix Brooks, singer, tim mcgraw
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Lucky 8 is a full-service unscripted production company founded in 2014 by producers and partners Kim Woodard, Greg Henry, Isaac Holub and George Kralovansky. Leveraging the combined experience of its veteran creative team, Lucky 8 has created and produced a wide range of successful series and specials, from blue-chip documentary to formatted reality, in genres spanning crime, science, food, comedy and more.
In 2016, Lucky 8’s groundbreaking docuseries 60 Days In – which follows volunteers who enter one of our nation’s most dangerous corrections facilities as undercover “inmates” – debuted on A&E as cable’s #1 new non-fiction series and A&E’s #1 show. Now, already in its fourth season, the award-winning and critically-acclaimed breakout hit airs in more than 100 territories.
Lucky 8’s other series and event specials include A&E’s Undercover High – which follows a group of young adults who embed themselves into a Topeka, KS public high school, posing as “new students,” for an unprecedented look at teenage life today – as well as the network’s Behind Bars: Rookie Year; Released (from executive producer Oprah Winfrey) for OWN; Manson Speaks: Inside the Mind of a Madman for History; The Real Story with María Elena Salinas for ID; Secrets of the Underground for Science Channel; Kids BBQ Championship for Food Network; The Unknown Flag Raiser of Iwo Jima and Alaska Aircrash Investigations for Smithsonian Channel; Vinny & Ma Eat America for Cooking Channel; and 3 Scientists Walk Into a Bar for Weather Channel. The company also currently has projects in development for a wide range of broadcast and cable networks, as well as streaming platforms.
In addition, Lucky 8’s feature documentary credits include Showtime’s lauded Bronx Obama (2014) and Standing Up, which premiered in 2017 at DOC NYC.
Lucky 8 TV is headquartered in New York City.
Lucky 8, 233 Broadway, Suite 1001, NY, NY, 10279(347) 479-1818info@lucky8.tv
Lucky 8 TV, 99 Hudson Street, 2nd Floor, New York, NY 10013 (347) 479-1818 info@lucky8.tv
© 2014-2016 Lucky 8 TV, LLC. All rights reserved
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Mundipharma and Manchester City Sign Global BETADINE® Healthcare Partnership
August 21, 2017 - 7 minutes read
Mundipharma CEO Raman Singh, Manchester City Manager Pep Guardiola & CEO Ferran Soriano
New Partnership builds on existing relationship
BETADINE® branding to appear on medical team apparel and kit reinforcing Official Healthcare Product Partner status
Enhanced digital brand presence to reach global consumer audience
MANCHESTER, 21 August 2017: Mundipharma and English Premier League giants Manchester City have agreed to a new global partnership following an inaugural first season that saw Mundipharma and BETADINE® perform successfully as a regional partner of Manchester City.
Under the terms of the global partnership, the Manchester City Medical Team’s uniform and kit will feature BETADINE® logos and they’ll be equipped with BETADINE® treatments for the players. The brand will also benefit from enhanced exposure on digital display formats at home games.
Mundipharma will continue to collaborate with Manchester City to provide aspiring footballers with opportunities to develop their skills as part of co-branded Youth Development Programmes, as well as offering fans the chance to see their heroes in action through consumer-based promotions.
Commenting on the new global partnership, Mundipharma CEO, Raman Singh, who also oversees the global consumer healthcare business of all its network of independent associated companies across the world, including Europe and North America, said: “This partnership has proven to be a great fit for our brands. Manchester City is one of the world’s best-performing football teams, while we have positioned BETADINE® as a healthcare portfolio that builds personal resilience and supports well-being.”
Mr Singh added, “Football is a powerful and emotive way to engage with people and communicate messages about personal healthcare and well-being in a way that is relevant and taps into the emotional fan experience. Manchester City’s success and continued ambition provides a global platform and extraordinary reach. Football is the language the world speaks.”
Tom Glick, Chief Commercial Officer of City Football Group, added: “We are extremely pleased to have extended our partnership with Mundipharma and BETADINE®. They have been a great partner from the outset. We have been continually impressed by the creative approach they have brought to everything we have done so far. We are delighted that we now have an opportunity to work together on a global scale.”
Earlier this year, Mundipharma announced a partnership with J1 League club, Yokohama F. Marinos, which is also part of City Football Group.
About Mundipharma
Mundipharma’s independent associated companies are privately owned entities covering pharmaceutical markets in Asia-Pacific, Latin America, Middle East and Africa. The headquarters for these territories is in Singapore. Mundipharma is a prime example of a company that consistently delivers high quality products while standing by the values that represent the company. Our mission is to alleviate the suffering of patients and to substantially improve their quality of life. Mundipharma is dedicated to bringing to patients the benefit of novel treatment options in fields such as pain, oncology, oncology supportive care, ophthalmology, respiratory disease and consumer healthcare.
For more information please visit: www.mundipharma.com.sg
About BETADINE®
The BETADINE® range of medicines containing Povidone-Iodine is trusted by hospitals around the world for over 60 years to prevent and treat infections. It is also a trusted brand among consumers at home to treat small wounds and grazes, sore throats, feminine infections and to stop minor problems from escalating into big issues. In-vitro studies show that BETADINE® medicines containing Povidone-Iodine kill a broad range of bacteria, viruses and fungi including antibiotic-resistant strains that cause infections. BETADINE® has four main categories of products in Wound Care, Feminine Care, Throat / Oral Care and Infectious Diseases to meet the varying needs of our customers.
For more information please visit: www.betadine.com.sg
®: BETADINE is a registered trademark of Mundipharma
Registered indications differ country to country hence please check with a local Mundipharma office for more information on the local approved prescribing information.
About Manchester City
Manchester City is an English Premier League club initially founded in 1880 as St Mark’s West Gorton. It officially became Manchester City FC in 1894 and has since then gone onto win the European Cup Winners’ Cup, four League Championship titles, including two Premier League titles (2012, 2014), and five FA Cups. Manchester City is one of five teams comprising the City Football Group and counts New York City FC and Melbourne City FC among its sister clubs.
Under manager Pep Guardiola, one of the most highly decorated managers in world football, the Club plays its domestic and UEFA Champions League home fixtures at the Etihad Stadium, a spectacular 55,000 seat arena that City have called home since 2003. Today, the Stadium sits on the wider Etihad Campus, which also encompasses the City Football Academy, a state-of-the-art performance training and youth development facility located in the heart of East Manchester. Featuring a 7,000 capacity Academy Stadium, the City Football Academy is also where Manchester City Women’s Football Club and the Elite Development Squad train on a daily basis and play their competitive home games.
For more information, please visit www.mancity.com
Stephenie Vasko
Chief Communications Officer & Head, Digital Strategy –
Asia Pacific, Latin America the Middle East & Africa
+65-6303-9732 | stephenie.vasko@mundipharma.com.sg
Tags: manchestercity
Yuni Agil
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By Native Form
Plena/bomba
By Other Form
Nueva Ola
Nueva Trova
Pop/Otro
Martin, Ricky
Born Enrique Martin Morales on 24 December, 1971 in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Ricky Martin got his start in music as one of the original members of the Puerto Rican pop group, Menudo. He first came to the attention of American audiences for acting stints including the role of Marius in “Les Misérables” on Broadway.
For more than a decade, Ricky Martin watched his popularity escalate around the world, even as he remained under the radar of stateside audiences. And then more than a billion television viewers in 187 countries across the globe felt the full force of Rickymania when he performed “The Cup Of Life” at the 41st Annual Grammy Awards ceremonies in February 1999. Ricky’s single, “La Copa de la Vida” (lyrics), was the official song of the World Cup France ‘98 and has been a #1 single in more than 30 countries. That same night, Ricky’s full-length Latin recording Vuelve won the Grammy for Best Latin Pop Performance.
In April 1999, when the true first week’s sales (280,000) were tallied on Ricky’s Livin’ La Vida Loca (lyrics), the blockbuster single shot to #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and became the single with the highest #1 sales figures in Columbia Records history and the highest single week’s sales figures in 1999. Ricky Martin became the first solo Latin male artist of the SoundScan era to hit #1 on the Hot 100 and the first male artist to have the #1 single on the Hot 100 in more than a year. “Livin’ La Vida Loca” had the highest single week’s sales figures of any single released in 1999. “Livin’ La Vida Loca” became the #1 single in five international markets including the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, New Zealand, and Ireland.
Released on May 11, 1999, Ricky Martin, Ricky’s English language debut album, debuted at #1 on the Billboard 200 album chart with the highest first week’s sales (more than 660,000) in Columbia Records history. A international success story, Ricky Martin became the #1 album in ten international markets including the United States, Canada, Australia, Japan, Spain, Norway, Finland, New Zealand, and the pan-European Music Media chart. Ricky Martin has been certified platinum (or better) in some 33 countries.
Ricky Martin has kept extremely busy since the release of English language debut. As his “Livin’ La Vida Loca” became the party anthem of the new millennium (winning two MTV Video Music Awards--Best Dance Video and Best Pop Video--in the process), Martin embarked on one of the best-selling tours in modern concert history, selling out more than 250 concerts in some 25 countries.
When dates for Ricky Martin’s anxiously-awaited American tour were announced, each of the venues sold-out within an hour (in some cases, within minutes!) of going on sale. Due to an unprecedented demand for tickets, 11 new dates were added to Ricky’s SRO tour itinerary. By tour’s end, Ricky Martin had performed to more than 500,000 people across the country and sold some $22.6 million dollars worth of tickets. A Ricky Martin performance at London’s Hyde Park drew more than 100,000 fans.
Ricky Martin’s mantelpiece is jam-packed with awards. In 1999, in addition to his Vuelve Grammy, he walked off with two Billboard Latin Music Awards: Album Of The Year (Vuelve) and Hot Latin Track Of The Year ("Vuelve"). The 1999 MTV Video Music Awards gave Ricky’s “Livin’ La Vida Loca” two awards: Best Dance Video and Best Pop Video; he also won the MTV North Latin Viewer’s Choice Award, the MTV South Latin Viewer’s Choice Award and the MTV Russia Viewer’s Choice Award. Ricky was named the World’s Best Selling Latin Male at the World Music Awards and won Favorite Male Artist at the Teen Choice Awards. He was named Male Artist Of The Year and Male Hot 100 Singles Artist Of The Year at the 10th Annual Billboard Music Awards. He was named Male Entertainer of the Year at this year’s American Latino Media Arts Awards while “Livin’ La Vida Loca” was named Latin Pop Track of the Year at the 7th Annual Billboard Latin Music Awards. Ricky Martin was named World’s Best-selling Pop Male Artist and World’s Best-selling Latin Artist at the 12th Annual World Music Awards. The video for Ricky’s “Shake Your Bon Bon” has been nominated for Best Male Video and Best Dance Video in this year’s MTV Video Music Awards.
Ricky Martin was the star of “Ricky Martin: One Night Only!,” his first network television special. Filmed at New York’s Liberty Park Directed by Emmy Award winner Ken Ehrlich, “Ricky Martin: One Night Only!” premiered on Friday, November 26, on CBS and captured a 7.6/14 share rating. A home video of the show has been certified platinum by the RIAA, as has “The Ricky Martin Video Collection.”
Picked by People magazine has one of the World’s 50 Most Beautiful People, Ricky Martin has been the subject of major pieces in Time, Vanity Fair, Entertainment Weekly, Rolling Stone, People, Interview, TV Guide, and many others. Ricky has been named “Entertainer Of The Year” by Entertainment Weekly and is one of People’s 25 Most Intriguing People Of ‘99. Ricky Martin was one of the subjects on the annual “Barbara Walters Oscar Special.”
Throughout his career, Ricky Martin has remained true to his Puerto Rican roots and the Hispanic/Latino fanbase that first made him a star. A peerless musical ambassador (who’s also fluent in five languages!), Ricky has introduced Latin Pop music to markets around the world including the United States, England, Japan, China, Germany, and many others. He continues to perform and record in Spanish and often visits his native Puerto Rico. At his appearance at the first annual Latin Grammy Awards, Ricky acknowledged the enormous cultural and musical contributions of the legendary Tito Puente, the master of mambo who passed away recently.
Ricky Martin is an active participant in many social causes including the Pediatric AIDS Foundation, the Luciano Pavarotti & Friends fundraising concerts, the Carousel of Hope, the Rainforest Foundation, and others.
To date, Ricky Martin has sold more than 32 million albums (more than 24 million) and singles (more than 8 million) worldwide. His 2000 World Tour has taken him to Canada, Japan, Asia, Australia, Europe, and back to the States.
He sang one of his most recent hit singles She Bangs (lyrics) at the 2000 MTV Europe Music Awards held in Stockholm Sweden. His latest album was Almas del Silencio released in 2003
Best Of [Sony 2003] (2003)
Almas del Silencio (2003)
Medio Vivir [Coleccion de Oro] (2002)
Best of Ricky Martin [Sony 2001] (2001)
La Historia (2001)
Sound Loaded (2000)
Vuelve [Australia Bonus Tracks] (1999)
Ricky Martin [US 1999] (1999)
La Bomba Remixes (1998)
Vuelve (1998)
A Medio Vivir (1995)
Me Amarás (1993)
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"…that on October 1st, 1861, Confederate President Jefferson Davis rejected his generals’ request for 20,000 additional troops to invade Maryland?"
Charcoal Club Records, 1888-1970, MS 1792
Charcoal Club Records, 1888-1970
(Text converted and initial EAD tagging provided by Apex Data Services, March 1999.)
Manuscripts Department
Maryland Historical Society Library
201 West Monument Street
library@mdhs.org
www.mdhs.org
Apart from the notes supplied by Lawrence Sagle (see following pages), the scrapbooks contain details of The Bal des Arts, separately incorporated, but always considered part of the Charcoal Club; the Art Club of Baltimore, formed in 1892; the Sketch Club, a forerunner of the Charcoal Club; lists of members, meeting cards, exhibition notices
Although the Club was inaugurated in 1885, there is a suggestion that it met as early as 1883.
Note: The Club has promised to donate further volumes as they are completed.
The Charcoal Club, Inc. of Baltimore was formally inaugurated in 1885, although there is mention of its existence in 1883.
One of the prime reasons for its inauguration was the prudery of Baltimore residents, who felt that drawing from the nude was indecent. Nude females and males (the former hard to get) were provided for sessions at various locations in the city. For many years it was a flourishing society, and contained many well known figures in Baltimore life. Perhaps the most famous was Dr. Adalbert Volck (1828-1912) the Baltimore dentist and famous local artist.
The Club assisted in the formation of Sketch Club, The Bal des Arts, and the Art Club of Baltimore.
For some years the wealth of the members enabled the Club to meet in somewhat palatial [UNK], but gradually (and particularly in the 1930's) membership dwindled, and for a time there was a likelihood that it would cease. Various members whipped up enthusiasm, and today, although the membership numbers less than 50, it still meets, but the heyday of weekly meetings, frequent exhibitions, the Bal des Arts and other social functions, has departed.
A good story on the Club is given by Carol Wharton, The Sun Magazine, July 28, 1946 (contained in vol. 4 of the Scrapbooks.
Processed by: P.W. Filby
The records of the Charcoal Club., Inc., Baltimore were donated by the Club officers through the action of Lawrence W. Sagle, Chairman and G. Harry Pouder, a member for many years.
There are volumes of scrapbooks, 1889-1924, 1933-1970
Also, 6 volumes of minutes, 1888-1898, 1924-1965.
Volumes of scrapbooks and minutes will be donated as they are completed.
All property rights belong to the Maryland Historical Society
Accession number: 62665 11 vols.
Ms. number: 1792.
Guide to Related Materials
Nothing relevant found.
[UNK]
Report of Committee having to do with the presentation of old Club records and scrap books to the Maryland Historical Society in accordance with motion passed at the meeting of the Charcoal Club, Inc., on October 16, 1969.
With regard to the instructions of your president, the undersigned visited the home of Mr. G. Herry Pouder on Friday, November 7, 1969, and found the materials listed below.
1 Scrap Book No. 1, containing clippings dated from 1889 to 1910.
(Note: These dates are approximate. There is some lapping of dates. When the undersigned was secretary, he found these books and preserved them, during the later years at his home to protect them. The binders are in very bad shape. These were turned over to Dave Marks upon his assuming the post of secretary.)
4 Scrap Book, with clippings from 1933 to 1961.
(Note: This book was maintained by the undersigned as part of his duties as secretary. There should be a later book, partly filled, which is probably in the possession of the present secretary. It was passed on the Dave Marks.)
5 An envelope containing loose clipping, dates undertimined.
(Note: Mrs. Pouder informed the undersigned that the she would gladly paste them in a scrap book if one is furnished by the Club. The sooner the better, as she would like to have the material picked up well before Christmas.)
6 An envelope containing notices, letters, folders and exhibition catelogues. This envelope should be brought to the Club and given to the present secretary. Or, if deemed proper, it might also be given to the Maryland Historical Society, if the membership should so desire.
7 Old minute book, from Feb. 9, 1888 to Oct. 9, 1898.
(Note: There is a gap here, representing the time, mostly, when Bill Chaffe was secretary. Nothing has been found covering his tenure of office. As he was one of the directors for the Bal des Arts, and because of the breaking off of relations between that organization and the Club in the early thirties, it might have been an act of spite.)
8 Old minute book, from Nov. 6, 1924 to Oct. 21, 1932.
9 Old minute book, from Nov. 1, 1932 to Sept. 22, 1950.
10 Old minute book, from Dec. 7, 1950 to May 26, 1955.
11 Old minute book, from Sept. 29, 1955 to Mar. 9, 1961.
12 Old minute book, from May 5, 1961 to March 1965.
(Note: No. 12 is without a binder. When Dave Marks assumed the post of secretary, he removed these minutes from the binder which he used for his minutes instead of buying a new one. It is suggested that the Club purchase a new binder for these minutes before delivery to the Maryland Historical Society.)
Conclusion: As soon as I am notified that the material is ready for delivery to the Maryland Historical Society, I shall notufy Mr. Harold Manakee, director of the Society, and have him arrange to have the material picked up from the residence of Ex-president Pouder, and to formally acknowledge receipt to the Charcoal Club.
Lawrence W. Sagle, Chairman.
Archives of American Art Journal
VOLUME 25 NUMBERS 1 and 2 1985
ARTICLES Letters from Germany, 1933-1938
Marsden Hartley, Charlotte Weidler, Homer Saint-Gaudens, et al. page 3
Diego Rivera and the Hotel Reforma Murals
Maltby Sykes page 29
Back to Bohemia with the Charcoal Club of Baltimore
Liza Kirwin page 41
BOOK REVIEWS Carol Troyen on John Paul Driscoll and John K. Howat's John Frederick Kensett, An American Master; Lois Marie Fink on John Dillenberger's The Visual Arts and Christianity in America; Claudia T. Esko on Francine Tyler's American Etchings of the Nineteenth Century page 47
REGIONAL OFFICE REPORTS Mid-Atlantic: Liza Kirwin page 55
New England: Robert F. Brown page 56
New York: William McNaught page 57
Midwest: Sue Ann Kendall page 59
Texas Project: Sandra J. Levy page 60
West Coast: Paul J. Karlstrom page 62
Southern California Research Center: Stella Paul page 63
EDITORIAL NOTE Garnett McCoy page 64
OFFICES OF THE ARCHIVES OF AMERICAN ART
8th and F Streets, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20560
41 East 65th Street, New York, New York 10021
5200 Woodward Avenue, Detroit, Michigan 48202
Museum of Fine Arts, Post Office Box 6826, Houston, Texas 77005
87 Mount Vernon Street, Boston, Massachusetts 02108
M. H. de Young Memorial Museum, Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, California 94118
Huntington Library, 1151 Oxford Road, San Marino, California 91108
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Mel O’Reilly – Director
Mel has worked in the construction industry since 1972. Over the past 46 years, the last 28 of which have been with MDY Construction, he has amassed a wide range of experience in all aspects of the industry having worked as subcontractor, setting out engineer, draughtsman, site manager, contracts manager, and director of various companies. He is proficient in the use of all relevant software and IT systems, has gained considerable knowledge of all forms of building contract, has experience in dispute resolution, and has been instrumental in the development of management systems, including Safety Management and Quality Management, within the company. He has successfully managed and delivered projects in both public and private sectors, including: education facilities at all levels; commercial and industrial buildings; civil infrastructure; food production facilities; heritage works and restoration; sports and leisure facilities; healthcare; public buildings; including Design and Build projects.
Mel is an active member of the MBCA Council, the CIF Executive Body, and associated committees dealing with procurement, tendering, contracts, planning, and industry practices. He also represents CI on the Construction Industry Council consultative forum with the Department of Housing, Planning, Community, and Local Government (DHPCLG) dealing with Building Regulations and BCAR.
Tom Dunne – Director
Tom started his professional life with a twelve month period working with a Main Contractor in the UK who specialised in Design and Build of Social Housing Schemes.
On his return from the UK he completed a short term contract placement with BAM on a large mixed development in South Dublin before joining MDY in October 1999 as a Junior Surveyor. Tom has progressed through the ranks in MDY and was made a Senior Quantity Surveyor in 2007, Director in 2010 & Managing Director in 2017. Tom has been with MDY Construction eighteen years and in that period has completed a large volume of diverse projects.
He has successfully completed projects in both public and private sectors, including: education facilities at all levels; commercial and industrial buildings; civil infrastructure; food production facilities; heritage works and restoration; sports and leisure facilities; healthcare; public buildings; including Design and Build projects and large scale housing developments both Public & Private.
MDY Construction
Unit 30 The Business Park
Stadium Business Centre
Ballycoolin Road
D11 AY09
Phone: 00353 (0)45 909 800
Fax: 00353 (0)45 869 501
Email: post@mdy.ie
Copyright © 2019 MDY
Website Design by Snap
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What I Bring
When I Get Involved
What I’ve Done
Author:michael
Home » Archives for michael
What will the communications department of the future look like?
It is no secret that social media has turned the role of the communicator on its head. Just as the iPod did with consumers, or cloud computing has done in business technology, the emergence of Twitter, LinkedIn and other social media platforms have had a disruptive influence on the communications world.
But while a lot has been made of the role that social media plays in the communicator’s daily routine – and rightly so- there are other factors at play that will have a significant influence on how communications professionals will operate in the future.
An interview with The Sunday Times on non-exec careers
I was recently interviewed for an article in The Sunday Times’ Appointment section, advising on how to acquire the skills required to swap a full-time role for a non-executive portfolio.
In a feature which explores why younger executives are now looking to follow this career path, I also talk about how I built towards becoming a non-executive director, and the experience and training required to take on such a role.
A Collaboration to Deepen Commitment to Accelerating Business Growth & Geographic Expansion
Today I am delighted to confirm that top US tech PR firm, Max Borges Agency has retained my services to explore and advise on potential strategic opportunities and business development.
The engagement follows the announcement of the company’s new office in San Francisco which has enlarged the firm’s national footprint. The office opening follows a strong growth in annual billing, with Max Borges Agency one of the America’s fastest-growing independent public relations that’s been named on the prestigious Inc. 5000 List for five consecutive years.
Joining the Circle of European Communicators in Rome
I am delighted to announce that I will again be on the Steering Committee for the Circle of European Communicators event in Rome this September.
Each year, leading corporate communications figures from across Europe gather to ‘talk about everything but communications’. Instead, the event aims to cover subjects ranging from politics, media and the economy to art and education, allowing attendees to explore ideas that reach beyond the scope of their daily work.
The Evolution of Business Communications
A lot is made of the way the role of business communications has changed in recent years. While not every change has been critical, it cannot be ignored that major global factors are now at play and have developed to influence the way in which companies and organisations are doing business – and consequently having to adapt to remain successful.
We Need More CMOs and CCOs on Boards
With companies facing continuous reputational risks in today’s hyper-connected world, having marketing and communications experience on the board should be a no brainer. But while modern boards are hugely inclusive in terms of gender and ethnicity, we often do not see such variety in the skillsets.
Private Equity Has Arrived in Force
Is consolidation slowing down in the marketing services & communications sector ? Has the birth rate for new consultancies slowed in the challenging economic times of recent ?
Joining Up a Country
I was fascinated to listen yesterday to Toomas Hendrik Ilves, The president of Estonia, talking in London about the role of communications and technology in promoting innovation in a country.
© Michael Murphy 2016 Web Design by Digital Shape
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Little Mix Premieres New Song “Joan of Arc”
British girl group Little Mix premiered a new song “Joan of Arc” as the first count down single from their upcoming fifth studio album “LM5”.
It was written by A.S. Govere, Phil Plested, Patrick Patrimios, Sunny (UK), Jade Thirlwall and Leigh-Anne Pinnock.
The song was leaked on line a few days ago. But they released official on November 1st.
The song title comes from one of the biggest female figure in around the 15th century.
“Joan of Arc”, nicknamed “The Maid of Orléans,” born in 1412 in Domrémy, Bar, France. A national heroine of France, at age 18 she led the French army to victory over the English at Orléans in the Hundred Years War. The track is female empowering song.
The new album features guest appearances from Nicki Minaj, Sharaya J, Kamille and Cheat Codes.
The album is set to be released on November 16th.
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SIX BITS: Beal, Olympics, Cup awards, Crawford
1 » Could Florida Gators freshman guard Bradley Beal be the decided target of the Washington Wizards with the No. 3 overall pick in the 2012 NBA Draft on June 28? That appears to be the case after Washington completed a trade on Wednesday that sent a small forward Rashard Lewis and a second-round pick to New Orleans for SF Trevor Ariza and power forward/center Emeka Okafor. By adding two talented, starting-caliber frontcourt players, the chances that the Wizards would select a forward like Kentucky’s Michael Kidd-Gilchrist or Kansas’ Thomas Robinson (if he was even available) have been reduced significantly, meaning Beal could very well be the top player on their board with the draft just over a week away.
2 » Speaking of Beal, ESPN analyst Fran Fraschilla wrote Wednesday about what weakness Beal needs to improve on ($) in order to have a productive NBA career.
Beal’s screen-and-roll ability in Billy Donovan‘s screen-and-roll-oriented offense was average at best. Often when challenged by the screener’s defender (usually a big man), Beal was not able to take him on and beat him off the dribble. Ultimately, Beal shot just 35 percent in the screen-and-roll, and his overall points produced for himself or his teammates was a paltry 0.7 points per possession.
Part of the reason Beal struggled in the screen-and-roll is that he is a straight-line driver. I don’t doubt that he has been working hard on his ballhandling creativity. If he is going to be more than a one-dimensional jump-shooter, he’ll be handling the ball a lot, especially because the NBA’s 24-second shot clock demands it.
3 » The 2012 U.S. Olympic Team Trials for track & field begin Friday in Eugene, OR with 17 total current and former Gators hoping to earn the opportunity to compete in the2012 London Olympics. Among those participating in the trials over the next 11 days are 10 current Florida student-athletes including: senior/junior Dwight Barbiasz (high jump), junior Omar Craddock (triple jump), junior/senior Jeff Demps (100-meter dash), freshman Marquis Dendy (long jump), freshman Dedric Dukes (200-meter dash), sophomore Ebony Eutsey (400-meter dash), sophomore Eddie Lovett (110-meter hurdles), sophomore Cory McGee (1,500-meter run), junior Tony McQuay (400-meter dash) and junior Jeremy Postin (hammer throw). Former Gators set to compete include: Hazel Clark (800-meter dash), Will Claye (long jump, triple jump), Kerron Clement (400-meter hurdles), Gray Horn (decathlon), Calvin Smith (400-meter dash), Wes Stockbarger (discus throw) and Christian Taylor (triple jump).
[EXPAND Click to expand and read three more BITS in this post.]4 » The University of Florida athletic program finished No. 2 in the nation in the 2011-12 Learfield Sports Directors’ Cup. Twelve Florida programs finished among the top 10 of their respective sport nationally including women’s tennis (No. 1), men’s indoor track & field (No. 1), men’s outdoor track & field (No. 1), gymnastics (No. 2), lacrosse (No. 3), men’s basketball (No. 5), volleyball (No. 5), baseball (No. 7), men’s swimming & diving (No. 8), women’s indoor track & field (No. 9), men’s tennis (No. 9) and women’s swimming and diving (No. 10). It is the fourth-straight year that the Gators have finished in the top four of the Cup’s final rankings and second time in the last three years (2009-10). Florida has never won the Cup but has finished in the top 10 in each of the 29 years it has been awarded. Stanford won for the 18th time, outscoring UF 1448.25-1314.00 in the final standings. Only 20 sports count for each school toward their final total, but the Cardinal have 35 to choose from while the Gators currently support 21 total sports.
5 » With just a handful of game remaining in the 2012 College World Series, which Florida was eliminated from on Monday, the end of the athletic season is nearly here which means the final standings for the 2012 Capital One Cup will be official shortly. As of press time, the Gators lead the men’s standings with 89 points (baseball has not been counted yet). The only way that Florida can lose their top spot is if Arkansas (currently ranked 17th with 39 points) wins the entire CWS (adding 60 points to their total) and UF is ranked eighth or worse when the final poll. In that scenario, the Gators would finish second by one point (99-98).
6 » The USA Baseball Collegiate National Team announced Monday that Florida sophomore right-handed pitcher Jonathon Crawford has been selected to play for the squad this summer. Crawford is one of six Southeastern Conference players to earn placement on the team, which consists of freshmen and sophomores from some of the nation’s top programs. He finished the 2012 season with a final record of 6-2 along with a 3.13 ERA and the team’s first solo no-hitter for in 21 years.[/EXPAND]
baseball Bradley Beal Calvin Smith Capital One Cup Christian Taylor College World Series Cory McGee Dedric Dukes Directors' Cup diving Draft Dwight Barbiasz Ebony Eutsey Eddie Lovett field Gray Horn gymnastics Hazel Clark Jeff Demps Jeremy Postin Jonathon Crawford Kerron Clement lacrosse Marquis Dendy NBA Olympics Omar Craddock SEC swimming tennis Tony McQuay track University of Florida USA USA Baseball volleyball Washington Wizards Wes Stockbarger Will Claye
6/21-23: Gators at 2012 U.S. Olympic Team Trials
Top 12 for 2012: On the Field Moments of the Year
6/28: Gators at the 2012 U.S. Olympic Team Trials
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Home » Blogs » ramaduro's blog
Wisconsin reps trying to torpedo VA's open source strategy
For those of you folks who think that open health is a staid field, this week saw the unfolding of an epic scandal. NexGov's inimitable reporter, Bob Brewin, author of the column What's Brewin, got his hands on a stash of documents showing that elected representatives from Wisconsin are trying to torpedo the open source strategy being pursued by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). Kudos to VA's CIO, Roger Baker, for standing up for what's right.
In his article, titled “Wisconsin reps try to derail VA/Defense open source health records system” Brewin reports that five members of Wisconsin's congressional delegation sent a letter to the VA and DoD respectfully requesting the VA dump VistA and instead consider using a single commercial system for their new electronic health records. A beneficiary of the actions of these Wisconsin pols could potentially be Epic, one of Wisconsin's largest corporations and a major player in the Electronic Health Record (EHR) market. If there were an attempt to replace VistA with Epic, it would cause severe disruptions to the VA's ability to care for America's veterans. This is discussed by Peter Groen in his blog, as well as in Tom Munnecke blog here. Disruptions, and even potential failure, notwithstanding, such as development could be a fabulous financial windfall for Epic.
Brewin, no fool and an old hand at exposing how elected officials fleece the American people on behalf of multinational corporations, did some additional footwork. He called an Epic representative who replied that “the company does not use lobbyists.” That may be the case but in a follow up article titled “Following the Epic Systems Money” Brewin reports that Epic and Epic's CEO, Judith Faulkner, have contributed over a million dollars to congressional candidates and political action committees. Recipients of this financial largesse include some of the very congressmen trying to kill VistA and the VA's open source strategy.
Luckily VA's CIO, Roger Baker refused to be cowed by the Wisconsin reps and quickly replied to their letter. After explaining to the Wisconsin reps that the “VA has a long and very successful history in developing and using EHR systems,” he added that “we have been a leader in the creation and adoption of these systems nationwide,” and as a result “VistA itself has won many awards.” Baker told the congressmen, Senators Herb Kohl (D) and Ron Johnson (R), and Representative Paul Ryan (R), Ron Kind (D) and Tammy Baldwin (D), whose district includes Verona, where Epic has its headquarters, that the VA plans to stick with the open source approach it has pursued so successfully in partnership with other public and private sector organizations over the past few decades.
It is good to see that there are government officials that are willing to stand up for what is right.
Roger A. Maduro, Publisher and Editor-in-Chief
OSEHRA 2013 Summit Shines, even as DoD Shuns the Summit
How Analytics Are Changing Health Care
Petition to have DoD adopt the EHR used by the VA posted on the White House web site
Google Joins VistA Team Proposing Open Source EHR for the Department of Defense
Homeland Security & VistA 'Open' EHR Opportunity
Department of Defense (DoD)
Posted April 9, 2011 - 10:39am by Roger A. Maduro
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Copyright 2016. Tamer Albayrak. All Rights Reserved.
Of all living creatures, birds are the group that is most at risk from environmental deterioration caused by human activity. Even the remotest ecosystem is affected in some way, raising the possibility that isolation will afford insufficient protection to any species; migrants are at special risk because they travel through areas where resting and feeding stopovers have diminished or disappeared. Degraded wetlands, remnants of natural woodlands, the large-scale replacement of coastal vegetation by concrete inevitably will reduce the diversity of ecosystems whose features cannot be replicated by open waters created for leisure, by single-species woodland plantations or by gardens and parks, although these do offer advantages to adaptable bird species. Species that are habitat specialists can all too easily be driven to extinction. Although mankind and birds have co-existed remarkably well in many parts of the world until recently, it can be argued that the relentless pace of extinction of bird species is symptomatic of world-wide ‘simplification’ of plant, insect, mammal, and fish species as a consequence of industrial-scale mass production of food for humankind, whose vulnerability to catastrophe would appear to be increasing because food ‘crops’ are monocultures produced at densities not tolerated in nature and potentially at risk from disease evolution. In the Palearctic, Nearctic and Oriental regions, primary habitats for birds are diminishing at rates that are often severe and increasing. Thousands of insect species are believed to have become extinct before they have been described, putting many hundreds of bird species at risk as one of their primary food sources reduces. However, it is likely that the more subtle effects of removing insect species from complex ecosystems, especially the forced changes to the food chains, few of which have been studied at all, will have severe and unpredictable effects in the longer term. The 6th International Eurasian Ornithology Congress aims to bring together ornithologists and bird lovers in general, to create a platform for knowledge exchange and to discuss the problems and their solutions. This Congress welcomes all humanitarians who care about nature, particularly avifauna. All subjects related to birds will be dealt in Congress sessions; there will be no other restriction on the topic of a presentation.
Your attendance at this Congress will be our privilege and honor. We are looking forward to greeting you in İzmir in 22-26 April 2020.
Sincerely yours.
Registration and Abstract Submission system
IEOC_2020_Izmir
Commitees
Collaboration with
Previous IEOCs
1st IEOC
2nd IEOC
3rt IEOC
5th IEOC
IEOC 2020 will be orginized in Izmir, Turkey hosted by Ege University
Genetic diversity
Fieldworks
Tamer Albayrak
Lab of Ornithology
VII. International Eurasian Ornithology Congress, İzmir 2020
Symposium Date: 22- 26 April 2020
The opening of Abstract Submission: 01 October 2019
Deadline for Abstract Submission: 31 Januar y2020
Notification of Acceptance: 28 February 2020
Early Registration Deadline: 09 March 2020
Symposium Opening Ceremony and Welcome Cocktail: 22 April 2020
Symposium Dinner: 25 April 2020
Symposium Language: The official language of the symposium is English.
Conference will be held in Ege University, Izmir -Turkey. According to CWUR World University Rankings, Ege University is ranked at 616th in internationally and at 4th, in nationally. Located at the west of Turkey and on the Aegean shores, İzmir, the pearl of the Aegean, is the third largest city in Turkey. With its 8.500 year history, fertile land, favourable climate, 629 km coastline, 300 sunny days a year, a sea that offers every shade of blue and the heritage left behind by the 32 civilizations it has been a home to. İzmir is ready for you to discover its beauty, nature and hospitality. The city holds 6 different universities. Izmir holds a lot of natural and Historical values.
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Our Family Names
Tag Archives: Samuel Taylor (1848-1932)
Samuel Taylor (1848-1932)
22nd May 2017 TaylorBarnstaple, Gloucester, Samuel Taylor (1848-1932), WashfordJim Taylor
Jasmine Cottage and Pebbles, Washford.
Samuel Taylor was born at 10 Brick Street, Bristol on 17 February 1848, and was the youngest of Mark and Charlotte Taylor’s (nee’ Lewis) nine known children1. He was baptised at St Philip and Jacob, Bristol on 5 March 18482. In 1851 he was recorded as 3 years old and still living at 10 Brick Street3. By 1861 the family had moved to 9 Bread Street, Bristol. Samuel was recorded in the census as a 14 years old scholar4.
Continue reading Samuel Taylor (1848-1932) →
The Kendalls of Smisby
The Daughter of Jennings and Wife of George Kendall
Memorial to William Kendall – Smisby Church
Anne Reddish (1494 -1548) of Reddish
Mark Taylor (1797-1879) and Charlotte Lewis (1804 -1888)
Copyright EVT 2017
The intellectual property contained within this website may not be republished in any form without written permission.
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Where a third-party copyright is indicated the original copyright restrictions remain in force.
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A Multi-locus molecular phylogeny for Australia's iconic Jacky Dragon (Agamidae: Amphibolurus muricatus) : phylogeographic structure along the Great Dividing Range of south-eastern Australia
Molecular phylogenetics and evolution, Vol. 71, No. 1, (2014), p.149-156
Pepper, Mitzy
Barquero, Marco D
Whiting, Martin J
Keogh, J. Scott
Jacky dragons (Amphibolurus muricatus) are ubiquitous in south-eastern Australia and were one of the first Australian reptiles to be formally described. Because they are so common, Jacky dragons are widely used as a model system for research in evolutionary biology and ecology. In addition, their distribution along the Great Dividing Range of eastern Australia provides an opportunity to examine the influence of past biogeographical processes, particularly the expansion and contraction of forest habitats, on the diversification of this iconic agamid lizard. We generated sequence data for two mitochondrial and three nuclear DNA loci (4251base pairs) for 62 Jacky dragons sampled from throughout their distribution. Phylogenetic analyses based on maximum likelihood and Bayesian species-tree methods revealed five geographically structured clades separated by up to 6% mitochondrial and 0.7% nuclear sequence divergence. We also quantified body proportion variation within and between these genetic clades for more than 500 specimens and found no evidence of any significant differentiation in body proportions across their range. Based on body proportion homogeneity and lack of resolution in the nuclear loci, we do not support taxonomic recognition of any of the mitochondrial clades. Instead, A muricatus is best thought of as a single species with phylogeographic structure. The genetic patterns observed in the Jacky dragon are consistent with fragmented populations reduced to multiple refugia during cold, arid phases when forested habitats were greatly restricted. Consequently, the inferred biogeographic barriers for this taxon appear to be in line with lowland breaks in the mountain ranges. Our results are congruent with studies of other reptiles, frogs, mammals, birds and invertebrates, and together highlight the overarching effects of widespread climatic and habitat fluctuations along the Great Dividing Range since the Pliocene.
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STRUCTURAL AND OPTICAL PROPERTIES OF CdTe THIN FILMS OBTAINED BY ELECTRODEPOSITION
Atanas Tanushevski, Dragan Sokolovski
Thin films of CdTe have been obtained by electrodeposition in presence of tartaric acid on fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO)-coated glass substrates, under constant voltage of 1.40 V. In order to determine the deposition parameters of CdTe, cyclic voltammetry has been performed. The films were annealed at Т= 200 oС, Т= 300 oС, Т= 400 oС and Т= 450 oС, in air atmosphere. The X-ray diffractograms show that the films obtained at 90 oC are nanocrystal with cubic structure and with grain size of 6 nm. The thermal treatment of CdTe films contributes to grain growth and obtaining polycrystalline films. Atomic Force Microscope shows that the films are smooth and uniform with columnar grains. The optical properties of the CdTe films have been investigated by measurements of wavelength-dependent transmission. The optical band gap of as-deposited films is 1.48 eV and is decreasing up to 1.45 eV, for films annealed at temperature of 300 оС, and increasing again at temperature of 450 оС. Lastly, SnO2-CdS-CdTe-electrolyte-graphite type photoelectrochemical solar cells have been made, using the 0.1 М NaOH-Na2Sx electrolyte. From the measured current-voltage characteristics, open circuit voltage of Voc= 500 mV and short circuit current of Isc= 1.2 mA/cm2 have been determined.
A. V. Kokate, M. R. Asabe, P. P. Hankare, B. K. Chougule, “Effect of annealing on properties of electrochemically deposited CdTe thin films,” Journal of Physics and Chemistry of Solids, vol. 68, no. 1, pp. 53–58, 2007.
DOI: 10.1016/j.jpcs.2006.09.018
D. L. Bätzner, A. Romeo, M. Terheggen, M. Döbeli, H. Zogg, A. N. Tiwari, “Stability aspects in CdTe/CdS solar cells,” Thin Solid Films, vol. 451–452, pp. 536–543, Mar. 2004.
DOI: 10.1016/j.tsf.2003.10.141
A. K. Fedotov, A. A. Ronassi et al., “Electrical, photoelectrical, and photoelectrochemical properties of electrodeposited CdTe films subjected to high-energy irradiation,” Thin Solid Films, vol 519, pp. 7149–7152, Aug. 2011.
I. M. Dharmadasa, P. A. Bingham, O. K. Echendu et al., “Fabrication of CdS/CdTe-Based Thin Film Solar Cells Using an Electrochemical Technique,” Coatings, vol. 4, no. 3, pp. 380-415, Jun. 2014.
DOI: 10.3390/coatings4030380
S. Lalitha, S. Zh. Karazhanov, P. Ravindran et al., “Electronic structure, structural and optical properties of thermally evaporated CdTe thin films,” Physica B, vol. 387, no. 1-2, pp. 227–238, Jan. 2007.
DOI: 10.1016/j.physb.2006.04.008
Xian-Feng Gao, Hong-Bo Li, Wen-Tao Sun et al., “CdTe Quantum Dots-Sensitized TiO2 Nanotube Array Photoelectrodes,” J. Phys. Chem. C, vol. 113, no. 18, pp. 7531–7535, Apr. 2009.
DOI: 10.1021/jp810727n
X. Mathew, P. J. Sebastian, A. Sanchez, J. Campos, “Structural and opto-electronic properties of electrodeposited CdTe on stainless steel foil,” Solar Energy Materials & Solar Cells, vol. 59, no. 1-2, pp. 99-114, Sep. 1999.
M. E. Calixto, J. C. McClure, V. P. Singh, A. Bronson, P. J. Sebastian, X. Mathew, “Electrodeposition and characterization of CdTe thin films on Mo foils using a two voltage technique,” Solar Energy Materials & Solar Cells, vol. 63, no. 4, pp. 325-334, Aug. 2000.
S. Marsillac, V. Y. Parikh, A. D. Compaan, “Ultra-thin bifacial CdTe solar cell,” Solar Energy Materials & Solar Cells, vol. 91, no. 15-16, pp. 1398–1402, Sep. 2007.
DOI: 10.1016/j.solmat.2007.04.025
N. Romeo, A. Bosio, R. Tedeschi, A. Romeo, V. Canevari, “A highly efficient and stable CdTe/CdS thin film solar cell,” Solar Energy Materials & Solar Cells, vol. 58, no. 2, pp. 209- 218, Jun. 1999.
A. Romeo, G. Khrypunov, F. Kurdesau et al., “High-efficiency flexible CdTe solar cells on polymer substrates,” Solar Energy Materials & Solar Cells, vol. 90, no. 18-19, pp. 3407–3415, Nov. 2006.
A. Bosio, N. R. S. Mazzamuto, V. Canevari, “Polycrystalline CdTe thin films for photovoltaic applications,” Progress in Crystal Growth and Characterization of Materials, vol. 52, no. 4, pp. 247-279, Dec. 2006.
DOI: 10.1016/j.pcrysgrow.2006.09.001
Q. Jiang, D. P. Haliday, B. K. Tanner et al., “Thick epitaxial CdTe films grown by close space sublimation on Ge substrates,” J. Phys. D: Appl. Phys., vol. 42, no. 1, pp. 012004-1 – 012004-4, Dec. 2008.
DOI: 10.1088/0022-3727/42/1/012004
N. A. Shah, A. Ali, Z. Ali, A. Maqsood, A. K. S. Aqili, “Properties of Te-rich cadmium telluride thin films fabricated by closed space sublimation technique,” Journal of Crystal Growth, vol. 284, no. 3-4, pp. 477–485, Nov. 2005.
DOI: 10.1016/j.jcrysgro.2005.08.005
R. Tena-Zaera, T. A. Katty, S. Bastide et al., “ZnO/CdTe/CuSCN, a promising heterostructure to act as inorganic eta-solar cell,” Thin Solid Films, vol. 483, no. 1-2, pp. 372– 377, Jul. 2005.
M. G. Panthani, J. M. Kurley, R. W. Crisp et al., “High Efficiency Solution Processed Sintered CdTe Nanocrystal Solar Cells: The Role of Interfaces,” Nano Lett., vol. 14, no. 2, pp. 670−675, Dec. 2013.
DOI: 10.1021/nl403912w
S. Del Sordo, L. Abbene, E. Caroli et al., “Progress in the Development of CdTe and CdZnTe Semiconductor Radiation Detectors for Astrophysical and Medical Applications,” Sensors, vol. 9, no. 5, pp. 3491-3526, May 2009.
DOI: 10.3390/s90503491
R. K. Pandey, S. Mishra, S. Tiwari, P. Sahu, B. P. Chandra, “Comparative study of performance of CdTe, CdSe and CdS thin films-based photoelectrochemical solar cells,” Solar Energy Materials & Solar Cells, vol. 60, no. 1, pp. 59-72, Jan. 2000.
DOI: 10.1016/S0927-0248(99)00063-X
K. Uosaki, M. Takahashi, H. Kita, “The photoelectrochemical Behaviour of electrochemically deposited CdTe films,” Electrochimica acta, vol. 29, no. 2, pp 279-281, Feb. 1984.
P. V. Kamat, K. Tvrdy, D. R. Baker, J. G. Radich, “Beyond photovoltaics: semiconductor nanoarchitectures for liquid-junction solar cells,” Chem. Rev., vol. 110, no. 11, pp. 6664–6688, Oct. 2010.
DOI: 10.1021/cr100243p
X. F. Gao, H. B. Li, W. T. Sun et al., “CdTe Quantum Dots-Sensitized TiO2 Nanotube Array Photoelectrodes,” J. Phys. Chem. C, vol. 113, no. 18, pp. 7531-7535, Apr. 2009.
Zh. Li, W. Luo, M. Zhang, J. Feng, Zh. Zou, “Photoelectrochemical cells for solar hydrogen production: current state of promising photoelectrodes, methods to improve their properties, and outlook,” Energy & Environmental Science, vol. 6, no. 2, pp. 347–370, Dec. 2012.
DOI: 10.1039/C2EE22618A
N. Novkovski, A. Tanusevski, D. Gracin, “Refined analysis of absorption spectra of CdS thin films,” J. Phys. D: Appl. Phys., vol. 48, no. 39, pp. 395105-1 – 395105-9, Sep. 2015.
DOI: 10.1088/0022-3727/48/39/395105
M. P. R. Panicker, M. Knaster, F. A. Kroger, “Cathodic Deposition of CdTe from Aqueous Electrolytes,” J. Electrochem. Soc., vol. 125, no. 4, pp. 566-572, 1978.
A. Y. Shenouda, El Sayed M. El Sayed, “Electrodeposition, characterization and photo electrochemical properties of CdSe and CdTe,” Ain Shams Engineering Journal, vol. 6, no. 1, pp. 341–346, Mar. 2015.
DOI: 10.1016/j.asej.2014.07.010
M. M. El-Nahass, G. M. Youssef, S. Z. Noby, “Structural and optical characterization of CdTe quantum dots thin films,” Journal of Alloys and Compounds, vol. 604, pp. 253–259, Aug. 2014.
DOI: 10.1016/j.jallcom.2014.03.104
J. P. Enríquez, “Effects of annealing time and temperature on structural, optical and electrical properties of CdS films deposited by CBD,” Chalcogenide Letters, vol. 10, pp. 45–53, Feb. 2013.
Retrieved from: http://chalcogen.ro/45_Pantoja.pdf
Retrieved on: Feb. 12, 2017.
H. I. Salim, V. Patel, A. Abbas, J. M. Walls, I. M. Dharmadasa, “Electrodeposition of CdTe thin films using nitrate precursor for applications in solar cells,” J. Mat. Sci: Materials in Electronics, vol. 26, no. 5, pp. 3119-3128, May 2015.
DOI: 10.1007/s10854-015-2805-x.
S. J. Lade, M. D. Uplane, C. D. Lokhande, “Photoelectrochemical properties of CdX (XDS, Se, Te) films electrodeposited from aqueous and non-aqueous baths,” Materials Chemistry and Physics, vol. 68, no. 1-3, pp. 36–41, Feb. 2001.
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Faculties Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies
The Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies (FTRS) is the mother of the other Faculties of the Protestant University of Rwanda. It was created by Protestant Churches of Rwanda in 1970 as Ecole de Théologie de Butare (ETB). Its central vision has been to enrich and revitalize human lives with theological academic and spiritual knowledge and provide for Churches and the society religious leaders who can serve effectively in churches and other communities of faith.
In 1993, ETB became Faculté de Théologie Protestante de Butare (FTPB), fully accredited by the Ministry of Education as a Private High Learning Institution, under the Ministerial Decree, No 1552 of 09th December 1993. In the same year, the Ministerial Decree, No 1554/09.2/01/02, acknowledged Bachelor's degrees delivered by the Faculty of Theology.
In 2010, FTPB grew into the Protestant Institute of Arts and Social Sciences (PIASS) and the Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies became one of the PIASS accredited Faculties. It keeps the vision of PIASS which is: “To be a university of reference concerned with the development of knowledge and innovative research adapted to the society and inspired by Ethical and Christian values.” FTRS strives to meet three objectives:
To offer competitive theological teachings on the national and international levels.
To offer an intellectual, moral, professional and scientific formation in the domain of theological sciences and to promote theological research grounded in the Christian African reality.
To train theologians and pastors capable to respond to the needs of churches and Rwandan society.
So far, the Faculty of Theology has two accredited departments at the undergraduate level. The Department of Protestant Theology aims at training Church pastors and ministers to serve Protestant Churches at all levels. The Department of Religious Studies equips with the graduates the knowledge and skills needed to serve as teachers of religion and chaplains of schools or serve in ecumenical and interreligious organisations. At the graduate level, two accredited Master’s programmes are offered: Christian Ethics and Leadership, and Community Care and Development.
Rev. Dr NDAYIZEYE MUNYANSANGA Olivier
Dean of the Faculty of Theology and Religious studies
Read-more about Theology: What is theology.pdf
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SC/ST Amendment Act to be introduced in Parliament: Rajnath
He said the entire country knew that the Supreme Court had diluted the SC/ST Act through its ruling that a preliminary enquiry was required to arrest any person even under the SC/ST Act meant for preventing atrocities against those covered under the Act
New Delhi: Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Thursday said a Bill to amend the SC/ST Atrocities Prevention Act, cleared by the Cabinet on Wednesday, will be introduced in Parliament in the ongoing session for consideration and passage.
"I don't know why the members are raising this issue now. I think they are aware and they have the knowledge that the Union Cabinet under the chairmanship of Prime Minister Narendra Modi approved The Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Amendment Bill," Rajnath Singh said in the Lok Sabha during Zero Hour.
He said the entire country knew that the Supreme Court had diluted the SC/ST Act through its ruling that a preliminary enquiry was required to arrest any person even under the SC/ST Act meant for preventing atrocities against those covered under the Act.
"The Prime Minister has said then if there is any dilution in the Act, we will bring a bill. And there is no if and but in it, he (Modi) had promised," he said.
"We will introduce the Bill in this session of Parliament to make it a law."
The Home Minister's remarks come a day after the Union Cabinet decided to restore a provision of the SC/ST Act allowing the arrest of accused persons without a preliminary enquiry or prior approval that was recently struck down by the Supreme Court.
The preamble of the amendment says that the decision to arrest or not to arrest cannot be taken away from the investigating officer, a power given under the Criminal Procedure Code in which there is no provision for a preliminary enquiry.
Under the new provision, no preliminary enquiry will be required for registering FIRs against the accused and arrest of persons accused under the SC/ST Act and this will not require any approval. The provision of anticipatory bail shall not be available to the accused notwithstanding any court judgment.
supreme court arrest rajnath singh narendra modi scheduled castes lok sabha anticipatory bail
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With the passage of the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015, two strategies to potentially maximize Social Security benefit payments were eliminated.
Prior to the budget’s passage, married couples had two strategies to help maximize their Social Security benefits: “file-and-suspend” and “restricted applications.”¹
Under file-and-suspend, the higher-earning spouse filed for benefits and then suspended them, allowing the lower-earning spouse to claim a spousal benefit. This also let the higher-earning spouse accrue delayed retirement credits. Upon attaining age 70, the couple then could switch to each taking their own individual benefit to receive the highest possible amount.
Restricted Application
A restricted application allowed an individual, upon attaining full retirement age, to file only for a spousal benefit, based on his or her spouse’s work record, delaying personal benefits until age 70. Upon reaching age 70, the individual would then convert to his or her own personal benefit.
Married couples also could combine the above strategies with one spouse filing and suspending a worker benefit, while the other spouse filed a restricted application to receive the spousal benefit only.
Divorced Recipients
These strategies could be used by divorced recipients, too. A divorced spouse was permitted to file a restricted application for a spousal benefit at full retirement age, as long as the former spouse was 62 or older. At age 70, the divorced spouse then switched over to his or her own worker benefit, assuming it was a higher amount.
The Policy Behind the Elimination
The elimination of file-and-suspend claims became effective on May 1, 2016. It prohibited restricted applications for anyone who had not reached age 62 by the end of 2015. Since file-and-suspend was only available to those who had reached full retirement age, it remained available to individuals who were age 66 by April 30, 2016. (Couples who had already executed such claims are unaffected by the new law.)²
The reason that Congress acted, and the President signed into law this change, was to save money and close perceived loopholes in the Social Security program.
Overall savings will be small compared to the larger financial challenges that Social Security faces. These changes will save about 0.02 percent of the taxable wages and self-employment income subject to Social Security taxes over the next 75 years, according to the Social Security Administration — a fraction of the program’s long-term deficit of 2.65 percent of taxable payroll.3 ³
According to one study, these changes will impact just 0.1 percent of all Social Security participants.⁴
Strategy & Choices
There was one other change not yet widely discussed that may have implications for you.
For someone who exercised a file-and-suspend strategy, the rules provided the ability to receive a retroactive lump sum payment if an individual changed his or her mind and lifted the suspension. (They did lose any bump up in payment amount that came with delaying benefit payments, however.) This flexibility is also being eliminated under the budget act.
This ability to lift the suspension was a particularly important planning strategy because it allowed an individual who may have come down with a life-threatening illness or undergone a change in financial status to retroactively go back to their original filing date and receive a lump sum for the benefit amount not paid during the suspension period.
Keep in mind that Social Security has undergone a number of substantive changes since its inception. While the elimination of these strategies may be disappointing, these changes do not undercut the central promise of this critical social contract. In fact, they were implemented to strengthen it.
Social Security Administration, 2016.
The New York Times, October 30, 2015.
Regardless of how you approach retirement, there are some things about it that might surprise you.
Shutowick Wealth Management
info@shutowickwealth.com
Shutowick Wealth Management is an independent firm with securities offered through Summit Brokerage Services, Inc., Member FINRA, SIPC. Advisory services offered through Summit Financial Group Inc., a Registered Investment Advisor. The Representative associated with this site is registered to conduct business in the following states: Florida, Georgia, California, New York, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Texas, Virginia, Washington, Massachusetts, North Carolina, and Ohio.
This site is published for residents of the United States only. Registered Representatives of Summit Brokerage Services Inc. may only conduct business with residents of the states and/or jurisdictions in which they are properly registered. Not all of the products and services referenced on this site may be available in every state and through every representative listed. For additional information please contact the representative(s) listed on the site, visit the Summit Brokerage site at www.summitbrokerage.com
Disclosure of Order Routing Information | Privacy Policy | Business Continuity | Important Disclosures
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What China’s ‘New Era’ Means for How America Views Itself
A strong, confident China poses profound existential questions for an ever more insular United States.
Josef Gregory Mahoney
Josef Gregory Mahoney Professor
Josef Gregory Mahoney is Professor of Politics at East China Normal University.
At the recent 19th Communist Party Congress, President Xi Jinping declared that China is entering a “new era.” Central to his speech were two ongoing developments. First, China is reforming its economic and political model to adjust to achievements and challenges in domestic development. Second, it is transitioning from being a “major country” to a “major power,” a shift that carries broad global implications.
Shortly after the congress, on the eve of U.S. President Donald Trump’s visit to Asia to shore up relations with American allies and attend a much-feted “state visit-plus” with Xi before flying on to the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting in Vietnam, Time magazine released the provocative cover of its Nov. 13 issue. Written across a split-panel red-and-yellow design, half in English and half in Chinese, was a single terse sentence: “China won.”
Whether China has in fact “won,” whether its sociopolitical system is too fragile, or whether the U.S. is in decline have all become hot topics for discussion. The official Chinese position is that the country is taking a different path to development: one that reflects so-called Chinese wisdom, one that pursues a multipolar world where China is a major power, and one that stands ready to demonstrate alternatives without compromising sovereignty.
In the West, and particularly in the U.S., these developments have deepened a debate within an influential gaggle of policymakers and scholars who worry that China’s official position and vision for the future might be coming true in ways that effectively deconstruct one of the central theses underpinning America’s conception of itself and its position relative to others: namely, a privileged sense of “manifest destiny” culminating in what one-time Reagan-era intellectual Francis Fukuyama infamously described as the “end of history.”
The cover of Time magazine, published on Nov. 13, 2017. Courtesy of the author
This sense of privilege has its roots in American exceptionalism from the Revolutionary period and its growing colonial and imperial ambitions in wars against Mexico and Spain in the 19th century. However, it reaches its fullest expression with Fukuyama’s well-known 1992 book, “The End of History and the Last Man,” which was published the year after the collapse of the Soviet Union and argued that the worldwide spread of Western-style liberal democracy and free-market capitalism heralded the apex of humanity’s sociocultural evolution. While much American policymaking today is more sober and clear-headed than this grand claim, thinking like Fukuyama’s continues to exert an undue amount of influence on American foreign policy, including policy regarding China.
Within this general context, the loudest voices can be grouped into one of two camps. The first is what New Zealand-based academic Anne-Marie Brady has described as the “collapse thesis.” This holds that the Chinese political system is fragile, and that increasing economic liberalization creates unbearable tensions for a one-party system. Eminent China thinkers like David Shambaugh, Bruce Dickson, Susan Shirk, and Joseph Fewsmith tend to fall into this camp.
The second camp views China as a threat to American power, with some believing, very differently from the “collapsers,” that China’s political and economic models outcompete America’s for the very reason that they pay so little heed to Western values. Into this group can be added The Atlantic’s correspondent James Fallows and columnist Peter Beinart, and influential American journalist Bill Gertz.
Liberal democracies ... have struggled in recent years as essentially two-party systems became doubly complicit in a succession of political and economic crises.
- Josef Gregory Mahoney, professor
A popular concept among the “China threat” camp is the idea of the Thucydides Trap. Derived from the ancient Greek historian’s 5th century B.C. work “History of the Peloponnesian War,” the term refers to a rising power (in the original, ancient Athens) inevitably challenging an existing power (Sparta) for regional or global hegemony.
In recent times, American political theorists have applied the Thucydides Trap to China, most notably in the work of Graham T. Allison, a professor at Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government and a longtime security and defense consultant with the Pentagon. However, setting aside the reductive and patently ahistorical application of a thesis about a conflict between two city-states roughly 2,500 years ago in what is now Greece, the “trap” thesis has been thoroughly debunked by experts in ancient Greek history. University of Pennsylvania professor and CIA consultant Arthur Waldron notes that Allison — an expert neither in ancient Greece nor contemporary China — is guilty of catching what Waldron calls “China fever,” a condition that causes respected academics and policymakers to make rash, uninformed, and fearmongering pronouncements about China.
To sum up, then, two of the West’s main theories about China today revolve around two competing theses: one holding that China is dangerous only insomuch as its system will inevitably collapse with global repercussions, and the other arguing that China’s system has provided it with competitive advantages that pose an existential threat to the Western — and particularly, the American — way of life.
These fears are magnified by how purported Chinese achievements contrast with a sense of ongoing crisis in the West. For example, given China’s extraordinary growth and development, the U.S. National Intelligence Council and other domestic security bodies estimate that China will achieve effective economic and military parity with the U.S., or surpass it, around 2030. Meanwhile, the U.S., the U.K., and other liberal democracies that privilege both private property rights and so-called civil society have struggled in recent years as essentially two-party systems became doubly complicit in a succession of political and economic crises, from the global financial crisis of 2008 to the growing equivocations over global governance and free trade manifested in Brexit and the U.S. withdrawal from the Paris Agreement and the Trans-Pacific Partnership — all systems put in place when these powers held positions of comparative privilege.
America’s hostility toward a rising China and other perceived dangers deflects the U.S. away from facing what appears to be its greatest adversary: itself.
Of course, one might instead argue that a greater threat to the American way of life is the very fact that these two theses appear to have the greatest influence on American intelligence and military officials, especially given ongoing efforts by the U.S. to construct an emerging but dangerously shortsighted containment strategy called the “Anti-China Quad.” This strategy recasts the Pacific Ocean as the Indo-Pacific and aims to draw in Japan, India, and Australia as buffers against perceived growing Chinese hegemony in the region, a view that many international observers have described as a brash return to Cold War-era policymaking.
The point here is that America’s hostility toward a rising China and other perceived dangers deflects the U.S. away from facing what appears to be its greatest adversary: itself. And this is hardly a novel idea. Soviet thinkers believed that the U.S., like other historically great powers (and, ironically, the Soviet Union itself), would only fall in the event of internal political and cultural decay.
In China, longtime Party intellectual and newly elected Politburo Standing Committee member Wang Huning made essentially a similar argument more than a quarter-century ago in his book “America Against America.” Wang, who himself studied in the U.S., noted the decline of American education, the purported collapse of the nuclear family, the erosion of so-called traditional family values, a general tendency toward cultural relativism and spiritual nihilism, and the emergence of drug and crime epidemics, racial conflict, increasing poverty — combined with a population with little critical historical awareness or perspective — as, in his view, key indicators of internal decay.
For those who know the U.S. well, his observations are even truer today than they were then. To the list can be added other problems related to health care, gun control, immigration and migrant labor, taxation, and the inability to implement even the most compelling economic reforms necessary for preventing a repeat of the 2008 financial crisis.
To him, the issue was not that problems existed — problems can always be solved — but that the problems appeared systemic. In his estimation, the U.S. system had either lost its way or exhausted itself, in large measure because it was deeply entrenched and incapable of substantial reforms. Obviously, his modus operandi was not only to outline the challenges facing the U.S., but also to laud China’s accelerating culture of reform.
Far from occupying a privileged position at the end of history, American politicians appear to be chasing their tails in a cul-de-sac.
Politics in America today generally revolve around those who are nominally conservative versus those who claim progressive positions. On the one hand, the U.S. elects Barack Obama under the mantle of progress, and little progress is made. On the other hand, Obama is followed by Donald Trump, who spouts mantras promising to “Make America Great Again,” a slogan essentially copied from Reagan’s political promises in the 1980s and which, more than any other piece of rhetoric, demonstrates the circular, conservative nature of American politics.
Far from occupying a privileged position at the end of history, American politicians appear to be chasing their tails in a cul-de-sac. Of course, many Americans are aware that their model of governance contains systemic problems, and many of them thus voted for Trump or, in the Democratic primary, Bernie Sanders, who later lost the presidential nomination to Hillary Clinton. But did Trump and Sanders offer genuine alternatives to the system? Or were they still limited to some interpretation of what they considered to be a more “authentic” rehash of the same old politics?
As the U.S. continues to struggle under the faded grandiosity of the “end of history” thesis and its self-negated “universal values” left ravaged by its so-called War on Terror, conditions both at home and abroad continue to decline. In the meantime, Xi has declared a “new era,” emphasizing a raft of substantial changes and signaling China’s commitment to bold advances domestically and globally. Can China realize these commitments in the face of inevitable difficulties?
Contrary to the implications of the “end of history” thesis, one can never reliably predict the future or prewrite history. However, we can observe that Wang’s critical analyses of the U.S. system have proven more accurate than Fukuyama’s once-giddy hubris. Astute observers have noted Xi’s confidence in the Chinese system during his congressional address — a confidence that, at least at present, appears well-founded.
Editors: Zhang Bo and Matthew Walsh.
(Header image: A woman straightens a Chinese national flag before a strategic dialogue meeting with the United States in Beijing, July 10, 2014. Ng Han Guan/Reuters/VCG)
Hunan University Investigates Party Officials for Plagiarism
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Ideology for 500: Hunan TV Airs Quiz Show on Xi Jinping Thought
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Peta Rutherford
Rural Doctors’ Association of Australia
As I write this article, the appointment of Australia's first National Rural Health Commissioner is imminent.
The Rural Doctors’ Association of Australia (RDAA) has long advocated for such a Commissioner. The commencement of the inaugural Commissioner should herald an exciting period of increased focus on the rural healthcare system in this country.
Ideally, the Commissioner's focus will be on delivering to the bush more healthcare professionals of every type; ensuring the future sustainability of the rural healthcare system; and ensuring the delivery of a wider range of local health services to rural communities.
Having the Commissioner in place should also ensure that the focus on rural healthcare issues, and the rollout of solutions, can transcend the three-year election cycle.
With a Commissioner progressing the rural health agenda, there should be less reliance on individual governments developing their own solutions from scratch within single Parliamentary terms — rather, the Commissioner will be able to act as the medium through which solutions are progressed (hopefully seamlessly) across successive governments.
The shortage of health professionals of all disciplines is a key factor impacting on health service provision and access in many rural and remote locations — and the rural doctor workforce shortage has bitten hard.
To this end, RDAA has been pleased that the Federal Government has set an early priority for the Commissioner to progress the implementation of a National Rural Generalist Pathway.
Again, this is something for which RDAA has advocated actively over many years.
This Pathway would provide a supported and structured path to deliver to rural and remote Australia more of the next generation of doctors with the range of advanced skills that are needed in rural communities, where, largely due to the tyranny of distance, medical care is often provided in isolation.
Importantly, the advanced skills offered through a supported Pathway would cover both procedural areas (obstetrics, anaesthetics, general surgery and emergency medicine) as well as non-procedural areas, such as advanced mental healthcare and Indigenous healthcare.
But quite appropriately, this will not be the only focus area for the Commissioner.
In addition to shortages in the rural medical workforce, there are also significant shortages in the nursing workforce and in allied healthcare in rural and remote areas. Shortages in any one of these areas can impact on the capacity of the whole healthcare team to provide the optimal range of health services to their rural community.
Indeed, the presence in a rural town of a supportive and viable multidisciplinary rural healthcare team can also be a significant factor in whether rural doctors and other health professionals choose to remain in their rural or remote community, or leave for another location.
The RDAA fully supports the need for the Commissioner's future focus to be wider than simply delivering more doctors to the bush, and ensuring they have the advanced skills they need to work confidently there.
It will be critical for the Commissioner to work actively for strategies that deliver more of all types of health professionals to rural and remote Australia.
We are keenly anticipating the commencement of the inaugural Commissioner, and very much look forward to working with the appointee, as well as continuing to work with the Federal Government, to lock in a great future for the rural healthcare system in Australia.
The centrepiece for rural health in the 2018/19 Federal Budget, announced in… Read more
By National Rural Health Alliance
4 Jun 2018 Issue 63 0
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Home/Discover Tay Valley/History and Historic Sites
Tay Valley Township contains a wealth of historical farms, buildings and landscapes as well as numerous cultural activities and attractions. The history of our Township is unique and represents a story to be explored and discovered.
History of Tay Valley Township
Tay Valley Township was formerly three separate townships: North Burgess, South Sherbrooke, and Bathurst. The first Township to be settled was North Burgess.
Township of North Burgess
The former Township of North Burgess was settled by a group of Scottish and Irish immigrants and soldiers from the War of 1812-14. The first residents established homes and farms along the first stretch of cleared land, which would later become known as the Scotch Line. North Burgess was named for Rev. Thomas Burgess in 1794, an important religious leader who later became Bishop of Salisbury.
Within the former township is the historical hamlet of Stanleyville, originally called Micaville, whose first residents were Irish Catholic immigrants. It thrived on the business of the Silver Queen Mica mine, now located in Murphy’s Point Provincial Park. Before mica, lumber was an important trade and the Black Creek lumber yard was a vital part of this industry.
Murphys Point Provincial Park celebrates the area’s rich history. For thousands of years, Native peoples hunted and gathered along the Rideau. The area that is now Murphys Point was surveyed in 1812 and European settlement followed on the site of the restored McParlan House and Burgess Mill ruins. The saw mill (circa 1820 to 1870) was one of the earliest on Big Rideau Lake. The land along the Rideau Canal system has evolved into a recreational playground and in 2007 the Rideau Canal was named by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site.
Township of Bathurst
The Township of Bathurst was surveyed in 1816 for settlement by both British emigrants and ex 1812-1814 War soldiers and seamen. The Township was then settled by Irish and Scottish immigrants, most of whom were farmers or military personnel. It was named for Henry Bathurst, the third Earl of Bathurst, who served as Secretary of State for War and the Colonies from 1812 to 1827.
The villages and hamlets of Bathurst include Glen Tay with its three mills, Dewitt’s Corners, Balderson known for cheese production, Fallbrook home to four mills and two hotels, Playfairville, Harper home to artisan potters, Wemyss and Armstrongs Corners.
Township of South Sherbrooke
South Sherbrooke was surveyed in 1819 with its name was adopted from Sir John Coape Sherbooke, who served in the British Army for 30 years and then became Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia from 1811 to 1816. General Sherbrooke also served as Governor General of British North America from 1816-1818.
At the time of survey, South Sherbrooke was one of many townships within the District of Bathurst. Like much of the surrounding area, South Sherbrooke was settled by Scottish and Irish immigrants. For many years after settlement in 1821, farmers struggled and persevered with the harsh terrain of the Canadian Shield.
The hamlets and villages of South Sherbrooke include: Maberly with five milling operations, five stores, two churches, a hotel and the area’s own telephone company, Bolingbrooke with four mills, a store and a lumbering trade employing hundreds was a regional center of business in the colonial period , Althorpe, and Rokeby, which was the first settlement of this township.
Tay Valley Township
The Bathurst, Burgess & Sherbrooke Township was created in 1998 with the amalgamation of the former townships of Bathurst, North Burgess and South Sherbrooke. It was renamed Tay Valley Township in 2002, in recognition of the river that meanders across our landscape continuing its historic role of linking communities.
© 2014 Tay Valley Township
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JJ Abrams and Michael Arndt Discuss Luke Skywalker and R2-D2 in 'The Force Awakens'
Posted by Dominic Jones on 12/21/2015 22 comments
Warning: This story contains spoilers from Star Wars: The Force Awakens. If you haven't seen it yet, stop reading now.
Following a screening of Star Wars: The Force Awakens on Saturday, the film's screenwriters JJ Abrams, Lawrence Kasdan, and Michael Arndt took part in a discussion about the film. One of the topics they got into was R2-D2 and Luke Skywalker's roles in the film. Arndt stated that he originally had R2 being introduced with C-3PO, saying, "I had originally written R2 and C-3PO showing up together, and Larry very intelligently said, ‘You want to keep them separate from each other. And of course I’m like, ‘No, no, no, Larry. You don’t get it at all!’"
Abrams also explained why it was that R2 woke up at the end of the film, saying, "BB-8 comes up and says something to him, which is basically, ‘I’ve got this piece of a map, do you happen to have the rest? The idea was, R2 who has been all over the galaxy, is still in his coma, but he hears this. And it triggers something that would ultimately wake him up."
Arndt also revealed that early versions of the film had featured Luke in a far more active role, but he explained that it was always to the detriment of the new characters. He stated that,
"Early on I tried to write versions of the story where [Rey] is at home, her home is destroyed, and then she goes on the road and meets Luke. And then she goes and kicks the bad guy’s ass. It just never worked and I struggled with this. This was back in 2012.
It just felt like every time Luke came in and entered the movie, he just took it over,” Arndt said. “Suddenly you didn’t care about your main character anymore because, ‘Oh f–k, Luke Skywalker’s here. I want to see what he’s going to do.’"
Entertainment Weekly revealed that the writers considered many ideas for what the film's McGuffin could be, before settling on the search for Luke be what was driving the plot. Apparently these included, "a search for Darth Vader’s remains, or a quest to the underwater wreckage of the second Death Star to recover a key piece of history about sacred Jedi sites in the galaxy."
As for how R2 got the information, Arndt revealed an early idea and then Abrams explained why they left it vague in the film (via EW),
The story group’s thinking went back to the 1977 original movie, when R2-D2 accessed the Empire’s mainframe as the heroes searched for the captured Princess Leia. “We had the idea about R2 plugging into the information base of the Death Star, and that’s how he was able to get the full map and find where the Jedi temples are,” Arndt said.
Abrams says he chose to spell this out indirectly in the movie because he didn’t want the story to get bogged down in “how s–t happened 30 years ago.”
“But the idea was that in that scene where R2 plugged in, he downloaded the archives of the Empire, which was referenced by Kylo Ren,” Abrams said.
I hope video exists of this talk, it would be great to see the writers discuss the process of coming up with the story of The Force Awakens in depth. Also, having Arndt be part of this and hearing how much he influenced the story suggests to me that his departure from the film was far more amicable than some suggested when it was announced.
Dominic Jones Episode VII News JJ Abrams Michael Arndt News Sequel Trilogy News
I understand the struggle on Luke's drawing of attention when came into play, however it is just natural as a result of the storyline of the original trilogy. Despite of all the scenario and story, it was mainly wrapped around luke's development. We as fans understand the necessity of replacement of old blood with the new blood, and luke is the key character for old blood. Everyone is more interested in Luke's capabilities as a Jedi after 30 years from Return of the Jedi. So I strongly hope that they will not just Passifize luke throughout the remaining chapters to shine out new characters, respect and conclude our curiosity towards Luke and create a highly balanced trilogy between the old and the new, smooth enough to close the book for the old trilogy and open another book for the new ones. Just keep the balance, Disney.
AMuHb said...
Is it really hard in the Galaxy to take a hard disk out of R2, download the data, and put it back?
Propably it's not a "hard disc". R2 as autonomic droid have a lot of internal memory where he can give or not give access.
By the way - nobody knows that R2 had that map...
Why do they need the address anyway? Just get the address and put it in google maps and away we go....does that work?
laura jean mahon said...
I agree with the first comment of Unkown- albeit it was a very good hook to do within the main stream of things and with the public, I honor the character and do not think it would all be about Skywalker- I think letting go of that idea would free alot more creativity up in how to use the character and weave it in and out, I think that it would have been even stronger to indulge that character and not omit it to the extent that is was done, looking forward to a bit more involvement in the next installment.
DAVID BEASLEY said...
One question remains. How did max von sydows character get his piece of the map?
Jimmy Hauser said...
I don't understand why everyone is so concerned about tiny details that may or may not be plot holes. What baffles me is why everyone seems okay with story points like: Luke Skywalker runs and hides and says f**k all. Han and Leia abandon their family and just bury their feelings and go do something else. These are major character flaws completely contradict who they are in the OT. I know people change, but not like that. Not so completely.
It seems though, that everyone is just fine with this. But an insignificant bumbling fool like Jar Jar made everyone lose their minds. This is why I no longer want to be around Star Wars "fans".
John Matrix said...
I'm sure Luke's story will be explained more deeply in episode VIII.
Jeremy Peterson said...
Jimmy, there is nothing wrong with the way Luke, Han and Leia handle their respective situations.
Luke had the huge responsibility of training the next generation of Jedi. And for one of his students to fall to darkside in much the same way as his father had would be devastating. And its seems as though all the other students were killed, so he was once again the only Jedi. I would imagine he felt the same as Obi Wan and Yoda did when they went into hiding after Ep 3. I could see that defeating the darkside would be too great of task on his own, so it makes sense to wait for the Force to present some help (now in the form of Rey).
And as far as Han and Leia are concerned - losing a child tears families apart. And its not hard to consider their child going to the darkside and becoming a murderer to be the same as losing him. There is guilt and blame that gets tossed around so much to the point that you can’t stand being around the other person because it brings those feeling up again. It would make sense that they would preoccupy themselves with their work to help push those feelings down. As they mention in the film, they both went back to what they were best at. This would help to give them a sense of control over what their lives had become. And perhaps, subconsciously, they thought fighting against First Order or smuggling might one day allow them to cross paths with their son again.
David Hackett said...
Needs more Luke!!!
We wanna see him kicking knights of ren as in viii
Theresa Nevarez said...
Agreed Unknown!! Disney, you can't make us wait 30 years and just quickly skim over original characters like they are insignificant! NOT HAPPY with the way Solo was portrayed or killed at all. And there are so many questions we fans were wanting answers to and didn't get. PLEASE do right by all of us originals in the next two!!!
OH MY GOSH SOMEBODY THAT GETS IT!!! My thoughts EXACTLY!! But lol, I will ALWAYS be a Star Wars "fan", I just over think A LOT!! ;)
Henrik Andréason said...
My thoughts exactly. If my son became a murderer and killed 30-40 people i would be more devastated than my son dying as a good person.
Paultheshots said...
R2 was created in a time before USB. Probably RS232 and you can't get those USB adapters to work properly. His drives are sealed units.
Big Benn Klingon said...
The search for Luke was more than a minor detail in the movie, it was the over-arching theme of the movie. It deserved a bit more in-movie clarity than this.
The R2 explanation sucks. Hard to believe that a droid would hear something and take a few days (or however long) to process it and be like "Oh wait...BB-8 said something important a while back...I'll react to it NOW!!!"
Here's the only explanation that makes any sense: Luke split the map into 2 parts for added security, putting one part into R2 with instructions to not reveal it until told. At the end, Luke sensed he needed to be found and, either through the Force or a transmitter, activated R2.
Luke didn't want to simply come back on his own because he didn't want the distractions and hubbub that would result in him making a pubic appearance again (or put the resistance in danger).
Rumors.. he was an Imperial admiral left for dead in the desert after the battle of Jakku, and turned to a sympathiser of the rebelllion shortly after...
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USA.com / Pennsylvania / Delaware County / Eddystone, PA
Eddystone, PA
Eddystone is located in southeast Pennsylvania. Eddystone is part of Delaware County. Eddystone has 0.99 square miles of land area and 0.53 square miles of water area. As of 2010-2014, the total Eddystone population is 2,572, which has grown 5.32% since 2000. The population growth rate is higher than the state average rate of 3.89% and is much lower than the national average rate of 11.61%. Eddystone median household income is $44,545 in 2010-2014 and has grown by 18.65% since 2000. The income growth rate is much lower than the state average rate of 32.44% and is lower than the national average rate of 27.36%. Eddystone median house value is $109,100 in 2010-2014 and has grown by 55.86% since 2000. The house value growth rate is lower than the state average rate of 70.00% and is higher than the national average rate of 46.91%. As a reference, the national Consumer Price Index (CPI) inflation rate for the same period is 26.63%. On average, the public school district that covers Eddystone is better than the state average in quality.
Population 2,572 (2010-2014), rank #527
Population Density: 1,688.69/sq mi, rank #758
Median Household Income: $44,545 at 2010-2014—18.65% increase since 2000, rank #1009
Median House Price: $109,100 at 2010-2014—55.86% increase since 2000, rank #916
Water Area: 0.53 sq mi (34.70%), rank #18
State: Pennsylvania
Area: Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, PA-NJ-DE-MD
County: Delaware County
School District: , rank #1166
Accommodations: Eddystone Hotels
Fastest / Slowest Growing Cities in PA
High / Low PA Cities by Males Employed
High / Low PA Cities by Females Employed
Best / Worst Cities by Crime Rate in PA
Richest / Poorest Cities by Income in PA
Expensive / Cheapest Homes by City in PA
Most / Least Educated Cities in PA
Eddystone, PA Map, Border, and Nearby Locations
Pennsylvania State
Philadelphia, Camden, Wilmington Area
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21 more business sector breaches from 2009
Cross-Posted from: http://www.databreaches.net/?p=10212
Maryland has updated its web site to provide breach notifications that it has received since its last update. The newly posted notifications are for the period ending December 31, 2009, so there will likely be more to come for 2010. Some of the breaches described in the notifications were reported in the media at the time, but I spotted a number from the business sector that had not been reported in the media or on this site at the time. So here is a brief roundup on another 21 breaches from the business sector last year:
AT&T reported that an employee of an unnamed service provider improperly removed paper documents containing personal and/or credit card information on customers from the service provider’s office. The information may have included SSN, driver’s license numbers, and/or credit card information as well as names and addresses. Because the employee was described as a “former employee,” it would seem that the employee may have been terminated for violating AT&T’s policies and agreement with its service provider. AT&T notes that there is no indication that the removal was intended for misuse, nor any indication that it had been or would be misused. They elected to report the incident to the state and affected individuals and offered the individuals free credit monitoring services.
Bristol-Myers Squibb Company reported that it had discovered that an external hard drive missing from a BMS facility in Puerto Rico contained names and SSN of some employees at the Puerto Rican facility.
Coffee.org reported that it had been hacked and customer data, including credit card data, had been accessed between June 20 and July 19, 2009. A total of 8,058 customers were affected by the breach.
FCI USA reported that a laptop stolen from an employee may have contained a spreadsheet with names, dates of birth, and Social Security numbers for 2000 employees.
Feeney Agency reported that a computer stolen from its office contained unencrypted personal information that included SSN and driver’s licenses as well as birth dates and contact information. As a result of the burglary, the agency subsequently purchased a motion-sensitive security system for the office and a computer with encryption.
Genworth Life Insurance Company of New York reported that an unauthorized individual had somehow obtained the login details for a third party agent authorized to access Genworth’s website where insurance agents can obtain policy information on customers. The information includes their name, address, and SSN.
Group M reported that 8 laptops stolen from its NY office contained unencrypted information on 1501 employees, likely including their names, Social Security numbers and/or bank account information.
Hotels.com reported that a computer stolen from the employee of one of an unnamed vendor contained unencrypted information on 200 Hotel.com’s customers, including their names, addresses, phone numbers, and credit card/debit card information.
InterContinental Hotels Group reported in December that in September, they had detected malicious software that was capturing payment processing information during payment transactions at the Willard InterContinental Hotel in Washington, D.C. The total number of individuals affected was not indicated, but 428 Maryland residents were affected.
Kraft Foods reports that a laptop and flash drive containing unencrypted personal information of employees and benefit plan participants were stolen from an accounting and payroll department employee’s car. The information included SSN.
LitCon Group reported that a laptop stolen from an employee’s vehicle contained unencrypted employee information including names, addresses, dates of birth, and SSN. LitCon indicated that in the future, all personal information would be encrypted and in the interim, all laptops would be kept only in the office, which is protected by keyed locks and an alarm system.
McGraw-Hill Construction (a division of The McGraw-Hill Companies) reported that a laptop stolen from its finance office in Utah contained unencrypted information, including SSNs, on some independent contractors.
Nordstrom reported that an employee at its Farmington, Connecticut store had skimmed credit card information of customers using a hand-held skimmer.
Nuance Communications reported that a stolen laptop contained personal information, including SSN used for employment and business purposes.
Priceline.com reported that an unauthorized individual may have accessed customer data, including names, addresses, email addresses, credit card numbers, credit card expiration date, and credit card verification number through a third party call center.
Scarborough & Associates reported an email error in which one customer’s insurance policy information, including date of birth and SSN was sent to an erroneous email address. They attempted to learn whether the address was still a working email address and emails bounced back, but not the one containing the customer data. In the future, the firm will not include personal information in email and is considering encrypting all email.
T-Mobile USA reported that an employee misused or attempted to misuse 10 customers’ credit card numbers to pay his own bills or his friends’ T-Mobile bills. The employee was terminated and the matter referred to law enforcement.
Thermo Fisher Scientific Co. reported that a laptop stolen from an employee’s car contained personal information and SSN for a credit applicant in Maryland. The company did not tell the individual that their sensitive data had been left in the trunk of a car, however, merely saying that the information “may have been acquired without authorization by a party not related to Thermo Fisher Scientific.”
Uniformed Services Benefit Association reported that a stolen laptop contained personal information, including SSN, of customers. As a result of the breach, USBA reports that it removed all personal information from all remaining laptops, reduced the number of laptops in use, and discontinued synchronizing laptops to the network server.
United Guaranty Residential Insurance Company reported that mortgage insurance loan file data on 20 customers was exposed. The data included names, addresses, SSN, FICO scores, and “other information required to apply for a mortgage.” United Guaranty does not describe how the exposure occurred but informs those affected that “The incident did not involve a compromise of any United Guaranty systems.”
Wolters Kluwer reported that a laptop of a CCH employee was stolen. CCH is a Wolters Kluwer business. The laptop contained CCH customer data including names, addresses, and credit card numbers and expiration dates for customers who made purchases between January 2009 and July 2009.
The Law of Privacy on Social Networks
Judge Says Its OK to Post Social Security Numbers
Army Translator Re-Sentenced for Possession of Classified Docs
Ponemon Study: Cloud Providers and Confidential Info
FBI Overreaches with May First - Riseup Server Seizure
Categories: General Enterprise Security Breaches
Tags: Data Loss Legal breaches
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Congress racks up $15,000 in Unpaid Parking Tickets - must pay their own tickets not permitted to use official funds -
Members of Congress have immunity from many routine parking tickets in the District of Columbia, but that doesn’t mean they can’t try to rack up fines.
According to a Roll Call survey of vehicles parked on Capitol Hill and at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, as of mid-March, lawmakers were carrying at least $15,000 in outstanding tickets — ranging from expired meters to speeding camera violations — and potentially thousands of dollars more.
Three-quarters of those tickets, worth about $11,500, were in default at the time of the survey, having gone more than 60 days, and in some cases years, without payment.
Roll Call canvassed Congressional parking facilities, as well as a special Members-only parking lot at the airport, and reviewed about 300 vehicles displaying a House- or Senate-issued Member parking tag.
Information on parking violations was obtained from the District of Columbia’s public ticket database, which is searchable by license plate and includes information on minor violations.
While many vehicles registered a single ticket, valued at as little as $20, a handful of automobiles reported several hundred to thousands of dollars in unpaid tickets.
Roll Call’s inquiry appears to have led some offenders to pay up.
Aides to Reps. Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.) and Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) said the lawmakers repaid their respective tickets after being contacted by Roll Call.
The District’s database showed Weiner received nearly $2,180 in tickets from 2007 to early March, including some instances in which he appears to have incurred multiple violations at the same time, such as failing to display current tags while parked in a taxi stand zone.
“All of the Congressman’s parking tickets have been paid. He is pleased to have helped decrease the D.C. budget deficit,” Weiner spokesman Dave Arnold said.
Thompson spokesman Lanier Avant likewise said the Mississippi lawmaker repaid $610 in outstanding tickets that his vehicle received from 2004 to 2010. During Roll Call’s survey, a second vehicle displaying Thompson’s Member parking permit also returned $250 in parking tickets, which Avant said were his own and were also repaid.
According to the House Administration Committee, Members must pay their own parking tickets and are not permitted to use official funds.
Read more - http://www.rollcall.com/issues/56_101/Parking-Tickets-Members-Congress-204386-1.html
Mar. 29, 2011, MESSENGER captured this historic image of Mercury - first ever obtained from Mercury orbit -
First Image Ever Obtained from Mercury Orbit
At 5:20 am EDT on Mar. 29, 2011, MESSENGER captured this historic image of Mercury. This image is the first ever obtained from a spacecraft in orbit about the Solar System's innermost planet. Over the subsequent six hours, MESSENGER acquired an additional 363 images before downlinking some of the data to Earth. The MESSENGER team is currently looking over the newly returned data, whic
Read more - http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/imagegallery/image_feature_1907.html
10 places with some of the weirdest traffic laws - plenty of weird statutes around the world -
Driving through New Brunswick? Better stay off the roads — it’s apparently against the law to drive on them.
Obscure and silly road laws are nothing new. In fact, there are plenty of weird statutes around the world that continue to leave many motorists scratching their heads, even if these laws are seldom enforced or obeyed.
Below are 10 places with some of the weirdest traffic laws:
10. Montreal: If you live in Montreal, you’d better be careful about where you leave your car when you get home. It’s against the law to park your car in such a way that it is blocking your own driveway. And forget about washing your car while it’s parked on the street, that’s against the law, too. If you’re an Ontarian passing through Montreal, make sure to remember that turning right on a red light is not allowed in the city — something that is largely legal in the rest of the country. Doing so will fetch you a traffic ticket.
9. Denmark: Checking all areas of your car before hitting the road is a good rule of thumb. But in Denmark, it’s the law. Motorists are required to check all lights, brakes, steering, and honk the horn every time they get in the car. Drivers are also required by law to check underneath the car to ensure there are no sleeping children.
8. Beijing: We know smog is a problem in many parts of China, but this seems like an overkill attempt to curb idling. In Beijing, drivers are liable to receive a fine of up to five yuan (or less than a Canadian dollar) and a warning for stopping at pedestrian crossings.
7. Ontario: In Ontario, there are a few statutes that, somehow, have stood the test of time. These outdated laws might not be so relevant today, but they’re still on the books. For example, if you ever find yourself riding an open-sleigh on the highway for some inexplicable reason (hey, maybe it’s Christmas), make sure you have the right number of bells attached. Having less than two could earn you a $5 fine. And if you’re a TTC rider in Toronto, remember that it’s illegal to ride a streetcar on Sunday if you’ve been eating garlic. Weird.
6. New Jersey: Motorists used to handling the pumps at gas stations could be in for a shock when pulling in for a top-up at any station in New Jersey. That’s because it’s illegal for drivers there to pump their own gas. Only gas station employees can pump gas in the Garden State — what’s known as “full-service”. The controversial law was passed in 1949 after lawmakers felt it was too dangerous to have untrained drivers pumping their own fuel.
5. Detroit: Motor City may be known for its love of cars, but over there, it’s strictly a no-no to make love in one. Couples are banned from having sex in a vehicle unless the act takes place while the car is parked on the couple’s own property.
4. California: Forget texting and driving. In California, it's against the law to shoot at wild game from a moving vehicle. As if stating the obvious wasn't enough, the Golden State had to go and create a law to dissuade drivers with itchy trigger fingers.
3. Maryland: Watch your mouth while driving in Rockville, Maryland. It’s illegal to curse in public, and this includes inside your car. So if you mouth off in a fit of rage while stuck in traffic, and the motorist next to you complains (or is a cop), you could be fined up to $100 or receive jail time of up to 90 days.
2. Saudi Arabia: It’s fairly well-known that in Saudi Arabia, women are barred from driving cars. But many don’t know that there are two highways near the holy city of Mecca: one for Muslims that runs through the city, and another for non-Muslims that goes around it. If a Muslim is accompanied by a non-Muslim, both are required to use the alternate highway. Violators caught driving on the wrong highway could face fines.
1. Minnesota: Remember the “Keep it beautiful” adage that used to adorn Ontario licence plates? Well, in Minnetonka, Minnesota, it’s the law to keep your car clean. It’s considered a public nuisance for “a truck or other vehicle whose wheels or tires deposit mud, dirt, sticky substances, litter or other material on any street or highway.” Failure to keep your wheels spic and span here could cost you up to $2,000.
Read more - http://www.wheels.ca/article/asset/794761
World’s Largest Arms Importer is Now India, not China - and plans to purchase 250 Stealth Fighter Jets -
India has spent US$80 billion to modernize its military to keep up with China and now, India has become the world’s number one arms importer according to Swedish think-tank keeping tabs on global arms transactions. India makes up 9 percent of global arms purchases while China has 6 percent of market share in comparison.
"India has ambitions to become first a continental and [then] a regional power," Rahul Bedi, an analyst with London-based Jane's Defence Weekly, told AP.
"Just from what they have already ordered, we know that in the coming few years India will be the top importer," said Siemon Wezeman, a senior fellow at SIPRI told the International Business Times.
SIPRI’s report stated India’s defense budget for the coming fiscal year is in the region of $32.5 billion, 40 percent more than in 2009. In addition, India will spend over $50 billion in the next five years to modernize its military – including purchasing new fighter jets and aircraft carriers.
"The kind of purchases that India is buying, no country in the world buys,” added Bedi of Jane's Defence Weekly. India has also been importing 82 percent of its weapons from Russia and plans to purchase 250 to 300 advanced fifth-generation stealth fighter jets worth $30 billion in the next decade.
Read more - http://www.economywatch.com/in-the-news/the-worlds-largest-arms-importer-is-now-india-not-china.29-03.htm
“More African American men are in prison or jail, on probation or parole than were enslaved before the Civil War began,” -
“More African American men are in prison or jail, on probation or parole than were enslaved in 1850, before the Civil War began,” Michelle Alexander told a standing room only house at the Pasadena Main Library this past Wednesday, the first of many jarring points she made in a riveting presentation.
Alexander, currently a law professor at Ohio State, had been brought in to discuss her year-old bestseller, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness. Interest ran so high beforehand that the organizers had to move the event to a location that could accommodate the eager attendees. That evening, more than 200 people braved the pouring rain and inevitable traffic jams to crowd into the library’s main room, with dozens more shuffled into an overflow room, and even more latecomers turned away altogether. Alexander and her topic had struck a nerve.
Growing crime rates over the past 30 years don’t explain the skyrocketing numbers of black — and increasingly brown — men caught in America’s prison system, according to Alexander, who clerked for Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmun after attending Stanford Law. “In fact, crime rates have fluctuated over the years and are now at historical lows.”
“Most of that increase is due to the War on Drugs, a war waged almost exclusively in poor communities of color,” she said, even though studies have shown that whites use and sell illegal drugs at rates equal to or above blacks. In some black inner-city communities, four of five black youth can expect to be caught up in the criminal justice system during their lifetimes.
As a consequence, a great many black men are disenfranchised, said Alexander — prevented because of their felony convictions from voting and from living in public housing, discriminated in hiring, excluded from juries, and denied educational opportunities.
“What do we expect them to do?” she asked, who researched her ground-breaking book while serving as Director of the Racial Justice Project at the ACLU of Northern California. “Well, seventy percent return to prison within two years, that’s what they do.”
Read more - http://www.laprogressive.com/law-and-the-justice-system/black-men-prison-system/
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Mar. 29, 2011, MESSENGER captured this historic im...
10 places with some of the weirdest traffic laws -...
World’s Largest Arms Importer is Now India, not Ch...
“More African American men are in prison or jail, ...
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Colorado House Passes Forced Vaccination Bill: One of 18 States Pushing Corporate Drugs
by Ras Radio on March 25, 2014 at 6:01 pm
by Christina Sarich
Parents will have little choice over whether or not to have their children vaccinated in Colorado now, due to a bipartisan measure passed by Colorado’s House Health, Insurance and Environment Committee this past Thursday. Parents who intended to claim the ‘opt out’ available in a current rendition of Colorado’s current law, due to religious or personal beliefs, will find it much more difficult to do so.
HB 14-1288, which gained traction after recent whooping cough outbreaks, will require parents to complete an online ‘education’ module and get the signature of their health care providers confirming that parents have been informed of health risks and a ‘possible detriment to the community’ if their children go unvaccinated.
House Bill 1288 completely ignores the fact that many vaccines have been proven dangerous to young children, and can even cause death and infertility. Parents and doctors also offered hours of testimony to House representatives, but to no avail. The bill was proposed by State Rep. Dan Pabon (D) as a means to make sure that parents weren’t just opting out of vaccines for ‘convenience,’ as he mentioned in a statement given to the Denver Post.
“Vaccine refusal results in higher rates of vaccine-preventable disease,” Pabon said. “This is a public health issue. These are very serious diseases.”
Colorado’s school children have the sixth-highest rate of non-vaccination among kindergarteners in public school. The new bill mandates that public record be made of all children who are not-vaccinated, via percentages reported by licensed schools and day care centers………..
Read more: http://naturalsociety.com/colorado-house-passes-forced-vaccination-bill-one-18-states-pushing-corporate-drugs/#ixzz2x0wrKMNE
Follow us: @naturalsociety on Twitter | NaturalSociety on Facebook
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Gucci Mane’s Probation Has Been Terminated Two Years Early
A judge signed to end his parole on August 23.
By Sydney Gore
Photographer Geordie Wood
Gucci Mane for Issue 105 of The FADER
Revisit Gucci Mane's cover story for Issue 105 of The FADER.
A little over a year after being released from jail, Gucci Mane will no longer be required to serve a probation period. According to new court documents filed by Gucci Mane's lawyer that were obtained by The FADER, the rapper's unopposed motion for early termination of his supervised release has been granted. The documents were signed by Judge Steve C Jones in Atlanta on August 23. Gucci Mane will officially be a free man on September 19. View that document below. When reached for comment by The FADER, an assistant to Judge Jones said he would not be commenting on the case.
Read Next: Gucci Mane drops new album Delusions of Grandeur
Last year, Gucci Mane was sentenced with a three-year probation for a gun charge conviction. The parole deal was established following the time he served in prison after pleading guilty to possession of a firearm by a convicted felon in 2014. He also paid a $5,000 fine.
Next month, Gucci Mane is expected to tie the knot with his fiance, Keyshia Ka’oir. He recently released a trailer for his book The Autobiography Of Gucci Mane which is due out on September 19.
A rep for Gucci Mane was not immediately available for comment.
GUCCIFREE by Myles Tanzer on Scribd
Geordie Wood, Gucci Mane, Hip-Hop, Keyshia Ka’oir, Sydney Gore
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An online magazine with a mission to inspire a new generation of freethinkers.
Political Activism
Interviews, Science
Interview with Professor David Poeppel
David Poeppel is Professor of Psychology and Neural Science at New York University (NYU). In addition to that, he is a Scientific Member and Director of the Neuroscience Department at the Max Planck Institute for Empirical Aesthetics in Frankfurt, Germany….
most inspirational
freethinkers
The 10 Best Philosophical Movies Ever Made March 27, 2019
Interview with Professor Massimo Pigliucci December 16, 2018
Is It Time to Give the UK Monarchy the Royal Wave Goodbye? October 5, 2018
Interview with Professor Adrian Moore July 26, 2018
The 5 Signs You’re a Freethinker July 18, 2018
to dig deeper?
Paradigm-smashing
ready for change...
The Freethink Tank is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com.
© Copyright 2016 The Freethink Tank
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The Next Great Transformation Will Be From Bits To Atoms
Our knowledge and capabilities to act on them are becoming more granular, more immediate - and more impactful. JL
Greg Satell reports in Digital Tonto:
It takes 30 years to go from initial discovery to market impact. We are about a decade into the next great transformation. That puts us where Xerox executives were in 1977 (when) they had no idea what personal computers would unleash. (They) saw a tool to automate secretarial work. The way we interface with the physical world is changing. The revolution underway is reshaping the scientific method.
When engineers from Xerox PARC showed off their revolutionary new personal computer, the Alto, at the company’s global conference in 1977, senior executives weren’t particularly impressed. It just didn’t seem to be relevant to their jobs or their business. Their wives, however, were transfixed.
The reason for the disparity was that the executives saw a tool to automate secretarial work, which they considered to be a low value activity. The wives — many of whom had been secretaries — saw an entirely new world of possibility and, when Steve Jobs built the Macintosh based on the Alto, everyone else saw it too.
It’s easy to shake our heads and laugh at those shortsighted executives of the past, but we’d do ourselves a much greater service by realizing that we are not that different. The truth is that the next big thing always starts out looking like nothing at all, so it’s hard to grasp its implications early on. That’s essentially where we are today with the shift from bits to atoms.
Anatomy Of A Revolution
These days we consider personal computers to be revolutionary, but as a stand-alone technology they were fairly limited. The original Macintosh was incredibly slow by today’s standards and only had 400 KB of storage. It wasn’t easily connected to other computers, which made it useless for sharing information.
Over time, that would change. Complementary technologies, such as the relational database, which led to ERP software, as well as the Ethernet, which connected computers together and eventually the Internet, made the information age possible. As all of these technologies became vastly more powerful, the world was significantly transformed.
One of the most overlooked aspects of computing technology is how it made it possible to do simulations. Once computers were hooked up to massive databases, information could be downloaded and analyzed in spreadsheets. Executives could use that information to create different scenarios based on real-world data and apply those insights to make decisions.
None of this was obvious to anyone in 1977. In fact, these aspects of the technology wouldn’t become clear until the late 90s — a full two decades later. What the Xerox executives saw at the conference couldn’t have significantly helped them do their jobs, so it shouldn’t be surprising that they didn’t see what the big deal was.
The End Of Moore’s Law And The Rise Of New Computing Architectures
Computers have become so ubiquitous in the world today that it’s easy to miss something extraordinary going on. After decades of continuous improvement, our machines aren’t getting any better. Buy a laptop today and it’s likely to have nearly identical specifications to one you bought five years ago.
There are two reasons for this. First, the chip technology itself is nearing theoretical limits, so basic advancement is slowing down. Second, because computationally intensive tasks can be done more cheaply and conveniently in the cloud, we don’t have any great need for vastly more computing power on our desks or in our pockets.
Amid this slowdown of legacy technology, new revolutionary computing architectures are emerging. The first, called quantum computing can handle almost unimaginable complexity. The second, neuromorphic chips, can recognize patterns much more efficiently than conventional architectures and use far less power.
One indication of what’s at stake is how many top firms are investing in these technologies. Google and IBM have very advanced quantum programs, but others such as Microsoft and Intel and startups like Rigetti and D-Wave are also progressing fast. IBM, Intel, Qualcomm, Nvidia all have advanced neuromorphic programs.
An Emerging Physical Stack
When most people think about digital technology, they usually only think about the top layer, the device and the user interface, but that is just a small fraction of the whole. There is an entire stack of technologies, from databases to middleware to applications that go into making it all work.
Today, a similar stack is being built for the physical world. New databases, such as The Cancer Genome Atlas and the Materials Genome Initiative, catalogue specific aspects of the physical world. These, in turn, are analyzed by powerful machine learning algorithms. The revolution underway is so profound that it’s reshaping the scientific method.
In the years to come, the new, more powerful computing architectures will drive the physical stack. Simulating chemistry is one of the first applications being explored for quantum computers, which will help us build larger and more detailed databases. Neuromorphic technology will allow us to analyze complex patterns and derive new insights.
The way we interface with the physical world is changing as well. Nanotechnology allows us to manipulate materials on a molecular scale, while new techniques such as CRISPR helps us edit genes at will. Virtual reality will help us internalize insights and advanced manufacturing techniques, such as 3D printing will bring these visions into reality.
The Great Transformation
Innovation is never a single event, but a process of discovery, engineering and transformation and we almost always underestimate the complexity and duration of the transformation stage. Douglas Engelbart presented the basic features of personal computers in 1968, but the economic impact didn’t hit until the late 1990s. Edison completed the first power station in 1882, but electricity didn’t begin transforming our lives until the 1920s.
There are two reasons transformation takes so long. The first is that complementary technologies need to emerge. We get little out of computers without applications and electricity is of little use without machines designed to use it. Second, we need to redesign our organizations, work practices and lifestyles in order to get the most out of new technology.
On average, it takes about 30 years to go from initial discovery to significant market impact and we are about a decade into the next great transformation. That puts us almost exactly where those Xerox executives were in 1977. They had no idea of what personal computers would unleash and, if we’re honest, we need to admit that we are in the same boat.
What we can do is recognize that there is a great transformation underway that will unlock possibilities and opportunities that are impossible to see clearly right now. However, it’s more important to explore than to predict and that’s what we need to do today. We don’t need to understand the future to be open to it.
Stan Vines said...
Very informative with clarity. Understanding where we have come from is paramount to grasping where we are going and what we will be doing there. Stan Vines info@i4c.ch
Jason Lloyd said...
The Enlightenment Period of Technology is upon us!
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Home > Ann Arbor Real Estate > Alpine
Alpine Condos for Sale
What's MY condo Value?Search ALL Condos for Sale
Alpine Condos for Sale: Ann Arbor, MI
Alpine: Ann Arbor, MI
Approx Price Range: $85,000 to $420,000
Alpine condos for sale in Ann Arbor, MI are located off E Eisenhower Pkwy and east of S State St. The subdivision is in 48108 zip code. The subdivision features 59 units of townhouses which are surrounded by mature trees and well-maintained grounds. Condos offer 2-3 bedrooms and 2-3 baths. Condos also feature large living and dining room and kitchens & half bath on main entry level. Basements offer plenty of storage or additional living space. Most of the units have courtyard or golf course views. Association fee includes sewer, water, lawn care, trash, snow removal and exterior building maintenance. Alpine is close to Briarwood Mall, I-94 and easy bus ride to U of M campus. Nearby subdivisions are Smokler Hutzel and Georgetown.
Buying And Selling Ann Arbor, MI Alpine of Ann Arbor:
If you’re interested in investing in a condo for sale in Ann Arbor, Michigan in this community, then please contact us at The Perna Team, today. We’ll be more than happy to assist you by first telling you about available Ann Arbor, MI Alpine of Ann Arbor condos for sale.
Alpine Subdivision Location
Condos for sale in Ann Arbor, MI are located off Eisenhower Pkwy and west of King George Blvd.
Next to the subdivision is Georgetown Country Club. It offers quality facilities to its members including a heated swimming pool, beautifully manicured 9-hole golf course, a 9-hole FootGolf regulation course, four tennis courts, sand volleyball, Gaga Ball, Pickleball, tetherball, basketball, a picnic pavilion, and more.
Mary Beth Doyle Park is 1.5 miles east. It’s an 81-acre park which contains several golf courses, play area, a basketball court, picnic tables and benches. Another park is located just across the subdivision. Buhr Park offers softball diamonds, play equipments for kids, tennis courts, a basketball court, a sledding hill, an open field play, open pool and an open-air ice arena (open in the fall/winter).
Alpine Subdivision Freeway Access
Alpine condos are located 2 miles northwest of I-94. It is also in a close proximity to University of Michigan. There are also several working areas nearby like Technology Drive which is 4.5 miles southwest. Some of well-known manufacturing companies are located here like Amcor, Thomson Reuters, Audatex, Tetra Tech and HDR Cummins & Bernard.
Alpine Subdivision School District
Students of Alpine are assigned to Ann Arbor Public Schools. The district operates 3 preschools, 20 elementary schools, 1 K-8 open school, 5 middle schools, 3 comprehensive high schools, 3 alternative high schools and 1 adult education program.
Mary D. Mitchell School is 2.5 miles east and it is rated 6/10 by greatschools.org. There are 271 students enrolled. Tappan Middle School is 2 miles north. It has 736 students enrolled and it is rated 6/10 by greatschools.org. Pioneer High School is 3 miles northwest. It has more than 1500 students and is rated 10/10 by greatschools.org.
There are also private schools nearby. Closest is St. Francis of Assisi School which is 2 miles east. The school accepts students from PK-8. Ann Arbor Academy is 3 miles southwest. The school accepts students from Grades 5-12. TLC Adventure Preschool and St Thomas the Apostle School are both 3.5 miles from the community.
Here are also some of the notable schools in Ann Arbor. Greenhills School is 6 miles north. It is a college preparatory school (grades 6 to12) located at 850 Greenhills Dr. There are approximately 570 students enrolled in 2015. The classes of 2012-2014 earned average scores of 650 (Math) and 645 (Critical Reading) on the SAT I and a Composite score of 28 on the ACT. Green House Montessori School is 6.5 miles north. It is affiliated with the American Montessori Society (AMS) and the Michigan Montessori Society (MMS).
To be instantly notified of new Alpine condo for sale...
Because of their great location and the outstanding community amenities, Alpine condos for sale sell quick. If you want to be notified the minute a new condo comes on the market register now.
Alpine Subdivision Photo Gallery
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https://drive.google.com/open?id=1r6fHShSV4YsCZU_FoPEqUPzOFcA&usp=sharing
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A Solution to California’s Groundwater Depletion is Taking Root
It has been three long, dry years since California’s drought pandemic became a national concern, yet for berry-producing company Driscoll, they’ve known for way longer that there was a water shortage issue at hand.
The national berry giant is located in California’s Central Coast and has been monitoring the amount of water it uses and what they’ve found was that groundwater is disappearing at an alarming rate, causing water rights lawsuits and rising energy and water costs.
Only 3% of the Earth’s water is fresh water, the majority of which is found underground and must be tapped into to access. Groundwater accounts for nearly 95% of the nation’s available fresh water resources as well. Western states are normally at the mercy of groundwater levels, unlike those states who are near the Great Lakes Region.
The groundwater that provides for all of Pajaro Valley was being pumped at more than twice the rate that the aquifer could provide, which caused a major concern for coastal berry growers who were already dealing with the encroachment of saltwater from Monterey Bay.
“If the water goes away, land values go down, agriculture goes away and everybody loses,” said Kelley Bell, VP of Social and Environmental Impact at Discoll’s.
The company oversees independent growers who make up the $895 million a year agriculture industry. In order to solve the water crisis, Driscoll’s and the local farmers teamed up in 2010 to try and protect the valley and to restore the aquifer and not ask for outside help.
“We needed to solve this together,” said Bell. But this wasn’t as easy as it seemed.
Having multiple competitors trying to work together proved difficult, but today the group is working on low-tech and high-tech strategies in order to replenish the groundwater supply to that the valley can once again thrive.
The valley has started recycling the region’s wastewater, or grey water, in order to provide fresh water for 6,000 acres of coastal farmland. The group is also looking for areas that can capture and store rainwater as well as installing a recharge basin in 2012.
At the moment, the group is concentrating their efforts on farmers who use 85% of the valley’s water. Nearly 40% of the nation’s population uses groundwater as their daily source of drinking water, and 400 billion gallons of water are used every day.
Francisco Estrada, an independent Driscoll’s grower and one of the company’s largest growers, uses drip irrigation along with other high-tech agricultural advancements. He collects water use data and shares that with Driscoll’s in an effort to better monitor the situation. Estrada also uses soil moisture probes that give him a real time feedback on soil conditions.
Due to these water-saving strategies, Estrada has cut down on his agricultural costs. An acre-foot of water, for example, costs around $160, and he is already saving $100 on his electric bill per acre-foot of water he doesn’t need to pump.
Forty other farmers have hopped on the band wagon when it comes to water-saving strategies including moisture probes and other monitoring systems. Yet as good-natured as this group’s intentions may be to preserve groundwater, this is no match for California’s below-average rainfall this year, though every effort counts, especially where the state government and residents are concerned.
“We’re really encouraging the government where possible to let the people on the ground and the local agencies drive the responses to groundwater challenges and the drought,” said Bell. “We all have to work together and model best practices, or we’re not going to be successful.”
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If you are reading this, it is because your browser does not support the HTML5 video element.
Link to Website
Cake–Factory are an artist agency representing photographic and film making talent. With offices in NYC, London and L.A their work is seen in campaigns across the globe for brands like Coca Cola, HSBC, Adidas and Diageo.
We’ve been working with cake-factory since their inception in London in 2004. We helped create a brand not seen in the sector before. It’s about boutique and high end, with a hint of British sensibility. The brand identity is about allowing work to take centre stage but to be distinctive when it needed to. The three circles of the ‘cake’ icon represent the three founding partners, with a 'slice' taken out to let it become an ornate letter ‘C’.
Their clients are art directors and media buyers who engage with hundreds of websites every week. The clean simplicity and crisp functionality makes it an pleasurable and memorable experience. The ‘gander’ page gives an insight behind the scenes and into the culture of the agency. The site is spported by a system that allows the team to react quickly and easily launch new campaigns and content.
The brand and Website have stood the test of time with the previous website winning at the Webby awards for Website Design in 2009. Visit Website
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SEGA to Trim Mobile Game Catalog
by Lou Balzani May 8, 2015
Select Titles to Leave App Stores
It looks like SEGA is taking some steps to boost the quality of its mobile gaming catalog. The company announced in a blog post today that it will be removing certain titles from most major app stores over the next few weeks. They explained their reasoning behind the decision as follows:
At SEGA we are committed to making fun, high-quality mobile games and it is with our fans’ best playing experience in mind that we announce the removal of a number of games from our back catalogue. It is important for us to ensure that all of our fans, regardless of platform or operating system, have a great playing experience and after evaluating our complete list of titles, we have determined that a number of them no longer meet our standards. As a result, we will be removing these titles from the App Store for Apple devices, the Google Play Store, the Samsung App Store and the Amazon App Store over the next few weeks. While we have nothing to announce at this time, given the right situation, these titles may return in an updated form.
If you have already purchased a game that is being removed from the store you will be able to continue to play it after it’s been taken down. It will remain in your purchased apps where you will be able to download it again if you delete it or acquire a new device until the game becomes incompatible with the latest phone operating systems or hardware.
SEGA has not yet revealed which games will be removed, but we’ll be sure to update you when those announcements are made.
E3 2014 New Video: More Sonic Boom Gameplay Footage
New Mario & Zelda, Overseen by Miyamoto
Sega Sammy Stock Touches 52 Week Low
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Doors Announce ‘Waiting for the Sun’ 50th Deluxe Edition
Just like the Doors' first two albums, their third – 1968's Waiting for the Sun – is getting a deluxe reissue for its 50th anniversary this year.
The "50th Anniversary Deluxe Edition" of the album, which comes out on Sept. 14, includes newly remastered audio, a disc of previously unreleased rough mixes of tracks from the sessions and five live songs from the Doors' performance in Copenhagen in September 1968.
You can see the full track listing below.
The band is also putting our a 7" single to commemorate "Hello, I Love You" reaching No. 1 on Aug. 3, 1968. That vinyl record featuring the single's original B-side "Love Street" on the flip will be released on the song's No. 1 50th anniversary of Aug. 3.
Waiting for the Sun was released in July 1968 and became the Doors' only No. 1 album. In addition to "Hello, I Love You," the album includes classics like "The Unknown Soldier," "Spanish Caravan" and "Five to One."
The two-CD/one-LP collection includes the album's original stereo mix freshly remastered from the original master tapes by Bruce Botnick, the band's longtime engineer and mixer. The 14 tracks on the second disc feature early mixes of many of Waiting for the Sun's songs plus five recordings from the Doors' Copenhagen concert, including "The WASP (Texas Radio and the Big Beat)" and "Back Door Man."
"I prefer some of these rough mixes to the finals," Botnick said in a press release announcing the "50th Anniversary Deluxe Edition," "as they represent all of the elements and additional background vocals, different sensibilities on balances and some intangible roughness, all of which are quite attractive and refreshing."
The Doors, 'Waiting for the Sun: 50th Anniversary Deluxe Edition' Track Listing
1. "Hello, I Love You"
2. "Love Street"
3. "Not To Touch The Earth"
4. "Summer's Almost Gone"
5. "Wintertime Love"
6. "The Unknown Soldier"
7. "Spanish Caravan"
8. "My Wild Love"
9. "We Could Be So Good Together"
10. "Yes, The River Knows"
11. "Five To One"
Disc Two (All Tracks Previously Unreleased)
Rough Mixes
3. "Yes, The River Knows"
8. "Five To One"
Live in Copenhagen
10. "The WASP (Texas Radio And The Big Beat)"
11. "Hello, I Love You"
12. "Back Door Man"
14. "The Unknown Soldier"
The Doors Albums Ranked
Next: Top 10 Doors Songs
Source: Doors Announce ‘Waiting for the Sun’ 50th Deluxe Edition
Filed Under: The Doors
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Battle Between Xbox One and PS4 Is a Marathon, Not a Sprint
By Douglas A. McIntyre June 12, 2013 6:45 am EDT
The fight over whether the new Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) Xbox One video game console or the Sony Corp. (NYSE: SNE) PS4 is the better product came less than minutes after each was introduced. The early skirmishes do not matter much. These products will be in the market for years, and unexpected changes in prices and the introduction of popular games eventually will determine which posts better sales — and profits.
The first round of the fight went to Sony, which priced the PS4 $100 less than the Xbox One. The price of the Xbox is $499. Analysts assume that, on balance, more people will buy the less expensive product. But this depends on the purchasing habits of loyal Xbox owners and the extent to which potential buyers believe that the Xbox is the better, more fully featured machine.
The Xbox One was criticized by some experts who believe that console sales will be hurt because it has to connect to the Internet for users to take advantage of all of its features. The Verge reported on the connectivity requirements of Xbox One:
In an interview filmed prior to Microsoft’s E3 2013 press briefing and published on GameTrailers, Microsoft’s Don Mattrick has addressed concerns about the compulsory connectivity requirements of Xbox One.
“”Fortunately we have a product for people who aren’t able to get some form of connectivity; it’s called Xbox 360,” said Mattrick.
“If you have zero access to the Internet, that is an offline device.”
Another factor in the sales of the two consoles is the plans of the third large supplier of consoles — Nintendo. There was a time a few years ago when Nintendo Wii products outsold those of both Microsoft and Sony. Nintendo has struggled to replace its wildly popular Wii with another successful product but without luck. That does not mean its engineers cannot build one this year or in 2014.
The largest hurdle to Xbox One and PS4 sales will be the one which has been the greatest challenge to the two companies recently. Gaming has moved online to tablets and PCs. The trend has been relentless, despite the fact that some of the most popular games only run on consoles, and that consoles have become high definition content devices. TIME recently reported on video game console sales:
There are other, more secular factors chipping away at the era of the video-game console as we know it today. For one, there’s the segment of players the industry calls “casual gamers.” If you want to know who they are, look around; they’re the people playing Angry Birds on their phones. And that’s the problem.
It will take two or three years to determine whether the Sony or Microsoft products will be the leader in global sales. In the meantime, the gaming platform may have largely moved elsewhere.
By Douglas A. McIntyre
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Read more: Media, 24/7 Wall St. Wire, featured, video games, Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT), Sony Corp (ADR) (NYSE:SNE)
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AA History
Alcohol and Drug Treatment
Grapevine Articles
Secular AA Speakers
Steps and Traditions
How to Talk to an Atheist or Agnostic
by Ritha F October 21, 2018 Personal Stories 11 3786
By Ritha F.
The primary purpose of AA is to help the alcoholic who still suffers. The only requirement for membership is a desire to stop drinking. Yet for alcoholics who are nonbelievers, some AA groups are less than welcoming.
Some of this behavior has occurred at the organizational level, such as when leaders refuse to list or attempt to delist secular meetings. Other actions occur in meetings. One member recounts being in a meeting where the “Chapter to the Agnostic” was referred to as the “Chapter to the Obnoxious.” Some behavior can be extremely harmful, such as when newcomers are told that they will never get sober – or worse, that they will die – unless they believe in God.
The majority of AA members, however, sincerely wish to be of service to alcoholics who seek recovery. Because we believe that building bridges serves the fellowship better than building walls, secular AA members from across North America have contributed ideas on how to work with alcoholics who are nonbelievers.
Why does it matter how AA treats secular members?
The ability to incorporate diverse viewpoints is important to keep AA relevant as society changes. According to Pew Research, 16 percent of the US population identify as Agnostic, Atheist, or say that religion is unimportant to them. In contrast, the percentage who say that they are Christian has dropped by eight percentage points since 2007. This is partly because society is becoming more secular and partly because it is becoming more religiously diverse.
In Europe, these numbers are much higher. For example, in the UK, 53% of the population are nonbelievers. This is why AA meetings in Europe are much less evangelical than in the US and are less likely to close with the Lord´s Prayer. (In a recent Grapevine poll of 1,835 readers, 48% said that they would prefer to close with the Secular Responsibility Statement, compared to 25% who preferred the Lord´s Prayer, 20% who preferred the Serenity Prayer and 8% who preferred some other form of closing.)
AA needs to attract younger members to stay relevant. The secular population tends to younger, 37 years old, compared to 46 for all U.S. adults, or 50 for AA members. (Sources: Pew Research, US Census, AA Membership Survey) Despite the cliché about people getting more religious as they get older, Gen X and even Baby Boomers have become less religious over the past decade. Twenty-five percent of Millennials are not religious. Society has changed since the 1940´s; the religious aspect of AA is much less likely to appeal to younger alcoholics.
What can AA members do to build bridges across belief systems?
First, understand that tolerance does not imply a lack of commitment to one’s own beliefs. The secular path in AA is simply a different path with the same goal: recovery from addiction. Tolerance also does not mean one cannot express his or her own beliefs. However, it does mean refraining from undermining or attacking the beliefs of others, especially when it drives someone away from a place where they can get help. Shana L writes, “When I got sober the first time, I was accosted in the parking lot of my work place by an AA member who told me I could “never get sober without God. This man’s statement and the inappropriate place where it occurred made me feel unwelcome and were big reasons why I decided I didn’t belong in the program.”
Believers as well as non-believers need to speak up when members treat those who do not believe in God poorly. Saying nothing implies consent. The Golden Rule applies to everybody, regardless of what they believe. Tom G. puts it evocatively: “Treat all people with love and respect. Let them find their way. Let them search until the transformation takes place and they find freedom from their suffering.” (Unless otherwise attributed, all quotes are taken from this website.)
Karen M. writes, “When I say that I’m a non-theist (or atheist or agnostic), believe me. Assume that I am just as strong in my non-belief in a deity as you are in your belief in a deity.” Jim M. says, “Understand that we atheists, agnostics, and others already have a belief system that has to be respected and put into context when talking about sobriety.”
Do Secular AA members want to ban talk about a Higher Power?
No. Libby L. says, “I don’t expect them to change the whole program because that’s just silly, but don´t tell me that I’m going to fail the program because I don’t pray to God.” Richie L says, “I certainly do not want to ban deity talk . . . It has been my (wonderful) experience that many in my fellowship say or imply that their religious beliefs are their own and are not intended to be imposed upon anyone else. Dare I say that there is a growing respect for those of us who happen to be atheist and agnostic? The keywords in AA are sobriety and recovery, not heaven and hell.”
Attitudes are slowly changing. In October, 2016, the Grapevine published an edition dedicated to stories of members who are agnostic and atheist. AA members can also show an interest in how secular members maintain sobriety. These members have decades of experience to share. (For example, secular member John H. has over five decades of sobriety.) Dale K. writes that asking a secular member how he or she stays sober is “an indication that they accept me as I am and they’re showing respect for my beliefs. It’s a pretty big compliment that somebody wants to know how you stay sober.”
How should members in the program work with Secular newcomers?
Maria B. writes, “What I wish someone had told me when I was a newcomer: It’s ok if you believe in nothing at all, or something outside of mainstream religious beliefs, or if you are still questioning. No matter what your persuasion, you can get and stay sober. You can also — if you choose to — work the steps as an atheist or agnostic.”
John R. says he finds good advice for working with secular newcomers in the chapter, ‘Working with Others.” “I try to focus on what the other person is saying and especially feeling. I also try to keep my sharing about my own experience, not my beliefs. To me, far too much is made of what one must believe or think and not enough on what the experience of addiction and recovery are like. Connection with the experiences and feelings of others is what helped me and continues to help me in my journey even 36 years later.”
Realize that some secular members may choose not to participate in prayers and readings that run counter to their beliefs. Jim M. says, “Don’t ask us or place us into a position where we are forced to act in a way counter to our belief system. This alienates people. Example: I caught a lot of flak for not participating in a meeting’s prayer because it is counter to my Buddhist beliefs and would affirm an endorsement of Christianity. I was polite about it. But I was told it was NOT the AA way.” Other examples include repeated requests to secular members to lead the Lord´s Prayer when the meeting chair knows that they are nonbelievers.
Can someone who believes in God sponsor someone who doesn´t?
Sure. John R. writes, “I had a sponsor who told me he didn’t care about beliefs … if I would simply do the process, I’d come to my own understanding and beliefs.” Robert K writes, “I’m am grateful that my sponsor suggested taking what I can use and leaving the rest. No judgement, just learning a new way of thinking. Try it. If it works, use it. If it doesn’t, move on to something else.”
Maria B. advises, “Look for the people who nurture and support you. I looked for someone who was open-minded, kind, respectful, and loving. I looked for temperament, basically. I could not find any atheists or agnostics who were available to sponsor in my area at the time I was looking. My sponsor happens to be a Christian, but she has all of these characteristics and is very supportive.”
How do you explain how the program works to a Secular newcomer?
John L. writes, “I really think that we should avoid any kind of overt spirituality in talking with newcomers. I speak of my higher purpose. I understand the steps as being a process to redevelop a relationship with humanity that I lost in my pursuit of self-gratification. I like to stress the diligent work of grinding away the sharp edges of my personality and developing a reserve of emotional sobriety. I also stress the importance of asking for help and freely giving help to others, which is the cornerstone of why we hang together.”
John C. says, “Explain the history of the AA program, how it started with religious roots. Explain that going to meetings, getting a sponsor, writing and sharing an inventory, making amends, and being of service is a process that leads to a change in attitude and perception. That process in itself is a power greater than our self/ego. Explain that some call it a spiritual process, some say it is God, but you can call it whatever you want. The point is that everyone in AA goes through this process and the results are the same no matter what anyone believes or doesn’t believe. it gets you to a place where alcohol is no longer a thought. The power is in the process.”
What kinds of resources are available for secular members?
There are thousands of secular members in AA. These members can provide support for other secular members by identifying who they are in meetings, answering questions, providing information about secular meetings and conferences, and suggesting reading materials and sponsorship. Members who believe in God can also provide support by sharing their own experience without proselytizing, by showing respect for divergent beliefs, and by speaking up when inappropriate comments are directed at secular members.
Living Sober is full of useful, practical information for newcomers and there’s less focus on God than in other AA literature. The Alternative 12 Steps: A Secular Guide to Recovery shows how the program can be interpreted and worked by secular members. Roger C.’s Little Book is invaluable and almost essential as an aid to understanding what the steps mean. Beyond Belief: Agnostic Musings for 12 Step Life is a daily reflection book used by many secular members. Note that the majority of secular members find the “Chapter to the Agnostic” in the Big Book insulting. This chapter reflects Bill Wilson’s personal beliefs and is obviously not drawn from experiences of early secular AA members like Jim B. and Hank P. Instead, it implies that nonbelievers must be converted to believing in God in order to stay sober.
Over 320 secular AA meetings have sprung up across North America and Europe. Online secular AA meetings are available and draw an interesting and articulate crowd from around the world. Secular AA websites include AA Beyond Belief, Secular AA Coffee Shop, AA Agnostica, and others.
How can AA members create an environment where everyone feels welcome?
John L. writes, “First of all, there is never any reason to not be kind. I will not beat sobriety into anyone. No scorning or shaming, either. No tough love.” Henrik B says, “I never let God-or-death-by-bottle comments pass unchallenged. I cut in and say that long-term sobriety is very much possible without believing in the supernatural. To let a newcomer go home after being told such nonsense would make me feel guilty.”
The world is becoming more secular and more diverse. The ability to incorporate different viewpoints is important to keep AA relevant as society changes. This is especially important for attracting younger members, since AA is “graying” rapidly. Tolerance and respect are not a luxury; they are a necessity.
We are all different. AA members ascribe to a variety of belief systems. We speak different languages and get our customs from many cultures. However, when we look beneath the surface, we discover certain universal elements. It can be helpful to think of the fellowship like a pearl necklace. Each member is a pearl with distinct characteristics, but underneath there is a string that ties us all together. That string is mutual support and respect.
What we believe matters less than how we treat each other. Let´s build bridges.
Ritha is a freelance writer and owner of Business Research Solutions, a marketing research company that helps organizations understand their markets and develop successful strategies for building their brands. She currently lives and works in Mexico, and has lived and worked extensively in Europe, Asia, and Africa.
Ritha is a foodie who enjoys trying new dishes (Beef Bourguignon, anyone?). She also manages a small airbnb business.
Vince Hawkins
I suspect the non-believers who might deliberately undermine religious members’ beliefs and the believers who would undermine agnostics’ or atheists’ beliefs are in a small minority. What are the best approaches to these minorities? I’d like to see “greater power” written into the steps instead of “God.” Then members who believe their greater power is God would still be catered for, as would non-believers. It would prick the balloon of anyone who says “if you don’t get God, you can’t get the program.” If it was taken for granted that all members should tolerate other members’ beliefs, then the subject… Read more »
COTU Bill
Thank you for your thoughtful and reasoned thoughts on this critical issue; they are particularly clear when written by a skilled author. As secular AA grows the process of building bridges instead of walls is increasingly important, particularly in a hyper-tribal world. I am increasingly aware of my own tendency to be tribal. Within secular AA I find a group of similar individuals – or individuals I perceive to be similar. However, if I expect traditional AA members to respect my position, I must equally respect theirs. I find that this is not easy and I do tend to be… Read more »
Bill, please write the article if you can and we can post it here.
Ritha F
Thank you, Bill. Let’s take this conversation off line. My email is rithafellerman@gmail.com. My facebook page can be found easily. I have two pages, one social and one professional. Use the social page please. Thanks again.
Thank you, Ritha, for the comprehensive way of presenting the various kinds of substantive issues we face day to day now that it has become increasingly apparent that secular and “traditional” AA will have to find some way to coexist. Last Saturday, my wife, Dianne, and I attended a large, 100 person+ traditional group in the heart of Toronto. It was our first time visiting this group and Dianne had been asked to speak and come up with a topic of her choice. (At this group a speaker talks for 10-15 minutes with discussion to follow.) Dianne’s topic was “inclusion… Read more »
Joe C
What a wonderful article. You make impassioned points without ridicule or retaliation. You know this of course but the point I hope to make is that this temperament is the best way to build bridges. There is more to the nuance of communication that proving we are right. I was at NAADAC (association of addiction professionals) in Houston a week ago, talking to a group of program directors and counselors about the growing appetite for a secular view to 12-Step Facilitation, changing demographics and the body of resources that has emerged to meet this demand. They were already receptive. Within… Read more »
life-j
Ritha, thank you. Something like this would go great in the Grapevine, where more regular AA members go. They’re the ones that really need to read it.
Now, while I do give individual members who are believers the same respect that I would want, if not necessarily expect to get quite yet, I do think it would be a good goal to purge some of the worst aspects of religiosity from our program, it is our program, it is one we share, it is not their program.
Jack Blair
The purge is underway in the area where I live. Beware though, the extremely religious people in AA are not going without a fight. While my home group is quad A, I regularly attend traditional AA. Many I chat with are quite surprised that Secular AA exists. Even after several years of higher profile existence, quad A is still somewhat in the shadows. When asked to speak at these meetings I never miss the opportunity to say loudly and clearly that recovery is absolutely possible whilst having no beliefs in medieval myths and other bronze-age nonsense. Predictably, the heavily religious members take… Read more »
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1-year-old found dead in Staten Island home with ACS history
MIDLAND BEACH, Staten Island (WABC) -- A 1-year-old girl was found dead a Staten Island home Monday.
It happened on Moreland Street in the Midland Beach section.
A law enforcement source tells Eyewitness News that little Bianca Adbul was found in her pack and play by her mom.
Police talked with the mom and she said the girl hit her head on a coffee table on Friday. The Bianca was fine on Saturday, started acting lethargic on Sunday and was found dead Monday.
The family has a history with ACS, with several incidents between 2013 and 2016. The most recent one was in July 2016. The mom also has a 12-year-old daughter who was removed from the home at one point, but later returned. It's unclear when that happened in those 3 years.
The mom does have an order of protection against the father of the 1-year-old. Joseph Abdul was arrested and charged with criminal contempt for allegedly violating his restraining order.
Stay with abc7NY for the latest on this developing story.
midland beachnew york citybaby deathtoddler
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New Jersey girl expelled after suing to play on boys' basketball team reinstated
KENILWORTH, New Jersey (WABC) -- A New Jersey appeals court judge ruled Friday that a girl expelled from her Catholic school over a lawsuit to play on the boys' basketball team and her sister must be reinstated.
Sydney Phillip's dad Scott said his daughters were jumping up and down and screaming when they heard the news that they will be returning to St. Theresa's in Kenilworth on Monday.
Scott Phillips said the girls were devastated to be expelled, which Jim Goodness of the Newark Archdiocese explained was a result of a violation of the parent-student handbook. The section reads, "If a parent implicates St. Theresa School in a legal matter, or names St. Theresa School as a defendant in a civil matter, the parent/guardian will be requested to remove their children immediately from the school."
The Phillips family was informed of the expulsion Wednesday.
Goodness said all parents agree to the handbook each school year and that Scott Phillips signed a paper saying he understood the school handbook back in August of last year, therefore the removal of both his daughters from the school "should not have come as a surprise."
Reached for comment after the ruling, Goodness released a statement reading, "We are aware of a stay of the expulsion. We will not comment on the status of the legal proceedings."
Last December, St. Theresa's canceled their girls' basketball team after there weren't enough students interested. Twelve-year-old Sydney and her family then fought to play on the boys' team, but the school refused even though the Archdiocese of Newark doesn't have a specific rule prohibiting that.
"I was like really bummed when I found out I couldn't play with the boys, because I'm better than them," Sydney said, laughing.
This then led to an unsuccessful legal battle with the archdiocese, after a judge sided with the school last month saying there was no legal foundation for her case.
new jerseynew jerseybasketballsports
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← Delaware Court Puts the Brakes on Hybrid Tech’s Credit Bid for Bankrupt Fisker Automotive’s Assets
Spain Reforms Bankruptcy Law to Facilitate Restructurings →
by Cooley | February 20, 2014 · 3:55 pm
Third Circuit Decision in In re Towne Reaffirms Rule That It Is Not Easy To Surcharge A Secured Lender’s Collateral Under 506(c)
As a general rule, the costs and expenses of administering a bankruptcy proceeding must be borne out of the unencumbered assets of the estate, absent an agreement to the contrary. One narrow exception to this rule arises from Section 506(c) of the Bankruptcy Code, which enables a debtor in possession to surcharge a secured lender’s collateral to pay reasonable and necessary administrative expenses that are incurred preserving or disposing such collateral. Recently, in In re Towne, Inc., et al. 2013 BL 232068 (3d Cir. Aug. 29, 2013), the Third Circuit Court of Appeals upheld lower court decisions denying a motion by a debtor’s counsel to surcharge the proceeds of a secured lender’s collateral to pay its legal fees, reinforcing prior Third Circuit decisions on the issue and demonstrating the difficulties a debtor faces in seeking to surcharge a secured lender’s collateral.
In Towne, a BMW dealership filed for relief under chapter 11 and hired The Margolis Law Firm as special counsel. The secured lender to the debtors, BMW Financial Services, NA, LLC, immediately sought relief from the automatic stay to foreclose on its collateral. The Bankruptcy Court granted the requested relief, but BMW Financial agreed to delay foreclosure to provide the dealership with an opportunity to sell their assets in the chapter 11 case. Margolis identified a potential purchaser offering to pay approximately $6 million for the debtors’ assets, substantially less than BMW Financial’s $9 million secured claim. Because the debtors were unwilling to grant BMW Financial releases, BMW Financial refused to consent to the sale. A few months later, the Bankruptcy Court converted the case to a case under chapter 7, at which point the chapter 7 trustee granted BMW Financial the releases it demanded and promptly sold the collateral to a new purchaser for approximately $5.5 million. BMW Financial permitted a carve-out of the sale proceeds to pay for the chapter 7 trustee’s fees and fund a 10% distribution to general unsecured creditors.
Margolis was owed approximately $90,000 in legal fees from its work during the chapter 11 case, and it filed a motion to surcharge the proceeds from the sale BMW Financial’s collateral in an attempt to be paid. As articulated by the Third Circuit in Towne, a secured lender’s collateral can only be surcharged under the “sharply limited” circumstances where the administrative expense (i) was reasonable and necessary to the preservation/disposal of the collateral and (ii) provided a direct benefit to the secured creditor. Furthermore, despite the language of 506(c)—which permits a surcharge of collateral for the necessary and reasonable costs of preserving or disposing of collateral “to the extent of any benefit to the holder of such claim” (emphasis added)—the Third Circuit explicitly rejected the argument that a surcharge is appropriate where the secured creditor “could reasonably have been expected to benefit,” holding that a “direct benefit” to the secured creditor is required.
Applying this standard, the Court found that Margolis could not demonstrate that its fees were necessary to preserve or dispose of the BMW Financial’s collateral, or that its efforts directly benefited BMW Financial. In reaching this conclusion, the Third Circuit first rejected Margolis’s argument that its efforts to find bidders and document a sale benefitted the secured lender because such efforts did not result in an actual sale. The Third Circuit then rejected Margolis’s argument that its efforts to prevent termination of the dealership franchise agreement preserved the value of the lender’s collateral because Margolis couldn’t demonstrate that the franchise would have been terminated without its efforts. The Third Circuit also noted that some of the services provided by Margolis were specifically contrary to the secured lender’s interests, such as efforts to reduce the value of its lien.
Although the opinion issued by the Third Circuit in Towne was designated as “not-precedential,” it nevertheless provides an important reminder of the challenges facing debtors and other parties in interest who try to use section 506(c) to fund the administration of a bankruptcy case, particularly in the Third Circuit, where the standard for demonstrating that an expense conferred a benefit to the secured creditor appears to be more rigorous than the plain language of the Bankruptcy Code might otherwise suggest.
Tagged as 506(c), Third Circuit
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Hero or Villain?
February 25, 2019 February 25, 2019 / AnglicanMisfit / 2 Comments
Yes, of course he was — Churchill, that is.
He was a great man so everything about him was larger than life. He drank too much. He smoked too much — even though those cigars were often unlit. He had unacceptable views about non-white people.
He also had enormous courage, faith in the people he served as a politician and was prepared to tell the truth no matter how unpalatable.
“I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat.”
Imagine anyone having the guts to tell us something like that these days.
I can remember seeing him. I was taken to the Victory Parade when I was seven and I saw Mr. Churchill on the balcony of Buckingham Palace with the Royal Family. Aged 15 I can remember being in a cinema in France. When Churchill appeared in a newsreel there was a burst of applause and cheering.
So, all you, who think you are valiantly fighting for justice and liberty, don’t get too cocksure of yourselves. You need to begin looking at things from the ‘Both/And’ perspective.
The solid rock of Snowdon
Can’t you see how limited and illiberal your ‘Either/Or’ attitudes are? Things are almost never strictly one thing or another. Certainly a rock is a rock, solid as the Snowdon Range which I can see outside my window. So was the sand in the Conwy Estuary which I can also see if I turn my head.
Sand on Conwy Estuary
People are always ‘Both/And.’ Good and bad. Saint and sinner. Hero and villain. Straight as a die and as crooked as a corkscrew. Right and wrong — all together in the same package.
Please remember that, you who are so sure you are all right, and the rest of us are all wrong. Don’t be so loud in your condemnation of those with whom you disagree.
All you tinpot little heroes, don’t try to stop free speech in order to silence the villains. You may think you are rocks today but you could well be mere grains of sand tomorrow.
The Absurdity Goes On
August 3, 2018 / AnglicanMisfit / 1 Comment
Stop Press. Have just caught up with this bit of nonsense. Screen shots of an item of important news from yesterday’s Daily Telegraph. Enjoy!
Weasel Words and Nonsense
January 20, 2018 January 20, 2018 / AnglicanMisfit / Leave a comment
Once upon a time, long ago when I was young, Bishops were wise men of learning and Vicars and Rectors knew a fair bit of Theology. Even when they weren’t quite so clever nor so well educated they still had an abundance of common sense. If you went to them with a problem they could talk it through with you to a sensible solution.
Obviously times change, standards change, ideas change, but is it only my age that makes me think bishops these days have gone bonkers?
“Celtic” bishops vainly hoping for Unity with the Vatican
Certainly, when I saw the above photo it seemed to me that the Welsh bishops—all six of them—had, collectively, lost their marbles. They had all toddled off to Rome with the excuse that they were there to aid Christian Unity. This jolly was despite the fact they all support—fairly agressively—women priests, women bishops, and same sex marriage. They must be stupidly naive if they thought there was any chance that Rome would adopt their views just like that.
Perhaps they got the idea from +Gregory, the bishop up here in St Asaph. He had a jolly to Ireland recently in the interest of Christian Unity with various Orthodox bishops, none of whom will have anything to do with women priests or same sex marriage. (These bishops should not be confused with the great Russian and Eastern Orthodox churches, which is presumably why the meeting was held in Dublin.)
The Bishop of St Asaph is in Unity with them but not with me.
Of course, any initiative which can bring about Christian Unity must be a good thing but the so-called Celtic bishops had a fat chance of achieving anything with the Vatican. I can’t help feeling they could have spent their time much more effectively, though not so exotically, closer to home.
Where is all this “good disagreement” we hear so much about? Where are the forums where differing views can be discussed and debated quietly and intelligently? Not in Synod, I’m afraid. Where is the “diversity” the clergy are bending over backwards to embrace. I wouldn’t be welcome by the Vicar in my “parish” church because I can’t support SSM. Worse than that, as an advocate for marriage between a man and a woman, preferably for life, the inference is that I must be homophobic. So far, the vaunted advantages and benefits of Mission Areas haven’t provided even one church in my Area which will give me a “safe, sacred space” where I can feel at home.
A year ago—was it really only 12 months ago? It seems like another age—the Bishop of St. Asaph appointed an LGBT chaplain. At the time, when asked what she would say to people who couldn’t support her, the Revd Hildreth-Osborn replied: “To those who aren’t supportive, I’d say, ‘If you’re judging people, you have no time to love them!”
If you take the time to think about those words you realise they’re a typical ‘soundbite.’ Sound good: mean nothing. What does she think Jesus meant when He said, to the woman taken in adultery, for example. (John:8) over, “Go, and sin no more”?He realised she had done something wrong, had told her so, but had not stopped loving her.
The ridiculous phrase, “Radical new Christian inclusion” used by Paul Baynes, Bishop of Liverpool, in his endorsement of the Jayne Ozanne Foundation, seems to mean kicking out the Gospel of Jesus while supporting “Just love for all”, whatever that means.
Jayne Ozane says she believes people can believe what they like. Good, In introducing her new Foundation she also said that people like me have “A simplistic and ill-informed view of the Bible.” That’s exactly what she has.
Sadly, the Celtic Bishops would rather jaunt off to Rome than potter round their dioceses trying to establish any sort of unity with those of us who have been pushed out of our churches in the name of new radical LGBTQUIA+ inclusion.
Hypocrisy and Humbug
November 16, 2017 November 16, 2017 / AnglicanMisfit / 1 Comment
When I took a break from blogging in the summer, I hoped, over the holidays, to be able to update my blog page. I wanted to add all sorts of whistles and bells and links and side bars and . . . . Well, as you know (“May You Live in Interesting Times” —blog Oct 2nd) things didn’t work out quite like that. I haven’t even been producing my more pedestrian blog very often, either, but please don’t think I have succumbed to the sin of sloth. It’s just that life has become different and, at times, rather more complex, with some very odd problems.
Apart from visually brightening up my blog I had also intended to widen its scope and broaden its horizon. since I was thoroughly fed up with the mediocre shower making up so much of the Moronarchy which is the Church in Wales.
Now, a whole avalanche of news has proved a spur. Much of it makes me think surely this can’t be true? I don’t know how much is ‘fake’ news, but I do believe quite a lot is sensationalised into ‘news’ by the media, especially if it involves Sex, or the C of E, or both—which it so often does.
Danny La Rue
Archbishop Welby says boys should be allowed to wear tiaras to help stop bullying. (No, sorry. I must have misread that! Since when was cross dressing news worthy!)
In Shakespeare’s day all the girls parts were played by boys. One of the best Lady Macbeth’s I ever saw was a strapping six-foot lad who made no effort to feminise himself. No high voice. No mincing walk. No pretty gestures. He was just so completely in the part that he was totally convincing. I don’t know what has happened to him but I doubt he’s on hormones to give him boobs.
I was fortunate enough to go to an all girls’ school so when we did Shakespeare we got to play all the male parts. My best friend Judy was a particularly convincing Shylock although I don’t remember any mention of sex or gender.
Glenda Jackson as Lear
Another subject I’ve found jaw-dropping concerns Church maintained schools. Why do they still exist? What on earth is the point of them? One in Birmingham has 80% Muslim children—surely that makes it more of a Madrassa—so why is the C of E maintaining it? They are, of course, exceptionally good schools, which is why so many parents lie and cheat to get their children into them. Presumably Muslim parents and children are deemed ‘Christian’ enough to qualify because they acknowledge Jesus as a prophet. What seems to me ironic and pathetic is that those parents who attend a church in order to “prove” their children are suitable for admission to a C of E school are rarely converted to Christianity by their church-going experiences! I suspect that once they get their child safely “in” no church will hear of them again. But, if a Christian Group is found to be teaching shocking subjects like sin and forgiveness, then the bullying starts, the headmaster sacks the Christian group and the Bishop nods her/his mitre in agreement.
There is always something going on in the Church in Wales to depress one’s spirits still further. It’s gone quiet in the church down south in Llandaff and St David’s but there are things going on up here in St Asaph that reveal how deeply unpleasant “church” people—both clerical and lay—can be. The sheer nastiness occurring in some of the Mission Areas beggars belief. They display all the most notable aspects of the Pharisees. Perhaps that’s why the Bishop of St Asaph has been finding forums away from home.
Members of the Anglican Oriental–Orthodox International Commission with local Fathers and the Egyptian Ambassador to Ireland in St Maximus and St Domatius Coptic Church in Drumcondra.
The man in red is the Rt Revd Bishop Gregory. The other men include representatives from the following churches: the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria, the Syrian Orthodox Church of Antioch, the Armenian Apostolic Orthodox Church, the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church and the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church.
+Gregory was Chairman of this Commission which met in Dublin last month. It has been struggling for years to reach agreement on some obscure bit of deep theology. What puzzles me is what is Gregory doing there. The other men all belong to churches which do not admit women as priests. Yet the St Asaph bishop has spent the last few years supporting women bishops, homosexuals, priests in civil partnerships, “proud to be gay” films, innumerable lectures and meetings with speakers like Jayne Osanne and “open tables” dedicated to LGBT+ activities and people. Talk about hypocrisy and humbug! At least, I hope he left his LGBTQUIA+ chaplain at home.
This month, further demonstrating the breadth of his ecumenism, +Gregory attended a service in the Roman Catholic cathedral in Cardiff to commemorate Luther and the beginning of the Protestant Reformation. Here he was observed turning to face the altar so that he could take a Selfie with the congregation.
Most of the people I meet now on an almost daily basis—medics and paramedics—display the Christian virtues of sympathy, tolerance, generosity and a quite amazing compassion. They laugh at me when I comment on this. “You couldn’t do this job if you didn’t care about people,” they say.
That attitude contrasts starkly with many of the clergy in the Anglican Church, all the way up to the Bishops, who seem perfectly happy to collect their stipends, wear the robes and strut the strut, without giving a second thought to all those of us who still believe in the Bible. We are totally ignored, if we’re lucky; labelled and excoriated if we speak out.
“Create a wilderness and call it peace.” Tacitus (adapted)
May 22, 2017 / AnglicanMisfit / Leave a comment
I was very sad to learn of the death of Bishop David Thomas. I felt I had a true friend in him. I never had the privilege of meeting him but I knew he read this blog and enjoyed it. He gave me great encouragement to carry on even when things seem hopeless. Thanks to his support I believe my battle for Christian marriage is not yet over.
In his paper ‘A Noble Task‘ Bishop David Thomas reflected on his experience of ministry as Provincial Assistant Bishop and how this might change if the episcopate in Wales were opened to women.
Bishop David Thomas
“People sometimes ask me how I imagine my ministry as PAB might change in the event of women being admitted to the episcopate in the Church in Wales. The only honest answer I can give is that it would not change; it would be over.”
The Anglican Communion, which includes the Church in Wales, still officially believes that Marriage is between one man (a male human being with XY chromosomes) and one woman (a female human being with XX chromosomes.) I’m sorry to go into so much detail but these days it is all too easy to give quite the wrong impression.
However, some interesting comments were made about my last blog. I thought I was describing a simple solution for Mission Area Leaders to provide a church where people with distinct views could be accommodated, even those who believe that Same Sex unions can not be truly a “Marriage”. But it has been pointed out to me that Anglican Bishops are all powerful. What a Bishop wants, (no matter how it’s wrapped up in weasel words) is what their people get.
It is all too clear what the Bishops here in Wales want. It’s what we’ve been getting for the last 17 years. It’s the bishops’ fault that, when Bishop David Thomas retired from his noble task, he was not replaced. It’s the bishops who decide what we are going to go on getting in the church in Wales as long as it lasts.
Anglicans in Cardiff have been pleading for years to have what they call ‘the swamp’ drained. It isn’t just Cardiff; it’s all of Wales. We have six big frogs in very little ponds and the power of a bishopric has gone to their heads. They are going to lead the entire Anglican Community into a world where the Bible has been reinterpreted and Jesus is regarded as a bumbling social worker of doubtful gender.
Look at the figures.
There are an estimated 84 million Anglicans in the world, most of whom, give or take a couple of million, believe marriage is between a man and a woman.
There were 53 million people in England at the last count, of whom around one million are Anglicans. Wales has a population of 3 million, few of whom are Anglicans. England has 43 Diocesan bishops of whom two are women. Here in Wales we have six diocesan bishops of whom 2 are women. We also have 2 chaplains specifically for LGBT+ people.
Throughout Britain 1.7% of people consider themselves Lesbian, Gay. Bi-sexual or Transgender. Assuming those proportions are true for Wales, just under 500 people come into that category.
I have no idea how many of that 500 are Anglicans but there must be far fewer than those who believe marriage to be between a man and a woman. Do you think the bishops would appoint a Chaplain just for us?
I fear not. Tolerant liberals usually brand people like me as bigoted and homophobic. Since heterosexual marriage is still the official doctrine of the Anglican Communion, at least we’re not hypocrites.
There’s no need for Jonathan Pryke. MALs have the answers.
May 10, 2017 May 11, 2017 / AnglicanMisfit / Leave a comment
A Church with everything one needs. An altar, pews and an atmosphere of sacred stillness
We don’t need Bishops parachuted in from Africa to sort out the Anglican Church in Britain. We don’t even need Jonathan Pryke. We already have MALs!
As the Archbishops told us after ‘that’ vote in Synod,
“The way forward needs to be about love, joy and celebration of our common humanity; of our creation in the image of God, of our belonging to Christ – all of us, without exception, without exclusion.”
Who could possibly object to that? As one of the excluded I certainly wouldn’t.
“We need to work together” the Archbishops said “ – not just the bishops but the whole Church, not excluding anyone – to move forward with confidence.”
We can. We really can. The Mission Area Leaders are already in place and primed to do the job. I have been studying their qualifications and the Area structures. (see my blog of October 18th, last year.) To be an MAL you have to be exceptionally able with just the right qualities to bring
“about love, joy and celebration of our common humanity” and “a radical new Christian inclusion in the Church.”
One of the things the Re-organisation—20:20 Vision or whatever it’s called—has done is abolish Parishes. I haven’t yet met a single churchgoer who thinks that is actually a good idea but the Early Christians weren’t organised into parishes and look what they started. Mission Area Leaders now have a unique opportunity to re-organise their areas in such a way that all the different needs of the present Anglican Church here in Britain can live together in Godly Love and give up all this nonsense about good disagreement. That is clearly not working and is never going to work, given it involves people who insist on not just thinking but believing and feeling and yelling as well.
A better world could be achieved very simply. The structures are already in place.
Blueprint for ending disagreement
All you need to make this initiative work are a minimum of four churches in a Mission Area to serve four different congregations. If you look closely on the left of the above diagram you will see that they are already in place. The first group, (Church St A) are obviously those who are still worshipping in their local ‘parish’ church, either because they love it the way it is, or through tradition and loyalty. And, of course, they will be the most difficult for the MALs to cope with because they have been Faithful and they will NOT want to be moved.
That leaves three other main groups, who have already left the church. These people will be much more accommodating because, after years in the wilderness, they will be only too thankful to have a church to go to that believes what they believe. So Church St B will become St AC (to accommodate Anglo-Catholics) and church St C will become Church St E for the Evangelicals.
Finally, there is the last group, Church of St D, to which I belong. We are the easiest of all to provide for. We accept women priests. We can even cope with women bishops if they’re not too stridently feminist. Our sticking point, the red line that is being crossed over and over again, is our simple belief that Christian Marriage is between one man and one woman.
That is really all we want, although the list of things we do not want is quite lengthy. We want a bog standard Anglican service, lead with respect and dignity, and—when it’s a Eucharist—with solemnity.
Not necessary in Church St D
We don’t want fancy dressed vegetables, rainbow flags, dancing round paper fires, walls of cardboard bricks, altars made of tatty boxes, or arts and crafts with yogurt pots and sticky paper, all of which have featured in modern churches recently. And positively no Imans and no Koran readings.
The clergy allotted to this sort of church will be overjoyed. Just a prayer book and a bible will be all they will need. They will be able to devote the time saved to preparing a thoughtful, theologically based sermon.
It will make life so much simpler for the Mission Area Leaders, too. This bit of re-organisation should be a doddle since they’ve already got a blue print. All they will have to do is find four different sorts of clergy, for the different strands of Anglicanism required. There may have to be a bit of juggling once the system has been in place for a while. Some churches may be more popular than others and may need a bigger building, for example.
Here in Wales, Welsh language Anglican churches would probably also be most welcome. In the St Asaph Diocese, and possibly in others, the LGBTQ+ Chaplain may well choose to serve a predominantly Gay congregation. Of course, it does mean that the Bishops have got to play fair, too. Much as they may want SSM despite Lambeth 1:10 (1998) they will have to recognise that those congregations that can’t believe in SSM are neither homophobic nor bigoted.
Empty boxes looking for a home
The great benefit of this arrangement is that it would do away with disagreement—good or bad—in the churches themselves. We could stop wasting time listening to people with whom we cannot possibly agree. Instead we could go to church knowing exactly what to expect and then, when we returned to our villages, or communities, Christians, of whatever shape and form could get on happily with doing God’s work at the local level.
Of course, since all congregations are made up of human beings of the fallen, finite variety there will always be some who will complain that their specific needs aren’t met. Well, that’s something the MALs will have to wrestle with, because, once these new, belief-specific churches are up and running, there won’t be much else for them to do.
Go for it, MALs.
What Were They Thinking Of?
May 6, 2017 / AnglicanMisfit / Leave a comment
Asparagus Fest in Worcester Cathedral
I sent this picture to my son who used to live in Worcester. When he first moved there he’d been trawling local churches and not finding what he wanted. He complained that they were too happy-clappy, with little substance or so “high” he found them more alien than his wife’s Roman Catholic church. I used to try and persuade him to attend the Cathedral as being a ‘safe’ place, where you knew what you would get, service wise. Not any more.
His reaction to the picture—“Mum! What on earth were they thinking of?”—made me realise that there is very little thought in the Anglican church these days, or anywhere else come to that. It is all about feelings.
What a terrifying road to be on.
Who, in that great and ancient cathedral, felt that dressing up a man to look like a stick of asparagus would tell anyone in the congregation anything at all about God? You know—the God of the Bible. The Creator. The Almighty. Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. That God!
Did the Treasurer feel it would be money well spent producing that daft charade? Did the Dean not pause to wonder, just for a moment, whether some of the less well informed people in the congregation might be confused about the relevance of a stick of asparagus to the Death and Resurrection. Perhaps his sermon “explained” the connection but I bet that what people remembered afterwards was the daft charade and not the message.
There can be only one answer. No one was thinking clearly or intelligently. It was all froth and bubble and superficial nonsense put on by people who have lost the plot.
When people in positions of apparent power and authority begin to stop thinking and rely on “feelings” it can only get worse. Much worse.
The above photo is not the one I thought I would post here but presumably this child, too, will be the subject of mutilation sooner or later. The photo I was originally going to post I saw on the blog “Catholicism Pure and Simple.”
It was a photo of a sixteen year old girl, sitting, naked to the waist, showing the scars left when her breasts were removed to make her a boy. He was trying to look defiant but there was a sad, lost look in his eyes. I have hesitated for several weeks, because I found it so distressing, and when I went searching for it this morning I couldn’t find it. Possibly it has been taken down for ‘data protection’ reasons and I think on the whole I’m glad.
Don’t bother to ask what on earth were the people thinking who allowed this to happen. They had the feeling it was a good thing to mutilate a 16 year old girl. Presumably her parents felt it was a good idea. Did she not have grandparents? Surely a wiser generation would have had the sense and courage to say ‘Hang on a minute. Let’s not rush into this? At least, wait until she’s 18 and can make such a drastic decision for herself.’
Sadly, in this day and age, sensible thought is too often shouted down as homophobia or a hate crime. If you feel it in your head it must be right.
And what about the doctor who carried out the abominable surgery? Or what was going on in the head of the psychiatrist who assured the surgeon that this teenager was of sound mind and knew exactly what she was about? They too must have been caught up and whirled around in the great Transgender FeelFest.
We are hearing a lot about FGM these days. Female Genital Mutilation. Quite right, too. Such practises have no place in our civilized society. However, I can’t honestly see much difference between the two mutilations. Both are bound to lead to dreadful problems, both physical and psychological, yet one is treated with the horror it deserves and the other seems to be lauded as a great advance in human awareness.
Surprising? Not really. Not in a world where one week a great cathedral uses the symbol of Christ on the Cross and a couple of weeks later parades a man dressed up as a stick of asparagus.
A Queer Business
December 11, 2016 / AnglicanMisfit / 2 Comments
On my December 1st blog “Hollywood comes to St Asaph” I advertised a film festival to be held in the Cathedral here in North Wales, entitled “All One in Christ”. As it was endorsed by the Bishop of St Asaph, had a starring part for his LGBT Chaplain and was made by a LGBT supporting film company it wasn’t hard to guess the subject—almost certainly ‘embracing diversity.’
The last film I saw was ‘The BFG’, a film very big on good and evil and diversity. Film can be immensely powerful—even animations can reduce you to tears. This film could have made a tremendous statement. It didn’t.
I watched it twice but was left with virtually nothing to say. So I went away and wrote about two fathers who choose the mothers of their children on a cat walk in California. Today I decided to bite the bullet and review ‘All One in Christ’. Guess what? I can’t. Go to the Diocese website, click on the video and look what you get.
I also get this quaint little icon.I think it’s expressing disappointment but I’m not disappointed, just puzzled. Why, after all the hype, has it been withdrawn.
“All One in Christ” was described in various media as “a short film that is deeply critical of the church’s attitude to homosexuality”. Mark Williams, of something called ‘Iris in the Community’, said, “It’s a simple film with a powerful message and I can’t wait to see how the public respond.” Since it’s gone “Private” the public won’t be able to respond.
Mike Jones of ‘Changing Attidtudes’ said, “By sharing the personal stories of those who have suffered and been hurt I hope this powerful film will bring home to all the scale of the damage done and ultimately help change attitudes within the church. We are all one in Christ. This means, for example, that everyone should be able to celebrate their marriages or civil partnerships in churches and receive God’s blessing.”
In all of this there was only one dissenting voice. Dr William Strange, vice-chair of the Evangelical Fellowship in the Church in Wales, told Christian Today it was “regrettable” the Church had made this “public demonstration after our governing body decided not to give the green light to change teaching on sexuality”.
Of course, the Archbishop of Wales called it “powerful”. (The word “powerful” is massively over used and mendacity and deceit abound.) Dr Morgan also warned that “This film will not be easy watching for church members.”
With respect, Archbishop, you are wrong on both counts.
It is not a powerful film and it should surely be you and your clergy, not the church members, who will find it difficult viewing.
The film has no plot or story line. It’s a sequence of talking heads, interspersed with typical Welsh scenes, and the words spoken have all been said before, over and over again. In the film, the Revd Sarah Hildreth-Osborn says, “Over the last two or three years I have begun to discover what it means not to have to live a frightened life, hidden away, terrified of what other people might think of me if they find out I’m gay.” Poppycock. She’s an ordained priest, she’s the Bishop’s LGBT Chaplain, she says her congregations support her and she’s in a civil partnership. Where’s the terror in that?
Whoever briefed the Guardian and Christian News seriously mislead them about the content of the film.
Take this headline in the Guardian.
“Film about nuns who fall in love to be shown in Welsh cathedral”
Christian News made similar claims. “All One in Christ is a 12-minute documentary about two ex-nuns who fall in love before being rejected by their community and tells the story of Ann and Marika Jane Savage-Lewis.”
That brilliant film, “Black Narcissus” came to mind. Something along those lines would certainly deliver a potent message. Unfortunately, saying it “tells the story” is
misrepresenting the film with a vengeance. The film doesn’t tell any story.
The former nuns are just two talking heads—their poodle is more entertaining. Marika merely describes the outrage of their local bishop after they were outed by a Sunday newspaper about 40 years ago. Their local vicar physically blocked their entrance to the church. However, the members of their church, apparently, accepted them quite happily. Bishop Stephen Lowe at least seems to accept the clergy’s role in this. He says, in the film “The way in which gay and lesbian people have been persecuted is something that the church needs to feel a deep repentance about.” Quite right, too. The church has no business persecuting anyone.
“That was us out,” Marika told the Guardian. She said the archbishop (of St Asaph) was “very brave” for allowing the screening – “particularly in view of the hoo-ha that’s going on”. What hoo-ha? Those who simply believe that marriage is between a man and a woman aren’t making a hoo-ha. Perhaps all the “persecution” suffered by Gays and Lesbians will make them more compassionate towards those who still can’t support Same Sex Marriage.
The film is actually flabby, rather than powerful. A film about victims and martyrs facing persecution should pack a hefty punch but instead this is just more of the pathetic same. This quote from the beginning of this blog says it all, though not in the way the speaker had in mind. “I hope this powerful film will bring home to all the scale of the damage done”. Amen to that.
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Andy Statman
From the March, 2008 issue
You know the old fable of the blind men who use their sense of touch to try to describe an elephant. One man feels the elephant's leg and says, "An elephant is like a tree." Another grasps the trunk and declares, "An elephant is like a snake." A third grips the tail and announces, "An elephant is like a rope."
Trying to describe Andy Statman is a little like that. If you heard him in the early 1970s you'd say, "Andy Statman is the mandolin master in Country Cookin', a cutting-edge newgrass band." If you heard him in the 1980s and 1990s you'd say, "Andy Statman is an incredible clarinetist and a leader of the klezmer revival." Both are true, though neither the two instruments nor the two genres are exactly kissin' cousins. As for what Statman has been up to in the past decade - well, that's almost impossible to label. He now belongs to that rarefied group, along with Bela Fleck, Edgar Meyer, and a handful of others, who have outgrown the styles in which they were steeped. They have listened widely and absorbed deeply, and they are now creating a borderless yet quintessentially American music that is unified by the improvisatory spirit of jazz and still bears the stamp of the great traditions from which it has sprung.
From the beginning of his musical schooling, Statman has apprenticed himself to musical giants. When, as a young teen, he decided to learn mandolin, he took his first lessons with David Grisman. Years later, when he gravitated to the clarinet by way of jazz saxophone lessons with the little-known but highly respected Richard Grando, he studied with Dave Tarras, the grand master of American klezmer. Statman's musical studies eventually led him to more than just his cultural legacy: they took him back to the spiritual underpinning of the music he was playing, to the ecstatic devotional tradition of Hasidic Judaism.
I heard Statman at Hill
Auditorium ten years ago when he came here as part of the klezmer extravaganza In the Fiddler's House, featuring Itzhak Perlman. In an evening filled with mostly up-tempo, flashy, dance melodies, what I remember most vividly is Statman and Perlman's simple, spare duet on "Shalom Aleichem," a traditional song often sung in Jewish homes before the Friday night meal. Their instrumental rendition was so achingly exquisite that it made me weep. During the long and heartfelt ovation that followed, I could see many other people wiping their eyes.
Statman, who performs at the Ark on Monday, March 31, offers far more than merely his dazzling virtuosity, his daring improvisations, and the gorgeous liquid tone he draws from both his instruments. By tapping into his own deep spiritual roots and expressing them through his music, he enables each of us to connect to what is most true in our own unique heritage.
[Review published March 2008]
The Rising Toll
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Tag - The Atheist Experience
Atheism and the Problem of Moral Relativism
by John Leonard
According to moral relativism, the concept of right versus wrong varies from person to person. One person might consider adultery to be wrong, while another could decide that open marriages are copacetic. For something to be recognized as universally wrong by everyone, a supernatural God must exist and serve as the consistent arbiter of right versus wrong, or good versus evil.
A helpful example to easily illustrate the difference between moral relativism and moral absolutism would be Hitler and the Nazis, responsible for the Holocaust. In order to demonize someone with whom you disagree in modern society, all one needs to do is call that person a Nazi, or a Holocaust denier. Six million innocent Jews were slaughtered like sheep. Presumably, only an incomprehensibly cruel person would tolerate the genocide of an entire group of human beings. But we know that the Holocaust really happened, and that six million people were murdered by the Nazis in cold blood. The Nazis were moral relativists because they decided that Jews could be exterminated like vermin simply because of their religious beliefs.
While we know there were courageous German dissidents like Lutheran pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer, willing to sacrifice their own lives for others, there were also people like George Soros — a secular atheist of Jewish heritage himself, and current financial supporter of the Antifa movement — who collaborated with the Nazis, and admitted years later that he felt no remorse about watching his fellow Jews stripped of their personal property before being shipped off to concentration camps, and eventually death.
Obviously, the Nazis managed to reconcile their collective conscience with the attempt to systematically exterminate the Jewish population in their midst, so we cannot deny the existence of moral relativism. The only question that remains is, can we assume that moral absolutism also exists, and that there are some things that are inherently wrong?
Atheists are not evil or especially immoral people, but they cannot apply consistency to their moral beliefs. Although many Nazis were atheists, they didn’t murder the Jews because of their atheism, and many were also not atheists. The Jews were exterminated because Hitler promoted nationwide bigotry against them. Decent German people opposed to the slaughter were powerless to resist the Nazis, because their guns had been confiscated.
So, what does all of this have to do with atheism and the problem of moral relativism? Everything. Atheists want to be able to proclaim moral absolutism exists when the scenario suits them, but they don’t know how to apply moral absolutism with any logical consistency, due to their lack of belief in a supernatural God.
Consider, as an example, the online debate between Matt Dillahunty, the host of the Atheist Experience, and theist David Robertson, on the “Unbelievable” podcast hosted by Justin Brierly, who also served as the debate moderator. Matt is a very intelligent person, and an eloquent advocate for his atheistic worldview.
So the outcome of their debate was quite surprising. Right around the 25 minute mark in the video above, Robertson exposed a major vulnerability in a very typical atheist’s worldview.
Matt tried to insist that he’s not a moral relativist, but then contradicted himself almost immediately when Robertson ambushed him by saying, “If there is, as Dawkins says, no good and evil, then how can I say that Auschwitz is evil?…If I’m an atheist, then I just have to accept evil as just something natural.”
Dillahunty rejected that claim and noted that it was not his responsibility to defend Richard Dawkins, assuming that the paraphrasing of his comments about Auschwitz had been accurate. Then he added,
The idea that good and evil aren’t things, that they’re not extant things, is pretty common. But I’m not a moral relativist. I’m not portraying a view, as you have adopted, or have claimed that atheism adopts, that morality is just opinions or social constructs and things like that…Killing people, killing six million people, slaughtering six million people, is obviously, flatly, in conflict with well being, both of those individuals, and of the society as a whole. And nothing could be more clear…
Poor Mr. Dillahunty didn’t see that he’d just boxed himself into a corner, but Justin Brierly quickly recognized the fatal flaw in that argument. He focused Robertson’s attention on Dillahunty’s peculiar choice of a certain word in his answer– that word being “obviously.”
The conversation segued into this rather remarkable, rapid-fire exchange:
Dillahunty: It’s not obvious to you that killing people is against their wellbeing? How else could you define wellbeing, if it doesn’t preclude being slaughtered?
Robertson: Well, that’s true. That’s interesting. So, you would say that it would be against the wellbeing of the child in the womb to kill it?
Dillahunty: Well, yes.
Robertson: So, you’d be against abortion, then?
Dillahunty: No.
Robertson: So, you think that killing the child in the womb is against the wellbeing of the child, but you’re for that.
Dillahunty: Did I say I was for it?
Oddly enough, Mr. Dillahunty didn’t seem to realize the contradiction in logic that he’d blundered into making. He quickly tried to soften his position on abortion by substituting the euphemism “pro-choice” but Robertson wouldn’t let him off the hook, finally hammering home his point by saying, “So, your whole argument against me (which) was, is it not obvious to you that killing someone is against their wellbeing, is completely superfluous.”
The debate was only halfway over, but Dillahunty was pretty much finished. It never got any better for him for the remainder of the podcast.
It is difficult to understand how a person as obviously intelligent as Mr. Dillahunty could be so adamant that the Holocaust and murder of 6 million Jews is so obviously wrong that everyone would agree and condemn such a horror, but that same person has no moral qualms about the medically-assisted murder of 55 million or more unborn babies in the U.S. alone.
Doesn’t terminating the life of an unborn child harm it’s wellbeing? Isn’t it detrimental to society as a whole?
Aren’t the answers to these questions obvious?
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Posts tagged with "BIG-Bjarke Ingels Group":
BIG and UNStudio launch augmented reality design software
The phrase “bring a project to life” is thrown around casually by creative types of all creeds, from industrial designers to conceptual painters—people whose daily lives involve intense engagement with communication tools that allow the ideas in their heads to exist in the physical world. Emerging technologies from 3D software to VR goggles have revolutionized the way that clients can experience a designer’s vision, and now, Hyperform, a new collaborative and data-driven design tool, allows the design industry to literally immerse themselves—digitally—within a working project, blown up via augmented reality technology to 1:1 scale. Hyperform comes from a Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) collaboration with Squint/Opera, a creative digital studio, and UNStudio. These big-name studios believe that their immersive software will enable designers to make the best decisions for the project and the client much faster, as the interactive elements are closer to complete project visualization than anything we’ve seen yet. Jan Bunge, managing director at Squint/Opera, said, “Hyperform marks the first time we can feel and sense a spatial condition before it gets built.” Client and designer can walk around a project, experiencing its massing, spatial qualities, and materiality, and simply use hand gestures to edit, delete, and alter this type of digital file in real time before it’s too late or too expensive to make a change. In a concept film, the Hyperform user is depicted as a disembodied hand, the viewer’s own, pushing at virtual buttons suspended in space and scrolling through horizontal libraries of architectural drawings, 3D models, and plans. Selecting a model and blowing it up with verbal cues to immersive size, the user shares it with a life-size colleague who materializes in a pixelated form before our eyes, calling in and “ready to join the meeting.” BIG has debuted this new tool at its curated exhibition, FORMGIVING – An Architectural Future History from Big Bang to Singularity, at the Danish Architecture Center in Copenhagen. Amid the exhibition of 71 BIG projects currently on the drawing boards, representing the firm’s active proposals for the future, Hyperform exists towards the end of the exhibition's “timeline”—near the top of the staircase near “singularity”—as the software represents the step beyond perceiving mere reality, going beyond into creating new realities—digital ones.
OCEANIX and BIG unveil a floating city of the future at the United Nations
The UN has just unveiled a floating city. Or, at least a framework for how floating cities will be built. Throughout the 2010s, a certain set of statistics found their way into every article about urbanism. You know them. They said that a certain percent of people would live in cities by a certain year; “68% of the world's population projected to live in urban areas by 2050,” according to a recent UN statistic. However, it’s barely the 2010s anymore! The new hot stat for the 2020s was used today by the UN to switch gears and justify exploring the possibility of building floating cities:
By 2030, approximately 60 percent of the world’s population will live in cities that are exposed to grave economic, social, and environmental pressures. Further, approximately 90 percent of the largest global cities are vulnerable to rising sea levels. Out of the world’s 22 megacities with a population of more than 10 million, 15 are located along the ocean’s coasts.
Serious stuff, all discussed at today’s high-level round table in New York hosted by UN-Habitat, the UN’s coalition on affordable and sustainable housing, along with the MIT Center for Ocean Engineering, the Explorers Club, and OCEANIX, a group investing in floating cities on this new marine frontier. Bjarke Ingels of BIG—architects of the "Dryline" around lower Manhattan—unveiled his design for a prototypical floating city today, which would be made out of mass timber and bamboo. This proposal would be “flood proof, earthquake-proof, and tsunami-proof,” according to Marc Collins Chen, co-Founder and CEO of OCEANIX. The renderings show a series of modular hexagonal islands with a productive landscape, where bamboo grown on the “islands” could be used to make glulam beams. BIG envisions the cities as zero-waste, energy-positive and self-sustaining. The necessary food to feed the population would be grown on the islands. BIG has put toether a kit of parts for each part of the man-made ecosystem: a food kit of parts, a waste kit of parts. Each island would be prefabricated onshore and towed to its location in the archipelago. What would living on one of these islands be like? "All of the aspects of human life would be accommodated," according to Ingels. They would dedicate seven islands to public life, including a spiritual center, a cultural center, and a recreation center. "It won't be like Waterworld. Its another form of human habitat that can grow with its success." Oceanix City, as it is called, features mid-rise housing around a shared, green public space where agriculture and recreation co-exist. Underground greenhouses are embedded in the “hull” of the floating city, while in the sky, drones would buzz by with abandon. The systems on each city would be connected, where waste, food, water, and mobility are connected. Because the cities are towable, they can be moved in the event of a weather event. Land reclamation (creating new land by pouring sand in the ocean) is no longer seen as sustainable, as it uses precious sand resources and causes coastal areas to lose protective wetlands and mangroves. Could floating cities be the way forward for expanding our cities as we deal with the consequences of climate change and sea-level rise? According to the coalition, “Sustainable Floating Cities offer a clean slate to rethink how we build, live, work, and play…They are about building a thriving community of people who care about the planet and every life form on it.” Doesn't this sound a lot like the Seasteading Institute, the infamous group of libertarian utopianists who want to break away from land and society altogether? For Collins, his floating infrastructure is less ideological, and more about infrastructure technology. These floating cities would be positioned near protected coastal areas, less ocean-faring pirate states and more extensions of areas threatened by rising sea levels. "These cities have to be accessible to everyone. We can't build broad support for this without populist thinking," said Richard Wiese, the president of the Explorers Club. The first prototypes will start small, even though they are thinking big. The 4.5-acre pods will house 300 people, while the goal is to scale the system by repeating the unit until the city can hold 10,000 people. Can floating cities be more sustainable and affordable than building on land? Would they only be for the rich? Would they be self-sufficient? Would they prevent climate gentrification and curb climate migration? Or, as has been the case in the past, will the idea prove too expensive to actually build?
ASLA-NY announces its 2019 Design Award winners
The New York chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA-NY) has announced its 2019 Design Award recipients, highlighting exemplary landscape projects from New York–based firms. The projects span a wide breadth, from the ever-popular industrial waterfront regeneration schemes, to mixed-use commercial developments, to residential suburban landscapes. This year, one Award of Excellence, 14 Honor awards, and 17 Merit awards were handed out. All of the winners will be fêted at an awards ceremony held at the Center for Architecture in lower Manhattan on April 11. Following that, all of the winning projects will be put on display in the Center through April as part of World Landscape Architecture Month. 2019 Award of Excellence James Corner Field Operations (JCFO) Domino Park Brooklyn, New York The revitalization of the 160-year-old industrial Williamsburg waterfront by JCFO deftly weaves the site’s history together with the park’s programming while simultaneously protecting it from future floods. The shoreline of the SHoP-master planned Domino Sugar Factory development is intended to draw in the greater community while serving as an amenity space for the adjacent residential and office towers. The park utilizes remnant pieces of the sugar refinery to line its Artifact Walk, including screw conveyors, signs, four 36-foot-tall syrup tanks, and 21 of the refinery’s original columns. A line of repurposed gantry cranes forms the basis of an elevated walkway and the roof of chef Danny Meyer’s Tacocina stand. By greening the coast and breaking up the hardscape that lined the esplanade previously, JCFO has also provided Williamsburg with another line of defense from natural disasters. Honor Awards CIVITAS + W Architecture and Landscape Architecture Julian B Lane River Center and Park Dirtworks Landscape Architecture Resilient Dunescape Future Green Studio Sections of the Anthropocene LaGuardia Design Group Bridgehampton Sculpture Garden HIP Landscape Architecture The Art of Collaboration: Bringing Landscape Architecture into the Classroom Studio Hollander Design Landscape Architects Dune House Hollander Design Landscape Architects Topping Farm Renee Byers Landscape Architect Hillside Haven SCAPE First Avenue Water Plaza SCAPE Public Sediment for Alameda Creek Jungles Studio, in collaboration with SiteWorks Landscape Architecture The Ford Foundation Center for Social Justice SWA/Balsley + WEISS/MANFREDI Hunter’s Point South Waterfront Park Phase II SWA/Balsley Naftzger Park Terrain NYC Landscape Architecture No Name Inlet at Greenpoint Merit Awards BIG-Bjarke Ingels Group Islais Hyper-Creek Doyle Herman Design Associates Ecological Connection Future Green Studio Brooklyn Children’s Museum Joanna Pertz Landscape Architecture Campos Plaza, NYCHA Housing Complex Joanna Pertz Landscape Architecture Stuart’s Garden LaGuardia Design Group A River Runs Through It Mathews Nielsen Landscape Architects Freeman Plaza NYC Parks Playground 52 RAFT Landscape Architecture Queens Boulevard Urban Design Plan Renee Byers Landscape Architect Village Sanctuary Sawyer|Berson Residences in Bridgehampton Sawyer|Berson Residence on Sagg Pond SCAPE Madison Avenue Plaza Steven Yavanian Landscape Architecture Dumbo Courtyard Terrain NYC Landscape Architecture Newswalk Entry Garden Terrain Work Broadway Bouquet W Architecture and Landscape Architecture Chouteau Greenway - The Valley Beeline
BIG reveals a circular second draft for the Oakland A's stadium
Bjarke Ingels has gone back to the drawing board and released a revised version of the Oakland Athletics’ potential new home stadium. The new renderings come three weeks after plans surfaced for an aerial gondola that would link the waterfront ballpark at Howard Terminal to the larger Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) system. Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) is working with executive architect Gensler and landscape architect James Corner Field Operations for the site’s green spaces. Rather than a walled-off compound, BIG has envisioned a public-facing, mixed-use “ballpark district” in the vein of Boston’s Fenway Center, or Colorado’s Coors Field–adjacent West Lot. The scheme is projected to bring housing, a business campus, retail, and recreational areas to the waterfront site. The original scheme that BIG unveiled for the stadium last November was centered around a square ballpark topped with an occupiable green “ring” roof. Triangular housing clusters reminiscent of the firm’s Via 57 West would have been positioned at the stadium’s corners, and, judging from the renderings, a playground would have been located en route to the ballpark’s entrance. The diamond-shaped plan received mixed reviews from the public and elected officials. In an open letter sent out Monday, the A’s president Dave Kaval laid out the benefits of the new, softer scheme. Namely, BIG has opened up views of the nearby waterfront while creating a “softer” approach to the stadium. The surrounding towers, some of them up to 20 stories tall, have been reconfigured into more of a “stadium seating” arrangement and would slope down to face both the ballpark and the adjacent waterfront. Though the shape has changed, the airy, striated facade of the 34,000-seat stadium will remain. As part of the A’s initiative to build on the site, the team has partnered with the West Oakland Environmental Indicators Project, a local environmental justice group, and will be presenting the West Oakland Environmental Justice bill to the state legislature. Howard Terminal, the location of the potential stadium, is currently a brownfield site with an industrial past, and soil and groundwater remediation will need to be completed before the A’s can break ground. The team is aiming to begin construction in 2021 and open the park by 2024 but is still working to purchase the site from Alameda County and the city of Oakland.
BIG proposes gondola to connect Oakland A's stadium to public transit
Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) has unveiled renderings for a proposed gondola line that could link downtown Oakland, California, with the firm’s proposed baseball stadium development for the Oakland Athletics on Howard Terminal. The proposed gondola line would bridge a 1.3-mile gap in transit access between the Bay Area Regional Transit (BART) system that stops in downtown Oakland and Jack London Square, a site adjacent to the new development. The link is projected to serve up to 6,000 individuals per hour and will take roughly three minutes to make the trip. The proposal has come to light as the A's and BIG work to assuage local stadium-related concerns, which include lack of transit access to the site and preservation issues for the existing Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum, which will be effectively torn down for the project. The new renderings show a conventional gondola system running above the streets of Downtown Oakland. The elevated line will ferry passengers above the street and between the buildings that line the route while picking up and dropping off at raised stations with curved metal and wood walls. Gondolas are having a bit of a moment in American transit planning circles, as two efforts are lifting off in Los Angeles and in other cities. In L.A., a recent proposal to build a gondola line linking the city’s Union Station with Dodger Stadium has gained momentum. A second proposal to build a gondola line to connect various parts of the city to the Hollywood Sign has also gained notoriety as local officials move to accommodate a recent uptick in foot traffic to the remote mountainside sign. Plans for the Oakland gondola are being developed in tandem with the stadium proposal, which calls for new residential, commercial, and cultural programs around the baseball stadium. If all goes according to plan, the new stadium and gondola line could be up and running as soon as 2023.
BIG shows off its new full-block office in DUMBO
Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) has completed its move to Brooklyn, setting up shop in a new 50,000-square-foot office space only a stone’s throw from the Brooklyn Bridge. BIG has consolidated its 250-person office onto a single full-block floor near the top of 45 Main Street in DUMBO. Designed by BIG’s in-house interiors team, the office is full of furniture and lighting fixtures from the Danish design firm and frequent BIG collaborator KiBiSi. The move to a larger office meant that the studio was able to quadruple the space allocated to its two fabrication and assembly spaces. Completed pieces can then move to an extra-height, skylight-lit room for displaying large-scale models and mockup furniture. A gallery on the south side of the floor connects the office’s eastern and western wings. The chairs inside of the glass-enclosed conference room are color-coded in reference to the studio’s monograph Hot to Cold and range from mild to vibrant, a flourish repeated in the perimeter-lining bookshelves. Rounding out the new office’s perks is a private roof deck that the studio can use for events and conference meetings, which is separate from the building's 9,500-square-foot green roof designed by James Corner Field Operations.
Let's kick it: Here are the top sports architecture stories of 2018
Is the United States becoming more serious about soccer? We think we have evidence to say that it is. AN’s most popular sports stories of 2018 center around the world’s greatest sport, telling us that this year’s uptick of soccer-related architecture news signals a newfound appreciation for the game in our country. Read on for several developments you should pay attention to, and other stories about why sustainable stadium design is also on the rise. David Beckham’s Miami soccer village reveals Arquitectonica’s designs Miami is set to receive its first Major League Soccer (MLS) team, backed by soccer superstar David Beckham who plans to build a 73-acre campus for the city called “Miami Freedom Park.” Arquitectonica revealed new renderings of the sports village, complete with a sweeping, 25,000-seat soccer stadium. In November, local residents voted to approve the project and its projected location on the city-owned Melreese Country Club golf course, meaning Beckham’s vision is one step closer to breaking ground. Nashville’s new $2 million soccer stadium takes shape In December 2016, MLS announced a major club expansion to four U.S. cities including Nashville, Tennessee. Though the southern city wasn’t sure it’d be awarded a new team, plans for a multimillion-dollar stadium project had been in the works for over a year. This February, HOK released its first renderings of the new stadium, which will be constructed inside the Fairgrounds, home of the Tennessee State Fair. Selecting the central site was a contentious process throughout 2017 when a lawsuit was filed citing the city had violated its charter by proposing the project on public grounds. 2026 World Cup preview: Which U.S. cities will host? As Qatar preps for the 2022 World Cup, the United States is on deck to host the 2026 games alongside Canada and Mexico. That’s exciting news for a country whose national team rarely makes it into the World Cup lineup—the joint bid automatically ensures us a spot. But what’s not yet official are the 10 cities that will host events. We know that 60 of the 80 planned matches will be played in the U.S., including those from the quarterfinals onwards, but currently, 17 cities are still in the running. Which top towns, along with their state-of-the-art stadiums (which are an integral part of the individual bid), will make the cut? We’ve listed all the contenders here from Atlanta’s new Mercedes Benz Stadium by HOK (host of the 2019 Super Bowl) to the classic Rose Bowl in Los Angeles. Naturally-ventilated Louis Armstrong Stadium debuts at US Open Ahead of this September’s US Open, the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center finished a five-year, $600 million renovation project of its campus in Flushing, Queens, New York. The massive update included the buildout of the new Louis Armstrong Stadium, the world’s first naturally ventilated tennis arena with a retractable roof. Designed by Detroit-based firm Rossetti, the 14,000-seat stadium replaces the former Louis Armstrong Stadium, which was demolished after the 2016 championship. The new structure features the same stacked seating style as its predecessor but serves up extra sustainability with the exterior overlapping terracotta louvers that act as horizontal window blinds. New home of the Texas Rangers has a climate-controlling, retractable roof HKS has designed a new 41,000-seat baseball stadium for the Texas Rangers in Arlington, Texas, set to replace the old Globe Life Park in 2020. The aptly named Globe Life Field will be a glass- and brick-clad structure featuring new climate-controlling infrastructure and a retractable roof. HKS’s design for the 1.7 million-square-foot ballpark was inspired by the vernacular style of Texas farmhouse porches. BIG unveils designs for new Oakland A’s stadium featuring a rooftop park Late this November, Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) and the Oakland Athletics unveiled plans for a new baseball park and mixed-use campus in Oakland, California. Complete with a literally diamond-shaped stadium, the project is being pitched as a double-play for the city. It will feature an open and accessible landscape situated within Oakland’s underutilized Howard Terminal and will also include housing, recreational spots, and a business hub. Gensler and James Corner Field Operations will work alongside BIG to build out the mega-green space by 2021.
BIG unveils designs for new Oakland A's stadium featuring a rooftop park
Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) and the Oakland Athletics have unveiled designs for a transformative scheme that would bring a new baseball park, housing, recreational areas, and a business campus to the city. As one might expect, the project is being pitched as a double-play. First, the project team aims to create a new professional baseball park on Howard Terminal. The scheme would include an unspecified number of new housing units organized into a collection of wedge-shaped towers surrounding the ballpark. The new district would offer generous pedestrian-oriented areas, including bay-facing wharves and a terraced rooftop park. The San Francisco Chronicle reported that the design of the new ballpark emulates turn-of-the-century baseball diamond designs, including the one found at Shibe Park in Philadelphia, where the A’s once played. Gensler has signed on as executive architect for the project while James Corner Field Operations will be providing landscape architecture designs for the scheme. Dave Kaval, A’s president and a major force behind the project, told The Chronicle, “Instead of a ballpark that sits like a fortress, this will be open and accessible to the community at all times.” Under the proposed plan, the A’s current stadium, the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum, would receive a buzz cut as it is converted into a sunken amphitheater situated at the heart of a new municipal park. The proposed park would include the adaptive reuse of the Oracle Arena, which is currently used by the Golden State Warriors basketball team but will become vacant when they move to San Francisco for the Manica Architecture and Gensler–designed Chase Arena next year. The proposed park will be ringed with new uses, including mixed-use housing, a tech campus, a business park, a “science and technology university,” and other job creation- and community-focused areas.
Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf referred to the plan as “the right project, in the right neighborhood, and at the right price to our taxpayers” in a statement.
The A’s are currently attempting to work out a deal for use of the Coliseum, including purchasing the complex outright for $135 million. A project timeline has not been finalized, but Kaval has indicated a desire to have the park open for the 2021 season.
BIG completes a curvaceous school for WeWork
Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) has finished work on their first elementary school for coworking giant WeWork, continuing the company’s journey into education (and eventually neighborhood planning). WeGrow, what BIG describes as a “10,000-square-foot learning universe," resides inside of WeWork’s Manhattan headquarters in Chelsea and serves three- to nine-year-old children. What started out with a test class of only seven students has expanded into a full-fledged school, and WeGrow is already taking applications for the 2019 academic year. From the newly-released final images of the space, it appears that BIG pulled back from the more industrial look proposed in the renderings revealed last November. The completed WeGrow space is full of soft, biomorphic forms with rounded edges, and clad in soft materials, usually felt. Instead of miming traditional classrooms, BIG has broken the school’s programming up into what it’s termed a “learning landscape.” That includes four open classrooms, workshop and community spaces, an art studio, music room, and several play areas across a mostly-open floor plate. “Children realize they have agency when design is less prescriptive and more intuitive,” wrote Bjarke Ingels in a statement. “We don't have to tell kids how to use the space and every interpretation of how they use the space is good.” To that end, much of the space has been designed to accommodate the whims and needs of young children. Most of the partitions are made from three tiers of shelving, each adjusted to the arm height of the three age groups of students. Those low-lying shelves have the added benefit of letting in natural light and allowing teachers to keep track of all of their students across the floor. Various activity spaces across the school encourage students to explore and play in different environments that evoke the outdoors. Felt clouds mounted on the ceiling are lit by special bulbs from Ketra that change color and intensity based on the time of day and the blob-like plywood enclosures provide students with elevated vantage points and private nooks. Each of the school’s “learning stations” features furniture scaled to fit both adults and children, and a teacher-parent-student lobby incorporates seating meant to accommodate all ages. That includes an enormous felt “brain puzzle” seating system that can be taken apart and rearranged as needed, or just for fun. According to WeWork’s CEO Adam Neumann, the ultimate goal is to have a WeGrow integrated in every WeWork. That would certainly tie into the company’s ambitious goal of offering services at every stage of a customer’s life.
BIG completes affordable housing complex in Copenhagen
Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) has recently completed work an affordable housing project in the firm's hometown of Copenhagen, Denmark. The project is known by the name of its neighborhood, Dortheavej, a largely industrial area in the northwestern part of the city with buildings from the early 20th century. The 66-unit complex was designed for the nonprofit Lejerbo, a local organization that is trying to get high-profile architects to design affordable housing. The design used modular construction to create a repetitive facade where every-other unit punches out to create small balconies for the unit above. The checkerboard facade is clad in glass and loose wood slats to create an organic, almost rustic, look and feel. The stacked housing modules create a gently-bending wall that frames a plaza to one side of the building. Punches through the building on the ground level allow passage through the relatively narrow profile. The units range in size from 645 to 1237 square feet. "The prefabricated elements are stacked in a way that allows every second module an extra meter of room height, making the kitchen-living areas unusually spacious," Bjarke Ingels said in a statement. The 73,000-square-foot building had a price tag of approximately $9.8 million.
Bjarke Ingels Group designs a new home for Noma
Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) has designed a new home for one of the most critically acclaimed restaurants in the world: noma. The Danish eatery moved into their new digs earlier this year, leaving their old home in the Strandgade neighborhood of Copenhagen, Denmark, to the city's Christiania area. Christiania is Copenhagen's "hippie town," a former military base that was colonized by squatters in the 1970s, became a sort of lawless city-in-a-city where drugs were available at street stalls, and is now a mix of informal settlements and super-lux restaurants. The new noma is in a refurbished warehouse that was once used by the Royal Danish Navy and has been re-styled with a Scandi-chic interior for sampling avant-garde takes on Nordic cuisine. The restaurant is split across a variety of little buildings, each assigned a specific purpose (arrival, wine selection, etc.) and all arranged around the kitchen. The arrangement is meant to turn a visit to the restaurant into a culinary experience, one where you can visit the garden that grew the herbs on your plate and you can poke around the science experiments that might show up on the menu next year. The restaurant's garden, test kitchen, and bakery are all on-site along with fermentation labs, fish tanks, terrarium, and an ant farm. Outback Steakhouse this is not. Lest it all become too highfalutin, the interiors are lined with humble, local materials like exposed wood and salvaged brick. A greenhouse is light and unassuming, bordering even on utilitarian, and the overall aesthetic hews more closely to the streamlined humanism of Alvar Aalto than the flash and "hedonism" that other BIG projects are known for. The new location opened in Feburary, 2018, and is now available for reservations.
BIG's undulating homage to Habitat 67 wins approval in Toronto
Only a few days after BIG’s snaking Serpentine Pavilion was fully installed in Toronto, King Street West, the stacked housing development sited directly behind the pavilion, received official approval and is set to begin sales shortly. The full-block King Street West, developed by BIG’s frequent Canadian collaborators Westbank (also the owner of the aforementioned pavilion), was reportedly inspired in both form and spirit by Moshe Safdie’s experimental Habitat 67 in Montreal. Similar to the adjacent pavilion, the 750,000-square-foot project will rise in stepped, stacked boxes and invoke a pixelated effect—an effect that extends even to the cladding, thanks to the glass bricks that will be used for the facade. Each concrete cube has been extruded and set back to terrace space and open up lighting for residents, as well as give each unit its own unique identity. Much like Habitat 67 or BIG’s own “self-contained neighborhood," the 8 House in Copenhagen, the aim was to lend each unit the feeling of being its own standalone home. "With King Street West, we wanted to find an alternative to the tower and podium you see a lot of in Toronto and revisit some of Safdie's revolutionary ideas,” said Bjarke Ingels in a press release, “but rather than a utopian experiment on an island, have it nested into the heart of the city. It would be strange if one of the most diverse cities in the world had the most homogenous architecture." King Street West will incorporate the site’s existing century-old brick buildings and convert them into a mix of office and retail space. The peaks-and-valleys approach BIG took to the development’s massing extends to the underside, as the building rises like the entrance to a cavern at the bottom, opening up to what BIG has described as a “maze-like” courtyard within. The “mountainous” portions of the project will frame the interior landscaping at ground-level, which comes courtesy of the Toronto-based landscape architects Public Work. The project had been under consideration by the Toronto city government for the last two-and-a-half years, as the King West neighborhood is the meeting point of Toronto’s downtown skyscrapers and shorter brick buildings. Several converted factories and warehouses sit on the same block as King Street West, and the development was approved only after BIG was able to scale its “village” down to a contextual size. No estimated completion date for King Street West has been announced yet.
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Diamondbacks 2019 schedule released: Red Sox visit for home opener
Arizona Diamondbacks Stories
By Arizona Sports | August 22, 2018 at 9:33 am
UPDATED: August 22, 2018 at 3:16 pm
(AP photos)
The Arizona Diamondbacks will open their 2019 season on the road with a four-game series against the Los Angeles Dodgers, roll through San Diego for three games against the Padres and then debut at Chase Field with a three-game weekend series against the Boston Red Sox.
The D-backs released their 2019 schedule on Wednesday, which revealed they will play at Dodger Stadium on March 28, Opening Day.
They will make their debut in Phoenix on Friday, April 5, for a showdown with the American League powerhouse Red Sox and former Arizona slugger J.D. Martinez.
It’s just the second time Boston has visited Chase Field. The Red Sox’s first and last visit to the desert came in 2007.
Quirky ninth allows D-backs to walk off Angels on Pollock's sac-bunt
D-backs reporter gets drenched by Souza's cooler during interview
Goldschmidt, Peralta pacing D-backs heading into final stretch
Arizona’s schedule also features a homestand from April 26-May 1 that features a three-game set against the Chicago Cubs (April 26-28) followed by a two-games series facing the New York Yankees (April 30-May 1).
A first of two 10-game road trips in 2019 takes the D-backs through Atlanta, Chicago (to play the Cubs), and Pittsburgh from April 16-25. The second is an East Coast trek through Toronto, Philadelphia and Washington from June 7-16.
The longest homestand for the Diamondbacks begins May 8 and runs through May 19. Arizona will host the Atlanta Braves for four games, the Pittsburgh Pirates for three and then, after a day off, the San Francisco Giants for three more.
The 2019 @MLB schedule is out.
Your #Dbacks will open on the road before coming home to host the Red Sox for the first time since 2007.
Oh yeah, the Yankees are coming to town too: https://t.co/Xdk0erfV5C
If you don’t have them already: https://t.co/1mEXtkoSXK pic.twitter.com/4wbYloTWjh
— Arizona Diamondbacks (@Dbacks) August 22, 2018
Follow @AZSports
D-backs Interviews and Segments
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A Special Invitation to our New Master Masons
The Expectations Of The Millennial
Furthering Your Masonic Education
Freemasonry is a very personal journey, it is not casual or “drive through”, it is, on the contrary, a sincere journey of in-depth search and discover. If the directions and signs along the road are carefully observed and interpreted, the traveller will eventually be lead to discover the plan for a moral and useful life: “To raise a super-structure perfect in its parts and honourable to the builder.”
To realize the benefit of such a journey, the traveler must invest considerable time and thought. The objective of Ashlar College of Freemasonry (ACF) is to offer the Brethren of this jurisdiction an opportunity to engage in a program of Masonic Enrichment through research curriculum of written papers, suggested readings, and personal submissions of assigned topics. An appropriate allegorical summary for such a study program might be one from G. Hopkins, a researcher of some time ago:-
In a country rich in gold, observant wayfarers may find nuggets along their path, but only systematic mining will provide the currency of nations.
Constitutions.
1 The College shall be called the Ashlar College of Freemasonry [ACF]. It shall be under the aegis of the Grand Lodge of British Columbia and Yukon. Annually the ACF shall apply to the Grand Lodge for a license to work.
The purpose of the ACF is to offer brethren of the jurisdiction the acquisition through directed study an in-depth understanding of Freemasonry and the messages therein. It gives opportunity to explore Masonic subjects to the interested brother and encourages in-depth study which will develop a student to share his knowledge with others.
The Diploma program is a three level course, each level (year) being divided into two semesters, to a maximum of 18 units of study.
The administrator sends course work to the student. An adjudicator is assigned to the course. Assignments are submitted to the Adjudicator for discussion. The adjudicator informs the administrator of a successful completion of the assignment, who then delivers the next coursework to the student.
The number of members of the Board shall consist of no less than five (5) well-skilled brethren. A quorum of the Board shall consist of at least three (3) – Chairman, and/or vice Chairman plus two others. The Grand Master shall be an ex-officio member of the Board.
The Board will consist of a Chair, Vice Chair, Secretary, Treasurer, and one other. The Dean of the College will not be a member of the Board, but will be answerable to the Board on his work. The Dean shall also be known as the Administrator.
Duties of the Board will be to:
to hold an annual meeting
regularly check the material of the curriculum
receive annual financial statements of the College from the Treasurer
make recommendations for the improvement of the work of the College
advise the administration (Dean and Bursar) of the College
oversee the running of the College
The Board shall meet a minimum of once a year, which will be the day before the Annual Communication of Grand Lodge, and which will be the annual meeting of the College. The Chair, or if unable, the Vice Chair, shall call meetings.
The Grand Master shall appoint all Directors of the Board annually – {R50a}. The election of the Chair, Vice Chair, Secretary, and Treasurer will be conducted by the Board Members. A term shall be from completion of one Grand Lodge to the completion of the next year’s Grand Lodge.All Board members may be elected to a maximum of 5 years [After the first year of appointment by the Grand Master, the five members will decide who will be appointed for one year, two years, three years, four years and five years of tenure. Subsequently all appointed shall be for 5 year tenures.]
Under section R52a of the Grand Lodge of British Columbia and Yukon Constitution, upon the issuance of a license by the Grand Master, it shall be the responsibility of the Board to display the license at all meetings of the Board. The Chair of the Board shall submit to Grand Lodge in the month of January a list of Board members with the name(s) of proposed members to become a Board member for the following year.
A report of the work of the College will be submitted at Grand Lodge Annual Communication to be submitted to the Office of the Grand Secretary no later than May 15th of each year.
At the Annual Communication of Grand Lodge, all certificates and diplomas recognizing the successful completion of coursework shall be presented.
On the satisfactory completion of the 1st ‘year’ curriculum, a certificate will be presented.
At the end of satisfactory completion of the 1st and 2nd ‘years’ curricula, a diploma shall be presented titled Associate of Ashlar College of Freemasonry.
At the satisfactory completion of the full curricula, a diploma shall be presented titled Fellow of Ashlar College of Freemasonry.
If certificates and diplomas cannot be presented to successful students at Grand Lodge, the DDGM of the district from which the brother comes, shall present certificates and diplomas as soon after Grand Lodge as is possible.
The Letters AACF (associate of Ashlar College of Freemasonry) [completion of two levels] and FACF (Fellow of Ashlar College of Freemasonry)[completion of three levels] may be used after the brother’s name in all Masonic settings in our Grand Jurisdiction.
The Administrator shall report regularly to the Board on such matters as the number of registered students, the progress of each student, and any other matters, which may be deemed of importance and of interest to the Board.
The Administrator shall create a register of students, and record the coursework started and completed by the students.
Any Master Mason in good standing with his lodge, currently on the register of the Grand Lodge of British Columbia and Yukon, may apply to commence the coursework of the ACF.
16.a Any Masons from outside the jurisdiction, may, after proof of membership to a recognized jurisdiction and lodge, register with the College. Only courses of a general nature for masons not of this jurisdiction will be forwarded to the registrant. (2013).
The Administrator will receive all fees for the coursework, supply all course work to the students and receive assignments. He shall pass assignments to the adjudicator initially. Subsequently the student and adjudicator will communicate directly with each other until the coursework is completed.
The fees shall be assessed each year by the Board
All funds received shall be passed to the Bursar for deposit in a financial institution holding coverage under the umbrella of C.D.I.C.
Evaluation of the papers and responses to coursework by the adjudicator shall be the property of the student. The Administrator shall pass further assignments once he has received information of the completion of the last course taken.
Any TWO courses under Level 3 may be exchanged with “Topics of Interest” by the student after having obtained prior agreement with the Administrator
The total coursework is 18 courses. The Student’s name remains on the roll of the College until he decides otherwise.
Changes to the By-laws may be made at any meeting of the Board. All members of the Board must have at least one month (30 days) notice of any proposed changes to the By-Laws.
Dated this 18th day of June, 2011.
Updated 22nd June, 2013.
Updated June 2014.
©2019 - Ashlar College of Freemasonry
Designed by ADG Media
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The view from across the Atlantic
Russia and the West
Analysis 24 May 2013 24 May 2013
Congress Seeks More Iran Sanctions, Frustrates Diplomatic Efforts
Unlike the president, American lawmakers believe that they should put more pressure on Iran.
Daniel DePetris
International Security Analyst
General Martin E. Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, speaks with Republican senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina in Washington DC, February 7 (Department of Defense/Chad J. McNeeley)
With multilateral negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program once again at a standstill, the United States Congress has launched a renewed push to target Iranian financial institutions and cut their access to international markets.
The House of Representatives and Senate are working on own separate bills that would tighten the economic screws on Tehran for its nuclear noncompliance, a campaign that has the potential to further complicate the Obama Administration’s negotiating strategy.
On May Wednesday, the House Committee on Foreign Affairs proposed one of the toughest pieces of legislation to date on Iran’s nuclear program. The bill, if enacted, would target any foreign bank, company or individual that knowingly conducts commercial trade with an Iranian institution that is under sanctions. Countries that currently import Iranian crude oil will be mandated to decrease the amount they purchase over the next year. And the legislation would put additional sanctions on Iran’s shipping industry in an attempt to obstruct the country’s ability to ship goods.
In other words, the House proposal would deny much of Iran’s economy access to markets, creating a small trade embargo.
The Senate version would make it far more difficult for Iran to acquire euros from overseas banks, the currency it has used to stabilize its economy as oil exports have dwindled in the last two years. Any foreign bank that conducts a transaction with the Central Bank of Iran in euros would be banned from participating in the American market. The aim is too limit the amount of euros that Iran can accumulate in its foreign exchange reserves while making it incredibly difficult for the Iranian government to access its overseas accounts.
Also on Wednesday, the Senate unanimously adopted legislation put forward by South Carolina Republican Lindsey Graham that urges President Barack Obama to enforce all economic sanctions on Iran while committing the United States to support Israel in the event it chooses to strike Tehran’s nuclear program in self-defense.
While continuing to weaken Iran’s economic health is undoubtedly the main objective of the bills, Congress may also have something else in mind. By passing legislation with a bipartisan majority, the sanctions would limit President Obama’s diplomatic maneuverability.
Unconditional and patient diplomacy with Iran over the nuclear issue has never been a particularly popular policy in Congress with some members of the president’s own party often questioning whether the Iranians are truly interested in a negotiated outcome. Pushing sanctions bills against Iran has also been a reliable way for congressmen and senators to attract media attention and elevate their profiles. While the two parties are almost incapable of finding compromise on any other issue, levying more pressure on Iran is about the only thing Democrats and Republicans can agree to these days.
Secretary of State John Kerry pleaded with lawmakers earlier this year to hold off on more Iran sanctions, saying that the administration’s diplomatic strategy needed to run its course before more punitive measures were introduced. His words do not appear to have resonated with the vast majority of legislators.
As far as the administration and its allies are concerned, diplomacy is the one option that can permanently end Iran’s nuclear weapons ambitions. Hundreds of members of the House and the Senate believe that Iran will not budge unless it recognizes that its present course will only aggravate its people’s economic suffering and make a preemptive military strike more likely in the months ahead.
Italy’s Economy Minister Promises Housing, Labor Tax Cuts
China Seen Persuading North Korea to Resume Nuclear Talks
© 2019 Atlantic Sentinel. All rights reserved.
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Doubling battery power of consumer electronics
November 28, 2016 /in Industrial News, News Center /by DPC
New lithium metal batteries could make smartphones, drones, and electric cars last twice as long.
Rob Matheson | MIT News Office
An MIT spinout is preparing to commercialize a novel rechargable lithium metal battery that offers double the energy capacity of the lithium ion batteries that power many of today’s consumer electronics.
Founded in 2012 by MIT alumnus and former postdoc Qichao Hu ’07, SolidEnergy Systems has developed an “anode-free” lithium metal battery with several material advances that make it twice as energy-dense, yet just as safe and long-lasting as the lithium ion batteries used in smartphones, electric cars, wearables, drones, and other devices.
“With two-times the energy density, we can make a battery half the size, but that still lasts the same amount of time, as a lithium ion battery. Or we can make a battery the same size as a lithium ion battery, but now it will last twice as long,” says Hu, who co-invented the battery at MIT and is now CEO of SolidEnergy.
The battery essentially swaps out a common battery anode material, graphite, for very thin, high-energy lithium-metal foil, which can hold more ions — and, therefore, provide more energy capacity. Chemical modifications to the electrolyte also make the typically short-lived and volatile lithium metal batteries rechargeable and safer to use. Moreover, the batteries are made using existing lithium ion manufacturing equipment, which makes them scalable.
In October 2015, SolidEnergy demonstrated the first-ever working prototype of a rechargeable lithium metal smartphone battery with double energy density, which earned them more than $12 million from investors. At half the size of the lithium ion battery used in an iPhone 6, it offers 2.0 amp hours, compared with the lithium ion battery’s 1.8 amp hours.
SolidEnergy plans to bring the batteries to smartphones and wearables in early 2017, and to electric cars in 2018. But the first application will be drones, coming this November. “Several customers are using drones and balloons to provide free Internet to the developing world, and to survey for disaster relief,” Hu says. “It’s a very exciting and noble application.”
Putting these new batteries in electric vehicles as well could represent “a huge societal impact,” Hu says: “Industry standard is that electric vehicles need to go at least 200 miles on a single charge. We can make the battery half the size and half the weight, and it will travel the same distance, or we can make it the same size and same weight, and now it will go 400 miles on a single charge.”
Tweaking the “holy grail” of batteries
Researchers have for decades sought to make rechargeable lithium metal batteries, because of their greater energy capacity, but to no avail. “It is kind of the holy grail for batteries,” Hu says.
Lithium metal, for one, reacts poorly with the battery’s electrolyte — a liquid that conducts ions between the cathode (positive electrode) and the anode (negative electrode) — and forms compounds that increase resistance in the battery and reduce cycle life. This reaction also creates mossy lithium metal bumps, called dendrites, on the anode, which lead to short circuits, generating high heat that ignites the flammable electrolyte, and making the batteries generally nonrechargable.
Measures taken to make the batteries safer come at the cost of the battery’s energy performance, such as switching out the liquid electrolyte with a poorly conductive solid polymer electrolyte that must be heated at high temperatures to work, or with an inorganic electrolyte that is difficult to scale up.
While working as a postdoc in the group of MIT professor Donald Sadoway, a well-known battery researcher who has developed several molten salt and liquid metal batteries, Hu helped make several key design and material advancements in lithium metal batteries, which became the foundation of SolidEnergy’s technology.
One innovation was using an ultrathin lithium metal foil for the anode, which is about one-fifth the thickness of a traditional lithium metal anode, and several times thinner and lighter than traditional graphite, carbon, or silicon anodes. That shrunk the battery size by half.
But there was still a major setback: The battery only worked at 80 degrees Celsius or higher. “That was a showstopper,” Hu says. “If the battery doesn’t work at room temperature, then the commercial applications are limited.”
So Hu developed a solid and liquid hybrid electrolyte solution. He coated the lithium metal foil with a thin solid electrolyte that doesn’t need to be heated to function. He also created a novel quasi-ionic liquid electrolyte that isn’t flammable, and has additional chemical modifications to the separator and cell design to stop it from negatively reacting with the lithium metal.
The end result was a battery with energy-capacity perks of lithium metal batteries, but with the safety and longevity features of lithium ion batteries that can operate at room temperature. “Combining the solid coating and new high-efficiency ionic liquid materials was the basis for SolidEnergy on the technology side,” Hu says.
On the business side, Hu frequented the Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship to gain valuable insight from mentors and investors. He also enrolled in Course 15.366 (Energy Ventures), where he formed a team to develop a business plan around the new battery.
With their business plan, the team won the first-place prize at the MIT $100K Entrepreneurship Competition’s Accelerator Contest, and was a finalist in the MIT Clean Energy Prize. After that, the team represented MIT at the national Clean Energy Prize competition held at the White House, where they placed second.
In late 2012, Hu was gearing up to launch SolidEnergy, when A123 Systems, the well-known MIT spinout developing advanced lithium ion batteries, filed for bankruptcy. The landscape didn’t look good for battery companies. “I didn’t think my company was doomed, I just thought my company would never even get started,” Hu says.
But this was somewhat of a blessing in disguise: Through Hu’s MIT connections, SolidEnergy was able to use the A123’s then-idle facilities in Waltham — which included dry and clean rooms, and manufacturing equipment — to prototype. When A123 was acquired by Wanxiang Group in 2013, SolidEnergy signed a collaboration agreement to continue using A123’s resources.
At A123, SolidEnergy was forced to prototype with existing lithium ion manufacturing equipment — which, ultimately, led the startup to design novel, but commercially practical, batteries. Battery companies with new material innovations often develop new manufacturing processes around new materials, which are not practical and sometimes not scalable, Hu says. “But we were forced to use materials that can be implemented into the existing manufacturing line,” he says. “By starting with this real-world manufacturing perspective and building real-world batteries, we were able to understand what materials worked in those processes, and then work backwards to design new materials.”
After three years of sharing A123’s space in Waltham, SolidEnergy this month moved its headquarters to a brand new, state-of-the-art pilot facility in Woburn that’s 10 times larger — and “can house the wings of a Boeing 747” Hu says — with aims of ramping up production for their November launch.
SOUECE:Doubling battery power of consumer electronics
ISO9001:2015 Panasonic reveals bendable battery at Ceatec
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Published by Member Reed on 08 Aug 2013
Smiles return to South East employees
Workers in the South East are more confident and satisfied in their roles than they were at the start of the year, indicating a continued strengthening of the labour market.
The REED Local Salary and Market Insight report, which canvassed the attitudes of 1,500 employers and employees across the UK, reveals an increased sense of optimism among the workforce.
The findings come amid a flurry of reports indicating a more positive footing for the jobs market and the wider UK economy.
According to the REED report, the South East is one of the most optimistic areas in the UK, where there is greater confidence in the strength of their local economy and a strong sense of job security.
Just under half of workers in the South East (43%) are confident their region could create jobs and boost the economy compared to 28% nationally, while 81% said they felt secure or very secure in their job. This compares to lower confidence levels in Northern Ireland (76%), Yorkshire and the Humber (72%) and the North East (74%).
In the South East, 43% of workers said they were actively looking for a new role or would start the search in the next 12 months, which was in line with the national average. Job seeking is most prolific among workers in the East of England (50%), London (49%) and Yorkshire and Humber (47%).
Simon Baddeley, regional director at REED, said: “It is encouraging to see this continued upward trend in confidence and satisfaction since the start of the year. The South East is one of the most upbeat areas of the UK and this combined sense of confidence and satisfaction makes for a healthier jobs market.
“Interestingly, our data shows that job security is most keenly felt by middle (77%) and senior management (80%), which is encouraging given this group’s grasp on the health of their organisation. The mood of the workforce is set from the top, so we may see an even more optimistic outlook in the coming months as this attitude filters through UK businesses.”
The survey showed a reduction in the prevalence of employee rewards compared to the start of the year, with 32% receiving a pay rise in the last 12 months, compared to 39% in January. However, the proportion of employees reporting a pay rise has increased slightly in the South East to 41%, bucking the national trend.
Simon Baddeley commented: “It is encouraging to see the prevalence of employee rewards holding firm the South East. Our research found that the majority of UK employers (58%) continue to have concerns about losing talent from their organisations and, as the labour market improves, it’s vital that businesses have the measures in place to attract and retain their talent.”
#London #Economy #Industrials #Employment
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Best Libraries around Schofield Barracks, HI
Aiea Public Library
99-374 Pohai Place
Hours of Operation Monday: 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM Tuesday: 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM Wednesday: 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM Thursday: 1:00 PM to 8:00 PM Friday...
Aina Haina Public Library
5246 Kalanianaole Highway
Library HistoryAina Haina Public Library is one of 51 branch libraries that make up the Hawaii State Public Library System -- the only statewide pu...
Ewa Beach Public Library
91-950 North Road
Schofield Barracks Top Searches
Hawaii Kai Public Library
249 Lunalilo Home Road
Hours of Operation Monday: 12:00 PM to 7:00 PM Tuesday: 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM Wednesday: 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM Thursday: 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM Friday: ...
Hawaii State Library
478 South King Street
Kahuku Public Library
Kahuku, HI
Date Formed: 1989 Major Activities: After School Club - Meets Wednesdays at 1 p.m. for "Mystery Movies" or crafts. Keiki Story Time -...
Kailua Public Library
239 Kuulei Road
Hours Monday, Wednesday, Friday & Saturday: 10:00 AM – 5:00 PM Tuesday & Thursday: 1:00 PM – 8:00 PM Sunday: CLOSED
Kaimuki Public Library
1041 Koko Head Avenue
Kalihi-Palama Public Library
1325 Kalihi Street
Hours of Operation Monday: 1:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. Tuesday: 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Wednesday: 1:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. Thursday: 10:00 a.m. to 5:...
Kaneohe Public Library
Hours of Operation Monday: 10:00 AM to 8:00 PM Tuesday: 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM Wednesday: 10:00 AM to 8:00 PM Thursday: 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM Frida...
Kapaa Public Library
1464 Kuhio Highway
Kapolei Public Library
1020 Manawai Street
Library Hours: M, Th, Fri Sat. 10-5 T, W, 10-8 Sun-Closed
Lanai Public Library
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Lihue Public Library
Lihue, HI
Mission Statement: The mission of the Hawaii State Public Library System is to provide Hawaii's residents, in all walks of life, and at each stage...
Liliha Public Library
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Hours: Monday: 10:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. Tuesday: 10:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. Wednesday: 12:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m. Thursday: 12:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m. Fri...
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Hours Monday: CLOSED Tuesday: 10:00 AM – 5:00 PM Wednesday: 10:00 AM – 5:00 PM Thursday: 12:00 PM – 7:00 PM Friday: 10:00 AM...
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Pearl City Public Library
1138 Waimano Home Road
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Salt Lake - Moanalua Public Library
3225 Salt Lake Boulevard
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Home » Insights » The President-elect and Intellectual Property
The President-elect and Intellectual Property
In Insights, Uncategorized
As election night in the US evolved, the Democratic community slowly started to realise the probability, and later the certainty, that there would be a shift of political parties in the White House.
Trying to assess how this transition of power will affect the world of IP is not an easy task. Policy documents that President-elect Donald Trump released before the election offer little assistance to the person holding the crystal ball. Yet, although it may be difficult to predict what type of IP policies the president-elect will advocate for; like many of his policies it may be easier to predict what he will oppose. In that regard there are two areas where the president-elect’s electioneering rhetoric may offer some insights into his plan for evolving U.S. IP policy during his administration; namely his staunch opposition to legislation supported by his predecessor, President Obama, and his advocacy against foreign nations that he deems to be “ripping off” the American people.
In regard to the first point, there is some evidence to the effect that President-elect Trump could put an end to a renewed push for further patent reform legislations that was supported by his predecessor and the giants of Silicon Valley, and specifically spearheaded by Google. To continue this reasoning we therefore find it necessary to provide a brief background.
The Obama administration set a goal to “increase the quality” of issued patents, which has been eagerly supported by the tech giants. In the eyes of those who supported President Obama’s efforts, by the time he assumed office in January 2009, the U.S. patent system was awash in too many low-quality (i.e., invalid) patents that were being exploited by the so-called “patent trolls” in order to exact ransom-like royalties from companies that rightly feared the costs and uncertainty of U.S. patent litigation. In part an effort to curb such abuses the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act (AIA) was signed into law on September 16, 2011.
Among other things, the AIA made it much easier to challenge the validity of pending and issued patents. For example, the AIA offered additional avenues for third-parties to interfere in prosecution and challenging the validity of issued patents. The AIA specified an extended period for filing third-party submissions, and created new post-grant and inter partes review proceedings to challenge issued patents, without having to file suit in federal court. Further, the amendments to the novelty requirements (35 USC §102) also created more prior art, as it added foreign priority documents as well as public use and public sale outside of the U.S.
From a European practitioners perspective the initial reactions to the changes brought forth by the AIA were almost exclusively positive. The AIA makes the novelty statute much easier to understand, and the changes concerning third party submissions and post grant review further harmonises the US system with the European equivalent.
Much less discussed in Europe was the fact that the combination of the increased ways in which validity can be challenged and this past decade’s bar-raising case law have weakened the position of the patent holder. This of course also affects the value of US patents and thus the benefits of having a US patent.
In addition, President Obama’s selection of Michelle Lee as Director of the USPTO in 2014 – who was a former Deputy General Counsel for Google – did much to further the agenda favoured by the tech giants of Silicon Valley. Ms. Lee put her agenda into effect through both influencing the federal rules being set to implement the provisions of the AIA to make challenging the validity of patents easier and by pushing the USPTO on a path to increase the rigour of the examination process.
Given Mr. Trump’s railings against the recent cosiness between big business and the U.S. federal government and his general distrust of efforts pursued by his predecessor, this could signal that the idea that “increasing patent quality” as the main driver of U.S. patent policy could be coming to an end. Although large scale changes to the U.S. Patent Law are probably not in the near future, there are bills that would have taken Obama-era reforms even further that are likely dead in the water. Most notable are the Innovation Act and the PATENT Act which aimed to increase the requirements on the plaintiff in patent litigation and also shifts the fees to the losing party. The Innovation Act has the support of President Obama and would most probably have been supported by Secretary Clinton.
With Mr. Trump in the White House there is considerable probability that there will be at least a temporary halt in patent reform. Trump will most probably have a different view from that of Obama and Clinton (he is definitely a fan of court proceedings), and also, patent reform is probably very low on his list of priorities. The main backers of further legislative changes were almost lockstep opposition to Mr. Trump’s candidacy. Further, one could of course speculate that President-elect Trump’s advocacy for strong property rights in general could translate to strong support for intellectual property rights as well, meaning he would probably oppose further efforts to weaken the value of U.S. IP rights.
Secondly, strong IP protection could be considered one piece in his platform to increase the competitiveness of the US industry. One of the hallmarks of Mr. Trump’s campaign was his focus on calling out countries, such as China, for what he alleged were unfair practices against the United States. Although not mentioning patents specifically, his campaign website did complain about China’s alleged misappropriation of U.S. trade secrets, stating that he intends to “[u]se every lawful presidential power to remedy trade disputes if China does not stop its illegal activities, including its theft of American trade secrets.” His campaign website also extolled a recent U.S. International Trade Commission study that included “that improved protection of America’s intellectual property in China would produce more than 2 million more jobs right here in the United States.”
If Mr. Trump does intend to make it more difficult for countries that have a lower threshold of protection for IP rights to make their goods available in the U.S. market, increased support for strong patent rights could be one means for doing so. This is further evidence of his likely opposition of any further changes that would make patent rights harder to enforce and easier to challenge, and may even signal a shift away from the driving focus of patent quality during examination proceedings at the USPTO.
To summarise the speculations above, our best guess is that President-elect Trump’s entry into the White House may create a status quo in patent legislation and may signal a shift away from “patent quality” being the driver of USPTO policy. If that is good or bad probably comes down to which side of the table you are on.
Joe Klinicki, Patent Attorney, Condo Roccia Koptiw &
Joacim Lydén, European Patent Attorney & US Patent Agent, Awapatent
Topics: AIA IP patent law United states US
Joacim Lydén
joacim.lyden@awapatent.com
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Lehner pulls out of World Cup, Enroth replaces him on Sweden's roster
By Mike Harrington|Published Fri, Aug 26, 2016 |Updated Tue, Oct 18, 2016
Still working his way back from ankle surgery that prematurely ended his season last March, Sabres goaltender Robin Lehner has pulled out of what expected to be a backup role in net for Team Sweden during next month's World Cup of Hockey.
Lehner will be replaced on the roster by former Sabres netminder Jhonas Enroth, who just signed a free-agent contract earlier this week with the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Team Sweden Rikard Gronborg has reportedly said Lehner's ankle is not 100 percent and that's why he's not playing in the tournament. While that may sound ominous, Lehner has been in Buffalo working out most of the summer and that includes on-ice sessions in HarborCenter.
Sabres general manager Tim Murray released this statement today regarding Lehner:
"As Robin continues to progress during the offseason in his rehab from last season's ankle injury, he felt that it was best to withdraw from Team Sweden for the upcoming World Cup. Robin felt it was important to continue his rehab in Buffalo to prepare for training camp. He has been working out both on and off the ice and we look forward to seeing him on the ice with our team next month."
Henrik Lundqvist of the New York Rangers and Jacob Markstrom of the Vancouver Canucks are Sweden's other two goalies, and it's reasonable to think Lehner would have rated as No. 3 on the Swedes' depth chart. Given that, it's entirely plausible Lehner and the Sabres felt it simply be better for him to stay in Buffalo through training camp and the preseason to prepare for the regular season.
In other news, the Sabres have announced they have again capped season ticket sales at just over 16,000. They said renewal rate from last season was 97 percent.
Mike Harrington – Mike Harrington has covered the Sabres, MLB, the Bisons, college basketball and high schools since joining The News in 1987. He is a National Baseball Hall of Fame voter, a 2013 inductee into the Buffalo Baseball Hall of Fame and the chairman of the Buffalo chapter of the Professional Hockey Writers Association.
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Name: Paula Cole
Time: 8:00 PM - 10:00 PM EDT
Website: https://rockportmusic.org/paula-cole-2/
Always giving special concerts in her hometown of Rockport, MA, Paula will unveil songs from her forthcoming, new album (due for release in September 2019!). She often shares such smash hits as “I Don’t Want to Wait” and “Where Have All the Cowboys Gone?”
Cole was born and raised in Rockport, Massachusetts, the daughter of an amateur musician and a visual artist. After studying at Berklee College of Music, Cole got her big break opening for Peter Gabriel’s 1992-93 world tour. Record labels soon came calling and Cole found herself in the middle of a rising trend in female-driven rock and pop artists, which came to a head with her starring role in Sarah McLachlan’s Lilith Fair tour. While never reaching the commercial heights of her platinum-selling, Grammy-winning sophomore record This Fire, Cole’s subsequent albums continued to scale artistic heights. Cole’s sound has broadened in recent years, the songwriter delving into jazz, electronica and contemporary pop, but her stunning voice and melodic gifts remain constant. Her most recent album Ballads featured American jazz and roots standards from the early to mid-20th century, honoring such greats as Billie Holiday, Nina Simone, John Coltrane, Bob Dylan, Bessie Smith, Bobbie Gentry, Sarah Vaughan, Miles Davis and Johnny Cash.
Shalin Liu Performance Center
Thursday, July 25, 8 PM
Friday, July 26, 8 PM
(Fees may apply)
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Jacques Attali, publié le 03/06/2019 à 19:34
For at least two centuries, the political battle in most democracies has been between conservatives and progressives. In particular, between those who want to maintain the status quo and those who want to question it; those who favour stability and those who want to shake up the status quo established by previous generations. Naturally, these distinctions are full of nuances in different countries, considering the different history, mentality, geopolitical situation and social divisions of each country.
Today, this divide has become even more complex: should we make a distinction, among the conservatives, the people who want to protect nature? Should the people who want to encourage and accept all types of technological and industrial innovations be considered as supporters of change? It could lead to classifying ecological parties on the right-wing and the supporters of the liberal economy on the left-wing.
Should those who support defending rural territories really be classified on the right-wing? And the defenders of big cities on the left-wing? Should the people who defend the national identity cause necessarily be classified on the right-wing and those who want a more open world on the left-wing? Is secularism, which is at the heart of French identity, not left-wing quest? And is not openness to the world an idea of the proponents of the market economy, which should rather be classified on the right-wing? Finally, is an authoritarian government necessarily more right-wing than left-wing?
It is clear that these concepts are evolving, the analytical grids are converging, new struggles are emerging, which do not overlap with the old ones. And it is increasingly difficult to reduce the political debate to two simple camps: there are conservatives and modernists on both the right-wing and the left-wing.
The policy evolutions have allowed some people to say that the left-right political spectrum divide is dead. Does that mean we have to give up on it? And to think that today’s struggle is in fact between progressives and conservatives, between those who defend the homeland and those who favour mobility.
The distinction between « open » and « closed » is certainly becoming more and more important.
Those who advocate for closure are those who defend an identity, a territory, and a cultural and natural heritage. If we were to follow this criterion, it should lead us to see the emerging coalition between the far right and the ecologists, which does not actually exist almost anywhere. It is therefore not a relevant divide. Because in reality, we cannot defend the environment by closing ourselves off: the climate has no borders; and it is not, for example, because we improve the situation of forests in one country that the situation of the world’s forests will not worsen.
Those who advocate for openness are those who defend receiving goods and people from elsewhere, in exchange for the individual right to mobility. If we were to follow this criterion, we should see an alliance between those who defend the right to receive migrants and those who favour free trade. But this is not an actual thing.
Thus, I do not think the distinction between conservatives and progressives, or between closed and open is still relevant. Or that the left-right divide wing is a thing of the past. It has taken new forms.
Never have inequalities in income, wealth, hope and social mobility been so high. Never has the fight for more social justice been more justified. Justice related to individuals, generations, social groups, and territories. And it is this struggle that brings together those who want to defend the weakest wherever they are, in factories, territories, abroad, or in future generations.
To bring these various concepts together and to find out where the new divide is leading us, it seems to me that we need to make a new distinction between those who think that we should only take care of ourselves and those who believe the best way to take care of ourselves is to take care of others. Between selfishness and altruism. Both perfectly respectable. Both favouring different values. Yet both can turn into unbearable caricatures.
Of course, there may be times when necessary reforms that are neither left or right on the policy spectrum, but are objectively useful to everyone, are delayed for too long by pusillanimous leaders, and lead to putting aside for a time the distinction between left-wing and right-wing. But this can only last for a period of time.
Altruism will prevail if it can convince us that it is also the most intelligent and effective form of selfishness; and that, for example, it is by helping rural areas that we will best defend urban areas; that it is by helping African development that we will best protect the interests of Europeans, and that it is by defending future generations that we will best prepare our own future.
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Tag Archives: Chevron
Posted on August 5, 2015 by carlosdev
Don’t say anything crude.
(2009) Documentary (First Run) Pablo Fajardo, Sting, Judge German Yanez, Kent Robertson, Dr. Adolfo Callejas, Steve Donziger, Ebergeldo Criollo, Alossa Soltani, Joseph Kohn, Maria Garafolo, Sara McMillen, Ricardo Reis Veiga, Diego Larrea, Alejandro Ponce, Rosa Moreno, Amy Goodman, Rafael Correa, Hugo Chavez, Lupita de Heredia, Trudie Styler. Directed by Joe Berlinger
In 1993, lawyers in Ecuador filed a class action lawsuit against Chevron on behalf of 30,000 indigenous dwellers of the Ecuadorian rain forest for damages done by Texaco’s (who were acquired by Chevron in 2001) Lago Agrio oilfield operations. The lawsuit alleged that poorly maintained pipelines and waste disposal pits had infiltrated the water supply, leading to a variety of cancers and other diseases that afflict the people of the region, which is roughly the size of Rhode Island.
The lawsuit dragged on for 18 years, following a change of venue from New York to Ecuador after American courts dismissed the case because they didn’t have proper jurisdiction. This documentary, helmed by Joe Berlinger who has been Oscar nominated and also won Emmy and Peabody awards for his work, followed the case during 2006 and 2007 as the lawsuit drew international attention.
Berlinger admirably allows both sides of the story to air their opinions; certainly his sympathies lie with the plaintiffs as he tends to present more of their point of view, but certainly Chevron cannot complain that he didn’t give them if not equal time at least enough time to present their case. It’s hard to argue with the images that we see of scandalously polluted holes in the ground, children with heartbreaking rashes and illnesses, and the evidence of the cultural destruction of a people who had inhabited the area safely for centuries until the oil companies came along.
Chevron’s argument that Texaco had cleaned up the area that they were involved in before turning over the oilfield to the state-run Petroecuador corporation who, according to Chevron, were responsible for the lion’s share of the environmental destruction is hard to ignore. Berlinger was given access to Chevron executives as well as their legal team and quite frankly they don’t come off as profit-mad monsters. However, the plaintiffs do argue that Texaco wouldn’t have done any cleaning had they not been compelled to after an earlier lawsuit and their argument that Texaco didn’t uphold their share of the agreement is also hard to ignore.
The status of the people affected by the extraction of oil is truly heartbreaking; nobody should have to live in those conditions, particularly considering the biodiversity of the region which has likely been irreparably damaged by the somewhat cavalier safety precautions of all of the oil companies involved. While the documentary does spend some time with the natives, more emphasis is given on the legal teams of both sides which in a sense is justified because as a legal drama this case is compelling, but like most real-life legal dramas, can be kind of boring to watch.
The Ecuadorian courts rendered a decision in 2011, ordering Chevron to pay just under $10 billion in reparations and clean-up costs, a decision upheld by the Ecuadorian supreme court. In turn, Chevron litigated in the United States, alleging that improprieties by the American and Ecuadorian lawyers of the plaintiffs and corruption in the Ecuadorian judicial system had led to a decision that was unjustified. An American court found in favor of Chevron in 2014, a decision that the original plaintiffs are appealing. To date, none of the people affected by the drilling for oil have received a penny in compensation.
Watching Donziger, the lead American lawyer who is somewhat arrogant, it is easy to believe that he behaved improperly, which has been borne out by documentary footage not included in the feature as well as through his own journal entries and internal memos. Sadly, while the cause was just, those who fought for the cause didn’t behave in a manner that reflected the justness of that cause. And to their detriment, Chevron has launched an aggressive course of punitive litigation against the Ecuadorian plaintiffs and their lawyers. It is somewhat ironic that a company that complained that they were being sued because of their deep pockets are now using those deep pockets to go after those who sued them, who are now suing Chevron once again, this time for $113 billion, claiming that Chevron has failed to comply with the original decision.
Chances are the case will continue to churn in the American and international legal systems for years to come, maybe even decades. My gut feeling is that if Chevron ends up paying anything out, it will be much less than what they were initially ordered to pay and if they do pay anything out, most of it will likely go to the lawyers and little will make its way to the Ecuadorian Amazon where people continue to live and die. This is the human cost of our insatiable need for oil and the insatiable greed of those who supply that oil. It’s the kind of tragedy that would have delighted Shakespeare – and turned his stomach.
WHY RENT THIS: Reasonably balanced, allowing both sides to present their points of view. Beautifully shot. Fascinating interviews.
WHY RENT SOMETHING ELSE: Those who love the law may be disgusted by the behavior of lawyers on both sides. The struggle between the lawyers overshadows the plight of the natives.
FAMILY MATTERS: Some adult themes.
TRIVIAL PURSUITS: Following the release of the film, Chevron had the case tried in an American court, claiming fraud and corruption; raw footage from the film, not included in the final cut, was submitted as evidence in the case.
NOTABLE HOME VIDEO FEATURES: Interviews with director Joe Berlinger and activist Trudie Styler, festival and premiere coverage and a resource guide.
BOX OFFICE PERFORMANCE: $185,881 on an unknown production budget.
SITES TO SEE: Netflix (DVD Rental only), iTunes
COMPARISON SHOPPING: You’ve Been Trumped
NEXT: Transit
Posted in DVD Review | Tagged Big Oil, biodiversity, cancer, Chevron, cinema, contamination, Crude, cultural degradation, Documentary, DVD Reviews, ecological disaster, Ecuador, Ecuadorian amazon, Ecuadorian judicial system, Films, First Run Features, Joe Berlinger, lawsuit, legal team, litigation, movies, native population, oil fields, Pablo Fajardo, pollution, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, produced water, Steve Donziger, Sting, Trudie Styler, water contamination | Leave a reply
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Tag Archives: rock and roll
Rock in the Red Zone
Posted on July 10, 2018 by carlosdev
The beauty of music is that it endures no matter the circumstances.
(2014) Documentary (The Orchard) Avi Vaknin, Laura Bialis, Robby Elmaliah, Kubi Oz, Micha Biton, Haim Uliel, Yoav Kutner, Noah Badein, Itai Avitan, Hagit Yaso, Lidor, Yossi Klein Haleui, Vishayahu Maso, Dr. Adrianna Katz. Directed by Laura Bialis
It is sometimes in these chaotic times a sad fact that the American left often wags its collective fingers at Israel for their treatment of Palestinians on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. There are plenty of really good documentaries that cover this subject. There aren’t many however that look closely at everyday Israelis coping with the bombs that are sent over on makeshift rockets called Qassams. Rock in the Red Zone has the distinction of being one of the very few.
Bialis became fascinated with Sderot, a small town of 20,000 on the western edge of the Negev desert that is subject to daily rocket attacks by Hamas and Hezbollah. Citizens get 15 seconds warning from a system called Red Alert; when the alarms go off, they drop what they’re doing, leaving their cars in the middle of the road and seek shelter at bomb shelters throughout the town and environs. They leave their windows open so that they can hear the warnings and escape in time; one of the city’s residents, musician Avi Vaknin remarks that the greatest fatalities occur when those who aren’t used to the way of life in Sderot don’t hear the warning sirens and continue driving on their merry way, unaware that death is rocketing at them from the nearby Gaza strip.
A two week stay made such an indelible mark on filmmaker Bialis that she chose to return for a lengthier stay to find out more ostensibly about the underground music scene (literally; much of the rehearsal and performance takes place in underground bunkers and converted bomb shelters). She moves in with Vaknin who introduces her to the music scene in Sderot which is surprisingly fertile; the band Teapacs which represented Israel in the Eurovision song contest are from there (their lead singer Kubi Oz speaks fondly of his embattled home town). More recently, the winner of Israel’s version of America’s Got Talent came from there.
Most of the residents come from Morocco, Tunisia and Ethiopia; Jews who found their way to Israel following World War II and were discriminated against by the European-based Jews who essentially founded the country. The music of those areas mixed with western Rock and Roll, blues, Klezmer and other musical forms. Much of the music has the kind of immediacy that comes from not knowing when you wake up in the morning if you were going to make it to see the sunset. It’s often quite poignant and very often compelling.
The major misstep that is made by the film is well into it when it becomes obvious that Avi and Laura have become romantically involved. From then on the movie becomes more about their relationship and essentially morphs into a home movie, complete with wedding footage. Bialis is a top-notch filmmaker but she breaks one of the cardinal rules of documentary filmmaking: don’t become the story. When Bialis starts to become the story, the movie falls apart.
That’s a shame too because up until then the movie is very compelling; the courage of the people of Sderot who are almost as angry at their own government for essentially ignoring their plight than they are at the Palestinians doing the bombardment. Even with all the stress and trauma (and make no mistake, every single resident of the town suffers from PTSD bar none – one of the most poignant moments is a woman dissolving into a shaking, shuddering mess during an attack) they find the humanity within them to keep soldiering on, living their lives almost in defiance of those who would seek to disrupt them. You can see the joy in their eyes when a concerted effort of activists brings thousands of ordinary Israelis to downtown Sderot to shop and dine. When you live on the razor’s edge, everything becomes magnified.
When the film concentrates on that message, the movie soars. When it becomes a love letter from the director to her husband, it stumbles. I don’t doubt the depth of her passion for her man nor his for her but it really undermines all the really good work she does up until that point. This is just one example of what happens when the heart rules the mind.
REASONS TO GO: The story is a tribute to everyday courage. The music is surprisingly diverse and effective.
REASONS TO STAY: The film loses focus during the final third.
FAMILY VALUES: There is some profanity, disturbing images of the aftermath of the bombings as well as injured children and some drug references.
TRIVIAL PURSUIT: The movie is loosely based on the evacuation of Chinese citizens from the port town of Aden during the Yemen Civil War of March 2015.
BEYOND THE THEATERS: Radial
COMPARISON SHOPPING: No One Knows About Persian Cats
NEXT: Beast Stalker
Posted in VOD Review | Tagged Avi Vaknin, blues, bomb shelters, cinema, Cinema365, Documentary, Eurovision, Films, Gaza Strip, Hamas, Hezbollah, home made rockets, Israel, Klezmer, Kubi Oz, Laura Bialis, movies, PTSD, Qassams, Red Alert, reviews, Robby Elmaliah, rock and roll, Rock in the Red Zone, Sderot, shelling, soul, The Orchard, VOD Reviews | Leave a reply
Another day at the office for the Wrecking Crew.
(2008) Musical Documentary (Magnolia) Cher, Brian Wilson, Mickey Dolenz, Nancy Sinatra, Glen Campbell, Herb Alpert, Leon Russell, Glen Campbell, Tommy Tedesco, Plas Johnson, Hal Blaine, Dick Clark, Carol Kaye, Jimmy Webb, Carol Kaye, Joe Osborn, H.B. Barnum, Lou Adler, Al Casey, Bones Howe, Don Randi, Snuff Garrett, Bill Pittman, Carmie Tedesco. Directed by Denny Tedesco
When people look at the golden age of rock and roll, there are few better places to turn their gaze to than Southern California in the 60s and early 70s. Some of the most iconic music of the rock and roll era came from that time and place. Bands like the Beach Boys, Sonny and Cher, the Mamas and the Papas, Gary Lewis and the Playboys, the Monkees and so on routinely recorded there. However mostly what they provided was the vocals; the music was actually made by someone else.
They were called The Wrecking Crew, although not by themselves. There were about 20 to 30 main players in the pool of studio musicians that lived in L.A. at the time (the movie lists more than 100) who appeared on the bulk of the albums that came out of the area, including from bands that were made up of actual musicians, like The Byrds.
One of the most respected of them was guitarist Tommy Tedesco. A raconteur with a great sense of humor, Tedesco also had the kind of skill that made him comfortably at home in any style of music. He was also a whiz at Spanish/Mexican guitar. He teamed often with bassist Carol Kaye (one of the few women among the Crew) who was responsible for iconic baselines such as the ones found in the Mission: Impossible theme and on Sonny and Cher’s “The Beat Goes On.” Hal Blaine was also one of the most prolific and respected drummers of his time; as he himself recounts, the Crew judged each other not by how many gigs they got because all of them were fully booked, but how many they turned down.
The Crew also worked on movie and television theme songs (the guitar on the Bonanza theme song, for example, was Tedesco). It is actually kind of thrilling to watch saxophonist Plas Johnson play the iconic notes to the theme of The Pink Panther.
None of the Crew craved the limelight and only a few of them really achieved any notoriety, chief among them Glen Campbell who went on to a long career doing country-tinged easy listening music (with such hits as “By the Time I Get to Phoenix,” “Wichita Linesman” and “Rhinestone Cowboy,” many of which utilized his colleagues in the Wrecking Crew) as well as an acting career. They are almost without exception not listed on the albums they played on as musicians. However, their influence has been incalculable; Blaine himself played on seven straight Record of the Year Grammy winners, a feat that has never been duplicated before or since, and he is a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
But largely the Crew labored in public obscurity, content to play music, collect large checks and shape rock and roll as we know it. The director, Denny Tedesco, is the son of Tommy and started this project in 1996 as a means of tribute to his father, who would pass away a year after he started filming the project although a group interview including his father plays a substantial roll in the documentary. There are also other subjects, like Dick Clark, who were alive when interviewed (and in Clark’s case, unaffected yet by the stroke he suffered in 2004). Campbell himself suffers from Alzheimer’s but was perfectly lucid in his pre-diagnosis days.
There are also interviews with the stars who they worked for. It is interesting to hear Cher, who normally is an effusive and self-confident interview when talking about her latest film project kind of revert to the shy and less confident personality she had when she was first starting out. We also get to see Brian Wilson talk about the Smile sessions that would later become the most famous album never released (although it has since) with some of the tracks showing up on the Pet Sounds album.
The music here is simply unbeatable. Nearly every clip brought a smile to my face. Not all of it was rock and roll; the Crew backed up all sorts of different musicians, including most of the members of the Rat Pack. We can hear Frank Sinatra joking with his daughter Nancy on audio tape taken from the sessions when they recorded “Something Stupid” together. Stuff like that is priceless.
It took Tedesco 13 years to assemble the film and nearly as long to get it released theatrically. As you can gather, getting the rights to use much of the music in the film was a formidable task It took a lot of money that the production didn’t have, so they used Kickstarter to acquire the funds to help them get permission. People of a certain age, however, will certainly appreciate the effort. While the filmmakers don’t really go too much into what the main folks in the Crew thought of their fame or lack thereof, or what happened as the business changed and studio musicians fell out of favor, but that dose of reality would likely have made this a lesser film. There are insights into the time and place of the Crew, but little of themselves. If you’re looking to get a feel for who these people really were, you won’t get much beyond “talented musicians with stories to tell.”
Still, Denny Tedesco wisely lets the music do the talking for them. It’s rare you get a movie where you exit the theater feeling better when you walked in; it’s even more rare when you learn something in the same movie. The Wrecking Crew accomplishes this and it might motivate you to go spend your paycheck on Amazon or iTunes gathering the songs here into your own personal collection, if they aren’t already there. If they aren’t, they should be.
REASONS TO GO: Incredible soundtrack. Some nice insights into a bygone era of music. Definitely a labor of love and it shows.
REASONS TO STAY: Doesn’t really delve into the issue of being “the men (and woman) behind the curtain.”
FAMILY VALUES: There is some salty language here and there and some adult themes.
TRIVIAL PURSUIT: The movie originally played at the 2008 Florida Film Festival but took six years after that to get a distribution deal, finally getting a much-deserved theatrical release seven years after it was made.
COMPARISON SHOPPING: 20 Feet From Stardom
NEXT: Run All Night
Posted in New Releases | Tagged Brian Wilson, Cher, cinema, Dean Martin, Dick Clark, Films, Frank Sinatra, Glen Campbell, Hal Blaine, Herb Alpert, Jimmy Webb, Leon Russell, Los Angeles, Lou Adler, Magnolia, Mickey Dolenz, movies, musical documentary, Nancy Sinatra, reputation, reviews, rock and roll, Sammy Davis Jr., studio musicians, the Associaition, the Beach Boys, the Mamas and the Papas, the Monkees, The Wrecking Crew, TOmmy Tedesco | Leave a reply
The Front Man
Why, yes, we’re in a band.
(2014) Documentary (DevlinPix) Jim Wood, Christie Wood, Dan Snyder, John Kayne, Glen Burtnik, Graham Maby, Howard Stern, Beetlejuice, Robin Givens. Directed by Paul Devlin
We are all the stars of our own documentary feature. Our lives are, to us, as important and meaningful as any we see on the screen or read about in the newspapers and history books. The one thing we all have in common is that our lives are ours to live.
Jim Wood is one of those guys who not only gets to have his own documentary feature, other people are going to get to see it as well. In all honesty he’s a pretty ordinary guy in a lot of respects – he’d probably be the first to say he’s just a guy from Jersey – but he has hopes of being a rock star. Or at least, he did.
He did something about it too. He has a band – the Loaded Poets – that have been playing in Jersey bars and recording tracks for about 27 years now, dating back to when they were in high school. He and his band mates – Dan Snyder and John Kayne – have been plugging away for nearly all that time. They have no illusions that they’re going to hit it big. That’s just about impossible to do even if you’re young and attractive and while these guys aren’t necessarily bad looking, they’re well past the young portion of the equation. In other words, you won’t be seeing them on American Idol ever and also as unlikely on such shows as America’s Got Talent or The Voice.
Which is likely all right by them. They want success on their own terms which means the songs come first, and in all honesty they aren’t half bad. However, Jim has joined his bandmates in wedded bliss – and Jim’s got a gorgeous wife in Christie. She’s very supportive of his music – going so far as to make out with Beetlejuice on the Howard Stern show just to get her husband’s webpage advertised on his show – but she realizes neither one of them are getting any younger and the window for having a family is beginning to swing shut with an ominous creak.
Jim is a wacky kind of guy who sometimes looks at least on-camera like he doesn’t take much seriously but that would be doing him a disservice. While I have no doubt that he’s a kid at heart, one gets the feeling that when he needs to be he’s smart and mature. The decision to have the kid alters his life as he trades one dream for another – although he continues to make music on his own terms.
While fame eludes him, he talks to a couple of local boys who grabbed a fair slice of fame of their own – Glen Burtnik who had a minor hit in the ’80s and was a member of Styx for several years, and Graham Maby, best known as the bass player for the Joe Jackson band. Both offer insights into fame, rock and roll and how to integrate it into a good life.
This is like watching a documentary about your buddy down the block. Devlin, who has known Jim since kindergarten, uses home movies and years of footage that he has taken to compile a look at an ordinary guy living an extraordinary life. A huge fan of the Z-Movie Alien Factor, he seeks out its director Don Dohler and after impressing the affable director by quoting dialogue, casts both Jim and Christie in one of his last films (he passed away in 2006) as victims of vampires.
While the movie violates one of the prime commandments of home movies – your child is always far cuter to you than it is to everyone else – to be fair that’s a violation that occurs in a number of documentaries. Otherwise, Jim, Christie and their coterie are people you wouldn’t mind sharing a beer with at a barbecue down the street. This isn’t the most important documentary you’ll ever see but I could have spent more time with the people onscreen and at the end of the day that’s about the highest compliment you can pay to any kind of movie.
REASONS TO GO: Very human. Likable subjects.
REASONS TO STAY: Not really vital.
FAMILY VALUES: Some sexuality and a few instances of foul language here and there.
TRIVIAL PURSUIT: Devlin’s local TV pilot Slammin’ which presented the Nuyorican Poet’s Cafe semi-final poetry slam as a sporting event, was nominated for two local Emmys.
COMPARISON SHOPPING: Anvil: The Story of Anvil
NEXT: Slingshot
Posted in New Releases | Tagged 2014 Florida Film Festival, basement band, cinema, DevlinPix, Documentary, fatherhood, Films, Florida Film Festival, Glen Burtnik, Graham Maby, Howard Stern, movies, New Jersey, part-time musician, reviews, Robin Givens, rock and roll, The Front Man | Leave a reply
Michael J. Fox is going back in time.
(1985) Science Fiction (Universal) Michael J. Fox, Christopher Lloyd, Lea Thompson, Crispin Glover, Thomas F. Wilson, Claudia Wells, Marc McClure, Wendie Jo Sperber, George diCenzo, Frances Lee McCain, James Tolkan, Jeffrey Jay Cohen, Casey Siemaszko, Billy Zane, Harry Waters Jr., Donald Fulilove, Lisa Freeman, Courtney Gains, Jason Hervey, Maia Brewton. Directed by Robert Zemeckis
Most people my age and slightly younger have a real soft spot for Back to the Future. One of the biggest box office successes of 1985, the movie has become a treasured icon of its age, a movie very much associated with the decade despite its time-travelling motif. Younger generations are well-versed with the film mostly from frequent cable and broadcast TV appearances as well as from their parents VHS and DVD collections. Either way, there are few movies of the last 30 years that have resonated the way this one did.
Marty McFly (Fox) is a frustrated high school senior. He lives in a kind of middle class hell, his mom Lorraine (Thompson) a somewhat prudish, somewhat bitter woman who knows the best days of her life are behind her. His father George (Glover) is a picked-on milquetoast who allows his boss, Biff Tannen (Wilson) to abuse him mercilessly, taking credit for work that George does. Marty yearns for something better, whether it be through rock and roll or through his girlfriend Jennifer (Wells). Even the town he lives in, Hill Valley, is in a state of decrepitude; its clock tower that was once the crown jewel of the town square hasn’t worked for decades since a chance lightning strike left it inoperable.
He is also friends with Dr. Emmett “Doc” Brown (Lloyd), considered to be a crackpot by most (and it’s kind of understandable) but he’s been doing some research into time travel and thinks he’s found a way to make it work. Through a series of accidents, Marty gets into the time machine (which is in, appropriately enough, a Delorean) and is sent back to the year 1955. Through a further series of mishaps, Marty manages to prevent his parents from meeting and instead takes his father’s place convalescing in the home of his mom, who instead of falling in love with his dad falls in love with Marty himself.
Without plutonium for the reaction, Marty is stuck in 1955 but he may not be for long – if he can’t get his parents to meet and kiss on the dance floor of the Enchantment Under the Sea dance, he’ll never have been born. And even if he does get them together, how is he going to get back home to 1985?
Zemeckis and Gale were at the top of their game here and for Fox it is the role that he is most associated with, maybe even more so than Alex Keaton from Family Ties. The movie was kind of a perfect storm of elements coming together in just the right way. It was a movie that fit the time, but it was also much more than just a sci-fi adventure flick with lots of thrills and great characters, although it is that as well. The movie was supposedly inspired by writer/producer Bob Gale finding one of his father’s high school yearbooks and wondering if he had known his dad back then would they have hung out together, an intriguing concept.
We rarely think of our parents as people, but they were all young once; they all had the bloom of youth in their cheeks, all had hopes and dreams, all loved and lost, all got into trouble with their own parents and all did exactly the same kinds of things you did yourself. We can’t really put them in that perspective however; we need our parents to be parents. It’s hard to see them as young kids who didn’t have all the answers and weren’t always right. We can’t see them as ourselves.
This movie kind of forces you to look at them that way and realize what a crap shoot it is that you even exist; one missed connection and you’d never have been born. But at the same time, it’s a fun ride (so fun that it became a ride at Universal Studios theme parks although they have since replaced it with Simpsons -themed rides) that never lets up and is huge fun from minute one to closing credits. Movies like that are few and far between. From the Huey Lewis and the News songs to the eccentricities of Doc Brown to the awkward humor of having Marty being hit on by his mom (which offended some critics at the time), the movie remains an icon of the 80s and if it is a bit anachronistic with its Delorean time machine, Walkman cassette player and Libyan terrorists, it is no more so than most movies which are all without exception a product of their times. This is a classic that should be an essential part of any collection.
WHY RENT THIS: An absolute classic, one of the best movies to come out of the 80s. One of the most beloved films of all time.
WHY RENT SOMETHING ELSE: Some may find this a little dated.
FAMILY VALUES: There is some sensuality and mild violence.
TRIVIAL PURSUIT: Fox was still starring in Family Ties when he signed to do this film. Because of his television commitment, he filmed most of his scenes from 6pm until 3am, getting about five hours of sleep a night. Scenes set in daylight were filmed on weekends. He managed to film the entire movie without missing a single shot of his television show.
NOTABLE HOME VIDEO EXTRAS: There are outtakes and a Q&A session with film students at the University of Southern California and producer Bob Gale and director Robert Zemeckis. There’s also an extended conversation with Fox. The 2-Disc Collector’s Edition also includes a TV special, Back to the Future Night made to promote the sequel hosted by the late Leslie Nielsen, the footage from both the lobby and the ride of Back to the Future: The Ride which once was a big attraction at Universal Studios but no longer exists. There is also an independent retrospective, Looking Back to the Future which was originally feature-length and has been considerably cut here. The movie is available on Blu-Ray currently only as part of a boxed set including the entire trilogy which IMHO is worth owning as a complete set.
BOX OFFICE PERFORMANCE: $381.1M on a $19M production budget; this was one of the biggest blockbusters of the 80s.
COMPARISON SHOPPING: Blast From the Past
FINAL RATING: 10/10
TOMORROW: In My Sleep
Posted in DVD Review | Tagged 1950s, 1980s, Back to the Future, Billy Zane, car accident, Casey Siemaszko, Christopher Lloyd, cinema, Claudia Wells, clock tower, Courtney Gains, Crispin Glover, dance, Delorean, diner, DVD Reviews, eccentric scientist, Films, flux capacitor, Frances Lee McCain, full service gas station, gigawatts, Huey Lewis and the News, James Tolkan, Jason Hervey, Lea Thompson, Libyan terrorists, manure, Marc McClure, Michael J. Fox, movies, Pepsi, plutonium, Robert Zemeckis, rock and roll, Science Fiction, skateboard, stranded in the past, Thomas F. Wilson, time travel, Universal, Walkman, Wendie Jo Sperber | 1 Reply
Twenty Feet from Stardom
Posted on April 6, 2013 by carlosdev
Sweet harmony personified.
(2013) Musical Documentary (Radius) Darlene Love, Merry Clayton, Lisa Fisher, Judith Hill, Tata Vega, Sting, Bruce Springsteen, Stevie Wonder, Mick Jagger, Bette Midler, Chris Botti, Lynn Mabry, Claudia Lennear, Sheryl Crow, Patti Austin, Gloria Jones, Janice Pendarvis, Stevvi Alexander. Directed by Morgan Neville
We all know the stars. Their faces, their voices, their music. We can hum their songs in our sleep. We don’t always get the full components of what goes into that classic music however. We rarely know who the backup singers are.
This documentary aims to rectify that. Focusing mainly on four African-American women, the movie looks at the importance of back-up singers to popular music of the last say, 50 years or so. There’s Darlene Love, for example, who not only sang leads on a lot of classic songs (“Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)” comes to mind) but her voice can be heard on some of Phil Spector’s classic hits – as part of The Blossoms, an early girl group she fronted, her powerful voice decorated some of the classic songs of the ’60s. Still, she’s primarily known as playing Danny Glover’s wife on the Lethal Weapon films.
Merry Clayton, like many of the great backup singers the daughter of a preacher, is perhaps best remembered as the female voice on the Rolling Stones classic “Gimme Shelter” for which she was awakened in the middle of the night to do and sang in pajamas and curlers. She’s sang for some of the biggest names in music and while her face may not be familiar, I guarantee you’ve heard her voice many times.
Lisa Fisher may have the most amazing voice of them all. While much in demand (she has been the Stones’ touring backup vocalist for more than 20 years) she has for the most part shunned a solo career (although she won a Grammy for her lone solo album). She prefers to sing for the simple joy of singing, preferring to remain in the background rather than pursuing the solo career she more than has the talent to achieve.
Judith Hill famously sang at Michael Jackson’s memorial service and is heavily featured in the documentary of the rehearsals for his final tour that never happened due to his untimely death. She writes and performs not only for herself but for other big stars and recently became a contestant on the singing competition The Voice which I would count her a heavy favorite to win it all.
These women and many others like them (and a few men too) may not be well known but they are absolute titans in the industry. The respect that is paid them by the stars who are interviewed is palpable and as is mentioned by Claudia Lennear during the film, most people when they’re singing along to a song are singing what the backup singers are singing.
I will confess to having been a music critic for nearly a dozen years in the San Francisco Bay Area and like most people – critics included – I kind of took the contributions of these amazing singers for granted. One of the best thing this movie does is break down the importance of the background singers in the song. One stark illustration of this is found when ”Gimme Shelter” is played with the tracks removed one at a time until only Clayton’s vocal track remains. It’s a very simple yet effective reminder of the power of the human voice.
The human connection through music is universal. There are those who feel a particular passion for it and have the talent and the desire to express themselves through their music. Some of them make it and some of them don’t regardless of how good they are – it’s largely a matter of luck and timing. For my money, regardless of the fame and fortune these ladies and others like them have gathered (or lack thereof) they are every one of them stars in my book. If you love rock and roll or hell, any sort of pop music, you owe it to yourself to see this. It will change your outlook on music – in a good way – forever.
REASONS TO GO: Amazing music and spiritually uplifting. Everything a documentary should be.
REASONS TO STAY: If musical documentaries don’t interest you…
FAMILY VALUES: There are a few swear words and some brief nudity.
TRIVIAL PURSUIT: Producer Gil Friesen, the former head of A&M records, came up with the idea and title after attending a Leonard Cohen show with his friend Jimmy Buffett. Unfortunately, Friesen passed away shortly before the film debuted at Sundance earlier this year.
CRITICAL MASS: As of 4/6/13: Rotten Tomatoes: no score yet. Metacritic: no score yet; the film has appeared at Sundance but won’t see theatrical release until June 14th but frankly, I don’t see critics not falling in love with this early Oscar contender.
COMPARISON SHOPPING: Young @ Heart
NEXT: Nancy, Please and more from the 2013 Florida Film Festival
Posted in New Releases | Tagged 2013 Florida Film Festival, 2014 Academy Award Winner, backup singers, Bette Miller, Bruce Springsteen, Chris Botti, cinema, Claudia Lennear, Darlene Love, Documentary, Films, Florida Film Festival, Gimme Shelter, Gloria Jones, gospel music, Ike and Tina Turner, Janice Pendarvis, Judith Hill, Lisa Fisher, Lou Adler, Lynn Mabry, Merry Clayton, Mick Jagger, movies, musical documentary, Patti Austin, Phil Spector, preacher's daughters, producers, Radius Films, Ray Charles, Raylettes, respect, reviews, rock and roll, Rolling Stones, Sheryl Crow, Stevie Wonder, Stevvi Alexander, Sting, Tata Vega, The Voice, tour, touring musicians, Twenty Feet from Stardom | Leave a reply
Posted on May 14, 2011 by carlosdev
Joan Jett loves rock and roll; Cherie Currie loves the lifestyle.
(2010) Musical Biography (Apparition) Kristen Stewart, Dakota Fanning, Michael Shannon, Danielle Riley Keough, Scout Taylor-Compton, Tatum O’Neal, Stella Maeve, Brett Cullen, Alia Shawkat, Johnny Lewis, Hannah Marks, Jill Andre. Directed by Floria Sigismondi
The world of rock and roll is a harsh one, full of broken promises and shattered dreams. Every so often, a performer or a band will break through and change things; on other occasions, a performer or a band will succumb to the excesses of the industry. Sometimes, a performer or a band will do both.
Joan Jett (Stewart) is a young girl who idolizes Suzi Quatro and Keith Richards. She’s an adept guitarist but nobody will take her seriously and she longs to be in a rock and roll band. She meets Kim Fowley (Shannon), a fixture on the Sunset Strip in the 1970s-era Los Angeles when this all took place. Fowley sees himself as an acute judge of talent and a canny promoter who understands what sells. He longs to be a major player in the music business, something he is not at the time. He likes Jett’s look and her dream of fronting an all-woman rock band – there were none at the time that had any success, although in pop music the girl groups of the 60s (Martha and the Vandellas and over in Motown the Supremes) had met with success. However, these were women who projected a certain safe and virtuous image. Fowley – and Jett – wanted danger and subversion. Fowley hooked up Jett with Sandy West (Maeve), a drummer. The two began practicing together but the band needed fleshing out.
Cherie Currie (Fanning) is Bowie-obsessed and performs one of his songs dressed just like him at a school talent show, getting booed by her audience and flipping them off in retaliation. Her home life is falling apart at the seams – her dad (Cullen) is an alcoholic, spiraling slowly to an inevitable end and her mom (O’Neal) has fled to Indonesia to escape, leaving her with her twin Marie (Keough) as essentially sole support. Fowley discovers her and brings her to his trashy trailer to perform with the band. At first Cherie is stiff and hesitant but with Fowley pushing her/abusing her into the right attitude, her natural performing talent, sexuality and charisma come to the fore. “It’s not women’s lib,” Fowley crows, “Its women’s libido!” The remaining spots in the band are filled up with guitarist Lita Ford (Taylor-Compton) and bassist Robin Wolf (Shawkat).
The group plays a series of gigs in a series of depressing dives before Fowley gets them signed to a major label. A song, “Cherry Bomb” becomes a minor hit (although it becomes a big one in Japan) and the band begins to headline gigs and support major acts in stadiums. They go to Japan where they are mobbed by rabid fans and all of a sudden this group of young girls – all in their mid-teens at the time – suddenly are cursed with the success of the rock and roll lifestyle; plenty of sex, plenty of drugs, and not so much rock and roll. Eventually, the curse of success will overcome the band, with internal musical differences and Currie’s drug habit proving to be too much for the band to survive.
Director Sigismondi makes her feature debut here after mostly directing music videos, as well as working in fine arts (she’s a talented photographer and sculptor as well) and to her credit she makes the most of a very little. She manages to capture the look and feel of both the L.A. suburbs in the 70s (I should know – that’s where I lived at the time) and the decadent scene on the Sunset Strip.
I’ve been a big fan of Fanning for a long time and she doesn’t disappoint here. She captures the nature of the vulnerable and sometimes lost Currie nicely, showing her as clay to be molded by Fowley and drifting off-course, prey to the temptations of the road. As her family life disintegrates, she becomes more and more lost. The movie to a large extent focuses most on Currie (but to be fair, she did write the biography that the movie is based on) and Fanning handles the load nicely.
Stewart, best known as the angst-ridden Bella Swan in the Twilight franchise is surprisingly rough-edged here, showing the force-of-nature strength of Jett but also her bisexual tendencies. There is a fairly lurid make-out scene between Jett and Currie which comes off as exploitative, but given the nature of the band and the era, kind of makes sense as something like it would appear in a 70s “B” movie, which this closely resembles in tone. Stewart shows more range here than she has previously, forcing me to revise my opinion of her as a somewhat one-note actress. I look forward to seeing more from her along these lines.
Shannon is a terrific actor who has one Oscar nomination to his credit and has the chops to garner more of the same should he get the right roles. This one is not, but he does capture the manic and manipulative nature of Fowley who yearned to be a mover and a shaker, but whose claim to fame would always be this band. He often claimed he assembled the Runaways both conceptually and practically, a claim he has backed off from in recent years. Shannon is riveting in the part, capturing both the yin and the yang of Fowley who could be supportive one moment and abusive the next.
In fact, in many ways this movie sugarcoats the Runaways story, leaving out allegations of sexual and physical abuse around the band. It also leaves out the backstory of the rest of the band (in the case of Ford, at the real Lita’s request) in focusing on the two leads. The filmmakers do a disservice to the band in essentially portraying them as a two-woman creative team (in reality, West and Ford co-wrote most of the songs with Jett and Fowley). While it’s true Jett and Currie were the heart and soul of the band, it would have been nice to include more of the rest of the band’s story in the movie, particularly that of West who passed away from lung cancer just prior to the beginning of filming.
The legacy of the Runaways is undeniable; Joan Jett remains a rock and roll icon, an inspiration to young female rockers everywhere. It’s a bit of a crying shame that they remain largely unknown here and those who do know them mostly know them for “Cherry Bomb,” their signature hit. They were certainly much more than that, and anyone who has seen their Showtime documentary (which includes some incendiary performance footage) will attest to that. The movie picks up part of their essence – enough to make it worth seeing. I just wish we would have gotten a little bit more of it.
WHY RENT THIS: An authentic recreation of the time and the scene. Surprisingly gritty performances from Stewart and Fanning. Shannon shows a good deal of charisma.
WHY RENT SOMETHING ELSE: The movie leaves out a good deal of information, and fictionalizes or trivializes the group’s achievements.
FAMILY VALUES: There are occasionally graphic depictions of teen sex and drug use, as well as a whole lot of foul language.
TRIVIAL PURSUIT: Jackie Fox, the actual bass player for the Runaways, declined to give the producers of the film the rights to her life story so a fictional character was introduced to be the Runaways bassist (and ironically, has no lines in the film); Lita Ford also declined to give her rights to the producers, but did meet with Scout Taylor-Compton prior to filming and declared that even if the film was awful, Taylor-Compton at least did her character justice.
BOX OFFICE PERFORMANCE: $4.7M on a $10M production budget; the movie was a flop.
TOMORROW: A Single Man
Posted in DVD Review | Tagged 70s, Apparition, big in Japan, biopic, bisexuality, Cherie Currie, Cherry Bomb, cinema, Dakota Fanning, DVD Reviews, dysfunctional family, Films, Joan Jett, Kim Fowley, Kristen Stewart, Los Angeles, Michael Shannon, movies, musical biography, rock and roll, Scout Taylor-Compton, sex drugs and rock and roll, Sunset Strip, Svengali, talent show, Tatum O'Neal, teenage sex symbols, The Runaways | Leave a reply
Posted on December 12, 2010 by carlosdev
The one drawback to living aboad ship is all the cockroaches.
(2009) Rock ‘n’ Roll Comedy (Focus) Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Bill Nighy, Rhys Ifans, Nick Frost, Kenneth Branagh, Tom Sturridge, Jack Davenport, Emma Thompson, January Jones, Gemma Arterton, Tom Brooke. Directed by Richard Curtis
As a former rock critic, I find myself somewhat amused, puzzled and alarmed all at once when I regard the state of rock and roll. Originally, the music was supposed to be rebellious; it was a symbol of rising up against the system and crafting something new, different and exciting. Now, it is the system. I guess that’s true of most things that start off that way.
To many, the apex of rock and roll occurred in the 60s, and the epicenter of that apex was in England. Some of the greatest rock and roll bands of all time were all practicing their art with relish and relevance – the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, the Kinks, the Who and so on and so forth. Yet if you wanted to hear those great British bands in Great Britain, you couldn’t. The BBC, the government-controlled broadcasting company, refused to play it on moral grounds, allowing rock and roll a begrudged hour or two per week and even then the songs that were played were far more middle of the road pop than rock.
When a need arises, trust some enterprising soul to figure out a way to fill that need and so pirate radio was born. A bunch of DJs and mariners rented a merchant vessel, outfitted it with a huge bloody antenna, and anchored in international waters, beaming the sounds of the Troggs, Leonard Cohen and Jimi Hendrix to a grateful nation. The most famous pirate station was Radio Caroline (which still broadcasts on the internet to this day, by the way).
While this crew isn’t Radio Caroline (the people and events that inspired the movie were scattered on the many dozens of pirate radio ships that encircled the British Isles), they are zany in their own right. Aboard Radio Rock is the debonair and irreverent Captain Quentin (Nighy), The Count (Hoffman), an American DJ who’s enormously popular and is the heart and soul of Radio Rock; Thick Kevin (Brooke), not the brightest bulb in the chandelier; Dr. Dave (Frost), a somewhat blindly trusting DJ who ought to know better; Gavin Cavanagh (Ifans), who is the most popular DJ in pirate radio and begins a fierce rivalry with the Count when he’s brought aboard Radio Rock, and young Carl (Sturridge) who is actually the protagonist, a virgin whose free-spirited mum (Thompson) sent him aboard the pirate radio vessel to sort himself out with his godfather, Captain Quentin. Bad idea, mum.
Curtis, who also directed Love Actually which is possibly the best romantic comedy of the past decade, knows how to work with an ensemble (Thompson and Nighy also worked for Curtis in that cast) and you never feel that any character is given short shrift; well, not really anyway. Carl is a bit too bland a character whose only trait seems to be his virginity, which is more a lack of opportunity than a characteristic. He is the audience surrogate to somewhat of a degree whose only function is to sit back and shake his head at the antics of the DJs. Those guys!
And the antics are highly entertaining, particularly as they import groupies to sail out aboard the ship to relieve these intrepid men of their sexual frustrations (hey, they’re both sailors and disc jockeys – can any human being get more inherently horny?) and not coincidently, bare their breasts on-camera. Hey, sex sells damn it.
Hoffman, Nighy, Ifans and Frost are always entertaining, and seeing them work together is a nice treat. Branagh plays Dormandy, ostensibly the villain of the piece, the tight-arsed minister in charge of ridding Britain of pirate radio forever. He is aided by the appropriately named Twatt (Davenport), the assistant in charge of finding dirty tricks and loopholes. He would later cross the Atlantic and become a personal advisor to President Nixon (just kidding). Both Branagh and Davenport are solid.
What will stay with you from this movie is the absolutely astonishing soundtrack which contains some of the best music from the late ‘60s. Some critics have moaned and groaned about some of the songs being from after 1966, the year this is supposed to take place. As Jay Leno might say, SHUT UP! Nobody cares about your knowledge of music history. The music fits the story and the songs are awesome. Just sit back and listen and let the grown-ups talk.
This isn’t as good a film as Love Actually but it’s pretty dang good all the same. For those of my generation, the music is a trip straight down Memory Lane (with a brief stop at Penny Lane, although the Beatles didn’t grant the rights and releases to their music so they don’t appear on the soundtrack). Curtis does a good job of evoking the era and keeps things light and a bit manic, all leaving a good taste in the mouth. It may only be rock and roll but I like it – and so did millions of others, including you I’d bet. While this movie didn’t fare very well box office-wise, it deserves a better fate, if just for Curtis’ taste in music alone.
WHY RENT THIS: A phenomenal soundtrack and a general sense of fun and bonhomie pervade the film. The actors look like they’re having the time of their lives.
WHY RENT SOMETHING ELSE: The plot meanders down into Unnecessaryland and the whole virginity subplot seemed less enticing than the goings on with the DJs.
FAMILY VALUES: Some of the language is blue, but not as blue as the bare behinds which were hanging out in the cold North Sea air.
TRIVIAL PURSUIT: While the movie is a work of fiction, many of the events depicted happened on a variety of pirate radio ships, particularly the most infamous Radio Caroline, whose red and white color scheme was borrowed by the Radio Rock vessel. A DJ did get married on board a pirate radio ship, and Radio Caroline’s first ship did sink (although the station eventually got a second ship which remained in use until 1991; it sits as something of a museum and many of the artifacts from the vessel were used in this film).
NOTABLE DVD EXTRAS: The Blu-Ray edition contains a short but informative featurette on the history of pirate radio in the UK. Unfortunately, the DVD consumer gets shafted again.
BOX OFFICE PERFORMANCE: $36.4M on a $50M production budget; any way you slice it, the movie flopped at the box office.
TOMORROW: The Brothers Bloom
Posted in DVD Review | Tagged 60s, BBC, Bill Nighy, British cinema, British ministry, cinema, classic rock, disc jockey, DJ, drugs, DVD Reviews, Emma Thompson, Films, Focus Features, Gemma Arterton, Jack Davenport, January Jones, Kenneth Branagh, London, merchant vessel, modern pirates, movies, Nick Frost, North Sea, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Pirate Radio, Radio Caroline, Rhys Ifans, rock and roll, sex, uptight | 2 Replies
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Tag Archives: seance
Posted on October 29, 2016 by carlosdev
Never turn your back on your kid for even a minute…
(2016) Horror (Universal) Annalise Basso, Elizabeth Reaser, Lulu Wilson, Henry Thomas, Parker Mack, Doug Jones, Chelsea Gonzalez, Lincoln Melcher, Nicholas Keenan, Michael Weaver, Ele Keats, Eve Gordon, Chad Heffelfinger, Nina Mansker, John Prosky, Kate Siegel, Sam Anderson, Gary Patrick Anderson, Alexis G. Zall, Halle Charlton, Sierra Davey, Lin Shaye. Directed by Mike Flanagan
Some of us are fascinated by the occult. Science tells us that there’s nothing there, nothing that can be measured or quantified but anyone with even a lick of sense can tell you that science doesn’t know everything; often things that are currently unexplainable may seem like the mysterious or the magical. The fact of the matter is that we don’t understand more than what we do.
In the Los Angeles of 1967 lives a widow, Alice Zander (Reaser). Her husband Roger (Weaver) had passed away recently and their daughters – teenage Lina (Basso) and preteen Doris (Wilson) are grieving in their own way. Doris, in particular, is having a difficult time handling the death of her father, praying to him at night rather than to God. There are those at her school who think she’s a little weird. More than a little, in fact.
Alice makes ends meet by conducting fake seances in which her daughters help with special effects. Alice rationalizes all this by saying that they are helping people find closure which I suppose they are. Lulu is too young and naive to question anything but Lina finds herself believing in nothing.
In point of fact, Lina feels constrained in her house and wants to do the things that teenage girls do in 1967. So like any good red-blooded American teen, she sneaks out of the house and goes to a party with a bunch of her friends, including would-be boyfriend Mikey (Mack). There she discovers the magic and the mystery of a Ouija board. Unfortunately, her friends are discovered by an adult and Lina is handed over to an angry Alice. However, Alice is intrigued by the Ouija board and brings one home to help with the act.
Immediately Doris takes an unhealthy interest in the board – or vice versa. Desperate to communicate with her daddy, she has no idea that there are rules governing the use of the board or how dangerous it is to break them. She certainly doesn’t realize that she’s opened a door that may bring something into this world that wants nothing more than to terrorize – and to kill.
This is a prequel to the wildly successful but critically panned Ouija from 2014. There is an appearance by Lin Shaye in a post-credits sequence that links the two films (not for nothing, but she plays an older version of one of the characters in this movie) but there is little to connect the two films. We do see one of the apparitions from the first film alive and well (relatively speaking) in this film.
The acting here is okay but not memorable. There aren’t a lot of recognizable names here, although most of the cast has experience mostly on the small screen. Thomas, the waif from E.T. is surprisingly strong as a sympathetic priest/principal at the Catholic school that the two daughters attend. Reaser, best known for her work on the Twilight series, shows some promise as the single mom which is a very different role than Esme Cullen.
Flanagan, who had three films scheduled to come out this year (one, Before I Wake, has been shelved indefinitely by troubled distributor Relativity and is unlikely to come out before next year) is becoming a very solid director of horror films for the studios. While he might not have the indie cred of a Ti West or a Jennifer Kent or an Adam Wingard, he has proven that he can direct strong horror films while remaining within studio constraints. There’s nothing here that’s so over-the-top that it can’t tolerate a PG-13 rating (which the studios shoot for, with rare exception, for their horror movies) but it manages to come by some pretty effective scares without resorting to an overuse of jump scares which are prevalent in studio horror movies today.
And to be honest, the studio restrictions are what really drag the movie down in my opinion. In trying to make a movie that fits within studio horror film parameters, in many ways it feels like Flanagan has been constrained from making a horror movie that would really blow our socks off. There is plenty here to work with, but there is nothing here that really gave me a truly “wow” moment. It’s like eating vanilla ice cream when what you really crave is salted caramel.
There’s nothing wrong with vanilla, mind you, but I would have liked there to be more layered flavor profiles here. The movie is exactly what you’d expect it would be. Horror movies are at their most effective when they push the boundaries. Those that respect boundaries will always be little more than a trip on Disney’s Haunted Mansion ride; spooky but not scary.
REASONS TO GO: There are some pretty horrific moments here and some really good scares.
REASONS TO STAY: The film really doesn’t break any new ground.
FAMILY VALUES: There are some pretty horrific and terrifying images, some violence as well as thematic elements that some might find disturbing.
TRIVIAL PURSUIT: The house that Lina sneaks out to party with her friends in is the same house set used in the David Duchovny TV show Aquarius.
CRITICAL MASS: As of 10/29/16: Rotten Tomatoes: 82% positive reviews. Metacritic: 65/100.
COMPARISON SHOPPING: Lights Out
NEXT: Day 5 of Six Days of Horror!
Posted in New Releases | Tagged 1960s, Annalise Basso, Catholic school, cinema, Cinema365, Doug Jones, Elizabeth Reaser, Films, haunting, Henry Thomas, horror, Lin Shaye, Los Angeles, Lulu Wilson, Mike Flanagan, movies, Ouija Board, Ouija: Origin of Evil, planchette, possession, reviews, scam, seance, Six Days of Darkness, Six Days of Darkness 2016, Universal Pictures | Leave a reply
The Conjuring 2 (The Enfield Poltergeist)
Posted on July 5, 2016 by carlosdev
There’s nothing worse than getting caught by a nun.
(2016) Horror (New Line) Patrick Wilson, Vera Farmiga, Madison Wolfe, Frances O’Connor, Lauren Esposito, Benjamin Haigh, Patrick McAuley, Simon McBurney, Maria Doyle Kennedy, Simon Delaney, Franka Potente, Bob Adrian, Robin Atkin Downes (voice), Bonnie Aarons, Javier Botet, Steve Coulter, Abhi Sinha, Chris Royds, Sterling Jerins. Directed by James Wan
Horror franchises have a way of decreasing in quality the farther along you go. They also have a tendency to repeat themselves. This sequel to a movie based on the case files of Ed and Lorraine Warren, has all the makings of a good franchise. Will it fall prey to some of the sins of the sequels?
In a house in the small town of Amityville, New York, Lorraine Warren (Farmiga) and her husband Ed (Wilson) are conducting a séance to investigating the haunting of the Lutz residence. She sees a small boy while in a psychic trance and follows him into a basement. There she encounters a demonic nun and has a vision of Ed’s death.
She is understandably shaken and convinces Ed to take a break from taking on new investigations. In the meantime the Amityville Horror comes out and Ed and Lorraine become famous…or more accurately, infamous as they are accused of perpetrating a hoax. Ed is beginning to get a little bit frustrated that he can’t really defend himself (and his wife) against these charges since so much of what they’ve seen is anecdotal and go against established science.
Across the Atlantic, single mom Peggy Hodgson (O’Connor) is barely making ends meet with her four children who are being bullied in their local school in Enfield, a suburb of London. Her daughter Janet (Wolfe) soon begins hearing and seeing things, mostly revolving around a recliner left behind by the previous tenant, Bill Wilkins (Adrian). Soon, furniture is flying around on its own, witnessed by a pair of incredulous Bobbies, and parapsychologists and the clergy become involved.
The Roman Catholic Church has been contacted to see if an exorcism is in order. They want to send Ed Warren to make that determination. Lorraine is reluctant, particularly after having another vision of the evil nun in her own home, but Ed points out that this is a single mother with four children who have nowhere to turn to. Lorraine knows that her husband is right.
The goings on in the house are increasing in degree and malevolence and the family is essentially sleeping across the street at a neighbor’s home, but when an apparition known as the Crooked Man (Botet) makes an appearance over there, it becomes clear that Janet is the focal point of the hauntings, so Peggy and Janet return to their home to sleep, with the Warrens and their team also hunkering down in the haunted dwelling.
Soon Lorraine begins to realize that it isn’t just Bill Wilkins haunting this house; there’s something else behind it, something far more evil and far more ancient. She also begins to realize that the target of the haunting may not be the Hodgson family after all.
James Wan may be the pre-eminent genre director working today. He has initiated no less than three franchises now, and considering the two Conjuring films have set horror film opening weekend box office records, I wouldn’t be surprised if there was more genre work on the way for the director. Here again he sets a nice, creepy tone and uses set design to his advantage; there are always plenty of shadows for gruesome things to leap out of.
The trouble is, that he seems to be relying more and more on what are called jump scares, which are aided by loud noises and tend to be things that, ahem, leap out of the shadows. They are the cheapest of all horror movie scares and the hoariest of tropes; either way they’re well beneath Wan who in the first film came by his scares honestly.
Not so much here. I can applaud Wan for setting up a big bad that might well power through the rest of the franchise, but it seems that the producers want to create as many spin-offs as they possibly can. There’s already one for Annabelle in the can and one on the way and the nun from this movie has reportedly received the green light for a feature of her own. I’m looking forward to finding out more about her because we don’t get a whole lot of information about the character here.
At the center of this movie is the relationship between Ed and Lorraine and the love that is there. Farmiga and Wilson are so adept at creating an affectionate environment between the two characters that it’s hard to believe they’re not married in real life. There’s a scene in which to lighten things up Ed grabs a guitar and does a credible Elvis impression (and yes, that’s actually Patrick Wilson singing) of the King’s classic “I Can’t Help Falling in Love With You.” While ostensibly to calm down the Hodgson family, it is also a message to his wife – and she receives it loud and clear.
Not quite to the level of the first film which is in my opinion a new horror classic, this is nonetheless a satisfying sequel that won’t disappoint fans of the first film – or fans of the horror genre in general. While I wish Wan would have spent a little time on earning our fright rather than going the route of the cheap jump scares, there is enough here to make your skin crawl in a good way that I can give it an enthusiastic recommendation to all.
REASONS TO GO: The relationship between Ed and Lorraine is at the center of the film.
REASONS TO STAY: An excess of jump scares.
FAMILY VALUES: Plenty of terror and horror violence, disturbing images and some strong language.
TRIVIAL PURSUIT: Director James Wan turned down what he termed a “life-altering” amount of money to direct Fast 8 in order to return to his horror roots.
CRITICAL MASS: As of 7/5/16: Rotten Tomatoes: 79% positive reviews. Metacritic: 65/100.
COMPARISON SHOPPING: Poltergeist
NEXT: A Violent Prosecutor
Posted in New Releases | Tagged Amityville Horror, antique toys, cinema, Cinema365, demonic nun, England, exorcism, Films, Frances O'Connor, Franka Potente, horror, Javier Botet, Madison Wolfe, movies, New Line, parapsychologist, Patrick Wilson, poltergeist, reviews, seance, Simon McBurney, Sterling Jerins, supernatural investigators, The Conjuring 2, The Enfield Poltergeist, Vera Farmiga | Leave a reply
Posted on August 27, 2014 by carlosdev
Emma Stone is shocked to discover she’s co-starring with an Oscar winner.
(2014) Romantic Comedy (Sony Classics) Colin Firth, Emma Stone, Simon McBurney, Hamish Linklater, Eileen Atkins, Marcia Gay Harden, Jacki Weaver, George Shamos, Erica Leerhsen, Catherine McCormack, Ute Lemper, Didier Muller, Peter Wollasch, Antonia Clarke, Natasha Andrews, Valerie Beaulieu, Lionel Abelanski. Directed by Woody Allen
The world is fairly evenly divided between the romantic and the pragmatic. Pragmatists believe that everything is explainable and that there is little to no mystery left in the world. Romantics believe that there is much more to life than what the senses perceive and that there are things in the world that can only be described as magic.
Stanley (Firth) certainly counts himself among the pragmatic although, perhaps oddly, he makes his living as a magician, masquerading as a Chinese illusionist named Wei Ling Soo. While he would say that he does so to maintain his privacy as well as the illusion of mystery, it seems somewhat hypocritical at the very least and cynical for certain. In 1928, however, this isn’t really an issue.
Stanley is the sort that can alienate the nicest of people in a matter of seconds. Pompous, arrogant and smug, he is completely certain that he is right in all things and the smartest person in the room. The trouble is, he usually is. He is engaged to Olivia (McCormack), a fellow intellectual pragmatic and a fine looking woman as well. They are very well-matched on the surface and Stanley feels a good deal of affection towards his bride-to-be. At the end of his world tour, he intends to vacation in the Galapagos with her.
However at the close of his Berlin show he is met by his old friend and fellow illusionist Howard Burkan (McBurney) who comes to him with a challenge. A woman by the name of Sophie Baker (Stone) purporting to be a psychic has attached herself to the Catledge family of Pittsburgh who happen to be friends of his. Their callow son Brice (Linklater) has become smitten with the girl, having already proposed marriage. Mother Grace (Weaver) is obsessed with making contact with her lately departed industrialist husband.
Stanley, a notable debunker of charlatans, leaps at the chance. Burkan drives him to their home in the South of France with a brief stop to lunch with Stanley’s dear Aunt Vanessa (Atkins) who practically raised him and instilled in him the practicality that makes up his personality, although she despairs at his prickliness that makes him something of a social hand grenade.
Nobody knows who Stanley is once they arrive at the Catledge villa; he introduces himself as an importer of Brazilian coffee beans. He meets Sophie and her suspicious mother (Harden) and proceeds to let slip his disbelief in the occult. However at a séance, he is unable to detect how she makes a candle levitate nor does she seem to be the source of the rapping noises that are overheard. The great debunker has to admit he’s perplexed.
He grows further so when she seems to know things she couldn’t possibly know – even Aunt Vanessa is taken with the charming young lass. The more he begins to doubt his own convictions, the more alive Stanley feels – and the more he begins to fall for the beautiful young girl. However, he can’t keep that nagging feeling out of his head that there is no such thing as magic. It’s a war in his soul for which it seems there can be no compromise.
Allen has been in a bit of a career renaissance in his 70s with nine films released including two of his most acclaimed and commercially successful – Blue Jasmine and Midnight in Paris. I will admit that I had fallen out of love with Allen not long after Broadway Danny Rose and The Purple Rose of Cairo – it seemed to me that most of his movies between then and now were passionless and seemed to be the work of someone who was working to stay busy. However Midnight in Paris did change my mind and I have again begun to look forward to his new movies – not that all of them have been great. Still I had high hopes for this one.
It is charming to be sure, a throwback to an early era – not just the era of the flapper when this is set, but also to the comedies of the ’70s which this is more akin to which were in turn inspired by comedies of the 30s and 40s. Call this a throwback of a throwback if you will.
Firth proves himself a phenomenal performer, once again showing that he may be the best male actor of this decade. His Stanley takes the guise of an inscrutable Oriental because Stanley himself is inscrutable; for all his bluster and bravado he is unable to express his emotions any better than those he despises can express their intellect. Stanley is clearly not a likable fellow yet Firth makes us like him in spite of his faults and by the time the movie ends, Stanley has made an organic and believable change. It’s not just good writing that accomplishes this – Firth makes it real.
Most of the rest of the cast does the kind of solid work you’d expect from a cast with this kind of pedigree – not to mention from a Woody Allen movie. Allen has always been able to get good performances from his actors.
I’ll have to admit that the second act seems a bit rushed and that the movie ends up a little bit more neatly tied up in a bow than I might have expected. I supposed when you’re 79 years old and you’re still churning out a movie every year (and sometimes more) without fail, you can be forgiven for taking a few short cuts.
Nonetheless this is solidly entertaining and charming. I have to admit that I do love movies set in this era and I love those kind of 70s-era all-star events that made the Agatha Christie movies so entertaining. While not a murder mystery per se, it has some elements you’d find in a movie by the mistress of the murder mystery. If Allen continues to make movies of this quality, I for one won’t be disappointed.
REASONS TO GO: Colin Firth is really, really good. Overall charming and recalls not only the Roaring ’20s but also the ’70s as well.
REASONS TO STAY: Ending is rushed a little bit. A few shortcuts are taken.
FAMILY VALUES: There’s some innuendo and period smoking (which is apparently a big no-no for the MPAA these days).
TRIVIAL PURSUIT: This is the ninth movie made while Woody Allen was in his 70s. Should he release a movie next year, it will be his tenth.
COMPARISON SHOPPING: The Great Gatsby
NEXT: The Giver
Posted in New Releases | Tagged 1920s, antisocial behavior, Catherine McCormack, cinema, Colin Firth, con artist, debunk, Didier Muller, Eileen Atkins, Emma Stone, Films, Hamish Linklater, Jacki Weaver, jazz, Magic in the Moonlight, magician, Marcia Gay Harden, movies, pragmatism, prickly personality, psychic, reviews, Roaring 20s, romantic, romantic comedy, seance, Simon McBurney, Sony Classics, south of France, Ute Lemper, Woody Allen | 1 Reply
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Billy Don't Be a Hero
Billy don't be a hero, don't be a fool with your life
Billy don't be a hero, come back and make me your wife
And as Billy started to go, she said keep your pretty head low
Billy don't be a hero, come back to me
I had to google who did this song – and it was a band called Paper Lace – I have never even heard of them. But the song was memorable from the film Priscilla Queen of the Desert. Paper Lace were an English band – their other hit was The Night Chicago Died. Billy was also a hit by Bo Donaldson and the Heywoods (who?)
The song is from the mid 70's. Although Wikipedia says it is an anti-war song I never saw it quite like that. I thought it was just a sensible woman asking her man not to take any unnecessary risks so he would come back to her.
To see Paper Lace do the song – click on this YouTube clip
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List of Businesses Located in Centennial Park in Peabody, MA
By: Laura Woods
Michael Blann/Photodisc/Getty Images
The Top Ten Hotel Companies
Centennial Park, located in Peabody, Mass., is a business park located 17 miles north of Boston. As of 2014, Centennial Park was home to a variety of technology, research and development, healthcare and biotech manufacturing organizations. The 307-acre area has housed major companies for more than 30 years. Despite the development in the park, the area is filled with trees and open spaces, making it a picturesque place to work.
Thermo Fisher Scientific signed a 10-year lease for a 56,600 square-foot space in in 2013. (Ref. two) The scientific corporation with $17 billion in sales has more than 50,000 employees in 50 countries. The company consists of four different brands, Thermo Scientific, Life Technologies, Fisher Scientific and Unity Lab Services, that create analytical instruments, lab products and services, specialty diagnostic equipment and life-sciences solutions.
Boston Children’s Hospital at Peabody
Boston Children’s Hospital at Peabody offers more than 59 different services and healthcare specialties for children. Physicians practice at both this location and the main campus in Boston. Parents enjoy an easy-to-access location and free parking. Boston Children’s Hospital also has locations in South Weymouth, Waltham, Weymouth and Winchester.
BMW of Peabody
BMW has two locations in Peabody. The two have a combined 40 service bays, 38 certified mechanics, 2 designated Massachusetts state inspection bays and 18 different BMW Spa bays. Customers who choose to wait for their vehicle to be serviced enjoy complimentary coffee and other beverages, television and free WiFi. Additionally, the two locations offer 85 loaner cars that owners can borrow while their car is being worked on.
U.S. Foods
U.S. Foods, an Illinois-based company, distributes food to a variety of companies, including restaurants, healthcare facilities, schools and government entities. The company has exclusive access to a wide variety of brands, including Chef’s Line, del Pasado, Harbor Banks and Molly’s Kitchen. U.S. Foods employs more than 60,000 people in 60 locations across the country.
Fresenius Medical Care
Fresenius Medical Care, the country’s largest network of dialysis centers, provides patients with kidney disease treatment in a caring, compassionate environment. Fresenius has more than 2,150 locations across the country.
Peabody Works: Centennial Park
Boston Business Journal: Thermo Fisher Scientific Division Leases New Space in Peabody
Thermo Fisher Scientific: About Us
Boston Children's Hospital: Boston Children's at Peabody
US Foods: US Foods Locations
Fresenius Medical Care: Peabody, MA
Laura Woods is a Los Angeles-based writer with more than six years of marketing experience. She has a Bachelor of Arts in communications from the University of Pittsburgh and an MBA from Robert Morris University.
Nautica Clothing History
Starting a Portable Radiology Company
Top Food Service Management Companies
US Based Companies That Manufacture Overseas
List of International Non Profit Organizations
Top 10 Offshore Companies
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Home / Commentary / Democrats Waiting to Inflict Damage on Trump — Here’s What the GOP Can Do to Prepare for 2020
Democrats Waiting to Inflict Damage on Trump — Here’s What the GOP Can Do to Prepare for 2020
Star Parker November 28, 2018 Commentary 2 Comments
The headlines about the incoming 116th Congress scream that our representation has never been so “young,” so “blue,” so “diverse.”
If diversity is about how people look, this Congress is very diverse. It’s a fact that there has never been so great a number of representatives who are women and people of color.
There are 124 women, 55 blacks, 43 Latinos and 15 Asians.
But if diversity means diversity of thought, it’s practically nonexistent.
Of the 124 women, 105 are Democrats. Of the 55 blacks, all are Democrats. Of the 43 Latinos, 34 are Democrats. Of the 15 Asians, 14 are Democrats.
The celebration about alleged diversity is really a celebration of one, uniform voice on the left, dressed in different colors, calling in unison for moving America further toward socialism and secular humanism.
All the politics of today’s Democratic Party, which is as far left as it has ever been, is about how people look and where they come from. Once we called this prejudice or stereotyping. Now we call it progressivism.
This is anything but Martin Luther King’s famous dream that his children would one day be judged by “the content of their character and not the color of their skin.”
It takes a certain blindness to miss the irony in these politicians of the left, who call for honoring and empowering individuals, and choose to do this by making them less free. They claim to enhance individual dignity by expanding government to dictate our health care, how we save and retire, our relationship with our employer, how and what we can say to others and what they can say to us, and just about every detail of our private lives and decisions.
How has it become so lost in our country that the way we dignify individuals is by believing in them, by granting them freedom to take responsibility for their own life?
In this election, Republicans won a national majority only from white voters. Hispanics voted 69 percent for Democrats; blacks, 90 percent; and Asians, 77 percent.
Minority Americans have bought the lie that personal freedom is not in their interest — that government should run their lives. This is meaningful to us all because they represent the growth demographics of the nation.
According to recent analysis from the Brookings Institution, white America will be in the minority by 2045. However by 2027, just eight years from now, the majority of Americans 29 and under will be non-white.
The socialists, the secular humanists, know time is on their side. It’s a waiting game for them.
The new Democrat House has only one thing in mind — biding its time to inflict maximum damage on President Donald Trump in order to lay the groundwork for whomever they nominate for president in 2020. So expect a very noisy two years.
What can Republicans do? Get far more aggressive in reaching into these minority communities about what losing or gaining freedom will mean to them. Republicans have a very important story to tell that is not reaching these communities.
Countries that are not free don’t grow, because all the activity is about transferring wealth — not creating it.
The progressive politics of blame, dependence and envy make the well-connected rich and keep impoverished people poor. It’s why over the last 50 years, many black politicians have gotten wealthy while the gap in average household income between whites and blacks is 50 percent greater today than it was in 1970.
Republicans and all Americans who care about bequeathing a free nation to their children and grandchildren need to think long and hard about how to communicate the importance of freedom to Americans of color. It’s our only hope of not losing our country to the left forever.
COPYRIGHT 2018 STAR PARKER
DISTRIBUTED BY CREATORS.COM
Photo credit: Lorie Shaull (Creative Commons) – Some rights reserved
Star Parker is the founder and president of the Center for Urban Renewal and Education. Contact her at www.urbancure.org.
Tags liberal madness President Donald Trump
Previous Charter Schools Provide Better Educational Opportunities for Black Children — So Why Don’t Black Politicians and the Civil Rights Industry Support Them?
Next Here’s What’s Really Behind the Left’s Love Affair with Black Socialists
Merdies Hayes
Star, there is something to the term “personal freedom.” At one time in our nation’s history, Blacks were relegated to voting only for White candidates. There was a brief period during the 1880s when there were many Black candidates to choose from, but that ended almost as quickly as it began. Took another 70 years for Blacks to get a meaningful foothold in local, state and national politics. Now there is the personal freedom to decide which candidate may suit the individual’s best interests. That’s a wonderful thing.
RIpete
When the Democrats become the only party in the Republic and they totally destroy the nation their will be no one to come to the rescue to preserve the union. By the time this happens I will fortunately be with my maker but I feel sorry for those that will be living in a third world America.
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Published on Transport for Development
Road safety action pays off, and “demonstration corridors” are here to prove it
Nupur Gupta
Last year, road crashes claimed more than 150,000 lives in India, making road safety an essential element of any road project in the country.
In line with international experience and practice, the World Bank has progressively developed a comprehensive approach to road safety that doesn’t just consider infrastructure design but brings together all key stakeholders that have a stake in making and keeping roads safe, from police authorities to transport and health departments as well as infrastructure providers.
One example of this approach is the 138.6-km-long Kadapa to Renigunta safety demonstration corridor implemented by the Government of Andhra Pradesh under the Andhra Pradesh & Telangana Road Sector Project (APTRSP).
The corridor itself was chosen based on its poor safety performance in 2010 through an International Road Assessment Programme (iRap) survey. To enhance the safety of the demonstration corridor, the following measures were proposed:
Infrastructure improvements
The creation of a new fully-equipped trauma care center at a local hospital
Improved enforcement of traffic laws
Targeted initiatives focused on particular road users.
The Transport Department was designated the Lead Agency for implementing the Safe Road Corridor and a Road Safety Cell was set up within the Department. When we started implementing these interventions back in 2014, this was one of the first deliberate multi-sectoral efforts to improve the safety of a road in the country. As the project is nearing completion, now is a good time to look at preliminary results. Between 2009 and 2017, the number of fatalities declined by 40%, from 0.26 to 0.16 per ten thousand vehicles. While these numbers are certainly encouraging, we know we can take this further, so let’s take stock of what worked and what could be improved.
Promising achievements
The impact of civil works. Civil works were focused on the most vulnerable sections of the road, and involved interventions such as curve and junction improvements, widening, retro-reflective signage, lane markings, safe pedestrian crossings, crash barriers and road studs. The results were impressive: locations where curves and junctions were improved saw a 53% reduction in road crashes and 42% reduction in fatalities.
Effective enforcement for safer driving. Two Highway Patrolling Outposts were created at Rajampet and Renigunta and equipped with tow-away cranes, patrolling vehicles, speed laser guns, breath analyzers etc. The focus of enforcement was on checking over-speeding and drunken driving, and accidents involving cars, auto-rickshaws and light commercial vehicles dropped.
Evidence-based interventions. The Transport Department took a close look at available data to understand the main risk factors that contributed to crashes on the corridor. The exercise revealed, for instance, that many collisions involving trucks occurred because many drivers did not take the time to rest and freshen up during their shift—which led to the development of the innovative Stop-Wash-Go Program. Using the same method, government officials also realized many drivers were speeding because they wanted to reach the holy town of Tirupati in time for early morning ceremonies.
Some room for improvement
Coordination with the Health Department has not always been seamless. As an example, the newly-built Trauma Care facility at Rajampet remains unutilized due to a lack of specialized staff.
The case for a more ambitious civil works program. The targeted stretches accounted for only a small subset of accidents and fatalities. The majority of accidents are spread across the rest of the corridor, which would have benefited from a more comprehensive treatment.
The issue of motorcycle helmet use. More than 90% of motorcycle drivers and pillion riders drive without a helmet—a blatant safety issue that remains largely unaddressed. Alternate strategies for behavior change and political championship will be essential.
Toward a bigger, bolder road safety program
The state has identified Road Safety as a priority and constituted a State Road Safety Council headed by the Chief Minister which convenes every month. This in turn is supported by District Road Safety Committees (DRSC) which also meet every month and are required to submit district level data regularly to the Council. The state has set itself a target of reducing fatalities by 15% by 2020 and 50% by 2025, and a suitably empowered and data-savvy Transport Department leads this effort.
Based on the experience on the Kadapa-Renigunta demo corridor, the Transport Department now plans a sizeable scale up of the programs in each of the 13 districts in the state. Some 1620 km of vulnerable road sections have been identified to be part of the next phase. Building on the success of the first demonstration corridor, the World Bank looks forward to expanding this approach—and saving lives across the state.
Senior Transport Specialist
More Blogs By Nupur
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BMC Geriatrics
Research Article | Open | Open Peer Review | Published: 06 August 2018
Comparison of access to health services among urban-to-urban and rural-to-urban older migrants, and urban and rural older permanent residents in Zhejiang Province, China: a cross-sectional survey
Sha Ma1,
Xudong Zhou1,
Minmin Jiang1,
Qiuju Li1,
Chao Gao1,
Weiming Cao2 &
Lu Li1
BMC Geriatricsvolume 18, Article number: 174 (2018) | Download Citation
While much literature reported the access of Chinese older migrants to health services, little was known about the differences among sub-groups of older adults, including urban-to-urban and rural-to-urban migrants, and urban and rural permanent residents. This study aimed to examine the access of these four groups to health services in Zhejiang Province, China and provide an evidence for the development of health services policies.
A cross-sectional survey was conducted in community-dwelling older adults (aged 60 years or above) in 2013. Participants were recruited by random sampling. Demographic information and access to health services for the elderly populations were obtained via interviews using a self-designed structured questionnaire. Pearson’s chi-square tests and Cochran-Mantel-Haenszel (CMH) tests were performed to examine the differences in access to health services among the four groups. Binary logistic regression was conducted to explore the associations of participants’ visits to doctors with their group status after controlling confounding factors.
The two-week hospital visiting rates were significantly lower in migrants (55.56% in rural-to-urban and 62.50% in urban-to-urban) than that in urban and rural permanent residents (67.40 and 82.25%, respectively; p < 0.01). The majority of older adults who received a diagnosis indicating need for hospital treatment accepted the treatment, with no significant difference among the four groups after controlling for health service need (χ2 = 7.08, p = 0.07). On the other hand, 30.05% of the older adults did not visit a doctor when they got ailments in the past 2 weeks prior to the survey, and 16.42% (33/201) did not receive hospital treatment after receiving a diagnosis indicating need for hospital treatment. Factors including age, marital status, educational attainment, major financial source, and living with family members did not influence health services use.
Targeted social and health policies integrating the strengths of government, society and families should be implemented to further improve health services use for different groups of older adults.
With continuing industrialization and urbanization, the number of older migrants in China has increased dramatically. Many of them move to cities to join their adult children and take care of their grandchildren. Immigration status is an important component in racial and ethnic disparities in access to healthcare [1]. Immigrant populations can easily become vulnerable groups in health services use in both developed and developing countries. A study in Europe reported that the migrants had less usage of screening and outpatient services for specialized care [2]. EU policy supports healthcare access for undocumented migrants, but practices remain haphazard [3]. A Czech study found that migrants were more likely to remain excluded from the public health insurance system [4]. Another study in Vietnam reported that the rural-to-urban older migrants had less access to health services [5]. Equity in health services means everyone has a chance to enjoy a fundamental preventive treatment, healthcare, and rehabilitation in need. Reported issues on health services accessibility included the following: i) The current status of health services use. A study conducted in Shanghai reported a low usage of health services in the older “floating” population [6]. ii) Accessibility to health services among vulnerable groups, including children [7], maternal women [8, 9], disabled people, migrants, people with mental illnesses [10], and prisoners [11]. iii) Barriers to health services, including previous negative experiences when accessing services [12], a long distance, a lack of knowledge regarding the location of government health facilities, and a lack of trust in government services [13]. iv) The influencing factors of access to health services on specific diseases, such as prediabetes [14], health insurance status, education, and gender [15].
To ensure health care for all people, China focused on provision of convenient and affordable health services across the rural and urban areas in previous decades and established a health insurance system consisting of health insurance for urban workers and residents, and the New Rural Cooperative Medical System (NCMS) for rural residents. Overall health insurance coverage was about 93% of its entire population in 2011, while urban residents had a greater access to health services via urban health insurance plans than those in the rural areas [16]. The majority of rural-to-urban migrants faced high public health risk due to their poor working and living conditions and lack of local social security and support [17]. A study containing a national sample reported that migrants had less access to public health services [18]. Another national survey showed that the weighted prevalence of healthcare service use was 36.6% in disabled elderly [19].
Previous Chinese studies focused on either migrant adults or older adults as a whole, but little was known about the differences in health services use among sub-groups including urban-to-urban and rural-to-urban older migrants, and urban and rural older permanent residents. Regarding health services use among these four groups in Zhejiang, we hypothesize that access to health and hospital services is universal. This study aimed to analyze access to health services and hospitalization in these four groups to explore whether older migrants are associated with lower access to health services after controlling for confounding factors. Besides, we want to identify the most vulnerable populations regarding health services use to provide a basis for promoting health policy development.
Participants were divided into four groups of older adults: urban-to-urban migrants, rural-to-urban migrants, urban and rural permanent residents. Two-stage stratified cluster sampling was used to recruit urban older permanent residents from May to August 2013 in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, China. Gongshu, Jianggan, and Yuhang districts were randomly selected from 13 districts in Hangzhou to represent high, middle, and low levels of urbanization, respectively, and then one sub-district was randomly selected within each district. Two communities were randomly selected from each selected sub-district to represent a high or low economic level, resulting in six communities selected for the survey. A total of 1497 subjects, who lived in the six communities and met the study criteria, were surveyed and 1343 of them completed the questionnaires, of which 1322 were valid. The response rate was 89.71% and the validity rate was 98.44%.
Multi-stage stratified random sampling was conducted to select older migrants. Yuhang and Binjiang districts, which were migrant population centers, were selected from Hangzhou’s 13 districts. One sub-district was randomly selected from each of these two districts, and two communities were randomly selected from each of these sub-districts. A total of 1521 subjects were recruited, of which 1316 completed the questionnaire, with 1036 valid questionnaires (541 urban-to-urban and 495 rural-to-urban older migrants). The response rate was 86.52% and the validity rate was 78.72%.
Multi-stage stratified random sampling was adopted to extract the rural older permanent residents. Kaihua and Wuyi counties were selected as the sampling sites initially, and then one township was randomly selected from each county. Two administrative villages were randomly selected from each township, with 375 rural older permanent residents randomly selected from each village. A total of 1502 subjects were interviewed, 1468 completed the questionnaire, and 1449 questionnaires were valid, with the response rate of 97.74%, and the validity rate of 98.71%.
Participants should met the following inclusion criteria: i) aged 60 years old and or above; ii) able to read, write, and communicate normally in Chinese; iii) without any mental illness; and iv) willing to participate in this study. Community or village leaders were asked to provide subjects who apparently met the requirements of the survey. Before the formal interview, investigators had an informal conversation with the subjects and excluded those subjects with a potential linguistic inability or mental illness. No differences were found among urban, rural, and migrant groups regarding their qualification to participate.
A structured questionnaire was developed, covering socio-demographic characteristics, the need and use of health services. Data were collected via personal interviews and information was gathered anonymously. Socio-demographic characteristics included gender (female, male), age (60 to 69 years, 70 years or above), marital status (married, non-married), educational attainment (primary school or below, junior high school or above), main financial resource (oneself or their spouses, offspring and others), living with family members (yes, no), joined health insurance (yes, no), joined the endowment insurance (yes, no), and chronic diseases (yes, no).
In this study, health services accessibility was reflected by whether the subjects used health services when they had ailments or serious diseases. Firstly, we asked the participants whether they suffered from ailments in the past 2 weeks or an illness diagnosed by a doctor for hospitalization in the past year prior to the survey. These two items served as proxies for the need of health services. Health service need was measured by indicators including the two-week prevalence rate and the rate of diagnosis indicating need for hospital treatment in the past year. Indicators are calculated as below.
Two-week prevalence rate was equal to the number of participants who suffered from illness 2 weeks prior to the survey divided by the total number of participants surveyed within each group.
The diagnosis indicting need for hospital treatment rate in the past year was equal to the number of participants who should have received hospital treatment following a doctor’s diagnosis in the past year prior to the survey divided by the total number of participants surveyed within each group.
Then, we asked the participants with ailments whether they visited a doctor and asked those with a need for hospitalization whether they underwent to hospital treatment. These two items served as proxies for health service utilization. In another words, health service utilization was measured by indicators consisting of the two-week hospital visiting rate among participants with illness and the actual hospitalization rate among participants diagnosed for inpatient treatment. They are calculated as below.
The two-week hospital visiting rate among participants with illness was equal to the number of elderly who had visited a doctor in the past 2 weeks prior to the survey divided by the total number of the elderly with ailments within each group.
The hospitalization rate among the elderly diagnosed for inpatient treatment was equal to the number of elderly who had accepted hospital treatment in the past year prior to the survey divided by the total number of the elderly who should have received hospital treatment following doctor’s diagnosis within each group.
The reasons that the participants did not visit a doctor and go for hospital treatment in this study included mild symptoms, financial difficulty, lack of time, poor transportation system, unfamiliar with a place, self-treatment, lack of caregiver, and other reasons.
Urban older permanent residents refer to those aged 60 years and above with a registered permanent residence in Hangzhou who had lived in Hangzhou at least 6 months at the time of the survey. The older migrants were divided into urban-to-urban and rural-to-urban older migrants. The former refers to those aged 60 years or above who came from another city and lived in Hangzhou over 6 months at the time of the survey but did not have a registered permanent residence. The latter refers to people aged 60 years or above who came from a village and lived in Hangzhou over 6 months at the time of survey but did not have a registered permanent residence. The rural older permanent residents refer to those aged 60 years or above who had a rural registered permanent residence and had lived in that area for at least 6 months at the time of the survey.
Statistical analysis was performed using the software SPSS 18.0. Descriptive statistics were used to describe the socio-demographic characteristics of the four groups of participants. Pearson’s chi-square tests and Cochran-Mantel-Haenszel tests were used to test the differences in access to health services among the four groups with health services need. Factors associated with participants’ visits to doctors were analyzed by binary logistic regression after controlling for socio-demographic characteristics. Statistical significance was set at p = 0.05 level.
The socio-demographic characteristics of the participants
A total of 3807 participants were included in the analyses, consisting of 13.0% (495/3807) of rural-to-urban older migrants, 14.21% (541/3807) of urban-to-urban older migrants, 34.73% (1322/3807) of urban older permanent residents, and 38.06% (1449/3807) of rural older permanent residents. Their socio-demographic characteristics are shown in Table 1. The majority of participants aged 60 to 69 years, with differences between groups: urban-to-urban migrant group was 76.89%, rural-to-urban migrant group was 84.44%, and smaller portions of this age range were found in the urban (56.58%) and rural groups (51.97%). Proportion of the married participants was similar among groups (83.55% for the urban-to-urban migrant group, 80.20% for the rural-to-urban migrant group, 77.60% for the urban group, and 73.29% for the rural group). Those having an educational level of junior high school or above accounted for 46.32% in urban group, 31.31% in rural-to-urban group, and 9.39% in rural group, while it was 76.71% in the urban-to-urban group. Most participants depended on themselves or their spouses to live (85.58% in the urban-to-urban group, 77.99% in the urban group, 54.87% in the rural group, and 51.11% in the rural-to-urban group), and the others depended on their offspring or others. The majority in each of the four groups had health insurance, but this was significantly lower among the rural-to-urban group (79.80%) than the urban-to-urban group (90.57%), urban group (98.11%), and rural group (98.48%) (χ2 = 314.50, p < 0.01). More participants in the urban group (61.73%) had been diagnosed with a chronic disease than those in the other three groups (24.63% in urban-to-urban group, 26.63% in rural-to-urban group, and 49.55% in rural group).
Table 1 Socio-demographic and socio-economic characteristics of urban, urban-to-urban migrant, rural-to-urban migrant and rural older adults
Two-week prevalence rate
The difference in the two-week prevalence rate among the four groups was statistically significant (χ2 = 114.86, p < 0.01). The highest rate of physical discomfort in the past 2 weeks prior to the survey was reported by the urban group (24.81%; 326/1314) followed by the rural-to-urban group (13.56%; 67/494), while the rural and urban-to-urban migrant groups reported rates of 11.66% (169/1449) and 9.43% (51/541) respectively. Fewer males than females experienced ailments in urban group (odds ratio [OR] = 0.61, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0. 47 to 0.80) (Table 2). The subjects aged 60 to 69 had a higher rate than those aged 70 or above in urban group (OR = 2.30, 95% CI 1.70 to 3.12), while the differences between these two age categories among the other groups were not statistically significant. Married older adults had a lower ratio than the unmarried across four groups, and the difference was only statistically significant in the rural group (OR = 0.62, 95% CI 0.44 to 0.88). Participants with an education level of primary school or below had a lower risk than those with a higher education level in urban group (OR = 0.69, 95% CI 0.54 to 0.89). Subjects who depended on themselves or their spouses had a higher rate than those who depended on their offspring or others in the urban group (OR = 4.90, 95% CI 3.14 to 7.66). An opposite pattern was detected in the rural-to-urban and rural groups (OR = 0.56, 95%CI 0.33 to 0.95; OR = 0.64, 95%CI 0.46 to 0.88). For the urban subjects, those who lived with their family had a higher risk than those living alone (OR = 2.30, 95% CI 1.70 to 3.12). Subjects who were covered by health insurance had a lower risk than the others across four groups, with no statistical significance. Those with chronic disease had a higher risk than those without across four groups (OR = 11.17, 95% CI 7.29 to 17.12; OR = 14.98, 95% CI 7.39 to 30.36; OR = 12.43, 95% CI 6.73 to 22.99; OR = 7.03, 95% CI 4.53 to 10.90).
Table 2 Risk rate of two-week prevalence across demographic characteristics among urban, urban-to-urban, rural-to-urban, and rural old adults
Two-week hospital visiting rate among the elderly with illness
The difference in the two-week hospital visiting rate among the four groups of subjects with illness in the past 2 weeks was statistically significant (χ2 = 20.63, p < 0.01) after controlling for health service need. Older non-migrants were more likely to visit a doctor, the two-week hospital visiting rates for the rural group was 82.25% (139/169), 67.40% (215/319) for the urban group, 62.50% (30/48) for the urban-to-urban group and 55.56% (35/63) for the rural-to-urban group.
Males had a higher two-week hospital visiting rate than females among four groups, with no statistical significance (Table 3). Subjects aged 60 to 69 had a higher rate than subjects who aged 70 or above in the urban group (OR = 1.06, 95% CI 0.66 to 1.70), while the rate was lower for subjects aged 60 to 69 in urban-to-urban, rural-to-urban and rural groups, with no statistical significance. Married subjects in both urban and urban-to-urban groups had a higher rate than the unmarried, while married subjects in rural-to-urban and rural groups had a lower rate than the unmarried, with no statistical significance. Subjects with an education level of primary school or below had a lower rate than those with an education level of junior high school or above apart from the rural-to-urban group, with no statistical significance. Subjects who were economically independent or dependent on their spouses had a higher rate than the group who depended on their offspring or others in the rural-to-urban group; those who were economically independent or dependent on their spouses had a lower rate than the remaining, with no statistical significance. Except for the urban group, all subjects living with their family had a lower rate than those living alone, with no statistical significance. Those covered by health insurance had a lower rate than those without in rural group (OR = 0.82, 95% CI 0.76 to 0.88). Subjects with chronic disease had a lower rate than those without across four groups, with no statistical significance.
Table 3 Risk rate of two-week hospital visiting rate among the elderly with illness across demographic characteristics among urban, urban-to-urban, rural-to-urban, and rural old adults
Rate of diagnosis indicating need for hospital treatment in the past year
There was a statistically significant difference in the rate of diagnosis indicating need for hospital treatment among the four groups (χ2 = 88.5, p < 0.01). The rate was 11.16% (146/1308) for the urban group, 4.11% (22/535), 4.06% (20/493), and 3.03% (43/1420) for the urban-to-urban migrant, rural-to-urban migrant, and rural groups, respectively.
Male participants had a higher rate of diagnosis for hospitalization than the females in rural-to-urban and rural groups (OR = 4.39, 95% CI 1.57 to 12.28; OR = 2, 95% CI 1.06 to 3.78) (Table 4). Participants aged under 70 had a lower rate than those aged 70 or above in the rural group (OR = 0.48, 95% CI 0.25 to 0.90). Subjects with an educational level of primary school or below had a lower rate than those with an educational level of junior high school or above for urban and rural groups (OR = 0.61, 95% CI 0.43 to 0.86; OR = 0.43, 95% CI 0.19 to 0.95). Subjects who depended on themselves or their spouses had a higher rate than those who depended on their offspring or others both in urban group (OR = 5.55, 95% CI 2.69 to 11.47), while those who depend on themselves or their spouses had a lower rate than others in urban-to-urban (OR = 0.95, 95% CI 0.93 to 0.97). Subjects living with their family had a higher rate than those living alone both in the urban group (OR = 2.19, 95% CI 1.42 to 3.39). Subjects with chronic disease had a higher rate than those without among urban, urban-to-urban, rural-to-urban, and rural groups (OR = 5.45, 95% CI 3.24 to 9.16; OR = 11.95, 95% CI 4.31 to 33.09%; OR = 26.62, 95% CI 6.06 to 116.96; OR = 4.6, 95% CI 2.12 to 10.02).
Table 4 Risk rate of diagnosis indicating need for hospital treatment rate in the past year across demographic characteristics among urban, urban-to-urban, rural-to-urban, and rural old adults
The actual hospitalization rate among the elderly diagnosed for inpatient treatment
The majority of subjects who received a diagnosis indicating the need for hospital treatment accepted hospital treatment, with no statistically significant differences among the four groups after controlling for health service need (χ2 = 7.08, p = 0.07; the urban-to-urban group = 100% (19/19), rural-to-urban group = 95% (19/20), urban group = 80.74% (109/135), and rural group = 77.78% (21/27).
Male participants had a lower rate than females in urban group (OR = 0.34, 95% CI 0.13 to 0.92) (Table 5). Participants aged 60 to 69 had a lower rate than those aged 70 or above in the rural-to-urban and rural groups, while participants aged 60 to 69 in urban group had a higher rate than those aged 70 or above, with no statistical significance. Married participants had a lower rate than the unmarried in rural group (OR = 0.12, 95% CI 0.02 to 0.88). Participants with an educational level of primary school and below had a lower rate than those with junior high school education and above both in urban and rural groups, while participants with an educational level of primary school and below had a higher rate than those with an educational level of junior high school and above, with no statistical significance. Participants who depended on themselves or their spouses had a lower rate than those who depended on their offspring or others in urban group (OR = 0.80, 95% CI 0.73 to 0.87). Participants covered by health insurance had a lower rate than those without in rural group (OR = 0.77, 95% CI 0.62 to 0.95).
Table 5 Risk rate of the actual hospitalization rate among the elderly diagnosed for inpatient treatment across demographic characteristics among urban, urban-to-urban, rural-to-urban, and rural old adults
Barriers to use health services
Among 599 subjects with illness, 180 of them (30.05%) did not visit a doctor when they were uncomfortable (by group: 32.60% (104/319) urban, 37.50% (18/48) urban-to-urban migrant, 44.44% (28/63) rural-to-urban migrant, and 17.75% (30/169) rural). Subjects in each of the four groups faced different barriers to health services. Among the urban subjects, the main reasons for denial of health service were self-treatment (65.45%), other reasons (55.56%) and mild symptoms (52.94%). For the urban-to-urban subjects, the top three reasons for denial of health service were no time (25%), financial difficulty (16.67%), and mild symptoms (12.94%). For rural-to-urban subjects, the top three reasons were unfamiliar with the place (37.50%), other reasons (27.78%) and financial difficulty (16.67%). For the rural subjects, the top three reasons were scarce caregiver (66.67%), inadequate transportation (50%) and financial difficulty (38.89%).
16.42% (33/201) participants did not receive hospital treatment after receiving a diagnosis indicating the need for hospital treatment. The percentages of urban, urban-to-urban, rural-to-urban and rural older adults were 19.26% (26/135), 0% (0/19), 5% (1/20) and 22.22% (6/27) respectively. Across all three groups with participants who did not receive hospital treatment, the main reason given was mild symptoms (29.17% for urban subjects, 100% for rural-to-urban subjects and rural subjects).
Factors influencing health services utilization
After controlling for socio-demographic characteristics including gender, age, marital status, educational attainment, major financial source, living with family members, health insurance, and having chronic diseases, rural subjects were more likely to visit doctors than urban subjects when they got illness in the past 2 weeks (OR = 2.29, p = 0.01) (Table 6).
Table 6 Binary logistic regression model to identify factors influencing two-week hospital visiting (including the person with ailment in the past two-week)
Many literature concerned with the access to health services for the migrant population [3, 20,21,22] tend to indicate that migrants have poorer access to health services [23, 24], while little difference had been found between migrants and non-migrants regarding health service use [25]. Little research had focused on older migrants, and the heterogeneity of older migrants was ignored in the one available publication comparing migrant with non-migrant population [5]. To our knowledge, the current study was the first to compare access to health services among four groups of older adults in China: urban-to-urban migrant, rural-to-urban migrant, urban, and rural older adults. Based on this special perspective, this study sheds a deeper understanding on the access to health services of four groups of elderly population and provides a more accurate basis for improving health welfare provision for older adults.
Previous research that indicated the low utilization of health services among migrant elderly [26,27,28], while this study found that the utilization of hospitalizations among older migrants were higher than non-migrant groups (not statistically significant). Compared with the hospitalization rate of 80.74% in urban elderly and 77.78% in rural elderly, the rates of both the urban-to-urban and rural-to-urban migrants were 100%. There are two reasons that can explain it.
First, in this study, urban-to-urban older migrants and rural-to-urban older migrants were younger and fewer of them had chronic disease when compared to the urban and rural groups. In the urban-to-urban group and the rural-to-urban group, the percentage of participants aged 60 to 69 were 76.89 to 84.44% respectively, while the percentages in the urban and rural groups were 56.58 and 51.97% respectively. Only 24.63% of urban-to-urban older adults and 26.63% rural-to-urban older adults had chronic diseases, while the percentage was 61.73% for the urban group and 49.55% in the rural group. Younger and healthier older adults were prone to accept hospital treatment in need. This opinion has been reported by a previous study, which found that younger and healthier older migrants would easily attach the importance to treatment when they were diagnosed with the need of hospitalization [2].
Second, a study found that high educational attainment can promote health service use for the older migrants [29]. In this study, urban-to-urban and rural-to-urban migrant groups had a higher educational attainment than urban and rural groups. 76.71% of urban-to-urban older migrants had an educational level of junior high school and above, which was higher than the urban group (46.32%). 31.31% of rural-to-urban migrants had an education level of junior high school and above, which was also higher than the rural group (9.39%). These could explain why older migrants were more likely to be hospitalized when they have been diagnosed as needing to be hospitalized.
Furthermore, this study found that the health insurance participation rate in rural group (98.48%) was the highest among four groups (98.11% urban, 90.57% urban-to-urban and 78.80% rural-to-urban groups). Meanwhile, rural elderly were more likely to visit a doctor when they got ailments (82.25%), but less of them were hospitalized (77.78%) when compared with other three groups. According to a previous study, rural elderly had a higher chance of visiting a doctor as they were benefited from China’s New-type Rural Cooperative Medical Scheme [30]. Over the past few decades, China has made important advances in achieving equal access to health services and insurance coverage across and within regions [31]. Meanwhile, China has basically achieved full coverage of health insurance [32].
Although four groups had high two-week prevalence rate and actual hospitalization rate, part of the older adults did not accept health service. Previous studies found that lack of community support [24], cultural beliefs and practices [33] are the major barriers for migrant elderly in accessing health services. However, this study found that the main reason why the older adults did not go for hospital treatment was because they did not identify the need for treatment. Four groups of older adults had different reasons for refusing a doctor’s visit when they got ailments. For the urban-to-urban and rural-to-urban migrant elderly, the main reasons were lack of time (25%) and being unfamiliar with the place (37.5%). While for the urban and rural groups, the main reasons for refusing a doctor’s visit were self-treatment and without caregiver. This suggested that a variety of social and health policies should be considered to improve the utilization of health services for different groups of older adults.
A limitation in this study was that no strict control group was established. The urban-to-urban and rural-to-urban older migrants came from different areas, which might have caused the heterogeneity in baseline health of the samples due to the economic development gaps between regions. Another limitation was that the cross-sectional study design can only allow for the collection of retrospective data; therefore, the postulation of the vulnerability of urban-to-urban and rural-to-urban older migrants in the near future needs to be further confirmed by prospective studies. Finally, we could not collect data on the intensity of disease, which weakened the assertions of the variations in health services utilization according to magnitude of need.
Utilization of high health services among the four groups were detected in this study, while existing obstacles caused the low utilization of health services of older adults when they had ailments or serious diseases. According to the main obstacles of health service use in four groups, a variety of social and health policies integrating the strengths of government, society and family should be implemented for improving health service use in the future.
CI:
Confidence interval
NCMS:
the New Rural Cooperative Medical System
URBMI:
the Urban Resident Basic Medical Insurance
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Thanks to those who participated in questionnaire design and data collection: Tingzhong Yang, Chi Zhou, Ying Qian, Huijie Wu, Dan Wu, and Xiaoying Jiang. Thanks also for Tony Sun who polished the language of final manuscript.
Funding of this study was supported by the program of the National Natural Science Foundation of China [grant number 71273229] and the program of Zhejiang Natural Science Foundation [grant number LQ12G03015].
The data supporting this study is available from the corresponding author for reasonable request.
The Institute of Social and Family Medicine, School of Medicine, Zhejiang University, 866 Yuhangtang Road, Xihu District, Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, 310058, People’s Republic of China
Sha Ma
, Xudong Zhou
, Minmin Jiang
, Qiuju Li
, Chao Gao
& Lu Li
School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Zhejiang Chinese Medical University, Gaoke Road, Fuyang District, Zhejiang Province, 311402, People’s Republic of China
Weiming Cao
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LL conceived and supervised this study; XDZ, MMJ and WMC co-supervised, co-designed and co-conducted this study; SM conducted data analysis, designed, drafted, and revised the manuscript; QJL collected and input the data, and CG participated in interpretation of data. All the authors have read and approved the final manuscript.
Correspondence to Lu Li.
The oral informed consent was obtained from each participant and Zhejiang University Ethical Committee confirmed this form of consent and approved this survey (NO.ZGL2016081). All subjects joined voluntarily and were told that they had right to withdraw from this study at any time. The questionnaires were filled out by participants anonymously.
Migrant older adults
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October 10, 2016 March 20, 2017 Jessica @ Boarding Pass
Visiting the Van Gogh Museum
One of the reasons I love the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam is that as much as the museum celebrates his art, it’s also an intimate portrait of the artist himself. And after visiting the museum, what surprised me the most is that Vincent van Gogh painted for such a short period of time (roughly 10 years from 1881 to 1890), yet remains one of the most recognizable artists around.
The museum itself is housed in 2 beautiful glass buildings on Museumplein (aka “Museum Square”) where you’ll also find the Rijksmuseum, Stedelijk Museum and the iconic “I amsterdam” sign. Lines can be long, so it’s definitely another museum where you’ll want to buy your tickets online in advance. If you find yourself stuck in the cue, at the very least take advantage of the free wi-fi and buy a “voucher” for a ticket on the museum’s website. This will cut your wait time down significantly and advance you to a shorter ticket buying line.
Once inside be prepared to be immersed in Van Gogh’s tumultuous world. What I found most interesting is how his work was a direct reflection of his life, highly influenced by both his geographic surroundings and mental state. Chronologically you’ll see his early works from the Netherlands (dark Dutch potato eaters and realistic portraits), Impressionism in Paris (brighter, colorful and more lively – think sunflowers and self-portraits) and then a dramatic shift when his journey took him to Southern France (cities like Arles and St. Rémy where he was admitted to a mental hospital). The latter period is where Van Gogh’s iconic style is most amplified – swirling lines, vibrant colors and heavy brush strokes wild with emotion (however, if you’ve come with the expectation of seeing Van Gogh’s iconic work The Starry Night it’s not here, rather it’s on display at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City).
In 1890 Van Gogh took his own life in a wheat field in France (like the very fields depicted in many of his later paintings), but his legacy lived on thanks to his art dealer brother Theo who championed his work posthumously. Amidst his madness and loneliness, one of Van Gogh’s final paintings was the cheery blue and white Almond Blossom. He painted it as a gift for his newly born nephew Vincent who eventually oversaw the opening of the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam in 1973, bringing the artist’s life story full circle.
Previous Visiting the Anne Frank House
Next 4 Easy Daytrips from Amsterdam
Katherine Karimi says:
Looks like a great museum!
You paint quite a picture with your words, my friend.
Thanks for sharing this beauty
pedrol says:
great painter, for sure a great museum :) thanks for sharing your photos! PedroL
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Tag Archives: VIZ Kids
Viz Media and Sanrio Announce Publishing Deal to Develop Original Hello Kitty Graphic Novels
Pop Culture Icon Hello Kitty® And Her Friends Will Debut In Two VIZ Kids Offerings
Viz Media, LLC (Viz Media), the largest publisher, distributor and licensor of manga, graphic novels and anime in North America, has announced a new publishing deal with Sanrio, Inc., the global lifestyle brand and parent company of pop icon Hello Kitty®, to develop a series of original graphic novels, and a special single-volume comic featuring a limited-edition Hello Kitty design.
The single-volume Hello Kitty® comic is scheduled to debut at the 2013 Comic-Con Show in San Diego with a Comic-Con exclusive cover by Eisner-nominated artist Jacob Chabot. The comic will feature art by Victoria Maderna, Ian McGinty and Chabot. The main graphic novel series is scheduled to launch in the Fall of 2013 with Here We Go!, a collection of comic stories about Hello Kitty’s travels. Both offerings will be rated ‘A’ for All Ages, and will be published under the company’s VIZ Kids imprint. Viz Media previously teamed with Sanrio and video game company CAPCOM to develop a pair of fun STREET FIGHTER® X Sanrio books that were released in November 2012.
HELLO KITTY®: HERE WE GO! • MSRP: $7.99 US / $9.99 CAN • Available Fall 2013
Hello Kitty has places to be and friends to meet! Join her (or Hello Kitty) as she explores an underground realm, chases an unsavory cake thief around the world, climbs the Himalayas, travels back in time, and discovers that sometimes, the best place to get away from it all is between the pages of a good book.
HELLO KITTY® FASHION MUSIC WONDERLAND • MSRP: $6.99 US / $7.99 CAN • Available Summer 2013
It’s Hello Kitty as you’ve never seen her, in stories filled with fashion, music and adventure!
Sanrio® is the global company behind classic iconic characters Hello Kitty®, Little Twin Stars®, My Melody®, and many more. Sanrio® was founded in the 1960′s in Japan by Shintaro Tsuji, whose simple dream of bringing smiles to people’s faces grew into the brand’s “small gift, big smile” philosophy. This philosophy has served as the inspiration for the broad spectrum of products bearing the likeness of endearing characters that have helped to skyrocket the brand into a $5 billion- a-year business. Sanrio® recently acquired the classic Mr. Men Little Miss™ brand which also has graphic novels published by Viz Media.
“Sanrio and Hello Kitty are synonymous with the very essence of pop culture, and we’re very excited to have Hello Kitty as part of the VIZ Kids family of titles,” says Beth Kawasaki, Viz Media Senior Editorial Director. “The new wordless comic and graphic novel series will appeal to Hello Kitty fans of all ages. Viz Media is having a blast creating the fun new original series and we can’t wait for everyone to see the books.”
For more information on VIZ Kids graphic novels and manga, please visit VIZKids.com.
About Sanrio
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Archive for the ‘ARMS PUMPING IN A BAR LIKE AT A FOOTBALL GAME’ Tag
JOHN CHUCKMAN ESSAY: 9/11: THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL 2 comments
9/11: THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL
I wanted to avoid this topic. Just as I want to avoid everything concerned with what has become known as “9/11,” America’s penchant for nick-names and short-forms holding even in its nightmares. But we do not always get to do the things we want, and ignoring this is something like ignoring a monstrous iceberg that’s drifted into the harbor.
On that date this year, a dense, almost impenetrable fog will descend over the entire United States. All thinking will stop. Television networks will proudly sport logos designed just for the day, and they will broadcast spots from advertisers pretending not to be selling anything. Hours of toe-crinkling, stomach-churning sentiment will be broadcast from politicians with the morals of gangsters.
There will be a moment of silence in the casino lounges of Los Vegas and Atlantic City. Thousands, with casual-wear pant-suits bulging over the tops of barstools, will pause to reflect on the meaning of 9/11 between frenzied rounds of feeding slot machines. Elvis impersonators and chorus girls will bow their heads. The $8-an-hour student in the big fuzzy mouse-suit at Disney World will stop a minute from shilling for expensive rides and eats.
Fundamentalist television-preachers will pause from the work of building media empires to pose in leather arm chairs and shake blubbery jowls, squeezing out a few more stage-tears for dear old America, confident that the moment’s diversion won’t hurt the flow of money from lonely, loopy folks living through television sets.
Footage of smoking, crumbling towers will be replayed a thousand times on television stations with nothing else to attract advertisers. And it will be watched, especially where the option on the dial is one of those politicians reciting his pathetic lines for the twentieth time in a day. The replay button on a million video machines will be hit with trembling anticipation like that felt replaying a favorite horror flick. A billion terrible drug-store photos, snapped on trips to New York, will be taken down from closet shelves to be thumbed and smudged over once again by friends and family.
Recently a Canadian friend I had not seen for a while recounted her experience of flying into New York right at the time of the attack. I tell part of her story because it offers perspective on that day’s events and what has been learned from them.
Through the back window of her cab, she actually saw the second plane strike the World Trade Center. In the logjam of traffic in which she was trapped, crowds of people got out of their cars to gawk, large numbers of them furiously snapping pictures.
Of course, such behavior, had there been a more far-reaching crisis, would have been exactly the opposite of what was called for. People were holding up the flow of traffic away from the city to catch photo-album memories.
A second riveting scene was her going to a bar in the evening for a drink in the airport-area hotel where she would be trapped, surrounded by soldiers, for days (this only after her cab returned to the airport following hours of effort at getting into Manhattan). The television broadcast pictures of American warships off the coast with commentary about how they were equipped with cruise missiles. The men in the bar cheered loudly, just as they would at a football game, fists and forearms pumping like the response to a touchdown. My friend could only put her head down and despair over the notion that she was caught in the middle of a war.
The scene is interesting for several reasons. The football-game reaction to the warships was a replay of the mindless, gut reaction to the military witnessed so many times in my lifetime. It is precisely the reaction that permits a government, often serving special interests and questionable ideology, to become mired in the affairs of others, often to an extent at odds with the interests of most individual Americans.
It was obvious that the attack was the work of people who destroyed themselves as well as their victims. The applicability of warships, with cruise missiles no less, missiles whose only purpose is to destroy targets on the ground or sea hundreds of miles away, to this situation could not have meaning beyond a reassuring show of strength. And yet people cheered. At the time, there was no certainty about what group might be responsible for the destruction.
Many of them still cheer over what has been accomplished in Afghanistan, that is, the killing of thousands of innocent people, the scattering of the genuine terrorists to the four winds, the toppling of a stable but unpleasant government, and putting in its place an unstable but equally unpleasant government.
The displaced government blew up ancient statues and abused women. Members of the new government murder prisoners, suffocating them by the hundreds and dumping their bodies into mass graves on the desert. They also devote time to shooting and blowing up one another. They still abuse women. In the last year, despite the photo-op casting off of the burka, nine women have immolated themselves in protest over ghastly arranged marriages – a far greater number than occurred under the Taliban.
I was reminded of audience reaction to the Sylvester Stallone-Vietnam movie, First Blood. This was a fantasy that re-assured American mass audiences they might have avoided the despair, frustration, and disgrace of Vietnam had there only been people like the star making decisions. This star, a kind of living, plastic action-hero figure, possessed the cunning to defeat every trap and the vision to avoid all confusing complexities – every trap and complexity, that is, except those of going into Vietnam in the first place.
American foreign policy, and particularly the quixotic interventions it has entailed, over the last sixty years has been based on wishes and fantasy rather than facts, on how Americans – at least the financially and politically influential portion of them – would like to see the world rather than how the world is.
To an extent that would surprise many people who regard America as advanced and pragmatic, this is, in fact, a society where fantasy plays a huge role. There are the fantasies of adults who behave like children. There are the paranoid fantasies of Christian fundamentalists who speak in tongues, heal cancer with a thump on the forehead, and find signs of devil worship in corporate symbols or children’s books. There are many strange cults like those of Jim Jones, the Branch Davidians, the Aryan churches, or the recent oddity of sanctifying gibberish from a second-rate science-fiction writer. Always there is the escapism of Los Vegas, Disney World, and Hollywood, and the powerful fantasies of advertising that keep the economic engine at full throttle.
In many ways, this attachment to fantasy plays a role in foreign affairs, in the way America sees the world and how she understands her place.
In the Middle East, a place under great stresses including rapid modernization contemporary with the continued existence of ancient tribal cultures, something has been occurring much like the gradual build-up of pressure from the slow, almost imperceptible movement of tectonic plates. Under these stressful conditions, America’s myopic views and careless policies themselves provide additional sources of stress. The accurate, dreadful message delivered on September 11 is that this way of treating events has become dangerous to Americans whereas before it was dangerous only to those who were the victims of American policy.
And it is that message that America has ignored for the last year. All American efforts and tens of billions of dollars have been directed at two main objects. One is the distortion of traditional arrangements and freedoms at home plus many relationships abroad to help shape a Fortress America. The other is to intensify the very same policies, attempting to destroy people and places abroad viewed as especially unfriendly to the effort.
I don’t believe that any number of attacks and invasions can alter such a fundamental and growing problem. There are simply too many people adversely affected by American policy. You cannot use force to make vast numbers of people submit, unless you are prepared to impose indefinitely the kind of terror Stalin or Hitler imposed on society. And you cannot maintain a fortress society in a globalized world.
Posted May 26, 2009 by JOHN CHUCKMAN in Uncategorized
Tagged with 9/11, ABUSED WOMEN, AFGHANISTAN, AMERICA'S FAVORITE HORROR FLICK, AMERICA'S MINDLESS GUT REACTIONS, AMERICA'S STUPID USE OF POWER, AMERICAN EXCEPTIONALISM, AMERICAN FOREIGN POLICY, AMERICAN MEDIA FAILURES, AMERICAN TELEVISION INSANITY, ARMS PUMPING IN A BAR LIKE AT A FOOTBALL GAME, ATTACHMENT TO FANTASY AND ITS ROLE IN FOREIGN AFFAIRS, AVOIDING COMPLEXITY IN POLICY, BURKA, CELEBRATIONS OF 9/11, CRUMBLING TOWER FOOTAGE RE-PLAYED A THOUSAND TIMES, DEVIL WORSHIP IN AMERICA, DISNEYESQUE PATRIOTISM, DRIVERS OF AMERICAN FOREIGN POLICY, ESCAPISM, FALSITY OF USING FORCE, FIRST BLOOD TYPE OF REACTION TO 9/11, FIRST-HAND ACCOUNT OF 9/11, FOOTBALL GAME REACTION TO WARSHIPS, FORTRESS AMERICA, FORTRESS AMERICA IN GLOBALIZED WORLD, FORTRESS SOCIETY IN GLOBALIZED WORLD, FUNDAMENTALIST EMPIRE BUILDERS, INFORMING NOT PART OF NEWS, JIM JONES, JOHN CHUCKMAN, LARGE NUMBERS OF PEOPLE HURT BY AMERICAN FOREIGN POLICY, MEANING OF RAMBO, MESSAGE AMERICA HAS IGNORED, MIDDLE EAST POLICY, MOMENT OF SILENCE, MOMENT OF SILENCE IN THE CASINO LOUNGES, NETWORKS WITH 9/11 LOGOS, POINTLESS INVASION OF AFGHANISTAN, POLICY BASED ON FANTASY, SHIPS AND MISSILES VERSUS SUICIDE-BOMBERS, SPEAKING IN TONGUES, SYLVESTER STALLONE AND U.S. FOREIGN POLICY, TOO MANY PEOPLE ADVERSELY AFFECTED BY AMERICAN POLICY, U.S. FOREIGN POLICY, U.S. MEDIA FAILURES, U.S. MINDLESS GUT REACTIONS, U.S. STUPID USE OF POWER
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Post by Gort » Sun Feb 13, 2011 1:58 am
Derninan wrote: Every time I pop in here, I try to wrap my head around everything that's happening. So many colors and pictures and text and cool graphics! It's wonderfully overwhelming.
Lord of the Flies was one of the first books I really loved as an adolescent, so I think I'm gonna start there with all the reading and such, even though I haven't seen either film.
Thank you. I'll get some more information about those films up shortly.
"Shortly" may mean as much as a couple days.
I discovered that it took me six hours to preen the original tech posts for The Time Machine today. There are even more such links to check and format for the re-posts covering R&J and LotF!
Post by kiddo in space » Sun Feb 13, 2011 2:00 am
I really want to read Lord of the Flies again. Been thinking about it since this thread appeared.
Mod Hip wrote: Macbeth > pretty much everything ever
Interesting. I'm sure many would agree with you.
But not this guy.
And these people would not easily become close friends of MrCarmady!
Well, even in this short list of five, Macbeth isn't on top.
But here's a page with a bunch of people who see it your way! (I knew there would be one if I looked long enough.)
I also like Macbeth *chears throat* I mean, of course, "The Scottish Play," *clears throat again* don't want to bring bad luck. But I don't think it's necessarily in the top spot. I'm a bit partial to Hamlet and I haven't seen a Shakespeare comedy yet that I didn't like. So, Taming of the Shrew might easily tie with Macbeth *clears throat* I mean, "The Scottish Play" in a listing, if I made one.
Post by YouTookMyName » Sun Feb 13, 2011 2:09 am
The Lord of the Flies (1990) Harry Hook
IMDb link RT-link
Year: 1990 Director: Harry Hook Cast: Balthazar Getty is Ralph; Chris Furrh is Jack Merridew; Danuel Pipoly is Piggy. James Badge Dale is Simon. Roger is played by Gary Rule. Length: 90 min. Color/Stereo Screenplay: Sara Schiff
It took 42 years before someone re-made George Pal’s 1960 film of The Time Machine, but Lewis Allen must have believed he could produce a better version of his own 1963 production of Lord of the Flies. He orchestrated this and released it to the screen just over a quarter-century after he worked with Peter Brook to bring the flawed (yet great) 1963 version to life.
Just as in the novel and Peter Brook’s 1963 film of Lord of the Flies, the main characters in this film are among a group of school boys who are stranded on a tropical island following a plane crash. Nearly all the children survive, but no adults do. Except one, who is very badly injured. The boys are all very young, 8th grade and under, I’d say. But these boys are from an American military school, rather than a British boarding school. A change from English to American characters was made for this film much like what was done with The Time Machine when it was remade in 2002. (And watch for the same relocation to happen with the re-posted Romeo and Juliet Remake Rematch; although Franco Zeffirelli’s Verona is in Italy, Verona Beach is clearly an American city.)
Some people call this version emptier than the 1963 version. Some revile it because it does not exactly follow Golding’s book. Presumably these are not the same people who revile the Chris Columbus Harry Potter films for following the books too closely! I find this film to be a variation on the story in the book. As I’ve written elsewhere for the Remake Rematch between the two films, the writers wanted to update the story, and add different ideas to it. And as I stated in my essay on remakes in general, when an artist adds his or her vision to that of another artist, the result should be collaborative. Why get involved in a creative endeavor if nothing of yours is allowed to show through in it? And why remake a film and set it in the same time frame?
Aside from numerous departures from its 1963 forebear, this film parallels the earlier film and the novel for the last third. It is not a carbon-copy of either, but it makes the same statements, often with similar words and the same actions, by and large. I wouldn’t rate the movie as high as the '63 film, because I believe that the Hollywood slickness detracts from the '90 film—but only to a small extent. It is also this same slickness that makes it a joy to watch.
I would say that if you don’t like this film you won’t like the 1963 film either. That is because what is most likely to put you off are the theme and the story (some people just don’t see much of a plot in the film, perhaps not realizing that it is a modern fable—and fables have paper-thin plots). Perhaps if you like to ponder what motivates human beings to either great acts of goodness or great acts of evil you will like the film. As with all adaptations of printed stories, the movie has to omit some characters and adjust certain ideas to fit the tastes of the intended audience of the day. Movies are still a money business.
Even with its heightened violence, red blood, and smattering of swearing and crude speech, this film is consigned to an art house existence. What do you get when you take a cult novel, make a second movie of it, and it features kids running amuck without grown-ups on a tropical island? An art film. That’s all there is to be said, there. But in this case you get a film that is beautiful to look at, and if you approach it with the attitude that it has a very simple surface with a lot of swirling waters running beneath that surface, you can enjoy it.
Here are some statements about what I like and do not like about Harry Hook’s 1990 remake of Lord of the Flies:
LIKE: Although Hook and Schiff don’t recreate the book Golding wrote, they tell the same story. And this version engages my intellect (which I like) but additionally makes me feel what it might be like to be in that situation, or to discover a group of boys whose sense of connection had deteriorated to this point.
LIKE: Whereas Peter Brook’s 1963 film makes me think a lot about what a masterful achievement his filming of Golding’s novel is, Hook’s version (produced by the same Lewis Allen that produced Brook’s film) makes me feel the same way that I feel when reading the book. Brook’s version does not do this; I am kept behind an invisible barrier that says, “You are watching a movie.” Younger readers should not blame this on black and white. When I grew up most films, and in my household all TV was black and white, and a lot of it engages me, still. Hook manages to draw me into the goings-on and the lives of these young boys facing both an incomprehensible personal tragedy, and what Golding says is Human Nature, at the same time.
LIKE: There are enough “human interest” moments early in the film to get me engaged with the characters. These are little boys I am watching face something that they are not equipped for—military school or no military school. They are in danger of becoming feral children. The degeneration from civilized boys to a pack of wild children is quite palpable in this film—nearly to the extent that I imagined it when I first read the novel. Sure, it seems somewhat contrived. Ladies and gentlemen, it is contrived. And it is equally contrived in the novel, as well.
LIKE: The opening scene beneath the titles features Ralph rescuing the only adult to survive the plane crash. It has some gorgeous underwater photography. As the boys paddle into the lagoon that will become their new home, the beauty of the landscape belies the evil that awaits them—little do they know that they are bringing all that evil on shore with them.
LIKE: The episode where an attempt to set a signal fire results in the fire getting out of control. The fire does exactly what the boys’ Nature will do as the story progresses. The fire destroys a beautiful old tree on a hilltop. Just as it is difficult for them to beat out the spreading fire, the boys will be powerless to stop the spread of base nature among themselves.
LIKE: In this film the boys manage to kill a large boar that it takes 7 of them to carry. This is like the huge sow that Jack and company slay in the novel, rather than the little pig Brook’s kids kill.
DON’T LIKE: The lack of a Cold War in the real world by 1988 removes a compelling reason to have a plane full of boys in the air susceptible to crashing, requires Schiff to invent something different to generate the Beast Thing (called the “monster” in this version). What she uses makes sense, but isn’t dramatically as strong as Golding’s original invention, which Brook was able to use exactly as conceived in 1963. That original genesis of the Beast Thing would have been less plausible in 1990.
DON’T LIKE: The character of Jack seems much more manipulative and less innocent from the get-go than the Jack of the novel or Brook’s film version of the story. It is not that Chris Furrh’s performance lacks subtlety, because it is as nuanced as a 14-year old can usually provide. It’s that the part was written to be scheming to a greater extent than the novel’s chief chorister. Perhaps this is in keeping with the military school source of these fictional youngsters. This Jack is not a choirboy.
DON’T LIKE: Because there is not a choir with a head-boy as leader, the 1990 screenplay makes the boys students at a military school. This of course allows for rank, and Ralph outranks everyone else as Cadet Colonel—so there is no contested election of Ralph over Jack, as in the book and the 1963 film. There is no block of choir votes behind Jack. However, Ralph is taller and larger than Jack in this film as in the novel. That is largely the motivation for his election in the book, and his rank provides a quick and easy way to have him chosen leader, here.
DON’T LIKE: Jack in this movie is more or less an ex-con, having supposedly stolen a car for a joyride on the freeway. This dodges Golding’s original premise by setting Jack’s errant behavior up to be a personal flaw that he possesses, not a flaw that is inherent to every young man on that island with him. It robs the potential discussions about this Lord of the Flies of the humanitarian issues that Golding brought about with his spinning of the fable, and replaces it with a socio-cultural argument that “bad boys do bad things,” an idea that I thought went down into disrepute in the 1940s.
DON’T LIKE: Ralph and Piggy stand by and watch as the rest of the boys slay the monster that is not a monster, but one of their own. Ralph laments the next morning that they didn’t intervene, but in the novel and the 1963 film, both Ralph and Piggy wielded sticks in the sad incident. This screenplay has the two “civilized” boys standing outside the mayhem and observing it because they are somehow “not like those other bad boys” instead of being in the thick of the evil. That puts forth a different thematic perspective. It is a misstep equal to what I wrote about Jack already being a juvie offender at the beginning of the story. But, you see, I have read the book, so I just interpose my understanding of Golding’s premise and ignore the errant directions of the 1990 script! Isn’t that easy!?
kiddo in space wrote: I really want to read Lord of the Flies again. Been thinking about it since this thread appeared.
Well, you've got another review up just above this post, the whet your appetite further.
I wonder if you'd find interest in reading both the English version, and a Spanish translation of the novel! There could be some differences brought about by the way one language or the other handles a particular concept, no?
Post by dreiser » Sun Feb 13, 2011 2:50 am
YouTookMyName wrote: The Time Machine (1960) dir. George Pal
Yvette Mimieux was very hot back in the day.
Uh, yeah. I recall holding my breath when I saw that film in the auditorium at high school...when Mimieux first climbs out of the stream in that thin white wet garment. When she made the film she was about the same age I was at the time I watched it.
Gort wrote: Well, you've got another review up just above this post, the whet your appetite further.
I normally prefer reading the novles on their original lenguage (if I know said lenguage of course), but I can read a spanish translation of the novel anytime. A good translation to spanish could make a good use of the lenguage to adapt the novel, which would be interesting.
Gort wrote: Uh, yeah. I recall holding my breath when I saw that film in the auditorium at high school...when Mimieux first climbs out of the stream in that thin white wet garment. When she made the film she was about the same age I was at the time I watched it.
I remember as a little kid the first movie I saw with her in it was Jackson County Jail. Of course it is a Roger Corman co-produced film so it was pretty salacious. She made quite the impression on me.
I normally prefer reading the novels in their original language (if I know said language of course), but I can read a Spanish translation of the novel anytime. A good translation to Spanish could make a good use of the language to adapt the novel, which would be interesting.
I used to read German much more fluently than I do now, and I read Der Prozess von Franz Kafka in German, then read The Trial by Franz Kafka. There were differences.
I also read some Hermann Hesse novel (but I don't recall which one, but it was not Siddharta, which I read only in English) in a side-by-side edition. First all the way through the English, then all the way through the German. There were differences in tone. The German seemed less brooding to me than the English translation.
EDIT: I had to go look it up. The Hesse novel was Narziß und Goldmund. (Narcissus and Goldmund)
I haven't seen that one. Enjoyed reading the IMDb page, though.
Sadly, aside from The Time Machine, the only thing I've seen her in is Snowbeast. Even more sadly, I could go watch it right now. It's on a collection of 50 made for TV films that I bought once upon a time. I've actually watched 14 of them. Snowbeast is one.
Post by Gort » Mon Feb 14, 2011 1:31 pm
YTMN is madly working on making sure the technical links are still good in the ancient Remake Rematch re-posts, and trying to get more information on certain cast and crew members from each of the six films used in the 2008 Rematches.
No posts yesterday because of squinting at BBCode text, and editing links for hours on end.
Some links have gone 404 over the past nearly 3 years. A surprising number are still good! And there is new information, plus new ways to find copies of the films in some cases. For example, I will have to add links to the posts someone made of the two Lord of the Flies films on YouTube. The links are in the tech posts, but I'll retro them into the DVD post for that Rematch, just for completeness. And I learned how to make the embed feature of this forum work for YouTube material.
I can no longer access the threads at RT, so I've had to go back to my Word.doc files which don't have the very latest text, but do have the picture and internet links in them. Re-ordering everything in Notepad++ before posting is time-consuming, but it means that my test post in the Crew thread here lets me work out kinks before I put the info up in this thread.
Nobody needed to read all this, but I wanted to put something more substantial in this post than "Bump."
A taste of the YT embed for the old LotF flick from 1963; Part 1 of 9 parts:
If you haven't seen it, this post set from EnglishAssist has been lurking at YouTube for over a year, apparently flying beneath the radar. And the 1990 version is there, also. Amazing what you can find if you Google until your eyeballs burn.
Post by YouTookMyName » Tue Feb 15, 2011 5:10 am
Romeo & Juliet (1968) dir. Franco Zeffirelli
Year: 1968 Director: Franco Zeffirelli Cast: Olivia Hussey, Leonard Whiting, Michael York, John McEnery, Milo O’Shea, Pat Heywood Length: 138 min. Color/Mono
Everyone ninth grade or higher has read this play, or seen it in class, or come across the basis of the plot in some way. There is no such thing as a spoiler for Romeo and Juliet! The play, and the story are that well-known. That much a part of Western culture.
In 1968 I was in 10th grade. Our High School English classes all hopped onto school busses and rode downtown to see this film. I was not expecting what I saw. They made me go, more or less. At least I wasn’t sitting in a classroom. I was prepared to be bored. Really bored. Instead, I was amazed at the contemporary feel of the movie (for those days) and proud that actual young people were playing Romeo and Juliet! I was won over by the end of the duel in the market, as a matter of fact.
Olivia Hussey had a film and television acting career after this movie. Leonard Whiting didn’t fare so well; or maybe he didn’t want a film and TV career. Michael York was already a well-known actor, but became a star when he appeared as Tybalt. His career continues to this day. Franco Zeffirelli may never have had another international hit of this scope. But he made some later hit movies, such as The Champ, and some flops such as Endless Love. Zeffirelli made films of at least four operas and four Shakespeare plays over his career. Whatever happened to the young man who sang “What is Youth?” I don’t know. Is that him in the film? I don’t know.
The film won the 41st Oscar for Achievement in Cinematography. It got three other nominations, including Best Picture.
The acting is not as staid as most Shakespearean acting was up until that point. The notable exception that I was aware of (by word of mouth—I didn’t see it until 2008) was Laurence Olivier’s Richard III which was said to possess a light-hearted spirit that my teachers liked. Almost all Shakespeare done in the 1960s and before dripped with the same heavy-handedness that science fiction was mistakenly given in that time period: “This. Is. Important.” Not Zeffirelli’s Romeo and Juliet. The dialogue is treated as if it’s dialogue in any other play or film. When it is appropriate, it is yelled, or whispered. Spoken slowly, or rattled off quickly. I had never seen or heard anyone use Shakespeare’s script as if it was just regular speech before. It was (and is) so cool. I think this film started a trend. Without this film (and Richard III before it) I doubt that Branagh’s cycle of Shakespeare movies could ever have been done.
You will notice if you read some of the contemporary reviews that the old hand critics didn’t care for the “mumbled” lines spoken by those teenagers in the lead roles. One of them went so far as to say that “Shakespeare does not have to be unintelligible,” but he claims he couldn’t understand what the kids were saying. I had no problem. Neither did my peers. And it is not difficult for me to understand the lines even today with my old-timer ears. The problem, I think, is that Zeffirelli’s cast did not intone with the “This, is very Important.” diction that the grizzled old critics had grown up believing was “the way to do Shakespeare.”
Following are some points I like and some points I don’t like about this film:
I Like: Very young actors in the lead roles. The fact that they seem like real people is only half the fun. They actually seem like teenagers. The parts are supposed to be very young people having a fling that they see as more important than it is, perhaps. With these two playing the parts you can tell just how canny the Bard was when writing the two title characters. He got teenage personalities down cold. And his other teenagers were played by youths who could pass as teens. In 1968, that made it all seem, well—different. And good. Even today it seems that way, to me.
I Like: The sets and costumes. Whether they are totally authentic or not, they seem to be. So do the swords and other props. At times there do not seem to be enough people in the crowd scenes, but the overall feel is still perfect.
I Like: Olivia Hussey’s Juliet. She is perhaps a touch too wise for 13, but she is girlish enough to seem real (she was 15 when she made the film). The delivery Hussey uses for the lines is so very much right on the money. The only more convincing Juliet I’ve ever seen is Claire Danes in the sequel. And I’d rate Danes’ performance only a smidgin above Hussey’s. Hussey’s portrayal of the scene in the tomb after she discovers Romeo lifeless in the floor is just so moving. When she rears back after realizing that her husband’s lips are still warm it just tears me up.
I Like: Leonard Whiting’s portrayal of Romeo. At first he’s too soft-spoken. But he becomes rather strong-voiced when he chases Tybalt through the streets of Verona to avenge the death of Mercutio. It always tears at my heart when he delivers the turning-point line for the character, ”Oh, I am Fortune’s fool!” Of course it didn’t affect me emotionally at all when I heard the line as a 16-year old audience member. But since then, it tears at me. Whiting is the most convincing and believable Romeo I have ever seen either on stage or on the screen. Bar none.
I Like: Zeffirelli’s technical achievement in taking the play on location, indoors, outdoors, all over Italy. A long time ago I saw one of those ”Spotlight” short features oabout the making of the film. Too bad it isn’t on the DVD I bought. But because of the location shooting, the light always seems real (because it is) and the buildings seem real (because they are). Although I must confess, I think I read somewhere that these were sets? Help me out, here. When the Prince comes riding up on his steed with attendants in tow, the power of his office is evident. He’s mounted on a real horse, and has actually galloped into the square!
I Like: The casting. Watching this film is the closest thing you will ever experience to a Botticelli painting coming to life. The faces are fabulous. Everyone is either handsome, beautiful or distinguished-looking. Once you get them into the costumes and in those classical settings, the effect is fabulous. It is mythical Verona come to life. And the camera can be up close to the beautiful faces, so it isn’t an effect that is lost, the way it would be on stage. And the delivery of lines in nearly every case is so natural, and un-stagy that it’s almost like a documentary about people who speak oddly in metered verse as a normal part of their lives. And watch for the hint of a smile on Milo O’Shea’s face as Friar Lawrence contemplates Juliet’s ruse at her ”funeral.”
I Like: The way I feel after I watch this movie. My head is full of pleasant memories and the lines the actors recite rattle around in my head. It sticks with me beyond the time when I rise from whatever chair I sit in while I watch it. When I saw it in the theater I had dreams about it for several nights in a row. Actually, it shares this effect with the 1996 version. After watching both on the same day, I have them joyously battling for my attention as I write the material for the Rematch thread.
I Like: The ”depth” of the production. Sure, I’ve probably seen a dozen different live-performance or film productions of the play, if you include West Side Story as a variation. I’ve watched the Zeffirelli film either 5 or 6 times over the years, and it gets better with each viewing. That’s because of Shakespeare’s original play in part, but it is also due to Zeffirelli’s direction and the performances he got from his cast. As I add layers of experience to my life, whenever I watch the movie again, I find something else that must have been there all along, but I never noticed it before.
I Don’t Like: The faint vestiges of stagy haughtiness in the delivery of the Bard’s lines. What I thought when I saw the film the second time was, “This is a new day, buddy. Quit being so self-important! Peace, love, dove, man. You know?” I think it was the guy playing the Prince that I railed against in my own mind. Some of the actors, the older ones, just didn’t seem to get it. But on my most recent viewing for this thread, I didn’t notice as much of it as I did three years ago. In fact, it mostly seemed to vanish into the various parts. Am I getting old?
I Don’t Like: Having to have someone sing at the masked ball. For all I know this was done even in the first performance of the play at the Globe Theater. Luhrmann has two different singers at his masked ball! But it sort of slows things down for me, here. The song is good, though. And this time I paid much more attention to the goings on with Romeo and Juliet behind the curtains as they talk about saints and sins and the like. Plus, I had read the lyric for the song on the ‘Net before watching, so I could finally understand the words.
I Don’t Like: One of Zeffirelli's cuts is the apothecary scene (Luhrmann retains this scene because it gives his MTV version a drug scene!). Romeo simply shows up in the Capulet tomb with poison in pocket. Why was the apothecary scene cut out? Does this kid go around mythical Verona with deadly poison in his pocket all the time? Hmm. Must be even more depressed than he seemed to be in Act One.
Post by dreiser » Tue Feb 15, 2011 10:55 pm
YouTookMyName wrote: The acting is not as staid as most Shakespearean acting was up until that point. The notable exception that I was aware of (by word of mouth—I didn’t see it until 2008) was Laurence Olivier’s Richard III which was said to possess a light-hearted spirit that my teachers liked.
Richard III was either the first or second Criterion I ever purchased. It's fantastic.
I really enjoyed your commentary and insights into Ziffirelli's movie. Never seen it myself, which is strange since I have seen and read a good deal of Shakespeare's works. This post has got me eager to do so.
My Olivia Hussey watching where she's the lead is pretty much limited to Black Christmas.
Post by Gort » Tue Feb 15, 2011 11:36 pm
dreiser wrote: Richard III was either the first or second Criterion I ever purchased. It's fantastic.
I checked that pup out of the library a few years back, and it more than lived up to its press!
dreiser wrote: I really enjoyed your commentary and insights into Ziffirelli's movie. Never seen it myself, which is strange since I have seen and read a good deal of Shakespeare's works. This post has got me eager to do so.
Well, I'd encourage you to give the Zeff version a watch.
I'm sure Olivia didn't play a character named Juliet in Black Christmas.
Gort wrote: I'm sure Olivia didn't play a character named Juliet in Black Christmas.
Pairing her with Margot Kidder was a Bob Clark stroke of genius. I can't imagine two more different actresses.
Post by YouTookMyName » Wed Feb 16, 2011 1:26 am
Racial Composition
Every character in the 1963 film is Caucasian. It is not explicitly stated, but one gets the idea that all the characters in the 1955 novel are also Caucasian.
The remake features one African-American boy, and a Hispanic lad. All the adults in both films are Caucasian. The comment on humanity is not really one related to race at all. It seems odd to me to have only one African American and only one Hispanic student at the school. Were they the only non-whites that survived? Or are they cinematic tokens of casting “inclusiveness”?
Nothing at all is ever made of the non-whiteness of the two. They are among the “other boys” in the group. As such they function as a visual reminder that not everyone has light skin, but they serve little purpose beyond that. If you stretch the point, you'd have to also notice that there are no Asian kids. At least none that I noticed. It would be awkward to try drawing any inferences from this casting. I don't think the film says anything about race per se; it sticks to a generalization for all of humanity.
The problem with this kind of presentation is that we live in a world where race or ethnicity is supposed to not be noticed, and that fact puts it top of the mind. "Don't notice a person's race. Don't notice a person's race." Thus, the ethnicity of the cast has an unspoken function. The 1963 casting actually is more "real life" for the times. Perhaps a 1990 private military school would not have had many minority students. Or perhaps it could have been mostly minority students, depending on its location in the US.
My hunch is that the two boys I noticed are casting tokens, and nothing more. Personally, I'd have wanted a larger number of non-whites, simply to make it less noticeable that they were there, except as human beings. Still, if one or both the main parts were played by minority actors, would that change the entire "message" of Lord of the Flies into a parable about non-white people? That's an interesting point to contemplate.
A Comparison of Romeo & Juliet (1968) and Romeo & Juliet (1996)
With the updating in time and place that Luhrmann did for his version of the Romeo and Juliet story, a modern soundtrack would be expected. And there is a good representation of modern pop music. But there are also orchestral sections that are arresting in their presentation. The incidental music in the film was composed by Nellee Hooper. It is very emotional and fits sublimely with the style of story-telling.
Nino Rota composed the original music for Zeffirelli’s film, including the international hit song, “What is Youth?” The editing of the film seems quite modern, and so does the music, except for Rota’s “urgency” theme that appears in the fifth act. It seems to be a throwback to the “make me feel something” music of the 1960s. It is not a throwback, of course, since it was composed in that decade!
As I’ve written before, for me the soundtrack of a film is equal in importance to the imagery. And the music is a large part of the soundtrack, although not the entirety of it. I used to work obsessively to get “just the right music” and “just the right sound effects” in my training and other institutional videos. It was probably only important to me, in retrospect. But when I watch a film, it is a special bonus for me if I’d love to own the CD of the soundtrack—and an even bigger bonus if I actually like it enough to go out and buy it. And I bought CD2 of the R+J soundtrack.
The 1968 Rota music, profound as it is, seems to me to fit best when nestled with the sound effects and images of the film. That is not a bad thing. I just don’t think I’d want to hear it separately. Here is a link I put up in the original thread, to a recording that someone has posted online of the famous song,“What is Youth?” from the Zeffirelli film. If you'd rather hear it and see it here is that clip from the film:
The Death Scene in the Tomb
The first time I saw Luhrmann’s version of the death scene, I thought, “That’s how I always wanted to do that scene.” I always thought that Juliet should see Romeo drink the poison. It plays better that way. It is also far more tragic that Romeo sees Juliet awaken just as he swallows the bitter draught. As Luhrmann has it laid out, the scene is so gut-wrenching!
Yet when Olivia Hussey’s Juliet bends down to kiss her dead Romeo’s lips in hopes of getting poisoned herself, her despair at learning that his lips are still warm always gets to me. It really does.
Each in its own way is an astonishingly appropriate staging of Shakespeare’s scripted death scene. Of course, the heart-ripping irony of Luhrmann’s order of events cannot be denied. But somehow, when I watched these films back-to-back (literally on the same day) the staging in Zeffirelli’s version brought me to tears, while Lurhmann’s death scene merely made me feel incredibly empty this time. Of course, the scene where Juliet reaches up for Romeo just as he swallows the poison, and the look of love in her young eyes—that look of contentment that her husband is right there to welcome her back—it just makes the skin tingle with the sense of appropriate horror. And the look in Romeo’s eyes, and on his face when he realizes that he has taken the poison and it is too late, just barely too late, but irrevocably too late is what pushes it over the emotional edge. I think in Luhrmann’s film that is the most moving moment—whereas with the Zeff version, it is when Juliet realizes that Romeo is not long enough dead for the body heat to have left his lips.
I am not sure which way of killing one’s self would be the most difficult—with a dagger or with a gun. Somehow, this time the Zeffirelli version also moved me the most when the girl plunged the dagger into her heart. The Luhrmann Juliet’s bulleted suicide was a more or less anti-climax as I watched it this time.
Regardless, the message of the movie is that vengeance brings about death—and not always the deaths of the people you want dead. The prologue to the play makes no secret that Romeo and Juliet are doomed. Yet the story is told so skillfully—by Shakespeare, Zeffirelli, and Luhrmann—that you cannot help but be moved in the end. And when either the Prince or Captain Prince shouts to his hearers that final line, “All are punish-ed. ALL are punish-ed!” it brings goosebumps to my skin every time. It’s so true. Vengeance leaves no life untouched—even when you think you are outside the ring of vengeance altogether.
Post by YouTookMyName » Fri Feb 18, 2011 12:47 pm
Weblinks for the Two Films
A resource about the novel for students, to guide them in research. This site has what seems like billions of links to other sites on the web that deal with William Golding, his novel, and the movies made from it.
Another student guide, probably featuring many of the same links, but just in case it doesn’t…
You can buy a copy of the book or find it at your local library)
1963 film. Another website about the LIFE magazine article, and the film itself.
1963 film. Michael Brooke writes about the film at screenonline.org.uk
1963 film. Matthew Dessem writes an excellent, thoughtful, on-going blog about the Criterion Collection at criterioncollection.blogspot.com. His goal is to see all the Criterion releases, and to write about them in his blog. He wrote about Lord of the Flies on Wednesday, November 30, 2005.
I guess it’s worth re-stating that I found virtually nothing about the 1990 film other than at Rotten Tomatoes and IMDb, besides sites where you can buy a copy. But YouTube has been peppered with a number of clips from both movies. Here are two.
1990 film. Trailer on YouTube. (no way to know how long it will stay available).
1963 film. Here’s a 9:35 condensed edit of this film from YouTube. I haven’t watched the entire clip. (Cheesy, I know, to post a clip you haven’t seen—it could have koochi koochie girls edited in or something). What I’ve seen looks well-done. The music is not from the original film.
The novel provides ample fodder for humorously-mounted high-school productions:
A student-produced video of the novel/film, produced for English class. Lord of the Flies Part 1 & Lord of the Flies Part 2
Another student-produced film Lord of the Flies
Apparently it's now the thing to do to produce a film for class, and share it on YouTube. Lord of the Flies
Ms. Connor's Fourth Period class made their own version of Lord of the Flies. One comment says that it's boring.
1963 film. YouTube resource. Lord Of The Flies 1963 Part 1 of 9 parts. Apparently the entire film has been uploaded by EnglishAssist. Once again, who knows how long it will remain on the site?
1990 film. YouTube resource. Lord of the Flies 1990 Part 1 of 13 parts. This film has been uploaded by LordoftheFliesmovie. It will stay on the site for as long as it's allowed to.
1963 film. The inevitable Wikipedia article
The novel. Inevitable Wikipedia article
1990 film. The inescapable Wikipedia article. I haven’t found much written about this film available on the ‘Net.
A web page about a British Channel 4 television episode aired on “Cutting Edge” in 2002 called “Boys Alone.” (In 2003 a counterpart called “Girls Alone” aired.) Comments bring up the Golding novel and these films a lot as a point of comparison. And here is the deteriorating IMDb page about “Boys Alone.” Eventually, my curiosity piqued, I located this retrospective from the week when “Boys and Girls Alone” (a different program) aired on Channel 4. "Boys Alone" sounds discouragingly like Lord of the Flies. The girls did better without parental or adult supervision. What I wonder is how the crew could actually stand to not intervene when the kids began to bully one another and trash the property.
1963 film. Some of the cast members and Mr. Brook had a reunion in 1996 on Vieques Island, where the film was shot. This was filmed and made into a documentary called “Time Flies” by British director Richard Dale.
1963 film. The actor who played Simon in 1961 wrote about his experience, looking back on it from the perspective of an adult.
William Golding’s book is said to be a dark response to this book, available as a free e-book from Project Gutenberg. There are characters named “Ralph” and “Jack” in Lord of the Flies, and in Coral Island by R.M. Ballantyne. The main character of Coral Island, is, in fact, “Ralph Rover.”
TRIVIA LINKS
Trivia from the Criterion Booklet to accompany the DVD: Peter Brook writes, “We found an island off the coast of Puerto Rico. A jungle paradise; miles of palm-fringed beaches owned by Woolworth’s. They lent us the island in exchange for a screen credit.”
Trivia from the Criterion Booklet to accompany the DVD: Peter Brook writes, “The book is a beautiful fable—so beautiful that it can be refuted as a trick of compelling poetic style. In the film no one can attribute the looks and gestures to tricks of direction. The violent gestures, the look of greed, and the faces of experience are all real.”
For more trivia about the 1963 version of Lord of the Flies film
“Eleven-year-old Hugh Edwards, who plays Piggy in the film, landed his role by writing a letter to the director which read, ‘Dear Sir, I am fat and wear spectacles.’”
For more trivia about the 1990 Lord of the Flies production
“Chris Furrh was in another movie this same year about a group of kids stranded alone on an island: Exile (1990) (TV).”
The Ability to Ignore that 800,000 Years Have Passed
Both films severely underestimate how much change there will be in the time span that the movie covers. As I mentioned in my write-up about the 1960 film, I can forgive this, but I don’t like it. The necessity of clichés in order for the audience to understand the story is the culprit, I’m afraid. First of all, no one alive now knows what things will be like in 800,000 years, and if anyone did show us we’d be as lost as the Eloi in the 1960 version. So what goes on must be kept within a context that we can comprehend. The movie is made for 21st Century folk, after all.
The story H.G. Wells wrote was about people at the turn of the 20th Century. His great-grandson made the story about people of our time. It is set in the distant future, but it’s really about you and me. For anything that human hands have created to last even half that long is probably out of the question. The spinning rings that talk to George in the 1960 version, and the VoX System that Alex engages in 802701 would likely never last that long. Ultimately, I don’t care. It’s a good story, and the biggest plot hole in it is the time machine itself.
H.G. Wells himself was unable to fathom the differences that would accrue over such a huge span of years.
It's been rather a hectic week at work, and I've been working to set all the links for the technical information posts in my small amount of spare time. I have them up in Gort's test post in The Crew, and I'm testing and rewriting them. I also feel like I need to provide a bit more information for several technical features than the original versions of the three existing Rematches had.
I'm not ignoring the thread. I have been working on it for the handful of people who are reading. But I don't have anything quite ready to show you.
I was a bit disappointed to learn that Gort might be responsible for a large number of the "views" of this thread. Which means that I'm reading my own stuff.
Post by dreiser » Fri Feb 18, 2011 6:45 pm
I'm looking forward to Planet of the Apes.
Quite-Gone Genie
Post by Quite-Gone Genie » Fri Feb 18, 2011 8:07 pm
Some of the views are mine too!
"So, you see, he was condemned to walk in darkness a quadrillion kilometres (we've adopted the metric system, you know)..."
The Devil, The Brothers Karamazov
Post by Gort » Sat Feb 19, 2011 12:01 am
dreiser wrote: I'm looking forward to Planet of the Apes.
So am I. I wish I could work on all five new Rematches at the same time.
Right now I have to watch, analyze and pull stills from three versions of The Maltese Falcon. The disc set is due Tuesday and I haven't even put a disc in the player yet. I hope to get started Saturday. I've got Planet of the Apes in line right behind that.
It's a marketing ploy, of course. I keep stringing you along in hopes that you will maintain interest, instead of giving up and going away.
The same thing happened that happened last time I started the Remake Rematch idea: I got work just as I posted the first information. That's good, but it also interferes with my available time, because I have to focus my attention on earning that grisly "money" stuff for a few hours a week. As soon as I receive a paycheck I'm going to use some of those links I've collected, and order both Planet of the Apes DVDs.
QuiteGoneGenie wrote: Some of the views are mine too!
Oh, thank goodness. And thank you.
Post by dreiser » Sat Feb 19, 2011 12:59 am
Gort wrote: Right now I have to watch, analyze and pull stills from three versions of The Maltese Falcon.
I don't envy you that. I own the set and pretty much refuse to watch the other two versions. Not even curious.
Gort wrote: It's a marketing ploy, of course. I keep stringing you along in hopes that you will maintain interest, instead of giving up and going away.
A ploy that's working it seems.
Post by Gort » Sat Feb 19, 2011 2:30 am
dreiser wrote: I don't envy you that. I own the set and pretty much refuse to watch the other two versions. Not even curious.
I've seen all three. This will be the first Rematch where I don't really like all the films. More mature-sounding, don't you think? Less a fan-boyish type of discussion.
dreiser wrote: A ploy that's working it seems.
Post by Gort » Sun Feb 20, 2011 11:30 am
The two placeholders I made yesterday finally have information in them.
And I hit on the bright idea of updating my signatures for Gort and YTMN to include when the latest updates are posted.
There's one for Lord of the Flies, and one for The Time Machine.
LotF: a massive list of weblinks for more pages about the films.
TTM: an essay about how it is difficult to imagine and impossible to show the change 800,000 years would likely bring.
Post by Hank » Sun Feb 20, 2011 2:22 pm
I found your comparison of the Death scene in the Tomb of both Romeo + Juliet films to be quite interesting. It's been some time since I watched either version... but I remember being struck but the way Luhrmann’s film played out in that devastating instance. Through the slight altering of the order he completely changed the way I thought about the whole event. It made it much more heartbreaking and frustrating to watch.
Interesting that the 68 film moved you more this go around. I can see your point about the dagger being a little more tragic in some way... because of the amount of effort that it would take to carry the action through. I remember not being moved much at all at the end of that version... but I was considerably younger and considerably less sentimental when I saw it.
Post by Gort » Sun Feb 20, 2011 8:20 pm
Hank wrote: I found your comparison of the Death scene in the Tomb of both Romeo + Juliet films to be quite interesting. It's been some time since I watched either version... but I remember being struck but the way Luhrmann’s film played out in that devastating instance. Through the slight altering of the order he completely changed the way I thought about the whole event. It made it much more heartbreaking and frustrating to watch.
I wonder if I were to watch them back-to-back again, three years on down the road, whether the versions would flip-flop in their effect on me again. I don't recall watching either film since I did these three Rematches in 2008.
Yeah. becoming a daddy somehow affected my ability to be touched by sentimentality and tragedy in films. I've wondered why that is. Perhaps being around children somehow exposes you to pheromones that permanently alter your emotions? Other men have told me that having children altered the world in major ways, both outside them (changing their perceptions of what is important) and inside them (altering the internal emotion landscape, as it were).
Post by Gort » Mon Feb 21, 2011 12:02 am
In the midst of the note-taking pass in my rewatch of the 1931 The Maltese Falcon. It is easy to see the influences it had on John Huston's more famous version.
Post by Hank » Mon Feb 21, 2011 1:14 am
Gort wrote: I wonder if I were to watch them back-to-back again, three years on down the road, whether the versions would flip-flop in their effect on me again. I don't recall watching either film since I did these three Rematches in 2008.
I'm not sure how it happens... but I feel that it might have a little bit to do with this (although certainly not limited to it alone): Being more tired in general. By being worn out all the time (it is the best type of worn out though!) it really opens up a different side of a guy.
Post by Gort » Mon Feb 21, 2011 2:24 am
Hank wrote: I'm not sure how it happens... but I feel that it might have a little bit to do with this (although certainly not limited to it alone): Being more tired in general. By being worn out all the time (it is the best type of worn out though!) it really opens up a different side of a guy.
Now, there's a thought. I can certainly see that being part of it. Fatigue can affect how a person responds to many things, and mixed in with the other aspects of fatherhood, it could indeed factor into a more redy emotionality.
See, I don't think guys clamp down our emotions necessarily on purpose. There were times when I was mid-divorce that I wanted to cry (and I was alone, so who would have cared? who would have known?) and no tears would come. Inside I felt like I was about to burst into tears, but there were none. It was a horrible feeling, actually.
Gort wrote: Now, there's a thought. I can certainly see that being part of it. Fatigue can affect how a person responds to many things, and mixed in with the other aspects of fatherhood, it could indeed factor into a more redy emotionality.
It's good to see that you can say that with a smile on your face
I'm pretty emotional for a guy, I suppose. But there are certainly times where I've felt like I should be crying when I wasn't. It is very frustrating indeed.
The Role of The Nurse
Who wouldn’t fall in love with the Puerto Rican nurse portrayed by Miriam Margolyes? Or the charmingly loquacious Nurse portrayed by Pat Heywood? The role is a plum, and both these actresses do excellent work with it. As filmed the roles are a bit different, though. In the play the Nurse is basically Juliet’s link to the past. She actually raised the girl (her own daughter died long ago, but was about Juliet’s age). She tells stories about when Juliet was little—something that is usually the role of a parent. But she is also a family servant, so carries out formal roles for the girl, such as going to Romeo in order to make arrangements for a wedding—if his intentions are honorable. And she toys with Juliet when bringing the news that Romeo will marry, delaying any meaningful response until the girl is beside herself before divulging the good news.
Heywood’s Nurse gets to stick pretty close to the original role. Some of the history she spouts is left intact. She fulfills the function of comic relief, also. And when the going becomes tragic, she becomes one of the movers that carries the tragedy forward: visiting Romeo at Friar Lawrence’s cell, and counseling Juliet to go ahead and marry Paris, because Romeo is as good as dead to her. The nurse is part of the terrible, tangled web that is so expertly rendered in the play.
Miriam Margolyes’s Nurse is not allowed to be Juliet’s historian, but functions as her nurturer and go-between. With a charming Hispanic accent the old woman flits and flutters through the day, adequately tough when needed, and playful after she obtains Romeo’s consent to marry Juliet. Both actresses have fun with the role, but Ms. Margolyes seems to enjoy herself just enough more to make her my favorite of the two Nurses.
What is your take on the role and on the two portrayals?
In the [original RT YTMN movie post] vanity thread candlestick pointed out that he hates the way Friar Lawrence doesn’t make his plan go—well, according to plan. Part of the tragedy of this tragedy is that the situation calls for desperate measures. Desperate measures often as not yield desperate outcomes—and this one certainly does. When I saw the pony with Balthasar astride it overtake the monk with the donkey, both on their way to Mantua with important news, my heart sank. This was when I was 16, and seeing the Zeff film for the first time. In the play script this is only hinted at after the fact—but on screen it can (and must be) shown. Zeffirelli found an excellent way to do this. I wondered as I watched the Luhrmann version of that scene how he would match the wordless empathy of that moment. And he managed to do it by using post-haste-dispatch. The Friar’s astounded response when he’s at the PHD office and learns that Romeo did not get the news is classic. Surely you have to see the Friar as one of those characters that means well, but has a degree of over-confidence. The plan only goes wrong by a few moments, actually. But I think the old saying is “a miss is as good as a mile.”
Do you feel empathy for the clergyman’s plight, or do you find him to be an irritant, the way candlestick does?
Mercutio, Romeo’s Best Friend
To modern British Commonwealth/American eyes the relationship between Mercutio and Romeo is “suspect” in that they seem awfully close to both be guys. Franco Zeffirelli, as a gay man, didn’t shy away from this implication in his film, and Baz Luhrmann operating in the era of increased tolerance of gays and lesbians extends this into having Mercutio played as a fawning character of uncertain sexuality. Sure, he’s dressed in drag for the party, but does that say anything about him as a person other than that he is adventurous? Perhaps it says he is quite secure in his masculinity! Is Luhrmann playing with our American sensibilities in choosing to portray Mercutio in this light? The character is certainly over the top. Isn’t everyone in this film except Juliet? Orpheline and I already had an exchange about this character earlier. It’s at the bottom of this post a page back. [NOTE: the last sentences refer to an RT thread post.]
The Queen Mab speech is the usual characterization of Mercutio in performances of the play: a fun-loving, quick-witted sort of fellow who is willing to take his friends where they perhaps should not be. But that’s fine, because they all want to go there. Luhrmann adds the additional characterization of having Mercutio arrive in a high-powered convertible auto and step out in a powder-white curly wig and silver-colored mini-skirt. This elicited an, “Ooookaaaay,” from me the first time I saw the film. I wondered what the director was up to. I’d already seen an exploding gas station. On my first viewing of the film, when Mercutio launched into a performance of “Young Hearts Run Free,” I decided this was just another Luhrmann crazy take on things—similar to all the slapstick in the party preparation section.
After seeing his film several times, I’m not sure Luhrmann is making any “statements” by whatever is happening onscreen. I think his only statements are pokes at, and paeans to Hollywood conventions. I know for sure everything is exaggerated. Everything except Juliet.
The Fire and Decline of Civilization
The theme of the Golding novel is that, left on their own people will degenerate into savage and rule-free, selfish behavior. Golding was a Socialist, which may have led him to believe that the forced imposition of social order was a necessity. That without enforced social order people would degrade into beasts. Yet, the Beast in his story is non-existent! And it is Jack, the despot, who imposes dis-order by force. Imposition of social order is often imagined as the bailiwick of military organizations, and para-military ones such as the Police. And in Golding’s 1955 novel—by the militaristic discipline of Jack’s choir!
I wrote about Jack and his tribe in another comparison, but there is more to the character than I have mentioned. Even though Tom Chapin does not play Jack as the scheming, underhanded character that Christopher Furrh does in the remake, the character comes across as sneaky, and self-interested in both cases.
In the Brook version Jack volunteers the choir as hunters, and he volunteers the hunters as keepers of the signal fire. All the boys agree that such a fire is necessary, to give potential rescuers a sign that there are survivors of the plane crash. In the 1990 version the fire-watching task is distributed democratically among the boys. Since it is everyone's responsibility, no one does it. Perhaps this is a comment on the danger of making something everybody's job.
Brook’s Jack takes on a responsibility and then abandons it, while Hook’s Jack simply avoids the responsibility that everyone in the camp has equally. In both cases, Jack doesn’t like the responsibility, and wants to live care-free, so he becomes a dropout, declaring in the early version, “I don’t want to be a part of Ralph’s lot!” In the book there is a vote, and the tribe is formed after the vote. In the movies, Jack simply splits with Ralph and Piggy, and creates an alternate gang or tribe of his own.
The truth underlying Jack’s abandonment of fire responsibilities is probably that he doesn’t want to go back home. Thus, he exerts whatever influence he can on the other boys to get them to decide to stay with him, to join him, to become a part of his tribe. I think this is true of both films. In the second film Jack clearly states on more than one occasion, “We will never be rescued.” He plans to stay on the island, perhaps thinking he can be Peter Pan and never grow up.
The reason for the plane trip in the novel, and in the 1963 film is that the adults have a war on that is becoming nuclear. All the boys are being ferried to a supposedly safe place during an evacuation, but their jet falls prey to bad weather and they never reach that place. The reason for the airplane trip in the 1990 version is simply for a trip home from the military school where all the boys are enrolled. World politics necessitated the change. By the late 1980’s the US and the Soviet Union were making strides toward ending the Cold War. The chances of there being a war where atomic weapons were hurled across oceans were reduced to practically none.
The 1963 film shows the boys only after they are on the island, as Ralph meets Piggy following a scary night on the island after the crash. The story of why they were in transit is told in stills beneath the opening titles. The 1990 release begins with the boys in the water, saving the injured pilot’s life, and going ashore in an inflatable raft immediately following the crash into the sea. The airplane sinks and the boys are stranded. Yet, they feel relatively secure because the pilot is alive, although unconscious. Peter Brook has no adults in his film until the bitter end.
One of the ironies of the story is embodied in the statement by Brook’s Piggy, “Grown-ups know things. They aint’ afraid of the dark. They’d meet, and have tea and discuss. Then things would be all right.” But Piggy, Ralph, Jack and the others are trapped on an island in the tropics precisely because adults failed to behave in the idealized way Piggy believes in. Perhaps to Golding, Ralph and Piggy were fighting a losing battle against the beast within all humans. What they believed in were shibboleths without underpinnings. Fantasies. Wills-O’-the-wisp.
Note to self: use the word oneiric in an essay for Dorian Gray.
Post by dreiser » Thu Feb 24, 2011 5:42 pm
Watched the 1968 film version of Romeo and Juliet last night. Both Hussey and Whiting were excellent. All the scenes between the lovers were riveting. The moments when they're not together are fairly pedestrian. Whenever I come across a Shakespeare play, I marvel at the lines that have become iconic in our popular culture. Here's a sample from this Italian play:
O! she doth teach the torches to burn bright.
What 's in a name? That which we call a rose
... parting is such sweet sorrow...
A plague o' both your houses!
O, I am Fortune's fool!
Was ever book containing such vile matter
So fairly bound?
One of the funniest moments in Twin Peaks is when Dick Tremayne uses that first quote to describe how gorgeous Lana Milford is.
I haven't seen Luhrmann's 1996 version yet for comparison. I'll chime in here when I do.
The 1968 version was adapted from the play by William Shakespeare, and written for the screen by Franco Brusati, Masolino D’Amico, and Franco Zefirelli. There are many considerations to adapting Shakespeare for film. The Zeffirelli adaptation set the tone for all those made after 1968, updating themes that always existed in the play, but emphasizing those that would appeal to the youth of that day (including YTMN).
The 1996 version screenplay was adapted from the Shakespeare play by Craig Pearce and Baz Luhrmann. "At the 51st BAFTA Film Awards, director Baz Luhrmann won Best Direction. Luhrmann and Craig Pearce won the Best Adapted Screenplay." Luhrmann and Pearce moved lines around, even assigning them to different characters in order to move their juggernaut forward. overall, critical response to the film was mixed in 1996, but over time people have begun to admit that the film works. "James Berardinelli, a critic of Shakespeare plays adapted into film writes, 'Ultimately, no matter how many innovative and unconventional flourishes it applies, the success of any adaptation of a Shakespeare play is determined by two factors: the competence of the director and the ability of the main cast members. Luhrmann, Danes, and DiCaprio place this Romeo and Juliet in capable hands.'" (from Wikipedia, reference: Berardinelli, James (1996). "Review: Romeo and Juliet (1996)". ReelReviews.net. http://www.reelviews.net/movies/r/romeo_juliet.html. Retrieved 4 October 2010.)
The 1960 version was adapted from the novel by H.G.Wells (Project Gutenberg e-Book of H.G. Wells’s The Time machine), and written for the screen by David Duncan. According to the IMDb biography page, Duncan's favorite of all the screenplays he wrote is The Time machine "by a huge margin."
The 2002 version was adapted from the H.G. Wells novel, and the 1960 David Duncan screenplay by John Logan. Logan was the screenwriter for a number of films that are known around this board. Gladiator, The Last Samurai, The Aviator, Sweeny Todd: the Demon Barber of Fleet Street, RKO 281 and Star Trek: Nemesis. Thus he has written some of my favorites, and a couple that I don't like much at all! That's versatility.
The 1963 version was adapted from the novel by William Golding, and written for the screen by Peter Brook. Brook was well-known by the late 1950s for his Shakespeare adaptations, but he had made two films before, the first being of John Gay's 1728 musical play The Beggar's Opera. A so-called ballad opera, the play satirized Italian opera of the time. I cannot comment on this film, because I haven't see it. But Brook was not a novice to film or to adaptation at the time he undertook The Lord of the Flies.
The 1990 version screenplay was adapted from the Golding novel by Sara Schiff. To date, this is Schiff's only credited screen writing assignment. According to Wikipedia, Jay Presson Allen was called in to do script doctor work on the screenplay, but was dissatisfied with the final film and had her credit removed. Allen's list of screenplays and stage productions is flattering. In her later years she accepted large sums of money to fix screenplays that had been "written by committee." She must have been terribly dissatisfied with the 1990 version of Lord of the Flies. (Reference from Wiki: Alternate Film Guide. May 2, 2006.)
Post by YouTookMyName » Wed Mar 02, 2011 10:20 pm
*holds up newly acquired DVD box*
Look, dreiser! It's the 2001 version of Planet of the Apes. I need to get the other one, then I'll be off and running on the Rematch.
Post by Hank » Wed Mar 02, 2011 10:35 pm
I'm interested in that too.
The Time Journey
George makes stops in 1917, 1940, 1966, and 802701. Notice that every stop he makes is during British involvement in a war—of course the 1966 war is speculative as far as the 1959 script is concerned. Then, George spends 800,000 years encased in basalt before discovering the land of the Eloi. George is simply traveling through time because he can; he is an adventurer. He wants to see what humankind can become, dreaming of some kind of marvelous advancement, no doubt because the turn of the 20th century was a time when belief in progress had not dimmed. The future he finds is barren and disgusting to him with its lack of ambition on the part of the Eloi. George never intended to travel through 800,000 years of time, but the circumstances of his imprisoment blind him to that huge gap in time. He knows only his own time period, and this vastly distant future time period.
Alexander Hartdegen stops in 2030, 2037, 802701, and 635,427,810. In 2030 he tries to find the answer to his question, “Why can I not change the past?” In 2037 he is buffeted as he escapes a lava flow in his time machine and remains unconscious until the machine arrives at 802701, where he stops it. Because Alex is on a quest for knowledge, he is not traveling only for the adventure of it the way George is in the 1960 film. Yet, when Alex arrives in 802701 he finds a culturally rich place. The humans there can speak and are intellectually curious. They are technologically not as advanced as the 1899 that Alex leaves behind, but this doesn't bother him. He has nothing to go back to.
Both time travelers find something in the future that beckons to them. George returns to his present in order to get three books...and perhaps a change of socks? before rocketing off through time to 802701, where Weena awaits him. Alexander Hartdegan never returns to his own time, choosing instead to remain in the advanced year with Mara and her kind. Alex wasn't hoping to see the advancements that George sought. And 42 years further decay in the national belief in progress between the two fims, robbed Alex of having any kind of disgusted response to the lack of progress that he saw in the future. Instead he is disgusted by the slavery of Eloi to the Moorlocks, and their function as food and breeding animals.
The Acting
Both films use fairly naturalistic acting styles (except for the hunter Morlocks), but there are differences. The differences are probably based on the formal versus informal construction of the lines to be recited. In 1960 staginess was not completely gone from film acting, though it was much subdued. Directors and actors had figured out that in film you should simply “be” rather than “acting like,” even though the difference is only in appearances, not in the expression of the craft. Thus, instead of being an actor pretending to be George the inventor, insofar as possible, you should become George the inventor. Some actors were adept at appearing to be “themselves” while pretending to be someone else. Casting in television had already been swept along by economics, into casting someone who is naturally like the person you want the character to be. It makes for predictable outcomes. Films still lagged behind in that aspect when Pal produced The Time Machine. Thus, all the seasoned actors in the movie reveal that they are acting. Rod Taylor is a “movie star” rather than an actor, so he pretty much makes George into Rod Taylor. (More on that effect, later) However, the younger actors and actresses playing Eloi roles are more adept at hiding themselves behind their characters, and simply “being Eloi.” So the change in acting style was underway, even in 1959. Still, the lines are very formally written, and are hard to deliver with total naturalism.
The 2002 film has no roles played by actors that don’t become the character they are portraying. Call it “Method” or whatever you want. I call it “naturalistic style,” and some of these actors carry it a bit too far.
Alexander Hartdegen is Guy Pearce—which is probably the opposite of how you’d want it to be. The first time I noticed an ad with the word “is” replacing the traditional “as” for the coupling between actor and character names was when I read that “Paul Newman is Hud.” The emphasis was in the advertising. Thus, I think that we live in a time when the 1960s TV-style casting has made its way irremovably into film casting. Simon Wells saw Alexander Hartdegen as being “like Guy Pearce,” and for that reason Pearce didn’t have to do much other than move around and speak his lines as convincingly as possible. And he is convincing, and quite natural, as he is in Memento. He is also engaging, something Rod Taylor failed to be in 1960 (as far as I’m concerned). And Pearce is fine in the role. He does a pretty good American accent, too (he’s English and grew up in Australia). Samantha Mumba is effective as Mara because Mara is like Samantha Mumba. She is a more interesting character than Weena the docile human livestock of the Morlocks.
Weblinks for the 1960 Film
Free-of-charge Project Gutenberg e-Book of H.G. Well’s The Time Machine
Generic Radio Workshop Script Library Oct 22 1950. I have no idea if this was produced. It has a totally different take on the story. Not like the novel or the movies.
1960 version: A weird transcript of the spoken lines from the film, with no character names!
1960 version: David Duncan’s screenplay “Draft revised thru 6-25-59”
1960 version: Another posting of the 6-25-59 script in case the other link doesn’t work.
1960 version: From “The Complete Rod Taylor Site” a discussion of the George Pal production.
1960 version: An interview with Alan Young from 1999 about the 1960 film.
It will come as no surprise to you that there is a Wikipedia entry for “The Time Machine (1960 film)”
2002 version: John Logan’s screenplay draft “February 22, 2000”
IMDb entry for a 1978 TV version of the novel (I never saw this)
2002 version: Script review from “Ain’t It Cool News”
2002 version: The cumulative IGN.com page for Simon Wells’ production
2002 version: Mark Bourne rips it a new one in this FAQ-formatted review
The Wikipedia entry for The Time Machine (2002 film)
Trivia Links for Both Films
“Yvette Mimieux was actually underage when shooting began (she turned 18 during the shoot) and was not legally supposed to work a full shooting schedule, but did. She was inexperienced - as she worked on this film she kept getting better and better so that by the end of the shoot they wound up going back and re-shooting some of her earliest scenes.”
For more trivia about the 1960 version of The Time Machine.
“Originally released for December 2001, the release was bumped to March 2002 because of a decision whether to remove a scene involving a meteor shower crippling New York. The filmmakers were concerned that such a scene may stir memories of the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center.”
For more trivia about the 2002 Simon Wells production of The Time Machine
I found the 2001 Apes movie for only 6 bucks. I can't seem to find the original for less than 12 bucks. Maybe I'll look harder.
I finally have frames grabbed from the first two versions. I have now to watch the 1941 version about three times, and then I'm going to begin work on the Rematch, while I complete reading Hammett's original novel. I've already watched the 1931 film 3 times, and the 1936 film three times, so I'd like to finish the novel before I watch the '41. The first version is very close to the novel. But I think there may be tonal differences almost as great as the tonal differences between the '31 movie and the famous '41 that Huston cobbled together.
I also can now see where the earlier versions influenced Huston a hell of a lot more than I noticed, when I watched all three about 4 years ago.
Also, for those Apes fans awaiting their anticipated Rematch, I'll be working on the Apes Rematch while I write and post the Falcon, and while I complete re-posting the original three Rematches.
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Birdman (2014) – Mini Review
June 7, 2015 · by TAYLOR · in B. ·
Birdman: Or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)
Starring Michael Keaton, Zach Galifianakis, Edward Norton, Emma Stone, Naomi Watts, Andrea Riseborough
Directed by Alejandro G. Iñárritu
This will only be short, out of respect for Rachel Geiger’s excellent review already available here. However, I’ve seen this film a few times now and feel that I have to say something about it.
Birdman stars Michael Keaton as Riggan, a troubled actor most famous for playing comic book superhero Birdman (who from what I gather is a parody of Batman, a character played by Keaton and with a similarly deep voice). Riggan is set to write, direct and star in a Broadway play, which he hopes will reignite his career away from the bird suit and make everyone, including his family, love him again.
First of all, the story on its own is very good – as you would expect when there’s 4 different writers working on it! The characters are interesting and engaging, but most importantly funny! I’ve never seen a film that combines legitimate drama with comedy in a way that leans it more towards being a funny film, that still goes down so well with the masses!
The acting in general is also very good. Keaton does a great job leading the film with a very complex character, and is supported behind him with very funny performances by Norton, Galifianakis, Watts and Riseborough. I think that’s the idea in Birdman – Keaton’s character delivers the drama alongside Emma Stone, who plays Riggan’s estranged daughter, while the rest are tasked with keeping the film relatively light-hearted and funny.
The directing by Iñárritu is incredible, and is the main thing that sets this apart from the rest. The way the film never cuts, flowing naturally from scene to scene is the stand out feature, and creates a unique visual feel that could rival any film out there, past and present. Credit must go out to whoever created the drum based score – it’s very subtle yet powerful sounds in the background carry you through the movie and help portray the natural feel Birdman tries to give off throughout – what with its lack of cuts and ‘behind the scenes’ story.
Birdman is a worthy winner of awards, and while it isn’t the most funny film ever, and isn’t the most dramatic, it is by far the best ever mixture of the two. Also, the directing and score in Birdman is some of the best work I’ve ever seen. All in all, this is the ultimate in creativity and invention.
A lot of attention will be on Alejandro G. Iñárritu after what he did here. He is currently filming the movie adaptation of The Revenant, which is set for release around Christmas and New Year and features the talents of Tom Hardy, Leonardo DiCaprio, Domhnall Gleeson and Will Poulter. One can only hope he can take the magic of Birdman and translate it to this, but going from drama-comedy to a period piece (this is set in the 1820’s) will be a big challenge.
Tags: 2014, Alejandro, Andrea, Birdman, Edward, Emma, Film, Galifianakis, Iñárritu, Keaton, Michael, Movie, Naomi, Norton, Oscar, Review, Riseborough, Stone, Watts, Winner, Zach
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Florence + The Machine – How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful (Album Review) →
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Punjab govt takes control of Jaish-e-Muhammad headquarters
ISLAMABAD: The Punjab government has taken over the control of all Islamic seminaries run by Jaish-e-Muhammad (JeM), a militant group which has purportedly claimed responsibility for a deadly attack on Indian security forces in the Indian-occupied Kashmir earlier this month. The move came a day after a crucial huddle of the National Security Committee (NSC) in Islamabad, where it was decided that efforts would be expedited to rout extremism from the society. The forum also decided to ban Jamatud Dawa (JuD) and Falah-e-Insaniat Foundation (FIF) charities which India alleges are front for Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) militant group which, according to New Delhi, had masterminded the 2008 Mumbai attacks. “The government of Punjab has taken over the control of a campus comprising Madressatul Sabir and Jama-e-Masjid Subhanallah in Bahawalpur, reportedly the headquarters of Jaish-e-Mohammad and appointed an administrator to manage its affairs,” said the spokesperson for the interior ministry in a statement issued on Friday. He added that the action was taken in line with the decision of the NSC meeting held on Thursday under the chairmanship of Prime Minister Imran Khan. According to the spokesperson, currently 600 students are studying at the campus, which has a faculty of 70 teachers. The Punjab police are providing security and protection to the campus, he added. Monitoring Desk
Bilawal files review petition in SC
Five children die of suspected food poisoning in Karachi
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health, science, social dynamics
Vaccination in perspective
September 20, 2017 Brian Martin
To understand debates over vaccination, it’s valuable to look at the history and politics of vaccine development and policy-making.
Australian government health departments and leaders of the medical profession are united in supporting the standard programme of childhood vaccines. Vaccination rates in Australia are high and stable. However, a small number of citizen vaccination sceptics continue to raise concerns.
In the 1990s, Meryl Dorey set up what became the Australian Vaccination Network (AVN), around the same time as vaccine-critical groups were formed in several other countries. Then, in 2009, some citizen vaccination proponents set up Stop the Australian Vaccination Network (SAVN), dedicated to discrediting, silencing and destroying the AVN. There has been a ferocious struggle between SAVN and the AVN. SAVN’s campaign was instrumental in politicians bringing in measures to pressure parents to have their children vaccinated, even though some pro-vaccination researchers opposed the measures.
SAVN is strident in its advocacy, with the mantra “Vaccination saves lives.” AVN members, and quite a few others, remain sceptical. They continue to question the effectiveness of vaccination, raise the alarm about adverse reactions, and suggest vaccination may be implicated in diseases such as autism.
Both sides adopt the mantle of science, claiming the evidence supports their viewpoints. SAVN denigrates vaccine sceptics as deluded or ignorant. Some vaccine critics say proponents are in the thrall of the pharmaceutical companies.
In this highly polarised debate, there is little room for anyone to take an intermediate position, for example saying that many vaccines are worthwhile but others are unnecessary. However, this might well be the view of some parents, though they are given little support to express their views. Any reluctance about vaccination can lead to the stigma of being called an “anti-vaxxer.”
Immunization: How Vaccines Became Controversial
Stuart Blume is emeritus professor of Science and Technology Studies at the University of Amsterdam. He has a lifetime of experience researching the politics of science and technology, and two decades ago began studying the vaccination issue. His approach can be called social history: a study of history taking into account social and political dynamics. Blume brings to the issue the perspectives of science and technology studies, seeing science and technology as subject to social processes.
Blume decided to write a book summarising insights from his research. The result is Immunization: How Vaccines Became Controversial, recently published. I wrote one of the endorsements on the book jacket.
There is much here to ponder. The book does not mesh neatly with either the pro or anti positions in the usual public debate.
Blume tells two sorts of stories, one about vaccines and one about vaccination policy, and neither is a just-so story. Many traditional histories present science as a continual upward trajectory of discoveries and the overcoming of misguided beliefs. Blume, though, follows the path of historians of science who report on uncertainties, mistakes and unproductive paths. The implication is that present knowledge may be just as precarious, in its own way, as past knowledge.
Knowledge about vaccines and the immune system developed gradually, and for many decades there was no assumption that vaccination would prove to be a major route to public health. Smallpox was the initial target for vaccination, but there were many other killer diseases, such as diphtheria and tuberculosis, and other ways to address them besides vaccination. Today, with the focus on vaccination, it is sometimes forgotten that infectious disease can also be addressed through quarantine, sanitation, improved diet and general increases in the standard of living.
Vaccination campaigns are not always the best strategy to improve health. Blume highlights a problem with the polio eradication campaign. In a number of poor countries, resources for public health interventions were siphoned off to support polio eradication, which meant that impoverished people, needing basic medicines, were instead offered polio vaccinations, something less important for their own health.
A related tension permeated vaccination development beginning in the 1980s, when commercial considerations became paramount. Effort was put into developing vaccines for problems in affluent countries, where money could be made, while major illnesses in impoverished populations were left unaddressed.
Stuart Blume
Blume notes that vaccination is often treated in isolation, as a special method of promoting public health, and not compared with other methods. To counter this tendency, he presents vaccination as a technology, in the broad sense of a set of techniques and artefacts, that can be compared to other public health technologies such as sanitation. He sees vaccination as a socio-technical issue, as having both scientific and policy dimensions, and as shaped by social, economic and political influences in both these dimensions.
Blume addresses vaccines separately, rather than as a group. As a result, he does not make a universal judgement about vaccination, as a good or bad thing. In these ways, Blume offers a different perspective than the one taken by most of the campaigners for or against vaccination.
One of the peculiarities of the vaccination debate is that nearly all the disagreement is about whether vaccination is beneficial or harmful, for example whether it has led to declines in infectious disease or whether there are significant numbers of adverse effects. Seldom are comparisons made with other ways of improving health, in particular children’s health, for example addressing poverty. Blume notes some of the disagreements about early vaccines.
As many infectious-disease killers were brought under control in western countries, while others such as HIV were proving too difficult, vaccine developers turned to other diseases, seeing opportunities for profits. Blume writes that the rise of neoliberalism led to significant shifts in the rationale for new vaccines. Whereas previously companies and scientists had freely shared information and vaccines in a common commitment to public health, from the 1980s onwards the pharmaceutical industry became more dominant and less public spirited.
Government health departments in different countries responded to industry pressure in different ways. It became more common to use cost-benefit analysis, especially given that many new vaccines were highly expensive. Health departments sometimes approved new vaccines without as much evidence as they might have required earlier.
Cost-benefit analysis is not a good way to promote vaccines to the public. In several cases, notably measles and mumps, companies adopted a “rebranding” strategy to convince parents that diseases they had known as a routine and unthreatening part of childhood were actually killers to be feared and thus protected against using vaccines.
Blume believes that vaccines have saved millions of lives. Yet he is also sceptical of many of the latest vaccines, developed not as part of a public health agenda but by pharmaceutical companies whose primary aim is profit. Furthermore, there are dozens of new vaccines under development, many of them targeted at non-infectious diseases such as breast cancer.
Vaccination seems to have become a single-method solution for health problems, overshadowing primary health care that addresses the conditions that cause disease in the first place. Think how much easier it is to sell a vaccine than to address poverty and inequality, or illnesses due to industrial chemicals.
Vaccine hesitancy
For many readers, the most interesting part of Blume’s book will be the final chapter in which he addresses current anxieties about vaccination, especially in the west. He dismisses the idea, common among vaccination promoters, that the source of the anxieties is vaccine-critical groups such as the AVN. Sociologically, this explains neither the existence of the groups nor their alleged influence. It is like saying the reason people are concerned about economic inequality is because of protesters.
Blume cites research into the attitudes of parents that suggests something deeper is at play. Rather than dividing people into vaccine-acceptors and vaccine-refusers, Blume addresses a widespread vaccine hesitancy that affects many parents, especially well-educated ones, even when they adopt all the standard vaccinations.
Rather than vaccine-critical groups being the cause of vaccine hesitancy, it is better to understand them as a result of changed perceptions. Blume says vaccination has, for many people, become symbolic of a more general unease and sceptical attitude about the role of pharmaceutical companies and the medical profession. He notes that the usual survey research carried out by vaccination proponents can pick up demographic variations in parental concerns but does not get to their source.
It is perhaps relevant that citizens have no say in the development of vaccination recommendations, and even politicians are usually left out of the picture, as decisions are made by international organisations subject to corporate lobbying. This does not mesh well with people’s increasing knowledge about health matters. The experts might be right but nonetheless be distrusted.
Immunization: How Vaccines Became Controversial provides great insight precisely because it eschews the easy generalisations made by vaccination partisans. Vaccine development was not a straightforward linear process, and vaccination policy has been subject to a variety of influences. Vaccination is usefully seen as a technology, as just one of several approaches to promoting health, and thus judged in a wider context than a narrow calculation of benefits and risks. The contemporary vaccination debate is not just a matter of pro and anti, but should be seen in the wider context of attitudes towards social institutions and citizen participation in decision-making.
Blume does not offer easy answers, but more usefully points to the complexities and contradictions in the history and social dynamics of vaccination. It is essential reading for anyone who wants to get beyond the usual partisan positions in the vaccination debate.
ImmunizationStuart Blume
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Is Civics in Crisis? Or Just Changing its Shape?
By Ethan Zuckerman February 25, 2013 - 8:00am
Tags 21st Century Citizenship, Civic Engagement, Education, Youth & Participatory Politics
In late January, Austin Oberbillig and Evan Ricks, students at Olympia High School in Olympia, Washington made a video called “Lunch Scholars." The video was meant to be a high school version of “Jaywalking," a sketch Jay Leno has done for twenty years, where he asks people on the street near his Hollywood studio simple questions – who was the first U.S. president? – and compiles the funniest answers into video segments for his show. Austin and Evan did the same thing, shooting four hours of footage and editing it into just under five minutes, featuring the funniest responses.
And then something interesting happened. The video, posted on Vimeo, and later reposted on YouTube, began garnering hundreds of comments, mostly negative. A columnist for the Huffington Post used the video to frame her argument that American students were poorly prepared to compete in a global economy. Conservative pundit Glenn Beck devoted a segment of his radio show bemoaning the state of civic knowledge in American schools and suggesting a government conspiracy to ensure ignorance about civics within the American public education system.
As the video received national attention, the creators came under pressure from school administrators who were concerned about their school’s reputation for academic excellence. Olympia High School is one of the highest ranked high schools in Washington state in terms of SAT scores, AP classes and is defending champion in the state’s “knowledge bowl." The school’s high prestige made some commentators on the video even angrier – “If students in one of the top 5% performing high schools in Washington State are unable to name the U.S. vice president, give the number of U.S. states, or correctly identify the American War of Independence, what are the educational standards like in the other 95% of Washington schools?” The students who made the video say they came under pressure from the school administration to remove it from the web and that students met with the ACLU to discuss their rights to publish this video online, though elected not to pursue action against the administration.
I found the Lunch Scholars video when searching for an answer to a deceptively complex question: Are American schools doing a good job of teaching civics? The group that believes there is a crisis in civics education is far broader than Glenn Beck devotees. Former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor cites recent national exam results as evidence that we have “a crisis on our hands when it comes to civics education”, a crisis she hopes to address through a set of free, online games about civics. Others sounding a civics crisis note a decline in the number of elementary and high school courses on civics, the fact that civics is rarely part of the state-based assessment testing, and that those students who are tested generally perform poorly on National Assessment of Educational Progress tests on civics, the test O’Connor cited as evidence of our crisis.
The narrative of civics in crisis is one that resonates with other popular narratives about American culture in crisis. Robert Putnam made a compelling and controversial case in Bowling Alone that American civic life reached a peak with generations born from 1900 through the 1940s, and has been on the decline ever since. The “crisis in civics” narrative suggests that not only have we dropped out of bowling leagues, but our schools are no longer preparing us to be good citizens and good neighbors. There’s a common narrative about decreasing American achievement in comparison to other developed nations. Decreasing civic knowledge is consistent with a narrative that shows the U.S. falling behind in math and science as compared to OECD peers. And there’s a rich vein of commentary that suggests that technology – whether it includes television, video games or the internet – is making us less focused, more distracted, lonelier and stupider – in other words, less able to participate as civic actors.
So it’s somewhat surprising to discover that, according to the National Assessment of Educational Progress, students haven’t meaningfully shifted in civic knowledge between 1998 and 2010. (Fourth graders have shown a marked increase in civic knowledge, while eighth and twelfth grades show no major change.) It’s likely that what young Americans know about civic life hasn’t shifted meaningfully for the past half-century. For their book What Americans Know about Politics and Why It Matters, Professor Michael Delli Carpini and Scott Keeter examined decades of data about Americans knowledge of politics and discovered that overall knowledge has changed very little from WWII to the present. What has changed is how that knowledge is distributed in society. High school graduates in the 1990s were at approximately the same level of knowledge as high school dropouts of the late 1940s, and college graduates at the same level as high school graduates five decades earlier. But because so many more Americans go to college than half a century ago, the average level of civic knowledge is as high (or low). If civics is in crisis, it’s a long crisis, not a sudden development.
There’s a case to be made that youth civic engagement has risen sharply since the mid-1990s, when Delli Carpini and Keeter published their research. Youth voter turnout was above 50% in 2008, up from under 40% in 1996, though young people vote at much lower rates than older people – 51% of people under 30 voted in 2008, as compared to 67% of people over 30. Political engagement amongst college freshmen, as measured by UCLA’s Higher Education Research Institute, reached a 40 year peak in 2008, with 89.5% reporting they had engaged in political discussions.
If we conclude that civics is in crisis, there’s a hard question to answer: what would we do to help students prepare to become more effective citizens? William Galston reviewed much of the literature on the effectiveness of civic education a decade ago and suggests that more civic education is probably not the answer: “For three decades, the scholarly consensus has been that formal, classroom-based civic education has no significant effect on civic knowledge.” In fact, we’re so bad at teaching civics in the classroom that, “remarkably, the informal civic education that occurs in such non-civics courses as English literature may be more effective than civic education as currently taught.”
I have a hard time reconciling the state of civic education in the schools with some of the remarkable and inventive projects I’m seeing that focus on engaging high school and college students. I’ve followed with interest the work of Andrew Slack and the Harry Potter Alliance, a group that encourages fans of the Harry Potter books and movies to engage in social change campaigns consistent with the values of the books. Some of the campaigns focus on influencing the businesses that make money from Harry Potter, including a current campaign to urge Warner Bros. to use a chocolate supplier for Harry Potter chocolates that takes fair trade principles seriously. Others address issues conceptually related to the books, like gay and lesbian equality or a campaign against bullying.
It’s possible that the thousands of young people engaged with groups like the Harry Potter Alliance are a rounding error compared to the large masses of disengaged and ignorant youth the “civics in crisis” crowd is worried about. But it’s also possible that we are defining civics too narrowly to see groups like the Harry Potter Alliance as a form of civic engagement. If we measure civic engagement in terms of voting, participation in political conversations and performance on standardized tests, it’s likely that we’re failing to measure a great deal of activity many of us would define as civic participation. The same young person who doesn’t vote may be engaged in passionate conversations, online and offline, about libertarianism or about the Occupy movement. He may be boycotting conflict minerals, or organizing a campaign to support the local food co-op. She may be part of a social media campaign to call attention to conflicts in central Africa, or making viral videos to support the DREAM Act. It’s also quite possible that he or she is apolitical, disinterested and disengaged. But we’re making a mistake if we assume that voting behavior or attendance at political rallies is a good proxy for civic engagement.
Colleagues involved with the Youth and Participatory Politics project are examining this possibility, using a broader definition of “participatory politics” than is often used in the discussion around civics. Informed in part by groups like the Harry Potter Alliance, Invisible Children and DREAM Activists, they’ve surveyed youth between 15-25 and found that 41% of respondents engaged in at least one act of participatory politics in the past year, using online and offline media to express their opinions, mobilize networks and advocate for change.
Justice O’Connor is right to worry that American high school students don’t know enough about how legislation gets passed, or the checks and balances between branches of American government. But a thorough education in civic participation for the 21st century would likely also include a close look how social movements use media to influence public attitudes, how boycots put pressure on corporations, how groups of people organize online and offline to address social problems independent of governments.
My hope is that we can find a way to help people become civically engaged in a way that both leverages their creativity and full participation and has an impact on issues they care about. When we teach civic engagement in terms of institutions and systems citizens rarely interact with, except to elect representatives, we’re often teaching a very thin version of civics, in which your responsibility is to stay informed about issues and to vote every two years. This form of civic education predominates because we have some reasons to believe that voting is an impactful form of participation (though as a progressive voting in deep-blue Massachusetts, it’s hard for me to imagine that my vote is ever the deciding factor in an election.)
If conventional civics is thin, but effective, engagement through the Harry Potter Alliance or United We Dream can often be much thicker, asking participants to design campaigns and spread them through their social networks. And it’s easy for participants in a campaign to see that they’re having an impact, by tracking how many friends they influence, while it can be much harder to see the impact of a vote or even a letter to a legislator. At the same time, there are legitimate questions about whether these forms of engagement have impact, or whether they’re better understood as slacktivism or clicktivism.
We need a better choice than thin and effective versus thick and ineffective. Organizations on the political right and left have focused on making engagement with electoral politics thicker, but these efforts look as much like an attempt to recruit a small caste of political professionals as they do an effort to broaden civic participation. And organizations celebrating advocacy via media need to get far smarter about measuring and tracking their impact if they are to make the case that they are encouraging a form of participation that’s effective.
It’s not clear to me that we’re going to have an easy time teaching thick and effective civics through schools, particularly public high schools. My friend Danielle Allen gave a talk at Williams College late last year which explored a “civic empowerment gap”, the stark gap in political participation between people who go on to college, and those who end their education in high school. She noted that North Carolina is the only state that allows students to register to vote before they turn 18 and noted that the practice of registering high school students to vote in schools has fallen out of practice, in part due to voter registration laws either designed to reduce fraud or suppress participation.
Registering high school students to vote seems like a bare minimum for encouraging civic education. But as the audience at Professor Allen’s talk began debating whether registering high school students would give Democrats a political advantage, I started worrying about the challenge of teaching civics in a public school. If you’re having a debate about gun control and a student feels you, as a teacher, are taking a position too far to one side or another, it’s easy to imagine angry parents demanding you stop using the classroom to advocate for a policy position. It’s not hard to understand how, in such a politically polarized climate, we often teach the thinnest, least effective version of civics, a version where civics is a form of history, rather than a tool students could use to advocate for the positions they care about.
Ethan Zuckerman will deliver the keynote address at this year's digital media and learning conference, "Democratic Futures: Mobilizing Voices and Remixing Youth Participation," in Chicago, Mar. 14-16.
Banner image credit: jasleen_kaur,
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jasleen_kaur/5141372054/
Howard Rheingold (37)
John Jones (33)
Barry Joseph (27)
Cathy Davidson (25)
Raquel Recuero (22)
Liz Losh (22)
Whitney Burke (19)
danah boyd (16)
Ben Williamson (15)
Jeff Brazil (12)
Doug Belshaw (12)
S. Craig Watkins (11)
Antero Garcia (11)
Lyndsay Grant (9)
Nishant Shah (8)
monika hardy (8)
Ethan Zuckerman (6)
Mimi Ito (4)
Aaron Knochel (4)
Dante Noto (4)
Aleks Krotoski (4)
David Theo Goldberg (4)
Jon Barilone (2)
Constance M. Yowell, Ph.D. (2)
Akili Lee (2)
Courtney Santos (1)
danah boyd and John Palfrey (1)
Jason Schultz (1)
Michael Lachney (1)
Alexander Halavais (1)
Katie Salen (1)
Henry Jenkins (1)
Joseph Kahne (1)
Razeen Zaman (1)
Elisabeth Jacknis (1)
Daniel Hickey and Brian Nelson (1)
Assessment Digital Media Games & Learning Cyberculture Teaching Open Educational Resources Civic Engagement Equity Peer to Peer Learning Identity Youth Crowdsourcing Learning Writing Social Equity Education New Media Literacies Technology & Society Connected Learning Digital Culture Social Media Youth Culture Participatory Politics Digital Media & Learning Privacy
New Media Policy
Digital Media & Learning
Games & Learning, Identity, Social Equity, Digital Media & Learning
Digital Media and Learning
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Projects P - Z
Rungs to Rings
“Rungs to Rings” is a sculpture piece made of welded steel (1.125 inch thick plates) with laser cut 10 inch circles painted with bright red automotive paint. The artwork stands eight feet high and weighs 350 pounds. The piece suggests a pillar or column or ladder that combines two bi-dimensional planes ornamented with a repeating circle motif. The red suggests a Scarlet Tanager in the woods along the river bank.
David Versluis works extensively as an artist, teacher, designer and art director. Versluis holds an MFA from Western Michigan University, and has taught graphic design and studio art at Dordt College in Iowa since 2001. He has served as Department Chair since 2013.
Versluis has had solo exhibitions at Trinity Christian College, Dordt College, Chicago State University, and Luther College in Iowa. A collaborative show with Roy R. Behrens was shown at South Suburban College in Chicago in 2016. A Versluis/Behrens collaborative print was selected for the acclaimed 27th Annual McNeese National Works on Paper Exhibition at McNeese State University.
"Rungs to Rings" is part of a rotating exhibition of sculptures and is eligible for the 2017-2018 People's Choice Award. The piece can be purchased for personal acquisition or as a gift to the City for $3,000.
50th & France
Peacock Display
Reflecting on Friendship
Reflection of Me
Rock Dance
Rotating Photography Exhibit
The Glamorous Days of Flight
Three Trees
Time Piece
Urban Jewel
Utility Box Art Wrap: 50th Street & Wooddale Ave
Utility Box Art Wrap: 66th Street & Valley View
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MCCARTHY: Inside Nick Taylor’s U.S. Open finish
Jon McCarthyMore from Jon McCarthy
Updated: June 16, 2019 10:42 PM MDT
MCCARTHY: Inside Rory McIlroy's Portrush homecoming
BRITISH OPEN: Conners gets in rainy final day of prep
BRITISH OPEN: Hadwin in top form, but missing links
MCCARTHY: Koepka, Tiger and the air of invincibility
Nick Taylor of Canada plays a shot from the 18th tee during the final round of the 2019 U.S. Open at Pebble Beach Golf Links on June 16, 2019 in Pebble Beach, California. (Christian Petersen/Getty Images)
PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. – Nick Taylor was understandably tired as he left Pebble Beach on Sunday, but not for the usual U.S. Open reasons.
Taylor shot a one-over 72 in his final round to finish the week at two-over par. Yes, it was a major championship, yes, it was cold. But the course isn’t what tired the 31-year-old Canadian out. What had him needing some rest was not unique to the U.S. Open.
“Grinding to make a cut takes it out of you whatever week you’re playing,” he said. “The crowds are busy. It’s a bit of a mental grind, but it wasn’t like even-par was going to be the score this week, the course didn’t take a lot out of you. I’ve played here a bunch, that wasn’t draining more so than any other week.”
U.S. OPEN: Saturday at Pebble a heavyweight fight … All eyes on Koepka
U.S. OPEN HEAVYWEIGHT FIGHT: Woodland and Rose at top of pack
Feeling good about his game after going into the third round at the RBC Canadian Open in third place, Taylor opened his week at the 119th U.S. Open with three straight bogeys. It had been a decade since he last played in this major and after thirty minutes things were not going well.
“To make the cut didn’t seem very realistic halfway or even later in that first round, so I’m proud of that,” Taylor said.
In the first round, Taylor eagled the 18th hole to save his day and shoot a three-over 74. On Friday, he got up-and-down from the thick rough on his final hole to shoot a one-under 70 and make the cut right on the number. He was playing his best golf of the week on Saturday, before turning a birdie chance into a bogey with a three-putt on the par-3 17th and finishing with another one-under 70. His game wasn’t quite as tight during Sunday’s round, but a birdie from the bunker at 18 allowed him to finish the day at one-over and the week at two-over.
“It’s all there, it’s similar to the whole year where it’s all there but just not quite clicking every round,” he said. “A lot of positives, a few things to work on. I’m happy with how the week went. It’s always fun to play in a major and play decent.”
Taylor might want rest but he won’t get much because he is teeing it up on Thursday in the Traveler’s Championship at TPC River Highlands outside of Hartford. One of his goals for for the next few weeks is to qualify for this year’s British Open at Royal Portrush.
It will be possible to earn a spot in the season’s final major with a good finish at the Rocket Mortgage Classic or the John Deere Classic, which are part of the British Open qualifying series.
U.S. Open Golf
VAN DIEST: United States keep raising bar at Women's World Cup
WORLD CUP NOTES: England does not care about third-place game
VAN DIEST: Top referee defends officiating at Women's World Cup
TRAIKOS: Now is the time NHL GMs tend to pull the trigger
Daily Sports Newsletter
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West Forsyth manhole overflows
Updated: Jan. 20, 2017, 11:50 a.m.
WEST FORSYTH -- Around 250 gallons of wastewater recently spilled from a west Forsyth sewer.
Forsyth County officials said they were notified on Friday of an overflowing manhole in the area around Fox Creek Drive, which released about 250 gallons of gray water, or wastewater from baths, sinks and kitchen appliances – not from toilets. About 40 gallons spilled into a small tributary nearby.
The spill was caused by a blockage in the line of “grease and construction material.” The blockage was freed by “jetting the line,” or using high-powered water to clear the line.
Jill Pilcher, executive assistant with the Water and Sewer Department said 2-by-4s and asphalt were found in the line and that there was no damage to the line or road.
Crews arrived at the manhole at about 4:45 p.m. after neighbors complained of “a sewer smell,” and the blockage was cleared by about 8:25 p.m.
Once cleared, signs were put up and the area was treated with lime.
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Phenols in medicine
By Alan Dronsfield, Pete Ellis1 January 2007
Phenol encountered in school or college chemistry laboratories demands special respect on account of its toxic and corrosive nature. But phenol and its derivatives do have a few medicinal surprises
ICI chemists hit on the anaesthetic properties of alkyl phenols in late 1970s
Propofol - 2,6-di-isopropyl phenol - is still used as an anaesthetic today
Even transient contact with phenol results in white blisters which, if left untreated, will destroy the underlying tissues. The ability of phenol to harden and destroy (sclerose) flesh, however, has found application in medicine. From 1904, 5 per cent solutions of phenol (usually in vegetable oil) have been used to seal off varicose veins and to shrink haemorrhoids.1 When such solutions are injected into a nerve, the cells and surrounding cells are destroyed and thus the ability to transmit pain. While this is useful in relieving otherwise intractable pain, it does have its disadvantages. Not only is the painful stimulus removed, but also all sensation from the region served by the nerve. No more painful toe, for instance, but a numb foot with all the hazards of not having sensation in your foot for safe walking and balance.
Despite the dramatic effect of phenol on animal tissue, chemists at ICI Pharmaceuticals Division, at Alderley Park, Macclesfield, Cheshire, decided to investigate the physiological and potential anaesthetic properties of this substance and its derivatives. The work, which was done during the 1970s, involved investigating substances that had previously been ignored because they were either insoluble in blood or plasma, or perceived to be too corrosive or toxic to warrant further study.
The chemists solubilised/dispersed some of these chemicals as emulsions in Cremophor EL, an expoxylated castor oil, so that they could then inject them into animals. This technique had been first developed in the 1950s to solubilise carbohydrates, fats and vitamins to give them to patients intravenously when they were too ill to eat.
Relatively early in their studies, the ICI chemists hit on a lead molecule - 2,6-diethylphenol - that put mice to sleep with a dose of 15-20 mg kg-1 body mass. The compound was safe - its lethal dose (LD50) was some five-six times greater than this. Indeed, it was even safer than the existing 'gold standard' for intravenous anaesthesia, sodium pentothal, which had only a four-fold margin of safety. However, 2,6-diethylphenol was slow to induce anaesthesia, so the chemists continued to search for other agents among the phenols.
Even unsubstituted phenol was briefly investigated: yes, it acted as an anaesthetic, but its median hypnotic dose (70 mg kg-1 body mass) was too close to its lethal dose (100 mg kg-1 body mass) to warrant further investigation. It rapidly became clear that further success would be found among the alkylphenols, and particularly among those that were, like the lead compound, doubly ortho -substituted. The chemists trawled for likely candidates among suppliers' catalogues and the shelves of ICI laboratories across the world, and many compounds were synthesised for testing.
Success came with a substance cheaply available from Aldrich Chemical - 2,6-di-isopropyl phenol (1), solubilised in water with the aid of Cremophor EL . This rendered animals unconscious in around 10s at a dose of 5-10 mg kg-1 body mass, distant from the median lethal dose of 50-60 mg kg-1 body mass.
The first clinical trials of 2,6-di-isopropyl phenol, in 1977, reported that a single injection of ca 40-70 mg would send a patient to sleep in less than half a minute, and that unconsciousness would persist for three or four minutes.
Recovery in every case was remarkably quick and excellent, although in one patient the euphoria closely resembled alcoholic intoxication, even to the singing.3
For any but the most minor of surgical operations, anaesthesia could be maintained simply by continuously infusing the di-isopropyl phenol into the patient's vein by using a motorised syringe pump. The agent (marketed as Diprivan or Propofol ) became widely available in the mid-1980s. Today, if you go into hospital for an operation, it is almost certain that you will be put to sleep with an intravenous agent. The anaesthesia will sometimes be maintained with a gas or volatile vapour, but increasingly with further doses of an intravenous agent. And 95 times out of 100, the chemical responsible for both induction and maintenance will be Propofol , our 2,6-di-isopropyl phenol. A few patients react adversely to the Cremophor EL, so this has been replaced by a mixture of soybean oil, glycerol and egg lecithin.4
Synthesis of 2,6-di-isopropyl phenol (Propofol)
Friedlieb Ferdinand Runge (pictured below) first isolated phenol in 1834 by distilling coal tar. He called it Karbolsäure (coal-oil acid) because of its action on vegetable dye indicators, which gave rise to today's non-systematic name carbolic acid. The effectiveness of carbolic acid in deodorising sewage prompted surgeon Joseph Lister to use it (2.5-5 per cent solutions) as an antiseptic agent to prevent the infections that at the time were associated with injury and surgery.
2,6-Di-isopropyl phenol was synthesised in 1956.5 Phenol is heated with propene under pressure in the presence of a small amount of aluminium phenoxide (see Scheme 1). The alkene attacks the benzene nucleus almost exclusively in the 2- and 6-positions presumably owing to some form of transient electronic attachment between the aluminium atom and the propene-derived carbocation. Yields of the target molecule exceed 60 per cent. 2,6-Di-isopropyl phenol was available cheaply but, without any significant uses, it languished as a chemical curiosity on suppliers' shelves until its role in intravenous anaesthesia was recognised.
Scheme 1 Synthesis of Propofol
Phenol derivatives continue to offer new surprises in medicine. The recent introduction of mycophenolate mofetil (2, MMF) has led to a significant reduction of rejection of transplanted organs, including heart, liver and kidney transplants. This, too, is a doubly ortho -substituted phenol. Moreover, the anaesthetic for the transplant surgery will probably have been Propofol.
We are grateful for helpful discussions with, and advice from, Dr J. B. (Iain) Glen, co-discoverer of Propofol. We thank Dr John Pring, consultant anaesthetist at the West Cornwall Hospital, for comments about the current status of Propofol anaesthesia.
Alan Dronsfield is professor of the history of science in the school of education, health and sciences at the University of Derby, Derby DE22 1GB. Peter Ellis is professor of psychological medicine at the Wellington School of Medicine and Health Sciences, University of Otago, PO Box 7343, Wellington South, New Zealand.
1. Phenol, medicinal uses [website no longer available]
2. R. James and J. B. Glen, J. Med. Chem., 1980, 23, 1350.
3. B. Kay and G. Rolly, Acta Anaesthes. Belg., 1977, 28, 303.
4. Cremophor EL alternative: [website no longer available]
5. G. G. Ecke, J. P. Napolitano and A. J. Kolka, J. Org. Chem., 1956, 21, 711.
Reactions and synthesis
More Feature
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Diagnose your students’ strengths and weaknesses
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← The 2014 Candidates for the ELA Board of Directors
Meet the Candidates, August 2, 2014 →
July 26, 2014 Monthly Open Board Meeting
The meeting was unusual in that the time and energy of the Public Comments section greatly overshadowed that of the prepared agenda items. What is normally a brief and uneventful portion of the meeting was instead characterized by angry exchanges between board members and attendees.
The meeting was called to order at 9:34am and began with the usual pledge of allegiance to the flag.
President’s Comments: President Leslie said he hoped to see “all of you” at the annual meeting. He added that he was proud to serve as this board’s president for the past year and was also proud of all they accomplished. These remarks brought puzzled looks by many of those in the audience. He concluded by calling for the treasurer’s report.
Treasurer’s Report: Treasurer Earl Frank said that due to the ongoing year-end audit, no financials were available. He further stated that the audit was on schedule and would be completed in time for presentation at the annual meeting. He said that to his knowledge, thus far no irregularities were discovered.
Manager’s Report: GM Judy Kennedy wished all the candidates for this year’s election good luck. She expressed the hope that all would have a mindset to work with management. Ecological Solutions will be treating Deer Lake Tuesday, July 29th. Public Safety will be putting stickers on illegally parked cars warning of towing if not moved and that, if the warning was ignored, towing would follow. Director Fitzgerald then interrupted, asking a question about Ms. Kennedy’s credentials. This forced Ms. Kennedy to discuss a procedural difficulty caused by her recent name change (Fitzgerald’s question elicited personal information inappropriate for a public forum. I’m uncomfortable having to write even that much on the subject). Ms. Kennedy also responded to another question from Fitzgerald, assuring the board that she is working with the new attorney in helping to get him acclimated to our particular situation and set of problems.
Committee Reports: As is the usual case leading up to the annual meeting, the Maintenance Committee, Finance & planning Committee and the ad hoc Committee to Revise the Bylaws will not meet again until September.
Reporting for the Events Committee, Chairperson Stefania Johnson reported on a very successful Sock Hop/Classic Car Display/Drive-in Movie event held the night before. She announced that Dancing With The Stars is being moved from August 16th to September 27th. Ms. Johnson then reported that the Adult Night, scheduled for August 23rd at the outdoor pool would be moved to the Community Center. This is due to inadequate lighting at the pool that would cause the event to be terminated prematurely as twilight fell. She was stopped by GM Kennedy who said that the board would have to approve the move. Alternatively, the date of the event could be changed. Stay tuned.An Octoberfest celebration is in the planning stage with a date TBD. Halloween falls on a Friday this year. That night there will be an adult costume party at the community Center. A kids’ party will be held at the center the following day.
Speaking for the Nominations Committee, Chairperson Cookie Lietwinski reminded all that Meet the Candidates will be held at 9:30am, Saturday, August 2nd in the Community Center. She will act as moderator of the question and answer event.
Liaison Carmen Broadnax reported that recommendations by the Real Estate Committee were being considered.
Old Business
–Clause 15 – Attorney – Second Opinion Newly engaged attorney Ed Hoffman is now studying the “Clause 15” properties and problems thereof. This is the same problem that attorney George Hludzik had been studying for the last year.
-Bylaw Changes The new attorney is also studying the bylaw changes submitted to the board on January 25th last, and which had been under review by our former attorney since then. Therefore, there will be no bylaw revisions on the annual meeting agenda.
-Variances The new attorney blah, blah, blah.
-Resolution #45 – Equipment Purchase A total of $103,000 was appropriated for the purchase of a tractor, mini excavator, roadside cutter and equipment trailer.
-Resolution #46 – Tax Appeal – Reclassification The board unanimously resolved to seek reclassification of recently acquired properties to class 6 (amenity use, non-taxable).
A resolution was offered and then withdrawn on approving a form for beach usage by members for group activities such as parties. The consensus was that individual forms were not properly handled through official resolutions.
(Author’s note: The public comment section of the meeting was somewhat chaotic in that members raised issues that were briefly discussed, abandoned to new topics and then re-addressed. Instead of attempting to present these in the normal temporal order I have grouped them by topic. Where possible there are quotes, but conversation was often so fast and furious I can only characterize it.)
“Clause 15 Properties”: Pat Galderisi, who has done considerable research on these properties and the problems they present, spoke at least 4 times on the subject. She is frustrated by the lack of action by the board and attorney. She pointed out that she worked with then-board Secretary Carmen Broadnax last summer and that the fruits of that labor were turned over to the board. Apparently there was considerable detail in the report and a great deal of effort was involved in putting it together. Ms. Galderisi emphasized that grouping all problem properties under the “Clause 15” nomenclature was misleading. Some properties were designated as Emerald Lakes only until a specific point in time, such as 1987. Other properties do not have declarations attached to the deeds, and while they are located in Emerald Lakes geographically they are not technically (or officially, whatever) part of the association. In many of these cases owner/residents pay dues and enjoy the full benefits of membership -including voting at annual and special meetings. This ‘voluntary membership’ is not permitted under our bylaws and Pennsylvania Act 180. Galderisi cautioned Judge of Elections June Solla that she must take care in ensuring that non-members, whether dues-paying or not, are not allowed to vote. Carmen Broadnax asked that Pat give the Judge of Elections a list of these non-member dues payers. Galderisi responded that she had given all the information to all the board members and was not about to duplicate the effort. She demanded that the board prepare a list from the information they already had. Other members, for instance Flo Mauri, also contributed to this discussion/debate that flared up again and again throughout the comment period. At one point President Alex Leslie said of the issue, “This board will see it through. You have my word.” When asked for a deadline, Leslie declined to provide one.
Staffing: Member Kevin Marsland questioned why, when a huge event was underway at Pine Tree Island Beach on Saturday, July 5th, the Community Center was also open and fully staffed. He complained that this was not an efficient use of resources, since very few members utilized the center while over a hundred were at the beach. GM Kennedy, thrown under the bus by board members, tried to justify the decision by saying that the center normally stayed open during past external parties. She was apparently given this incorrect information by board members, though none stepped up to shoulder responsibility. Events Chair Stefania Johnson corrected the misinformation, and member Buz Whelan pointed out that the board has dominion over all amenities and can open or close them at their discretion. Examples given were the comedy shows and the cabaret night where paid admission was required. Whelan also cited the fact that the CC was once open 7 days a week, and though it is open Wednesday nights during the summer, it was closed Wednesdays during the Winter. To a director’s comment that the beach event was successful (so what’s the problem?) a number of members protested that voluntary actions by members were responsible for that success. Flo Mauri said that using the success of the party as justification for pulling staff was totally unfair, since it could not be known that members would step up and, in any case, substituting volunteers for staff is poor management (or words to that effect).
Beach Rental: Another back and forth as members pressed for details on large parties at the beaches, most often Pine Tree. Apparently there is no charge per se for the permit, though a $200 refundable clean up deposit is required. There is also a $5 per person bracelet charge for non-members. Questions about size and noise limitations went unanswered. The GM said that even if a party were authorized the beach remains open to members. This seemed a bit disingenuous since huge, noisy parties of any particular group have an inhibiting and intimidating effect on non-invitees, regardless of whether the beach is said to be ‘open.’
Bylaw Revisions: Speaking on behalf of his committee members, Chairperson Buz Whelan voiced his frustration that no bylaw revisions would be on the annual meeting agenda. Not only was the committee specifically charged with developing a comprehensive amendment and procedure for absentee voting in September of 2013, it succeeded in the task and presented both the amendment and protocol for voting to the board at the January 25, 2014 monthly open board meeting. At every single successive board meeting, workshop and monthly open, Whelan asked about the status of the amendment and was told, every time, that the attorney was studying it. Now, said Whelan, we are told that the new attorney is looking at it, and the process is back to where it was in January. Whelan also asked why the question of removing the unsightly property amendment from the bylaws was not being considered since it is hardly a legal question. He reminded the board that an interview with Code Enforcement Office Ralph Musto revealed that not one citation for unsightly property has ever been written based on the bylaw amendment. According to Musto, the issue is more comprehensively covered in the Emerald lakes Association Rules and Regulations, and that is the basis for citations. No answer was forthcoming to the question of why this is not being offered for a vote.
Misfeasance of Board Authority: Member Darren Johnson rose to complain that a board member with a personal vendetta against his wife Stefania used her access to member records to harass her. Apparently, though Darren and Stefania had updated their property deed to include Stefania upon the occasion of their marriage, this information had not yet made its way to the office records. A letter was sent informing Stefania that she could no longer chair the Events Committee since she was not a member of the association. While the Johnsons were able to correct the misinformation, Darren expressed his outrage that access to personal information by a board member could be used to forward a personal agenda. Director June Solla asked President Leslie to make a previously agreed upon statement. Leslie said that the board approved the letter. Johnson responded that this approval was based on incorrect, outdated information.
Posted on July 27, 2014, in BOD Meetings. Bookmark the permalink. Leave a comment.
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The plant availability of auto-cast platinum group elements
Hooda, P. S., Miller, A. and Edwards, A. C. (2008) The plant availability of auto-cast platinum group elements. Environmental Geochemistry and Health, 30(2), pp. 135-139. ISSN (print) 0269-4042
Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10653-008-9134-4
The introduction of automobile catalysts has raised environmental concern, as this pollution control technology is also an emission source for platinum group elements (PGE). The main aim of this study was to assess soil and grass PGE concentrations in soils adjacent to five road networks. The soil and grass samples were collected from four distances at each site; they were 0, 1, 2 and 5 m from the road edges. The maximum soil Pt, Rh and Pd concentrations were measured at the road perimeters. Pd concentrations were much higher than Pt or Rh, possibly due to differences in its use, emission and/or soil chemistry. Rh and Pt soil concentrations accounted for 66 and 34% (P < 0.01) of the variability observed, respectively, in their plant concentrations. Grass Pd concentrations had no relationship with its total soil concentrations.
Faculty of Science (until 2011) > School of Geography, Geology and Environment > Centre for Earth and Environmental Science Research (CEESR)
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Tag Archives: Film festival
Sonoma International Film Festival — A festival featuring film, food, wine and spirits in Sonoma, California
Posted on March 11, 2019 by Jill
UPCOMING 22ND ANNUAL SONOMA INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL
Festival to Open with LADIES IN BLACK; SIR is Closing Night Film
Wednesday, March 27 – Sunday, March 31
Sonoma, CA (March 11, 2019) – The 2019 Sonoma International Film Festival (SIFF) is celebrating 22 years of film, food, wine, and spiritsWednesday, March 27 to Sunday, March 31, 2019. All films are shown at intimate venues within walking distance of Sonoma’s historic plaza. In total, 123 films from around the world, from over 28 countries and 200 filmmakers, will be showcased as all eyes turn to Sonoma for a Festival that consistently attracts the most prominent names in the film industry and has become a marquee destination for film lovers, as well as lovers of world class food and wine!
The film festival guide has all films and events by day, times, venues, and includes film trailers when available. Some of the films highlighted this year include MIKE WALLACE IS HERE, ART PAUL OF PLAYBOY: THE MAN BEHIND THE BUNNY, FIRE ON THE HILL, GIRL ON WAVE, CHARGED, and the Oscar® winning animated short BAO.
The Opening Night Gala is Wednesday, March 27 from 5pm to 7pm in the Diageo Backlot Tent and features music from The Rich Little Band. The Opening Night Film, LADIES IN BLACK to follow at Sebastiani Theater (7:15pm) and Meyer Sound & Dolby Hall at Vets 1 (7:45pm). From Academy Award nominated director Bruce Beresford (Driving Miss Daisy, Mao’s Last Dancer), LADIES IN BLACKis set in the summer of 1959 when the impact of European migration and the rise of women’s liberation is about to change Australia forever. Sixteen-year-old Lisa takes a holiday job at the prestigious Sydney department store, Goode’s. There she meets the “ladies in black.” Beguiled and influenced by Magda, the vivacious manager and assisting sales ladies Patty and Fay, Lisa is awakened to a world of possibilities. As she grows from a bookish schoolgirl into a glamorous and positive young woman, the impact they have on each other will change all their lives. Julia Ormond (Actor),Rachael Taylor (Actor) and Allanah Zitserman (Producer) will all be on hand to walk the red carpet in support of the film, which is the largest grossing film in Australia’s history. Jennifer Brown of Flagstar Bank and Tina DeMartini of DeMartini Electric, Inc., are the presenting sponsors of the Opening Night Film.
The sellout SIFF/Devour! Chefs & Shorts is back! This year’s event features highly regarded culinary luminaries who will each prepare a dish inspired by short food-focused films from around the world. Michael Howell and Lia Rinaldo, founders of DEVOUR!—the world’s largest food and film festival in Nova Scotia, Canada—curate the chefs and the films. Each course, paired with a select wine, creates a multi-sensory dining experience. This unique event will appeal to all foodie, film and wine buffs. The evening starts with a reception of passed appetizers, Gloria Ferrer bubbles and a SIFF signature cocktail from Ketel One Botanical. The wine pairings feature Huge Bear Wines, Deerfield Ranch Winery, Bee Hunter Wine, and Landmark Vineyards. The featured chefs include Michael Howell (Founder and Executive Director of Devour!), Chef Marcellus Coleman (Executive Chef at Fairmont Sonoma Mission Inn & Spa), Chef Cole Dickinson (Executive Chef at MacArthur Place Hotel & Spa), Pastry Chef Michelle Gayer (Owner Salty Tart bakery), Chef Della Gossett (Pastry Chef at Spago) and Chef Eduardo Garcia (Co-founder Montana Mex). Adding to the night’s experience Chef Tyler Florence will screen his trailer for UNCRUSHABLE, showing twice at SIFF22. The event takes place on Thursday, March 28 at 6pm at host Ramekins Culinary School, Events & Inn located at 450 W. Spain Street, Sonoma. Tickets are $250 with Soirée, $275 with Cinema Pass, $300 General Public, $500 for seat at Tyler Florence’s hosted table (only five seats available) and are available at http://www.sonomafilmfest.org/page464.html.
The list of accomplished jury members for this year’s festival includes casting director Ferne Cassel (DIE HARD, COMING TO AMERICA, ROADHOUSE, DICK TRACY), Courtney Sexton (Vice President of CNN Films), powerhouse film distributor Adeline Monzier, Michele Maheux (Executive Director and Chief Operating Officer of the Toronto International Film Festival), Bart Walker (partner at ICM Partners), cinematographer John Bailey (GROUNDHOG DAY, AS GOOD AS IT GETS, HOW TO LOSE A GUY IN 10 DAYS, MUST LOVE DOGS), Bill Keith (Deputy Editor of Entertainment Weekly), award winning producer Tom Davia (ARE WE NOT CATS, LA GRANJA), and actress Angela Sarafyan (THE INFORMERS, A BEAUTIFUL LIFE, THE TWILIGHT SAGA: BREAKING DAWN – PART 2, WESTWORLD).
New to SIFF this year is The UNCRUSHABLE Dinner with Tyler Florence. On Friday, March 29 join celebrated Chef Tyler Florence for a one-of-a-kind “Dinner and a Movie” event. View Tyler’s documentary, UNCRUSHABLE, and after the film, savor a four-course dinner paired with wines from SIMI, Ravenswood, Robert Mondavi and The Prisoner Wine Company. The dinner begins at 5pm at Ramekins Culinary School, Events & Inn located at 450 W. Spain Street, Sonoma. Tickets are $250 with Soirée Pass, $275 with Cinema Pass, $300 General Public and $500 for a seat at Tyler Florence’s hosted table (only five seats available) and are available for purchase at http://www.sonomafilmfest.org/page464.html.
Saturday, March 30 SIFF will host two Industry Panel Discussions in the Diageo Backlot Tent. Panel #1 at 9:30am “Representation: A Look Into The Business of Agents and Managers” will feature Bill Keith, Deputy Editor of Entertainment Weekly), Bart Walker (ICM), Beth Holden Garland (Talent Manager), and Melissa Hirschenson (Agent at Innovative Artists). Panel #2 at 10am “Destination Filming: The Practicalities of Filming Outside the ‘Hollywood Zone’” will feature Mark Walker (Cinelease Director of Studio Development and General Manager, Film Mare Island).
Sunday, March 31 is the Closing Night Film and Wrap Party, presented by Daniel Casabonne of Sotheby’s International Realty. The Closing Night Film is SIR directed by Rohena Gera, starring Ahmareen Anjum, Vivek Gomber, and Geetanjali Kulkarni, will show at 7:15pm at the Sebastiani Theatre and at 7:30pm at Meyer Sound & Dolby Hall at Vets 1. SIR is the story of worlds and classes colliding – of human connection across the invisible, oppressive barriers of society. A live-in domestic worker, Ratna is an impoverished but determined woman dedicated to her dreams. While working, she meets affluent Ashwin who, despite his riches, seems to have given up on his dreams and lost himself in the process. As the connection between them grows and their disparate worlds are irreparably intertwined, the social barriers that seek to separate them only appear to grow more insurmountable.
The 22nd Annual Sonoma International Film Festival runs from Wednesday, March 27 through Sunday, March 31. The best way to experience the festival and have access to all films is by getting a SIFF pass. SIFF can be enjoyed at different levels. Currently Cinema Passes are $325, $950 for Soirée, and $2,500 for Patron. All Cinema pass holders will have day access to the Diageo Backlot Tent. Soirée pass holders will have day VIP area and evening parties access. For information about tickets, festival passes, prices, and benefits visit www.sonomafilmfest.org.
About the Sonoma International Film Festival
The Sonoma International Film Festival, an entirely walkable festival, is a 501(c)3 corporation dedicated to promoting independent film and filmmakers from around the world, inspiring film lovers, and introducing the power of film to student filmmakers. SIFF’s signature initiative—the Media Arts Program started at Sonoma Valley High School in 2002—introduces students to the process of storytelling and provides the resources for them to create films, many of which are shown annually at The Student Showcase. This “only in SONOMAWOOD” five-day event features screening venues in and around Sonoma Plaza, offers world-class cuisine from local artisans and exceptional wines from Wine Country vintners. Renowned filmmakers, industry leaders and celebrities such as Bruce Willis, Susan Sarandon, Robin Williams, John Lasseter, Danny Glover, Demián Bichir, Mary-Louise Parker, Ray Liotta, Michael Keaton, and Meg Ryan have walked the SIFF red carpet and enjoyed its intimate ambiance.
Over the past 22 years, the Sonoma International Film Festival continues to promote independent film and filmmakers from around the world with the support of incredible sponsors who include but are not limited to: Manitou Fund, Diageo, Sonoma Magazine, Tito’s Handmade Vodka, Arrowood, Bank of Marin, Dolby, Sonoma Market, Sophienwald, Stor-It-All, WildFire Web, Spritz, Don Julio, Johnnie Walker, Ketel One Botanical, San Francisco Chronicle, Landmark Vineyards, Brew Dr., Huge Bear Wines, OHM Coffee Roasters, Farm Fresh To You, Rodney Strong, Gloria Ferrer, and Lake Sonoma Winery.
For more information, please visit www.sonomafilmfest.org
Media contact: Allison Coats, allison@coatspr.com or (707) 935-6203
Posted in Art House Films, Chef, cooking, Festival | Tagged Film festival, Ladies in Black, Sir, Sonoma | Leave a reply
Concussion—-Lesbian sex, it’s so HOT right now!!
Posted on October 28, 2013 by Jill
Concussion headlined many Queer film festivals this year. With it’s high-production values, pretty star and fantasy plot of a lesbian who decides to become a high-priced call girl after a knock on the head; it’s easy to see why it is a popular film. The sets are all beautifully-furnished suburban homes or artfully-decorated city apartments that our star spends all her time and money upgrading. It’s a sex-film for upper-middle class lesbians who may be finding marriage, kids and a house in the suburbs more bland and less-fulfilling then they anticipated.
If it’s seems a tad unrealistic to think that there might be a market for Abby’s (Robin Weigert) services, or that leading a double-life would be so easy to keep from the kids and the wife…well, at least it’s an interesting film. And don’t we all need a little wish fulfillment now a days? The fact that Abby’s escapades involve parading around in expensive lingerie, mentoring a young college student with feminist literature as well as sexual gratification and rough sex with another suburban housewife is about as reasonable as the assumption that getting hit by a baseball would lead to this new lifestyle.
Having won a Teddy Jury award at the Berlin Film Festival for writer/director Stacie Passon and a Best First Feature award at Frameline Film Festival in San Francisco, I wish this director and this film continued success. The many soft-core porn sex scenes are pretty and not exploitative, and if they feel unrealistic; at least they were directed by a woman from a screenplay written by the same woman. Thus dodging the controversy surrounding the OTHER lesbian film currently playing in LA and New York….
Blue is the Warmest Color is generating controversy and discussion of female sexuality and male gaze. A three-hour film about a young girl’s coming-of-age journey, “La vie d’Adèle” was directed by Abdellatif Kechiche and stars the two young actresses, Léa Seydoux and Adèle Exarchopoulos. In an unusual and remarkable move, the Cannes jury awarded the Palm d’Or to not just the director, but also, for the first time ever, the actors as well! Having not seen the film myself, I can easily predict that the length of the film will be more of an issue for me personally, than the six and a half minute-long sex scene. Rarely do I find that the bloated Hollywood films need their 2-hour running time and though I tend to be more forgiving of non-traditional films from independent filmmakers, three hours speaks to a director who is too precious with his or her work.
I do enjoy reading all the press that this film is inspiring. Any film that can incite writers to discuss female sexuality and representation is a winner in my book! Here’s a quote from Matthew Hammett Knott that I rather liked:
“It all comes back to Robert Bresson’s inspiring maxim – “make visible that which, without you, might never be seen”. In this respect, Manohla Dargis’s criticism that Kechiche “seems so unaware or maybe just uninterested in the tough questions about the representation of the female body that feminists have engaged for decades” seems less pertinent to “Blue is the Warmest Color” than with regard to the wider picture. All perspectives are limited, including Dargis’, including Kechiche’s, including mine. It doesn’t mean we have to reject any in particular. That is our prerogative. What is essential is to recognize the limitations of each, and most importantly, recognize those that are missing entirely from our cultural landscape, and seek them out. ”
http://whttp://www.indiewire.com/article/heroines-of-cinema-blue-is-the-warmest-color-and-the-real-problem-with-male-filmmakers-and-female-sexuality
So seek out queer cinema if you can! Support all films that support women-driven narratives because they are few and far between!
http://www.indiewire.com/article/what-do-we-expect-from-lesbian-films
Rating: 3 soy lattes in an arty cafe while scheduling play dates, a Pilates session and waiting for your paid date to arrive…
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Abdellatif Kechiche, Blue is the Warmest Color, Cannes, Concussion, Film festival, Frameline Film Festival, Léa Seydoux, Manohla Dargis, Robert Bresson, Robin Weigert, San Francisco, Stacie Passon | Leave a reply
Fond Farewell to the Bay Area
Posted on August 23, 2013 by Jill
Yes, the time has come for me to take a hiatus from my beloved Bay Area and continue my job search somewhere less distracting…look out Boulder, CO!
Big thanks to my friends in the publicity biz who’ve been big supporters: Steve Indig at Landmark Theatres and Karen Larsen and staff at Larsen and Associates. And to all the gals at Bay Area Women in Film and Media — thank you for your friendship and keep up the good work!
I’m really going to miss living in a city that has such a wealth of art-house and foreign films screening in so many theaters, often opening here right after New York and Los Angeles! San Francisco has more film festivals than any other city–and I’ve attended or worked at most of them!! I’ll miss all my dear film festival friends. A big hug of gratitude to the staffs at Frameline and CAAMFest and SF Green Film Festival, cheers to Jeff Ross for his dedication to independent film and music in the Bay Area with Indiefest, Docfest and Another Hole in the Head and to my dear friends at the SF Film Society presenting fabulous programming and events while struggling with a lack of leadership. Hurrah for fabulous film curation all around the Bay Area! To all my festival gypsy friends traveling from festival to festival, I salute you! I’m there in spirit even if I’m not working at your side!
Here’s what I’d recommend you see in San Francisco this weekend:
The World’s End–This is what I’m most excited to see because I’m a huge fan of Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz and it looks like more of the same wackiness!
20 Feet From Stardom–Yes, it’s still playing (at Stonestown, but still…). This is a great documentary about back-up singers that even non-musicians would enjoy.
Frances Ha–Again, yes, it’s still playing. It’s at the Roxie (9pm) and is a must-see for fans of Indie films. Written with Greta Gerwig, Noah Baumbach’s film is like a more-hip and funnier Woody Allen film!
Two coming of age films that I reviewed earlier: The Way Way Back and The Spectacular Now should also not be missed. Both charming and with great performances; they are small films with big hearts!
Cutie and The Boxer–If there was one film that I’d encourage everyone to see, it’s this wonderful documentary! A well-crafted first film by Zachary Heinzerling, this is an intimate portrait of an eccentric painter and sculptor, Ushio Shinohara and his supportive wife and fellow artist, Noriko Shinohara. Ushio lives life large with a big presence and big work, while his wife, Noriko steps out of his shadow to present her own work and begins to finds her own voice. As they struggle to find an audience (and buyers!) for their creations: towering papier mache motorcycles, paintings created by “boxing” the canvas and graphic novels depicting their own troubled relationship, we also see their struggles to be true to their art and each other. It’s both tender and poignant.
Don’t let this one get out of town before you get to see it!!
And a quick update on this lovely film: http://www.indiewire.com/article/critics-picks-the-top-10-documentaries-released-in-2013-according-to-indiewires-film-critic
Until we meet again, I’ll be at the movies…let’s have a drink and you can tell me what YOU think!
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Bay Area, CAAMFest, Cutie and the Boxer, Film festival, Frameline Film Festival, IndieFest, Jeff Ross, Landmark Theatres, San Francisco, San Francisco Bay Area, SF Film Society, SF Green Film Festival, Ushio Shinohara, Zachary Heinzerling | 3 Replies
San Francisco International Film Festival 56: Four Fun Features!
Posted on May 18, 2013 by Jill
A film festivals is like a river. Where you “ford” the river; where you step into the stream, is unique. Your experience of the same events will often differ drastically from everyone around you.
Are you anticipating a film because you’re familiar with the director’s previous work? Do you adore the lead actor and are you excited to spend some quality time in their presence? Did you have to stand in the cold in a long line before you were admitted into the theater or was it nearly impossible to find parking? All of these personal concerns and anticipations will color your view.
For me, having worked in this field for so long, film festivals are almost like coming home. I know the staff, I’ve worked the venues, and I love the thrill of seeing a film with filmmakers present! My film-going experience is bound to be a positive one. This year at SFIFF 56, I worked more than usual, both at the theaters and away from them. So I had very limited opportunities to actually watch films. Fortunately, the four features I did manage to see, were all very good.
“What Maisie Knew” — Divorce, Hollywood-style
SFIFF opened with this tale of self-centered parents battling for their child’s affections. Based on a short story by Henry James penned 100 years ago, the damage inflicted by neglect is brought to life by the marvelous performance of the young lead, Onata Aprile. As the pawn fought over by Julianne Moore’s aging rock star mother and the traveling philandering father, played by Steve Coogan, Onata is refreshingly open in her natural reactions. Her joy at spending time with the actors who play her surrogate parents is a delight. Alexander Skarsgard elevates every scene he’s in as the party boy who becomes the affectionate companion. The story stretches credability and reason at points, (even wealthy people can’t get away with this level of neglect) and the ending is pure fairytale but there’s a level of charm here that’s hard to deny. Rating: 3 glasses of expensive red wine
“Cutie and the Boxer” — Eccentric and Wonderful
Zachary Heinzerling’s directorial debut is the winning documentary about an eccentric painter and sculptor, Ushio Shinohara and his supportive wife and fellow artist, Noriko Shinohara. This intimate portrait of two talented Japanese artists struggling to find an audience (and buyers!) for their creations: towering papier mache motorcycles, paintings created by “boxing” the canvas and graphic novels depicting their own troubled relationship, is both tender and finely-crafted. Rating: 3 shots of sake
“Byzantium”–Irish Goth with some serious teeth
In one week, I found myself viewing two vampire films! Both closer in spirit to “The Hunger” or “Let The Right One In” than “Buffy” or “Twilight”; “Kiss of the Damned” is a campy affair by a first-time filmmaker but “Byzantium” is a classy, Gothic drama helmed by Neil Jordan. Outstanding performances by the female leads, the beautiful and very sexy, Gemma Arterton and the other-worldly, wiser-than-her-years, Saoirse Ronan bring this British Turn of the Century vampire tale to life.
Period costumes, a unique creation story and the always excellent, Sam Riley, add to this dark story of teen angst. What to do when your mother turns your home into a house of ill repute to support you? When your boyfriend already looks like a vampire (Caleb Landry Jones) but your writing teacher suspects that your creative writing assignment might cut too close to the truth? Rating: 4 glasses of red, red wine
“Ernest et Celestine”–Can a Bear and a Mouse be friends?
This delightful French 2-D animation has lovely water-color painted backdrops and a sweet story of two unlikely friends trying to survive in a world where creatures keep to their own kind. A small misstep in an over-long central bit spent in the mouse dental office but the drawings are so charming that it’s easily forgiven. One of my favorite films of the festival, “Ernest et Celestine” is a charming film suited for all ages.
Rating: 4 cups of cocoa
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Alexander Skarsgard, Byzantium, Caleb Landry Jones, Cutie and the Boxer, Ernest et Celestine, Film festival, Gemma Arterton, Henry James, Hollywood, Julianne Moore, Neil Jordan, Noriko Shinohara, Sam Riley, San Francisco, San Francisco International Film Festival, Saoirse Ronan, Steve Coogan, Ushio Shinohara, What Maisie Knew, Zachary Heinzerling | Leave a reply
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An absolute must see for fans of movies about music, or just movies in general.
An article by Ethan Brundeen
It’s not often that I do a standard movie review. In general I prefer to write a piece about a film if I have some way to tie it in to a broader subject. But Sing Street isn’t just another movie. Sing Street is one of the best films of the year so far. Critics have been praising Sing Street for the past few months, so when I saw that it was available to rent, naturally I was very excited. Upon sitting down to watch the film, I was met with something positively delightful.
Sing Street takes place in 1980’s Dublin, at a boy’s school for children who aren’t very well-off. Our protagonist, Conor, is transferred to this school when his parents, whose relationship is crumbling day by day, essentially run out of money. One day, after leaving this school, Conor meets and falls instantly in love with an aspiring model named Raphina. In an attempt to impress her, Conor asks her to be in a music video for his band (which doesn’t actually exist); upon her affirmative reply, Conor is now faced with the monumental task of forming a band. And thus, our story begins.
Sing Street is one of those films that simply makes you happy. While the characters do deal with genuine troubles, like marital strife and image-confidence issues, it never crosses the threshold to become depressing, or heavy-handed. The story of these kids forming a band is a terrifically fun coming-of-age story that will stand true throughout all time. The real heart of this movie, lies at the relationship between Conor and his older brother Brendan, played by Jack Reynor. Brendan is a man stuck in a rut, having just dropped out of college and spending all of his time at home, only finding fulfillment in mentoring his younger brother. Brendan helps Conor throughout his band’s exploits, exposing him to music from bands like Duran Duran and The Cure, while simultaneously easing the pain of their parents’ anguish. Reynor is probably the most enjoyable person to watch in a film full of terrific performances, as he can go from making you laugh gleefully to captivating your attention in more sincere or serious lines of dialogue. The young man playing Conor, an unknown by the name of Ferdia Walsh-Peelo, is a decidedly entertaining actor as well. He never feels annoying or disingenuous, and brilliantly displays someone whose life is a mixture of joy and melancholia. While no one in this film is going to win an Oscar for their performance, they are the perfect actors for their roles. Characters that usually have the capacity to be obnoxious or unrealistic, i.e. the bully or the mean private-school headmaster, feel real and alive, as if they were someone you could actually know personally. Even the love interest, Raphina, is treated with dignity and does more to serve the story than just be “the girl.”
Let’s discuss the music in this film. Absolutely terrific. Each song that these kids write feels completely like something that was plucked straight out of the era. But still, they feel like songs that anybody could write; these teenage musicians aren’t treated like prodigies, just people who really like to make music. Better still, the songs are written to match the tone of the film at that juncture. The lyrics reflect the conflicts at hand and the music amplifies the emotions of the characters. But most importantly, as soon as this film ended, I saved the entire album on Spotify, so the music extends beyond the capacities of the movie.
John Carney, creator of Once and Begin Again, directed this film. I haven’t seen Once, but I can say with confidence that this is a much better film than Begin Again. While Begin Again also had some great music, it never really felt coherent enough to be considered a movie. Sing Street on the other hand, is a massive step-up. The direction in this film is just terrific. Carney has managed to create a film in which each scene feels like part of something bigger than just this movie, as if these characters lives extend long past the end credits, and we’re just being given a glimpse into an outlet of their greater story. It’s not easy to make a movie about a band without it feeling cliched, but Carney does so with expertise. While there’s nothing shocking or flamboyant about Sing Street, it still feels fresh and unique. This movie doesn’t need to go above and beyond, it is much better suited to this sort of enclosed and intimate story. I loved Sing Street, loved it wholeheartedly. It is without a doubt one of the best movies I’ve seen this year. It doesn’t beat Swiss Army Man for me, but it’s definitely up there. If you get a chance to check it out, I highly recommend it.
-Ethan Brundeen
Image: The band walks down a street in Sing Street, from Cosmo Films
This entry was posted in 2016 Reviews, Independent Film. Tagged 2016 films, Band Movies, Coming of Age, film, Good Movies, Independent Film, Ireland, Irish Movies, Movie, Movie Review, Music, Music Movies, Sing Street.
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4 comments on “Sing Street”
screenzealots says:
Great review! Definitely one of our favorite movies of 2016.
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31 Picks For Halloween and Where To Stream Them
Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again
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By Rob Baker on February 1, 2018
1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s Books Books Edinburgh New York City Tuscany writing
One Hundred Years of Muriel Spark – The Book Covers
“she went through people like pieces of Kleenex”, said the blind writer Ved Mehta
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, probably the best known of her works, was first published in The New Yorker magazine and subsequently brought out as a book by Macmillan in 1961. In 2005, the novel was chosen by Time magazine as one of the one hundred best English-language novels from 1923 to present. Published in Penguin in 1967 with a cover designed by Terence Greer.
Muriel Spark was born Muriel Camberg in the genteel suburban Brutsfild area of Edinburgh on 1 February 1918. She was educated at James Gillespie’s School for Girls – later the model of the Marcia Blaine School featured in her most famous novel and subsequent film The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie. Muriel had a precocious interest in literature and at fourteen she won first prize in a poetry competition commemorating Walter Scott’s centenary in 1832.
At the age of 19 Muriel married Sidney Oswald Spark (known as “SOS”) and soon followed him to what was then called Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). Their son Samuel Robin was born in July 1938. Soon after she found out that her husband was a manic depressive, dangerously unstable and often violent. In 1940 Muriel left Sidney and Robin and returned to the UK and in early 1944 started to live at the Helena Club in London. Years later the club would be an inspiration for the fictional May of Teck Club in The Girls of Slender Means.
It wasn’t until after the war that Muriel started writing seriously beginning with poetry and literary criticism. She wrote under her married name (“Camberg was a good name, but comparatively flat. Spark seemed to have some ingredient of life and fun.”). In 1947 she became editor of the Poetry Review. For ten years between 1955 and 1965 she lived in a bedsit at 13 Baldwin Crescent, Camberwell, south-east London and where she wrote her first novel, The Comforters, published in 1957. The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie published four years later in 1961 was far more successful and until the middle of the 1970s, Spark wrote almost a novel a year, plus many short stories, plays and essays. She eventually moved to New York when she felt to well-known for her former friends but then went on to fall out with everyone there too (“she went through people like pieces of Kleenex”, said the blind writer Ved Mehta)
After New York she moved to Rome, where she met artist and sculptor Penelope Jardine in 1968. In the early 1970s they settled in Tuscany, in the village of Oliveto. She was the subject of frequent rumours of lesbian relationships from her time in New York onwards, although Spark and her friends denied any truth in this. When Spark died in 2006 she left her entire estate to Jardine, while taking measures to ensure that her son received nothing. She is buried in the cemetery of Sant’Andrea Apostolo in Oliveto.
The Ballad of Peckham Rye first published by Macmillan in December 1960
First US edition cover (precedes UK[1]), with quotes from John Updike, W. H. Auden and Evelyn Waugh the cover was designed by George Salter
Carole Shields wrote about The Girls of Slender Means in 2003 for the Guardian:
To reread The Girls of Slender Means is to appreciate the economy and brilliance of Spark’s style. This was an innovative book in 1963 – not that I knew that then – and it still, today, flashes its own disguising Schiaparelli dress, with the beauty of youth pressed close against youth’s bewilderment. Innocence is abruptly overturned in these pages, but Spark has structured her novel so that we realise we are about to be blown into tragedy.
Muriel Spark, 1965
The Hot House by the East River published in 1973
Dame Muriel Spark, by Mark Gerson, August 1961
The Go-Away Bird and other Stories
The Comforters is the first novel by Scottish author Muriel Spark. She drew on experiences as a recent convert to Catholicism and having suffered hallucinations due to using Dexedrine, an amphetamine then available over the counter for dieting. Written in 1955 it was published by Macmillan in 1957.
The Abbess of Crewe, considered by many to be an allegory of the Watergate affair, was published in 1974. Michael Lindsay-Hogg adapted the novel into his film Nasty Habits, released in 1977.
Penguin edition of The Comforters
The Mandelbaum Gate was first published in 1965
The Mandelbaum Gate published in 1965
The Abbess of Crewe Penguin film tie-in edition
Published by Macmillan in 1961
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie – first edition
The Ballad of Peckham Rye – later Penguin Edition
The Bachelors written in 1960 follows a group of British bachelors whose misogynistic world is shattered when they suddenly find themselves the target of blackmail and fraud.
The Girls of Slender Means is a novella published in 1963 It was included in Anthony Burgess’s 1984 book Ninety-Nine Novels: The Best in English since 1939 — A Personal Choice.
Territorial Rights published in 1979. Edmund White wrote in The New York Times, “Once in a while a book comes along that is beautifully put together and effortlessly entertaining; Muriel Spark’s Territorial Rights is such a novel.
The Driver’s Seat – Penguin Modern Classics
The Driver’s Seat is a novella first published in 1970, it was advertised as “a metaphysical shocker”. It is indeed in the psychological thriller genre, dealing with themes of alienation, isolation and loss of spiritual values.
Reality and Dreams published in 1996
The Driver’s Seat was first published in 1970
Dame Muriel Spark
by Anthea Sieveking
Fascinating Ephemera From Hammer’s Dracula (aka Horror of Dracula) from 1958
1950s Famous Faces Horror Movies Books Christopher Lee dracula vampires
Great Britain by Bus in Glorious Kodachrome (1969-1971)
1960s 1970s London photographs Travel And Places Aberdeen Birmingham Blackpool Bournemouth Bradford cities Dunoon Edinburgh england Glasgow Harwick Isle of Man Kodachrome Leeds Lindsay Bridge liverpool Polperro Rotherham Scotland Seaton Sheffield snapshots Stratford-on-Avon Wales Walsall Whitby
How to Make Friends by Telephone: A Fanatical Mid-Century Guide
1940s 1950s Books Technology Books phones telephone
Edwin Smith: Photographing Beauty In Everyday Landscapes
1950s 1960s 1970s London photographs architecture brighton Edwin Smith england Gateshead Ireland Italy Northern Ireland Nottingham Rome Scotland Stockholm sweden Tuscany Venice Yorkshire
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Emmerdale Farm: Volume Two
Emmerdale Farm: Volume Two is a four-disc DVD boxset featuring 26 consecutive episodes of Emmerdale Farm originally broadcast over 1973. It was the second of four boxsets released by Network DVD featuring the early years of the show.
The boxset was released on 14th September 2009. Three more volumes Volume One, Volume Three and Volume Four have also been released.
In a rare error for Network, images of Lynn Dalby (Ruth Merrick) and Gail Harrison (Marian Wilks) are used on the cover art despite neither of them appearing in any episodes on the DVD.
From the back of the DVD:
England's first rurally based soap opera, Emmerdale Farm quickly became one of the nation's best-loved programmes. Moving from its original mid-week afternoon slot to the heart of peak-time scheduling and becoming one of the longest-running dramas on British television, the series continues to scoop multiple awards and nominations. Revisit Beckindale's early days with this set of classic episodes orginally screened in 1973.
Ten days have passed since Emmerdale Farm Limited was formed. The Jameson farm now belongs to the Sugden and Wilks partnership, and preperations are underway for the sheepdog trials. But admid the bustle and excitement, events are about to take a dramatic and ultimately tragic turn for one local family...
Content Edit
The boxset contains four individual discs, each containing six to seven episodes. There are no special features or subtitles.
1 27 22nd January 1973 1
2 28 23rd January 1973 1
3 29 29th January 1973 1
5 31 5th February 1973 1
7 33 12th February 1973 2
9 35/
36 19th February 1973 2
10 37 26th February 1973 2
12 39 5th March 1973 2
13 40 6th Match 1973 3
14 41 12th March 1973 3
20 47 2nd April 1973 4
21 48 3rd April 1973 4
22 49 9th April 1973 4
23 50 10th April 1973 4
Emmerdale Farm: Volume One
Emmerdale Farm: Volume Three
Emmerdale Farm: Volume Four
Emmerdale Farm: Volume Five
Retrieved from "https://emmerdale.fandom.com/wiki/Emmerdale_Farm:_Volume_Two?oldid=54347"
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The domestic dog (Canis lupus familiaris) is a usually furry, carnivorous[2][3] member of the canidae family.
This article may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. No cleanup reason has been specified. Please help improve this article if you can. (October 2009)
The domestic dog (Canis lupus familiaris) is a usually furry, carnivorous[2][3] member of the canidae family. Domesticated dogs are commonly known as "man's best friend". The dog was the first domesticated animal[4][5] and has been widely kept as a working, hunting, and pet companion. It is estimated there are between 700 million and one billion domestic dogs, making them the most abundant member of order Carnivora.[6][7]
colspan=2 style="text-align: center; background-color: Template:Taxobox/Error colour" | Domestic dog
Temporal range: 0.033–0Ma
PreЄ
Pleistocene – Recent
Nine different breeds of dogs.
Domesticated
colspan=2 style="text-align: center; background-color: Template:Taxobox/Error colour" | Scientific classification
Family: Canidae
Genus: Canis
Species: C. lupus
Subspecies: C. l. familiaris
Trinomial name
Canis lupus familiaris[1]
foobaz
TaxonomyEdit
In 1753, Carl Linnaeus listed among the types of quadrupeds familiar to him the Latin word for dog, canis. Among the species within this genus, Linnaeus listed the fox, as Canis vulpes, wolves (Canis lupus), and the domestic dog, (Canis canis). In later editions, Linnaeus dropped Canis canis and greatly expanded his list of the Canis genus of quadrupeds, and by 1758 included alongside the foxes, wolves, and jackals and many more terms that are now listed as synonyms for domestic dog, including aegyptius (hairless dog), aquaticus, (water dog), and mustelinus (literally "badger dog"). Among these were two that later experts have been widely used for domestic dogs as a species: Canis domesticus and, most predominantly, Canis familiaris, the "common" or "familiar" dog.[8]
By 1993 with advancements in molecular biology, the mitochondrial DNA mtDNA analysis of extant (i.e. living today) Canidea species indicated that "The domestic dog is an extremely close relative of the gray wolf, differing from it by at most 0.2% of mtDNA sequence.... In comparison, the gray wolf differs from its closest wild relative, the coyote, by about 4% of mitochondrial DNA sequence."[9] In the same year, the domestic dog Canis familiaris was reclassified as Canis lupus familiaris, a subspecies of the gray wolf Canis lupus in Mammal Species of the World.[10] By 1999, further genetic analysis indicated that the domestic dog may have emerged from multiple wolf populations.[11][12] Based on these latest two pieces of research and the reference reclassification, canis lupis familiaris is the name for the taxon listed by ITIS.[13] Reference Origin and Gray wolf.
BiologyEdit
Main article: Dog anatomy
Domestic dogs have been bred selectively for millennia for various behaviors, sensory capabilities, and physical attributes.[14] Modern dog breeds show more variation in size, appearance, and behavior than any other domestic animal. Nevertheless, their morphology is based on that of their wild wolf ancestors.[14] Dogs are predators and scavengers, and like many other predatory mammals, the dog has powerful muscles, fused wrist bones, a cardiovascular system that supports both sprinting and endurance, and teeth for catching and tearing.
The smallest known adult dog was a Yorkshire Terrier, that stood only 6.3 cm (2.5 in) at the shoulder, 9.5 cm (3.7 in) in length along the head-and-body, and weighed only 113 grams (4.0 oz). The largest known dog was an English Mastiff which weighed 155.6 kg (343 lb) and was 250 cm (98 in) from the snout to the tail.[15] The tallest dog is a Great Dane that stands 106.7 cm (42.0 in) at the shoulder.
SensesEdit
VisionEdit
Dog's visual colour perception compared with humans.
Like most mammals, dogs are dichromats and have color vision equivalent to red–green color blindness in humans (deuteranopia).[16][17][18][19][20] So, dogs can see blue and yellow, but have difficulty differentiating red and green because they only have two spectral types of cone photoreceptor, while normal humans have three. And dogs use color instead of brightness to differentiate light or dark blue/yellow.[21][22][23][24] Dogs are less sensitive to differences in grey shades than humans and also can detect brightness at about half the accuracy of humans.[25][26]
The dog's visual system has evolved to aid proficient hunting.[16] While a dog's visual acuity is poor (that of a poodle's has been estimated to translate to a Snellen rating of 20/75[16]), their visual discrimination for moving objects is very high; dogs have been shown to be able to discriminate between humans (e.g., identifying their human guardian) at a range of between 850 and 900 m, however this range decreases to 500–600 m if the object is stationary.[16]
Dogs have a temporal resolution of between 60 and 70 Hz. This means that domestic dogs are unlikely to perceive modern TV screens in the same way as humans because these are optimized for humans at 50–60 Hz.[25] Dogs can detect a change in movement that exists in a single diopter of space within their eye. Humans, by comparison, require a change of between 10 and 20 diopters to detect movement.[27]
As crepuscular hunters, dogs often rely on their vision in low light situations: They have very large pupils, a high density of rods in the fovea, an increased flicker rate, and a tapetum lucidum.[16] The tapetum is a reflective surface behind the retina that reflects light to give the photoreceptors a second chance to catch the photons. There is also a relationship between body size and overall diameter of the eye. A range of 9.5 and 11.6 mm can be found between various breeds of dogs. This 20% variance can be substantial and is associated as an adaptation toward superior night vision.[28]
The eyes of different breeds of dogs have different shapes, dimensions, and retina configurations.[29] Many long-nosed breeds have a "visual streak"—a wide foveal region that runs across the width of the retina and gives them a very wide field of excellent vision. Some long-muzzled breeds, in particular, the sighthounds, have a field of vision up to 270° (compared to 180° for humans). Short-nosed breeds, on the other hand, have an "area centralis": a central patch with up to three times the density of nerve endings as the visual streak, giving them detailed sight much more like a human's. Some broad-headed breeds with short noses have a field of vision similar to that of humans.[17][18]
Most breeds have good vision, but some show a genetic predisposition for myopia – such as Rottweilers, with which one out of every two has been found to be myopic.[16] Dogs also have a greater divergence of the eye axis than humans, enabling them to rotate their pupils farther in any direction. The divergence of the eye axis of dogs ranges from 12–25° depending on the breed.[27]
Experimentation has proven that dogs can distinguish between complex visual images such as that of a cube or a prism. Dogs also show attraction to static visual images such as the silhouette of a dog on a screen, their own reflections, or videos of dogs; however, their interest declines sharply once they are unable to make social contact with the image.[30]
HearingEdit
The physiology of a dog ear.
Transformation of the ears of a huskamute puppy in 6 days
The frequency range of dog hearing is approximately 40 Hz to 60,000 Hz,[31] which means that dogs can detect sounds far beyond the upper limit of the human auditory spectrum. [32]In addition, dogs have ear mobility, which allows them to rapidly pinpoint the exact location of a sound.[33] Eighteen or more muscles can tilt, rotate, raise, or lower a dog's ear. A dog can identify a sound's location much faster than a human can, as well as hear sounds at four times the distance. http://www.k9puppydogs.com/html/dog_sense_of_hearing.htm [34]
SmellEdit
The wet, textured nose of a dog
While the human brain is dominated by a large visual cortex, the dog brain is dominated by an olfactory cortex.[16] The olfactory bulb in dogs is roughly forty times bigger than the olfactory bulb in humans, relative to total brain size, with 125 to 220 million smell-sensitive receptors.[16]
Consequently, it has been estimated that dogs, in general, have an olfactory sense ranging from one hundred thousand to one million times more sensitive than a human's.[35][36][4] In some dog breeds, such as bloodhounds, the olfactory sense may be up to 100 million times greater than a human's.[37] The wet nose, or rhinarium, is essential for determining the direction of the air current containing the smell. Cold receptors in the skin are sensitive to the cooling of the skin by evaporation of the moisture by air currents.[38]
Physical characteristicsEdit
CoatEdit
Main article: Coat (dog)
A heavy winter coat with countershading in a mixed-breed dog
The coats of domestic dogs are of two varieties: "double" being common with dogs (as well as wolves) originating from colder climates, made up of a coarse guard hair and a soft down hair, or "single", with the topcoat only.
Domestic dogs often display the remnants of countershading, a common natural camouflage pattern. A countershaded animal will have dark coloring on its upper surfaces and light coloring below, which reduces its general visibility. Thus, many breeds will have an occasional "blaze", stripe, or "star" of white fur on their chest or underside.[39]
In some breeds puppies can be born with a short tail or no tail at all
Types and breedsEdit
Main article: Dog breed
Further information: Dog type
Cavalier King Charles Spaniels demonstrate within-breed variation.
Most breeds of dog are at most a few hundred years old, having been artificially selected for particular morphologies and behaviors by people for specific functional roles. Through this selective breeding, the dog has developed into hundreds of varied breeds, and shows more behavioral and morphological variation than any other land mammal.[40] For example, height measured to the withers ranges from 15.2 centimetres (6.0 in) in the Chihuahua to about 76 cm (30 in) in the Irish Wolfhound; color varies from white through grays (usually called "blue") to black, and browns from light (tan) to dark ("red" or "chocolate") in a wide variation of patterns; coats can be short or long, coarse-haired to wool-like, straight, curly, or smooth.[41] It is common for most breeds to shed this coat.
While all dogs are genetically very similar,[42] natural selection and selective breeding have reinforced certain characteristics in certain populations of dogs, giving rise to dog types and dog breeds. Dog types are broad categories based on function, genetics, or characteristics.[43] Dog breeds are groups of animals that possess a set of inherited characteristics that distinguishes them from other animals within the same species. Modern dog breeds are non-scientific classifications of dogs kept by modern kennel clubs.
Dog generally do not like cats, except when it is raining, hence the term raining cats and dogs. Purebred dogs of one breed are genetically distinguishable from purebred dogs of other breeds,[44] but the means by which kennel clubs classify dogs is unsystematic. Systematic analyses of the dog genome has revealed only four major types of dogs that can be said to be statistically distinct.[44] These include the "old world dogs" (e.g., Malamute and Shar Pei), "Mastiff"-type (e.g., English Mastiff), "herding"-type (e.g., Border Collie), and "all others" (also called "modern"- or "hunting"-type).[44][45]
See also (as well)Edit
Dogs portal
Mammals portal
Animal track
Argos (dog)
Dog in Chinese mythology
Dogs in art
Dog odor
Dognapping
Ethnocynology
Hachikō–a notable example of dog loyalty
List of fictional dogs
List of individual dogs
List of most popular dog breeds
^ "Mammal Species of the World – Browse: Canis lupus familiaris". Bucknell.edu. 2005. Retrieved 12 March 2012.
^ Wayne, R.K. and Ostrander, E.A. (1999). "Origin, genetic diversity, and genome structure of the domestic dog" (PDF). BioEssays. 21: 247–257. CS1 maint: Multiple names: authors list (link)
^ Clauss, M., Kleffner, H. and Kienzle, E. "Carnivorous mammals: nutrient digestibility and energy evaluation". Zoo Biology. 29 (6): 687–704. CS1 maint: Multiple names: authors list (link)
^ a b Nikolai D. Ovodov, Susan J. Crockford, Yaroslav V. Kuzmin, Thomas F. G. Higham, Gregory W. L. Hodgins, Johannes van der Plicht. (2011). A 33,000-Year-Old Incipient Dog from the Altai Mountains of Siberia: Evidence of the Earliest Domestication Disrupted by the Last Glacial Maximum. Published: 28 July, 2011DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0022821. Page 1 online here OCT14
^ Greger Larson, Elinor K. Karlsson, Angela Perri, Matthew T. Webster, Simon Y. W. Ho, Joris Peters, Peter W. Stahl, Philip J. Piper, Frode Lingaas, Merete Fredholm, Kenine E. Comstock, Jaime F. Modiano, Claude Schelling, Alexander I. Agoulnik, Peter A. Leegwater, Keith Dobney, Jean-Denis Vignes, Carles Vilàt, Leif Anderssond, and Kerstin Lindblad-Toh; Edited by Joachim Burger. (2012). Rethinking dog domestication by integrating genetics, archeology, and biogeography. vol. 109 no. 23 > Greger Larson, 8878–8883, doi: 10.1073/pnas.1203005109. Page 1 online here OCT14
^ Hughes, Joelene; Macdonald, David W. (2013). "A review of the interactions between free-roaming domestic dogs and wildlife". Biological Conservation. 157: 341–351. doi:10.1016/j.biocon.2012.07.005.
^ Gompper, Matthew E. (2013). "The dog–human–wildlife interface: assessing the scope of the problem". In Gompper, Matthew E. Free-Ranging Dogs and Wildlife Conservation. Oxfort University Press. pp. 9–54.
^ Linnaeus, Carolus (1758). Systema naturae per regna tria naturae:secundum classes, ordines, genera, species, cum characteribus, differentiis, synonymis, locis. 1 (10th ed.). Holmiae (Laurentii Salvii). p. 38. Retrieved 8 September 2008.
^ Wayne, Robert K. (1993). "Molecular evolution of the dog family". Trends in Genetics. 9 (6): 218–224. doi:10.1016/0168-9525(93)90122-X.
^ Wozencraft, W. Christopher (1993). "Order Carnivora". In Wilson, D.E.; Reeder, D.M. Animal Species of the World:A Taxonomic and Geographic Reference. 1 (2 ed.). Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press. p. 576. ISBN 9780801882210.
^ Wayne, Robert K.; Ostrander, Elaine A. (1999). "Origin, genetic diversity, and genome structure of the domestic dog". BioEssays. 21: 247–257. doi:10.1002/(SICI)1521-1878(199903)21:3<247::AID-BIES9>3.0.CO;2-Z.
^ Vilà, C.; Maldonado, J.E.; Wayne, R.K. (1999). "Phylogenetic relationships, evolution, and genetic diversity of the domestic dog". Journal of Heredity. 90: 71–77.
^ "ITIS Report: Canis lupus familiaris". ITIS Data. Integrated Taxonomic Information System from 3rd Edition of the Mammal Species of the World (Wozencraft in Wilson & Reeder, 2005). Retrieved 21 October 2014.
^ a b ADW
^ "World's Largest Dog". Retrieved 7 January 2008.
^ a b c d e f g h Coren, Stanley (2004). How Dogs Think. First Free Press, Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0-7432-2232-6. [page needed]
^ a b A&E Television Networks (1998). Big Dogs, Little Dogs: The companion volume to the A&E special presentation. A Lookout Book. GT Publishing. ISBN 1-57719-353-9. [page needed]
^ a b Alderton, David (1984). The Dog. Chartwell Books. ISBN 0-89009-786-0. [page needed]
^ Jennifer Davis (1998). "Dr. P's Dog Training: Vision in Dogs & People". Retrieved 6 June 2008.
^ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dichromacy. Missing or empty |title= (help)
^ "Dogs CAN see in colour: Scientists dispel the myth that canines can only see in black and white". Daily Mail. London. 23 July 2013.
^ Anna A. Kasparson, Jason Badridze, Vadim V. Maximov (Jul 2013). "Colour cues proved to be more informative for dogs than brightness". Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. 280 (1766). doi:10.1098/rspb.2013.1356. CS1 maint: Multiple names: authors list (link)
^ Jay Neitz, Timothy Geist, Gerald H. Jacobs (1989). "Color Vision in the Dog" (PDF). Visual neuroscience. 3: 119–125. doi:10.1017/s0952523800004430. CS1 maint: Multiple names: authors list (link)
^ Jay Neitz, Joseph Carroll, Maureen Neitz (Jan 2001). "Color Vision — Almost Reason Enough for Having Eyes" (PDF). Optics \& Photnics News: 26–33. CS1 maint: Multiple names: authors list (link)
^ a b Miklósi, p. 140.
^ http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/zoo.20302/abstract. Missing or empty |title= (help)
^ a b Mech, David. Wolves, Behavior, Ecology, and Conservation. The University of Chicago Press, 2006, p. 98.
^ Miklósi, p. 139.
^ Jonica Newby, Caroline Penry-Davey (25 September 2003). "Catalyst: Dogs' Eyes". Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 26 November 2006. CS1 maint: Uses authors parameter (link)
^ Elert, Glenn; Timothy Condon (2003). "Frequency Range of Dog Hearing". The Physics Factbook. Retrieved 22 October 2008.
^ "hearing". Retrieved {{subst:TODAY}}. Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
^ "Dog Sense of Hearing". seefido.com. Retrieved 22 October 2008.
^ "k9 puppy dogs". Retrieved {{subst:TODAY}}. Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
^ ref1
^ "Smell". nhm.org. 6 May 2004. Archived from the original on 1 August 2008. Retrieved 22 October 2008.
^ Dijkgraaf S.;Vergelijkende dierfysiologie;Bohn, Scheltema en Holkema, 1978, ISBN 90-313-0322-4
^ Cunliffe, Juliette (2004). "Coat Types, Colours and Markings". The Encyclopedia of Dog Breeds. Paragon Publishing. pp. 20–23. ISBN 0-7525-8276-3.
^ Spady TC, Ostrander EA (January 2008). "Canine Behavioral Genetics: Pointing Out the Phenotypes and Herding up the Genes". American Journal of Human Genetics. 82 (1): 10–8. doi:10.1016/j.ajhg.2007.12.001. PMC 2253978
. PMID 18179880.
^ The Complete dog book: the photograph, history, and official standard of every breed admitted to AKC registration, and the selection, training, breeding, care, and feeding of pure-bred dogs. New York, N.Y: Howell Book House. 1992. ISBN 0-87605-464-5. [page needed]
^ Savolainen P, Zhang YP, Luo J, Lundeberg J, Leitner T (November 2002). "Genetic evidence for an East Asian origin of domestic dogs". Science. 298 (5598): 1610–3. Bibcode:2002Sci...298.1610S. doi:10.1126/science.1073906. PMID 12446907. CS1 maint: Multiple names: authors list (link)
^ The Merriam-Webster Editorial Staff, ed. (1967). Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged. Springfield, MA U.S.A.: G&C Merriam Company. p. 2476. type (4a) the combination of character that fits an individual to a particular use or function (a strong horse of the draft type)
^ a b c Parker, Heidi G.; Kim, Lisa V.; Sutter, Nathan B.; Carlson, Scott; Lorentzen, Travis D.; Malek, Tiffany B.; Johnson, Gary S.; DeFrance, Hawkins B.; Ostrander, Elaine A.; Kruglyak, Leonid (2004). "Genetic structure of the purebred domestic dog". Science. 304 (5674): 1160–4. Bibcode:2004Sci...304.1160P. doi:10.1126/science.1097406. PMID 15155949.
^ Ostrander, Elaine A. (September–October 2007). "Genetics and the Shape of Dogs; Studying the new sequence of the canine genome shows how tiny genetic changes can create enormous variation within a single species". American Scientist (online). www.americanscientist.org. pp. also see chart page 4. Retrieved 22 September 2008.
Miklósi, Adám (2007). Dog Behaviour, Evolution, and Cognition. Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199295852.001.0001. ISBN 978-0-19-929585-2.
De Vito, Dominique (March 1995). World Atlas of Dog Breeds (Hardcover) (6th ed.). Neptune City, NJ Lanham, MD: TFH Publications, Inc. pp. 960 pages. ISBN 0793806569. ISBN 978-0793806560.
Wilcox, Bonnie; Walkowicz, Chris (March 1995). Atlas of Dog Breeds of the World (Print) (5th ed.). Neptune City, NJ Lanham, MD: TFH Publications, Inc. Distributed in the U.S. to the Bookstore and library trade by National Book Network. p. 912. ISBN 0793812844. ISBN 9780793812844.
Find more aboutDogat Wikipedia's sister projects
Taxonomy from Wikispecies
Biodiversity Heritage Library bibliography for Canis lupus familiaris
Fédération Cynologique Internationale (FCI) – World Canine Organisation
View the dog genome on EnsemblCheck API script 20190616124500Check API script 20190616124500Check API script 20190616124500Check API script 20190616124500Check API script 20190616124500Check API script 20190616124500Check API script 20190616124500Check API script 20190616124500Check API script 20190616124500Check API script 20190616124500Check API script 20190616124500Check API script 20190616124500
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.beta.wmflabs.org/w/index.php?title=Dog&oldid=394693"
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Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song
The Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song was awarded for the first time in 1962 and has been awarded annually since 1965 by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association. The award is presented to the songwriters of a song written specifically for a motion picture.[1] The performers of the song are not credited, unless they also have a writing or co-writing credit.
Golden Globe for Best Original Song
Awarded for
Best Song Written for a Motion Picture
Hollywood Foreign Press Association
Currently held by
Lady Gaga, Mark Ronson, Anthony Rossomando & Andrew Wyatt for "Shallow" from A Star Is Born (2018)
www.goldenglobes.com
Winners and nomineesEdit
1960sEdit
1961: "Town Without Pity" Lyrics by Ned Washington, Music by Dimitri Tiomkin – Town Without Pity
1964: "Circus World" Lyrics by Ned Washington, Music by Dimitri Tiomkin – Circus World
"Dear Heart" – Dear Heart
"From Russia with Love" – From Russia with Love
"Sunday in New York" – Sunday in New York
"Where Love Has Gone" – Where Love Has Gone‡
1965: "Forget Domani" Lyrics by Norman Newell, Music by Riz Ortolani – The Yellow Rolls-Royce
"Ballad of Cat Ballou" – Cat Ballou‡
"The Sweetheart Tree" – The Great Race‡
"The Shadow of Your Smile" – The Sandpiper
"That Funny Feeling" – That Funny Feeling
1966: "Strangers in the Night" Lyrics by Charles Singleton, Eddie Snyder, Music by Bert Kaempfert – A Man Could Get Killed
"Alfie" – Alfie‡
"Born Free" – Born Free
"Georgy Girl" – Georgy Girl‡
"A Man and a Woman" – A Man and a Woman (Un homme et une femme)
1967: "If Ever I Would Leave You" Lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner, Music by Frederick Loewe – Camelot
"Talk to the Animals" by Sammy Davis, Jr. – Doctor Dolittle
"Circles in the Water (Des ronds dans l'eau)" – Live for Life (Vivre pour vivre)
"Please Don't Gamble with Love" – Ski Fever
"Thoroughly Modern Millie" – Thoroughly Modern Millie‡
1968: "The Windmills of Your Mind" Lyrics by Alan and Marilyn Bergman, Music by Michel Legrand – The Thomas Crown Affair
"Buona Sera, Mrs. Campbell" – Buona Sera, Mrs. Campbell
"Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" – Chitty Chitty Bang Bang‡
"Funny Girl" by Barbra Streisand – Funny Girl‡
"Star" – Star!‡
1969: "Jean" Music & Lyrics by Rod McKuen – The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie‡
"Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head" by B.J. Thomas – Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
"The Time for Love Is Anytime" – Cactus Flower
"Goodbye, Columbus" – Goodbye, Columbus
"What Are You Doing the Rest of Your Life?" – The Happy Ending‡
"Stay" – The Secret of Santa Vittoria
"True Grit" – True Grit‡
1970: "Whistling Away the Dark" Lyrics by Johnny Mercer, Music by Henry Mancini – Darling Lili
"Ballad of Little Fauss and Big Halsey" – Little Fauss and Big Halsy
"Till Love Touches Your Life" – Madron
"Pieces of Dreams" – Pieces of Dreams
"Thank You Very Much" – Scrooge
1971: "Life Is What You Make It" Lyrics by Johnny Mercer, Music by Marvin Hamlisch – Kotch
"Rain Falls Anywhere It Wants To" – The African Elephant
"Something More" – Honky
"Theme from Shaft"; by Isaac Hayes – Shaft
"Long Ago Tomorrow" – The Raging Moon
1972: "Ben" Lyrics by Don Black, Music by Walter Scharf performed by Michael Jackson – Ben
"Carry Me" – Butterflies Are Free
"Mein Herr" by Liza Minnelli – Cabaret
"Money, Money" by Joel Grey and Liza Minnelli – Cabaret
"Dueling Banjos" – Deliverance
"Marmalade, Molasses and Honey" – The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean
"Take Me Home" – Molly and Lawless John
"The Morning After" by Maureen McGovern – The Poseidon Adventure
1973: "The Way We Were" Lyrics by Alan and Marilyn Bergman, Music by Marvin Hamlisch, performed by Barbra Streisand – The Way We Were
"Breezy's Song" – Breezy
"Lonely Looking Sky" – Jonathan Livingston Seagull
"Rosa Rosa" – Kazablan
"Send a Little Love My Way" – Oklahoma Crude
"All That Love Went to Waste" – A Touch of Class
1974: "I Feel Love" Lyrics by Betty Box, Music by Euel Box – Benji
"On and On" – Claudine
"Sail the Summer Winds" – The Dove
"I Never Met a Rose" – The Little Prince
"We May Never Love Like This Again" by Maureen McGovern – The Towering Inferno
1975: "I'm Easy" Music & Lyrics by Keith Carradine, performed by Keith Carradine – Nashville
"How Lucky Can You Get" – Funny Lady
"My Little Friend" – Paper Tiger
"Now That We're in Love" – Whiffs
"Richard's Window" – The Other Side of the Mountain
1976: "Evergreen" Lyrics by Paul Williams, Music by Barbra Streisand, performed by Barbra Streisand – A Star Is Born
"Bugsy Malone" – Bugsy Malone
"Car Wash" by Rose Royce – Car Wash
"I'd Like to Be You for a Day" – Freaky Friday
"Hello and Goodbye" – From Noon Till Three
"So Sad the Song" – Pipe Dreams
1977: "You Light Up My Life" Music & Lyrics by Joseph Brooks, performed by Kasey Cisyk – You Light Up My Life
"Down Deep Inside (Theme From The Deep)" by Donna Summer – The Deep
"New York, New York" by Liza Minnelli – New York, New York
"How Deep Is Your Love" by The Bee Gees – Saturday Night Fever
"Nobody Does It Better" by Carly Simon – The Spy Who Loved Me
1978: "Last Dance" Music & Lyrics by Paul Jabara, performed by Donna Summer – Thank God It's Friday
"Ready to Take a Chance Again" by Barry Manilow – Foul Play
"Grease" by Frankie Valli – Grease
"You're the One That I Want" by Olivia Newton-John and John Travolta – Grease
"The Last Time I Felt Like This" – Same Time, Next Year
1979: "The Rose" Music & Lyrics by Amanda McBroom, performed by Bette Midler – The Rose
"Through the Eyes of Love" – Ice Castles
"The Main Event" – The Main Event
"Rainbow Connection" – The Muppet Movie
"Better Than Ever" – Starting Over
1980: "Fame" Lyrics by Dean Pitchford, Music by Michael Gore, performed by Irene Cara – Fame
"Call Me" by Blondie – American Gigolo
"Yesterday's Dreams" – Falling in Love Again
"Love on the Rocks" by Neil Diamond – The Jazz Singer
"9 to 5" by Dolly Parton – 9 to 5
1981: "Arthur's Theme (Best That You Can Do)" Music & Lyrics by Peter Allen, Burt Bacharach, Chris Cross, & Carole Bayer Sager, performed by Chris Cross – Arthur
"It's Wrong for Me to Love You" by Pia Zadora – Butterfly (Also Razzie nominated)
"Endless Love" by Lionel Richie and Diana Ross – Endless Love
"For Your Eyes Only" by Sheena Easton – For Your Eyes Only
"One More Hour" – Ragtime
1982: "Up Where We Belong" Lyrics by Will Jennings, Music by Jack Nitzsche & Buffy Sainte-Marie, performed by Joe Cocker and Jennifer Warnes – An Officer and a Gentleman
"Cat People (Putting Out Fire)" by David Bowie – Cat People
"Making Love" – Making Love
"Eye of the Tiger" by Survivor – Rocky III
"If We Were In Love" – Yes, Giorgio
1983: "Flashdance... What a Feeling" Lyrics by Irene Cara, Keith Forsey, Music by Giorgio Moroder, performed by Irene Cara – Flashdance
"Maniac" by Michael Sembello – Flashdance
"Far from Over" by Frank Stallone – Staying Alive
"Over You" – Tender Mercies
"The Way He Makes Me Feel" by Barbra Streisand – Yentl
1984: "I Just Called to Say I Love You" Music & Lyrics by Stevie Wonder, performed by Stevie Wonder – The Woman in Red
"Against All Odds (Take a Look at Me Now)" by Phil Collins – Against All Odds
"Footloose" by Kenny Loggins – Footloose
"Ghostbusters" by Ray Parker, Jr. – Ghostbusters
"No More Lonely Nights" by Paul McCartney – Give My Regards to Broad Street
"When Doves Cry" by Prince – Purple Rain
1985: "Say You, Say Me" Music & Lyrics by Lionel Richie, performed by Lionel Richie – White Nights
"The Power of Love" by Huey Lewis and the News – Back to the Future
"Rhythm of the Night" by DeBarge – The Last Dragon
"We Don't Need Another Hero" by Tina Turner – Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome
"A View to a Kill" by Duran Duran – A View to a Kill
1986: "Take My Breath Away" Lyrics by Tom Whitlock, Music by Giorgio Moroder, performed by Berlin – Top Gun
"Somewhere Out There" by James Ingram and Linda Ronstadt – An American Tail
"Glory of Love" by Peter Cetera – The Karate Kid Part II
"Sweet Freedom" by Michael McDonald – Running Scared
"Life in a Looking Glass" by Tony Bennett – That's Life! (Also Razzie nominated)
"They Don't Make Them Like They Used To" by Kenny Rogers – Tough Guys
1987: "(I've Had) The Time of My Life" Lyrics by Franke Previte, Music by John DeNicola & Donald Markowitz, performed by Bill Medley and Jennifer Warnes – Dirty Dancing
"Shakedown" by Bob Seger – Beverly Hills Cop II
"Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now" by Starship – Mannequin
"The Secret of My Success" by Night Ranger – The Secret of My Succe$s
"Who's That Girl" by Madonna – Who's That Girl
1988 (TIE): "Let the River Run" Music & Lyrics by Carly Simon, performed by Carly Simon – Working Girl / "Two Hearts" Lyrics by Phil Collins, Music by Lamont Dozier – Buster
"When a Woman Loves a Man" – Bull Durham
"Kokomo" by The Beach Boys – Cocktail
"Why Should I Worry?" by Billy Joel – Oliver & Company
"Twins" by Little Richard & Philip Bailey – Twins
1989: "Under the Sea" Lyrics by Howard Ashman, Music by Alan Menken, performed by Samuel E. Wright – The Little Mermaid
"After All" by Cher and Peter Cetera – Chances Are
"Kiss the Girl" by Samuel E. Wright – The Little Mermaid
"I Love to See You Smile" by Randy Newman – Parenthood
"The Girl Who Used to Be Me" – Shirley Valentine
1990: "Blaze of Glory" Music & Lyrics by Jon Bon Jovi, performed by Jon Bon Jovi – Young Guns II
"Sooner or Later" performed by Madonna – Dick Tracy
"What Can You Lose?" performed by Madonna and Mandy Patinkin – Dick Tracy
"Promise Me You'll Remember" performed by Harry Connick, Jr. – The Godfather Part III
"I'm Checkin' Out" performed by Meryl Streep and Blue Rodeo – Postcards from the Edge
1991: "Beauty and the Beast" Lyrics by Howard Ashman, Music by Alan Menken, performed by Peabo Bryson and Céline Dion – Beauty and the Beast
"Dreams to Dream" performed by Linda Ronstadt An American Tail: Fievel Goes West
"Be Our Guest" performed by Angela Lansbury and Jerry Orbach – Beauty and the Beast
"(Everything I Do) I Do It for You" performed by Bryan Adams – Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves
"Tears in Heaven" performed by Eric Clapton – Rush
1992: "A Whole New World" Lyrics by Tim Rice, Music by Alan Menken, performed by Peabo Bryson and Regina Belle – Aladdin
"Friend Like Me" performed by Robin Williams – Aladdin
"Prince Ali" performed by Robin Williams – Aladdin
"This Used to Be My Playground" performed by Madonna – A League of Their Own
"Beautiful Maria of My Soul" performed by Antonio Banderas The Mambo Kings
1993: "Streets of Philadelphia" Music & Lyrics by Bruce Springsteen, performed by Bruce Springsteen – Philadelphia
"The Day I Fall in Love" performed by Dolly Parton and James Ingram - Beethoven's 2nd
"Stay (Faraway, So Close!)" performed by U2 – Faraway, So Close (In weiter Ferne, so nah!)
"You Made Me The Thief Of Your Heart" performed by Sinead O'Connor – In the Name of the Father
"Again" performed by Janet Jackson – Poetic Justice
1994: "Can You Feel the Love Tonight" Lyrics by Tim Rice, Music by Elton John, performed by Elton John – The Lion King
"The Color of the Night" performed by Lauren Christy – Color of Night (Also Razzie nominated)
"Look What Love Has Done" performed by Patty Smyth – Junior
"Circle of Life" performed by Carmen Twillie and Lebo M. –The Lion King
"Far Longer than Forever" performed by Regina Belle and Jeffrey Osborne – The Swan Princess
"I'll Remember" performed by Madonna – With Honors
1995: "Colors of the Wind" Lyrics by Stephen Schwartz, Music by Alan Menken, performed by Vanessa Williams – Pocahontas
"Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me" performed by U2 – Batman Forever (Also Razzie nominated)
"Have You Ever Really Loved a Woman?" performed by Bryan Adams – Don Juan DeMarco
"Moonlight" performed by Sting – Sabrina
"You've Got a Friend in Me" performed by Randy Newman – Toy Story
1996: "You Must Love Me" Lyrics by Tim Rice, Music by Andrew Lloyd Webber, performed by Madonna – Evita
"I Finally Found Someone" by Bryan Adams and Barbra Streisand – The Mirror Has Two Faces
"For the First Time" performed by Kenny Loggins – One Fine Day
"That Thing You Do" performed by The Wonders – That Thing You Do!
"Because You Loved Me" performed by Céline Dion – Up Close And Personal (film)
1997: "My Heart Will Go On" Lyrics by Wilbur Jennings, Music by James Horner, performed by Céline Dion – Titanic
"Journey to the Past" performed by Aaliyah – Anastasia
"Once Upon a December" performed by Deana Carter – Anastasia
"Go the Distance" performed by Roger Bart – Hercules
"Tomorrow Never Dies" performed by Sheryl Crow – Tomorrow Never Dies
1998: "The Prayer" Music & Lyrics by David Foster, Tony Renis, Carole Bayer Sager, Alberto Testa, performed by Céline Dion and Andrea Bocelli – Quest for Camelot
"Uninvited" performed by Alanis Morissette – City of Angels
"The Mighty" performed by Sting – The Mighty
"Reflection" Music and Lyrics by Matthew Wilder and David Zippel, performed by Christina Aguilera – Mulan
"When You Believe" Music and Lyrics by Stephen Schwartz, performed by Mariah Carey and Whitney Houston – The Prince of Egypt
"The Flame Still Burns" performed by Chris Difford, Marti Frederiksen and Mick Jones – Still Crazy
1999: "You'll Be in My Heart" Music & Lyrics by Phil Collins, performed by Phil Collins – Tarzan
"Beautiful Stranger" performed by Madonna – Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me
"How Can I Not Love You" performed by Joy Enriquez – Anna and the King
"Save Me" performed by Aimee Mann – Magnolia
"When She Loved Me" performed by Sarah McLachlan – Toy Story 2
2000: "Things Have Changed" Music & Lyrics by Bob Dylan, performed by Bob Dylan – Wonder Boys
"I've Seen It All" by Björk – Dancer in the Dark
"My Funny Friend and Me" by Sting – The Emperor's New Groove
"When You Come Back to Me Again" by Garth Brooks – Frequency
"One in a Million" by Bosson – Miss Congeniality
2001: "Until..." Music & Lyrics by Sting, performed by Sting – Kate & Leopold
"Come What May" by Nicole Kidman and Ewan McGregor – Moulin Rouge!
"There You'll Be" by Faith Hill – Pearl Harbor
"May It Be" by Enya – The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
"Vanilla Sky" by Paul McCartney – Vanilla Sky
2002: "The Hands That Built America" Music & Lyrics by Bono, Adam Clayton, The Edge, & Larry Mullen, performed by U2 – Gangs of New York
"Lose Yourself" by Eminem – 8 Mile
"Die Another Day" by Madonna – Die Another Day
"Here I Am" by Bryan Adams – Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron
"Father and Daughter" by Paul Simon – The Wild Thornberrys Movie
2003: "Into the West" Music & Lyrics by Annie Lennox, Howard Shore, Frances Walsh, performed by Annie Lennox – The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
"Man of the Hour" by Pearl Jam – Big Fish
"You Will Be My Ain True Love" by Alison Krauss and Sting – Cold Mountain
"Time Enough for Tears" by Andrea Corr – In America
"The Heart of Every Girl" by Elton John – Mona Lisa Smile
2004: "Old Habits Die Hard" Music & Lyrics by Mick Jagger, David A. Stewart, performed by Mick Jagger – Alfie
"Million Voices" by Wyclef Jean – Hotel Rwanda
"Learn to Be Lonely" by Minnie Driver – The Phantom of the Opera
"Believe" by Josh Groban – The Polar Express
"Accidentally in Love" by Counting Crows – Shrek 2
2005: "A Love That Will Never Grow Old" Lyrics by Bernie Taupin, Music by Gustavo Santaolalla, performed by Emmylou Harris – Brokeback Mountain
"Christmas in Love" by Renee Olstead – Christmas in Love
"Wunderkind" performed by Alanis Morissette – The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
"There's Nothing Like a Show on Broadway" – The Producers
"Travelin' Thru" by Dolly Parton – Transamerica
2006: "Song of the Heart" Music & Lyrics by Prince Rogers Nelson, performed by Prince – Happy Feet
"Never Gonna Break My Faith" by Aretha Franklin and Mary J. Blige – Bobby
"Listen" by Beyoncé – Dreamgirls
"Try Not to Remember" by Sheryl Crow – Home of the Brave
"A Father's Way" by Seal – The Pursuit of Happyness
2007: "Guaranteed" Music & Lyrics by Eddie Vedder, performed by Eddie Vedder – Into the Wild
"That's How You Know" by Amy Adams – Enchanted
"Grace Is Gone" by Jamie Cullum – Grace Is Gone
"Despedida" by Shakira – Love in the Time of Cholera
"Walk Hard" by John C. Reilly – Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story
2008: "The Wrestler" Music & Lyrics by Bruce Springsteen, performed by Bruce Springsteen – The Wrestler
"I Thought I Lost You" by Miley Cyrus and Jeffrey Steele, performed by Miley Cyrus and John Travolta – Bolt
"Once in a Lifetime" Music & Lyrics by Scott Cutler, Henry Krieger, Anne Preven and Beyoncé – Cadillac Records
"Gran Torino" by Jamie Cullum – Gran Torino
"Down to Earth" by Peter Gabriel – WALL-E
2009: "The Weary Kind" Music & Lyrics by Ryan Bingham, T Bone Burnett, performed by Ryan Bingham – Crazy Heart
"Cinema Italiano" by Kate Hudson – Nine
"I See You" by Leona Lewis – Avatar
"(I Want To) Come Home" by Paul McCartney – Everybody's Fine
"Winter" by U2 – Brothers
2010: "You Haven't Seen the Last of Me" Music & Lyrics by Diane Warren, performed by Cher – Burlesque
"Bound to You" Music & Lyrics by Christina Aguilera, Sia Furler, and Samuel Dixon, performed by Christina Aguilera – Burlesque
"Coming Home" by Gwyneth Paltrow – Country Strong
"I See the Light" by Mandy Moore and Zachary Levi – Tangled
"There's a Place for Us" by Carrie Underwood – The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
2011: "Masterpiece" Music & Lyrics by Madonna, Julie Frost, and Jimmy Harry, performed by Madonna – W.E.
"Hello, Hello" by Elton John & Lady Gaga – Gnomeo and Juliet
"The Keeper" by Chris Cornell – Machine Gun Preacher
"Lay Your Head Down" by Sinéad O'Connor – Albert Nobbs
"The Living Proof" by Mary J. Blige – The Help
2012: "Skyfall" Music & Lyrics by Adele and Paul Epworth, performed by Adele – Skyfall
"For You" by Keith Urban and Monty Powell – Act of Valor
"Not Running Anymore" by Jon Bon Jovi – Stand Up Guys
"Safe & Sound" by Taylor Swift and The Civil Wars – The Hunger Games
"Suddenly" by Claude-Michel Schönberg, Alain Boublil and Herbert Kretzmer – Les Misérables
2013: "Ordinary Love" Music & Lyrics by Bono, U2 and Danger Mouse, performed by U2 – Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom
"Atlas" by Coldplay, Guy Berryman Jonny Buckland, Will Champion and Chris Martin – The Hunger Games: Catching Fire
"Let It Go" by Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez – Frozen
"Please Mr. Kennedy" by Ed Rush, George Cromarty, T Bone Burnett, Justin Timberlake, Joel and Ethan Coen – Inside Llewyn Davis
"Sweeter than Fiction" by Taylor Swift and Jack Antonoff – One Chance
2014: "Glory" Music & Lyrics by Common, John Legend – Selma
"Big Eyes" Music & Lyrics by Lana Del Rey – Big Eyes
"Mercy Is" Music & Lyrics by Patti Smith, Lenny Kaye – Noah
"Opportunity" Music & Lyrics by Greg Kurstin, Sia Furler, Will Gluck – Annie
"Yellow Flicker Beat" Music & Lyrics by Lorde, Joel Little – The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1
2015: "Writing's on the Wall" Music & Lyrics by Sam Smith, Jimmy Napes – Spectre
"Love Me like You Do" (Max Martin, Savan Kotecha, Ali Payami, Tove Lo, Ilya Salmanzadeh) – Fifty Shades of Grey
"One Kind of Love" (Brian Wilson, Scott Bennett) – Love & Mercy
"See You Again" (DJ Frank E, Andrew Cedar, Charlie Puth, Wiz Khalifa) – Furious 7
"Simple Song #3" (David Lang) – Youth
2016: "City of Stars" Lyrics by: Benj Pasek & Justin Paul, Music by: Justin Hurwitz – La La Land
"Can't Stop the Feeling!" (Max Martin, Shellback, Justin Timberlake) – Trolls
"Faith" (Ryan Tedder, Stevie Wonder, Francis Farewell Starlite) – Sing
"Gold" (Stephen Gaghan, Danger Mouse, Daniel Pemberton, Iggy Pop) – Gold
"How Far I'll Go" (Opetaia Foa'i, Mark Mancina, Lin-Manuel Miranda) – Moana
2017: "This Is Me" Music & Lyrics by: Benj Pasek & Justin Paul, Performed by: Keala Settle – The Greatest Showman
"Home" Music by: Nick Jonas, Nick Monson & Justin Tranter, Lyrics by: Jonas & Tranter, Performed by: Jonas – Ferdinand
"Mighty River" Music by: Raphael Saadiq, Lyrics by: Mary J. Blige, Saadiq, & Taura Stinson, Performed by: Blige – Mudbound
"Remember Me" Music & Lyrics by: Kristen Anderson-Lopez & Robert Lopez, Performed by: Benjamin Bratt – Coco
"The Star" Music & Lyrics by: Mariah Carey & Marc Shaiman, Performed by: Carey – The Star
2018: "Shallow" Music & Lyrics by: Lady Gaga, Mark Ronson, Anthony Rossomando & Andrew Wyatt, Performed by: Bradley Cooper & Gaga – A Star Is Born
"All the Stars" Music & Lyrics by: Top Dawg, Kendrick Lamar, Al Shux, Sounwave & SZA, Performed by: Lamar & SZA – Black Panther
"Girl in the Movies" Music & Lyrics by: Dolly Parton & Linda Perry, Performed by: Parton – Dumplin'
"Requiem For A Private War" Music & Lyrics by Annie Lennox, Performed by: Lennox – A Private War
"Revelation" Music by: Jónsi & Troye Sivan, Lyrics by: Jónsi, Leland & Sivan, Performed by: Jónsi & Sivan – Boy Erased
^ Winners & Nominees Best Original Song – Motion Picture at the Golden Globe Awards website
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Golden_Globe_Award_for_Best_Original_Song&oldid=900071406"
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Mary Cleophas Foley
Mother Mary Cleophas Foley, S.P.
Margaret Teresa Foley
Scipio, Indiana
Burial place
Sisters of Providence Convent Cemetery, Saint Mary-of-the-Woods, Indiana
General Superior of the Sisters of Providence of Saint Mary-of-the-Woods
Mother Euphrasie Hinkle
Mother Mary Raphael Slattery
James Byrne Foley and Mary O'Connor
Mother Mary Cleophas Foley, S.P., (February 18, 1845 – 1928) was the Superior General of the Sisters of Providence of Saint Mary-of-the-Woods, Indiana from 1890 to 1926. During her time in office, she completed the building of the Church of the Immaculate Conception (Saint Mary-of-the-Woods, Indiana) and built numerous other buildings at Saint Mary-of-the-Woods, Indiana, including a new Providence Convent, the Blessed Sacrament Chapel, and an infirmary.
Foley inaugurated Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College in 1909 and served as president of the college from 1890-1926. She introduced the cause for canonization for Mother Theodore Guerin, the foundress of the Sisters of Providence of Saint Mary-of-the-Woods, who was canonized a saint of the Roman Catholic Church in 2006. Foley also inaugurated the Sisters of Providence mission to China in 1920, making hers the first congregation of American religious women to set up a mission there.
2 Congregation administration
3 As Superior General
3.1 Constructing new buildings
Mary Cleophas was born Margaret Teresa Foley in Scipio, Indiana to Irish immigrants James Byrne Foley and Mary O'Connor.[1] She was raised with nine siblings in a household that practiced daily evening devotions including night prayers, the rosary and spiritual reading. Her older sister Mary Ann, born in 1843, entered the Sisters of Providence of Saint Mary-of-the-Woods around 1860 at the suggestion of the parish priest, Father Daniel Moloney. Mary Ann took the religious name Sister Aloysia.
Two years later, at the age of seventeen, Margaret too entered the congregation. She was brought by her father to Providence Convent on the evening of September 13, 1862, and was greeting by her sister, Sister Aloysia. She officially entered religious life the next day.[2] In 1863 she received her religious name of Sister Mary Cleophas, after Mary of Cleophas, one of the women present at the crucifixion of Jesus.[3]
Sister Mary Cleophas taught in Washington, Indiana from 1863–1864 and then at St. Patrick in North Madison, Indiana until 1867.
Congregation administration[edit]
In 1868 Sister Mary Cleophas was elected novice mistress of the Sisters of Providence. She served in this capacity until 1886, in charge of the spiritual and professional development of the novices of the community. During this time, Sister Mary Cleophas worked closely with Bishop Francis Silas Chatard, Bishop of the Diocese of Vincennes (now the Roman Catholic Diocese of Indianapolis). Chatard created numerous changes in the formation process of new Sisters of Providence, including extending the education period prior to going on mission to two years instead of one.
In 1886 Sister Mary Cleophas became first assistant to superior general Mother Euphrasie Hinkle. At this time a main goal of the congregation was to receive papal approbation, or official recognition by the Vatican as a religious community. This was finally received in 1887.[4]
On February 7, 1889, tragedy struck the community when Providence Convent, a three-story brick convent built by the congregation's foundress Saint Mother Theodore Guerin, was destroyed by fire. Around this time, Mother Euphrasie Hinkle's health began to deteriorate as well, and Sister Mary Cleophas stepped in to replace her.
As Superior General[edit]
In July 1890, Sister Mary Cleophas was elected Superior General of the Sisters of Providence and was honored with the title of "Mother." From there on she was known as Mother Mary Cleophas Foley.
Constructing new buildings[edit]
The Church of the Immaculate Conception.
Mother Mary Cleophas's first priority was completing the new Providence Convent to provide a home for her sisters. This building, a sturdy four-story brick structure, was completed and blessed in 1890. She also completed a new novitiate for sisters in 1904 and an infirmary for sisters with contagious diseases that same year.
She oversaw the completion of the Church of the Immaculate Conception, a large cathedral-like structure to serve as the primary worship space for the congregation. In 1902, Mother Mary Cleophas and Sister Mary Alma traveled to Europe to visit churches and gather inspiration for the interior of their church. The structure was completed in 1907.
In addition, Mother Mary Cleophas completed several buildings for the Academy, the women's college on the motherhouse grounds now known as Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College. These buildings include Guerin Hall, the Conservatory of Music, and LeFer Hall.[5]
Near the end of her life, Mother Mary Cleophas spent much of her time working on the Blessed Sacrament Chapel, a chapel for Eucharistic adoration. The structure was consecrated in 1924.
^ Madden 1991, p. 14
^ Madden, p. 47
^ Madden 1991, pp. 128-139
Madden, Mary Roger (1991). The Path Marked Out: History of the Sisters of Providence of Saint Mary-of-the-Woods: Volume III. Saint Mary-of-the-Woods, Indiana: Sisters of Providence.
Sisters of Providence. "Mother Mary Cleophas Foley". Retrieved October 28, 2009.
White, Joseph M. (2007). Worthy of the Gospel of Christ: A History of the Catholic Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend. Huntington, Indiana: Our Sunday Visitor. p. 233. ISBN 978-1-59276-229-3.
Wolf, Ann Colette (1990). Against All Odds: Sisters of Providence Mission to the Chinese (1920-1990). Saint Mary-of-the-Woods, Indiana: Sisters of Providence.
Catholic Church titles
Euphrasie Hinkle, SP General Superior of the Sisters of Providence of Saint Mary-of-the-Woods
1890 - 1926 Succeeded by
Mary Raphael Slattery, SP
Educational offices
Euphrasie Hinkle, SP President of Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Mary_Cleophas_Foley&oldid=870044774"
American Roman Catholic religious sisters and nuns
Sisters of Providence of Saint Mary-of-the-Woods
People from Franklin County, Indiana
Burials at the Sisters of Providence Convent Cemetery
20th-century Christian nuns
Catholics from Indiana
Pages using S-rel template with ca parameter
This page was last edited on 22 November 2018, at 01:00 (UTC).
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Peter Ferdinand Drucker
(1909-11-19)November 19, 1909
Kaasgraben, Vienna, Austria-Hungary
November 11, 2005(2005-11-11) (aged 95)
Goethe University Frankfurt (PhD)
Management consultant, educator and author
Henry Laurence Gantt Medal (1959)
Austrian Cross of Honour for Science and Art, 1st class (1991)
Presidential Medal of Freedom (2002)
Peter Ferdinand Drucker (/ˈdrʌkər/; German: [ˈdʀʊkɐ]; November 19, 1909 – November 11, 2005) was an Austrian-born American management consultant, educator, and author, whose writings contributed to the philosophical and practical foundations of the modern business corporation. He was also a leader in the development of management education, he invented the concept known as management by objectives and self-control,[1] and he has been described as "the founder of modern management".[2]
Drucker's books and scholarly and popular articles explored how humans are organized across the business, government, and nonprofit sectors of society.[3] He is one of the best-known and most widely influential thinkers and writers on the subject of management theory and practice. His writings have predicted many of the major developments of the late twentieth century, including privatization and decentralization; the rise of Japan to economic world power; the decisive importance of marketing; and the emergence of the information society with its necessity of lifelong learning.[4] In 1959, Drucker coined the term "knowledge worker," and later in his life considered knowledge-worker productivity to be the next frontier of management.[5] Drucker gave his name to three institutions[6] and the annual Global Peter Drucker Forum, held in his hometown of Vienna, honors his legacy.
2 Work and philosophy
2.1 Early influences
2.2 The "business thinker"
2.3 Drucker's writings
2.4 Key ideas
4 Awards and honors
5.1 Other publications
Biography[edit]
Drucker grew up in what he referred to as a "liberal" Lutheran Protestant household in Austria-Hungary.[7] His mother Caroline Bondi had studied medicine and his father Adolf Drucker was a lawyer and high-level civil servant.[8] Drucker was born in Vienna, Austria, in a small village named Kaasgraben (now part of the 19th district of Vienna-Döbling).[9] He grew up in a home where intellectuals, high government officials, and scientists would meet to discuss new ideas.[10] These included Joseph Schumpeter, Friedrich Hayek and Ludwig von Mises. Hans Kelsen was his uncle.[11]
After graduating from Döbling Gymnasium in 1927,[11] Drucker found few opportunities for employment in post-World War I Vienna, so he moved to Hamburg, Germany, first working as an apprentice at an established cotton trading company, then as a journalist, writing for Der Österreichische Volkswirt (The Austrian Economist).[8] Drucker then moved to Frankfurt, where he took a job at the Daily Frankfurter General-Anzeiger.[12] While in Frankfurt, he also earned a doctorate in international law and public law from the Goethe University Frankfurt in 1931.[13]
In 1933, Drucker left Germany for England.[14] In London, he worked for an insurance company, then as the chief economist at a private bank.[15] He also reconnected with Doris Schmitz, an acquaintance from the University of Frankfurt, and they married in 1934.[16] The couple permanently relocated to the United States, where he became a university professor as well as a freelance writer and business consultant.
In 1943, Drucker became a naturalized citizen of the United States. He then had a distinguished career as a teacher, first as a professor of politics and philosophy at Bennington College from 1942 to 1949, then twenty-two years at New York University as a Professor of Management from 1950 to 1976.
Drucker went to California in 1971, where he developed one of the country's first executive MBA programs for working professionals at Claremont Graduate University (then known as Claremont Graduate School). From 1971 until his death, he was the Clarke Professor of Social Science and Management at Claremont.[17] Claremont Graduate University's management school was named the Peter F. Drucker Graduate School of Management in his honor in 1987 (later renamed the Peter F. Drucker and Masatoshi Ito Graduate School of Management). He established the Drucker Archives at Claremont Graduate University in 1999; the Archives became the Drucker Institute in 2006. Drucker taught his last class in 2002 at age 92. He continued to act as a consultant to businesses and nonprofit organizations well into his nineties.
Drucker died November 11, 2005 in Claremont, California of natural causes at 95.[18] He had four children and is the grandfather of tech entrepreneur Nova Spivack, one of six grandchildren.[19][20] Drucker's wife Doris died in October 2014 at the age of 103.[21]
Work and philosophy[edit]
Early influences[edit]
Among Drucker's early influences was the Austrian economist Joseph Schumpeter, a friend of his father's, who impressed upon Drucker the importance of innovation and entrepreneurship.[22] Drucker was also influenced, in a much different way, by John Maynard Keynes, whom he heard lecture in 1934 in Cambridge.[23] "I suddenly realized that Keynes and all the brilliant economic students in the room were interested in the behavior of commodities," Drucker wrote, "while I was interested in the behavior of people."[24]
Over the next 70 years, Drucker's writings would be marked by a focus on relationships among human beings, as opposed to the crunching of numbers. His books were filled with lessons on how organizations can bring out the best in people, and how workers can find a sense of community and dignity in a modern society organized around large institutions.[3] As a business consultant, Drucker disliked the term "guru," though it was often applied to him; "I have been saying for many years," Drucker once remarked, "that we are using the word 'guru' only because 'charlatan' is too long to fit into a headline."[25]
As a young writer, Drucker wrote two pieces — one on the conservative German philosopher Friedrich Julius Stahl and another called "The Jewish Question in Germany" — that were burned and banned by the Nazis.[4] In 1939 he published a contemporary analysis of the rise of fascism called "The End of Economic Man". This was his first book, published in New York, in English. In the introduction he refers to "The Jewish Question in Germany" saying "An early excerpt [of this book] was published as a pamphlet by an Austrian Catholic and Anti-Nazi in ... 1936". [26]
The "business thinker"[edit]
Drucker's career as a business thinker took off in 1942, when his initial writings on politics and society won him access to the internal workings of General Motors (GM), one of the largest companies in the world at that time. His experiences in Europe had left him fascinated with the problem of authority. He shared his fascination with Donaldson Brown, the mastermind behind the administrative controls at GM. In 1943 Brown invited him in to conduct what might be called a "political audit": a two-year social-scientific analysis of the corporation. Drucker attended every board meeting, interviewed employees, and analyzed production and decision-making processes.
The resulting book, Concept of the Corporation, popularized GM's multidivisional structure and led to numerous articles, consulting engagements, and additional books. GM, however, was hardly thrilled with the final product. Drucker had suggested that the auto giant might want to re-examine a host of long-standing policies on customer relations, dealer relations, employee relations and more. Inside the corporation, Drucker's counsel was viewed as hypercritical. GM's revered chairman, Alfred Sloan, was so upset about the book that he "simply treated it as if it did not exist," Drucker later recalled, "never mentioning it and never allowing it to be mentioned in his presence."[27]
Drucker taught that management is "a liberal art," and he infused his management advice with interdisciplinary lessons from history, sociology, psychology, philosophy, culture and religion.[3] He also believed strongly that all institutions, including those in the private sector, have a responsibility to the whole of society. "The fact is," Drucker wrote in his 1973 Management: Tasks, Responsibilities, Practices, "that in modern society there is no other leadership group but managers. If the managers of our major institutions, and especially of business, do not take responsibility for the common good, no one else can or will."[28]
Drucker was interested in the growing effect of people who worked with their minds rather than their hands. He was intrigued by employees who knew more about certain subjects than their bosses or colleagues, and yet had to cooperate with others in a large organization. Rather than simply glorify the phenomenon as the epitome of human progress, Drucker analyzed it, and explained how it challenged the common thinking about how organizations should be run.
His approach worked well in the increasingly mature business world of the second half of the twentieth century. By that time large corporations had developed the basic manufacturing efficiencies and managerial hierarchies of mass production. Executives thought they knew how to run companies, and Drucker took it upon himself to poke holes in their beliefs, lest organizations become stale. But he did so in a sympathetic way. He assumed that his readers were intelligent, rational, hardworking people of good will. If their organizations struggled, he believed it was usually because of outdated ideas, a narrow conception of problems, or internal misunderstandings.
Drucker developed an extensive consulting business built around his personal relationship with top management. He became legendary among many of post-war Japan's new business leaders trying to rebuild their war-torn homeland. He advised the heads of General Motors, Sears, General Electric, W.R. Grace and IBM, among many others. Over time he offered his management advice to nonprofits like the American Red Cross and the Salvation Army. His advice was eagerly sought by the senior executives of the Adela Investment Company, a private initiative of the world's multinational corporations to promote investment in the developing countries of Latin America.[29]
Drucker's writings[edit]
Drucker's 39 books have been translated into more than thirty-six languages. Two are novels, one an autobiography. He is the co-author of a book on Japanese painting, and made eight series of educational films on management topics. He also penned a regular column in the Wall Street Journal for 10 years and contributed frequently to the Harvard Business Review, The Atlantic Monthly, and The Economist.
His work is especially popular in Japan, even more so after the publication of "What If the Female Manager of a High-School Baseball Team Read Drucker's Management", a novel that features the main character using one of his books to great effect, which was also adapted into an anime and a live action film.[30] His popularity in Japan may be compared with that of his contemporary W. Edwards Deming.[31]
Key ideas[edit]
Decentralization and simplification.[32] Drucker discounted the command and control model and asserted that companies work best when they are decentralized. According to Drucker, corporations tend to produce too many products, hire employees they don't need (when a better solution would be outsourcing), and expand into economic sectors that they should avoid.
The prediction of the death of the "Blue Collar" worker.[33] The changing face of the US Auto Industry is a testimony to this prediction.
The concept of what eventually came to be known as "outsourcing."[34] He used the example of "front room" and "back room" of each business: A company should be engaged in only the front room activities that are critical to supporting its core business. Back room activities should be handed over to other companies, for whom these tasks are the front room activities.
The importance of the nonprofit sector,[35] which he calls the third sector (private sector and the Government sector being the first two). Non-Government Organizations (NGOs) play crucial roles in the economies of countries around the world.
A profound skepticism of macroeconomic theory.[36] Drucker contended that economists of all schools fail to explain significant aspects of modern economies.
A lament that the sole focus of microeconomics is price, citing its lack of showing what products actually do for us,[37] thereby stimulating commercial interest in discovering how to calculate what products actually do for us, from their price.[38]
Respect for the worker. Drucker believed that employees are assets not liabilities. He taught that knowledgeable workers are the essential ingredients of the modern economy, and that a hybrid management model is the sole method of demonstrating an employee's value to the organization. Central to this philosophy is the view that people are an organization's most valuable resource, and that a manager's job is both to prepare people to perform and give them freedom to do so.[39]
A belief in what he called "the sickness of government." Drucker made nonpartisan claims that government is often unable or unwilling to provide new services that people need and/or want, though he believed that this condition is not intrinsic to the form of government. The chapter "The Sickness of Government"[40] in his book The Age of Discontinuity formed the basis of New Public Management,[41] a theory of public administration that dominated the discipline in the 1980s and 1990s.
The need for "planned abandonment." Businesses and governments have a natural human tendency to cling to "yesterday's successes" rather than seeing when they are no longer useful.[42]
A belief that taking action without thinking is the cause of every failure.
The need for community. Early in his career, Drucker predicted the "end of economic man" and advocated the creation of a "plant community"[43] where an individual's social needs could be met. He later acknowledged that the plant community never materialized, and by the 1980s, suggested that volunteering in the nonprofit sector was the key to fostering a healthy society where people found a sense of belonging and civic pride.[44]
The need to manage business by balancing a variety of needs and goals, rather than subordinating an institution to a single value.[45][46] This concept of management by objectives and self-control forms the keynote of his 1954 landmark The Practice of Management.[47]
A company's primary responsibility is to serve its customers. Profit is not the primary goal, but rather an essential condition for the company's continued existence and sustainability.[48]
A belief in the notion that great companies could stand among humankind's noblest inventions.[49]
"Do what you do best and outsource the rest" is a business tagline first "coined and developed"[50] in the 1990s by Drucker.[51] The slogan was primarily used to advocate outsourcing as a viable business strategy. Drucker began explaining the concept of outsourcing as early as 1989 in his Wall Street Journal (WSJ) article entitled "Sell the Mailroom."[52]
The Wall Street Journal researched several of his lectures in 1987 and reported that he was sometimes loose with the facts. Drucker was off the mark, for example, when he told an audience that the English language was the official language for all employees at Japan's Mitsui trading company. Drucker defended himself: "I use anecdotes to make a point, not to write history."
Also, while Drucker was known for his prescience, he was not always correct in his forecasts. He predicted, for instance, that the nation's financial center would shift from New York to Washington.[53]
Others maintain that one of Drucker's core concepts," management by objectives," is flawed and has never really been proven to work effectively. Critic Dale Krueger said that the system is difficult to implement and that companies often wind up overemphasizing control, as opposed to fostering creativity, to meet their goals.[54]
Drucker's classic work, Concept of the Corporation, criticized General Motors while it was considered the most successful corporation in the world. Many of GM's executives considered Drucker persona non grata for a long time afterward. Although Alfred P. Sloan refrained from personal hostility toward Drucker, he considered Drucker's critiques of GM's management to be "dead wrong."[55]
Awards and honors[edit]
Drucker was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by US President George W. Bush on July 9, 2002.[56] He also received honors from the governments of Austria,[57] including the Grand Silver Medal for Services to the Republic of Austria in 1974,[58] the Grand Gold Decoration for Services to the Republic of Austria in 1991[59] and the Austrian Cross of Honour for Science and Art, 1st class in 1999[60] and Japan (Order of the Sacred Treasure, 3rd class; 24 June 1966[61]).
Drucker was the Honorary Chairman of the Peter F. Drucker Foundation for Nonprofit Management, now the Leader to Leader Institute, from 1990 through 2002.[62] In 1969 he was awarded New York University's highest honor, its Presidential Citation.[63] For his article, "What Makes an Effective Executive", Harvard Business Review honored Drucker in the June 2004 with his seventh McKinsey Award — the most awarded to one person.[64] Drucker was inducted into the Junior Achievement US Business Hall of Fame in 1996.[65] He received 25 honorary doctorates from American, Belgian, Czech, English, Spanish and Swiss universities.[66] His 1954 book The Practice of Management was voted the third most influential management book of the 20th century in a poll of the Fellows of the Academy of Management.[67] In Claremont, California, Eleventh Street between College Avenue and Dartmouth Avenue was renamed "Drucker Way" in October 2009 to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Drucker's birth.[68] Drucker was posthumously honored when he was inducted into the Outsourcing Hall of Fame in recognition of his outstanding contributions in the field.[69] In 2018, Drucker was named the world's most influential business thinker on the Thinkers50.com list.[70]
1939: The End of Economic Man (New York: The John Day Company)
1942: The Future of Industrial Man (New York: The John Day Company)
1946: Concept of the Corporation (New York: The John Day Company)
1950: The New Society (New York: Harper & Brothers)
1954: The Practice of Management (New York: Harper & Brothers)
1957: America's Next Twenty Years (New York: Harper & Brothers)
1959: The Landmarks of Tomorrow (New York: Harper & Brothers)
1964: Managing for Results (New York: Harper & Row)
1967: The Effective Executive (New York: Harper & Row)
1969: The Age of Discontinuity (New York: Harper & Row)
1970: Technology, Management and Society (New York: Harper & Row)
1971: The New Markets and Other Essays (London: William Heinemann Ltd.)
1971: Men, Ideas and Politics (New York: Harper & Row)
1971: Drucker on Management (London: Management Publications Limited)
1973: Management: Tasks, Responsibilities, Practices' (New York: Harper & Row)
1976: The Unseen Revolution: How Pension Fund Socialism Came to America (New York: Harper & Row)
1977: People and Performance: The Best of Peter Drucker on Management (New York: Harper's College Press)
1978: Adventures of a Bystander (New York: Harper & Row)
1980: Managing in Turbulent Times (New York: Harper & Row)
1981: Toward the Next Economics and Other Essays (New York: Harper & Row)
1982: The Changing World of Executive (New York: Harper & Row)
1982: The Last of All Possible Worlds (New York: Harper & Row)
1984: The Temptation to Do Good (London: William Heinemann Ltd.)
1985: Innovation and Entrepreneurship (New York: Harper & Row)
1986: The Frontiers of Management: Where Tomorrow's Decisions are Being Shaped Today (New York: Truman Talley Books/E.D. Dutton)
1989: The New Realities: in Government and Politics, in Economics and Business, in Society and World View (New York: Harper & Row)
1990: Managing the Nonprofit Organization: Practices and Principles (New York: Harper Collins)
1992: Managing for the Future (New York: Harper Collins)
1993: The Ecological Vision (New Brunswick, NJ and London: Transaction Publishers)
1993: Post-Capitalist Society (New York: HarperCollins)
1995: Managing in a Time of Great Change (New York: Truman Talley Books/Dutton)
1997: Drucker on Asia: A Dialogue between Peter Drucker and Isao Nakauchi (Tokyo: Diamond Inc.)
1998: Peter Drucker on the Profession of Management (Boston: Harvard Business School Publishing)
1999: Management Challenges for 21st Century (New York: Harper Business)
1999: Managing Oneself (Boston: Harvard Business School Publishing) [published 2008 from article in Harvard Business Review]
2001: The Essential Drucker (New York: Harper Business)
2002: Managing in the Next Society (New York: Truman Talley Books/St. Martin's Press)
2002: A Functioning Society (New Brunswick, NJ and London: Transaction Publishers)
2004: The Daily Drucker (New York: Harper Business)
2008 (posthumous): The Five Most Important Questions (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass)
Other publications[edit]
Early monographs in German
1932: The Justification of International Law and the Will of the State (doctoral dissertation)
1933: Friedrich Julius Stahl, Conservative Political Theory and Historical Development (Tübingen: Mohr)
1936: The Jewish Question in Germany (Wien: Gsur)
1961: Power and Democracy in America (Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press Publishers)
1969: Preparing Tomorrow's Business Leaders Today (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall)
1979: Song of the Brus: Japanese Painting from Sanso Collection (Seattle: Seattle Art Museum)
1988: Handbook of Management by Objectives with Bill Reddin and Denis Ryan (Published by Tata Mcgraw-Hill in New Delhi).
1991: The Rise of NEC (Blackwell Business)
1977: An Introductory View of Management (New York: Harper & Row)
1977 (revised edition, 2009): Management Cases (New York: Harper & Row)
2006: The Effective Executive In Action with Joseph A. Maciariello (New York: HarperCollins)
2006: Classic Drucker (Boston: Harvard Business Review Press)
2008 (posthumous): Management: Revised with sujog arya (New York: HarperCollins)
Global Peter Drucker Forum
Peter F. Drucker and Masatoshi Ito Graduate School of Management
^ Drucker, Peter F. "Reflections of a Social Ecologist," Society, May/June 1992.
^ Denning, Steve (August 29, 2014). "The Best Of Peter Drucker". Forbes.
^ a b c Why Drucker Now?, Drucker Institute.
^ a b Byrne, John A.; Gerdes, Lindsey (November 28, 2005). "The Man Who Invented Management". BusinessWeek. Retrieved November 2, 2009.
^ Davenport, Thomas H. Thinking for a Living, 2005, p. 8.
^ Schumpeter (19 November 2009). "Remembering Drucker". The Economist. Retrieved 15 March 2012.
^ Drucker, Peter F., The Ecological Vision: Reflections on the Human condition, 2016, p. 425.
^ a b Drucker, Peter F. Adventures of a Bystander, 1979.
^ Peter F. Drucker: A Biography in Progress, p. 1, at his website
^ Beatty, Jack. The World According to Peter Drucker, 2016, pp. 5–7.
^ a b "Drucker's childhood and youth in Vienna". Drucker Society of Austria. Drucker Society of Austria. Retrieved 2 August 2015.
^ Drucker, Peter F. Adventures of a Bystander, 1979, p. 159.
^ "Obituary: Peter Drucker, 95, Economist Who Prized Value of Workers," The New York Times, 13 November 2005.
^ Drucker, Peter F.;Cohen, William. A Class with Drucker: The Lost Lessons of the World's Greatest Management Teacher, 2007, p. 242.
^ Peter F. Drucker: A Biography in Progress, p. 6, at this website
^ Certified copy of Peter and Doris Drucker’s marriage certificate, The Drucker Institute Archives, Box 39, Folder 11, Claremont, California.
^ The Essential Drucker (2001)
^ Sullivan, Patricia (November 12, 2005). "Management Visionary Peter Drucker Dies". Washington Post.
^ "Peter F. Drucker". Claremont Graduate University. Archived from the original on 27 August 2006. Retrieved 24 March 2014.
^ Pattison, Kermit (9 December 2008). "The Twine That Binds: Q&A With Nova Spivack". Fast Company. Retrieved 24 March 2014.
^ Colker, David (October 4, 2014). "Doris Drucker dies at 103; memoirist and wife of Peter Drucker". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 14 October 2015.
^ Beatty, Jack. The World According to Peter Drucker, 1998, p. 163.
^ Drucker, Peter F. The Ecological Vision: Reflections on the Human Condition, 1993, p. 75.
^ Drucker, Peter F., The Ecological Vision, 1993, pp. 75–76.
^ "Peter Drucker, the man who changed the world," Business Review Weekly, 15 September 1997, p. 49.
^ "The End of Economic Man, Introduction to the Transaction Edition" Transaction Publishing, 2009.
^ Drucker, Peter F., Adventures of a Bystander, p. 288, (1979)
^ Drucker, Peter F., Management: Tasks, Responsibilities, Practices, 1973, p. 325.
^ Wartzman, Rick. "How to Consult Like Peter Drucker". Forbes.
^ Drucker in the dug-out, A Japanese book about Peter Drucker and baseball is an unlikely hit, The Economist, July 1, 2010
^ Outcome-Based Religions: Purpose-Driven Apostasy, Mac Dominick, "The quest begins by looking into the lives of two men, Edwards Deming and Peter Drucker. Deming (now deceased) and Drucker (in his mid 90s) are enshrined as internationally renowned experts in business management and gurus of business methodology. These two individuals were among the primary players in a select group of Americans (Though Drucker is a U.S. citizen, he is actually Austrian.) who are lauded as part of the almost super-human effort that developed systems-based management philosophies that first gained public recognition in post-World War II Japan. The popular story is told of the Americans who developed a cutting edge business methodology that was rejected by western business but eagerly embraced by the Japanese.", quoted at Total Quality Management (TQM)
^ Buchanan, Leigh (19 November 2009). "Peter Drucker from A to Z". Inc. magazine. Retrieved 12 March 2012.
^ Drucker, Peter (December 1995). "The Age of Social Transformation". The Atlantic. Retrieved 12 March 2012.
^ Wartzman, Rick (5 February 2010). "Insourcing and Outsourcing: the Right Mix". Bloomberg Businessweek. Retrieved 12 March 2012.
^ Drucker, Peter (July 1989). "What Business Can Learn from Nonprofits". Harvard Business Review. Retrieved 12 March 2012.
^ Drucker, Peter (23 May 1983). "Schumpeter And Keynes". Forbes. Retrieved 12 March 2012.
^ Drucker, P.F., Innovation and Entrepreneurship, p250 (1985)
^ Farrell. C.J. 'Commercial Knowledge on Innovation Economics', A Report, (2014) pp. 1-11
^ Drucker, P. F., Collins, J., Kotler, P., Kouzes, J., Rodin, J., Rangan, V. K., et al., The Five Most Important Questions You Will Ever Ask About your Organization, p. xix (2008)
^ Drucker, Peter (1969). The Age of Discontinuity. New York: Harper & Row. ISBN 978-1-56000-618-3.
^ Pollitt and Bouckaert, Christopher and Geert (2011). Public Management Reform. New York: Oxford University Press. p. 38. ISBN 978-0-19-959508-2.
^ Drucker, Peter (1974). Management: Tasks, Responsibilities, Practices. New York: HarperCollins. pp. 84–5. ISBN 978-0-7506-4389-4.
^ Drucker, Peter (1942). The Future of Industrial Man. New York: The John Day Company. p. 205. ISBN 978-1-56000-623-7.
^ Drucker, Peter (1990). Managing the Non-Profit Organization. New York: HarperCollins. p. xii. ISBN 978-0-7506-2691-0.
^ Drucker, Peter F., The Practice of Management, pp 62-63, (1954)
^ Drucker, Peter F., Managing for the Future, p. 299, (1992)
^ Drucker, Peter F., The Practice of Management, p. 12, (1954)
^ Drucker, Peter F., The Practice of Management (1954)
^ Drucker, Peter F., The Five Most Important Questions You Will Ever Ask About Your Organization, p. 54, (2008)
^ Haus, Marian (9 October 2011). "Best 10 Peter Drucker Quotes". pmseed thoughts on managing project work. pmseed. Retrieved 27 April 2015.
^ Vitasek, Kate (1 June 2010). "A New way to Outsource". Forbes.
^ Drucker, Peter (15 November 2005). "Sell the Mailroom". Wall Street Journal. Dow Jones Company (Manager's Journal). Retrieved 27 April 2015Reprint from July 25, 1989
^ "Peter Drucker, Leading Management Guru, Dies at 95," Bloomberg, 11 November 2005.
^ Krueger, Dale. Strategic Management and Management by Objectives, Small Business Advancement National Center, 1994.
^ Drucker, Peter. Introduction, pp. v–vi, in Sloan, Alfred P. (1964), McDonald, John, ed., My Years with General Motors, Garden City, New York: Doubleday, LCCN 64-11306, OCLC 802024. ISBN 978-0385042352
^ Presidential Medal of Freedom ceremony, 2002-07-09, The Drucker Institute Archives, Claremont, California.
^ Great Silver Award, Box 8, Folder 7, The Drucker Institute and Archives, Claremont, California.
^ "Reply to a parliamentary question" (pdf) (in German). p. 398. Retrieved 20 January 2013.
^ "Reply to a parliamentary question" (pdf) (in German). p. 1305. Retrieved 20 January 2013.
^ Japanese Decoration of Honor, Box 8, Folder 7, The Drucker Institute Archives, Claremont, California.
^ Drucker, Peter. Biographical data, Box 35, Folder 30, The Drucker Institute Archive, Claremont, California.
^ Letter recognizing Presidential Citation of New York University, Box 8, Folder 7, The Drucker Institute Archives, Claremont, California.
^ McKinsey Award Winners at Harvard Business Review
^ "Peter F. Drucker". U.S. Business Hall of Fame. Junior Achievement. Archived from the original on 19 June 2010. Retrieved 17 December 2012.
^ Honorary Degrees in The Drucker Institute Archives, Claremont, California.
^ Bedeian, Arthur G.; Wren, Daniel A. (Winter 2001). "Most Influential Management Books of the 20th Century" (PDF). Organizational Dynamics. 29 (3): 221–25. doi:10.1016/S0090-2616(01)00022-5.
^ Wassenaar, Christina (8 October 2009). "Eleventh Street in Claremont, Calif., will be renamed "Drucker Way"". Drucker Institute. Retrieved 17 December 2012.
^ Wartzman, Rick (February 2010). "Insourcing and Outsourcing: the Right Mix". Bloomberg Business. Bloomberg Business.com. Retrieved 27 April 2015.
^ "2018 Hall of Fame Inductees". thinkers50.com. Retrieved November 30, 2018.
Tarrant, John C. Drucker: The Man Who Invented the Corporate Society, 1976. ISBN 0-8436-0744-0
Beatty, Jack, The World According to Peter Drucker, 1998. ISBN 0-684-83801-X
Flaherty, John E. Peter Drucker: Shaping the Managerial Mind, 1999. ISBN 0-7879-4764-4
Edersheim, Elizabeth. The Definitive Drucker, 2007. ISBN 0-07-147233-9
Cohen, William A. A Class with Drucker: The lost lessons of the World's greatest management teacher, 2008. ISBN 978-0-8144-0919-0
Weber, Winfried W. Kulothungan, Gladius (eds.) Peter F. Drucker's Next Management. New Institutions, New Theories and Practices, 2010. ISBN 978-3-9810228-6-5
Stein, Guido. Managing People and Organisations, 2010. ISBN 978-0-85724-032-3
Turriago-Hoyos, A., Thoene, U., & Arjoon, S. (2016). Knowledge workers and virtues in Peter Drucker's management theory. Sage Open, January–March 2016: 1-9, DOI: 10.1177/2158244016639631. http://sgo.sagepub.com/content/6/1/2158244016639631
Peter Druckerat Wikipedia's sister projects
Drucker Archives in the Claremont Colleges Digital Library
The Window in the Claremont Colleges Digital Library
The Drucker Institute
Sell the Mailroom – 1989 article by Drucker
Appearances on C-SPAN
Concept of the Corporation (1946)
The Landmarks of Tomorrow (1959)
The Age of Discontinuity (1969)
Post-Capitalist Society (1993)
Knowledge worker
Management by objectives
Moshidora
Henry Laurence Gantt Medal
1929: Henry Laurence Gantt (posthumously)
1930: Fred J. Miller
1931: Leon P. Alford
1932: Henry S. Dennison
1933: Henry Wallace Clark
1934: Horace B. Cheney
1935: Arthur Howland Young
1936: Morris E. Leeds
1940: William Loren Batt
1941: Paul Eugene Holden
1943: Dexter S. Kimball
1944: Frank Bunker Gilbreth Sr. (posthumously) and Lillian Moller Gilbreth
1945: John Milton Hancock
1946: Paul G. Hoffman
1947: Alvin E. Dodd
1948: Harold Fowler McCormick
1949: Arthur Clinton Spurr
1950: Charles R. Hook Sr.
1951: Thomas Roy Jones
1952: Frank Henry Neely
1953: Thomas E. Millsop
1954: Clarence Francis
1955: Walker Lee Cisler
1956: Henning Webb Prentis Jr.
1957: Harold F. Smiddy
1958: Richard Redwood Deupree
1959: Peter Drucker
1960: Charles Perry McCormick
1961: Lyndall Urwick
1962: Austin J. Tobin
1963: Lawrence A. Appley
1964: Harold Bright Maynard
1965: Ralph J. Cordiner
1968: J. Erik Jonsson
1969: David Packard
1970: Frederick Kappel
1971: Donald C. Burnham
1972: Robert Elton Brooker
1973: John T. Connor
1974: Willard Rockwell
1975: Patrick E. Haggerty
1976: Kenneth Daniel
1982: Charles Luckman
1983: Walter A. Fallon
1984: Rawleigh Warner Jr.
1987: Edmund T. Pratt Jr.
1988: William S. Lee
1998: George N. Hatsopoulos
2000: Paul Soros
2001: Roy M. Huffington 2002: Alexander W. Dreyfoos Jr. 2003: William R. Timken 2004: Julie Spicer England 2007: Dean Kamen 2009: Charles M. Vest
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Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Peter_Drucker&oldid=906732049"
American business theorists
American business writers
American management consultants
Austrian business theorists
Austrian emigrants to the United States
Austrian Jews
American people of Austrian-Jewish descent
Bennington College faculty
Goethe University Frankfurt alumni
New York University faculty
Christian humanists
People from Vienna
Presidential Medal of Freedom recipients
Radical centrist writers
Recipients of the Austrian Cross of Honour for Science and Art, 1st class
Recipients of the Grand Decoration for Services to the Republic of Austria
Recipients of the Order of the Sacred Treasure, 3rd class
Leadership scholars
Jewish emigrants from Nazi Germany to the United States
Henry Laurence Gantt Medal recipients
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For the Australian television series, see John Safran's Race Relations.
Race relations is a concept which emerged in Chicago following the Chicago race riot of 1919.[1] In the wake of this violence the city authorities established the Chicago Commission on Race Relations. This was composed entirely of men, six African-Americans and six European-Americans.[2][3]However it was through the establishment of the Department of Social Anthropology at the University of Edinburgh, that the concept became institutionally significant in the United Kingdom.[1]
2 Legislation in the UK
Institutions[edit]
The Institute of Race Relations was established in 1958. Its remit was to research, publish and collect resources on race relations across the world. However in 1972 In 1972, the membership of the institute supported the staff in the radical transformation of the organisation: rather than being a policy-oriented academic institution it became an anti-racist think tank.[4]
The Race Relations Board was created following the passing of the Race Relations Act 1965 as a body "to assess and resolve individual cases of discrimination."[5] Its remit was originally restricted to places of public resort and regarding disposal of tenancies, but this was expanded with the passage of the Race Relations Act 1968.[5]
Legislation in the UK[edit]
The Race Relations Act 1965 was the first piece of legislation in the United Kingdom to outlaw racial discrimination.
The Race Relations Act 1968 was the second piece of such legislation.
The Race Relations Act 1976 was the third piece of such legislation.
Sociology of race and ethnic relations
^ a b Shilliam, Robbie. "How Black Deficit Entered the British Academy" (PDF). robbieshilliam.wordpress.com. Robbie Shilliam. Retrieved 28 June 2019.
^ "The Chicago Race Riot of 1919". History. History com. Retrieved 30 June 2019.
^ The Negro in Chicago; a study of race relations and a race riot. Chicago, Illinois: The University of Chicago Press. 1922. Retrieved 30 June 2019.
^ "About". www.irr.org.uk. Institute of Race Relations. Retrieved 28 June 2019.
^ a b "First Report of the Race Relations Board". UK Parliament. UK Parliament. Retrieved 29 June 2019.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Race_relations&oldid=904916645"
Law in the United Kingdom
Race relations in the United Kingdom
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American actress and former NFL cheerleader
Shahi in 2011
Aahoo Jahansouz Shahi
Euless, Texas, U.S.
Trinity High School
Steve Howey (m. 2009)
www.sarahshahi.com
Aahoo Jahansouz "Sarah" Shahi[1] (Persian: آهو جهانسوز سارا شاهی; born January 10, 1980) is an Iranian-American[2] television actress and former NFL Cheerleader of Iranian and Spanish ancestry. She played Kate Reed in the USA Network legal drama Fairly Legal in 2011–12, Carmen on The L Word in 2008, and also starred as Sameen Shaw on the CBS crime drama Person of Interest.[3] She has also appeared as the main female role Det. Dani Reese in Life, and in a supporting role in Alias.[4] In 2018, she starred in the series Reverie. In 2019, she appeared in a few episodes of City on a Hill on Showtime.[5]
3 Personal life
Sarah Shahi was born on January 10, 1980, in Euless, Texas, and raised there.[1] She is the daughter of Abbas Jahansouz Shahi and Mah Monir Soroush Azar, an interior designer, who divorced when she was ten.[6] Her father is from Iran. Her father's family left Iran two years before the Iranian Revolution.[7][8] Her father was working at the American Embassy in Iran, was slated for execution when the last Shah's regime collapsed in 1979, but was able to flee the country.[6] Her mother was born in Spain, to an Iranian father and a Spanish mother.[9][10] She has an older brother, Cyrus,[11] and a younger sister, Samantha, who is a production assistant.[12][13][14][15][16] Her birth name, Aahoo (Persian: آهو), means "gazelle" in Persian.[10]
Shahi adopted Sarah as her name in second grade after hearing a song called "Sarah" because she was "tormented" by other children about her unusual birth name.[1] At her father's behest, she grew up speaking Persian, in addition to English. Shahi's parents began entering her in beauty pageants at the age of eight.[8] Shahi attended Trinity High School, where she was captain of the volleyball and basketball teams, and Southern Methodist University, majoring in English and Theater.[17] She was a member of Alpha Chi Omega during her time at SMU. Shahi won the Miss Fort Worth pageant in 1997.[18] Hoping to become an actress, she joined the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders (1999–2000) squad despite not having cheered before. Later, she moved to Los Angeles.[1]
Shahi at the 2012 Monte-Carlo Television Festival
While working as an extra on the set of Dr. T and the Women in Texas, Shahi met director Robert Altman, who encouraged her to move to Hollywood,[1] where she received roles in several series, including Alias, Dawson's Creek, Reba, and Supernatural. In 2005 she appeared in the supporting character role of DJ Carmen de la Pica Morales on The L Word, which she joined in its second season. Shahi's two-year contract was not renewed after the end of the fourth season, and her character was written out.[19]
She also played Farah in the second season of Sleeper Cell, and also appeared in HBO's The Sopranos in 2007, in the Season 6b episode "Kennedy and Heidi" as Sonya Aragon, a stripper and college student who spends a weekend with Tony after a death in his family. In 2007, she secured a small role in Rush Hour 3 as Zoe, a scantily clad rich girl who is pursued by Chris Tucker's character, Detective Carter.
In 2007, she took on her first permanent leading role on a TV series, co-starring with Damian Lewis in the NBC series Life as homicide detective Dani Reese. The series ran for two seasons.[1][20]
In October 2009, Shahi landed the lead role in the USA Network pilot, Facing Kate. Shahi began filming in November 2009.[21] The show followed the life of Kate Reed, a legal mediator who is frustrated with the bureaucracy and injustice she witnesses in the legal system. The series title was later changed to Fairly Legal. The show was cancelled after two seasons in November 2012.[22]
Shahi was cast as a recurring love interest for Taylor Kinney's character Lt. Kelly Severide on NBC's show Chicago Fire in October 2012.[23] She was cast as the possibly recurring character of Sameen Shaw on Person of Interest. She was featured in the sixteenth episode of the second season, "Relevance", which aired in February 2013.[24] In May 2013 CBS President Nina Tassler announced that Shahi would be added as a series regular for its third season.[25] She played the daughter of Sylvester Stallone's character in the action film Bullet to the Head In which was also the first time working with co-star Jason Momoa who she would later go on to work with again in his movie Road to Paloma in 2014. Following the January 7, 2015 episode of Person of Interest, Shahi and the show's producers announced she would be leaving the show for an indefinite period of time because of her pregnancy.[26]
In February 2016, she was cast as iconic detective Nancy Drew in a planned TV series based on the books.[27] In May 2016, CBS passed on the series, and its producers announced they would continue looking for a network to air the show.[28] Also in May, Shahi resumed her appearances as Shaw on Person of Interest, until June 21, 2016, when the show ended.[29]
Personal life[edit]
Shahi married actor Steve Howey on February 7, 2009, in Las Vegas. In July 2009, she gave birth to their first child, a son,[30] during an at-home water birth.[31] In January 2015, she announced that she was pregnant with twins.[32] In March, a daughter and son were born during another home birth.[33]
Shahi was named number 90 on the Maxim magazine "Hot 100 of 2005" list, moving up to number 66 in 2006[34] and 36 in 2012.[35] She appeared on the cover of Maxim's 2012 'TV's Hottest Girls' Issue in October 2012.[36] She ranked number 5 on the AfterEllen.com hot list in 2007.[37]
2000 Dr. T and the Women Cheerleader Uncredited
2003 Old School Erica
2003 Legally Blonde 2: Red, White & Blonde Becky, Delta Nu sister Uncredited
2005 A Lot Like Love Starlet
2006 For Your Consideration Sanchez
2006 The Dog Problem Candy
2007 Rush Hour 3 Zoe
2008 Shades of Ray Sana Khaliq
2008 AmericanEast Salwah
2009 Crossing Over Pooneh Baraheri
2011 East Fifth Bliss Hattie Skunk / Hattie Rockworth
2011 I Don't Know How She Does It Janine LoPietro
2012 Static Adele Dade
2012 Bullet to the Head Lisa Bonomo
2013 The Congress Michelle
2014 Road to Paloma Eva
2015 Divine Access Marian
2015 The Adventures of Beatle Carla
2017 Hangman Captain Lisa Watson
2000 City Guys Cheerleader Episode: "Shock Treatment"
2000 Spin City Bachelorette Episode: "Blind Faith"
2001 Boston Public Laura Episode: "Chapter Eleven"
2001 Off Centre Angelica Episode: "A Cute Triangle"
2001 Maybe It's Me Rosa Episode: "The Exchange-Student Episode"
2001–02 Alias Jenny 7 episodes
2002 Class of ‘06 Meg Unsold NBC pilot
2002 My Adventures in Television TV Diva Episode: "The Chinese Baby"
2003 Frasier Reservationist Episode: "Door Jam"
2003 Dawson's Creek Sadia Shaw / Mystery Girl Episodes: "Catch-22", "Sex and Violence", and "All the Right Moves"
2003 ER Tara King Episode: "The Greater Good"
2004 Century City Ms. Morris Episode: "Sweet Child of Mine"
2004–07 Reba Kate / Bridget Episodes: "To Tell You the Truth" and "Cheyenne‘s Rival"
2005 Plan B Bronwyn Unsold CMT pilot
2005 Supernatural Constance Welch / The Woman in White Episode: "Pilot"
2005–09 The L Word Carmen de la Pica Morales Supporting role character in 26 (of 70) episodes[38]
2005 The Drop Herself Episode: "2.49"
2006 Teachers Tina Torres Main character
2006 Sleeper Cell Farrah Episodes: "Faith" and "Torture"
2007 The Sopranos Sonya Aragon Episode: "Kennedy and Heidi"
2007–09 Life Dani Reese Main character, 32 episodes
2010 Psych Ruby Episode: "Thrill Seekers and Hell Raisers"
2011–12 Fairly Legal Kate Reed Lead character, 23 episodes
2011 Young Justice Killer Frost Episode: "Terrors"
2012–13; 2018 Chicago Fire Renee Royce 9 episodes
2013–16 Person of Interest Sameen Shaw Recurring role (season 2); main role (seasons 3–5)[39] 49 episodes
2015 Ray Donovan Hasmig Episode: "One Night in Yerevan"
2016 Pitch Natalie Luongo Episodes: "Unstoppable Forces & Immovable Objects" and "Scratched"
2016 Drew Nancy Drew Unsold CBS pilot
2017 Michael Bolton's Big, Sexy Valentine's Day Special Carmela Netflix variety special
2018 Reverie Mara Kint Main role, 10 episodes
2018 Halfway There Carrie Claussen Television film
2018 Hell's Kitchen Herself Guest diner; Episode: "Fish Out of Water"
2019 Heartstrings TBA Episode: "Cracker Jack"[40]
2019 The Rookie Jessica Russo Recurring role[41]
^ a b c d e f Mills, Nancy (2011-01-24). "Sarah Shahi turns cheerleading into 'Legal' experience". USA Today. Retrieved 2011-01-24.
^ "Sarah Shahi | U.S. Virtual Embassy Iran". U.S. Virtual Embassy Iran. 2015-01-01. Retrieved 2018-09-10. Ahoo Jahansouz (Sarah Shahi) was born in 1980 and is an Iranian-American television actress.
^ Ng, Philiana (May 15, 2013). "'Person of Interest' Adds Sarah Shahi as Series Regular". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 25 June 2013.
^ "The L word cast". Internet Movie Database. Retrieved 27 September 2012.
^ https://deadline.com/2019/01/city-on-a-hill-sarah-shahi-recur-showtime-drama-series-kevin-bacon-aldis-hodge-1202534943/
^ a b Robert Rorke (January 30, 2011). "Court of appeal". New York Post. Retrieved 17 December 2014.
^ "Sarah Shahi Biography". AskMen.com. Archived February 29, 2008, at the Wayback Machine
^ a b Baron, Jeff (January 4, 2011). "With New Show, Sarah Shahi Is Ready for Her Close-Up". America.gov. U.S. Department of State. Retrieved January 7, 2011.
^ a b Ileane Rudolph (October 6, 2008). "For Sarah Shahi, life is beautiful". TV Guide. Retrieved February 21, 2013.
^ Matt Webb Mitovich (February 20, 2013). "On Person of Interest, Sarah Shahi trades 'wink-wink, flirt-flirt', for being 'the ultimate bad-ass'". TVLine.com. Retrieved February 21, 2013.
^ Luaine Lee (January 19, 2011). "Life hasn't been easy for actress Sarah Shahi". News Observer. Archived from the original on February 25, 2013. Retrieved February 21, 2013.
^ "Sarah Shahi". Virtual Embassy of the United States Tehran, Iran. Retrieved December 16, 2014.
^ "Sarah Shahi Trivia". TV.com. Retrieved 17 December 2014.
^ Cyrus Mir Shahi on Twitter
^ Samantha Shahi on Twitter
^ "Rah of Iran". People.com. November 22, 1999. Archived from the original on October 19, 2012. Retrieved August 17, 2011.
^ "Sarah Shahi: Biography". TVguide.com.
^ "Sarah Shahi moves on from "The L Word" and "Life" to "Fairly Legal" - AfterEllen". AfterEllen. 2011-01-13. Retrieved 2016-05-16.
^ Wilonsky, Robert (August 12, 2008). "At SMU, Apparently, Sarah Shahi Was 'Walking Blue Balls'". Dallas Observer. Unfair Park (blog). Archived from the original on August 14, 2008. Retrieved January 7, 2011.
^ Shahi Lands Lead in USA's 'Facing Kate' Archived January 6, 2010, at the Wayback Machine
^ Megan Masters (November 1, 2012). "Fairly Legal Cancelled After Two-Season Run". TVLine. Retrieved November 4, 2012.
^ Michael Ausiello (October 30, 2012). "'Chicago Fire' Cast – Sarah Shahi to Play Taylor Kinney's Love Interest". TVLine. Retrieved December 28, 2012.
^ Sandra Gonzalez (January 8, 2013). "Sarah Shahi to recur on 'Person of Interest'". TV Guide. Retrieved February 21, 2013.
^ Philiana Ng (May 15, 2013). "'Person of Interest' Adds Sarah Shahi as Series Regular". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved June 9, 2013.
^ TV Guide Archived January 11, 2015, at the Wayback Machine
^ Hibberd, James. "Sarah Shahi cast as Nancy Drew in CBS reboot". EW.com. Retrieved 2016-02-29.
^ Goldberg, Lesley (May 14, 2016). "CBS Passes on Nancy Drew Reboot; Drama Being Shopped Elsewhere". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved May 31, 2016.
^ Li, Shirley (May 3, 2016). "Person of Interest: EPs preview a final season set to 'blow things up'". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved May 31, 2016.
^ "Sarah Shahi, Steve Howey Welcome Son William Wolf". People.com. October 2, 2009. Retrieved August 16, 2011.
^ "Sarah Shahi: How I handled my water birth". People.com. March 10, 2010. Retrieved February 21, 2013. /
^ Entertainment Weekly Archived January 18, 2015, at the Wayback Machine
^ "Steve Howey and Sarah Shahi Welcome Twins Violet Moon and Knox Blue". People.com. March 6, 2015. Retrieved March 7, 2015.
^ Sarah Shahi profile on Maxim.com Archived October 14, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
^ "Beautiful Celebrities and Women of 2012 | Maxim Hot 100". Maxim.com. Retrieved 2014-01-22.
^ "Sarah Shahi Covers Maxim's 2012 'TV's Hottest Girls' Issue". Celebrity-gossip.net. 2012-09-09. Retrieved 2014-01-22.
^ AfterEllen.com ranking Archived September 23, 2016, at the Wayback Machine
^ IMDB. "L word cast & crew". Retrieved 28 September 2012.
^ "'Person of Interest' Adds Sarah Shahi as Series Regular". The Hollywood Reporter. 2013-05-15. Retrieved 2014-01-22.
^ Iannucci, Rebecca (February 11, 2019). "Sarah Shahi, Scandal's Bellamy Young, thirtysomething Alums and More Join Netflix's Dolly Parton Anthology". TVLine.
^ Ausiello, Michael (February 22, 2019). "Person of Interest's Sarah Shahi Joins The Rookie in 'Rock Star' Recurring Role". TVLine. Retrieved February 22, 2019.
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Sarah Shahi.
Sarah Shahi on IMDb
Sarah Shahi at AllMovie
Sarah Shahi at the TCM Movie Database
BNF: cb16621683v (data)
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Sarah_Shahi&oldid=904951170"
20th-century American actresses
Actresses from Texas
American cheerleaders
American female models
American film actresses
American people of Iranian descent
American people of Spanish descent
American voice actresses
National Football League cheerleaders
People from Euless, Texas
Southern Methodist University alumni
Twitter username different from Wikidata
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HomeCrime
July 31, 2015 July 13, 2015 fasab Crime, Factoids, Politics, Rants academic, academics, African continent, American intelligence agencies, anti-colonial movements, archives, assassinated, available evidence, Ban Ki-moon, Belgium, britain, British, British colonial administrators, British-administered territory, Central Intelligence Agency, colonial masters, Commission, Congo, Congolese Prime Minister, conspiracy theorists, contributed to his own downfall, crucial evidence, death of UN General Secretary Dag Hammarskjold, deliberate sabotage, diplomat, Don’t hold your breath, Douglas DC-6 transport aircraft, emerged, Entertainment, error, European-supported chieftains, facts, fateful day, fierce supporter, former intelligence officer, foul play, Göran Björkdahl, get away with it, government entity, half a century later, Hammarskjöld, Hammarskjöld Commission, Hammarskjöld Inquiry Trust, in the pockets of the powers that be, independent investigators, independent thinker, information, international team of jurists, investigations, Kennedy assassination conspiracy, killed in an airplane crash, listened to a recording of a pilot, Lumumba, Marxist government, mineral-rich Katanga region, most likely cause, mystery, National Security Agency, Netherlands, non-investigation investigations, Northern Rhodesia, not be ruled out, obscure the details of the incident, on board, one of the enduring mysteries of the 20th century, Opinion, over drive, Patrice Lumumba, People, pilot error, politics, Rants, Rhodesian Board of Investigation, Rhodesian Commission of Inquiry, seceded, Secretary General, Secretary General Hammarskjöld, shot down, shot down the plane, significant new evidence, similar fates, South Africa, Susan Williams, Swedish, The Mysterious Death Of A UN Secretary General, Thoughts, three judges, tragedy, truth, UN Commission of Investigation, UN General Assembly, unidentified second plane, United Kingdom, United Nations Commission of Investigation, US, US National Security Agency, Western-backed coup, who ordered the assassination, who really did kill JKF, written testimony by a Belgian pilot, Zambia
Not quite up there with the Kennedy assassination conspiracy, but still a mystery, is the death of UN General Secretary Dag Hammarskjold who was killed in an airplane crash – some say assassinated – on September 17, 1961.
On that fateful day, a Douglas DC-6 transport aircraft with Hammarskjöld on board crashed in the British-administered territory of Northern Rhodesia (now called Zambia). Not only Hammarskjold, but everyone on board was killed in the crash.
Three investigations into the crash were held, conducted by the Rhodesian Board of Investigation, the Rhodesian Commission of Inquiry, and the United Nations Commission of Investigation.
As usual in these non-investigation investigations, “pilot error” was noted as the most likely cause of the tragedy.
But the UN Commission of Investigation held in 1962 said that deliberate sabotage could not be ruled out as a likely cause of the tragedy, which of course set the conspiracy theorists on over drive.
Since then many academics and independent investigators, such as Swedish development expert Göran Björkdahl and British academic Susan Williams, have raised the possibility that the plane carrying Secretary General Hammarskjöld may have been “shot down by an unidentified second plane”.
Just after the tragedy the eagerness shown by British colonial administrators in Northern Rhodesia to obscure the details of the incident has also been highlighted and has provided further impetus for those pointing to foul play.
Like many others who have met similar fates, Hammarskjöld probably contributed to his own downfall because he was an independent thinker, not content to remain in the pockets of the powers that be. He was, for example, a fierce supporter of anti-colonial movements that were sweeping the African continent, many of which were not in the interests of their colonial masters at the time.
This is borne out by the fact that on the day of his death, Hammarskjöld was flying to the Congo’s mineral-rich Katanga region to meet European-supported chieftains who in 1960 had seceded from the Marxist government of Congolese Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba.
Lumumba had been assassinated in a Western-backed coup exactly eight months before Hammarskjöld’s own death. The person said to have arranged his assassination was Daphne Park, one of MI6’s top female intelligence agents and known by some as the “Queen of Spies”.
Moving on in time to three years ago, in 2012, the independently funded Hammarskjöld Inquiry Trust appointed an international team of jurists, called the Hammarskjöld Commission, to study all available evidence on the plane crash. The team was composed of a diplomat and three judges from the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, South Africa, and Sweden.
The Commission reported in 2013 that “significant new evidence” had emerged, which suggested that American intelligence agencies, notably the National Security Agency and the Central Intelligence Agency, had “crucial evidence” that could help clarify the causes of the crash.
This led to the current UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon, appointing a UN-sponsored panel of experts to examine the new evidence and present it before the UN General Assembly. The three-member panel traveled to several countries, including Zambia, the US, Britain and Belgium, to access government, as well as private archives.
That ‘new evidence’ is said to include written testimony by a Belgian pilot who says he shot down the plane carrying Hammarskjöld by error while trying to divert it on orders by a government entity, and a statement by a former intelligence officer with the US National Security Agency, admitting he listened to a recording of a pilot who said he shot down the UN Secretary General’s plane.
Damning stuff – if true.
Is it really possible that more than half a century later the truth about “one of the enduring mysteries of the 20th century” is finally going to be heard?
Don’t hold your breath on that one. It all depends if those who ordered the assassination think they can get away with it after all these years.
So who really did kill JKF, more importantly, why, and how long are we going to have to wait to find out?
July 26, 2015 July 16, 2015 fasab Business, Computers, Crime, Current Events, Factoids, Investing, Stockmarket amateurs, bloated and confusing, Bloomberg financial organization, Bloomberg.com, bloomberg.market, bogus web site, buyout story, Current Events, cyber criminals, dot word domains, dot-com, dot-market domain, easy, education, expensive, facebook, fact, factoid, facts, fake, famous, finance, fun, good invention, greedy and stupid people, gullible internet users, information, internet, internet story, investing, investments, investors piled in, legitimate webpage, lost money, mirror, morons, ordinary people, Panama, permutations, professional, protect your online identity, proxy service, scam message, shares, shares jumped, stupid people, stupidity, too good a deal to refuse, Twitter, Twitter shares, Twitter story, Wall Street, WhoisGuard
Twitter is a good invention. It’s easy and fun. Much less demanding and intrusive than Facebook. So much so that many millions of people, from the famous to ordinary people like you and I, use it every day.
On the back of that success the Twitter company is doing very well. But recently it did even better when its shares jumped four per cent in a matter of minutes.
It all happened after a buyout story appeared on the internet that claimed that Twitter had received a significant offer. It started off, “Twitter is working closely with bankers after receiving an offer to be bought out for $31 billion…”
Investors piled in. And not just the amateurs, lots of the ‘professional’ Wall Street guys too.
The trouble was, however, that the internet story was on a bogus web site and was completely fake. The site was called “bloomberg.market”. It was not “Bloomberg.com” the official name of the web presence for the Bloomberg financial organization.
“Bloomberg.market” was what they call a ‘mirror’ of the genuine “Bloomberg.com” website. Whoever designed “bloomberg.market” set it up to look like “Bloomberg.com”. They copied real headlines and linked them back to the real dot-com website. With one exception: the fake Twitter story, which was dressed up to look like a legitimate webpage.
The spike in the Twitter share price only lasted about 15 minutes before Bloomberg denounced the story as fake and the share price dropped back to its previous level. But 15 minutes is a long time in the world of finance and plenty of time for someone to profit substantially from the scam.
No one yet knows who owns the dot-market domain – except the people who own it, of course – but it was registered just days before the scam message, using a proxy service called “WhoisGuard”, based in Panama, that protects registrant details by offering its own address and contact numbers. But the details of “WhoisGuard” on its own website at “WhoisGuard.com” also appear to be fake, listing a telephone number that is disconnected. Emails to their contact address have not received a response either.
The significance of this incident is not that some greedy and stupid people lost money rushing to buy Twitter shares on the back of this fake announcement.
The problem is that so many new dot word domains have recently been allowed – hundreds of them in fact – that the whole internet is becoming bloated and confusing. And expensive.
If you are a company that wants to protect your online identity and integrity it could now cost you tens of thousands of dollars to cover all the permutations. Not many companies, even huge affairs like Bloomberg, will choose to do that.
That leaves the way wide open for cyber criminals to take advantage of gullible internet users.
I am certain they will.
Like the Twitter announcement, it’s just too good a deal to refuse.
July 19, 2015 July 14, 2015 fasab Computers, Crime, Current Events, Factoids, Politics, Rants 9/11 terrorist attack, aggrandize herself, airplanes, American people, attention span, Bill Clinton’s Presidency, book, Bosnia, broke, brothers, cannot tell the truth, Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, Chelsea, clerical error, climbed Mt. Everest, Clintons, confiscated public documents, congress, conqueror of Mount Everest, conspired to violate the Constitution, Current Events, defrauding, disembarked at the airport, dishonest, do you want a liar in the White House, education, enhance her position by lying, examine the candidates. Hillary Clinton’s lies, fact, factoid, facts, FALN, FALN terrorists, FBI, federal investigators, federal law, finances, fire the travel office staff, fired, first lady, fraudulent legal brief, futures market, go missing, Hillary Clinton, Hillary Clinton is ethically unfit to be either a senator or president, Hillary lied, Hillary Rodham, Hillary Rodham Clinton, Hillary’s fingerprints on the documents, Hillary’s Pursuit of Power, House Judiciary Committee, House rules, humility, If you want a liar in the White House there's always Hillary, impeachment, information, instrumental, interview, Jerry Zeifman, jogging around the World Trade Center, Judicial Watch, liar, Libya, lying, manipulated the system, memorandum, miraculously reappear, national tragedies, nationalist group, negotiated for the release of refugees in Macedonia, New Square Hasidic pardons, New York Hasidic Jews, no official government records, nomination, Northern Ireland peace process, only First Lady in American history to be fingerprinted by the FBI, Opinion, Opportunist, paid to get pardons, pardons, People, political life, political strategist, politics, PR, President, President and First Lady, President Bill, President Clinton, private email server, private residence, Puerto Rico, Rants, Richard Nixon, road to the White House conversion, Rose Law firm in Arkansas, rules of confidentiality, Rules of the Committee, Rules of the House, savings and loan company, Secretary of State, September 11 2001, Sir Edmund Hillary, sniper's bullet, State Department documents, statesmanlike, still lying, stupid, Teddy Kennedy, terrorist attack in Benghazi, terrorists into government in Belfast, The Wall Street Journal, Thoughts, tradition, twin towers, under sniper fire, unethical, US Ambassador, US Presidency, victims, video, visited Northern Ireland, voting, wage an all-out war against terrorism, walking across the Bosnian tarmac, Watergate, Watergate investigation, White House, White House aide, White House gifts, Whitewater land venture, Zeifman
I ended a post last week that ended with the line, “If you want a liar in the White House there’s always Hillary.”
Some people may have thought it a little harsh, particularly those who were considering voting for her, but harsh or not it is a fact.
Her wayward husband Bill was a liar and he made President and impeachment. Now she is trying to carry on the tradition.
Hillary simply cannot tell the truth.
Everyone knows it.
And everyone includes the representatives from other countries that she would have to interact with, if – God help us – the American people are stupid enough to make her President.
Unfortunately, such is the attention span of people nowadays they only seem to remember the last thing they see and hear. If something happened in the past it is as if it never occurred at all.
With a position as important as the US Presidency at stake it is surely necessary to examine the candidates more closely than that.
Hillary Clinton’s lies are many and they cover almost every aspect of her life. She is an opportunist, always willing to try to enhance her position by lying. Nothing is sacred.
And it isn’t a recent occurrence. Hillary Rodham Clinton has been a liar for her entire political life, probably longer than that.
Take a look for yourselves.
Going waaaaay back to 1974, when Hillary Clinton was 27, she worked for the House Judiciary Committee which at that time was investigating Richard Nixon and Watergate.
Strictly against House rules, she met with Teddy Kennedy’s chief political strategist and then manipulated the system, wrote a “fraudulent legal brief” and “confiscated public documents”.
They had no choice but fire Hillary Rodham. When asked why she was fired, Jerry Zeifman, Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee during the Watergate investigation, said in an interview, “Because she was a liar. She was an unethical, dishonest lawyer, she conspired to violate the Constitution, the Rules of the House, the Rules of the Committee, and the rules of confidentiality.”
Zeifman later wrote in a 2006 book titled ‘Hillary’s Pursuit of Power’, that “Hillary Clinton is ethically unfit to be either a senator or president.”
When she made it to the White House as First Lady, she was still a stranger to the truth. Trying to distance herself from another gaff, Hillary said she didn’t know that her staff would fire the travel office staff after she told them to do so.
Hillary lied.
Staff do what you tell them to do. That’s why they work for you and not you for them. The memorandum relating to the firings went “missing” for two years.
The “missing” lie was a trait that was to continue. Documents regarding Hillary’s work at the Rose Law firm in Arkansas, specifically regarding a savings and loan company run by the Clintons’ business partner in the Whitewater land venture also went “missing” for two years.
Eventually they miraculously reappeared when a White House aide found them, in the White House, in a storage area on the third-floor, which is the private residence of the President and First Lady.
Hillary said that she had no idea the documents were there, which would have been fine except for the fact that the FBI found Hillary’s fingerprints on the documents. Hillary is still the only First Lady in American history to be fingerprinted by the FBI.
Lying to take advantage of national tragedies is also a depth to which Hillary Clinton will gladly stoop.
For example, when everyone else was in shock and sympathizing with the victims of the 9/11 terrorist attack tragedy, Hillary tried to take some of the attention for herself. She said her daughter Chelsea was jogging around the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001 at the time of the airplanes flew into the twin towers.
Chelsea was in bed watching it on TV.
To try to aggrandize herself on another occasion, Hillary said she was named after Sir Edmund Hillary, conqueror of Mount Everest.
Sir Edmund Hillary climbed Mt. Everest five years AFTER Hillary Rodham was born. Nobody knew who he was and therefore wouldn’t have named their children after him.
When she was on a visit to Bosnia, Hillary said she came under sniper fire as she disembarked at the airport.
Video taken at the time shows a girl presented her with flowers and she and Chelsea can be seen on video walking across the Bosnian tarmac smiling and greeting well-wishers. Not a sniper’s bullet in sight. Here’s a nice video report to prove it.
As regards finances, Hillary said she learned in The Wall Street Journal how to make a killing in the futures market.
The Wall Street Journal didn’t even cover the market back then.
Hillary said she didn’t know about the pardons given to members of the violent Puerto Rico nationalist group FALN or that her brothers were being paid to get pardons that her husband Bill Clinton granted.
Her husband and her brothers knew and she didn’t? A likely story! With an ill-advised stroke of a pen President Clinton made a mockery of the pledge to “wage an all-out war against terrorism” by pardoning 14 FALN terrorists.
Still on the subject of pardons, Hillary also said she had nothing to do with the New Square Hasidic pardons that reduced the prison terms of four New York Hasidic Jews convicted of defrauding tens of millions of dollars from the government.
In fact, of all the pardons that President Clinton granted as he was leaving the White House, this one has Hillary written all over it. She attended a meeting at the White House about the pardons and got repaid in votes, 1,400 to 12.
To try to excuse her greed, Hillary said taking the White House gifts was a “clerical error”.
The “error”, clerical or otherwise, was getting caught and she came up with the best excuse she could think of at the time.
To try to make herself look more statesmanlike Hillary said she negotiated for the release of refugees in Macedonia.
They were released the day before she even got there.
In a pathetic attempt to get sympathy where none was deserved, Hillary said her family was broke when they left the White House.
And they only made a paltry $12 million the year after Bill Clinton’s Presidency.
Never noted for her humility, Hillary said she was “instrumental” in the Northern Ireland peace process.
She and President Bill visited Northern Ireland and did some PR work for the deal that ushered terrorists into government in Belfast, but those actually at the negotiating table say Hillary was nowhere to be seen.
Hillary said the terrorist attack in Benghazi, Libya, that killed a U.S. ambassador and three other officials was a “spontaneous protest” gone wrong.
Based on State Department documents we know that, not only was Benghazi a terrorist attack, but that Hillary was well aware of that fact and deliberately misled the public.
Then there is the private email server she set up the day before her nomination as Secretary of State, and used for her entire tenure in that office. Hillary said the whole thing was innocent and that access would be given to scrutinize her emails.
The whole procedure was far from innocent. For one thing it is in direct violation of a 2009 Federal Law. Hillary set up her private email server and used it when she was Secretary of State so that there would be no official government records of those emails. She could pick and choose what to release and what to delete. Her aides also used private email addresses. Actualy both the Clintons loved email for that very reason, because it was so much easier to hide stuff, when she was asked to turn over 1.8 million emails to Judicial Watch, Congress, and federal investigators.
What do you call someone with a record like that except a liar?
How are we supposed to believe that all of a sudden she has had a “road to the White House” conversion and become honest and straightforward, rather than a schemer and a liar?
I’m reminded of that old joke,
Question: “How can you tell when a politician is lying?”
Answer: “When his/her lips are moving.”
It needs to be updated for Hillary.
She can lie even when her lips aren’t moving, or get emails or other people to do it for her.
So do you want a liar in the White House?
Do you???
July 18, 2015 July 16, 2015 fasab Crime, Current Events, Factoids, Legal, Politics, Rants americans, check the facts, common public perception, conditioned to behave, Controversial, controversy, cowards, Criminal Alien Statistics, criminal aliens in federal prisons, criminal and illegal aliens, Current Events, do the facts support him, Donald Trump, education, erroneous research, fact, fact checked, factoid, facts, false, FBI, federal prisoners, GAO, Government Accountability Office report, Hispanic US citizens, homicides, illegal aliens, illegal immigrant, impartial, imply, information, knee-jerk decisions, liberals, local jails, Macy's, media critics, media mogul, Mexicans, Mexico, minority, minority view point, murder, NBC, no fact-checker like a fact-checker checker, Opinion, political candidate, politicians, politics, presidential candidates, presidential race, pronouncements, Rants, Rupert Murdock, SCAAP, State Criminal Alien Assistance Program, state prison systems, the Donald, Thoughts, too rich to fit into his pocket, Trump, undocumented immigrants commit crimes in the US, United Sates, Univision, Washington Post, Woodward and Bernstein
I’m a great man for facts.
Even a cursory glance around my blog will confirm that. Every week I try to post some.
Facts are good things. Many other people seem to like them too.
Except for one particular group.
Liberals.
Facts always seem to get in the way of whatever it is they are trying to force us to accept.
Enter Donald Trump into the story.
The Donald has caused a lot of controversy lately with his illegal immigrant pronouncements. Cowards like the management of Macy’s, NBC, Univision etc., have made knee-jerk decisions and run from the controversy without taking any time whatsoever to check the facts.
It’s the way Americans have been conditioned to behave when someone says something controversial about a minority or a minority view point.
The hardly impartial Washington Post has been in the forefront of the media critics and, of course, we have also had media mogul Rupert Murdock chirping in against a political candidate who is too rich to fit into his pocket.
But what did Trump actually say?
And do the facts support him or not?
Unlike Macy’s and the rest, let’s take a little time to have a look.
Trump said that some undocumented immigrants commit crimes in the U.S. and in fact they do. He did NOT say ALL Mexicans and he did NOT include Hispanic U.S. citizens, which is what his detractors are trying to infer. In fact from the reports I have read I do not think he quantified it at all.
Trump did, however, strongly ‘imply’ that undocumented immigrants are more criminal than the average U.S. citizen.
The Washington Post “fact checked” this and found it to be ‘false’. The problem for the Washington Post’s fact-checkers is that some of the data shows otherwise.
For example, a 2011 Government Accountability Office report (GAO-11-187, Criminal Alien Statistics, March 2011, to be precise) opens with the sentence,
“The number of criminal aliens in federal prisons in fiscal year 2010 was about 55,000, and the number of SCAAP criminal alien incarcerations in state prison systems and local jails was about 296,000 in fiscal year 2009 (the most recent data available), and the majority were from Mexico.”
‘SCAAP’, by the way, is the ‘State Criminal Alien Assistance Program’ which means aliens illegally in the United States at the time of their incarceration.
As for federal prisoners, the GAO states, “In fiscal year 2005, the criminal alien population in federal prisons was around 27 percent of the total inmate population, and from fiscal years 2006 through 2010 remained consistently around 25 percent.”
The Government Accountability Office figures also show that in 2009 the total alien – i.e., non-U.S.-citizen – population in the United Sates was about 25.3 million, which included about 10.8 million aliens without lawful immigration status – illegal aliens in other words.
The total population of the U.S. at that time was approximately 306.8 million. Non-citizens comprised 8.25% of the population and illegal aliens about 3.52%.
If you compare the percentage of illegal aliens in the population as a whole (the 3.52% mentioned above) with the percentages of illegal aliens in the prison population, namely 25% in 2009 and almost 39% in 2013, it is clear that their crimes are well in excess of their proportion of the population.
More numbers.
The FBI’s records show that there were 67,642 murders in the U.S. from 2005 through 2008, and 115,717 from 2003 through 2009.
The GAO estimates “criminal aliens” were arrested, convicted and incarcerated for 25,064 homicides. That means they committed 22% to 37% of all murders in the U.S., while being only 3.52% to 8.25% of the population.
Therefore the facts confirm that criminal and illegal aliens commit murder at much higher rates than all inhabitants of the U.S. – at least 3 to 10 times higher.
Although I have not had the time to crunch the numbers further, what you have just read could be a very conservative total because the FBI doesn’t get itself involved in all homicides, most of them are handled at state and local level.
Based on the erroneous research of their misnamed “fact-checkers”, the Washington Post alleged that Trump’s statements were only underscoring “a common public perception that crime is correlated with immigration, especially illegal immigration”.
It went even further, stating that Trump’s repeated statements about immigrants and crime were a “misperception” and that there was “no solid data support it”.
The Washington Post fact-checkers obviously did not take the time to check the facts in the GAO reports, which as we have seen actually do support the perception trump is vocalizing.
Apparently there is no fact-checker like a fact-checker checker.
Where are Ben Bradlee, Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein when you need them?
July 15, 2015 July 15, 2015 fasab Computers, Crime, Current Events, Politics, Rants announcement, Archuleta, arrogance, bipartisan, bureaucrats, chief bureaucrat of the OPM, cling on, committed to continuing her work for the agency, Current Events, data, Democrats, do the decent thing and resign, evidence to the contrary, express confidence, factoid, facts, government, government admission, government bureaucrats, hacked, incompetent, leadership, massive data breach, more denial, more incompetence, more lies, Ms Katherine Archuleta, no decency, no plans to step down, number of people, Office of Personnel Management, Opinion, OPM, politicians, politics, President Barack Obama, Rants, rejecting, reluctant admission, Republicans, resign, responsible for losing the confidential information, rhetorical, Self-delusion, stupid bureaucrats the government employs, Thoughts, too dumb to do their jobs and too stupid to realize it, White House
I wrote a post on July 3rd posing the question “Are government bureaucrats capable of looking after data they collect about us?” (if you want to read it click here.)
The question was, of course, rhetorical, because we all know that the stupid bureaucrats the government employs aren’t capable of looking after anything.
The figure I quoted in that post, about the number of people whose data had been hacked, was 18 million which was a lot higher than the first government admission that 4.5 million records had been hacked. Now however the figure is well in excess of 21 million. It probably won’t stop there.
The Office of Personnel Management was responsible for losing the confidential information and there have been calls from both Republicans and Democrats for the chief bureaucrat of the OPM, Ms Katherine Archuleta, to do the decent thing and resign.
But as we also know there is no decency in stupid bureaucrats, only self-delusion and arrogance. They are too dumb to do their jobs and too stupid to realize it.
Thus for as long as she could, Archuleta clung on in there, rejecting bipartisan calls for her to resign. She said she had no plans to step down. Worse than that she said she was “committed to continuing her work for the agency”.
I read that to mean more incompetence, more lies and more denial, and more trying to cling on to a position which she is clearly not fit to hold. For example she pig-headedly refused to shut down servers identified by the US Inspector General as unsafe.
Despite all the evidence to the contrary, the White House, headed by another incompetent, President Barack Obama, continued to express confidence in the leadership of Ms Archuleta.
However, as the size of the security gaff became greater and greater so did the pressure on chief bureaucrat Archuleta. As the numbers of missing records continued to climb almost daily, the result was inevitable.
Although Archuleta continued to say she had “no intention of resigning and would stay on to sort out the mess” – she handed in her resignation. The President – who supported her and who had complete confidence in her – accepted it immediately.
It was either that or be fired. Everyone knew it but her.
The announcement came along with further emerging details about the pathetic level of security within the OPM. Many of its servers are apparently so antiquated they can’t run encryption and modern security software. Two-factor authentication is almost unheard of and seldom used. In fact things are so bad that the agency isn’t even sure how many computer networks it has!!!
One incompetent bureaucrat down.
Hopefully many more to follow.
July 10, 2015 June 30, 2015 fasab Crime, Current Events, Factoids, Politics, Rants a petit oui, America and France, America's snooping, American, American interventions in the Middle East, American people, americans, an official protest, apologizing, arrogant behavior, Conseil de la Défense, Current Events, damning, diplomatic maneuvers, disgraceful, do not represent, documents, education, Edward Snowden's revelations, emergency meeting, espionage, facts, Files, financial catastrophe, France, France’s ambassador to the US, France’s current head of state, Francois Hollande, french, French government ministers, French presidency, French Presidents, French readers, further reaction, Germany, Greece, Greek economic crisis, groveling, illegal and bad behavior, implicate, information, intelligence agencies, intelligence briefs, international issues, invasion of Iraq, iraq, Israeli-Palestinian dispute, Jacques Chirac, jointly monitor, Libya, mutual concern, National Security Agency, national security forum, Nicolas Sarkozy, no one is surprised any more, non-cooperation, NSA, NSA spying operations, Opinion, Oui, personal communications, politics, President Obama, President of France, protocol, published, Rants, Red White And Bleu, reputations of Americans, ruled France, Sacre Bleu, senior officials, spying, stronger response, syria, targeted, the American ambassador to France, the Ukraine, Thoughts, timely and important revelations, top secret intelligence reports and technical documents, trouble, United Nations, United States government, US, US spy agencies, veto, WikiLeaks
There has been a lot of activity in France lately concerning the United States government spying on three French Presidents.
The current President of France even called an emergency meeting of the Conseil de la Défense, the country’s highest national security forum to discuss the emergence of documents that appear to implicate the US National Security Agency (NSA) – now who’da guessed that? – spying on Jacques Chirac and Nicolas Sarkozy, who ruled France from 1995 to 2012.
The documents further indicate that the NSA may have also targeted the personal communications of Francois Hollande, France’s current head of state.
The files were published by WikiLeaks, which described them as “top secret intelligence reports and technical documents”, detailing NSA spying operations against the French presidency, as well as espionage directed at several French government ministers and at France’s ambassador to the US.
The documents include intelligence briefs, which detail the thoughts and diplomatic maneuvers by French presidents and other senior officials, on subjects such as the Greek economic crisis, the Israeli-Palestinian dispute, and the United Nations.
This is further evidence of more disgraceful and arrogant behavior by US spy agencies.
The thing is, however, no one is surprised any more.
Since Edward Snowden’s revelations the world has come to expect illegal and bad behavior from Americans. It is as simple as that. And for the reputations of Americans it is as bad as that. Which is a great pity because these activities do not represent in any way the vast majority of the American people.
So, if they aren’t a surprise to anyone, will the latest revelations cause trouble between America and France? I think the undoubted answer is “Oui”, but only a “petit oui”.
As befits normal protocol in these kinds of things, the American ambassador to France was summoned for what was called ‘an official protest’, but little or nothing more happened apart from President Obama getting on the phone with the French President, groveling and apologizing and assuring him in no uncertain terms “that the US is no longer spying on France”.
No, I don’t believe him either, but there it is.
There was no need for America’s snooping. As with Germany, French and American intelligence agencies cooperate with each other regularly. They jointly monitor international issues of mutual concern, such as what is happening in Syria, Iraq, the Ukraine, Libya, and even the financial catastrophe that is Greece.
For now that will continue, but the road ahead looks bumpy.
Wikileaks has already made good on its promise that its “French readers can expect more timely and important revelations in the near future”.
The latest release from the whistleblower website contains more documents that indicate that the National Security Agency (NSA), under orders from Washington, were tasked with collecting secret information not only about the economic policies of the French government and the country’s financial sector, but on export contracts by French companies.
In fact every French-registered company involved in negotiations for international projects or other sales contracts valued at over $200 million, like car makers Peugeot and Renault and financial institutions like BNP Paribas and the agricultural credit union, were also subjected to US government secret snooping.
Washington’s pathetic statements that none of this information is ever used to benefit American companies competing for international contracts rings mighty hollow with the French, and the rest of the world come to that.
This latest information is a lot more damning and may necessitate a much stronger response from the French – even if it is just to save face.
Like their attitude over the invasion of Iraq, I think any further reaction would include little or no cooperation in any future American interventions in the Middle East and maybe the use of a veto or two in the United Nations.
We might be at the start of a new meaning to the term “non” cooperation?
July 8, 2015 June 23, 2015 fasab bankers, banking, Banks, Business, Crime, Current Events, Factoids, Investing, Politics, Rants accountable, accountable culture, America, annual salaries, another war, bailed-out banks, Bank of England, bankers' bonuses, banking, Banks, banksters, base salaries, bonuses, bonuses for executives, British, building societies, capped bonuses, City of London, confiscate, Current Events, dutch, Europe, European rules, fact, facts, far off God forsaken country, Financial Conduct Authority, financial institutions, financial penalties, financial upheavals, frauds, greedy, ill-gotten gains, immoral, information, investment firms, jail, keeping a step ahead, leader of the world, major banks, managers, new British rules, new regulations, nonexecutive directors, Opinion, politics, Prudential Regulation Authority, Rants, regulators, risk managers, senior managers, shareholders, thefts, thieves, Thoughts, top executives, United States, variable pay, you can take that to the bank
Don’t get too excited, it is only a little, but it is good news.
In a recent ruling by British regulators, the top executives and managers at banks operating there (which is practically all the major banks) could have their bonuses clawed back for up to ten years after any finding of misconduct. It will also prohibit bonuses for nonexecutive directors and for the managers of companies that are receiving financial support from the government.
The move, which is long, long overdue and still does not go far enough, extends a seven-year clawback period that one regulator, the Prudential Regulation Authority, (part of the Bank of England), introduced for so-called variable pay (read ‘bonuses’) last year as part of tougher accountability rules.
The new rules announced by the authority, which is part of the Bank of England, and by another regulator, the Financial Conduct Authority, are the latest effort by financial regulators in Europe to hold the banksters accountable for improper actions that could play a role in precipitating future financial upheavals.
The regulators say they are trying to “embed an accountable culture” in the City of London, which actually means that the authorities realize that the banksters have learned nothing from their previous catastrophic frauds and thefts. They know when the chance arrives these greedy and immoral people will try to do it all again.
The new British rules, which apply to banks, building societies and investment firms regulated by the Prudential Regulation Authority, including British units of United States banks and other financial firms based outside Europe, mean that senior managers, risk managers and others at banks will also be asked to defer more of their variable pay for a longer period, making it easier for regulators and financial institutions to recover bonuses if misconduct is uncovered.
Other countries in Europe are also enacting new regulations for their banksters. Dutch lawmakers, for example, capped bonuses this year for employees in the banking, insurance and other finance sectors that limits variable pay to 20 percent of their fixed salaries. The Dutch have also banned bonuses for executives at bailed-out banks.
European rules already limit bankers’ bonuses to the equivalent of their annual salaries, or to two times their base salaries if the company’s shareholders approve it. But they know they are so greedy that they will try to find ways round that.
Already some banks are making moves to get round the limits by introducing role-based remuneration and other payments, so the regulators have their work cut out for them keeping a step ahead of the thieves.
What they really need to do is confiscate ALL their ill-gotten gains, impose severe additional financial penalties AND throw these criminals in jail – for a long time.
America, which always likes to consider itself as the leader of the world, should lead in this regard too. It would be better than starting another war in some far off God forsaken country.
Unfortunately I think it will be an equally long time, and a lot more frauds, before they get to that much needed stage.
And you can take that to the bank!
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1. Body, Mind and Spirit has to be in harmony 2. Karma- talk by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar
by wsmystic in Karma, Spirituality, wisdom Tags: Sri Sri Ravi Shankar
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar is humanitarian leader, spiritual teacher and ambassador of peace. His vision of a stress-free, violence-free society has united millions of people the world over through service projects and the courses of The Art of Living.
In 1982, Sri Sri entered a ten-day period of silence in Shimoga located in the Indian state of Karnataka. The Sudarshan Kriya, a powerful breathing technique, was born. With time, the Sudarshan Kriya became the center-piece of the Art of Living courses.
Karma – A talk by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar
The intricacies of Karma
2012: An Awakening with David Icke, John Major Jenkins FREE MOVIE
18 May 2012 Comments Off on 2012: An Awakening with David Icke, John Major Jenkins FREE MOVIE
by wsmystic in 2012, Education, prophecy / Prediction Tags: 2012
Explore the mystery of the 2012 prophecy in a whole new light. This film goes deeper than the vague predictions made by ancient prophets and seers; it explores how the earth is in the middle of a transformation that will change the way we live our lives forever.
Understand how the changes we see around us are unfolding right now. Learn the true nature of the Mayan Calendar, understand the workings and meanings of its cycles and end-date, and see that not only did the Maya track and measure time, cycles and nature, but they charted a galactic alignment that occurs once every 26,000 years.
Featuring the leading authors in the 2012 genre, including David Icke, Patrick Geryl, Adrian Gilbert, Geoff Stray, Gregg Braden, Annabel Burton, Peter Taylor and John Major Jenkins.
The Ego Tunnel: The Science of the Mind and the Myth of the Self by Thomas Metzinger
by wsmystic in Book Reviews/Interview, Consciousness, Ego, Metaphysics, NEUROSCIENCE, SOUL, Spirituality Tags: video
We’re used to thinking about the self as an independent entity, something that we either have or are. In The Ego Tunnel, philosopher Thomas Metzinger claims otherwise: No such thing as a self exists. The conscious self is the content of a model created by our brain—an internal image, but one we cannot experience as an image. Everything we experience is “a virtual self in a virtual reality.”
But if the self is not “real,” why and how did it evolve? How does the brain construct it? Do we still have souls, free will, personal autonomy, or moral accountability? In a time when the science of cognition is becoming as controversial as evolution, The Ego Tunnel provides a stunningly original take on the mystery of the mind.
TEDxRheinMain – Prof. Dr. Thomas Metzinger – The Ego Tunnel
Brain, bodily awareness, and the emergence of a conscious self: these entities and their relations are explored by Germanphilosopher and cognitive scientist Metzinger. Extensively working with neuroscientists he has come to the conclusion that, in fact, there is no such thing as a “self” — that a “self” is simply the content of a model created by our brain – part of a virtual reality we create for ourselves.
But if the self is not “real,” he asks, why and how did it evolve? How does the brain construct the self? In a series of fascinating virtual reality experiments, Metzinger and his colleagues have attempted to create so-called “out-of-body experiences” in the lab, in order to explore these questions. As a philosopher, he offers a discussion of many of the latest results in robotics, neuroscience, dream and meditation research, and argues that the brain is much more powerful than we have ever imagined. He shows us, for example, that we now have the first machines that have developed an inner image of their own body — and actually use this model to create intelligent behavior.
In addition, studies exploring the connections between phantom limbs and the brain have shown us that even people born without arms or legs sometimes experience a sensation that they do in fact have limbs that are not there. Experiments like the “rubber-hand illusion” demonstrate how we can experience a fake hand as part of our self and even feel a sensation of touch on the phantom hand form the basis and testing ground for the idea that what we have called the “self” in the past is just the content of a transparent self-model in our brains.
Now, as new ways of manipulating the conscious mind-brain appear on the scene, it will soon become possible to alter our subjective reality in an unprecedented manner. The cultural consequences of this, Metzinger claims, may be immense: we will need a new approach to ethics, and we will be forced to think about ourselves in a fundamentally new way. At TEDxRheinMain 2011 he will share his thoughts on consciousness and the self and talk about the concept of the Ego-Tunnel.
Pro. Dr. Thomas Metzinger:
(*1958 in Frankfurt am Main, Germany) is currently Professor of Theoretical Philosophy at the Johannes Gutenberg‐Universität Mainz and an Adjunct Fellow at the Frankfurt Institute for Advanced Study.
In 2009 he returned from a prestigious one‐year Fellowship at the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin (Berlin Institute for Advanced Study), is past president of the German Cognitive Science Society and currently president of the Association for the Scientific Study of Consciousness. His focus of research lies in analytical philosophy of mind, philosophy of science and philosophical aspects of the neuro- and cognitive sciences as well as connections between ethics, philosophy of mind and anthropology.
He has edited and published extensively in German and English, e.g. one major scientific monograph developing a comprehensive, interdisciplinary theory about consciousness, the phenomenal self, and the first‐person perspective (“Being No One — The Self‐Model Theory of Subjectivity”, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2003). In 2009, he published a popular book, which addresses a wider audience and also discusses the ethical, cultural and social consequences of consciousness research (“The Ego Tunnel — The Science of the Mind and the Myth of the Self”, New York: Basic Books)
Antinatalists Already Know what Modern Psychology Will Reveal
”Why bother to succeed as individuals or to progress as societies once we have identified ourselves as only a crisscrossing mesh of stuttering memories, sensations, and impulses?”
”I am like a puppet sitting here. It’s not just I; all of us are puppets. Nature is
pulling the strings, but we believe that we are acting. If you function that way [as puppets], then the problems are simple. But we have superimposed on that [the idea of] a “person” who is pulling those strings.”
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Home / Features / Interviews
How to Build a Better Britain: An Interview with Owen Jones
You could say that Owen Jones has a knack for spotting trouble – the socio-political kind, at least. In 2011, less than half a decade since graduating from Oxford with a postgraduate degree in U.S. History, he published his first novel, Chavs: The Demonization of the Working Class, which unexpectedly threw him into the spotlight as well as sparking numerous discussions on the subject of class in Britain along the way. Soon after, the England riots of that summer proved what Jones had said all along, that the working class were viewed as collectively bearing the responsibility for all the faults of Britain. Ever since, he’s been writing, talking and broadcasting about the issues which affect Britain today and this autumn, will be in Exeter to deliver a talk on how together, we go about building a new and improved Britain.
A journalist and columnist for The Guardian, a former parliamentary researcher and political commentator and activist, Jones’ career has seen him make an impressive range of media appearances and though the platforms he uses may be diverse in form and audience, the roots of his work stem from a common introspective viewpoint.
“I see myself primarily as somebody who tries to involve people in politics, so writing is part of that. Whether it’s social media or the videos I do, or going on TV, writing, my books or doing these talks, the purpose is always exactly that, to try and encourage people to be politically involved and active.”
“I try and use that as a means to try and get people involved with politics and how to get people who are angry about things to not just yell at the television. It’s perfectly understandable, but how do you get them to take that anger and productively combine it with hope to transform the world, or to change the society we live in? It’s very much about trying to get people, involved, active, and to talk about injustice, which is always my main focus.”
“If you don’t know how many hours you’re going to be working next week, then you’re not free”
For some, ‘Building a New Britain’ could be a lofty ambition of a title for a public talk. Clearly, it’s not the type of thing which can be thought up overnight; it needs to be understood in the context of its origins, as Jones explains.
“About a generation ago, there was the birth of a new social order, which arguably, put profit before people’s needs and aspirations. We got a massive redistribution of wealth and power from the majority to the people at the top. We saw everything from the disappearance of jobs to the decimation of decent, affordable housing for huge numbers of people, and the rolling back of collective power that working people had.”
“The promise of that new social order, whatever you want to call it – Thatcherism, neoliberalism, free-market dogma – was personal freedom, that it would make people freer. Free from the dead rate of the state, the unions, the collectivism, but that freedom wasn’t personal freedom at all, it was insecurity. Insecurity traps people. It makes them less free. If you don’t know how many hours you’re going to be working next week, then you’re not free. If you don’t have a secure, affordable house, then you’re not free. If you’re staring at the ceiling worrying about your next gas bill, you’re not free, or if you’re saddled with tens of thousands of pounds of debt because you dared to dream of a university education from which you’ll benefit from, you’re not free.”
The title of the talk begins to take shape. So how would Jones define that term, and what does a ‘new Britain’ mean to him? “For me, the type of Britain that we need to build is obviously one that is equal and just, but also one where people are free. Younger people now are going to have a worse lot in life than their parents; they’ve been particularly decimated by the cuts. Be that – again – punished with debt for going to university, or the scrapping of the educational maintenance allowance that slammed the door in the face of aspirational young working-class people, or the decimation of youth services across the country, and the lack of secure jobs, not least with the growth of zero-hour contracts.”
“Young people have consequently dragged people into political action”
“The fall in living standards is particularly acute among younger people – if you’re in your early twenties, you’re significantly poorer than my generation was in their early twenties, just over a decade ago. In terms of building a new Britain, the way I frame it is as taking back control, but the also the idea that I’m interested in is how you democratise the economy, so that people in their workplaces have control over their work, and you don’t have the old style of nationalisation, which was decided by bureaucrats, but instead where workers and service-users have control over them.”
“We need to talk more about the number of hours we have to toil. We know that if you work huge amounts of hours, it’s bad for your mental health and you’re far more likely to suffer from mental distress, you have less time with your families and you’re more anxious. In 1930, economist John Maynard Keynes thought by now, we’d be working a fourteen-hour week, which hasn’t happened!”
Paradoxically, then, young people are not only seemingly among those hit hardest by the faults of previous governments, but also arguably carry a huge role in the vision Jones has for a new Britain.
“For me one of the biggest focuses is giving young people their autonomy back, and giving them their personal freedom. Younger people are at the absolute forefront with many of the struggles against the social order, be it with minimum wage or paid holiday leave, so we’ve seen lots of younger people increasingly involved with the Labour movement that many saw as being dominated by members of a generation who are out of touch with the current struggles. So, we’re seeing now younger workers affected by rights and insecurity that their grandparents certainly once took for granted, that if you were a worker you would get paid sick and holiday leave; these are things which are often being robbed away from young people, who often get text messages at 6am telling them if they’ll be working any hours that day.”
“Instead of a Labour movement dominated by people of a previous generation with a culture that is very alien, younger workers now are using different media, are dynamic and this new wave of workers in the likes of Deliveroo and Wetherspoons is hugely inspiring. I was part of the student movement back in 2010/11 and though focused on tuition fees and EMA at the time and was defeated, without that kind of mass student mobilisation, I don’t think the political developments since would have happened.”
These thoughts would certainly resonate with a lot of young people and their collective worries and problems – but the solution, it would seem, lay in turning that stress into a unified catalyst for change.
“Young people broke the spell when that government came to power. There’s an idea that British people don’t fight back, that we’re viewed as having a stiff upper lip – that was detonated by young people. Trade unions said that drove them into action, but young people are at the forefront in things like UK Uncut, or the climate change movement, and the same with the anti-war movement when thousands of students and sixth-formers walked out of school in protest against the Iraq War. Young people have consequently dragged people into political action, and without them and the struggles they’ve been involved with, the massive shift with Labour support wouldn’t have happened.”
“When young people go on strike, when they mobilise in their workplace and communities, they can make massive political change, and we can see that in the United States, Spain, Portugal, France – in all of these places, young people have been at the forefront of dynamic new progressive protests and movements. The lesson is that it will take time, the history of victory isn’t with continual victories, but often with setbacks, defeats and then victories. I think Britain will look back at the movements that young people were involved in as absolutely critical to what I believe is the dramatic political change that is about to happen in this country.”
“I think Britain will look back at the movements that young people were involved in as absolutely critical to what I believe is the dramatic political change that is about to happen in this country”
Having provided a bubbling sense of optimism and some food for thought, I turn Jones’ attention to how he managed to establish his own career at a time when the politics of the UK was arguably the bleakest it had been in recent memory.
“I never wanted to do what I do now, I think if my friends knew I’d end up a writer they’d find it pretty bizarre! Towards the end of university, I panicked, so I started writing for my student newspaper. Unfortunately, I couldn’t be too involved because of my exams, but after university I sent my CV to every Labour MP who’d voted against the Iraq War and the MP who got back in touch to say there was possibly something was John McDonnell, so I ended up working in his office for three years, and so I got very involved with the Labour left at a time when it was very marginalised and very weak.”
“I came to the conclusion that there was a limit as to how much could get done in a place like parliament, so I think I wanted a way to popularise the ideas I believed in and to try and make them accessible at a time when the left was very weak. The Tories were on the ascendant, New Labour seemed completely hegemonic within the Labour party; it seemed very much like a low ebb for socialist ideas.”
Against the backdrop of a new Conservative government, Jones’ book enabled him to accumulate what he was thinking at the time and unintentionally put his ideas and beliefs into the spotlight.
“I put together this proposal for a book on class, called Chavs, and I wrote that book on the basis that whilst I could have called it Class in Britain, there’s no shortage of dour left-wing academic takes on social class, and I wanted to write something that was more accessible – particularly for young people. It then got rejected by lots and lots of publishers, and then a small, radical publishing company called Verso took it on. I didn’t expect it to have anywhere near the impact that it did, but the reason it made such an impact was because of the political context; the Tories had just come to power, the economic crash had affected living conditions and so people were ready to talk about class again in a way that people wouldn’t hear them and think ‘oh, go back to the 1960s, you communist dinosaur!’, and then people were ready to get a discussion going.”
“The media discriminates all too often on your parental wealth, rather than your potential”
“But off the back of that, what happened was – again, I didn’t want to be a columnist – newspapers got in touch and asked if I would be interested in writing about my book for The Independent or The Guardian or different television and radio stations, and if I would be happy to talk about other things, to which I said yes, and then eventually The Independent offered me a contract. So, it wasn’t a burning ambition, but I had these ideas that I passionately believed in and wanted to make accessible and so it just evolved in that direction. It was less about ‘I want to be a writer’ and more that ‘I want to make these ideas accessible’ in the limited way an individual can”.
This leads us to working in the too often privileged environment of national British media. With many writers and editors of Exeposé aspiring to work in the journalism industry, what has Jones learnt in his time as a writer, and how prominent is the issue of class in the face of the British media?
“Certain beneficiaries of privilege in the media don’t like it being talked about and go berserk when I talk about it, but people are often like that. The sense that if you scrutinise privilege, then it’s seen as a political affront. Objectively, the media is one of the most socially exclusive professions in the country. According to one government study, it’s second only to medicine in terms of parental backgrounds of leading journalists. Nobody is saying that there is no such thing as someone from a non-privileged background being able to make it, but the odds are weighted heavily against it. That’s because of the decline of local newspapers, which are in crisis and are today less of a way for non-privileged people to get into journalism, almost like an apprenticeship. People would start off at local newspapers instead of going to university.”
“Unpaid internships are filled by the friends and relatives of people working in the media, so the issue of who you know is another problem in the media. But another one is expensive postgraduate qualifications – often spending thousands of pounds on a Masters degree plus living costs is just not something people can afford.”
“The media discriminates all too often on your parental wealth, rather than your potential. That has an impact on our democracy – if you have a media that is dominated by similar backgrounds, it impacts the stories and issues which are talked about and the angles taken on them. You get people from privilege background who do excellent work on some of these issues, but it’s the same the higher up in journalism you go – there are fewer women, which of course impacts the coverage of issues which affect women.”
“It’s the same with race – there are very few prominent Muslim writers at a time when Islamophobia is so rampant, so I think it distorts coverage to a degree, as well as being fundamentally unjust. Issues like the housing crisis would be far more discussed if the people who grew up affected by them were writing, so for me we need a dramatic change in access. That will mean upsetting the existing beneficiaries at the top of the system.”
“I wasn’t in the position to do a Masters degree, that just wasn’t an option for me, so that’s a big passion of mine. How do we make this accessible? How do we get more representative voices, particularly working-class people, women, people from minority backgrounds, and disabled people – especially at a time of cuts. So that for me, is an issue of justice as well as democracy.”
“There’s the issue as well that if you criticise the media, that makes you like Donald Trump, which is such a logical fallacy”
So, does Owen Jones think the face of British media is likely to evolve over the coming years or will it take a big upheaval to make a significant change?
“I think it will take an upheaval, but I’m confident that it will happen. It’s all too often a closed shop for the privileged. The reason it evokes such a defensive reaction from leading writers and commentators is that everybody likes to think they got there from their own steam. I’m sure many of them did get there on their own talent, but nobody wants to think that maybe there were massive odds stacked in their favour and that had they been brought up differently, they wouldn’t be there. That causes a crisis in self-confidence, and that’s why this debate is so heated and difficult. But I think it will change, because at the moment there is so much disillusionment with the status quo and the social order and national institutions in this country.”
“Over the last decade, financial crisis onwards, we’ve seen crises involving these institutions, such as the phone-hacking scandal. For millions of people, their lives got more difficult, their wages fell or stagnated, public services have been affected, so there is a general sense of injustice. There’s the issue as well that if you criticise the media, that makes you like Donald Trump, which is such a logical fallacy.”
“The media’s faults aren’t just in its make-up, it’s that it often directs anger at those without a voice, such as refugees, migrants, Muslims, trans people, and that constant relentless attitude, from some of the most powerful institutions in the country, determines a higher national political debate and determines the priorities. But the consequences are that there are often lies about the minorities, who are in a difficult position in defending themselves, which legitimises bigotry and hatred with often real-life consequences.”
“When the media respond to any criticism as though they’re the victims, as they pile on criticism to minority groups who don’t have a significant voice in British voice, I find it absolutely galling. I think things have to change, people are so fed-up and sick of the way every part of all the leading British institutions are run, that this country will go through a peaceful and democratic revolution in the coming years which will sweep away the old order and leave something new in its place.”
This sense of optimism leads us back to where we started, of going about building a new and better Britain. Listening to Jones’ thoughts on the state of the nation and the wider world, you can’t help but feel somewhat inspired and hopeful about what’s to come in the future. If young people have been the catalyst for change since the turn of the millennium, it almost makes you believe that the future is in safe hands.
Owen Jones will be speaking at his ‘Building a New Britain’ talk at Exeter Corn Exchange on Thursday 1st November – tickets can be found here.
Oct 29, 2018 By Chloë Edwards Filed Under: Interviews, Features Tagged With: Oxford University, owen jones, new labour, Tories, Trump, British media, social order
About Chloë Edwards
Fourth Year BA English and German student // Online Features Editor 2018/19 // Online Music Editor 2017/18
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The 1947 Partition Archive - Spotlight at Stanford
The 1947 Partition Archive Survivors and their Memories
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Urdu[remove]17
Panjabi5
Sindhi1
Hassan, Fakhra8
Saleem, Sobia4
Abtahi, Arham1
Akhtar, Khalida Ghousia, 1937-1
Alam, Zain1
Ali, Malika, 1945-1
Anne, Barbara, 1939-1
Banerjee, Debraj1
Begam, Shahezadi, 1943-1
Begum, Arghwani, 1922-1
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Karachi (Pakistan)4
Lahore (Pakistan)4
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Bahawalnagar District (Pakistan)1
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1. Oral history with Taj Begum, 2017 February 6
Oral history with Taj Begum, 2017 February 6.
Begum, Taj, 1937- and Hassan, Fakhra
Author (no Collectors):
Begum, Taj, 1937-, Hassan, Fakhra, Hassan, Fakhra, and Hassan, Fakhra
Taj Begum was born in 1937 in Delhi to an Urdu-speaking literary family. Her father, born and raised in Delhi, was a landlord and her mother was a homemaker. Sharing the story behind her name, Taj Begum says, “My father says on my birthday King George VI was crowned in England, and therefore he’d decided that my name would be Taj.” Her parents’ marriage was set by her paternal grandfather in Delhi, when her mother was four and a half years old, and her father was six years old. “Several years after her marriage, my mother obtained an English education from Queen Mary School, and could read the English newspaper, and converse in English,” she shares.Taj Begum is the third of five sisters and one brother, and was raised at her paternal grandparents’ residence in Khari Bavla mohallah and their parents’ residence on Court Road (near Delhi Sabzi Mandi) before Partition. Her paternal grandfather used to own a horse cart, and her parents used to own a car. Her father was avid hunter, and would often to go to Delhi for hunting tigers and deer, and had a great collection of guns for hunting that he’d keep hidden at the basement of the house. “Every week we used to watch him disassemble his guns, clean them, and reassemble them,” she remembers.Her father had recently built their house on Court Road before her family moved into it in 1944. It had a lawn with a swing for children, a kitchen, and five rooms, with curtains. The rooms of her house were divided into zenana (female-only) and mardana (male-only) sections. Cooking was done by the male cooks in copperware and brassware utensils. “The male cooks were forbidden to enter the living and dining areas without their heads covered,” Taj Begum remembers. “My grandmother had not once heard the crackling of cooking utensils nor had seen cooks make food in the kitchen,” she says. Taj Begum recounts only the elders in her house were allowed to listen to the radio. “In our father’s absence, we would switch it on and listen to songs on it. As soon as he’d return, we’d switch it off, cover our heads, and go back to reading our books,” she recalls.The police station and vegetable market was close to their house. During Diwali and Gurupurab, Taj Begum and her family used to get sweets from their neighbors. During Eid, Taj Begum would visit her paternal grandparents’ home at Khari Bavla, where the entire family would get together for Eid prayers, and katchoris and vermicelli with milk was made and distributed in the mohallah. In 1942 Taj Begum joined her elder sister at the Saint Mary’s School in Delhi. She says that it was a school run by the nuns. Her most vivid memory from that school was standing in a queue outside the canteen to get their share of breakfast – biscuits and an apple.At the time of Partition Taj Begum was in 3rd grade at school, and she recounts way the neighborhood changed. “I used to rely on the elders to understand what was going on. There was a family at the vegetable market, close friends of my father’s. The women of that family had not once stepped foot outside their house. One day, they were forced to flee their home, with their children and some of them came to our house for refuge. I used to see them cry and narrate stories of how the English killed one of their sons, and how they saw his dead body on the streets. From the lawn of our house, we could see fireballs flying all over the place. It felt like we were in the middle of some kind of war. The fighting lasted for three days,” she shares.She remembers that her father asked her mother to cook and gather as much food as possible, as they prepared to leave their home for Purana Qila when neighbors had warned them of a police raid. “Being few in number, the neighbors told our father it would not be possible for them to protect us if such a raid took place,” Taj Begum says.Taj Begum, her immediate family and her cooks moved on to the Old Fort, while her uncle stayed behind at their home on Court Road. “He had hoisted the flag, and luckily, our house was spared from the violence and destruction we’d feared.” The refugee camp was miserable: “There was no food getting distributed there, and no roof on top of our heads. It was raining. Once we hid under one of the army trucks to avoid getting wet from rainwater. It was the heaviest rainfall I’d seen in Delhi.” Her father had plane tickets to Lahore, but the earliest flight for Lahore was not for another 15 days. “The living conditions at the Old Fort were getting worse, we couldn’t wait that long, so my father wasted those tickets and bought train tickets to Lahore instead.”Taj Begum remembers the train ride to Lahore. “The berth was literally stuffed with people, and the windows were sealed shut. My baby cousin’s mouth was stuffed with a cloth so that he may not make a sound. Our uncle told us insurgents are sharpening swords on the platform, if we make a sound, they would massacre the entire train,” she shares. It was a 36 hour journey to Lahore via Saharanpur in Uttar Pradesh. Her paternal aunt was living in Lahore, as her husband was posted as a civil surgeon there. After crossing the border at Wagah, Taj Begum stayed with them for a few days, and then moved on to Karachi and settled temporarily with her maternal aunt at a two-room flat on Jacob Lines. Her father was offered an evacuee property in Karachi against their residential property in Delhi. “My father saw that house and noticed half-eaten stale roti and a plate of rotten daal on the table, with a glass of water half-empty, as if the person left his home in the middle of lunch/dinner. He refused to take that house as we also had left ours in a similar state,” she says.It was difficult to adjust to their new home in Karachi. There were no fans, and the bathroom was filthy. After living at Jacob Lines for three years, Taj Begum and her family moved to a guest house at Pakistan Chowk, and eventually her father built their own house at Nazimabad in Karachi. Taj Begum’s mother struggled in Karachi to find a suitable school for her daughters, and eventually had them admitted to Government School on Jacob Lines. After matriculation, Taj Begum obtained her intermediate and bachelor’s degree from Frere’s College in Karachi in English, Urdu Advanced and political science in 1957, and B.Ed in 1958 from Karachi University. She took up lectureship in Urdu at the Government School on Jacob Lines in 1959. She also taught Urdu and English at the Government School in Nazimabad for a decade. In 1967 she studied for her master’s in Urdu from Karachi University. In 1989 she joined the Government College for Women at Korangi in Karachi as principal, and served there until her retirement in 1997.She married her husband, author and broadcaster, Dr. Aslam Farrukhi, in 1955 in Karachi. The couple has two sons. Her husband passed away in August last year due to heart-related complications. Currently she lives with one of her sons and his family in Karachi. Since Partition, Taj Begum has not visited her birthplace in Delhi, though she shares her late husband has made sixteen trips to Delhi, particularly to attend the Urs of Nizamuddin Auliya. “More than the love for my birthplace, I have fear of it. I can never forget those awful days of Partition.”
History and History
1 video file
Karachi (Pakistan)
Karachi (Pakistan), February 6, 2017
partitionArchive_2886
2. Oral history with Barbara Anne, 2016 April 27
Oral history with Barbara Anne, 2016 April 27.
Anne, Barbara, 1939- and Hassan, Fakhra
Anne, Barbara, 1939-, Hassan, Fakhra, Hassan, Fakhra, and Hassan, Fakhra
Barbara Anne was born [Antoinette D’Souza] on April 17th, 1939 in Karachi, Sindh to a Konkani speaking family hailing from Goa. Her father was a revenue officer with the Sindh Lands Department, and her mother was a homemaker. Barbara is the third of four sisters and five brothers. “I was delivered by Dr Himal Das at his hospital in Karachi,” she recounts. She was raised in Karachi and in Goa, before Partition. Two of her brothers died in their infancy.Barbara shares that her paternal grandfather, one of the early settlers in Karachi from Goa, was the first town planner of the Soldier Bazar. “He was born in 1865. His name was Pedro D’Souza. The Portuguese were peaceful people but not progressive. Many Goans therefore moved to Bombay and Africa for better livelihoods. My grandfather opted for Karachi. He came here with a few of his Goan friends towards the end of the 19th century,” she says. “Karachi used to be a dense jungle in those days. He decided to clear some of the area and build a colony there. It was called the Cincinnatus Town. He also laid the foundation for St Lawrence Church in that town. The road that leads to the town was named after my grandfather, after his demise in 1912, in recognition for his services. We used to have our own little house there. My grandfather had a large family of seven boys and three girls that were living there. My grandmother sold that house after his death, and we moved to Saddar where I spent most of childhood years,” Barbara shares.Her mother used to live in Goa before her marriage. “In those days, the boys in Karachi would travel to Goa to find a bride. They felt their roots were there and fathers would be eager to have their daughters married off to men working in the cities. That’s how my father was married to my mother and they came to Karachi, and settled here permanently.”Her mother used to take her to Goa to be with her grandparents and extended relatives. “Whenever there was a new baby expected in the family, she would take us to Goa. There were no permits in those days. We would get the ship tickets in the morning, and get on it in the evening. My parents made a lot of new friends in Goa, and they would also visit us in Karachi from time to time [before Partition]. On one occasion, we saw the colorful festival of Holi in Goa, and remember that I was scared of the colored powder people were throwing at each other.”In Goa, Barbra used to hear conversations of older people, and picked up Konkani from them. “I’m able to converse in the language and sing songs, but cannot read or write it. One of the Konkani devotional songs for the Church she still remembers is “My love, my love, don’t be afraid, I’m not going to leave you.”Barbara obtained her primary education from St Vianney’s school and high school education from St Joseph Convent for Girls in Karachi. She recounts the system of education at school was based on old-fashioned disciplinarian practices. “They would use the cane if you didn’t study, but it was accepted. The handwriting had to be perfect. You had to be on time and regular. Whatever our teachers said was accepted. Our parents would not take up for us, they would take up for the teachers,” she says.English, Religion, Geography, Art were curricular subjects she enjoyed whereas Needlework, Sports, Debates and Music lessons were regular co-curricular activities. She borrowed books from her high school library. “The British Council library was at a small distance from school but we didn’t need to go there because the school library had ample number of good books.” At home, DAWN, Morning News and Evening Star were widely read newspapers. Barbara says her father was an avid reader.Barbara took piano lessons, participated and won in debating competitions. She remembers her father’s help with academics had a major influence on maintaining good grades in school. “He was a strong believer in our education. He would help us with homework and trained me to be a good debater,” she says. Mr Mobad, a Zoroastrian gentleman living close to their school used to arrange movie nights for students of Catholic families at the Paradise House Cinema in Karachi. Some of the films she remembers seeing at the cinema are Heaven Knows Mr Aniston, The Bells of St Mary, Joan of Arc and the Ten Commandments.At the time of Partition, she had just been promoted to 6th grade, and had started studying History. Barbara recounts that period as ‘the takeover’. “We got these new history books in our class with simplified biographies of Mohammad Ali Jinnah, Jawaharlal Nehru and Gandhi. There was a whole lot written about independence in the book but it was too much for us to grasp, because these leaders had just taken over. I was eight years old. Independence was a big word for me. I grasped some meaning of it when I saw a big procession of Muslims on [Victorian] carries wearing big garlands. Then there was the takeover in Karachi. The British were lined up and handing over administrative affairs to the Pakistanis. Then I saw the coins coming out with the Pakistani flag on them. Before those, we used to have portraits of King George the VI on the coins. I grasped through it all. But I could feel a certain amount of fear, and a certain amount of nostalgia, and a certain amount of people missing something, because they were happy with the British,” she recounts. “I didn’t experience much of the British rule but got feedback very vaguely, and I took it in.”After Jinnah’s demise in 1948, Barbara witnessed the procession of his burial in Karachi, from her school. She also remembers the assassination of Liaquat Ali Khan the following year, became sensational news at her school and a holiday was declared at the school the next day. “That was very sad.”After Partition, her mother’s house in Goa was converted into St Xavier School. “It was handed over to Church authorities by one of my uncles, when my mother was no longer living there. I went to see it once. It’s a grand building now but the school administration still calls it Mrs D’Souza’s house.” In 1973, her entire family migrated to Canada and live there nowadays.In 1961, Barbara joined the St Joseph Convent as Sister. “In those days, it was considered a privilege amongst Goan Christian families to have one or two members become a priest or a nun. Nowadays there is so much of materialism that families are not very happy to part with their children, for religion, because it is a kind of permanent separation from them. I saw my parents for 12 years after joining the Church ministry, and then they left for good,” Her mother passed away in 1992, and her father passed away in 1997.Barbara also saw the Queen of England taking a walk by herself in Karachi in 1961, during her visit to Pakistan, with General Ayub Khan. “She was just passing down the road in Karachi alone and I caught a glimpse of her, and waved at her. She waved back at me.”Her final message to everyone is: “Be happy, think positively, and take things in your stride, remembering what you have learnt by way of values, spiritually and culturally.”
Urdu and English
2 video files
Karachi (Pakistan), April 27, 2016
3. Oral history with Kesho Mal, 2016 October 15
Oral history with Kesho Mal, 2016 October 15.
Mal, Kesho, 1940- and Hassan, Fakhra
Mal, Kesho, 1940-, Hassan, Fakhra, Hassan, Fakhra, and Hassan, Fakhra
Baba Kesho Mal [name at birth Vishnu Mal], was born in 1940 in Rohri, Sindh to a Sindhi speaking family. Father was a dry nuts and sweets shop owner in Rohri and his mother was the homemaker. He is the youngest of an elder brother and sister. Muslims and Hindus were living together in Rohri, he shares. There were 250 Hindu households in the area. Mr. Mal was raised in a joint-family system. His extended relatives lived in Sukkur, and they would frequently visit them. There were several temples in Rohri, Mr. Mal shares. As a child, used to play gilli danda, and flock to his father’s shop in the morning.They had electricity in Rohri’s commercial areas. At home, they used kerosene lamps and oil lamp. The stars and constellations were used to tell time [sun during the day and stars in the evening].Partition only reminds him of the fear, panic and emptiness that took over Rohri all of a sudden. “Within days, the city was practically deserted. Nearly all the Hindus in Rohri migrated to India.”Mr. Mal relocated to Sukkur after Partition, permanently and gave up himself for service to the maintenance and management of Jhulay Lal Mandir in his early 30s. Before that, he served as cook for pilgrims at the temple. Apart from Sindh, he has gone on pilgrimage to Nankana Sahib for Gurupurab.. He has been living at the temple since Partition, and has never married.
Sindhi and Urdu
Sukkur (Pakistan)
Sukkur (Pakistan), October 15, 2016
4. Oral history with Khalida Ghousia Akhtar, 2016 February 25
Oral history with Khalida Ghousia Akhtar, 2016 February 25.
Akhtar, Khalida Ghousia, 1937- and Saleem, Sobia
Akhtar, Khalida Ghousia, 1937-, Saleem, Sobia, Saleem, Sobia, and Saleem, Sobia
Mrs. Khalida Ghousia Akhtar was born on November 7th, 1937 in Jammu, Kashmir. Mrs. Akhtar’s family can trace their family history at least a hundred years back to her grandparents. Mrs. Akhtar’s family is of Rajput descent: her grandfather and his brothers were warriors. Mrs. Akhtar’s Rajput ancestors, descendants of royalty and known for their bravery, had helped the British beat the local people, and in return, they had been given huge lands that they had willed to their descendants. They were the type of people who valued history and bravery more than wealth. Mrs. Akhtar describes an indepdent in which her ancestors, four brothers, had been told to race their horses as far as they could from dawn to dusk, and all the lands that they traversed would be their property. They weren’t very religious people and didn’t want their father’s lands. When someone came to have them sign papers to give away their lands to her, they asked her servant where the rifle on his shoulder came from. He said he found it on the land, and they recognized it as belonging to their ancestors—this rifle is still in Mrs. Akhtar’s family’s ownershipd. They signed away this enormous property simple to retrieve this ancestral rifle. Moreover, Mrs. Akhtar’s grandmother was from Tashkent, Russia from before WWI. During the first World War, they moved to the state of Kashmir. Mrs. Akhtar’s grandfather was from Jalinder, Punjab, but he was posted in Jammu in the legal department. At the time, Kashmir had two capitals: Jammu, which was the primary capital, and Srinagar, which was the summer capital. Kashmir was a Muslim majority state with a Hindu king, Maharaja Hari Singh. This was a king that everyone respected, Mrs. Akhtar recalls. They felt honored to have him as a king because he seemed to truly care for his people, even if it put himself at risk. Mrs. Akhtar shares that two of her grandparents died of the black plague, which was common and quickly spreading I the area from lack of hygiene and disease carrying vermin. Maharaja Hari Singh would go through the back alleyways and small streets himself, on foot and on horse with his pant legs rolled up to his knees, to see how people were doing and if the hygiene of his kingdom was being properly handled. His advisors would repeatedly caution him not to go, lest he get the plague himself, but he was concerned more about his people than himself. He personally made sure that the streets were sprinkled with a layer of limestone to counteract the plague. Other than standing with his people during difficult times, he also joined peoples of all faiths during times of festivities and holidays; Mrs. Akhtar remembers that he would stand with the Muslims during their Eid prayers and celebrations. Kashmir seemed be happy and well cared for under the Maharaja Hari Singh.Mrs. Akhtar’s own family was also quite strongly involved with the politics of Kashmir: her father’s older brother, her thaya, was Chaudhry Ghulam Abbas, the man who would eventually become the Supreme Head, the akin to the Governor General, of Azad Jammu and Kashmir after the 1947 Partition and the struggle that would ensue in trying to allocate Kashmir. Mr. Abbas was very well known in the political circles of South Asia at the time—he was good friends with Jawahar Lal Nehru, Liaqat Ali, and Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the two men who would become the leaders of the new states of India and Pakistan respectively. Mr. Abbas was good friends with another political leader of Kashmir, Sheikh Abdullah; however, soon, the friends and political allies founds themselves on the opposite side of a major issue that still sends ripples of political turmoil and violence in the area: Which new country should Kashmir join? While Kashmir’s leader was a Hindu, it was a Muslim majority state, and Muslim majority states that bordered the soon-to-be Pakistan area were generally joining Pakistan; conversely, Kashmir also bordered India, and it had a Hindu leader, so what would be his place in a Muslim-led country? Sheikh Abdullah was of this latter view, believing that Kashmir should go to India; whereas, Chaudhry Ghulam Abbas, Mrs. Akhtar’s thaya uncle, was of the view that Kashmir should join Pakistan. When Mr. Abbas was released from jail, despite their political differences Mr. Abdullah was the one who helped him get into Pakistan: he would be taken safely with military personnel; however, he would have to be blindfolded.Mrs. Akhtar shares the poignant and personal story of Chaudhry Ghulam Abbas’s daughter, Mrs. Akhtar’s own cousin, and her abduction. A few weeks before the Partition, Mrs. Akhtar’s family members realized that the political tensions in Kashmir were increasing daily and that it might be safer for them to leave the country. Several of Mrs. Akhtar’s family extended family members were escorted with Sikh army trucks to Pakistan—but only 12 or 13 miles from the border, everyone from all of these trucks was unloaded. All the men on the trucks from the ages of 14 to 50 are slaughtered right then and there; all the girls from the ages of 10 to 40 are abducted, including Mrs. Akhtar’s Rahat, the daughter of Chaudhry Ghulam Abbas. When his 17-year-old daughter was abducted, Mrs. Akhtar’s uncle was in jail because of his political views. When he got out of jail, Mr. Abbas did everything he could to retrieve his daughter, and although his friend Mr. Nehru was his political opponent, he would still call and apologize to Mr. Abbas about his daughter’s abduction. He also helped in the efforts to retrieve Rahat, saying that these types of things were not supposed to happen. Once Rahat’s kidnapper, a Hindu man by the name of Jagdeesh, realized that she was the daughter of a political honcho, he decided to marry here. It was eight long years before Mr. Abbas’s family was able to locate their precious Rahat, but by that time, she was living in an Indian village with her husband as the mother of three Hindu children. In fact, she had been re-cultured as a Hindu woman as well. She told her family, “I don’t want to go back. I am settled here. Jagdeesh is taking care of me and my kids. I can’t leave my kids behind.” Still, some of her family insisted on at least being allowed to visit her—and they did. She welcomed them but begged, “Please don’t touch this subject of me returning anymore. I know this culture now.”Mrs. Akhtar’s thaya, Mr. Abbas, wanted to meet Jagdeesh, but he feared that he’d be shot; Mr. Abbas, however, wanted integrate Jagdeesh into his family. Mr. Abbas said, “No, I don’t want to shoot you—I want to bring you and your family to Pakistan,” where they had migrated by the time, “so my family can be all together again.” In 1955, Pakistan offered open visas for Indians to attend a cricket match in Lahore. Mr. Abbas told Jagdeesh and his family to take advantage of this visa and come to Pakistan—ad they did. First, Rahat came, then her children, and finally Jagdeesh. She was sort of made Muslim again. Her children and her husband were given Muslim names: Jagdeesh became Khalid. None of the family, however, was happy in Pakistan. As former Hindus, they weren’t accepted as truly Muslim; even Rahat herself was no longer accepted, and she cried all the time. During the wars of 1965 ad 1971 between Pakistan and India, Jagdeesh was under constant observation; because no one trusted him and his loyalty to Pakistan, it was difficult for him to get and keep a job. Rahat and Jagdeesh had three more kids, but two of their six children went crazy because no one in their society accepted. People accepted the songs, eager to marry their daughters into good families, but no one wanted their sons to marry to daughters from a former Hindu family.In that convoy of twenty trucks protected by Sikh soldiers transporting Muslims from Indian to Pakistani territory, there were two more members of Mrs. Akhtar’s family that survived: her uncle and his wife—who was also Rahat’s mother sister. Mrs. Rahat’s aunt, who was 22 or 23 three at the time, was abducted by a person who took her to his home. As she sat there, his father walked by and he recognized him. The kidnapper’s father was a friend of her own father—they book did decorative paintings together. From that point onwards, her father’s friend treated her like his own daughter, and he made sure that she was safely taken to Lahore. Once there though, she had no way of reaching her family, but she was a smart young woman, and she announced her name and location on the radio a few times—“I am so-and-so. Where is my husband? I am in the Jesus-Mary Convent”—until a family friend was able to alert her family to come fetch her. When that refugee truck convoy was attacked, Mr. Akhtar’s uncle, ran and hid under a nearby bridge. He said he stayed there for a day or two; he would spend all night walking way from the bridge, but still wake up under it, in the same place. A former servant of Mrs. Akhtar’s family found him and took him to join the rest of his family in Pakistan. By the time they reached there, they were in terrible shape, but slowly Mrs. Akhtar’s family would reach Pakistan.Mrs. Akhtar is very attached to her extended family because they lived together for many years before (and eventually after) the Partition; her family divided its time between three main cities in Kashmir. Mrs. Akhtar’s father was an inspector of police, and he and his six brothers all lived together in the same house, maintained by her uncle who was a foreign-educated, well-off engineer. As a child, Mrs. Akhtar spent much of her time between Bhadarva, Ranbeer Singh Pura, and Hiranagar. Bhadarva is were she spent a majority of her childhood; in order to reach Bhadarva, which was 200 miles from the main capital of Jammu, her family would rent a bus to a middle city, Batowt, where they would sometimes spend the night. From Batowt, once the path got too narrow, they would take horses on a 12-hour journey. Ranbeer Singh Pura was only 12 miles from Jammu, and Mrs. Akhtar studied there in third grade. Hiranagar was a three-hour bus ride from Jammu; in order to reach it, they had to cross a large river by going around it.Mrs. Akhtar was Batowt when, at the age of nine, she heard that the Partition had occurred, and her family began their migration journey. Although she wasn’t very political conscious at that time, she remembers that it was after the announcement that people in their region started to turn against each other. The Sikhs in the region attacked their house in Jammu. Because they were a part of Chaudhry Ghulam Abbas’s family, they were under strict observation and not supposed to leave the kingdom state—but they new that they would danger if they didn’t. Mrs. Akhtar’s family took their bus to Jammu, but they didn’t go to their Uncle Abbas’s house, where they usually stayed—they went to a hotel instead. One of their Hindu servants/friends, Mouni, came to their hotel room. Panicked, he told them, “They’re watching you. On the side of your house, it says, ‘Your house will be raided, and you will be killed.’” Mouni told the Mrs. Akhtar’s family to leave the city and go to Ranbeer Singh Pura, which was only 12 miles from the Pakistani border. They stayed there for a week. Her whole packed their few belongings in only four suitcases and packed into four tongas to go to the Pakistani border, which was only two hours away.Once there, in the middle of the night, Mrs. Akhtar’s father and uncle patrolled and scouted the area to figure out how to enter Pakistan undetected. The best time to cross the border would be between 10 AM and 2 PM, when some of the officers took their lunch. During that time, the whole extended family ran the three miles to cross the border and reach the closest village on the Pakistani side of the border. Mrs. Akhtar remembers that all the women were crying, and her father and uncle were telling them to save their tears for later and just run; everyone was carrying children who were too young to ran fast enough, including herself. Mrs. Akhtar was carrying her one-year-old sister while others were carrying her five-year-old brother and her six-and-a-half-year-old brother. On the way, they drank dirty pond water to survive. Mrs. Akhtar’s father and uncle paid three months rent upfront to a landlord to get a place to stay for their family. Mrs. Akhtar recalls that banks were still accepting checks at least two months after the Partition because that was the currency that her family used to pay people and to withdraw money. To avoid arousing suspicion from their neighbors that they were political refugees on the run, they acted like they lived there. They had no food, so they boiled black stones in clay pots. A few poor land tillers came forward to offer them blankets and food. When an army truck passed through the area, full of ammunition to transport to Kashmir in the ensuing battle to follow for ownership of this northern state, Mrs. Akhtar’s father and her uncle managed to convince the truck divers, after paying them handsomely, to let their family board their empty trucks. The trucks took them to Sialkot, where Mrs. Akhtar’s family would stay for in a hotel for a few days before all 25 or so of them would move for 6-8 years to a villa in Sargoda, given to them in exchange for their lost properties and homes now in India Occupied Kashmir. (Note that Pakistanis now call their portion of Kashmir Azad (Free) Kashmir and the India part of Kashmir Occupied Kashmir—and Indians similarly call their portion of Kashmir Azad Kashmir and the Pakistani portion Occupied Kashmir.) Mrs. Akhtar’s thaya Chaudhry Ghulam Abbas would be moved to Rawalpini, the army headquarters of Pakistan, where he would be make the Supreme Head of Azad Kashmir, Pakistan.After the Partition, Mrs. Akhtar would spent much of her time living her uncle and his British, Jewish wife, Olga, because their home was closer to better school—this couple would become like a second set of parents for Mrs. Akhtar. Ogla Auntie, especially, was like a second mother to Mrs. Akhtar, who calls her a Sufi saint; she would always encourage the girls in their family to student to their heart’s content. Mrs. Akhtar’s mother and father also supported her a great deal, by providing her with resources and strong character traits. When she was a child, Mrs. Akhtar’s father would bribe her to do things by offering her short, ten page long stories to read. Mrs. Akhtar realls a Kashmiri folk tale about “Lil Dilli,” a patient, saintly woman. When she got married and when to her in-laws, her parents would ask her, “What did they give you to eat?” When she wouldn’t answer, they would lift her stomach flap and see nothing. The pious woman that Lil Dilli was, she prayed and asked God to make the stomach flab smooth and un-openable, so that her mother-in-law wouldn’t be dishonored because of how little she had been able to feed her. By the age of 16, she had read through her father’s library, and so he began teacher her to use a revolver, how to fire, and how to ride a horse, the police offer that he was. Mrs. Akhtar says that her mother taught her compassion while her father taught her confidence and courage.Perhaps as a result of Auntie Olga’s support, Mrs. Akhtar went on to complete medical school, with an emphasize in gynecology and surgery, and open her own clinic in the Korangi area of Karachi, the city she moved to after she married her husband. After she got married, Mrs. Akhtar put all the wedding got she had received as a part of her dowry and as presents into the bank, and she took a loan against it. She remembers that people cried at her doing this, but she said the gold did not matter—she needed the capital to create her clinic in this underserved part of Pakistan. Mrs. Akhtar’s clinic, named Khalida Hospital after her, soon became quite popular in the area, and she would see upwards of 200 patients a day. Although she had three doctors working with her and a staff of 37 personnel, including nurses and others, under her, her patients and community only wanted to be treated by her. Soon, people in her community were coming to her not only for medical matters, but social and economic ones as well, writing her letters from as far as Dubai to seek her advice and opinion on personal matters. In the beginning, before she was able to afford a car, she commuted 2.5 hours daily by public bus to reach her clinic. She was the first lady doctor in a ten-mile radius in that region. Although she worked there for 11 years, she had to stop because she couldn’t afford to pay political parties, like the MQM, the bribes they demanded to keep from harassing her clinic. When she finally had to give up her practice, she donated her clinic to Al-Shifa, a hospital and organization dedicated to handicapped children in Karachi.These days, Mrs. Akhtar lives with her daughter in the U.S. Here, she spent her time volunteering at Kaiser Permanente and John Muir Hospitals. She also enjoys her time painting, writing poetry, making pottery, reading, drawing/sketching, playing piano, among other activities—she says she’s finally able to do all those things that she wanted to do when she was ten and couldn’t because the Partition, that she personally believes never should have happened, made her grow up too fast. “United,” Mrs. Akhtar says, quoting the first President of India, “South Asia could have been the largest democracy. The people there have lived together for at least 1000 years, and religion shouldn’t be the basis for nationhood because it allows for the possibility of extremism to creep in.” Even now, Mrs. Akhtar’s family cannot return to India Occupied Kashmir, although they can visit India. Mrs. Akhtar truly hopes she is allowed to return to her homeland and visit it one day. She shares a message for future generations in memory of her own parents: “Live your life every day with courage, confidence, and compassion. They are the three things that have helped me all my life. Keep your mind open, and never fear what tomorrow brings—refine yourself and all of humanity.”
Urdu and Hindi
10 video files
Walnut Creek (Calif.)
Walnut Creek (Calif.), February 25, 2016
5. Oral history with Mai Taji, 2016 January 16
Oral history with Mai Taji, 2016 January 16.
Taji, Mai, 1941- and Hassan, Fakhra
Taji, Mai, 1941-, Hassan, Fakhra, Hassan, Fakhra, and Hassan, Fakhra
Mai Taji [name at birth Taj Din] was born in 1941 to a Punjabi-speaking family at Daleri town in Amritsar District, Punjab. Their father Muaaz Din was a farmer, and their mother Fazal Bibi was a homemaker. Taji is the youngest of two brothers and four sisters, and grew up at Amritsar before Partition. Sharing their earliest recollections of childhood, Taji says that the agrarian families in their town were engaged in the barter trade where wheat and rice were exchanged amongst them quite often.The family diet was vegetarian, and brassware was used for cooking and consumption. They used to play the game of Kokla Chapaki with friends in the mohallah from all faiths quite often. The clothing worn at home was plain khaddar, stitched by their mother and sisters at home.Taji says they must have been six or seven years old when they had to leave their homes at Daleri. “There was an announcement in our area. We were told that anyone who wants to leave for Pakistan should do it now or living conditions could get worse in Amritsar,” They recounts.Taji says that their family moved to Lahore via the Wagah Park immediately after that announcement. “It was two months before riots broke out in Amritsar and everywhere else,” They says. Taji did not witness any violence and killings himself but recalls hearing stories from elders about what was happening. From Lahore, Taji’s family went to Kana village in Kasur where they settled permanently. Neither Taji nor their siblings obtained any formal schooling, and Taji’s elder brothers became daily wage workers to support the family. Taji’s father died eight years after Partition. After reaching teens, Taji switched to silk wear for attending special occasions like village festivals, melas and weddings.During the same time, Taji met their first guru. “I found him while buying vegetables at a market near the Kot Lakhpat railway stop. His name was Safdar. He was veterinarian doctor specializing in livestock and cattle, and an army officer. He hired me as his assistant and taught me how to prepare injections for the animals,” Taji says. After spending some years at their clinic, Taji started work at a tandoor where they kneaded dough for rotis, for two decades. They quit the job after developing a form of vision impairment, and have been at their parents’ home in Kasur ever since. They have many followers from the khwaja sira community in Lahore. Taji depends on them for their daily living expenses nowadays. Their mother passed away in the early 1970s. Taji continues to live at their parents’ home in Kani, Kasur, and reverted to male clothing in the late 90s.Taji believes that the generation today is suffering from a culture of individualized lifestyles. “The isolation and the restlessness we have comes from that culture. We need to bring back the days when it was considered normal for people in one mohallah to get together in one place and share their happiness and sorrows like a joint family system.”On nostalgia concerning their childhood at Amritsar, they say: “There is nothing compared to memories of one’s birthplace, the home one grows up in, and friends from the mohallah one used to play with. No one wants to be forced out of their houses all of sudden. The pain of losing home is unbearable, especially when we really had no choice in the matter. It makes me very sad to think of our lost childhood, even today.”
Urdu and Panjabi
Lahore (Pakistan)
Lahore (Pakistan), January 16, 2016
6. Oral history with Malika Ali, 2016 March 4
Oral history with Malika Ali, 2016 March 4.
Ali, Malika, 1945- and Hassan, Fakhra
Ali, Malika, 1945-, Hassan, Fakhra, Hassan, Fakhra, and Hassan, Fakhra
Malika Ali was born Malika Hafiz in 1945 at Hyderabad Deccan to a ruling class family hailing from Lucknow. Her mother was the first Muslim woman member of the Hyderabad State Assembly, and daughter of the Nawab of Lucknow. Her father, was a prominent journalist in India before Partition, carried on the same profession after his migration to Pakistan. He was also an advisor on political affairs to the Nizam of Hyderabad. Her maternal grandfather, besides being the Nawab, was a leading lawyer in British India, famous for winning a case against the British defending the Maharaja of the Princely State of Oudh, Mrs Ali recounts. Mrs Ali’s paternal grandfather was deputy commissioner working directly for the British Viceroy.“In those days, no paper currency was used. Both my grandfathers were paid large sums of money in coins. The coins used to come on donkey carts, and stored in the basement of my grandfather’s palace in Lucknow. The workers would count them all night,” she shares her mother’s memories.Her mother, she says, was driven to politics and philanthropy from a very early age. “In front of our grandfather’s palace in Hyderabad Deccan, there was Hyde Park which was a popular place for activists to rally together during the Independence movement, and give fiery speeches. In Lucknow, there was a Zenana Park [Ladies Park], where women would gather for political speeches. My mother’s grandmother used to take her to the parks in the evening. The ladies from the leading political parties in India at the time used to be there for meetings and discussions. My mother would sometimes would run to the stage and start speaking. The ladies in attendance were very impressed by her talents.”“At the age of seven years, she would buy sweets from her pocket money and distribute them to the workers in her house, instead of spending it on herself like the rest of her siblings,” Mrs Ali recounts.Sharing the unusual causes of her mother’s success in politics, Mrs Ali shares: “My father was the main person to have brushed up her skills. She was engaged to him at the age of seven years, and her rukhsati took place when she was 12 years old. My father was two decades older than her. He refined her public speaking skills and would sometimes write the speeches for her. With her husband’s efforts and help, she had won many admirers before she reached her teens. She was homeschooled and had a great command over the Persian language,” Mrs Ali says. Her mother is also known to have been one of the main speakers at the March 1940 rally at the Minto Park [now Iqbal Park] in Lahore.Mrs Ali is the youngest of four sisters and four brothers. She was raised at her parent’s home in Hyderabad Deccan before Partition. She migrated to Karachi with her family in 1949, after the police action in Hyderabad Deccan.“One of my maternal uncles was appointed as the Minister for the Princely State of Patiala, just before Partition. He helped us a lot in moving to Karachi safely,” she says.In Karachi, they were temporarily settled in the Victoria Chambers on Victoria Road [now Abdullah Haroon Road]. Her mother worked for the homeless refugees coming from India and raised funds to help them resettle in Karachi. “When they used to visit my mother, she used to cry over their sufferings. She went door-to-door meeting with every affluent woman she knew, and with their help, she set up the Women Refugees Rehabilitation Association and helped thousands of people acquire housing, education and jobs. The government had no role in supporting her efforts,” she says.In 1951, Mrs Ali’s school life began at a Methodist Convent in Karachi. She suffered an unexpected meningitis attack during the course of her studies, and was hospitalized for several weeks. She developed severe visual impairment as one of the side effects. She continued her schooling like any other normal child under her parents’ guidance, and went on to completing her bachelor’s education in 1969. The same years, she was married to her husband, a chartered accountant from Karachi, educated in the UK. The marriage took place in Karachi. They have one son, after Mrs Ali survived eight miscarriages. “I am a miracle of God,” she says lightheartedly.She accompanied her husband on his official trips to Egypt, Holland, Switzerland and Saudi Arabia. In 1984, she performed Hajj with her husband at Mecca, Saudi Arabia. Her husband passed away in 2011. Mrs Ali lives in Karachi with her son nowadays. She is engaged in various fundraising activities for the repair of ancient mosques in Kashmir, and planning to open a trust in the near future.Sharing her final thoughts on Partition, Mrs Ali says: “Pakistan came forth because of contributions from the rich families of Jalandhar and Amritsar. As Hindus, Christians, Muslims, Sikhs although we visit different places of worship, we seek the same God. We should fight the devil out and love the humanity, because it’s better to forgive and forget rather than remember and regret.
Karachi (Pakistan), March 4, 2016
7. Oral history with Muhammad Saleem, 2016 December 9
Oral history with Muhammad Saleem, 2016 December 9.
Saleem, Muhammad, Abtahi, Arham, and Shahbaz, Waqas Ahmed
Saleem, Muhammad, Abtahi, Arham, Abtahi, Arham, and Shahbaz, Waqas Ahmed
Muhammad Saleem was born in Gurdaspur. His father, Sufi Abdul Aziz had a business of construction materials in the city but they lived in a village of Gurdaspur. They were well off in India. His mother’s name was Rehmat Bibi. Mr. Saleem believes that he was 8 to 9 years old when Jallianwala Bagh massacre took place and he was a witness to it. He was in Jallianwala Bagh with his father when the shooting started. Mr. Saleem and his father hid inside stairs near which they were sitting. They stayed there all night. Next day, his elder brother who was in army came to get them.In Gurdaspur, Muslims, Hindus and Sikhs lived together but there used to be a lot of conflicts on festivals like Holi. Mr. Saleem also discussed different Hindu festivals and killings of people. His area was called Abdullah Pur as it was a Muslim majority area. Now the name has been changed and Sikhs live in that area as he discovered on his tour to India after Partition. He visited India twice and stayed with the Sikh family in Koocha Pundit, Delhi which had saved their lives during Partition. This Sikh family was a friend of his grandfather and so they helped them reach River Beas safely. They called the father of that family Bapu which was used for all the elders in India.On his way to Pakistan, Mr. Saleem has seen a lot of bloodshed and looting which is a painful memory. He is still homeless in Pakistan and adores the freedom that Pakistan has for Muslims.
Lahore (Pakistan), December 9, 2016
8. Oral history with Muhammad Yousuf, 2016 May 12
Oral history with Muhammad Yousuf, 2016 May 12.
Yousuf, Muhammad, 1941- and Shaheen, Taha
Yousuf, Muhammad, 1941-, Shaheen, Taha, Shaheen, Taha, and Shaheen, Taha
Muhammad Yousuf was born to Mian Imamdeen and Noor Bibi in 1941 in Kotkapura, Faridkot. Mian Imamdeen was a farmer. He owned land. At the time, Muhammad Yousuf had only one younger brother.He used to go to a madrassa for religious studies. They learned the basic prayers and how to offer the Salah. After that he and his friends would run after wheels that had been taken out of cycles. To make the wheels go faster they would be hit with sticks.The city was a Muslim majority city. Friday prayers were held in the mosque and Eid prayers would be held in the Eid-gah.His memories of the Partition start with hearing of violence. When this started people from the surrounding villages came to the city seeking safety. The population of Kotkapura suddenly grew. He recalls that at this time police were doing regular raids in the neighbourhood and confiscating anything that could be considered a weapon.He shares that the Raja of Faridkot wanted his people to make it to Pakistan safely. Some from the Sikh community forced him to choose one city between Faridkot or Kotkapura to save. He chose Faridkot. Faridkot was emptied and its people reached Pakistan without any problem. The kafla that left Kotkapura was 20 miles or so in length. They encountered no attackers on the first day. On the second day, Muhammad Yousuf remembers seeing people hiding in the fields. He asked his father why they were there and his father told him that they were harmless onlookers. An hour or two later there was an explosion and a lot of people died. The people hiding in the fields also attacked the kafla. The kafla was divided in two with Muhammad Yousuf and his family in the front half. They escaped.A girl that his mother knew came running to them. She told them that the attackers had killed everyone (her family). Muhammad Yousuf remembers looking back and seeing the attacking mob cutting down people.The kafla rested that night next to a large body of water. There was blood in it, shares Muhammad Yousuf. They were attacked that night as well. The kafla was there for three days and it rained all the time. Those that drank that water got sick with cholera.The third day military from Pakistan came. They announced that the original plan of crossing over from Head Sulaiman was no longer possible and they would be crossing from Head Ganda Singh. This meant going back from the way they had come. The sick and elderly were loaded into trucks and brought to Kasur. The rest walked to Kotkapura. They stayed one night there.He shares that they had left behind a buffalo with their neighbors in Kotkapura. Muhammad Yousuf’s father went to pay them a visit. The buffalo had not given milk since they had left. Imamdeen milked her and gave it to the neighbors.The next day the left the village. At the Indian side of Ganda Sigh, they stayed the night. They were fed cooked wheat by the locals. It was poisoned and a lot of people died. He also speaks of corpses piled as high as houses on the side of the road. Muhammad Yousuf shares every time he goes to a funeral, he sees the mountains of the dead and thinks of how lucky the deceased is. He has a hundred or so people praying for him and is buried respectably. No one had held any funeral services for the dead he had seen, no one had buried them. They had been tossed into piles.They crossed over to Pakistan at Head Ganda Singh. Rain and cholera killed more people there. The four of them lived in a tent. A few days later a train came. It took everyone directly to Lala Musa. They came then to Gujrat. The government announced that there was no space in the city. New arrivals would be accommodated in the villages and given houses and land.Muhammad Yousuf and his family walked to Jalalpur Jatta. From there they rode donkeys to Tandamota near Kashmir. Whichever house you liked you would point to it and the officials would break the locks for you.The family lived for a month or so in Tandamota. Then a war broke out in Kashmir. Dying and mutilated people escaping the carnage started pouring into Tandamota. Muhammad Yousuf shares that he and others were afraid of what might come next. They had barely escaped from India and now they would be caught up in a new conflict. The police wouldn’t let them leave because if everyone left, the city would be become abandoned. The family left it secretly at night. They had no baggage. They first came to Jalalpur and then to Gujrat. From there they took a train to Lahore. From there they came to Dunga Bunga. He joined school and did his matriculation from here.They were allotted part of their land in 1958. The rest of the land Muhammad Yousuf had to go to great lengths to get. He had to deal with red tape and bribery for years. He received the land in late 1960s. He shares that his father, till his dying breath, believed that they would return one day to Kotkapura. He never tried to claim the land they had left behind.He married in 1958 or 1959 to his cousin. He has eight sons and two daughters. He has never been to India. He believes that there is no point in going back. He believes that it is good that they came to Pakistan where they are free to follow Islam.
Bahawalnagar District (Pakistan)
Bahawalnagar District (Pakistan), May 12, 2016
9. Oral history with Naseem Mirza Changezi, 2016 October 23
Oral history with Naseem Mirza Changezi, 2016 October 23.
Changezi, Naseem Mirza, 1910-, Popli, Ritika, and Parashar, Jayant
Changezi, Naseem Mirza, 1910-, Popli, Ritika, Popli, Ritika, and Parashar, Jayant
Naseem Mirza Changezi was born in the year 1910 in his ancestral home at Pahari Imli, near Churi Walan in Jama Masjid, in Old Delhi and was a freedom fighter, and fought alongside the likes of Bhagat Singh and Rajguru for Independence from colonial powers. He has been profiled and documented numerous times, by leading scholars and academics of history owing to his deep knowledge and memory bandwidth about his Persian roots and the Mughal history of Northern India. He says, “The study of my genealogy tells me that successively 23 generations of mine hail from the family of Genghis Khan, the founder of the great Mongolian empire. My ancestors travelled from Mongol to Iran, and then to Afghanistan. By that time Babur, who lay the stone of Mughal empire in India, asked his ancestors to leave Afghanistan within two or three months. The two clans were both Mughals but Babur’s side was Timuri Mughals and we were Changezi Mughals, so Babur did not want a fight and loss of soldiers, hence, he asked my ancestors to peacefully leave."He then adds that, his family left Afghanistan and moved to the area of Sindh and as they settled there, the forces of Mirza Jaani Beg Khan and Mirza Ghazi Beg Khan attacked the region of Sindh, which was being ruled by Jam Feroze, who was the last ruler of Samma dynasty. Simultaneously the region of India and neighbouring states (Hindustan) had just started to be ruled by the Mughal ruler Humayun. Then, by the time Akbar’s rule came about and he asked his ancestors to become equal stakeholders in ruling Hindustan, but his ancestors refused. Then Akbar preceded to send an army of two lakh personnel under the leadership of Abdul Rahim Khan-i-Khana and they fought for almost a year, and his ancestors lost the war. His ancestors were then brought to Akbar and he dismissed them to stay in Agra. He recalls, “When Shahjahan, in the early 17th century decided to shift his capital from Agra to Delhi, my ancestors also came along. They built a palatial palace right in front of the Delhi Gate of the majestic Red Fort (Lal Quila). And since then, we have lived in Delhi.”He says with utmost pride, “My family fought for the Independence of this country and has been doing so for the last 150 years.” His great-grandfather was the deputy collector working for the British crown, but, he participated in the first revolt of Independence in 1857, and in turn was awarded life imprisonment. He says, “There had been various wars for Independence prior to 1857, within the kingdoms, but the reason it is known as the First War of Independence is because this was the first time that the masses at large took part in it.” He also adds that, today the Hindu dominated area like Sitaram Baazar in Old Delhi, was earlier a Muslim area with many old palaces that were of the Muslim feudal landlords, which was later vacated. His mother passed away when he was just 2 years old, but his father decided to never remarry. He recalls an interesting a very interesting incident about the religious relations between the two communities prior to the Partition through the motif of parrots. He says that keeping parrots as domestic pets was a very widely accepted norm during those times, and the Hindu women would teach Urdu poetry and couplets to the their parrots, whereas the Muslim women would teach poetry and couplets from Hindu literary texts to their parrots. When he was four years old, he remembers going to the Ganges river with Hindu families and would also celebrate Holi and Diwali with them, and would be done so respectful of each other’s boundaries.He remembers the Indian lawyer, and philanthropist Rash Behari Bose, who was the key person in organising the Indian National Army. His work was to organises and agitate the young revolutionaries against the colonial power. He says that, “In those times, the young men of the historic Anglo-Arabic school of Ajmeri Gate would participate heavily in this movement initiated by the Indian National Army (INA). May father was one of them and I clearly recall that he would tell me how he was taught to make explosives and bombs that could be used for revolts. My father along with Rash Behari Bose would be on the forefront of such activities, and I grew up amongst all their idealism and members.” He recalls the interesting Delhi Conspiracy Case which also involved his father, “When Lord Hardinge’s howdah, the then governor-general of India, was passing through the streets of Chandni Chowk, Bose was dressed in the garb of a woman, and my father had put his ladder on the backside of Company Bagh. Bose then took out a homemade bomb and threw it on Lord and Lady Hardinge but it only ended up injuring them through splinters.” He says that they were told not to come under the scanner of the police, and he and his contemporaries all hailed from Anglo-Arabic school, who participated actively in the freedom movement. He says they worked under the leadership of Jugal Kishore Khanna, who lived in Dariba Kalan, and was associated with the Congress and later the INA. He says, “We would work as secret messengers and would take old cloth bags and tie it around us with some pieces of silver and gold and then walk on the streets pretending to be sellers, and shout out aloud if anybody had silver to sell. The person would then come down and take away the message from us, and that is how we would not get caught.” He recalls that the Congress workers who were under the leadership of Asif Ali, later came under Brahma Prakash who went onto become the first Chief Minister of Independent India.He has continued to live in his ancestral home for 106 years now, and was in that same house when the Partition took place. At the time of the Partition, he was 37 years old, and had an illegal pass by a Hindu name ‘Ram Kishan’ which helped him to travel around the city and not be contained by the curfew that would be put on the Muslims in Delhi. He says, “Many killings took place during that time. My work would be to make a daily trip to Nizammudin station where the trains would be leaving for Pakistan, and people would travel from Delhi, and they would get injured during those travels so I would escort them till the camp at Jama Masjid so that they could be quickly treated. The trains would leave from Old Delhi railway station, and the Muslims were treated very badly. The wagons that were provided by the Corporation to transport cattle, were used by the Muslim refugees to load their own belongings and they would pull it themselves and go to camps at Purana Qila.” He says that Partition was solely a result of various political forces, and stresses on the love both the religious communities had for each other before the Partition took place.Post Partition, he says that in Old Delhi the refugees who came later put up their own businesses on the pavement right in front of the shops, and started selling the same products at a lesser cost which affected their business. This was one of the major points of discord. He says, “The decision to stay on in India, and not migrate to Pakistan was very simple for me and my family because my ancestors had through the generations fought on this land. My father fought for the Independence of this country, so there was no question of leaving our own home. Although, my father did receive many persuasive letters from authorities in the newly formed Pakistan to come there. However, his father sat him down and asked him to write a reply, in which he clearly recalls that he wrote, ‘Do rivers like the Ganges or Yamuna flow in Karachi? Does Lal Quila stand on that land? Is there my beloved Jama Masjid there? If yes, then I will come in a jiffy. If no, then don’t ever write to me again.’ Although, his father never stopped him or any of his siblings from migrating but none of them did. But today he is pained at the current state of affairs, and completely opposite to what they had hoped for when fighting for Independence. He angrily adds, “The nation today might be independent, but it is not even close to what we had dreamed of as young revolutionaries.”He completed his matriculation from Punjab University. He was an ace hockey player and was selected by Delhi Hockey Association in 1942, played with Dhyanchand and participated in various tournaments, and visited Karachi and Lahore before the Partition took place. One of his friends named Qayyum, who was also a great hockey player migrated to Pakistan after the Partition. He says that all his friends and contemporaries who passed away and today, he is the only now left who saw all the incidents unfolding in front of him. Today, he lives with his son and wife.He relays a very important and historical memory of his life wherein he was given the task of providing food and shelter to Sardar Bhagat Singh for two months, when he had in the process of planning to explode bombs in the Central Legislative Assembly. He says, “There are many who laid down their lives for the country, but there are few like who had the grit and determination of Bhagat Singh. He always wanted to be a martyr for the country and was ready to lay down his life in a matter of minutes if it would get freedom from the colonial rulers.” He then pauses to sadly reflect and says, “But this is definitely not the freedom which any of us wanted. I never wanted to die, because I wanted to live and work for Independent India.” He says that Partition shouldn’t have taken place as both the countries would have been stronger united in all spheres of development.
Delhi (India : Union Territory)
Delhi (India : Union Territory), June 5, 2016
10. Oral history with Salima Hashmi, 2016 January 18
Oral history with Salima Hashmi, 2016 January 18.
Hashmi, Salima, 1942- and Hassan, Fakhra
Hashmi, Salima, 1942-, Hassan, Fakhra, Hassan, Fakhra, and Hassan, Fakhra
Salima Hashmi [name at birth Salima Sultana] was born on 14th December 1942 to an Anglo-Indian family in Delhi. Her father, Faiz Ahmed Faiz, was an army officer, poet, political activist, editor of the Pakistan Times, and founding editor of the Daily Amroze. Her mother, Alys Faiz, was a political activist, writer and homemaker.Narrating the story of her name, Mrs Hashmi says: “The surname is a very Western idea. In our family, we had the tradition of giving a complete name, a first name followed by the second name. My mother liked Rehana, and Sabiha for the first name but my father didn’t approve. He named me after Salimuzzaman Siddiqui, his friend who was a scientist and also an artist. Hence I was named Salima with Sultana as my second name, and my sister was named Moneeza Gul,” she says. Mrs Hashmi dropped her second name, after the expiry of her second passport.Her father’s family was from Kala Qadar, a village in Sialkot. Her mother’s maternal family was from France, and paternal family is from London, England. Sharing a family lore about her paternal grandfather, Mrs Hashmi says that after a chance encounter with an Afghan trader in Lahore, he rose to prominence from being a peasant of Kala Qadar, to an educated, well-respected and envied treasurer of financial affairs at the Court of the King Shah Abdur Rehman the II, in Kabul, Afghanistan. “There were many controversies and conspiracies cooking up against him. There was an Englishwoman, a doctor, who was in charge of the women of the king’s harem and introducing the small pox vaccine. Rumor has it that she was in love with my grandfather and when she heard about the controversies and conspiracies against him at the harem, she informed him immediately, and he fled to India. Later on, he went on to England to study law at Cambridge. During this time, the Afghan King sent him a proposal to take up ambassadorship of the Afghan government at Queen Victoria’s court in England, which he accepted.One of the women her grandfather married was a princess of the Hazara tribe. “The novel Vizier’s Daughter by Lillias Hamilton is actually based on the life and character of my grandfather. After completing his studies, he returned to Sialkot and started his law practice. He was a close friend of the poet Muhammad Iqbal,” she says. “My grandmother was the only Punjabi woman my grandfather had married. She hailed from a village in Sialkot, near Kala Qadar. The rest of his wives were Afghans.”Mrs Hashmi says that her mother’s maternal family had settled in England during the 17th century. Her great grandfather used to own a posh bookshop on Swallow Street near Piccadilly. “The Prince of Wales used to sit there, and buy books from him. After the economic depression of World War I, they moved and settled in East London, where they had to rebuild their lives from scratch. During that time, my mother joined the Communist Party and became involved in the Freedom Movement for India.”She left London for Amritsar in 1938 where husband of her elder sister M. D. Taseer was posted Principal of the M.A.O. College in Amritsar. “My father was an English teacher at that College,” She says. Mrs Hashmi’s parents were married in 1941.Before Partition, Mrs Hashmi and her younger sister Moneeza [born in Simla] were raised in Delhi, Rawalpindi, Quetta, Simla, Lahore and Srinagar as a result of their father’s various postings in the army.Sharing her earliest memories from childhood, Mrs Hashmi says she was two years old when she was with her family in Rawalpindi. “I remember that because I fell and had hurt my head. I was taken into a hospital and given stitches. It was a military hospital. Parents weren’t allowed to stay with the patient but the maids were. My mother asked my paternal aunt to pretend to be a maid, and then she was allowed to tend to me for the night at the hospital. I almost died of blood poisoning because of that injury. In those days, Penicillin was newly invented. My father being in the army had some privileges, so I was given Penicillin and survived.”Mrs Hashmi’s first spoken language at home is Urdu. “My parents had decided that their child should grow up on one language and that would be Urdu. My mother had learnt Urdu, and she taught me to read and write at our home in Delhi. When my English grandparents visited us in 1947, I couldn’t understand them and they couldn’t understand me. It was at the age of four and a half years, I started learning my grandparents’ native language. My grandmother was fun. She used to tell us stories, and would act for us. She came fully prepared with puppets and things to entertain the children,” she recounts.In early 1947, Mrs Hashmi was enrolled at a nursery school in Lahore. “I remember my mother telling me it was a Hindu school. Of course I never knew what that meant at the time. I remember going in and playing there. I used to weep copiously every morning when I was sent to school and that continued for most of my life,” she says.Describing herself as an introvert and quiet person, Mrs Hashmi’s closest friends from childhood were her cousins Mariam, Salma, and Billu [the late Salman Taseer].At the time of Partition, Mrs Hashmi, her mother, sister, grandparents, maternal aunt and uncle were in Srinagar. “My father, a Lieutenant Colonel in rank, had resigned from the army in February of 1947 and moved to Lahore to set up the Pakistan Times and Amroze newspaper offices. My grandparents had just arrived from London so we had decided to spend the summer in Srinagar. We celebrated Eid there and afterwards, our father sent us a message from Lahore to leave Srinagar immediately as the situation was getting worse,” Mrs Hashmi recounts.They took a bus from Srinagar to Murree. On the way to Murree, Mrs Hashmi says she saw a bus at Thrait that was full of Sikhs who had been massacred. After reaching Murree, her mother organized the women in a procession to stop the rioting and bloodshed. “I remember she sat me down on a donkey and handed me a white flag. I was the leader of the procession waving my white flag. I was scared of the donkey but at the same time felt proud to be leading a rally of women. There was a certain performance to the role and I really enjoyed it,” she says.After a day or two in Murree, Mrs Hashmi and her family continued on to the Rawalpindi Railway Station on the bus, and took the train to Lahore. They shared the compartment with another English woman, the artist Anna Molka Ahmed [who founded and headed the department of fine arts at Punjab University] with her daughter.“There were so many people on the roof of the train. They were from Rawalpindi trying to crossover to India. There was mayhem and crowds, and there was no light in the train compartment,” Mrs Hashmi recounts. “We arrived at the Lahore station, which was under curfew at the time. There was a terrible hush in the city. My father had a curfew pass, so we managed to leave the Station and stayed with Begum Shah Nawaz at Lawrence Road for a while and in the meantime my parents started looking for a place to stay,” she says. They found a grand house not too far on Lawrence Road which is now a Government Office Building. Sharing her memories of her mother’s reactions on visiting that house, Mrs Hashmi says: “The lawn was completely dug out. The house was in bad shape, ruined by the miscreants. The electrical sockets had been pulled out, fans were taken off. There was a prayer room in the house that was defaced and badly desecrated. I remember picking up a children’s comic book from the rubble and my mother snatched it from my hand and threw it down yelling at me: we are not to touch anything here,”Mrs Hashmi and her family settled in an undamaged upper portion of a well-known doctor’s house on Empress Road and began rebuilding their lives. Recalling sights from the damaged lower portion of the house Mrs Hashmi says that she saw a refrigerator slashed by an axe. Her paternal grandmother had migrated to Gujranwala from Gurdaspur barely escaping the violence, and was eventually allotted residential property in Lahore against the lands she owned in Gurdaspur.In late 1947, Mrs Hashmi was enrolled at the Convent of Jesus & Mary where she wasn’t allowed to speak Urdu because everyone at the Convent was encouraged to speak English. “The nuns were aghast that I was an Englishwoman’s daughter but didn’t know any English. They refused to let me speak in Urdu and I used to weep and would sit at the edge of the door waiting for school to end. My grandparents used to pick me up in a tonga. I used to rush at the sight of them, I hated that school so much.” She says. 104/2, U B;pvk Ph 2, Street 3,At home, Mrs Hashmi says that daal chawal had always been her favorite dish cooked by her mother, and mangoes are the love of her life. “She also used to make Irish stew and Shepherd’s pie that I loved. Her specialty was homemade ice-cream, which she made using an icebox when we didn’t have a refrigerator. My mother was always particular about hygiene. I remember she used potassium permanganate to wash the dishes and the clothes to keep epidemic diseases like cholera and dysentery at bay. She was very particular and strict about table manners. That was her Englishness that used to persevere. We always had napkins on the table.” Mrs Hashmi recounts.In 1948, she was enrolled at the Queen Mary Convent where she studied for three years then moved on to the Kinnaird High School in Lahore from where she completed her matriculation. Despite her inclination towards the arts, Mrs Hashmi derived inspiration from the sciences, particularly Physics.In 1951, Mrs Hashmi’s father was incarcerated by the Pakistan government. Recalling an incident of her final year at Queen Mary’s, Mrs Hashmi says that she was invited by one of her school fellows to her birthday party. “I hated going to parties but since I had become reclusive after my father’s arrest and no news on his whereabouts, my mother insisted that I should go. I was eight years old at the time. There were some men sitting on the table at the party who started asking me questions about my father’s whereabouts which turned into a kind of interrogation. I started putting on a bravado act despite not having heard from him in three months. I told them my mother has just received a letter from him. I knew I was doing the wrong thing but I was so scared at the way they were interrogating me I told them what they wanted to hear. My mother found out about the incident. She called my school fellow’s family and gave them hell for it. I still remember the way she yelled on the phone,”In 1956, she opted to study at the Lahore College for Women for her intermediate degree in fine arts and in 1962, she completed her intermediate certification course on design from the National College of Arts in Lahore. In the same year, she travelled to London and studied for a three-year diploma in art education at the Bath Academy of Art in Bristol majoring in photography and painting. In 1990, she completed her MA honors in Art Education from the Rhode Island School of Design in the United States.In mid-1965 Salima was married to playwright, writer and artist Shoaib Hashmi whom she’d met on several occasions in Lahore and London, due to their overlapping interests in the performance arts. Sharing the tale of her marriage, Mrs Hashmi says. “Our marriage took place after my grandmother’s approval. She had no idea that Shoaib and I already knew each other. She looked at him once and said that he is a nice boy and I should definitely marry him.”The marriage took place in Karachi were Mrs Hashmi’s parents were living at the time. Mrs Hashmi moved to Model Town in Lahore with her husband after marriage, and lives there today with her immediate family. The couple has one son, Yasser Hashmi and a daughter, Mira Hashmi.Soon after their marriage the 1965 war had broken out, and Lahore was under curfew once again. “The whole of Gulberg was empty. Most people had run for their lives but we stayed behind. Shoaib used to have a curfew pass. He was doing a program called Parakh, and I was doing a puppet show called Babloo aur Naazi for PTV. During the war, we used to go and do those, and I still enjoy doing that.” she says. “We used to walk around in the darkness with the curfews going on and the noise of sirens. It was a short war but a lot of people died because of it. During this time my father wrote the poem called Blackout.”In 1966, Mrs Hashmi returned to London where she joined an infant school and invested most of her time on art education for children. In the meantime, her husband took up his studies at the London School of Economics. The couple stayed there for three years. In 1969, Mrs Hashmi took up teaching Fine Arts at the National College of Arts in Lahore whilst continuing to build her team of artists for television shows Mr and Mrs Hashmi were producing together. She also served as the Principal of National College of Arts for four years. She’s organized, curated and implemented several art exhibits and design projects, conferences and seminars in Pakistan and around the world. She also has several publications to her credit.In 1981, Mrs Hashmi’s husband was arrested and jailed at Kot Lakhpat with 400 people for their progressive views. “It was déjà vu for me at many levels. My daughter was the same age I was when my father had been arrested and the superintendent of the Kot Lakhpat jail where my husband was, was the same jailer during my father’s tenure in prison,” she says.In 1955, Mrs Hashmi visited her birthplace Delhi with her father during the Asia Writers’ Congress organized by the Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru. Her father was the head of the Pakistani delegation. “I remember we went across Wagah on foot and then went on to Amritsar by train where we had lunch. We arrived in Delhi and met with friends from pre-Partition days. I also remember meeting Nehru,” she says.In 1962, Mrs Hashmi revisited Delhi with her mother to watch celebrations of the India Republic Day. “It used to be celebrated with royalty and pomp, with elephant processions and fairs during Nehru’s time,” Mrs Hashmi recounts.Sharing her final thoughts on Partition, she says: “There is no closure because people’s stories have yet to be properly documented and understood. They were the ones who had to pay the price for a decision in which so much was left to chance, and neither side envisaged what they were unleashing. It was a terrible carnage which was totally unnecessary. The issue of Partition keeps re-emerging with the 3rd and 4th generation today who don’t have those immediate memories but they do carry the stories that were handed down to them.There are a million ways to look at Partition. Over the years I have heard stories of bitterness, of great optimism, of loyalty and of gratitude. As a child, I’ve heard stories from my parents who witnessed it. My mother worked in the refugee camps. I was at the Lahore Railway Station when a train full of dead bodies had arrived and my mother had yelled at our driver to take me away from that carnage. There was a deathly silence on the platform in Lahore which I understood years later.My father, even though he was from this side, could not reconcile all his life with the biggest bloodbath in the history of this region. It is evident in the fact that he managed to write only one poem on Partition. It’s these stories that lead us to know why it happened the way it happened.The fact remains that the British set this up to drive the point home. This was their last good bye to the Sub-Continent. It could’ve been nipped in the bud very easily but they chose to look away when they had the means not to. I feel we really have to accept that there was this separation and we need to come to terms with it if we want to move forward. Otherwise, we are only going to trivialize all the carnage that has happened and it will weigh on our shoulders if we don’t find a way to cope with it.
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One of the aspects about increasing that many people find tricky is doing it in a pattern, and incorporating the new stitches into the pattern stitch. We'll talk about how it works generally, and then look at the specific cases of ribbing and seed stitch since those come up frequently.
It's going to simplify the following discussion if we first look at how successive increases affect the structure of the fabric. Typically, patterns will call for successive decreases to be done at the same place in relation to an edge of the fabric -- that is, you'll be asked to work 1 or 2 stitches, do an increase, and then work to the same distance from the other edge and do an increase, on each of several increase rows. This means that your second increase is going to be between this fixed edge stitch and your first increase, and so on. This is going to affect your choice of stitch for each of the increased stitches as you incorporate it into the pattern.
A second concept that's helpful to understand is that you will be temporarily out of pattern as you work your initial increases. A well-crafted pattern will have a number of increase rows that's a multiple of the number of stitches in your stitch pattern; for instance, a pattern where you're increasing in seed stitch, a 2-stitch pattern, should have an even number of increase rows, while a pattern in K2P2 ribbing should have a multiple of 4 increase rows. This will enable you to work your way back into the pattern, but being off during the interim is inevitable.
So, let's look at how this works, using seed stitch as an example. Let's say that we're working on a seed-stitch sleeve, and our pattern tells us, "Increase 1 st on each end every 8th row, 6 times." Let's further say that the pattern is well-written, and therefore we have a stockinette selvedge of 1 stitch (to make seaming clean and easy), and an even number of stitches in seed stitch (so that after doing our easy seam, the pattern will flow smoothly across the seam, rendering it invisible); therefore, the RS row directions are "k1, (k1, p1) to last st, k1," and the WS directions are "p1, (p1, k1) to last st, p1." Now, as we've already discussed, a KFB type of increase is the best choice for seed stitch, and it can be placed on the second stitch in from each edge; as to the specific type, we'll choose between KFB and PFB based on the type of the stitch that the increase will be done on, and do a mirrored version for the increase at the left edge so that the new stitch appears before the stitch where the increase is done and not between that stitch and the edge stitch.
Let's briefly review the mirrored front-and-back increases. These are done like so: slip a stitch knitwise and put it back on the left needle with its left leg in front; work (in either knit or purl, as appropriate for the original stitch in pattern) into the left leg and let the old stitch go; pick up the old stitch again using the tip of the left needle; work (in either knit or purl, the same as used for the first stitch) into the right leg of the stitch. This gives you your twisted stitch with the bar around it first, and your untwisted stitch with no bar second, which is the exact reverse of the standard front-and-back increase.
Looking at the first increase row, we'll knit the selvedge stitch, then do the increase on the following stitch, which is a knit, so that will be a KFB. We'll then work in seed stitch as established, doing (p1, k1) across until we reach the 2nd stitch from the end; this one is a purl, and we want to have the new stitch appear first, so we'll do mirrored-PFB here, and then knit the final selvedge stitch.
Now, let's look at the first WS row after this increase, which is where you have to make the decision for the first time on how to work that new stitch into the pattern. We'll purl the selvedge stitch, then purl the first stitch of the seed-stitch pattern, and the next one is the new stitch. Subsequent increases are going to come in between these two stitches, separating this new stitch from its "parent" (I'm going to use that as the term for the stitch that the increase was done into), but it's always hereafter going to be adjacent to the stitch that follows it. Therefore, you want to work the stitch as the type of stitch that should be adjacent to that following stitch, rather than the type that the pattern says should be adjacent to the parent stitch. The following stitch is going to be knit on this row, and therefore the new stitch should be purled; this does, temporarily, give you two purls in a row, but that's okay. You'll then (k1, p1) until you have 3 stitches left in the row, which are the other new stitch, its parent, and the other selvedge; by the same reasoning as above, you will knit the new stitch and also knit its parent, and then purl the selvedge stitch as always. The other WS rows between this row and the next increase row will be worked in exactly this same manner; RS rows will be "k1, k2, (p1, k1) to last 3, p2, k1" (yes, I could have said "k3" at the start -- but I think this makes it clearer). You are slightly out of pattern for the 7 rows between the two increase rows. However, since what you have is a 2-column strip of garter stitch on the edge of your seed stitch, it's not at all obtrusive; you can take my word for that, or you can swatch it up and see what it actually looks like.
Now, let's see what happens on the second increase row. Again, you're going to place the increases on the second and second-to-last stitches of the row, and since those stitches haven't changed, these are going to be a KFB and a mirrored-PFB respectively. Therefore, this row will be "k1, KFB, (k1, p1) to last 2 stitches, m-PFB, k1." On the following WS row, you'll purl the selvedge stitch and purl the parent; the stitch that follows the new stitch is the same one that was new during the first increase, and was purled on the WS rows, and therefore the new stitch for this row should be knitted on the WS to be compatible with that, and just like that, you're back in pattern. Continue on across the row, and end by purling the new stitch between the two knits over there. You're now completely back in pattern until the next increase row comes along. You'll continue in this fashion, getting out of pattern on the odd increase rows, and back into it on the evens, until you've done all the increases.
Increases in ribbing are similar. Let's look at a 4-stitch pattern instead of a 2-stitch one, and just to make it a bit different, let's suppose we're doing a ribbed sleeve in the round. Let's say that our rounds are set up so that the beginning of the round is in the middle of a knit rib, so that our ribbing directions are "k1, p2, (k2, p2) until 1 st remains, k1," and that our increase directions are "Inc 1 st at beginning and end of round, every 6th round, 8 times." Since we're working in the round, there's no need to maintain a selvedge for seaming; an increase can be done in the very first or very last stitch of the round, and therefore we can do a KFB in the first stitch, and a mirrored-KFB in the last stitch, on each increase round. As with the seed-stitch example above, each successive increase will appear between the "parent" stitch and the prior increase, so the new stitches should be worked in pattern with the stitch outside the increase. Therefore, on the first and second increase rounds, the new stitches will both be knits, and you'll have a band of first 4 and then 6 knits up the inside of the sleeve. On the third increase round, however, the new stitches will be purls, so you'll have a single purl rib separating your new 2-knit ribs from the original center rib, and then after the 4th increase round, you'll have a 2-purl rib on either side of the original center knit rib, and you'll be back in pattern; the 5th through 8th increase rounds will just be a repetition of the first four.
So far, we've only looked at cases where the parent stitch is always a member of the same column, so the second and subsequent increases are spawned between the parent and the prior increase. This is by far the most common placement. You can, however, have cases where the parent column changes from one increase row to the next, with subsequent increases being done from the column which was new in the prior increase, and this has two effects which are different from what we've looked at so far: first, each increased stitch will stay adjacent to its parent, rather than being pushed away by the following increase, so it will need to be "in pattern" with respect to its parent, rather than with respect to the stitch beyond; second, because the parent column is different every time, the type of increase used will vary, rather than staying constant as it's done in our prior examples. This is a somewhat related concept to the concept of strong and feathered decreases, which either have a single surviving column or a change of surviving column each time.
A place where these "feathered increases" might be used to good effect would be in the thumb gusset of ribbed mittens or armwarmers, so let's look at some very simple knitted armwarmers as an example -- these will be just a tube with a thumb, and since they're totally lacking in fingers, the thumb can be placed right at the side, with no adjustment for left and right hands. Let's suppose a fingering-weight yarn, and a cast on of 48 stitches in k2p2 rib. After working to the desired length for the wrist, our first increase row will be "mKFB, KFB, place marker, p2, (k2, p2) to end"; subsequent increases will be "increase in 1st st of round and last st before marker, every 3rd round, until there are 18 sts before marker."
Here's how this works out. On the first increase round, you're doing a mirrored KFB into the first stitch of the round, which is a knit stitch, and a regular KFB into the second stitch, which is also a knit stitch, and then you're placing a marker, and finishing the round. On the following 2 work-even rounds, the stitches that were increased will be purled, since a purl stitch is what should be adjacent to each of the parent stitches. On the second increase round, you're going to be doing the increases into the columns that were new last time, and since those are both purls, the new increases will be a mPFB and a PFB. Those stitches will also be worked as purls on the work-even rounds, since you want a 2-purl rib on either side of the 2-knit rib you started with, and the increase on the 3rd increase round will also be mPFB and PFB. For the work-even rounds that follow this increase, you'll be knitting the new columns, and then the increases in the 4th increase round will be mKFB and KFB.
By now you should be seeing how this works; you'll have a total of 8 increase rounds, increasing 2 purls, 2 knits, 2 purls, and 2 knits, on either side of the original 2-knit rib you started with. This produces a very interesting gusset, with the new ribs starting sort of from nowhere rather than seeming to spawn off of another column as they would if you did strong increases.
If you'd like to actually knit up some armwarmers like this, I've written up a pattern for them, and you can find that right over here. If you're on Ravelry and want to add it to your queue, here's the link for that.
That should give you a pretty good grasp on the basics of incorporating increased stitches into a pattern. I do have a bit more to say on the topic -- in particular, I want to talk about how one works increases into a lace pattern -- but I think I want to do it in a slightly more generalized way, looking at the decreases also, so I'm going to do that separately. Stay tuned!
December 08, 2007 in increases, pattern, pattern language | Permalink | Comments (12) | TrackBack (0)
We've gone over the various types of single increases, and I've shown you some of the pattern language that generally serves as a trigger that a certain type of increase is expected by the pattern writer. Now, let's talk for a bit about choosing increases when you don't have that guidance -- maybe the pattern just says, "increase X stitches in the next row," or "increase at each end every Nth row X times," or perhaps you're working up your own design, and not sure what kind of increase you'd like to use.
In general, it's best to suit your increases to your fabric. Stockinette, for instance, is such a smooth fabric that the little bar of a KFB-type increase really stands out. Sometimes this can be a design feature, but most of the time, it's probably a better idea on stockinette to use an M1-type or a lifted-stitch type of increase; no increase is truly invisible, just as no decrease is, but these fade into the background of the fabric more cleanly. As to the choice between M1 and lifted-stitch increases, that's largely personal preference; however, in those cases where the increases are matched against decreases (for instance, when you're doing waist shaping), I'd suggest the lifted-stitch increases, because they're the closest match to the decreases -- they have an "emerging from underneath" appearance that matches the "disappearing underneath" look of the decreases well.
On a textured fabric, such as seed stitch or ribbing, the texture of the KFB-type increases can blend in very nicely. In particular, where increasing out of ribbing into stockinette, the KFB is beautifully suited; if placed on the last stitch of the knit rib, the barred stitch blends into the purl rib almost invisibly (alternatively, mirrored-KFB can be placed on the first stitch of the knit rib, with like results). However, again, if you're matching increases to decreases, the lifted-stitch increases are certainly workable in a textured stitch, and they do match the decreases well.
Now that you've picked a type of increase, where do you put it? The two places where you see this kind of low-guidance instruction to increase are where you're increasing at one or both edges of a piece, or where you're just given a total number of increases to distribute within a row. If the placement is more complicated than that, you're generally told exactly where to do it.
Even when you're told to increase "at the edge," you will almost never want to place an increase directly on the edge of a piece, as this will give it a choppy appearance. Furthermore, if the edge is to be seamed, it's generally best to leave the edge stitch untouched to provide a clean selvedge for seaming. Leaving it untouched has slightly different implications for the different types of increase. For instance, if you're doing an M1, this type of increase tends to exert influence on the stitches on either side of it, and therefore it's probably best to place it two stitches away from an edge to be seamed, in a sequence such as "k2, m1, k to last 2 sts, m1, k2" (although you will see directions calling for only 1 edge stitch, at times; considerations such as the ease of incorporating stitches into a pattern may outweigh the desire to keep a clean edge for seaming). A KFB increase, on the other hand, only affects the stitch it's done into and to a lesser degree the stitch that's beyond the new stitch; it doesn't affect the stitch that remains adjacent to the original stitch. Therefore, a sequence such as "k1, kfb, k to last 2 sts, mirrored-kfb, k1" works nicely with this type of increase; a similar sequence works well with lifted increases, when a left lifted increase is done a stitch away from the right edge and a right lifted increase done near the left edge, but if you wish to use the right lifted increase on the right edge and vice versa, then two untouched stitches are advisable if you're going to be seaming.
When you're distributing increases evenly across a row, the biggest challenge for most people is to remember edge stitches. For instance, if one is distributing 4 increases across 20 stitches, it's easy to think, "Aha, I'll just divide by 4," and so one does "k5, m1, k5, m1, k5, m1, k...." and about this time, realizes that one is going to run out of stitches without having done the last increase. The trick is, when distributing X increases across Y stitches, divide Y by (X+1) instead of by X -- in this example, divide 20 by 5, not 4, so the sequence would be "k4, m1, k4, m1, k4, m1, k4, m1, k4" and the decreases would work out perfectly. If the number of stitches isn't evenly divisible by the number of increases, round down, do the division, and then add half the excess to each end. If you'd like that math done for you, Lucia Liljegren has a very nice calculator which will help you out.
Now, having given you a nice little rule of thumb, I'm going to point out some exceptions to it. First, if you're working in the round, the need to add edge stitches disappears; the initial example, with 5 stitches between increases, works out fine if that's a round of 20 stitches instead of a flat row, although it does put the final increase right at your round marker. Lucia's calculator can still be used, but will work best for work in the round if you use the unbalanced rather than the balanced calculation. Second, this calculation (and Lucia's calculator) assumes an increase that doesn't use up one of your existing stitches; if you're doing KFB increases, which do, you'll need to subtract one from each group of stitches except the last, to account for the fact that you'll use one up when you do the increase -- the sequence in the example would become "k3, kfb, k3, kfb, k3, kfb, k3, kfb, k4." Third, you may want to modify this distribution if you're working in a pattern stitch, to something that will mesh more nicely with the pattern. For example, as I earlier pointed out, KFB increases done on the last knit of a knit rib will blend very nicely into ribbing; making sure that each increase ends up in this placement is therefore probably more useful than making sure the placement is exactly even. This is probably easier to do by hand, by making a sketch that shows your number of repeats and then marking which ones you're going to do the increases on, rather than using a calculator and then modifying the output. With all these exceptions, you can see that there's as much art as science in evenly distributing increases, but this at least gives you a place to begin.
Next up, we'll talk about working increases into a pattern stitch, particularly ribbing and seed stitch since those frequently give people trouble.
November 28, 2007 in increases, pattern language | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)
We've spent a while talking about decreases -- how about some increases for a while? Let's look at the general types, some of their advantages and disadvantages, and where they can and cannot be freely substituted. We'll also talk about how increases are specified within patterns, which is more often vague than the way decreases are specified.
I'm going to classify the basic single increases into three groups: those which are done between existing stitches, those which are done into a stitch in the current row, and those which are done into a stitch in the prior row. Within these groups, they behave fairly similarly, and in most cases you can freely substitute one member of the group for another member of the group without doing serious violence to your end result.
The easiest of the between-stitches increases is the YO. Of course, easy doesn't necessarily mean simple, or I wouldn't have written quite a bit about them already, but fundamentally, it's just a loop of yarn over the needle. In common with the other increases in this group, the YO makes 1 stitch out of 0, not using up any of the existing stitches. Unlike the other stitches in the group, it has no directionality once completed; it has an orientation as it sits on the needle, but lies flat once you've worked it in the following row. And, of course, it leaves quite a noticeable hole; for this reason, it's really not interchangeable with the other decreases in the group. Pattern instructions are generally quite clear when this increase is desired, and will call specifically for this or one of the British terms for specific varieties of YOs.
The remaining between-stitches increases are close variants of one another, and with a few minor caveats which I'll get to as I discuss each of them, may be freely substituted. Typically an instruction of "make 1" or "m1" is an indication that this type of increase is expected, and you may use whichever one of these you prefer. Each of these does have a left-leaning and a right-leaning version, and in situations where you're doing a series of paired increases (for instance, both sides of a sleeve, or either side of the shoulder join on a raglan), it's usually best to use them in mirrored pairs. There are three variants: the lifted bar, the backwards loop, and the twisted YO.
The lifted-bar M1 will probably be the most familiar to you; most people learn it quite early in their knitting careers. This increase is done by picking up the bar that connects the next stitch on the left needle to the stitch just worked, placing that bar on the left needle as if it were a stitch, and then working into it (in knit or in purl, as appropriate) so that it's twisted, preventing a hole. The left-leaning variety is performed by putting the bar on the needle in standard Western orientation and working into the back leg; for the right-leaning variety you put the bar on the needle in Eastern orientation and work into the front leg. Amy at KnittingHelp has some nice photos of these; they may be found at the third knitted diamond down from the top, and are called M1R/M1F and M1L/M1B respectively.
The backwards-loop M1 may also be familiar; Elizabeth Zimmermann was quite fond of it and recommended it frequently. This increase is done by simply making a backwards loop of the yarn and placing it on the needle, just like the backwards-loop or e-loop cast-on. For the left-leaning version, the yarn is twisted clockwise, so that the working yarn points away from you; for the right-leaning version, it's twisted counterclockwise, so that the working yarn points towards you. Again, KnittingHelp offers photos; the first and second diamonds on the same page mentioned above show these increases, labeled as M1A and M1T, respectively. The first diamond also shows what happens if you don't use mirrored increases -- it's a less dramatic effect than what you get with unmirrored decreases, but you can still tell a difference. These increases differ from the lifted-bar M1s in two respects: they use up a bit more yarn and pull a bit less on the neighboring stitches, and the twisted stitch at the bottom of the new column appears one row later. If you have issues with this increase leaving a hole, you might try substituting the lifted-bar M1 instead; because it "steals" its yarn from the stitches on either side, instead of being given a stitch worth of yarn to itself at the time it's created, it tends to leave a smaller footprint. Conversely, if you have issues with the lifted-bar M1 causing pulling or puckering, this one is a nice substitute that usually doesn't have that problem. The one-row difference usually doesn't cause an issue, except that if you're counting stitches to see how many rows you've worked, you'll want to remember whether the twisted stitch is part of the increase row, or part of the row before that.
The twisted-YO M1 shares some of the attributes of each of the other types, and is done by creating a YO (either backwards or forwards) on the current row, and then working into it so it's twisted on the following row; a forwards YO is worked through the back leg to create the left-leaning version, while a backwards YO is worked through the front leg to create the right-leaning variety. This increase feels like a slightly looser lifted-bar M1 when you're working it, but like the backwards-loop M1, the twisted stitch appears on the increase row; the amount of yarn used is in between the other types. I favor this one, finding it to strike a nice balance between ease of working and neatness in appearance, but because it's really not completed until the row following the increase, I use it with caution where the row immediately following the increases is a complicated one.
That covers the increases done between stitches; now, let's look at those done into an existing stitch. These generally fall into two groups: those where you work the same type of stitch into both the front and back, in some order, and those where you both knit and purl into the same stitch, in some order. Unlike the between-stitches increases, these increases use up 1 existing stitch to make 2 stitches. Many patterns are explicit about these types of increases, with them spelled out within the line of instructions or clearly indicated as an abbreviation, but others are more obscure. When you are told to increase "in" or "into" a stitch, generally this type of increase is intended; that's fairly clear, since it is done within a stitch. However, often but not always, a pattern instruction that says merely "inc 1" is also looking for this type of increase; this seems to be a little more prevalent with British authors. If a pattern uses both "m1" and "inc 1" then you can be fairly confident that the "inc 1" is looking for this type of increase; if it uses only "inc 1", then be careful. Often the stitch counts will provide a clue: if a pattern says "k1, inc 1, k to last 2 sts, inc 1, k1" then you know that the "inc 1" is intended to use up a stitch, and therefore must be this type; if it says the last stitch instead of the last 2, then they must mean for you to use a between-stitches increase, because if you used this type there wouldn't be a stitch left for the k1. And with that out of the way, let's start looking at the mechanics of the individual increases.
First, we'll look at the front-and-back increases, and let's start with a fundamental question: why front and back, instead of just working twice into the same part of the stitch? The answer is that you can't work twice into the front without an intervening step. If you knit into the front of a stitch, and then immediately knit into the front of it again, you actually undo the anchoring of the working yarn into the stitch, and end up with a single stitch that's just wrapped around the needle in the middle, like what you get when you do a double YO. When you work into the front and then the back, or the back and then the front, a loop of the existing stitch wraps around the working yarn and secures it, so you can make that separate second stitch. This bit of yarn from the existing stitch winds up wrapped around the base of the second stitch worked, forming a little horizontal bar of yarn on the knit side of the stitch (you can see a good photo of this on that same KnittingHelp page, 5th diamond down); intriguingly, it's always the 2nd stitch and always the knit side of it that shows the bar, whether you do front first or back first, and whether you do knits or purls. Because of this little bar of yarn, these increases are sometimes called bar increases; however, that's susceptible to confusion with the lifted-bar M1 increase, so I think it's probably better to avoid the term and just be specific with KFB or PFB.
KFB is by far the most common of these, and is done by knitting a stitch through the front leg but retaining it on the left needle, and then swinging the tip of the right needle around to the back and inserting it in the back leg to work the stitch a second time; this gives you one normal-looking knit stitch, and a second to its left with a little collar twisted right up around its base. If you work into the back first and then the front, you don't get the reverse of this -- you get the front stitch obviously twisted, and then the second stitch looking just about the same as with KFB. I mention this primarily so you'll realize this doesn't give you a mirror-image; I'm not sure when you'd actually use it, except possibly if you were increasing in a twisted rib. PFB is done similarly, working into the front and then swinging the needle around to work into the back; again, the back-leg-first version just leaves that first stitch twisted, rather than forming a mirror.
You may have gathered that I think mirroring is kind of a Big Deal with increases of this type. Actually, I think it's important in any situation where you've got increases in pairs -- things just look funny if the fabric isn't increasing symmetrically -- but with these increases, the mirrored option is non-obvious. When you increase within a stitch, you'll have one column that appears to be the continuation of the column the stitch was originally in, and one column that springs up on the row where you do the increase; with each of the 4 increases I just mentioned, even if you reverse the order of the front and the back, the continuing column will always be the one on the right, and the new column always the one on the left. One common way to adjust for this is to move the leftmost increase one column to the right -- for instance, if you want your increase points to be 2 stitches from the edge, on the right edge you'd do "k1, KFB", but then on the left edge, you'd do "KFB, k2", to put the increased column as the 3rd column in from both edges. That's not bad; you can tell a difference if you have stacked increases, but it's not as dramatic as it would be with decreases, so you can get away with it. A slightly improved option is to do KFB on one edge on the RS rows, and PFB on the other edge on the WS rows -- you might do "k1, KFB, k to end" on the RS, and then "p1, PFB, p to end" on the WS, for instance. PFB still puts the increased column to the left, but since you're working it on the WS, it'll appear to the right on the RS; there's a one-row offset, but if the edges aren't brought close together, the eye won't pick that out, and the slant of the columns within the fabric will match nicely.
Until quite recently, I'd have said that was as good as things were going to get. However, very clever knitter Jenn recently pointed out to me a way to do a truly mirrored KFB, where every single thing is switched around, and the nice untwisted continuing stitch ends up on the left and the newly created column ends up on the right. To do Jenn's Mirrored KFB, you slip the stitch knitwise, then replace it on the left needle in Eastern orientation; knit it through the front and let it go, and then pick up the left leg again (still in Eastern orientation), and knit it through the back. It's a perfect match to the KFB -- isn't she smart? (It's quite possible, even likely, that someone else had already thought this up -- but I've never seen it before, and Jenn figured it out independently, so I'm giving her credit, although I'll be happy to provide equal mention to anyone else who's also documented it.) With that to go on, I've worked out a Mirrored PFB to match: slip a stitch knitwise and return it to the left needle, then purl it through the front and let it go; pick up the left leg, which will be crossed over the front of the stitch, into Eastern orientation, and purl it in the back. So, there you have it -- nicely mirrored options to match each of these decreases. I'd suggest using these any time you're doing KFB/PFB in pairs.
Now let's turn to the other group of stitches that falls in this category -- those where you knit and purl into the same stitch, in some order. The major difference between these and the front-and-back variety is that instead of the existing stitch getting wrapped around the working yarn to form a bar, the working yarn gets wrapped around the top of the existing stitch, forming a little nub sort of like half a stitch worth of moss or seed stitch. Because of this, this increase is sometimes called a moss increase; referring yet again to that handy page at KnittingHelp, you can see this one on the third diamond counting up from the bottom. Despite the name, however, this probably isn't the best increase to use when working moss or seed stitch. That's because this increase tends to open up the stitch it's worked into, leading to a small hole under the increase point; I think it's really best suited to the one case where that's a real advantage, which is when you're working into a YO, to make a large hole -- there, it gives a cleaner, smoother result than working into the front and back (and, in fact, a knit and a purl in some order are almost always indicated when working into the two loops of a double-YO, which is structurally a single stitch). The double-increase version of it has some other uses, which I'll get into when we talk about double increases generally, but the single increase really has just that one place where it's clearly the superior choice. It doesn't matter much whether you knit first and purl second, or vice versa; it shifts the slant of the nub a tiny bit, but so little that it's probably going to be overwhelmed in the texture of the yarn anyway.
What if you combined these, and did, for instance, a purl into the front and then a knit into the back of the same stitch, or the other possible combinations? Well, you can do that, and it doesn't give a bad result. It's a lot like KFB/PFB, with whichever stitch you do first and its twist or lack of twist being the most clearly presented; you get both the working yarn wrapping around the top of the stitch and the stitch wrapping around the base of the second stitch, so the type of stitch and whether it's twisted or not is pretty well obscured. It might be a little snugger than KFB/PFB, which would be all to the good, but it's a bit more of a pain in the neck to work, so I'd suggest experimenting and seeing if you think it's worth the bother. As with the KFB/PFB, you can do this in a mirrored fashion, but I'm going to leave that one as an exercise for those of you who're curious.
Before I move on, let me now clarify something that I deliberately left a bit obscure when I was talking about pattern instructions that indicate an increase to be done into a stitch: which kind do you do? In almost all cases, you're going to want to pick the KFB/PFB type; as I went into above, the knit-and-purl sort is best suited to those cases where you want an open result. In addition, your instructions may indicate which to choose as between the KFB and PFB by telling you to increase knitwise or purlwise. I have never seen a pattern indicate a mirrored KFB/PFB or the combined form, but I think I've given you sufficient guidance to understand when those might be called for.
Finally, there's our third class of increases, those done into a stitch in the prior row. There are only two of these, and they are mirrors of one another, so there's not really any question of substitution within this group. To perform these increases, you pick up a stitch from the prior row and knit into it; for that reason, these are often called "lifted" increases, but make sure you don't confuse them with the "lifted bar" type of M1 increase. The first of these is done by working into the stitch immediately below the next stitch on your left needle; you will pick up the right leg of this, place it on the left needle, and knit into it, then let it go. It leans right, away from the column where it was done, and is usually called a right lifted increase, or RLI. The second lifted increase is done by working into the stitch immediately below the last one that has already been knit, which will be two rows below the last loop on your right needle; you pick up the left leg of this, place it on the back of the left needle, knit into it, and then let it go. It leans left, away from the column where it was done, and is called a left lifted increase, or LLI. Amy at KnittingHelp has photos of this also, on the 4th diamond from the top, but calls them KLR and KLL, respectively. Meg Swansen suggests a variation on these, which is to knit them so that the old stitch is twisted; it's tighter and counteracts the tendency for a hole to develop where a stitch has multiple stitches worked into it. These increases are the best match for single decreases; they have nearly as strong a lean, and an appearance of stitches emerging from the side of a column which complements the way they seem to disappear under a decrease. This is particularly true when the lifted stitch is twisted, and is part of why I like this variation even though in other places (like the "improved" SSK) twisted stitches make me twitch. Usually instructions will be clear about calling for these if it's the designer's intent, but because they don't affect the count of the stitches waiting to be worked, they can be substituted for the M1 increases if that seems desirable to you.
Next up: we've covered the instructions that are usually used to indicate a particular intended increase, but it'll be useful to talk a bit about those cases where no intent can be determined, and how the fabric you're working in can affect the appropriate choice of increase there. I'd also like to cover the double/multiple increases, but I'm not sure if that'll be the same post or a different one, and then after that, with both increases and decreases in our toolbox, maybe I'll spend a bit of time on increasing and decreasing in pattern, particularly in ribbing and seed stitch. Stay tuned!
September 26, 2007 in increases, pattern language | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBack (0)
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Extreme Cruise Ship
Published on August 22, 2012 August 22, 2012 by Molly1 Comment
Right now I am watching a show on Destination America (did anyone else know this channel existed?) titled “Extreme Cruise Ship.” The show follows the crew and passengers as they board Royal Caribbean’s Oasis of the Seas. I think the show is supposed to show the glamour and appeal of a cruise. For me, this is confirming that a cruise would be my worst nightmare.
The ship first set sail in December of 2010 and has the ability to carry over 6,000 passengers each trip. At that point in time, the ship set the record for the largest cruise ship in the world. Unfortunately, the sister ship Allure of the Seas is a mere 2 inches longer, setting a new record.
Oasis of the Seas is definitely an impressive ship. It features two-story loft suites and luxury suites measuring 1,600 sq ft (double the size of my apartment!) with balconies overlooking the sea or promenades. The ship features a zip-line, a casino, a mini-golf course, multiple night clubs, several bars and lounges, a karaoke club, comedy club, five swimming pools, volleyball and basketball courts, theme parks and nurseries for children.
This is where things get weird… Onboard recreational, athletic, and entertainment activities are organized into seven themed areas called “neighborhoods”, sort of like theme parks. Below are descriptions of these seven neighborhoods.
Central Park features boutiques, restaurants and bars, including access to the Rising Tide bar, which can be raised or lowered between three decks. It has the first living park at sea with over 12,000 plants and 56 trees. So in other words, nothing like the Central Park of NYC.
The Pool and Sports Zone features a sloped-entry beach pool and two surf simulators.
Vitality at Sea Spa and Fitness Center features a spa for teens (really? a spa for teens?)
Boardwalk features a handcrafted carousel, restaurants, bars, shops, two rock-climbing walls, and a temporary tattoo parlor. Its outdoor 750-seat Aqua Theatre amphitheater hosts the ship’s largest freshwater pool. As a kid, this sounds awesome. Now imagine spending an entire week here as an adult. Not so awesome anymore…
Royal Promenade features restaurants and shops.
Youth Zone features a science lab and computer gaming. Awesome, you brought your kids on a cruise and all they do is play video games. Talk about an ideal family vacation!
Entertainment Place. I can’t find information on what this area includes. I bet it doesn’t even exist but no one notices cause the boat is so big.
While the idea of a cruise, to travel at night and wake up at a different location in the morning, sounds pretty good, I don’t think I can fully get over all of the other stuff that comes with cruises: being trapped on a boat, in the middle of the ocean, with families wearing matching “we’re on vacation” t-shirts sounds horrible!
I don’t think I am going to be able to sleep tonight.
Video•Categories Oh the Places You'll Go, Random Thoughts•Tags adventure, Cruise, Oasis of the Seas, Royal Caribbean, television, Travel, TV
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Report: U.N. Sets Date for Syria Talks U.N. Sets Date for Syria Talks...
U.N. Sets Date for Syria Talks
The United Nations said Saturday that the date for peace talks among the parties to the Syrian civil war has been set for January 25, 2016. The participants for those talks in Geneva are still subject to change — the Assad regime has not announced its delegation and the opposition delegation, decided in talks in ...
By J. Dana Stuster
| December 28, 2015, 12:31 PM
The United Nations said Saturday that the date for peace talks among the parties to the Syrian civil war has been set for January 25, 2016. The participants for those talks in Geneva are still subject to change — the Assad regime has not announced its delegation and the opposition delegation, decided in talks in Saudi Arabia, could shift — but U.N. diplomats say they are a positive step that should not be “derailed” by events in Syria. A truce negotiated in September went into effect this morning in Zabadani, near the Lebanese border, and two towns in Idlib Province. Under the terms of the agreement, civilians and fighters are being allowed to flee to Lebanon and Turkey.
The announcement came a day after Zahran Alloush, the head of Syrian rebel group Jaysh al-Islam, was killed in an airstrike near Damascus. Rebels told reporters that they believe the attack was carried out by Russian warplanes. In Homs, a pair of bombings targeting an Alawite neighborhood killed at least 19 people.
Iraqi Military Says Ramadi “Liberated” from Islamic State
The Iraqi military declared that Ramadi “has been liberated” from the Islamic State, and videos show Iraqi forces celebrating in the city. Earlier today, Iraqi troops raised the Iraqi flag over the government complex in the city. Iraqi officials say that some militants may remain, but that they are no longer meeting resistance and are working to clear remaining bombs from the city.
Naji Jerf, a documentarian with the anti-Islamic State group Raqqa Is Being Slaughtered Silently, was assassinated in Gaziantep, Turkey, by a gunman with a silenced pistol.
Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi released a new audio message, his first since May, in which he mocked the U.S.-led coalition fighting the Islamic State and threatened attacks against Israel.
Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu signaled he plans to exclude the pro-Kurdish opposition People’s Democracy Party from negotiations on constitutional reform in response to party leader Selahattin Demirtas’ recent trip to Moscow.
Yemen’s ousted former president Ali Abdullah Saleh, who has supported the country’s Houthi rebels, has called for withdrawing from the U.N.-backed negotiations set to resume next month in favor of negotiating directly with Saudi Arabia.
In a year-end report, the Algerian defense ministry announced that the military had killed more than 100 Islamist militants and arrested 36 others over the year, as well as seizing 182 bombs and 132 mines.
Arguments and Analysis
“Egypt’s Escalating Islamist Insurgency” (Mokhtar Awad and Mostafa Hashem, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace)
“These groups are all part of Egypt’s changing insurgent landscape. It is made up of three broad categories: Sinai-based jihadists affiliated with the self-proclaimed Islamic State and with a limited operational presence in the mainland (the populous heartland of Egypt along the Nile valley), mainland-based Salafi jihadists who tend to be supporters of al-Qaeda or affiliated with al-Qaeda, and a new category of non-Salafi-jihadi groups made up of Islamist supporters and some members of the Muslim Brotherhood. What distinguishes this last category is that its members fashion themselves as ‘revolutionaries’ or ‘resistance fighters,’ thus justifying the often-anarchic violence they deploy. Their objectives are also narrower than those of the jihadists, encompassing only retribution against security forces and toppling President Sisi’s government in order to reinstate Islamist rule in Egypt.”
“ISIS in Gaza” (Sarah Helm, New York Review of Books)
“In the House of Wisdom — a Hamas think tank — Ahmed Yousef, a Hamas moderate, was assigned to consider a response. A well-traveled and affable intellectual, Yousef advised the use of persuasion rather than brute force. Salafist prisoners were visited by a committee of approved theologians who tried to ‘correct’ the Salafists’ misreading of the Prophet’s message on jihad and ‘reeducated’ them. He seemed to be playing down the problem of Salafists, probably for fear of fanning the flame or giving the outside world the impression that Hamas had lost control. For one thing, some of those behind the attacks were former al-Qassem fighters, hence their military skills. Angry about Hamas’s insistence on maintaining the cease-fire and other signs of moderation, they had quit al-Qassem and signed up with the jihadist groups. Nevertheless, as Yousef pointed out, many new recruits to Salafism were disaffected youth. Hamas had interviewed the families of those who had left for Syria or died there—he could not say how they traveled or how many they were. Yousef had been to funerals — ‘family events’ — of those who’d died in Syria ‘to look at the faces of relatives and better understand,’ he said. ‘These young people have nothing — no glamour, no hope. Nothing.’”
-J. Dana Stuster
GEORGE OURFALIAN/AFP/Getty Images
Tag: Mideast Brief
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United States. Congress 1935-1937)6,142
United States. Congress. House. Committee on Claims4,342
United States. Congress. House4,302
United States. Congress[remove]28,816
United States--Politics and government28,590
United States. Congress--History28,588
Bills, Private10,788
Bills, Private--United States10,788
Athenaeum of Philadelphia - Visual Materials1
J - Political Science5
You searched for: Publication date 1930s Remove constraint Publication date: 1930s Subject United States. Congress Remove constraint Subject: United States. Congress
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26. Statement of Hon. E. O. Sykes, Chairman, Federal Radio Commission, on S. 2910, Communications Act of 1934
United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on Interstate Commerce.
27. Merchant Marine Act, 1935. Hearings on H.R. 7521. Part 5
United States. Congress. House. Committee on Merchant Marine and Fisheries.
28. Revenue Act of 1934. Extract from Hearings on H.R. 7835, an Act to Provide Revenue, Equalize Taxation and for other Purposes. Statement of M. L. Seidman, Representing the New York Board of Trade
United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on Finance.
30. Authorizing Certain Officials Under the Naval Establishment To Administer Oaths (H.R. 4000). Mr. O'Connell
United States. Congress. House. Committee on Naval Affairs.
31. Federal Petroleum Act. Extract from Hearings on S. 2027, a Bill to Regulate Commerce in Petroleum, and for other Purposes. Statement of R. B. Brown, General Counsel, the Independent Petroleum Association of America
United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on Mines and Mining.
33. Airship Investigation. Report of Col. Henry Breckinridge
United States. Congress. Joint Committee to Investigate Dirigible Disasters.
34. Investigation of Economic Problems. Extract from Hearings Pursuant to S. Res. 315, Authorizing and Directing the Finance Committee to make an Investigation and Study of the Present Economic Problems of the U.S. with a View to Securing Constructive Suggestions with Respect to the Solution of such Problems. Statement of Irving Fisher, Professor of Economics, Yale University
[S.l] : [publisher not identified], 1932-1933.
35. Investigation of Economic Problems. Extract from Hearings Pursuant to S. Res. 315, Authorizing and Directing the Finance Committee to make an Investigation and Study of the Present Economic Problems of the U.S. with a View to Securing Constructive Suggestions with Respect to the Solution of such Problems. Part 7. Statement of Mary Van Kleeck, Director, Department of Industrial Studies, Russell Sage Foundation
36. National Industrial Recovery. Extract from Hearings on S. 1712 and H.R. 5755, Bills to Encourage National Industrial Recovery, to Foster Fair Competition, and to Provide for the Construction of Certain Useful Public Works, and for other Purposes. Statement of J. Edward Jones
37. Revenue Revision, 1932. Hearings. No. 13
United States. Congress. House. Committee on Ways and Means.
38. Reports of the Senate Committee on Claims, 72d Congress, Together with a History of Bills, Resolutions, and Amendments Referred to the Committee. Compiled by H. B. Straight, Assistant Clerk
United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on Claims.
39. Investigation of Economic Problems. Extract from Hearings Pursuant to S. Res. 315, Authorizing and Directing the Finance Committee to make an Investigation and Study of the Present Economic Problems of the U.S. with a View to Securing Constructive Suggestions with Respect to the Solution of such Problems. Part 5. Statement of Francis P. Garvan, President Chemical Foundation
40. National Industrial Recovery. Extract from Hearings on S. 1712 and H.R. 5755, Bills to Encourage National Industrial Recovery, to Foster Fair Competition, and to Provide for the Construction of Certain Useful Public Works, and for other Purposes
41. Investigation of Economic Problems. Extract from Hearings. Agriculture : Its Relation to Causes of Present Depression and Possible Legislative Remedies. Statement of George N. Peek, Moline, Illinois, February 14, 1933.
42. Investigation of Economic Problems. Extracts from Hearings Pursuant to S. Res. 315. Statements of : John R. Waller, President, International Bank; and Hon. South Trimble, Clerk of the House of Representatives.
43. Study of the Regulation of Sanitation in Dairies which May make Clearer the Relation which Sanitary Regulation has had to Improper and Unwise Restriction of the Fluid Milk Supply and the Proposed Ordinance. Extracts from Hearings before a Subcommittee to Investigate Conditions Respecting the Sale and Distribution of Dairy Products in the District of Columbia. Testimony of Alden A. Potter
United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on the District of Columbia. Subcommittee on S. Res. 3.
44. Abstract of Testimony in Investigation of Judge Harold Louderback
United States. Congress. House. Committee on the Judiciary.
45. Extracts from Hearing on S. 1317. Statement of D. E. McAvoy, Chairman, Long Island Division of the Home Mortgage Advisory Board Relative to Amendments to Urban Home Mortgage Bill Submitted by the Long Island Real Estate Board, Apr. 20, 1933, at Invitation of Hon. Robert F. Wagner of New York
United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on Banking and Currency.
46. Index. Hearings Before Committee on Naval Affairs of the House of Representatives on Sundry Legislation Affecting the Naval Establishment, 1930-31
47. Committee on Claims, House of Representatives, U.S., Rules and General Information (as to Procedure, Jurisdiction, and Claims Against the U.S.) 75th Congress
United States. Congress. House. Committee on Claims.
48. To Create a U.S. Housing Authority. Hearings on (H.R. 5033) (S. 1685), a Bill to Provide Financial Assistance to the States and Political Subdivisions Thereof for the Elimination of Unsafe and Unsanitary Housing Conditions, for the Provision of Decent, Safe, and Sanitary Dwellings for Families of Low Income, and for the Reduction of Unemployment and the Stimulation of Business Activity, to Create a U.S. Housing Authority, and for other Purposes
United States. Congress. House. Committee on Banking and Currency.
49. Government Ownership of the Twelve Federal Reserve Banks. Hearings on H.R. 7230
50. House of Representatives, Committee on Claims. History of Legislation with General Alphabetical Index Showing Nature and Final Status of all Bills and Resolutions before the Committee; Members' Index; Committee Rules and Procedure; Statistics; and General Information Concerning Claims Against the U.S. 75th Congress. by Robert E. Mitchell, Assistant Clerk
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Daring Contemporary Addition to Amsterdam’s Stedelijk Museum
By Lavinia April 12, 2013 in Architecture
The grand rooms, majestic staircase and natural lighting of the initial building of the Amsterdam Stedelijk Museum created in 1895 were retained in an “updated” modern version of the landmark. Benthem Crouwel Architects envisioned a bold addition for the famous contemporary art museum, situated next to the Van Gogh Museum and the Concertgebouw. The massive white volume provides more space for exhibitions and its interior design is said to blend in with the overall inner appearance of the main building.
The architects describe some of the features of the contemporary Stedelijk museum of art in Amsterdam: “From the entrance, visitors can familiarize themselves with the different routes that are possible through the building. The routing can be controlled by the programming, but is not mandatory in one direction. Thus it is possible to walk directly into the old building to follow the various circuits. The monumental staircase remained and continues to have an important function in the routing.” Amsterdam enthusiasts worldwide, how would you comment on this new architecture addition to the city’s landscape?
Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam Officially Opened by Queen Beatrix on September 22
Creative Housing Block in One of Amsterdam’s New Residential Neighborhoods
Dynamic, Exciting and Architecturally Intriguing: Porsche Museum in Stuttgart
Contemporary Structure for Dali’s works: Salvador Dali Museum
Israeli Hub For Creativity In The Field of Design: Museum Holon
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Cremation Prices Gainesville FL 32653
If you prefer to be contacted by phone, enter your number above. New York has some of the strictest standards for the operation of a crematory and is one of the few states that require crematory operators to be certified by an organization approved by the Division of Cemeteries. This page was last modified on 19 June 2016, at 21:06. The type of cremation casket or container used is really a personal choice. Once selected, the deceased is placed into the cremation casket or container for an identification viewing and any mandatory waiting period prior to cremation. They may not tell consumers that state or local laws require a casket. Catholic Cremation Gainesville FL 32653. Families often know little about what happens after they say "yes." Ethics experts say many families in the U.S. and other countries assume that standard donor agreements apply only to hearts, lungs and internal organs. There is a mistrustful fear—a fear of lack; and a distracting fear—a fear of danger; and a discouraging fear—a fear that God does not love us. Used 2016 BMW 3 Series for sale in Los Angeles, CA 90034 for $24,900, 330 miles Copans Road and merged with another coming from Pompano Citi Centre at Copans and Federal Highway. In loving memory funeral poems are a great way to say more in fewer words. Whether you choose a long poem or a short one, it will really make a big difference in how your loved one's funeral will be memorable and special for everyone. Does not include cash advance items such as Medical Examiner Authorization, death certificates and an obituary. For more details, please click on the 'CREMATION' tab Jesus said that He was going to prepare a place for us.
This does not have to be a casket, however. The specific container to be used is a personal choice, and many suitable containers or caskets are available in a variety of materials, ranging from handcrafted oak, to maple to mahogany. Nope, not here. My beloved pet (18lb dog) was returned to me in a can. A CAN. I assumed the option for the urn meant that the crematory would upgrade from a wooden box to something grander. This is a time of loss, especially for myself and my brothers and sisters. Visiting with the many sympathisers has been a great comfort to us. During the Enlightenment, further changes occurred in Protestant and Catholic funerals. In Lutheran services the amount of clerical input was greatly decreased and often a secular oration replaced the sermon. Burial Service Gainesville FL 32653
While a standard cremation service, which eliminates the need for embalming, caskets, land for a burial plot, or headstones, is considered a green alternative to burial, the practice still has a minimal impact on the environment. These are fees faced by everyone dealing with a death and, while frustrating, are necessary for legal purposes and full closure on the death. He wakes up at the end to find a disheveled and enraged Kitty listing all the places he teleported her to - including a funeral. You will need to have a hearse and funeral "lead car" available for funeral processions. Since the vehicles will be used for business, leasing may be more attractive than buying them.
Gallant-Riverview Funeral Home has been serving Lincoln County since 1952 and proudly remains family owned and operated by the Gallant family. Good morning Tim,. The cost of a funeral is distinctly personal based on choices. Im not sure if you were looking for cremation or burial and what type of services you would like. You can designate a beneficiary who can claim the funds immediately after your death. Make sure the beneficiary understands what the money is for, however, and that you trust him or her completely, because the beneficiary is under no legal obligation to use the funds for your final arrangements. Cremation Prices Gainesville FL Apply for a Budgeting loan from the social fund using form SF500 After the funeral rule was introduced and an abundance of casket retailers emerged, prices for caskets have come down. Even Costco and Walmart now sell caskets online. Those scattered in Jacob's Way are also remembered in our Memorial Book, which is housed in the Northam Memorial Chapel entryway. Situated in the picturesque seaside town in Torquay on the English riviera, Torquay Cemetery & Crematorium has served the people of Torbay for generations. FUNERAL OUTLINES. 17 OUTLINES NEW! - 2/8/08. CONVERSION STORY. A FUNERAL SERMON Matthew 11:28 - Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will.
Do make sure that family are aware that you have a plan, and where the details of it are kept. Under Federal Trade Commission rules, funeral directors must give you itemized prices for goods and services. Though many funeral homes offer packages, you have the right to purchase items a la carte. Our charge for this service includes: transfer of remains to funeral home, bathing, disinfecting and refrigeration of unembalmed remains, dressing, cosmetizing, minimal services of funeral director and staff, use of facilities for private family viewing (limited to 30 minutes and 10 people), utility vehicle, and cremation of remains. The ritual cremation of Roman emperors involved the release of an eagle above the cremation pyre to symbolize his deification and the passing of the emperor-god's spirit. Except for some minuscule amounts of cremated remains which cannot practically be removed from the cremation equipment, all cremated remains are placed in the selected urn. My job is to listen carefully, understand your needs, and guide you through the hundreds of luxury yachts for sale to the yacht that is right for you and then to help you to purchase that luxury yacht on the best possible terms. However, a memorial service may take place before or at the end of the cremation service, with or without the remains. Since ancient times ceremonies and rites have been associated with the disposal of a corpse. The purposes of these rites were to honor the deceased, to plead for divine favor, and to console the bereaved. A funeral program template is a document, which has been designed to deliver the news or funeral bulletin. The templates are present in various designs, which are great help for people to customize and personalize their desired template. Contact us today to learn more about our many funeral options.
Goulding's tender cover of The Waterboys' 1990 song is a moving choice for funerals. The cremains (also known as cremated remains) are allowed to cool down before they are removed. Bone fragments that contain screws or surgical pins are then taken out, and the medical implements are manually removed by the operator. Burial Service Gainesville Florida 32653 You are open-minded about ways in which people of different faiths and cultures express their feelings and practice their beliefs. Hi! You can now report bad ads if you suffer from sound/video ads.
Style, performance, sophistication is in a class of its own with this stunning Cadillac XTS. Based on the superb condition of this vehicle, along with the options and color, this Cadillac XTS Luxury is sure to sell fast. They also prepare the sites of all services and provide transportation for the deceased and mourners. In addition, they arrange the shipment of bodies out of state or out of country for final disposition. The florist met him outside the shop and was obviously upset. "I am terribly sorry about the mixup with the flowers," he said, "but I hope you will be understanding. Located on US 59/Southwest Fwy on the northbound frontage road, between Bissonnet & Beltway 8.. Along the sea-sands damp and brown The traveler hastens toward the town, And the tide rises, the tide falls.
Burial Service Catholic Cremation
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Funeral Service West Jordan UT 84088
This can provide a lot of peace of mind to the purchaser, especially if they don't want to stress their family out. Dear Ian, On behalf of our mother who went to be with the Lord forever, we want to thank you for all the attention and care you gave to our mom. We offer a full range of gifts to help comfort and support those who need it the most limitations to pc gaming interactions with others online. Funeral Costs West Jordan Utah 84088.
We proudly provide a luxurious and affordable limo service in Alabama including Huntsville, Mobile and Montgomery. If you need a limo in Anchorage Alaska , you can also count on US Luxury Limo for the best limousine transportation. After the necessary documents are prepared, signed, and approved by various agencies (namely, the Health Department and the Medical Examiner) the remains will be taken to the crematory for cremation; by Stephen/Hummer from Saint Louis, Mo. November 10, 2015 You have gone beyond anything we could have ever hoped to experience. You kindness and understanding of this very difficult situation was so much appreciated. Consider inserting their accomplishments, hobbies, surviving family members, and anything else the deceased loved. Maybe the loved one's favorite quote, poem, or song lyrics may be inserted into the obituary template. Second, people interested in a green burial are still required to obtain a burial permit from their local city or town. Finally, there are no standards for green burials in Massachusetts and exclusively green cemeteries do not yet exist in the state.
In the depth of your hopes and desires lies your silent knowledge of the beyond; Inurnment in church columbarium or cremated remains scattering in memorial garden (verify with members church). In a long string of pranks, a bar owner rival of Cheers fakes his own death, funeral, and is even buried inside a coffin to prank Sam Malone. If your loved one was in the military they may qualify for a burial with Military Funeral Honors or (MFH). This Veterans benefit includes an Honor Guard detail of not less than two Armed Services members at the burial or memorial, burial in a Government cemetery, and a grave marker. Funeral Directors West Jordan UT
Choose How You Wish To Receive The Cremated Remains You seem to think that it's mostly junk out there, but these are reflections of people and that might be important to people in the future. And the young men arose, wound him up, and carried him out, and buried him...then fell she down straightway at his feet, and yielded up the ghost: and the young men came in, and found her dead, and, carrying her forth, buried her by her husband.
Squamish Funeral Chapel has been serving the communities of Squamish, Whistler, Pemberton, Mt. Currie, & D'arcy since 1967. We do what we do because it's what's expected of us. This thoughtlessness estranges us from mortality. In 2015, we have made it our goal to become the online product search and shop instrument. We are excited to say we are working diligently behind the scenes to deliver you news regarding Stuccu. Funeral Directors West Jordan Research for the report was conducted over May and June 2009, three months after legislation defining a basic funeral commenced.
Funeral service at your church, Legion or VFW Post or public building. And just like a mechanic who wants to know how a car works, I've always wanted to know how the body operates." That fascination and Shuler's dedication to helping others enter his obscure field will be celebrated Sunday when Shuler is honored as Mortician of the Year by the local district of the Florida Mortician Association, which spans from Key West to Fort Pierce. This is of the number of those things we must believe though we see not, though we know not; it is an object of faith, not of sight, and so is incomprehensible to us, who walk by faith, not by sight. Whoever Hears My Word and Believes Has Passed From Death To Life: John 5:24-29 Then maybe you should trust that all life forms have an energy, and that energy doesn't just dissipate.. We look forward to welcoming Neptune's associates into the SCI family of businesses," said Thomas L. Ryan, SCI President and CEO.
THE ONLY FUNERAL HOME IN THE CITY WITH A RECEPTION HALL Funeral ceremonies have been part of the spiritual and social framework of human culture for thousands of years. Although funeral services and ceremonies may vary greatly according to customs and beliefs, they have always shared a common purpose to honor and remember a life that has passed. Nothing to worry about. He is safely in Unalakleet waiting out the storm. As with the concept of "green" in general, green in funeral service means practicing environmental consciousness and being eco-friendly. The WDVA administers the program with assistance from Veterans Service Organizations (VSOs), funeral directors, active and reserve components of the U. The Baha'i Faith forbids cremation, "He feels that, in view of what Abdul-Bah has said against cremation, the believers should be strongly urged, as an act of faith, to make provisions against their remains being cremated. Begin your cheap car search by filling in the form above! A look at some of Rhode Island's most notable political scandals. Many people think the song is actually the Ave Maria sung in Catholic churches. Its radiant calm is exactly right, so it hardly matters. You'll learn a lot about funerals and how to conduct them in a professional manner.
Road Closure: Old Hixson Pike from Gadd Road to Wilbanks Road from approximately 1:00 - 4:00pm. Detours will be posted. Funeral Service West Jordan UT 84088
Hearse for the transportation of the body during the burial, a car that's intended for flowers and limousines are some of the things that are present in the usual funeral homes. Responsibilities would include transfers, embalming, funeral arrangements and service coordination. Individual must be a self-motivated person that is able to think independently and work without direct supervision. Of course there are many Jews who rely utterly on various writings of other Jews, including the RaMBaM, and that's their choice. Funeral processions often go through red lights and stop signs, so pay attention to the road even if you're following close to a procession.
Funeral Directors Funeral Costs
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