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'We're in Crazytown': New tell-all book spills dirty details on Trump White House
A central theme is the stealthy machinations of Trump's inner sanctum trying to prevent disasters for the nation he was elected to lead
U.S. President Donald Trump listens during a phone conversation with Enrique Pena Nieto, Mexico's president, not pictured, in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Monday, Aug. 27, 2018. Al Drago/Bloomberg
John Dowd was convinced that President Donald Trump would commit perjury if he talked to special counsel Robert Mueller. So on Jan. 27 the president’s then-personal attorney staged a practice session to make his point.
In the White House residence, Dowd peppered Trump with questions about the Russia investigation, provoking stumbles, contradictions and lies until the president eventually lost his cool.
“This thing’s a goddamn hoax,” Trump erupted at the start of a 30-minute rant that finished with him saying, “I don’t really want to testify.”
The dramatic and previously untold scene is recounted in “Fear,” a forthcoming book by Bob Woodward that paints a harrowing portrait of the Trump presidency, based on in-depth interviews with administration officials and other principals.
Woodward writes that his book draws from hundreds of hours of interviews with firsthand participants and witnesses that were conducted on “deep background,” meaning the information could be used but he would not reveal who provided it. His account is also based on meeting notes, personal diaries and government documents.
Woodward depicts Trump’s anger and paranoia about the Russia inquiry as unrelenting, at times paralyzing the West Wing for days. Learning of the appointment of Mueller in May 2017, Trump groused, “Everybody’s trying to get me” — part of a venting period that shellshocked aides compared to Richard Nixon’s final days as president.
A copy of the 448-page book was obtained by The Washington Post. Woodward, an associate editor at The Post, sought an interview with Trump through several intermediaries to no avail. The president called Woodward in early August, after the manuscript had been completed, to say he wanted to participate. The president complained that it would be a “bad book,” according to an audio recording of the conversation. Woodward replied that his work would be “tough,” but factual and based on his reporting.
A central theme of the book is the stealthy machinations used by those in Trump’s inner sanctum to try to control his impulses and prevent disasters, both for the president personally and for the nation he was elected to lead.
In this file photo taken on January 6, 2018 U.S. President Donald Trump, alongside Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis, speaks during a retreat with Republican lawmakers and members of his Cabinet at Camp David in Thurmont, Maryland. Mattis along with other members of Trump’s national security team have been confounded at Trump’s apparent lack of knowledge of global affairs, Woodward writes. SAUL LOEB / AFP
Woodward describes “an administrative coup d’etat” and a “nervous breakdown” of the executive branch, with senior aides conspiring to pluck official papers from the president’s desk so he couldn’t see or sign them.
Again and again, Woodward recounts at length how Trump’s national security team was shaken by his lack of curiosity and knowledge about world affairs and his contempt for the mainstream perspectives of military and intelligence leaders.
At a National Security Council meeting on Jan. 19, Trump disregarded the significance of the massive U.S. military presence on the Korean Peninsula, including a special intelligence operation that allows the United States to detect a North Korean missile launch in seven seconds (versus 15 minutes from Alaska), according to Woodward. Trump questioned why the government was spending resources in the region at all.
“We’re doing this in order to prevent World War III,” Defense Secretary Jim Mattis told him.
After Trump left the meeting, Woodward recounts, “Mattis was particularly exasperated and alarmed, telling close associates that the president acted like — and had the understanding of — ‘a fifth- or sixth-grader.’”
In Woodward’s telling, many top advisers were repeatedly unnerved by Trump’s actions and expressed dim views of him. “Secretaries of defense don’t always get to choose the president they work for,” Mattis told friends at one point, prompting laughter as he explained Trump’s tendency to go off on tangents about subjects such as immigration and the news media.
Inside the White House, Woodward portrays an unsteady executive detached from the conventions of governing and prone to snapping at high-ranking staff members, whom he unsettled and belittled on a daily basis.
White House Chief of Staff John F. Kelly frequently lost his temper and told colleagues that he thought the president was “unhinged,” Woodward writes. In one small group meeting, Kelly said of Trump: “He’s an idiot. It’s pointless to try to convince him of anything. He’s gone off the rails. We’re in Crazytown. I don’t even know why any of us are here. This is the worst job I’ve ever had.”
In this Jan. 20, 2017 file photo, White House Staff Secretary Rob Porter, center, hands President Donald Trump a confirmation order for James Mattis as defense secretary, in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, as White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus, right, watches. Priebus dubbed the presidential bedroom, where Trump would watch cable news and tweet, the ‘the devil’s workshop.’ Evan Vucci / ASSOCIATED PRESS
Reince Priebus, Kelly’s predecessor, fretted that he could do little to constrain Trump from sparking chaos. Woodward writes that Priebus dubbed the presidential bedroom, where Trump obsessively watched cable news and tweeted, “the devil’s workshop,” and said early mornings and Sunday evenings, when the president often set off tweetstorms, were “the witching hour.”
Trump apparently had little regard for Priebus. He once instructed then-staff secretary Rob Porter to ignore Priebus, even though Porter reported to the chief of staff, saying that Priebus was “‘like a little rat. He just scurries around.’”
Few in Trump’s orbit were protected from the president’s insults. He often mocked former national security adviser H.R. McMaster behind his back, puffing up his chest and exaggerating his breathing as he impersonated the retired Army general, and once said McMaster dresses in cheap suits, “like a beer salesman.”
Trump told Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, a wealthy investor eight years his senior: “I don’t trust you. I don’t want you doing any more negotiations …. You’re past your prime.”
A near-constant subject of withering presidential attacks was Attorney General Jeff Sessions. Trump told Porter that Sessions was a “traitor” for recusing himself from overseeing the Russia investigation, Woodward writes. Mocking Sessions’ accent, Trump added, “This guy is mentally retarded. He’s this dumb Southerner …. He couldn’t even be a one-person country lawyer down in Alabama.”
At a dinner with Mattis and Gen. Joseph F. Dunford Jr., the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, among others, Trump lashed out at a vocal critic, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. He falsely suggested that the former Navy pilot had been a coward for taking early release from a prisoner-of-war camp in Vietnam because of his father’s military rank and leaving others behind.
Mattis swiftly corrected his boss: “No, Mr. President, I think you’ve got it reversed.” The defense secretary explained that McCain, who died Aug. 25, had in fact turned down early release and was brutally tortured during his five years at the Hanoi Hilton.
“Oh, okay,” Trump replied, according to Woodward’s account.
White House Chief of Staff John Kelly attends a 2018 Hurricane Briefing at the Federal Emergency Management Agency Headquarters (FEMA) on June 6, 2018 in Washington, DC. Yuri Gripas / Getty Images
With Trump’s rage and defiance impossible to contain, Cabinet members and other senior officials learned to act discreetly. Woodward describes an alliance among Trump’s traditionalists — including Mattis and Gary Cohn, the president’s former top economic adviser — to stymie what they considered dangerous acts.
“It felt like we were walking along the edge of the cliff perpetually,” Porter is quoted as saying. “Other times, we would fall over the edge, and an action would be taken.”
After Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad launched a chemical attack on civilians in April 2017, Trump called Mattis and said he wanted to assassinate the dictator. “Let’s fucking kill him! Let’s go in. Let’s kill the fucking lot of them,” Trump said, according to Woodward.
Mattis told the president that he would get right on it. But after hanging up the phone, he told a senior aide: “We’re not going to do any of that. We’re going to be much more measured.” The national security team developed options for the more conventional air strike that Trump ultimately ordered.
Cohn, a Wall Street veteran, tried to tamp down Trump’s strident nationalism regarding trade. According to Woodward, Cohn “stole a letter off Trump’s desk” that the president was intending to sign to formally withdraw the United States from a trade agreement with South Korea. Cohn later told an associate that he had removed the letter to protect national security and that Trump did not notice it was missing.
Cohn made a similar play to prevent Trump from pulling the United States out of the North American Free Trade Agreement, something the president has long threatened to do. In spring 2017, Trump was eager to withdraw from NAFTA and told Porter: “Why aren’t we getting this done? Do your job. It’s tap, tap, tap. You’re just tapping me along. I want to do this.”
It felt like we were walking along the edge of the cliff perpetually ... Other times, we would fall over the edge, and an action would be taken
Under orders from the president, Porter drafted a notification letter withdrawing from NAFTA. But he and other advisers worried that it could trigger an economic and foreign relations crisis. So Porter consulted Cohn, who told him, according to Woodward: “I can stop this. I’ll just take the paper off his desk.”
Despite repeated threats by Trump, the United States has remained in both pacts. The administration continues to negotiate new terms with South Korea as well as with its NAFTA partners, Canada and Mexico.
Cohn came to regard the president as “a professional liar” and threatened to resign in August 2017 over Trump’s handling of a deadly white-supremacist rally in Charlottesville. Cohn, who is Jewish, was especially shaken when one of his daughters found a swastika on her college dorm room.
Trump was sharply criticized for initially saying that “both sides” were to blame. At the urging of advisers, he then condemned white supremacists and neo-Nazis, but almost immediately told aides, “That was the biggest fucking mistake I’ve made” and the “worst speech I’ve ever given,” according to Woodward’s account.
When Cohn met with Trump to deliver his resignation letter after Charlottesville, the president told him, “This is treason,” and persuaded his economic adviser to stay on. Kelly then confided to Cohn that he shared Cohn’s horror at Trump’s handling of the tragedy — and shared Cohn’s fury with Trump.
“I would have taken that resignation letter and shoved it up his ass six different times,” Kelly told Cohn, according to Woodward. Kelly himself has threatened to quit several times, but has not done so.
Director of the National Economic Council Gary Cohn (L) and Senior Advisor Jared Kushner (R) listen to U.S. President Donald Trump deliver opening remarks during a meeting with business leaders in the Roosevelt Room at the White House January 23, 2017 in Washington, DC. Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images
Woodward illustrates how the dread in Trump’s orbit became all-encompassing over the course of Trump’s first year in office, leaving some staff members and Cabinet members confounded by the president’s lack of understanding about how government functions and his inability and unwillingness to learn.
At one point, Porter, who departed in February amid domestic-abuse allegations, is quoted as saying, “This was no longer a presidency. This is no longer a White House. This is a man being who he is.”
Such moments of panic are a routine feature, but not the thrust of Woodward’s book, which mostly focuses on substantive decisions and internal disagreements, including tensions with North Korea as well as the future of U.S. policy in Afghanistan.
Woodward recounts repeated episodes of anxiety inside the government over Trump’s handling of the North Korean nuclear threat. One month into his presidency, Trump asked Dunford for a plan for a preemptive military strike on North Korea, which rattled the combat veteran.
In the fall of 2017, as Trump intensified a war of words with Kim Jong Un, nicknaming North Korea’s dictator “Little Rocket Man” in a speech at the United Nations, aides worried the president was provoking Kim. But, Woodward writes, Trump told Porter that he saw the situation as a contest of wills: “This is all about leader versus leader. Man versus man. Me versus Kim.”
The book also details Trump’s impatience with the war in Afghanistan, which had become America’s longest conflict. At a July 2017 National Security Council meeting, Trump dressed down his generals and other advisers for 25 minutes, complaining that the United States was losing, according to Woodward.
“The soldiers on the ground could run things much better than you,” Trump told them. “They could do a much better job. I don’t know what the hell we’re doing.” He went on to ask, “How many more deaths? How many more lost limbs? How much longer are we going to be there?”
This file photo taken on January 22, 2017 shows US President Donald Trump (L) congratulating Senior Counselor to the President Stephen Bannon during the swearing-in of senior staff in the East Room of the White House on January 22, 2017 in Washington, DC. MANDEL NGAN / AFP
The president’s family members, while sometimes touted as his key advisers by other Trump chroniclers, are minor players in Woodward’s account, popping up occasionally in the West Wing and vexing adversaries.
Woodward recounts an expletive-laden altercation between Ivanka Trump, the president’s eldest daughter and senior adviser, and Stephen K. Bannon, the former chief White House strategist.
“You’re a goddamn staffer!” Bannon screamed at her, telling her that she had to work through Priebus like other aides. “You walk around this place and act like you’re in charge, and you’re not. You’re on staff!”
Ivanka Trump, who had special access to the president and worked around Priebus, replied: “I’m not a staffer! I’ll never be a staffer. I’m the first daughter.”
Such tensions boiled among many of Trump’s core advisers. Priebus is quoted as describing Trump officials not as rivals but as “natural predators.”
“When you put a snake and a rat and a falcon and a rabbit and a shark and a seal in a zoo without walls, things start getting nasty and bloody,” Priebus says.
Hovering over the White House was Mueller’s inquiry, which deeply embarrassed the president. Woodward describes Trump calling his Egyptian counterpart to secure the release of an imprisoned charity worker and President Abdel Fatah al-Sissi saying: “Donald, I’m worried about this investigation. Are you going to be around?”
Trump relayed the conversation to Dowd and said it was “like a kick in the nuts,” according to Woodward.
President Donald Trump kisses his daughter Ivanka Trump, right, before speaking about tax reform at the Andeavor Mandan Refinery, Wednesday, Sept. 6, 2017, in Mandan, N.D. Charlie Neibergall / ASSOCIATED PRESS
The book vividly recounts the ongoing debate between Trump and his lawyers about whether the president would sit for an interview with Mueller. On March 5, Dowd and Trump attorney Jay Sekulow met in Mueller’s office with the special counsel and his deputy, James Quarles, where Dowd and Sekulow reenacted Trump’s January practice session.
Dowd then explained to Mueller and Quarles why he was trying to keep the president from testifying: “I’m not going to sit there and let him look like an idiot. And you publish that transcript, because everything leaks in Washington, and the guys overseas are going to say, ‘I told you he was an idiot. I told you he was a goddamn dumbbell. What are we dealing with this idiot for?’ ”
“John, I understand,” Mueller replied, according to Woodward.
Later that month, Dowd told Trump: “Don’t testify. It’s either that or an orange jumpsuit.”
But Trump, concerned about the optics of a president refusing to testify and convinced that he could handle Mueller’s questions, had by then decided otherwise.
“I’ll be a real good witness,” Trump told Dowd, according to Woodward.
“You are not a good witness,” Dowd replied. “Mr. President, I’m afraid I just can’t help you.”
The next morning, Dowd resigned.
Ex-hostage American Caitlan Coleman accuses Canadian husband Joshua Boyle of abuse,... At least 2 killed as typhoon slams west Japan
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Police find accused burglar hiding in Little Italy basement
Blair Sharpe (1954-2019): Beloved teacher was 'an institution' at the Ottawa School of Art
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Our Lady of Grace Monastery| November 13, 2018| Featured, Fundraising, News
TWO TIER
PURCHASE AND RENEWAL CAMPAIGN
Appeal to Parishes of the Diocese of Antigonish
Purchase of
Installation of
Two New Boilers
Electrical, Water, Sewer
and Fixtures Upgrade
Dear Friends and Supporters of Our Lady of Grace Monastery,
When Our Lady of Grace Monastery was publicly advertised for sale in the spring of 2018, many responded with prayers, petitions, letters, e-mails, telephone calls and visits. We give thanks for this outpouring of support.
The sale offering was for 11 parcels of land comprising 873 acres with an asking price of $895,000. After several months of negotiations, on Tuesday, August 21st, The Augustinian Fathers (Ontario) Inc. accepted an offer of $500,000 for approximately 234 acres of land inclusive of the structures, the cemetery and Our Lady of Grace Shrine. The transaction will be secured by a 30 year collateral mortgage bearing interest at 2%. Unscheduled principal payments may be made at any time without penalty. We are asking for your support in lifting the heavy burden of this mortgage form the shoulders of the Augustinian Contemplative Nuns.
A composite schematic of the three parcels of land being purchased is set out below:
The configuration of the available parcels results in the acquisition of more acreage than required for the sustenance of the Monastery structures, the cemetery and Our Lady of Grace Shrine. However, ownership of these parcels of land will allow for the upkeep and maintenance of the historic buildings, the cemetery and the Shrine and most importantly, the charism and prayer life of the Augustinian Contemplative Nuns resident at the Monastery.
Most of the buffer land on the northwest side of the Monastery Road is essential to the peaceful tranquility of the Monastery but there will be an opportunity in future for the subdivision and sale of perimeter land surplus to the needs of the monastic life of the Sisters.
Our Lady of Grace Monastery was initially founded by French Trappists in 1825, sorrowfully abandoned by them in 1919, occupied by Augustinian Fathers and Brothers from 1938 until 1999 and occupied by Maronite Monks from 2000 until 2007. In 2007, the Contemplative Augustinian Nuns from Rome received an invitation to move into the Monastery. The Nuns dedicate their life to prayer and a mission that includes the preservation and maintenance of the historic monastery and Our Lady of Grace Shrine.
During their seven year presence at the Monastery, the Maronite monks spent significant capital on upgrading the Chapel and the exterior shell of the Retreat House. The environmental compliance cost of deconstructing the Retreat House is prohibitive. However, there is deferred maintenance to be addressed on the mechanical infrastructure of the Motherhouse to both meet the current accommodation needs of the Sisters and provide a scalable solution to allow for possible future utilization of the Retreat House for new vocations and provision of a spiritual oasis for the Diocese of Antigonish and beyond.
The recently announced closures of St. Joseph Renewal Centre in Mabou and the retreat facilities at the Bethany Motherhouse have left the Diocese of Antigonish in dire need of a tranquil, peaceful facility for the coming together of Christian organizations for prayer, reflection and spiritual renewal. Our Lady of Grace Monastery with its chapel, hillside shrine and walking trail, dormitory rooms, classrooms, library, office, kitchen and dining areas is ideally suited to fill the void. Administration of a retreat house facility is not the domain and charism of the Augustinian Contemplative Nuns but under the guidance of a retreat director and with the support of a network of volunteers already in place, Our Lady of Grace Monastery is well positioned to return to its glory days as a destination of choice for Christian organizations in search of spiritual refuge.
The interior of the retreat house is showing its age, particularly in sections of the right wing of the building which have been isolated and not used for several decades. Plumbing fixtures, electrical service lines and furnishings should be upgraded before this area could be returned to functional use. The left wing of the building is in fair condition but problems with the heating system have restricted the use of this area to the fair weather months of the year.
The most pressing mechanical need at this time is for elimination of the inefficient wood fired furnace which after years of use is in a very deteriorated condition. A local engineering firm has recommended removal of the wood furnace and replacement with two propane fired boilers to supply the hot water heat distribution systems serving the retreat house and chapel. The utilization of two boilers would create a heating system that could be scaled up or down depending on the season and the areas of the monastery in use. There are five isolated heating zones each controlled with shut off valves and independent circulating pumps.
Although propane is more expensive than oil by volume, it produces heat more efficiently and with less carbon dioxide emission. Local engineers have identified the removal of the wood furnace and the installation of replacement boilers as the number one mechanical priority at the monastery. A quote in the amount of $235,750 has been received from a local firm for the supply and installation of two propane fired boilers in the spring of 2019. We have established a heating system replacement budget figure of $300,000 to allow contingency for removal of the wood furnace, removal of oil tanks and boiler room structural repairs.
The Augustinian Nuns are resigned to living in a small area of the monastery this winter using a combination of heat pumps, space heaters and the inefficient wood furnace with a back up diesel fired generator for use when there is no power. A small make shift chapel has been prepared for celebration of Mass by visiting priests.
An engineering review of electrical, ventilation, water and sewer services is ongoing and recommended upgrades to these systems will be pursued as financial resources permit.
The required financial resources for the acquisition and replacement boiler installation are beyond the means of the Sisters resident at the monastery who are dependent on Divine Providence for their daily sustenance. It is difficult to ask the friends and supporters of the Monastery for financial assistance but the survival of Our Lady of Grace Monastery is now dependent on financial support. The Augustinian Contemplative Nuns are a registered charity in Canada and can provide official receipts for income tax purposes.
Any contribution you are able to provide will be gratefully appreciated and in gratitude, you and your family will be remembered in the daily prayers at the Monastery.
Mother Gloria Camalon, O.S.A
Delegate Superior
Dan Fougere
Campaign Chair and
President, Secular Order of Saint Augustine
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The 1960-1970s saw a time of increased “free thinking” across American society, and particularly on college campuses. Inspired by leaders of nationwide movements responding to injustices in American society, many college students questioned and challenged those in power on important issues such as free speech, civil rights, and international conflict. The act of protest became widespread across the nation, including on college campuses. Male college students were also directly affected by the draft for the Vietnam War, which motivated students to act. Protests on college campuses allowed students to express discontent with campus or national politics, power dynamics, and domestic and international conflicts. Some demonstrations resulted in violent clashes between protesters and police.
Students throughout Pennsylvania were among those who organized and participated in such protests. These demonstrations addressed issues such as the Vietnam War, use of chemical weapons, violent actions taken against other college students, decisions made by college administrations, tuition increases, the misuse of school money, among other concerns. Protests took place all across Pennsylvania in both urban and rural settings, from large universities to smaller colleges.
Educational Purpose
This set will allow students to analyze the importance of protest as a tool for political and social change through the context of protests at college campuses addressing a variety of issues. The items in this set challenge students to think critically about the goals, motivations, and methods used by demonstrators, and how protests build on and borrow from each other. Students will also learn about the variety of reasons college students in Pennsylvania chose to protest in the 1960s and 1970s.
This set can be tailored to fit grades 6-12.
Elementary Standards Grades 3-8, Civics and Government, 5.3 How Government Works
5.3.4.G. Identify individual interests and explain ways to influence others.
5.3.5.G. Describe how groups try to influence others.
Secondary Standards Grades 9, 12, Civics and Government, 5.3 How Government Works
5.3.9.G. Analyze the influence of interest groups in the political process.
5.3.U.D. Evaluate the roles of political parties, interest groups, and mass media in politics and public policy.
Elementary Standards Grades 3-8, History, 8.2 Pennsylvania History
8.2.3.B. Identify historical documents, artifacts, and places critical to Pennsylvania history.
8.2.5.D. Examine patterns of conflict and cooperation among groups and organizations
that impacted the history and development of Pennsylvania for responding to individual and community needs. • Ethnicity and race • Working conditions • Immigration • Military conflict • Economic stability
8.2.7.D. Identify local connections and examples of conflict and cooperation among groups and organizations and how this impacted the history and development of Pennsylvania. • Ethnicity and race • Working conditions • Immigration • Military conflict • Economic stability
Secondary Standards Grades 9,12, History, 8.2 Pennsylvania History
8.2.9.B. Compare the impact of historical documents, artifacts, and places in Pennsylvania which are critical to U.S. history.
Source Set
1. University of Scranton students blocking a street in protest of the Vietnam War, 1970.
2. Students sitting in the street to protest the Vietnam War, University of Scranton, 1970.
3. Television reporters covering student protests at the University of Scranton, 1970.
4. University of Pennsylvania student protesting the use of chemical weapons, 1966.
5. Demands written from a student protest, 1972, University of Pennsylvania.
6. Student protest at the Community College of Philadelphia, 1970.
7. An article from the Susquehanna University student newspaper detailing a student led counter protest to “Loyalty Day”, 1969.
8. An article from the Susquehanna student newspaper detailing a student-held rally on campus against administrative power, 1966.
9. A flyer posted at Susquehanna University stating student grievances with the administration, 1966.
10. A poster created by college students at the University of Pennsylvania announcing national days of conscience, 1968.
Based on the images of the student protests, discuss what methods were used by the students to protest. What was the nature of these protests? What types of protest methods were employed by students at UPenn, Susquehanna University, and the Community College of Philadelphia? (Look at items 4-9.)
Look at item 3. Why do you think television reporters were interested in covering the student protests? What was the role of media in these protests? Do you think the media coverage helped or hindered the students’ cause?
Based on the article describing the “Loyalty Day” counter-protests (item 7), what were the students protesting? Consider what a citizen should do if they disagree with decisions made by their government. Is it acceptable for citizens to protest the actions of their government? Why or why not?
After reading the student grievances flyers, articles, and picket signs (items 7-9), what were the issues students were unhappy with that motivated them to protest? Do you believe protesting was the best way to address the issues the students had? Why or why not?
Based on the poster announcing a national day of conscience (item 10), what method did those students use to protest the war in Vietnam? Why do you think they chose this method?
Many protests during this time, and within this set, take place on college campuses. Why do you think this is so? Do you believe a college campus is an appropriate place to hold a protest? Why or why not?
What role do protests play in our society? What is the motivation behind protesting? What is the value of protest?
Discuss the risks of protest. Would you be willing to protest for or against a cause you believed strongly in? What would you potentially be risking if you did join a cause?
What are some other methods of raising awareness of an issue or of enacting change?
For younger grades
Drawing upon what students have learned regarding methods of protesting, have them research a current issue about which they feel strongly. Based on their research, create a plan for how they could make a change regarding your chosen issue. Consider the following questions: What methods and tactics would they employ? What are their goals for creating change? Who, if anyone, would they need to contact to aid in your cause? Have them write a page describing the history of their chosen issue and why it is important to them and create an outline of their plan of action.
Have students create a poster that they would use in their protest. It can be for an existing movement, or a cause of their creation. What kind of message do they want to get across? How do you get your message across through a poster? Who do you want to see the poster?
For older grades:
Using social media and other online resources, have students research contemporary student-led protests and create a presentation comparing and contrasting that protest to the student protests of the late 1960s and early 1970s. Have them explain and describe the issue being protested, what the students want as a result of the protests, and the protest methods they employ. Highlight any similarities and/or differences between the two. Some examples of current protests could include environmental issues, administrative power, or gun rights.
Recommended Essay Question: Using what you learned from the primary sources and reflecting upon the present day, write about your thoughts on the legacy of student protests in the 1960s-1970s. Some questions to consider include: Did you agree with the protest aims? Did they did some good, or damage? What did they accomplish? What were their limitations?
Additional Resources for Research
The Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia on the Vietnam War.
The Temple News, “A History of Protest.”
Years of Crises: The 1960s. Pennsylvania State University Libraries.
We appreciate your feedback on the sets! You can fill out our assessment form to let us know what you think. If you have any questions about the sets or are interested in sets on a specific topic, contact us at info@padigital.org.
Set created by Devin Johnson, Temple University College of Education.
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The 28th Biennial Numerical Analysis Conference
Minisymposia
The Department of Mathematics and Statistics at the University of Strathclyde are proud to host the 28th edition of the Biennial Numerical Analysis Conference from 25th to 28th June 2019.
Submit or update your registration for the 2019 Conference.
Submit an abstract or revise your existing submission.
The following distinguished researchers have accepted invitations to deliver plenary lectures at the conference:
Raymond Chan, Chinese University of Hong Kong
Paul Constantine, University of Colorado, Boulder
Alistair Forbes, National Physical Laboratory
Vivette Girault, Université Pierre et Marie Curie - Paris VI
Des Higham, University of Strathclyde
Natalia Kopteva, University of Limerick
Gunilla Kreiss, Uppsala University
Frances Kuo, University of New South Wales
Ulrich Rüde, FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg
Carola-Bibiane Schönlieb, University of Cambridge
Holger Wendland, Universität Bayreuth
Margaret Wright, Courant Institute
The conference will begin at 9am on Tuesday 25th June and finish with lunch on Friday 28th June.
The programme can be found here (updated 21st June). Abstracts are here.
The Leslie Fox Prize in Numerical Analysis
The 2019 IMA Leslie Fox Prize meeting will take place at Strathclyde University on Monday June 24th, the day before the Biennial conference starts. The Leslie Fox Prize competition is for young rising stars of Numerical Analysis and has since 1985 been won by many at the top of our field today. If you'd like to attend then you can inform us when you register for the main meeting. There is there is no charge for attendance at the Leslie Fox Prize meeting.
More details on the meeting can be found here.
A number of minisymposia will be scheduled during the parallel sessions. Each minisymposium should consist of a multiple of three 20 minute talks.
If you are interested in organising a minisymposium, in any branch of Numerical Analysis or a cognate area, please contact the conference committee.
Please supply the title of your proposed minisymposium along with a brief abstract and a tentative list of speakers.
Please note that individuals are limited to one presentation, either a minisymposium talk or a contributed talk.
Organisers are encouraged to ensure that the speakers represent a broad spectrum of research experience.
Authors will advised of acceptance of proposals by email shortly after submission.
The deadline for submission of minisymposium topics is 31st March 2019.
Abstracts from contributors should be submitted by April 30th 2019.
Preconditioning and iterative methods for differential equations
Organisers: John Pearson (Edinburgh) and Jennifer Pestana (Strathclyde)
List of speakers: Niall Bootland (Strathclyde), Santolo Leveque (Edinburgh), Daniel Loghin (Birmingham), Mariarosa Mazza (Insubria), John Pearson (Edinburgh), Alison Ramage (Strathclyde), Ekkehard Sachs (Trier), Jakub Stocek (Heriot-Watt), Andy Wathen (Oxford)
Abstract: The numerical solution of problems involving differential or integro-differential equations is a mainstay of numerical analysis. As is well known, many numerical methods for these problems involve linear solves, which can dominate the computational cost. Accordingly, tailored and efficient iterative methods are required. This minisymposium will explore effective iterative methods and preconditioners for problems involving partial differential equations, fractional differential equations and partial integro-differential equations.
Fractional-derivative problems
Organisers: Martin Stynes (Beijing CSRC) and Yubin Yan (Chester)
List of speakers: Hu Chen (Beijing CSRC), Mihaly Kovacs (Chalmers U), Buyang Li (Hong Kong Polytechnic), Martin Stynes (Beijing CSRC), Jilu Wang (Beijing CSRC), Yubin Yan (Chester), Ye Hu (Chester), Chaobao Huang (Beijing CSRC), Xiangyun Meng (Beijing CSRC)
Abstract: In recent years there has been an explosion in the number of published papers dealing with numerical methods for fractional-derivative problems, but the rigorous analysis of such methods has many open questions. This mini-symposium brings together several fractional-derivative experts to present and discuss recent developments in this fast-changing area.
Recent Advances in the Numerical Solution of Inverse Problems in Imaging
Organiser: Silvia Gazzola (Bath)
List of speakers: Ferdia Sherry (Cambridge), Malena Sabaté Landman (Bath), Joab Winkler (Sheffield), Kirk Soodhalter (Trinity College, Dublin), Chen Zhang (UCL), Anis Theljani (Liverpool)
Abstract: Inverse problems arise every time one wants to recover the cause of an observed effect: in particular, inverse problems are ubiquitous in many imaging applications, such as tomography (for medicine and industry) and image deblurring (in astronomy and biology). Since inverse
problems are usually ill-posed, they are difficult to solve, and problem-specific techniques must be carefully devised. Moreover, multi-dimensional solutions (such as images) naturally lead to discretised large-scale problems. In recent years, a considerable amount of research has proposed
alternative, improved, reliable, and efficient approaches to the numerical solution of large-scale inverse problems. The goal of this minisymposium is to present new state-of-the art solvers, with a particular focus on techniques that exploit innovative numerical linear algebra and optimisation tools.
Trends in numerical methods for partial differential equations
Organisers: A.M. Portillo (Valladolid), M.J. Moreta (Complutense), N. Reguera (Burgos)
List of speakers: A.M. Portillo (Valladolid), V. Gordin (National Research University Higher School of Economics, Moscow), M.J. Moreta (Complutense), H. Herrero (Castilla La Mancha), J. C. Jorge (Public University of Navarra), N. Reguera (Burgos)
Abstract: Partial Differential Equations (PDEs) are involved in the modeling of many problems in Sciences and Engineering. It is well known that, in most cases, it is impossible or very difficult to obtain analytic solutions of PDEs. For this reason, in this mini-symposium we address some numerical methods to approximate PDEs solutions and we analyze several important questions of recent interest concerning the numerical integration of PDEs. In particular, the talks focus on, but not limited to, how to avoid the order reduction phenomenon, the advantages of using transparent boundary conditions, near energy conserving numerical schemes and the Rayleigh-Bénard problem.
Moreover, the aim of this session is to provide an opportunity for researchers to discuss recent progress in the field.
Spectral Methods
Organisers: Sheehan Olver (Imperial), Alex Townsend (Cornell), Marcus Webb (KU Leuven)
List of speakers: Marcus Webb (KU Leuven), Sheehan Olver (Imperial), Timon Gutleb (Imperial), Alex Townsend (Cornell), Dan Fortunato (Cornell), Andrew Horning (Cornell), Matt Colbrook (Cambridge), Nick Trefethen (Oxford), Abi Gopal (Oxford)
Abstract: Spectral methods are a class of numerical techniques used to solve differential and integral equations by expressing the solution as an expansion in a global basis such as trigonometric or orthogonal polynomials. The speakers in this minisymposium will present recent developments in fast transforms, infinite-dimensional linear algebra, multivariate orthogonal polynomials, non-local problems, rational approximation and domain decomposition methods that are allowing spectral methods to tackle problems previously viewed as outside their reach.
Numerical Methods for Partial Differential Equations in Unbounded Domains
Organisers: Buyang Li (HKPU), Chunxiong Zheng (Tsinghua)
List of speakers: Lehel Banjai (Heriot-Watt), Silvia Falletta (Politecnico di Torino), Thomas Hagstrom (Southern Methodist), Wangtao Lu (Zhejiang), Yohanes Tjandrawidjaja (ENSTA Paris Tech), Liwei Xu (UESTC), Huanhuan Yang (Shantou), Chunxiong Zheng (Tsinghua)
Abstract: Wave propagation appears in many physics, engineering and military applications. The study of wave propagation often requires solving partial differential equations in unbounded domains, on which the computational cost is very large. Various techniques have been developed to reduce the computation to a boundary domain, including artificial boundary conditions, boundary integral equations, and perfectly matched layers. This mini-symposium aims at bringing both leading experts and young researchers working on these problems, to discuss the latest results and to exchange new ideas, approaches, possible applications and emerging computational techniques.
Computational methods for model-driven optimization and control under uncertainty
Organisers: Dante Kalise (Imperial College), Mattia Zanella (Politecnico di Torino)
List of speakers: Bertram Duering (Sussex), Adriano Festa (L’Aquila), Stephan Gerster (RWTH Aachen), Susana Gomes (Warwick), Dante Kalise (Imperial College), Andrea Tosin (Politecnico di Torino), Michael Tretyakov (Nottingham), Urbain Vaes (Imperial College), Mattia Zanella (Politecnico di Torino)
Abstract: Model-driven optimization and control is at the core of a myriad of modern scientific and societal challenges including the control and estimation of collective behaviour phenomena, the design of protocols for autonomous vehicles, and the study of data transmission over communication networks, to name a few. Furthermore, in an applicative framework a fundamental step to study real problems is represented by the introduction of stochastic parameters reflecting the natural lack of information due to a wide range of phenomena spanning form possible external actions to behavioral forces. Therefore, the quantification of the influence of uncertainties is of paramount importance to build more realistic models and to design efficient automation strategies. This minisymposium addresses the analysis of novel computational techniques for robust control synthesis in the presence of parametric and structural uncertainties. It aims at promoting interactions between researchers working on computational methods for Hamilton-Jacobi and Fokker-Planck type equations, multiscale interacting particle systems and kinetic equations, PDE-constrained optimization, and applications in collective dynamics.
Finite element methods for Navier-Stokes equations: theory and algorithms
Organisers: Gabriel Barrenechea (Strathclyde), Julia Novo (Madrid)
List of speakers: Alejandro Allendes (USM, Valparaiso), Rodolfo Araya (Concepcion), Gabriel Barrenechea (Strathclyde), Malte Braack (Kiel), Marco Discacciati (Loughborough), Bosco Garcia-Archilla (Sevilla), Emmanuil Georgoulis (Leicester), Maria Gonzalez-Taboada (La Coruna), Julia Novo (Madrid), Samuele Rubino (Sevilla), Gunar Matthies (Dresden), David Silvester (Manchester)
Abstract: We discuss recent advances in the numerical approximation of problems in fluid mechanics. The emphasis will be on finite element methods for Stokes and Navier-Stokes equations, but contributions in related areas such as discontinuous Galerkin, virtual elements or finite volume methods will also be welcome. In addition, contributions related to adaptive methods for one (or several of) the above topics will also be welcome.
Matrix methods for Networks
Organisers: Francesca Arrigo (Strathclyde), Francesco Tudisco (Strathclyde)
List of speakers: Francesca Arrigo (Strathclyde), Mihai Cucuringu (Oxford), Gissell Estrada-Rodriguez (Heriot-Watt), Dario Fasino (Udine), Philip Knight (Strathclyde), Francesco Tudisco (Strathclyde)
Abstract: There is a strong relationship between network science and linear algebra, as complex networks can be represented and manipulated using matrices. Some popular tasks in network science, such as ranking nodes, identifying hidden structures, or classifying and labelling components in networks, can be tackled by exploiting the matrix representation of the data. In this minisymposium we sample some recent contributions that build on an algebraic representation of standard and higher-order networks to design models and algorithms to address a diverse range of network problems, including (but not limited to) core-periphery detection and centrality.
Recent Advances in Continuous Optimisation
Organisers: Nick Gould (Oxford), Lindon Roberts (Oxford)
List of speakers: Derek Driggs (Cambridge), Jaroslav Fowkes (Oxford), Jonathan Grant-Peters (Oxford), Julian Hall (Edinburgh), Michal Kocvara (Birmingham), Lisa Kreusser (Cambridge), Erlend Riis (Cambridge), Lindon Roberts (Oxford), Adilet Otemissov (Oxford), Giuseppe Ughi (Oxford), Zhen Shao (Oxford), Ivet Galabova (Edinburgh)
Abstract: Optimisation problems over continuous variables are ubiquitous across quantitative disciplines, and the development of efficient numerical methods to solve such problems is an important topic in numerical analysis. This minisymposium will present recent work on a diverse array of continuous optimisation problems, including linear and nonlinear programming, and global and stochastic optimisation.
Rational Approximation
Organisers: Evan Gawlik (Hawaii at Manoa), Yuji Nakatsukasa (Oxford)
List of speakers: Igor Pontes Duff (ISAE/Onera), Evan Gawlik (Hawaii at Manoa), Yuji Nakatsukasa (Oxford)
Abstract: The theoretical and algorithmic aspects of rational approximation have experienced a surge of interest in recent years, motivated in part by applications of rational approximation in numerical linear algebra. This minisymposium aims to bring together researchers working on these diverse aspects of rational approximation. Topics of interest include the role of rational functions—in particular composite rational functions—in matrix factorization algorithms, model order reduction, and spectral theory; algorithms for rational interpolation and best/near-best approximation; and analysis of rational approximants.
Probabilistic numerical computation and high-dimensional data analysis
Organiser: Ivan Tyukin (Leicester)
List of speakers: Mark Girolami (Cambridge), Jeremy Levesley (Leicester), Ivan Tyukin (Leicester)
Abstract: The mini-symposium focuses of the fundamental challenges of understanding uncertainties in numerical analysis. Addressing these challenges requires synergies across mathematical disciplines including statistical sciences as well as traditional numerical analysis. The mini-symposium aims at presenting possible approaches to form this synergy by discussing, motivating, and highlighting approaches enabling the coherent propagation of probability measures through the numerical computation and inference. Recognizing a potential possibility of statistical view on the data employed in numerical schemes gives rise to a new understanding of the notion of dimensionality and important properties it entails, in particular in the case when dimension of the vector space to which the original data belongs is high. Revealed intra-disciplinary connections between traditional and more recent approaches in numerical analysis enables linking of vast relevant accumulated expertise in numerical analysis to the vibrant community of Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence.
Hierarchical methods in stochastic numerical approximations
Organiser: Abdul-Lateef Haji-Ali (Heriot-Watt)
List of speakers: Mike Giles (Oxford), Kody Law (Manchester), Joakim Beck (KAUST)
Abstract: Real life problems require expensive approximations and when such approximations are combined with other numerical methods the cost can become prohibitive. This is especially relevant in stochastic problems where samples of an approximation must be computed to explore the probability space. Hierarchical methods, lead by Multilevel Monte Carlo, have been successfully applied in many problems of this kind with excellent results. By using a combination of solutions with low to high accuracy, the underlying numerical methods, such as Monte Carlo, are accelerated by orders of magnitude. In this mini-symposium, we discuss the recent advances and analysis of these hierarchical methods and their application to new problems.
ICMS Advances in Linear Algebra and Huge-Scale Optimization
Delegates may be interested in a related meeting taking place in Edinburgh on 1-2 July. Advances in Linear Algebra and Huge-Scale Optimization will be held at the Bayes Centre.
More details can be found here.
All attendees are invited to submit an abstract for a talk to be delivered during a parallel session. Please note that individuals are limited to one presentation, either a minisymposium talk or a contributed talk.
Abstracts can be submitted for approval by the organising committee and will normally be reviewed within one week. The deadline for submitting abtracts is April 30th 2019.
Talks are fifteen minutes long with an additional five minutes for questions/discussion.
When submitting an abstract please use this template (1k, tex).
The 2017 meeting was held at the University of Strathclyde in June, 2017.
View all previous meetings
Copyright 2019 Biennial Numerical Analysis Conference | Privacy | Contact us | Site map
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Tag Archives: search warrant
Meth lab found in Lake station
On December 11, 2013, at approximately 1:45 a.m., Lake Station Police Department obtained a search warrant for a residence in the 3300 block of Arizona Street, Lake Station, Indiana, in conjunction to a narcotic investigation. With the assistance of the Northwest Regional SWAT Unit and Lake Station SWAT Unit, the warrant was executed and five individuals were taken into custody. During a multi-month investigation, Lake Station officers conducted several undercover (controlled) purchases of methamphetamine “Meth” from the residence. Lake Station narcotic officers started working with investigators from DEA and Jasper County Sheriff’s Department. Officers obtained evidence that the subjects were “cooking” the product inside the house, which is located in a residential area of the city. During the investigation, officers discovered that the subjects were responsible for supplying methamphetamine to several other communities in Indiana as far away as Newton County and Jasper County.
During a search of the residence, officers confirmed the residence was being used as a “Meth Lab” and recovered evidence indicating that several batches of Meth had been “cooked” in the residence. Among the items that were confiscated were methamphetamine and several electronic devices. Lake Station Narcotic Officers plan on presenting their case to the Lake County Prosecutor’s office Thursday afternoon.
As always we encourage anyone with information about
someone selling or manufacturing narcotics
in the community to contact :
the Lake Station Police Department at 219-962-1186.
Kevin Garber Sr.
Lake Station Police Department
Tags: 219-962-1186, Anorectics, Chief, dea, Drug Enforcement Administration, Euphoriants, indiana, Jasper County, Jasper County Sheriff's Department, Kevin Garber Sr., Lake County Prosecutor, Lake County Prosecutor’s office, Lake Station, Lake Station Police Department, Lake Station SWAT Unit, Law, law enforcement, Law/Crime, manufacturing narcotics, Meth Lab, Methamphetamine, methamphetamine and several electronic devices, National security, Newton County, Northwest Regional SWAT Unit, police, search warrant, Strawberry Quik meth, SWAT
Indiana Man Arrested on Multiple Drug Charges
A man is behind bars this morning on multiple drug charges as a result of a weekend investigation.
On Friday, December 6, Trooper Jarrod Lents received information regarding possible ongoing drug activity at 321 Water Street in Shoals. Through the course of his investigation, Trooper Lents secured a search warrant for the residence through the Martin County Circuit Court.
Saturday Morning at 8:30 A.M., Trooper Lents and Martin County Deputy Damon Baker served the search warrant on the Shoals address. Officers found Larry G. Holt, Jr., 38, in possession of a large quantity of methamphetamine and marijuana. Holt was arrested, without incident, and taken to the Martin County Jail.
Arrested and Charges:
Larry G. Holt, 38
321 Water Street, Shoals, IN 47581
1. Possession of Methamphetamine, D – Felony
2. Possession of Marijuana with a Prior Conviction, D – Felony
Tags: Anorectics, Damon Baker, Euphoriants, Judicial Event, Larry G. Holt Jr., Law/Crime, Martin County Circuit Court, Martin County Jail, Medicine, Methamphetamine, Neurochemistry, Pharmacology, search warrant
State Police, Marion Prosecutor Confirm Restaurant Raids Throughout State
Officials are now confirming that the Indiana State Police assisted in an investigation that involved the shuttering of several restaurants throughout the State. Captain David Bursten of the Indiana State Police would only confirm that they received a request for assistance in the execution of search warrants from the Marion County Prosecutor. Those search warrants were all served on Monday. He did not have details on specific locations that were searched, but did say that multiple counties were involved. Thus, there is no official corroboration that La Carretta was a target of these search warrants.
Peg McLeish of the Marion County Prosecutor’s Office says the investigation was conducted with the assistance of the her office, Tippecanoe County Prosecutor and the Indiana State Police. When asked if the restaurants would re-open, she refused to speculate. She stated there is currently no court order preventing any restaurant from re-opening.
This is a breaking story and we will continue to update you as details become available. If you or a family member works for one of the closed restaurants, we would love to hear from you. Write to the Gazette at ken@northwestindianagazette.com or use the submit a tip button above.
UPDATE: The Gazette has spoken with the manager of at least one restaurant that was closed on Monday by the Indiana State Police. El Rodeo mexican restaurant in Richmond, Indiana will open as usual at 11:00 am today. When asked if they were closed on Monday, the employee stated “yes, for a little while.” He stated that he “did not know anything about it” when asked for further details.
This is a continuing story, we will keep you posted. See the update here Margaritas Flow Again at La Carreta
A sign on the door indicates that La Caretta is closed
Tags: Captain, County Prosecutor, Criminal law, David Bursten, government, indiana state police, ken@northwestindianagazette.com, Law, Local government in the United States, Marion County Prosecutor, Marion County Prosecutor's Office, Prosecution, prosecutor, search warrant, search warrants, Searches and seizures, Warrants
Categories indiana news, merrillville, schererville
FBI Week in Review 10/25/2013
Gazette Staff
HAMMOND, IN—The United States Attorney’s Office announced the following activity in federal court:
Joshua Robinson, 23, of Lafayette, Indiana, was sentenced by Senior District Judge James Moody to 33 months’ imprisonment and two years of supervised release after pleading guilty to the felony offense of possession of a firearm with an obliterated serial number. According to documents filed in this case, Robinson, who has an extensive criminal history consisting of juvenile adjudications and adult criminal convictions, burglarized a residence where a .20 gauge shotgun and a .223 caliber rifle were taken. After the firearms were stolen, Robinson and a co-defendant proceeded to take the serial number off one of the firearms in preparation of selling the firearms in Chicago, Illinois. This case was the result of an investigation by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, the Tippecanoe County Police Department, and the Lafayette Police Department. This case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Nicholas Padilla.
Che Williams, Jr., 21, of Gary, Indiana, was sentenced by Senior District Judge James Moody to 30 months’ imprisonment and two years of supervised release after pleading guilty to the felony offense of possession of a firearm with an obliterated serial number. This case was the result of an investigation by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives. This case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Dean Lanter.
Ramon Salinas, Jr., 37, of East Chicago, Indiana, was sentenced by Senior District Judge Rudy Lozano to 210 months’ imprisonment and 25 years of supervised release after pleading guilty to the felony offense of distribution of child pornography. According to documents filed in this case, law enforcement conducted an online Internet investigation to identify those possessing and sharing child pornography. The investigation identified an IP address belonging to the Salinas residence sharing files containing material depicting minors under the age of 16 engaged in sexual acts or poses. A search warrant was executed at this residence where law enforcement found that Salinas possessed at least 60 videos depicting minors engaging in sexually explicit conduct. Salinas also has a prior conviction for possession of child pornography in Marion County in 2005. This case resulted from an investigation by members of the Indiana Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, including the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations, the Indiana State Police, the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department, and the Highland Police Department. This case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Jill Koster.
James Urschel, 47, of Lafayette, Indiana, was sentenced by Senior District Judge James Moody to three years of probation after pleading guilty to the felony offense of false impersonation of a federal officer. According to documents filed in this case, Urschel impersonated a Deputy United States Marshal while buying numerous firearms at Gander Mountain in Lafayette, Indiana. He would then pawn the guns at a local pawn shop for cash. This case was the result of an investigation by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives. This case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Nicholas Padilla.
Charles E. Johnson, Jr., 33, of Gary, Indiana, was sentenced by Senior District Judge James Moody to 37 months’ imprisonment and three years of supervised release after pleading guilty to the felony offense of distribution of crack cocaine. According to documents filed in this case, law enforcement executed a search warrant at Johnson’s residence and found 17.9 grams of crack cocaine in a safe. Johnson had a felony conviction for dealing in cocaine in 2008 and was on probation for that offense when he was charged in this case. This case was the result of an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation GRIT Task Force. This case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Jennifer Chang-Adiga.
Daryl V. Johnson, 40, of East Chicago, Indiana, was sentenced by Senior District Judge James Moody to 180 months of imprisonment and three years of supervised release after pleading guilty to the felony offense of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. According to documents filed in this case, Johnson has 15 prior felony convictions and nine misdemeanor convictions over a period of 18 years. Johnson was in a motor vehicle that was pursued by Hammond Police Department due to the occupants violating the seat belt law. After the vehicle fled from police, Johnson exited the vehicle and fled on foot. The police recovered a handgun from the route on which Johnson fled. This case was the result of an investigation by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives HIDTA Task Force and the Hammond Police Department. This case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Nicholas Padilla.
Regina Cabell, 39, of Lafayette, Indiana, was sentenced by Senior District Judge Rudy Lozano to 18 months’ imprisonment and $79,000 in restitution after pleading guilty to the felony offense of health care fraud—submitting a claim to Indiana Medicaid for providing a service to an Indiana Medicaid recipient to whom she did not actually provide the claimed service—and failing to file a federal income tax return for her gross income of $297,567 in the 2011 tax year. According to documents filed in this case, Cabell, d/b/a L&G Transportation, submitted approximately $96,600 in false claims to Indiana Medicaid for providing transportation services that did not actually occur. This case was the result of an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Medicaid Fraud Control Unit, and the Internal Revenue Service. This case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Diane Berkowitz.
Tags: Alcohol Tobacco Firearms and Explosives HIDTA Task Force, Assistant United States Attorney, Bureau of Alcohol, Bureau of Alcohol, Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco Firearms and Explosives, Charles E. Johnson Jr., Che Williams Jr., chicago, crime times, Daryl V. Johnson, Dean Lanter, Diane Berkowitz, District Judge, District Judge, East Chicago, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Federal Bureau of Investigation GRIT Task Force, federal officer, Gander Mountain, gary, Hammond Police Department, Highland Police Department, Illinois, indiana, Indiana Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, indiana state police, Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department, Internal Revenue Service, James Moody, James Urschel, Jennifer Chang-Adiga, Jill Koster, Joshua Robinson, Judicial Event, Lafayette, Lafayette Police Department, law enforcement, Law/Crime, Marion County, Marshal, Medicaid Fraud Control Unit, Nicholas Padilla, online Internet investigation, Ramon Salinas Jr., Regina Cabell, Rudy Lozano, search warrant, seat belt law, Social Issues, Tippecanoe County Police Department, transportation services, United States Attorney’s Office, United States federal probation and supervised release, USD, War/Conflict
Categories us department of justice
Two Morocco Brothers Arrested on Battery and Strangulation Charges
Newton County-Two brothers from Morocco were arrested this morning at their residences and charged with Battery and Strangulation.Preliminary investigation by Indiana State Police Detective Chris Campione revealed that an investigation was begun yesterday, Wednesday, October 23, 2013, into thefts involving two residences in Morocco. The thefts occurred sometime between November 2012 and March 2013 when both brothers who are co-owners of a construction company were working on the two residences in Morocco. During the course of the theft investigation a battery and strangulation was uncovered that had occurred on Tuesday, October 15th, 2013 at a residence on State Street in Morocco that involved a dispute over money between family members. A search warrant was issued by the Newton County Prosecutor’s office and served today at the residences of Richard F. Dick, 36 of 414 S. Clay Street, Morocco and Jody L. Dick, 37 of 206 S. Clay Street, Morocco. Items related to the theft were located at the residences. Richard and Jody were both taken into custody at their residences without incident.Arrested:
each charged with :
1 count of Battery, Class A Misdemeanor
1 count of Strangulation, Class D Felony
Charges are pending for the thefts.
Jody and Richard were taken to Newton County Jail.
Tags: Chris Campione, Crimes, Detective, indiana state police, Jody L. Dick, Judicial Event, Law/Crime, Morocco, Newton County, Newton County Jail, Newton County Prosecutor’s office, Newton Edmonton, Richard F. Dick, search warrant, Sins, STATE STREET CORPORATION, Theft
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2017 MBAs To Watch: Rei Goffer, MIT (Sloan)
by: Jeff Schmitt on August 07, 2017 | 0 Comments 2,718 Views
Rei Goffer
MIT Sloan School of Management and Harvard Kennedy School
“I’m an entrepreneur by nature, passionate to find cool solutions for meaningful problems.”
Hometown: Tel Aviv, Israel
Fun fact about yourself: Before coming to Sloan I used to work as a cook in a high cuisine Asian restaurant in Tel Aviv.
Undergraduate School and Degree: Ben-Gurion University, BA in Economics.
Where did you work before enrolling in business school? I served for 10 years in the Israeli Air Force and left the service right before coming to school.
Where did you intern during the summer of 2016? I worked on my company ClimaCell, and traveled to India to do our initial market research and start business partnerships there.
Where will you be working after graduation? I will continue to work on ClimaCell. We are currently a team of eight (my two co-founders and I, and five full time employees) and hopefully we’re just getting started.
Community Work and Leadership Roles in Business School: I was part of the Israel Club at Sloan, and co-chaired the Israeli Caucus the Kennedy School.
Which academic or extracurricular achievement are you most proud of during business school? At the end of the first year of Sloan, we took 120 Sloanies on a eight-day trek in Israel. I was one of the leading organizers, and this was an extraordinary experience. Apart from just having tons of fun, I got to see my country through the eyes of my classmates, who come from all around the world. It made gave me fresh perspectives about things I thought I knew well. This was definitely one of the highlights of business school, and worth every bit of hard work invested in it.
What achievement are you most proud of in your professional career? It was finding my two amazing co-founders and building ClimaCell together over the past 18 months. During that time we’ve raised a $1.4M seed round, built an incredible team of developers, and are now about to launch the beta version for the most advanced weather forecasting system in the world.
Who was your favorite MBA professor? My favorite professor is Roberto Rigobon. He brings incredible passion and spirit to the classroom, and is both a revolutionary economist and a truly inspiring person. I admire his ability to be both extremely funny and extremely serious at the same time.
What was your favorite MBA Course and what was the biggest insight you gained about business from it? My favorite class was Entrepreneurial Strategy with Professor Scott Stern. It gave me a great framework to think about competitive advantages as a startup, which I still use today. In addition, the case studies were super relevant, and enabled me to get into the shoes of the founders at the most critical junctions.
Why did you choose this business school? I think that MIT is one the best schools in the world for tech entrepreneurs. You get an amazing ecosystem to start a business, with great classes, and access to the most amazing technologies, faculty, and students in the world. Add to that the incredible community and the unique atmosphere of Sloan, and there’s really no question.
What did you enjoy most about business school in general? The people. I met some of the most amazing people I know, from all over the world. Even though you spend most of the two years in Cambridge, you feel like you’ve traveled through half the globe, because your friends come from so many different places and cultures. Can’t think of any other experience that resembles that.
What was the most surprising thing about business school for you? How friendly everyone is, and how important it is to get to really know the people around you. There are such amazing opportunities, stories and connections waiting for you, just need to reach out.
What is your best piece advice to an applicant hoping to get into your school’s MBA program?
Focus. Spend a lot of time thinking thoroughly about what is it that you want to do after school, and make sure you’re being honest with yourself. There are a LOT of options, and from my experience if you really want to pursue one of them you should give it everything you’ve got. It’s hard enough to succeed when you’re putting 100%, it’s impossible if you’re putting anything less.
What is the biggest myth about your school? MIT has a reputation for being an ultra quantitative school. While that’s not entirely wrong (it’s actually true), you can avoid dealing with heavy math if you’re not in the mood for that at Sloan.
What was your biggest regret in business school? There are so many people I wish I had discovered earlier.
Which MBA classmate do you most admire? That’s easy. My partner, Itai Zlotnik. Itai and I go almost 16 years back – we’ve known each other since 10th grade, and we were lucky enough to end up in the same class at MIT and start ClimaCell together. Itai is one of the toughest and most devoted people I’ve ever known, and the best teammate one can ask for.
“I knew I wanted to go to business school when…I first heard about a friend from the Air Force who started MIT after finishing his service. This seemed like the ultimate starting point for almost any career, and a great way to transition from a long service in the military to the private sector. It indeed was.”
“If I hadn’t gone to business school, I would be…a Chef. Cooking has always been a huge part of my life, and in some point I definitely might go back to doing it professionally.”
If you were a dean for a day, what one thing would you change about the MBA experience? I would give everyone much bigger scholarships, so they wouldn’t feel so stressed about their debt, and take more risks in their post graduation career choices. Oh, and I would cancel the 8:30am classes.
What is your ultimate long-term professional goal? Go back to Israel and build a big company there.
Who would you most want to thank for your success? My wife Efi. Everything.
In one sentence, how would you like your peers to remember you? As their Israeli friend who doesn’t necessarily likes to wear suites…
Favorite book: Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez
Favorite movie or television show: The Wire.
Favorite musical performer: Stevie Wonder
Favorite vacation spot: The beach of Sinai, Egypt.
Hobbies? Playing piano, Cooking, Reading, and practicing Yoga.
What made Rei such an invaluable addition to the class of 2017?
“Rei has been a consistent contributor to his MIT Sloan classmates both in and out of the classroom, despite his busy life as a dual degree student, Legatum fellow, and Chief Strategy Officer for a successful startup. When he was not excelling in his classes at MIT Sloan and the Harvard Kennedy School, Rei could be found developing and leading classmates on an Israeli trek that is now an annual highlight, or working across academic and geographic boundaries to build ClimaCell into a viable business. His vision for ClimaCell won him a Legatum Fellowship.
Rei Goffer is living the Sloan mission as a principled and innovative leader who is committed to improving the world. We cannot wait to see what he does next!”
Maura Herson
Director, MBA Program
MIT, Sloan School of Management
“Rei embodies the mission of the Legatum Center to improve lives through ethical entrepreneurial leadership. As a founding member of ClimaCell, he is revolutionizing how governments, relief agencies, and agriculture insurers access weather data and make decisions that improve safety and livelihoods of those vulnerable to extreme weather phenomena. Rei sees opportunities to create solutions for complex challenges using technology and talent and is an inspiration to his peers in how to use the abundant resources of the MIT entrepreneurship ecosystem to launch a high-impact venture.”
Executive Director The Legatum Center
Lecturer in Technological Innovation, Entrepreneurship, and Strategic Management
DON’T MISS: MBAS TO WATCH: THE STORIES OF 100 EXTRAORDINARY GRADUATES FROM THE CLASS OF 2017
Tagged: 2017 MBAs To Watch, Best & Brightest, MIT, Rei Goffer, Sloan School of Management
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Bachelor of Environmental and Occupational Health and Safety Schedule
16 May 2019 – Minor administrative amendment – “candidate” and “candidature” removed or replaced with “student” to ensure alignment with policy library glossary. Approved by Michelle Jarvie, Director Assurance Services.
10 January 2019 – Minor administrative amendment – added “Schedule to the Awards and Graduation Policy”, approved by University Secretary, 9 January 2019.
This is the first version of this document to be published in the new UON Policy Library. For all intents and purposes, this version is reflective of the version that was approved, published and in effect at the time the new Policy Library was launched. In migrating the document to the new Policy Library it was subjected to reformatting, including the application of a new numbering system. The following information details the history of changes to the document prior to its publication in the new UON Policy Library: 08/07/2015 - Academic Senate - Revisions to Section 1 approved by Academic Senate 08 July 2015 (AS15:049) The President of Academic Senate approved the immediate rescission of Clause 2 Enrolment as the Program and Course Approval Committee approved the offering of this program on a full-time basis and therefore, students will enrol in accordance with the standard University policy on Enrolment - 30 May 2012. Administrative Amendment to Clause 5 Grading of the Degree to clarify that the increased GPA requirement applies to students who entered the program from 2011 - Approved by (Acting) President of Academic Senate 14 September 2011. Amendment to Clause 5 Grading of the Degree to ensure grading of this degree is in-line with other 240 Unit Programs - Approved by (Acting) President of Academic Senate 12 September 2011. Amendment to clause 6. Time Requirements - from six years to eight years with effect from 1 January 2011, approved by Academic Senate 16 June 2010 (AS10:063) Amendment to award 'with distinction' rather than 'with merit' approved Academic Senate 3 December 2008
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Discrete-Time Processing of Speech Signals / Edition 1 available in Hardcover
Pub. Date:
Discrete-Time Processing of Speech Signals / Edition 1
by John R. Deller Jr., John H. L. Hansen, John G. ProakisJohn R. Deller Jr.
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Commercial applications of speech processing and recognition are fast becoming a growth industry that will shape the next decade. Now students and practicing engineers of signal processing can find in a single volume the fundamentals essential to understanding this rapidly developing field. IEEE Press is pleased to publish a classic reissue of Discrete-Time Processing of Speech Signals. Specially featured in this reissue is the addition of valuable World Wide Web links to the latest speech data references.
This landmark book offers a balanced discussion of both the mathematical theory of digital speech signal processing and critical contemporary applications. The authors provide a comprehensive view of all major modern speech processing areas: speech production physiology and modeling, signal analysis techniques, coding, enhancement, quality assessment, and recognition. You will learn the principles needed to understand advanced technologies in speech processing from speech coding for communications systems to biomedical applications of speech analysis and recognition.
Ideal for self-study or as a course text, this far-reaching reference book offers an extensive historical context for concepts under discussion, end-of-chapter problems, and practical algorithms. Discrete-Time Processing of Speech Signals is the definitive resource for students, engineers, and scientists in the speech processing field.
An Instructor's Manual presenting detailed solutions to all the problems in the book is available upon request from the Wiley Makerting Department.
John R. (Jack) Deller, Jr. is professor of electrical and computer engineering at Michigan State University where he directs the Speech Processing Laboratory. He received the 1998 IEEE Signal Processing Magazine Best Paper Award and the 1997 IEEE Signal Processing Society Meritorious Service Award for his six-year service as editor in chief of the IEEE Signal Processing Magazine. Dr. Deller is the coauthor of Digital Signal Processing and the Microcontroller (Prentice Hall, 1999) and currently serves as associate editor of the IEEE Transactions on Speech and Audio Processing. He is a Fellow of the IEEE.
John H. L. Hansen is an associate professor at the University of Colorado at Boulder; he holds appointments in the Department of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences and in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. Dr. Hansen serves as associate director for the Center for Spoken Language Understanding (CSLU) and director of research activities of the Robust Speech Processing Laboratory at CSLU. He has served as technical advisor to the U.S. delegate for NATO, and he is associate editor of the IEEE Transactions on Speech and Audio Processing and of the IEEE Signal Processing Letters. Dr. Hansen received the 1990 National Science Foundation Research Initiation Award and has been named a Lilly Foundation Teaching Fellow for contributions to the advancement of engineering education.
John G. Proakis is a faculty member of the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at Northeastern University. His professional experience is in the general area of digital communications and digital signal processing. Dr. Proakis is the author of Digital Communications (McGraw-Hill, 3rd ed., 1995) and the coauthor of Introduction to Digital Signal Processing (Prentice Hall, 3rd ed., 1996); Advanced Digital Signal Processing (Macmillan, 1992); Communication Systems Engineering (Prentice Hall, 1994); Digital Signal Processing Using MATLAB (PWS, 1997); and Contemporary Communication Systems Using MATLAB (PWS, 1998). He is a Life Fellow of the IEEE.
Click to read or download
Preface to the IEEE Edition.
Acronyms and Abbreviations.
SIGNAL PROCESSING BACKGROUND.
Propaedeutic.
SPEECH PRODUCTION AND MODELLING.
Fundamentals of Speech Science.
Modeling Speech Production.
ANALYSIS TECHNIQUES.
Short-Term Processing of Speech.
Linear Prediction Analysis.
Cepstral Analysis.
CODING, ENHANCEMENT AND QUALITY ASSESSMENT.
Speech Coding and Synthesis.
Speech Enhancement.
Speech Quality Assessment.
RECOGNITION.
The Speech Recognition Problem.
Dynamic Time Warping.
The Hidden Markov Model.
Language Modeling.
The Artificial Neural Network.
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Obama's Popularity Falling — But Not Among Blacks
By T.K. Farrow 2009-07-23T03:46:34
On Monday, the daily presidential tracking poll for Rasmussen Reports showed that Barack Obama no longer has the job performance approval of a majority of Americans. His overall approval rating was down to an even 50 percent. Released on the same day was a demographic breakdown of that rating: only 41 percent of white Americans approve of the job he’s doing, while 97 percent of blacks approve and 58 percent of all other ethnicities combined approve.
The approval rating of blacks jumps off the page because it’s such a glaring anomaly -- or at least it should be. Upon seeing the numbers, it was hard to bury the frustrated anger accompanying the thought of how unwilling so many black folks are to think for themselves. When reading news in black media outlets, it’s clear that African Americans are easily star-struck by the first black president.
“With all the unique challenges facing African Americans, identifying just one problem as our most fundamental issue sounds like the beginning of a long nuanced conversation. It’s not so complicated, however, for President Barack Obama,” wrote Cynthia Gordy in Essence magazine in a report on how to fix the education crisis in the black community.
Ethelbert Miller wrote in EbonyJet that “when President Obama stepped into the room to address the NAACP this week, he first met a group of black people (many women) who became almost hysterical with joy. ... It reminded me of when the Beatles arrived in the States from England.”
Then there was the reader who wrote in response to Miller’s article: “Nothing & no one can inhibit the pride I feel when reading about what President Obama represents while standing before the NAACP as the leader of our nation and if he doesn't do another thing -- that symbolism, if given a chance, will impact our children and the world for centuries to come.”
https://pjmedia.com/blog/obamas-support-at-50-percent-but-among-blacks/
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Pipeline Protesters Win Temporary Stay as Army Pushes Project to Alternate Routes
By Bridget Johnson 2016-12-04T20:11:25
After several months of protests led by the Standing Rock Sioux, the Army announced today that it will not approve an easement to let construction of the 1,172-mile Dakota Access Pipeline proceed along its planned route.
In a statement, Assistant Army Secretary for Civil Works Jo-Ellen Darcy said alternate routes needed to be explored. Members of the tribe argue that the pipeline, which would carry nearly half a million barrels a day from the Bakken and Three Forks oil fields to a crude terminal near near Pakota, Ill., would damage sacred Native American sites and pollute their water.
The tribe's reservation boundary is half a mile south of the proposed crossing under Lake Oahe, an Army Corps of Engineers project on the Missouri River in North Dakota.
"Although we have had continuing discussion and exchanges of new information with the Standing Rock Sioux and Dakota Access, it's clear that there's more work to do," Darcy said. "The best way to complete that work responsibly and expeditiously is to explore alternate routes for the pipeline crossing."
Alternate routes would be considered with full public input and analysis and an Environmental Impact Statement, she said.
The protests drew celebrities and heated clashes with law enforcement.
"We wholeheartedly support the decision of the administration and commend with the utmost gratitude the courage it took on the part of President Obama, the Army Corps, the Department of Justice and the Department of the Interior to take steps to correct the course of history and to do the right thing," Standing Rock Sioux Tribal Chairman Dave Archambault II said in a statement today. "The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and all of Indian Country will be forever grateful to the Obama Administration for this historic decision."
"We want to thank everyone who played a role in advocating for this cause. We thank the tribal youth who initiated this movement. We thank the millions of people around the globe who expressed support for our cause. We thank the thousands of people who came to the camps to support us, and the tens of thousands who donated time, talent, and money to our efforts to stand against this pipeline in the name of protecting our water. We especially thank all of the other tribal nations and jurisdictions who stood in solidarity with us, and we stand ready to stand with you if and when your people are in need," he added.
Archambault said the tribe will respond to the decision in a "peaceful and prayerful manner" and "look forward to being able to return home and spend the winter with our families and loved ones."
He added that the tribe hope the Trump administration will "respect this decision and understand the complex process that led us to this point."
"When it comes to infrastructure development in Indian Country and with respect to treaty lands, we must strive to work together to reach decisions that reflect the multifaceted considerations of tribes," the chairman continued. "Treaties are paramount law and must be respected, and we welcome dialogue on how to continue to honor that moving forward. We are not opposed to energy independence, economic development, or national security concerns but we must ensure that these decisions are made with the considerations of our Indigenous peoples."
https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/2016/12/04/pipeline-protesters-win-temporary-stay-as-army-pushes-project-to-alternate-routes/
Related: Donald Trump, energy, environment, native americans
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April 2017, VOLUME 139 / ISSUE 4
Fruit Juice and Child Health
Steven A. Abrams, Stephen R. Daniels
AAP —
American Academics of Pediatrics
DGA —
WIC —
Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children
In recent years, as the prevalence and severity of obesity in childhood and adolescence have increased, the role of individual items in the diet of children, such as 100% fruit juice, has become controversial. Although fruit is an important part of children’s diets, many have come to consider fruit juice in the same category as sugar-sweetened beverages, such as soda, and become concerned about the role of the natural sugars in fruit juice in increasing the risk and severity of obesity.
This concern has led to discussion as to whether 100% fruit juice should be recommended at all for pediatric consumption or included as part of the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) package provided for infants and small children. Furthermore, anecdotally, clinicians have described the experience of parents expressing the belief that they have created a healthier diet for their overweight or obese child by substituting fruit juice for sugar-sweetened sodas.
In contrast, there has been substantial concern about whether children and adolescents receive enough fruits and vegetables in their diet. This concern is particularly true of older children (aged >9 years) who do not meet fruit intake requirements. Although whole fruit intake is recommended by many sources, notably the Dietary Guidelines for Americans (DGA), up to one-half of the recommended servings can be provided, per DGA guidelines, as 100% fruit juice.1 In general, a 6-oz glass of fruit juice equals 1 fruit serving and thus the emphasis in the guidelines on portion size.
There are potential benefits to providing some fruit intake as 100% fruit juice. Fruit juice presents a form of fruit that may be more flexible in its use in that it is easily portable and storable. It also resists spoiling and thus has a longer shelf life. Fruit juice is also palatable and easy to consume. In addition, epidemiologic studies have frequently shown that fruit juice is a component of a high-quality diet pattern and, in adults, can potentially decrease the risk of obesity.2
Decisions about diet for individuals and for policy should be made based on evidence. In this issue of Pediatrics, Auerbach et al3 present the results of a meta-analysis of studies focused on the relationship of intake of fruit juice and risk of obesity in children. They found only a small effect of a single serving of fruit juice on BMI change in small children 1 to 6 years of age and no effect in older children. These findings are reassuring that small amounts of fruit juice are not likely to be directly linked to obesity development. They furthermore support American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) guidance, both previously published and in an upcoming revision, which recommends limits on fruit juice consumption by children, with greater limits for small children.4,5
What does this mean for public policy, including that of government programs such as the WIC program? In general, pediatricians should support policies limiting the consumption of fruit juice and promote consumption of whole fruit by toddlers and young children, including through the WIC program. However, it means that there is no strong evidence suggesting a benefit or rationale for a complete ban on fruit juice in these programs. Instead, limits (particularly on portion size) consistent with AAP and DGA policies can be advocated and parents cautioned about risks associated with high intakes. The National Academy of Medicine has recently released guidance for the WIC program; this guidance recommends continuation of provision of 100% fruit juice for children aged >1 year while limiting the amount consistent with AAP guidelines and the role of the WIC program as a supplemental feeding program.6 Older children in particular may benefit from fruit juice intake to close the gap with total recommended fruit intake, and this approach is supported by the accompanying study by Auerbach et al.3 In general, there is no rationale for providing fruit juice to children aged <1 year except in the rare circumstances of it being specifically recommended by a pediatric provider for medical indications.
Important gaps remain in our knowledge base. These gaps include uncertainty about the effects of juice in small amounts on dental caries and the effects of different forms of 100% juice products on weight and dental caries. Although these topics deserve further research, the very limited amount of data should lead to caution about premature conclusions that are not evidence-based.
In summary, recent data and an unbiased review of the literature support a limited role for fruit juice as a part of the diet of children. Consistent with the recent literature, smaller amounts are recommended by the AAP for children aged <7 years than for older children. Juice should not be given that is unpasteurized, and juice should not be provided in cups that are available for drinking throughout the day. Further evidence-based findings are needed to refine these recommendations. The banning of fruit juice or failure to allow it in government food programs outside the first year of life is not consistent with the available evidence.
Address correspondence to Stephen R. Daniels, MD, PhD, University of Colorado School of Medicine, 13123 East 16th Avenue, B065, Aurora, CO 80045. E-mail: stephen.daniels{at}childrenscolorado.org
FINANCIAL DISCLOSURE: The authors have indicated they have no financial relationships relevant to this article to disclose.
FUNDING: No external funding.
POTENTIAL CONFLICT OF INTEREST: The authors have indicated they have no potential conflicts of interest to disclose.
COMPANION PAPER: A companion to this article can be found online at www.pediatrics.org/cgi/doi/10.1542/peds.2016-2454.
US Department of Health and Human Services and US Department of Agriculture
. Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2015-2020, eighth edition. Available at: https://health.gov/dietaryguidelines/2015/guidelines/
O’Neil CE,
Nicklas TA,
Rampersaud GC,
Fulgoni VL III
. 100% Orange juice consumption is associated with better diet quality, improved nutrient adequacy, decreased risk for obesity, and improved biomarkers of health in adults: National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, 2003-2006. Nutr J. 2012;11:107pmid:23234248
Auerbach B,
Wolf F,
Hikida A, et al
. Fruit Juice and Change in Body Mass Index: A Meta-Analysis. Pediatrics. 2017;139(4):e20162454
Committee on Nutrition
. The use and misuse of fruit juice in pediatrics. Pediatrics. 2001;107(5):1210–1213pmid:11331711
Heyman MB,
Abrams SA; The Section on Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition and the Committee on Nutrition
. Fruit juice in infants, children and adolescents: current recommendations. Pediatrics. 2017, in press
. Review of WIC packages: improving balance and choice: final report. Available at: https://www.nap.edu/read/23655/chapter/1. Accessed January 11, 2017
You are going to email the following Fruit Juice and Child Health
Pediatrics Apr 2017, 139 (4) e20170041; DOI: 10.1542/peds.2017-0041
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You are here: Parliament home page > Parliamentary business > Publications and Records > Hansard > Commons Debates > Commons Debates by date > Commons Debates - previous sessions > Bound Volume Hansard - Debate
Comprehensive Schools
9. Sir David Madel (South-West Bedfordshire): How many comprehensive schools have been closed since May 1997; and if he will make a statement. [152558]
The Minister for School Standards (Ms Estelle Morris): Up to the end of 2000, a total of 143 comprehensive schools had closed since May 1997. That figure includes schools that have closed owing to the amalgamation or merger of two or more schools, and schools in local education authorities that have moved from a three-tier to a two-tier education system.
Sir David Madel: The right hon. Lady is aware that, following the closure of the upper school in Houghton Regis, Northfields upper school, in Dunstable, faces additional challenges. She is also aware of the changing nature of employment in my constituency, where there have been heavy job losses in the motor and allied industries. Will she do all she can to grant Northfields school technology status, the better to prepare its young people for the new, high-skilled jobs that are so essential to the south Bedfordshire area?
Ms Morris: Indeed I am aware of Northfields school--thanks to the hon. Gentleman's efforts, it is one of the schools emblazoned on my memory. I fully recognise that he has campaigned long and hard for it to be granted specialist status. I can say no more than that I know that it has submitted a bid--I think for the third time--which will be evaluated against a set of criteria. We shall just have to wait and see. However, it is acknowledged that if schools are really to serve their children, they need to reflect on the changing demands of a changing local economy. I am delighted that he has a school in his constituency that accepts that responsibility and is gearing up to meet it. I very much hope that, if not this term, then at some time in future, Northfields school will achieve specialist status. I, like the hon. Gentleman, realise that that will further help it to deliver quality education for his constituents.
Nursery Places
11. Mr. Jeremy Corbyn (Islington, North): What assessment he has made of the take-up rate of nursery places in the last year. [152560]
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Education and Employment (Ms Margaret Hodge): Since 1997, we have created 120,000 free early education places for three and four-year-olds. We will announce figures for 2000-01 shortly. All four-year-olds and half of all three-year-olds are now entitled to free part-time early education places. In the same period, 298,000 new child care places for 546,000 more children have also been created.
Mr. Corbyn: I thank the Minister for that reply. I am pleased at the increase in the number of nursery and pre-school places, and I compliment the Government on it. Will she consider a specific and rather unusual problem? Some primary schools have developed nursery classes, but because of the perversity of the charging system, independent, voluntary and local authority day nurseries
15 Mar 2001 : Column 1182
often lose children, and as a result some of them have tragically had to close. I am sure that she would agree that at the same time as the Government are trying to develop more pre-school and nursery places, which we all welcome, it is sad that some of the independent and voluntary nurseries are having to close. Will she examine the charging system that they have to impose, especially for parents who are out of work or just about to start work and cannot afford the fees, which leads to a loss of necessary and important nursery places?
Ms Hodge: The whole thrust of our policy on expanding early years education and child care is to develop integrated places, bringing together early years education and child care to best meet the needs of children and of the modern family. I hope that the nurseries in my hon. Friend's constituency will take advantage of the substantial new resources that are available to create integrated places, which could be in nursery schools or in nurseries in the private and voluntary sectors. Following the Chancellor's announcement on the increases in child care tax credit, places, especially in areas such as inner London, are now affordable to low-income families.
Mr. Nick Hawkins (Surrey Heath): Does the Minister recognise that although there has been an increase in nursery places attached to schools, the number of pre-school playgroups has fallen during the Government's time in office? There has also been a dramatic diminution in the number of registered child minders. Does she realise that the Government are doing further harm by their surreptitious announcement last week of a new stealth tax on small primary schools? When my right hon. Friend the Member for Huntingdon (Mr. Major) introduced the citizens charter and the charter mark, small schools could apply for the latter free. The Government are now preventing small schools from applying by imposing a stealth tax charge of £600 to be considered for a charter mark. Many schools in my constituency with successful nursery classes have succeeded in winning charter marks, but now they will not even be allowed to apply. Is not that yet another scandal and another example of the Government betraying small schools?
Ms Hodge: It is sad that Conservative Members never quite get their facts right. The additional costs will be met by the Department, so there will be no additional costs to schools. I shall repeat what I said earlier about places in playgroups. There has been a steady decline in pre-school places, which started under the previous Government because of their divisive nursery voucher scheme. We have replaced that with planned partnerships, and this year for the first time the number of places available in pre-schools has increased by 5,900. We are aware of the decline in places with child minders, which is why we have introduced start-up grants to assist child minders. That is already having an effect, and we are confident that there will be 145,000 new child minder places by 2004.
13. Mr. Nigel Griffiths (Edinburgh, South): If he will estimate the number of (a) lone parents, (b) young people and (c) long-term unemployed young people who have entered the work force under the new deal. [152562]
The Minister for Employment, Welfare to Work and Equal Opportunities (Ms Tessa Jowell): The latest figures, to the end of December 2000, show that 81,311 lone parents and at least 274,230 young people aged 18 to 24 have found work through the new deal. In addition, 62,570 long-term unemployed people aged over 25, and 20,385 people in the new deal 50-plus have found jobs through the new deal.
The combined effect of the strong, stable economy, the new deal and the efforts of hundreds of thousands of unemployed people enabled us to announce yesterday that we have reached a milestone. For the first time in 25 years, claimant unemployment has fallen below 1 million.
Mr. Griffiths: Does the Minister remember meeting unemployed people a decade ago, during the recession, who despaired of ever again getting a job? Hundreds of people in my constituency have benefited from the new deal, and tell me that it has transformed their lives. Does my hon. Friend share my deep regret that the policy that has brought about that great prosperity for people is under threat from the Conservative party?
Ms Jowell: My hon. Friend is absolutely right. The Government offer the prospect of a better, strengthened new deal that gives opportunity for long-term unemployed people. The Opposition offer no deal.
Mrs. Angela Browning (Tiverton and Honiton): Would the Leader of the House please give the business for the coming week?
The President of the Council and Leader of the House of Commons (Mrs. Margaret Beckett): The business for the coming week will be as follows:
Monday 19 March--Proceedings on the Consolidated Fund (No. 2) Bill.
Second Reading of Regulatory Reform Bill [Lords].
Motion relating to the Common European Security and Defence policy.
Tuesday 20 March--Second Reading of Special Educational Needs and Disability Bill [Lords].
Motion on the Churchwardens Measure.
Wednesday 21 March--Opposition day [7th Allotted Day]. Until about 10 o'clock, there will be a debate on "The Government's Conduct of Foreign Policy" on an Opposition motion.
Thursday 22 March--The House will be asked to consider a motion arising from the Second Report from the Procedure Committee: "Election of a Speaker".
The Chairman of Ways and Means has named opposed private business for consideration at 4 o'clock.
Friday 23 March--Private Members' Bills. The provisional business for the following week will be:
Monday 26 March--Second Reading of the Adoption and Children Bill.
Tuesday 27 March--Second Reading of Social Security Fraud Bill [Lords].
Wednesday 28 March--Second Reading of the Private Security Industry Bill [Lords].
Thursday 29 March--Debate on the Intelligence agencies on a motion for the Adjournment of the House.
Friday 30 March--Private Members' Bills.
The House will wish to know that on Wednesday 28 March there will be a debate relating to the support scheme for olive oil in European Standing Committee A.
The House will also wish to know that on Wednesday 28 March there will be a debate relating to waste electrical and electronic equipment in European Standing Committee C. [Relevant documents:
Wednesday 28 March 2001:
European Standing Committee A--Relevant European Union document: 9431/00; Support scheme for olive oil. Relevant European Scrutiny Committee report: HC 23-xxvii (1999-2000).]
European Standing Committee C--Relevant European Union document: 10802/00; Waste electrical and electronic equipment. Relevant European Scrutiny Committee reports HC 28-i (2000-01) and HC 23-xxix (1999-2000).
Index Home Page
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I am keen that we have extensive investigation and scrutiny of the mandate and then of the reform treaty when it finally comes forward as a treaty. [ Official Report, 3 July 2007; Vol. 462, c. 801.]
Does the Minister accept that if he does not allow adequate scrutiny as this stage by this national Parliament, he risks undermining one of the key principles of the new treaty before it is even established?
Mr. Murphy: In response to the pretty fair point that the hon. Gentleman makes, the fact is that the treaty envisages a much enhanced role for national Parliamentsinterestingly both for the House of Commons and the other place. So, as he says, it is important that we continue to find ways to maintain that dialogue in Parliament and with Parliaments Select Committees. That is why both the Foreign Secretary and I have accepted the kind invitation of my hon. Friend the Member for Ilford, South (Mike Gapes), the Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, to appear before his Committee at a time of its choosing, rather than our choosing. At least some of that will happen during the parliamentary recess. Of course, we remain available to discuss the issues with other Select Committees and we continue to seek opportunities to discuss the issues with Front Benchers and Back Benchers of all parties. I am meeting the hon. Member for Rayleigh (Mr. Francois), who speaks for the Conservatives on this issue, on Wednesday, and the hon. Member for Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk (Mr. Moore), who speaks for the Liberal Democrats on this issue, tomorrow. I look forward to continued opportunities to discuss, bilaterally and with the Select Committees, ways of continuing to inform the House.
23 July 2007 : Column 602
Several hon. Members rose
Madam Deputy Speaker: Order. I remind right hon. and hon. Members of the importance of asking single supplementary questions, for short responses. We still have important business: the introduction of new Members and the main business before the House.
Mike Gapes (Ilford, South) (Lab/Co-op): The Minister has confirmed that the constitutional concept has been abandoned, and I welcome that. However, I ask that when he appears before the Select Committee on Foreign Affairs, which I hope will be a few days after the meeting on 8 September, he will give us greater clarity about the way in which the strengthening of the foreign policy aspects of the European Union will be taken forward. Will the welcome initiative of our Prime Minister and President Sarkozy be more effective under the new arrangements, so that we can, for example, end the conflict in Darfur?
Mr. Murphy: I thank my hon. Friend for his question. I can think of no better way of spending the parliamentary recess than appearing before him and his Committee. My hon. Friend is right to mention the opportunities that result from having a co-operative approach with our European partners on defence, foreign policy and many other matters. I once again reassure my hon. Friend and others that the UK has a veto on foreign policy. That is entirely appropriate. Where we agree with our European partners, we can act together, but where we continue to disagree, we can of course act alone, if we so wish.
Mr. David Heathcoat-Amory (Wells) (Con): Will the Minister comment on the notorious new division of competences, or powers, in the draft constitution, whereby the EU gains exclusive power over commercial and competition policy, and whereby most other policy areas are defined in a way that prevents national Parliaments from legislating when the EU decides to do so? That was controversial at the time, and it was in large measure opposed by the Government in unsuccessful amendments, so why has the Minister apparently given up on that matter, and why is he waving it through? Will he attempt to get those powers back through amendments tabled at the intergovernmental conference?
Mr. Murphy: We do not intend to table substantive changes to the IGC treaty agreement. I have already made it clear that European competitiveness and free and unfettered competition will be protected as part of a binding protocol on competition. On the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice and the charter of fundamental rights, the UKs position on the protocol aligned with that is clear.
Keith Vaz (Leicester, East) (Lab): I warmly welcome the statement and thank the Minister and his predecessor, my right hon. Friend the Member for Ashfield (Mr. Hoon), for the work that was done on 22 June to secure such a good deal for Britain. Will the Minister ensure that there is full engagement with the British people during the process, so that they can rely on proper information from the Government, rather than on Mark Mardells blog?
Mr. Murphy: It was remiss of me not to pay a warm tribute to my right hon. Friend the Member for Ashfield (Mr. Hoon), the former Minister for Europe, for his work in that role at the outset; it is possibly more important to do so now that he is Government Chief Whip. I also wish to pay my respects to the work of my right hon. Friend the Member for Leicester, East (Keith Vaz), who was also a former Minister for Europe. He did an enormous amount of work in trying to destroy some of the myths around the issue of Europe and the European Union. I do not wish to pick on Mr. Mark Mardell, but any advice that anyone in the House can give to provide an accurate picture of the real benefit of the European Union to the United Kingdom is welcome. For example, it has meant 3 million jobs, co-operation on environmental issues, clean water, cleaner beaches, cleaner airthose are the real and substantive improvements and changes that the EU can deliver.
Mr. James Clappison (Hertsmere) (Con): The Minister honourably maintains that the treaty is completely different from the constitutional treaty, even though no European Government, and no other sentient being, agrees with his point of view. Nevertheless, for old times sake, will he remind us what the last Labour manifesto said about the European constitution and a referendum?
Mr. Murphy: As I said at the outset, the constitutional concept has been abandoned. There is a radical difference between the reform treaty and the prior constitutional treaty. The real test, as we look around Europe, is how many of the other 27 member states of the European Union are even contemplating holding a referendumjust one, our great friends, the Irish, simply because of their specific constitutional arrangement and the nature of their Parliament. In the United Kingdom we have a different parliamentary and constitutional arrangement from that of our good friends in Ireland.
Mrs. Gwyneth Dunwoody (Crewe and Nantwich) (Lab): My hon. Friend will know that because of a number of imposed majority votes within the Community and particularly within the Commission, Britain is losing control over its safety audit in aviation and engineering, and in relation to our ports and to single skies. Will he therefore propose that the House creates a safety audit to look closely at any aspect of European institutions, however they are framed and however they are imposed?
Mr. Murphy: My hon. Friend raises important points, and I look forward to discussing them with her, if she so wishes. There is an extension of qualified majority voting but much of it is minor and technical, and much of it is to re-establish existing practicefor example, qualified majority voting on the technicalities of German reunification. That is important. There are other examples of qualified majority voting on international aid and humanitarian support, but on the specific issue that my hon. Friend raises, I am happy to meet her and other hon. Friends before the parliamentary recess, if time in her diary allows.
Mr. William Cash (Stone) (Con): Does the Minister accept that he has a fight on his hands, and that this dishonest treaty is one of constitutional change? It may not be exactly the same as the constitutional treaty that
came before, but it is equivalent, and that is the important fact. When he next comes before the European Scrutiny Committee, will he bring the Foreign Office legal adviser so that we can ask him questions that the Minister cannot answer?
Mr. Murphy: I thank the hon. Gentleman for his kind and gallant comments, which are never knowingly understated. I can put my response no more clearly than by quoting the right hon. and learned Member for Rushcliffe (Mr. Clarke), who chairs the Conservatives democracy taskforce, who said:
The idea we have a referendum is frankly absurd.
I can think of no more appropriate response to the comments of the hon. Gentleman.
Mr. Denis MacShane (Rotherham) (Lab): I warmly welcome the Conservatives approach, because their obsessive Europhobia is a guarantee of third place results in elections to come. Does my hon. Friend agree that the proposed reform treaty creates a president of the European council of nations which the European Commission opposed because it gives more power to the nations of Europe, that foreign policy remains under the control of the nations of Europe, and that the Parliaments of the nations of Europe will have more power, so the treaty is one of the weakest since 1957? We might as well have a referendum on the results in Ealing, Southall and in Sedgefield, which were good for the country. Holding a referendum on the treaty is a plain absurdity.
Mr. Murphy: Again, I pay tribute to the work of my right hon. Friend as a former Minister for Europe. He is correct that the treaty transfers [Interruption.]
Madam Deputy Speaker: Order. Far too many individual conversations are taking place.
Mr. Murphy: My right hon. Friend is right. The treaty transfers much less power than the Single European Act or the treaty of Maastricht. Of course, all the Opposition Members who were in government at the time voted against a referendum on Maastricht, which was much more significant in its transfer of powers. It seems to many objective observers that the Conservative party of today is captured by a rabid anti-Euro fanaticism that is fantastic in its proportion and out of touch with reality.
Mr. Gregory Campbell (East Londonderry) (DUP): The Minister cannot but be aware of the growing disenchantment that exists regarding the ever-expanding EU. He declares that the treaty is not a revised constitution. Others beg to differ. Is not the simplest way to resolve that conflict to let the people of the United Kingdom decide by way of referendum?
Mr. Murphy: Europe plays an enormous role in supporting the economy of Northern Ireland. Although the issue of cross-border co-operation is, of course, part of the constitutional settlement between north and south, we are not attracted to the level of co-operation to which the hon. Gentleman has alluded by following the Republic of Ireland in being the only other member state of the EU to sign up to having a referendum.
Sir Stuart Bell (Middlesbrough) (Lab): Will the Minister eschew the seductive suggestion of the hon. Member for Rayleigh (Mr. Francois) to remove the word shall from provisions on democratic principles and replace it with the word may? He will be aware that the particular provision covers subsidiarity, proportionality, freedom, security, justice, treaty revision and inter-parliamentary co-operation, all subjects that are of some interest to every Member of this House.
Mr. Murphy: My hon. Friend is right. That is why we are not reopening the issues of great substance in conversation with our European colleagues. Nevertheless, we continue to examine the precise wording of draft treaties, and I will return to the House and to my hon. Friend with the specifics in the weeks and months ahead.
Mr. Philip Hollobone (Kettering) (Con): Do Her Majestys Government support the inclusion in the reform treaty of a new mechanism for withdrawal from the European Union, and how would that mechanism work?
Mr. Murphy: We support the inclusion of that specific clause in the treaty. The way to bring about that outcome is to vote for either the Conservative party or the UK Independence party at the next general election. On Europe, it is sometimes difficult to work out the difference between those two parties.
Mr. Charles Kennedy (Ross, Skye and Lochaber) (LD): I welcome the general direction outlined by the Minister and hope that the IGC meets with success. Does he agree that whether or not there is a referendum in due coursein the past 10 years under the previous premiership, the pro-European forces across parties and outside politics have on more than one occasion been marched up to the top of the hill in anticipation of something only to be marched down againthe Government need to get on the front foot, to take a broadly based proactive stance about constructive, sensible engagement in Europe and to isolate the extremist voices for what they are?
Mr. Murphy: The right hon. Gentleman is correct. Europe is an enormous influence for good in the United Kingdom. In terms of economics, 3 million jobs rely on trade with the European Union. On co-operation and trying to create a stronger force positively to put the case for Europe, I look forward to any ideas that the right hon. Gentleman may have on the specifics.
Sandra Osborne (Ayr, Carrick and Cumnock) (Lab): How confident is the Minister that a line can be drawn under constant institutional change once the reform treaty is agreed, given that some of our European partners are far more passionate about continual institutional change than the UK?
Mr. Murphy: We live in hope that the endless cycle of conversation about continuous structural change can come to an end as a consequence of the agreement of this treaty. Enormous issues and challenges lie ahead for the European Union, and I am determinedthe
Prime Minister and the Foreign Secretary are absolutely determinedto move Europe away from the constant introversion of looking at the important detail of structures and on to the issues that really matter to my hon. Friends constituents in Ayrshire and people across the United Kingdom.
Mr. John Gummer (Suffolk, Coastal) (Con): I am sure that hon. Members on both sides of the House welcome the Ministers support for the extension of the powers of national Parliaments. Will the Minister take that one stage further and explain throughout the country that parliamentary sovereignty means that we vote in this House about these matters, as the noble Baroness Thatcher said in debating the whole issue of the single market, and that in this country we do not take the foreign concept of a referendum?
Mr. Murphy: Although I rarely agree with the noble Baroness Thatcher, I nevertheless agree with the right hon. Gentlemans observation. I hope that Conservative Front Benchers and Conservative Members around himhe is in a minority of perhaps two or threelisten to his wise and candid advice.
Angus Robertson (Moray) (SNP): In welcoming the White Paper, which has much to commend it, I am intrigued by the four UK Government pre-conditions listed in chapter 3, including the
protection of the UKs common law system,
which is a sloppy and embarrassing drafting error that will find no friends in the Scots legal system. May I draw the Ministers attention to concerns in Scotland about the previous draft constitution and the inclusion of the common fisheries policy as an exclusive competence? Will he continue the recent discussions between the UK and Scottish Governments to ensure the appropriate IGC conclusions for all the nations of the UK and the European Union?
Mr. Murphy: I am delighted that the hon. Gentleman has raised that point, because, as he knows, we have signed a memorandum of understanding with the devolved Administrations to ensure that, where possible, we have a coherent approach across the United Kingdom. I look forward to discussing the precise details with him.
Kelvin Hopkins (Luton, North) (Lab): I shall be campaigning strongly for a referendum and believe that my view is shared by millions of Labour supporters and trade unionists throughout Britain. My hon. Friend has talked about making the European Union more transparent and more democratic, yet the European Council meets in secret, has no minutes and simply adopts conclusions drawn up by bureaucrats. Is my hon. Friend going to try to make the European Council more democratic?
Mr. Murphy: I could not hear every detail of my hon. Friends comments, such is the attraction of our conversation about the European treatythis statement is so popular, that the House is becoming busier with every passing question. I look forward to continuing the dialogue and have not given up all hope of convincing my hon. Friend of the error of his ways.
Mr. John Redwood (Wokingham) (Con): Given the importance of the red lines to the whole country, will this different Government go to the IGC and say that this country must have an unambiguous veto written in on all those issues, because, as the Minister knows, that is the only way in which to protect those positions?
Mr. Murphy: As I have said, we will not accept any important transfer of sovereignty away from the United Kingdom. The right hon. Gentleman voted against a referendum on Maastricht, which was much more substantial than this treaty. I can do no more than quote him:
If we sign the Amsterdam Treaty, we will abolish our country.
He was wrong then, and he is wrong now.
Mr. Greg Hands (Hammersmith and Fulham) (Con): May I ask the Minister again about the charter of fundamental rights? Ten days ago, Margot Wallström, the vice-president of the European Commission, appeared before the European Scrutiny Committee, where on our opt-out on the charter of fundamental rights she said:
normally the opt-outs are respectedbut I will not prejudge or speculate on what the Court of Justice will decide on fundamental rights and how this is applied throughout the European Union.
If the Commission itself does not think that the opt-out is watertight, will he tell us why he does?
Mr. Murphy: There is a straightforward answer to that. It is called the IGC mandate, article 1 of which states:
the Charter does not extend the ability of the Court of Justice, or any court or tribunal of the United Kingdom, to find that the laws, regulations or administrative provisions, practices or action of the United Kingdom are inconsistent with the fundamental rights, freedoms and principles that it reaffirms.
In my three weeks in this job, I have learned an entirely new vocabularysome would say a different languagebut the important protections and rights that the UK enjoys are very clear in any language.
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Saudi Arabian monarchy calls for more executioners
By Niles Williamson
Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Civil Service posted eight job openings this week for new executioners on its employment website. The job posting states that no particular qualifications are necessary and that applicants will not be subject to typical civil service entrance exams.
The new state killers, who are formally classified as religious functionaries, will be responsible for “carrying out the death sentence according to Islamic Sharia after it is ordered by a legal ruling.” They will also be responsible for amputating the hands of those individuals convicted of criminal offenses that do not carry the death penalty.
The most common form of state sanctioned murder in the Islamic kingdom is beheading with a scimitar, a traditional Arabian sword with a long curved blade. Executions have also been carried out by firing squad and stoning, though these methods of killing are less prevalent.
The Saudi monarchy is in desperate need for new swordsmen as the number of beheadings is on pace to double from last year. According to Human Rights Watch there have been 85 beheadings so far this year, nearly matching in less than five months the 90 beheadings carried out in all of 2014.
Approximately half of those beheaded last year were Saudi Arabian. The others were migrant workers from Yemen, Pakistan, Jordan, Syria, Sudan, Chad, Eritrea, India, Burma, Indonesia and the Philippines.
With their noted quiescence, American officials including President Barack Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry sanction Saudi Arabia’s decapitations even as they hypocritically utilize the horrific images of beheadings by the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria to justify military operations in Iraq and Syria.
Saudi Arabia has consistently been ranked as among the top five countries for executions annually. The kingdom ranked third in the number of executions in 2014, behind China and Iran, and ahead of Iraq and the United States. According to figures compiled by Amnesty International, Saudi Arabia put a total of 592 people to death between 2007 and 2014.
The number of executions has risen dramatically since King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud took the throne in January. Salman has appointed a number of new judges to work through a significant backlog of death penalty appeals.
Saudi Arabia is one of the last countries to officially sanction public executions and the only one to carry them out on a methodical basis. Beheadings are routinely carried out in broad daylight in public squares. Deera Square, the main site of public executions in the capital city, Riyadh, is grotesquely nicknamed Chop Chop Square.
Earlier this month five men who had been convicted of murder were beheaded in Jeddah and their corpses were hung by a rope from a helicopter hovering above the city in a grisly public display. Recent cases have also been reported in which decapitated corpses were crucified and left to hang in the open air.
Though it is illegal to film the killings, videos depicting the barbaric practice often leak online. A Saudi security official was arrested in January for filming and posting online the video of a typical execution. The video shows a woman protesting her innocence as she is forced to the ground by security officers, positioning her to be beheaded. The swordsman pulls back his scimitar and butchers the woman with three successive hacks at her neck.
While most beheadings are carried out in punishment for murder, the death penalty is also applicable under Saudi law in cases of adultery, apostasy, burglary, drug smuggling, sorcery, witchcraft, fornication, sodomy, homosexuality, lesbianism, carjacking and waging war on God.
A Sudanese migrant worker was beheaded in 2011 after being convicted of practicing witchcraft and sorcery. According to Amnesty International, Abdul Hamid bin Hussein Mostafa al Fakki was entrapped by an agent provocateur from Saudi Arabia’s religious police, who asked him to cast a spell to reunite the police agent’s supposedly divorced parents. The Ministry of Justice filed 191 capital cases of alleged sorcery between November 2013 and May 2014, many against migrant workers.
The barbarity of the Saudi monarchy is not confined to its own borders. The spike in public executions also comes as the Saudi monarchy, with the full support of the US, is leading a punishing air war against the Houthi in Yemen. Airstrikes since March have resulted in the deaths of more than 1,800 people, half of them civilians.
The Saudi-led coalition has committed numerous war crimes, deploying illegal cluster munitions and dropping bombs on a refugee camp, a warehouse full of humanitarian supplies and a dairy factory. Schools, hospitals, airports and residential neighborhoods have all been deliberately targeted for destruction.
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At least 116 injured in Russia factory explosions
By Clara Weiss
On Saturday, June 1, three blasts at the Kristall factory in the Russian city of Dzerzhinsk injured 116 people. As of this writing, 17 are still hospitalized. The factory produces explosives for the Russian military, including the FAB-500, the most powerful air bomb in the Russian defense industry.
Dzerzhinsk is a city of about 260,000 people, located in the Nizhny Gorodski oblast in central Russia. A former center of the Soviet chemical industry, more than 40 percent of the population are still employed in manufacturing. The Kristall factory, built in the Soviet period, now belongs to the major state-owned defense cooperation Rostech, which employs over 400,000 people. Its head, Sergei Chemezov, is a leading member of the ruling United Russia party and was put on the US sanctions list in 2016 as a close ally of Russian president Vladimir Putin.
The blasts reportedly occurred at a unit in the factory that produces the highly explosive chemical trinitrotoluole (TNT), a standard component of dynamite. They were so powerful that windows in more than 300 apartment buildings, 70 kindergartens and 31 schools as well as several cultural buildings and gyms were shattered or torn out of the walls, spanning a radius of at least 3 kilometers. Footage of the blasts shows a major mushroom cloud rising over the city. Many buildings were also left without electricity.
An ensuing fire destroyed three storage units at the factory and two plants, and damaged the building of the factory management. The fire spread over 1,200 square meters, including 800 on the factory site as well as 400 cubic meters of the nearby forest. Some 400 firefighters were needed to extinguish the fire.
Among those injured were 44 workers at the factory. One of them is still in the hospital in critical condition. Many of the injured were local residents, including at least one child. Most residents had wounds inflicted by flying glass from shattered windows. It is generally believed that the number of injured was reduced because the blasts took place on a Saturday, when schools and kindergartens were closed.
Nikita Tumakov, who witnessed the blasts from his apartment, told a Russian newspaper: “At 11:50 a.m. the first explosion occurred. I was sitting at home in my room on a chair, and I was thrown off [the chair]. Everything in the apartment was turned upside down. Then I went out on the balcony, began to take a video, and the second explosion came with a major wave. My balcony was shaking.” Other residents confirmed that the effects of the blast could be felt in neighboring districts of the city. The blasts triggered a panic in the city, with many residents fleeing to the homes of friends or relatives in the region.
A state of emergency was declared in Dzerzhinsk as well as in the nearby villages of Pyra, Zhelnino, and Kordon Lesnoi. Workers in neighboring factories were evacuated.
On Sunday, workers of the city administration, nearby factories, volunteers, and other local residents spent hours trying to remove the rubble and broken windows. The damage caused is estimated to be in the millions of rubles (hundreds of thousands of US dollars).
The city’s mayor has assured the population that no toxic chemicals were released by the blasts and that radioactivity in the city was not increased above the allowed maximum. However, on social media, residents have expressed suspicions about these official assurances. The Russian state and its local agencies are notorious for downplaying, if not outright lying about, the scope of such disasters.
While no official explanation has been given for the blasts, everything indicates that gross violations of basic safety procedures at the factory were the cause. The general director of the Kristall factory had been removed from his position just before the latest blasts because of “problems with factory safety” after another explosion at the Kristall factory on April 4 had destroyed an entire shop. After all of these explosions, almost nothing remains of the original factory buildings (click here for footage).
The Kristall factory is only a particularly stark example of the dangerous workplace conditions facing millions of workers in Russia on a daily basis. On August 31, 2018, another blast at the Sverdlov factory in Dzerzhinsk, which also produces explosives for the military and is directly adjacent to the Kristall factory, killed six people.
According to a report by the Russian Ministry of Labor, 2,600 people died in 2017 because of accidents in production. This was an increase of 5 percent from 2016. The by-far deadliest occupations are in mining and construction. In stark contrast to the numbers provided by the Russian government, the International Labor Organization has estimated that some 15,000 workers in Russia die at their workplace every year, and that some 190,000 workers die annually as a result of exposure to dangerous conditions at work.
Responsibility for these deaths lies with the Russian oligarchy, which has emerged out of the destruction of the USSR by the Stalinist bureaucracy. Making close to no investments in new technologies and equipment, this oligarchy’s criminal neglect of basic infrastructure has resulted in countless fires and explosions at both factories and public buildings. Most recently, this included a horrific fire at a shopping mall in the mining city of Kemerovo a year ago, which took the lives of at least 64 people, many of them children, and a fire at a shoe factory in early 2018, which killed 10 migrant workers from China.
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Events Speaker
#NoKidsPolicy
Home / About the Book
Hollywood has provided countless children with unparalleled opportunities and experiences. However, the entertainment industry is also complicated, with its own rules, lingo, and ways of doing things.
Safe Stardom was written for parents and children from all walks of life and all ages and ethnicities. It is for those who have just started to dream of a career in acting to those with years of training and on-set experience, and for families and children everywhere in between.
This is a book of firsts—the first book that is specifically designed to help parents of entertainment children from both a legal and practical perspective. And, it’s the first book written by a former SAG-franchised Talent Agency owner, Talent Manager, and—most importantly—an Entertainment Lawyer whose law practice has a niche focus on representing children and young Hollywood.
Safe Stardom is also the first book written with the goal of giving parents the information they need to keep their children and family safe and smart, while on their road to fame, and beyond.
© 2014 Robert Pafundi
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James Madison's Principle of Religious Liberty
American Political Science Review, Vol. 97, No. 1, pp. 17-32, February 2003
16 Pages Posted: 6 Mar 2004
See all articles by Vincent Phillip Muñoz
Vincent Phillip Muñoz
University of Notre Dame - Department of Political Science
Although James Madison has been invoked by justices and judicial scholars for over one hundred years, Madison's principle of religious liberty has never been fully grasped or adopted by the Supreme Court. Judges and scholars have failed to understand Madison's radical but simple teaching that religion is not part of the social compact and, therefore, that the state may not take religion within its cognizance. This is most unfortunate because Madison offers a doctrine capable of unifying the Constitution's two religion clauses into one straightforward rule. His principle addresses the legitimate criticisms of conservative and liberal advocates who have argued, respectively, that the Supreme Court has been unnecessarily hostile toward and favorable toward religion. Madison thus speaks to the contemporary disillusionment with the Court's religion jurisprudence. A proper interpretation of his thought offers a timely and timeless understanding of the principle of religious freedom.
Keywords: James Madison, religious liberty, religious freedom, church and state, constitutional law, constitution, constitutional law, first amendment, establishment clause, free exercise, american founding, exemptions, legal history, Smith
Muñoz, Vincent Phillip, James Madison's Principle of Religious Liberty. American Political Science Review, Vol. 97, No. 1, pp. 17-32, February 2003. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=512922
Vincent Phillip Muñoz (Contact Author)
University of Notre Dame - Department of Political Science ( email )
217 O'Shaughnessy Hall
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Mega Diva Jenifer Lewis on 'The Wedding Ringer' and Seeing Yourself
January 14, 2015 – 9:26 AM – 0 Comments
By Stephanie Stephens Parade @StephStephens
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When you’re in the presence of a mega diva, you know it. I’m talkin’ about the multifaceted and multitalented Jenifer Lewis, who’s a singer and cabaret performer, actor, producer and life counselor—my own moniker for her. The woman is all about discipline and belief in one’s self. Just watch.
With more than 300 appearances in film and television, she shines brightly in her latest movie. It’s a comedy, The Wedding Ringer from Sony Pictures, marking her fourth big-screen appearance with pal Kevin Hart. At age 57 and the undisputed “Black Mother of Hollywood,” Jenifer also rocks ABC’s hit show, Black-ish, as “Ruby” with Laurence Fishburne.
Other recent films include Think Like A Man, Think Like A Man Too, Baggage Claim and The Magic City. Jenifer played Tina Turner’s mother in What’s Love Got to Do with It and Whitney Houston’s mother in The Preacher’s Wife. Disney fans embraced her voice as “Flo” in Cars and as “Mama Odie” in The Princess and the Frog.
She was “Aunt Helen” on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air and guest starred on Friends, Boston Legal and Girlfriends. For six seasons, Jenifer portrayed “Lana Hawkins” on Lifetime’s hit series Strong Medicine. In September 2012, she premiered in a self-produced Web series, Jenifer Lewis and Shangela.
With more than 30 years in music and theater, Jenifer’s presented more than 200 concerts in 49 states and on four continents. In April last year she received an electrifying standing ovation at Carnegie Hall with the New York Pops orchestra. Don’t forget her one-woman show, Black Don’t Crack, her roles in Hairspray, Mother Courage and Her Children opposite Meryl Streep, and in Hello Dolly! Jenifer also toured as a “Harlette” with Bette Midler.
She cares. Jenifer supports and mentors youth from Big Brothers/Big Sisters and advocates for AIDS education and treatment and LGBT youth housing. Diagnosed with bipolar disorder, she openly takes on the stigma beast that often stalks people with mental illness. Her dedication to years of psychological and spiritual work has paid off handsomely.
After taping, Jenifer shared her life philosophies privately with me, and to recharge myself every morning, I just watch this. It’s her impromptu speech at the premiere of Baggage Claim. Use it. Don’t lose it. See her in The Wedding Ringer for some great laughs and follow her on Twitter @JeniferLewis. Get ready for her memoir in the near future, as well as announcements of more entertainment projects in which she’ll play even more prominent roles, no pun intended. (Well, maybe…)
I’m thrilled that Jenifer is in my first celebrity video here on Parade.com. What a way to kick this off. More to come soon.
Stephanie Stephens is certain that at age 45+, the best time of our lives is now. So what are we waiting for? She writes, produces, and hosts her multimedia channel, Mind Your Body TV, featuring timely health and lifestyle blogs, podcasts, and videos—also seen on YouTube and syndicated by AOL/On.
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Walter Scott, Editor
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Alumni News On the Front Lines
By Merrell Noden ’78
Published in the July 9, 2014 Issue
Q&A: Author Helen Thorpe ’87
Helen Thorpe ’87
Marea Evans
The three women at the center of Helen Thorpe ’87’s new book had various reasons for enlisting in the Indiana National Guard — from needing the money to seeking adventure — but none anticipated that she would be sent overseas to a war zone. All three served in Afghanistan, two in Iraq. One of the women, who starts out as a supply clerk, ends up driving a truck protecting a supply convoy and runs over an explosive device, leaving her with a serious head injury.
Soldier Girls: The Battles of Three Women at Home and at War meticulously captures the tedium, fear, and loneliness of war — and the consequences for the women’s personal lives. Thorpe, a journalist who has written for The New Yorker and Slate, pored through thousands of emails, Facebook posts, letters, and psychological evaluations, and spent years interviewing the women and their families to portray what happened to them when they became full-time soldiers.
Michelle, who describes herself as a “music-loving, pot-smoking, left-leaning hippie,” was 18 when she enlisted, hoping to make money for the college education she thinks will help her escape a drab life in southern Indiana. Desma, a single mother with three children who signs up for vague reasons, has just three days to find someone to care for her children when she is sent overseas. At 51, Debbie joins to follow in the footsteps of her father, who was a drill sergeant in the U.S. Army. She becomes a grandmother while on her first deployment, to Afghanistan. Thorpe spoke with PAW about how the women fared in a war zone and what happened when they came home.
How did the 30-year age difference between Michelle and Debbie affect their experiences in Afghanistan?
Michelle was 21, and had all these infantry soldiers hounding her everywhere she went. They would read her last name on her uniform and call out to her as if they knew her, even if they did not. She was propositioned from dawn to dusk, and she found the degree and intensity of attention from male soldiers to be overwhelming. And her good friend Debbie was 52 and looking on, thinking, “Wow, it’s been a long time since somebody paid that much attention to me.” Those are both really legitimate female perspectives.
Michelle gets her toenails painted every time she goes to Bagram, Afghanistan’s largest military base, because, you write, she “wanted to hang on to the sense of being a woman, and that was hard to do as a soldier.”
The military they were serving in was used to soldiers being men. Michelle was struck by the fact that her dog tags kept getting snarled up in her bra and were turning her breasts green. Dog tags were definitely designed with men in mind.
Before going to Iraq, Desma trains with an infantry regiment, which has about 100 men and only a couple of women. How was she treated?
Most of those men had never served alongside women, and they made it abundantly clear that they would have preferred to keep it that way. When Desma goes for a weapons qualification test, she is told all four times she takes the test that she has failed. Only later, when she gets her hands on the test results, does she learn that she had actually passed all four times.
Anytime these women were in an environment where the gender ratio was really skewed, they struggled more. The closer the ratio was to 50/50, the better their experience. In the second previously all-male unit Desma served with, she says she formed lifelong bonds. It had to do with the unit leadership setting a tone that these women belonged there and were to be treated with dignity and respect.
Back home, Desma has three children. Her son is left in the care of her former boyfriend, and her two daughters live with Desma’s cousin. How does she stay in her children’s lives while she is deployed?
Desma called her children as often as possible, but made certain never to call on the same day of the week, never at the same time of day. It was easier on the family that way — they would not worry if they did not hear from her at the appointed hour. After her return, she worries that the two years she spent away have hurt her children. One of her daughters falls two grades behind at school. Her son gets caught robbing a home and beating up the old man who lives there, and is sentenced to 20 years in prison. Desma can’t help but wonder, “Would he have turned to crime if I’d stayed home?”
Desma is driving a truck in a supply convoy to Tikrit when an IED explodes, leaving her with a concussion and headaches that wouldn’t go away. She develops post-traumatic stress disorder and insomnia.
Technically, I don’t think the military would have said she was in a combat role, but a bomb going off? Yeah, I’d call that combat violence.
At the end of the book, Debbie, the grandmother, feels that she, Michelle, and Desma “had become so interlaced that they are even more like a family than their ‘real’ families.” How does war form that bond?
It’s the experience of not wanting to put yourself at risk, yet feeling more alive maybe due to the danger. You come back home and everybody else that you know and love, they weren’t there with you, and you find that you can’t explain yourself to anyone.
After their deployments, how did the three women feel about women serving?
The most liberal of them, Michelle, concluded women did not belong in a war zone. That’s the conclusion she drew after watching Desma struggle to be a single mom and a soldier. Desma didn’t take that position at all. She felt it was great that she had the opportunities she’d had. She just wanted to get equal training. And then you had Debbie, who was like, “Darn! Too bad these changes didn’t come sooner. I could have been a sniper.”
Interview conducted and condensed by Merrell Noden ’78
http://paw.princeton.edu/issues/2014/07/09/pages/2756
Eyebrow:
On the Front Lines: A Chronicle of Three Women’s Lives, Before and After War
MD Author:
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Solomon ’14 Revisits Thesis About Comedy and Mental Illness in the Wake of Williams’ Death
Tiger Paws Seen at Reunions
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Brady Corp. Acquires ID Warehouse
Brady Corp. recently announced that it has acquired ID Warehouse, a supplier of people identification and security solutions, located in New South Wales, Australia. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
“The acquisition of ID Warehouse gives us an opportunity to further grow our people-identification business in Australia and further expand our reach in the region”
ID Warehouse, founded in 1994, offers security identification and visitor management products including identification card printers, access control cards, wristbands, tamper-evident security seals and identification accessories. The company sells its products primarily through the internet and via its sales force to security, human resources, marketing, event management and facilities control markets predominantly in Australia. ID Warehouse has annual sales of approximately $8 million (US).
“The acquisition of ID Warehouse gives us an opportunity to further grow our people-identification business in Australia and further expand our reach in the region,” said Esther Savvas, Brady managing director for Australia. “They are an established, well-respected company with a passion for customer service. Their comprehensive knowledge of the security and identification industry makes them the go-to source for complete identification solutions, and will complement our current business in Australia well.”
“Brady’s strong track record of business success, coupled with their strong sense of values make them the ideal acquirer to grow this business to the next level,” said ID Warehouse sellers Kieran and Desiree Heath.
Brady’s presence in Australia dates back to 1970 when it opened a sales office. It added production operations in Australia in 1979. Brady acquired Visi Sign near Melbourne in 1999, Safety Signs Service in Western Australia in 2001, and Accidental Health & Safety, Trafalgar First Aid, and Carroll Wiring Accessory Specialists in New South Wales in 2006. Today, Brady employs approximately 200 people in Australia and operates from a 60,000 square-foot facility in Regents Park near Sydney.
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Is Mexico Still Catholic?
By Aaron Miller
Let me preface this by pointing out why non-Catholics and non-Christians might find this discussion worthwhile. First, Mexico is the United States’ largest source of immigrants (legal and illegal) and influential states like Texas are heavily colored by Mexican culture (the Texas population is already nearly half hispanic), so its culture is a significant influence on our own. Second, religion is the foundation of culture: it encapsulates many of the most basic perceptions and priorities on which political decisions are made. Thus, the ideas Mexican immigrants bring with them impacts all Americans.
Though more than 80% of Mexican citizens identify as Catholic, I’m hearing a different story from Catholic educators in Texas. American Catholics often complain generally about the state of catechesis (education about the faith), but it seems to be even worse down in Mexico, where many people are ignorant of the beliefs and traditions they claim as their own.
When I lived in San Antonio, I was surprised how many mexicans (the little “m” is intentional; I’m using it as a more specific term than “hispanic”) joined Protestant and Evangelical denominations. That’s not a knock on Protestants, but simply an observation of the shallowness many mexicans’ feel toward the Catholic Church. Even those remaining within it are often what we orthodox call “cafeteria Catholics” or “cultural Catholics;” i.e., Catholics who prefer the Mass, but willfully ignore Church teachings. Others, I’m told, send their children to religious education classes, but not to Mass.
My purpose is not to complain, but rather to open discussion of what Mexican and hispanic immigrants truly believe and value.
Catholicism was severely persecuted by Mexico’s government during the early 20th century. Did the culture ever recover from that oppression? Has the rise of secularism and multiculturalism in Mexican culture been similar to the same in the US? Are there truly any significant differences between the shallow bonds of Mexicans to the Church and the shallow faith of Americans?
Tags: Catholicism, Christianity, Culture, Demographics, Immigration, Mexico, The Church, Worldviews
Like this post? Want to comment? Join Ricochet’s growing community of conservatives and be part of the conversation. Get your first month free.
:thinking: no superfluity of n…
When I was a LDS missionary in South Texas, I eventually stopped being surprised that I knew more about Catholicism than many of the actual Catholics. It seemed a lot of them would be quite comfortable in a non-denominational church, if they also got to have the Virgin of Guadalupe…and/or the Santisima Muerte.
https://ricochet.com/290286/archives/is-mexico-still-catholic/#comment-3044030
October 26, 2015, at 9:04 AM PDT
Vicryl Contessa
Not being Catholic or Mexican, I can’t really speak to what they believe, but I think perhaps the greater concern for us as a nation is whether or not these immigrants hold onto Christian values, be they Catholic or Protestant. I think it’s worrying that Muslim extremists are coming up from Mexico and are trying to convert Mexicans.
Roberto, Crusty Old Timer
This seems to me to open up a rather broader question as to what constitutes a Catholic in this day and age. Pelosi and Biden both claim to be Catholics which might seem odd given some of their views and reports regarding the ongoing synod seem to indicate Bishops are currently considering adopting positions that once would have been considered heretical.
If one were making a judgement as to whether or not Mexico is still Catholic a person would first have to know where to draw the line wouldn’t they? An explosive question perhaps but that does seem to be what you are asking.
Aaron Miller Post author
I think Republican strategists often mistake the loyalties of hispanic voters. It sometimes said that hispanics are “natural conservatives/Republicans” because they come from cultures that still favor big families, abortion restrictions, and other SoCon values. But hispanics also come from cultures of despotic nanny states and open bribery.
The situation is harder for Republicans if those SoCon roots don’t go deep. People who aren’t educated in why their conservative traditions are good quickly fall prey to the constant barrage of progressivism in entertainment, media, and schools.
Of course, like immigrants from any society, hispanics tend to vote Republican once they gain enough wealth and property that the greedy and oppressive hand of government becomes obvious. But unless Republicans can find some magical way to turn a majority of grunt laborers into managers and CEOs overnight, the steady influx of new immigrants prevents that natural transition from working much to the GOP’s favor.
October 26, 2015, at 10:00 AM PDT
Western Chauvinist
My guess? Not so much.
My experience as a catechist in Colorado is anecdotal, but I’ve asked around about it. Interestingly, large Mexican families usually produce a priest or two. And, I’ve been told, their culture is to celebrate Mass at home, with the family. There’s something very admirable about that, but 1) it doesn’t develop cohesion in a parish and 2) it enables them not to assimilate with the broader (anglo-) American culture.
I’m not as concerned for the country that their Catholicism is muddled. I’m concerned that their politics is socialist. Waves of socialists from across the border is no way to conserve America’s founding — just the way Democrats like it.
October 26, 2015, at 1:16 PM PDT
Hammer, The
I remember talking to a teenage client. She was telling me about a pretty awful circumstance – sexual in nature, with added drugs, etc… at her sister’s house. Apparently, the sister got them up the next morning to go to church. She told me I should go talk to the priest because he knew everything that had happened… assuming I had no idea what she was talking about, she added “mexicans are Catholic, so we have to go to church the next day after we do something like that.”
Aaron Miller:The situation is harder for Republicans if those SoCon roots don’t go deep. People who aren’t educated in why their conservative traditions are good quickly fall prey to the constant barrage of progressivism in entertainment, media, and schools.
In my experience, 2nd and 3rd generation mexican-Americans tend to be far more analogous to American blacks.
RabbitHoleRedux
Mexicans have never been politically conservative. It’s a mistake to assume that a cultural identity as Catholic translates to conservatism any more in South Texas than it does in heavily Catholic Philadelphia. Cubans in South Florida are an aberration among Catholics as conservatives, mostly because they were thrown out of their homes by Jesuit revolutionaries. Most Catholics are politically liberal.
Ryan M:I remember talking to a teenage client. She was telling me about a pretty awful circumstance – sexual in nature, with added drugs, etc… at her sister’s house. Apparently, the sister got them up the next morning to go to church. She told me I should go talk to the priest because he knew everything that had happened… assuming I had no idea what she was talking about, she added “mexicans are Catholic, so we have to go to church the next day after we do something like that.”
Oof. Cultural Catholicism at its “finest.”
Western Chauvinist:
Ack! It’s embarrassing. I saw a self proclaimed “culturally” Catholic of Italian descent unable to recite the Hail Mary! or Our Father, and had never received any of the required Sacraments. I wondered what on earth made her think she was a Catholic beyond, that’s what all her family told her she was. Trying to divine voting patterns from the American amalgam that is labeled “Hispanic” , which is nothing other than a political construct, is fraught with peril. Latinos hate each other for a whole host of reasons, LOL! none having to do with what faction of Christianity they identify with culturally.
<going to confession now>
Vicryl Contessa:Not being Catholic or Mexican, I can’t really speak to what they believe, but I think perhaps the greater concern for us as a nation is whether or not these immigrants hold onto Christian values, be they Catholic or Protestant. I think it’s worrying that Muslim extremists are coming up from Mexico and are trying to convert Mexicans.
The bigger problem has been Mexicans coming to the US and then abandoning even a pretense of religion in favor of the secular consumer culture, particularly among illegal aliens. One of the things we’ve seen to destroy Karl Rove’s “natural conservatives” narrative is the speed at which fairly large numbers of these guys get here and then abandon church for the mall and the abortion clinic. Hispanic women are twice as likely than white women to abort their children in the United States. Whatever Catholic culture they had, large numbers seem to abandon it once they experience the American secular culture.
Kim K.
Reminds me of a girl I once worked with who was quite irreligious but, of course, got married in church because she was “born Methodist.”
Joseph Moure
I think that most Catholics – Mexican or otherwise are more Catholic by culture than observance. I always get a kick out of the tattoos of crosses and Guadalupes on gangsters.
Frankly, I don’t know how Catholicism even managed to survive the Mexican government’s wrath for so many years. I find it odd that two of the most Catholic countries on earth became the most ardent persecutors of the religion in the 20th century. I’m talking about Spain and Mexico.
From what I have experienced, the religion is meaningful to older Mexicans, much the same as everywhere else.
Fricosis Guy
Aaron Miller:Though more than 80% of Mexican citizens identify as Catholic, I’m hearing a different story from Catholic educators in Texas. American Catholics often complain generally about the state of catechesis (education about the faith), but it seems to be even worse down in Mexico, where many people are ignorant of the beliefs and traditions they claim as their own.
Lousy catechesis has been the default position for most Christian communities…even during the apostolic age.
donald todd
Roberto:This seems to me to open up a rather broader question as to what constitutes a Catholic in this day and age. Pelosi and Biden both claim to be Catholics…
Writing as a convert, and having taught the faith, a lot of Catholics have the residue of a bad eighth-grade catechesis and whatever wonders led someone in their past to embrace Catholicism did not make it to them.
They may have a cultural drive that causes them to attend Mass, but the underpinnings do not seem to be there. They cannot explain what they believe because they don’t believe much of anything. If it were important, they’d work to try and understand it so it could be explainable.
Pelosi and Biden find being Democrat more important and more fulfilling then being Catholic, ergo being Catholic is subservient to being Democrat. If we all get the reward we want, I think that they’ll be in for a surprise. Whatever being a Democrat does for one in the here and now, its ability to do something in the hereafter would seem to be very limited.
There are a lot of interests and concerns that occupy people, drawing them away from other, more important concerns. When that happens, religion, family, and other important things suffer.
15 continued
It would seem that Our Lady of Guadalupe is not so important to the Hispanic, especially Mexican person, as she once was. Mary has children, lots of children, but no grandchildren. Jesus did not say, “grandson behold your grandmother.”
#3 continued. “reports regarding the ongoing synod seem to indicate Bishops are currently considering adopting positions that once would have been considered heretical.”
If one reads a history of the Church, one finds many heretical positions offered. That has continued virtually the beginning. We have any number of theological positions which were mapped because the Church had to address a problem of that time by producing an answer. In fact when Jesus said He would send the Holy Spirit to lead the Church to all truth, this is certainly a part of that.
The recommendations of the synod on the family will meet Peter’s successor. The recommendations can be accepted, modified, or rejected. Everyone is very aware of the issues that were brought up in the synod, and of the resistance of some of the prelates there to the ideas that were propounded.
When Francis makes a decision, we’ll know. Not before.
Fricosis Guy: Lousy catechesis has been the default position for most Christian communities…even during the apostolic age.
Agreed. I think it’s unrealistic to expect most people at any place or time to dig deep into the weeds of theology. Most people are respectably focused on more immediate concerns. Philosophy is a privilege of leisure.
In a closed society, that’s not a problem. If people are generally encouraged to be proud of their community and their traditions, then they don’t need a thorough understanding of either.
In an open society, like a major city (a trading hub), the clash of cultures and traditions forces people to question their ways. Deviants and opportunists (like politicians) encourage regular citizens to abandon their native culture. If those outsiders succeed in suppressing defenders of tradition, then commoners are easily turned.
Less than a century ago, Mexican officials seem to have succeeded in suppressing Church leadership in public life. Today in the United States, political correctness makes unofficial enforcers of neighbors and coworkers.
It’s been a while since I got back from my 2-year LDS mission to Tampico (2001-3), but here are some random observations about the state of Catholicism in Mexico:
There were plenty of “old school” Catholics that would put up signs on doors saying “En esta casa somos CATÓLICOS” (and for everyone else to bug off), have large shrines for the virgin or their chosen saint, and know little to nothing about the Bible.
I saw a catechism once and was shocked at how different the 10 commandments were – the 4th commandment was to keep the festivals.
There is quite a lot of active evangelism going on in Mexico (which is part of why the old school Catholics are hostile) from many denominations. The JWs are particularly prominent.
A lot of Catholicism is still deeply ingrained in Mexicans. JPII was the first pope to visit Mexico, and the entire country was into it. The only other time that I saw everyone universally tuned to the same event was the World Cup.
Xantolo was definitely more widely (and enthusiastically) celebrated than All Saints Day (or even Christmas in some places).
This is the anecdotal experience in my family. Mrs. Salieri has Mexican relatives via marriage, and I have Californian’s from old, old Texan stock via marriage on my mother’s side. Mrs. Salieri’s mostly came here illegally, and are dyed in the wool leftists; and of the dozen or so that live here fully or most of the year only two older sisters practice the faith at all. Their faith is mostly colorful candles, prints and prayer cards, mass going, and festivals that are kept with big dinners. The rest of the family (over two generations) is all about secular culture and socialism, and they vote.
The Californian group is mostly patriotic, faithful Catholics, and republicans over the age of 65, and mostly left-wing democratic socialists secularist, or multicultural SJW warriors who go to mass all the way down, and they vote.
Henry Castaigne
Aaron Miller: Philosophy is a privilege of leisure.
So is fantasy football. Fantasy football is much bigger in America than debates about philosophy. Also, Jews deeply valued philosophy and continued to read and study even when they were terribly poor. Values and interest matter as much to the study of philosophy as leisure.
October 27, 2015, at 10:03 PM PDT
There is something that I find incredibly odd about both Catholics and Jews. Both Catholics and Jews will say that they don’t believe in God but identify themselves as Catholics or Jews.
There is something about Jewish and Catholic identity that transcends belief.
Alternatively, I have never met a self-identified Lutheran who did not believe in Salvation through grace and I’ve never met a self-identified Mormon who did not believe in the Mormon Church.
Aaron, my intuition tells me it’s poor catechizes. Or perhaps no catechizes at all. Catholic schools need to offer as many scholarships to poor Mexican families as possible. And school vouchers as a public policy would certainly help.
Who’s Considered Patriotic and Who Isn’t Is Weird
Henry Castaigne · 20 Likes
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Modifying the structure of wood alters plant microbiome
Modifying the structure of poplar wood can also alter the endosphere microbiome, the bacteria that reside inside tree tissue. This has emerged from research by UHasselt, UGent and VIB. "This is one of the first in-depth studies on the effects of targeted modifications to the wood structure of plants on the microbiome", explain Dr. Bram Beckers and Prof. Jaco Vangronsveld from the Centre for Environmental Sciences (CMK/UHasselt). The results were recently published in the prestigious scientific journal 'Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America'.
The poplars used for this study formed part of field tests set up by VIB under the leadership of Prof. Wout Boerjan (VIB/UGent). In this study, the researchers looked into how trees with modified wood structure could be used as a basis for the production of, inter alia, bioethanol. "In this project we were able to reduce the levels of lignin, a component of wood, in the poplars through genetic modification", comments Professor Boerjan. "As a result, two other important components of wood–cellulose and hemicellulose–could be converted more efficiently into sugars, and then, by way of fermentation, into bioethanol."
Function and structure
UHasselt researchers Bram Beckers and Jaco Vangronsveld wanted to investigate the effects of changes in the structure of wood on bacteria found in and around poplars. "Microorganisms play an important role in the growth, development and health of plants, as they do with humans. For example, they help with the absorption of nutrients and offer protection against harmful bacteria and mould. However, whether or not there is a link between genes and the composition of their microbiome (the community of bacteria, moulds, viruses and other microorganisms) is as yet virtually unknown", states Dr Beckers.
The researchers have now discovered that modifying the composition of poplar wood also alters the function and structure of the microbiome. Prof. Wout Boerjan: "The wood in trees is formed by the cell walls, important components that come into close contact with microorganisms. When you make a relevant alteration to the structure of the wood, even if it is the result of silencing just one gene, this leads to an alteration in the composition of bacteria, moulds, viruses and other microorganisms. This is comparable to a change in the composition of our gut flora as a consequence of continued exposure to another type of food."
The researchers also discovered that these changes only occur within the plant tissue, called the endosphere. They saw no changes to the soil bacteria that live outside the plant close to the roots of the tree.
According to the researchers, unravelling the complex interactions between plants and their microbiome is crucial in order to study the potential effects of modifications to crops. "The results are especially important in allowing the interaction between trees and bacteria to be utilised to obtain higher and more sustainable production of, in this case, poplar wood for bioenergy."
This research was published in 'Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America'.
Sooike Stoops
@VIBLifeSciences
http://www.vib.be
Self-perception and reality seem to line-up when it comes to judging our own…
Scienmag Dec 14, 2018
For most people, how you think of yourself closely matches that of your peersCredit: University of Toronto…
NRL’s sun imaging telescopes fly on NASA Parker Solar Probe
UMass Amherst leads team in first sequencing of Canada lynx genome
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How To Overcome Imposter Syndrome | Mark Steel
Everything about Mark Steel screams success.
Twenty years experience in corporate sales with one of the largest tech companies in the world. Recognized as a High-Impact employee for 3 years in a row with a steady progression in roles where he played a part in adding more than $1.5B in revenue.
He’s delivered over 2000 presentations on productivity, collaboration, and employee engagement. Mark also has 15 years experience as a sales trainer. And in his spare time he has successfully summited two mountains.
In 2017 Mark left the corporate world and started his own company called Present Your Success. In 2018 he joined the podcasting world with his aptly named show titled Climb Every Day.
Mark has always been the picture of confidence. But you know what they say. Don’t judge a book by its cover. Throughout most of his time in corporate sales Mark suffered from what he calls imposter syndrome. Underneath the confident exterior was a man who felt like he didn’t deserve the success that was coming his way. Over time his internal narrative became more and more negative. It impacted his happiness, his marriage, and his health.
In this episode Mark opens up about his struggles with imposter syndrome, talks about the ways it impacted his life, the moment he realized that to be happy he had to leave the corporate world, and how he still struggled to find the courage to make the move.
This is an honest and unvarnished discussion. There are so many lessons to be learned.
You can contact Mark at:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/steelspeaks/
Website: https://www.marksteel.com/
Podcast: https://www.climbeveryday.com/
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BUSINESS SPOTLIGHT: All Points To Celebrate Expansion In Huntsville’s Cummings Research Park
By Space Coast Daily // March 27, 2019
MERRITT ISLAND, FLORIDA-BASED ALL POINTS EXPANDS OPERATIONS IN HUNTSVILLE, ALABAMA
All Points will celebrate the expansion of the company’s presence in the Cummings Research Park with a Ribbon Cutting event on Thursday, March 27 at 4 p.m. All Points, a resident of the research park for 10 years, has added 12,000 square feet to include additional executive offices to accommodate support staff to better serve All Point’s Redstone Arsenal and NASA customers.
HUNTSVILLE, ALABAMA – All Points will celebrate the expansion of the company’s presence in the Cummings Research Park with a Ribbon Cutting event on Thursday, March 27 at 4 p.m.
Cummings Research Park, located on Mark C. Smith Drive NW in Huntsville, is the second largest research park in the country – and the fourth largest in the world.
It is one of the world’s leading science and technology business parks, with a mixture of Fortune 500 companies, local and international high-tech enterprises, U.S. space and defense agencies, thriving business incubators and competitive higher-education institutions.
All Points, a resident of the research park for 10 years, has added 12,000 square feet to include additional executive offices to accommodate support staff to better serve All Point’s Redstone Arsenal and NASA customers.
“All Points has been in Huntsville for the last 15 years providing outstanding engineering and technical services,” said President and Chief Executive Officer Phil Monkress. “We have grown from about 20 jobs to more than 250 over those 15 years – more than a tenfold increase.”
Brevard-Based All Points Key Subcontractor on NASA End-User Services Contract Awarded to Leidos
“All Points has been in Huntsville for the last 15 years providing outstanding engineering and technical services,” said President and Chief Executive Officer Phil Monkress.
“We have grown from about 20 jobs to more than 250 over those 15 years – more than a tenfold increase.”
All Points started as a business protégé to Boeing in Huntsville and grew to become a mentor to a high technology Huntsville company, Mission Multiplier, a growing cybersecurity company.
Since 1997, All Points has earned a stellar reputation for providing superior customer service to its clients, who have recognized the company again and again for outstanding dedication to excellence and innovation on vital missions.
“All Points is a prime information technology contractor at NASA Marshall Space Flight Center and have also worked at MDA,” said Randy Kline, a 39-year U.S. Army civil servant at Redstone Arsenal, and All Points’ General Manager for Huntsville Operations.
Dr. Terry Tarbell Joins Brevard-Based All Points as Strategy and Business Development Advisor
“We have built our business on partnerships with major contractors like Boeing and Jacobs, with major Huntsville government organizations NASA and MDA, and as a member of the Space & Rocket Center Foundation and the Huntsville Chamber of Commerce,” said Kline.
Also on the All Points leadership team in Huntsville is Senior Vice President of BD for Capture John Hall, a native of North Alabama with 30 years in Aerospace and Defense; and Kurt Weidenthal, a retired U.S. Army Colonel who has made his home in the Huntsville area since 2005.
All Points employees are proud members of the Board of Directors for AUSA and the Huntsville/Madison Chamber of Commerce. The company is also a corporate member of the National Space Club Huntsville Chapter.
In addition to Huntsville, All Points has offices in Merritt Island, Florida; Reston, Virginia; and Houston, Texas.
Brevard-Based All Points Awarded Task Order for U.S. Air Force Davis Conference Center Support Services
ALL POINTS LEADERSHIP: Meet the men and women that exemplify everything All Points stands for Integrating Personnel Technology and Services that Exceed all of All Points Customers Expectations
ALL POINTS PROVIDES FULL RANGE OF TECHNOLOGY, MISSION-CRITICAL SERVICES
All Points is a rapidly growing CMMI-DEV Maturity Level 3 Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business, providing products and services to a diverse set of Federal Government and Civilian agencies.
All Points provides a full range of technology and mission-critical services within the firm’s core competencies including Systems Engineering and Technical Services; Information Technology and Cyber Security; Program Management Support; Software Development, Test, and Verification; Life-Cycle Logistics; Intelligence Services; Warfighter and Mission Support; and Hardware and Software Integration and Solutions (VAR).
For more information, contact All Points Chief Operating Officer Tom Niemeyer at tniemeyer@allpointsllc.com
All Points Logistics Appraised at Level 3 of CMMI Institute’s Model Integration for Development
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what’s at stake in our campaign for social equity
Decades of unjust public policies have systematically excluded low-income communities of color from opportunity while fueling sprawl, car dependence, and all of the environmental and economic problems that come with them — from global warming to the suburban housing bubble.
Today, instead of a transit system that provides a leg up to good jobs and schools, we have a separate and unequal system that leads to inequality of opportunity. Most low-income people and people of color lack reliable and affordable transit to get where they need to go every day. That’s in part because the Bay Area has invested hundreds of billions of dollars in highway expansion and commuter rail at the expense of local bus service.
At the same time, homes in both urban and suburban areas that have good access to jobs, such as San Francisco, Silicon Valley, Oakland, and the Tri-Valley, are increasingly unaffordable for people with an average household income. Working families face an impossible choice: Live close to work in overcrowded or unsafe conditions, or struggle through a long and expensive commute to live in a more affordable home far away.
The same policies that drove segregation and disinvestment in communities of color also generated suburban sprawl, excess driving, and air pollution that threaten our health and contribute to the climate crisis. Because social inequality and environmental decline share common roots, they must be tackled together to find shared solutions.
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The "Media" section
The BBC ruins the UK’s chances at Eurovision
Published on 12 May 2019 (but written exactly a year earlier).
Tonight, it’s the grand final of the 2018 Eurovision Song Contest. As long-time readers will know, I really enjoy watching Eurovision – I even live blogged the UK selection programme once. There are a few reasons I really enjoy it.
Firstly, of course, the music. If I had to choose a favourite radio station, it would undoubtedly be Monocle 24. There’s quite an overlap in the Venn diagram of international music Monocle 24 would play and the sort of music that does well at Eurovision. In fact, most years, they’ve already had quite a bit of air-play of the big-hitting songs by the time the contest comes around.
Secondly, there is something so joyful about seeing so many different countries and cultures come together for a single peaceful purpose. In that regard, Eurovison is a little like the Olympics – only moreso, because the countries are peacefully scoring one another. More of this in the world would be a good thing.
Thirdly, there are bits of it which are undeniably batshit crazy. I’m not that entertained by the stuff which is out-and-out mad, but the unexpected crossovers been madness and talent which occur from time to time are quite something: take this year’s entry from Israel, which is crazy, brilliant and catchy all at the same time.
It’s this third point which makes me feel a little glum about the UK’s entries, which are typically standard, uninspiring pop fare (look at this year’s entry from SuRie). We seem to have an astounding capacity for moaning about the poor scores the UK entry receives even when the middle-of-the-road pop numbers rarely perform well even in the UK chart, despite the considerable Eurovision following. It would be really nice to have a UK entry that was quirky, whether that’s through outright craziness or just having great execution of something which is very ‘on trend’: look at this year’s entry from Sweden.
But I think the BBC lacks the boldness and creativity to find or inspire that sort of song. Whenever the BBC tries to do ‘zany’ in its programming, it tends to come off as ‘crazy by committee’ and spectacularly flops. This is even more so the case since the budget cuts at BBC Three, which was their outlet for experimental material. The best they seem able to come up with these days is crap like Don’t Scare the Hare or 101 Ways to Leave a Gameshow, which is a shame given the BBC’s lustrous history of the surreal.
The UK public vote rarely tallies with the most popular songs across Europe, even in an approximate way, so a publicly voted selection show (which the BBC has returned to using in the past couple of years) doesn’t seem like a logical way to go. Similarly, the UK jury seems permanently out of touch with the views of the rest of Europe, so professional selection doesn’t seem ideal either. I think the BBC needs to divest itself from song selection, and outsource it to people who have a chance of selecting something half decent.
The question is… who can provide that? I’d put it in the hands of the curators of the Monocle 24 playlist. They know a good song when they hear is – and have a definition of “good song” that at least approximates that of viewers across Europe.
Of course, I suspect such a system could never work in practice: I’m sure Monocle wouldn’t want to sully their upmarket brand, and the BBC wouldn’t want to lose control. But I think it’s an interesting idea!
The logo at the top is the official one for this year’s contest, taken from the press pack.
This 2,443rd post was filed under: Media, News and Comment, Posts delayed by 12 months, BBC, Eurovision, Media, Television, The BBC.
‘Broadcasting’ rules need to keep up with streaming services to protect health
Published on 2 May 2019 (but written exactly a year earlier).
A couple of news stories I’ve read lately have made me think about our approach to regulation of advertising.
First, there was this story by Travis M Andrews in The Washington Post about the portrayal of smoking in shows made for streaming services:
Among the vices often embraced by streaming services and avoided by broadcast television is tobacco in all in its forms … A study compared seven popular Netflix shows to seven popular broadcast shows. In this sample, it found Netflix’s shows featured characters smoking almost three times as often as those produced by broadcast networks like NBC, ABC and CBS.
Now, we could spend all day poking holes in this ‘study’, but the thought is still going to fester: it does seem like there might be more smoking in these shows than in those on broadcast TV.
Second, there was this BBC Trending story by Branwen Jeffreys and Edward Main about YouTube stars being paid to encourage kids to cheat on school assignments:
YouTube stars are being paid to sell academic cheating, a BBC investigation has found. The BBC Trending investigation uncovered more than 1,400 videos with a total of more than 700 million views containing EduBirdie adverts selling cheating to students and school pupils. In some of the videos YouTubers say if you cannot be bothered to do the work, EduBirdie has a “super smart nerd” who will do it for you.
This isn’t so obviously related to health but does highlight an issue with inappropriate advertising within online streams which are typically seen by children and young people.
Both of these stories made me reflect on the work that has gone into restricting advertising of harmful products such as cigarettes and energy dense foods, and how the fruit of that work might be lost if legislation doesn’t keep up with changing media consumption habits.
For example, there are no regulations around the portrayal of smokers on streaming shows, whereas broadcast shows must comply with Ofcom’s rules, including Rule 1.10:
Smoking must generally be avoided … unless there is editorial justification.
There seems to be non-stop debate in the media press about whether TV ads or online ads are more ‘impactful’, with the conclusion usually predictable according to who has funded or published the work. But it does seem increasingly clear that many people (including me) are now watching more streamed content than broadcast content, and that this is more common among younger people.
It’s hard not to worry that the slow pace of legislative change might cause us to unintentionally slide back to an era of lesser regulation of what is actually seen despite strong evidence of harm. We really mustn’t let that happen.
The photo at the top was posted on Unsplash by Tina Rataj-Berard and is used here under the Unsplash licence.
This 2,439th post was filed under: Health, Media, Posts delayed by 12 months, Media, Medicine, Public Health, Smoking, Television, Tobacco.
The credulity of most Apple coverage
Published on 28 April 2019 (but written exactly a year earlier).
Over my cornflakes this morning, I read Ben Hoyle’s interview with Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, in The Times Magazine.
This was one of those interviews which is sort of interesting but doesn’t really say much. Though I was quite taken with this description of Apple’s canteen where the cutlery is hidden from view in an illuminating example of form over function:
You can’t tell what the chefs are cooking because there are no menus on display (the options are on your phone if you’re an employee). You don’t seem to be able to pay cash for anything and there are no sauce sachets or eating utensils to be seen unless you know where to look (they’re with the other unsightly essentials like bottled drinks and napkins, sunk out of sight in smooth, curved central islands reminiscent of giant iPods).
What really struck me about this interview was the weird cognitive dissonance in the tenth paragraph. In this paragraph, Hoyle points out that:
Apple’s App Store is “curated” to the extent that you (and your children) won’t find hate speech or pornography on there.
That is, Apple – for better or worse – prioritises its values over the freedom of its customers to easily use the platform for activities which meet with disapproval from Apple. I wish this (puritanical?) attitude had been used to challenge in this bit of the same paragraph:
Apple has regarded privacy as “a basic human right” for a long time and “built the company around” that belief. The sprawling, intimate personal data profiles that companies like Facebook and Google compile “shouldn’t exist”, Cook thinks.
Cook claims that Apple is built around privacy. Yet, while Apple is happy preventing access to hate speech on the App Store, it actively promotes the Facebook app despite it asking for user permission to build data profiles which Cook says are antithetical to everything Apple stands for.
This seems a really odd moral position to me: if your company is reputedly built around one “basic human right”, why allow apps which violate that fundamental belief and ban apps which contravene less dearly held standards? The answer seems fairly obvious to me: the Facebook and Google apps are among the most popular, and are core to the iPhone experience. But can you really claim something is a cornerstone value if you ignore it to sell more phones?
I was also a bit riled up by this ludicrous comparison:
On cybersecurity … the company also protects its FaceTime and Messages apps with end-to-end encryption unlike, say, Google’s standard Gmail.
Why compare a closed messaging system, where end-to-end encryption is easy, with an open standard like email? That reads like a line supplied by Apple. It should have been challenged by asking if Apple’s iCloud email service protects messages with end-to-end encryption, which of course it does not.
There are a lot of things that Apple does extraordinarily well. It is evidently one of the corporate success stories of our time and has inspired phenomenol brand loyalty among a huge population of users. But it isn’t perfect.
Much of the media, and Hoyle’s article is no exception, seems far too credulous when it comes to Apple. Coverage of Apple would be much more satisfying if it showed a degree of balance or at least an attempt at challenging some of the more outlandish media lines rather than simply repeating them verbatim.
The picture of Tim Cook at the top of this post was uploaded to Flickr by Fabio Bini, and is used here under its Creative Commons licence.
This 2,438th post was filed under: Media, News and Comment, Posts delayed by 12 months, Technology, Apple, Ben Hoyle, The Times, Tim Cook.
In praise of ‘Mozart in the Jungle’
Published on 7 April 2019 (but written exactly a year earlier).
1 minute long.
I’ve mentioned Mozart in the Jungle on here before. It’s a wonderful Amazon Prime comedy-drama about passion, professionalism and music. Inspired by Blair Tindall’s autobiography of the same name, the show follows both the appointment of a new conductor to the New York Symphony Orchestra and the travails of a young oboist trying to break into the orchestral big league.
It stars Gael García Bernal and Lola Kirke who both give performances of a lifetime alongside an all-star ensemble. It is creative and imaginative to the point of being a bit nuts sometimes. What other show would have Lang Lang on as a guest star and feature his piano performance with the sound replaced by Daft Punk? And yet, this made for one of the most memorable scenes in four seasons. And the third season featured the most beautiful cinematography of Venice I have ever seen. And, of course, the whole series features fantastic orchestration spanning all kinds of music.
Mozart in the Jungle is a completely brilliant show. And yet, Amazon has decided to cancel it. I really hope someone else picks it up.
This 2,426th post was filed under: Media, Posts delayed by 12 months, Video, Amazon, Amazon Prime, Blair Tindall, Gael García Bernal, Lola Kirke, Media, Mozart in the Jungle, Television.
Thoughts on the Serial podcast
11 minutes long.
Among my friends, not having an opinion about the Serial podcast is roughly as socially acceptable as not having an opinion on the Cereal Killer cafe. And as someone who listens to a lot of podcasts (most of them actually of radio shows), I feel particularly entitled to have a view.
For those who have been offline over the last few months, Serial was a weekly podcast with a new episode released each week. It was presented and produced by experienced American radio journalist Sarah Koenig. The podcast followed Koenig’s investigation into the 1999 murder of schoolgirl Hae Min Lee, for which her ex-boyfriend, Adnan Syed, had been convicted and imprisoned.
General life and busyness mean that I didn’t quite manage to keep up with the weekly pace of Sarah Koenig and Co’s Serial. A couple of week ago, though, I finally finished the first season; here follow a few jotted thoughts.
It was very addictive…
Serial displaced everything else on my podcast playlist. I listened to episode after episode, and couldn’t get enough. I thoroughly enjoyed it, and look forward with keen anticipation to the second season.
…but not as innovative as many people suggested.
Blog post after newspaper column after magazine review have suggested that Serial‘s format of a single story told over several weeks is novel, yet Radio 4 has used this structure for decades on hundreds (probably thousands) of dramas, and tens (probably hundreds) of documentary series. The combination of a sort of gonzo journalism and drama was, I concede, a little unusual—but not novel.
Sarah Koenig was the perfect host…
I’ve never listened to anything Koenig has done before. I don’t know if she’s a regular on This American Life because (heresy ahead) I don’t listen to that show. But for this, she was perfect. She has a brilliant radio voice and great way of writing text that pulls in the listener. This listener can’t praise her presentation highly enough.
…but the overall tone was odd.
Jonathan Rothwell wrote a few weeks ago about the weirdness of the show’s slightly jaunty ‘whodunnit’ tone and the way in which this jars with the reality of what is being described. This is a real life brutal murder case; the very existence of the journalist’s investigation implies a reasonable suspicion of a miscarriage of justice, with all the additional harm that carries; yet the story is often treated rather lightly. I found the cognitive dissonance of content and tone unsettling.
The production was fantastic…
The handoffs between Koenig’s presentation and clips of interviews and archive material were seamless. I think this owes much to the writing and the presentation, but also the production and compilation of clips that demonstrated each point was impressive. This is something a lot of Radio 4 productions do really badly, so it’s a joy to hear it done well.
…except for the use of music.
Music is powerful, and especially so in radio drama where the only stimulus is auditory. If you add in music underneath a witness’s recorded testimony, it will change my perception of that testimony. If you are trying to make a balanced review of a case to allow me to reach my own conclusions, then your music is likely to be prejudicial. If you are trying to make drama and argue for one side or another, you probably shouldn’t be playing with people’s lives through a podcast.
I worried about the narration overstating facts…
There were a few episodes in which the characterisations of events in the narration extended beyond the described facts of the case. It is difficult to describe exactly what I mean without giving an example – apologies if this counts as a spoiler.
In episode six, there is a lot of discussion of the ‘neighour-boy’. He is reported as having once said that he had been shown the body, but he did not testify at the trial. This is repeatedly characterised Koenig as the ‘neighbour-boy’ being a witness to the murder. This is evidently false: seeing a body is not equivalent to seeing a murder.
There are a few similar incidents through the series, and I can’t quite decide whether they are mere slips of the tongue, or whether there is a conscious decision to refer to the events in these terms to heighten the drama. Either way, given the import of the situation, it seems plainly to be wrong, and unfair to interviewees as much as to the accused.
…and got a bit claustrophobic in parts.
This may be the public health physician coming out in me, but I felt that the series was very narrowly focused on the case at hand—with a couple of notable exceptions. The series would have benefited from drawing more on similar cases and from aggregated data about many cases. I wanted stats!
I don’t know why it aired before completion…
It isn’t clear to me why Serial started airing before the series was complete. It seems a curious decision, and one with which I’m not entirely comfortable. Hypothetically, if someone had confessed, would the series have continued? Would it have been fair to air a recorded confession prior proper investigation? Would it be fair even to report such a confession? Starting a story which has such a big impact on the lives of all involved without clear knowledge of where it might end strikes me as mildly irresponsible.
I think this changed the nature of the podcast, too—the tone and focus seemed to shift as the podcast went on, in a way which might well be attributable to the media coverage it generated. It started out as an exploration of the limits of reasonable doubt, and ended as an unsolved whodunnit. The former was a more interesting concept, with more interesting stuff to explore, than the latter.
…nor why there were strange gaps in the story.
Relevant questions seemed to go undiscussed in Serial – though it’s possible I just missed them. (Possible spoilers ahead.) It’s not clear to me whether Jay knew where the body was. It’s repeatedly said that Jay was able to show where the victim’s car was, but there’s no discussion of whether he knew the location of the body. This is a bizarre omission given that his story is that he helped to bury the body.
And don’t get me started about that conclusion.
I felt like the podcast got a bit wrapped up in itself by the end. My impression throughout was that the intention was to explore the nature of reasonable doubt. It seemed as though the show caved to externally generated expectation to ‘solve’ the crime in the final episode – an unrealistic expectation which wasn’t met, but was sort of pointed at and talked around. This was a shame. I would’ve liked a much more strident ending that pointed out (spoilers ahead) that – no – we don’t know who committed the murder but – yes – the trial outcome was wrong because of the gulf of doubt. I wanted Koenig to come out fighting about ‘innocent until proven guilty’, not giving a personal reflection on her own personal theories about Syed’s guilt or innocence.
But overall—I can’t wait for Season Two.
There were problems, but—all things considered—I enjoyed Serial. It’s great to hear speech radio done really, really well. I donated towards a second season and will look forward to listening to it. In the meantime, I’m now totally hooked on another This American Life alumnus’s podcast: Alex Blumberg’s Startup (and Reply All, which I actually discovered first). Oh, and This Week in Google, of course. Not forgetting my preferred alarm clock, The Globalist. And More or Less. And… well… all the good stuff.
This 2,290th post was filed under: Media, Reviews, Podcasts, Serial.
Six reasons Sambrook is wrong about 24-hour news
Earlier in the year, Richard Sambrook (the former director of BBC News) wrote an article for The Guardian in which he argued that 24-hour news channels were no longer relevant in the modern world. This week, with news reaching The Independent that his thoughts are being taken seriously inside the BBC, I feel like it's time to put across an alternate point of view.
Here are six reasons I believe Sambrook is wrong.
1. News channels don't need to break news first
Cable news established the 24-hour news habit, but today social media and mobile phones fulfill the instant news needs of consumers better than any TV channel can. Twitter – and increasingly live blogs of breaking news events – consistently beat 24-hour TV channels. Being first – the primary criterion for 24-hour news channels – is increasingly the least interesting and effective value they offer.
Sambrook is right to say that the ability of television channels to deliver lines of breaking news at high speed is limited in comparison to online sources, whether accessed through mobile phones or social media. But most online and social media outlets are poor at putting those lines of breaking news into context. Indeed, at present, news channels are equally poor at this.
In my vision of a news channel, a line of breaking news would appear on screen, in much the same way as it appears online. Perhaps, "Valco supermarket chain in administration". I don't need the channel to break away from whatever it is reporting to bring me this news – it can simply appear on screen. That is the benefit of the visual medium.
Then, within a short period (say within fifteen minutes or half an hour), the BBC can put one of its expert business correspondents on the air to discuss that news in context. They can tell me the relevance of this to the City, to individuals, and perhaps even bring a degree of response from their journalistic contacts.
There is no need to discuss the news immediately and constantly repeat a single line accompanied with endless speculation. Instead, the channel should wait until there is something to report, and report it in a detailed and intelligent way.
2. News channels needn’t conform to expensive norms
The infrastructure behind a 24-hour news channel is impressive – and formidably expensive. The biggest cost comes from having created a machine that has to be fed. Every 15 minutes we go back to our reporter in the field for an update on what's happened since the last time we visited them. Most of the time the answer is "nothing".
Going back to a reporter in the field every fifteen minutes is not only expensively, it's also irritating. There is no need to do this. There are two reasons news channels do this: to fill time, and to follow the structure of a conventional network news bulletin every half hour.
We'll return to the former, but the latter is simply farcical. There is no reason (beyond "it's what we've always done") for 24-hour news channels to follow the structure of a conventional news bulletin. There is no reason why we have to return to the same correspondent to repeat the same news every hour. This is a problem of the format, not of the medium. A much more open-ended structure is possible.
3. News channels needn’t carry everything live
Newsgathering becomes a sausage machine, dedicated to filling airtime. Hours a day are spent on live feeds waiting for something, anything, to happen. The editor can't risk broadcasting a different report or going live somewhere else in case he misses the start and a rival channel can claim to be "first".
Of course, there is no reason to do this other than it being what rivals do. Every Wednesday, I cringe as presenters on television and radio fill in anticipation of Prime Minister's Questions, which starts a variable number of minutes after midday. Every Wednesday, I wonder why no broadcaster has had the bright idea of scheduling a five-minute discussion previewing the content, and then starting the coverage, cleanly and professionally at 12.05, through the simple use of a few minutes' delay.
The number of people who are insistent on watching Prime Ministers' Questions absolutely live is probably tiny. I know that I, for one, would prefer to watch a slick production with informed commentary and analysis rather than an unedifying scramble every week.
4. News channels needn’t uselessly fill time
The need to fill airtime – and particularly the need to be seen to be live – means that in the heat of the moment questionable editorial judgments can be made. Everything seems to be "breaking news". In the last 12 months we've seen the BBC showing live pictures of an empty courtroom in the US, eagerly anticipating the sentencing of already convicted kidnapper Ariel Castro – a story of interest to few if any in the UK.
There is a need to fill airtime. There is not a need to fill airtime with live content. With 24-hours at their disposal, and with less of an emphasis on a presenter reading a single headline every time news breaks, there is much greater scope for in-depth reporting and interviews with newsmakers. Watch an hour of any 24-hour news channel, and you'll almost certainly see an interview cut short, often for no good reason. Allow these to be much more open ended, and repeat them (in edited form, with expert analysis) and much of the airtime will be filled. As with Prime Minister's Questions, make much more extensive use of live delays and on-the-fly editing to increase the standard of presentation, and to allow the programme to naturally flow.
Similarly, I can see no reason why these channels don't make the most of the available air time to show more "explainers". I think an occasional airing of an updated 15 minute background package on what's actually happening in Ukraine would be a valuable service a news channel could offer. And it would fill time at low cost.
5. News channels can show pre-recorded packages
The number of stories that are conveyed by live "as it happens" pictures is vanishingly small. Many stories – the economy, climate change – aren't best served by pictures; others (inside Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan or Zimbabwe) often don't have pictures available until days after the event; many more work better with a well crafted, tightly edited package rather than a live feed.
There is no reason for 24-hour news channels to be so focused on live pictures. Well-crafted, tightly-edited packages would be welcomed by viewers over somebody standing in the rain reporting nothing.
6. Sambrook's vision doesn't fulfill the BBC’s purpose
What might a reconfigured on-demand news service look like?
Sambrook's suggested on-demand news service (I haven't quoted his whole plan, for it is far too long) involves people actively participating in creating their own bulletin. This is precisely the opposite of what I believe the BBC should be doing.
We, the people, have terrible news values. The more the BBC tries to align itself with our values, the more it degrades its worth. We need to be told what we need to be told. We need experts to fight for coverage of their areas. We need to know what matters, not what we want to know. And we place our trust in the BBC to make those decisions for us.
If the BBC won't make those decisions, but will defer to us, then there is no point in the BBC existing. I can ferret out news that interests me from a wide variety of sources without the Beeb's help. And in the areas in which I have a particular interest, that's exactly what I do.
But the BBC, and its news channel, should be about expert contextualisation. It should be the outlet which says "actually, this isn't an important story, so we're not covering it in depth" more often that it says "sit up and pay attention, this is boring but important".
It should make the most of genuine experts in their field – including fields it currently covers with a laughable level of credibility, like science and technology. The BBC news channel should be the "news channel of record". It should cover things in depth and intelligently. It should not chase ratings, and it should not be in a race to read out lines of news with no context. It should not be obsessed with live coverage. It should edit, curate, and analyse.
In his analysis, Sambrook conflates the current output of news channels with the medium of news channels itself. He uses the argument that current output is poor to suggest that there should be no output. I disagree.
I think that news channels can be done better – particularly the BBC News channel, which doesn't have to answer to shareholders, and doesn't have to chase ratings. It should be held to a higher standard, and should drive the quality of 24-hour news up. The BBC should not abandon it altogether.
A version of this post also appears on Medium.
The image in this post was posted on Flickr by Ian Wright, and is used under Creative Commons licence.
This 2,228th post was filed under: Headliner, Media, News and Comment, Responses, Tweeted, BBC, BBC News, Journalism, Richard Sambrook.
Review: The Battle of $9.99 by Andrew Richard Albanese
Published on 8 January 2014.
I think, like me, many people will have noticed an increase in the price of e-books in recent years. A subset of those people will be, like me, vaguely aware of an antitrust case around the selling of ebooks, involving Amazon selling below cost and Apple trying to disrupt the market. There was news last year that a court had declared that ebook purchasers were due a partial refund, and I felt some excitement at the prospect of a fat Amazon gift voucher (that hasn’t yet materialised). That was about my level of understanding before I downloaded The Battle of $9.99. It was a story that I felt I should know more about, and so I picked up the book to learn.
In this short book, Albanese outlines the revelations from the antitrust court case against Apple. It’s a factual account that seemed fairly balanced in its assessment, and contained some genuinely surprising revelations along the way. For example, publishers whose books were previously sold below cost-price by Amazon now net a lower revenue per title despite increased consumer prices. Indeed, publishers were willing to accept that deal on the basis that the perceived value of books would not be eroded further, on the basis that it protects their profits in the long-term.
It’s only a brief book, so this can only be a brief review, but it was nonetheless interesting. It was well-pitched, introducing economic and legal terms as necessary without either patronising or befuddling me as a reader with experience in neither. I would have liked a little more discussion about why this story had so little traction with the public at large, particularly compared to similar financial scandals in which consumers felt “ripped off”. I’d also be interested to read a similar account of iTunes disruption of the music market, but I guess without a antitrust suit, similar revelations are unlikely to meet public gaze.
Back in the autumn, I reviewed Burning the Page by Jason Merkoski, which examined in much more detail the way in which technology has changed the reading experience. The Battle of $9.99 makes an interesting business-focussed supplement to that book. It’s well worth a read.
The Battle of $9.99 is available now from amazon.co.uk in Kindle format only.
This 2,106th post was filed under: Book Reviews, Media, Andrew Richard Albanese.
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What I’ve been reading this month
I’m not someone who would naturally pick up a book written 2000 years ago. I’m no classicist. But there has been so much written online and in magazines in recent years about Seneca’s Moral Essays that I thought I’d pick up a translation to see what all the fuss was about. The volume I selected contained Seneca’s essays On Providence, On Firmness, On Anger and the sliver that survives of On Mercy. These essays were many times better than anything modern I’ve read on character or morality. The John W Basore translations were highly readable and engaging. There were parts that made reference to Seneca’s contemporaries or cultural/religious figures that slightly went over my head, but the down-to-Earth “life advice” was astounding. It also made me reflect that there’s more in this single volume on effective management of people than anything I’ve ever previously read. I was completely blown away.
Buy on Amazon | View on Goodreads
A Death in The Family was the first of five parts of Karl Ove Knausgård’s radically honest autobiography. This volume covered Knausgård’s relationship with and the death of his father. The book was extreme in its honesty. Knausgård left nothing to the imagination. He didn’t spare family or friends in his descriptions of them and nor did he spare himself in documenting his darkest inner thoughts. His descriptions were detailed, meticulous and evocative. “Transcendent” seems to be a word commonly associated with this book and that captures my impression. It is a very impressive first volume.
Brian Christian and Tom Griffiths’s Algorithms to Live By stood at the intersection of computer science and philosophy. The authors explained a number of fundamental algorithms used in computer science (many of which were new to me) and then used tenets of philosophy to explain how these algorithms were also applicable in everyday life.
The premise sounded like a terrible marketing-driven airport paperback ‘What X tells us about Y’ concept. In fact, it was carried off very well. The computer science was quite complex (certainly well beyond my rusty A-Level Computing knowledge), but explained with a clarity that outstripped most ‘popular science’ books. The ‘relevance to everyday life’ was also carried through expertly, delving fairly deep into evidence-based psychology. There was a lucid connection between the two which the authors brought to life with thoughtful examples. This was interdisciplinary thinking done right.
I picked up Unmasked, Andrew Lloyd Webber’s memoir, because the reviews I read suggested that it was better than one might expect it to be—and that’s exactly how I found it. It would be interesting in any case to have some insight into the creative process of a man who has had musical successes writing everything from Elvis Presley songs to stage musicals to a requiem mass. But—perhaps surprisingly—this book was also very funny. There were bits that were a little cringe-worthy, including a bit where he makes a joke about the size of his penis, but he strikes the right note far more often than the wrong one.
I struggled a bit to get through Fire Sermon by Jamie Quatro, which is saying something considering that it was quite a short novel. In a nutshell, the novel found Quatro’s protagonist attempting to reconcile her Christian faith with a lifetime of sexual encounters. There were interesting ideas to unlock in that premise, but I didn’t really gain any real insight into them. This was partly because Quatro often took approaches which extended beyond my sphere of knowledge without anything like an adequate explanation (a treatise on apophatic theology, anyone?). It was also partly because the writing didn’t lead me to particularly care about any of the characters. Fire Sermon just didn’t quite do it for me.
This 2,330th post was filed under: What I've Been Reading.
Lynda Lee-Potter / October 2004, Less than a minute long
Shrewsbury evacuated / July 2006, 2 minutes long
‘The British Blog’ / April 2005, Less than a minute long
When public health measures pass me by / May 2019, 3 minutes long
Labour spams-up for the taste… / April 2005, 9 minutes long
Blair stays on holiday but gives £15m aid / December 2004, 1 minute long
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Could this little model be the most simple, internally-consistent view of the universe?
By Bruce Camber, first published: January 2012 and last updated Sunday, March 1, 2015.
Please note: Underlined (linked) references usually open in a new window. Many go to Wikipedia.
Quick Answer: Yes. The entire Universe and everything within it is mathematically notated and necessarily interrelated,
all within somewhere over 201 doublings from the smallest measurement of space and time, the Planck Length and
the Planck Time respectively, to the largest, the Observable Universe and the Age of the Universe, respectively.
Key Question: Have you seen an exquisitely detailed view of the entire universe all on a single chart? In just over 201 steps (or sets, notations, layers, groups, clusters or doublings), it goes from the smallest measurements (the base Planck Units) to their currently-known largest values. It all started in a high school geometry class so it is relatively straight forward and easy to understand, yet it opens some mystery as well. It is difficult to figure out how to interpret and work with the first 65 steps. These are extremely small and, to date, have not been addressed as such by the academic community. Yet, these steps may open a way to understand our universe and ourselves in new ways.
Let's take a look (Pictured on the right, you can open it here within a new window).
At the very top of the chart there are two rows of the most basic three-dimensional figures. The top five are named after Plato and are simply referred to as the five Platonic solids. It seems curious that only a very select group of people ever look inside these figures. If children did, this simple view of our universe would be second nature. Take any of those figures and divide each edge in half and connect those vertices (opens in new window). Each little circle is a vertex. Keep doing it. In just 101 steps, you will be approaching what most scientists believe is the smallest possible measurement in this universe (the Planck Length). A contemporary of Einstein, Max Planck formulated that measurement in 1899 and 1900. His most basic measurements have been around for awhile and today are generally considered to be among the fundamental constants of our universe.
To make things a little easier we should start at the bottom of the left three columns of the chart at the Planck Length, 1.616199(97)x10-35 meters. Others use the simple figure, 1.616x10-35 meters or 1.616x10-33 centimeters.
The next step, multiplying each result by 2, is called base-2 exponential notation. Now let's move up the chart. At step 101 at the top of those columns on the left, we emerge with the width of a fine human hair. Multiply that by two and you are at the width of a typical piece of paper; that is step 102 on the right.
Now go down those three columns on the right side of the chart. Continue to multiply by two. In just over 101 steps you will have gone out past the Sun, then exited the Solar System and then the Milky Way, and quickly pushed out to be in the range of the edges of the observable universe.
We wanted to give this chart a highly-descriptive name so we called it, Big Board - little universe.
Big Board - little universe: From the Planck Length to the Edges of the Observable Universe.
Yes, this project started back in December 2011 in River Ridge, Louisiana just a few miles up river from New Orleans (NOLA) and just downriver from the NOLA airport. Within a few hundred feet of the river is the John Curtis Christian School. Though well-known for football, their academics are very good. In the geometry classes they had been studying the platonic solids. Strange things can happen when one is invited to be a substitute teacher, essentially just an assistant for the students and their teacher, Steve Curtis, who is part of our extended family.
December 19, 2011 was the last day before the Christmas break. What a day to be a substitute! One quickly asks, "How do you keep their attention? What could catch their imagination?" For example, "How could one make that simple dodecahedron (pictured) a bit more interesting?" The first and only other time with these students was used for model building so they could begin to explore the inside structures of the basic five. The dodecahedron was not part of that effort, so to make it more simple, we asked, "Why not make each face of that dodecahedron out of five tetrahedrons (pictured)?"
That makes the familiar strange. Instead of a simple dodecahedron, this one had 60 external faces!
Indeed. That object is known as the Pentakis Dodecahedron. We filled the inside cavity (pictured) with Play Doh. In a few days, that unusual object was removed and the obvious pieces were carved out . It was in this process when the key evocative question was asked, “How many steps within would we have to go to get to the Planck length?" We assumed thousands and found just over 100. Flummoxed! "Why haven't we used this before? Could it be that it's just too simple?"
It was a straightforward task to do the simple base-2 math to create the first draft of what would become a rather big board. On December 17, the first draft was printed at Office Max in Harahan, Louisiana. Their widest paper for this kind of thing was 24 inches. “Let’s do it.” The resulting chart measured ten feet long. It didn't take long to agree that it was too big and awkward so on the next day, two smaller charts, 12" by 60" were printed.
We put the two small charts on the left and right side of the class and then cut that ten-foot board in half and put the top section in the front and the bottom in the back. The setting was magical.
Now, there is a huge history of work that has already been done using base-10 exponential notation. Kees Boeke, a high school teacher, started that work in 1957 in Holland and it has become a staple of the classroom to study orders of magnitude. Although the big board is quite analogous to Boeke's work, it has a very different sense of itself. Instead of multiplying and dividing by simply adding or subtracting a zero (0), we begin with exacting measurements given to us from Max Planck. Second, we have all of our geometries with us. So, our chart is much more visceral; it has 3.3333+ times more notations. It emulates natural cellular growth and chemical bonding. Now, that was enough to get us going, yet we knew along the way we would find many other foundational reasons.
Not too much later, we decided to start at the Planck length and just multiply by two. It worked out better and kind-of-sort-of confirmed our earlier work. That became our next version 2.0.0.1 which you see here.
What does it mean and what can be done with the data?
Big Board - little universe
Version 1.0.0.1.
1. Our universe view initially had 202.34 to 205.11 steps. Using just the doublings of the Planck Units, there are between 201 and 202. Notwithstanding, this chart is a simple tool to help order information. When we began finding simple math errors within Version 1, we turned to the professionals. A leading astrophysicist said, "There are 205.11 notations." Then on May 2, 2012, a retired NASA physicist, Joe Kolecki, made the calculation based on the results of the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS). He reported 202.34 notations. We trusted them both so we used that range. Then, in December 2014 we emerged with our own figure based simply on the doublings of the Planck Time and the 13.78 billion years, estimated age of the universe Yes, we found between 201 and 202 doublings.
2. The Planck Length, the first step and the next 60 steps. We have thought and thought about the Planck length. It is an elusive concept defined by three fundamental physical constants: the speed of light in a vacuum, Planck's constant, and the gravitational constant.
Yet, what is it? For over 100 years, people have attempted to define it more richly than 1.616×10−35 meters.
Thought experiments anybody?
Perhaps it is time to engage some of the students in some speculative thinking. I have asked among the most-curious of them, “What is the next step? Can we do a series of thought experiments?” The questions continued, "Could we just start by constructing simple models within the first ten steps and then become increasingly complex? Could this study be a pre-science or hypostatic science where we begin to see the interface between perfection and imperfection?" So where do we begin?
First, of course, we will have to assume that Max Planck was right and his concept is a good place to begin. Second, even if the Planck Length is a dimensionful or a dimensionless number, it is still an actual measurement of a physical unit and it can be multiplied by 2. And third, it can be understood to be a very special case of a simple vertex, some might say a point. It is anybody's guess if it defines some kind of special singularity.
As a simple vertex, when multiplied by 2, there are two vertices. Freeman Dyson, physicist-exemplar with the Institute for Advanced Studies of Princeton, New Jersey argues that when we multiply by two, we should actually be multiplying by three, one for each dimension of space. I would counter that each vertex exists in three-dimensions but each is still a singular vertex. It doesn't much matter anyway; there are plenty of vertices to go around.
Within ten steps, multiplying by 2, there are 1024 vertices. Within twenty steps, there are over a million. Within 30 steps there are over a billion, in 40 steps over a trillion, in 50 steps over a quadrillion (1000-trillion), and at 60 over a quintillion (1,152,921,504,606,846,976). One could do very complex geometries with all those vertices.
This all started with Plato's five basic solids and thoughts about basic structure. Though most people do not give it much thought, it has been studied throughout much of our history, seemingly formalized by Pythagoras and extended by Plato. Our working concept was that the basic structure of the five platonic solids in some way permeates every subsequent layer (notation, doubling, layer or step). And, if this simple-yet-idiosyncratic worldview can hold water, then in a substantial way, these five figures would, in very special ways, become the backbone of our constants and universals.
Attempting to Set This Work With Constants and Universals
How do we go about defining what is truly universal and constant?
Certainly not an easy task, most often based on a combination of logic, mathematics, and consistent measurements, the constants have proven true throughout all time and within any space. The universals are in part based on those constants as understood by the most-respected scholars throughout time and they have generalized and extended these constants in meaningful ways. Some people believe these concepts open pathways to understand how it is that there is space and time, and human life and consciousness. Today, what has been rigorously dependent on the study of physics and then the other sciences, has evolved to include religion, logic, ethics, value, and even business.
With that as a most-complex chemistry, a key question to ask is, "What concepts are shared by all of these disciplines?" Then we ask, "What concepts are the most simple?" And also, "What concepts could have a face of perfection?" Those three questions opened the way to a very simple platform, a generalized model within which to work. It is emergent, internally-dependent form - function (the faces of perfection) and the imperfect quantum world:
• Order - Continuity and discontinuity
• Relations - Symmetry and symmetry-breaking
• Dynamics - Harmony and not-harmonic, dissonant, discord
In practice, we therefor assume that there is continuity from the smallest to the largest measurement. We assume that there is a deep-seated symmetry, even if it can not be observed, from the smallest to the largest measurement. And finally, that within every type of measurement, there are possibilities of transformations that account for all dynamic actions within our universe.
This work dates back to 1979 at MIT regarding first principles with 77 leading, living scholars from around the world but that work went nowhere until the encounter with the geometry kids of Steve Curtis’s classes at John Curtis Christian School in River Ridge, Louisiana.
From family to Wikipedia and back again to the family
It is difficult to know if a set of ideas is worth pursuing. The first challenge after that class was to do a literature search. We found all kinds of supportive information but nothing using base-2 exponential notation. The next step was to test the ideas with friends and family. It is embarrassing to be naïve and wrong at the same time, so some caution was exercised.
By March 2012, we had no serious detractors, yet no deep confirmation that the Big Board was really useful. To push the judgment and to have a foundation for collaboration, we wrote it all up in the style of Wikipedia for Wikipedia. When the first draft went up in April, it quickly found several protesters who said, “This is original research. It needs scholarly review before we will trust its efficacy.” By the first week of May, it had been taken down. Though it had a very short run, it was good theater.
I learned early that idiosyncratic ideas are not much tolerated within the academy.
In my very early days of study, the chairman of the MIT physics department, Victor Weisskopf, helped me with an invitation to visit with John Bell at CERN Laboratories. Bell’s inequality equations as applied to the Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen thought experiment of 1935 had rendered most enigmatic experimental results. Though way over my head, I knew enough to ask a few questions. Yet, scholars demand informed questions, so, there were times I appeared naive. Always there was more to learn about the nature of information, the nature of thought, and the very nature of a thing. What is a photon? In what ways is it a carrier of electromagnetism? Although that was way back in1977, those domains of inquiry still swirl with questions.
So now, with this rather skeletal model of the Big Board as our working construct, it was easy to wonder, “Have we come full circle? Are we back looking at the same questions that we were asking in throughout the '70s, particularly in 1979?" So, to get properly oriented, based on that simple construct, order-continuity, relations-symmetry, and dynamics-harmony, are there particular questions that could be asked to clarify a path? For example, how is it that there is continuity between layers? What precipitates discontinuity? When is there symmetry-making and symmetry-breaking? What algorithms and formulas might make these simple interior models begin to cohere and function in such a way as to explain the phenomena within theoretical physics and quantum theory?
To get perspective on it all, a group at the high school is focusing on it. The Argonne National Laboratory has sent us fifteen highly-exacting photographs from the work of their scientists within the small-scale world and the students have been challenged to take each photograph and assign it to a notation. Nikon's Small World photographs from their annual calendar and contest are also being used. I have confirmed a comment by Prof. Dr. John Baez about this construct being idiosyncratic, and by asking questions of leading scholars around the world, have become the personification of idiosyncratic.
From ideas, to theories, to constructs, to mathematics, I have often heard and read that the simple models are more elegant than the complex and that simplicity has a special elegance and beauty. So, here within this paragraph will be the links to discussions and meetings with people, from our finest scholars to our most fresh-and-open children, when and where we have used this construct to explore the meaning and value of life.
The next steps: The first 60 notations, steps, doublings or layers.
To date, the only possibilities for measurement of any of those first 60 can is within colliders like the Large Hadron Collider at CERN labs. These colliders begin their work at the 66th notation and it is anybody's guess as to how many notations have been utilized and articulated. The results from the colliders render a lot of data, but very little about the interface between information and the deepest structure of physicality. So, if nothing else, the imposed structure of base-2 notation could provoke new insights. For example, because there is an assumed inherent correspondence between layers, perhaps there are also analogical constructions within known notations and with information theory itself.
Highly-Speculative ideas that just might open a path for thought experiments
Consider the work of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) on the Open Systems Interconnection (OSI). They use seven abstraction layers to define the form and function of networking, a rigorous communications system. If all 202.34 layers of the universe in some way use an analogous construct, then as the first steps toward a thought experiment, we might simply force the OSI model over the first 60 layers as a starting point for rather free-associations and speculations. For example, perhaps 1-to-10 in some way perform like the physical layer, 10-to-20 like a data link layer, 20-to-30 like the network layer, 30-to-40 like the transport layer, 40-to-50 like a presentation layer, and 50-to-60 are like the beginnings of the application layer.
It seems a bit silly to explore the OSI analogue, but within analogies are possibilities of making the strange familiar and the familiar strange. When the “thought experiment” door is opened, all kinds of wild and crazy notions just might begin to flow.
Just to get a feel for the numbers, we documented the climb up the 202.34 steps and put all those numbers on the web. An old acquaintance from MIT (and one of the world’s more rigorous-yet-speculative thinkers in combinatorial mathematics), Ed Fredkin suggests that it is akin to numerology. Perhaps. But new ideas have to start somewhere. If we suspend our harshest judgments that close doors and open ourselves to a new insights, by walking around in the chaos-confusion-and-the-unknown, sometimes new ideas and thoughts begin to catch a trace of coherency, and then rigorous, coherent thinking can follow.
If you look at the first column on the left of the Big Board, and go all the way down to the first 40 notations, you’ll notice there are over one trillion vertices at the 40th notation. In the left-most column at step 34 is the word, SPECULATIONS. Below it is “Quantum State Machine.” At this point in time, there are over 140,000 references in Google. Assuming that even .1% are of interest, there are 140 references to research and consider. The Modulus for transformation opens even more research to consider the question, “What is the transformation from one notation to the next?” Perhaps Theta-Fushian functions address the issue. How do cubic functions – cubicities -- apply?
With just a cluster of four vertices, the tetrahedron becomes possible. With five, two tetrahedrons. With seven vertices the five-tetrahedron cluster (pictured above) could emerge. Using Chrysler's description of their logo, we call it a Pentastar. Perhaps within such simplicity and with its imperfect binding (there is up to a 1.5 degree gap between faces), here is the beginning of an energy wheel that acts and works like quantum fluctuations. That gap is extended within the icosahedron and Pentakis dodecahedron. And here, between these structures we could be a heartbeat away from opening a new foundational study within physics-chemistry-biology, epistemology-and-mathematics, and cosmology.
There is so much more to consider and ponder. On a somewhat more whimsical note, I concluded back in January 2012, in defense of the pursuit of this study, the following:
Each notation (step or doubling) can be studied to discern relations first within itself, then to the other two notations -- "within" and "going out" -- knowing ultimately that everything is related to everything.
It begins to envision every academic study in a necessary relation, one to another. Academic silos are so yesterday!
It re-introduces the platonic solids as a structural form for the study of continuity conditions within a complex enfolding of symmetries. Someday we may actually know what that means!
It opens symmetry groups to a much wider study in other disciplines beyond material science and theoretical physics.
It could open an exploration of imperfect geometry (or quantum geometries) whereby transcendental, imaginary and irrational numbers in some manner of speaking are discerned within the transformations from the perfect to the imperfect.
We might discover a form/function that aligns all 202.34 notations such that we are able to discern the Planck length as a truly standard measurement unlike the meter or inch-foot--yard. That would be novel; so, of course, there's more to come.
-Bruce
Footnote. In discussing this construction of the universe with a prominent physicist, he commented, "Well, it's an idiosyncratic view of the universe." I said, "That's it." It became the initial title for this emerging paper. Yet, to advance the concepts, we needed a more challenging, less self-effacing title. And until we are quite readily and intelligently challenged, the current title shall carry this project forward.
Perhaps the universe is nested in ways that we cannot measure or discern with a physical instrument other than the mind. If you find it of some interest, let us know. Please share your thoughts. It appears that we all need to re-examine the simplest concepts and parameters more closely. Could Plato's five basic solids in some way hold each progression together in a mathematical relation? Is it meaningful in any way? We would all enjoy hearing from you. Please drop us a note! - BEC
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Chains Of Darkness, A Review
Posted on November 17, 2015 by snaughty
I haven’t written anything for a while, and that was okay, until I played the worst app game I’ve ever seen. It’s not okay anymore. I’m climbing back onto the soapbox to tell you all a tale. A tale of a game that never wanted to be written. A game that fought its creators, tooth and nail, to keep itself from happening. You might say it lost the fight because the game exists now and you can play it, but trust me when I say that it’s still doing everything in its power to bring itself crashing down. I’m getting way too far ahead of myself, though. Let’s dial it back a couple of notches and figure out what’s going on here.
A really amazing game. Creative and intuitive. The opposite of Chains of Darkness.
It all starts with Doom and my obsession with it years ago. Wolfenstein 3D was pretty much the computer game when I was younger, but Doom came out and made Wolfenstein look like a joke. I had tremendous respect for the people who were involved in the Doom games because they were a huge step forward. At the end of each session I would read over the names of the programmers, wishing my name could be one of them. Special Thanks to American McGee. It always stuck out in my head. I thought it was a company, to be honest, and didn’t know it was a person for quite a while. He went on to make the Alice games bearing his name, which I always had a tremendous amount of respect for. My girlfriend is an even bigger fan than I am, though, and she would very much like to obtain a copy of the third installment, which is actually going to be a movie. The only way to do that currently is to reach VIP level six in Chains of Darkness, a game made by Spicy Horse, a company McGee started in China. This is where the nightmare begins.
Nothing is as Dark as a bunch of horned skeletons humping a tower. Be afraid.
I’ll start off by telling you honestly that I couldn’t find a lot of information about what VIP level six entailed or how difficult it would be. The deadline is the end of the month, so I figured I had enough time. As it turns out, time was never really the question. You attain VIP status by paying money for in game currency, but I still couldn’t find any data on how much I’d actually have to pay in order to get to level six. It seemed like an interesting trap where you’d get about fifty dollars in and realize you have to spend a hundred and fifty more or the fifty you spent would be for nothing. Since you only see how much it costs to get to the next level when you reach the one before it, it can be quite a slippery slope. Needless to say, I didn’t discover this until after I’d spent hours playing the game like a moron, though, so allow me to channel my misery to you through the magic of words.
If you’re a recurring reader, you may remember my Blood Brothers blog, where I basically laid out the complicated mess that played as an RPG card game. You do roughly the same thing over and over with a group of different “cards” that are really more like characters. They level up and you do that same thing a little bit faster. Blood Brothers was actually a little bit of fun when it wasn’t rigged against the player. It was rigged, though, and that made the game not fun. Chains of Darkness takes the simplicity of Blood Brothers and cooks it down further. Every map is the same three room crawl. You kill the first room, waddle to the next, kill that room, meander on into the “boss room” and kill them. Then the map is over. This formula never changes, ever. Sure, there are different areas on the big map where you select what you’re going to do, but they all lead to the same three room bullshit. And oh my lord, does it ever fucking crawl.
Oh no, it’s four invisible men again! Wait, hold on a second. They just need a minute to talk themselves into being a part of this game.
I’ll grant that the phone I was playing it on was not the greatest, but still, you would think that it would be able to run such a simple game. No sir. Every enemy is 3D, and they aren’t just standing there when you walk into a room. They’re animated crawling out of the floor, usually about twenty seconds after you get into the room on my device, and when they attack your cards they run forward and hit you in the face instead of your cards, though they take the damage. I have to be honest with you, I hate that shit. It takes about a full minute to load and that’s just to get to the menu where you log into the actual game, which takes more load time. I’m pretty sure they’re working on the world’s most complicated inefficiency engine as we speak to apply to a future update. To go from leveling a character to leveling their skill back to the map takes way longer than it should. There are way too many steps and not nearly enough “optimize” options here.
Enhance the shit out of those guys!
In Blood Brothers and similar games, you would trade in your acquired in-game tokens for a card of variable values. In Chains of Dickness you get shards of a card instead of the actual card. Just collect sixty of those badboys and you’ll be on your way. On your way to wasting your time even further. Any move that is not a “hit all targets” move is a waste of time. The “boss rooms” are a fucking joke. You’ll be hard pressed to tell who the boss is because they all die just as easily as the next one. I guess it’s the one in the middle? Since there’s no need for a power move to take out a strong boss you basically always want to hit everyone. That’s the other thing. You’re allowed to bring a partner with you into each map. This person is usually way more powerful than you are and will wipe the boss room with a single attack, which is also all you get from them, but when you consider the rooms leading up the boss rooms are even easier, it makes the whole Three Room Fandango an even bigger joke. You don’t deal “damage” either, when you hit targets. You deal “enhance”. I don’t know what that means. There’s a grid at the top right corner of the screen that tells you the order of which element trumps which for attacks and defense, but it’s pretty stupid because it always tells you who is weak to the attack of the player you’re currently using.
“Just to be clear, you said I could name the moves whatever the fuck I wanted.”
The real slap in the face, though, is the way the stupid attacks are named. There’s nothing that says “I don’t really give a fuck about my job” quite like the Giant Blade of Triple Ouch. Really? Really. That’s what you went with? I get it. I’m actually working on and off on an RPG and that empty “attack name” window can be daunting at times. I’ve filled in some pretty stupid names early on because I knew I’d go back and change them as I reached closer to a finished product. After the first little bit, to be honest, I stopped using absurd names completely because it felt like I wasn’t taking my work seriously and it detracted from the game. The same thing happens here. You can’t find something from fiction or history that resembles hitting something three times with an axe? It causes “immediate 127% damage” which is rather amusing. I suppose we’re taking dots, or Damage Over Time spells, here, but I can’t be certain because the most shards of any of the asshole cards that I got was two out of thirty for the shittiest card there was. I got to sample some of the more powerful ones other people had unlocked, but I have to stress that only the ones that hit all targets are worth anything. Since everyone starts with the same four characters when you go to the arena it’s just a pile of people with the exact same group composition as your own. Just to make things even more redundant. I never got to use such dazzling attacks as the Spell Of Hurts Things A Lot or the [Fill in attack name later] lvl 44, but I’m sure they’re out there and that the animation for them is going to punish your mobile device for no good reason. They’ve taken away a lot of the decent things from the genre and really only added 3D rendering that tries, poorly, to distract you from how simple the mechanism is.
We’re taking back our Special Thanks. You, sir, are a scoundrel.
So this is where we stand now. One of the people I always looked up to is making people play and pay money into this terrible game in order to make it look like it’s actually worth playing in order to get something from a completely unrelated game that’s actually worthwhile instead of just selling it like a sane person would do. How the mighty have fallen. To think that this day would come. Younger, teenaged me is rolling over in his grave. Yes, that’s right. Younger teenaged me is dead now. Dead from Chains of Darkness directly to the shame. A crushing blow to my hopes and dreams. Crushing Blows, that’s a great name for an axe move that hits three times. Much more fitting, as this game certainly blows.
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Justia › US Law › US Case Law › US Supreme Court › Volume 151 › In re Bonner
In re Bonner, 151 U.S. 242 (1894)
In re Bonner
No. 8, Original
Argued November 27-28, 1893
Decided January 15, 1894
When a person accused of crime is convicted in a court of the United States and is sentenced by the court, under Rev.Stat. § 5356, to imprisonment for one year and the payment of a fine, the court is without jurisdiction to further adjudge that that imprisonment shall take place in a state penitentiary under Rev.Stat. § 5546, and the prisoner, if sentenced to be confined in a state penitentiary, is entitled to a writ of habeas corpus directing his discharge from the custody of the warden of the state penitentiary, but without prejudice to the right of the United States to take any lawful measures to have the petitioner sentenced in accordance with law upon the verdict against him.
Where a conviction is correct, and where the error or excess of jurisdiction is the ordering the prisoner to be confined in a penitentiary where the law does not allow the court to send him, there is no good reason why jurisdiction of the prisoner should not he reassumed by the court that imposed the sentence in order that its defect may be corrected.
The court discharging the prisoner in such case on habeas corpus should delay his discharge for such reasonable time as may be necessary to have him taken before the court where the judgment was rendered, in order that the defects in the former judgment for want of jurisdiction, which are the subjects of complaint, may be corrected.
The petitioner, John Bonner, a citizen of the United States, represents that he is now and has been since the 23d of May, 1893, unlawfully deprived of his liberty by one P. W. Madden, as warden of the penitentiary of Iowa situated in Anamosa, in that state. He sets forth as the cause of his restrain and detention that at the October term, 1892, of the United States Court for the Third Judicial Division of the Indian Territory, he was indicted for the larceny, in May previous, in the Chickasaw Nation, within the Indian Territory, of four head of cattle, of the value of fifty dollars, the property of one Robert Williams, who was not a member of any Indian tribe; that during that month, he was arraigned before the same court and pleaded not guilty to the indictment, and was tried and found guilty. The statute under which the indictment was found is contained in section 5356 of the Revised Statutes, and is as follows:
"Every person who, upon the high seas, or in any place under the exclusive jurisdiction of the United States, takes and carries away, with intent to steal or purloin, the personal goods of another shall be punished by a fine of not more than one thousand dollars, or by imprisonment not more than one year, or by both such fine and imprisonment."
The court, by its judgment, sentenced the petitioner to imprisonment in the penitentiary at Anamosa, in the State of Iowa, for the term of one year, and to the payment of a fine of $1,000. It also added that the marshal of the court, to whose custody he was then committed, should safely keep and convey the petitioner, and deliver him to the custody of the warden of the penitentiary, who would receive and keep him in prison for the period of one year in execution of the sentence. The petitioner also sets forth that the warden of the penitentiary has no other authority to hold him than the said judgment and order of commitment.
The petitioner alleges that the said sentence and order of commitment are void; that the court was without power or jurisdiction under the law to render the judgment, and that he had applied to the United States judge of the Northern District of Iowa for a writ of habeas corpus to be released from confinement, and that the writ was denied to him. He
therefore prays that this Court will issue the writ of habeas corpus to the said warden to appear before this Court and show what authority, if any, he has for restraining the petitioner of his liberty, and that upon final hearing he may be discharged.
An order was issued from this Court in October last to the warden to show cause why the writ should not be granted as prayed. The warden returns answer that he holds the prisoner by virtue of a warrant of commitment issued upon the judgment and sentence of the United States court as above stated, of which a copy is annexed to the petition, and that at the time of the petitioner's conviction and of the judgment and sentence, there was no penitentiary or jail suitable for the confinement of convicts, or available therefor, in the Indian Territory, and that the state penitentiary at Anamosa had been duly designated by the Attorney General, under section 5546 of the Revised Statutes of the United States, as the place of confinement for prisoners convicted of crime by that court, and that the order of the court for the confinement of the petitioner in that penitentiary under its sentence of imprisonment was in pursuance of that designation.
So much of section 5546 of the Revised Statutes as bears upon the question under consideration in this case is as follows:
"All persons who have been or who may hereafter be convicted of crime by any court of the United States whose punishment is imprisonment in a district or territory where, at the time of conviction, there may be no penitentiary or jail suitable for the confinement of convicts or available therefor shall be confined during the term for which they have been or may be sentenced in some suitable jail or penitentiary in a convenient state or territory, to be designated by the Attorney General, and shall be transported and delivered to the warden or keeper of such jail or penitentiary by the marshal of the district or territory where the conviction has occurred. "
MR. JUSTICE FIELD, after stating the facts in the foregoing language, delivered the opinion of the Court.
The petitioner asks for the issue of the writ of habeas corpus in order that he may be thereby set at liberty, on the ground that his imprisonment in the penitentiary at Anamosa, in Iowa, is in pursuance of a judgment of a court which possessed no authority under the law to pass sentence upon him of imprisonment in the state penitentiary, upon his conviction of the offense for which he was indicted and tried. That is a sentence which can only be imposed where it is specifically prescribed, or where the imprisonment ordered is for a period longer than one year, or at hard labor. To an imprisonment for that period or at hard labor in a state penitentiary infamy is attached, and a taint of that character can be cast only in the cases mentioned.
Section 5356 of the Revised Statutes of the United States, under which the defendant was indicted and convicted, prescribes as a punishment for the offenses designated fine or imprisonment -- the fine not to exceed $1,000, and the imprisonment not more than one year -- or by both such fine and imprisonment. Such imprisonment cannot be enforced in a state penitentiary. Its limitation, being to one year, must be enforced elsewhere. Section 5541 of the Revised Statutes provides that:
"In every case where any person convicted of any offense against the United States is sentenced to imprisonment for a period longer than one year, the court by which the sentence is passed may order the same to be executed in any state jail or penitentiary within the district or state where such court is held, the use of which jail or penitentiary is allowed by the legislature of the state for that purpose."
And section 5542 provides for a similar imprisonment in a state jail or penitentiary where the person has been convicted of any offense against the United States and sentenced to imprisonment and confinement at hard labor. It follows
that the court had no jurisdiction to order an imprisonment when the place is not specified in the law, to be executed in a penitentiary, when the imprisonment is not ordered for a period longer than one year or at hard labor. The statute is equivalent to a direct denial of any authority on the part of the court to direct that imprisonment be executed in a penitentiary in any cases other than those specified. Whatever discretion, therefore, the court may possess in prescribing the extent of imprisonment as a punishment for the offense committed, it cannot, in specifying the place of imprisonment, name one of these institutions. This has been expressly adjudged in In re Mills, 135 U. S. 263, 135 U. S. 270, which in one part of it presents features in all respects similar to those of the present case.
There, the petitioner, Mills, was detained by the warden of the state penitentiary in Columbus, Ohio, pursuant to two judgments of the District Court of the United States for the Western District of Arkansas sentencing him in each case to confinement in the penitentiary of that state. Application was made by the prisoner for a writ of habeas corpus on the ground that the court by which he was tried had no jurisdiction of the offenses with which he was charged, and on the further ground that his detention in the penitentiary under the sentences, neither of which was for a longer period than one year, was contrary to the laws of the United States. The first position was not considered tenable, but the second was deemed sufficient to authorize the issue of the writ. The Court held that, apart from any question as to whether the court below had jurisdiction to try the offense charged, the detention of the petitioner in the penitentiary upon sentences neither of which was for imprisonment longer than one year was in violation of the laws of the United States, and that he was therefore entitled to be discharged from the custody of the warden of the institution. "A sentence simply of imprisonment,'" said the Court,
"in the case of a person convicted of an offense against the United States where the statute prescribing the punishment does not require that the accused shall be confined in a penitentiary cannot be executed by confinement in that institution except in cases where
the sentence is 'for a period longer than one year.' There is consequently no escape from the conclusion that the judgment of the court sentencing the petitioner to imprisonment in a penitentiary in one case for a year and in the other for six months was in violation of the statutes of the United States. The court below was without jurisdiction to pass any such sentences, and the orders directing the sentences of imprisonment to be executed in a penitentiary are void."
The Court added: "This is not a case of mere error, but one in which the court below transcended its power," citing Ex Parte Lange, 18 Wall. 163, 85 U. S. 176; Ex Parte Parks, 93 U. S. 18, 93 U. S. 23; Ex Parte Virginia, 100 U. S. 339, 100 U. S. 343; Ex Parte Rowland, 104 U. S. 604, 104 U. S. 612; In re Coy, 127 U. S. 731, 127 U. S. 738, and Hans Nielson, Petitioner, 131 U. S. 176, 131 U. S. 182.
Counsel for the government admits that upon the authority of that case, construing the Revised Statutes, the petitioner should not have been sentenced to imprisonment in the penitentiary, but he claims that the judgment and sentence are not for that cause void, so as to entitle the petitioner to a writ of habeas corpus for his discharge, and he asks the Court to reconsider the doctrine announced, contending that neither the reason of the law nor the authorities sustain the position. According to his argument, it would seem that the court does not exceed its jurisdiction when it directs imprisonment in a penitentiary, to which place it is expressly forbidden to order it. It would be as well, and be equally within its authority, for the court to order the imprisonment to be in the guard house of a fort, or the hulks of a prison ship, or in any other place not specified in the law.
We are unable to agree with the learned counsel, but are of opinion that in all cases where life or liberty is affected by its proceedings, the court must keep strictly within the limits of the law authorizing it to take jurisdiction, and to try the case, and to render judgment. It cannot pass beyond those limits in any essential requirement in either stage of these proceedings, and its authority in those particulars is not to be enlarged by any mere inferences from the law or doubtful construction of its terms. There has been a great deal said
and written, in many cases with embarrassing looseness of expression, as to the jurisdiction of the courts in criminal cases. From a somewhat extended examination of the authorities, we will venture to state some rule applicable to all of them, by which the jurisdiction as to any particular judgment of the court in such cases may be determined. It is plain that such court has jurisdiction to render a particular judgment only when the offense charged is within the class of offenses placed by the law under its jurisdiction, and when, in taking custody of the accused and in its modes of procedure to the determination of the question of his guilt or innocence, and in rendering judgment, the court keeps within the limitations prescribed by the law, customary or statutory. When the court goes out of these limitations, its action, to the extent of such excess, is void. Proceeding within these limitations, its action may be erroneous, but not void.
To illustrate: in order that a court may take jurisdiction of a criminal case, the law must in the first instance authorize it to act upon a particular class of offenses within which the one presented is embraced. Then comes the mode of the presentation of the offense to the court. That is specifically prescribed. If the offense be a felony, the accusation in the federal court must be made by a grand jury summoned to investigate the charge of the public prosecutor against the accused. Such indictment can only be found by a specified number of the grand jury. If not found by that number, the court cannot proceed at all. If the offense be only a misdemeanor, not punishable by imprisonment in the penitentiary, Mackin v. United States, 117 U. S. 348, the accusation may be made by indictment of the grand jury, or by information of the public prosecutor. An information is a formal charge against the accused of the offense, with such particulars as to time, place, and attendant circumstances as will apprise him of the nature of the charge he is to meet, signed by the public prosecutor. When the indictment is found, or the information is filed, a warrant is issued for the arrest of the accused, to be brought before the court, unless he is at the time in custody, in which case an order for that purpose is made, to the end in
either case that he may be arraigned and plead to the indictment or information. When he is brought before the court, objections to the validity or form of the indictment or information, if made, are considered, or issue is joined upon the accusation. When issue is thus joined, the court must proceed to trial by a jury, except in case of the accused's confession. It cannot then proceed to determine the issue in any other way. When the jury have rendered their verdict, the court has to pronounce the proper judgment upon such verdict, and the law, in prescribing the punishment either as to the extent or the mode or the place of it, should be followed. If the court is authorized to impose imprisonment, and it exceeds the time prescribed by law, the judgment is void for the excess. If the law prescribes a place of imprisonment, the court cannot direct a different place not authorized. It cannot direct imprisonment in a penitentiary when the law assigns that institution for imprisonment under judgments of a different character. If the case be a capital one and the punishment be death, it must be inflicted in the form prescribed by law. Although life is to be extinguished, it cannot be by any other mode. The proposition put forward by counsel that if the court has authority to inflict the punishment prescribed, its action is not void though it pursues any form or mode which may commend itself to its discretion, is certainly not to be tolerated. Imprisonment might be accompanied with inconceivable misery and mental suffering by its solitary character or other attending circumstances. Death might be inflicted by torture or by starvation, or by drawing and quartering. All these modes, or any of them, would be permissible if the doctrine asserted by him can be maintained.
A question of some difficulty arises which has been disposed of in different ways, and that is as to the validity of a judgment which exceeds in its extent the duration of time prescribed by law. With many courts and judges, perhaps with the majority, such judgment is considered valid to the extent to which the law allowed it to be entered, and only void for the excess. Following out this argument, it is further claimed that therefore the writ of habeas corpus cannot be
invoked for the relief of a party until the time has expired to which the judgment should have been limited. But that question is only of speculative interest here, for there is here no question of excess of punishment. The prisoner is ordered to be confined in the penitentiary, where the law does not allow the court to send him for a single hour. To deny the writ of habeas corpus in such a case is a virtual suspension of it, and it should be constantly borne in mind that the writ was intended as a protection of the citizen from encroachment upon his liberty from any source -- equally as well from the unauthorized acts of courts and judges as the unauthorized acts of individuals.
The law of our country takes care, or should take care, that not the weight of a judge's finger shall fall upon any one except as specifically authorized. A rigid adherence to this doctrine will give far greater security and safety to the citizen than permitting the exercise of an unlimited discretion on the part of the courts in the imposition of punishments, as to their extent, or as to the mode or place of their execution, leaving the injured party, in case of error, to the slow remedy of an appeal from the erroneous judgment or order, which in most cases would be unavailing to give relief In the case before us, had an appeal been taken from the judgment of the United States Court of the Indian Territory, it would hardly have reached a determination before the period of the sentence would have expired and the wrong caused by the imprisonment in the penitentiary have been inflicted.
Much complaint is made that persons are often discharged from arrest and imprisonment when their conviction, upon which such imprisonment was ordered, is perfectly correct, the excess of jurisdiction on the part of the court being in enlarging the punishment, or in enforcing it in a different mode or place than that provided by the law. But in such cases, there need not be any failure of justice, for where the conviction is correct and the error or excess of jurisdiction has been as stated, there does not seem to be any good reason why jurisdiction of the prisoner should not be reassumed by the court that imposed the sentence in order that its defect may be corrected.
The judges of all courts of record are magistrates, and their object should be not to turn loose upon society persons who have been justly convicted of criminal offenses, but, where the punishment imposed, in the mode, extent, or place of its execution, has exceeded the law, to have it corrected by calling the attention of the court to such excess. We do not perceive any departure from principle, or any denial of the petitioner's right, in adopting such a course. He complains of the unlawfulness of his place of imprisonment. He is only entitled to relief from that unlawful feature, and that he would obtain if opportunity be given to that court for correction in that particular. It is true, where there are also errors on the trial of the case affecting the judgment not trenching upon its jurisdiction, the mere remanding the prisoner to the original court that imposed the sentence to correct the judgment in those particulars for which the writ is issued would not answer, for his relief would only come upon a new trial, and his remedy for such errors must be sought by appeal or writ of error. But in a vast majority of cases, the extent and mode and place of punishment may be corrected by the original court without a new trial, and the party punished as he should be, while relieved from any excess committed by the court, of which he complains. In such case, the original court would only set aside what it had no authority to do, and substitute directions required by the law to be done upon the conviction of the offender.
Some of the state courts have expressed themselves strongly in favor of the adoption of this course, where the defects complained of consist only in the judgment -- in its extent or mode, or place of punishment -- the conviction being in all respects regular. In Beale v. Commonwealth, 25 Penn.St. 11, 22, the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania said:
"The common law embodies in itself sufficient reason and common sense to reject the monstrous doctrine that a prisoner whose guilt is established by a regular verdict is to escape punishment altogether because the court committed error in passing the sentence. If this court sanctioned such a rule, it would fail to perform the chief duty for which it was established. "
It is true that this language was used in a case pending in the supreme court of a state on writ of error, but if then the court would send the case back to have the error, not touching the verdict, corrected and justice enforced, there is the same reason why such correction should be made when the prisoner is discharged on habeas corpus for alleged defects of jurisdiction in the rendition of the judgment under which he is held. The end sought by him -- to be relieved from the defects in the judgment rendered to his injury -- is secured, and at the same time the community is not made to suffer by a failure in the enforcement of justice against him.
The court is invested with the largest power to control and direct the form of judgment to be entered in cases brought up before it on habeas corpus. Section 761 of the Revised Statutes, on this subject provides that:
"The court, or justice, or judge shall proceed in a summary way to determine the facts of the case by hearing the testimony and arguments, and thereupon to dispose of the party as law and justice require."
It would seem that in the interest of justice and to prevent its defeat, this Court might well delay the discharge of the petitioner for such reasonable time as may be necessary to have him taken before the court where the judgment was rendered, that the defects, for want of jurisdiction, which are the subject of complaint in that judgment may be corrected. Medley, Petitioner, 134 U. S. 160, 134 U. S. 174.
In the case of Coleman v. Tennessee, 97 U. S. 509, a party who had been convicted of a capital offense, and the judgment had been confirmed by the Supreme Court of that state, was discharged by judgment of this Court because it was held that the state court had no jurisdiction to try a soldier of the army of the United States for a military offense committed by him while in the military service, and subject to the articles of war. But as it appeared that the prisoner had been tried by a court martial regularly convened in the army for the same offense, and sentenced to be shot, and had afterwards escaped, this Court, in reversing the judgment of the Supreme Court of Tennessee, stated that that court could turn the prisoner over to the military authorities of the United States. He was so turned
over, and the punishment was commuted to life imprisonment, and he was sent to Fort Leavenworth to serve it out.
In some cases, it is true that no correction can be made of the judgment, as where the court had, under the law, no jurisdiction of the case -- that is, no right to take cognizance of the offense alleged -- and the prisoner must then be entirely discharged; but those cases will be rare, and much of the complaint that is made for discharging on habeas corpus persons who have been duly convicted will be thus removed.
Ordered that the writ of habeas corpus issue, and that the petitioner be discharged from the custody of the warden of the penitentiary at Anamosa, in the State of Iowa, but without prejudice to the right of the United States to take any lawful measures to have the petitioner sentenced in accordance with law upon the verdict against him.
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Glenn R. Cox
Glenn R. Cox, 82, of Norris City passed away at 10:50 p.m., Thursday, February 7, 2019. He was born in Omaha, IL the son of Orvil and Opal (Phipps) Cox. Glenn married Yvonne Doerner on December 17, 1966. He worked as a contractor for the Department of Defense where he was a Senior Procurement Officer. Glenn was a part of the U.S. Weapons Command, U.S. Armament Munitions and Chemical Command at Rock Island Arsenal, Rock Island, IL and later with the U.S. Strategic Defense Command, White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico. Glenn was a 50 plus year member of the Omaha Masonic Lodge #714 where he was a Past Master and a member of Omaha General Baptist Church. He also served on the Illinois Council of Developmental Disabilities and was a founding member and served 12 years on the Board of Directors of Coleman Tri-County Services. Glenn was a passionate gardener, enjoyed bird watching, was an avid reader, and loved being a grandpa. Surviving Glenn are his wife of 52 years, Yvonne; a daughter, Lara Bishop of Norris City; a son, Harold Cox of Norris City; four grandchildren, Courtney Bullock, Ashleigh (Evan) Bishop-Whalum and Logan and Ryan Cox; a great-granddaughter, Alexandra Bullock; brother, Orvil Cox, Jr. of Hazelwood, MO; and numerous nieces and nephews. He was preceded in death by his parents and four sisters, Alta Lee Welch, Delores Ledford, Judith Batteiger and Cheryl Sue Halat. Funeral services for Glenn R. Cox, 82, of Norris City will be held at 10:30 a.m., Wednesday, February 13, 2019 at Campbell Funeral Home in Norris City. Burial will be in Palestine #2 Cemetery in Omaha. Visitation will be on Tuesday from 5:00 p.m. until 8:00 p.m. at Campbell Funeral Home. Memorial contributions may be made in Glenn's memory to Post-Polio Health International, 4207 Lindell Blvd, Suite 110, St. Louis, MO 63108-9816 and will be accepted at Campbell Funeral Home.
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Dictionary of New Zealand Biography
Last names beginning with R
Ross, Grace Hilda Cuthberta
Story: Ross, Grace Hilda Cuthberta
External links and sources
Page 1: Biography
Grace Hilda Cuthberta Ross
New Zealand National Party cabinet, 1951
Music teacher, welfare worker, community leader, politician
This biography, written by Bronwyn Dalley, was first published in the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography in 2000.
Grace Nixon was born in Whangarei on 6 July 1883, the daughter of Zillah Johnson and her husband, Adam Nixon, a fireman who later became a marine engineer. When Grace and her younger brother were infants, the Nixon family moved to Sydney for a time, before returning to settle in Auckland. There Grace began her lifelong passion for music, particularly for playing the piano.
When Grace married Harry Campbell Manchester Ross, a salesman, at Auckland on 10 January 1904, she assumed the name Grace Hilda Cuthberta Ross, and became known as Hilda throughout the rest of her life. Hilda and Harry moved first to Cambridge, and then settled in Hamilton, where Harry founded the furnishing firm of Barton and Ross. Four sons were born of the marriage, two of whom died in infancy.
Hilda taught music at a private girls’ academy in the 1920s, and later on a voluntary basis at the Waikato Diocesan School for Girls. Her interest in music led to her involvement as pianist and occasional conductor for the Hamilton Operatic Society, and she helped found the Hamilton Choral Society, which she also conducted. As a founding member of the musical troupe The Dandy Dozen she gave recitals and concerts to raise money for churches, welfare organisations and children’s health camps.
Hilda Ross’s other major life interest – the welfare of children, women, the needy and the disadvantaged – first manifested itself during the influenza epidemic of 1918, when she worked with the sick. For the next 40 years she was vitally involved in welfare work at local and national levels. She organised committees to dispense assistance to victims of the Hawke’s Bay earthquake in 1931, established relief committees during the 1930s depression, and was a serving sister and later commander in the St John Ambulance nursing division. In 1927 she established, with the bookseller William Paul, the Waikato Children’s Camp League; the following year, the league held its first holiday camp for children from impoverished backgrounds. Hilda Ross remained closely involved with the camp for the next quarter of a century, returning every summer to attend the camp, where she cooked the breakfasts for more than 200 children and organised nightly concerts. Her interest in children’s welfare also led to her becoming an honorary child welfare officer for Hamilton in the early 1930s, and in 1939 a justice of the peace, in which capacity she served in the children’s court. Intensely devoted to patriotic duties, during the Second World War she formed (and was commandant of) the Hamilton Women’s Auxiliary Volunteer Corps, and was president of the Lady Galway Guild and the Hamilton Ladies’ Patriotic Committee.
Family matters occupied her at this time as well, and for several years a grandson lived with her following his mother’s death. With her husband’s death in 1940, Hilda Ross began a new career in local body and national politics. She was elected to the Waikato Hospital Board in 1941, and to the Hamilton Borough Council in 1944 – the first woman to hold a council seat. Her connection with the Greater Hamilton Society saw her become deputy mayor in 1945. She resigned that post later in the year when she was elected New Zealand National Party MP for Hamilton, a seat she held until her death.
Hilda Ross continued her involvement in welfare matters in her various parliamentary positions. As minister in charge of the welfare of women and children (1949–57), then minister in charge of child welfare (1954–57) and minister of social security (1957), her only cabinet post with a portfolio, Hilda Ross took a close personal interest in the problems of welfare recipients, particularly the elderly. Her office was frequently crowded with people seeking assistance, and as she was the only female minister at the time, many people believed that they would receive a more sympathetic hearing from her than from some of her male parliamentary colleagues. While prepared to arrange housing and welfare matters, and to offer tangible aid when necessary (including giving from her own pocket), Hilda Ross could also be blunt, and did not suffer fools gladly. Her belief in the importance of marriage and family led her to deliver stern lectures to spendthrift or neglectful husbands and fathers. Parents whose children were under the supervision of the Child Welfare Division could receive sharp letters rebuking them for their child-rearing practices or expectations that the state would provide for their families.
Her parliamentary duties furthered her interest in issues of importance to women. She represented New Zealand at the United Nations Status of Women Commission in Geneva in 1952, and supported the campaign for equal pay launched by female public servants; she also advocated compulsory domestic education courses for all girls and women, no matter what their career choice. She received, and accepted, invitations to speak at women’s conferences, greet débutantes, and open nurseries and kindergartens: ‘I suppose you could call me New Zealand’s kindergarten opener-in-chief’, she reflected once. For her services to social welfare the American Mothers’ Committee cited her as ‘Mother of New Zealand’ for 1951, and in 1956 she was made a DBE, only the third New Zealand woman to be so honoured.
Survived by two sons, Hilda Ross died in Hamilton on 6 March 1959 aged 75, a few months after fulfilling one of her last major political responsibilities: a tiring trip to the West Indies to represent New Zealand at the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association conference.
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Bronwyn Dalley. 'Ross, Grace Hilda Cuthberta', Dictionary of New Zealand Biography, first published in 2000. Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/biographies/5r25/ross-grace-hilda-cuthberta (accessed 19 July 2019)
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Test Server Selection
Seagate shutting down it's largest HDD manufacture plant
By mudmanc4, January 14, 2017 in General Discussion
mudmanc4 806
TMN Seasoned Veteran
Location: In The Plex
· CID: 182667230419
In recent years, the domestic electronics industry at the end of each year there will be a wave of business failures. Not long ago, there are a number of Companies in the industry declared bankruptcy, yesterday, the industry came news that Seagate Suzhou plant officially announced the dissolution.
Seagate Suzhou plant officially announced the dissolution
According to the announcement of the Seagate Suzhou plant, said, because of the continued optimization of operational efficiency considerations, according to the board of directors decided that Seagate had to make a decision to dissolve the factory in Suzhou, china. The employees will be affected, we regret the early dissolution of Suzhou factory is Seagate to continue to reduce the global adaptation of current and future market demand measures the scale of production, in order to better." In addition, Seagate also said that from January 11th to January 18th will apply for staff leave procedures, and in accordance with the People's Republic of China labor law to pay compensation to employees.
On the whole, in January 10, 2017, Seagate officially announced the dissolution of the Suzhou news.
According to statistics, Seagate Technology (Suzhou) Co., Ltd. was founded in June 2004, operating range of research, development, manufacturing, processing, all kinds of optical disk drive, drive and other parts, all kinds of computer software and storage system and its components, all kinds of computer peripheral products and parts, sales of the products and provide customer service and maintenance service and related technical and consulting services.
In fact, Seagate Suzhou factory today announced the collapse is not accidental. As early as in September 2015, Seagate Suzhou factory began to lay off. At the end of June 2016, Seagate once again announced global layoffs of 3%, or about 1600 people. The layoffs seem to be aimed at their factories in china.
December 2016 industry sources said the Seagate Suzhou plant is about to close, then also led to the Seagate factory employees gathered in Suzhou protest, is said to be required to compensate employees 2N+1+1. But from the Seagate factory in Suzhou notice, should be gone.
Another source said that after the closure of Seagate Suzhou plant, its enterprise class hard drive production line will be moved to Seagate Wuxi plant, other production lines will be closed directly.
According to Baidu encyclopedia update in October 2016, Seagate Suzhou factory employs about 3000 people. Before taking into account the network data lag and the Seagate factory in Suzhou, there have been some layoffs, and some employees may be with the enterprise hard line moved to Wuxi, with 1600 Seagate previously announced layoffs, layoffs this seems to be aimed at the Seagate factory in Suzhou. In other words, the dissolution of the Seagate Suzhou plant will lead to nearly 1600 unemployed.
Mechanical hard disk market downturn, overcapacity, layoffs
In recent years, although the PC market continues to decline, but the storage component PC SSD solid state drive is growing rapidly. From this table we see not hard, 2011-2015 years, SSD shipments from 1460 growth to 102 million, growth of nearly 700%; while shipments of HHD mechanical hard disk has continued to decline, from 621 million 500 thousand to 468 million 900 thousand, fell by 24%, fell to the lowest point in history.
HHD traditional mechanical hard disk drive, mainly by mechanical components, read and write data need to rely on physical rotation disk, waiting for the spindle motor, a magnetic head and a magnetic head arm to find the data in the disc position, the whole process is quite complicated, seriously restricts the performance of the whole PC. The SSD does not have any mechanical components, without the need for complex mechanical movement, relying on flash memory chip, can quickly and accurately access any position of the driver. At the same time SSD has excellent random access speed, excellent multi tasking capability and excellent durability and reliability. The only constraint on the development of SSD is the price and storage capacity.
But now the development of SSD technology, SSD's mainstream capacity has grown from 32GB to 128\/256GB, and now the maximum capacity of SSD and nearly 10TB, it is predicted that in 2018 the maximum capacity of SSD will be raised to 128TB. At the same time, SSD prices are falling all the way. Although the price of SSD like 1TB\/2TB is still very expensive, but the price of 128\/256GB SSD accepted by the general public, the capacity to meet the basic needs of the system disk or disk. You can see that in just a few years time, the mechanical hard disk has begun to face the situation is eliminated by SSD.
In the face of changes in the trend of the environment, as the world's two largest traditional HHD hard drive manufacturers - Western data and Seagate also suffered a dilemma. To this end, WD in 2015 announced the acquisition of one of the world's largest flash chip maker SanDisk for $19 billion to SSD, both arms, has become the second flash resources of traditional hard disk manufacturers will benefit storage products WD and HGST two brands of the west. Plus had flash resources of Toshiba, Seagate is not only in the four hard disk flash production resources. Although Seagate in 2014 to $450 million in cash to acquire Avago's LSI solutions (ASD) and flash memory component (FCD) assets, with the ability to provide a full range of storage solutions. Seagate's lack of flash production line, and other strategic resources lost three hard drive manufacturers competition, especially Seagate early shut down consumer SSD production line (Seagate 600 series SSD), SSD in the consumer field, Seagate's market share is almost negligible.
With the sharp decline in the HHD market demand, overcapacity Seagate also had to take layoffs, closing factories and other measures to ease the pressure.
January 2015, Seagate has announced 2950 layoffs worldwide, accounting for about 6% of the total number of employees. The same day, chief executive officer and chief operating officer of both class chairman Steve Luczo, CEO of back, and cut 25% salary. In September of the same year, Seagate announced that as part of the global workforce optimization measures, layoffs 1050 people, accounting for about 2% of the total number of employees. Less than a year later, the end of June 2016, Seagate will once again announced layoffs of 3%, or about 1600 people. This also led directly to the closure of Seagate Suzhou factory.
Seagate has announced its first quarter fiscal year 2017 earnings, in terms of mechanical hard disk shipments from the lowest point in the last quarter, but still not optimistic. As of the quarter of September 30, 2016, Seagate shipped hard disk 38 million 900 thousand, an increase of 6% over the previous quarter of 36 million 800 thousand, but still far less than the same period last year, 47 million 200 thousand.
If you continue to do so, Seagate will be more difficult. However, at present, China is actively promoting the domestic storage industry, if Seagate is willing to cooperate with domestic storage manufacturers, then, may be a new opportunity.
Western Digital Announces 12 TB and 14 TB HDDs
By mudmanc4
Western Digital on Tuesday introduced its fourth-generation enterprise-class hard drives filled with helium. The HGST Ultrastar He12 HDD can store up to 12 TB of data, whereas its version based on shingled magnetic recording technology has a capacity of 14 TB (note, both are under the He12 brand). It is noteworthy that to increase the capacity of the HDD, Western Digital had to increase both the amount of platters in the new drives as well as their areal density.
The HGST Ultrastar He12 is built upon a completely new platform featuring eight platters, up from seven inside previous-gen drives that use Western Digital’s HelioSeal technology. The manufacturer does not reveal a lot about the new HDDs, but it looks like as the company has learned more about helium-filled drives and managed to squeeze eight platters into a 3.5” HDD to increase capacity. To add the eighth platter, Western Digital had to redesign internals of its HDDs (including arms and heads) significantly. Over the next few months, we will probably learn more about HGST's fourth-generation HelioSeal platform in general and the new HDDs in particular. Moreover, Western Digital recently said that the HelioSeal is here to stay for a long time as demand for high-capacity SSDs is growing. Therefore, helium will be used not only for PMR- and SMR-based hard drives, but for HDDs featuring future magnetic recording technologies as well (i.e., HAMR, BPM, etc.).
The increase of the amount of platters inside the Ultrastar He12 was not the only way to raise its capacity, as Western Digital also had to increase the areal density of each platter. The Ultrastar He12 with a 12 TB capacity featuring perpendicular magnetic recording technology has an areal density of 864 Gbit/inch2, whereas the Ultrastar He12 with 14 TB capacity and SMR technology has an areal density of around 1000 Gbit/inch2.
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An Economic Fair Housing Act
August 3, 2017 — Richard D. Kahlenberg
Download (EN) (EN)
Richard D. Kahlenberg
Director of K–12 Equity and Senior Fellow
1Origins of Segregation through Social Engineering
2Existing Legal and Policy Efforts to Fight Racial and Economic Segregation
3The Imbalance in the Fights against Racial and Income Segregation Matters
4Why Exclusionary Zoning Should Be Curtailed or Eliminated
5Combating Segregation in Its Many Forms
6Addressing Objections about an Economic Fair Housing Act
7Building a Political Coalition
8Conclusion
Segregated housing by income is increasing due to exclusionary zoning policies—policies that individual neighborhoods use to reduce affordable housing options, and thereby keep the neighborhood comprised of all wealthy residents. These exclusionary zoning policies can take many forms, like restrictions against apartments and townhouses, and they are still legal under current federal law.
Eliminating this income-based segregation has many benefits. Income-based housing integration increases low-income families’ access to high-quality schools. This access to good schools means a higher chance of attending college, which can lead to higher-paying employment, more wealth accumulation, and ultimately, more choices of where to live and start a family.
Some states and municipalities have already successfully implemented more inclusive housing policies to reduce socioeconomic segregation, such as Mount Laurel, NJ and Montgomery County, MD.
A century ago, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down racial zoning laws that prohibited black people from buying homes in majority-white neighborhoods. About a half-century later, the Fair Housing Act of 1968 outlawed explicit racial discrimination in the sale and rental of housing units. These advances against the racial segregation of American society represent significant landmarks in the march for human dignity.
But the judicial and legislative branches have both left virtually untouched another source of segregation: economically discriminatory government zoning policies that exclude low-income and working-class Americans from entire neighborhoods. This economic segregation in housing is damaging, and perhaps even as insidious as outright racial segregation, because while in effect it still excludes substantial numbers of people of color from good places to live, it does so with the open consent of the law. As the nation prepares to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the 1968 Fair Housing Act next year, it is an opportune time to reflect on how housing policies can and should be substantially revised to address two important new realities that have emerged in the past half-century.1
The first troubling reality is that, while America has made progress in reducing racial discrimination in a number of areas, efforts to fight racial segregation in housing still lag far behind. Over the past fifty years, we have made considerable strides reducing discrimination in restaurants, hotels, transportation, voting, and employment, writes Richard Rothstein in his compelling new book, The Color of Law, but—despite the Fair Housing Act—progress on reducing residential racial segregation has been much more muted. Rothstein argues that the major unfinished business of the civil rights movement is housing.2
The second reality—related to the first—is that skyrocketing levels of income segregation in housing is compounding racial segregation. As Harvard University’s Robert Putnam notes in his book, Our Kids, “while race-based segregation has been slowly declining,” we have seen the rise of “a kind of incipient class apartheid.”3 President Barack Obama, likewise, has noted, “what used to be racial segregation now mirrors itself in class segregation.”4
This worsening housing segregation by class is extremely troubling, because where people live affects so much else in their lives—their quality of life, access to transportation, employment opportunities, access to decent health care, and, perhaps most important, access to good schools. This last point is critically important, because in American society, education has long been “the great equalizer.” Research dating back five decades suggests one of the most powerful ways to improve the life chances of disadvantaged students is to give them the opportunity to attend high-quality schools that educate rich and poor students under a single roof.5 And so, for twenty years, The Century Foundation (TCF), in a series of books and reports, has outlined a number of ways to reduce economic segregation in our schools through choice within the public school system (particularly magnet schools and diverse charter schools) and by redrawing neighborhood school boundaries.6 These policies, in one hundred traditional public schools and charter school organizations, educate 4.4 million students in thirty-two states, and are having a very positive effect on student achievement.7
In a country where roughly three-quarters of students attend neighborhood schools—that is, are simply assigned to the school nearest their homes—public school choice is a limited device.
Public school choice and redistricting policies remain a critical tool for increasing educational opportunity. But in a country where roughly three-quarters of students attend neighborhood schools—that is, are simply assigned to the school nearest their homes—public school choice is a limited device.8 Policymakers, researchers, and advocates have long noted that it is important to pursue a parallel set of housing strategies that, if successful, could help integrate neighborhood schools. As scholar David Rusk has put it, “housing policy is school policy.”9
While access to high-quality schools is perhaps the most visible and valuable outcome of housing integration, bringing people together where they live offers numerous other benefits for adults and their children as well. Access to good schools means a higher chance of attending college, which can lead to higher-paying employment, more wealth accumulation, and ultimately, more choices of where to live and start a family. So, while at times this report will focus on the positive impact that housing integration would have on educational opportunity, this is the start of a cycle, the first of many benefits that would accrue from reversing the trend toward residential segregation.
Where did this rising segregation by class come from? It stems in part from society’s growing income divide. And, as William Julius Wilson of Harvard has documented, it is also the unintended result of some of our civil rights laws themselves, which by reducing housing discrimination against those middle- and upper-class African Americans who could afford to move out of ghettos, left behind a truly disadvantaged group of African Americans who live in highly concentrated poverty.10 After passage of the Fair Housing Act, Rothstein notes, it was not primarily discrimination that kept blacks out of white suburbs; “It was primarily unaffordability.”11
This unaffordability, on one level, has to do with the fact that the free market discriminates based on price and the ability to pay. Not everyone can afford a $200,000 house, much less one that costs $500,000 or $1 million, which is the way a capitalist system works. But layered on top of these market forces is harmful government regulation that aids and abets segregation. Many localities have adopted exclusionary zoning ordinances—sometimes referred to as “snob zoning” rules—that forbid builders from developing apartment buildings or townhouses in certain areas, reserving them instead for detached, single-family homes. While this practice may seem harmless upon first consideration, some of these ordinances actually had racist origins and were designed to exclude low-income African Americans specifically. Other zoning laws go further, imposing minimum residential lot requirements. In extremely wealthy neighborhoods, with very large lot requirements, policies can effectively exclude virtually all families not in the top 1 percent by income and wealth. Critically, these policies that exclude families from neighborhoods by requiring minimum lot sizes—purportedly in the name of preserving some sort of aesthetic uniformity—also exclude children in those families from attending high-performing schools.
In this sense, class segregation, like racial segregation, is widely misunderstood. Because income and racial segregation are so commonplace, it is easy to consider them the natural state of affairs. It is tempting to believe that segregation by income and race simply reflects a certain reality—that people move into neighborhoods where they “fit in,” or where they can afford to live. In fact, segregation is not the result of purely individual choices or of marketplace forces, but rather of conscious policy decisions made over many decades. As this report details, both racial and income segregation are the result of social engineering on the part of federal, state, and local actors. Beginning in the early twentieth century, policymakers and individual citizens pursued a number of policies and practices to segregate housing by race and income, including: explicit zoning by race, which was replaced by exclusionary zoning by income; racially restrictive covenants in housing deeds; redlining in mortgage insurance; and police inaction in the face of white mob violence against black families.
America’s worst practices did not go unnoticed, however. Judicial decisions in combination with the Fair Housing Act of 1968 have now made explicitly racial discriminatory actions illegal. But class discrimination in the form of exclusionary zoning laws is not explicitly based on race, and so it remains perfectly lawful in virtually all states—even if it results in outlandish racial and economic segregation.
To complete the unfinished business of the civil rights movement—and to address rising segregation by income—we need a new set of policies to update the 1968 act. Such a new Economic Fair Housing Act would help the vast majority of Americans—of all races—who are excluded from resource-rich neighborhoods not merely by market forces, but also by government regulation. This new Economic Fair Housing Act would curtail government zoning policies that discriminate based on economic status. In its strongest form, it would entirely ban unnecessary exclusionary zoning at the local level. In the alternative, it could impose a penalty on municipalities that insist on maintaining discriminatory zoning, either by withholding infrastructure funds or limiting the tax deduction that homeowners can take for mortgage interest.
In the current political climate, federal action is unlikely in the near term on this issue, and so progressive policies are most likely to be adopted at the state level. Certain jurisdictions, such as Massachusetts, New Jersey, and California, have led the way in fighting exclusionary zoning by promoting affirmative steps to foster inclusion. Additional progress at the state level would have a meaningful impact for millions of Americans, and also could provide an important model for federal action at some time in the future.
This report proceeds in seven parts. The first part outlines the history of how policy makers consciously engineered racial and income segregation in housing. The second part discusses the legal and policy efforts to date to fight segregation by race and income. The third part examines the comparative effectiveness of these strategies, outlining the evidence that racial segregation is slowly declining but income segregation is on the rise. The fourth part lays out the case for why exclusionary zoning is biased and harmful to both adults and children. The fifth part outlines a policy strategy for reducing economic and racial segregation in neighborhoods and schools. The sixth part addresses objections to such a policy, including questions about the potential effect on property values and crime in upper-middle class neighborhoods. And the seventh part discusses how to build a political coalition for change that includes civil rights groups, affordable housing advocates, and environmentalists on the left, along with libertarians and developers on the right.
Origins of Segregation through Social Engineering
Americans recognize that, when they drive through a metropolitan area, they are likely to pass through predominantly black neighborhoods, predominantly Hispanic neighborhoods, and predominantly white neighborhoods. They may even recognize that, in some measure, these patterns reflect the preferences of individual homeowners—racial bias on the part of whites, or an understandable desire of minorities to have a haven where they do not have to face discrimination from the majority population.
“All of this has some truth,” says Richard Rothstein of the Economic Policy Institute, “but it remains a small part of the truth.”12 Much of this segregation is not the result of personal choices, but rather the result of “a century of social engineering on the part of federal, state and local governments that enacted policies to keep African Americans separate and subordinate.”13 Ironically, Rothstein notes, otherwise liberal presidents such as Woodrow Wilson and Franklin D. Roosevelt enacted many of these policies.14 Similarly—and perhaps more clearly—today’s economic segregation is not the result of lower-income people congregating together because it makes them more comfortable, but rather has been socially engineered through over a century of zoning regulations that are mostly heavily employed in the liberal Northeast and remain in effect throughout the country to this day.
From Racial to Economic Zoning
Residential areas were comparatively integrated by race in the nineteenth century, Rothstein says, until a set of deliberate acts to segregate began in earnest in the early twentieth century. In 1910, for example, Baltimore pioneered racial zoning by prohibiting blacks from buying in majority-white areas, or whites in majority-black areas.15 Similar racial zoning policies spread throughout the country, Rothstein notes, to include “Atlanta, Birmingham, Dade County (Miami), Charleston, Dallas, Louisville, New Orleans, Oklahoma City, Richmond (Virginia), St. Louis and others.”16
Racial zoning policies were struck down in 1917 by the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Buchanan v. Warley, which declared them a violation of the U.S. Constitution.17 The Court ruled that Louisville’s racial zoning ordinance violated the Fourteenth Amendment and related statutes, which “entitle a colored man to acquire property without state legislation discriminating against him solely because of color.”18 White real estate interests, which opposed zoning limitations, allied with the NAACP in the case.19
But communities quickly switched from race-based zoning to economic-based zoning, through policies such as those requiring that neighborhoods consist exclusively of single-family homes, have minimum lot sizes, or have minimum square footage requirements. “Such economic zoning was rare in the United States before World War I,” Rothstein notes, “but the Buchanan decision provoked urgent interest in zoning as a way to circumvent the ruling.”20 For example, in Milpitas, California, a suburb of San Jose, the town adopted a policy of banning apartments and allowing only single-family homes, shortly after 250 African Americans were transferred to work in a nearby Ford auto plant.21 Because African Americans were (and are) disproportionately low income, economically exclusionary zoning accomplished much of the same end result as explicit racial zoning.22
Exclusionary zoning would effectively designate the economic wherewithal of the families living in each residential neighborhood.
Zoning policies of all kinds proliferated during the early twentieth century. In 1916, just eight cities in the United States had zoning ordinances. That number grew to 1,246 cities by 1936. Today, every major city has zoning policies, with the exception of Houston, Texas.23 To be sure, racial animus was only one reason for the growth of these policies; economic, aesthetic, and safety reasons also played a role. Zoning programs, for example, were adopted to give predictability to the investments of homeowners who were worried about a sudden drop in property values.24 People who invest large amounts of money into a home understandably do not want a cement factory to suddenly pop up next door. But exclusionary zoning went far beyond simply demarcating between land for residential versus industrial use, to the point where it effectively would designate the economic wherewithal of the families living in each residential neighborhood.
Like the racial zoning policies a decade earlier, exclusionary economic zoning was quickly challenged in the U.S. Supreme Court, in the case of Euclid v. Ambler (1926).25 In the litigation, Ambler Realty sued the Village of Euclid for violating the “due process” clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution, claiming it was preventing the company from using its property as it wished. The land in question was zoned not only to prohibit the erection of industry, but also apartment buildings, thereby depriving the developer of liberty and property without compensation, Ambler argued. The District Court in the case also suggested that Euclid, Ohio had a racial and income segregation purpose in using exclusionary zoning.26
In a landmark decision, the U.S. Supreme Court nevertheless upheld economic zoning in Euclid. Excluding industrial uses in a residential neighborhood was clearly justified, the opinion suggested, but excluding apartments was also appropriate, it declared. An apartment house can be “a mere parasite, constructed in order to take advantage of the open spaces and attractive surroundings created by the residential character of the district.” Apartment houses would bring more people and traffic, “depriving children of the privilege of quiet and open spaces for play, enjoyed by those in more favored localities—until, finally, the residential character of the neighborhood and its desirability as a place of detached residences are utterly destroyed. Under these circumstances, apartment houses…come very near to being nuisances.”27 The Court gave no consideration to the people, of all races, who could not afford single-family houses and were thus, by government edict, excluded from entire neighborhoods—and, importantly, the public school districts associated with those neighborhoods.
Today, exclusionary zoning policies are widely used, particularly in certain parts of the country. To estimate the extent of exclusionary zoning nationwide, Rolf Pendall, Robert Puentes, and Jonathan Martin prepared a survey for the Brookings Institution of exclusionary zoning in the nation’s fifty largest metropolitan areas. They found such policies are much more popular in the Northeast and the Midwest than in the result of the country (see Figure 1).
Another way to ascertain the degree to which zoning policies exclude is the Wharton Residential Land Use Index, which measures the stringency of local land use regulations, including exclusionary zoning, across more than 2,600 municipalities.28 The authors, Joseph Gyourko, Albert Saiz, and Anita Summers, conclude that Northeastern states—despite their liberal reputations—tend to have higher (more stringent) scores, while the least regulated states are generally from the south or Midwest. The Wharton researchers concluded that towns with the most stringent regulatory environments tended to have lower density and to be wealthier than communities with low levels of regulation.
Covenants, Federal Housing Administration Redlining, White Violence, and Steering
While economic zoning made vast swathes of America inaccessible to low-income minorities, racial segregationists realized they needed ways to keep middle- and upper-class African Americans out of white neighborhoods. One response for many homeowners was to adopt racially restrictive covenants, which required purchasers to agree not to resell to black people, among other specified “undesirable” uses of the property. One such provision, for example, forbade the buyer from reselling the home to someone who would construct “any slaughter house, smith shop, forge furnace,” or “for any structure other than a dwelling of people of the Caucasian race.”29 These provisions were initially upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in a 1926 decision in Corrigan v. Buckley on the theory that the covenants were private contracts not subject to the Constitution.30 The decision applied faulty reasoning, however, because contracts do not have force without the power of the state. Chillingly, in city after city, for more than two decades, courts and sheriffs evicted African Americans from homes they had rightly paid for to enforce racially restrictive covenants.31 Across the country, police also helped enforce segregation through related practices, such as allowing blacks to work in towns, but requiring them to leave by dusk. As James Loewen has documented, these so-called “sundown towns” proliferated throughout America in the late nineteenth and twentieth century.32
Meanwhile, in the 1930s, the federal government further deepened economic and racial segregation through programs designed to expand home ownership. The Home Owners Loan Corporation and its successor, the Federal Housing Administration (FHA), were meant to increase opportunities for homeownership by guaranteeing mortgages, broadening the group of people who could buy homes. But both organizations cruelly instructed appraisers to focus this aid on economically homogenous and all-white communities. An FHA manual suggested the best financial bets were those in which there were safeguards, such as highways separating communities to prevent “the infiltration of . . . lower class occupancy, and inharmonious racial groups.”33 As Ta Nehisi Coates notes, the FHA provided the strongest financial support to green zoned areas that, as one appraiser noted, lacked “a single foreigner or Negro.” All black areas were coded red and received no federal support.34 In 1940, the FHA actually denied insurance for a white development located near an African-American community until the builder agreed to construct a half mile concrete wall, six feet high, to separate the two neighborhoods.35
In 1948, civil rights activists won a victory when the U.S. Supreme Court reversed its earlier ruling and unanimously struck down racially restrictive covenants as a violation of the Constitution in the case of Shelley v. Kraemer.36 The opinion only involved six justices, Rothstein notes, because three had to recuse themselves on the grounds that their own homes contained such covenants.37 The victory was short-lived, however, as discrimination just took another turn as white mobs routinely harassed black families moving into white communities, subjecting them to violence as police stood by. The practice continued for decades, until such harassment was finally declared a federal crime in 1968.38
Shelley House. Source: National Park Service of the Interior. (Left) George L. Vaughn to Thurgood Marshall concerning Shelley v. Kraemer, January 13, 1947. Typed letter. Source: Library of Congress. (Right)
Even after passage of the 1968 Fair Housing Act (discussed below), both private and public forms of racial discrimination have continued to this day. In the private sphere, some real estate agents continue to steer African Americans away from white areas. Research from the Poverty and Race Research Action Council and the National Fair Housing Alliance suggests that racial steering by real estate agents remains a major problem.39
After passage of the Fair Housing Act, explicit racial discrimination by government was likely to be challenged in court, but in the 1970s, suburbs adopted a new wave of exclusionary zoning and growth management rules that in some cases appeared to have racial motivation.40 In addition, zoning expanded significantly during this era, as home values became an increasing proportion of the financial portfolio of most families. As homeownership was transformed from a consumer commodity to an investment, homeowners became increasingly anxious about property value declines, whether associated with an influx of minority or low-income families.41
Placement of Public Housing to Perpetuate Segregation
Public policy also tends to this day to steer public housing units, which typically are heavily minority populated, into high-poverty areas that offer few economic opportunities for residents. The original New Deal public housing program was explicitly segregated. And today, the two major low-income housing programs in the United States focused on privately owned rental properties—the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) and Section 8 housing vouchers, now known as Housing Choice Vouchers—both tend to perpetuate economic and racial segregation.42
Under the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit, each state receives a set amount of tax credits based on population size. State housing agencies distribute the credits to private and for-profit housing developers based on a Qualified Allocation Plan (QAP) that considers local housing needs. A few states, such as Massachusetts, Texas, and Mississippi, prioritize programs in “high opportunity areas,” which pushes against segregation. But most factors perpetuate segregation. For instance, community support levels are often a criterion in deciding which developments will be awarded tax credits. This factor tends to steer housing to lower-income communities, which are less likely to organize in opposition.43 In addition, credits are often awarded based on financial feasibility. Since land is cheaper in low-income neighborhoods, even many liberal housing advocates argue in favor of locating public housing in disadvantaged communities, because more units can be developed there than in wealthier, more expensive communities.44
In theory, the nation’s largest low-income housing program, the Section 8 voucher, could promote integration, because vouchers go to individual families and can be used in any neighborhood. But in practice, in most states, landlords can reject Section 8 housing vouchers because income, unlike race, is not a protected class. Moreover, voucher values are usually too limited to enable tenants to afford apartments in wealthier neighborhoods.45 In Metropolitan Philadelphia, for example, researcher David Rusk found that 79 percent of Housing Choice Vouchers were concentrated in minimum opportunity towns in Pennsylvania suburbs in 2013 compared with just 3 percent in maximum opportunity towns.46
As a result, according to a 2012 study by New York University’s Ingrid Gould Ellen and the University of Massachusetts at Boston’s Keren Mertens Horn, students in public housing generally have nearby public schools that are poor performers. Among all American households, the median performance of the nearest school was at the 53rd percentile in proficiency in math and English Language Arts, but the percentile for Housing Choice Voucher households was the 26th percentile, for Public Housing was the 19th percentile, for Project Based Section 8 was the 28th percentile and for LIHTC was the 31st percentile.47
Existing Legal and Policy Efforts to Fight Racial and Economic Segregation
Supporters of racial and economic inclusion have fought valiantly against segregation through a number of legal and policy initiatives. Their efforts seeking to reduce racial segregation have generally been more successful than those seeking to reduce economic segregation to date, in part because the U.S. Constitution has been read to prohibit racial discrimination more readily than discrimination based on economic status, and in part because American culture has become less accepting of racial discrimination than of class discrimination.
Fighting Racial Segregation
The assault on racial segregation has been robust, both in the courts and in the policy arena, at all levels of government.
1. Legal Strategies
In the courts, as already noted, racial zoning was successfully challenged in the 1917 Buchanan case, and racially restrictive covenants were outlawed in the 1948 Shelley case. Courts have also imposed desegregation remedies to address conscious discrimination by government in segregating public housing. Among the most famous cases is Gautreaux et al. v. Chicago Housing Authority. In the litigation, Dorothy Gautreaux charged the Chicago Housing Authority and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development with purposely segregating 10,000 public housing units in black neighborhoods in violation of the U.S. Constitution and the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Gautreaux won in the lower level courts, and in 1976, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a remedy that would go on to help 25,000 voluntary public housing participants live in low-poverty neighborhoods in one hundred communities throughout the metropolitan Chicago area.48
2. Policy Initiatives
On the policy level, President John F. Kennedy issued Executive Order 11063 in 1962, which prohibited discrimination in housing that received federal funds. Likewise, Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act prohibited discrimination in federally assisted housing, including public housing. While these actions were important symbols, they applied to less than 2 percent of housing in the country.49 The big breakthrough came in 1968, with passage of the Fair Housing Act, which outlawed discrimination in the sale or rental of housing units based on race, color, national origin, religion, sex, familial status, or handicap. The Fair Housing Act also required housing providers “affirmatively to further fair housing,” meaning that government actors were not supposed to simply stop segregating, they were also supposed to start intentionally integrating, or risk losing federal funds.50 The legislation covers about 80 percent of the nation’s housing supply.51
Over time, the courts interpreted the law to allow plaintiffs to bring so-called “disparate impact” lawsuits against policies that have a discriminatory impact on minorities, even absent a discriminatory intent. The U.S. Supreme Court affirmed this interpretation of the act in the 2015 case of Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs v. Inclusive Communities Project.52
Also in 2015, the Obama administration issued a ruling to elucidate the requirement that local recipients of federal housing funds “affirmatively further” fair housing. As the Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing (AFFH) regulation noted, “The Fair Housing Act not only prohibits discrimination but, in conjunction with other statutes, directs HUD’s program participants to take significant actions to overcome historic patterns of segregation, achieve truly balanced and integrated living patterns, promote fair housing choice, and foster inclusive communities that are free from discrimination.”53 (In a step backward, Congress passed a rider on the FY 2017 Omnibus appropriations bill which prohibited HUD from directing grantees to undertake specific changes to zoning under AFFH.)54
To supplement the federal law, the vast majority of states and many localities have adopted local statutes prohibit discrimination in housing by race and ethnicity and other categories. The Leadership Conference for Civil and Human Rights lists thirty-nine states and the District of Columbia’s laws promoting fair housing.55
Fighting Economic Segregation
By contrast, the assault on economic segregation has been far less aggressive, at both the legal and policy level.
1.Legal Strategies
Whereas Buchanan outlawed racial zoning, Euclid affirmed economic zoning that excludes apartment building from some neighborhoods, and even single-family homes with small lots in other neighborhoods. In a 1971 decision in James v. Valtierra, the U.S. Supreme Court, by 5 to 3, affirmed the constitutionality of a California requirement that any low-income housing project be put up to local referendum because the policy discriminated against the poor, rather than against a particular racial group. The Fourteenth Amendment, the Court ruled, generally prohibits discrimination based on race, but not based on economic status.56 In 1974, the Court upheld, in Village of Belle Terre v. Boraas, a zoning ordinance that limited the number of unrelated individuals who may inhabit a dwelling.57 And in the 1977 case Arlington Heights v. Metropolitan Housing Corporation, the Court again upheld an economic zoning regulation that had the effect of excluding low-income and racial minorities, even when there was evidence of racial bias among community members.58 To show unconstitutionality, the Court created an extraordinarily hard test to meet: the city had to have an improper intent to discriminate by race, and that the improper intent was the actual cause among policymakers of the discriminatory impact.59 Tellingly, there was no argument advanced that economic exclusion by itself was improper.
State legal efforts aimed at dismantling economically exclusionary zoning have had more success, though only in a limited number of places. The cases attack exclusionary zoning from two angles: as a threat to the liberty and property rights of landowners, and as a threat to the interests in equality and social justice interests of people of modest means.60
In 1970, in Appeal of Girsch, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court invalidated an ordinance in Nether Providence that prevented the construction of apartments. “Apartment living is a fact of life that communities like Nether Providence must learn to accept,” the court ruled. “If Nether Providence is located so that it is a place where apartment living is in demand, it must provide for apartments in its plan for future growth; it cannot be allowed to close its doors to others seeking a ‘comfortable place to live.’” The decision emphasized the liberty rights of property owners and cited Article I, Section 1, of the Constitution of Pennsylvania, which affirms the right to acquire, possess, and protect property.61
In 1975, the New Jersey Supreme Court ruled in Southern Burlington County NAACP v. Mount Laurel that zoning laws that have the effect of excluding low-income families violate the state constitution. The court ruled that localities have an affirmative obligation to provide their “fair share” of moderate and low-income housing.62 The decision has been called “the Roe v. Wade of fair housing, the Brown v. Board of Education of exclusionary zoning.”63 Significantly, the case reached beyond race to class discrimination. Though the plaintiffs originally brought the case against the town of Mount Laurel for excluding “black and Hispanic” poor people, the New Jersey Supreme Court chose to take on the larger issue of economic class and framed the case “from the wider viewpoint,” ruling that the zoning policies banning trailer homes and limiting the number of multi-bedroom apartments excluded families of all races who had modest “income and resources.” In addition, the Mount Laurel court held that there was no requirement that the zoning policies intentionally exclude poor people; if the effect was exclusion, then that was sufficient to trigger higher judicial scrutiny.64
After the state dragged its feet on action, the court ruled again on the matter in Mount Laurel II (1983), which established an enforcement mechanism known as a “builder’s remedy,” by which developers can bring suit against a municipality to change zoning so long as 20 percent of the development is dedicated to low- or moderate-income homes. Although implementation of the Mount Laurel decision has often proven difficult, thousands of low-income families who have been allowed to move to low-poverty neighborhoods as a result of the decision and have benefited greatly.65 (See discussion below).
Still, despite the Mount Laurel case’s positive effect on the life chances of disadvantaged children, the 1975 decision subsequently has been followed by similar actions in only a relatively small number of states. Among the few promising decisions are Associated Home Builders, Inc. v. Livermore (1976), in which the California Supreme Court declared that where an “ordinance may strongly influence the supply and distribution of housing for an entire metropolitan region, judicial inquiry must consider the welfare of that region”; and Britton v. Chester (1991), in which the New Hampshire Supreme Court struck down Britton’s exclusionary zoning ordinance. The court in New Hampshire held that each municipality must provide a “realistic opportunity” for construction of their “fair share” of affordable housing.66
2.Policy Initiatives
Policy efforts to reduce economic discrimination in the form of exclusionary zoning have also had only modest success. While the Fair Housing Act prohibits discrimination on the basis of a long list of categories—including race, disability, sex, and religion—it does not extend to income. There is no federal legislation comparable to the 1968 race-based Fair Housing Act that similarly speaks to class-based discrimination in zoning. The closest thing to a fair housing act for low-income people was an ill-fated 1970 proposal advanced by Richard Nixon’s secretary of housing and urban development George Romney. Romney’s proposed Open Communities program would have withheld federal infrastructure aid to jurisdictions that employed exclusionary zoning discriminating against poor or minority people.67 But as Nikole Hannah-Jones outlines in an extensive article on the topic,68 Nixon, fearing a backlash, killed the program.69
On a more modest level, some states, such as Massachusetts, Texas, Nevada, and Mississippi, are beginning to provide preferences for low-income tax credits that go to high opportunity neighborhoods. Nevada, for example, provided points in its competition for tax credits to developments not close to other subsidized housing. A 2015 report by the Department of Housing and Urban Development of QAPs in twenty-one states, found that 40 percent of Nevada housing tax credit units were in high-opportunity, low-poverty neighborhoods, compared with only 2.3 percent of housing tax credit units in nearby Arizona.70
A more popular initiative has been to promote “inclusionary zoning” policies. Curtailing exclusionary zoning would reduce outright discrimination against low-income and working-class families, whereas inclusionary zoning goes a step further. Under such programs, a developer must set aside a portion of new housing units to be affordable for low- and moderate-income residents. In exchange, the developer receives a “density bonus,” allowing him or her to develop a larger number of high-profit units than the area is zoned for. This benefit for developers has proven critical to the idea’s political acceptance. Among the states most dedicated to inclusionary zoning are New Jersey, Massachusetts, Maryland, and California.71 In all, about 400 municipalities have inclusionary zoning programs.72 According to researcher David Rusk, 11 percent of Americans now live in jurisdictions with inclusionary zoning policies nationally.73
Curtailing exclusionary zoning would reduce outright discrimination against low-income and working-class families, whereas inclusionary zoning goes a step further.
A leading example is Montgomery County, Maryland, which adopted a groundbreaking program in 1974. Under the policy, when a developer builds more than a certain number of units, 12.5 percent to 15 percent of a developer’s new housing stock must be affordable for low-income and working-class families. Between 1976 and 2010, the program produced more than 12,000 moderately priced homes, of which the housing authority has the right to purchase one-third for public housing.74 Research suggests the program has had an important positive effect on student achievement. (See further information below.) Yet almost 90 percent of American municipalities lack any inclusionary zoning policies.
In the 1990s, the federal government enacted the Moving to Opportunity (MTO) program, a modest experiment to de-concentrate poverty in a few jurisdictions. Based in part on the successful results stemming from Chicago’s Gautreaux program, the Clinton Administration sought to rigorously test the effects of Section 8 voucher holders who move to low-poverty areas. The experiment, run by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development between 1994 and 1998, randomly assigned 4,604 families living in high-poverty housing projects in five major cities to one of three groups: those receiving a voucher to move to a census tract with a poverty rate below 10 percent, those receiving a voucher to live anywhere, and a control group that was not offered a voucher to move.75 Initial research questioned the effects of MTO, but the longer term effects are much more positive. Still, the program was relatively small and was discontinued in the 1990s.
Finally, a number of states and localities have passed legislation to ban discrimination based on “source of income”—that is, discrimination against individuals using government subsidies to pay for part of their rent. According to the Poverty and Race Research Action Council, as of May 2017, fourteen states and sixty localities had passed legislation to bar source of income discrimination.76
Each of these important integration efforts—the Mount Laurel program in New Jersey, inclusionary zoning policies in a small number of jurisdictions, and the Moving to Opportunity program—were pursued against a much larger number of exclusionary public policies that push in the opposite direction.
The Imbalance in the Fights against Racial and Income Segregation Matters
The failure to fight class segregation with the same ferocity as efforts to combat racial segregation has had significant consequences for our culture, and clearly on levels of housing segregation.
Impact on Culture
Culturally, efforts by local, state, and federal agencies to passively allow or authorize economic exclusion carries significantly less stigma properly associated with explicit racial exclusion. Indeed, even as open racial discrimination became less acceptable, the nation has seen a rise in the “gated communities” phenomenon, in which private guards and extensive fences literally exclude less-advantaged Americans.77 What U.C. Berkeley’s Robert Reich has termed “secession of the successful” has, if anything, accelerated during the same era in which racial exclusion has become delegitimized.78
Impact on Segregation
The effect of exclusionary policies—and the cultural attitudes that are shaped by policies—can be demonstrated empirically. Exclusionary zoning policies are linked directly to rising income segregation. Researchers find that skyrocketing income segregation is partly related to exploding income inequality generally, but it is also, as Rutgers professor Paul Jargowsky notes, the result of policy. “Our highly dispersed and profoundly unequal distribution of housing is not inevitable; indeed, it is not the norm around the world.”79
Some of the best evidence compares jurisdictions with and without exclusionary policies and measures levels of income segregation. An important 2010 study of fifty metropolitan areas by Jonathan Rothwell of the Brookings Institution and Douglas Massey of Princeton University suggests a causal relationship between density zoning and income segregation.80 In another study, Rothwell concludes that local and exclusionary land-use regulations are largely responsible for differences in racial segregation between cities.81
Of course, if exclusionary zoning were ended, barriers would still exist to income integration: apartments in low-poverty neighborhoods would still be more expensive than apartment units in high-poverty neighborhoods. But in many cases the difference in the affordability is surprisingly small. In Milwaukee, as Matthew Desmond notes in his book Evicted, the median rent for a two-bedroom apartment in a recent year was $600, but the variation was exceedingly small. Ten percent of units rented at or below $480, he noted, while 10 percent of units were at or above $750. “A mere $270 separated some of the cheapest units in the city from the most expensive,” he writes. “That meant that rent in some of the worst neighborhoods was not drastically cheaper than rent in much better areas.” In one high-poverty neighborhood, median rent was only $50 less than the city-wide median.82
Trends in Racial and Income Segregation
What are the trends in racial and economic segregation? Evidence suggests racial segregation remains high, but it is headed downward slowly, while income segregation is rising.
1. Racial Segregation Remains High
Given the powerful ways in which American government socially engineered racial segregation through the first two thirds of the twentieth century—through racial zoning, racially restrictive covenants, FHA redlining, and police tolerance of white mob violence—it is not surprising that racial residential segregation remains pervasive. Indeed, racial segregation today is still greater in magnitude than economic segregation, according to a 2012 report by the Pew Foundation.83
As discussed further below, poverty concentration in America remains highly racialized. Middle-class African-Americans are more likely to live in high-poverty neighborhoods than poor whites. Indeed, sociologist Patrick Sharkey finds that middle-class African-Americans earning $100,000 or more per year live in neighborhoods with the same disadvantages as the average white household earning less than $30,000 per year.84
2. Racial Segregation Is Slowly Declining
While racial segregation remains high, the good news is that fifty years of fair housing policies and a century’s worth of court decisions curtailing race-based zoning policies appear to be having a positive effect. The trajectory on racial segregation is headed in the right direction, as neighborhoods have slowly become less racially isolated. Although racial segregation can be measured in five ways and sometimes yields different results,85 a 2002 Census report found that between 1980 and 2000, black/white segregation declined on all five measures.86 More recently, John Logan and Brian Stults of Brown University found that the black/white dissimilarity index (in which 0 is perfect integration and 100 is absolute segregation) has declined from 79 in 1970, to 59 in 2010 (see Figure 2).87
3. Income Segregation Is Rising
Given that exclusionary zoning, unlike racial zoning, is still perfectly legal in most of the country, it is perhaps not surprising that income segregation is on the rise. Income segregation, Putnam notes, “was significantly higher in 2010 than it was in 1970.”88 In a 2013 study for the Russell Sage Foundation, Stanford University’s Sean F. Reardon and his colleague Kendra Bischoff find that income segregation has grown significantly, for both low-income and, particularly, for high-income families. Looking at the segregation of families (households where children and guardians are present) over the past four decades in 117 metro areas that had a population of at least 500,000 in 2007, the authors found that family income segregation has steadily grown in every decade from 1970 to 2009, with the growth from 2000 to 2009 being the most significant, particularly among black and Hispanic families (see Figure 3).89
Three phenomena are apparent. First, research finds that the rich are pulling away from the middle class.90 Second, poverty is becoming more concentrated, and the number of high-poverty census tracts is on the rise. In a 2015 Century Foundation report, Paul Jargowsky found that “the number of people living in high-poverty ghettos, barrios, and slums has nearly doubled since 2000, from 7.2 million to 13.8 million,” and these increases “were well under way before the Great Recession began.”91 Third, income segregation is rising particularly among families with children. As Ann Owens of the University of Southern California has demonstrated, income segregation grew primarily among families with children compared with those without children between 1990 and 2010.92 Taking the income and racial trends in tandem, David Rusk argues that “we are substituting Jim Crow by race with Jim Crow by income.”93
Why Exclusionary Zoning Should Be Curtailed or Eliminated
As this report has shown, racial and economic segregation have been socially engineered. Furthermore, efforts to fight racial segregation have been relatively more effective than efforts to fight income segregation, meaning that while racial segregation is slowly declining, income segregation is on the rise. But why should these trends matter to policymakers? They matter because significant research suggests that exclusionary zoning and the income segregation it fosters causes significant harm to communities and individuals. And conversely, evaluations of a number of modest efforts to make neighborhoods more inclusive have yielded positive benefits, both for low-income and middle-class families.
The Harms of Exclusionary Zoning
Today, there are three major harms associated with exclusionary zoning: (1) it inhibits the Fair Housing Act’s effort to combat racial bias; (2) excluding people from neighborhoods and communities according to socioeconomic status, whatever the color of their skin, reduces their life chances of success; and (3) exclusionary zoning contributes to the housing affordability crisis in America.
1. Exacerbating Racial Segregation
Eliminating exclusionary zoning across the country is a critical piece of the civil rights movement’s unfinished business, in part because the motivation for exclusionary zoning was often racial animus. Moreover, whatever the motivation today, exclusionary zoning has the effect of segregating Americans along racial lines. One study by Harvard researcher Matthew Resseger finds that in Massachusetts, Census blocks “zoned for multi-family housing have black population shares 3.36 percentage points higher and Hispanic population shares 5.77 percentage points higher than single-family zoned blocks directly across a border from them.”94
The perpetuation of racial segregation also has a profound effect on the ability of African Americans to accumulate wealth. Houses appreciate less rapidly in predominantly black neighborhoods, which helps explain why the black/white wealth gap is so much larger than the black/white income gap. Median income for black households is 60 percent that of white households, while black median household net worth is just 5 percent of white median household net worth.95
In a nation with extensive exclusionary zoning, people of color disproportionately live in concentrated poverty compared with poor whites. As Paul Jargowsky found in 2015: “More than one in four of the black poor and nearly one in six of the Hispanic poor lives in a neighborhood of extreme poverty, compared to one in thirteen of the white poor.”96 Nationally, Patrick Sharkey notes, African American children are eleven times as likely to grow up in poor neighborhoods as whites (66 percent versus 6 percent).97
2. Exacerbating Income Segregation
Moreover, exclusionary zoning by income is wrong, even when there is no racial motivation, because it is unfair to exclude working-class and poor people of any color from entire neighborhoods. Excluding fellow humans who make less money from living anywhere in a community betrays ugly sentiments, just as excluding by race does. And it does real harm to the adults and children who are excluded.
The hypocrisy of eagerly inviting low-income individuals into communities to provide vital child and elderly care, or work in jobs from landscapers to waitresses to checkout clerks—while effectively zoning them out from living anywhere in the community—should be more broadly exposed and reconciled.98 As David Rusk has argued, “Anyone good enough to work here is good enough to live here.”99
If, after a long struggle, Americans have come to a point where it is culturally unacceptable to zone a community by race, why is it acceptable to effectively discriminate against low-income and working-class families through exclusionary zoning? Using public policy to treat all working-class or low-income people as “undesirable” neighbors—the way it had been used to treat minority racial and religious groups—is untenable. Some will argue that race is different than class; one is born with race, while one’s economic status is a matter of personal character. The subtext is that low socioeconomic status is the fault of the individual. But there is a growing body of research to suggest that luck plays a much bigger role in determining socioeconomic status than previously believed. Furthermore, with social mobility levels in the United States low and getting lower, the class status of your parents has an enormous impact on one’s life chances; in that sense, the distinct line traditionally drawn between inheritance of race and inheritance of class has blurred.100 Moreover, even if one believes it is appropriate to exclude low-income and working-class people from neighborhoods because their economic status is their own fault, in what moral universe is it acceptable to exclude a five-year-old child from a good neighborhood and its good public school because they “chose the wrong parents”?
Even if one believes it is appropriate to exclude low-income and working-class people from neighborhoods because their economic status is their own fault, in what moral universe is it acceptable to exclude a five-year-old child from a good neighborhood and its good public school because they “chose the wrong parents”?
While the market discriminates by income at the individual unit level, what bias motivates governments to exclude individuals from entire neighborhoods? And why does this class-based discrimination persist in the face of evidence suggesting that economic isolation does significant harm to adults and children alike?
Excluding families from neighborhoods (and accompanying schools) is harmful for adults, and, especially, for children who are denied the opportunity to grow up in high-opportunity neighborhoods and attend socioeconomically integrated schools. Beginning with sociologist William Julius Wilson’s pioneering work, a number of researchers have established the strong harms associated with poverty concentrations. There are disadvantages associated with family poverty, of course, but there is an additional layer of disadvantage associated with growing up in neighborhoods where many other people are poor as well. Douglas Massey and Nancy Denton, in their classic book, American Apartheid, note: “where one lives—especially where one grows up—exerts a profound effect on one’s life chances. Identical individuals with similar family backgrounds and personal characteristics will lead very different lives and achieve different rates of socioeconomic success depending on where they reside.”101
Adults in high-poverty neighborhoods are often cut off from transportation and jobs, which can have a crippling effect on families. As Sherrilyn Ifill, president of the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund, has noted, if a parent does not live in a neighborhood with good transportation options, it can take up to two hours to commute. That can mean less time to help nurture a child after work.102 Miss one bus exchange, and a worker can get fired for showing up late, with devastating effects on the whole family. Families in poor neighborhoods are also often cut off from health care. To take one example, Bethesda Maryland, an affluent suburb of Washington, D.C., has one pediatrician for every 400 children, compared to poor and predominantly black Southeast D.C., where there is one pediatrician for every 3,700 children.103
Children in particular face disadvantages in high-poverty neighborhoods, as decades of research has shown.104 For example, a 2008 study by Robert Sampson of Harvard, Patrick Sharkey of New York University, and Stephen W. Raudenbush of the University of Chicago found that growing up in high-poverty neighborhoods had the effect for African-American children of reducing verbal ability later in life on the order of one year of schooling.105
As Putnam notes, living in a poor neighborhood is associated with reduced educational opportunities, diminished health outcomes, and lower levels of civic engagement.106 There is also more communal parenting in wealthier areas, and higher levels of social trust.107
Low-income students stuck in high-poverty schools are surrounded by: (1) peers who, on average, are less academically engaged and more likely to act out than those in middle-class schools; (2) a community of parents who are less actively involved in school affairs; and (3) weaker teachers who have lower expectations for students.108 High-poverty schools are twenty-two times less likely to be high achieving as middle-class schools.109 And low-income students in high-poverty schools are two years behind low-income students in low-poverty schools on the National Assessment of Educational Progress in mathematics in fourth grade.110
3. Exacerbating the Affordability Crisis
Exclusionary zoning imposes an additional harm: it artificially drives up the price of available housing units. Dense housing is more affordable than single-family homes for four reasons: (1) because density provides more units per acre, land costs are cheaper for the developer; (2) dense units (such as apartments) have fewer exterior walls, which keeps construction costs lower; (3) compact developments reduce infrastructure costs for trunk lines and treatment facilities; and (4) dense housing increases overall supply relative to demand, resulting in lower prices for consumers. As writer Brent Toderian notes, “Not all dense housing is affordable, but all affordable housing is dense.”111
Progressive and conservative economists generally agree that the government constraint on housing supply that exclusionary zoning imposes distorts markets and artificially raises rents and home prices. Right-leaning economist Edward Glaeser argues in the Manhattan Institute’s City Journal that eliminating exclusionary zoning would make housing cheaper, citing the relatively lower prices in Houston, which is among the least-regulated housing markets compared with other cities.112 He and his colleague Bryce Ward have found that “each extra acre of minimum lot size decreases new construction by roughly 40 percent and increases housing prices by roughly 10 percent.”113 Likewise, conservative economist Joseph Gyourko of the Wharton School estimates that excessive zoning has pushed real house prices a staggering 56 percent above real construction costs.114
Meanwhile, on the center-left, Jason Furman, the chair of President Obama’s Council of Economic Advisors, favorably cited Gyourko’s research in arguing against excessive zoning.115 And no less a liberal than Lyndon Johnson created a commission in 1968 to address the ways in which zoning was artificially inflating housing prices, reducing affordability for low and moderate-income families.116 (Anti-density efforts also encourages sprawl, which is bad for the environment—an issue discussed later in this report.)
Benefits of Mixed-Income Neighborhoods and Schools
Research has established not only the harms associated with living in high-poverty neighborhoods and attending high-poverty schools, but also the benefits for students of all backgrounds of living in mixed-income neighborhoods and attending mixed-income schools. Research involving four housing interventions stand out: (1) Montgomery County’s 1974 inclusionary zoning policy; (2) Mount Laurel, New Jersey’s 1975 “fair share” intervention; (3) Chicago’s 1976 housing integration program spurred by the Gautreaux litigation; and (4) the results of the 1990s Moving to Opportunity programs in several cities. This section of the report then concludes with a discussion of the benefits of integration for middle-class children and adults.
1. Montgomery County, Maryland (1974)
As outlined earlier, Montgomery County established the first nation’s inclusionary zoning program in 1974. More than three decades later, Heather Schwartz of the RAND Corporation compared the effects of inclusionary zoning within Montgomery County on academic outcomes of elementary school students compared with a parallel county strategy to help low-income students by providing compensatory spending in higher-poverty schools.117 (Beginning in 2000, the school district began spending about $2,000 extra per pupil in higher-poverty schools for all-day kindergarten, reduced class sizes, and investments in teacher development.)
Schwartz examined 858 children randomly assigned to subsidized housing units scattered throughout Montgomery County and enrolled in Montgomery County public elementary schools between 2001 and 2007 and asked: Who performed better—subsidized housing students in higher-poverty neighborhoods where schools have extra financial resources, or students in lower-poverty schools that spend less?
Over time, low-income public housing students in low-poverty (“green zone”) schools performed at 0.4 of a standard deviation better in math than low-income public housing students in higher-poverty (“red zone”) schools with more resources. Because educational interventions typically have an effect size on the order of 0.1 of a standard deviation, the outcomes in Montgomery County are considered quite powerful. Low-income students in “green zone” schools cut their large initial math gap with middle-class students in half. The reading gap was cut by one-third. Schwartz estimates that most of the effect (two-thirds) was due to attending low-poverty schools, and some (one-third) was due to living in low-poverty neighborhoods. (See Figure 4.)
2. Mount Laurel, New Jersey (1975)
The New Jersey Supreme Court’s 1975 decision requiring Mount Laurel to accommodate its “fair share” of low- and moderate-income families also provided an opportunity to evaluate, many years later, how well the children in subsidized housing in the community fared. Consistent with other research, Princeton scholar Douglas S. Massey and his coauthors found in their book, Climbing Mount Laurel: The Struggle for Affordable Housing and Social Mobility in an American Suburb, that children in subsidized housing who moved to Mount Laurel performed better than those who applied but could not be accommodated because of space constraints.118
As Robert Putnam notes, under Mount Laurel, “poor kids whose families were moved into a more affluent area achieved higher test scores and went further in school than comparable kids who were not moved.”119 David Kirp, writing in the New York Times, summarizes the findings: Children who moved to Mount Laurel “have also fared better. They study twice as many hours and spend more time reading. That extra effort is paying off—even though their schools are more academically rigorous, they earn slightly better grades.”120
3. Chicago, Illinois Gautreaux Program (1976)
In 1976, after a long legal battle, the U.S Supreme Court upheld a remedy to racial segregation in Chicago that gave low-income African Americans a chance to move to low-poverty neighborhoods in surrounding suburbs in the Gautreaux litigation. In 1991, James Rosenbaum and colleagues found in their study of Chicago’s program that inner-city students whose families moved to publicly subsidized housing in the affluent suburbs as part of the court-ordered housing discrimination remedy were much more likely to succeed than similar students whose families moved instead to other parts of Chicago. The students who moved to the suburbs were four times less likely to drop out (5 percent versus 20 percent), almost twice as likely to take college preparatory courses (40 percent versus 24 percent), twice as likely to attend college (54 percent versus 21 percent), and almost eight times as likely to attend a four-year college (27 percent versus 4 percent). Because 95 percent of movers chose the first available placement, whether in the city or in the suburb, the greater success of suburban movers is unlikely to be heavily influenced by self-selection. Indeed, researchers have lauded the Gautreaux finding as particularly reliable because the study involves a “natural experiment” of virtually random placement.121
A similar desegregation remedy in Baltimore—the Baltimore Housing Mobility Program—was established in 2003 as a result of the Thompson v. HUD litigation.122 Stefanie DeLuca, Anna Rhodes, and Philip M.E. Garboden of Johns Hopkins University followed 1,423 families with school-aged children between 2003 and 2012 and found that students “began performing better on standardized tests than they would have in the absence of the program. . . . Within five years students showed statistically significant improvement in their test scores.”123
4. Federal Moving to Opportunity Program in Several Cities (1990s)
Moving to Opportunity, the federal experiment that allowed families to move to low-poverty neighborhoods in the 1990s, has also shown positive effects, particularly over the long term. The initial studies on outcomes for children showed very modest effects for the children of families able to move to low-poverty neighborhoods. But when researchers looked more closely, the results were not surprising—because the treatment group attended schools that were not much different than the schools attended by the control group. In the treatment group, 67.5 percent of classmates were low-income compared with a control group attending schools with 73.9 percent of students receiving subsidized lunches.124
More recent research on the longer term effects of MTO has been far more favorable. In a May 2015 National Bureau of Economic Research working paper, Raj Chetty, Nathaniel Hendren, and Lawrence F. Katz found that the adult outcomes of moving to a low-poverty neighborhood were significant for those who moved as children before the age of 13. The total mean income as adults for early movers was 31 percent higher than for the control group. The researchers also observed a 16 percent increase in the likelihood of attending college between the ages of 18 and 20.125
5. Benefits to Middle-Class Children and Adults
There is a growing body of evidence to suggest that the benefits of diversity by race and class run in all directions—to middle-class and white families as well as minority and low-income families. As Amy Stuart Wells of Teachers College, Columbia University and her colleagues Lauren Fox and Diana Cordova-Cobo note in a 2016 Century Foundation report, there is increasing evidence that “diversity makes us smarter,” a finding that selective colleges long ago embraced and increasing numbers of young parents are coming to appreciate at the K–12 level.126 The authors write: “researchers have documented that students’ exposure to other students who are different from themselves and the novel ideas and challenges that such exposure brings leads to improved cognitive skills, including critical thinking and problem solving.” Families are beginning to realize, as researcher Eugene Garcia notes, “When a child comes to school for the first time he/she comes with a little suitcase full of experiences (language and culture) that he/she had before coming to school.” All students benefit when a teacher says, “Welcome, let’s open that little suitcase and see what you have so you can share and we can learn from you.”127
Apart from the cognitive benefits, there are additional reasons increasing numbers of middle-class families now want to send their children to diverse schools. Middle-class and white millennials realize that their children are growing up in a very different country, demographically, than previous generations. For the first time since the founding of the republic, a majority of public school K–12 pupils in the United States are students of color. Students can learn better how to navigate adulthood in an increasingly diverse society—a skill that employers value—if they attend diverse schools. Ninety-six percent of major employers, Wells, Fox, and Cordova-Cobo note, say it is “important” that employees be “comfortable working with colleagues, customers, and/or clients from diverse cultural backgrounds.”
Middle-class adults, too, can benefit from the greater density, and income and racial integration of neighborhoods that comes from the elimination of exclusionary zoning. With density and diversity comes a rich variety of food offerings, and the opening of public transportation (which requires density to create demand), to name just two.
Combating Segregation in Its Many Forms
If American society is once again experiencing the problems that come with increasing segregation, what should be done? The problems of racial and economic segregation are complex and deeply rooted and cannot be fixed with a single remedy. What is needed is a multi-pronged strategy, one that includes strengthening many familiar approaches and ideas; but, also, to combat the surge in economic segregation, we probably need a big new idea.
A Multipronged Approach
As a first step, the Fair Housing Act to combat racial discrimination should be strengthened—for example, to provide funding for more testers who can ferret out and punish landlords who discriminate. More funding for lawsuits targeting public housing authorities such as the Gautreaux litigation in Chicago would probably help, as well as would more disparate impact suits, and strong compliance with the new Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing regulations.128
Inclusionary zoning programs of the type used in Montgomery County, Maryland should be expanded to more communities, particularly those experiencing gentrification. Likewise, housing mobility programs such as Moving to Opportunity should be expanded. Laws prohibiting source-of-income discrimination should be passed in additional states. Mount Laurel-type fair share lawsuits should be filed in more states. And state housing tax credit rules should encourage integration rather than create concentrated poverty.
A New Idea: A Federal Economic Fair Housing Act
In addition to strengthening existing strategies, we need a new policy tool that updates state and federal fair housing acts to frontally assault exclusionary zoning. We need an Economic Fair Housing Act that seeks to diminish or even end exclusionary zoning. This legislation should first be implemented at the state level in progressive jurisdictions. Over time, if successful, these state-level efforts could build to a federal effort.
The concept of an Economic Fair Housing Act is straightforward: just as it is illegal to discriminate in housing based on race, it should be illegal for municipalities to employ exclusionary zoning policies (such as banning apartment buildings, townhouses, or houses on modest size lots) that discriminate based on income and exclude the non-rich from many neighborhoods, and their associated schools.129 At the individual housing unit level, free market forces would continue to discriminate by income, because some apartments and houses will be more expensive than others—that simply is what markets do. But government zoning policies should not, on top of that, discriminate based on income by rendering off limits entire communities where it is impossible to rent an apartment, live in a townhouse, or purchase a home on a modest plot of land.
An Economic Fair Housing Act would harness not only liberal arguments about equity, but also conservative principles tied to liberty: the government should get out of the way and allow individuals to build at greater density levels than exclusionary zoning allows.
One alternative to a complete ban on exclusionary zoning would be a federal (or state) policy to reduce the amount of mortgage interest that a family can deduct in jurisdictions that practice exclusionary zoning, as the University of North Carolina’s John Boger has suggested.130 Another variation would bar federal funding for infrastructure to municipalities that insist on exclusionary zoning policies. For example, HUD currently allocates $50 billion for a variety of forms of public housing, including $5 billion in Community Planning and Development Grants. Although exclusive suburbs do not often rely on these housing grants, there are other federal spending programs that can provide leverage over wealthy communities.131
More broadly, an Economic Fair Housing Act should also declare that it is the policy of the United States to have highly integrated neighborhoods and authorize significant spending to advance that goal.
State Level Approaches
In the current political environment in Washington, it makes sense to begin to plant the seeds for eventual federal action by systematically enacting economic fair housing legislation in states that are willing. New Jersey and Massachusetts are leaders in fighting exclusionary zoning.132 California and the Washington, D.C.-Maryland-Virginia area are leaders on inclusionary zoning.133 Illinois also has progressive legislation that extend property tax deductions to landlords in wealthier neighborhoods who agree to rent to low-income holders of Section 8 housing vouchers.134 These, and other states, represent important starting places for the larger effort.
Addressing Objections about an Economic Fair Housing Act
Concerns will be raised on both the left and right about the idea of an Economic Fair Housing Act that curtails exclusionary zoning. First, there will be concerns about the effect on property values, crime rates, school quality, and the “character” of affluent neighborhoods. In addition, progressives will point out that increasing density by itself is insufficient to fully promote affordability and reduce segregation, while some conservatives will suggest that such federal action would represent overreach. There are reasonable responses to each of these concerns.
Responding to Fears about Property Values
Propping up property values is at the heart of why exclusionary zoning programs have been created in the first place, and a reduction in those values is the central fear about curtailing snob zoning. Policies of exclusion have long been justified as a way to protect against “the deteriorating influence of undesirable neighbors.”135 So what will happen when people from all walks of life have greater access to neighborhoods that in the past have, though the power of government regulation, excluded them? The evidence suggests that property values could modestly decline in exclusive areas, primarily as a result of racial integration, but this would also make property more affordable and in line with genuine market values. Four observations are in order.
First, fears about large reductions in property values are overblown. Research on programs that introduce affordable housing to neighborhoods generally finds small effects on property values—and that reductions can be mitigated by taking steps to ensure a positive transition. Columbia University’s Lance Freeman and Baruch College’s Hilary Botein’s 2002 literature review, for example, found that there is no conclusive evidence that affordable housing reduces property values.136 San Francisco State University’s Mai Thi Nguyen’s 2005 overview of seventeen studies finds negative effects on property values are small, and can be mitigated by making sure the architecture is compatible with the neighborhood’s existing architecture and is not concentrated.137 More recently, in 2013, the University of Chicago’s Len Albright and Princeton University’s Elizabeth Derickson and Douglas Massey published an analysis of the effects of the Mount Laurel affordable housing development on local property values. The study took advantage of a quasi-experiment that compared property values in Mount Laurel with similar townships that “did not experience the sudden opening of a 100 percent affordable housing project.” The authors found no statistically significant differences between property value trends in Mount Laurel and the control townships. The results may be explained by the fact that Mount Laurel affordable housing residents had to go through extensive screening that included criminal backgrounds checks, and that the property was well maintained and aesthetically similar to surrounding areas.138
Second, to extent that ending exclusionary zoning will in fact diminish property values in some predominantly white communities, evidence suggests reductions are likely to be triggered by prejudicial attitudes—a clearly impermissible grounds for justifying exclusionary public policy in twenty-first-century America. A number of researchers have found that some whites remain distressingly uncomfortable with racial integration, and that the presence of African Americans of any socioeconomic background could reduce property values in homogenous communities.139
A 2008 study by researchers at the University of Illinois and University of Michigan, for example, sought to determine how information about neighborhood racial composition influenced perceptions of neighborhood quality. They found that preferences and perceptions were directly linked to the density of African Americans living there. In the study, researchers showed more than 600 randomly assigned white adults videos of four different neighborhoods: lower working class, blemished middle class (in which some houses were in disrepair), unblemished middle class, and upper middle class. In each of the neighborhoods, the videos showed residents who were either all white, all black, or both black and white. The characteristics of the homes and physical environments were identical, as were the activities performed by the people portrayed. The ages, styles of dress, and gender presentations of the black and white actors in the videos were also similar.
In four of the five dimensions tested—cost of housing, safety of neighborhood, future trajectory of property values, and quality of surrounding schools—whites who saw an all-white neighborhood ranked the neighborhood significantly more positively than whites who saw the identical neighborhood with all black residents. Mixed-race communities were viewed less favorably than all white communities, but more favorably than all black communities. Black neighborhoods received the worst assessments of all, regardless of whether the residents were poor or wealthy. The authors observe: “The perceptions of these communities are above and beyond the visible social-class characteristics of the neighborhood. Respondents are told nothing about these features, but they make negative presumptions. These presumptions do not derive from visible-social class characteristics, but from merely the observed presence of African Americans in the neighborhood.”140
Similarly, a 2004 study by Berkeley researchers Robert Cervero and Michael Duncan in Santa Clara County, California, found that racial diversity—unlike land-use diversity—lowered residential property values, even when controlling for factors like average household income. For two single-family residential homes identical in all other respects, the authors found, the one in the maximally diverse neighborhood could be expected to sell for $5.14 less per square foot than one in a purely homogenous (white) neighborhood.141
If this research is correct in finding that race is a driving factor in determining property values—and if curtailing exclusionary zoning reduces property values because it opens up opportunities for African Americans—the anticipated drop in property values cannot be a cognizable rationale for keeping exclusionary policies in place. For years, racism was allowed to drive policy. The National Association of Real Estate Boards once suggested, “a realtor should never be instrumental in introducing into a neighborhood…members of any race or nationality…whose presence will clearly be detrimental to property values in the neighborhood.”142 But since the 1968 Fair Housing Act, official policy has properly rejected the idea that entire groups of people are undesirable neighbors because of the color of their skin.
Third, to the extent that exclusionary zoning artificially props up property values by creating scarcity, as discussed earlier, curtailing such policies will have a healthy effect of bringing prices into line with market realities, and thereby reduce the housing affordability crisis. As noted above, there is a cross-ideological consensus among economists that government policies limiting the supply of housing through exclusionary zoning boost prices above what they would naturally be. Eliminating exclusionary zoning would not bring property values below market value; it would bring them to the market level. Millions of Americans who are now shut out of the housing market by artificially high prices would benefit.
Fourth, to the extent that curtailing unfair exclusionary zoning policies creates financial winners and losers, it may be possible to mitigate the losses to homeowners through a policy of home equity ownership insurance. Dartmouth economist William A. Fischel has argued that exclusionary zoning can be thought of as a kind of home equity insurance for homeowners—a policy that reduces the risk that one’s property value will decline because of the introduction of new development. One way to address this anxiety, Fischel argues, is to offer homeowners insurance on their equity. This would free up policymakers to eliminate the harmful effects of exclusionary zoning—economic segregation, racial segregation, and housing unaffordability—while also reducing the risks of a policy change to existing homeowners.143
Responding to Fears about Crime
After homeowners’ concerns about property values, a close second is the fear that economic and racial diversity will bring crime to wealthy, white neighborhoods, an idea sometimes stoked by the media. In 2008, for example, Hanna Rosin published a widely read piece in the Atlantic suggesting that after the demolition of a high-rise housing project in Memphis, Tennessee, former residents used housing vouchers to move to surrounding suburbs, and crime spiked in these areas as a result.144
A host of researchers, however, have debunked Rosin’s analysis. In 2011, for example, Ingrid Gould Ellen and Katherine M. O’Regan of New York University and Michael C. Lens of UCLA analyzed Rosin’s hypothesis by looking at longitudinal, neighborhood-level crime and voucher utilization data in ten large U.S. cities. They found that the relationship between the presence of additional housing voucher holders and elevated crime was not statistically significant after controlling for unobserved differences across census tracts and trends in the broader area.145 In a separate 2013 analysis, Lens reviewed more than a dozen studies on crime and subsidized housing and concluded that “concentrated disadvantage is the chief culprit when subsidized housing affects crime.” Scattered-site public housing, by contrast, has little to no effect on neighborhood crime, he found.146
Responding to Fears about School Quality
Research also suggests that economically diverse schools do not negatively affect the achievement of middle-class and high-income students and can, in fact, benefit the learning of middle-class students in important ways.147 While the research suggests that sprinkling a few middle-class students into a school of highly concentrated poverty may hurt their academic achievement, students in a middle-class school—where a large portion of students are not eligible for free or reduced-price lunch—do not suffer declines in achievement with the presence of low-income students.148 Studies show that integration is not a zero-sum game, in which gains for low-income students are offset by declines in middle-class achievement.149 The research on racial integration found similar results: test scores of black students increased and white scores did not decline.150
Research suggests that low-income students can benefit in economically mixed schools and middle-class students are not hurt academically for two central reasons. First, a critical mass of middle-class students can set the tone in a school.151 Second, middle-class children are less sensitive to school influences (for good or ill) than low-income children. This “differential sensitivity” to school environment, one of the central findings of the 1966 Coleman Report, has been dubbed “Coleman’s Law.” The reason, Coleman explained, is that aspirations and achievement are more firmly rooted for those with stable family backgrounds, who might benefit from economic security, live in a two-parent household, or have resources for out-of-school educational enrichment; those with more unstable family backgrounds—who face food or housing insecurity, live in single-parent households, or spend less time under adult supervision, for example—are more open to the influence of peers. Other researchers have consistently confirmed this finding.152
Moreover, as noted above, students of all backgrounds, including those from middle-class families, benefit from learning in socioeconomically and racially diverse environments. Research suggests that the benefits of socioeconomic and racial integration flow both ways—to minority students and to whites; to low-income students and to wealthier students. As a “Brief of 553 Social Scientists” in the Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School District (2007) school integration case noted, “learning in diverse classrooms, where students from different backgrounds communicate their different experiences and perspectives, encourages students to think in more complex ways.”153
In addition, middle-class students benefit in integrated environments by learning to work with others unlike themselves—a twenty-first-century workplace skill highly valued by employers. Increasingly, business leaders are looking for employees who can work with others to come up with creative solutions. As one educator noted, “Einstein is dead. It’s not the lone genius but the laboratory team that has produced most of the new thoughts and inventions in the last half century.”154
As a result, one national survey of employers found that businesses are increasingly interested in entry-level employees who can “work in teams or participate in problem-solving groups.”155 Not surprisingly, business groups have been strong supporters of socioeconomic integration plans in a number of communities. In La Crosse, Wisconsin, for example, business leaders advocated for socioeconomic integration of the schools because, they told teachers, “people have to be able to work together…The number one problem in the workplace is not not knowing your job or not knowing the skills for your job…It is people with skills not being able to get along with coworkers.”156
Responding to Fears about Changing the “Character” of Neighborhoods
Neighborhood character is an amorphous concept that can include a variety of concerns that run the gamut from entirely legitimate to completely illegitimate. Neighbors indisputably affect the character and quality of life in a neighborhood. Having a cement factory or a chemical plant next door would mean more noise and possibly unpleasant smells. More neighbors of any kind mean more traffic and more difficulty in parking. For some, the presence of a smaller house in a neighborhood of large houses is aesthetically displeasing. For some, the presence of a plumber’s van or police officer’s car in the driveway is undesirable. For others, the presence of black or Muslim neighbors in a white Christian neighborhood is upsetting.
Neighborhood character is an amorphous concept that can include a variety of concerns that run the gamut from entirely legitimate to completely illegitimate.
The proper role of zoning is to draw a line between what are permissible concerns and what are not. Today, public policy gives very wide discretion to local government to discriminate against others in virtually all categories, in part because the focus has been primarily on the interests of the property owners who exclude rather than the would-be residents who are excluded. There is a societal consensus that zoning by use—that is, industrial and commercial use versus residential use—is appropriate, and that zoning by race is not. When one reflects on the harm that racial zoning does to the rights and interests of the excluded families and children, it becomes clear that racial concerns are not permissible for zoning; likewise, the harm that exclusionary zoning does in residential neighborhoods should make it clear that we should move the line designating unacceptable zoning rationales to include the desire to limit the neighborhood’s economic diversity.
Responding to Concern that Density Is Not Enough to Provide Opportunity
Progressive critics will note (correctly) that that ending exclusionary zoning will not by itself end economic housing segregation or the affordability crisis for many American families. If, for example, an area zoned for single family homes becomes open to multiple family units, a developer might build luxury townhomes or condominiums, as opposed to affordable apartments. More generally, new dense housing might be higher quality and more expensive than existing less-dense housing stock. In Silicon Valley, for example, developers in gentrifying areas have recently been introducing dense, but more expensive, new housing.157 Because density by itself does not equal affordability, this report has suggested that the phase-out of exclusionary zoning should be accompanied by inclusionary zoning policies.158 In any event, as the evidence presented above suggests, curtailing exclusionary zoning will have an important impact in and of itself because government policy, as much as the marketplace, drives economic segregation and the affordability crisis.159
Responding to Concerns about Local Control
Some conservatives may object that an Economic Fair Housing Act—whether enacted by the federal government or states—would interfere with local zoning rights. Similar objections of federal overreach were lodged against the 1964 Civil Rights Act. But in two landmark decisions—Heart of Atlanta Motel Inc. v. U.S. (1964) and Katzenbach v. McClung (1964)—the U.S. Supreme Court upheld bans on racial discrimination in hotels and restaurants because both activities affected interstate commerce, which Congress is authorized to regulate under the Commerce Clause of the Constitution.160 Moreover, the rights of localities to zone under the Constitution’s Tenth Amendment are not unlimited. Going back to 1917, the U.S. Supreme Court invalidated local zoning ordinances that discriminate based on race. And the 1968 Fair Housing Act recognized that local control had to give way to a congressional policy forbidding discrimination based on race and other categories, such as disability (which was added in 1988). For example, while the courts have generally supported local ordinances that limit residential use to single families,161 group home operators have used the amended Fair Housing Act as a tool to combat the exclusionary zoning of group homes. In the 1995 case City of Edmonds v. Oxford House, for example, the U.S. Supreme Court found that a zoning ordinance violated the Fair Housing Act when it attempted to limit the number of unrelated persons who could live in a dwelling zoned for single-family use, because no similar restrictions were imposed on residents of other types of dwellings.162 Most recently, Congress unanimously passed the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act of 2000, a law that came in response to an outcry from religious institutions that had faced discrimination when local governments denied zoning approval. Under the federal law, religious institutions can bring suits and receive injunctive or declaratory relief. Clearly, there is ample precedent for federal and state action along the lines of an Economic Fair Housing Act.163
Building a Political Coalition
Opponents of exclusionary zoning, like opponents of school segregation, face an instinctive response from skeptics: “You make a strong moral and empirical case, but the politics are too tough to do anything.” In the case of school segregation, critics point to the backlash against compulsory busing in Boston in the 1970s. In the case of residential segregation, cynics point to the ill-fated attempt of George Romney to limit exclusionary zoning in 1970, which Richard Nixon quashed for political reasons.
But just as school integration advocates have learned a great deal about how to make integration politically palatable by employing incentives and public school choice, such as magnet schools, so too new strategies are available to fight exclusionary zoning in the United States almost fifty years after Romney’s aborted effort. This section (1) reviews lessons learned from local efforts to promote a more inclusive approach to housing, (2) analyzes the particular political advantages of an Economic Fair Housing Act, and (3) discusses the unusual left-right political coalition that could support this initiative.
Local Examples
Some 400 municipalities have adopted inclusive housing policies, beginning with Montgomery County, Maryland in 1974, up to New York City in 2016. What explains their success? A recent promising effort to promote inclusivity in housing in Seattle offers some lessons on the themes that can resonate with today’s constituencies. In 2014, Seattle’s mayor and City Council came together to begin developing a Housing and Livability Agenda (HALA) in support of greater density and mixed-income housing. The recommendations include upzoning single-family zones to increase density. What drove this agenda?
To begin with, residents recognized that exclusionary zoning was the enemy of affordability. Seattle for Everyone, a local group that is part of a national Yes In My Back Yard (YIMBY) movement, pushed the idea that denser cities will increase housing supply and lower housing costs. A survey found that three-quarters of respondents would be comfortable with increased density if it made housing more affordable.164
In addition, HALA supporters acknowledged the racist and classist history of exclusionary single-family zoning. A HALA Steering Committee noted that Seattle had one of the highest percentages of land zoned for single-family homes among peer cities, and that this was not reflective of Seattle’s progressive values.
Furthermore, local researchers and advocates explicitly linked exclusionary zoning to exclusion from good schools. The Sightline Institute, a think tank devoted to environmental health and social justice, noted that in the areas feeding into the thirteen top-rated neighborhood public elementary schools in Seattle, single-family zoning covered 72 percent of land on average, thereby excluding large swaths of Seattle residents. (Citywide, about half of the overall housing stock is comprised of single-family homes.) A Sightline researcher, Margaret Morales, noted that if zoning ordinances were relaxed, as the city’s Housing Affordability and Living Agenda recommended, to include more small duplexes, triplexes, modest row-houses, stacked flats and “mother-in-law apartments,” space would be made for nearly 2,500 additional homes within a half mile of the city’s high performing elementary schools. Exclusionary zoning, Morales concluded, is “an often overlooked structural factor contributing to school segregation.”165Seattle has seen some political push back against its efforts to be more inclusive, but advocates remain energized. Other cities could learn a great deal for Seattle’s approach while also customizing efforts to reflect local political realities.
Three Advantages over Existing Approaches
Local experiences suggest that it is possible to make progress in enacting inclusionary zoning policies and federal experience suggest it is possible to pass legislation forbidding racial discrimination in housing. These policies should be strengthened and supported, but it is notable that an Economic Fair Housing Act offers three distinct political advantages over these existing policies.
1. The Excluded Outnumber the Excluders
When individuals are awakened to the ways in which class-based zoning hurts virtually everyone but the wealthiest families, a populist response is possible in this distinctly populist moment in American politics. Regulations that limit development to single-family housing or limit lot sizes can, in extremely wealthy neighborhoods, exclude virtually everyone but the very richest families.
An illustration of such populist politics can be found in the state of Massachusetts. In 1969, the state passed an anti-snob zoning law that empowered the state to alter local zoning laws in communities where less than 10 percent of housing stock is deemed affordable. In 2010, an effort to overturn the law through a statewide referendum was opposed by 58 percent of voters.166
2. Class Appeal Even Broader than Racial Appeal
Because curtailing exclusionary zoning is an income-based remedy, it could cut across racial lines and benefit not only working-class constituencies of color who support the Democratic Party but also the working-class white base of the Republican Party, which, as J.D. Vance notes in Hillbilly Elegy, are also “socially isolated” and excluded from middle-class neighborhoods.167 (Indeed, since 2000, the fastest growth in poverty concentrations has come among non-Hispanic whites, who saw a 145 percent increase among those living in high-poverty neighborhoods.)168
3. Nondiscriminatory
Because ending exclusion is an anti-discriminatory policy, it should be an easier political sell than policies (such as inclusionary zoning) that go beyond nondiscrimination to posit a form of affirmative action. While inclusionary zoning intervenes affirmatively in the marketplace, ending exclusionary zoning reduces government marketplace intervention. To be clear, this report also supports race-based anti-discriminatory laws and affirmative inclusionary zoning, but it is worth noting that the attack on exclusionary zoning arguably has political advantages over both of those policies.
In addition, a number of organized constituency groups could coalesce against exclusionary zoning and class discrimination. Interesting combinations of left and right actors could come together behind an Economic Fair Housing Act.
1. On the Left
Civil rights groups on the left recognize that exclusionary zoning originated with racial bias and continues to have a negative disparate impact on communities of color. The NAACP was the key plaintiff in the Mount Laurel case in New Jersey. And the NAACP LDF has emphasized the importance of using “disparate impact” legal tools (that don’t require discriminatory intent) to fight exclusionary zoning.169
Tenant groups, which in some cities have organized rent strikes and historically have been important instigators of housing reform, could be important allies in curtailing exclusionary zoning.170
Affordable housing advocates have been key opponents of exclusionary zoning in Seattle and elsewhere, given the way in which zoning artificially inflates housing prices.
Environmentalists generally favor density and smart growth and have for years decried suburban sprawl, which causes longer driving commutes, as a “threat to our environment.”171 Density usually means more walkability and access to public transportation. Density also reduces the carbon footprint of housing because housing units that are closer together have lower heating and cooling costs.172
Faith groups, too, can be an important part of the coalition for an Economic Fair Housing Act. Most major religious traditions emphasize the dignity of individuals, a principle that exclusionary zoning policies implicitly challenge by deeming some of our fellow human beings so degraded they should be excluded from entire jurisdictions.
Progressive millennials in many cities have fought for school integration, and this constituency will be a natural ally in fighting for housing integration that will better integrate neighborhood schools.173 They can join with the 70 percent of Americans who, in a recent poll, agreed that “more should be done to integrate low- and high-poverty schools.”174
2. On the Right
As noted earlier, libertarians have long argued against overly burdensome zoning regulations that limit the ability of a property owner to develop his or her land as he or she wishes. Ilya Somin, an adjunct scholar at the Cato Institute, argues libertarians are part an “emerging cross-ideological consensus on zoning,” noting that libertarians were among the first critics of exclusionary zoning. He also observes that more conservative Western and Southern communities tend to have less zoning regulation than the more liberal Northeast.175
For-profit developers are a critical constituency whose interests must be addressed in any discussion of housing. In some jurisdictions, they have raised concerns about inclusionary zoning laws, but can usually be brought along if, in exchange for building affordable housing, they can build more units on a parcel of land through a “density bonus.” But developers are generally strong opponents of exclusionary zoning, which inhibits their ability to develop land as they see fit.
Overall, then, there is a strong possibility of an interesting left-right coalition in favor of reducing exclusionary zoning that offends developers and libertarians on the one hand, and civil rights, tenant and affordable housing advocates, environmentalist, faith groups and millennials on the other. Unlikely coalitions are difficult to sustain, but every once in a while they do occur in American politics (think airline deregulation in 1978, and tax reform in 1986). Could zoning reform be another?
The 2016 election was all about division—between races, classes, religion, and genders. Part of the reason that divisive rhetoric pitting different groups against one another had political resonance is that Americans of different races and classes too often live in separate communities and have little understanding of one another. This economic and racial segregation of residential areas undermines our unity as a nation. And, as the extensive evidence in this report suggests, economic and racial segregation also undercuts the ability of individuals from all walks of life to pursue the American Dream.
The tragedy is that local government policy, to this day, actively perpetuates the economic and racial divisions in our society. Ending exclusionary zoning would help reduce segregation and promote communities with diverse and shared economic and cultural lives that represent the best of what America has to offer. Fifty years after the Fair Housing Act struck a blow against racist practices that limited the opportunities of African Americans, it is time to strike another blow against classist practices that inhibit the opportunities of millions of Americans of all races.
An Economic Fair Housing Act resonates with some of the most deeply held beliefs that have animated Americans across the political spectrum—the liberty to live where you want absent government discrimination and the equal opportunity to get a good education for your children. The policy is pro-liberty, pro-equality, and pro-opportunity. For Americans of all ages—but especially for American schoolchildren—it is time to end state-sponsored economic segregation.
This report is the first part of a larger Century Foundation project on this topic. I would like to acknowledge the research support of three superb Century Foundation scholars: interns Yvette Chen and Elliott Rigsby, and policy associate Kimberly Quick. I would also like to thank colleagues who provided important editorial feedback, including Paul Jargowsky, Halley Potter, Jason Renker, Elliot Rigsby, David Rusk, Philip Tegeler, Brooke Williams, and Mark Zuckerman. Parts of this report are drawn from Richard D. Kahlenberg, “Why Segregated Neighborhoods Persist,” Washington Monthly, June/July/August 2017, http://washingtonmonthly.com/magazine/junejulyaugust-2017/why-segregated-neighborhoods-persist/.
Richard Rothstein, The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America (New York: Liveright Publishing Corp/W.W. Norton, 2017), 177.
Robert Putnam, Our Kids: The American Dream in Crisis (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2015), 38–39.
Juliet Eilperin and Michelle Boorstein, “In frank language, Obama tackles poverty’s roots,” Washington Post, May 13, 2015, A2, https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/in-frank-language-obama-addresses-povertys-roots/2015/05/12; and “Why Obama Is Worried about ‘Class Segregation,’” National Journal, May 12, 2015, https://www.nationaljournal.com/s/27186.
For a summary, see Richard D. Kahlenberg and Halley Potter, A Smarter Charter: Finding What Works for Charter Schools and Public Education (New York: Teachers College Press, 2014), 58–63.
See e.g. Richard D. Kahlenberg, All Together Now: Creating Middle-Class Schools through Public School Choice (Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution Press, 2001); The Future of School Integration: Socioeconomic Diversity as an Education Reform Strategy, ed. By Richard D. Kahlenberg (New York: The Century Foundation Press, 2012); Kahlenberg and Potter, A Smarter Charter; Halley Potter, Kimberly Quick, and Elizabeth Davies, “A New Wave of School Integration: Districts and Charters Pursuing Socioeconomic Diversity,” The Century Foundation, February 9, 2016, https://tcf.org/content/report/a-new-wave-of-school-integration/; and Richard D. Kahlenberg, “School Integration in Practice: Lessons from Nine Districts,” The Century Foundation, October 14, 2016, https://tcf.org/content/report/school-integration-practice-lessons-nine-districts/.
Potter, Quick and Davies, “A New Wave of School Integration”; Halley Potter, “Updated Inventory of Socioeconomic Integration Policies: Fall 2016,” The Century Foundation, October 14, 2016, https://tcf.org/content/commentary/updated-inventory-socioeconomic-integration-policies-fall-2016/.
National Center for Education Statistics “Public School Choice Programs,” https://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=6 (indicating that 13 percent of public school parents choose a school outside their neighborhood; roughly 10 percent use private school).
David Rusk, “Housing Policy Is School Policy: A Presentation to Housing Mobility and Education Forum” Baltimore, Maryland, December 3, 2017, http://www.prrac.org/pdf/Rusk.pdf. See also National Coalition on School Diversity, “Linking Housing and School Integration Policy: What Federal, State, and Local Governments Can Do,” March 2015.
William Julius Wilson, The Truly Disadvantaged: The Inner City, the Underclass, and Public Policy, 2d ed. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1987, 2012), 268.
Rothstein, The Color of Law, 183.
Rothstein, The Color of Law, ix.
Ibid., 237.
Ibid., xiv.
Ibid., 41, 47.
Ibid., 47. See also Douglas Massey, “Residential Segregation and Neighborhood Conditions in U.S. Metropolitan Areas,” in America Becoming: Racial Trends and Their Consequences, vol. I, ed. Neil J. Smelser, William Julius Wilson, and Faith Mitchell (Washington, D.C.: National Academies Press, 2001), 392 (“As [African Americans] moved into urban areas from 1900 to 1960….their segregation indices rose to unprecedented heights, compared with earlier times”).
Buchanan v. Warley, 245 U.S. 60 (1917).
Ibid., 79.
William A. Fischel, Zoning Rules! The Economics of Land Use Regulation (Cambridge, Mass.: Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, 2015), 79.
Rothstein, The Color of Law, 50.
Ibid., 9.
William A. Fischel, “An Economic History of Zoning and a Cure for its Exclusionary Effects,” Urban Studies 41, no. 2 (February 2004), http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1080/0042098032000165271.
Fischel, “An Economic History.”
272 U.S. 365 (1926).
Rothstein, The Color of Law, 55. See also Fischel, Zoning Rules!, 76.
272 U.S. 365, at 394–95.
Joseph Gyourko, Albert Saiz and Anita Summers, “A New Measure of the Local Regulatory Environment for Housing Markets: The Wharton Residential Land Use Regulatory Index,” Urban Studies 45, no. 3 (March 2008): 693–729. http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0042098007087341.
Corrigan v. Buckley, 271 U. S. 323 (1926).
James W. Loewen, Sundown Towns: A Hidden Dimension of American Racism (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2005).
Ta Nehisi Coates, “The Case for Reparations,” The Atlantic, June 2014.
Shelley v. Kraemer, 334 U.S. 1 (1948).
Ibid., 139, 147.
“Discrimination and Segregation in Housing: Continuing Lack of Progress in United States Compliance with the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination,” July 2014, http://www.prrac.org/pdf/CERD_Shadow_Report_Housing_Segregation_July_2014.pdf
and National Fair Housing Alliance, “Residential Segregation and Housing Discrimination in the United States: Violations of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination,” December 2007, http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/cerd/docs/ngos/usa/USHRN27.pdf.
Fischel, Zoning Rules!, 201.
Fischel, Zoning Rules!, 163, 201, 212–14.
Karisa King and Ryan Murphy, “Goals unmet for affordable housing tax credit program in Texas,” Houston Chronicle, April 23, 2012, http://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/Goals-unmet-for-affordable-housing-tax-credit-3501640.php.
Rothstein, The Color of Law, 192–93.
David Rusk, “Can We Still Hope?” Building One America National Summit, Washington, D.C. July 23, 2015, 7.
Ingrid Gould Ellen and Keren Mertens Horn, “Do Federally Assisted Households Have Access to High Performing Schools?” Poverty and Race Research Action Council, November 2012, 4, Table 1, http://www.prrac.org/pdf/PRRACHousingLocation&Schools.pdf.
Business and Professional People for the Public Interest, “The Gautreaux Lawsuit,” (n.d.) http://www.bpichicago.org/programs/housing-community-development/public-housing/gautreaux-lawsuit/.
U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, Understanding Fair Housing (Washington, D.C: U.S. Government Printing Office, February 1973).
42 U.S. Code § 3601; U.S. Department of Justice, “Fair Housing Act,” https://www.justice.gov/crt/fair-housing-act-2.
Douglas S. Massey, “The Legacy of the 1968 Fair Housing Act,”
Sociological Forum, June 2015, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4808815/.
Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs v. The Inclusive Communities Project, Inc. (2015).
See 80 Federal Register 42271 (July 16, 2015).
National Housing and Rehabilitation Association, “Omnibus Appropriations Enacted for Remainder of FY 2017 Budget,” May 3, 2017.
Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, “State and Local Fair Housing Enforcement Laws” (n.d.) http://www.civilrights.org/fairhousing/laws/state-laws.html.
James v. Valtierra, 402 U.S. 137 (1971).
416 U.S. 1 (1974).
429 U.S. 252 (1977), n.21.
Katrina Rowan, “Anti-Exclusionary Zoning in Pennsylvania: A Weapon for Developers, A Loss for Low-Income Pennsylvanians,” Temple Law Review 80 (2007): 1271, http://www.templelawreview.org/comment/anti-exclusionary-zoning-in-pennsylvania-a-weapon-for-developers-a-loss-for-low-income-pennsylvanians/.
437 Pa. 237, 245 (Pa. 1970). A precursor to Appeal of Girsch came in 1959, when the Virginia Supreme Court struck down a Fairfax County, Virginia ordinance which required minimum two acre lots. In Board of Supervisors of Fairfax County v. Carper, the court reasoned: “While the cost of supplying governmental services should be considered in determining the reasonableness of a zoning ordinance, a barrier may not by reason of governmental economy be set up against the natural influx of citizens who desire to live in an area.”
Southern Burlington County NAACP v. Mount Laurel, 67 N.J. 151 (1975), 174, 189, 190, and 212.
David L. Kirp, John P. Dwyer, and Larry A. Rosenthal, Our Town: Race, Housing, and the Soul of Suburbia (New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 1995), 3.
Kahlenberg, All Together Now, 179, 182.
Fair Share Housing Center, “Mount Laurel Doctrine,” http://fairsharehousing.org/mount-laurel-doctrine/.
See Brian W. Blaeser and others, “Advocating Affordable Housing in New Hampshire: The Amicus Brief of American Planning Association in Wayne Britton v. Town of Chester,” Washington University Journal of Urban and Contemporary Law 40, no. 3 (1991): 3, 23-28, http://openscholarship.wustl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1211&context=law_urbanlaw (citing cases in New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, New York, California, Washington, Massachusetts, and Michigan).
Mark Santow and Richard Rothstein, “A Different Kind of Choice: Educational Inequality and the Continuing Significance of Racial Segregation,” Economic Policy Institute, August 22, 2012, http://www.epi.org/publication/educational-inequality-racial-segregation-significance/.
Nikole Hannah-Jones, “Living Apart: How the Government Betrayed a Landmark Civil Rights Law,” ProPublica, June 25, 2015, https://www.propublica.org/article/living-apart-how-the-government-betrayed-a-landmark-civil-rights-law.
Ingrid Gould Ellen, Keren Horn, Yiwen Kuai, Roman Pazuniak, and Michael David Williams, “Effect of QAP Incentives on the Location of LIHTC Properties,” U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Office of Policy Development and Research, April 2015, http://www.huduser.org/portal//publications/pdf/QAP_incentive_mdrt.pdf. For a helpful summary of best practices for LIHTC, see Poverty and Race Research Action Council, “Building Opportunity II: Civil Rights Best Practices in the Low Income Housing Tax Credit Program (2015 Update,” July 2015.
Brian R. Lerman, “Mandatory Inclusionary Zoning—The Answer to the Affordable Housing Problem,” Boston College Environmental Affairs Law Review 33 (2006): 383–416, http://socialeconomyaz.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/Mandatory-Inlusionary-Zoning-The-Answer-to-Affordable-Housing-Problem-Brian-R.-Lerman.pdf.
National Low Income Housing Coalition, “40 Years Ago: Montgomery County, Maryland Pioneers Inclusionary Zoning,” May 16, 2014, http://nlihc.org/article/40-years-ago-montgomery-county-maryland-pioneers-inclusionary-zoning.
David Rusk, cited in Nicholas Brunick and Patrick Maier, “Renewing the Land of Opportunity,” Journal of Affordable Housing 19, no. 2 (2010), http://socialeconomyaz.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/RenewingtheLandofOpportunity.pdf.
Carl Chancellor and Richard D. Kahlenberg, “The New Segregation,” Washington Monthly, November/December 2014; Heather Schwartz, “Housing Policy Is School Policy,” in The Future of School Integration, ed. Richard D. Kahlenberg (New York: The Century Foundation, 2012).
Raj Chetty, Nathaniel Hendren, and Lawrence F. Katz, “The Effects of Exposure to Better Neighborhoods on Children: New Evidence from the Moving to Opportunity Experiment,” NBER Working Paper No. 21156, May 2015, www.nber.org/papers/w21156, 2.
Poverty and Race Research Action Council, “Expanding Choice: Practical Strategies for Building a Successful Housing Mobility Program APPENDIX B: State, Local, and Federal Laws Barring Source-of-Income Discrimination,” May 2017, http://www.prrac.org/pdf/AppendixB.pdf.
Edward J. Blakely and Mary Gail Snyder, Fortress America: Gated Communities in the United States (Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution Press, 1997).
Robert Reich, “Secession of the Successful,” New York Times, January 20, 1991, http://www.nytimes.com/1991/01/20/magazine/secession-of-the-successful.html.
Paul Jargowsky, “Architecture of Segregation: Civil Unrest, the Concentration of Poverty, and Public Policy,” The Century Foundation, August 7, 2015, 14, https://tcf.org/content/report/architecture-of-segregation/.
Jonathan Rothwell and Douglas Massey, “Density Zoning and Class Segregation in U.S. Metropolitan Areas,” Social Science Quarterly 91, no. 5 (December 2010): 1123–43, http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3632084/.
Jonathan Rothwell, “Racial Enclaves and Density Zoning: The Institutionalized Segregation of Racial Minorities in the United States,” American Law and Economics Review 13 (2011): 290–358, https://academic.oup.com/aler/article-abstract/13/1/290/182611/Racial-Enclaves-and-Density-Zoning-The.
Matthew Desmond, Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City (New York: Crown, 2016), 74–75.
Richard Fry and Paul Taylor, “The Rise of Residential Segregation by Income,” Pew Research Center, August 1, 2012, http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2012/08/01/the-rise-of-residential-segregation-by-income/.
Patrick Sharkey, “Spatial Segmentation and the Black Middle Class,” American Journal of Sociology 119, no. 4 (2014): 903–54, http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25032266.
Douglas S. Massey and Nancy A. Denton, “The Dimensions of Residential Segregation,” Social Forces 67, no. 2 (December 1988): 281–315.
John Iceland and Daniel H. Weinberg, “Racial and Ethnic Residential Segregation in the United States: 1980-2000,” Census 2000 Special Reports, U.S. Bureau of the Census, 2002, http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/housing/resseg/pdf/paa_paper.pdf. The five different measures are: evenness-dissimilarity, exposure-isolation, concentration-delta, centralization-absolute centralization, and clustering-spatial proximity.
John R. Logan and Brian J. Stults, “The persistence of Segregation in the Metropolis: New Findings from the 2010 Census,” census brief prepared for Russell Sage Foundation US2010 project, March 24, 2011, http://www.s4.brown.edu/us2010/Data/Report/report2.pdf.
Putnam, Our Kids, 38.
Sean F. Reardon and Kendra Bischoff, “Residential Segregation by Income, 1970–2000,” report prepared for the Russell Sage Foundation US2010 project, October 16, 2013, http://www.s4.brown.edu/us2010/Data/Report/report10162013.pdf.
Sean F. Reardon and Kendra Bischoff, “Income Inequality and Income Segregation,” American Journal of Sociology 116 (January 2011): 1092–153, http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/657114.
Jargowksy, “Architecture of Segregation,” 1.
Ann Owens, “Inequality in Children’s Contexts: the economic segregation of households with and without children,” American Sociological Review, 81 (3), 549-574 (2016).
Rusk, quoted in Kahlenberg, All Together Now, 22.
Matthew Resseger, “The Impact of Land Use Regulation on Racial Segregation: Evidence from Massachusetts Zoning Borders,” November 26, 2013, https://scholar.harvard.edu/files/resseger/files/resseger_jmp_11_25.pdf.
Paul Taylor, Rakesh Kochhar, Richard Fry, Gabriel Velasco and Seth Motel, “Twenty-to-One: Wealth Gap Rises to Record Highs Between Whites, Blacks, and Hispanics,” Pew Research Center, July 26, 2011, http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/files/2011/07/SDT-Wealth-Report_7-26-11_FINAL.pdf, p. 1; Carmen DeNavas-Walt, Bernadette D. Proctor, and Jessica C. Smith, “Income, Poverty and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States, 2009,” U.S. Census Bureau, Current Population Reports, P60-238, 2010, http://www.census.gov/prod/2010pubs/p60-238.pdf , p. 5, Table 1.
Paul Jargowsky, “Architecture of Segregation,” 2.
Patrick Sharkey, “Neighborhoods and the Black-White Mobility Gap,” Economic Mobility Project of the Pew Charitable Trusts, 2009, 2.
See e.g. Kevin Walsh, quoted in Laura Denker, “Unanimous NJ Supreme Court Reaffirms Fair Housing Laws,” Fair Share Housing Center, March 10, 2015, http://fairsharehousing.org/blog/entry/unanimous-nj-supreme-court-reaffirms-fair-housing-laws.
David Rusk, “Inclusionary Zoning—Gautreaux by Another Pathway,” Poverty & Race, January/February 2005, http://www.prrac.org/full_text.php?text_id=1021&item_id=9347&newsletter_id=79&header=Housing.
Pablo A. Mitnik and David B. Grusky, “Economic Mobility in the United States,” Pew Charitable Trusts/Russell Sage Foundation, July 2015, http://www.pewtrusts.org/~/media/assets/2015/07/fsm-irs-report_artfinal.pdf.
Douglas S. Massey Nancy A. Denton, American Apartheid: Segregation and the Making of the Underclass (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1998), 149, 169, and 178–79.
Sherrilyn Ifill, “The Problem We All Live With,” U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity Panel, June 2015, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3dB2vGWmIvg.
See Gregory D. Squires and Charis E. Kubrin, “Privileged Places: Race, Opportunity and Uneven Development in Urban America,” NHI Shelterforce Online 147 (Fall 2006), http://nhi.org/online/issues/147/privilegedplaces.html.
Kahlenberg, All Together Now, 32–34.
Robert J. Sampson, Patrick Sharkey, and Stephen W. Raudenbush, “Durable Effects of Concentrated Disadvantage on Verbal Ability among African-American Children,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 105, no. 3 (January 22, 2008): 845–52.
Putnam, Our Kids, 217.
Ibid., 218–19.
Richard D. Kahlenberg, “Turnaround Schools and Charter Schools That Work: Moving Beyond Separate but Equal,” in The Future of School Integration: Socioeconomic Diversity as an Education Reform Strategy, ed. Richard D. Kahlenberg (New York: The Century Foundation, 2012), 283–308.
Douglas N. Harris, Ending the Blame Game on Educational Inequity: A Study of “High Flying” Schools and NCLB (Tempe, AZ: Education Policy Research Unit, Arizona State University, March 2006).
Richard D. Kahlenberg and Halley Potter, “Can Racial and Socioeconomic Integration Promote Better Outcomes for Students?” The Century Foundation and Poverty & Race Research Action Council, May 2012, 11, Figure 2, https://tcf.org/assets/downloads/Diverse_Charter_Schools.pdf.
Brent Toderian, “The Link between Density and Affordability,” Planetizen, April 22, 2008, https://www.planetizen.com/node/30877.
Edward L. Glaeser, “Houston, New York Has a Problem: The southern city welcomes the middle class; heavily regulated and expensive Gotham drives it away,” City Journal, Summer 2008, https://www.city-journal.org/html/houston-new-york-has-problem-13102.html.
Edward L. Glaeser and Bryce A. Ward, “The Causes and Consequences of Land Use Regulation: Evidence from Greater Boston,” NBER Working Paper 12601, October 2006, cited in Benjamin Harney, “The Economics of Exclusionary Zoning and Affordable Housing,” Stetson Law Review 38 (2009): 459.
Joseph Gyourko and Raven Molloy, “Regulation and Housing Supply,” NBER Working Paper no. 20536, October 2014, www.nber.org/papers/w20536.
Jason Furman, “Barriers to Shared Growth: The Case of Land Use Regulation and Economic Rents,” The Urban Institute, November 20, 2015, https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/sites/default/files/page/files/20151120_barriers_shared_growth_land_use_regulation_and_economic_rents.pdf.
Harney, “The Economics of Exclusionary Zoning and Affordable Housing.”
Schwartz, “Housing Policy Is School Policy.”
See Douglas S. Massey, Len Albright, Rebecca Casciano, Elizabeth Derickson, and David N. Kinsey, Climbing Mount Laurel: The Struggle for Affordable Housing and Social Mobility in an American Suburb (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2013).
Putnam, Our Kids, 251–52.
David L. Kirp, “Here Comes the Neighborhood,” New York Times, October 19, 2013, http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/20/opinion/sunday/here-comes-the-neighborhood.html?mcubz=0.
See Kahlenberg, All Together Now, p. 33, citing James Rosenbaum and others, “Social Integration of Low-Income Black Adults in Middle-Class White Suburbs,” Social Problems 38 (November 1992): 48–61.; and Susan J. Pompkin, James E. Rosenbaum, and Patricia M. Meaden, “Labor Market Experience of Low-Income Black Women in Middle-Class Suburbs,” Journal of Policy Analysis and Management 12 (1993): 556, 558.
348 F. Supp.2d 398 (D. Md. 2005). A partial consent decree in 2002 led to creation of the housing mobility program.
Stefanie DeLuca, Anna Rhodes, and Philip M.E. Garboden, “The Power of Place: How Housing Policy Can Boost Educational Opportunity,” Abell Foundation, March 2016, 4, http://www.abell.org/sites/default/files/files/ed-power-place31516.pdf.
See Lisa Sanbonmatsu, Jeffrey R. Kling, Greg J. Duncan, and Jeanne Brooks-Gunn,
“Neighborhoods and Academic Achievement: Results from the Moving to Opportunity
Experiment,” NBER Working Paper 11909, January 2006, 18, and 45, Table 2.
Chetty, Hendren, and Katz, “The Effects of Exposure to Better Neighborhoods on Children, 2–3.
Amy Stuart Wells, Lauren Fox and Diana Cordova-Cobo, “How Racially Diverse Schools and Classrooms Can Benefit All Students,” The Century Foundation, February 9, 2016, https://tcf.org/content/report/how-racially-diverse-schools-and-classrooms-can-benefit-all-students/.
Eugene Garcia, quoted in Peter Cookson and Richard Kahlenberg, “Socioeconomic Integration from an Equity Perspective” (forthcoming).
“HUD Rule on Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing,” U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, July 16, 2015, https://www.huduser.gov/portal/affht_pt.html#final-rule.
I want to thank Paul Jargowsky, whose comments at an Economic Policy Institute panel on April 10, 2014, triggered my thinking on this issue. See http://www.epi.org/event/patrick-sharkes-paul-jargowskys-work-neighborhoods/.
Rothstein, The Color of Law, 204–06 (referencing proposal by Jack Boger).
“FACT SHEET: The President’s Fiscal Year 2017 Budget: Overview,” February 9, 2016, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, https://portal.hud.gov/hudportal/documents/huddoc?id=ProposedFY17FactSheet.pdf.Of course, the conditioning of federal funds would have to comply with the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius, 567 U.S. 519 (2012).
David Rusk, personal communication with author, June 23, 2017.
Ibid., 85 (quoting a 1928 federally sponsored report).
Lance Freeman and Hilary Botein, “Subsidized Housing and Neighborhood Impacts: A Theoretical Discussion and Review of the Evidence,” Journal of Planning Literature 16, no. 3 (2002): 359–78, http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/08854120222093419.
Mai Thi Nguyen, “Does Affordable Housing Detrimentally Affect Property Values? A Review of the Literature,” Journal of Planning Literature 20, no. 1 (August 2005): 15-26, http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0885412205277069.
Len Albright, Elizabeth S. Derickson, and Douglas S. Massey, “Do Affordable Housing Projects Harm Suburban Communities? Crime, Property Values, and Taxes in Mount Laurel, NJ,” City and Community 12, no. 2 (June 2013): 89-112, http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/cico.12015/abstract.
I owe a special thanks to Kimberly Quick, who provided a crisp summary of this research, from which this report draws heavily.
Maria Krysan, Reynolds Farley and Mick P. Couper, “In the Eye of the Beholder: Racial Beliefs and Residential Segregation, Du Bois Review 5, no. 1 (2008): 5–26, https://igpa.uillinois.edu/system/files/cas/media/pubs/Krysan_Farley_Couper_2008.pdf.
Robert Cervero and Michael Duncan, “Neighbourhood Composition and Residential Land Prices: Does Exclusion Raise or Lower Values?” Urban Studies, February 2004, http://usj.sagepub.com/content/41/2/299.
William A. Fischel, “An Economic History of Zoning and a Cure for Its Exclusionary Effects,” Urban Studies 41, no. 2 (February 2004).
Hanna Rosin, “American Murder Mystery: Why is crime rising in so many American cities?” The Atlantic, July/August 2008.
Ingrid Gould Ellen, Michael C. Lens, and Katherine M. O’Regan, “American Murder Mystery Revisited: Do Housing Voucher Households Cause Crime?” NYU Wagner Research Paper No. 2012-02, December 14, 2011, https://ssrn.com/abstract=2016444 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2016444.
Michael C. Lens, “Subsidized Housing and Crime: Theory, Mechanisms, and Evidence,” Journal of Planning Literature 28, no. 4 (January 2013): 352–63, http://luskin.ucla.edu/sites/default/files/Lens%204%20JPL.pdf.
This section is drawn from Kahlenberg and Potter, A Smarter Charter, 59–63.
Kahlenberg and Potter, A Smarter Charter, 120. While national data suggest the achievement of students not eligible for free and reduced price lunch does appear to decline as the level of low-income students increases in a school, research David Rusk has found that this has to do with the large variation in the family income of those within this population. Income in these families can range from roughly $50,000 to more than $1 million. David Rusk, “Classmates Count: A Study of the interrelationship between socioeconomic background and standardized test scores of 3rd-5th grade pupils in the Lancaster County public schools,” May 5, 2009, 39–44.
Kahlenberg, All Together Now.
Robert Crain, and R. Mahard, Desegregation and Black Achievement (Santa Monica, Calif.: Rand Corporation, 1977); and David Armor, Forced Justice: School Desegregation and the Law (New York, N.Y.: Oxford University Press, 1995).
Ibid., 40–42.
“Brief of 553 Social Scientists,” in the Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School District (2007) App. 12.
Quoted in Jay Mathews, Class Struggle: What’s Wrong (and Right) with America’s Best Public High Schools (New York, N.Y.: Times Books, 1998), 246.
Lisa M. Lynch, “Trends in and Consequences of Investments in Children,” in Sheldon H. Danziger and Jane Waldfogel (eds), Securing the Future: Investing in Children from Birth to College (New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 2000), 23-24, Figure 1.2.
Kahlenberg, All Together Now, 235.
Sam Levin, “’Largest-ever’ Silicon Valley eviction to displace hundreds of tenants,” The Guardian, July 7, 2016, https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/jul/07/silicon-valley-largest-eviction-rent-controlled-tenants-income-inequality.
In theory, there is a tension between decreasing exclusionary zoning and promoting inclusionary zoning. If America eliminated all exclusionary zoning, then the “density bonus” that makes inclusionary zoning palatable to developers would lose its appeal. But this is more a theoretical than practical concern because exclusionary zoning remains pervasive.
See discussion above.
Heart of Atlanta Motel, Inc. v. U.S., 379 U.S. 241 (1964), Katzenbach v. McClung, 379 U.S. 294 (1964), and U.S. Constitution, Article I, Section 8 (Commerce Clause).
See discussion of Village of Belle Terre v. Boraas above.
Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act of 2000, 42 U.S.C. §§ 2000cc, et seq., https://www.justice.gov/crt/religious-land-use-and-institutionalized-persons-act.
“Seattle Housing and Livability Agenda Draft Report,” Housing and Affordability and Livability Advisory (HALA) Committee, https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/2159036/hala-recommendations-draft-8-1.pdf.
Margaret Morales, “One tool for dismantling structural school segregation in Seattle: Better zoning,” Sightline Institute, May 16, 2017, http://www.sightline.org/2017/05/16/one-tool-for-dismantling-structural-school-segregation-in-seattle-better-zoning/.
J. D. Vance, Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis (New York: Harper Collins, 2016), 4, 51–52 (noting proportion of whites in neighborhoods with more than 10 percent poverty rose from 25 percent in 1970 to 40 percent in 2000, and has increased since then).
Jargowsky, Architecture of Segregation, 4.
“Disparate Impact,” NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, http://www.naacpldf.org/case-issue/disparate-impact.
Desmond, Evicted, 180.
See, e.g. Oregon Governor Tom McCall’s support for smart growth. Carl Abbott and Deborah Howe, “The Politics of Land-Use Law in Oregon: Senate Bill 100, Twenty Years After,” Oregon Historical Quarterly 94, no. 1 (1993), http://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1029&context=usp_fac.
Edward L. Glaeser, “Green Cities, Brown Suburbs: To save the planet, build more skyscrapers—especially in California,” City Journal, Winter 2009.
See, e.g. the New York City student group championing integration, known as IntegrateNYC4me, http://www.integratenyc4me.com/about-us/.
Ulrich Boser and Perpetual Baffour, “Isolated and Segregated: A New Look at the Income Divide in Our Nation’s Schooling System,” Center for American Progress, May 31, 2017, Figure 2, https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/education/reports/2017/05/31/433014/isolated-and-segregated/.
Ilya Somin, “The emerging cross-ideological consensus on zoning,” Washington Post, December 5, 2015, https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/volokh-conspiracy/wp/2015/12/05/the-emerging-cross-ideological-consensus-on-zoning/?utm_campaign=buffer&utm_content=bufferf23fc&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_term=.7f520996c021.
Tags: housing policy, housing segregation, fair housing act
Richard D. Kahlenberg, Director of K–12 Equity and Senior Fellow
Richard D. Kahlenberg is director of K–12 equity and senior fellow at The Century Foundation with expertise in education, civil rights, and equal opportunity.
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Things to know when planning a visit to Timisoara and Western Romania – travel tips for all travelers.
Timisoara bookcrossing: free outdoor libraries in parks
According to Adevarul.ro, which is a national newspaper, starting this spring, Timisoara will have its own free public “libraries” in parks. These “libraries” will consist of bookcases and an initial collection of about 200 books. The collection is expected to grow with the help of the public.
The idea behind this project is simple: borrow a book, take it back after you read it. If you want to keep it, just put back another book.
The project is a private initiative that was inspired by the idea of book-crossing, which already exists in various European cities. Although probably at first there won’t be many foreign-language (English) books available, we’re sure these will appear eventually, as the locals will adopt this new project.
The outdoor bookcase concept, also known as “free open-air libraries”, was first implemented in 1991 in Germany and later adopted by other European countries like Austria, the U.K., Switzerland, and others.
Who knows, maybe next time you visit Timisoara you’ll find something interesting to read.
Later update:
5 outdoor bookcases have already been placed in the parks around Timisoara. They have the shape of a small house and are actually called “casuta de lectura” (rough translation: “little house with books”)
Where exactly can you find them?! See the address and the exact place of each one in the Timisoara Map section of our website.
Carmen Silva Park
Botanical Park
Alpinet Park
Rozelor Park
Justitiei (Justice) Park
February 7, 2019 /by TimisoaraTourism
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Unirii Square, the most beautiful square in Timisoara
Unirii Square (to be translated as the “Union Square”) is one of the biggest and most beautiful squares in Timisoara. Throughout its history, the square has had many names: it was once called Hauptplatz (main square), Domplatz (Dom square) or Losonczy square.Today we know it as Unirii Square. It received this name in 1919, after World War I and after the Banat region became a part of the now “complete” Romanian country. The square is said to be the place where the Romanian army stopped when they came to Timisoara.
The history of Unirii square, the most beautiful square in Timisoara
But the history of the square is much longer. Timisoara was freed from the Ottoman Empire in 1716, thanks to the troops of Prince Eugene of Savoy, of the Habsburg Empire. During the fight with the Ottomans, most of the city was destroyed. As the city had to be rebuilt, a new construction plan was created. What we know as Unirii Square today started being shaped back then. The buildings in the area were meant to serve administrative functions and the square itself has served as an agricultural market for a very long time. Most of the buildings in the square have been restored and reshaped several times; some building were added an extra floor, other were demolished, new ones were rebuilt. Over time, Unirii Square became the most beautiful square in Timisoara. These are some if its most imposing buildings:
St. George’s Cathedral, or the Roman-Catholic Dome
The Catholic Dome in Unirii Square was built around the same time as the square itself, after the plans of Fischer von Erlach, an Austrian architect who also worked on monuments from Vienna, Prague, Gratz, and Salzburg. The towers of the dome have a height of only 35.5m, which is quite unusual for catholic domes. But there is a reason behind it. Back in the 18th century, Timisoara became a military strategic point, but was still a potential target. Higher towers would have been visible from outside of the city citadel, therefore making it a target. By projecting the towers at this height, it was “hid” from potential attackers.
The Holy Trinity Monument – A sign of thankfulness for the ending of the plague
Between the 14th and 18th century the plague killed millions of people in Europe. Timisoara was no exception. The Holy Trinity monument was ordered and then donated to Timisoara by Dechan de Hansen, who was a counsellor at the city hall at the time. The monument was constructed in Vienna and transported to Timisoara by boat on the Danube, the Tisa and the Bega River, to the old town port. The story has it that the plague killed the counsellor’s wife and daughter and he swore that if he survives he will build a monument as a sign of thankfulness. He kept his word and the monument exists even today.
The Serbian-Orthodox Episcopal Palace
Timisoara has always been multicultural and communities have always lived together in harmony here. In Unirii Square you can find two churches belonging to different religions in the same area. The Serbian-Orthodox Episcopal Palace is one of the most beautiful buildings here. It was built around 1745, and as the years passed it was renovated once in 1905 by the great head-architect Lazlo Szekely, who added baroque elements and later in 2013.
Bruck House – Beautiful secession architecture
The present building was built in the early 1900s in the style of the Hungarian “Secession” current. It was ordered by the pharmacist Salomon Bruck. A pharmacy exists there even today. On the windows you can also see the word “pharmacy” written in the three languages spoken in the city at the time: Romanian, German and Hungarian.
What is your favourite building in Unirii Square?
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Best time to visit Timisoara – what’s the weather like?
When to visit Timisoara and what to pack? This is a question every traveler has when visiting a new city. And in this article, you will find out what the best time to visit Timisoara is – and how to pack according to the weather in Timisoara!
Best time to visit Timisoara, Romania
Romania has a temperate-continental climate, with some sub-sub-Mediterranean influences. This means that Romania has four seasons and the temperature varies quite a lot according to the season. The temperature also varies a bit according to the region in Romania you are in. And of course, the temperature is going to go down if you go to the mountain area, whereas in flat areas, like where Timisoara is located, the temperature will be a bit higher.
Timisoara is one of the biggest cities in Romania and it is located in the Western part of the country. This means that the temperature usually is a bit different from that in the capital, Bucharest – which is located in the east side of the country.
Romanian summers can be quite hot, especially in big cities like Timisoara, and winters can be quite cool and windy. The best time to visit Timisoara is during spring, starting from mid-March until mid-June, and in autumn from September to late November.
The weather in Timisoara
From our experience, Meteoblue is a very reliable weather forecast website. Below you can find their 7-day forecast, so that you can pack and plan accordingly:
Spring in Timisoara:
During spring (March-May), the temperature is just perfect for walking in the city. The temperature in Timisoara during these months varies from 12°C (in March, early April) to 26°C (in late May, early June). These are of course the average temperatures and they can vary from year to year. Spring is a “transitioning” season, so the temperature can also vary during the day – it is usually warmest at noon and the temperature drops during the night.
Summer in Timisoara:
Due to the climate, geography (in the Western plains of Romania) and the city environment, the average temperature during summer (June-August) is 28°C. But don’t let these average temperatures fool you, as recent summers in Timisoara have been quite hot, with the maximum temperature going well over 30°C and up to 40°C.
During summer, it may sometimes rain in the afternoon, but these are mostly showers, which pass quickly.
Since summers are hot in the city, the best way to avoid these temperatures is to go to the countryside or to the nearby hills and mountains. There are many interesting destinations just a short drive away from Timisoara.
See some example of daytrips which you can do.
Autumn in Timisoara:
If you love colors and warm weather, then autumn is for you. Autumn offers some gorgeous views, especially if you want to visit natural attractions in the areas surrounding Timisoara. The average temperature in Timisoara during autumn is 17°C, but it can vary with about 6°C: from 24°C in September, to 10°C in November.
Winter in Timisoara:
In the Western part of Romania, where Timisoara is located, winters (December-February) are quite mild. It is usually not too cold and you won’t find much snow – with some exceptions, from time to time. For example, the winter of 2018-2019 brought a big amount of snow, confusing locals and tourists alike.
The average temperature in January is around -1.1°C. However, in a particularly cold year, it can even drop below -10°C – though this usually does not last for many days in a row. In case you are visiting during winter, pack a warm jacket and some mittens, just in case.
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5 Things you didn’t know about Timisoara
Traveling to Timisoara for the first time?! Still wondering whether you should visit Timisoara?! This is one of the biggest cities in Romania and there are plenty of things to do for everybody. From architectural beauties to great food and an active nightlife – you can find it all in Timisoara!
If you are a bit of a history geek – or if you simply like good stories, you’ll love to hear that this city has a fascinating history, that is still reflected nowadays in its infrastructure, architecture and culture.
Here are 7 interesting things you probably didn’t know about Timisoara:
1. Timisoara is older than it looks
The city used to be a “place” even since the neolithic period. There have been relics discovered in various parts of the city that point out people have been living in the area for quite a long time. However, the first official records of Timisoara date back to the 13th century – back then it was just a small citadel, but it has sure come a long way!
Illustration of Timisoara under Ottoman rule, 18h century
2. It is a culturally diverse city
The city hosts theatres in 3 different languages: Romanian, Hungarian and German. Timisoara has, throughout its history been part of the Kingdom of Hungary, under Ottoman rule and part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. This rich history is still reflected in the city’s diverse people and culture. Also, people are quite friendly and open to strangers – probably because we are used to diversity and appreciate it.
Fabrik Neighbourhood – bilingual postcard (Hungarian & German)
3. It was the second city in the WORLD which had public illumination
Timisoara was the first European city and the second city in the world (after New York), that introduced public street illumination, in 1884.
4. The first European city to host a tram
Timisoara was the first European to host a tram. The first tram, which was horse-driven, was introduced on July 8th 1869. It was a wooden tram, built in Vienna. The city is also known as “little Vienna” thanks to its rich local culture, which is reflected in the city’s appearance.
A tram in Timisoara, 1871
5. It hosts the oldest beer factory in Romania
The city hosts the oldest beer factory in Romania, Timisoreana, dating back to 1718. Bonus tip: when in Timisoara, do try the local Timisoreana brand! We will be providing more tips on where to find Romanian beer in another article, so make sure you follow us for more!
Timisoreana Beer Factory, founded in 1718
October 21, 2017 /by TimisoaraTourism
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Home > News > Yale Bikeshare Officially Launches at Earth Day Fair
Yale Bikeshare Officially Launches at Earth Day Fair
In celebration of Earth Day, the Yale community gathered on Cross Campus on April 22, 2018, to learn more about university sustainability initiatives. Organized by the Sustainability Service Corps, a student group that works to expand the culture of sustainability throughout campus, Earth Fest attracted many undergraduate and graduate students who were engaged with initiatives that promote environmental consciousness and sustainability. Each table at the event had a specific focus, which included a flea market where attendees brought unwanted clothes and belongings in exchange for any item left by another person, and a free bicycle tune-up station organized by the Bradley Street Bicycle Co-op.
Alongside these activities, this event marked the official launch of Yale’s new bikeshare system. The Office of Sustainability provided bikeshare technology demonstrations, distributed vouchers for a free week membership, and answered questions on how the system works. These vouchers will also provide free unlimited rides on Saturday, April 28, to inspire Yale students, faculty, and staff to get riding in the Rock to Rock Earth Day Ride.
Since Yale bikeshare’s soft launch in December, many students have found the system to be technologically advanced, easy to use, and convenient. The partnership with Noa Technologies has provided the Yale community with a fleet of 50 shared-use bicycles, which are distributed at stations throughout campus. Founded in 2012, Noa has extensive experience in bicycle fleet management solutions for large organizations. Using cloud-based software, Noa provides real-time bike location, status, alerts, and analytics to institutions like Yale. The Noa system will provide data-driven insights on the routes users typically follow, the amount of carbon emissions avoided, and more. This will help the University enhance bike infrastructure on campus and enhance partnerships with the City of New Haven seeking to promote sustainable transportation, like goNewHavengo.
Students, faculty, and staff can find bikes on campus using the Noa Rider app, available on the App Store and Google Play. The app allows users to unlock and lock their bike from a smartphone, which also tracks trips using GPS. Pricing varies based on the type of membership.
A single day (24 hours) costs $4.99. A monthly membership costs $9.99, a six-month plan is $29.99, and a yearly price plan is $49.99. With each membership type, you get unlimited free one-hour rides. After the first hour, there is a $3 charge per additional hour.
Currently there are 6 bikeshare stations distributed around Yale’s campus. They are located at Payne Whitney Gym, Sterling Memorial Library, Becton Center, Cedar Street, Old Campus, and Kline Geology Lab. Over the coming weeks, new stations will be implemented to make the system even more convenient for the Yale community.
The League of American Bicyclists recently recognized Yale with a Gold-level Bike Friendly University award, one of only 20 universities in the country with this designation. Bikesharing will be a significant contribution toward making Yale’s campus a safe and enjoyable place to cycle.
The Yale Sustainability Plan 2025 sets goals to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050, increase sustainable transportation on and off campus, and enhance partnerships with the City of New Haven towards a more sustainable campus and city. The new partnership with Noa has the potential to contribute to all three of these areas, providing an efficient, healthy, and convenient way to travel.
- Connor Sullivan, Sustainability Fellow
Copyright © 2019 Yale University · All rights reserved
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Thomas M. Menino 1942-2014
Places of Significance Along Mayor Menino’s Final Ride Home
By lcrudele on November 2, 2014
Faneuil Hall
Mayor Menino delivered his inaugural address here in 1994 and several subsequent State of the City addresses. On March 28, 2013, Mayor Menino announced at Faneuil Hall that he would not seek re-election.
Each spring, Mayor Menino held school awards at Faneuil Hall for outstanding students from every Boston Public School in the city. The awards took place over several nights.
Boston City Hall
Mayor Menino’s second home; the building where he worked for more than 30 years.
Parkman House
Official Mayoral residence, used by Mayor Menino to host dignitaries, luncheons, and other special events. Mayor Menino also resided for brief periods of time at the Parkman House, as he recovered from hospital stays.
Boston University/Kenmore Square
Following his final term, which drew to a close in January of 2014, Mayor Menino joined Boston University where he served as co-director for the newly founded Initiative on Cities. At the IoC, Mayor Menino led an effort to investigate the dynamic nature of our world’s cities and bridge the gap between academic research on urban affairs and practical implementation. Mayor Menino’s office is located on Bay State Road.
Mayor Menino was a lifelong baseball fan and 30+ year season ticket holder for the Boston Red Sox.
During Mayor Menino’s 20 year tenure, all four of Boston’s major professional sports teams won titles, totaling eight championships.
The 2013 World Champion Boston Red Sox unified the city following the Boston Marathon attacks. Mayor Menino’s final rolling rally took place on November 2, 2013.
Mayor Menino’s beloved Louisville Slugger baseball bat cane was a gift from longtime friends and devoted Red Sox fans Gary and Lynne Smith.
Dudley Square
In a few weeks, the former Ferdinand Building in Dudley Square will open as a multiservice center—a testament to Mayor Menino’s tenacity and his staunch commitment to enhance all Boston neighborhoods.
Grove Hall
In 2001, Mayor Menino delivered on his promise of bringing a supermarket to Grove Hall. The Grove Hall Mecca, a $13 million shopping complex revitalized Blue Hill Avenue, the main artery of the neighborhood. The project was financed with $1.2 million in city funds, $6.8 million in federal empowerment zone dollars from the Department of Housing and Urban Development and $5 million from Fleet Bank.
Mayor Menino was proud of the City’s public golf courses. He maintained a special interest in improving this jewel of the Emerald Necklace throughout his mayoralty.
Bowdoin Geneva
Each Christmas Eve, Mayor Menino walked the streets of Bowdoin Geneva and passed out toys to children at St. Peter’s Teen Center. It was one of his most cherished traditions.
Mattapan Library
During Mayor Menino’s tenure, award-winning library branches were opened in the neighborhoods of Allston, Mattapan, Grove Hall, and East Boston; and countless improvements were made to other libraries in the 24-branch system. The Boston Public Library also became a leader in digitization, e-book lending, and community engagement, all while maintaining the second-largest collections in the nation, second only to the Library of Congress.
On February 28, 2009, the Mattapan community celebrated the opening of this architecturally-stunning, technologically enhanced, and service-rich new Mattapan Branch library at 1350 Blue Hill Avenue
Roslindale Square
In 1985, then District 5 City Councilor Menino helped form Roslindale Village Main Street (RVMS) as one of the first urban Main Street Programs in the nation.
Under Mayor Menino’s tenure, 18 Main Streets Districts have flourished across the city.
Most Precious Blood
Mayor Menino was baptized at Most Precious Blood and also served at this church as an altar boy. It was his family’s parish; they lived around the corner on Hyde Park Avenue.
Categories: Memories
4 Responses to “Places of Significance Along Mayor Menino’s Final Ride Home”
Ligia November 3, 2014
Mayor Menino loved to celebrate students’ accomplishments and he loved to recognized their families. It was amazing to see how every year Mayo Menino recognized two students from each Boston Public School by given the Spirit and Academic Awards. He touched so many families by taking the time to listen to all principals and Headmasters talked about these students’ successes in their schools. During the Valedictorians’ luncheon, he honored the families of senior students who had the highest GPA from their high schools. This year we missed the Spirit and Academic Awards Ceremony.
He was a great Mayor, a great leader, an outstanding instructional leader, and amazing human being. We are going to miss him!!!
Farewell Mayor Menino!!
L. Noriega-Murphy
megambon2164 November 3, 2014
I remember when I was a fairly new reporter for the Hyde Park Gazette, a local weekly. I had seen Mayor Menino at press conferences, but on the day of the first Hyde Park Annal Parade, I would have my first chance to interview him one-on-one. I was sitting in the car with my mom, more worried about showing respect to him and how to address him. Mayor, Your Honor … Then my mom sees him across the street and yells, “Hey, Tommy!” The Mayor waved and called back, “Hey, How ya doing’? That is just the way he was. He assured me he knew I was “the ace reporter from Hyde Park” and complemented my mom on doing a great job. I am so proud to have known him and to have been influenced by him for two decades. Now he can join my Mom in heaven.
Mary Ellen Gambon, Roslindale, MA
Linda D'Agostino November 3, 2014
I have lived in Brighton, Oak Square for more than 36 years and my most fondest memories are of when Mayor Menino would do the Christmas Tree lighting’s. I would take my children to see him. He would arrive on the trolley. No matter what the weather was like, he was always there. He was never rushed and would take the time to talk with adults and children. He was so amazing. I will miss him so much.
Thomas Plant November 3, 2014
Mayor Menino was a true and beloved leader for the City of Boston and the residents of its neighborhoods. Our thoughts and prayers are with the Menino Family at their significant loss. He was a shinning example of a true public servant for The City of Boston, Massachusetts, and the nation. He took joy in knowing people by their names, joy in making our neighborhoods safer, economically stable, building new affordable housing, and reforming our schools to produce new leaders for future of Boston. He also was a great champion for public health and innovative public health and environmental policies on a myriad of issues to improve the health and well-being of all the resident of the City of Boston, including the most vulnerable. He made the City of Boston a leader in energy efficient buildings and developments as well. He celebrated with the people and lead us in our mourning during the Boston Marathon Bombing. He was Boston Strong, and knew that that the Spirit of Boston would alway triumph over those who tried to take it from us, a true Patriot. We will miss him tremendously. We understood his passion and love for the City of Boston. We say Mayor Menino job well done! What an extraodinary life of accomplishments, commitment, and love for the City of Boston and its people! We will remember you always, and keep you in our heart and mind.
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Looking at the bright side, while standing in the shade.
David Biespiel’s Poetry Wire: Allen Ginsberg’s Howl meets Gay Marriage
By David Biespiel
Yesterday was the 56th anniversary of the day that U.S. customs agents seized some 500 copies of Allen Ginsberg’s Howl on the grounds of obscenity. Yesterday and today, the Supreme Court of the United States heard two cases regarding marriage. The first one yesterday, regarding California Proposition 8, addressed the right to marry the person you love. The second one, earlier today, concerning the Defense of Marriage Act, addresses federal recognition of all legal marriages.
What do these these events have in common?
As a lament, “Howl” dissents against the destruction of youth, refutes the violence of industrialism, and grieves over the compromised life of Carl Solomon, whom Ginsberg met in a psychiatric hospital in the late 1940s. And it is an anthem for for homosexual freedom, rights, and visibility.
Ginsberg’s argument is that American industrial violence and cultural intolerance are a cancer at the root of American life and they cause the corrosion of the beatitude of the imagination. Therefore Howl deplores an American Cold War culture that pushes individuals — pacifists, free spirits, anti-capitalists, women, and yes, gays and lesbians — to its dark fringes. Then that same culture accuses those most vulnerable of being derelicts and outcasts who are undisciplined trash that live beyond the mainstream norms.
But Howl helped to create the world we now live in, a world that is opposed to an intolerant America.
So when Illinois became the first state in the U.S. to decriminalize homosexual acts between consenting adults in private in 1962, it did so in the world Allen Ginsberg”s Howl helped to create.
When the world’s first transgender organization, the National Transsexual Counseling Unit, was established in San Francisco in 1966, it did so in the world Allen Ginsberg’s Howl helped to create.
When patrons of a gay bar in New York’s Greenwich Village, the Stonewall Inn, retaliated against a police raid on June 27, 1969, sparking three days of riots, they did so in the world Allen Ginsberg’s Howl helped to create.
When the American Psychiatric Association removed homosexuality from its official list of mental disorders in 1973, it did so in the world Allen Ginsberg’s Howl helped to create.
When 70% of the voters in Dade County, Flordia voted to overturn an ordinance making sexual orientation discrimination illegal in 1977, it was, for a time, a blow to the gay rights movement and a rear-guard attack against the world Allen Ginsberg’s Howl helped to create.
But a year later, in 1978, when Harvey Milk was sworn in as an openly gay member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, he did so in the world that Allen Ginsberg’s Howl helped to create — and right down the block from the Six Gallery where Ginsberg first read the poem in public on October 7, 1955.
When delegates to the 1980 Democratic National Convention in New York City took a stance supporting gay rights by adding to their plank that “All groups must be protected from discrimination based on race, color, religion, national origin, language, age, sex or sexual orientation,” they did so in the world Allen Ginsberg’s Howl helped to create.
When the city of Berkeley, California, became the first American city to offer its employees domestic-partnership benefits in 1984, it did so in the world that Allen Ginsberg’s Howl helped to create.
When Vermont became the first state in the country to legally recognize civil unions between gay or lesbian couples in 2000, it did so in the world that Allen Ginsberg’s Howl helped to create.
When the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Lawrence v. Texas that sodomy laws in the U.S. were unconstitutional, it did so in the world that Allen Ginsberg’s Howl helped to create.
When, in 2009, the Iowa State Supreme Court surprised the hell out of the rest of the country and legalized same-sex marriage, it did so in the world that Allen Ginsberg’s Howl helped to create.
When, in 2011, following the lead of other states including Vermont and New Hampshire, New York passed a law to allow same-sex marriage, becoming the largest state in the country to legalize those rights, it did so in the world that Allen Ginsberg’s Howl helped to create.
And when last year Tammy Baldwin, a seven-term Democratic congresswoman from Wisconsin, became the first openly gay politician elected to the Senate, she did so in the world that Allen Ginsberg’s Howl helped to create.
Howl helped to create a world where sexual freedom is a cultural cornerstone, where same-sex marriage is quickly being renamed just marriage, where marijuana has been decriminalized in a dozen states and more to come, and where the U.N. Commission on Human Rights in 1995 reaffirmed the rights of pacifists. All the while, capitalism still has millions of detractors.
So, yes, poetry can sometimes change the world. And it could be happening right before our eyes today and tomorrow.
David Biespiel is a poet, literary critic, memoirist, and contributing writer at American Poetry Review, New Republic, New York Times, Poetry, Politico, The Rumpus, and Slate, among other publications. He is the author of numerous books, most recently The Education of a Young Poet, which was selected a Best Books for Writers by Poets & Writers, A Long High Whistle, which received the 2016 Oregon Book Award for General Nonfiction, and The Book of Men and Women, which was chosen for Best Books of the Year by the Poetry Foundation and received the 2011 Oregon Book Award for Poetry. More from this author →
Tags: Allen Ginsberg, David Biespiel's Poetry Wire, Howl, same-sex marriage
Filed Under: David Biespiel, Poetry
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A Modern Introduction to Music – 14 »
I hope by now readers have fully internalized the most essential characteristic of music. It is not the frequency of a swara that is important; rather, it is the interval between swaras or the ‘musical distance’ between them that is critical. One can start from any frequency; as long as the subsequent swaras are at the right distance, one would be in the realm of music.
We had started this series with the claim that while all music is sound, not all sound is music. In doing so we had made the distinction between music and noise. We are now in a position to elaborate on this distinction.
Think of construction in which the building block is a brick. If we dump a load of bricks on a plot of land we would have an untidy sight to behold. However, if we arrange the bricks according to a plan or pattern we could have a very elegant structure. The building blocks of music are the swaras. If we toss out swaras without attention to the distance between them, we would have noise. On the other hand, if we choose the swaras well, place them correctly, and determine a judicious path from one to the other, we will have music.
Pursuing this analogy, we can think of music as being an attractive building constructed from swaras. Different arrangements of these swaras would give us different types of buildings. In one conceptualization, we can think of a raaga as a musical building; different raagas represent different types of buildings all of which are constructed from the same set of swaras. It will be this analogy that I will use to motivate an understanding of raagas in a subsequent installment.
At this point, I would like to step back and tie up a few loose ends about musical distance. Recall from a previous installment that we had simplified the notion of musical distance to the extreme by positing just two possible variants – the full step and the half step. Thus, starting from an arbitrarily chosen reference (which we called Sa and denoted as S) we had the following shudh swaras in a saptak:
Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Dha Ni [S]
where [Sa] is the Sa of the subsequent saptak with a frequency double that of the reference Sa.
These are denoted as follows:
S R G M P D N [S]
The musical distance between these swaras required for consonance was determined to be as follows:
STEP, STEP, HALF-STEP, STEP, STEP, STEP, HALF-STEP
Keep in mind that this was an approximation. The steps are not exactly equal in size. For example, the first step from S to R represents the interval 9/8 (1.125) while the second step from R to G represents the interval 5/4 (1.111). When musicians tune their instruments, they tune them in accordance with the exact intervals. The approximations make the exposition simple and the pattern easy to remember.
Now recall that we showed with the help of the keyboard that if we picked a different reference swara, we would have to introduce additional keys in order to maintain the required pattern of steps and half-steps mentioned above. We need five additional keys which in fact create a saptak made up of 12 half-steps. This is done by inserting a new half-step key between every two full steps.
Now we have the 12 swara saptak:
S r R g G M m P d D n N [S]
The distance between each swara is now one half-step and there are 12 half-steps (but not of the same size) in the saptak.
There are two interesting digressions here for the reader interested in theory. They pertain to the peculiarities of the Western and Indian traditions of music.
First, it is important to keep in mind that the Western tradition is instrument-oriented in which a keyboard instrument like the piano plays a central role. By contrast, the Indian tradition revolves around vocal music and its accompanying instruments are primarily string instruments (leaving the percussion instruments out of the discussion for the moment).
Now think of the implications for retuning instruments when the reference swara or key is changed. It is relatively easy to retune string instruments but very cumbersome to retune keyboard instruments like the piano. In fact it is impractical to retune a piano repeatedly. A solution for this problem was found by sacrificing a little bit of the integrity of sound for a whole lot of convenience.
The solution was to make each of the 12 half-steps on the keyboard of exactly the same size. With this change it would not matter which key was picked as the starting one because the musical distances would be the same independent of the choice. It is easy to find the interval represented by the size of this modified half-step. Since all half-steps are now of exactly the same size if we multiply the starting frequency 12 times by the interval of the half-step the resulting frequency should be twice the starting frequency:
1 * (x) ** 12 = 2 where ** signifies that x is raised to the power of 12 or multiplied by itself 12 times.
It follows that x = 12th root of 2 and this can be found on a calculator to be 1.0595.
It also follows that now the size of every full-step is the same with a value (1.0595 * 1.0595) = 1.1225. Thus the interval between S and R is 1.2225 instead of the true value of 1.125 and the interval between R and G is also 1.2225 instead of the true value of 1.111, and so on. These variations are too small to affect the consonance of the music although there has to be a subtle loss of integrity. The resulting scale of 12 equal half-steps is called the equally-tempered scale while the scale with true intervals is called the just-tempered scale. The equally-tempered scale is the compromise that allows pianos and keyboards to be played from any key without the need to be retuned for every change.
In contrast to the keyboard, the human voice is infinitely flexible. It does not jump from one swara to another but glides continuously between them and can rest anywhere in the interval. Thus it is quite possible for a vocalist to decide that a particular composition sounds better with a slightly flatter swara than that provided by the standard variant. For example, instead of a flat or Komal Re, the performer could prefer an even flatter variant called Ati-Komal Re.
This is the logic underlying the discussion of microtones or shrutis. It is claimed that there are 22 and not just 12 pleasant intervals in a saptak that can be distinguished by the human ear. Thus instead of there being one swara between S and R there are 3 shrutis in that interval. Many musicologists have specified exact ratios for these shrutis (for example, the interval 256/243 is given for Sa to Ati-Komal Re) although it is not the interval that determines the resting place but the appeal of the sound to the ear of the performer.
The important thing to keep in mind is that while a keyboard has fixed resting places, for the human voice these are a matter of choice. (It is possible to design keyboard instruments with more than 12 keys in an octave but they become very difficult to play.) Also to be kept in mind is the fact that in a composition, a vocalist (or string instrumentalist) is unlikely to choose more than one shruti of a swara, i.e., he/she would either choose a Komal Re or an Ati-Komal Re but not both. This discussion is enough to give a sense of the place of microtones or shrutis in the Indian tradition.
With this we conclude the discussion of the physics of music. From here on we will be talking about the language of music and the musical constructions that we have equated to raagas.
Those who wish to see and hear a demonstration of shrutis to get a feel for what is involved can do so here on YouTube.
Tags: Appreciation, Indian, Microtones, Music, Scales
This entry was posted on August 26, 2010 at 8:45 pm and is filed under Music. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
8 Responses to “A Modern Introduction to Music – 13”
Thank you for a unique and fabulous introduction to the physics of music. This material should be elaborated and combined with the material to follow into a book.
This reminds me of a question that was discussed earlier on your blog: is Indian musical space discrete or continuous? What would be your response now?
Arun: Thanks for the encouragement. The goal you have suggested can be kept in mind although it would take quite a bit of work to attain it.
The exploration of the physics of music certainly puts us in a better position to discuss whether the Indian musical space is discrete or continuous. From a strictly technical perspective, it is discrete because whatever the number of shrutis, it is not infinite. The number of resting points is finite; ergo, the space is discrete.
From an aural perspective, the musical space comes across as continuous because the melody does not jump from one resting place to another but glides through them.
An illustration might give us something concrete to talk about:
There was an old Indian film song that stuck in my mind because it sounded different from most other film songs: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XitG1Oj0jkE
It was perhaps a quarter century later when I was listening to Mozart’s Symphony No. 40 that I made the connection. The song had that jumpy staccato feel because it was mounted on a Western foundation: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZD9nt_wsY0
Listen to any other Indian film song and note how different it comes across from the first song. The sense of continuity is much stronger: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2w9SBGATr3w&feature=related
Kabir Says:
Is the difference between just temperament and equal temperament perceptible to the ear?
Also, since the harmonium is a western instrument, then it is equally-tempered, right? So, then a lot Indian music also uses the equally-tempered scale, not allowing for the use of the shrutis.
Kabir: Yes, the difference should be perceptible to the trained ear especially if the training has been exclusively on one temperament. It might be difficult for Indian musicians who have learned music with a great deal of reliance on the harmonium.
The harmonium is a western instrument but has been greatly adapted for Indian music. While most harmoniums are equally-tempered, there is nothing that prevents tuning them to just intonation if a performer wants a harmonium for his or her exclusive use. Also, 22 shruti harmoniums have been available for some time.
Here is a useful piece by the inimitable Parrikar that you would find of interest. The bottom line is that the harmonium is fine as an accompanying instrument because it gives a rich sustained sound and its function is not to reproduce a swara by swara copy of the vocalist. The most important advice is to avoid the harmonium while learning music in order to preserve the ear’s sensitivity to the intonations that are possible for the human voice.
http://groups.google.com/group/rec.music.indian.classical/msg/3d7b020e67aee5e6
sakuntala Says:
Kabir,
Good question. Actually when one plays Indian music on the harmonium, one uses the equal temperament scale but develops techniques whereby one quickly alternates between adjacent keys to give the impression of swaras in between (which the keys cannot play) Also, now there is a huge controversy about Carnatic music on the piano (of two leading pianists of the south, one uses benders to create gamakas, the other says he does not , but will play only those ragas which do not call for subtle 22 srutis — Malkauns (Hindolam) Bhoop (Mohanam) etc — and we had a day long seminar on this at Mumbai recently, and the consensus was that as long as one does not try ragas like Sahana (which depend on 22 srutis for getting the raga’s full flavor) Indian music on piano can also be enjoyed…..
I think you have pointed to a very satisfying resolution to the dilemma of discrete vs. continuous. “Ontologically” (i.e. in terms of what “is” or what “exists”), the space is discrete but “phenomenologically” (i.e. as “experienced”), it is continuous. This is similar to a motion picture: it is made up of stills and so is ontologically static but is experienced as moving (owing to the persistence of vision) and so is phenomenologically dynamic. In music, the resting points are finite because the number of consonant ratios is finite, but sliding/gliding notes allow intermediate pitches to be voiced as well. So there is also some difference between music and film. Of course, there are also limits on how much our ears can discriminate.
Just a minor clarification point needed. The jumpiness in the old Hindi song in that link was due to the music, right? Not the singing itself; at least not as jumpy as the music makes it be. Am I right in aurally observing that the music in the Mozart piece was matched not by the instrumental from the Indian piece but by the vocalization?
The link to the Mozart piece is done incorrectly. It still points to the old hindi song.
I’m reminded once again of that post in this blog where you described western music as architecture and Indian music as a painting. Is that because of what you mention here about discreteness and continuity in the notes change?
One more question – Indian classical music lovers like to boast about the superiority of Indian classical over western classical. Is that just pride given what you’ve just described about the 22 swaras in Indian classical and only 12 in western?
Vinod: Most of your questions would be addressed by the video clip I have linked in response to your other comment. I do wish to talk about your last question. I recall we have gone over this issue of superiority and concluded it is not the right perspective. These are different traditions with great histories and we have to engage with them on their own terms. There is nothing that prevents a keyboard being developed with 22 keys in the octave but it would be awkward to play. Western music doesn’t need that because it is instrument-based and layered differently with the development of harmony – many voices singing different notes at one time. Indian music is voice-based and limited to one note at a time. It needs the melodic richness that comes from the 22 shrutis to make it attractive. The use of ornamentation and embellishment in the two traditions is different. Comparing them would be equivalent to saying that Indian marriages are superior to Western marriages, or vice versa. It would not make much sense.
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Thom Truelove's Surfing the Zeitgeist
Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing. – Ben Franklin
Illustration and Design
Sculpture: Pandora’s Pets
Tag Archives: Fandom
Graecum est; non legitur
February 5, 2016 by thomtruelove in Design, Eureka, Imagination, Inspiration, Musing, Perspective, Sci fi and fantasy, Work in Progress and tagged Benjamin Franklin, Circular Gallifreyan, Conlanging, Doctor Who, Fandom, International Phonetic Alphabet, IPA, Noah Webster | Leave a comment
Letters are fascinating. Why shouldn’t we find them so? Their shapes afford us a sense of order if not actual orthodoxy and by them – along with the sounds they represent – we attempt to make ourselves known. Letters are even how we identify ourselves.
As writing systems are essential to our having a recorded history, letters are as old as time. In his last fable, Hyginus states, “The Parcae – Clotho, Lachesis, and Atropos invented seven Greek letters.”
The novel I’ve set in mythological Greece won’t be written in Ancient or Modern Greek but I have been making an effort to get the character names and certain terms correct. Effort at being thorough and accurate has often taken me to the area where fascinating letters become tricky things — in combination they invite pronunciation, spelling, and meaning.
During my formal education the pronunciation key in any dictionary made use of diacritical marks. Later the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) became the key of choice. Though there is an online English-to-IPA translator, I’ve yet to find one that works in reverse. I still have to compare IPA vowels to a diacritical chart.
In addition to the story of Teiresias, another novel in development takes place chiefly in WWII-era Great Britain. This setting brings up an entirely new set of permutations of expression and a few slightly different vowels.
While on his third visit to England and attempting, among other things, to have Pennsylvania made a Royal Colony rather than a proprietary province, Benjamin Franklin devised A Scheme for a new Alphabet and a Reformed Mode of Spelling.
The premise of any phonetic structure – beyond illustrating pronunciation – is that knowing how a word sounds is the same as knowing how to spell it. Dr. Franklin removed c, j, q, w, x, and y. Six new letters were introduced. The rules are not included here but many websites provide them.
It seems unlikely that Franklin’s scheme could have replaced the alphabet; it would have meant having to relearn to read and write for those who already knew. Dr. Franklin did give permission to another to try.
“As an independent nation, our honor requires us to have a system of our own, in language as well as government. Great Britain, whose children we are, and whose language we speak, should no longer be our standard…” — Noah Webster
Both men became more involved with The American War of Independence. Spelling and use of certain words were deliberately – and apparently irrevocably – changed. The British-import alphabet thankfully remained.
When not writing or involved with other arts and history, I sometimes explore the world of conlanging – a documentary about which was directed by a friend of mine – Britton Watkins. Conlanging is the pursuit of developing new languages and/or alphabets, usually for the sake of fiction.
Examples include languages of Tolkien’s elves and of Roddenberry’s aliens (developers include Dorothy Jones Heydt, Mark R. Gardner, and Marc Okrand). Mr. Watkins has also produced a very thorough and beautiful font for writing in Vulcan. The best-known real world conlang may be Esperanto, created by L. L. Zamenhof and offered with high hopes as “an easy-to-learn, politically neutral language”.
I hesitate to say that most conlangers use the IPA while developing their new languages but many do. This is particularly true of most of the dozen or so who’ve attempted a Circular Gallifreyan font. Exceptions include the systems by Loren Sherman and Rachel Sutherland, respectively. Their alphabets are the most commonly used by fandom.
All this to say — we may not have been looking at the symbols of the Time Lords from quite the right vantage point. Every letter – real or imaginary – is two-dimensional. Given time and relative dimensions in space, Gallifreyan letters may not be flat shapes; I don’t think it’s Circular at all. For the sake of art and of curiosity, I am developing a new system and will likely produce a font and/or Photoshop Brush Set. The guide will include IPA and diacritical alike.
鬼劃符
3rd Quadrant, Sector 8023
January 26, 2016 by thomtruelove in Art, Inspiration, Invitation, Panels, Perspective, Respect for the audience, Sci fi and fantasy and tagged Anorak, canon, Christopher Eccleston, Convention panels, David Tennant, Doctor Who, Fandom, Fanon, Gallifreyan, Graphic art, Matt Smith, Peter Capaldi, Steven Moffat, Work in Progress | Leave a comment
If it hadn’t been for the blizzard this post would have been a few days earlier and would have predicted Steven Moffat leaving his position as showrunner of Doctor Who. For some weeks, he had been discussing when he’d know it was time to go. This changed to news of his “actively seeking” his replacement early this month. There was other data but – as this post can no longer prove prescience – it is hoped you’ll enjoy a slightly different Doctor Who-related story.
In mid-September of last year, while attending a new convention, I was asked to be a guest panelist for a Doctor Who discussion. I am leaving anonymous those who invited me to participate as a courtesy due to the nature of this story. They’ll be getting private messages about this post and can certainly chime in when they see this and if they so wish.
One of the questions posed in two parts to the audience for a show-of-hands response was: “How many like the new Doctor (Peter Capaldi)?”
The reaction was mixed and one who raised her hand to express a negative opinion was probably in her very early teens. The moderator asked her specifically why she was opposed to the 12th Doctor.
She informed us that she’d heard there was a policy that the Doctor was supposed to be getting younger. Apparently she believed Gallifreyans experience the equivalent of aging backwards – incrementally – with each regeneration. Given that Christopher Eccleston is 7 years older than David Tennant, who is 11 years older than Matt Smith, it seems she was expecting an incarnation portrayed by an actor in his (or her) early 20s or even younger.
This would certainly mean the Doctor’s and her own age would more or less match up with the 13th.
One of the lines Mr. Capaldi has delivered while playing the part was: “Clara, I’m not your boyfriend.” There’s no evidence that the girl in the audience wanted a younger actor in the role to facilitate a crush. More of her comments made it seem more likely she wanted to see the Doctor as a kind of playmate, though.
My heart went out to the girl in the audience then and still does to some extent. How does one correct a misapprehension about BBC policy, or showrunner intent, or Doctor Who canon without stepping on a dream? Isn’t one of the features of DW how easily it engages our imagination?
With Mr. Moffat’s departure the only installment of DW in 2016 will be the next Christmas special. The new companion series “Class” doesn’t start filming until Spring and won’t air until next year either. The target demographic for Class would seem to be much closer to the age of the girl at the panel. I hope she finds her peer in it.
I could say I hate waiting (because I do). I could say I’m happy to see Moffat’s tenure end (as I am). But I think this year-plus gap in Doctor Who affords all of us fresh territory in the imagination it invites – the Girl in the Audience included.
I’ve already been inspired; there’s a new art project inspired by these and other thoughts.
Let’s see where this goes. Or, in other words, stay tuned.
δ³Σx²
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Posts tagged with "Jamie Foxx"
XXXTENTACION’S ESTATE RELEASE FIRST POSTHUMOUS ALBUM
XXXTentacion remains the voice of his generation. His second album, ?, bowed at #1 on the Billboard Top 200, went platinum, yielded 5.2 billion global streams, and achieved sales of 3.2 million global equivalent albums. Among its stacked track listing, the record boasted “SAD!” (4x-platinum), “MOONLIGHT” (2x-platinum), and “CHANGES” (2x-platinum). In 2018, the BET Hip Hop Awards crowned him “Best New Hip Hop Artist” as 17 earned “Favorite Album – Soul/R&B” at the American Music Awards. He can count Kendrick Lamar, Kanye West, Nicki Minaj, Camila Cabello, and Academy® Award winner Jamie Foxx amongst his supporters and admirers as well. His influence and impact only continue to grow.
the release. Now, the track showcases the impressive power of his verses as it upholds an emotional connection to listeners that only becomes stronger by the day. Cathartic, clever, and catchy, “BAD” represents XXXTentacion at his fieriest.
A limited-edition Bad Vibes Forever merch collection also dropped today to celebrate the release of the new single. Bravado partnered with XXXTentacion before he passed to create a clothing line that speaks to his fans, and his own personal sense of style. Select t-shirts, polos and hoodies are available now, download hi-res photos of the collection here, and watch the compelling behind-the-scenes video that gives insight into the making of XXXTentacion’s original designs and clothing line here. Visit www.shopxxxtentacion.com for more information.
“BAD” follows up the stratospheric success of his Latin flavored collaborative single with Lil Pump, “Arms Around You” [feat. Maluma & Swae Lee]. Produced by Skrillex, Mally Mall and JonFX, the song crashed the Billboard Hot 100 at #28 and racked up over 100 million streams and counting.
Skins marks the next evolution of XXXTentacion and his most powerful, poetic, and personal expression yet.
This entry was posted in Fashion + Music and tagged 360 Magazine, alternative music, amas, apple music, art, broward county, camila cabello, Canada, Cape Town, Celebrity, Chicago, China, culture magazine, Dade county, Dallas, design, edgy fashion magzine, Florida, Global Society, hip hop, Indie Music, iTunes, Jakarta, Jamie Foxx, Japan, Johanessburg, jonfx, Kanye West, Kendrick Lamar, lil pump, London, Los Angeles, mally mall, Maluma, Melbourne, Miami, Milan, music, Netherlands, New York, newmusic, Nicki Minaj, Paris, San Francisco, singer song writer, Ski Mask The Slump God, skins, Skrillex, Spanish music, spotify, Swae Lee, Sweden, Sydney, tidal, Vaughn Lowery, XXXtentacion on November 9, 2018 by wp360mag.
Fuse celebrates “Hip-Hop at 45”
The Thursday, June 28th launch lineup:
Fuse.tv will premiere three all new episodes of Rant & Rave featuring two of the hottest ladies in the rap game today, Young M.A and Snow tha Product as well as hip-hop royalty, Salt-N-Pepa. A fresh episode of Lie Detector with hip-hop legends DJ Skribble & Kid Capri follows along with a brand new episode of the ASMR-triggering, digital series Mind Massage with Tierra Whack.
FM @ 8 p.m. ET The Artists to Watch weekly block celebrates the future of hip-hop, spotlighting the freshest up-and-coming artists making waves in the industry, both today and tomorrow such as Trippie Redd, Sango, and HoodCelebrityy.
Fuse @ 9 p.m. ET It’s a triple-hitter movie night, beginning with the classics Torque, Rhyme & Reason, and I Got The Hook Up starring hip-hop greats including Ice Cube, Master P, Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs, and Lauryn Hill, among others. Additional featured movies throughout the summer are top lined by bevy of hip-hop star power including Jay Z, Nas, Kanye West, Snoop Dogg, Dr. Dre, Method Man, Redman, Cam’ron, Trey Songz, T.I., Chris Brown, Ja Rule, and more.
Across all Fuse social channels, Hip-Hop at 45 launches with the biggest “beefs” in hip-hop, and a “Today in Hip-Hop history” #TBT. Featured social content rollout includes “Hip-Hop + album/street art” on Mondays, “Fashion in Hip-Hop” on Tuesdays, “Women in Hip-Hop“ #WCW on Wednesdays, “Hip-Hop playlists by the decade” on Fridays, “Photography in Hip-Hop” on Saturdays, and “Sports + Hip-Hop” on Sundays.
This lineup also includes:
Fuse.tv debut special 45th Anniversary-themed episodes of Weekly News Rap, the original digital series recapping the week’s hottest news and trends, performed by today’s emerging rap stars, kicking off with Harlem battle rapper, Loaded Lux, spitting the history of battle rap. And we’ll have A Seat With… rap legend Big Daddy Kane. Also debuting during Hip-Hop at 45 is Made from Scratch with Ayo & Teo. Additionally, Fuse.tv will celebrate Hip-Hop at 45 with the premieres of two original digital series: Deep Cuts (working title), an interview series delivering an intimate look into the lives and creative process of emerging and established producers in the hip-hop industry; and The Kickback (working title), a roundtable-style digital series exploring hip-hop culture.
Every Saturday at 6p ET/3p PT throughout the 45 days, FM will offer a series of Hip-Hop at 45 video countdowns, celebrating the latest and greatest hip-hop artists in the game. Featured music video blocks:45 Legends of Hip-Hop, will lace you with the classic videos from the legends that paved the way in hip-hop such as The Notorious B.I.G., 2Pac and Big Pun; Hip-Hop’s First Hits drops the music videos that made you fall in love with some of your favorite hip-hop artists including 50 Cent’s “In Da Club,” Eminem’s “Slim Shady,” Kanye West’s “Through the Wire” and more; 45 Freshman of Hip-Hop gets you acquainted with the freshman class of hip-hop stars like Flatbush Zombies, Lil Uzi Vert, and Goldlink who are making waves in the culture; 45 Videos of the 2000s drops it like it’s hot with the best music videos of the 2000s from Snoop Dogg, 50 Cent, Outkast, and UGK; Iconic Hip-Hop Videos flashes back to the most iconic hip-hop videos of all time such as 2Pac’s “Changes”, NWA’s “Straight Outta Compton” and Nas’ “If I Ruled the World”; 45 Hip-Hop Crossovers highlights some of the most unlikely collabs in hip-hop like Aerosmith’s “Walk This Way,” Lincoln Park’s “Numb,” and Marshmello’s “Silence”; and FM’s Guide to the 45 Best Hip-Hop Videos will school you on the best hip-hop videos of all time including The Notorious B.I.G. “Juicy,” Childish Gambino’s “This Is America,” and Missy Elliot’s “Work It.”
Tune in to Fuse for a four-night event beginning Sunday, August 5th, for the television premiere of Hip-Hop Evolution. This docu-series chronicles the life and career of hip-hop pioneers such as Kool Herc, Afrika Bambaataa, Grandmaster Flash, Melle Mel, Grandmaster Caz, DJ Jazzy Jay, Kool Moe Dee, Big Daddy Kane, Kurtis Blow, Chuck D, Fab 5 Freddy, Sugarhill Gang, Russell Simmons and LL Cool J, among others through in-depth interviews, archived footage and more. And for the duration of the stunt, Fuse will be commemorating with featured episodes starring a lineup of hip-hop all-stars with guest appearances on Moesha (Jamie Foxx, Russell Simmons, A Tribe Called Quest, Usher Raymond, Mary J. Blige, and Dr. Dre); Sister, Sister (Mya, Tyrese, and BlackStreet); and The Parkers (Warren G, Nick Cannon, and Lil’ Kim).
Fuse’s Hip Hop at 45 programming:
https://www.fuse.tv/shows/hip-hop-at-45
New episode of Lie Detector featuring DJ Skribble and Kid Capri:
https://www.fuse.tv/videos/2018/06/dj-skribble-kid-capri-hip-hip-at-45-lie-detector-interview
New episode of Rant & Rave featuring Snow tha Product:
https://www.fuse.tv/videos/2018/06/snow-tha-product-hip-hop-at-45-rant-and-rave-interview
New episode of Rant & Rave featuring Salt-N-Pepa:
https://www.fuse.tv/videos/2018/06/salt-n-pepa-hip-hop-at-45-rant-and-rave-interview
New episode of Rant & Rave featuring Young M.A:
https://www.fuse.tv/videos/2018/06/young-ma-hip-hop-at-45-rant-and-rave-interview
This entry was posted in Uncategorized and tagged 360 Magazine, 50 Cent, a tribe called quest, Afrika Bambaataa, artists, Atrin Yazdani-Biuki, ayo & teo, Big Daddy Kane, Blackstreet, changes, childish gambino, Chuck D, collabs, Debut, debuting, DJ Jazzy Jay, Dr. Dre, Eminem, Fab 5 Freddy, FM, fuse, Fuse.tv, goldlink, Grandmaster Caz, Grandmaster Flash, hip hop, iconic, If I Ruled the World, In Da Club, interviews, Jamie Foxx, juicy, Kanye West, Kool Herc, Kurtis Blow, lil Kim, lil uzi vert, Lincoln Park, ll cool j, Marshmello, Mary j. blige, Melle Mel, Missy Elliot, music videos, Mya, Nas, Nick Cannon, Numb, NWA, Outkast, pop culture, rap, rapper, rapping, Russell Simmons, Silence, Sister, slim shady, Snoop Dogg, Straight Outta Compton, Sugarhill Gang, The Parkers, This Is America, Through the Wire, tv, Tyrese, Usher Raymond, Vaughn Lowery, videos, Walk This Way, Warren G, Weekly News Rap, Work It, 2Pac, Aerosmith, Big Pun, Flatbush Zombies, Hip-Hop Evolution, Kool Moe Dee, Loaded Lux, Moesha, Notorious B.I.G., UGK on June 28, 2018 by wp360mag.
Tens of thousands of fans, friends, and family touched by the everlasting light of Jahseh Onfroy a.k.a. XXXTentacion congregated at Florida Panthers Stadium in Sunrise, FL to commemorate his life and celebrate the legacy he built earlier today.
Planned by his mom, the public viewing and fan memorial allowed audiences to pay their respects to the multiplatinum game-changing artist together and do so in harmony. A moving tribute video created by Justin Staple, Quinton Dominguez, and Tyler Benz [Vice/Noisey] played for the capacity crowd during the proceedings as XXXTentacion’s music played inside and out of the stadium. Various celebrity VIPs attended, including Lil Yachty, Ugly God, Denzel Curry, Skai Jackson, Lil Uzi Vert, Adam 22 and more. Fans also left thousands of messages on commutative poster boards. XXXTentacion’s tribute video and images from the memorial can be found below.
Download photos HERE.
Photo Credit: Larry Marano
Watch XXXTentacion’s tribute video HERE.
This represents the culmination of a week of memorials across the country by fans everywhere. Beyond an outpouring of social media support from Kanye West, Diddy, J. Cole, Big Sean, and more, Academy® Award winner Jamie Foxx took to the stage at the BET Awards to deliver a moving message in remembrance. Longtime friend and collaborator Ski Mask The Slump God donned a mask in honor as further tributes poured in from the ceremony courtesy of actor Christian Keyes, Desiigner, and many others. Meanwhile, Meek Mill sported an XXXTentacion shirt during his much talked-about performance of the new single “Stay Woke.”
At the same time, XXXTentacion’s multiplatinum single “SAD!” from the chart-dominating ? ascended to #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 as if forever cementing his impact. Leaping from #52 to #1, the song becomes “the first posthumous #1 for a lead soloist since The Notorious B.I.G.’s ‘Mo Money Mo Problems in 1997,” according to Billboard. Eight other tracks hold spots in the Hot 100 such as “Moonlight” at #16, “Changes” at #18, “Jocelyn Flores” at #19, “FK Love” [feat. Trippie Redd] at #28, “Everybody Dies In Their Nightmares” at #42, “The Remedy for a Broke Heart (Why Am I So in Love)” at #58, “Hope” at #80, and “Numb” at #82. At Spotify, “SAD!” crushed Taylor Swift’s record for “Most Streams in a Single Day” and generated over 10.1 million in less than 24 hours.
XXXTentacion remains the voice of his generation, and that voice will live on forever.
This entry was posted in Design and tagged 360 Magazine, Academy® Award winner, Actor, artist, Atrin Yazdani-Biuki, bet awards, big Sean, billboard, Billboard Hot 100, Celebrity, changes, Christian Keyes, Denzel curry, Desiigner, diddy, Everybody Dies In Their Nightmares, FK Love, fl, Florida Panthers Stadium, hope, j cole, Jamie Foxx, Jocelyn Flores, Justin Staple, Kanye West, lil uzi vert, Lil Yachty, meek mill, Memorial, Mo Money Mo Problems, moonlight, music, Noisey, Numb, pop culture, Quinton Dominguez, rapper, SAD!, singer, Ski Mask The Slump God, spotify, Stay Woke, Sunrise, Taylor swift, The Notorious B.I.G, The Remedy for a Broke Heart, tribute video, Trippie Redd, Tyler Benz, Ugly God, Vaughn Lowery, Vice, VIP, Why Am I So in Love, XXXtentacion, Adam 22, Jahseh Onfroy, Skai Jackson on June 27, 2018 by wp360mag.
JIM CHAPMAN x CANNES FILM FESTIVAL
Ahead of the 71st annual Cannes Film Festival, Jim Chapman, Writer and Content Creator, celebrates the upcoming A-list event with exclusive insight into the most memorable moments from previous years, and what to expect from this year’s festival.
Jim gives us the lowdown on Cannes, one of the most prestigious film festivals in the world. He recalls back in 2011, when Kanye West performed an exclusive after party set and invited Academy Award winner Jamie Foxx onstage for an impromptu performance of his hit single, ‘Gold Digger’.
Jim also recounts his untold insight from the 2015 festival when Benicio Del Toro, Josh Brolin and director Denis Villeneuve all wore high heels to the premiere of Sicario, as a demonstration against an antiquated dress code requiring women to wear heels to all evening gala premieres. Famously, Julia Roberts appeared barefoot on the red carpet as an act of fashion rebellion against the same rule too.
As Cannes is one of the most anticipated red carpet events of the awards calendar, Jim is expecting to see Hollywood star, Cate Blanchett pull out all the stops, as this year, as she has been named President of the Jury, alongside other actresses including Kristen Stewart and Léa Seydoux to name but a few.
Jim also discusses the stir caused by organizers who have banned Netflix productions being considered for the Palme D’Or and Netflix’s decision to withdraw their title from the festival.
This entry was posted in Uncategorized and tagged 147 Things, 360 Magazine, A Hilariously Brilliant Guide to this Thing Called Life, Academy Award, After Party, Benicio Del Toro, cannes film festival, Cate Blanchett, charnese ballard, Denis Villeneuve, edgy fashion, edgy fashion magzine, film, film festival, gala, gala premiere, Gold Digger, hollywood, Hollywood Star, impromptu, Jamie Foxx, Jim Chapman, Josh Brolin, Julia Roberts, Kanye West, Kristen Stewart, Léa Seydoux, memorable moments, men's fashion, model, Netflix, Palme D’Or, party, performance, President of the Jury, Sicario, Super Bacardi Media Centre, the Crew, Vaughn Lowery, vlog, vlogger, writer, YouTube on May 4, 2018 by wp360mag.
SHALVA HOSTED EVENING OF LOVE AND DISABILITY AWARENESS
Held at the Frost Museum of Science, Guests Learned More About the Esteemed Organization and Enjoyed a Special Performance by DJ Irie Beneath the Aquarium
MIAMI, Fla. (February 9, 2018) — On Wednesday, February 7th 2018, Shalva, the esteemed non-profit dedicated to aiding those with disabilities of all ages, presented an exclusive director screening of the 2015 Emmy-nominated film, Autism In Love by Director Matt Fuller that was held at the newly opened Planetarium at the Patricia and Philip Frost Museum of Science in Downtown Miami in tandem with the romantic occasion.
Founder Kalman Samuels created the non-denominational organization in Jerusalem, Israel with the aim of providing and quality care for those of all ages and socio-economic backgrounds free of charge as well as dedicated scientific research of various disabilities that ultimately fosters a more inclusive society.
Following the special screening, guests moved to The Deep space just beneath the eye-catching aquarium and enjoyed sounds by DJ Irie, who spinned lively tunes in the later part of the evening. Curated cocktails were served by award-winning Dominican rum brand Ron Barceló and guests enjoyed delectable gourmet kosher offerings in sushi, kebabs and desserts. During this portion, Shalva gave remarks while guests carefully engaged in the organization and the organization’s exciting plans for the future. After the event wrapped up, guests were given gift bags by Italian fragrance house Acqua di Parma.
ABOUT SHALVA
Shalva, the Israel Association for Care and Inclusion of Persons with Disabilities, is dedicated to providing quality care for individuals with disabilities, empowering their families and promoting social tolerance. Non-denominational and free of charge, Shalva’s programs provide care for over 2,000 participants from infancy to adulthood. The organization’s advocacy initiatives, community events and disability research continue to inspire a more inclusive society. For more information, please visit:
http://www.shalva.org/new/
ABOUT DJ IRIE
Dominating any venue and infusing every party with his seemingly infinite energy, DJ Irie has captivated the entire industry. Miami’s hometown DJ serves as the official DJ of the 3-time NBA World Champion Miami HEAT, Carnival Cruise Lines, and superstar Jamie Foxx. Irie is also the man behind Irie Music, Corp., co-owner of Lou La Vie Exotic Car Rental, SweetKix.com, Pucci’s Pizza, Venture Projects, LLC investment firm and his partnerships feature a “Who’s Who” of blue-chip companies and brands looking to reach a tastemaker audience and He’s the #1 choice for countless celebrities and high-profile events everywhere from South Beach to Singapore, and has performed on some of the world’s biggest stages, including the American Music Awards, MTV VMA’s, FIFA World Cup, International Premier Tennis League, Daytona 500, Super Bowl, and NBA All-Star, and at corporate events for Louis Vuitton, Google, Red Bull, Hublot and General Motors. Irie is philanthropic efforts include his Irie Foundation and Irie Weekend, one of South Florida’s most buzzworthy celebrity charity events of the year.
ABOUT RON BARCELO
Ron Barceló was founded by Julian Barceló in 1930 in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. The brand quickly gained popularity throughout the Dominican Republic, and was soon exported internationally throughout the Caribbean, Europe and the Americas. Today, the brand’s world class portfolio of award- winning rums includes Barceló Imperial Premium Blend 30 Aniversario, Barceló Imperial, Barceló Gran Platinum, Barceló Gran Añejo and Barceló Añejo. For more information, please visit
www.ronbarcelousa.com.
This entry was posted in Uncategorized and tagged 360 Magazine, Acqua di Parma, adulthood, aquarium, art, Association, Autism, Autism In Love, awareness, Canada, Cape Town, care, Caribbean, celebration, Celebrity, Charity, charity event, China, culture magazine, design, disabilities, DJ Irie, Documentary, Dominican Republic, downtown Miami, edgy fashion magazine, edgy fashion magzine, Emmy, empowerment, europe, event, exclusive, exhibition, film, Florida, food, Frost Museum of Science, Global Society, infancy, initiatives, Irie Foundation, Irie Weekend, Israel, italian, Italy, Jamie Foxx, Japan, Jerusalem, Johanessburg, Kalman Samuels, kebab, London, Los Angeles, Lou La Vie, love, Matt Fuller, Melbourne, Miami, Milan, movie, museum of science, music, musician, Netherlands, New York, non-profit, organization, party, Patricia and Philip Frost Museum, philanthropy, planetarium, Research, romantic, Ron Barceló, rum, San Francisco, Santo Domingo, Screening, Shalva, Singapore, society, south beach, Sydney, The Deep, tolerance, Vaughn Lowery on February 15, 2018 by wp360mag.
ASHLEY BENSON × PRIVÉ REVAUX
PRIVÉ REVAUX LAUNCHES NEW COLLECTION AND CAMPAIGN
Brand upgrades offerings with The Icon Collection and new prescription lens program from partners Jamie Foxx, Hailee Steinfeld, Jeremy Piven and Ashley Benson
Following the brand’s successful launch this summer, Privé Revaux is releasing its second collection of handcrafted eyewear, along with a new campaign starring brand partners Jamie Foxx, Hailee Steinfeld, Jeremy Piven and Ashley Benson; styled by creative directors Mariel Haenn and Rob Zangardi, and shot by Steven Taylor. Along with the new collection, Privé Revaux will also debut prescription glasses and new exciting retailers.
The new Icon Collection pays homage to iconic figures who ignite inspiration, both current and past—The Einstein, The McQueen, The Karl, The Jackie O. Each design has been upgraded in both quality and design, crafted by hand with high-end materials including acetate and a proprietary lightweight, yet durable metal alloy. Additional features include newly designed hinge screws and more; all still retailing for only $29.95 per pair.
In addition to new styles, Privé Revaux will also expand from traditional sunglasses to prescription sunglasses and optical frames with the new Privélege program. Launching within the next few weeks, Privélege is a subscription service that grants members exclusive access to money saving benefits. For only $29.95/year (the price of one pair of Privé Revaux glasses), members can add prescription lenses to their Privé Revaux frames at wholesale cost. Frames with prescription lenses will begin at $59.95 (depending on lens type), a fraction of the price of typical prescription glasses. In addition, members will be privileged with early access to limited-edition frames and exclusive discounts. To enhance the shopping experience, customers can utilize “The Reframer Virtual Try-On,” a digital tool exclusively on PriveRevaux.com where customers can upload a selfie to see how any frame will fit their face prior to purchase.
“Since inception, Privé Revaux designs have been consistently selling out, so we wanted to offer our customers new and fresh styles to love. We’ve upgraded everything from high-end materials to affordable prescription lenses, as well as a better user experience with a digital try-on tool, local kiosks and brick-and-mortar retail expansion so buyers can easily find the perfect fit—all at the same amazing price,” says David Schottenstein, Privé Revaux Founder.
Since June, Privé Revaux has rapidly expanded it retail footprint. The Icon Collection will not only be available online at PriveRevaux.com and retail giant Amazon.com but also at major department stores, Privé Revaux-branded kiosks and brick-and-mortar shops this November. Privé Revaux will also be launching in Australia and New Zealand in partnership with Catch Group, selling through the retailer’s various sales channels including Catch.com.au. Additionally, the brand will be available internationally in Canada, Colombia, Mexico, Japan, China, Singapore, Malaysia, Taiwan, Indonesia, South Africa, Norway, UK, Italy, the Philippines and the Middle East.
Photo Credit: Steven Taylor/Privé Revaux
About Privé Revaux Eyewear:
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This entry was posted in Design and tagged 360 Magazine, accessories, Adam Driver, Adele, Alicia Vikander, Ariana Grande, ashley benson, Barack Obama, Bella hadid, Beyonce, Blac chyna, Blake lively, brad pitt, brie Larson, Britney Spears, Cam Newton, cardi b, Celebrities, Celine Dion, coldplay, Daisy Ridley, design, Diana Macaraeg, Donald Trump, Drake, Emma stone, emma watson, fashion, Gigi hadid, grace vanderwaal, Hailee Steinfeld, harry styles, icon collection, jaden smith, Jamie Foxx, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Jenna Dewan Tatum, Jennifer Aniston, Jennifer Lawrence, Jennifer Lopez, Jeremy Piven, Jesse Williams, Jessie J., Jodie Sweetin, Johnny depp, Justin bieber, Kanye West, KAte Mckinnon, Katie Holmes, Katy perry, Kehlani, Kendal jenner, Kesha, Kevin Durant, Khloé Kardashian, kim kardashian, kourtney Kardashian’s, Kristen Stewart, Kylie Jenner, lady Gaga, Leonardo dicaprio, leslie Jones, Lin-Manuel Miranda, luxury, Marion Cotillard, Megan Fox, Meghan Markle, miley cyrus, Millie Bobby Brown, pop culture, prive revaux, rihanna, scarlet johansson, Sebastian Stan, Selena Gomez, sunglasses, swag, Taylor Lautner, Taylor swift, teyana Taylor, Thomas Gibson, Tom Hiddleston, tom holland, usain bolt, Vaughn Lowery, zayn Malik on October 18, 2017 by Pitch360.
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HomeMilitary AviationU.S. Air Force deploys F-22 stealth jets to Japan as a deterrence to North Korea and as a show of force to China
U.S. Air Force deploys F-22 stealth jets to Japan as a deterrence to North Korea and as a show of force to China
November 25, 2014 David Cenciotti Military Aviation 13
American F-22 stealth aircraft have been deployed to Japan for a deterrence and security exercise in the region.
U.S. Air Force F-22 Raptor stealth multi-role aircraft from 525th Fighter Squadron at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska, deployed to Kadena Air Base, in Japan, to take part in exercise Keen Sword, underway from Nov. 8 through Nov. 19.
The deployment has a dual purpose: let U.S. aircrews fly and train with local Japan Air Self Defense Forces, and show the presence of Washington’s most advanced fighter plane in service in a region where tensions have risen over maritime disputes in the South China Sea.
Held biennially since 1986, Exercise Keen Sword includes anti-submarine warfare, surface warfare, air-to-air and air defense warfare scenarios. This year, the drills involve about 11,000 personnel from U.S. Forces Japan, 5th Air Force, U.S. Naval Forces Japan, U.S. Army Japan, and III Marine Expeditionary Force. Among the Air Force units taking part in the exercise there are also 33rd Rescue Squadron from Kadena and 212th Rescue Squadron from Eielson Air Force Base, Alaska, that are training with their Japanese colleagues at Komatsu Air Base.
According to the Air Force, F-22s, that have had their combat first against ISIS in Syria and Iraq, have recently been active in training exercises in the region, “serving as a deterrence to North Korea and as a show of force to China.”
Earlier this year Raptors operated out of Osan Air Base, South Korea as part of large-scale exercise Foal Eagle.
Image credit: U.S. Air Force
U.S. F-15 pilots with GoPro cameras: One of the Best Cockpit Videos Ever
Russian Bombers Fly 50 Miles off California. F-22s and F-15s intercept them.
Rapid Raptor package: U.S. Air Force’s new concept for deploying four F-22 stealth fighters in 24 hours
U.S. to deploy 12 F-22 Raptor stealth fighter jets to Japan
F-22 Raptor stealth jets to get automatic backup oxygen systems to prevent new hypoxia-like symptoms
WC-135 in action following DPRK test: how the U.S. Air Force Sniffs for Nuclear Explosions
All the intelligence gathering planes spying on North Korea’s imminent missile launch
Kadena Air Base
Keen Sword
Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor
KC-767 performs special bio-containment flight to transport Italy’s first case of Ebola
Mystery surrounds video showing Alitalia flight escorted by two German Eurofighters
This Video Shows U.S. MQ-9 Reaper Drone Destroying a Russian-made T-72 Tank in Syria
February 14, 2018 David Cenciotti Syria, Troubled Areas 21
The U.S. Air Force Central Command has released the video of a T-72 tank destroyed by a drone in Syria. The following video shows a U.S. MQ-9 Reaper drone destroying a Russian-made T-72 main battle […]
Check Out This Cool GoPro Video Of The 480th FS “Warhawks” F-16CMs Flying Over Portugal
June 12, 2019 David Cenciotti Military Aviation 0
Spangdahlem’s 480th Fighter Squadron deployed to Monte Real Air Base earlier this year. And this is a video showing what they have done in Portugal. The “Warhawks” have been travelling quite a bit lately. As […]
Troubled Areas
This video of an F-15E Strike Eagle refueling over Iraq exposes an unusual loadout of 2,000 lb bombs
May 12, 2016 David Cenciotti Troubled Areas, War on ISIS, Weapons 6
This is a quite unusual loadout: at least three GBU-31 bunker buster bombs. The footage below exposes something interesting. It shows a KC- 135 from the 340th Expeditionary Air Refueling Squadron, refueling F-15E Strike Eagles […]
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I cut the cord TODAY! I purchased a $25 indoor antenna thru Amazon. Where I live, I cannot get Dish, DirecTV, or even Cell Service. I couldn’t wait to rid myself of TWC! So, I’m shocked that with this antenna I’m receiving 15 channels. Of the 15, two are for kids and eight are basically old, brought-back series I once loved but no longer hold my attention or interest. So, I’m left with 5 channels that are sorta-kinda decent. It’s not great, but it’s okay. Considering that I am saving $732 a year, I can live with that and thank God I still have the internet so I can watch live news and probably get some other live shows that I’ll miss watching on TV. I will see how that goes. I just WISH I had one decent World News channel, like CNN, MSN or Fox, and one decent renovations channel as well as one forensics/true crime channel. Then my TV watching world would be perfect!
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In August 2007, Russia Today became the first television channel to report live from the North Pole (with the report lasting five minutes and 41 seconds). An RT crew participated in the Arktika 2007 Russian polar expedition, led by Artur Chilingarov on the Akademik Fyodorov icebreaker.[42][43] On 31 December 2007, RT's broadcasts of New Year's Eve celebrations in Moscow and Saint Petersburg were broadcast in the hours prior to the New Year's Eve event at New York City's Times Square.[43]
Google was comparatively late to the game, but it's carved out itself a nice little niche with YouTube TV. Its interface is no-nonsense, even drab, and yet it offers most of the features a cable service can give you -- namely, a robust channel lineup including local channels in just about every area it serves. It also has a very strong DVR, including unlimited storage, with one catch: If an episode you've recorded appears in YouTube TV's VOD library, it gets replaced by the on-demand version -- so you lose the ability to fast-forward through commercials. And unlike Sling and others, it's dead simple: one package, one price, done.
That means all you need is an antenna to start grabbing these network TV signals to display on your television. Now I know what you’re thinking. If you were born before 1985, you probably have vivid memories of static all over the screen as mom or dad adjust the antenna. Digital doesn’t work that way. If your antenna can pick up the channel, then you get the picture as clear as it can be. Otherwise, you don’t get the picture.
Goverment & TV stations told us to just get convertor boxes and we would continue to get free antenna TV. I have 4 convertor boxes 1 tv with a new on roof antennae. A second with side roof antenna. and 2 with indoor rabbit ears. CHANNEL 10 ONE OF MY MOST WATCHED CHANNELS FROM ALBANY IS NOT COMING IN AT ALL. CH 6 FRom ALBANY CAN COME IN ON ALL 4 TV’S. 4 CHANNELS FROM ALBANY ARE VIEWABLE WITH THE NEW ROOF ANTENNA BUT NOT ON INDOOR SETUPS. ARE THERE ANY INDOOR ANTENNAS WITH INCREASED RECEPTION
These services offer the network TV channels you crave: ESPN, AMC, TBS, and a whole lot more. You can subscribe to premium channels like HBO through these same services (they're usually available as add-ons for a set price), and you'll also get major broadcast networks like ABC, CBS, Fox, and NBC – though the catch with those four is that they'll be available in select markets only. The major skinny bundles also offer a mix of regional sports networks (in their relevant markets only), meaning you may be able to cancel cable and still watch your favorite local professional and college sports teams.
Ever have recording conflicts? Want to take your home theater to the next level? Get the smart DVR that top tech outlets like CNET, PCMag, and WIRED are swooning over. The Hopper 3® Whole-Home HD DVR has double the recording capacity of the Hopper—which was already the industry leader in recording capacity–and features like commercial skipping and Multi-View mode for watching four games at once.
Optical: Though a similar technology to the old-school audio interface, HDMI-over-optical is capable of far greater bandwidth. It's also capable of far greater distances. It's easy to find options that are over 330ft/100m. Prices have dropped radically in the last few years, with options available for similar prices per-foot as traditional copper cables. Most don't even need external power. They work, and look, just like a thin HDMI cable.
By the early 1990s, United Video began encouraging cable systems still using either the full- or split-screen versions of the Amiga 1000-based EPG Sr. to upgrade to the Amiga 2000-based Prevue Guide. Active support for the Amiga 1000-based EPG Sr. installations was discontinued in 1993. Like the Amiga 1000-based EPG Sr., Prevue Guide also ran from bootable 3½ diskettes, and its locally customizable features remained configurable only from the local keyboard, subjecting viewers to the same on-screen maintenance-related interruptions by local cable company employees as before[9] (silent remote administration of locally customizable features would not be added until the "yellow grid" appeared shortly after the beginning of the TV Guide Channel era, when the Amiga platform was fully abandoned). To support Prevue Guide's new, satellite-delivered video and audio, each Amiga 2000 featured a UV Corp. UVGEN video/genlock card for the satellite feed's video and a Zephyrus Electronics Ltd model 100 rev. C demodulator/switching ISA card for manipulating the feed's audio. Also included were a Zephyrus Electronics Ltd. model 101 rev. C demodulator ISA card for the WGN data stream, and a Great Valley Products Zorro II A2000 HC+8 Series II card (used only for 2 MB of Fast RAM with SCSI disabled).[10] The 101C fed demodulated listings data at 2400 baud from a DE9 RS232 serial connector on its backpanel to the Amiga's stock DB25 RS232 serial port via a short cable. The 101C also featured connection terminals for contact closure triggering of external cable system video playback equipment.
Spectrum cable TV packages enable you to watch more quality TV with less payout. Your subscriptions to bundle packages are not just about the number of channels, but the significant FREE HD. The on-screen picture is so realistic and immersive that you experience 3D cinematic picture at home. The Spectrum cable prices also provide access to TV App and TV on-the-go. Whether your home or on-the-go, Spectrum TV™ App gives you access to a complete line of up to 10,000+ On Demand TV shows and movies - on your mobile or home screen. There’s always something more for someone of every taste. Get yourself hooked to one of the Spectrum cable plans and find the difference!
Although most cable systems kept the original, full-screen EPG in operation well into the early 1990s, some systems with large numbers of subscribers opted for this upgraded version of EPG Sr. in order to exploit the revenue potential of its graphical local advertising capabilities. The Atari-based EPG Jr. was never afforded this split-screen upgrade and fell out of favor during the late 1980s as cable systems migrated to the full- or split-screen Amiga 1000-based EPG Sr., and later to the Amiga 2000-based Prevue Guide. However, the EPG Jr. remained in service as late as 2005 on a few small cable systems, as well as on a number of private cable systems operated by various hotel chains and certain housing and apartment complexes.
By 2015, Wall Street had changed its tune. With about 40 million U.S. subscribers, Netflix was becoming a clearer threat. Analysts started pushing media companies to reclaim those old episodes from Netflix to make cable TV more attractive, which could slow the rise of cord-cutting. That year, Todd Juenger, an influential analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein & Co, estimated that big media companies, including Viacom, Fox, and CBS, would have been worth a total $45 billion more if they hadn’t done business with Netflix in the first place.
Last, download the necessary software. You can download a compatible app for your Mac right from myhdhomerun.com. You can also download the HDHomerun app for iPhone and iPad. On Apple TV, you can use Plex with your Plex Pass subscription or Emby with an Emby Premier subscription, or you could also side load Kodi and use the HDHomeRun add-on. If you don't already use Plex, Emby, or Kodi on your Apple TV, you should probably get Channels for Apple TV (my personal recommendation) or InstaTV Pro.
Unlike some of the other streaming services available, Fubo.tv is marketed directly at sports fans. It has access to most of the standard sports channels, like NBC Sports Network, and Fox Sports 1, but it notably does not include ESPN. In lieu of the worldwide leader, Fubo.tv includes the most robust combination of specialized sports stations. Fans of international soccer and major college football conferences with their own networks, in particular, should be satisfied by the service’s access to the Big Ten Network, Pac 12 Network, and BeIN Sports. Fubo.tv also provides access to certain regional sports networks, depending on where you live. In New York, we found that Fubo.tv subscribers could stream programming from the YES Network, which broadcasts New York Yankees and Brooklyn Nets games.
A few of the previous services have been notable for their sports content (YouTube TV and Hulu with Live TV, in particular), but if sports is one of your primary concerns, you’ll want to look into FuboTV. This is another relatively new service that has been gaining some recognition for the niche it appeals to, especially after it was advertised as a way to easily watch Super Bowl 52 with its free trial. It is quickly on the rise, too: The service announced that as of September 2018 it was approaching 250,000 subscribers, up from 100,000 in September 2017. That may not be the millions of subscribers boasted by Sling TV and DirecTV Now, but it is substantial growth.
By cutting the cord, you're also losing your access to premium channels, which often have some of the most daring content on TV. Networks like HBO, Showtime and Starz are the prime destination for edgy dramas like Game of Thrones, Homeland and Outlander, respectively. You can also get raunchy comedy specials, niche documentaries and newly released movies.
Philo does lack the comprehensive app and device support of its rivals. For a long time only Roku, iOS devices, and the Chrome browser were supported, but the service came to the Apple TV and Amazon Fire TV devices in July 2018. Philo claims even more devices are on the way, but for now, the truncated device support is a drawback. That said, if you have a supported device and don’t mind skipping sports and the big networks (or can find them with an antenna), Philo is the most affordable way to get live TV. For more on the service, check out our Philo guide.
Currently, you can try DIRECTV NOW free for 7 days. I find the best option to be their “Live a Little” package. It is priced at $40 per month and contains Fox News, CNN, Nickelodeon, MSNBC, Hallmark Channel, ESPN, Disney, HGTV, USA, ID, TNT, Food, TBS, History, Discovery, Disney Jr, TV Land, Nick Jr, AMC, FX, FXX, Bravo, Lifetime, A&E, Animal Planet, BBC America, Bloomberg, BET, Cartoon Network, CMT, CNBC, Comedy Central, Disney XD, E!, ESPN2, Fox Business, FS1, Galavision, HLN, MTV, MTV2, Paramount Network, Syfy, TCM, TLC, Univision, VH1, and more
YouTube is the most popular streaming-video platform online; it was only a matter of time until YouTube tried its hand at providing live TV, too. For $35 per month with this service, you'll get almost 40 channels — which is, admittedly, not that many. Still, there are some good networks, especially for sports fans: multiple stations from ESPN, CBS Sports and Fox Sports. YouTube TV's biggest draw is the service's unlimited DVR feature, which lets you record as much as you want and keep it for up to nine months. The integration with the rest of YouTube feels half-baked, though.
We are die hard LSU fans and for years we kept our Dish satellite because we wanted the games 3 months a year. I finally had enough of the kids watching mindless television and we called to shut it off. Dish let us keep the equipment and for $5 a month we keep our service contract and are allowed to fire it up for the college football season. We didn’t think we’d have ANY channels but there are a ton of shopping channels and a few feel gooders like OWN and UP. Nothing I have concern over for the kids. If I find something that allows me to stream the games we will cut it off entirely but it’s not a horrible solution. We also use Amazon Prime which we love.
There are a variety of network apps that you can download to watch your local news and sports. ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX and The CW all have mobile apps where you can watch certain local shows without a cable subscription. Take note that each network app works differently and may have different streaming options and dates when episodes become accessible. Some of the apps offer full access to their archives for a monthly fee as well.
Yes, in theory, the higher the dB gain number the better. Although, overall performance is just as important. You must also consider where you live and where the broadcast towers are located. If they are over the visual horizon, a higher number is better. If not, a lower number is ok. You must watch out for high dB numbers that are marketing ploys to get you to pay more for a product you may not need.
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Trick or treat? How will a Halloween Brexit affect the data industry?
With the deadline for the UK's Brexit decision now put back to October 31, businesses might well view Halloween 2019 with terror. With data processing and storage so vital for many sectors, the question of how Brexit will affect data movement across borders is a significant one.
A Google search for the words "Brexit" and "Uncertainty" delivers more than 27 million results. On the other hand, you'll find just seven million results for "Brexit" and "Clarity" and a quick scan of those finds that they concern "lack of clarity". If there's one iron rule of Brexit it's that nobody knows anything.
There are, broadly, four possible outcomes on or before October 31. For our purposes, we can ignore two: if the process is delayed beyond October 31 or if the UK somehow decides to stay in the EU or revoke Article 50 for a longer rethink, then nothing really changes.
Deal or No Deal?
There are two relevant scenarios: A no deal Brexit or a departure with a deal. Let's start with the deal, since that is what both sides want to achieve before the new deadline.
Currently, as an EU member, the UK is subject to data regulations, such as GDPR, that have been assembled over several years. These regulations allow data transfers between the UK and the EU, and vice versa. But they also cover data moving between the EU and elsewhere. Tearing them up affects the UK's agreements with the EU but also any other country to which it might send data.
Perhaps your company stores its data in the EU, or you have customers there. In either case, you could find it difficult to process that data in the UK.
If the UK leaves with a deal, then existing regulations should continue to apply during a planned transition period. Under the original schedule, with the UK leaving at the end of March 2019, this period was due to last for 21 months - until the end of 2020. During that time, data would flow as usual, while regulations are renegotiated. In theory, businesses should then have plenty of warning of the new regulations - whatever they might be - and could plan accordingly. But there is a lot to renegotiate and it's not impossible that the transition period could be extended or that some negotiations would happen with the UK outside the EU.
In the event of a no deal Brexit, the UK Government has already confirmed that it will not restrict businesses from sending data to the EU. However, the UK cannot set regulations for data coming the other way. Much will depend on how the EU views the UK.
An adequate compromise
The UK needs "adequacy" status to show that it meets EU standards and data can continue to flow. Only a handful of countries have adequacy status, however, so it is not a given, particularly if the EU takes the view that the UK will use its departure as a chance to cut regulation, for example around data privacy.
Optimists say that securing adequacy status will take a few months, but the EU's data protection supervisor has warned that it could take years and the UK will have to join the queue behind countries that are already trying to get an adequacy decision.
In that case, businesses will face substantial disruption. Furthermore, adequacy status is unsatisfactory because it can be revoked at any time. Ideally, UK businesses would want some kind of regulatory cooperation on data, but this would take time to agree. Meanwhile, the UK would be simultaneously checking its regulatory compliance with the US and other nations with which it does a lot of business.
Any company that hasn't done it already needs to follow the ICO's six steps to take for leaving the EU. These include maintaining current compliance standards and conducting a thorough review of data flows and structures.
Some companies have opted to duplicate their data operations in Europe - for example in Dublin or Amsterdam - and simply treat the UK as if it is already outside the EU. This is costly and time-consuming, so it isn't an option for every company.
For companies that use third parties to store their data, it can be important to ensure that data does not cross borders or change jurisdictions. This could now be a problem with the EU, which has led to some suppliers adding the UK as a separate zone for data compliance. Box, for example, did so back in January.
Businesses like to minimise uncertainty as much as possible, which is what makes the current situation so frustrating. Unfortunately, as Google will tell you, Brexit and uncertainty go together like Halloween and pumpkins.
Written by Shane Richmond (Guest)
See Shane Richmond (Guest)'s blog
Shane Richmond is a freelance technology writer and former Technology Editor of The Daily Telegraph. You can follow him at @shanerichmond
Industrial HPC Solutions: Data Analytics
How data is collected and analysed is changing at exponential rates. In industry — and I know this from talking and consulting with hundreds of companies — so much data is being collected that many companies are either confused with, or overwhelmed by, all of the ways to leverage and analyse their data.
UK Datacenters and Brexit: Time to Think About a Move?
The Brexit divorce has now been pushed off until at least October 31 of this year, and as with any impending separation, it creates a good deal of uncertainty for all parties involved. For datacenters, there are two key issues of concern: 1) the ability to ensure a stable and affordable supply of electricity post-Brexit; and 2) issues relating to data and privacy. Being energy-focused, we will spend more time discussing the former.
Losing an ARM: Can Huawei Survive Without their Chip Design Partner?
Like a b-plot from a particularly bad Bond movie, the Huawei security scandal has been a bit of a slow burner, with the roots of the saga reaching right back to January 2019 at CES, when AT&T announced themselves as the first major partner to ditch the Chinese technology giant. The next month, the director of the FBI warned against buying their phones and by May, Huawei and ZTE phones (ZTE being another company with potential ties to the Chinese government) were banned on US military bases. In the ensuing months, established partnerships began dropping like flies.
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Published September 11, 2010 CDs , Celebrities , Events , Local people Leave a Comment
Marsha from Floetry poses for vigoronline.com. Photo by Leon Laing.
On the heels of her debut album’s release, Marsha Ambrosius will hold an inside-the-studio event at Warmdaddy’s in Philadelphia on Sept. 16. The singer with robust vocals is also a songwriter who wrote for the late King of Pop.
Ambrosius will drop her album, Late Nights & Early Mornings, later this year. To RSVP for this show, send an e-mail to itsthelifeshow@gmail.com. And the following acts will perform at Powerhouse in Philly on Oct. 22: Drake, Ne-Yo, Rick Ross, Jazmine Sullivan and Meek Millz. Want to open up for Powerhouse? Click here for details. See below for more info on events in September.
Sept. 11: Corinne Bailey Rae. 7:30 p.m., Electric Factory in Philadelphia. Web: livenation.com.
Sept. 11: Little Brother. 9 p.m., Theater of the Living Arts in Philadelphia.Web: livenation.com.
Sept. 11: 2 Live Crew. 10 p.m., West Shore Hardware Bar in Mechanicsburg. Web: downtownafterdark.com.
Sept. 14: Bilal album release party. 9 p.m., Johnny Brenda’s in Philadelphia. Web: johnnybrendas.com
Sept. 14 and 15: Lady Gaga. 8 p.m., Wells Fargo Center (formerly Wachovia Center) in Philadelphia. Web: livenation.com.
Sept. 15: Janelle Monáe. 8 p.m., Electric Factory in Philadelphia. Web: livenation.com.
Sept. 16: Inside the studio with Marsha Ambrosius. 7 p.m., Warmdaddy’s in Philadelphia. E-mail: itsthelifeshow@gmail.com
Sept. 16: Wiz Khalifa. 7 p.m., Trocadero in Philadelphia. Web: livenation.com.
Sept. 17: Lloyd Banks. Doors open at 6 p.m., Crocodile Rock in Allentown. Web: www.crocodilerockcafe.com.
Sept 24: T.I. 8 p.m., Bryce Jordan Center in State College. Web: livenation.com.
Sept. 26: M.I.A. 8 p.m., The Electric Factory in Philadelphia. Web: livenation.com.
Sept. 27: Pac Div. 9 p.m., Johnny Brenda’s in Philadelphia. Web: johnnybrendas.com.
Sept. 24: Paparazzi Stylin’ fashion show. Doors open at 6:30 p.m., show begins at 7 p.m., Zembo Shrine in Harrisburg. Phone: 717.315.1880.
Sept. 12: 10th Annual Heavyword Poetry Slam Championship. 6 p.m., Appalachian Brewing Co. in Harrisburg. Phone: 717.701.0665.
Sept. 12: 2010 MTV Video Music Awards. 9 p.m. on MTV. Web: vma.mtv.com.
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Home Articles Understanding Ultraviolet LED Wavelength
Understanding Ultraviolet LED Wavelength
By Mike Higgins, east regional sales manager, Phoseon
What is ultraviolet wavelength?
The sun is a source of the full spectrum of ultraviolet radiation, which is commonly subdivided into UV-A, UV-B and UV-C. Wavelength, a fundamental descriptor of electromagnetic energy, is the distance between corresponding points of a propagated wave. Typical UV light source emission wavelengths range from ultraviolet (UV-C: 100 to 280nm; UV-B: 280 to 315nm; UV-A: 315 to 400nm) to visible light (400 to 700nm) and infrared (700 to 3000nm).
UV wavelengths typically are measured in nanometers (nm). Nanometer, a unit of length, is equal to one billionth of a meter. UV light-emitting diodes (LEDs) have a narrow spectral output centered on a specific wavelength, +/- 15nm, with typical commercial UV-LED lamps emitting at 365nm, 385nm, 395nm or 405nm wavelengths.
The irradiance (W/cm2) produced by UV-LED light sources has increased consistently year over year because of advancements in both diode and lamp technology, and now is available at effective outputs higher than those offered by traditional UV curing lamp technologies. UV-LED lamp systems have enough power to conquer a wide range of applications and today are being used commercially to cure inks, coatings and adhesives. Today, UV-LED curing lamps offer peak irradiance up to 24W/cm2 (water-cooled) and 16W/cm2 (air-cooled) at 395nm, and that number will continue to increase. UV-LED systems at 365nm are available offering peak irradiance of 12W/cm2 (water-cooled) and 8W/cm2 (air-cooled).
Why are we limited to high UV-A wavelength?
Wavelengths emitted by UV-LED lamp systems are determined by the characteristics of the diodes selected in the lamp manufacturing process. UV-LEDs are manufactured by a handful of companies both domestic and international. Globally, demand for LED diodes is driven by automotive, general lighting, mobile device and signage applications. Despite higher profit margins on UV-LED diodes, market demand pales in comparison to larger, global market drivers such as general lighting and signage. While UV-B and UV-C diodes exist, they currently are limited by low power, an extremely short lifetime (~500 hours) and price points that can be 250 times the price of UV-A diodes.
As a result of high demand for UV-A diodes in the aforementioned markets, most UV-LED development work over the last 14 years has been focused on 365 to 405nm. Diode performance in this wavelength region is well understood and lifetime expectations exceed 20,000+ hours. It is important to note that long lifetimes are not a given. All UV-LED lamps are not created equal, and it is important to fully understand the specifications of a lamp system before making an investment. Continued price pressure on UV-LED is limiting the pursuit of shorter wavelength UV-LED systems. Therefore, it is safe to assume that 365 to 405nm will be the dominate market offering for UV-LED for the foreseeable future.
The photopolymerization process
Polymerization is a process in which small molecules are reacted chemically to form very large molecules and molecular networks called polymers. In the coatings, ink and adhesives industries, this process also is known as curing, drying or hardening and converts liquid formulations into a hard solid film or elastomeric solid with properties designed for the application. Photopolymerization utilizes the photons (UV or visible wavelengths) emitted by a lamp source to initiate the chemical reactions by excitation of special additives called photoinitiators. Upon absorption of the UV energy, the photoinitiator (PI) produces a highly reactive chemical species that initiates the reactions that tie the resinous components (oligomers, monomers, etc.) together (crosslinking) to cure or solidify the ink, coating or adhesive.
Formulating UV chemistries for UV-LED lamps
UV formulations for inks and coatings typically contain binders (oligomers, resins), diluents (monomers, water, or solvents), photoinitiators, and additives. Diluents are often necessary to reduce the viscosity of the formulation to enable application by spray, jetting, roll-coat, printing, or other techniques. Monomers can take the place of water or solvent for more environmentally friendly formulations, and serve to control viscosity while also being chemically incorporated into the resulting polymer network, reducing emissions and/or energy consumption compared to waterborne or solvent-borne formulations. The oligomers (and their backbone structure) determine the overall properties of the material. Monomers and oligomers in UV formulations are generally derivatives of acrylates or methacrylates containing polyurethanes, polyesters, polyethers or acrylic chemistries. Colorants such as pigments and dyes provide color and special effects, while silica, waxes, clays, and extenders are used to affect physical properties and sometimes to reduce the cost of formulations by replacing part of the more expensive binder components. Additives such as adhesion promotors, dispersants, flow-aides, degassing agents, UV stabilizers and others are used to improve specific properties of the formulations during the physical application process and after curing.
To achieve efficient and effective UV curing of an ink, coating or adhesive, the formulator seeks to match the UV lamp spectral output with the absorption characteristics of the photoinitiator(s) used in the formulation. The amount of PI in a typical UV formulation is usually very small, less than 5% by weight. PI’s typically absorb across a range of wavelengths, not a single narrow band, and most existing UV formulations developed for curing with a typical mercury-arc lamp use a broad-spectrum PI. While there is often some absorption within the UV-LED output range, it is clear that much of the conventional PI absorption range is not utilized when formulations are cured with a single-band UV-LED lamp. A more efficient cure is possible with a formulation designed specifically for UV-LED curing using a PI with high molar absorptivity in wavelength bands emitted by the UV-LED source. Since current-generation UV-LED emission wavelengths are strongest at 365nm and 395nm, photoinitiators and other formulation components should be selected to allow efficient excitation of the photoinitiator(s) at those wavelengths.
Depth of penetration into a coating, ink or adhesive formulation during curing depends on the absorptivity (optical density) of the formulation at each wavelength. The optical density at each wavelength is determined by the selection of the resin components, colorants and additives that compose the formulation. In UV formulations we find that UV-C wavelengths typically are absorbed in the surface layers due to high optical density of the resins and other formulation components at the shorter UV wavelengths, while UV-B and UV-A penetrate more deeply into the film even to the point where formula meets substrate. Thus, the formulator must not only match the absorbance bands of the photoinitiator to the UV emission wavelengths of the UV-LED lamp, but also must consider the absorption characteristics of the colorants (dyes, pigments), resins (monomers, oligomers, binders) and other additives in the formulation to avoid competitive absorption that can prevent the UV wavelengths from reaching the photoinitiator.
The longer wavelength output, such as the UV-A range emissions from current high-irradiance UV-LED systems, penetrates through thick and pigmented systems more easily than UV-B or UV-C wavelengths, producing through-cure of the material that typically improves adhesion and the ability to cure thicker screen ink or pigmented wood coatings. Shorter UV wavelengths (200 to 280 nm) are unable to penetrate very deeply into a material, but provide surface curing, which is important for properties such as scratch and chemical resistance. Tailoring the formulation composition to take advantage of the specific UV wavelengths emitted by the UV-LED source being used can significantly improve the depth of penetration and the degree of cure of a UV formulation in specific applications.
Irradiance and energy density
The physical and chemical properties of a UV-cured formulation are significantly impacted by the degree of cure (extent of reaction or crosslinking) of the components in the formulation. The degree of cure may vary as a function of depth in the coating/ink and as a function of the curing conditions, and is often determined qualitatively by scratch, pencil hardness, or solvent resistance. Generally, the more photons absorbed by the photoinitiators in the formulation, the more chemical reactions and the higher degree of cure / crosslinking / etc. (Note, however, that more is not always better!) Energy density (slang term: dose) and irradiance (slang term: intensity) are two key parameters that help to characterize the curing conditions experienced by a UV formulation, and provide two specific variables that can be monitored and tweaked to optimize the overall properties and performance of the UV-cured material.
In simplistic terms, irradiance is a measure of how “bright” the UV source is as observed by the surface of the formulation during curing. Also stated simply, energy density is a combination of how “bright” the UV source is and how long the formulation is exposed. More specifically, irradiance is the instantaneous number of photons at a specific wavelength or range of wavelengths striking the surface per unit area, and is expressed in watts per square centimeter. Peak irradiance is the maximum irradiance that the surface experiences during the curing process. Energy density is the time-integral of irradiance and represents the total sum of photons of a specific wavelength or wavelength range received by a specific area of the surface within a specific length of time. Energy density is typically expressed in units of Joules per square centimeter.
Measuring irradiance
What device should be used to measure the output from UV-LED lamps? Several manufacturers provide products to measure irradiance and energy density. The sensors used in most current radiometers have been characterized and calibrated to work with the output profiles of mercury lamps and have not fully accommodated the unique emission characteristics of UV-LED sources. Since UV-LEDs have a very different emission profile, the sensor calibration for a given wavelength band is the most important characteristic. A radiometer that crops or doesnt count all of the UV emission based on a normal LED wavelength tolerance can lead to measurement errors and should not be used to set irradiance specifications.
The spectral characteristics of UV-LED lamps are significantly different than those of traditional systems, and radiometers that will accurately measure UV-LED emissions are just coming onto the market. Even then, radiometers need to be calibrated for specific characteristics of LEDs from specific lamp manufacturers. A “generic” UV-LED radiometer that can be used with different UV-LED lamps does not currently exist. For process control, it is important for OEMs and end-users to utilize a UV-LED radiometer that is calibrated to the UV-LED lamp providers specifications. Otherwise, false readings and/or improper conclusions are the likely results.
Measuring irradiance is not a simple task. UV-LED lamp manufacturers, measurement device manufacturers, OEMs, and end-users should align around a single industry standard that can be used to consistently, accurately, and succinctly report irradiance and energy density measurements.
UV energy emitted from UV-LED lamps and UV energy emitted by conventional mercury arc lamps or microwave lamps is all in the form of photons of specific wavelengths. That is, for purposes of UV photopolymerization, photons are photons, with the only differences being in quantity and wavelength. The distribution of wavelengths emitted by UV-LED lamps is much narrower than the distribution of wavelengths emitted by conventional UV sources, and as a result, formulations and radiometers used with UV-LED lamp systems must be matched to the emission bands of the UV-LED lamp used in that curing system to achieve optimal performance.
UV-LED-based curing is now an accepted, user-friendly tool in printing, coatings and adhesive markets, and UV-LED system characteristics are enabling a number of applications that were impractical or limited by physical constraints of conventional UV sources. These industry users and UV-LED suppliers continue to challenge formulators and chemical raw material suppliers to develop and supply UV-LED wavelength-optimized materials and formulations. At the same time, UV-LED curing units have become more efficient in delivering UV energy to the media, thus driving not only environmentally clean, energy-efficient and compact-size units but also enabling increased throughput and process flexibility.
Mike Higgins is east regional sales manager for Phoseon Technology and a member of the Editorial Board for RadTech. After nine years with Sartomer, Higgins has spent the past three years supporting the rapidly growing LED market. Experience in both acrylate chemistry and next generation equipment has given him a unique perspective and understanding of the UV-curable marketplace, as well as insight into potential applications and future growth. For more information, email mike.higgins@phoseon.com or visit www.phoseon.com.
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Home Articles Lumii Sparks Evolution of Printing Technology
Lumii Sparks Evolution of Printing Technology
By Nancy Cates, contributing editor
Lumii, a 3-going-on-20-year-old company based in Boston, Massachusetts, was named as one of the winners of RadTech’s Emerging Technology Award this year for bringing evolutionary innovation to the traditional technology of the printing press.
Lumii is the brainchild of Matthew Hirsch, who serves as chief technical officer, and Thomas Baran, chief executive officer. They met as undergraduate students at Tufts University, and the company evolved from some of the research they developed as doctoral students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
“We’ve been technical collaborators and friends for about 18 years,” Hirsch said. “I was working on computational optics – the basic idea of using large-scale computation to solve optics problems. One of the tools we were using was optimization: a way of getting a computer to solve a problem that is very difficult to solve analytically. In our research, we were applying optimization to camera systems and display systems, creating 3D images using that approach.”
“Imagine something as simple as a printing press,” Baran continued, “which can print ink on both sides of clear film. If you add a lot of computational smarts – of the same scale as artificial intelligence – to printing presses or LCD panels, you can create 3D images in ways that you never thought were possible before. There are a ton of printing presses out there, and we recognized the opportunity to print light fields on a printing press would be very important for brand protection and secure documents.”
RadTech, in recognizing Lumii’s achievements, described the process in its announcement as “enabling hologram-like imagery using standard presses, media and inks for security and brand protection. The work is achieved by applying sophisticated tera-scale computation to model billions to trillions of light rays as they interact with high-resolution printed material, disrupting many of the conventions associated with traditional security devices.”
Hirsch, who attended RadTech 2018 in May in Chicago to accept the honor, said, “In RadTech, you have a group of professionals who are working on really innovative things in chemistry, materials and UV optics. I think it’s really interesting to that community to find an innovation from outside their core expertise that has a huge impact on their work. At Lumii, we are coming from a computer science perspective, offering this new thing you can do that’s a direct application to the technology being developed in the RadTech community. With Lumii’s technology, you can take the UV curing techniques that allow you to print a very accurate dot on clear film and create 3D holograms – so here’s this perfect application that you would never arrive at by studying chemistry and materials.”
Of developing the process, Baran said, “A lot of innovation is going on in manufacturing. People are adding all kinds of sophisticated algorithms and smarts to assembly lines. We found that we could do something similar for print. Every printing press out there is an assembly line for making images, and those assembly lines can create images in a much smarter way. That insight lets us deliver printable light field images that can be used to create lower cost security features that are easier for the ‘good guys’ to reproduce.”
“We tend to take a broad view of security and brand protection,” Baran continued. “If you think of security features in print, you are probably thinking about something like a hologram on a driver’s license or a bank note. Those are classic overt security features. Things like lenticular packaging that are part of brand protection strategy also are a form of security in our mind. In addition to being beautiful, the customer views the 3D image on the shelves and associates that with specific brands and products. We can enable something similar, but at a much lower cost.”
The pair has encountered challenges in finding the best way to communicate the possibilities of the new technology.
Baran said. “One pretty revolutionary thing that we are doing is that we are giving special image data to a press to effectively replace a physical foil, and those image data are computed using sophisticated algorithms that can create all sorts of different types of qualitative effects. Communicating that to people is an interesting challenge, but it’s also an opportunity because when people see the light they find it really amazing.”
“As an example,” he continued, “if you have a standard printing press that can print on both sides of a clear film aligned front-to-back, we can enable that press to create 3D holographic images. Other things we can enable are color-shifting features and animations. These are things that were traditionally each individually created by other types of technologies – with animation that might be lenticulars, and with color-shifting that might be some kind of special ink. The interesting challenge we continue to have is helping people to understand that what we do is not just one specific type of effect but a whole portfolio of different things. We have to work closely with packaging converters to make sure that the method is suited to their process, but we’ve had success working with different presses and vendors.”
The pair said they work with clients in a manner similar to the way a holographic foil supplier would. The process begins by creating a 3D logo or other element, if none is available. However, instead of creating a physical foil to be integrated into a label, Lumii runs the artwork through an algorithm to create pre-screened data to be sent to the press. The algorithm factors in information obtained from printing a press calibration “fingerprint.” Patterns can be generated which, when printed with tight register on the front and back of the label, create the 3D effect. The special derivative artwork then is licensed for print.
“What we’re doing at Lumii is replacing what is traditionally a physical good – a holographic foil, for example – with a digital product,” Baran explained. “That means you have on-demand digital inventory. The cost of physically integrating the pattern goes way down because you don’t need a separate stage of the press that does special lamination: You’re just using the same printing press with different data on the plate. In terms of things like production cost, inventory, simplifying the supply chain – we make all those things a lot easier and lower cost.”
“It’s also about what you get,” he continued. “We provide a fully integrated security feature. Traditionally, on the label, you’re going to have some text and graphics, and separately there’s going to be a hot-stamped holographic element. We’ve heard from a variety of people that counterfeiters were cutting out the hologram and pasting it onto their own label. The problem is, because the hologram is hot-stamped, it occupies a small area on the label and it’s hard to tell the difference between the authentic and the cut-and-paste job at a quick glance. With Lumii, the image is all printed at once, and the feature is totally integrated.”
Lumii’s current focus, they said, is on overt security features that allow the end user to quickly determine whether a product is genuine and originates from the proper source. Hirsch and Baran see tremendous growth in that field.
“We’re seeing a digital manufacturing revolution,” Hirsch said. “A lot of basic manufactured goods are changing because of computation and the digital processes that are coming to that industry. What we’re doing could be really important for the print industry because it brings AI-scale computation to print. I think it’s going to be an exciting decade as this type of innovation comes to all these industries. From Lumii’s perspective, we’re thrilled to be a part of that.”
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Residual Building Block Chemicals in Raw Materials and Finished Printing Inks: A Risk Assessment
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Amongst Heroes
The Artist in Working Cornwall
26th January 2013 – 14th April 2013
Amongst Heroes, supported by the Arts Council, presented the most significant grouping of Cornish artworks to be displayed outside Cornwall in recent decades, and included the work of many celebrated, though often under-appreciated, artists. The exhibition repositioned the work of Newlyn and St Ives artists in a new and original context to create a fascinating insight into the imagery in Cornish art.
It explored artistic representations of the Cornish figure at work, primarily between 1880 and 1920. These powerful depictions of working Cornish men and women played a significant role in the development and recognition of Cornwall as a centre for the production of a particular kind of realistic, rural art. The exhibition examined a keen and longstanding artistic interest in the working landscape and the characteristic industrial activity taking place along its coastlines whilst offering a new insight into Cornish art that focuses on the geography of place as well as the history and narrative of the paintings displayed.
Original objects brought the pictures to life as copperware, a miners hand cart and even a real oyster dredging boat sat alongside the paintings. Amongst Heroes was curated by Roo Gunzi, who during the exhibition, was completing a PhD at the Courtauld Institute on Newlyn painter Stanhope Forbes, many of whose works were included in the show.
Hidden Fabric
Rhythm & Reaction
Sussex Modernism
Beyond Beauty
Cotton to Gold
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Informatics Colloquium: Kishonna Gray, Assistant Professor, Communication and Gender and Women’s Studies, University of Illinois, Chicago; faculty associate, Berkman-Klein Center for Internet and Society, Harvard University.
Friday December 07, 2018 03:00 PM
End Time:
Luddy Hall, Rm. 1106, Dorsey Learning Hall
Christena Nippert Eng
https://www.pbs.org/video/wkgb-connections-gaming-cultures-impact-society/
Free/Busy:
The School of Informatics, Computing, and Engineering (SICE) Informatics Colloquium Series
Speaker: Kishonna Gray, Assistant Professor, Communication and Gender and Women’s Studies, University of Illinois, Chicago; faculty associate, Berkman-Klein Center for Internet and Society, Harvard University.
Where: Luddy Hall, Rm. 1106, Dorsey Learning Hall
When: December 7, 2018, 3:00 pm
Topic: Leisure for Some. Labor for Others: Black Digital Praxis and Thoughts on Racialized Production
Abstract: Employing an ethnographic examination of Black users online, this presentation explores the concepts of work and labor in Black cultural production of digital content in the social media era. Fuchs and Sevignani (2013) define digital work as “the organisation of human experiences with the help of the human brain, digital media and speech in such a way that new products are created” and digital labor as the “valorisation dimension of digital work.” Using their theoretical framework, I interrogate these concepts of digital work and labor at the intersection of race. I specifically focus on the realms of production by Black digital users employing an intersectional interrogation of the plantation complex of visuality (Mirzoeff 2011).
Biography: Dr. Kishonna L. Gray (@kishonnagray) is an assistant professor in the Department of Communication and Gender and Women’s Studies at the University of Illinois at Chicago. She is also a faculty associate at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University. She also previously served as a MLK Scholar and Visiting Professor in Women and Gender Studies and Comparative Media Studies at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
Dr. Gray is an interdisciplinary, intersectional, digital media scholar whose areas of research include identity, performance and online environments, embodied deviance, cultural production, video games, and Black Cyberfeminism.
Dr. Gray is the author of Race, Gender, & Deviance in Xbox Live (Routledge, 2014) which as been described by T.L. Taylor as “an insightful, original, and compelling piece of research.” And also described by Tressie McMillan Cottom as “an important contribution to the sociology of race in the digital era.”
Dr. Gray is co-editor of two volumes on culture and gaming. Feminism in Play (2018, Palgrave-Macmillan) focuses on women as they are depicted in video games, as participants in games culture, and as contributors to the games industry. Woke Gaming (2018, University of Washington Press) illustrates the power and potential of video games to foster change and become a catalyst for social justice.
Dr. Gray is also completing a manuscript, tentatively titled On Being Black And…The Journey to Intersectionality in Digital Gaming Culture (LSU Press). This text will broadly explore how online gaming spaces are prime locales to continue the exploration into the treacherous terrain sometimes experienced by Black gamers. Using their narratives as sites of critical engagement, this text interrogates intersectional identity development and justice issues within gaming culture.
cnippert@indiana.edu
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Honoring Martin Luther King in Stone: The John Wilson Sculpture in the Capitol Rotunda
Posted by U.S. Capitol Historical Society in African American History, Capitol Art
busts, Capitol Art, Capitol artists, John Wilson, Martin Luther King Jr., MLK bust, MLK Day, sculpture, U.S. Capitol artwor
by Ronald M. Johnson
On January 16, 1986, Coretta Scott King unveiled a memorial bust of her husband in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda. The unveiling, a moving event unto itself, helped inaugurate the larger observance of the first federal holiday honoring his life. Resting on a black marble base, the bronze sculpture reflected the strength that Martin Luther King, Jr. embodied throughout his short life. The day marked a major step forward in advancing the legacy of a man who Congress and President Ronald Reagan had honored just three years earlier with legislation establishing a national holiday in his honor.
Courtesy Architect of the Capitol
The King sculpture immediately became an important part of the large grouping of federal statuary that is on display in the Rotunda, a room with the feel of sacred setting for those who visit. In this space, art and politics merge. There are statues of George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Dwight David Eisenhower, Ulysses S. Grant, Thomas Jefferson, and Alexander Hamilton, among others, as well as the Portrait Monument to Lucretia Mott, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Susan B. Anthony. The lives represented by this statuary remind all Americans of the nation’s long and illustrious history.
At the same time, each of these works of art had brought recognition to the artists who created them. The artistry of Antoine Houdon, Vinnie Ream, Jim Brothers, Franklin Simmons, Pierre-Jean David d’Angers, Horatio Stone, and Adelaide Johnson, among many others, reflect a wide and diverse array of sculpture stretching back to the early nineteenth century. In this space, at the very center of the U.S. Capitol, artists sought to portray in stone individuals who had played critical roles in the shaping of American society.
The King memorial bust added a new artist to this group. Born in Roxbury, Massachusetts, in 1922, African-American sculptor John Wilson brought a unique perspective to his work. Initially trained at Tufts University and then an art student in both Paris and Mexico City, he had been a professor at Boston University since 1964. His work could be found in major museums and galleries throughout the nation, such as the DeCordova Museum and the Museum of Modern Art. He pursued his art with a strong sense of purpose. “Essentially, he felt that his main objective as an artist was to deliver a message to people about black dignity, about racial justice, about poor people trying to get a better deal in life,” his wife Julie Kowitch noted.
In early 1983, John Wilson joined the competition with other sculptors in response to House Concurrent Resolution 153, which sought to memorialize the famous civil rights activist. In 1985, the selection committee, including Coretta Scott King, chose John Wilson’s submission and awarded him a commission to cast his winning model for the memorial bust in bronze.
Over the next year, Wilson steadily worked on this task. His son Roy remembered that he “moved with tremendous energy. Each stroke seemed decisive.” Finally, by year’s end, the bust was completed. Then in early 1986, before the unveiling, he covered his work with an old sleeping bag, placed it in the back of his car, and headed to the Capitol Rotunda.
This 1997 Boston Globe photo by Barry Chin shows John Wilson with one of his sculptures.
Up to this point, he had never visited the U.S. Capitol. “Somehow it seemed like the epitome of the seat of power, and it alienated me,” he later recalled. “I never felt part of it. But when I delivered the sculpture, that changed. I felt,
‘A piece of me is in that building.'” The King memorial bust continues to both convey the greatness of King and the creative effort of the sculptor, which he hoped would “stimulate people to learn more about King, to perpetuate his struggle.” At the bust’s unveiling, Sen. Charles “Mac” Mathias, Jr. noted that the sculpture assured that “Martin Luther King Jr. takes his rightful place among the heroes of this nation.” (New York Times, Jan. 17, 1986)
When John Wilson died in January 2015, almost thirty years had passed since the bust took its place in the Rotunda. In a review of his life, Boston Globe writer Bryan Marquard wrote about Wilson and the King bust. He noted that like “much of his most important work, the bust brings viewers to the intersection of art and politics, of pure creativity and the desire to examine social injustice.” These words help us understand that in creating the memorial bust, John Wilson invites the viewer to see Martin Luther King as both a man of protest and a great American patriot.
Note on Sources: The Architect of the Capitol website provides ample information on the Martin Luther King Memorial Bust. Regarding John Wilson’s remarkable life, see Bryan Marquard’s summary of his life and work in the Boston Globe (January 26, 2015). All unattributed quotations used in this blog can be found in the Marquard obituary. Robin Toner authored the New York Times article, “Best of Dr. King Joins Others of Nation’s Heroes” for the Jan. 17, 1986 edition.
Montgomery Meigs’ Vision of Arlington Cemetery
Posted by U.S. Capitol Historical Society in Uncategorized
Arlington National Cemetery, Congressional Cemetery, military burial grounds, Montgomery Meigs, national cemeteries, Ron Johnson
Among the individuals who played prominent roles in the building of the United States Capitol was Montgomery Meigs (1816-1889) who, as a Captain in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, served as the financial and engineering supervisor of the Capitol extension between 1853 and 1859. That effort, and others on his part before the Civil War, would lead President Lincoln to appoint him as the Quartermaster-General of the Army after hostilities broke out. He served long and honorably in that critically important assignment. One of his lasting accomplishments was the founding, in 1864, of the Arlington National Cemetery. During the last year of the conflict, and in the initial years after it ended, Arlington became a major burial site for thousands of the fallen dead, many of them unidentified remains.
As the numbers increased, and as the years passed, Meigs sought to elevate the site to a special status. Essentially, he proposed to broaden Arlington National Cemetery into a “national public burial ground.” In his 1879 Annual Report to the Secretary of War, he urged that “the attention of Congress be invited to the propriety of making this [site] the National Public Cemetery, and authorizing the interment therein of any public officer, Senator or Member of Congress dying in office in the vicinity or elsewhere . . .” Over the next two years, he more forcefully declared that Arlington should “be declared by law a national public cemetery” and that it “be used for the burial of officers of the United States, legislative, judicial, civil, and military . . .” He envisioned that Arlington become a national shrine for all who had served in the national government.
Gen. Montgomery Meigs during the Civil War (Library of Congress)
Where did this idea of a national “public” cemetery originate? The story is complex and fascinating, and very much involves Congress and the federal government. The origins can be traced, in part, to the emergence of Congressional Cemetery after 1812, when the Congress sought to create an antebellum version of a national memorial site at a privately-owned burial ground near the Capitol. Beginning that year and continuing into the 1850s, Members of Congress, all branches of the military, Vice Presidents, and even three United States Presidents received either permanent or temporary burial at the cemetery, which became known as Congressional. Impressive private and public monuments were placed over these graves, including the congressional cenotaphs designed by Benjamin Latrobe that marked members of the House and Senate who died while serving in office.
With regard to military burials, Congressional served as the first national military burial ground, including two Generals of the Army, and officers and enlisted from all American conflicts, particularly the War of 1812 and the Mexican War in 1846-48. In the latter, three officers—Colonel Truman Cross, Colonel William Montrose Graham, and Captain Charles Hanson—were honored with full military funerals and public processions to Congressional Cemetery accompanied by President James Polk, members of his cabinet, and Members of Congress. Indeed, the military processions to Congressional established its status as being in part the nation’s first national military cemetery.
Montgomery Meigs was intimately familiar with Congressional Cemetery. Many members of his family rested there, including his prominent father-in-law, Commodore John Rodgers; his mother-in-law, Minerva Rodgers; his brother-in-law Frederick Rodgers; and his uncle John Forsyth, who served as Secretary of State during 1834-41. In addition, numerous professional associates and friends had been interred at Congressional. Standing at the graves of John and Minerva Rodgers, he was just a short distance from the other major military burials there as well as the graves of Vice Presidents George Clinton and Elbridge Gerry. In Congressional Cemetery, Meigs found a compelling model for his later vision of a national public cemetery.
Thus, as he reached the end of his term of Quartermaster-General, Meigs sought a course for Arlington that would transform it into a national memorial site, one that would be inclusive of both military and civil leaders who had served the nation. And in so doing, he turned to what Congress had attempted in the development of Congressional Cemetery during the antebellum period. He was aware, of course, that Congressional was, in fact, a privately-owned cemetery. Thus, he sought to utilize a government-owned site to establish a national public cemetery, and Arlington’s location and role as a national military cemetery served that purpose very well.
In the end, however, Montgomery Meigs’ vision for Arlington did not materialize. The cemetery would remain a site under control of the U.S. Army, and limited to those who had served in the military. Popular sentiment dictated that “national” meant “military,” largely as a result of the Civil War. Any return to the antebellum attempt at creating a “national public cemetery” no longer had support in either Congress or the military ranks, particularly within the Army. Today, Congressional—located only a mile and half from Congress and maintained by the Association for the Preservation of Historic Congressional Cemetery—still contains the antebellum monuments from its period as America’s first national cemetery. Meanwhile, Arlington serves as the nation’s memorial and emotional center as those who die on the battlefield are laid to rest by their fallen comrades. Few today know of the historic connection between the two sites or that Meigs once sought to shape Arlington into a “public” national cemetery based on the Congressional Cemetery model.
Note on Sources: The documentation for this blog can be accessed in Abby and Ronald Johnson, In the Shadow of the United States Capitol: Congressional Cemetery and the Memory of the Nation (Washington, DC: New Academia Publishing, 2012), see chapters 3 and 4, pp. 96-104 and 144-49.
The Temporary Insanity of Rep. Daniel Sickles
Posted by U.S. Capitol Historical Society in Random but Interesting
Congress, Daniel Sickles, Edward Stanton, Lafayette Park, Philip Barton Key, temporary insanity defense, Teresa Sickles
–by Clare Whitton, USCHS intern
Philip Barton Key (Harper’s Weekly, March 1859, Library of Congress)
On a chilly winter evening, U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, Philip Barton Key II was taking his usual evening walk around Lafayette Park, just behind the White House. Apparently, this was Key’s custom for most evenings, most likely because of the signal he was trying to send to the upper window of the apartment building across the way. Specifically, it was the residence of the young and beautiful Teresa Sickles and her husband Senator Daniel Sickles. Sickles and Key ran in the same social circle, thanks to their jobs and families’ social prominence. At the time, Philip was a well known lawyer and a widower, with four fairly young children under his care. More importantly, he had a prominent family legacy starting with his father, Francis Scott Key, who wrote “The Star-Spangled Banner,” which became the nation’s national anthem. He was the nephew of Supreme Court Chief Justice Roger Taney, who in 1857 defended the decision of the Dred Scott v. Sanford case, which asserted that slaves, even if freed, could never be made citizens. On top of all this, Key was known to be one of the best-looking men in town, and Key never denied the attention. Unfortunately for Key, his good looks and important position in society could not save him from falling in love with a married woman. The Sickles couple and Key were both invited to James Buchanan’s 1857 Inaugural Ball, presumably where the pair met. Recognizing the danger they were putting themselves in, Philip would signal Teresa by waving his handkerchief in the park; she would in turn place her handkerchief in the window; and the two would meet in their secret spot.
Teresa Sickles (Harper’s Weekly, March 1859, Library of Congress)
However, on February 27, 1859, something was off. That night, Daniel Sickles had received a “poisoned pen”, or a letter detailing Philip and Teresa’s affair. Senator Sickles was enraged to hear about his wife’s affair. In fact, he was so angry that he forced Teresa to give a written confession to the affair which he would use to get a divorce. Now, his anger would have been completely warranted, if he was not notorious for being unfaithful. For example, he once brought a prostitute with him on his visit to London to meet the Queen of England. To make it worse, Teresa was pregnant with their daughter at the time. Nonetheless, Sickles was still fuming at the “embarrassment” and sent his wife packing to her father’s home in New York.
Two nights later, Philip Key took his walk, gazing up at the windows of his lover’s apartment. Teresa’s handkerchief was there, in its usual place. Key made his way back towards the Gentleman’s Club, on the other side of the park. Little did he know, Sickles himself had placed the handkerchief in the window, catching Philip at his own game. (It seems Sickles had a flare for the dramatic, since he could have simply confronted Philip at the Capitol or the Gentlemen’s Club). Sickles followed Key towards the Gentleman’s Club, pulled a revolver from his pocket and shouted: “Key, you scoundrel, you have dishonored my home; you must die!” He fired three shots, one of which scuffed Key’s hand; the second hit his inner thigh, sending him to the ground. After an attempt to stop Sickles by throwing his opera glasses at him, Key tried to drag himself behind some bushes. Sickles followed him and fired his third bullet, straight into Philip’s chest. A crowd quickly formed, since a famous senator was shooting a famous attorney right behind the White House. In the chaos, Sickles slipped the gun back into his pocket and simply walked away. Philip was brought into the clubhouse he had just left. His death followed soon after.
Sen. Daniel Sickles in prison (Harper’s Weekly, March 1859, Library of Congress)
This was no fairy tale romance, although it sounds like something straight out of Hollywood. Teresa would die of tuberculosis eight years later, at her father’s home. Daniel Sickles, ironically, lived a long and somewhat happy life. Edward Stanton, Abraham Lincoln’s future Secretary of War, defended the murderer and had him acquitted, even though he was found guilty for murder. How? Temporary insanity. Stanton would become the very first lawyer to use temporary insanity as a real defense, and, it worked.
The Civil War was only a few years away, and Sickles rose to the position of Union Commander. He was not particularly good at this either, however. He was sent to Gettysburg in July of 1863, where he not only sent hundreds of his own troops to die when he gave up the high ground but also had his leg blown off by a canon. Being as dramatic as he was, Sickles graciously sent his amputated leg and the cannon ball to the Army Medical Museum, where it remains to this day. Sickles was awarded the Medal of Honor for his “bravery,” served as a diplomat in Mexico and Spain, and was reelected to Congress for one term in 1893. On the bright side, he passed a bill through the legislature that provided for the preservation and commemoration of Gettysburg, allowing thousands of people to visit the battlegrounds today. He died in 1914, at the age of 94.
“The Actors in the Homicide” The Chicago Tribune. March 5, 1859. Accessed June 20, 2016.
“Daniel Sickles’s Temporary Insanity.” Murder by Gaslight. Last Modified November 10, 2009. Accessed June 20, 2016.
“Representative Daniel Sickles of New York.” House Office of the Historian. Accessed October 20, 2016.
Sickles, Daniel. Biographical Directory of the United States Congress. Accessed October 20, 2016.
“Tragedy at Washington.” Farmer’s Cabinet. March 2, 1859: 2. Accessed June 20, 2016.
George Washington’s First Principles of Executive Leadership
Posted by U.S. Capitol Historical Society in USCHS events
First Congress, George Washington, Kathleen Bartoloni-Tuazon, presidency, title controversy 1789
On Wednesday, August 3, our summer lecture series continues with Dr. Kathleen Bartoloni-Tuazon’s book talk about her recent publication For Fear of An Elective King: George Washington and the Presidential Title Controversy of 1789. Here, she offers a preview of her work. A limited number of books will be available for purchase at the talk. Pre-registration is requested.
–by Kathleen Bartoloni-Tuazon
I should like to be informed … of the public opinion of … myself—not so much of what may be thought the commendable parts, if any, of my conduct, as of those which are conceived to blemishes. … If they are really such, the knowledge of them … will go more than half way towards effecting a reform.
So wrote George Washington to his son-in-law and confidant David Stuart in July of 1789, in the early months of his presidency. He asked Stuart to be his confidential informant about his conduct as president and to write to him “without any reserve.” Washington realized the difficult and controversial position he had inherited with the office of the presidency. His continued popularity derived from more than his war hero status—it also stemmed from his ability to apprehend and reflect the pulse of popular opinion. Importantly, Washington comprehended the importance of the will of the people under the Constitution. He told Stuart that he wanted to know about local attitudes toward his leadership and correct any misunderstandings since “at a distance from the theatre of action, truth is not always related without embellishments.” He understood that calming public fears about the presidency—by mirroring public opinion when he agreed with it or considering a modification of his positions if the people demanded it—was an integral part of his leadership and even pledged to Stuart that he would reevaluate his stances and “effect a reform” if the public deemed his actions misguided. Washington recognized that “the eyes of America—perhaps of the world—are turned to this Government.” Perhaps no one was watched more closely than Washington.
Detail of George Washington, Arriving in New York City, April 30, 1789 (sic) by Arsene Hippolyte Rivey (New-York Historical Society)
Yet, in the spring of 1789, within weeks of the beginning of the first Congress under the new Constitution and even before Washington had been inaugurated, the House and the Senate became embroiled in their first dispute—how to address the president. The Senate majority favored a lofty title, while the House stood unanimously and adamantly opposed to anything more than the simple and unadorned “President.” The debate spilled far beyond the chamber doors and raged all summer long—Congress, the press, and individuals throughout the country debated more than thirty titles, most with royal overtones. Indeed, the eventual resolution in favor of the modest title of “President,” without an exalted introduction like some form of “Highness” or “Majesty,” was far from certain in a world that remained full of monarchs.
In 1789, much of America recognized the need for presidential authority and energetic leadership despite the ever-present alarm over the potentially abusive power or weak corruptibility of the office. Nothing signaled these apprehensions over the presidency more than the unanimous election of universally trusted George Washington as the new nation’s first president. To his credit, Washington understood this. Although his celebrity encouraged an elite court-like atmosphere wherever he went, Washington counteracted these tendencies early on with his opposition to a regal title. During the title controversy, he brought to his leadership both a widely admired perspective of republican reserve and a willingness to take cues from the people. By consciously mirroring the views of the majority of his countrymen and women, who disdained regal titles as he did, he encouraged public acceptance of the presidency, which added political legitimacy to the office and the new national government. During the unsettled early days of the Constitutional era, Washington imagined a course for the emerging nation’s executive that calmed public fears about the office by embracing the principles of modesty and a nod to the people. The republican resolution of the title controversy, a simple civic title of “President,” which both Washington and the people supported, established an approach to leadership and authority that fledged the presidency’s power by not flaunting it.
[1] George Washington to David Stuart, July 26, 1789, William Wright Abbot, Dorothy Twohig, Philander D. Chase, David R. Hoth, Christine Sternberg Patrick, and Theodore J. Crackel, eds. The Papers of George Washington: Presidential Series (PGW; Presidential). 14 vols. (Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1987—), 3:321–27.
Constantino Brumidi: Immigrant or Refugee Pt. 2
Posted by U.S. Capitol Historical Society in Capitol Art, USCHS events
Capitol Art, Capitol artists, Constantino Brumidi, immigration history, Montgomery Meigs
We’re marking the anniversary of Brumidi’s birth by revisiting remarks from a 2015 celebration. See here for Part 1.
–by William C. diGiacomantonio
So, what role did his experiences have in Constantino Brumidi’s removal to America? Did it really make him a “refugee” rather than just an “immigrant”? In other words, did he feel that he had a choice in whether to stay or go, after his release?
Instead of hearing Brumidi invoke human and civil rights like freedom of expression, we find him bargaining with the Vatican for his release—within months of his arrest, and well before his conviction—so that he can go to America to broaden his commercial opportunities as an artist. It is not a promise to remove a political thorn from the backside of Pius’ restored and increasingly reactionary regime.
Maybe Brumidi just expressed his bargaining position this way because it sounded more noble than groveling for forgiveness for the consequences of supposed political crimes. But there is no evidence that Brumidi remained under any police surveillance, much less sanctions, following his pardon. It certainly can’t be said that his flight to America constituted an indictment of the corruption of Church governance. And in fact, from almost the moment he arrived in the New World, his steady flower of art commissions for religious institutions comprise a kind of “seal of approval” by high churchmen who could not have been ignorant of Brumidi’s prior run-ins with the Church.
Here’s what I think: there is no reason to believe that Brumidi resented the Papacy—much less the Pope himself—as much as the administration of justice wielded in its name. Note that he was not prosecuted for treason, but for a criminal charge of larceny. (The pardon resulted from affidavits that Brumidi was simply removing the art work to more secure locations, away from rioters.)
Another way to think about the question of “refugee” versus “immigrant” is to consider what America was offering as an alternative to the world Brumidi was leaving behind.
Gen. Montgomery C. Meigs in the 1860s (Library of Congress)
Brumidi disembarked in New York City in September 1852—one of the 45,000 Italians who would arrive in America by 1870, during the first wave of Italian Immigration. (A second “great wave” of Italian immigration, the one we associate with old family photos from Ellis Island, lasted from the 1890s to the 1920s—when a young Italian farmboy named Carmen diGiacomantonio landed there, whose grandson is speaking to you now. There are others here today with similar stories, I know.) Brumidi’s work in the U.S. Capitol followed his personal introduction to Montgomery Meigs two years later, in December 1854. We all know that Brumidi would become a favorite among the many foreign artists whom Meigs employed and his preferment must seem to us, from this vantage point, as one of those inevitabilities of history. But of course nothing in history is inevitable. And in fact, Brumidi’s employment on the Capitol faced a serious backlash against what was seen as an over-reliance on foreign-born artists, to the exclusion of native born artists.
Recall that Brumidi’s first years in America coincided with the high-water mark of the Know-Nothing movement. In 1854—the very year Brumidi was first introduced to Meigs—the Know-Nothings reached the height of their political influence as a nativist, “America first,” anti-immigrant and anti-Catholic movement—owing in no small part to the notoriety of Pio Nono’s “un-American” form of political repression.
The 1850s was not the first time, and it wouldn’t be the last time, that native-born American workers would resent foreign hires. (Peter L’Enfant had been pilloried in the press for hiring too many fellow Frenchmen when he converted New York’s old city hall into the nation’s first Capitol—Federal Hall—in 1788.) But to an artist seeking freedom of expression, it must come as rude awakening, whenever it happens.
We have Brumidi’s own word for it, that he eventually came to regard America as a land of unequaled political freedom and economic opportunity. The commemorative plaque we passed coming into the cemetery today is testimony that as early as 1855 Brumidi considered his new mission in life “to make beautiful the capitol of the one country on earth in which there is liberty.” I would only suggest that perhaps that sense of mission was forged less out of fear of the past that optimism for the future. It does no disservice to Brumidi’s unquestioned sense of patriotism to say that his immigrating had less to do with being driven into a forced exile from a land of despotism, than freely seeking and embracing new, liberal traditions of political freedom and economic opportunity.
Constantino Brumidi: Refugee or Immigrant?
To mark the 211th birthday of the Capitol’s premier artist, Constantino Brumidi, we are posting the remarks presented at last year’s 210th birthday observance in a ceremony at Brumidi’s gravesite in DC’s Glenwood Cemetery (2219 Lincoln Rd., NE). There, a small but devoted and enthusiastic fellowship gathered to hear the USCHS’s chief historian, Chuck diGiacomantonio, talk about Brumidi’s coming to America. The group then laid flowers at Brumidi’s grave, shared thoughts about the artist, and afterwards re-convened at a local pizza joint for celebratory food and drink. The Constantino Brumidi Alliance and the USCHS hope to make the observance an annual event. Stay posted for announcements on the USCHS website as next July rolls around….
Part 2 will be published on Wednesday.
The title’s word choice is more than just boilerplate. It is meant to focus some perspective not on what Brumidi was coming to, but what he was leaving behind. As Brumidi’s “Apotheosis of Washington” goes into exile behind sheets and scaffolding, we might ask whether Brumidi’s removal to America was also a form of exile, as it is usually described. Then we might each play amateur art critic and better speculate how Brumidi’s Old World experience influenced his artistic themes and motives once he was here.
Brumidi, late in life (Credit: Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs, Brady-Handy Collection)
The image that often comes to mind of Brumidi the man is that of a short (5’5”), stocky, dark-complexioned, vaguely foreign looking middle-aged man, sporting a hefty Karl-Marx-like beard. But picture, if you can, Brumidi a few decades younger than that. The probably much more dashing artist, half-Greek and half-Italian, was barely thirty when he executed his first major art commissions at the Palazzo Torlonia in his native Rome. The Torlonia family was so impressed that they retained him to work on the Villa Torlonia as well. In 1840 he attracted the attention of connoisseurs in the Curia, who hired him to rework some of the High-Renaissance era Loggias in the Vatican. He was already being regarded as one of Rome’s greatest artists by the time he painted Pius IX in 1847.
Pius IX became a major character in the story of Brumidi’s relocation to America, so he deserves more than just passing reference. His election in 1846 was regarded, justifiably, as a liberal turning point for the Church both spiritual and temporal. Peter’s successor, we’ll recall, was the ruling autocrat of a large swath of central Italy. And although the Papal States had already come to be seen as a plaything in European geopolitics, the Pope’s powers at home were more than just those of a figurehead. In time, Pius IX would become known as “Pio Nono”—which by a slight twist of pronunciation, can be made to mean not only “Pius the Ninth” but “Grandfather Pius”—which was an especially apt description of the man who would become the longest-reigning Pope in history. At his election, he was also one of the youngest popes—a quality that Brumidi captures in his portrait of the energetic, debonair looking Pius in 1847, one year in his papacy.
Pio Nono became the first Pope actually to step on U.S. sovereign territory when he alighted on the deck of the USS Constitution off the coast of Gaeta, Italy, in August 1850. History found Pio Nono in Gaeta as an exile from his experiment in liberalization gone awry. Infected by the so-called “Revolutions of 1848” against the post-Napoleonic reactionary settlement of Europe, Rome rose up against the Pope and established a Republic in 1849.
Brumidi, who had been serving as captain in the city’s militia under the old regime, naturally transferred his allegiance to the new regime. The Republic was suppressed after just a year (thanks, in part, to the pious intervention of Napoleon’s own nephew, Napoleon III), and Brumidi continued his painting uninterrupted—even completing one of his masterpieces, Rome’s Church of the Madonna dell’Archetto, within months of the Republic’s downfall. But by the time critics were praising his latest masterpiece, declaring Brumidi second only to the great painters of the High renaissance, he was already in jail on accusations of stealing art work from convents and monasteries during the short-lived revolt. He was found guilty in January 1852 and sentenced to 18 years—which was quickly reduced. He was pardoned altogether just two months later. And five months after that, he embarked for America.
So, what role did this experience have in Brumidi’s removal to America? Did it really make him a “refugee” rather than just an “immigrant”? In other words, did he feel that he had a choice in whether to stay or go, after his release?
Come back for Part 2 on Wednesday! In the comments, let us know if what you think about Brumidi’s status as an immigrant or refugee.
Rep. Emanuel Celler
Posted by Lauren Borchard in USCHS events, What We're Working On
1965 Immigration Act, Elizabeth Holtzman, Emanuel Celler, Hart-Celler Act, immigration history, Lance Sussman, USCHS symposium
On May 5 and 6, the U.S. Capitol Historical Society will host its annual symposium on congressional history. After a dozen years on a chronological journey through the sectional conflicts that dominated much of the nineteenth century, this year we shift gears to trace one topic that appears repeatedly in American history. Discussions about immigration, related legislation, and consequences of reforms or changes to current laws are sprinkled across the pages of current events news and campaign coverage; these topics pepper conversations around the country. Congress and a Nation of Immigrants, 1790-1990: From the First Naturalization Act to the Simpson-Mazzoli Act will examine the historical underpinnings of these current debates through various lenses, including race, quotas, politics, and popular culture. As speakers consider immigration law and related issues, they will detail and challenge popular perceptions of racial, ethnic, and political differences in American society.
Speaker Lance Sussman (Reform Congregation Keneseth Israel; Gratz College) is focusing his talk on Rep. Emanuel Celler, one of the namesakes of the landmark 1965 immigration legislation that shifted U.S. immigration policy away from primary reliance on quotas based on national origins and toward skill- and family-based preferences. The title of the talk, “Reopening the Golden Door: Congressman Emanuel Celler’s 40 Year Struggle for Immigration Reform, 1924-1965”, initially suggested to me that Celler retired, covered in glory, shortly after winning an extended battle over immigration policy, but Celler had a fifty-year career that spanned the mid-twentieth century and its dominant issues, including the New Deal, WWII, the Red Scare, the civil rights movement, and feminism.
Rep. Emanuel Celler in 1951. Courtesy New York World-Telegram and the Sun Newspaper Photograph Collection (Library of Congress).
Celler entered the House just in time to (unsuccessfully) fight against the 1924 Johnson-Reed Act, which barred Asian immigration and limited immigration from many countries in an attempt to maintain the racial and national origin status quo in the United States. Celler, representing a Brooklyn district full of immigrants of varied backgrounds (including many from eastern or southern Europe) and their descendants, objected to legislation that would limit future immigration from many of their homelands. The 1965 Hart-Celler Act was certainly a centerpiece in Celler’s work on immigration reform, but when looking at his career as a whole, writers tend to classify it as an example of his ongoing work on civil rights legislation. Celler chaired the House Committee on the Judiciary almost continuously throughout the 1950s and 60s and authored, co-authored, or otherwise championed the groundbreaking civil rights acts of the period. Celler supported New Deal programs, urged FDR to accept more Jewish refugees during WWII, and opposed the House Unamerican Activities Committee.
Elizabeth Holtzman (Library of Congress)
Ironically, another facet of the civil rights era shaped the end of his congressional career. Celler lost the 1972 Democratic primary to Elizabeth Holtzman, who highlighted his opposition to the Equal Rights Amendment and his support for the Vietnam War while running the same kind of underdog, grass-roots, on-the-street campaign that Cellar had run when he first won his seat in 1922.
The upcoming symposium is free and open to the public, so if you’re in DC, join us May 5 and 6 on Capitol Hill to learn more about immigration legislation throughout American history. Pre-register here! The schedule is posted on our website, and Sussman will speak about Celler’s work on immigration reform at 10 am on May 6.
Biographical Directory of the United States Congress. Emanuel Celler and Elizabeth Holtman.
Carroll, Maurice. “Emanuel Celler, Former Brooklyn Congressman, Dies at 92.” The New York Times (New York): January 16, 1981.
Kammer, Jerry. “The Hart-Celler Immigration Act of 1965.” Center for Immigration Studies website: October 2015.
U.S. Department of State Office of the Historian website. Key Milestones, “The Immigration Act of 1924 (The Johnson-Reed Act).”
Wasniewski, Matthew, editor in chief. “Elizabeth Holtzman,” Women in Congress, 1917-2006, p. 482-487. Washington, DC: 2006.
Francis Doughty: Visionary or Trouble Maker?
Dutch antededants for US Constitution, early American history, Francis Doughty, James Madison, Mau van Duren
Today we welcome Mau van Duren to the USCHS blog! He will be discussing his new book, Many Heads and Many Hands: James Madison’s Search for a More Perfect Union, in Washington, DC on Wednesday, April 13 at noon. The event is free and open to the public, though pre-registration is requested, and will be held in Ketchum Hall in the VFW Building at 200 Maryland Ave. NE, Washington, DC 20002.
Francis Doughty, Visionary or Trouble Maker?:
Concepts Developed in Europe, Tested in Colonial America, and Implemented in the United States’s Constitution
–by Mau van Duren
James Madison added concepts to our Constitution that found their origins in Continental Europe. The Dutch Republic proved a major conduit and originator of innovations in governance and civil liberties. Taxation with Representation was enshrined in the Dutch Constitution of 1477. Freedom of Religion and Freedom of the Press (free speech) were introduced in 1568. Secular Marriage and an Independent Judiciary existed in the Republic well before others introduced them.
In the late 16th century and first half of the 17th century, the Republic was a refuge for Europeans who had escaped religious persecution in countries as diverse as England, Germany, France, Spanish Netherlands, Poland, and Sweden. All were Protestants of one flavor or another, and they brought with them the languages and cultures of their people. Many settled in Amsterdam and many in Leyden. That small city was then the center of the cloth trade and manufacture but, perhaps more importantly, it was the center of enlightenment, education, and science. Descartes, Grotius, and other greats taught there. Isaac Newton published all his books there.
Many of the foreign settlers were country folk and could not get used to city life and made use of the opportunity life in the New World might afford them. Affected by the sophistication around them, they carried the patently Dutch concepts and values with them and implemented what they could in their new environment. Strongest among them were the Separatists whom we now know as the Pilgrim Fathers. Other denominations settled in New Netherlands, Jamestown, and Rhode Island. Religious refugees who had no connection with the Dutch Republic were the settlers of Massachusetts Bay, the Puritans. And they brought with them patently English concepts and values.
One man and his young family came to America in the early 1630s. He set foot among the Pilgrims in Plimoth Plantation, preached among the Puritans in Plimoth’s Cohannet, briefly settled among the Free in Rhode Island Plantation, became a civil liberties advocate in New Amsterdam, preached on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, founded a school further south in Virginia, farmed along the Rappahannock, and eventually disappeared in the fog of time.
In every colony Doughty set foot, he experienced the birth, infancy, and growing pains of virtual republics. He saw the development of the rule of law and democracy. He suffered the small-mindedness of religious intolerance in Massachusetts, lived among the free in Rhode Island, learned about the powers, and limitations, of the people of New Netherlands, and witnessed the evolution of participatory government in both Virginia and Maryland. Mostly he followed in the footsteps of others, but in New Netherlands he was, briefly, a pioneer. He mixed with the movers and shakers, and quite literally, lived the beginnings of what would become the American Nation.
Vote Pairing
Posted by Lauren Borchard in Fact-a-Day Expansion
Congressional Globe, House rules, live pair, Purchase of Alaska, Treaty with Russia, U.S. House of Representatives, vote pairing, voting
While researching a recent Twitter/Facebook Fact-of-the-Day post, I came across a notation in the Congressional Globe (similar to today’s Congressional Record) that I hadn’t encountered before. In 1867, the administration negotiated and the Senate approved a treaty to purchase Alaska from Russia. The House didn’t approve an appropriation for the purchase until 1868, however; as I looked at the records from July 14, 1868, I noticed a series of comments from Members stating that they were “paired” with another Member and giving the votes of each person in the pair.
Pairs? At first it sounds more like a setup for card playing or dancing, but it turns out to be a relative of the vote-swapping that American voters have sometimes negotiated during recent presidential elections. In this case, it’s a way for Members of Congress, especially absent Members, to place into the official record how they would have voted had they been on site. Until 1999, three types of pairs were recognized (one person present, one absent; both absent; or only names, not preferred votes, listed in the record). These are informal agreements between specific Members who generally are on opposite sides of the issue, and they are understood to be acceptable only when they do not affect the outcome of the vote.
Currently, the only form that remains in use in the House is what was known as a “live pair.” At specified moments, a Member may vote “present” on the floor and note that he or she is paired with an absent Member. Then the Member can note how each person would have voted. Such an occurrence is rare now, with Members instead choosing to make similar arrangements among themselves without taking the formal step of announcing the pairing for the record. Most Members prefer to use non-pair options for placing their preferred vote in the official record even when they are absent.
USCHS President Ron Sarasin says that when he was in office in the 1970s, staffers would set up the pairings between Members. USCHS volunteer Jay Pierson was one of those staffers when the practice was more common: “It [pairing] was done by Floor staff who would either talk to a Member or Members about it or call the Members’ offices. Of course if there were an odd number of Members wishing to be paired, someone would be left out!”
Notice in the Congressional Globe about pairings on the appropriations vote.
In case you’re curious, in 1868, the pairings in the House on the Alaska appropriations vote were:
Robert Van Horn (Republican from MO) was paired with Cadwallader Washburn (Republican from WI)–Halbert Paine of WI announced the pairing and noted that Washburn would have voted no. (More of a “specific pair” than any other kind, since both were absent.)
Dennis McCarthy (Republican from NY) announced that he would have voted “no” and that he was paired with John Pruyn (Democrat from NY), who would have voted “ay.”
Benjamin Boyer (Democrat from PA) announced that he was paired with George Washington Woodward (Democrat from PA) and that Woodward would have voted “ay” while he himself would have voted “no.”
Anyone recall a more recent example of pairing occurring in either the House or the Senate? Former staffer Pierson can only recall one live pair being done during his 35 years working on the House floor.
Congressional Globe, 40th Cong., 2nd Sess. 4055 (1868). (View the page cited)
Davis, Christopher M. Pairing in Congressional Voting: The House. Congressional Research Service, 2015.
Hass, Karen L. Rules of the House of Representatives, 114th Congress. Page 33 (Rule 20).
Primary Documents in American History (Treaty with Russia for the Purchase of Alaska), Library of Congress, accessed April 5, 2016.
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Who is this dude?
A memoir . . . of fiction e-book novel based on actual events? You decide.
Crop circles and shadow people visitors
HALLOWEEN IS CREEPING UP
The invaders have taken over our town
Islands in Time
Curse of the Lamiae
virgostone
Paranormal, time-travel, and mainstream novels; Charles J. Garard, PhD, American professor of literature, film studies, and writing teaching at a university in China — welcoming your experiences with the paranormal
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paranormal topics: books, movies, and reported experiences of the supernatural
The Asian Trilogy: FORBIDDEN VOICES . . . FOREIGNERS AND EMPERORS . . . SMS: THE SCAMMERS
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What would YOU do if you were a foreigner teaching in China?
“Don’t do it, Alex,” Tony shouted.
“No,” Hans agreed. “They will be embarrassed,” he added in his jaw-twisting German accent.
“Embarrassed?” Alex echoed.
It was Thanksgiving, and the International Affairs Office was hosting a dinner for the foreign teachers and some of the Chinese teachers. They occupied two large circular tables in adjoining dining rooms upstairs of the hotel restaurant across from the main campus, the restaurant where Alex and Jerry ate on the first day he arrived in the city. Joining them were the three Fu Wu Yuan ladies who worked for IAO.
Again, members of the hotel staff served as waitresses in their green and gray short skirt uniforms and Big Chief Dr. Zhu drafted Little Chief Jeremy to pour the water, wine, and Snow beer. To their table, they brought turkey that had been sliced in large flat pieces with a turkey head propped up in the center of the serving plate.
Before they were seated for the meal, Alex stood away from one of the tables with Tony and Hans. They complained to each other about the teaching situation in the English Department, and Tony groused about how his students had told him that Chinese teachers sometimes sold to them answers to exams in advance. All three of them balked at the idea of submitting blank copies of their exams to the department prior to the final exams, one of the requirements given to them verbally — not in writing; however, when Alex suggested that they talk to school administrators about what the department was doing, his two colleagues abandoned their tough stance and turned their vehemence against him.
“Yes. You will embarrass them.”
“Okay. Fine. Let them be embarrassed.”
The room seemed to grow warmer. The colors in the wall, the varnish of the woodwork, and the clothing of those seated around him seemed to increase in brightness and richness, like the colors on a television screen that seemed to overflow the boundaries of the characters and objects when someone turned up the contrast. The faces of the other diners at the table became as blurred as their over-lapping voices, and the sounds and images seemed to swarm together like a flowing combination of melted butter and syrup.
“Don’t do it,” Tony again demanded.
Tony used the assertive tone that he often used in bars when he began comparing universities in America with universities in Canada. Since he was a Canadian, it was natural that he regard American universities unfavorably during a comparison, but when his diatribes became more and more often launched from the bottom of his cups, only to be joined by Jody with her comparing an American education with a supposedly superior one from Britain, Alex decided to stop joining them for dinner – dinners that usually devolved into later visits to a bar where Marie’s drinking led to her sitting at the table in a sullen stupor and Tony’s drinking led to his being increasingly generous with his fatuous and unsubstantiated rhetoric.
“You can’t point out their flaws and errors in this country, Alex,” Hans continued. “They don’t want their positions to be made more difficult by complaints from below. They only want to hear compliments from below. That’s why they hold dinners for the Chinese teachers and demand that they attend. They want to be given face.”
Hans and Tony were so emphatic that Alex felt cowed. He didn’t know what to do with his indignation. Had he already started drinking Snow beer from the green bottles, he might have been relaxed enough or confident enough to shift into response mode, not that being more forthright with his colleagues would have guaranteed any recovery of face on his part.
http://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/chukkgarard
http://www.alternate-world-of-cjg.com
Alex Barteau in China
« CURSE OF THE LAMIAE
The Alex Barteau Trilogy: FORBIDDEN VOICES . . . FOREIGNERS AND EMPERORS . . . SMS: THE SCAMMERS ______________________________________________ What would you do if you were a foreigner teaching in China? ______________________________________________“Don’t do it, Alex,” Tony shouted. “No,” Hans agreed. “They will be embarrassed,” he added in his jaw-twisting German accent. “Embarrassed?” Alex echoed. It was Thanksgiving, and the International Affairs Office was hosting a dinner for the foreign teachers and some of the Chinese teachers. They occupied two large circular tables in adjoining dining rooms upstairs of the hotel restaurant across from the main campus, the restaurant where Alex and Jerry ate on the first day he arrived in the city. Joining them were the three Fu Wu Yuan ladies who worked for IAO. Again, members of the hotel staff served as waitresses in their green and gray short skirt uniforms and Big Chief Dr. Zhu drafted Little Chief Jeremy to pour the water, wine, and Snow beer. To their table, they brought turkey that had been sliced in large flat pieces with a turkey head propped up in the center of the serving plate. Before they were seated for the meal, Alex stood away from one of the tables with Tony and Hans. They complained to each other about the teaching situation in the English Department, and Tony groused about how his students had told him that Chinese teachers sometimes sold to them answers to exams in advance. All three of them balked at the idea of submitting blank copies of their exams to the department prior to the final exams, one of the requirements given to them verbally — not in writing; however, when Alex suggested that they talk to school administrators about what the department was doing, his two colleagues abandoned their tough stance and turned their vehemence against him. “Yes. You will embarrass them.” “Okay. Fine. Let them be embarrassed.” The room seemed to grow warmer. The colors in the wall, the varnish of the woodwork, and the clothing of those seated around him seemed to increase in brightness and richness, like the colors on a television screen that seemed to overflow the boundaries of the characters and objects when someone turned up the contrast. The faces of the other diners at the table became as blurred as their over-lapping voices, and the sounds and images seemed to swarm together like a flowing combination of melted butter and syrup. “Don’t do it,” Tony again demanded. Tony used the assertive tone that he often used in bars when he began comparing universities in America with universities in Canada. Since he was a Canadian, it was natural that he regard American universities unfavorably during a comparison, but when his diatribes became more and more often launched from the bottom of his cups, only to be joined by Jody with her comparing an American education with a supposedly superior one from Britain, Alex decided to stop joining them for dinner – dinners that usually devolved into later visits to a bar where Marie’s drinking led to her sitting at the table in a sullen stupor and Tony’s drinking led to his being increasingly generous with his fatuous and unsubstantiated rhetoric. “You can’t point out their flaws and errors in this country, Alex,” Hans continued. “They don’t want their positions to be made more difficult by complaints from below. They only want to hear compliments from below. That’s why they hold dinners for the Chinese teachers and demand that they attend. They want to be given face.” Hans and Tony were so emphatic that Alex felt cowed. He didn’t know what to do with his indignation. Had he already started drinking Snow beer from the green bottles, he might have been relaxed enough or confident enough to shift into response mode, not that being more forthright with his colleagues would have guaranteed any recovery of face on his part. _ 1. www.smashwords.com/profile/view/chukkgarard/ 2. www.alternate-world-of-cjg.com »
ANOTHER REALLY AWESOME SITE!
Bright young man from China
My Amazon.com Site
My site in Deviant Art
REALLY AWESOME SITE!!!
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Discover The Coral Reefs Of Palau In VR
Last year The Economist launched its first virtual-reality experience, “RecoVR Mosul: A collective reconstruction”. It is a digital recreation of the Mosul Museum, and some of the artefacts inside it, which were destroyed by Islamic State militants in 2015. “RecoVR Mosul”, created in partnership with Rekrei, a non-profit heritage group, went on to win a string of awards. We then updated our VR app with the addition of two more virtual-reality pieces: an offbeat tour of the Japanese city of Osaka, and an animated explainer that examines the problem of overfishing on the high seas. Now we have added another: “Ocean: The mystery corals” transports you to the coral reefs of Palau, which are thriving in unusually warm and acidic water, and might thus cast light on how to help corals elsewhere cope with climate change.
VR and underwater topics are a natural fit, given the immersive nature of the medium. “OceansVR: Net positive” brings to life the debate around overfishing on the high seas. In effect it’s a VR version of a leader we published on the topic in July. But where a leader consists of words on a page (or a screen), a VR experience can take you inside the argument, in this case examining the issues from the perspective of a diner, a fish, a fisherman and a policymaker. It was first shown at the Festival of Dangerous Ideas in Sydney, Australia and was also an official selection of the 54th New York Film Festival’s Convergence track.
“Passport: Osaka” is a 360-degree documentary that acts as a companion piece to the Osaka episode of “Passport”, our series of travel films highlighting hidden gems in city destinations around the world. Previous episodes of the film series have visited Miami, Colombo and Buenos Aires. Now you can visit the fish market, a tattoo studio and a sento bathhouse, and walk the city centre at night, in this virtual tour for the culturally curious.
All these VR pieces, like “RecoVR Mosul” before them, are experiments in a new storytelling medium, and were created by Economist journalists working with the Economist Media Lab, part of our product-development unit based in New York, and VR startups Visualise, Object Normal and Parable. All four VR experiences can be accessed through the newly updated VR app, which is now available for Apple iPhones and Android-based smartphones (Cardboard or similar adapter recommended), and for the Samsung Gear VR. We hope you will immerse yourself in them—and enjoy them.
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Romelu Lukaku set to leave Manchester United
Romelu Lukaku scored 15 goals last season for United, his last strike coming against Paris St-Germain in March
Manchester United striker Romelu Lukaku “has to leave” the Premier League club, says Belgium manager Roberto Martinez.
Lukaku, 26, joined United from Everton for £75m in July 2017 and has scored 42 goals in 96 games at Old Trafford.
Belgium’s record scorer has been linked with a move this summer after falling down the pecking order under United boss Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.
“It is now important that Romelu finds the right club,” Martinez told Belgian newspaper Het Laatste Nieuws.
“It would be a good thing for both parties.”
Martinez, who has managed Lukaku at Everton and now at international level, added: “It is clear that he has to leave Manchester United.”
Lukaku, who has been heavily linked with a move to Inter Milan, has a contract at United until 2022.
When asked about his future following Belgium’s 3-0 Euro 2020 qualifying win over Scotland last week, he said: “I know what I’ll do, but won’t say it. We’ll see.”
He scored 15 goals in 45 games last season but Marcus Rashford was often favoured in attack by Solskjaer.
English premier league transfer news
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Sara Lance Will Get A Superpower In Legends Of Tomorrow Seas...
Lauren Cohan Says Her Walking Dead Exit Will Keep Things Open-Ended
By Christian Bone @ChristianABone 11 months ago
The Walking Dead is about to lose two of its longest running stars. One will be a permanent exit but the other’s believed to be more flexible, leaving the possibility of a return at a later date. We’re of course talking about Andrew Lincoln and Lauren Cohan. While Rick Grimes is being written out for good as Lincoln’s moving on, Cohan’s only losing her regular status due to commitments to her new show Whiskey Cavalier, so it’s possible that she’ll pop back in every now and then.
While speaking with Gamespot, the actress – who’s been part of TWD since season 2 – reflected on her exit. Carefully choosing her words in order to avoid spoilers, Cohan spoke about her love for the series and how it’ll always be special to her. She also described Maggie Rhee’s farewell storyline as “open-ended” and briefly touched on the possibility of returning.
“It feels like the greatest way to honor it is to keep it open-ended because whether it’s about me going back as Maggie or whether it’s about me just taking in, absorbing, and honoring everything I’ve learned there. It never leaves me. It will never, ever leave me. And that is I think the greatest compliment you can give to anything and to any group of people because we all came together to make something that we didn’t know was going to have this success that it did.”
The Walking Dead Season 9 Gallery
Lincoln and Cohan are both expected to leave The Walking Dead after a small number of episodes and will likely be gone by the midseason finale. The prevailing theory is that Rick will be killed off, bringing his arc that began in the show’s first ever episode to a close. Maggie, meanwhile, might just pull a Morgan and simply move on to fresh pastures. Though we don’t expect her to switch over to Fear the Walking Dead like Lennie James’ character.
Despite losing these two protagonists, it seems that they won’t necessarily be replaced and The Walking Dead will instead become even more of an ensemble cast, despite those rumors that said Norman Reedus was being promoted so Daryl Dixon could become the new main character. Either way, we’ll see how the AMC zombie drama will be affected by these losses when season 9 arrives on October 7th.
Tags: The Walking Dead
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Brooks and Sims Produce Distri
Ed Miller Company Est. 1964
Westlake Distributors Inc. Est.&nbs
Westlake Produce prides ourselves on having some of the best sales and accounting staff the Industry has to offer. With over 300 years of sales experience on staff, we take pride in being a great source of information to our partners in the industry while having the expertise to develop the next generation of successful members of our trade. When it comes to product availability, seasonal programs, or just plain commodity information, our team is ready to assist you in accomplishing your sales goals.
Brooks and Sims Produce Distributors Est. 1962
Founded in 1962 by Joe Sims and Bill Brooks, Sr. as distributors of potatoes, onions, and melons, Brooks & Sims was originally located in the L.A. Terminal Produce Building above the Seventh Street Market. Joe and Bill Sr. brought their sons into the business in the 1970s, and by 1982, Bill Brooks Jr. was part of the management/ownership team. The company eventually expanded with offices in both Los Angles and Newport Beach. Throughout its nearly 40 years in existence, Brooks & Sims evolved and adapted to overcome numerous challenges that confront most produce companies: extreme weather conditions, economic boom/bust, customer consolidation, commodity embargos, and key personnel changes. At the close of the 1990s, the consolidation that had swept through the produce industry at the retail level prompted Brooks & Sims to seek out and consummate a merger of their operations with Westlake Miller in 2001 in order to broaden their commodity offerings to a contracting customer base. Paying homage to their collective traditions, the new company originally operated under the name Westlake-Miller / Brooks & Sims. Over time, the desire to shorten the name won out and Westlake Produce Company was born.
regions, apples, melons, avocados, cranberries, and temperature recorders, the company was originally located in downtown Los Angeles across from the wholesale markets. Over the years, the firm grew, and moved to a bigger location as Ed brought his three sons into the business. A defining time in the company's 30 years of operation was a six year period in the 1980s when it survived three Florida freezes. That led the firm to diversify into Texas citrus and other non-citrus commodities. Ed Miller Co. was also one of the first U.S. firms to export Florida grapefruit to Japan in the late 70's. In 1997, Jeff Miller acquired the company from his father and he and his brothers, Steve and Ed Jr., merged its operations with Westlake Distributors in order to diversify and solidify their long-term position with the Southern California produce marketplace. The merged company did business as Westlake-Miller.Founded in 1964 by Ed Miller Sr. as distributors of citrus from all growing
Westlake Distributors Inc. Est. 1978
Founded in 1978 by Harvey Sherman and Ernie Colton, Westlake Distributors, Inc. thrived in the Los Angeles marketplace selling melons, citrus, grapes, and vegetables to a growing retail customer base. In the early 1990s, Dale Liefer assumed majority ownership and helped cement the firm's position in the Southern California landscape. Soon the company added field inspection and logistics support, and sought out strategic business combinations to strengthen relationships with their industry partners, including both their customers and their suppliers.
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Netanyahu says that he would aim to form “a strong, stable government” that would tackle “security and socio-economic challenges.”
Dear chaverot, dear friends,
Yesterday Israel went to its general elections and the public had its say. Please see below extracts of Benjamin Netanyahu’s victory speech.
QUOTE ( from Jerusalem Post) :
“In his victory speech early Wednesday Benjamin Netanyahu said that he would aim to form “a strong, stable government” that would tackle “security and socio-economic challenges.”
Netanyahu told a jubilant crowd of Likud supporters early Wednesday morning that “against all odds, we have scored a major victory for the Likud.”
“Hail, hail, Bibi,” Likud adherents chanted as Netanyahu took to the podium on Wednesday.
“We have scored a major victory for the nationalist camp headed by Likud,” Netanyahu said.
“I’m proud of the Israeli people because at the moment of truth they knew to differentiate between challenge and nonsense and they took up the challenge,” the prime minister said.
Netanyahu said that his government will work to improve on “the most important things for all of us, which include genuine security and socio-economic welfare………….”
“These are important things for every family, citizen, soldier, and all of Israel’s Jewish and non-Jewish citizens,” Netanyahu said. “You are all important, and you are all important to me.”
The prime minister also seemed to be going out of his way to mention economic matters, a departure from his public appearances during which regional threats and the security front were prominent.
“Now we must form a strong, stable government that will know how to uphold security and socio-economic well-being.”
“We are faced with major challenges on the security and socioeconomic front,” Netanyahu said. “We promised to take care of cost of living and rise of housing costs, and we will do it.”
“I spoke to all of the nationalist party leaders, and I called on them to join me in forming a government without delay, because reality doesn’t take a timeout.”
“Citizens expect us to form a responsible leadership that will work for it, and that’s what we will do………….”
Let us hope that the future will see solutions for the socio-economic challenges that Israel faces and a more social “friendly” national budget to improve the society in Israel and especially the lives of the weak populations .
Affectionately,
Tova Ben-Dov
World WIZO
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Gene Simmons Accused of Sexual Misconduct
Michael B. Thomas, Getty Images
Gene Simmons is the subject of a sexual misconduct allegation after a women reportedly launched a lawsuit against the Kiss bassist.
TMZ says the legal papers allege Simmons made inappropriate physical contact with a person who is using the name “Jane Doe” for the purposes of this court action.
According to the report, the woman said she was employed as a dishwasher at one of Kiss’ Rock & Brews bar and restaurants in 2016. He visited the establishment, and his manager along with her co-workers, encouraged her to pose for a photo with him, TMZ says.
When the manager suggested she move closer, the suit claims Simmons “reached over the forcefully placed his hand on her vagina, completely covering it.” The moment is said to have been captured in a photograph, which she showed to co-workers. It was also alleged that Simmons acted in a “sexually charged” manner towards other women during the visit, “encouraging them to unbutton their shirts.”
Neither Simmons nor his representatives have commented yet on the allegations. This story will be updated when they do.
Next: Rock's Nastiest Lawsuits
Source: Gene Simmons Accused of Sexual Misconduct
Filed Under: Gene Simmons
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Jets on the right track
Newcastle coach Gary van Egmond indicated the Jets had 'turned a corner' in their title defence after their battling 0-0 draw with Sydney FC on Saturday night.
The Jets have started the season in relatively poor form with two come-from-behind draws and a 5-0 drubbing at the hands of Melbourne Victory last start.
But a renewed attitude saw the defending champions match it with Sydney, and ultimately were unlucky to not have come away from the match with all three points.
"Everything was good in terms of character but now we have to work on shape in the final third, final half, we just need a little more silk," said van Egmond after the match.
"We are happy we didn't get scored against - the defensive side of things was something we worked on after conceding eight goals in three games. We had to ensure our defensive side of things worked well and probably with a little more luck we could have got the three points - but to Sydney's credit they defended well as well and worked hard and were always dangerous on the counter."
Van Egmond said the change in attitude was spurred on by the record-equalling loss to Melbourne and the fact that the Jets had lost the respect of their home fans.
"I think it was to do with the fact that we had lost 5-0 the previous game," explained van Egmond. "When I first took over, there was a feeling - someone said they felt embarrassed to be walking down the street in a Newcastle shirt and it is probably the first time since then that we had that same feeling, which is something I am definitely not happy about and something that we wanted to right."
"It was all about the response tonight - yeah the result we didn't get but the response was fantastic. We can definitely build on that response and the way we played for next week."
"It is now a matter of trying to back that up and build on it. It is not going to be easy - sometimes you are going to have suspensions, players injured and players away on national team duty but as you saw tonight."
"Jobe Wheelhouse as a central midfielder and Daniel Piorkowski, who has only come in for a short period of time - both did a really good job, Adam Griffiths gave us a lot more starch in the middle of the park and I felt that was a good contributor in the way the game went. The depth that we have now is starting to look good."
The Newcastle coach was also impressed with the increased effort of marquee player Edmundo Zura. The Ecuadorian is yet to score for the club but showed much more commitment in both attack and defensive before running out of steam and being replaced midway through the second half.
"I thought he (Zura) worked really well," said van Egmond. "Some of his touches and weight of pass was excellent. He had some good opportunities in the first half and as you can see once he gets going he is quite quick. And has nice feet and he is only going to get better with more time."
"Edmundo came off and when he came off we probably didn't have as much silk or someone who is a little more unpredictable to do stuff in the last third before he ran out of legs. Jesper (Hakansson) came on and was effective as well but we just need to find that right path and that right decision."
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Architectural Drawings Required for Building Construction
By: Haseeb Jamal / On: Jan 21, 2017 / Construction
Architectural Drawings
Setting Out Plan
Elevation Drawings
Section Drawings
Opening Schedules
Roof Drainage Plan
Flooring Plan
Furniture Plan
Typical Details
Floor Plans give a visual representation of a building. It shows a view from the above, of the relationships between rooms, spaces and other physical features at one level of a structure. For each floor unique plans are developed e.g.
Ground Floor Plan
Second Floor Plan and so on.
The Ground Floor Plan shows structural (Beams, columns etc.) and architectural features (Openings, partitions etc.) of the building as well as shows the interior uses of a building. Circulation cores, including stairs and elevators, are required to be illustrated as well. These drawings may be viewed by both technical experts and the general public, so clarity and accuracy in proportion and scale are important. Dimensions may be shown as:
Feet and percent of feet, otherwise known as decimal feet or
Feet and inches. For example, a dimension may be either 5’ 3” or 5.25”.
Elevation Plans
A front elevation is a part of a scenic design of the building as seen from the front. It is also required as a working drawing for engineering purposes and all measurements are written on it. It can also be used as a painting elevation but in that case it should have the exact colors and paint schemes to be used by the paint charge to paint the unit. The details include stairs, window designs, balconies, vents, doors, parapet wall or other architectural features (if applicable) which might not have been a part of structural drawings. It also includes the ground floor level height (GFL), first floor level (FFL), top floor level and parapet level and so on.
Left Elevation
It is the view of the building structure from its left side. It shows the building features which can best be viewed from the left side and helps the contracting staff in the field by providing relevant working details of the structure. It also includes all the detailing of the features as in the front elevation drawings, like GFL, FFL, opening specifications, cantilever portions of the building or other protruding features.
Right Side Elevation
Similarly, to provide more details about the other side of the structure, Right side elevation helps in showing the detailed specifications of the features occurring on the right side of the building structure.
The rear (back) view shows the building as viewed from the backside. It shows all the structural and architectural features which are visible from the rear view of the building. The details of the drawing are also the same as specified in the front elevation.
Section at X-X
A section of the whole building is taken at two points in X-Direction which can show the structural and architectural features of the building that reside inside the building and are not visible from the outside. The section view contains information related to the type of material to be used in the building walls (cut by x-section line), location of openings like windows, doors, vents, ground level, Floor level, water proofing specification (e.g. bitumen coating specs, polythene sheet or other materials used), the mix ratio of mortar to be used, floor toping material, slab specification and other details as applicable.
Section at Y-Y
The section in Y-direction contains the same information as in the section at X-X drawing but only in the direction horizontally perpendicular to the X-X section line. It shows all the structural and architectural features of the building as viewed from inside when looking towards Y-Y line across the building.
Floor Working Drawing
This plan shows the location of all the structural members like walls, beams, columns, stairs etc. on the ground floor. All the features and members are fully dimensioned and labelled as to what they represent on the ground. This also shows the location of X-X and Y-Y lines so as to enable the reader to understand where these sections have been taken. This will be the drawing which the contractor will use most often for working at the site so it must contain all the structural as well as necessary architectural features of the building.
Opening Schedule
Door and window schedule
Window and door schedule shows all the types of doors, windows and ventilators to be used in the building. All these openings are fully dimensioned and their architectural features are also shown, such as in the figure below.
It shows the full system layout of all the drainage features on the roof top. Construction drawings shall clearly designate ridges and valleys and state relative falls. Flat roofs shall have a fall towards external gutters, outlets or roof edges of not less than 1:80 where there is no interruption in the flow of water, and 1:50 where there is an interruption in the flow. Where two directional falls intersect, the minimum finished fall of 1:80 shall be maintained along the miter. The required slope can be achieved on a concrete roof by casting or finishing concrete to the required fall, by applying sand-cement screeds to the concrete to achieve the required levels, or by a combination thereof.
This drawing shows the type of material to use for floors in different areas of the house on the ground floor e.g. tough tiles, patio, marble tiles etc. Different types of floors can be represented by different hatch patterns. Similar to the ground floor flooring plan, 1st floor drawing (2nd floor and so on) also show what materials to use for floors inside and outside of the house, in the rooms, washrooms, and kitchen as well as outside the house e.g. patios, terraces, lawns etc.
This is the optional drawing showing the location, style and setting of furniture items in the rooms, lobby, stores, washrooms, living rooms and all other areas of the building. You can include furniture items, TV sets, wash basins, sinks and stoves as and where required. This plan helps in giving a bird’s eye view to the client about how the setting will look like and decreases his confusions and misunderstandings.
List of Drawings Required for Building Construction
Electrification Drawings Required in Building
List of Public Health Drawings for Buildings
Math question 7 + 3 =
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Terrington St Clement 2006
Terrington St Clement 2006 Pottery Report
Terrington St Clement 2006 Test Pit Location Map
Seven test pits were excavated in Terrington St Clement in 2006, adding to the nine excavated in 2005. In this large sprawling settlement, the 2006 test pits were able to investigate several new areas, including the site of a C14th brick kiln (TSC06/5), previously thought to be much later in date. Pottery of Anglo-Saxon at medieval date from TSC06/4 suggested that the saltern mound on top of which the test pit was sited was in use then, possibly for dairying, before being abandoned c. 1400AD until the mid C20th. TSC06/2, sited in an isolated small, square, ditched field c. 250m south east of the church and considered by some local residents to be a moated site, revealed a substantial quantity of animal bone and late Anglo-Saxon and medieval pottery suggesting a period of occupation spanning AD 950-1200. Further south, two test pits at Lovell's Hall produced trace evidence for Anglo-Saxon and medieval activity. Combined with the evidence from 2005, there is now plausible evidence that much of the area occupied by the present settlement of Terrington St Clement was, from the late Anglo-Saxon period, highly dispersed, with separate nodes of occupation which included areas north and south of, but possibly not always immediately adjacent to, the church.
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National energy customer framework
Our role in retail markets
Retail energy markets are the final link in the energy supply chain. Energy retailers buy electricity and gas in wholesale markets, package it with transportation services and sell it to customers. This is typically the main interface between the electricity and gas industry, and customers such as households and small businesses.
On 1 July 2012, the AER assumed responsibility for regulating retail energy markets in those states and territories that had adopted the National Energy Customer Framework (‘Customer Framework’). The reforms aimed to streamline the way that energy retail markets are regulated through a single framework enforced by the AER.
The Customer Framework includes the National Energy Retail Law, National Energy Retail Rules and National Energy Retail Regulations. Together, these Laws and Rules set out key protections and obligations for energy customers and the businesses they buy their energy from.
As of 1 July 2015, the Customer Framework has commenced in Queensland, New South Wales, the Australian Capital Territory, Tasmania and South Australia. In states that have yet to adopt the Customer Framework, state and territory governments will remain responsible for regulating retail energy markets. Western Australia and the Northern Territory do not propose to implement the reforms.
In jurisdictions where the Customer Framework has commenced, the AER is responsible for:
monitoring and enforcing compliance with obligations in the Retail Law, Rules and Regulations
reporting on the performance of the market and energy businesses, including information on energy affordability and trends in disconnection of customers for non-payment of energy bills.
assessing applications for national retailer authorisations from businesses that want to become energy retailers, and granting exemptions from the requirement to be authorised (for example, for nursing homes and caravan parks that pay for energy and onsell it to their tenants as part of their normal business)
approving policies energy retailers must implement to assist customers who are facing financial hardship and looking for help to manage their bills
administering a national retailer of last resort scheme, which protects customers and the market if a retail business fails
The AER does not have a role in setting retail energy prices. In some states and territories, the government remains responsible for control of the energy prices customers see on their bills. For example, in Queensland, the ACT and Tasmania, you can ask for a contract with a regulated electricity price where the price is set by government. In Victoria and South Australia, there are no regulated offers or tariffs (for electricity or gas), which means that energy retailers set all of their own prices. The AER has developed an energy price comparison website, Energy Made Easy, to help customers find the best energy offers for their needs.
The AER has released procedures and guidelines for how it undertakes its roles under the Retail Law. It developed these documents in consultation with energy customers, consumer advocacy groups, energy retailers, state and territory agencies, ombudsman schemes and other stakeholders.
The Customer Framework also makes important changes to the National Electricity Rules and National Gas Rules for customers who need to connect their home or business to the energy network. See our Getting connected page for more information about the AER’s role in customer connections.
How was the Customer Framework developed?
The Customer Framework was introduced after extensive consultation by COAG Energy Council (previously the Standing Council on Energy and Resources).
Representatives from Queensland, New South Wales, the Australian Capital Territory, Victoria, Tasmania and South Australia worked together to develop a single set of rules that could be applied across the National Energy Market. (Western Australia and the Northern Territory will continue to operate under separate frameworks.) Information on how the Customer Framework was developed, including consultation papers, is available from the COAG Energy Council website.
The South Australian parliament passed the National Energy Retail Law (South Australia) Act 2011 in March 2011. The Retail Law is a schedule to that Act. The first Retail Rules and Regulations were made by the Governor of South Australia in June 2012.
In order for the Customer Framework to apply, each participating jurisdiction including South Australia needs to pass its own legislation adopting the Retail Law, Rules and Regulations. When they do this, a state or territory may choose to change the way that the Law or the Rules apply, for example by creating additional or different protections and obligations for customers and businesses in that State or Territory.
This also means that the Customer Framework will come into effect on different dates in different States and Territories. The AER’s new functions under the Customer Framework will start in each jurisdiction from the date the Retail Law and Rules take effect in that jurisdiction. Until then, State and Territory governments will remain responsible for regulating retail energy markets.
The National Energy Retail Law is Schedule 1 of the National Energy Retail Law (South Australia) Act 2011, which can be accessed from the South Australian Attorney-Generals' Department website. You can access the National Energy Retail Regulations from the same website.
The National Energy Retail Rules can be accessed from the Australian Energy Market Commission website.
The website also contains information on how the Retail Law, Rules and Regulations apply in each jurisdiction can be accessed.
Under the NERR the AER is required to establish and maintain a Customer Consultative Group (CCG). The purpose of the CCG is to provide advice to the AER in relation to its functions under the energy laws affecting energy consumers across participating jurisdictions. CCG meetings are held up to three times a year.
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OnePlus 6T India review: Maintaining the status quo — for now
OnePlus is betting on what has worked in the past, but that may not be enough anymore.
Harish Jonnalagadda
OnePlus is continuing with its two-phone launch cycle, and as was the case in previous years, the "T" variant brings updates to the display, and this time we're also getting a new way to unlock the phone. More importantly, it's what's missing on the OnePlus 6T that is fueling the initial conversation around the device — there's no headphone jack, and OnePlus got rid of the notification LED as well.
The 6T comes with the inevitable uptick in price, with the base model now starting at ₹37,999 ($530). You get 128GB of storage as standard, but it's clear that the 6T no longer delivers the same value as its predecessors. OnePlus has dominated in India in recent years, with the brand managing to overtake Samsung in this segment. That's no minor feat, but with companies like POCO taking a leaf out of OnePlus' playbook, the brand has its work cut out.
Indian customers are some of the most unforgiving on the planet, and they have good reason to be. With the country touting the widest selection of phones anywhere in the world, there's no dearth of choice for the Indian buyer at any given price point. To put things into context, the LG G7+ with 128GB of storage is available for ₹40,000 ($560), and you can pick up a Pixel 2 XL for just ₹40,999 ($573).
Then there's the threat of POCO. The Xiaomi sub-brand has dominated the mind share in recent months, and it's already starting to steal market share away from the likes of OnePlus. In this highly competitive backdrop, launching a phone in India without a notification LED or headphone jack is a move that could hurt the brand in the long run.
Performance beast
OnePlus continues to define this segment.
The 6T delivers an iterative update, but it does have a few new features on offer. The in-display fingerprint sensor presents a novel new way to unlock the phone, and the waterdrop notch is a welcome change. OxygenOS continues to be one of the best third-party skins around, and when it comes to performance, few phones come close to the OnePlus 6T.
₹37,999 at Amazon
Narrower cutout
128GB internal memory as standard
Clean software experience
Top-notch performance
No 3.5mm jack
Camera is average
In-display fingerprint sensor is unreliable
No notification LED
No IP rating
OnePlus 6T Hardware
With the OnePlus 6 launching just five months prior, not much has changed on the hardware front. The 6T has the same design aesthetic, and signature design traits like the horizon line are intact. The phone is marginally taller to accommodate the larger 6.41-inch screen, and the larger 3700mAh means it's heavier as well.
One would think that making the phone taller and heavier would make it less conducive to use, but I've found that it is better than the OnePlus 6. The weight gives it a reassuring heft, and it is narrower than its predecessor, making it much more comfortable to use. The alert slider and power button are unchanged, and they provide a decent amount of tactile feedback.
There's Gorilla Glass 6 protection this time around, but the overall finish at the back is identical to its predecessor. The one key change at the back is the removal of the fingerprint sensor, and that leads to a cleaner look. You get the same glossy finish with Mirror Black, but Midnight Black and the limited-edition Thunder Purple offer a delightful matte finish.
Continuing with the refinements, the cutout up front is no longer annoying, thanks to a narrower waterdrop notch. The notch holds just the front camera module, with the earpiece moving to a slit at the top of the display. There's an option to hide the notch, and the bezels at the bottom have also been reduced significantly. The end result is that the 6T feels just as premium as Samsung or Huawei's flagships.
Coming to the display, the 6.41-inch panel is still an Optic AMOLED, but it now sports a resolution of 2340 x 1080. The panel is one of the best in this category, with excellent contrast levels and vibrant colors. I didn't have any issues with sunlight visibility, and in general the screen quality is one area where things haven't changed much (thankfully) over the course of the last year.
The 6T feels just as refined as Samsung or Huawei's flagships, but it is missing a lot of features.
What's notable on the OnePlus 6T is what isn't there anymore. After criticizing other manufacturers for getting rid of the headphone jack, OnePlus has followed suit. The official explanation is that the 3.5mm jack made way for a larger battery and to house the components for the in-display fingerprint sensor, but it's more than likely the decision was out of OnePlus' hands.
OnePlus relies heavily on OPPO for the manufacture and distribution of its phones, and with the R17 Pro ditching the 3.5mm jack, there wasn't any option left for OnePlus.
What's even more egregious is the removal of the notification LED. Like the headphone jack, the notification LED is a feature that Indian customers care about deeply, and its removal is a puzzling move considering OnePlus says it cares about the community.
Then there's the audio quality. There's a single speaker located at the bottom of the 6T, and while it's loud, it's nowhere near as detailed as what you get on other phones in this segment. With most phones now delivering stereo sound, it's hard not to feel like OnePlus is a step behind in this area.
On the subject of missed opportunities, the vibration motor on the 6T is sub-par. This wouldn't have been an issue normally, but the Pixel 3 XL had great haptics, and switching from it to the 6T it was immediately noticeable that OnePlus has a long way to go here.
In-display fingerprint sensor
The in-display fingerprint sensor is the marquee addition on the OnePlus 6T, but after using the phone for three weeks, it's clear that OnePlus should have waited another year before introducing it. The tech itself isn't new for Indian buyers, as Vivo introduced three phones that feature in-display modules — the X21 introduced the sensor, the NEX made it cool, and the V11 Pro showed that it works on a mainstream phone.
OnePlus touted the in-display fingerprint reader as one of the key new features on the 6T, and right now it just doesn't feel reliable enough to use as the default way of authentication. I've had several issues with the sensor recognizing my fingerprint, and having used all of Vivo's phones with in-display sensors, I can safely say that the 6T is the buggiest implementation I've seen so far.
The in-display fingerprint sensor is slow, buggy, and just not reliable.
The sensor took well over a second or two to authenticate on average, and there were several times where it failed to do so at all. And unlike a traditional fingerprint sensor — where you get an immediate feedback when it doesn't recognize your data — the in-display module on the 6T takes a while to register a false reading, so more often than not you're sitting with your finger on the sensor without knowing if it works or not.
Then there's the issue of using the sensor in the dark. As it is an optical sensor, it emits a green light that authenticates your fingerprints. OnePlus has done a decent job incorporating green elements in the unlock animations, but the light is quite intense — particularly if you're using the phone in bed.
The feature is still very cool, but it's just not fast or reliable to use daily, particularly if you're like me and unlock your phone over a hundred times a day. I switched to using face unlock as the default method of authentication — it isn't as secure as the in-display sensor, but it also doesn't make me want to throw the phone out the window.
OnePlus' singular obsession with performance was what made the brand so enticing to enthusiasts, and that trait is thankfully unchanged. The 6T is running the same Snapdragon 845 platform as the OnePlus 6, and it is just as fast. It's great that the base variant now comes with 128GB of storage as standard, and the 6GB of RAM is more than adequate for even the most demanding of tasks.
There's also a smart boost feature that caches data in the RAM to boost loading times, and that made a noticeable difference when launching games like PUBG. I had zero issues playing visually-intensive titles, and aside from the back of the device getting warm, it was a thoroughly enjoyable experience.
If it's performance you're after, the OnePlus 6T is a fantastic choice.
The OnePlus 6T has 4x4 MIMO, and I haven't had any issues with connectivity. Even a few rooms away from my router, I got over a solid 200Mbit with no loss in connectivity at any point. Call quality was similarly satisfactory, and having used the 6T primarily with Jio, VoLTE worked just fine.
The 6T is positioned as an affordable flagship, and there are the usual set of tradeoffs that are associated with most devices in this category. There's no IP rating this time as well, which is a puzzling move as there's no 3.5mm jack anymore. OnePlus would have assuaged some of its more vocal customers had it offered IP68 or IP67 dust and water resistance, but that isn't the case.
Another feature that hasn't made its way onto the OnePlus 6T is wireless charging. It doesn't look like wireless charging is a priority for the brand as its own custom wired fast charging protocol is one of the best around. Dash Charge (now Fast Charge) itself has been unchanged for over two years, and while the wall plug has been updated last year, the charging standard still works at 5V/4A.
It's likely we'll see a much-needed refresh on this front next year. OnePlus sources its fast charging tech from OPPO, and as such it's possible we'll see a Fast Charge version of Super VOOC next year.
As for battery life, I had no issues getting a full day's worth of use out of the 3700mAh battery. I averaged well over five hours' worth of screen-on-time over the course of the day, with usage consisting of navigation, browsing, streaming music, and messaging. The larger battery also eliminates any anxiety about the phone running out of charge before the end of the day.
OnePlus 6T Software
Over the years, OnePlus has tuned OxygenOS into one of the most robust third-party skins around. Its focus on an uncluttered software experience combined with blazing performance makes the 6T one of the fastest devices on the market today. OnePlus has also gotten much better at releasing software updates, with the OnePlus 6 one of the first devices to pick up the stable Android 9.0 Pie update and the 6T offering Pie out of the box.
OxygenOS continues to be of the best third-party skins around.
Not a lot has changed when it comes to features — you get the mainstay features like reading mode, display calibration, app locker, and much more. There's still a layer of customization for those looking for a differentiated set of features, like gestures. OnePlus was one of the first manufacturers to roll out gestures on its devices, and while the company emulated the same system as iOS, it is more intuitive than what Google is offering with Pie.
OnePlus hasn't committed to one particular style of navigation, so you get the option to choose from the default Pie gestures or the manufacturer's own system. If you'd rather not bother with gestures at all, there's also the option to switch back to the Oreo-style fixed navigation bar.
OxygenOS also offered a dark theme for some time now, and with the 6T the company is expanding its functionality. When you select the dark theme, it not only changes the color scheme for the settings and navigation shade, but also for all the first-party apps. There's also a game mode that mutes notifications and prioritizes network bandwidth for games.
Overall, OxygenOS continues to be one of my favorite third-party skins because of its focus on simplicity — there's customizability for those that want it, but that fades away into the background if you don't need it.
OnePlus 6T Camera
OnePlus hasn't made any changes to the camera hardware on the 6T, so you have the same 16MP + 20MP camera configuration at the back and a 16MP shooter up front. The quality of the images are a testament to that, and aside from a new night mode — which stitches images taken at various exposures — there's precious little in the way of new features.
Low-light shots are still noisy, and while the new night mode fixes some of these issues, the camera quality is strictly average — just like the OnePlus 6. When you consider the fact that the 6T costs ₹37,999 — and with the likes of the Pixel 2 XL now available at the same price point — camera quality is an area that OnePlus cannot afford to ignore anymore.
It's an understatement to say that OnePlus catalyzed this particular segment in India. OnePlus focused on an aggressive strategy for the Indian market from the beginning, and that has paid off handsomely. The 6T continues to be the go-to recommendation in this segment, and while that may change in the coming years, for now the performance on offer is unmatched.
OnePlus doesn't have nearly the amount of resources as Samsung, Xiaomi, and the other big manufacturers, so it is a laudable achievement that it was able to secure a deal with T-Mobile in the U.S. It isn't just in that particular market where OnePlus is seeing making waves — the manufacturer has partnered with Amazon-owned Souq to launch the 6T in the Middle East.
OnePlus still offers decent value, but it isn't the only value player in town anymore.
As for the Indian market, the 6T will be available in retail stores across the country as OnePlus builds on its momentum to attract a wider user base. Customers can now pick up the phone at Reliance Digital stores across the country, and the added visibility should spur sales.
What's evident from the launch of the 6T is that OnePlus is slowly moving away from its community-driven focus that allowed it to gain momentum in this category. The lack of the 3.5mm jack and notification LED will prove to be a divisive change — one that'll be a deal-breaker to a vocal portion of the community — but the carrier and retail partnerships will give OnePlus a much larger footprint as it sets its sights on the mainstream market.
The OnePlus 6T still offers decent value overall, but if you're in the market for a device that has the best hardware and an average camera, POCO has you covered with the F1. If camera quality is your main priority, then the LG G7+ ThinQ is a fantastic choice. The phone is much more durable, has IP68 dust and water resistance, and comes with a camera that runs rings around the 6T.
It doesn't make much sense to upgrade to the 6T if you're using anything from the OnePlus 5 and up, and given the manufacturer's release cycle, the OnePlus 7 will make its debut within six months. With OnePlus set to make its foray into 5G early next year, you're better off waiting for what comes out of the brand in 2019.
Ultimately, the 6T feels like OnePlus' coming-of-age phone. The company is now taking on the mainstream players, and only time will tell whether that strategy pays off. It's still great value at ₹37,999, but it's no longer the only value player in town, nor the most exciting.
The POCO F1 delivers much of the same hardware for far less, and the ZenFone 5Z is also gaining momentum. But the most compelling option for buyers in this segment is the LG G7+, which is a fantastic alternative that costs nearly the same as the 6T.
Harish Jonnalagadda is the Regional Editor at Android Central. A reformed hardware modder, he now spends his time writing about India's burgeoning handset market. Previously, he used to ponder the meaning of life at IBM. Contact him on Twitter at @chunkynerd.
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Category Archives: Atlantic Airways (Faroe Islands)
Atlantic Airways takes delivery of its first Airbus A320neo
Atlantic Airways, the Faroe Islands flag carrier, has taken delivery of its first Airbus A320neo, msn 8918.
Leased from Air Lease Corporation, this aircraft is powered by CFMI LEAP-1A engines and is configured in an all-economy cabin layout.
With its new Airbus fleet member Atlantic Airways will further develop its European network. The airline, an Airbus customer since 2008, already operates an all-Airbus fleet of three A320 Family aircraft (currently two A319ceos and one A320ceo). In addition, the airline also recently placed a firm order for two additional A320neos.
Top Photo: Airbus.
This entry was posted in Atlantic Airways (Faroe Islands) and tagged Airbus A320neo, Atlantic Airways (Faroe Islands) on July 12, 2019 by Bruce Drum.
Atlantic Airways orders two Airbus A320neo aircraft
Atlantic Airways, the Faroe Islands flag carrier, has signed a Purchase Agreement with Airbus for two A320neo aircraft, becoming the latest A320neo customer. The engine selection will be made at a later date.
With this new order, Atlantic Airways intends to further develop its European network. The airline, an Airbus customer since 2008, already operates a fleet of three A320 Family aircraft.
Image: Airbus.
This entry was posted in Atlantic Airways (Faroe Islands) and tagged Airbus, Airbus A320neo, Atlantic Airways (Faroe Islands) on June 19, 2019 by Bruce Drum.
KLM signs codeshare agreement with Atlantic Airways
KLM Royal Dutch Airlines and flag carrier of the Faroe Islands, Atlantic Airways, announced that they have signed a codeshare agreement. This will expand the global route offering for both companies.
The airlines now offer jointly operated flights to its base on the Faroe Islands. Thanks to the new agreement, KLM and Atlantic Airways customers will have access to more destinations starting January 24, 2019.
KLM will add a KL code to Atlantic Airways flights. This will allow passengers from around the world to change flights in Copenhagen, Billund, Bergen, and Edinburgh and continue their journey on the same ticket and a one-stop check-in to and from the Faroe Islands.
Starting January 24, 2019 the cooperation will cover:
Vágar – Copenhagen (CPH)
Vágar – Bergen (BGO)
Vágar – Billund (BLL)
Vágar – Edinburgh (EDI)
Top Copyright Photo (all others by the airline): Atlantic Airways-Faroe Islands Airbus A319-112 OY-RCI (msn 3905) LHR (Wingnut). Image: 945292.
Atlantic Airways aircraft slide show:
Atlantic Airways Route Map:
This entry was posted in Atlantic Airways (Faroe Islands), KLM Royal Dutch Airlines and tagged Airbus A319-112, Atlantic Airways, Atlantic Airways (Faroe Islands), KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, msn 3905, OY-RCI on January 16, 2019 by Bruce Drum.
Atlantic Airways, promoting the Faroe Islands as a destination
Atlantic Airways (Vagar) held an open house in Vagar on December 28, 2017 to showcase their airline to the local citizens (below).
The carrier has been modifying its livery to include larger “Faroe Islands” sub-titles on the rear fuselage.
The small carrier wants to better promote the remote and beautiful Faroe Islands as a “hot destination” in 2018. Is a new route to North America coming? Will the Faroe Islands become the “new Iceland” as a destination?
Copyright Photo (all others by Atlantic Airways): Atlantic Airways-Faroe Islands Airbus A319-115 OY-RCG (msn 5079) MUC (Arnd Wolf). Image: 940485.
This entry was posted in Atlantic Airways (Faroe Islands) and tagged Airbus A319-115, Atlantic Airways (Faroe Islands), msn 5079, OY-RCG on January 6, 2018 by Bruce Drum.
Atlantic Airways takes delivery of its first Airbus A320
Atlantic Airways, the national carrier of the Faroe Islands, has taken delivery of its first Airbus A320 as part of its plan to increase capacity, becoming Airbus’ newest operator of the type.
A320-214 OY-RCJ (msn 7465) was handed over to the airline on December 19, 2016.
Atlantic Airways passengers will benefit from the newest cabin comfort throughout the cabin in a single class layout with 168 seats and 18 inch wide seats as standard. The aircraft which is equipped with CFM engines will be deployed on routes from the Faroe Islands to Copenhagen.
This entry was posted in Atlantic Airways (Faroe Islands) and tagged A320-214, Airbus, Airbus A320, Atlantic Airways, msn 7465, OY-RCJ on December 20, 2016 by Bruce Drum.
Atlantic Airways orders its first Airbus A320
Atlantic Airways (Vagar), based in the Faroe Islands, has signed a firm order for one new Airbus A320. With this order Atlantic Airways becomes a new A320 customer. The aircraft will be delivered at the end of 2016, enabling the carrier to tap into the growing passenger market between the Faroes and Copenhagen.
Atlantic Airways is buying the larger aircraft due to the increasing demand on the route between the Faroes and Copenhagen. The new craft will primarily serve this route.
Atlantic Airways’ new A320 will have 168 seats.
Above Copyright Photo: Antony J. Best/AirlinersGallery.com. The airline already operates three Airbus A319s. The pictured A319-115 OY-RCG (msn 5079) completes its final approach to the Greek island of Corfu.
According to the airline, “Currently, there are three Airbus 319 in Atlantic Airways’ fleet, one of which the company owns while it leases the other two. The leasing contracts for the two aircrafts expire in September 2016. The company plans to extend one of these contracts to secure sufficient capacity until the new aircraft has been acquired and while the new NORTH routes are being built up.
Until the fall of 2016, Atlantic Airways has opted to serve the NORTH routes with Airbus A319s. In this trial period the company will determine whether it is feasible to acquire a smaller plane to serve these routes. The company is still researching what type of aircraft is ideal for the NORTH routes.
In summary, within the next few years, Atlantic Airways plans to have a fleet consisting of an Airbus A320, an Airbus A319 and an aircraft suited for the NORTH routes.”
Image above: Atlantic Airways.
The aircraft has Required Navigation Performance (RNP 0.1) capability built-in, which enables the aircraft to fly precisely along predefined routes using state-of-the-art on-board navigation systems. Atlantic Airways were the first airline in Europe to use the Required Navigation Performance approach.
Top Image: Airbus (all others by Atlantic Airways).
This entry was posted in Atlantic Airways (Faroe Islands) and tagged 5079, A319, A319-100, A319-115, A320, A320-200, Airbus, Airbus A319, Airbus A319-100, Airbus A320, Airbus A320-200, Atlantic Airways, Atlantic Airways (Faroe Islands), CFU, Corfu, OY-RCG on June 9, 2015 by Bruce Drum.
Atlantic Airways to start Edinburgh, Scotland flights on March 30
Atlantic Airways (Vagar, Faroe Islands) will start a new route next summer to Edinburgh, Scotland. The route will be operated twice-weekly with Airbus A319s starting on March 30, 2015 per Airline Route.
Copyright Photo: Ton Jochems/AirlinersGallery.com. Atlantic Airways Airbus A319-112 OY-RCI (msn 3905) taxies at Amsterdam.
Atlantic Airways:
This entry was posted in Atlantic Airways (Faroe Islands) and tagged 3905, A319, A319-100, A319-112, Airbus, Airbus A319, Airbus A319-100, AMS, Amsterdam, Atlantic Airways, Atlantic Airways (Faroe Islands), Edinburgh, faroe islands, OY-RCI, Scotland on November 5, 2014 by Bruce Drum.
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Stan Lee, Co-Creator of Spider-Man and the Avengers, Dies at 95
It’s tough to get too upset about the death of anyone who’s lived to the age of 95. That’s a darn good run for anyone. But when the person who’s passed away is Stan Lee, one of the architects of the Marvel Universe (and, by extension, the Marvel Cinematic Universe), it’s hard not to be sad. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Lee died today in Los Angeles.
At times Lee’s contributions to Marvel were overstated (including, occasionally, by Lee himself); he was by no means the sole creator of Marvel or its characters. The company existed before him, and he wouldn’t have made much of note without the help of collaborators like Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko, John Romita, and others. But Lee was undeniably the co-creator of dozens of Marvel characters like Spider-Man, the X-Men, Iron Man, Thor, Ant-Man, and the Avengers. And when he ascended to the head of Marvel editorial, and began churning out books like Fantastic Four and The Incredible Hulk, he changed the pop culture landscape forever.
Even with all those characters to his name, Stan Lee’s greatest creation may have been Stan Lee. He was born in 1922 as Stanley Lieber. Raised in New York City, Lieber dreamed of becoming an author; his goal was nothing less than writing “the great American novel.” In 1939, he joined what was then called Timely Comics (his cousin was married to the boss, and helped get him a job). He started as an assistant, but rose quickly through the ranks; by 1941, before he was even 20 years old, Lieber was a Timely editor. His first published story in what became Marvel Comics was a text piece titled “Captain America Foils the Traitor's Revenge.” Not wanting to have his real name tarnished by an association with the lowly world of comics, he wrote the story under a pen name: Stan Lee. It stuck.
It was more than a name, though; it was a persona that became almost as important to Marvel’s enormous success as the incredible stable of new and reimagined characters that Lee and the rest of the Marvel Bullpen churned out through the 1960s. Stan filled Marvel Comics with his own ingratiating, fourth-wall breaking commentary. He answered fan letters, penned a regular “Stan’s Soapbox” column, and gave the staff clever nicknames. He gave the fans nicknames too; they became “True Believers” and “Marvel Zombies.” Long before it became the standard mode of cultural consumption, Lee made Marvel fans feel like part of an exclusive club, and he encouraged them to believe his success was theirs as well.
There is a reason Lee was beloved by Marvel fans; he treated them well. Here is a personal story. In 1990, a company put out a series of Marvel Universe trading cards. At least in my little hometown in New Jersey, they were incredibly popular. My friends and I feverishly collected them; assembling the entire set was one of the proudest moments of my childhood. My younger brother, however, decided to mail his Stan Lee and Spider-Man cards to Stan Lee and ask him for his autograph. I thought he was crazy. He was throwing away Marvel cards! There was no way in hell he was going to get them back.
Except he did. A couple weeks later, there was an envelope from Marvel; inside were my brother’s two cards, both imprinted with Stan the Man’s unmistakable signature in blue Sharpie marker. They’re still sitting in my brother’s old room at my parents’ house. Here’s a picture of them.
After cranking out dozens of comics a year all through the 1960s, Lee slowly ceded control of Marvel editorial to others. By the 1980s, his role in the company was largely ceremonial, though Lee worked for a time trying to get Marvel’s properties adapted into films and television shows (His name still appears on everything Marvel produces as an executive producer). He’s been long past his creative prime for many years, but he kept plugging along, churning out a seemingly endless stream of concepts that were turned into graphic novels, television films, and multimedia projects. Some were modest successes, like Lee’s Just Imagine series for DC Comics, where he reimagined iconic DC heroes like Superman, Wonder Woman, and Flash. A few were disasters; the rise and fall of Stan Lee Media had more sordid drama than an Avengers/X-Men crossover.
Lee’s willingness to slap his name onto almost anything may have diluted his brand, but there was something very endearing about how Lee filled his later years with enthusiasm, creativity, and boundless energy. Until very recently, his schedule was constantly full with convention appearances and, of course, his cameos in every Marvel movie based on his co-creations. Younger generations will probably remember him this way.
In retrospect, it’s sort of interesting that Lee changed his name to write comic books. He may not have wanted “Stanley Lieber” associated with that kind of trash, but his remarkable body of work and his tireless promotional efforts ensured that no one today would adopt a pen name to write for Marvel. In the final accounting, no human being on this earth ever did more to make comic books respectable mainstream entertainment than Stan Lee.
So thank you, Stan. Thank you for the characters and the stories. Thank you for the evident joy you took in being Stan Lee, comics’ gregarious ambassador. You made it seem fun to make comics, and you definitely made it more fun to read comics. Stan Lee never did write the “great American novel.” Instead, he did something much, much greater. One last time Stan, excelsior.
Gallery - The Marvel Movie Posters Ever:
How Stan Lee Used to Troll DC Comics
Source: Stan Lee, Co-Creator of Spider-Man and the Avengers, Dies at 95
Filed Under: Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe, Stan Lee
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David Ospina is a Colombian professional footballer who plays as a goalkeeper for the Colombia national team. Ospina began his career at Atlético Nacional, making his debut with the club in 2005. After achieving two domestic titles with Los Verdolagas, Ospina joined French side Nice. In 2014, he joined Arsenal on a four-year deal. Ospina has been representing his country at a full international level since 2007. Upon his debut against Uruguay, he became the second-youngest goalkeeper to play for Colombia. He has since earned over 90 caps for his nation and has appeared at three Copa Américas and two World Cups.
Ospina had his first international experience representing Colombia’s under-20 team.[28] Ospina was called up for the first time in the national U-20 team for 2005 FIFA World Youth Championship. At only 16 years old, Ospina was the youngest member of the squad, however he did not play any game during the whole tournament. Ospina was called back for the 2007 South American U-20 Championship, where he played four games. However, Colombia failed to qualify for the World Cup, the last youth tournament he had the opportunity to play in. Ospina made his debut for the senior team as a substitute in the 1–3 defeat against Uruguay. He played his first match in a 2010 FIFA World Cup qualification match against Bolivia, becoming the second-youngest goalkeeper to play for the Colombian national team. Ospina was selected as the main goalkeeper for Colombia throughout the 2014 FIFA World Cup qualification competition. At the end of the qualifiers, Ospina conceded the fewest number of goals of the tournament. At the 2014 World Cup, Ospina appeared in all of Colombia’s matches and conceded four goals throughout the tournament. In May 2018 he was named in Colombia’s preliminary 35 man squad for the 2018 World Cup in Russia. Despite saving a penalty against Jordan Henderson in the Round of 16 penalty shoot-out against England, Colombia were eliminated 3–4 on penalties.
Following the arrival of Bernd Leno, Ospina requested go on loan in order to gain proper playing time. On August 15, Serie A team Napoli agreed to a one-year loan deal with an option to buy following new signing Alex Meret’s injury. Ospina was brother-in-law to fellow Colombian international footballer James Rodríguez, who married David’s sister Daniela in 2011. However, they announced their separation in July 2017. Ospina is married to Colombian model Jesica Sterling, whom he married in 2012, and has one daughter named Dulce María and a son named Maximiliano. On the 17th March 2019, David Ospina suffered a serious head injury and later collapsed mid-game playing for Napoli (on loan from Arsenal) against Udinese.
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Francesco Totti, is an Italian former professional footballer who played for Roma. He played primarily as an attacking midfielder or second striker, but could also play as a lone striker or winger. Totti spent his entire career at Roma, winning a Serie A title, two Coppa Italia titles, and two Supercoppa Italiana titles; he is the top goalscorer and the most capped player in the club’s history. Totti also holds the record for the youngest club captain in the history of Serie A. Often referred to as Er Bimbo de Oro (The Golden Boy), L’Ottavo Re di Roma (The Eighth King of Rome), Er Pupone (The Big Baby), Il Capitano (The Captain), and Il Gladiatore (The Gladiator) by the Italian sports media,[5][6] Totti is the second-highest scorer of all time in Italian league history with 250 goals; he also holds the record for the most goals scored in Serie A while playing for a single club. A creative offensive playmaker renowned for his vision, technique, and goalscoring ability, Totti is considered to be one of the greatest Italian players of all time, one of the most talented players of his generation, and Roma’s greatest ever player. He won a record eleven Oscar del calcio awards from the Italian Footballers’ Association: five Serie A Italian Footballer of the Year awards, two Serie A Footballer of the Year awards, two Serie A Goal of the Year awards, one Serie A Goalscorer of the Year award, and one Serie A Young Footballer of the Year award. Totti is the fifth-highest scoring Italian in all competitions, with 316 goals. A 2006 FIFA World Cup winner and UEFA Euro 2000 finalist with Italy, Totti was selected in the All-Star team for both tournaments; he also represented his country at the 2002 World Cup and Euro 2004. He also won several individual awards, notably the 2007 European Golden Shoe and the Golden Foot. In 2004, he was named in the FIFA 100, a list of the world’s greatest living players as selected by Pelé, as part of FIFA’s centenary celebrations. In 2011, Totti was recognised by IFFHS as the most popular footballer in Europe. In November 2014, Totti extended his record as the oldest goalscorer in UEFA Champions League history, aged 38 years and 59 days.
In 2001, Associazione Sportiva Roma took its third league title (after 1942 and 1983), winning Serie A only a year after rivals Lazio. Important signings were the Argentines Walter Samuel, a defender, and Gabriel Batistuta, a top striker. Fabio Capello’s line-up also included Cafu, Vincent Candela, Emerson, Vincenzo Montella and captain Francesco Totti. Capello won Serie A once again when on the last matchday Roma defeated Parma 3–1 at home with Totti, Montella and Batistuta scoring.
By the 2000–01 campaign under the new coach, Roma were building a competitive team around Totti, who was by now being utilised as a creative attacking midfielder by Capello in a 3–4–1–2 formation, due to his passing skills and playmaking abilities. Totti scored in a 2–0 home win over Bologna on his season debut on 1 October 2000. On 10 December, Totti scored the match-winning goal in a 2–1 home win against Udinese with a powerful left-footed volley to help Roma to their fifth home win of the season. He continued his goalscoring form by scoring against Napoli at home in a 3–0 victory on 28 January 2001, as Roma finished the first half of the league season in first place. Totti continued to play an important role in keeping the club at the top of the table throughout the remainder of the season, gaining a comfortable lead over rivals Juventus. On 17 June 2001, at the Stadio Olimpico, Roma beat Parma 3–1, with their three main attackers, Totti, Vincenzo Montella and Gabriel Batistuta scoring one goal each, as Roma were crowned champions of Italy for the third time in their history. Totti finished the league season with 13 goals, equalling what was at the time his personal goalscoring record in a single Serie A season.
Curiosity:
Back in 2001 top model and actress Ms Ferilli stripped down to a flesh coloured bikini on stage in front of a million people as Roma fans celebrated winning Serie A with a party and concert in the city’s Circo Massimo. She promised she would have done it in case of Scudetto and she kept her word.
ITALY NATIONAL TEAM
Italy vs Hungary
In the season 2001-2002 Totti being handed the number 10 shirt and Italy’s playmaking duties, much was expected of Totti in his debut World Cup 2002 under manager Giovanni Trapattoni.
Totti is regarded as one of the most talented Italian players of all time, and by some as Italy’s greatest player ever. Throughout his career, Totti played predominantly as a classic number 10, functioning either as an offensive-midfield playmaker or as a supporting or deep-lying forward behind the main striker; only in the later years of his Roma career was he mainly employed as a lone striker. An elegant, world-class, and technically gifted attacking midfielder with a good knowledge of the game, Totti was a tactically versatile player, capable of playing anywhere along the front line, and was also occasionally deployed as a winger or as a central midfield playmaker under Zdeněk Zeman, and most notably as a false-9 under Luciano Spalletti and Rudi García. While Totti was a prolific goalscorer, he was also renowned for his ball control, vision, and range of passing, as well as his ability to set the pace in midfield and provide through-balls and assists for his teammates, often through his trademark use of the backheel, in particular when holding up the ball or playing with his back to goal. Throughout his career, Totti drew particular praise from pundits for his vision, precise long passing ability, and technique, which allowed him to play the ball first-time. Due to his movement and wide range of skills, his role has at times been described as that of a hardworking, generous, quick and dynamic centreforward, known as a centravanti di manovra in Italian. Known for his work rate, longevity, and willingness to contribute defensively, Totti underwent an athletic development during his time under Zeman: he undertook a muscle-strengthening programme to adapt to the rhythms of 21st-century football, gaining physical strength, stamina, fitness and shooting power to the detriment of some of his speed and agility, which also enabled him to maintain a consistent level of performance in his later career. Throughout his career, Totti made excellent use of his balance, dribbling skills, and acceleration in order to get past opponents; despite being naturally right-footed, he possessed a powerful and accurate shot from both inside and outside the area with either foot, and was also an accurate penalty kick and free kick taker. Totti also scored several goals from chipped shots throughout his career, and often used the technique on penalties; one of the most famous instances in which Totti performed this type of penalty was in the shootout of Italy’s Euro 2000 semi-final match against the Netherlands. One of his most famous lobbed goals, in which he dribbled past Inter’s Marco Materazzi before chipping the ball over goalkeeper Júlio César, was later named the best goal in Serie A of the 2005–06 season. He scored another notable goal using this technique against Lazio in the 2002 Derby della Capitale, which ended in a 5–1 win for Roma. The title of Totti’s 2006 autobiography Tutto Totti: Mo je faccio er cucchiaio (English: All about Totti: I’m gonna chip him now) referenced this technique, as well as the statement made to his Italy teammates before his memorable Euro 2000 semi-final shootout penalty against the Netherlands. Having served as Roma’s captain for several years, Totti was praised for his leadership. Despite his talent and ability, however, Totti drew criticism at times for his character and lack of discipline on the pitch, which occasionally caused him to commit bad fouls and receive unnecessary bookings; with eleven red cards, he has the joint-sixth highest number of sending offs in Serie A history.
Totti first came into international prominence while playing in FIFA and UEFA youth tournaments. With the Italy under-16 side, under manager Sergio Vatta, Totti reached the final of the 1993 UEFA European Under-16 Championship in Turkey; Italy were defeated 1–0 by Poland as Totti missed the final due to suspension. Four months later, Totti played in 1993 FIFA U-17 World Championship in Japan and scored Italy’s goal in the tournament as the Azzurrini were eliminated in group stage. Totti also scored in Italy’s 4–1 defeat to Spain in the final of the UEFA Under-18 Championship, in July 1995. He subsequently won the UEFA Under-21 Championship with Italy in 1996, under manager Cesare Maldini; in the final, he opened the scoring as the match ended in a 1–1 draw against Spain, although Italy were able to win the final on penalties. The following year, he also played a key role in helping Italy to win a gold medal at the 1997 Mediterranean Games, on home soil, scoring twice throughout the tournament. Due to his contribution in these tournaments, Totti was later included in the all-time Under-21 EURO dream team in 2015. After starring with the Azzurrini in Italy’s under-16, under-19, and under-21 sides, Totti earned his first senior cap for Italy under the recently appointed international manager Dino Zoff during a 2–0 Euro 2000 qualifying victory against Switzerland on 10 October 1998. Totti scored his first goal for Italy on 26 April 2000 in a 2–0 friendly win over Portugal in Reggio Calabria. He scored his first brace for Italy in a 2006 FIFA World Cup qualification match in a 4–3 home win over Belarus, on 13 October 2004. In total, Totti made 58 appearances for Italy between 1998 and 2006, scoring nine goals.
“Totti is the world’s number one. He represents Italian football and the Italian fans will have fun with him” Diego Armando Maradona
Totti was known for his exuberant and humorous goal celebrations. One of his famous celebrations took place on 11 April 1999 in the second Derby della Capitale of the 1998–99 season, in which he scored during the final minutes of the game and celebrated by flashing a T-shirt under his jersey, which read “Vi ho purgato ancora” (“I’ve purged you guys again”), in reference to events at the previous derby against Lazio on 29 November 1998 when Totti helped Roma come back from 3–1 down with an assist to Eusebio Di Francesco for 3–2 and finally a goal of his own for 3–3. Another derby goal against Lazio saw him take over a sideline camera and aim it at the Roma fans. Totti has displayed numerous T-shirts with messages on them from under his jersey over the years, including two for his wife; “6 Unica” (“You’re One of a kind”) and “6 Sempre Unica” (“You’re Still the One”), and a political one “Liberate Giuliana” (“Free Giuliana”) in honor of Giuliana Sgrena, an Italian journalist kidnapped in 2005 by insurgents in Iraq who was later freed. The most recent message was “Scusate il Ritardo” (“Sorry for the delay”) which he flashed on 8 January 2012 as an apology to fans for his goalscoring drought after scoring his first goal of the season versus Chievo. As a tribute to his then-pregnant wife, Ilary Blasi, Totti imitated a childbirth scene by stuffing the ball under his shirt and lying on his back while his teammates extracted the ball. His current ritual of sucking his thumb after a goal began after his son was born and continued after the birth of his daughter. Blasi has revealed that Totti also sucks his thumb in dedication to her and not just for their children. On 11 January 2015, Totti scored twice against Lazio in the Derby della Capitale as Roma came back from 2–0 down; he then took a selfie with Roma fans.
The Totti’s famous selfie goal celebration during the “derby” against Lazio became a one-of-a-kind celebration in football history and an authentic masterpiece for Roma’s fans. It was included amongst the goal celebrations available for FIFA 16 and Pro Evolution Soccer 2016; he also took a selfie in the official trailer of the video game on YouTube.
Fifa World Cup “GERMANY 2006”
Despite injury troubles, Totti recovered in time to join the national team for their victorious 2006 World Cup campaign, despite a lack of match practice during his three months on the sidelines. Italy manager Marcello Lippi showed enormous faith in Totti, assuring him during his rehabilitation that his spot in Italy’s World Cup squad was secure and to focus on recuperating. This encouragement and show of faith fueled Totti’s desire to work even harder to overcome what could have been a career-ending injury and make it to the World Cup against all odds (and much of the Italian media’s opinion). Totti did recuperate in time and was eventually named to Lippi’s final 23-man squad for the 2006 World Cup. Despite initial concerns over his match fitness, Totti was an important player in Marcello Lippi’s team, and played in all seven games for Italy, including the victorious final against France, which Italy won on penalties, although he was substituted off in the 61st minute. He played the entire time in Germany with metal plates and screws in his ankle that had yet to be removed following the surgery. Throughout the tournament, he usually played as an attacking midfielder, in front of deep-lying playmaker Andrea Pirlo, and behind strikers Luca Toni, Alberto Gilardino, Vincenzo Iaquinta, or Filippo Inzaghi; these players were supported defensively by Gennaro Gattuso, Simone Perrotta and Daniele De Rossi in midfield. Totti finished the tournament with the joint-highest number of assists, along with his teammate Pirlo, Juan Román Riquelme, Bastian Schweinsteiger, and Luís Figo (4). Totti set up Pirlo’s goal from a short corner in Italy’s opening 2–0 win against Ghana, Marco Materazzi’s goal from a corner in Italy’s final group match, a 2–0 win against the Czech Republic, and two goals in a 3–0 win against Ukraine in the quarter-finals: the opener by Gianluca Zambrotta, and one of Luca Toni’s goals. Totti also scored a goal via an injury-time penalty in Italy’s 1–0 round of 16 win over Australia on 26 June, and was involved in Del Piero’s last-minute extra-time goal in the semi-final, which sealed a 2–0 victory for the Italians over hosts Germany, and a place in the World Cup final. Throughout the competition, Totti completed 185 passes and took 19 shots; in recognition of a successful tournament, he was selected for the 23-man All-Star Team.
“A great player! What a phenomenon!” Leo Messi
Totti intended to retire from international football after the 2006 World Cup, but reneged on his decision and remained undecided on his future for over a year, not being called up in the meantime. He made his retirement official on 20 July 2007, at the beginning of the 2007–08 Serie A season, due to recurring physical problems and in order to focus solely on club play with Roma. Italy’s coach at the time, Roberto Donadoni, attempted to get Totti to change his mind for the remaining Euro 2008 qualifiers but was not successful.
These boots were worn by Francesco Totti uniquely during some Fifa World Cup “GERMANY 2006” games including the games against Czech Republic, Australia, Germany and during the Final game against France which took place in Berlin on July 9th 2006. This pair of boots is absolutely unique, released in one pair only. It has a special sole exclusively made for the player for the World Cup due his injury happened few months before the competition. It is a very special soft sole, with smaller studs made by Diadora to make the player’s run smoother. Totti used this kind of sole only during the World Cup and only in the very first games of the season 2006/2007, but on a different style of boots. The special “Germany 2006” sided tag on boots makes these boots an authentic piece of football history. There is also a similar version of these boots that Totti used during World Cup trainings and pre World Cup friendly games with player’s signature on tongue and without the “Germany 2006” tag on side. Totti used his number 10 on tongue and the tag only during the official World Cup games. Number “10” on tongue is written in the same font of name sets and numbers of Fifa World Cup “GERMANY 2006” Italy National Team’s shirts, which is very weird, considering that the font belonged to Puma and not to Diadora. So we assume that Diadora requested to be allowed to use it on Totti’s boots.
Usual Francesco Totti’s sole
Francesco Totti’s World Cup 2006sole
Totti was born in Rome to parents Lorenzo and Fiorella Totti. He was raised in the Porta Metronia neighbourhood. As a youngster he idolised ex-Roma captain Giuseppe Giannini, and regularly played football with older boys. Totti began to play youth team football at the age of 8, with Fortitudo, later joining Smit Trastevere and Lodigiani. After he came to the attention of scouts, his mother refused a lucrative offer from Milan in order to keep him in his home town. Although his youth club initially had come to an agreement to sell Totti to the Lazio youth side, one of Roma’s youth coaches, Gildo Giannini, persuaded his parents to let him join the Roma youth squad in 1989.
These boots were used by Francesco Totti in the very early games after the Fifa World Cup “GERMANY” where he became world champion with Italy national team. Diadora made these celebrating boots with “CAMPIONE DEL MONDO 2006 – World Champion 2006″” printed on tongue together with his daughter Chanel’s name. Chanel and Cristian are Francesco Totti kid’s names that he was usual to have printed on his boots during his career. Recently also the last daughter’s name Isabel was printed on his boots. These boots still have the special sole exclusively made for the player by Diadora for his injury happened few months before the World Cup, as we described above. While this model was used for several games since August 2006, this sole was only used for the very 4-5 games before the player came back to his regular Diadora’s sole.
Chanel and Cristian are Francesco Totti kid’s names that he was usual to have printed on his boots during his career. Recently also the last daughter’s name Isabel was printed on his boots.
“Time has tapped me on the shoulder and said, ‘You can no longer enjoy the smell of the grass, the sun on your face as you bear down on the opposition’s goal, the adrenaline consuming you, the joy of celebrating’. It’s not easy to turn out the light. I’m afraid. It’s not the same fear you feel when you’re standing in front of the goal, about to take a penalty. This time, I can’t see what the future looks like through the holes of the net. With your support, I will succeed in turning the page and throwing myself into a new adventure. Being the captain of this team has been an honour. I will no longer entertain you with my feet, but my heart will always be there with you. Now, I will go down the stairs and enter the dressing room that welcomed me as a child and that I now leave as a man.” Francesco Totti
Captain Armband
On 7 June 2016 Francesco Totti renewed his contract for another year, stating that he would be retiring at the end of the 2016–17 season; he also revealed he had signed a six-year contract as Roma’s technical director once the season ends. On his first appearance of the 2016–17 season against Sampdoria on 11 September, Totti equalled Paolo Maldini’s record of playing in 25 Serie A seasons. With Roma trailing 2–1 at half time, Totti came off the bench and assisted Edin Džeko’s temporary equaliser, later also scoring the match-winning goal from a penalty in injury time to secure a 3–2 home win in Serie A; Totti’s goal meant that he had managed to score at least once in each of the past 23 consecutive seasons of his career. On 25 September, he scored his 250th Serie A goal from the penalty spot in a 3–1 away defeat to Torino, just two days before his 40th birthday. On his first start two days after his 40th birthday, on 29 September, Totti was praised for his performance and longevity in a 4–0 home win over Astra Giurgiu in the Europa League; he played all 90 minutes of the match, providing two assists, while also being involved in a third goal. On 20 October, Totti made his 100th appearance in UEFA club competitions, setting up two goals in a 3–3 home draw against Austria Wien in the Europa League. In late October, he sustained a muscle injury to the flexor of his left thigh during a training session, which ruled him out indefinitely. He returned to action as a substitute in a 3–2 home win over Pescara on 27 November. On 1 February 2017, Totti scored a decisive injury-time penalty in the 97th minute of a 2–1 home victory against Cesena in the Coppa Italia quarter-finals; the win enabled Roma to advance to the semi-finals of the tournament. On 15 April, he came on as a substitute in a 1–1 home draw against Atalanta to make his 615th appearance in Serie A, equalling Javier Zanetti as the joint third highest appearance holder of all time in Serie A. On 28 May, Totti made his final appearance for Roma in a 3–2 home win against Genoa, coming on as a substitute for Mohamed Salah in the 54th minute and received a standing ovation from the fans. The 40-year-old striker admitted he was unsure “what the future looks like” after drawing a line under his 24 storied years as a Roma player. Totti made his debut at the age of 16, in a league match at Brescia on March 28, 1993. He went on to make 786 appearances in all competitions for Roma, scoring 307 goals, with 250 of those coming in Serie A. He won the Scudetto once, under Fabio Capello’s stewardship in 2001, but found himself a runner-up with the Giallorossi on no fewer than nine occasions. Some fans chuckled. More of them sobbed. The tears had been flowing from before kick-off – Totti confessed that crying has been a daily occurrence in his own household of late – but by now it seemed there was not a dry eye left in the house. Totti Day had the feel of a public festival in Rome, buses commandeered to display a “Thanks Captain” message in lieu of their destination, while fans flocked to take their photo with “selfie statues” commissioned by Corriere dello Sport. Planes trailed messages of support overhead.
This captain armband was exclusively made for Francesco Totti for the whole 2016-2017 season and used by the player in every game he was in the starting lineup. The armband features the seasons he played for A.S.Roma, the trophies he won and the names of his three children. This armband became very known between the fans so the team made a numbered limited edition of 3000 pieces of it to be sold on official team’s stores. The armband was sold out within few hours. The main difference between the player’s armband and the store’s armband is that the armbands sold in stores had an extra sewn tag with serial numbers XXXX/3000. They were also boxed in a special box. Another limited and numbered edition of 1000 pieces was given to the player for friends and sponsor. Only the armband without any numbered tag was the one used by the player during the season. After his farewell game against Genoa, Totti gave the armband he wore in the game to an A.S.Roma youth team player with a wish to follow his steps with the club.
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The poverty of dictatorship
Egypt and Tunisia performed well in social and economic benchmarks - but that's not enough to keep autocrats in power.
by Dani Rodrik
A woman walks past graffiti reading "Democracy - Proud to be Tunisian" in central Tunis [AFP]
Perhaps the most striking finding in the United Nations' recent 20th anniversary Human Development Report is the outstanding performance of the Muslim countries of the Middle East and North Africa. Here was Tunisia, ranked sixth among 135 countries in terms of improvement in its Human Development Index (HDI) over the previous four decades - ahead of Malaysia, Hong Kong, Mexico, and India. Not far behind was Egypt, ranked 14th.
The HDI is a measure of development that captures achievements in health and education, alongside economic growth. Egypt and Tunisia did well enough on the growth front - but where they really shone was on these broader indicators. At 74, Tunisia's life expectancy edges out Hungary's and Estonia's, countries that are more than twice as wealthy. Some 69 per cent of Egypt’s children are in school - a ratio that matches much richer Malaysia's. Clearly, these were states that did not fail in providing social services or distributing the benefits of economic growth widely.
Yet in the end it did not matter. The Tunisian and Egyptian people were, to paraphrase Howard Beale, mad as hell at their governments - and not going to take it anymore. If Tunisia's Zine El Abidine Ben Ali or Egypt's Hosni Mubarak were hoping for political popularity as a reward for economic gains, they must be sorely disappointed.
One lesson of the Arab annus mirabilis, then, is that good economics need not always mean good politics; the two can part ways for quite some time. It is true that the world's wealthy countries are almost all democracies. But democratic politics is neither a necessary nor sufficient condition for economic development over a period of several decades.
Authoritarian rule
Despite the economic advances they registered, Tunisia, Egypt - and many other Middle Eastern countries - remained authoritarian, ruled by a narrow group of cronies, with corruption, clientelism, and nepotism running rife. These countries' rankings on political freedoms and corruption stand in glaring contrast with their rankings on development indicators.
In Tunisia, Freedom House reported - prior to the Jasmine revolution - "the authorities continued to harass, arrest, and imprison journalists and bloggers, human rights activists, and political opponents of the government". The Egyptian government was ranked 111th out of 180 countries in Transparency International's 2009 survey of corruption.
And of course, the converse is also true: India has been democratic since independence in 1947, yet the country didn’t begin to escape of its low "Hindu rate of growth" until the early 1980s.
A second lesson is that rapid economic growth does not buy political stability on its own, unless political institutions are also allowed to develop and mature. In fact, economic growth itself generates social and economic mobilisation, a fundamental source of political instability.
As the late political scientist Samuel Huntington put it more than 40 years ago, "social and economic change – urbanisation, increases in literacy and education, industrialisation, mass media expansion – extend political consciousness, multiply political demands and broaden political participation". Now, add social media - such as Twitter and Facebook - to the equation, and the destabilising forces that rapid economic change sets into motion can become overwhelming.
These forces become most potent when the gap between social mobilisation and the quality of political institutions widens. When a country’s political institutions are mature, they respond to demands from below, through a combination of accommodation, response and representation. When they are under-developed, they shut those demands out in the hope they will go away – or be bought off by economic improvements.
The events in the Middle East amply demonstrate the fragility of the second model. Protesters in Tunis and Cairo were not demonstrating for a lack of economic opportunity or poor social services. They were rallying against a political regime that they felt was insular, arbitrary and corrupt - and one that did not allow them adequate voice.
A political regime that can handle these pressures need not be democratic in the Western sense of the term. One can imagine responsive political systems that do not operate through free elections and competition among political parties. Some would point to Oman or Singapore as examples of authoritarian regimes that are durable in the face of rapid economic change. Perhaps so. But the only kind of political system that has proved itself over the long haul is that associated with Western democracies.
Chinese online clampdown
Which brings us to China. At the height of the Egyptian protests, Chinese Web surfers who searched for the terms "Egypt" or "Cairo" were returned messages saying "no results could be found". Evidently, the Chinese government did not want its citizens to read up on the Egyptian protests and get the wrong idea. With the memory of the 1989 Tiananmen Square movement ever present, China’s leaders are intent on preventing a repeat.
China is not Tunisia or Egypt, of course. The Chinese government has experimented with local democracy and has tried hard to crack down on corruption. Even so, protest has spread over the last decade. There were 87,000 instances of what the government calls "sudden mass incidents" in 2005 - the last year the government released such statistics, which suggests that the rate has since increased. But dissidents challenge the supremacy of the Communist Party at their peril.
The Chinese leadership's gamble is that a rapid increase in living standards and employment opportunities will keep the lid on simmering social and political tensions. That is why it is so intent on achieving annual economic growth of eight per cent or higher – the magic number that it believes will contain social strife.
But Egypt and Tunisia just sent a sobering message to China and other authoritarian regimes around the world: Don’t count on economic progress to keep you in power forever.
Dani Rodrik is Professor of Political Economy at Harvard University's John F Kennedy School of Government, and the author of One Economics, Many Recipes: Globalization, Institutions, and Economic Growth.
This article was first published by Project Syndicate.
Dani Rodrik is author of The Globalization Paradox and professor of IPE at Harvard University.
Ghana gas station blasts kill at least seven
Trump on North Korea: 'Only one thing will work'
Qatar condemns deadly attack on Saudi palace in Jeddah
Gunman killed after attack near Saudi palace in Jeddah
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Second-half scoring drought dooms South Dakota men against Western Illinois
The Coyotes went 0-for-10 over a seven-minute scoring drought in the second half.
Second-half scoring drought dooms South Dakota men against Western Illinois The Coyotes went 0-for-10 over a seven-minute scoring drought in the second half. Check out this story on argusleader.com: https://www.argusleader.com/story/sports/college/university-of-south-dakota/2019/01/26/second-half-scoring-drought-dooms-south-dakota-coyotes-men-against-western-illinois/2646822002/
Brian Haenchen, Sioux Falls Argus Leader Published 6:35 p.m. CT Jan. 26, 2019 | Updated 6:59 p.m. CT Jan. 26, 2019
South Dakota forward Matt Johns attempts to shoot around Western Illinois' Brandon Gilbeck during their game on Saturday, Jan. 26, 2019 at the SCSC. (Photo: Aaron Packard/USD athletics)
VERMILLION — The South Dakota men looked to be in a good place midway through the second half Saturday afternoon against Western Illinois. Back home after a long road trip, they had built a 50-39 lead with 10:52 left. But a collective lapse in concentration led to a seven-minute scoring drought and ultimately resulted in a brutal 65-59 loss.
The Coyotes are now 2-6 in games decided by four to 10 points (3-9 in games decided by 10 or fewer).
"I don't think we were locked in completely in the second half, myself included," USD junior Triston Simpson said. "I think we get a little too comfortable with our leads, and you're not going to win any games going seven or eight minutes without scoring. There's things that we can control, but it's kind of getting old … We have to start finishing games."
"That was a pretty embarrassing performance from all of us," added Trey Burch-Manning.
IN SPORTS: 3-ball, defense key in blowout win for South Dakota women against Western Illinois
The Coyotes' scoring drought consisted of 10 missed field goals, five of which came from behind the arc. The Leathernecks were slow to take advantage initially, managing just eight points over the first five minutes, but then they took off, reeling off eight points in under two minutes to grab a 55-50 lead with 4:47 left.
"We had good looks, I thought, but we just couldn't knock them down," coach Todd Lee said, echoing Simpson's assertion that they let up in the second half. "It's hard (to maintain intensity). You probably lose a little bit of your confidence and intensity when you just cannot make a shot."
South Dakota guard Isaiah Smith looks to pass around a Western Illinois defender on Saturday, Jan. 26, 2019 at the SCSC. (Photo: Aaron Packard/USD athletics)
Simpson ended the Coyotes' drought with a layup, which gave way to a game-tying 3-pointer from Cody Kelley with 3:14 remaining. But then the USD shooters went cold again, mustering just four points over the final three minutes. While they sputtered, Western Illinois surged behind Kobe Webster, who reclaimed the lead at 58-56 with a layup, then delivered the dagger in the final minute with a step-back 3-pointer as the shot clock expired.
It is an especially frustrating setback for the Coyotes, who drop to 9-12 on the year with a 3-5 mark in Summit League play.
"We have to be able to win multiple games in a row, especially at home," Burch-Manning said. "You can't give up games at home."
IN SPORTS: Third quarter flurry sparks South Dakota State to win over Omaha
Simpson poured in a game-high 17 points on 6 of 13 shooting with six rebounds and two assists. Trey Burch-Manning, in his second game back from a foot injury, added 14 points, five boards and a block over 31 minutes played. Tyler Peterson pulled in 12 rebounds and eight points.
South Dakota coach Todd Lee during Saturday's game against Western Illinois on Jan. 26, 2019 at the SCSC. (Photo: Aaron Packard/USD athletics)
As a team, the Coyotes shot 37.3 percent, a figure which was buoyed by a 41.4 percent (12-29) showing in the first half. They went 10 for 30 over the final 20 minutes with five 3s on 17 tries.
"We just went cold. You can't go completely dry on offense," Burch-Manning said. "You have to get stops defensively, but you have to be able to give yourself a little breathing room offensively by getting to the line or hitting a layup. You can't go seven minutes without a field goal."
USD won't have much time to regroup. It heads to Indiana to take on Purdue Fort Wayne on Wednesday.
OPPONENT STAT BOMB
Ben Pyle posted a double-double for Western Illinois, recording 15 points and 10 rebounds. He was joined in double figures by Kobe Webster (13), CJ Duff (11) and Brandon Gilbeck (10) ... The inverse of USD, the Leathernecks shot 36 percent in the first half, but went 12 for 24 in the second, leaving them at 42.3 percent for the game … WIU attempted 23 free throws to USD's nine.
Follow Brian Haenchen on Twitter at @Brian_Haenchen.
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Charles Young served his country in World War II with the 803rd EAB .
Information on Charles Young is gathered and extracted from military records. We have many documents and copies of documents, including military award documents. It is from these documents that we have found this information on TSGT Young. These serviceman's records are not complete and should not be construed as a complete record. We are always looking for more documented material on this and other servicemen. If you can help add to Charles Young's military record please contact us.
TSGT
The information on this page about Charles Young has been obtained through a possible variety of sources incluging the serviceman themselves, family, copies of military records that are in possession of the Army Air Corps Library and Museum along with data obtained from other researchers and sources including AF Archives at Air Force Historical Research Agency and the U.S. National Archives.
If you have more information concerning the service of Charles Young, including pictures, documents and other artifacts that we can add to this record, please Contact Us.
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AUSTRAC seeks civil penalty orders against CBA
Australia’s financial intelligence and regulatory agency, AUSTRAC, today initiated civil penalty proceedings in the Federal Court against the Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) for serious and systemic non-compliance with the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Act 2006 (AML/CTF Act).
AUSTRAC acting CEO Peter Clark said that this action follows an investigation by AUSTRAC into CBA’s compliance, particularly regarding its use of intelligent deposit machines (IDMs).
AUSTRAC’s action alleges over 53,700 contraventions of the AML/CTF Act. In summary:
CBA did not comply with its own AML/CTF program, because it did not carry out any assessment of the money laundering and terrorism financing (ML/TF) risk of IDMs before their rollout in 2012. CBA took no steps to assess the ML/TF risk until mid-2015 - three years after they were introduced.
For a period of three years, CBA did not comply with the requirements of its AML/CTF program relating to monitoring transactions on 778,370 accounts.
CBA failed to give 53,506 threshold transaction reports (TTRs) to AUSTRAC on time for cash transactions of $10,000 or more through IDMs from November 2012 to September 2015.
These late TTRs represent approximately 95 per cent of the threshold transactions that occurred through the bank’s IDMs from November 2012 to September 2015 and had a total value of around $624.7 million.
AUSTRAC alleges that the bank failed to report suspicious matters either on time or at all involving transactions totalling over $77 million.
Even after CBA became aware of suspected money laundering or structuring on CBA accounts, it did not monitor its customers to mitigate and manage ML/TF risk, including the ongoing ML/TF risks of doing business with those customers.
Mr Clark said that today’s action should send a clear message to all reporting entities about the importance of meeting their AML/CTF obligations.
"By failing to have sound AML/CTF systems and controls in place, businesses are at risk of being misused for criminal purposes," Mr Clark said.
"AUSTRAC's goal is to have a financial sector that is vigilant and capable of responding, including through innovation, to threats of criminal exploitation."
"We believe this can be achieved by working collaboratively with and supporting industry. We will continue to work in this way with our industry partners who also share this aim and demonstrate a strong commitment to it."
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Apollo Display Technologies Provides Digital Signage System for Discovery Channel Episode
The installed Maxline digital signage system consists of three 40-inch Albra series 1080P full HD commercial-grade monitors based on Apollo Display Technologies’ ArtistaNET II control technology and MCB.
Apollo Display Technologies has scored an unusual coup for a digital signage company: Its digital signage system has played a prominent role in the reconstruction and refurbishment of a restaurant on the Discovery Channel’s all-new "Construction Intervention" reality show. The episode, which premiered on Tuesday, April 20, featured fireman Walter Lewis’ Just Wingin’ It restaurant nestled on busy Eighth Ave. in New York’s Harlem.
Lewis always wanted to give back to his community, but being a firefighter wasn't enough. He wanted to open a business that helped his community thrive while providing a safe hangout for local youths. Lewis' dreams came true when he opened Just Wingin' It in Harlem.
Unfortunately, a bad construction job forced him to shut his doors indefinitely — only a few months after opening. Lewis had always been there for his community, so New York City construction veteran Charlie Frattini and his team decided they were going to be there for him. The redesign of this small restaurant includes a brand new layout that can handle heavy customer traffic, new restaurant-grade kitchen equipment, space-saving seating, a brand new welcoming restaurant façade — and digital menu boards.
The installed Maxline digital signage system from Ronkonkoma, N.Y.-based Apollo Display Technologies consists of three 40-inch Albra series 1080P full HD commercial-grade monitors based on the company’s ArtistaNET II control technology and MCB (Media Control Box). According to the company, the entire Ethernet-based system is run from its ACC (Artista Control Center) software package and is fully Green compliant.
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Sports Business Plannnig Essay
1.0 Executive Summary……………………………………………………………......……2
2.1 Mission…………………………………………………………………….……...3
2.2 Keys to Success……………………………………………………………..….…4
2.3 Objectives…………………………………………………………………….…...4
2.0 Company Profile………………………………………………………………….……..5
3.4 Company Ownership……………………………………………………………..5
3.5 Start-up Summary……………………………………………………………...…5
3.0 Services………………………………………………………………………………......9
4.0 Market Analysis Summary…………………………………………………………….10
5.6 Market Segmentation……………………………………………………….…....10
5.7 Service Business Analysis……………………………………………….………11
5.8 Competition and Buying ...view middle of the document...
REVA SPORTS is a Sdn Bhd company registered in the state of Selangor for tax purposes. Its founder is Mr Derek Kaka’an.
The company plans to be leveraged through private investment and a limited number of sponsorships. The company expects to begin offering its services in June 2015.
The company's main clients will be athletes and people who are actively doing sports management in community that can offer significant services for their age group and income levels. Since Mr. Derek is within this demographic group and knows and understands this market's needs, she believes that she can appeal to such clients far more than most other competitors.
REVA SPORTS offers comprehensive sports gear, athlete management and talent representation services to our diverse clients. With Limkokwing University of Creative Technology as our sponsor in the newly finished Bandar Baru area, we will have a premier position as the dominant seller of these services and trainings. In addition we will offer a full range of services to facilitate the purchasing and selling of sports services including the following:
* Training
* League development
* Event management
* Public speaking
* Fashion
* Sports consulting
The sports industry has been steadily growing over the past twenty years. The percentage of the population over the age of 30 is at an all-time high of 40% and is growing at an average rate of 4% each year. In certain parts of the country like Kuala Lumpur, which has a high concentration of sports communities, the growth rate is about 9% and accounts for 6.9 trillion dollars each year.
Start-up expenses and funding required are modest. They include expenses and the rest in cash needed to support operations until revenues reach an acceptable level. Most of the company's liabilities will come from outside private investors and management investment; however, we have current borrowing from CIMB bank, the principal to be paid off in two years. A long-term loan through Maybank will be paid off in ten years.
The company expects to reach profitability in the first year and does not anticipate any serious cash flow problems. We conservatively believe that during the first three years, average profitability per month per segment will be adequate. We expect that about one sale per month will guarantee a break-even point.
2.1 Mission
T provide solutions for challenges facing spectator sports industry as well as quality representation of athletes, through creative marketing ideas, education and financial planning for clients.
2.2 Keys to Success
REVA SPORTS's keys to long-term survivability and profitability are as follows:
* Establish and maintain close contacts with residential sports listing services, and all other service organizations that REVA SPORTS uses, such as Arco athlete management Service Company.
* Keeping...
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Ham Lord & Christopher Mirable, "Winning Collaboration," Ep. 21
The collaboration of Ham Lord and Christopher Mirabile, two of Boston’s most consequential super angels, is widely admired. Its most visible fruit is the success of Launchpad Venture Group, which they manage together. In this revealing interview, they let us in on how this winning collaboration came to be and what keeps it productive as it approaches the end of its first decade.
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Christopher & Ham’s Remarkable Collaboration
How They Connected
Lucky to Have Jody Collier as Operations Manager
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What Motivates Christopher and Ham
How Christopher & Ham Differ in their Investing
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Blind Spots: How Having a Partner Helps Avoid Them
Integrity in the Founding Team is Essential – Due Diligence Screens Out Frauds
Geographic Focus Makes It Possible to Add Value
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Transcript of Ham Lord & Christopher Mirable, "Winning Collaboration," Ep. 21
Super Angels Ham Lord & Christopher Mirabile
SAL DAHER: Welcome to Angel Invest Boston. Conversations with Boston's most interesting angels and founders. I'm Sal Daher and my goal for this podcast is to learn more about building successful new companies. The best way I can think of doing this is by talking to people who have done it. People such as my guests today, super angels Christopher Mirabile and Ham Lord. Ham and Christopher, welcome. I'm really happy the two of you could join us today for our 21st episode.
HAM LORD: Well, we're looking forward to it.
CHRISTOPHER MIRABILE: Thanks for having us.
SAL DAHER: Awesome. As you may have noticed, our episodes are usually portraits of our guests' professional and investing lives. We have already covered that material for today's guests in two prior episodes in which I interviewed Christopher and Ham separately. Today, the subject of our interview is their remarkable collaboration. Ham and Christopher are co-managing directors of Launchpad Venture Group, an enormously consequential element of Boston’s startup ecosystem. Launchpad's approach to early stage investing is systematic and professional. Christopher and Ham must be doing something right because Launchpad is highly regarded as a collaborator by all the angel groups with whom I've worked as well as the investors and many of the startups that I work. You guys are highly regarded in the field and I personally, I really appreciate the work that you do.
My two guests are also founders of Seraf, a platform that simplifies the management for portfolios invested in startups. Seraf is proving a great resource to angel investors by relieving them of the drudgery of managing portfolios so they can spend more time working with startups. Through its newsletter, Seraf Compass, it provides valuable and reliable information on topics of interest to the startup community. For example, when I had a question about Section 1244, treatment of losses, the first place I looked at was Seraf Compass on Seraf-Investor.com. That's S-E-R-A-F-Investor.com. Great source.
Now, my guests come from really different backgrounds. Christopher got involved in startups as a lawyer, who eventually went to work for a fast growing startup that had been his client. Ham comes from a software engineering background and has founded or helped build companies in that space. So, how did the two of you meet up?
HAM LORD: Well, that's an interesting story.
SAL DAHER: First, this is Ham talking.
HAM LORD: Yeah, this is Ham. I first met Christopher ... I want to say it was probably 2009. Somehow someone connected the two of us and you came as a guest to Launchpad.
CHRISTOPHER MIRABILE: Might have been Don Bates.
HAM LORD: Could have been. You came as a guest to one of our meetings and you loved me so much, you said, "This is a group I want to join." Of course, Christopher loved everybody at the time. I think he was a member of like five angel groups or something and he loved it so much he started his own angel group. Anyway, he joined Launchpad in sort of the 2009, 2010 timeframe and we started interacting a lot together during and after the meetings. So, that's how things sort of kicked off initially.
CHRISTOPHER MIRABILE: It was definitely '09. I remember just because I was just a few weeks too late to get in on one of our better deals. I'll never forget that. Really felt comfortable with the environment that you'd built and Ham and I got along instantly and really quickly struck up a friendship and sort of a mentor relationship. Ham was a great source of advice for me in building what I was trying to build, which was sort of angel group 2.0. Long story short, we got that. With Ham's help we got that group up and running and quite successful in a short period of time and then just decided we wanted to throw in together and ended up merging that group back into Launchpad and have been running Launchpad together ever since.
HAM LORD: I remember actually it was a phone conversation we had. I remember pacing around in my office saying, "Christopher, we're doing the same thing running two separate groups. Both of us have our hair on fire, although we don't have a lot of hair, but both of us are running around like crazy. Does it really make sense for us to do this as two separate entities?" He took the bait. At that point I had been running Launchpad by myself for nine years and that's a long time. I don't care what you're doing, nine years is a long time to do anything. There were still aspects of running Launchpad that I enjoyed very much, but there were other aspects that I didn't really enjoy. I convinced Christopher to take those things over for me. What could be better.
SAL DAHER: What does your collaboration entail right now?
CHRISTOPHER MIRABILE: What's ended up happening is when it comes to running networks of investors there is a little bit of a stair step function. Once you decide you're going to add professional management certain things become possible, but you max out at one, it becomes hard. Adding a second professional manager is almost like a one plus one equals three kind of a thing, a whole other level of professionalism becomes possible. That's really what happened when we started to get together.
HAM LORD: I'll give you a specific example of that. For a new angel investor getting up to speed can be a little bit difficult. Certainly, in the early days of angel groups there was no educational material etc. I had always wanted to be doing some teaching of new members, but the thought of sort of developing curriculum, teaching the classes etc., with all the other work I was doing with the angel group just, it was too much to take on, but with two of us it worked well. So, we split up the effort it took to develop the material and when we teach the classes we teach them jointly. That joint teaching allows us to have a much more dynamic class than we would have if it was just one of us up there lecturing.
CHRISTOPHER MIRABILE: There's a million other examples, the size of the membership you can manage, the amount of capital you could form, the amount of deals you can do, the amount of portfolio companies you can manage. We were very united in terms of ... Our North Star is professionalizing angel investing. We think it's an incredibly powerful economic force in terms of job creation, national competitiveness. We're deeply bought into the power of angel investing and our goal was sort of united in this vision of how do we professionalize this. In terms of how we run Launchpad it's very focused on sort of a professional approach to this, disciplined approach. As soon as you begin building out programs the next stair step you run into is just needing more hands on deck.
We were incredibly fortunate to find Jodi Collier, who's our day-to-day operations person and so our collaboration now is ... Jodi and I working very closely together daily on sort of the day-to-day business of the group. Ham, Jodi and myself we each sort of have different focus areas in terms of what the group does. At this point, last time I checked, we're sort of producing 60 events a year of one sort or another, whether it's a membership meeting or a deep dive or a training session or a social event or some other kind of forum. There's never a quiet week, maybe one week in the summer that's a little quieter than the others, but it's a pretty busy pace.
SAL DAHER: This is for either one of you, what does each one brings to the table in this? What's the division of labor in terms of ... Not just in terms of work, but in terms of personality, in terms of likes and dislikes and so forth?
HAM LORD: I think one of the reasons why Christopher and I worked well together is that at the core of it we have the same fundamental beliefs. We believe in the respect for the individual. We have deep integrity and strong beliefs in that area, but our skill sets are almost one 180 degrees opposite. You mention in the beginning, in the intro, that Christopher started his career as an attorney and I started my career as a computer scientist. Those are two very different skill sets. We tend to handle very different parts of the operations.
In Christopher's case, if we're pulling a deal together I'm not the one who's going to be looking at the deal terms. I have a general sense of high level deal terms, but I can't read legal documents, just don't get them. On the other hand, running the finances of the organization, operating sort of the metrics of the business, that's an area that I have a lot of skills and strength. Then you throw in the fact there's a lot of judgment being made on whether to investor not invest in a company and the combination of our skills helps us make that judgment.
SAL DAHER: There's a creative tension between the two of you, which results in the better decision making?
HAM LORD: Yeah. If Christopher thinks something in an area that I don't feel I've got a lot of skills in, I'm not going to question him. I'm going to accept what he says because he's bringing to the table all that learning experience and therefore I pass that off to him and vice versa.
CHRISTOPHER MIRABILE: It's been almost a decade now. We've worked so closely together that we sort of almost can finish each other's sentences and we have built up a lot of trust in each other's judgment and at this point sort of don't spend a lot of time on the meta issues around who owns what, we just get to doing what we do and it's very, very collaborative. It's one of the planks that is important in terms of the Launchpad ecosystem and the professionalization kind of goal is trying to find a better tool for managing Launchpad. Launchpad's got a portfolio now that's large in terms of companies and dollars. Ham will tell you what's the market, is it the 80, 85 million dollars market value?
HAM LORD: Yeah, it's something north of it. Something north of it.
CHRISTOPHER MIRABILE: It's a big portfolio and managing that has been hard over the years. In terms of building the Seraf tool, that's Ham's background. He's really been in the lead on ... He knows how to build a software product and he's been sort of chief strategist and the product manager of that.
SAL DAHER: When you say a portfolio's 80 million dollars, it's the value of the companies that your members have invested in via your-
HAM LORD: Yeah. That's the value of the holding, of our members holdings. The overall value of the companies is much larger than that.
CHRISTOPHER MIRABILE: I think at this point the group ... We're putting about eight million a year to work and we've harvested some of that back, but our cost basis is probably in the ...
HAM LORD: It's half of that. It's about 40.
CHRISTOPHER MIRABILE: Yeah. About 40 million in terms of just book value cost basis and the market value of the portfolios of our holdings is probably in the neighborhood of 80 to 85 million last time I checked.
SAL DAHER: You're saying about your collaboration here, you kind of get to the point where you're finishing each other's sentences. It reminds me of a collaboration I had with my partner in the emerging markets business for several decades, Robert Smith. He and I very much, as you two, I mean very complementary in personality, in a skill set and yet we sort of enjoy similar things and we have a kind of similar sense of humor. We enjoyed very much working with each other and yet, I mean, he's as different from me as anybody could be and we worked well together.
CHRISTOPHER MIRABILE: I can work well though. Ham can always be counted on to sort of step back and be more strategic and more thoughtful and look at the big picture.
HAM LORD: Christopher can be guaranteed to mess things up. So, it's perfect.
CHRISTOPHER MIRABILE: I tend to over book and be too busy and I like running the meetings and being in the moment and I'm a little bit more comfortable with confrontation.
SAL DAHER: You're more of an extrovert and kind of ...
CHRISTOPHER MIRABILE: I think I fall right in the middle of the spectrum on that. I have some definite introverted qualities and I have some extroverted qualities, but I love the people and running the meetings and I'm more comfortable with confrontation. I'm happy to sort of do the negotiations and be the torch bearer for the deals themselves, whereas neither Ham or I are super good ... I mean, Ham's far better, but neither of us are rock stars at people's deep biographical backgrounds. So, Jodi's [Jodi Collier’s] invaluable and helping us sort of manage this family of 150 investors. Everybody's complementary in terms of what they can and can't.
SAL DAHER: That's tremendous.
HAM LORD: I think one other area where we have similar interests, but again, different skills is we both are interested in sort of education and that's one of the reasons why we've put as much time and effort into our blog and the content that we've created there. An approach that we use for creating our content is one or the other of us will decide on a topic that we're going to cover, let's say due diligence and all the pieces that go in due diligence. The one who's sort of taking the lead on that will write the outline and write a whole series of questions and then pass that back to the other one and the other one will answer some of the questions and leave it to the person who wrote the initial one to answer some of the questions as well. That's how we're able to generate a tremendous amount of content in a relatively short period of time. We're basically just treating it as our way of educating our audience.
SAL DAHER: Optimizing your existing knowledge within the group and then the stuff that you don't have within the group, you can just do some research and bring it in and produce the content quickly. That's very effective. What do you enjoy about working together?
HAM LORD: I don't think either of us takes the other one that seriously. We enjoy [crosstalk 00:14:24]
CHRISTOPHER MIRABILE: Neither of us sweats the small stuff and we enjoy each other's sense of humor. As Ham said, we have sort of common values and compatible personalities. We have a lot of laughs. When I was thinking about how do we resolve conflict, that question of how we were resolve conflict, there isn't really much conflict to resolve. If one of us feels really, really strongly about something, there's enough respect there that the other one is very likely to defer.
HAM LORD: I think it also ... Although we work together we do not share an office. We both work from home and our homes are separated by about 10 miles or so.
CHRISTOPHER MIRABILE: Thank God there's a river.
SAL DAHER: Distance makes the heart grow fonder.
HAM LORD: That said, we very much enjoy getting together. Yeah, we enjoy getting together, whether it be in a studio like this or yesterday we had a very interesting Launchpad session with the directors of our companies, where we meet on once a quarter and talk about topics that are sort of pertinent to being a director on an early stage company board and then afterwards the two of us have lunch. It gives us a chance to reconnect on a regular basis, but we're not in each other's space on a daily basis.
SAL DAHER: That is awesome. What motivates you as angels group operators, startup founders, authors. What keeps you ticking on this?
CHRISTOPHER MIRABILE: We really fundamentally do believe that angel investing matters a lot.
SAL DAHER: I second that wholeheartedly. I think it really is ...
CHRISTOPHER MIRABILE: I don't think either of us are like frivolous people who would pour a ton of time into something that just didn't matter, just retired to entertain ourselves. We do believe in angel investing and we think that it is a tremendously important social force in terms of creating opportunity for people, including this sort of a diverse group of people, jobs creation, national competitiveness. I mean, we really think this asset class is vitally, vitally important and we think it needs to be professionalized and that it can be made more accessible and it can be made more professional and it can be made more rewarding and some of the risks can be better managed. We are motivated both as angel participants to do the best we can as investors, but also as community participants to try to raise our community up and create and disseminate best practices.
HAM LORD: That's the serious answer. I'll give you the less serious version of it. Every once in a while if I think, "Hey, wouldn't it be great to retire to an island or something like that and just chill?" Then I think, "If I did that there are certain things I'd give up, which I wouldn't want to give up." To me, one of the most interesting aspects of what we do is meeting fascinating entrepreneurs who have great stories to tell.
SAL DAHER: That is so rewarding.
HAM LORD: That's not work. That's education. That's pleasure. I enjoy that and if I go to that island I guarantee you they're not going to be any entrepreneurs hanging out there. There might be a handful, but to me, what really keeps me going in this is that I'm constantly learning. I'm staying on top of what's new and exciting in technology and I get to talk with fascinating people, what can be better than that?
CHRISTOPHER MIRABILE: What's more fun, Sal, than helping optimists? It doesn't get better than that.
SAL DAHER: It can be painful on the wallet!
CHRISTOPHER MIRABILE: This is a good time. You get together with some smart people and you look at an interesting, challenging problem and you talk to an optimist about their view of how the future's going to unfold and there's just an opportunity to put in financial capital and lever the heck out of it with your human capital. To us, it's not work, it's a joy.
SAL DAHER: Christopher, what you said about competitiveness and so forth I think is really extremely important because I think angel investing really plays to the strengths of American culture. This idea of individuals voluntarily getting together and doing things on their own and things that maybe sound a little crazy and getting together and helping other ones do that. That's a really something that plays to very strong strain in American culture. I think you're right. It is enormously consequential and likely to become even more consequential as we go forward.
CHRISTOPHER MIRABILE: I mean, there's really been, in terms of class mobility, really education and entrepreneurship are the two mechanisms by which people improve the circumstances of their lives.
SAL DAHER: As America has become less socially mobile over the last few decades, which is a heartbreak. Tremendous. Coming up next, I will ask Christopher Mirabile and Ham Lord, two of Boston's most consequential Angels, how they differ in their approach to investing in startups. First, I'd like to think Health Tech 617 for your kind review. Health Tech 167 wrote, "Interesting guests with great stories to share and insightful discussions. Great listen for anyone interested in diving into the startup scene in Boston. A lot of excellent talent in and around the city." Thanks Tech 617 for giving back by writing your review. You give a fine example.
The Angel Invest Boston podcast has outstanding guess such as Ham Lord and Christopher Mirabile. Comes to you professionally produced, has no commercials and is free. The only thing we ask in return is that you help get the word out about our podcast. Please tell an angel or potential angel or founder about us. Take a minute to review us on iTunes. Sign up at AngelInvestBoston.com to be told about future events that are coming up, that are free and in person. Also, if you have any suggestions or critiques, please send them to me at Sal@AngelInvestBoston.com.
Christopher, Ham, how do you differ in your approach to investing?
HAM LORD: I invest in good companies.
SAL DAHER: He invest in duds!
CHRISTOPHER MIRABILE: I'll tell you one thing. I owe him debt of gratitude because-
SAL DAHER: You, Christopher, owe Ham a debt of gratitude?
CHRISTOPHER MIRABILE: Yeah, I do, because-
HAM LORD: I'll wait for this one.
CHRISTOPHER MIRABILE: What I was going to say was I really came from an enterprise software background and that was really my focus. As I was learning the angel game and building my portfolio in the early years I didn't really want to venture out of my comfort zone and I was really focused on that. Ham was beating me over the head in those early years saying things like, "Think about where the wealth in Boston is going to be created in the next 30 years. Think about the laboratories and the universities and there's so much opportunity in health and life sciences. You gotta get in on some of these deals."
As investors, Ham had a wider aperture than I did. He's not a life sciences specialist either, but he figured out before I did the value of working with smart people who do know the space really well and adding a little bit of exposure to that space to your portfolio. That was certainly one way in which we started very different. We've grown a little bit more similar, but that's-
HAM LORD: You remember that company he mentioned in the beginning that he joined Launchpad a little bit too late to get into, it's a local company called Mobius Imaging, founded by an entrepreneur Gene Gregerson, who really is what I consider an engineer's engineer. He was taking on a big challenge, which was to build for not a lot of capital, in a short period of time, a mobile CT scanner and something that could be wheeled into an operating room and put the patient who's on the table into the CT scanner. With a relatively small amount of capital, less than 20 million dollars, in about four years he went from basically a PowerPoint presentation to a shipping product.
CHRISTOPHER MIRABILE: Of a device, which is a medical device, which is really hard, has all sorts of approvals.
HAM LORD: There was a hardware in that device that didn't exist before he started this process. He had to convince companies much larger, much more mature than his to take for example their X-Ray detector and shrink it down or their power supply and shrink it down for his device, which may or may never make it in the line.
CHRISTOPHER MIRABILE: An astonishing feat.
HAM LORD: Did it in a short time frame that the big players, the GE's, the Siemens of the world, which are dominant in this particular space, couldn't do. Here's an example of a life science company, which typically investors think are going to need a ton of capital, was able to do it on a relatively small amount of capital. There are lots of entrepreneurs like Gene Gregerson here in the Boston area. Now, are they all going to succeed? Of course not, but I do think if you think about where the wealth is going to be generated in the Boston/Cambridge area over the next one to two to three decades, a significant portion of it's going to be in the life sciences.
Now, that said, we don't invest in every kind of life science company. There's a certain segments that are much more difficult to invest in, therapeutics being one of them. It's in the news constantly about how expensive it is to get a drug to market. We probably don't do a lot of investing in that space, but in the medical device diagnostic and health care IT, digital health, those are all areas that we actively look at.
SAL DAHER: You might be surprised in the area of therapeutics. Today I sent out a check on a second round investment at PanTher Therapeutics. What those guys do ... I should say Laura Indolfi, the co-founder and her team is doing, is they're taking existing materials that have been FDA approved. They're taking drugs, cancer treating drugs that are already in existence and some of them are out of patents already and combining those two things and putting them on to pancreatic cancers that are particularly hard to address because they don't have [a lot of] blood vessels. So, you can't get the cancer medication through them via intravenously. The results so far, hugely, hugely encouraging and yet it seems like something that's fairly close to the ground because they're basically combining existing technology that's already FDA approved in a novel way, putting it in surgically. Of course, they haven't started human trials yet. I mean, that's what can be expensive. You'd be surprised that there are some-
Blindspots: How Having a Partner Helps Avoid Them
HAM LORD: There are a lot. Actually, I think the main reason why we are not necessarily looking at a ton of therapeutic companies is what you just said, there's that transition from animal trials to human trials and there's a transition in human trials from the early phase one safety trials to the next level of trials that really bump up how much capital is needed. If there's one area that I think we've learned as Angel investors over the last number of years is, if you don't know who the next investor's going to be, if you have no sense whether you're going to be able to raise that large amount of capital in a therapeutic, you're taking on a lot of financial risk.
SAL DAHER: That is absolutely true. That's absolutely true.
CHRISTOPHER MIRABILE: You can't spot the sucker at the poker table if you didn't-
SAL DAHER: That's going to write up the next check.
CHRISTOPHER MIRABILE: I don't know if you want to go back to this topic of ways in which we differ, but-
SAL DAHER: Oh, absolutely.
CHRISTOPHER MIRABILE: I don't know whether Ham would cop to any blind spots, but I think I have a couple that he doesn't have. It'd interesting to see what he thinks about this, but we agree much more than we disagree and we tend to weight the same things very heavily. We're very much focused on ... It's team is more important than anything. The market has to be there as a secondary factor, but the team's the most important and then we figure that the product can generally be fixed. So, we're really much more similar than different, but two areas where I sort of have a little bit of a blind spot are, I love technology and I am so fascinated by sort of the what's next and the what's new, metaphorically speaking. If it takes a battery and has a blinking light, you had me at hello.
SAL DAHER: I'm immensely grateful for your technology suggestions, Christopher.
CHRISTOPHER MIRABILE: I have to be careful about that, that affinity towards interesting. I find the intersection of cutting edge technology and society very interesting. For example, it's endlessly fascinating to me the way smartphones are taking over different functions and how they've impacted the way we live our lives and communicate with each other and empowered things that we do. I always have to check myself a little bit. The other area that I think that I have a little bit of a blind spot and that Ham's much more steely-eyed is-
SAL DAHER: He's the gimlet-eyed engineer. You're the starry-eyed lawyer.
CHRISTOPHER MIRABILE: Well, I don't know about that, but I certainly don't identify as a lawyer anymore. Those were long, long time ago, but chemistry with people is important to me and sometimes when I just like a founder a ton I'm softer on them than I should be. Ham's very people-centric and team-centric in his evaluation, but he's less influenced by whether the person is a nice guy or gal and much more focused on what are their skills relative to what skills are needed for the organization. I probably am a little more sentimental about the team and he's a little less sentimental. Those are a couple blind spots I'm willing to cop to.
HAM LORD: I think we're talking real shades of gray here because I'm sure there are people who would claim that I'm too easy on the younger entrepreneurs and the first-time entrepreneurs. I will say one thing that I wish they would do more and I think both Christopher and I need to reflect on this, is understanding how that entrepreneur will scale with the company. The CEO in particular, does he or she have what it takes to go from this early startup that has nothing to a company that's scaling. Can they hire great people to help that business scale along the way and can they make that transition from being a player, to a player coach, to a coach. That's really one of the things that we as early investors need to think about very seriously when we're making that initial investment in a company because we're investing in that team.
SAL DAHER: Absolutely. This kind of calls to mind Michael Mark on the topic, places great emphasis on the team and he's seen a lot of teams in his career as an investor, my mentor at Walnut Ventures, but the funny thing he says is, "I think I'm going to be around these guys for nine years, 10 years sometimes. If I don't like them, forget about them, no matter how good the idea is and so forth, but on the other hand, if I like the team and the space maybe is not the right one I figure maybe they will eventually rotate to the right team and find the right formula, if they really have their act together."
CHRISTOPHER MIRABILE: Yeah. Ham and I are fairly pragmatic about that. I mean, one of the beautiful things about what we do is we do get to pick who we work with and our members, our syndicate partners and the teams that we back. Neither of us has any patience for investing in people we don't respect and like. That said, we're pragmatists and we understand that successful startups have different personae involved. You don't have to be best friends with everybody on the team in order to invest in the company. You have to recognize different personality types and temperaments are important in a successful team.
SAL DAHER: But you at least have to enjoy interacting with them when you do interact with them.
CHRISTOPHER MIRABILE: And you really need to feel that sense of integrity and honesty.
SAL DAHER: That goes without saying. Integrity is ... Without that you can't even start a conversation. I have a case of a founder who was discovered to be lying. This is someone who came out of Tech Stars and just making up things and that was really heart-crushing for us.
CHRISTOPHER MIRABILE: It's worth pointing out how rare that is. One of the things about angel investing that's interesting and one of the one of the curious questions that's emerging as more passive investors get involved by remote control through platforms, there's a footnote I'll drop, is what does that mean, but fraud is so rare and-
SAL DAHER: It is extremely rare.
CHRISTOPHER MIRABILE: Because we do spend time with these teams and there's a fair amount of competition for dollars and there's a fair amount of thought and different perspectives that go in and you do invest in getting to know the teams. It's fairly rare. Someone has to be a pretty determined con artist.
SAL DAHER: In this case I don't think there was actual fraud but just saying things that turned out not to be true later on. Not telling the truth, which can lead to fraud, but it's not necessarily fraud, which is for me it was really disappointing because I've invested at this point in about 47 startups. All the other 46 are the people that I would trust with my life. I mean, they say something and absolutely the truth. I think your point is really very important to say that the process of getting to know people individually really is very, very good at screening out the-
HAM LORD: Christopher, you dropped a footnote there when you talked about these platforms and really sort of what you're talking about is some of these crowdfunding platforms that are coming out on the market with some of the new SEC regulations allowing not just accredited investors to invest, but others to invest and also these platforms making it so that I can invest in companies that are in other parts of the country or other parts of the world. What I would say as an angel investor. I want to know, I want to have met the team that I'm investing in. I don't want to do it just based on some materials that someone has written up and the company is in an area of the country where I don't have access to and where my human capital really doesn't necessarily add a lot of value.
SAL DAHER: Are you guys limited to the geographic area of Boston?
HAM LORD: Yeah. Launchpad only invest in sort of the New England region. Christopher and I have made a handful of investments personally outside of this region, but it's in cases where we've known the entrepreneur through other means. So, it's not a totally unknown person that we're talking with. It's somebody who either we know personally or a close colleague of ours has invested in that company and knows them personally.
SAL DAHER: From my observation, I think there's enormous value with geographic concentration because not only do you know the people going in ahead of time, but you get to interact with them after you make the investment. You're around them to help them. When you run into them you see they look a little down and you can tell, "Hey, we know it's a tough time, is there any way we can help? Do you need somebody to talk to?" That kind of interaction because it's possible if you're investing with a geographic concentration.
CHRISTOPHER MIRABILE: It's also important in terms of knowing your syndicate partners and other potential leads through deals. I mean, these deals need leads. This is a very, very labor intensive way to invest, there sort of finding great companies, screening them, presenting them, doing the diligence, creating the deal terms in the term sheet and then filling out the route and syndicating it. The way angels solve that challenge of sort of needing to be diversified on the one hand and in a very labor intensive asset class is they collaborate.
SAL DAHER: That's the logic of the angel groups. Angel investing on your own is very painful and unproductive.
CHRISTOPHER MIRABILE: Every good deal needs a competent lead who is going to be the conduit for the human capital coming in and focus investors and help and set market reasonable terms and come up with an architecture for staging capital into that company over time. I don't know how you evaluate the quality of the team or for that matter, the lead on a deal that's on a platform very geographically remote. It's conceivable that you could build a relationship with someone in an area and get comfortable with them, but for the most part, I think of the angel business a little bit like the cement business. You can only truck cement about 45 minutes before it starts to harden.
SAL DAHER: Exactly.
CHRISTOPHER MIRABILE: I think there is, to my way of thinking, the kind of investing I like to do is a hands-on contact sport. I think that if you're going to do it long distance without understanding the team or the deal lead, it starts to be a little bit more like buying lottery tickets.
SAL DAHER: The fun for me, of angel investing, is sitting down, as Ham was talking earlier, and talking about, as you mentioned, talking with these optimists and listening to their story and listening to their ideas and going back and talking with your colleagues as well, who are knowledgeable about this and what do you think, what do we do. That's the whole fun of it and if you're doing it on a platform it's just too abstract. I can see doing that if that's the only way you can invest, you can only write $1,000 checks or whatever as a way point to ultimately becoming an angel investor, which I think is the ultimate thing. Being a real live angel investor is just like with the most fun thing I can think of in my life certainly, in business, that I've ever done.
HAM LORD: Yeah, but you've got three people sitting around here, chatting about this and that's what we firmly believe in. We have the time and the energy to be able to go off and do angel investing as a major part of what we do with our lives, not everybody has that time.
SAL DAHER: No, they don't.
HAM LORD: But just because you want to get into it as another asset class. You've got your mutual funds and bonds and stocks etc. I wouldn't necessarily add this as part of your portfolio unless you're willing to commit the time. I just don't think it makes sense.
SAL DAHER: Yeah. Very good. Do you have do's and don'ts for collaboration such as yours?
HAM LORD: I think the first most important do is that you've got to have respect for each other. I don't think you necessarily find out whether you're on the same page or not.
SAL DAHER: This is Ham talking.
HAM LORD: Yeah, this is Ham talking. It takes some time. When Christopher and I joined forces I had been looking for a partner for probably two or three years and through Launchpad and through other parts of my network there were a lot of people I interacted with, but I wanted to make sure that this person who I was going to be working very closely with was in alignment with me, but I also wanted to make sure that they didn't have the same skills as me and we didn't think alike, because that really wouldn't be additive. We are quite different. You can't see us on the podcast right now. You see us in the studio. We're very different people.
SAL DAHER: Very different human beings. I can attest to the fact that they're very different human beings.
HAM LORD: It's a good thing that I'm as handsome as I am because otherwise [crosstalk 00:37:59]
CHRISTOPHER MIRABILE: Everybody has a mom, okay? Everybody has a mom to love them and think they're handsome.
HAM LORD: For me, the most important do is make sure you really understand this person before you step into a partnership. I say that whether you're doing something like we do, which is running an angel group or whether you're going to be co-founders in a company. I always cringe when I hear about two co-founders, they found each other because one of them was a B-School student, the other was a researcher at MIT and the other was in the Sloan School. The Sloany was looking for a company to start. So, he just found this great idea and they decide to-
CHRISTOPHER MIRABILE: And they don't have a single word of vocab in common. They can't even speak to each other. I'll take that baseline. I think the baseline of respect and complementary skills and I'll say that I think there's probably three other really important ingredients. One is investing in the relationship. So, we don't always talk about business. I mean, we hang out a little bit, we take time to catch up and have gotten to know each other. I think there's a real friendship built in to the relationship and taking that time and we even get to get off site and do stuff together.
We've had some sailing excursions and done some stuff together and there's also just a fair amount of down time. We often go to events together and travel and do things. So, there's that taking the time to build the relationship piece of it. I think another piece of it is boundaries. Ham mentioned we have separate offices and we're not together all the time and we both believe very strongly in having other things you do outside of work to recharge you and make sure you're as fresh and full of energy when it comes time to focus on work as you can.
SAL DAHER: What is that for you, Christopher?
CHRISTOPHER MIRABILE: I do like to try to get to the seashore in the summer and reverse commute from the Cape and my family is a really big part of that. So, being really, really focused on my home life and my kids who are sort of middle school and high school age kids and trying to be the best dad I can be is probably the second, after work, the second most important chunk of time that I spend. That's a value, incidentally, that Ham shares as well.
SAL DAHER: For you, Ham, what is it that you do the recharges you outside of your professional work?
HAM LORD: For me, I love to cook and I hate shopping, but there's-
SAL DAHER: Your children are older, they are already in college.
HAM LORD: Yeah, they're in college, but the thing about liking to cook is they get some good food when they come home. So, that's definitely an incentive to bring them back. For me, sort of from a recreational standpoint, I love to sail. I spend a lot of the summer doing that down at the Cape.
SAL DAHER: What do you sail?
HAM LORD: A Morris 29, which is a beautiful sailboat. It can be handled by one person. My wife and I sail together a lot in the summer.
SAL DAHER: Before I started this podcasting project I had meant to buy a boat, but I spent all the boat money on the project.
HAM LORD: You probably have. Yeah. Then ultimately, all three of my daughters ended up racing in college, sailing in college.
SAL DAHER: I sailed dinghies-
HAM LORD: At MIT? Did you sail those-
SAL DAHER: Actually, not while at MIT, before going to MIT, as alumni brat. I love it. I would just want to get a-
HAM LORD: I was there just this past weekend watching a regatta one of my daughters was in, even though it was cold out ... Actually, MIT's boathouse is a great location. It got the sun beating down on you there, so even those cold it was warm sitting there watching sun.
SAL DAHER: Ah New England, you're a frostbiter on the ice boats.
CHRISTOPHER MIRABILE: Taking that time to recharge and make sure you're bringing ... The three things. The first was sort of getting to know and investing in relationship. The second was sort of having some boundaries and some time and downtime. I think the third is sort of maybe empathy or situational awareness. We spend a lot of time adapting to each other's working styles and respecting each other's working styles. The fact that we tend to do things at different times of the day and trying to remember what is on someone's plate or what their reality is.
Right now, just at this particular moment in time Ham tends to have some longer-term kinds of things on his plate. He's thinking about one sorts of thing and I've got a million little transactional details. So, we try to be empathetic about each other's reality as we're interacting and I think that avoids cross wires and that empathy is helpful for the relationship.
SAL DAHER: Tremendous. Tell us about a time when things weren't working out for you and how did you work it out.
HAM LORD: God, that's a tough one, because as Christopher points out, I think that's been extremely rare and when I say that I mean, I'm really stretching, but if I had to sort of come up with something it might be when we disagreed about how we were dealing with a person. When you've got 150 members in your group, you're dealing with dozens of entrepreneurs, you're interacting with a lot of people, there are times when some of those people disappoint you. Not everybody can live up to what our expectations are all the time. There have been occasions where I think we may not have seen eye to eye on exactly how we should handle a difficult situation with somebody who we had to interact with.
CHRISTOPHER MIRABILE: How much slack to cut them and what to do. He's so quick to see the good in people and I'm quick, probably too quick to ... I guess it's my Sicilian blood, but to see it as pattern or a problem or a thing that needs to nipped in the bud and sort of I tend to be programmatic and systemic in the way I look at things. If I see behavior that I think isn't okay or isn't good enough I tend to immediately begin projecting it out in a straight line and thinking about it as something that needs to be dealt with forcefully, early, quickly. Ham tends to sort of look at the whole person and the whole context and just find the good in people. We're very much aligned in-
SAL DAHER: He likes to judge the person in the totality of his or her actions.
HAM LORD: That said, there has never been a case where ultimately, we disagreed on what the approach we were going to take.
SAL DAHER: The way you perceive it, but you were able to synthesize to a decision that ultimately was the same.
CHRISTOPHER MIRABILE: Yeah. It's a question of degree. We're very aligned in terms of what's okay conduct and what isn't, but exactly when to cut somebody off at the knees is often something where we have to kind of collaborate to come to an agreement on a path forward.
SAL DAHER: Okay. Now, having a splendid collaboration, the two of you, how do you look at co-CEO's? It's just widely regarded as a no, no in the startup world.
HAM LORD: That's an interesting one, because I'm an observer on a board where it's not quite co-CEO's, but it looks a little bit like that. I think there's some situations where it can work and I think Christopher's and my partnership is an example of that. We're essentially operating multiple businesses. Christopher may take a bigger role in one of them and I may take a bigger role in the other, but ultimately we are jointly making decisions on those. I think that works up to a certain size in the company. There gets to be a point where the board really wants to be hearing it from one person, there's one neck to squeeze when there are problems, when there are challenges to [crosstalk 00:46:06]
CHRISTOPHER MIRABILE: I look at it this way. I think there's different kinds of leadership and I think that it's not per se a problem if there's clear ownership of different aspects and there's a governance function that works and there isn't a diffusion of responsibility. I will say that the need to both be called the CEO is a little bit of a yellow flag for me and it may be indicative of ego problems whereas doing the exact same things and having somebody called an executive chair, somebody called the CEO, somebody called a president, somebody called a COO. I view the co-CEO title as a little bit of a flag, but the underlying notion that people can collaborate together in a very, very senior leadership kind of position in a hierarchical organization, that doesn't give me ... I think I can imagine situations where it can work.
SAL DAHER: Interesting. Are there any trends that you guys want to highlight?
CHRISTOPHER MIRABILE: Well, it's funny. I've been asked this recently a couple of times on panels, what's tired and what's wired these days. It's an interesting question. It depends a little bit on your perspective and also it depends on how wide your aperture is in terms of what's going on in tech in general versus what's going on in the kinds of deals angels are drawn to, that are a little bit ... Obviously, artificial intelligence and autonomous driving and those kinds of things, which are big capital plays, very interesting.
There's a lot of verticals underneath that are very accessible to angels and very interesting. So, there's interesting stuff going on in Ag Tech with drones. There's a lot of really interesting stuff that's going on with image processing and digital signal processing brought forth by the fact that there are now massively powerful and relatively inexpensive GPU clusters allowing sort of really, really compute, expensive kinds of tasks to be done much more cheaply. We're working with a company Ham’s on the board of a portfolio company that's doing some really, really interesting cutting edge stuff with image analysis.
CHRISTOPHER MIRABILE: Company called Netra.
SAL DAHER: Oh, yes. We talked about Netra in the previous episode.
CHRISTOPHER MIRABILE: Those guys are doing super, super interesting stuff that probably wouldn't have been economically feasible just five years ago.
SAL DAHER: A company that I missed investing in by a matter of weeks and I sort of regret.
HAM LORD: Well, when they come up for another round we'll make sure to mark it up first!
CHRISTOPHER MIRABILE: I think some of the things ... Right now, if I see another plan calling statistics informed decision making, machine learning, I'm going to kill myself. It's just too much of that label right now, that's the hot label, everything's machine learning overnight.
HAM LORD: Data science is starting to take over as well. You're starting to finally see some universities put together data science programs and I thought what was very interesting is an article in The Harvard Crimson recently that statistics, which used to be a tiny department from an undergraduate standpoint, has now gotten too big. They don't have enough professors to teach statistics and what is that, why are there all these kids taking statistics? Because they want to graduate and get a job in data science. I think you're going to see, whether it's machine learning, data science, other things, that's going to become more and more prevalent in the tech companies that we're going to start to see as early-stage investors.
Think about it from the standpoint of what big problems can data science or machine learning solve and be looking for some of those. I was on a judging panel about two weeks ago at Harvard at the undergraduate level and of the 12 companies that presented I think at least four had some form of machine learning as part of the core technology that their applications were based on top of. These are very smart kids doing very interesting things.
CHRISTOPHER MIRABILE: It's actually starting to affect computer science in itself, in that ... Obviously, machines are extremely literal and traditionally we've programed them by giving them explicit instructions on what to do and try to come up with every exception and have a code to deal with the exceptions and was an extremely painstaking and literal and exacting science. Increasingly, we're starting to build programming methodologies that are as much about training the computer as they are about writing code. It's about learning.
There was a famous experiment several years ago where Google just told a computer to go figure out, scan the Internet and figure out what a cat looked like, without any real instructions at all, using contexts and images and it did incredibly good job. It came up with a composite cat image that look pretty catlike. I think it's a fascinating time in terms of how we're starting to use data and how it's transforming computer science itself.
HAM LORD: As two software guys, we should be hanging out at MIT, Northeastern Harvard etc. looking to see what interesting things are going to be coming out.
SAL DAHER: That brings to mind, two episodes ago I interviewed Wan Li Zhu, who is a venture capitalist and co-head of MIT Angels. One of the companies that he's invested in is PathAI and they're using artificial intelligence to read cancer cells in pathological slides. I think the accuracy rate of the algorithm is something like 98.5, whereas a human pathologist only gets about 80%. Right now, they have pharmaceutical companies that are using those for the research, but in the clinical side they still have to have a pathologist. They do their own examination, but the machine points out places they should look at. This is unbelievably consequential.
HAM LORD: To give you an idea of how diverse some of this machine learning is being applied. One of the Harvard students had an idea for a business where using machine learning he has looked at all the results from professional tennis matches and based on betting patterns can produce winning results on a slightly better than you would expect basis. He affectively is able to make a nice profit. What he's looking to do is start a company that would just be a fund that would basically bet on tennis matches, professional tennis matches. Turns out that professional tennis, I think he said it was the third largest sport for internet betting. His algorithms only work when it's one versus another. He wouldn't work well in-
SAL DAHER: I have an investor for them, Semyon Dukach.
HAM LORD: Semyon would like that. I just talked to an interesting company. They're essentially building a very, very vertical specific Facebook in effect for an industry. It's FinTech and it's sort of in the alternative investing world private equity and so forth and they're trying to build a nervous system or network for everyone in the industry to keep track of the things they care about and what's going on in the deals and connect with each other all these kinds of things. One of the important backbones of this is content and then relevant deals and so forth. They're contracting with IBM's Watson to fill the content file, to figure out what content is relevant to whom. It's just amazing kinds of things. This isn't just theoretical These are areas where computer science is really being harnessed and really close to where the rubber meets the road. It's just really interesting times.
SAL DAHER: Absolutely, absolutely. Christopher Mirabile and Ham Lord. I'm immensely grateful to the two of you for your magnanimous assistance in helping make this really a successful podcast. I would like to invite our listeners, who enjoyed this podcast to give back a bit and review it on iTunes. Sign up at AngelInvestBoston.com to be notified of future events including in person events we plan to hold. Please address any suggestions or critiques to Sal@AngelInvestBoston.com. I'm Sal Daher. This is Angel Invest Boston, conversations with Boston's most interesting angels and founders.
I'm glad you were able to join us. Our engineer is Raul Rosa. Our theme was composed by John M. McKusick. Our graphic design is by Katharine Woodman-Maynard. Our host is coached by Grace Daher.
Tagged: Sal Daher, Saleh Daher, Sal Daher CFA, investing, investor, startup, start-up, startups, start-ups, founder, founders, angel investor, angel investors, angel, angels, early-stage company, entrepreneur, entrepreneurship, innovation, syndicate, investment, Boston, MIT, christopher mirabile, ham lord
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ENDYMION'S DREAM
A Celebration of Steve Moore with Alan Moore, John Higgs and Andrew O'Neill
Saturday 4th May 2019 at 3:00 pm
Brompton Cemetery Chapel
North gate off Old Brompton Rd, South gate off Fulham Rd
London SW10 9UG
Each ticket includes one delightful Hendrick's Gin cocktail and a 20% donation towards a host of restoration projects at Brompton Cemetery
In March 2014, British comics lost one of its most innovative and and original voices in the form of Steve Moore. The father of 2000 AD's Future Shocks, Steve gave life to a host of memorable characters including Laser Eraser and Axel Pressbutton for Warrior, and the psychotic Dalek killer, Abslom Daak for the Doctor Who Magazine.
Join us at Brompton Cemetery Chapel with Strange Attractor Press to mark the publication of Steve Moore’s final, posthumous book, “Selene: The Moon Goddess and the Cave Oracle”, an examination of the origins, dream-explorations and mystical practices centred on the Greek deity Selene. The life of Steve Moore and the enduring mythology of the moon goddess will be discussed in conversation with Steve’s close friend and regular collaborator Alan Moore, the legendary author and graphic novelist, John Higgs, the author of 'Watling Street' and editor of ‘Selene' and Andrew O’Neill, the comedian and author 'A History of Heaven Metal'.
Steve Moore - Until his death in 2014, Steve Moore wrote comic books, novels and nonfiction, including a study of the I-Ching, 'The Trigrams of Han', a critically acclaimed novel, ‘Somnium', and a count ollection of short fantasy stories, 'Tales of Telguuth'. He also had a long-standing editorial connection with 'Fortean Times', to which he was a frequent contributor from their inception.
Tickets £12 including a Hendrick's Gin Cocktail. Please click here to buy.
Alan Moore (no relation) - Alan Moore is an English writer known primarily for his work in comic books including Watchmen, V for Vendetta, The Ballad of Halo Jones, and From Hell. Regarded by some as the best graphic novel writer in history, he is widely recognised among his peers and critics.
John Higgs - John Higgs is a writer who specialises in finding previously unsuspected narratives, hidden in obscure corners of our history and culture, which can change the way we see the world. In the words of MOJO magazine, “Reading John Higgs is like being shot with a diamond. Suddenly everything becomes terrifyingly clear”.
Andrew O’Neill - Andrew O'Neill is an occult stand-up comedian, musician and writer. His distinctive voice and alternative credentials have set him apart and allowed him to carve out a unique place in the comedy world. O'Neill has written and toured a shit-tonne of solo comedy shows, including Occult Comedian, Winston Churchill Was Jack The Ripper, MINDSPIDERS, Alternative, Andrew O'Neill is Easily Distracted and the current Andrew O'Neill's Black Magick Fun Hour.
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Home // MAKING SENSE OF MODI
MAKING SENSE OF MODI
Duncan Bartlett | August, 2018 August, 2018 | Indian economy
SAFE HANDS: Modi claims GDP numbers prove he is a responsible steward of the economy
Since winning the 2014 election on a promise to revitalise India’s economy, Narendra Modi’s government has been engaged in an ambitious reform programme and GDP growth has accelerated. But, as Duncan Bartlett writes, with vast numbers of young people joining the workforce each year, much work is still needed to raise living standards
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is a man of considerable self-confidence and a firm believer in his country’s national strengths. He recently described India as a ‘bright spot’ of the global economy.
He has a point. India’s GDP has recently been expanding at more than seven percent annually (7.7 per cent in the first quarter of 2018), faster than any other economy in the world and even faster than the Chinese economy, if you choose to put your faith in the official figures.
Modi’s record
‘The fastest growing economy in the world’ makes for a good election slogan, especially as economics rises to the top of the agenda ahead of next year’s general election in India.
Mr Modi claims the GDP numbers prove he is a responsible steward of the economy. Yet in a relatively low-income country such as India, which continues to experience rapid population growth, the benefits of GDP growth only really become apparent as more people move into the tax base and become able to contribute a proportion of their income towards infrastructure and services.
Modernising an ancient land
It is common to hear complaints about bureaucracy and inefficiency in India. But the notorious piles of paperwork are diminishing. Many government services are moving online and mobile phone payments are flourishing, as people use fewer banknotes. The demonetisation programme begun in 2016 aims to mop up dirty cash and encourage more internet transactions. There are mixed reports on how effective this move has been in curbing corruption. Critics complain many crooks use other types of graft to avoid getting caught, such as bribing lackeys to open bank accounts on their behalf. Nevertheless, the financial reforms send a signal that change is underway.
Attracting the world’s money
Foreigners who are impressed by Mr Modi’s modernisation programme are inclined to praise India as dynamic. Official figures show foreign direct investment into India is at a record level, although the pace at which that investment is increasing has slowed, suggesting that enthusiasm for India’s dynamism does not always provide a good basis for business.
Mr Modi has been trying to unblock the barriers. He has persuaded international groups to make extensive investments in India’s railways and in its medical sector. Amazon and Walmart have moved into the country’s e-commerce space – a move that not everyone has welcomed. Foreign investment can be presented as a threat to domestic business by its opponents. What would happen if Amazon started delivering groceries on an industrial scale? How would that impact the lives of spice merchants in the markets of Chennai?
Wealth for all
Like many other politicians, Narendra Modi has said that the goal of growing the Indian economy is not just to further enrich the privileged elite but also to improve the lot of the poor. Yet there remains entrenched inequality. According to Barron’s Investment website, India’s richest citizens – those who have at least $1 million in liquid financial assets – hold 48 per cent of the country’s total wealth, well above the worldwide average of 35 per cent.
Official figures show foreign direct investment into India is at a record level
Resentment about such inequality often affects people’s view of politics. Politicians from the opposition Congress Party are becoming inclined to side with those on the Left, who argue that things were often fairer under an old Socialist-style economic system, which India followed until the early 1990s. Voters are sometimes presented with what seems to be a crude choice between prioritising economic growth or supporting policies aimed at helping the poor and reducing inequality.
Populist politics
In India’s robust democratic system, debate about the best path to take can be heated. There are plenty of noisy populist politicians telling voters that the system has failed them, that the ‘big men’ in the capital do not care and that nothing is really changing.
The challenge for Mr Modi’s supporters will be to convince people to be patient. They can point to the number of small but significant changes for which their leader may take appropriate credit. Under the Modi government, there have been steps to ensure safer trains, more reliable insurance, less government paperwork, better medical care, less corruption, cleaner cookers, simpler tax, more e-commerce, and modern payment systems. All of those developments have taken place in a politically stable and largely peaceful country.
India thrives on debate and its politicians expect their every step to be scrutinised. There is much to be gained from regularly reviewing the political and economic situation. But in deciding the way forward, it would be wise for voters to regard recent progress as part of the important initial stage of a long-term plan.
Duncan Bartlett is the Editor of Asian Affairs and a former BBC World Service correspondent
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Home APSA Nominees & Winners 2015 Best Screenplay Vimukthi Jayasundara for Dark in the White Light (Sulan...
Vimukthi Jayasundara for Dark in the White Light (Sulanga Gini Aran)
Nomination Details
Ceremony Year 2015
Dark in the White Light
Nomination category
Best Screenplay
Vimukthi Jayasundara
Nomination Detail
Sri Lankan, writer and director Vimukthi Jayasundara studied at Le Fresnoy, Studio national des arts contemporains in France. His directorial debut, The Forsaken Land won the Caméra d’Or Prize at the Cannes Film Festival in 2005. Between Two Worlds, his second film, screened In Competition at the 2009 Venice Film Festival and Jayasundra was nominated for the APSA for Achievement in Directing. His feature Mushrooms was screened in the Quinzaine des Réalisateurs in Cannes in 2011. His other works include Light in the Yellow Breathing Space (2012), Chatrak (2011), Ahasin Wetei (2009), Sulanga Enu Pinisa (2005) and Vide pour l’amour (2003).
Film Accolades
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Kenzhebek Shaikakov is a Kazakh writer, director and actor. He studied at the Kazakh National Academy of Arts, specialising in film and theatre acting and…
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Home » Feature Stories » Cleaning up the clutter: how proto-biology arose from the prebiotic clutter
Cleaning up the clutter: how proto-biology arose from the prebiotic clutter
Categories: Feature Stories Origin and evolution of life
By Keith Cooper - Feb 5, 2019
Fundamental work on RNA is intended to help assist with probing life’s origins. IMAGE CREDIT: NASA/JENNY MOTTAR.
Just like the mythical creation stories that depict the formation of the world as the story of order from chaos, the early Earth was home to a chaotic clutter of organic molecules from which, somehow, more complex biological structures such as RNA and DNA emerged.
There was no guiding hand to dictate how the molecules within that prebiotic clutter should interact to form life. Yet, had those molecules just interacted randomly then, in all likelihood, that they would never have chanced upon the right interactions to ultimately lead to life.
“The question is, out of all the random possibilities, are there any rules that govern these interactions?” asks Ramanarayanan Krishnamurthy, an organic chemist at the Scripps Research Institute in California.
These rules would be selective, inevitably leading to the right interactions for assembling life’s building blocks. To unlock the secrets of these rules and how the prebiotic clutter transitioned to the biologically ordered world of life, Krishnamurthy utilizes a discipline called “systems chemistry,” and published a paper concerning the topic in the journal Accounts of Chemical Research that explores this relatively new way of understanding how life came from non-life.
Nobel prize-winner and geneticist Jack Szostak of Harvard Medical School describes systems chemistry as: “one of the news ways of thinking about the problems of prebiotic chemistry.” To understand how systems chemistry works, think of a flask full of chemical A, to which another chemical, B, is added and which reacts with A to produce two more chemicals, C and D. Since no process is 100 percent efficient, the flask now contains chemicals A, B, C and D. “So now you have a system,” explains Krishnamurthy. Systems chemistry considers the system as a whole and explores the rules within that system that govern how each chemical interacts with the others, and in different conditions.
The Krishnamurthy Lab at the Scripps Research Institute.
IMAGE CREDIT: RAMANARAYANAN KRISHNAMURTHY/SCRIPPS.
Yet, systems chemistry is about more than just dealing with systems containing many chemicals, says Szostak. “It’s a matter of thinking about what chemicals or conditions are likely to be available and likely to be helpful.” He cites the example of phosphate, which is automatically present in biochemical systems because of its existence in biology’s nucleotide-building blocks, and therefore is on hand to play multiple roles in the story of life, such as acting as a catalyst and protecting cells from pH changes.
Of course, unravelling the chemistry of the prebiotic clutter is a far cry from explaining the interactions of four chemicals in a flask. The computing and analytical power required to simulate such a complex system was beyond reach just a decade or two ago. Instead, the majority of research into the origin of life previously had focused on individual classes of biomolecules, the most promising being RNA (ribonucleic acid).
A chicken and egg scenario
The RNA world theory, which is the idea that RNA existed before cells did, faces a paradox. RNA makes proteins, but proteins also make up RNA. “Biologists took modern biology and for the sake of parsimony ran it backwards, but they then ran into the problem of what came first, proteins or RNA?” says Krishnamurthy
When the University of Colorado’s Thomas Cech discovered in 1981 that RNA can catalyze reactions within itself, the problem appeared to have been solved. Overnight, RNA’s importance to life was transformed. By being catalytic, RNA could kickstart other biochemistry including the formation of proteins and therefore had to come first. The subsequent discovery that it is the RNA molecule in a ribosome that is responsible for protein synthesis gave further credence to the “RNA world” hypothesis.
The RNA world has, however, come in for much criticism lately, which Krishnamurthy believes is deserved. RNA is able to transfer genetic information in organisms and is made of chains of ribonucleotides. But there’s a catch.
“Nucleotides don’t just pop up from chemical mixtures, they have to be made in a very defined manner,” he says. “There has to be a certain order to the reaction sequence. It’s not like Stanley Miller’s spark discharge experiment where he put all these gases together, pressed a switch and ‘Voila!‘”
Systems chemistry depicts the development of RNA as a chain of events driven by selective interactions and catalysis. Ribonucleotides are formed from ribonucleosides linked to phosphate. A nucleoside consists of a nucleobase, which is a nitrogen-bearing compound, bonded to a monosaccharide, which is a sugar containing five carbon atoms, called pentoses. Among the population of monosaccharides are four pentoses, among them ribose, which is somehow selectively converted into ribonucleoside instead of the other three pentoses.
Members of the Krishnamurthy Lab at the Scripps Research Institute. IMAGE CREDIT: RAMANARAYANAN KRISHNAMURTHY/SCRIPPS.
Although Szostak agrees that systems chemistry has the power to support the RNA world theory, or at least explain the origin of RNA, he points out that a disproportionate amount of work has been put into understanding how nucleotides form, and not enough into what happens after that. “There are still missing steps in understanding how RNA could be made,” he says. So, the challenge now for systems chemistry is to show how and why each of these stages occur.
“Just synthesizing a monomer of RNA like a nucleoside or a nucleotide isn’t enough to say you’ve found the origin of RNA,” says Krishnamurthy. “How do you put those monomers together in a meaningful manner that is self-sustainable?”
The selection effect could be taking place at a multitude of levels in the creation of RNA. Perhaps the selection rules are what determines why ribose, rather than the other three pentoses — xylose, lyxose or arabinose — is converted into the nucleosides used by RNA. Maybe the selection effect comes when explaining why phosphate prefers to bond with ribonucleosides, rather than any other nucleosides. Or, possibly it is the ribonucleotides themselves that are selected by being more efficient than other nucleotides at forming chains. We don’t know what the answer is yet, but Krishnamurthy believes that systems chemistry is the best tool for finding out.
Selection effects
We find selection rules driving interactions in chemistry as a result of environmental conditions; or emergent properties such as catalytic activity, self-assembly and self-replication; or even as a result of the specifics of chemical reactions.
Cyanide, for example, takes the form of non-toxic nitriles in biochemistry, linking with carbon-based molecules to form more complex organic molecules. It’s also a pretty handy reactant. Add cyanide to two specific organic compounds containing ketone and carboxylic acid, called keto acids and keto alcohols, and it produces cyanohydrins that are important precursors to some amino acids. However, in water cyanohydrins can undergo hydrolysis and break down, but whether they do or don’t depends on the pH of that water. In a paper published in Chemistry: A European Journal, Krishnamurthy, Scripps colleague Jayasudhan Yerabolu, and Georgia Institute of Technology chemist Charles Liotta found that hydrolysis takes place at a pH of less than 7 for cyanohydrins formed from keto acids, and a pH greater than 7 for cyanohydrins formed from keto alcohols. Therefore, the longer-term survival of cyanohydrins is selective dependent on the acidity or alkalinity of the surrounding environment.
Charles Liotta, Regents Professor Emeritus in the School of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the Georgia Institute of Technology. IMAGE CREDIT: GEORGIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY.
Another example encompassing cyanide-reactivity involves molecules of oxaloacetate and alpha-ketoglutarate, which play a role in the citric acid cycle (a series of energy-releasing chemical reactions utilized by oxygen-breathing life). In the presence of cyanide, oxaloacetate is selectively transformed instead of alpha-ketoglutarate, to form a hydroxy-succinic acid derivative.
“In a mixture where you can find both oxaloacetate and alpha-ketoglutarate, by adding cyanide you can selectively transform one but not the other,” says Krishnamurthy.
These examples demonstrate what Krishnamurthy describes as the transition from heterogeneous heterogeneity (diverse interactions in a system of many molecules) to homogeneous heterogeneity (selecting from diverse interactions between relatively few molecules forming the backbone of life’s systems, such as RNA). In other words, it is the emergence from the prebiotic clutter of an orderly proto-biochemistry.
“The solution seems to be to move from the heterogeneous mixture to what I call the homogeneous heterogeneity,” says Krishnamurthy. “This is what our lab is trying to demonstrate as a proof of principle.”
There is a long way to go yet and Krishnamurthy recommends that progress will be best made with baby steps as scientists develop this bottom-up approach to the origin of life from the heterogeneous prebiotic clutter. By discovering reactions and catalysis that select the right interactions between organic compounds, the aim is to build up our understanding of how the basic building blocks assembled — how, for example, RNA emerged from the chaos.
Professor Ramanarayanan Krishnamurthy speaks at a Story Collider event at the San Diego Festival of Science and Engineering. IMAGE CREDIT: PHOTOS COURTESY OF CHRIS PARSONS (CENTER FOR CHEMICAL EVOLUTION, GEORGIA TECH).
Ultimately the wish is to build an experimental simulation that includes the entire heterogeneous heterogeneity of the prebiotic clutter in a replica of Earth’s early environment, and then to run that simulation over and over again to see which selective interactions are most common and whether they can repeat the origin of life.
“I’m optimistic that we will be able to work out reasonable pathways for making all the building blocks of biology, and for assembling these components into simple, primitive cells,” says Szostak. “However, there is a lot to be learned before we can accomplish this ambitious goal.”
Just like the flask that ended up containing chemicals A, B, C and D, the end products of these selective reactions could start interacting with their source chemicals, something that doesn’t happen in the clean, isolated RNA world that is studied in the laboratory. What new and previously overlooked solutions await to be discovered and how quickly will the baby steps get us to them?
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CHRISTIAN MCBRIDE's Straightahead Masterwork
HE’S 37 YEARS OLD AND HAS WON A GRAMMY, BEEN COMPARED TO RAY BROWN on upright, toured with Chick Corea and John McLaughlin on electric, gotten first-call treatment from both hardcore jazzers (Freddie Hubbard, McCoy Tyner) and pop stars (Sting), arranged for orchestras, directed the National Jazz Museum in Harlem, obtained artist residencies at the Detroit and Monterey Jazz Festivals, and even conducted his own radio show about jazz and—wait for it—sports. But for Philly native Christian McBride, being referred to as one of the masters still evokes incredulity. “Are you kidding? I’m still the young phenom,” he says, chortling. “I can feel it now. I’ll be 70, and all those old jazz writers are gonna be going, Young Christian McBride, in his brief career . . . .”
Bryan Beller
A lot has happened since McBride moved to New York 20 years ago, where he left Juilliard after only 12 months to tour with jazz trumpeters Roy Hargrove and Freddie Hubbard. His debut CD as a leader, the landmark straightahead release Gettin’ To It [Verve, 1994], was all about establishing something. “My thoughts at that time were, ‘Well, I plan to have a long recording career, God willing, and I want to be able to build out from something.’ So the most logical thing was to make a straightahead CD, and anything I did after that could come out of that.” With jazz bona fides firmly in place, the next 13 years saw bandleader McBride stretch out over six critically acclaimed, stylistically divergent records that drew on funk, fusion, ballads, jazz, and plenty more. The 2000s saw the rise of the Christian McBride Band as his main creative vehicle. And though the band “didn’t think of themselves as fusion,” that’s what they were to some in the jazz community.
“It certainly was not your dad’s style of jazz,” admits McBride. “Most of the groups I’ve played in over the last ten years had that hint of electric in it, which I felt was cool, but there was something that said, ‘It’s time for you to come back home’—home being the real straightahead stuff. I figured it would be time to come back around and make one of those ‘just in case you forgot’ kind of records.”
Featuring a newly formed acoustic quintet that McBride calls Inside Straight, Kind of Brown reflects and embodies the spirit of Christian’s traditional jazz homecoming, with a nothing-left-to-prove, relaxed feel over a series of hard-swinging grooves that reflect the melodic and compositional maturity of someone with a master’s view of the genre. Its musical restraint is also a statement of sorts. “A lot of modern jazz is written with little bumps in the road just to trip you up, so it can keep you on your toes. But I realized with guys like Chick, Wayne Shorter, and Pat Metheny, and younger guys like Roy Hargrove … their songs aren’t that difficult. They sound difficult, but they’re not. They’re good, strong melodies that have a good harmonic structure … they’re singable, they’re memorable. There’s a lot to learn from simplicity.”
The remaining pages of this magazine could be filled simply with what McBride is up to right now. He just finished a touring stint with the hottest fusion ticket of the year, the Chick Corea/John McLaughlin Five Peace Band. Artists featuring his recorded sideman work in just the past two years include Pat Metheny, Jeff “Tain” Watts, Jonatha Brooke, Diana Krall, and George Duke (see Christian’s Dream Sideman Gigs, page 32). Then there’s the Conversations With Christian series, a project in which McBride both interviews and performs a duo with artists such as Duke, Corea, Hargrove, Krall, Sting, Gina Gershon, and Bruce Hornsby. The sessions are being released one at a time online at iTunes and at ChristianMcBride.com, and will end up as a CD later this year. And he’s still involved in a variety of educational leadership roles at several institutions. Somehow Christian still finds time to watch sports on TV, proving the adage that Philly sports fans are some of the hardest of the hardcore.
We were fortunate enough to catch McBride after a day of tracking for Grammy-winning jazz vocalist Dee Dee Bridgewater. The conversation lasted nearly 120 minutes, but somehow it still felt like we had only touched the surface.
Tell us about the origin of your new group, Inside Straight. How did you conceive it?
I’d been in the middle of all of these different projects, and I realized that I hadn’t played the Village Vanguard in a decade. So I went to [club booker] Lorraine Gordon and said, “It’s been ten years since I’ve played here. Can I come back?” She said, “Are you nuts? You can always come back! But I don’t want that rock & roll band you’ve been playing with,” talking about the Christian McBride Band. She’s like, “If you come back, I want you to put together something special that’s tailor-made for the club. And you know what I mean.” So I thought, Well, who can I call in town? I thought of Carl Allen and Eric Reed, and Steve Wilson, and Warren Wolf. Not to mention Steve, Eric, and Carl were Vanguard regulars anyway. The week turned out to be so good … everybody said, “Man, it was great to hear you play some good old, straight-up, swingin’ jazz again. You gotta keep this band together!” I said, “I can’t. Look who’s in it—these guys are booked for the next 20 years!” But somehow or another we were able to book a couple of gigs, and about a year later, Mack Avenue heard about the gig and said, “We haven’t heard it, but we can tell just from everybody’s reactions and the reviews in the paper, we want to record this band.” Okay!
How do you see your role on Kind of Brown? Is there anything specific in your approach, to go back to this place?
Well, I’ve always been attracted to players who really like to hold down the fort, but with their own language—just a bit extra, you know? Ray Brown, Paul Chambers, Bootsy Collins with James Brown, Larry Graham, Anthony Jackson, Marcus Miller … guys who are acutely aware of the traditional role of the bass in the band and do it better than anyone, but bring just a little extra flair to let you know that they’re there. I think no matter what band I’m playing in, unless I’m told differently, that’s always my M.O.: to hold down the fort but do it with my own thing—a little bit extra, so you know it’s me. And with this particular style of music, with these particular cats, the objective is to swing like hell.
What was your compositional process like? Did you write the material before the band’s formation, or after?
Truth be told, I had so many projects leading up to literally the day before the session … I’d been out on the road with Pat Metheny, and then I did this thing at the Detroit International Jazz Festival where I arranged all of Marvin Gaye’s hits for a big band, and then I went out to the Monterey Jazz Festival and had to write some big band material for a youth ensemble there—so with all of these things coming back to back over the course of three months, I had no time to write any new music for Inside Straight. So right before the first day in the studio, I was on that piano all night long. I thought, Man, you have no choice—sit your ass down and write some tunes. So I wrote five tunes that first night, and I wrote five songs the second night. And considering the circumstances and how under the gun I was, I’m a little impressed! [Laughs.]
As a bassist, how do you keep your solo approach fresh on blues-based forms like “Brother Mister” and “Stick & Move”?
When I was starting to learn how to solo, I actually didn’t listen to a lot of bass players. There were only three bass players who floored me: Paul Chambers, Ray Brown, and Jaco Pastorius. Those three guys helped me to learn what the greatest bass solo language was. And Oscar Pettiford later on. But I was always trying to transcribe Freddie Hubbard, Joe Henderson, McCoy Tyner—like a dummy, I would try to do that. I would listen to them solo and think, “Wow, that’s so melodic, and so hip, and so slick.” Every note they play is just so … shiny. They play with such conviction, but with the intensity that a heavy metal guitarist would play with. I want to be able to put that on the bass. Jaco was the only person I’d heard who could do that. His notes came out like rapid fire, like an automatic rifle or something. Every 16th-note was so brutally clear. I was like, “Man, I gotta learn how to do that.” Because most bass solos I heard were muddy, and I only heard every third or fourth note. Especially acoustic bass players. I’m like, “Man, I don’t understand why I don’t like most bass solos.” So I think my concept came from learning solos on other instruments.
On “Used ’Ta Could,” what made you pick up the bow for that solo?
It’s just a silly, funky, greasy kind of song, and when you think about silly and funky and greasy, usually the bow comes to mind [laughs]. At least for me it does. When I was in Roy Hargrove’s band, every time we would play some kind of slow blues, I would pick up the bow, and even before I started playing, these guys would start smiling and laughing. I’d go into my “Delta Blues” sound. That seemed to get a big rise out of everybody. I think that’s probably the closest thing you can do on an acoustic bass to sound like a blues singer. You can get that Big Joe Turner, that Big Mama Thornton kind of sound with the bow.
What makes the Freddie Hubbard tune “Theme for Kareem” tricky?
First of all, the song is in C#. Most of the time, Db sounds a lot better than C#. But the fact is, that song has E7’s and F#7’s and A7’s and all of those notes that you don’t solo on too often. The structure of it feels like a blues, but it’s not a blues, and the fact that it’s got those E’s and F#’s and B’s and A’s, they sneak up on you. That’s what makes that song tricky.
Talk about “Shade of the Cedar Tree.” What drove you to re-record it for this particular record?
The first reason was, from what I’ve been told, the song has a potential to become a standard. And I was flattered to hear that. There’s like ten college bands that are playing that song with their lab combos or some- thing like that. So I thought, Well, let me record it again, and maybe I can hurry up and make it a standard [laughs]. The second part was that it was a song I wouldn’t have to worry about composing, and I knew I didn’t have much time that first night while writing. And third and most important, I figured, “If people like the song so much, I can only imagine how much more they’d like it had it been correct.” Because on the original recording [on Gettin’ to It], there’s actually a wrong note! It was a note that Roy Hargrove played wrong in the bridge. So now I fixed it.
Now that it’s done, what’s your bottomline takeaway from Kind of Brown, as a bassist and as a bandleader?
Man, I just want people to say, “This is one swingin’ record.” Kind of Brown is one of those records where my sole objective was to do music that was gonna be footstompin’ and finger poppin’ and toe-tap- pin’. That’s really all I wanted at the end of the day.
Talk a bit about the Conversations with Christian project. Where did that drive to mix it up conversationally come from?
It all started from the National Jazz Museum in Harlem. One of our programs that we started was the series “Harlem Speaks,” which is like the jazz version of Inside the Actor’s Studio. That spun into my wife telling me that I needed my own radio show. She said, “As much sports as you know about, you should have a talk show and figure out how to mix jazz and sports together.” She was adamant. About a year later, my manager saw the “Harlem Speaks” series and said, “Hey man, you should have a radio show.” And I just said, “You too?” Somehow this got all convoluted, and then the radio show spun into, “Why don’t you do a duet CD?” Then that turned into, “Why don’t you interview the people you do your duets with?” And by that time, so many people had so many ideas about so many things, I was like, “Yeah, Okay, fine. I’m tired of thinking at this point. Whatever y’all say, just … fine. Great.” [Laughs.]
What do you hope people get out of the series?
What I hope will be special about Conversations is that you can hear Sting talk about bass stuff. He’s not talking about the Police, or the rainforests. He’s talking about Jaco, Ray Brown, Paul Chambers, and things like that. He’s talking about the Mahavishnu Orchestra, the Newcastle United football team. You get to hear these great artists talk about things that you don’t usually get to hear them talk about, with just enough about their artistry that you still get what you would expect. But you certainly get a lot of things that you wouldn’t expect. You get to hear Chick Corea talk about playing football in high school. I know I’m the only person who ever asked him about that!
What’s your best advice to aspiring bassists who want to achieve what you’ve achieved so far?
If you really love serving the music, if you’re in this to be a better musician, all of the hard work that you have to do will not be work. There’s a difference between something being difficult and something being a drag. If you’re having fun and you come across something difficult, you’ll spend that time until you get it, because it’s something you really want, that you love, that you want to figure out. But if it starts to become drudgery, that means you probably don’t have that passion you need to really get to the higher level. You’ve got to really, really love it. It’s not about being famous, or being on a lot of records, or wanting to be in demand. If you love the music, and you love doing what you’re doing, all that will come.
What’s the one question you wish I’d asked you, but didn’t?
Do I think the Phillies will repeat as World Series champs this year?
And the answer to that question?
Maybe! [Laughs.]
Christian’s Dream Sideman Gigs
ON THE CHICK COREA/JOHN MCLAUGHLIN FIVE PEACE BAND (WITH KENNY GARRETT ON SAX AND VINNIE COLAIUTA ON DRUMS)
“It was devastating in the best way possible. I’d played with Chick many times through the years. I’d only met John a couple of times, but I’ve been a huge admirer of his work. And Vinnie and I had played together a bunch of times as well, but it was always in the studio, under controlled circumstances, so we never really got to cut loose. Going into it I thought, Oh man, if this is anything like I think it’s gonna be, it’s going to ruin me!
“Chick and John would be having band meetings, and they’re asking, ‘So what do you guys think? What do we need to do different?’ And I’m saying, ‘Are you serious? You actually care what we think?’ They were beautiful leaders. And musically I couldn’t have asked for anything more.”
ON DIANA KRALL
“It amazes me how people view Diana as being somewhat of a smooth or almost pop-ish gig. That is hardly the case. Just because she’s the chick who plays the piano and sings doesn’t mean it’s light at all. Diana comes from the same school that I and Russell Malone and Greg Hutchinson and Benny Green came from, and that’s the school of Ray Brown. And Ray Brown was all about swinging really hard, breaking a sweat, and getting down and getting funky. She’s still very much into swinging hard. I think if Diana had her druthers, she wouldn’t even sing—she’d just play piano. And it would just be a straight jazz gig. So I find myself playing her gig and feeling like I’m playing a jazz gig in New York in some bar. I dig playing with Diana a lot.”
ON STING
“When I first started playing with Sting, I had this naïve notion that I was going to do a pop gig. We’re gonna get onstage, we’re gonna be hittin’ hard, this is gonna be awesome. But when I got to the first rehearsal, it was quiet, and smooth, with lots of acoustic instruments—almost a jazz gig! And even the songs we played where we rocked out a little, like ‘If I Ever Lose My Faith in You,’ or ‘If You Love Somebody, Set Them Free,’ still worked at jazz volume, which was shocking to me. It was a positive shock, but I was just so unprepared for it.
“When I first started, Sting said, ‘Look, I want you to play primarily acoustic bass.’ I’m thinking, Really? I’m pretty sure I’m going to get buried under that wall of sound. I was still thinking the Police, but it wasn’t that at all. Turns out the acoustic was the perfect instrument for that gig. So it surprised me in the sense that I almost had the same feeling playing with Sting as I did with Diana, because it was still at jazz volume and acoustic-based. And it was a fun gig.”
Acoustic “No-name German” e bass, built in the 1920s, with D’Addario Helicores Hybrid e Scale Light Tension strings, and David Gage Realist pickup
Electric Fretless maple-neck Penza 4-string, fretless maple-neck Atelier Z 5-string, ’76 mapleneck Fender Jazz, strung with nickel D’Addario XLs, .040–.095, .125 B string
Live rig (acoustic & electric) All Epifani amps/cabs; small (in town) gigs: UL502 or PS400 head with NYC 1x15 or two NYC 1x12s; larger (touring) gigs: UL902C head with NYC 4x10 and NYC 1x15 cabs “On the [UL902C] head, you can do different EQs for each channel. I have one channel set up for the acoustic and one for the electric, and I just A/B them onstage.”
Studio Occasional various miked Epifani rig configurations “Ninety-nine percent of the time, I only use an AMT microphone. Once in a blue moon, I hook an Avalon U5 DI in there, just to give it some outline.”
AS A LEADER
Kind of Brown
[Mack Avenue, 2009]
Live at Tonic [Rope-a-Dope, 2006]
“Live at Tonic captured my band at our peak. Everything just kind of fell into place. The club was the right club, the players were the right players, it was two good nights where people came out in droves to hear the band … and when it seems to be a good space like that, I find myself feeling exceptionally comfortable with my instrument.”
A Family Affair [Polygram, 1998]
“It was like an emancipation, because I made that CD right when it was like, ‘Christian McBride, the young bebop guy. . . .’ I love playing bebop, but electric bass was my first instrument. I had this feeling that I hadn’t been clear with my musical background before. It goes back and forth between jazz and ballads and funk and fusion. Probably my favorite in terms of bass playing.”
AS A SIDEMAN
George Duke, Face the Music [Bizarre Planet, 2002]
“If Blue Note were a funk label, this would be a Blue Note record. Everybody’s just playing long, killin’ solos, with great heads, but funky. And I’m playing mostly acoustic. The fact that George was able to make this funky, R&B-type of instrumental CD built around the acoustic bass, I think that sent a lot of messages to cats who think funk should only be popping and slapping on the electric. George is like my second dad; I played on five CDs of his, and he always gives me more room than I think I deserve. George is beautiful like that.”
Joe Henderson, Double Rainbow: The Music of Antonio Carlos Jobim [Polygram, 1995]
“I’d been busy recording all the music for my first CD, and then I had a few days to take it all in and recover, and then I had to fly to L.A. to record with Joe. And I come to rehearsal, and there’s Joe Henderson, there’s Herbie Hancock, and there’s Jack DeJohnette, and … me. Why am I here?’ That was a very special session.”
Web Exclusive: Unedited Christian McBride Bonus Material
Exclusive Christian McBride bonus web content
By BassPlayer
Christian McBride Prepares to Release His Trio Album, Live at the Village Vanguard
Christian McBride Trio Celebrates Long Term Residency at Historic New York City Venue with Live at the Village Vanguard
By BP Staff
Review: Christian McBride & Inside Straight "People Music"
Through his sax-and-vibes straightahead quintet, Inside Straight, Christian McBride has worked hard to draw in and connect with audiences not attuned to jazz— especially live, via his infectious personality, passion, and stage presence.
By Chris Jisi
BP Recommends: Christian McBride Big Band, Radiohead, Antibalas, and More
Christian McBride’s superb second big-band record finds him expanding his arranging chops while bringing new colors to the idiom.
Christian McBride to Receive Bruce Lundvall Visionary Award from Jazz Connect Conference
Jazz Connect Conference Names Christian McBride Recipient of 2017 Bruce Lundvall Visionary Award, Named in Honor of Esteemed Record Label Executive
Watch Five Powerful Performances Of Christian McBride With All-Star Casts (VIDEO)
Watch a Five Video Retrospective Covering the Tremendous Career of Christian McBride
By Jon D'Auria
Jaco Pastorius and Christian McBride to Be Inducted to The Philadelphia Music Walk of Fame
For the first time in its 30-year history, the Philadelphia Music Alliance (PMA) will go “All Jazz’’ with the additions this month of Joey DeFrancesco, Benny Golson, Christian McBride, Jaco Pastorius, and WRTI air personality Bob Perkins to the Philadelphia Music Walk of Fame as members of its Class of 2016.
Miroslav Vitous Re-imagines A Different Weather Report
IN THE TITLE OF VIRTUOSO JAZZ bassist Miroslav Vitous’s latest album, Remembering Weather Report [ECM, 2009], the word “remembering” carries a lot of weight. He was right there with Wayne Shorter and Joe Zawinul at the beginning of what we now know to be the seminal fusion band of the ’70s, but his era [Weather Report and I Sing The Body Electric, Columbia, 1971] was a more experimental, streamof- consciousness project than the form-and-groove driven, Pastorius-powered version. It’s this earlier vision and spirit that Vitous honors on Remembering. This allacoustic recording is a largely free-form improvised look back to what was, with a hopeful look ahead to the future. As Vitous says, the goal is “awakening the spirit of the direct communication, as now is the time to go in that direction. The old concept is long past-due expired.”
By Bryan Beller
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688 Beauty Spot Rd | East Bennettsville, SC 29512 | Tel: 1-843-479-4761
Burroughs Funeral Home
| 688 Beauty Spot Road East
| Bennettsville, SC 29512
| bckfuneralhome@att.net
A United States flag is provided, at no cost, to drape the casket or accompany the urn of a deceased veteran who served honorably in the U. S. Armed Forces. It is furnished to honor the memory of a veteran's military service to his or her country. VA will furnish a burial flag for memorialization for:
A veteran who served during wartime
A veteran who died on active duty after May 27, 1941
A veteran who served after January 31, 1955
A peacetime veteran who was discharged or released before June 27, 1950
Certain persons who served in the organized military forces of the Commonwealth of the Philippines while in service of the U.S. Armed Forces and who died on or after April 25, 1951
Certain former members of the Selected Reserves
Who Is Eligible to Receive the Burial Flag?
Generally, the flag is given to the next-of-kin, as a keepsake, after its use during the funeral service. When there is no next-of-kin, VA will furnish the flag to a friend making request for it. For those VA national cemeteries with an Avenue of Flags, families of veterans buried in these national cemeteries may donate the burial flags of their loved ones to be flown on patriotic holidays.
How Can You Apply?
You may apply for the flag by completing VA Form 27-2008, Application for United States Flag for Burial Purposes. You may get a flag at any VA regional office or U.S. Post Office. Generally, the funeral director will help you obtain the flag.
Can a Burial Flag Be Replaced?
The law allows us to issue one flag for a veteran's funeral. We cannot replace it if it is lost, destroyed, or stolen. However, some veterans' organizations or other community groups may be able to help you get another flag.
How Should the Burial Flag Be Displayed?
The proper way to display the flag depends upon whether the casket is open or closed. VA Form 27-2008 provides the correct method for displaying and folding the flag. The burial flag is not suitable for outside display because of its size and fabric. It is made of cotton and can easily be damaged by weather.
For More Information Call Toll-Free at 1-800-827-1000
© 2019 Burroughs Funeral Home. All Rights Reserved. Funeral Home website by CFS
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/ Articles / Education /
Post-Secondary Education and Training Program Leading to Self-Sufficiency at PA Community Colleges
by PA Department of Human Services
Miller honored with U.S. Dept. of Defense SMART Scholarship
KU Completes Summer Renovations to Athletic Facilities
Reading Health System “Stuff The Bus” Campaign Supports Local School District
Albright College Senior Researching How Fruit Flies May Help in Fight Against Breast Cancer
Harrisburg, PA – Department of Human Services (DHS) Secretary Teresa Miller this week held a two-day conference bringing together program staff, community college staff, and community partners to highlight the department’s Keystone Education Yields Success (KEYS) program. KEYS assists students who receive Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) and/or Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits pursue certificates, degrees, or credentials at Pennsylvania’s community colleges to help them graduate and obtain employment.
“The work being done through KEYS is critical to helping individuals as they pursue careers and work towards self-sufficiency,” said Secretary Miller. “Programs like KEYS help break down barriers and promote sustainable independence. At DHS, we are working very closely with our program partners to learn how we can expand and strengthen programming and supports to help more individuals we serve achieve their goals.”
KEYS is a collaboration between DHS and Pennsylvania’s 14 community colleges. Potential students are referred to KEYS by a caseworker when they qualify for TANF or SNAP and express interest in pursuing education and training available through community colleges or through the KEYS program at their community college. KEYS programs provide supportive services to students like assistance with school supplies, transportation, and child care. Students are also connected with mentoring and peer support relationships critical to helping them ease the transition back into school and overcome barriers to success in education. First established in 2005, KEYS has helped more than 15,000 people access post-secondary education and training.
The KEYS Summit discusses how to improve community awareness of the program’s supports and services, enhance program partnerships both internally within the community college and with external community partners, celebrate KEYS graduate successes, and share valuable insights on how the community can support low-income families as they break out of poverty through career and parent pathways.
Low-income individuals receiving TANF or SNAP benefits are subject to work requirements in order to maintain eligibility for benefits, with certain exceptions. Participation in certain education or training programs can meet these requirements, and KEYS allows participants to pursue education at a community college and remain in compliance with federal work requirements. In January, the department took steps to expand access to education by including GED and other high school equivalency programing and testing to TANF clients of all ages. This means people receiving TANF benefits are now able to meet their participation requirement while pursuing their high school equivalency. This was previously restricted to TANF clients under age 22.
The Wolf Administration is also seeking to expand access to education, training, and supportive services for single-parent families experiencing economic challenges through the Parent Pathways initiative.
Governor Tom Wolf’s proposed 2020 budget includes $5 million to support up to seven partnerships to develop and implement programs for post-secondary education and training for single parents. The Parent Pathways initiative will focus on post-secondary education and training partnerships, housing supports, and two-generational programming that supports healthy child and family development and is part of Governor Wolf’s Statewide Workforce, Education, and Accountability Program (SWEAP) to rebuild Pennsylvania’s economy and prioritize skills training from birth to retirement.
Parent Pathways models will have the flexibility to develop a community-specific plan that considers the make-up of the community, needs of potential families to be served, and resources available to meet the needs of the specific community and families served. The goal is to support innovative models that open doors and eliminate barriers for single-parent families, be it through post-secondary education or vocational training.
“Too many single-parent families in Pennsylvania and around the country feel limited by their economic situation. We are committed to giving them the tools and supports necessary to help them change their family’s trajectory and, most importantly, to help them realize that they are not alone in this journey,” said Secretary Miller. “Each of us can play a role in supporting parents and families seeking better lives, and KEYS and the Parent Pathways initiative will give us a vehicle to make this work possible in more communities.”
In September 2018, DHS and Pennsylvania’s Department of Education (PDE) announced a Request for Information (RFI) to broaden the departments’ perspectives on existing models and explore potential opportunities to implement a program statewide that would help expand higher education opportunities for low-income, single-parent families. A summit was held in April that brought together more than 200 partners in higher, secondary, and early childhood education, health care, workforce development, housing, and other human services fields to discuss the Parent Pathways model and two-generational, whole person and family supports.
To learn more about the department’s KEYS program, visit www.dhs.pa.gov.
To learn more about Governor Wolf’s 2019-20 budget, visit www.budget.pa.gov.
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Merger between Bedford and Luton hospitals will begin on April 1
The maternity remain will stay at Bedford
The merger between Bedford and Luton hospitals will begin on April 1 – April Fools Day – providing NHS chiefs agree.
A ‘Full Business Case’ for the merger was published this week by the two hospitals, giving the first glimpse of how patients and services will be affected by the £150m plan.
Health bosses hope to ease pressure on QA with a new strategy for healthcare in Portsmouth
The document emphasises that the Cygnet Wing maternity unit and A &E WILL stay at Bedford and maintain their current capacity.
The A&E building, however, will be “relocated” elsewhere on the Bedford campus.
Bedford will get an added bonus in the form of a new multi-storey car park. There will also be money invested to replace the old modular theatres with new facilities.
One of the biggest differences will be in patients’ choice of where and when they wish to be treated. There will be a single booking system, with one team providing planned care and diagnostics.
“The single booking process for patients supports choice of location of care,” states the plan.
Critically ill patients arriving by ambulance will not get a choice though. The ambulance teams will liaise with emergency teams at both sites and the patient will go directly to the hospital with “the most appropriate capacity at the time.”
This, states the plan, will reduce the risk of either site being overwhelmed and ensure the best use of clinical staff.
Single specialist services for categories such as gynaecology, elective orthopaedics and gastro will also be created across the two hospitals.
The plan sets out in no-nonsense terms what would happen if the merger did not go ahead.
In the “do nothing” case, Bedford hospital would stand to lose between £9m and £11m a year. But the merger would generate a surplus of £9.9m over the next five years.
“Looking forward it is increasingly difficult for both hospitals to deliver services,” states the plan.
Bedford Hospital accused of risking hygiene standards in order to save money
If the Full Business Case is approved by the NHS, the formal merger agreement will be signed in March. The integration process will begin on April 1.
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Just in Time For Black History Month: 75 Classic Black Movies and 45 Short Race Films in One DVD Set
Movie fans now have a chance to watch pre-1960’s African American classic movies.
Scene from the 1949 race movie Souls of Sin.
Chicago, IL (BlackNews.com) — In honor of Black History Month, Trend Entertainment introduces the “Race Films DVD Set”, which features 75 classic African-American movies and 45 short race films – all produced before the 1960’s. Films made for an all-black audience with majority or all-black casts in the United States between 1915 and 1960 are referred to as race films or race movies.
During the first half of the 20th century, African-Americans were not typically granted sincere roles in mainstream Hollywood movies. In mainstream Hollywood movies, black actors and actresses were only given demeaning and stereotypical supporting roles. Race movies gave black actors and actresses a chance to play serious and respected characters and to show off their talents. Race movies provided Black people with images of the African-American experience that were absent from Hollywood films.
In the South, to comply with segregation, race movies were screened at designated black theaters. Though northern cities were not formally segregated, race movies were generally shown in theaters in black neighborhoods. While it was extraordinarily rare for race movies to be shown to white audiences, white theaters often reserved special time-slots for black movie goers. This resulted in race movies often being screened as matinees and midnight shows. During the height of their popularity, race films were shown in as many as 1,100 theaters around the country.
Race movies are of great interest for their historical significance. Watching the race movies one will get a glimpse of black life in the United States from the 1920’s to the 1950’s.
Among the movie titles in the “Race Films DVD Set” are:
Within Our Gates (1920), Symbol of the Unconquered (1920), Body and Soul (1925), The Scar of Shame (1927), Eleven PM (1928), Borderline (1929), The Exile (1931), The Black King (1932), Veiled Aristocrats (1932), Harlem is Heaven (1932), Ten Minutes To Live (1932), The Girl from Chicago (1932), Emperor Jones (1933), Louisiana (1934), Murder in Harlem (1935), Sanders of the River (1935), Song of Freedom (1936), Jerico (1937), Underworld (1937), Dark Manhattan (1937), The Big Fella (1937), Spirit of Youth (1937), God’s Step-Children (1937), Swing (1938), The Duke is Tops (1938), Two-Gun Man from Harlem (1938), Way Down South (1939), Paradise in Harlem (1939), Straight to Heaven (1939), Lying Lips (1939), Double Deal (1939), Keep Punching (1939), Midnight Shadow (1939), Moon Over Harlem (1939), Harlem Rides The Range (1939), Bronze Buckaroo (1939), The Devil’s Daughter (1939), Gang War (1940), Broken Strings (1940), Sunday Sinners (1940), Proud Valley (1940), Mystery in Swing (1940), Son of Ingagi (1940), Lucky Ghost (1941), Mistaken Identity (1941), The Blood of Jesus (1941), Murder With Music (1941), Murder on Lenox Avenue (1941), The Negro Soldier (1943), Where’s my Man Tonight (1943), Of One Blood (1944), Go Down Death (1944), The Big Timers (1945), Beware (1946), Beale Street Mama (1946), Tall Tan and Terrific (1946), The Girl in Room 20 (1946), Dirty Gertie from Harlem (1946), Juke Joint (1947), Look Out Sister (1947), Sepia Cinderella (1947), Junction 88 (1947), Boy What a Girl (1947), Reet Petite and Gone (1947), Boardinghouse Blues (1948), No Time for Romance (1948), Miracle in Harlem (1948), The Quiet One (1948), Souls of Sin (1949), Native Son (1951), Magic Garden (1952), Burlesque in Harlem (1954), plus many more noteworthy race movies.
The “Race Films DVD Set” sells for $99.00 and can be purchase by calling 800-857-2549 or visit: www.racefilmsdvdset.com
Kevin Hall
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Over 500 Black Authors Attended This Conference — And Now Many of Them are Bestsellers!
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DHS and Consulates Warn Migrants of Telephonic Fraud Scams
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has issued an advisory regarding telephone scams which target migrants. The scams, which seek electronic transfers of money to resolve some aspect of a family's immigration cases in the United States, have come to the attention of the Department of Homeland Security’s Joint Task Force-West South Texas Corridor (JTF-W STC) and consular officials from several neighboring countries.
According to the CBP advisory, people are receiving unsolicited calls from scammers posing as authority figures from several Department of Homeland Security (DHS) entities like Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and U.S. Border Patrol (USBP), as well as consular officers and shelter administrators. The scammers then request money to be sent electronically to help their family members obtain some service or consideration, or to purchase travel tickets. The scammers threaten an adverse action against the family members if the demand is refused.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and U.S. Consulates DO NOT solicit money over the phone. CBP asks that if such calls are received, people decline to wire any funds, make a note of the number and any other pertinent details about the call, and report the incident to the authorities and the appropriate consulate for investigation.
Scam/Fraud Warning: Scammers Impersonating DHS/ICE Officers To Rob Victims of Hurricane Harvey
Earlier today, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced that there are disturbing reports of people impersonating Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) special agents. The importers knock on doors in the Houston area telling residents to evacuate -- presumably so that they can rob the empty homes. DHS wants to remind individuals that real HSI officials wear badges that are labeled "special agent," which members of the public can ask to see and verify. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers with Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) also wear badges labeled with ERO Officer. They also carry credentials with their name and organization. Members of the public who receive such visitors should ask to see these properly labeled badges, and their credentials.
In addition, DHS announced that these officers and special agents would be conducting hurricane relief operations with other local law enforcement agencies, and that during Hurricane Harvey relief efforts, ICE is not conducting immigration enforcement operations in the affected area.
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2018 Accord Named Overall Best Buy of 2018 as Honda Models Win 7 of 12 Kelley Blue Book Awards
November 21st, 2017 by Bianchi Honda
Honda Dominates in the 2018 Kelley Blue Book’s Best Buy Awards
Value is in the eye of the beholder. For some car buyers, style and technology deliver the most bang for the buck. Others place greater importance on safety and comfort. And with so many factors to consider, no two drivers are exactly alike when it comes to the features and characteristics that best capture our hearts and minds. But in any given segment, in any given model year, there exists a single entry that’s the best choice for the most buyers. These are the cars, trucks and SUVs that take home KBB’s annual Best Buy Awards. And it turns out you, the car buyer, are pretty good at picking cars. Because the cars that earn the Best Buy Awards are very often among their segment’s best-selling vehicles. Honda earns 7 KBB Best Buy Awards for 2018 – including Overall Best Buy for the Honda Accord.*
For more information, visit Kelley Blue Book’s KBB.com
2018 OVERALL BEST BUY: 2018 Honda Accord
Even in its final model year, the previous-generation Honda Accord bested the competition to claim last year’s Midsize Sedan Best Buy Award. After a full redesign for 2018, the Accord was in a good position to garner plenty of consideration for this year’s honors, too, but no one predicted the utter domination with which this all-new Accord would rule the category, especially since there was all-new Toyota Camry standing in its way. And while the new Camry has indeed proved excellent, at no point was this a close race. The 2018 Honda Accord isn’t just the finest midsize sedan money can buy, it’s the most sophisticated, most advanced, most impressive automobile not wearing a luxury badge.
MID-SIZE CAR: 2018 Honda Accord
The foundation of the Accord’s appeal is the same as its been for decades, just another year and a new generation stronger. While the Accord’s virtues are many, nothing has contributed more to its enduring success than its reputation for providing years of trouble-free, cost-efficient ownership. The Honda Accord is such a smart new-car purchase in large part because it’s such a solid used-car choice. Excellent resale value translates to lower depreciation costs, which means you can pay a little more for a Honda Accord and still spend less in the long run over the course of a full buy-own-sell ownership cycle. The notion of getting the best for less is certainly appealing, but for Honda Accord buyers it’s also a reality.
SMALL SUV: 2018 Honda CR-V
The Honda CR-V is among the most familiar of faces in Kelley Blue Book’s annual Best Buy Awards. In fact, in the four years since the program’s inception, the Honda CR-V has taken the crown three times. Had the new-for-2017 version been available in time for last year’s Best Buy program, it would likely be undefeated. Since its inception two decades ago, the CR-V has boasted impressive space for both passengers and cargo. With each generation, this Honda SUV manages to one-up itself. This all-new, 5th-generation CR-V once again had us wondering just how Honda’s designers managed to pack so much space and flexibility into a compact SUV.
MID-SIZE SUV: 2018 Honda Pilot
The Honda Pilot has been the yardstick for the midsize SUV class since this third-generation’s introduction a couple years ago. Combining style, substance, features and a class-leading reputation for durability and reliability, the Pilot has proven tough to beat. And despite strong new challengers, the 2018 Honda Pilot retains its title for the third year in a row as our Midsize SUV Best Buy of 2018. However, we should point out that it wasn’t a cakewalk for Honda. A surprising challenge by the new Volkswagen Atlas showed that the resale value and 5-Year Cost to Own data skews in Honda’s favor, giving the Pilot the win.
MINIVAN: 2018 Honda Odyssey
In our first review of the totally redesigned 2018 Honda Odyssey we called it the best family car in the world. After a thorough back-to-back evaluation alongside the other class leaders, we’re only more convinced. But that’s not to say earning this year’s Minivan Best Buy award was a walk in the park for the new Honda Odyssey. The defending-champ Pacifica put up quite a fight, as did some of our editors on its behalf. But money matters weigh heavily in our annual Best Buy Awards, and that’s where our resale value and 5-Year Cost to Own data once again played decidedly in Honda’s favor.
ELECTRIC/HYBRID CAR: 2018 Honda Clarity PHEV
The Honda Clarity isn’t just an all-new car — it’s a whole new lineup of efficient vehicles. All three models in the Clarity range have a similar sedan shape, but each is powered in its own way. The 2018 Clarity Plug-in Hybrid is a new benchmark among “green” cars, and this year’s Best Buy Award winner among Electric/Hybrid vehicles. In addition to being available nationwide for purchase or lease, Honda’s new plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) is the easiest to live with and operate on a day-to-day basis.
One of the best things about Honda’s latest ultra-efficient vehicle is that you soon forget you’re driving an ultra-efficient vehicle. The powertrain’s transitions between electric motor and gasoline engine are seamless, and its dynamics are laudable. Acceleration is respectable, and the Clarity is even a little fun in corners despite its high-efficiency tires. If you didn’t know better, you’d think you were driving an Accord.
How KBB Chooses:
Every year, KBB drives and reviews hundreds of new cars, trucks and SUVs, a nonstop process of evaluation that also informs our Buyer’s Guides, Comparison Tests, 10 Best lists and more. Resale value and 5-Year Cost to Own calculations loom especially large in the analysis. Depreciation is almost always the biggest expense in new-car ownership, and without taking it into account it’s almost impossible to know which of two similarly priced cars will cost you more in the long run. If you want to get the most car for your money, you have to consider all your costs.
Almost every car in every segment is the right choice for someone. And with unprecedented levels of quality it’s harder to choose a bad vehicle nowadays. But even if by the slimmest of margins, there’s always a vehicle that offers a stronger mix of attributes than its competitors.
Excerpts taken from KBB.com.
*For more information, visit Kelley Blue Book’s KBB.com. Kelley Blue Book is a registered trademark of Kelley Blue Book Co., Inc.
Posted in 2018 Models, Awards
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Yearly Box Office
ALL RELEASES WIDE RELEASES LIMITED RELEASES CALENDAR GROSSES
1989 DOMESTIC GROSSES
Total Grosses of all Movies Released in 1989
#1100 - #101200 - #201240
< Previous Year
Data as of: Today Today in 1989 Jan. 31, 1989 Feb. 28, 1989 Mar. 31, 1989 Apr. 30, 1989 May 31, 1989 Jun. 30, 1989 Jul. 31, 1989 Aug. 31, 1989 Sep. 30, 1989 Oct. 31, 1989 Nov. 30, 1989 Dec. 31, 1989 Specify Date About this feature or ( Month Jan. Feb. Mar. Apr. May Jun. Jul. Aug. Sep. Oct. Nov. Dec. / Day 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 / 1989 1990 )
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Row Rank Movie Title (click to view) Studio
Filter21C 4Sea Aliv Apol. Atl Ave BV Can. Cinc Cinpx Circ Col. Conc Cors EXPe Fox FRun Gal. Gold. Hemd IFEX Isld Istr MCE MGM Milli Mira. NCeV NL NW NYer Orion OrionC Par. Qrt. RBR Sct. SGE Skou SoG. Stl. Tau Trim. TriS Triu Troma TWE UA Uni. Vest WB ALL
Total Gross / Theaters Opening / Theaters Open
1 1 Batman WB $251,188,924 2,201 $40,489,746 2,194 6/23
2 7 Ghostbusters II Col. $112,494,738 2,410 $29,472,894 2,410 6/16
3 2 Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade Par. $197,171,806 2,327 $29,355,021 2,327 5/24
4 6 Back to the Future Part II Uni. $118,450,002 2,107 $27,835,125 1,865 11/22
5 3 Lethal Weapon 2 WB $147,253,986 1,830 $20,388,800 1,803 7/7
6 25 Star Trek V: The Final Frontier Par. $52,210,049 2,202 $17,375,648 2,202 6/9
7 21 Harlem Nights Par. $60,864,870 2,180 $16,096,808 2,180 11/17
8 5 Honey, I Shrunk the Kids BV $130,724,172 1,498 $14,262,961 1,371 6/23
9 16 Turner & Hooch BV $71,079,915 1,888 $12,211,042 1,877 7/28
10 4 Look Who's Talking TriS $140,088,813 1,651 $12,107,784 1,208 10/13
11 23 Pet Sematary Par. $57,469,467 1,585 $12,046,179 1,585 4/21
12 15 Christmas Vacation WB $71,319,526 1,950 $11,750,203 1,744 12/1
13 34 The 'Burbs Uni. $36,601,993 1,956 $11,101,197 1,952 2/17
14 9 Parenthood Uni. $100,047,830 1,399 $10,506,450 1,262 8/2
15 33 The Karate Kid Part III Col. $38,956,288 1,569 $10,364,544 1,560 6/30
16 22 Sea of Love Uni. $58,571,513 1,439 $10,017,840 1,246 9/15
17 28 Black Rain Par. $46,212,055 1,760 $9,677,102 1,610 9/22
18 12 The War of the Roses Fox $86,888,546 1,559 $9,488,794 1,259 12/8
19 24 The Abyss Fox $54,222,310 1,538 $9,319,797 1,533 8/11
20 26 Major League Par. $49,797,148 1,615 $8,836,265 1,541 4/7
21 18 Uncle Buck Uni. $66,758,538 1,835 $8,794,501 1,804 8/18
22 36 Licence to Kill UA $34,667,015 1,587 $8,774,776 1,575 7/14
23 47 A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child NL $22,168,359 1,902 $8,115,176 1,902 8/11
24 35 Fletch Lives Uni. $35,150,960 1,512 $8,045,760 1,479 3/17
25 30 K-9 Uni. $43,247,647 1,706 $7,471,035 1,677 4/28
26 27 See No Evil, Hear No Evil TriS $46,908,987 1,686 $7,098,741 1,677 5/12
27 54 The Fly II Fox $20,021,322 1,528 $6,751,371 1,524 2/10
28 20 Tango & Cash WB $63,408,614 1,575 $6,628,918 1,409 12/22
29 31 Three Fugitives BV $40,586,886 1,374 $6,434,717 1,153 1/27
30 70 Friday the 13th Part VIII Par. $14,343,976 1,683 $6,251,310 1,683 7/28
31 32 Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure Orion $40,485,039 1,321 $6,167,651 1,196 2/17
32 13 The Little Mermaid BV $84,355,863 1,533 $6,031,914 994 11/17
33 49 Lock Up TriS $22,099,847 1,384 $6,025,520 1,382 8/4
34 40 Road House UA $30,050,028 1,935 $5,957,656 1,927 5/19
35 42 The Dream Team Uni. $28,890,240 1,459 $5,704,860 1,316 4/7
36 53 An Innocent Man BV $20,047,604 1,561 $5,700,000 1,561 10/6
37 41 Peter Pan (Re-issue) (1989) BV $29,445,131 1,533 $5,611,785 1,475 7/14
38 14 Steel Magnolias TriS $83,759,091 1,372 $5,425,440 480 11/17
39 58 Casualties of War Col. $18,671,317 1,487 $5,201,261 1,487 8/18
40 76 Halloween 5 Gal. $11,642,254 1,495 $5,093,428 1,483 10/13
41 57 Her Alibi WB $18,699,037 1,429 $5,037,047 1,429 2/3
42 37 Lean on Me WB $31,906,454 1,107 $5,032,605 894 3/3
43 66 Leviathan MGM $15,704,614 1,393 $5,029,164 1,393 3/17
44 64 No Holds Barred NL $16,093,651 1,327 $4,957,052 1,318 6/2
45 65 Next of Kin WB $15,942,628 1,358 $4,805,516 1,358 10/20
46 44 All Dogs Go to Heaven UA $27,100,027 1,591 $4,712,834 1,577 11/17
47 62 Shocker Uni. $16,554,699 1,795 $4,510,990 1,783 10/27
48 39 Weekend at Bernie's Fox $30,218,387 1,139 $4,506,086 1,134 7/7
49 74 Pink Cadillac WB $12,143,484 1,993 $4,408,593 1,993 5/26
50 69 Kickboxer Can. $14,697,005 973 $4,134,098 973 9/8
51 52 Say Anything Fox $20,781,385 1,113 $4,058,496 1,113 4/14
52 78 Police Academy 6: City Under Siege WB $11,567,217 1,627 $4,032,480 1,627 3/10
53 80 Who's Harry Crumb? TriS $10,982,364 1,198 $3,862,719 1,197 2/3
54 72 Great Balls of Fire! Orion $13,741,060 1,417 $3,807,986 1,417 6/30
55 29 Always Uni. $43,858,790 1,206 $3,713,480 1,016 12/22
56 38 The Bear TriS $31,753,898 1,056 $3,676,530 858 10/27
57 63 Chances Are TriS $16,278,590 1,190 $3,664,386 837 3/10
58 75 She's Out of Control Col. $12,065,892 987 $3,653,142 987 4/14
59 51 The Rescuers (Re-issue) (1989) BV $21,215,869 1,482 $3,609,117 1,446 3/17
60 43 Do the Right Thing Uni. $27,545,445 534 $3,563,535 353 6/30
61 67 She-Devil Orion $15,351,421 1,452 $3,509,647 1,403 12/8
62 60 The Fabulous Baker Boys Fox $18,428,904 860 $3,313,815 858 10/13
63 93 Deepstar Six TriS $8,143,225 1,118 $3,306,320 1,117 1/13
64 84 Cyborg Can. $10,166,459 830 $3,179,811 830 4/7
65 79 Young Einstein WB $11,536,599 1,217 $3,094,581 1,217 8/4
66 88 Renegades Uni. $9,015,164 1,627 $3,075,030 1,627 6/2
67 50 Cousins Par. $22,026,369 747 $3,039,805 535 2/10
68 90 True Believer Col. $8,742,750 897 $3,009,692 897 2/17
69 59 Prancer Orion $18,587,135 1,728 $2,914,486 1,713 11/17
70 94 Dead Bang WB $8,125,592 1,073 $2,847,690 1,073 3/24
71 98 Disorganized Crime BV $7,723,506 1,462 $2,840,166 1,462 4/14
72 101 Relentless NL $6,985,999 836 $2,838,177 835 9/1
73 77 Gross Anatomy BV $11,604,598 1,080 $2,830,387 853 10/20
74 92 Cheetah BV $8,153,677 1,321 $2,636,118 1,310 8/18
75 86 Criminal Law Hemd $9,974,446 1,166 $2,636,091 1,166 4/28
76 109 Dream a Little Dream Vest $5,552,441 1,019 $2,568,963 1,019 3/3
77 96 Dead Calm WB $7,825,009 959 $2,463,551 959 4/7
78 55 Skin Deep Fox $19,674,852 1,062 $2,460,262 489 3/3
79 99 Johnny Handsome TriS $7,237,794 813 $2,437,642 812 9/29
80 91 Troop Beverly Hills Col. $8,508,843 964 $2,283,443 964 3/24
81 105 UHF Orion $6,157,157 1,295 $2,251,831 1,295 7/21
82 87 Tap TriS $9,114,702 587 $2,217,150 585 2/10
83 110 Second Sight WB $5,368,865 815 $2,156,742 815 11/3
84 71 The Wizard Uni. $14,278,900 1,204 $2,142,525 1,155 12/15
85 73 Family Business TriS $12,195,695 1,230 $2,130,024 1,201 12/15
86 120 Phantom of the Opera (1989) 21C $3,953,745 1,468 $2,050,000 1,468 11/3
87 83 We're No Angels Par. $10,555,348 1,495 $2,047,630 1,239 12/15
88 102 Shag: The Movie Hemd $6,957,975 850 $2,029,496 850 7/21
89 116 Staying Together Hemd $4,348,025 1,045 $2,020,777 1,045 11/10
90 118 Red Scorpion SGE $4,192,440 1,268 $1,972,994 1,268 4/21
91 111 Let It Ride Par. $4,973,285 1,191 $1,925,049 1,191 8/18
92 82 The Package Orion $10,647,219 460 $1,851,673 323 8/25
93 112 See You in the Morning WB $4,795,009 743 $1,832,536 743 4/21
94 117 Listen to Me Col. $4,299,023 1,306 $1,789,759 1,306 5/5
95 126 Physical Evidence Col. $3,560,932 695 $1,777,358 691 1/27
96 56 Blaze BV $19,131,246 970 $1,739,701 909 12/15
97 114 The January Man MGM $4,611,062 883 $1,716,442 876 1/13
98 107 Immediate Family Col. $5,932,613 836 $1,675,344 836 10/27
99 119 Loverboy TriS $3,960,327 1,089 $1,653,102 1,089 4/28
100 108 Millennium Fox $5,777,099 488 $1,614,692 486 8/25
Summary of 240 Movies on Chart:
Totals: $4,159,369,381 - - - -
Averages: $17,330,706 - - - -
Note: RELEASE DATE shows all movies that opened in a given time period and their total grosses. WIDE RELEASES shows only movies released in 600 or more theaters and their total grosses, grouped by wide release date. LIMITED RELEASES shows only movies released in less than 600 theaters and their total grosses, grouped by release date. CALENDAR GROSSES shows all movies playing during the indicated time period, both new and holdover, and their grosses (or estimated grosses) during that time period. Movies released outside the indicated time period are shown in italics. Click here for a full explanation of the various box office sections
Yearly Index Page
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Industry buzz 31 May 2015
Symrise opens production facility in Brazilian Amazon Region
Symrise has inaugurated its new production plant in Belém, Pará, in the Amazon region. The aim of this new facility is to facilitate the production of raw materials sourced from the Amazon area. The Symrise Amazon Ecoparque will also act as a research and development platform to create new cosmetic ingredients for global use. Symrise invested over 5 million euros to build its production plant on an area of 2,000 m2. The location was chosen in the north of the Amazon region in close collaboration with Brazilian cosmetics giant Natura.
Symrise has inaugurated its new production plant in Belém, Pará, in the Amazon region.
“At this facility, we intend to bring the richness of the Amazon rainforest to the world’s beauty consumers. This is an important step to sustainably developing and producing ingredients for cosmetics and fragrances. We would like to thank the local communities, the city of Benevides, the State of Pará as well as our partner Natura for the opportunity to make this vision in the Amazon region of Brazil a reality,” said Achim Daub, President Scent & Care at Symrise, during the opening ceremony.
Actually, the new facility provides access to a rich variety of plants that are native to the Amazon region and utilizes sophisticated, sustainable technologies so as to minimize the impact on the environment. For instance, Symrise uses its patented SymTrap technology to produce oils and butters. The air conditioning in the buildings runs on geothermal energy and botanical mineral filters purify wastewater and rain water for production.
In addition, Symrise promotes the economic and social development of local municipals. The company supports already over 2,000 families in the region by working with them on the cultivation and harvest of raw materials. “Symrise appreciates how Natura works in the Ecoparque and thus contributes to regional social and economic improvement. That is why we decided to partner with them on this project,” said Ricardo Omori, President Scent & Care Latam at Symrise. “We will learn what fundamental elements are needed for such co-operations and use the insights around the world to combine sustainability and economic success. Thus, we can offer our customers efficient services for profitable growth.”
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Was that climate change?
After an unusually intense heatwave, downpour or drought, Noah Diffenbaugh and his research group inevitably receive phone calls and emails asking whether human-caused climate change played a role.
"The question is being asked by the general public and by people trying to make decisions about how to manage the risks of a changing climate," said Diffenbaugh, a professor of Earth system science at Stanford's School of Earth, Energy & Environmental Sciences. "Getting an accurate answer is important for everything from farming to insurance premiums, to international supply chains, to infrastructure planning."
In the past, scientists typically avoided linking individual weather events to climate change, citing the challenges of teasing apart human influence from the natural variability of the weather. But that is changing.
"Over the past decade, there's been an explosion of research, to the point that we are seeing results released within a few weeks of a major event," said Diffenbaugh, who is also the Kimmelman Family Senior Fellow at the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment.
In a new study, published in this week's issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Diffenbaugh and a group of current and former Stanford colleagues outline a four-step "framework" for testing whether global warming has contributed to record-setting weather events. The new paper is the latest in a burgeoning field of climate science called "extreme event attribution," which combines statistical analyses of climate observations with increasingly powerful computer models to study the influence of climate change on individual extreme weather events.
Climate change fingerprints
In order to avoid inappropriately attributing an event to climate change, the authors began with the assumption that global warming had played no role, and then used statistical analyses to test whether that assumption was valid. "Our approach is very conservative," Diffenbaugh said. "It's like the presumption of innocence in our legal system: The default is that the weather event was just bad luck, and a really high burden of proof is required to assign blame to global warming."
The authors applied their framework to the hottest, wettest and driest events that have occurred in different areas of the world. They found that global warming from human emissions of greenhouse gases has increased the odds of the hottest events across more than 80 percent of the surface area of the globe for which observations were available. "Our results suggest that the world isn't quite at the point where every record hot event has a detectable human fingerprint, but we are getting close," Diffenbaugh said.
For the driest and wettest events, the authors found that human influence on the atmosphere has increased the odds across approximately half of the area that has reliable observations. "Precipitation is inherently noisier than temperature, so we expect the signal to be less clear," Diffenbaugh said. "One of the clearest signals that we do see is an increase in the odds of extreme dry events in the tropics. This is also where we see the biggest increase in the odds of protracted hot events - a combination that poses real risks for vulnerable communities and ecosystems."
The Stanford research team, which includes a number of former students and postdocs who have graduated to positions at other universities, has been developing their extreme event framework in recent years, focusing on individual events such as the 2012-2017 California drought and the catastrophic flooding in northern India in June 2013. In the new study, a major goal was to test the ability of their framework to evaluate events in multiple regions of the world, and to extend beyond extreme temperature and precipitation, which have been the emphasis of most event attribution studies.
One high-profile test case was Arctic sea ice, which has declined by around 40 percent during the summer season over the past three decades. When the team applied their framework to the record-low Arctic sea ice cover observed in September 2012, they found overwhelming statistical evidence that global warming contributed to the severity and probability of the 2012 sea ice measurements. "The trend in the Arctic has been really steep, and our results show that it would have been extremely unlikely to achieve the record-low sea ice extent without global warming," Diffenbaugh said.
Another strength of a multi-pronged approach, the team says, is that it can be used to study not only the weather conditions at the surface, but also the meteorological "ingredients" that contribute to rare events. "For example, we found that the atmospheric pressure pattern that occurred over Russia during the 2010 heat wave has become more likely in recent decades, and that global warming has contributed to those odds," said co-author Daniel Horton, an assistant professor at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, and a former postdoc in Diffenbaugh's lab who has led research on the influence of atmospheric pressure patterns on surface temperature extremes. "If the odds of an individual ingredient are changing - like the pressure patterns that lead to heat waves - that puts a thumb on the scales for the extreme event."
Diffenbaugh sees the demand for rigorous, quantitative event attribution growing in the coming years. "When you look at the historical data, there's no question that global warming is happening and that extremes are increasing in many areas of the world," he said. "People make a lot of decisions - short term and long term - that depend on the weather, so it makes sense that they want to know whether global warming is making record-breaking events more likely. As scientists, we want to make sure that they have accurate, objective, transparent information to work with when they make those decisions."
Other authors on the study, titled "Quantifying the influence of global warming on unprecedented extreme climate events," include Danielle Touma, Allison Charland, Yunjie Liu and Bala Rajaratnam of Stanford University, and Stanford alumni Deepti Singh and Justin Mankin (now at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University), Daniel Swain and Michael Tsiang (now at the University of California, Los Angeles) and Matz Haugen (now at the University of Chicago). Funding was provided by the U.S. National Science Foundation, the Department of Energy, the National Institutes of Health and Stanford University.
Stanford's School of Earth, Energy & Environmental Sciences
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Silver and Douglas firs could replace Norway spruce in the long run due to their greater resistance to droughts.
For some US counties, climate change will be particularly costly
A highly granular assessment of the impacts of climate change on the US economy suggests that each 1°Celsius increase in temperature will cost 1.2 percent of the country's gross domestic product, on average.
Climate change label leads to climate science acceptance
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Accurately modeling climate change and interactive human factors -- including inequality, consumption, and population -- is essential for the effective science-based policies and measures needed to benefit and sustain current and future generations.
Climate change scientists should think more about sex
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Climate change prompts Alaska fish to change breeding behavior
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Uncertainties related to climate engineering limit its use in curbing climate change
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Public holds polarized views about climate change and trust in climate scientists
There are gaping divisions in Americans' views across every dimension of the climate debate, including causes and cures for climate change and trust in climate scientists and their research, according to a new Pew Research Center survey.
The psychology behind climate change denial
In a new thesis in psychology, Kirsti Jylhä at Uppsala University has studied the psychology behind climate change denial.
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Related Climate Change Reading:
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Saint Gotthard Tunnel
railway tunnel, Switzerland
In tunnels and underground excavations: Canal and railroad tunnels
…Alpine railroad tunnels: the 9-mile St. Gotthard (1872–82), which introduced compressed-air locomotives and suffered major problems with water inflow, weak rock, and bankrupt contractors; the 12-mile Simplon (1898–1906); and the 9-mile Lötschberg (1906–11), on a northern continuation of the Simplon railroad line.
St. Gotthard Pass
In St. Gotthard Pass
Beneath the pass the St. Gotthard Tunnel (constructed 1872–80) extends for more than 9 miles (14 km) and reaches a maximum elevation of 3,773 feet (1,150 metres). The railway (opened 1882) through the tunnel connects Lucerne, Switzerland, with Milan. This route includes several spiral tunnels in the Reuss and…
In Switzerland: Relief and drainage
The 9-mile (14-km) Saint Gotthard rail tunnel through the pass was opened in 1882; a twin 10.5-mile (17-km) road tunnel was opened in 1980.
In Switzerland: Economic expansion
…Swiss negotiated construction of the Saint Gotthard Tunnel with Italian and German interests. After 10 years of excavation, marked by labour unrest and the death of some 167 workers, the 9.3-mile (15-km) tunnel—then the world’s longest—opened in 1882. Thus, the cantons of Uri and Ticino were connected by rail, and…
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Why The Nation's Most Famous Free Speech Lawyer Won't Use The First Amendment To Defend S&P
Erin Fuchs
Floyd Abrams on PBS Newshour
Photo: PBS Newshour
Credit rating agency Standard & Poor’s will have the “god of First Amendment law” in its corner as it fights the federal government’s fraud lawsuit.Floyd Abrams, who represented The New York Times in the famous Pentagon Papers case, is defending S&P against claims it knowingly gave residential mortgage-backed securities ratings that were way too high.
Back in 2009, The Times reported on how Abrams would defend S&P in litigation brought by investors.
The Times said Abrams would contend that “S&P’s ratings deserve exactly the sort of free-speech protections afforded to journalists, on the theory that a bond rating is like an editorial – an opinion based on an educated guess about the future.”
But Abrams won’t rely on the First Amendment defence in the case brought by the government, Bloomberg reports.
“I don’t have any magic First Amendment wand in my pocket for this one,” Abrams told Bloomberg TV’s Sara Eisen. “It’s not a First Amendment case. The government is alleging that S&P didn’t believe what it said; the First Amendment doesn’t protect against that.”
first amendment law and order law-us lawyers standard and poors
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In headscarf ruling, EU court allows religious symbol bans
Tue, Mar 14, 2017 - 6:03 PM
Employers may bar staff from wearing visible religious symbols, the European Union's top court ruled on Tuesday in its first decision on the issue of women wearing Islamic headscarves at work.
[LUXEMBOURG] Employers may bar staff from wearing visible religious symbols, the European Union's top court ruled on Tuesday in its first decision on the issue of women wearing Islamic headscarves at work.
On the eve of a Dutch election in which Muslim immigration has been a key issue and a bellwether for attitudes to migration and refugee policies across Europe, the Court of Justice (ECJ) gave a joined judgment in the cases of two women, in France and Belgium, who were dismissed for refusing to remove headscarves. "An internal rule of an undertaking which prohibits the visible wearing of any political, philosophical or religious sign does not constitute direct discrimination," the Court said in a statement. "However, in the absence of such a rule, the willingness of an employer to take account of the wishes of a customer no longer to have the employer's services provided by a worker wearing an Islamic headscarf cannot be considered an occupational requirement that could rule out discrimination."
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Eagle Growth and Income Opportunities Fund Declares Monthly Distribution of $0.073 Per Share
May 08, 2018 04:00 PM Eastern Daylight Time
NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Eagle Growth and Income Opportunities Fund (the “Fund”) (NYSE: EGIF) today announced the declaration of its monthly distribution of $0.073 per common share, payable May 31, 2018. Based on the Fund’s share price of $15.21 as of its close on May 7, 2018, the distribution represents an annualized yield of 5.76%. Information regarding the distribution rate is included for informational purposes only and is not necessarily indicative of future results, the achievement of which cannot be assured. The distribution rate should not be considered the yield or total return on an investment in the Fund.
The following dates apply to this distribution:
Ex-Dividend Date: May 17, 2018
Record Date: May 18, 2018
Payable Date: May 31, 2018
A portion of each distribution may be treated as paid from sources other than undistributed net investment income, including but not limited to short-term capital gain, long-term capital gain or return of capital. As required by Section 19(a) of the Investment Company Act of 1940, a notice will be distributed to the Fund’s stockholders in the event that a portion of a monthly distribution is derived from sources other than undistributed net investment income. In January or February of each year, investors will be sent a Form 1099-DIV for the previous calendar year that will define how to report these distributions for federal income tax purposes.
The investment return, price, yields, market value and net asset value (NAV) of the Fund’s shares will fluctuate with market conditions, and it is possible to lose money by investing in the Fund. Closed-end funds frequently trade at a discount to NAV, which may increase the investor’s risk of loss. There is no assurance that the Fund will meet its investment objective.
Investment return and principal value will fluctuate. Past performance is not a guarantee of future results.
Eagle Growth and Income Opportunities Fund
The Fund is a non-diversified, closed-end management investment company that is advised by Four Wood Capital Advisors LLC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Four Wood Capital Partners LLC, and subadvised by Eagle Asset Management, Inc. The Fund’s investment objective is to provide total return through a combination of current income and capital appreciation. There can be no assurance that the Fund will achieve its investment objectives.
About Four Wood Capital Advisors LLC
Four Wood Capital Advisors LLC (“FWCA”) is the Fund’s investment advisor and is registered with the U.S. Securities Exchange Commission as an investment advisor. FWCA is a New York Limited Liability Company formed in June 2012 to provide investment management and advisory services to registered investment companies and institutional investors. FWCA is a wholly owned subsidiary of Four Wood Capital Partners LLC.
About Eagle Asset Management, Inc.
Eagle Asset Management, Inc. (“Eagle”) provides institutional and individual investors with a broad array of equity and fixed income products designed to meet long-term goals.
Statements included herein may constitute “forward-looking statements”, which relate to future events or our future performance or financial condition. These statements are not guarantees of future performance, condition or results and involve a number of risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements as a result of a number of factors, including those described from time to time in our fillings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Eagle Growth and Income Opportunities Fund undertakes no duty to update any forward-looking statements made herein.
Contact the Fund at 1.855.400.3927 or visit the Fund’s website at http://fwcapitaladvisors.com/egif for additional information.
Four Wood Capital Partners LLC
Stephanie Trell, 212-701-4500
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The 'Thor: Ragnarok' Soundtrack Is As Weird & Fun As The Movie Itself
By Johnny Brayson
Reviews have begun pouring in for Thor: Ragnarok, out Nov. 3, and the reaction has been overwhelmingly positive. The early consensus indicates that this could be the best film yet in the MCU, and at the very least it's a fun, colorful, and exciting adventure. That latter point was evident in the film's first two trailers, some of the best ever produced, which made excellent use of music to sell the fun. But what about the music of the film itself? Is the Thor: Ragnarok soundtrack as much of a neon-tinged party as the movie?
Oh yeah. The movie's soundtrack is its score, composed by Mark Mothersbaugh, and it's every bit the techno wonderland you would expect based on what you've seen from the movie. Available now in digital format at retailers like Amazon, and coming to CD on Nov. 10 (available for pre-order now), the lengthy mix is definitely the perfect backdrop to running into a "friend from work" on a distant planet. And in case you were thinking that there's no way a score could possibly match the quirky and funny strangeness that director Taika Waititi has injected into the film, you need only to look at the names of the songs to see the error in your judgement. "Grandmaster Jam Session," "Weird Things Happen," and, um, "Devil's Anus," are just a few of the imaginatively named tracks you'll find on the album, with the full 23 song track list below.
Ragnarok Suite
Running Short On Options
Weird Things Happen
Hela Vs. Asgard
Grandmaster’s Chambers
No One Escapes
Arena Fight
Where’s the Sword?
What Heroes Do
The Revolution Has Begun
Sakaar Chase
Devil’s Anus
Asgard Is A People
Planet Sakaar
Grandmaster Jam Session
If the name Mark Mothersbaugh sounds familiar to you, that's because he's done a ton of film scores, including several movies from directors Wes Anderson and Phil Lord & Christopher Miller. He also, in addition to his extensive soundtrack experience, is the co-founder, lead singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist of the rock band Devo, one of the most unique and inventive bands around. With Devo, Mothersbaugh was behind songs like "Whip It" and "Jocko Homo," which sounded like nothing else of their day (or any day). Kinda like the Thor: Ragnarok soundtrack.
As for the sound of the Ragnarok soundtrack, it can be described at various times as sweeping and epic like a superhero film, trippy and psychedelic like a strange dream, or groovy and otherworldly like an alien disco. Much of it, though, can best be classified as retro-futuristic techno, with a decidedly old school yet modern sci-fi feel. It's absolutely spot-on for the imagery created by the film, and is similar in nature to the song heard in the movie's second trailer, "In the Face of Evil" by Magic Sword, which is not on the soundtrack, but sounds very similar to a number of songs that are.
Trailer Music Life on YouTube
What you won't find on the soundtrack, however, is a classic rock element like in the movie's first trailer. That trailer, which in many ways began the hype train for the film that has been rolling ever since, featured Led Zeppelin's "The Immigrant Song," but since the soundtrack only features songs from the film's score and no popular music songs, Led Zep didn't make the cut. It's unclear, however, if the song is in the actual film or if it only appears in the trailer.
Marvel Entertainment on YouTube
The Thor: Ragnarok soundtrack sounds just as fun, quirky, and strange as the film, and with one of the main brains of Devo behind it, that's not at all surprising.
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Ingrid Bergman at 100
A Screen Legend
Ingrid Bergman (Aug. 29, 1915-Aug. 29, 1982) was renowned for the beauty, charm and strength she brought to the characters she played on film and the stage. An international star who won three Academy Awards, Bergman was both a celebrated icon of Hollywood's Golden Age, and the subject of gossip and tabloid press smears owing to her affair and marriage in the 1950s with Italian director Roberto Rossellini.
More than three decades after Bergman's death, she remains immortal. In honor of the centenary of her birth, view our gallery of career highlights.
Left: Bergman in the 1938 Swedish drama, "A Woman's Face."
Credit: Svensk Filmindustri
Left: Ingrid Bergman as photographed by Ake Lange in 1935. (langefoto.se)
Born in Stockholm, Sweden on August 29, 1915, Ingrid Bergman lost her mother (a German native) when she was three years old, and her father when she was 12. The owner of a photography shop, he had encouraged her acting.
Ingrid would later work as a film extra, before attending the Royal Dramatic Theater School in Stockholm. She made her first appearance in a speaking role as a maid in the 1935 film, "Munkbrogreven."
Credit: Ake Lange/Courtesy langefoto.se
"Walpurgis Night"
"Walpurgis Night (Valborgsmassoafton)" (1935) was a romantic melodrama about a secretary (Ingrid Bergman) who has an affair with her married boss (Lars Hanson), only to find herself pregnant, and blackmailed following a visit to an abortionist. The film arrived in New York several years later, censored.
"Intermezzo"
A world-famous violinist (Gosta Ekman) and a music student (Ingrid Bergman) begin a romantic duet, despite his married state, in the 1936 film "Intermezzo." The film was a major international success.
"På solsidan"
Ingrid Bergman in the 1936 Swedish production, "On the Sunny Side (På Solsidan)," a comedy about a bohemian who marries a wealthy country gentleman. Complications ensue once she invites her artistic friends (including a former beau) to her estate.
Variety noted in its review that Bergman "is pretty and capable, rating a Hollywood berth."
"A Woman's Face"
A woman disfigured since childhood is given a new face by a plastic surgeon, but is drawn into a murderous scheme by a duplicitous aristocrat in the melodrama "A Woman's Face (En Kvinnas Ansikte)" (1938). Joan Crawford starred in a 1941 Hollywood remake.
Ingrid Bergman, post-surgery, in "A Woman's Face" (1938).
"Intermezzo: A Love Story"
After her performance in "Intermezzo" was brought to the attention of Hollywood producer David O. Selznick, he bought the remake rights and brought Bergman to the U.S. to star in an English-language version.
"Intermezzo: A Love Story" (1939) co-starred Leslie Howard. The film's success tagged her as a bright new star.
"June Night"
Bergman returned to Sweden (and to her husband, Dr. Peter Lindstrom, and daughter, Pia, a future television journalist), to shoot the film "June Night (Juninatten)" (1940), in which she played a victim of both a lover's bullet and a tabloid press. She then returned to the United States.
Swedish actress Ingrid Bergman in New York City, January 20, 1940.
Credit: AP Photo
"Rage in Heaven"
In the thriller, "Rage in Heaven" (1941), Robert Montgomery played a man - who may be insane - who believes his wife (Ingrid Bergman) has been unfaithful, and concocts a plot to implicate her suspected lover.
Credit: MGM
Glamour Shot
An undated publicity photo of Ingrid Bergman.
"Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde"
Spencer Tracy, Lana Turner and Ingrid Bergman in the 1941 thriller, "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde."
"Casablanca"
"Of all the gin joints, in all the towns, in all the world, she walks into mine."
In the World War II drama "Casablanca" (1944), Ingrid Bergman stars as Ilsa, once romantically involved with Rick (Humphrey Bogart), who must use her past relationship with the nightclub owner to obtain exit visas from Morocco for herself and her husband, a leader of the Czech Resistance on the run from the Nazis.
"If that plane leaves the ground and you're not with him, you'll regret it. Maybe not today. Maybe not tomorrow, but soon and for the rest of your life."
Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman in the finale of "Casablanca" (1944). The film received eight Academy Award nominations and won three Oscars, including for Best Picture and Best Director (Michael Curtiz).
"Joan of Lorraine"
In 1946 Sam Wanamaker and Ingrid Bergman starred in the New York production of Maxwell Anderson's "Joan of Lorraine," about actors putting on a play about Joan of Arc. Bergman won the Tony Award for Best Actress.
Credit: New York Public Library
"For Whom the Bell Tolls"
Ingrid Bergman in Ernest Hemingway's tale of the Spanish Civil War, "For Whom the Bell Tolls" (1943), which costarred Gary Cooper. She earned her first Oscar nomination.
The two reteamed for the 1945 film version of Edna Ferber's "Saratoga Trunk."
An undated portrait of actress Ingrid Bergman.
"Gaslight"
In the suspense film "Gaslight" (1944), Ingrid Bergman played the wife of a man (Charles Boyer) who is trying to slowly drive her insane.
Who's crazy now? Ingrid Bergman gets the upper hand against Charles Boyer in "Gaslight."
Academy Award Winners
Bing Crosby, honored for his performance in "Going My Way," and Ingrid Bergman, recognized for her role in "Gaslight," compare their Oscars in Los Angeles, March 15, 1945.
Credit: Harold P. Matosian/AP Photo
"Spellbound"
In Alfred Hitchcock's "Spellbound" (1945), Ingrid Bergman played a psychoanalyst treating the new head of the psychiatric institution (Gregory Peck), whose amnesia masks the turmoil within his subconscious that may also be masking a murder.
Ingrid Bergman in costume for a section of a Salvador Dali-designed dream sequence that was ultimately cut from Alfred Hitchcock's "Spellbound."
"The Bells of St. Mary's"
Ingrid Bergman starred as Sister Mary Benedict in "The Bells of St. Mary's" (1945), a sequel to "Going My Way," in which she and Father Chuck O'Malley (Bing Crosby) try to save an inner-city school from closing.
Credit: RKO Pictures
"Notorious"
In Alfred Hitchcock's "Notorious" (1946), Ingrid Bergman plays a woman with a colored past who is recruited by an American intelligence agent (Cary Grant) to infiltrate a gang of Nazis in South America. It was one of the director's greatest films, with a two-minute long kissing scene between Grant and Bergman that flouted the Hays Code's prohibitions against long kisses.
"I am married to an American agent."
Leopoldine Konstantin and Claude Rains are Nazis in South America who are faced with an inconvenient new member of the family (Ingrid Bergman) in Alfred Hitchcock's "Notorious."
Director Alfred Hitchcock on the set of "Notorious" with stars Ingrid Bergman and Cary Grant.
A "Notorious" publicity shot of Ingrid Bergman.
"Arch of Triumph"
Set in pre-war Paris, "Arch of Triumph" (1948) reunited the stars of "Gaslight" (Ingrid Bergman and Charles Boyer) as a doctor who saves a refugee from suicide, only to become romantically involved with her.
"Joan of Arc"
Ingrid Bergman's performance in the title role of "Joan of Arc" (1949) earned the actress her fourth Academy Award nomination.
"Under Capricorn"
Ingrid Bergman's third film for Alfred Hitchcock was the director's period romantic drama, "Under Capricorn" (1949), costarring Michael Wilding (left) and Joseph Cotton.
"Stromboli"
Ingrid Bergman had admired the work of Italian director Roberto Rossellini ("Rome, Open City," "Paisan," and "Germany, Year Zero"). The two agreed to collaborate on "Stromboli" (1950), about a young WWII refugee who marries an Italian fisherman, only to feel displaced and isolated upon moving to his island home. There's also a volcanic eruption.
The real eruption was in the press once it was learned that Bergman and Rossellini - both married, both with children - began an affair during production.
Roberto Rossellini and Ingrid Bergman
Italian film director Roberto Rossellini and actress Ingrid Bergman are photographed at the Excelsior Hotel in Rome, April 20, 1949.
Swedish actress Ingrid Bergman is photographed on the streets of Rome on April 24, 1950, after the birth in February of a baby boy. Bergman, who divorced her surgeon husband, Peter Lindstrom, married Italian film director Roberto Rossellini in May 1950.
"Europe '51"
Ingrid Bergman next starred in Robert Rossellini's "Europa '51" (1952), the neorealist director's vision of the life of St. Francis of Assini transplanted to post-war Italy. Bergman played an ambassador's wife who takes on helping the downtrodden as her new mission in life.
Although the film faced heavy political censorship upon its release, it received accolades at the Venice Film Festival.
Credit: Criterion Collection
Ingrid Bergman in Robert Rossellini's neorealist drama, "Europa '51."
Actress Ingrid Bergman bends over the beds of her twins, Isotta Ingrid Rossellini (left) and Isabella Rossellini, at the Rossellinis' villa at Santa Marinella, north of Rome, on July 9, 1952.
Credit: Mario Torrisi/AP Photo
Ingrid's Family
An undated photo of Ingrid Bergman with her children with Roberto Rosselini, including Robertino (born February 1950), and her twin daughters Isotta and Isabella (born June 1952).
"Fear"
An unfaithful wife (Ingrid Bergman) becomes a target of blackmail in the 1954 drama, "Fear (La Paura)." It was her fifth and final film with director Roberto Rossellini.
Credit: Astor Pictures
"Elena and Her Men"
Ingrid Bergman left husband Roberto Rossellini in 1956, divorcing the following year.
She worked with director Jean Renoir in his 1956 romantic comedy, "Elena and Her Men" (left). She starred as a newly-engaged Polish princess who finds potential suitors crawling out of the woodwork in Paris.
"Paris Does Strange Things"
"Elena and Her Men" was retitled as "Paris Does Strange Things" for its U.S. release.
"Anastasia"
In "Anastasia" (1956), Ingrid Bergman played a woman central to a Russian general's plot to impersonate the youngest daughter of the murdered Czar Nicholas II. Helen Hayes costarred as the Dowager Empress Marie Feodorovna, who must be convinced that Anna Koreff is the Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna.
Bergman won her second Oscar for Best Actress for her performance.
"The Inn of the Sixth Happiness"
Ingrid Bergman played British missionary Gladys Aylward in Asia in the 1958 drama, "The Inn of the Sixth Happiness," which took great liberties with the life and story of its historical subject. The mountains of Wales stood in for pre-World War II China.
"Indiscreet"
In Stanley Donen's romantic comedy "Indiscreet" (1958), Cary Grant plays a bachelor tycoon who pretends to be married, which only beguiles Ingrid Bergman's character all the more as she falls in love with him.
"Goodbye Again"
The philandering of Yves Montand (left, with Jackie Lane) only drives lover Ingrid Bergman into the arms of Anthony Perkins in the 1961 romantic drama, "Goodbye Again."
"The Yellow Rolls-Royce"
In the anthology film 'The Yellow Rolls-Royce" (1965), directed by Anthony Asquith, Omar Sharif played a Yugoslavian fleeing the Nazis who uses a traveling American (Ingrid Bergman) to make his escape.
Actress Ingrid Bergman with her daughter, Pia Lindstrom, in her dressing room in Los Angeles on Sept. 12, 1967, following the opening night's performance of Eugene O'Neill's "More Stately Mansions." The production later moved to Broadway.
Bergman appeared on the New York stage twice more, in George Bernard Shaw's "Captain Brassbound's Conversion" (1972), and W. Somerset Maugham's "The COnstant Wife" (1975).
"Cactus Flower"
In the 1969 comedy "Cactus Flower," Ingrid Bergman starred as the assistant of a dentist (Walter Matthau) who agrees to masquerade as his wife in order to fool the dentist's lover (played by Oscar-winner Goldie Hawn).
"A Walk in the Spring Rain"
Ingrid Bergman and Anthony Quinn in the 1970 romantic melodrama, "A Walk in the Spring Rain."
"Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler"
Ingrid Bergman appeared in "From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler" (a.k.a. "The Hideaways")(1973), based on E.L. Kongsburg's novel about children who run away to live at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Credit: Cinema 5
"Murder on the Orient Express"
Ingrid Bergman starred as Greta Ohlsson, a missionary and one of a baker's dozen suspects being interrogated by detective Hercule Poirot (Albert Finney) in Sidney Lumet's 1974 film of the Agatha Christie thriller, "Murder on the Orient Express."
Ingrid Bergman won her third Academy Award for her supporting performance in "Murder on the Orient Express."
Credit: AMPAS
"A Matter of Time"
In Vincente Minnelli's musical fantasy "A Matter of Time" (1978), starring Liza Minnelli, Ingrid Bergman co-starred as Countess Sanziani.
The movie - which featured Bergman's "Gaslight" and "Arch of Triumph" costar Charles Boyer as her husband, Count Sanziani - also included the first film appearance by Bergman's daughter, Isabella Rossellini.
Credit: AIP
"Autumn Sonata"
Ingrid Bergman's final feature film performance was in Swedish director Ingmar Bergman's "Autumn Sonata" (1978), costarring with Liv Ullman, as an estranged mother and daughter reconnecting after several years.
Bergman received her seventh Academy Award nomination, for Best Actress.
Credit: New World Pictures
"A Woman Called Golda"
Ingrid Bergman played Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir in the 1982 TV movie, "A Woman Called Golda."
Three weeks after Bergman died, in London on August 29, 1982 at age 67, she was awarded an Emmy for her performance.
Credit: Paramount Television
Workers place a banner depicting actress Ingrid Bergman on the Palais during preparations for the 68th international film festival in Cannes, southern France, Monday, May 11, 2015. The festival hosted the debut of a new documentary, "Ingrid Bergman: In Her Own Words," which will be released in U.S. theatres in November 2015.
Credit: Thibault Camus/AP Photo
Immortal Beauty
An undated, signed portrait of Ingrid Bergman, auctioned in 2013 by Profiles in History.
Credit: Profiles in History
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The films of horror master John Carpenter
"Halloween"
Michael Myers, an escapee from a psychiatric facility, advances upon his prey in John Carpenter's classic "Halloween." The stylish 1978 film rewrote the rules of horror movies, and enshrined its director among the leading genre filmmakers.
Credit: Compass International
Born in Carthage, N.Y., in 1948 (his father was a music professor), director and composer John Carpenter shot 8mm sci-fi and horror films as a youngster, before attending the University of Southern California's School of Cinematic Arts.
Horror Master
He told CBS News correspondent Lee Cowan that he had his parents to thank for his dual-career.
"I loved science fiction and horror movies, westerns, comedies, everything. Everything that was out in the movies, I went. I loved the movies. I think my mom got me into that. My dad gave me music, my mother gave me love of movies and cinema."
"Dark Star"
Carpenter's first feature, which grew from a USC student film, was the 1974 science fiction-comedy "Dark Star," co-written with Dan O'Bannon (who would later co-author "Alien"). The crew of Dark Star, responsible for destroying unstable planets, must try to disarm a sentient computerized bomb that refuses to deactivate itself.
Credit: Bryanston PIctures
"Assault on Precinct 13"
Carpenter told Lee Cowan that as a young filmmaker, "I wanted to do westerns. [But] when I finally got my career going in Hollywood, westerns died." He came closest to the genre with "Assault on Precinct 13" (1976), which was inspired by the Howard Hawks western "Rio Bravo." Like the Indians of a 1940s Hollywood film, here gang members attack a police station in South Central Los Angeles, where an officer (Austin Stoker), a prisoner (Darwin Joston), and a secretary (Laurie Zimmer) must fend off the invaders.
Credit: Turtle Releasing
In "Halloween" (1978), a young man escapes from a psychiatric institution 15 years after murdering his older sister and returns to the scene of the crime, repeating the bloody cycle of violence.
"I wanted the audience not to know whether he was human or supernatural," Carpenter said of Michael Myers, a.k.a. The Shape. "And he had no character. He was blank. He was simply evil. And that was all he was as a character. So I stripped down everything.
"Really he has no back-story in the original 'Halloween.' He has nothing, except he's evil. I can't tell you why he came to this small town to kill people. But it doesn't matter. He's like the wind. He's out there. He's gonna get you."
The incessant evil was driven by the score of the film, also composed by Carpenter.
Click here to listen to an excerpt from the Main Title of "Halloween"
Carpenter used a gliding Steadicam not just for point-of-view shots but also in general just to move with the characters. "I love moving camera as a director. And the problem with moving camera is that you have to set up these tracks, and it takes a while to set 'em up. Then you have to level it, then they have rehearse. It takes a long time to get a tracking shot. With that Steadicam, you just whip it on the operator, go, and he's off following the actors."
"So in some ways that whole eerie point of view look through the mask was really a matter of necessity?" asked Cowan.
"That's correct. And the Steadicam had a little bit of sway in those days, so there's just a little bit of sailing back and forth -- added a little touch. Lucky!"
The film outshone its $325,000 budget, and would pull in $47 million in domestic gross, while also sparking a resurgence in independent horror and supernatural films in the late '70s and early '80s.
"It was the most fun I've ever had making a movie," Carpenter said of "Halloween." "It was somehow carefree. We only had 20 days to shoot it. It was ambitious for us at the time. But we all banded together, and all we wanted to do was make this movie, and make it stylish. And it was fun. God, it was fun."
Jamie Lee Curtis was catapulted to stardom in "Halloween." She would become a "scream queen" in a string of horror titles like "Terror Train," "Prom Night," "The Fog" and "Halloween II," before starring in non-genre films like "Trading Places," "A Fish Called Wanda," "True Lies," and the TV series "Anything But Love."
"Elvis"
Following "Halloween," Carpenter directed the TV films "Someone's Watching Me!" (a thriller starring Lauren Hutton and David Birney), and the biofilm "Elvis," with a terrific performance by Kurt Russell as Elvis Presley.
It would be the first of many teamings of Carpenter and Russell.
Credit: ABC
"The Fog"
In "The Fog" (1980), the ghosts of a ship's crew killed a hundred years earlier return to the California coastal town where they'd met their doom.
Credit: Avco Embassy
The ghosts of the crew of the Elizabeth Dane, a ship plundered 100 years earlier, return to exact revenge (because that's just what ghosts do), in John Carpenter's "The Fog" (1980).
John Carpenter on the set of "The Fog" with actresses Adrienne Barbeau (then Carpenter's wife), Jamie Lee Curtis and Janet Leigh.
"Escape From New York"
Kurt Russell (pictured with Adrienne Barbeau) starred as Snake Plissken, a roguish adventurer who is conscripted into a desperate rescue mission of the U.S. President from within the fortified walls of a future Manhattan island-turned-maximum security prison, in John Carpenter's "Escape From New York" (1981).
Frank Doubleday as an evil henchman of the "Duke of New York," in "Escape From New York."
"The Thing"
Based on John W. Campbell, Jr.'s novella "Who Goes There?" (which was previously filmed by Howard Hawks and Christian Nyby in 1951), "The Thing" starred Kurt Russell, whose Antarctica research station becomes the setting for a showdown against an alien creature that can assimilate and mimic other life forms.
Some of the gruesome creature effects created by Rob Bottin and Stan Winston for "The Thing."
While some Carpenter horror films are reticent to show evil, in "The Thing" the horror is blatant. "We showed you clearly because it's a monster movie, and we love to see our monsters," Carpenter said. "That's always been that way from 'Dracula,' 'Frankenstein,' 'The Wolf Man, from early days in movies. We wanna see 'em.
"And we had an idea in 'The Thing' that it doesn't look like any one thing. It looks like everything it's imitated throughout the universe. So it was a chance to just go crazy."
"Christine"
John Carpenter directed the 1983 film version of the Stephen King horror novel "Christine," about a 1957 Plymouth Fury possessed by a very vengeful spirit.
"Starman"
Jeff Bridges earned an Oscar nomination for Best Actor in the 1984 science fiction film "Starman," as an alien who manifests himself in the likeness of Karen Allen's dead husband.
"Big Trouble in Little China"
Kurt Russell, joined by Kim Cattrall and Suzee Pai, starred as a gun-toting truck driver who dives into San Francisco's underworld to rescue a woman from Oriental gangsters, in "Big Trouble in Little China" (1986). The film was a tongue-in-cheek pastiche of an action film, supernatural thriller, and martial arts spectacle.
Thunder (Carter Wong) lets emotional distress get to his head in John Carpenter's "Big Trouble in Little China."
"Prince of Darkness"
"I've got a message for you, and you're not going to like it: Pray for death!"
A mysterious green liquid that appears to be connected to Satan has a devilish effect upon a team of researchers holed up in an abandoned church surrounded by possessed street people, in John Carpenter's 1987 supernatural thriller, "Prince of Darkness."
"They Live"
In the darkly humorous political thriller "They Live" (1988), mysterious glasses reveal to the wearer the true faces of Earth's overlords - creatures who, in the daylight, appear human while spreading subliminal messages to the populace to boost consumerism and promote conformity.
"Memoirs of an Invisible Man"
Based on the novel by H. F. Saint, the sci-fi-comedy "Memoirs of an Invisible Man" (1992) starred Chevy Chase as the victim of an accident that renders him invisible, making him a tempting target for recruitment by the CIA.
"In the Mouth of Madness"
Sam Neill is driven to the brink of insanity by the contents of a horror writer's Lovecraftian book, in John Carpenter's "In the Mouth of Madness" (1995).
Credit: New Line Cinema
"Village of the Damned"
John Carpenter's 1995 remake of of the 1960 British thriller "Village of the Damned" transported the setting to California, where a town's cluster of children, born after a mysterious event, share common characteristics, such as glowing eyes and psychic powers. Christopher Reeve, Mark Hamill, Kirstie Alley and Linda Kozlowski starred.
"Escape From L.A."
Kurt Russell's Snake Plissken returned in "Escape from L.A." (1996), this time on a mission from a theocratic U.S. president to retrieve a powerful weapon from the remnants of Los Angeles.
"Vampires"
Thomas Ian Griffith is the leader of a gang of vampires in pursuit of an ancient relic in John Carpenter's "Vampires" (1998).
John Carpenter of the set of "Vampires."
"Ghosts From Mars"
In the 2001 science fiction film "Ghosts From Mars," human settlers on the Red Planet are possessed by the spirits of an ancient Martian civilization.
Credit: Screen Gems
"The Ward"
After a long absence from movie screens, Carpenter returned in 2010 with "The Ward," in which a young woman (Amber Heard) is committed to a psychiatric hospital after burning down an abandoned farmhouse. There she encounters a string of disturbed individuals, and a malevolent spirit.
Credit: ARC Entertainment
Filming John Carpenter's "The Ward."
"The thing about horror is, it's a universal genre, because everybody in the world is scared. We're born afraid," Carpenter said.
"We're all afraid of the same things. We're all afraid of dying. So horror plays everywhere, and it stays in the culture. And as the culture changes, horror changes. The writers and directors come and change it, make it for a new generation. I think that's what's great about it."
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Seawall Under Construction By CCI
Work is under way behind the Beloit Post Office on a new section of the River Bend Shoreline Stabilization project. The flood of 2008 brought federal emergency money to Beloit for help with such projects.
Posted: Saturday, May 26, 2012 10:00 am
By Sherry Blakeley sblakeley@beloitdailynews.com
Construction equipment and piles of freshly turned earth on the south bank of the Rock River have drawn the attention of observant
customers at Beloit’s U.S. Post Office, 300 Mill St.
Workers from the main team at Corporate Contractors Inc. and subcontractors from Gilbank Construction were hard at work this week on the latest phase of the Shoreline Stabilization project. The seawall that is under construction behind the post office will slow riverbank erosion and keep potential flood waters out of nearby buildings.
“The seawall will protect the post office. It should also make the riverfront there much more attractive,” said Andy Hill, project engineer with the City of Beloit. “The 2008 flood initiated the project. The post office had to close because of the flood and be temporarily relocated. The project under way should prevent that happening in the future.”
The seawall location lies between the post office parking lot to the south and the Rock River to the west where the river turns south. The closed Wisconsin Power and Light coal gas location sits to the southwest of the seawall area.
“The post office area was the only part of the downtown that experienced surface flooding,” said City Manager Larry Arft.
Hill designed the wall as part of the package of repairs and replacements paid for by the federal government after the flood four years ago that struck Rock County and 30 other Wisconsin counties. Since 2008, Wisconsin has received $124.3 million in flood relief from U.S. Housing and Urban Development.
The city applied successfully to HUD for three disaster relief grants.
In one grant package, Beloit received $750,000 for seawall repairs and replacement. An additional $45,000 was designated for repairs to the Shirland Avenue Lift Station. Money from this grant pays for the current seawall work.
“We already applied some of the grant money to the rip rap used on the riverbank down by The Angel Museum,” Arft said. Rip rap is rock used to anchor shorelines. “When the current project is done we may find ourselves under budget.”
The funds may be applied to the area around the lagoon. He said, “We are running out of time environmentally. The narrow strip of land that separates the lagoon from the river lost three feet this year. We have to get in there and stop the erosion.”
Contractors started work on the post office area May 1. Hill said they hope to finish the work before Riverfest opens June 27. Its new location is nearby.
Plans for the seawall are available for public viewing at the city of Beloit’s website. They call for steel sheet piles to be set 30 feet into the ground.
“On top of that we will build a concrete wall that looks similar to the one at the Mill Street parking lot,” Hill said. “I used the Mill Street lot to go by. It’s a straightforward project.”
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HomeServices & EventsLunchtime Concert: James Dutton and Oliver Davies
Lunchtime Concert: James Dutton and Oliver Davies
Chichester Cathedral's popular lunchtime concerts take place on Tuesdays at 1.10pm during term time, in the spectacular setting of the Cathedral Nave. They are free and last approximately 50 minutes. You are welcome to come and go as you please. Coffee is available at no extra charge, and some visitors event bring a sandwich! There is a retiring collection.
James Dutton, flute
Oliver Davies, piano
R H Walthew - Idyll
G Henschel - Theme & Variations, Op. 73
E Schulhoff - Sonata for flute and piano
O Messiaen - Vocalise
L Berkeley - Sonatina for flute and piano
James Dutton studied at the Royal College of Music in London, winning prizes for orchestral, solo and chamber music performances. He has also been awarded two Worshipful Company of Musicians' Silver Medals and a Fellowship in Flute Performance from Trinity College London.He spent twenty years as principal flute of the Scots Guards Band in London, performing at thousands of events around the world. He has also performed as a member of the Philharmonia Orchestra.He has appeared as a soloist at the Royal Albert Hall, Cadogan Hall, Purcell Room, St.James’s Piccadilly and many other venues around London and the UK, across Europe and in Australia,South Korea and New Zealand. He has recently given recitals in the USA and Norway, with an emphasis on the repertoire he and Oliver Davies recorded on their CD “Idyll - The English Flute Unheard”.
Oliver Davies studied at the Royal College of Music, where he won the Tagore Gold Medal as outstanding student of his year and for many years was both a piano professor and Keeper of the Department of Portraits and Performance History (which he founded). His playing career has covered many styles, from recordings, recitals and broadcasts on early pianos to modern British premières at the Wigmore and Queen Elizabeth Halls. As a chamber-music player he has appeared with many distinguished artists including the flautists Sir James Galway and Michael Cox, and the clarinettists Colin Bradbury and Dame Thea King. He is also acting Curator of the Museum of Music History.
Chichester Cathedral
Lunchtime Concerts, Free, Music, Social
Activity TypeAccommodationArt & ExhibitionsBook at BreakfastChristmasContemporary IssuesEvening ConcertsFamilyFilmFood & DrinkFreeFriendsGuided ToursHistory & HeritageLearningLunchtime ConcertsMusicSocialSpecial ServicesSpirituality & ChristianityTalks & LecturesTheatre
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Chico fire chief prepares to depart for Rocklin…
Chico fire chief prepares to depart for Rocklin role
Chico Fire Chief Bill Hack’s last day with the city is Thursday. He’s leaving to become the fire chief for the Rocklin and Lincoln fire departments. – Bill Husa — Enterprise-Record file
By Andre Byik | abyik@chicoer.com and The Associated Press | Chico Enterprise-Record
PUBLISHED: August 11, 2017 at 8:13 pm | UPDATED: April 20, 2018 at 4:46 am
Chico >> After 22 years with the Chico Fire Department, Fire Chief Bill Hack is set to leave the city.
Hack, 47, has accepted a fire chief position with the city of Rocklin in Placer County, and he’ll also manage the fire department in nearby Lincoln. The two agencies share management personnel.
His last day is Thursday.
“I love Chico,” Hack said in a recent interview in his office at Station 1 on Salem Street. “I spent most of my adult life working for the Chico Fire Department, and that was one of the hardest parts of this decision — was leaving.”
City Manager Mark Orme said he is appointing Division Chief Aaron Lowe to serve as Hack’s replacement in the interim.
Hack became interim fire chief in January 2016 and was appointed permanent fire chief later that year.
During his term as the city’s top firefighter, Hack oversaw the development of a departmental blueprint that is expected to guide the agency for the next several decades. The blueprint, prepared by third-party consultants hired by the city, lays out short- and long-term plans for the Chico Fire Department, including appropriate staffing levels, station locations and ways to further curb the city’s fire risks.
But he also served during a turbulent period for the department. Layoffs this year have drawn down the department’s staffing level to a mark not seen since the 1990s. And in March, two city fire stations were closed after a federal grant that had funded 15 firefighter positions previously expired.
But while Hack said budget cuts have taken their toll, he believes the rough part — layoffs, cuts, loss of grant money — may be over. And with several retirements pending, some firefighters that lost their jobs could be rehired.
“The city of Chico invested a lot of time and money on them,” Hack said. “And they are fantastic additions to the city and to the department. So that would actually be exciting.”
For Hack, the job in Rocklin poses challenges both familiar and new. He noted he could oversee the development of a similar long-term blueprint for the Rocklin and Lincoln fire departments. And there’s also a chance he could lead an effort to possibly combine the two agencies.
“Not too many fire chiefs get to say they’ve had that opportunity,” he said. “I’m not saying it’s going to be easy, but it will definitely be an opportunity. A challenge to do something. Where (in Chico) … we have a plan. It’s just a matter of continually implementing it for the city.”
Hack studied environmental policy analysis and planning at UC Davis and did some consulting work after college in the Bay Area. But he missed the camaraderie of being a part of a team he said he experienced in his life up and through college, where he also played football.
Hack said he quit his job in the Bay Area and attended the fire academy at Butte College. Afterward, he was quickly hired as a seasonal employee for Cal Fire but was eventually laid off.
He said he was hired at the Chico Fire Department the next year, in 1995. Since then, Hack promoted through the ranks, working as a firefighter, engineer, captain and division chief before being appointed fire chief last year.
Becoming fire chief, he said, was never part of a grand plan.
“I wanted to become a firefighter because of the camaraderie, because of the physical nature of it,” Hack said, adding, “I never really aspired or even thought about being the chief officer because, frankly, you’re behind a desk most of the time. You’re doing policy level stuff.”
But as his career progressed, he said he found himself getting pulled toward more administrative roles. Comfortable with digging into and analyzing data, “I thought there was something I could do to help the organization and help the city of Chico.”
As Hack departs, he noted two areas where the department should continue to focus, including curbing the city’s fire risks — such as buildings without fire sprinkler systems — and finding ways to prioritize emergency calls so firefighters aren’t sent to incidents where they aren’t needed.
“The fire department is there to .. protect against risk,” he said. “We’re essentially a mobile, operational insurance company. We mitigate risk. And if you can eliminate that risk at its core, then you’ve eliminated a lot of that work. And right now we are understaffed completely for that risk.”
But while budget cuts and reduced staffing levels are admittedly frustrating, “it’s reality — there’s only so many dollars to go around.”
Hack said he’s developed strong ties at department, and has lived in the area for most of his life. He said the hardest part about taking a new job is leaving what he’s cultivated in Chico.
“It’s been one of the greatest honors and privileges to lead the women and men of Chico fire and represent the city and the citizens,” Hack said.
He added: “I can only hope that things are the same in Rocklin. I expect that they will be.”
Contact reporter Andre Byik at 896-7760.
Andre Byik
Andre Byik is the public safety reporter for the Chico Enterprise-Record, where he covers crime, courts and breaking news. A Chico State University graduate, he has worked at daily newspapers since 2012.
Follow Andre Byik @andrebyik
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5 Interesting Facts About Lindsey Graham's Christian Faith
CP Current Page: Politics | Thursday, July 23, 2015
By Ray Nothstine, Christian Post Reporter | Thursday, July 23, 2015
Republican presidential candidate Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., shakes hands along the Independence Day parade route in Amherst, New Hampshire July 4, 2015. New Hampshire is home of the nation's first presidential nominating primary. | (Photo: Reuters/Gretchen Ertl)
At the moment, Lindsey Graham may be more known by some for attracting the ire of Donald Trump than for his presidential run. So far he has not polled well among the field of Republican presidential contenders.
Graham was elected to the U.S. House from South Carolina in the 1994 Republican Revolution and to the U.S. Senate in 2002, where he succeeded Strom Thurmond.
When Graham's parents died when he was in his early 20s, he adopted his younger sister when she was 13. She has praised Graham as a strong father, brother, and even a mother figure to her.
Graham is an attorney who served in the Air Force and Air Force Reserve before retiring as a Colonel in 2015. He is known for his deep friendship with Sen. John McCain, hawkish foreign policy positions, and having never married.
Below are five interesting facts about Graham's Christian faith:
1. Graham has said he doesn't like it "when a politician gets too preachy."
South Carolina's senior senator offered the comment last year at a forum sponsored by Palmetto Family, an organization committed to promoting biblical principles in the centers of influence.
2. The presidential hopeful says he represents people of all or no faith, but is not ashamed to say he follows Jesus.
"We live in a very diverse country. The First Amendment allows us to worship God on our terms or not at all. I am a United States senator. There is a time and place for everything. I unashamedly accept Jesus Christ as my Lord and savior. But I represent the entire state," he told a reporter last year.
3. Graham is known for slipping into his home church, Corinth Baptist in Seneca, South Carolina, just after it starts and slipping out before the final prayer.
Two of his friends at the church in Seneca stated that Graham does that to keep a low profile. Graham is Southern Baptist and holds membership at the church.
4. Graham has said on several occasions that "we're in a religious war."
"We're in a religious war," declared Graham. "These are not terrorists, they're radical Islamists."
In speaking about ISIS and other radicals Islamists, Graham added that "their way of life is motivated by religious teachings" and that President Obama is "trying to diminish the religious aspect of this war." Graham has stressed that ISIS can't be "negotiated with" or "accommodated," they "have to be destroyed."
5. Graham has joked that Baptists are "the ones who drink and don't admit it."
CNN reported a story in January that somebody recorded Graham joking at a private meeting at an "all-male club" in Charleston, South Carolina. Many have heard the oft told joke about Baptists and Graham has reportedly told it publicly, too. However, some people might be more offended that Graham dropped the "F" word during his talk.
He joked, too, at the event that if elected, "white men in all male-only clubs are going to do great in my presidency." When CNN reached out to Graham, he said he was making fun of the club for being one of the last exclusive male organizations and added, "I hope this doesn't reflect poorly on the club. They are great guys." Graham said he gave a serious speech regarding radical Islam and religious liberty after he finished with his attempt at humor. The attempt at humor was expected, which Graham compared to the annual Gridiron Club Dinner.
Lindsey Graham Running for President Because 'World Is Falling Apart;' Plans to Formally Announce June 1
6 Interesting Facts About Bernie Sanders and Religion
6 Interesting Facts About Bobby Jindal's Christian Faith
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Home / CLANS - Big List of Scottish Clans / Campbell / MacGregor-Campbell Feud Manuscripts set for Auction
MacGregor-Campbell Feud Manuscripts set for Auction
Posted on January 13, 2014 by admin in Campbell, CLANS - Big List of Scottish Clans, MacGregor, Scottish History, Scottish News with 1 Comment
The 1611 manuscript detailing the extent of the feud.
Two manuscripts dealing with one of the most infamous feuds in clan history are set to go under the hammer this week in Edinburgh. The Persecution of the Clan Gregor manuscripts, dated between 1611 and 1619, highlight the extent to which the MacGregors were punished by the Campbells after loosing a bitter and long power struggle over land in Argyll.
Set to fetch up to £3000 at auction, the first document was issued in 1611 by the Privy Council of Scotland under the auspices of one of the most notorious members of the Campbell clan, Sir Duncan Campbell of Glen Orchy, who went by the sinister nickname of “Black Duncan of the Cowl.” The manuscript instructs the holding of regional courts to try those suspected of ‘resetting’, or protecting the interests of, members of the Clan MacGregor. The second manuscript from 1619 was granted to Duncan Campbell, giving him permission to ‘intercommune’ with certain members of Clan MacGregor. At this time the persecution of Clan MacGregor was so severe that it was even forbidden to communicate with members of the clan.
The history of Clan MacGregor’s persecution began in April 1603, when King James VI issued an edict proclaiming the name MacGregor to be ‘abolished’. This came in the wake of years of the Clan Gregor having been restricted in their lands to Glenstrae by the Campbells, and subsequent inter-clan battles and killings. As of 1603, Clan MacGregor would be persecuted by law, and anyone bearing this name and refusing to renounce it would be put to death. Until the edict against the clan was repealed in 1774, it was illegal to be a MacGregor, or to protect or support the cause of those who held onto the name. The persecution continued for over 200 years.
The first manuscript makes it clear that some people in the Highlands had indeed been resetting (protecting or supporting the interests of) members of the clan, and the Privy Council were not happy with this. The commission resolves to make examples of those resetting the clan members and lists regional noblemen and dignitaries who are given the power to call courts to try the resetters and ensure that the sentences are carried out. The commission not only underlines how vilified Clan MacGregor was by the state, but also shows that by 1611 the suppression had not been as effective as hoped.
Auctioneers Lyon and Turnbull have described the sale as a rare chance to snap up a piece of Scottish history. The manuscripts form part of the Breadalbane Collection, a gathering of documents relating to the Campbells of Glen Orchy, which is largely held by Edinburgh University.
Cathy Marsden, book specialist at Lyon & Turnbull said translations of the document from “Old Scots” highlighted the frustration of the Privy Council that some people had been protecting and supporting the interests of the clan.
She said: “As of 1603, the clan would be persecuted by law, and anyone bearing this name and refusing to renounce it would be put to death.
“Until the edict against the clan was repealed in 1774, it was illegal to be a MacGregor, or to protect or support the cause of those who held onto the name.
“It is very rare for something of this nature to come up for auction. We often get old title deeds and things like that, which are not particularly valuable, but documents like this, which relate to a really important part of Scottish history, don’t come up for auction that often.
“We’re expecting a lot of interest in it, perhaps from private buyers who are very interested in Scottish history and documents, or institutions like museums and archives who are interested in buying it on behalf of the nation.”
The auction will be held at 11 am on Wednesday 15th January 2014. You can view Lot 181 here, and Lot 182 here.
Black Duncan of the Cowl
Breadalbane Collection
Clan Campbell
Clan Macgregor
Lyon and Turnbull
Persecution of Clan MacGregor
Privy Council
Sir Duncan Campbell
Sir Duncan Campbell of Glen Orchy
A Cannonball, a Sheepskin and a Loch Village
19th Century Clan Catalogue For Sale
Sold! Clan Feud Auction Update
Historic Dundee Drinkers to go Under Hammer
Glencoe Plaque Found in Edinburgh Antique Shop
One thought on “MacGregor-Campbell Feud Manuscripts set for Auction”
Nichole July 12, 2017 at 2:12 am
Did they sell? For how much?
Wool Strip Tartan Ribbon - 54" x 2" (5 strips) Available in 500 Tartans!
Scottish History Boxed Set
Highland Saltire Kilt Belt Antique Buckle
Clan Crest Tie
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Lawrence Brownlee, tenor + Eric Owens, baritone
Cliburn at the Kimbell: Masters
Date: September 21, 2018 7:30 pm CDT
Venue: Kimbell Art Museum Piano Pavilion
“An open-hearted performance on a straight-ahead program of traditional arias and American fare… a special evening and wholly enjoyable performance by friends.” — Kansas City Star
Two of today’s most sought-after international opera stars join forces to deliver beloved opera and American music, from pop songs to spirituals.
Bass-baritone Eric Owens was dubbed an “American marvel” by the Chicago Sun-Times; Lawrence Brownlee, returning to the Kimbell after a phenomenal Cliburn Concerts debut in 2015, has been hailed as “one of the world’s leading bel canto tenors” by the Associated Press. Separately they have appeared at nearly every major opera house and with the world’s leading orchestras. Together in recital, they are an absolutely unforgettable powerhouse.
THIS CONCERT IS CURRENTLY AVAILABLE AS PART OF A CHOOSE-YOUR-OWN CLIBURN CONCERTS SUBSCRIPTION. CLICK HERE TO PURCHASE YOURS TODAY!
For single tickets, click here or the link at right.
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