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Artificial Intelligence Lecture Dinner - New Jersey
Please join us and our friends at Wharton for an enlightening dinner lecture event on the topic of Artificial Intelligence.
How Is Artificial Intelligence, Cognitive Computing, and Machine Learning Disrupting Our World?
Learn how these technologies are changing the world of business and how they will impact each of our lives.
Evan Herbst, Senior Vice President of Essextec, will provide an insider's view separating the reality from the hype, the promise versus the fear, and the opportunity against the risk.
Evan will cover the overall AI landscape and provide us with specific insights into the best known artificial intelligence technology platform - IBM's Watson.
We'll leave plenty of time for Q&A after what should be an engaging and informative presentation.
6:00 pm - 7:00 pm Networking + Dinner
7:00 pm - 7:15 pm Introductions
7:15 pm - 8:30 pm Presentation + Q&A
8:30 pm – 9:30 pm Dessert + Networking
About The Speaker:
Evan Herbst, Senior Vice President, Essextec
Evan is Senior Vice President, Business Development and Cognitive Innovations at Essextec. He has responsibility and oversight for channels and alliances, strategy, and divisional finance. Evan is currently building and leading Essextec Cognitive Innovations, the award-winning cognitive computing practice around IBM Watson, leveraging Essextec's Digital Engagement and Big Data Analytics capabilities. Additionally, Evan is spearheading the expansion into Blockchain solutions which align with Essextec's strategic business lines of Cloud, Cognitive and Cybersecurity. Essextec has been recognized by IBM as the 2016 Worldwide Watson Innovative Business Partner of the Year.
Previously, Evan was Senior Vice President and Co-COO at Gemini Systems, a leading IBM Software solution provider and consulting firm. Prior to re-joining Gemini Systems in 2002, Evan was the Chief Technology Officer of ip*network, Inc., the premier vendor of web-based enterprise software and solutions for managing intellectual property and intellectual property licensing agreements. He has also served as a co-founder and partner in BedRock Ventures, a firm providing consulting and capital-raising services to startup and turnaround businesses; the Founder and CEO of StorageOne Media, a software firm for entertainment companies; and as a co-founder and President of Exa Media, a digital services firm for entertainment companies. Evan began his career as a consultant with Gemini Systems.
Evan holds a Bachelor's degree in Systems Science and Engineering, with a minor in Computer Science, from the University of Pennsylvania. Evan also holds four US Patents for delivering content to mobile devices.
January 30, 2018 at 6pm - 9:30pm
Hanover Manor
16 Eagle Rock Ave
East Hanover, NJ 07936
Alumni Leadership Team
$99.00 Non-Paid Member/Guest Rate - AI Lecture Dinner Event Ticket Includes Networking + Buffet Dinner + Wine/Beer/Soft drinks (cash bar for spirits) --------------------------------------------------------------- Become A Member & Save $50! Visit: https://nj.alumni.columbia.edu/pay_your_dues
$49.00 Paid Member Rate - AI Lecture Dinner Event Ticket Paid Members Only - Includes Networking + Buffet Dinner + Wine/Beer/Soft drinks (cash bar for spirits) ----------------------Become A Member & Save $50! Visit: https://nj.alumni.columbia.edu/pay_your_dues
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Crunch 7th in CJHL rankings; Thunderbirds, Voodoos earn honourable mention
Release Date: Monday, Oct. 24, 2016
SUDBURY – Despite suffering their first regulation loss last week the Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League’s Cochrane Crunch are still highly thought of in the Canadian Junior Hockey League’s Top 20 rankings, which were announced Monday.
The week’s listings saw the Crunch tabbed seventh overall in the 132-team CJHL while the surging Soo Thunderbirds and Powassan Voodoos both earned honourable mention laurels.
Heading into a road game at Powassan this evening, Cochrane boasts an 11-1-1-1 record, one point ahead of the 11-3-1-0 Voodoos.
As for the Thunderbirds, 13-5-0-0 Sault Ste. Marie currently sits in top spot in the overall NOJHL standings with 26 points. However, the Crunch holds four games in hand on the Soo and one on Powassan.
The lone remaining unbeaten side in the CJHL, the 12-0-0-0 Steinbach Pistons (MJHL), are once again the No. 1 club in the CJHL this week.
A pair of Quebec Junior Hockey League squads, in the Terrebonne Cobras and College Francais de Longueuil round out the top three in second and third respectively.
The following is the latest CJHL Top 20 rankings and five honourable mention teams:
CJHL TOP 20 (As of Oct. 24)
RANK TEAM (LEAGUE) (LAST WEEK)
1. Steinbach Pistons (MJHL) (1)
2. Les Cobras de Terrebonne (LHJQ) (2)
3. College Francais de Longueuil (LHJQ) (6)
4. Cobourg Cougars (OJHL) (8)
5. Penticton Vees (BCHL) (9)
6. Bonnyville Pontiacs (AJHL) (14)
7. Cochrane Crunch (NOJHL) (5)
8. Yarmouth Jr. ‘A’ Mariners (MHL) (3)
9. Wenatchee Wild (BCHL) (4)
10. Georgetown Raiders (OJHL) (17)
11. Portage Terriers (MJHL) (7)
12. Fort McMurray Oil Barons (AJHL) (11)
13. Trenton Golden Hawks (OJHL) (13)
14. Humboldt Broncos (SJHL) (15)
15. Thunder Bay North Stars (SIJHL) (HM)
16. English River Miners (SIJHL) (NR)
17. Estevan Bruins (SJHL) (NR)
18. Winkler Flyers (MJHL) (NR)
19. Spruce Grove Saints (AJHL) (18)
20. Carleton Place Canadians (CCHL) (20)
Honourable Mention: Soo Thunderbirds (NOJHL); Powassan Voodoos (NOJHL); Victoria Grizzlies (BCHL); Dryden GM Ice Dogs (SIJHL); Miramichi Timberwolves (MHL)
ABOUT THE CJHL TOP 20 RANKINGS
The CJHL Top 20 weekly rankings are based upon a variety of factors, including the league in which the team plays, winning percentage, win-loss record, total points accumulated, goals-for versus goals-against ratio, etc.
ABOUT THE CJHL
The Canadian Junior Hockey League is a national organization comprised of all 10 Junior A hockey leagues in Canada.
The CJHL represents 132 teams and over 3,000 players and has just as many former players furthering their hockey careers at the professional, major junior and college level across North America.
For latest CJHL news and features, visit www.cjhlhockey.com and follow on Twitter at twitter.com/cjhlhockey or @cjhlhockey.
Alaverdy shines as Espanola derails Elliot Lake
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Our interview with Mourn
I connect with Mourn’s Jazz Rodríguez Bueno over Skype in Cambrils, Catalonia, a town near Barcelona. Rodríguez Bueno had just gotten home from studying, and our conversation takes place in her bedroom. Overlooked by posters of Kurt Cobain and Elliot Smith, we discuss the timeline of Mourn’s new release Ha, Ha, He., two-faced people, and creating music in joy.
Mourn is Rodríguez Bueno (vocals, guitar), Carla Pérez Vas (vocals, guitar), Antonio Postius (drums), and Leia Rodríguez (bass). Ha, Ha, He. is released on Captured Tracks June 3.
NT: Your self-titled first album came out in 2014. What have you been doing since then?
JRB: Playing a lot. We’ve spent a lot of time rehearsing together. We started to study new things, too. Antonio is studying sound. I am studying audio visuals. Carla is already working — she’s in that other world now. And yeah, [Leia] is studying acting in high school. That’s what we’ve been doing, and writing new songs.
NT: Have you been writing songs during that whole time, or have there been specific creative bursts during that time?
JRB: We had a period where we didn’t write anything, and that was when we were playing almost every weekend. But we started writing more and more in 2015, which led to this new album.
NT: It is interesting that you are studying audio visuals. Mourn started on YouTube, which as a platform started more visual and is now very important for music sharing. Is that still your preferred platform?
JRB: We used YouTube because we didn’t have anything recorded, so we would post videos of us playing. When we got recordings we started using Bandcamp and Soundcloud. I think we use YouTube more for showing videos of us doing stupid things now, and just having fun.
NT: It’s nice that you have determined the focus of your career while you’re still in school, and you can tailor your studies to your interests.
JRB: Last year I didn’t even know what I wanted to do. But while touring, I was having fun making and editing videos and I thought, ‘I should do more of this.’
NT: Where have you toured?
JRB: We’ve toured Europe. Not as many places in Catalonia or Spain — we’ve played more outside the country … We toured the United States last summer.
NT: You recorded your first album before having the experience of touring. Some bands find touring really inspiring, but others find it creatively exhausting. What is your impression?
JRB: I feel more inspired touring. The thing is, we’ve learned a lot touring. We’ve improved our skills.
NT: You have listed influences like Patti Smith or PJ Harvey, both of whom have exceptional live performances but very different styles. I wonder if there is a particular performer you model your live set after?
JRB: We are used to being ourselves. We just wear normal clothes. Whatever we’ve got on, we’ll play in. When we played Primavera Sound we wanted something special, so we decided to wear suits. We were very classy and cool. That was the only time we’ve done something different while playing, but maybe we should do more of that. That’s something we have to think about.
NT: William Blake is another one of your influences, and his poem “Laughing Song” has inspired the title of Ha, Ha, He.. His writing plays with dichotomies like light versus dark, good versus evil, nature versus industry. I notice that your music also has a softness and darkness to it. There are songs about people being two-faced, especially in your earlier songs. Is that something you consciously write into you music?
JRB: I think everyone as two or more faces. We didn’t have this idea of writing about people with two faces, but it came intuitively. No person is a single way. Also, about the reference to “Laughing Song,” I want to say that I think that song is about joy, hope and laughing. I think that’s what [Mourn] needs to create, and keep creating. It’s true that we write when we’re angry, but when we’re together we need to connect through joy to put songs together.
NT: The album titles on your first release seemed to reference fierce people, whereas the titles off Ha, Ha, He. are a little more abstract. How are the themes different between the albums?
JRB: The first album we recorded when we were 17, so we had a need to get all these feelings out. We wanted to make songs to reflect that need to explain things the way they are for us. The songs were more direct … [In Ha, Ha, He.] we are writing more lyrics like poems.
NT: I read that “Second Sage” is based off Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. How often do you play video games?
JRB: I play in the summer because during the school year it’s difficult to find the time. But when summer comes, I start playing. It is a relaxing time for me.
NT: What would you like people to understand about Ha, Ha, He.?
JRB: It is a diary. It is a diary of our last year.
TOP 5 ESSENTIAL ALBUMS:
Sunny Day Real Estate — How It Feels To Be Something On
Throwing Muses — Limbo
Unfinished Sympathy — Unfinished Sympathy
Big Star — Radio City
Deus — Worst Case Scenario
Interview by Brit Bachmann.
Widowspeak “Romeo And Juliet” Dire Straights Cover
Mourn “Gather Really”
Chastity Drain The Bloodbath
“Cede” Wax Chattels
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U.S. Department of the Treasury: “Treasury Designates Senior Al-Qa’ida Official and Terrorist Training Center Supporting Lashkar-E Tayyiba and the Taliban”
The U.S. Department of the Treasury on August 20, 2013 released the following:
“Designations Include First Sanctions Against a Madrassa Used to Train Taliban Fighters
WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of the Treasury today designated Umar Siddique Kathio Azmarai (Azmarai), a senior Al-Qa’ida official, and Jamia Taleem-Ul-Quran-Wal-Hadith Madrassa, also known as the Ganj Madrassa, a school in Peshawar that serves as a training center and facilitates funding for al-Qa’ida, Lashkar-e Tayyiba, and the Taliban. The activities of the Ganj Madrassa exemplify how terrorist groups, such as al-Qa’ida, Lashkar-e Tayyiba, and the Taliban, subvert seemingly legitimate institutions, such as religious schools, to divert charitable donations meant for education to support violent acts. Today’s action is the first designation of a madrassa that is being abused by terrorist organizations. This action does not generally target madrassas, which often play an essential role in improving literacy and providing humanitarian and developmental aid in many areas of the world, including Pakistan.
“Today’s action strikes at the heart of the financial and logistical support network that abuses charitable donations and provides essential services for various terrorist groups including al-Qa’ida, Lashkar-e Tayyiba, and the Taliban. These networks provide the fighters, training, and supplies for these terrorist groups to carry out their acts of violence against coalition forces and civilians alike,” said Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence David S. Cohen. “We will continue to work with our partners around the world to dismantle these terrorist networks, especially those that try to conceal their sinister activities behind critical community organizations like madrassas.”
During his long tenure with al-Qa’ida, Azmarai has held a number of important positions. He is al-Qa’ida’s leader in Sindh and Balochistan provinces, Pakistan, and has been a significant financial facilitator for the group, moving hundreds of thousands of dollars in support of its leadership and operations. Azmarai has also acted as a courier for al-Qa’ida officials and has managed logistics for family members of senior al-Qa’ida leadership, including Usama bin Laden.
Treasury today also designated the Ganj Madrassa in Peshawar, Pakistan, which is controlled by designated al-Qa’ida facilitator Fazeel-A-Tul Shaykh Abu Mohammed Ameen Al-Peshawari, also known as Shaykh Aminullah. Shaykh Aminullah was designated by both the United States and United Nations (UN) in 2009 for providing material support to al-Qa’ida and the Taliban.
The Ganj Madrassa serves as a terrorist training center where students, under the guise of religious studies, have been radicalized to conduct terrorist and insurgent activities. In some cases, students were trained to become bomb manufacturers and suicide bombers. Shaykh Aminullah has directed donations provided for the school to terrorist groups such as the Taliban, which use the money to fund the ongoing violence in Afghanistan.
The Ganj Madrassa was designated today pursuant to Executive Order (E.O.) 13224, which targets terrorist and their supporters, for being controlled by Shaykh Aminullah and for providing financial and material support to Lashkar-e Tayyiba and the Taliban. Azmarai was designated pursuant to E.O. 13224 for acting on behalf of al-Qa’ida.
As a result of today’s designation, any assets these entities may have under U.S. jurisdiction are frozen, and U.S. persons are generally prohibited from doing business with them.
Umar Siddique Kathio Azmarai
In addition to his financial activities on behalf of al-Qa’ida, Azmarai has been active in multiple other facilitation duties for al-Qa’ida. As of early 2012, Azmarai facilitated the procurement of secure areas in Pakistan for al-Qa’ida to house militants and store vehicles. Azmarai has frequently acted as a courier within Pakistan for al-Qa’ida leaders and other al-Qa’ida facilitators. As of early 2003, Azmarai was a courier between al-Qa’ida cells in Pakistan and the Persian Gulf and, as of late 2002, was a courier for senior al-Qa’ida operational planner Khalid Shaykh Muhammad.
Azmarai’s facilitation duties on behalf of al-Qa’ida have also included providing logistical support to al-Qa’ida members and their families. As of 2011, Azmarai assisted al-Qa’ida’s administrative manager with managing the care of important al-Qa’ida members’ families, including facilitating their finances, housing, and medical care. In 1999, Azmarai assisted in making logistical arrangements for al-Qa’ida members and their families in Karachi, Pakistan. Azmarai was also specifically responsible for providing support to members of now-deceased al-Qa’ida leader Usama bin Laden’s family. Bin Laden’s son-in-law selected Azmarai in late 1999 to look after bin Laden’s family and, in mid-2000, Azmarai began working directly for bin Laden’s family, facilitating their travel, lodging, and medical needs. From late 2001 through early 2002, Azmarai was responsible for bin Laden’s family members in Karachi. In mid-2002, Azmarai worked for bin Laden’s son, now-deceased Saad bin Laden.
Ganj Madrassa
Under Shaykh Aminullah’s leadership, the Ganj Madrassa has trained and harbored Taliban fighters who have subsequently been dispatched to Afghanistan. As recently as early 2013, Shaykh Aminullah was recruiting for Lashkar-e Tayyiba at the Ganj Madrassa and, as of late 2012, was hosting al-Qa’ida operatives there.
Shaykh Aminullah has provided assistance, including funding and recruits, to al-Qaida. In addition, he directs donations received by the Ganj Madrassa to jihadist fighters battling coalition forces in Afghanistan and also uses the money to train madrassa students to become Taliban fighters. Shaykh Aminullah frequently travels to the Gulf to obtain charity donations on the madrassa’s behalf.
Identifying Information
Name: Umar Siddique Kathio Azmarai
AKA: Muhammad Umar Sidduque Katio
AKA: Umar Kathio Chandio
AKA: Omar Chandyo
AKA: Umar Chanduo
AKA: Muhammad Umar Kathio
AKA: Abdallah al-Sindhi
AKA: ‘Abdallah Sindi
AKA: Abdullah al-Sindhi
AKA: Abdullah al-Sindi
AKA: Muhammad Omer
AKA: Muhammad Umar
DOB: 1977
POB: Saudi Arabia
National ID card number: 466-77-221879, Pakistan
Alias ID card number: 42201-015024707-7
Address: Karachi, Pakistan
Address: Miram Shah, North Waziristan Agency, Federally Administered Tribal Areas, Pakistan
Entity: Jamia Taleem-Ul-Quran-Wal-Hadith Madrassa
AKA: Ganj Madrassa
AKA: Jamia Madrassa Dur Ul Koran Wasuna
AKA: Madrasa Taleemul Quran Wal Hadith
AKA: Madrasa Taleemul Quran Wal Sunnah
AKA: Talalim Quran Madrassa
AKA: Taleem Ul-Quran Madrassa
AKA: Mawiya Madrassa
AKA: Tasin Al-Quran Abu Hamza
AKA: Mow-Ya Madrassa
AKA: Ganjoo Madrassa
Address: Gunj Gate, Phandu Road, Peshawar, Pakistan
Address: Near the Baron Gate, Ganj area of Peshawar, Pakistan
Address: Lahori and Yaka Tote Rd. at the intersection near the Ganj Gate”
Douglas McNabb – McNabb Associates, P.C.’s
OFAC SDN Removal Videos:
OFAC Litigation – SDN List Removal
OFAC SDN List Removal
OFAC SDN Removal Attorneys
To find additional global criminal news, please read The Global Criminal Defense Daily.
Douglas McNabb and other members of the U.S. law firm practice and write and/or report extensively on matters involving Federal Criminal Defense, INTERPOL Red Notice Removal, International Extradition Defense, OFAC SDN Sanctions Removal, International Criminal Court Defense, and US Seizure of Non-Resident, Foreign-Owned Assets. Because we have experience dealing with INTERPOL, our firm understands the inter-relationship that INTERPOL’s “Red Notice” brings to this equation.
The author of this blog is Douglas C. McNabb. Please feel free to contact him directly at mcnabb@mcnabbassociates.com or at one of the offices listed above.
International criminal defense questions, but want to be anonymous?
Free Skype Tel: +1.202.470.3427, OR
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Leave a Comment » | OFAC SDN, OFAC SDN List Removal Attorney - Douglas McNabb, SDN Designation, SDN List, Specially Designated National | Tagged: Al-Qa'ida, Douglas McNabb, Ganj Madrassa, JAMIA TALEEM-UL-QURAN-WAL-HADITH MADRASSA, Lashkar-e Tayyiba, McNabb Associates, OFAC, OFAC attorney, OFAC attorneys, OFAC defense, OFAC lawyer, OFAC lawyers, OFAC Removal Attorney, OFAC Removal Lawyer, OFAC SDN, OFAC SDN Removal, Office of Foreign Assets Control, SDN, SDN List, SDN removal, Specially Designated National, Taliban, U.S. Department of the Treasury, Umar Siddique Kathio Azmarai | Permalink
Posted by Douglas McNabb, Attorney at Law
Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC): “Counter Terrorism Designations; Kingpin Act Designations”
“Counter Terrorism Designations; Kingpin Act Designations
OFFICE OF FOREIGN ASSETS CONTROL
Specially Designated Nationals List Update
The following individuals have been added to OFAC’s SDN List:
AZMARAI, Umar Siddique Kathio (a.k.a. AL-SINDHI, Abdallah; a.k.a. AL-SINDHI, Abdullah; a.k.a. AL-SINDI, Abdullah; a.k.a. CHANDIO, Umar Kathio; a.k.a. CHANDUO, Umar; a.k.a. CHANDYO, Omar; a.k.a. KATHIO, Muhammad Umar; a.k.a. KATIO, Muhammad Umar Sidduque; a.k.a. OMER, Muhammad; a.k.a. SINDHI, ‘Abdallah; a.k.a. UMAR, Muhammad), Karachi, Pakistan; Miram Shah, North Waziristan Agency, Federally Administered Tribal Areas, Pakistan; DOB 1977; POB Saudi Arabia; nationality Pakistan; National ID No. 466-77-221879 (Pakistan); alt. National ID No. 42201-015024707-7 (individual) [SDGT].
ORELLANA MORALES, Jairo Estuardo (a.k.a. “EL PELON”), Aldea Dona Maria, Zacapa, Guatemala; DOB 28 Sep 1973; POB Zacapa, Guatemala; nationality Guatemala; citizen Guatemala; Cedula No. R-19 42080 (Guatemala); Passport 111904000420805 (Guatemala) issued 28 Aug 2008 expires 28 Aug 2013 (individual) [SDNTK].
The following entity has been added to OFAC’s SDN List:
JAMIA TALEEM-UL-QURAN-WAL-HADITH MADRASSA (a.k.a. GANJ MADRASSA; a.k.a. GANJOO MADRASSA; a.k.a. JAMIA MADRASSA DUR UL KORAN WASUNA; a.k.a. MADRASA TALEEMUL QURAN WAL HADITH; a.k.a. MADRASA TALEEMUL QURAN WAL SUNNAH; a.k.a. MAWIYA MADRASSA; a.k.a. MOW-YA MADRASSA; a.k.a. TALALIM QURAN MADRASSA; a.k.a. TALEEM UL-QURAN MADRASSA; a.k.a. TASIN AL-QURAN ABU HAMZA), Gunj Gate, Phandu Road, Peshawar, Pakistan; Near the Baron Gate, Ganj area, Peshawar, Pakistan; Lahori and Yaka Tote Rd. at the intersection near the Ganj Gate, Peshawar, Pakistan [SDGT].”
Leave a Comment » | OFAC SDN, OFAC SDN List Removal Attorney - Douglas McNabb, SDN Designation, SDN List, Specially Designated National | Tagged: Counter Terrorism Designations, Department of the Treasury, Douglas McNabb, Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act, Jairo Estuardo Orellana Morales, JAMIA TALEEM-UL-QURAN-WAL-HADITH MADRASSA, Kingpin, Kingpin Act Designation, Kingpin Act Designations, Kingpin Act sanction, Kingpin Act sanctions, McNabb Associates, OFAC, OFAC attorney, OFAC attorneys, OFAC defense, OFAC lawyer, OFAC lawyers, OFAC Removal Attorney, OFAC Removal Lawyer, OFAC SDN, OFAC SDN Removal, Office of Foreign Assets Control, SDGT, SDN, SDN List, SDN removal, SDNTK, Specially Designated Global Terrorist, Specially Designated Narcotics Traffickers Kingpin, Specially Designated Narcotics Traffickers named under the Kingpin Act, Specially Designated National, Specially Designated Nationals List, Specially Designated Nationals List Update, U.S. Department of the Treasury, U.S. Department of the Treasury's OFAC, U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control, Umar Siddique Kathio Azmarai | Permalink
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Toshiba updates its Chromebook 2 with a Core i3 chip and backlit keyboard
By Chris Wood
Toshiba updates its Chromebook...
The updated Toshiba Chromebook 2 has new silicon and a backlit keyboard
Toshiba's Chromebook 2 is already one of the most compelling notebooks running Google's desktop OS, but now the company is sweetening the deal, adding new processors and a backlit keyboard.
The new machine will be available in two flavors, one housing a 5th generation Intel Celeron processor, and one with a beefier Core i3 chip. Aside from that, the other big addition is an LED backlight under the island-style keyboard. With exception of Google's own Pixel, we're not used to seeing backlit keyboards in typically budget Chromebooks.
The updated models will hold onto the aesthetic of the existing machine, which was already one of its stronger features. Like many Windows and Chrome OS notebooks, its design looks influenced by Apple's MacBook line, though with a much lower-end, plastic build.
Elsewhere, the notebook has a 1,920 x 1,080 IPS panel, up to 4 GB RAM, front-facing stereo speakers from Skullcandy, and is rated for 8.5 hours battery life on a single charge. It's also not bad in terms of connectivity, with 802.11ac WiFi on board, as well as an SD card slot, a single USB 2.0 port, a USB 3.0, and an HDMI out.
Toshiba has yet to comment on how much internal storage the updated Chromebook 2 will carry, though most other Chromebooks have either 16 or 32 GB installed. Either way, you'll still get the complimentary 100 GB of Google Drive cloud storage for a year, as well as 90 days unlimited music streaming through Google Play and 12 in-air passes for Gogo Internet.
The new Chromebook 2 will be available next month in the US. It's priced at US$330 for the Intel Celeron version, and $430 for the Core i3 variant.
Source: Toshiba
LaptopsToshibaChromebook
Chris specializes in science and consumer technology for New Atlas, but also likes to dabble in the latest gaming gadgets. He has a degree in Politics and Ancient History from the University of Exeter, and lives in Gloucestershire, UK. In his spare time you might find him playing music, following a variety of sports or binge watching Game of Thrones.
MichaelGWaldon September 24, 2015 12:40 AM
Touchscreen?
Razer shows off wild gaming chair concept and new Blade laptops
HP's latest business-class 2-in-1 comes with novel pull-forward display
Lavie Mini serves as portable PC or mobile gaming console
Lightweight LG gram laptops add extra power for 2021
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it happened this week Nov. 3, 2006
Photo: Danny Wilcox Frazier/Redux
In a pre-election week punctuated by acts of contrition, none was sorrier than John Kerry’s mea culpa for seeming to instruct a group of college students to do their homework lest they “end up in Iraq.” Having single-handedly halted Democratic momentum, Kerry said, “I sincerely regret that my words were misinterpreted.” President Bush, who has lately donned a hair shirt over piddling aspects of his handling of the war, nevertheless vowed never to fire Rumsfeld or Cheney. Congressman Charles Rangel said he was sorry for calling the veep a “son of a bitch,” but showed no pangs of conscience for observing that Cheney hadn’t “shot anyone in the face lately.” Remorseless campaigner Andrew Cuomo showed he had no hard feelings toward ex-rival Mark Green by accepting a $50,000 donation from Green’s developer brother, Stephen, before scolding current opponent Jeanine Pirro’s “shameful” paying of her driver $148,000 in county-funded overtime.
Two Harlem cops who accused the normally other-cheek-turning Reverend Calvin Butts of having “an attitude” before writing him a $115 ticket surely regretted their actions after Butts demanded — and received — an abject apology from Mayor Bloomberg. The Air Force cut a $500,000 check to a New Jersey school to make amends for an F-16’s strafing their building with 27 rounds of ammo. The Knicks, coming off a truly lamentable season, briefly enjoyed undefeated status after a triple-overtime opener win. Mets reliever Guillermo Mota, who’d been looking at a big fat raise, was slapped with a 50-game suspension for steroid use (“I truly regret what I did and hope that you can forgive me,” he said).
Cabernet hangovers became un peu less regrettable when a Harvard study indicated that red wine can offset the ill effects of fatty foods. Webster Hall had second thoughts about scheduling a Kevin Federline show, while the Rolling Stones felt bad about canceling two sold-out local dates thanks to Mick Jagger’s sore throat, then unapologetically played Bill Clinton’s 60th-birthday bash at the Beacon. “I feel sorry for [him],” a gleeful Jagger told the crowd. “Kennedy had Marilyn Monroe at his birthday party.”
— Mark Adams
project runway finale
charles rangel
kevin federline
mark green
dani evans
it happened this week
tv show season finale
New COVID Strain Spreading Across U.S.: What We Know
As public-health officials warn that the U.K. COVID strain could soon become common in the U.S., an unrelated variant has been found in California.
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Cops question man in attempted rape on NYC subway platform
By Larry Celona, Tina Moore and Jackie Salo
August 30, 2020 | 3:14pm | Updated August 30, 2020 | 4:13pm
A 31-year-old man has been taken in for questioning in the attempted rape of a 25-year-old straphanger who was shoved to the ground on an Upper East Side subway platform, police sources said.
Creep attempted to rape woman on UES subway platform
The woman was waiting on the platform for the Q...
The brazen attack occurred inside the Lexington Avenue and East 63 Street train station when a man approached the 25-year-old woman waiting for the F train around 11 a.m. Saturday, police said.
Disturbing footage taken by a witness showed the assailant on top of the woman before a group of bystanders thwarted the attempted rape, cops said.
She suffered minor injuries, but refused medical attention, police said.
Police on Sunday released footage of the suspect, who was last seen wearing sunglasses, a black long sleeve shirt, dark cargo pants and brown shoes.
They’re set to hold a press conference in the case Sunday afternoon.
Filed under crime , rape , subway , upper east side , 8/30/20
Elderly woman shot while standing on porch in Brooklyn
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OKC's Jewel Box Theater wrapping first production in its new home this weekend with 'Steel Magnolias'
by Brandy McDonnell
Published: Fri, December 18, 2020 4:27 PM Updated: Fri, December 18, 2020 5:45 PM
M’Lynn (Katy Hayes) shows the gun she’s confiscated from her husband to her daughter Shelby (Kat Adams), Ouiser (Lana Henson), Clariee (Chris Harris), Annelle (Caitlin Cairns), and beauty shop owner Truvy (Lilli Bassett) in Jewel Box Theater's production of "Steel Magnolias." [Photo provided]
Jewel Box Theater, Oklahoma City’s longest continually running community theater, is wrapping up its first production in its new location with performances this weekend of the popular play "Steel Magnolias."
The Jewel Box will perform Robert Harling's beloved dramedy at 8 p.m. today and Saturday at its new theater space at 321 NW 36 Street.
In response to the coronavirus pandemic, the theater is offering limited, socially distanced seating as well as its first live-streaming option with its 63rd season opener.
As previously reported, the Jewel Box Theatre is a ministry of the First Christian Church of Oklahoma City, and it has faced stressful times over the past few years as the congregation has tried unsuccessfully to sell its historic, distinctively domed building at 3700 N Walker.
The Oklahoman's Faith Editor Carla Hinton reported in the spring that the First Christian Church of Oklahoma City (Disciples of Christ) congregation moved from the iconic egg-shaped dome building - which is still for sale - into another structure on the church's property at NW 37 and Walker Avenue.
The new Jewel Box Theater is in the former Trinity School building and still shares the same parking lot as the old Jewel Box.
Darron Dunbar, the Jewel Box's new production director, said the theater's staging of "Steel Magnolias," which began Dec. 3, has served as a sort of soft opening for the new space, which became even more vital with the COVID-19 outbreak.
With the state's coronavirus case numbers rising, he said he was initially torn on whether to proceed with the long-awaited 63rd season or hold off.
“The show must go on,” he said in a statement, “we just had to find a way for it to go on in a responsible way.”
As previously reported, theater wrapped its shortened 62nd season in December 2019 with the comedy “Little Old Ladies in Tennis Shoes." The Jewel Box presented live drive-in comedy shows over the summer, and Dunbar said he felt it was important to get the new season started safely and successfully.
“The solution we came up with,” he said, “is we’ve limited live audience members to only 30 people per performance in a 200-seat theater allowing for ample social distancing."
Audience members are required to wear masks while in the theater, and the performers wear special clear masks so their faces are fully visible during the shows. Dunbar said some patrons have remarked that they hardly noticed the performers' masks during this month's shows.
In addition, Jewel Box has partnered with ShowTix4U.com to offer live-streams of its shows. Although the theater had to overcome some technical challenges in launching its first streaming option, Dunbar said both the in-person and online presentations of "Steel Magnolias" have been largely well-received.
Although the in-person tickets for tonight and Saturday's final performances of "Steel Magnolias," people can still by streaming tickets - or tickets to upcoming Jewel Box shows - at www.tinyurl.com/JBTST.
The Jewel Box will continue its 63rd season Feb. 18-March 7 with a surprise title that is expected to be an Oklahoma premiere, Dunbar said.
The new season also will include the iconic thriller "Gaslight" March 25-April 11 and the popular comedy "Greater Tuna" April 29-May 16. The season is expected to conclude with Mark A. Ridge's new play "The Vultures."
For more information and tickets, go to www.tinyurl.com/JBTST and look for updates at www.facebook.com/jbtheatre.
-BAM
Brandy McDonnell
Brandy McDonnell, also known by her initials BAM, writes stories and reviews on movies, music, the arts and other aspects of entertainment. She is NewsOK’s top blogger: Her 4-year-old entertainment news blog, BAM’s Blog, has notched more than 1... Read more ›
CommentsOKC's Jewel Box Theater wrapping first production in its new home this weekend with 'Steel Magnolias'
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Home » John Grisham » The Testament
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The testament, p.1
DOWN TO the last day, even the last hour now. I’m an old man, lonely and unloved, sick and hurting and tired of living. I am ready for the hereafter; it has to be better than this.
I own the tall glass building in which I sit, and 97 percent of the company housed in it, below me, and the land around it half a mile in three directions, and the two thousand people who work here and the other twenty thousand who do not, and I own the pipeline under the land that brings gas to the building from my fields in Texas, and I own the utility lines that deliver electricity, and I lease the satellite unseen miles above by which I once barked commands to my empire flung far around the world. My assets exceed eleven billion dollars. I own silver in Nevada and copper in Montana and coffee in Kenya and coal in Angola and rubber in Malaysia and natural gas in Texas and crude oil in Indonesia and steel in China. My company owns companies that produce electricity and make computers and build dams and print paperbacks and broadcast signals to my satellite. I have subsidiaries with divisions in more countries than anyone can find.
I once owned all the appropriate toys—the yachts and jets and blondes, the homes in Europe, farms in Argentina, an island in the Pacific, thoroughbreds, even a hockey team. But I’ve grown too old for toys.
The money is the root of my misery.
I had three families—three ex-wives who bore seven children, six of whom are still alive and doing all they can to torment me. To the best of my knowledge, I fathered all seven, and buried one. I should say his mother buried him. I was out of the country.
I am estranged from all the wives and all the children. They’re gathering here today because I’m dying and it’s time to divide the money.
I HAVE planned this day for a long time. My building has fourteen floors, all long and wide and squared around a shaded courtyard in the rear where I once held lunches in the sunshine. I live and work on the top floor—twelve thousand square feet of opulence that would seem obscene to many but doesn’t bother me in the least. By sweat and brains and luck I built every dime of my fortune. Spending it is my prerogative. Giving it away should be my choice too, but I’m being hounded.
Why should I care who gets the money? I’ve done everything imaginable with it. As I sit here in my wheelchair, alone and waiting, I cannot think of a single thing I want to buy, or see, or a single place I want to go, or another adventure I want to pursue.
I’ve done it all, and I’m very tired.
I don’t care who gets the money. But I do care very much who does not get it.
Every square foot of this building was designed by me, and so I know exactly where to place everyone for this little ceremony. They’re all here, waiting and waiting, though they don’t mind. They’d stand naked in a blizzard for what I’m about to do.
The first family is Lillian and her brood—four of my offspring born to a woman who rarely let me touch her. We married young—I was twenty-four and she was eighteen—and so Lillian is old too. I haven’t seen her in years, and I won’t see her today. I’m sure she’s still playing the role of the grieving, abandoned yet dutiful first wife who got traded in for a trophy. She has never remarried, and I’m sure she hasn’t had sex in fifty years. I don’t know how we reproduced.
Her oldest is now forty-seven, Troy Junior, a worthless idiot who is cursed with my name. As a boy he adopted the nickname of TJ, and still prefers it to Troy. Of the six children gathered here now, TJ is the dumbest, though it’s close. He was tossed from college when he was nineteen for selling drugs.
TJ, like the rest, was given five million dollars on his twenty-first birthday. And like the rest, it ran like water through his fingers.
I cannot bear to recount the miserable histories of Lillian’s children. Suffice to say they’re all heavily in debt and virtually unemployable, with little hope of changing, so my signing of this will is the most critical event in their lives.
Back to the ex-wives. From the frigidity of Lillian, I ran to the steamy passion of Janie, a beautiful young thing hired as a secretary in Accounting but promoted rapidly when I decided I needed her on business trips. I divorced Lillian and married Janie, who was twenty-two years younger than I was and determined to keep me satisfied. She had two children as fast as she could. She used them as anchors to keep me close. Rocky, the younger, was killed in a sports car with two of his buddies, in a wreck that cost me six million to settle out of court.
I married Tira when I was sixty-four. She was twenty-three and pregnant by me with a little monster she named Ramble, for some reason that was never clear to me. Ramble is now fourteen, and already has one arrest for shoplifting and one arrest for possession of marijuana. His oily hair sticks to his neck and falls way down his back, and he adorns himself with rings in his ears, eyebrows, and nose. I’m told he goes to school when he feels like it.
Ramble is ashamed that his father is almost eighty, and his father is ashamed that his son has silver beads pierced through his tongue.
And he, along with the rest of them, expects me to sign my name on this will and make his life better. As large as my fortune is, the money won’t last long among these fools.
A dying old man should not hate, but I cannot help it. They are a miserable bunch, all of them. Their mothers hate me, so the children in turn have been taught to hate me too.
They are vultures circling with clawed feet, sharp teeth, and hungry eyes, giddy with the anticipation of unlimited cash.
THE SOUNDNESS of my mind is of great issue now. They think I have a tumor because I say weird things. I babble on incoherently in meetings and on the phone, and my aides behind my back whisper and nod and think to themselves, Yes, it’s true. It’s the tumor.
I made a will two years ago and left everything to the last live-in, who at the time paraded around my apartment in leopard print panties and nothing else and, yes, I guess I’m crazy about twenty-year-old blondes with all the curves. But she later got the boot. The shredder got the will. I simply got tired.
Three years ago I made a will, just for the hell of it, and left everything to charities, over a hundred of them. I was cursing TJ one day, and he was cursing me, and I told him about this new will. He and his mother and his siblings hired a bunch of crooked lawyers and ran to court in an attempt to have me committed to an institution for treatment and evaluation. This was actually smart on the part of their lawyers because if I’d been judged mentally incompetent my will would have been void.
But I have many lawyers, and I pay them a thousand dollars an hour to manipulate the legal system in my favor. I was not committed, though at the time I was probably a bit off my rocker.
And I have my own shredder, one I’ve used for all the old wills. They’re all gone, eaten by a little machine.
I wear long white robes made of Thai silk, and I shave my head like a monk, and I eat little, so that my body is small and shriveled. They think I’m a Buddhist but in reality I study Zoroaster. They don’t know the difference. I can almost understand why they think my mental capacity has diminished.
Lillian and the first family are in the executive conference room on the thirteenth floor, just below me. It’s a large room, marble and mahogany, with rich rugs and a long oval table down the center, and it’s now filled with very nervous people. Not surprisingly, there are more lawyers than family members. Lillian has a lawyer, and so does each of her four children, except for TJ, who has brought along three to show his importance and make certain all scenarios are properly counseled. TJ has more legal problems than most death row inmates. At one end of the table is a large digital screen which will broadcast the proceedings.
TJ’s brother is Rex, age forty-four, my second son, curr
ently married to a stripper. Amber is her name, a poor creature without a brain but with a large fake chest, who, I think, is his third wife. Second or third, but who am I to condemn? She’s here, along with the rest of the current spouses and/or live-ins, fidgeting nervously as eleven billion is about to be divided.
Lillian’s first daughter, my oldest, is Libbigail, a child I loved desperately until she left for college and forgot about me. Then she married an African and I erased her name from my wills.
Mary Ross was the last child born to Lillian. She’s married to a doctor who aspires to be super-rich, but they are heavily in debt.
Janie and the second family wait in a room on the tenth floor. Janie has had two husbands since our divorce many years ago. I’m almost certain she is living alone at the moment. I hire investigators to keep me posted, but not even the FBI could keep track of her bed-hopping. As I mentioned, Rocky, her son, was killed. Her daughter Geena is here with her second husband, a moron with an MBA who is just dangerous enough to take a half a billion or so and masterfully lose it in three years.
And then there’s Ramble, slouching in a chair on the fifth floor, licking the gold ring in the corner of his lip, fingering his sticky green hair, scowling at his mother, who had the gall to appear here today with a hairy little gigolo. Ramble expects to get rich today, to be handed a fortune simply because he was sired by me. And Ramble has a lawyer too, a hippie radical sort Tira saw on television and hired right after she laid him. They’re waiting, along with the rest.
I know these people. I watch them.
SNEAD APPEARS from the rear of my apartment. He’s been my gofer for almost thirty years now, a round homely little man in a white waistcoat, meek and humble, perpetually bent at the waist as if bowing to the king. Snead stops before me, hands clasped at the belly, as always, head cocked to one side, drippy smile, and says, “How are you, sir?” in an affected lilt he acquired years back when we were staying in Ireland.
I say nothing, because I’m neither required nor expected to respond to Snead.
“Some coffee, sir?”
“Lunch.”
Snead winks with both eyes and bows even deeper, then waddles from the room, his trouser cuffs dragging the floor. He too expects to be made rich when I die, and I suppose he’s counting the days like the rest of them.
The trouble with having money is that everybody wants a little of it. Just a slice, a small sliver. What’s a million dollars to a man with billions? Give me a million, old boy, and you’ll never know the difference. Float me a loan, and we’ll both forget about it. Wedge my name in the will somewhere; there’s room for it.
Snead’s nosy as hell and years ago I caught him picking through my desk, looking, I think, for the current will. He wants me to die because he expects a few million.
What right does he have to expect anything? I should’ve fired him years ago.
His name is not mentioned in my new will.
He sets a tray before me: an unopened tube of Ritz crackers, a small jar of honey with the plastic seal around the lid, and a twelve-ounce can of Fresca, room temperature. Any variation and Snead would be fired on the spot.
I dismiss him, and dip the crackers in the honey. The final meal.
I SIT and stare through the tinted glass walls. On a clear day, I can see the top of the Washington Monument six miles away, but not today. Today is raw and cold, windy and overcast, not a bad day to die. The wind blows the last of the leaves from their branches and scatters them through the parking lot below.
Why I am worried about the pain? What’s wrong with a little suffering? I’ve caused more misery than any ten people.
I push a button and Snead appears. He bows and pushes my wheelchair through the door of my apartment, into the marble foyer, down the marble hall, through another door. We’re getting closer, but I feel no anxiety.
I’ve kept the shrinks waiting for over two hours.
We pass my office and I nod at Nicolette, my latest secretary, a darling young thing I’m quite fond of. Given some time, she might become number four.
But there is no time. Only minutes.
A mob is waiting—packs of lawyers and some psychiatrists who’ll determine if I’m in my right mind. They are crowded around a long table in my conference room, and when I enter, their conversation stops immediately and everybody stares. Snead situates me on one side of the table, next to my lawyer, Stafford.
There are cameras pointing in all directions, and the technicians scramble to get them focused. Every whisper, every move, every breath will be recorded because a fortune is at stake.
The last will I signed gave little to my children. Josh Stafford prepared it, as always. I shredded it this morning.
I’m sitting here to prove to the world that I am of sufficient mental capacity to make a new will. Once it is proved, the disposition of my assets cannot be questioned.
Directly across from me are three shrinks—one hired by each family. On folded index cards before them someone has printed their names—Dr. Zadel, Dr. Flowe, Dr. Theishen. I study their eyes and faces. Since I am supposed to appear sane, I must make eye contact.
They expect me to be somewhat loony, but I’m about to eat them for lunch.
Stafford will run the show. When everyone is settled and the cameras are ready, he says, “My name is Josh Stafford, and I’m the attorney for Mr. Troy Phelan, seated here to my right.”
I take on the shrinks, one at a time, eye to eye, glare to glare, until each blinks or looks away. All three wear dark suits. Zadel and Flowe have scraggly beards. Theishen has a bow tie and looks no more than thirty. The families were given the right to hire anyone they wanted.
Stafford is talking. “The purpose of this meeting is to have Mr. Phelan examined by a panel of psychiatrists to determine his testamentary capacity. Assuming the panel finds him to be of sound mind, then he intends to sign a will which will dispose of his assets upon his death.”
Stafford taps his pencil on a one-inch-thick will lying before us. I’m sure the cameras zoom in for a close-up, and I’m sure the very sight of the document sends shivers up and down the spines of my children and their mothers scattered throughout my building.
They haven’t seen the will, nor do they have the right to. A will is a private document revealed only after death. The heirs can only speculate as to what it might contain. My heirs have received hints, little lies I’ve carefully planted.
They’ve been led to believe that the bulk of my estate will somehow be divided fairly among the children, with generous gifts to the ex-wives. They know this; they can feel it. They’ve been praying fervently for this for weeks, even months. This is life and death for them because they’re all in debt. The will lying before me is supposed to make them rich and stop the bickering. Stafford prepared it, and in conversations with their lawyers he has, with my permission, painted in broad strokes the supposed contents of the will. Each child will receive something in the range of three hundred to five hundred million, with another fifty million going to each of the three ex-wives. These women were well provided for in the divorces, but that, of course, has been forgotten.
Total gifts to the families of approximately three billion dollars. After the government rakes off several billion the rest will go to charity.
So you can see why they’re here, shined, groomed, sober (for the most part), and eagerly watching the monitors and waiting and hoping that I, the old man, can pull this off. I’m sure they’ve told their shrinks, “Don’t be too hard on the old boy. We want him sane.”
If everyone is so happy, then why bother with this psychiatric examination? Because I’m gonna screw ’em one last time, and I want to do it right.
The shrinks are my idea, but my children and their lawyers are too slow to realize it.
Zadel goes first. “Mr. Phelan, can you tell us the date, time, and place?”
I feel like a first-grader.
I drop my chin to my chest like an imbecile and ponder the question long enough to make them ease to the edge of their seats and whisper, “Come on, you crazy old bastard. Surely you know what day it is.”
“Monday,” I say softly. “Monday, December 9, 1996. The place is my office.”
“The time?”
“About two-thirty in the afternoon,” I say. I don’t wear a watch.
“And where is your office?”
“McLean, Virginia.”
Flowe leans into his microphone. “Can you state the names and birthdates of your children?”
“No. The names, maybe, but not the birthdates.”
“Okay, give us the names.”
I take my time. It’s too early to be sharp. I want them to sweat. “Troy Phelan, Jr., Rex, Libbigail, Mary Ross, Geena, and Ramble.” I utter these as if they’re painful to even think about.
Flowe is allowed a follow-up. “And there was a seventh child, right?”
“Do you remember his name?”
“Rocky.”
“And what happened to him?”
“He was killed in an auto accident.” I sit straight in my wheelchair, head high, eyes darting from one shrink to the next, projecting pure sanity for the cameras. I’m sure my children and my ex-wives are proud of me, watching the monitors in their little groups, squeezing the hands of their current spouses, and smiling at their hungry lawyers because old Troy so far has handled the preliminaries.
My voice may be low and hollow, and I may look like a nut with my white silk robe, shriveled face, and green turban, but I’ve answered their questions.
Come on, old boy, they’re pleading.
Theishen asks, “What is your current physical condition?”
“I’ve felt better.”
“It’s rumored you have a cancerous tumor.”
Get right to the point, don’t you?
“I thought this was a mental exam,” I say, glancing at Stafford, who can’t suppress a smile. But the rules allow any question. This is not a courtroom.
“It is,” Theishen says politely. “But every question is relevant.”
“Will you answer the question?”
“About the tumor.”
“Sure. It’s in my head, the size of a golf ball, growing every day, inoperable, and my doctor says I won’t last three months.”
I can almost hear the champagne corks popping below me. The tumor has been confirmed!
“Are you, at this moment, under the influence of any medication, drug, or alcohol?”
“Do you have in your possession any type of medication to relieve pain?”
Back to Zadel: “Mr. Phelan, three months ago Forbes magazine listed your net worth at eight billion dollars. Is that a close estimate?”
“Since when is Forbes known for its accuracy?”
“So it’s not accurate?”
“It’s between eleven and eleven and a half, depending on the markets.” I say this very slowly, but my words are sharp, my voice carries authority. No one doubts the size of my fortune.
Flowe decides to pursue the money. “Mr. Phelan, can you describe, in general, the organization of your corporate holdings?”
“I can, yes.”
“I suppose.” I pause and let them sweat. Stafford assured me I do not have to divulge private information here. Just give them an overall picture, he said.
“The Phelan Group is a private corporation which owns seventy different companies, a few of which are publicly traded.”
“How much of The Phelan Group do you own?”
“About ninety-seven percent. The rest is held by a handful of employees.”
Theishen joins in the hunt. It didn’t take long to focus on the gold. “Mr. Phelan, does your company hold an interest in Spin Computer?”
“Yes,” I answer slowly, trying to place Spin Computer in my corporate jungle.
“How much do you own?”
“Eighty percent.”
The Testament by John Grisham / Mystery & Detective / Thrillers & Crime have rating 4.2 out of 5 / Based on42 votes
JOHN GRISHAM SERIES:
Jake Brigance
Theodore Boone
Gray Mountain
The Rooster Bar
The Scandal
Witness to a Trial
Rogue Lawyer
Sycamore Row
The Racketeer
The Activist
The Law is a Lady The Pride of Jared MacKade Before Jamaica Lane Hidden Star The Sea-Hawk Mason Looking for Alaska A Night to Surrender Sea Swept Bought For One Night: The Sheikh's Offer The Fiery Heart
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Tag: Grunge graphics on Penguin books
Penguin’s Grunge Essentials
April 3, 2020 April 4, 2020 ~ gregneville1 ~ Leave a comment
In 1998, Penguin awoke from decades of slumber to regain its reputation for good cover design. One of its first projects was a series of modern classics packaged as Penguin Essentials, under the General Art Director John Hamilton.
According to designer Phil Baines “Hamilton commissioned leading illustrators and design groups to produce all-over designs. There is no obvious unity to these covers except the boldness of their execution, and the use of prominent designers and illustrators helped to achieve that goal.”
I remember discovering these new books when they first appeared and thinking, at last Penguin is back. Now with two decades of hindsight, you can see the strong influence of Grunge aesthetics and of David Carson on particular. The scratched, rubbed and blurred fragmentation of Grunge was all the rage in the 1990s, with designers like Carson in the US and Vaughn Oliver in the UK becoming stars of the design world.
The Penguin Essentials series was aimed at a young market, “new buyers whose disposable income was being spent on music and clothing.” The designers Hamilton invited, including Banksy and Tomato, were not book cover designers as such, so the series avoided the trade look that Penguin as a brand has slumped into. It worked, the series was successful and helped set up the company for a new era of leadership in style, exemplified by the arrival of David Pearson and others in the coming years.
The Penguin Essentials series is still running on a much expanded list but still with its vibrant contemporary cover designs by innovative designers.
//// /////
Cover designers: Junky by Chris Ashworth + A. Sissons / Riddle of the Sands by Paul Cohen / A Clockwork Orange by Dirk van Dooren / 1984 photographs by Darren Haggar and Dominic Bridges / Ballad of the Sad Café photographs by Scott Wishart.
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D.C. Gym Paints Mural for 90-Year-Old Former Ballerina Who Watches Classes Through Her Window
“I hope it reminds people that they have to smile and stay determined," Tessa Sollom Williams said
By Rachel DeSantis
"Keep Moving" mural
| Credit: Devin Maier/ Balance Gym
Each morning at 7 a.m., Tessa Sollom Williams settles in at the window of her eighth-floor apartment and watches across the way as members of the gym next door work out on the roof.
The 90-year-old Sollom Williams has been cooped up inside her Washington, D.C. apartment for months due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and so watching others exercise at the neighboring Balance Gym has been her sole source of inspiration.
“I never miss it,” she told the Washington Post. “I love watching them.”
And they love being watched — so much so that after Sollom Williams’ daughter shared with them the sweet story, Balance Gym created a special “Keep Moving” mural for her to see each day from her window.
Sollom Williams’ daughter Tanya Wetenhall first let the gym know of her mother’s daily routine earlier this month in an email that Balance shared to its Facebook page.
Wetenhall, 53, began her message by acknowledging that though the sentiment might be “odd,” it was genuine, and she wanted to thank the gym’s members for working out each day.
“Seeing everyone on the roof, working out, and keeping up with their routines has given her hope,” she wrote. “As a former dancer, she has exercised vigorously almost every day of her life and if she could, she would try and join the members, trust me, but she is 90 and wobbly.”
Wetenhall said that during regular phone calls with her mom, Sollom Williams always commented on just how hard the members were exercising, and that she was certain they had to be training for the Olympics or something similar.
RELATED: COVID-19 Patient Writes Heartwarming Message to Caregivers on Hospital Window After His Recovery
“Her worst days are rain days and she worries if your members are okay and getting their exercise,” Wetenhall wrote. “I hope you can share with your members that they have given an elderly lady much joy in seeing them embrace health and life.”
The gym was so moved by the message that it announced the mural several weeks later as a means of continuing to inspire and motivate watching neighbors like Sollom Williams.
A former professional ballerina with the International Ballet, Williams moved to D.C. four years ago after the death of her husband, whom she met while dancing in nightclubs in Paris, the Post reported.
RELATED VIDEO: Grandfather Reads To Granddaughter Through Window
The London native spent many years in his hometown of Spokane, Washington, where she ran a ballet school of her own for 34 years and raised two children.
Her daughter told the Post that even in her 90s, Sollom Williams still loved keeping fit, and often attended exercise classes in her retirement home.
But once those stopped in March due to the pandemic, watching Balance Gym members and trainers working out on the roof next door became her go-to source of inspiration and entertainment.
RELATED: Couple Weds on N.Y.C. Street While Friend Officiates from Fourth-Story Window amid Coronavirus Outbreak
“The workouts were the one thing she kept bringing up on every phone call we had. She always remarks about how hard they’re working,” Wetenhall, a professor at George Washington University, told the Post. “In a way, this was a lifeline for her, to see people in motion. You think you’re doing something for yourself, but it’s really a thread of life that’s being extended to someone else.”
Williams recently saw the “Keep Moving” mural for the first time, and told the Post that she absolutely loves it.
“I hope it reminds people that they have to smile and stay determined,” she said. “Keep moving, no matter what.”
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Amazon Has Apple AirPods on Sale and Available to Arrive in Time for Christmas
Score an impressive last-minute holiday gift on sale while these deals last
By Jessica Leigh Mattern
Products in this story are independently selected and featured editorially. If you make a purchase using these links we may earn commission.
Calling all last-minute shoppers! Get ready to wrap up your holiday shopping in just a few clicks because this present is sure to impress everyone left on your list.
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Date of Birth: - 25/07/86
Height: - 1.80
Position: - Striker, Right Winger
Contracted: - Yes. Zenit
Build: - Large/Big/Muscular
Injuries: -
Estimated Market Value: - Brought for 40m Euro, but isn't worth anything near that.
Linked with: - Chelsea
Strength- Extremely strong, and can easily beat a player shoulder to shoulder.
Power- Very powerful, and can beat his man with strength and also in the air.
Jumping- Decent in the air, but often wont be scoring many headers, unless they are simple. He will often not challenge for the ball from corners, or crosses, unless its along the ground.
Speed- Quick for the first 10 metres or so, but overall not quick, due to his size.
Reaction- Good reactions, i.e. to through balls, or to a lose ball. That comes with being Brazilian and a striker.
Endurance- He should get through most matches with little or no problems, due to his work rate.
Body Movement- He isn't the most agile due to size.
Work Rate- Terrible. He doesn't track back so endurance isn't an issue.
First Touch- Good, solid and reliable. Very rarely lets the ball escape his trap.
Weaker Foot- His right foot is avoided at all costs, so it is poor.
Passing- Poor. He often gives the ball away, due to trying over expansive play. He is very often unaccurate with even short passing.
Tackling- He doesn't tackle, and if he does, it is a striker challenge. A foul.
Heading- He is good in the air due to his size, strength and power, but he often wont challenge (as mentioned) at corners or for crosses, unless it is with his feet. He wont score many goals with his head.
Dribbling- He is a good dribbler, but he will often try too much, and can overrun the ball or run out of options.
Decision Making- Decent decision making. He often picks the wrong option when passing, crossing or playing the through ball but is is the right place at the right time for tap ins.
Attacking Corners- Often takes corners or will provide an option. He will rarely challenge for the ball in the box.
Defending Corners- He may have to mark a player, but can provide an option on the edge of the box for the break.
Attacking Free Kicks- He often takes free kicks, and has a bullet of a shot. However, although impressive, he scores very few, and can waste these chances.
Defending Free Kicks- In the wall or providing an option on the edge of the box.
Courage- He will go into challenges, such as shoulder to shoulder, or challenge in the air. He is courageous, due to his strength.
Confidence- He is over confident and tries too much.
Communication- Poor communication as he often makes runs that cannot be found, or provides poor balls to teammates.
Motivation- He isn't motivated to track back and help his team, but with give his all for personal glory.
Concentration- Poor concentration, as he can miss easy chances and doesn't concentrate enough to provide simple passes.
Temperament- Selfish and lazy.
Hulk is a player, who after a 40m Euro move everybody suddenly thought was amazing. He had a tricky year in Russia, and although linked with Chelsea, he isn't good enough for them. He isn't good enough to be lazy. The top players have an excuse, but he isn't a top player, due to being wasteful with possession.
{A profile by Ed052}
Written by Ed001 June 26 2018 22:54:54
Henrikh MkhitaryanHome→
Champ Man Legends Part 8: Ganso
Sunday, 10 January 2021 05:10:41
Ganso Championship Manager ? Paulo Henrique Chagos de Lima, better known as Ganso (goose), was born on 12th October 1989 in Ananindeua, Brazil...
Review Of The Day 15th January 2021
Friday, 15 January 2021 06:09:06
Review of the Day Contracts Tranmere Rovers striker Kaiyne Woolery has extended his contract until the end of the season...
Review Of The Day 7th January 2021
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Review of the Day Contracts Jordy Hiwula has extended his short term deal with Portsmouth until the end of the season...
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Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit
Facilties
007 Stage D Stage N Stage The Richard Attenborough Stage
David Barron Lorenzo di Bonaventura Mace Neufeld Mark Vahradian
Chris Pine Kevin Costner Keira Knightley Kenneth Branagh
Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit filmed at Pinewood Studios using a variety of locations. These were The Richard Attenborough, D Stage, 007 Stage, N/P Stage, Paddock Tank, Theatre 7 and Black Park, which adjoins Pinewood with over 600 acres.
Kenneth Branagh is directing and also starring in the movie, alongside Chris Pine, Kevin Costner and Keira Knightly.
The film tells the story of Jack Ryan, a young covert CIA analyst, who uncovers a Russian plot to crash the U.S. economy with a terrorist attack.
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Little Laos on the Prairie
The Lao'd Perspective. Serving a hot dish of news, culture & life.
Submitted Stories
The Lao Diaspora Project
Flood Relief 2013
written by littlelaosontheprairie
Hundreds gathered at the Buasavanh restaurant in Brooklyn Center on Friday, November 1st to raise funds to assist those hit hard by the summer floods in Laos. Almost 24,000 hectares of rice and other crops were lost, with over 32,000 households affected by the crisis, according to recent reports from the United Nations.
A set of pictures depicting the damage the floods had caused greeted supporters on their way into Buasavanh. The event reminded many of their heritage, their tradition and the importance of coming together to help others in need. Laotians across five provinces have been hit hard, including residents of Savannakhet, Salavan, Champasak, Sekong, and Attapeu.
Sponsors of the evening event included Southeast Asian Healthcare, Hmong Village Shopping Center, and the Flood Relief Fundraising Committee. Minnesota musicians provided entertainment while committee members spoke to the generous supporters who’d come to learn more about the current needs of those in the most heavily impacted areas.
Representative McCollum sent Chao Lee to speak on her behalf regarding the current issues in Laos and to support constituents who are trying to make a positive difference. Among other high-profile figures in attendance was Dr. Yang Dao, the first Hmong to receive a Ph.D. and longtime community builder in Minnesota. Dr. Yang Dao had once been a senator in Laos.
Alex Phasy worked hard to engage community members and to remind them to vote, while Yommala Voravong helped to raise awareness of breast cancer issues and other issues of civic engagement.
Sunny Chanthanouvong, executive director for the Lao Assistance Center expressed his support for the organizers, and sponsored a table at the event. An ardent advocate for civic engagement, Chanthanouvong is a Humphrey Policy Fellow, a Bush Leadership Fellow, and holds a Virginia Mcknight-Binger Award for Human Service. “I’m glad to see so many people still have a love for Laos, and use their knowledge and skills to help others,” Chanthanouvong said.
Members of The Lao Assistance Center Of Minnesota, the senior staff of Little Laos on the Prairie, and the inaugural cohort of the Lao Leadership Institute and their friends and family were among the participants.
As with many events in the community, the majority of the crowd did not begin to arrive until almost 3 hours after the official start of the program and all of the guest speakers had had their say. Younger community members found the effort inspiring as Hmong, Lao, and other friends of the community found a common cause.
Filed under: News & Updates
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Little Laos on the Prairie (LLOTP) is a program of The SEAD Project, a 501c3 nonprofit NGO organization based in United States. All contributions to LLOTP are tax-deductible.
Diaspora: a sense of belonging to more than one history, to more than one time and place, to more than one past and future. -John Docker, Poetics of Diaspora
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Foreclosure Defense Forms
Livinglies's Weblog
Please Donate to Support Neil Garfield’s Efforts to stop Foreclosure Fraud.
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PTSD: A Breakdown of Securitization in the Real World
Posted on March 18, 2019 by Neil Garfield
By using the methods of magicians who distract the viewer from what is really happening the banks have managed to hoodwink even the victims and their lawyers into thinking that collection and foreclosure on “securitized” loans are real and proper. Nobody actually stops to ask whether the named claimant is actually going to receive the benefit of the remedy (foreclosure) they are seeking.
When you break it down you can see that in many cases the investment banks, posing as Master Servicers are the parties getting the monetary proceeds of sale of foreclosed property. None of the parties in the chain have lost any money but each of them is participating in a scheme to foreclose on the property for fun and profit.
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Let us help you plan for trial and draft your foreclosure defense strategy, discovery requests and defense narrative: 202-838-6345. Ask for a Consult or check us out on www.lendinglies.com. Order a PDR BASIC to have us review and comment on your notice of TILA Rescission or similar document.
I provide advice and consultation to many people and lawyers so they can spot the key required elements of a scam — in and out of court. If you have a deal you want skimmed for red flags order the Consult and fill out the REGISTRATION FORM.
A few hundred dollars well spent is worth a lifetime of financial ruin.
PLEASE FILL OUT AND SUBMIT OUR FREE REGISTRATION FORM WITHOUT ANY OBLIGATION. OUR PRIVACY POLICY IS THAT WE DON’T USE THE FORM EXCEPT TO SPEAK WITH YOU OR PERFORM WORK FOR YOU. THE INFORMATION ON THE FORMS ARE NOT SOLD NOR LICENSED IN ANY MANNER, SHAPE OR FORM. NO EXCEPTIONS.
Get a Consult and TERA (Title & Encumbrances Analysis and & Report) 202-838-6345 or 954-451-1230. The TERA replaces and greatly enhances the former COTA (Chain of Title Analysis, including a one page summary of Title History and Gaps).
THIS ARTICLE IS NOT A LEGAL OPINION UPON WHICH YOU CAN RELY IN ANY INDIVIDUAL CASE. HIRE A LAWYER.
It is worth distinguishing between four sets of investors which I will call P, T, S and D.
The P group of investors were Pension funds and other stable managed funds. They purchased the first round of derivative contracts sometimes known as asset backed securities or mortgage backed securities. Managers of hedge funds that performed due diligence quickly saw that that the investment was backed only by the good faith and credit of the issuing investment bank and not by collateral, debts or mortgages or even notes from borrowers. Other fund managers, for reasons of their own, chose to overlook the process of due diligence and relied upon the appearance of high ratings from Moody’s, Standard and Poor’s and Fitch combined with the appearance of insurance on the investment. The P group were part of the reason that the Federal reserve and the US Treasury department decided to prop up what was obviously a wrongful and fraudulent scheme. Pulling the plug, in the view of the top regulators, would have destroyed the investment portfolio of many if not most stable managed funds.
The T group of investors were traders. Traders provide market liquidity which is so highly prized and necessary for a capitalist economy to maintain prosperity. The T group, consisting of hedge funds and others with an appetitive for risk purchased derivatives on derivatives, including credit default swaps that were disguised sales of loan portfolios that once sold, no longer existed. Yet the same portfolio was sold multiple time turning a hefty profit but resulted in a huge liability when the loans soured during the process of securitization of the paper (not the debt). The market froze when the loans soured; nobody would buy more certificates. The Ponzi scheme was over. Another example that Lehman pioneered was “minibonds” which were not bonds and they were not small. These were resales of the credit default swaps aggregated into a false portfolio. The traders in this group included the major investment banks. As an example, Goldman Sachs purchased insurance on portfolios of certificates (MBS) that it did not own but under contract law the contract was perfectly legal, even if it was simply a bet. When the market froze and AIG could not pay off the bet, Hank Paulson, former CEO of Goldman Sachs literally begged George W Bush to bail out AIG and “save the banks.” What was saved was Goldman’s profit on the insurance contract in which it reaped tens of billions of dollars in payments for nonexistent losses that could have been attributed to people who actually had money at risk in loans to borrowers, except that no such person existed.
The S group of investors were scavengers who were well connected with the world of finance or part of the world of finance. It was the S group that created OneWest over a weekend, and later members of the S group would be fictitious buyers of “re-securitized” interests in prior loans that were subject to false claims of securitization of the paper. This was an effort to correct obvious irregularities that were thought to expose a vulnerability of the investment banks.
The D group of investors are dummies who purchased securitization certificates entitling them to income indexed on recovery of servicer advances and other dubious claims. The interesting thing about this is that the Master Servicer does appear to have a claim for money that is labeled as a “servicer advance,” even if there was no advance or the servicer did not advance any funds. The claim is contingent upon there being a foreclosure and eventual sale of the property to a third party. Money paid to investors from a fund of investor money to satisfy the promise to pay contained in the “certificate” or “MBS” or “Mortgage Bond,” is labeled, at the discretion of the Master Servicer as a Servicer Advance even though the servicer did not advance any money.
This is important because the timing of foreclosures is often based entirely on when the “Servicer Advances” are equal to or exceed the equity in the property. Hence the only actual recipient of money from the foreclosure is not the P investors, not any investors and not the trust or purported trustee but rather the Master Servicer. In short, the Master servicer is leveraging an unsecured claim and riding on the back of an apparently secured claim in which the named claimant will receive no benefits from the remedy demanded in court or in a non-judicial foreclosure.
NOTE that securitization took place in four parts and in three different directions:
The debt to the T group of investors.
The notes to the T and S group of traders
The mortgage (without the debt) to a nominee — usually a fictitious trust serving as the fictitious name of the investment bank (Lehman in this case).
Securitization of spillover money that guaranteed receipt of money that was probably never due or payable.
Note that the P group of investors is not included because they do not ever collect money from borrowers and their certificates grant no right, title or interest in the debt, note or mortgage. When you read references to “securitization fail” (see Adam Levitin) this is part of what the writers are talking about. The securitization that everyone is talking about never happened. The P investors are not owners or beneficiaries entitled to income, interest or principal from loans to borrowers. They are entitled to an income stream as loans the investment bank chooses to pay it. Bailouts or even borrower payoffs are not credited to the the P group nor any trust. Their income remains the same regardless of whether the borrower is paying or not.
Filed under: burden of persuasion, burden of pleading, BURDEN OF PROOF, CORRUPTION, evidence, expert witness, Fabrication of documents, foreclosure, foreclosure defenses, forensic investigation, forgery, investment banking, Investor, legal standing, MBS TRUSTEE, Mortgage, Pleading, prima facie case, Servicer, TRIAL OBJECTIONS, TRUST BENEFICIARIES | Tagged: ABS, AIG, CERTIFICATES, derivatives, Fitch, Goldman Sachs, MBS, Moody, securitization, Servicer advances, Standard and Poor | 11 Comments »
Gary Dubin: Proposed Mortgage Integrity Act (MIA):
Posted on March 4, 2019 by Neil Garfield
For ten years, Gary Dubin in Hawaii has been practicing law defending homeowners from foreclosure. He has preached his own version of how to combat foreclosure fraud. And he has practiced what he preached. I find his work enlightening and refreshing. So when I read his Proposed Mortgage Integrity Act (MIA) I decided to republish it in its entirety. Some of what he proposes is new but most of it, in my opinion, is a much needed tune-up of the wording of existing law.
His article and proposals are extremely well-written, objectively stated, reasonable and necessary. In my opinion Dubin’s quest should be supported by homeowners and non homeowners alike as it proposes to correct a deficit in our legal system, our economic system, and our society. The inequality of wealth that was exacerbated by what amounts to outright theft by a handful of banks can be corrected and our economic system can be stabilized if we return to the rule of law.
I have added commentary where I thought it might help readers understand WHY homeowners should win and how the current system is rewarding theft.
Go here listen to replays of previous Gary Dubin shows and find reference documents:
http://www.foreclosurehour.com/past-broadcasts.html
By Gary Dubin
The Proposed Mortgage Integrity Act (MIA): Some Common Sense Urgently Needed Practical Institutional Reforms For A Foreclosure System Completely Out Of Service…
I am entering my tenth year as a radio commentator specializing in developments in the foreclosure field following the Mortgage Crisis of 2008.
Despite isolated legislative and judicial attempts at reform during the last ten years discussed on The Foreclosure Hour, for the vast majority of American homeowners facing foreclosure little unfortunately has really changed.
False documentation and myopic judicial oversight still predominate in foreclosure courts, while hundreds of millions of dollars in hard earned equity is literally stolen in the loan securitization process in one of the largest fraudulent transfers of wealth to a few inside traders in United States history.
[EDITOR’S NOTE: He’s right. The direct meaning of this is that a handful of investment banks received trillions in investments. Then they originated or acquired loans eventually using the fictitious name of a nonexistent trust. But it was the investment bank that was the real player.
Then they sold the debt and the paper multiple times through disguised derivatives. This disbursed claims to debt ownership to dozens of players, who eventually came to rely on the value of the paper (contract or derivative) they acquired as set by the marketplace in private transactions rather than the intrinsic value of the debt, thus freeing the investment bank from ever accounting for the debt.
In short, none of the players are desirous or expecting any payment from parties who were borrowers with a debt that has now been completely satisfied. And claimants in foreclosure neither expect nor receive the remedy (foreclosure) that lawyers claim. The proceeds of foreclosure sale never go to the party named as claimant.
So the bottom line is that the investment bank is behind everything and it has long since received multiples of its investment in the loan. Having raked in an average of $3-$4 million on each $200,000 loan “repayment” of the loan was irrelevant and unwarranted. Neither the original investors nor the borrowers are given any credit for the receipt of proceeds of sale of the debt.
But foreclosure served as a vehicle to galvanize the myth that the debt still existed (and the note and mortgage could be enforced) and was owned by at least someone in the orbit of the investment bank, when it had long since departed. Judicial oversight has both failed and refused to consider the possibility that any alleged owner of the debt has already been paid in full and many times over.
That recognition of these basic facts produces a windfall for the homeowner and a death blow to the shadow banking market is not a consequence of anything the borrowers did, but rather a consequence of running a PONZI scheme. The windfall aspect might be corrected through the use of equitable doctrines; but in all events the promissory note and mortgage cannot be enforced to collect on a debt that has been sold to third parties.
The actual truth is that the actual claims to the debt, note and mortgage are buried deep within the shadow banking market and cannot be traced because they are, according to law, private contracts that need not be registered anywhere and are transferred in trading that is never recorded anywhere. The current remedy allowed by the courts is based entirely on the premise that someone who actually owns the debt is getting paid from the proceeds of liquidation of the “collateral.” This is entirely untrue. It never happens except for instances where the original lender is still the creditor.
The declaration of delinquency or default from a lawyer purporting to represent a nonexistent trust or an existing servicer when the declaration relates to a party who is entirely removed from ownership or any right to the debt, note or mortgage is obviously fatally defective, as many court cases have demonstrated. But the players, for a fee, must pretend that the debt is real and the the note and mortgage need to be enforced. That is the origin of the need for fabrication, backdating, forgery and robosigning.]
Backlogged courts applying mostly outdated traditional mortgage concepts remain ill-equipped to protect American homeowners from mortgage abuse.
Waging a foreclosure defense is still beyond the financial means of most homeowners, and those that can find the money to hire an attorney, find that few if any attorneys are trained in foreclosure defense and those that are, are usually less than adequately competent.
New and reform minded decisions by State Supreme Courts are nevertheless rarely adhered to by many of their state trial courts.
Hundreds of billions of dollars in sanctions levied by state and federal governments against lenders and loan servicers detailing mortgagee abuses have nevertheless failed to stop such identical abuses, and sanction money earmarked to assist borrowers has been largely diverted to other State uses.
Meanwhile, there is literally a war against foreclosure defense attorneys still taking place in our courts and among attorney regulators who think homeowners in foreclosure are just deadbeats and attorneys representing them are just preying on vulnerable defendants.
The present mortgage and trust deed foreclosure systems in the States simply do not work except for lenders and pretender lenders, whereas the federal banking system, specifically the Government Sponsored Enterprises Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac as well as MERS, are the real cause of and not the cure for most of the present serious problems in the foreclosure field.
Nevertheless, the reforms that are needed are not expensive nor complex, just a matter of simple common sense adjustments to a foreclosure system that is centuries old and no longer compatible with the needs of a democratic society under siege by greedy and unscrupulous quick-buck securitization thieves.
On today’s show John and I unveil our view of the general outlines of a proposed overhaul of the foreclosure system in the States, what we call legislation wise “The Mortgage Integrity Act” (MIA for short).
We intend to present this proposal later this year in the format of model legislation for adoption by State Legislatures.
Meanwhile, we hope to get our listeners’ comments and suggestions before drafting the actual Legislation in the form of a Model Act to be sent to the judiciary committees of every State Legislature.
The Model Act will have three main parts. Part One will address the nature of the emergency, Part Two will address the enacted institutional reforms, and Part Three will address transitional issues.
Part One, to be drafted in whereas clauses, will state the following:
1. Keeping record track of and protecting interests in land within each State has historically been an exclusive State function in the United States presumably protected by the Tenth Amendment to the United States Constitution;
2. Such protection has also been a strong State public policy, affecting the economic as well as the social and political well being and health of citizens in each State since respective statehood.
3. That exclusively State function has been recently undermined by the federal government in numerous ways and is responsible for the present mortgage crisis.
4. The result has been the fostering of corruption at virtually all levels of state foreclosure systems.
5. As a result, the State Legislature hereby declares a State Emergency, requiring a restructuring of the State foreclosure system through immediate institutional reforms as well as transitional measures to safeguard the wealth and well being of our citizens from increasing confiscatory forfeitures.
6. Ironically a foreclosure system said to have its goal to stabilize real estate markets in the United States has to the contrary destabilized real estate markets in this State, driving down the value of properties and dislocating tens of thousands of homeowners annually.
Part Two, to be drafted in enactment clauses, will state the following:
1. The existing foreclosure related statutes in this jurisdiction [setting forth the affected statutes by name and number] are hereby amended, abolished and/or replaced, as follows;
2. The exercise of personal jurisdiction by State Courts shall henceforth require service of all complaints by personal service, the proof of which shall henceforth require contemporaneous photographs of those being served. Substitute service is abolished.
3. Service by publication in lieu of personal service shall require attempts to serve defendants first by certified mail, return receipt requested, and next by certification first that an independent investigative agency licensed by the State has made a diligent effort to locate the defendant and within a reasonable time no shorter than two months has failed to do so, using nationwide tracking services.
4. There shall be only one form of combined promissory note and mortgage (or deed of trust) enforced in this jurisdiction, an inseparable ‘Mortgage Note”, which shall only be valid and enforceable if and when duly recorded at a County or Statewide recording office, and which shall not be classified as a negotiable instrument, which may only be transferred by an assignment similarly required to be recorded to be valid and enforceable.
5. Recording offices shall be staffed by attorneys who shall be responsible for researching and approving the standing of all claimed holders of recordable Mortgage Notes prior to their recordation, their compensation to be adequately funded through increases in recording fees taxed upon recorders of securitized trust instruments.
6. Enforcement of Mortgage Notes shall require proof of notices of default consisting of return receipt requests together with personal knowledge affidavits attesting to preparation and mailing by the preparers and mailers.
7. Enforcement of Mortgage Notes shall also require verification of the entire loan general ledger by an independent CPA with no institutional connections, direct or indirect, to the foreclosing plaintiff or its representatives or affiliates.
8. The State Insurance Commissioner is directed to investigate providing mortgage default insurance for the benefit of homeowners.
9. There shall be a specialized foreclosure court in every County in the State, whose Judges shall be prohibited from directly or indirectly having any ownership interest in or any other connection with any financial institution.
10. Mortgage defaults shall by law be considered confidential and not disclosed to anyone other than the affected borrowers, accommodating mortgagors, and guarantors under penalty of fines and imprisonment, to avoid foreclosure blight lowering the market value of affected properties.
11. Foreclosure complaints shall similarly be considered confidential and filed under seal, to avoid foreclosure blight lowering the market value of affected properties.
12. Foreclosure auctions are hereby abolished. Properties subject to foreclosure shall be sold in the ordinary market place by licensed real estate brokers and listed in the Multiple Listing Service as directed by the Foreclosure Court.
13. Deficiency judgments are hereby abolished.
14. In cases in which the Foreclosure Court finds that there is little or no equity remaining after payments required to be made to a foreclosing plaintiff, a foreclosure defendant must vacate the premises within a reasonable time no less than 90 days or must elect to forfeit ownership in exchange for an immediate lease agreement preserving possession for a stated period of time including indefinitely as determined by the Foreclosure Court provided a monthly market leasehold rental payment is agreed to and timely paid.
15. In cases where the Foreclosure Court finds that there is substantial equity remaining after payments required to be made to a foreclosing plaintiff, a foreclosure defendant my elect to retain possession as a tenant as aforesaid and shall have the right to recover title including therefore his equity in the property within a time period of at least one year to be determined by the Foreclosure Court provided at the time of the exercise of that right the foreclosure defendant reimburses the foreclosing plaintiff for whatever amounts may then be due on the mortgage note.
Part Three, covering transitional matters, as follows:
1. The dates of effectiveness of the various enactments will have to be tailored to existing conditions and between new and existing secured loans.
2. The respective powers between the States and the federal government in various respects above will likely require negotiation and litigation. Fortunately, the United States Supreme Court has recently shown deference to the States in related issues involving financial regulation.
Please join John and me today and email us your comments and suggestions. Let us know if you think we missed anything and if there any other way you can think of to change a system so badly out of service?
Gary Victor Dubin
Dubin Law Offices
Email: gdubin@dubinlaw.net
Licensed in California and Hawaii
Filed under: CORRUPTION, discovery, Fabrication of documents, foreclosure, foreclosure defenses, foreclosure mill, forensic investigation, forgery, investment banking, Investor, jurisdiction, legal standing, MBS TRUSTEE, Mortgage, originator, Pleading, prima facie case, securities fraud, Servicer, sham transactions, standing | Tagged: derivatives, gary dubin, judicial oversight, shadow banking | 8 Comments »
New products could increase the number of investors shorting U.S. home loans
Posted on May 17, 2017 by Neil Garfield
A sluggish mortgage-bond market could be jump-started by a new service that allows investors to short home loans.
Skeptics say the rise of derivatives on credit-risk transfer notes sold by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac has echoes of the 2008 credit crisis, when the market plunged under the weight of collapsing subprime securities.
Fannie and Freddie – the biggest guarantors of U.S. home loans – started transferring mortgage-default risk to bond funds and other investors in 2013 to help reduce risks to taxpayers according to Bloomberg. But the program has been generating more traction in recent months, after New York-based Vista Capital Advisors rolled out a pilot program that would eventually allow investors to bet on U.S. homeowner defaults.
Craig Phillips, a former BlackRock executive serving as head of financial markets advisory and client solutions for the Treasury Department, said credit-risk transfers will be core to U.S. housing policy.
The madness begins again with creative new derivatives and credit risk transfers that put the risk on the taxpayer.
Filed under: foreclosure | Tagged: derivatives, Fannie MAe, Freddie Mac, housing shorts | 1 Comment »
PONZI SCHEMES: Liability Of Lawyers and Accountants to be Considered
Posted on October 7, 2013 by Neil Garfield
“Carlo Pietro Giovanni Guglielmo Tebaldo Ponzi, (March 3, 1882 – January 18, 1949), commonly known as Charles Ponzi, was an Italian businessman and con artist in the U.S. and Canada. His aliases include Charles Ponci, Carlo and Charles P. Bianchi.[1] Born in Italy, he became known in the early 1920s as a swindler in North America for his money making scheme. Charles Ponzi promised clients a 50% profit within 45 days, or 100% profit within 90 days, by buying discounted postal reply coupons in other countries and redeeming them at face value in the United States as a form of arbitrage.[2][3] In reality, Ponzi was paying early investors using the investments of later investors. This type of scheme is now known as a “Ponzi scheme“. His scheme ran for over a year before it collapsed, costing his “investors” $20 million.” — see Wikipedia.
Editor’s Comments: The Supreme Court is going to hear a case involving a Ponzi Scheme that once upon a time was considered huge, until it was dwarfed by Madoff, which in turn was dwarfed by the Wall Street firms. The interesting thing about the original Ponzi Scheme is that it involved the promotion of false derivatives, which is exactly what happened in the mortgage meltdown.
Ponzi’s scheme was based upon the false premise that certain certificates could be purchased at one price in one place and sold at a higher price in another place because markets vary from one place to another. Had he actually believed the false premise he would have invested according to plan.
But there is no question from anyone about the fact that the plan was unworkable and Ponzi knew it. So he never invested the money and simply relied upon continuing sales of his “securities” in a private investment scheme to fund the illusion of payments as promised; as sales progressed he was able to pay investors their expected return in order to encourage additional sales and word of mouth success. When investors stopped buying the scheme quickly collapsed. Look back on the mortgage bond market. When investors stopped buying, the entire system collapsed.
Ponzi’s derivatives were fake. They were not derivatives because he never invested in the plan. He just kept the money and managed it until the scheme collapsed. The Mortgage Bond market was virtually identical to Ponzi except that it was more complex in terms of the number of moving parts. The mortgage bonds and credit default swaps were not derivative products either because the bonds never derived their value from actual mortgage loans. The “derivatives” that were allegedly exempt from securities regulation, the insurance products that were allegedly exempt from insurance regulation, were in fact not derivatives in most cases. The REMIC tranche that issued the bonds was a creature of the investment banks and the money advanced by investors never made it to the trust.
Like Ponzi the investment banks pocketed the money and then funded only what they needed to fund to give investors the false impression that their money was being invested in the manner required by the enabling documents — the Pooling and Servicing Agreement, Prospectus and the use of an Assignment and Assumption agreement that was used to cover the movement of money. Everything they did was designed to encourage the sales of additional bogus bonds. Profits were made primarily by the cloud of players created by the Wall Street banks, while the losses from the inherent false premise of the “investment” plan fell to investors and borrowers in “loans” that were virtual gifts to cover up the theft of principal by the banks.
Now the question before the Supreme Court is not whether the principals are liable to victims of the fake investment scheme, but whether the professionals and affiliates are liable for their negligence or fraud in helping the Ponzi scheme to progress. To put it in lay terms, the question before the court is whether an accountant or lawyer for the Ponzi scheme can be liable if they negligently or knowingly assisted in the Ponzi scheme.
The very question testifies to the state of our tolerance for misbehavior and why our current foreclosure mess has failed to yield criminal prosecutions on mass fraud. Iceland put their bankers in jail and now enjoys a growing economy and a stable banking environment. In the United States there has been nothing. The FBI has stated that 80% of mortgage fraud is committed by the banks. Yet prosecutions have only been on the other 20%.
So the question is whether a lawyer or accountant negligently or knowingly assisted in defrauding the public should be liable for their actions. To put it more simply, will that lawyer or accountant be liable for actions that we know were wrong and caused and contributed to extensive damage, and without which the scheme could not have operated. The answer seems obvious — except when you consider our awe of large schemes. The larger the scheme, the less likely is the prosecution. This in turn has resulted in the incentive for Ponzi operators to become as large as possible. In turn that means the incentive to escape prosecution requires that the scheme have massive scope and injuries.
If the Supreme Court hands down a decision favorable to investors, it will likely be that the liability extends only to private investment schemes that are not fully registered with the SEC. And if that happens then investors will be able to prove the Ponzi scheme and prove the accountants and lawyers were criminally and civilly liable.
This has everything to do with the mortgages and foreclosures. If the loans were window dressing on a Ponzi scheme instead of real loans by the originators and underwritten in accordance with industry standards, then the securities (mortgage bonds) issued from Wall Street were not derivatives. The impact travels all the way down to the closing table at which the closing agent applied money from investors held by investment banks to fund loans that were doomed to failure not only because of economic factors but also because the control over whether the loans would fail lay with the investment banks — not with the borrower, the lender investor, or anyone else.
If the loans were faked — in terms of NOT being funded in accordance with the indentures on the bonds — then clarity opens up in the mortgage mess, to wit: the loans were made from the pocket of investment banks and not the REMIC trusts. They were using investor money as their own, which is why the banks received insurance proceeds and proceeds of credit default swaps, and the proceeds of sale of the bogus mortgage bonds to the Federal Reserve.
The damage to investors occurred as a result of alleged loans. But the loans were in essence payment to or on behalf of people who believed they were borrowers when in fact they were being used in the Ponzi scheme — and had been exposed to risks that they knew nothing about because despite Federal and State law to the contrary, disclosure was withheld about the identity of the parties to the “loan” transaction, the fees paid to numerous parties, and the nature of the roles of the players that created the appearance of a loan transaction and a false chain of securitization.
The investors money was used to fund the alleged loans and fees but the documentation gave the loan to the Wall Street banks — a practice prohibited by the Truth in lending Act and the deceptive lending practices acts in many states. The point here is that the documentation — the note and mortgage — were executed in favor of a party who was a non-lendor nominee of a non-lender nominee of the investor lenders. And that is why it is nearly impossible to get a valid satisfaction of mortgage on payoff or on short-sale. The “satisfaction” is directed at a recorded instrument that is a lie, which means that the mortgage was not satisfied because it was never a perfected lien in the first place. The money currently being paid on the payoff is going to parties who were strangers to the mortgage transaction.
Thus the decision by the Supreme Court in the Stanford Case could and should have impact on the auditors and attorneys and other professionals that currently enjoy a weird sort of immunity despite their obvious wrongdoing in deceiving the public and enabling the fraud. A proper audit would have revealed that bonds on the balance sheet of the banks were in fact owned by investors and were worthless creating a potential liability that should have been reported. A proper review by the ratings agency would have identified the proposed plan as nonconforming when in fact they granted a triple A rating. These “third parties” were paid to violate the standards of their profession and they knew it. Whistle blowing memos went unheeded in all such organizations.
The ability of investors to prove the existence of a Ponzi scheme would have huge consequences on the foreclosure procedures. The focus would properly shift from “deadbeat” borrowers to felonious tricksters. A proper ruling in the Stanford case would thus open up the possibility for direct communication between investors and borrowers, enabling settlements that would enable investors to mitigate their damages on a large scale with the help of borrowers who are still willing to sign “modifications” that would result in the recording of actual perfected mortgage encumbrances eliminating nearly all of the foreclosure docket.
Stanford Ponzi Scheme Goes to Supreme Court
Deadline Approaching, U.S. Is Weighing More Charges in Madoff …
dealbook.nytimes.com/…7/…for-some-close-to-madoff
Among those still under scrutiny in connection with the Ponzi scheme are Shana Madoff Swanson, Mr. Madoff’s niece, and Paul J. Konigsberg, an accountant.
Filed under: CDO, CORRUPTION, Eviction, evidence, foreclosure, GARFIELD GWALTNEY KELLEY AND WHITE, investment banking, Investor, MODIFICATION, Mortgage, Pleading, securities fraud, Servicer, STATUTES, trustee | Tagged: derivatives, Madoff, Ponzi, Stanford | 11 Comments »
Criminal Charges Expected Against BofA, Citi, JP Morgan Chase
Posted on July 25, 2012 by Neil Garfield
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Editor’s Note: I was sort of expecting this from the Obama administration. Like others I long suspected the Libor was rigged but it seemed like they were covering their tracks too well to be sued or prosecuted. What I was expecting was that some MAJOR action would be brought against the banks in a way that wouldn’t look political. The prosecutions directly in the mortgage scandal were a bit long in the tooth for it not to look like political timing. But Libor, closely tied to all the loans and Loan resets and all the derivatives brings us back to first base with England leading the case.
As I have stated before, it does not seem likely that the voting public will look kindly on any politician in bed with the banks. About the only thing our divided electorate can agree upon is that the Banks screwed everything up and pretty much did it intentionally. Running against the banks is the smartest political move regardless of where you are on the political spectrum. Obama, probably knowing all about this investigation but not able to comment about it until the story broke, now has a clear path to run against the Banks while Romney practically is a bank.
As the economy worsens, and it will, the blame for it is going to be laid squarely at the doorstep of the banks where it belongs. The strategy of blaming Obama for past administration errors and failure of leadership in the economy is blowing up in the face of Republicans who actually do have platforms that are electable. Their problem is like the Democrats who didn’t really talk about their core issues in past elections.
Obama will correctly be seen as leading the charge against the banks whom everyone now hates. The dominant issue of the campaign has been delivered to the incumbent wrapped in a paper bow.
A 33% Minimum Probability Of Criminal Charges Against JP Morgan In Lieborgate?
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/33-minimum-probability-criminal-charges-against-jp-morgan-lieborgate
Filed under: bubble, CDO, CORRUPTION, currency, Eviction, foreclosure, GTC | Honor, Investor, Mortgage, securities fraud | Tagged: derivatives, foreclosure, Libor, reset, wrongful foreclosure | 33 Comments »
“A day of reckoning may soon be coming.” Yves Smith
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Editor’s Comment:
Yes it is a mouthful. But it boils down to this — Barclay’s Bank in cooperation with others manipulated the actual LIBOR rates which in turn effects other rates around the world. If you take this information and apply it to any loan that supposedly was reset on the basis of interest rates, you come up with the inevitable conclusion that the resets during the period of the manipulation were probably wrong.
So if a mortgage rate went from 3% to 4% on the basis of a change in interest rates tied to the note, then the proper rate charged to the homeowner was either higher or lower than what was actually charged. If the rate changed was directly tied to LIBOR that is the end of the argument. If the reset was based upon some other index you will find that those rates were influenced by LIBOR rates.
In a nutshell what this means is that most notices of default and foreclosures were based upon the wrong figures. In many cases the borrower was being charged too much and the loan balance was being overstated. This effects not only the notice of default but the amount required from the borrower for redemption and the amount of the credit bid allowed (presuming that the bidder was indeed the creditor which it seems is never the case in this country).
The bottom line is that even if all the other defects in the origination of the loan, the foreclosure of the loan, and the auction of the loan are accepted as true, the remaining defect deals with the real thing — money. Procedurally I have an issue with those who file these defensive positions in a motion to dismiss. I think a simple denial of the foreclosers allegations or implied allegations coupled with affirmative defenses is the proper thing to do, even though it puts the burden of proof as to LIBOR and other rates on the borrower. But the truth be told, the Judges are putting the burden of persuasion on the borrowers anyway.
Yves Smith has hit on something of huge importance.
Yes, Virginia, the Real Action in the Libor Scandal Was in the Derivatives
As the Libor scandal has given an outlet for long-simmering anger against wanker bankers in the UK, there have been some efforts in the media to puzzle out who might have won or lost from the manipulations, as well as arguments that they were as “victimless” or helped people (as in reporting an artificially low Libor during the crisis led to lower interest rate resets on adjustable rate loans pegged to Libor; what’s not to like about that?)
What we have so far is a lot of drunk under the streetlight behavior: people trying to relate the scandal to the part that is most visible and easy to understand, meaning the loan market that keys off Libor. As much as that’s a really big number ($10 trillion), it is trivial compared to the relevant derivatives. From the FSA letter to Barclays:
The Eurodollar futures contract traded on the CME in Chicago (which is the largest interest rate futures contract by volume in the world) has US dollar LIBOR as its reference rate. The value of volume of that contract traded in 2011 was over 564 trillion US dollars.
This is only one blooming exchange contract, albeit a monster of a contract. There are loads of OTC contracts in addition to that:
Interest rate derivative contracts typically contain payment terms that refer to benchmark rates. LIBOR and EURIBOR are by far the most prevalent benchmark rates used in euro, US dollar and sterling OTC interest rate derivatives contracts and exchange traded interest rate contracts.
Devil’s advocates have also argued that while Barclays submitted improper Libor rates, there’s no evidence they influenced the rates. I read the FSA document quite differently.
Recall that (so far) we have two phases of activity: one from 2005 to 2007, in which derivatives traders at Barclays would lean on the Submitters on a regular basis to place bids that would help improve the profits of positions they had on, and a later phase, during the crisis, where Barclays felt its peers were submitting lowball figures to the daily fixings and it was getting bad press for being an outlier, and it went to posting what it though were competitive, as in artificially low, data.
The earlier period looks to be far more damaging, and the regulators may have gotten only the tip of the iceberg. Readers have told me this sort of manipulation dates from at least 2001; the Economist quotes an insider saying it goes back 15 years. And with so few banks in the end influencing the rate, it isn’t hard to imagine the gaming worked. If you have 16 banks on the panel, as you did in late 2008, the top and bottom 25% of the bids are eliminated and the ones left are averaged. So it’s the average of 8 that remained that would determine the rate.
First, the FSA document suggests that it has only partial information, and it quotes e-mails and some isolated instant messages. A lot, presumably most, of the communication was verbal. But even with what the FSA presented, the traders were often and aggressively working with the submitters to influence their bids, and the FSA found in the overwhelming majority of the time the submitters cooperated. The directions were often quite specific, to hit a certain number, even to submit a figure that would be so high or so low as to get Barclays’ data point excluded from the daily calculation. The enthusiasm and frequency with which the traders were pushing the submitters, as well as the reaction in the market, suggests these efforts were having an impact:
Other individuals with no apparent vested interest in the strategy commented on the EURIBOR rates on 19 March 2007. Trader D stated in an instant message to an external trader “look at the games in EURIBOR today […] I am sure a few names made a killing”. A trader at a hedge fund communicated with Trader E, also on 19 March 2007, stating “it’s becoming dangerous to trade in 3m imms […], especially when Barclays sets the 3m very low […] it does draw attention to you guys. It doesn’t look very professional”
But how could this be? Barclays was only one of a number of banks putting in daily Libor prices.
First, the FSA account notes that Barclays was sometimes working with other banks. It would seem likely that this was more frequent than the paper trail thus far would suggest. Someone working with other banks to rig rates would probably be a bit more circumspect than in internal communications. The fact that the traders would sometimes try to have a rate put in that was intended to be knocked out of the final calculation suggests a collusive strategy.
Second, the derivative traders weren’t working just with the submitters. The report indicates that on at least on occasion, they got the cash desk to cooperate with the manipulation. And again, if the derivative traders sometimes worked with traders in other banks, they might have gotten those cash desks to play along with their scheme.
Third, their objectives for rate moving were to achieve single or a few basis points. Some examples:
Trader B explained “I really need a very very low 3m fixing on Monday – preferably we get kicked out. We have about 80 yards [billion] fixing for the desk and each 0.1 [one basis point] lower in the fix is a huge help for us.
..the Submitter responded positively on 10 November 2006, “of course we will put in a low fixing” and on 13 November indicated they would make a submission lower than the Brokers thought EURIBOR would set that day, “no problem. I had not forgotten. The brokers are going for 3.372, we will put in 36 for our contribution”
As the Economist points out:
The sums involved might have been huge. Barclays was a leading trader of these sorts of derivatives, and even relatively small moves in the final value of LIBOR could have resulted in daily profits or losses worth millions of dollars. In 2007, for instance, the loss (or gain) that Barclays stood to make from normal moves in interest rates over any given day was £20m ($40m at the time). In settlements with the Financial Services Authority (FSA) in Britain and America’s Department of Justice, Barclays accepted that its traders had manipulated rates on hundreds of occasions.
And the idea that one party’s loss from the manipulation was another’s gain is irrelevant to those on the losing side:
….banks will be sued only by those who have lost, and will be unable to claim back the unjust gains made by some of their other customers. Lawyers acting for corporations or other banks say their clients are also considering whether they can walk away from contracts with banks such as long-term derivatives priced off LIBOR.
I expect the firms involved to face a locust swarm of litigation. Lawyers may accomplish what regulators and politicians refused to do: strip the banks of ill gotten gains and bring their preening CEOs and “producers” down a few notches. A day of reckoning may finally be coming.
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Filed under: bubble, CDO, CORRUPTION, currency, Eviction, foreclosure, GTC | Honor, Investor, Mortgage, securities fraud | Tagged: Barclay's Bank, CME, Department of Justice, derivatives, Euribor rates, Eurodollar, Financial Services Authority, LIBOR rates, origination of loan, OTC, The Economist, US Dollar, yves Smith | 30 Comments »
Virtual Finance: Turning Things Right Side Up
Posted on June 22, 2012 by Neil Garfield
The article below by Lisa Pollack in the Financial Times shows an amazing understanding of securitization, derivatives and the actual path of money. It also introduces a new term–“credit support annex (CSA). CSAs were discussed in this blog back in 2007 and 2008 which merely made the already incomprehensible financial structure even less understandable. But they are important because that is where actual assets, actual money and actual financial transactions are taking place.
The article below deserves several readings. Those that master it will understand completely the untenable position of the United States’ financial condition. The governments of each country are constantly engaged in trading and creating derivatives, insurance, credit default swaps and other credit enhancements as they hedge all perceived risks. The problem is that the dealer keeps on dealing whereas the original transaction remains unchanged. In our case the US government used taxpayer dollars and private companies used shareholder dollars to pay off the original transaction—the loan from the investor lenders to the homeowner borrowers.
The reason for the stream of fake securitization documents was to enable the dealers to keep on dealing, which they did. In some cases they leveraged the same loan or group of loans as many as 42 times that has been documented. Since most of these deals are undocumented we can comfortably assume that the actual figure is a multiple of 42 times given the current state of credibility of the 18 banks that dominated the mortgage securitization market.
With each deal, the margins kept spreading in virtual dollars, while the real money remained unchanged. When the real money was repaid to the creditor or the creditors agents (the dealers) the trunk of the tree disappeared. The acceptance of payment by a creditor from any obligor or co-obligor extinguishes the debt. This is black letter law in all 50 states and all federal decisions as well. But the dealer keeps on dealing as though the trunk of the tree was still there. In a 2-dimensional sense the dealers are drawing out branches and sub-branches of various “trades” based upon a nonexistent base (the original loan).
The reason the banks are so scared of discovery in litigation and why they settle any case in which a judge enters an order for them to open their books is that it would be obvious to a first year accounting student that there is no substance to the subsequent trades of the dealers and no substance to their current trades since the base transaction was no longer present.
The moment all was paid by the creditor, directly or indirectly through the investors creditors agents trading should have stopped. Any future trades after that point were pure fraud since they pretended that the loan still existed. All prior trades should have been required to settle immediately. Thus eliminating the appearance of branches on a tree with an invisible trunk.
Had the bankers been operating honestly (perhaps an oxymoron) the ground would have been clear, the paperwork exchanged, and the accounting complete, leaving some dealers “in the money” and some dealers “out of the money”. If they were dealing honestly the amount of money “in the money” would have been equal to the amount of money “out of the money”. The result would have been no loss, no federal bailout, no mortgages, no liens, no foreclosures, no notes, and no obligations on the original transaction.
What arises is the possibility of a case in which a party has paid money to satisfy the creditor, directly or indirectly (through the investor creditors agents) against the homeowner for money that they actually lost. But unless they actually purchased the loan which they did not (according to any of the paperwork I have seen or heard reported), there could be no foreclosure on any part of the debt. In fact, while the debt or obligation might continue to exist under the law, the absence of an actual creditor seeking payment might result in the homeowner receiving a windfall. This windfall is but a small percentage of the windfall made by the dealers who kept on dealing and were bailed out in an amount far exceeding the total of all money loaned during this 10 year period. Thus the dealers used investor lender money to fund 13 trillion dollars in loans, experiencing no more than 2.5 trillion in defaults, while claiming and receiving no less than 16.6 trillion dollars from the federal government plus settlements on insurance, credit default swaps and credit enhancements.
Somehow the windfall of the bankers has been made to appear more politically acceptable than the windfall to homeowners whose tax dollars paid for the windfall received by the dealers. What a country!!
The reason for the opportunity of a windfall to homeowners is that the dealers created a false chain of documents to enable them to achieve windfalls. The only way they could prevent homeowners from sharing in that windfall of multiple payments on the same debt was through the process of foreclosure. In foreclosure, the debt was made to appear as properly documented and owned by the investor lenders. In fact, the debt was made to appear as though it still existed when in fact it did not exist at all. Most judges, attorneys, and homeowners, cannot conceive of a scenario in which the mere application of law would provide an opportunity to homeowners to share in the windfalls of dealers who continued to make deals with the full intent of depriving both the investor lenders and the homeowner borrowers of any right to participate in this windfall. The rubber stamped order of the usual foreclosure judge seals one more deal. It pitches the bad loan over the fence and forces an investor to accept the bad loan even though he was expressly assured of receiving good loans that were properly underwritten. These judges do not realize that they are underwriting a windfall to the dealers of virtual money while the participants in the real money transaction both got screwed.
The Bank of England gets economical with its derivatives
by Lisa Pollack
Isn’t it annoying when particular clients insist on being treated differently to everyone else? Like, just because your client is well, England, or Italy, or some other sovereign nation, doesn’t make them ‘special’. It’s also kind of annoying when they make regulations that make business tougher for banks and then still expect to be treated differently.
Interestingly though, the Bank of England just stopped asking for one such special exception when it comes to certain derivatives that it enters into on behalf of the nation in order to best manage its balance sheet and the Treasury’s foreign exchange reserves.
With any such derivatives contract, it’s a zero sum game. When marking the transactions to market, if one party is up £1m (“in-the-money”), that means the other party is down £1m (“out-of-the-money”).
In the normal course of things, the out-of-the-money counterparty would post collateral with the in-the-money-counterparty. This keeps everyone happy because it guarantees performance under the contract. The exact rules around posting collateralare determined by an agreement between them called a “credit support annex” (CSA). The majority of CSAs are “two-way”, meaning that both parties have to post collateral as and when they are out-of-the-money.
But, sovereigns never really went for that. Instead, they have “one-way” CSAs. They expect their counterparties to post collateral with them, but they don’t expect to have to post collateral themselves. Banks were, more-or-less, willing to put up with this when counterparty risk was less of a concern and things were going a lot better for them generally. Before, say, the latest wave of regulation that takes an especially dim view of uncollateralised exposures.
Regulations aside though, there has always been something of a funding problem with trades like these (with sovereigns) since banks tend to hedge their trades.
In the above, we show that the Bank of England has entered into a swap with a dealer, e.g. an interest rate swap to hedge rates exposure. The dealer does another trade, or series of trades, with the dealer on the far left of the diagram to hedge the swap with the Bank of England.
Some time later, the dealer is in-the-money on the trade with the Bank of England, and out-of-the-money on the trade with the other dealer. This puts the dealer in a really uncomfortable position — collateral has to be posted with the other dealer, but the Bank of England doesn’t post any collateral.
The news release from the Bank of England on Thursday indicates that it will start to post such collateral in the future.
Up until now, the only other examples of sovereign nations we know of that do something similar are Ireland and Portugal.
So why did the central bank decide on this change?
It seems they primarily did it to get better pricing on the derivatives contracts. It’s quite simple — the costs to the banks of putting the swaps together for sovereigns rose. It’s more expensive for banks to fund themselves, i.e. to get that collateral to post to their counterparties. It’s also more expensive to have uncollateralised exposure in terms of regulatory capital. The banks have been passing on these costs to their sovereign clients.
The Bank of England therefore concluded that it was cheaper to start posting collateral, as it should make the prices they are offered come down.
In Risk’s coverage of the announcement, they had this rough estimate of the price differential:
The UK bank’s swaps trader says the funding charge associated with one-way CSAs could add as much as 10 basis points to a longer-dated trade. The head of the sovereign, supranational and agency (SSA) desk at one large European bank says it could reach 20bp.
And well, seeing as the central bank has a lot of bonds sitting in its reserves anyway, hell, why not?
The best part of the Risk article, in FT Alphaville’s opinion, is that they asked Alan Sheppard, the Bank of England’s head of risk management, about what he thought of the likely interpretation that the move is a kind of “back-door state support”. In response:
The BoE’s Sheppard doesn’t see it that way. “That would be a very strange interpretation. There is some value in the funding option implicit in a one-way CSA, but the way the market has developed, the price has gone beyond the value it has for us. What we’re actually doing is stopping paying the banks for an option that we don’t value as highly as it costs them to provide, so we’re giving them less money rather than more,” he says.
In other words: this works for the Bank of England cause they’re thinking it’ll save them money.
Good for them, then… right?
The likely point of contention will be that there are central banks out there that are way more into their derivatives use than the Bank of England is, and they have made no such indication that they will post collateral in the future, despite a lot of lobbying by banks on the matter.
Italy, for example, has a huge swap portfolio. This is a big issue not just because of the funding issue we mentioned above, but also because banks usually hedge their uncollateralised exposure by buying credit default swaps on the sovereign, which causes the spreads to widen further (with all that protection buying pressure), and then can feedback to the price the sovereign pays to fund itself in the bond market.
Or, at least, that’s one of the rallying cries of banks… who may well have a point, unfortunately. Arguably, some not-so-well thought out regulation drives quite a lot of this.
In any case, the last time FT Alphaville took a thorough look at this, we produced this table using data from the European Banking Authority’s 2011 stress test (with end-2010 data, click to expand):
This shows the “direct sovereign exposures in derivatives” measured in fair values (millions). When the number is positive, the bank (listed on the left) is in-the-money and would like to get some collateral from the sovereign (in the columns). As can be seen, Italy is seriously out-of-the-money to the banks and yet the banks are in the painful position of not receiving collateral.
Now look at the UK exposures. There isn’t much, is there?
These figures aren’t current (end-2010) and they don’t include non-European banks. But the general point that we wish to make is this: the Bank of England doesn’t have too much riding on this, the reserves are just sitting there, and it is likely to bring down the cost of transactions. In other words, it might not be as big a deal as it may be made out to be.
Sorry if the lack of drama disappoints you…
Filed under: bubble, CDO, CORRUPTION, currency, Eviction, foreclosure, GTC | Honor, Investor, Mortgage, securities fraud | Tagged: Alphaville, Bank of England, credit support annex, CSAs, derivatives, Financial Times, Lisa Pollack, virtual finance | 25 Comments »
Everyone Else Knows: Why Do We Continue To Ignore It?
In a short article by Patrick Jenkins in the Financial Times (Doubts Over Lending Push), it seems that everyone in Europe understands the problem well, and that the the consequences are dire but are unsure about what to do about it. Here in the United States housing is the elephant in the living room that nobody really wants to talk about. European leaders don’t like talking about it either but they are doing it anyway. Maybe they actually care what happens next unlike American politicians who seem to enjoy creating catastrophes, then handing power over to the other party and blaming them for the results.
Mitt Romney and Barack Obama are battling it out over economic policies and whether lower taxes and fiscal stimulus will benefit the economy. Mitt wants to cut what is left of federal and state spending thus deepening the depression or recession or whatever it is. Barack wants to stimulate economic growth with more money. How about this: they are both wrong. And the Europeans, for all their chaotic political intrigues, are zooming in on the cure a lot faster than we are because we won’t even talk about it.
Both candidates seem to think that cheaper money and more of it delivered to the banks and large corporations will stimulate borrowing and commerce. But Graeme Leach, chief economist at the Institute of Directors boiled it down to one simple sentence: “Companies alarmed by the euro crisis will not be eager to borrow, regardless of the cost.” It is obviously obvious to anyone with a brain that companies are not going to borrow unless they think they need the money.
And they are not going to think they need the money unless demand is going up. With unemployment topping out near Great Depression levels, why would anyone think that commerce can be revived? Add in the fact that real wages have declined over the last 30 years and you can easily see why companies won’t borrow unless they think they can make money increasing their debt burden. Who does the buying — fairies? It’s consumers, stupid, and they are broke, tapped out on credit, and have very little confidence in their prospects.
The Europeans actually understand that there is a difference between the real economy and the one reported in the newspapers. The real one is where a strong middle class has savings and resources and they buy things. The one in the newspapers is all about paper and trades with companies buying and selling each other and “bets” being made on who is right about bonds, stocks and other crazy financial “innovations.”
Virtually half of the GDP published by Washington is made up of paper trades where the typical citizen is left out of the equation altogether. So here is a repeat of my prediction regarding the stock market: either it will “crash” in a correction that is congruent with actual commerce levels or the financial institutions and rating agencies will continue to rate and recommend securities of companies whose substance is gone —- called zombies in the FI article.
BOA is one such Zombie institution. It’s broke. Everyone knows it’s broke and yet they persist on pretending that it is just fine. Then they want consumers to express confidence in the economy or government. Why should they?
Everyone understands that the problem is housing and the fraudulent printing of “money” by private banks dwarfing any real money supply that is supplied by world governments. $700 TRILLION is traded as cash equivalents while world governments, even with quantitative easing have issued less than $70 TRILLION in real currency. Why would anyone think that taxes or stimulus or quantitative easing (printing money) could even nick the side of this barn. We are being forced to sustain a false tree of money on which thousands of branches are hanging onto a trunk that is not there and never was. Fear is now the dominant word that describes the behavior of world leaders and the leaders of central banks.
Here is the solution and it is the application of justice at the same time: since the mortgage papers contained lies and did not disclose the identity of the lender nor the actual terms of repayment, there is no law in existence that would allow such a transaction to become an encumbrance on the land.
Add to that the fact that the transaction recited never took place because the borrower was actually doing business with a stranger where money DID exchange hands but was never documented, and you have the answer: the mortgages are invalid, the notes are invalid and the the banks having been already paid several times over for a loss they never incurred but instead foisted upon pension funds and sovereign wealth funds from other nations, let’s call it a day.
I don’t care if people get an unfair advantage or perk for being a victim in this scheme. I don’t care if this interferes with the ideology of personal responsibility (which is being ignorantly applied to this situation). I care about the country, our society and what will happen if our economy can’t come up off the ground. I care that too many people are underemployed or unemployed. I care that average savings are zero and that most Americans have suffered a grievous loss of wealth.
I care that there are not enough people to buy things because they don’t have any money. Rescind the so-called mortgage transactions, let the branches of derivatives and credit default swaps and other bets and enhancements fall to the ground. It’s not as bad as you think. Most of the bets settle out to zero exchanges because with certain exceptions the bets are balanced.
The world will not end if we give homeowners their homes free and clear of any encumbrance. The governments could even prosper if they took an interest in those mortgages they already purchased (or think they purchased) and imposed a fair mortgage with fair terms based upon realistic current market conditions in housing and finance. Then people would be returned to their former status in far less time, the rate of commerce would improve, the real economy would recover and the fake economy and the people who go with it can take a hike or go to jail, if we dare to put them there.
Filed under: bubble, CDO, CORRUPTION, currency, Eviction, foreclosure, GTC | Honor, Investor, Mortgage, securities fraud | Tagged: Barack Obama, BOA, Central Banks, credit default swaps, derivatives, Doubts Over Lending Push, Europe, Financial Times, Gdp, Graeme Leach, Great Depression, housing, Institute of Directors, Mitt Romney, mortgage transactions, Patrick Jenkins | 33 Comments »
OK LAWYERS, STEP UP TO THIS ONE — It is literally a no- brainer
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Editor’s Comment: The very same people who so ardently want us to remain strong and fight wars of dubious foundation are the ones who vote against those who serve our country. Here is a story of a guy who was being shot at and foreclosed at the same time — a blatant violation of Federal Law and good sense. When I practiced in Florida, it was standard procedure if we filed suit to state that the defendant is not a member of the armed forces of the United States. Why? Because we don’t sue people that are protecting our country with their life and limb.
It IS that simple, and if the banks are still doing this after having been caught several times, fined a number of times and sanctioned and number of times, then it is time to take the Bank’s charter away. Nothing could undermine the defense and sovereignty of our country more than to have soldiers on the battlefield worrying about their families being thrown out onto the street.
One woman’s story:
My husband was on active duty predeployment training orders from 29 May 2011 to 28 August 2011 and again 15 October 2011 to 22 November 2011. He was pulled off the actual deployment roster for the deployment date of 6 December 2011 due to the suspension of his security clearance because of the servicer reporting derogatory to his credit bureau (after stating they would make the correction). We spoke with the JAG and they stated those periods of service are protected as well as nine months after per the SCRA 50 USC section 533.
We have been advised that a foreclosure proceeding initiated within that 9 month period is not valid per the SCRA. I have informed the servicer via phone and they stated their legal department is saying they are permitted to foreclose. They sent a letter stating the same. I am currently working on an Emergency Ex Parte Application for TRO and Preliminary Injunction to file in federal court within the next week. It is a complicated process.
The servicer has never reported this VA loan in default and the VA has no information. That is in Violation of VA guidelines and title 38. They have additionally violated Ca Civil Code 2323.5. They NEVER sent a single written document prior to filing NOD 2/3/2012. They never made a phone call. They ignored all our previous calls and letter. All contact with the servicer has been initiated by us, never by them. This was a brokered deal. We dealt with Golden Empire Mortgage. They offered the CalHFA down payment assistance program in conjunction with their “loan” (and I use that term loosely). What we did not know was that on the backside of the deal they were fishing for an investor.
Over the past two years CalHFA has stated on numerous occasions they do not own the 1st trust deed. Guild (the servicer) says they do. I have a letter dated two weeks after closing of the loan saying the “servicing” was sold to CalHFA. Then a week later another letter stating the “servicing” was sold to Guild. Two conflicting letters saying two different things. The DOT and Note are filed with the county listing Golden Empire Mortgage as the Lender, North American Title as the Trustee and good old MERS as the Nominee beneficiary.
There is no endorsement or alonge anywhere in the filing of the county records. We signed documents 5/8/2008 and filings were made 5/13/2008. After two years of circles with Guild and CalHFA two RESPA requests were denied and I was constantly being told “the investor, the VA and our legal department” are reviewing the file to see how to apply the deferrment as allowed by California law and to compute taxes and impound we would need to pay during that period. Months of communications back in forth in 2009 and they never did a thing. Many calls to CalHFA with the same result. We don;t own it, call Guild, we only have interest in the silent 2nd.
All of a sudden in December 2011 an Assignment of DOT was filed by Guild from Golden Empire to CalHFA signed by Phona Kaninau, Asst Secretary MERS, filed 12/13/2011. om 2/3/2012 Guild filed a Cancellation of NOD from the filing they made in 2009 signed by Rhona Kaninau, Sr. VP of Guild. on the same date Guild filed a substitution of trustee naming Guild Admin Corp as the new trustee and Golden Empire as the old trustee, but on out DOT filed 5/13/2008 it lists North American Title as the Trustee. First off how can Rhona work for two different companies.
Essentially there is no fair dealing in any of this. Guild is acting on behalf of MERS, the servicing side of their company, and now as the trustee. How is that allowed? Doesn;t a trustee exist to ensure all parties interests are looked out for? It makes no sense to me how that can be happening. On the assignment I believe there is a HUGE flaw… it states ….assigns, and transfers to: CalHFA all beneficial interest…..executed by Joshua as Trustor, to Golden Empire as Trustee, and Recordeed….. how can you have two “to’s” .. shouldn’t after Trustor it say FROM???? Is that a fatal flaw???
And then looking at the Substitution it states “Whereas the undersigned present Beneficiary under said Deed of Trust” (which on the DOT at that time would show MERS but on the flawed assignment says Golden Empire was the trustee), it then goes on the say “Therefore the undersigned hereby substitutes GUILD ADMIN CORP” and it is signed “Guild Mortgage Company, as agent for CalHFA”, signed by Rhona Kaninau (same person who signed the assignment as a MERS Asst Secretary). I mean is this seriously legal??? Would a federal judge look at this and see how convoluted it all is?
I appreciate the offer of the securitization discount but in out current economic situation and having to pay $350 to file a federal case we just can’t afford it right now. I hope you will keep that offer open. Will this report cover tracking down a mortgage allegedly backed by CalHFA bonds? This is their claim.
Thank you so much for your assistance. This is overwhelming. Do you have any attorneys here in Southern California you world with I might be able to talk to about what they would charge us for a case like this?
Filed under: bubble, CDO, CORRUPTION, currency, Eviction, foreclosure, GTC | Honor, Investor, Mortgage, securities fraud | Tagged: cash bids, chain of title, credit bids, derivatives, false attestations, foreclosures, forgery, fraudulent declarations, GEORGIA, home recovery, homes underwater, inflated appraisal, investor-lenders, lenders, MERS, mortgage bond, mortgages, negative equity, pretender lenders, principal correction, realtors, REMIC, robosigning, short-sale, taxpayer, Wall Street, zillow | 78 Comments »
Now They See the Light — 40% of Homes Underwater
They were using figures like 12% or 18% but I kept saying that when you take all the figures together and just add them up, the number is much higher than that. So as it turns out, it is even higher than I thought because they are still not taking into consideration ALL the factors and expenses involved in selling a home, not the least of which is the vast discount one must endure from the intentionally inflated appraisals.
With this number of people whose homes are worth far less than the loans that were underwritten and supposedly approved using industry standards by “lenders” who weren’t lenders but who the FCPB now says will be treated as lenders, the biggest problem facing the marketplace is how are we going to keep these people in their homes — not how do we do a short-sale. And the seconcd biggest problem, which dovetails with Brown’s push for legislation to break up the large banks, is how can we permit these banks to maintain figures on the balance sheet that shows assets based upon completely unrealistic figures on homes where they do not even own the loan?
Or to put it another way. How crazy is this going to get before someone hits the reset the button and says OK from now on we are going to deal with truth, justice and the American way?
With no demographic challenges driving up prices or demand for new housing, and with no demand from homeowners seeking refinancing, why were there so many loans? The answer is easy if you look at the facts. Wall Street had come up with a way to get trillions of dollars in investment capital from the biggest managed funds in the world — the mortgage bond and all the derivatives and exotic baggage that went with it.
So they put the money in Superfund accounts and funded loans taking care of that pesky paperwork later. They funded loans and approved loans from non-existent borrowers who had not even applied yet. As soon as the application was filled out, the wire transfer to the closing agent occurred (ever wonder why they were so reluctant to change closing agents for the convenience of the parties?).
The instructions were clear — get the signature on some paperwork even if it is faked, fraudulent, forged and completely outside industry standards but make it look right. I have this information from insiders who were directly involved in the structuring and handling of the money and the false securitization chain that was used to cover up illegal lending and the huge fees that were taken out of the superfund before any lending took place. THAT explains how these banks are bigger than ever while the world’s economies are shrinking.
The money came straight down from the investor pool that included ALL the investors over a period of time that were later broker up into groups and the issued digital or paper certificates of mortgage bonds. So the money came from a trust-type account for the investors, making the investors the actual lenders and the investors collectively part of a huge partnership dwarfing the size of any “trust” or “REMIC”. At one point there was over $2 trillion in unallocated funds looking for a loan to be attached to the money. They couldn’t do it legally or practically.
The only way this could be accomplished is if the borrowers thought the deal was so cheap that they were giving the money away and that the value of their home had so increased in value that it was safe to use some of the equity for investment purposes of other expenses. So they invented more than 400 loans products successfully misrepresenting and obscuring the fact that the resets on loans went to monthly payments that exceeded the gross income of the household based upon a loan that was funded based upon a false and inflated appraisal that could not and did not sustain itself even for a period of weeks in many cases. The banks were supposedly too big to fail. The loans were realistically too big to succeed.
Now Wall Street is threatening to foreclose on anyone who walks from this deal. I say that anyone who doesn’t walk from that deal is putting their future at risk. So the big shadow inventory that will keep prices below home values and drive them still further into the abyss is from those private owners who will either walk away, do a short-sale or fight it out with the pretender lenders. When these people realize that there are ways to reacquire their property in foreclosure with cash bids that are valid while the credit bid of the pretender lender is invlaid, they will have achieved the only logical answer to the nation’s problems — principal correction and the benefit of the bargain they were promised, with the banks — not the taxpayers — taking the loss.
The easiest way to move these tremendous sums of money was to make it look like it was cheap and at the same time make certain that they had an arguable claim to enforce the debt when the fake payments turned into real payments. SO they created false and frauduelnt paperwork at closing stating that the payee on teh note was the lender and that the secured party was somehow invovled in the transaction when there was no transaction with the payee at all and the security instrumente was securing the faithful performance of a false document — the note. Meanwhile the investor lenders were left without any documentation with the borrowers leaving them with only common law claims that were unsecured. That is when the robosigning and forgery and fraudulent declarations with false attestations from notaries came into play. They had to make it look like there was a real deal, knowing that if everything “looked” in order most judges would let it pass and it worked.
Now we have (courtesy of the cloak of MERS and robosigning, forgery etc.) a completely corrupted and suspect chain of title on over 20 million homes half of which are underwater — meaning that unless the owner expects the market to rise substantially within a reasonable period of time, they will walk. And we all know how much effort the banks and realtors are putting into telling us that the market has bottomed out and is now headed up. It’s a lie. It’s a damned living lie.
One in Three Mortgage Holders Still Underwater
By John W. Schoen, Senior Producer
Got that sinking feeling? Amid signs that the U.S. housing market is finally rising from a long slumber, real estate Web site Zillow reports that homeowners are still under water.
Nearly 16 million homeowners owed more on their mortgages than their home was worth in the first quarter, or nearly one-third of U.S. homeowners with mortgages. That’s a $1.2 trillion hole in the collective home equity of American households.
Despite the temptation to just walk away and mail back the keys, nine of 10 underwater borrowers are making their mortgage and home loan payments on time. Only 10 percent are more than 90 days delinquent.
Still, “negative equity” will continue to weigh on the housing market – and the broader economy – because it sidelines so many potential home buyers. It also puts millions of owners at greater risk of losing their home if the economic recovery stalls, according to Zillow’s chief economist, Stan Humphries.
“If economic growth slows and unemployment rises, more homeowners will be unable to make timely mortgage payments, increasing delinquency rates and eventually foreclosures,” he said.
For now, the recent bottoming out in home prices seems to be stabilizing the impact of negative equity; the number of underwater homeowners held steady from the fourth quarter of last year and fell slightly from a year ago.
Real estate market conditions vary widely across the country, as does the depth of trouble homeowners find themselves in. Nearly 40 percent of homeowners with a mortgage owe between 1 and 20 percent more than their home is worth. But 15 percent – approximately 2.4 million – owe more than double their home’s market value.
Nevada homeowners have been hardest hit, where two-thirds of all homeowners with a mortgage are underwater. Arizona, with 52 percent, Georgia (46.8 percent), Florida (46.3 percent) and Michigan (41.7 percent) also have high percentages of homeowners with negative equity.
Turnabout is Fair Play:
The Depressing Rise of People Robbing Banks to Pay the Bills
Despite inflation decreasing their value, bank robberies are on the rise in the United States. According to the FBI, in the third quarter of 2010, banks reported 1,325 bank robberies, burglaries, or other larcenies, an increase of more than 200 crimes from the same quarter in 2009. America isn’t the easiest place to succeed financially these days, a predicament that’s finding more and more people doing desperate things to obtain money. Robbing banks is nothing new, of course; it’s been a popular crime for anyone looking to get quick cash practically since America began. But the face and nature of robbers is changing. These days, the once glamorous sheen of bank robberies is wearing away, exposing a far sadder and ugly reality: Today’s bank robbers are just trying to keep their heads above water.
Bonnie and Clyde, Pretty Boy Floyd, Baby Face Nelson—time was that bank robbers had cool names and widespread celebrity. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Jesse James, and John Dillinger were even the subjects of big, fawning Hollywood films glorifying their thievery. But times have changed.
In Mississippi this week, a man walked into a bank and handed a teller a note demanding money, according to broadcast news reporter Brittany Weiss. The man got away with a paltry $1,600 before proceeding to run errands around town to pay his bills and write checks to people to whom he owed money. He was hanging out with his mom when police finally found him. Three weeks before the Mississippi fiasco, a woman named Gwendolyn Cunningham robbed a bank in Fresno and fled in her car. Minutes later, police spotted Cunningham’s car in front of downtown Fresno’s Pacific Gas and Electric Building. Inside, she was trying to pay her gas bill.
The list goes on: In October 2011, a Phoenix-area man stole $2,300 to pay bills and make his alimony payments. In early 2010, an elderly man on Social Security started robbing banks in an effort to avoid foreclosure on the house he and his wife had lived in for two decades. In January 2011, a 46-year-old Ohio woman robbed a bank to pay past-due bills. And in February of this year, a Pennsylvania woman with no teeth confessed to robbing a bank to pay for dentures. “I’m very sorry for what I did and I know God is going to punish me for it,” she said at her arraignment. Yet perhaps none of this compares to the man who, in June 2011, robbed a bank of $1 just so he could be taken to prison and get medical care he couldn’t afford.
None of this is to say that a life of crime is admirable or courageous, and though there is no way to accurately quantify it, there are probably still many bank robbers who steal just because they like the thrill of money for nothing. But there’s quite a dichotomy between the bank robbers of early America, with their romantic escapades and exciting lifestyles, and the people following in their footsteps today: broke citizens with no jobs, no savings, no teeth, and few options.
The stealing rebel types we all came to love after reading the Robin Hood story are gone. Today the robbers are just trying to pay their gas bills. There will be no movies for them.
Filed under: foreclosure | Tagged: ARIZONA, bank robberies, cash bids, chain of title, credit bids, derivatives, false attestations, FBI, FCPB, Florida, foreclosures, forgery, fraudulent declarations, Fresno, GEORGIA, Gwendolyn Cunningham, home recovery, homes underwater, inflated appraisal, investor-lenders, John W Schoen, lenders, MERS, Michigan, MISSISSIPPI, mortgage bond, mortgages, negative equity, Nevada, Ohio, Pacific Gas and Electric Building, Phoenix, pretender lenders, principal correction, realtors, REMIC, robbing banks to pay bills, robosigning, short-sale, Stan Humphries, Superfund, taxpayer, Wall Street, zillow | 13 Comments »
The Reporter Who Saw it Coming
Posted on May 8, 2012 by Neil Garfield
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By Dean Starkman
Mike Hudson thought he was merely exposing injustice, but he also was unearthing the roots of a global financial meltdown.
Mike Hudson began reporting on the subprime mortgage business in the early 1990s when it was still a marginal, if ethically challenged, business. His work on the “poverty industry” (pawnshops, rent-to-own operators, check-cashing operations) led him to what were then known as “second-lien” mortgages. From his street-level perspective, he could see the abuses and asymmetries of the market in a way that the conventional business press could not. But because it ran mostly in small publications, his reporting was largely ignored. Hudson pursued the story nationally, via a muckraking book, Merchants of Misery (Common Courage Press, 1996); in a 10,000-word expose on Citigroup-as-subprime-factory, which won a Polk award in 2004 for the small alternative magazine Southern Exposure; and in a series on the subprime leader, Ameriquest, co-written as a freelancer, for the Los Angeles Times in 2005. He continued to pursue the subject as it metastasized into the trillion-dollar center of the Financial Crisis of 2008—briefly at The Wall Street Journal and now at the Center for Public Integrity. Hudson, 52, is the son of an ex-Marine and legendary local basketball coach. He started out on rural weeklies, covering championship tomatoes and large fish and such, even produced a cooking column. But as a reporter for The Roanoke Times he turned to muckraking and never looked back. CJR’s Dean Starkman interviewed Hudson in the spring of 2011.
Follow the ex-employees
The great thing about The Roanoke Times was that there was an emphasis on investigation but there was also an emphasis on storytelling and writing. And they would bring in lots of people like Roy Peter Clark and William Zinsser, the On Writing Well guy. The Providence Journal book, the How I Wrote the Story, was a bit of a Bible for me.
As I was doing a series on poverty in Roanoke, one of the local legal aid attorneys was like, “It’s not just the lack of money—it’s also what happens when they try to get out of poverty.” He said basically there are three ways out: they bought a house, so they got some equity; they bought a car so they could get some mobility; or they went back to school to get a better job. And in every case, he had example after example of folks, who because they were doing just that, had actually gotten deeper in poverty, trapped in unbelievable debt.
His clients often dealt with for-profit trade schools, truck driving schools that would close down; medical assistant’s schools that no one hired from; and again and again they’d be three, four, five, eight thousand dollars in debt, and unable to repay it, and then of course prevented from ever again going back to school because they couldn’t get another a student loan. So that got me thinking about what I came to know as the poverty industry.
I applied for an Alicia Patterson Fellowship and proposed doing stories on check-cashing outlets, pawn shops, second-mortgage lenders (they didn’t call themselves subprime in those days). This was ’91. We didn’t have access to the Internet, but I came across a wire story about something called the Boston “second-mortgage scandal,” and got somebody to send me a thick stack of clips. It was really impressive. The Boston Globe and other news organizations were taking on the lenders and the mortgage brokers, and the closing attorneys, and on and on.
I was trying to make the story not just local but national. I had some local cases involving Associates [First Capital Corp., then a unit of Ford Motor Corp.]. Basically, it turned out that Ford Motor Company, the old-line carmaker, was the biggest subprime lender in the country. The evidence was pretty clear that they were doing many of the same kinds of bait-and-switch salesmanship and, in some cases, pure fraud, that we later saw take over the mortgage market. I felt like this was a big story; this is the one! Later, investigations and Congressional hearings corroborated what I was finding in ’94, ’95, and ’96. And it seems so self-evident now, but I learned that finding ex-employees often gives you a window into what’s really going on with a company. The problem has always been finding them and getting them to talk.
I spent the better part of the ‘90s writing about the poverty industry and about predatory lending. As a reporter you don’t want to be defined by one subject. So I was actually working on a book about the history of racial integration in sports, interviewing old Negro-league baseball players. I was really trying to change a little bit of how I was moving forward career-wise. But it’s like the old mafia-movie line: every time I think I’m out, they pull me back in.
Subprime goes mainstream
In the fall of 2002, the Federal Trade Commission announced a big settlement with Citigroup, which had bought Associates, and at first I saw it as a positive development, like they had nailed the big bad actor. I’m doing a 1,000-word freelance thing, but of course as I started to report I started hearing from people who were saying that this settlement is basically giving them absolution, and allowed them to move forward with what was, by Citi standards, a pretty modest settlement. And the other thing that struck me was the media was treating this as though Citigroup was cleaning up this legacy problem, when Citi itself had its own problems. There had been a big magazine story about [Citigroup Chief Sanford I.] “Sandy” Weill. It was like “Sandy’s Comeback.” I saw this and said, ‘Whoa, this is an example of the mainstreaming of subprime.’
I pitched a story about how these settlements weren’t what they seemed, and got turned down a lot of places. Eventually I went to Southern Exposure and called the editor there, Gary Ashwill, and he said, “That’s a great story, we’ll put it on the cover.” And I said, “Well how much space can we have?” and he said, “How much do we need?” That was not something you heard in journalism in those days.
I interviewed 150 people, mostly borrowers, attorneys, experts, industry people, but the stuff that really moves the story are the former employees. Many of them had just gotten fired for complaining internally. They were upset about what had gone on—to some degree about how the company treated them, but usually very upset about how the company had pressured them and their co-workers to mistreat their customers.
As a result of the Citigroup stuff, I got a call from a filmmaker [James Scurlock] who was working on what eventually became Maxed Out, about credit cards and student loans and all that kind of stuff. And he asked if I could go visit, and in some cases revisit, some of the people I had interviewed and he would follow me with a camera. So I did sessions in rural Mississippi, Brooklyn and Queens, and Pittsburg. Again and again you would hear people talk about these bad loans they got. But also about stress. I remember a guy in Brooklyn, not too far from where I live now, who paused and said something along the lines of: ‘You know I’m not proud of this, but I have to say I really considered killing myself.’ Again and again people talked about how bad they felt about having gotten into these situations. It was powerful and eye-opening. They didn’t understand, in many cases, that they’d been taken in by very skillful salesmen who manipulated them into taking out loans that were bad for them.
If one person tells you that story, you say okay, well maybe it’s true, but you don’t know. But you’ve got a woman in San Francisco saying, “I was lied to and here’s how they lied to me,” and then you’ve got a loan officer for the same company in suburban Kansas saying, “This is what we did to people.” And then you have another loan officer in Florida and another borrower in another state. You start to see the pattern.
People always want some great statistic [proving systemic fraud], but it’s really, really hard to do that. And statistics data doesn’t always tell us what happened. If you looked at some of the big numbers during the mortgage boom, it would look like everything was fine because of the fact that they refinanced people over and over again. So essentially a lot of what was happening was very Ponzi-like—pushing down the road the problems and hiding what was going on. But I was not talking to analysts. I was not talking to high-level corporate executives. I was not talking to experts. I was talking to the lowest level people in the industry— loan officers, branch managers. I was talking to borrowers. And I was doing it across the country and doing it in large numbers. And when you actually did the shoe-leather reporting, you came up with a very different picture than the PR spin you were getting at the high level.
One day Rich Lord [who had just published the muckraking book, American Nightmare: Predatory Lending and the Foreclosure of the American Dream, Common Courage Press, 2004) and I went to his house. We were sitting in his study. Rich had spent a lot of time writing about Household [International, parent of Household Finance], and I had spent a lot of time writing about Citigroup. Household had been number one in subprime, and then CitiFinancial/Citigroup was number one. This was in the fall of 2004. We asked, well, who’s next? Rich suggested Ameriquest.
I went back home to Roanoke and got on the PACER—computerized court records—system and started looking up Ameriquest cases, and found lots of borrower suits and ex-employee suits. There was one in particular, which basically said that the guy had been fired because he had complained that Ameriquest business ethics were terrible. I just found the guy in the Kansas City phone book and called him up, and he told me a really compelling story. One of the things that really stuck out is, he said to me, “Have you ever seen the movie Boiler Room [2000, about an unethical pump-and-dump brokerage firm]?”
By the time I had roughly ten former employees, most of them willing to be on the record, I thought: this is a really good story, this is important. In a sense I feel like I helped them become whistleblowers because they had no idea how to blow the whistle or what to do. And Ameriquest at that point was on its way to being the largest subprime lender. So, I started trying to pitch the story. While I had a full-time gig at the Roanoke Times, for me the most important thing was finding the right place to place it.
The Los Angeles Times liked the story and teamed me with Scott Reckard, and we worked through much of the fall of 2004 and early 2005. We had thirty or so former employees, almost all of them basically saying that they had seen improper, illegal, fraudulent practices, some of whom acknowledged that they’d done it themselves: bait-and-switch salesmanship, inflating people’s incomes on their loan applications, and inflating appraisals. Or they were cutting and pasting W2s or faking a tax return. It was called the “art department”—blatant forgery, doctoring the documents. You know, it was pretty eye-opening stuff. One of the best details was that many people said they showed Boiler Room—as a training tape! And the other important thing about the story was that Ameriquest was being held up by politicians, and even by the media, as the gold standard—the company cleaning up the industry, reversing age-old bad practices in this market. To me, theirs was partly a story of the triumph of public relations.
Leaving Roanoke
I’d been in Roanoke almost 20 years as a reporter, and so, what’s the next step? I resigned from the Roanoke Times and for most of 2005 I was freelancing fulltime. I made virtually no money that year, but by working on the Ameriquest story, it helped me move to the next thing. I interviewed with The Wall Street Journal [and was hired to cover the bond market]. Of course I came in pitching mortgage-backed securities as a great story. I could have said it with more urgency in the proposal, but I didn’t want to come off as like an advocate, or half-cocked.
Daily bond market coverage is their bread-and-butter, and it’s something that needs to be done. And I tried to do the best I could on it. But I definitely felt a little bit like a point guard playing small forward. I was doing what I could for the team but I was not playing in a position where my talents and my skills were being used to the highest.
I wanted to do a documentary. I wanted to do a book [which would become The Monster: How a Gang of Predatory Lenders and Wall Street Bankers Fleeced America—and Spawned a Global Crisis, Times Books, 2010]. I felt like I had a lot of information, a lot of stuff that needed to be told, and an understanding that many other reporters didn’t have. And I could see a lot of the writing focused on deadbeat borrowers lying about their income, rather than how things were really happening.
Through my reporting I knew two things: I knew that there were a lot of predatory and fraudulent practices throughout the subprime industry. It wasn’t isolated pockets, it wasn’t rogue lenders, it wasn’t rogue employees. It was really endemic. And I also knew that Wall Street played a big role in this, and that Wall Street was driving or condoning and/or profiting from a lot of these practices. I understood that, basically, the subprime lenders, like Ameriquest and even like Countrywide, were really just creatures of Wall Street. Wall Street loaned these companies money; they then made loans; they off-loaded the loans to Wall Street; Wall Street then sold them [as securities to investors]. And it was just this magic circle of cash flowing. The one thing I didn’t understand was all the fancy financial alchemy—the derivatives, the swaps, that were added on to put them on steroids.
It’s clear that people inside a company, one or two or three people, could commit fraud and get away with it, on occasion, despite the best efforts of a company. But I don’t think it can happen in a widespread way when a company has basic compliance systems in place. The best way to connect the dots from the sleazy practices on the ground to people at high levels was to say, okay, they did have these compliance people in place; they had fraud investigators, loan underwriters, and compliance officers. Did they do their jobs? And if they did, what happened to them?
In late 2010, at the Center for Public Integrity, I got a tip about a whistleblower case involving someone who worked at a high level at Countrywide. This is Eileen Foster, who had been an executive vice president, the top fraud investigator at Countrywide. She was claiming before OSHA that she was fired for reporting widespread fraud, but also for trying to protect other whistleblowers within the company who were also reporting fraud at the branch level and at the regional level, all over the country. The interesting thing is that no one in the government had ever contacted her! [This became “Countrywide Protected Fraudsters by Silencing Whistleblowers, say Former Employees,” September 22 and 23, 2011, one of CPI’s best-read stories of the year; 60 Minutes followed with its own interview of Foster, in a segment called, “Prosecuting Wall Street,” December 14, 2011.] It was very exciting. We worked really hard to do follow-up stories. I did about eight stories afterward, many about General Electric, a big player in the subprime world. We found eight former mortgage unit employees who had tried to warn about abuses and whom management had shunted aside.
I just feel like there needs to be more investigative reporting in the mix, and especially more investigative reporting—of problems that are going on now, rather than post-mortems or tick-tocks about financial disasters or crashes or bankruptcies that have already happened.
And that’s hard to do. It takes a real commitment from a news organization, and it can be a high-wire thing because you’re working on these stories for a long time, and market players you’re writing about yell and scream and do some real pushback. But there needs to be more of the sort of early warning journalism. It’s part of the big tent, what a newspaper is.
Filed under: foreclosure | Tagged: Ameriquest, bond market, borrower, Center for Public Integrity, CitiFinancial, Citigroup, countrywide, Dean Starkman, derivatives, disclosure, doctoring documents, Federal Trade Commission, financial alchemy, Ford Motor Company, foreclosure, foreclosure defense, foreclosure fraud, foreclosure offense, foreclosures, forgery, General Electric, global crisis, global financial meltdown, Household Finance, housing market, housing prices, investors, Lender Liability, Mike Hudson, mortgage backed securities, mortgage meltdown, Ponzi scheme, predatory lending, Rich Lord, rogue lenders, securitization, subprime mortgage, systematic fraud, trustee | 36 Comments »
DO You Want It To Slow Down or to Stop
Featured Products and Services by The Garfield Firm – Whose Lien Is It Anyway?
Real Property, Mortgages, Workouts and Foreclosures in the United States
Someone sent me a story about a guy who did one of those “California” stops at a stop sign, rolling through at a slightly slower speed than he had been going. A policeman stops him and informs the driver he had not made a full stop. The driver replied that he had made a rolling stop which is the same thing — after all he had slowed down because of the stop sign. The police officer invites him out of the car whereupon the policeman commences beating the driver around the head and body and then says to to the driver “Do you want me to slow down or do you want me to stop?”
The story is funny —sort of — because it makes a point. And I would make the same point about the foreclosures. Do we want a slow down in stealing of property away from people through foreclosures, even short-sales and other delays, or do we just want them to stop. The answer for me is that I want them to stop — except in those cases where the loan was between a normal borrower and a normal lender whose name is properly on the paperwork and who actually loaned the money.
Slowing down the pace of foreclosures because of the presence of forgeries, fabrications and fraud is not the answer. Stopping them and reversing the ones that occurred is the answer. And giving HAMP an actual chance to work (or some other mediated settlement) is the rest of the answer.
These “loans” are between parties who have no documentation as to their positions (the investor/lenders and the homeowner/borrowers) and whose presence was unknown to the other because of cloaks and subterfuge by investment bankers. The chain of documentation refers to a loan from an originator who never loaned a dime and never booked the loan as a receivable on their balance sheet in most cases. And so the entire chain of documents leading up the “securitization” chain are empty documents referring to transactions that never occurred and thus could never result ina perfected security interest in the property.
The solution is what homeowners are offering — converting an undocumented unsecured interest into a documented, secured interest reflecting current economic realities and that will provide the investor/lenders with far greater benefits than foreclosure which leads to ghost towns, bull dozing neighborhoods and other societal problems all for the single purpose of justifying taking every penny as fees for banks, servicers and other parties in the chain, which now, under the April 12 Bulletin from the CFPB, are to be considered just as responsible as banks and servicers.
It should be noted that the homeowners are in most instances offering MORE than the home is worth as the principal due on the note and waiving all other litigation rights.
So do we want it slowed down or stopped. Do we want speed or justice. Do we want the common man to be given back a chance at happiness and prosperity or do we want theft of wealth from the common man to be rewarded with amnesty and further subsidies?
Filed under: bubble, CDO, CORRUPTION, currency, Eviction, foreclosure, GTC | Honor, Investor, Mortgage, securities fraud | Tagged: attorney workbook, Case/Schiller, derivatives, foreclosure, foreclosure defense, foreclosure offense, foreclosures, French aristocracy, Gross Domestic Product, home ownership, homeownership low, housing market, housing prices, Mortgage, TBTF, the reason Wall Street exists, Treatise & Practice Manuel | 33 Comments »
WSJ: Home Ownership at 15 Year Low
If you read what the realtors are putting out these days you would have the impression that the housing Market is at bottom, that this is the time to buy (all realtors say that all the time) and that the Market has nowhere to go but up. Reality Check: that is exactly what they said in 2011, 2010, 2009, etc. Meanwhile the Market keeps going down because the median income (the ability to pay for housing) of the average person is going down each month. Case/Schiller have proven in an analysis and chart that goes back to the 1880’s that home prices and median income are inextricably linked.
The banks also want you to think the Market has hit bottom and they are journalists and other shills to say so. The faster they get rid of the real estate the less likely they think it will be that the old homeowner will come back and reclaim the property.
But the Wall Street Journal reports that home ownership is at a 15 year low while assets and income at the banks are at an all-time high. 1998 was the last year we saw so few people owning their own home. Take a look at the purported balance sheets of banks then and now. You will understand the figures — the degree to which the banks siphoned money out of the economy. Remember the only reason we let Wall Street exist is that it is supposedly the capitalist engine providing liquidity to consumers and small business owners alike who buy the things that are made.
Before we developed amnesia about why Wall Street exists and it’s job, the financial sector contributed 16% of this nation’s Gross Domestic Product. Now it is up near 50% which means we are reporting revenues and profits based upon derivatives whose value is derived from other derivatives and after a while you finally get to a real transaction where somebody made something and somebody bought something.
This is unsustainable and more reminiscent of the total lack of understanding that French aristocracy demonstrated when starving people from the streets chopped their heads off with the collusion of the merging merchant class. The control of our society by the banks will stop because it is impossible to sustain. What is surprising is that the lopsided figures in our economy don’t produce more outcries and predictions of disaster which undoubtedly will come to pass unless the bankers are put back in their place at 16% of GDP. That means someone in power needs to trim back the TBTF banks by 2/3. It’s a tall order, but somebody needs to do it.
It is not as hard as it seems. Most of the assets reported on the balance sheets of the TBTF banks are fake anyway.
Filed under: foreclosure | Tagged: attorney workbook, Case/Schiller, derivatives, foreclosure, foreclosure defense, foreclosure offense, foreclosures, French aristocracy, Gross Domestic Product, home ownership, homeownership low, housing market, housing prices, Mortgage, TBTF, the reason Wall Street exists, Treatise & Practice Manuel | 15 Comments »
THE REAL MONEY TRAIL
Posted on September 10, 2011 by Neil Garfield
GET COMBO TITLE AND SECURITIZATION ANALYSIS – CLICK HERE
EDITOR’S NOTE: THIS SUBMISSION FROM NJ CONSUMER IS A LITTLE DIFFICULT TO BREEZE THROUGH, BUT IT CONTAINS GOOD RESEARCH AND GOOD QUESTIONS.
At least one point emerging from all this information is that the basic concepts of default, performing loans and non-performing loans have been perverted by the securitization hoax. If Wall Street’s intention had been something other than deception, all of this would be clear as a bell. But what they were looking for was a way to take money from investors and not give it back, take houses from homeowners and not account for it, and take taxpayer money for losses than never occurred.
I have already written about the fact that the bonds given to the investors (actually non-existent, because they were “uncertificated”) contained vastly different parties and terms than the note signed by homeowners. There are several reasons this is important.
The investor/lenders are the only real source of funds and the only people who actually were at risk to lose money if they were not repaid. Somehow Wall Street managed to insert itself as a mere intermediary and actually claim the houses, the debts and force fees on both investors and homeowners that were improper, undisclosed, illegal and unconscionable.
For purposes the bailout, they took the investor loss and claimed it as their own, taking taxpayer money in the trillions to bailout their ailing enterprises. Most investors received nothing out of that money. And for sure, no borrower ever received a credit for money received on their obligation even though the government waived rights of subsrogation against the homeowner. So the debt was paid by the government and the borrower still owed it, making the obligation worth far more because it was being repaid several times over.
For all other purposes Wall Street took the loans receivables as their own without ever having advanced any money to the borrowers or to the investors for purchase of the obligation. In order to keep the investors placated they made sure the investors continued to get paid regardless of what was really happening with most of the money. They did this first, by using the investors own money to send them payments as though they were from borrowers. That is a fact and it is right in the prospectus of most “securitized” pools (which contain nothing of value).
They did the same thing with insurance, credit default swaps, cross-collateralization payments, over-collateralization payments, etc., and sold the same borrower obligation several times over (as much as 40 times over) by changing the apparent terms of the loan to look like another loan, or by covering the “sale” with language that made it look like a hedge product, like a credit default swap, synthetic CDO, or insurance. In each case, the money was received, sometimes courtesy of the U.S. Government, under an express waiver of subrogation, which means that the payor agreed that this payment ends the matter.
The loss was covered by an actual payment of money but neither the investor/lender nor the homeowner/borrower was ever given the information to allocate it to their bond or note or obligation. But so far, the Banks have succeeded in covering this up. So far, neither the investors nor the borrowers have fully realized that they are entitled to an accounting for ALL money transactions relating to the investors bond and the homeowners loan.
The reason is simple. As for the investor, they don’t want to pay the money to the investor and they don’t want the investor knowing how much money was made using the investor’s partnership (REMIC) in name only. As for the borrower, they don’t want the borrower getting credit for what the investor did or should have received as a result of the payments that were due under the bond. This would defeat the ability of the Wall Street to treat loans as being in default when in fact they were either paid in full or paid ahead.
Thus far, the banks have succeeded in directing the attention of the courts, the lawyers and the pro se litigants to the very narrow accounting provided by servicers as to the payments made by ONLY the borrower. When the time comes that the government payments, the insurance payments, the servicer payments, the counterparty payments, and the proceeds of other credit enhancements are taken into account, the picture will change. It will be obvious that virtually none of the amounts demanded in foreclosures, none of the amounts shown in the end of month statements on loans, and none of the distribution reports to investors were true, correct or even well-intentioned.
Submitted on 2011/09/05 at 12:50 pm
by Consumer in NJ
Maybe you don’t understand the point of the cut/pasting of the original 11 bank credit facility who started this mess connecting Lawyers Title Corporation, LandAmerica, Commonwealth, TD Financial Services, etc.
In good faith, I’ll continue sharing good information. I’m a researcher not a blogger. I’m a consumer harmed finding loopholes that harmed the economy transaction by transaction. What are you doing in good faith? Anyone who is a consumer not a blogger who understand and wants to be the ghost writer fine meanwhile I’m not seeing in the bulic domain the information I’m sharing that is important to how the economy harmed by money laundering a crime against the nation collective acts intentional collaboration, collusion methodical movement of cash right out of the nation c/o Mortgage Servicers affilaites of national banks. Thank you Office of the Comptroller of the Currency Hawke, Duggan, and who is the new guy? .
You need an attorney who knows the law. How are you going to know if you have a good attorney? How will you ask educated questions if the attorney has fiduciary interests of others ?
RED FLAG, attorney who promises you a loan modification connected to REO Lender’s reo broker, lender, dealer agaent affilaite beneficiary of the subservicer, robo-mill default lenders ?
RED FLAG attorney who says you don’t have to pay anything upfront.
Foreclosure was scary until Foreclosuregate. What is scary now is what Congress and the President, has not done about the OCC and CFPA c/o Federal Reserve.
What you don’t understand will hurt you.
We all proved that we are stupid people who signed stupid contracts. The Court will say a prudent buyer beware.
Obligor (Seller of loan) on your behalf signed mortgage backed note separating at time of ‘purchase’ of financial product the note from the debt. The Servicer c/o Purchaser sold back servicing rights takes possession of pledged asset cash of promissory note borrower co-signed.
The Tempory Lender recorded as the only document ‘Mortgage/Deed of Trust’ proves we did not understand that the ‘TRUST’ Cash paid by Purchaser separated the Note and DEED at time of purchase of ‘mortgage’ a financial product placed into public domain.
Alert all you whippersnappers signing the same documents today, ask for access to all of the related governing agreements between Seller and Purchaser, Obligor, Beneficiary, etc.which were intentionally witheld by the Obligor from all who come before you. Make an educated decision that its ok your property deed and note are separated..
The Obligor has the OBLIGATION to pay all principal and interest payments on a debt. We are the debtor c/o Obligor who allowed affilaites as third parties to Sell Loans purchased by …
Because you did not seek a copy of the Obligor’s contract and Agreements Sale & Serive Agrement, Loan Purchase Agreement, etc., and now don’t care to review agreements available on the public domain SECINFO . Com, and FFIEC . GOV Federal Reserve System reveals how the money moves to/from Parent Chase Manhattan Corporation 1998, 1998 with entity – data processing servicer is the Federal Reserve System Classification – Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems, Inc. (MERS). and all MERS Members then by default c/o FREDDIE MAC shareowner are ‘affiliates’ of national banks Mortgage Servicers (Norwest Mortgage, inc, Americas Servicing Co, Premier Asset Services, Wells Fargo Home MOrtgage, Chase Home Lending, GMAC Mortgage Corp of IA, ….
You don’t understand what I’m taling about. Sorry. Call be happy to help you understand what you don’t know that is harming you, your famaily, friends, neighbors, your municipality, your state and nation.
Keep complaining that you don’t understand. I won’t give up.
I don’t wany anyone to roll over and lose their home through ignorance for if you do you are part of the problem and allowing the perpetrators to continue harm the economy one mortgage at a time. ITts bad enough both Houses of Congress, The OCC, The Federal Reserve, 12 Federal Home Mortgage Loan Corporations, FHA, HUD, and they pulled over federal taxes from you for the Consumer Financial Protection Agency who all protect government interest of only GINNEMAE guaranteed loans and self interests of all private wealth institutional bankers and institutional investors. Do you think the FEDERAL RESERVE is the ‘Central Bank’? Nope sorry its not. Do you thing the FHMA lawsutis protect non-conforming loans NOPE does not.
In default, you do not lay down like a dog because your scared.
You don’t have to listen to some REO broker quick move into an apartment
Does the party standing before the court Plaintiff have the right as note holder in due course to take the property. That is all a foreclosure is.due to default (hardship) (loss of job) (sickness) (divorce) all the top 5 stressors in life. My intentions as a consumer harmed to help reveal the loopholes which harmed our economy.
The Agreements governing your mortgage did not start and stop the day you signed the mortgage promissory note.
By the way the Temporay Lender aka Seller of the Loan already authorized the loan and ordered the cash from a purchaser before you signed the promissory note. WHich means legally the loans was already signed and you are a what co-signor?
The harm to the economy methodical c/o money laundering. Corportions are perpetual entities, whose assets include, contracts, agreements, registration statements, T-1 Indenture, Trusts, etc., assets as receivables think of it like if you die and had money a house a busienss a car, another house, another buisness. How would the estate be assigned a value? The business a value? That may help you understand the one loan combined with all loans 2003-2008 which harmed the economy by laundering cash right under the noses of each federal regulatory agency c/o OCC.
2. Seller is sole owner of Loan
Seller has authority to Sell, transfer and assign the same …(see manual not attached)
Seller attests there has been no Assignment, sale or hypothecation thereof by Seller
except the usual hypothecation of the documents in connection with Seller’s normal banking transactions in the conduct of its business.
Hypothecation new word: (for me)
What Does Hypothecation Mean?
When a person pledges a mortgage as collateral for a loan, it refers to the right that a banker has to liquidate goods if you fail to service a loan.
The term also applies to securities in a margin account used as collateral for money loaned from a brokerage.
You are said to “hypothecate” the mortgage when you pledge it as collateral for a loan
New Word: Rehypothecation:
When a broker pledges hypothecated client owned securities in a margin account to secure a bank loan. Rehypothecation also known as a margin loan. Related terms (Banking, Brokers, Pledged Asset, Hypothecation.
Pledged Asset
What Does Pledged Asset Mean?
An asset that is transferred to a lender for the purpose of securing debt.
The lender of the debt maintains possession of the pledged asset, but does not have ownership unless default occurs.
A pledged asset is returned to the borrower when all conditions of the debt have be satisfied.
Home buyers can sometimes pledge assets, such as securities, to lending institutions in order to reduce the necessary down payment. Thus, these securities would not have to be sold in order to meet the down-payment requirements, allowing for any capital appreciation while maintaining the associate mortgage benefits.
Related terms Capital appreciation; Collateral; Default; Hypothecation, Loan, Mortgage, Rehypothecation …
Bonds, Fixed Income, Personal Finance
WHAT ABOUT ‘Sub-Sovereign Obligation – SSO”
What Does Sub-Sovereign Obligation – SSO Mean?
A form of debt obligation issued by hierarchical tiers below the ultimate governing body of a nation, country, or territory. This form of debt comes from bond issues and is issued by states, provinces, cities or towns in order to fund municipal and local projects.
Also referred to as a “municipal (muni) debt obligation”.
This form of debt obligation is commonly created by municipalities in order to meet funding requirements. Issuing bodies are responsible for their own debt issues, which can carry significant risk depending on the financial health of the municipality.
WHAT ABOUT ALL THOSE ‘NIMS’ IN REMIS? Hmmm. Relate back to the ‘cash’ taken out of ‘TRUST’ custody of a pension fund or municipality, c/o Non-Deposit Trust Company Non-Member ‘cash’ purchaser ordered by ‘seller’ originator deposits ‘cash’ c/o depositor individual bank closing agent, …for a new Loan.
If existing loan is placed in default and not really paid off (during a refinance) there are a lot of ifs, but the loan can be placed in forced default over 90-120 days and repurchased depending upon ‘agreements. What does your agreement say? Read a simple one from 9/24/1998 re Countrywide Purchaser and E-Loans Seller (Originator). Google Purchase.
A debt collector robo-firm c/o subservicer instructed by Servicer c/o Investors/Owner of ‘mortgage note’ Pleged Asset
Trying to take your property. How? What in writing gives them the right to attach the debt to the Pledged Asset?
Master Servicer ‘agreeded’ in REMIC SERVICER who purchased servicign rights was in control after 90 days.
A 90 day default common for REMICS, there are other defaults that can occur between buisness entities seller and purchaser.
If mortgage affixed a MIN# that affiliate of a national bank’s Mortgage Servicer did not register transactions at RETAIL with County Clerk/Recorder because the ASSIGNMENT/Mortgage Promissory Note borrower signed with Temporay Lender is the Assignment, statutory taxes paid by borrower for credit line increase in a documented called a mortgage promissory note like an amendment to the exisint mortgage if a refiance – a loan modiifcation.
MERS MEMBERS by default are automaticfally affiliates of a National Bank’s Mortgage Servicer. Keep in mind the OCC since 2003 has protected all MERS MEMBERS c/o Federal Reserve private wealth managers who assigned visitorial powers c/o Supremacy Clause trump State Attorney Generals trying to enfoce laws can’t secure evidence related to any transactions ‘cash’ attached to ‘Mortgage Servicers affilaites of national banks. Chase Bank NA all MERS MEMBERS affiliates of natioanl banks Chase, Wells Fargo BanK NA, GMAC Bank c/o NASCOR dba Wells FArgo Asset Securities Corp. That is one joint venture governing loan originated c/o affiliates of these banks may do business in the names of these banks and the depositor ‘Wells Fargo Asset Securities Corp’….
Every rolling 12 month period, the ‘debt’ serviced, the servicer posts asset ‘receivables’ for 12 months…
Select Servicers maintain huge portfolios of many loans.
The servicer may have made an agreement to pay the P&I pending sale of REO property c/o subservicer for example GMAC Mortgage Corporation who will advance funding as a Tempoary Lender c/o REO Lender of Premier Asset Services affilaite – who is that? an affiliate of a Mortgage Servicer of a national bank, Welsl Fargo Bank NA. Hmmm.
You need to understand what was once illegible to me the agreements and decphier the relationship to secure evidence and to figure out if documents you have are accuate business statements you can pursue through the courts seeking disclosure of the agreements that govern the transactions.
if you want ‘evidence’ there is NO one answer fits all.
You each have a ‘Loan’ 0123456789 that went through an ‘origination’
During that origiantion, a purchaser and seller’ depending upon the governing agreement, exchanged cash. The written agreements provide the ‘agency’ authority. Look for your evidence. Look for loopholes. Find ‘evidence’ or you’ll lose.
Go back — go back — go back and find the original agreements.
1998 is a good place to start, when the integrated networks in place for Origiantions already existed and operating, over the CLOUD, portals connecting bank closing agents, title and settlement agents, MERS Members, TD Servicers, First America, Fideltiy, DocX, LPS, LSI, eLynx, etc., and all of the robo-firms in agreement with all the sub-servicers, servicers, ….
Example: Lawyers Title Services bank closing agents, title agenies, virtual notary services c/o title and settlemetn agencies, etc.
Select a simple one where you don’t have any paradigmns and read and you’ll understand better. Your preconceived ideas divert and hide the truth.
MERS exists c/o Chase Manhttan Corp as Parent of Mortgage Electronic Systems, Inc. Yes you read correct. What does that mean? The ‘joint venture’ between FREDDIE MAC, Chase, WFC, GMAC (private). The dollars ‘income’ flowed to Chase c/o Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems, Inc.
All MERS MEMBERS by default ‘affiliates’ of national banks, federal associations, federal savings banks…..by 3/13/2000 when Financial Holding Companies now parent money flows through Federal Reserve System in light of day between ‘Real Estate Industry’, ‘Insurance Industry’ and ‘Banking Industry’.
Google Purchase Loan Agreement
Loan Purchase Agreement
Countrywide Home Loans Inc.
E-Loans Inc.
‘LOAN PURCHASE AGREEMENT’
COUNTRYWIDE HOME LOANS, INC, A NY CORPORATION AS ‘PURCHASER’ OF LOANS FROM E-LOANS ‘Seller’ Originator
E-LOAN, INC. A CALIFORNIA CORPORATION ‘SELLER’ OF LOANS
COUNTRYWIDE AGREES TO PURCHASE LOANS SECURED BY REAL PROPERTY WITH SERVICING OF THE LOANS FROM ‘SELLER’ E-LOANS
COUNTRYWIDE CORRESPONDENT LENDING DIVISION LOAN PURCHASE PROGRAM
PARTIES AGREE:Seller & Purchaser
“Related terms’ Collateral, Loan, Mortgage, Pledged Asset, Rehypothecation …
1. ELIGIBLE LOANS SELLER MUST BE APPROVED QUALIFIED AND/OR LICENSED TO ORIGINATE SUCH LOANS – so we can assume E-Loans has affiliates who are qualifed in all 50 states.
-Loans sold include
Conforming Conventional (GINNE MAE), Jumbo…not guaranteed by Ginne Mae,, Second Mortgage Loan Program (what is that resale of purcahsed loans after 120 days?), etc. Each defined with a unique set of rules.
GinneMae the only government guaranteed loans regulations govern conforming loanos conforming loans, and all non-conforming loans are considered Alt-A Loans (1) missing GSE requirement (no income verification). How do you know if your loan was conforming or not? Ask? Secure discover and find LPS ‘Non-Conforming’ printed on reports.
Whether conforming or non-conforming all of the loans from Sellter will be purchased by purchaser Countrywide in accordance with this Loan Purchase Agreement, and manual not attached herewith, that you get only if you are an affiliate, member, subscriber, vendors, servicer, whatever.
Have you read your agreements that govern the loan you signed as borrower? It was signed before you signed by the Seller who issued the insurance c/o Temporay Lender, the commitment to issue cash or accept cash, insurance for the event of a default. A default in some agreements may be the interest and late payment fee’ after 90 days if not paid places the loan in forced default. You know how they sent back checks for partial payments the servicer refused to take anything but the total amount owned? Why not take some? Because once 90 days in default, the loanos may be resold and repurchased.
Do you know what the Seller is responsible for? Look at a real agreement and look up the vernacular you don’t understand don’t apply what you think the work ‘lender’ and ‘temporary lender’ mean. And Pretender Lender is not a financial term. Temporary lender is a financial business entity role of some business entity who makes money in 3 different ways. Does not mean all Temporay Lenders do all that.
Countrywide Purchaser of Loans and E-Loans the Seller agree
1. Seller shall fully underwrite each Loan (prior to submission to Countrywide)
9/24/1998 Loan Purchase Agreement refers to ‘must use’ if avaialble’ a Countrywide-approved automated-underwriting system for underwriting the loan.
2. Commitment to Purchase Loaons
Seller may commit to sell a Loan to purchaser Countrywide (refer to manual we don’t have)
Countrywide will confirm conditions of sale of Loan to Countrywide, deliver confirmation Commitment to Seller, set for terms of transaction, Countrise ‘purchaser’ will pay for each Loan (refer to manual affects Purchase Price).
Terms of Commitment
Including Purchase Price Effective Period
Seller is approved by Countrywide to sell Loanos to Country wide on a bulk sale basis …
Countrywide and ‘Seller’ E-Loans shall execute Addendum to ‘Loan Purchase Agreement (BULK SALES) which will be attached and incorporated into this Agreement by reference (not attached).
Countrywide has right (BUT NOT OBLIGATION) to underwrite any Loan submitted for purchase
Seller’s repurchase obligations under Section 9 hereof… 270 days later…
Seller delivers to Countrwide appraisal of real estate security for each Loan
Appraisal signed by a qualified appraiser (see manual not attached) prior to Countrywides approval to purchase loan.
4. Delivery of Loan Documents
When is a loan deemed ‘delivered’ to Countrywide
A) if it is received by Countrywide within the Commitment Period
B) if Loan in compliance with Delivery of Closed Loans and Funding Documentation (see manual not attached)
C) Loan has no outstanding conditions that prevent Countrywide from FUNDING purchase. Example: failure to deliver within 120 days of Loan purchased (forward sold) any of the required documentation Countrywide Assessment fee of $50 per month after initial 120 day grace period. $50 if 1 or more documents.
Failure to deliver to Countrywide one or more of the original documents specified in Delivery of Closed Loans (see manual not attached) within 270 days from date the Loan was purchased by Countrywide shall obligate SELLER to repurchase Loan pursurant to Section 7 of this Agreement.
5. Payment of Purchase Price and Seller’s Wire Instructions
Countrywide Purchaser shall after receipt of loan documentation package TILA – HUD etc., deliver the Purchase Price (less any fees or discounts due to Countrwide)
Commitment to Seller
Seller’s wire instructions ‘Order Cash for Loanj0123456789;’ or in accordance with any bailee letter or trust receipt submittted with the Loan 01234567890 (all as determined in the ‘sole’ and ‘abosolute’ discretion of Countrywide.
6. Sellers Obligations, Representations & Warranties
Seller prepresents and warrrants each Loan offered for sale (purchase by Countrywide)
1 Loan documents duly executed by trustor/mortgagor
Loan documents acknowledged and recorded;
each Loan is valid
Each Loan complies with all cirterial (see manual not attached)
Note and Deed of Trust/Mortgage constitute4 entire Agreement between trustor/mortgagor and the beneficiary/mortgagee
There is no verbal understanding or written modification which would affect terms of note or deed of trust/mortgage
except by written instrument delivered
and expressly made known to the beneficiary/mortgagee and recorded if recording is necessary to protect interests of beneficiary/mortgagee.
There are 2 defaults going on at the same time with Countrywide
Simple explanation provided by Investopedia
What Does Default Mean?
1. The failure to promptly pay interest or principal when due. Default occurs when a debtor is unable to meet the legal obligation of debt repayment. Borrowers may default when they are unable to make the required payment or are unwilling to honor the debt.
2. The failure to perform on a futures contract as required by an exchange. Investopedia explains Default
1. Defaulting on a debt obligation can place a company or individual in financial trouble. The lender will see a default as a sign that the borrower is not likely to make future payments. For example, if Company XYZ is unable to make a coupon payment on its bonds, the bondholders would place XYZ in bankruptcy. This would give the company an opportunity to claim XYZ’s assets as a form of repayment for the debt.
2. Defaulting on a futures contract occurs when one party does not fulfill the obligations set forth by the agreement. The default usually involves not settling the contract by the required date. A person in the short position will default if he or she fails to deliver the goods at the end of the contract. The long position defaults when payment is not provided by the settlement date.
Filed under: bubble, CDO, CORRUPTION, currency, Eviction, foreclosure, GTC | Honor, Investor, Mortgage, securities fraud | Tagged: Bad Debt Reserve, bankruptcy, bonds, borrower, collection agency, countrywide, Cross Default, Debenture Redemption Reserve, Default Risk, derivatives, disclosure, Fixed Income, foreclosure, foreclosure defense, foreclosure offense, foreclosures, fraud, futures, Leveraged Loan, LOAN MODIFICATION, modification, Non-Performing Loan, Personal FinanceRelated Terms, principal, quiet title, Redlining, rescission, RESPA, securitization, TILA audit, trustee, WEISBAND | 73 Comments »
FED POLICY FAVORS MEGA BANKS AND IS ANTICOMPETITIVE ADDING TO TRAIN WRECK
Posted on April 5, 2011 by Neil Garfield
SEE LIVINGLIES LITIGATION SUPPORT AT LUMINAQ.COM
GET LUMINAQ COMBO TITLE AND SECURITIZATION SEARCH
see 60 MINUTES: TITLE PROBLEMS ARISING FROM SECURITIZATION A \”TRAIN WRECK\”
EDITOR’S COMMENT: With 7,000 community banks and credit unions, an electronic funds transfer infrastructure enabling even the smallest bank to provide wide access ATM, internet and other conveniences, you would think that the best insurance we have against financial collapse is to make certain that the small and medium sized banks make it through this crisis — especially since they didn’t cause the problem.
But just as MasterCard and Visa adopted policies that created preferred treatment to the megabanks and forced the smaller banks to pay for the same infrastructure that was being used against them in the “free market”, the FED has adopted policies that are window dressing meant to show fairness and neutrality when in fact the FED policies are squarely in the corner of mega banks who consistently use their power and influence over the payment networks and the federal reserve to raise barriers to entry just high enough to prevent meaningful competition.
So hundreds of banks were given access to the Fed Window, but unlike their megabank counterparts, they had to come up with REAL COLLATERAL instead of bogus mortgage bonds. This policy made absolutely certain that the small banks would not start lending ahead of the mega banks and start taking back market share. It also made certain that the small banks would not start growing at the expense of the megabank share of the market which is now placed somewhere around 70%.
Thus the very same people and institutions and caused the mess we are in, and who have created a title conflagration that might never be solved as long as we continue to keep ourselves blinded by the myth and spin coming from Wall Street and government, THOSE are the people who are essentially MAKING POLICY contrary to their lip service of preserving, maintaining and promoting a free market. In a free market, the small and medium sized banks would have been given a better chance to step up to the plate and take back market share after the horrible behavior of those who have dominated the marketplace for thirty years. In a free market, the resolution of the mortgage bond issue, derivatives, and synthetic collateralized debt obligation instruments like credit default swaps, would have been achieved without causing any pain to anyone other than the people who created the problem. Instead the pain is still spreading to all the citizens of our country and around the world.
Fed Help Kept Banks Afloat, Until It Didn’t
By BINYAMIN APPELBAUM and JO CRAVEN McGINTY
WASHINGTON — During the frenetic months of the financial crisis, the Federal Reserve stretched the limits of its legal authority by lending money to more than 100 banks that subsequently failed.
The loans through the so-called discount window transformed a little-used program for banks that run low on cash into a source of long-term financing for troubled institutions, some of which borrowed regularly from the Fed for more than a year.
The central bank took little risk in making the loans, protecting itself by demanding large amounts of collateral. But propping up failing banks can increase the eventual cleanup costs for the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation because it keeps struggling banks afloat, allowing them to get even deeper in debt. It also can clog the arteries of the financial system, tying up money in banks that are no longer making new loans.
County Bank, the largest bank in Merced County, California, took a $4.8 million loan from the discount window in March 2008 after announcing the first annual loss in its 30-year history, news that prompted depositors to withdraw $52 million.
By the fall of 2008, the bank was borrowing regularly from the Fed, taking more than two dozen loans in amounts that peaked above $60 million. It continued borrowing until the day it failed, taking a final loan for $55 million on Friday, Feb. 6, 2009.
Thomas Hawker, the former chief executive, said that the loans helped keep the bank in business, providing needed cash as deposits dwindled. But he said that it was clear in retrospect that County Bank was dead on its feet the whole time, thanks to its once-lucrative focus on financing construction of new homes in the Central Valley of California.
“I think in most cases it is a lifeline that kind of provides a bridge to survival,” said Mr. Hawker, who left the bank in 2008. “In the case here, Merced County was ground zero for everything that could possibly have gone wrong with the economy.”
The discount window is a basic feature of the central bank’s original design, intended to mitigate bank runs and other cash squeezes. But access to it historically has been limited to healthy banks with short-term problems.
Those limits moved from custom to law in 1991, when Congress formally restricted the Fed’s ability to help failing banks. A Congressional investigation found that more than 300 banks that failed between 1985 and 1991 owed money to the Fed at the time of their failure. Critics said the Fed’s lending had increased the cost of those failures.
The central bank was chastened for a generation but in 2007, facing a new banking crisis, the Fed once again started to broaden access to the discount window. It reduced the cost of borrowing and started offering loans for longer terms of up to 30 days.
More than one thousand banks have taken advantage. A review of federal data, including records the Fed released last week, shows that at least 111 of those banks subsequently failed. Eight owed the Fed money on the day they failed, including Washington Mutual, the largest failed bank in American history.
The Fed has said that it complied fully with the law in all of its emergency loans, and that its actions, including lending from the discount window, were intended to limit the impact of the crisis.
Charles Calomiris, a finance professor at Columbia University who has studied discount window lending during previous crises, said the Fed had not released enough information for the public to determine whether some of the recipients were propped up inappropriately and should have been allowed to fail more quickly.
“Do we know whether the Fed did that? No, we don’t,” he said. “But the Fed has become more politicized than at any point in its history, and I do worry very much that a lot of Fed discount window lending may just be part of a political calculation.”
In some cases the Fed’s lending had clear benefits, whether or not the loans meant going beyond the mandate.
The F.D.I.C. almost always seizes banks on Friday evenings, so the new owners have two days before reopening. In some cases the Fed kept banks alive until the next Friday. The Bank of Clark County in Vancouver, Wash., took its first discount window loan on Monday, Jan. 12, 2009. It borrowed $8 million Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, then $14 million on Thursday and Friday. Then the F.D.I.C. closed its doors.
In other cases, the Fed stopped lending to banks as the extent of their financial problems became clear. Alton Gilbert, a former official at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis who wrote a widely cited study of the Fed’s discount window lending in the 1980s, said that few banks failed with Fed loans on their books during the recent crisis. The central bank often suspended lending several months before they failed.
Still, some experts said additional scrutiny was warranted for a subset of banks that received sustained support even though they faced clear problems.
The most frequent visitors at the window were three subsidiaries of FBOP, a bank holding company based in Oak Park, Ill.
Park National Bank in Chicago borrowed regularly from April 2008 until the day of its failure in October 2009, taking 129 loans in amounts that peaked at $345 million — the longest period of sustained support for any bank that failed during the crisis. Park used some of the money to finance the acquisition of assets from other banks, expanding its own balance sheet and potentially increasing the cost of its eventual failure. Bloomberg News first reported the details of the Fed’s discount window lending to the company.
Two other failed banks owned by FBOP also took more than 100 loans from the discount window, California National Bank of Los Angeles and Pacific National Bank of San Francisco, although both stopped borrowing several months before failing.
Marvin Goodfriend, a professor of economics at Carnegie Mellon University, said that such lending placed the Fed in the inappropriate position of deciding the fate of individual banks, choices that he said should be made by elected officials.
“What I think is the lesson from this is that the Congress needs to clarify the boundaries of independent Fed credit policy,” Professor Goodfriend said. “There should be a mechanism so that the Fed doesn’t have to make these decisions on behalf of taxpayers.”
Filed under: bubble, CDO, CORRUPTION, currency, Eviction, foreclosure, GTC | Honor, Investor, Mortgage, securities fraud | Tagged: ATM, bailout, Bank of America, community banks, credit unions, derivatives, disclosure, eletronic funds transfer, Federal reserve, foreclosure, foreclosure defense, foreclosure offense, fraud, Lender Liability, mortgage bonds, mortgage meltdown, predatory lending, rescission, securitization | 17 Comments »
POLITICANS RUSH TO CASTRATE FINANCIAL REFORM
The fact that Wall Street is so intent on doing this can only indicate one thing: they intend to do it again. Wake up America!
SEE VIDEO ELIZABETH WARREN ON GOALS FOR FINANCIAL CONSUMER PROTECTION
Note: One of the things that Warren brings out in the video is that the disclosure forms come much too late in the process. The obvious effect is that besides being confusing on their face, there is very little time for consumer to study or get help understanding the disclosure statements. Early rendition and delivery of the disclosure statements would add to the barrier of committing consumer fraud. By requiring early delivery, the “lender” would not be able to argue later that the borrower was informed of the terms and signed anyway, even when the consumer never had any real opportunity to look at those forms. Now we have to argue that the delivery of the forms was under circumstances where the consumer was meant not to understand the transaction. Warren’s goal addresses that head-on.
EDITORIAL COMMENT: The only wrong with this editorial from the NY Times is that they seem to limit it to Republicans. I’ll agree that Republicans are leading the charge, but many Democrats are in the pack racing for ways to please Wall Street which is throwing money around like confetti. By making it a Republican vs. Democrat issue, the editorial diverts us from the point — that the Dodd-Frank bill is under attack and they intend to chip away at it in pieces by denying appropriations and otherwise tangling up the works so that it doesn’t work.
Who Will Rescue Financial Reform?
In what passes for self-restraint these days, House Republicans have been insisting that they do not intend to repeal last year’s Dodd-Frank financial reform law.
Not in one fell swoop, anyway.
A direct assault on Dodd-Frank would be so blatantly biased toward banks that it would be sure to provoke a public backlash. So the Republican plan is to delay and disrupt reform. The effort is partly ideological — an insistence that regulation is unnecessary, no matter the evidence to the contrary. It is also a campaign fund-raising ploy, because Wall Street will reward the opponents of reform. Of course, Democrats are themselves not indifferent to Wall Street campaign cash, which raises the question of how effectively they will counter the Republicans’ aims. Here are areas to watch.
DERIVATIVES Budget cuts could cripple the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission — which share the vital task of regulating the multitrillion-dollar derivatives market. The budget impasse in Washington has already frozen the agencies’ budgets, even as their rule-writing duties have exploded. Worse, prevailing Republican rhetoric, adopted in part by Democrats, portends more budget cuts, which would leave the agencies unable to enforce current rules, let alone new ones. Settling for less than President Obama’s requested amounts for the agencies would be acquiescing in the derailment of Dodd-Frank.
CONSUMER PROTECTION The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, arguably the most innovative of the reforms, has been under constant attack by banks — and Republicans. Most recently, a House hearing on the bureau that was billed as an oversight session was instead a hazing of Elizabeth Warren, the Harvard law professor and consumer advocate chosen by Mr. Obama to set up the agency. Republican objections boiled down to charges that the agency — and Ms. Warren — have too much power. Ms. Warren’s rebuttals were clear and persuasive. Mr. Obama could define the debate further — and demonstrate his professed support for the bureau — by going on the offensive and nominating Ms. Warren as its official director. Senate Republicans have said that they would object, but it is their own credibility that would be at risk in opposing so qualified a candidate.
REPEAL BY ANOTHER NAME House Republicans have unveiled several bills to undo Dodd-Frank piece by piece. One would rewrite the law so that the C.F.P.B would be run by a five-member bipartisan board, rather than one director, a recipe for delay and division. Another would exempt an array of derivatives users from the new rules, perpetuating the deregulated market.
Yet another bill would repeal a requirement for private equity firms to register with the S.E.C, in effect ignoring the systemic risks in leveraged pools of private capital. And one would repeal a requirement that publicly traded companies disclose the ratio of a chief executive’s pay to that of a typical employee, a move that would deprive analysts of data to detect bubbles that correlate to skewed pay. The list goes on.
Dodd-Frank is no cure-all, but properly implemented and enforced, it would close dangerous regulatory gaps. That won’t happen if Republicans get their way — and they will, unless the fight is engaged in no uncertain terms. Democrats in Congress need to unite behind the law and Obama officials should denounce the antireform effort for what it is: an attempt to weaken Dodd-Frank on behalf of those who brought us the financial crisis.
Filed under: bubble, CDO, CORRUPTION, currency, Eviction, foreclosure, GTC | Honor, Investor, Mortgage, securities fraud | Tagged: Budget cuts, Commodity Futures Trading Commission, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Democrats, derivatives, Dodd-Frank, Elizabeth Warren, Obama, private equity firms, Republican, Securities and Exchange Commission, Wall Street | 17 Comments »
LIQUIDITY TRAP CONTINUES TO STALL RECOVERY
SEE Liquidity_trap
“This is a call for application of existing law, not for the ideological shifting of wealth. If people get their cars and houses back that were taken illegally, we will have the capacity to invest, to restart commerce, and prosper. If we keep people enslaved in fictitious debt, we will have succeeded in destroying the promise of the American democratic experiment. Our system is based upon the ultimate power being with the people who are governed, not with the people who do the governing. Somehow we lost that and instead of the government being fearful of public reaction, the people are fearful of government reaction. We need to “man-up” or “citizen-up”, take back that power, and apply existing laws without malice or ideological agendas that change our constitution.”
“The liquidity trap, in Keynesian economics, is a situation where monetary policy is unable to stimulate an economy, either through lowering interest rates or increasing the money supply. Liquidity traps typically occur when expectations of adverse events (e.g., deflation, insufficient aggregate demand, or civil or international war) make persons with liquid assets unwilling to invest.” Wikipedia
EDITOR’S COMMENT: In plain language our status quo is that nobody is investing in the economy to the degree necessary to stimulate an economic recovery. Fiscal or monetary policy from the Federal Reserve and U.S. Treasury can’t do anything about it because their control over monetary supply and the financial industry has been all but eliminated. Allowing the fake mortgage bonds and fake mortgages to be treated as though they had real value grants a 10:1 advantage to Wall Street over government. The nominal value and market value, as traded currently, of derivatives based upon the receivables or value derived from loans supposedly backed by mortgages is up to ten times more than the current monetary supply coming from government. Wall Street has issued more currency than the government, so THEY control monetary and fiscal policy.
In short, Wall Street is running the show because we let them create “currency” out of the bogus notes and mortgages, the derivatives, the mortgage bonds, and all the other contracts and hedge products — all based upon a fictitious scheme of “securitization” where there were no actual transfers and where there were no actual binding contracts between the real lenders and the real borrowers.
Yet the myth persists and is nearly universally accepted that if we let those false instruments fall back to earth, the entire financial system will crash. Scare tactics. This is no longer a contest between people with conflicting projections. The reality is upon us. Wall Street has all the investment capital to rebuild infrastructure, create jobs, educate our workers, stimulate innovation, and put America back on track actually making physical objects you can touch or performing services that people want. Wall Street has it because we let them have it even though they achieved this status by violating every law of, federal and state imaginable, even though they lied, cheated and continue to steal in the “foreclosure” market.
Our system lacks credibility — otherwise those with money would be investing in it. They are not investing and they are not lending for one simple reason — they are doing better trading paper amongst themselves and creating fictitious profits which is increasing the fictitious wealth of the top2,000 people in America. We lack credibility because we are not telling the truth and we are not owning up to the fact that we were captured in a coup d’etat that was quietly achieved by Wall Street, our new government.
We lack credibility because as long as that condition persists, we won’t have a real economy of manufacturing and services. It’s not longer a prediction. It’s now a fact. And the people we call our “government” are merely cogs in a wheel taking orders from a “higher power” than the constitution. They take their orders from Wall Street.
No, this is not a call for socialism. It isn’t socialism or communism to take away a stolen car and return it to its rightful owner — but it it IS redistribution of wealth. That is why government exists — to make sure the bully in the school yard doesn’t grab everyone’s lunch and scream “Mine!”
LLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL
Yes, We’re In A Liquidity Trap
Some comments on various blog posts ask what evidence we have that liquidity trap economics is any different from normal economics. Um, the answer is staring us in the face: the failure of interest rates to rise despite very large budget deficits:
If you had told most people, back in 2007, that the federal government would soon be running budget deficits in the vicinity of 10 percent of GDP, most of them would have predicted soaring interest rates. In fact, quite a few people did predict just that — and in some cases lost a lot of money for their investors.
But it hasn’t happened. Short rates have stayed near zero; long rates have fluctuated with changing views about the prospects for recovery, but stayed consistently below historical norms. That’s exactly what those of us who understood liquidity-trap economics predicted, right from the beginning.
I don’t know what more evidence you could ask for. After all, interest rates are what the liquidity trap is all about.
Filed under: bubble, CDO, CORRUPTION, currency, Eviction, foreclosure, GTC | Honor, Investor, Mortgage, securities fraud | Tagged: derivatives, economic recovery, expectations, interest rates, Keynesian economics, liquidity trap, monetary policy, money supply | 2 Comments »
Deceptive Lobbying on Derivatives
Posted on February 16, 2011 by Neil Garfield
EDITOR’S COMMENT: Once again Simon JOhnson hits the nail on the head. Those of you who want a more sophisticated picture of this mortgage mess along with the macro-economic view would do well to visit http://www.baselinescenario.com.
With the latest move in New York allowing legal aid to homeowners in foreclosure, the number of contested cases is going to go through the roof. If other states follow, the battle will be on, not in pieces but across the country. The entire securitization infrastructure is an illusion. It is written, but next to the facts, it is a piece of fiction. At least a quarter of the $600 trillion in notional value of derivatives is based on home mortgages that are fatally defective, where liability is in doubt and the amount demanded is far off the actual amount due after set-offs due to the borrower under law.
The only thing left for the mega banks to do is to try to push a legislative reset button, even if it is illegal, immoral, and unconstitutional. They want to scare the hell out of us telling us that if we even touch their system, another 130,000 jobs will be lost. It is is now well-established that this was a planted article with absolutely nothing to back it up. Johnson hits them where it hurts in his comment (see below).
By SIMON JOHNSON
Simon Johnson, the former chief economist at the International Monetary Fund, is the co-author of “13 Bankers.”
On Capitol Hill this week, a serious debate is under way about whether to carry out an important part of the new Dodd-Frank rules for derivatives – with hearings in the House on Tuesday and in the Senate on Thursday.
Much of the discussion has focused on the report produced by Keybridge Research for a group called the Coalition for Derivatives End Users that purports to show the dangers of extending the rules to nonfinancial companies (the so-called end users in this context).
In testimony on Tuesday before the House Financial Services Committee, Gary Gensler, the chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, pleased the Republican majority by saying the rules should not apply to nonfinancial companies that buy derivatives but “only on transactions between financial entities.”
Representative Spencer Bachus, Republican of Alabama and the committee’s chairman, responded: “I want to applaud Chairman Gensler. Members on the majority think it’s critically important that we don’t impose margin or clearing requirements on end users.”
Yet the Keybridge Research report – as exposed by Andrew Ross Sorkin in The New York Times on Tuesday – engaged in an extraordinary, shocking misrepresentation, asserting its credibility by claiming affiliations with respected academics who have now asked that their names be removed from the consulting firm’s Web site. Some of those listed as advisers said they had had no relationship with the firm.
The report is, in fact, pure lobbying disguised as research. For their own self-interest, the big banks want customers who can undertake derivatives transactions without reasonable constraints – and these banks want to disguise this self-interest in a veneer of social interest.
Republican committee members cited the report in arguing against the rules.
This coalition for end users does not represent the best interests of such actual end users; rather, it is a front for the big banks that dominate the market in over-the-counter derivatives.
The coalition has no good arguments to back up its assertions that properly implementing Dodd-Frank will result in significant job losses. In fact, as Mr. Sorkin reports, Keybridge has serious credibility problems.
As Joseph E. Stiglitz, a Nobel laureate in economic science, points out to Mr. Sorkin, at the heart of the report is a preposterous argument – that if we subsidize insurance, jobs will be created.
If someone made this point in regard to fire insurance or property and casualty insurance (particularly for American companies, which these days have around $2 trillion in cash), they would be dismissed out of hand. But the mystique – and confusion – surrounding derivatives is such that the material in this report will be taken seriously by many on Capitol Hill.
The only people who can really gain from this subsidy are the bankers who buy and sell derivatives. The actual end users are being duped by the banks. Perhaps you don’t feel bad about that – but such duping is very dangerous for financial-system stability. (See this post by my colleague John Parsons, who cuts nicely to the analytical heart of the matter – and who also dismisses the Keybridge report.)
The acknowledgment by so many firms that they have weak risk models is revealing and extremely worrisome (see Section 4.3 on page 4 of the report).
These firms are apparently relying on the banks to advise them on risk, but the banks have a strong vested interest in a more highly leveraged financial system. That leaves the nonfinancial firms gambling recklessly with their investors’ money. I hope tough questions will be asked about this at annual general meetings and in boardrooms.
The high level of profit in over-the-counter derivatives gives it all away. The real end users should bring in truly independent economic consultants, who can tell them that this level of profit is a clear indication that the market for O.T.C. derivatives is nowhere near competitive.
The end users are being ripped off – and then providing political support to the banks responsible for it. A serious management failure – and the issue of fiduciary responsibility – is clear at the nonfinancial firms surveyed in the Keybridge report.
We are looking at market power masquerading as lobbying on behalf of customers. This would be a laughable combination – were it not for the fact that this coalition did immeasurable damage to financial regulation last year, and is dead set on further undermining Mr. Gensler and his colleagues at the C.F.T.C. in the coming weeks.
We need responsible restraint in the over-the-counter derivatives market, in the face of the banks’ fierce determination to prevent this.
banking regulation, Daily Economist, derivatives, Dodd-Franks, financial regulation, Simon Johnson
From Economix
What Goldman Sachs Failed to Acknowledge
Bankers’ Pay on the Line Again
TARP, the Long Goodbye
Why Higher Capital Standards Are Needed
Will Obama Push for Financial Stability?
Filed under: bubble, CDO, CORRUPTION, currency, Eviction, foreclosure, GTC | Honor, Investor, Mortgage, securities fraud | Tagged: banking regulation, Daily Economist, derivatives, Dodd-Franks, financial regulation, Simon Johnson | 28 Comments »
SEC FUNDING CREATES CONFLICT OF INTEREST AND BAD NEWS FOR CONSUMERS
COMBO Title and Securitization Search, Report, Documents, Analysis & Commentary
WALL STREET: THE UNTOUCHABLES
Representative Stephen Lynch, Democrat of Massachusetts, warned: “You think regulation is costly? How about the $7 trillion we just lost from not regulating the derivatives markets.”
EDITOR’S NOTE: Our institutions are compromised with moral hazard every way you turn. The FDA, running mostly on money from fees paid by drug and medical supply companies (who then turn around and hire the same FDA people who approve so-called blockbuster drugs) supposedly reviews test results and approves labeling without doing any independent testing of their own. And people die. The federal and state agencies regulating banks, insurance companies, oil companies all run the same way — funded by fees paid by the companies they regulate and then the people who were the regulators end up employed by the companies they were regulating.
Somehow we seem to expect that this “system” will provide us with protection from thieves and those indifferent to whether we live or die, as long as they make a profit. This isn’t a system. It is a scam on the American public. Except that with the financial crisis it ended up affecting the world. With Congress regulating its own ethics, and with money being the principal religion in Washington, D.C. it is a huge challenge to even offer a conjecture of a favorable outcome.
In the mortgage mess, it was the rating agencies who were funded by fees paid by investment bankers who told the rating agency how to analyze the “low-risk” derivatives and give them AAA ratings — while at the same time the same investment firms had paid lobbyists to make sure they were not regulated at all when it came to derivatives and credit default swaps and other “custom” exotic financial products. It was the appraisers who were funded by fees generated by “lenders” (most of whom were merely acting as mortgage brokers) in order to generate fee revenue for merely pretending to underwrite loans. It is quite natural that the appraisals and ratings were so favorable to the scheme — the people who were doing the appraising and ratings were being paid to see things the way their “benefactors” wanted them to see it.
The two “protections” — ratings for investors and appraisals for homeowners — were reasonably relied upon to their combined detriment. What was promoted as an independent third party evaluation became an in-house marketing tool. So the investigations and the charges against individuals will skim the surface just enough for government to say they did something but not so much to make sure it never happens again. The larger problem is that each iteration of this cycle ends up in a worse debacle than the one before it.
So it should come as no small surprise that the SEC operates the same way. Funded by fees paid by companies who are regulated by the SEC, the SEC spawns future employees of the law firms and investment banking firms that are the subject or should be subjected to scrutiny and compliance with applicable laws, rules and regulations. Not content with virtually total control over the dominant currency of the world — collateralized debt obligations — and not content with being virtually unregulated, the banks are now seeking to choke off the last vestige of any hope that our financial system will ever regain stature. In a word, they seek to stop funding from Congress just to make sure there is nobody who legally touch them. In other words, the mega banks are willing to pay the fees to the U.S. Government (fees meant for SEC enforcement), provided the government doesn’t use that money to fund the SEC which is the only real agency with teeth.
NY TIMES EDITORIAL 2/13/11
The new financial regulation law gave the Securities and Exchange Commission a big new job to police hedge funds, derivatives dealers and credit agencies — some of the main culprits in the financial meltdown. It authorized raising the commission’s budget to $2.25 billion, over five years. Now Congress is threatening to deny the S.E.C. the necessary financing to carry out its duties.
What makes this even more absurd is that the S.E.C. doesn’t cost taxpayers a dime. Its budget, like that of other financial regulators, is covered by fees assessed on Wall Street firms. While the other regulators decide their own financing needs, Congress sets the S.E.C.’s budget.
The agency’s budget was due to rise $200 million this year to $1.3 billion, but hasn’t because of the across-the-board freeze in discretionary spending. If House Republicans get their way and roll back spending to 2008 levels, the S.E.C. budget would fall to $906 million.
Mary Schapiro, the chairwoman of the S.E.C., warns that more budget cutting will hamstring its ability to carry out its usual duties of policing increasingly complex securities markets — let alone discharge its new responsibilities. A group of lawyers representing the financial companies regulated by the S.E.C. sent a letter to lawmakers urging them to increase the commission’s budget. Otherwise, they warn, the markets will lose investors’ trust. “The regulator of our capital markets is running almost on empty,” they wrote.
The S.E.C. needs better technology and more employees. S.E.C. officials have pointed out that it took the commission three months to understand what happened during last May’s “flash crash,” because it took that long for its computers to handle all the trading data. The number of investment advisers that the S.E.C. must police has grown by half over the past decade and trading volume has doubled. In the years running up to the financial crisis, the commission’s staff declined.
Ms. Schapiro planned to hire 800 employees this year to beef up enforcement and meet the agency’s new duties. Those plans are on hold. The commission has also started cutting back on investigations and is considering canceling technology upgrades, including new data management systems and a new digital forensics lab.
The S.E.C.’s recent record was tarnished by its failure to uncover Bernard Madoff’s gargantuan Ponzi scheme, and it was caught off guard by the collapse of Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers. The Bush administration’s lax approach to regulation should bear much of the blame. But a lack of qualified investigators was also a big problem. If the commission is to do its job right, it needs the resources to do it.
Filed under: bubble, CDO, CORRUPTION, currency, Eviction, foreclosure, GTC | Honor, Investor, Mortgage, securities fraud | Tagged: collateralized debt obligations, derivatives, regulation, SEC, Wall Street | 6 Comments »
SECRET BANKING ELITE: WHERE THE REAL DECISIONS ARE MADE
Posted on January 3, 2011 by Neil Garfield
Notable Quotes:
“The men share a common goal: to protect the interests of big banks in the vast market for derivatives, one of the most profitable — and controversial — fields in finance. They also share a common secret: The details of their meetings, even their identities, have been strictly confidential.”
“big banks influence the rules governing derivatives through a variety of industry groups. The banks’ latest point of influence are clearinghouses like ICE Trust, which holds the monthly meetings with the nine bankers in New York.”
“The banks also required ICE to provide market data exclusively to Markit, a little-known company that plays a pivotal role in derivatives. Backed by Goldman, JPMorgan and several other banks, Markit provides crucial information about derivatives, like prices.”
“None of the three clearinghouses would divulge the members of their risk committees when asked by a reporter. But two people with direct knowledge of ICE’s committee said the bank members are:
Thomas J. Benison of JPMorgan Chase & Company;
James J. Hill of Morgan Stanley;
Athanassios Diplas of Deutsche Bank;
Paul Hamill of UBS;
Paul Mitrokostas of Barclays;
Andy Hubbard of Credit Suisse;
Oliver Frankel of Goldman Sachs;
Ali Balali of Bank of America; and
Biswarup Chatterjee of Citigroup.”
LLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL
EDITOR’S ANALYSIS: For those of us tracking the strategies employed in courtrooms across the country and various foreclosure tactics, it has been obvious that there has been a single governing hand that is controlling the action. Hidden under the rubric of a risk control committee, this group actually makes all key decisions that affect the largest segment of the marketplace and thus the rest of the markets. These banks are operating for themselves, not in the interests of performing the service that Wall Street was always intended to do — create increasingly fluid access to the capital markets for businesses to innovate, start, grow, finance and merge.
They operate without any regulation. Quite the contrary. The decisions from this group actually effect both legislation that is proposed and passed and the rules and regulations of agencies that are supposed to be acting as referees to make sure the players don’t run amok. They dictate to government rather than the other way around and they create the strategies affect every individual in this country and many other countries. They are in essence a single virtual bank acting as though they are separate, each with profit centers that are strictly controlled by this elite group.
The upcoming WikiLeaks disclosures may have some references to this group which is comprised of the largest banks in the world and which exclude other large banks from membership, like Bank of New York/Mellon. Together they control the direction of the recession and how power is exercised by governments and central bankers around the world. That is because together they control nominal wealth many times the total currency in the world and “market value” that is roughly equal, at a minimum, to 2/3 of the GDP of the entire world.
We are at a crossroad whether we want to admit it or not. Either we simply give up and let bankers rule the world, or we stop them, disassemble them and bring them down to a size where they can be and are in fact regulated. But the choice is not up to government which now is owned by them as well. The choice is entirely up to the people — all the people — who ultimately, for the moment, have the power to dismiss the exercise of this kind of ultra vires power and bring things back to normal. Whatever we do, we are headed for turbulent times. The only real question is whether those turbulent times will be leading us down a path of abandoning our nation of laws or whether it will be as Teddy Roosevelt did, devoted to taking back the power for the people, by the people.
A Secretive Banking Elite Rules Trading in Derivatives
By LOUISE STORY
On the third Wednesday of every month, the nine members of an elite Wall Street society gather in Midtown Manhattan.
Drawn from giants like JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, the bankers form a powerful committee that helps oversee trading in derivatives, instruments which, like insurance, are used to hedge risk.
In theory, this group exists to safeguard the integrity of the multitrillion-dollar market. In practice, it also defends the dominance of the big banks.
The banks in this group, which is affiliated with a new derivatives clearinghouse, have fought to block other banks from entering the market, and they are also trying to thwart efforts to make full information on prices and fees freely available.
Banks’ influence over this market, and over clearinghouses like the one this select group advises, has costly implications for businesses large and small, like Dan Singer’s home heating-oil company in Westchester County, north of New York City.
This fall, many of Mr. Singer’s customers purchased fixed-rate plans to lock in winter heating oil at around $3 a gallon. While that price was above the prevailing $2.80 a gallon then, the contracts will protect homeowners if bitterly cold weather pushes the price higher.
But Mr. Singer wonders if his company, Robison Oil, should be getting a better deal. He uses derivatives like swaps and options to create his fixed plans. But he has no idea how much lower his prices — and his customers’ prices — could be, he says, because banks don’t disclose fees associated with the derivatives.
“At the end of the day, I don’t know if I got a fair price, or what they’re charging me,” Mr. Singer said.
Derivatives shift risk from one party to another, and they offer many benefits, like enabling Mr. Singer to sell his fixed plans without having to bear all the risk that oil prices could suddenly rise. Derivatives are also big business on Wall Street. Banks collect many billions of dollars annually in undisclosed fees associated with these instruments — an amount that almost certainly would be lower if there were more competition and transparent prices.
Just how much derivatives trading costs ordinary Americans is uncertain. The size and reach of this market has grown rapidly over the past two decades. Pension funds today use derivatives to hedge investments. States and cities use them to try to hold down borrowing costs. Airlines use them to secure steady fuel prices. Food companies use them to lock in prices of commodities like wheat or beef.
The marketplace as it functions now “adds up to higher costs to all Americans,” said Gary Gensler, the chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, which regulates most derivatives. More oversight of the banks in this market is needed, he said.
But big banks influence the rules governing derivatives through a variety of industry groups. The banks’ latest point of influence are clearinghouses like ICE Trust, which holds the monthly meetings with the nine bankers in New York.
Under the Dodd-Frank financial overhaul, many derivatives will be traded via such clearinghouses. Mr. Gensler wants to lessen banks’ control over these new institutions. But Republican lawmakers, many of whom received large campaign contributions from bankers who want to influence how the derivatives rules are written, say they plan to push back against much of the coming reform. On Thursday, the commission canceled a vote over a proposal to make prices more transparent, raising speculation that Mr. Gensler did not have enough support from his fellow commissioners.
The Department of Justice is looking into derivatives, too. The department’s antitrust unit is actively investigating “the possibility of anticompetitive practices in the credit derivatives clearing, trading and information services industries,” according to a department spokeswoman.
Indeed, the derivatives market today reminds some experts of the Nasdaq stock market in the 1990s. Back then, the Justice Department discovered that Nasdaq market makers were secretly colluding to protect their own profits. Following that scandal, reforms and electronic trading systems cut Nasdaq stock trading costs to 1/20th of their former level — an enormous savings for investors.
“When you limit participation in the governance of an entity to a few like-minded institutions or individuals who have an interest in keeping competitors out, you have the potential for bad things to happen. It’s antitrust 101,” said Robert E. Litan, who helped oversee the Justice Department’s Nasdaq investigation as deputy assistant attorney general and is now a fellow at the Kauffman Foundation. “The history of derivatives trading is it has grown up as a very concentrated industry, and old habits are hard to break.”
Representatives from the nine banks that dominate the market declined to comment on the Department of Justice investigation.
Clearing involves keeping track of trades and providing a central repository for money backing those wagers. A spokeswoman for Deutsche Bank, which is among the most influential of the group, said this system will reduce the risks in the market. She said that Deutsche is focused on ensuring this process is put in place without disrupting the marketplace.
The Deutsche spokeswoman also said the banks’ role in this process has been a success, saying in a statement that the effort “is one of the best examples of public-private partnerships.”
Established, But Can’t Get In
The Bank of New York Mellon’s origins go back to 1784, when it was founded by Alexander Hamilton. Today, it provides administrative services on more than $23 trillion of institutional money.
Recently, the bank has been seeking to enter the inner circle of the derivatives market, but so far, it has been rebuffed.
Bank of New York officials say they have been thwarted by competitors who control important committees at the new clearinghouses, which were set up in the wake of the financial crisis.
Bank of New York Mellon has been trying to become a so-called clearing member since early this year. But three of the four main clearinghouses told the bank that its derivatives operation has too little capital, and thus potentially poses too much risk to the overall market.
The bank dismisses that explanation as absurd. “We are not a nobody,” said Sanjay Kannambadi, chief executive of BNY Mellon Clearing, a subsidiary created to get into the business. “But we don’t qualify. We certainly think that’s kind of crazy.”
The real reason the bank is being shut out, he said, is that rivals want to preserve their profit margins, and they are the ones who helped write the membership rules.
Mr. Kannambadi said Bank of New York’s clients asked it to enter the derivatives business because they believe they are being charged too much by big banks. Its entry could lower fees. Others that have yet to gain full entry to the derivatives trading club are the State Street Corporation, and small brokerage firms like MF Global and Newedge.
The criteria seem arbitrary, said Marcus Katz, a senior vice president at Newedge, which is owned by two big French banks.
“It appears that the membership criteria were set so that a certain group of market participants could meet that, and everyone else would have to jump through hoops,” Mr. Katz said.
The one new derivatives clearinghouse that has welcomed Newedge, Bank of New York and the others — Nasdaq — has been avoided by the big derivatives banks.
Only the Insiders Know
How did big banks come to have such influence that they can decide who can compete with them?
Ironically, this development grew in part out of worries during the height of the financial crisis in 2008. A major concern during the meltdown was that no one — not even government regulators — fully understood the size and interconnections of the derivatives market, especially the market in credit default swaps, which insure against defaults of companies or mortgages bonds. The panic led to the need to bail out the American International Group, for instance, which had C.D.S. contracts with many large banks.
In the midst of the turmoil, regulators ordered banks to speed up plans — long in the making — to set up a clearinghouse to handle derivatives trading. The intent was to reduce risk and increase stability in the market.
Two established exchanges that trade commodities and futures, the InterContinentalExchange, or ICE, and the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, set up clearinghouses, and, so did Nasdaq.
Each of these new clearinghouses had to persuade big banks to join their efforts, and they doled out membership on their risk committees, which is where trading rules are written, as an incentive.
None of the three clearinghouses would divulge the members of their risk committees when asked by a reporter. But two people with direct knowledge of ICE’s committee said the bank members are: Thomas J. Benison of JPMorgan Chase & Company; James J. Hill of Morgan Stanley; Athanassios Diplas of Deutsche Bank; Paul Hamill of UBS; Paul Mitrokostas of Barclays; Andy Hubbard of Credit Suisse; Oliver Frankel of Goldman Sachs; Ali Balali of Bank of America; and Biswarup Chatterjee of Citigroup.
Through representatives, these bankers declined to discuss the committee or the derivatives market. Some of the spokesmen noted that the bankers have expertise that helps the clearinghouse.
Many of these same people hold influential positions at other clearinghouses, or on committees at the powerful International Swaps and Derivatives Association, which helps govern the market.
Critics have called these banks the “derivatives dealers club,” and they warn that the club is unlikely to give up ground easily.
“The revenue these dealers make on derivatives is very large and so the incentive they have to protect those revenues is extremely large,” said Darrell Duffie, a professor at the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University, who studied the derivatives market earlier this year with Federal Reserve researchers. “It will be hard for the dealers to keep their market share if everybody who can prove their creditworthiness is allowed into the clearinghouses. So they are making arguments that others shouldn’t be allowed in.”
Perhaps no business in finance is as profitable today as derivatives. Not making loans. Not offering credit cards. Not advising on mergers and acquisitions. Not managing money for the wealthy.
The precise amount that banks make trading derivatives isn’t known, but there is anecdotal evidence of their profitability. Former bank traders who spoke on condition of anonymity because of confidentiality agreements with their former employers said their banks typically earned $25,000 for providing $25 million of insurance against the risk that a corporation might default on its debt via the swaps market. These traders turn over millions of dollars in these trades every day, and credit default swaps are just one of many kinds of derivatives.
The secrecy surrounding derivatives trading is a key factor enabling banks to make such large profits.
If an investor trades shares of Google or Coca-Cola or any other company on a stock exchange, the price — and the commission, or fee — are known. Electronic trading has made this information available to anyone with a computer, while also increasing competition — and sharply lowering the cost of trading. Even corporate bonds have become more transparent recently. Trading costs dropped there almost immediately after prices became more visible in 2002.
Not so with derivatives. For many, there is no central exchange, like the New York Stock Exchange or Nasdaq, where the prices of derivatives are listed. Instead, when a company or an investor wants to buy a derivative contract for, say, oil or wheat or securitized mortgages, an order is placed with a trader at a bank. The trader matches that order with someone selling the same type of derivative.
Banks explain that many derivatives trades have to work this way because they are often customized, unlike shares of stock. One share of Google is the same as any other. But the terms of an oil derivatives contract can vary greatly.
And the profits on most derivatives are masked. In most cases, buyers are told only what they have to pay for the derivative contract, say $25 million. That amount is more than the seller gets, but how much more — $5,000, $25,000 or $50,000 more — is unknown. That’s because the seller also is told only the amount he will receive. The difference between the two is the bank’s fee and profit. So, the bigger the difference, the better for the bank — and the worse for the customers.
It would be like a real estate agent selling a house, but the buyer knowing only what he paid and the seller knowing only what he received. The agent would pocket the difference as his fee, rather than disclose it. Moreover, only the real estate agent — and neither buyer nor seller — would have easy access to the prices paid recently for other homes on the same block.
An Electronic Exchange?
Two years ago, Kenneth C. Griffin, owner of the giant hedge fund Citadel Group, which is based in Chicago, proposed open pricing for commonly traded derivatives, by quoting their prices electronically. Citadel oversees $11 billion in assets, so saving even a few percentage points in costs on each trade could add up to tens or even hundreds of millions of dollars a year.
But Mr. Griffin’s proposal for an electronic exchange quickly ran into opposition, and what happened is a window into how banks have fiercely fought competition and open pricing. To get a transparent exchange going, Citadel offered the use of its technological prowess for a joint venture with the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, which is best-known as a trading outpost for contracts on commodities like coffee and cotton. The goal was to set up a clearinghouse as well as an electronic trading system that would display prices for credit default swaps.
Big banks that handle most derivatives trades, including Citadel’s, didn’t like Citadel’s idea. Electronic trading might connect customers directly with each other, cutting out the banks as middlemen.
So the banks responded in the fall of 2008 by pairing with ICE, one of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange’s rivals, which was setting up its own clearinghouse. The banks attached a number of conditions on that partnership, which came in the form of a merger between ICE’s clearinghouse and a nascent clearinghouse that the banks were establishing. These conditions gave the banks significant power at ICE’s clearinghouse, according to two people with knowledge of the deal. For instance, the banks insisted that ICE install the chief executive of their effort as the head of the joint effort. That executive, Dirk Pruis, left after about a year and now works at Goldman Sachs. Through a spokesman, he declined to comment.
The banks also refused to allow the deal with ICE to close until the clearinghouse’s rulebook was established, with provisions in the banks’ favor. Key among those were the membership rules, which required members to hold large amounts of capital in derivatives units, a condition that was prohibitive even for some large banks like the Bank of New York.
Kevin Gould, who is the president of Markit and was involved in the clearinghouse merger, said the banks were simply being prudent and wanted rules that protected the market and themselves.
“The one thing I know the banks are concerned about is their risk capital,” he said. “You really are going to get some comfort that the way the entity operates isn’t going to put you at undue risk.”
Even though the banks were working with ICE, Citadel and the C.M.E. continued to move forward with their exchange. They, too, needed to work with Markit, because it owns the rights to certain derivatives indexes. But Markit put them in a tough spot by basically insisting that every trade involve at least one bank, since the banks are the main parties that have licenses with Markit.
This demand from Markit effectively secured a permanent role for the big derivatives banks since Citadel and the C.M.E. could not move forward without Markit’s agreement. And so, essentially boxed in, they agreed to the terms, according to the two people with knowledge of the matter. (A spokesman for C.M.E. said last week that the exchange did not cave to Markit’s terms.)
Still, even after that deal was complete, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange soon had second thoughts about working with Citadel and about introducing electronic screens at all. The C.M.E. backed out of the deal in mid-2009, ending Mr. Griffin’s dream of a new, electronic trading system.
With Citadel out of the picture, the banks agreed to join the Chicago Mercantile Exchange’s clearinghouse effort. The exchange set up a risk committee that, like ICE’s committee, was mainly populated by bankers.
It remains unclear why the C.M.E. ended its electronic trading initiative. Two people with knowledge of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange’s clearinghouse said the banks refused to get involved unless the exchange dropped Citadel and the entire plan for electronic trading.
Kim Taylor, the president of Chicago Mercantile Exchange’s clearing division, said “the market” simply wasn’t interested in Mr. Griffin’s idea.
Critics now say the banks have an edge because they have had early control of the new clearinghouses’ risk committees. Ms. Taylor at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange said the people on those committees are supposed to look out for the interest of the broad market, rather than their own narrow interests. She likened the banks’ role to that of Washington lawmakers who look out for the interests of the nation, not just their constituencies.
“It’s not like the sort of representation where if I’m elected to be the representative from the state of Illinois, I go there to represent the state of Illinois,” Ms. Taylor said in an interview.
Officials at ICE, meantime, said they solicit views from customers through a committee that is separate from the bank-dominated risk committee.
“We spent and we still continue to spend a lot of time on thinking about governance,” said Peter Barsoom, the chief operating officer of ICE Trust. “We want to be sure that we have all the right stakeholders appropriately represented.”
Mr. Griffin said last week that customers have so far paid the price for not yet having electronic trading. He puts the toll, by a rough estimate, in the tens of billions of dollars, saying that electronic trading would remove much of this “economic rent the dealers enjoy from a market that is so opaque.”
“It’s a stunning amount of money,” Mr. Griffin said. “The key players today in the derivatives market are very apprehensive about whether or not they will be winners or losers as we move towards more transparent, fairer markets, and since they’re not sure if they’ll be winners or losers, their basic instinct is to resist change.”
In, Out and Around Henhouse
The result of the maneuvering of the past couple years is that big banks dominate the risk committees of not one, but two of the most prominent new clearinghouses in the United States.
That puts them in a pivotal position to determine how derivatives are traded.
Under the Dodd-Frank bill, the clearinghouses were given broad authority. The risk committees there will help decide what prices will be charged for clearing trades, on top of fees banks collect for matching buyers and sellers, and how much money customers must put up as collateral to cover potential losses.
Perhaps more important, the risk committees will recommend which derivatives should be handled through clearinghouses, and which should be exempt.
Regulators will have the final say. But banks, which lobbied heavily to limit derivatives regulation in the Dodd-Frank bill, are likely to argue that few types of derivatives should have to go through clearinghouses. Critics contend that the bankers will try to keep many types of derivatives away from the clearinghouses, since clearinghouses represent a step towards broad electronic trading that could decimate profits.
The banks already have a head start. Even a newly proposed rule to limit the banks’ influence over clearing allows them to retain majorities on risk committees. It remains unclear whether regulators creating the new rules — on topics like transparency and possible electronic trading — will drastically change derivatives trading, or leave the bankers with great control.
One former regulator warned against deferring to the banks. Theo Lubke, who until this fall oversaw the derivatives reforms at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, said banks do not always think of the market as a whole as they help write rules.
“Fundamentally, the banks are not good at self-regulation,” Mr. Lubke said in a panel last March at Columbia University. “That’s not their expertise, that’s not their primary interest.”
Filed under: bubble, CDO, CORRUPTION, currency, Eviction, foreclosure, GTC | Honor, Investor, Mortgage, securities fraud | Tagged: Ali Balali, Andy Hubbard, Athanassios Diplas, Bank of America, Barclays, Biswarup Chatterjee, C.D.S. contracts, Chicago Mercantile Exchange, Citigroup, credit default swaps, Credit Suisse, derivatives, DEUTSCHE BANK, Goldman, ICE, James J. Hill, JPMorgan, Markit, Morgan Stanley, NASDAQ, Oliver Frankel, Paul Mitrokostas, Thomas J. Benison, UBS | 25 Comments »
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If you have CYNTHIA RILEY’s “signature” on any document in your chain of title you need to read this. Same for Jess Almanza.
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Case study: Taking part in a Covid-19 vaccine study - Jess's Story
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Jess, a participant in the Novavax Covid-19 vaccine study in Bradford, describes why she thinks it's vital that people sign up to take part in vaccine studies.
A participant in a Covid-19 vaccine study in Bradford talks about her experience of taking part.
A participant on a Covid-19 vaccine study in Bradford has described how taking part in research helped her to feel like she was doing something proactive during the Coronavirus pandemic.
Jess, a Transformation Manager at BT, is usually based in London but moved back home to Yorkshire to work during the national lockdown. She signed up to the COVID-19 Vaccine Research Registry after seeing a post from a friend on Facebook which motivated her to be part of the fight against the virus:
“When I saw it and thought of signing up, I thought if my grandchildren ever asked me what I did to help I could say I’d done something proactive,” she said. “While I’ve been trying to keep our lives as normal as possible throughout the pandemic for our daughter, actually my contribution to the greater good and wider society has been quite limited. I wanted to do something to make a difference alongside the thousands of others who will be called upon.
“My husband is a key worker and so that’s his way of contributing to society, I’ve been sitting in the four walls of my office throughout the pandemic and so I really want to help and this is one way that I can.”
After signing up, Jess was contacted by email to say that she was eligible to take part in a study testing the effectiveness of a Covid-19 vaccine candidate developed by US biotechnology company Novavax. She booked an appointment.
“I was sent lots of information with the initial email so I had the opportunity to read everything I was signing up to before I actually did it. It couldn’t have been easier really.”
The Novavax study is a randomised, placebo-controlled, observer-blinded trial during which half of volunteers will be given two injections of the vaccine candidate, 21 days apart, while the remaining receive a placebo.
Jess says the staff at her appointment helped to make the process a great experience for participants: “I think I’m well supported in the trial. It could have been quite clinical - everyone had masks on and was socially distanced but staff were really jovial, it was a really warm, human experience.
“At the appointment I talked them through my own condition as while I’m perfectly healthy, I know I have an aneurysm on my brain. It’s not a condition that would be exacerbated by Covid-19, but around 1% of the population are also known to have an aneurysm, so wouldn’t it be good to know that the vaccine can also work for others with that condition.”
Taking part in the trial has changed Jess’s perception of clinical research: “Before I just assumed it happened in a bit of a closed box space,” she said. “Which is really wrong of me, because it’s not just something that other people get involved in, it’s something that everyone can get involved in, and wouldn’t it be a great thing if more people were signing up to take part in the trials because that’s truly the only way we’re going to beat this thing”
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Republic of Congo: IRIN News Briefs, 31 January
Kolelas recognises Sassou-Nguesso
Former prime minister and opposition leader Bernard Kolelas last week said he recognised President Denis Sassou-Nguesso as the Congolese leader. In an interview with Radio France Internationale, he expressed support for a ceasefire and a negotiated solution to the country's conflict. Earlier, about 150 of his Ninja militiamen surrendered to the authorities, following the signing of two ceasefire agreements. The authorities meanwhile freed 17 prisoners, some of whom who were allies of Kolelas, in the northern town of Impfondo at the beginning of January, AFP reported, citing the independent newspaper 'Les Echos du Congo'.
The second peace accord was signed in Brazzaville on 29 December 1999, consolidating the first one of 16 November. Humanitarian sources said the new accord, signed by the government and five representatives of the "resistance forces", should greatly advance ceasefire efforts. The signing ceremony was attended by ROC peace mediator, President Omar Bongo of Gabon. The sources said thousands of militiamen handed in their weapons during the month of January, in keeping with the accords. The fittest among them will be integrated into the army, while the others will be assisted to return to civilian life.
EU welcomes ceasefire accords
A recent statement by the European Union hailed the two agreements, saying they were "significant steps forward on the path towards pacification and national reconciliation" in ROC. Urging all sides in the Congolese conflict to renounce violence and commit themselves to an all-inclusive national dialogue, the EU said it may consider assistance - beyond emergency humanitarian aid - to contribute to the restoration of peace, democracy and development in ROC.
Rate of returnees rising fast
The latest OCHA report from ROC says the rate of return of displaced people to the cities is rising fast. Of an estimated 810,000 people displaced last year, 370,000 were estimated to have returned by the beginning of January. By February the number of returnees is expected to top 400,000, and if the pace continues, some 600,000 could have returned by April or May.
Government announces further crackdown on corruption
The government has reiterated it will crack down on corruption. Finance Minister Mathias Dzon last week announced he would take action against tax and customs fraud, AFP said. His announcement follows the detention earlier this month of three tax officials, suspected of embezzling 363 million CFA francs (US $570,000). He said 200 million CFA francs (US $300,000) would be allocated to strengthening accountancy and data-processing services in the tax and customs departments.
Angola seeking cooperation oil sector
Angola is seeking ROC's partnership to build a new oil refinery, Congolese radio reported last week. It quoted Angolan Petroleum Minister Jose Maria Botelho de Vasconcelos as saying he was contacting neighbouring countries with regard to the project. Speaking during a visit to Brazzaville, the Angolan minister said he was in the country to discuss petroleum issues and commercial relations. "We have common interests," he said. "We want to exploit these common interests together."
France pledges reconstruction assistance
French Cooperation Minister Charles Josselin, who visited ROC last week, has pledged his country's assistance in reconstructing various institutions. Congolese radio said he told a news conference in Brazzaville there was now hope for the country. France is already assisting in rebuilding the judicial system, the gendarmerie and the police. Josselin pledged further help in restructuring the armed forces and cooperation in education and culture, the radio said. He also urged the Congolese people to "mobilise their energy" towards development in the country and called on them to reconcile.
[ENDS]
[IRIN-CEA: Tel: +254 2 622147 Fax: +254 2 622129 e-mail: irin-cea@ocha.unon.org ]
[This item is delivered in the English service of the UN's IRIN humanitarian information unit, but may not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations. For further information, free subscriptions, or to change your keywords, contact e-mail: irin@ocha.unon.org or Web: http://www.reliefweb.int/IRIN . If you re-print, copy, archive or re-post this item, please retain this credit and disclaimer.]
Copyright (c) UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs 2000
Congo + 2 more
WFP Republic of Congo Country Brief, December 2020
Salvation Army provides relief in Republic of Congo after rainy season flooding
Humanitarian Action for Children 2021 - Republic of Congo
WFP Republic of Congo Country Brief, November 2020
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NDRRMC Update Sitrep No. 04 re Preparedness Measures and Effects of Tropical Storm "Urduja" (Kai-Tak) as of 10:00 PM, 16 December 2017
Govt. Philippines
Download document (PDF | 271.66 KB)
At 2:00 AM, TS "URDUJA" remained slow-moving off the coast of Eastern Samar while maintaining its maximum sustained winds of 75 kph near the center and gustiness of up to 90 kph.
At 5:00 AM, "URDUJA" has slightly intensified and began to move closer towards Samar Island with maximum sustained winds of 80 kph near the center and gustiness of up to 95 kph. It is forecasted to move West Northwest at 10 kph.
At 8:00 AM, "URDUJA" continues to move Westward closer to Northern Samar-Eastern Samar area. TCWS No. 02 was hoisted over Albay, Sorsogon, and Masbate including Burias and Ticao Islands, Northern Samar, Eastern Samar, Samar, Biliran, and Leyte in which (open sea) 4.1 up to 14.0 meters coastal flooding is possible. Meanwhile, TCWS No. 01 is hoisted over Southern Quezon, Marinduque, Romblon, Catanduanes, Camarines Norte, Camarines Sur, Aklan, Antique, Capiz, Iloilo, Guimaras, Negros Occidental, Northern Negros Oriental, Cebu, Northern Bohol, Southern Leyte, and Dinagat Islands.
At 11:00 PM, TS “URDUJA” has slightly accelerated and is now threatening Samar and Sorsogon Area. It has a maximum sustained winds of up to 80 kph and gustiness of of 110 kph.
At 1:30 PM, TS “URDUJA” made landfall over San Policarpio, Eastern Samar. TCWS No. 2 is raised over Albay, Sorsogon, Masbate, Romblon, Northern Samar, Eastern Samar, Samar, Biliran, Leyte, Aklan, Capiz, and Northern Iloilo. Meanwhile, TCWS No. 1 is raised over the Provinces of Marinduque, Southern Quezon, Mindoro, Catanduanes, Camarines Norte, Camarines Sur, Cuyo Islands, Calamian Group of Islands, Antique, Rest of Iloilo, Guimaras, Negros Occidental, Northern Negros Oriental, Cebu, Northern Bohol, and Southern Leyte.
At 8:00 PM, “URDUJA” continuos to traverse the Northern part of Samar. Meanwhile, the Tropical Depression outside the PAR was estimated based on all available data at 2,330 km East of Mindanao.
Government of the Philippines
Tropical Storm Kai-Tak - Dec 2017
Shelter and Non-Food Items
Land Slide
Tropical Cyclone
NDRRMC Update Sitrep No. 28 re Preparedness Measures and Effects of Tropical Storm "Urduja" (Kai-Tak) as of 8:00 AM, 07 February 2018
NDRRMC Update Sitrep No. 27 re Preparedness Measures and Effects of Tropical Storm "Urduja" (Kai Tak) as of 8:00 PM, 04 February 2018
NDRRMC Update Sitrep No. 26 re Preparedness Measures and Effects of Tropical Storm "Urduja" (Kai Tak) as of 8:00 PM, 31 January 2018
NDRRMC Update Sitrep No. 24 re Preparedness Measures and Effects of Tropical Storm "Urduja" (Kai Tak) as of 8:00 AM, 08 January 2018
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Malaria Cases Drop 66 Percent
ZAMBIA has recorded a decline in the incidence of malaria by 66 per cent due to increased resource allocation to malaria control programmes and Government's commitment to fighting the disease.
Ministry of Health director of public health and research, Victor Mukonka said according to the World Health Organisation (WHO) assessment of 2008, Zambia had surpassed the set targets of both the Abuja Declaration of reducing malaria illness and deaths by 50 per cent by 2010 and the Roll Back Malaria goal of reducing the global malaria burden by 50 per cent by the same year.
Dr Mukonka, who was speaking when he officiated at the launch of Vectron 20WP insecticide for vector control in Lusaka yesterday, said the achievement was due to strong political will and leadership and increased funding to malaria programmes.
"These achievements are due to Zambia's commitment to the fight against malaria as evidenced by the strong political will and leadership and increased financial resources," Dr Mukonka said.
He said Zambia had also recorded a 56 per cent decline in severe anaemia in children under the age of five years and that the malaria parasitaemia had also reduced from 2006 to 2010.
Dr Mukonka said the national malaria programme was involved in implementing an integrated approach to malaria control.
He said the major interventions were the distribution of Insecticide Treated Net (ITN) and the Indoor Residual Spraying (IRS) and were supplemented by larval source management where feasible.
Dr Mukonka said it was important to be cognisant of the potential threat of resistance development because of the continued use of insecticides.
He said owing to this, research of alternative interventions was being encouraged through the integrated vector management strategy.
"In this vein research towards alternative intervention and an army of arsenals are being encouraged by the ministry and indeed the World Health Organization," Dr Mukonka.
Dr. Mukonka said the launch of the insecticide was welcome because it was going to add to the existing chemicals being used by the ministry to control malaria.
"It is therefore gratifying to note that in an effort to intensify malaria control intervention, partners in private sector have continued to support the Ministry through the development ofalternative tools for use in malaria," he said.
Midwife inspired by health workers as a sick child goes the extra mile to save pregnant women's lives in COVID-19
WFP Zambia Country Brief, December 2020
WFP Zambia Country Brief, November 2020
Zambia Situation Report, 9 December 2020
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NYU Steinhardt
NYU Steinhardt News
Helping Teachers See Students in All Their Gender Identities: An Interview with sj Miller
sj Miller is a teacher and activist who serves as Deputy Director of Educational Equity Supports and Services at Steinhardt’s Metropolitan Center for Research on Equity and the Transformation of Schools. sj helped draft the Beliefs Statement about Social Justice in English Education, which informed the CAEP Social Justice Standard VI; the first ever standard in the United States that advances social justice work in teacher preparation. sj received the 2017 AERA Exemplary Research Award for Teaching, Affirming, and Recognizing Trans and Gender Creative Youth: A Queer Literacy Framework (Palgrave Macmillan, 2016). We spoke about sj’s work promoting tolerance and diversity in the classroom.
You’ve created resources that support teachers and students. What are you most proud of about this work?
Teachers are using the work I’ve created. They see the importance of paying off a debt to students that is long overdue. They see the importance of teaching, affirming, and recognizing students in all of their gender identities and folding in new knowledge as students’ identities continue to emerge. They are staying open and are paying attention in ways I have never seen. They are asking for more strategies all the time, which pushes me to be more inventive and resourceful.
Trans scholar sj Miller
How can educators integrate social justice into their work?
Teachers must be willing to look inside at own their privileges and entitlements. If they come from backgrounds where they have been disadvantaged, they must stay committed to the work and have faith that their students will benefit from their own life experiences. They must also stay committed to growth that can help them shift their mindsets and beliefs, and work to recognize when they are engaging in acts of microaggressions.
All teachers need resources. What do these resources look like? I encourage teachers to read, study in groups, talk, march, watch films, read, go to events, and be mindful about the types of professional development they select. This is important because professional development can inform their understanding about how identities are positioned as marginalized. Teachers can also unlearn prejudice and reconstitute their beliefs as they interrogate their biases.
You use the hastag, #istandwithqueeryouth, as your signature. Can you tell me more about that?
Youth today who are gender identity woke are re-architecturing the landscape of social contexts. Gender identity woke is the self-awareness about one’s gender identity that simultaneously questions its construction and the impacts of its social positioning. It means staying engaged and being prepared for its evolution. With rapid inventions of technology and social media the 21st century; with affordable computers, wider access to technology, social media, Instagram, Tumblr, and YouTube, young people are documenting their transitions and recording their gender expressions in ways that were never available to previous generations.
What we see today is the fortification and impacts of many multiple trajectories realized by students who are turning to each other for affirmation and recognition. Beyond what is commonly heard and seen within youth culture, students are revealing that their engagements with advocacy, peer groups, and social media are spaces that they can use to develop and understand their gender identities with each other. They are inventing language and generating new forms for literacy learning. If teachers build upon and integrate these youth spaces as forms of literacy into their lessons, it would likely increase engagement, motivation, and agency.
This post appears in the following categories: Faculty, In the Public Schools, metrocenter
Exposure to Aggression Between Parents Can Interfere with a Child’s Ability to Regulate Emotions, Finds NYU Steinhardt Study
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6 Books on Educational Equity to Read This Summer
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Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development | 82 Washington Square East, New York, NY 10003
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Staff - January 12, 2021
Distributors Applaud Convenience, Flexibility Of Expo Direct-2-You
This week’s PPAI Expo Direct-2-You was an opportunity for the Association to step well beyond the boundaries of a traditional, in-person trade show to deliver not only exhibits and education virtually, but also live chats, social and networking events, live interviews and even some unexpected, fun pop-ups. But trying something new doesn’t come without risks and challenges, and Direct-2-You had its trials during its opening hours on Monday. The problems were immediately addressed and have been resolved.
Even with the occasional and expected challenges of an online platform, the flexibility and convenience of the virtual show was a draw for Jessica Pozo, co-owner of Warehouse Uniform & Embroidery. “The Expo impressed me this year. It's a nice platform that is user-friendly. We are able to see all the resources and download them and/or bookmark them. This ‘virtual Expo’ has allowed me to attend and pause [as I need to] during the day. I really like the flexibility!”
Jay Shaplin, MAS, senior brand manager and vendor relations manager at Sonic Promos, was also vocal on the benefits of a virtual show. “To be honest, I am learning more about some of the companies watching their videos than if I was walking the show floor. And being able to see info on products in the Products Pavilion is great, and no one is blocking your view.”
Janie Gaunce, president and CEO of Grapevine Designs, a long-time Expo attendee, was another distributor who enjoyed her show experience on Monday. “I’ve been having great success. Considering all the traffic being funneled through here, I’m very impressed with what I’ve been able to see. Great job PPAI!”
Amy Ehl, sales support for ROBYN Promotions, says, “I absolutely love the convenience and ease of the entire virtual show. All the new product information is really helpful, and I love that you can request catalogs and samples with a click of a button. It’s just super cool!”
For Erin Eberhardt of West Shore Promotions, Expo Direct-2-You offered definite advantages over an in-person show. “As a one-person company who was never able to take the time off or expense to attend a trade show across the country, I really appreciate the virtual show, and you have done an amazing job with the format. I can still work and at the same time take advantage of education and product information. In my previous career, I attended and exhibited at trade shows, so I know what they are like and was a bit burned out on them anyway. In the future, I hope you will consider continuing some sort of online event for small distributors like me.”
Christine Padgett Petre, owner of Jersey Girl Promo, formerly worked in the industry on the supplier side and had just opened her distributorship in March 2020, just before the pandemic lockdowns began. “I had been looking forward to going to shows in 2021 and was disappointed not to be able to,” she says. “An industry friend suggested checking out this week’s show. I was jumping on and off today as I was not able to clear my schedule to attend 100 percent [of the time]. In that little bit of time, I was able to go through some booths and engage with supplier reps. I had worked shows for years and it was good to be back. After us all working virtually, I am surprised to see so many complaints about tech glitches. They are to be expected. I am so excited and optimistic for 2021/22. The industry is going to explode once things really open up.”
Monday’s D2U Live programming pulled out all the stops with an energy-infused opening of Coffee & Comedy featuring comedian Collin Moulton, followed by a live interview with PPAI President and CEO Paul Bellantone, CAE; a sketch session with caricature artist Jehu Campos who had people lining up to pose, and then the Pet Pop-Up where attendees could introduce their dogs, cats and rabbits (yes, there was a rabbit) on Zoom. Throughout the day, there were interviews with PPB Rising Star Alicia Skipper of Promo Pros; Jamie Watson, MAS, CPA of Certified Marketing Consultants; leaders from exhibitors Next Level Apparel, Artech Pro and Richardson Seating Corporation; PPEF Chair Dana Porter, MAS; and videos showcasing PPAI’s Hall of Fame, Distinguished Service and H. Ted Olson Humanitarian Award winners: Teresa Moisant, MAS; Mark Ables, MAS and Bob Waldorf, CAS, respectively.
As announced this morning, exhibit hours today through Thursday will be extended until 5 pm CT.
filed under January 2021 | PPAI Expo Direct-2-You
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Aug 2012 - Apr 2013
Church in the Quakes (15)
Beach Campus of Grace Vineyard Church (3)
Sam Harvey (3)
Janice Moss (2)
Wainoni Methodist Church (2)
Bruce Morriss (1)
CPECF (1)
Catholic Diocese of Christchurch (1)
Chris Chamberlain (1)
Christchurch Filipino Society (1)
Dan Doyle (1)
Darryl Tempero (1)
Gerard Jacobs (1)
Greg Wright (1)
audio/mpeg (15)
Religion (x)
Melissa Parsons (x)
audio (x)
Sound (x)
Rubble to Resurrection (x)
The Church in the Quakes: Rev Darryl Tempero's Audio
An audio recording of Rev Darryl Tempero's interview for the Church in the Quakes Project. The interview was conducted by Melissa Parsons on 3 October 2012. At the time, Darryl Tempero was a Minister at Hope Presbyterian Hornby, the Presbyterian Earthquake Coordinator, and the Co-Chair of Christchurch Post Earthquake Churches' Forum.
Melissa Parsons
1:00pm 3rd October 2012
Church in the Quakes, Melissa Parsons, Rubble to Resurrection, story, audio, Darryl Tempero, Hope Presbyterian Hornby, CPECF, Community, Religion
The Church in the Quakes: Greg Wright's Audio
An audio recording of Greg Wright's interview for the Church in the Quakes Project. The interview was conducted by Melissa Parsons on 22 March 2013. Greg Wright is the Executive Director of the Methodist Churches' Property and Investment Committees.
1:00pm 22nd March 2013
Church in the Quakes, Melissa Parsons, Rubble to Resurrection, story, audio, Greg Wright, Methodist Churches' Property and Investment Committees, Community, Religion
The Church in the Quakes: Rev'd Peter Collier's Audio
An audio recording of Rev Peter Collier's interview for the Church in the Quakes Project. The interview was conducted by Melissa Parsons on 7 December 2012. Collier is the Priest Assistant at St John's Church in Latimer Square.
1:00pm 7th December 2012
Church in the Quakes, Melissa Parsons, Rubble to Resurrection, story, audio, Peter Collier, St John's Church, Latimer Square, Community, Religion
The Church in the Quakes: Rev Gerard Jacobs's Audio
An audio recording of Rev Gerard Jacobs's interview for the Church in the Quakes Project. The interview was conducted by Melissa Parsons on 12 September 2012. Rev Gerard Jacobs is the Parish priest at St Peter's in Upper Riccarton and St Luke's in Yaldhurst.
12:00pm 12th September 2012
Church in the Quakes, Melissa Parsons, Rubble to Resurrection, story, audio, St Luke's, Gerard Jacobs, Community, Religion
The Church in the Quakes: Tim and Sol O'Sullivan's Audio
An audio recording of Tim and Sol O'Sullivan's interview for the Church in the Quakes Project. The interview was conducted by Melissa Parsons on 16 November 2012. At the time, Tim O'Sullivan was the Central Council President for St. Vincent de Paul Society in Christchurch. Sol O'Sullivan is a member of the Christchurch Filipino Society.
1:00pm 16th November 2012
Church in the Quakes, Melissa Parsons, Rubble to Resurrection, story, audio, Tim O'Sullivan, Sol O'Sullivan, St Vincent de Paul, Christchurch Filipino Society, St Vincent de Paul Society, Community, Religion
The Church in the Quakes: Ps Sam Harvey's Audio - Part 2
Part two of an audio recording of Ps Sam Harvey's interview for the Church in the Quakes Project. The interview was conducted by Melissa Parsons on 14 September 2012. Harvey is the Pastor at the Beach Campus of Grace Vineyard Church.
Church in the Quakes, Melissa Parsons, Rubble to Resurrection, story, audio, Sam Harvey, Beach Campus of Grace Vineyard Church, Community, Religion
The Church in the Quakes: Ps John Alpe's Audio
An audio recording of Ps John Alpe's interview for the Church in the Quakes Project. The interview was conducted by Melissa Parsons on 5 December 2012. John Alpe is the Senior Pastor of St Albans Baptist Church.
Church in the Quakes, Melissa Parsons, Rubble to Resurrection, story, audio, John Alpe, St Albans Baptist Church, Community, Religion
The Church in the Quakes: Janice Moss's Audio - Part 1
Part one of an audio recording of Janice Moss's interview for the Church in the Quakes Project. The interview was conducted by Melissa Parsons on 19 October 2012. Janice Moss is a congregation member of the Wainoni Methodist Church and a former Sunday School teacher.
1:00pm 19th October 2012
Church in the Quakes, Melissa Parsons, Rubble to Resurrection, story, audio, Janice Moss, Wainoni Methodist Church, Community, Religion
Part three of an audio recording of Ps Sam Harvey's interview for the Church in the Quakes Project. The interview was conducted by Melissa Parsons on 14 September 2012. Harvey is the Pastor at the Beach Campus of Grace Vineyard Church.
The Church in the Quakes: Bruce Morriss's Audio
An audio recording of Bruce Morriss's interview for the Church in the Quakes Project. The interview was conducted by Melissa Parsons on 9 November 2012. Morriss is the South Island Regional Manager for Tearfund NZ.
1:00pm 9th November 2012
Church in the Quakes, Melissa Parsons, Rubble to Resurrection, story, audio, Bruce Morriss, Tearfund NZ, Community, Religion
The Church in the Quakes: Karin de Kaijzer and Julia Burnett's Audio
An audio recording of Karin de Kaijzer and Julia Burnett's interview for the Church in the Quakes Project. The interview was conducted by Melissa Parsons on 17 October 2012. Burnett works alongside De Kaijzer, who is the Women's Pastor at the South City C3 Church.
Church in the Quakes, Melissa Parsons, Rubble to Resurrection, story, audio, Julia Barnett, Karin de Kaijzer, South City Christian Centre, Community, Religion
Part one of an audio recording of Ps Sam Harvey's interview for the Church in the Quakes Project. The interview was conducted by Melissa Parsons on 14 August 2012. Harvey is the Pastor at the Beach Campus of Grace Vineyard Church.
12:00pm 14th August 2012
The Church in the Quakes: Ps Chris Chamberlain's Audio
An audio recording of Ps Chris Chamberlain's interview for the Church in the Quakes Project. The interview was conducted by Melissa Parsons on 14 December 2012. Chris Chamberlain is the Senior Pastor at the Oxford Terrace Baptist Church.
1:00pm 14th December 2012
Church in the Quakes, Melissa Parsons, Rubble to Resurrection, story, audio, Chris Chamberlain, Oxford Terrace Baptist Church, Community, Religion
The Church in the Quakes: Fr Dan Doyle's Audio
An audio recording of Fr Dan Doyle's interview for the Church in the Quakes Project. The interview was conducted by Melissa Parsons on 31 October 2012. Doyle is a Catholic priest, formerly for the Parish of Rangiora. Currently he is a priest at St Anne's, Woolston.
1:00pm 31st October 2012
Church in the Quakes, Melissa Parsons, Rubble to Resurrection, story, audio, Dan Doyle, Catholic Diocese of Christchurch, Rangiora, Woolston, Community, Religion
Part two of an audio recording of Janice Moss's interview for the Church in the Quakes Project. The interview was conducted by Melissa Parsons on 19 October 2012. Janice Moss is a congregation member of the Wainoni Methodist Church and a former Sunday School teacher.
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Dr Seuss’ The Grinch is an animated movie based on the Dr Seuss book How the Grinch Stole Christmas. The Grinch (voice of Benedict Cumberbatch) is a sad, miserable creature who lives in an isolated cave with his faithful dog, Max. The Grinch watches in dismay when the town of Whoville comes alive with the joy and magic of Christmas. He’s determined to destroy the fun and steal all the presents from the town, with the help of Max and a large reindeer called Fred. The plan is to disguise themselves as Santa and his reindeer.
Having stolen all the town’s presents and destroyed all its decorations, the Grinch meets a young girl called Cindy-Lou (voice of Cameron Seeley) at the very last house he vists. Cindy-Lou has set a trap, because she wants to talk with Santa. The Grinch is touched by her sweetness and love for her mother. He remembers his own childhood, spent in an orphanage with no family and no presents for Christmas, and understands why Christmas has always been the worst day of his life. He decides to put things right.
Christmas; orphans; loneliness
The Grinch has some violence. For example:
Children have a snowball fight.
The Grinch throws things at his radio to stop the Christmas Carols.
The Grinch knocks down a boy’s snowman. The boy calls him mean so he throws something at the boy.
Cindy-Lou skis down a slope and crashes into the Grinch.
The Grinch gets knocked down by an inflatable snowman.
Cindy-Lou falls down the stairs.
The Grinch tries to destroy the Christmas tree with a cannon. He hauls the cannon to the edge of a cliff, but it nearly goes over the edge. It stops in time but catapults the Grinch into the tree.
When the Grinch meets Fred the reindeer, Fred starts to eat the Grinch’s hair. The Grinch then lassoes its horns and Fred runs off, dragging the Grinch behind him. The Grinch slams into a tree.
A ferocious dog attacks the Grinch, and they both fall off a roof.
The Grinch shows some use of substances. For example, adults raise a toast to Christmas.
The Grinch has some mild nudity. For example, Cindy-Lou’s friend Grouper practises setting a trap for Santa. In the process, he loses all his clothes and is covered by a strategically-placed cookie.
The Grinch has some very mild coarse language.
Dr Seuss’ The Grinch is a moving story about how loneliness can make you envious and resentful, but kindness and forgiveness can change your life. It’s a great family Christmas movie, reminding us of what Christmas is all about.
The Grinch has a few scary scenes, and younger viewers might need parental guidance.
These are the main messages from this movie:
Kindness and love are the things we need most.
People might feel isolated, lonely and resentful for good reasons, and it’s important to make people feel included.
Values in this movie that you could reinforce with your children include:
love and compassion
inclusiveness.
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Rapid Ecology
a site for all ecologists
Reflections on Papers Past: Revisiting Coley 1983
By Rapid Ecology on 11 February 2019
by Hari Sridhar
In 1983, Phyllis Coley published a paper in Ecological Monographs reporting the results of her survey of herbivory and defense traits of rainforest tree species on the Barro Colorado Island (BCI), Panama. Based on the findings of her survey, Coley proposed a new model for the evolution of plant defenses. Thirty-three years after the paper was published, I asked Phyllis Coley about the motivation for this study, what she remembers of field work, and the current status of the model she proposed.
Citation: Coley, P. D. (1983). Herbivory and defensive characteristics of tree species in a lowland tropical forest. Ecological monographs, 53(2), 209-234.
Date of interview: Questions sent by email by 25th October 2016; responses received by email on 1st November 2016.
Hari Sridhar: This paper formed part of your PhD thesis. Could you tell us what was the motivation behind this specific piece of work, in relation to the rest of your PhD?
Phyllis Coley: This was the main part of my thesis, and it was inspired by a deadline to take my prelims and a paper I had just read by Paul Feeny. In that era, researchers were just recognizing that plant secondary metabolites were not waste products but the result of an arms race with herbivores. However, the field was still in the phase of cataloging the damaging effects of these metabolites. Feeny asked why some species invested more in defenses than others and proposed Apparency Theory, an extraordinary explanation that seemed to make sense of all the independent observations. He posited that apparent species, like oaks, would be ‘bound to be found’ by both specialist and generalist herbivores and would therefore need to invest heavily in defenses. Unapparent species, like ephemeral mustards, could escape discovery by specialists and need only invest in compounds effective against non-adapted generalists. It was a beautiful framework. He based it on two species (oaks and mustards) and I decided to test it in the tropics with 40 species.
HS: Stepping back a little, how did you get interested in the topic of herbivory, and plant-animal interactions in general, in the first place?
PC: I always liked nature, but when it came time to go to grad school, I was torn between working in municipal sewage treatment versus ecology. By almost a flip of the coin I chose ecology at the University of Chicago. I thought the tropics sounded exotic, and since I couldn’t decide if I wanted to do plants or animals, plant-herbivore interactions seemed to leave a lot open. Who knows, sewage may have been equally fascinating, but I am very happy messing about in rainforests.
HS: If you don’t mind my asking, how come your PhD supervisor(s) weren’t authors on this paper?
PC: They didn’t want to be – times have changed. I started with Robin Foster who had a very hands-off approach. So, I felt the thesis I designed was very much my own. But he gave me the confidence that it was perfectly feasible to work in the tropics. So off I went. He left academics while I was in the field, and the newly hired Doug Schemske probably felt he had no choice but to take in this orphan, warts and all. We had overlapped some on BCI [Barro Colorado Island] and he commented on how hard I worked. Poor Doug took on the responsibility of reading my painful, weekly progress on writing up my thesis. Without him, I would never have turned it into something as professional or compelling. I am very grateful to both of them for their different, but extremely valuable gifts.
HS: How did you decide to do your field work in Barro Colorado Island?
PC: I had never been to the tropics, but envisioned tenting by myself in the upper Amazon. My PhD advisor, Robin Foster, who had lots of experience in the tropics, suggested I work on BCI, the premier field station of its day. That didn’t sound so glamorous, but he was of course right. The logistics of remote tenting are enormous, and there is no one to talk to. On BCI, I was profoundly inspired by watching more senior scientists do science.
HS: Could you give us a sense of what a typical day was like during the fieldwork: where did you stay, how did you commute, did you have people to help you with fieldwork etc.?
PC: Living on BCI was a bit like summer camp, wooden dormitories with screened windows, shared bathrooms and no privacy. Most of us stayed on the island for months to years at a time, with occasional trips to town to get personal supplies. There were only about 10 people, so we got to know each other very well – like it or not. My first year on the island was one of the most wonderful, and the second year one of the worst. There were no phones and the personal computer hadn’t been invented, so it was quite isolating. I would get up every morning, head out in the woods by myself until the parrots started calling and heading to their roosting sites (about an hour before dark), which would be my alarm to start heading back too. I had thousands of plants marked in light gaps, hot, messy, ant-y places to work. I would spend all day measuring leaves with a plastic grid to quantify herbivory. Excruciatingly boring – but there were always the myriad of interactions of the rainforest that more than compensated. Once I fell in a hole and it took me hours to climb out – no one would ever have found me. Dinners were communal, overcooked and rather boring. At night I would fill in data sheets, which, back in Chicago, I would type onto cards that could be read by a mainframe computer. Then up again with the dawn chorus of howler monkeys.
Phyllis Coley on Barro Colorado Island in the 1980s with young leaves of Connarus panamensis, a vine (© not known).
HS: Do you continue to work in the study sites on BCI even today? When was the last time you visited this site? In what ways do you think the site has changed since the time you worked there for this study?
PC: I have continued to work and visit BCI over the years. It is unrecognizable: internet, hot showers, modern labs, cell phone reception, great food, a beer machine, generally more than 35 people living on the island and dozens more coming just for the day. There are even tourists. In many ways it has lost tranquility, but one can do modern biology, and I always have fascinating dinner conversations with people from all over the world.
HS: In the paper you mention a greenhouse. Could you tell us where this greenhouse was located and would you know what has become of it now?
PC: The greenhouse was plastic sheets, but there was a moat around it to keep out the leafcutter ants, so I was able to grow seedlings for an experiment. It deteriorated long ago.
HS: Where was the laboratory you mention located?
PC: The lab was actually part of my room. I had brought everything I would need, hot plate, beakers, small spectrophotometer, mortar and pestle, table-top centrifuge. When I worked with acetone, I improvised a hood: I would balance the hotplate on the toilet and put a fan in the window. It was not wildly effective at eliminating fumes, but kept one alert to make sure the hotplate did not plunge into the lidless toilet.
HS: The fiber content analysis was done in the University of Alaska Palmer Agricultural Station. Could you tell us why you chose this university to do the analysis?
PC: No idea, probably it was the cheapest.
HS: How were the figures for this paper drawn?
PC: I am amazed you asked this, but it brought back memories. Making figures was a pain! I tried two techniques – sticking black letters and lines to the paper, and using a stencil to draw/print with ink. Decidedly hand-made.
HS: Could you tell us a little more about the people you acknowledge – who they were, how you knew, how did they help etc.?
PC: Most were friends or were kind enough to read a draft. But I want to specifically mention one of them. Egbert Leigh was an eccentric Smithsonian scientist, theoretical geneticist, and resident on BCI, but he did not do field work. He called himself the ‘Toad’ and would periodically invite me up to ‘Toad Hall’, his modest apartment, for whiskey – straight of course, sometimes accompanied by cookies made by his equally eccentric wife. I was in awe and terror of him, as much of the conversation would be equations, but he was a great supporter.
HS: How long did the writing of this paper take? When and where did you do most of the writing?
PC: This is more about the evolution of my ideas: I had originally set off to Panama to ‘prove’ Paul Feeny’s Apparency Theory. By the time I had finished my fieldwork, the theory had been completely and universally accepted. But my data simply were not supporting it. That, coupled with my insecurity, meant I was thinking of dropping out on a daily basis. I eyed the sailboats passing in the canal on the way to Tahiti or other places far from my thesis and worries. Finally, I listened to my data and they actually had a much more interesting story to tell. No body was escaping discovery by herbivores, in fact you got what you paid for. Species that invested more in defense were eaten less. So if defenses worked, why weren’t all species investing in them? I decided it depended on growth rate. Slow-growing, shade-tolerant species were struggling away at 1% full sunlight, so they didn’t have the resources to replace lost leaves. Thus the optimal strategy was to protect them. In contrast, fast-growing pioneers adapted to high light maximized growth by not investing in defenses and tolerating herbivory. It was with trepidation that I presented these results at the Ecological Society Meeting soon after returning from Panama. My slides were in backwards, I was painfully shy, so to give a talk in public was torture. And worse, I knew everyone believed in Apparency Theory (except me). Or so I thought. Afterwards two bearded guys, John Bryant and Terry Chapin, came rushing up saying they saw the same thing with hares and twigs in Alaska. Many scribbled cocktail napkins later, my confidence and enthusiasm were rekindled, and we decided to write a paper together (Science 1985).
HS: Did this paper have a relatively smooth ride through peer-review? Was Ecological Monographs the first place this was submitted to?
PC: As it was a very long paper, I think Ecol. Mongr. was the only option. And it had a smooth ride, much smoother than a lot of my more recent papers!
HS: What kind of attention did this paper receive when it was published?
PC: Frankly I don’t remember. But I do remember arguing against Apparency Theory, probably like an annoying yappy dog, but I felt initially as if no one were listening. At the time, Paul Feeny, who was a famous professor at Cornell, could have squashed me and my career. Instead, he welcomed discussions, treated me with respect, and was a perfect gentleman and true scientist. He liked challenges and cared about the ideas and not his ego. He even wrote me letters of recommendation. I have tried to follow his example ever since.
HS: What kind of impact did this paper have on your career and the future course of your research?
PC: The fact that the paper is highly cited was or course very helpful. It also laid the groundwork for my 1985 Science paper, which may have reached a broader audience and became known as the Resource Availability Theory. Now this is widely accepted.
HS: Today, 33 years after it was published, would you say that the main findings still hold true, more-or-less?
PC: Yes, I think so.
HS: If you were to redo this study today, would you do anything differently, given the advances in technology, theory, statistical techniques etc.?
PC: I think the story might not be that different, but today our lab has a UPLC Mass Spec and advances in metabolomics which allow one to bring a much more detailed view of secondary metabolites.
HS: This paper has been cited over 1300 times. At the time of the study, did you anticipate at all that it would have such a big impact?
PC: Good heavens no.
HS: Would you know what is it mostly cited for?
PC: Although I think it was read initially, I am sure most of the people who cite it now haven’t actually read it.
HS: You say “I therefore suggest that intraspecific variance and skewness in herbivory among individuals be used as indices for quantifying the extent to which a population is “escaping’ damage from herbivores”. To what extent do you think these indices have been adopted?
PC: I think not at all!
HS: Could you reflect on the “success” of the model you proposed, as an alternative to the Apparency model, in the years since the paper was published?
PC: As with most things, there is a bit of truth everywhere. I think Resource Availability is still a more robust explanation for why plant species invest to different degrees in defenses. But it seems not to explain well the reasons behind investing in tannins versus metabolites that turn over more quickly, such as monoterpenes or alkaloids. Apparency had a different explanation based on effectiveness for generalist versus specialist herbivores, and it seems not to have held up either. However, temporal or spatial escape probably is a real phenomenon that will influence both ecological and evolutionary trajectories.
HS: Have you ever read this paper after it was published? If yes, in what context?
PC: Not for a long time
HS: Would you count this paper as a favorite, among all the papers you have written?
PC: It was very important for helping me see that I had a path as a scientist. However I would say that the paper we just submitted, also on plant-herbivore interactions in the tropics, is my favorite. Fingers crossed.
HS: What would you say to a student who is about to read this paper today? What should he or she take away from this paper written 33 years ago? Would you add any caveats?
PC: I can’t really remember the paper, but I will say “Listen to your data”. It helps you think outside the box.
Author Biography: Hari Sridhar is a post-doctoral researcher studying heterospecific sociality at the Centre for Ecological Sciences, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. Since early 2016, he has been interviewing authors of well-known papers in ecology and evolution, to find out about: 1. the making of the paper 2. the impact the paper had on the author’s career and research and 3. the author’s current stand on what was said in the paper. Through these interviews, Hari wants to construct ‘shadow papers’, which capture the past and future of the original published articles. His interviews are archived at https://reflectionsonpaperspast.wordpress.com/
Categories: Interview, Science
Tagged as: classics, ecology, ecology revisited, reflections
Reflections on Papers Past: Revisting Dayton 1971
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Home / Watch Brands / Bvlgari
Shop Bvlgari Designer Jewelry
Bvlgari is a world-recognized luxury watch and jewelry brand that has been operating its enterprise from Rome since 1884. The product line of the global brand includes a wide range of luxury goods from handbags and silk accessories to perfumes, watches, and jewelry. From the start, Bvlgari designer jewelry has been a symbol of utmost luxury. The brand incorporates valuable and cutting-edge materials and transforms them into superior quality jewelry pieces. Bvlgari’s many jewelry collections reflect a style and design philosophy that is glamorous and enduring.
A Glimpse at a Long History
The third biggest jewelry maker in the world, Bvlgari was established by Greek jeweler Sotirios Voulgaris who altered his family name to come up with the name of his business, spelling the “u” sound with the traditional Latin “v” to form Bvlgari. The empire now consists of more than 40 individual companies and is present in 24 nations, employing around 4,000 people worldwide.
Voulgaris began a career in jewelry making in his native village of Kalarites and his first store there still stands to this day. In 1877, Voulgaris left his hometown and lived in different cities before finally moving to Rome in 1881. He started his company in Rome in 1884, opening a store in Via Sistina. In 1905, the flagship Bvlgari store in Via Condotti opened and it was quickly embraced by the elite. Voulgaris had to enlist the help of his sons, Constantino and Giorgio, to run the store as it became very popular for its extraordinary jewelry designs that displayed both Greek and Roman art.
Timeless Appeals
From the glamorous screen sirens of 1960’s Italian cinema to the celebrities of today who walk the red carpets of prestigious events, Bvlgari admirers include some of the most famous figures in the world. Bvlgari jewelry has been worn and remains a favorite among the rich and famous from A-list actresses and supermodels to socialites as well as royalty and other prominent members of society, who are all captivated by the superior appeal of Bvlgari jewels that reflects their own.
Starting with Sotirio Voulgaris’ earliest creations, Bvlgari jewelry has always had confident and arresting designs. There are some themes and motifs that appear repeatedly throughout various collections such as the Roman coins, tubogas chains, snake designs, Roman pavements and, of course, the eponymous company logo. These are the iconic elements of Bvlgari designs, which have helped define the distinct look and feel of Bvlgari jewelry and tell the story of this illustrious brand.
Excellent Jewelry Making
Bvlgari designer jewelry is so unique and stylish that its popularity, unfortunately, have led to countless imitations and counterfeit products. Technology may help frauds quickly produce imitations but those will never come close to real Bvlgari jewelry whose designs are part of a tradition of quality that has been perfected for more than a century. Bold and classic with old world charm and contemporary influences, Bvlgari jewelry creations are not like any other. Each jewelry piece combines handpicked materials with brilliant designs and impeccable technical skills.
When it comes to making jewelry, perfect pieces are the result of carefully chosen materials, outstanding design, and masterful craftsmanship. From the start of a concept to the end of the creation process, there are various nuances in technique and levels of precision required. Hence, the making of Bvlgari jewelry is a fusion of spirit and skill, a process that the company has been holding on to for 130 years.
Gem and Materials Selection
Many of Bvlgari’s most remarkable pieces use exquisite gemstones as the center of attention. In its own Gemological Center, Bvlgari’s gem experts employ the highest standards in the industry to evaluate colored gems and diamonds. A gem report is provided for every product in Bvlgari’s High Jewelry line. Colored precious stones come with Gubelin certification while every diamond is certified by the Gemological Institute of America.
In the use of materials, it is common for Bvlgari designers to draw inspiration from raw resources. Rare materials, whether it’s something unique or new, have always been a source of inspiration right from the very start of the creative process. Bvlgari jewelry incorporates a wide range of materials that ranges from stainless steel or ceramic to dazzling diamonds and one-of-a-kind colored gemstones.
Style and Innovations
As one of the top jewelers in the world, Bvlgari is known for many innovative efforts.
Among Bvlgari’s first innovations in the world of jewelry is the use of yellow gold as the metal setting for precious stones and he also pioneered the use of cabochon cut semiprecious stones in fine jewelry in order to achieve a specific play with color. He is noted for unusual combinations of materials and using materials not typically incorporated in fine jewelry like white porcelain or stainless steel.
One of the primary qualities that set Bvlgari jewelry apart is the strong influence of objects and motifs found in ancient Greece. Generally, Bvlgari jewels have a proportion and symmetry that are more artistic and architectural rather than nature-inspired, a characteristic that made Bvlgari jewelry different from the creations of French master jewelers and is now identified as the brand’s distinct style. Needless to say, the style of Bvlgari jewelry is not meant for the modest with its Greco-Roman flair, large precious stones and big and bold designs that balance old-world motifs with modernity.
The Finest Collections
Past and current collections of Bvlgari jewelry offer stunning and glamorous rings, earrings, bracelets, and necklaces for different occasions as well as pendants and cuff links. The current
B.ZERO1 collection feature gleaming circular pieces in yellow, white, and pink gold. Some pieces combine the beauty of gold with steel, colored gemstones, ceramic and marble.
Meanwhile, the new Diva Collection draws inspiration from the world’s loveliest celebrities who proudly wore Bvlgari jewels whether onscreen, on the red carpets or out of the limelight. This collection pays tribute to feminine grace and beauty with pieces like 18K gold necklaces, earrings, and bracelets that feature sparkling pave diamonds combined with mother of pearl, amethysts, peridots, and rubellites.
These are just a few of the stunning collections of Bvlgari jewelry and Raymond Lee Jewelers offers some of this legendary brand’s fine pieces from their classic to the modern creations, all authentic jewelry at great prices.
Bulgari 18K Rose Gold Serpenti Scaglie Watch
Bulgari Diagono 18k Rose Gold Black Chronograph Dial Watch
Bulgari BB 23 GGD 18k Yellow Gold Ladies Watch
Bvlgari Tubogas 232T6/D283029 Two Tone Bangle Ladies Watch
Bulgari Diagono CH40STA Chronograph Steel Watch
Bvlgari BB33SL Mother of Pearl and Diamond Watch
Bulgari CH35S Diagono Chronograph Automatic Watch
Bulgari Diagono CH35SG Two Tone Chronograph Watch
Bulgari LCV38S White Dial Stainless Steel Automatic Watch
Bvlgari BB33GL Gold Watch on Brown Leather Strap
Bvlgari CH35S Diagono SS Chronograph Black Leather Watch
Bulgari aa44s Stainless Steel Mens Watch
Bvlgari Rettangolo RT45S Automatic Stainless Steel Mens Watch
Bvlgari Bulgari BB 33 Gl Automatic Yellow Gold Mens Watch
Bulgari Via dei Condotti BB 40 CL Mens Watch
Bvlgari Diagono AL32A Quarts Movement Mens Watch
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Norris Church Mailer
Revision as of 10:21, 8 April 2019 by Jules Carry (talk | contribs) (Some updates.)
Photo courtesy of the Norris Church Mailer Estate.
Norris Church Mailer (née Barbara Jean Davis, January 31, 1949, in Atkins, Arkansas) was an American artist, actress, model, and author of several books. Her publications include the memoir, A Ticket to the Circus, and the novels Cheap Diamonds and Windchill Summer. She is the mother of Matthew, her son with her first husband, and John Buffalo.[1]
After graduating from Arkansas Polytechnic College, Norris became an art teacher and, later, a successful model for Wilhelmina modeling agency.[2] She held several successful one-woman art exhibits and appeared in Ragtime (1981), The Executioner's Song (1982), and the television drama, All My Children.[3] Norris was a member of the Actors Studio.[1]
Norris's near 33-year marriage to her second husband, Norman Mailer,[4] is frequently the focus of reviews about her life. Norris described Mailer as “the Henry Higgins to my Eliza Doolittle,”[5] often seeking his advice on novel drafts and defending him against critics.[2] A Ticket to the Circus chronicles her life.[6]
In 2004, Wilkes University established the Norris Mailer Church Fellowship in Creative Writing in her honor. Norris died in 2010 of complications from gastrointestinal cancer.[7]
Tributes to Norris Church Mailer
↑ 1.0 1.1 Moore 1989, p. 66.
↑ 2.0 2.1 Klemesrud 1979. harv error: multiple targets (2×): CITEREFKlemesrud1979 (help)
↑ Mansfield 2008. harv error: no target: CITEREFMansfield2008 (help)
↑ Italie 2010.
↑ Berger 2019, p. B11. harv error: no target: CITEREFBerger2019 (help)
↑ Bragg 2010. harv error: no target: CITEREFBragg2010 (help)
↑ Berger 2019. harv error: no target: CITEREFBerger2019 (help)
Berger, Joseph (November 22, 2010). "Norris Church Mailer, Artist and Ally, Dies at 61". New York Times. New York.
Bragg, M. A. (November 23, 2010). "Provincetown Arts 'hero' Mailer is missed". CapeCodOnline.com. Retrieved 2010-11-26.
Harris, Ellen (December 2010). "The Norman Conquest, or The Last Wife of Norman Mailer Speaks". Belle Lettres. 11 (1): 22–23.
Italie, Hillel (November 22, 2010). "Norris Mailer; her memoir tells of life as author's 6th wife". Boston Globe. New York.
Klemesrud, Judy (April 22, 1979). "Life With Norman Mailer: So far it has been good to Norris Church". St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
Klemesrud, Judy (April 22, 1979). "Mailer's Latest Love Story". St. Louis Post-Dispatch. New York.
Moore, Frazier (April 1989). "The Very Versatile Mrs. Mailer". Interview. pp. 66–68.
Mansfield, Stephanie (January 26, 1986). "Norris Mailer, Out of Arkansas The Author's Sixth Wife, Her Art and Her Roots". Washington Post.
Wilkes University (2004). "The Norris Church Mailer Fellowship in Creative Writing" (Press release). Retrieved 2019-04-07.
"Norris Mailer, 6th wife of Norman Mailer, dies". Tulsa World. 2010-11-26.
Retrieved from "https://projectmailer.net/index.php?title=Norris_Church_Mailer&oldid=6508"
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Loganberry’s “It Doesn’t Matter Now”
author: Loganberry, random, slice of life
As today’s story reminds us, there are some things in life that are constants — like death, taxes, and Pinkie Pie showing up at the end of the universe.
It Doesn’t Matter Now
[Random] [Slice of Life] • 1,334 words
The Spirit Pony is responsible for the End of All That Ever Was. It has always been so. This particular End looks like being a straightforward one – until a certain pink pony intervenes to prevent it happening. Pinkie has a very, very good reason for stopping the Spirit, too…
FROM THE CURATORS: This fun little eschatological romp (and how often do you get to use those words together?) is what it says on the tin: Pinkie Pie at the End of All That Ever Was, stopping the universe from ending because she’s got some unfinished business. “It’s a fresh subversion of a theme that has been done to death with the show’s immortal princesses,” Horizon said, but we found depth beyond that. “It’s more a look into the power of Pinkie, something that goes beyond crass fourth-wall breakage while still giving her a magic of her own,” Present Perfect said.
One of its core strengths was that clever examination of a pony who is among the most difficult to write. “I was impressed by the way Pinkie’s character is used in this story,” Present Perfect said. “It benefits from letting her act in that situation as she does in all situations: like Pinkie.” Chris was impressed, too: “It definitely speaks to the kind of dramatic whimsy Pinkie’s capable of. She’s more than just a goof, after all — she takes her goofiness seriously.”
Add to that the strong writing which carried this to a UK of Equestria contest win, and this short little tale sailed through to an easy feature. “It plays with contrast and tone in clever ways,” Horizon said. “It’s got a cute and simple premise which might not carry a longer story, but it packs up enough gravitas to give the ending a satisfying impact.”
Read on for our author interview, in which Loganberry discusses wanderlust, tea, and Egg-Kings.
Whose would you like?
There’s not much to tell, really: I’m male, I’m in my late thirties and I live in an ordinary house in an ordinary small town in central England. I spend hours looking at computer screens, so naturally I decided on a hobby which would take up large chunks of my spare time doing much the same thing, only without my getting paid for it. My health is somewhat variable, so more active pursuits aren’t always possible in any case. I do spend quite some time on trains, though. Some good ideas (and quite a few terrible ones) have come to me that way.
My first internet fandom, around 15 years ago now, was that for Watership Down, which to this day remains a favourite book of mine. (It was also the first fandom I wrote serious fanfic for: Blackavar’s Gift, published in 2003.) In the WD universe, male rabbits are usually named after plants, and I named my own character Loganberry. In time, I got to using the name myself, and I then carried it with me to other fandoms. It’s pure luck that, on joining the herd, I already had a name that fitted the ponyverse quite well.
It also has the advantage that it shortens to what you might call a “stealth username”. Fandom friends call me “Logan” in real life all the time and nobody bats an eyelid. I’m not secretive about my liking for MLP, but I’d still feel a bit awkward about being addressed as “Silvermane Twinklehooves” or something in a crowded pub!
(Hmm. Google Docs’ spell checker allows “Silvermane” but complains about “Twinklehooves”.)
Fluttershy. She has been since the start, even before I watched my first episode. I believe cruelty to be the worst of all sins, so a pony who exemplifies the opposing virtue was always going to appeal. She’s a far more interesting character than some give her credit for: you only have to watch “A Bird in the Hoof” to see an oft-neglected side of the pegasus that has nothing to do with her being timid. The whole Philomena mess is set off by ‘Shy’s impulsiveness in the service of compassion.
Next comes Scootaloo: “Sleepless in Ponyville” (a shining star in a very variable S3) is largely responsible. As with Fluttershy, we know nothing of her family background; given that Rainbow’s early life is also somewhat shadowy, it seems that pegasi may not have particularly close familial bonds. (I play around with this idea a little bit in my currently-stalled FlutterDash backstory fic, Where They Understand You.)
I also like Twilight, though I’m conflicted: I think she’s a better pony now than she was in S1, but a less compelling character. Finally, there’s Celestia: the IDW comics have explored her character and backstory to an extent, but I’d like the show to do so as well.
The above is all about which ponies’ stories I like to consume. When it comes to writing them, Fluttershy is still number one, but Rarity is up there too.
“Hurricane Fluttershy”, because it provides a fascinating insight into the remarkable friendship between the “odd couple” of ‘Shy and Rainbow Dash. Rainbow puts in a huge amount of effort to encourage Fluttershy to take part in Tornado Day; I doubt she’d have done that for anypony else. One of my favourite scenes in the entire series comes near the end of that episode, when Dash realises that Fluttershy has joined her in the tornado at last. Rainbow gives a huge smile of pure joy; it’s one of the most uplifting and moving things I’ve seen in any cartoon.
Other standouts: “Suited for Success”, which takes the most stereotypically “little-girly” plot ever and makes it (and us) sing; “The Cutie Mark Chronicles”, which is a perfect example of how to pace a busy story; “Sleepless in Ponyville”, which single-handedly propelled Scootaloo to second-favourite pony status; “Pinkie Pride”, which is a masterclass in writing the pink party pony; and “Filli Vanilli”, for making me grin like a loon during that final song. I’m not one of the fans who thinks it’s a worse show now than it was in the early days. It’s a different show, but that’s not the same thing.
As for least favourite, that would be “Owl’s Well That Ends Well”. Yes, written by the same Cindy Morrow who wrote my favourite episode. A lot of this one is just plain tedious, something MLP hardly ever is. The “Hoo?” joke, in particular, is run so far into the ground it could give Jules Verne a few pointers.
Fun! (Don’t you dare…) The show itself is generally highly entertaining, while the fandom is generally likewise. It has its good and bad sides, both of which I see in my role as a moderator on UK of Equestria’s forums, but I think the good still greatly outweighs the bad; I certainly don’t think everything fell apart after 2012. Mind you, that was the year I joined the fandom, so perhaps those people have a point. More seriously, the show has helped me through some dark days and I will always owe it a debt for that. I am a happier person today than I would have been had MLP:FiM not become a part of my life.
I could think of much worse things than a quiet, comfortable house with a big library chock-full of books (real ones! What sort of philistine do you think I am?), a few slightly shabby old armchairs and sofas to lounge on and several large windows looking out over verdant English countryside. Preferably with a gas fire hissing away in the background during the winter months; I grew up with that noise (my early-childhood home wasn’t centrally heated) and it’s always been a very comforting sound to me.
Really, I’d rather live a relaxing, peaceful life than a noisy, thrilling one. I’m an Arthur Dent, not a Zaphod Beeblebrox. Give me a small group of people who care about me, freedom from money worries, an unending supply of tea (told you!) and rather better health and I’d be pretty satisfied. Oh, and a guaranteed 100% reliable, super-fast internet connection on which I could chat to my friends and watch the England cricket team find new and exciting ways to self-destruct. There are some limits to how peaceful a life I’d want to live.
Because, despite being rather a stay-at-home type in real life (I’ve never travelled further than Germany), I do have a certain amount of wanderlust. This I can satisfy through writing: writers have the wonderful luxury of being able to go anywhere, not just to places that are sensible or even possible. Besides, I like peace and quiet, and writing is the only way to get the ideas in my head to stop yelling at me for a bit.
More prosaically, this is a fandom that has a wonderful culture of creativity. I wanted to participate in that, not merely be a consumer of other people’s works. I can’t draw to save my life, I can’t sew rugs or paint blind bags, my PMV skills are non-existent and my musical talents extend little further than adapting “Smile” for the BBC Micro. The one creative thing I can do to a halfway acceptable standard is write. So I do.
Not for fame. Let’s be honest, if what you crave in this fandom is fame, then writing ponyfic is a terrible way to go about it. You can look at a piece of fanart and tell in a few seconds whether it’s any good. Not with writing: we’ve all read fics that have started out promisingly, then fallen apart thousands of words later. Unlike most other fanwork producers, we ask our audience to put in significant amounts of their own time and effort. That makes writers and readers more of a partnership, but is probably part of what makes fanfic a minority interest in our fandom. (And it is. Would EQD consider for one moment having a “Not-Fanart” tag?)
That said, I do like it when the people who do read fanfic say nice things about my stories. If you’re publishing stories and you aren’t at least a little bit vain, you’re a liar.
Don’t do what I do. I’m a disaster area. But if I must…
Good characterisation is everything when it comes to sustaining immersion. You need to be completely familiar with any character you’re writing for; as far as canon characters go, I think you should have watched every episode of the series at least twice. Even if you’ve fallen out of love with the show itself, I still think you benefit from keeping up with it, and from refreshing your knowledge of older episodes from time to time. Little things really count: for example, only Pinkie and Fluttershy have ever used the nickname “Dashie”.
Don’t assume that the story you spend months agonising over, or the story that has a six-figure word count, will necessarily be your most popular, most accomplished or best-received fic. The greater part of It Doesn’t Matter Now was written in a single evening; We Who with Songs Beguile didn’t take much longer. I’ve spent far more time on stories that ended up going nowhere fast, sometimes never even seeing the light of day. Your darlings may not be the fandom’s darlings. It’s tough, but it happens. Quite a lot, actually.
Learn the “rules of writing” thoroughly – but then work out how to break them effectively. You can write good fics while following all the “rules”, but for something really memorable you’ll probably need to go against the grain somewhere or other. Isaac Asimov’s classic Foundation trilogy is stuffed with exposition dumps. Julian Barnes won the Booker Prize with a 160-page book in an era when “no-one wants short novels”. Lucky Dreams’ extraordinary In the Place the Wild Horses Sleep is a [human]-tagged children’s story. And (ahem) It Doesn’t Matter Now has a 78-word opening sentence.
Acknowledge your readers. Reply to their comments. Thank them for their interest. Make them feel they’re getting something out of taking the time to leave their thoughts about your story. (Yes, even if they didn’t like it. You can always think up some exquisitely torturous revenge and inflict it on a thinly-disguised OC in your next fic.) The high priest of this approach is The Descendant, but you don’t need to go to quite those lengths. Just don’t give the impression that you’re handing down your fics to the adoring masses on tablets of stone from an ivory tower. (Yay for mixed Biblical metaphors!)
Finally? Semicolons are awesome; make them your friends.
This story spends a lot of time personifying a being which you explicitly tell us, is beyond personification. Where did you try to draw the line between “too vague” and “totally unrelatable?”
I was amused by exactly that paradox: I felt it was something that Pinkie herself might have appreciated. I suppose it could be considered her slightly less sinister version of doublethink! I didn’t put a lot of conscious effort into “drawing the line”; this was an aspect of the story that just came out naturally in the writing process. I’m sure there were subconscious influences in there – it doesn’t take a genius to see that I’ve read plenty of Douglas Adams and Terry Pratchett. (Perhaps one of the great lost collaborations, that.)
A look through the comments on this story shows that some readers thought the ending was sad, while others considered it more uplifting. What did you want the reader to feel after they finished reading? What sort of mood do you personally think the ending has?
I see it as a happy ending: after an eternity of waiting, a truly remarkable pony has at last completed her life’s work. What happens after that is an open question: perhaps Pinkie joins her friends in the Great Beyond; perhaps she has somewhere else to go. Had she failed in her final task, though, Pinkie would have been left entirely alone, with no way to keep her Promise – surely the worst of all fates for this particular pony. That single proton is what separates [random] from [tragedy].
The Great Beyond itself is a concept which has a certain amount of canon support, at least in the expanded universe of the comics and so on, and it’s something I may explore in a fic one day. The questions of faith and belief raised by a world where you can actually meet the being responsible for raising the sun each day are very interesting.
In the story, you bring up the suggestion that something like this happens in every universe. If you had to wager a guess, who do think our world’s Pinkie Pie might be?
I strongly suspect that it’s Pinkie Pie herself. Actually, I think it’s more than likely that she is every universe’s Pinkie Pie, whatever the rest of us may like to believe.
Stories with the [random] tag have a bad reputation among some readers. What do you see as the biggest pitfalls of the genre, and what are the keys to writing a good [random] story?
The main thing that lets down a [random] fic is when it’s too random! By which I mean, when it’s just a collection of thrown-together ideas with no linking thread of internal logic. This is, not coincidentally, the same thing that lets down many Pinkie-centric fics. (And Discord-centric ones, for that matter. Discord is much harder to write well than many authors imagine.) A bunch of tenuously-connected scenes with a few jokes added in is still just a bunch of scenes. It’s not a story.
Leaving aside trollfics, of which I’m not a big fan anyway, fics that make no sense whatsoever are bad fics. You may have to look at them sideways, diagonally or through a purple beer glass on Maundy Thursday for their logic to become apparent, but it has to be lurking in there somewhere. I admire the way that Blueshift’s [random] stories achieve this sort of thing. Yes, okay, you have to accept that Twilight is a [something], and probably Trixie too, but everything follows perfectly logically from that.
So: did it matter, in the end?
Yes, very much so. Had Pinkie not been present at all, the end result in that universe might have been the same, but it wouldn’t have been the same. Doublethink again!
Other than offering a great big “thank you” to everyone who’s read my scrawlings, whether before or after their publication (if any), I’ll simply say that by the time you read this, I’ll be living in the future, and so will you. Life is not a test.
This, however, is a test:
Could Pinkie Pie’s gesture break a Wave of Egg-Kings? (Be hardboiled.)
Decline a proton, accusingly and vocally.
The Fruits of the Spirit are always apples. Meditate ambiguously on whether this is a Good Thing.
Should a Pinkie meet a Pinkie comin’ thro’ the rye?
You can read It Doesn’t Matter Now at FIMFiction.net. Read more interviews right here at the Royal Canterlot Library, or suggest stories for us to feature at our Fimfiction group.
2 thoughts on “Loganberry’s “It Doesn’t Matter Now””
Present Perfect said:
>tfw Watership Down fandom
Not that I was part of it, though I probably would have been, had I known about it, but that iota did remind me that I was once part of the Redwall fandom.
Loganberry said:
Strangely perhaps, I never got into Redwall. I once found a signed copy of Redwall itself in a local charity shop, so I dutifully bought and read it. That was about it, though. At the time, I was all about the more naturalistic behaviour of WD‘s animals, so wasn’t that keen on the notion of mice wearing clothes and running abbeys. :P
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The Royal Watcher
Royal Events
Today in Royal History
Duchess of Cornwall’s Tiaras
July 17, 2017 March 4, 2018 ~ Saad719
Happy 70th Birthday to the Duchess of Cornwall! Click HERE to learn about her. In the 12 years since her marriage, the Duchess has attended a plethora of glittering royal events. In honour of her birthday, we are featuring her tiaras-
Greville Tiara
Made by Boucheron in 1921 for the Hon. Mrs. Ronald Greville, a society hostess and great friend of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth ( later the Queen Mother), she left all of her jewels to Queen Elizabeth in 1942. After being altered in 1953, the Greville Tiara became her most worn piece, worn well into her old age. Nowadays, it is the Duchess of Cornwall’s most worn Tiara, seen at almost all occasions. The largeness of the tiara fits perfectly in her trademark ‘do and makes an impressive sight at banquets. Click HERE to learn more.
Cubbit-Shand Tiara
This diamond floral tiara comes from the Duchess’ mother Rosalind Shand and probably maternal grandmother, Sonia Keppel Cubitt. The Duchess first wore the Cubbit-Shand Tiara at her wedding to Andrew Parker Bowles in 1973. It was also worn by her daughter, Laura, for her wedding in 2006. The tiara is her choice for lesser formal events, and was also worn for her first solo tiara event.
Delhi Durbar Tiara
Made by Garrards on the order of Queen Mary for the celebrated 1911 Delhi Durbar, the original version featured the famous Cambridge Emeralds on top. Queen Mary gave the diamond version of the tiara to the Queen Mother for the 1947 South African tour, who kept it with her until her death, when it was passed to the current Queen. The Duchess of Cornwall wore the tiara only one, during the 2005 State Visit from Norway. Click HERE to learn more.
Posted in Duchess of Cornwall, Royal Jewel, Tiara, UK
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5 thoughts on “Duchess of Cornwall’s Tiaras”
Bluesaphire70 says:
Even though the Duchess has access to three tiaras, she really only wears two. I think the Delhi has a lovely design and is much prettier than the Greville, but she’s worn it only once. They’re both rather large, so it can’t be the size, but for some reason she doesn’t give the Delhi much love. I wonder why? 🙂
Emerson Greggory says:
Wow that was unusual. I just wrote an incredibly long comment but after I clicked submit my comment didn’t show up. Grrrr… well I’m not writing all that over again. Regardless, just wanted to say fantastic blog!|
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Indiana Topics
coronavirus Indianapolis Public Schools Innovation schools Teacher pay Indiana General Assembly All Topics
Indiana
You probably didn’t notice Betsy DeVos was at an Indianapolis school on ‘60 Minutes’
By Dylan Peers McCoy
PHOTO CREDIT: Gabriel Scarlett/The Denver Post
Keep track of everything that’s happening in schools during the COVID-19 outbreak. Subscribe to our Indiana newsletter for all of the information you need, in one place.
Indianapolis’ reputation as a hub of school choice was briefly in the spotlight during a “60 Minutes” segment Sunday evening — only to be wildly overshadowed by controversial comments by U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos.
DeVos’s secret visit to Cold Spring School, which caused a stir locally last month, was featured during the program as an example of the secretary’s dogged support for school choice.
But the interview has made headlines and attracted criticism on Twitter instead for DeVos’s other comments, including her curious admission that she did not visit struggling schools and her refusal to acknowledge that students of color might face harsher discipline because of institutional racism.
Cold Spring went through a dramatic change in 2016, when it “was allowed to get rid of the local teachers’ union and create an innovative curriculum,” “60 Minutes” reporter Lesley Stahl highlighted.
The changes at Cold Spring — which included a longer school day and increased focus on science and engineering — are the result of a new model that is transforming the city’s largest district. As an innovation school, Cold Spring is still under the umbrella of Indianapolis Public Schools, but it’s run by a non-profit that employs most teachers and has near complete control over daily operations. Cold Spring admits students by lottery rather than serving the neighborhood.
DeVos is defined by her support of school choice policies such as vouchers for private schools, charter schools, and enrollment across district boundaries. On “60 Minutes,” she argued that those policies are empowering low-income families.
Betsy DeVos: Any family that has the economic means and the power to make choices is doing so for their children. Families that don’t have the power, that can’t decide: “I’m gonna move from this apartment in downtown whatever to the suburb where I think the school is gonna be better for my child” if they don’t have that choice – and they are assigned to that school, they are stuck there. I am fighting for the parents who don’t have those choices. We need all parents to have those choices.
Stahl pushed back by pointing out that when students attend choice schools, neighborhood schools lose money. But DeVos asserted that studies show that neighborhood schools improve when they face more competition. (Research does suggest that public schools show small improvements in test scores when they have competition from voucher programs.)
Cold Spring was also the location for one of the most awkward moments of the segment, when Stahl asked DeVos if it hurt to be “the most hated Cabinet secretary.”
“Sometimes it does. Sometimes it does,” DeVos responded. “Again, I think … I’m more misunderstood than anything.”
Dylan Peers McCoy @dylanpmccoy dmccoy@chalkbeat.org
More stories in Indiana
Three-day weeks and no grades: Here’s what some Indiana remote learning plans look like
Betsy DeVos Cold Spring School Indianapolis Public Schools
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Behind the Mask: The Life of Vita Sackville-West
{related_entries id="evnt_loca"}Behind the Mask: The Life of Vita Sackville-West{/related_entries}
Bestselling historical biographer Matthew Dennison takes a look at the turbulent life of Vita Sackville-West. Dennison’s latest work is the first biography of Sackville-West in 30 years and traces her life from lonely childhood, through an open marriage to Harold Nicolson during which both pursued homosexual affairs (including, most famously, Vita with Virginia Woolf) and literary success and disappointment, to the celebrated gardens at Sissinghurst created by the couple. Sackville-West was born into aristocracy but she took her talent for play-acting and rebellion to the artistic vanguard of modern Britain.
Dennison is author of the critically acclaimed The Last Princess: The Devoted Life of Queen Victoria’s Youngest Daughter; Empress of Rome: The Life of Livia; The Twelve Caesars; and Queen Victoria. He writes about country houses and gardens for several magazines.
Sponsored by HSBC.
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CurrentSAFE Brings New Approach to P1 Group Electrical Preventative Maintenance
Above, right: P1 Group’s EPM team graduates from CurrentSAFE training in Youngstown, OH. Pictured, from left: Kiley Taylor, CurrentSAFE NFPA70E Instructor; Jeff Gardner, EPM Manager; Clint Hines, EPM Technician; Branner Gordon, EPM Technician; Derek Baldomino, EPM Technician; Daniel Farnan, General Manager; Sean Samson, CurrentSAFE Vice President of Dealer Development; Kevin Dickey, CurrentSAFE President
When your values line up, it makes certain business decisions easier.
P1 Group electrical preventative maintenance electrical service CurrentSAFE
Looks Matter: P1 Technicians Go the Extra Mile to Serve Customers
BOILER PICTURES - BEFORE & AFTER
One of the first questions a good brand consultant will ask is “How are you differentiating yourself – why do people want to buy from you?”
HVAC facility solutions boiler maintenance
Kansas Association of School Boards Facilities Improvement Project
KASB Project Exemplifies P1 Group’s Facility Solutions Capabilities
P1 Group has been a prestigious partner with the Kansas Association of School Boards (KASB) for the past four years, providing facility master planning and solutions to Kansas K-12 school districts. When the Association was ready to renovate their own Topeka, KS, facility, it only made sense that P1 Group should put those capabilities to work for KASB.
That’s what the Performance Solutions team of Senior Development Engineer Tim Mense, Vice President Rusty Roderick, and Project Development Manager Bill Frede, set out to do in 2016 when they began the planning process, analyzing the overall efficiency of KASB’s unique facility, which is several decades old.
Kansas Association of School Boards P1 Group facility solutions K-12 HVAC renovation
A Flair for the Dramatic - Associate Profile "Starring" Victoria Hoffman
Marketing Manager Victoria Hoffman
Pictured Center and Right: Performing in FIVE WOMEN WEARING THE SAME DRESS and NOISES OFF!
Maybe it’s the yellow car, the high heeled tennis shoes, or the cat ear headphones, but whatever it is, you can tell right away that Marketing Manager Victoria Hoffman has a flair for the dramatic.
But it didn’t start out that way.
p1group victoria hoffman marketing specialty subcontracting
Unusual Bond Brings Electrical and Low Voltage Experts to P1 Group
P1 Group Expands Electrical
P1 Group isn’t the only group that embodies “The Expertise of Many, The Power of One.” P1 recently welcomed a group of 16 electrical and low-voltage technicians who have worked together for decades, putting aside rank, varying expertise, and barriers to work together as one.
Sound unusual? It is.
P1 Group electrical construction electrician low voltage
Miguel Chacon Andrade Earns K-State Construction Science Scholarship
P1 Group is committed to helping fill the pipeline of talented construction and trade workers, which is why we developed the Construction Science Scholarship, awarded yearly to a promising student in the Kansas State University Construction Science program.
This year, Miguel Chacon Andrade was the lucky recipient.
p1 group construction science k state scholarship
CNC Pipe Cutting Machine Increases Prefabrication Efficiency
Accuracy. Efficiency. Reduced Waste. In the ever-changing world of technology, P1 Group is always looking for ways to work better while increasing the quality of our work.The newly acquired CNC Machine will do just that.
CNC stands for Computer Numerical Control. This means a computer converts the design produced by Computer Aided Design software (CAD), into numbers. The numbers can be considered the coordinates of a graph and they control the movement of the cutter. Before this, dimensions had to be taken manually and then cut with the plasma cutter. With the CNC machine, Virtual Design and Construction (VDC) is able to import the dimensions directly from a BIM model and make every cut in an automated process.
p1 group fabrication pipe and plumbing
Making the Most of a Great Opportunity: Associate Spotlight on Jeremy Alexander
The successful man was out and on the job long before opportunity came a-knocking. And this same opportunity is often disguised as hard work." ~anonymous
Service Technician Jeremy Alexander is no stranger to hard work. As a teenager, he started working for his dad’s company pouring concrete and eventually moved on to remodeling homes. Although it provided steady income, there were no benefits and when he found out he had a daughter on the way, he knew he needed to find something better to support his family.
P1 Group Plumbing
Associate Profile: Brian M. Embraces Work and Relaxation in Las Vegas
“It’s not exactly what you think of when people say ‘Vegas’,” P1 Group Senior Project Manager Brian Maginness said of the scenery pictured above. From distant mountain peaks dusted with snow to the all-terrain outdoor scenery, it didn’t take long for Brian to embrace the western landscape.
A native of the Kansas City area, Brian picked up from his Blue Springs, MO, home in 2015 and moved his wife, Jamie, and son, P1 Group Apprentice Andrew Maginness, to Las Vegas where he joined the P1 Group office led by Vice President Brad Davis.
Annual Kevin Lane scholarship awarded
LENEXA, KS. – The annual Kevin Lane scholarship has been awarded for the second time to University of Kansas student, Patrick Canny. The scholarship is in honor of the late Kevin Lane, who worked as an electrical foreman at P1 Group for more than 27 years.
As a sophomore this year, Patrick recently visited P1 Group’s headquarters. He has made some big changes in his life since he stopped by last year. After working a summer internship at an aerospace engineering firm, he wondered if a degree in mechanical engineering was the right choice for him. A friend working in New York at a medical lab then inspired him to consider pursing computer science. A few programming classes later, Patrick decided that exploring a career in data science would give him the freedom to fully reach his potential.
Building Controls and Management Systems Elevate P1 Group’s Single-Source Game
Most people are familiar with P1 Group’s distinctive position as a single-source provider, and the recently added Controls department brings yet another advantage to owners and customers.
The Controls department currently has staff operating out of the Kansas City (Lenexa) and Wichita offices, but supports all of the Kansas City metro, which includes St. Joseph and Lawrence/Topeka.
p1 group building management systems controls
P1 University Helps New Project Managers Become Successful Faster
Personal Training Builds Career Muscles
While trial by fire can be a good way to learn, no one likes the anxiety that comes with a brand new job, project deadlines, and all new software and systems to learn.
That’s where P1 University comes in. P1 Group goes above and beyond to train new project managers so they get up-to-speed about the company and their job function as soon as possible.
P1 Group P1 University recruiting training
C.A.R.E. MEANS GOING BEYOND CUSTOMER SERVICE - Associate Spotlight on Kelly Masters
Customer relationships will always be top priority for P1 Group.
Kelly Masters was interviewing for a position with P1 when she was asked if she would be interested in the newly created position of C.A.R.E. Coordinator. With a degree in Nursing and three children, Kelly has plenty of experience in caring, and since customers have always been her favorite part of her work, she thought it would be a great opportunity.
P1 Group Architectural Metal Team Creates Conversation Piece for Lenexa Headquarters
A multi-dimensional flag appears to ripple right off the wall at P1 Group’s Lenexa headquarters. The piece was created by our own Architectural Metal Division at the 32,800 sq. ft. Architectural Metal shop in Kansas City, MO.
The flag was unveiled at P1 Group's 100th Anniversary Celebration in September.
P1 Group themed entertainment architectural metal american flag
Serving Customers through War and Peace: A Proud Kansas City History
In celebration of our 100-year anniversary, we've been going through the family albums (so to speak).
P1 Group’s founding company, A.D. Jacobson, began in 1919 and survived a lot during times of war, peace and even disaster. We found some of their remarkable stories in a promotional brochure published in 1954.
P1 Group HVAC Plumbing 100 years A.D. Jacobsen
Keep Calm and Race On: Associate Profile on Jeremy Heim
By P1 associate average tenure, Warehouse Driver Jeremy Heim is a short timer - he's only been here about 1.5 years. But Jeremy has already found a good fit with P1 Group’s Wichita team and enjoys the work. His responsibilities include taking care of everything coming and going from the warehouse, including managing all aspects of tool requests/check-outs/repairs for construction or service.
P1 Group construction service facility maintenance
17th Annual Charity Golf Tournament – Raising “Green” on the Green
September 14 brought fantastic weather for the 66 golfers who participated in the 17th Annual Charity Golf tournament to benefit Working Families' Friend. This is the second year the event was held at beautiful Shoal Creek Golf Course and the event raised $9,065. With the matching donation from P1 Group, the grand total collected was $18,130, surpassing last year’s total by over $4,000.
The golfers were treated to food and drink, course challenges, and a vast amount of awards and prizes generously donated by our vendors.
p1 group charity golf working families friend
Associate Spotlight on Ammonia Refrigeration Technician Troy Stewart
Commercial Industrial P1 News
From Cheese to Freeze: Troy Stewart Finds Rewarding Career in Ammonia Refrigeration
Industrial Ammonia Refrigeration Technician Troy Stewart is the father of three little girls, who most certainly keep him on his toes. And that’s probably a good skill to have when you work in ammonia service, one of the most highly regulated, and dangerous, segments of our industry.
The career path that led the Wisconsin native to P1 Group began with the iconic staple of America’s Dairyland: cheese.
p1 group facility maintenance ammonia refrigeration
Innovation with Distillation
Just because things have always been done a certain way, doesn’t mean it’s the best or only way. For Ammonia Service Manager Michael Schram, providing the “usual” solution for a customer was just what he needed to spark a new idea.
In January of 2017, Associated Wholesale Grocers (AWG) had a heat exchanger freeze and break, causing the ammonia system to be flooded with glycol. As part of the repair, P1 Group permanently installed a distillation unit to remove the water/glycol from the system.
Performance Excellence with The Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts
Pictured, clockwise from top left: Brandmeyer Great Hall Event/Lobby Space; Muriel Kauffman Theatre; Helzberg Hall; Casavant organ
Creating “customers for life” is P1 Group’s ultimate goal, and that means building trust and strong relationships during the time we spend with our customers.
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Freedom of Speech and Association
Equality Under the Law
Mucciaccio v. Town of Easton and Tallage Lincoln, LLC
A family’s loss is a private company’s windfall in state’s home equity theft scheme
Mark and Neil Mucciaccio treasure their deep family roots in Easton, Massachusetts. In fact, the brothers still live in their childhood home with Mark’s wife, stepdaughter, and two grandchildren. A streak of financial hardship and family medical troubles that began in 2013 left them struggling to keep up with their property tax bills. In 2016 ...
Crystal Waldron and Club 519 v. Governor Roy A. Cooper
North Carolina couple fights to save bar from governor’s unlawful COVID power grab
When the COVID-19 pandemic struck, North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper unilaterally declared a state of emergency that only he is authorized to end. Since then, the governor has issued a series of executive orders that allow nearly every establishment that sells alcoholic beverages to remain open but that force most private bars (establishments whic ...
Feltner v. Cuyahoga County Board of Revision
Ohio county’s illegal tax foreclosure robs property owner and taxpayers
Elliot Feltner inherited his father-in-law’s Cleveland, Ohio, autobody shop in 2012 and discovered the property, while valued at $144,500, had a property tax debt of more than $65,000. He decided to sell it to pay the debt and even found a buyer, but before he could complete a sale, the county took his property without paying him for his $80, ...
Ghost Golf, Inc., et al. v. Newsom
Small businesses fight Gov. Newsom’s unlawful color-code shutdown scheme
At Ghost Golf in Fresno, the weeks leading up to Halloween mark the peak season for the haunted house-themed miniature golf center, earning enough money for owner Daryn Coleman and his family to weather the springtime slowdown. This year, however, Ghost Golf has been closed since March, haunted by Governor Gavin Newsom’s COVID-related busines ...
Skyworks Ltd. v. Centers for Disease Control; Chambless Enterprises, LLC v. Centers for Disease Control
Fighting the CDC’s national eviction ban to restore separation of powers
In early September, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) adopted an order that prohibits certain evictions for non-payment of rent. However, in its haste to enact and enforce a national eviction ban, the CDC overstepped its lawful authority by exercising legislative power reserved to Congress, and it did so at the expense of struggl ...
Seider v. City of Malibu
Property rights on the line in family’s battle for beachfront signage
Dennis and Leah Seider simply want to alert beachgoers to where the public right of access to the beach ends, the Seiders’ private Malibu property begins, and the way to the nearby public beach. Their best hope to protect their property rights and avoid potential confrontations with beachgoers would be a sign. But that hope faded when they le ...
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Conservative Intellectuals Took a Calculated Risk on Trump and Won, but It Has Become a Pyrrhic Victory
Donald Trump didn't start the protests, but the fires he's stoking will scorch the nation and discredit the conservative movement.
Shikha Dalmia | 6.16.2020 4:30 PM
(Chris Juhn/ZUMA Press/Newscom)
As America sees its biggest wave of street protests since the Vietnam War, Donald Trump has done little to tamp down the anger fueling the sometimes-violent demonstrations. But he's done plenty to widen the divisions on display, whether he's trying to discredit those protesting George Floyd's murder as "thugs" or fantasizing about unleashing the "most vicious dogs and most ominous weapons" on protesters outside the White House.
The conservatives who made the case for Trump in 2016 understood the risk that this might happen. Yet many of them refuse to face up to it now.
Shortly after Donald Trump won the GOP's presidential nomination, The Claremont Review of Books, a conservative publication that has preached endlessly over the years about the need for "prudence," "virtue," and "statesmanship" in politics, ran its infamous Flight 93 essay. A bouillabaisse of metaphors, the article hectored the still shell-shocked conservative establishment to snap out of it and line up behind its man. The pseudonymous author argued that a Hillary Clinton presidency posed an existential threat to conservatives and their agenda. If a "vulgarian" like Trump charged the cockpit—as the passengers of the ill-fated Flight 93 did on 9/11—he might very well crash it, but there would at least be a chance for a safe landing. With Clinton's liberal "pedal-to-the-metal" presidency, on the other hand, conservative culture warriors would be playing "Russian roulette with a semi-auto." And so, the author concluded, conservatives must use the passions that Trump was unleashing to their advantage. (The article's author was later revealed to be Mike Anton, a former Rudy Guiliani speechwriter who went on to do a stint in the Trump administration.)
Anton's argument jolted many conservatives out of their misgivings about Trump. The prospect of winning the culture war by having a leader who played by his rules, not the liberals', was too tantalizing to give up. Only preening "moralists" would reject him, argued Bill Bennett, President Ronald Reagan's secretary of education (and the author, ironically, of The Book of Virtues). Columnist Mona Charen, one of the few right-wing holdouts, lamented at the time that conservatives had talked themselves into believing that if they were serious about achieving their ends, they were required to vote for Trump. The means he'd deploy didn't matter.
The last few weeks have exposed the perils of this thinking. To the extent that Trump delivers Claremont conservatives a victory, it will be a pyrrhic one; the fires he's stoking will scorch the nation and discredit their movement.
After the killing of George Floyd, long-simmering tensions about police brutality and race boiled over into the streets. Most presidents would have responded by dishing out soothing platitudes pleading for calm, national healing, and the need to bring the culprits to justice. It wouldn't have ended the turmoil, but it wouldn't have exacerbated it either.
Trump took a different approach. At first, he didn't say anything. Or rather, he didn't say anything about Floyd. In the 48 hours after Floyd's death, Trump twice tweeted about bringing an alleged murderer to justice—not the cop who killed Floyd, but MSNBC's Joe Scarborough, who Trump suggested had bumped off an employee 18 years ago. (There is no evidence for this.) He also boasted about the stock market rally, accused Barack Obama of spying on his campaign, castigated Democrats' "close relationship with Fake News Media," and complained that Twitter had an anti-conservative bias.
When he finally broke his silence, Trump issued a pro forma statement about how "sad and tragic" Floyd's death was—then quickly moved on to denounce the "radical mayor" of Minneapolis who couldn't "get his act together." He threatened to use the military to control rioters and ominously warned on Twitter that "when the looting starts, the shooting starts."
Things only deteriorated thereafter, as Trump tried to discredit those protesting Floyd's murder as "thugs" (a contrast with his claim that there were some "very fine people" at the Charlottesville white nationalist rally that left a woman dead); fantasized about unleashing the "most vicious dogs and most ominous weapons" on demonstrators outside the White House; had a peacefully assembled crowd tear-gassed to clear his way to a local church for a cheap photo-op; retweeted TV host Glenn Beck's clip questioning Floyd's character; threatened to invoke powers he does not have to declare antifa a domestic terrorist outfit; and pledged that the police would once again "dominate the streets."
None of this was out of character.
During his campaign, Trump notoriously promised to pay the medical bills of supporters who "knocked the crap" out of protesters. At a Florida rally last year, he went on a tirade against Central American asylum seekers, calling them "invaders" and "thugs." And when someone in the audience advised him to "shoot" migrants to stop them from coming, Trump quipped, "Only in the Panhandle can you get away with that statement." Trump also advised Long Island cops three years ago that they shouldn't be "too nice" to suspects when they arrest them, relishing the thought of "these thugs" being "thrown into the back of a paddy wagon" in a "rough" fashion—never mind that it was precisely such practices that had resulted in 25-year-old Freddie Gray's death at the hands of Baltimore police.
Given mounting nationwide concerns about police brutality, Floyd's murder would have generated unrest under any president, especially since it came so close on the heels of Ahmaud Arbery's brutal lynching while he was jogging and Breonna Taylor's shooting death in a no-knock raid. After all, riots also broke out under Obama after the deaths of Gray and Michael Brown.
But Trump has poured gasoline on an already explosive situation by acting as though the heavy-handed use of police violence isn't the cause of the growing social unrest, but the solution.
Unsurprisingly, 80 percent of the respondents in a recent poll—including 66 percent of Republicans—believe that the country is spinning out of control. Are folks at Claremont having any second thoughts?
No. They're circling the wagons.
Claremont's top brass last week issued a statement rejecting out of hand the possibility that the protests are legitimate grassroots uprising triggered by genuine concerns. It declared the notion of systematic racism in American law enforcement a "reckless" and "destructive myth" peddled by liberal elites who believe that "America is evil." Those elites, the statement insists, are the true instigators of the riots. The statement also demands that "those in power be held to account"—meaning not Trump, but those governors and mayors who they feel didn't use enough force to smash the movement. Berating "leaders on the Right" for not doing enough to refute such "untruths," the statement tells them that the next election, like the last one, is about "preserving" America from those who seek to "destroy it"—basically a call to arms to vehemently defend and re-elect Trump.
With some exceptions—most notably Rush Limbaugh, who expressed horror at Floyd's death and called for first-degree murder charges against the cop who killed him—right-wing talk show hosts have peddled some version of the Claremont line. Mark Levin declared, "The Democratic Party is at war internally with the United States." Tucker Carlson called Minnesota protesters "criminal mobs" and castigated Republicans for not reacting more intensely against the violence. His Fox colleagues Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham have trained their ire primarily at the demonstrators who, Hannity says, are "exploiting" Floyd's death. Even the more sober conservatives at the Wall Street Journal editorial page, late-comers to the Trump bandwagon, are claiming that "liberal cities" who refuse to control "radical mayhem" are the real problem.
But it is not plausible to put all the blame on them. Nearly four years of confrontations with political opponents and attacks on disfavored groups by the most powerful man on the top have fueled the anger now on display in the streets.
Trump is intensifying the warfare, but he's not winning conservatives the culture war. They made a bet when they installed him in the cockpit, but now the engines are on fire and they can't jump out.
NEXT: 'Without Police, There Is Chaos': Trump Signs Police Reform Executive Order
Shikha Dalmia was a senior analyst at Reason Foundation.
George Floyd Police Abuse Donald Trump Conservatism Criminal Justice
June.16.2020 at 4:32 pm
http://www.nationalreview.com/news/google-bans-the-federalist-from-generating-ad-revenue-after-intervention-by-nbc-news/
NOW WATCH: ‘Google Is Partnering With the Department of Defense’
Nah! It’ll be fine!
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Donkey Hottie
Sounds like Google is exercising its freedom of association.
R Mac
So nothing to see here!
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JesseAz
June.16.2020 at 10:02 pm
A freedom that was upturned yesterday.
Phanatic
The conservative movement already discredited itself by failing to stand up for, you know, conservatism, and letting liberal orthodoxy win the day in every avenue of society. “Oh, that’s just college kids, that won’t leak out into the wide world.” Then they sat down and watched city after city turn into a festering cesspool for decades. Then they watched neoliberalism gut the manufacturing class. Conservatives just tried to be slightly-more-centrist liberals.
If the conservative movement didn’t want to be discredited it probably should have tried to win. It didn’t. So Trump did instead.
Remember when Mitt Romney was Hitler? Good times.
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Now fewer people will visit The Federalist site. They and Google will lose ad revenue. Obviously ad revenue is not the motivation for de-monetization.
>>The conservatives who made the case for Trump in 2016
was like 1.7 people dude. National Review destroyed itself and everyone who’s ever written for it over T
Ioveconstitution1789
Pretty nifty. Like 1.7 people, but about a dozen of them hang out here.
I know. I used to be one of them.
you were the 1. also where you been at?
Mother's lament
I’m pretty sure it’s just Jeff using a stolen nick.
aw. i liked that other guy. enthusiastic.
Been soul searching about my support for Trump. Realized he really is a cretin, and I shouldn’t support him just because he’s not a Democrat.
It was like a light came on one day, and I realized that maybe Democrats and Republicans both contribute to this country’s problems.
Colossal Douchebag
Welcome to the party, pal! That light went on for me in 2006.
And yet you keep pushing one of the sides talking points almost exclusively. Weird.
LC-
If your post above is in fact serious and not sarcasm (which I honestly am legitimately trying to believe) then I am publicly admitting that I will also reconsider some of the things I have thought and said about you in these forum arguments. It doesn’t mean we might see eye to eye on everything and it doesn’t mean Hillary is the answer either but if you mean what you just said then I have to adjust my views on you and maybe it’s step one toward people finding solutions to problems which we all face. I don’t know if it comes across but I am not trying to pander. I really mean it. To be honest this really gets at the core of how many feel…there are, believe it or not, several positions traditionally taken by conservatives that I can agree with but acceptance and/or outright worship of Trump and his, um, methods as a standard bearer turns me off and makes it hard to see the good in them sometimes. I’m willing to kinda hit the reset button on several things (not on how I feel about him but on how I feel about you) when I see a statement like the above. I hope this comes across ok.
American Socialist
I might ask the question, “what conservative intellectuals?”, but let’s go with it.
With all these victories where abortion has been outlawed, where there are no more Mexicans immigrating to the United States, and there are no more Islamics being allowed to build an Islamic State in Dearborn, Michigan what is there left to win? We could, I suppose, bring back the stockades for adultery and the burning of the homosexual and the witch, but hasn’t that ship really already sailed in favor of the tolerance of Pat Robertson and the 700 Club?
“I only hang out with intellectuals that agree with me!” – AmSoc
AmSoc thinks ‘intellectual’ and ‘progressive zealot’ are synonymous.
“AmSoc thinks…”
Pretty sure that’s a conjecture.
Compelled Speechless
In worker’s paradise, all intellectuals universally agree that worker’s paradise is flawless utopia. Anyone who disagrees is clearly not smart enough to know what’s good for them and must be placed in re-education camps where they can learn why true intellectuals love worker’s paradise by swinging pick axe for 18 hours a day.
To much Robert Conquest? That guy was an M-5 operative. You know that, right? He managed to publish all this bullshit propaganda from emigres from Russia that might have an axe to grind all the while advocating for the carpet bombing of North Vietnam. Some hero.
No Alexander Solznitzen. I know you are functionally retarded. But, spare us the defenses of the old USSR you miserable fuck.
Ah, you take your cues from a reactionary bigot and monarchist pining for the days of the peon and surf in the 19th century? Check it, John, he didn’t believe in the Holomodor either.
So it’s a given that everyone is better off being a communist serf in the 20th century following a reactionary bigot and totalitarian with power that monarchies could only dream of? Is that the inference? I would say we should take a poll of people that lived under each system, but everyone that ever lived under your preferred system and disagreed with it was murdered. It skews the data a bit.
They’ve done those polls. The Soviet Union wins in a landslide.
https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/701026/russians-life-better-soviet-union-ussr-sixty-four-percent
Good find! A couple of questions for you.
1) Why would I take such a poll seriously? Are they limiting this exclusively to the remaining ex party members still alive?
2) If I can construct a poll that shows the majority of Cambodians pine for the halcyon days of 1975,does that mean Pol Pot wasn’t such a bad guy? How about deep southerners who think Jim Crow laws were swell?
3) How do you dress yourself if you’re this stupid?
In worker’s paradise, State dress you
And it takes a lefty piece of shit like you to buy that horseshit.
BigT
Same poll that gives Putin high marks for respecting human rights. If you actually knew any escapees from the Soviet block you’d understand how ludicrous these polls are.
And Saddam Hussein won re-election with 100.0% of the vote, too. Just as meaningless as that shit you posted.
SteveRM
60 million Russians were unavailable for this poll because their own government murdered them.
Ah, you take your cues from a reactionary bigot and monarchist pining for the days of the peon and surf in the 19th century?
And you take your cues from several of history’s greatest mass murderers.
Fuck off, you pathetic piece of septic-tank scum.
Gray_Jay
Who the fuck white-knights for GULAG?
What a contemptible piece of shit you are, American Socialist.
Shitlord of the Woodchippers
All the while he sponges off capitalists.
So he personally built the Gulags in the middle of the Soviet Union, rounded up political dissidents to fill them with and worked or starved them to death all by himself? Here I was, blaming the communist party this whole time when it was just one really evil (and industrious!) British historian. How have we gotten it so wrong for so long?
In worker’s paradise, double consonants will be strictly banned
Oops, wrong place
In worker’s paradise, all who post in wrong place will be sent to gulag.
Nah, he was taking money from the British military and then pressing CTRL-C and CTRL-V on what MI6 was feeding him so that he could write a book. That took real guts! I mean, to be an anti-communist in the West in the 60s while the Americans were carpet bombing North Vietnam. What a hero!
Most of the people opposing Stalinism in the 1930s and 40s were themselves communists. George Orwell didn’t get shot in Catalonia because he was supporting Stalin’s stooges. It was something else.
I’m not really sure why you want to go on some Robert Conquest strawman journey. I don’t know much about him, but from what I know I wouldn’t have a single nice thing to say about him.
Why is it so hard for you jackasses to understand that to support your system is to support Stalinism. A Stalin is always the logical conclusion of massive central governments that have a monopoly on EVERYTHING. When you figure out a way to stop people from being impossibly corrupt and drunk on power, maybe we’ll talk. Until then, you got a century to test out your dipshit theory and all that happened was death and misery.
Rev. Arthur L. Kuckland
He also supports Hitler so everyone knows amsoc is a dick
“Nah, he was taking money from the British military and then pressing CTRL-C and CTRL-V on what MI6 was feeding him so that he could write a book.”
And I’ll bet you can quote something from one of his books where he is wrong, correct?
darkflame
ah, I see you’ve been listening to Palmer’s twitter too, huh? Apparently all non-believers should be removed from power, and there’s literally no difference between a conservative and a Klansman.
That Palmer jackass needs to be beaten within an inch of his life and dropped in the middle of Afghanistan in his underwear.
You’re a far kinder man than I am.
John C. Randolph
“what conservative intellectuals?”
That’s pretty rich coming from a leftard. The closest thing your side has to an intellectual is Noam Chomsky.
-jcr
Do you know what percentage of scientists are Republican? 6%.
Well judging by the past 3 months most scientists are retards, which means most retarded scientists aren’t republican.
Most scientists haven’t made any public statements.
You responded to me seriously. You’re even dumber than i thought.
It’s alot more than 6%. The difference is that when lefty shit bags in science find out there are Republicans, or anyone to the right of Mao, the behave like lefty socialist shit heads and yell at/assault other scientists. And they get away with it because they are lefty shitheads
Do you know that statistic includes social sciences and other soft sciences. Things that arent actually science?
This exactly. I know and work with thousands of fellow hard scientists in physics, chem, bio, and computers. The split is about 3:1 conservative: liberal ; only the IT folks are more socialist, largely because they are young and naive.
Brett Bellmore
” the fires he’s stoking will scorch the nation and discredit their movement.”
The left is literally setting fires, and you’ve got the obscene gall to talk about TRUMP stoking fires? Is there no crime the left can commit that you won’t blame on Trump?
Once words are violence and rioting is not, any conclusions you want can be made.
Definitions of words are all part of the patriarchy’s plot! Defund the English language!
#cancelgramer!
Looks like you already #cancelledspelling bud.
Thanks for ruining my joke.
Always happy to help!
I don’t think it was intentional, he just didn’t get it.
In one case, Trump, Dalmia is discussing the behavior of a particular individual, the President of our country. In the other, you are a collective condemnation of “the left” literally setting fires, even though no specific political figure on the left is literally setting fires.
As libertarians, we judge people as individuals. Most people on the left are not literally setting fires, and no elected leaders at all are literally setting fires.
So the many individuals that have set actual fires are still better than the one who has set figurative fires?
Words matter, too, especially coming from the President, in a time of crisis.
And you are being purposely dense. Brett wrote, “The left is literally setting fires…” That is an attempt to paint an entire group of people with a broad brush based on the actions of a few members of the group. We libertarians are individualists; we don’t judge people collectively.
The left is explicitly collectivist.
They are being judged according to their own standards.
So, you are saying you are a leftist?
Just taking them at face value
Cyto
Have you been entirely on HnR for this whole thing?
Watch CNN for 5 minutes.
Catch Today on NBC.
Look at anything NPR is covering.
Anywhere you go, they have been pushing hard for unrest and riots. They have been providing cover for anyone who is on their side. How many stories has the New York Times done about how Antifa is just a myth?
CNN was showing me video of the shooting of Brooks in Atlanta, and as I am watching him resist arrest, they literally say “it is unclear why officers began struggling with him.” Then, as I watch him grab the taser, they say “It is hard to tell what happens next, but the Georgia Bureau of Investigation alleges…”
They have all been pushing hard for riots this entire time. They have not been entirely subtle about it either.
The country was unanimous about the killing of Floyd. Not one person, from the President down said anything different.
But NBC, CBS, ABC, CNN, PBS, The NYT, WaPo… all of them pretended that there was a white nationalist, republican-lead opposition that wanted him dead. Despite the fact that the people in this drama are all democrats: The mayor, the governor, the chief of police, the prosecutor…. the media covered it as if it were Trump who was not providing justice in Minneapolis. This is an abject lie. There is no other way to put it.
Despite what our libertarian voice has written here, Trump didn’t fail to act. He immediately sent the DOJ to Minneapolis to see if federal charges were warranted.
Yet the media (and now Reason) played it as if Trump were somehow protecting the police and opposing the outrage.
We have entered some alternate reality where people cannot remember something that happened 2 weeks ago. Or even 2 days ago. Hell, they cannot even watch a video and see that what the announcer is saying about it doesn’t match the video.
TV networks and print media kept pretending that there was some controversy about Antifa being at protests and doing violence. That’s insane. CNN showed me live video of people who were obviously associating themselves with Antifa smashing police vehicles and tagging them with Antifa slogans. Those Antifa people blocked cameras from CNN as Antifa folk are wont to do, while shouting Antifa slogans. And then CNN says “The Trump administration alleges, without evidence, that Antfia was behind some of the violence at protests”
That’s nuts. I watched them do it right along with the announcer who’s telling me that there’s no evidence that they did it.
Then, CNN and all the others started telling me that Alt-right activists from white supremacist groups were infiltrating protests and starting violence in order to discredit them. They all said the same thing – not only without any evidence at all, but without even bothering to come up with a story that made sense.
Then, finally, they found a tweet. A single tweet from what they claimed was a fake Antifa account that was run by some alt-right group that neither they nor anyone else had ever heard of before. But they presented it as the proof that Trump and his supporters were the cause of all violence and anything attributing it to Antifa was fake news spread by Trump. It was the dumbest story you’ll ever hear. But they all ran with it, and every one of them presented it as proof positive that that massive and powerful white nationalist subculture was really behind any negative story about the protests.
Attempt to paint an entire group with a broad brush?
You have to be mentally ill to present that as an argument. After watching what has transpired over the last couple of weeks… that’s your conclusion? That it is crazy conservatives who are falsely attributing motives to a group based on the actions of a few? That is utterly insane.
The meme for the last 5 years or more has been “it is all projection with these people”. If you were ever confused as to why… look no further.
The level of “doublethink” involved in this has been way beyond Orwellian. To be able to watch a video and simply deny that you see what you see is bizarre. People on this very board claimed to have watched the shooting of Brooks over and over and never once could see him pointing a taser at anyone. That’s either a total fabrication, or just some form of severe mental illness.
I watched Anderson Cooper watch Trump make a statement (in typical Trump 2nd grade vocabulary fashion – “Tragic.. sad..”) and the very next word out of his mouth was “Why have we not heard anything from Trump on this horrific killing?” I don’t mean later that day… I mean: play the video, cut to Anderson Cooper who says the exact opposite of what we saw, then throw it to another CNN talking head who expounds on how we need a leader who can bring people together.
4 years ago I started posting things here that began with “Trump is an idiot. Stop making me defend Trump”.
That idiocy is in large measure what got the guy elected. It is like he made a deal with the devil. The devil promised that he’d always be smarter than his opposition, so he’s always win.
Then the evil genie plot twist comes… he stays a moron and all of his opponents are suddenly just way dumber than he is.
You actually watch news instead of reading? Like TV news? Why would you do that? It’s been idiotic since, like, the 1970s.
Well, that explains it.
Only someone who declined to actually watch the footage from the protests would accept the stupidly obvious lie that “Antifa played no role”.
How did we get from Dalmia’s awful because she said mean things about Trump, why doesn’t she talk about how all Democrats go around literally setting fires! to LC1789 says that there are no Antifa at riots.
Meanwhile, all I’m saying is judge people individually not collectively. That shouldn’t be a controversial thing to say among supposed libertarians.
^still doesn’t get it
Red Rocks White Privilege
Meanwhile, all I’m saying is judge people individually not collectively.
Fine–individually, lefties are shit and their apologists are worse.
Go whine at the leftists, who are the ones that are CONSTANTLY judging collectively. Once you take care of that, then taking care of both people on the right that judge collectively should be easy.
EISTAU Gree-Vance
“Judge people individually, not collectively”. Except cops. And victims of cops. Then it’s about race, not an individual.
If people thought like that we wouldn’t have righteous rage mobs, now would we?
Lol. God you’re a joke.
Yep, my thoughts too. Also loved how they tried to paint Trump as mercilessly going after “peaceful protestors” when he has made multiple statements supporting and agreeing with actual peaceful protests, while at the same time denouncing the rioting animals that Reason and their cockmongering friends refuse to report on.
It’s Shrieking Shikha. Would you expect anything less stupid?
So now Tulpa has hacked Reason and is socking a Shreeka parody?
If it were Tulpa, there would be more talk about breaking people and HAHAAHAHAAHAs.
Deelerious
This started with pussyhats and resist movements BEFORE Trump was elected. Lets also just ignore the multiple fake hate crimes that were attempted. Lets also just ignore that what is happening is exactly what the Left wants.
Post reality is quite the trip.
Trump’s divisive language started with pussycats and resist movements?
Nobody ever used devisive language prior to trump.
Well, there’s some avoidance of the subject.
The subject is that you are trolling with trolls that are in opposition to reality. Simply ignoring what is being said and pretending you are right isn’t argument. It’s abuse.. You want 12-A next door.
All political rhetoric is divisive
No it isn’t!
…I meant write inaugurated.
Unicorn Abattoir
Donald Trump didn’t start the protests, but the fires he’s stoking will scorch the nation and discredit the conservative movement.
He didn’t start the fire…
Leonard Bernstein! oh wait wrong song.
Both songs work.
Even better together: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NEYc8ar2Bpw
Á àß äẞç ãþÇđ âÞ¢Đæ ǎB€Ðëf ảhf
What a silly notion! Both parties are morally bankrupt, without principles of any sort, intent only on being in power and growing the State. Pyrrhic victory pshaw! They won the election. They stand a good chance of winning again. Compared to most politicians, Trump is a pillar of transparency and keeping his promises. How far in advance does the payback have to be to make his win Pyrrhic?
How far in advance does the payback have to be to make his win Pyrrhic?
The only three things we can know for sure:
Obama’s victories weren’t Pyrrhic.
Clinton’s victory wouldn’t have been Pyrrhic.
Biden’s victory won’t by Pyrrhic.
Apparently some posters here miss it but it bears repeating for her continued embarassment: Honest condemnation of #Berkley violence must also condemn those who invited him.What’s point except baiting n inciting in Trump’s America?
Antifa riots at Berkeley? Blame Trump.
BLM protests (which they’ve been doing since before Trump announced his candidacy) because MPD kneeled George Floyd to death? Blame Trump.
I’d say she’s a one trick pony but blaming Trump isn’t really a trick.
So she should just stick to the same open borders article repeatedly after all.
Knutsack
Just. Ugh.
JSinAZ
Shikha didn’t notice, but what is burning are almost always the Bituminous Democrats who let off an acrid acidity, poisoning the land around them. Kind of like acid rain. Trump may have been the spark but it’s the fatty Democrats that are burning. The Democrats are busy trying make sure as many people are as miserable as possible, as they farm it for political gain.
JSinAZ? What’s that about?
Those darn Democrats! Trump is so innocent, and it’s all their fault!
There is a straw shortage. Please slow down.
Yes. Left wingers burning shit in Democrat run cities because of the actions of police who are members of Democrat controlled unions who negotiate deals with Democrat politicians is Democrat’s fault. Unless you have TDS.
Or unless you are an impartial, non-partisan observer, in which case you see there is plenty of blame to go around for the Democratic and the Republican Party.
On some issues, yes. But my statement above is accurate in this particular case.
If you were impartial and non-partisan you would be able to look at each particular issue and judge accordingly.
who is he and what did he do with the real LC1789?
Let’s see…a state with a dem governor, a dem majority voter registration, a dem controlled city council, a dem mayor, and a police union that has almost unanimously donated to dem candidates.
But let’s blame republicans and trump for what happened in Minneapolis…
That’s why you’re a retard jeff
Not just a Democrat-controlled city council, a city council that hasn’t even had a Republican member in over 20 years.
How many major US cities are NOT run by Democrats, fuckwit?
Haha. Yup. Grievance mining. It’s simple math. If they convince enough people that they are victims they might out vote the people who are happy.
BigGiveNotBigGov
If I were as conspiratorially minded as is Trump; I would think that the lifetime Democrat, Democrat donor, and Democrat crony switched and ran as a Republican as a Trojan Horse to so discredit Republicans that the Democrats could regain all that they had lost.
Pre-Trump Democrats had been, all but, chased from electoral power; and the national debate had shifted to one, mostly, between conservatives and libertarians in the “Libertarian Moment.” Under Trump Republicans, once desperate to appear “conservatarian,” have fully joined Democrats in an all out assault on libertarians and libertarian ideals. Under this combined assault libertarians, even liberty itself, have been pushed to a far margin of national debate. Trump personifies the Democrats worst caricature of Republicans, and this living caricature has given back to Democrats nearly all of the (over 1000 seats and offices under Obama) electoral power that they had lost.
Trump the Trojan Horse that invaded America?
If I were as conspiratorially minded as is Trump;
Again, it’s pretty obvious to anyone who’s paying attention that Trump isn’t playing 12 dimensional chess as much as his opposition has trouble with doing anything in dimensions deeper than 1.
That’s the real point. As I said elsewhere… I suspect that he made a deal with the devil that he’d always outsmart his enemies… and under the “evil genie” twist rule, he didn’t get smarter – his enemies were magically stupid whenever they engaged him.
It surprisingly makes more sense than anything I can imagine as actually being true.
I think it’s also partly because Trump doesn’t think like a politician, and that’s throwing them off. He’s a salesman and a businessman, he’s had to always be improving the company to satisfy board members and others. Not doing anything is a death sentence for a company, look at how brick and mortars are doing against Amazon.
Politicians, on the other hand, don’t want change, they want to rock the boat as little as possible usually unless they get elected on change, then they make the one big change they promised and cool their heels.
Trump’s also used to dirty fighting, blackmail, etc, even if he’s not familiar with how politicians in particular do it, meaning unlike most republicans, who tend to come from more quiet areas, and less corrupt ones, he knows what the best way to defend himself is, which isn’t to lie down and take it. Democrats are left trying to fight a politician who doesn’t act like a politician and isn’t afraid to fight back, something they’re not used to. Just like their soyboy voterbase, they’ve always expected to be throwing the punches, not taking them
Trump is like the political version of Inspector Clouseau.
If the dems weren’t so retarded that plan is so crazy it just might’ve worked.
If it wasn’t for those meddling kids……
And you’re gettin’ four more years of him because no one in the media learned the lessons.
OpenBordersLiberal-tarian
I have a flawless track record with my major predictions, and I’m even more confident in a Biden victory than I was about 2018’s #BlueWave or 2019’s impeachment prediction.
#NotBadForAnAllegedParodyAccount
For rational, fact-based analysis of Drumpf’s Presidency, there’s literally no better writer than Shikha Dalmia. This piece ranks right up there with her best work, along with October 2016’s classic Trump Will Torch the Supreme Court.
Why are right-wing dicks like you so easily triggered? When Biden wins in November are you going to continue to bitch and moan and cry like you do now?
In worker’s paradise, triggered will revert to original meeting. Correction for wrong think at the end of firing squad! Bitching, moaning and crying will not buy you mercy, but it does provide entertainment for glorious worker’s paradise soldiers.
Why are…dicks like you so easily triggered?
This is how it’s done folks.
Dariush
That whoosh sound going over your head– you should be used to it by now.
This is how retarded progs are. Light hearted parody and mockery looks like “bitch and moan and cry”. While calling people dicks. Which sounds like bitching, moaning and crying.
Haha. Stay miserable amsoc. And remember, everything is so terrible and unfair.
Record unemployment numbers of minorities, rising earning power, an economy on the rebound, occasional but meaningful deregulation, a secretary of education friendly to school choice and title 9 reform.
Obviously Trump did galvanize the modern day Jacobins who were already resorting to violence in response to any reform, including many libertarian ones. Trump is the result of the mob, he didn’t create one. As recently as 2012 the GOP voters nominated white bread Mitt Romney.
I’m going to laugh so hard when Google demonetizes Reason for random crap left in their comment section. The Koch industry isn’t exactly a darling on the left and are a prime candidate for cancellation.
You’ll have your immigration and drugs. The price for that is a crumbling society and an already out of control spending hyper boosted by racial mandates – free college, healthcare, further centralization of police and schools. Expression will be policed and stifled all over in the name of BLM. Keep telling yourselves that “gun control died this year”. One unarmed minority “civilian police” get shot by one white guy and the dem majority will come for your guns.
Quick – when was the last time a marxist revolution resulted in a peaceful, prosperous society? None? Well ok if you say so. But you keep undercutting police reform by standing by BLM.
I’ll note that immediately prior to this #BLM stuff, Trump was polling at 40% approval among likely black voters.
40% approval.
Now, that doesn’t mean he was going to get their votes.
But is it entirely a coincidence that there was a full court press on race-based violence within a week of that poll coming out?
I’ve been seeing (and this didn’t necessarily start after the riots either) more and more blacks who are willing to talk about politics, and question the community groupthink that anyone who doesn’t vote democrat is an uncle tom. That doesn’t necessarily mean they’ll vote Trump, but there’s a very large chunk that’s woken up to the fact that the democrats just see them as suckers and easy marks to be buttered up during an election year and ignored the rest of the time.
Why are there anarchists on the street wielding guns when a great American alpha-male like Dear Leader is President and not when some socialist asshole like Obama was President? Isn’t this situation supposed to be reversed?
Mr. JD
Your kind’s bad behavior is not our failing.
Glorious worker’s paradise continues to thank you for your support of roaming street gangs of worker’s justice. Your name will not be forgotten among the gun wielding “anarchists” when the revolution is complete and every last man, woman and child who thinks they get to (without being party leadership) have private property, free speech or funny ideas about how glorious worker’s paradise should handle equality lie face down in pool of their own blood. Onward comrades!!!
“Why are there anarchists on the street wielding guns…”
Because you’re still butthurt Hillary lost and this is just the lefts latest tantrum since you’re afraid you’ll lose in November.
Because leftist pussies run the cities where it happens.
4 more years of Dear Leader and they’ll probably have 50 CHAZs in America. I honestly can’t decide on what old fart on his last leg to get behind. The guy loosing his marbles or the guy who can’t make it down a ramp properly and is, what, a year or so from blowing out one of this arteries. So far according to most polls the guy who can barely remember his wife’s name and who likes to smell hair is 8 points ahead of the other guy. That other guy must suck pretty bad!
We can put them down, one after another.
Your kind should have been dealt with from the start. Joe McCarthy had it right.
I don’t think anyone else is going to let a CHAZ pop up in their city after watching the shit show in Seattle. From what Tim Pool’s been saying there’s rapes going on, the people who actually live/work there are living in terror, and you have people stealing everything that isn’t nailed down and on fire. Nashville and Ashville have already made it clear they won’t stand for it, (and Ashville is pretty fucking far from Rightwing, or moderate). Even if the cops meekly stand aside, locals won’t. You might get one or two more in the most far left (and lawless) cities like New York, but if they try that shit in Chicago, there’s gonna be some dead antifa. Gangs won’t mess around with them.
Nashville and Asheville have already put a stop to the CHAZdiots.
I’m well aware, I live in Nashville. I’m keeping a close eye on the shit here.
In glorious worker’s paradise, we will have 1000 year reign (after we finally pass legislation to lengthen human life) of brilliant, wise, altruistic leader who is incapable of being corrupted and wants only to make sure equality is absolute in all aspects of life. Xer will personally grow enough soy and kale to support 100,000 CHAZs. Xer will never lose xer’s marbles and will always remember both xer’s life partner’s name and the smell of the hair of each and every cherished worker.
[your name here]
So… the Kwisatz Haderach?
The alternative was to let the Left win a lot more, with a lot less resistance, and… how is that better?
Calling Trump “divisive” for resisting the Left is like calling Jews “divisive” for resisting the Holocaust. You’re attacking the wrong camp.
great line mind if I use it?
Think It Through
Was going to comment but JD nailed it. We have one side laying waste to logic, fairness, reason, statues, history….America itself. And on the other side we have a vulgarian who doesn’t know how to control his diarrhea mouth. So the fires are being stoked by HIM…..god what world do you live in.
Sure, when he was tweeting murder accusations about Scarborough he was “resisting the Left”. When he mused about the beauty of choke holds, he was “resisting the Left”. When he bragged about the $4 trillion stimulus, he was “resisting the Left”.
No not Joe Scarborough!!
Go fuck yourself, retard.
Meanwhile China is invading India, but it’s dalamia, so 1 too local and 2 its Indias fault
Are you sure you remembered this morning to telepathically instruct Dalmia on what subjects she is required to blog on today?
“ Are you sure you remembered this morning to telepathically instruct Dalmia on what subjects she is required to blog on today?”
Of course he did, don’t you remember? It was right after Dalmia dropped trou and dumped a Cleveland Steamer on your giant sloped forehead, you annoying bitchy fuck.
Also Dijon, France, has either a race or a gang war going on between the North Africans and the Chechyans.
Sheldonius Rex
Q: If China and India go to war, who will win?
A: Everyone else.
In all seriousness, I think India would lose, and that it would be a bad thing for us if we let it play out without doing anything. China’s a serious enough threat that if we have the chance to dogpile on, we should take it. And we have plenty of reason to go to war at the moment, between the virus, the constant pushing of drugs and counterfeits into the country, the spying, and the bribery of US media, academics, and scientists. They are actively trying to destabilize us.
Brandybuck
I said it when he was elected, and I’ll say it again. Trump is the death of the Republican Party. The party has turned into cult of the personality, and they have nothing left after that personality is gone. They have burned all their bridges to civilization.
It’s one thing to pretend that it’s a Manichean world with ultimate evil Democrats one side and only Trump on the other. But that’s not true. Not even close. Nearly half the voting populace didn’t even bother to vote in 2016. There’s a huge swath in the middle, and to blithely call them all deluded traitors isn’t winning any points.
What will the GOP do in 2024 when there is no more Trump? Do they really think that Pence can lead the mob? Is there anyone out there who can replace the personality? The Republican Party without Trump is like the Reform Party without Perot. Oh sure they will find a Buchanan to fill the slot, but the party will be dead.
The GOP stormed the cockpit and put Trump in the pilot’s seat when the plane wasn’t even hijacked. Fighting fire with fire only ensures that you burn down the house.
So you are doubling down on saying stupid shit?
There’s that patented JesseAz anger.
Not angry at all. Just calling put his logic for what it is. If I was angry I would resort to trying to steal other people’s handles. So much easier than providing logical perspectives. So I get why you do it.
Hi Jeff.
Glad that you can add Jesse to the long list of things that trigger you!
#haveaheartattacksoon
Go die in a fire, fucko.
Yeah. The GOP was much better off unloading one Bush after another on the American public. Gee and there’s another Bush coming down the pike, just in time to take on another Kennedy or are you still going with Rodham again?.
You’re completely wrong here.
Did you forget the GOP did not put trump in the pilots seat? They did everything they could to keep him from it. Including having McCain try spreading the discredited Steele dossier amongst the party.
Republican voters in the primary chose trump, not the GOP. And that’s why your premise is completely flawed.
Trump has money, and he still has lots of voters. If anything he showed its ok for republicans to have balls again and use their middle finger. Moving forward voters won’t accept cucks like romney, which will strengthen the Republicans not weaken them.
Watch out for folks like Dan Crenshaw to pick up the mantle.
You mean voters chose Trump just like they have chosen every candidate since the primaries stopped happening in smoke-filled rooms? Okay, so the voters are retards and the party bosses are afraid of them in large numbers.
That’s stupid.
Cult of personality?
You really think Trump is the Republican party? That’s crazy. They hate Trump. All of the Republican power structure were in the NeverTrump gang.
There is an order to things. A certain way that things are done. A way that allows the right companies to get the big contracts, and a way that allows the right people to get a slice of that pie. Trump endangers that way of doing things.
Either by design or through incompetence, he threatens hundreds of billions in revenue streams. Neither party establishment does that. They simply rearrange who is getting the bigger slice of the commission checks and maybe slide a little money in one direction or the other. Trump cannot be trusted to do any of that. He doesn’t hire the right people. He doesn’t care if the right sorts get paid. He doesn’t care if carefully crafted trade deals that advantage certain companies get destroyed. I don’t know if there’s a real plan to it or not, but either way it is a threat.
Those who are in congress now are in “team” mode. That is all. There is no Trump agenda for them to get behind. None of them understand what he is doing. But he has shown that he does have the ability to strike back at enemies who come after him through his support among the working class. So they rally behind the team flag for the moment.
But don’t pretend for a second that it is anything more than a marriage of convenience. And calling it a cult of personality is just stupid. Trump has none of the hallmarks of a cult of personality.
Obama on the other hand.. with the carefully crafted image, posters, victory celebrations reminiscent of Hitler’s speeches… and completely vacuous messages that bore no resemblance at all to the actual actions of his administration…
Nikki Haley comes to mind. She was well-liked when she was in the public eye, even by democrats. She’s accomplished, competent, she hits the checkboxes the lefties like (female, minority) and is one of the few individuals that were part of the Trump establishment that managed to part ways with Trump without getting into a big public smear fest, meaning Trump supporters won’t see her as a RINO.
Nikki Haley is the conventional favorite, but I dunno. Seems a bit too establishment-y
Ron DeSantis is looking real strong these days
I used to live in SC when she was in charge, I’d vote for her. I have no doubt that we’ll have a crowded Republican field in 2024 though, because Brandybuck is partly right in that Trump is stealing the limelight away from a lot of the Republicans in the house/senate/governor seats.
Cruz/Haley 2024.
Macaulay McToken
Shikha, please find your nearest plant, shrub or tree and apologize to it for stealing oxygen.
This is absolute drivel.
Oxygen is a plants waste, so ‘stealing’ it would be doing the plant a favor.
Not when Shikha does it.
Good article, Dalmia.
ThatSkepticGuy
So, Trump is responsible for the actions of AntiFa and BLM?
Shithead poster likes shithead writer.
NOYB2
That doesn’t sound like past postings from “Ioveconstitution1789”. Maybe his account got compromised.
The only fires I see being stoked (both literally and metaphorically) got there because of leftists. There is no new racism on the right. There is no new extremism on the right. All media accounts saying so are lies. Any alleged right winger leading these movements is a false flag operative working on behalf of the leftists and media.
I never heard of these extremists until CNN put them on tv, which is saying something because I literally grew up in the militia movement. I am a subject matter expert and am on a first name basis with several real militia people. These people never heard of Dickie Spencer et. al, for instance, before the media invented him.
So, Trump is a false flag operative on behalf of the left?
Again, running low on straw.
Trump is not going to discredit the conservative movement, Trump is the result of the conservative movement so thoroughly discrediting itself. Remember when that evil rich vulture capitalist Mitt Romney ran for President? The one who was accused of giving a woman cancer, torturing his dog, not paying his taxes in years, lying about Obama refusing to call Benghazi a terrorist attack, keeping women in binders, being a literal right-wing extremist Hitler – and he never once fought back at that long list of vile slanders? Yeah, you bet your ass he wouldn’t be as divisive as Trump, and that’s why he never became President. Who needs another Republican squish lamely whining about the Left and at the same time rolling right over and plaintively begging “please don’t rape me so roughly next time” like all the rest of them? It’s bad enough that Trump’s a loud-mouthed braggart and a thin-skinned egotist and a moron too stupid to know how ignorant he is who spends most of his time on Twitter whining about how the mean girls are always picking on him and how terribly unffffffaaaaiiiirrrrr it all is that people are so mean to him – it’s a million times worse that this pathetic loser wussy is considered a brave and fearless manly man amongst the GOP. Look, if a fat Andy Dick impersonator is the undisputed head of your rebel outlaw biker gang, you ain’t got much of gang there, nancy boy.
When Trump was running for president the CIA, FBI, NSA and DOJ had his campaign under surveillance and were infiltrating his campaign. There were last minute attempts to tie his campaign to Putin and portray him as a Russian stooge.
Prior to that, the IRS was investigating conservative non-profit organizations and holding up their non-profit approval for years.
It is in that environment that Mitt Romney ran for president. So, in the unprecedented 4th year without an economic recovery, and after Romney completely destroyed Obama in the first debate…. Suddenly he goes silent and refuses to engage. He meekly accepts defeat without much of a whimper over the last months of the campaign. Why? Why did he suddenly shift his entire campaign persona?
Could there be a parallel between these campaigns?
I don’t know, but it sure sounds like it. Obama changed the DNC for the worst, of that I have no doubt.
Romney has a wet noodle for a backbone.
Except where Trump is concerned. Insult Mitt and he gets real angry.
Stink Finger Joe Dementia
Most of the fires that are being set are from BLM and Antifa supporters not Trump.
Hank Phillips
Shikha could more convincingly write to suggest giving the entire population of India sanctuary from Chinese communist bullies in California.
Commenter_XY
Shreika’s baaaaaaack……..
He also boasted about the stock market rally, accused Barack Obama of spying on his campaign, castigated Democrats’ “close relationship with Fake News Media,” and complained that Twitter had an anti-conservative bias.
Is there one syllable of that that is untrue? Or even unimportant?
Obama spying on Trump’s campaign is certainly much more important than any tweet (or non-tweet). It is much, much bigger than anything from Watergate. But if we ignore it, did it really happen?
I’m not sure why we’d complain about a president who wants to tout the performance of the economy. There were tons of entire books written on the topic after Bill Clinton’s second campaign, for example.
Is there any reason that Trump should not castigate the Democrats and the Media for their “close relationship”? It isn’t like they bother to hide it. They openly coordinate “news” coverage among the various news outlets and the DNC. The examples are numerous… but just pick one. How about the Kavanaugh hearings? Schumer had folks from the senate and from major news outlets in his New York apartment in the middle of the night planning their strategy the night before the letter from Ford was leaked. Savannah Guthrie from the Today show was there, among others, underscoring how important the meeting was to all concerned. The source of that leak became an issue… and not one of those outlets let on that they were in on the leak with Schumer’s office – even though they did not get to be the official recipient of the leak. This was an example of the media and democrats conspiring to spin lies in order to harm 1 specific individual .. all for a political victory. Not one single person involved didn’t know that they were lying. Not one single person involved could have possibly believed that they were simply being journalists. So no, I don’t think you can honestly cast aspersions on that assertion by Trump.
And lastly.. twitter. Twitter, who have been shutting down conservative voices for the last several years. Twitter, who “fact checked” Trump, calling his opinion that switching to all mail-in ballots would lead to fraud a lie. A “fact check” that is completely unsupportable. First, it was a statement of opinion. An opinion is something that cannot be “fact checked” by definition. Beyond that, it is demonstrably true… mail in ballots are more susceptible to fraud than in-person ballots at polling places. You might as well fact check “water poses a drowning hazard”. You can argue over the level of the hazard, but not over its existence.
So there we go…. every single one of your derisive points, explored in some detail. Every one seems fully supported and important enough that they deserve the attention of someone in Trump’s position. Every one seems like something that an honest 4th estate would deem important and worthy of some level of investigation and exploration.
So what, in your mind, makes those things somehow “wrong”? Is it simply that Trump wanted to talk about them? It seems that the underlying thrust was that Trump had the temerity to decline to play the progressive’s game by their own rules. Of course, that would rest on the premise that in doing so, Trump would have somehow been portrayed as “uniting” the country.
So, I’ll take it one further. Is there any possible thing that Trump could have said or done that you personally would not have condemned. I sincerely doubt it.
He could have pointed to his record on criminal justice reform and asked that others join him in expanding that work. Are you deluded enough to claim that Nancy Pelosi and the leaders of #BLM would come forward and praise him for his enlightened stance and offer their support?
We have seen far-left progressive politicians being attacked by the mob in recent days for saying things like “I support #BLM and I support criminal justice reforms, but I will not commit to defunding the police”. We’ve seen them have their houses vandalized for simply being the white mayor of a white, liberal town.
But you’d have Trump say…… well, what? Would anything short of “I resign and I hereby name Nancy Pelosi as acting president. Joe Biden will be running unopposed because I’m totally a racist and the world needs someone who would never say anything racially insensitive.. like Joe Biden” do the trick? Somehow I doubt it.
Saw an interview with Rep Clyburn.
The interviewer mentioned Tim Scott’s compliments for Trump on getting the First Step act done, funding HBCs, creating opportunity zones in inner cities, low black unemployment, (and something else that I’m forgetting), then asked Clyburn what he thought.
Clyburn’s response: “that’s all lies”.
Clyburn is one of the biggest racists in Congress today.
Lasciata
The only reason I have to respond to anything this moronic woman ever writes is to ask why she still has a job at this site.
She must have photos of KMW with a horse.
Titus PUllo
Well when the other side thinks the Declaration of Independence and Bill or Rights is “hate speech” where do you go?
Shitcan Dalmia already.
Moderation4ever
I would suggest the Republican’s problem is that they failed to hold Trump accountable once he was President. The Republican have a responsibility to support their President but they simply rolled over and let him walk all over them. Ryan and McConnell should have used the opportunity to pull back some of the Presidential powers given away by Congress. McConnell should have told the President that the Senate will be approving his appointment and that his team wanted a say in who was being appointed. Had Ryan and McConnell showed some backbone at the start they could have held President Trump in check and we would all be a lot happier.
What has he done that needed checking?
90% of the complaints are about what he tweets. Nobody needs to check that.
About the only other thing is trade policy. And if they tried to check him on that, his trade policy unquestionably wouldn’t work.
Ryan and McConnell controlled Congress and they could have done a number of things to check President Trump. First would be to rescind decades old war powers act to limit his foreign actions. Ryan and McConnell should have moved immigration reform through and in doing so stopped the President’s messed up handling of the border. Your right they should have gone to the President explained the problem with tariffs and warned him that any proposed tariff needs to be run by them first. Ryan and McConnell should have done more to control spending and address the national debt. By giving the President so much leeway in the face of his inability to handle the job of the Presidency, they created a problem for their Party.
First would be to rescind decades old war powers act to limit his foreign actions.
And what conservative or libertarian objective would that have served? How would US foreign policy been improved? What specific policies are you objecting to?
Ryan and McConnell should have moved immigration reform through and in doing so stopped the President’s messed up handling of the border.
Given the current political situation, immigration reform in Congress would have required compromises legalizing millions of illegals, encouraging more illegal migration, and opening up borders to more foreign workers. Why would the GOP want that?
to control spending and address the national debt
Spending is not a “check on the president” and are not due to presidential leeway; the spending and the debt are squarely the creation and responsibility of Congress.
By giving the President so much leeway in the face of his inability to handle the job of the Presidency, they created a problem for their Party.
To the contrary, the GOP avoided a bunch of political hot potatoes for themselves.
The GOP did not avoid hot potatoes, they moved them down the road, they lost the House in 2018, and they might lose the Senate in 2020. The problem was that Trump made the hot potatoes all that much hotter. Better to have address them early and reestablish the powers of the Congress while they controlled them.
I am happy. Why are you unhappy, mod?
Benitacanova
Shiksa you ignorant slut…
tlapp
This fire was lit, stoked and had gas thrown upon it by Eric Holder during the “Ferguson incident. The hands up don’t shoot was false and the officer shooting ruled justified. Then Holder reopened it did his own investigation stirring riots only to very quietly come to the conclusion that hands up don’t shoot was a lie, the officer acted properly in self defense.
The victim that day was the officer who for his own safety needed to resign and move in spite of 2 investigations showing he acted properly. Trump had nothing to do with it.
Kristian H.
I don’t think pyrrhic means what the author think it means, much less have the same view of what victory is. You know what was pyrrhic? The Obama Presidency for liberals.
Trumps’ presidency a Pyrrhic victory? I think not. President Hillary Trump would have been a disaster of biblical proportions. Would any of the current events in the Chinese Communist Virus Pandemic or George Floyd Killed by Blue City Cops in Blue State with Blue Govenor and Blue AG and Blue Senators and Blue Conressperson of questionable marital choices been handled better by her highness, HRC? Would the foreign policy have been better? Would the judicial appointments and cases have been better for liberty?
Oh, sure, you liberals posing as libertarians would have just as much to whine about (just different stuff mostly), so you’d be fine. But the rest of us who want less government and less intrusion on our lives by servants thinking they are masters would be way worse off.
Considering the US has objectively the worst virus response among all countries in the world, odds are a person actually interested in governing and not her giant naked emperor ridiculous ego daddy issues could have done better.
And red states are increasing virus cases faster than blue states now, so fuck your stupid partisan bullshit. You’re the one who’s not a libertarian. You don’t get to be a libertarian and support this shitshow.
The Corona Virus knows Black Lives Matter you stupid partisan fuckers and therefore will not infect the truly devout!!! I Fucking Love Science you dumb primitive right wing bastards!
jdd6y
Why is this pile of trash still writing for Reason? It is one dumb ass take after another.
Trump is there to destroy the GOP establishment. He has completely succeeded in that endeavor. Bill Kristol and George Will will never have the pleasure of supporting a GOP nominee to anything important. If Trump loses, it doesn’t matter, he created an opening for non-sellouts. Ron DeSantis would not have been elected in FL without Trump and he is going to be President in 2024.
Trump also had the job of blocking Hillary. Hillary is a highly competent, highly evil person. He did it by expanding the GOP into the Midwest. Much like Boris did in the UK. That is permanent. Expect MN to come into the GOP camp going forward.
Trump had the job to get us out of foreign entanglements, push back on China, and the EU, and get us out of shitty agreements (Paris, TPP). He has shifted US policy on the first to some degree, and succeeded on the latter.
Trump’s failures are largely the result of him having no bench of appointees and getting suckered by Reince in the beginning. He is still paying for those guys undermining him.
But that all said, win or lose, at this point, it’s gravy. The GOP is now a nationalist party that puts the goals of the USA first, whether some of the remaining Senators like or not. That’s what the GOP base has wanted but simply was blocked from getting.
I would like Trump to win and get a 2nd term with the current roster he has now, without the fake Russian bullshit, and with 50+ senators to replace Ginsburg when she croaks out.
But if he were to lose, Biden will be run roughshod over and the American people will realize that they were scammed with a Weekend at Bernie clown, and 2022 and 2024 will be very good years. Yes, 2 SCOTUS spots will open up. But so long as Roberts stays, once he is replaced, it will be all good.
The “intellectuals” brought you George W Bush. An incompetent on virtually every level. So, they can go fuck themselves.
But Trump is making the Bush assholes look like wise statesmen by comparison. Do you honestly not see that this country is a laughingstock? That Trump has serious mental health problems? What do you think he’s succeeding at, exactly? I’m obviously no fan of the Republican establishment, but their incompetence and maliciousness doesn’t excuse the same coming from Trump but ten times worse.
[Shikha Dalmia]: “Donald Trump didn’t start the protests, but the fires he’s stoking will scorch the nation and discredit the conservative movement.”
Let’s be clear here: it’s progressives and socialists that are scorching the nation. Conservatives have two options: to give up and give in, or to stand up and fight back.
What Shikha is telling us is that progressives will continue to engage in violence, destruction, character assassination, and lying until all dissenting voices are silenced and people comply with their demands.
And because Shikha is a progressive herself, she’s fine with that.
SteelCityAncap
Yes, let’s give the communists everything they’ve ever wanted, just to make sure they don’t throw a tantrum
VinniUSMC
Yes, Shikha, we know you are too dumb to understand the difference between protestors and rioters/looters, but that doesn’t mean that everyone is. It’s not surprising, though, coming from someone who is still insisting that Trump was definitely really just calling white supremacists “very fine people” when he said “and you had some very bad people in that group, but you also had people that were very fine people, on both sides.”, and in a speech where he explicitly condemned neo-Nazis and white supremacists… Because orange man bad.
So Trump has fucked this country in more ways than I even imagined possible, is about to destroy the Republican party in the election, but the real problem is Shikha is criticizing him. You people are terrible libertarians. This Dear Leader crap would be bad enough if he weren’t a giant fat orange retarded head case.
EVERYTHING IS SO TERRIBLE AND UNFAIR!!!!!!
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Article NL FR EN
Rapture as resistance
Notes on Leaving the Movie Theater
Herman Asselberghs 2019
Sis Matthé
Film School Time
Back and Forth Between the Cinema and the Classroom
Herman Asselberghs is currently working on a long-term film project at the film department of the LUCA School of Arts, where he has been teaching for two decades. Through the realization of a film essay, he probes the relationship between attention and distraction in the film theatre and the classroom. Throughout the creation process, Sabzian reports on his accompanying reading and writing. On a regular basis, Asselberghs selects an existing text that interests him and that he himself provides with an accompanying text. In the first instalment he focuses on Leaving the Movie Theater [En sortant du cinéma] by Roland Barthes.
It is the tone of his text that appeals to me. From the first sentence, he takes pleasure in a game of drawing in and fending off. First, he pretends he’s someone else, not an “I” (“the subject who is speaking here”),1 yet “he” immediately makes a personal confession. He acknowledges rather than confesses, and it feels like an obligation (in the original: “il doit reconnaître une chose”). Not because someone or something obliges him, but because he can’t wait to admit openly what he has understood all by himself: in the mid-1970s, the esteemed Roland Barthes likes to leave the film theatre. Before the end of the film, no less, from what I read between the lines.
Barthes belongs to the last century, that much is clear. Who else could sing the praises of the sinful potential of the film theatre as well as he did? From a voluminous biography, I remember his youthful memories of the screening of Un chien andalou (which played in Parisian theatres in 1929) and his presence at a private screening of L’empire des sens (in 1976, in the company of Lacan). Scandal films, however, appear to be the exception to the rule. Throughout his entire life, he regularly goes to the cinema in company. “Once a week at most”, he says in an early-1960s conversation with Cahiers du Cinéma. More often doesn’t seem necessary, but most of all he would like to go on his own, released from social duties and cultural pressure, at random, to whichever film, “guided by the obscurest forces of my inner self”.2 More than a decade later, his wish appears to be fulfilled. In Leaving the Movie Theater he gives a detailed account of his unbridled cinema visits.
∗∗ ∗
Leaving the Movie Theater appears in the 1975 theme issue Psychanalyse et cinéma of the journal Communications, published by the prestigious Parisian educational institute École des hautes études en sciences sociales, renowned for its transdisciplinary approach at the crossroads of sociology, anthropology and semiology. In addition to contributions from famous names such as Félix Guattari, Julia Kristeva, Thierry Kuntzel and Raymond Bellour, the publication boasts at least two key film-theoretical texts: Le signifiant imaginaire by Christian Metz and Le dispositif by Jean-Louis Baudry. Barthes joins this notorious and, to him, familiar company with the necessary caution. He fills three pages and a few lines with eight compact, elegantly separated paragraphs. For comparison: Raymond Bellour uses 115 well-filled pages, including 161 photograms, four well-wrought diagrams and seven full-page charts (mapping the “paradigm of movement in segment 14”, or the famous scene with the crop duster) for his exhaustive demonstration of the presence and absence of Oedipal codes in Hitchcock’s North by Northwest. Christian Metz, for his part, fills 53 pages with his groundbreaking study of the “imaginary” nature of the film “apparatus”, without mentioning a single specific film title.3 Excess is what characterizes film theory of the 1970s, excess of analysis, of interpretation, of jargon.
It’s the disarmingly simple title that intrigues me. It makes me curious about the thoughts of an author I like to read about a habit I have been fond of for a long time and that I don’t practice often enough these days. The piece, however, appears tougher than its heading promises. I learn little about the recharged feeling with which I often leave the cinema. Rather, the title pinpoints the moment of sweet memories of what has happened in the theatre. While leaving the theatre, the writer tries to get a grip on the place where he has been cheerfully bending film-watching to his will. We don’t even need to know which flick he bought a ticket for.
Barthes and film? However much or little one reads about that precarious relationship, one always runs into the same mantra. The sensitive, erudite essayist who passionately surrenders to literature, theatre and photography, but also to music and painting, offers lasting resistance to the moving image. His extensive oeuvre indeed contains few texts in which he studies film, always in a very careful way, but also cautiously and on his own terms. Two striking titles of early pieces from his structuralist period mark cinema as a crisis area to be thoroughly analyzed: Le problème de la signification au cinéma and Les unités traumatiques au cinéma (both from 1960).4 In a later and important contribution to film theory, Le troisième sens (1970), he manages to tackle the problem of film through an artifice. He stops the projection, as it were, interrupting the flow that cinema inherently is, and bases his study solely on the photogram.5 In Leaving the Movie Theater he no longer fixes his gaze on the image. The projection is back, as a moody light source this time, in the form of a cone and a beam. The flow is that of the moment and of the place.
The established conception of Barthes’s diffidence about the moving image is no more than a common opinion, a doxa.6 Admittedly, when the writer sporadically spells out his reticent approach to film, the arguments sound surprisingly consistent for a quarter of a century. Film is too limited due to its inescapable analogous expression of reality. Film is too literal, too steady, too fleeting, too much, too full. Film wants too much, also from its viewer. Film is tyranny, dominance, manipulation, indoctrination. In an often-quoted lemma in his fragmentary autobiography, Roland Barthes by Roland Barthes [Roland Barthes par Roland Barthes] (1975), he himself emphatically launches the notion of resistance. Films run and give, on and on. As a devoted reader, Barthes doesn’t constantly need to get everything, he doesn’t need to receive everything non-stop, he doesn’t want to be seeing everything: “Of a man walking in the snow, even before he signifies, everything is given to me; in writing, on the contrary, I am not obliged to see how the hero wears his nails.”7 One well-noticed line on the opening page of his last book, Camera Lucida [La chambre claire] (1980), introduces another, last-minute contradiction, this time between film and photography.8 Elsewhere, in a short reflection on Éric Rohmer’s Perceval, he expresses in no uncertain terms his irritation about the “barbaric” behaviour of the audience in the theatre. The audible laughter about the costume drama’s alleged simplicity hurts him. Why is laughing out loud permitted in cinemas, he wonders, if there is also a smoking ban?9
And yet. Yet, despite his notable objections, I never consider Barthes’s resistance to cinema as opposition or reluctance, even less as mild revulsion or outright aversion. On the contrary, his reticence seems to me to be persistently affirmative. He dismantles film with great care and from a genuine concern. Resistance, therefore, as opposition and objection, as appropriate disobedience and stubborn rebellion. Resistance as a revolt. Isn’t dismantling the methodological thread running through his entire work? Whether it be theatre or literature, photography or his own course of life, the uncovering of mechanisms, systems and ideologies consistently forms the core business of his writing, throughout changing, accumulating intellectual frameworks (of a phenomenological, semiological, structuralist, and poststructuralistic nature). Reading Barthes means learning to relish critical distance. As a modus operandi, the theory of distance is an integral part of the toolbox he uses to consciously make all familiar and self-evident things look strange and problematic. With Brecht, he supports the political potential of the strategy of estrangement: critical distance activates the reader or viewer and thus forms alert citizens, the antipodes of the dozed off bourgeois. Disenchanting didactics has its limits, however. In the fight against doxa Barthes sees no reasons for complacency. His later text production, in particular, has been unabashedly drenched in a deeper existential distance, residing beyond critical theory and capable of finding shelter in the film theatre as an integral part of the dissident cinema experience.
The standard course of a visit to the cinema belongs to the tradition of 20th-century modernity and is still widely known. “Going to the movies” usually means walking in the city, keeping an eye on the screening hours, presenting yourself at the ticket booth, buying a ticket, entering the theatre, seeing the lights go out, witnessing the film’s beginning and end, seeing the lights come on, leaving the theatre, and ending up on the street again. In Leaving the Movie Theater, Barthes fiddles with the chronology of this secular ritual. His story starts after the facts (“this is often how he leaves a movie theater”), then sheds light on the very beginning (“even before he went into the theater”) and subsequently tackles the actual event in the theatre (“whenever I hear the word ‘cinema’, I can’t help thinking ‘hall’, rather than ‘film’”).10 That theatre is more than the decor, more than the interior, more than the architecture. It’s a situation in which the various components of a complex system are optimally positioned in order to make the spectator forget that the film only exists by virtue of a projection. The convincing effect of these circumstances rests on the fitting combination of three key elements: the materiality of the screen and the projector and the psychological mechanism of denial, according to the apparatus theory whose notorious French supporters publish some of their key texts in Communications.
For this branch of film theory, which had its heyday in the second half of the 1970s,11 “pretending” is one of the basic conditions for watching film: I know that what is displayed on the screen is not reality, but I still pretend it is for the duration of the projection. Only through persistent denial will I be able to end up on the edge of my seat during an action film, to scream during a horror film or to brush away a tear during a romcom. If I want to be able to temporarily suspend my disbelief, then my mental apparatus needs very precise aligning with the technological apparatus. The cinema apparatus is the solid order in which film takes place. In order to ensure maximum operation, the arrangement of interdependent components can and must be further expanded with a dark theatre, spatial sound reproduction, seating, and an audience. When Barthes thinks of “a theatre” he refers to this very constellation, albeit with resistance in mind.
Apparatus theory focuses on the cinema apparatus without necessarily naming or even watching actual films. Its unmasking analyses apply to the ideological apparatus itself. Its research concerns the possible relationships between (day)dream and cinema, the effect of identification and voyeuristic desire on the part of the spectator, the fantasmatic cycle of the passion for watching and the film image. The discourse leans heavily on Lacanian psychoanalytical concepts. Barthes, for whom “imaginary” is standard vocabulary, also juggles this jargon. Few other authors will open their autobiography as he did: with a photo of his own mother with baby Roland on her lap, captioned “The mirror stage: ‘That’s you.’”12 Surprisingly uncharacteristic, he calls his relationship to psychoanalysis “undecided” and “not scrupulous”13 later in the same book. In Leaving the Movie Theater he unleashes the appropriate terminology on the “cinema situation”. “Lure” and “mirror” are but two of the central concepts he borrows from Lacan. In the penultimate paragraph he penetrates the latter’s territory most deeply, but at the same time he distances himself from it. The way the film viewer is glued to the image, tricked into it really (because “leurre” can be translated not only by “lure” but also by “trap” and “delusion”), he says, “the historical subject, like the cinema spectator I am imagining, is also glued to ideological discourse.” That is to say, I too, Barthes, the author of this piece, the supporter of this theoretical apparatus, cannot escape “its naturalness, its truth” (“it is a lure, our lure”). Assuming that Barthes is always and everywhere firmly struggling against “naturalness” and “cliché”, this cutting outburst about “the Cinema of a society” expresses a pretty harsh attitude towards his fellow theorists and towards himself.14 The original states, “le Cinéma d’une société”, which can also be understood in the sense of “Quel cinéma!” or “What a fuss!”. Or as a fine demonstration of his proven method of merciless dismantling, applied to his own Text.
The apparatus that apparatus theory bears in mind doesn’t allow for much room for manoeuvre. The emphasis on the tight-knit, stationary constellation of space, time and subject (film theatre, film duration and film viewer) produces not only an immobile but also a passive spectator. In this discourse, the film viewer appears as an effect of the situated cinema experience, in extreme cases as a product of a watertight, or indeed throttling system. In Leaving the Movie Theater, Barthes reacts against both apparatus and theory. At the beginning of the last paragraph, in one simple question, albeit soaked in Lacanian jargon, he formulates the idea of his text: “How to come unglued from the mirror?”15 In other words, how to escape being held hostage in and by the cinema? To begin with, the author (in the second paragraph) significantly extends the cinema situation, beyond the film theatre. Before and after the cinema visit, the spectator is already and still in a (pre- and post-) hypnotic state, which has its peak in the operation of the actual apparatus, in the theatre. On the way to the film, the spectator already adopts a receptive attitude. Like a sleepwalker, he or she is guided remotely by the alluring call of the dream play in the darkened theatre. During the phlegmatic stroll through the streets afterwards, somnambulism still shimmers. Hence the need to go to the movies alone. On his own (“sluggishly”) the spectator can more easily enter a state of “availability”. During the solitary walk after the screening (“heading for some café or other”), the last scraps of twilight reverie are shaken off. In the beautiful collection Memo Barthes, in which the Dutch translation of Leaving the Movie Theater figures, the illustration of an empty cobblestone road, shining in the street light, expresses that unreal feeling that “precedes the darkness of the theatre” and accompanies the walker afterwards.16
Barthes’s sensitivity to situated experiences does not so much spring from a theoretical impulse as from a personal feel for the interwovenness of people and places. In a spring issue of Vogue Hommes from 1978, he gives another wonderful example of his ability to unravel the apparatus of a place and describe its operation in great detail. Three years after Leaving the Movie Theater, he takes a close look at the discotheque in At Le Palace Tonight [Au « Palace » ce soir]. Once more he opens with a confession: “I confess I am unable to interest myself in the beauty of a place if there are no people in it (I don’t like empty museums); and conversely, in order to discover the interest of a face, of a figure, of a garment, to savor the encounter, I require that the site of this discovery have its interest and its savor as well.”17 The dance hall the writer enters in clear and full knowledge is not just one among many. In the late 1970s, Le Palace in the 9th arrondissement (Rue de Faubourg-Montmartre, these days a venue for popular concerts and shows) is a phenomenon. In the trendiest mega club in Paris, more than 2,000 people feed upon the dance floor every night. They marvel at the spectacular laser light show and the impressive, constantly changing decors.
Author-activist Didier Lestrade still remembers the exciting mix of people spread over three floors and as many bars (“In the country of Giscard, mixing the rich and the poor, whites and blacks, heteros and gays was simply revolutionary”) as well as their collective ecstasy to the strains of delirious disco. He underlines how the emancipating capacity of the dance floor and of disco in particular (“Disco had become such a popular musical phenomenon that it united society as a whole, consecrating gay liberation” and “Against the asocial side of punk, disco was a musical trend that encouraged diversity, sociability, excess and sex”) is part of the agenda of manager Fabrice Emaer, owner of the first openly gay bars in the capital (Le Pimm’s in 1964).18 With Le Palace, the French impresario is brewing a grand sequel to his infamous previous club Le Sept (Rue Sainte-Anne, today a Japanese restaurant). With its minuscule but always overheated dance floor in the basement and an exclusive restaurant on the first floor, the trendy spot is the epicenter of gay Paris in a neighbourhood with quite a few bars, saunas and street prostitutes. Yves Saint Laurent has a second office there, as it were. Barthes regularly dines there with Emaer, an old friend. Less than two months after the official opening, the entrepreneur sees how his newest venture is consecrated in a popular fashion magazine by one of the most prominent intellectuals of the time. Le Palace not only makes homosexuality visible and acceptable, but downright fashionable with a wider, heterosexual audience.
The topographical survey in At Le Palace Tonight revolves around watching. The architecture of the restored 17th-century theatre with 1930s interior gives the author, from all sides, the imperial feeling of controlling the business with his gaze. “The pleasure of what is seen” (“jouissance de la vue” in the original), that’s what he calls his ecstatic view of the club-goers and of the play of “lights and shadows”. The dance floor in this nightlife temple “dedicated to looking” is lost on him: “At Le Palace, I am not obliged to dance in order to sustain a living relationship with this site. Alone, or at least somewhat apart, I can ‘dream’.” Watching and being transported in a dream state, it’s almost as if it’s a cinema. The spectacle is, of course, not limited to the screen or the stage; “the whole theater is the stage”.19 And as befits a stage, the immobile Barthes takes part in this total event through meticulous observation. The story goes that he spends many an evening motionlessly stationed on the second floor, alone in a corner, almost one with the decor, indulging in hour-long intense watching. To the strains of Patrick Juvet’s “Paris by Night,” Alicia Bridges’s “I Love the Nightlife” and Michael Zager Band’s “Let’s all Chant”. Ooh ooh!20
Brecht and disco? At first glance, it appears to be a stunningly productive combination. Barthes’s ode to one of his favourite nightlife spots (the first floor of Café de Flore could certainly qualify too) could just as well be an ode to critical distance. Crucial distance may fit even better. We’re not far removed from Von Aschenbach’s pathetics on the beach of Venice; only the strawberries are lacking. Were it not for the fact that he explicitly parries the Brechtian strategy at the very end of Leaving the Movie Theater with a particular form of distance: “I am hypnotized by a distance; and this distance is not critical (intellectual); it is, one might say, an amorous distance.”21 In all his self-imposed, voyeuristic desolation, the amorous distance allows him to see things with new eyes. “In this humanized space, I can exclaim to myself now and then: “How strange all this is!’”22 As if every night the entire spectacle appears to him for the first time and keeps appearing throughout the night as something new and thrilling. His relentless attention to this “Cinema of a society” leads him to the enthusiastic conclusion that Le Palace is more than a profitable club. It is nothing less than a total work of art that gives the impression of “something very old, which is called la Fête and which is quite different from Amusement or Distraction: a whole apparatus of sensations destined to make people happy, for the interval of a night”.23
“How to come unglued from the mirror?” According to Barthes, a second, unexpected answer to that question lies in the rush ahead. In addition to the expansion of the “cinema situation”, he argues for complete surrender. Opposite the Brechtian awakening, he resolutely places enchantment, twice over, “by the image and by its surroundings”. Referring to the feeling of an airplane taking off and to the moment a drug kicks in, he places the excitement of the cinema experience not only in the entire apparatus but equally inside the spectator’s body. Done with the glued, immobile spectator. To watch is also to grope. The drifting walks before and after the screening turn out to be mere fore- and afterplay for an intense immersion in “a dim, anonymous, indifferent cube where that festival of affects known as a film” takes place. Whereas Barthes originally liked to fantasize about an empty cinema in order not to be confronted with other spectators’ responses, he now swears by the “diffuse eroticism” of bodies sliding down into their seats “as if into a bed”. In the semidarkness of the black box, he pricks up his ears for uncontrolled ambient sounds welcomely disturbing the predictably synchronous sound track of the film, “yet without distorting its image”. The (materially and mentally) projected image acts as lubricant for the “invisible work” in the theatre, and vice versa. “I must be in the story, but I must also be elsewhere” can also be read in reverse: it is necessary to be elsewhere to be able to be seated in the story. Or: rapture as the ultimate rule for cinema visits.24
I love the ambiguity of the text, both veiled and unvarnished. The theoretical provocation of providing the analytical apparatus theory with physical subjectivity excels from the outset in double entendre. The remarkably sluggish, somewhat disturbed but saturated body leaving the cinema seems to me to have ended up there in the first place because it felt like it. It didn’t matter which film was on the poster. The author remains tight-lipped about opening and closing credits. I think he enters and leaves the “movie house (ordinary model)” in medias res, regardless of the screening hours. “In this urban dark, the body’s freedom is at work”: availability and surrender meet in the twilight of the projection beam, “unperceived” while it “pierces the darkness”, “glancing off someone’s hair, someone’s face”. In French I read “le jet impérieux rase notre crâne, effleure, de dos, de biais, une chevelure, un visage”. The French “effleurrer” covers a wide range of sensual meanings, from “to caress” to “to touch lightly”. In “le jet impérieux”, we hear both an “urgent need” (“un besoin impérieux”) and an ejaculation, or in cinematic terms: a cum shot.
Through Barthes’s succulent, suggestive choice of words, the entire cinema experience grows into an erotic adventure in which all spectators “peer through the keyhole”, the author “flings itself upon” the image “like an animal" and whose climax is audible in “the grain of a voice milled, up close, in our ears”. Am I to understand here that this infectious ecstasy activates the image on the screen? It says, “The image captivates me, captures me,” which means that the image registers me, even films me (in addition to “to catch” and “to apprehend”, “capturer” also means “to capture”, as in “the camera captures images”), in short, the image is watching me. And then there’s that phrase in the middle of the text that first escapes me because it passes so casually, but that I begin to understand, after re-reading it, as an unreal reversal of roles: “the artifact – like the dancing beam of the projector – bluring the scene imitated by the screen.” The film on the screen imitates the recorded scene? Yes, but I also and above all hear the following suggestion: it is not the events in the theatre that are inspired by the captivating activity on the screen (that too, I suppose), but the other way around: the screen mimics the enchanted events in the theatre. That is to say, the same ecstatic scene takes place in the theatre and on the screen. In Leaving the Movie Theater Barthes is leaving the porn movie theatre.
Mainstream films promise sex, porn films don’t beat about the bush and give value for money. The pleasure of voyeurism so sophisticatedly dissected in film theory appears here in an unadulterated form. To watch is also to grope. Watching porn in the theatre implies having sex, with oneself, with others. With men, even when the screen shows straight sex. Porn films show how it needs to be done, how it can be done. Especially when it concerns gay sex, especially in the 1970s. In the mid-1970s, a brand new film genre appears in French theatres: homegrown gay porn, filmed on 16 mm. The films run in “specialized” cinemas in the capital and in the province. In Le Dragon, the first gay cinema in Paris (Rue Dragon, later Club Vidéo Gay and now a frozen food store) and in a dozen other theatres, rising from the ground amid the art & essai halls in the Latin Quarter. Le Dragon: an elongated theatre measuring 24 by 6 metres (“the narrow range in which can function the fascination of film”; in the French text: “la plage étroite”) with 350 seats (“it is said that the spectators who choose to sit as close to the screen as possible are children and movie buffs”, “however far away I am sitting, I press my nose against the screen’s mirror”), no supporting programme, and a single film screened continuously between 2 p.m. and 2 a.m. Barthes lives five minutes away and Le Flore is around the corner.25
In his posthumously published literary text Soirées de Paris, Barthes reports unequivocally about one evening in Le Dragon: “I leave the house again and go see the new porno film at Le Dragon: as always – and perhaps even more so than usual dreadful. I dare not cruise my neighbor, though I probably could (idiotic fear of being rejected). Downstairs into the back room; I always regret this sordid episode afterward, each time suffering the same sense of abandonment.”26 Judging from the enchanted tone in Leaving the Movie Theater, not every visit ends in sorrow and certainly not in a “private screening” in the basement. Loneliness is a source of both continuing worry and fleeting pleasure, and is thus touched on in all of Barthes’s later writings.27 In Soirées de Paris, the desire for contact with others takes shape in frequent walks through the streets of the kind Leaving the Movie Theater opens with (“as a response to idleness, availability, free time”). The flâneur is a dragueur [a cruiser]. The seemingly aimless dérive may not have any direction, but the browsing around certainly has a purpose. Just look at the numerous street gigolos on a first-name basis with the eminent professor. Barthes is not only a regular customer at Le Palace, at Le Flore and at Le Dragon. In Leaving the Movie Theater, he describes the idleness of cruising, which finds its match or sometimes culminates in the cinema experience, “which best defines modern eroticism, that of the big city”.28
Barthes walks out of the cinema at the end of the heyday of cinema.29 A year after his text in Communications, VHS is launched. Barely a few years later, remote controls and video recorders follow. The juncture at which apparatus theory demonstrates the grip the cinema apparatus has on its spectators (or at least intends to have) is, therefore, the moment when those same spectators get hold of the apparatus at home in order to possibly resist any incoming stream of images (by stopping, pausing, fast-forwarding, rewinding, zapping, zipping and muting). Barthes’s sneer at the living room-cum-gogglebox is merciless (“television doomed us to the Family”),30 doubtless motivated by his perception of it as a bourgeois, heteronormative bastion. In retrospect, without losing sight of the immense difference between the cinema situation and the television apparatus, his improper use of the film theatre (or his correct operation of the unusual film theatre) may also be read as an early and individual example of a viewing practice where attention and distraction form a new alliance.
Leaving the Movie Theater irrevocably belongs to the last century. Soon Barthes will have been dead for four decades. Hit by a van, just like that, right before the AIDS crisis broke out in full force. The porn cinema today is a relic, overtaken by the video cassette, then discarded by the internet. Going to the movies is still a popular activity but no longer a natural habit. But watching gropingly all the more: the touchscreen glues the screen user to the screen. Today, the film theatre apparatus is sporadically part of daily, mobile viewing situations in which compact, connected displays constantly require fleeting involvement. Today, fast-watching, whether or not in daylight, is very common in the streets, in the bedroom, in the workplace, in the classroom and in the cinema (before and after, but also during the film). If the cinema does everything to produce hyperfocus without interruption, then this current multitude of constantly changing viewing situations seems to operate through a logic of latent and acute interruption. The intake of moving images happens casually, between times, on the side, but no less attentively. Through an apparatus in which entertainment, information, communication and work appear alongside, on and through each other. Leaving the film theatre occasionally still occurs, but not necessarily along the city boulevard (the exit of the multiplex rather leads to the parking lot) and rarely without a smartphone in hand.
It reminds me of the first sentence from Barthes’s early conversation with Cahiers, more relevant than ever, it seems: “Perhaps one should begin by talking about one’s cinemagoing habits, the place of cinema in one’s life.”31
1. The quotes from Barthes’s Leaving the Movie Theater are based on the English translation by Richard Howard. Some of the quotes have been adapted for clarity. R. Barthes, “Leaving the Movie Theater,” The Rustle of Language (New York: Hill and Wang, 1986), 345-349. Original: R. Barthes, “En sortant du cinema,” Communications 23 (Paris: Seuil, 1975), 104. Included in: R. Barthes, Oeuvres complètes IV (Paris: Seuil, 2002), 778-782.
2. “Towards a Semiotics of Cinema: Barthes in interview with Michel Delahaye, Jacques Rivette,” in Cahiers du Cinéma. 1960-1968: New Wave, New Cinema, Reevaluating Hollywood, ed. J. Hillier. (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1986) 276-285. Original: “Entretien avec Roland Barthes”, Cahiers du Cinema, 147 (September 1963): 20-30. Included in: Oeuvres complètes II, 255-265.
3. R. Bellour, “Le blocage symbolique” and C. Metz, “Le signifiant imaginaire,” Communications 23 (Paris: Seuil, 1975) 235-350 and 3-55.
4. R. Barthes, “Le problème de la signification au cinéma” and “Les unités traumatiques au cinema,” originally published in: Revue internationale de filmologie 10, no. 32-34.
5. R. Barthes, “Le troisième sens, notes de recherche sur quelques photogrammes de S.M. Eisenstein,” Cahiers du Cinéma, 222 (1970): 12-19.
6. In two recent academic publications entirely devoted to En sortant du cinéma, Barthes’s “problem” with film is extensively covered: A. de Baecque, M. Gil & E. Marty (direction), Roland Barthes: “En sortant du cinéma” (Paris: Hermann Editeurs, 2018) and P. Watts, Roland Barthes’ Cinema (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016).
7. R. Barthes, "Saturation of the cinema,” in Roland Barthes by Roland Barthes (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1977), 54-55. Original: R. Barthes, “Le plein du cinema,” in Roland Barthes par Roland Barthes (Paris: Seuil, 1975). Included in: Oeuvres complètes IV, 575-771.
8. R. Barthes, Camera Lucida. Reflections on Photograph (New York: Hill and Wang, 1982). Original: R. Barthes, “La chambre claire,” Cahiers du Cinéma - Gallimard - Seuil, 1980. Included in: Oeuvres complètes V, 785-892.
9. R. Barthes, “Perceval,” in Oeuvres complètes V, 647-648.
10. R. Barthes, “Leaving the Movie Theater,” 345-346.
11. Two English-language collections offer a representative selection of texts and (French and Anglo-Saxon) apparatus theory authors: T. de Lauretis and S. Heath (eds.), The Cinematic Apparatus (London: The Macmillan Press, 1980) and P. Rosen (ed.), Narrative, Apparatus, Ideology: A Film Theory Reader (Columbia: Columbia University Press, 1986). The Korean-American writer and artist Theresa Hak Kyung Cha has a more artistic, conceptual aim in her precisely calibrated publication Apparatus. Cinematographic Apparatus: Selected Writings (New York: Tanam Press, 1980). Her collection of theoretical texts (by Baudry and Metz, among others), textual contributions by filmmakers (Vertov, Deren, Straub & Huillet, among others) and visual interventions of her own making wish “its totality will serve as an object not merely enveloping its contents, but as a ‘plural text’ making active the participating viewer/reader, making visible his/her position in the apparatus”. The book’s opening text is Upon Leaving the Movie Theater by Roland Barthes.
In the Netherlands and in Flanders, the magazine for film and performing arts Versus guided and partly determined the development of cinema as an academic discipline throughout the 1980s. Within that passionate film-theoretical framework, extensive attention was paid to Barthes and to apparatus theory, for example in: Eric de Kuyper, “Barthes en de film,” Versus, 3 (1983): 85-91; Céline Linssen, “Het fotografiese. Foto/still/film,” Versus, 3 (1983): 92-103 and Paul Verstraten, “Het verleden en heden van de filmtheorie. Interview met Christian Metz,” Versus, 3 (1986): 101-114.
12. R. Barthes, Roland Barthes by Roland Barthes, 21.
13. The full quote is: “His relation to psychoanalysis is not scrupulous (though without his being able to pride himself on any contestation, any rejection). It is an undecided relation.” R. Barthes, “Relation to psychoanalysis,” Roland Barthes by Roland Barthes, 150.
14. All quotes: R. Barthes, “Leaving the Movie Theater,” 345, 347-348.
15. Ibid., 348.
16. Ibid., p. 346. The Dutch translation [“Uit de bioscoop”] is included in: R. Hofstede & J. Pieters (eds.), Memo Barthes (Nijmegen: Vantilt & Yang, 2004), 56-63.
17. R. Barthes, “At Le Palace Tonight,” in Incidents (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1992), 45-48. Original: R. Barthes, “Au « Palace » ce soir,” Vogue Hommes (May 1978): 88. Included in: R. Barthes, Oeuvres complètes V, 456-458.
18. All quotes: D. Lestrade, “Palace: comportement 80,” Têtu, 32 (March 1999).
19. All quotes: R. Barthes, “At Le Palace Tonight”.
20. Before Barthes appears on the guest list of the official, much-discussed opening of Le Palace, Emaer gives him a private tour during the renovations. For the occasion, Emaer blasts a recording of an Italian aria into the empty space. See: Fréderic Martel, Le Rose and le Noir. Les homosexuels en France depuis 1968 (Paris: Seuil, 2008). Le Palace exerts an attraction on hedonistic Paris and occupies a prominent place in the creative and sexual lives of fashion celebrities such as Yves Saint Laurent, Karl Lagerfeld, Kenzo Takada, and their entourages. See: Marie Ottavi, Jacques de Bascher, dandy de l’ombre (Paris: Séguier), 2017. Barthes is not the only critical thinker who ventured into the nightclubs of the 1970s. His cautious steps next to the dance floor pale before the militant ode to disco by film theorist Richard Dyer or before the warm memories of gay clubbing in 1970s New York by art historian Douglas Crimp. See: R. Dyer, “In Defense of Disco,” Gay Left, 8 (1979) (included in: R. Dyer, Only Entertainment (London: Routledge, 1992)) and D. Crimp, Before Pictures (Brooklyn: Dancing Foxes Press/The University of Chicago Press, 2016). For a cartography of the (New York) dance floor as a breeding ground for contemporary intensity, cultural hybridity and emancipatory elan, see the three brilliant studies by Tim Lawrence: Love Will Save The Day: A History of American Dance Music Culture, 1970- 79 (Duke, 2003), Hold On to Your Dreams: Arthur Russell and the Downtown Music Scene, 1973-1992 (Duke, 2009) and Life and Death on the New York Dance Floor, 1980–1983 (Duke, 2016).
21. R. Barthes, “Leaving the Movie Theater”, 47.
22. R. Barthes, “At Le Palace Tonight”, 48.
24. Quotes in this paragraph (and in the next two paragraphs): R. Barthes, “Leaving the Movie Theater,” 345-349.
25. Thiphaine Samoyault calls Barthes an ethnologist of rapidly disappearing phenomena: “He talks about a Latin Quarter, where he’s living, that offers cinematic shelters on the street, that still has porn cinemas (including the Dragon Club, a gay porn cinema where Barthes goes regularly), that programmes novelties as well as classics, entertainment as well as auteur films. [translation by Sis Matthé] [Original: “Il parle d’un Quartier Latin, où il habite, offrant des refuges cinématographiques à la rue, possédant encore des cinémas pornos (dont le Dragon Club, cinéma porno gay où Barthes se rend régulièrement), programmant des nouveautés autant que des films de répertoire, des divertissements comme des films d’auteurs.”], in: T. Samoyault, Roland Barthes (Paris: Seuil, 2015), 580. Scant details about Le Dragon here and here.
26. R. Barthes, “Soirées de Paris,” Incidents (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1992) 68. Original: R. Barthes, “Soirées de Paris,” Incidents (Paris: Seuil, 1987). Included in: Oeuvres complètes V, 977-993.
27. Barthes does not shy away from considering his own solitude. Two examples: “The asocial nature of bliss: it is the abrupt loss of sociality, and yet there follows no recurrence to the subject (subjectivity), the person, solitude: everything is lost, integrally. Extremity of the clandestine, darkness of the motion-picture theater.” (R. Barthes, The pleasure of the text (New York: Hill and Wang, 1975), 39. Original: Le plaisir du texte (Paris: Seuil - Tel Quel, 1973) and “He had always, up to now, worked successively under the aegis of a great system (Marx, Sartre, Brecht, semiology, the Text). Today, it seems to him that he writes more openly, more unprotectedly; nothing sustains him, unless there are still patches of bypassed languages (for in order to speak one must seek support from other texts).” (“The image-system of solitude”, in: R. Barthes, Roland Barthes by Roland Barthes (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1977), 102).
28. R. Barthes, “Leaving the Movie Theater,” 346. Thiphaine Samoyault makes no secret of Barthes’s sexual appetite, his changing sexual contacts and visiting of prostitutes: “Barthes was always looking for immediate satisfaction, frequenting saunas, porn cinemas, specialized clubs. It’s not new behaviour for him, nor miserable conduct. In addition to the more or less regular lovers he frequents in his different small groups (of friends), he has always loved meeting gigolos, loving the eroticism of simple eye contact, of some words.” [translation by Sis Matthé] [Original: “Barthes a toujours été dans la recherche de satisfactions immédiates, fréquentant les saunas, les cinémas pornos, les boîtes spécialisées. Ce n’est pas un comportement neuf chez lui, mais non plus une conduite malheureuse. En plus des amants plus ou moins réguliers qu’il fréquente dans ses différentes petites bandes, il a toujours aimé rencontrer des gigolos, trouvant érotique le simple contact des yeux, de la parole parfois.”] In: T. Samoyault, Roland Barthes (Paris: Seuil, 2015), 708. He himself demonstrates his insights into one-off sexual encounters in his preface to Renaud Camus’s novel Tricks (Paris: P.O.L., 1978) and he processes his own adventures in that field in literary form in Soirées de Paris (see footnote 26). For at least one specific moment in that short “intimate diary”, Eric Marty, a former student of Barthes and editor of his collected works, offers a beautiful counter shot of his late mentor’s cruising. See: “Mémoire d’une amitié”, in: E. Marty, Roland Barthes, le métier d’écrire (Paris: Seuil, 2006).
29. From the 1960s onwards, cinema has to cope with television, video recorders, games, the internet and social media. An excerpt from the most recent edition of the Flemish Regional Indicators (VRIND 2017, published by the former Study Service of the Flemish Government) outlines the local situation: “The fact that a strong concentration has taken place for cinemas is evident from the number of cinemas. In 2015, there were 473 film theatres in Belgium, about half of them in Flanders. In the 1960s there were about three times as many. In the early 1990s, the negative evolution came to a stop. The number of film theatres in Flanders has been fairly stable in recent years. The same applies to the number of screenings. In 2015, there were on average 1,250 screenings per theatre. In 2015, Flemish cinemas sold around 10.4 million tickets, which is a slight increase compared to the previous years. The Flemish Region remains the Belgian region with the smallest number of cinema visits per inhabitant. In 2016, 6 out of 10 Flemish people go to the movies. This means that the participation rate is slightly higher than in previous years. The majority of visitors participate several times. There is no difference by gender. Young people in particular visit a cinema. 9 out of 10 18- to 24-year-olds are participants. This systematically decreases when age increases. There are major differences according to educational level. For the lower educated (lower secondary school) about 4 in 10 are participants and 20% are regular visitors, for the higher educated (college + university) more than three-quarters are participants and more than 4 in 10 regular visitors.” [translation by Sis Matthé]
30. R. Barthes, “Leaving the Movie Theater,” 346.
31. “Towards a Semiotics of Cinema: Barthes in interview with Michel Delahaye, Jacques Rivette,” 276.
This text is part of the doctoral research carried out by Herman Asselberghs within the Intermedia Research Unit of LUCA School of Arts.
Herman Asselberghs Roland Barthes En sortant du cinéma Film School Tijd
Conversation NL
De kracht van het beeld terugvinden
Gesprek met Eric de Kuyper
Herman Asselberghs, Patricia Pisters 1990
Eric de Kuyper: “Pink Ulysses is een duidelijke confrontatie, het resultaat van mijn studie van het surrealisme, van de droom, van het gebruik van kitsch, het gebruik van symbolen. Vroeger zou ik nooit zo een roos hebben durven of willen gebruiken, nu heb ik het gewoon gedaan. Het is die houding van: laten we eens even kijken of dat niet kan, of we er niets mee kunnen doen.”
Conversation NL FR EN
One Spectator Among Others: Herman Asselberghs
Herman Asselberghs, Gerard-Jan Claes 2020
In the series ‘One Spectator Among Others’ Herman Asselberghs and Gerard-Jan Claes invite various passionate film lovers to elaborate on their viewing practice by email. Filmmakers, artists, critics, researchers, authors, programmers, cinemagoers, TV enthusiasts, Netflixers, YouTubers, torrent users... The series takes off with Herman Asselberghs as guinea pig. He makes films, writes about film, teaches at the film department of LUCA School of Arts/Sint-Lukas Brussels and is co-founder of the artist-run production and distribution platform Auguste Orts.
Article NL
Aan de binnenkant van de spiegel
Brian De Palma’s Blow Out
Gerard-Jan Claes, Nina de Vroome 2018
De camera van Brian De Palma richt zich in de eerste plaats op cinema zelf. Hij brengt verslag uit als een schilder die enkel over de schilderkunst kan rapporteren door zelf een schilderij te maken. Blow Out (1981) is een making-of, niet als een instructievideo die technisch uiteenzet hoe een film tot stand komt, maar als een spiegel die reflecteert over het wezen van cinema. In die spiegel zien we een ruimte waarin een andere variant van de werkelijkheid leeft. Het bekende beeld krijgt als reflectie een nieuwe vorm, zoals de tekens in een boek dat voor de spiegel gehouden wordt.
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The White Villages
Malaga – Costa del Sol
The Alpujarras of Granada
We travel halal
A Muslim-friendly Travel to Lisbon (Portugal)
A Travel Guide to Muslim-friendly Lisbon (Portugal)
What to See, Where to Eat and Where to Stay
Despite being on the World’s Leading City Destination in 2018, Lisbon is surprisingly still overlooked by most travellers coming to Europe. This Portuguese capital easily trumps other European cities in three things; sun, old-school charm and value.
As compared to popular European capital cities such as London, Rome and Paris, Lisbon receives the most hours of sunshine, predates the other cities by hundreds of years, and is the least expensive!
To top it all off, Lisbon is a Muslim-friendly city. Nestled on the western edge of Europe, this coastal city’s food of choice is, you guessed it, fresh seafood! Lisbon even has roots in Islamic history. Portugal, once known as Al-Garb Al-Andalus (the west of Spain), was under Islamic rule for over 500 years! Before you book the next flight to Lisbon, here are some of my suggestions on where to eat, explore and stay:
Seafood Abundance
As mentioned before, Lisbon is a coastal city and a large part of the locals’ diet consists of seafood. This makes it easy for Muslim travellers as almost every restaurant will have seafood options on the menu.
The Portuguese take their seafood seriously. Lisbon has some of the freshest seafood I’ve had in my life. All the seafood dishes I ordered, such as salmon, cod, tuna steak and octopus, were top-notch. The seafood dishes are usually grilled and served with a side of potatoes and veggies. This makes the seafood the star of the plate and boy, it sure was!
Image credit: Theo K
Out of all the different types of fish, the Portuguese favourite is the plump, silver sardine. There’s even a Lisbon Sardine Festival, also known as the Feast of St. Anthony, every year on 12 June!
When hearing the word sardine, most people would think about the canned sardines and usually in tomato sauce. Here in Portugal, they eat it fresh. Sardines are served grilled with a side of potatoes and salad; or served on slices of sourdough bread with roasted bell peppers. The sardines were so flavourful, even without any sauces. You definitely have to give Lisbon’s beloved dish a try.
If you’re looking for souvenirs, how about bringing home some sardines? Along the streets of Lisbon, you can easily find vintage-style cans of sardines. They’re a really popular souvenir in Lisbon. With different designs to choose from, you will definitely be spoilt for choice.
Please do note that most restaurants sell alcohol and non-halal meat, but you could ask for your seafood to be cooked separately.
Since it is not halal-certified, please dine at your own discretion.
Image credit: Time Out Market Lisboa
Mercado da Ribeira is the oldest food market in Lisbon. In 2014, part of the market was turned in to Time Out’s – yes, the famous media company – first food court. Unlike regular food courts, the food that is offered at Time Out Market is on a gourmet level with food kiosks run by famous Portuguese chefs. Although it sounds atas (high class), these fine dining meets street food are priced affordably. There is also a wide array of cuisines here; from Portuguese food to Asian cuisines!
Image credit: O Prego da Peixaria (left)
After making a few rounds around the food court, I decided to go for O Prego da Peixaria’s Salmon Burger with a side of fries. The salmon patty was juicy and packed with so much flavour. The charcoal English muffin brought an earthy flavour to the plate, which nicely complemented the fish. Please do note that since most food kiosks sell alcohol and non-halal meat, do dine at your own discretion.
Address: Mercado da Ribeira, Avenida 24 de Julho, 1200-479 Lisboa, Portugal
Opening hours: Sundays to Wednesdays 10 am to 12 am, Thursdays to Saturdays 10 am to 2 am
Pastéis de Belém
Image credit: sKCUB Ma (right)
A trip to Lisbon won’t be complete without trying Lisbon’s Portuguese egg tart, locally known as Pastéis de Nata! Walking down the streets of Lisbon, you’ll notice that there’s a bakery selling Pastéis de Nata on almost every corner. I’ve tried almost a dozen Portuguese egg tarts in Lisbon, but my favourite, hands down, is the tarts from the Pastéis de Belém bakery.
The origin of Portuguese egg tarts can be traced to this very bakery! It is said that only three people in the world know the century-old recipe to this world-famous egg tarts. Despite long queues, their egg tarts, named Pasteis de Belém, are always served fresh and warm. Pasteis de Belém has everything I want in an egg tart; flaky crust and a gooey egg custard centre. The friendly staff also suggested putting cinnamon or castor sugar on top if you want an extra kick of sweetness. Oh, what I would give for a bite of Pasteis de Belém right now.
All the Portuguese egg tarts that I tried did not contain alcohol or animal-derived ingredients such as gelatine or lard. Don’t be afraid to double-check with the friendly local bakers! Since Pastéis de Belém bakery is not halal-certified, please dine at your own discretion.
Address: Rua de Belém 84-92, 1300-085 Lisboa, Portugal
Opening hours: 8 am to 11 pm daily
Just a 30-minute tram ride away from central Lisbon is the Torre de Belém (Belem Tower). This UNESCO World Heritage Site was built between 1514 and 1520 – that’s about 500 years ago! Within five centuries, Torre de Belém has been used for many purposes; from a defence tower to a lighthouse, to a customs checkpoint, and finally to a museum.
For an entrance fee of €6 (~S$9.15), you get to explore the tower’s five floors and roof terrace. It is also a short walk from Pastéis de Belém bakery, so bring your delicious Portuguese egg tarts over and marvel at one of Lisbon’s architectural jewels.
Address: Av. Brasília, 1400-038 Lisboa, Portugal
Opening hours: October to April 10 am to 5.30 pm daily, May to September 10 am to 6.30 pm daily
Entrance fee: Adults: €6, Children under age 14: Free
Pena Palace, Sintra
Image credit: Naval S
Perched on a rocky ridge and surrounded by the lush environment of Parque da Pena(Pena Park) is the Palacio Nacional da Pena (Pena Palace). The stunning Pena Palace is another one of Lisbon’s UNESCO World Heritage Site.
With a mix of Manueline and Islamic architectural style, the palace was built from 1842 to 1854. Painted in a riot of bright colours and decorated with intricate tile patterns, this whimsical palace seems like it belongs in a fairytale!
It’s easy to get to Pena Palace. First, hop on the Linha de Sintra suburban train, which will bring you to Sintra in about 40 minutes. From there, you can hike or take a bus to Pena Park entrance. Pena Palace is located not too far from the ticketing office.
The entrance fee which provides access to Pena Park and the palace terraces costs €7.50 (~S$11.50). If you want to go view the staterooms in Pena Palace, the ticket costs €14 (~S$21.35).
Address: Estrada da Pena, 2710-609 Sintra, Portugal
Opening hours: 10 am to 6 pm daily
Entrance fee: Adult: €7.50, Child & Seniors: €6.50, Tickets for access inside Pena Palace: €14.00
Praça do Comércio
Although it might not look like much in pictures, you have to physically stand in Praça do Comércio, one of the largest squares in Europe, to truly appreciate its beauty. Three sides of the square are surrounded by traditional yellow buildings, and the last side opens up to the serene Tagus River. Right in the middle of the square is a statue of King José I and his horse Gentil, a symbol of royal power and nobility.
Praça do Comércio (Commercial Square) was once Lisbon’s busiest hubs, where trading took place and expedition ships sailed out. Even today, Praça do Comércio can still be considered a hub; providing easy access to a myriad of attractions, such as Pátio da Galé, Cais das Colunas and the Lisbon Story Centre.
To get a bird’s eye view of the square, climb up the arch, also known as Arco da Rua Augusta. For an entrance fee of €3 (~S$4.60), you also get to savour views of Lisbon’s symmetrical streets on one side, and the beautiful Tagus River on the other.
Address: Praça do Comércio, 1100-148 Lisboa, Portugal
Opening hours: Arco da Rua Augusta is opened from 9 am to 8 pm daily
Entrance fee: Adults: €3, Children under 5: Free
Pink Street
Image credit: Marco Verch (right)
With many things to see in history-rich Lisbon, Rua Nova do Carvalho is usually neglected by travellers. More commonly known as Pink Street, this underrated spot should be on your must-visit list. Like most places in Lisbon, this quaint street also has its fair share of history.
Rua Nova do Carvalho was once a red-light district, teeming with brothels and run-down bars. In 2011, the streets were washed in a millennial pink hue and a new kind of nightlife was breathed into the area. Today, Pink Street is lined with cosy hip cafés, where you can take a break after getting shots for your Instagram feed.
Address: Rua Nova do Carvalho, 1200-370 Lisboa, Portugal
Avenida da Liberdade, Baixa District or Chiado District
Image credit: Pedro Szekely
If you’re all about convenience, the Avenida da Liberdade, Baixa district and Chiado district is where you should stay. There is an extensive range of accommodations available in these areas that cater to any budget and traveller; from hostels to high-end hotels. Numerous restaurants, retail shops and main tourist attractions are also within easy reach in these areas.
Alfama District
Image credit: Solar Do Castelo
If you’re looking for an area with some character, try staying at Alfama district. Being one of the oldest districts of Lisbon, you will find yourself transported to the past in Alfama as you stroll along her steep hills and narrow streets.
The popular choices for accommodation in this district are rental rooms and apartments. Want a taste of the high life? Treat yourself and book a room in a castle! Solar Do Castelo is the only hotel within São Jorge Castle walls, located at the top of Alfama.
Although Lisbon’s metro is one of the cleanest in Europe and gives you easy access from the airport to the city, its network is still pretty limited. Trams will definitely be your best choice of transport in Lisbon, bringing you to popular areas such as Belem and Alfama with ease.
Not only are they practical, but Lisbon’s iconic trams are also pieces of history, with some being a century old! There is just something undeniably joyful about travelling on a bright yellow tram.
We hope this brief guide, highlighting Lisbon’s creme de la creme, has made you add this underrated city to your travel bucket list. With a story and centuries of history behind her food, architecture and even her transport system, Lisbon is definitely one of my favourite cities in Europe. I’m sure it will be yours too!
Post by Tripzilla
Europe | Lisbon | Portugal
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BookFrom.Net Series
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Series By Popularity
A face to die for, p.32
Part #6 of Forensic Instincts series by Andrea Kane
She hung up and turned to Lina. “Your parents are on their way here.”
“No.” Lina jumped up, looking around as if to seek sanctuary. “I can’t face them. I won’t face them. Not yet. Not until it’s on my terms. Please, Casey, don’t do this to me.”
“I have no intentions of it.” Casey exuded calm and control in an effort to tamper Lina’s rising hysteria. “You, Dani, and Gia will stay here with the team. I’ll go out there and speak to your parents.” She paused, then gestured at Lina’s purse. “Check your messages.”
“Because I want to see what we’re dealing with.”
On trembling legs, Lina rose, going over and opening her purse. She pulled out her phone and checked. “I have a half-dozen texts and a ton of voice mails from them,” she reported woodenly. She scanned the texts. “They’re all the same, either begging or demanding that I call them.” She handed the cell to Casey. “You can listen to the voice messages. I’m not.”
Casey nodded, taking the phone and running through the process quickly, listening to each message. “They’re pretty much the same as the texts, just increasingly desperate.” She looked at Lina. “No matter what happens, I do believe they love you.”
Lina dragged a hand through her hair. “I don’t know how you can love someone and keep a secret like this. Maybe I’m too upset to even consider their side of things. But that’s the way it is. I need to regroup. Then I’ll talk to them.”
Another nod. “Obviously, they realize you’ve spoken with us. So I have to tell them we gave you the truth about being a triplet. Otherwise, they’ll know I’m lying and all hell will break loose. And with your permission, I’d like carte blanche about what else I say. Maybe the right provocation will trip them up and make them give something away.”
Without hesitation, Lina agreed. “Go ahead. I don’t care what you tell them. I’ll be having it out with them soon enough. But in the meantime, just keep them away from me, and from Gia and Dani.” Without realizing it, Lina turned to her sisters for comfort. And also without realizing it, each of them offered it—Dani with a hug and Gia with a supportive stroke of her shoulder and soothing words.
The moments that followed were tense.
Finally, the front doorbell sounded—a prolonged ring that meant one of the Brandos was leaning on it.
“My facial recognition database says that Joseph and Donna Brando are here,” Yoda supplied. “They are highly agitated, judging from their vital signs.”
“I’m sure they are,” Casey answered, already rising and heading out. “Thanks, Yoda.”
She went straight to the front door, punched the entry code into the Hirsch pad, and let the Brandos in.
“Where’s our daughter?” Joseph marched past Casey and planted himself in the hallway, gazing rapidly around. His wife followed suit, her eyes swollen and red from crying.
“I have no idea,” Casey replied. “Why don’t you call her and ask—or isn’t she speaking to you?”
Joseph’s eyes narrowed in anger. “Don’t play me, Ms. Woods. Donna and I have left a dozen messages. We’ve also checked in with her friends and stopped off at her apartment. She’s nowhere to be found. Which leads me to believe you’ve filled her in on your theory.”
Casey folded her arms across her chest. “It’s not a theory. It’s a fact. And, yes, we told her. It was necessary to the investigation we’re conducting. And frankly, she has the right to know.”
“It was our right to tell her,” Donna shot back. “She’s our daughter.”
“Donna.” Joseph silenced his wife before she could say anything else incriminating. She’d just admitted that there was something Lina should be told, which was all but admitting that FI’s accusations were true.
Casey seemed neither surprised nor disturbed by the admission. “It’s not necessary to censor your wife’s words, Mr. Brando. As Marc and I told you earlier, we have concrete DNA evidence. We also have proof that all three girls’ birth records were forged. So, whether or not you discuss the truth, we have it.”
Joseph bristled. “I’ll repeat my question. Where is our daughter? You obviously communicated with her either by phone or in person to tell her your theory.” He wasn’t going to back down about using that word.
“We met with her earlier,” Casey said, her own stare telling him that she wasn’t intimidated. “We relayed the facts. She was very upset. My guess is that she needs some time and space to absorb the enormity of what she learned.”
“Is she all right?” Donna asked, her motherly concern outweighing her discretion. “You say she was upset. How upset? She must have been emotionally crushed.”
“Lina is a strong young woman,” Casey replied, feeling a twinge of sympathy for Donna Brando. It was unclear how much she knew about Angelo’s involvement in the adoption. But either way, she loved Lina. And Lina loved her. Deception or not, she’d raised and nurtured Lina from infancy to adulthood. She was the only mother Lina had ever known. “Lina will come through this, Mrs. Brando. She has a great support system.”
“A great support…” Donna caught on to that before Joseph did. “You’re not referring to her friends, are you?”
“No. I’m not.”
Donna swallowed hard. “You’re talking about the other two girls you claim are her sisters. Does that mean she’s met them?”
“A short while ago, yes. She could very well be with them right now. They have a lot to share and to catch up on.”
Donna had begun to cry. “Can you tell us about them?” She shot her husband a look that said I’m doing this. “Whether or not your claim about them being triplets is true, I need to know.”
“And I need to know about this supposed investigation you’re conducting that led you to Lina in the first place,” Joseph said.
“Our investigations are confidential—as are the identities of the other parties involved.” Casey gestured toward a nearby anteroom. “But in this case, interviewing you is critical. So let’s talk.” A quick glance at Joseph. “We’re not the enemy, Mr. Brando. We’re actually protecting your daughter from possible danger.”
“Danger?” He looked alarmed, which was exactly the reaction Casey was hoping for. Like his wife, he loved Lina. “What danger?”
Donna was already halfway to the anteroom. “Joseph, let’s hear what Ms. Woods has to say. If Lina is in danger, we need to know how and why.”
The three of them sat down in the leather chairs. Casey didn’t insult them by offering them refreshment. This wasn’t a social call.
“What do you know about a man named Anthony Ponti and his wife, Carla?” Casey purposely didn’t give them time to think. The first reaction was usually the real one.
Both the Brandos looked blank.
“Who?” Joseph asked.
Casey repeated the names.
Again, blank.
“We have no idea. Tell us who they are and why you’re asking,” Joseph said.
“They were a young couple who lived in Brooklyn. They were shot and killed in their own home. The killer was never found.”
hat’s horrible,” Donna said. “But what does it have to do with Lina?”
Casey sidestepped the question. “Anthony worked for your friend, Angelo Colone. He handled collections for Colone’s construction company.” A pause, during which time Casey angled her head in Joseph’s direction. “You do represent that company, correct?”
For the first time, Joseph shifted in his seat. “My firm does, yes. Neil is the attorney of record. I handle Angelo’s estate and I handled his personal affairs. I doubt you’ll be surprised to hear that he and I were childhood friends.”
“I’m also not surprised to hear you separated yourself from his questionable businesses. Any hint of impropriety, either then or especially now that your career goals are so much loftier, would put an end to your political future.”
Joseph’s eyes narrowed. “Are you threatening me, Ms. Woods?”
“I’m reminding you that being forthcoming is in your best interests.”
“If Joseph won’t, I will,” Donna surprised her by saying. “But please, tell us where you’re headed with this story about the murdered couple. Are you suggesting that Angelo had something to do with their deaths?”
“Donna.” Joseph cut her off again. “Let’s listen, not ask questions.”
For the moment, Donna complied.
“Since you and Angelo grew up together, I assume you knew Jimmy Colone, as well.”
“Of course I did,” Joseph replied. Casey could see the pulse at his neck beat a little faster. “He was Angelo’s kid brother. He followed us around, always trying to please Angelo. And Angelo was always protective of him. Jimmy took off when he was a teenager. There’s nothing else to say.”
“So you have no idea where he is?”
“None. Why would I?”
“Interesting about his disappearance,” Casey said thoughtfully. “He vanished a month after the Pontis were killed. That was twenty-seven years ago. Oh, and I neglected to mention one key point. The Pontis had triplets. Three identical baby girls. They were kidnapped from the murder scene.”
“Oh dear God.” Donna swayed in her seat. “Are you saying those are the triplets… that Lina…”
“Donna,” Joseph snapped, although his own face had gone sheet white.
“I’m only stating the facts,” Casey replied. “And the final fact is that, as of a few weeks ago, physical threats have been made against two of the triplets. I have no reason to believe that Lina won’t be next. Unless you can think of a reason why she’d be spared?”
“Joseph…” Donna began, staring at her husband.
“We’re leaving.” Joseph came to his feet. “We have to find our daughter, to make sure she’s safe.”
“Very well.” Casey rose, too, closing with a bomb that had just occurred to her. “If that’s the way you want to play it, fine. But let me leave you with one parting thought, Mr. Brando. I’d follow your wife’s lead on this one. Because for twenty-seven years, there’s been a killer out there, and an unsolved murder case that I’m sure the NYPD would be glad to close. The girls want closure, as well. So, with their testimony, the tampered birth records we’ve uncovered, and the DNA evidence we have, I’m sure we can get a court order to exhume the Pontis’ bodies.”
Donna gasped, but this time, Casey ignored it, determined to drive home her point.
“One test would prove, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that Anthony and Carla Ponti were the girls’ natural parents. At which point, the girls would be well within their rights to reopen the case. So think about it while you’re searching for Lina. Cooperate and you’re merely a man who was so desperate to adopt a baby that he didn’t ask questions about the paperwork involved. Fight us and you could be found complicit in a double homicide.”
Park Slope, Brooklyn, New York
Jimmy sat down heavily on the edge of his bed, wiping the perspiration off his face, taking deep breaths to steady his nerves.
His whole life was about to be obliterated—again. And this time, it would be forever.
He reminded himself that he was a survivor and that, thanks to Angelo’s guidance, he’d learned to do what had to be done. He wasn’t eighteen anymore. He was far older, more mature, and definitely prepared. He’d been making provisions for years now, just in case. He’d set up that offshore account in the Cayman Islands. He’d been stashing large amounts of cash in his home safe. And his passport had been ready and waiting for this one-way trip to Montenegro.
After his telltale meeting with Joseph today, he’d set the wheels in motion. He’d withdrawn the maximum amount of money from his local bank account and wired the rest to his Cayman Islands account. He’d emptied his home safe of the stacks of cash, his passport, and the antique pistol Angelo had passed down to him from their father—the very pistol that had killed the Pontis and started this snowballing nightmare. He probably should have dumped the weapon a long time ago. But he couldn’t. Partly because he was terrified that the cops would find it and partly because it was a gift from Angelo. And now—it was just as well that he’d kept it, just in case he needed it again.
He’d chartered a plane from New Jersey’s Teterboro Airport to Podgorica Airport, Montenegro—a country that had no extradition policy with the US. The flight plan was filed and the jet was ready to go. And his bags were packed and loaded in the trunk of his car—all but the duffel that contained the items from his safe. That bag was right by his side, where it would remain.
So, yeah, this time he was ready. He’d followed Angelo’s advice to a tee. His big brother might be gone, but he’d coached Jimmy carefully, reminding him all these years that, given the nature of his crime, he might someday have to truly vanish at a moment’s notice. The escape plan was well thought out, even though both brothers hoped and prayed that it would never have to be implemented. But as they both knew, life happens.
Well, life had just happened. And it was time to go.
For the umpteenth time, Jimmy cursed himself for the events of twenty-seven years ago. Why the hell had he taken it upon himself to make that hit? Angelo had already arranged for one of his mob soldiers to do it. But Jimmy had jumped the gun, confident that he could do it faster, better, determined—yet again—to prove himself to Angelo. Instead of coming out the hero, he’d screwed everything up. Rather than making Angelo proud, he’d showed up at his doorstep like a whimpering child, freaked out to the max and juggling three squalling infants in his arms. As if, by giving them to Angelo to shape their lives rather than leaving them for the cops to find, he’d be making up for blowing away their mother.
What an asshole he’d been.
He’d poured out the whole story to his brother. And, shit, had Angelo been ripping pissed—especially about the babies he now had to deal with.
“Why didn’t you leave them there?” he’d snapped. “You’d fucked up enough already. What do I look like, a goddamned wet nurse? What am I supposed to do with them?”
But in the end, Angelo had calmed down, and he’d known just what to do. He’d called on one of the young lawyers on his payroll to play the part of Constantin Farro, adoption lawyer. The attorney had drawn up the necessary papers, made the necessary visits, and once the job was done,
gotten a fat payment in exchange for fading into the woodwork. Angelo had used his far-reaching connections to doctor records, forge birth certificates, and—most of all—to make provisions for Jimmy’s disappearance.
Fulfilling Joseph’s and Donna’s dream had been the one thing that had quieted Angelo’s rage. He knew how badly they wanted a child, how long and hard they’d tried to have one, and how heartbroken they were at the lack of results. This was Angelo’s chance to give them one. And he’d made that happen, too. He’d also carefully chosen the other two couples—the Russos and the Muranos-- because they were so desperate to adopt a child that they were willing to accept all conditions without question. Still, in the event that, over time, they “forgot” the rules, he’d put long-term surveillance into place to ensure there were no violations.
It had all come together. And it would have stayed that way if two of those fucking triplets hadn’t found each other.
Jimmy rose from the bed. The time for reflection was over. It was time. He had to leave his cushy life behind and run.
He’d just grabbed his duffel bag when his cell phone rang.
His iPhone screen told him it was Joseph.
Jimmy couldn’t ignore him. The risk was too great. Given the precarious state of affairs right now, Joseph would track him down like a hunted deer if he blew him off. And Jimmy had no idea how much more Joseph had learned.
He had to answer and find out.
“Hey.” Jimmy wondered if Joseph could hear his heart pounding right through the phone.
“I’m headed home,” Joseph replied in a voice as hard as stone. “Meet me at the gazebo. Leave now.”
“Why? What’s going on?”
“We’ll discuss it when you get there.”
A Face to Die For by Andrea Kane / Mystery & Detective / History & Fiction / Thrillers & Crime have rating 4 out of 5 / Based on32 votes
ANDREA KANE SERIES:
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Forensic Instincts
Kingsleys in Love
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The Girl Who Disappeared Twice
The Murder That Never Was
Drawn in Blood
Yuletide Treasure
Wrong Place, Wrong Time
The Last Duke
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By Rebecca Taylor
Nobiskrug’s Artefact is an Eco-Friendly Hybrid Superyacht
Previously known as Project 790, the 260-foot hybrid yacht will be delivered in 2019.
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Photo: Courtesy of Nobiskrug
Everyone loves a good scale model, especially when it’s giving us a sneak peek of a grand and glorious future. That’s exactly what we got at the Monaco Yacht Show last month, when a scale model of the newest project to come from the Nobiskrug team was unveiled. Project 790—now known as Artefact—is the first hybrid superyacht to have a DC bus, batteries, and a variable-speed ABB Pod propulsion system. Captain Aaron T. Clark commented that “many traditional aspects of superyachts’ [general arrangements] have been challenged and reimagined in this design to create an unprecedented experience while minimizing impact on fragile marine ecosystems.”
The yacht’s exterior design was completed by Gregory Marshall Studio in Canada with interior styling by London’s Reymond Langton Design. The plans followed the owners’ strict guidelines that would reflect their commitment to the environment, while also allowing maximum comfort on board. To accomplish that, the traditional arrangement has been turned on its head, with the master stateroom situated aft, instead of at the bow, and guest areas are placed in low-acceleration zones.
Nobiskrug’s Artefact is scheduled for a 2019 delivery. Photo: Courtesy of Nobiskrug
Due to the new technological features, not only will Artefact issue lower emissions, the yacht will offer a smoother, quieter ride without the usual noise and vibration levels. Following numerous stories about the destruction of our sea beds by large anchors and increased marine traffic, a Dynamic Positioning System has been added to allow the yacht to hold its position for longer before needing the use of an anchor.
While moving toward greener technology has been growing within the superyacht industry throughout the last couple of decades, it is with the advancements in design and technology that we are really able to see new growth here. Vesna Bloetz, Nobiskrug’s marketing manager, says, “We are grateful to have the opportunity to work with such visionary owners and appreciate very much their involvement in pushing the boundaries for what is possible in marrying the eco-conscious science in yacht projects.” With more and more owners investing their own time and money into the research and development of eco-friendly solutions, the industry is able to create new pathways in the area.
“Artefact is a perfect marriage of art and science through innovative architectural design and advanced engineering,” says Holger Kahl, managing director at Nobiskrug. The yacht will be delivered to its owner in 2019.
Nobiskrug
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A robotics club for ages 8 and up.
All-Ages League
Open House Week Begins August 26
Jason McGarvey
RoboKai will kick off its grand opening with a week of open houses at its new club in Midlothian.
RoboKai, a new competitive robotics club for kids aged 8-14, will be hosting open houses from August 26th through August 31st so parents and kids can learn more about our classes and competition programs.
We will be giving HEXBUG Nano Habitat sets to the first 25 students who sign up as members. Orientation sessions for the 2019-2020 competition season will begin September 13, and classes will start the week of September 30.
We are located in the Village Marketplace Shopping Center at 13114 Midlothian Turnpike, next to Hallmark. Our open house hours will be from 10am until 8pm on Monday through Friday, and 10am until 5pm on Saturday.
Follow us on Facebook for more info, https://www.facebook.com/MyRoboKai.
RoboKai is a locally owned and operated company. Founded by two veterans of competitive youth robotics, our goal is to provide a fun, exciting program where kids can build and program robots, make friends, and compete at local, state, and international levels.
13114 Midlothian Tpk., Midlothian, VA 23113
© 2019-2020 All rights reserved. Some photos used by permission of VEX Robotics.
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All posts tagged "Paycheck Protection Program"
Politics1 month ago
Unemployment Numbers Spike as Renewed Stimulus Talks Stall
Weekly unemployment claims have spiked to 853,000, their highest numbers since mid-September as job growth falters. Economists say that without another stimulus package, the U.S. economy...
Congress Faces Make-or-Break Week on Stimulus, Government Funding, and Defense Bill
Congress is facing three major deadlines this week: the stimulus bill, the government funding bill, and a defense bill that provides troop raises. All three, however,...
MrBeast, Jeffree Star, and FaZe Clan Received Coronavirus Relief Loans
Jeffree Star, MrBeast, and FaZe Clan all received Paycheck Protection Program loans designed to help small businesses during the pandemic, according to a ProPublica database that...
Senate Republicans Unveil Stimulus Proposal. Here’s What You Need to Know
Senate Republicans on Monday announced the $1 trillion HEALS Act, their version of a coronavirus relief bill. Among other things, the bill includes cutting unemployment to...
U.S.6 months ago
Catholic Church Granted at Least $1.4 Billion in PPP Loans
An analysis from the Associated Press found that the Catholic Church received at least between $1.4 and $3.5 billion in federal coronavirus relief aid. The report...
Los Angeles Lakers Return $4.6 Million PPP Loan
The Los Angeles Lakers paid back the $4.6 million they received from the Paycheck Protection Program. The Lakers were eligible for the loan because they only...
Harvard Returns $8.6M in Relief Funds After Backlash
After receiving backlash, Harvard said it will return $8.6 million that it was given in federal aid through an education relief fund created by the stimulus...
Big Businesses Sucked Up Initial PPP Funding, But More Is in the Works
Reports show that publicly traded companies received $243.4 million of the total $349 billion of funding in the Paycheck Protection Program, which was designed for small...
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SF Insider > Uncategorized > Is the Food at SPQR in San Francisco Worth the Wait?
Is the Food at SPQR in San Francisco Worth the Wait?
CC BY 2.0/Stu Younger/flickr
The letters SPQR are easily found all around Rome and many parts of Italy. SPQR stands for Senatus Populusque Romanus, meaning “the Senate and People of Rome.” It was a declaration of independence by the common man, giving rise to many advances in knowledge and creativity in Rome. As such, it’s an appropriate name for an Italian restaurant that aims to change the game when it comes to Napoli cuisine. Here’s what makes SPQR in San Francisco different.
Happy Little Sardines
Walking inside SPQR doesn’t do a lot visually. It’s pretty small, and the decor isn’t very classic or amazing. But something very different is happening to one’s nostrils at the same time. The aromas of homemade pasta, fresh herbs and crispy bread grilling make one’s sense of smell believe it has died and gone to whatever heaven Rome has to offer. There isn’t a lot of space to stretch one’s legs, but there are plenty of tables to share with friends. High ceilings keep the scene from feeling claustrophobic, and the atmosphere is fresh. But expect things to get kind of loud as the night goes on. Good Italian food does that to people’s inhibitions. The bar itself is likely to be packed with walk-ins, so making reservations is a really good idea.
The Delightful Sacrilege of Reinventing Michelangelo
French food gets reinvented all the time. And people love to deconstruct Asian flavors and put them back together with interesting combinations of cilantro, peanuts and seafood. But few chefs dare to mess with classic Italian. Many San Francisco restaurants that cook Italian — while awesome in their own way — focus on the whole recipes-inherited-from-nana sort of thing. Italian is always comfort food, rustic and rich (except when it isn’t). SPQR dares to add things like sea urchins to pasta, fill ravioli with duck and persimmon and make a ton of dishes where tomatoes play a very small part. Fresh veggies left whole and roasted tenderly sum up the restaurant’s contemporary flair nicely.
SPQR’s menu changes often to adapt to seasonal ingredients, but there are several amazing dishes to look for. The suckling pig is tender and perfectly cooked in each of its six different forms, like succulent loin medallions, crispy porchetta and pork terrine with mustard seed. The rabbit lasagna is piled high with smooth rabbit, tart tomatoes and farm-fresh cheese. Abalone Alfredo has a creamy sauce with Meyer lemon and bottarga roe.
The Michelin-Star Effect
The fact that SPQR has a Michelin star despite the unimpressive locale says a lot about how incredible the food is. Not surprisingly, that star comes with a solid price tag. It’s not a $200-per-person experience, but it’s also not a corner bistro where slices of pizza go for $7.50. The wait is definitely worth it, though, with on-point gastronomy that changes the way one looks at Italian. Oh, and the wine list? It’s 17-pages long. Figure in a few perfectly paired Napa and Italian vintages over dinner.
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Posts tagged ‘love’
Go You or I
Ninety-nine point nine percent of all the people in the world are exactly the same. Exactly. We are more kin than stranger. We are more alike than different. We share more than we own. The infinitesimal difference between us is nothing much at all, and is often due more to luck than intent.
No, it isn’t because of all the wonderful things we’ve individually accomplished to make ourselves uniquely special. It isn’t because we’ve worked so diligently that we’ve earned our blessings. It’s just blind luck.
As blind as justice that lets most criminals escape and most victims suffer without relief and many innocent bear the weight of the true criminal. As blind as the man dragging his fingers along the wall that keeps him out before he realizes it’s a barrier to keep him from falling into a chasm. As blind as the baby in the womb who can’t see his mother’s face yet trusts that the salty sea will continue to nourish until he’s pulled into a dry embrace that feels aberrant . Until he is calmed by those arms, those breasts, those noises so unlike the lu-DUB lu-DUB he’d found his first salve, and falls asleep to his new comfort.
We all need and want, dream and aspire. You the limelight, her the career, him the acknowledgement, them the community, me the opportunity. Really, no more a difference than a wooden plaque or bronze statue.
And after the applause or the star on the chart, all we really want is to be loved.
Someone who gets us and gives to us, who wants to be near us in body and thought, to hear our voice the last sound at night, to say our name first thing in the morning , to share our vision and argue about what that might be. To hold our hand when we worry, cool our head when we fever, weep with us over our failures, and admonish us when we step out of line.
It’s because we are loved – because YOU are loved, that I want to say to you: The path has few markers we can see, the cheers never last until dawn, the shelf on which the trophy sits gets dusty faster than we can earn another. None of that matters as much as that you are here in the world. And that someone loves you.
When you fear the ache, when you despise the dark hole, when doubt makes you nauseous, when you believe that one more moment is unbearable, reach out. The despair is temporary. The flesh burn heals. The tumult in your soul calms. Call someone and talk. Call me and I’ll listen. Put out your hand, we’ll grab hold and not let go.
Ninety-nine point nine percent of all the people in the world are exactly the same.
Except one of those people loves you. Do not forget nor forsake the one who loves you. For if that momentary relief by rope or pill or bullet or knife removes the pain from your heart, it empties the pain into the one who loves you. And it stays forever in their marrow, as long as they live. Their tears never dry, they wonder always if they were the reason, they search every frontier trying to find the explanation. Trying to bring you back. Trying to remind you that they miss you and need you.
We are all saddened and shocked by the suicides last week of two remarkably talented and admired superstars. Heroes who brought us the world and brought the world to our door. As much as we, their fans and supporters, miss them and wonder what crucial need we didn’t fill on their behalf, it is the two young daughters left behind who will bear the weight of their absences.
Ninety-nine point nine percent of all the people in the world are exactly the same. But those young girls are unique and different. They were your point one percent. I wish you’d lingered over their pictures one millisecond longer because I bet you would have reconsidered your actions. I bet you would still be here. Please do not let your permanent solution be their permanent grief.
There but for fortune, may go you or I.
The title words Go You or I are borrowed from the song There But for Fortune written by Phil Ochs in 1964. He was a brilliant and sensitive man who suffered from mental instability and succumbed to his despair by committing suicide in 1976. Before that, Phil Ochs left a legacy of hundreds of songs about the many social and political issues that brought him to grief. His work has been sung by dozens of famous recording artists and is on the lips of the millions of us who remember him and hope he knows we still praise the man who helped make us aware of the rest of the world.
Weeping Nude, 1914, by Edvard Munch
Everyday Life, inspiration, writer's life
public persona
End the argument with a slammed door, the house will crumble
Turn away with a shrug, we will speak again
Face disappointment with clenched fists, the fury will resume
Share thoughts with open palms, we will be friends again
Stitch a broken heart with regret, the wound will fester
Mend it with self-examination, we will love again
Our wedding certificate was sealed with fading ink
But our hearts beat like the first time we saw each other
Our journey canted through unknown territories
Though we planned on traveling together always
We spoke in rage, acted from frustration, stomped with fear
Please meet me for coffee, I want to give it another chance
I know your name as it is also mine
Painting The Kiss by Gustav Klimt
inspiration, Just a Thought, Poetry, writer's life
Balm is not love nor even understanding. Love is an act in which we choose to engage. Understanding is the obligation of being human. Balm is inclusion. Inclusion is the soothing peace from which we all benefit, one hand extended to another, all hands linked, around the world, around the world and back again.
Around the world into the future.
Painting detail, Hands of God and Adam from Creation of Adam by Michelangelo, Sistine Chapel
inspiration, Just a Thought, writer's life
U is for The Unbearable Lightness of Being
The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera is considered the Czech writer’s masterpiece. He is regarded as one of the world’s most important authors, having won numerous awards, commendations, international acclaim, and often short listed for the Nobel Prize in Literature. Being is one of the most unusual novels I’ve ever read. In fact, I couldn’t get through it the first two times I tried, so you’d be right if you’re questioning whether this is actually my favorite U book. I’m glad I finally completed it but it was a challenge from beginning to end.
I don’t think it’s possible to read Being without knowing something of the background of Kundera’s life and the history of Czechoslovakia. Kundera was born in Brno in 1929 and lived much of his adult life in Prague. The book reflects some of the events of his life. In fact, all of his books except for the very last describe life in Czechoslovakia. I’m no expert on this history, and what I do know I gleaned from the Internet and a bit of awareness of world issues as they happened.
Kundera’s first political association was with the Communist party but he eventually gave it up in favor of championing human rights, Czech political freedom, and support of the arts. He was one of many intellectuals who participated in the Prague Spring in 1968 in opposition to the Soviet invasion and takeover of his country. They banned his books. They reduced many of the intelligentsia and artistic community to second class citizenry and encouraged them to leave the country. Kundera and his wife emigrated to France where he taught at university, continued to write, and eventually became a French citizen. All of this is loosely exposed in Being, especially in the character of Tomas, Kundera’s alter ego.
The book begins with a lengthy discussion of human existence as a challenge between positive lightness, without emotional burden, and negative heaviness, requiring eternal return. Since we only get one life, we have no basis for comparison to determine which quality reflects life more accurately.* Many people take refuge in the aesthetic kitsch of religion or other distracting and sentimental activities to escape from Soviet oppression, a situation the author found deplorable and expressed within the viewpoints of characters. Kundera’s question about lightness versus heaviness is at the heart of living under a totalitarian government that destroyed the very nature of his country. Were I to be asked, I find the novel loaded with author intrusion, an absolute no-no according to modern writing standards (and many readers’ tastes.)
Ordinary writing rules don’t count under such circumstances. Throughout the book, philosophical arguments take more space than the activities of the characters. Most of the action revolves around their sexual relationships and betrayals, a kind of carousel of bed hopping, party attendance, and café sitting. Kundera devotes pages to definitions of words that later impact the characters. Words like “woman,” “cemetery,” and “the beauty of New York” create an internal dictionary of important ideas. Yeah, let’s you or I try that tactic in our novels and see how well it’s accepted by editors or readers.
Tomas, the primary character, is a brilliant surgeon who questions the quality and meaning of his life. He engages in an astonishing number of throwaway sexual liaisons, even while claiming to love only his wife, Tereza. At first a waitress escaping her vulgar mother, Tereza becomes a capable photo-journalist. She is always emotionally dependent on Tomas to the point that she is sickened and feels betrayed by his sexual exploits.
Tomas’ most important other sexual partner is Sabina, a talented painter and free spirit who even wins over Tereza. Sabina stays true to her values and eventually settles in America where she disavows her homeland and her past. The final significant character is Franz who becomes Sabina’s other lover. Franz lives a tragic life and dies abroad though he is essentially a kind person who recognizes his mistakes.
All four characters flee Czechoslovakia, though Tomas and Teresa return. Their lives take a difficult turn under the Communist occupation which demands slavish obeisance to party lines. They are forced to give up their previous professional identities. Their skills are wasted doing menial jobs, yet they accept this reduction in their status.
My most favorite character (actually, the only character I like) is the smiling dog, Kerenin. Tereza walks Kerenin every day to get a bun which he carries home in his mouth and does not eat until he roughhouses with Tomas. Though we know long before the end of the book that Tomas and Tereza die together in a car accident, for which no details are provided, it is Kerenin’s illness, death, and funeral that take up the final passages of the book. Other than anger at the heartlessness of the Soviet regime, only this section made me feel an emotional response to anything in the story.
The Unbearable Lightness of Being is a serious and important work for its depiction of the conflict of loyalty when one’s beloved country is invaded by an oppressive regime. It portrays the ways in which people tolerate and submit or flee and survive. Or rebel, as the author did. It doesn’t let you forget you’re reading a book the Communists hated. This is the distracting weight of the book for me, and it created a cleft between me and attachment to the story. As writers, we’ve learned that we must know the rules before we break them, and we better not break them unless we know how to do it so the entire story doesn’t shatter. Kundera knows how. I didn’t love this book but I will never forget it.
If you’ve read this book or any of his other works, I’d love to know your impression.
*My explanation of the basic conundrum of the book is poorly described here, but Kundera gives it plenty of space and makes it comprehensible.
I look forward to learning about your favorite U fiction books.
One other book that was a serious contender for U:
Up the Down Staircase by Bel Kaufman
Book cover image courtesy: Google images and Harper Perennial
Alphabet, book review, inspiration, writer's life
Czechoslovakian history
Russian invasion
Soviet oppression
H is for The History of Love
The History of Love begins with an obituary and ends with the same – not a propitious beginning for a novel unless it is written by Nicole Krauss. Fortunately for readers, this book is. It contains a book within the book, one that is published under a thief’s name, and a view about love so enduring that no other person can take the place of the beloved. It is also about a search for a child, a child’s search for identity, and the true authorship of books.
This book won my heart as a reader but also as a writer. The first time I read it was pure pleasure as I became immersed in the story, eager to find out the ending but reveling in every phrase written, every image suggested, every new twist to a maze of a story. At the second reading, I paid attention to Krauss’ brilliant plot construction, character development, and psychological insight. She is a master writer, and for someone like me still learning to write, she is an entire writing class in a single volume.
The book is dense with imagery and poetic language, a gift for those who savor words and yearn to be kidnapped by story. It’s also complex and confusing, demanding sleuthing skills usually reserved for murder mysteries, and I found myself re-reading passages to reorient within the novel. The two main characters are each haunted people who brought me to tears and occasional laughter as I unraveled their stories. Leo Gursky, an old Polish Jew, now lives in New York. He is a Holocaust survivor without heirs or friends, afraid of dying alone and unrecognized. Once spying on the son he didn’t know about until, he is devastated to learn that he has died, a famous author who never knew his father. Leo has loved one woman in the world, and for her he wrote a book about love.
Fourteen-year-old Alma Singer, bereft from the loss of her father to cancer, is convinced she is named after an Alma from an old story about undying love, her parents’ favorite. She wants to find a man who can love her grieving, widowed mother and give her a reason to live. Her younger brother, Bird, is strangely obsessed, believing he is one of the thirty-six lamed vovnik, the righteous people chosen by God for whom the world is made. Like many impassioned teenagers, Alma feels the world’s weight pressing upon her shoulders and struggles to balance the responsibilities of saving herself, her brother, and her mother.
Tangled in the journeys of these two is the history of the book Leo wrote decades earlier and another book that Alma’s mother is translating. Both of course are Leo’s The History of Love. Then there is Zvi Litvinoff, who has claimed and secretly published Leo’s book as his own work; Bruno, Leo’s one friend until he dies; and Isaac, the son Leo never met. A less polished writer might have written a muddle of a book out of such disparate parts, but Krauss penned a taut and multi-dimensional story.
The end is somewhat ambivalent, readers debating exactly what has happened, a bit of magical realism claiming its part of the story. What is understood is that love is all consuming and eternal, that sometimes the obvious facts don’t add up until you find all the other facts, and that no matter who writes a book, love endures and makes all things possible. Krauss has conveyed intuition about writing, love, relationships, and identity in a story with an apt title.
My favorite line from the book is this: Once upon a time there was a boy who loved a girl, and her laughter was a question he wanted to spend his whole life answering. Who of us does not want to be so consumed by love that it spins our world and lets us breathe?
It’s a book I’ve kept and one I’ll read again, not to discover more of the writer’s technique but for the pure pleasure of enjoying a story well told. And that is what a good book should be.
The History of Love won the 2008 William Saroyan International Prize for Writing for fiction.
Other books that were serious contenders for H:
The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
Harry Potter (entire series) by J.K. Rowling
Hawaii by James Michener
Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
Heidi by Johanna Spyri
Heir to the Glimmering World by Cynthia Ozick
The Help by Kathryn Stockett
He, She and It by Marge Piercy
The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
House of Sand and Fog by Andre Dubus
The House of the Spirits by Isabelle Allende
The Hunt for Red October by Tom Clancy
The Hundred Secret Senses by Amy Tan
I look forward to learning about your favorite H fiction books.
Book cover image courtesy: Google images and W.W. Norton & Company
Alphabet, book review, inspiration
The History of Love
Tramp with Me the Prairie
Tramp with me the prairie, shaft and grain
We’ll mow down the swat-knee grass
Share stalks of brittle wheat between us
Lips kiss, remind our hearts to beat again
Ford with me the river, pool and cascade
We’ll slosh through opaline ripples
Spray unfiltered water along our thighs
Hips touch, we slide and shiver, gasp for air
Climb with me the mountain, cliff and gorge
We’ll bushwhack a cloddy trail
Break live oak limbs that scratch our arms
Bloody wounds, mine into yours into mine
Hike with me the desert, sand and ravine
We’ll roam across arid gullies
Weave spiney ribbons around our heads
Cheeks sore reddened with sun, by wind
Surf with me the ocean, froth and wave
We’ll float on currents far from shore
Bind seaweed between our damp wrists
Ride a waxing swell ashore on our backs
Quest with me new frontier, stars and moon
We’ll explore the trajectory of flight
Orbit bare into milieu of solar dust
Universe small for the breadth of our being
Prairie image courtesy goodfreephotos.com, public domain images
inspiration, Poetry
Once a plum tree in spring, roseate petals toed on bare limbs, opens to sun,
Moth limps wet from its brittle cocoon into moonlight and raw leaf excess,
Onion swells from its torn dry shell, each layer transparent, unfurling,
Pungent odor stinging nose, swelling eyes, slimy sap burning cuts on flesh
Once a chick pecks sharp at marquise shell, totters hungry in noon warmth,
Trout slurps surface of jadeite pond, then glides through secret current,
Silent rainbow glitters after storm, melted gem colors, netted by clouds
Elusive, moves away from capture, away from certainty, to somber dark
Once evening’s sultry wind, morning’s dewy breath, vague languor
Honey from the hive, dripping sweet and gravid, orange, sage, tupelo,
Sting of the bee, startled, angry, defensive, only a brief defense,
Threat of more, to frighten, to ache, to paralyze, enough to kill
Once risen lovers, heated hearts, desperate for passion, fight and dance
Surety of souls meant to find each other, anywhere, everywhere, forever
Wisdom of warriors, aged, battered, gasping, marching on one leg, you and
I, winter now, crusted tears, tenuous, plum petals fallen from our fingers
In honor of National Poetry Month
Plum Tree image courtesy publicdomain.com
If we lie on the beach, reach through froth
press into sand as our bodies crush each into other
the bowls made by our hips gather seeped ocean
edges rise like glass battlements piercing sky
and promises string salty tears across our backs
When we finally stand to leave, shake off foam
waves sneak up and, lobbing salty spit, rush back
washing away the sculpted stamp of our bodies
does the first carving of sand made of us tell the truth
or is it the ruined print after the wave recedes to sea
I do not know how far to horizon will wane the tide
how long the sand will repose from brine and tears
all I know is to marshal grains, impress our forms
and begin to rebuild the battlements of our union
because it’s what we do, we gather ourselves again
Beach image, public domain
First Laugh
Pierces morning’s vault
Splits the full belly of sky
As stars plunge through clouds
Light shatters, hot grease on ice
And skitters into cosmos
A billion shrieks ascend –
That rare –
Sets fire to forest
Ignites trees from roots to limbs
As leaves crush against the earth
Birds abandon nests too hot to mind
And flit toward ashen boughs
A million fingers flex –
That flame –
Blisters sleeping lips
Allures harbored secrets of young
As touch lifts the wedding veil
To expose the modest heart
Breaching limbs shiver in heat
A thousand hairs tremble –
That raw –
Sears frugal thoughts
Swells the full bore of self
As the private two of them blend
Vows freeze, all oaths suspend
And promises collapse in shreds
A single spark of bliss –
That lone –
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siamodolcetto » Pop » Ferrante & Teicher - Lonely Room / Theme from 'The Apartment'
Ferrante & Teicher - Lonely Room / Theme from 'The Apartment'
Ferrante Teicher London Records 1960
Performer: Ferrante & Teicher
Title: Lonely Room / Theme from 'The Apartment'
Record source: Vinyl, 7", 45 RPM
Label: London Records
Cat#: 45-HLT 9164
1 Lonely Room
2 Theme from 'The Apartment'
Theme from The Apartment is a tune composed by Charles Williams and performed by Ferrante & Teicher. The song was originally released in 1949 and entitled Jealous Lover. It reached No. 9 on the Cashbox chart, No. 10 on the Billboard Hot 100, No. 24 on the Billboard R&B chart, and No. 44 on the UK Singles Chart in 1960. It was featured on their 1960 album The World's Greatest Themes. The song was arranged and produced by Don Costa. The song ranked No. 53 on Billboard magazine's Top 100 singles of 1960. Theme from The Apartment - Ferrante & Teicher. Лента с персональными рекомендациями и музыкальными новинками, радио, подборки на любой вкус, удобное управление своей коллекцией. Theme From The Apartment Love Affair Fantasy D'Amour Dreams Lonesome Heart Lonely Room Lovers In Paradise Dream Rhapsody Romance Forever Loved Lovers and listen online Theme From The Apartment by Ferrante & Teicher. Genre - Pop. Duration 03:00. Format mp3. On this page you can download song Ferrante & Teicher - Theme From The Apartment in mp3 and listen online. Pop Rock 'n' Roll. Ferrante & Teicher. 1960 Billboard Top Pop Hits. Artist: Ferrante, Teicher, Song: Theme From 'The Apartment', Duration: 3:01, File type: mp3. Ferrante, Teicher Lonely Room. download 3:19. Ferrante & Teicher Midnight Cowboy. all songs . Other listen. departure time. Artist: Ferrante & Teicher. Album: Theme From the Apartment Remastered - Single, 2011. From the 1960 film The Apartment. The song is also titled Jealous LoverThe Key to Love. With music by Charles Williams. Has been played on. And other albums from Ferrante & Teicher are available on sale at Recordsale. Artists F Ferrante & Teicher Theme From The Apartment, Lonely Room. Посмотреть сведения об участниках альбома, рецензии, композиции и приобрести альбом 1960 Vinyl от The World's Greatest Themes на & Teicher. Theme from The Apartment. The Apartment, Theme from. Music by Charles Williams, recorded by Ferrante & Teicher Piano Sheet Item: 00-20413X
Related to Ferrante & Teicher - Lonely Room / Theme from 'The Apartment':
Ferrante And Teicher - Ferrante And Teicher With Percussion
Apartment 213 / Benümb - Apartment 213 / Benümb
Ferrante & Teicher - Exodus
A.C.T. - Last Epic
Ferrante And Teicher - Exodus / A Rage To Live
Young The Giant - Apartment
Various - Great Motion Picture Themes
Ferrante & Teicher - Theme From The Motion Picture "Goodbye Again"
The Humblebums - Shoeshine Boy / My Apartment
Ray Ellis His Orchestra And Chorus - Lonely Room
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12 May 2014 / articlePermalink
A desperate plea for Internet freedom
resir014@gmail.com
So I woke up one day, pulled my laptop out for my daily dose of Reddit when I was greeted with this welcoming sight:
Yes. As of 25 April 2014, Reddit and Imgur was blocked by my ISP as part of compliance with the TRUST+ Positif program, or more commonly known as the Internet Positif (Positive Internet) program. I was, indeed, annoyed by my ISP's actions, but they only use a low-level DNS blocking, so I switched over to using Google Public DNS and it worked again. Though unfortunately with mobile network forcing all kinds of connection through their own DNS, I can no longer access them from my phone at all.
This program was incited by Indonesia's current Communications & Information Ministry, Tifatul Sembiring. He — or as I will further refer to him as "Tiffy" — has a pretty huge Islamist background (more on this later), and so by his powers as the Communications Ministry he decided to launch a "porn filter" program, where ISPs are required to block these so-called "abusive" websites, which, according to them, contain one of the following:
Phishing/malware
Of course, this was made for our own good, right? So we can safely browse the Internet without fear of malicious websites attacking our computers? Well, it's more than that.
The Internet Positif program mostly work on submission report, and although they have a team which reviews these sites one by one, most likely they didn't even check the contents of the page. One of the first websites blocked by the Internet Positif program was Gaya Nusantara, the first, oldest website for the Indonesian LGBT community.
And herein lies the huge flaw behind the entire program.
Fast-forward to around yesterday, someone on Twitter pointed out that Vimeo is also blocked by their ISP for reasons unknown.
pak @tifsembiring boleh jelaskan kenapa situs vimeo kena block? anda berasumsi bhw semua org yg buka vimeo nonton porno? come on pak
— Ika Natassa (@ikanatassa) May 11, 2014
"Excuse me Mr @tifsembiring (our current Communications & Information ministry) could I have some explanations on why Vimeo got blocked? Do you seriously assume everyone who goes to Vimeo watch porn? Come on."
This might be Tiffy's last swing of the bat, since he will be going out office when his term ends in a few months. That is, unless he's re-elected for the same position again.
Even though Vimeo haven't already been blocked by my ISP as of now, this signals that I might have to prepare for the worst. Although it's not only Vimeo who took the toll.
Another person on Twitter tweeted a more complete list of the websites being blocked by the Ministry:
Vimeo, Reddit, Imgur, FanFictionNet, PirateBay sudah diblokir semua. Internet sehat my ass.
— Bernadette Maria (@doggudoggu) May 11, 2014
Now we should take note that all of these websites has little to no pornographic material. If it does, they have an internal process of blocking that content whilst showing a message that the content is not suitable for those who are under 18.
Like seriously. What is their logic behind this? Does this mean that YouTube, Blogger, Tumblr and the like should be blocked entirely because they contain a tiny dash of pornographic material? Does this mean Google has to be blocked because it indexes porn in their searches?
Do they even actually check these websites one by one before outright blocking the entirety of it? Do they just enter a website, then type out "porn" on the search box, then block it when it brings out any results?
That's pretty much like a government requesting to shut down an entire supermarket because someone complained that there are rats wandering around on the food section.
And where's the transparency? I never seen them bring out any valid reasoning as to why they were blocking these sites. This has a large probability that it could get misused, and start to abuse their power in controlling the online media that they started blocking websites they don't want you to see.
I'm sorry Tiffy, your so-called "porn filter" is good I know, but when you start to misuse it by blocking websites they don't want you to see? That's borderline censorship to me. That's abuse of power.
As I said earlier, Tiffy, our Communications & Information minister has a pretty huge Islamist background. He is affiliated with the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), and is known to have incited some controversial discussions, mainly on his Twitter account.
He once tweeted a derogatory statement about HIV/AIDS that links pornography to AIDS, which led to outrage among sufferers of HIV, then pointed out that funding to fight the disease was a waste of money. He later stated that the widespread availability of Indonesian pornography, mostly featuring students, caused natural disasters.
He also has been known to quote Adolf Hitler on some of his tweets.
As for his contributions to the tech world in Indonesia, he has contributed nothing at all. Sure, telco companies might have begun testing 4G LTE around Jakarta, but in reality, even our 3G networks are still limping. Digital television availability is still scarce, and no HD broadcast of public television are still available.
We have a communications and technology minister who fear technology. What a fucking joke.
That pretty much sums up how our Internet has become. Now I stand before you, begging for help as this is starting to get out of hand.
Update: The blocking of Vimeo has brought up protests in the Indonesian twitterverse, and as of Monday morning, the Ministry of Communications & Information has unblocked access to Vimeo Everything else remains blocked.
Update 2: The Communications Ministry has pulled a double reversal, now stating that the block on Vimeo is mandatory for all ISPs.
Update 3: A local Al Jazeera cameraman posted a video expressing his anger on the blockage of Vimeo.
Update 4: Vimeo has said that they have received the official request sent by the Ministry and are working to resolve the issue.
Update 5: Changed the name "Internet Sehat" to "Internet Positif" to avoid confusion with Internet Sehat, a non-profit organisation promoting safe browsing on the Internet. Internet Positif is purely a government program.
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Video Game Underworld
Category Archives: Movies
Pixels – 2015 Film
Posted on January 11, 2016 by jplaj
Having a hobby that the world has villainized for over three decades, I can’t help but react to the slightest bit of recognition thrown at video games. Fortunately, Hollywood has given us exactly that: the slightest bit…that recognizes thirty-year-old games..with an Adam Sandler movie. This validation couldn’t get any smaller if they had hired a team of nuclear physicists to assemble it by smashing protons together in a particle accelerator. Actually, I kid, but having grown up in the nineties, I have a confession to make, which they tell me is the first step toward recovery; I actually like Adam Sandler. Billy Madison? Hilarious. Happy Gilmore? You couldn’t make a better sports movie if you recast the Mighty Ducks with the Playboy Bunnies. And honestly, after Wreck-it-Ralph decided fans of classic video games would love to watch the inbred love-child of Mario Kart and Candyland, I actually appreciated a movie that got the classics right.
Mr. Sandler, this is Mr. Kong, and I believe he’s not happy about spending $13 on Spanglish.
The film follows an over-mature man child–no, not like Big Daddy. He’s a character who acts like a child–no, not like Billy Madison. He’s actually an unlikely prodigy–but not like Happy Gilmore. He’s kind of socially awkward–no, not like Little Nicky or Anger Management–and tries to win over a girl who is unbelievably hot–but not like 50 First Dates–and…you know what? Why don’t I just start over.
One of them built a career on a notoriously foul mouth, and the other on Happy Gilmore. I hear they do a great duet of “Ode to my Car.”
Pixels follows four friends–Happy Gilmore, Paul Blart Mall Cop, Tyrion Lannister, and the snowman from Frozen–who won their fifteen minutes of fame by the age of twelve setting record high scores for Galaga, Pac Man, Donkey Kong, and other silver-screen era arcade games. Beldar Conehead took the footage from the competition and blasted it into space, whereupon aliens mistook it for a declaration of war, and they emulate the forms of the games they see in order to invade. Apparently nothing makes an invasion strategy look stronger than footage of adolescent boys systematically dismantling it with apparent ease. Fast forward thirty years, and United States President Blart Mall Cop has to pull the country together to stave off this invasion. Naturally he turns to his long time friend, who now installs home theatre systems in the D.C. area. Because the skills required to hit buttons while standing in front of an arcade cabinet easily translate to heavy weapons proficiency in a first-person, physical environment. In the end, Sandler hooks up with the insanely hot Lieutenant Colonel, which is not a spoiler for an Adam Sandler movie, and Olaf the Snowman fucks Q-Bert, which I unfortunately did not exaggerate in any way.
See, boys and girls? If you practice writing and get real good at it, you too can create parts for yourself that require making out with the most attractive people on the planet.
Generally, any audience will accept coincidence more readily at the beginning of a story, but Pixels asks us to take quite a bit on faith. When we see the president as a self-absorbed bastard with a flair for indulgence in sex, drugs, and partying, we get that. In fact, he surprisingly bridges the ideological differences between George W. Bush and Bill Clinton. But suggesting that he comes from a background that enables him to know any blue collar workers, let alone still associate with them, seems a bit of a stretch. And the fact that both of them had a personal hand in starting the invasion that they both personally help repel…well, a religion based on the sixty-five-year-old writings of a washed up sci-fi author who asks celebrities for exorbitant subscription fees starts sounding pretty reasonable by comparison. Then we have to follow that the insanely hot, Sandlerishly milfish (she has to have a kid because Sandler needs an early-adolescent boy in all his films to connect with on an intellectual level) Lieutenant Colonel just so happened to call President Mall Cop’s drinking buddy for her son’s PS4 installation, that people exist who both need help with that and who provide professional services for that, that her husband left her based on physical appearance, and that she gave birth to a son–presumably at the age of twelve, based on how old she looks–without any noticeable change in her figure.
Pixels creates a world about as realistic as an M.C. Escher drawing, but with an elegance more on par with a self-shot sex tape after knocking the camera off the nightstand. Sandler plays the same character as always: that kid who scored major cool points in middle school because he had older brothers who taught him dirty words and let him take their Playboys, and then graduated to high school and couldn’t understand why his eat-anything-on-a-dare routine didn’t impress people anymore. The dialogue has all the wit and humor of that thing your buddy said while drunk and you later posted to Facebook. But I don’t want to give the impression that the film is worthless.
A Lannister busy paying his debts.
First off, Peter Dinklage has been hailed by prophecy as the anti-Sandler, he who will be born unto the world every thousand years to blight other actors with the realization that acting means completely playing pretend, not just being a slightly different version of yourself in every movie. Dinklage created his character from the ground up, and it comes off as fully enjoyable to the point where you wish he had a bigger part…uh…no pun intended. It’s good to see him get roles based on his talent, rather than every other dwarf actor who shows up when a director needs a short character, and then gets stuffed back into a closet or a duffle bag, or an overhead compartment on a cessna.
Second, this movie has figured out something–likely 100% accidentally–that no other video game movie to date seems to have realized: gameplay. Barring well-written stories in games like Final Fantasy or Silent Hill, people watch these movies because they like the way the game plays. Pixels doesn’t try to give an origin story to Pac Man, a tragic plot arc to Centipede, or some crazy MacGuffin to explain why the tetrominoes have such a beef against horizontal lines. None of that shit! Donkey Kong chucks a barrel at Sandler’s head? Sandler climbs up the scaffolding to kick his monkey ass! Big-ass centipede dropping out of the sky? Sandler grabs a gun and shoots for the head. Tetrominoes filling up the streets, making the buildings disappear? Sandler…well he doesn’t really do anything about that, but the point is that’s what happens in the game.
And before you harp on me about praising the film’s details…yes I know they’re supposed to use magic wands against the centipede.
The film has details. Lots of details. Scenes where fans of arcade classics can scan the crowd and recognize the bloke riding an ostrich, the frog hopping in front of cars, or the bipedal fried egg running around as though it would actually be menacing in real life. And these aren’t any tongue-in-cheek references either. No ha-ha-they-call-him-Ralph-but-that-game-looks-like-Donkey-Kong attempts at satire. These are actually the games we played thirty years ago, come back to seek revenge for when we ran out of quarters to feed them. You could watch this half a dozen times and probably catch new details on each viewing.
If, you know, it wasn’t a generic disposable comedy, filmed to view once and then discard like a used condom: an awesome idea the first time, but after using it you don’t really want people to see it sitting on your shelf. Much like the condom, if you get the opportunity, I’d say go for it; it’ll be fun. I did say earlier that I like Adam Sandler (just not in that way), despite the common criticisms…some of which I’ve conveyed here, myself…and the movie has its moments. However, if you have trouble with staying power, good news; it turns out this film was based on a 2010 short film of the same name, and–much like your experiences with the condom–it’s over after two and a half minutes.
Posted in Movies | Tagged Movies | Leave a comment
Super Mario Bros. – 1993 Movie
Posted on May 1, 2014 by jplaj
Out of all the decisions this movie made that I don’t like, I actually agree with their choice of tagline.
Not many people respected video games in 1993. I had spent the better part of four years obsessed with the idea, though, and after begging and pleading for my parents to let me buy a used Nintendo and a hoard of crappy sports games from one of my dad’s students, I finally got my wish and had my very own box of magic entertainment—which they promptly made me sell if I wanted to buy the Super Nintendo. Needless to say, I often felt treated like a leper for basically wanting to entertain myself. My community of friends at school extended about half the distance of a normal nine-year-old, so I had a great deal of trouble seeking out like-minded individuals to discuss the finer points of proper Mega Man boss order, how to make Link’s tools from scrap wood lying around the house, and whether or not a power-up mushroom would jump back out of the lava and let you grow to nearly the size of the screen (Note: It never happened…until the New Super Mario Bros. I think Nintendo had spies listening in on our playground conversations).
King Koopa: Fearless, terrible, all-powerful, and obsessive germophobe
Captain N: The Game Master and the Super Mario Bros. Super Show aired irregularly and infrequently, so when they announced a live action film version of the game, I just about had a nine-year-old aneurysm from over-stimulation. A video game movie! How did God approve that one? Did the grown ups know about this? Fuck yeah, they knew. They just didn’t care—as evident by the movie itself. See, I recently looked up this milestone film for old time’s sake…then shut it off halfway through. But then I obtained the rifftrax file to sync up with the movie and then…then! I could get through the film without vomiting out of my ears from the horror.
The keen observer may notice several subtly placed allusions to the Super Mario Bros video game series. To examine the effort they put into making this movie, I want you to read the excerpt from the NES instruction manual (I assume from the movie’s title that they decided to skip Donkey Kong and Mario Bros and go straight to Mario’s upgrade to Super):
“One day the kingdom of the peaceful mushroom people was invaded by the Koopa, a tribe of turtles famous for their black magic. The quiet, peace-loving Mushroom People were turned into mere stones, bricks and even field horsehair plants, and the Mushroom Kingdom fell into ruin. The only one who can undo the magic spell on the Mushroom People and return them to their normal selves is the Princess Toadstool, the daughter of the Mushroom King. Unfortunately, she is presently in the hands of the great Koopa turtle king. Mario, the hero of the story (maybe) hears about the Mushroom People’s plight and sets out on a quest to free the Mushroom Princess from the evil Koopa and restore the fallen kingdom of the Mushroom People. You are Mario! It’s up to you to save the Mushroom People from the black magic of Koopa!”
We all know about Mario’s predeliction for sea food…no jokes about Bertha swallowing him whole, though.
Excellent! A single eighth of a page of source material, and the screenwriters have plenty of information to work with. The first sentence alone provides us with a premise, a setting, a victim, description of the villain and a pretty strong clue as to their methods. As a writer myself, I know exactly where I could go with mushroom kingdom and black-magic wielding turtles—obviously to mammalian, humanoid evolutions of dinosaurs in modern day Brooklyn. Perfect match!
Seriously, if you need compelling evidence that the free market economy does not follow natural rules that inevitably leave customers with the highest-quality product that will satisfy them, look no further than this movie (although any other video game movie offers pretty good support to this thesis). I imagine they met with the screenwriter and said, “So we have a simple premise. A plumber…”
“Yeah yeah. Whatever. Mario rides that Yoshi guy my kid won’t shut up about, right? Some story about dinosaurs. Got it, got it. Now leave me alone.”
I have to credit the writers with creativity, though. For those of you who know the premise of the game…well, forget it because it will only confuse you. A mysterious narrator who only appears for the film’s opening explains that the meteor at the end of the Cretaceous period didn’t kill the dinosaurs, but split them off into a parallel dimension where they evolved in a way that eliminated the need for hiring a costume design team. Koopa, in the only fraction of the film that resembles the game in any way (kinda), turned the King into a fungus using his…magical?…de-evolution machine and set himself up as an Orwellian despot, keen on invading neighboring dimensions for lack of any actual neighbors to invade. Although Princess…uh, Daisy (really? The one from the game boy? Okay then…), while not possessing a mushroom’s sack worth of power to challenge Koopa, happens to have a fragment of the meteor that somehow can unite the two dimensions, sort of like a cyberpunk Dark Crystal. Except her mother abandoned her in Brooklyn, where she grew up and fell in love with…uh, Luigi? Really? What, did the director really feel that fans would respond better to Mario dating someone out of My Cousin Vinnie than the Mushroom Princess?
Who could forget the loveable, chestnut-mushroom…hulking ape-lizards that…dance?
Meh. Forget the story. If you really want to understand how badly these guys missed the mark, they cast Dennis Hopper as Koopa. Dennis. Fricken. Hopper. Why not just hire Quentin Tarantino to write the script and hand it to Martin Scorsese to direct? Silence of the Lambs came out only two years earlier…I think Anthony Hopkins could have done an excellent job as Mario, don’t you think? Who casts Dennis Hopper in a light-hearted fantasy about mushroom people? And they didn’t stop themselves with turning Koopa into a calculating, predatory monster. Nope. Goombas (and I think koopa troopas?) became towering, 8-foot tall behemoths. Big Bertha became a bad-ass gangster woman who outweighs Mario and Luigi put together. Toad appears as a folk singer. A folk singer! I rather enjoy folk music, but when the source material describes his job as “Mushroom Retainer,” I expect him to pick up his sword and stoically fight off Koopa’s minions to his last feudalistic breath, not sparking up a doobie and serenading us about the evils of anti-union robber barons. The harmonica doesn’t quite have the same power to change the course of politics as a claymore to the skull.
Oh, God! Dennis! Keep that thing to yourself. You already make us feel uncomfortable.
Let’s run down a list of game elements that may potentially remind Mario lovers why they wanted to see this movie. Mushrooms? Nope. Castles? Nope. Fire flowers? A few enemies use flame throwers, but I think those found themselves in the film by accident. Jumping—you know, Mario’s original name? Accomplished once or twice—sorta—via rocket-powered shoes. Koopa Kids? Turned into Koopa’s cousins (well, one of them, at least), but bear a stronger resemblance to Dumb and Dumber than anything else. Yoshi? Looks like either an emaciated velociraptor or a baby skeksis who might die under the weight of a saddle. Turtles of any kind? They didn’t even spring for used costumes from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie. Going through pipes? Maybe once, I think. They didn’t even have the decency to make anything in the movie out of bricks.
“Well, you got anything from the game?”
“Mario uses a bob-omb.”
“What? No catches?”
“Well, it wears Reeboks.”
“Perfect. They’ll love it!”
Over twenty years have passed since people started making movies based on video games, and no one has yet figured out that these movies wouldn’t epitomize the finest points of turtle shit if they bothered to write a script actually based on the games. I’d like to make an offer, and since most google searches that lead to my blog involve the terms “bdsm pc game,” I can reasonably expect plenty of viewers from Hollywood; I will, free of charge, write you a good script based on a video game. Absolutely free. I guarantee I know how to do it better than anyone who has ever written a video game movie. I only demand that if people actually like it, you have to do every video game movie the same way.
Mamma mia! Did we a-just make-a this piece-a of shit?
I’d love for a chance to re-make Resident Evil into a horror film, or write a Silent Hill script that follow’s James Sunderland’s crippling guilt. I wish I didn’t have to point out to Square Enix how they screwed up Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within by making it sci-fi instead of fantasy, setting it in New York instead of Midgar, leaving out swords, moogles, chocobos, airships, summoned monsters and everything else that actually makes it a Final Fantasy storyline. At least they haven’t gotten their meat hooks into Metroid or Castlevania.
And Hollywood, if you don’t take my offer…at least give us the Mario Bros remake with Hopkins, Tarantino and Scorsese. Now that I’ve had a chance to think it over, I’d actually like to see that.
Posted in Mario, Movies, WTF? | Tagged film, mario, WTF | Leave a comment
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This technical and slightly self-involved album revolves around Catalogue d’Oiseaux (“Catalogue of birds”), a work for piano solo by Olivier Messiaen. The full work is 13 pieces, devoted to birds and dedicated to his second wife Yvonne Lorio.
The CD takes in the first three, the Alpine chough (chocard des Alpes), The Eurasian golden oriole (loriot d’Europe) – there must be some punnery there between loriot and the future Mrs Messiaen, Ms Lorio – and the blue rock thrush, aka merle bleu and possibly an equally punning reason for the album title.
It’s erratic and angular; the birds each represent a French province so we assume the music is meant to capture something of the essence of each area. However, while technically impressive it’s a little too jarring to create an atmosphere, as the listener is always too aware of the instrument, though it does mellow towards the end. The sleeve notes give a full explanation (and can be downloaded from the Divine Art website).
English composer David Gorton follows, fitting in nicely with the Messiaen, but his piece, Ondine, being less intrusive and more atmospheric. Ondine is a water spirit and the music captures the sound of water splashing spiritedly.
Karol Szymanowski closes the programme and it’s a smoother ending, and although the piano never lets the listener relax Szymanowski works in what we thought was perhaps a jazz air but the sleeve notes say was a result of his visits to Persia. Either way the starker piano is gradually replaced by a richer and fuller sound. An interesting and substantial album, maybe better aimed at people who like the technical side of the piano as opposed to a nice tune.
Out on Divine Art, DDA 25209.
Help the artist make a living. Buy from here.
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The Messenger Birds: Everything Has to Fall Apart Eventually →
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The Ring-tum Phi
Moving from Fear 2 Freedom
Yearly event assembles kits for victims of rape, abuse, violence and sex-trafficking
Caroline Brady and Asha Campbell
“Tonight, you are the solution,” president of Fear 2 Freedom, Rosemary Trible, said to students at Washington and Lee’s Fear 2 Freedom Celebration Night on March 10.
Students gathered in Evans Dining Hall to raise awareness and assemble after-care kits for victims of seuxal assault. The evening was sponsored by Fear 2 Freedom and The Facing Sexual Violence Project of Rockbridge County to inspire change in an uplifting manner.
This was the third year W&L hosted the event. According to co-leaders Hayden Yates, ‘16, and Elena Diller, ‘17, they plan to host it again next year.
“I’m immensely proud to plan and coordinate Fear 2 Freedom, continuously inspired by the event itself and those volunteering,” said Diller. “The aftercare kits rectify, albeit a small amount, the dehumanizing experience of a sexual assault by providing one of the first sources of comfort in the recovery process.”
Fear 2 Freedom is a non-profit organization that aims to support victims of sexual assault. The group provides after-care kits to victims of rape, child abuse, domestic violence, and sex trafficking. The kits, which will be donated to the Augusta Health Center and Carilion Clinic Family Medicine, contain clothes, toiletries and a teddy bear. The purpose of these items is to make the victim more comfortable during his or her exam period.
“I love the way F2F brings together young men and women for an important cause, fostering both community as well as activism,” Annie Persons, ‘15, said.
The after-care kits also include notes of support and comfort to the victims. Renee Pullen, a sexual assault examiner from Augusta Health, located in Fishersville, Virginia, said the notes can have a very powerful impact on the victims who read them. She said the kits make the exam visits a little less intrusive for patients.
“It means something to the patients that there’s somebody out there that cares about them besides the nurses and people in the hospital,” Pullen said.
The Facing Sexual Violence Project was started here last year in an effort to increase awareness about the prevalence of sexual violence in Rockbridge County by fostering constructive conversations. The group’s goal is to combine more than 100 personal accounts, stories, art, and other information into a book that is expected to be released some time this spring.
“The Facing Sexual Violence Project is proud to support the Fear 2 Freedom event,” said Noelle Rutland, ’17, one of the founders of the Facing Sexual Violence Project. “Events such as Fear 2 Freedom are integral to raising awareness about the prevalence of sexual violence and demonstrating support for survivors of sexual assault or abuse.”
Participants said they were particularly moved by one student’s account of sexual assault. This was the first year that the event featured a student speaker. Last year’s speaker, who was not a member of the W&L community, focused on her experiences with domestic violence.
“So often we hear stories and shocking statistics about rape and sexual assault and immediately put them off as something that could never happen to us,” Lindsay Castleberry, ’17, said. “But hearing W&L students who have been personally affected made it so much more powerful.”
Rutland said the survivor’s account of her sexual assault is important in helping students understand how real this issue is, even if they haven’t been affected personally.
“The presence of a student survivor as a speaker at the event serves as a reminder that sexual violence is a reality which occurs on our campus,” Rutland said. “And it is up to us to take a stand against it.”
As Kim Ruscio, wife of W&L’s President Kenneth Ruscio, said: “It is wrong anywhere. It is wrong everywhere. But it is especially wrong at Washington and Lee.”
Remembering Ted DeLaney
Senior student athlete organizes student panel to amplify diversity and inclusion
COVID-19 Update: W&L plans for winter and spring semesters
Winter Study Abroad Uncertain as Second Wave Hits
Student Athlete Feature: Courtney Berry ‘21
1,100+ sign petition for credit/no credit option
VMI to move Stonewall Jackson statue after national scrutiny
Students host halloween-themed sexual health awareness week
Contact Committee hosts Andrew Yang
COVID-19 update: students muse on this semester and the next
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http://scigraph.springernature.com/pub.10.1007/s40616-017-0076-8
Authorship Trends in The Analysis of Verbal Behavior: 1982–2016 View Full Text
Rodrigo Dal Ben, Celso Goyos
The Analysis of Verbal Behavior (TAVB) is the only journal focused on theoretical and empirical research in verbal behavior. An assessment of authorship trends can provide a critical perspective on practices in verbal behavior analysis (e.g., participation by non-US institutions, contributions by female authors). The present study examines authorship trends in all articles published in TAVB since its inception (between 1982 and 2016). All authors and their affiliations were listed and the first authors denoted as such. Authors were characterized as follows: prolificacy, new vs. frequent contributor status, number of co-authors, editor status, fellow status in a professional organization, and gender. Institutional affiliations were characterized as follows: academic vs. nonacademic institutions, prolificacy, and location (country). The review included 383 articles by 487 authors from 200 institutions. Our findings revealed areas in which TAVB is reaching maturity (e.g., author gender) and areas in which further action by contributors and editors is needed (e.g., international participation). More... »
2013-12-11. Bibliometrics: Global gender disparities in science in NATURE
2009-04. Publication Trends in The Analysis of Verbal Behavior: 1999–2008 in THE ANALYSIS OF VERBAL BEHAVIOR
2012-04. Common goals for the science and practice of behavior analysis: A response to Critchfield in THE BEHAVIOR ANALYST
2015-10. Training Intraverbal Naming to Establish Matching-to-Sample Performances in THE ANALYSIS OF VERBAL BEHAVIOR
1991-10. The Speciation of Behavior Analysis: The Unnatural Selection of Foxes and Hedgehogs in THE BEHAVIOR ANALYST
2006-10. On Chomsky’s appraisal of Skinner’s Verbal Behavior: A half century of misunderstanding in THE BEHAVIOR ANALYST
2000-10. Women in applied behavior analysis in THE BEHAVIOR ANALYST
2015-06. The Functional Independence of Mands and Tacts: Has It Been Demonstrated Empirically? in THE ANALYSIS OF VERBAL BEHAVIOR
2003-04. Behavior Analysis, Relational Frame Theory, and the Challenge of Human Language and Cognition: A Reply to the Commentaries on Relational Frame Theory: A Post-Skinnerian Account of Human Language and Cognition in THE ANALYSIS OF VERBAL BEHAVIOR
2015. Origins of Clinical Innovations: Why Practice Needs Science and How Science Reaches Practice in AUTISM SERVICE DELIVERY
2015-05. Research Rankings of Behavior Analytic Graduate Training Programs and Their Faculty in BEHAVIOR ANALYSIS IN PRACTICE
2010-10. I’ll save the world from global warming—Tomorrow: Using procrastination management to combat global warming in THE BEHAVIOR ANALYST
2011-10. Interesting times: Practice, science, and professional associations in behavior analysis in THE BEHAVIOR ANALYST
2012-04. The Effect of Joint Control Training on the Acquisition and Durability of a Sequencing Task in THE ANALYSIS OF VERBAL BEHAVIOR
2010-10. Buying green in THE BEHAVIOR ANALYST
2011-04. A quantitative analysis and natural history of B. F. Skinner’s coauthoring practices in THE BEHAVIOR ANALYST
2016-10. The Effects of Blocking and Joint Control Training on Sequencing Visual Stimuli in THE ANALYSIS OF VERBAL BEHAVIOR
2001-10. Neither dark age nor renaissance: Research and authorship trends in the experimental analysis of human behavior (1980–1999) in THE BEHAVIOR ANALYST
1982-01. Editorial gatekeeping patterns in international science journals. A new science indicator in SCIENTOMETRICS
2009-04. A Quarter Century of The Analysis of Verbal Behavior: An Analysis of Impact in THE ANALYSIS OF VERBAL BEHAVIOR
1997-10. International Publication Trends in the Experimental Analysis of Behavior in THE BEHAVIOR ANALYST
1995-10. A Self-Capitalization Model for Building Behavior Analysis Graduate Programs in THE BEHAVIOR ANALYST
2015-10. The Analysis of Verbal Behavior: a Status Update in THE ANALYSIS OF VERBAL BEHAVIOR
2012-04. Using a Lag Schedule to Increase Variability of Verbal Responding in an Individual With Autism in THE ANALYSIS OF VERBAL BEHAVIOR
1997-04. Relating Equivalence Relations to Equivalence Relations: A Relational Framing Model of Complex Human Functioning in THE ANALYSIS OF VERBAL BEHAVIOR
1997-04. Editorial in THE ANALYSIS OF VERBAL BEHAVIOR
2011-04. Analyzing Stimulus-Stimulus Pairing Effects on Preferences for Speech Sounds in THE ANALYSIS OF VERBAL BEHAVIOR
2000-04. Using Intraverbal Prompts to Establish Tacts for Children with Autism in THE ANALYSIS OF VERBAL BEHAVIOR
1999-03. Gaining scientific recognition by position: Does editorship increase citation rates? in SCIENTOMETRICS
2015-10. Research Productivity Among Practitioners in Behavior Analysis: Recommendations from the Prolific in BEHAVIOR ANALYSIS IN PRACTICE
2004-04. Toward the globalization of behavior analysis in THE BEHAVIOR ANALYST
2006-04. The Effects of a Stimulus-Stimulus Pairing Procedure on the Unprompted Vocalizations of a Young Child Diagnosed with Autism in THE ANALYSIS OF VERBAL BEHAVIOR
2012-04. Increased Variability in Tacting Under a Lag 3 Schedule of Reinforcement in THE ANALYSIS OF VERBAL BEHAVIOR
1983-10. Twenty-five Years of JEAB: A Survey of Selected Demographic Characteristics Related to Publication Trends in THE BEHAVIOR ANALYST
2012-04. The Effects of Listener and Speaker Training on Emergent Relations in Children With Autism in THE ANALYSIS OF VERBAL BEHAVIOR
2010-04. The Effects of Listener Training on the Emergence of Tact and Mand Signs by Individuals with Intellectual Disabilities in THE ANALYSIS OF VERBAL BEHAVIOR
1998-10. Women in the experimental analysis of behavior in THE BEHAVIOR ANALYST
2016-01-19. Research gets increasingly international in NATURE
2009-04. Equivalence Relations and Behavior: An Introductory Tutorial in THE ANALYSIS OF VERBAL BEHAVIOR
2009-04. Extending the Assessment of Functions of Vocalizations in Children with Limited Verbal Repertoires in THE ANALYSIS OF VERBAL BEHAVIOR
2008-04. A Functional Analysis of Non-Vocal Verbal Behavior of a Young Child With Autism in THE ANALYSIS OF VERBAL BEHAVIOR
2000-04. Whither the Muse: What Influences Empirical Research on Verbal Behavior? in THE ANALYSIS OF VERBAL BEHAVIOR
2015-10. Prominent Women in Behavior Analysis: An Introduction in THE BEHAVIOR ANALYST
The Analysis of Verbal Behavior
FOR: Sociology
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Federal University of São Carlos
Stress, Burnout And Coping Among Health Professionals
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Scratch & Jesus Press
Posted on January 23, 2018 July 18, 2018 by maxwcoombes
Ty Dolla $ign & YG
Ex was fortuitously released just in time for the hottest summer on record in like 200 years, but it arrived feeling as though it had already soundtracked the (imagined) last twenty summers of the listener’s life as well. Perhaps an insurance move in a ruthlessly accelerated age, it feels like the kind of song that has recently started to appear on throwback playlists by pop culture tastemakers, and that the listener was always familiar with but considered minor until its low-key ascent. Like the best pop songs it sounds like it wants to be throwaway, adhering to the reverse logic of pop music that a disposable few minutes means minutes of ecstasy emblazoned in eternity.
The song’s bassline brings to mind the kind of Cameo-inspired beat Pac would’ve employed for a crossover hit (in reality 112 got to it first), and the guitars squirm like vintage DJ Quik. Its timeline as a period-piece is complicated by Ty’s chorus which plays like Pac contemporaries Jay-Z and Snoop’s early-mid 2000s singles runs orchestrated by The Neptunes. What would have already sounded sunbaked and wistful in 1996 would have been doubly so when 1996’s veterans sunbaked themselves in 2004, and so hearing it reappear a decade and a half later without the constancy of a veteran threatens to destabilise the illusion altogether. What seals it here is the presence of YG, who is one of the more successful time-traveling mid-90s Compton rappers since The Game appointed himself 90s Compton hagiographer over a decade ago. The presence of new generations of retro-gazers delivers on the game’s morbid wish, authenticating his signifiers and burying him with his heroes. YG is less highbrow than his west coast Top Dawg contemporaries and certainly not as out-there as what is happening in the south (and has been happening for decades), and so stands in for a kind of nostalgic conservatism that fans’ll argue isn’t there, but which the rapper certainly fosters on the surface(s). Unsurprisingly in Ex, inserting time-traveling rappers into a triply simulacral beat yields good results when time’s been stretched to the point it’s lost its elasticity. YG’s verse on Ex is present but insubstantial, and is made even weaker when he’s interrupted 3/4 of the way through by Ty who cuts him short, and then allows YG to come back for an uncomfortable fraction of a bar. It is the kind of verse that might have happened to a legit mid-90s Compton rapper on a legit mid-90s r&b track, or that a big name might have phoned in c. 2004, and as such is authentically a non-event that receives both more and less visibility than one might expect.
The thing that stands out as unusual however is the angle of the lyrics. Ex is an infidelity sing-along, but where someone like Pac would dedicate the song to a woman he was in awe of for her confidence and inability to be tied down, Ty and YG boast about their power over people who are absent from the song: silent, almost hypothetical. Adultery-as-virility in music is a well worn trope, but for some reason the sunshine r&b format makes it all ring as corny, like Ty and YG have transformed into two guys in Hawaiian shirts running their mouths to anyone who’ll listen that it’s Christine’s turn to look after the baby and hence they’re gonna live it up just for tonight. Where Pac needed specificity to craft characters, Snoop removed all traces of it for getting blown in general. Ty and YG sound like they want the vibe of the latter but end up tangled in the details of texting to say they’ll not be home and bumping into exes, and this unlocks a weird mundane domestic image that feels sad instead of celebratory. What was Ty’s unfinished business with this woman? Who ended it? Is his going back to her an autodestructive move to exit a relationship in which he feels trapped? In his words she gets him thinking about the old days, signalling that he’s invested in her this image of a better past and he’s willing to ruin anything to feel for a moment like it could be real again. It’s more Woody Allen or Judd Apatow than thug passion. There’s as much to be made from this fantasy of running into an ex/the past incarnate as processed through a droste effect of sunbaked wistfulness as the listener is willing to indulge for Ty, as well as what this means in terms of a song that keeps turning up to have us compare the state of our life to the last time we heard it. When it disappears from radio it’ll either be resurrected by Grand Theft Auto 15 or lurk in the basslines and accidental melancholies of every Ex that came before and after this long hot summer.
The bonus is the video which cuts between a standard (artificial) cinematic mode and brutal digital footage of streets and lowriders that no shit brings to mind Michael Mann: When we did Collateral, it was the first photoreal film shot digitally. You cannot capture night photochemically. Very shallow depth of field, very pretty, diffused, defocused lights; exposure-wise, you can’t get that crazy magenta sky you have in L.A., when the sodium vapor lights are bouncing off the marine layer that’s about 1,200 feet at that time of year, and the soft illumination of magenta and orange is very alienating, very attractive, and lonely at the same time.
Published by maxwcoombes
View all posts by maxwcoombes
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Downhill; Arrives On Blu-ray & DVD May 19, 2020 From 20th Century Studios
April 14, 2020 · by Kevin Lovell · in Blu-Ray/DVD Announcements, Movies, News. ·
20th Century Studios Home Entertainment has officially announced and detailed their physical releases of the dramatic comedy ‘Downhill’ starring Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Will Ferrell. The film is currently available on Digital and will arrive home on Blu-ray and DVD May 19, 2020. Continue below to check out the full announcement for the release including bonus content listings and disc specs, plus artwork for both physical releases and more.
“JULIA LOUIS-DREYFUS AND WILL FERRELL DELIVER”
PETE HAMMOND, DEADLINE
Enjoy an Avalanche of Extras on Blu-ray™ and Digital with an
Alternate Opening, Hilarious Outtakes, Deleted Scenes and More!
DOWNHILL Arrives on Blu-ray™ and DVD May 19
Downhill debuted in theaters on February 14, 2020, after premiering at the Sundance Film Festival in January.
Barely escaping an avalanche during a family ski vacation in the Alps, a married couple is thrown into disarray as they are forced to reevaluate their lives and how they feel about each other. Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Will Ferrell star in this biting comedy. Downhill is directed by Nat Faxon and Jim Rash, written by Jesse Armstrong and Nat Faxon & Jim Rash, and stars Will Ferrell, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Zach Woods, Zoe Chao, Giulio Berruti, Kristofer Hivju and Miranda Otto. Anthony Bregman p.g.a., Julia Louis-Dreyfus p.g.a. and Stefanie Azpiazu p.g.a. are producing with Erik Hemmendorff and Ruben Östlund serving as executive producers.
Go behind the scenes with two comedy icons through hilarious outtakes, an alternate opening and additional bonus content featuring Oscar®-winning writers Jim Rash and Nat Faxon. Add DOWNHILL to your digital collection on Movies Anywhere™ and buy it on Blu-rayTM and DVD May 19.
DOWNHILL Blu-rayTM and Digital Special Features:
Casting the Stanton Family and Friends*
Deleted Scenes:
Alternate Opening
Billie’s Ski Boots
“I Deserve to Be Comfortable”
Outtakes: Dinner with Charlotte
Origins of the Film
*Available on Digital only
Product SKUs: Digital = 4K UHD, HD, SD
Physical = Multi-Screen Edition (Blu-ray+Digital Code) & DVD
Feature Run Time: Approximately 86 minutes
Rating: R in U.S.
Audio: Blu-ray = English 5.1 DTS-HDMA, Spanish & French 5.1 Dolby Digital, English 2.0 Descriptive Audio
DVD = English, Spanish & French 5.1 Dolby Digital, English 2.0 Descriptive Audio
UHD Digital = English Dolby Atmos (some platforms), English 5.1 & 2.0 Dolby Digital, Latin Spanish 5.1 & 2.0 Dolby Digital, French 5.1 & 2.0 Dolby Digital, English 2.0 Descriptive Audio 2.0 (some platforms)
HD Digital = English 5.1 & 2.0 Dolby Digital, Latin Spanish 5.1 & 2.0 Dolby Digital, French 5.1 & 2.0 Dolby Digital, English Descriptive Audio 2.0 (some platforms)
Subtitles: Blu-ray = English SDH, Spanish & French
DVD = English SDH, Spanish & French
Digital: English SDH, Spanish & French (some platforms)
Closed Captions: English (DVD & Digital)
ABOUT TWENTIETH CENTURY FOX HOME ENTERTAINMENT
Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment, LLC (TCFHE) is a recognized global industry leader and a subsidiary of Twentieth Century Fox Film. TCFHE is the worldwide marketing, sales and distribution company for all Fox film and television programming, acquisitions and original productions as well as all third-party distribution partners on DVD, Blu-ray™, 4K Ultra HD, Digital and VOD (video-on-demand). Each year TCFHE introduces hundreds of new and newly enhanced products, which it services to retail outlets and digital stores throughout the world.
Tags: 20th Century Studios, 20th Century Studios Home Entertainment, Blu-Ray, Blu-ray News, Comedy, Comedy Films, Downhill, Downhill BD, Downhill Blu ray, Downhill DVD, Downhill Movie, Drama, DVD, DVD News, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, May Blu-ray releases, May DVD Releases, Movie News, Movies, News, Will Ferrell
← [Blu-Ray Review] Knives Out; Now Available On 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray, DVD & Digital From Lionsgate
The Way Back; Arrives On Blu-ray & DVD May 19, 2020 From Warner Bros →
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Delhi High Court takes cognisance of political commentator S Gurumurthy’s tweets in INX media case
The court, however, did not initiate contempt proceedings against him.
Mar 13, 2018 · 06:06 pm Updated Mar 13, 2018 · 07:35 pm
samvada.org
The Delhi High Court on Monday took cognisance of journalist and commentator S Gurumurthy’s tweets on the court’s decision to grant interim relief to former Union Minister P Chidambaram’s son Karti Chidambaram in the INX media case, Bar and Bench reported.
In an order on March 9, the division bench of Justices S Muralidhar and IS Mehta asked the Enforcement Directorate not to arrest Karti Chidambaram till March 20, the next date of hearing in the case. Later in a tweet, which has since been deleted, Gurumurthy, the editor of the magazine Tughlak, asked if Muralidhar had been a junior to P Chidambaram, who is also a senior lawyer.
A few judges in Tamil Nadu reportedly brought the matter to Muralidhar’s notice, and later the High Court judge called the counsels arguing the case to discuss the matter. Additional Solicitor General Tushar Mehta advised Muralidhar to ignore the tweets as the judiciary would not be able to function if its started taking cognizance of every offensive post on social media. Karti Chidambaram’s lawyer Kapil Sibal termed it an unfortunate incident and observed that politicians and public figures have to face such objectionable posts on social media.
Muralidhar agreed with Mehta, but said that that Gurumurthy is a well-known journalist with a substantial following. He went on to place on record that he was a was a junior only to former Attorney General G Ramaswamy and not to P Chidambaram.
The court, however, did not initiate contempt proceedings against Gurumurthy. It asked the Centre if any action could be taken to protect the judiciary from such “scandalous posts”. Gurumurthy later tweeted that he was deleting the post as he too feels that judges require protection against “wrong news” on social media.
I understand Justice Muralidharan called both side lawyers & told them that he was never PC junior. He felt sad judges have no protection against social media wrong news. Judges need it. I have deleted the tweet asking whether he was PC junior. https://t.co/EhsoIsvMXo
— S Gurumurthy (@sgurumurthy) March 12, 2018
What the EU NGO report claiming to have uncovered a 15-year Indian disinformation campaign tells us
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Seattle-based Glowforge is Sculpting the Future
Just don’t call the laser cutter/engraver a 3-D printer
Ryan Kindel
Seattle startup Glowforge smashed crowdfunding records in the fall of 2015, raising almost $28 million (the original target was $100,000) in 30 days.
But what the heck is it? Although it’s been referred to as a 3-D printer, the product is actually a laser cutter/engraver, says Dan Shapiro, Glowforge’s CEO and cofounder. Whereas 3-D printers are “additive”—they build objects, layer by layer, from the bottom up—Glowforge is “subtractive,” beaming its microscopic laser at materials to cut, engrave and sculpt. The difference means Glowforge is much less expensive than 3-D printers (pre-order prices started at $2,395 on glowforge.com) and easier to use. It’s also a little less capable; to create three-dimensional objects (like the Space Needle model seen above), users have to cut and assemble multiple two-dimensional layers.
The machine has applications for architects, clothing designers, teachers, engineers, artists and others, says Shapiro—but we’re geeking out about its culinary applications: The Glowforge team has so far used it to sculpt seaweed, chocolate and even bacon.
Glowforge defines “cutting-edge” tech.
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Ask an expertCallback
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Client relationships are at the core of my interior design business, read what some of my clients have said about our work together…
Do please contact me to discuss interior design in Surrey, Sussex or Kent.
“Really I think the success of your business is your enthusiasm, drive and ideas.”
Mrs S Fry, North Cheam
"Thank you so much for all your work on our home. We are absolutely delighted with how the rooms have turned out - a complete transformation!"
Mr and Mrs S Simpson, Oxted
Having had so many disastrous experiences with home renovation work your interior design business was a refreshing change. You came in on budget, on time and delivered stunning work. Well done, we will certainly recommend you to our friends.”
Ms A Anderson, Reigate
“Just wanted to say that all the people you work with are excellent and a joy to have around the house. It makes all the difference when life is turned upside down for a month or more.”
Mrs S Jones, Lingfield
“Jayne is fab; down to earth, funny, downright stylish and has some great ideas for renovating homes.”
Mrs H Harris, Horsted Keynes
“Many many thanks. The sitting room worked out so well, it has made a tremendous difference to that side of the house. Thanks again.”
Mrs B Jecks, Blindley Heath
“Many Thanks. It was wonderful to get such good advice and not to have to trawl round the shops. We both loved your ideas and would never have picked them ourselves. We’d just have gone for the same old thing again.”
Mrs S Bradley, Lingfield
“I don’t know how you manage to choose the colours, furnishings, curtains and lighting which I would have chosen for myself. There is definitely a lot of psychology involved in this interior design work. And what a lovely team of people you have, well done to you all.”
Miss H Holden, Horsham, (My Oldest Client Aged 90)!
“I am absolutely delighted with the work undertaken. My house has been transformed and I still get a huge feeling of pleasure when I come home and look around me.”
Ms T Morgan, Croydon
“Just to say how pleased we are with all the work at our home. Right from the start your perception and attention to detail has been very professional and impressive. It was good having someone in overall charge even though the work itself was so good!”
Mr And Mrs N Watson, Reigate
“We were a bit sceptical of a free initial interior design consultation as we were worried about getting a hard sell but you amazed us. You just kept on coming up with brilliant idea after brilliant idea and showed such passion for your job it was a delight. We just felt instantly that you knew what you were talking about and would do a good job.”
Mr and Mrs J Styles, Oxted
“We are absolutely delighted with our new lounge/dining room. From the beginning, Jayne has listened carefully to what we wanted, steered us away from our madder ideas and ensured through her project management that we ended up with a really great living space that was finished ahead of schedule and on budget. Jayne is a true professional and we have no hesitation whatsoever in recommending her.”
Mr And Mrs P Graham, Banstead
“I have been very pleased with your work and more importantly with your straightforward get it done attitude. Too many people dress it up. I will certainly consider you for all show homes.”
Mr J Fudge, The Oracle Group, Epsom
“Thanks for everything. The kitchen work all got done in time. Yippee! Thanks for all your help as I realise it was quite a difficult deadline we had to work to. Please thank all involved for me as well.”
Miss J Gigney, Felbridge
“I know I haven’t been the easiest client but I would like to thank you for your ideas, patience and “staying power!” I really have appreciated your input which has encouraged me to really look at so many other options and choices.”
Ms J Cebunka, Dormansland
“Our first foray into the world of interior designers and we are very pleased with the results. Jayne is a delight to work with and really listened to what we wanted. This combined with great ideas and a good back up team from a variety of trades got the job done to the standard we desired.”
Mr and Mrs B Barrow, Woking
“Well done, you did a great job. It is so nice to be able to go to the office knowing that all the work is going to be done thoroughly and professionally while you are away. You certainly took the hassle out of home renovations and it was great just having one point of contact who shared the same vision as we did for the finished result.”
Mr N Gordon, Croydon
“Just to let you know, when I sold the flat in Fourth Avenue, the increased price I was able to get due to the value added from the works you did for me more than covered the cost of those works. So kudos on a market-confirmed job well done.”
Mr B Hamou, Hove
“Just wanted to say thank you for all your hard work over the last 6 months! Thanks for making the process of major renovation work less painful I’m really pleased with the result.”
Mrs J Francis, Cuckfield
“Once again thank you for all of your help in making our bedroom wonderful, it’s just what we wanted.”
Mr and Mrs R Sanderson, East Grinstead
“It has been my lifetime dream to live in a beautiful home. Having reached my 60s I was in a position to finally realise it. But with no creative ability, and on my own as my husband has sadly passed away, I didn’t know where to start. I contacted Jayne and was delighted to meet this lovely lady who metaphorically held my hand every step of the way. She listened to my “want list” and my “don’t want” list and came up with the perfect ideas for the total refurbishment of my bungalow, including guiding me in picking curtains, lighting etc. Jayne and her great team of professionals were amazing. My dream has now come true. Thank you Jayne.”
Ms A Oliver, Lingfield
“We started the major project of redesigning the interior of our house with only very vague ideas of what we wanted. Jayne not only helped us to clarify and then develop our ideas but also improved on them! She skillfully deployed her very efficient, helpful & cheerful team of contractors who always showed our home the greatest respect, and who completely bought into the vision. The result is a house which has been refurbished and decorated to a standard which has exceeded our expectations and we are tremendously grateful to Jayne & her team.”
Mr and Mrs R Shaw, Horsham
“We have known Jayne Webb on a professional basis for a period of over 14 years. During that time she has renovated and improved the interior of two substantial detached houses of ours. The first was built in the early to mid 1960s and the second in the mid 1950s with a 1930s styling. The first also involved the construction of a large porch. Mrs. Webb’s conscientious attention to detail after carrying out all the research needed particularly in relation to the complicated second property can only be described as second to none. The transformation of the properties and the relief upon us of the pressure of co-ordinating the work involving the exercise of different skills of numerous workmen inspired nothing but confidence in us in relation to her overall successful project management abilities.”
Mr and Mrs K Harris, Worthing
“I am writing to express how delighted I am with the complete makeover service you have provided to ensure I get maximum return on the sale of my property. The difference your ideas have made is tremendous and the simple WOW I heard from visiting friends sums up the dramatic improvements made… The standard of the work carried out throughout my apartment was very high and your flair for maximising the look of a room was another highlight. Your de-cluttering service was also very popular with my friends! Add on the speed of the service and the fun way you conduct your business and it turned the whole process from one I was dreading to one I would happily repeat. The response from estate agents conducting valuations has confirmed that the work carried out will ensure I will get the highest possible selling price. Thank you for providing such an excellent service.”
Mr A Gravestock, Godstone
“Google delivered…. After Jayne’s second visit I just gave her the keys to my house. I felt this was justified after my first impressions of her professionalism and organisation. The effort and planning that Jayne put into the initial part of the project was immense, from structural engineers to colour swatches. She came up with some great ideas and colour schemes, way beyond my limited vision. As the project progressed it became apparent I might as well have the whole house refurbished. The tradesmen from electrical, plumbing, stove installation, decorating and bathroom fitting were professional and tidy, which is very important to me. The finishing touches and accessories, ‘dust collectors’ I call them, were hand-picked by Jayne and really set off every room. The end result isn’t what I asked for, it’s way beyond what I could have dreamt of. I now have an amazing home with awesome rooms that I love being in. Have faith, believe in this lady and dig deep…. it’ll be worth it.”
Mr A Ager, Nutfield
“My wife and I live in Australia and recently engaged Jayne to redecorate and furnish our newly purchased second home – an apartment in Sussex. After a single site meeting, all communications re colours, fabrics, designs and ultimately payments were undertaken via email and internet. We have just made our second visit. The transformation of the apartment looks sensational and addresses all of our practical needs as well. Jayne has a real passion for her work and her insights about our tastes and priorities produced a great outcome for us despite the tyranny of distance. Jayne displayed a hands on and flexible approach and paid attention to the finer details which ensured we were more than happy. We trust Jayne completely and she continues to assist us.”
Mrs and Mrs W Taylor, Sydney, Australia
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Is Chrysler Going to Bring Down the Auto Industry Supply Chain?
- May 15, 2009 10:05 AM |
A recent article in the WSJ, Chrysler's Nagging Quality Issues gave a grim assessment of quality at Chrysler. By the two most visible measures of customer satisfaction, J.D. Powers rankings and Consumer Reports, Chrysler isn't doing very well. In the auto issue of Consumer Reports, not a single Chrysler vehicle made the rankings. "But while Ford and GM are largely battling outdated perceptions of questionable reliability, 'at Chrysler it's a reality,' says George Peterson, president of AutoPacific Inc., which each year surveys 40,000 car owners."
What's going on at Chrysler? Where did they go wrong on quality? And what will be the impact on its suppliers?
Chrysler did manage to rally and improve after a government bailout in 1979. The company became known for its unique and progressive supplier management practices. In 1989, Chrysler created a program called SCORE (Supplier Cost Reduction Effort) in which suppliers submitted cost reduction ideas. These ideas were supposed to have saved Chrysler $1B. Other industries were benchmarking and adopting Chrysler's supplier management practices. This program morphed into the Extended Enterprise Program when Daimler-Benz acquired Chrysler. Now Chrysler suppliers are being wiped out by extended shutdowns of both Chrysler and GM plants. As reported in the ASQ news, Chrysler Canada, for example, while not involved in the Chrysler bankruptcy filing, but in a parts shortage, was forced to close its plants. This has idled 8,700 workers indefinitely. Bill Pochiluk, president of industry adviser AutomotiveCompass, said that these shutdowns may result in the disintegration of the supply chain. Automotive suppliers have little or no cash flow. The number of jobs lost at GM and Chrysler may pale in comparison with the job loss in the automotive supply chain and beyond.
One can only speculate whether the shotgun marriage of Chrysler to Fiat will help them survive. Fiat does not have a solid reputation for quality and many are dubious about the union. But even if the U.S./North American auto industry manages to emerge from all of these troubles, will it have a supply chain left to support it? - Sherry R Gordon
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Home Football Betting Premiership Predictions Weekend Football Tips for 26 ~ 27/09/09
Premiership Predictions Weekend Football Tips for 26 ~ 27/09/09
Categories: Football Betting | Published by: AC
Hello again. Out of last weekends results I correctly predicted five results and of that five I got two correct scores. The correct scores were Aston Villa beating Portsmouth 2-0 & Wolves beating Fulham 2-1. I came very close to correctly predicting that Stoke would win at Bolton (a last minute Bolton penalty denying me) as well as Birmingham scoring a late goal at Hull. I won't bother going on about Manchester United cheating against Manchester City with the help of the referee as I will be addressing that in a latter article. Suffice to say that it was so bloody predictable that I feel a bit stupid in not predicting the referee's helping hand in the result. This is the second game this season that they have been given points & I will be keeping a running total of this compared to other teams. Please keep an eye out for my forthcoming “Bias” table.
My editor & me have decided to produce a graph to show my success rate in Premiership predictions this season & that will be incorporated in my articles as soon as possible. This graph will give you an honest appraisal of how I am doing. We have also decided to keep my predictions on the website for you to see for yourself.
Anyway, onto this weekends games & good luck.
1. Birmingham City – Bolton: (Saturday 3pm)
Last Saturday both sides picked up vital points. Birmingham got a late winning goal at Hull to steal three points & Bolton got a gift as Stoke gave them a late penalty so that they could gain a draw, a result which their play hardly deserved. Both sides are struggling at the wrong end of the table and I expect them to both be involved in a long hard season to avoid the drop. This game will not be a classic, in fact I suggest that if you are thinking of going to the game then you should give it a miss & stay at home and watch paint dry. A low scoring draw methinks.
Result Prediction: Both sides to cancel each other out in a draw.@ 9/4
Score Prediction: Birmingham City 1 Bolton 1 @ 11/2
2. 2.Blackburn Rovers – Aston Villa: (Saturday 3pm)
Villa are on a good run at present having won their last four league games while Blackburn have only won once this season, against wolves in their last home game. Last Sunday Blackburn were well beaten at Everton 3-0. I can't really see past an Aston Villa victory in this game & will be surprised if they fail to win but as any football fan will tell you, “It's a funny old game”, especially when Manchester United are at home against one of their rivals for honours. An away win for Aston Villa.
Result Prediction: Aston Villa to Claim another away win. @ 11/8
Score Prediction: Blackburn Rovers 1 Aston Villa 3 @ 20/1
3. Arsenal – Fulham: (Saturday 5.30pm)
Arsenal had a very good 4-0 home win over Wigan last Saturday after two disappointing away defeats at Manchester United & City. Fulham meanwhile lost at Wolves. Fulham beat Arsenal deservedly last season in this fixture in what was for them an excellent season. This season they have started off a bit slow but they still have more than enough to easily stay up. Arsenal have improved since that defeat at the beginning of last season & I fully expect them to win this game. An away win for the “Gooners”.
Result Prediction: An away win for Arsenal @ 4/7
Score Fulham 1 Arsenal 3 @ 10/1
4. Liverpool – Hull City: (Saturday 3pm)
This is just about the easiest game I have had to predict for a long time. As far as I am concerned Hull City are destined for the drop, unless they change their manager who I feel has run out of ideas. They have won only won game so far and that was against fellow struggler's Bolton. Last Saturday they lost a very important game at home to Birmingham City. Liverpool since their early season defeats to Spurs & Aston Villa have recovered well. They have won their last three league games and five overall in all competitions. The only problem I have is predicting how many goals Liverpool will win by. An afterthought is that in this fixture last season Hull managed to draw 2-2. What they would give for that result this Saturday. An easy home win for Liverpool.
Result Prediction: Liverpool to win easily @ 2/13
Score Prediction: Liverpool 5 Hull City 0 @ 15/1
5. Portsmouth – Everton: (Saturday 12.45pm)
Portsmouth have had a dreadful start to the season having lost all their games. They have even lost to Bolton & Birmingham which speaks volumes for their start. Everton meanwhile have started to recover after a bad start and have had a good couple of results in their last two home games. They beat Blackburn 3-0 last Sunday to follow the previous Thursday's 4-0 UEFA cup win against Greek side AEK Athens. In midweek they thrashed Hull City 4-0 in the League cup, which says more about Hull's decline than Everton's resurgence. In their last Premiership away game they lost 2-1 at Fulham but this time I expect them to claim their first away win in the league. In two Ronnie's fashion I will just have to say, “and it's goodbye from Portsmouth”.
Result Prediction: An easy away win for Everton @ 1/1
Score Prediction: Portsmouth 0 Everton 2 @ 15/2
6. Stoke City – Manchester United (Saturday 3pm)
After the referee gave Manchester a helping hand by adding on enough minutes for them to score their winner last Sunday they come up against Stoke who are having a good start to the season. Stoke lost to a late Chelsea goal last time at home but this time I feel that Manchester United won't need such a late goal or the help of the referee, though you can't always tell. I suppose it depends on what the score is at the time of any contentious decision, ie, if Manchester are losing. Both sides won at home in the League cup in midweek, Stoke coming from behind to beat Blackpool 4-3 & Manchester beating Wolves 1-0. An away win for Manchester. As both sides made a lot of changes for their midweek games in the cup I don't expect the results to have any bearing on the result of this game.
Result Prediction: Manchester United to win @ 2/5
Score Prediction: Stoke City 0 Manchester United 2 @ 5/1
7. Tottenham – Burnley: (Saturday 3pm)
Burnley had an excellent home win against Sunderland last Saturday but managed to lose at Barnsley in the League cup on Tuesday not that that result will bother them. Premiership safety is their main aim this season. Tottenham meanwhile had a very good 5-1 win at Preston who are having a good season (so far) in the Championship. This meant that they bounced back well after their defeats to Chelsea (Last Sunday) & Manchester United the weekend before. I feel that the result might have been very different against Chelsea if the referee had given them the penalty for the foul on Robbie Keane in the second half that would have made the score 1-1. That decision will be going in my dodgy decisions graph. While Burnley have won all their home games they have been well beaten in all their away games apart from maybe the game at Stoke. This pattern is set to continue. An home win for Spurs.
Result Prediction: Spurs to win @ 4/11
Score Prediction: Spurs 3 Burnley 1 @ 9/1
8. Wigan – Chelsea (Saturday 3pm)
This is another easy game to predict along with the Liverpool Hull game. Wigan are not doing well with only two wins to their name so far & a 4-0 thrashing at Arsenal last time out. They didn't even play in the league cup in midweek because they had been knocked out by Blackpool in the previous round (easily by all accounts). They managed to beat West ham 1-0 at home in their last home game, a result which proves they will just about have enough to stay up this season and not get dragged into a relegation battle. However, this is a game I just can't see them getting a result in. Chelsea have won all their games so far & are looking the biggest challenge to Manchester United. What I found a bit sad was that the Wigan away end at Arsenal last Saturday was very sparse which suggest that A) clubs are charging too much & B) that Wigan fans have become a bit apathetic. An easy win for Chelsea.
Result Prediction: Away win for Chelsea @ 3/10
Score Prediction: Wigan 0 Chelsea 3 @ 7/1
9. Sunderland – Wolves: (Sunday 4pm)
Wolves had a good home win against Fulham last Sunday, which was the type of game that you have to win if you are to stay up. Sunderland meanwhile continued their good home form with a 2-0 win against Birmingham in the league cup which followed up their wins against Hull city & Blackburn in the League. Sunderland are having a good start to the season and will not get dragged into a relegation battle like they have the last two seasons. This should be a good game as both sides like to play football. A home win for Sunderland but a close game.
Result Prediction: Home win Sunderland @ 8/11
Score Prediction: Sunderland 2 Wolves 1 @ 7/1
10. Manchester City – West Ham (Monday 8pm)
Manchester City were cheated in the Derby against United last week. Let's face it, how many times have referees given United extra playing time to try and get a goal? Too many. It has become a very bad joke. But more of that in my next article which you will see on the website. Despite the result City can be proud of the way they played in coming from behind three times. In any other game they would have gained a vital point if it was not for the referee. Time Mr Ferguson Please. West Ham meanwhile lost at home to Liverpool despite scoring twice. West Ham will finish mid table and will not trouble any of the European places. This is the complete opposite of Manchester City who will be aiming to get into the top four. An easy win for City & the type of game that if you were a West Ham fan you wouldn't bother spending the money to go to.
Result Prediction: Manchester City to win easily @ 4/9
Score Prediction: Manchester City 3 West Ham 0 @ 9/1
That is it for this week. Good luck & don't forget my Champions League, err, European cup predictions for next week as well. Douglas Martin
Doug Martin. 16th September 2009
Related: Football Preseason predictions for 2009/10 season: All Four English divisions Plus the Conference
Season Predictions ~ Premier League 2009/10
Season Predictions ~ The Championship 2009/10
Season Predictions ~ League One 2009/10
Season Predictions ~ League Two 2009/10
Season Predictions ~ Blue Square Conference 2009/10
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Premier League: Five talking points from the week gone by
From a pulsating North London derby between Arsenal and Tottenham to Frank Lampard's wait for first home win, Sportstar brings to you the five talking points from game-week four of the 2019-20 Premier League season.
02 September, 2019 13:30 IST
Tottenham manager Mauricio Pochettino still hasn't won a North London derby against arch-rival Arsenal at the Emirates stadium. - Getty Images
1) Gunners show spirit in another classic North London Derby
North London derbies tend to live up to the hype and this one did not disappoint, with Arsenal recovering from a demoralising first 40 minutes against Tottenham.
Christian Eriksen returned to the Spurs XI following speculation surrounding his future and netted the opener against the run of play, before Harry Kane converted a penalty foolishly conceded by Granit Xhaka to double the visitors' advantage.
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang equalised for Arsenal in the 71st minute of the North London derby against Tottenham at the Emirates stadium on Sunday. - Getty Images
However, Alexandre Lacazette superbly reduced the arrears before half-time and a chaotic second half saw big chances at both ends, with Kane striking the post.
Tottenham could not hold on as Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang expertly flicked in to equalise, while an offside flag denied Sokratis Papastathopoulos the winner as both sides pressed in the closing stages.
It was wholly predictable that Eriksen would have a key role on his recall and the close-range finish brought up an impressive milestone.
By scoring his 50th Premier League goal, the midfielder became the first Tottenham player to net 50 times in the competition while also providing a half-century of assists.
There was history for Kane, too, as he drew level at the top of the all-time north London derby top-scorers list. Along with Bobby Smith and Emmanuel Adebayor, he now has 10 in all competitions.
The Spurs duo would surely have preferred to reach such landmarks in a victory, as appeared likely when Kane struck.
2) Flawless Liverpool continues 100 per cent start
Since the start of last season, no Liverpool player has scored more goals in all competitions than Sadio Mane (30 – level with Mo Salah). - Getty Images
Liverpool's flawless start to the league season continued against Burnley as it clinched a record-setting victory at Turf Moor.
A freak own goal from Chris Wood and strikes from Sadio Mane and Roberto Firmino - the Brazil forward's 50th for the Reds - delivered a 13th successive league win, a new club all-time high.
Jurgen Klopp's side has been victorious in all four of its opening top-flight fixtures and restored its two-point advantage over defending champion City at the summit.
3) City clinches win but Laporte goes down injured
Laporte leaves the field on a stretcher against Brighton. - Getty Images
While Manchester United and Chelsea struggled to collect full points, Manchester City eased past Brighton with a 4-0 win. However, the win came at a cost with defender Aymeric Laporte leaving the field on a stretcher due to a suspected knee injury after colliding with Adam Webster.
City's win over Brighton was straightforward from the moment Kevin De Bruyne gave it the lead after 68 seconds. The Belgium international then set up the first of two goals for Sergio Aguero either side of half-time, the other created by David Silva, who had also laid on the opener.
City later confirmed Laporte had been hospitalised, with a diagnosis on the severity of his problem to follow.
Earlier this week, Laporte was called up for France's Euro 2020 qualifiers, in what would be his maiden international call-up for the world champion.
4) United winless in six Premier League away matches
Manchester United winger Daniel James scored his third goal in his third straight game but it went in vain on Saturday. - Getty Images
Daniel James produced an excellent finish to score his third Manchester United goal to give his side a 10th-minute advantage at Southampton but the 10-man Saints ensured Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has now gone three straight league games without a win as Jannik Vestergaard sent in a towering header just before the hour mark.
United could not find a winner even after Kevin Danso's dismissal in the 73rd minute, the left-back picking up a second yellow card for a foul on Scott McTominay.
This meant the Reds' streak of being winless in Premier League away matches was stretched to six games. The last time United won a game away from Old Trafford dates back to February 28, over six months ago, when it beat Crystal Palace.
5) Chelsea boss Lampard still awaits home win
Frank Lampard with Kurt Zouma after Chelsea's draw with Sheffield United. - Getty Images
Frank Lampard is still waiting for his first home win as Chelsea boss after the Blues somehow failed to hold on against Sheffield United.
Kurt Zouma's own goal just a minute before regulation time saw the Blades claim a famous point. Callum Robinson had earlier reduced the deficit for the visitor, while he and substitute Lys Mousset were involved as the ball diverted in off Zouma's shin with the clock ticking down.
Tammy Abraham had scored twice before half-time to seemingly put Chelsea on course for victory, but instead Chelsea remains behind its opponents in the table on just five points from four games.
(With inputs from Opta).
North London Derby
Daniel James
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SBFA Teams
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Other Key Personnel
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Among tokyo madrid, and istanbul the alliance paves the way
CBS rejected Lola for airing during Super Bowl XLIV, which shows an effeminate ex-football player who has found his calling, designing lingerie at a GoDaddy-hosted Web site.
Serena Williams 3.
Detroit Lions 4.
This is the moment to become a Season Ticket Member.
I only have an hour to get ready before the bus takes me to the rink for the skills competition.
Dancing after the games.
Round 3: Jamel Dean, CB, Auburn; Mike Edwards, S, Kentucky.
Pirates go for sweep of equally disappointing Rockies The Pittsburgh Pirates aren’t having the season they anticipated, but they are heading into September playing good baseball with a chance to end 2019 strong.
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USA Basketball is excited and proud to partner with Right Guard, a brand that exemplifies performance and preparedness, qualities that are key to the success of our team.
Indianapolis Colts 14.
One hundred per cent it’s about time I got to a European Tour final, let alone winning one.
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The NHL’s presence in Las Vegas was enhanced last season with the addition of the Vegas Golden Knights.
Analysis It remains potently strange that Larry Bird, three-time MVP and something like the sixth-best player of all-time, breezed through Indiana, organized one of the best teams in the league, and then quietly walked away from a profession nobody knew he would be good at or even wanted to pursue in the first place.
There were a lot of early-season discussions around the play of Carey Price, with his games leaving fans perhaps wanting a little bit more from the 84-million-dollar man.
Analysis It remains potently strange that custom basketball jerseys Bird, three-time MVP and something like the sixth-best player of all-time, breezed through Indiana, organized one of the best teams in the league, and then quietly walked away from a profession nobody knew he would be good at or even wanted to pursue in https://www.amazon.com/dp/B086GL6DGJ first place.
H.Pérez pinch-hitting for Pomeranz.
Kobe Bryant 7.
It’s funny, I heard some guy on television asked how does a guy jump that high in those conditions?
Washington Redskins 3.
Miami Dolphins 6.
I want to handle it man to man.
They really jumped on us, they made shots.
Organizations receiving donations include American Red Cross, Bob Woodruff Foundation, Boys & Girls Clubs of America, CDC Foundation, GENYOUth Foundation, Meals on Wheels America, Salvation Army, Team Rubicon, United Way and Wounded Warrior Project.
Tampa Bay Buccaneers 15.
It’s pretty special to be the No.
He was so smart, he knew exactly what was going to happen next, but he was too early, Korn said.
will include the New York Knicks and Rangers ; the Westchester Knicks and the Hartford Wolf Pack ; and Knicks Gaming, MSG’s NBA 2K League custom jerseys Adidas has an alliance with Major League Soccer that runs through 2018.
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Home » Basketball » Longtime Chicago Bulls writers share favorite Michael Jordan stories ahead of ‘The Last Dance’ documentary
Longtime Chicago Bulls writers share favorite Michael Jordan stories ahead of ‘The Last Dance’ documentary
At first glance, the longtime Chicago Bulls writers figured they just saw another camera crew. Nearly 23 years later, that camera crew finalized its project.
ESPN will show the first two parts of a 10-part documentary series titled "The Last Dance" on Sunday. The network originally planned to debut the documentary in June, but it ceded to NBA fans wanting to watch original content during the coronavirus pandemic. But the project first started with NBA Entertainment following the Bulls during their sixth and final championship season in 1997-98.
Plenty of stories will emerge from the documentary. Plenty of them will be familiar to former and current Bulls writers that covered them during that season. So USA TODAY Sports spoke with them about their memories.
INSIDE SCOOP: How NBA got unprecedented access to Jordan and Bulls
MORE INSIGHT: Expect "side of Michael Jordan you maybe haven’t seen"
MEMORIES: Kerr shares favorite Jordan stories ahead of documentary
DIRECTOR: Jason Hehir calls making Jordan documentary "a privilege"
The panel includes:
• Greg Boeck, former USA TODAY Sports writer (1990-2007) and NBA writer (1992-2000) and adjunct professor at Arizona State's Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication (2008-present)
• Roland Lazenby, author of various Bulls-related books including Blood on the Horns, Mind Games: Phil Jackson’s Long Strange Journey and Michael Jordan: The Life.
• K.C. Johnson, Bulls insider for NBC Sports Chicago after helping with Bulls coverage for the Chicago Tribune during their last three-peat (1995-98) before becoming the lead beat writer (2000-19)
• Sam Smith, insider for Bulls.com after covering the Bulls and NBA for the Chicago Tribune and authoring various books, including The Jordan Rules, Second Coming and There is No Next.
What is your favorite Michael Jordan story?
Boeck: "It was after Jordan retired (during the 2000 NBA playoffs). I'd golf with (former NBC NBA sideline reporter) Ahmad Rashad. They would talk on the phone during golf two or three times a round. They would argue back and forth about who’s the better golfer. Jordan would tell him, 'I just shot a 70' at some place. I would be driving on the cart with Ahmad, and he would be talking to Jordan comparing scores and giving each other grief. Jordan was just as competitive with golf as he was in basketball."
Johnson: "I went to Beloit College to play Division III basketball. My freshman year (1985-86), the Chicago Bulls held training camp. Since we were on the team, we got to be ballboys at practice. Michael Jordan and Quintin Dailey were having this free-throw contest. It was loosey-goosey, jokey, kind of fun. Then they started throwing money down. Quintin had gotten ahead and started talking some smack. Jordan freaking snapped. He had this incredible focus. He got so locked in and was almost angry. He came back and beat Q in the shooting contest. I don’t remember the pot that was there. But I know it was substantial. He cackled as he ran off the floor and he was just taunting Quintin Dailey."
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UNCERTAIN FUTURE: One expert sees no fans in stands until fall of 2021
Lazenby: "No one ever wanted to play MJ one-on-one. But Scott Burrell kept insisting on it. Steve Kerr just couldn’t believe how stupid that was, that Scott would poke the bear like that. Burrell just kept picking MJ to play one-on-one. Scott got close to him. He got within a point, but Jordan won. Scott wanted to play again. So Jordan said, 'I’m sure you do want to play again. You want to tell your grandkids that you beat Michael Jordan. What the hell am I going to tell my grandkids? That I beat Scott Burrell?' "
Smith: "The Bulls start the 1989 playoffs against Cleveland in Cleveland. So everybody picked the Cavs. There were three beat writers then — Lacy Banks with the Chicago Sun-Times, Kent McDill with the Daily Herald and myself. So he’s clapping his chalk right before the decisive Game 5. He walks up in front of Lacy, who picked the Cavs in three. Michael said, 'We took care of you.' Then he walks next to Kent, who picked the Cavs in four. Michael points to him and said, 'We took care of you.' I had picked Cavs in five. So Michael points to me and says, 'We take care of you today.' That’s then the turning point in the franchise. Michael’s shot over Craig Ehlo has been shown so many times."
What is your memory of Michael Jordan in his final Bulls game against Utah?
Boeck: "The Jazz had Game 6 won. They had the ball and a one-point lead with about 15 seconds to go. Sure enough, Jordan, the defensive whiz that he was, stole the ball from (Karl) Malone, came down the court and pushed Byron Russell. That was the end of career No. 2. I remember the press conference afterwards. There was such relief on him."
Johnson: "That last sequence distilled everything that made Michael so great. It’s almost a simplistic way of summarizing his greatness. It’s not only his shot. But it starts with his defensive play on Malone on the other end. Then coming down without a timeout. Then surveying the scene. Then getting away probably with an offensive foul and making the shot. To me, it summarized all of Jordan’s greatness in one amazing sequence."
Lazenby: "It was the crowning touch to this whole entire story with the drama and this massive conflict. I do remember thinking he had pushed off (of Russell). They had won so much, and it was such a nasty fight. It wasn’t muted in the locker room. But there was so much pressure. Jordan took all this pressure himself. That’s why it was so hard on everybody, especially with all the conflicts. It was unreal. So in the locker room, there was some release with that pressure."
Smith: "There was this incredible last sequence that basically summed up his entire career. He recognizes what Utah is trying to do. He comes over and freelances to help. He sneaks up on Malone and gets the ball. He doesn’t call timeout so they can’t set their defense. Then he gets himself in position to make that shot. He makes a statue of it in the ultimate 'screw you' to the opposing fans. There couldn’t have been a better act and conclusion to a story than that. Showing every element of Jordan — the defense, IQ, scoring ability, the competitive arrogance to do it in your face. You couldn’t write it like that. Nobody left like that. But then, of course, he came back."
What was that final season like?
Boeck: "Phil Jackson was going to leave. Scottie Pippen was a free agent. Dennis Rodman was a free agent. They ran their course mainly because they played into June for three straight years. It was exhausting. Then there's the controversies with (then-GM) Jerry Krause. I think Jordan saw the end. Phil was done, too. He wasn’t done obviously because he came back and did another three-peat with the Lakers. But he thought he was done. I think it was a little bit because of Krause. Phil was tired of his meddling. He and Krause got along better than Krause got along with the players. But I still think he was a meddler. I think he was tired of the grind, and also the meddling. But I think it was more of the grind and he had enough of it and the circus that was around them."
Johnson: "I just remember everybody being exhausted. They were their most vulnerable. They barely won that Eastern Conference finals over the Pacers. They needed a quick stand in that fourth quarter at home in a Game 7. It was a defensive stand. (Toni) Kukoc made some big shots. Pippen was everywhere defensively. They were just spent. It sounds cliché and too tidy of a story line. But anybody around that team remembers how weary they were. Obviously, I've stayed in touch with Steve Kerr over the years. I’ve talked to him at times during the Warriors dynasty. He obviously has a perspective on how draining that can be. People don’t understanding playing that many games at that level over that period of time, it wears you out mentally and physically. … There was an inevitable feeling to that being the end. Only because Jerry Krause so gleefully announced it as Phil’s last year as coach. Phil had called it the last dance. Michael, on the record, said 'I will not play for another coach other than Phil Jackson.' When Michael says something, he’s not joking. Even when they won, you knew it was over."
SportsPulse: Mackenzie Salmon caught up with B.J. Armstrong, a former teammate of Michael Jordan, to discuss the upcoming 10-part series which highlights the Chicago Bulls' 1997-98 NBA championship season.
Lazenby: "The anger between Krause and Phil over that period in the fall of '97 where he said, 'I don’t care if we go 82-0, he’s not coming back.' It was like Democrats and Republicans today. There was that level of hatred, really. Phil wanted to be paid. Of course, Jordan and Pippen had their intense disputes with Krause. Phil, being the master he was in motivation and stuff, he used that. It was obvious. He took the players’ side. … Phil and Krause’s war had gotten out of control. On the other hand, they stayed together for six championships. They remade that team twice. They didn’t like each other, but a lot of these teams work together and manage to get by until they don’t. You have to give them all the credit."
Smith: "They were done with one another. It was not Jerry Krause shutting it down as it’s easily portrayed. It wasn’t that. Phil had this thing that as a coach, people stop listening to your voice after seven years. I know their big thing is Krause saying, 'Phil, even if you go 82-0, you wont be back.' But there were many more factors involved that foreshadowed the end for this group. … Jerry Krause is eager to move on, and he’s not completely wrong in that sense. Basically his philosophy was, 'We’re a really old team at the end. If I have a chance to add a great young star, I should do that.' So he arranges a deal with Boston to trade Pippen for (Tracy) McGrady and a couple of other picks.
"(Owner) Jerry Reinsdorf says, 'We’re not doing that. We have another chance to win and we'll ride this out until we can’t.' He overrules the deal. Pippen learns about it and gets (ticked) off. He postpones his surgery he was supposed to have in June after the ‘97 Finals. He waits for it until September. So he won’t be able to play the first half of next season. That infuriates Michael and Phil. As mad as they were at Krause, they’re mad at Scottie, too, because the Bulls said, 'Let’s stick around another year.' Reinsdorf also knew what he had in Phil. He told Phil he would like to offer him an extension. Phil doesn’t want that. He knew he would be going into rebuilding in the next year or two, and didn't want to be a part of that. When you take into account all of these things, it was clear this team was going to implode anyway."
NBA rest rules, explained: How new load management policy will impact national TV games, more
Young NBA stars 'want insurance protection' against career-threatening injuries
What time is the ‘NBA 2K’ tournament today? TV schedule, live stream for ESPN’s players-only semifinals, finals
Shaq says he ‘stopped going’ to ‘Tiger King’ zoo
Julius Randle helps New York Knicks stun Milwaukee Bucks; Indiana Pacers win it late against Boston Celtics
NBA bubble asterisk? The champion ’99 Spurs say it shouldn’t exist
← Harry Kane’s Tottenham future: Does he need to leave Spurs?
Joshua insists rematch with Whyte won't end well for old rival →
Popovich, Spurs buoyed by bubble play: ‘Win-win’
Scottie Pippen’s contract now a point of contention following details from ‘The Last Dance’
The one ACC team Michael Jordan wanted to beat most while at North Carolina
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ON1 Discovery — Video Training
$79.00 USD $99.00 USD You Save 20% ($20.00 USD)
Video Training for ON1 Photo RAW
Get inspired and learn how to use ON1 with this course from Nicole. For a period of six weeks, Nicole created a course based entirely on student feedback, and this is the result! You'll get answers to some of your burning questions about ON1 and photography through several very intense Q&A sessions, and you also get to watch Nicole post-process several student-submitted files.
Video training: 46 videos (7 hours, 48 mins of training) showing how to use ON1 Photo RAW 2019.5. Training includes masking, HDR, workflow, etc. (see outline below for more information on the lessons included).
Practice files: All original practice files (with the exception of student-submitted files)
Closed-captions included on videos (English captions)
The training also includes a Q&A video for each lesson. These candid sessions are real questions from real ON1 students!
A list of all keyboard shortcuts used in each lesson
Easy to follow videos with a yellow-highlighted cursor and callouts to focus in on the important parts of the tutorials
Download videos or watch online — It's your choice!
See what you'll learn
Preview some of the before-and-after images you'll create in this course, as well as a behind-the-scenes look at some screen-grabs of the tutorials.
All original practice files you see below are included with your purchase.
Watch a sample video
Watch a sample tutorial:
Get a feel for this course by watching the lesson below. This sample tutorial is included in the "bonus" introductory lesson:
View the Course Outline
INTRODUCTORY LESSON:
Introduction to ON1 Photo RAW 2019.5
01 — Browse module (10:09)
02 — Crop tool (02:01)
03 — Transform tool (01:31)
04 — Text tool (01:52)
05 — Local Adjustments (04:30)
06 — Portrait (04:10)
07 — Masking (09:03)
08 — Refine (02:50)
09 — Retouch (03:17)
10 — Edit module (08:47)
11 — Layers panel (07:43)
12 — Exporting (04:45)
13 — Panoramas (04:48)
14 — HDR (04:50)
15 — Focus Stacking (06:01)
16 — What's new in 2019.5 (05:19)
01 — Tools and Techniques (19:25)
02 — Sky Replacement (16:24)
03 — Hair (11:08)
04 — Student file (09:14)
05 — Q&A (31:37)
01 — Adding Textures and Overlays (14:45)
02 — Still Life Texture Blend (17:53)
03 — Creative Composite (14:47)
HDR and Luminosity Masking
01 — Luminosity Masking (10:14)
01 — HDR Landscape (07:18)
02 — Street Market (11:01)
03 — Old Truck with Texture (08:15)
Using as a Plugin
01 — Lightroom (11:24)
02 — Photoshop (09:25)
03 — Migrating a Lightroom Catalog (09:53)
Importing & Workflow
01 — Importing a Photo Shoot (09:12)
02 — Culling the Shoot (12:08)
03 — Editing in Develop and Effects (15:18)
04 — Exporting the Photo (03:29)
05 — Student File (Sky replacement in water reflection) (09:28)
06 — Q&A for Week 06 (27:02)
Based on 30 reviews. Write a review
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Top 1000 Architecture Instagram Influencers in Burundi in 2021
Discover Top Ranked Influencers by Type and Category of Influence in Burundi. We've profiled Burundi's top influencers by number of followers and category so you can see how they're ranked. You can filter the ranking by selecting the country and category you're looking for. The ranking data will be updated every month.
Top Instagram Influencers Ranking in Burundi Find out the most influential Instagram accounts with details on their number of followers from Burundi. We’re currently tracking a total of 0 influencers in Burundi with between 1,000 and 10m followers.
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North Dakota Annulment and Prohibited Marriage Laws
In order for a couple to get married, they must meet the marriage requirements of their respective state. These requirements are fairly standard across most states, including prohibitions on bigamy or incestuous relationships.
State laws that prohibit certain marriages and establish rules for annulment generally prohibit marriage between close relatives, if one of the parties is already married, if the marriage was obtained under duress, and other reasons. Annulment is a legal procedure that "erases" the marriage as if it never existed in the first place, reserved for invalid marriages.
Annulment and Prohibited Marriage in North Dakota: Overview
Although North Dakota passed a constitutional amendment prohibiting marriage between same-sex partners, the U.S. Supreme Court's 2015 decision in Obergefell v. Hodges established that state bans on same-sex marriage are unconstitutional. Unless North Dakota attempts to legislate its way around this decision, same-sex marriage will remain available in North Dakota. Other marriages prohibited by law include close relatives (such as brother and sister) and bigamy (having more than one spouse).
North Dakota's grounds for annulment are very similar to those provided in other states, including the presence of an undissolved previous marriage and marriage through fraud or force.
The following chart lists additional details about North Dakota's laws regarding annulment and prohibited marriage. See FindLaw's Marriage Law section to learn more.
Code Sections 14-04-01, et seq., 14-03-03, 14-03-06; 14-03-01
Grounds for Annulment Underage; previous marriage undissolved; unsound mind, fraud, or force (unless ratified); physically incapable; incestuous
Time Limits for Obtaining Annulment Previous marriage undissolved: Anytime during life of parties; Underage: Within 4 yrs. of age of consent or unless voluntary cohabitation; Unsound mind: Anytime; Fraud, 4 yrs. after discovery; force or physically incapable: 4 yrs. of the marriage; Incestuous: Anytime
Legitimacy of Children Issue of annulled or prohibited marriages are legitimate
Prohibited Marriages Between ancestor and descendant, brother and sister, uncle and niece, aunt and nephew, first cousins (half and whole blood, legitimate and illegitimate, bigamous
Same-Sex Marriage North Dakota passed a constitutional amendment restricting marriage to heterosexual couples only. The Supreme Court ruled in 2015 that state constitutional and statutory bans on same-sex marriage or the refusal to recognize same-sex marriages from other states were unconstitutional violations of the Fourteenth Amendment's Equal Protection Guarantees. Since this decision same-sex marriage has been legal, though states may yet raise new and novel challenges.
Note: State laws changs frequently through changes in legislation and decisions from higher courts. While we strive to ensure the accuracy of these pages, you also may want to contact a North Dakota family law attorney or conduct your own legal research to verify the state law(s) you are researching.
Official State Codes - Links to the official online statutes (laws) in all 50 states and DC.
North Dakota Prohibited Marriage Laws: Related Resources
Annulment and the Law
North Dakota Family Laws
How Marriage Annulments Differ From Divorces and the Grounds for Obtaining a Marriage Annulment
Same-Sex Marriage, Civil Unions, and Domestic Partnerships
Find a Family Law Attorney
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House of Hoops
Spring 2019 Looks
Nike 'Discover Your Air'
adidas x Game of Thrones Ultraboost
Infant (0.0 - 4.0)
Foot Locker Yorkdale Shopping Centre
Toronto, ON M6A2T9
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Foot Locker is a leading global source of athletic footwear, apparel, and accessories. Catering to the sneaker enthusiast, if it’s at Foot Locker, it’s Approved. Foot Locker provides the best selection of premium products for a wide variety of activities, including basketball, running, and training. From humble beginnings supplying the local community with premium footwear in the Puente Hills Mall in the City of Industry, California, Foot Locker branched out, and now boasts over 3,000 locations on virtually every continent. Known as the premier location for performance athletic and casual sneakers, Foot Locker’s trusted and knowledgeable staff are there to assist with all of your sportswear needs. Foot Locker carries every major athletic footwear and apparel brand, including Nike, adidas, Jordan Brand, PUMA, Reebok, New Balance, Under Armour, Vans, Converse, ASICS, FILA, New Era, Champion, and many more. Styles range from the latest cutting-edge performance models to casual classics for everyday wear. In addition to the physical storefronts, FootLocker.ca is a top online destination for sportswear. For the biggest sneaker aficionados, FootLocker.ca also offers a schedule of release dates for the hottest and most anticipated styles months ahead of their drop.
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Story Of Books ☞
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“Over The Hills and Back For Tea” makes a debut
by Salina Christmas
Malicious Damage Records publishes mercenary rhymes book; Tor embargoes e-books for libraries; Literature sharpens kids’ empathy level; working full-time and writing on the side. It’s A Week In Book News.
The sand in your toilet roll: Over The Hills & Back For Tea makes a debut
Michael Coles’s book of 56 mercenary rhymes is finally out. Over The Hills & Back For Tea was launched on Bank Holiday Friday at the 5th Base Gallery in Shoreditch, London, UK.
At the launch, Story Of Books got to view an exhibition of Cole’s print illustrations, also based on the book’s artworks. The show will run until Wednesday, 29 August 2018, so don’t miss it.
The event was attended by punk luminaries and fans of Coles’s art, including those involved with his record label, Malicious Damage Records. If you’re into punk and its offshoot, grunge, you’d probably have heard of Killing Joke, the band produced by Malicious Damage Records.
The record label is the publisher of Over The Hills. Fancy that, a punk record label that publishes a book on nursery rhymes.
The inspiration behind the artwork for Over The Hills is partly derived from the previous artworks that Coles had done for the band’s album covers and music videos. Equally impressive are the sumptuous border decorations that frame the characters in the print illustrations. Coles didn’t apply these ornate details to the book. That somehow makes the book and the prints distinct from each other in their forms.
Careful when you bite that candy; it really is Scotch Bonnet. Pic: Story Of Books
Coles works with musicians and his approach to his graphic work is informed by the way they constantly remix and deconstruct their own music.
He “borrowed, embellished and contaminated” lines from traditional rhymes like he appropriated the traditional border decorations for his illustrations. As a result, Over The Hill the book and the artwork come across as mischief sugar-coated in a construct of wholesome delight.
Michael Coles showed us the dummy of this book a few months before it was published. We’re honoured. We rarely see book dummies, especially ones created by the authors themselves, since the 1990s. Pic: Story Of Books
So where is he taking this next?. “I plan to expand on the work and write a ‘history’ of each character,” Coles said, “and then I am going to create a chapel”. A chapel?
“The Chapel of Bleeding Gum,” he said with a grin. It’s a reference to one of the characters, Psycho Delia, who prays at the Church of The Bleeding Gum and lies at confessions. Well, every character in the book is outlandish – a caricature cruelly visualised and inscribed in rhymes – but each is a comment on the person that hides behind our mask of civility.
Story Of Books can’t wait for the next Over The Hills project. For now, we settle for the book and the playing cards – yes, there are sets of 56 playing cards, too, featuring the same artwork. We’ll have fun reading the mercenary rhymes aloud.
Michael Coles, Graphic Artist & Book Maker (May 2018)
More on Over The Hills & Back For Tea
Pre-order card set: http://maliciousdamage.biz/product/over-the-hills-back-for-tea/
Exhibition: 5th Base Gallery, 23 Heneage Street, off Brick Lane, London E1 5LJ. Dates: 24 August – 29 August 2018.
More on Michael Coles
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pg/MikeColesArtist/photos/?tab=albums
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/michael.h.coles/
Wikipedia: https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Coles
Sci-fi e-book embargo
We first heard about the four-month e-book embargo imposed by Tor Books, the science fiction division of Macmillan, in July this year.
The embargo, currently a trial, will be used by Macmillan analysts to observe how library e-book availability affects the sales of retail e-books.
Unsurprisingly, there have been rumblings amongst librarians in North America and on book forums. The Canadian Urban Libraries Council (CULC) sent letters to Tor Books’ Fritz Foy, the President and Publisher, and Tom Doherty, the Chairman, to object against the embargo.
In the letter to Foy, CULC says that its libraries spend “$90 million annually on collections including $11 million on digital resources” that are used by some 65% of Canadians.
“This adversarial approach you are implementing is a direct affront to readers who rely on public libraries for access to their educational and recreational reading materials,” the organisation said.
CULC asked Tor Books to look at the increase in “indie or self-publishing” and how this could affect the publisher’s bottomline. It highlighted: “Six out of the current ten top-selling science fiction books on Amazon are self-published.”
It’s a pity to hear that publishers have to resort to embargoes to protect profits and digital rights management (DRM). But in the end, libraries and their members get penalised.
In the UK, authors loaning their works for free from public libraries are compensated by government fund under the Public Lending Right Scheme. This scheme has been extended to cover e-books and e-audiobooks beginning 1 July 2018.
The Public Lending Right scheme is managed by the British Library on behalf of the UK Government, with more than £6 million of payments made to 22,000 authors, illustrators, photographers, translators and rights holders annually.
More on the Tor Books e-book embargo
CULC: CULC/CLBC response to library embargo
Upper Arlington Public Library: Statement release regarding Tor Digital Books
About UK Public Lending Right scheme
Government extends Public Lending Right scheme to ebook authors (7 June 2018)
Public lending right: how it applies
British Library: How the UK PLR library sample works
Pop fiction vs literary fiction
The number of teenagers reading books as a hobby is declining, according to a psychology journal. The reason? Digital games and social media. This is a big deal. Reading fictions could potentially increase children’s and teenagers’ understanding of people from different cultural backgrounds.
A 2018 study by Sacred Heart University, Connecticut, US, found that children that read fictions display a higher level of cognitive and affective ability. But there’s a catch.
The researchers found that test scores were higher in children who read “literary” fiction, compared with those who read “pop” fiction.
Also, the effect was significant in children that read less than their peers, implying that the impact might also be reduced in children already too familiar with literary fiction.
The study puts the spotlight on reward and stimulus within children’s reading activity. Diminished emotional response to literary fiction from overexposure can’t be a good thing, either.
This means literary fictions can’t afford to be boring. Storytellers have to be a bit more imaginative and publishers can’t be too complacent by sticking with “formulas”. These are important in nurturing young readers’ interest in books.
More on young readers’ reading habits
Brown, A, Mayne, N, Monferrato, G and Simeone, M (2018), How Does Reading Fiction Improve Theory of Mind?. Academic Festival. 11
Book Publisher Revenue Up For Adult Books, University Presses in 2017
Global Entertainment & Media Outlook 2018–2022 (PWC)
Twenge, J. M., Martin, G. N., & Spitzberg, B. H. (2018), Trends in U.S. Adolescents’ media use, 1976–2016: The rise of digital media, the decline of TV, and the (near) demise of print. Psychology of Popular Media Culture. Advance online publication
Holding down a job (or two) and writing fictions
At the moment, we are revisiting some old writings and drafts – some good, some bad but all swept aside due to full time work in journalism and publishing.
That’s the problem with ‘writing jobs’ that we English majors discovered when we ‘fell’ into a career. Structured news reporting, journalistic prose, copywriting, sub-editing and grammar are not necessarily creative writing. Long hours and deadlines leave little time for creativity*.
Along the way, we discovered that the ability to tighten up house styles, spotting typos and killing adjectives in meandering sentences – highly desirable in news reporting, trade publishing and press releases – are not the same as the ability to tell a compelling story.
You’re lucky to be a grammatical pedant and a fantastic storyteller at the same time. However, that doesn’t happen often. In fact, the most innovative of writers – or shall we say poets – just rip up the rules and let rip on the pages. And they hire a good sub-editor.
Jumping into creative writing from the ‘comfort’ of full-time employment is a big step financially. A few of the people we have featured on Story Of Books are holding down full-time roles whilst devoting their free time to writing fictions. We hope the list below will inspire our friends:
What authors did before they became known as ‘Authors’
Agatha Christie: pharmacy assistant
Arthur Conan Doyle: surgeon
Charles Dickens: child labourer, journalist
Haruki Murakami: jazz bar owner
Hilary Mantel: social worker, sales assistant
Frank Kafka: insurance examiner
George Orwell: policeman, dishwasher
George R R Martin: journalist, teacher
Isaac Asimov: biochemist, lecturer
JK Rowlings: secretary, researcher
Kurt Vonnegut: publicist for General Electric (GE)
Neil Gaiman: journalist
Maya Angelou: tram conductor, singer, dancer
Pramoedya Ananta Toer: typist, paramilitary soldier
TS Elliot: Lloyds bank manager
Terry Pratchett: press officer for Central Electricity Generating Board
*The editor, as a junior reporter, was reprimanded by a production editor for writing a short story using the office PC on deadline day.
TagsBritish Library • CULC • Macmillan • Malicious Damage Records • Michael Coles • Over The Hills & Back For Tea • Story of Books • Tor Books
About Salina Christmas
Editor, Story Of Books. Co-founder, GLUE Studio. A writer since 1995.
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Story of Books is published by GLUE Studio Limited. © All rights reserved 2018
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Southold-Peconic
By Karen Byrnes
KATHARINE SCHROEDER PHOTO
Powered by paddle
Joey Worysz, 12, of Southold paddles up a creek behind the Cornell Marine Program’s Cedar Beach center in Southold Friday. He was there for a kayaking program led by Kim Tetrault and hosted by Southold Free Library.
What a summer it’s been for the North Fork Ospreys! They won the Hampton Division championship against the Riverhead Tomcats last Thursday and then the Atlantic Collegiate championship on Sunday. Thanks to all who supported them and thanks to the team for providing many enjoyable evenings of baseball. See you next summer!
I’d like to wish a fond farewell to Southold High School athletic director Rich Triandafils as he leaves the district after 10 years. All the best to him as he pursues another chapter in his administrative career.
Welcome home to Southold residents Christina George, Henry Rich, Christopher Scott and David Witzke, who returned last Saturday after 90 days aboard SUNY/Maritime’s training ship. Ports of call included France, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Malta and Spain.
Incoming Southold kindergartners and their families are invited to a welcome picnic sponsored by the PTA at Founders Landing on Wednesday, Aug. 18, 5:30-7 p.m. Bring a picnic dinner and a blanket or chairs. The rain date will be Aug. 19. Contact Susan Russell at [email protected] with any questions.
Local basketball players of all ages will be happy to know that construction of the new court in Cochran Park will begin soon. The court will be located between the hockey rink and the tennis courts.
The religious education program at St. Patrick Church will be registering new students in grades 1 through 9 at Osborne Hall on Thursday, Aug. 19, 10 a.m.-1 p.m. Bring your child’s baptismal certificate. Late registration will be Sunday, Aug. 29, after Masses. Call 765-2338 and leave a message. Your call will be returned.
All are invited to a presentation about the Southold Free Library expansion at 10 a.m. on Saturday, Aug. 14, in the library’s community room.
The library’s board of trustees invites you to a barbecue at Founders Landing on Sunday, Aug. 29, at 4 p.m. There will be games, food, music and hula hoops! To RSVP, call 765-2077 or e-mail [email protected]
Happy 16th birthday to Nicholas Baldwin, who celebrates today, Aug. 12. John Palmieri also celebrates on the 12th, Linda Rinaudo on the 16th, Craig Goldsmith on the 17th and Jen Ackroyd on the 18th.
A very happy anniversary to Harry and Cheryl Fishman on the 17th.
When Nancy Smith bought her husband, Joe, tickets to a New York Yankees game for his birthday, she didn’t know that Alex Rodriguez would make baseball history that day. A-Rod’s 600th home run was a bonus birthday gift for Joe!
Nancy and Joe’s son Tommy is recuperating well after undergoing knee surgery last week.
A blissful summer day quickly took a turn for the worse upon hearing the news of SHS Class of 2003 alumnus Austin Comando’s untimely death in an auto accident last Saturday. If you met Austin only once, you were his friend. That’s the kind of guy he was. He will be missed by so many. Please keep his family in your prayers.
Rising SHS senior Abigail Heins also needs a lot of prayers after being involved in an auto accident last weekend. Abby is one of the toughest, most resilient young women I know. Stay strong, Abby!
Karen Byrnes
Email Karen Byrnes Email Created with Sketch. Email Karen Byrnes
2020 Community Leader of the Year: Kenny Black
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08.02.2011 Business
Business Beat: Bridge Bancorp announces second quarter earnings
• Bridge Bancorp, Inc., the parent company of Bridgehampton National Bank, announced earnings of $2.5 million for its second quarter, ended June 30, amounting to 38 cents per share.
The second quarter earnings were affected by $265,000 of after-tax acquisition costs in connection with its merger with Hamptons State Bank that closed on May 27.
Bridge Bancorp has total assets of $1.19 billion, a 23 percent increase over its assets at the end of the second quarter in 2010. Deposits were at $1.07 billion, a 25 percent increase over the 2010 deposits for the same period last year. The bank declared a quarterly dividend of 23 cents per share.
“The activity for the company during this quarter and first half of 2011 has been significant,” Bancorp president and CEO Kevin O’Connor said.
Business Beat: Greenport native appointed director of brand development
North Fork native Jamie Claudio has been appointed director of brand development for the Long Island Convention & Visitors...
Celebrating 30 years of service for rotary member
• Greenport Rotary Club membership chair Joseph Cherepowich of East Marion recently received a pin for 30 years of...
Business Beat: Suffolk Bancorp CFO honored with award
Bridge Bancorp, Inc., the holding company for Bridgehampton National Bank, announced the declaration of a quarterly dividend of 23 cents...
Business Beat: Former town attorney rejoins Riverhead law firm
• Attorney Martin Finnegan of Mattituck has rejoined the Riverhead law firm of Twomey, Latham, Shea, Kelley, Dubin &...
Business Beat: Southold woman appointed sales manager
Michele Della Croce of Cutchogue, a realtor with Douglas Elliman Real Estate in Mattituck, was recently awarded the Housing...
Business Beat: Suffolk Bancorp names new CFO
• Suffolk Bancorp has announced the appointment of Brian K. Finneran as executive vice president and chief financial officer...
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Rhino poaching bust in Zimbabwe
by Tammie
Female white rhino, Save Valley Conservancy
A couple of months ago while in the Save Valley Conservancy, Zimbabwe I was fortunate to spend some time with the conservancy’s new anti-poaching team, led by husband and wife team, Bryce and Lara Clemence, who started on the job in April. I have to admit, I was curious to know about how they planned to get on top of the rhino poaching in this part of the world.
Twelve rhinos were poached in the Save Valley Conservancy in the first three months of this year. Then soon after I was there in June, a white rhino female was poached, and in a further tragedy, lions killed her calf. The story of Maduma, the de-horned white rhino bull who had been shot multiple times before what was left of his horns were hacked off, later found staggering around the bush concussed but somehow still alive, was still fresh in my mind from the year before. Maduma lived for a couple of weeks, but due to the severity of his wounds he eventually had to be euthanised.
Maduma, the rhino tragically wounded by poachers in SVC last year, left for dead
With rhino horn being worth twice the price of gold in Asia, and African game scouts risking their lives against hardened, well armed criminal syndicates on a daily basis, it’s a huge challenge to get on top of this problem. Talking to the anti-poaching teams on the ground in the conservancy really brought home what they’re up against. This is a battle that can’t be fought in Africa alone, but needs attacking all along the trade chain to Vietnam where the horns end up.
Gonas, one of the front men of the anti-poaching team in SVC
In September, when I walked up to a wild black rhino with Bryce’s game scouts in the conservancy, I was reminded of just how vulnerable this species is. With such poor vision, it had been too easy to sneak up to this young bull to about 30m away. He let us follow him in the fading daylight as he fed on sickle bush and acacias, seemingly oblivious (this is him in the video below). If we had been poachers, he’d have been a goner.
It made me wonder if experiences like this would soon become a thing of the past. There are less than 5000 black rhinos left in Africa and the faster they disappear, the more their horns are worth. Although studies have shown that dehorned rhinos are less likely to be poached (more on this here if you’re interested) it certainly doesn’t guarantee their protection as the stub still has value on the black market.
So I couldn’t have been more delighted to hear from Lara and Bryce this week that their team was successful in apprehending not only one of the most notorious rhino poachers, a Zambian national who ran a high level poaching syndicate, but also two other poachers who were involved. This is a huge win for the rhinos and for the people on the ground fighting for them.
Bryce and Lara Clemence
The group of five men in total had shot and wounded a dehorned bull, which now thankfully seems to be okay. The information that Bryce’s team will get from the poachers is invaluable and will help apprehend others.
It’s dedicated game scouts like these who stand between the rhinos and their killers
One thing that is encouraging is that the Clemences’ anti-poaching operation appears to be making a difference in the Save Valley Conservancy, both in reducing the amount of rhinos poached and in terms of apprehending poachers. That is very good news.
The funds that were raised with your help earlier this year at the Imagine Africa dinners in Sydney were used directly to support their work and that of the conservancy, which I think made it all worthwhile.
To all those on the ground fighting to keep Zimbabwe’s last rhinos alive, I salute you, and keep up the good work Save Valley Conservancy – we’re right behind you.
You can support the Save Valley Conservancy’s fight against poaching by donating directly to them here or by donating to the SAVE Foundation in Western Australia here.
The author walking up to a black rhino in Zimbabwe
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Health Care 2020
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Home Sector News Culture The Administration Who Cried “Wolf”
The Administration Who Cried “Wolf”
The Debates Reinforced The Power Of Airing Real Time, Unchecked Lies; Biden And The Media Were Just Handed 2 Reasons To Stop Playing Along
Brent Korson
The last few weeks have, unsurprisingly, only grown more jarring and chaotic in the run-up to Election Day. While there was no way to know how the specifics would play out, (President contracts deadly virus, President covers up what he knew and when he knew it, President’s physician claims he’s tested negative after nine days of dodging, President still infectious and non-quarantining goes back to White House and holds next-level unsafe rallies), the general outline for a month full of divisive and chaotic October surprises had long been foreseeable since the day Trump took office four years ago. Especially the spasms of pre-Election Day, culture-war stoked violence throughout the country along the way.
The question we now collectively face is this: with less than three weeks until Election Day, how can the nation, and media, fortify itself against this administration’s blizzard of propaganda, disinformation and misinformation – both in general and potential next debates? In 2018, Steve Bannon reportedly summed up the administration’s strategy as “flood the zone with shit” – except now the flooding is in superspreader mode and jacked on steroids.
Way before 2016, Presidential debates already had a bad reputation for timid moderators letting lies go unchecked, with one party overcompensating for the other. The 2016 debates now seem like a quaint warm-up for what took place a few weeks ago at the University of Utah. That “debate” also reinforced one of the largest problems of the Trump era writ large: giving him his biggest public platform yet to lie on-air, unchecked, in real time.
Post-debate, a better way for how the media reports on the President’s live events over the next three weeks suddenly seemed possible; instead of solely covering the lies, what if – for contrast – they also included how few truths emerged? Not that the indefatigable Daniel Dale doesn’t have journalism’s fullest plate, but it might put things in a new context if reporters laid out, say, out of 100 Trump statements at a rally, what does the ratio of truth count to lie count look like? Could it help to see if the President made 70 false statements…and only 30 true statements out of 100 comments?
The Convergence Of The Debates, Election, President’s COVID-19 Diagnosis And Evergreen Danger Of Airing Unchecked Lies In Real Time
Like so many things in the Trump era, a new cacophony of moving parts collided over the last few weeks. An administration synonymous with being divorced from reality has never not been problematic. However, atop the least ideal scenarios for a White House that long ago exhausted the benefit of a doubt, a once-a-century-plague ranks high. Possibly less ideal: the President himself contracting this deadly virus at the height of a public health crisis. If ever there were a moment that we needed reliable narrators in this administration, this is it. The reality, however, is that we aren’t likely to get the truth about anything, much less the President’s COVID-19 status – past, present and future.
Two debate performances filled with more lies than truths by Trump and Pence; the danger of downplaying the virus; the threat of stoking Election Day violence; the misinformation on voting by mail; the refusal to accept a peaceful transition of power; the deflection of this administration to confirm when the President contracted COVID-19 and prove that he’s no longer testing negative – is all one in the same – an administration incapable of honesty. While the dishonesty isn’t new, the stakes are.
With the administration’s credibility shot, the election looming and Trump tempting the networks into airing his live rallies, this has got to be the “come to Jesus” moment for the media in its decisions on how to report on this Presidency. How to cover the lies has always mattered, but now is the moment where responsibility must usurp ratings, clicks and ad buys. There’s only one chance to reliably communicate and fact-check this administration’s claims now that voting has started and Election Day is upon us.
“While the dishonesty isn’t new, the stakes are.”
September 29: The Presidential Debate As Baseball Game Destined To Fail
Before the debate even started, the format was designed for collapse. The result for this pre-destined outcome had the feel of a baseball game where the fix was in, except with no winners and the audience the losers.
1. The original sin here was the DNC conceding to Fox moderating a debate, thereby helping legitimize a non-news organization. While Chris Wallace may the best Fox has got, it’s still Fox. The DNC had already clarified its stance on this issue during the Primary debates when they barred Fox from hosting duties. As Chairman Tom Perez put it, Fox News is, “not in a position to host a fair and neutral debate.
The baseball game equivalency: a non-credentialed umpire in charge.
2. Days before the debate, Wallace announced he wouldn’t fact-check. There’s no precedent for a moderator or network pre-announcing abandoning these duties. It’s impossible to separate this decision from Fox’s (lack of) standards. Although the fact-check topic comes up every four years (moderators primarily try to steer clear), this was tantamount to forewarning that the bull would have full run of the China shop. With this abdication, combined with one debater known only for lying and interrupting, the chaotic outcome was pre-determined. If none of the unprofessionalism was subtle enough, one of the six pre-announced topics included the interestingly phrased “race and violence in our cities.” Notably, climate change didn’t make the list.
The baseball game equivalency: the umpire pre-announced that he wouldn’t call balls or strikes.
3. The moderator didn’t moderate. Though he tried occasionally, it was too little too late; Wallace never definitively put his foot down, paused proceedings or succeeded in getting Trump to not interrupt for what felt like 90 straight minutes. It’s difficult to imagine any legitimate journalist succumbing as easily as Wallace. Slate’s Jeremy Stahl took on the herculean task of Trump interruption count (towards Biden and Wallace). 128 times. The President clocked an average of 1.4 interruptions per minute. For context, Stahl noted the 2016 Election’s first debate saw Trump interrupt Hillary Clinton a more restrained 51 times.
The next day, Wallace told the New York Times, that he “never dreamt that it would go off the tracks the way it did” and “I guess I didn’t realize — and there was no way you could, hindsight being 20/20 — that this was going to be the president’s strategy, not just for the beginning of the debate but the entire debate.” So either the best Fox had to offer isn’t being honest or he lacks the imagination to gauge the obvious. Both options confirm why a Fox employee should have been a non-starter for the DNC, the Biden campaign and the Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD). If it wasn’t already clear that Trump viewed the debate as 2-on-1 (not 1-on-1), he later tweeted a picture of him on one side, Wallace and Biden on the other and the word “VS” in the middle.
The baseball game equivalency: by not moderating effectively, one team could cheat with impunity (Trump set the ballpark on fire).
October 7: The VP Debate Featuring 1 Potentially Infectious Debater and The COVID-19-Related Reasons To Forego
Although we came off the most disastrous Presidential debate ever televised, there’s no reason to view the VP debate as a success; just because Pence’s interruptions were quieter, his lies less rabid and the event not ending in a bare knuckle brawl doesn’t make what took place, “just another debate.”
1. Pence’s attendance on September 26th at the near-entirely maskless and entirely non-socially distanced Rose Garden SCOUTUS nomination-turned-superspreader event (35 people and counting) was reason enough to forego an in-person debate. If that wasn’t reason enough, he confirmed being with Trump on October 1st. (The President tweeted his positive diagnosis at 12:54am on October 2nd).
CDC guidelines are clear: anyone who may have been exposed to the virus is to quarantine for 14 days. Even if that person tests negative, we’re so early into the pandemic that no tests exist, in any country, which can deliver 100% accurate results. For now, false negatives and false positives are an unforgiving part of our testing culture. We even know of patients testing negative multiple times, yet still exhibiting multiple, clear-cut symptoms of COVID-19.
September 26th Rose Garden non-socially distanced SCOTUS ceremony for Amy Coney Barrett. Image via USA Today.
2. Due to the the Vice President’s new immunity vulnerability, the second in line of succession to the Presidency would inspire extraordinary caution within a normal administration. Quarantining would be a given. Traveling would be an impossibility.
3. Other signs of an abnormal administration was insisting Pence debate with no plexiglass barriers. Though he acquiesced, the CPD stage appeared devoid of medical consultation, with only 12 feet and plexiglass separating him and Harris from potential infection. The New York Times was blunt in its assessment, “[T]the risk in this setting is airborne transmission of the coronavirus, and the barriers will do nothing to protect Ms. Harris and the moderator, Susan Page, Washington bureau chief of USA Today, if Mr. Pence were infected.” One of the aerosol experts quoted in the article was so alarmed by the Hail Mary approach that he contacted the CPD to recommend purchasing basic $300 plug-and-play air filters.
2. Because this administration has no credibility left, Pence’s claims of testing negative can’t be taken as true without substantive confirmation. His claims aren’t aided by a White House that went nine days before telling the public when the President’s last negative test took place. Not that there’s any reason to believe the President’s physician’s (who already acknowledged spinning Trump’s results) claim on October 12th that the President tested negative. Equally important, we still don’t know if Trump had knowingly tested positive before debating Biden. Curiously, an article from March resurfaced after the debates, titled “People Intentionally Spreading Coronavirus Could Be Charged With Terrorism, DOJ Says”.
3. The bizarre decision for the Biden campaign to send Kamala to an indoor debate with Pence ended up fully normalizing the administration’s reckless, life-threatening behavior. Harris showing up provided Trump’s preferred optics to the nation that it’s AOK to be next to someone who should be quarantining.
4. An outdoor debate: if this debate simply had to happen, why indoors? For visual reference, this was the October 5th outdoor NBC News Town Hall with Joe Biden.
Joe Biden during his outdoor NBC News Town Hall.
5. A Zoom Debate: instead of going with the only practical choice, Team Biden / Harris chose a lost opportunity. Harris is now attending the SCOTUS hearings remotely from her Senate office.
The (Long Running) Misinformation-Related Reasons To Consider Foregoing Debates And Any More Live Trump Events
1. On September 30th, news broke that researchers at Cornell University reached a conclusion on the largest source of COVID-19 misinformation, conspiracy theories and falsehoods found online: the President of the United States. They analyzed 38 million articles between January 1st to May 26th; more than 1.1 million contained misinformation related to the pandemic in English-language media throughout the world. Trump’s name was found in 38% of the overall “misinformation conversation,” rendering him the single largest pusher of the “infodemic.”
2. Live debates featuring Trump and Pence have rightfully re-upped the conversation about giving televised platforms to proven liars. That was before our current global health crisis. Now consider the scale of reach – tens of millions of viewers – in light of the Cornell results.
3. With the potential for one debate left, shouldn’t Biden be asking, out loud, if preserving norms like Presidential debates outweigh the national security risks amplified by Trump’s downplaying all things COVID-19? When asked to condemn white supremacy and the President instead gives marching orders to his violent hate groups, “Stand Back and Stand By,” isn’t it worth Team Biden publicly entertaining second thoughts of giving Trump a platform that vast? From a basic safety and health perspective, was it worth Harris showing up to a debate that could have been virtual?
4. Trump and Pence aren’t John McCain and Mitt Romney – the lies are more dangerous, voluminous and spreadable on social media than in 2008 and 2012. And neither were endangering national security during their respective debates. The outsized, yet unearned credibility that Presidential debates have been bestowed needs to be rethought. Like so many norms we took for granted just four years ago, we know better now. The debates long ago devolved into a shiny object designed for media coverage, horse-race analysis and gaffe / meme. If there’s anything to be learned from the last two debates, it’s to see Presidential debates not for what they were, but what they’ve become.
The October 22nd Debate Is Still Scheduled. It Doesn’t Have To Be.
Common sense has prevailed several times in similar situations recently –
South Carolina Senatorial Challenger Jamie Harrison pushed back on participating in a 2nd debate after Lindsey Graham refused to take a COVID-19 test, despite being exposed to Senator Mike Lee (who tested positive after the Rose Garden superspreader event) on October 1st. Harrison released a common sense statement, “If Sen. Graham will not take a coronavirus test, I cannot responsibly debate in person tomorrow night and allow politics to put my family, my campaign staff, Sen. Graham’s staff, and members of the media at unnecessary risk.” The direct result of Harrison’s push was a format change with the candidates agreeing to participate in separate, individual interviews, taking questions from panelists and the moderator.
Saturday Night Live canceled musician Morgan Wallen’s appearance last weekend after video surfaced of him performing maskless days before the show.
The CPD canceled the 2nd Presidential debate after Trump tested positive and refused the virtual debate format.
“If Biden shifts the spotlight back on the media’s lack of responsibility in its years-long coverage of live Trump events, it would push the conversation on doing things differently instead of repeating the same mistakes.”
The October 22 debate is still scheduled and would likely be virtual if Trump chooses to participate. If the Biden campaign were to announce their reluctance to giving the leader of the free world his largest possible audience to spread unchecked propaganda, conspiracy theories and poll-watching directives to his armed militias, they’d be shining the light on a very real threat that can be avoided. By publicly voicing his concerns, Biden would be pushing the media to keep the narrative on Trump airing weapons-grade lies that get laundered through the pomp and circumstance of a bygone event. If Biden shifts the spotlight back on the media’s lack of responsibility in its years-long coverage of live Trump events, it would push the conversation on doing things differently instead of repeating the same mistakes. That last message may be the most important one for the media on Election Day coverage, and the weeks and months to follow.
Networks would obviously not suddenly cease airing live Trump events if Biden did all these things. But if Biden kept this narrative a live issue, giving the networks even the smallest pause for concern will have been worth it.
Brent Korson is a writer / documentary producer living in NYC whose work runs the gamut from environmental justice to spotlighting corruption. His production experience includes projects for PBS, NBC, Nat Geo, The History Channel, MoveOn.org, The Sundance Channel and Pennebaker Hegedus films. Editorial and writing experience includes work with Interview, Time Out NY and AV Network and Zoetrope: All Story. He’s known for his passion towards climate-related issues, interest in seeing journalism and news continually course correct itself and belief that Damon Lindelof is the premiere storyteller of our times.
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Home Games PSVR Headset to be Launched Alongside PS5
PSVR Headset to be Launched Alongside PS5
By: Sharon J. Beaulieu | In: Games | Last updated: April 13, 2019 0
The latest news from Sony has shaken the entire PlayStation gamer community at its core. While eagerly awaiting for the launch of the PS5, users around the world had the chance to take a glimpse into the Japanese maker’s latest project, which might be their strongest weapon in the next-gen console war against the Microsoft Xbox Two.
On April 4, 2019, Sony Interactive Entertaiment Inc. Tokyo has revealed to the public a brand-new technology designed for a PlayStation VR headset featuring „foveated rendering” that delivers extraordinary graphical quality, using an integrated eye-tracker.
For those who are unfamiliar with what „foveated rendering” is, all you need to know is that you should be very excited about it. In a nutshell, it will allow areas of the virtual world that the player is not looking at to be rendered at a lower level of graphics quality.
This implies that the in-game environment would be easier to handle by mass-market processors. It also grants an impressive graphical improvement of objects the gamer is focusing on.
The former patent published by Sony on March 14,2019 presented a completely wireless PSVR headset which, in the light of the latest events, makes it clear that the company is working on building a new PlayStation VR headset to be powered by the PS5 that is also wireless and has the ability to display enormous, graphically impressive virtual worlds, that exceed the current possibilities of the PS4 powered VR headset.
Surely, when planning its strategy to counter Sony’s next-gen assault, Microsoft did not factor in such a ferocious adversary as the combo of a wildly powerful PS5 and a new super-powered PSVR, even more so since, according to what we know so far about the next Xbox, Microsoft does not plan to have a VR headset in its armory soon.
Supposing that the technology detailed in these patents will be brought to reality, the new PSVR headset could very much win the next-gen console war for Sony once and for all.
PS5 PSVR
About the Author: Sharon J. Beaulieu
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Home» News» Nepal Rastra Bank Brings New Regulations for Digital Transactions
Nepal Rastra Bank Brings New Regulations for Digital Transactions
Posted on April 18, 2018 by Shreya Sapkota
Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB), the central bank of Nepal has issued a new regulation for transactions in Nepal. The issued regulation has established limitations to the various transactions including digital payments.
The central bank has also put restrictions on cash transactions from credit card to 25 percent of the credit limit.
Similarly, the central bank has also set an upper limit of Rs. 100,000 that can be loaded on a prepaid card issued by Bank and Financial Institutions (BFI) or payment service providers at a time.
The prepaid cardholders can do transactions from Rs. 500 to Rs.10,000 at a time. The maximum monthly limit for the transaction is Rs. 50,000.
The withdrawal limit for a debit card is set at Rs. 25,000 to Rs. 100,000.
According to the new directives, transaction limit from mobile banking has been set at Rs. 5,000 at a time, Rs. 10,000 in a week and Rs 50,000 in a month.
NRB has set the upper limit of Rs. 100,000 during single transfer from one bank to another through Internet banking service. However, monthly limit for the transfer is set at Rs. 1 million.
The daily limit for Internet banking transaction is Rs. 100,000, while the monthly limit for such transactions has been set at Rs. 500,000.
Similarly, one can load Rs. 5,000 at a time, a total of Rs. 15,000 in a day and Rs. 25,000 in a month through agent or subagent into e-wallet/mobile/wallet/digital wallet.
However, payment for tax, revenue, fine, registration fees and service charges for government agencies as per the billed amount.
There is also no limit for transfer of money from wallet to a bank account.
You can read NRB’s directive about the new limits for more details.
According to the deputy governor of Nepal Rastra Bank, Chintamani Siwakoti, new regulations have been brought in considering all sectors concerned and international norms.
What do you think of these new limits? Let us know your views in the comment section below.
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Learn Slovak While You Sleep
Category: Learn A Foreign Language
For Your Ears Only
Learn Like A Spy
ABSOLUTELY ESSENTIAL Slovak LANGUAGE ACQUISITION
Speak Slovak within 30 days. No Pens, No Paper, No Homework, No Memorising.
You can rapidly learn Slovak or ANY NEW language.
Learning Slovak is easier than you think!
Imagine how you would feel being the one who orders the meal the next time you’re in a Slovak restaurant – and in Slovak.
We have all tried the big named systems for learning Slovak but usually we never get to finish them – something else more important just seems to pop up and get in the way.
It can be annoying and really frustrating – we should have done this ages ago – perhaps when we were at college.
Well don’t give up just yet – with another holiday looming there is still time to make sense of the locals and to even impress them.
Even if you have little spare time – get rid of those embarrassing Slovak moments – you can do it.
Our unique "Learn Slovak In Your Sleep" system can get you up and running even if all you want is some time out.
Our promise is you will speak Slovak in 30 days and without taking hours of your time.
I’m sure your skeptical and why would this system be any different to all those others you’ve tried.
Well put simply – our system works. You don’t need much time and before long you will be amazed to find it working.
Soon those foreign sounds and words will be become more and more familiar and recognizable.
With a few words at first – before you know it you will be proud of yourself stringing together whole sentences.
And the great thing is, it doesn’t take up much of your time. With just a small effort you will begin to see results which will reinforce your confidence as things begin to ‘stick’.
Slovak phrases will pop instantly to mind as you smile and congratulate yourself.
Soon you will really be looking forward to that holiday.
This system is the exact same way spies have used in the past to quickly learn a new foreign language. Now is your chance to make it work for you.
It’s your choice really – to stay stuck where you are or to use our unique "Learn Slovak In Your Sleep" system to get you speaking Slovak in 30 days and unleash your confidence when speaking Slovak.
What price would you put on a being able to speak Slovak?
Private lessons are expensive and need loads of time. Other language programs are not only expensive but require hours and hours of tedious work and study.
You’ll be amazed at how simple and easy our "Learn Slovak In Your Sleep" system is to soak up the Slovak that you really need to speak and have been struggling with for years.
Just 100 words comprise 50% of all words used in conversation in a language.
Learning this core 100 words gets you a long way towards being able to speak in that language, albeit at a basic level.
The 100 basic words used in English conversation are shown below:
1. a, an
51. often
2. after
52. on
53. one
4. all
54. only
5. almost
55. or
6. also
7. always
57. our
58. out
9. because
10. before
60. people
11. big
61. place
12. but
62. please
13. (I) can
63. same
14. (I) come
64. (I) see
15. either/or
65. she
16. (I) find
17. first
67. some
18. for
68. sometimes
19. friend
69. still
20. from
70. such
21. (I) go
71. (I) tell
22. good
23. goodbye
73. that
24. happy
74. the
25. (I) have
75. their
26. he
76. them
27. hello
77. then
78. there is
29. how
79. they
30. I
80. thing
31. (I) am
81. (I) think
32. if
82. this
33. in
34. (I) know
84. to
35. last
85. under
36. (I) like
86. up
37. little
87. us
38. (I) love
88. (I) use
39. (I) make
89. very
40. many
90. we
91. what
42. more
92. when
43. most
93. where
44. much
94. which
45. my
95. who
96. why
47. no
48. not
98. yes
49. now
99. you
50. of
100. your
Numerous studies have revealed that in every country, native-speakers use only about 850 distinct words on a daily basis. Studying these language building blocks is the key to rapid assimilation and internalisation of any new language. With this approach, it’s not how many words you know, but rather, which words you can use.
By aiming each lesson at teaching you those 850 words, this approach teaches you to speak the most in ANY language in the least amount of time.
This entire approach is what language learning should be: quick, fun, and easy. Many foreign language students have difficulty learning. Their textbooks teach monotonous drills, grammar rules, and random lists of words. But textbooks alone can never bring it all together. Your only real goal in taking any language course is to speak that language naturally with others.
This approach is so effective because it traces how people developed language. Before written history, we had oral history. Most people, even Kings, couldn’t write or read in ancient times. Some people can’t even read today. Most language learning systems fail to acknowledge that writing only exists to represent the words we speak. So you should ask yourself, “Why should I learn to read a language if I can’t even speak it?”
Immediately immerses you in the language to help you grasp the sounds of that language.
Amazingly, once you understand the oral patterns, that chaotic, “foreign” sound so common to language learning disappears instantly. You’ll start to recognize words. This approach will help to change your perception within your first 30 minutes.
All our language CD’s use:
The Bulgarian physician Georgi Lozanov devised a language learning method called Suggestopedia. The Suggestopedic method consists in exposing the student to an audition of pairs of items, following a certain rhythmic pattern. At the same time, instrumental baroque music in Largo tempo (60 beats per minute) is played back.This kind of soothing, rhythmic music is intended for inducing a state of relaxed alertness on the learner. This method is supposed to improve recalling performance by at least 25%.
For More On Baroque Music – Click Here
Brain Wave Entrainment
Brain waves can be manupulated by using special frequencies called binaural beats.
This can be utilised to enable rapid change by inducing the correct brain waves and encoding subliminal messages that enter the sub-conscious more readily at those frequencies.
For More On Brain Wave Entrainment – Click Here
Silent Technology™
a new revolution in subconscious programming technology.
Concentration not required! Play in background, While sleeping, Relaxing or Working! No special equipment needed. Any CD home player, walkman, stereo, mono earphones, pillow speakers, O.K.
For More On Silent Technology™ – Click Here
Each English to Slovak Course contains:
850 of the most IMPORTANT WORDS in Slovak.
Everything you need to get started
ABSOLUTELY ESSENTIAL LANGUAGE ACQUISITION
Both AUDIO & SILENT Versions Available
INCLUDING WORLDWIDE SHIPPING
YOU will learn your new language faster than ever before. Each 850 WORD course will give you the FASTEST way to absorb and internalise a new language.
Remember – No Pens, No Paper, No Homework, No Memorising.
Just sit back and relax or even go to sleep. In only 15 hours, you’ll know the essential sounds and words in any language. You can practice in your car, on the plane, or on a train. It’s that simple.
These courses are designed specifically to help people like you. People who need to learn foreign languages fast, fluently, and forever.
How is language naturally acquired?
Languages are naturally acquired by people listening to language. The human brain is built to analyze it. You know, there are a lot of places in the world not in America, but in supposedly “backwards” places like West Africa, New Guinea, where it is commonplace to find people who speak half a dozen languages. How do they do that? There are no language schools. So, they do it because it’s part of their lives. They go down to the market, they find people talking in 4 or 5 languages. Due to their exposure to the constant repetition of each language’s words and sounds, their brain begins to absorb these ‘foreign’ words and phases – making sense of them – naturally. Before long the language has become internalised – and they begin to understand and then to speak.
How does this approach mirror this?
The way language is naturally acquired in real-life second language learning situations is by listening to the language itself. And analyzing it yourself. The people who learn second languages most successfully, are not those who go to language schools. If you go to a language school, you tend to go somewhere where they have a special theory about how language should be learned, and they impose that theory upon you. But actually, the human mind is constructed to learn language. That’s one of the basic things. Just as a spider spins its web, so too do people acquire language. It’s just as natural as that. If you try to constrain that process by imposing some regime that you’ve thought, theoretically, that ought to work, it really doesn’t help. Success lies in the ability to mimic natural language acquisition insofar as any teaching method can.
What is the key to language learning?
You have to ask yourself, why is it that so many people try to learn foreign languages and fail abysmally. I think there’s 2 reasons why they fail: they’re not motivated enough and they don’t have sufficient exposure to the real thing. The key to language learning is a combination of these two things. As regards motivation, a lot of that’s got to come from the learner. But given the learner has a reasonable amount of motivation, then the burden lies upon the course to continually present them with material that is relevant to the kinds of things the learner will have to do when he’s using the language. That will keep up the motivation. Now, as for the material, if you have material produced by a native speaker of that language, and a sufficient amount of that material is provided, then language learning takes place. Since we are equipped to learn languages, the brain does the rest of the job for us. All it needs is sufficient motivation and sufficient first-class, first-language speaker material from which to learn.
Please explain the concept behind the courses.
From a linguist’s standpoint, these courses work in a very natural manner. Lots of people try to learn foreign languages it’s rather like people trying to lose weight. Lots of people try to lose weight and very few do. Lots of people try to learn foreign languages, but they get bored, they get discouraged, they find that it’s too hard for them. By presenting the learner with material in the target language, these courses expose the learner from the earliest stage to real-life sounds and words. So, it’s going to keep the learner interested and teach the learner language that can be used immediately. There’s a payoff right away.
Briefly, what are the fundamentals that make up any given language?
Our brain is automatically programmed to take words and put them together. It differs from language to language, but not as much as you’d think. Every language is cut to so close a pattern, that some linguists regard them basically as dialects of one language. So, in other words, you already have in your brain a machine that is ready and waiting for language. What do you have to do? You have to learn the sound system of the language, which may differ from yours. Then, you have to learn the words. That’s all you need to know. You don’t have to be given a lot of elaborate grammatical rules, because your brain’s already equipped to figure them out for you.
How does the brain acquire new information?
When you hear anything at all, it is stored in your short term memory. The short-term memory will hold it, but unless it is repeated and re-emphasized, it is not going to hold on to it. Many things pass, so to speak, through your memory. In order to make long-term memories, the information must be transferred. This occurs through repetition.
Why do you think this approach works?
I think what makes this approach most effective is that it allows anyone to simply listen and learn. To internalise a language – naturally. By concentrating on just 850 key core language words this approach teaches the MOST in the LEAST amount of time. Also our Silent Technology version enables the listener to learn a language through repetition without getting bored. Let’s face it, a lot of foreign language work can be terribly boring. And one of the key elements in language learning is motivation. By removing the boredom of repetition and concentrating on just 850 key words, the goal of absolute essential language acquisition becomes realistic. When you then combine the latest advances in accelerated learning techniques like brainwave entrainment (more here) and baroque music (more here) you have a compelling medium for subliminal induction.
How can this approach be used whilst sleeping?
Whilst sleeping or relaxing studies have shown that the brain is most receptive to new information. The conscious mind is at rest and access is gained to the sub-conscious. This is when accelerated learning takes place.
Learn Chinese While You Sleep
Learn Arabic While You Sleep
Learn Thai While You Sleep
Learn German While You Sleep
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Outdoor Fitness Ordinance On Santa Monica City Council Docket Tuesday:
Staying in shape is not always free or cheap. Those providing fitness services within Santa Monica may have to dole out some extra cash if they want to continue providing outdoor fitness classes overlooking the Pacific Ocean.
The Santa Monica City Council will deliberate at its Tuesday meeting an ordinance to allow private fitness trainers to offer camps or classes in public parks or beaches if they pay a fee and maintain a permit.
If approved, the new permitting regulation could bring as much as $63,000 in revenues to City Hall.
According to City staff, the new ordinance, if approved, would make it “unlawful for any person to provide fitness or athletic instruction, classes or camps for compensation in City parks or Santa Monica State Beach without City authorization.”
Also addressed in the proposed ordinance are the “use of heavy equipment in parks,” where commercial instruction is not permitted, and regulations governing group instruction at Palisades Park.
Under the proposed ordinance, private fitness trainers would have to pay between $100 and $150 annually in permitting fees plus 10 to 15 percent of their respective gross receipts to use space at designated public areas to teach individuals or small groups.
The proposed permitting and regulatory system would be tested as part of a one-year pilot program if council members approve the ordinance.
Fitness activities included within the proposed ordinance are traditional exercise, tai-chi, yoga, soccer, karate, boxing, and, as stated by City staff, “other types of athletic activities.”
A key area regulated by the proposed ordinance is Palisades Park and the California Incline area, where group training has been observed both by this writer as well as others who have spoken with The Mirror.
Accordingly, the proposed ordinance outlines four zones at Palisades Park where group training would be ideal: Palisades Avenue north of Alta Avenue; Montana Avenue north to Palisades Avenue; the area immediately north of Idaho Avenue; and, Wilshire Boulevard north to the public restroom.
The fourth zone between Wilshire Boulevard and the first public restroom of Palisades Park just north of the thoroughfare is the only zone below the California Incline.
Group instruction at Palisades Park could include as few as two people but never more than 15, as proposed by the ordinance.
Also included within the proposed ordinance: fitness instruction cannot take place before 6 am or after 9 pm; equipment used at Palisades Park cannot exceed 25 pounds; and, physical or athletic instruction cannot take place at Goose Egg Park, Ashland Park, Beach Park 3, Chess Park, and Ken Genser Square.
Private fitness classes, irrespective of size, at public parks and beaches have been prohibited or heavily regulated in other cities.
For example, all private trainers in Redondo Beach are required to contract with the city and offer their services through city-sponsored classes.
In Manhattan Beach, private trainers are screened and are limited as to when and where they may conduct their classes.
Los Angeles and Culver City assess hourly rates or charge private trainers “a percentage of gross receipts for commercial fitness activity and camps.”
Council members will also vote on a development agreement (DA) for a proposed mixed-use project at 401 Broadway. A developer proposes to bring a five-story building to Fourth and Broadway to house 56 residential units and 4,159 square feet of ground floor commercial space.
The Oct. 8 agenda also includes a proposed ordinance updating City law to exempt drivers of electric and other low- or zero-emission vehicles from making payments at parking meters within Santa Monica.
Input from council members, residents, and the community at large will be included in The Mirror’s upcoming coverage of these issues throughout October.
By mirrormmg October 7, 2013
by wpengine
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Stanford researchers find that male over-confidence might be costing the tech industry billions
Anyone working in tech will know the type: the mini-Elon Musk. The young man who thinks that his brilliant idea is going to be the next Uber, Spotify or Tesla. He presents himself with confidence and assurance, but you suspect that, deep down, he has no idea what he is talking about.
There are, of course, women of this type as well. And we certainly shouldn’t (based on a few anecdotes) draw conclusions about men and women as a whole.
That’s where researchers can contribute: to find out whether men are, in general, overly-confident in their own abilities and how this relates to their pay. Investigating this issue, Adina Sterling and her colleagues at Stanford started by looking at how ‘self-efficacy’ of men and women in comparison with their University grades. Self-efficacy was measured by asking study participants how confident they are in their ability to develop products; build prototypes and mathematical models; and construct technological systems. …
Why algorithms are no better than humans at predicting exam results, goals in football, musical taste or criminal reoffending
It is very likely that at least some of the people who suggested using an algorithm to predict A-level results thought that they were being scientific and rational. They imagined that their algorithm would be neutral, remove bias and do an overall better job than the teachers, who are too close to the students to remain clear-headed.
The irony is that it is exactly this thinking that is unscientific, irrational and biased. Let me explain why, starting with a metric from football called ‘expected goals’. Expected goals are calculated by feeding a lot of data (shot location, whether it was made with foot or head, etc.) about historical chances in to a statistical model. …
What are the Ten Equations?
Maths is often seen as hard.
Not ‘hard’ as in ‘difficult’ (it can be that too, of course) but ‘hard’ as in delivering hard truths, undeniable facts and fool-proof reasoning.
For me, maths isn’t like that. My 20 years of experience as an applied mathematician — modelling everything from gambling and football to racial segregation and epidemics — has taught me that maths has a softer side.
Maths can be used to think about whether you should give up (or stick with) a romantic relationship. It helps you deal with feelings of insecurity that arise when you compare yourself to others. It provides ways of coping with the vast flood of information from social media and to decide how long your kids should be allowed to spend on their phones. …
Entries for the Liverpool Analytics Challenge
I was totally amazed how many entries their were for the ‘Friends oF Tracking’ Liverpool analytics challenge. The brief was:
1, Use one or more of the tools we have learnt so far (pitch control, speed and acceleration, passing networks, pass maps etc.) to analyse the data.
2, Feel free to combine with other data available from other sources on Liverpool.
3, Produce an output (short report/video) that can be communicated either to a coach, a video analyst or players.
4, Write technical details in a separate appendix.
5, Post a link in comments below and/or to Twitter using #FoT.
The three numbers you need to know when reading Corona news articles
One of the questions that I am regularly asked by friends and family about the current crisis is: what numbers should we pay most attention to? With all the information out there, what should we concentrate on?
Before I start I need to make a disclaimer. In this crisis, we should depend primarily on the experts: the government scientists and researchers directly involved in the policy and the science. The Imperial College reports and the John Hopkins Covid-19 map are valuable and reliable resources. These should be your primary sources for information. I am reasonably competent in epidemic modelling. I have taught the it to undergraduates at University, I have attended lots of academic seminars on the subject and have written peer-reviewed articles on SIR and other models. But I am not directly involved in modelling the current crisis, and I am very sceptical about the vast numbers of ‘machine learning Corona’, ‘physics models of deaths’ and ‘amateur SIR models’ that have appeared on Medium and elsewhere. …
How Swedes were fooled by one of the biggest scientific bluffs of our time.
Dan Katz, licensed psychologist and psychotherapist, explains why Thomas Erikson’s success with his book Surrounded by Idiots is one of the biggest pseudoscience scandals in recent history. This version was translated in to English and edited by David Sumpter, professor of mathematics at Uppsala University.
Over the last few years, hundreds of thousands of Swedes have spent an estimated total of more than ten million euros on a book which many of them believed contained a scientific account of human psychology, written by an expert in the area. The book’s success has led many companies and other organizations to order personality tests, from a growing number of suppliers eager to exploit the new market, and apply them on their employees. Surrounded by Idiots has had a major impact on how Swedish people talk to each other about psychology and discuss the behaviour of those around them. …
Read more · 17 min read
How practitioners and academics think (and then forget) about fairness when building AI systems.
One of the biggest challenges, as machine learning and AI is increasingly used to make decisions about everything from credit risk to employee recruitment, is how to evaluate its fairness. Do algorithms make judgements that are sexist, racist or otherwise discriminatory? And how do those using them mitigate against bias?
When asked what they think, many AI practitioners will say the right thing. But what drives their decisions when they actually start building a system?
This was the question that motivated Johanna Fyrvald, who wrote her Masters thesis with me as supervisor last term. Through three interviews with academics and four interviews with practitioners (CTO’s and Heads of AI) at Swedish companies she aimed to find out how they think about fairness in Artificial Intelligence. …
Zlatan Ibrah Rocket Science
‘Zlatan Ibrahimović! I want to go and give you a man hug!’
These were the words of commentator Stan Collymore after he witnessed the gigantic Swede rotate his body vertically through 180 degrees, meet the ball in a bicycle kick and lob it over Joe Hart’s head from over 25 metres. Seconds before, Collymore was calmly describing the game as a “worthwhile exercise” as England and Sweden looked forward to the World Cup qualifiers. Suddenly he exclaimed, “O my God, an insane goal! I’ve just seen the most insane goal I’ve ever seen on a football pitch!” …
What is the most complex animal for which we can model its general intelligence?
The argument against superintelligence or general-AI in the near future is really taking off, with recent books by Melanie Mitchell and Gary Marcus, putting much needed common sense back in to the debate. Gary’s Twitter feed, in particular, is a great starting point for learning how claims about AI have got out of hand.
The general-AI question has interested me for some time and in my book, Outnumbered, I approached the problem using my own background in mathematical biology. I took a starting point I think we can all accept: at present AI can’t do all human-level tasks. I then asked whether it could compete with other animals? …
The Geometrical Wonder of Lionel Messi
I never imagined, when I first started writing about maths and football in 2015, that the result would be this. But here I was, flying down to Barcelona to study Lionel Messi up close and personal. To help the documentary makers understand his geometry.
They sat me close to him in the stand and asked me to provide my own analysis. A geometrical proof of why Messi was the best player to have to ever walk on a football pitch.
It wasn’t a difficult task. I had already shown in Soccermatics that Messi’s goal scoring made him a once in a lifetime event. Large deviation theory predicts that we shouldn’t expect another Messi to come along for another 70 or so years. I had created Voronoi diagrams of how he and his team mates broke down space. …
Professor of Applied Mathematics. Books: The Ten Equations (2020); Outnumbered (2018); Soccermatics (2016) and Collective Animal Behavior (2010).
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Mark Serwotka: Unions must step up the fight
PCS civil service workers’ union secretary Mark Serwotka spoke to Socialist Worker after the demonstration last Saturday
Published Tue 29 Mar 2011
‘Saturday was extraordinarily uplifting and inspirational. I marched with the PCS contingent and took two hours to get from Waterloo Bridge to Big Ben.
We think we had about 20,000 PCS members on the march. What was clear to me from the response to my speech at the final rally was that calls for joint action and taxing the rich caught the mood.
Just seeing hundreds of thousands of people cheering action and an alternative to cuts was invigorating.
It took an awful lot of arguing to even get this march, and many of us wanted it earlier. Saturday was proof that people are looking for a lead.
I hope it goes some way to tackling the caution that exists among many on the TUC general council about how far and how quickly you can go.
If the momentum is lost there’s always the fear that the mood can dissipate and that we’ll miss our moment.
We’ve got to move quickly. There will be a meeting of all the public sector unions at the TUC on Wednesday, which in part has been called to discuss coordinated industrial action over pensions.
The PCS will go to that meeting arguing strongly that we need to move to ballots as soon as we can. We are hoping to convince as many unions as possible to go along with that.
But we are also having discussions with some of the teaching unions.
We think that the UCU and the NUT unions especially are up for action along the lines of the timetable we’re envisaging.
That is to get conference mandates in April and May and balloting for action in June.
We have a PCS executive meeting in early April and the recommendations that will go to that are being finalised now.
They will ensure the ballot we propose allows for a variety of different types of action, including national strikes with other unions.
They will also allow us to respond quickly in all of the places our members work.
The ballot we’re planning should combine the questions of pay, pensions and cuts in jobs to get us the maximum flexibility to take action where members support it.
The big picture is that we move swiftly from Saturday to try and engage on major national action.
I believe we should work with all those who want to oppose the cuts but we’ve got to say we oppose them all.
People seem to understand that if you don’t do this then the question becomes: which cuts do you accept.
It was very good that Ed Miliband came to the rally.
But we can’t be sucked into saying that some cuts are acceptable and others aren’t.
I’m hoping in May that the Tories and the Lib Dems get annihilated in the elections.
However, elections are not going to stop the onslaught of cuts.
We’ve got to build an alliance of trade unionists and campaigners that is going to defend all our services.’
Tue 29 Mar 2011, 18:01 BST
26 March anti-cuts demo: The day workers showed their power
Fighting talk cheered at TUC march
Photos of the TUC march
Magnificent march - now let's strike to beat the Tories
Media lies over demo ‘violence’
All the banners on the TUC anti-cuts demo, 26 March 2011
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AT&T discovers North Carolina
1 February 2015 by Steve Blum
att, broadband, ftth, google fiber
It’s tough work chasing Google.
AT&T is going on a hiring binge in North Carolina. According to a press release it issued on Friday…
AT&T today announced it is looking to fill nearly 100 new technician positions in North Carolina…
In North Carolina, AT&T launched U-verse with AT&T GigaPower Dec. 8 in Carrboro, Cary, Chapel Hill, Raleigh and Winston-Salem, and also plans to bring the service to Durham, Charlotte and Greensboro. U-verse with AT&T GigaPower provides customers access to the fastest Internet available from AT&T, featuring speeds up to 1 gigabit per second.
In addition to its technician positions, AT&T is looking to fill nearly 200 business sales and call center positions in North Carolina.
If those towns sound familiar, it’s because Google announced it was bringing fiber to the home service to most of them (Winston-Salem and Greensboro weren’t on Google’s list).
If you read it carefully, you’ll notice that AT&T isn’t exactly promising to match Google’s gigabit service levels. There’s even a big, fat asterisk attached to AT&T “up to” qualifier…
Speed/time estimates are examples. Internet speed claims represent maximum network service capability speeds. Actual customer speeds may vary and are not guaranteed.
So the GigaWeasel lives on. But 300 new hires is significant. Whether or not AT&T actually delivers a gig, it clearly intends to meet Google’s competitive challenge head on by upgrading service. As it and others – including, quite prominently , Comcast and Charter – have reliably done when presented with a credible threat.
Don't worry about congressional broadband bills, it's up to the FCC and courts
California dreaming is fine, but it doesn't need to end in Texas
City of West Sacramento Broadband Infrastructure Assessment and Action Plan, 30 March 2017.
Operations-based Analysis White Paper, Presented to the Fiber-to-the-Home Council
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FCC wastes no time in bringing the net neutrality hammer down hard on mobile carriers
19 June 2015 by Steve Blum
att, fcc, netneutrality, public policy
Shoot the first one out the door. That’ll give them to know our intentions as serious.
The Federal Communications Commission took a hard swat at AT&T, fining it $100 million for trying to weasel out of unlimited data deals it offered back in the days when the iPhone was being launched…
We find that AT&T…apparently willfully and repeatedly violated the Commission’s Open Internet Transparency Rule by: (1) using the misleading and inaccurate term “unlimited” to label a data plan that was in fact subject to prolonged speed reductions after a customer used a set amount of data; and (2) failing to disclose the express speed reductions that it applied to “unlimited” data plan customers once they hit a specified data threshold.
There’s still a legal and bureaucratic maze to traverse before AT&T actually has to write a check, but if it stands it’ll be the biggest fine ever levied for this kind of corporate behavior. The basis for it is the bits of the FCC’s 2010 network neutrality decision that a federal appeals court left standing, but the fine also signals an intent to aggressively enforce this year’s decision to bring broadband infrastructure and service under common carrier rules.
That message wasn’t lost on Sprint. It lost no time announcing it would stop throttling the top five percent of its data hogs when they popped their limits. So far, Verizon, which throttles so-called unlimited customers under certain conditions, and T-Mobile, which throttles all customers subject to data caps once those limits are exceeded, haven’t changed policy. But you can bet both companies are looking over their shoulder, wondering if the FCC is serious about enforcing its no throttling, no filtering rules.
Expect data plan changes all around: a $100 million fine is about as serious as it gets.
CPUC offered opportunity to duck broadband responsibilities
Low income subsidies for broadband service pushed by FCC
City of San Bruno Fiber to the Home upgrade analysis, 6 April 2018.
City of Palo Alto user-financed FTTP study
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The most important object in computer 3D graphics animations is a very peculiar teapot.
June 10, 2020 Nana Kwadwo ComputerScience Leave a comment
Whether its Netflix and Chill, pumpkin spice and latte, peanut butter and jelly (PB ‘n J), and, animation and … well, a “teapot.” It seems that these pairings are quite fair, but come on, what the heck in the name of computer engineering does a teapot have in common with animations? Short answer: Everything! This unlikely household object in computer science revolutionized what has become computer three dimensional (3D) animation today. Dear friends, if you’re about to have breakfast, let’s savor from the Utah teapot.
Related media: The World’s Most Famous Teapot
Once Upon A Teapot
In 1974, the story of the Utah teapot started in the home of Martin Newell, a computer scientist while he was a Ph.D student at the University of Utah. While having thoughts of making computer 3D graphics look a lot more realistic, Newell got to a grinding halt. At the time, the usual reference objects used for 3D animations — like chess pieces, donuts, urns — weren’t that complex enough for Newell to create and run his new algorithms. Let’s imagine that you want to create something like the … with nothing at your disposal, just …
Newell even wasn’t the one who had that stroke of genius. One fateful day over tea, Newell asked his wife, Sandra, that he needed to try some new models. She suggested that he digitize the shapes of the teapot they were using — it was the simple kaolin (plain white) Melitta teapot. It seemed to be an auspicious choice: The curves, handle, lid, and spout of the teapot all conspired to make it an ideal object for graphical experiment. Newell quickly took a graph sheet and a pencil, and sketched it.
(You now know why its always important to listen to your wife).
I’m An Algorithm, Not Just A Teapot
Image: Sketchapixel | Martin Newell’s original sketch of his Melitta teapot in 1974
Newell got back to his lab and entered the sketched coordinates — also known as Bézier control points, which was originally used in designing automobiles — onto a Tektronix storage tube, an early text and graphics computer terminal. The result was a lovely virtual teapot, more versatile (and probably cuter) than any 3D model to that date. The new model quickly caught the attention of one of Newell’s colleagues, Jim Binn. Newell was demonstrating how his software could adjust an object’s height one day, when Binn remodeled the digitized version by flattening the teapot a bit, and the new remodel was what they decided to work with. Hence, the distinctive Utah teapot was born.
The teapot was perfect: It had both concave and convex surfaces, it could cast shadows on itself, it’s easily recognized — you could easily tell just by looking at it — it didn’t need any texture to look real, for instance a football, and it’s not too simple or not that complicated, either. For creating and testing algorithms for new animation experiments, Newell’s teapot was like the Holy Grail of computer animations. Soon enough, Newell’s teapot from Utah became a beloved iconic figure. Newell had successfully created for computer 3D graphics animators what lab rats are for biologists.
The new model was really useful throughout Newell’s research which featured in a few of his publications. Him together with Binn, took the important step of sharing their model publicly. Eventually, other researchers were very much interested in 3D models, and the digitized teapot was exactly the experimental test bed they needed; and it’s form was simple enough for Newell to input and for computers to process. (Rumor has it some researchers even had the data points memorized!)
“Anyone with a new idea about rendering and lighting would announce it by first trying it out on a teapot,” writes animator Tom Sito in Moving Innovation.“ We saw the teapot rendered as if made of alabaster, red brick, leopard skin, and animal fur.”
I See You, I See Pot
Image: Shutterstock / iStock / Getty Images Plus | 3D Graphic Animation of The Utah Teapot
The teapot was eventually dubbed the title “The Utah Teapot,” because of the fact that the idea came from the University of Utah, where Newell studied at the time. The Graphics Laboratory at the University of Utah’s Computer Science Department in the 1960s and ‘70s led the revolution in computer 3D graphic animations. Animation companies like Adobe and Pixar had their start there. Unfortunately, today, the original Metilla teapot resides at the Computer History Museum in (can you guess?) Mountain View, California. Sorry, it’s not in Utah.
So does that mean if you’re not in California you’ll ever miss the opportunity of seeing (wait for it…) the legendary teapot of Utah?! Not at all. That’s something like an in-joke in computer 3D graphic animation; where graphic designers and animators leave digital signatures of the teapot in their projects for you tech nerds in the know. You can find excerpts of the Utah teapot (if only you’re a ‘90s kid) in an episode of “The Simpsons,” “Toy Story,” and Microsoft’s classic 1995 pipes screensaver.
Written by: Nana Kwadwo, Thu, Mar 28, 2019.
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Previous Article Nashville Explosion Body Cam Footage Released
Next Article "I CAN'T KEEP DOING THIS": Doctor pleads for review of data during COVID-19 Senate hearing
Dr. David Williams, Ontario’s chief medical officer of health, and Dr. Barbara Yaffe, associate chief medical officer of health, have both become very popular on social media around the world and especially in Canada.
Just prior to a televised media update on Covid-19, the pair were chatting prior to the live broadcast, unaware that the microphones and cameras were on.
What was said sounds innocent enough if it weren;t for the ongoing debate over the "pandemic" and the response to it, presumably based on the advice of medical experts.
“I don’t know why I bring all these papers. I never look at them,” Yaffe states on the microphone. She then chuckles and adds further, “I just say whatever they write down for me.”
When someone in the position of associate chief medical officer says something like this, of course people are concerned and some outraged.
In response to the captured moment in time, Dr Yaffe later explained “My comments overheard on a live microphone before Monday’s 3 p.m. COVID-19 media update were my bantering with Dr. Williams,”
“I was referencing the fact that my communications team prep me for these updates with researched and vetted remarks. Of course, I do speak freely and have no notes for responding to questions from the media. I was also reflecting to Dr. Williams on why I carry around extra paperwork.”
If someone is going to represent the opinion of medical experts and give updates on the current status of the pandemic, one would hope that professional would take the time to read the medical research papers and the relevant statistics prior to making public statements that are used as a basis for public policy.
If instead they are simply going to read a communications bulletin written by others, they are not providing medical advice based on their knowledge and understanding. They are no longer leading. They are talking heads.
The public deserves better.
Corona Virus Statistics
Wuhan virus death toll jumps to 106
Tokyo Olympics are postponed until 2021
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Tag Archives: Natalie Erika James
Movie review: Relic (2020)
Bella Heathcote, Emily Mortimer, Natalie Erika James, Robyn Nevin
There’s good reason that Relic has been closely associated with The Babadook, not just because it’s Australian genesis but also as it manages to expose one of humanities greatest fears from the perspective of a directorial feature debut.
Where The Babadook shone a light on grief, and how it can it can take hold of our sanity, Relic puts our response to dementia under scrutiny.
Natalie Erika James proves that she can handle the strong subject matter head on and guide highly esteemed actors Robyn Nevin (Edna) and Emily Mortimer (Kay) in a mother / daughter relationship that is already estranged but the chasm of time exposes this further through Edna’s deteriorating condition.
Muddying the waters is this strange notion that all is not as it seems at the family abode, with a dark presence lurking in the shadows.
Rounding out the trio and providing a third generation into the mix is granddaughter Sam (Bella Heathcote – cutting an impressive performance alongside her costars) who equally has distanced from her mother but holds a strong connection to her grandmother, willing to put a life which holds little meaning on hold to try and aid Edna’s needs, so that she doesn’t get sent to an elderly home.
Part of this films appeal definitely comes from the way the three relatives interact with one another, in some cases trust are brought to light, in others harbours away and kept from the audience as such family stories often do, but the depth of their emotional hardship is etched on the faces of the characters.
Again, a testament to the talent involved but also the strength of the script written by James and her cowriter Cristian White.
The film lures you into the mystery as Kay and Sam are called to Edna’s house when they hear of her disappearance.
It’s the crisis point that unites each relative together as they try to understand the unknown while finding themselves along the way. In order to do so however, they must face the demon head on and either vanquish or embrace it.
At its heart, Relic is a story of love and hope. When these are challenged, we’re left with hardships and invisible barriers preventing any chance of rehabilitation.
Dementia is such a harrowing experience for all involved and using horror as its genre of choice, James weaves together a story that delivers the turmoil not captured since Sarah Polley’s Away From Her.
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Tag: democracy
NYC for Beto Phone Bank 3 Days Before the Mid-Terms
I’m lucky to engage in many interests and am part of a community to each one. They are varied, and one of them, paintball, tends to sway to the political right side, the other, table top war-gaming, swings left. I wont get into the nuances of each, suffice to say I am passionate about each activity, and my social media reflects it. I hear from the right views and I hear from the left. Like most of us, I tend to shout on social media because of the polarizing politics of post 911 America. Those who either regurgitate (re-post memes), spew, pulpit (virtue signalling), express, state, and declare tend to do it in an echo chamber of like minded people. I’m guilty of that, and I’m proud to state that due to interests listed above, I have followers from both sides, so occasionally a good dialog occurs.
That being said, I am keenly aware that stating your political views on social media may be cathartic, but it really isn’t changing anything. After two years of Trump America, I decided I’d be more involved. Summer of 2018 I discovered a Gen X Texas Congressman who was running for Ted Cruz’s Senate seat, Beto O’Rourke. Ironically I got turned onto Beto by following an article about how Cruz’s campaign sought to demean Beto by posting shots of him when he was playing in a post punk Grunge band and the pics went viral because apparently Beto was hot. I fell down an internet rabbit hole of Beto and learned quite a bit about him. He’s a Texan, I agreed with his platform and the way he expressed himself. I felt a kindred spirit in Beto and shared as much on Social Media. I spread the word, but wanted to do more. My “politik” friend, Justin Heyman and I had long talks. He is a more experienced activist than I, and outlined what could be done; mailing post cards to swing voters in Texas, donating to campaigns, and phone banking.
I committed to all three and am a Beto backer in earnest. I joined a phone bank taking place in a Chelsea design studio, Stonestreet Studios. When I confirmed for the phone bank the option to post on Face Book was offered, my feed motivated two others to attend.
Justin exclaimed, “Democracy is contagious”.
The phone bank experience was euphoric, instead of screaming into a contained cyber space, you are directly connecting with real people whose votes matter to advance an individual you believe in. This particular phone bank was located 5 blocks from my home, and took place from 5 pm to 8 pm. Three hours given to democracy is a meager sacrifice in any estimation, but sometimes actions can snowball into something far larger. On this gambit I set off as instructed, a MacBook air and iPhone in hand. I emerged out of an elevator into a working studio filled with young women, young gay men, and the heady air of hope. We introduced ourselves by stating our names and why we were here. The women where concerned about the right for them to receive healthcare and governance over their bodies. The gay men worried over the homophobic tone of national conversation. I smelled a little fear on a few, but overall the tone was of warriors out for blood and ready to battle. Ted Cruz was detested unanimously and everyone knew what was at stake,
Beto had narrowed the gap and Texas may very well turn blue.
Victory was in sight, but not in hand. The hosts who lead the phone bank explained as much, backed up by being in Texas the week before canvassing. There was an excitement in the air as the process was laid out for us.
This night would prove to be “throw your jacket down on the ground democracy”. We packed couches, crevices, desks and studio floors to make calls.
A script we were told to follow (it was known that you could deviate wording as your confidence in the message grew) that essentially started off as informing the Texan recipient that there is an election on Nov 6th and could Beto count on them to vote for him. Upon a confirmation you would then go into determining from them a plan to vote. How would you get to the polls? Before work, or after work? you know, “the polls are only open from 7am to 7 pm”. One of my 50 calls that night I connected with a woman who didn’t know her polling location. I took her address, located her polling location on line then asked her to get a pen and paper and write it down. Right down to which door to enter. Then you end with asking for a promise to vote. The word of a Texan is no small thing, it is important that Beto supporters actually do vote and posing this question has a positive impact on participation. Rosie the event organizing explained that.
The calling element was quite interesting from a technology standpoint. Integrating your mobile phone and an online interface you followed a flow chart of canvassing and recording outcomes. One dial in with an id and you stay connected as you follow a registered voter sample. In two hours I “called” about 50 numbers and spoke to about 15 who had pre-voted Beto, 15 answering machines (you just hung up and logged as a call back), 5 times chatting with spouses or relations and securing their support, 5 hang ups (Texans are polite what can I say?) 7 wrong numbers, and 3 voting plans. Those last three were the golden ticket you hoped to find in your effort. That’s where you make a difference. One gentleman named Thomas I spoke with was an 84 year old who said he’d vote “for that Beto, he seemed a good honest guy”. I went over the address of the polling location, he waited to till I finished then declared, “Yea I know where it is, I’m gonna walk on over”. He was sweet and it was an honor to connect with Tom from Texas.
The UX of the system was more or less stable, but had an uncomfortable lag that you have to adjust to. Overall I was impressed with the tech. It could identify if the sample had voted in 2016. It worked best with head phones and embellishing your script with enthusiasm increased by how familiar you became with the process. A lovely Spanish speaking woman shared the couch I was calling on. She was extra valuable to the movement as she spoke fluent Spanish and hearing her canvas in soft fluid Spanish was invigorating. My friend Justin and his wife Nadine were diligent as well. Everyone had a laptop perched on their laps and a phone gripped tight in hand. There were sandwiches, cookies and an engaged atmosphere. Will Beto win big on Tuesday? That I cannot say, but I’ll say thirty people spending a Saturday night before the big election in NYC who were calling Texans and doing something proactive and proven to aid Beto’s victory.
It was a lovely feeling and an honor to state, “Hi, my name is David and I’m a volunteer for Beto O’Rourke’s Senate Campaign”.
If you are a patriot, and passionate about your feelings being an American and want to do more, I suggest visiting the website of your candidate and learning how you can volunteer and make an actual difference.
To learn more about Beto for Texas click here.
All images made with an iPhone Xs Max and processed in Snapseed.
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Best VPN for 9Now
Razan | Last Updated On: June 1, 2020 | 2 Comments
9Now uses geo-blocking methods to prevent outsiders from watching anything at all. But you know what you could do fix that? You can get a VPN, and not just a VPN, the best VPN you can get your hands on. Find out what are the best VPNs for 9Now in the article below.
Why Need a VPN for 9Now?
“Sorry, 9Now is only available in Australia” is the first thing you’ll receive when attempting to access Channel 9’s website from overseas. Do you need another reason? Bypassing geo-restrictions is good enough. There’s no way Australian expats, travelers, or regular people outside Australia can access 9Now without a VPN. This service provider can bypass geo-restrictions imposed on the channel so that people in the US, UK, and Canada can watch the channel.
Last Updated Yesterday
VPN Provider
Apps For All Your Devices
Every VPN is different, and that’s what makes choosing one a bit difficult. The features that differ from one VPN to the next include speed, server numbers, security, and customer support, etc. We thought we would help you out with the decision-making process, so we compiled some of the top VPNs you can get for 9Now.
ExpressVPN has more than 2,000 servers worldwide (that includes multiple in four different Australian cities) and is fast enough to stream 9Now live with no noticeable stuttering. It’s also one of the best VPNs for accessing geo-blocked content and can unblock major streaming services from abroad. This means that subscribers from all over the world can connect to one of its servers.
Its transparent privacy policy, zero-logs policy, and kill switch give its subscribers comfort with the knowledge that their online security is maintained. If you need any help, you can reach out to their 5-star customer support via 24/7 live chat. Lastly, this provider offers a free Smart DNS feature as well as 30-day money-back guarantee policy. Read the full ExpressVPN review here.
IPVanish is perfect for those who like to stream across all of their devices. To begin with, it has over 1,100 servers distributed in 64 countries, with 68 in Australia and is fast to the extent that you get to stream content in HD with no stuttering. Additionally, IPVanish boasts fantastic support for all sorts of platforms and enables you to make connections with ten devices all at once. This means you can protect all of your devices from a single account.
You receive help and guidance from IPVanish’s 24/7 live chat support when trying to connect to one of its 1000+ servers. Thankfully, your security is ensured with A kill switch for Windows and MacOS. Your IP address will not get exposed should your connection ever fail you. With the 7-day refund policy, you get to try out IPVanish’s service before actually committing. Read the full IPVanish review here.
Perhaps NordVPN owns the biggest server network with an impressive count of 5,000 servers spanning 62 countries, and 226 servers in Australia. There’s a lot to love about NordVPN, starting with its double VPN feature that encrypts data twice for extra security. Fast speeds, optimized servers, DDoS protection, 2048-bit SSL encryptions, DNS Leak protection, and a kill switch have made NordVPN the secure VPN that it is today.
This provider is more than capable of unblocking major streaming services, hassle-free. You also get assistance from NordVPN’s 24/7 live chat support, and the chance to refund your purchase within 30 days. Read the full NordVPN review here.
BulletVPN
BulletVPN is a VPN that you can rely on for your safety and security. Other than its impressive privacy and security features, BulletVPN delivers excellent performances. This provider delivers solid services with applications running on compatible devices.
While BulletVPN only has 52 servers in 30 countries, it makes up for it with its application of the latest VPN protocol and military-grade encryptions. This goes to show how secure BulletVPN is. Just like the top-tier VPNs, BulletVPN offers 24/7 live chat support, a 30-day refund policy, and a free Smart DNS feature. Read the full BulletVPN review here.
Best VPN for 9Now- Final Thoughts
You see, watching 9Now has been easy with a VPN. Regional restrictions are nothing you should worry about because, with a VPN, you can bypass them all within minutes.
Now, it’s up to you to decide which VPN you’d choose to unblock 9Now outside Australia. We’d love to know what you think, so drop a comment in the section below.
Name: ExpressVPN
Description: ExpressVPN is a highly reliable, functioning, and secure VPN service provider that seamlessly unblocks content.
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Razan K
Razan is an enthusiastic Internet security blogger and online privacy advocate. Her articles mainly revolve around how VPNs have become a necessity in today's digital world.
Peter January 12, 2019 Reply
Hi, I am an Aussie in Saudi Arabia living in a compound trying to use NordVPN trying to access 9Now, 10Play etc and can only watch some shows on my iPad which is driving me mad! I have purchased an Apple TV 4K and Chromecast trying to allow viewing on the TV screen, but have been unsuccessful to date. I can watch YouTube using both systems though. I have the NordVPN server located in Australia, and am unable to use the TV screen. The router is owned by the compound, so I don’t know whether or not I can change the DNS settings. I also want to sign up for 1 or 2 of the streaming services (Stan, Netflix, Foxtel etc), but am reluctant to pull the trigger until I can at least get the local stations working on my setup. HELP!
I contacted NordVPN support and they say that “TenPlay AU is not available with our services.” So now I am really confused.
If you need more info, I will try to provide this, however, I am not tech savvy as you have already guessed.
Charles July 16, 2019 Reply
Hello Pete. Apologies for the late reply. It might be the case that none of NordVPN’s servers are actually working with TenPlay at the moment. Have you tried using a different VPN service such as ExpressVPN?
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Adam Engst 30 November 2015
Put Save As Back on the File Menu
A recent reader comment reminded me that just because a solution to a problem has existed for years doesn’t mean it’s well known. Randy Spydell asked, in essence, why the File menu has a Duplicate command instead of the traditional Save As command. Implicit in his question was “and is there any way to bring back Save As?”
The answer to that second question is yes, and I’ll explain how in a moment.
To answer the first question, you need to go back to 2011 and the release of Mac OS X 10.7 Lion, and then follow along with our coverage. With Lion, Apple introduced the Modern Document Model, which changed how documents are saved and handled — that’s where Auto Save, Resume, and Versions came from. Applications that supported the Modern Document Model also replaced the File > Save As command with File > Duplicate (see “Subtle Irritations in Lion,” 17 August 2011). That wasn’t popular with users (see “The Problem with Lion’s Duplicate Command,” 27 October 2011), so in 10.8 Mountain Lion, Apple brought Save As back, albeit hidden behind the Option key and with a nasty side effect: when you made changes in a document and then used Save As, your changes were also saved to the original document (see “The Very Model of a Modern Mountain Lion Document,” 7 August 2012). Finally, in 10.8.2, Apple made it possible to control whether changes to the original document would be saved or not, via a checkbox added to the Save dialog (see “With 10.8.2, Mountain Lion Saves Even Better,” 20 September 2012).
As far as I’m aware, nothing related to Save As has changed since Mountain Lion, so the reason you still see Duplicate instead of Save As is that the application in question supports the Modern Document Model. New apps almost always will, but apps with older code bases, like BBEdit and Microsoft Word 2008, still use Save As instead of Duplicate.
Regardless, the more important question is how you can bring Save As back, if that’s what you’d prefer. I fall into that category — the make-a-duplicate-and-then-save model doesn’t fit with the way I think or work.
You could remember to press Option when the File menu is showing to reveal Save As or invoke Save As from the keyboard with Command-Shift-Option-S. But that’s fussy, and there’s a way to put Save As back on the File menu permanently, and even replace Duplicate with it, if that’s what you want.
I solved this problem many years ago with advice from Matt Neuburg’s “Take Control of Using Mountain Lion,” so I hadn’t thought about it in years. Randy’s question prompted me to verify that the trick still works in 10.11 El Capitan, which it does, so if you’d like to bring back Save As in Modern Document Model apps, follow these steps:
Open the Keyboard pane of System Preferences, click Shortcuts, and at the bottom of the list on the left, select App Shortcuts.
Click the plus button underneath the right-hand pane.
In the dialog that appears:
a. Leave the Applications menu set to All Applications.
b. In Menu Title, type “Save As…” (without the quotes, and with three periods).
c. Click the Keyboard Shortcut field and press Command-Shift-S.
Click the Add button.
To verify that your change has taken place, click the File menu in TextEdit, which supports the Modern Document Model. You’ll see that Save As shows now, with the keyboard shortcut of Command-Shift-S, and Duplicate is also there, with no shortcut listed.
The reason this technique works is that Save As is an “alternate” of Duplicate; that is, the two commands normally have the same keyboard shortcut apart from the Option key. By assigning Command-Shift-S to Save As, you’re taking it away from Duplicate, thus breaking the relationship between the two commands.
Let’s take this one step further. If you never use Duplicate and are bothered by its presence, you can make it the alternate of Save As, thus ensuring that it will show in the File menu only when the Option key is pressed.
Just follow the same steps above, entering “Duplicate” into Menu Title, and setting the keyboard shortcut to Command-Shift-Option-S. You’ll end up with a pair of shortcuts that swap the two commands in the File menu. When you next look at the File menu in TextEdit, you’ll see only Save As, and when you press the Option key, Duplicate will show instead.
There’s only one problem, which is that this keyboard shortcut takes over for the Finder’s Duplicate menu item too, which is normally Command-D. The fix is to create another shortcut, for just the Finder, which assigns Command-D to Duplicate.
Needless to say, should you wish to revert to OS X’s default behavior, with Duplicate on the File menu and Save As appearing only when you press Option, select those items in Keyboard > Shortcuts and click the minus button to delete them.
One final comment: Remember how I said that OS X 10.8.2 added a checkbox to the Save dialog when using Save As on a document that had unsaved changes? That “Keep changes in original document” checkbox is important, because if you’re looking for the traditional behavior of Save As (where the original document remains unchanged), you should make sure to deselect that checkbox. When it’s selected, Save As works like Duplicate, and both the original document and the new document end up with the same changes. Although that checkbox is selected by default, OS X does remember its state, so after you deselect it once, it will remain that way.
I hope you found this Mac basics blast from the past helpful, and if you’d like to see more of this sort of content, let us know in the comments.
Mac & macOS Problem Solving Productivity
Comments About Put Save As Back on the File Menu
Peter Meyer
Adam, YES to more of this stuff. I suspect that some will be familiar but if SOME is an big slap of the head, as this was, I will be very grateful.
Yes please! Thanks, Adam, this tutorial was most helpful, and while I did vaguely recall I *could* do this, I never did, and just suffered, silently shaking my fist at Jony Ive every time…
M.Stoermer
This is great. Been bugging me for years . Please if you have any more like this keep sharing!
That's great Adam. Seem to remember this from the past but never set it up. Much more comfortable with Save As. Did keep Duplicate and assigned it cmd-shift-D which doesn't seem to conflict with anything (so far). Yes please, more of the same kind of tips would be welcome.
Adam Engst
Command-Shift-D is normally the keyboard shortcut for Go > Desktop in the Finder - it changes the view of the current Finder window to the Desktop folder.
So there's no harm in using it; just be aware that that's what it was before.
OK. Thanks. Didn't know. Don't usually use the Go menu. Would usually go to desktop via the sidebar items in an open Finder window. So not an issue for me but good to know.
Thomas_U
Very precious how-to! Thanks! More please...
Yes. More of these.
I'd missed this before. TextMate has Save As, but handy to have and I hadn't even known about the alternative with the Option key (Apple shouldn't hide so many things behind Option keys or roll overs, but that's another story).
Can AutoSave be turned off? Or is there a one-step way to close without changing? I see the Revert, but by instinct I close assuming changes aren't saved, which is true with some apps still (fortunately). TextMate works the "old" way; asks if you want to save changes when closing.
The Mac is now stable enough that AutoSave is less necessary. And some apps (I think) remember where you were after a crash (at least I think some do).
I understand why things are the way they are because most people would assume their changes are saved, but some of us old timers are still around.
Yes, indeed. In the General pane of System Preferences, there's a checkbox for "Ask to keep changes when closing documents." If that's selected, OS X will turn off Auto Save and ask you about saving unsaved changes whenever you close a document. If that checkbox is deselected, Auto Save will be in effect, and any unsaved changes will be saved automatically for you, so you won't be prompted.
Again, this is a Modern Document Model feature, so not all apps will follow this setting (although those that don't will probably have their own autosave functionality built in).
And THIS my friends is why I am a lifetime TidBits member. THANK YOU.
Now where did that Paste Match Formatting hint run off to??
Ah ha ... same process! The menuItem is titled ...
Paste and Match Style
... and then use
[cmd] [shift] S
However, Word does not obey this so it has to be set under the Tools Menu -> Customize Keyboard. The Category is Edit and the Command PasteDestinationFormatting.
Douglas Becker
I was hoping this would perform the same result as PasteSpecial:Unformatted Text, but it doesn't. At the moment, I can only add a toolbar button for PasteSpecial, which brings up the dialog box to click on Unformatted Text (it's not even the default choice, oddly). Is there any way to reduce that to a single command that can be assigned to a button? I can't seem to create a macro for it.
Sounds like another article about pasting without formatting is in order. :-)
Ian Eiloart
BBEdit isn't older. It uses the old document model, I presume, because programmers need control over the timing of their saves: especially if they're modifying files in live systems.
We could ask Rich, but I suspect the fact is that BBEdit uses the old document model because that's how it worked for many years before Apple changed things, and there was no advantage (and potential problems) with the Modern Document Model for many of BBEdit's uses. It's also possible, though I don't know, that as a Carbon application (as opposed to Cocoa), like Word, that the Modern Document Model stuff isn't available.
Gilbert ROTH
Of course, this kind of articles is of utmost interest! Thanks to you.
Andreas Frick
I always duplicate a file in finder first. This seems to me to be the safest approach.
Mike P
That's a good general principle, but when you're doing a multi-step process, you may want to save each step as a different file. "Save As ..." is much more convenient than duplicating each time.
Excellent. Keep these tips coming.
Scott Hoenig
Very helpful. Last month I finally replaced my 8-year-old iMac and went from Snow Leopard to El Capitan, and restoring the "Save As" was near the top of my list of things to tweak about the system. I think the last generation of pre-Lion users will be making the jump with me soon, so tips like this are helpful.
markf
This is literally the most useful thing anyone has posted on the internet this week. By a long shot.
CHEERS TIDBITS!
Fantastic tip for a very old Mac user. Might be enough to cause me to purchase the whole series of Take Control for the various OS X versions.
Regarding your “One final comment”. When using TextEdit Option Save As on a document with changes, the “Keep changes in the original document” dialog does not appear if you have created the shortcuts shown above. To get it back, I had to delete the shortcuts, restart, and it came back.
What is even more strange is that dialog was not there in Mavericks originally.
It is in Mountain Lion, Yosemite, and El Capitan.
Don’t know if it is something you should do before creating the shortcuts or what the ramifications are if you do or do not.
Hmm, that's very odd. I don't have a Mavericks install handy to test on, but it seems strange that Mavericks would be different from the rest. Perhaps it was a bug - wouldn't be the first time! :-)
Yes it's there.
jeff stearns
Yes, the option is there. But it only appears when you select "Save As..." on a document that's already saved. To make the option appear, create a new document. Save it somewhere. Now select "Save As...". The option will appear.
Adam-1D
Norman Wikner
Another yes, and more like this, please.
A Motyka
Thank you, sir. May I have another?
This is awesome! I was wondering what happened to -save as-
Jack Ziegler
Great stuff, tips like this are invaluable.
Steven Oz
GeorgAnna Griffin
Thank you! Thank you! And, YES, to more.
Thanks for that. In some programs (like Safari), "Save As..." is there in all its glory under 'File' -what's that about? Apple is known for being consistent but this breaks it.
Another thing; going from "Don't Save" to "Revert Changes" and "Don't Save" to "Delete" from a new document is a bit of a shock too!
Safari is probably an exception to the Modern Document Model approach, since it's not really a document-based application at all. You might want to save a Web page, but the concept of duplicating a Web and then saving it is nonsensical.
Yeah. I guess "Duplicating" a web page to be 'saved' would be even more confusing! How's that sound?
Karen Kirtland
Thank you, thank you, thank you! That's all I'm going to say!
Bob Leedom
MULTIPLE thanks from me! I've been burned by my old Save As... habits (although usually rescued by Time Machine) more than once.
Derek Davis
You saved my mental buns with this one. I upgraded directly from Snow Leopard to Yosemite (more fool I) and what first hit me was that Preview – the most elegant and simple of all Mac programs that I use regularly – had been totally screwed over. "Duplicate" was the worst offender. Doing the change in the system prefs. fixed it. Whew. Now if it would only speed up and stop lazing around reading lengthy pdfs...
Openreels
Great tip, this has been bugging me for ages! The switch from Save As to Duplicate (or, more importantly, the advent of the "always live" document) was yet another example of Apple trying to make operation seem "intuitive" and yet it ends up doing things you don't want! What would make anyone think this is a good idea???
Yes, this is very useful. Perhaps a place to find a collection of these on Tidbits.com.
John Wolff
Very grateful to learn how to get back Save As...
Please keep on supplying us with this type of content. It makes it so much easier to convince myself to renew my TidBITS subscription.
Joel Huberman
Thanks, Adam! Very useful! Your instructions worked flawlessly.
Jonathan Miller
Very nice. I was wondering though, instead of typing three periods, wouldn't it be better to do an ellipsis using "Option" and the colon/semi colon key? Or doesn't it matter?
Colleen Thompson
An ellipsis won't work. The stock menu items apparently use three periods. You have to match the name exactly.
Walter S Szymanski Jr
Thank you, Colleen, your advice worked for me running OS 10.11.2 Beta (15C48a).
I can't quite remember the history of this, but at some point, Apple wised up and made the Shortcuts setup accept both three periods or an ellipsis (Option-semicolon). I opted for the simpler instructions, but either approach works fine.
Michael Schenk
Yes, very helpful to folks who have been using Save As for decades! And thanks for the hint on turning off autosave.
Now if only there were a way to bring back MacDraw. Nothing else touches it for ease, power, and simplicity. I even used it to create a scaleable font pre-TrueType.
Dennis B. Swaney
Hmmm, in Mac OS 10.8.5, if I select "Save As..." in TextEdit, I DON'T get the "Keep changes in the original document" checkbox.
It appears only if there are unsaved changes in the document when you choose Save As.
Thanks for the hint. I have missed Save As for years and somehow missed that hint in Taking Command of...
janesprando
Great article! How can I print it?
Look at the very top of the article, in the metadata line. There's a Print option there. (And hopefully it will work with the graphics; I'm trying to track down a bug with that right now.)
Tuckerman Moss
Thanks! And yes, more please.
Garry Royle
Great article Adam. And it solved a dilemma for me.
I've been using Save As since 1992 and decided to switch to the Duplicate protocol a few months ago (thinking it was part of the "master plan" to have multiple versions available to go back to when doing a manual save during the creation of a document, which I could see the benefit of having, and Apple's engineers are many times smarter than I!) ... AND so I could teach new users without having the complexity of pressing an OPTION key when doing a save ...
BUT I didn't realise the consequences of the REVERT wording (I was used to the old "Save Changes?" when there was no revision backups being done automatically) and wrongly mistook the REVERT meaning was actually the opposite of discard changes. [Do something wrong the first time and that can become the belief!].
I found I had duplicated invoice numbers, but with different clients and couldn't work out why when I was so careful not to mess things up. Now I understand why!
@ janesprando
If you use Safari ... use Reader View (Shift + Cmd+ R or choose from the View Menu) and print from there or from within the Print Dialogue box choose Save As PDF and import PDF into Word (or better still use Pages instead of Word :-).
Thank you. I guess I missed this the first time around.
It may sound stupid, but one of the things I have been dreading about getting a new Mac (I really don't replace them often AT ALL) was not having the "Save As ..." function available. I do a lot of photo editing and need to save each major step (cropping, image size, image resolution) as I go along. Duplicate and rename (or whatever) was just not appealing at all.
I can sleep easy tonight! ;-)
And now you can enjoy the thought of getting a new Mac (I'm particularly partial to the 27-inch iMac with Retina display.) :-)
B. Jefferson Le Blanc
I, too, often save multiple versions of image files. Starting with Photoshop CS6, I believe it was, Photoshop also has an auto-save function, which can be useful when the app crashes—which it does less often these days on new hardware, reducing the need for frequent saves that used to be an essential part of any workflow. Older versions of Photoshop, including CS4 and 5, still run just fine on new Macs, though CS6 and the Creative Cloud versions are better optimized for the newest hardware.
But with this tip you can insure that whatever app you use will include Save As..., even if it's made to Apple's new standards. Another advantage of Photoshop is that you can designate an alternate scratch disk so that it will not hog space on your boot drive for cache files. An external USB 3 hard drive would work well for this purpose. Of course, if you get a new 27" iMac, you will have a choice of internal drives; a 2GB Fusion Drive will offer some of the performance advantages of an SSD and ample storage capacity, for virtual memory and application cache files, that will also aid performance, without the expense of a large SSD. If you do opt for an internal SSD, however, the ability with Photoshop to use an external drive as a scratch disk would be quite valuable.
Whichever new Mac you choose, you will notice a significant improvement in performance across the board for image processing, whatever program(s) you work with.
Monty VanderBilt
Thanks. This one article convinced me to become a paying member. If feels like Apple has been torturing me with small cuts (like this) and large ones (like dropping Aperture) for years. It's nice to find a way to fight back in a small way.
Victor Bloomfield
This was useful, and much appreciated. More like this, please.
Cheryle Zahm
Thank you very much. This has been a thorn for many 'quite a while's'.
Doesn't work for me running an El Capitan beta version 10.11.2 Beta (15C48a).
Did you read/follow Colleen Thompson's reply to Jonathan Miller's post above. The ellipsis is sometimes automatically populated when typing three periods in a row. To get around that, I typed three periods with a space before and after the middle period and then went back and removed the spaces. Entering the three periods that way did the trick for me. Hope this helps.
The ellipsis should work - it does for me. But perhaps if it's being replaced automatically by something, you're actually getting a slightly different Unicode character, or some invisible character is sneaking in too.
Three periods will be replaced with ellipsis if you have those characters in the right (Replace/With) column of the Text panel of the Keyboard preferences. In order to prevent the replacement you will have to delete the item from the list. It would be a cool feature if there were a way to override it on a case by case basis. Unfortunately, like many Apple "features", it was left half baked, making it more of a nuisance than a service.
Mark Eilers
Please more of this to help us function better. Thanks keep it up.
Thank you. Has made document handling so much easier. El Capitan 10.11.1. More like this please.
John Kimball
It didn't work for me (I just get an error beep when I try it. I sure wish it had worked. I am running OX 10.7.5.
Yes, unfortunately, it won't work for you because the feature appeared in 10.8 Mountain Lion.
wweller
Wow, this was great. I've been complaining about the missing "Save As" problem recently with a fellow longtime Mac user. I guess I like it because I fit your main reader profile so nicely: 62 year old Mac-user who gets TidBITS via email. Thanks!
Thank you! I needed Save As.
I have 2 other things which bother all of my us Mac users.
First one, to see the size of photos on the desktop, you have to hit Command J over and over again, and then uncheck Show Item Info, then re-check it to show, this is very annoying to have to do this repeatedly when we are working with some photos with PS or other software.
Second one, is when you are saving something in TextEdit, and you dont pay attention to where you save it, it ends up in your Cloud and not on the desktop, and you have to hop into your plane and go and haul it out of the Cloud and pop it back onto the desktop, where you are working on your stuff.
Any solution to fix these annoying and time consuming things, would be wonderful, and I will pass them onto my classmates and friends. Thank you again,,,,,,Jane
Susan Kayser
Another annoying feature I'd love a fix for. When I enter an event in Calendar, with a title, location, start and stop times, a note (or just some of these), almost all the time, when I click in the date box to close the event dialog box, the item reverts to "New Event", with everything I entered vanished. Occasionally, I do something to close the dialog box which retains the data, but I don't know what. Can you tell us how to always keep the entered data?
Very odd - I would think that just closing the New Event window would work, and it seems to for me.
However, I almost never use Calendar since I far prefer BusyCal. Fantastical is also good. Perhaps take a look at one of those?
http://tidbits.com/article/13355
Snubs
YES!!! Great tip. The 'Duplicate' process slows down my work flow. Great to have "Save As..' back again.
Keep em coming, Adam ??
Birthe Hoe
Doesn't work for me :-( Neither with ellipsis or 3 periods
In the shortcuts pane there is a checkbox in front of all other shortcuts, but such a box does not appear in front of the new shortcut, so I can't enable it.
There's no checkbox in mine either, as you can see in the screenshot above. I think the checkbox appears only for default shortcuts that Apple provides.
As to why it's not working... what version of OS X are you using?
I'm using OS 10.11.1
Do I need to restart? Or perhaps log in as admin when making the shortcut??
Restarting isn't necessary - it works immediately. But I don't know how not being logged in as admin will affect things - I always run as admin. Worth trying, anyway!
Yeah, me too - until Snowden ;-)
Logging in with the admin didn't help, though - any suggestions? It looks exactly as in your pngs, only doesn't work - neither in textedit, nor pages
Fascinating. Apart from a restart, I can't think of anything else that could be related. Perhaps try setting some other keyboard shortcuts and make sure they work too?
Got it. Changed the shortcut for "duplicate" which was using the shift-cmd-s shortcut and - lo and behold: not only did the new shortcut for "duplicate" appear but now also the "save as" that I had already made.
Peter U
Yes, great, BUT once I restored "Save as" according to your instructions I lost the CMD-S shortcut for saving pages (at least in Safari, where I save pdfs all the time using CMD-S). Now I have to use CMD-SHIFT-S which is a little counter-intuitive.
Try redefining the keyboard shortcut for Save As to Command-S in just Safari - you can do that in the Keyboard > Shortcuts pane too.
Doug Farrow
Excellent article - very useful. I will say my first reaction on seeing the title was it must involve firing up ResEdit :-)
Oh, I miss ResEdit. :-)
Virginia B Caine
Thanks so much, Adam. This article is exactly what I want from Tidbits. I've been feeling that Tidbits wasn't meeting my needs; your survey results describe me. I'm 79 years old, and had a a very satisfyng career as a programmer in 1959-61, never dreaming that I could ever afford my own computer! I now maintain 2 computers, 2 iPads and 2 iPhones. ?
YES!! more like this!
Your "final comment..." did not work for me on 10.11.1. Cannot find Checkbox...
You have to have a document with unsaved changes in it before choosing Save As to get that checkbox. If there are no unsaved changes, it won't appear.
WildBunch
This is great - something that has been bothering me for years. More articles like this
John E. Payne
Thanks extremely for Saving Save As ... -- TidBits is invaluable. Now if there were only some way to revert some of the other "improvements" that I assume came with the Modern Document Model (I jumped from Snow Leopard to Mavericks and have been struggling ever since).
What's bizarre and inexcusable to me are the changes in dragging documents to folders. Sometimes dragging MOVES the document (using Cmd-drag), sometimes it copies the file, and worst of all, sometimes it creates an alias - so I think I've got a copy in the folder -- BUT NO -- it's only an alias, and too bad if I happened to delete the original! I can't tell how to predict what will happen -- it's just trial and error.
How did I miss the howls of outrage at such insane behavior? Can you explain what determines the fate of a file dragged to a folder? Did this happened with 10.7 Lion (I assume there's no way to revert to the simple, logical behavior I've been using for 25 years)
John Payne
Hmm, I wonder what could be causing the behavior you're seeing. In general, dragging works as you expect it to, with drags between folders on the same volume resulting in a move, and a drag between folders on different volumes resulting in a copy. Force a copy instead of a move by holding down Option. Force a move instead of a copy by holding down Command. Make an alias by holding down Command and Option.
There are now (not sure when this happened) a few "special" folders, like Applications. You can drag an app into Applications, but if you drag it out to another folder, OS X tries to give you an alias by default. However, dragging it to the Trash works as you'd expect, as does Command-Delete to delete it.
I could imagine a scenario where some of your folders had ended up with permissions that make OS X think of them like the Applications folder. You might check the permissions on any folders that act strangely in the Get Info window.
Mac Carter
A blast from the past! Outstanding, Adam! I love having "Save As" back and "Duplicate" gone.
This particular "tidbit" alone is worth the subscription to TidBITS. Brilliant! Thanks! (I've shared this with 2 Mac user groups)
Wow! At 71 I'm only a toddler in the Tidbits world, or at least no more than a teenager. Keep up this sort of thing and you'll have fanatical supporters.
Rowland Carson
So pleased to have a simple recipe to return my Mac to "sensible" behaviour! Reminds me of some of the tweaks I used to do before OS X, like renaming the Trash to Bin for UK users. Which reminds me, why doesn't the trash name change to Eject when the icon changes? (Maybe this is fixed in El Capitan - I'm still on Mavericks.) Anyway, many thanks.
OK, this is embarrassing. I just realized that if you redefine the keyboard shortcut for Duplicate, so that it's hidden unless you press the Option key, that will also redefine the keyboard shortcut for Duplicate in the Finder, which is a completely different command (and one I want attached to Command-D).
The fix is to assign Command-Shift-Option-S to Duplicate for All Applications, and then create another shortcut for just the Finder that assigns Command-D to Duplicate.
Pierre Fortier
Thanks a lot for the info! It's been bugging for so long...
THANK YOU!!!!! I absolutely hated the "duplicate" feature and have messed up many a document with it. I was thrilled to see Adobe CS6 and Excel 2010 still used Save As.
I just followed your steps and it's now back to Save As in Preview and the other programs. My Keep Original box was NOT checked and I had never touched it before. I'm on Yosemite.
Thanks again :)
I miss "Save As" command very much, I hope you bring it back.
Randy Spydell
Adam, thanks again (as always) for what TidBITS offers the community. I had no idea that my brief comment would lead to a great article that would satisfy many folks on a small annoying piece of "Apple OS progress." I hadn't seen anything about the "Modern Document Model" cross my radar.
I'll try to shovel more comments to the TidBITS crowd about such "little" things when I can, as this is indeed a core reason why I have supported the TidBITS gang for so long -- sharing shortcuts and learning lessons in a forum not connected to a corporate culture goal is very valuable to navigating the waters of an ever-changing toolset. I hope others will also ask and answer to keep the richness of this on-line forum (and the TC documents!) front and center.
So, to reiterate what many have posted over the last few weeks:
YES PLEASE. KEEP THOSE TidBITS COMING!
Very helpful. I'm one of those who hates the Duplicate command, especially when I want to keep the original, not make the changes in that as well.
As a side note: any idea why Apple is sticking to OS 10.x? Lion was enough of a change that it should have become OS 11. If not Lion, the when the cats were left behind, with OS 10.9. Will we ever see OSD 11, or some years from now, will we be up to OS 10.647?
There are rumors that Apple will change the name to macOS at WWDC - we'll see what that does the version numbering.
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Andrew Steplock found guilty of mother's murder
From the This year's most memorable Casper police and court news series
Shane Sanderson
Nov 22, 2019 Updated Jun 16, 2020
Andrew Steplock appears for his initial hearing March 21 in Casper.
Josh Galemore, Star-Tribune
A Natrona County jury on Friday afternoon took 101 minutes to convict a man of murder for the February killing of his mother in her central Casper home.
When a court clerk read the jury’s verdict at 5:15 p.m., Andrew Steplock, 28, put his right hand near his opposite wrist, rubbing the base of his left hand. He otherwise remained expressionless and largely motionless, as he had through the course of the five-day trial. The audience of two dozen, including a mix of prosecutors, a public defender and family members, likewise remained silent while a court clerk read the verdict: guilty of felony murder. And guilty as well of second-degree murder, aggravated burglary and possession of a deadly weapon with unlawful intent.
Steplock sat again, bending his neck at the collarbone toward the table in front of him.
His lawyers did not contest a prosecution request to hold Steplock without bond in advance of sentencing, which due to his felony murder conviction will either be life imprisonment or life in prison without the possibility of parole. That conviction — which is codified as a portion of Wyoming’s first-degree murder law — means jurors found Steplock guilty of murder while committing another felony.
Video footage shows Casper man telling detectives he killed his mother
The jury found for the purposes of that conviction that Steplock had both burglarized and attempted to burglarize his mother’s home on Feb. 26, when he shot and killed her. He drove a Toyota SUV to Colorado, where, he told detectives after his arrest, he had planned to live on the street. But police arrested him asleep in the SUV parked near a northern Colorado gas station. He confessed shortly after the arrest but eventually took the case to trial, where his court-appointed defense team acknowledged he shot and killed his mom. Those lawyers, however, argued he should be found not guilty by reason of mental illness, despite a state hospital doctor’s finding that he did not qualify for such a defense.
Ultimately, jurors found the same.
Joe Cole, one of the two court-appointed defense lawyers who represented Steplock at trial, declined to comment following the conviction.
District Attorney Dan Itzen said on a sidewalk near the Natrona County courthouse that he thought the jury had made the right decision. He said family members were solemn, but that the jury’s verdict provided them closure. Itzen, who tried the case alongside Assistant District Attorney Kevin Taheri, attributed the jury’s relatively rapid decision-making to a well-prepared case.
“I thought it was a strong case going in,” Itzen said. “And a lot of that strength was due to the detectives at the Casper Police Department.”
The prosecutors’ case featured 18 witnesses, including multiple detectives, the doctor who evaluated Steplock’s mental health, an FBI agent, the defendant’s father and one of his sisters. The defense called two witnesses, the latter of which was Andrew Steplock.
Defendant testifies
Steplock took the stand on Friday morning and testified that he had been hearing voices in his head for years. He broke into his mother’s house and shot her because one of those voices told him to, he told jurors from the witness stand.
The Wyoming State Hospital doctor testified earlier this week that Steplock has a personality disorder but not mental illness. He was and is able to understand reality enough to know right and wrong, the doctor said.
Under direct examination by a court-appointed defense lawyer, Steplock said that although he had been hearing voices for years, it was about a week before the shooting that he started seeing things other people do not. Two demons appeared before him while he sat on a couch in his Casper apartment, he said.
Casper doctor recounts treating his wife after she was shot by their son
They spent the next week training him for an army, he testified. When he was booked into jail on a marijuana charge, the demons visited him there, he said. They said they’d bond him out but his family members did instead, Steplock testified.
On Feb. 25, Steplock said, he was was visited by another demon, who told him she was there to help him. She had thrown the other demons into hell, he said before a courtroom audience of about 30.
She told him his parents would be out of town, Steplock said. He told jurors that the doors were locked. The demon told him, Steplock testified, to break out a window, break into the house and — when he encountered her inside — to shoot his mother.
Steplock said under questioning by Joe Hampton, the court-appointed defense attorney, that he didn’t tell detectives about the hallucinations because he was more afraid of the demons than a murder charge. It was only months after the arrest that he told the state hospital doctor about the hallucinations.
She testified earlier this week that she did not find the story credible or consistent with typical presentation of psychoses.
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Under cross-examination, Steplock largely answered questions by District Attorney Dan Itzen drawn from the defendant’s video-recorded interview with Detective Mitch Baker in a Colorado interview room.
As the 30 minutes of questioning continued, Baker’s name was dropped from most questions. Answers remained largely monosyllabic: “Yes.”
At one point, Steplock broke form to contest Itzen’s characterization. Steplock said he didn’t know while driving through Colorado that he’d shot his mom.
“You saw her lying on the ground when you left,” Itzen said.
“It still didn’t seem real,” Steplock replied.
Coverage of the Steplock murder case, from police response to trial
“I can understand that,” the prosecutor said, before continuing the barrage of questions.
It was only toward the end of the examination that Itzen turned to Steplock’s statements about demons. He never told jail nurses about them, Steplock said. And he’d never been diagnosed as mentally ill or medicated, he acknowledged.
When Hampton returned to the lectern, his client acknowledged that he can sometimes answer questions quickly. One question — about a cut on his hand — he’d never before answered as he did, Steplock told his lawyer. But he didn’t go to the house to steal from or kill his mother.
Steplock stepped down shortly before noon. And after resolving jury instruction preparations, Judge Daniel Forgey paused proceedings for lunch.
Attorneys’ arguments
Following the approximately hour-long break, attorneys made closing arguments. Itzen began by talking jurors through the break-in and shooting, details of which were drawn largely from the videotaped interview and corroborated by physical evidence on scene. After shooting his mother, Steplock took off.
“He fled as many cowards do: into the cover of darkness — and away,” Itzen said.
The prosecutor then referenced a series of statements to police, in which Steplock said he broke into the house in order to steal from his parents. Those statements, Itzen argued, support the aggravated burglary charge that Steplock faced, as well as the burglary and attempted burglary components of the felony murder charge.
Itzen then turned to the state doctor’s findings and Steplock’s actions to indicate the mental illness plea should be disregarded.
Casper man set to face trial this week on charges alleging he killed his mother in her living room
“(This) is not a mental illness case,” Itzen said. “It’s about a spoiled kid who wanted more.”
Cole then walked to the lectern. He asked jurors to find his client not guilty by reason of mental illness. A rational person, Cole said, would not go to the house knowing his parents were there. He said Steplock’s actions were indicative of delusion. The lawyer said he would not diagnose Steplock before weighing in on his client’s mental health:
“He appears to have had some kind of psychotic break,” the defense lawyer said.
During a brief rebuttal, Itzen told jurors that Cole had described a poorly planned crime, not mental illness.
“Most crimes — when (people) get caught — probably aren’t a very good plan,” Itzen said. “We take our defendants as we get them: smart and dumb.”
The jury of eight men and four women left the courtroom at 3:18 p.m. with a binder of instructions and a verdict form. At 4:59, court security began directing spectators back toward the courtroom for the jury’s verdict.
This year's most memorable Casper police and court news
In first test of 'stand your ground' law, Natrona County judge dismisses murder case
City agrees to pay $149,000 to Casper man for 2017 wrongful arrest
Natrona County District Court
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Shane Sanderson joined the Star-Tribune in 2017. He covers courts and law enforcement agencies in Natrona County and across the state. Shane studied journalism at the University of Missouri and worked at newspapers there before moving to Wyoming.
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Casper man accused of mother's murder plans to testify Friday
Andrew Steplock told the court Thursday he plans to take the stand in his own defense.
Defense attorney says man thought demon commanded him to kill his mother
A Casper man on trial for murder thought he was acting at the direction of a demon when he shot and killed his mother, the man's lawyer says.
Casper man sentenced to life for mother's murder
The judge did grant Andrew Steplock the chance to seek clemency and possible parole at some point in the future.
Late appeal of life sentence may have violated client's rights, Casper public defender admits
Andrew Steplock's case dates to February 2019, when he shot and killed his mother near the entrance of her central Casper home.
Judge allows late appeal on Steplock murder case to go forward
Andrew Steplock's attorney blamed the missed deadline, in part, on a change in court procedures stemming from the coronavirus pandemic.
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Home Entertainment Culture Eight things to see and do during ARTBO Fin de Semana 2019
Eight things to see and do during ARTBO Fin de Semana 2019
Jim Cook
Photo: ARTBO
With just 72 hours to explore 67 participating galleries, we’re right here with you as always. Our handy list of some of the must see sights includes those on the official calendar and some that are a bit off the beaten track.
If it’s May, we must be careening towards ARTBO (with just five months to go) and the midpoint for its sister endeavour, ARTBO Fin de Semana, which takes place this weekend. The third annual arts manifestation means that most of the local galleries in the city will open their doors.
It’s in no particular order and obviously, there’s plenty more to see, but before we dive into these artistic gems we’d like to give a MASSIVE shout out to the independent curator, Andrea Muñoz, who was kind enough to share some of her ‘must sees’ during this year’s art weekend.
The Swiss artist, Vanessa Mayoraz has been getting a lot of hype in the gallery scene, and is definitely a show to catch. Mayoraz’s show, Commensalism, opens on the 18th, the official closing day of this three-day event.
Carrera 23 #77-41
Derivas is a two-person show, featuring the works of Argentinian artist Marta Ribero & (Colombian) Guillermo Cárdenas Fischer. This independent, artist-run space is owned and run by Cárdenas who, incidentally, studied painting at the prestigious RISD in the US. It’s worth visiting just to see the home/gallery space with his studio residing atop it all. The show explores the world of painting by both artists and runs until the end of May.
Calle 75A #22-30
Billed as a cultural foundation, and open for just eighteen months, Plural Nodo Cultural, is located in the heart of San Felipe, the city’s ever-growing art district. The artists Paulo Licona, Carolina Rosso and Nicolás Bonilla have been invited to use the kitchen (known as Cocina Plural) to cook up something with what they’ve termed “Fiction Kitchen”, based on the exhibition in the same space entitled After Fire/Después Del Fuego (curated by Juan Fernando López) featuring the works of Giovanni Randazzo and Larry Muñoz (all three of whom are the directors of this artist-run space).
Grey Cube Projects @ La Antena
The prolific Bogotá-based curator, John Ángel Rodríguez, who bills his curatorial projects under the masthead Grey Cube Projects, has put together the group show Dynamic Complexity/Complejidad Dinámica, an exhibition which brings together the work of nine Colombian artists, whose creative approaches allows the visitor to expand their notions regarding pictorial and sculptural practices. Ángel states that “the works exhibited in this particular curatorial project are examining multiple levels of execution and conceptualisation.”
Galeria Hopulus
Not part of the official programme, but EOS – a collection of haunting images by the German ambassador to Colombia, Peter Ptassek – is also worth a stop. Curated by Toby de Lys, the show runs until the end of May (see this author’s Whatsapp interview with the artist slash diplomat online, here).
neebex
Resonancias del río is a two-person show that features the monumental installation pieces of millenials, American artist Melissa Pareja & Sebastian Gil of Medellín (who just happen to be a couple and both attended the University of Antioquia). The gallerist Thierry Harribey, states, that for him, ‘the exhibition is a pas de deux about water contamination.’ Enough said. The show, in both spaces, ends 25 May.
Main space – Calle 37 #15-78 (Teusaquillo); Smaller pieces – Calle 75 #22-30 (San Felipe)
Más Allá
It might be easy to dismiss the graphic works by artist, José Sanín, because of his brightly coloured pieces, executed in mixed media; but while light-hearted and fun, they harbor a slight cynical feeling and twist. Más Allá is an artist-initiated minimalist space.
Related: ARTBO weekend: A weekend exploring the city’s arts scene
Espacio Odeón
For all those football fans out there, Pro Revolution is just for you. Juan Obando seeks to question the different models of revolution and how they are mediated and co-opted by today’s neoliberal system.
The central piece features a spot of Pussy Riot karaoke, set against a Pro Evolution Soccer video game. The Pro Revolution championship is based on a football match between the Zapatista National Liberation Army and Inter Milan that never came to pass, but had been planned and negotiated between their Commander Marcos and the team’s captain, Javier Zanetti. It kicks off at 4pm on May 18.
Carrera 5 # 12C-73
FORO.SPACE
Exhibition 0566 by artist Fernando Arias, explores the shocking reality faced by Colombia’s social and environmental leaders. The number 566 represents the number of social leaders that have been killed since the signing of Colombia’s peace accord with the FARC in 2017. The exhibition begins with a guided tour at 10.30am on May 18. The show runs until June 1.
Carrera 12 #90-19 – Oficina 501
Art in Bogota
ARTBO
ARTBO fin de semana
ARTBO Weekend
ARTBO Q&A: Aaron Cezar, Delfina Foundation
San Felipe: The jewel in the city’s art scene
Don’t miss at ARTBO 2019: Tips from María Paz Gaviria, ARTBO director
Arnold May 18, 2019 at 9:56 am
Hopulus is totally not part of ArtBo, please find here the official program with all official galeries: https://www.artbo.co/Fin-de-Semana/Circuitos-y-transporte
Emma Newbery May 22, 2019 at 9:43 pm
Thank you – apologies that it was unclear in the text, we included a few ‘off the beaten track’ recommendations.
How to get a coronavirus test in Bogotá
Oli Pritchard - January 8, 2021
Looking for a COVID-19 test in Bogotá? All the info you need below, from prices and times to links and medical advice.
Will we get coronavirus jabs any time soon? Or just more hot air? A quick Q&A on the country’s plans to inoculate against COVID-19.
Citywide lockdown for the weekend in Bogotá
Oli Pritchard - January 12, 2021
New Bogotá restrictions include a citywide lockdown for the weekend, six more areas in strict quarantine and changes to some existing measures.
UK travel ban for South America — including Colombia
UK government will stop non-essential travel from South America and Portugal on Friday. Residents and nationals will be allowed to enter.
Synthetic drug craze hits Colombia
bogotapost - October 22, 2014
A STIMULANT known as ‘pink cocaine’ is becoming the new designer drug of choice among club-goers and high society, local media reported last week. Dealt...
Market Watch: Top 10 Colombian Exports and Imports
bogotapost - May 28, 2019
Possessing one of the grandest economies in South America, the country holds maximum potential from colombia exports...
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Sale Blitz + Excerpt: Where Sea Meets Sky by Karina Halle
Joshua Miles has spent his early twenties spinning his wheels. Working dead-end jobs and living at home has left him exhausted and uninspired, with little energy to pursue his
passion for graphic art. Until he meets Gemma Henare, a vivacious out-of-towner
from New Zealand. What begins as a one-night stand soon becomes a turning point
for Josh. He can’t get Gemma out of his head, even after she has left for home,
and finds himself throwing caution to the wind for the first time in his life.
It’s not long before Josh is headed to New Zealand with only a backpack, some
cash, and Gemma’s name to go on. But when he finally tracks her down, he finds
his adventure is only just beginning. Equally infatuated, Gemma leads him on a
whirlwind tour across the beautiful country, opening Josh up to life, lust,
love, and all the messy heartache in between. Because, when love drags you
somewhere, it might never let go—even when you know you have to say goodbye.
AMAZON BARNES & NOBLE iBOOKS“Where Sea Meets Sky combines one-night-stand with coming-of-age to glorious success, one that makes this not just a read, but an experience…Halle’s writing also stands out, poetic and vivid, then starkly honest.”
–Heroes and Heartbreakers
Karina Halle takes us on another epic adventure… a journey of self-discovery and love, of taking chances and redefining futures…I absolutely loved Halle’s ability to whisk us away and make it seem as if we were in a faraway place…It felt like an adventure.
–Vilma’s Book Blog
“A luminous love story fraught with serious angst and impossible odds against the backdrop of a stunningly beautiful location… Where Sea Meets Sky is Karina Halle’s most flawless writing to date.”
–Angie and Jessica’s Dreamy Reads
“Karina Halle, where have you been all my life?…[the] descriptive writing made the entire book so vivid!…if you’re looking for an insanely sexy book to pick up, grab Where Sea Meets Sky!”
–Once Upon a Twilight
“Emotionally beautiful, inspiring and unforgettable, Karina Halle has yet again touched my heart with her poignant writing and her beautiful stories, and I can’t wait to read Amber’s story coming soon this summer!”
–Shh Mom’s Reading
There’s nothing but me and Gemma. It feels like we’re the only people left in the world. And it scares me, because she’s all I have to hold onto. I can’t be sure she won’t let go.
There’s no official camping at the lighthouse, so Gemma takes the bus off-roading, much like we did yesterday, and we come to a stop in a small valley in the middle of a field of cows. They all swivel their heads to stare at us with dark, inquisitive eyes. There’s a small house up on the hill but we can barely see it. Horses graze on the hill’s terraced grooves.
Beyond the hills, there’s nothing but ocean. I breathe in deep, feeling strangely nervous and shaky. I don’t think it’s just about being on the edge of nothing, though.
I think it’s that I’m on the edge of something.
We go to bed early, our alarms set for the early morning hour, pre-dawn. Even though the ocean looks to be about a ten-minute walk, I pack a bag with my camera, my phone, my sketchbook and the pastels.
I can’t get enough of her. Our love-making is slow and lazy but necessary. Being inside her feels like being home, it feels like being in love, it feels like everything sweet and beautiful and nice in the world. Every time I come in her I hope I’m making a home for myself, a place where I belong.
The alarm on my phone goes off way too early. In my sleepy stupor I nearly turn it off but Gemma is patting my arm, then punching my arm, telling me to get up. The world around us vibrates with the sound of mooing cows and I wonder how the hell I slept through them.
Even though the days are hot, the mornings by the ocean are cold, and I can barely get on my jeans and hoodie in time. Armed with the pack and flashlights, we jump out of the van. The air snaps at us as if we’re wind-blown flags.
Hundreds of cattle spread out in all directions, bound by the green hills to the south and the lighthouse to the north. I look east, to where the hills part and the sky is a paler shade of dawn. It seems to be growing lighter by the second, and our chances of catching the sunrise are dwindling.
We take off toward the light, cautiously creeping under barbed wire fences and avoiding the epic cow pies dotting the land. The cows, for the most part, seem to be ignoring us, but their piles of shit are like hidden landmines in the dim light. A meandering, narrow stream cuts across us and we have to head up into the terraced hills where wary horses eye us. I get the feeling that we’ve chosen the most difficult route to see the sunrise, and from our vantage point I can’t even see the lighthouse anymore.
Just as the sky seems to grow frighteningly light, we reach the crest of the hill and I nearly collapse, out of breath from the quick, steep hike. A lone filly bolts at the sight of us.
Below us lies an empty beach, laid out like a sheet of velvet. Aside from the occasional hoof print and driftwood, it looks totally undisturbed, like it has been waiting for us all this time. The South Pacific is spread out at the horizon’s feet, a royal blue tinged with saffron edges. The sun is not up yet. We still have time.
We run down the hill and I nearly eat shit, several times, my shoes slipping on the dew-slicked grass, until sand sinks beneath my feet. I grab Gemma’s hand and we run over to the water’s edge just as the sun peeks its glowing crown over the wavering line.
I look at her and smile. We made it. We’re standing on the easternmost point in the easternmost habitable country. We might even be the first people on this whole fucking earth to see this fiery sunrise. Only thousands of miles of rolling water lies between us and the southwest coast of Chile.
And yesterday.
Don’t miss Karina’s next book, RACING THE SUN, on sale July 28th!
Karina Halle is the New York Times bestselling author of Where Sea Meets Sky, The Pact, Love in English, and other wild and romantic reads. A former travel writer and music journalist, she lives on an island off the coast of British Columbia with her husband and her rescue pup, where she drinks a lot of wine, hikes a lot of trails, and devours a lot of books.
FACEBOOK TWITTER GOODREADS AMAZON AUTHOR PAGE
Categories : Book Blitz, Contemporary Romance Tagged : Excerpt, Karina Halle, Where Sea Meets Sky
WHERE SEA MEETS SKY
A new adult novel that perfectly captures the existential angst of your early twenties with raw wit, fresh insight, and true
feeling from a critically adored USA TODAY bestselling author.
Joshua Miles has spent his early twenties spinning his wheels. Working dead-end jobs and living at
home has left him exhausted and uninspired, with little energy to pursue his
AMAZON BARNES & NOBLE iBOOKS BLIO BOOKS-A-MILLION
GOOGLE EBOOKSTORE IndieBound
UK LINKS:
Waterstones Foyles Amazon Google Play Kobo Nook iTunes
eBooks by Sainsbury
AUS/NZ LINKS:
iBookstore Amazon Bookworld
This story is beautiful, wild, messy and sexy. And a love letter to New Zealand.
The author has written in incredibly vivid book about taking chances and throwing your carefully-laid plans aside to follow your true passion. I felt as though I was actually watching gorgeous pink sunsets, exploring underground rivers while floating in tubes and experiencing breathtaking mountain views. I felt transported to New Zealand while reading this story and for that experience, I thank the author.
“You won’t see anything more inspiring than this,” I say, gesturing to the sky, now gold. “Recreate it, capture it. Let it be wild, let it be messy. It’s the first sunrise of many more to come. You can’t screw it up. If you do, there’s always tomorrow.”
Joshua Miles has one night of mind-blowing sex with an incredible woman who is about to leave Vancouver for good to return to New Zealand. Josh realizes that his life in Vancouver is empty and that this is his chance to finally experience life before he begins classes at art school. He lives at home with his mother and works part-time. There is nothing really holding him back excerpt his disapproving mother. There’s only one problem: he doesn’t know the name of the woman he is following all the way to New Zealand.
Gemma was traveling alone, trying to make some changes in her life, when she met Josh. She, too, felt an incredible connection with him but leaves Vancouver as planned to return home. Little does she know that Josh will turn up in her hometown! The problem? She is already in a relationship. She is also noncommittal and believes she will only end up hurting Josh.
Circumstances then find Gemma and Josh along with two others traveling across New Zealand in an old VW bus. Karina Halle writes an amazing alternate POV story about finding yourself, falling in love and forgiving the past. Josh pretty much wears is heart on his sleeve from the very beginning, and it is Gemma who remains closed off and guarded. The dialogue is fantastic and the sex scenes are ah-may-zing.
Will Gemma end up breaking Josh’s heart? Will Josh let Gemma give up on her own dreams? This is an incredible story about finding yourself, and chasing your passion. I felt the longing and angst and ache right along with the characters.
“I think I ache for things I may never have. I long for purpose, for life, and yet sometimes I think I’m too afraid to live.” I pause. “Do you ever worry, that there’s something out there that you’re missing?”
Where Sea Meets Sky is a gorgeous story that shouldn’t be missed!!
(ARC provided by the publisher with thanks.)
We motor away from the mountains and toward the cloud-filtered sunshine and rolling brown hills of the east. Lake Tekapo seems to be a popular stop, and as we get closer I can see why. The lake is even bluer than Pukaki was and the town along the banks is a pleasing slice of civilization.
But we don’t stop there like I thought we would. Gemma keeps driving until we come to a turn-off and then she’s gunning it toward the lake. On one side of us the road curves along pine trees and holiday homes; on the other there is a stream and a picturesque stone church surrounded by snap-happy tour bus groups.
At a gravel lot at the very end, not far from the shore, she angrily slams Mr. Orange into park and jumps out of the bus. Instinctively I do the same, jumping out after her.
As I stand there watching, I know the memory is being ingrained into my head. The van is still running and “Comfortably Numb” is blaring from the speakers as Gemma strips down to her underwear and runs to the edge of the lake. She’s barefoot and she doesn’t even slip on the rocks as she goes. She’s running from something, she’s running to something. The water will be ice cold.
It’s just what she wants. She wants to be numb.
I’ve listened to this album enough damn times now to know that “Run Like Hell” will play soon. So I do. I run like hell toward her. I leave Amber in the back of Mr. Orange, puttering on Lake Tekapo’s shore, and I’m sprinting toward the water, unwilling to let her out of my sight.
She’s already splashing into the water, like a mermaid returning to a kingdom of blue milk. If the cold is shocking her, she doesn’t show it, it doesn’t slow her down. The lake splashes around her in Technicolor brilliance, her darkly tanned skin shimmering from the reflection.
In seconds she is diving under and I hold my breath as my legs and blood pump me forward. I’m bizarrely, acutely, aware that she might not come up again. I think about what she told me, huddled in my rain jacket. I think I ache for things I may never get. I long for purpose, for life and yet sometimes I think I’m too afraid to live.
My fear is in not living.
We need to meet in the middle.
So I go into the lake after her. I’m stripped down to my boxers and T-shirt, my dusty jeans and flip-flops discarded somewhere between me and the bus, in a patch of purple and pink foxgloves.
It’s so cold I think I’m going to die. My lips open to yell, “Fuck me!” but my mouth is more intent on chattering my teeth together. Each step stabs stones into the soles of my feet and jagged knives of ice water into my legs until the feeling—all feeling—subsides.
I’m breathless, surrounded by ice blue, a color I’ve created myself when I’ve touched too much eggshell into too little cerulean. The shores are granite, a soft warm grey, peppered by the unimaginable greens and pinks of foxglove and whatever plants happen to spring up in this country. I’m swimming in a painting, numb, and I’m going for her, the bronze mermaid who wants to swim forever.
But she’s not mythical. She’s very real. It seems to take forever and eventually she breaks the surface, shrieking out in surprise and agony from the cold. It doesn’t numb her after all. Perhaps in this case, the number you are, the closer you are to death.
Though she swam for a while under, it doesn’t take me long to catch up with her. I used to be an avid swimmer for years.
“What the hell?” I say to her between chattering teeth, spitting out lake water.
She stares at me, wide-eyed, her head above the surface as she treads water. Her wet, dark hair is slicked back from her forehead, an inky wave between her shoulders, her cheekbones highlighted by sun and water.
“I told you I wanted to come here,” she says, as if suddenly abandoning your van and stripping to your underwear in public is the norm.
I can’t help but smile at how blasé she tries to be about it. “A little warning would be nice.”
“Don’t worry about me, Josh,” she says.
I pause because something in my heart has swelled. “But I do.”
Oh god, how I fucking ever.
She holds my gaze and my fingers itch to reach through the water and touch her. A few days ago I wouldn’t have, not in public like this. But I want to see just how numb she is.
My hand glides forward, sluicing through the water in slow motion until it rests on her light and silky waist.
She stares at me, her eyes glowing white against her brown irises, and her brows thread together in contemplation, as if she’s trying to unravel me, uncover some truth. I know something is bothering her and I know it’s about me more than anything else. It should be a good thing that it bothers her because it means she cares.
I want to tell her that she’s all I’ve ever wanted. I want to show her.
She relaxes into my touch for one sweet moment of victory before she slowly ducks her head under the water. I’m not sure what she’s doing so I take in a breath and submerge my head.
The cold shocks my face and when I open my eyes under water they seem to immediately freeze. Gemma is a hazy vision of pale blue, her hair swirling around her. She is so beautiful it makes my chest ache more than the cold does.
Her eyes hold mine and I see that yearning in them again. She reaches forward, grabbing my face and pulls my head toward her. She kisses me, full on the lips. It is so warm against the cold and I’m afraid I’m about to drown from happiness. I want this and I want more than this.
I don’t know how long the kiss lasts – we seem to float through time and space – but our bodies foolishly decide oxygen is equally as important. She breaks away and I am left sucking in ice water before I break through the surface.
I gasp in the dry air, fingers touching my lips as if I can’t believe it, but she’s back to the way she was before. Impassive. Immovable. Numb.
With her USA Today Bestselling The Artists Trilogy published by Grand Central Publishing, numerous foreign publication deals, and self-publishing success with her Experiment in Terror series, Vancouver-born Karina Halle is a true example of the term “Hybrid Author.” Though her books showcase her love of all things dark, sexy and edgy, she’s a closet romantic at heart and strives to give her characters a HEA…whenever possible.Karina holds a screenwriting degree from Vancouver Film School and a Bachelor of Journalism from TRU. Her travel writing, music reviews/interviews and photography have appeared in publications such as Consequence of Sound, Mxdwn and GoNomad Travel Guides. She currently lives on an island on the coast of British Columbia where she’s preparing for the zombie apocalypse with her fiancé and rescue pup.
Categories : 4.5 Stars, Giveaway, New Adult Contemporary Tagged : Excerpt, Karina Halle, Where Sea Meets Sky
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« DYNAMITE! #121, 13.10.06
DYNAMITE! #119, 29.09.06 »
DYNAMITE! #120, 06.10.06
DYNAMITE! The OFFICIAL London Dynamo Newsletter #120, 06.10.06
+++ Having a blast every Friday +++ Dyna-mail race reports, news, views, and gossip to dynamite@londondynamo.co.uk +++ Have a peek at our pics – http://tinyurl.com/k34tf +++ Check out DYNAMITE! on the web – go to http://www.londondynamo.co.uk and click the “newsletter” link +++ WEEKEND WEATHER: Sat, sunny, 17C max, wind W 17mph; Sun, sunny intervals, 18C max, wind S 12mph +++
EXTRAS SPECIAL
+++ ‘Mos in short film bit part +++
While the club’s big stars revel in the limelight, your ever-quiet DYNAMITE! proudly fulfils a non-speaking role in the sprawling Dyna-movie of the capital’s most cinematic cycling club – and we were pleased to play another vital bit part on Saturday at the filming of a Transport for London promotional video celebrating the capital’s participation in next year’s Tour De France. Along with DARREN ‘ICE’ HINCKS, who was cleverly disguised in an obscure Czech team’s kit, your favourite film extra spent a couple of hours gulping mouthfuls of dirty water sprayed up from the rain-slicked tarmac as we whizzed around the Inner Circle of Regents Park with around two dozen other soggy and dizzy riders. The things we do for the business we call show! An off-the-leash Labrador tried to grab some screen time by bringing down half-a-dozen riders after a couple of suicidal squirrels attempted to get in shot as the fast-moving group approached – but despite these animal-related obstacles, the finished product is now in the process of being put together, ready to be screened at the unveiling of the 2007 TdF route in Paris on 26th October. It will be interesting to see how the moviemakers will transform a wet autumn morning into a warm sunny day, particularly as the dirt-encrusted faces of the riders looked like they had just been through the business end of Paris-Roubaix rather than a mocked-up summer crit in the big smoke. The backroom boys may also have quite a job digitally erasing the individual hairs from the legs of the hirsute fella chosen to be the yellow jersey. There is even the possibility that DYNAMITE! may be reduced in the editing suite to a rapid blue blur – so let’s hope that TOM ‘JUNIOR’ MACKAY will give the club some exposure by starring in the short film as the young cyclist who chases a symbolic yellow balloon through the capital, beguiling many a Londoner during its journey, including a “mixed race couple enjoying a coffee at the NFT” as mentioned in the filmmakers’ intriguing synopsis. Somewhat confusingly, a little girl seemed to be playing the part of the young child on the day, so we hope Tom didn’t have to kneel down while wearing a dress for his time in front of the camera. You can see some pictures from the weekend’s shoot at the bottom of our Tired and Tested gallery… http://tinyurl.com/k34tf …which includes a photo of one of the exclusive lapel badges handed out to the participants, with Sash the Unofficial Newsletter Cat helpfully providing an impression of its size by placing her paw next to it. We’ve got three of these highly sought-after items which are not yet available to the general public, so send a Dyna-mail to us with “Grab a Badge” in the subject line if you want to be one of the mere 50,000 people who will eventually own a Grand Depart pin. For now, however, it’s time to shout “cut” on this opening item as we leave the comforting bubble of movieland and head into the real world, where a certain ‘Mo has been yelling louder than a bad-tempered director with a loudhailer. So come with us as we light a cigar and shift our bottom out of a folding canvas chair which has our name written on the back. It’s time to step out of the Winnebago…
MAJOR CHANGE
+++ Cover your ears – Stronge is new Mainwaring +++
Pop in the earplugs, Dynamates! Sergeant Major ANDREW ‘COALFACE’ STRONGE is taking over from former club president Guy ‘Mainwaring’ Andrews as Dynamo’s top yeller if his vocal performance at the Surrey League’s 3/4 handicap is anything to go by. Fearing the 15-man 4th cat group would capitalise on its generous three-minute head start, the normally sedate chap pumped up the volume in a bid to get the 3rd cat chasing group working together from the gun. Thanks to his Dyna-motivational attitude, the 3rds caught the 4ths on the second of three laps on the 12.5-mile Alfold circuit – and despite eventual winner Marek Siwicki from Addiscombe getting away with a Southdown rider at the dying stages, Andy’s efforts at controlling the group for the lion’s share of the race were rewarded with 4th place. Well done, sir! Wednesday night regular Kevin Sparks, who pipped Andy to the line for 3rd, rode in Dynamo colours despite not being a member – and there was more controversy earlier on when he responded to ‘RADAR’ RUSS TURNER’s request to take his turn at the front with the following warning: “One more word and I swear I’m going to hit you.” Woah, fella! Thankfully, the Sparks didn’t fly any further and the two made up in the village hall’s car park afterwards. That’s the spirit, lads!
STORMING PERFORMANCE
+++ ‘Mos undaunted by biblical shower +++
As peacemakers Russ and Kevin drove away their metaphorical storm clouds, the real things were gathering over Alfold where they broke in spectacular style on the first lap of the afternoon’s 2/3 race. Poor visibility caused by the biblical downpour inevitably lead to a series of gaps, one of which forced MARTIN ‘COMEBACK’ GARRATT to chase and then blow as the pack strung out shortly after he got back on. Unlucky, pal! Stunned RICHARD ‘PLACING’ MASON watched Richard Prebble launch his winning move, remarking: “He came past me like I wasn’t even moving.” That’s bound to knock to your confidence! The Pinarello fellow maintained a 25mph average speed to build up an astonishing five-minute advantage while Nigel Carpenter and John Wager time-trialled together for the next two podium places. The official results have yet to appear, but DYNAMITE! can exclusively reveal that GAVIN ‘NO LYIN’ RYAN came 5th, DAVID ‘DORIAN’ STREULE took 7th, Rich nabbed 8th and plucky ROB ‘THE SAINT’ JEFFROY managed to finish with the bunch. It will take more than a heavy dose of the wet stuff to stop Dynamo!
CAST OUT
Our Equity card has expired, which means there’s just enough time to thank everyone who sent in stuff for this issue before a security guard ushers us out of the on-set catering van. Always remember we are a dizzy Maggie Jacobs, and it is our function to be a comedy companion for you, our Andy Millman. So please keep Dyna-mailing your race reports, news, gossip, and further sightings of the elusive KEN ‘BACKGROUND ARTIST’ BUIST to the address in the “from” field of this message – or simply hit your reply button. The deadline, as ever, is Wednesday afternoon for Friday’s edition. And now, as the only frame with our face in it drops to the cutting room floor, it only remains for us to remind you about…
THIS WEEK’S RIDES
9am: The Parkride. Richmond Park, roundabout by Sheen Gate. Four laps split into fast, intermediate and steady groups.
8am: Kingston Gate, Richmond Park. Non-stop ride through Surrey Hills.
9am: Hampton Court bridge, Surrey Hills ride. Fifty-ish miles at a steady pace. Stop at Box Hill for tea and cake. Bring a pump, inner tubes, drink, and a speaking part.
7.30pm: Richmond Gate, Richmond Park. Steady ride to Chertsey, back via Weybridge, 28 miles.
So until next week, Dynamates, goodbye and happy riding.
The DYNAMITE! team
This entry was posted on November 20, 2010 at 4:11 pm and is filed under DYNAMITE! filed.
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The Film Emporium
A domain of film news and reviews, covering new releases, film festivals and classics alike, edited by Andy Buckle, a Sydney film enthusiast and reviewer.
Review Index (A-Z)
Best Films by Year
Monthly Round-up: December 2014 Viewing
To close out 2014 I watched 27 films, which left me just shy of 400 for the year. Not much else to note this month. Work was stressful and we have been busily getting bits and pieces ready for the wedding in March. We visited family for Christmas and escaped Sydney for Melbourne to see in 2015.
I will also take this opportunity to inform everyone that this will be my final post on The Film Emporium. I have not had the time to commit to this site as much as I used to, and have been contributing to Graffiti With Punctuation and An Online Universe over the last two years. The latter most recently, and continuing in the future. I am absolutely addicted to film and love writing so I will not be stopping. Rather I will be dedicating my time to just contributing reviews and articles, and hopefully freeing up some time for TV, novels and other passions.
I wish to thank everyone for supporting The Film Emporium over the years. It has been about five years now since I started it, how fast that time has gone. There are 1600+ posts on the site and 600+ reviews. Thank you to everyone who has shared an article, left a comment, linked to the site from their own page, or voted for me in the LAMMY awards (I once won 'Most Prolific Blogger'). There are many people I have to thank for making The Film Emporium the site it is today, and I hope you all know who you are. Many of you are dear friends I see regularly today, and many others I had the pleasure of meeting this year while I was overseas.
Now, here is what I saw in December 2014:
-------- Essential Viewing --------
Singin' in the Rain (Stanley Donen, 1952) - First time. I get it now, guys. Wonderful.
Birdman (Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, 2014)
Virunga (Orlando Von Einsiedel, 2014) - Conservation, capitalism and civil war collide in this vital, thrilling historical document of a desperate attempt to protect Virunga National Park and the endangered mountain gorillas within. Some of the footage in this film is the result of people risking their lives - a journalist meets with one of the oil company's chief executives, and covertly films their meeting - with the filmmakers also placing themselves in the thick of the conflict for the extraordinary content. I was floored by this documentary.
Paddington (Paul King, 2014)
The One I Love (Charlie McDowell, 2014) - I have been thinking about this one a lot, even though I snuck it in just before the busy Christmas period. I am a big fan of Duplass and Moss, and what they bring to the film is every bit as commendable as the clever execution of this interesting idea that provokes a lot of consideration about communication in relationships, how much weight we place in who we desire our partners to be (and how different that is from who they actually are/have become) and notions of adultery. Just roll with it. Very funny, but it takes a dark and disturbing turn.
Posted by Andy Buckle at 7:12 PM 411 comments:
2014 Buckle Awards
The 2014 Buckle Awards. Not much to say, other than this was hard to narrow down and on another day I might have gone with a different nominee, or even winner.
But, every film and person and achievement is more than worthy of recognition, even if they don't get it at the Oscars (for the most part, unlikely).
What is interesting is that Inside Llewyn Davis was considered for last years awards - in fact it was the first film I watched in 2014 - but it received no nominations at all. What was I thinking? I have enjoyed it even more over subsequent viewings but I have not included it here. So, you never know how are you going to feel 12 months, 5 years or 10 years down the track. This is 2014 in review.
Best American/British Feature Film
Only Lovers Left Alive *WINNER*
Under the Skin *Runner Up*
Best International/Foreign Language Film
Why Don't You Play in Hell? *Runner Up*
Two Days, One Night
Mommy *WINNER*
Winter Sleep
Tom at the Farm
Best Australian/New Zealand Feature Film
These Final Hours
Son of a Gun
What We Do In the Shadows *WINNER*
The Infinite Man *Runner Up*
Jim Jarmusch - Only Lovers Left Alive - *Runner Up*
Dan Gilroy - Nightcrawler
Wes Anderson - The Grand Budapest Hotel
Xavier Dolan - Mommy/Tom at the Farm - *WINNER*
Jonathan Glazer - Under the Skin
Sion Sono - Why Don't You Play in Hell?
Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu - Birdman
Best Lead Male Performance
Antoine-Olivier Pilon - Mommy
Jack O'Connell - Starred Up
Jake Gyllenhaal - Nightcrawler *WINNER* TIE
Channing Tatum - Foxcatcher
Robert Redford - All is Lost
Haluk Bilginer - Winter Sleep
Michael Keaton - Birdman *WINNER* TIE
Best Lead Female Performance
Tilda Swinton - Only Lovers Left Alive
Anne Dorval - Mommy *WINNER*
Scarlett Johansson - Under the Skin
Marion Cotillard - Two Days, One Night *Runner Up*
Essie Davis - The Babadook
Julianne Moore - Still Alice
Gugu Mbatha-Raw - Beyond the Lights
Best Supporting Female Performance
Suzanne Clement - Mommy *WINNER*
Rene Russo - Nightcrawler
Carrie Coon - Gone Girl
Imelada Staunton - Pride
Kristen Stewart - Clouds of Sils Maria *Runner Up*
Melisa Sozen - Winter Sleep
Best Supporting Male Performance
Edward Norton - Birdman *Runner Up*
Jemaine Clement - What We Do in the Shadows
Mark Ruffalo - Foxcatcher *WINNER*
Pierre-Yves Cardinal - Tom at the Farm
Ethan Hawke - Boyhood
Ciaran Hinds - The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby: Him
Birdman *WINNER*
Force Majeure *Runner Up*
Snowpiercer *WINNER*
Ida *Runner Up*
Best Original Score/Soundtrack
Only Lovers Left Alive *WINNER* Score
Fury *Runner Up* Score
Pride *WINNER* Soundtrack
A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night *Runner Up* Soundtrack
20, 000 Days on Earth
Jodorowsky's Dune
Virunga *Runner Up*
The Possibilities Are Endless *WINNER*
Tim's Vermeer
Best Scene
'Diamonds' + hotel - Girlhood
The stakeout/pursuit - Nightcrawler *Runner Up*
The beach (of many) - Under the Skin
'Nothing's Going to Stop Us Now' - The Skeleton Twins
THAT montage - Mommy *WINNER*
Riggan locked out - Birdman
'The sandwich' - What We Do in the Shadows
Weight loss - Foxcatcher
The reunion - Only Lovers Left Alive
Top nominations: Mommy (9), Only Lovers Left Alive (7), Nightcrawler (7), Birdman (7), Under the Skin (6), Foxcatcher (5), The Grand Budapest Hotel (4)
Posted by Andy Buckle at 3:17 PM 21 comments:
20 Favourite New-to-Me Films in 2014
Here are 20 films (from any year) I became obsessed with this year for one reason or another.
How many did you guess? Duck Soup (1933), His Girl Friday (1940), My Darling Clementine (1946), Stray Dog (1949), Singin' in the Rain (1952), On the Waterfront (1954), Rio Bravo (1959), Lawrence of Arabia (1962), Seconds (1966), Thief (1981), The Man Who Planted Trees (1987), Old Joy (2006), Dear Zachary: A Letter To A Son About His Father (2008), The Wolf of Wall Street (2013), Only Lovers Left Alive (2013), Under the Skin (2013), Mommy (2014), What We Do in the Shadows (2014), Birdman (2014), Nightcrawler (2014)
Posted by Andy Buckle at 7:24 AM 9 comments:
I have been more privileged than normal with the sheer number of films I have been able to see this year. I ventured across the world to attend the Toronto Film Festival, and made an effort to see at least one film at each of the festivals that run in Australia. It has been a terrific year, and I think what is notable is the incredible depth of excellent films.
There were a number of titles that had a theatrical release in early 2014, but I saw in 2013 and were considered for last year’s list. They include Nebraska, The Wolf of Wall Street, Inside Llewyn Davis, Her, 12 Years A Slave, The Great Beauty and Blue is the Warmest Colour. The first four films listed here would have made this short list, had I considered them.
So, with them exempt, the chosen films have been sourced from everything else I saw in 2014, whether they had a theatrical release in Australian cinemas in 2014 (or 2013 internationally), are set to have one in 2015, screened at a festival or went straight to VOD/DVD.
I didn’t get the chance to see some of the best-received films internationally, like Citizen Four, Goodbye to Language, Obvious Child and Listen Up Phillip, or some of the films receiving Oscar buzz like Inherent Vice, Selma, A Most Violent Year and The Theory of Everything.
But, before you say “Where’s ….” here are some honourable mentions (#35-26) that just missed the cut: Jodorowsky’s Dune (Frank Pavich), Of Horses and Men (Benedikt Erlingsson), The Double (Richard Ayoade), Starred Up (David Mackenzie), Tokyo Tribe (Sion Sono), Boyhood (Richard Linklater), Calvary (John Michael McDonagh), Virunga (Orlando von Einsiedel), The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby: Her (Ned Benson) and Beyond the Lights (Gina Prince-Bythewood).
Continue to the Top 25 at An Online Universe.
Posted by Andy Buckle at 8:16 PM 3 comments:
"Keep the Change, You Filthy Animal!" Home Alone Turns 24
Guest article by Brandon Engel.
The fact that the movie Home Alone is soon turning almost a quarter of a century old will certainly date some people. Arguably, though, the subsequent career of director Chris Columbus contributed to a variety of successful, entertaining movies as well. Either way you look at it, Home Alone remains one of the most memorable holiday films of all time.
Home Alone inserts viewers into the chaotic but loving McCallister family. The youngest of the lot, Kevin, played by MaCaulay Culkin, feels picked on and misunderstood by his boisterous family members. Like many families during the holiday season, the family scrambles to get everyone and everything in place for a trip to celebrate the season. But, in the frenzy of their preparations, little Kevin gets overlooked and ends up alone in a rather large house for an 8-year-old boy.
At first, this seems like a gift in disguise, as young Kevin has the chance to engage in all the misbehavior his parents scold him about. He gets to try on some adult activities, like using aftershave, as well as jumping on the bed with impunity. When a couple of burglars show up, though, Kevin has to delve deep into his bag of childhood mischief to protect his house and himself in this comedy of juvenile genius and adult criminal ineptitude. Separated by the Atlantic Ocean in a pre-Internet era, Kevin and his family have very few ways to contact each other at all, so he is left to his own devices.
John Hughes, who was already famous for his movies from the previous decade, wrote the script for this hit, giving director Chris Columbus rich material for a blockbuster comedy production. From an estimated budget of about 15 million dollars, the film brought in over 17 million during its first weekend and eventually accounted for well over 200 million in revenue in the US alone. Besides being a financial success, the movie also won over most reviewers to some degree, despite some critics who lamented the more unrealistic aspects of the plot line – even before the advent of automated home monitoring systems like ADT, forgetting a child at home and failing to contact any authorities isn’t exactly the easiest storyline to believe. The outlandish premise didn’t stop most moviegoers from going to see what damage this young protagonist could inflict on a couple of middle-aged miscreants.
It’s hard to believe that MaCaulay Culkin, the actor portraying the movie’s protagonist, has become a grown man with his own projects and interests, aside from wreaking havoc on inept burglars. The movie launched him into almost immediate stardom as a household name all over the world, but the sequels were met only with mixed reviews. In the real world, Culkin’s troubles with his parents (who were entangled in a custody war over MaCaulay and his fortune) made national and international news as he tried to gain more control over his financial future. Eventually, Culkin was able to parlay his skill, fame and resources into other projects, including stints in theater and music.
These days, the movie still rates above average on many review sites. The lack of appeal relative to its popularity when it was released can be partially explained by changes in the culture, which involves far more home security awareness, and sensibilities over the years. That being said, kids still seem to love this holiday classic that delivers a dose of adult-directed schadenfreude, as will adults who just want a trip down the path of their childhood reveries.
Review: Paddington (Paul King, 2014)
From the beloved novels by Michael Bond, Paddington tells the story of the misadventures of a young bear (voiced by Ben Whishaw) who travels to London in search of a home after his idyllic Peruvian forest homestead is destroyed in an earthquake. Finding himself lost and alone, he begins to realize that city life is not all he had imagined, until he meets the kindly Brown family who take heed of the label around his neck – “Please look after this bear. Thank you.” – and offer him a temporary haven.
This is a fun, clever film and it is exceptionally well made. But, I take a look at the impressive pedigree working on it and wonder why I am surprised. Writer/director Paul King is the man behind Bunny and the Bull and The Mighty Boosh, which explains why Paddington is so funny. King worked with editor Mark Everson on the aforementioned projects, and this is a sleek, polished cut. Master DP Erik Wilson (The Double, 20, 000 Days on Earth and The Imposter) shoots the film beautifully, while the delightfully rewarding intricacies of the film’s design (for example, the Brown house reduced to a dollhouse model and a sequence where Paddington appears to walk through a projected image into a memory) and CGI/animatronic effects are seamlessly woven into the film’s fabric.
Continue reading at An Online Universe.
Posted by Andy Buckle at 7:08 AM 1 comment:
Favourite Male and Female Performances of 2014
Male Performer of the Year:
Jake Gyllenhaal (for three brilliant performances in two films)
Honourable Mentions (In No Particular Order): Steve Coogan - The Trip To Italy, Jonah Hill - The Wolf of Wall Street, Matthew McConaughey - Dallas Buyers Club, Jim Broadbent - Le Week-End, Russell Crowe - Noah, Jeff Goldblum - Le Week-End/The Grand Budapest Hotel, Tom Hiddleston - Only Lovers Left Alive, Jesse Eisenberg - The Double, Dominic West and Ben Schnetzer - Pride, Alfred Molina - Love is Strange, James McAvoy - The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby: Him, Ciaran Hinds - The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby: Him, Tom Hardy - The Drop/Locke, Bill Hader - The Skeleton Twins, Chris Evans - Snowpiercer, Ben Mendolsohn - Starred Up, Jemaine Clement - What We Do In The Shadows, Andy Serkis and Toby Kebbel - Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, Mathieu Amalric - Venus in Fur, David Gulpilil - Charlie's Country, Casey Affleck and Christian Bale - Out of the Furnace, Cliff Curtis - The Dark Horse, Al Pacino - The Humbling, Ben Stiller - While We're Young, Aleksei Serebryakov and Roman Madyanov - Leviathan, Bill Murray - St Vincent, Ben Affleck - Gone Girl, Robert Duvall - The Judge, Ewan McGregor - Son of A Gun, Miles Teller and J.K Simmons - Whiplash, Johannes Kuhnke - Force Majeure, Brad Pitt and Logan Lerman - Fury, Eddie Marsan - Still Life, Keanu Reeves - John Wick, Timothy Spall - Mr Turner, Riz Ahmed - Nightcrawler, Pierre-Yves Cardinal - Tom at the Farm, Zach Galifainakas - Birdman, Ethan Hawke - Boyhood and Benedict Cumberbatch - The Imitation Game
15. Edward Norton - Birdman
14. Haluk Bilginer - Winter Sleep
13. Toni Servillo - The Great Beauty
12. Ralph Fiennes - The Grand Budapest Hotel/The Invisible Woman
11. Brendan Gleeson - Calvary
10. Oscar Isaac - Inside Llewyn Davis
9. Jack O'Connell - Starred Up
8. Channing Tatum and Steve Carell - Foxcatcher
7. Robert Redford - All is Lost
6. Antoine-Olivier Pilon - Mommy
5. Joaquin Phoenix - Her/The Immigrant
4. Leonard DiCaprio - The Wolf of Wall Street
3. Mark Ruffalo - Foxcatcher/Begin Again/Infinitely Polar Bear
2. Jake Gyllenhaal - Nightcrawler/Enemy
1. Michael Keaton - Birdman
Female Performances
Female Performer of the Year:
Scarlett Johansson (she WAS everywhere, and nowhere)
Honourable Mentions (In No Particular Order): Judi Dench - Philomena, Lindsay Duncan - Le Week-End, Paulina Garcia - Gloria, Emmanuelle Devos - Domestic Life, Felicity Jones - The Invisible Woman, Rose Byrne - Neighbours/Adult Beginners, Mia Wasikowska - Only Lovers Left Alive, Agata Trzebuchowska and Agata Kulesza - Ida, Patricia Arquette - Boyhood, Marissa Tomei - Love is Strange, Viola Davis - The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby: Her, Sarah Snook - Predestination, Keira Knightley - Begin Again/Laggies, Sidse Babett Knudsen and Chiara D'Anna - The Duke of Burgundy, Naomi Watts - While We're Young/Birdman, Elena Lyadova - Leviathan, Brit Marling - The Keeping Room, Carrie Coon and Kim Dickens - Gone Girl, Reese Witherspoon - Wild, Lisa Loven Kongsli - Force Majeure, Emma Stone - Birdman, Alicia Vikander - Testament of Youth
15. Imelda Staunton - Pride
14. Rene Russo - Nightcrawler
13. Karidja Toure - Girlhood
12. Juliette Binoche and Kristen Stewart - Clouds of Sils Maria
11. Emmanuelle Seigner - Venus in Fur
10. Melisa Sözen and Demet Akbag - Winter Sleep
9. Jessica Chastain - The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby: Her
8. Tilda Swinton - Only Lovers Left Alive/Snowpiercer
7. Margot Robbie - The Wolf of Wall Street
6. Essie Davis - The Babadook
5. Gugu Mbatha-Raw - Beyond the Lights/Belle
4. Julianne Moore - Still Alice
3. Scarlett Johansson - Under the Skin/Her/Lucy
2. Marion Cotillard - Two Days, One Night/The Immigrant
1. Anne Dorval and Suzanne Clement - Mommy
Note: There are a few films I won't get the chance to see this year - A Most Violent Year, Inherent Vice, Selma, The Theory of Everything, '71 and Unbroken - so those performers will be a part of next year's considerations.
In cinemas this week: Paddington, Horrible Bosses 2, The One I Love and Folies Bergere
Paddington - From the beloved novels by Michael Bond and producer David Heyman (Harry Potter), Paddington tells the story of the comic misadventures of a young Peruvian bear (voiced by Ben Whishaw) who travels to the city in search of a home. Finding himself lost and alone, he begins to realize that city life is not all he had imagined - until he meets the kindly Brown family who read the label around his neck that says "Please look after this bear. Thank you," and offer him a temporary haven. It looks as though his luck has changed until this rarest of bears catches the eye of a museum taxidermist.
Horrible Bosses 2 - The follow-up to the 2011 hit comedy reunites Jason Bateman, Charlie Day and Jason Sudeikis as Nick, Dale and Kurt. Jennifer Aniston, Jamie Foxx and Kevin Spacey also reprise their Horrible Bosses starring roles, while Chris Pine and Christoph Waltz star as new adversaries standing between the guys and their dreams of success.
The One I Love - The highly anticipated debut feature from acclaimed author Charlie McDowell, The One I Love is an original tale that continues to showcase McDowell's keen observations of human relationships with a distinct and comedic voice. Written by Justin Lader, The One I Love was produced by Mel Eslyn and executive produced by Mark Duplass who stars opposite Elisabeth Moss. On the brink of separation, Ethan (Duplass) and Sophie (Moss) escape to a beautiful vacation house for a weekend getaway in an attempt to save their marriage. What begins as a romantic and fun retreat soon becomes surreal, when an unexpected discovery forces the two to examine themselves, their relationship, and their future. ★★★★
Folies Bergere - Brigitte and Xavier are a couple of cattle farmers living and working together in Normandy. They have always got on well but now that their two children have left the household routine and weariness have set in. One night, Brigitte, who has been invited to a party by a group of Parisians in the house next to their farm, lets herself be wooed by Stan, a witty, cool attractive young man. Some time later, giving a visit to a dermatologist as an excuse, she goes to Paris to meet him. But things do not go according to plan. Stars Isabelle Huppert.
Weekly Recommendation: I have been recommended Folies Bergere and anything with Isabelle Huppert is usually worth watching. I really liked The One I Love. What a clever and fun film that is odd enough to keep you guessing but not so twisted it starts to become indecipherable. Duplass is such a funny guy, but Elizabeth Moss is terrific in an unusual role. It is a very interesting look at a relationship in trouble, and how desiring your partner to change isn't the answer unless you're willing to change too. And then there's Paddington, which is getting very positive reviews. I am now very much looking forward to it. A surprisingly interesting week. December is usually a bit of a graveyard - though last year American Hustle swept in a blew open the box office - in the lead up to the Boxing Day and the new year.
Writer at Graffiti With Punctuation
Recent New Release Reviews
Paddington (★★★★)
Nightcrawler (★★★★★)
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 (★★★)
Winter Sleep (★★★★)
Two Days, One Night (★★★★1/2)
Interstellar (★★1/2)
Pride (★★★★1/2)
Fury (★★★1/2)
Son of a Gun (★★★1/2)
The Judge (★★★)
Gone Girl (★★★1/2)
The Skeleton Twins (★★★1/2)
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Marvel’s X-23 Series Has Allowed One Character to Shine Above The Rest
Comics, Editorials
#Comics Honey Badger laura kinney Marvel Marvel Comics tom taylor x-23 X-Men
(Note: This is spoiler free!)
Mariko Tamaki’s run writing X-23 has to be one of the lightest reads out there. It makes sense since Laura Kinney isn’t exactly a big talker. X-23 is a great read for anyone who’s just getting into comics or even a comics-veteran who’s looking to add something quick.
The action is sick. The art as a whole has really taken a step forward since Diego Olortegui took over as penciler, Walden Wong as inker and Chris O’Halloran as the colorist in X-23 #7. (JP Mayer and Scott Hanna joined Wong for X-23 #9.)
Certain artists just fit better with certain characters. Olortegui and company highlight Laura’s tough exterior, giving her the badass feel she deserves.
The art leading up to that X-23 #7 was good, but it had a lighter feel to it. It felt like there was a level of innocence in the goings on when that really shouldn’t be the case with X-23. That might’ve been a better fit if it was a Honey Badger book.
Change My Mind #76: Original vs. Sequel - Raimi's Spider-Man
Which brings us to the larger point.
Honey Badger, a.k.a. Gabby, has been the best part of Tamaki’s writing. Don’t get me wrong, X-23’s action still reigns supreme in the book, but that’s not enough to carry this story on its own—as is the case with pretty much any book.
But Gabby’s goofy nature has worked as the perfect foil to her “sister’s” brooding, intense personality. Honey Badger is still innocent in many ways, despite her past and her, well, initial purpose in life. You can see that with her empathy for other characters that have attempted to cause her harm.
And she’s quick to hide all the darkness in her and Laura’s life with jokes—which is, honestly, her most redeeming quality. Gabby is fully aware of what takes place around her but always manages to bring some levity to the situation.
Co-creator Tom Taylor did some more great work with her in X-Men: Red, but with it being a team story he only was able to use about one quip per issue. Though those moments stood out, there’s more to Honey Badger. And right now, the only place to get the appropriate amount of Gabby is in the ongoing run of X-23.
Department of Truth # 3 (REVIEW)
by Nick Friar
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Home Special Report
Political Throwback! On April 2, 1984 Rakesh Sharma from space tells PM Indira Gandhi that India is ‘Saare jahan se achcha’; watch video
The former PM of India Indira Gandhi is remembered for her heroic decisions which she took during her tenure as a Prime Minister. And under her government only India launched it’s first space mission with the help of Soviet Intercosmos space program on April 2, 1984. The trip was made Rakesh Sharma the first Indian in Space but the event is also remembered for a conversation from space that he had with then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.
Sharma himself sent the entire country into a tizzy when, in reply to the prime minister’s query on how India looked from space, he quoted the poet Iqbal’s immortal lines, “Saare jahan se achcha.” (better than the whole world).’
He spent 7 days 21 hours and 40 minutes aboard the Salyut 7 orbital station. He carried with him portraits of Indira Gandhi, President Zail Singh, Defence Minister Venkataraman and some soil from Rajghat, where the mortal remains of Mahatma Gandhi are kept.
Sharma was accompanied on the mission by two Russian cosmonauts, and they had undergone 18 months of training for the journey. Their launch vehicle took off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in present-day Kazakhstan. In those eight days, the crew conducted more than 40 experiments connected with earth sciences, material sciences and bio medicine, including an earth observation programme focusing on India.
It has been more than three decades and no other Indian citizen has ever been to space. The Indian Space Research Organisation is making gradual progress with developing technologies that could take humans to space.
The BBC article on Sharma describes how Gandhi was pushing for an Indian in space before the 1984 general elections, and few months after the mission on October 31 Indira Gandhi was assassinated.
Raipur: Chief Minister released photo handbooks based on the lifestyle of the tribes of Chhattisgarh
Raipur : Telghani Board to be set up in Chhattisgarh: Big announcement by Chief Minister Mr. Baghel
Raipur : Every possible step would be taken for expansion of public services in Risaali: Mr. Bhupesh Baghel
The Governor laid a wreath at the statue of Swami Vivekananda, located in the assembly premises
Chhattisgarh gets more private investment in Q3 : Chhattisgarh among top ten states with Rs 10,228 crore investment projects
Chief Minister to visit Bastar division from January 9: will be included in programs organized in Narayanpur district on January 9 and 10
Raipur : Rajim is not just a city, but also a symbol of Chhattisgarh's culture: Mr. Bhupesh Baghel
Chief Minister inaugurates groundwater conservation works worth Rs 4.99 crore on Jaitrani Nala of Jogisar
:Chief Minister Mr. Bhupesh Baghel announces upgrading of Kotmi Sub-Tehsil to Tehsil at inauguration-foundation laying ceremony held at Danikundi village of Marwahi block
Chief Minister Mr. Bhupesh Baghel inaugurated the furnished Government District Library Building at Pendri.
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Housing finance numbers down while first home buyers up
Malcolm Gunning, President of the REIA and Shane Garrett, senior economist at HIA discuss the latest housing finance figures released by the ABS.
Photo by Maximillian Conacher on Unsplash
Image supplied by REIA
Malcolm Gunning, President of the REIA
Image supplied by HIA
Shane Garrett, senior economist at HIA
ABS has released the housing finance figures for June 2018 and while they show housing finance numbers are continuing to fall for the ninth consecutive month, first home buyer participation is at a six year high.
The figures show the number of owner-occupied finance commitments have decreased by 0.5 per cent, and if refinancing is excluded it is a decrease of 0.2 per cent.
Malcolm Gunning, President of the REIA said Tasmania and Adelaide have been the outperformers but as a whole people have lost confidence in the market.
“When the market in the eastern states is declining a lot of people stop and take stock,” said Mr Gunning.
“The downsizers which are owner occupiers have gone ‘I’ve lost money.’”
“When you talk to a vendor now and you say the price might be further down than it was 18 months ago they look at you with horror and say they didn’t think it would affect them.”
Mr Gunning told WILLIAMS MEDIA in the past six months both sellers and buyers have been coming to terms with the current market position, and the decline in prices hasn’t finished yet so there is still uncertainty.
“When you get insecurity people pull back. The fear of missing out has disappeared completely.”
“There is no urgency in the market. If you are selling now there is clearly a purpose.”
“It's not profiteering necessarily, it’s needing to get into a smaller house, relocating, etc.”
Related reading: Market rationalisation underway, says REIA
The REIA said decreases were recorded in all states and territories except Tasmania and Queensland, where lending increased by just 0.1 per cent.
The Australian Capital Territory had the largest decrease of 1.8 per cent.
“The ACT is a small market. You have to be cautious to a certain extent with the percentage.”
“It is affected by NSW more so than any other state. There is no underlying reason for this percentage except that it is an inclusive market which is in line with the rest of NSW.”
The REIA said the value of investment housing commitments decreased by 1.8 per cent in June, and the dollar amount approved for the purchase of dwellings by individuals for rent or resale is at the lowest level since July 2013.
“The number of established dwellings purchase commitments decreased by 0.4 per cent while the purchase of new dwellings decreased by 1.1 per cent and new dwelling construction fell by 0.5 per cent.”
“Whilst the proportion of first home buyers, as part of the total owner-occupied housing finance commitments, increased in June to 18.1 per cent, the number of loans to first home buyers decreased by 8.3 per cent.”
Mr Gunning said he is about to meet with the Deputy Treasurer and will be saying be mindful, as you are putting pressure on the banks and the market is falling away.
He said the comments by the Government and Treasury that they are in line with forecasting is ridiculous.
“I think the fall in prices have been quicker than they expected because they didn’t quite realise the effects of the APRA regulation and foreign investment taxes.”
“They also didn't forecast the level of correctness, and misjudged public reaction.”
“The fall has been quick in the last eight months. It just shows you how in touch the property market is and how sensitive it is to government regulation.”
Related reading: First-home buyers concession a 'boon' in regional Melbourne
While the ABS housing finance figures for June 2018 are negative for housing finance numbers, they also show first home buyer share of owner occupier housing loans is at its highest since late 2012.
The HIA said the figures indicate first home buyers accounted for 18.1 per cent of owner occupier home loans during the month.
Shane Garrett, senior economist at HIA said over the past 12 months, the volume of first home buyer owner-occupier loans has increased by 11.4 per cent.
“There are a few reasons behind this welcome trend. Several state governments, including NSW and Victoria, have enhanced their incentives giving the first home buyer segment a new lease of life,” said Mr Garrett.
“In recent years, record numbers of newly built apartments have also come on stream. In terms of design and price point, many of these are particularly suited to first home buyers and have made the purchase of their first home possible.
“On balance, the slowdown in dwelling price growth over the past year and ongoing low interest rates have also been favourable for those seeking to access the market for the first time.”
Mr Garrett said in contrast, the value of housing investor loans hit a five-year low during June and has declined by 22.4 per cent since its peak at the beginning of last year.
“Investment participation in the housing market plays a key role in delivering new housing supply and is vital to the healthy functioning of rental markets right around Australia.
“Recent policy and regulatory changes have made it more difficult for investors to participate in the housing market. With our population hitting 25 million, any obstacles to housing supply must be avoided so that the industry can meet our future housing needs,” concluded Mr Garrett.
View the ABS housing finance figures for June 2018.
Advice for first home buyers after new research shows most are clueless about buying property: ME Bank
Housing finance numbers confirm market feedback, says REIA
Advice for first-home buyers
Malcolm Gunning
REIA
Shane Garrett
HIA
Malcolm Gunning REIA housing finance housing finance ABS first home buyers abs housing finance australia abs housing finance australian bureau of statistics housing finance Real Estate Institute of Australia Australian Bureau of Statistics REIA ABS Housing Industry Association HIA Shane Garrett HIA
Studio addition clad in old telegraph poles
Perfectly positioned at the pinnacle of Palm Beach
'I love my job': Realmark Coastal Director reflects on 20-year career following REIWA win
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The Handmaid’s Tale recap: We’ve been sent good weather… or have we?
Alex Casey | Senior Writer
Alex Casey dissects episode four of The Handmaid’s Tale, including tense baby showers and a walk down memory lane. Contains spoilers, obviously.
June, in the sacred words of Fur Patrol, am I surprised to see you here with Lydia? No. No I’m not. After last week’s literal plane crash disaster, I knew it was only a matter of time before we returned to the Gilead to check in with our Matron Saint of Cattle Prodding. June is counting the number of roses on the duvet – or “comforter” as they ironically insist on calling it in dystopia – chained to the bed with even less to entertain herself than a pig in captivity. At least piggies get a ball to play with.
Straight off the bat, something feels different in the Gilead this time. June’s eyebrow stays quietly cocked, her chin defiantly pointing outwards, her mouth occasionally blurting out casual aggressions hidden under niceties about the weather. Getting a taste of the outside has changed her forever and, so long as Aunt Lydia is going to try and force feed her the fake guise of Handmaid ‘freedom’, she’s going to continue to spew it right back up. For now.
The only appropriate response to green juice
This episode we are back to Keeping Up With the Waterfords – which would be the worst reality show ever made – and are offered a new side to Serena Joy. She seems constantly torn between hating and resenting June with every inch of her being, and wanting to protect and nourish her as she grows “her” unborn child. With pregnant June on the run for 92 days, a baby shower is definitely in order. Shoved to the side as the posh women fuss and open luxury toys, June reminds us all that she holds the true gift. “I felt the baby kick for the first time last night,” she snarls quietly from the outskirts.
It’s the relationship between June and Serena Joy – also June and every woman in the world of this show – that’s becoming more and more fascinating as the show exhales and expands. In a disarmingly tender scene, Serena Joy creeps in to June’s room and spoons her, gently resting her hand on her pregnant belly. It looks like a scene out of The Gilmore Girls or some crap, not to mention the fact that we also got to see Selena with her hair down AND smoking a cigarette. Three dimensional? She’ll show you three dimensional.
Through flashbacks to the pre-Gilead world, we see another important interaction between two women in a very different hellish situation. When June met her baby daddy Luke, he was with another woman. When they began sleeping each other, he was still with another woman. That woman is finally given a name and a face in this episode when she confronts June after a yoga class and begs her to stay away from her partner.
For all the excruciating scenes that The Handmaid’s Tale dishes out, this one was equally as torturous. It’s a testament to the show that they can make melodramatic affair confrontations land with as much of a wallop as someone cutting their own ear off, that’s for damn sure. “Did you ever think of me?” asks Annie of June. Very heartbreaking and very horrible.
Guilt: the musical
I’m yet to mention the real “Other Woman” of this episode. There are no two women more at war with each other than June and Offred, both trapped in one body and equally keen to subvert and obey. As Aunt Lydia moves into the Waterford residence to make smoothies and take June for walks, it’s obvious that she is working towards something. She’s simply not that nice. That something turns out to be the hanging dead body of the driver who helped June escape, a reminder that everything she touches can be punished, even if she can’t be.
“It’s my fault, it’s my fault, it’s my fault,” June is forced to chant to herself as she stares at the corpse, welcoming Offred closer with every utterance. Wrapping her bonnet around her head to obscure her face, we see June slowly slip away as she potters down to market. Directly down the barrel of the camera, Offred looks blankly at us, robotically muttering the same thing over and over again. “We’ve been sent good weather. We’ve been sent good weather. We’ve been sent good weather.”
Uh oh. Here’s hoping the forecast changes soon.
ELISABETH MOSS FACE OF THE WEEK
A five star snarl.
SHOT OF THE WEEK
Move over Wes Anderson.
Not one for Friday drinks but maybe good for the Saturday hangover?
Click below to watch all new episodes of The Handmaid’s Tale, exclusively on Lightbox:
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The Spinoff’s guide to all the most binge-worthy TV on Neon
Partner content- August 15, 2020
Here’s what you need to know about Neon merging with Lightbox
What’s new to Netflix NZ, Neon and every other streaming service in June
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Europe is set to be the leader in electric vehicle production
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Spanning Space-Based Engineering Developments Across 2020
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Quebec has slightly missed the target of placing 100,000 electric cars on the road
Celebrating Katherine Johnson: A Pillar in Space Exploration
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Leiria, Batalha and the Sanctuary of Fátima awarded with national prizes – Region of Leiria
In the Unprotected Association, there is a book that gives color to solidarity – Region of Leiria
The Trusted Chronicle
Epidemic passed in the social district of Pombal – Region of Leiria
The future of an old factory bought two years ago for 1.2 million euros remains uncertain – Region of Leiria
The Sanctuary of Fátima resumes its full official program – Region of Leiria
Three other deaths and 170 new cases in the region of Leiria – Region of Leiria
British magazine awards three design prizes to Leiria – Leiria Region
Tita opens the F side with the number 8 national team jersey – Leiria Region
When companies become partners in social inclusion – Region of Leiria
Book on the buildings of Pinhal do Rei wins the Villa Portela award 2020 – Leiria Region
Epidemic at Barreira with 64 positive cases among users and professionals – Region of Leiria
The second Euromillions prize is awarded to Marinha Grande – Region of Leiria
An epidemic leads União de Leiria SAD to suspend its activities – Region of Leiria
tcadmin 1 month ago
Twelve cases of infection, including 10 in football players, led the SAD administration of União de Leiria to stop the activity of the senior team.
União de Leiria SAD announced this evening, in a statement, that several members of the team are infected with Covid-19, three of which were detected on Thursday 3, which leads to the suspension of the team’s activities, to know the following two games.
“Currently, 12 cases have been identified (two staff and ten athletes, these being asymptomatic or showing mild symptoms), which are being properly monitored. The rest of the team is in quarantine and constantly monitored, ”the statement revealed.
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REGION DE LEIRIA knows that during the last match of the Portuguese Cup, played on November 20 in Portimonense, in which União de Leiria SAD won (1-0), a player of the team tested positive for the new coronavirus and did not can line up at the meeting.
For tomorrow, Saturday, the match with Sertanense FC is due to take place, counting towards the 8th round of Serie E, of the league of Portugal. The game has been postponed until February 3, 2021.
The Portuguese Cup game, scheduled for December 14, with Gil Vicente of La I Liga will also be postponed. The new date is December 23.
“It should be noted that the UDL União de Leiria – Futebol SAD immediately activated the emergency plan for the control and surveillance of the COVID-19 infection, being in contact with the health authorities and following all the rules and directives from the general directorate of health, and the entire team and staff have already been properly tested, ”reinforces the statement signed by SAD President Armando Marques.
https://thetrustedchronicle.com/
The epidemic at Leiria hospital affects 16 professionals and 19 users - Leiria region
Sat Dec 5 , 2020
The Leiria Hospital Center (CHL) today confirmed in Lusa that an epidemic was detected at the internal medicine department of the Santo André hospital, which affected 16 professionals and 19 users. According to a CHL source, the epidemic occurred on November 24 and all the patients and professionals assigned to […]
Peniche invests 295 thousand euros in the Bolhos sewerage network – Leiria region
Residents of Castanheira de Pera receive a Christmas tree donated by the municipality – Region of Leiria
At Christmas there can be traffic between municipalities, not on New Year’s Eve – Leiria
The Region wants a rail freight terminal and proposes to study its viability – Region of Leiria
Almada Negreiros’ controversial thesis comes to life in the Founder’s Chapel – Leiria Region
Óbidos extends support to families and businesses until end of June 2021 – Region of Leiria
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new English urban artist
NIJI Magazine interview London Emcee & Producer Iron Braydz
By urbanelitepr | March 14, 2014
Ahead of the release of his new EP “Verbal sWARdz” on 14th April, Iron Braydz gives one of his most in depth interviews to date to British online publication NIJI Magazine.
He speaks on his move from Nigeria to Kilburn in north London at a young age, the early influence of hip hop in his life and what inspired him to become an artist, his earliest live shows & hosting events for DJ Premier, Joell Ortiz and RZA, working with UK producers Lewis Parker and Chemo and Stateside artists Sean Price, DJ Ronin and Sav Killz, his growing support in Europe, becoming the newest member of Triple Darkness, his role in a new independent film “Night Bus” and the recording process in putting the new EP together
It’s a real insight into the history of one of the UK’s most highly regarded hip hop artists which you can read in full HERE
The new release is largely self produced, but includes features from Triple Darkness, Kyza, Skriblah, Sean Price and Organized Konfusion’s Prince Po
The track Fiery Red featuring Sean Price was originally released to the internet a couple of years ago. Check it out
It’s set to be one of the hottest UK hip hop releases in the first half of 2014, and only the beginning of a series of releases whether as solo projects or via his involvement with Triple Darkness and FuFu Gang
Keep up to date with him on twitter @Braydz on his Facebook “HollaAtBraydz” and check in with the publication over at @NijiMagazine
All international press & media enquiries, requests for promotional copies of the EP for review, or requests to interview Iron Braydz can be sent to UrbanElite PR HERE
Tagged as actor, April 2014, audio stream, bars, beats, Belgique, chemo, classic, contact, deutschland, director Simon Baker, dj premier, dj ronin, djs, east coast, Espana, europe, exclusive, Fiery Red, Film on Four Channel 4, france, Harlesden, history, independent, iron braydz, Italia, joell ortiz, kilburn, Kyza, Lewis Parker, London rapper producer, lyricist, mp3, nederlands, new English urban artist, new film, new in depth interview, new release, news, Nigeria, Night Bus, niji magazine, nyc, online media press, pr, Prince Po, promotions, publicist, radio, random axe, real hip hop Emcee, real spitta, rhymes, rza, Sav Killz, sean price, skriblah, street, Suisse, sverige, triple darkness, UK British hip hop rap music, underground, Verbal sWARdz EP, wu tang. Leave a comment
Wordplay Magazine review the new Iron Braydz EP “Verbal sWARdz”
Wordplay Magazine is an online and physical publication dedicated to the various elements of hip hop culture covering Graffiti, Breakin, Fashion and reporting on the hottest releases from the UK and overseas.
They are the latest to run the rule over the new EP Verbal sWARdz by north London Emcee and producer Iron Braydz.
The article begins “If you’ve not been paying attention up until this point, now’s the time to start. ‘Verbal sWARdz’ is the first in a slew of releases coming out over the coming year, and if this is Braydz’ time to make a statement, he’s off to a strong start.” and you can read the rest of their findings HERE
The newest member of Triple Darkness is living up to his reputation as one of the finest lyricists to emerge from the UK in recent years, and the EP, which releases on 14th April, is the beginning of what will be a busy year ahead whether releasing solo material, or as a part of two separate groups, or even when appearing in a soon to be released independent film “Night Bus” directed by the award winning Simon Baker.
Check his latest video “Dredd”
Keep up to date with him on twitter @Braydz and the magazine over at @Wordplaymag The EP will be available from http://braydz.bandcamp.com
You will be reading a lot more about this release in the weeks ahead, and look out for a brand new video coming in early April. Any media and press requiring promotional copies of the EP to review, or to request an interview with Iron Braydz should address their enquiries to UrbanElite PR HERE
Tagged as 14th April 2014, bars, beats, breakin, Channel 4, classic, contact, director, Dredd, elements, europe, fashion, Film on Four, graffiti, hip hop culture, independent film, international, interview, iron braydz, London rapper producer, lyricist, media press, new English urban artist, new music release, new review, Night Bus, Paralympic, physical online publication, pr, Prince Po, promo copies, promotions, publicist, radio, real hip hop Emcee, real spitta, rhymes, sean price, Simon Baker, street art, triple darkness, UK British hip hop rap music, underground, Verbal sWARdz EP, video, Wordplay Magazine, wu tang. Leave a comment
4 star review for new Iron Braydz EP “Verbal sWARdz” in Blacksheep Magazine
By urbanelitepr | March 8, 2014
North London Emcee & producer Iron Braydz release his new Verbal sWARdz EP on 14th April, the first since his 2012 mixtape Holla @ Braydz
The first of a series of new solo releases over the next 12 months for the newest member of Triple Darkness, he will also be appearing in a new independent film “Night Bus” directed by Simon Baker who picked up several awards for his “Paralympic” series for Channel 4.
British online hip hop magazine Blacksheep are one of the first to run the rule over the 10 track EP, and the review, afforded a 4 star rating opens with a desription of Braydz as having “talent to spare: verbally dextrous, insightful, passionate, determined with playful wordplay; enough to set him aside from the competition.”
A track by track synopsis follows before reviewer Andrew Kay summarizes “Verbal Swardz conjures up memories of classic Wu-Tang Clan with retro samples and drum patterns, with additional complexity in the production. Iron Bradyz is a talented and passionate MC- it comes across every time he rhymes. There’s a lot going on here and this deserves to be consumed by those who love a proper U.K MC thinking outside the musical box.”
Read the whole article HERE
There have been a couple releases from the EP so far, the audio for “Millennium” featuring Organized Konfusion’s Prince Po and most recently the new video for “Dredd”. Check them out
Look out for much more international media coverage on this in the coming months, and meantime check in with Iron Braydz on twitter @Braydz and on Facebook at HollaAtBraydz. Can also reach the magazine on twitter @Blacksheepmag
Any press or media inquiries, including requests for promotional copies to review, requests for interviews or DJ requests for full quality clean radio edit mp3s of these tracks, can be forwarded to UrbanElite PR HERE
Tagged as andrew kay, April 2104, audio, bars, beats, blacksheep magazine, Channel 4, clean radio mp3, contact, director Simon Baker, dj, dj ronin, europe, hasan salaam, hip hop culture, immortal technique, independent UK British Hip Hop, international, iron braydz, journalist, media press, new English urban artist, New EP, new film, new online media, new release, new review, Night Bus, north London rapper producer, pr, Prince Po, promotions, publicist, random axe, real hip hop emcee lyricist, real spitta, rhymes, Sav Killz, sean price, triple darkness, Verbal sWARdz, video, wu tang. Leave a comment
New UK Hip Hop Album review by Sampleface | Apex Zero “Reality Provoking Liberation”
By urbanelitepr | October 17, 2013
The British media coverage has been building in the lead up to the release of the new album “Reality Provoking Liberation” by London hip hop Emcee and producer Apex Zero
His debut solo album, he has come up through the city’s live scene and released tracks as part of the duo First and Last and also the group The Pantheonz of Zenn-La. This is where his fierce delivery style and conscientious lyricism first came to the fore, and marked him out as one to watch for the future. Very much in the traditions of British artists such as Phi Life Cypher, Blak Twang, Lowkey, Triple Darkness and Akala, Apex engages with a wide range of political and social issues in his verses, and also has a significant hand in the production side of things along with his First and Last colleague OMeziah
The UK’s online blog Sampleface has built a strong following recently for their coverage of events, releases, news and features, and regular contributor Taytula Burke put the album under the microscope.
The review opens “The name is clue enough that this is not a trap, ratchet or dance music offering. The 12 track project is a non-stop call to overthrow an oppressive system that has everyone around the world under the cosh” and gets to the heart of the matter quickly in deciphering the rapper’s motivation, meaning and message to the world while also addressing the production techniques involved. Summarizing “Apex Zero is definitely a gifted emcee and I think given the unstable times we are living in, this for some, could be a soundtrack to revolution.” you can read the entire article HERE
Check out the single Spray The Roof featuring OMeza Omniscient and Invincible Armour, and the video for Chaotic Revolt
It is likely that the re-arranged album launch event will take place in London in early December, with the exact date to be announced shortly. Meanwhile, any further media or press inquiries about the album, or dj requests for full quality radio edit mp3s can be sent to UrbanElite PR HERE
Keep up to date with Apex via twitter @ApexZero00 and connect with the magazine @SampleFace and Taytula at @Taykeova
Tagged as Acton, akala, apex zero, audio, beats, blak twang, brixton, classic, conscientious rhymes, contact, dj, Hounslow, immortal technique, independent, live event show, London rapper emcee producer, lowkey, lyricist, new album review, new English urban artist, phi life, political, pr, promotions, protest, public enemy, publicist, radio edit mp3, real hip hop, reality provoking liberation, revolutionary, rhymes, road, Sampleface, street, STWC, Taytula Burke, triple darkness, UK British online media press magazine blog, underground hardcore rap music, video, wu tang. Leave a comment
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miRNA expression profiles in cerebrospinal fluid and blood of patients with Alzheimer’s disease and other types of dementia – an exploratory study
Sofie Sølvsten Sørensen1,
Ann-Britt Nygaard2 &
Thomas Christensen1
Translational Neurodegeneration volume 5, Article number: 6 (2016) Cite this article
MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small non-coding RNA molecules that function as posttranscriptional regulators of gene expression. Measurements of miRNAs in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and blood have just started gaining attention as a novel diagnostic tool for various neurological conditions. The purpose of this exploratory investigation was to analyze the expression of miRNAs in CSF and blood of patients with Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and other neurodegenerative disorders in order to identify potential miRNA biomarker candidates able to separate AD from other types of dementia.
CSF was collected by lumbar puncture performed on 10 patients diagnosed with AD and 10 patients diagnosed with either vascular dementia, frontotemporal dementia or dementia with Lewy bodies. Blood samples were taken immediately after. Total RNA was extracted from cell free fractions of CSF and plasma, and a screening for 372 known miRNA sequences was carried out by real time quantitative polymerase chain reactions (miRCURY LNA™ Universal RT miRNA PCR, Polyadenylation and cDNA synthesis kit, Exiqon).
Fifty-two miRNAs were detected in CSF in at least nine out of ten patients in both groups. Among these, two miRNAs (let-7i-5p and miR-15a-5p) were found significantly up-regulated and one miRNA (miR-29c-3p) was found significantly down-regulated in patients with AD compared to controls. One hundred and sixty-eight miRNAs were frequently detected in the blood, among which miR-590-5p and miR-142-5p were significantly up-regulated and miR-194-5p was significantly down-regulated in AD patients compared to controls.
Detection of miRNA expression profiles in blood and in particular CSF of patients diagnosed with different types of dementia is feasible and it seems that several expressional differences between AD and other dementia types do exist when measured in a clinically relevant setup. In this explorative pilot study, the deregulated miRNAs in CSF of AD patients may be associated with relevant target genes related to AD pathology, including APP and BACE1, which suggests that miRNAs are interesting candidates for AD biomarkers in the future.
Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is an age-related progressive neurodegenerative disorder characterized by cognitive impairment and neuropsychiatric symptoms leading to restrictions in the activities of daily living. AD is the most common type of dementia accounting for 50–70 % of all dementia cases. Approximately 10 % of elderly people (65+ years) are affected by AD with an age-specific prevalence that almost doubles every five years after 65 [1]. Because of the ageing population worldwide, the increasing incidence and socioeconomic impact of AD and other dementias represents a growing challenge to public health all over the world [2, 3].
The complex neurobiology of AD, which is not fully understood, includes the development of extracellular amyloid plaques and intracellular neurofibrillary tangles, vascular changes, neuronal inflammation, neurochemical changes, and progressive brain atrophy [4–7].
The prospect of getting an effective treatment is not only complicated by the lack of knowledge about the underlying pathophysiological mechanisms of AD but also by the difficulty of accurately diagnosing AD at an early stage.
When compared to healthy individuals, existing cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) biomarkers support the clinical diagnosis of AD with a high predictive accuracy, however, in differentiating AD from other types of dementia (e.g. vascular dementia, frontotemporal dementia and dementia with Lewy bodies) the current biomarkers have their limitations. In a newly published meta-analysis the sensitivity and specificity of CSF amyloid beta (Aβ1-42) for separating AD from other dementias were estimated to be 73 and 67 %, respectively [8]. For total CSF tau the sensitivity has been estimated to be 70–75 % and the specificity 74–90 % and for phospo-tau 79–88 % and 78–83 %, respectively, for separating AD from other dementias [9].
Development of new and better biomarkers for AD and other dementias would result in more accurate diagnoses facilitating the possibility for an early and specialized treatment effort for the growing number of patients with dementia. Especially now that medical treatment options for AD are available, it is particularly important to identify these patients at an early stage.
MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small non-coding RNA molecules of approximately 22 nucleotides in length that function as posttranscriptional regulators of gene expression. In mammalian cells, miRNAs work through base pairing with complementary sequences within messenger RNA (mRNA) molecules, usually resulting in gene silencing via translational repression. Recent studies indicate that the expression patterns of miRNAs change in relation to various neurological diseases including Alzheimer’s disease. Altered expression of specific miRNAs in the brain of AD patients compared to controls has been reported, including down-regulation of miR-15a/b, mR-16, miR-29a/b, miR-195, miR-103 and miR-107, which have all been shown to target the β-site amyloid precursor protein cleaving enzyme 1 (BACE1) involved in the formation of amyloid plaques [10–15]. Lukiw et al. [16, 17] studied the miRNA expression in hippocampal tissue of AD patients, and found up-regulation of specific pro-inflammatory miRNAs including miR-9, miR-125b, miR-146a, and miR-155, which all seem to be induced by NF-κB, thus indicating a possible role of these miRNAs in neuronal inflammation in AD. On the other hand, Cogswell et al. [18] have found a significant down-regulation of miR-9 in the human hippocampus of AD patients. miR-9 is known from several experimental studies to regulate neuronal differentiation [19].
Measurements of miRNAs in biofluids such as CSF and blood have just started to gain attention as a novel diagnostic tool. Since CSF is separated from blood circulation by the blood–brain barrier (BBB), it makes good biological sense that the CSF could contain unique signatures of miRNA expression specific for various CNS pathologies. Therefore, miRNAs derived from CSF might serve as more valid biomarkers for brain pathologies than those of other body fluids.
To date only a few studies of miRNA expression in CSF of AD patients have been published. In most of them AD patients were compared to healthy controls, or comparisons of AD patients categorized by different Braak stages were done [18, 20–25]. Even less is known about the differences in CSF miRNA levels between AD and other types of dementia.
Bekris et al. [13] investigated miRNA expression by qPCR in patients with AD compared to both healthy controls and patients with other neurodegenerative diseases. They found miR-15a elevated in the hippocampus and plasma of AD patients where the level was positively correlated with plaque scores. In CSF no expression differences were identified. Burgos et al. [26] profiled miRNAs in CSF and serum by Next Generation Sequencing from patients with AD, Parkinson’s disease (PD) and neurologically healthy controls. Numerous deregulated miRNAs between AD and controls in both CSF and serum were found, whereas only a handful of miRNAs was deregulated between patients with AD and PD. In this study, the expression of several miRNAs in CSF was correlated with Braak stages and tangle scores, including miR-9-3p, for which the level decreased with disease progression. Galimberti et al. [27] profiled miRNAs by qPCR in serum and CSF of AD patients compared to inflammatory and non-inflammatory neurological controls as well as patients with frontotemporal dementia (FTD). They reported down-regulation of miR-125b and miR-26b in CSF of AD patients compared to non-inflammatory controls.
The limited number of studies comparing miRNA CSF levels in AD patients versus patients with other types of dementia and their opposing results justifies the need for additional studies to investigate the utility of miRNAs as biomarkers in a clinical relevant setup.
The purpose of this exploratory investigation was to analyze the expression of miRNAs by RT-qPCR in CSF and blood from 10 patients diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease and 10 patients diagnosed with either vascular dementia, frontotemporal dementia or dementia with Lewy bodies in order to identify potential miRNA biomarker candidates with the ability to separate AD from other types of dementia using a clinically relevant setup.
Patient material and diagnostic evaluation
Patients who went through diagnostic evaluation at the Memory Clinic, Department of Neurology, Nordsjællands Hospital, from May to December 2014, were asked to participate. All patients gave written and oral informed consent in accordance with the project approval from the Danish Research Ethics Committee (project ID: H-2-2013-069). After completed diagnostic evaluation the study population consisted of 20 patients: one group of AD patients (n = 10), and one control group of patients with other types of dementia, including vascular dementia (n = 4), frontotemporal dementia (n = 4), and dementia with Lewy bodies (n = 2).
Diagnoses were based on patient interviews with supplemental reports from relatives/caregivers, physical and neurological examination, evaluation of psychiatric symptoms (if relevant), assessment of activities of daily living, and cognitive testing by experienced specialist neuropsychologists, whose test collection included Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) and Addenbrooke’s Cognitive Examination (ACE). In addition, all patients went through paraclinical testing with standard blood examinations, lumbar puncture and Computer Tomography (CT) scan of the brain. If necessary, the CT scan was supplemented by Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) of the brain to evaluate vascular abnormalities and/or hippocampal atrophy. In addition, all patients underwent functional imaging performed with Fluorodeoxyglucose Positron Emission Tomography (18F-FDG-PET) to measure glucose metabolism in specific brain areas. Patients with symptoms of dementia with Lewy bodies were scanned with a Dopamine Active Transporter (DAT) scan of the brain to verify low levels of dopamine in the basal ganglia.
Lumbar punctures were done by sterile technique with the use of a 0.7 mm spinal needle when the patients attended their second visit at the clinic two weeks after referral. At least 7 ml CSF were collected from each patient. Blood samples were drawn immediately after the lumbar puncture. CSF samples were analyzed for glucose, protein, red and white blood cell count, oligoclonal IgG bands, IgG index, total tau, phospo-tau and Aβ1-42 as well as CSF/serum albumin ratio using the routine tests at the Department of Clinical Biochemistry. At the same time 1 ml CSF and 1 ml blood from each patient were collected in EDTA tubes for miRNA analysis.
Final diagnoses were made jointly by several specialist neurologists based on all clinical evaluations and paraclinical test results. For the clinical diagnosis of AD the NINCDS-ADRDA criteria for research [28] were used. Only patients who met the criteria for probable AD dementia with evidence of the AD pathophysiological process were included. All patients in the AD group were sporadic AD patients with a mean age of 70 years. The diagnosis of vascular dementia was made according to the NINDS-AIREN criteria [29], and the clinical diagnoses of frontotemporal dementia and dementia with Lewy bodies were made according to the McKhann criteria [30] and McKieth criteria [31], respectively. Table 1 shows the demographic data of the 20 included patients.
Table 1 Demographic data of the patients included
Samples for miRNA detection
For miRNA detection, CSF and blood from each patient were centrifuged immediately after collection and the cell-free fractions were stored at −80.0 °C. All further sample preparations and experiments were conducted by Exiqon A/S, Denmark. Total RNA was extracted from 200 μl CSF and 200 μl plasma using spin column chromatography (miRCURY™ RNA isolation kit for biofluids).
miRNA real-time qPCR
Ten microliters of RNA was reverse transcribed in 50-μl reactions using the miRCURY LNA™ Universal RT miRNA PCR, Polyadenylation and cDNA synthesis kit (Exiqon). cDNA was diluted 50 times and assayed in 10-μl PCR reactions. Each miRNA was assayed once by quantitative polymerase chain reactions (qPCR) on the miRNA Ready-to-Use PCR, Human panel I containing 372 specific miRNA primers. Negative controls were performed and profiled like the samples. Both RNA (Sp2, Sp4, Sp5, and Sp6) and DNA (Sp3) spike-in controls were added to the panel. Amplification was performed in a LightCycler® 480 Real-Time PCR System (Roche). Amplification curves were analyzed using the Roche LC software, both for determination of Ct values and for melting curve analysis.
Data analysis and normalization
The amplification efficiency was calculated by using LinReg software. All assays were inspected for distinct temperature melting curves, which were checked to be within known specifications for the assay. Only miRNAs detected with Ct < 37 and, in addition, 3 Ct values less than the negative control were included in the data analysis. Data that did not pass these criteria were omitted from any further analysis. Thirty-two miRNAs were detected in all CSF samples, and 115 miRNAs were detected in all blood samples. Using NormFinder [32], the best normalizer was found to be the average Ct value of miRNAs detected in all samples of CSF and blood, respectively, and these global means were used for normalization (relative expression level = REL = 2-∆Ct) [33]. Both RNA (Sp6) and DNA (Sp3) spike-in controls showed steady levels across all samples indicating accurate RT reaction and qPCR.
The data of REL or log (REL) did not fit the normal distribution. Therefore, a two-sided non-parametric Mann–Whitney test was performed for statistical analyses (SPSS software) to compare medians (missing values were excluded). P values less than 0.05 were considered significant.
To analyze the predictive power of each miRNA with respect to categorizing patients as having either AD or another type of dementia, logistic regression analyses with classification accuracies for each miRNA were performed. For this purpose, a leave-one-out (LOO) cross-validation procedure (R Statistics) was applied (missing values were set to zero).
P values for categorical variables were calculated by Fisher’s exact test, and p values for comparisons of age, cognitive test score, and CSF routine markers were calculated by student’s t-test.
Because of the high number of tests performed, all P values were finally corrected for multiple testing with the Benjamini-Hochberg procedure.
miRNA distribution in body fluids
Overall, 312 miRNAs were detected in CSF or blood in our study population. Of these, 227 miRNAs occurred in both CSF and blood, 81 miRNAs occurred in blood only, and a minor proportion of 4 miRNAs was found exclusively in the CSF. Among the miRNAs detected in both CSF and blood, some miRNAs were detected predominantly in the CSF and others predominantly in the blood of all patients (Fig. 1)
Distribution of the 312 miRNAs detected in CSF and blood of all patients. Blood > CSF: miRNAs detected more frequently in blood samples than in CSF samples. CSF > blood: miRNAs detected more frequently in CSF samples than in blood samples. Blood = CSF: miRNAs detected with equal frequency in blood and CSF samples
miRNAs in CSF
A total of 231 different miRNAs were detected in the CSF. Only 32 different miRNAs were detected in all of the 20 CSF samples. On average, 105 miRNAs were detected in each patient, equally distributed among AD patients and control patients with other types of dementia. We found no significant difference in total amount (Ct) and number of different miRNAs in the two groups.
Fifty-two miRNAs were detected in CSF in at least nine out of ten patients in both groups. When comparing these 52 miRNAs between AD patients and controls, two miRNAs (let-7i-5p and miR-15a-5p) were found significantly up-regulated and one miRNA (miR-29c-3p) was found significantly down-regulated in patients with AD (Table 2, Fig. 2). However, when adjusting all P values with the Benjamini-Hochberg procedure for multiple testing, none of them were statistically significant.
Table 2 Regulation of the 52 most frequently detected miRNAs in CSF of patients with dementia
Deregulated miRNAs in CSF of patients with Alzheimer’s disease (n = 10) compared to patients with other types of dementia (n = 10). Aligned scatter plots show relative expression levels (REL) of let-7i-5p a, miR-15a-5p b, and miR-29c-3p c. Black bars indicate median values. In part d the ratio RELmiR-29c-3p/RELmiR-15a-5p is calculated for each patient and plotted in an aligned scatter plot. The red dotted line indicates a cutoff value of 0.92 where AD patients can be separated from control patients with a sensitivity of 90 % and a specificity of 100 %
By combining two of the differentially expressed miRNAs (miR-29c-3p and miR-15a-5p) in a simple ratio model (RELmiR-29c-3p/RELmiR-15a-5p) AD patients could be separated from patients with other types of dementia (cutoff value 0.92) with a sensitivity of 90 % and a specificity of 100 % (Fig. 2 part D). To analyze the predictive power of each miRNA in order to categorize patients as having either AD or another type of dementia logistic regression analysis were done for the 52 frequently detected miRNAs in CSF (Fig. 3). The best predictors identified by this procedure were again miR-15a-5p and miR-29c-3p with classification accuracies of 0.8 and 0.7, respectively.
Logistic regression cross-validated classification accuracies based on a leave-one-out procedure (LOO). The 52 most frequently detected miRNAs in CSF are ordered by decreasing magnitude of predictive power. Red color indicates predictors with classification accuracy above random guessing
When considering the detected miRNAs in CSF as categorical variables, three miRNAs were found to be expressed more often among AD patients compared to controls (Table 3). This difference was most significant for two miRNA in CSF (miR-199b-5p and miR-22-5p). Both miRNAs were detected in the CSF of 50 % of AD patients and were not detected in the CSF of controls.
Table 3 miRNAs detected more often in CSF samples of AD patients compared to patients with other types of dementia
miRNAs in blood
A total of 308 different miRNAs were detected in the blood. Of these, 115 miRNAs were detected in all of the 20 blood samples. On average, 227 miRNAs were detected in each patient. One hundred and sixty-eight miRNAs were detected in at least nine out of 10 patients in each group (Additional file 1). Among these, miR-590-5p (fold change (FC) = 1.35, p = 0.002) and miR-142-5p (FC = 1.22, p = 0.043) were significantly up-regulated and miR-194-5p (FC = 0.54, p = 0.028) was significantly down-regulated in AD patients compared to controls. Again, these P values would not pass a Benjamini-Hochberg correction for multiple testing.
When applying logistic regression analyses to blood data we identified 30 miRNAs with classification accuracies above 0.50 (i.e. random guessing), of which miR-590-5p and miR-194-5p had the highest accuracy values (Additional file 2).
No candidates for categorical variables were identified in the blood.
Blood–brain Barrier Function
As a measure of BBB dysfunction, the albumin CSF/serum concentration quotient (Qalb) is a widely accepted indicator [34]. Albumin is a serum protein that is normally prevented from passing into the CSF. However, under certain conditions such as neuroinflammation the BBB may become leaky allowing albumin molecules to pass from the blood. In this study, four out of ten AD patients had elevated Qalb values. Three patients in the control group, one with vascular dementia and two with frontotemporal dementia, also had elevated Qalb as sign of a leaky BBB (Additional file 3).
Cognitive impairment may occur in a wide range of neurological, psychiatric and medical conditions, and the differential diagnosis of AD may be difficult, particularly against patients with other neurodegenerative or vascular brain diseases. Therefore we intended to set up a clinical relevant study design by choosing a non-healthy control group of patients with other types of dementia. Thus, with this exploratory investigation we aimed to identify expression differences of miRNAs in patients diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease and patients diagnosed with either vascular dementia, frontotemporal dementia or dementia with Lewy bodies in order to identify potential miRNA biomarker candidates with the ability to separate AD from other types of dementia. By carrying out a screening for 372 known miRNA sequences with RT-qPCR we identified a differential expression pattern for let-7i-5p, miR-15a-5p, and miR-29c-3p in the CSF of AD patients and for miR-590-5p, miR-142-5p, and miR-194-5p in the blood of AD patients as compared to patients with other types of dementia.
Overall miRNA detection
On average, 105 different miRNAs were detected in the CSF of both cases and controls. These findings are consistent with results from other studies, including our own previous study of miRNA detection in CSF of stroke patients [35], in which a slightly smaller number of miRNAs were identified (n = 73) in each patient. The average number of detected miRNAs in blood was 227 as compared to 204 in our previous study, and the distribution patterns of miRNAs in blood and CSF in our studies have been very similar (Fig. 1) suggesting a reliable miRNA analysis. Data have been thoroughly checked using negative controls in the RT step and melting curve analysis. Furthermore, the steady levels of DNA and RNA spike-ins indicate good technical performance of our profiling experiment.
Findings in CSF
In the CSF we identified a differential expression pattern for miR-15a-5p, let-7i-5p, and miR-29c-3p. In our study, miR-15a-5p was up-regulated with a fold change of 1.44 (p = 0.005) in the CSF of AD patients. Bekris et al. [13] have previously found elevated levels of miR-15a in plasma and hippocampal tissue of AD patients with a positive correlation to plaque scores. By contrast, Hebert et al. [15] have found miR-15a down-regulated in cerebral cortex of AD patients compared to healthy controls. Interestingly, miR-15a’s regulation of both APP and BACE1 has been validated in various ways, including reporter assay analysis [15, 36]. Since the miRNA-mRNA binding usually results in gene silencing via translational repression, one could argue that the level of miR-15a-5p was expected to be lower in AD patients compared to other types of dementia. However, as the complex pathogenesis of late-onset AD is not limited to an increased Aβ production but also involves impaired Aβ clearance [37], the possible ways for interaction of miR-15a-5p in AD biology are many. Among the list of predicted targets for miR-15a obtained from the miRWalk database [38] we discovered other genes relevant to late-onset AD [39] including CD2-associated protein (CD2AP) which recently has been suggested to mediate the integrity of the BBB [40].
In the CSF of AD patients we also found an up-regulation of let-7i-5p (FC = 1.54, p = 0.019) compared to other types of dementia. Burgos et al. [26] reported a positive correlation between the level of let-7i-3p in serum of AD patients and their Braak stages. Even more interesting, Lehmann et al. [20] found let-7b, another member of the let-7 family of miRNAs, elevated in the CSF of AD patients. Through reporter assay experiments and by intrathecal injection of let-7b into the CSF of wild-type mice Lehmann et al. showed that extracellular let-7b activated the RNA-sensning Toll-like receptor 7 (TLR7) in both immune cells and neurons, and that this activation resulted in neuronal cell death. From these experiments the authors hypothesized that extracellular miRNAs like let-7 can contribute to spread neuronal damage from one brain region through activation of extracellular TLR4. Also Let-7i-5p, which was elevated in the CSF of AD patients in our study, has specifically been validated to target TLR7 [41].
We found miR-29c-3p down-regulated in the CSF of AD patients with a FC of 0.60 (p = 0.009). This finding is in accordance with the results from Hebert et al. [15] as previously mentioned, who found a significant down-regulation of miR-29a and miR-29b (other members of the miR-29 family) in temporal and cerebellar cortical tissue from sporadic AD patients compared to healthy controls. BACE1 was validated as a target of miR-29a/b by reporter assays, and furthermore the inhibiting effect of miR-29a/b on BACE1 activity was corroborated by gain- and loss of function experiments using HEK293 cells. In mice brain tissue and cell cultures, the suppressing effect of miR-29c-3p (down-regulated in our study) on BACE1 has also been validated by Zong et al. [42] by various methods. Most recently, Lei et al. [11] found down-regulation of miR-29c in brain tissues from sporadic AD patients in whom the miR-29c level was negatively correlated with BACE1 mRNA level. In contrast to these experiments and to our results (Table 2), Kiko et al. [25] have found significant up-regulation of miR-29a and miR-29b in the CSF of AD patients compared to healthy control subjects. In this context, it has, however, not been clarified whether each member of the miR-29 family of miRNAs is expected to be regulated in the same direction.
When considering the detected miRNAs in CSF as categorical variables, three miRNAs were found to be expressed more often in the CSF of AD patients compared to controls (Table 3), namely miR-199b-5p, miR-22-5p, and miR-206. Taking into account the small study population and the large number of observations in our qPCR experiment, however we cannot exclude the possibility of randomness in this observation. The expression of miR-206 has been linked to the regulation of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), a regulator of synaptic plasticity and memory, which is known to be deficient in AD brains. Lee et al. [43] found up-regulation of miR-206 in human temporal cortex of AD patients and in transgenic AD mice, and validated its repression of BDNF by northern blotting and qPCR. Similarly, Tian et al. [44] reported an up-regulation of miR-206 in hippocampal tissue, cerebrospinal fluid, and plasma of embryonic APP/PS1 transgenic mice, and found that miR-206 depressed the expression of BDNF.
To our knowledge, the possible functions miR-199b-5p and miR-22-5p in relation to AD and other dementias are unknown.
Findings in blood
Despite the large number of frequently detected miRNAs in the blood (n = 168), only three miRNAs (miR-590-5p, miR-142-5p, and miR-194-5p) were identified as being differential expressed between AD patients and controls.
The expression of miR-590-5p, which was up-regulated in the blood of AD patients in our study, has previously been reported up-regulated in plasma of patients with vulnerable coronary artery disease [45]. The antisense string, miR-590-3p, has been investigated in an extensive study involving 274 patients with frontotemporal dementia, 287 patients with AD, and 344 non-demented age-matched controls [46]. In this study the expression of miR-590-3p was decreased in mononuclear cells in peripheral blood of AD patients compared to non-demented control subjects, and its target hnRNPA1, a protein involved in the maturation of APP, was up-regulated. The study is not directly comparable to our experiment mainly because of the different cells and body fluids examined, and therefore the meaning of the oppositely directed regulation of miR-590 found in these two studies remains unclear.
With regard to miR-142-5p, which was up-regulated in the blood of AD patients in our study, the only validated target is nuclear factor, erythroid 2-like 2 (NRF2). This transcription factor regulates several genes that encode proteins involved in responses to injury and inflammation which includes the production of free radicals [47]. Results from other clinical studies are in some ways different from ours. Cogswell et al. [18] found miR-142-5p down-regulated in the CSF of AD patients compared to controls, and Kumar et al. [48] found the antisense string, miR-142-3p, down-regulated in plasma of AD patients compared to both MCI patients and healthy controls.
In our study, miR-194-5p was down-regulated in the blood of AD patients. We have no knowledge from previous studies or from literature searches about the role and function of this miRNA in relation to AD or other types of dementia.
Another miRNA, miR-107, which we found non-significantly down-regulated in the blood of AD patients, but which had a relatively high classification accuracy (Additional file 2), has interestingly been reported down-regulated in the blood of AD patients in two previous studies [49, 50]. This miRNA is known to target BACE1, and the level of miR-107 was previously found down-regulated in AD brain tissue, suggesting a role for miR-107 in the pathogenesis of AD [10].
In summary, most of the deregulated miRNAs that we have identified in both CSF and blood can be linked to relevant target molecules, although the overall picture of our findings is still unclear and warrants further elucidation. Existing studies differ in design and extraction methods making it difficult to compare results and to gain a complete overview of miRNAs affected by AD.
Best biomarker candidates
A biomarker measured in the blood is preferable to more invasive alternatives. Blood samples from patients are obtained easily at a low cost and at a low risk of adverse effects. However, blood is a systemic fluid which composition may reflect processes in other tissues or organs besides the brain. CSF, on the other hand, which is protected by the blood–brain barrier, ought to be a reliable biomarker source for neurodegenerative diseases in the central nervous system. In our study, the results from miRNA expression analysis in the CSF seem more interesting compared to blood data in various ways. Firstly, an equal number of miRNAs were differentially expressed in blood and CSF despite the four times larger number of frequently detected miRNAs in the blood. Secondly, we find it interesting that the three differential expressed miRNAs in CSF (miR-29c-3p, miR15a-5p, and let-7i-5p) could all be related to AD relevant targets like APP and BACE1.
miR-29c-3p and miR-15a-5p had the highest classification accuracies separately, and by combing them in a simple ratio model (RELmiR-29c-3p/RELmiR-15a-5p) AD patients could be separated from patients with other types of dementia (cutoff value 0.92) with a sensitivity of 90 % and a specificity of 100 %. This ratio model is of course associated with statistical uncertainty due to our small population size, and should therefore only be seen as a proposal for the use of these markers in future studies, which are highly needed. Logistic regression models that combines more than one miRNA is another approach, but again in this small sized pilot study it is impossible to select a single best model according to the low stability proportion of each predictor and none of our P values were strong enough to be considered significant after correction for multiple testing.
The impact of the BBB
Although the CSF is isolated from the rest of the circulation by the blood–brain barrier, under certain conditions, such as inflammation, the barrier can become leaky allowing molecules to pass from the blood. To measure the BBB function we calculated CSF/serum albumin ratios (Qalb) in the 20 patients included. In this study, four out of ten AD patients had elevated Qalb values. Three patients in the control group also had elevated Qalb values indicating a leaky BBB. Thus, in those patients the presence of miRNAs in the CSF could simply be a result of contamination from the systemic circulation. When examining the expression of miR-22-5p, miR-199b-5p and miR-206 (detected in the CSF with a frequency of 50 % in the AD group and 0 % in the control group) we found no association between the expression of these miRNAs in the blood and CSF of patients with an elevated Qalb, suggesting that their presence in CSF does not seem to be explained by a leak in BBB. Also, we did not find an obvious association between the expression of other miRNAs in blood and CSF, although a direct correlation analysis between the levels in blood and CSF was prevented due to the small size of our study population. Lastly we noticed that some miRNAs which have been characterized as brain specific, such as miR-124 and miR-9, were detected predominantly in the CSF, further indicating that the expression of miRNAs in the two body fluids is individually regulated and probably unaffected by small disturbances in the BBB function. Findings by Bekris et al. [13] and Burgos et al. [26] support this notion since they also did not find any correlation between the expression of individual miRNAs in CSF and blood in their studies. Neither of these two studies included other specific measures to evaluate the integrity of the BBB whereas we calculated the Qalb as a measure of BBB dysfunction [34]. The findings taken together should, however, be interpreted with caution and further studies are warranted to clarify the origin of miRNAs in the CSF and their transport across the BBB.
Detection of miRNA expression profiles in blood and in particular CSF of patients diagnosed with different types of dementia is feasible and it seems that several expressional differences between AD and other dementia types do exist in a clinically relevant setup like the present. In this explorative pilot study, the deregulated miRNAs in CSF of AD patients compared to a relevant non-healthy control group may be associated with target genes related to AD pathology, including APP and BACE1, which suggests that miRNAs are interesting candidates for AD biomarkers in the future.
Clinical validation of our findings in a larger scale is obviously needed. We are currently working on a validation study with larger study groups that will enable subgroup analyses between the different types of dementia and also allow us to make stronger model assumptions based on combinations of several miRNAs as diagnostic biomarkers of the different types of dementia.
A statement on ethics approval and consent to participate is included in the methods section.
All included patients gave written and oral informed consent for publication.
The datasets supporting the conclusions of this article are included within the article and its additional files.
miRNAs:
CSF:
Aβ1-42:
amyloid beta
mRNA:
messenger RNA
BACE1:
amyloid precursor protein cleaving enzyme 1
BBB:
blood–brain barrier
FTD:
DLB:
dementia with Lewy bodies
VAD:
MMSE:
Mini-Mental State Examination
Addenbrooke’s Cognitive Examination
CT:
Computer Tomography
MRI:
F-FDG-PET:
Fluorodeoxyglucose Positron Emission Tomography
DAT:
Dopamine Active Transporter
qPCR:
quantitative polymerase chain reactions
REL:
relative expression level
LOO:
leave-one-out cross-validation procedure
FC:
fold change
Qalb :
albumin CSF/serum concentration quotient
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We greatly thank all personnel at the Department of Neurology, Copenhagen University Hospital, Hillerød, who helped us handling the study patients, including the neuropsychologists (especially Anne Margrethe Nissen), the nurses and health care assistants (especially Anne-Mette Larsen), and the doctors at the Memory Clinic. Thank you to Andreas Kryger Jensen, Department of Biostatistics, University of Copenhagen, who provided statistical assistance with logistic regression analyses and contributed with Fig. 3 and Additional file 2. We also thank the chief consultant at the Department of Neurology, Kai Jensen, who provided all facilities and helped to organize the study.
This project was supported by grants from the Research Foundation of Nordsjællands Hospital, the Research Foundation for Health Research of the Capital Region of Denmark, and Helen Rude’s Foundation.
Department of Neurology, Copenhagen University Hospital, Nordsjællands Hospital, Dyrehavevej 29, 3400, Hillerød, Denmark
Sofie Sølvsten Sørensen & Thomas Christensen
Department of Clinical Biochemistry, Copenhagen University Hospital, Nordsjællands Hospital, Dyrehavevej 29, 3400, Hillerød, Denmark
Ann-Britt Nygaard
Sofie Sølvsten Sørensen
Thomas Christensen
Correspondence to Thomas Christensen.
Sørensen SS participated in the design of the study and its coordination, included the patients, collected CSF and blood samples, handled CSF and blood samples prior to miRNA analysis, performed data normalization and statistical analysis, and drafted the manuscript. Nygaard A-B participated in the design of the study, helped to handle CSF and blood samples prior to miRNA analyses, helped with the statistical analysis, and helped to draft the manuscript. Christensen TC conceived the study, participated in its design and coordination, participated in the statistical analysis, and helped to draft the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
Sofie Sølvsten Sørensen holds the title M.D. and is currently enrolled as Ph.D. student at the University of Copenhagen. Ann-Britt Nyggard holds the titles M.Sc, and Ph.D. Thomas Christensen is a specialist in neurology and holds the title D.M.Sc.
Regulation of the 168 most frequently detected miRNAs in blood of patients with dementia. N AD number of Alzheimer patients in which the miRNA was detected, N control number of control patients in which the miRNA was detected, M AD the median of relative expression levels among Alzheimer patients, M control median of relative expression levels among control patients, FC fold change of median values, p p-values of difference calculated by two-sided nonparametric Mann–Whitney test (not corrected for multiple testing), n.s. nonsignificant (p > 0.05). (PDF 412 kb)
Logistic regression cross-validated classification accuracies based on a leave-one-out procedure (LOO). The 168 most frequently detected miRNAs in blood are ordered by decreasing magnitude of predictive power. Red color indicates predictors with classification accuracy above random guessing. (PDF 146 kb)
Estimation of the blood brain barrier dysfunction in patients with dementia based on albumin CSF/serum concentration quotients. AD Alzheimer’s disease, DLB dementia with Lewy bodies, VAD vascular dementia, FTD frontotemporal dementia. Qalb albumin CSF/serum concentration quotient. Qalb limit age dependent upper limit of albumin CSF/serum concentration quotient calculated by the formula \( {Q}_{alb}=\left(4+\frac{age}{15}\right) \). BBB blood brain barrier. (PDF 447 kb)
Sørensen, S.S., Nygaard, AB. & Christensen, T. miRNA expression profiles in cerebrospinal fluid and blood of patients with Alzheimer’s disease and other types of dementia – an exploratory study. Transl Neurodegener 5, 6 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1186/s40035-016-0053-5
Accepted: 28 February 2016
Diagnostic biomarker
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Meta-analysis of risk factors for Parkinson’s disease dementia
Yaqian Xu1,
Jing Yang1 &
Huifang Shang1
Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a common heterogeneous neurodegenerative disorder in elder population. Parkinson’s disease dementia (PDD) is one of the most common non-motor manifestations in PD patients. No comprehensive review has been conducted to assess risk factors for PDD.
A systemic search for studies on PDD risk factors was performed. Cohort and case–control studies that clearly defined PDD and presented relevant data were included. The data were analyzed to generate a pooled effect size and 95 % confidence interval (CI). Publication bias was assessed using the Egger’s test and the Begg’s test.
A systematic search was conducted and yielded 5195 articles. After screening, 25 studies were included in the current analysis. Development of PDD was positively associated with age (odds ratio [OR] 1.07, 95 % CI 1.03-1.13), male (OR 1.33, 95 % CI 1.08-1.64), higher Unified Parkinson’s Disease Rating Scale (UPDRS) part III scores (relative risk [RR] 1.04, 95 % CI 1.01-1.07), hallucination (OR 2.47, 95 % CI 1.36-4.47), REM sleep behavior disorder (RBD) (OR 8.38, 95 % CI 3.87-18.08), smoking (ever vs. never) (RR 1.93, 95 % CI 1.15-3.26) and hypertension (OR 1.57, 95 % CI 1.11-2.22). An inverse association was found between education (RR 0.94, 95 % CI 0.91-0.98) and PDD. Other reported factors, including age of onset, disease duration of PD, Hoehn and Yahr stage and diabetes mellitus were not significantly associated with PDD.
Advanced age, male, higher UPDRS III scores, hallucination, RBD, smoking and hypertension increase the risk of PDD, whereas higher education is a protective factor for PDD.
Parkinson’s disease (PD), a heterogeneous neurodegenerative disorder in elder population, is characterized by cardinal motor symptoms including bradykinesia, rigidity, tremor and postural instability [1]. Recently, increasing evidence shows that PD is a disease with many non-motor symptoms (NMS) including dementia, sleep disorders, mood disorders, urinary dysfunction, and olfactory disorders [2]. Among NMS, Parkinson disease dementia (PDD) is one of the most common symptoms with a mean prevalence of 31.3 % in PD patients [3]. Among general population, PDD incidence rate is approximately 38.7 to 112.5 per 1000 person-year among several cohort studies conducted in different regions [3, 4]. It has been suggested that PD patients who developed dementia tend to have increased health care burden, declined quality of life and increased mortality [5–7]. However, effective treatment for PDD is currently unclear [8]. Being able to predict PDD development accurately would provide opportunities for intervention as well as novel treatments and might prolong survival [9].
Several demographic, motor and non-motor features have been identified as predictors for PDD. Advanced age is the most common risk factor for dementia and for later diagnosis of PDD in PD patients [10]. More advanced disease stage as well as specific Parkinson subtype, the akinetic-rigid subtype, was found to be associated with increased risk for PDD, whereas the evaluation scales are not coherent [11, 12]. Some studies suggested that REM sleep behavior disorder (RBD), hallucination, mood disorders and olfactory dysfunction are strong predictors for PDD, but the results were not consistent across studies [13–15]. Up to date, no comprehensive meta-analysis on clinical risk factors for PDD has been conducted. A 2014 review on the predictors of PDD by Moore et al. summarized major study results on different risk factors, including clinical predictors, biological predictors, neuroimaging predictors and genetic predictors [9]. In that previous review, the authors presented all possible influences of those factors on PDD, but did not provide quantitative evaluation of the predictors. In order to quantitatively evaluate the effects of different factors on PDD, we conducted this systematic review and meta-analysis via an extensive search of observational studies and a meta-analysis on multiple factors.
We conducted the search according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-analysis (PRISMA 2009) guideline. We searched MEDLINE and EMBASE database for studies reporting predictors for later diagnosis of PDD. No language restrictions were used. The keywords we selected were: “Parkinson Disease” AND “Dementia” AND “Risk” OR “Predict” OR “Age” OR “Age of Onset” OR “Education” OR “Family history” OR “Hallucination” OR “Sleep Disorders” OR “Constipation” OR “Olfactory Disorders” OR “Color Vision” OR “Depression” OR “Anxiety” OR “Mood Disorders” OR “Erectile Dysfunction” OR “Urinary Dysfunction” OR “Hypertension” OR “Coronary Artery Disease” OR “Head Injury” OR “Diabetes Mellitus” OR “Smoking” OR “Alcohols” OR “Coffee” OR “Pesticides”. We also hand searched the reference lists of relevant reviews and articles with required data for missed references. The final search was carried out on December 1, 2015.
We included articles that met the predefined criteria: 1) cohort or case–control studies assessed at least one risk factor preceding a later diagnosis of PDD; 2) compared PDD patients with PD patients who did not develop dementia; 3) clearly stated diagnostic criteria for PD and PDD, and carried out by an experienced clinician; 4) reported odds ratio (OR), relative risk (RR) or equivalent values representing risks of developing dementia or case–control studies with cases defined as diagnosed PDD; and 5) reported data that could be easily obtained via questionnaires.
Reviews, editorials, case reports, commentaries, letters that reported no new data, meta-analysis, handouts, and abstracts were excluded from the study. We excluded studies that: 1) reported on treatment or management of PDD; 2) reported a diseases other than PDD or PD; 3) studied only young onset PD; 4) did not use a PD non-demented group as comparable group to PDD group or did not provide adequate data on the comparable group; 5) were twin studies; 6) reported one predictor repeatedly in one study population (if >1 paper reported on one study population, we chose the larger one, and where population is equal, we chose the most recent one); 7) reported on predictors that were not easily available in most clinical settings (i.e. questionnaires designed for a certain population or country); 8) reported only uncommon genetic risk factors; 9) reported measures other than OR, RR or equivalent values, or from which an OR could not be calculated. Two authors (X.Y. and J.Y.) independently evaluated the eligibility of all studies, and if there was disagreement between authors, the articles were further evaluated by a third author (H.S.) and discussed in detail until an agreement has been reached.
Data extraction and quality assessment
Study characteristics, PDD diagnostic criteria, a risk estimate of the main study finding, and secondary findings were extracted using a unified form. We did not include studies that reported dementia before or within one year to the onset of PD, since these cases did not fulfill the diagnostic criteria for PDD and were more likely cases of dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB). If studies did not report OR, RR or equivalent measures, raw data were screened to determine whether ORs could be calculated. When the studies reported both the crude OR/RRs and the adjusted OR/RRs, the adjusted figures were extracted. We calculated a quality score to assess the quality of the studies according to the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale (NOS). Length of time that any predictor precedes the diagnosis of PDD was not analyzed in the study due to inconsistent reporting.
We combined the reported risks first separately for case–control and cohort studies, and second for all studies together, in cases where two or more studies reported on the same factor. The data were analyzed to generate a pooled effect size and 95 % confidence interval (CI). We examined the heterogeneity across studies using the I2 statistic [16, 17]. Where statistically significant heterogeneity was found (p < 0.05), we used randomized effects model to combine results. We assessed publication bias using the Egger’s test and the Begg’s test, and constructed funnel plot in order to visualize any possible asymmetry [18]. Two-tailed P values less than 0.05 were considered statistically significant. All analyses were performed using Stata version 12.0 (StataCorp, College Station, TX).
The electronic search yielded 5195 articles, all of which were reviewed by titles and abstracts. Full text of 278 articles were reviewed, of which 23 articles met the inclusion criteria. We also hand searched the references of the articles, 2 of which were included into the analysis. Finally, a total of 25 articles were included in the meta-analysis. Full details of the studies included were provided (Additional files 1 and 2). The selection process is shown in a flow diagram (Fig. 1).
Flowchart of study selection; PDD = Parkinson Disease Dementia
We found age (OR 1.07, 95 % CI 1.03-1.13), gender (Male) (OR 1.33, 95 % CI 1.08-1.64) and hypertension (OR 1.57, 95 % CI 1.11-2.22), to be significantly associated with later diagnosis of PDD (Fig. 2), whereas age of onset (AOO) (RR 1.03, 95 % CI 0.97-1.09), disease duration of PD (RR 1.00, 95 % CI 0.96-1.03), and type 2 diabetes mellitus (OR 1.16, 95 % CI 0.58-2.42) were not associated with risk of PDD (Fig. 3). Although education was only reported in three cohort studies, it was the only factor we found to decrease PDD risk (RR 0.94, 95 % CI 0.91-0.98) (Fig. 3). Lifestyle related risk factors were poorly reported. Previous and current smokers were reported to have increased risk of developing PDD (RR 1.88, 95 % CI 1.06-3.34) comparing with non-smoking PD population. However, alcohol consumption (RR 1.1, 95 % CI 0.6-2.2) and coffee consumption (RR 0.9, 95 % CI 0.5-1.8), reported in one study population, was not a significant risk factor for PDD [19].
Factors that show significant positive association with PDD; RBD = REM sleep behavior disorder; CI = confidence interval; RR = relative risk; OR = odds ratio
Factor that shows significant negative association with PDD and factors that show no significant association with PDD; CI = confidence interval; RR = relative risk; OR = odds ratio
Two general scales evaluating PD patient’s motor features were included in this study. Our result showed that higher score in Unified Parkinson’s Disease Rating Scale (UPDRS) part III (RR 1.04, 95 % CI 1.01-1.07) increased the risk of PDD, but higher Hoehn and Yahr stage (RR 1.24, 95 % CI 0.92-1.66) was not associated with the development PDD. Studies analyzing the association between PD motor subtypes and PDD were not included in the present meta-analysis because of limited data. Two common non-motor symptoms of PD patients, hallucination (OR 2.47, 95 % CI 1.36-4.47) and RBD (OR 8.38, 95 % CI 3.87-18.08), were both strong predictors of PDD. Single studies also reported positive association between PDD and family history of dementia (first-degree relatives), urinary dysfunction, impaired color vision or orthostatic blood pressure drop and no significant association between family history of PD (first-degree relatives), exposure to pesticides, occupational exposure to chemicals and PDD [13, 15, 20]. Details of factors not included in the meta-analysis were provided (Additional file 3).
Assessment of publication bias
The funnel plot for each included factors were individually examined visually. The shape was presented essentially symmetrical in age, AOO, gender, smoking, disease duration, education, UPDRS III, hallucination, RBD, hypertension, diabetes mellitus and Hoehn and Yahr stage, which was proved by Begg’s and Egger’s test.
This study identified 12 individual predictors that have potential value in screening for PDD. The identified risk factors include demographic characteristics, lifestyle factors, non-motor features of PD, and widely accepted scales evaluating PD. Some of the factors may present pathogenic importance while others could represent the relationship between symptoms and cognitive decline. Together, these factors tend to be markers preceding diagnosis of PDD in PD patients. Of the identified factors, 7 factors were significant predictors for subsequent diagnosis of PDD, the understanding of which may contribute to higher quality of care and improve quality of life in PD patients.
Age, AOO and disease duration were all common risk factors for PDD. However, since these three factors are interdependent, their individual effect on PDD is under debate. One study comparing early and late onset PD patients suggested that late onset PD group presents with more severe impaired sensory abilities, sleep disorders and dementia [21]. Another study adjusted cofounding found that among the three factors, only age remained an independent risk factor for PDD [22]. Similarly, we found that older age had a significant influence on later diagnosis of PDD, while AOO and disease duration was not associated with PDD. Our study suggested that advanced age as a risk factor for PDD may be independent from PD related time factors, like AOO or disease duration. Many neuropathological studies have provided evidences on the effect of aging. Recent studies with α-synuclein immunostaining found a strong association between the age-related increase of Lewy bodies in cortical areas and the development of PDD [23, 24]. Another study found that cortical amyloid-β deposition and aging together might be associated with PDD [25]. Few other studies revealed that MAPT genotype, related with tau transcription, has a strong influence on the risk of PDD [26, 27]. Goris et al. found that, among MAPT haplotypes, PD patients with H1 homozygotes had an increased rate of cognitive decline, which was dependent on age [28, 29]. These age-related pathological processes together may increase the risk of PDD with aging.
We also found male to be a risk factor for PDD. However, some studies suggested that there might be no relationship between gender and PDD if potential confounding factors, including age, history of dementia, smoking and number of siblings, were adjusted [20, 22]. In the present meta-analysis, all data included for the factor gender were unadjusted data. Therefore, our study illustrated that male, before adjustment, is a positive predictor for PDD, but provided no evidence on the results after confounding factors were adjusted. The only protective factor we found in the current meta-analysis is higher education. Similar with our results, one study found that when compared with elementary school level, PDD patients with university level education were at lower risk of developing dementia [30]. One possible explanation is that education might modify the risk of cognitive decline by greater functional brain reserve in PD patients [31]. However, in a recent systematic review looking into education and dementia in Alzheimer’s disease (AD), the authors suggested that although lower education is associated with greater risk of dementia, the findings varied by region, age, gender and ethnicity [32]. The association between education and dementia in PD also need further studying with confounding adjusted.
A recent meta-analysis on risk factors for PD suggested that smoking, alcohol and coffee consumption decreases the risk of PD [33]. In the current meta-analysis we found that a history of smoking increased the risk of dementia in PD by almost two fold. On the other hand, alcohol and coffee consumption has been reported to have no significant association with PDD [19]. Smoking, different from alcohol and coffee consumption, stand as an independent risk factor for PDD. One possible mechanism is related with vascular factors. We found that hypertension was associated with PDD while diabetes was not significantly associated with PDD. Because smoking is also a risk factor for hypertension and that hypertension is related with AD-type pathologies in dementia, it is possible that smoking affect dementia in PD via vascular route [34, 35]. However, after adjustment for the possibility of confounding vascular factors in one included study, smoking still exists as an increased risk for PDD [19]. Biologically, greater depletion of cholinergic cells in the nucleus basalis of Meynert has been observed in PDD [36], yet the up-regulation of central nicotine acetylcholine receptors by nicotine contrasts the mechanism [37, 38]. Another published meta-analysis found that smoking was also a cause of cognitive decline in AD patients as well as in patients with other dementia, in which the authors suggested that non-smokers have lower inflammation or oxidative stress that may lead to a reduction in cognitive decline [39, 40].
We found that higher UPDRS III score was positively related with later diagnosis of PDD, whereas Hoehn and Yahr stage was not significantly associated with PDD. This result suggests that severe motor dysfunction is associated with PDD risk, and that the risk is more likely associated with individual motor dysfunctions. In a study that discovered no significant association between UPDRS III and PDD, researchers found that within the UPDRS III section, gait dysfunction was strongly associated with eventual development of dementia [13]. Gait dysfunction is important for the classification of the postural instability and gait difficulties (PIGD) subtype, and several longitudinal studies have discovered that 25 % to 64.9 % of PIGD PD patients would be diagnosed with PDD by the end of follow-up [11, 12]. Also, researchers have found that increased loss of cholinergic nuclei may relate with both cognitive decline and motor features including rigidity, gait, and balance [12, 41]. However, only two studies were evaluated regarding Hoehn and Yahr stage, the result should be interpreted with caution.
We discovered RBD and hallucination are strongly associated with later diagnosis of PDD. Several studies suggested that patients with RBD had a higher rate of MCI at baseline and a shorter duration towards diagnosis of dementia [42–44]. Cholinergic deficit due to degeneration of ascending pathway that took place in both RBD and dementia with Lewy bodies might be the cause [45]. Visual hallucinations were also discovered to have positive association with cognitive impairment in early PD [46]. In terms of mechanism, pathological studies in PD indicated that visual hallucination might share common limbic pathology with cognitive decline and dementia [14]. In functional MRI assessment, preceding image recognition, patients with visual hallucinations have reduced activation in ventral/lateral visual associated cortices [47]. However, a reverse relation was found in previous study suggesting that cognitive impairment at baseline precedes later development of hallucination [48]. Both RBD and hallucination were also associated with MCI, an important predictor for PDD [49, 50], in early Parkinson disease [42, 46]. None of the studies included in our meta-analysis adjusted RBD or hallucination for baseline cognitive impairment, therefore the causal relation is unclear from the present study.
We only selected factors that were easily obtained in primary care environment. Variables that used less common inventories, like color vision and olfactory dysfunction, were not included in the analysis. Also, genetic tests have been excluded from the analysis for similar reasons. Mild cognitive impairment, an important risk factor of incidence dementia in PD [50, 51], was not included in the meta-analysis because most studies on mild cognitive impairment used a different group strategy by separating the participants into PD-normal cognition, PD-mild cognitive impairment and PDD group, which differs from most of other PDD risk factor studies. Motor subtypes were not analyzed in this meta-analysis also because of differences in group strategy.
Not all studies adjusted risk factors for confounders, and those adjusted were mostly adjusted for different confounders. We included both factors unadjusted and factors adjusted where possible, which may have increased the degree of significance for some risk factors. Few factors were reported in studies to be positively associated or not associated with later diagnosis of PDD but without specified OR or RR to be extracted. Though we have calculated OR or RR where possible, there may still be data neglected.
Statistically significant heterogeneity was found in 8 of the meta-analyses performed in our study. Two risk factors, age and AOO, were found to have high heterogeneity (I2 > 75 %). Gender, education, hallucination, UPDRS III, RBD and hypertension were found to have moderate heterogeneity (50 % < I2 < 75 %). The presence of heterogeneity was as expected because of the differences in the characteristics of studies, the length of follow-up, study population scale, population characteristics, diagnostic criteria used and whether factors were crude or adjusted. The follow-up period in the cohort studies and the diagnostic criteria for PDD in both cohort and case–control studies varied, we did not adjust these factors in this meta-analysis due to limited number of included studies. Thus, the results of this analysis should be interpreted cautiously, especially for those factors that were reported in less than three studies and that were with high heterogeneities.
In the present meta-analysis, we included studies with NOS score higher than 5, which ensured study quality. Also, we performed sub-group analysis by different study design in order to minimize heterogeneity. We combined analytical results according to the heterogeneity analysis, and did not find significant publication bias. Therefore, our results were considered to be robust.
This is the first systematic review and meta-analysis on widely evaluated risk factors of PDD. This study found advanced age, male, high UPDRS III scores, presence of hallucination, presence of RBD, ever smoking and history of hypertension are positive predictors to later diagnosis of PDD, whereas education is a protective factor of PDD. This study laid the foundation to future comparative assessment on risk factors for PDD, and lead to a better understanding of PDD risks.
AD, Alzheimer’s disease; AOO, Age of onset; CI, Confidence interval; DLB, Dementia with lewy bodies; NOS, Newcastle-Ottawa scale; OR, Odds ratio; PD, Parkinson’s disease; PDD, Parkinson’s disease dementia; PIGD, Postural instability and gait difficulties; PRISMA, Preferred reporting items for systematic review and meta-analysis; RBD, REM sleep behavior disorder; RR, Relative risk; UPDRS, Unified Parkinson’s Disease Rating Scale.
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We would like to thank all authors of the original research studies included in this meta-analysis. We thank Ms. Cong Li for statistical assistance and thank Ms. Hong Xie for proofreading of this meta-analysis.
No funding considering this study.
The datasets supporting the conclusions of this article are included in the article and its additional files.
YX and HS conceived and designed the study. YX, JY and HS reviewed the literature. YX undertook the statistical analysis. YX and HS wrote the manuscript. YX, JY and HS contribute in discussions and reviewed the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
Huifang Shang, corresponding author, professor and vice director of Department of Neurology, West China Hospital of Sichuan University, Chengdu, 610041, China.
Department of Neurology, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, 610041, Chengdu, Sichuan, China
Yaqian Xu, Jing Yang & Huifang Shang
Yaqian Xu
Huifang Shang
Correspondence to Huifang Shang.
Details of studies included in the meta-analysis. This file included details of all studies included in this meta-analysis, categorized by risk factors. Details including first author, year of publication, country, study design, number of participants and NOS scores. (DOCX 119 kb)
Details of the study results. This file provided detailed results of meta-analysis of each risk factor. (DOCX 159 kb)
Details of factors not included in the meta-analysis. This file provided data of risk factors for Parkinson’s disease dementia that were mentioned in literature, but were not included in the meta-analysis due to limited number of studies or differences in study design. (DOCX 93 kb)
Xu, Y., Yang, J. & Shang, H. Meta-analysis of risk factors for Parkinson’s disease dementia. Transl Neurodegener 5, 11 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1186/s40035-016-0058-0
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