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Wolf Pup , July 17, 2017
Book Review – How To Win a Friend and Influence People
Marius Pranskunas , April 12, 2017
DesignBold Review – The Student Becomes The Master
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Currency Fair Review – Mercedes Moving Pounds to Euro?
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Canva review, or why your grandpa can be your next graphic designer
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Life Festival 2017 – One Student Journey
Wolf Pup , June 23, 2017
Guacamayas the flying hope for Caracas
Marius Pranskunas , March 22, 2017
London 2011 : You Can’t blame the Youth
Marius Pranskunas , March 7, 2017
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6 Things Not To Do On The Internet
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My Conversation With Artificial Intelligence (AI)
Home Business Development Snoop Dogg, the ultimate entrepreneur
Snoop Dogg, the ultimate entrepreneur
Business Development Music
Wolf Pup , May 16, 2017 / 6264 0
We all know Snoop Dogg. It doesn’t matter if you are a teenager or contemporary adult; this public figure seems to be around all over entertainment business, at least for the last 20 years. And how is this possible with the vertiginous change in the show business, that only changes faster with time? That’s because the rapper has managed to reinvent himself to become the ultimate entrepreneur. Many rap stars venture far from the music as they can’t pivot to fit the needs of the market to stay current. We will try to look for lessons and maybe inspiration from very unlikely source for the business audience, but in the spirit of 2 Fair Info, if there is a story to tell, we have to tell it.
A rough beginning, Snoop’s first years
It’s no secret that Snoop’s first steps were a little bit rough, with drug and gang problems since enlisted in one of the most known gang bands in the city. In his first years, Snoop experimented with the kind of rap that was hot at the moment, going through gangsta rap and southern rap, to whatever new style emerged. So, it was only until late 90’s and after two discs that the “Snoop Dogg” we know today (former Snoop Doggy Dog) came to life.
The album “No Limit Top Dogg” reunited him with Dr. Dre, a lot of famous rappers and a funky sound. Snoop Dog and his friends rocked the hip-hop scene until their last album together, “Tha Last Meal” on 2000.
It is important to say that, if music was the principal business for Snoop Dogg at the time, he never stopped participating in all kinds of projects as producer and actor.
Adapting to changes, Snoop climbs to the top
From 2002 to 2004 Snoop passed for a rough period trying to quit addictions and starting a divorce process. But far away from affecting his career, in 2004 Snoop reunites his old “No Limit” friends and gives birth to “The Masterpiece”. This album brings out the single “Drop it like it’s Hot” featuring Pharrell Williams, which became the first rapper being #1 in “Billboard Hot 100”. The lesson here is that when things get tough, you should look for your real old friends, if they were real they will look after you.
From that moment, Snoop Dogg diversified more and more his business becoming the ultimate entrepreneur: he appeared in movies like the remake of the tv series “Starsky & Hutch”, comedy roast of now president Donald Trump, video clips, and many other audiovisual projects. If anyone watched the show, you probably remember how the idea of Trump presidency was offered to the viewers. Just a right type early to start long and effective PR campaign.
He lost money for a video with Britney since she broke her leg and everything got canceled. But it didn’t affect Snoop Dog so much, and that year he created a whole new hip-hop genre by making a remake of the famous “The Doors” song, “Riders on The Storm”. This single came along with the video game “Need for Speed” giving Snoop Dogg a whole new fame level since the game became one of the most played titles around the world.
Being a smart businessman, Snoop maintained himself in the show business by featuring and collaborating with any rising star or artist who had fame at the moment. So, we have productions with Akon, Timbaland, R-Kelly and other 2000’s stars, keeping him active in 2006 when he incurred a little bit into politics with “Real Talk”.
Reinventing himself; adapting to technology and time
It was in 2007 we realized that Snoop Dogg was far away from disappearing and that he was determined to stay by all meanings. His capacity to understand and grow with technology flashes out when he becomes the first artist to release a single as “Ringtone” before he did as a “single”. The song “It’s the dog” and made history boosting Snoop’s career once again. At the peak of the market sales from the ringtones often superseded the profit from sales of the music, just another example how Snoop pioneered yet another lucrative idea.
That same year, Snoop Dogg participated in a Bollywood film proving again that he’s as adaptable as the situation requires. That year’s album entered once again the “Billboard Hot 100” with the song “Sexual Eruption” on the 7th position. Doggy’s smart moves always gave him the right impulse to recover the notoriety in the industry.
In 2009, Snoop managed to maintain his singing career while developing a managerial career with Priority Records. Even though he achieved to enter on Billboards top list once again, the “Malice n Wonderland” album didn’t reach the position Snoop Dogg wanted, so he released it again as “More Malice”. If you believe in the idea, stick with it until you hundred percent sure it’s exhausted.
Nevertheless, music is not the only industry that “The Ultimate Entrepreneur” was submerged in. Caring little about his shape, Snoop Dogg participated actively in the WWE world, having some friendly encounters with many wrestlers including John Cena, and also acting as “Master of Ceremony” and general manager for some other WWE events. Some would say one have to choose the audience, stick with it and specialize, but if there are new markets why leave them empty.
A severe death and how Snoop arises despite it
After collaborations with timely artists like Katy Perry and Dr. Dre, Snoop faced a tough time with the dead of his cousin and also famous rapper Nate Dogg. This event must have touched him very deeply since he dedicated most of that year to realize charities for the family.
Nevertheless, Snoop didn’t lose the opportunity to release a new album that was a sequel to his 93’ success “Doggystyle”. The album “Doggumentary” published on 2011. That year, he collaborated with Wiz Khalifa in a movie and its soundtrack.
Snoop Dogg, the ultimate entrepreneur, goes with the flow.
In the latest years, Snoop Dogg got a little bit away from rap to adapt, once again, to the trends of the moment. In 2012, as rap was going underground and reggae music popularity grew, Snoop decided to change his name and rebirth with a whole new identity: “Snoop Lion” and the album “Reincarnated”.
It probably meant also a deep inner change for him since he includes deep lyrics in that album explaining why he changed.
Not being as fructiferous as he expected, the new nickname only lasted one year, and as he did many times before, he changed it and reinvented himself once again. This time, he tried with a funky style, and “Snoopzilla” came to life in 2013 along with the “7 days of Funk” album.
Since then, Snoop has participated in all kind of concerts (solo and in collaboration), tv shows, WWE events (as MC, manager, and wrestler, even getting to the WWE “Hall of Fame”), etc. Any business he can get his hands on, he’s over it.
He also collaborated with Youtube in their experimental 360º videos project where all classic Youtube videos where transformed into a 360º format so people could enjoy a “review” alongside the famous artist.
Finally, Snoop Dogg keeps working as producer and singer while his career seems far away from ending. Almost any enterprise savvy entrepreneur commits with gets successful. By going with the flow, this artist managed to overcome any history change and become Snoop Dogg, the ultimate entrepreneur.
Marius Pranskunas, February 16, 2018
Kevin Raher, June 30, 2017
Gene Murphy, June 28, 2017
Heartbeats & Memories
Find Me on Social Media:
Want this person to create your content?
Robbers Cave experiment and Tommy Robinson Social Media Outrage
© Copyright 2016 by 2FI.
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HOMEPAGE >> BLOG >> ARPN’s McGroarty for The Economic Standard: Red Swan – a Leaked 2010 Cable on Critical Infrastructure/Key Resource Vulnerabilities Provided Warning Signs We Failed To Act On
ARPN’s McGroarty for The Economic Standard: Red Swan – a Leaked 2010 Cable on Critical Infrastructure/Key Resource Vulnerabilities Provided Warning Signs We Failed To Act On
By Sandra Wirtz | Posted: April 24, 2020 at 5:39 pm
In a new piece for The Economic Standard, ARPN’s Daniel McGroarty argues that while the “intellectual shrug” of “who could have seen this coming” tends to be a common reaction to our new normal of sheltering in place and social distancing, there were warning signs for a coming crisis we failed to recognize for what they were, and act accordingly.
McGroarty tells the story of what he calls a “Red Swan” based on COVID-19’s point of origin in Wuhan, China — a leaked classified cable sent by the U.S. State Department in 2010 revealing “Critical Infrastructure/Key Resources” outside of the U.S. “whose loss could critically impact the public health, economic, and/or national and homeland security of the United States.” On it, under the heading for China: “Polypropylene Filter Material for N-95 Masks” — which, as McGroarty points out, are “[p]recisely the ones the federal government and states are scrambling to source right now. […] The U.S. Government knew in 2009 that N-95 masks were critical, came from China… And did nothing about it.”
However, and this is where followers of ARPN may perk up, this is not all.
As McGroarty writes, the classified list in the cable also included a series of mines in China that were deemed critical, developing critical materials ranging from fluorspar and germanium over graphite to Rare Earths, tin and tungsten — for all of which the United States is greatly import-dependent, with degrees of reliance ranging from 63% for tungsten to 100% for fluorspar, graphite and rare earths.
Writes McGroarty:
“As a warning unheeded, the cable makes for interesting reading in light of today’s COVID pandemic – and as U.S. policymakers embark on a rolling series of multi-trillion dollar spending bills, the next of which will include infrastructure projects.
At issue is not just one but three layers of risk: Maybe the metals and minerals produced by the Chinese mines will be withheld in time of conflict, as Beijing seeks to leverage access for American concessions. Maybe the metals and minerals will soon be prioritized for internal Chinese consumption, under its Made in China 2025 program to drive Chinese technology dominance, with little left for export to the U.S. or elsewhere.
Or maybe – as the leaked cable presciently notes – the Chinese mines will be disrupted by a pandemic, slamming on the supply chain brakes for a U.S. economy dependent on critical materials that go from arriving “just in time” to “not at all.”
In any case, the warning could hardly be more clear. The U.S. has a choice: It can take immediate steps to reduce its dangerous dependency on a Chinese supply chain for critical technology metals. Or we can hope COVID 2.0 will not disrupt supply in a second global shut-down – or that Beijing won’t one day decide to curtail access to these critical materials in time of crisis.
But here’s one thing we can no longer do: If an act of nature or of man cuts off U.S. access to vital technology materials, we can’t claim to be surprised by the appearance of a Red Swan. We’ve seen it coming.”
Read the full piece here.
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Southwest Notifies AMFA of Its Intent to Violate Labor Contract
Updated On: Nov 23, 2020
Southwest Airlines notified AMFA of its intent to execute a mass furlough of 403 Aircraft Maintenance Technicians, Facilities Maintenance Technicians, and Aircraft Appearance Technicians, scheduled to take place on January 25, 2021. This action is being taken in retaliation for Southwest’s perceived lack of progress in cost savings discussions with the union. To make this threat more explicit, Southwest suggested the furloughs could be avoided if we agree to cost savings measures (voluntary wage concessions), if additional government aid is extended to the airline or if there is an unforeseen revenue increase.
“This threatened furlough, if executed, is in violation of the AMFA labor contract and it is our intent to exhaust all legal means available to prevent Southwest from taking this action. This attempt to pressure our members into accepting unfair wage decreases, while management turns down government loans because they refused to suspend shareholder dividends and stock repurchases — loans that all the other leading airlines accepted — makes this action unconscionable as well as illegal,” according to Bret Oestreich, AMFA National Director.
Southwest has taken this abrupt action despite there being constructive dialogue between the two organizations as late as Monday of this week. During that meeting, the company gave no indication whatsoever that WARN letters would be sent to Members two days later. AMFA proposals to save money from greater insourcing of work and voluntary employee measures seemed to be well received, and the airline committed to analyzin
g the proposals and initiated discussions around possible agreement frameworks. AMFA was able to take the discussions this far even while the airline refused to give us credit for several money-saving initiatives we undertook previously this year that resulted in as much as $35 million in savings, if not more.
Insourcing more of the work seems to be a particularly ripe area for savings. Historically, a minimum of 64% of maintenance dollars are outsourced, as are large percentages of Appearance Technician and Facilities Maintenance work. The maintenance outsourcing includes four lines of heavy aircraft maintenance in El Salvador, which is subject to less government oversight and fewer licensed mechanics versus Southwest’s own facilities. Returning that work to Southwest’s in-house operation would create greater efficiency and the opportunity for more collaborative cost cutting solutions than demands for fixed percentage reductions in payroll. It would also have a positive effect on flight safety.
These disruptive threats are being made even though the U.S. government expects widespread distribution of highly effective vaccines, and the beginning of a return to normalcy, in the first few months of 2021.
Winston Churchill once famously said “never let a good crisis go to waste.” Given the circumstances of this threatening action by Southwest, we can only assume their motivation is to reduce their cost basis, reinforce their leadership position, and enrich their investors and executives on the backs of the workers who made this airline great. This clearly is not an issue of survival as Southwest is the strongest airline in the industry right now. It is unfortunate that management has decided to look to Winston Churchill for inspiration when the man who built the airline by always putting people first is why they are in the enviable position they are in today.
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'Hello Kitty' Anniversary Stop Motion Animation
Hello Kitty x TADO 'Pomme Party'
Hello Kitty x TADO 'Pomme Party' from wearetado on Vimeo.
This is a cute Hello Kitty stop motion animation from TADO that was commissioned by Sanrio and the Japanese American National Museum. It commemorates Hello Kitty's 40th anniversary. TADO did the whole job in two months in its offices in Sheffield.
This was done using wooden figures, which required quite a bit of craftsmanship to create the final puppets. The final product looks awesome! Quite a professional job.
Others involved in the project were Alex Veitch (lighting advisor), Nick Hunter (wood-wizard) and Ben Ridley (music and sound design).
From the webpage:
Commissioned by Sanrio and the Japanese American National Museum to commemorate Hello Kitty's 40th Anniversary. Stop motion animation using hand made wooden puppets. Our first adventure into the world of stop-motion magic.
Special thanks to Sanrio USA, Japanese American National Museum and Jamie Rivadeneira / Japan LA.
Made in Sheffield, UK.
© TADO and Sanrio 2014. Hello Kitty and Sanrio characters used with the kind permission of Sanrio USA.
Posted by James Bjorkman at 12:11:00 AM
Labels: Alex Veitch, Ben Ridley, Hello Kitty, Japanese American National Museum, Nick Hunter, Sanrio, TADO
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"Blinding the country to solutions"
This blogging thing is really easy when others say things considerably more eloquently than I can.
Today's NY Times editorial:
Think of America's greatest historical shames. Most have involved the singling out of groups of people for abuse. Name a distinguishing feature — skin color, religion, nationality, language — and it's likely that people here have suffered unjustly for it, either through the freelance hatred of citizens or as a matter of official government policy.
We are heading down this road again. The country needs to have a working immigration policy, one that corresponds to economic realities and is based on good sense and fairness. But it doesn't. It has federal inertia and a rising immigrant tide, and a national mood of frustration and anxiety that is slipping, as it has so many times before, into hatred and fear. Hostility for illegal immigrants falls disproportionately on an entire population of people, documented or not, who speak Spanish and are working-class or poor. By blinding the country to solutions, it has harmed us all.
Meanwhile, NPR this morning had an excellent piece on the plight of farmers and the lack of labor.
posted by ACLU of Pennsylvania at 10/22/2007 09:27:00 PM
Chuck said..........
We are heading down this road again. The country needs to have a working immigration policy, one that corresponds to economic realities and is based on good sense and fairness."
Fainess by whose standards? Fairness to the employers who took the easy way out instead of availing themselves of the H-2A visa program, and are now whining that they're being called to account? The law violator has a different perspective of what's fairness as opposed to the law abiding citizen. The applicant for citizenship may have a different perspective of illegal immgration than the illegal alien advocate and his constituency. Good sense? Whose good sense? The illegal alien advocate's good sense that the citizens should cave to his will? From my perpective, it is being fair to the citizen to have his constitutionally valid immigration laws which he enacted enforced. From my perspective good sense is discouraging further illegal immigration by workplace enforcement and deportations (self-deportation by attrition, of course). Amnesty is just another invitation for further illegal immigration. Remember when Ted Kennedy announced that his 1986 bill will be the last amnesty and would control further illegal immigration? It didn't work then and none of you pathetic whiners have come up with a solution to satisfy the electorate. There is no reason to believe that an amnesty or guest worker program will stop illegal immigration. When our limits to handle guest workers is reached, they'll still come and work under the table. It is always easier to hire an illegal alien who works under the table because the employer doesn't have the need for all of that paperwork and costs that legitimate employers have to put up with. The ACLU will continue to put a roadblock in front of every effort to discourage illegal immigration, as it does today. And the idiots of the judiciary will be happy to impose standards of 100% perfection to databases used to verify immigration status, despite such an impossibility.
"But it doesn't. It has federal inertia and a rising immigrant tide, and a national mood of frustration and anxiety that is slipping, as it has so many times before, into hatred and fear. Hostility for illegal immigrants falls disproportionately on an entire population of people, documented or not, who speak Spanish and are working-class or poor. By blinding the country to solutions, it has harmed us all."
You seem to claim a self-righteous arrogant superiority that puts your opinon above that of the good sense of the people. Illegal alien Hispanics are getting the flak because they are marching in the streets and they make up by far the greatest proportion of illegal aliens, not because they are Hispanic. This claim of racism works out well for their advocates, because they can disingenuoulsly claim that this is a race issue, when it is actually an economic and fairness issue. It's not working this time, because citizens will not be cowed by guilt this time. Our national sovereignty and the right to control immigration and our borders are at stake and we are not inclined to listen to the whining and railing those would pose to be our national conscience, but are in reality the weak pathetic defeatest pimps of Mexico.
The onus is on you and your advocacy groups to prove that 12 to 20 million people living on subsistence level wages will never become wards of the state, if only partially so, by eventually taking advantage of our welfare programs. Data shows that these people will utimately take more tax revenue out of our treasury than they put in. Without satisfying this burden of proof, you won't get very far in obtaining support of the taxpayer.
As "Anonymous" shows how well the "blinders" work
Good stiff response, James. If only there were more lines between which we could gather your meaning.
A WIN!
http://www.kotv.com/news/topstory/?id=138916
BREAKING NEWS UPDATE: Judge Denies Preliminary Injunction Motion
AP/KOTV - 10/31/2007 10:33 AM - Updated 10/31/2007 7:12 PM
TULSA, Okla. (AP) _ A federal judge denied late Wednesday a request by Latino groups to block the implementation of a new state law targeting illegal immigrants, paving the way for the bill to take effect in a matter of hours. In a two-page ruling, U.S. District Judge James H. Payne wrote that the plaintiffs failed to introduce evidence in support of their motion.
The Latino groups sought the preliminary injunction to stop the new law, which would bar illegal immigrants from obtaining jobs or state assistance and make it a felony to harbor or transport illegal aliens.
Payne threw out an earlier attempt by the group to stop the measure, saying the plaintiffs could not show they were harmed by a law that hadn't taken effect yet.
In its second filing, the group added several unidentified illegal immigrants who have been told they must move from their rent homes because of the new law.
Both sides assembled outside the federal courthouse for an often tense news conference following Wednesday's hearing. The Hispanic leaders were interrupted at least twice by residents who supported the new law, and a driver in one car yelled an ethnic slur at the group.
The Rev. Miguel Rivera, president of the National Coalition of Latino Clergy and Christian Leaders, said that a decision to prevent the law from taking effect would help bring calm to the Latino community. Rivera also pledged to fight the law to the U.S. Supreme Court if he had to.
``I know 25,000 or more of my Latino people have been afraid and they have left this state,'' Rivera said.
He said the eyes of the nation are watching to see what action the state takes regarding the new law, which is billed by its backers as one of the toughest anti-illegal immigration laws in the country.
Hispanic activist Victor Orta said, ``Our families have been receiving eviction notices that, beginning tonight, if they cannot prove their status here, they will be evicted.''
Orta also said he was astonished at the silence of other Anglo churches on the matter.
Supporters of the new law said state legislation was needed because federal authorities had failed to act.
``They want to move Mexico here. They do not want to assimilate. I have a problem with that,'' said Tulsa resident Dan Howard, a former Oklahoma Highway Patrol trooper.
Howard began his news conference by saying he would address the crowd in English, because ``I'm standing in the USA.'' Hispanic leaders earlier spoke to the audience in English, then Spanish.
Carol Helm, director of Immigration Reform for Oklahoma Now, said the bill restates the importance of following labor and tax laws.
``It just seems that every month, the rate of illegals just continues to grow, and that's a stated fact by the Hispanic organizations,'' Helm said. ``Common sense says how many, how much, what is the break-even point which the state can absorb?''
Immigrant rights groups have long decried the legislation, saying it unnecessarily repeats federal law, dehumanizes people and panders to people with racial biases. They say tens of thousands of Hispanics have already fled Oklahoma ahead of the law taking effect.
Some churches have also come out against the law. On Tuesday, a representative of Catholic Charities delivered more than 1,000 signed pledges of resistance to H.B. 1804 to Gov. Brad Henry's office.
Nina Perales, Southwest regional counsel for the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, said there was more puffery to the law than substance.
Even so, she said many at the community level are concerned it will unleash immigration raids, increase racial profiling and split up families.
``It is a ridiculously redundant piece of legislation,'' Perales said. ``These are all federal laws that are already on the books.''
The Rev. Luis-Carlos Sanchez, vice president of the Coalition of Hispanic Organizations, said the bill has already ``opened the doors for every kind of prejudice and every kind of racial profiling.''
``If we call them criminals, we can abuse them and take advantage,'' he said. ``We have done this with the Native Americans, calling them savages, and African-Americans, calling them less than whites, and we are doing this again.''
The bill's author, Republican state lawmaker Randy Terrill, has said the people of Oklahoma support meaningful immigration reform and repeatedly stated he was confident it would hold up if challenged in the courts.
Chuck:
I heard about this on NPR and there was something that caught my eye was when the Housing Contractors were reporting a lobor shortage.
Seems that this is the "Elephant In The Room" that many people ignore. The continuing demand for cheap, exploitable, labor.
But then, this same demand lead to the globalization that may be fueling this too.
But folks like Tancredo and Barletta ignore these.
And once there's some evidence of harm, I'm sure this law will be overturned--likley with help from the ACLU.
BTW: I still don't see how these fall under the ACLU's aegis.
How ironic that those who service illegal aliens, i.e. aid and abet them by making life comfortable here, expect to win a suit designed to defeat the will of the American people, as expressed by our immigration laws. Ultimately, the politicians will concede to the popular will and the law, and expell our millions of tresspassing foreigners.
Keep swallowing what comes from the "Disinformation Machine" as this site so correctly calls it.
As it seems that far too many Americans have.
Amazing what can happen when you have a CEO-controlled media
Keep putting out that nonsense that countenancing illegal immigration will discourage further illegal immigration, and that 20 million people living at the economic margins will not avail themselves of our welfare system. The people have come to understand what you seem not to, that this is an invasion sponsored by corrupt corporations who worship at the alter of the profit and ethnocentrists whose only goal is to accelerate their steadily increasing political power.
The first thing the poor do when gaining political strength is to vote themselves a transfer of wealth to their own kind. It is imprudent to adopt 20 million new welfare clients. We have no moral obligation to make these people citizens but we have every legal right under international law to evict them. And that we shall do, if it takes ten years.
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ADA LEADERSHIP
CHOOSE… … COUNTRY/LANGUAGE
… LOCAL INTERVIEW(S)
T1D & comorbidities
Beyond HbA1c—How Are We Managing Type 1 Diabetes Comorbidities?
Petter Bjornstad, MD
Assistant Professor, Pediatric Endocrinology
University of Colorado School of Medicine, Aurora, CO; USA
EXPAND ALL DOWNLOAD SLIDES
There are a number of complications, comorbidities, and causes of mortality associated with type 1 diabetes patients. While intensive glucose control reduces the mortality risk, people with type 1 diabetes have an 8-13-year lifespan shorter than the general population. In addition, reaching a target HbA1c of <7% does not abolish risk. Lastly, cardiovascular disease remains a leading cause of mortality in this population.1,2 Questions still remain as to whether more aggressive treatment, with more attention to secondary prevention, will lead to better outcomes.3 It is time to focus on other areas aside from HbA1c, such as renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system inhibitors (RAASi)/SGLT1/2 inhibitors, statins, and metformin for hypertension/diabetic kidney disease and dyslipidemia, respectively, to determine the effect of treatment on these patients.3
Clinical Trials Exploring Diabetes Type 1 Complications and Treatments
In the Heart Protection Study, a trial that enrolled almost ,6000 patients with both type 1 and type 2 diabetes, patients were treated with simvastatin vs. placebo.4 Patient data were reviewed per diabetes type and found limited benefits of reducing the first vascular event (major coronary event, stroke, or revascularization) in patients with type 1 diabetes compared to those with type 2 diabetes.4 Similar results were found in a meta-analysis of 26 trials (170,000 participants) where patients with type 1 diabetes did not show as much reduction in cardiovascular disease (CVD) and LDL-cholesterol as those with type 2 diabetes when taking a statin.5 In a propensity score matched review of the Swedish National Diabetes Registry (n = 4,025), statin therapy did not have an effect on CVD or rate of death in patients with type 1 diabetes.6 ACE inhibitors have also shown minimal effect in type 1 diabetes patients.7
A study using RAASi in patients with type 1 diabetes demonstrated no statistical significant advantage from using RAASi vs. placebo in mesangial fractional volume or mesangial matrix fractional volume.8 There was an increase in microalbuminuria with losartan use, and minimal changes (not significant) with placebo and enalapril.8 Glomerular filtration rate values remained consistent within all 3 groups.8 Taken together, findings from this study suggest that the early blockade of the renin-angiotensin system in patients with type 1 diabetes does not slow the progression of nephropathy.8
Patients with type 1 diabetes can have a higher magnitude of insulin resistance compared to patients with type 2 diabetes.9 When reviewing the REMOVAL trial in type 1 diabetes patients treated with metformin, no statistically significant difference in the mean carotid intima-media thickness (cIMT) was observed in patients on metformin compared with those on placebo.10 However, a significant reduction was seen in the tertiary outcome, maximal cIMT in patients receiving metformin compared to placebo.10 When measuring HbA1c levels across visits in overweight/obese patients with type 1 diabetes on metformin + insulin, metformin did have an effect on total daily insulin dose, fat mass, and body mass index. No effect was seen in systolic/diastolic blood pressure or lipid values.11 The metformin EMERALD study demonstrated an improvement in insulin sensitivity in overweight/obese type 1 diabetes patients both per kilogram and kilogram-free fat mass.12 Findings were also beneficial in favor of metformin for endothelial dysfunction, as measured by maximum ascending aortic wall shear stress, and central arteriole stiffness, as measured by ascending aortic pulse wave velocity.12
The ATIRMA trial evaluated the use of SGLT2 inhibitors in patients with type 1 diabetes.13 In an 8-week open-label trial, empaglifozin appeared to reduce hyperfiltration, common in the early stages of diabetic nephropathy.13 A more recent study performed in 1,402 patients demonstrated the benefits of the SGLT1/2 inhibitor sotagloflozin in reducing systolic blood pressure, if compared to placebo. However, the risk for diabetic ketoacidosis was also increased with sotagliflozin.14
Benefit of statins on CVD in type 1 diabetes has been demonstrated in observational studies, but trials remain mostly negative.
RAAS inhibitors did not reduce cumulative incidence of albuminuria in youth or adults with type 1 diabetes.
Metformin improved insulin sensitivity and some markers of CVD, but data are inconsistent in type 1 diabetes.
SGLT2 and SGLT1/2 inhibitors lowered systolic blood pressure and attenuated hyperfiltration in adults with type 1 diabetes, but increased risk of euglycemic DKA.
There is a lot of room to improve CVD outcomes in type 1 diabetes.
Early intervention can have the greatest effect on prevention, and should go beyond A1c control.
Petrie D, Lung TW, Rawshani A, et al. Recent trends in life expectancy for people for type 1 diabetes in Sweden. Diabetologia. 2016;59(6):1167-76.
Huo L, Shaw JE, Wong E, et al. Burden of diabetes in Australia: Life expectancy and disability-free life expectancy in adults with diabetes. Diabetologia. 2016;59(7):1437-45.
Bjornstad P, Donaghue KC, Maahs DM. Macrovascular disease and risk factors in youth type 1 diabetes: Time to be more attentive to treatment? Lancet Diabetes Endocrinol. 2018;S2213-8587(18)30035-4.
Collins R, Armitage J, Parish S, et al.; Heart Protection Study Collaborative Group. MRC/BHF Heart protection study of cholesterol-lowering with simvastatin in 5963 people with diabetes: A randomized placebo-controlled trial. Lancet. 2003;361(9374):2005-16.
Baigent C, Blackwell L, Emberson J, et al.; Cholesterol Treatment Trialists’ Collaboration. Efficacy and safety of more intensive lowering of LDL cholesterol: A meta-analysis of data from 170,000 participants in 26 randomized trials. Lancet. 2010;376(9753):1670-81.
Hero C, Rawshani A, Svensson AM, et al. Association between use of lipid-lowering therapy and cardiovascular disease death in individuals with type 1 diabetes. Diabetes Care. 2016;39(6):996-1003.
Marcovecchio ML, Chiesa ST, Bond S, et al. ACE inhibitors and statins in adolescents with type 1 diabetes. N Eng J Med. 2017;377(18):1733-45.
Mauer M, Zinman B, Gardiner R, et al. Renal and retinal effects of enalapril and losartan in type 1 diabetes. N Engl J Med. 2009;361(1):40-51.
Nadeau KJ, Regensteiner JG, Bauer TA, et al. Insulin resistance in adolescents with type 1 diabetes and its relationship to cardiovascular function. J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 2010; 95(2):513-21.
Petrie JR, Chaturvedi N, Ford I, et al. Cardiovascular and metabolic effects of metformin in patients with type 1 diabetes (REMOVAL): a double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled trial. Lancet Diabetes Endocrinol. 2017;5(8):597-609.
Libman IM, Miller KM, DiMeglio LA, et al. Effect of metformin added to insulin on glycemic control among overweight/obese adolescents with type 1 diabetes: a randomized clinical trial. JAMA. 2015;314(21):2241-50.
Bjornstad P, et al. Circulation 2018. In Press
Cherney DZ, Perkins BA, Soleymanlou N, et al. Renal hemodynamic effect of sodium-glucose cotransporter 2 inhibition in patients with type 1 diabetes mellitus. Circulation. 2014;129(5):587-97.
Garg SK, Henry RR, Banks P, et al. Effects of sotagloflozin added to insulin in patients with type 1 diabetes. N Engl J Med. 2017;377(24):2337-48.
Present disclosure: The presenter reported that he is a consultant for Boehringer Ingelheim and has participated on an advisory board for Horizon Pharma.
Written by: Debbie Anderson, PhD
Reviewed by: Marco Gallo, MD
◀ Previous
Mediterranean diet Mediterranean Diet to Reduce Risk and Prevent Micro- and Macrovascular Diabetes Complications of T2DM
Hypoglycemia, outcomes & QoL
Hypoglycemia, outcomes & QoL Impact of Hypoglycemia on Patient-Reported Outcomes and Quality-of-Life
T1D & pregnancy
Intensive Glycemic Treatment During Type 1 Diabetes Pregnancy
Diabetes & HIV
Management of Diabetes in HIV: Special Considerations
T1D, genes and environment – The TEDDY study
Lessons Learned from The Environmental Determinants of Diabetes in the Young (TEDDY) Study–Insights Into Early Autoimmune Type 1 Diabetes
Microbiome & body weight
Impact of the Gut Microbiome on Energy Regulation, Weight Management, and Eating Disorders
Therapy progression after basal insulin
Therapy Progression After Basal Insulin: GLP-1 Agonists vs. Prandial Insulin vs. Premixed Insulin
Bench to Bedside: Precision Medicine for Diabetes – A Clinicians Perspective
Diabetic kidney disease & glycemic control
Pathophysiology of DKD and Glycemic Goals in Patients with Low GFR
Insulin therapy in youths with T1D
Insulin Therapy in Youth with Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus: Multiple Daily Injections or Insulin Pump Therapy
The VADT-F study
The Veterans Affairs Diabetes Trial (VADT) at 15 Years
T1D & social context
Understanding the Social Context of Managing Diabetes: What’s Life Really Like?
Diabetes & cognitive impairment
Diabetes Mellitus: Cognitive Effects and Treatment Opportunities
Beta cell decline – The RISE study
The Restoring Insulin Secretion (RISE) Study in Youth and Adults–Baseline Data and Results of the Pediatric Medication Study
Rapid acting insulins—To the future and back
Fast and Furious or Just Marketing Fiction? Expectations From New and Developing Rapid-Acting Insulins
Draft ADA/EASD Consensus Report 2018
Management of Hyperglycemia in Type 2 Diabetes–Draft ADA/EASD Consensus Report 2018
SGLT inhibition for T1D
SGLT Inhibition for Type 1 Diabetes Management–How Far Have We Gone?
Download the ADA 2018 Slide Kit
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Jazz/Culture/Violence
Where does jazz fit in the post-Newtown discussion about violence and popular culture?
While not really in the mix now, jazz has historically played the role that hip hop, some kinds of rock and video games now play. This short overview will look at mainstream perceptions of the relationship between jazz and "violence" and how that perception changed through time.
Jazz grabbed a lot of pieces of American culture to create itself: field shouts, preaching, spirituals, minstrelsy, blues, ragtime, parlor music, brass band music. Further, most of those were, themselves, hybrid strains.
Some of those influences, like spirituals, preaching and parlor music, self-identified as "genteel," or "uplifting." Some, like field shouts and hollers and blues, were labeled "slave music;" and were, by implication, "low." Minstrelsy and ragtime were associated with shakier morality-more urban, apt to indulge in "sophisticated" humor and often associated with houses of ill repute. Brass band music was energetic and its association with circuses(entertainment) reduced its moral tone. However, many of the trappings of performance-the military, the village green-were less suspect. Call it somewhere in between.
Each of these genres was also associated with the relative presence of, or lack of, violence. It's easy to see which was which.
By the turn of the 20th century, a music we now see as incipient jazz was being played by Buddy Bolden's group, Jelly Roll Morton and others. While it contained many musical influences, both "high" and"low," and was played at benign venues like parades and picnics, it was more closely associated with Storyville gut bucket joints, or the rough parts of cities like St. Louis and Memphis. Often described as wild and uncontrolled, the music was acquiring a specifically disreputable image.
Musicians in various cities were able to work both sides of the fence, playing improvisational music in joints and waltzes and quadrilles at balls and cotillions. With the unusual exception of James Reese Europe and the Clef Club in New York City, there was a racialist system which relegated darker-skinned musicians to gin joints, parades and lower-paying gigs, while whites or lighter-skinned creoles (in New Orleans) were able to work anywhere.
As the teens proceeded, there was more mixing among musicians and bands were expected to play many different kinds of "high" or "low-down" music, but by this point, jazz had provoked a serious moral backlash. Crusaders from many cultural niches helped to position it solidly as an anti-establishment music, associated with the demi-monde.
King Oliver and co. in Chicago
With the onset of Prohibition in 1919, jazz became anthemic for people flouting bourgeois norms. Bootleggers and other prospering members of the criminal class moved into the nightclub business and jazz was the music of choice. While merely a bystander, jazz became more specifically linked to violence, and moralistic, anti-jazz campaigns were common.
The backlash against Prohibition and its eventual demise in 1933 coincided with the rise of "swing" music. The cultural perception of jazz shifted and the music became less something to epater le bourgeoisie and more something you'd play on the jukebox in the malt shop. During WWII, the music "played its part," helped to sell war bonds and became even less associated with violence (any irony there?).
Post-war, jazz ran into more trouble because of its association with narcotics. Mainstream perception, subject to the paranoia of McCarthy-ism and the patina of Eisenhower-era placidity, magnified the connection between jazz and a violent underworld. Still, it was not a monolithic public response. Rock and Roll records were being burned and benign public beatniks like Maynard G. Krebs were, like, acceptable to the masses.
By the 1960's, jazz moved toward a more centrist moral/cultural position. A wave of spiritualism, spearheaded by John Coltrane and wider adoption of the Muslim religion by jazz musicians had defused the jazz-violence connection. Also, rock was now clearly the music of the counter-culture.
In the following decades, the common perception of jazz, to the extent it was thought about it at all, changed little. Rock musicians remained the bad boys until they were supplanted by hip hop artists. Video games then joined them under the public microscope.
Even though jazz always had one (sometimes small) foot in elite social circles, it also talked about things that gentility-or hypocrisy-precluded as part of the cultural dialogue and which, at the least, had overtones of violence. So, while there are "political" dimensions to any outsider-minority-generated art, mainstream moral codes, at least in America, have always exerted more of a sanctioning influence over jazz than has The State. Even during the 1950's, when the narcotics-jazz connection was widely noted, the State Department sent jazz musicians around the world to try and help win the Cold War.
The government has been too concerned with monitoring domestic political dissent and with its own overseas military campaigns, to pay much attention to the relationship of culture to violence on the home front. Even well-positioned crusaders like Tipper Gore have had a limited influence on government action.
The debate has been dominated by the people with the loudest voice and the most money (the NRA, if you haven't figured it out), who have successfully reinforced archaic myths of rugged individualism and the right to the untrammeled arming of our populace.
Labels: buddy bolden, hip hop, jazz and violence, Jazz History, jelly roll morton, newtown, nra, popular culture, rock bad boys, storyville, tipper gore
I recently posted about Booker Little and trumpet player/blogger Ian Carey commented: "interesting that he got that fat "1C" sound out of a tiny Al Cass 1-28!"
That's one facet of the mouthpiece mythology that I didn't get into in this original post: People believe they should strive to get to a bigger mouthpiece (1c-3c) so they can get to a "bigger sound." The truth is, it absolutely depends on the player. Enough great players with "fat" sounds have put the lie to it to make any young (or older) trumpet player think twice:
Clifford Brown's sound has always been renowned for its juiciness. What mouthpiece did he use? Bach 17C1 and 17C2, equivalent now to Bach 10 3/4 CW. Small. Ditto Conte Condoli. Ditto Fats Navarro. You think of Red Allen's sound as small? Don't think so. He used a very small cup Zottola. Dizzy Gillespie: Al Cass 2-24 & 2-25-equivalent to a Bach 11.75. The list is long.
The neglect that I experienced around mouthpiece choice and which I believe continues in early brass education is sickening. Young players: You need to know how important mouthpieces are. I truly believe that players just starting out are given mouthpieces that are several sizes too big and trying to use a mouthpiece that's too big can really mess you up.
You can play almost any trumpet, unless it's a real piece of junk, but having the wrong mouthpiece can absolutely stunt your musical growth. When you pick up this beast of an axe, you need positive reinforcement to stick with it. The wrong mouthpiece can make it so much more difficult to play that it can erode morale and no doubt has led many to ditch the horn. On the other hand, finding the right size mouthpiece can be incredibly motivating and speed you on your way to great range and flexibility.
Posted by Steve Provizer at 9:30 AM 18 comments:
Labels: al cass, Booker Little, clifford brown, conte condoli, Dizzy Gillespie, education, Fats Navarro, jazz, lew soloff, mouthpiece, red allen, Steve Provizer, trumpet
Artists Respond to Tragedy
From the biggest stars to those playing off nights in coffeehouses, musicians do have the power to effect change in this culture, by raising awareness and money for a cause. I call upon the members of the musical community to organize as quickly as possible to start the process. The power of the NRA has been unassailable to this point and this must change. If you live in the Boston area, please let your presence and interest be known.
I am confident that my own group, SLSAPS, will respond and possibly act as coordinators or, in any case, as a point of contact for either a single large effort or multiple efforts to raise money and support for gun control.
The pain is deep, but we can do something. Let's do it.
Posted by Steve Provizer at 4:12 PM 1 comment:
A Look At "Why Jazz Happened"
There is much to fascinate here. It's rare to find a book with so much information which also reads so easily. Marginal Jazz fans will find a ton of material to interest them. Hard-nosed jazz-istas will too, but they may find themselves at odds, as I did, with some of the broad conclusions Myers forwards here.
I admit up front that I tend to be uneasy in the face of someone else's certainty concerning musical/ historical constructs. Even a dizzying array of facts seldom nails anything down for me. Take the truism that artists reflect the times in which they operate:
Easy to say, sez me,
But much harder to prove specifi-cally.
There are, for example, many jazz musicians born in 1985 who fashion their playing after bebop heros long mouldering in their graves. Maybe the fact that these musicians have heard hip hop or watched Dancing With the Stars is in there as part of their internal art-making process along with many hours of listening to Charlie Parker, but it's not so easy to parse out those influences. The process is always subject to conjecture, projection, bias, limited information; even with (especially with?) the words of musicians to back up your case.
On a larger scale, this is what Myers is trying to do in this book: anchor specific musical changes and content to historical, non-musical events. In service of this, he brings a laudable amount of research and scores of interviews, creating a book that is always interesting, sometimes enlightening, but occasionally too apt to push what is really conjecture into the realm of the authoritative.
Myers gives us an interesting account of the reasons for the growth of L.A. after WW II and tries to tie those events to the onset of "West Coast" jazz. His chief witness is saxophonist Dave Pell, who clearly had a hell of a time, but I don't buy the case that tract housing developments, sunshine, beach, golf and the movie industry made specific musical things happen. Myers says: "The sound suited its surroundings, placing a new emphasis on instrumental harmony, fluid execution, and polished teamwork"(p.94). Hmm. If Gil Evans and the whole New York Birth of the Cool crowd wasn't fluid, polished, etc., who was? Myers also talks a lot about how L.A. separated musicians because distances, driving, running between studio gigs, etc. meant that there was much less hanging out in the kind of places that thrived in NYC. Is this also the kind of environment that would promote the sound of "instrumental harmony, fluid execution, and polished teamwork" noted above? Don't think you can have it both ways.
A clear tale is told here of how racism operated to close down jazz activity on black Central Ave. and provoke black musicians to move to the East Coast. But there are also enough stories in jazz folklore about racism in NYC, harassment over drugs, cabaret card suspensions, etc., that the idea of NYC as a racial refuge doesn't ring true; even more so because the book acknowledges that on neither coast did racism between jazz musicians seem to be a problem.
The section on how R&B affected jazz gathers much interesting information, but the underlying thesis is not convincing: hard bop as an attempt by jazz to "remain relevant" by infusing jazz with the beat and funk of R&B. Myers quotes Gene Seymour here: "Instead of grasping for greater complexity, hard bop provided jazz music with an innovative way of keeping things simple (p121)." I don't hear it in the music. Myers cites Elmo Hope, Horace Silver, Lou Donaldson, Clifford Brown, Miles Davis, Sonny Rollins and Benny Golson as hard bop composers. He says that hard bop had a "harder, more unified sound. (p.134)" and that it "added a back beat-a strong accent on the second and fourth beats of each measure(p.134)." I just can't buy it, even with Lou Donaldson kind of backing up the case. There were certainly some tunes that were more funky, but the predominating modality was instrumental virtuosity and a bop approach in the rhythm section. I can't see "Joy Spring" wooing away Earl Bostic fans. (It's cool, though, to learn that William Kunstler was the lawyer who helped Gigi Gryce incorporate to gain control of his music).
The chapter on the G.I. bill enabling a lot of musicians to acquire more formal music lifts a veil on the jazz-classical connection. I agree with Myers that formal classical training impacted jazz, but we disagree on what that specific impact was. Myers says that the result of this training was "a more complex form of jazz" (p.47). OK, if you're just talking about Third Stream music-and I see that music as more complicated only in terms of form, not improvisation.
I think the major effect of this training was not that jazz itself became more complex, but that trained jazz arrangers were able to move into film and television work and to work with more popular artists on recordings. Examples: Buddy Collette, Teo Macero, Dick Hyman, Nelson Riddle, Henry Mancini, Andre Previn and Bill Holman.
Jazzwax, Myers' blog, is superlative. It contains scores of interviews with musicians and music industry people. By putting many of his interviews in service here, Myers seems to want to make the tone of the book something in between just plain history and an oral history like Hentoff's "Hear Me Talkin' To Ya." But it sometimes begats a pastiche feeling. A sub chapter will start; you will see a quote; there will be a digression, then other quotes arise that recapitulate the start of the sub chapter, sometimes saying essentially the same thing. A story or a quote sometimes shifts chronology in a way that doesn't completely make sense. In the chapter on the rise of amplification in rock, we start out with Woodstock and go back to the mid 60's.
The internationalist Indian and African aspect of John Coltrane's playing is referred to, as is Trane's few allusions to the civil rights struggle in the titles of songs. But there is no effort to explain the spiritual influence Coltrane had and still has on the music and the musicians. The interior voyage of a musician is fueled by an incalculable number of personal experiences and is not easily quantified. I think this is where the difficulty of relating musical processes to historical events comes home to roost.
Does this mean I think it's a vain exercise to try and connect historical/technological events to musical content? Definitely not. There are conclusions here with which I take absolutely no issue-the ramifications of the Musicians Union recording bans of the 1940's; advances in recording-tape, the LP, the 45 and with amplification; Black separatism influences and others. If just as a gathering of information and oral history, Myers' effort is invaluable.
But wrapping things up into a too-neat theoretical bundle can be problematic. As with Dr. Frankenstein's efforts to create life, you can try and make sure that all the parts you put into the body are top grade and even then, there are no guarantees. You have to be ready to accept that your creation might pique the ire of restless villagers armed with pitchforks, torches and blogs (nothing personal, Marc).
Labels: birth of the cool, Coltrane, cool jazz, frankenstein, GI bill, jazz, Jazz History, marc myers, music, R and B, Steve Provizer, third stream, west coast jazz, Why Jazz Happened
1950's Trumpets #3: Joe Gordon
Joe's one of our (Boston) boys. His career exemplified some of the larger themes of 50's trumpet playing: an early start, bop influence, big band experience, adaptability in various musical situations and on the down side: heroin addiction and early death.
Born 5/15/28, Gordon got early exposure to classical music through his mother, an amateur singer. He heard the Basie band, then a Coleman Hawkins/Don Byas group when he was a teen and signed on for a class in "modern music" at the New England Conservatory.
In his late teens, he worked on the railroads as a sandwich boy and jammed at various stops during layovers. His first formal gig was in 1947 with vibes player Pete Diggs in Akron(Pete Diggs?).
Boston's main man Sabby Lewis heard Joe in Boston and invited him into his big band. Joe's name got out there and in 1951 he played his first recording session with Boston alto player Charlie Mariano. Though it's tempting, I won't play "Tzoris" ("Pack Up Your Troubles in an old Kit Bag"). I'll play the title track, "Boston Uncommon." Personnel is: Charlie Mariano (as), Jim Clark (ts), George Myers (bar), Joe Gordon (t), Sonny Truitt (tb), Roy Frazee (p), Jack Lawlor (b), Gene Glennon (d)
It's a nice arrangement, right out of Birth of the Cool and the sound developing simultaneously on the West Coast. Gordon's solo is well-articulated and constructed, with nice little vibrato flourishes at the end of some phrases.
Labels: art blakey, charlie mariano, Dizzy Gillespie, Herb Pomeroy, horace silver, jimmy wood, joe gordon, sabby lewis, shelly manne, Steve Provizer, thelonious monk
1950's Trumpets, Pt. 2: Booker Little
Don Fagerquist was the first focus of our attention in this series about lesser-known brilliant trumpet players of the 1950's. If Fagerquist's playing was pretty much down-the-middle, Booker Little set up musical camp farther out on the edge. Fagerquist was anchored in jazz developments of the 40's and early 50's, while Booker looked ahead to the 60's.
Booker Little was born in 1938 in Memphis, a city where Phineas Newborn, Jr. was elder to a number of future jazz artists, such as Frank Strozier, trumpeter Louis Smith (Booker's cousin) and George Coleman, who got Booker moving seriously toward jazz.
In 1954, after high school, Booker moved to Chicago and got a Bachelors degree in music at the Chicago Conservatory. For nine months of his stay, he roomed with Sonny Rollins, who was in Chicago preparing to join the Clifford Brown-Max Roach Quintet. Sonny introduced Booker to Max Roach, with whom Booker made his first recording and eventually gigged. The musicians in Roach's circle and those he knew from early Memphis days became many of the people he ran with during the short span of his career. His first recording was in June, 1956 and he died on October 5, 1961 of uraemic poisoning/kidney failure at the age of 23.
Booker articulated his views on music in a valuable Metronome magazine article by Robert Levin, an article used as the basis of this piece by Dan Miller. One way to introduce Booker's music is to quote his own words from that interview:
"Most of the guys who are thinking completely conventionally--they'd say 'Well maybe you've got a wrong note in there.' But I can't think in terms of wrong notes--in fact, I don't hear any notes as being wrong. It's a matter of knowing how to integrate the notes and, if you must, how to resolve them. Because if you insist that this note or that note is wrong I think you're thinking conventionally-technically, and forgetting about emotion.
Labels: Booker Little, clifford brown, Eric Dolphy, Frank Strozier, Freddie Hubbard, George Coleman, John Coltrane, Jr, Louis Smith, Phineas Newborn, Sonny Rollins, Steve Provizer
The 1950's: a Brilliant Decade for Trumpeters
Don Fagerquist
Blue Mitchell
I started off with the idea of looking at a few of the less well-known trumpet players who came of age in the 1950s. As I looked more closely at who reached maturity and was at or near the top of their game in that quiet Eisenhauer decade, I couldn't believe the wealth of players. There were the famous: Kenny Dorham, Clark Terry, Blue Mitchell, Joe Newman, Clifford Brown, Lee Morgan, Art Farmer, Maynard Ferguson, Chet Baker, Donald Byrd, Doc Severinson(you could arguably put Miles here too).
Idrees Sulieman
Then, there were the somewhat less well-known: Nat Adderly, Idrees Sulieman, Bill Hardman, Thad Jones, Carmell Jones, Booker Little, Dizzy Reece, the Condoli Brothers and Johnny Coles. Then, there are those whose names are pretty much restricted to the cognoscenti: Richard Williams, Don Fagerquist, Shorty Rogers, Cy Touff, Ernie Royal, Dupree Bolton, Tony Fruscella, Jon Eardley, Don Ellis, Jack Sheldon, Herb Pomeroy. I'm sure readers can, and probably will, name some I forgot.
Dupree Bolton
Herb Pomeroy
The playing of many of these guys does not fall easily into one category. They had mastered the bop idiom, but most were not strictly boppers. Some were cool, some partially so; some hot; some came from the West Coast, but didn't play "West Coast," some came from somewhere else but did; some chose the cutting edge, others went down the middle.
I'll hoist a glass to some of the players from this stellar decade in upcoming posts. Today, I'll feature one from the cognoscenti pile: Don Fagerquist.
Labels: Blue Mitchell, Booker Little, chet baker, clifford brown, Condoli Brothers, Don Fagerquist, donald byrd, Herb Pomeroy, Jack Sheldon, jazz, Johnny Coles, lee morgan, Miles Davis, Steve Provizer, Thad Jones
Peggy's Blue Skylight
Just want to point B.C. readers to this video I uploaded to You Tube. This is the well-known Charles Mingus song with my lyrics. (I have put lyrics to a lot more of the song and to the Booker Ervin solo, but they are not performed here).
For posting, I excerpted it from my *teleplay of the same name, which is why you will see some video of the main characters in that teleplay over the audio.
The song is beautifully sung by Dominique Eade, with support by John Leonard on Bass and Tom Beaver on keyboard.
Here are my lyrics to the song:
A building is greying, its edges are fraying, a sign;
Of bad luck beckoned and innocence destined, to die.
Leave it and you feel,
You've got nothing left but to conceal,
The loneliness living in the city
That you cannot bear.
A blind man is singing, his cup is set ringing, a dime;
A gambler shuffles, a sucker is hustled, for wine.
Windows open wide,
Admitting not light but dark inside;
A face will appear and glow soft in the moonlight,
And die.
But a thought has begun to renew you.
To bury the blue you;
The loneliness shattering to pieces;
Thinking of Peggy and drinking in Peggy,
It's clear where your solace and your peace is.
Wakening in love,
Enfolding her tight, you look above;
The skylight is blue,
A frame for your emotions, tonight.
[Booker Ervin solo]:
As the rhythm of this solo
Marks up time with its notes;
So are our days measured by events,
Quickly or slowly the quality will tell,
That time is measured not by minutes or days,
Its pace a relative question changing with our lives;
People passing through, events determine, times pace;
Are we the victims of fate or do choices we make make a difference?
The answer may lie between the two,
A constant compromise between shifting winds of fate
And taking hold,
Making hard decisions and forcing life's hand.
Trying to find the questions,
Unsure which questions we should ask,
Hoping the answers won't be denied,
To a person who is living honestly, trying to be open.
Learning daily,
That pleasure often hides in, simple, places;
Born on a breeze bearing the scent of a warm autumn day,
Seen on the face of a child at play,
Lost in a warm moon-lit ray;
Locked in the laughter of your lover as she lay,
By your side soft, warm and gentle;
Questions fading,
As you see life is time lived moment to moment.
[Return to chorus]
I have written vocalese lyrics to many jazz songs and solos. Vocalists are welcome to contact me about checking out my material.
*I have posted the complete teleplay (14 minutes long): http://youtu.be/y_wXcgq4mQY
Labels: charles mingus, Dominique Eade, jazz vocal, Peggy's Blue Skylight, Steve Provizer
...we went to a restaurant.
Labels: Steve Provizer, thanksgiving
Son of Bad Jazz Art
The u-readers of B.C. seem to have an unquenchable thirst for bad jazz art. Heeding that siren song is not just my duty, it is my way out of the complicated posts I have started and stopped over the last week...
A LOT OF bad jazz art treats musicians as though they are escapees from the local leper colony. This is no way to treat your heroes.
Anthropomorphizing natural objects is a venerable bad jazz art choice.
This one is called "Blown Away;" alluding, I guess, to pieces of his body (Art Farmer?):
I say it's the Wet Pavement Motif and I say the hell with it.
Neato. It's kinda like; abstract.
This is your Bad Jazz Art Professor signing off (a.k.a. crying in the wilderness). Pleasant dreams to you all and remember: the internet is forever.
Labels: art, art farmer, bad jazz art, chet baker, jazz, leper colony, Miles Davis, Steve Provizer
Busted by the Feds
I had business in the Tip O'Neill Federal Office building here in Boston. In case you haven't been to a federal building in a while, this story will stand as a reminder you that you have to go through a "security system" to get in.
Alright, for reasons outside the bounds of this story, I was already in a bad mood and was pissed off to have to go through this process. My choler rose as I watched four dour, pokey security cops tell regular people to empty their pockets, take off their belts, their jackets, run the metal detector wands over them and all the same crap you have to go through at an airport. I began to grumble and the guy behind me joined in, albeit more quietly.
Then it was the turn of the two people in front of me. They were a Muslim couple, pushing an infant in a baby carriage. They had to completely empty the carriage, then the guard ran his hands through every fold and cushion, as well as lifting up and examining the bottom of the carriage. All my thoughts about living in a police state rose to the surface.
Now, my turn. I emptied my crap into a bin with an obvious attitude and the guy didn't like it. He told me to empty my pockets and I told him I already did, but not in the obsequious, compliant voice that you're supposed to use with the minions of power. He picked up the bin and told me to get out. I said I had a 10:30 appointment. He said "get out and come back in an hour, when you calm down."
I picked up my crap and stomped out. When I pushed open the outside door, I heard it slam against something. Ten steps later, three cops surrounded me, as did one guy in civvies. I don't know who the guy in civvies was, but the cops were letting him talk to me. I think he was simply trying to determine if I was "dangerous." I guess he thought not. The eldest one-a regular Boston cop-had a cool head. Maybe he's seen people slam doors at the Tip O'Neill Federal Office building before. In any case, he told me to go back through the line and that we would deal with the problem after I was finished with my business.
As I passed through the security checkpoint, the guards stared at me with gimlet eyes, ready to pounce, but I got through Checkpoint Charlie successfully. While I waited in the social security office to be seen, one of the cops came in and asked me for my drivers license.
When I finished my SS appointment, I was directed back to a cluster of cops, where my license was returned and I was given a "citation" awarding me $500 for being a model citizen and standing up to the depredations of the Man. Well, no. I was actually fined $150 plus $25 "handling charge" (they won't let scalpers do it, but they do) for "destruction of federal property."
Alright, not a tragic story, but one that leaves a few impressions.
First, as my wife reminded me, I will now be on every "watch list" at airports and god knows where else.
Second, this story is not evidence of a particular guard's racism toward Muslims-at least I hope he would exercice the same mindless thoroughness with a white couple. However, it does highlight the innate stupidity of the system.
Third, it remains infuriating to me that you can't behave as a normal human in the presence of a cop. You can't say: "get to work, I'm paying your salary" to a cop on his cel phone, collecting serious money for not directing traffic at a construction site. Lawfully following instructions is not enough, your "attitude" has to fall within the proper obsequious guidelines.
Fourth, if I was African-American, I have a strong feeling I wouldn't be able to post this on my blog until I got out of the local lockup and a tentative court date had been set.
Labels: busted by the feds, federal building, security system, Steve Provizer
R.I.P. Ted Curson
Ted Curson died yesterday (June 3, 1935 – November 4, 2012). If his contribution is recognized at all, it's for his time spent with Charles Mingus, but Curson had a long career and created a singular, instantly recognizable sound.
Born in Philly, Curson went to the Granoff Conservatory, also John Coltrane's alma mater [You can read my interview with Mr. Granoff in the book Coltrane on Coltrane, by Chris DeVito].
Ted moved to NYC in the mid-1950's and started playing with Cecil Taylor. In 1959, he recorded tracks on "Love For Sale" w. Taylor, including this tune, "Little Lees" [Interesting how much Monk there is in Cecil's playing here]:
Labels: bill barron, cecil taylor, chris kelsey, Coltrane, granoff, jazz, mingus, Steve Provizer, ted curson, trumpet
Gioia's Jazz Standards
I have only dipped into The Jazz Standards, but this book is such a kick that I'll write this in blatant disregard for my policy of reading first and writing second.
You feel in good hands from the top, lightly guided by Gioia, a seasoned pro, with no odd axes to grind, no academic shtick to flog. The feeling is like spending a night among friends, talking about which tunes you think are important and which versions of the tunes stand out. Just as you might now reach for Brian Rust to settle arguments about who was on a certain Trumbauer date or Leonard Feather to look up where Ike Quebec was born, you'll be able to turn to "The Jazz Standards" to get a quick look at the history of a tune and a memory jog to help lead you back to a certain recording you couldn't quite remember.
New facts abound. Guy Wood, composer of "My One and Only Love" wrote music for Captain Kangaroo? Sigmund Romberg worked in a pencil factory? Prez had a top 10 juke box hit with "Just You, Just Me"?
Of course, there will be disagreements among invested jazz people-Jon Hendricks' "Airegin" lyrics rate a mention, but not King Pleasure's for "All of Me." Maybe Kenny Dorham's "Prince Albert," an alternative melody for "All the things You Are," should have gotten a citation. Will jazz fans really "have a hard time enjoying Bird's outing ["Bird with Strings" playing "Just Friends"] given the mood music ambience of the arrangement?" Maybe a case can be made that other tunes, like "Up Jumped Spring" or "Moanin'" should be here...
But you can accept and even relish these disagreements, because you can tell by what the author put in that he knew he had to leave a lot out. It's a big book-over 500 pages-and I bet the author and the publisher had some long conversations about how long it could or should be. You could, for example, do an entire tome on "I Got Rhythm."
OK, enough. I like it. I'm glad it's on my shelf.
Labels: Brian Rust, Jon Hendricks, king pleasure, Leonard Feather, review, ted gioia, The Jazz Standards
The Clifford Brown Phenomenon
Marking the births or deaths of artists usually happens in "big" years-the 10th, 25th, etc. It's different with Clifford Brown, whose passing is marked even in the "small" years, as in this, the 82nd anniversary of his birth.
Clifford was indisputably one of our greatest trumpet players, but it's not his playing that explains the hold he has on our psyche, especially compared to the emotional connection we feel to other greats from the late 40's to late 60's era, like Fats Navarro, Sonny Berman, Kenny Dorham, Blue Mitchell, Lee Morgan, Booker Little.
We have plucked Clifford out of this group because we want to celebrate the fact that in Clifford, musical genius managed to coexist with an open, humble and yes, sweet personality.
In a recent post, I said that Clifford didn't have "it," as defined by a player's reputation outweighing his musical contribution. But observing the Clifford phenomenon, it becomes clear that he sits in a singular category of "it-ness;" one not rooted in flashy personal style or the charisma of the bad boy. He was the rare soul in jazz who could play it straight and still be the best; who wouldn't let the harsh road and escapes from same (drugs, booze, promiscuity, overbearing ego) run roughshod over his innate gentleness.
The fact that this seems to be a rare personality constellation in the most elite realms of music-and art in general-is vaguely disconcerting, summoning up as it does all those hoary adages about the tortured genius. We'll not soon escape that labyrinth of romanticism (one corner of which is "it-itude"), so for the moment let's just celebrate a joyous spring of relief from such burdens:
Posted by Steve Provizer at 12:18 PM 4 comments:
Labels: Blue Mitchell, Booker Little., clifford brown, Fats Navarro, Kenny Dorham, lee morgan, Sonny Berman, Steve Provizer
Duets With Dead People
So glad to see that Rod Stewart and Ella Fitzgerald are finally getting together. They join a macabre crew that includes Celine Dion and Sinatra, Ol Blue Eyes and Hayley Reinhart(!), Lauren Hill and Bob Marley, Lisa-Marie and Elvis and, of course Natalie with Nat.
Since I'm always asking for too much anyway, how about a little less fame-by-association-mongering?
Do we let the offspring-Lisa-Marie and Natalie-off the hook. Sorry. No. Trotting out your baby pictures and your less-compelling voices in public is an embarrassment, not a tribute to your dad.
And sticking copyright signs on the names of dead celebrities is no solution. It just means dealing with the copyright holder's phalanx of lawyers and not the estate's. Does anyone think that the corporation noted in my Trademarking Jazz post, CMG Worldwide, would have turned this down; even, as CMG says, to "maintain and develop a positive brand image"?
I have found previous ghoulish re-animation collaborations merely crude and unaesthetic, but to pair Rod and Ella is to sink a leaf blower engine in a Ferrari; to put Cool Whip in a Godiva chocolate; to put Donald Trump's hair on Sophia Loren's head. It shouldn't be done. It shouldn't even be conceived of.
Labels: bob marley, donald trump, ella fitzgerald, elvis, lauren hill, lisa marie presley, natalie cole, rod stewart, Steve Provizer
Jazz Mystique; Who Has "It"?
In a Twitter exchange about my last post, Nicholas Peyton wrote that Louis Armstrong and Jabbo Smith achieved vastly different levels of fame and reputation because Louis had "it" and Jabbo didn't.
That makes sense. Given the playing of Louis and Jabbo, if we simply rediscovered their recordings from the late 1920's, without knowing anything about them, I believe we would hypothesize similar career trajectories for these two great musicians and that's not what happened. Smith had a solid but unexceptional career for about ten years, was rediscovered in the 1960's as a Respected Elder and enjoyed some success until the 1980's. Armstrong achieved international fame.
Most successful jazz musicians did just fine, thank you, through the meritocracy of musical genius, without having to rely on "it." (Of course, good looks never hurt. Especially in female singers, there has always been a sorting process that moved good lookers to the front of the line. Timing, too plays a part).
So, what is "it"? To some extent, "it" needs quotations marks because it's hard to define except tautologically: style, charisma, sex appeal, aloofness, cool, "badness" (promiscuity, dope, other breaking of norms). Each time a jazz musician is acknowledged to have "it," the elements shift. Some move to the surface, some are not in play and some, while seemingly contradictory, co-exist in the same person.
To see if a musician has "it," look at the relationship between their real musical contribution and their reputation. Ask if their contributions have created too small a reputation, one that's too large or one that is, like Goldilock's last bowl of porridge, just right. If the reputation is oversized, it may be because of the "It factor@" (Simon Cowell: hands off).
For example, Wayne Shorter's musical contributions have been immense. His reputation among musicians is stellar, his public career is solid. There is equivalence there; balance. Does he have "it"? No.
On the other hand, I think Bill Evans, a musician whose contributions are congruent to Shorter's, did have "it." His contribution was large; his reputation larger. Why the difference? I think it's a result of his complex presentation as junky/nerd (compared to the more straightforward presentation of Shorter). Evans projected a multi-layered personality and, as far as mystiques go, his"transgressive" behavior (dope) is a part of it.
Chet Baker had "it," for reasons too obvious to mention.
Did Clifford Brown? The non-musical mythology about Clifford is about his sweetness as a person. Such things do not really portend "it." He died too young to be certain, but indications are that his reputation would have paralleled his musical skill and not transcended it.
Duke Ellington? Yes. His looks, style, vocal presentation and lifestyle reflected a complex man and the audience "read" that.
Bix Beiderbecke? Yes. His ardent admirers won't like this, but his playing was not so far ahead of many of his contemporaries that it would justify the rarified status he enjoys, had he not had "it."
Bessie Smith? Yes. She did stand at least head, if not shoulders above the others, but her continuing stature so far above other blues singer/shouters of her era is due to her charisma and her notable reputation for livin' large.
Dizzy Gillespie? Yes. In many ways, the classic trickster, Diz brought a comfort level to outrageousness that spoke to a charismatic freedom.
John Coltrane? Of course.
We'll end up with probably the #1 "it" guy in jazz: Miles Davis. Through the 40's, he was just one in a pack of elite trumpet players. His interest in expanding the jazz palette (Birth of the Cool) in the late 1940's brought him out of the pack and also had the effect of associating him with the idea of coolness.
The Andover Shop
Jazz musicians, including the young Miles, had always been invested in a solid sartorial presentation, but starting in the mid-50's, the way Miles dressed began to be a specific part of the way he was promoted by his record company, Columbia. George Frazier's liner notes for "Miles Greatest Hits" in 1965 were an ode to Miles as fashionista. Miles' clothing evolved with his music. He moved through Brooks Brothers, the Andover Shop and designer styles as he went from Au Privave, to Sketches of Spain to Tutu.
The iconography surrounding the man is arguably denser then that of his two closest mythological competitors: Louis Armstrong and Charlie Parker. The epigrammatic way in which he spoke and the semi-strangled whisper in which he spoke it; his battles with cops and bores; kicking dope, boxing, wives. All, "it"-worthy.
I always strain against people confusing the art with the artist, but the need for the audience to project personality into the music is powerful. Almost all of us are suckers for "it." However, it's also on the shoulders of those who know the history of this music to try and fill in some of the gaps that have been created by the power of "it;" to push back toward what really needs to be kept at the center. You know what I'm talkin' about.
Posted by Steve Provizer at 11:48 AM 2 comments:
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Second-wave feminism (214)
audiocassettes (3)
Academic Departments and Programs (217)
Barnard Center for Research on Women (217)
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The Scholar and the Feminist XIV (Women in the 21st Century: Looking Forward and Looking Back): Afternoon Workshop 18, part 1
Barbara Omolade (City College, CUNY) presents a paper on women's studies and feminism as part of...
Show moreBarbara Omolade (City College, CUNY) presents a paper on women's studies and feminism as part of the afternoon workshops at Scholar and Feminist Conference XIV. This recording is followed by BC13-58_SFAudio_227. Papers presented or name of session: "Women's Studies and Feminism in the Future".
Show moreBarbara Omolade (City College, CUNY) presents a paper on women's studies and feminism as part of the afternoon workshops at Scholar and Feminist Conference XIV. This recording is preceded by BC13-58_SFAudio_226. Papers presented or name of session: "Women's Studies and Feminism in the Future".
The Scholar and the Feminist VII (Class, Race, and Sex—Exploring Contradictions, Affirming Connections): Class and Race Issues in Women's Studies
Papers delivered by Angela Jorge (Old Westbury, SUNY) and Florence Howe (Old Westbury, SUNY and...
Show morePapers delivered by Angela Jorge (Old Westbury, SUNY) and Florence Howe (Old Westbury, SUNY and The Feminist Press) in the afternoon workshop session of the Scholar and Feminist Conference VII. Papers presented or name of session: "Issues of Class and Race in Women's Studies: A Puerto Rican Woman's Thoughts"; "Class and Race Issues in Women's Studies".
First Meeting for Scholar and Feminist IV, 1976
Summary of the first planning for the fourth annual S&F conference. The question "is a feminist...
Show moreSummary of the first planning for the fourth annual S&F conference. The question "is a feminist perspective in scholarly work useful only for the study of women?" was posed. Those present also discussed the incorporation of feminism into scholarly institutions, and collectivity versus individualism.
First Meeting for Scholar and Feminist IV, 1976, page 1
Second planning meeting for the Scholar and Feminist III conference, 1975
Notes from the second planning meeting for The Scholar and The Feminist III Conference....
Show moreNotes from the second planning meeting for The Scholar and The Feminist III Conference. Organizers are interested in the interdisciplinary implications of feminist scholarship, as well as the possibilities for feminist scholarship to cross boundaries into the "non-academic world."
Report on planning session 2, 1975
Conference is asking the question "what does the new feminist research look like? It seems in...
Show moreConference is asking the question "what does the new feminist research look like? It seems in many cases to cross the boundaries from one discipline to the next, or to combine several disciplines; is it interdisciplinary? multi? trans...?" The conference will examine the interdisciplinary field of women's studies.
Report on planning session 2, 1975, page 2
Second planning meeting for the Scholar and Feminist III conference, 1975, page 2
Report of the second planning session for The Scholar and the Feminst II, 1974
Plans for the second Scholar and the Feminst conference, including a keynote speaker, following a...
Show morePlans for the second Scholar and the Feminst conference, including a keynote speaker, following a panel with two speakers and a discussion of the bias in scholarship.
Report of the second planning session for The Scholar and the Feminst II, 1974, page 1
Report of the first planning session for The Scholar and the Feminist II, 1974
Report of the first planning meeting for the second Scholar and The Feminist conference....
Show moreReport of the first planning meeting for the second Scholar and The Feminist conference. Participants talked about Title IX, bias in scholarship, and the "truth" of research.
Report of the first planning session for The Scholar and the Feminist II, 1974, page 1
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Cinema Therapy Review
Cinema Therapy Therapist
About Dr. Fredricks
Friends: The Series
November 17, 2007 by Dr. Randi Fredricks, Ph.D.
A sitcom behemoth of the last 10 years, Friends shot out of the gate in 1994 with snappy writing and an attractive cast. The exploits of sensitive paleontologist Ross Geller (David Schwimmer), his obsessive-compulsive sister Monica Geller (Courteney Cox); Monica’s roommate Rachel Green (Jennifer Aniston), a spoiled rich girl trying to live on her own; earthy aromatherapist/masseuse Phoebe Buffay (Lisa Kudrow); and Monica’s neighbors across the hall– sarcastic Chandler Bing (Matthew Perry) and his dim-bulb roommate Joey Tribbiani (Matt LeBlanc) became a nationwide obsession, a pop-culture icon (remember “The Rachel” haircut?) and a top Nielsen hit for its entire run.
The first two seasons were mostly centered on the on-off saga of Ross and Rachel, and while their relationship remained a strong presence through romantic rivals and even a baby, the other characters eventually moved from sideshow players into a shared comedic lead.
Friends was not without its heart. Most of the cast had dysfunctional relationships with their parents and went through loss, divorce, marriage, parenthood, and love triangles. The emotional pregnancies of Rachel (by Ross) and Phoebe (surrogate to her half-brother’s triplets) won the actresses Emmy Awards, and Joey’s tender feelings for Rachel in Season 8 won LeBlanc, the most improved actor in the series, a nomination.
Most sitcoms run out of ideas by the fifth season, but Friends gave itself a refreshing jolt the minute Monica and Chandler wound up in bed together. Their budding romance was not only the one of the funniest arcs of the series, but one of the most sentimental, as they planned a wedding, struggled to have a child and eventually turned to adoption. By seasons seven and on, the characters had each “grown up” from young singletons to thirtysomethings finding permanence in their careers and love lives but never losing the laughs.
Friends featured a parade of celebrity guests, but unlike Will & Grace, it actually utilized most of the stars as more than cameos: The sextet’s parents were all brilliantly cast, particularly Kathleen Turner as Chandler’s drag-queen father and Teri Garr as Phoebe’s dizzy mom. Everyone from George Clooney to Sean Penn to Julia Roberts to Bruce Willis has appeared on the sitcom, and Tom Selleck certainly enjoyed a career resuscitation after his recurring role as Monica’s older man.
But no star power ever penetrated the bond between the six stars, and their unmatchable chemistry worked for 10 seasons. Even if the show is on reruns daily, this boxed set of Friends remains watchable over and over again–even if that theme song grates on your nerves.
Character to watch: Lisa Kudrow as Phoebe Buffay.
Journal your answers to the following questions after you watch the series.
How does this particular character’s journey compare with yours?
Did the character develop certain characteristics during the movie that you have or that you would like to have? If so, what are those characteristics?
What obstacles did this character face? What was his or her biggest challenge?
What would you have done differently if you had been in the same position as the character?
Is this character the type of person you would be friends with? Why or why not?
Click here to order this DVD Collection at Amazon.
Filed Under: Comedy, Relationships, Romance, Television
Eight Is Enough: The Series
Cheers: The Series
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Movies, charactors, and associated content are the property of their respective studios and this site makes no particular claim about them.
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Nestle Chairman says Water is Not a Human Right
Posted on April 17, 2013 by chris
Link to Article with Video
In a candid interview for the documentary We Feed the World, Nestlé Chairman Peter Brabeck makes the astonishing claim that water isn’t a human right. He attacks the idea that nature is good, and says it is a great achievement that humans are now able to resist nature’s dominance. He attacks organic agriculture and says genetic modification is better.
Nestlé is the world’s biggest bottler of water. Brabeck claims – correctly – that water is the most important raw material in the world. However he then goes on to say that privatisation is the best way to ensure fair distribution. He claims that the idea that water is a human right comes from “extremist” NGOs. Water is a foodstuff like any other, and should have a market value.
He believes that the ultimate social responsibility of any Chairman is to make as much profit as possible, so that people will have jobs.
And just to underline what a lovely man he is, he also thinks we should all be working longer and harder.
Consequences of water privatisation
The consequences of water privatisation have been devastating on poor communities around the world. In South Africa, where the municipal workers’ union SAMWU fought a long battle against privatisation, there has been substantial research (pdf) about the effects. Water privatisation lead to a massive cholera outbreak in Durban in the year 2000.
The Nestlé boycott
Nestlé already has a very bad reputation among activists. There has been a boycott call since 1977. This is due to Nestlé’s aggressive lobbying to get women to stop breastfeeding – which is free and healthy – and use infant formula (sold by Nestlé) instead. Nestlé has lobbied governments to tell their health departments to promote formula. In poor countries, this has resulted in the deaths of babies, as women have mixed formula with contaminated water instead of breastfeeding.
Tell Nestlé they are wrong – water is a human right
There is Europe-wide campaign to tell the European Commission that water is a human right, and to ask them to enact legislation to ensure this is protected.
If you live in Europe, please sign the petition.
Original article published by Union Solidarity International.
Posted in Books, Features, Maine, News, Vermont | Leave a reply
Maine: Talking points for Town Meeting on RBOs
Q: What is a sustainable energy system?
According to the definition of “unsustainable infrastructure” in the ordinance, the criteria for a “sustainable” infrastructure system is one that is does not threaten rights and is under COMMUNITY CONTROL.
Town residents – not permitting agencies – will choose which projects are acceptable.
Q: What is the prohibition?
Land acquisition for the purpose of siting and constructing the E/W within the town is illegal.
Corporations in violation of the ordinance cannot use their constitutional protections to override the rights and protections guaranteed to real people within the town.
The state cannot preempt the ordinance unless to provide greater rights protections to people.
Q: Is the ordinance “legal”?
The RBO recognizes a higher law – one of RIGHTS.
Lower law is regulatory law.
The definition of “self-government” – According to the Maine State Constitution, Article 1 Section 2. Power inherent in people. All power is inherent in the people; all free governments are founded in their authority and instituted for their benefit; they have therefore an unalienable and indefeasible right to institute government, and to alter, reform, or totally change the same, when their safety and happiness require it.
Article I Section 24. Other rights not impaired. The enumeration of certain rights shall not impair nor deny others retained by the people.
So, if we believe we govern by consent, then the RBO is legitimate law-making that marks the beginning of a new civil rights movement.
It is our duty to correct government that denies rights and change it to protect rights.
Law is not meant to be static, it adapts to societal views.
At one time people were considered property under the Law ” (civil rights movement/suffragists).
What’s “legal” is not always “legitimate.
Q: Will the town get sued?
Anyone can sue anyone for anything. The ordinance does nothing to change that.
What the ordinance does change is the political relationship between the town and corporations who operate within the town. If a commercial interest attempts to exercise power over local decision-making, the ordinance recognizes that kind of power as “illegitimate and illegal”.
Q: Does the state preempt all decisions about energy and transportation – in fact, aren’t those federal issues?
Congress controls commerce – energy and transportation are part of federal policy, regulated at the federal and state levels.
State regulatory agencies (DOT, DEP) control the permitting process at the state level to implement federal policy.
Once a corporation fills out a permit application that is accepted by regulatory agencies as “administratively complete”, the decision is non-discretionary and the permit issues BY RIGHT.
If the Town does not want 135 foot towers on ridgelines, or a highway running over 400 year old farms, too bad.
According to regulatory law: What the state permits, the municipality cannot prohibit.
Would the state and federal government come in on behalf of corporations to control what happens in our town? Yes, the way the legal structure currently operates, corporations, backed up by the state through the chartering process, have more decision-making authority in the town about whether or not the E/W gets to site here, than we do.
Q: Will the selectmen be liable for an ordinance passed at town meeting?
It is common practice for corporations in charge of siting commercial and industrial projects that harm the health and safety of residents and damage the environment to threaten elected officials. They do this because they are hoping the elected officials will crumble out of fear of being sued and surrender any local control to decide what happens to the townspeople, abandoning the very people who elected them and surrendering their rights even before the case is brought to court. Surrendering in fear eliminates the trouble of preparing arguments that might portray the corporation in a bad light when their lawyers make the argument that “of course corporations have more power in your community than you do- it’s the Law”
The selectmen have indemnification protection. Insurance for actions taken while in office.
Selectmen also have the support of the community behind them. This demonstrates service and responsibility to the people, not the opposite.
Q: The state has our best interests at heart, surely they would not issue a permit for a project that would hurt residents, would they? Regulatory agencies protect us, right?
All regulatory agencies serve the same purpose – to facilitate the permitting of business and industry.
Q: How much will a legal battle cost, if we try to say “no” to the E/W?
No one can predict the cost of a lawsuit. In general, comparing a lawsuit brought using a regulatory argument and one that reframes the argument to one of rights, the latter argument is not as costly to defend.
Q: Why pass an ordinance that the lawyer says is illegal?
Law is not meant to be static – it has to change when it denies rights.
The town lawyer’s job is protecting the financial interests of the municipal corporation (our town) not protecting the people who live here.
The RBO challenges the idea that corporations, supported by the state, can harm the community without liability. Permits legalize rape, in other words.
Current law protects corporations – municipal corporations and private corporations – not the people and certainly not the environment.
The Community Bill of Rights Ordinance drives rights of real people – the residents of the town – into Law.
Educational pamphlet for more information contact: Gail Darrell CELDF gail(at)celdf(dot)org 603.269.8542
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Maine Sensible Transportation Policy MDOT Handbook
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Sensible Transportation Policy Act and Resource Page
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GUIDELINES FOR SUBMITTING WRITTEN TESTIMONY TO THE TRANSPORTATION COMMITTEE FOR THE STATE OF MAINE FOR A HEARING
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Community Economic Impacts from the Proposed East-West Highway/Corridor
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Unanswered questions fuel contentious meeting over east-west highway
Posted on April 2, 2013 by chris
By Nick McCrea, BDN Staff | April 02, 2013
Link to Article and Video
BANGOR, Maine — Uncertainty surrounding the route of a proposed 220-mile highway across Maine sparked vehement questioning and opposition during a Tuesday morning meeting at the historic Penobscot County Courthouse.
Cianbro Corp. CEO Peter Vigue, the leading proponent of the east-west highway, spent much of the meeting with commissioners trying to dispel what he called rumors and misconceptions about the proposed private $2.1-billionproject. Many of the more than 100 residents of Penobscot and Piscataquis counties in attendance weren’t satisfied after nearly two hours spent posing questions and concerns to Vigue.
Vigue argued that such a roadway would help Maine’s struggling economy grow and thrive. Residents voiced concerns that their towns and properties might lie in the path of the proposed highway, putting rural, agrarian ways of life at risk.
Cianbro, a Pittsfield-based construction company, has yet to release information about the corridor’s proposed route because its plans are fluid and changing on a regular basis, company representatives have said. That has left residents to speculate about whether it will cut a path through their communities or properties.
Penobscot County Commissioner Peter Baldacci said during the meeting that uncertainty among property owners about the path of the highway could lead to “condemnation blight,” a legal term referring to a reduction in property value that results from potential eminent domain claims. While Cianbro has repeatedly said that eminent domain will not be used, its decision to map out a route behind closed doors is causing uncertainty among residents who are left to speculate about the future of their land, Baldacci said.
Residents vehemently questioned Vigue, mostly on where the highway would be placed. Some attendees shouted out in disagreement or scoffed when Vigue provided uncertain answers or said he didn’t have or wasn’t prepared to release information related to the private project or its partners.
During his presentation and in answering questions that followed, Vigue vowed that there would be no public-private partnership between Cianbro and the state, that eminent domain would not be used to acquire land, and that tar sands and oil pipelines would not be run along the corridor in the foreseeable future.
The meeting came less than two months after a commissioners meeting during which more than a dozen Penobscot and Piscataquis County residents blasted the highway proposal. Commissioners asked Vigue to provide Cianbro’s perspective on the idea.
Posted in Books, Grassroots Movements, Health, Maine, News, United Nations, Video | Leave a reply
TransCanada pitches west-east pipeline
Proposed project would bring crude to refineries in Quebec, Saint John
Link to Article with Videos
CBC News | Apr 2, 2013 9:28 AM ET
TransCanada Corp. is seeking firm financial commitments from companies seeking to ship crude oil from Western Canada to refineries in Eastern Canada.
The Calgary-based company announced on Tuesday morning a bidding process that will allow interested producers to make binding commitments for space on the pipeline. Companies will have from April 15 to June 17 to enter into long-term commitments to use the pipeline.
The open-season process follows a successful expression-of-interest phase and talks with potential shippers.
TransCanada said if the next phase is successful, it plans to start seeking regulatory approvals later in 2013, and the oil could start flowing to Eastern Canada by late 2017.
Should TransCanada’s pipeline east be approved?
The proposal would be to convert 3,000 kilometres of the company’s natural gas pipelines to allow for crude oil to be transported. The company would also be looking at building 1,400 kilometres of new pipeline from Quebec into Saint John.
The pipeline could carry between 500,000 and 850,000 barrels of crude oil per day from Alberta and Saskatchewan to the eastern refineries, according to the company.
Premier David Alward called the west-east pipeline proposal an historic initiative. Alward made the comments in front of the Irving Oil refinery in Saint John on Tuesday. (Robert Jones/CBC)
Federal Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver said on Tuesday TransCanada’s announcement was a “positive step.”
“We welcome such proposals, because they can generate thousands of Canadian jobs and long-term economic prosperity — particularly in Quebec and the Maritimes — for generations to come,” Oliver said.
The federal minister said the proposed pipeline project must meet a series of regulatory reviews.
If the project moves forward, Oliver said it would be an important piece of energy infrastructure for Canada.
“Pipelines moving oil from Alberta to Quebec to New Brunswick would be among the most expansive and ambitious stretches of energy infrastructure in the entire world and would contribute to the energy security of Canada and all of North America,” he said.
Officials from the Saint John-based Irving Oil Ltd. have said in the past their refinery could handle western crude oil.
The Irving Oil refinery is the largest in Canada and can process 300,000 barrels of oil per day. Saint John also has a deep-water port and a liquefied natural gas facility.
Oliver said he has recently toured the Irving refinery and the Ultramar refinery in Levis. The federal minister said he plans to tour Suncor’s refinery in Montreal in the coming weeks.
3 days in Alberta
New Brunswick Premier David Alward responded to TransCanada’s announcement on Tuesday morning during a news conference held at the Irving Oil headquarters, calling it an “encouraging step forward.”
The New Brunswick premier said the pipeline proposal is a “historic initiative” for both the province and the country.
“We envision New Brunswick as Canada’s next energy powerhouse and Saint John as the anchor of that powerhouse,” Alward said in front of more than 30 Irving Oil employees.
“If we proceed, this project will strengthen our national and provincial economies and create jobs and economic growth today and for generations to come,” he said, suggesting the project has the potential to be as important to Canada’s economic future as the railway was in the past.
Alward said the pipeline will create high-paying jobs in New Brunswick and will keep workers in the province instead of heading to western Canada to find employment in the oilsands.
“I want to see the day when the mother or father, the son or daughter leave their New Brunswick home in the morning to go to work in the development of natural resources, they will return for dinner that night, not three or four weeks later,” he said.
Alward spent three days in Alberta in February talking to Alberta Premier Alison Redford and oil executives about the possibility of the west-to-east pipeline.
The project has the possibility of creating 2,000 jobs during the construction phase of the pipeline and a few hundred refining jobs after, according to some estimates.
Alberta has been interested in the project, because oil from that province is now being shipped to the United States, where there is a glut. That means oil producers are getting $20 to $40 less per barrel than the world price.
Those lower prices translate into lower royalties for the provincial government, and that is causing a potential multi-billion dollar deficit in Alberta. A pipeline to the Irving Oil refinery would allow Alberta producers to charge the higher world price.
A new pipeline would also alleviate Canada’s dependence on foreign oil and increase the value of Canada’s crude oil through shipping to world markets from the deep-water port of Saint John, said Alward.
Port Saint John president and CEO Jim Quinn welcomed the prospect of playing an integral role in bringing Canadian crude to global markets.
“This opportunity for Saint John and our port is phenomenal,” Quinn said in a statement.
The port, which for 50 years has been handling petroleum cargo for both import and export, currently handles the largest oil tankers in the world, as well as the largest crude carriers, he said.
TransCanada Corp. may build 1,400 kilometres of pipeline, extending its capacity into Saint John. (Courtest of TransCanada)
Posted in Books, Fryeburg, Maine, Photo, Video | Leave a reply
A New Civil Rights Movement: Liberating Our Communities from Corporate Control: A Pennsylvania Judge Holds That Corporations Are Not “Persons”
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Conserving Habitat on and around Maine’s Roads: A Report by Maine Audobon and Maine DOT
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Crucis' Court
The World of Crucis' Court
Category Archives: Welfare State
Good Friday Report
Posted on Friday, April 3, 2015, 12:00 pm by Crucis
I apologize for not posting yesterday. I had a dental appointment and didn’t get home until late in the day.
For millions of Christians, today is a day of remembrance. Some ignorantly claim it’s a celebration. It is not. It’s an acknowledgment of debt to one who paid all for all of us. The celebration is on Easter. The unchurched and ignorant dcann’t discern the difference between the two days.
This blog, however, is political rather than religious. In many cases, the two views are in alignment. In one such arena is the choice of mass welfare. On one hand many claim that we should support those in need. I doubt anyone would argue against that. However, many of those in ‘need’ are not. They are in a situation of their own making and refuse to extricate themselves from that situation. They depend on the largess of others while doing nothing to better themselves, to remove themselves from a life of parasitism. Generations subsist in such environments and blame others for their own failings.
Those of us of a conservative bent prefer to help those who are willing to accept that help to better their livelihood, to better their skills in search of employment, to work, study, learn, to educate themselves so they need not be dependent on the charity of others. We had a small victory in the Missouri Senate this week. An attempt to extend dependency in Missouri, to bolster the cult of parasitism failed in Jeff City.
Missouri Senate defeats proposal to expand Medicaid
Mar 31, 11:33 PM CDT
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Missouri senators have defeated a proposal to expand eligibility for Medicaid.
The Senate on Tuesday voted 25-9 against the measure.
Democratic Sen. Paul LeVota proposed adding the amendment to a bill that would ensure the state continues to receive certain funding for Medicaid.
The vote follows rallies in the Capitol and across the state calling on lawmakers to debate expanding the joint federal and state health care program for low-income residents.
States can receive additional funding for raising eligibility under Democratic President Barack Obama’s health care law.
But Missouri’s Republican legislative leaders have called the measure a nonstarter.
This amendment should be a nonstarter. The democrats ignore one extremely important proviso of Obama’s assistance—it’s temporary. And when the subsidies expire, Missouri will be left holding the bag for ALL the costs of the medicaid expansion. Why? Because Medicaid is a primary component of Obamacare. The feds, by themselves, cannot pay for the enormous costs of Obamacare. They need to steal from us to do so…one way or another. Expanding medicaid is one such scheme.
Kansas Governor Sam Brownback signed legislation yesterday permitting concealed carry by Kansas residents without a permit. Existing Kansas concealed carry permits will still issued as before to allow Kansans to carry out-of-state where the Kansas CCW permit is recognized.
A similar bill has been filed in Jefferson City. It too would allow concealed carry without a permit while retaining the existing CCW permit structure. The bill was filed late in this year’s session but it is being sponsored by well-known supporters. The bill, along with allowing CCW on public transportation was heard in committee this week.
In local news, the liberals in Kansas City, lead by Mayor Sly James, are proposing to raise the city’s minimum wage to $15 and hour. Seattle did so last year and the results are in—restaurants are failing and closing all over the city. Sly James would like to do the same to Kansas City—kill jobs and close businesses.
Many of Kansas City’s business owners are unaware of this proposal. During my visit to the dentist yesterday, he said he had just given his assistant a raise to $9 and hour. I told him that soon he’d have to raise her to $15 an hour if Sly James had his way. He was unaware that could happen. He’s a small businessman employing just three people. Wages and salaries are a significant portion of his business expense. A sudden increase in his cost of doing business could put him in dire constraints!
He asked if they knew of the consequences of such an increase. “How could anyone be so stupid?” he asked.
And stupid it is. The increase wouldn’t hit just the food industry. It would affect many small businesses like my dentist as well as large organizations…like the Kansas City School District.
Many (most?) of the school districts para-professionals are only paid $8-9 and hour. They would be affected too and the increase would bust the already horribly large school district budget. According to the Kansas City district’s payroll data, the increase of the minimum wage would affect 1,447 employees of the district who are currently paid less than $15 and hour. How many of these employees would have to be laid off?
This situation is what we’ve come to expect from the incompetency of the left. Money appears whenever they want it from an overflowing pot of money that is magically extracted from…somewhere. Taxpayers however, know who is the source of this rapacious demand for more and more money—democrats.
From Crucis' Court
Posted in Blogging, Concealed Carry, Easter, Kansas, Leftists, Legislative Actions, Medicaid, Minimum Wage, Permitless CCW, Welfare, Welfare State
The Rime…
Posted on Tuesday, December 10, 2013, 10:53 am by Crucis
Ah! well a-day! what evil looks
Had I from old and young!
Instead of the cross, the Albatross
About my neck was hung.
— The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Part II, Stanza 14.
Obama must be feeling as if he were that Ancient Mariner, who killed the Albatross and was condemned to wear its dead body around his neck. The difference is that Obama’s Albatross is Obamacare.
Some statistics were published today that is another weight, another burden, around Obama’s political agenda. Statistics, such as:
OBAMACARE POLL: THEY’VE TRIED IT AND THEY DON’T LIKE IT
Fifty percent of voters disapprove of ObamaCare, 43 percent strongly so, according to a poll out from the budget hawk group Public Notice. The survey, conducted by Tarrance Group, found that while 40 percent of respondents approved of the health law, a majority of key groups disapprove including women ages 18 to 44 (51 percent), employees of small businesses (57 percent), adults in households with children (56 percent) and voters who’ve tried to shop on ObamaCare Web sites (52 percent). The poll also showed that Members of Congress who voted for the president’s law are getting a negative reaction from voters, with 43 percent saying they less likely to re-elect those who voted for the health law versus 38 percent who are more likely to vote for their member if he or she voted for ObamaCare. — FOX Newsletter, 12-10-2013.
The critical issue is the age groups in the poll above. These groups are the demographic segment that Obama was planning on soaking to pay for his monstrosity. Now, they are opting out, refusing to play Obama’s game, a game he is losing badly.
But that isn’t the only damaging news about Obamacare. As we move closer to the implementation date, more failings of Obamacare are emerging. This time for prescription drugs—the list of covered drugs has been slashed. Many of us, forced onto Medicare, take maintenance drugs. Some are to control cholesterol, some to control blood pressure, plus many others. Now, with the list of covered drugs slashed, Obamacare and Medicare participants must pay for those drugs out of their pockets. Plus, for Obamacare enrollees, those out-of-pocket costs cannot be charged to your deductible.
OBAMACARE PAIN PILL
Dr. Scott Gottlieb, former senior policy adviser to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services told Megyn Kelly that many prescriptions may not be covered under ObamaCare. “The list of drugs that the plans cover, in many cases, aren’t very long. And if the drugs aren’t covered you’re on your own, you basically have to pay for it entirely out of pocket, and the money that you spend on those drugs doesn’t count against your out of pocket limit or against your deductible,” Gottlieb said. “This could cost patients who need special drugs a lot of money, literally tens of thousands of dollars a year.” — FOX Newsletter, 12-10-2013.
What a disappointment Paul Ryan has turned out to be. He ran in the last election, as a conservative, a tax conservative and a spending conservative. His current budget plan, with democrat Senator Patty Murray, exposes the lies he spoke during that campaign.
The Big Spenders Return
By: Erick Erickson (Diary) | December 10th, 2013 at 04:30 AM
If Paul Ryan were a Peanuts character, he’d be the guy who pulls the football out of the way just as he himself is about to kick it. Over the past number of years, Congressman Ryan has come up with a few reform proposals.
From his roadmap to this, he has made as his starting point for negotiations that which should be his ending point.
Now, with liberal Senator Patty Murray, Congressman Ryan wants to raise spending today on the promise that Congress will restrain itself ten years from now (or whenever the benchmark will be). It’s a return to pre-sequestration Washington — spending increases today in exchange for promises of spending cuts later.
I opposed sequestration at the time the GOP came up with it. I figured they’d do an end run around it. But they did not. Surprisingly, they stuck with it if only because they couldn’t figure out a way to undermine it without rocking the boat with their base.
Now it’s looking like they are prepared to rock that boat.
The Democrats have repeated painted doom and gloom scenarios about sequestration. They said it would undermine economic growth, but the latest economic figures dispute that. They said it would cause increased unemployment, but the latest employment numbers dispute that. They’ve said a great deal, all of which has been nonsensical hyperbole.
Based on what has been reported so far, the Ryan-Murray plan seems like outright capitulation to the big spending, big government agenda of both parties’ lobbyist class. In fact, the op-eds already coming out for it are being written by those who stand to profit from more spending.
Congress should start at sequestration spending levels and reduce spending from there — not raise revenue and not raise spending. After all, like Obamacare, sequestration is the law of the land too.
A sellout in any form, is still a sellout. Actions like this, Ryan’s betrayal of his Tea Party supporters, makes me wonder if there are ANY national politicians, Cruz, Lee and a handful of others excepted, who are not traitors to their constituents?
Here is a link to another report on the Paul Ryan-Patty Murray Tax and Spend bill. It’s very informative.
If you watch the news coming out of the Middle-east, you may have come across this article, the possible creation of strange allies, Saudi Arabia and…Israel! Neither country wants a nuclear Iran on their borders.
Saudis to Obama: We Will Not Tolerate a Nuclear Iran
By Karin McQuillan, December 10, 2013
Individuals who have even visited Israel, or who observe Judaism, or who carry a Bible are banned from Saudi Arabia. Yet Saudi Arabia’s Israel-hating King Abdullah just flew in an Israeli scientist to have dinner with him, to enjoy some royal hospitality, accept a medal and the $200,000 “Arab Nobel Prize.” It’s a not-so-subtle message to President Obama: the unthinkable can happen, so don’t assume the Saudis won’t join with Israel to bomb Iran.
Obama’s new Iran policy moves the Mid-East closer to war over oil and religion — Sunni Saudis versus Shia Iranians. There is no more strategic commodity than Gulf oil to the entire world economy. American national security stakes could not be higher. Iran’s end game, some say more than an attack on Israel, is to seize the Saudi oil fields. There is a Shiite majority in the oil province that the Saudi Princes fear could be turned by Iran. The Saudis no longer see the U.S. as an ally in stabilizing the Middle East. We have become a force for chaos. The UK Telegraph:
Chris Skrebowski, editor of Petroleum Review, said the great unknown is how Saudi Arabia will react to a move deemed treachery in Riyadh… The great question is whether they can live with this deal, or whether it is intolerable,” he said.
Mr Skrebowski said the Middle East is a tinder box, in the grip of a Sunni-Shia civil war comparable in ideological ferocity to the clash between Catholics and Protestants in early 17th Century Europe. Saudi Arabia has already shown how far it will go to protect its interests, helping to overthrow Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood.
The Saudis are signaling that they will unleash a pre-emptive war in the Middle East in response to Obama’s nuclear capitulation to Iran. These signals are an effort to change Obama’s decision to prop up the mullahs and green light their nuclear program. Can the Saudi threats become real? It’s a wild card our President is willing to play.
The column continues, here, at the American Spectator website.
The Obama administration, acting as if by design, is alienating our friends and allies. If Obama’s plan is to isolate the United States from our friends around the world, he is being extremely successful. That’s is Obama’s only agenda item that is working.
Posted in Current Events, democrats, Federal Budget, Federal Malfeasance, Fiscal Malfeasance, Israel, Medicare, Obamacare, Opinion, Ruling Class, Saudi Arabia, The Establishment, Welfare, Welfare State
Posted on Tuesday, December 3, 2013, 11:32 am by Crucis
I was listening to the opening segment of Dave Ramsey’s radio program this morning when I heard him describe some criticism he has been receiving. These critics claim Ramsey is a fraud, hates poor people and is a tool of the “moneyed” people, whatever that is.
Their position is that capitalism is the root of the country’s ills, that capitalism purposely keeps people in poverty so that “moneyed” people can control everything. It was reminiscent of the union and socialist talking points that I’ve seen over the years.
My observations over the last forty plus years as an adult is contrary to those talking points. The Poverty Line didn’t exist when I was growing up. That was a creation of Lyndon Johnson’s War on Poverty. Since that time, the government has spent trillions, yes that’s right, trillions with a T, on poverty and it still exists in higher levels than before.
Why is this so?
To a very large extent, in my opinion, it is cultural. The history of this country, until the middle of the 20th Century, was based on entrepreneurship. People worked to acquire assets and capital that was, in turn, used to bootstrap a business, an enterprise, a homestead, a dream that lead to prosperity and increased wealth. Many, many were successful. Just look at the winners of the 19th and 20th centuries. They were, are numerous.
Many also failed.
Some, who chose to be homesteader, failed due to disease and weather. The drought and subsequent dust storms of the 1930s is one example. The blizzards covering the northern prairie states in the late 19th century ruined ranches large and small.
Some of those who failed, tried again and succeeded. The farmers who lost their farms in the Dust Bowl, migrated to California and other states and were known as “Okies,” migrant workers moving from one agricultural job to another.
Others, quit. With FDR’s New Deal, some realized they didn’t have to support themselves, others, the government, would do that and that realization was the beginning of America’s welfare state, a shift in American Culture which fed today’s welfare state.
But, even today, those in poverty need not remain there. The tools exist to allow anyone, with sufficient motivation, to rise out of poverty and to succeed. The obvious tool is education. When I was young and in school, we were taught basics: reading and comprehension, writing and grammar including composition—writing clearly, arithmetic and math, history, geography and natural sciences. But most of all, we were taught how to teach ourselves.
As bad as our current education policies are, it is still possible for an individual to rise above their economic level and succeed—but now without work and personal investment. That is where our dependency culture is failing us.
When I was in school, we had a number of students whose parents were on “relief.” I personally knew some of them. I played with their children, visited them at their home, rode the same bus to school, I knew them and their entire family intimately. The differences between their families and mine were unbelievable to one who had not known both of us.
My family was average for that time and place. My father worked as a coal miner and part-time farmer (I did more farm work when in school than did he), my mother was an elementary school teach as was my older married sister. We also owned a small farm and raised most of our food. We weren’t rich, nor had a lot of money, but we did have something else—a desire to succeed. I was raised in that culture.
The other family was raised in a different culture. My school friends never took school work home. Their parents, outside of a small garden, had no income other than relief payments from the government. When their allotment of relief ended, they would find some job and keep it long enough to qualify for relief once again. It was a cyclic existence. If their children brought school work home, it was destroyed or if the parent found any school textbooks, those text books were sold for whatever value could be received. Their culture determined that education was a hindrance to life—on relief…welfare as we call it now.
That dependency culture has grown over the decades. It need not continue. The tools to fight it still exists—education, learning how to learn, teaching oneself new skills, skills that can lead to a job, the basis of economic freedom. The path is there.
How does this work? Basically, get a job. Acquire, through education, self-education, work, skills that youj will be paid a wage or salary for exercising those skills. Learn more skills, gain expertise, and find a better paying job, or create a new business with those skills. Then, as your business grows, with your hard work and enterprise, you hire employees who have skills you need. The cycle continues.
The critics scoff at this idea. “All the wealth is controlled by a few! No one new can join them.” That is the basis of Keynesian Economics: wealth cannot be created nor destroyed.” Wealth must be controlled for the betterment of all. Wealth must be taken from those who have it, and given to those who do not.
Later versions of Keynesian Theory were based on the Zero-sum game theory. Nothing, wealth, can be added nor removed from a system, just manipulated internally. Poverty is created because the wealthy have acquired all the wealth—a view of economics is easily refuted.
In the 19th and early 20th Century, our currency was based on gold and silver standards. Gold backed the currency. On the face of each bill was the statement, “Redeemable in gold/silver.” Our currency was not Federal Reserve notes, backed by the federal government, but Silver and Gold Certificates redeemable by the appropriate metal. If you didn’t have sufficient gold, or silver, you mined more. Wealth, actual wealth in silver and gold in this case, grew. The economy grew, people gained jobs, saved, and created new jobs. Poverty was diminished.
We no longer have a currency based on gold or silver. Our economy has outgrown the available quantities of gold and silver. We do have a currency based on work. We have the tools available to anyone with the will to use them. Poverty will not cease in America due to the dependency culture. But, we need not feed that culture. Poverty is not a lack of money, wealth, it is a cultural affliction.
Those who are mired in it, can escape. All it takes is the will to do so, and by doing so, escape the trap of dependency created by progressive, socialistic economic thought and policies.
Posted in Education, Keynesian Economics, Opinion, Poverty, Welfare, Welfare State
Parades, Revelations, and Bread and Circuses
Posted on Tuesday, November 12, 2013, 11:19 am by Crucis
I think I’m recovered now. Our neighboring town had a Veteran’s Day parade on Saturday and I walked in it with Mrs. Crucis and some friends. The parade wasn’t too long, a mile and a half, perhaps, but the wind was strong and cool. According to my pedometer, we walked about 3,000 steps. I normally walk 4,000 steps, almost two miles, three times a week.
But, if you’ve ever walked in a parade, you know it is not a steady walk. The parade bunches up and you’re standing around waiting for the group ahead of you to move. Then they do, and you’re almost running to catch up. Repeat for the duration of the parade.
I think it was the cool wind and the approaching cold front that did me in. Temperatures overnight dropped to 16, locally last night. But today I’m inside perched next to my heater in my office and all is right in the world.
The Obamacare news continues to get worse. According to Rasmussen, 55% of those polled want Obamacare to be repealed. The latest news, is that Obamacare, again, targets a specific segment of the country with less benefits than others—the military. One of the features of Obamacare that Obama and the libs have been bragging is that your adult children, until they are 26, can be added to your, the parents, health insurance. That’s true…unless you are active or retired military. Perhaps, that denial is a good thing.
Military members, veterans missing out on key ObamaCare provision
Published November 11, 2013, FoxNews.com
One of the most touted benefits of President Obama’s health care overhaul law is the provision allows parents to keep their adult children on their health insurance until age 26.
However, Trace Gallagher reported on “The Kelly File” Monday, this benefit is not being extended to a significant group of Americans: members of the U.S. military.
TRICARE, the Department of Defense program that provides health coverage to active duty and retired military members and their families, only covers young adult dependents up until age 21, or age 23 if they are enrolled full-time in college.
TRICARE recipients can then purchase a plan for their young adult dependents, according to their website.
Air Force veteran Eddie Grooms said he was disappointed to learn he could not add his 21-year-old daughter to his insurance provided by the military, as he thought he had been promised under the health care overhaul.
“It’d be nice if they leveled with everybody and let them know so that people could make plans, because this is going to hit all, I mean it’s going to hit thousands of retirees over time,” Grooms said.
Jessie Jane Duff of Concerned Veterans for America told Megyn Kelly the reason the benefit has not been extended to military members is the rates under TRICARE are very low because they are subsidized by U.S. taxpayers.
She said “unfortunately” this means adult children cannot be covered, saying there has to be some “give and take” for the reduced rates.
“We’ve been very fortunate because legislation was passed that exempted TRICARE from a lot of the ObamaCare standings, so that actually has benefited veterans to keep the rates that they’ve had,” Duff said.
If you’ve been watching the news from south of the border, Venezuela is back in the headlines. The communists are still in power and still as stupid as ever. Those of you who have read anything from Ayn Rand, will recognize the term, ‘looters.’ Venezuela has become a nation of looters supported in their looting by the country’s military.
In their latest adventure, the army seized some retail outlets and forced them to sell their merchandise at a loss. They now expect to do the same to other retailers. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to understand that when a company is forced to sell at a loss, it will soon cease to exist. No profit, no company, and no jobs, either.
Venezuela Becomes A Nation Of Looters
IBD Editorial, Posted 11/11/2013 06:48 PM ET
Looters: Venezuelan troops storm a local electronics retailer in the name of enforcing “fair prices,” brazenly blaming the private sector for state policies. Sounds familiar — and not just because it’s a communist takeover.
With municipal elections just around the corner on Dec. 8, it’s no surprise to see Venezuela’s failing socialist government turning to pork-barrel handouts to lure voters — as it always has.
Shovel the goodies to the red-shirted low-information voters and gain just enough votes in upcoming elections to claim a dictatorship is really a democracy.
Not coincidentally, President Nicolas Maduro declared that Venezuela would celebrate the beginning of Christmas in October — to distribute goodies.
But there’s a new twist here: Venezuela is out of money to shovel pork. Its foreign reserves have fallen to $21.4 billion as oil prices slump. Instead of using its vast oil earnings to buy votes, as in the past, Venezuela’s Marxist government is now making do by stealing from Venezuela’s battered private sector.
Which is what brought the bizarre spectacle of the Venezuelan military occupation of Daka — the country’s five-store equivalent of Best Buy, loaded with the flat-screen TVs, computers and smartphones favored by looters everywhere.
As troops stood by, crowds looted one Daka store, stripping its shelves bare. Call it government by looting.
Or in reality, call it communism. Because such destruction of private property in the name of redistribution has been a feature of every communist takeover from Russia to China, to Vietnam, to Cuba.
Defending his government-of-looters, Maduro officially blamed the store for charging “unfair prices,” a preposterous statement since Daka’s prices weren’t inconsistent with the official inflation rate of 56% in an economy that must pay for 90% of its goods imports, including consumer electronics, with dollars.
There is even some speculation, by bloggers such as Miguel Octavio of the Devil’s Excrement, that the viciousness of the government action could be due to the company engaging in high-profit arbitrage on the country’s two-tier exchange rates.
There’s also no doubt the government was sending a message to other retailers not to raise prices by making an example of one of them. Message received.
But the bottom line is, horrendous government policies forced retailers to do what they have. It wasn’t Daka that created price controls or a corrupt two-tier exchange system that made the resulting inflation.
The black market currency rate is now 10 times higher than the official rate, meaning they’re on the verge of hyperinflation due to a government that can’t stop spending. This explains why imported basic commodities, such as chicken, milk and toilet paper, are now scarce, just as in the old Soviet Union, or in today’s Cuba.
Were Venezuela a true democracy, such a destructive economic record would bring down the ruling party.
But this is Venezuela. It has benefited not just from having the U.S. as its top oil customer and consumer goods supplier, but also from a lot of White House love — from President Obama’s and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s embrace of late strongman Hugo Chavez at a 2009 summit, to ex-President Jimmy Carter’s dishonest endorsement of Venezuela’s fraudulent 2004 recall, which the Bush White House meekly accepted.
And now the results: Venezuelan troops occupy electronics retailers while yelling about “fairness.”
Doesn’t this tale sound familiar? If you substitute Obama ‘phones, welfare EBT cards and Food Stamps, isn’t our federal government doing much the same? Delving into history, I hear the refrain, “BREAD and CIRCUSES!” The Roman emperors kept the Roman mob satisfied with bread and circuses—food and entertainment, (now you understand why the liberal elite controls Hollywood,) while looting the empire to pay for the bread and the circuses, and to quiet the mob. In the end, the empire could no longer pay, having been picked clean by Roman tax collectors and the Roman empire collapsed to the barbarians outside the empire…and the barbarians within.
Now, with Obama’s Redistribution of Wealth, we’re facing the same situation as did the Roman Empire. The Roman Empire is just a memory from history, its cities are a pile of rubble, some carefully preserved but most destroyed for the materials in them.
What will the United States be in a few hundred years? A viable nation leading the world, or a pile of picked rubble, destroyed by the liberal tax collectors and the Washington mob?
Posted in Anti-Americans, Opinion, The world that may come to be, Theft by other means, Thugocracy, Veterans, Veterans's Administration, Washington, Welfare State
Kansas City is #26
Posted on Wednesday, July 24, 2013, 11:31 am by Crucis
An article appeared today listing 19 cities with a greater number of public employee to resident ration than Detroit. Detroit’s statistics are:
Residents per employee 61
Employees: 11,645
Annual payroll: $651,437,244
Average compensation: $55,941
Number 1 on that list is, not surprisingly, Washington, DC.
Average compensation: $147,172
What isn’t shown in these demographics is the income to debt ratios. We know that Detroit’s ratio was negative…more debt than income. Decades of deficit spending came home, finally, to roost.
Detroit has been ruled by democrats since 1962. Louis Miriani, a republican, was Mayor at that time. Being a ‘pub didn’t excuse him from being corrupt. In 1969, he was convicted of federal tax evasion and served approximately 10 months in prison.[96]
The city really didn’t go downhill until the election of Coleman Young. Young was elected in the aftermath of the 1967 riots and the resulting “white flight“ from Detroit. Coleman blamed his predecessors and called them an “occupation army.” Young used the falling economy of Detroit to build his power base. It was the beginning of the end for Detroit.
You can find the list of failing cities via this link. Kansas City isn’t in the top 19 but at #26, it’s close.
Employees: 6,646
Kansas CIty, like Detroit, has been suffering under decades of democrat rule who, like all democrat pols, blame everyone else for their failings while ignoring the very visible fact that it is their policies and actions that was the root cause of their continuing failure. That is also true of other major cities across the US.
Mrs. Crucis and I are fortunate we moved from Kansas City and Jackson County nearly two decades ago. Kansas City’s finances are as shaky as is Detroit. The city’s allegiance to unions and their opposition to Right to Work result in more and more businesses and industries moving across the state line into Kansas, a Right to Work state.
The real tragedy is that Kansas City and Jackson County (MO) residents have swallowed the democrat line, hook, line and sinker. They ignore the warnings, if they see them at all. The Kansas City ‘Red’ Star certainly won’t report the coming danger. No, they are part of the problem—becoming the democrat’s propaganda organ for Kansas City.
The best we can do, to lessen the impact of Kansas City’s coming failure, is to isolate the consequences to Kansas City and Jackson County. When Kansas City and Jackson County inevitably arrive at Jefferson City with their hands out, we, the citizens of Missouri, our Legislature and Governor, must be ready to say, “No!”
Kansas City, like all the democrat ruled cities, has created their problems. It must be up to Kansas City, and those other cities in similar circumstances, to get themselves out or their predicament. The day of cities sucking off the rest of their state is over.
Oh, by the way, St. Louis is in that list at #11…higher than Detroit!
Posted in Big Government, Cities in Distress, Detroit, Economics, Economy, Kansas City, KC Star, Liberalism, Voting with their Feet, Welfare State, What goes around comes around
Posted on Tuesday, June 11, 2013, 10:47 am by Crucis
Yes, today’s title is an acronym. No, I won’t explain it, look it up. It’s an appropriate title because John Boehner is about to stick it to us again on the Foodstamp Bill. What Foodstamp bill? It’s the one Boehner tries to pass as a Farm Bill. Yes, that nearly $1Trillion bill that is 80% for food stamps and 20% for pork, and not the four-legged kind.
Our local congresswomen is bragging how she deleted a duplicate catfish provision, saving a few tens of million dollars. Will she vote against the entire bill? I doubt it. She voted for it the last time and this time around she has her name on one little piece of eliminating a minor duplication. Of course she’ll vote for it.
But, let’s get back to Boenher. Here’s his plan that he released to the Washington Times.
John Boehner: Time is right to bring latest farm bill to House floor
By Sean Lengell – The Washington Times, Monday, June 10, 2013
After punting last year on a farm bill, House Speaker John A. Boehner said Monday he will bring his chamber’s 2013 version to the floor this month — a move sure to divide his fellow Republicans.
The announcement came the same day the Senate easily passed its own farm bill — a five-year, half-trillion-dollar measure that calls for expanded government subsidies for crop insurance, rice and peanuts while making small food stamp cuts.
Last year, Mr. Boehner declined to bring a farm bill to the House floor in a move designed to avoid a nasty intraparty fight during an election year, as farm state Republicans pushed for crop subsidies while other GOP conservatives demanded widespread cuts.
But with midterm elections almost a year and half away and the Senate passing its farm bill Monday evening by a vote of 66 to 27, the Ohio Republican decided the time was right to hold debate and a possible vote on the measure.
Mr. Boehner suggested his decision also was based on “a number of positive reforms” in his chamber’s bill shepherded by House Agriculture Chairman Frank D. Lucas, Oklahoma Republican — particularly provisions that would end direct payments to farmers and cuts in the food stamp program.
“As a longtime proponent of top-to-bottom reform, my concerns about our country’s farm programs are well known,” said Mr. Boehner in a prepared statement.
“But as I said on the day I became speaker, my job isn’t to impose my personal will on this institution or its members. Rather, it’s to ensure we have a fair process and an open debate, leading to a product that reflects the will of our majority, the will of our members and the will of those we represent.”
Farm bills usually are among the most bipartisan legislative matters on Capitol Hill, as lawmakers from agricultural states and districts — despite party — come together to ensure their success.
The most recent multiyear farm bill expired at the end of September, although programs continued through temporary funding extensions.
The House Agriculture Committee last month passed its latest farm bill with broad bipartisan support. The measure would make much larger cuts to food stamps than the Senate version in a bid to gain support from Republicans who have opposed the measure.
The Senate bill would cut the food stamp program by about $400 million a year, or half a percent. The House bill would cut the program by $2 billion a year, or a little more than 3 percent, and make it more difficult for some people to qualify.
Three percent cut in food stamps. THREE LOUSY PERCENT! The House brags it cut a billion from foods stamp when the total for food stamps is in the neighborhood of $600Billion.
But it’s uncertain whether the cuts will be enough to placate House conservatives. And even Mr. Boehner hinted he may not support the measure in its current form, saying he has concerns about some of the measure’s dairy provisions and “will support efforts on the House floor to change them appropriately.”
The speaker added that if House members “have ideas on how to make the bill better, [they should] bring them forward.”
Because the food stamp program — now known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP — makes up almost 80 percent of the bill’s cost, some conservative groups have suggested splitting off the program from the agriculture-related portion of the bill.
“The urban and rural logrolling deemed necessary to pass this bill has created an unholy bipartisan alliance that has long served to thwart fiscally responsible efforts to restrain spending and limit the growth of government,” said a group of more than a dozen conservative organizations in a letter to House members dated Monday. “Separating food stamps and considering them in an alternate piece of legislation is not only sound policy, but also good politics.” — The Washington Times
Separating Food Stamps from the Farm Bill would be an exercise of Truth in Advertising. It’s time to end the subterfuge. A Food Stamps Bill and a Pork Bill. If crop subsidies are really necessary, and I question that (I grew up on a farm,) then let them be evaluated on their own merit, not hidden inside massive pork and welfare legislation.
Posted in Farm Bill, Fraud, Pork Legislation, Welfare, Welfare State
It’s Thursday?
Posted on Thursday, August 9, 2012, 12:08 pm by Crucis
It’s been a busy week. Electioneering and the election earlier this week seemed to just soak up the time. The aftermath yesterday…checking the winners and losers, was busy as well. Some of my favorites won, some lost. It’s been a whirlwind and time has leaped in passing.
I woke up this morning thinking it was Wednesday. I had lain in bed thinking over the election results and some impacts when it occurred to me that I was repeating yesterday.
That’s when I woke up.
In the run-up to the election, current events has been pushed aside. Imagine my surprise to learn that Mexico has surrendered to the drug cartels! Mexico’s PRI party regained control in the last election. Once in office, they promptly surrendered to the de facto government that rules large portions of the country.
Mexico Dissolves Its FBI, Moves to Legalize Drugs
by Chriss W. Street 1 Aug 2012
In a stunning development, President-elect Enrique Peña and his Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), who won control of Mexico’s government on July 1st, moved to dissolve the Agencia Federal de Investigación (AFI).
Modeled after the United States FBI, the AFI was founded in 2001 to crack down on Mexico’s pervasive government corruption and drug trafficking. With rival drug cartels murdering between 47,500 to 67,000 Mexicans over the last six years, the move by the PRI represents the total surrender of Mexico’s sovereignty back to the money and violence of Mexico’s two main drug cartels, the Sinaloa Federation and Los Zetas. Coupled with the Obama Administration’s “Dreamer” Executive Order curtailing deportations of illegal aliens, a hands-off policy on both sides of the border foreshadows a huge increase in “narco-trafficking” violence and corruption flooding into the United States.
The PRI ruled Mexico with an iron fist for 71 years between 1929 and 2000. Although the PRI claimed they were the socialist peasant’s party, they operated as a corrupt political organization that siphoned off wealth from Mexico’s nationalized oil industry with bribes for protecting the drug cartels that trafficked in marijuana and narcotics into the United States. As a glaring example of the level of official PRI corruption, in 1982 the oil workers’ union donated a $2 million house as a “gift” to President López Portillo. Mexicans often joke: “Our Presidents are elected as millionaires, but they leave office as billionaires.”
But on December 1, 2000, Vicente Fox, the former Chief Executive of Coca-Cola in Mexico and founder of the Partido Acción Nacional (PAN), was elected President of Mexico. Mr. Fox ran on a platform of reforming Mexico’s pervasive police corruption, and his first move as President was to form the AFI. Under the leadership of President Fox and his party’s successor, President Felipe Calderón, the AFI grew over the next 11 years into a 5,000-member force with an international reputation as a premier drug enforcement agency. The U.S. provided extensive equipment and training to the AFI. The AFI reciprocated by capturing numerous drug kingpins and extraditing them to face criminal prosecution for murder and drug distribution in the U.S.
Over the first six months of 2012, the Sinaloa Federation and Los Zetas carried out a vicious war across Mexico to expand their areas of operations and intimidate the local population. Both cartels engaged in “information operations campaigns” by displaying large numbers of dismembered bodies in public places. The shock value of body dumps was designed to broadcast that the cartels are the dominant authority in Mexico.
The AFI under President Felipe Calderón retaliated against the major drug cartel kingpins’ horrific bloodshed by partnering with the U.S. and Guatemala to capture Horst Walther Overdick in Guatemala, followed by the capture of Francisco Treviño and Carlos Alejandro “El Fabiruchis” Gutierrez Escobedo and the killing of Gerardo “El Guerra” Guerra Valdez in Mexico, along with the capture of José Treviño in the U.S.
Two days after the election, President-elect Peña came to the U.S. to announce that he would “welcome debate on the issue of drug legalization and regulation in Mexico.” In an interview by PBS News Hour, President-elect Pena clearly stated:
I’m in favor of opening a new debate in the strategy in the way we fight drug trafficking. It is quite clear that after several years of this fight against drug trafficking, we have more drug consumption, drug use and drug trafficking. That means we are not moving in the right direction. Things are not working.
These are “code words” to signal the PRI intends to cut a profitable deal with the cartels to legalize drugs in exchange for collecting tax revenue on drug sales. The month before, Congressman James Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.) called a Congressional hearing to accuse Peña Nieto of advocating “a reversion” back to the old PRI policies of “turning a blind eye to the cartels” as long as they weren’t perpetrating grisly violence.
President-elect Peña’s announcement of the PRI’s new cozy relationship with the drug cartels directly followed President Obama’s announcement of his “Dreamer” Executive Order curtailing deportations of “undocumented” aliens. These actions have caused major alarm among rank-and-file border agents that the Sinaloa Federation and Los Zetas are now unrestrained to flood into the United States with drugs and violence. In a joint union press conference by the customs agents and the border patrol unions, Chris Crane, President of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Council (ICE) warned:
It‘s impossible to understand the full scope of the administration’s changes, but what we are seeing so far concerns us greatly… There is no burden for the alien to prove anything.
No good will come from this. The security of our southern border has just become more critical than ever before.
Claire McCaskill ran an ad prior to the Missouri primary declaring Todd Akin to be, “a dangerous Tea Party extremist,” and, “outside the mainstream.” Various pundits believe she ran the ads because she, McCaskill, believed Akin was the easiest ‘Pub opponent to beat for the Senate. Whatever her logic, it appears to have helped Akin win some votes in the primary. A quick scan of grassroots websites across the state appeared to confirm the opinions of those pundits.
Personally, I think Ol’ Claire made a strategic mistake. Breitbart TV has this report.
Claire McCaskill Says Conservatives Are ‘Dangerous,’ ‘Outside of Mainstream’
by Dana Loesch 9 Aug 2012, 2:53 AM PDT
Claire McCaskill’s campaign wasted no time in attacking Todd Akin after his senate primary win. This evening McCaskill sent an email to supporters claiming that Akin is a “dangerous” tea party extremist:
Akin’s Rap Sheet Makes It Clear: Tea Party Congressman’s Outside Of The Mainstream Views, Dangerous Policies Are Wrong for Missouri, From his record to his rhetoric, everything about Todd Akin’s Tea Party policies are outside of the mainstream and dangerous for Missouri families.
When Missouri Republicans nominated him last night, they pinned their Senate hopes on a far right, Tea Party Congressman whose candidacy diminishes the party’s prospects for November.
This coming from McCaskill, a Senator so far removed from the will of her people that after she championed for Obamacare in Missouri, 76% of voters voted to repudiate it via Proposition C. Prop C, or the Health Care Freedom Act, was the first legislative challenge to Obamacare.
McCaskill again rubber-stamped the Obama agenda when she sided with him against Missouri jobs and coal by voting in favor of the MACT rule and effectively shutting the doors of numerous coal plants. McCaskill once claimed she hated coal, odd considering she represents a big coal state, the industry of which employs thousands. McCaskill has rubber-stamped the Obama agenda on most every policy that would adversely affect Missouri coal and jobs.
McCaskill cheerleads for an administration that has quadrupled the deficit, run women from the job pool, and devalued the dollar, while trying to persuade seniors that the government knows best how handle their social security. McCaskill has never addressed why government-run social security is the best when that very same government spent it all. The idea that individuals should have a choice between their own responsibility or government irresponsibility is “extremist” to the incumbent.
McCaskill also attacked Akin over oil subsidies while keeping mum on her support for green tech subsidies. (Akin, in fact, has before said on my show that such subsidies should cease.)
The Democrat incumbent is desperate to cast this race as Harry Reid v Sharon Angle except McCaskill has been trailing in the polls for the past several states, her state repudiated her efforts to cheerlead for Obama, and unlike Reid, McCaskill is attempting to legislate Missouri into the poorhouse with job-killing regulations. Dangerous and “outside of the mainstream?” That sounds like McCaskill.
One way or another, McCaskill will get what she asked for.
The Washington Times has a piece about illegal aliens that is putting to bed the excuse they are all productive and here only for jobs. Truth be told, almost half are on the welfare rolls. Just think of the savings that could be made if we just cleaned the rolls and limited welfare to US citizens? Our parasite class is big enough as it is without importing more.
Slow path to progress for U.S. immigrants
43% on welfare after 20 years
By Stephen Dinan – The Washington Times, Wednesday, August 8, 2012
Immigrants lag behind native-born Americans on most measures of economic well-being — even those who have been in the U.S. the longest, according to a report from the Center for Immigration Studies, which argues that full assimilation is a more complex task than overcoming language or cultural differences.
The study, which covers all immigrants, legal and illegal, and their U.S.-born children younger than 18, found that immigrants tend to make economic progress by most measures the longer they live in the U.S. but lag well behind native-born Americans on factors such as poverty, health insurance coverage and homeownership.
The study, based on 2010 and 2011 census data, found that 43 percent of immigrants who have been in the U.S. at least 20 years were using welfare benefits, a rate that is nearly twice as high as native-born Americans and nearly 50 percent higher than recent immigrants.
The report was released at a time when both major presidential candidates have backed policies that would make it easier to immigrate legally and would boost the numbers of people coming to the U.S.
Federal law requires that the government deny immigrant visas to potential immigrants who are likely to be unable to support themselves and thereby become public charges.
On Tuesday, a handful of Republican senators wrote to the Homeland Security and State departments asking them to explain why they don’t consider whether potential immigrants would use many of the nearly 80 federal welfare programs when they evaluate visa applications.
Neither department responded to messages Tuesday seeking a response to the senators’ letter.
There is more in the complete article. I urge you to read it for yourself.
I read some reports today that Citibank, AT&T, and GE are shifting the majority of their contributions to the GOP. In addition, so are their employees. Usually these corporations suck up to whomever they think will be the winner. They’ve made cozening an art form. Now, they’re abandoning Obama in the hope to gain favor when Romney is in charge.
Corporations are not the only ones. Unions see the writing on the wall, too. The United Mine Workers Association (UMWA), the coal miners union is sitting this election out.
In politics as well as the inevitable sycophants, self-interest is always the top priority.
Posted in Drug Cartels, Elections, GOP 2012, Mexico, National Security, Unions, Welfare, Welfare State, What goes around comes around
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Dressing The Air is the brainchild of the London-based artist Paul Schütze.
In a career spanning 30 years, Schütze has exhibited his photographic and installation works in galleries and museums around the world, released over thirty albums of original recordings, scored a number of films and performed numerous concerts. He has collaborated with artists such as James Turrell, Josiah McElheny and Isaac Julien and musicians as diverse as Bill Laswell, Raoul Björkenheim, Toshinori Kondo, Lol Coxhill and Jah Wobble.
Dressing The Air is a unique open resource that aims to enrich creative thinking by encouraging a multi-sensory approach. A constantly evolving archive and creative news feed, Dressing The Air monitors and reports on a diverse range of art-forms from cinema to sculpture, painting to furniture design, land-art to perfumery.
news feed from the archive question air
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Oblivion 7n
David Maisel
One of a series of aerial photographs of Los Angeles. With its inverted tones and forensic detail this image captures the idea of a city as a cybernetic infestation of the landscape. With one image the photographer endows the city with as much mystery and menace as a dozen sprawling crime novels.
The surface of the city becomes intensely tactile when the image is reversed. It seems possible to stroke this vast area and somehow hold it. This abstraction into pattern and texture gives the notion of its still being a city of mystery as we lose our sense of scale and detail.
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Elizabeth Perkins Official Site
Elizabeth takes a stand against bullying for Spirit Day!
•• Elizabeth Perkins takes a stand against bullying for Spirit Day! You can join her at http://glaad.org/spiritday.
– What is Spirit Day?
An annual day held on the third thursday of October when millions of Americans wear purple to speak out against bullying and to show their support for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) youth.
– Where did the idea come from?
An amazing teenager named Brittany McMillan wanted to remember those young people who lost their lives to suicide and to take a stand against bullying.
– Who participates?
Students, schools, organizations, corporations, media professionals, celebrities, parents and many more. Everyone from Oprah to Cher to Facebook and MTV have gone purple for Spirit Day. Even the White House joined the cause! Check out this year’s Spirit Day Ambassadors.
It’s easy! Go purple now and wear purple on October 17th and help us create a world in which LGBT teens are celebrated and accepted for who they are. You can also download our Spirit Day resource kit, which has ways you can turn your community purple. Spirit Day participants can also spread the word and tell their friends that they’re standing up against bullying.
Millions wear purple on Spirit Day as a sign of support for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) youth and to speak out against bullying. Spirit Day was started in 2010 by high school student Brittany McMillan as a response to the young people who had taken their own lives. Observed annually, individuals, schools, organizations, corporations, media professionals and celebrities wear purple, which symbolizes spirit on the rainbow flag. Getting involved is easy — participants are asked to simply “go purple” on October 17th as we work to create a world in which LGBT teens are celebrated and accepted for who they are.
Getting involved is easy: Wear purple or go purple online on October 17th and help create a world in which LGBT youth are celebrated and accepted for who they are.
This entry was posted by Lau on Thursday, October 17th, 2013 at 1:59 am. It is filed under News, Site Updates. You can follow any responses to this entry through the Comments Feed.
Welcome to the Official Website for the Golden Globe and Emmy Award nominated actress Elizabeth Perkins. As her official website we bring you all of the exclusive information before anybody else. Elizabeth Perkins is a very talented and experienced actress who has starred in roles such as Big, The Flintstones, Miracle on 34th Street, Weeds, This Is Us, Sharp Objects, The Moodys and more. Check back often for latest updates!
Golden Globe and Emmy nominated actress Elizabeth Perkins has distinguished herself with an eclectic mix of roles over the span of her career. Her critically acclaimed performance in Weeds as Celia Hodes earned her Golden Globe and Emmy nominations in 2006 and 2007 for Best Supporting Actress.
Elizabeth as Ann Moody
2019-2020 | Comedy
Centers on the Moodys, including Sean Sr, his wife Ann and their three grown children and an assorted mix of extended family members who gather for the holidays with each packing his/her own eccentricities and complications.
IMDb | Photos | Official Site
Quoting Elizabeth
Domain: Elizabeth-Perkins.org
Website On: Elizabeth Perkins
Established: June 05, 2006
© 2006-2020 Elizabeth Perkins Official Site / Designed by Cordy / Powered by Wordpress / A Part of Diamond Starz SM
This is the Official Website of actress Elizabeth Perkins therefore is endorsed, approved and visited by herself. This Website is maintained solely by her Webmistress. All original material on this site should be considered copyrighted, owned by Elizabeth Perkins and reserved for usage only with written permission. All rights are reserved. All graphics and content were made exclusively for this website, please do not reproduce. Absolutely no copyright infringement is intended and all content is copyright of it\'s original owner. Elizabeth Perkins repped by Gersh and Brillstein Entertainment Partners. Please email the webmiss for any inquiries.
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Russia Adds 27,328 COVID-19 Cases
MOSCOW, Dec. 14 (Xinhua) -- Russia recorded 27,328 more COVID-19 cases over the past 24 hours, down from 28,080 a day earlier, the country's COVID-19 response center said Monday.
The national tally of COVID-19 cases has increased to 2,681,256, including 47,391 deaths and 2,124,797 recoveries, the center said.
Moscow, the country's worst-hit region, reported 5,874 new cases over the past day, bringing the city's total to 698,084.
Over 83.1 million COVID-19 tests have been conducted across the country.
A large-scale vaccination program has been carried out for over a week in Moscow. The rest of the country has made preparations for mass injections.
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Tuesday, 15 December 2009 - Robert Downey Jr. adds punch to stuffy Holmes films |
Fourteen dead in prison riot in northern Mexico | | 7 August 2010
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Read more with google mobile : Robert Downey Jr. adds punch to stuffy Holmes films |
Edition: U.S. Article Slideshow Save Email Print Reprints Most Popular Most Shared US needs plan to tame debt soon, experts say 14 Dec 2009 Boeing set for first flight of 787 12:00am EST Copenhagen summit carbon footprint biggest ever: report 14 Dec 2009 Berlusconi attack prompts Italian soul-searching | Video 14 Dec 2009 Obama says "Hi cuz" to investment guru Buffett 12:27am EST Copenhagen summit carbon footprint biggest ever: report 14 Dec 2009 US needs plan to tame debt soon, experts say 14 Dec 2009 California aquifers seen rapidly losing water 14 Dec 2009 U.N. Bhutto assassination inquiry needs more time: Ban 14 Dec 2009 CHRONOLOGY-Boeing's troubled 787 12:00am EST Robert Downey Jr. adds punch to "stuffy" Holmes films LONDON Mon Dec 14, 2009 9:52pm EST Factbox Who is Sherlock Holmes? Mon, Dec 14 2009 < 1 / 7 > View Full Size LONDON (Reuters) - Robert Downey Jr. adds punch to the role of Sherlock Holmes in an action-packed movie that breaks with what its makers called "stuffy" screen interpretations of the fictional English detective.. Entertainment | Film The Warner Bros. production, which opens on Christmas Day in the United States, is widely expected to become a major new franchise for the studio just as the lucrative Harry Potter series comes to a close in 2011. "I think it potentially has franchise capabilities which I think is very good," producer Joel Silver told a news conference ahead of the picture's world premiere in London on Monday. "I think we have a chance of really having a lot of fun with this ... story. I think that you want to have a place to go with a movie ... and I think we tried very hard to allow the audience to embrace that there may be more of a story." Downey Jr.'s Holmes is a physical, fist fighting, streetwise version of the super sleuth in an attempt by director Guy Ritchie to ditch common associations of pipe smoking, deerstalker hats and the famous phrase "elementary my dear Watson." Ritchie, famous for his 1998 heist movie "Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels" and an eight-year marriage to pop star Madonna, also sought to place Holmes and Dr. Watson, played by Jude Law, on more equal footing than previous adaptations. "The deerstalker and 'elementary my dear Watson' never happened, actually, and the deerstalker is never referred to in the books," Ritchie said. "Although we all are aware of the obvious symbols of Sherlock Holmes, (we) made a decision early on that if we were going to do this we'd have to dust off Sherlock Holmes and create what we thought to be an authentic Conan Doyle version." "STUFFY" CHARACTERS Silver described earlier adaptations of the Arthur Conan Doyle novels and short stories, featuring actors like Basil Rathbone and Jeremy Brett, as "stuffy." But in reinventing the character and his relationship with Watson, Law said Ritchie had been true to the original stories. "I knew from them (Downey Jr. and Ritchie) that it was going to be a different take on the older films of Sherlock Holmes and it fascinated me. "Obviously they were coming to me not to put on two stone and fall around and put my foot into waste paper baskets," he added, referring to Watson's big-screen image as a bumbling foil to the brilliant Holmes. "They were going to come and ask me to play Watson with a bit more edge. What was intriguing ... was to go back to the books and realize how much of this new rediscovery, if you like, was also in the source material." The storyline of the latest Holmes film centers around a new character Lord Blackwood, an unrepentant killer sentenced to death but who apparently returns from the grave to haunt 1890s London and hatch a plot that could destroy the country. "Although everything else is cherry-picked from the short stories and the novels, Blackwood isn't, and I think what that allowed the film to do was create whatever we wanted," said British actor Mark Strong, who plays the villain. Professor Moriarty, Holmes's nemesis in the original Conan Doyle tales, is expected to appear in subsequent installments should the franchise materialize. (Editing by Paul Casciato) Entertainment Film More from Reuters The face of climate protest Protesters around the globe called for an end to global warming as climate talks in Copenhagen entered their sixth day. Video Climate conference Life after Guantanamo Critics are worried that Gitmo prisoners once dubbed "enemy combatants" will be using prisons as pulpits for anti-American rhetoric once they're moved to U.S. soil. Full Article Factbox: Who remains in Guantanamo? Supreme Court rejects torture case A new look at the wrongly convicted U.S. Lockheed eyes deals The future demands of cybersecurity make that sector one of many the aerospace giant sees as an acquisition target in the coming year. Full Article F-35 expected to earn fitting profit level Pratt: defense industry gets "bad rap" Aerospace and Defense Summit © Copyright 2009 Thomson Reuters Editorial Editions: Africa Arabic Argentina Brazil Canada China France Germany India Italy Japan Latin America Mexico Russia Spain United Kingdom United States Reuters Contact Us Advertise With Us Help Journalism Handbook Archive Site Index Video Index Analyst Research Mobile Newsletters RSS Podcasts Widgets Your View Labs Thomson Reuters Copyright Disclaimer Privacy Professional Products Professional Products Support Financial Products About Thomson Reuters Careers Online Products Acquisitions Monthly Buyouts.com Buyouts Europe: Buyouts Conferences: Venture Capital Journal ECVJ International Financing Review International Securitisation Report Project Finance International PEhub.com PE Week Thomson Reuters is the world's largest international multimedia news agency, providing investing news, world news, business news, technology news, headline news, small business news, news alerts, personal finance, stock market, and mutual funds information available on Reuters.com, video, mobile, and interactive television platforms. Thomson Reuters journalists are subject to an Editorial Handbook which requires fair presentation and disclosure of relevant interests. NYSE and AMEX quotes delayed by at least 20 minutes. Nasdaq delayed by at least 15 minutes. For a complete list of exchanges and delays, please click here.
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Thesis Supervisors
Influence of sulfuric acid baking on leaching of spent Ni–Mo/Al2O3 hydro-processing catalyst
Kim, Hong-In and Park, Kyung-Ho and Mishra, D (2009) Influence of sulfuric acid baking on leaching of spent Ni–Mo/Al2O3 hydro-processing catalyst. Hydrometallurgy, 98 (1-2). pp. 192-195.
Restricted to NML users only. Others may use ->
A low temperature sulfuric acid baking and mild acid leaching process was explored for maximum dissolution of metal values from a spent Ni–Mo/Al2O3 hydro-processing catalyst obtained from a Korean refinery. The spent catalyst was found to be a matrix of γ-Al2O3. containing 27.1% Al, 11.6% Mo, 2.5% Ni, 9.7% S, 4.8% C, 1.9% P, 0.4% Si and trace amounts of Co and Fe. Various baking parameters such as baking temperature, sulfuric acid concentration and baking duration were optimized according to 23 full factorial method for maximum dissolutions of Mo, Al and Ni during leaching. Under optimum baking conditions (400 °C; 1.28 stoichiometric H2SO4; 1 h), > 96% Mo, 99% Al and 95% Ni were readily dissolved from the spent catalyst by 2% v/v H2SO4 at 80 °C. Carbon and sulfur analyses of the baked samples and leaching residues indicated only 10–15% of residual hydrocarbons reacted during acid baking, while most of the sulfur (assumed to be metal sulfides) was converted into soluble sulfates/oxy-sulfates. By comparison, direct sulfuric acid leaching of the catalyst resulted in poor dissolution of Mo and Al, even with large excess of acid, thus demonstrating the beneficial effect of sulfuric acid baking.
Official URL/DOI:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.hydromet.2009.04.002
Spent hydro-processing catalyst; Sulfuric acid; Baking; Leaching; Molybdenum; Nickel
Metal Extraction and Forming
INVALID USER
Eprints@NML is hosted by IMDC,CSIR-National Metallurgical Laboratory, Jamshedpur
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Home Copa Del Rey Where Does the Copa Del Rey Final Leave Atlético and Real Madrid?
Where Does the Copa Del Rey Final Leave Atlético and Real Madrid?
Jimmy Cartwright
After 14 years, Atletico got the better of fierce rivals Real Madrid, and what a time to do it. Ending the season for Real in bitter fashion, Atletico had perhaps their greatest triumph, with Jose Mourinho dubbing the season as his “worst ever.” With dust settling on the campaign, where does this leave Atletico and Real?
Real will be under a new guiding philosophy, Carlo Ancelotti seems the likely replacement, however the logistics over a move from PSG are proving difficult for Real. Ancelotti is a safe option, much like most Real appointments. His success in the Champions League makes the most likely to bring the tenth title to Real, however that could prove impossible with the Guardiola reign at Bayern seeming destined to European domination.
A serious league challenge from Real could amount next season, Barcelona stormed the early part of the season, but since Tito Vilanova was away for a short period, the gap got closer. Without so many rifts between Mourinho and the dressing room, it could have been such a successful side this season.
The problem of Gonzalo Higuain and Karim Benzema dipping out of form proved to be pivotal, and the ‘sadness’ of Cristiano Ronaldo also provided to be an obstacle. Real did show their class throughout the campaign, the Copa Del Rey Semi-Finals were the pinnacle of their season. It was quite unfitting that they lost the Copa Del Rey Final in such disappointing circumstances.
The divisions in Real’s team were leaped upon by Diego Simeone, who claimed the game showed Real’s lack of unity:
“You can have great champions but, without a group, there is not a team. It’s very difficult. We are a group first. That makes us a team.”
That was the fundamental difference in the final; Atletico were simply more unified. Divisions could define the Mourinho era, the constant conflict in the Real dressing room was pure poison to success. At times, Real and their conduct was utterly embarrassing.
Atletico are looking on the bright side despite the fact they are set to lose their star player, Radamel Falcao. There is a sense they can easily replace him; it proved to be a task they handled immaculately when replacing Fernando Torres and Sergio Aguero.
Rumors have linked Christian Benteke to a move, with his contract at Villa not quite wrapped up, he seems a fine replacement. His touch of class in pace and power proved to be the only thing consistent for Villa this season. If he was to emulate his Villa form in La Liga, he could potentially mature into one of Europe’s finest strikers.
Atletico will again test their weight in the Champions League after years of waiting. Spanish success in the group stage last term can prove as great encouragement. Especially, the success of Malaga, a side that would have made the Semi-Finals if it wasn’t for some bizarre circumstances in latter stages against Dortmund. If Malaga could conquer the tournament to as far as the Quarter-Finals, Atletico could dream of even going a step further.
Real’s success next season will depend on the impact of the new manager; if it is Ancelotti, he would provide a rock solid appointment in combating the dressing room rifts. His success at PSG last season in both league and to some extent the Champions League consolidated his ability to deal with egos.
For Atletico, they could realistically catch Barca. Shown up to be far from the Pep Barca that seemingly would never end, the fear of being far from the pace could corrupt the club. Moreover, the signing of Neymar could lead to complete denial if he ultimately fails to shine at Barca. For every step Barca and Real make backwards, Atletico come creeping further on.
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Aspiring football journalist, long suffering Middlesbrough FC fan.
FutbolPulse Podcast Ep.1: Neymar, La Masia’s Decline and Girona’s New Overseer Ft. Jon Driscoll
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You are hereSZZCX
SZZCX
Course: Experimental particle physics and astro.
Department/Abbreviation: SLO/SZZCX
Guarantee: 'prof. RNDr. Jan Peřina, Ph.D.', 'prof. Jan Řídký, DrSc.'
Annotation: Final exam for verification and evaluation of the level of knowledge.
" The Standard Model of electroweak interactions - discoveries of fundamental particles, beta decay of a neutron; Fermi theory; c-quark, Cabibbo angle; CKM matrix, b-quark, Feynman-Gell-Mann's theory; charged vector boson; Glashow-Salam-Weinberg model; neutral currents, top quark and Higgs boson discovery, dark matter detection, possible extensions of the Standard Model. Oscillation of neutral mesons, neutrino oscillations. " Experimental methods of particle physics, fixed target experiments, collidings beams, types of colliding particles, the LHC accelerator, experiment ATLAS. Identification and calibration of physics objects in modern detectors, detection of neutrinos and cosmic rays. The measurement and simulation, signal and background separation, dark matter detection. " Parton model and QCD - strange and charm particles, groups and multiplets of particles; proton structure, model of constituent quarks; mesons and baryons; color; parton model; distribution function; sum rules; fragmentation functions; quantum chromodynamics and its Lagrangian; gluons; running coupling constant; asymptotic freedom. " Cosmic radiation, its sources, mechanisms of propagation and detection - acceleration mechanisms of cosmic rays, propagation of cosmic rays in space, primary cosmic rays, charged rays, neutrino astronomy - solar, atmospheric and supernovae neutrinos, gamma-ray astronomy and roentgen astronomy, secondary cosmic radiation, air showers, detectors of cosmic rays - Čerenkov and fluorescence telescopes, detection devices in space. " Cosmology - origin and early evolution of the Universe, inflation and its consequences, dark matter and dark energy, the relic radiation, its measurement and its cosmological significance, Hubble's law and the expansion of the universe, the age of the universe, models of the universe - Friedmann models, conformal model, gravitational lenses and their cosmological significance, methods of determining cosmological distances, the current results and their significance, the structure of the universe on large scales, its evolution and cosmological significance. " Detectors for ionizing radiation in particle physics - basic mechanisms of energy losses of charged particles in the environment - electrons, muons and hadrons; detection of gamma and x-rays; types of calorimeters and their advantages and disadvantages; types of track detectors and their historical development; typical detector geometries and detection techniques at big experiments; detection of neutrinos. " Statistics in high-energy physics - the probability density of a random variable; Monte Carlo methods; principle of maximum likelihood parameter estimates; statistical tests, covariance matrix; setting of cuts, multivariate techniques, separation of signal and background. " Physics accelerators and synchrotron radiation - the development and types of accelerators; synchrotron radiation; linear optics synchrotron; beam source - injection; principles of the accelerator system. " Nuclear Astrophysics - evolution of the Universe: the era of radiation and matter, relic radiation, dark matter and dark energy, primary synthesis of nuclei, formation of heavy elements; nuclear processes in stars: self-gravitating objects, nuclear fusion in stars, solar neutrinos and neutrinos from supernova, neutrino oscillations; experimental results: detection of cosmic neutrinos and photons, the list of important experiments. " Computer methods of High Energy Physics - experiments in high-energy physics; random numbers and their series, random number generators, random number transformation; Monte Carlo methods, data models; Geant4 tool; work with the program ROOT - fundamentals and practical applications.
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Home Celebrity Gossip Emma Watson Has a New Boyfriend
Emma Watson Has a New Boyfriend
Emma Watson’s heart seems to have been given away after a long search, RadarOnline reports.
The lucky guy is American actor Johnny Simmons who is co-starring with Watson, 21, in her upcoming film The Perks of Being a Wallflower. It is no swashbuckling fantasy but a grim present-day story involving sex, drugs and suicide, the filming of a much-challenged novel by Stephen Chbosky.
The famous Hermione Granger and Simmons, 24, look besotted with each other as they are seen around Los Angeles. They are unashamed to hug and kiss hungrily as when in Santa Monica recently after a lunch date.
Watson’s fame now can’t spoil her private life as it used to in the past, when people failed to call her or approach her because they were allegedly “intimidated” to do so, as her friends told her, thus letting Watson feel as if she was fenced in by a “fame wall.”
Source of the image: Dailymail.
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LookBook for Fall Collection Marc by Marc Jacobs
geniusbeauty - Sep 1, 2010
The latest collection Marc by Marc Jacobs is in Bloomingdale. The outfits for the upcoming season stand out by their brightness, practicality; they are...
Eau de Toilette Guerlain Idylle
Withings Monitor and iPhone Measure Blood Pressure
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