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Holy Trinity Church, Ilfracombe
Holy Trinity Church in Ilfracombe
The Church of the Holy Tinity is the Anglican parish church for Ilfracombe in Devon. The building has been a Grade I listed building since 1951[1] and comes under the Diocese of Exeter.
The Norman font dates to about 1160
The Elizabethan pulpit
Standing on the site of a Saxon church, the Norman church was enlarged to its present size in 1322, and the tower incorporated inside the building. Built of mostly random rubble slate walls, some rendered, with limestone dressings, the church has one of the finest wagon-roofs in the West Country dating from the 15th-century which is richly carved with bosses, angels, figures and five Green Men in a row. At the East end of the nave above the former rood screen is a ceilure or Glory, with three bays enriched by cross-ribs and much decoration. The chancel ceiling is modern by George Fellowes Prynne in 1899.[1] The square baptismal font is Norman of about 1160 and is decorated with three rosettes and ears of wheat on each face with a scalloped underside. It was moved to its present position in 1861 during the 1861-1864 restoration by John Hayward.[1] The Elizabethan pulpit has arched columns and panels containing floral motifs. The lychgate and the vestry date from 1894[1] and are by Henry Wilson, the best pupil of J. D. Sedding.[2][3]
The 'Glory' ceiling is 15th-century
The base of the 14th-century tower
The first recorded Rector was Oliver de Tracey in 1263, which is also the approximate date of the first stone building on the site. Little remains of this church, ordered to be enlarged in 1321 by Walter de Stapledon, Bishop of Exeter when the nave was lengthened and the aisles added. The tower is 14th-century and is the oldest part of the building: it is low, single stage and very plain with a pointed north door and a lancet window and a low unmoulded arch opening into the nave. It is located in a north transeptal position, frequent in early North Devon churches. The north and south aisles are separated from the nave and chancel by eight bays of chamfered arches, four on each side on stunted octagonal piers; these are mid-to late 14th-century, while a piscina of the same date can be found in the chancel. The chapel in the north of the chancel is early 15th-century, while the aisle windows are from the Perpendicular Period. In the early 15th-century a North chapel was added. The stained glass is 19th-century and includes examples by Kempe (window in North aisle); Hardman (East window); Willement (south aisle East window) and Ballantyne (Stabb Memorial window).[2][3]
The church has numerous monuments but none are of any historical interest.[3] There is a small brass cross which commemorates six men of the parish who died during World War I.[4] In the churchyard is buried Anna Catherine Parnell, the Irish nationalist and younger sister of Charles Stewart Parnell.[5] Also in the churchyard are buried 19 British servicemen who died during World War I and whose graves are maintained by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC)[6] along with those of two Belgian Foreign Nationals.[7]
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Holy Trinity church, Ilfracombe.
^ a b c d The Parish Church of Holy Trinity, Ilfracombe - Historic England database
^ a b The Pilgrim's Guide to Devon's Churches, Cloister Books (2008) pg 103
^ a b c Nikolaus Pevsner, The Buildings of England: North Devon, Penguin Books (1952) pgs 104-106
^ Small Cross in Holy Trinity Church, Ilfracombe - Imperial War Museum - War Memorials Register
^ Boylan, Henry, A Dictionary of Irish Biography (3. ed.). Dublin: Gill & Macmillan. (1998) ISBN 0717125076
^ Commonwealth War Graves Holy Trinity Churchyard - Traces of War database
^ Ilfracombe (Holy Trinity) Churchyard - Commonwealth War Graves Commission database
Holy Trinity Church, Ilfracombe - A Church Near You - Church of England website
Holy Trinity Church, Ilfracombe - 'Visit Ilfracombe' website
Coordinates: 51°12′20″N 4°07′43″W / 51.20558°N 4.12850°W / 51.20558; -4.12850
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Holy_Trinity_Church,_Ilfracombe&oldid=837902710"
Buildings and structures in Ilfracombe
Church of England church buildings in Devon
12th-century churches in the United Kingdom
15th-century church buildings in England
Grade I listed churches in Devon
Commons category link is on Wikidata using P373
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Philip Francis Nowlan
Find sources: "Philip Francis Nowlan" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (January 2018) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)
Philip Francis Nowlan, as pictured in Science Wonder Stories, September 1929 (as "Frank Phillips")
February 1, 1940(1940-02-01) (aged 51)
Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania[1]
Armageddon 2419 A.D.
Philip Francis Nowlan (/ˈnoʊlən/; November 13, 1888 – February 1, 1940) was an American science fiction author, best known as the creator of Buck Rogers. [1]
Nowlan was born on November 13, 1888. While attending the University of Pennsylvania, Nowlan was a member of The Mask and Wig Club, holding significant roles in the annual productions between 1907 and 1909. After graduating from the University of Pennsylvania he worked as a newspaper columnist. Nowlan was married to Theresa Junker. They had ten children: Philip, Mary, Helen, Louise, Theresa, Mike, Larry, Pat, John, and Joe.
He moved to the Philadelphia suburb of Bala Cynwyd and created and wrote the Buck Rogers comic strip, illustrated by Dick Calkins. He remained a writer on the strip until 1939. The character Buck Rogers first appeared in Nowlan's 1928 novella Armageddon 2419 A.D. as Anthony Rogers. A comic strip ran from 1929-1967. Spin-offs included a radio-serial series Buck Rogers in the 25th Century (sporadically aired from 1932-1947), a 1939 movie serial Buck Rogers, and a 1979 television series Buck Rogers in the 25th Century.[1]
Nowlan also wrote several other novellas for the science fiction magazines as well as the posthumously published mystery, The Girl from Nowhere.
Armageddon 2419 A.D. (1928)
The Girl from Nowhere (1928, ISBN 0-8095-0038-8 (Neuauflage von 2005)
The Airlords of Han (1929)
The Airlords of Han by Philip Francis Nowlan at Project Gutenberg on Project Gutenberg
The Onslaught from Venus (1929)
The Time Jumpers (1934)
The Prince of Mars Returns (1940)
Space Guards (1940)
Wings Over Tomorrow: The Collected Science Fiction of Philip Francis Nowlan (2005, ISBN 0-8095-1095-2) edited by Lee Weinstein www.MySpace.com/leestein
List of Buck Rogers comic strips
Buck Rogers: A Life in the Future
Buck Rogers XXVC (TSR game series)
List of superhero debuts
Inertron
^ a b c "Nowlan, Philip Francis". Gollancz. August 12, 2018. Retrieved 7 January 2019.
^ "Summary Bibliography: Philip Francis Nowlan". Internet Speculative Fiction Database. Al von Ruff. Retrieved 7 January 2019.
Works written by or about Philip Francis Nowlan at Wikisource
Wikilivres has original media or text related to this article: Philip Francis Nowlan (in the public domain in New Zealand)
Works by Philip Francis Nowlan at Project Gutenberg
Works by or about Philip Francis Nowlan at Internet Archive
Works by Philip Francis Nowlan at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)
Philip Francis Nowlan at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
ICCU: IT\ICCU\RAVV\095717
SNAC: w60897d8
This article about an American science fiction writer is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Philip_Francis_Nowlan&oldid=903670390"
American science fiction writers
20th-century American novelists
American male novelists
University of Pennsylvania alumni
American science fiction writer stubs
Articles with Project Gutenberg links
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UCSC Genomics Institute’s Director David Haussler Addresses “Data Solutions in Clinical Genomics” Questions
The following blog is a repost of a recent post by Tal Behar, Co-founder & Executive Director at PMWC Intl, on LinkedIn Pulse. We believe this post – a set of questions and answers to the UCSC Genomics Institute’s director David Haussler – is of interest to the enlightenbio audience which is why we requested the repost. It addresses big genomic data questions related to the clinical setting, such as large-scale genomics activities under way or in the process of getting started, the efforts of the Data Working Group of the Global Alliance for Genomics and Health (GA4GH) and why this working group is needed, observed challenges with data storage, analysis, and sharing platforms, and last but not least what other organizations or commercial companies can learn from organizations like the UC Santa Cruz Genomics Institute.
Of particular relevance in this context is the fact that Professor David Haussler is chairing a session at the upcoming annual Personalized Medicine World Conference, PMWC 2016 Silicon Valley, on “Data Solutions in Clinical Genomics”. It’s noteworthy to mention that
this session includes a panel with Jonathan Sheldon (Global Vice President Healthcare at Oracle), Carlos Bustamante (Professor of Genetics at Stanford University School of Medicine), and Taylor Sittler (Co-Founder and Medical Lead at Color Genomics). Undoubtedly, this particular session will be generating interest among many exciting other program aspects at this upcoming PMWC conference. If you are unfamiliar with the PMWC conference, this is an event that has grown substantially over the years into a very established and noteworthy conference that is attended by many leading authorities and experts across the entire healthcare and biotechnology sector. In addition to boasting a panel of great speakers, this conference also represents an amazing networking event with about 1,200 attendees. We at enlightenbio are looking forward every year to attend this conference and to hear first-hand about the recent developments in the field of Personalized Medicine.
Following is the interview conducted by PMWC Intl. with Professor Haussler.
PMWC: What are some of the biggest challenges when it comes to working with genomics data in the clinical setting and what are suggested solutions to address these challenges?
DH: As we start sequencing genomes, individual companies, institutions, and laboratories find genetic variants that they have not seen frequently before and are not sure how to interpret – they could have important clinical implications, or they could be totally harmless. Because there is significant variation in the human genome from one individual to the next, and because we have not yet sequenced enough genomes to be able to assign risk to the majority of variants, a significant fraction of the cases seen by typical institutions will be so-called “variants of uncertain significance.” Many of these are very similar to, but not exactly like, those that are known to have health consequences, so clinicians often take conservative preventative measures to be safe. This can lead, in some cases, to unnecessary medical procedures and responses and result in undue health anguish. Thus, a fully genetically informed clinical decision process is profoundly important for the patient.
PMWC: Why are large-scale genomics efforts needed? How are you and your team involved?
DH: The only way to deal with variants of unknown significance is to create a large-scale genomic knowledge network that includes all the genetic variants observed worldwide, and their associated health observations. This requires a global network of shared data. The vast majority of human genetic variants are individually rare but collectively common, so this effort will have health impact on almost everybody. My team is helping to build the tools and approaches necessary to share data responsibly and effectively.
PMWC: There are numerous large-scale genomics efforts under way or in the process of getting started.
Will the size, in terms of number of samples, of these sequencing projects be sufficient to fully understand most rare diseases?
If not sufficient, how can this be addressed better – algorithmically, via data sharing platforms, or other?
DH: It is wonderful that several countries are launching very large case cohort studies, including the Precision Medicine Initiative in the US and the 100,000 Genomes Initiative in England. These will provide consistent and controlled data sets for research that are larger than have ever been available before. However, we must also move very aggressively to begin sharing genetic data from routine clinical practice, which will very soon be generating orders of magnitude more data than all the controlled cohort studies combined. The tyranny of numbers in statistics points to this as the information source of greatest potential power. However, to access that potential and turn routine clinical practice into revolutionary learning for health and medicine, we need to create widely used data accessing platforms that bring all the knowledge together.
PMWC: What are the promises and challenges of sharing clinical and research sequencing data?
DH: We will ultimately attain a whole new level of understanding of how our individual detailed genetic variation influences our health and learn to exploit this knowledge, either by adjusting our diet, behavior, and lifestyle or through direct medical intervention. We’ll be able to monitor and control diseases of aging such as cancer, diabetes, and Alzheimer’s at their molecular basis. We’ll gain a detailed understanding of the current state of our immune system, what it needs to do to make us healthier, and how we can help it along to work for us.
The most difficult challenges to the controlled sharing of genetic data are social challenges, e.g. privacy issues and competition between medical institutions, but there are also significant technical challenges, and there is much interplay between the two types of challenge.
PMWC: You are a co-founder and co-chair of the Data Working Group of the Global Alliance for Genomics and Health. Can you tell us more about the initiative and efforts under way and why this working group is needed?
DH: The Global Alliance for Genomics and Health (GA4GH) is an international network of researchers, clinicians, companies, and patient and disease advocates who are working together to create the harmonized tools and approaches necessary for responsible and effective data sharing. The Data Working Group of the GA4GH is addressing the technical challenges of accessing data distributed globally. We are the geeks that have come together from hundreds of companies, nonprofits, and universities to get the technical data-sharing job done. Our sister Working Groups (Regulatory and Ethics, Security, and Clinical) are handling the complementary issues that put our work into context.
PMWC: What is the ideal data storage, analysis, and sharing platform for genomics data?
DH: We are working on that! It is not an easy question. One thing we have learned is that global social realities dictate that there will not be a single centralized database of all personal genome data. We simply cannot create enough global trust in any single government or privately funded institution for that. However, the Internet itself is an example of a very successful decentralized platform that became sufficiently trusted to attain global use, and that forms the basis for many government and privately funded “apps” that make beneficial use of all kinds of data, including personal data. The GA4GH Data Working Group is essentially trying to extend the Internet a bit further so that it includes a little more specialized infrastructure that understands and responds to the need for accessing global genetic data, while paying careful attention to very important privacy issues.
PMWC: What can other organizations or the commercial sector working on delivering these types of platforms learn from organizations like the UC Santa Cruz Genomics Institute?
DH: One thing that is evident is that it is valuable to have a neutral third party — an entity that does not itself have a competing medical institute, a corporate board of directors with an overriding profit motive, or a political mandate — to convene disparate groups around global standards and shared infrastructure. This is what the UC Santa Cruz Genomics Institute does. We began by posting the first draft of the human genome sequence on the Internet in July of 2000 in collaboration with the International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium, followed through with the UCSC Genome Browser and the CGHub Cancer Genomics database, and are now devoting considerable energy to the GA4GH. We would like to reach out to and encourage everyone who wants to make an impact on human health to join us and contribute to a growing worldwide data sharing movement.
100000 Genomes Project Carlos Bustamante CGHub Cancer Genomics database Color Genomics Data Working Group of the Global Alliance for Genomics and Health David Haussler GA4GH genomics Genomics England human genome sequencing NGS Oracle PMWC PMWC 2016 Silicon Valley PMWC Intl Stanford University Taylor Sittler UCSC UCSC Genome Browser UCSC Santa Cruz Genomics Institute
Merck’s Research Laboratory President Dr. Roger Perlmutter Shares His Vision on “How Personalized Medicine Will Impact Healthcare”
For the first time in three years AGBT returned to Marco Island for its 2019 conference. It was pleasant to be back and be able to enjoy the warmth and the friendly setting we’ve all remembered. The weather played along...read more
This month’s “Company Spotlight” takes a closer look at Blueprint Genetics, a rare disease diagnostics company on a mission to deliver the highest quality standards for genetic diagnostics. Tero-Pekka Alastalo, Chief...read more
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Specialist hired to assist farmers with industrial hemp production
Marguerite Bolt, who recently received her master’s degree in entomology from Purdue University and also has a background in horticulture and beekeeping, has been appointed as Purdue Extension’s first hemp production specialist.
“Purdue University is committed to fully evaluating and supporting the many opportunities that industrial hemp could provide to Indiana’s farming community,” said Ron Turco, head of Purdue’s Department of Agronomy. “Marguerite Bolt has a great deal of experience in both hemp and agriculture. Her background in chemical and non-chemical techniques to reduce insect pests in specialty crops, primarily sweet and tart cherries, apples, and wine grapes is exactly the skill set we need as hemp production roles out in Indiana.”
Bolt, who grew up in Northern Michigan on a small specialty crops farm, graduated from Michigan State University with a bachelor’s degree in entomology. She spent three summers working as a field technician researching techniques to reduce insect pests and pathogens and was a commercial beekeeper for a year. At Purdue, her research with Assistant Professor of Entomology John Couture has focused on the influence of agronomic management practices on hemp-insect interactions.
“I have thoroughly enjoyed working with hemp over the last two years and I am excited to continue my work on this crop,” Bolt said. “I am committed to applying my communication skills and passion for hemp production to this position in several ways.”
Bolt’s vision for her position is to design an Extension program that provides the groundwork for prospective commercial hemp production through public meetings, field days and updates to Purdue’s hemp website. She also plans to build a social media presence for Purdue’s hemp project.
With hemp being a new crop for Indiana farmers, Bolt plans to educate interested growers on how to get started with hemp, including how to obtain a permit and seeds for the crop, which cultivars are best for the region and where to find reliable information. When hemp production becomes fully operational in 2020, Bolt plans to work with the State Chemist’s Office to provide webinars focusing on the application process to obtain a hemp production permit, which will be required for all hemp operations.
With the intricacies of raising hemp still somewhat of an unknown for most Indiana farmers, Bolt also plans to develop and release a series of webinars to address growers’ questions, along with fact sheets and eventually a hemp production guide for Indiana.
2019 Open Class Fair Results
SC 4-H News Online!
Shelby County Extension
Contact us at Shelbyces@purdue.edu
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Electric go-karts get the green light
Purdue ag economists: Shale oil 'dividend' could pay for smaller carbon footprint
Sharon C Katz
Unanticipated economic benefits from the shale oil and gas boom could help offset the costs of substantially reducing the U.S.'s carbon footprint, Purdue agricultural economists say.
Wally Tyner and Farzad Taheripour estimate that shale technologies annually provide an extra $302 billion to the U.S. economy relative to 2007, a yearly "dividend" that could continue for at least the next two decades, Tyner said.
Using an economic model, they found that "spending" part of this dividend on slashing the nation's carbon emissions by about 27 percent - about the same amount set forth in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's recently proposed Clean Power Plan - would reduce the shale dividend by about half.
"The benefits of shale technology to the American economy are tremendous - and just seven years ago, shale wasn't even on the radar," said Tyner, the James and Lois Ackerman Professor of Agricultural Economics. "The shale boom provides us with an opportunity: We can continue to accumulate more goods and services, or we can use part of this windfall to pay for a lower carbon economy."
Shale oil and gas make up a significant and growing part of the nation's total oil and gas production. But the production of shale oil and gas was long hampered by the technical challenges of extracting the oil reserves trapped in shale, a rock formed from consolidated mud or clay. The recent development of horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, unlocked these resources, flooding the U.S. economy with unforeseen gains.
Tyner and Taheripour, a research assistant professor of agricultural economics, used a computable general equilibrium model - which accounts for all economic sectors and factor markets - to test the economic outcomes of pitting the gains from an expanding shale oil and gas industry against the cost of three emission-reducing scenarios: regulating the U.S. electricity and transport sectors, regulating only the electricity sector and putting an economywide tax on carbon.
Each scenario would decrease national carbon emissions by about 27 percent, compared with 2007 levels, by the year 2035.
The model showed that regulating the electricity and transport sectors' emissions would reduce the shale dividend from $302 billion to $148 billion. Regulating only the electricity sector would leave $151 billion of the original dividend. An economywide carbon tax would drop the annual shale gain to $178 billion.
"We can significantly reduce carbon emissions and still keep half of the gains from shale oil and gas production," Tyner said. "Can we have our cake and eat it, too? The answer is yes."
The carbon tax is the most efficient of the three scenarios because it saves an extra $30 billion of the shale dividend compared with regulating the electricity and transport sectors while achieving the same reduction in emissions, Tyner said. But, he added, "'tax' tends to be a four-letter word in Washington, D.C."
Regulating the electricity and transport sectors is similar to the regulation proposed in the EPA's Clean Power Plan, which would reduce national carbon emissions from power plants by 30 percent compared with 2005 levels by 2030.
One objection to the EPA's proposed regulation is that it could hit consumers in the wallet - and it will, Tyner said.
"Anything we do to reduce our carbon emissions is going to come with a price tag," he said. "But it is a glass half-empty or glass half-full situation. We can't yet quantify the benefits of avoiding the adverse effects of climate change, but those effects clearly cannot be ignored."
Tyner and Taheripour outlined their findings in a policy brief published by the National Agricultural and Rural Development Policy Center and in a paper presented at the U.S. Association for Energy Economics' annual conference.
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Coastal Program
USFWS Coastal Program
The Coastal Program is a voluntary habitat conservation program that works with communities to restore and protect habitats that are important to them. Coastal Program staff provide technical and financial assistance to partners carrying out conservation on public and private lands along the coast, including the Great Lakes, Alaska, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico.
Since 1985, the Coastal Program has forged partnerships with more than 6,400 partners and organizations. These collaborations have produced numerous restoration and conservation successes and have helped protect more than 2.1 million acres of habitat, restore over 550,000 acres and more than 2,600 miles of streams. The results of these partnership efforts has resulted in the delisting or down-listing of 20 federally-listed threatened and endangered species.
The Coastal Program is instrumental in delivering federal and partner resources to local economies:
Download the Coastal Program Brochure »
Coastal Program Offices
The Coastal Program has 8 regions of operation throughout the country with multiple office locations within each.
Download a full contact listing here »
Get a closer look at the Coastal Program’s strategic focus areas through the following maps:
About HabNet
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You are here: Home / World Economic Forum / We finally have a life-saving vaccine for Ebola
We finally have a life-saving vaccine for Ebola
June 1, 2018 by World Economic Forum 1 Comment
UNFPA Liberia Two midwives in Ebola protective gear supplied by UNFPA hand over a newborn to her mother at the Star of the Sea Clinic in West Point, Monrovia, Liberia.
This article is brought to you thanks to the strategic cooperation of The European Sting with the World Economic Forum.
Author: Anabel González, Senior Director, Trade and Competitiveness Global Practice, The World Bank
The current Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo is a cause for serious concern. It has already taken the lives of 25 people, and the disease has spread to the provincial capital Mbandaka, a city of more than one million.
But this time we have a new weapon to add to our arsenal in the fight against Ebola – a vaccine. Already, 300,000 investigational doses are available despite the fact that this vaccine, though proved to be safe and effective in clinical trials, is yet to be licensed by regulatory authorities.
These vaccines will not end the outbreak by themselves – they are part of a far larger national and international effort which will be crucial to contain the disease. However, the fact that they are already being used as an integral part of the response marks a historic first.
One of the central issues with vaccine development and supply is that it is not driven by the risk a disease poses, but rather by economics. The size of the potential market matters more than the scale of devastation a disease can cause.
Ebola is no exception. This disease is among the deadliest in existence, with mortality rates that can be as high as 90%, and no licensed treatment available. In fact, I gave a TED talk on this challenge in 2015 and held up two Ebola experimental vaccines on the TED stage, one of which is the vaccine currently in use.
Yet in the four decades between Ebola’s discovery and the 2014 West Africa outbreak, there were just a few thousand cases in some of the poorest countries in the world. There was no incentive to take a vaccine through the lengthy, costly licensing process needed for public use. Though researchers developed several promising Ebola vaccines, none left the laboratory.
The West Africa outbreak was as a wake-up call. As the disease rapidly spread from Guinea to Liberia and Sierra Leone, raising alarm in capitals across the world, the need for an effective, approved vaccine had never been more pronounced.
In August 2014, the same month that the WHO declared Ebola to be a public health emergency, Canada’s federal government donated a vaccine for use in Africa that it had researched for biodefence purposes. The Public Health Agency of Canada licensed its manufacture to NewLink Genetics and eventually to Merck.
In 2015, this experimental vaccine, called rVSV-ZEBOV, was tested in Guinea where health officials, together with the WHO, the Norwegian Institute of Public Health, MSF and Health Canada, implemented the “Ebola, ça suffit” (“Ebola, that’s enough”) vaccination trial. Almost 12,000 people who had come into contact with someone who had shown symptoms of the disease were vaccinated in a ring vaccination approach either immediately or after 21 days.
Guinea was declared Ebola-free on 29 December, 2015. The trial ended in January 2016, after the final participants had completed their 84-day follow-up. The vaccine proved to be well tolerated and, most importantly, showed a point estimate of 100% efficacy [95% C.I. 79-100%].
Although it was too late for it to contribute fully to the response in West Africa, there was hope that the vaccine could help stop an outbreak of this size from ever happening again.
But, as attention shifted away from Ebola and onto the next global crisis, there was a real danger that the rVSV-ZEBOV vaccine could end up stalled in the licensing process for years, leaving the world exposed to another major outbreak.
So in 2015, my organisation, Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, made a unique offer to all manufacturers that had a vaccine in Phase I clinical trials and beyond. We offered a pre-paid commitment to buy doses of licensed vaccines as and when the vaccine becomes available, confirming to the manufacturers that there was a guaranteed market for an effective Ebola vaccine.
In return we set three conditions: that the manufacturer submits an application for licensure by a set date; that they receive a special classification from the WHO that would allow it to be used in case of a public health emergency; and, most importantly, that they make a stockpile of investigational doses available in case of an outbreak while the vaccine is going through the licensing process.
In January 2016, we announced at Davos that Merck had agreed to our terms. An advance purchase commitment of $5 million – the first of its kind – was signed. Hailed as a “bold step” by Merck’s Executive Vice-President and former CDC Director, Dr Julie Gerberding, this agreement meant that 300,000 investigational doses of the rVSV-ZEBOV vaccine would be available, including 100,000 doses that can be shipped within 24 hours. These doses are now being used to protect thousands of people at risk in the DRC.
Too often, our response to disease outbreaks is purely reactive. It is not until people start to die that governments and aid agencies spring into action. The development and availability of rVSV-ZEBOV shows that it doesn’t need to be this way.
The vaccine is the result of years of energy and commitment from Merck; the generosity of Canada’s federal government; leadership by WHO; strong support to test the vaccine from both NGOs such as MSF and the countries affected by the West Africa outbreak; and the rapid response and dedication of the DRC Minister of Health, who was vaccinated this weekend, sending a signal of trust. Without these efforts, it is unlikely this vaccine would be available for several years, if at all.
Democratic Republic of the Congo Minister of Health Dr Oly Ilunga Kalenga receives the Ebola vaccine
The agreement between Gavi and Merck was one of many factors following the West African Ebola outbreak which helped rally governments and aid agencies around the importance of global health security. This resulted in the creation of a new organisation, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), which was launched at Davos the following year. CEPI is now working with the private sector to incentivize the development of a host of new vaccines for diseases that could become the next epidemic, from Nipah virus to Lassa fever.
I am immensely proud that Gavi played its part in making this vaccine available. I was honoured to witness the very first vaccination in Mbakanda last week, and more take place in Bikoro and Iboko this week. We must now hope that the vaccine can play its part in stopping this outbreak from becoming another pandemic.r
Filed Under: World Economic Forum Tagged With: Ebola Vaccine Found, The European Sting, World Economic Forum
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“We always honor our words, and in that respect we expect our partners to honor their words as well”, China’s State Councillor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi highlights live from Brussels »
Ebola: Fake Epidemics: The Cash Cow of Globalists With Depopulation In Mind – Annie Logical Uncensored says:
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Fear and Loathing, World of Politics, Regarding Religion
US: 5th Circuit rules for Mississippi anti-LGBT ‘religious freedom’ law
The U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals has lifted a court order against a “religious freedom” law in Mississippi that would enable sweeping anti-LGBT discrimination, citing a lack of standing for plaintiffs in litigation against the statute.
Writing for a unanimous three-judge panel, U.S. Circuit Judge Jerry Smith issued a decision allowing enforcement of HB 1523, which had been blocked as a result of a lower court order.
“The Governor of Mississippi and the Executive Director of the Mississippi Department of Human Services appeal a preliminary injunction,” Smith writes. “Because the plaintiffs do not have standing, we reverse the injunction and render a judgment of dismissal.”
Smith denies assertions of injury from plaintiffs, who alleged the Mississippi law violates the Establishment Clause because it takes into account only certain religions views on LGBT people.
Signed by Gov. Phil Bryant last year, HB 1523 enables individuals and businesses to discriminate against LGBT people in the name of “religious freedom.”
The law prohibits the state from taking action against religious organizations that decline employment, housing or services to same-sex couples; families who’ve adopted a foster child and wish to act in opposition to same-sex marriage; and individuals who offer wedding services and decline to facilitate a same-sex wedding.
Additionally, the bill allows individuals working in medical services to decline to afford a transgender person gender reassignment surgery. The bill also allows state government employees who facilitate marriages the option to opt out of issuing licenses to same-sex couples, but the person must issue prior written notice to the state government and a clerk’s office must not delay in the issuing of licenses. Read more via Washington Blade
Tagged: legislation, discrimination, USA
Newer PostUS: The Beauty and Terror of Passing as a Woman
Older PostAustralia: The Trans Woman Behind A Landmark UN Decision Says It Shows The Need For Marriage Equality
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November Superlatives
I’ve sort of forgotten about the end of November. It seems to have been an infinite month, on and on and on, late nights, late shifts, weekends alone or away. It doesn’t feel like the end of anything, especially given that things are only going to get busier at the pub from now until New Year. I’ve read twelve books this month, though—some of them quite long. I won’t lie, there was definitely some post-election comfort reading going on.
most disproportionately affecting: By size, I mean. The playscript for Camilla Whitehill’s play Where Do Little Birds Go (which I reviewed at Litro) takes a quarter of an hour to read, but the play is haunting. A one-woman show that dramatises the experiences of Lucy Fuller, a barmaid kidnapped by the Kray twins in the 1960s, it’s spare, effective, and completely engrossing.
best glimpse of another world: Alfred Russel Wallace’s The Malay Archipelago, his writings about the years he spent in Southeast Asia collecting specimens of birds, insects and mammals. He’s thoughtful and reflective, but still a product of time; reading his ruminations about the “natural character” of the indigenous people is an insight into a mindset that may not be cruel but is still limited. His writings on landscape are beautiful.
most obscurely disappointing: There is nothing at all wrong with Fiona Melrose’s debut novel Midwinter. I just wanted more… juice, I said to Rebecca when she reviewed it, though I’m not sure that’s the right word. The story of a father and son struggling with the decade-old loss of mother and wife Cessie, it’s a quiet novel about quiet men, whose thoughts Melrose infiltrates and describes fluently. The writing is good. I can’t complain about it. I think it has been the victim of Twitter hype.
most relevant: The Dark Circle, Linda Grant’s new novel, which takes in the beginnings of the NHS and the global social changes of the 1950s, and leaves us believing that the strength of the individual character is our best hope. I reviewed it just after the US election and was comforted by its vision of a new, happy, modern life, despite the constant presence of the past.
warm bath books: The US election was hard. I woke up at eight the morning after, checked my phone, and began to cry, at which point the Chaos made me return to bed. I cried and demanded to be held and cried some more, went back to sleep for a few hours, woke up, cried again. I was very glad I had the day off. I read the second and third of Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy: The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass. It had been years since I’d read them and I was pleasantly surprised to find that they are not as intellectually antagonistic as I remembered; they are instead profoundly humane books, framing the human mind and human evolution as a source of wonder and power. They are soothing without being mindless or saccharine, and just about perfect.
weirdest: I think Shena Mackay just writes weird books, and her novel Dunedin, though the first of hers that I’ve read, is probably pretty representative. It’s a split timeframe—the first half is set in nineteenth-century New Zealand; the second half follows the descendants of our original protagonists in southeast London—but the New Zealand bit is short-changed in the word count, and the plot of the south London bit has no obvious centre. She writes the same kind of tactile, color-and-light-filled prose as A.S. Byatt, though, so I liked it anyway.
most potential: This is, I admit, a backhanded compliment indeed. Stephanie Victoire’s debut story collection, The Other World, It Whispers, addresses issues of gender and sexuality through a fantasy lens that is fueled by a huge imagination. I also, unfortunately, found it under-edited and uneven. Swings and roundabouts…
second most potential: Wendy Jones’s collection of interviews with English women about their sex lives (helpfully entitled The Sex Lives of English Women) is, yes, totally fascinating. She has a decent spread of age, class, race and preferences—there is a 19-year-old devout Muslim, a 33-year-old ex-Buddhist nun, a 94-year-old former Land Girl who recalls having sex by the side of the road—but I wanted a little more structure; the chapters read as transcriptions of one half of a conversation, which is a bit disorienting, as it sometimes is in magazine interviews.
best impulse buy: I’m not sure I’ve ever bought a book on the strength of one review, but I did it for Treasure Palaces: Great Writers Visit Great Museums, an anthology from The Economist whose subtitle tells you all you need to know. The museums range from the Pitt Rivers in Oxford to the Museum of Broken Relationships in Zagreb, via the Frick Collection, the ABBA Museum, Kelvingrove in Glasgow, and many more. The authors range from Frank Cottrell Boyce to Don Paterson, Ali Smith to Jacqueline Wilson. The essays are elegiac, descriptive, lyrical, hilarious, strange. A total treasure box.
best debut: Eric Beck Rubin’s novel School of Velocity, ONE Pushkin Press’s new release. The control Rubin exercises in this tale of charisma, friendship, music and obsession is worthy of a veteran novelist. I’m very interested to read his next book.
big fat fucking awesome book: C.E. Morgan’s The Sport of Kings has divided opinion since its release. Me, I like it. A chunkster indeed, but its tale of Thoroughbred horse racing, interwoven with a Southern family saga and the attendant agonies of racial prejudice right through to the present day, makes it all forgivable: its flaws are immense because its ambitions are immense, as someone once said of Dickens. I read it on many trains over about three days, and was delighted to have had it with me to pass the time.
up next: I’m reading Sarah Moss’s Signs for Lost Children and loving it. I loved The Tidal Zone, so this is hardly surprising, but still.
November 30, 2016 Elle 20th-century literature, 21st-century literature, American literature, book reviews, books, British literature, Canadian literature, children's literature, drama, essays, fantasy, fiction, genres, journalism, nonfiction, ONE Pushkin, Penguin Books, plays, reading, Reviews, science, short stories, Virago 24 Comments
School of Velocity, by Eric Beck Rubin
There were also things we didn’t talk about, not even to each other. The things we couldn’t explain, but just did.
~~here be (one or two) spoilers~~
Jan de Vries is a student at Sint Ansfried, an elite performing arts high school, when he meets Dirk Noosen. He is a pianist; Dirk is an actor. “I saw him several times before I even knew his name,” he tells us. “He was like a new word that, once learned, you heard spoken everywhere.” That is the reader’s cue to be aware that this book is going to be about charisma, about power, about the ways in which the charismatic behave that make them, at best, dubious idols. It’s also, because of this, highly relevant to the book I’m currently writing, which also wrestles with questions of charisma, school days (or adolescence in general) and power games.
Well. Reading School of Velocity has made me think two things: a) thank God someone else has written a book about this, it’s obviously possible; and b) bollocks, maybe I shouldn’t bother; how can I improve on this?
For this review I shall take a leaf out of Naomi‘s book and write, overtly, about what made this book so effective for me.
Thing one: the setting
Reviewers talk about setting a lot; often, I think, more than is necessary, because setting is very rarely “a character in its own right”. If you’re talking Wuthering Heights or, I dunno, Wolf Hall, or Ordinary People, then yeah, sure, but otherwise, setting isn’t always that big a deal. What I liked very much about School of Velocity is the mysteriously seamless way in which Rubin places the action in the Netherlands. He doesn’t drop a whole lot of place names, but he situates his characters in their provincial home town, and later in the city of Maastricht, so coolly and confidently that I thought he must hail from thereabouts. Evidently he doesn’t, which makes me wonder how on earth he managed such casually intimate descriptions of the place.
Thing two: the pacing
Really good authors know how to fast-forward. Rubin covers whole years of friendship in a couple of pages, with smartly structured montage flashbacks like this one:
During the years at Sint Ansfried, I must have had my own classes, spent time alone practising, spent lunches by myself, and I remember leaving Dirk’s house on Saturday afternoons, which means I must have spent the rest of the weekends away from him. But I cannot pick out a memory from those years that does not find Dirk by my side. We spent what felt like years at the movie theatre… We listened to experimental music in record shops and in his room and went to watch bands play in bars and small clubs. We walked every street in Den Bosch, where he lived, and Vught, where we cut classes, something we did with increasing frequency, ducking out of math and languages and going to sit in a cafe to talk, argue, laugh.
When, at the end of the novel, he tells Dirk it’s been thirty years since they saw each other in Maastricht, the reader is as vaguely surprised as Dirk is. Thirty years? Really? Well, that went by quickly.
Thing three: the descriptions of Jan’s illness
Jan and Dirk, as you might have guessed, stop speaking to each other at some point after they graduate from high school. It doesn’t quite happen slowly—they don’t call or write to each other at all during that first term at university. At Christmas, Dirk calls from America to say he’s spending the holiday with his girlfriend, leaving Jan, who’s turned down an invitation from his parents in anticipation of spending time with Dirk, alone on Christmas Day.
For a long time—years—this seems, both to Jan and to us, reasonably normal. Jan meets a girl, Lena, who believes in his playing. His career begins to take off. But he begins to develop strange auditory hallucinations: kettles boiling, buzz saws, roaring waves. The music that he ordinarily hears in his head just before a performance is transformed into something dissonant and violent. It begins to affect his playing. It begins to affect his sanity. He doesn’t tell Lena.
Thing four: the ending
It is, to be short, spot on. Jan’s quest to see Dirk again, to recapture the magic and the headiness and, yes, the romance of their school days, is doomed from the start. The savvy reader knows it, but still hopes, horribly, desperately, pathetically, as Jan hopes, that something can be salvaged from the wreckage. Dirk’s disappointingly ordinary life—his reversion to Sint Ansfried, where he is now the head of the drama department—is our first warning: promises don’t always come true. Potential isn’t always realised. Dirk’s kind of charisma, his flamboyant irreverence, doesn’t necessarily go down well in the real world, the adult world. For Jan to seek it out again and believe that it is the key to his salvation is at best immature; at worst, it romanticises the past in a way that could stunt him for good. Indeed, when he does find and reunite with Dirk, the terms of that meeting are so unexpected that he cannot recover.
Thing five: the title
School of Velocity is the name of a set of piano pieces by Carl Czerny, designed to help train pianists in passage work by exercising them at different tempi. It’s also a clever reference to the games of chicken that Dirk and Jan play on their bikes—who can cycle the furthest with their eyes shut? Dirk claims to be able to count thirteen; Jan only manages twelve. And, not least, it suggests the philosophy that gets Dirk—who is, we suspect, more lonely and conflicted than Jan ever realises—through school and early adulthood. Go faster; be louder; never stop moving. But Dirk doesn’t die young: he burns out. And perhaps it’s Jan, in the end, who suffers most from adhering to the School of Velocity.
It’s a small and compact book, this one, a square shape easily hefted in the hand, slipped into a purse (or, dare I say it, a Christmas stocking). Its subject matter may look obscure—classical piano playing isn’t everyone’s bag—but at its heart, it’s about huge and basic emotions: insecurity, friendship, need, sex. It delivers all of this in elegantly readable prose, efficient and yet deeply moving. I loved it. I hope, this season, it receives the attention it deserves.
Many thanks to Tabitha Pelly at ONE Pushkin for the review copy. School of Velocity was released in the UK on 21 November.
November 23, 2016 Elle 21st-century novels, book reviews, books, Canadian literature, Eric Beck Rubin, fiction, friendship, genres, music, novels, ONE Pushkin, reading, reviewing, School of Velocity, sex 6 Comments
The Other World, It Whispers, by Stephanie Victoire
I want to find her and ask her to show me what other creatures I could be.
Fabulism isn’t a literary mode that I have a particularly easy time with. The discomfort that I often feel when reading something with an overtly “magical realist” tinge is, I’ve discovered, the same as the discomfort I get from “contemporary” translations of texts from classical antiquity. It’s a form of register clash. Reading a translation of Virgil’s Eclogues that includes the phrase “Put up or shut up” (as I once did) is jarring, a yank out of the clearly established classical context into a slangy modernity that feels false. In the same way, reading a story obviously set in a world like our own becomes bewildering when elements of fantasy creep in: witches, spells, sculptures that come to life, but also Paddington station, a bar called the Red Oak, Paris’s Sacré Cœur glimpsed from an apartment window. More often than not, when stories like this work, it’s because the author has planed her prose smooth, every word chosen to encourage and nourish the reader’s belief.
Stephanie Victoire’s stories manage this about half the time, and half is a pretty good ratio for a young author (she graduated from London Met in 2010) whose first collection this is. The first story, “Time and Silence”, and the third, “Layla and the Axe”, work very well because they remain basically unmoored from an easily identifiable contemporary world. “Time and Silence” is told from the perspective of an adolescent boy who is abused, Cinderella-fashion, by a mother who believes in the fundamental badness of males. A mysterious girl with no name appears outside their forest-bound shack. His friendship with her gives him the strength to defy his mother and leave his situation of domestic slavery, but the world into which he escapes is, in many ways, no safer:
As for me, there’d be new lands and the sea, and that thought got me excited. I only looked back once to see the small glow of light from the house disappear behind the arms of the trees. Snow tugged my arm, urging me on. There was no way I could let go of her now. I looked up one more time at the moon before moving quicker, because it was then I was sure I heard the howling of a wolf.
I have always liked ambiguity in short stories, especially in their endings. “Layla and the Axe” also derives its strength from the ambiguity of its ending, indeed of its whole plot: a young girl moves through a similar forest, her faithful fox by her side, carrying an axe. She is on her way to wreak vengeance on a mysterious man who has emerged repeatedly from the trees to seduce, or rape, girls from the village. She finds a house at the story’s end:
“Come in! Come in!” says the voice again and, at the turning of the handle and the creak of the door, Layla pushes through the aches in her arms, ready to swing, and thinks Pa’s axe could be a hero.
There the story ends; we never find out whether she brings the axe down in time, whether the person she kills is the person she is looking for. There is just enough uncertainty about the mysterious man’s provenance to make the reader wonder: is it possible that Layla doesn’t, can’t, succeed?
The stories I found less convincing were “The Animal Ball” and “Dark Arts and Deities”, the penultimate story in the collection. “The Animal Ball” is a brilliant idea wrapped in an execution that feels too hurried. A wealthy couple, the Barringtons, invite everyone they know to an animal-themed costume ball. Over the course of the evening, there is a murder, and the Barrington marriage—thanks in no small part to the presence of a fortune-telling guest dressed as a snow owl—begins to disintegrate under the weight of lies, jealousy, and revenge. My problem with it is that the writing just feels undercooked. The story asks the reader to do quite a lot of emotional work as it progresses, but there’s no sense of the words being arranged artfully in order to help the reader do that. It’s probably easier to illustrate this by quoting:
The swan went over to the snow owl to explain that she’d have her payment the next day as she didn’t have any more cash on her.
“Oh no, all that has been sorted with your husband,” the snow owl replied, stroking the feathers of her cloak.
“What do you mean?” The swan gulped down the lump in her throat, discreetly she thought, but the snow owl saw it.
“I think you ought to talk to him about it.”
I don’t know, it’s just a little too much, or not enough: the casual colloquialisms when the rest of the story is on a higher thematic plane (“didn’t have any more cash on her”; “been sorted”), the tang of cliché (“gulped down”, “lump in her throat”). It didn’t work for me at all.
A similar set of problems plagues “Dark Arts and Deities”, which focuses on a twenty-something wild child summoning a pantheon of historically and culturally diverse gods to wreak revenge on the small town whose provincial inhabitants have snubbed her. Why would any of these divine powers give the slightest damn about a vaguely sexy woman being misunderstood? What about our protagonist is compelling enough to make us believe that she is herself a candidate for apotheosis? The sex scenes are just embarrassing, the info-dumping is excessive, the clichés reach new heights (“the usual suspects”; “sobbing her eyes out”; “all of her emotional cuts were closing up”). The story needs, in effect, a more judicious editorial eye. I know I say this a lot about contemporary fiction but I think it’s true; there are many, many competent stories and novels being published which could have been excellent with a little more attention and criticism.
The collection’s triumph, though—and it does have one—is the presence of two stories which deal with gay and transgender themes. “Shanty”, the inner monologue of a biological male who knows he is a girl, invokes the archetype of the mermaid:
I wish I’d been created so. Imagine being that magnificent, that magnetic and that ethereal… Just a tail that allows you to soar and pirouette, like a ribbon being twirled in the air…in pure, blissful freedom.
Freedom is the key. In the final story, “Morgana’s Shadow”, a young girl from a deeply religious family is imprisoned after she’s seen kissing a woman in the forest. “It was a kiss to seal a deal”, she explains, the deal being that in exchange for the kiss she acquires the power of shape-shifting. It’s one of the shorter stories, but in it, Victoire seamlessly literalises the feeling of not being oneself, or of not being the self that others believe one is or should be, that often haunts people struggling with their sexuality. Her interest in liberation—physical, mental, emotional—is rooted in a belief in the power of transforming magic. But it is very easy to see how literal magic can stand in for the intoxicating feeling that comes from finally, finally being true to yourself:
I rip myself free from the rags and my large wing bats Joshua away from me. …I test out my new lungs and a loud cry sweeps across the room with my breath—the sound of freedom.
Many thanks to the publicity folks at Salt for sending me a review copy. The Other World, It Whispers was published in the UK on 15 November.
November 21, 2016 Elle 21st-century literature, book reviews, books, British literature, fabulism, fantasy, fiction, reading, Salt Publishing, short stories, Stephanie Victoire, The Other World It Whispers 4 Comments
The Dark Circle, by Linda Grant
Life was better when something mattered, even if it was just putting on your war-paint in the morning.
Lenny and Miriam Lynskey are an East End brother and sister, twins, from a Jewish immigrant family. Lenny is being groomed to take over his uncle Manny’s property development business; Miriam works in a florist’s shop. The Second World War has just ended, but National Service is still in force and Lenny has been called up for his medical exam. He’s not worried—Uncle Manny has paid someone and he’ll be declared “unfit for service”. Except when the results come back, it turns out Uncle Manny didn’t need to pay anyone: Lenny’s unfit for service anyway. The x-rays show he has tuberculosis, and Miriam does too. They’re packed off to a TB sanatorium in Kent, which, under the auspices of the new National Health Service, is now open to non-fee-paying patients for the first time.
This is the premise of Linda Grant’s new novel. There is a lot going on. By far the longest section of the book is the part actually set in the sanatorium, in 1955. I am accustomed to thinking of the NHS as one of Britain’s claims to greatness, a beneficent institution that made social equality a reality, not just a talking point for armchair socialists. It’s unnerving, therefore, to read about the strong resistance to NHS oversight that permeated UK medicine in the 1950s. The attitude wasn’t just held amongst medical professionals, but also amongst patients themselves: the “better class” of people at the Gwendolyn Downie Memorial Hospital see Miriam, in her tight dresses and bright lipstick, and immediately write her off as vulgar and common. The old-fashioned approach to medical treatment—that the patient must passively submit to treatment, which in TB cases usually consisted of “allowing the disease to take its course”—was paternalistic and patronising in the extreme. Grant captures it, and the class undertones, so well:
“Why wouldn’t they let you back in? What’s all this about?”
“It’s the cure, it’s supposed to be a cure.”
“We had the bed rest already.”
“But this is in the fresh air at low temperatures,” said Matron. “It’s a completely different experience. People pay hundreds of pounds to go to Switzerland for this you know, and look at the Alps all day, but here, you’re getting almost as good and for nothing.”
“So you keep saying,” said Miriam. “We know what we’re entitled to.”
Anxiety provoked by encroaching socialism is everywhere, but the Gwendo (as the sanatorium’s inhabitants call it) is no better: medical director Doctor Limb fears the “interference” of the Health Ministry but fails to see how destructive it is for him to force passivity and conformity upon his patients. The arrival of Arthur Persky, a sailor from Brooklyn whose brief docking in London was enough for him to be diagnosed with TB and barred from re-entering his ship, is an explosion of colour and rebelliousness in this closed-off, grey-and-beige world. He completes the process that Lenny and Miriam have started, thoroughly shaking the Gwendo’s social foundations:
A few hours observation had led to an emerging idea. That the Gwendo might be a kind of experimental station for what could be done to tear down the individual self and rebuild it in the model of the well-behaved citizen. And this thought made him sick because there would be no greater power over Persky than Persky.
The Dark Circle is one of the few novels I’ve read that is explicit about the fact that the whole world changed radically after the Second World War. It follows its characters to 1991, which really lets the reader see the enormity of the difference (Miriam visits the Gwendo again in her seventies, and revels in the knowledge that she can buy an ice cream in the local village whenever she likes; when she first arrives, in March of 1950, ice creams are only sold in shops two months out of the year.) But it also acknowledges the changes in real time, as it were; characters in the 1950s are aware that they’re living in a world where nothing will ever be the same again, and by and large, they’re okay with that.
It was nice being in a decade with a pleasant number, the curly 5, the fat 0, no longer the sharp points of the 4 which could rearrange themselves into a swastika if they felt like it, and had done. They were exactly halfway through the century. War was in the process of becoming a memory, not a situation to be endured and survived. Anything new had to be a good thing. She sometimes had a vision of all the red-brick Victorian houses of London being flattened to make way for unassuming beige and white boxes in which everyone could live calmly, with central heating and fitted kitchens.
Reading a paragraph like that in a south London Victorian conversion flat is a bit of a shock to the system: now we venerate those old brick houses with their ceiling roses and their stained glass above the doors. That longing for change, for modernity, for something new, explains a lot about the worst of post-war architecture (Brutalist tower blocks, the Gwendo itself, which is described in the 1991 section: “The optimism of its form was at odds with the stained walls, the cracks in the structure, the unforgiving greyness of its materials.”)
Grant also weaves in the coming of television, the age of air travel and package holidays, and the defeat of the Labour government. Hannah Spiegel, an inmate of the sanatorium who was in Ravensbruck concentration camp during the war, is privately pleased by this defeat, which seemed to me inexplicable until I read the following:
Not everything needed to be subject to socialist planning and the people had understood this and rejected it. There were parts of the country, she’d heard, that still believed in their hearts in an Olde England of pixies and ghosts and magic and privately, she thought that was a good thing, though obviously preposterous.
Grant’s characters are all like this—we might not agree with or fully understand their reasons for holding an opinion; we might even think their opinions are internally inconsistent; but they always, always make sense in the context of the character. Of course Hannah Spiegel fears government interference and enforced togetherness. Her history ensures that fear. Even on holiday in Spain, years later, a group of revel-makers passing her on the road is cause for alarm: “She still did not really like to see columns of people on foot. They gave her what she could only describe as ‘a terrible feeling.’ It came up from her stomach like acid reflux and spoiled everything.”
The Dark Circle is a complicated book. One reading will not do; you may need, and will almost certainly want, to read it a few more times, squirreling out thematic connections. Grant’s preoccupation with Jewishness is here; so is a terrible resonance with the modern-day conditions of our NHS, our parliamentary corruption. Through it all, Lenny and Miriam, Arthur Persky and Hannah and her lover Sarah, continue to live vociferously, to take up space. Putting on your war paint is sometimes the only thing keeping you from destruction, and these characters put on their war paint with a vengeance right to the very end. It’s a joy and a pleasure to read about them as they do so.
This review is part of The Dark Circle blog tour—you can catch the next few days of the tour, and the previous installments, at the brilliant blogs listed below. Many thanks to Poppy Stimpson at Virago for the review copy. The Dark Circle was published in the UK on 3 November.
November 9, 2016 Elle 21st-century novels, blog tours, book reviews, books, British literature, fiction, Linda Grant, novels, reading, the 1950s, Virago, WWII 9 Comments
Hungry Generations Chapter 1 is up
If you want to read part of the book that I haven’t actually finished writing yet, the first chapter is now up on the book’s own website! (ohgodohgodohgod) I’ve edited it a little to make it fit for human eyes, but there’ll be more changes—this is still very much a first draft—but I’m very excited to share it in its current state. Here’s the first paragraph:
At the interview, Simon talked about epiphany. He’d brought a piece of work he’d done on Dubliners. It was mostly on one story, ‘Araby’; he’d focused on the boy whose point of view the story took, his horrible shame and embarrassment as he realises he can’t afford a present for his friend Mangan’s older sister. He was about to start unfolding the way Joyce’s few paragraphs of description framed the sister as a saint, or possibly even as the Blessed Virgin, when the senior English tutor, a tall woman with long white hair twisted into a chignon, leaned forward in her chair and said, “Tell me about epiphany.”
You can find out just what the hell is going on in this scene here. I would be so pleased if you did.
November 6, 2016 Elle books, fiction, first chapter, first draft, Hungry Generations, novels, sneak preview, writing 5 Comments
6 Degrees of Separation: Never Let Me Go
This game is like “6 Degrees from Kevin Bacon” only with books. You can join in too; the rules are here.
This month, we start with Never Let Me Go, Kazuo Ishiguro’s completely heart-rending near-future tale about love, death and cloning. I read it in my first year of university, during Hilary term.
The only other non-coursework book I read that term was Intimate Adventures of a London Call Girl, by Belle de Jour, which was utterly excellent and was made into a less excellent miniseries starring Billie Piper.
The most recent literarily-inspired miniseries I watched was The Secret Agent, adapted from Joseph Conrad’s novel about a Victorian shopkeeper who becomes embroiled in an anarchist group’s plot to blow up the Royal Observatory at Greenwich.
Modern-day terrorism is beautifully written about by Hassan Blasim in his collection of short stories The Iraqi Christ, which won the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize and explores the effect of war on Iraqis from all walks of life.
The Independent Foreign Fiction Prize merged with the Man Booker Prize this year, to become the Man Booker International Prize. It was most recently won by Han Kang’s novel The Vegetarian, a delicately written and highly disturbing book about a woman whose vow to eat no more meat has far-reaching consequences.
Han Kang’s UK translator, Deborah Smith, has started her own press which focuses on translated fiction (especially by women). Their new release, Panty by Sangeeta Bandyophadhyay, is a disorienting short novel about sex and identity as well as religion and nationalism.
From dystopian future England to modern-day Calcutta by way of nineteenth-century London, Baghdad, and Korea: hooray!
November 6, 2016 Elle 19th-century novels, 21st-century novels, 6 degrees, British literature, fiction, genres, Indian literature, Iraqi literature, Korean literature, memoir, nonfiction, novels, sex, Tilted Axis Press, women in translation 5 Comments
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Reading Diary: season of mists
The Binding, by Bridget Collins: I wasn’t quite sure what to expect from this – it’s getting the extremely-pretty-jacket treatment, which experience has taught me is often an early warning of a great idea badly executed – but it turned out to be rather good. The thought-provoking premise is that books are not, as we think of them, made-up stories, but are rather the true memories of a person, magically bound between covers, which a person cannot retain once they’ve been bound. It functions as a form of confessional and forgetting, and binders are treated with wary respect. But it’s also a power that can be abused, and Emmett Farmer, our young protagonist, is soon plunged into a world of wealth, cruelty, and complicity. Bridget Collins has thought out the implications of her initial idea with admirable thoroughness, and the book’s written in a slightly breathy but perfectly palatable style that’s just the right side of YA. (Emmett’s romantic entanglement with another young man, Lucian, which forms the novel’s emotional core, is mostly responsible for this, I think. It’s nice to read anyway, and although I’m not a gay teenaged boy, from my perspective as a reader Collins seems to write sensitively. She’s especially good on institutional power dynamics, in a relationship as well as in the society that Emmett and Lucian live in.) Released in January, this will be an excellent antidote to the post-Christmas blahs.
Something Of His Art: Walking to Lubeck with J.S. Bach, by Horatio Clare: This is based on a “slow radio” series that Horatio Clare presented on Radio 3. I’m new to the concept of slow radio, but it seems not unlike slow television, a broadcasting trend that seeks to reverse frenetic media consumption and bring us all back to the important things in life, like watching seven hours’ worth of Norwegian train journey. Clare’s programs sought to follow in the footsteps of Johann Sebastian Bach, who as a young man walked from Arnstadt to Lubeck in order to hear Dietrich Buxtehude play the organ. (Buxtehude was sort of the Bach of his day. The only excuse Bach ever gave his employers for disappearing for four months was that he wished to learn “something of his art”. Because the record we have is in the third person, it’s unclear whether Bach means his art, or Buxtehude’s, or – more pleasingly – both.) Unsurprisingly, I wanted more Bach and less birdsong, but Horatio Clare is really a travel writer so this seems a slightly unfair demand. He also hints at some truly interesting moments – there’s an especially surreal dinner in a German mountain canteen that used to be a Cold War militarized zone – of which the brevity of this format and project doesn’t allow elaboration. Terribly atmospheric anyway, though.
The Penguin Classics Book, by Henry Eliot: I bought this for myself as a celebratory present after the US midterm elections, which doesn’t make a lot of sense because it’s not like I was singlehandedly responsible for the midterm results, but there you go. It’s a handsome, heavy, clothbound compendium of (and companion to) the Penguin Classics imprint, beautifully illustrated with colour photographs throughout and including little essays and text boxes about the imprint’s early days. E.V. Rieu (whose translation of The Odyssey was the first Penguin Classic ever) edited it for a long time, as did Betty Radice, who seems to have been both marvelously clever and quite wonderful as a person. Little notes on each entry provide pieces of trivia about translators, many of whom were the sort of eccentric academic types that only English intellectual society in the twentieth century could have created and sustained. It’ll also remind you of how much there is in the way of world literature; the texts from antique and medieval Asia, in particular, were often new to me. There are a couple of awkward typos (along the lines of “weak” instead of “week”), which shouldn’t exist at all in a book where so much design effort has clearly been put in, but the production of the object on the whole is first-class. I spent an extremely happy rainy weekend on the sofa with this beast, and if you’re a nerd, you should too.
The Ship, by Antonia Honeywell: In the spirit of full disclosure, Antonia is my friend and has – extremely kindly – looked at my nascent book, but neither of these things really has any bearing on the fact that her book is very good. Sixteen-year-old Lalla lives in a London where Regent’s Park is home to a tent city; Oxford Street burned for three weeks, and the British Museum shelters homeless squatters. Food and security are scarce. She has been protected by her parents to such an extent that her conception of the state of England – indeed, the world – is desperately, terrifyingly naive. But her father, Michael, has been making plans for some time, and the shooting of Lalla’s mother forces them, finally, to leave London behind on the heavily provisioned ship that Michael has been stocking for years. The ship is full of people – an elect few, chosen for their ability to hold onto humanity as the world burns – but Michael soon becomes a Messianic figure, and Lalla chafes against his vision for the people of the ship. There are a lot of religious themes and parallels here, with Noah as well as with Christ, the Protestant doctrine of predestination, and the Adam/Eve story (apples constitute a recurring symbol). Lalla’s naivety is infuriating to the reader as well as to the people who surround her, but that is the point: even if she grows up late, she has to grow up, and that means being responsible for yourself, instead of waiting for others to take care of you. The ending is scary, but hopeful, as all points of no return must be.
The Order of the Day, by Eric Vuillard: Vuillard’s Prix Goncourt-winning novel is so short (160 pages) that I feel I’d be justified in making anything I wrote about it commensurately shorter. (Although I realise that, by its grace, I’ve managed to participate in Novellas In November.) It is, more or less, fiction, but you could be forgiven for reading it as a kind of chatty, intimate history; there is no protagonist, and no narrator save for an omniscient voice that has somewhat the flavour of Thackeray’s knowing asides to the reader. The story is of how Germany became the Third Reich: the meeting of industrialists (Krupp, Siemens et al.) who bankrolled Hitler, the bulldozing of the Austrian chancellor, Kurt von Schuschnigg, the way Germany took over Austrian state mechanisms while retaining a thin veneer of legality, and finally the actual invasion. It reads, in a way, like a piece from an older time; the novel’s interest in the interior lives of its characters is most often demonstrated not by taking us into that character’s head, but by describing that character to us with utter clarity and insight, somewhat as George Eliot does in Middlemarch. Yet it succeeds in being moving, even heartrending, in its descriptions of men who caused terrible damage but whom Vuillard wants us to see clearly. I rather suspect it will be a bit of a sleeper hit.
When All Is Said, by Anne Griffin: Maurice Hannigan is drinking. On a bar stool in a hotel that used to be the country home of the family that employed and abused him, he makes five toasts, one for each of the important people in his life: his son, his wife, his sister-in-law, his brother, his daughter. Because tonight is not going to be like all the other nights; tonight, Maurice Hannigan has a plan. Anne Griffin’s debut novel has more than a touch of the commercial crossover about it, and some of the execution is a little awkward (when are writers going to learn some restraint with speech indicators?), but the book is rescued from mawkishness by being genuinely felt. There has been real sadness in Maurice’s life, as well as real joy. He has not been a perfect husband or father, but he hasn’t been a monster: his obsession with acquiring money and land is revealed to be part of an obsession with avenging wrongs against his family that he has been angry about since he was a boy, and it has affected his relationships as an adult in unattractive ways. But he’s honest with himself and us, and the final chapter—when his greatest decision yet becomes clear—is surprising, moving, and bold. I’ve not read another novel in which the author allows her character the particular type of dignified choice that Griffin gives hers.
Loyalties, by Delphine de Vigan: Another very short novel, bordering on novella—192 pages—from a French author, this one by the writer who brought us the queasy stalker autofiction of Based On A True Story. In Loyalties, she dissects the web of lies that children spin for adults, and the willful blindness that adults show to each other. Several characters tell the story: there is Théo, a charismatic eleven-year-old; Mathis, his privileged but easily led friend; Hélène, their teacher, who suspects something but can prove nothing and whose own past may be colouring her judgment; and Cécile, Mathis’s mother, who has found something terrible on her husband’s computer and now finds everything about her life with her family to be in question. Théo is easily the saddest and most convincing of these protagonists: his descent into alcoholism and deception is charted clearly, and without agenda, as stemming from his separated parents’ inability to keep their child out of their quarrel with each other. Mathis’s confusion about what the “right thing” to do might be rings very true, and Hélène is sympathetic, if perhaps too damaged to be totally convincing. Cécile is a curious character, just coming into a sense of who she might be apart from her husband and child; I’d read a whole book about her, though she doesn’t get to do much in Loyalties. It’s a fable, really, not much more than the sum of its parts, but those parts are extremely interesting in themselves.
The Redeemed, by Tim Pears: Tim Pears might be British literature’s best-kept secret. (It used to be Sarah Moss, but I think she’s hitting the big time now, despite her lack of prize wins.) The Redeemed is the third in his West Country Trilogy, of which I have only read the second (The Wanderers), but with which I am nevertheless obsessed, and for which I have the profoundest awe. The Redeemed opens with Leo Sercombe, exiled from the estate where his parents worked and which served as his childhood home, having joined up with the Royal Navy and about to see action in World War I. Lottie Prideaux, his childhood playmate and the daughter of the manor, meanwhile, has managed to get herself taken on as a veterinary assistant to Patrick Jago, whose young male assistants are all away at war. Over the next twelve years, Lottie and Leo live their lives, and it’s to Pears’s immense credit that he manages to keep us in suspense about whether they will find each other again, and a way of living that fulfills them, without resorting to cheap tricks of plotting. (He’s not averse to a cliffhanger chapter ending, but he does it with such elegance.) His writing is beautiful—not self-satisfied or self-conscious, but engaging all the senses, plain and clear without being dull, delicate without being precious. The Horseman and The Wanderers described a world that’s now gone; The Redeemed describes that world’s passing, and shows us that a decent world, in many ways a better one, replaced it. Read Tim Pears, please.
Thoughts on this batch of reading: There’s some really cracking stuff coming out in January, of which the Pears and the Vuillard are my top picks. I’m so glad I finally read The Ship, and The Penguin Classics Book is proving an invaluable work resource as well as a fun thing for myself. I seem to have read a fair amount of short books, too (Vuillard, de Vigan, Clare), which is no bad thing for me, as I tend to prefer a doorstop tome.
November 29, 2018 Elle book reviews, books, Novellas in November, Penguin Classics, reading, Reading Diary
13 thoughts on “Reading Diary: season of mists”
A Life in Books says:
It’s more the geographical location of the Clare than Bach which appeals with Something of His Art. I’ve read and enjoyed When All is Said, and have just finished Loyalties. Good enough but I can’t help comparing it to Based on a True Story.
Then you might really like it! He’s got a lot to say about the landscape they’re passing through. Haven’t read Based On a True Story, though I suspect it’s more satisfying than Loyalties.
I’ll add it to my list in that case, and, yes, it definitely is!
kaggsysbookishramblings says:
What an interesting set of books! I’m drawn to “The Order of the Day”, I must confess, but as for that Penguin Classics book – well, I just hope someone gets it for my Christmas!
Oh my goodness me, it is SUCH a beauty!
You’re so right about the ‘pretty jacket treatment’ – I’m glad one has escaped the curse!
I loved The Ship and thought it had intriguing parallels to Jane Rogers’s The Testament of Jessie Lamb – have you read that?
No but I do know about it and it’s on my list – it won the Clarke Award, I think, and I’m trying to read all of those.
It’s flawed in many ways but I couldn’t stop thinking about it.
The premise is so incredibly interesting and rich.
Rebecca Foster says:
You’re always surprising me with the variety of the books you pick up. I have a library hold on The Binding, so I’ll hope it is indeed a good pick-me-up for when I get back to dreary, rainy England after spending the holidays in America.
Yeah, it’s fun. There are bits where I thought “…are you going to keep a handle on this?”, but generally Collins does and it’s easy to rip through.
Café Society says:
I’m looking forward to the Penguin Classics Book as the literary equivalent of a ‘cut and come again’ cake; something I can continue to dip into for a long time. The Pears I haven’t come across, but a three volume saga sounds just right for the long nights ahead.
I think you’ll really love the Pears. He’s a fantastic writer. The Penguin Classics Book is totally glorious, too.
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Welcome to the Embassy of Malawi in Brussels
H.E. Tedson Aubrey Kalebe
Ambassador of Malawi
Welcome to our website. It is designed to give you a flavour of what the Mission is all about and will put them in the light of the varied work the mission is working to achieve. Our aim here is to facilitate and allow every visitor to be part of what is happening in our mission as well as in Malawi.
The Embassy of the Republic of Malawi is accredited to the Kingdoms of Belgium, the Republic of France, the Republic of Italy, the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Swiss Confederation and the Principality of Monaco as well as serving as a Permanent Mission of the European Communities. The Embassy also covers other organisations in these six countries.
Consistent with the Government of Malawi’s foreign policy which in essence seeks to promote maintenance of sound bilateral and multilateral relations for advancement of the interests of the country, Embassy is cultivation mutually beneficial relations with all our development partners. In a true spirit of partnership, the primary focus is on bringing to the fore the investment opportunities and touristic attractions obtaining in Malawi, facilitating development support for major programmes being undertaken by the Government and assist in boosting Malawi’s share of global trade.
The Embassy is also involved in humanitarian programmes being undertaken with the support of well-meaning, countries, institutions and individuals for targeted programmes and beneficiaries in Malawi.
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The Embassy of the Republic of Malawi will be closed for the Festive Season from 24th December, 2018 through to 4th January, 2019. The Embassy resumes services on the 7th January, 2019.
On behalf of myself and the members of staff, I would like to wish you a Merry Christmas and a Prosperous New Year.
Ambassador Kalebe
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Comparatively quiet situation observed on contact line of Azerbaijani, Armenian troops
A comparatively quiet situation was observed on the line of contact of the Armenian and Azerbaijani troops throughout the day, the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry reported on July 14.
The ceasefire regime was violated by rare single shots in some areas of the front.
The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.
The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts.
More about: Nagorno-Karabakh ceasefire
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Market Loss Assistance - Non-commodity
Frio County, Texas
Pick a county Texas State Total Anderson County, Texas Andrews County, Texas Angelina County, Texas Aransas County, Texas Archer County, Texas Armstrong County, Texas Atascosa County, Texas Austin County, Texas Bailey County, Texas Bandera County, Texas Bastrop County, Texas Baylor County, Texas Bee County, Texas Bell County, Texas Bexar County, Texas Blanco County, Texas Borden County, Texas Bosque County, Texas Bowie County, Texas Brazoria County, Texas Brazos County, Texas Brewster County, Texas Briscoe County, Texas Brooks County, Texas Brown County, Texas Burleson County, Texas Burnet County, Texas Caldwell County, Texas Calhoun County, Texas Callahan County, Texas Cameron County, Texas Camp County, Texas Carson County, Texas Cass County, Texas Castro County, Texas Chambers County, Texas Cherokee County, Texas Childress County, Texas Clay County, Texas Cochran County, Texas Coke County, Texas Coleman County, Texas Collin County, Texas Collingsworth County, Texas Colorado County, 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Upshur County, Texas Upton County, Texas Uvalde County, Texas Val Verde County, Texas Van Zandt County, Texas Victoria County, Texas Walker County, Texas Waller County, Texas Ward County, Texas Washington County, Texas Webb County, Texas Wharton County, Texas Wheeler County, Texas Wichita County, Texas Wilbarger County, Texas Willacy County, Texas Williamson County, Texas Wilson County, Texas Winkler County, Texas Wise County, Texas Wood County, Texas Yoakum County, Texas Young County, Texas Zapata County, Texas Zavala County, Texas Texas NRCS
Pick a district 1st District of Texas (Rep. Louis Gohmert) 2nd District of Texas (Rep. Ted Poe) 3rd District of Texas (Rep. Sam Johnson) 4th District of Texas (Rep. John Ratcliffe) 5th District of Texas (Rep. Jeb Hensarling) 6th District of Texas (Rep. Joe Barton) 7th District of Texas (Rep. John Culberson) 8th District of Texas (Rep. Kevin Brady) 9th District of Texas (Rep. Al Green) 10th District of Texas (Rep. Michael McCaul) 11th District of Texas (Rep. Michael Conaway) 12th District of Texas (Rep. Kay Granger) 13th District of Texas (Rep. Mac Thornberry) 14th District of Texas (Rep. Randy Weber) 15th District of Texas (Rep. Vicente Gonzalez) 16th District of Texas (Rep. Beto O'Rourke) 17th District of Texas (Rep. Bill Flores) 18th District of Texas (Rep. Sheila Jackson-Lee) 19th District of Texas (Rep. Jodey Arrington) 20th District of Texas (Rep. Joaquin Castro) 21st District of Texas (Rep. Lamar Smith) 22nd District of Texas (Rep. Pete Olson) 23rd District of Texas (Rep. Will Hurd) 24th District of Texas (Rep. Kenny Marchant) 25th District of Texas (Rep. Roger Williams) 26th District of Texas (Rep. Michael Burgess) 27th District of Texas (Rep. Blake Farenthold) 28th District of Texas (Rep. Henry Cuellar) 29th District of Texas (Rep. Gene Green) 30th District of Texas (Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson) 31st District of Texas (Rep. John Carter) 32nd District of Texas (Rep. Pete Sessions) 33rd District of Texas (Rep. Marc Veasey) 34th District of Texas (Rep. Filemon Vela) 35th District of Texas (Rep. LLoyd Doggett) 36th District of Texas (Rep. Brian Babin)
Market Loss Assistance - Non-commodity payments in Frio County, Texas totaled $34,512 from 1995-2017.
Programs included in Market Loss Assistance - Non-commodity payments
Market Loss Assistance - Dairy $34,512
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Tag Archives: Waste Reduction Tagged With: AFC Energy
Green Cities: Waste2Tricity Pushes ‘Game Changing’ Waste-to-Energy Tech
Posted on June 25, 2012 by fenleynicol
Graphic courtesy: Waste2Tricity
The folks over at Waste2Tricity in the UK believe they’ve hit upon a process and combination of technologies that are going to change the economics of the energy-from-waste (EfW) market. The consortium is putting together an EfW system and strategic plan ultimately based on two core components: at the front-end, plasma gasification technology is to be used to “gasify” waste that will feed clean, high-efficiency alkaline fuel cells that will produce electricity and hydrogen. Initially, W2T proposes using internal combustion engines (ICEs) on the back-end.
Aiming to turn urban waste into a local, renewable clean energy resource, UK governments since at least 2009 have been soliciting input from and providing incentives to private industry in the search for cost-effective EfW solutions. Waste2Tricity (W2T) says its plasma gasification-fuel cell system is not only head-and-shoulders above competing alternatives in terms of clean energy, it will be of a modular, scalable nature that will enable the cost-effective construction of EfW plants up and down the country, eliminating trash and waste and producing clean, low-carbon energy locally, at source. Adding to the possible benefits is the potential to use surplus hydrogen to stock hydrogen vehicle fueling stations.
“We’ll be running at the 10-MW scale taking waste as a feedstock. It’s much more distributed, and you’re avoiding the issue of grid losses [by minimizing transmission distance],” explained Howard White, a consultant to W2T. “You’re not having the grid losses and you’re boosting your efficiency because a lot of feedstock is essentially renewable and local.”
The High & Rising Cost of Waste
The W2T consortium — made up of alkaline fuel cell developer AFC Energy and AlterNRG, amongst others, was formed in 2009 as a result of rising fossil fuel costs over the past decade.
Since 2002, the high and rising price of fossil fuels has fundamentally changed the way government, business, and society look at energy, prompting individuals and groups across all three spheres to cast a wider net in the search for clean, renewable energy alternatives, as well ways to reduce the amount of energy that’s wasted.
At the same time, rising urban populations have led to more and more trash and waste, and less space to bury it. Reuse and recycling has increased, but they’re nowhere near large enough in scale today to effectively cope with the issue. That’s meant rising taxes for the public, including businesses, to haul away and bury or burn trash.
Burning it by conventional means has traditionally meant incinerating waste, and increasingly making use of the heat produced to fuel coal-fired electricity generation. It’s an old, centralized, large-scale, inefficient and very polluting means of converting waste to energy. Though, that doesn’t have to be, nor should it be, given advances in technology, W2T’s White and John Hall pointed out.
The UK’s Waste-from-Energy Drive
Since at least 2009, UK governments have been working on policies and the right combination of market-based incentives to commercialize a new generation of more efficient, much greener EfW plants.
“There’s been a drive to find a technology that will efficiently extract energy from waste, from renewable carbon feedstocks,” White elaborated. “The market has developed and there’s certainly been a lot of government interest in promoting advanced technologies. On the UK government side, that’s been focused on Advanced Conversion Technology — pyrolysis, gasification and anaerobic digestion. We have focused on gasification in W2T.”
After much back-and-forth between government and varied, often competing commercial and public interest stakeholders, a potential turning point occurred last August in the UK’s EfW market, continued W2T managing director John Hall: Air Products and AlterNRG received local council planning permission to build a utility-scale, advanced EfW plant in Teesside in the Tees Valley.
Air Products-AlterNRG’s proposed advanced waste gasification plant has been designed to process more than 300,000 metric tons of waste and produce 49-MW of electrical power, enough for some 50,000 homes. Plasma gasification equipment is to process the waste and channel it into natural gas turbines, which will generate electricity.
“The final decision depends on the future of the ROC (Renewable Obligation Certificate) regime,” Hall explained, a clean energy program established around 10 years ago along the lines of state REC programs that exist in the US.
A much anticipated reformulating of UK ROC rates — Electricity Market Reform (EMR) — for various forms of clean energy production — wind, solar, landfill gas, hydroelectric, etc. — that’s been delayed repeatedly now appears imminent. The new ROC rates will have a major impact on the financial viability and returns available to clean and renewable energy project developers and investors.
Scaling Down for Distributed, Local Power
In any event, “the Teesside project validates the technology,” Hall stated, noting that “it’s been operating eight years in Japan.”
Besides being much smaller in scale, thereby holding out the potential of locating EfW plants closer to sources of waste feedstock, W2T takes Air Products’ design one step further by replacing natural gas turbines with fuel cells. That will further boost the energy efficiency of the system, as well as reduce CO2 and greenhouse gas emissions further, Hall and White explained.
According to the two W2T execs, their plasma gasification-fuel cell system can cost-effectively boost electricity output from waste conversion by 130% over steam turbines and as much as 70% above internal combustion engines (ICEs) and natural gas turbines. At the same time, substantial reductions in carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane emissions would be realized, not to mention eliminating the nasty problems associated with disposing of fly ash.
AlterNRG acquired Westinghouse’s plasma gasification technology, which will be incorporated as the front-end of W2T’s EfW system. At the back-end will be AFC Energy alkaline fuel cells.
AFC’s been testing its modular, low-cost fuel cells with chemicals manufacturer Akzo Nobel at its Bitterfield chlor-alkali plants in Germany, where hydrogen is produced as a by-product in the making of chlorine, a widely used intermediary chemical that is in turn used to produce mass market products, such as poly vinyl chloride (PVC).
W2T’s Plasma Gasification-Fuel Cell Design
In W2T’s proposed system, syngas is produced as a result of the plasma gasification of organic waste. The syngas — primarily a mix of CO2, CO and H — is refined to remove contaminants, such as sulfur and nitrogen compounds — that can gum up natural gas turbine and fuel cell works.
The carbon monoxide (CO) is used to produce additional hydrogen and CO2 via a gas-water shift process. The hydrogen and CO2 are separated by means of pressure-swing adsorption (PSA), which results in highly refined hydrogen for the fuel cells, White explained.
The one process White said he believes is generally accepted as the best, most proven method of refining syngas to produce almost pure hydrogen is that of Calgary, Alberta-based W2T partner AlterNRG, which acquired the technology from Westinghouse, White noted.
“Syngas contains oils and tars that can gum up systems. At over 1200 degrees C, you crack the tars and oils. The majority of gasification systems operate at 850 degrees C and leave these contaminants in the gas stream.”
There is one missing link in W2T’s vision of a “closed-loop” EfW system: what happens to the CO2 captured during the process? White noted that 60%-70% of the cost of carbon capture and storage (CCS) lies in the extraction part of the process.
The Missing Link in a Closed Loop EfW System
Without carbon storage, or sequestration, any technology that uses hydrocarbons as a fuel, be it ICEs, gas turbines or fuel cells, produces CO2 and other emissions, he continued.
“However, if you look at the feedstock and see that 85% of it is renewable, it will result in a reduction in carbon emissions. If CCS is incorporated, it will result in negative carbon emissions.”
In addition, Hall added, fuel cells’ higher efficiency will result in pro rata reductions in the proportion of CO2 and emissions as compared to EfW systems where ICEs and natural gas turbines are used.
“You need sequestration to really close the loop; CO2 pipelines, etc., they’re part of long-term government strategies. They’re now trying to make industry carbon capture-ready.”
For its part, W2T is now moving forward with a project that entails building an 80,000-metric-ton EfW plant. Along the lines of Air Products’ Teesside plant, plans call for ICEs to be used in a first stage, to be replaced with AFC fuel cells at a later stage.
“We believe once you have a system with fuel cells linked in, then you’ll have a low-cost waste-to-energy plant that will outperform substantially any other solution on the market. It recalibrates the total cost of waste-to-energy downward, which will eliminate the practice of throwing waste into the ground.”
“You’ll get a sea change in the approach to waste overall,” White continued. “As opposed to a nuisance, waste becomes a great resource. As this resource is generally accepted, you’ll get the opportunity of a virtuous circle of distributed energy. The feedstock is produced in place, where the electricity is generated.” That sounds like a goal worth pursuing.
Source: Clean Technica (http://s.tt/1fNOK)
Posted in Alternative Energy | Tagged air products, Air Quality, alternrg, Business & Economy, Carbon emissions, Clean Energy, clean tech, climate, CO2 emissions reductions, decc, Energy Efficiency, energy from waste, Energy Policy & Politics, Fossil Fuels, fuel cell developer, Green Jobs, hydrogen economy, internal combustion engines, Investment, Manufacturing, science, transportation, trash to cash, UK clean energy, UK clean energy investment, UK clean tech, UK CO2 emissions reductions, UK electricity market reform, UK energy from waste, UK fuel cells, UK greenhouse gas emissions reductions, UK low carbon economy, UK low carbon energy, uk renewable energy, UK renewable energy investment, UK renewable obligation certificates, UK ROCs, UK waste to energy, w2t, waste incineration, waste recycling, Waste Reduction Tagged With: AFC Energy, waste-to-energy, waste2energy, waste2tricity | Leave a reply
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Difference between revisions of "Carcassonne"
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Discretion is ''vital'' when it comes to Carcassien romance, because in the end, love is a fleeting thing. Children are sworn to wed, and marriages are arranged. If one is truly fortunate, they may be allowed to marry the person they love, but this is by far the exception and not the rule. As in most nations, marriage is done for political reasons, to cement alliances, to keep bloodlines pure, or to raise someone’s station. Love is something that is expected to come later in a marriage, if at all.
== Marriage ==
Children are sworn to wed, sometimes before birth. ("My first born daughter will marry your first born son"). While children and teenagers may dally behind the scenes discretely, the marriage is expected to take place, and may unify families, consolidate power, facilitate trade, settle debts, or end disputes or feuds. A child can be sworn to one or more people, depending on many factors, and while it is not common a child may find himself marrying multiple wives, or a woman may find herself with multiple husbands. There are many factors in play when it comes to marriage:
* The Elder chooses who is available for marriage, and who they will marry. The word of the Elder is final. If someone does not wish to marry, they can go "rogue". This involves leaving the family, and taking the surname 'du Lac', and is effectively disowned by the family. The family will often provide a small allowance to the wayward child, depending on what name he or she makes for themselves. A member who takes the name du Lac is permanently cut off from the family politically, and can never inherit.
* The Elder will usually choose to have each child in the family married off. If a certain arrangement would be particularly beneficial, he may choose to have a child married to more than one partner. The first betrothal is always considered the 'primary' marriage, with any other husbands or wives as 'secondary'. The first husband or wife has propriety over any other members of the family, and is considered the authority of the household below the head of the household themselves. Once someone has married into the family, they answer to the Elder of that family. More often than not, the head of the household will have multiple spouses, rather than the first spouse or later spouses having multiple partners.
** For example: The Elder has the first son of the Delacroix Family marry. His wife is considered the First Wife. Later, the Elder finds a particularly useful marriage, and has Delacroix marry again, giving Delacroix a Second Wife. In theory, the Elder may have the First Wife marry again, but this is not likely.
* Another reason that multiple marriages are uncommon is due to political pressure. If a family is seen expanding too quickly and consolidating too much power, their political rivals may attack. It is not too uncommon for cousins to marry inward to consolidate lands and family ties, and this is often given more leniency. For example, if three brothers want to unite their lands, they may have their children unite in marriage to consolidate land titles later.
* The harmony of the household is important as well. If the First Spouse refuses the marriage, it will not happen, in spite of the Elder's wishes, much as if the family head refuses to have their spouse married to someone else.
* Finally, financial matters are considered. If the household cannot afford to expand, then the marriage will not be approved. The dowry provided to the family is considered, but the household and estates must be financially viable after the marriage.
Because of these factors, while plural marriages are legal and binding, they are uncommon except for in the consolidation of family estates.
==Prejudices==
1 The Empire of Carcassonne
2 Belief System
2.1 Priest Caste
2.2 Entertainers
2.3 Ancestors
3 The Three Sins
4 Cultural Taboos
5 Marriage
6 Prejudices
7 Inspiration and Flavour
8 Common Names
The Empire of Carcassonne
Ruler: Empress Saotome Kwaidan (Avatar of Koki Teno, the Jewel Maiden)
Religion: Shinto (The Celestial Court)
The Empire of Carcassonne is a nation surrounded by the Carcassonne Woods, a forest filled with spirits and creatures that devour and mislead anyone who attempts to pass through them. The nation sealed itself from outside influence in 1005 AE, and has remained almost completely cut off from the other nations. The people of Carcassonne are called Carcassien.
Carcassonne is a feudal nation, ruled by the Empress, the incarnation of the Jewel Maiden. The nation follows ancestor worship and the reverence of the Fortunes, as well as the spirits of the land. They follow a strict code of honour that is similar to that of the Empire of Naipon, but the average citizen posses a joie de vivre that their brethren do not. Carcassiens take their duties seriously, but when it is time to celebrate or relax, they throw themselves into such things just as much.
Carcassonne is an Empire, and is ruled by Saotome Kwaidan, the current physical embodiment of Koki Teno, the mother of all kitsune. The ten-tailed Empress sits within Castle Carcassonne, and is said to be mercurial in her moods, seductive and sultry to one person, while cool and aloof with another, and downright hostile to a third, all within the same breath. Fortunately, her retainers see to the needs of most who would come to see her, so they are spared from her chaotic nature.
In the distant past, Carcassonne was founded by the Thunderbright Clan, who made contact with the spirits of the Carcassien Woods. The Woods opened a path to Naipon, a legendary realm to the people of Carcassonne, and trade and tradition crossed into Carcassonne from the distant land. Koki Teno, by tradition, manifested within the person of the Empress of Anaitha through the generations.
Carcassonne follows two codes of conduct -- the Eight-Fold Way and the Code of Chivalry, which was adopted from the Naipon Code of Bushido. While in some ways similar to the Code follows in Drachen and Tarantis, it is uniquely tailored to the Carcassien mind-set.
Carcassonne is surrounded by the spirits of nature (miko-kami) and by the faerie courts. With the spirit world so closely tied to Carcassonne, it is of little wonder that they revere the spirits and pay their respects to the land. The Carcassonne people have a caste system that they follow which aids in their interaction with the world around them. The Empress is worshipped as a divine figure, and only the greatest Faerie Queen or Amaterasu herself is of comparable status.
Beneath the Empress are the Noble Class, which are in turn called Knights or the Lords and Ladies. In the last century, the term Samurai has been used as well. The noble class is considered on par with the kami and the sidhe of the Carcassien Woods. They are given all due respect and reverence by those of lower caste.
Below the knights are the working class. The working class belongs to anyone who produces something of value for a living. Those within this caste includes farmers, weavers, and others who produce goods of value. This caste is sometimes called the 'half-caste', due to the fact they are considered people of value, but are not true lords and ladies.
Below the working class is the merchant caste. This class is seen with disdain, as they produce nothing for themselves, but buy and sell goods made by others. Those within this caste are sometimes called 'non-people'. They are interacted with only by necessity.
Below this class are the untouchable class. This caste is broken down into two ranks - those who do what 'must be done', but live in shame due to being unclean (those who prepare bodies, move corpses, clean the streets, and other jobs which involves being unclean) and those who are entertainers.
In addition, the Joshuite Faith is banned from practicing within the borders of Carcassonne, or within the Carcassien Woods.
Priest Caste
The priest caste and the monk caste are two difficult castes to deal with in Carcassonne. The priest caste is just below that of the nobility, but influential priests can carry a lot of power if they have the favor of the nobles or the Imperial Court. In most cases, the priest is accepted as a member of the samurai caste, but of less rank than a given samurai themselves. Respect is given, and respect is expected from the priests. As such, priests who wish to hold influence follow the code of the knights, and are known to do so even better than some knights themselves.
Monks are lower than nobility, but higher than middle class. They are a conundrum in Carcassien society. They are not nobles, but have been known to become decent advisers to the noble who wishes someone that does not hold political aspirations. Most monks are former nobility who have retired, or orphans who have been adopted by the shrines and monasteries that are scattered around the region. The lower classes see something strange and different in the monk caste, as if they were touched by an 'other force'. The legends of incredible feats performed by monks litter many stories of the land.
Being an entertainer in Carcassonne is unusual, in that while they have no caste of their own (being of the lowest caste), their value allows them to act of a higher caste than they truly are. A skilled entertainer is given the same respect as a member of the working class. A great entertainer is treated with the respect of a knight. A legendary entertainer can almost hold as much respect as the Empress herself. Being able to use this respect is a delicate dance every entertainer must perfect themselves, and is combined by their skill, and the degree of power and prestige commanded by the person who becomes their patron. An entertainer with no admirers and no patrons has no value.
Like their cousins in Naipon, the people of Carcassonne revere their ancestors. The people of Carcassonne believe in ancestor spirits, the souls of one’s ancestors remaining in the afterlife to watch over and guide their descendants. Because of this strong belief system, the people of Carcassonne keep a strict code of conduct which appeases the spirits. A core belief of the Carcassien people is in purity of the soul, purity of mind, and purity of the body. The people of Carcassonne do not fear death, for if one dies and is pure of body, mind, and soul, they will join their ancestors in the afterlife, and will reincarnate to continue to fulfill their karma. One who is not pure however, risks falling from grace, and the punishments in the afterlife are severe indeed.
The Three Sins
The Carcassien people have learned of the Three Sins through their contact with Naipon, and have adopted the principles of their cousins over the seas in principle, if not in practice. Those who are able to hold true against the three sins are met with respect and sometimes envy, but it is not a mandatory practice.
Desire: A truth of enlightenment is to be accepting of what one has, and to desire nothing. For when one feels desire, they may act contrary to the needs of their family and of their lord. One understands that their life is not their own, but belongs to their lord and to their family, and one’s own desires mean nothing in comparison.
Fear: A true follower of bushido does not let fear control them. While they may feel fear, they act regardless, without hesitation. One who succumbs to fear hesitates, and is unable to act for their lord and family. A coward dies a thousand deaths in their mind, and puts the lives of all around them at risk, shaming their family and their lord. One accepts the presence of fear, but they never let it control them.
Regret: Mistakes are made. If one did not make mistakes, they could not learn from them. It is best for one to accept these mistakes, learn from them, and carry on. One does not dwell on the mistakes of the past, they accept their actions and the consequences, and then step forward without looking back. Regret can lead one to hesitate, or question their judgement. A true follower of bushido never hesitates, and accepts responsibility for their every word and deed.
Cultural Taboos
Purity: The Carcassien people believe in keeping a clean, and will bathe at least twice a day as a practice. Those who do not bathe fall within two 'camps'. Either the person has made an oath to the spirits of the Woods (called chiminage) and is holy, or they do not care about themselves and are unclean. Blood and dead flesh are considered unclean to the Carcassonne people, but this taboo is not as powerful as it is in Naipon. Rabbit meat is accepted as part of the Carcassien diet, and leather is sometimes accepted as a necessity. Still, it is often the case that ritual blessings and purifications are performed -- just in case.
Face: People from Carcassien have a fierce code of honour, perhaps even more so than the Naiponese. A typical person from Carcassonne usually has two 'faces', one kept for when they are performing a duty, in which case they are stern and taciturn, or when they are relaxed, in which case the Carcassien shows a joie de vivre that can alarm most. An Carcassien does not blend these two faces, and considers someone who does not know when it is proper to be reserved to be disrespectful. Causing a loss of honour to a Carcassien is a grave insult, and will often result in a call for a duel. These duels are almost invariably a duel to the death, and can span generations. A dishonoured Knight considers their own lives worthless, but will not commit suicide unless there is no other recourse. Instead, they become fascinated with death, and will perform heroic and suicidal missions and tasks to try to be killed, or until the stain of their dishonour has passed. Most dishonoured knights choose a sacred and impossible quest, and then strive to fulfil it.
Love: The Carcassien people have a strange relationship with love, and some would say they are obsessed with the concept of love. The Carcassien people love to read stories of doomed lovers, tragic love affairs, and hopeless quests involving love. Romance is a wonderful thing in Carcassonne, and those who fall in love plunge totally into the experience, but such things are kept discrete and hidden away from public eyes. A subtle romance performed with skill is admired by those around the lovers, with the observers remaining a polite distance from the romance, living it vicariously. Poetry and songs created from a romance are excellent ways to gain face, as long as the romance is not brought into full view and discretion is kept.
Discretion is vital when it comes to Carcassien romance, because in the end, love is a fleeting thing. Children are sworn to wed, and marriages are arranged. If one is truly fortunate, they may be allowed to marry the person they love, but this is by far the exception and not the rule. As in most nations, marriage is done for political reasons, to cement alliances, to keep bloodlines pure, or to raise someone’s station. Love is something that is expected to come later in a marriage, if at all.
The Elder chooses who is available for marriage, and who they will marry. The word of the Elder is final. If someone does not wish to marry, they can go "rogue". This involves leaving the family, and taking the surname 'du Lac', and is effectively disowned by the family. The family will often provide a small allowance to the wayward child, depending on what name he or she makes for themselves. A member who takes the name du Lac is permanently cut off from the family politically, and can never inherit.
The Elder will usually choose to have each child in the family married off. If a certain arrangement would be particularly beneficial, he may choose to have a child married to more than one partner. The first betrothal is always considered the 'primary' marriage, with any other husbands or wives as 'secondary'. The first husband or wife has propriety over any other members of the family, and is considered the authority of the household below the head of the household themselves. Once someone has married into the family, they answer to the Elder of that family. More often than not, the head of the household will have multiple spouses, rather than the first spouse or later spouses having multiple partners.
For example: The Elder has the first son of the Delacroix Family marry. His wife is considered the First Wife. Later, the Elder finds a particularly useful marriage, and has Delacroix marry again, giving Delacroix a Second Wife. In theory, the Elder may have the First Wife marry again, but this is not likely.
Another reason that multiple marriages are uncommon is due to political pressure. If a family is seen expanding too quickly and consolidating too much power, their political rivals may attack. It is not too uncommon for cousins to marry inward to consolidate lands and family ties, and this is often given more leniency. For example, if three brothers want to unite their lands, they may have their children unite in marriage to consolidate land titles later.
The harmony of the household is important as well. If the First Spouse refuses the marriage, it will not happen, in spite of the Elder's wishes, much as if the family head refuses to have their spouse married to someone else.
Finally, financial matters are considered. If the household cannot afford to expand, then the marriage will not be approved. The dowry provided to the family is considered, but the household and estates must be financially viable after the marriage.
Prejudices
Much like their Naiponese brethren, the Carcassien people believe in the reverence of the kami. They follow the principles of the Celestial Court, and know that their Empress is a goddess who carries the mandate of heaven. As such, those who do not understand and acknowledge the authority of the Celestial Court is misled. They are not as cold with outsiders as the Naiponese are, but are still somewhat xenophobic. The Joshuite Faith is outlawed within Anaithan territory, and the Arin and Rymnian faith are only just tolerated. In addition, the samurai caste system is rigidly enforced, and it is expected that those born to their caste will know their place and their karma, and will act accordingly. Foreigners are ‘outside’ the caste system, and thus have no place – though very few Carcassien will speak of such matters, considering such topics to be embarrassing to others. The idea of moving against the status quo is anathema to the Carcassien mind-set.
Inspiration and Flavour
Combine King Arthur’s Britain with Feudal Japan, and combine it with a language very similar to French. The nation of Carcassonne is a rich tapestry of colour, where everything is alive, and the spirits of the land are visible day to day. With the presence of the Empress, and her retinue, there is a constant reminder of the divine status of the sovereign. The people of Carcassonne accept their place under divine rule.
Depending on the mood and fashion of the time, the children of Carcassonne may choose either the names below, or names from Naipon. This usually changes every three to five years. As is custom, when a child comes of age (usually 14 or 15), they choose a name for themselves. Until a child comes of age, they are usually given titles such as ‘number one son’ or ‘first daughter’. Depending on the parents, the children may be given the title Du <name of father> or Du <name of mother> depending on if the child is a boy or a girl. Some keep this as a last name after they come of age.
Male: Alain, Armand, Bastien, Blaise, Clovis, Corbeau, Dax, Dior, Elie, Etienne, Fleming, Francois, Gilles, Gustave, Harvey, Henri, Jacques, Jocelin, Lancelot, Leon, Marc, Mirage, Neville, Normandie, Oriel, Orleans, Percival, Pierre, Quincy, Remi, Reynard, Sabin, Sylvain, Thiergy, Triage, Vachel, Vermont, Wisconsin, Xarles, Yves
Female: Amie, Arianne, Belle, Brigette, Caprice, Cerise, Diane, Dominique, Elise, Etoile, Faye, Fleur, Gabrielle, Genevieve, Helene, Hilde, Isabelle, Ivette, Jeannie, Juliette, Lenore, Lorraine, Madeleine, Marianne, Nadine, Natalie, Odette, Orielle, Patrice, Pleasance, Quincy, Raine, Renee, Sophie, Sylvie, Therese, Tristessa, Urbaine, Valerie, Veronique, Wisconsine, Xaviere, Yvette, Yvonne
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Settlement Report: May 10, 2018
To receive this report via email, please click here.
Israeli Government Task Force Recommends Massive, Unlimited Land Theft to “Legalize” 1000s of Unauthorized Settlement Buildings
DETAILS: Zandberg Report Recommendations (as reported in English-language media)
REACTIONS to Zandberg: Some Celebrate, Others Sound the Alarm
Efrat Becomes First Settlement to Acquire Private Drone to Police Palestinians
Financing Occupation: World Zionist Organization Offers Cheap Rent in Settlements
Israeli Cabinet Votes to Back Legislation Stripping High Court of Significant Power
Former Top Military Prosecutor – Current NGO Monitor Employee – Lives in House Built on Stolen Palestinian Land
Comments, questions, or suggestions? Email Kristin McCarthy at kmccarthy@fmep.org.
Last year, the Israeli government formed a task force to develop new legal solutions that will save settlement buildings and outposts that were built without Israeli authorization on privately owned Palestinian land in the West Bank.The committee’s final report mapping out a menu of options to accomplish that end – called the “Zandberg Report” after the committee’s chair, Dr. Haya Zandberg – was published (in Hebrew) on Friday, May 4th. Soon after its publication, Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman announced he will be introducing a plan “within weeks” that will operationalize the report’s recommendations.
Described by the The Jerusalem Post as “the latest attempt by settler leaders, right-wing politicians and judicial experts to normalize settlement building in Area C of the West Bank by divorcing it from existing legal constraints,” it is clear that the recommendations toss out even a pretense of respect for the rule of law in order to entrench and expand Israeli settlements, rewarding Israeli settlers who broke Israeli law. If implemented, the recommendations will “legalize” the outright theft of land recognized by Israel as privately owned by Palestinians and will lay the groundwork for continued, additional expropriation of privately-owned land for settlement-related construction.
The report opens by stating that “the State of Israel, as the state of the Jewish people, has a right and claim over areas whose status is disputed in the Land of Israel.” The contents of the report make clear that the drafters define “the Land of Israel” as including all of the West Bank.
The authors go on to offer a number of unprecedented legal arguments and recommendations. Those include:
1 – Calling for wholesale implementation of the “Market Regulation” principle, and additional, similar actions. “Market Regulation” is a recently invented Israeli legal principle that involves granting post-facto legitimacy to illegally built settlement construction in cases where settlers built “in good faith,” i.e., they do so under the belief that their actions were correct and legal. FMEP has covered the “Market Regulation” principle several times in the past, and tracks the operationalization of it in real time on our annexation policy tables. Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit first introduced the “Market Regulation” argument in late 2016 as an alternative legal basis to the one that was eventually adopted by the Knesset in the Regulation Law. In November 2017, the government embraced Mandelblit’s “Market Regulation” principle when it submitted a brief to the High Court of Justice announcing its plan to retroactively legalize the settlers’ construction on privately owned Palestinian land near the Ofra settlement by expropriating that land.
In addition, the report recommends legalizing illegal construction in cases where settlements have expanded beyond their borders onto private land, and where that structures in question “were built over a decade ago, without any protest and with the support of the state.”
2 – Endorsing the expropriation of privately owned Palestinian land for “public use.” As an occupying power, Israel technically has the right to expropriate land for public use — meaning, for the benefit of the public that resides in the territories held under occupation. Since 1967, Israel has interpreted that authority in a manner that is both legally questionable and which discloses a very clear political and territorial agenda, using “public use” as the basis for expropriating West Bank land for the exclusive benefit of Israel and Israeli settlers. The Zandberg report makes this explicit, endorsing expropriations for the purpose of building new roads that connect isolated outposts and settlements to more developed areas. Defending this self-serving interpretation of “public use,” the report cites an opinion by (now retired) High Court Justice Salim Joubran, which held that settlers are legally a part of the “local population” of the West Bank and that the IDF is obligated to provide for their welfare. As another means of connecting isolated settlements and outposts, the report also recommends that the State consider building tunnels or bridges through privately owned Palestinian land to connect isolated settlement areas to more developed areas. The report argues “the ownership underground and [in the air] above the ground belongs to the state.”
FMEP has repeatedly reported on the events related to the legal basis created by Justice Joubran’s opinion, and FMEP tracks the operationalization of the legal basis on our annexation policy tables. Joubran’s opinion was made public in October 2017, prompting the Israeli NGO Yesh Din to file a new petition regarding the case it was related to – the Amona outpost case. Then, in November 2017 the High Court accepted the “local population” argument as an adequate legal basis for expropriating Palestinian land near the unauthorized outpost of Haresha in order to legalize an access road that had illegally been built on the private land.
3- Recommending a principle of flexibility in defining “adjacent areas.” The basis of this recommendation is the idea that Israel’s right to use land that is immediately adjacent to authorized settlements cannot be questioned, and that by interpreting the concept of “adjacent areas” broadly, Israel can justify taking large swathes of West Bank land located around and between settlements, including private land. Doing so would enable Israel to incorporate unauthorized outposts as “daughter neighborhoods” of existing settlements, even when located a great distance away. Doing so would also allow private Palestinian land surrounding isolated outposts to be seized and zoned for settlement construction and expansion (some outposts are located on pockets of territory designated by Israel as “state land,” prohibiting, under current law, the outpost to expand).
4 – Calling for the establishment of new, official settlements. The report endorses the establishment of independent new settlements for satellite outposts that are not connected to the main settlement area, like what Israel is in the process of doing for the Havat Gilad outpost.
5 – Recommending an end to the work of the “Blue Line Team.” This is the team within the Israeli Defense Forces which was tasked with examining and correcting the demarcation of land in the West Bank that Israel has granted to settlements. Ending the work of the team means Israel will cease making any effort to identify if and where settlement boundaries include private Palestinian land, let alone retroactively returning such land to the control of its owners. Israeli Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit has reportedly already agreed to this recommendation.
6 – Calling for Regional Settlement Councils to be allowed to provide municipal services to (currently) unauthorized outposts. Many unauthorized outposts – being outside the jurisdiction of regional councils (because they are not officially recognized by the government) – lack connections to the Israeli power grid and water supply. This recommendation will allow settlement Regional Councils to hook up outposts to the Israeli grid, an ability which had already been extended to local settlement councils.
Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked: “The end of the era of uprooting settlements without purpose in Judea and Samaria, was led by a team that found legal ways to regulate settlements in Judea and Samaria and to end the shame of evacuating settlements for no real reason. The report gives legal tools that are compatible with international law, for the settlement of settlements in Judea and Samaria.”
Education Minister Naftali Bennett (Jewish Home): “We act responsibly and creatively and within a few weeks we will present a comprehensive and systematic plan of action for the legalization of outposts in Judea and Samaria.”
Agricultural Minister Uri Ariel (Jewish Home): “The Settlement Committee was established in order to find a solution for thousands of houses in settlements that are in danger because of petitions by radical leftist parties and the Palestinian Authority, which exploit the judicial system to harm and sabotage Jewish settlement in Judea and Samaria. The report sets before us, the government, the simple truth that it is possible and necessary to settle settlement in Judea and Samaria after 50 years of settlement. I call on the prime minister to immediately adopt the report and put an end to the unnecessary and painful demolition and destruction of homes and settlements in Judea and Samaria established with the encouragement and support of successive Israeli governments.”
MK Ksenia Svetlova (Zionist Union): “Because the government was unable to implement the Levy report, they need to be able to show some sort of result on this issue…It will give a tailwind to settlers to continue building illegally…” She referred to the report as a “legal carte blanche,” providing another avenue for advancing the so-called “Regulation Law.” She added, “I believe in international legitimacy, and nobody has recognized our sovereignty in the West Bank.”
Peace Now: “This is a serious and dangerous report, which recommends that Israel blatantly violate international law and trample on the protected needs and rights of the Palestinian population…the implementation of its recommendations would lead to apartheid in practice.
Talia Sasson (author of the 2005 Sasson Report and current head of The New Israel Fund): The report was written “on the basis that the political debate over the West Bank is over…Their legal attitude to issues of land ownership is one of ‘we don’t want to know.’ ”
Michael Sfard (human rights lawyer): Referring to a 1979 court ruling that held Palestinian land could not be confiscated by the state for the use of settlement building, Sfard said: “The adoption of this report would signify the end of that ruling. It has been abused quite regularly on the ground, but never before at the legal level.”
[Updated post-publication with new statements]
The Efrat settlement, located south of Bethlehem, recently became the first settlement to have its own drone to police the skies. The settlement held a demonstration of the drone’s capabilities over the weekend, stressing that the drone is able to quickly identify Palestinians on the ground.
The purchase of the drone was supported by a $37,000 donation from the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, an organization which claims to be the “largest Christian-supported humanitarian agency helping Israel and the Jewish people around the world,” counting 1.6 million Christian donors who contribute a total of $140 million annually. The group’s founder, Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein, told the Jerusalem Post that he plans on equipping more settlements with their own private drones.
Military-grade drones have long been a part of the Israeli military’s blockade of Gaza, and Gaza residents have long noted with despair the audible buzzing of drones above them. The Washington Post wrote that the buzz of drones is the “the most enduring reminder of Israel’s unblinking vigilance and its unfettered power to strike at a moment’s notice.” Just last week, and for the first time ever, Israel used drones to drop tear gas on Palestinians participating in protests along the fence separating Israel from the Gaza Strip.
The privatization of drones follows the diffusion of drone technology throughout the Israeli armed forces; as of last year, Israel had furnished camera-equipped drones to hundreds of IDF units.
A freedom of information request filed by two Israeli NGOs has revealed that the Settlement Division of the World Zionist Organization (WZO) offers mobile homes for rent in West Bank settlements for 20-30% cheaper than in Israel proper. According to the data, 37% of the division’s rental properties are located inside of West Bank settlements.
The Settlement Division is technically part of the World Zionist Organization, but in practice the unit is fully funded by the Israeli government and even splits its real estate profits with the Israeli Housing and Construction Ministry. Together, the WZO and the Israeli government work in coordination to develop West Bank settlements and encourage Jews to move into them.
From the beginning of the Israeli settlement movement, the Israeli government has provided significant economic subsidies to encourage its citizens to move to the West Bank (subsidies which is not offered to citizens living in Israel proper, where a housing shortage has been front-page news for years).
On May 6, 2018, the Israeli Cabinet voted to support legislation that, if passed by the Knesset, will empower the Knesset to reinstate laws struck down by the High Court with a bare-bones majority vote (61 of 120). This move by the Cabinet sends the bill – known as the override law – to the Knesset, where it appears to have been put on ice due to opposition within the governing coalition.
The Cabinet’s decision to vote on the bill and send it to the Knesset took place entirely at the insistence of Jewish Home leaders Naftali Bennett and Ayelet Shaked, in defiance of a request from Prime Minister Netanyahu’s (Likud) to delay the Cabinet vote until the Ministers could reach a compromise on the text of the bill. Instead, Bennett and Shaked plowed ahead with their own version of the bill without consensus in the Cabinet. The Jewish Home version is the most extreme: it would allow the Knesset to reinstate bills with just 61-votes, a threshold so low that it would effectively allow governing coalitions to pass laws that are immune to judicial review. Chief Justice Esther Hayut warned that the 61-vote version sets the bar too low, calling it a “danger to democracy and to the court.”
As of this writing, Netanyahu has not yet weighed in on the Cabinet’s action on the bill, which leaves Likud faction votes uncertain. Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon – who heads the Kulanu Party, the second largest party in the governing coalition – has promised to instruct his faction to vote against the bill should it be brought up, a move which could shelve the bill for six months according to Knesset procedures. Kahlon, who was not present during the Cabinet’s discussion or vote, said:
“The passage of the bill in the Ministerial Committee of Legislation is a violation of the coalition agreements and a blow to law enforcement. The Kulanu faction will continue to struggle against the override powers clause and we will fight. We will not allow extreme elements to lead the daily agenda in the State of Israel.”
Adding to the dissent, a spokesman for Israeli Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit reiterated the AG’s opposition to all versions of the bill currently under consideration. As an alternative, Mandelblit has recommended a bill that would require a majority vote in the High Court (6 out of 9) to overturn a bill, and then a vote of 70 MKs to reinstate any bill that was struck down.
Dror Etkes – founder of the anti-settlement watchdog group Kerem Navot – revealed that Maurice Hirsch, Israel’s former chief military prosecutor in the West Bank – lives in a house that the Israeli Defense Ministry has admitted was built on privately owned Palestinian land. Hirsch is currently employed by NGO Monitor, a group dedicated to quashing activisim critical of Israel or Israeli policies.
“Ultra-Orthodox population grows in Israeli settlements” (i24 News)
“Israeli forces expel Palestinian families from homes in Jordan Valley for army training” (Maan News)
“How the U.S. State Department Deleted the Occupied Territories” (Haaretz)
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TechChanging Face of Security
Jailbreaks wanted: $1 million dollar iPhone hacks
Robert Hackett
Ladies and gentlemen, start your engines.
The cybersecurity firm Zerodium announced on Monday that it will reward $1 million to anyone able to crack Apple’s (AAPL) recently launched iOS 9 operating system, which the startup’s website claims is “the world’s most secure mobile OS.”
“Apple iOS, like all operating system, is often affected by critical security vulnerabilities, however due to the increasing number of security improvements and the effectiveness of exploit mitigations in place, Apple’s iOS is currently the most secure mobile OS,” the company stated in its blog post. “But don’t be fooled, secure does not mean unbreakable, it just means that iOS has currently the highest cost and complexity of vulnerability exploitation and here’s where the Million Dollar iOS 9 Bug Bounty comes into play.”
Zerodium was founded this past summer by Chaouki Bekrar, a well-known merchant of zero-day exploits—or computer code that attacks previously unknown software vulnerabilities. His new startup said it is prepared to pay out a total of $3 million to as many as three hacking teams or individuals for successful attacks.
Apple, which is often lauded for its tight security, did not immediately respond to Fortune’s request for comment. (In an unrelated incident that was a rare lapse for the company, malware-laced apps recently made their way into the company’s app store in China.)
Bekrar also founded the controversial French cybersecurity firm Vupen, a brokerage built on the sale of computer bugs and exploits. Unlike Vupen, which handled all of its own research internally, Zerodium’s business is built on accepting submissions from external researchers. Both companies, however, rely on not disclosing their vulnerability findings to affected companies, such as Apple, Google (GOOG), or Microsoft (MSFT).
Instead, they sell them to the highest bidder, whether that be a law enforcement or spy agency, or another corporation.
When the so-called Stagefright vulnerability, which affected Google’s Android operating system, went public earlier this year, Bekrar said he would have paid the researcher who discovered the flaw $100,000 for it. (For more on Stagefright, read this.)
Christopher Soghoian, chief technologist at the American Civil Liberties Union, has referred to such businesses as “modern-day merchants of death,” since it can be difficult to keep track of where sold exploits end up and just as hard to prevent them from falling into the hands of oppressive regimes.
The zero-day trade industry is one which often operates out of the public spotlight, although a recent hacking of the Italian spyware firm Hacking Team helped expose some of its inner workings through leaked emails and other documents.
In order to claim the prize, which is the largest on record for an exploit of this sort, hackers must be able to demonstrate that they can remotely take control of the latest iOS devices such as the iPhone 6s or new iPads. For a full rundown of the rules and stipulations, see Zerodium’s website.
“For obvious security reasons, ZERODIUM does not maintain any web infrastructure dedicated to zero-day submissions. All submissions to ZERODIUM must be achieved through encrypted emails,” the website states (where one might expect a submission form). “We reserve the right, at our sole discretion, to make or to not make an offer to acquire a vulnerability for any/no reason.”
Whether the competition is a PR stunt for Bekrar’s new company or a legitimate contest, Fortune cannot say for certain.
Katie Moussouris, chief policy officer at the bug bounty startup HackerOne, told Fortune via email that such high prices for zero-day exploits could cause problems for tech companies attempting to secure their products. “These are not generally sustainable reward levels for defensive markets,” she wrote, “due to the difficulty in maintaining the necessary developer and tester employees who might just leave their day jobs if bounties like this are more common.”
Fittingly, submissions are due by Halloween: Oct. 31, 2015 at 6:00 P.M. (eastern standard time). Trick or treat, hackers.
Updated (Sept. 22, 2015): Below are comments provided to Fortune via email by Zerodium founder Chaouki Bekrar.
1. Why $ 1 million?
We believe that one million US dollars is high enough to motivate many talented researchers and entice them to accept this highly technical challenge.
2. Whom do you plan to sell the potential exploits to, if acquired? And
for how much money?
All acquired security research is made available to our customers which
include both government organizations and Fortune500 customers :-)
We cannot discuss financial information.
3. How much does Zerodium typically pay out for zero days? What are the most common types?
As of today, Zerodium has acquired various zero-day exploits mostly
affecting web browsers on Windows (Internet Explorer, Chrome, Firefox)
and Android. We’re currently spending between $400,000 to $600,000 per
month for vulnerability acquisitions, and we expect to spend around
$1,000,000 US dollars per month before the end of this year additionally
to the iOS bug bounty.
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You are at:Home»Paris»Arrondissements of Paris»6th Arrondissement of Paris»Famous Cafés of Saint-Germain-des-Prés, Paris
Café de Flore, Saint-Germain-des-Prés © French Moments
Famous Cafés of Saint-Germain-des-Prés, Paris
By Pierre on 31 May 6th Arrondissement of Paris, Gastronomy, Île-de-France, Paris, Paris Food
The café scene is a vital part of the social life of Paris where artists, writers, intellectuals and celebrities meet in one of Saint-Germain-des-Prés’ celebrated cafés: Café Les Deux Magots, Café de Flore, Brasserie Lipp and Le Procope.
Café culture in Paris
For most Parisians, the café culture is an everyday experience involving meeting friends or business partners. Or simply reading the daily newspaper while watching the world go by as Zola rightly put it: ‘great silent crowds watching the street live’.
Already in 1702, when the first cafés opened in Paris, Louis, knight of Mailly wrote:
“The cafés are most agreeable places, and ones where one finds all sorts of people of different characters. There one sees fine young gentlemen, agreeably enjoying themselves; there one sees the savants who come to leave aside the laborious spirit of the study; there one sees others whose gravity and plumpness stand in for merit. Those, in a raised voice, often impose silence on the deftest wit, and rouse themselves to praise everything that is to be blamed, and blame everything that is worthy of praise. How entertaining for those of spirit to see originals setting themselves up as arbiters of good taste and deciding with an imperious tone what is over their depth!”
Café Les Deux Magots
A very popular tourist destination, the celebrated café was once the meeting place of the literary and intellectual elite of France.
After World War II, many artists and intellectuals met in Les Deux-Magots, particularly philosophers, writers and artists such as Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, Albert Camus, Ernest Hemingway, Picasso, Boris Vian, and Juliette Gréco.
The café takes its name from a nearby fabric and novelty shop which itself was named after a popular play in 1800 – Les Deux Magots de la Chine. ‘Magot’ is a term meaning a stocky figurine from the Far East. Two wooden statues representing Chinese mandarins (or magicians) are found inside the coffee house on a pillar.
Café de Flore
Only a block away from Les Deux Magots, Café de Flore (founded in 1885) is one of the most prestigious cafés in Saint-Germain-des-Prés. Its name refers to Flora, goddess of flowers whose statue is located on the opposite side of Boulevard Saint-Germain.
Many French intellectuals met at the café including Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir.
The interior is decorated in Art Deco style with red seating, mahogany and mirrors.
Brasserie Lipp
The brasserie was founded in 1880 by Léonard Lipp, a native from Alsace who opted to move to Paris after the German annexation of his region. Verlaine and Apollinaire were amongst the first famous patrons to taste the chef’s choucroute garnie. Many French politicians and actors are known to eat at the restaurant.
Café Le Procope
The first café opened in Paris (and in the world) is Le Procope at number 13 rue de l’Ancienne Comédie. Founded in 1686 by a Sicilian native of Palermo, Francesco Procopio dei Coltelli, it was the meeting place for the literary gents during Molière’s time. In the 18th century, it was a meeting place for Voltaire, Rousseau, Diderot and D’Alembert.
There, Benjamin Franklin, then Ambassador to France, worked on the U.S. Constitution at a table. A commemorative plaque mentioned that it was in the café that the American worked on the alliance treaty between Louis XVI and the new Republic of the United States.
It was at Le Procope that the Phrygian cap, soon to be the symbol of Liberty, was first displayed during the Revolution.
Le Procope has one of Napoleon Bonaparte’s hat on display in a glass case at the entrance.
The interior is decorated in the 18th century style with Pompeian walls, crystal chandeliers and oval portraits of famous French patrons.
There are two entrances to the café: at rue de l’Ancienne Comédie and at Cours du Commerce Saint-André.
Read more about the neighbourhood of Saint-Germain-des-Prés.
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Crazy STAR WARS: EPISODE VII Spoiler Story Rumors!
RumorMovie Star Wars: The Force Awakens about 5 years ago by Joey Paur
Art by: altobello02
Some really big and insane Star Wars: Episode VII story rumors have hit the internet. They could be true or they could be completely false. Either way, this article is coming along with a huge SPOILER ALERT, because there's a chance that what you are about to read could be the real deal.
We really know nothing about the plot of this movie. There's been a lot of speculation about who the new characters are, but director J.J. Abrams has been able to keep things on the down-low for some time. That might have all changed. It's crazy how much stuff has been leaking from the set of this film, such as all of the photos, so it wouldn't be surprising if some story info leaked out as well.
The following news comes from Making of Star Wars, and they got their information from several sources working on the Pinewood Studios lot where the film is being shot. The site does make a point of saying that none of the people they talked too have read the script, this is just information that is being spread around the studio lot. Now before you dismiss the following intel, I used to work on a big studio lot, and this type of thing happens all the time. I will say that all of the rumors I heard about certain films while working at that studio turned out to be true.
Now on with the juicy SPOILER filled information!
This is your last chance to turn back.
Ok then… here we go:
"The bad guys in Star Wars: Episode VII are being called 'Jedi Hunters' by people working on and around the film. These are scary individuals, dressed in black, some helmeted, that hunt Jedi for the Empire."
When describing the villains, the report says they are "said to be characterized by black and chrome with troopers in similar black and chrome uniforms. They’re very imperial, but very new."
The article goes on to reveal that these Jedi Hunters have been around for a long time fighting the Jedi and that their job was to protect the Sith at all costs to ensure their survival. They are the reason there is no New Republic after Return of the Jedi. They have been out trying to stop the growth of the Jedi.
Apparently Luke Skywalker has been fighting to stop this resurrection from happening for the last thirty years of his life, but he's "outnumbered, tired, and in need of help."
One of the sources on the set then claims to have watched a scene being shot in which the Jedi Hunters are worshiping the Sith and want to resurrect them. Regardless of all of the work that Skywalker is doing to keep this from happening, he can't stop it. According to the site, the resurrection of the Sith will take place in Episode VIII and then the Jedi kill the resurrected Sith in Episode IX.
That's a basic rundown of the possible plot of the story, but you can read read more details and speculation on it over at the site it originated from. There are a few holes that need to be filled in the story that aren't answered here, but I'm sure that will all come in time. If this is true, I'm completely on board with where Abrams is taking the universe.
STAR WARS: EPISODE VII — Mandalorians Rumored
STAR WARS: EPISODE VII — Story Detail Counterintelligence
STAR WARS: EPISODE VII - Possible New Spoiler Details
STAR WARS: EPISODE VII Title Rumor Confirmed?
STAR WARS: EPISODE VII - Story Details and More Casting Rumors
STAR WARS : EPISODE VII Casting and Story Update
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In episode 7 of our podcast series History Books, we look at how a great war broke out in the American south-west
The podcast is on a book called The Wrath of Cochise by David Mort.
The book is about the disputes that led the outbreak of the Apache Wars. The Apache Wars were a series of conflicts between the United States and a number of Apache nations fought in the American Southwest from the mid-nineteenth century until the 1880s.
And as we shall soon see, a key factor in their starting was that in February 1861, the twelve-year-old son of Arizona rancher John Ward was kidnapped by Apaches. Ward followed their trail and reported the incident to patrols at Fort Buchanan, blaming a band of Chiricahuas led by the infamous warrior Cochise.
The book then tells the story of how events dramatically escalated, leading to the death of many and the destruction of parts of the states of Arizona and New Mexico. As well as the devastation of a way of life.
Categories19th century, Podcast, Podcast/Magazine, History Books Podcast
TagsChiricahuas, American Frontier, Apache Wars, Cochise
In episode 6 of our podcast series History Books, we look at a terrible crime in 1850s London.
The podcast is on a book called The Secret Life of Celestina Sommer – Victorian Child Killer by David J. Vaughan.
Celestina Sommer had a tragic upbringing. Pregnant at seventeen, with no support and little more compassion, she relinquished her infant to the baby-farmers. Eleven years on and married, she endured not only vilification but domestic abuse - the man she trusted turning on her with misogynistic cruelty endorsed by a society turning its blind, masculine eye.
The book tells the story about the awful truth of Celestina’s short, tragic life and reveals exactly why she avoided the hangman's noose. Her heart-rending story follows the world's reaction to her crime: parliamentary debates, press outrage, allegations of royal collusion, garishly explicit reports of her trials at the Old Bailey and, finally, her collapse into madness as she struggles through a harsh Victorian penal system and, at the very end, Britain's foremost criminal lunatic asylum of the age.
PS – just to inform you, this podcast is of a darker nature than many of our other podcasts.
Categories19th century, History Books Podcast, Podcast/Magazine, Podcast
TagsVictorian Britain, Celestina Sommer, Crime in London
In episode 4 of our series History Books, we look at the story of a very different type of KGB spy in the Cold War.
In a previous episode in this series we looked at Stalin’s Gulags; this time we are back with the Soviets in Cold War Radio: The Dangerous History of American Broadcasting in Europe, 1950 – 1989 by Richard H. Cummings.
Cold War Radio refers to Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty. These are radio stations that still exist and are funded by the US Congress. They seek to provide information to those parts of Eastern Europe, Central Asia and the Middle East where there is not a free flow of information. That is, in those countries with more limited freedom of speech and press.
Any why is this story different? Well, because it involves a rather uncommon type of spy. A female. And there’s more. She was from the West and hardly supportive of Soviet aims.
If you enjoy the podcast, you can purchase the book here: Amazon
Finally, tell us what you think of the podcast below! We'd love to hear your opinions...
Categories20th century, History Books Podcast, Podcast, Podcast/Magazine
TagsKGB, Radio Liberty, Radio Free Europe, Spies
In episode 3 of our series History Books, we look at instability in inter-war Germany and how the Nazis began their ascent to power.
In the last episode we looked at Stalin’s Gulags; this time we consider his arch-enemy in the book Reaction, Revolution and the Birth of Nazism: Germany 1918-1923 by Nick Shepley.
The book tells the story of events in Germany in the years after World War I. These were years of great strife and change in the country. There was gross political instability following the German defeat in the war, with groups on both the political left and right trying to stake their claim to power. Indeed, the book argues that Germany at the time was involved in a three-way fight. Firstly, there were left-leaning groups. Secondly, there were traditional conservative elements, the old elite. And thirdly, there were radical right-wing groups.
This episode picks up the rise of the Nazis in the early 1920s, and the extreme lengths that Adolf Hitler went to in order to gain power.
Now, I hope that you enjoy the audio.
And if you enjoy the podcast, you can purchase the book here: Amazon US | Amazon UK
CategoriesHistory Books Podcast, Podcast, Podcast/Magazine
TagsMunich Beerhall Putsch, Rise of Nazism, Adolf Hitler, General Ludendorff
Our series, History Books, continues with a book about a man who was deported to a Soviet prison camp, a Gulag, before escaping.
Following our look at last words in the previous episode of History Books, this time we consider the book Two Years in a Gulag by Frank Pleszak.
The book is a personal journey. In the book Frank tries to find out about what happened to his father, somebody who was sent away from his native Poland to one of the toughest of the Gulag Soviet labor camps. That deportation happened following the 1939 invasion of eastern Poland by the USSR after the division of Poland between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union.
One of the aspects of the book that I found interesting is that it mixes both a personal account with an overview of historical events that I was not always greatly aware of. For example, Frank explains the detail of the Nazi-Soviet invasion of Poland at the start of the book and then what happened once they assumed power in Poland.
TagsNazi-Soviet invasion of Poland, Gulag, Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, History Books
Our new history podcast series, History Books, starts with the book Last Words of the Executed by Robert K. Elder.
But firstly, just what is History Books?!
Well, the series will feature readings from a variety of history related books about different topics in history. From the Nazis to Abraham Lincoln, and Gulags to prisoners in Italy in World War II, we will provide you with something different and intriguing in each episode.
This episode of History Books...
And in this episode we look at a book that is a fascinating read and a great historical document – Last Words of the Executed. It pulls together the last words of those people who were killed by the government in America for their crimes from the 17th century onwards. It starts by discussing why we would want to know the last words of those who have committed the most heinous crimes possible in society, and briefly looks at the history of the death penalty. And that is where we begin this audio podcast…
TagsHistory Books, Death Penalty
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DMA Goes Public With New Digital Database
by Christina Rees August 19, 2014
Mythical aso (one of a pair), 19th Century, from the Pacific Rim dept of the DMA. The database tells me all about these little wooden guys’ Dayak origins, that they are on display on the third floor of the museum, and a whole lot more. And now I love them.
Today, the Dallas Museum of Art launched its new and vastly improved digital database, years in the making and slated to be complete by 2016, which will “…dramatically improve online access and representation of the Museum’s global collection …with increased content and functionality.” This means the DMA now boasts “…one of the world’s most sophisticated online art collections, providing open access to its entire collection… available to visitors, students, teachers, and scholars.” To start browsing its encyclopedic collection, go here.
This open-access sensibility matches the DMA’s free general-admission policy, which kicked in January 2013 under its director Maxwell Anderson; both initiatives are made possible by anonymous gift of $9 million to the DMA.
As of today, all 22,000 of the museum’s works are accessible through the database, and 11,000 are illustrated with digital images. In addition: “…over 4,500 objects are now available for free download without licensing fees or content restrictions. All images available via DMA.org continue to be freely available for non-commercial and educational use. Over time, additional high-resolution images of all works in the public domain will be released for public use.”
Four Directors are Better Than One: Anne Bergeron...
Dallas Museum of Art Announces 2019 Artist Awards
Is Maxwell Anderson Bored With Art?
DMA Appoints New Assistant Curator of the Arts...
Art Dirt 7: McMansion Hell, Dressing Up Like...
DMA & SFMOMA Jointly Acquire Works by Walter...
DMA Curator Gavin Delahunty Resigns Over Allegations of...
Sit’n’Surf: National Grant Will Fund New Learning Lab...
Your Ultimate Holiday Shopping Guide: TX Museum Gift...
Trapezoidal Rock is Smoking Gun in DMA Inness...
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Home » News » MEET THE HUNDREDS OF OFFICIALS TRUMP HAS QUIETLY INSTALLED ACROSS THE GOVERNMENT
MEET THE HUNDREDS OF OFFICIALS TRUMP HAS QUIETLY INSTALLED ACROSS THE GOVERNMENT
Mar 9, 2017 by Casey Coates Danson
We have obtained a list of more than 400 Trump administration hires, including dozens of lobbyists and some from far-right media.
by Justin Elliott, Derek Kravitz and Al Shaw
ProPublica,
Clouds gather over the White House in Washington, D.C., on Feb. 25, 2017. (Nicholas Kamm/AFP/Getty Images)
The Trump Administration
ProPublica’s ongoing coverage of the 45th President.
A Trump campaign aide who argues that Democrats committed “ethnic cleansing” in a plot to “liquidate” the white working class. A former reality show contestant whose study of societal collapse inspired him to invent a bow-and-arrow-cum-survivalist multi-tool. A pair of healthcare industry lobbyists. A lobbyist for defense contractors. An “evangelist” and lobbyist for Palantir, the Silicon Valley company with close ties to intelligence agencies. And a New Hampshire Trump supporter who has only recently graduated from high school.
These are some of the people the Trump administration has hired for positions across the federal government, according to documents received by ProPublica through public-records requests.
While President Trump has not moved to fill many jobs that require Senate confirmation, he has quietly installed hundreds of officials to serve as his eyes and ears at every major federal agency, from the Pentagon to the Department of Interior.
Unlike appointees exposed to the scrutiny of the Senate, members of these so-called “beachhead teams” have operated largely in the shadows, with the White House declining to publicly reveal their identities.
While some names have previously dribbled out in the press, we are publishing a list of more than 400 hires, providing the most complete accounting so far of who Trump has brought into the federal government.
The White House said in January that around 520 staffers were being hired for the beachhead teams.
The list we obtained includes obscure campaign staffers, contributors to Breitbart and others who have embraced conspiracy theories, as well as dozens of Washington insiders who could be reasonably characterized as part of the “swamp” Trump pledged to drain.
The list is striking for how many former lobbyists it contains: We found at least 36, spanning industries from health insurance and pharmaceuticals to construction, energy and finance. Many of them lobbied in the same areas that are regulated by the agencies they have now joined.
Here Are More Than 400 Officials Trump Has Quietly Deployed Across the Government
ProPublica has obtained a list of more than 400 people hired by the Trump administration to fill key roles across the federal government. Read the story.
That figure is almost certainly an undercount since we only included those who formally registered as lobbyists, a process increasingly avoided by many in Washington.
During the campaign, Trump said he would have “no problem” banning lobbyists from his administration. But they have nonetheless ended up in senior roles, aided by Trump’s weakening of Obama-era ethics rules that modestly limited lobbyists’ role in government.
The White House didn’t respond to requests for comment.
There are many former congressional staffers, several top officials from the George W. Bush administration, and even a handful of holdovers from the Obama administration. The list also includes at least eight staffers drawn from the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank that forged close ties to the new administration during the transition.
Much about the role of the beachhead teams at various federal agencies is unclear. But close observers of the early weeks of the Trump administration believe they have taken on considerable influence in the absence of high-level political appointees.
“If the public and Senate is in the dark about a team created without a Senate confirmation process, no one will be permitted to shed light on who is hopelessly conflicted or who is obviously unqualified — and who is both,” said Jeff Hauser, director of the Revolving Door Project at the Center for Economic and Policy Research.
The beachhead team members are temporary employees serving for stints of four to eight months, but many are expected to move into permanent jobs. The Trump administration’s model is based on plans developed but never used by the unsuccessful presidential campaign of Mitt Romney.
“The beachhead teams involve people with considerable authority over the federal government,” said Max Stier, the CEO of the Partnership for Public Service, a nonpartisan group that advises presidential candidates on smooth transitions. “We need clarity about what they’re doing and what their role is going to be.”
The Obama administration also hired temporary staffers after the inauguration. But Trump has brought in many more, Stier said.
The new list of names was provided to us by the Office of Personnel Management, the government’s human resources agency. We received additional names from other federal agencies in response to Freedom of Information Act requests. At least a few people on the list have changed agencies or left the administration, including, for example, the young Department of Housing and Urban Development staffer who was fired after his anti-Trump writings during the campaign came to light.
Here is a run-down of some of the Trump hires.
The Breitbart wing
Curtis Ellis was a columnist for WorldNetDaily, a website best known for its enthusiastic embrace of the false notion that President Obama was born outside the United States. A column headlined the “The Radical Left’s Ethnic Cleansing of America” won Ellis an admiring interview with Steve Bannon, now Trump’s top aide. He is a longtime critic of trade deals such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership.
Ellis was hired Jan. 20 as a special assistant to the secretary at the Labor Department. Asked about his role in a brief phone interview Tuesday, he said: “Nothing I can tell you.”
Jon Perdue, a self-described guerrilla warfare expert and fellow at a little-known security think tank, wrote a book called “The War of All the People: The Nexus of Latin American Radicalism and Middle Eastern Terrorism.” He is also a onetime contributor to Breitbart.
Perdue was featured on CNBC’s reality series “Make Me a Millionaire Inventor” for his invention, the Packbow, which Perdue came up with while studying “collapsed societies, and what people who lived in those societies came up with to either defend themselves or to survive.” It’s a bow and arrow that doubles as a compass, tent pole, walking stick, spearfishing rig, and water purification tablet receptacle.
Perdue was hired as a special assistant at the Treasury Department. The agency didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
John Jaggers ran the Trump campaign in Maryland and Virginia, where he made headlines for endorsing the conspiracy theory that Hillary Clinton was “very, very sick and they’re covering it up.” As he put it last August: “The woman who seeks to be the first female president of the United States wears a wool coat at every single thing. Have you ever stopped to wonder why? It’s a big deal, folks.”
Jaggers was hired Jan. 20 as senior adviser at the General Services Administration, which oversees tens of billions of dollars of government procurement every year. But records show he left the job on March 3. He declined to comment.
Swamp denizens, including health care lobbyists hired by HHS Secretary Tom Price
Alexandra Campau, hired at the department of Health and Human Services, was formerly a lobbyist in Washington for the law firm Cozen O’Connor. According to disclosure records, her firm’s clients included a licensee of insurance giant Blue Cross Blue Shield, and Fresenius Medical Care, a German company that specializes in medical supplies for renal dialysis.
Timothy Clark, a senior adviser to HHS Secretary Tom Price, ran his own political consulting firm in California. His past clients included PhRMA, the powerful trade group that represents the pharmaceutical industry.
Keagan Lenihan, also a senior adviser to Price, was a director of government relations at McKesson Specialty Health, a firm that supports independent health providers. Disclosure records show Lenihan directly lobbied HHS. For Lenihan, the new post represents a return trip through the revolving door between government and the private sector, and a reunion with an old boss. Before registering as a lobbyist, she was a senior legislative assistant for Price, when the now-HHS secretary was in Congress.
Asked about the three HHS staffers, an agency spokeswoman said: “We are not confirming or commenting on personnel at this time.”
Justin Mikolay, hired at the Department of Defense, was previously a registered lobbyist for Palantir. His title at the tech firm was “evangelist.” Mikolay lobbied for the “procurement/deployment of the Palantir Government software platform” throughout intelligence and defense agencies, according to disclosure records.
Mikolay was a speechwriter to Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta between 2011 and 2013, according to his LinkedIn profile. Mikolay also previously served as a speechwriter for current Secretary of Defense James Mattis. He declined to comment.
Chad Wolf, a Bush-era Transportation Security Administration official turned lobbyist, is currently serving as an adviser to the TSA at the Department of Homeland Security. His clients have included defense and homeland security contractors.
Reached Tuesday, Wolf declined to comment. George Rogers, CEO of Wolf’s lobbying firm, Wexler Walker, told ProPublica that Wolf is currently on unpaid leave.
As we’ve previously reported, lobbyists for the construction industry trade association and financial services firm TransAmerica are on the team at the Department of Labor.
Trump campaign vets — including very young ones
The list also includes what appear to be dozens of former Trump campaign staffers, including several who graduated from college last year. One, Danny Tiso at the Department of Labor, graduated from high school in 2015, according to his LinkedIn profile. He worked for the Trump campaign in New Hampshire.
Seth Harris, who was on the first Obama-Biden transition team and later became a top Labor Department official, said it’s not uncommon to bring in campaign staff to agencies — “as long as there are senior political people to direct the junior people.”
“This is how you incorporate the people who are your strongest supporters into the government,” he said. “There are plenty of junior jobs in the government that these people can do — public-affairs jobs, special assistant jobs.”
Reporting was contributed by Robert Faturechi, Jesse Eisinger, Alison Gregor, Jessica Huseman, Lauren Kirchner, Alec MacGillis, Clifford Michel, T. Christian Miller, Charles Ornstein, Andrew Revkin, Marcelo Rochabrun, Lisa Song and Annie Waldman.
If you have any information about members of the Trump beachhead teams or their roles in the agencies, contact us at beachhead@propublica.org or via Signal at (774)-826-6240. Here is a guide for how to leak to ProPublica.
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Fan Policy
Wesley.edu
Relays impress to qualify for Saturday’s final at NCAA Championships
LA CROSSE, Wis. – The women's 4x100- and men's 4x400-meter relays impressed at the first day of the 2018 NCAA Division III Outdoor Track & Field Championships, hosted by the University of Wisconsin, La Crosse.
The women's 4x100-meter relay team of Briana Artis, Maysha Foster, Evelina Sloboh and Rakiya Taylor had the fastest time in the preliminaries of the event. The quartet finished the race in 46.58 seconds, a new school and conference record. The Wolverines finished almost a fourth of a second faster than the second-place team.
The men's 4x400-meter team of Thomas Kalieta Jr., TySean Cousar, Dominic McAnulty and John Heriot registered the second-fastest time in the prelims with a time of 3:10.45, a school and conference record.
Both teams will run in Saturday's finals looking to win the national championship and achieve All-American status. The women's 4x1 will start at 1:05 p.m. while the men's 4x4 begins at 4:50 p.m. on Saturday.
Kaileta and Roland Attoh-Okine will compete tomorrow in the second day of the national meet. Attoh-Okine will run at 4:10 p.m. in the 110-meter hurdle prelims and Kalieta will compete at 5:15 p.m. in the 400-meter dash prelims.
WESLEY COLLEGE ATHLETICS
120 NORTH STATE STREET • DOVER, DE • 19901
Sun, 05/03 | Men's Track & Field CAC Championships (Outdoor) 3rd of 7 RC | PH | V
Sat, 04/25 | Men's Track & Field Delaware Classic (Outdoor) 2nd of 9 RC | PH
Sun, 03/01 | Men's Track & Field BU Last Chance (Indoor) NTS RC | R
Sat, 02/21 | Men's Track & Field CAC Championships (Indoor) 4th of 7 RC | R | V
Sat, 02/07 | Men's Track & Field Frank Colden Invitational (Indoor) 2nd of 11 RC | R | PH
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A Dozen Developments From the NHL’s First Week
It was only last Wednesday that the NHL was getting ready to drop the puck on a new season. Hockey fans settled in for the long haul, ready for the ups and downs that inevitably visit every team over a six-month season. We would enjoy the games, yes. But we would not panic.
Seven days later, as the final horns sounded on last night’s games, hockey fans collectively stood up and shouted “Screw that.” Because right now, the standings are a mess. It seems like every team in the league is either a steaming tire fire or an unstoppable monster. No, you shouldn’t overreact to one week’s worth of action. But surely some of these teams are trying to tell us something. The key is figuring out which ones.
So what’s going on? Great question. Let’s see if we can sort this out with a look at a dozen developments from the NHL’s first week.
The Sharks Are Looking Sharp
If you wanted to get a handle on where the Sharks stood in the Pacific, you couldn’t ask the schedule maker for a much better indicator than opening-week matchups against the Kings and Ducks. Those are the two teams expected to represent the toughest hurdle on the Sharks’ way back to the playoffs, if not the division title, so they made for a good early-season test. It’s fair to say the test was passed.
The Sharks opened the season by going into L.A. and thumping the Kings 5-1, following that with a tidy 2-0 win over the Ducks in their home opener. Those were two big wins, and they came behind some strong goaltending by new starter Martin Jones. And, as Craig Custance points out, the Sharks were able to generate much of that offense at even strength, which has been a focus of new coach Peter DeBoer.
But if those first two games were a statement, Tuesday’s 5-0 stomping of a very good Caps team felt like an exclamation point. Jones has now allowed just one goal in three games, good for a .987 save percentage, and looks every bit like the bona fide starter the Sharks were hoping they’d acquired.
Will it continue? It’s worth remembering that not everyone was writing the Sharks off this season, with some pundits being quite high on them. That said, while the Sharks are a good team, let’s give it a few more weeks before we officially welcome them back to the league’s elite. After all, this sort of hot start isn’t exactly new in San Jose, and it hasn’t ended well in the past.
The Kings Have Been Awful
Hey, remember how last season was just a perfect storm of fatigue, slumps, and plain old bad luck, and the Kings were going to storm back into the league’s top tier this season? Maybe hold that thought.
Today, the Kings sit last in the Western Conference, at 0-3-0 with a stunning minus-10 goal differential. They can’t score, Jonathan Quick can’t make a save, and now there’s talk that Darryl Sutter could be on the hot seat.
And this all comes after what was supposed to be an easy schedule to start the season, one that featured home games against San Jose, Arizona, and Vancouver — two teams that missed the playoffs last season and a third that most thought would miss them this season. Not only did the Kings lose all three, but they weren’t close in any of them. This team is a mess.
Will it continue? It feels like “no” should be the easy answer; the Kings have plenty of talent, with essentially the same core as the one that won the Cup in 2014 except with Milan Lucic added into the mix. But this has the feel of a team about to implode, with everyone from the players to the coaches to (especially) GM Dean Lombardi looking awful right now. The Kings have earned some benefit of the doubt. But only some. They need to show some signs of life, and soon.
The Canucks Lead the West
Hey Vancouver fans. Remember a few weeks ago, when I predicted a double-digit playoff miss and said you had the third-worst long-term outlook of any team in the league? [Flaming fixed-gear bicycle crashes through window.] Oh you do remember. Cool, cool.
Four games in, the Canucks are 3-0-1, good for seven points and first place in the West. And they’re doing it with Ryan Miller looking like a Vezina candidate. So … oops? Well, hold on.
Will it continue? No. Look, I’m already all in, so no point folding my hand now.
The Canucks’ early record is impressive, but let’s remember how they got there. They split a pair of games with the Flames. They beat the Ducks in a shootout, which only sort of counts. And they beat that Kings team that can barely remember which way to hold their sticks these days.
That’s all good — points are points. And Miller’s play is a big story; if he’s really back to his 2010 form, then all bets are off. The Canucks start a five-game homestand tomorrow night, and it’s one that features four very good teams. If they’ve still got the rest of the conference looking up at them by the end of that, then it will be time for the doubters to start backpedaling. Just not yet.
The Habs Look Unbeatable
Montreal was the first team to get to four wins, and the Canadiens did it without playing a home game. That’s impressive, and it’s kept them on top of the Atlantic despite the Lightning and Red Wings going a combined 6-1-0 (with the only loss coming when they played each other).
Even better, the first-week script reads like a checklist of all the questions we had about Montreal heading into the season. Would Carey Price continue to shine? Check. Would Max Pacioretty score? Check. Could Alex Galchenyuk show signs of a breakthrough? Check. Would the blue line look solid? Check. Would Alexander Semin have a pulse? Nobody has ever used “Alexander Semin” and “check” in the same line, but: Affirmative.
Will it continue? You come to me for the gutsy predictions, so here’s one: No, the Canadiens’ undefeated streak will not continue. Cancel production on the “82-0-0” banner.
Beyond that bold stance, here’s where we pour a little bit of cold water on Montreal’s hot start: It’s come against a pretty unimpressive list of opponents. The four teams that the Canadiens have beaten are a pedestrian 4-5-1 in their other games, with three of those wins coming from Ottawa. Nobody should get much credit for beating the Leafs, and at least early on, the Penguins and Bruins haven’t been much better.
You can only play the teams the schedule gives you, so you can’t knock the Habs for taking advantage. But things get interesting in Week 2, with the Rangers, Wings, and Blues on the slate. Let’s check back next week and see we’re at.
The Bad Teams Are Bad … at Least in the East
Heading into the season, there wasn’t much hope on offer in Toronto, New Jersey, or Carolina, as all three teams were expected to fade out of the playoff race quickly. So far, all three are on track, registering a combined one point in nine games.
That said, all three have been at least modestly respectable. The Devils opened with a tough three-game stretch against the Jets, Capitals, and Predators, and played all three teams reasonably tight. The Hurricanes dropped a pair of one-goal games to start the season. And the Maple Leafs have at least looked vaguely competent in two out of three, which may be a low bar but is more than they managed through most of last season.
Will it continue? Probably. While all three teams will no doubt win their share of games, it’s hard to see any sticking around the East’s postseason race past early November (although we’ll leave the door open a crack for the Hurricanes, pending Eddie Lack’s inevitable takeover as the full-time starter). And once any hope of a long-shot playoff run fades, all three will turn their attention down the road, with an eye toward moving veterans for future assets. That will be especially interesting in Carolina, where the Eric Staal Watch will shift into high gear.
Of course, none of this is really news. Bad teams are supposed to be bad, right? Well, yes, but somebody apparently forgot to tell one of them …
The Coyotes Have Looked Surprisingly Feisty
With all due disrespect to those three Eastern bottom-feeders, no team headed into this season with lower expectations than the Arizona Coyotes. Nobody thought they could be a playoff team. Most expected them to contend for dead last, if not run away with it. After all, with Arizona-born star Auston Matthews expected to go first overall in next year’s draft, it felt like the perfect season for the rebuilding Coyotes to bottom out completely. And with a brutal early schedule that brought matchups against three Cup contenders in the Kings, Penguins, and Ducks, an 0-3 start was all but ensured.
Instead, the Coyotes opened their season with a pair of wins, stomping the Kings in L.A. on Friday and then following that with a 2-1 decision over the Penguins the next night. Last night, they went into Anaheim and were badly outshot, but left with a 4-0 win on the strength of a Mike Smith shutout and a hat trick from rookie Anthony Duclair.
Will it continue? No. I mean, it can’t, right? You can look up and down the Coyotes roster, and while there’s plenty of promise for the future in guys like Duclair and fellow rookie Max Domi, there’s just not enough talent there to be a winning team this season.
But while the Coyotes can’t be a playoff team, there’s a chance they’ll be better than we thought. The key could be Smith, who was all but written off as a legitimate NHL starter after three straight years of middling performance. But after the departure of highly respected goaltending coach Sean Burke, the Coyotes hired Jon Elkin, a former Flames coach who also happens to have worked with Smith since the Arizona goalie was a child.
It’s far too early to declare that Elkin has fixed anything, but a rebound year from Smith would go a long way to lifting the Coyotes out of that spot in the basement that we’d all penciled them in for. And beyond that … well, who really knows? The nice thing about a team full of kids is that sometimes they’re too dumb to know when they’re not supposed to be good yet.
The Sabres Are … Interesting
The Sabres were a tough team to call this year. On the one hand, it’s possible that no team improved as much as they did in the offseason. On the other, no team needed more improvement, and they still had a long way to go before they could be considered contenders.
Three games into the season, there’s not much clarity. The Sabres managed one win in a three-game homestand, dropping contests to the Senators and Lightning before beating the Blue Jackets on Monday. Jack Eichel looks good. Ryan O’Reilly has been up and down. The blue line looks as shaky as we thought they’d be. It’s been a mixed bag so far.
Will it continue? If you’re the Sabres, you’d probably quite happily take “mixed bag” after two years of finishing dead last. But the big question right now is goaltending, and it’s going to be fascinating to see how the Sabres handle it.
Robin Lehner was acquired to be the full-time starter for this season and beyond, but he suffered a high ankle sprain on opening night and will be out six to 10 weeks. That leaves the Sabres with career backup Chad Johnson and unproven minor leaguer Nathan Lieuwen, and barring an Andrew Hammond–style miracle run, that’s nowhere near good enough for a team looking to make up some ground on the rest of the league.
So if you’re Tim Murray, what do you do? How aggressively are you shopping to bring in crease help? This is an ongoing rebuild, one where the finish line is still several years down the road, so patience would seem to be in order — Lehner is still your guy long-term, so you don’t want to sacrifice a piece of the future for two months of help today. But this is also supposed to be the Sabres’ transition season, the one where they break out of the basement and at least start to show some signs of progress. Lehner’s injury could torpedo that before the season even really gets going.
In a perfect world, Johnson plays well enough to hold down the fort until Lehner is healthy, and he’ll get the chance to do just that. But if he struggles, look out. Murray was perfectly content to go through last season with lousy goaltending, but last season was about Connor McDavid. This season is about winning — not all the time, but at least enough to wipe away some of the stench. If the losses start mounting, Murray’s poker face is going to be tested.
There’s Not Much Separation in the Central
The Predators are flying, the Jets and Wild look great, the Blues and Stars have their moments, and even the Avs managed one nice game sandwiched in between two losses.
And then there are the champs, lurking in the pack as they always do during the regular season. After dropping a tight 3-2 home opener to the Rangers, the Blackhawks responded with back-to-back wins over the Islanders before being blanked by the Flyers last night. They won’t run away with the race, because nobody could run away with this mess. But this is still their division until someone can take it away.
Will it continue? Yep. This division is going to be a bar fight all season long. Just keep your head down and try not to make eye contact with anyone.
The Oilers Are Struggling … Again
Connor McDavid scored the first goal of his NHL career on Tuesday. It came on a tip-in — maybe not the end-to-end rush you’d want to see, but a nifty little goal all the same. So that’s good, right Oilers fans? Hey, maybe go watch it again instead of reading the next few paragraphs.
In their first three games, the Oilers are 0-3-0 and have scored just three times while giving up nine. Nobody has more than a single point, and the guy who should be their leading scorer, Taylor Hall, is point-less.1 And almost the entire team just isn’t playing well.
So … wait till next year?
Will it continue? Two things to keep in mind before we write off this team in mid-October yet again. First, the Oilers had a brutal schedule, facing three very good Central teams2 on the road, and they at least held their own in all three games. More importantly, goalie Cam Talbot, who’s probably the most important player on the team in terms of their short-term success, looked good in his two starts. We can build on this.
So no, it’s not time to blow up the Oilers. Not many expected them to make the playoffs this season, but it would be nice for them to at least stay within range for half a season. That would be far more than the team has managed to do in recent years, and would give long-suffering Edmonton fans a nice dose of optimism to carry them through what they hope will be the final stages of this perpetual rebuild. The Oilers have shown some positive signs, and it’s early. But the October schedule doesn’t get much easier, and it wouldn’t take many more losses before yet another season starts to feel like it’s slipping away. A win against the Blues in their home opener tonight would go a long way toward killing that narrative.
The Bruins May Be Hitting Rock Bottom
Three games in, the Bruins were sitting at 0-3-0 with the worst goal differential in the conference. Tuukka Rask hasn’t looked sharp, Zdeno Chara missed the first two games, and Brad Marchand hasn’t played yet thanks to a concussion. A team known for its defensive play has allowed the second-most goals in the league. They say it’s tough to make the playoffs if you’re four points back after the first month; the Bruins got there in a week.
Last night offered up some support for the “don’t panic” crowd, as the Bruins looked like their old selves while earning a 6-2 win in Colorado. That game may have told us more about the Avs than the Bruins, but it was a reminder that there’s a good team lurking here somewhere.
Will it continue? That depends what the “it” is. Losing more than they win? Quite possibly. The Bruins can expect better play from Rask, and they’ll welcome Marchand back soon. But this just isn’t a very well-constructed team right now, and it’s not hard to picture them slipping out of the Eastern playoff race relatively quickly.
The better question — and the one that’s frankly more fun — is whether the Bruins themselves will continue, in anything approaching their current form. In other words, when does GM Don Sweeney step in and take action? And does that action involve bringing in reinforcements to right the ship, or selling off assets with an eye to the future? The rumor mill says it could be the latter, with Chara’s name coming up. That sort of deal would have been unthinkable even a few weeks ago, and it still seems far-fetched today. But if we’ve learned anything about Sweeney, it’s that he’s willing to go off the board.
The Metro Isn’t Scaring Anyone
We’ve already covered the division’s worst teams, with the Hurricanes and Devils being as bad as expected, and the Blue Jackets need their own section. But the rest of the division isn’t exactly pulling away, with only the 3-1-0 Rangers and 2-1-1 Flyers sitting with a winning record. The Caps have played only twice, including that bad loss to the Sharks. The Islanders are at 1-1-1, and their new home in Brooklyn is getting mixed reviews.
And then there are the Penguins, one of the division favorites and a team that loaded up in the offseason, especially up front. They’ve been awful, starting 0-3-0 and looking nothing like the offensive juggernaut we all expected. They’ve managed just three goals through three games; Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin have combined for just 10 shots and a single assist. Phil Kessel has a goal and two points to lead the team, but he hasn’t sparked the attack the way the Pens had expected when they went out and traded for him.
Will it continue? The Penguins will be fine, at least offensively. Everyone slumps, and this team is too good up front not to start scoring. If there’s a downfall in Pittsburgh, it will come on the back end or in goal. Sidney and friends will get it going.
The rest of the division’s top teams should too; we won’t be seeing numbers like this for long. The fun part will be seeing who can heat up first, as there’s an opportunity to build up an early-season cushion in what’s still expected to be a tight four-way race for the division title. The Rangers own that edge so far, but with Montreal and San Jose coming up over the next few days, they’ll have to work to hold it.
The Blue Jackets Are a Disaster
And we close with Columbus, because even in blog posts, the Blue Jackets are dead last.
Last season, Columbus suffered through some terrible injury luck and never recovered, enduring a season that basically ended up being a write-off. But with a return to full health and the offseason acquisition of Brandon Saad, this season was supposed to be different. This time last week, the Jackets looked like a sneaky pick to jump back into the Metro mix.
Four games in, the results aren’t encouraging. Back-to-back losses to the Rangers were disheartening; New York is a good team, but it’s one that the Blue Jackets will have to show they can hang with if they want to be taken seriously as Metro contenders. Monday’s loss to the Sabres was far worse, a lackluster effort against an opponent that good teams should be able to beat. That left the Blue Jackets sitting at 0-3-0, which may be good for one-liners but left them staring down a poor start for the fourth season in a row.
And then came last night, and a humbling 7-3 loss to the Senators on home ice that had goalie Sergei Bobrovsky giving himself a vote of no confidence. There’s no nice way to spin this — the Blue Jackets are free-falling.
Will it continue? The Jackets have time to get this straightened out; there’s too much talent for the losses to keep mounting, and a meeting with the Maple Leafs tomorrow arrives just in time to get them back on track.
That said, the clock is ticking. That sounds like a ridiculous thing to say just a little over one week into the season, but in a tough division with four very good teams, there’s only so much room for error. Even good teams have a four-game losing streak or two over the course of a long season, but the Blue Jackets can’t afford another four-win opening month, which has become a habit under coach Todd Richards. And it’s part of the reason that Richards may not be the coach much longer if Columbus can’t get going.
But also sick.
As if there’s any other kind.
Filed Under: NHL, Anaheim Ducks, Arizona Coyotes, Boston Bruins, Buffalo Sabres, Calgary Flames, Carolina Hurricanes, Chicago Blackhawks, Colorado Avalanche, Columbus Blue Jackets, Dallas Stars, Detroit Red Wings, Edmonton Oilers, Florida Panthers, Los Angeles Kings, Minnesota Wild, Montreal Canadiens, Nashville Predators, New Jersey Devils, New York Islanders, New York Rangers, Philadelphia Flyers, Pittsburgh Penguins, Ottawa Senators, San Jose Sharks, St. Louis Blues, Tampa Bay Lightning, Toronto Maple Leafs, Vancouver Canucks, Washington Capitals, Winnipeg Jets
Sean McIndoe ’s work can be found at Down Goes Brown. When he's not writing, he makes hockey jokes on Twitter at @downgoesbrown.
Archive @ DownGoesBrown
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Your NHL Stock Report October 29, 2015
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Undoing the Underdog Narrative: The Royals Eliminate the Astros, Make More Memories, and Cement Their New-Cardinals Status
Appreciating the Underappreciated: In Praise of Brandon Marshall
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Music can be a great form of conversation, a giving and taking. Ideally it fosters deeper connection and communication between two musicians. The value of such a conversation lies in mutual recognition and appreciation – with the quality dependent on how much one is willing to share with the other. And this is one reason why the title of the album by GENTLEMAN and KY-MANI MARLEY says so much in its simplicity: “Conversations” is more than a collaboration, more than a combination. The pair have shared a lot together – all 14 tracks on the album are audibly influenced by personal dialogue, tracing the interaction of ideas and feelings. Like all good talks, the “Conversations” by GENTLEMAN and KY-MANI MARLEY are an invitation to listen and explore.
The fruitful collaboration at GENTLEMAN’s MTV Unplugged concert in August 2014 was followed by a tour on which the two artists became friends. As they talked and got to know each other before, after and sometimes during the shows, they laid the foundations for “Conversations”. During a phone call a short while later, when KY-MANI brought up the idea of recording an album together, the pair were soon agreed. They lost no time in starting work, wanting to capture the energy of their tour shows and rehearsals while it was still fresh. As a result, their album project turned out to be a refreshing way to work. GENTLEMAN describes the album as “more willing to experiment” – influenced firstly by the pair’s discussions and songwriting sessions together, but also by conversations they had with artist friends such as Clay and Daddy Rings during the project.
Perhaps it is the special story and atmosphere that led to “Conversations” that make GENTLEMAN and KY-MANI seem more introspective, thoughtful, even vulnerable on the album. You can sense it from the opener “Signs Of The Times”, in which delicate touches of piano carry the melancholic lyrics to a conciliatory ending. In the certainty, as KY-MANI sings, that there is “a plaster for every wound”, even in times of war, fear and flight we can still count on things taking a turn for the better. Every crisis and every war contains the seed of an opportunity to make things better in the future. All we have to do, as it says in “Tomorrow”, is to sometimes leave our comfort zone.
Lyrically and musically, “Mama” is an outstanding track. Produced by Supadups (Drake, Rihanna), the song for two loved mothers becomes an anthem to all noble, devoted mothers. “Way Out” sparkles with a creative twist, and sees GENTLEMAN for the first time use different perspectives in one song – in this case those of a young refugee and a soldier. “No Solidarity”, one of the highlights of the MTV Unplugged performance, recalls the start of the pair’s project, while their cover of the old Bob Marley hit “Simmer Down”, first released in 1964, is a nod to the beginnings of the music that means so much to them. Specially for this song, the two artists called in some famous female assistance: Marcia Griffiths, who worked with Bob Marley as a backing singer in the legendary I Threes, sings the hookline – and appears in the video, shot in Cuba.
Ultimately the album title “Conversations” is meant first and foremost as a call to us all. At the end, GENTLEMAN confesses: “There are few things I miss as much in 2016 as the willingness to exchange views with each other, listen to each other, take time for each other, approach each other and enter into conversation. But I think it will come back the more we get better at dealing with the challenges of the new age...” Now it’s up to us to strengthen this belief, and it increasingly seems we’re not alone. In bigger cities, you see more and more cafés and bars with a sign outside saying: “No Wi-Fi – Talk to Each Other”.
04.04.20 Münster Halle Münsterland Germany
14.06.20 Aarberg Stars of Sounds Festival Switzerland Tickets
Armin Nöth
armin(at)headlineconcerts.de
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On Dreams and Dreaming
by Patricia Garfield, Ph.D
A Few Good Dreams
Why do we remember so few of our dreams?
Dr. Garfield: Nobody is really sure. When we remember anything it's connected to recency and intensity. So when we wake up from a dream unless it's very powerful, very intense, there isn't this impact that makes us pay attention to it. It's why we remember negative dreams more than positive. Because they make a big wallop. It's as though your dreaming self is saying, "Hey, pay attention, this is important." And it does get our attention, not very pleasantly, but it makes us think about the images in the dream.
Much of dreaming is kind of mundane. For example, you might dream about what you were doing at work, and it's not really terrible, it's not really great. It's almost like chatter, and it doesn't have enough intensity to get our attention.
Our dreams start out really short and get progressively longer. The early dreams of the night last about 10 minutes long and get longer toward morning. If you wake up naturally, you will be waking up from the dream cycle, and the dream is a half to three quarters of an hour long, and that's the dream that people remember because there's more to remember then. If you wake up from the dream naturally it's very fresh, very long, it's usually more dramatic than all other dreams in the night. There's something that gets your attention, and it's recent, it's fresh.
But most people don't wake up that way. We're living our lives not by natural body rhythms. We live by alarm clock or the kid is screaming, or the dog has to go out, or we have to get to work. We tend to leap up and get into daytime gear, and it's difficult to remember this sort of wispy imagery unless it is so intense that we can't get our minds off of it.
The Cost of Fatigue Is Great and a Short Nap May Just Help Pay the Debt
Acting Out Dreams
Creating the Right Sleep Environment
Creative Dreaming
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Fertility & Infertility
10 Infertility Terms You Should Know when Trying to Conceive
by Michael Franco
While it's normal for fertility to decrease in women over 40, any falloff of fertility prior to that may indicate a condition known as premature ovarian failure (POF). Woman suffering from POF (one in 1,000 by age 30) have ovaries that don't function normally and fail to produce eggs [source: National Institutes of Health].
Although doctors don't know the exact causes of the condition, it's evident that it can occur in one of two ways. In the case of follicle depletion, there are no viable follicles left in the ovaries. Follicles are the part of the reproductive system that release eggs, and if they're all damaged, this critical part of the fertility process can't happen.
Follicle dysfunction is the other way in which POF can manifest, and in this case, there are still viable follicles in the ovaries. They just don't function correctly.
As one of the main symptoms of POF is an irregular menstrual cycle, a common treatment for the condition is hormone replacement therapy to provide the woman with the hormones she needs. However, no treatment exists that can restore normal ovarian function, although fertility drugs can help a small percentage of women. So those afflicted with POF often turn to alternative ways of conceiving, such as the use of donor eggs.
Is a Woman More Likely to Get Pregnant Naturally After Adoption or IVF?
Men's Sperm Count Down Significantly, Study Finds
Experts Call for Egg Donor Registry
Enter Mr. Pig-Man? Chimera Embryos Should Not Be Feared, Scientist Says
Fertility Nation? Janet Jackson and the Future of Pregnancy After 45
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The Advantages of Rainfall
What Are The Advantages of Biological Pest Control?
How to Kill Bed Bugs in a Couch
How Do Ionizers Work?
What Is the Definition of Indoor Air Pollution?
The Advantages & Disadvantages of Carbon Dioxide
What Are the Advantages of a Greenhouse?
By Ciele Edwards
For individuals who enjoy home grown fruits and vegetables, a greenhouse provides an efficient way to grow crops in relative safety from the outside world. Greenhouses are typically equipped with glass or clear plastic walls, which allow them to conserve heat while still allowing light to filter through. This creates an ideal environment for growing numerous varieties of plants.
Longer Growing Season
Plants grown within a greenhouse aren’t subject to the same degree of temperature variation as plants grown in an outdoor garden. According to TLC Home, greenhouses work by trapping radiation from the sun inside the enclosure, which results in heat retainment in the structure. The new microclimate the greenhouse creates allows gardeners to extend the growing season of plants that would not thrive in the colder climate outside of the greenhouse. This allows consumers to purchase locally grown fruits, vegetables and flowers out of season.
Plant Isolation
Many varieties of plants are prone to damage from insects. A greenhouse keeps plants in isolation, locked safely away from the outside world where insects, rodents and other animals could damage crops. The Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University states that gardeners should isolate their plants within a greenhouse that is caulked and sealed. A greenhouse in complete isolation that is tightly sealed with properly controlled air flow can provide protection not only from insects and rodents but from diseases as well.
Protection From the Elements
The weather is unpredictable. Even the best meteorological equipment isn’t correct 100 percent of the time. For gardeners, a drastic and unforeseen change in weather patterns can mean death even for carefully tended plants in an outdoor garden. Plants grown in a greenhouse, however, are protected from blizzards, dust storms, and high winds. In addition, greenhouse plants aren’t at the mercy of soil erosion due to torrential rain or flash floods. This gives gardeners the comfort of knowing that they don’t have to race home from work to cover their gardens or simply hope that their plants survive during periods of inclement weather.
Control Over Produce
Those without the benefit of a garden must purchase their produce at the grocery store or a local farmer’s market. Commercial farms often use pesticides and other toxic chemicals to improve the growing conditions of their crops and increase production. A study performed by the Environmental Working Group revealed that not only do trace amounts of these toxic substances remain on produce after its harvested, but 5.6 percent of produce contains pesticides that have been long banned in the U.S. Individuals who opt to use a greenhouse to grow their own produce have complete control over the growing environment, and, therefore, they can grow fresh, delicious produce without worrying about pesticide residue that could potentially harm them or their families.
TLC Home: Heating a Greenhouse
Gardener's Supply Company: How To Choose a Structure That Fits Your Backyard
Mother Earth News: Expert Advice for Greenhouse Growing
Ciele Edwards holds a Bachelor of Arts in English and has been a consumer advocate and credit specialist for more than 10 years. She currently works in the real-estate industry as a consumer credit and debt specialist. Edwards has experience working with collections, liens, judgments, bankruptcies, loans and credit law.
Do Solar Lights Charge on a Cloudy Day?
Chemicals to Avoid When Pregnant
What Effects Do Typhoons Cause on Animals, Humans & Plants?
How to Kill Bedbugs With a Blow Dryer
What Are the Benefits of Organic Coffee Consumption?
What Is a Knockout Rose?
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‘Comrade Wolf’ and the Mullahs
In the 27 years since the Iranian Revolution, the United States has launched air strikes on Libya, invaded Grenada, put Marines in Lebanon and run air strikes in the Bekaa Valley and Chouf Mountains in retaliation for the Beirut bombing.
We invaded Panama, launched Desert Storm to liberate Kuwait and put troops into Somalia. Under Clinton, we occupied Haiti, fired cruise missiles into Sudan, intervened in Bosnia, conducted bombing strikes on Iraq and launched a 78-day bombing campaign against Serbia, a nation that never attacked us. Then, we put troops into Kosovo.
After the Soviet Union stood down in Eastern Europe, we moved NATO into Poland and the Baltic states and established U.S. bases in former provinces of Russia’s in Central Asia.
Under Bush II, we invaded Afghanistan and Iraq, though it appears Saddam neither had weapons of mass destruction nor played a role in 9-11.
Yet, in this same quarter century when the U.S. military has been so busy it is said to be overstretched and exhausted, Iran has invaded not one neighbor and fought but one war: an eight-year war with Iraq where she was the victim of aggression. And in that war of aggression against Iran, we supported the aggressor.
Hence, when Iran says that even as we have grievances against her, she has grievances against us, does Iran not have at least a small point? And when Russian President Putin calls Bush’s America "Comrade Wolf," does he not have at least a small patch of ground on which to stand?
Which brings me to the point. There is no reason to believe Iran wants war with us. If she did want war with America, she could have had it any time in the last 27 years. If she did want war with America, all the old ayatollah had to do was continue holding those American hostages after Ronald Reagan raised his right hand. He didn’t. As Reagan recited the oath, the hostages were clearing Iranian air space.
In all those years, Iran has never attacked the United States and has been tied to but one terror attack against us: the Khobar Towers 10 years ago. No evidence has been found that Iran had any role in 9-11, the first attack on the World Trade Center, the suicide attack on the U.S.S. Cole or the embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania.
Comes the reply. Iran was almost surely behind the bombing of the U.S. embassy and Marine barracks in Lebanon in 1983 and the hostage-taking of the Reagan era. Iran supports Hezbollah and Hamas and plotted the bombing of the Jewish community center in Buenos Aires, and Herr Ahmadinejad routinely promises the eradication of Israel.
But if he wants a war with Israel, he could have it tomorrow by launching rockets. If he wants war with America, Bush and Cheney will accommodate him. He has done neither.
Ahmadinejad is behaving like a man provoking us to hit him, but not too hard, so he can play the "victim" of U.S. "aggression" without winding up in the hospital or the morgue.
For while Iran’s regime might benefit from heroically enduring U.S. strikes to destroy its nuclear facilities — none of which is near producing atom-bomb material — a major war would be a disaster for Iran. Not only would the regime be denuded of modern weapons, it would be set back decades to where the Arabs, Azeris, Baluchis and Kurds might try to break the country up, even as Iraq is breaking up.
But this would be a disaster for the United States as well. For an attack on Iran would unify Persians in hatred of America, the way Pearl Harbor unified Americans. And a breakup of Iran could create a new archipelago of terrorist training camps across the Middle East.
What we are getting at is that there is common ground between the United States and Iran. Neither of us would benefit from a major war. Both of us benefit if there is a reliable flow of oil and gas out of the Gulf and Central Asia. Neither of us wants to see the return of the Taliban or rise of al-Qaida, which is anti-Shiite. In his 18-page letter, Ahmadinejad powerfully condemned the massacre of 9-11.
And Tehran must be having second thoughts about whether to go nuclear when that could mean Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Egypt might follow suit, and the United States and Israel would put a hair trigger on their missile arsenals, and target them on Tehran.
Better to talk. To test the waters, President Bush might take up Ahmadinejad’s missive, manifest the same respect for Islam that he showed for Jesus of Nazareth, rebut his attacks on America and lay down what Bush would like to see in a future relationship with Iran.
We have much to talk about: terror, nuclear power, Afghanistan, Iraq, Palestine, oil, what we owe Iran and what Iran owes us.
Fatherly Lessons from President Ahmadinejad
‘No Drilling’ Dick Durbin
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I challenge all the Senators supporting the framework of the Gang of 10 to go to the House floor and...
Just a Deal Between 10 Senators
I challenge all the Senators supporting the framework of the Gang of 10 to go to the House floor and…
Martha Zoller
Call me cynical, but after the Gang of 14, the “gang” of senators supporting comprehensive immigration reform in 2007 and now the new “Gang of 10” on a supposedly bipartisan energy policy — I’m feeling nervous. Why? Because we just came out of an era of Republican control of the Presidency, the House and the Senate and we got none of the big things Republicans are supposed to do done. The war is not yet won, the Bush tax cuts are not permanent, the size of government has grown — not shrunk — and there’s been no reform of the entitlement programs such as Social Security that are on the verge of bankrupting the nation. It always seems that Democrats in the Senate want to make Republicans look bad and Republicans in the Senate want to compromise.
What makes it more difficult to see the Gang of Ten in any positive light is that the House Republicans are doing something truly inspiring right now and the Senate Gang of Ten — at least the five Republicans among them — are actually working against them. So before we go any further, I am challenging the Gang of 10 to go to the floor of the House and stand with their colleagues in the House. To turn a phrase, “Stand There, Stand Now, Save Americans Money.” With the framework for a bill that is very complicated — because legislators can’t do anything that is not complicated — it is important to make a statement and if they are standing with each other in the Gang of 10 then they ought to stand with their colleagues in the House.
On Friday, two things happened to bring this issue to a head. First, Kimberly Strassel of the Wall Street Journal wrote a scathing analysis of the Gang of 10 compromise entitled “Republican Energy Fumble.” On my program we received calls for our local congressman, Nathan Deal (R-GA). One senate staffer said, “Please know that this proposal was the result of many hours of meetings between these 10 senators. They met every day for weeks and he would not have supported if he didn’t think it was in the best interest of Americans. He has gotten thousands of emails, letters, calls and faxes demanding Congress do something about the energy issue. This proposal isn’t the end of the energy debate; it’s the beginning and a good place to start.”
Then, Rush Limbaugh received a call from Dalton, Georgia that took Senator Chambliss (R-GA) to task for being a part of this group. He said, “I have a lot of family and friends and if he (Chambliss) doesn’t back away from this, none of them are going to vote for him.” Sen. Saxby Chambliss is considered to be the safest Republicans running for reelection. But for many voters, it really isn’t about compromise; it is about the foundation for compromise. On immigration, the foundation was border security first and then we can talk about the other issues. For energy policy, the foundation is to develop and use our own resources before we compromise on the rest.
When I heard Senator Chambliss mentioned by the caller, I called the Senator’s office and suggested that they get in contact with Rush Limbaugh and try to get on the program. It turns out that Rush’s folks had been trying to get Senator Chambliss and after getting the right email in the right hands, Chambliss’ office got in touch with the Limbaugh program and the Senator called in.
Senator Chambliss believes this is the way to get an energy policy utilizing our own resources now. However, that belief is based on the Democrats actually letting this legislation get to the floor. This is not an issue of the nuances of a complicated bill that gives to some and takes away from others. Limbaugh framed it as an issue of whether to defend freedom or to take it away. The freedom to use our own resources for our own betterment and the all-of-the-above strategy that Senator McCain has been trumpeting and finally getting some traction. A caller on the Limbaugh program from Ohio put it best, “House Republicans are doing something inspiring and you (The Gang of 10) are sabotaging McCain’s candidacy. Republicans are tired of your compromising. If we wanted the Democrat plan then we would vote for him (Obama).”
In fairness, Chambliss pointed out that one big part of this framework — it’s not a bill yet — is the virtual immediate access to more drilling in the Gulf of Mexico where there is already infrastructure in place to get the oil to market. In reviewing the transcript of the news conference, several senators, including Chambliss, said this is the first step with drilling and many of them including all of the Republican Senators support further exploration of our domestic resources.
Over the last week, I’ve talked to several members of the House members who are taking to the floor during this recess. Congressman Phil Gingrey (R-Ga) said in a statement Saturday, “While I respect our Senators’ desire to find the legislation that reaches consensus with Senate Democrats, the American people are more interested in lower gas prices than in Senate procedural pleasantries. The only thing they care about is a comprehensive, all-of-the-above energy plan to lower the cost of fuel. For far too long, this Congress has accepted ‘compromise’ energy legislation and look what it has got us — $4 gasoline.”
So what are we to believe? Congressmen in the House of Representatives who are taking to the floor of the House in recess or traveling around their districts holding town hall meetings and are holding firm that the first tenet of any energy bill has to maximize the access to American oil and then develop alternatives. Or should we believe that a bipartisan meeting of 10 Senators can hammer out an alternative? Faint hope.
Regardless of the support, getting 60 votes to invoke cloture is the key. The question is, with the Senate still in session to prevent President Bush from making recess appointments, can they get enough support for the framework to keep the environmental wacko lobby from taking over this framework like they take over every debate on this issue? I’m not convinced.
This is another “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington” moment. I challenge all the Senators supporting the framework of the Gang of 10 to go to the House floor and stand with the members of the House of Representatives who are standing tall on this issue and that includes the 5 Democrats, too. Then, let’s get the Democrats like Rep. Heath Shuler (D-NC), Rep. Jim Marshall (D-GA), Rep. John Barrow (D-GA) and the other so called “Blue Dog Democrats” to stand up with their colleagues for an American issue to “Drill Here, Drill Now and Save Money” for the American people.
Republicans have an issue that is clear and understandable. As when the American people said we must have border security first, we are now saying we must have the full use of our own resources here and now first. Now is the time, don’t lose your nerve.
Obama’s Arugula Gap
Written By Martha Zoller
Ms. Zoller, a recovering congressional candidate, is a political analyst and conservative talk show host for WXKT FM 103.7 in Gainesville, Georgia and syndicated on The Georgia News Network. She is one of the Talkers Magazine "Heavy Hundred" Talk Shows in America. She can be seen regularly on cable news. She is the author of "Indivisible: Uniting Values for a Divided America." You may contact her through www.marthazoller.com.
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Occupy Wall Street Genius Says He’s Against “Private” Property, Not “Personal” Property
jmattera
And that’s because he wants to keep his iPad 2, naturally, and not share it with the shiftless vagrants fighting over access to one of the three Porta-Potties recently delivered to the now-evacuated camp site in lower Manhattan.
As Samantha Bee from The Daily Show reports, there’s an income “class” that has sprung up at Zuccotti Park: Those sporting the capitalist creations called Apple products as they set up their temporary latte corners, and those annoyingly banging on drum sets all day.
The thing is that the dude musing about the differences between “personal” and “private” property isn’t even the biggest WTF moment of what you’re about to see. It’s that a portion of the protesters hold their daily planning meetings in… Deutsche Bank.
Seriously:
Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook
Via Conn Carroll at the Washington Examiner.
Cain Still Holding Lead in Iowa, Paul Surging
Newt Catches Mitt
Written By jmattera
Mr. Mattera is the editor-at-large of HUMAN EVENTS and the author of the New York Times bestseller Obama Zombies: How the Liberal Machine Brainwashed My Generation (Simon & Schuster). He also hosts The Jason Mattera Show on News Talk Radio 77WABC. Previously, he was the Spokesman for Young America's Foundation and a TV correspondent for Michelle Malkin. Follow Jason on Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube.
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For a second term, Obama has been calling for more infrastructure stimulus, more unionized teachers and higher tax rates on high earners.
Obama hobbled by record, slumping Democratic brand
“One question, Mr. President,” read the words on the front cover of this week’s Economist, behind a silhouette of the back of Barack Obama’s head, “just what would you do with another four years?”
It’s a good question, and one that’s still open as Barack Obama prepares to deliver his acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention in rainstorm-plagued Charlotte Thursday night.
Other presidents seeking re-election have usually provided a more or less convincing answer. George W. Bush said he would try to reform Social Security and advance energy independence.
Bill Clinton said he would provide “a bridge to the twenty-first century,” which turned out to include significant tax cuts and a lunge toward Medicare reform.
Bush failed to deliver on Social Security, and Clinton failed to deliver on Medicare, but both tried to pivot from a first-term to a second-term agenda. The first George Bush, in contrast, didn’t seem to pivot. He gave the impression he’d just keep going on. That wasn’t good enough for voters.
Obama similarly has not pivoted. Unlike Clinton, he did not shift ground when his party was rejected in the off-year election.
For a second term he has been calling for more infrastructure stimulus, more unionized teachers and (though he has said it’s harmful in a time of economic sluggishness) higher tax rates on high earners.
Republican strategist Karl Rove had a bit of fun with this last week in his Wall Street Journal column, imagining how a more moderate and compromising Obama would be running well ahead now, as Clinton was at this point in 1996.
Instead, the Obama campaign, with assists from mainstream media and during the months it had a money advantage, has concentrated on demonizing Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan. Clinton did this with great effect on Bob Dole in 1996. It hasn’t worked so well this time.
The Democrats’ other strategy is to rouse the enthusiasm of their various disparate constituencies. This hasn’t worked for an incumbent Democrat since Harry Truman in 1948.
But it is something you fall back on given the nature of the Democratic Party. The Republicans have always had a core constituency of people considered by themselves and others as typical Americans — Northern Protestants in the 19th century, white married Christians today — who are by themselves less than a majority.
The Democratic Party has typically been a coalition of out-groups — white Southerners and big city Catholics in the 19th century. Today, the coalition includes blacks and to a lesser extent Hispanics, unmarried women, members of the Millennial generation, public employee union members and, most important, the group that demographer Joel Kotkin dubbed gentry liberals.
They don’t always agree. Blacks tend to oppose same-sex marriage, while gentry liberals strongly favor it. Labor unions want the Keystone pipeline, while environmentalists want to kill it.
Other difficulties have surfaced. Democrats to their surprise find themselves on the defensive on Medicare, needing to explain why they took $716 billion from it and gave it to the still unpopular Obamacare.
Late in the game, Obama decided to rope in Bill Clinton to give a big convention speech Wednesday night. In effect, he’s trying to suggest his second four years will look like Clinton’s.
In the meantime, there is evidence that the Democratic Party brand, to use marketing term, is in trouble.
Pollster Scott Rasmussen periodically estimates party identification on the basis of thousands of robocall interviews of likely voters.
His findings have been uncannily close to the exit polls. In the last quarter of 2008, his party ID numbers were 41 percent Democratic, 33 percent Republican. The 2008 exit poll showed Democrats ahead in party ID by 39 to 32 percent.
In the third quarter of 2010, Rasmussen pegged party ID as tied at 35 percent. The 2010 exit poll showed it exactly the same.
The third quarter of 2012 is not yet over. But the Rasmussen party ID numbers for the second and third quarters combined are ominous for Obama’s party: 34 percent Democratic, 36 percent Republican. Republicans are up only 3 percent from 2008, but Democrats are down 7 percent.
The partisan playing field has changed a lot since 2008. But Obama’s policies have not. There has been no pivot. It will be interesting to see how loudly and often the delegates cheer, “Four more years!”
The Clinton factor
Democrats lose grip on reality
Written By Michael Barone
Mr. Barone is a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, a Fox News Channel contributor and the principal co-author of The Almanac of American Politics, published by National Journal every two years.
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Beaten down and unpopular, Obama stays on the sidelines
Democrats will suffer.
Donald Lambro
WASHINGTON — Americans go to the polls in seven days to cast their votes in a midterm election that’s shaping up to be an angry outcry over the disastrous direction of the country.
For the past six years, the Democrats have effectively been in charge by virtue of the fact that Barack Obama sits in the White House, setting policy, and his party is in control of the Senate (at least for now) and can block any legislation passed by the House Republicans.
But even though Democrats control the major gates of power, Obama and his party have sought to convince the voters that all of their mistakes and failures are the result of the GOP or the previous Republican administration.
That duplicitous shell game worked for several years, but in the end, discerning Americans learned who was really to blame for all of their woes — and said so when they put the GOP back in control of the Democratic-run House in 2010.
Voters are likely to inflict the same punishment next week on Majority Leader Harry Reid and his gang of Democrats in the Senate.
Over the last half-dozen years, the national news media took great pleasure in endlessly reciting polls showing how unpopular the Republicans had become since the 2008 recession.
But they are unsurprisingly quiet about recent polls that show the Democratic Party’s approval scores plunging to their lowest rating in decades. A Washington Post/ABC News poll released Sunday found the disapproval rating for Democrats in Congress has risen to its highest point in two decades.
This is the political environment that the Democrats are facing when voters go to the polls on Nov. 4 in what will be a nationwide referendum to decide which party should be in control of Congress for the last two years of Obama’s trouble-plagued presidency.
Have you noticed that the president has been unusually subdued in the last few weeks? He has been beaten down by events and his own circumstances, seldom making any major news, or at least the kind that makes the front page or leads the nightly news shows.
The country is in the midst of a competitive, down-to-the wire midterm election battle, and Obama isn’t getting a lot of invitations and pleas from his party’s besieged candidates to campaign for them.
Quite the contrary. The message has gone out to the White House from Democrats in tight races that Obama is so unpopular, the best thing he can do for them is to stay as far away as possible. So Obama has been relegated to campaigning only in dyed-in-the-wool Democratic states where his party’s candidates are not in trouble.
Indeed, even in some heavily Democratic states, where he won big in 2012, he is being asked to stay out. It didn’t get the attention it deserves, but Obama was asked not to go to Massachusetts to campaign for Democrat Martha Coakley, who is running behind her Republican opponent, Charlie Baker, in the race for governor.
Obama easily carried the liberal Democratic state by 23 points, but now he is the kiss of death for any Democrat in a tight race. Democratic political pros were hard-pressed to think of a time when their party’s president couldn’t campaign in a midterm election in Massachusetts.
With his approval polls sinking to near 40 percent (the same percentage of people who tell the Gallup poll they’re “struggling” in this economy), he’s no longer the political force he once was. Instead, he has become his party’s political albatross.
It is hard to remember a recent president who has initiated so many harmful or wasteful programs and policies — from Obamacare, which has raised the costs of job creation and health insurance, to capital gains tax hikes that have weakened capital investment and stunted economic growth.
It won’t make the network news tonight, but the latest evidence of this economy’s chronic weakness came out Tuesday when the Commerce Department announced that the nation’s durable goods orders fell in September for the second month in a row.
The report revealed a 1.3 percent decline in business demand for machinery, computers and other goods, which suggests a sluggish economy.
That followed an 18.3 percent decline in August that signaled businesses were “reluctant to invest in updating equipment,” the Bloomberg business news reported.
The housing sector isn’t so hot, either. U.S. sales of new homes were close to flat in September. Not a good sign in a struggling economy.
As for the jobs issue, Americans are justified in taking the Obama administration’s 5.9 percent unemployment rate with a huge grain of salt. For one thing, it leaves out millions of workers who tell government pollsters they’ve stopped looking for full-time work because they can’t find it. So they are not counted among the jobless.
The administration’s shady employment numbers are swollen by part-time “underemployed” workers who say they need full-time work to make ends meet.
The Gallup Poll, which conducts its own, and probably more accurate, employment survey, puts the jobless rate at 6.2 percent and the often-ignored underemployed rate at 15 percent.
Then comes a Federal Reserve study that found the median household is now worth less than it was back in 1989.
Despite Obama’s claim that we’re doing better than we were before he was president, economics analyst Matt O’Brien, who writes for the Washington Post’s Wonkblog, suggests that’s not true.
“The new harsh reality is that the bottom 90 percent of households are poorer today than they were in 1987,” he writes.
The good part about these elections is that the voters will have a chance to register their disapproval of Obama and the Democrats. The bad part is that after the votes are counted, Obama will still be in office for another two years.
But if the Republican campaign goes according to plan, he will be a president without a majority party behind him or a viable agenda — while a revitalized GOP reaches out to rebuild and expand its party in preparation for the 2016 presidential election to come.
Politico: This is the ‘most wide-open Senate election in a decade’
A challenge to college students: Be a full-time student
Written By Donald Lambro
Mr. Lambro is a nationally syndicated columnist and former chief political correspondent for the Washington Times.
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March 6, 2017 June 26, 2017 heynineteenmusic
A plea to Steps: Don’t desert the 90s
I was standing in my grandparents’ living room when I heard on the evening news that Steps had split up. Though my interest in Steps had waned considerably by this point, I was still left with the strange feeling, at the tender age of ten, that an era had ended. Steps were, in many ways, my first love. They were the first pop group I felt completely devoted to, the first in a long line of pop obsessions that would soon follow.
Steps were a big part of my childhood and feature heavily in several of my early memories. I remember watching them on SM:TV Live on a Saturday morning when Ant, Dec and Cat were holding a phone in poll to find the nation’s favourite Steps song with the winning song to be performed at the end of the show. There were three options to pick from, including my absolute favourite, ‘One For Sorrow’. But for some reason that I still don’t fully understand, I voted for ‘Tragedy’, reasoning at the time that it was going to win anyway – which of course it did.
So with the news that Steps are reuniting with a brand new album and tour, many fans are excited about the prospect of new music. But I can’t feel some trepidation about the news. Having seen bands like the Spice Girls repeatedly try and trash their own legacy through misjudged comebacks, I worry about what a Steps reunion will bring. To any sane pop fan, it’s fairly obvious what should be on the table – more high energy, camp, dance-pop singles that made them famous in the first place. The danger, however, is that Steps will try and fit in with the current pop landscape and bring out an album of EDM or light dubstep tracks, a move that would not only flop quite steptacuarly on the charts, but would also alienate fans.
In an interview with Popjustice, Lisa Scott-Lee said of the new tracks “These songs are current, they’re dance anthems, and I’d certainly be in the club dancing to them.” On the one hand, an album full of dance anthems sounds like exactly the kind of thing Steps should be working on, but the word ‘current’ is a bit of a red flag here. The thing is, even during their heyday in the late 90s, Steps were never current. Pete Waterman, one of Steps’ primary songwriters, repeatedly stated his intention to recreate the sound of ABBA in Steps’ music, often referring to them as “ABBA on speed”. While Steps certainly gave their ABBA-influenced music a modern twist, they were never regarded as cool or cutting edge, viewed with a certain irony even at their most popular.
Perhaps due to the ultra-campness of their music, Steps are often unfairly underrated when it comes to the quality of their music. At their best, they were champions of the sadbanger, blending emotive lyrics with dance music to create huge floorfillers, combining elements of Europop, dance and RnB to formulate a unique sound that, although rooted firmly in the late 90s, has nonetheless left an enduring legacy. To update the Steps formula to suit a modern audience would be a terrible move given that the current appeal of Steps relies so much on the nostalgia that surrounds them. As the world goes to shit, Steps offer a reminder of a time when things were basically sort of OK.
Steps have already made some dodgy decisions since their initial reformation in 2011. The ensuing tour included a segment in which Lee Latchford-Evans performed a solo mashup of ‘Moves Like Jagger’ and ‘S&M’, something that no one really deserved. It’s this kind of shtick that can really derail a good reunion as it just smacks of desperation and irrelevance. Fans don’t want Steps to be dragged into the current day because everything here is pretty crap. So while the new Steps reunion does offer a great deal of promise, it’s important that Steps stay true to their late 90s origins and revel in the nostalgia that surrounds them rather than reject it. After all, in 2017, it feels like we need a bit of nostalgic escapism more than ever.
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ZIMMER, Richard
102nd (1991–1993), 103rd (1993–1995), 104th (1995–1997)
ZIMMER, Richard, a Representative from New Jersey; born in Newark, N.J., August 16, 1944; B.A., Yale University, 1966; L.L.B., Yale Law School, 1969; practiced law in New York City, 1969-1975, and in New Brunswick, N.J., 1975-1990; chair, New Jersey Common Cause, 1974-1977; member, New Jersey State assembly, 1982-1987; New Jersey State senator, 1987-1991; elected as a Republican to the One Hundred Second and to the two succeeding Congresses (January 3, 1991-January 3, 1997); was not a candidate in 1996 for reelection to the United States House of Representatives, but was an unsuccessful candidate for election to the United States Senate; unsuccessful candidate for the United States Senate in 2008.
History, Art & Archives, U.S. House of Representatives, “ZIMMER, Richard,” https://history.house.gov/People/Listing/Z/ZIMMER,-Richard-(Z000008)/ (July 18, 2019)
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Manga Review: Fate/Zero Volume 3 by Shinjiro
ReViewMeMedia
Natalie is a writer who works at her local library. She enjoys writing reviews, watching anime and TV shows, and playing videogames.
Fate/Zero manga volume 3 cover. | Source
Author: Shinjiro
Publisher: Dark Horse Manga
Availability: Download on Kindle or buy at Amazon or RightStufAnime, purchase on Dark Horse Digital
Master Waver Velvet and his Servant Rider interrupt Saber and Lancer’s fight, and after they reject his offer to join them they are startled by the arrival of Berserker. Archer is offended by Berserker and attempts to kill him. Will Berserker live or die? And who are Caster and his Master, Ryuunosuke Uryuu?
Kariya Matou's motivations for fighting in the Fourth Holy Grail are revealed as well. They have to do with Aoi's daughter, Sakura Matou.
This Is the Orign Story Volume
While this manga volume doesn’t show every character’s origin story, it does show enough of them that this volume is adapted in episode 1 and 2 of the Fate/Zero (2011) anime.
They show the origins of Uryuu and Kariya and this volume is very heavy, and not just with explaining where these characters come from. This is a very dark manga and the 17+ rating isn’t just a recommendation. But I’ll go into that later.
This volume did a good job of showing the character’s origins like in the anime and while it didn’t move the plot forward too much story-wise, it is still very important to learn more about the characters.
Rider attacks Berserker. | Source
The Art Is Very Well Done
When I say the art looks “good,” I mean it’s very well drawn, even if what it’s showing me is very disturbing content. The illustrations aren’t really about the fight scenes in this volume, even though we’re on the tail end of a big fight. The art in the manga doesn’t stand out because of the fight. It stands out because of the new scenes that were not in the anime, I can’t vouch for the light novel because it’s not licensed in the U.S.
The art is very detailed and the drawings are excellent but visually disturbing.
The Pacing of the Story Is Slow
Fate/Zero’s story pacing can be very slow and if you’re looking for a barrage of constant battles and fighting, this isn’t the story for you. Since it revolves around so many characters, we have to learn about them and that can detract from the story’s pacing and get bogged down in character details.
I can definitely see why readers could find this story boring if they feel the pacing is too slow. It’s something you’ll have to find out for yourself by either trying out the anime or borrowing the manga from a friend or from your local library if they have it.
This Story Is Dark
Fate/Zero is a dark story. Nice things don’t happen to anyone. That’s what the Fate route is for. This is not an optimistic story, and like Knights of Sidionia (2014) and Darkness-Induced Audience Apathy can set in if you don’t care about the story or the characters.
While I enjoy the story a lot I can definitely see why people complain about Gen Urobuchi constantly writing grim dark stories, it seems it’s the only genre he likes to write, and since he rarely writes optimistic stories readers could get annoyed at just how dark everything is in his stories and could say he’s just writing dark stories to be an edge lord.
I don’t watch Fate/Zero a lot because I prefer the optimism of Kinoko Nasu over Gen Urobuchi’s nihilistic tendencies. The Nasuverse isn’t the happiest universe but there’s a reason that Fate/Grand Order is popular and it’s not because the story’s dark and grim just to be that way.
People say that Fate/Zero is more “mature” storytelling because it’s dark, gritty and grim, but I don’t see it as being a mature story outside of shock value content.
This Is Not a Manga for Kids!
I don’t usually do content warnings on a lot of Mature-rated anime because it’s usually just violent content, however, I will do a warning for anime that have more than just violent content if they’re rated TV-MA.
This manga is definitely a Mature rated manga. While the violent content is just typical fighting violence and some blood you’ve seen in other manga Fate/Zero has an extra level of gore in the manga that wasn’t even in the anime.
With the new scenes with the serial killer, Ryuunosuke Uryuu Shinjiro, goes into explicit visual detail of how he murdered his victims and it wasn’t even things that were shown in the anime, and they would have really been seen as hyper-violence for the sake of having gore and violence.
They also show exactly what happened to Sakura Matou in the first episode of Fate/Zero (2011) and if you thought the anime disturbed you, the manga made it even worse!
Some fans feel that Gen Urobuchi loves making his stories dark and violent just so he can be edgy, and this manga does feel like it just threw in the blood and gore just to be edgy and readers could feel they’re just doing it for shock value.
This manga isn’t meant for a young audience, the amount of disturbing content might scare readers, it made me squeamish and I’ve read the entirety of the Hellsing manga by Kohta Hirano!
Keep this away from the kids and young teens and read at your own risk, don’t say I didn’t warn you in advance!
Lancer's Master Kayneth orders him to withdraw from the fight. | Source
Will you read "Fate/Zero:" manga volume 3 by Shinjiro?
Yes, I'll buy it physically or digitally right now!
Yes, I'll borrow it from my local library!
No, I'm not itnerested.
The Manga Is Excellent, but Not for the Faint of Heart or Stomach!
Fate/Zero has always been a story that I’ve loved, because of the interesting characters and the plot. It is a dark story that can sometimes feel forced when it comes to the tone of the story. It isn’t for the squeamish or the faint of heart, because it goes into very disturbing territory when it comes to certain characters and their actions.
And there's also some disturbing imagery of what Sakura Matou's mage training entails.
Fate/Zero manga volume 3 by Shinjiro is an excellent story that is engaging but can get bogged down in giving us information about the characters and the pacing does drag because of the way the story is told in the manga.
The manga is also more gruesome than its amine counterpart so if you’re squeamish or don’t like disturbing imagery you shouldn’t buy this manga.
What Works:
What Doesn't Work:
Great story, plot, characters, and world-building
The pacing is slow
Great artwork
The artwork is disturbing and graphic and may make readers uncomfortable
Expands on the anime with new scenes
The tone of the story can feel dark for the sake of being dark
My Grade: A-
I highly recommend Fate/Zero manga volume 3 if you’re already a fan of the anime and if you’re a Fate/Stay Night fan in general. You’ll definitely enjoy it unless you can’t handle disturbing imagery. It’s worth your time and money, but you might want to keep it away from the kids and teens in your house as this is not for a younger audience.
You can purchase Fate/Zero on Amazon physically or digitally for Kindle devices, you can also buy it physically on Darkhorse Comic’s website physically or digitally through their Darkhorse Digital IOS or Android apps. I prefer a physical copy because physical copies tend to go on sale more than the digital copies do and the digital copies are about $11.99 and that’s a lot for digital manga.
I recommend buying a physical copy if you can because it’s much cheaper than a digital copy and you don’t ever have to worry about it being removed from your device.
Fate/Zero is one of my favorite stories and it’s one that I love a lot, even if the manga makes me feel squeamish.
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Manga Review: Fate/Stay Night Volume 2 by Dat Nishiwaki
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Manga Review: Hellsing Volume 3 by Kohta Hirano
Manga Review: Blue Exorcist Volume 1 by Kazue Kato
A List of Superpowers (Cool Powers Make Cool Heroes... or Villains)
by Don2
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Digital Millennium Copyright Act Compliance Notice
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YOLA at HOLA, Nielsen Quartet
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Demystifying the Arbitrability of Patent Disputes in India
[Prarthna Bathija is a fifth year B.A. LL.B. (Hons.) student, and Apoorv Madan a fourth year B.B.A. LL.B. (Hons.) student, at Jindal Global Law School, Sonipat]
The Booz-Allen Case and Conceptual Jurisprudence Relating to Arbitrability of Disputes
In the landmark case of Booz-Allen Hamilton v SBI Home Finance (“Booz-Allen”), the Supreme Court summarised the conceptual jurisprudence relating to arbitrability. The Court emphasised upon the nature of arbitral tribunals which are “private fora chosen voluntarily by the parties” as against courts which are public fora constituted under the laws of the country. The scope of the arbitrator’s powers is limited because of public policy considerations and by the fact that the parties mutually appoint an arbitrator in pursuance of a private agreement for adjudication of their rights and liabilities. Therefore, the arbitrator cannot make an award that is, inter alia, binding on third parties or public at large.
According to the traditional view, rights–in-rem (rights available against the entire world) are unsuitable for private arbitration and are thereby inherently non-arbitrable. However, as early as in 2011, in the previously mentioned Booz-Allen case, the Supreme Court acknowledged the fallibility of this traditional rule and explained that this general rule should not be inflexible or rigid. This acknowledgment found its basis in the realization that subordinate rights–in-personam, which should be subject to arbitration, may at times arise from rights-in-rem.
Thus, it follows from the Booz-Allen case that while an arbitrator cannot make a judgment-in-rem, disputes relating to rights-in-personam (despite arising from rights-in-rem) are open to arbitration.
Arbitrability of Disputes Involving Intellectual Property Rights (“IPR”) in India – Leading Case Law
The Booz-Allen judgment gave six categories of disputes that have commonly been considered non-arbitrable. These categories, however, did not explicitly include disputes involving intellectual property rights. Nevertheless, following the test laid down in judgment, we may reasonably conclude that the question of arbitrability of disputes involving IPR does not have an answer in a blanket affirmative or negative. The factual matrix of each dispute has to be considered to assess whether the remedies sought would affect the right of a party qua third parties. Notwithstanding this, the Supreme Court quoted a scholarly work (Mustill and Boyd in their 2001 Companion Volume to the 2nd Edition of Commercial Arbitration) which unequivocally lays down at least one general rule:
The conventional view is thus that, for example, rights under a patent licence may be arbitrated, but the validity of the underlying patent may not…..An arbitrator whose powers are derived from a private agreement between A and B plainly has no jurisdiction to bind anyone else by a decision on whether a patent is valid, for no-one else has mandated him to make such a decision, and a decision which attempted to do so would be useless.
[Emphasis Supplied]
Subsequent to Booz-Allen, various High Court cases considered the arbitrability of IPR disputes. The significant cases include the 2016 Bombay High Court judgments of Eros International v Telemax (“Eros International case”) and The Indian Performing Right Society Ltd v Entertainment Network (India) Ltd (“IPRS case”), along with the Madras High Court judgment of Lifestyle Equities Cv v Qdseatoman Designs Pvt Ltd (“Lifestyle Equities Case”) pronounced in 2017.
In the Eros International case, the Bombay High Court held that copyright issues arising out of an agreement were open to arbitration if the agreement between the parties contained an arbitration clause. In this case, the court noted that neither section 62 of the Copyright Act 1957 nor section 134 of the Trademarks Act, 1999 excluded the jurisdiction of an arbitration panel. In the Court’s opinion, it was clear that in a commercial transaction where parties themselves agreed to refer their disputes to a private forum the contention that the dispute is non-arbitrable could not stand. Therefore, the holding of the Eros International is consistent with the nuanced understanding of the rights distinction in the Booz-Allen case. It is also helpful to note that the Court found that in cases of both infringement and passing off action between two parties the remedies can only affect rights-in-personam and not rights-in-rem. This holding, therefore, offers valuable guidance on the scope of arbitrability over the vast array of IP disputes. The Court noted: “As between two claimants to a copyright or a trademark in either infringement or passing off action, that action and that remedy can only ever be an action in personam. It is never an action-in-rem.” To explain this stance, the Court gave an example of an infringement and passing off suit. According to the Court, a claimant may succeed against B in the infringement suit. However, in no way does this guarantee that he would also succeed against C. In the words of the Court, “an infringement or passing off action binds only the parties to it.” (para 17).
The decision has been previously discussed and critiqued in an earlier post here. While the post mentions that the Court in this case found that “copyrights are not rights in rem”, a closer and contextual reading indicates that the Court did not lay down such a broad proposition. Expressly acknowledging that “Plaintiff’s or registrant’s entitlement” (emphasis supplied) to bring an action of copyright infringement is indeed a right in rem, the Court held that subordinate copyright or trademark infringement disputes arising out of rights in rem (i.e. entitlement over the intellectual property) may be an action-in-personam,
In late 2016, however, the Bombay High Court in the IPRS case found a dispute relating to copyright infringement non-arbitrable. This raised a question on the extent to which IPr disputes are arbitrable in India. While at first glance this seems to be a step in the backward direction for ensuring an arbitration-friendly regime in consistence with the aims of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996, it is important to understand this ruling in its particular factual context. Although both the Eros International case and IPRS case are concerned with infringement, the nature of remedies claimed and the scope of the disputes are different in two cases. The relief claimed in the IPRS case was not merely one of damages and/or an injunction, as in the Eros International case. In the IPRS case, the crux of the matter was the scope of copyright held by members of IPRS. A pronouncement of scope of their right by the arbitrator would have had the effect of disentitling IPRS to claim royalties on their work.
Subsequent to IPRS, in the case of Ayyaswamy v Paramasivam (delivered in 2016), the Supreme Court relied upon an extract from a book titled ‘The Law and Practice of Arbitration and Conciliation’ to instantiate “categories of disputes which are generally considered inarbitrable”. Interestingly, the extract mentions: “(i) patent, trademarks and copyright” as the first category of non-arbitrable disputes.
The latest in this string of cases, Lifestyle Equities (2017), is important because it clarifies that the Ayyaswamy case does not actually exclude intellectual property from the scope of arbitrability. It reasons out that the categories of non-arbitrable disputes mentioned in the judgment, being just an extract from a book, do notconstitute the ratio of the Supreme Court. Further, while this case does not per se involve a patent dispute, it reiterates the point that disputes related to patent validity affects rights-in-rem while disputes relating to patent use and infringement concern only rights-in-personam, and are by that virtue arbitrable.
From the foregoing analysis of the judicial precedents, the following judicial principle is apparent – arbitrability of any dispute depends on the question whether resolution of said dispute affects a right-in-rem or a right-in-personam. In turn, this depends on the factual niceties of every given case. While there is no specific judgment having the arbitrability of patents as crux of the dispute, the aforementioned case laws provide sufficient guidance. In most cases, if a party (usually the defendant) questions the validity of the underlying patent, the dispute is highly unlikely to be referred to arbitration. In the light of the cases discussed above, it is clear that an arbitrator, mutually appointed by the parties based on a private agreement, does not have the jurisdiction to decide on the issue of validity of the patent, and thereby, cannot grant the relief of revocation. The simple reason is that while a finding of infringement in most cases would only be applicable inter-se the parties, decision on validity of underlying patent (or any other intellectual property) destructs the right of the owner to claim infringement against third parties.
– Prarthna Bathija & Apoorv Madan
Arbitration Intellectual Property
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Consciousness Studies
Ethics & Human Rights
Indic Identities
Inter-Civilizational
ECIT Sourcebook on
Indic Contributions in Math and Science
This sourcebook will consist primarily of reprinted articles on Indic contributions in math and science, as well as several new essays to contextualize these works. It will bring together the works of top scholars which are currently scattered thoughout disparate journals, and will thus make them far more accessible to the average reader.
There are two main reasons why this sourcebook is being assembled. First, it is our hope that by highlighting the work of ancient and medieval Indian scientists we might challenge the stereotype that Indian thought is “mystical” and “irrational”. Secondly, by pointing out the numerous achievements of Indian scientists, we hope to show that India had a scientific “renaissance” that was at least as important as the European renaissance which followed it, and which, indeed, is deeply indebted to it.
Currently, the following table of contents is proposed for this volume:
1. Editors’ Introduction (Subhash Kak)
Section 1: Mathematics
2. D. Gray, 2000. Indic Mathematics etc.
3. Joseph, George Ghevarughese. 1987. “Foundations of Eurocentrism in Mathematics”. In Race & Class 28.3, pp. 13-28.
4. A. Seidenberg, 1978. The origin of Mathematics. Archive for History of Exact Sciences 18.4, pp. 301-42.
5. Frits Staal, 1965. Euclid and Panini. Philosophy East and West 15.2, pp. 99-116.
6. Subhash Kak, 2000. Indian binary numbers and the Katapayadi notation. ABORI, 81.
7. Subhash Kak, 1990. The sign for zero. Mankind Quarterly, 30, pp. 199-204.
8. C.-O. Selenius, 1975. Rationale of the chakravala process of Jayadeva and Bhaskara II. Historia Mathematica, 2, pp. 167-184.
9. K.V. Sarma, 1972. Anticipation of modern mathematical discoveries by Kerala astronomers. In A History of the Kerala School of Hindu Astronomy. Hoshiarpur: Vishveshvaranand Institute.
Section 2: Science, General
10. Staal, Frits. 1995. “The Sanskrit of Science”. In Journal of Indian Philosophy 23, pp. 73-127.
11. Subbarayappa, B. V. 1970. “India’s Contributions to the History of Science”. In Lokesh Chandra, et al., eds. India’s Contribution to World Thought and Culture. Madras: Vivekananda Rock Memorial Committee, pp. 47-66.
12. Saroja Bhate and Subhash Kak, 1993. Panini’s grammar and computer science. ABORI, 72, pp. 79-94.
Section 3: Astronomy
13. Subhash Kak, 1992. The astronomy of the Vedic altars and the Rgveda. Mankind Quarterly, 33, pp. 43-55.
14. Subhash Kak, 1995. The astronomy of the age of geometric altars. Quarterly Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society, 36, pp. 385-395.
15. Subhash Kak, 1996. Knowledge of planets in the third millennium BC. Quarterly Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society, 37, pp. 709-715.
16. Subhash Kak, 1998. Early theories on the distance to the sun. Indian Journal of History of Science, 33, pp. 93-100.
17. B.N. Narahari Achar, 1998. Enigma of the five-year yuga of Vedanga Jyotisa, Indian Journal of History of Science, 33, pp. 101-109.
18. B.N. Narahari Achar, 2000. On the astronomical basis of the date of Satapatha Brahmana, Indian Journal of History of Science, 35, pp. 1-19.
19. B.L. van der Waerden, 1980. Two treatises on Indian astronomy, Journal for History of Astronomy 11, pp.50-58.
20. K. Ramasubramanian, M.D. Srinivas, M.S. Sriram, 1994. Modification of the earlier Indian planetary theory by the Kerala astronomers (c. 1500 AD) and the implied heliocentric picture of planetary motion. Current Science, 66, pp. 784-790.
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How China's Education Strategy Fits Into Its Quest For Global Influence
Written by Ye Liu, Bath Spa University
Recent debates about China have focused on its role in the gradual eastward shift in the global economy. This process was accentuated by the financial crisis of 2007-08 and ensuing recession in the West.
But China’s rapid rise over the past two decades holds significance beyond the economy. As an emerging economic giant it is also becoming an increasingly important geopolitical and cultural force in the world.
If this is to be the Asian Century, global interest in China’s cultural traditions and institutions will undoubtedly increase.
For the Chinese government, education is an important instrument in building the country’s global status. There is no doubt that mass production of Chinese graduates will contribute to the country’s continued economic development. This is particularly true of its transition from an economy based on cheap labour and low skills to a technology and innovation-oriented economy.
But education is more than a provider of high-skilled labour. It has been constructed to demonstrate China’s ambition of becoming a global power. China has been excellent at showcasing its soft power, from hosting the 2008 Olympics to the 2010 World Expo. Top status in the international education league table is just another signal.
China’s education system is already attracting widespread interest. This is both for its massive expansion of higher education as well as its performance in the Program for International Student Assessment.
The 2009 and 2012 assessment showed Shanghai topping the world league in reading, math and science. In math, Shanghai students outperformed the equivalent of nearly three years of schooling above most OECD countries.
So what have been the key successes and failure of China’s educational development since the 1980s?
Overall Increase In Enrollment At All Levels
There has been an impressive achievement in the gross enrolment ratio at all levels of education.
By 2010, compulsory education was universal to all social groups. The enrolment ratio in upper secondary education increased from 36.7% in 2000 to 84.3% in 2013. Enrolment in higher education rose from 1.15% in 1980 to 29.7% in 2013.
Progress was achieved by a series of reforms. The nine-year compulsory education change came after the 1978 market reforms. It was subsequently legalised in the 1986 Compulsory Education Law. This aimed to provide the eligible population with free access to six-year primary schooling and three-year lower secondary education.
The “two basics” policy was introduced in 2008 for implementing compulsory education in rural areas. This was aimed at universalising nine-year compulsory education and eradicating illiteracy among the youth.
Higher education has also expanded massively since the 1990s. The “binggui” policy, initiated in 1995, ended the era of state funding and introduced private contributions to financing higher education. This was a contributing factor to the expansion of higher education opportunities.
Narrowing The Gender Gap
This has been one of China’s most significant achievements.
The female to male ratio of participation in higher education was 0.35 in 1980. By 2010, the ratio had risen to 1.00.
Female students were particularly impressive in achieving participation in higher education. Since 2010 more girls have been enrolled in tertiary education than boys. This can be related to the one-child policy, which was introduced in 1980.
The policy changed the family strategy in investing in education, especially in urban areas. Urban families achieved equal educational expectation and investment in the schooling of their only child. When a girl was born, she benefited from being the focus of all her parents' aspirations and investment.
The Failures
The most striking failure is persistent geographical inequality – in the educational provision as well as life chance and opportunities. Educational studies have highlighted geographical disparity in terms of provision, resources, quality of teachers, funding and attainment at the schooling level.
The regional difference is explained by the decentralisation of education funding and the devolution of responsibilities from the central to the regional level. For example, it has been shown that the ratio of primary education expenditure per student between Shanghai and poorest provinces doubled between the 1990s and 2000s.
My research shows that the most acute inequalities in access to higher education in China are geographical. The highly uneven distribution of higher education institutions had direct implications on access for students from different geographical origins.
Also, decentralised admission criteria and the quota policy gave powers to the local and institutional levels. This increased geographical stratification.
The inconvenient truth of the devolved planning is that the power of the eastern political elites has grown. They support preferential access for their local populations.
The quota policy and differentiated selection may have been influenced by concerns about inter-provincial migration. Graduates from eastern universities who originated from outside would be highly likely to remain in eastern cities on graduation. This would have increased the number of migrants.
By limiting meritocratic access to eastern universities, the authorities were perhaps also seeking to reduce the problems associated with high levels of internal migration.
Hence, the political justification for decentralisation policies in higher education results in a deep-seated contradiction. On the one hand is its development strategy. On the other are uneven regional interests.
China has achieved an impressive record of educational development in terms of universalising compulsory education and improving gender equality. But there’s still a long march ahead to reduce geographical inequality and balance the interests between different regions.
Ye Liu, Senior Lecturer in International Education, Bath Spa University. Her research is primarily focused on the role of education in shaping a transitional society like China with regard to social inequality, life chances and social mobility.
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Mind Wanderings / Serious Thoughts
Gun Control: A Time to Rethink the Realities
June 9, 2015 June 9, 2015 Joe Broadmeadow1 Comment
I struggle with the idea of gun control. Over time, my ideas have gone from embracing the idea that anyone should be able to own a firearm, as long as they comply with the law, to questioning the need for anyone to possess a weapon with the exception of the Police and Military.
I argued that there are practical problems with imposing serious gun control in this country. Best estimates show there are 114 million handguns in private hands. To create a program to remove them lawfully from private ownership has nightmarish legal and practical implications.
There are issues with overcoming the constitutional arguments. I have revisited the arguments of the second amendment. I see a clear distinction in the common interpretation between its original intent and today’s modern era.
As with all aspects of the Constitution, adapting to a changing world is both necessary and reasonable
In light of the clear and undeniable problem of gun violence in this country, a new approach to gun control is long overdue. The numbers for 2010 were 18,000 deaths and 33000 injuries from firearms. Homicide rates in urban areas are 12.1 per 100000.
Some other interesting information; (various on-line sources)
The U.S.A. is ranked third out of 45 developed nations in regards to the incidence of homicides committed with a firearm. Mexico and Estonia are ranked first and second.
In 2009 United Nations statistics record 3.0 intentional homicides committed with a firearm per 100,000 inhabitants; for comparison, the figure for Mexico, where handguns are prohibited was 10 per 100,000, the figure for the United Kingdom, where handguns are prohibited was 0.07 per 100,000, about 40 times lower, and for Germany 0.2.
Gun homicides in Switzerland however are similarly low, at 0.52 in 2010 even though they rank third in the world for highest number of guns per citizen.
Perhaps we can learn something from the Swiss.
So, what are the arguments for allowing private ownership of guns? Here are the two most commonly cited, the second amendment and protection against a tyrannical government.
“A well-regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”
Written at a time when the United States did not keep a standing army, citizens were called to duty when needed. The benefit of having citizens maintaining and possessing firearms was clear. The use of a firearm in daily survival, hunting for example, was common. It was a different time.
Hunting is a hobby now, not a necessity. However, keep in mind, I am talking about handguns and, perhaps, high-capacity military type weapons.
Protection from tyranny.
Proponents of gun ownership often cite Hitler’s Germany outlawing private ownership of weapons as an example. There is no evidence that the lack of private ownership of firearms by the German people contributed to the rise of the National Socialists in Germany. The reasons behind that rise to power were infinitely more complex; handguns in every German home would not have altered anything.
This tyranny argument fails on two counts, one philosophical and one practical. On the philosophical side, the idea that any American government could direct the military to attack the general population is ludicrous.
The men and women who serve do so because of the American people, not despite them. I know no one who ever served in the military that would follow an order to attack American civilians.
Isolated incidents notwithstanding, the idea of a wholesale attack by the US military on Americans is insane. It makes for an entertaining movie theme, not reality.
Now the practical side of this argument. Assuming for the sake of discussion that the President somehow convinced the military to attack civilians in a coordinated way, using the full power of the military, the “second amendment” advocates would not stand a chance.
A fully orchestrated attack by the 1st Marine Division, supported by aircraft, armored vehicles and artillery would utterly overwhelm a bunch of yahoos clinging to their precious weapons whose idea of training is drinking beer and shooting targets bearing the image of a politician they despise.
The idea that a citizen army could withstand such an attack is nonsense.
There is a long history of well-established civilian control over the military because the military is comprised of citizens. While one always needs to pay attention, I think a bigger threat to our freedom comes from Congress and not the Pentagon.
It really boils down to this, does the tradition of private ownership of firearms outweigh the real risk to our society. We have a failing war on drugs because we thought we could arrest our way out of a health issue. One that, while tragic, takes far fewer lives than handguns. Yet we seem to ignore the bigger threat of these weapons.
It is time for serious reconsideration of eliminating handguns, and perhaps non-hunting weapons, from private ownership and imposing strict control over their use by Law Enforcement.
Maybe it requires a discussion on the reasons behind our violent tendencies that are exacerbated by the easy availability of weapons.
I don’t know the answer, but ignoring the problem is not it.
A country that once said they would put a man on the moon, and did it, is most assuredly capable of finding a way to eliminate the very real threat these weapons pose to people.
2nd Amendment, America, drugs, freedom, Gun Control, Guns, Handguns, Homicides, Police, reality
Where is the Old Southwest Airlines?
1. Collision Course
One thought on “Gun Control: A Time to Rethink the Realities”
Todd Anderson says:
1) Any attempt to confiscate weapons would put LE personnel in EXTREME and unnecessary danger, whether local or federal, would disarm only those who were formerly law abiding citizens, as well as running afoul of both Articles II and IV. From “The Constitution of the United States, its sources and its application”, here’s an excerpt from the commentary: “This means the arms necessary to a militia, and not the dirks, pistols, and other deadly weapons used by the lawless.” Current military kit, therefore suitable for militia use, currently includes full auto/select fire rifles, shotguns, pistols and knives.
2) The shooting death #’s are irrelevant; we currently kill more than 50,000 people per annum with our motor vehicles. These numbers are also massively skewed because of the levels of gang violence in inner city neighborhoods.
3) Here’s the Swiss lessons you’re looking for: They have a large number of organized shooting club events for both youths and adults. All adult males are conscripted at 18, two-thirds of whom are deemed fit for service, and females may volunteer. They are provided comprehensive firearms and general military training, and keep all their kit, including military rifles at their homes for the duration of both active duty (2 yrs min.) and compulsory reserve time (until age 30 for enlisted and 34 for officers). After this time they have the option to obtain a firearms permit and keep their military rifles for the remainder of their lives (most do). Permits to own handguns are also obtainable, but CCW permits are restricted to individuals in LE or security related occupations. Swiss citizens are considered the most educated in the world (86% have at least a high school diploma), and are a largely homogenous society; only 23% of the population are foreigners, 64% of whom are from EU countries, and one-third of these have obtained Swiss citizenship. They also have a strict (recently and narrowly passed) immigration policy.
4) As for the citizenry being able to resist an organized attack (a more realistic scenario would be idiots going wild en masse after a major infrastructure failure) I refer you to Iraq, Afghanistan and any number of African, Central & South American countries over the years.
Enough for now; have at it folks!
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Top 40 Over 40.12: Morton Feldman, Piano and String Quartet
I’ve listened to lots of records I’ve liked over the last 10 years, but the recording the Kronos Quartet made of this piece is probably my favorite. It seems remarkable that such a strange thing of beauty could be recorded at Skywalker Sound, George Lucas’s compound in Northern California. Morton Feldman spent the first half of his life (1926-1987) working full time in his family’s garment factory in Brooklyn, (long before it became a hipster mecca,) until his music career hit the big time when he became the Eugene Varese professor of music at SUNY Buffalo. Neither of these locations make one think of a ranch in Marin County, but then again, Feldman’s impressive visage does have something of Yoda’s gnarled wisdom about it, so maybe it is a fitting setting after all.
This piece was composed in 1985, toward the end of Feldman’s life. It belongs to a later period in which Feldman devoted himself to very long pieces. While this is not the longest piece from that era – ’83’s String Quartet II clocked in at over 6 hours – it does take its own sweet time, clocking in at 1 hour, 19 minutes, and 39 seconds. Long songs make me think of prog rock monstrosities by Yes that come off as bombastic and tiresome, but the thing about this piece is it just Is, without proclaiming what it is. It feels at ease in its own skin and at no point sounds tiresome or bloated. It reminds me more of a very large boulder baking under a hot sun, playing the generous host to various kinds of insects that scuttle across its craggy surface. What I like about listening to it is that it slows me down from running after whatever clay pigeon I’m obsessing over in a given moment, and leads me to try and approximate the vibrant stasis of a boulder. Not much else in the musical realm does that.
Feldman was a contemporary and associate of the more widely known John Cage, whom he met in the lobby during an intermission that followed a performance the New York Philharmonic gave of Anthony Webern’s Symphony op. 21 in 1950. (For a statistical look at their relationship over the years, check out Cage’s biography of his friend, which has little to say about Feldman’s life outside of their relationship.) Feldman was upset by the crowd’s disquiet during Webern’s piece, and was looking for someone to grouse with about the uncouth bourgeoise, finding a sympathetic ear in Mr. Cage. It must have been an interesting sight to see them standing together. As artistic compatriots with similar ideas and interests, they cut remarkable different figures. (You can listen to the two of them talking here. The introduction to that on-air conversation notes that Feldman’s most important work was yet to come. Since he was 41 at the time, this marks him as a serious entrant in the Top 40 over 40 record of achievement.)
Cage was a WASP whose roots in this country go back to the colonial times, while Feldman was the son of Russian Jewish immigrants from Kiev. Cage was charismatic, gay, and handsome, and a bit of a P.T. Barnum style showman. Feldman had the countenance of a gargoyle and was reputed to meet with little success in repeated awkward attempts to hit on young women. Cage’s work embraced indeterminacy as an idea that could be pitched as a charming soundbite on a conceptual level, as evidenced by this appearance on an Italian television show: Feldman’s work took longer to wrap your head around, and did not seep out into the lexicon of mainstream culture as a reference point.
http://http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SSulycqZH-U
For all of Cage’s anti-cognitive derivations from Zen Buddhism, a piece like 4’33” remains an idea first, and a piece of music second. I adore his Sonatas for Prepared Piano, which stands apart for me from most of his work because I find the compositions – yes, compositions – achingly beautiful. The comment section of the following YouTube link points out that they were influenced by Baliese Gamelan music:
What I love about Feldman’s music is that it uses some of the same principles that were floating around Cage and the avant garde of his day to make work that can’t be reduced to an idea or a cognitive stance. It hits the compositional heights of Cage’s Sonatas on a consistent basis. His decision or inability to gift wrap his works in a rhetorical posture meant that he and his work did not then and do not now circulate as widely as John Cage’s figure and music did. It would be hard to think of Stereolab writing a song called “Morton Feldman Bubblegum.”
His passages are repetitive but not redundant like those of Steve Reich, another composer popular in indie-dom who I like to listen to but not like I love Feldman. Reich’s repetitions are more easily duplicated. I was once listening to Music for 18 Musicians and my (much) younger brother walked by and said, “Is that Sufjan Stevens.”
Feldman’s pieces are too idiosyncratic for that kind of imprint. The repetitions of this piece involve several different motifs that wind in and out of each other, rather than an overarching pattern, and they are each gorgeous. I like Music For 18 Musicians, but it telegraphs a certain kind of mind state as its goal right from the start in a way that makes me think of what I don’t like about New Age music. The coercion into a single minded “concentratedness” and alterity doesn’t really happen in Feldman’s work. I couldn’t put my finger on what it evokes or feels like. But his compositional skill is serious enough that it takes you to more than one place, without letting you hang a label on what any of those places are. What can I say, the guy has serious compositional chops, without the grandiose maestro-ness of the big time classical composers I tend to associate such skill, (Mozart, Bach, Beethoven). Those symphonies, as Pierre Laurent-Aimard has noted, belonged to the centuries when European master narratives of conquest could survey large swathes of the globe where their flag was planted. Feldman’s work sees a similarly expansive territory without subjugating it via the mastery of either an organized 17th-18th century opus or a single minded 20th century hippie-Orientalist stereotype of “meditative/stoner” serenity. I like to picture him at a piano in Buffalo – I wonder how long it took him to write these blue whale compositions?
I think I’m gonna go try and make it through the six plus hours of String Quartet II next:
05 May This entry was published on May 5, 2013 at 7:23 pm. It’s filed under Music, Record Reviews, Series of posts, Top 40 Over 40 and tagged Gamelan, John Cage, Modern classical music, Morton Feldman, Orientalism, Stereolab, Steve Reich, Sufjan Stevens, Zen. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post.
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Intermountain Honored By Patient Safety Movement Foundation
Salt Lake City – The Patient Safety Movement Foundation has announced its top three healthcare institutions that demonstrated the most lives potentially saved by eliminating preventable deaths. Intermountain Healthcare was recognized for its success in reducing adverse drug events. Also honored were the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center and the California-based Hospital Quality Institute.
“Intermountain Healthcare has worked hard for many years implementing strict standards and best practices in patient care, and we are honored to be recognized for our patient safety efforts,” says Robin Betts, assistant vice president of Quality and Patient Safety. “"We appreciate and accept this recognition for all the frontline staff and physicians who really make the difference."
The Patient Safety Movement Foundation – supported by former U.S. President Jimmy Carter – was established to reduce the number of preventable deaths to zero by 2020. The Foundation works with patients, healthcare providers, medical technology companies, government, employers, and private payers to address the problems and solutions of patient safety.
“We are very proud of Hospital Quality Institute, Intermountain Healthcare, and the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center,” stated Joe Kiani, founder of the Patient Safety Movement Foundation. “We have the opportunity and responsibility to lead the way in eradicating preventable deaths. Every one of the 400 hospitals that entered this competition is a winner, especially their patients.”
Intermountain was recognized for helping to reduce harm to 322 lives by reducing adverse drug events (ADEs). An adverse drug event typically occurs when a patient has an unexpected reaction to a medication. Intermountain’s goal was to reduce ADEs by seven percent, but through vigilant monitoring and strict compliance with standardized procedures, it exceeded that goal, reducing ADEs by 10 percent in 2014 and 2015.
“While we accept this honor, we also realize we have more work to do,” says Betts. “We appreciate the support of the Patient Safety Movement Foundation that pulls together industry stakeholders so that all of us, through collaboration, can make healthcare safer for everyone.”
Intermountain lands among the nation's top three healthcare institutions for the most lives potentially saved by eliminating preventable deaths.
intermountainnews@imail.org
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Home » Articles » A New Pops Culture: Atlanta Orchestra Sets the Bar
A New Pops Culture: Atlanta Orchestra Sets the Bar
Atlanta Pops Orchestra, members of Local 148-462 (Atlanta, GA)
More than just a hometown favorite, the Atlanta Pops Orchestra has become a touring ensemble that regularly performs with an array of artists, like Chloë Agnew, formerly of Celtic Woman, John Driskell Hopkins of the Zac Brown Band, Broadway’s Craig Schulman, and hard-bop trumpeter Joe Gransden. This year, the Pops album with the bluegrass quintet Balsam Range (Mountain Overture) went to number six on the Billboard Classical chart and number five on the Billboard Bluegrass chart, in the same week.
President of the Pops Leonard Altieri of 148-462 (Atlanta, GA) says, “We’re not afraid to try anything new, stretching the boundaries of pops music. As long as it fits our ensemble, we can do big stuff, mainstream.” He adds, “We’re making a name for ourselves with the different types of concerts we do and also as a traveling orchestra.”
The orchestra uses union contracts exclusively, creating individual contracts for each concert and for each pops musician, members of Local 148-462. “We’re hired to play each time, every time for union rates. We’re doing 18 concerts this year, just the Pops. That doesn’t include backing up other musicians, singers, and bands.” Altieri adds, “If an act requires a backup group, we’re it.”
The Pops was founded by Albert Coleman in 1945, who served as music director for more than 50 years. In the early years, it consisted of 60 to 65 members. Today, the orchestra is half that size—but not because it’s having trouble surviving. On the contrary, Altieri, a 60-year union member and veteran violist of the Atlanta Symphony, says, “By shrinking our numbers, we could play more dates on smaller stages, take one bus instead of two—and it’s worked out perfectly.”
They have been doing it that way for 15 years. Currently, with Leonard’s son, Jason Altieri, as conductor and music director, the orchestra does as many as 16 pieces in one program and performs 15 to 20 shows per season. Low overhead allows them to take advantage of opportunities that may be cost prohibitive for larger organizations. In the last 10 years, the Pops has traveled to Taiwan, China, and Japan, performing more than 60 concerts overseas.
With an annual budget of approximately $100,000, Leonard says, “We’re surviving quite nicely.” He explains that they don’t have to pay a huge amount for board members or administration. Musicians’ jobs tend to cross over into administration and marketing. “They get union scale, plus travel. We pay bonuses for the stage manager, librarian, and personnel manager.”
The Pops is a close-knit group of professionals who give more than talent. Concertmaster Mary Burndrett’s husband is a violinist in the orchestra, who also manages a violin shop where most of the Atlanta Symphony and Pops go for repairs. Kevin Leahy plays drums with the Atlanta Pops Orchestra and also works in the digital marketing industry. “Since many of us have played together for so long, and we love what we do, it doesn’t feel like extra work when we contribute in ways outside of playing our instruments,” he says.
Leahy adds, “With a smaller group, 30 players, we’re a bit nimbler, able and willing to jump from style to style, or make changes on the fly. Since many of our players also perform with big bands, rock bands, Latin jazz groups, indie quartets, and other nonorchestral setups, we’re able to tap into that energy.”
Atlanta Pops Orchestra in concert at the Ritz-Carlton in Reynolds Plantation, Georgia.
Musicians extend services to publicity, social media, and website updates. “Instead of being solely a nostalgia act, performing music from the heyday of pops and light classical music, we are taking on new creative ventures, working to push our boundaries and stand out from other music groups,” which, Leahy admits can be something of a challenge, but easier to do with a smaller orchestra. “It’s inspired some of the musicians to take on additional roles and tasks in adding to the orchestra’s success.”
In 2014, when Leahy joined the board of directors of the Atlanta Pops, he was tasked with programming their 70th anniversary celebration. He says that he knew little about the history of the orchestra so he did his homework. He scoured libraries in the Atlanta area, sifted through old files at the music union office, accessed newspaper archives, and reached out to people who could share recollections.
Leahy discovered a direct correlation between what the Atlanta Pops did in the past and what they could do today. The orchestra collaborated with Janey Miller (Miss Georgia 1946); Isaac Hayes and James Brown in the 1970s; Ray Charles, Chet Atkins, and Floyd Cramer in the 1980s; and Emile Pandolfi in the late 1990s. Leahy says, “I thought ‘what would this look like in 2015 and beyond?’”
He reached out to pop artists and musicians of different genres to collaborate with the orchestra. “For our 70th anniversary concert we performed with a variety of contemporary artists, some of whom had worked with us in the past and some of whom had little or no experience working with an orchestra. This included trumpeter Cecil Welch of Local 148-462, Grammy-winning hip-hop group Arrested Development, blues singer Michelle Malone, folk singer and Zac Brown Band songwriting collaborator Levi Lowrey, jazz trumpeter and singer Joe Gransden, and Riverdance alum Scott Porter,” many of them with Atlanta origins.
Occasionally, Pops members perform as the 14-piece Atlanta Pops Orchestra Ensemble to take advantage of additional opportunities. In that configuration, they performed with The Joe Gransden Big Band (2017), with Balsam Range at the Art of Music Festival (2016 and 2017), and at MerleFest (2018).
The 2015 Christmas album In the Spirit: A Celebration of the Holidays, with John Driskell Hopkins, led to a long-standing partnership. Hopkins brought on a number of contributors to the album, including singer and Broadway star Laura Bell Bundy and the bluegrass quintet Balsam Range. Leahy adds that Mountain Overture was also the result of this collaboration. “The music was arranged specifically for our orchestra,” he says.
“These collaborations, mixed in with more traditional pops material that we have always performed, helped us find our voice in today’s musical landscape.” Leahy says, “We don’t want to abandon the sound, style, and material we’re known for, but we also don’t want to avoid taking risks in looking for new ways for this orchestra to stand out.”
Leahy notes that Atlanta is such a mix of styles and genres, people are very supportive of collaborations within the music community, which also builds audience and taps into new opportunities. “By growing our list of collaborators we now have the opportunity to perform more often, which has strengthened our chemistry, as well as our marketability.”
For a digital history of the orchestra, go to www.atlantapops.com/timeline.
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Guest Post: Why I Support Martin O’Malley – We Need New Leadership
On July 12, 2015 June 2, 2017 By guest-post
Last weekend, I was proud to stand up in Dubuque and endorse Martin O’Malley for President of the United States.
So much of what O’Malley stands for has struck a chord with me — his progressive values, his commitment to equality, fairness, and opportunity. But more than that — Martin O’Malley has an impressive record to back it up.
This endorsement came down to three key issues for me. And on every one, I believe Iowa needs new leadership, from Martin O’Malley, to rebuild the American Dream.
In 2009, I spent some time in Postville after what was, at the time, the largest immigration raid in U.S. history. It was a life changing experience to see people, families, deathly afraid of what these ICE vehicles were doing. Immigration officials were pulling their friends, their family, their fathers, their daughters, off the street in these raids and hauling them off to a detention center in Waterloo. It was shocking.
I’ll never forget seeing hundreds of families sitting in a small church for weeks, afraid to go home, for fear of being picked up or separated. That’s not what America is about, that’s not what Iowa is about – and we need new leadership from someone with a track record of standing up for our progressive values even when they may not be popular.
Martin O’Malley was the first presidential candidate I had ever heard talk not about ‘undocumented people,’ or ‘illegal immigrants,’ but about “new Americans.” And then to hear about his record of giving drivers licenses to new Americans in Maryland, of welcoming young children who had come across the border into his state, and of standing up to call for real immigration reform – it was beyond refreshing.
Wall Street Reform
Governor O’Malley is a candidate who really stands up for our progressive values. This week he followed up his bold plan to address climate change with an equally detailed and visionary plan to hold Wall Street megabanks accountable and protect our American economy.
O’Malley believes that true capitalism requires a level playing field where everyone plays by the same set of rules and he’s not afraid to take on those who have for too long posed an enormous risk to our economy. That’s the kind of leadership we need.
The final nail in the coffin for me was O’Malley’s commitment to American workers and opposition to the Trans Pacific Partnership.
Unlike some other candidates, Martin O’Malley is not waffling and trying to figure out what the polls are telling him to do.
Here in Iowa, we’ve seen what bad trade deals can do. I don’t meet many people with kind things to say about NAFTA, and I think we’re crossing the same bridge with the Trans Pacific Partnership.
Governor O’Malley’s position of standing against the Trans Pacific Partnership right from the get go was the final piece for me that said this is the person that I want to be the next President of the United States.
Martin O’Malley will provide the new leadership we need to enact our progressive values and actually get things done. I am proud to endorse him for President of the United States.
By John Murphy, Dubuque County Recorder
Posted in Democrats, Iowa CaucusTagged , Martin O'Malley
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Robert M. Devlin: Businessman & Philanthropist
Bob Devlin.
By Sheila Langan, Deputy Editor
April / May 2013
For Bob Devlin, the combination of natural business acumen, strong family ties and Irish roots has proven unbeatable.
Today, at 72, he is chairman of Curragh Capital Partners, a New York-based investment firm that – between its Irish-inspired name and the fact that he founded it with his eldest son, Michael – embodies his central values.
Devlin was born in Brooklyn in 1941 to Norma Hall Devlin and John M. Devlin, whose grandfather James Devlin immigrated to the U.S. from County Donegal in 1848. John Devlin’s story is a remarkable one. Born in Brooklyn in 1911, he grew up during the Depression, and, as a result, did not have much of a formal education. In a pivotal turn of luck, he found work as a clerk for an insurance firm in the Chrysler Building, and from there his career took off. The family eventually moved to Schenectady, New York, where Bob grew up with three brothers and one sister, and where their father became chairman and CEO of Ter Bush and Powell, then one of the largest insurance agencies between New York and Chicago.
For Devlin, this provided a model of success. After graduating from Tulane University in New Orleans in 1964, he entered the life insurance business with Mutual of New York. In 1977 he joined American General and spent three years in California, then five and a half in Nashville before moving to their Houston headquarters in 1986, as president and CEO of American General Life. By 1993, he had been elected vice chairman and a director of American General Corporation, and in 1995 he became the company’s president and CEO. One year later, he was made chairman.
From 1995 – 2001, Devlin helmed what would become, by his final year in charge, the country’s third-largest life insurance company. During his tenure, American General’s assets grew from $46 billion to over $150 billion, and its market capitalization rose from $7 billion to $24 billion. The company was acquired by the American International Group Inc. in August of 2001, and Devlin left upon the merger’s completion.
In addition, he has served on the board of directors of ConocoPhillips, Cooper Industries, LKQ Corp., Discover Financial Services and Forethought Financial Group.
Throughout all this, Devlin has been supported by his wife, Katharine (Kate), with whom he celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary in 2011, and their two sons Michael Devlin II and Matthew. As he said in an interview with Niall O’Dowd in the December/January 2000 Business 100 issue of Irish America, one of the things he found over the years is “how important family is. Whenever you move to a new town, the importance of the support system that your family provides becomes more apparent. I have been very lucky to have it.”
Devlin’s parents taught him to “have a commitment and a high level of integrity to what you’re going to do and to really stick with it as well as you can,” and that’s exactly what Bob has done – not only throughout his career, but also his philanthropic work.
Bob became involved in the non-profit arena from an early age, serving on the board of the Muscular Dystrophy Chapter in upstate New York and the YMCA boards in Sacramento and Nashville. After moving to Houston, he and Kate worked with the Holocaust Museum there, hosting the annual gala at which then-Secretary of State Colin Powell was honored with the Lyndon B. Johnson Moral Courage award. Together Bob and Kate were awarded the Anti-Defamation League’s Torch of Liberty Award, and Devlin also served on the board of trustees of the Houston Fine Arts Museum.
For ten years, Bob was a member of the board of Colin Powell’s America’s Promise initiative. More recently, he and Kate were inducted into the Joe Torre Safe at Home Foundation Hall of Fame in recognition of their contribution to the fight to end domestic violence.
A trustee of his alma mater, Tulane, Devlin was chairman of the university’s endowment committee for six years and is a member of the Paul Tulane Society. He was also a trustee of Boston College, from which Michael and Matthew both graduated – in 1988 and 1990, respectively – and is now a trustee associate. In 2004, he and Kate were recognized by the college as Outstanding Parents of the Year.
A significant number of the Devlins’ philanthropic projects have been connected to Bob’s Irish roots. Growing up, he recently explained, he was aware, through his parents, of the richness of his Irish ancestry, but the emphasis at the time wasn’t on where you came from, it was on striving to be American. While many Irish Americans come to treasure their heritage through stories and traditions handed down generation to generation, Devlin’s interest in Ireland was piqued when the family spent Christmas there in 1984, and was further enhanced when his two sons attended Boston College. Matt then studied at University College Galway in Ireland during his junior year. There he met Erin Conroy, a young Irish American woman from Marquette University who was also studying abroad. Married with three sons, they now live in Toronto, where Matt is the TV sportscaster for the Toronto Raptors.
Michael, Matt and Erin helped kindle in Devlin a deep interest in his Irish heritage, which has become a major part of his life. As co-chair of the American Irish Historical Society (a position he shared with Liam Neeson), Devlin, along with President General Dr. Kevin Cahill, put in place the long-term strategic plan to save the AIHS’s townhouse, the finest Irish one in the U.S., and regenerate the society. Devlin’s Irish roots were recognized in 1999 when he was awarded one of the Ellis Island Medals of Honor for his business achievements, and in 2001 when he received the AIHS’s Gold Medal.
The Devlins’ visits to Ireland often find them in Killybegs, Co. Donegal, where they feel blessed to love a family, Samantha, Colum and their daughters Kaitlin and Shonaugh, as their own. The Devlins have supported the restoration of St. Mary’s, a church in Killybegs, and Paul Newman’s Hole in the Wall Gang Camp in Barretstown, Co. Kildare, which provides a fun, nurturing environment for children with serious illnesses.
Reflecting on his Irish heritage, Devlin recently said “the Irish spirit encompasses everything I value: inner strength, determination to continue forward and do better, a great love of family, soulfulness, and an all-important sense of humor. Connecting with Ireland and my roots has helped me immeasurably, in ways both large and small.”
3 Responses to “Robert M. Devlin: Businessman & Philanthropist”
gerard myles says:
how do i become in contact with mr devlin
PaulHeakes says:
CLASSIC!!!
Gerald Ryan CLU says:
Bob, Thanks for selecting me as Chairman ,A G General Agents advisory council and repeating 2nd year. Gerald Ryan CLU, aka Ryan O Ryan
Music and Merriment at Irish America’s 2019 Hall of Fame
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Today at the Kent-Delord House Museum
~ Our gate is open…Step into history!
Posted by kentdelordhousemuseum in Champlain Valley, City of Plattsburgh, education, French heritage, Henry Delord, History, Lafayette, Local History, Museum, Plattsburgh (NY), Samuel de Champlain, Uncategorized
What’s In A Name? Part II
In 1785 a group of men established a settlement on Lake Champlain at the mouth of the Saranac River. Led by Zephaniah Platt, Melancton Smith, Ezara l’Hommediey, Thomas Treadwell, and joined in short time by Peter Sailly, the new village of Plattsburgh was created.
Drawn by the abundance of natural resources and new opportunities, more settlers began to make this area home including many French and French Canadians. What better way to acknowledge their impact on Plattsburgh than to name streets after some of the more illustrious persons.
Delord Street
Our own Henry (née Henri) Delord was one of the “movers & shakers” in the early growth of Plattsburgh. An immigrant from Nimes, France by way of the Caribbean, Henry embraced his adopted land becoming a landowner, businessman, judge, and community leader. During the Battle of Plattsburgh, he risked his business for the American forces, only to see that patriotism lead to his bankruptcy. (It’s a fascinating story folks! Visit the Kent-Delord House Museum to find out more!!)
Sailly Avenue
Delord’s friend and neighbor Peter Sailly was born in the Lorraine region of France. As a young man he had served in a corps of soldiers who were bodyguards for King Louis XVI. Having inherited heavy family debts in France, Sailly with his wife and children immigrated to the US for a new start in 1784. Traveling throughout New York State, he was taken with what he saw as unlimited possibilities in the Lake Champlain region. The next year the Saillys joined the Platt group settling in Plattsburgh. He began to prosper trading in potash, timber, and furs. He was active in community affairs and elected to numerous political positions including serving in the House of Representatives (1805-1807). In 1809, Sailly was appointed Collector of Customs by Pres. Jefferson and served in that capacity until his death in 1826.
(btw: According to one of Peter’s descendants, the correct pronunciation of the name is “Sul-lee”!)
In the mid-19th century a large number of Quebecois had settled in this area seeking industrial jobs. St. Peter’s Roman Catholic Church was started by the Oblate Fathers of Mary Immaculate Missionaries from Canada in 1853 to meet the spiritual needs of those French-speaking residents in Plattsburgh. The neighborhood near the Church became known as the “French Quarter” and the streets named accordingly.
St. Charles Place
Father Sallz, an early priest of St. Peter’s, named the street in honor of Charles Auguste, Bishop of Nancy, France.
Montcalm Avenue
Originally this street was called “Stove Pipe Street” since all its houses didn’t have chimneys, just stovepipes sticking out. It was later named Platt St. In 1909 as part of the City’s 300th anniversary of Samuel de Champlain’s entrance to the lake that bears his name, the street was re-named in honor of the French general Louis Joseph Montcalm commander of French forces during the French and Indian Wars. Montcalm died defending Quebec in the 1759 Battle of the Plains of Abraham.
Champlain Street
Come on—I think the name Samuel de Champlain is imprinted on the brains of everyone who lives in the North Country!! There had to be a street named in his honor!! Did you know we don’t really know what Champlain looked like? All the images we have are just artist representations of how they think he might have appeared. The only real image we have is a drawing by Champlain in his 1609 journal, depicting a battle between Iroquois and Algonquian tribes near Lake Champlain.
Lafayette Street
Marie-Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette, known simply as Lafayette, was a key figure in both the American and French Revolutions.
For his leadership and bravery during the Revolution, Maryland made Lafayette a “natural born citizen” of that state in 1784. This made him a natural born citizen of the United States when the Constitution was adopted in 1789!
Frances Henrietta Delord Webb met Lafayette during her honeymoon trip through Europe in 1833. Her journal describes the visit: “Tuesday, April 8, Attended a Soiree at Madame Curtis’. Met with a host of Americans. Lafayette with three granddaughters were there. I conversed for a long time with him. He expressed to me his strong attachment to America. He appears to retain the faculties of his mind most remarkably [age76]. He invited us to visit La Grange [Lafayette’s home]. Both Frances Henrietta and Lafayette died the next year.
Two other city streets with a French connection are:
Lorraine Street
No, it is not a woman’s name! Peter Sailly came from this region in France.
Durand Street
Named in honor of Marinus Durand a French immigrant (also from Nimes!) who married Peter Sailly’s daughter. He served as deputy Collector of Customs and was a Quartermaster during the War of 1812.
!899 Bird’s Eye View map of Plattsburgh
The naming of our city streets is proving to be quite a lesson in the history of Plattsburgh!!
Keep checking this blog—there’s more to come!!
A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words!
No Horsing Around
Betsey Goes To Washington
In His Own Words!
Champlain Valley
City of Plattsburgh
Daughters of the American Revolution (D.A.R.)
French heritage
Henry Delord
Kent-Delord House Museum
Plattsburgh (NY)
Samuel de Champlain
Silas Deane
Webb Family
William Johnston
Women In History Month
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Registration and Preservation
Clubs Welcome
Family Tree Research
Mail Run Re-enactment
Mallee Region
Cowangie
Boinka
Malleefowl
Mallee National Parks
4WDriving
Touring Routes
Two events depicting the re-enactment of the Pine Plains to Kow Plains Mail Run took place during the Queens Birthday weekend.
On Sunday the 13th June, 2004, a large gathering including over 50 descendants of the O’Sullivan family gathered at the entrance to Pine Plain Station to witness the arrival of the mail man Hugh O’Sullivan grandson of the mailman Owen (Hugh) O’Sullivan who in 1883 at the age of 14 carried the mail from Dimboola the then railhead to Kow Plains. He spent Saturday and Sunday nights at his home at Albacutya on Monday he rode to Pine Plains on Tuesday to Kow Plains, Wednesday back to Pine Plains on Thursday to Albacutya, Friday to Dimboola and then back to Albacutya where he had Sunday’s off. Hugh O’Sullivan did this for about 8 years with only one exception.
Dugald Macpherson and Hugh O’Sullivan
A plaque commemorating the mail run and the efforts of Owen (Hugh) O’Sullivan was unveiled by Sister Carmel O’Sullivan sister of Owen (Hugh) O’Sullivan. A Letter to the O’Sullivan family from the Governor of Victoria was received and read:
On Monday 14th June in cold windy and damp weather the Mailman Hugh O’Sullivan rode into Kow Plains along part of the original track. His arrival was announced by Terry Gibson. Hugh tied his horse to a pepper tree near the Cookhouse and proceeded to the stable where he handed the mail carried in one of the original mail bags to Dugald Macpherson great grand son of Dugald Macpherson lease holder from 1867 to 1897, who read the letter from the Governor of Victoria John Landy to the Kow Plains Committee and the Cowangie Community.
Jocelyn Lindner on behalf of the Committee & the Community welcomed the large crowd gathered in and around the stable, and said that “today we are not only commemorating the wonderful effort of Hugh O’Sullivan but of those other mail men who carried the mail from Pine Plains to Kow Plains through sandy terrain, Spinifex, mallee trees and heath land with questionable water supplies, a taxing ride especially in the summer heat.”
Jocelyn went on to say that this event also marked another stage in the restoration of the Kow Plains Complex, the completion of the west wall and part of the south wall of the stable made possible by the donation of logs from an old stable at Graham & Jean Wake fields Walpeup. The cost of labour was funded from the sale of books donations and funds raised from functions; she thanked the builders Terry & Tim” Dudgald Macpherson and Hugh O’Sullivan were called forward to unveil the interpretive plaque which was covered with an Australia Post banner. Dugald commented on the importance of the arrival of the mail man the only connection with the outside world in those days and said how pleased he was to be part of this historic event. A BBQ lunch was enjoyed by all.
Mailman Hugh O’Sullivan arriving at Kow Plains June 14, 2004
Death of Mr. O’Sullivan
A Mallee Pioneer Passes
After a lingering illness, extending over several months Mr. Owen O’Sullivan (who was familiarly known as Hughie) breathed his last at his residence, Ryan Street, Rainbow, on the morning of Friday March 19th 1929. Deceased who was 59 years of age was born 1870 at Linton near Ballarat, and attended school at Happy Valley Wycheproof.
Shortly after leaving school at the age of 14 years, he accepted a contract to carry mail from Dimboola to Cow Plains, the journey there and back occupying a week. Leaving Dimboola at an early hour on Saturday mornings he would travel via Jeparit to the Lake Albacutya Station (at that time the property of the New Zealand Loan and Agency Co.) the first day, resuming the journey on the second day he would reach Pine Plains Station owned by Mr Septimus Miller) arriving at Cow Plains Station (the property of Dugald Macpherson) on the third day.
The return journey occupied three days the same stopping place being observed. Deceased followed this occupation for several years the track from Jeparit northward skirting the eastern side of Lake Hindmarsh, a three chain road west of Rainbow town common and continuing in a north-easterly direction leading to the Albacutya Station. Deceased frequently referred to a sensational experience he had near Antwerp in 1889, when returning with mail from Cow Plains. On the outward journey there was no indication of rain, but shortly after leaving Jeparit a heavy downpour set in and increased in severity during the next couple of days causing the Wimmera River to overflow its banks, with the result he had to swim across the flooded road. Fastening the mail bag to the horses head he assessed the task of leading the animal by the reins and after an exciting struggle in the swirling stream the deceased and his horse reached terra firma in safety.
Subsequently the deceased lived with his parents at Lake Hindmarsh near Jeparit. He acquired a mallee block about three miles north of Rainbow, where he successfully followed agricultural and grazing pursuits for many years.
Some 20 years ago deceased took up his residence in the town and lived there ever since. Deceased a noted bushman and was acquainted with every inch of territory between Rainbow and the Murray. Many years ago the Police and black trackers were lost in scrub country north of Nypo and on suggestion of the Constable, deceased services were requisitioned to make a search for the missing party and he traced the wanderer to the area north of Hopetoun.
When the Wyperfield National Park was established deceased acted as “guide, philosopher and friend” to visitors to the park. He took a keen interest in the National park and was a member of the committee and caretaker since its inception.
In his younger day the deceased was successfully associated with Turf in SA and Vic and was a founding member of the Albacutya Race Club.
For many years he held the grazing licence on Lake Albacutya frontage, and he also grazing leases of the bed of Lake Albacutya during the years it was dry 1902-1909. Afterwards he purchased the freehold of Pine Plains.
Deceased married twice his first family consisting of seven children and the second one Eileen & Carmel. He was buried at the Rainbow Cemetery.
Preservation/Registration
Disclaimer © Kow Plains Homestead Committee / All rights reserved / Login
Website Design: Brand Action / Supported by Discover Murray River
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Tim Tebow meets the New York press
Posted 10:44 am, March 26, 2012, by Marc Sternfield, Updated at 02:22PM, March 26, 2012
Tim Tebow talks to reporters for the first time as a member of the New York Jets on March 26, 2012. (Photo: CNN)
FLORHAM PARK, N.J. — Brushing aside awkwardness from the trade that sent him from Denver to New York, Tim Tebow was introduced as the newest member of the New York Jets Monday.
“It’s such an honor be here and I’m so excited to be Jet,” the former Denver Broncos quarterback told reporters at the Jets’ training facilities in Florham Park, New Jersey.
Tebow also thanked the Broncos for giving him the chance to play, and thanked Broncos fans for their support.
What remains to be seen is how Tebow will fit into the Jets’ offense led by starting quarterback Mark Sanchez.
Head coach Rex Ryan recently told the NFL Network that Tebow will be used in the “Wildcat” formation, and he could also see playing time in other positions, besides quarterback.
In addressing Ryan’s remarks, Tebow said his job is to help win games, and not necessarily win the starting QB job.
“First and foremost I’ve always said that I’m a football player first and then quarterback,” Tebow said. “Although that is my dream…that’s what I want to be and it’s what I believe I am, is a quarterback…however I can help the team. However I can make a difference. However they can use me, I’ll be open to it and work as hard as I can.”
Watch Tebow’s entire press conference
Tebow also insisted there won’t be friction between him and Sanchez, whom he regards as a friend.
“We’re going to have a great relationship and a great working relationship, and I think we’ll have a lot of fun together.”
Tebow, 24, was traded last week after the Broncos signed free agent quarterback Peyton Manning to five-year deal.
Last season, Tebow led the Broncos to an 8-8 record, the AFC West division title, and Denver’s first playoff victory in six seasons.
Filed in: Denver Broncos
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New York Mayor de Blasio jumps into crowded Democratic race for president
ESPN: Broncos cornerback Chris Harris has requested a new contract or trade
Trump: Woman who accused him of sexual assault not his type
Champ Bailey elected to Denver Broncos Ring of Fame
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His understanding of the possibilities of painting was evolving rapidly; from studying Hals he learned to portray the freshness of a visual impression, while the works of Paolo Veronese and Eugène Delacroix taught him that colour can express something by itself. This led to his enthusiasm for Peter Paul Rubens and inspired his sudden departure for Antwerp, Belgium, where the greatest number of Rubens’s works could be seen. The revelation of Rubens’s mode of direct notation and of his ability to express a mood by a combination of colours proved decisive in the development of van Gogh’s style. Simultaneously, van Gogh discovered Japanese prints and Impressionist painting. All these sources influenced him more than the academic principles taught at the Antwerp Academy, where he was enrolled. His refusal to follow the academy’s dictates led to disputes, and after three months he left precipitately in 1886 to join Theo in Paris. There, still concerned with improving his drawing, van Gogh met Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Paul Gauguin, and others who were to play historic roles in modern art. They opened his eyes to the latest developments in French painting. At the same time, Theo introduced him to Camille Pissarro, Georges Seurat, and other artists of the Impressionist group.
Dick Van Dyke was born Richard Wayne Van Dyke in West Plains, Missouri, to Hazel Victoria (McCord), a stenographer, and Loren Wayne Van Dyke, a salesman. His younger brother is entertainer Jerry Van Dyke. His ancestry includes English, Scottish, German, Swiss-German, and Dutch. Although he'd had small roles beforehand, Van Dyke was launched to ... See full bio »
After Van Gogh's first exhibitions in the late 1880s, his reputation grew steadily among artists, art critics, dealers and collectors.[262] In 1887 André Antoine hung Van Gogh's alongside works of Georges Seurat and Paul Signac, at the Théâtre Libre in Paris; some were acquired by Julien Tanguy.[263] In 1889 his work was described in the journal Le Moderniste Illustré by Albert Aurier as characterised by "fire, intensity, sunshine".[264] Ten paintings were shown at the Société des Artistes Indépendants, in Brussels in January 1890.[265] French president Marie François Sadi Carnot was said to have been impressed by Van Gogh's work.[266]
In these series, Van Gogh was not preoccupied by his usual interest in filling his paintings with subjectivity and emotion; rather the two series are intended to display his technical skill and working methods to Gauguin,[134] who was about to visit. The 1888 paintings were created during a rare period of optimism for the artist. Vincent wrote to Theo in August 1888, "I'm painting with the gusto of a Marseillais eating bouillabaisse, which won't surprise you when it's a question of painting large sunflowers ... If I carry out this plan there'll be a dozen or so panels. The whole thing will therefore be a symphony in blue and yellow. I work on it all these mornings, from sunrise. Because the flowers wilt quickly and it's a matter of doing the whole thing in one go."[243]
The album "Songs I Like By Dick Van Dyke" was recorded on Friday, November 22, 1963. Early in the recording session, the artists and orchestra were informed of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in Dallas, Texas. In spite of the tragic news, and a deadline from Command Records that had to be met, the recording session continued to a successful conclusion - albeit in an emotionally-charged atmosphere. He said that he scarcely remembers the session because he was in such a state of shock after hearing the news.
By March 1882, Mauve appears to have gone cold towards Van Gogh, and stopped replying to his letters.[72] He had learned of Van Gogh's new domestic arrangement with an alcoholic prostitute, Clasina Maria "Sien" Hoornik (1850–1904), and her young daughter.[73] Van Gogh had met Sien towards the end of January 1882, when she had a five-year-old daughter and was pregnant. She had previously borne two children who died, but Van Gogh was unaware of this;[74] on 2 July, she gave birth to a baby boy, Willem.[75] When Van Gogh's father discovered the details of their relationship, he put pressure on his son to abandon Sien and her two children. Vincent at first defied him,[76] and considered moving the family out of the city, but in late 1883, he left Sien and the children.[77]
Just purchased a entertainment center from Art Van and my experience was decent. Didn't like the idea of $100 delivery fee to deliver around the corner with a piece of furniture I still had to put together myself. Didn't make much sense there so I just picked it up and the warehouse guys were cool. Sales staff wasn't good for much to be honest with you but the girls in the office helped with 98% of what I needed.
After much pleading from Van Gogh, Gauguin arrived in Arles on 23 October, and in November the two painted together. Gauguin depicted Van Gogh in his The Painter of Sunflowers; Van Gogh painted pictures from memory, following Gauguin's suggestion. Among these "imaginative" paintings is Memory of the Garden at Etten.[132][note 8] Their first joint outdoor venture was at the Alyscamps, when they produced the pendants Les Alyscamps.[133] The single painting Gauguin completed during his visit was Van Gogh Painting Sunflowers.[134]
[about Mary Poppins (1964)] I thought Walt Disney hired me because I was such a great singer and dancer. As it turns out, he had heard me in an interview talking about what was happening to family entertainment. I was decrying the fact that it seemed like no holds were barred anymore in entertainment . . . That's why he called me in, because I said something he agreed with. And I got the part.
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Re A and others (children) (care orders: care plans)
Family proceedings Orders in family proceedings. None of the final care plans proposed by the local authority for five children could be approved. The Family Court held that, before they could be approved, it was important to know whether the present foster carers were willing to offer a long-term home either for the older four children or just for the eldest child and that before the plans to separate the older four children could be properly evaluated, there needed to be an expert assessment of the children by an appropriately experienced child psychologist.
A Local Authority v JA and others (ZK and another intervening)
Family proceedings Orders in family proceedings. In the applicant local authority's application for care orders in respect of two children aged 13 and 12, the Family Court made all of the principal findings of fact sought by the authority. It would have to determine, in due course, the appropriate future long-term placements in their welfare best interests of the children.
CL v AL
Family proceedings Orders in family proceedings. The terms of a child arrangements order were varied in circumstances where prior to the present proceedings the youngest child, JL, had been living in Australia with the mother and the eldest child, IL, had been living in England with the father. The Family Court, in considering and balancing the harm that would come to IL if ordered to go to Australia and live with his mother, against the harm that JL would suffer as a result of being ordered to come and live with his father in England, the balance of harm fell in favour of making a child arrangements order in favour of the father.
Borg v El-Zubaidy
Contempt of court Committal. The father was sentenced to 12 months' imprisonment following the mother's allegations against him of six breaches of court orders, which had been designed to facilitate the return of two of his three children to the jurisdiction of England and Wales. The Family Division, in passing the sentence held that the criminal standard of proof had been established with all the allegations and that some had been serious breaches.
A Local Authority v A
Family proceedings Orders in family proceedings. It was necessary and proportionate that the youngest of six children be placed for adoption and the statutory test for dispensing with parental consent was clearly met, as the child's welfare throughout his life could only be achieved by the local authority's plan. With respect to the five older children, the Family Court approved an agreement that they should stay in foster care where they had been since December 2016 in the best interests of those children.
*Goldtrail Travel Ltd (in liquidation) v Onur Air Tasimacilik AS
Costs Payment into court. When considering whether the ability of a third party to provide funds could be taken into account in assessing the likelihood that a company could make a payment into court, the question had to be whether the company could raise the money and not whether the relevant shareholder could raise the money. The appropriate criterion to be applied was whether the appellant company had established on the balance of probabilities that no such funds would be made available to it, whether by its owner or by some other closely associated person, as would enable it to satisfy the requested condition. Accordingly, the Supreme Court allowed the appellant company's appeal against a finding that its appeal against an earlier judgment would be dismissed, on the grounds that it could not make the required payment into court.
Southend Borough Council v CO and another
Family proceedings Orders in family proceedings. The parents' right under art10 of the European Convention on Human Rights outweighed the children's right under art8 of the Convention when it came to the question of an online petition being taken down. The parents had created the petition following the grant of adverse care and placement orders involving the parents' four children. The Family Division held, amongst other things, that there was very little cogent evidence that each of the children or any of them would suffer embarrassment, much less emotional harm, if the petition remained online.
An NHS Hospital Trust v GM and others
Declaration Procedure. A declaration was made that it was in the best interests of 14-week-old baby, H, that his ventilation tube be removed. The Family Division held, amongst other considerations, that the medical evidence had been unanimous that H was going to die very soon and that there was no quality of life for H. Orders concerning reporting restrictions and the presence of the police at H's bedside at and around the time of his death were also made.
Re V (A Child) (Recognition of Foreign Adoption)
Family proceedings Adoption. The applicants, Nigerian nationals at the time resident in the United Kingdom in a temporary capacity, had applied for recognition of a Nigerian adoption order. The Family Court, following examination of all the relevant criteria for the recognition of foreign adoptions, acceded to the application.
Re CB (International Relocation: Domestic Abuse: Child Arrangements)
Family proceedings Orders in family proceedings. The Family Court refused the father's application for contact with the child, CB, and the mother's application for the permanent removal of CB to Portugal. Instead, the matter was adjourned for five months, to give the father a time-limited opportunity to demonstrate that he could be a good parent to CB and could co-parent CB by way of taking courses-seeking help to deal with his behaviours. The issues of contact and relocation would be addressed at a later date following the five-month adjournment.
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Luxborough SOS
*Links
Update: 839 people signed the petition!
But what about...?
But there are lots of other parks nearby...
Yes, Paddington Street Gardens is just next door, with a fantastic play area for children under 11, but no ball games are allowed.
And Regent's Park is close, but the 6-lane Marylebone Road is a traffic blackspot.
It is the only open kickabout space locally, in this ward cluster (Marylebone High St, West End, Bryanston & Dorset Squares). There isn't anywhere else you can kick a ball around.
47% of children at St Vincent's Primary have NO open-access kickabout space in their home ward (2011 Census)
But it's so run down...
It is. The problem isn't the playground - it is the dreadful condition it is in. We believe it should be maintained to the same high standard as our award-winning local parks.
But I've never seen anyone playing there...
Before it was boarded up in 2015, it was well-used by local kids, for decades - after school and at weekends. CityWest Homes even had a key rota for local residents to lock up every evening. Local schools and parents support this campaign.
But I've heard about crime and anti-social behaviour...
We don't believe that children playing football on an open football pitch should be classed as 'trespassing'.
The Police define the area as 'enjoying natural surveillance' because it is completely overlooked, which deters criminal behaviour. Unfortunately, since it was boarded up in 2015, rough sleepers have been attracted, because it is now hidden from view.
Award-winning Paddington Street Gardens proves that we can have well-managed local amenities, which are safe and secure for all to use.
But who will pay for it...?
The cost of maintenance has been charged to Luxborough Tower leaseholders - who have (understandably) been very aggrieved at having to fund a community facility.
We believe that maintenance can be covered by variations to existing WCC contracts, with contributions from the Ward budget, sponsorship and grants. Capital (build) cost from WCC-approved Community Infrastructure Levy funds* and Sport England grants. It is a community asset.
But the Council are going to build on it...
The WCC City Plan S35 says 'The Council will protect and enhance Westminster’s open space... and address public open space and active play space deficiency...'
The overall and localised shortage of open space and the difficulty of finding new sites make it essential to resist the loss of even the smallest open spaces’*
There have been 'definite' plans since 2009 - so until the bulldozers turn up, we will keep fighting to Save the Space!
Copyright © 2019 Luxborough SOS - All Rights Reserved.
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articles Women In Film
Meet the Israeli filmmaker tackling sexual harassment in the work place
With Working Woman, director Michal Aviad hopes to move the conversation forward.
Zoe Whitfield
@zoemaywhitfield
“I don’t deal with ‘women’s issues’, I deal with all kinds of issues from a woman’s point of view,” says the Israeli director Michal Aviad of the gaze she explores in her work. “I look at reality and just change the angle a bit. Throughout my career it’s remained fresh; still, after 30 years. It’s new and original to see the world from the point of view of women.”
Aviad started making films in San Francisco during the late ’80s, before returning to her native Israel at the start of the next decade where, alongside her own practice, she now works as a Senior Lecturer in the Cinema and Television department at Tel Aviv University.
With a preference for documentaries, Aviad’s stories are anchored in politics, conflict and religion, often but not solely engaged concurrently with one another. Her 1995 film Ever Shot Anyone? examines Israeli masculinity by interviewing army reservists, while 1997’s Jenny and Jenny follows a pair of teenagers over the course of a summer on the country’s Mediterranean coast. More recently, 2016’s Dimona Twist highlights the stories of seven women who arrived in Israel during the ’50s and ’60s and were subsequently sent to the newly established desert town of Dimona.
Following Invisible in 2011, Aviad has returned to narrative feature filmmaking with Working Woman, which debuted at the Jerusalem Film Festival in 2018. It follows Orna, a mother of three who has recently returned to work to provide for her family as her husband’s new restaurant struggles to finds its feet. She excels at her job assisting Benny, a power-driven realtor, quickly winning praise and a promotion. Not only is she good at the work but, more significantly, she relishes it, which makes Benny’s ugly behaviour – executed with awkward situations and culminating in sexual violence – all the more devastating.
“For years I was thinking about sexual harassment – like everybody else I suppose,” reflects Aviad, who spoke at length with lawyers who specialise in sexual harassment while researching for the film. “I read tonnes of testimonies but I wanted to know what it looks like. What is the proximity of the parties? What is the tension in-between the words? All those things that we cannot read.” Punctuated with telltale lines like “where’s your sense of humour” and comments about how Orna should wear her hair, the film mirrors realities of workplace harassment in such a frank and uncomfortable manner that some have labelled it a thriller.
Written in 2012 in collaboration with Sharon Azulay Eyal and Michal Vinik, Working Woman began shooting in tandem with the emergence of #MeToo, and the film’s arrival, in a climate ferociously more attuned to power blind spots and abusive behaviour, isn’t lost on the director. “Unfortunately, the films I’ve made before which I thought were really relevant didn’t seem so to other people, so I’m very glad this is,” the director says.
Working closely with Liron Ben-Shlush and Menashe Noy (who play Orna and Benny respectively) for several months prior to shooting, Aviad says she feels fortunate to have found such responsive actors. “We formed intimacy, we talked and we ate and we talked and we drank and we talked, and together we formed the characters.”
More specifically, in the case of Noy’s character, there was some concern over falling into villainous stereotypes. “Both of us know people who are sexual harassers,” explains Aviad, “and we knew that he’s much more complex than that.” Alluding to this depth on screen, Orna’s idea of Benny is first established via another woman at the agency, who tells her “Benny’s a great boss, thank god.”
Aviad’s hope for Working Woman is that it might encourage further discussion around sexual harassment in the workplace. As she says, returning to the central feminist theme of her work, “We have to continue to talk about the relationship between men and women, and really try to change it. In the last 200 years of feminism we got the right to vote, but consciousness hasn’t changed. I really hope that we will start to see each other as human.”
Tags: Israeli cinema Michal Aviad
Revisiting Starry Eyes in the wake of Hollywood’s sexual abuse scandal
By Vanessa Crispin
This 2014 horror is a dark and honest reflection of the film industry.
A new film exposes the shocking cyber harassment faced by women
By Ed Gibbs
Cynthia Lowen’s intimate doc Netizens follows three victims of online abuse as they look to take back control.
festivals Tribeca Film Festival
The Tale provides a vital insight into historic sexual abuse
By Hannah Woodhead
Jennifer Fox’s autobiographical debut makes for harrowing but essential viewing.
festivals Sundance London
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Shakuhachi Sleep Music Riley Lee
Label: Sounds True
Genre: Easy Listening
Subgenre: New Age
Das Album enthält Albumcover
1Drifting07:18
2Descending09:41
3Stillness15:23
4Ascending13:46
5Realization14:49
Total Runtime01:00:57
Info zu Shakuhachi Sleep Music
A master of the shakuhachi flute, it is said, can invoke an inner stillness in listeners, like a quiet pond reflecting the moon. Shakuhachi Sleep Music invites us to experience here the beauty and calmness of this revered tradition. Grand Master of the Zen bamboo flute Riley Lee plays an authentic and deeply soothing sequence of pieces to guide us, breath by breath, into the peaceful domain of the quiet mind, unperturbed and ready for restful slumber.
Biographie der Mitwirkenden: Riley Lee is the recipient of two of the most venerated lineages of traditional shakuhachi, traceable back to the Zen komusô, or 'priests of nothingness.' He is the first non-Japanese to attain the rank of dai shihan (grand master), and has recorded dozens of albums including Music for Zen Meditation (Narada, 2003). He resides in Australia.
Riley Lee, shakuhachi flute
began playing the shakuhachi (bamboo flute) in Japan in 1971, studying was with Chikuho Sakai until 1980, and has been a student of Katsuya Yokoyama since 1984.He was given the rank of Dai Shihan (grand master) in 1980.
Riley was born in Plainview Texas USA in 1951, and moved to Shawnee Oklahoma USA in 1957, where, aged 13, he became the bass player of the award-winning rock band “The Workouts”. He and his family moved to Hawai’i in 1966. He first went to Japan in 1970, and returned in 1971, when he began his shakuhachi studies. He lived there continuously until 1977.
From 1973, Riley became the first non-Japanese to play taiko professionally, by touring internationally as a full-time performer of taiko (Japanese festival drums), yokobue (a high pitched bamboo transverse flute) and shakuhachi with Ondekoza (now called Kodo) a troupe of traditional Japanese musicians, performing with such groups as the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and at venues such as Kennedy Center (Washington DC), Roundhouse Theatre (London), Espace Pierre Cardin (Paris), and the Boston Symphony Hall.
Riley’s studies with traditional teachers in Japan have included such peculiar methods as practicing barefoot in the snow, blowing into his flute under waterfalls and in blizzards until icicles form at its end, and running the Boston Marathon and then playing taiko drums at the finish line.
In 1976, while on tour in Europe with Ondekoza, Riley met Patricia, who was at that time living in Paris. Patricia returned with Riley to Sado Island, and they left the group in 1977, while on tour in the USA. They were married that year. Patricia is Riley’s primary inspiration, and critic, and has worked full time as his manager / agent since 1992.
After returning to Honolulu with Patricia in 1978, he began teaching privately and performing. He founded the Chikuho School of Shakuhachi of Hawaii. He was a lecturer of the shakuhachi at the University of Hawai’i until leaving for Australia in 1986 to take up a PhD fellowship at the University of Sydney.
Patricia and Riley’s twin daughters, Aiyana and Marieke, were born in 1979 in Kahuku, on the North Shore of Oahu.
Riley completed his BA and MA degrees in music at the University of Hawai’i, and received his PhD degree in ethnomusicology from the University of Sydney. His PhD dissertation topic was on the Zen repertoire of the shakuhachi. He was an East-West Center grantee in 1985-1986 and a Japan Foundation fellow in 1988-1989. He was made Honourary Fellow of the University of Western Sydney in 1997.
He has published scholarly articles and book reviews in leading national and international musicology journals, such as Ethnomusicology and Asian Music. He has translated for journals such as Contemporary Music Review. His PhD dissertation, on the transmission of the Zen repertoire of the shakuhachi, (completed in 1993) is published by UMI (USA).
He has been instrumental in creating a professional presence of traditional Japanese music in Australia. He has introduced the shakuhachi to a diverse audience as both a soloist and with other performers of such instruments as harp, cello, saxophone, tabla, guitar, didjeridu, and symphony orchestra. He and Patricia founded the Australian Shakuhachi Society in 1996. His request in 1988 to the Sawai Koto School in Japan that a koto player be sent to Australia facilitated the immigration to Australia of talented Satsuki Odamura.
In 1995, he also co-founded with Ian Cleworth, Australia’s dynamic Japanese festival drum group, TaikOz. It has since become one of Australia’s premier performance groups, acclaimed both at home and in Japan, performing with the Bell Shakespeare Theatre, in the production Kaidan (Ghost Stories) choreographed by Meryl Tankard and in Chi Udaka, a collaboration with Lingalayam, the Australian-based South Indian Dance troupe directed by Anandavalli.
Riley, together with composer/musician Michael Askill, performed with the Sydney Dance Company in the 1999 Australian season of Graham Murphy’s Air and Other Invisible Forces, touring USA at the end of 2000 and Europe in 2001 with this production. ...
Dieses Album enthält kein Booklet
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You are the company you keep—A new screening method detects direct biomolecule interactions
October 26, 2018 , Center for Genomic Regulation
Proteins are the building blocks of the cell. They do most of the work and are essential for the structure, function and dynamic regulation of the cell and body's tissues and organs. Proteins rarely work alone, they interact, form protein complexes or bind DNA and RNA to control what a cell does. These complexes are key pieces of many important reactions within the cell, such as energy metabolism or gene regulation. Any change in those interactions, which can for example be caused by a mutation, can make the difference between health and disease. Hence, for understanding how cells operate, or what might go wrong in ill cells, it is essential to know how their building blocks interact.
New technologies allowed scientists during the last decades to understand the genetic information an organism possess, which of this information is actively used and which proteins are made by the cell in different circumstances. Now it is a big challenge to understand how biomolecules such as proteins and RNA messenger molecules combine to form the complexes required for a functional cell. In other words, we know the ten thousands of parts a cell is build off, but we don't know how they belong together.
In a paper published in Nature Communications, scientists at the Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG) describe the development of a new method, named "rec-YnH", which was designed to understand the complexes formed between hundreds of proteins and RNAs at the same time.
The method, whose development was led by Sebastian Maurer in collaboration with the Luis Serrano laboratory, is the first technique that allows the detection of interactions between a large number of proteins and RNA molecules at the same time. The researchers put emphasis on the development of a doable and affordable method which is widely applicable.
"Our method reliably measures interactions between many proteins or many proteins and RNA fragments without the need for expensive, specialized equipment," explains Sebastian Maurer. "This methodology can be used by any standard biomedical research laboratory and will be useful for studying a particular process in the cell but also for researchers having to explore millions of protein interactions at a time to look for a complex involved in a particular disease," he concludes.
Two CRG laboratories successfully combined their expertise in bioinformatics, biochemistry and molecular biology to implement and validate the method. "Our collaboration resulted in an affordable and feasible method that produces high-quality maps of protein-protein and protein-RNA interactions", says Jae-Seong Yang, postdoctoral researcher and co-first author of the paper.
"Interactions between proteins and RNA are key for many biological processes including gene regulation, and our method is the first that can detect interactions between hundreds of proteins and RNAs at the same time. Having such an efficient new tool at hand will be extremely helpful to answer important questions related to many diseases," states co-first author of the study and CRG researcher Mireia Garriga.
More information: Jae-Seong Yang et al, rec-YnH enables simultaneous many-by-many detection of direct protein–protein and protein–RNA interactions, Nature Communications (2018). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-018-06128-x
Journal information: Nature Communications
Provided by Center for Genomic Regulation
Monitoring the dynamics of thousands of protein complexes simultaneously within intact cells
How protein complexes form in the cell
The birth and death of proteins in a single cell
Similarities between the two gap phases of the cell cycle indicate a default biochemical program in living cells
Cancer gene dependency maps help reveal proteins' relationships
Size matters... and structure too: New tool predicts the interaction of proteins with long non-coding RNAs
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Archive for Rob Zombie
Rock Horror Lottery, Time-Traveling Sharks,Trained Zombies
Posted in Classic Horror, Evil, Foreign Horror, Nature Gone Wild, Science Fiction, Sharks, Slashers, TV Vixens, Zombies with tags 7-Eleven, Alice Cooper, Andrew Jackson Borden, apocalypse, Arizona, Billion Dollar Babies, Bloody-Disgusting.com, Bridget Sullivan, Chloë Sevigny, Christina Ricci, Christmas Pudding concert., Classic Horror, cowboys, dead, dinosaurs, electric chair, England, Evil, Foreign Horror, guillotine, Halloween, hangman’s noose, Jason Voorhees, knights, Kristen Stewart, Lizze Borden, Lizzie, Lizzie Borden Took An Axe, London, Lottery, Marilyn Manson, Nature Gone Wild, outbreak, pythons, Redon-1, Rob Zombie, rock star, Sarah Anthony Borden, Science Fiction, scientist, Sharks, Slashers, slaughterhouse, Slaughterhpuse Rulez, The Last Sharknado: It's About Time, The Slaughter House Rules, Time Travel, TV Vixens, UK, undead, US, Zombies on August 12, 2018 by Drinkin' & Drive-in
As first reported by Bloody-Disgusting.com, horror shock rock icon Alice Cooper is now featured on scratch-to-win Lottery™ tickets in his home state of Arizona. (Probably where he gets his stage snakes. I hear you can practically trip over ’em in Arizona.)
The measure of success used to be to get your face on a postal stamp. But being on a Lotto scratch card seems a more appropriate way to honor the rock star who had a hit album called Billion Dollar Babies back in 1973 (way to tie-in, Arizona!), and paved the road for others like Rob Zombie and Marilyn Manson by pioneering the theater use of said (live) pythons, dead babies (song title and plastic prop), an onstage guillotine execution, a hangman’s noose, a ride on an electric chair, and tons of horror imagery and zombie stuff.
The Alice Cooper Lotto tickets went live in Arizona on August 7, 2018 and will continue to be purchasable through Halloween, 2018. From the press release: “There are six top prizes of $50,000 each, with second-chance prizes that range from Alice Cooper memorabilia to VIP tickets and pre-show party access to the legendary rocker’s annual Christmas Pudding concert.” (Note: The album came with a “billion dollar” bill in the packaging. Been trying to spend it every since. Guess I’ll have to buy more than one microwaved hot dog as it appears 7-Eleven™ just doesn’t appear to have enough correct change.)
While we all wait for our turn to have our printed faces scratched off with the edge of a quarter (a penny works, too), here are a few upcoming horror/sci-fi movies that you may or may not want to scratch off your viewing list…
THE LAST SHARKNADO: IT’S ABOUT TIME (August 19, 2018/SyFy™ Channel)
In the sixth and final installment of the series, Fin will travel back in time in a Sharknado-turned-time-machine to resurrect his family by stopping the first sharknado that started it all. In his quest, Fin will fight dinosaurs, knights, cowboys, and, of course, sharks. This time, it’s not a question of how to stop the sharknados — it’s when!”
Gotta give ‘em props for the movie title, as it perfectly sums up the thankful END of one of the most overplayed (and dumb) horror movie franchises of all time. And this coming from a guy who loves shark movies. Looks like they’re gonna go out with style, what with time-travel, dinosaurs, knights, cowboys (just repeating the press release here) and, of course, sharks that fall from the sky like faulty airplanes. Good for them. Now go away.
LIZZIE (September 14, 2018)
“Chloë Sevigny stars as Lizzie Borden, the notorious woman at the heart of one of the most enduring mysteries in American history. After a lifetime of loneliness, Lizzie finds a kindred spirit in housemaid Bridget Sullivan (Kristen Stewart) and their secret intimacy sparks an unthinkable act. The movie explores the days leading up to the savage crimes in a dark tale of repression, exploitation and thwarted dreams.”
Back in the good ‘ol days of 1892, Lizzie Borden, the spinster daughter of Andrew Jackson Borden and Sarah Anthony Borden (what are the odds they both have the same last name?), was infamously charged with axe-to-the-head-multiple-times on said husband and wife double murder. Lizzie was arrested as a prime suspect, but later deemed innocent by the court and let go, presumably to open an axe store (poor timing, but good prices from what I hear).
This grisly, unsolved murder led to more than a few movie treatments and remakes over the years. But Lizzie — a women’s spin on the subject — brings a whole new perspective, implying that Lizzie had a girlfriend and they both plotted — and executed (sorry) — the de-parenting. For another interesting look at Lizzie Borden, the Jason Voorhees of the late 1800s, check out Lizzie Borden Took An Axe (2014) with Christina Ricci as the chilling and non-emotional portrayal of the world’s first hacker. Personally, I though it was the mailman who performed the crime, based on absolutely no proof whatsoever. I just trust my gut stuff.
REDCON-1 (September 28, 2018/UK)
“After a zombie apocalypse spreads from a London prison, the UK is brought to its knees. The spread of the virus is temporarily contained but, without a cure, it’s only a matter of time before it breaks its boundaries and the biggest problem of all…any zombies with combat skills are now enhanced. With the South East of England quarantined from the rest of the world using fortified borders, intelligence finds that the scientist responsible for the outbreak is alive and well in London. With his recovery being the only hope of a cure, a squad of eight Special Forces soldiers is sent on a suicide mission to the city, now ruled by the undead, with a single task: get him out alive within 72 hours by any means necessary. What emerges is an unlikely pairing on a course to save humanity against ever-rising odds.”
So the dead come back to life with all their previous life skills. I guess when it’s my turn to go to the great couch in the sky, I’ll come back LOADED (heh) with years of accrued beer drinking abilities. The world as you know it won’t stand a chance. Sucks to be everybody but me.
SLAUGHTERHOUSE RULEZ (October 31, 2018/UK | 2018/2019 US)
Slaughterhouse is an elite boarding school where boys and girls are groomed for power and greatness and they’re about to meet their match. Don Wallace, is a wide-eyed new boy from a modest background forced to navigate a baffling new world of arcane rules and rituals, presided by sadistic sixth formers. Matters of status are aggressively enforced and conversation with school goddess Clemsie, are strictly forbidden. But this ancient and ordered world is about to be shaken to its foundations — literally — when a controversial frack site on prize school woodland causes seismic tremors, a mysterious sinkhole and an unspeakable horror is unleashed. Soon a new pecking order will be established as pupils, teachers and the school matron become locked in a bloody battle for survival.”
Holy frack — an unspeakable horror comes out of a resulting sinkhole? I bet the quakes busted the boarding school’s sewer line. P.S. Resist the urge to compare this one with this same-named 2004 short, The Slaughter House Rules. That one was only 13 minutes long and from what I hear, did not feature a busted sewer line spewing liquefied leavings all over everyone’s faces and/or clean shirts. That’d be really icky if they did.
Horror Shaken, Not Stirred
Posted in Evil, Ghosts, Slashers with tags 31, Amazon Prime, Angelica, assassins, Christmas, demonic presence, demons, devil, Evil, Ghosts, haunted, ice cream, Ice Cream Truck, James Bond, London, Lucifer, maniacs, Monsters, Phantom, poltergeist, Rob Zombie, serial killers, Slasher House II, Slashers, Tuscany, vivisectionist, Voice From The Stone on November 5, 2016 by Drinkin' & Drive-in
You’d think the tens of dozens of new horror movies coming out right now would keep me in a state of perpetual giddiness. It kinda sorta does. But Christmas came early for me in the form of Amazon Prime™ putting up the entire James Bond catalog (minus the Daniel Craig years) for free viewing (if you have a subscription). Don’t worry horror movies, I still like you. But you’re like an ex-girlfriend until I’m done re-watching all the Bond movies for the 12th time each.
So here’s what I’m spying (heh) on the horizon…
SLASHER HOUSE II (2017)
Red has arrived in the big city just time to find herself tied up in an epidemic of vanishing serial killers. But who is taking them and what do they want with the world’s most horrific masked murderers? As Red fights her way through a maze filled with assassins, monsters and maniacs she comes closer to discovering the truth behind the mystery and the mastermind behind the Slasher House.”
A maze filled with “assassins, monsters and maniacs.” Um, isn’t this the same plot as Rob Zombie’s 31 (2016)?
VOICE FROM THE STONE (early 2017)
“Verena, a solemn nurse, is drawn to aid a young boy named Jakob who has fallen silent since the untimely death of his mother nearly a year ago. Living with his father in a massive stone manor in Tuscany, Jakob not only refuses to speak, he seems to be under the spell of a malevolent force trapped within the stone walls. As Verena’s relationship with the father and son grow, she becomes ensnared and consumed by a severe force. If Verena is to save the boy and free herself, she must face the phantom hidden inside the stone.
I talk to rock, too. And rock talks to me. And you know what rocks tell me to do? To rock out. It’s the only conversation needed when conversing with gravel.
ANGELICA (2017)
London in 1880. Shop assistant Constance, who lost her parents at an early age, falls in love with doctor and vivisectionist, Dr. Joseph Barton. When their daughter Angelica is born the pair is overjoyed, but the birth almost costs the young mother her life. From now on she must practice sexual abstinence – she is to think of herself as a beautiful garden enclosed by a tall iron fence. Before long her bid to suppress her desires and erotic feelings gives birth to demons. A ghostly being emerges from Constance’s hysterical fantasy; the spirit penetrates closed doors, terrorizing the sleeping child and her fragile mother. When an assistant with para-psychological skills is called to their home, their middle-class world finally falls apart…”
I have two questions: Why would you want to marry a vivisectionist? Secondly, why would you want to become a vivisectionist? Surely, butcher school is a lot cheaper and easier to get a degree in. As for Constance and her “hysterical fantasies,” sounds like she’s just being a normal gal to me. (I’m probably gonna pay for that one.)
LUCIFER (pending 2017)
A young caretaker believes her family is being tormented by the devil after she agrees to write the chilling story of a patient haunted by the relentless demonic being.
Hope the book comes with pictures.
ICE CREAM TRUCK (summer 2017)
“Mary’s husband gets relocated for work which allows her to move back to her suburban hometown. A local ice cream man with a love of nostalgia starts to kill some of her neighbors. Mary is torn between her mature instincts that something wrong and the distracting memories of her younger days.”
WTF?!? Who cares – ICE CREAM, man! Some people just can’t accept the little pleasures in life without gooning out.
Post-Puberty Demonic Blues
Posted in Evil, Ghosts with tags 31, asylum, blood, devil, Evil, Ghosts, haunting, poltergeist, Rob Zombie, Satan, soul, spirit, The Exorcism of Molly Hartley, The Haunting of Molly Hartley on October 10, 2016 by Drinkin' & Drive-in
The haunting part of The Haunting of Molly Hartley (2009), a made-for-teen chicks “horror” movie, is in reference to something her parents did while Molly was being born. Given how bland this movie is, a ghost — even a digital one — would’ve been preferable.
After mom is rightfully placed in an insane asylum for stabbing her daughter in the chest with a pair of scissors (told, not shown), Molly begins hearing voices in her head. She and dad move to a new town, and Molly attends one of those “everybody dress the same” high schools full of over-privileged snotty classmates who listen to hip hop and dance like dorks.
Molly is caught between trying to fit in and being “haunted” by the voices. The school counselor tries helping, but no one believes Molly’s mom has escaped and is coming back to “save her” before she turns 18, which is, like, tomorrow.
Confused and distraught, Molly seeks the spiritual guidance of her religious classmate after hearing her escaped mom tell her why she needs to be stabbed in the chest again. Seems Molly was being born prematurely in a bus station bathroom. She was supposed to die, but a mysterious (i.e., evil) woman appeared out of nowhere and offered to save Molly’s life.
With screaming and blood and a stillborn on the way, Molly’s parents agreed and the mysterious (i.e., evil) woman made everything good as new. The price for such a bargain is that Molly’s soul belongs to Satan upon her 18th birthday. Talk about sticker shock.
So what happened to Molly? She had one HELL of a birthday.
P.S. Not sure why, but they made a sequel called The Exorcism of Molly Hartley (2015). That one feature more Molly and less clothes.
P.P.S. So exactly why did I watch a teen horror movie? I just finished Rob Zombie’s 31 (2016) and felt a need to cleanse the palate.
Be Witched
Posted in Classic Horror, Evil, Scream Queens, Witches with tags Classic Horror, devil, Evil, filmmaking, fire, Leanna Greenaway, Lords of Salem, Massachusetts, New England, public square, Riddick, Rob Zombie, rock, Salem, Satan, Scream Queens, Shawn Robbins, Spain, tailgate party, The Crucible, The Exorcist, The Last Witch Hunter, The Shining, The Witch, Vin Diesel, Wiccan, Wiccapedia: A Modern-Day White Witch’s Guide, witch trials, Witches, Witching & Bitching on August 21, 2015 by Drinkin' & Drive-in
The rich tapestry of witches seems to have taken root these days, fueled possibly by the success of the TV series Salem (2014), an annoyingly hard-to-follow depiction of fevered witch paranoia life in stinky Massachusetts in the late 1600s. (If your neighbor thought you to be in league with Big D, you were proved it merely by hearsay in a court of law and burned alive in the public square, the colonial version of a tailgate party.
Rock dude/horror filmmaker Rob Zombie even tried his hand at some lovin’ from the coven in 2013 with the The Lords of Salem. (I’m generally a fan of Zombie’s music and film work, but that thing is outright laughable and does great disservice to our witchy women.)
Regardless, the market fire burns hot for Wiccans and their vibrant community. Vin Diesel (Riddick himself!) is set to release The Last Witch Hunter (2015), followed by The Witch (2016), a period horror piece that promises some wicked wickedness.
Here’s what The Witch is conjuring (heh): “Evil takes many forms in this vintage horror thriller set in New England in the 1600s about a family and their suddenly missing children.”
Okay, not a lot to go on. But the trailer is a tasty appetizer. And early reviews gush that The Witch “blends The Crucible, The Shining and The Exorcist in a frightening New England folktale.”
You can find more information about witches in Wiccapedia: A Modern-Day White Witch’s Guide (2011), written by “spiritual life coaches” and celebrity witches Shawn Robbins and Leanna Greenaway. If those aren’t kick ass credentials, then you’re likely a non-believer. I fear for your very soul.
P.S. For a really fun/funny/f’d up witch movie, check out Spain-made Witching & Bitching (2013). The first 15 minutes alone will put a spell on you (heh).
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Missouri S&T Magazine
Around the Puck
Beyond the Puck
Photo Finish
In Your Words
Miners and the military
December 1, 2008 by magazine
The flagpole might be in a different place, and the flag has a few more stars, but Old Glory is raised and lowered by ROTC cadets on the Missouri S&T campus today just as it was back in 1873, when MSM’s first company of cadets was formed.
Filed Under: Features, Winter 2008
Corps family values
December 1, 2008 by Mindy Limback
The Battle of Cassino Pass, the first large-scale battle of World War II between the U.S. Army and the German Army, began on a miserably cold, rain-soaked Friday in February 1943.
As Germans advanced, Lt. Jerry Berry, a platoon leader in the 19th Engineer Regiment Combat, and his men – armed with dump trucks and engineering equipment – faced the daunting task of holding back the German forces, led by Gen. Erwin Rommel.
It’s T-minus zero, and as the main engine ignites, Lt. Col. Scott Peel’s mind begins to race. As commander of the range operations team at Vandenberg Air Force Base, he knows that now there’s no turning back.
A love of aircraft
December 1, 2008 by Linda Fulps
Linda (Desilet) Smith, AE’88, was interested in planes back in high school. Her uncle, an Air Force pilot, impressed her, and she was thrilled by the aerobatics of the Thunderbirds air demonstration squadron.
December 1, 2008 by lfeyh
Shooting a spy satellite out of the sky is the stuff of science fiction movies. For Andrew Jackson, petty officer second class in the U.S. Navy, it’s just another day at the office.
Citizen soldier: A call to disarm bombs
December 1, 2008 by Mary Helen Stoltz
Courtney Buck, Econ’03, was just finishing his senior year at Missouri S&T when the United States invaded Iraq. After graduation, he started work at Missouri S&T public radio station KMST as marketing manager, but the thought of American soldiers fighting overseas weighed heavily on his mind.
Why they fight: A historian’s view
An issue focused on Missouri S&T’s connection to the military wouldn’t be complete without a word from military historian John C. McManus, associate professor of history and political science. Missouri S&T Magazine staff sat down with McManus to ask a few questions.
Greatest generations: Stories with Maj. Gen. Robert Bay
The patrons at McDonald’s have noticed us. A few of them eventually come over to thank the two uniformed soldiers at our table for their service. What these civilians don’t realize is that a third soldier at our table, an older gentleman in plain clothes, is an honest-to-God general who started his service to the country during World War II.
Hydrogen power on display
November 30, 2008 by magazine
A map of the nation’s hydrogen fueling stations shows the facilities dotting both coastlines. But you’ll see only one dot in the Midwest. That fueling station happens to be on Missouri S&T’s new E3 Commons. The site was a stop for several futuristic cars on a coast-to-coast road trip last August to showcase hydrogen as an alternative energy solution.
Filed Under: News, Winter 2008
Doctor No. 200
Naresh Sharma’s Ph.D. research on predicting and reducing warranty costs will likely benefit many companies in the future. But for now, it has helped Sharma earn a historic degree. In July, Sharma became the 200th person to receive a Ph.D. from Missouri S&T’s engineering management and systems engineering department.
150 years of Miner legacy
glenn w brand on Wishing you the best-ever holiday season and a little Miner mischief
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About Missouri S&T Magazine
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Bill S.67
SECTION 1. Chapter 15D of the General Laws, as appearing in the 2012 Official Edition, is hereby amended by adding the following section:-
Section 19. (a) For the purposes of this section, the following words shall have the following meanings unless the context clearly requires otherwise:
“Evidence-based programs”, home visiting programs that are based on clear and consistent program models that (i) provide researched-based services, grounded in relevant, empirical knowledge with measurable outcomes; (ii) are governed by a program manual or design that specifies the purpose, outcomes, duration, and frequency of service that constitutes the program; (iii) employ well-trained staff and provide continuous professional development and supervision relevant to the specific program model being delivered; (iv) demonstrate strong links to other community based services; focusing on early childhood and family support programs; and (v) operate within an organization that ensures program fidelity.
“Home visiting program”, a voluntary home-based service delivery strategy for families with children from conception to age 5 that provides culturally sensitive face to face visits by trained and supervised workers to promote positive parenting practices, improve maternal, infant and child health outcomes, build healthy child and parent relationships, support cognitive development of children, improve the health of the family, empower families to be self-sufficient, reduce child maltreatment and injury and increase preparation for a continuum of learning.
“Promising practices programs”, home visiting programs that have not yet met the standard of evidence-based programs but that (i) include data or evidence demonstrating effectiveness at achieving measurable outcomes for pregnant women, infants, children and their families; (ii) include a manual or design that specifies the program’s purpose, outcomes, duration and frequency of service; (iii) employ well-trained and competent staff and provide continuous professional development and supervision relevant to the specific program model being delivered; (iv) demonstrate strong links to other community based services; (v) operate within an organization that ensures compliance with home visiting standards; and (vi) operate with fidelity to the program model.
(b) The Children’s Trust shall collaborate with public and private child serving agencies including but not limited to those licensed by the Executive office of Education and the Executive Office of Health and Human Services to coordinate and deliver evidence-based and promising practices in home visiting services to eligible families. Evidence-based programs shall be linked to program-specific outcomes and shall be associated with a national organization or institution of higher education. Evidence-based programs shall have comprehensive home visiting standards that ensure high quality service delivery and continuous quality improvement, have demonstrated significant, positive outcomes, and have been evaluated using and evaluation results have been published in a or are based on quasi-experimental research using two or more separate, comparable client samples. Promising practice programs shall be evaluated on program data.
(c) Home visiting programs shall be developed using evidence-based or promising practices models that provide culturally sensitive services to parents, infants and children ages 0 to 5, using strength based and relationship focused curriculum; shall maintain high-quality, consistent and continuous training and supervision; shall provide program evaluation to assess efficacy; and shall engage in ongoing process and participant outcomes measurement to assess effectiveness.
Process outcomes shall include but not be limited to the following: (i) improvement of maternal mental health by providing access to screening and services for both parents; (ii) development and maintenance of a centralized participant data system that can be shared with and used by community providers and; (iii) involvement of both parents in the program.
Participant outcomes shall include, but not be limited to, the following: (i) a reduction in child maltreatment numbers; (ii) children who, on average, meet developmentally appropriate expectations; (iii) parents who have knowledge of positive parenting and child development; (iv) families who have access to health care; and (v) referrals of families to different programs to encourage further growth and development.
(d) Funding preference shall be given to home visiting programs developed pursuant to this section.
(e) The Children’s Trust in collaboration with public and private child serving agencies, including but not limited to those who are licensed by the Executive Office of Education and the Executive Office of Health and Human Services shall submit a report on both evidence- based and promising practice programs to the Clerks of the House of Representative and the Senate the House and Senate Committees on Ways and Means and the Joint Committee on Children, Families and Persons with Disabilities, on or before December 1 of each year. The report shall include, but not be limited to, the following: locations of programs, numbers of families served, length of stay of families in program, referrals of families to other programs, percentage of participants who graduate from the program, percentage of families accessing health care, percentage of parents in positive parenting process, readiness of child/children to participate in a continuum of learning, reduction of child maltreatment numbers, professional development progress of staff, reports of ongoing evaluation and modifications made to promising programs to elevate them to evidenced-based programs.
SECTION 2. No later than 180 days after the passage of this act, the Children’s Trust, in collaboration with public and private child serving agencies including but not limited to those licensed by the Executive Office of Education and the Executive Office of Health and Human Services shall develop standards and regulations deemed necessary to implement the New Born Home Visiting protocol.
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The History of Diamonds in South Africa
In 1859 the first diamond discovery was made in South Africa; however South Africa’s diamond heritage stems from a pretty little pebble picked up on the bank of the Orange River in 1867, not far from Hopetown. Erasmus Jacobs, fifteen years old and the son of a poor laborer, took it home as a plaything. The stone was then given to a neighboring farmer, Schalk van Niekerk, a casual collector of unusual stones. He in turn entrusted it to the trader John O’Reilly, who sent it (in an unsealed envelope!) to Dr. G. W. Atherstone, a Grahamstown physician and one of the few people in the Cape Colony who knew anything about minerals. The stone was judged a ‘veritable diamond’ of 21.25 carats and valued at £500. Once cut, the stone weighing 10.73 carats was called The Eureka and is now kept at the Library of Parliament in Cape Town.
The news triggered a flurry of excitement in the Hopetown area, but eager prospectors found only a few small stones to reward their efforts and drifted away disillusioned. The discovery must have been a hoax, it was suggested: everyone knew diamonds came only from India and Brazil! Almost three years later in March 1869, a Griqua shepherd named Booi, from the farm Zandfontein, picked up a pebble that caught his eye, he first tried to barter the stone for a place to sleep, then for breakfast – everyone turned him down. He ultimately found his way to Schalk van Niekerk. By now Schalk had learned something of precious stones and bought it for virtually all that he possessed: 10 oxen, a horse and 500 sheep. The discovery of this stone set off the diamond rush that transformed South Africa from a struggling agricultural state to a leading industrial nation. Van Niekerk, in turn, sold it to a firm of local jewellers for £11200. The 83.50 carat diamond, to be named ‘The Star of Africa’ found its way to England, where it was bought by the Earl of Dudley for the then princely sum of £25000. Said Colonel Secretary Sir Richard Southey to his political colleagues, “Gentleman, this is the rock on which the future success of South Africa will be built.” How right he was, without the diamond finds there would be no Kimberley; without Kimberley there would have been no capital to finance the gold mines of the Reef; and without the Reef and its industries there would be no South Africa as we know it.
Diggers flocked to the area and staked their claims along the banks of the Orange and then the Vaal River and its tributaries to the north. They lived in tent communities in very harsh conditions; blistering heat during the day followed by icy cold nights. Most made little for their efforts, some made modest fortunes. It was only 30km’s from the Vaal River where the first significant finds were made, dry diggings on three farms, one of which was called Vooruitzicht. This farm was bought ten years prior for only £50 by two De Beer’s brothers who found themselves beleaguered by a swarm of gem-hungry diggers. They hurriedly sold it for £6300, a good profit but a drop in the ocean compared to the £90 million it would yield over the following years. Nearby was the discovery of ‘Colesburg Kopje’, site of the future Kimberley and the richest treasure house of high quality gem diamonds the world had ever known. The year was 1871 and the ‘New Rush’ had begun.
The diggings attracted hordes of fortune seekers who came from all walks of life and many countries. By 1872 some 50000 men had encamped in the area. Soon the tents were replaced by corrugated iron and mud-brick houses and rudimentary hotels, bars, brothels, banks, stores, a church, a school, the famed Kimberly Club and the stock exchange. The haphazard nature of the diggings were dangerous and could not be worked at all during the rainy season until an enterprising 19 year old Englishman named Cecil John Rhodes imported a steam operated pump to keep the diggings dry. That inspiration in turn set him on the road to fortune; Rhodes became a well known, high powered businessman and more famously an explorer who funded some of his expeditions through his involvement in the diamond industry. Some time later, Rhodes had decided that consolidation was the key to the success of the diamond fields. Along with his associates he linked hands with a hard-headed diamond buyer called Alfred Beit, and so the monopolisation process began. By 1885, with Rhodes as chairman, the De Beers Mining Company was the major claimholder in the De Beers mine (named after the original owners of the farm Zandfontein) and had complete control by 1887. Barney Isaacs better known as Barney Barnato had successfully plied his trade as a ‘kopje-walloper’ (under-the-counter middleman between buyer and digger) and a claim-dealing entrepreneur. Like Rhodes, showing remarkable business acumen Barnato became a multi-millionaire, and within five years of arriving in Kimberley he controlled Kimberley Mine. Kimberley Mine has been closed for decades but is now a popular tourist attraction known as ‘The Big Hole’.
By 1889, the future of the diamond world depended on the outcome of a battle for total control between Rhodes’ De Beers and Barnato’s Kimberley Mines, each backed by powerful overseas interests. Rhodes emerged the victor, a cheque for £5 338 650 changed hands and the two mines were brought under the control of a new company, De Beers Consolidated Mines, the company which today, almost 110 years later still has its registered office in Stockdale Street, Kimberley. With Rhodes as chairman and Barnato and Alfred Beit as life governors De Beers Consolidate Mines won control of the other two major mines in the area and soon after a recently discovered fifth mine. Virtually the entire industry was united and the near monopoly was complete.
In 1902 a young German-born diamond buyer arrived at Kimberley as the representative of a London diamond broking firm. Ernest Oppenheimer’s family had been involved in South Africa’s diamond industry for many years. He decided to settle in South Africa and soon became mayor of Kimberley. In 1917, he moved to Johannesburg and was chiefly instrumental in founding Anglo American, initially a gold mining house but planned from the outset as a power in the diamond world. After the First World War, South Africa was granted a League of Nations mandate over German South West Africa (now Namibia), whose alluvial deposits now began to attract serious attention. A syndicate, led by Anglo American, formed Consolidated Diamond Mines (CDM) in 1919 to exploit the deposits, and amalgamated eleven mines north of the Orange River. Later, when diamond discoveries were made in the Belgian Congo (formerly Zaire, now the Democratic Republic of Congo) and Angola, De Beers underestimated the significance of these developments, while Anglo American moved in. When huge deposits of alluvial diamonds were located in Namaqualand on South Africa’s west coast and, in 1927, near Lichtenburg in the western Transvaal, Oppenheimer’s Anglo American again made its claim.
Oppenheimer was soon becoming the leading light in the diamond world, and in spite of opposition from De Beers directors who resented his swift progress was soon elevated to the board. As if to confirm his supremacy, Anglo American geologists working north of the Orange River found new deposits of gemstones even richer than those of Namaqualand. It was only a matter of three years before Oppenheimer was elected chairman of De Beers. Ernest Oppenheimer remained at the helm until his death in 1957, when his son, Harry, took over to run the giant conglomerate with outstanding success for the next quarter of a century. Today it is run by Nicky Oppenheimer, who became chairman of De Beers on the 1st of January 1998.
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Paris climate agreement may set a goal that is nearly impossible to achieve
Members of a non-governmental organization demonstrate during the COP21 United Nations conference on climate change at Le Bourget, on the outskirts of Paris, on December 9, 2015.
Image: Dominique Faget/AFP/Getty Images
By Andrew Freedman 2015-12-10 16:41:01 UTC
LE BOURGET, France — The U.N. Climate Summit in Paris, also known as COP21, appears poised to deliver a new global climate agreement that has a goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, or 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit, above preindustrial levels, or possibly language calling for keeping warming to "below 2 degrees Celsius."
This is more ambitious than the 2 degrees Celsius, or 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit, target countries were previously aiming for.
It's also politically, though not necessarily technically, impossible to achieve, at least in the short run. It's highly likely that the world would blow right past the 1.5-degree target due to emissions-to-date and likely future emissions. It's possible, though, that after that threshold is exceeded, temperatures could gradually be brought back down, though that too is not yet clear.
To get a sense of how close we already are to 1.5 degrees of warming, consider that already, 2015 will mark the first year in which global temperatures will have warmed by 1-degree Celsius above preindustrial temperatures.
See also: Why COP21 matters: These islands will disappear if nothing changes
To meet such a target, the global community would have to immediately begin to phase out the use of all fossil fuels, getting to near zero emissions by the year 2030, with negative emissions — meaning that more planet-warming carbon is absorbed by forests and trees than is emitted by burning fossil fuels — to follow within a few short decades after that.
That is far more ambitious than any country currently has planned, including the Obama administration, which is seeking to cut emissions to as much as 28% below 2005 levels by 2025, mainly through EPA regulations. And the world's leading emitter, China, has pledged to peak its emissions — not cut them in absolute terms — by the year 2030.
In fact, the emissions pledges that will be enshrined in any Paris agreement that emerges from these talks actually allow for a net increase in emissions through the year 2030, with no planned reductions spelled out beyond that.
Because 1.5C is "possible" if emissions are rapidly zeroed, it's a question about turnover of energy infrastructure. https://t.co/NXsD9sTHlO
— David Lea (@DavidWLea) December 10, 2015
According to #UNEP data: shift from 2°C to 1.5°C increases the #EmissionGap by 89% from 9Gt to 17Gt #COP21 pic.twitter.com/00VqUoabRS
— Felix Schenuit (@fschenuit) December 10, 2015
The drumbeat for a 1.5-degree target began with small island nations like the Marshall Islands and Tuvalu. These countries say they will sink under rising seas if warming proceeds above that threshold, and warn of the consequences of 2 degrees of warming.
Barbados Environment Minister Denis Lowe said a target of 2 degrees Celsius, which as of Thursday morning was still an option in the draft text, is "not acceptable."
"We won’t sign off on any agreement that represents a certain extinction of our people,” he said, referring to the threat sea level rise poses to low-lying island countries.
While island nations were expected to push for a 1.5-degree target, one of the biggest surprises of the talks so far has been the traction that this target has picked up from countries that are in a very different position than low-lying, small island nations.
The U.S., Canada, Germany and other industrialized nations have backed a goal of holding global warming below 2 degrees Celsius.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry (R) walks with White House senior advisor Brian Deese (L) and US Special Envoy for Climate Change Todd Stern (C) to attend a meeting with French Foreign Minister during the COP 21 United Nations conference on climate change at Le Bourget, on the outskirts of Paris, on December 10, 2015.
Image: Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images
Glen Peters, a senior researcher at Norway's Center for International Climate and Environmental Research (CICERO), said that using figures from the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in Oslo, if emissions remain roughly at present-day levels, the remaining quota of emissions that would propel the climate past the 1.5-degree threshold would be burned by 2020.
Peters told Mashable that nations' reduction pledges, known as Intended Nationally Determined Contributions, or INDCs, around 1% per year growth in emissions would take place through 2030.
Based on the INDCs, the world is in for around 3 degrees Celsius, or 5.4 degrees Fahrenheit, of warming through 2100.
The 1.5C window (66%)
At current CO2 rates, enough emitted by 2020
With LUC uncertainty, already too late
#COP21 pic.twitter.com/DCYcmj4haN
— Glen Peters (@Peters_Glen) December 9, 2015
He said you would need a "monumental transformation" of the global economy to happen quickly in order for the more ambitious target to be reached.
To stabilize the climate at a certain amount of warming, Peters said, “you have to have zero emissions, it’s the cumulative emissions that matter," not the emissions of a single year or two, since molecules of carbon dioxide can remain in the air for up to a thousand years.
Recent data from a group of researchers including Peters found that emissions growth slowed or reversed slightly in 2014, but it did not show that the world has definitively turned the corner on solving global warming.
“Emissions must go to zero or close to it,” Peters said. “Hopefully we’re in a period of lower growth… but still we’re expecting the [emissions] growth to continue.”
If the target can't be reached, then what's the point?
Enshrining what is effectively an impossible goal in international law might seem like a rather pointless exercise. However, the high ambition in such an agreement could send a powerful signal to the world's markets that countries intend to move away from fossil fuels and toward clean energy, thereby boosting the clean tech sector.
In addition, the gap between the rhetoric of this agreement, assuming that an agreement is reached in the end, and the commitments contained within it could be a boon to climate activists.
"We have a 1.5-degree target in a 3-degree agreement,” Bill McKibben, co-founder of 350.org, told Mashable in an interview.
He said the conflict between the draft agreement's aspirations and it's actual provisions is “like announcing that you’re giving up smoking, except that you’re also stopping by the Costco on the way home to get 70 cartons. "
"There’s no squaring it," he said. "I mean, it’s a good thing to have the ambition, but if you have an ambition without a plan to get there... There’s something mildly juvenile about that.”
He said 350.org and other groups will use the goal to put pressure on governments and companies to scale up their levels of ambition too.
“It’s very useful in that we will, trust me, use it as a bludgeon and a lever from this point forward," McKibben said. "They will be reminded often of their rhetorical commitment to a 1.5-degree world.”
Topics: Climate, U.S., World
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Fall 2018 Sports Recap
by JOHN JACKSON, Sports Editor Basketball Both teams kicked off their seasons with a Draddy Gymnasium double-header on Nov. 6. The women’s team took down LIU Brooklyn 61-46 while the men fell 62-56 to Elon. Since then, the women have been on a [...]
Cross Country Teams Looking To Pick Up Where They Left Off Last Season
by John Jackson Sports Editor The Manhattan College men’s and women’s cross country teams performed extremely well last season and are looking to pick up where they left off this season as well. The 2017 season saw the men finish first of five [...]
Summer Break Sports Recap: New Coaches, Alumni Success and More
by JOHN JACKSON, Sports Editor A lot has happened around Manhattan College athletics since the Jaspers finished their finals to conclude the spring 2018 semester. Over the past few months, there have been teams that finished their 2018 seasons, [...]
Freshman Gabby Fanning Takes on Jaspers Cross Country
By Alexa Schmidt, Staff Writer Freshman Gabby Fanning is a biology major, who is a also a member of the cross country team. Originally from from Cornwall, N.Y., Gabby seeks to succeed as a student-athlete. Although she may be injured at the moment, [...]
Eating Healthy While Training All Year?: How Lisa Fajardo Does It!
By RikkiLynn Shields, Editor Sophomore Lisa Fajardo of the Women’s Cross Country and Track and Field team plays a key roll in the success of the team, along with many of the other talented jaspers. Fajardo placed 15th overall at ECAC’s this [...]
Gallagher Linked to Olympic Gold Medalist Centrowitz Jr.
By RikkiLynn Shields, Asst. Editor Kerri Gallagher, Manhattan College’s new cross country head coach has a long list of achievements and experiences. A professional runner herself, Gallagher came close to qualifying for the 2016 Olympics. Had she [...]
Professional Runner Kerri Gallagher Becomes Head Coach of the Men’s and Women’s Cross Country Teams
By John Jackson, Staff Writer At the end of the Spring 2016 semester, Manhattan College’s Athletic Department had a task of finding a new head coach for its men’s and women’s cross country team, including both the middle distance and distance [...]
Women’s Winter Break Recap
The Jaspers completed an eight-game home stand over winter break, the longest in team history. Photo by Kevin Fuhrmann While most college students stayed home over the winter break, many athletes remained on campus for practices and games. Draddy [...]
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Archives For United States
AGOA – a Poisoned Chalice?
“Is the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) always a poisoned chalice from the United States of America?”, asks an editorial in The East African. The Kenya newspaper suggests it appeared to be so after the US allowed a petition that could see Tanzania, Uganda and Rwanda lose their unlimited opening to its market.
This follows the US Trade Representative assenting last week to an appeal by Secondary Materials and Recycled Textiles Association, a used clothes lobby, for a review of the three countries’ duty-free, quota-free access to the country for their resolve to ban importation of used clothes, the The East African continues.
The US just happens to be the biggest source of used clothes sold in the world. Some of the clothes are recycled in countries like Canada and Thailand before being shipped to markets mostly in the developing world.
In East Africa, up to $125 million is spent on used clothes annually, a fifth of them imported directly from the US and the bulk from trans-shippers including Canada, India, the UAE, Pakistan, Honduras and Mexico.
The East Africa imports account for 22 percent of used clothes sold in Africa. Suspending the three countries from the 2000 trade affirmation would leave them short of $230 million in foreign exchange that they earn from exports to the US.
That would worsen the trade balance, which is already $80 million in favour of the US. In trade disputes, numbers do not tell the whole story. Agoa now appears to have been caught up in the nationalism sweeping across the developed world and Trumponomics.
US lobbies have been pushing for tough conditions to be imposed since it was enacted, including the third country rule of origin which would require that apparel exports be made from local fabric.
The rule, targeted at curbing China’s indirect benefits from Agoa through fabric sales, comes up for a legislative review in 2025, making it prudent for African countries to prepare for the worst. Whether that comes through a ban or phasing out of secondhand clothing (the wording that saved Kenya from being listed for a review) is immaterial.
What is imperative is that African countries have to be resolute in promoting domestic industries. In textiles and leather, for instance, that effort should include on-farm incentives for increasing cotton, hides and skins output, concessions for investments in value-adding plants like ginneries and tanneries and market outlets for local textile and shoe companies.
The world over, domestic markets provide the initial motivation for production before investors venture farther afield. Import bans come in handy when faced with such low costs of production in other countries that heavy taxation still leaves those products cheaper than those of competitors in the receiving countries.
The US has also been opposed to heavy taxation of used clothes, which buyers say are of better quality and more durable. For Kenya to be kept out of the review, it had to agree to reduce taxes on used apparel.
These factors have left Agoa beneficiaries in a no-win situation: Damned if you ban, damned if you do not. With their backs to the wall, beneficiaries like Tanzania, Uganda and Rwanda have to think long term in choosing their industrial policies and calling the US bluff.
Beneficiaries must speak with one voice to effectively guard against trade conditions that over time hamper domestic industrial growth. Source: The East African, Picture: US GAO
In Africa, AGOA, Cross Border Trade, Economic development, Kenya, Regional Integration Africa, AGOA, apparel, East Africa, Kenya, Rwanda, secondhand clothing, Tanzania, Uganda, United States
“The Wall” – USCBP extends notices for expression of interest
April 8, 2017 — Leave a comment
The notices detailing President Donald Trump’s promise to build a “big, attractive wall” were made public late Friday (3 April 2017) by Customs and Border Protection. The request from the Customs and Border Protection Department called for a 30-ft-high wall, but said that plans to build a wall minimum 18 ft in height may be acceptable.
“The north side of wall (i.e. USA facing side) shall be aesthetically pleasing in color, anti-climb texture, etc., to be consistent with general surrounding environment”, reads the RFP. In the documents, CBP says that the side facing the US must also be “aesthetically pleasing” in “color, anti-climb texture etc., to be consistent with general surrounding environment”.
And that’s before a new Trump budget, which came out Thursday, includes $2.6 billion over two years to begin construction of the wall. The government is asking for a 9-meter-high concrete barrier, extending 2 meters underground, built to be “physically imposing” and capable of resisting nearly any attack, “by sledgehammer, vehicle jack, pickaxe, chisel, battery-operated impact tools, battery-operated cutting tools [or] oxy/acetylene torch”.
Earlier this week Mexican lawmakers increased pressure on Mexican construction firms tempted to help build deeply reviled wall.
The proposal document asks contractors for 30-foot-long prototypes and mock-ups of 10 feet by 10 feet. Although Trump made it a centerpiece of his presidential campaign to get the Mexican government tol pay for the wall, expectations are low that the U.S.’s southern neighbor will give money while it’s being built or afterwards.
The specifications leave almost all of the design work to interested bidders, who now have about two weeks to develop and submit their plans, known as proposals. Trump called for the wall to stop illegal immigration into the United States from Mexico and to cut off drug-smuggling routes.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky) said in January that the wall would cost between $12 billion and $15 billion, though other estimates have put the price tag as high $25 billion.
There was some misplaced optimism that Donald Trump would immediately jettison all of his inane campaign promises upon taking office; that the threat of a wall at the Mexican border would be quietly tabled for its obvious insanity.
Proponents of a wall make two questionable assumptions: First, that there will be a continued north flow of refugees. Friday’s release did not address the overall cost of the wall. The city of Berkeley, California, said last week it would refuse to do business with any company that’s part of the border wall. The cost of about 1,000 miles of wall could cost $21.6 billion between now and 2020. Published on Aliveforfootbal website
In Border Control, CBP, Cross Border Trade, Customs, Homeland Security, Illicit Goods, narcotics, USCBP border protection, illegal migration, Mexico, smuggling, The Wall, United States, US-Mexico wall, USCBP
US will not delay weighing rule
The US Coast Guard has told American shippers that it will not delay implementation of the SOLAS Chapter VI amendment requiring containers to have a verified gross mass before they can be shipped.
The US Agriculture Transportation Coalition (AgTC), representing most of the country’s agricultural and forestry products exporters and thus accounting for a huge slice of US shipping exports, argued that confusion over the VGM could lead to business being lost and threatened supply chain turmoil.
It called for a one-year delay in implementation of the new rules, due to take effect on 1st July, to allow time for government and industry to work together to solve the problems. AgTC cited SOLAS Article VIII(b)(vii)(2), which allows for a Competent Authority [in this case the USCG] to give notice to the IMO of an intention to delay implementation of any SOLAS regulation for up to one year at any point before the entry into force.
However, at a special public meeting convened on 18th February at the offices of the Federal Maritime Commission in Washington, DC, Rear Admiral Paul Thomas, the USCG’s Assistant Commandant for Prevention Policy, said a delay to implementation would not be entertained.
Thomas pointed out that that the VGM is not a US regulation or law, but arises out of international agreement within IMO. As such it will be enforced by flag states, where ships are registered, and any signal that the US was unready or unwilling to comply with the new rule would be interpreted by flag state authorities to mean that loading US export containers on their ships is unsafe. He added that most US exports are carried on foreign flag ships.
This should be the end of the matter. However, the IMO mechanisms allow the US (or any other IMO member-state) to give notice any time up to 30th June. The US could also introduce an “AOB” paper at the next IMO MSC meeting scheduled for May.
At the meeting last week, shippers were reassured that if they used “Method 2” (VGM by calculation), they are legally entitled to rely on the container’s CSC plate as providing an accurate empty tare weight. Source: World Cargo News
In Cargo Reporting, Cargo screening, Container Security, container weighing, Containerization, International Shipping, Logistics, Manifests, shipping container container, IMO, SOLAS Chapter VI, United States, verified gross mass, VGM
DHS Achieves Trusted Traveler Program Milestones
August 27, 2014 — Leave a comment
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security recently achieved two major milestones for its trusted traveler programs. The Transportation Security Administration Pre✓ application program, which began in December 2013, has now enrolled more than half a million travelers.
Additionally, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has enrolled more than three million users in their trusted traveler programs: Global Entry, NEXUS and SENTRI. Together, all of these DHS trusted traveler programs provide an improved passenger experience, while enhancing security and increasing system-wide efficiencies.
TSA Pre✓ allows low-risk travelers to experience faster, more efficient screening at 118 U.S. airports nationwide currently. TSA Pre✓ is an expedited screening program that allows pre-approved airline travelers to leave on their shoes, light outerwear and belt, keep their laptop in its case and their 3-1-1 compliant liquids/gels bag in a carry-on in select screening lanes.
The TSA Pre✓ application program allows U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents to directly enroll in TSA Pre✓. Once approved, travelers will receive a “Known Traveler Number” and will have the opportunity to utilize TSA Pre✓ lanes at select security checkpoints when flying on a participating carrier: Air Canada, Alaska Airlines, American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Hawaiian Airlines, JetBlue Airways, Southwest Airlines, Sun Country Airlines, United Airlines, US Airways and Virgin America.
Upon arrival in the United States from abroad, Global Entry members are able to bypass the traditional CBP inspection lines and use an automated kiosk. With more than 70,000 new applicants each month, travelers enrolled in this program can scan their passport and fingerprints, answer the customs declaration questions using the kiosk’s touch screen and proceed with a receipt — the whole process only takes about one minute. Launched in 2008, as a pilot program, Global Entry is now a permanent program and has 51 locations in the U.S. and at CBP Preclearance stations in Canada. These locations serve 99 percent of incoming travelers to the United States. Source: dhs.gov
In Homeland Security, Passenger processing airports, Department of Homeland Security, DHS, Global Entry, Known Traveler Number, NEXUS, passenger processing, passport, SENTRI, Transportation Security Administration, trusted traveler, TSA Pre✓, United States
US Customs launches new Passenger Control App
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) today announced the launch of the first authorized app to expedite a traveler’s entry process into the United States. Mobile Passport Control (MPC) will allow eligible travelers to submit their passport information and customs declaration form via a smartphone or tablet prior to CBP inspection. This first-of-its-kind app was developed by Airside Mobile and Airports Council International-North America (ACI-NA) in partnership with CBP as part of a pilot program at the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport. IPhone and iPad users can download the app for free from Apple’s App Store.
Eligible travelers arriving at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport will be able to use the app beginning Aug. 13. MPC is expected to expand to more airports later this year and to Android smartphone users in the future.
“CBP continues to transform the international arrivals experience for travelers by offering new and innovative ways to expedite entry into the United States, while maintaining the highest standards of security” said CBP Commissioner R. Gil Kerlikowske. “By offering this app to passengers, we hope to build upon the success we have already experienced with Automated Passport Control, which has resulted in decreases in wait times as much as 25-40 percent, even with continued growth in international arrivals.”
MPC currently offers U.S. citizens and Canadian visitors a more efficient and secure in-person inspection between the CBP officer and the traveler upon arrival in the United States. Much like Automated Passport Control, the app does not require pre-approval, is free-to-use and does not collect any new information on travelers. As a result, travelers will experience shorter wait times, less congestion and faster processing.
“Mobile Passport exemplifies the forward-thinking commitment CBP and airports have to improving the passenger experience when entering the United States,” said ACI-NA President and CEO Kevin M. Burke. “This partnership between CBP and ACI-NA also represents an outstanding example of industry and government working together to find smart, cost-effective solutions. We look forward to continuing our collaboration with CBP as Mobile Passport begins its roll-out at U.S. airports later this year.”
There are five easy steps to MPC:
Download the Mobile Passport Control App from the Apple App Store prior to arriving
Create a profile with your passport information
Complete the “New Trip” section upon arrival in the United States
Submit your customs declaration form through the app to receive an electronic receipt with an Encrypted Quick Response (QR) code. This receipt will expire four hours after being issued
Bring your passport and smartphone or tablet with your digital bar-coded receipt to a CBP officer
ACI-NA contracted with Airside Mobile in MPC’s technical development. Information about Mobile Passport, including how to download, user eligibility and other frequently asked questions, is available on the Travel section of the CBP.gov website and the Airside Mobile website.
MPC is just one part of CBP’s resource optimization strategy which is transforming the way CBP does business in land, air and sea environments. As part of its commitment to innovation, CBP last year rolled out Automated Passport Control, which is now available in 22 locations, and automated the I-94 form. CBP has also enrolled more than two million travelers in trusted traveler programs such as Global Entry, NEXUS and SENTRI. These programs allow CBP officers to process travelers safely and efficiently while enhancing security and reducing operational costs. Source: USCBP
In Border Control, Border Management Agency, Passenger processing, USCBP Automated Passport Control, Mobile Passport Control, tourists, travellers, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, United States
Swaziland Loses U.S. Trade Benefits
June 30, 2014 — Leave a comment
Swaziland has lost its preferential trading status with the United States. US President Barack Obama announced (26 June 2014) that the kingdom would lose its benefits under the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA).
He said this was because Swaziland was not ‘making continual progress’ in enacting civil, political and workers’ rights.
Swaziland is not a democracy and is ruled by King Mswati III, who is sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch.
The decision to withdraw Swaziland’s AGOA eligibility comes after years of engaging with the Government of the Kingdom of Swaziland on concerns about its implementation of the AGOA eligibility criteria related to worker rights. The statement said after an ‘extensive review’ the US, ‘concluded that Swaziland had not demonstrated progress on the protection of internationally recognized worker rights.
In particular, Swaziland has failed to make continual progress in protecting freedom of association and the right to organize. Of particular concern is Swaziland’s use of security forces and arbitrary arrests to stifle peaceful demonstrations, and the lack of legal recognition for labor and employer federations.
AGOA is a US preferential trade programme that provides duty-free access to the $3 trillion US market for thousands of products from eligible sub-Saharan African countries.
Media in Swaziland have predicted that as many as 20,000 jobs in the kingdom’s textile industry could be lost as a result of the withdrawal of AGOA benefits that comes into force on 1 January 2015. The textile industry in Swaziland is dominated by Taiwanese companies which were drawn to the kingdom by the availability of cheap labour and the AGOA agreement. Source: Swazi Media Commentary
In AGOA, SACU African Growth and Opportunity Act, AGOA, King Mswati III, preferential trading status, Swaziland, textile industry, United States
The Scary New Technology of Iris Scanners
November 30, 2013 — Leave a comment
Picture: Ben Mortimer
The technology of ‘Minority Report‘ is closer than you think, according to Russell Brandom writing in www.theverge.com. A company called AOptix recently unveiled its latest creation, pitched as a game-changer in the world of iris recognition. In less grandiose terms, it’s basically an iPhone case for cops, providing military-grade biometric scanning on the move. The AOptix shell is built to provide everything an officer needs to process a suspect on the spot. There’s a fingerprint scanner on the back, the capacity for facial recognition, and the new guest at the party: an iris scanner. The camera’s a little tricky — you have to hold it a little less than a foot away, and keep it steady for a few seconds — but otherwise, using the Stratus is like taking pictures with a heavier, clunkier iPhone. Crucially, it’s small enough to hold with just one hand, so the officer using it can still reach for his gun.
The Stratus has only been on the market a few weeks, but AOptix is already pitching it for use at border crossings and in airport security. The US Department of Defense is interested too, and provided a $3 million grant for AOptix to develop the tech further. Once it’s normalized, scanning your iris could become as routine as swiping a credit card. “We really feel it’s going to be an inflection point in the biometrics industry,” AOptix marketing director Joey Pritikin told The Verge. “We can do business, we can conduct health care, we can go to disaster areas. This will really open up new markets.” After years of lurking in the margins, AOptix thinks iris scanning is ready for the big time.
Outside of the West, it’s already there. Hundreds of millions of Indians have already been iris-printed, along with thousands of Iraqi civilians and anyone who goes through customs regularly in Dubai. It’s the gold standard of a modern ID program, easier than fingerprinting and more stable than facial recognition. All you have to do is look at the camera and open your eyes. And unlike in retinal scans, the scanner doesn’t need to be up close. It’s just a photograph, taken in infrared, which in theory could work if taken from across the room.
If this sounds familiar, it’s probably because you saw something like it in Minority Report, where omnipresent eye-flashers identify everyone who walks through a public plaza, targeting ads at them and feeding the police information about their every move. Even Pritikin acknowledges the precedent, saying, “Tom Cruise did not do us any favors.” But within the industry, the product is less exotic, just the latest and best solution to the persistent problem of quick, reliable identification. What does the world look like when proving ID is as easy as taking a photograph? Like it or not, we’re about to find out.
Iris Scanner (Picture: Ben Mortimer)
If you find yourself flying into Dubai, you can see it in action. The city’s airport recently made the switch to an automated two-gate customs system, also made by AOptix. Scanning your passport opens the first gate; an iris print opens the second. Once the system is fully deployed, the company says it will bring wait times down from 49 minutes to 22 seconds. A private company called Clear is already trying this on an opt-in basis in the US. In exchange for a quick iris scan, their service will let you skip security in half a dozen American airports.
The bargain is simple enough: In exchange for one more biometric, you get to skip an hour in customs, or the indignity of a TSA checkpoint search. And as an ID technology, it simply works better. It’s less invasive, harder to fake (although still possible), and more effective at everything we want ID tech to be good at. Of course, that same effectiveness makes a Minority Report future all the more plausible.
For countries with national ID programs, this Orwellian scenario is already starting to play out. In collaboration with MorphoTrust, India has already iris-printed 350 million of its citizens as part of its national ID program, and they’re on track to scan all 1.2 billion. This year, Mexico will roll out the first iris-matched ID cards in the world as part of a $25 million program. In both cases, the ID will help stop fraud and provide poverty assistance, helping solve half a dozen urgent humanitarian issues at once. Despite these good intentions, this kind of mass identification has civil libertarians very worried.
“The concern is that biometrics will be used for the mass tracking of individuals,” according to Jay Stanley of the American Civil Liberties Union. “If that kind of ID system becomes routine and widespread, it turns us into a kind of checkpoint society.” Even in India, the system is still only used at police stations and government offices, but once the print is connected to a universal ID, it’s easy to imagine iris scans becoming as commonplace as pulling out a driver’s license.
For now, we’re left with less invasive devices like the Stratus, an iris camera aimed squarely at US law enforcement. The FBI is already building an iris system to track persons of interest, and it’s not hard to see them using a Stratus-like device to collect prints. Iris cameras haven’t landed in the hands of beat cops yet, but AOptix is trying its best to get them there. The path of the technology, from the military to local law enforcement, is almost complete. The only question is what it will look like when it gets here. Source: http://www.theverge.com
Biometrics researchers see world without passwords (cnsnews.com)
In Customs, Non-Intrusive Inspection Airport, American Civil Liberties Union, Biometrics, border security, Customs, Fingerprint recognition, Identity document, immigration, iPhone, Iris recognition, less-invasive screening, Security, United States
CBP Agrees to Update Risk Assessments at Foreign Ports
October 8, 2013 — Leave a comment
US Customs CSI Inspection in the Port of Durban, South Africa
Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has not assessed risks at select foreign ports with U.S.-bound shipments since 2005, part of a string of failures that has left key ports without a CBP presence, the Government Accountability Office says. (Hmm, never mind the impact caused to Customs administration in the host countries……)
In examining CBP’s Container Security Initiative program, GAO found that the agency developed a model for ranking additional seaports according to risk in 2009, but never implemented it because of budget cuts, according to the report.
GAO applied that risk model to 2012 cargo shipment data and found that the CSI program had no presence at about half the ports CSP found high risk. Meanwhile, 20 percent of existing CSI program ports were at lower-risk locations, according to the findings (.pdf).
Although GAO acknowledged host countries are not always willing to accommodate a CSI presence, and that removal of a CSI presence can negatively affect diplomatic relations, auditors said periodic assessments of cargo shipped from foreign ports could help CBP better guard against terror-related shipments.
Although there have been no known incidents of cargo containers being used to transport WMD, the maritime supply chain remains vulnerable to attacks. We recognize that it may not be possible to include all of the higher-risk ports in CSI because CSI requires the cooperation of sovereign foreign governments.
To better ensure the effectiveness of the CSI program, GAO recommends that the Secretary of Homeland Security direct the Commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection to periodically assess the supply chain security risks from all foreign ports that ship cargo to the United States and use the results of these risk assessments to (1) inform any future expansion of CSI to additional locations and (2) determine whether changes need to be made to existing CSI ports and make adjustments as appropriate and feasible.
Such assessments “would help ensure that CBP is allocating its resources to provide the greatest possible coverage of high-risk cargo to best mitigate the risk of importing weapons of mass destruction or other terrorist contraband into the United States through the maritime supply chain,” GAO said.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) concurred with the recommendation and said CBP would complete its first assessment by Aug. 12, 2014. To access or download the GAO Report on CSI, Click Here! Source: US Government Accounting Office
Foreign Ports That CBP Coordinates with Regarding Maritime Container Shipment Examinations, as of July 2013 (Table: GAO)
Border Patrol Agents Pay May be Affected During Government Shutdown (tucsonweekly.com)
In Container Security, Container Security Initiative, Customs, Risk Management, Supply Chain Security, USCBP Container Security Initiative, CSI, Department of Homeland Security, diplomatic relations, GAO, Government Accountability Office, Risk assessment, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, United States, United States Department of Homeland Security, USCBP
CBP personnel in Sault Ste Marie take a moment to recognize the fallen on 9/11 at the International Bridge. (Picture: US Customs & Border Protection)
9/11 – The Significance for Customs
In 9/11 New York City, September 11 attacks, United States, World Trade Center
Big Brother is here and his name is PRISM
Picture credit – Gizmag.com
First came news from The Guardian that the NSA was collecting phone records from millions of Verizon customers under a top-secret government order: “The National Security Agency is currently collecting the telephone records of millions of US customers of Verizon, one of America’s largest telecoms providers, under a top-secret court order issued in April.
The order, a copy of which has been obtained by the Guardian, requires Verizon on an “ongoing, daily basis” to give the NSA information on all telephone calls in its systems, both within the US and between the US and other countries.”
Then, in the last few hours, more layers were peeled back by The Washington Post: “The National Security Agency and the FBI are tapping directly into the central servers of nine leading U.S. Internet companies, extracting audio and video chats, photographs, e-mails, documents, and connection logs that enable analysts to track one target or trace a whole network of associates, according to a top-secret document obtained by The Washington Post.”
The story continues to list the companies who allegedly gave the US government unfettered access to customer data (emphasis is ours): “Equally unusual is the way the NSA extracts what it wants, according to the document: ‘Collection directly from the servers of these U.S. Service Providers: Microsoft, Yahoo, Google, Facebook, PalTalk, AOL, Skype, YouTube, Apple.”
According to a series of alleged PowerPoint slides obtained by The Washington Post, Microsoft was the first to join the program, in September of 2007. The most recent addition was Apple, in October of 2012. Dropbox is reportedly “coming soon.”
Interestingly, most of the companies named are responding to requests for comment by flat-out denying awareness or involvement. According to The Next Web, Facebook, Apple, Google, Microsoft, Dropbox and Yahoo have all denied participation. PRISM reportedly began collecting data in 2007, which means it was introduced under President Bush. However, The Washington Post says the program has experienced “exponential growth” under the Obama administration.
Video: The U.S. goverment is accessing top Internet companies’ servers to track foreign targets. Reporter Barton Gellman talks about the source who revealed this top-secret information and how he believes his whistleblowing was worth whatever consequences are ahead.
The slides reveal an annual budget of US$20 million for the program with data monitored by the program including e-mails, instant messages, videos, photos, stored data (presumably in the cloud), voice chats, file transfers, video conferences, log-in times, and social network profile details. Although the program is supposedly aimed at surveillance of foreign targets, such as spies and terrorists, and is intended to take advantage of the fact that most of the world’s data flows through the US, it is inevitable that data of US citizens is caught up in the mix. The NSA Powerpoint slides describe this as “incidental.”
It shouldn’t be too shocking that the US government spies on its citizens. What may be more surprising is just how far-reaching, and possibly unconstitutional, this program is. Perhaps the most significant part will be the fallout now that the secrets are out in the open.
Recent developments concerning customs data exchange via “cloud-type” mediums will therefore come under more scrutiny given current revelations in the US. It serves little purpose for countries to agree on data confidentiality and unwittingly (?) make such data available for ‘harvesting’ via third-party technology providers. Let this come as a fore-warning to governments.
Sources: The Guardian, The Washington Post, The Next Web, and Gizmag.
What Is PRISM? (gizmodo.co.uk)
US records monitoring ignites debate (news24.com)
Documents: U.S. mining data from 9 leading Internet firms; companies deny knowledge (washingtonpost.com)
In Information Exchange, Information Technology, IT Inter Connectivity Apple, Big Brother, cloud-computing, Customs data exchange, Google, Guardian, National Security Agency, PalTalk, United States, Washington Post, YouTube
What’s In Store for ACE?
Last week, the National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America, Inc. (NCBFAA) hosted a conference in Baltimore, MD targeting software developers interested in obtaining more information about US Customs and Border Protection’s (CBP’s) Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) and upcoming technical changes related to the PGA Message Set, Entry Summary Edits, Automated Corrections/Cancellations and AES Re-Engineering/Manifest Baseline development. During the conference, CBP made two important announcements which were heard and noted first hand from an Integration Point representative. These two announcements included:
CBP announced that it plans to mandate the use of manifest and cargo release in ACE by December 31, 2015 and mandate the use of ACE by December 31, 2016. CBP also provided a tentative release schedule for seven deployments that will lead up to this mandate. Each deployment will consist of one or two increments, and each increment will span over a period of twelve to thirteen weeks. On this road map, CBP announced some exciting functionalities to be released in the near future such as automated cancellation and/or correction of entries, integration of simplified entry with other modes of transport and certifying simplified entry through summary. In addition to the enhanced simplified entry process, CBP also gradually plans to include the validations that were not initially included in ACE entry summaries.
CBP is also working on the reengineering of AES and pilot programs of entry data collection for various Participating Government Agencies such as the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and US Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) and CBP plans to deploy this later on in 2013 and early in 2014.
Now there is relevance in all of this. It reinforces the growing importance of Customs’ focus on “cargo management”. Far too much emphasis is placed on the goods declaration alone. This is not only short-sighted but demonstrates an ignorance of the global supply chain. Without the ‘cargo report’ (manifest) the goods declaration is little more than a testament of what is purported to have been imported and exported.
CBP Goes Paperless: The New Electronic I-94 and What it Means for Travelers (vbimmigration.wordpress.com)
In Cargo carrier, Cargo Reporting, CBP, Customs, Information Technology, International Shipping, Manifests, Supply Chain Security, USCBP ACE, AES, Automated Commercial Environment, Cargo Manifest, CBP, entry summary declaration, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, United States
Mozambique Could Drive the Need for 35 More LNG Carriers
May 1, 2013 — Leave a comment
Image credit: Nakilat
With soaring energy costs, Japan appears to have a pretty uniform goal, to invest as much as possible in other sources of energy and energy supply chains around the world. Many others like Qatar and Saudi Arabia are following suit and hedging themselves for what is turning out to be a reversal of their business model. Even the Louisiana Offshore Oil Port, which connects the world’s largest oil tankers with over half of the United States’ refining capacity is readjusting its business model for the changing flow of energy. With the eventual opening of the Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) flood gates from the US however, coupled with Free Trade Agreements to places such as Japan, American energy firms and tax payers stand to cash in on the huge price gap that exists between the price of gas in the U.S. versus that which exists overseas.
At the moment, there’s a fairly good balance between supply and demand when it comes to the supply of ships and the demand for LNG product to be carried. Qatar, for example, uses 54 LNG carriers to transport their 77 million metric tons per year of LNG. Qatar also has a 70% stake in the Golden Pass LNG terminal in Texas. Additional exports from the US Gulf Coast will directly equal increased demand for more LNG carriers.
While regulators in the US trudge through the LNG export approval process, energy firms like Anadarko charge ahead with an ambitious LNG agenda offshore Mozambique in a field which was recently found to have at least 65 trillion cubic feet of recoverable reserves. Places like Mozambique, and offshore Israel, have the potential to really change the LNG marketplace given the sheer size of their fields and their proximity to the Asian and European markets respectively.
In Mozambique, two 5 million metric tons per annum (mtpa) LNG trains are currently under construction to support the huge conventional gas finds located 25 miles offshore. Their partners on the project include Mozambiquan state oil company, Empresa Nacional de Hidrocarbonetos, E.P., India’s state-owned Bharat PetroResources Ltd, Indian private equity firm Videocon Hydrocarbon Holdings, Ltd, Thailand’s PTT Exploration & Production, and Mitsui & Co. Considering the partners involved, their target market will predominantly be India and Japan. First LNG production is planned for 2018 and their plans are to eventually ramp up production to 50 million mtpa, or 2/3rds of the current production of Qatar.
What does that mean for LNG shipping? A lot more ships. To handle 50 million mtpa, upwards of 35 LNG carriers may be needed for transportation if you compare the ratio between Qatar’s fleet size and their total LNG exports. Source: gcaptain.com
Natural gas industry experiencing ‘paradigm shift’ (fuelfix.com)
In International Shipping, International Trade India, Japan, Liquefied Natural Gas, LNG, Louisiana Offshore Oil Port, Mozambique, Qatar, United States
US C-TPAT member exports to receive expedited EU customs clearance
January, 2013 saw the United States and the European Union implemented the mutual recognition arrangement for their respective supply chain security programmes. The US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) administers the Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism (C-TPAT), which is now recognised as equivalent to the European Union’s Authorised Economic Operator (AEO) programme.
Should they elect to allow CBP to share certain information with the European Union, US importers authorised under C-TPAT will be considered secure and their exports will receive a lower-risk score by the customs administrations of EU member states. In practice, certification translates into time and money savings for parties dealing with trusted operators. In that sense, certified operators are successfully marketing their status as a distinguishing competitive advantage.
Both programmes are voluntary, security-based programmes aimed at improving supply chain security. As programme members, importers receive lower risk-assessment scores in customs administrations’ computer targeting software. Therefore, members are subject to fewer security-related inspections and controls. The mutual recognition arrangement between the United States and the European Union allows for members of one programme to receive reciprocal benefits when exporting to the other jurisdiction.
However, not all C-TPAT members qualify for full AEO benefits. Only Tiers 2 and 3 C-TPAT importers (considered as more secure) may receive a lower risk-assessment score, and consequently undergo fewer inspections when exporting to an EU member state. In addition, in order to receive these benefits, C-TPAT members must expressly elect for the United States to share certain information with the European Union and certify that their exports meet all applicable requirements.
The mutual recognition arrangement may also exempt members’ facilities from undergoing validation site visits by both administrations when initially being certified or during revalidation visits. This benefit is available for every tier of C-TPAT membership.
The mutual recognition arrangement applies only to C-TPAT importers which also act as exporters. A C-TPAT manufacturer will benefit from the arrangement only if it also acts as the US exporter. For example, if a US company owns a C-TPAT-certified manufacturer in Mexico that directly ships merchandise to the European Union, those shipments will not benefit from the arrangement.
CBP’s targeting system recognises AEO-certified entities by their manufacturer identification number. Certified manufacturers will receive benefits under the arrangement regardless of whether they are the EU exporter. A certified exporter which is not a manufacturer may obtain a manufacturer identification number to gain from the benefits of mutual recognition. As such, AEO-certified manufacturers and exporters may benefit under the arrangement, but only US exporters are eligible for benefits.
Although the United States and the European Union have recently announced the possibility of a US-EU free trade agreement, this arrangement is a trade facilitation measure that companies may elect to participate in immediately, regardless of the results of potential free trade agreement negotiations.
The United States also has mutual recognition arrangements for supply chain security with Canada, Japan, Jordan, Korea, New Zealand and Taiwan. Source: Sidley Austin LLP, and The International Law Office
What is an Authorised Economic Operator (AEO)? (mpoverello.com)
In AEO, Authorised Economic Operator, Customs, SAFE Framework, USCBP, WCO AEO, CBP, Custom Trade Partnership Against Terrorism, European Union, Member state of the European Union, Mutual Recognition, reciprocity, Supply chain security, United States, US Customs and Border Protection
Hi-tech shippers switch from air to ocean
Cargo traditionally sent by air is increasingly switching to sea as shippers capitalise on the mode’s lower transport costs – a trend expected to continue over the coming years.
Lloyds List reports that several leading freight forwarders reported in their full-year results that certain cargo types — particularly hi-tech and telecoms — switched from air freight to sea freight last year.
DHL Global Forwarding CEO Roger Crook said the switch was the result of a price difference of 10 times between the two modes of transport. He said: “Obviously many companies are under cost pressure and looking to reduce total supply chain costs. Therefore, they are buying and moving by ocean freight, and particularly it is happening in the technology sector.”
Panalpina chief operating officer Karl Weyeneth said he expected the trend to continue. “There is a maximum shift you can achieve, depending on what industry you are talking about,” he said.
“But I believe that now supply chains are used to working with more ocean freight, this impact will stay for at least a couple of years, until the economy has really recovered, then it will start to shift back again.”
“We really see this as an important factor in our market for the next two to three years.”
Kuehne+Nagel (KN) chief executive Reinhard Lange said the decision on whether cargo was suitable to be switched from air to sea partly came down to the weight of the shipment. He said that if two products had the same market value, but one weighed less than the other, the overall cost impact of flying was less for the lighter cargo because air cargo costs were based on weight. He said this explained why hi-tech products had transferred to ocean freight while lighter products, such as pharmaceuticals, had, in the main, continued to utilise air freight.
The forwarders said the impact of the switch from air to ocean freight was partly to blame for a decline in air freight volumes last year, while container volumes continued to grow. In its full-year results, Panalpina saw air freight volumes decline 6% last year while ocean freight volumes grew by the same amount. Meanwhile, DHL Global Forwarding’s air freight volumes slipped 5.3% in 2012 with ocean freight increasing 4.3%, while KN saw its air freight volumes grow by 2% while ocean freight increased 6% year on year. Source: LloydsList
eAWB – Biggest achievement in standard-setting in air freight in 20 years (mpoverello.com)
Freight companies to pay $18.9 million for price-fixing (mpoverello.com)
In Cargo carrier, Cargo Reporting, Customs, Export, Freight Forwarders, International Shipping, Logistics, Manifests Business, Cargo, Cargo airline, DHL Global Forwarding, Lloyds List, Panalpina, Ship transport, United States
Federal spending cuts will delay box inspections, warns US Customs
March 6, 2013 — Leave a comment
“Uncertain Times” – U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said earlier this week that her department would be slashing 5,000 border-patrol agents when the cuts go through, which would ultimately slow some of the busiest crossings between Canada and the U.S.
Is this a process of auto-destabilisation in the USA? At least terrorists aren’t being blamed for this……will be interesting to see what instructions are fed to CBP (US Customs) Field Operations in foreign countries where the Megaports and CSI initiatives are in operation. Besides being grave times , I’d say these are interesting times…
Lloyds reports that the US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is warning of major delays for incoming containers and other cargo at seaports because of sequestration, but early reports suggest that business is operating normally on arterial waterfronts, at least for now.
In a letter to cargo and travel industry groups after automatic cuts to federal spending, known as sequester cuts or sequestration, went into effect at the weekend, CBP deputy commissioner David Aguilar said the agency faced “furloughs, reductions in overtime and a hiring freeze, [which] would equate to the loss of up to several thousand CBP officers at our ports of entry, in addition to significant cuts to our operating budgets and programmes”.
Describing the current phase as an “uncertain time”, Aguilar warned of major disruption for travellers and cargo.
For the latter, sequestration could result in “decreased service levels in our cargo operations, including increased and potentially escalating delays for container examinations of up to five days or more at major seaports, and significant daily back-ups at land border ports of entry”.
CBP also issued a set of “cargo priorities under sequestration”, which vowed that security would not be compromised, but said that “CBP has redirected resources toward only the most critical, core functions and discontinued or postponed certain important but less critical activities in an effort to reduce budget expenditures”.
The agency said it would hold weekly conference calls to update the industry about the situation.
Shippers and cargo interests agreed that five-day delays could cause major bottlenecks at container ports, and would cost shippers extra money during an already challenging economic time.
The only consolation would be that individual ports or shippers would not have to worry about rival ports siphoning business away, because every US port would be up against the same problem.
The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey reported normal operations and said in a statement that it continued to monitor the situation.
New Jersey governor Chris Christie appeared unimpressed with the threat attributed to sequestration.
“I do not think sequestration at one cent on the dollar is going to have grave effect, or anybody is going to notice it all that much, except for some federal employees who will be furloughed,” He told a press conference.
The sequester cuts $85 billion, or 2.4% of the annual federal budget of $3.6 trillion, to be spread over seven months to September 30.
Roughly half the sum involves defence, and there appears to be discretion in where precisely the cuts are administered.
Nevertheless, the shipping industry is taking the matter seriously. Other than cargo delays, the maritime sector is factoring in reduced maintenance dredging and a degradation of some US Coast Guard functions, including search and rescue, as possible effects of the sequester cuts. Source: LloydsList
Customs Employing Sequester discomforts to instill benefits of automated compliance (seshippingnews.typepad.com)
CBP Issues Sequestration FAQs and Plans (vbimmigration.wordpress.com)
In Customs border delays, CBP, container inspection, CSI, customs delays, David V. Aguilar, Megaports, Sequestration, United States, US Customs and Border Protection
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A Cheerleader’s Rape in a Small Texas Town
5/27/2011 by Caroline Heldman
Caroline Heldman has been covering the rape of teenaged Hillaire S.–a cheerleader in Silsbee, Tx.–for the Ms. Blog since October (see here and here). Her latest report reveals shocking new details of the attack and of the response to the case by the town, the high school and the courts. This is part one of a two-part series.
Maybe it’s the cheer that makes this one rape among hundreds of thousands that occur in the U.S. each year so resonant.
As Rakheem Bolton came to the free throw line during a February 2009 basketball game, the Silsbee High cheerleading squad had a rhyme at the ready: two, four, six, eight, ten, come on Rakheem, put it in.
Four months earlier, cheerleader Hillaire S. had alleged that Bolton had raped her at a house party. And now she was being asked to gleefully urge him to “put it in.” She quietly folded her arms, stepped back from the rest of the squad, and refused.
A few weeks later, she once again found herself asked to cheer when Bolton approached the free-throw line. This time, she knelt down next to her cheerleading coach and remained silent. The coach took her into the gym’s foyer to face the school superintendent and the Silsbee principal. Hillaire says they told her she needed to cheer for everyone. Sobbing, she stood her ground. She was formally removed from the squad the next school day.
The house party took place on an October night in 2008.
Hillaire was exceedingly intoxicated after drinking a beer and multiple shots of vodka. She made out with a guy in the living room and was egged on to kiss a female friend by a group of ogling guys. Rakheem Bolton, then playing for the football team at the school, and his friends arrived late to the party and, seeing an intoxicated and flirtatious Hillaire, isolated her in the house’s pool room. Here’s what she later told the police happened next:
I was suddenly pushed into the pool room and the door was closed behind me and the lights turned off. … I was pulled backwards and someone whispered in my ear ‘just lay down on the floor …’ Hands on my thighs were pushing my legs apart. I felt someone penetrating vaginally. I suddenly realized what was happening and I put my hands on someone and yelled at them to stop. I then said, ‘Seriously, stop it.’’ I then said ‘no!’ I heard someone–I think it was Derek–say something like, ‘Dude she said ‘stop it’ and ‘no.’ [Editor’s note: “Derek” was a minor at the time, so his name has been changed]
Even if Hillaire had not said no, a crime may have been committed anyway. For one thing, the Texas penal code deems it sexual assault when one person uses force and the other is physically unable to resist. In addition, Hillaire may have been too intoxicated to be considered legally able to consent.
This really isn’t a he said/she said story. Two students outside the pool room–Patrick Steed and Richard Garrett –heard Hillaire say “Stop!” Unable to open the locked door, they retrieved Jacob Riley from another room. Riley again heard Hillaire say “stop,” so they broke through the door, only to find that three of the four athletes had fled through the window, breaking it in the process. The one young man who stayed behind told police, “I know I did not do anything so I didn’t run.”
Derek, one of the football players who fled, confirmed Hillaire’s account of the incident. He said that his teammate Christian Rountree “was holding her and was trying to talk her into coming in [to the pool room], so when they went back in I just followed.” At one point, he says, Bolton told the others to leave the room for five minutes. “We act [sic] like we left but we just hid under the pool table.” Then “Rakheem layed [sic] her on the floor and started to have sex and she start [sic] saying ‘stop.’ So Rakheem stopped.”
When the rescuers burst in, they found Hillaire lying partially under the pool table, half-clothed and crying. Said Patrick Steed, “All she had on was her black bra. She rolled over and reached for her clothes that were under the pool table. She was crying and appeared upset.” Garrett added to police, “I believed Hillaire had been raped.”
Stacy Riley, who owned the party house, was watching a movie in her room when the assault took place, and would later be charged with serving alcohol to minors. She heard the commotion and found Hillaire in the pool room. Said Ms. Riley,
[I asked] her again if she was hurt and ask[ed] her if she had been raped. All she would say was ‘yes’ and continued crying. … I began to cry again and said to her, ‘Sweetie, if you were my daughter I would want to know.’
Meanwhile, Garrett and Jacob Riley actually tried to chase down the perpetators, Garrett grabbing a bat and Riley a martial-arts sword. Bolton, who fled without his clothes into the woods, had borrowed a jacket and shorts from his friends and was heading back to demand his own clothes. Jacob confronted Bolton and accused him of rape. According to Stacy Riley, Bolton yelled back,
I didn’t rape no white girl. I wouldn’t use anyone else’s dick to fuck her. I didn’t put my dick up inside her. I don’t know if she has AIDS. I don’t even know that girl.
But Bolton would later nod assent when police asked if his DNA could be found on a condom left at the scene.
Bolton’s parting words to partygoers were: “I didn’t rape anyone, and you better be locked and loaded! I’m going to spray this house !” According to Ms. Riley, “He told my son and I … that we had better not go to sleep, that he was coming back to kill everyone.”
Hillaire didn’t sleep: She spent the early morning hours after the rape at the police station and at a nearby clinic. She had sustained internal injuries and her right thigh showed a full handprint bruise–“a thumb and four fingers,” according to her mother, Christena. Of the four young men in the room, Bolton, 17, and Rountree, 18, both legal adults in Texas, would be arrested and charged with “child sexual assault,” which carries a prison term of two to 20 years. Derek, a minor, was arrested on unknown charges.
How does a young woman go on with life after such a traumatic experience? And how does a community respond to a survivor of such an attack? In this case, the simplest answers are “bravely” to the first question, and “with cowardice” to the second.
Hillaire returned to school a few days after the rape only to face a chilly environment from most of her peers. She says school officials urged her to take a low profile; the cheerleading squad wanted her to skip homecoming because, according to a fellow cheerleader, “Someone from another city had called and threatened her. If she cheered at another game, they were going to shoot her.”
Hillaire went anyway, only to see that some students had painted Bolton’s and Rountree’s jersey numbers on their faces to protest their removal from the football team after their arrests. Students also chanted “Free ‘Tree’” (referring to Rountree) at the homecoming bonfire the next week, within earshot of Hillaire.
Rather than rally around the rape survivor, many fellow students and others in Silsbee blamed Hillaire for what happened that night. Said Sarah [not her real name], a fellow cheerleader,
Right after it happened, most of the school was supportive. But as time went on and we heard more details of what happened, that’s when people started doubting that this happened. … A majority of the school felt this way.
When asked what changed her mind, Sarah described Hillaire’s sexual behavior at the party as proof enough. She explained to me that Hillaire didn’t act like a “real” rape victim:
She had no shame. … She never seemed upset. She acted like it was no big deal. … I wouldn’t have told people what happened. … I wouldn’t have openly said, ‘This is what happened, blah, blah, blah.’
Hillaire was called “slut” several times to her face at school. A toddler approached Hillaire at a town parade and–at the probable urging of her parents–called her a “bitch.” An anonymous letter to Hillaire’s family read:
These boys are nice respectable boys and you can’t tell me that there were no other girls that wanted to be with them so they raped your daughter (please). Just think how you have ruined these children [sic] lives and your daughter gets to carry on and be a cheerleader after drinking herself and going against your family values. … This makes your daughter [sic] reputation look very bad and if you think people will forget, remember we live in Silsbee. Someone will always remember! (Don’t think she won’t be talked about.)
Then, in February, four months after the rape, Hillaire was kicked off the cheerleading squad for refusing to cheer for Rakheem.
Hillaire’s popular status as a cheerleader obviously couldn’t compete with the second religion of the town: high school sports. The high school stadium seats 7,000—equal to the town’s population—and it’s always full on game day. With sports having such status, the best male players gain special privilege. Many people in town rallied behind Bolton and Rountree, and the latter’s mother, in an interview with The Silsbee Bee, thanked them:
We’ve had a tremendous, just tremendous outpouring of support and we just appreciate everyone and just thank you for believing in these boys.
Believing in the “boys” meant dismissing both Hillaire and eyewitness reports. Instead, as one student articulated, the overriding belief was that Bolton wouldn’t rape anyone because “he was popular. A lot of girls wanted to be with him.”
Hillaire was deeply hurt by the reaction, but maintained a brave front. Her father Craig told me:
My daughter would wake up in the middle of the night crying and come sleep in our bed at 16, 17 [years old] because she was having nightmares. She’d get up in the morning without any sleep. She’d say, ‘I can’t let them know that I’m not going to school today.’ I look at my kid and say ‘Wow, she’s my 16-year-old kid, and she’s my hero.’ She’s so strong and determined, beat down but fighting back. She could have given up and quit fighting, but she didn’t do that.
Read about the verdict, the town’s reaction and how Hillaire is doing in part two.
Tagged: Justice System, Sexual Violence
About Caroline Heldman
Dr. Heldman is an Assistant Professor at Occidental College in Los Angeles. She specializes in the presidency, race, and gender. Her research has been featured in the top journals, and she is a commentator for FOX News and Al Jazeera English. Dr. Heldman co-edited, Rethinking Madame President: Are We Ready for a Woman in the White House?(2007). She is active in rebuilding efforts in the Ninth Ward of New Orleans and co-founded the New Orleans Women’s Shelter.
Carissa Byrne Hessick Wants to Hold Prosecutors Accountable
Marissa Hoechstetter
Who Really Has Access to a Living Wage?
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Stephen Drew is said to be “perfectly healthy”
By D.J. ShortJan 6, 2014, 6:45 PM EDT
In listing the reasons why Stephen Drew is still out there on the free agent market, Andy Martino of the New York Daily News cited an official with one team that the shortstop’s medicals “are raising some concerns.” Well, Rob Bradford of WEEI.com hears otherwise:
FWIW, source with knowledge of situation says Stephen Drew perfectly healthy. No physical issues.
— Rob Bradford (@bradfo) January 6, 2014
Drew underwent surgery to repair a fractured ankle in 2011 and wasn’t quite himself upon returning in 2012, but he rebounded with the Red Sox last season by hitting .253/.333/.443 with 13 home runs and 67 RBI over 124 games while playing excellent defense. The 30-year-old missed some time around the All-Star break with a hamstring injury, but he finished the regular season strong before struggling offensively in the playoffs.
Even if Drew is “perfectly healthy,” it’s not too difficult to understand why he’s still looking for a home, as he’s attached to draft pick compensation and few teams are willing to make a costly upgrade at shortstop at this stage of the winter. On on a related note, Martino hears that the Red Sox and Mets are the “only known clubs” to be engaged with Drew and his agent Scott Boras. He would likely have to settle for a one-year deal to return to Boston and the Mets appear content waiting out the market.
Follow @djshort
Tags: Boston Red Sox, Stephen Drew
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Where the past still touches the present
November 23, 2010 Mark McArthur-Christie 4 Comments
This has nothing to do with motorcycles or combos. It hasn’t really got much to do with WWII airfields. Actually, that’s not quite true. It has a connection with RAF Manston. That’s because the person I’m writing about went out with many of their pilots and even married one of them.
This is – word for word – the speech I gave at my Mother’s 80th birthday party. I think it – but more specifically, she – deserves a wider audience. Go on, indulge me…
How do you sum up 80 years in a few minutes? It’s almost impossible. After all, I’ve only been around to keep an eye on Joy – I’m more used to calling her Mother – for just over 36 of them, so there are a fair few years unaccounted for, and I only have sketchy details of what she’s been up to.
Let me fill you in on the story as far as I know it… She’ll never tell you anything about all she’s been through – Joy is lousy when it comes to talking about herself, so it’s down to me for the edited highlights.
Joyce Elizabeth Grace – as she was christened – could have done almost anything, apart from a job requiring reading a map or giving directions. Rally navigation was out – right from the start. Particularly as the best selling car in the UK in 1923 was the Ford Model T. Even on a straight road Joy can lose her way and take a wrong turning.
The problem is that with someone who has achieved so much, and touched the lives of so many people, it’s hard knowing where to start – that, and actually getting Joy to believe she can actually DO anything at all! I have never met anyone with such an exceptional quantity of talent and such an exceptional lack of self-belief. If Joy had been selected for the first Apollo mission, she’d have called it luck and written to ask if there was a mistake and didn’t they mean another Joy Christie.
As it is, she’s been a hairdresser, an office manager, a designer, a housekeeper, practically run a hospital in wartime, been a shop manager, a charity worker, a church worker, a chef par excellence (orders for cheese scones here please), an artist, a peace worker, run a restaurant, a home, and rings round me. She’s run her own business, and run others’ for them. She’s cycled through air raids, danced through shelling, hidden cocktails under chairs in officers’ messes and, filling in the gaps of what she’s said, broken more hearts during the war than Lord Haw-Haw made radio broadcasts.
Of course, you’ll never hear any of that from her. She may have done a lot, but talking about herself has never featured high on her agenda – so it’s down to me. Mother was born – heck, you all know the date, or are you here because you think this was a whist drive – on 26 April 1923, the same day that Elizabeth Bowes Lyon married the Duke of York in Westminster Abbey. Louis Armstrong, Sidney Bechet and Jelly Roll Morton would have been topping the charts, if there had been charts. Changing Rooms hadn’t even been thought of – and anyway, The BBC was yet to send out its first broadcast. Tutenkhamun’s tomb had just been opened by Howard Carter and Stanley Baldwin was making a mess of things as Prime Minister. There were no computers, no faxes, no telexes and the population of Frome was just 7,500 people.
Jumping to the present day, Joy sends me a text on her mobile phone most days – or e-mails me. She uses a computer like a boffin. She can programme a video – an ability seldom found in anyone over 11 years old. At the same time she’s still a better driver than me, despite the fact that her Mercedes was built in a factory that was only opened in the year she was born. Yet at the same time, she has never lost sight of values that are now rather out of fashion; like integrity, honesty, respect for the past and for tradition and respect for others. She’s conclusive proof that you don’t stop doing things because you get old – you get old because you stop doing things.
A classic case of “doing things” was when Mother – who had given up her car on some less than sage advice from my father – got another car and learned to drive again. As a motorcyclist, I have some pretty strong views on Volvo drivers, particularly of the little-old-lady stereotype, but Mother, as ever managed to impress. She particularly impressed the truck driver who sat in helpless laughter as she drove round the East Woodlands roundabout the wrong way. See what I mean about sense of direction?
It hasn’t always been plain sailing. Things haven’t always been simple or easy for Joy – far from it in fact. She’s had one of the toughest, most difficult, demanding lives I know about. She’s had far more than her share of knocks, hurt and grief – but despite it all I’ve never, ever heard her complain or say anything bitter about anyone. In fact, if I wanted to rely on anyone to see the silver lining to the cloud, whilst drenched with rain and freezing cold, it would be Joy. She brought my brother up practically single handed when her first husband left – at the same time as holding down a senior post at Pfizer, the American pharmaceutical company – AND getting promoted into the bargain. When we discovered a whole new arm to the family, it was Joy who brought the whole thing together.
Now, Mother has Isobel – my sister – as a daughter, and a whole new family to cook even more cheese scones for. Joy has never been exclusive about her views of “family”, and adopted many of my friends as a boy. More recently, and much more permanently, she’s adopted Christine as a best friend and another daughter. I sometimes think the phrase “thick as thieves” was invented for the two of them. Not only are they inseparable, they’re about to head off to Italy again together.
The easy option and Joy haven’t ever sat well together. For example, there aren’t too many people who start a new career in retail management at the age of nearly seventy – but Joy did. At the same time as looking after my father, then in his eighties. She ran the Dorothy House Shop in Frome (and sent a steady stream of new ideas and initiatives up to head office) with the same ability, diplomacy and sheer damned flair that she brings to everything. Now Dorothy House’s loss is Help the Aged’s gain.
At 80, she’s still helping her “old people”. But it’s not just “old people” who are Joy’s forte. She teaches 5 year olds to read at St John’s school, helps at a playgroup in Frome and is younger than all the kids put together. She still sees wonder in the things a child sees, and can understand children with a completely natural affinity. She always says she’s never grown up – and I think she’s right. I think it’s because she spends so little time looking inwards and nearly all her time looking out – mostly looking out for other people.
It’s typical of her that, sitting in a hospital bed last week with a suspected heart attack, her first concern was to cancel a dinner appointment so that no one was put out or inconvenienced. When another patient needed help in the night, Joy was there before the nurses. Typical. This was the mother who – despite the strongest imprecations from my father – used to regularly and secretly send a fiver in the post to me when I was a student. Of course, every penny was all spent on much-needed books. Strange how so many of them were found in the Union bar… Of course – and here you can see my gift for stating the bleedin’ obvious coming to the fore – it’s as my Mother I know Joy best.
I can’t even begin to explain how profound and important her influence has been on me – and not just when I was a boy. She was the shield between me and my father, and played United Nations, dodging the bullets, until I left home. I can honestly say that she kept me sane. And over the last two years she’s still been very much there for me during some pretty grim times.
“Thank you” does not even start to do justice. Joy was, as I said, christened Joyce – but Joy is far, far more appropriate. If they gave awards for being a human being – she’d be up there on the first-place podium. I’d like you to raise your glasses with me to Joy Christie – 80 years young.
Ma died seven years ago, today.
→ Uralling in the snow
← Maggie Smith in a sidecar?
4 thoughts on “Where the past still touches the present”
Fabulous piece, and thank you for sharing it. Consider yourself indulged. She sounds a remarkable lady, and I am sure you miss her greatly. I would be chuffed to bits if one of my kids said anything like this about me.
I haven’t got a glass here, so I have raised a can in the memory of someone I have never met.
Thanks, Richard. Appreciate that.
Pippa says:
The one thing she was most proud of and that made her life worth living was having you as a son. And you were such a wonderful son to her.
I was privileged to know her and call her Mother Hen. I only wish it could have been for longer. xxxxxx
Derek Reynolds says:
Thank you Mark, an excellent lady.
Our physical bodies may pass, but the spirit and memories live on.
I raise a glass.
Leave a Reply to Richard B Cancel reply
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Posts Tagged ‘Intimidation’
Over In The Czech Republic.
Yet another neofascist gets off scot free:
“Today the District Court in Písek, Czech Republic sentenced Jiří Gaudin, the author of a study entitled “The Final Solution to the Gypsy Question”, to a 14-month prison sentence, suspended for two years. Gaudin had faced up to three years in prison for inciting racial hatred.
Until this year, Gaudin had been a member of the leadership of the ultra-nationalist National Party. The release of his study on “The Final Solution to the Gypsy Question” was celebrated last April by 20 members and promoters of the National Party at Lety, the site of a Nazi concentration camp for Roma during the Second World War.
The publication, which court experts said refers in its title to the Nazi plan to murder European Jews, was adopted as official National Party material last year. At the time, Gaudin said his study was a solid piece of work: “This is not a provocation, it’s a serious scholarly work including contributions from experts who are currently publishing.” The other experts’ names are not listed in the publication; Gaudin said this was because they did not want to encounter problems in their other work as a result of their participation in the project.
The extreme-right National Party entered the Czech political scene in 2002, agitating against the European Union and immigrants for several years before falling apart last autumn.”
Update 1: Jiří Gaudin has form, when he’s not attacking the Roma he likes to bait Muslims too.
Tagged with Czech republic, Human rights, Intimidation, Jiří Gaudin, neo-fascism, Racism, The Roma
19 And A Half Years.
Blogging has been criminalised by the Iranian State.
Hossein Derakhshan has been jailed on spurious charges, which is intended to send a message to Iranian bloggers, “follow the State’s line or you’ll be locked up”.
Reporters without Borders has more:
“Reporters Without Borders is outraged by the extremely long jail sentence that has just been passed on Iranian blogger and journalist Hossein Derakhshan. He has been sentenced to 19 and a half years in prison followed by a five-year ban on political and journalistic activities. He has also been fined the equivalent of more than 30,000 euros.
“Such a long jail term has never before been imposed on a blogger in Iran and is indicative of a desire to make an example out of Derakhshan,” Reporters Without Borders said. “He is the victim of political rivalry within the government and the case against him was fabricated. We urge President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to intercede personally in order to obtain his release without delay.”
The press freedom organisation added: “Derakhshan defended the Islamic Revolution’s principles, supported Ahmadinejad’s policies and returned to Iran from Canada after being assured by people close to the president that he would not be arrested. Canada and the rest of the international community must press for this harsh sentence to be quashed and for Derakhshan to be freed at once.”
Derakhshan’s partner, Sandrine Murcia, said the judge in charge of the case telephoned the family today to confirm the verdict and sentence, details of which had been published on the pro-government website Asriran.
Derakhshan was convicted of collaborating with enemy states, propaganda against the Islamic Republic, propaganda in support of counter-revolutionary groups, “insulting what is holy” and creating immoral websites. He can appeal against the verdict.
Arrested by Revolutionary Guards on 1 November 2008, Derakhshan was given a trial without due process and had remained in detention even since awaiting the court’s verdict. He is a collateral victim of in-fighting between the Revolutionary Guards and the Iranian intelligence services.”
The Globe and Mail has background:
“Mr. Derakhshan, 35, is widely known by his online name “Hoder.” He was born in Iran, but moved to Canada and became a Canadian citizen in early adulthood. He is a staunch advocate of free expression in Iran, and became known as the “blogfather” of Iran’s on-line community for training pro-democracy advocates to blog and podcast in the late nineties. Later, he apologized for his dissenting views, and emerged as an unlikely supporter of the regime, at one point comparing Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to a modern-day Che Guevara.
So when the Iranian government invited him to travel to Iran in 2008, he accepted, thinking he would help his country reach out to the world, according to friends and family. Upon his arrival, however, another branch of the government arrested him.
On Tuesday, he was convicted of insulting Islamic thought and religious figures, managing obscene websites and co-operating with “enemy states” because he visited Israel five years ago. He was also ordered to pay the equivalent of approximately $45,000 in fines.
“It’s not as bad as a death sentence, but it’s an awful and really bad sentence for someone that’s only writing,” Mr. Derakhshan’s former wife, Marjan Alemi told CBC’s The Current.
“He went back thinking he could go back to Iran and help,” she added.
Ms. Alemi said Mr. Derakhshan has spent most of the two years preceding his trial in solitary confinement.
“He can’t exercise. He can’t have books. He can see his family for only five or 10 minutes a week,” Ms. Alemi said. Neither the family’s lawyer, nor any representative from the Canadian government were present at his trial.”
Update 1: Iranian.com has a piece on him.
These are clips from Hossein Derakhshan before his return to Iran and arrest. He answered questions from his blog visitors.
Update 2: Free the blog father has a petition.
Update 3: I missed Terry Glavin’s earlier piece on this issue.
Plus the Free Hoder blog.
And the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran too.
Tagged with Ahmadinejad, Blogging, Criminalisation, Hossein Derakhshan, Human rights, Intimidation, Iran, repression
The Independent’s 21st Century Racism.
I am indebted to one of my readers, Sarah Annes Brown, for pointing out Mary Dejevsky’s comments in the Independent.
If you read Mary Dejevsky’s appalling article you might be struck, as I was, how attitudes towards the Roma haven’t really changed in the past 80 years.
The Roma have suffered stigmatisation, extermination and marginalisation yet the comment below did not come from a 1930s fascist publication, although given its contents it could have.
It comes from a Western broadsheet, renowned for occasionally provocative but reasoned articles. Surprisingly, in 2004 the Independent won the British Press Awards’ national newspaper of the year.
Mary Dejevsky argues:
“”As it is, though, they [the Roma] are parasites on a state of civilisation, material and cultural, they have done nothing to build and could not reproduce for themselves.”
How such a conspicuous festering pile of racism managed to seep past the Independent’s subeditors I can’t say, but rarely outside of fascist thinking do you see such arguments, and we shouldn’t forget how often they were repeated in the 1930s.
These forms of attack on the Roma are common currency amongst European neofascists, as members of the Vlaams Belang show:
“France’s policy of expelling Roma to Romania and Bulgaria has attracted a storm of criticism at home and abroad from human rights groups and churches but has found support among some far-right politicians.
Philip Claeys, one of two MEPs from the far-right Flemish party Vlaams Belang, said he wants to defend “French policy concerning Roma.”
“The dismantling of illegal camps, the struggle against petty crime, criminality and prostitution, and the expulsion of foreigners with no legal earnings are perfectly legitimate in a democratic constitutional state,” said the Belgian euro-deputy in a statement Thursday (2 September).
Getting rid of the Roma camps puts an end to “public order disturbance,” he continued.
France’s own far-right National Front also agrees with the deportations. Its leader Jean-Marie Le Pen described the situation as “a problem caused by the European Union opening the borders between European countries.”
The Independent really should make an effort to stop publishing this anti-Roma racism.
Update 1: As Sarah AB points out the article receives plenty of support in the comments box.
Tagged with Europe, France, Human rights, Intimidation, media, neo-fascism, Racism, Roma, The Independent
Ahmadinejad’s Regime Kidnaps Trade Unionists.
After fiddling the Presidential election Ahmadinejad’s regime has taken to kidnapping trade unionists and their relatives, and holding them incommunicado as LabourStarts shows.
In their latest affront they have taken to attacking Mansour Osanloo’s family:
“According to reports received by “Human Rights and Democracy activists of Iran Roya Samadi, daughter-in-law of Mansour Osanloo, president of the board of directors of the Syndicate of Workers of Tehran and Suburbs Bus Company, was kidnapped and savagely tortured by three agents of Intelligence Ministry.
On Wednesday 2nd of Tir (June 23, 2010) Ms. Samadi, while going home from work around 5:30PM, was attacked by three men as soon as she got off the metro train in Karaj. The agents grabbed her by hair and while pulling her by her hair were kicking and punching her. All of this in broad day light in front of all other shocked commuters. Ms. Samadi while crying for help kept repeating that she’s Mr. Osanloo’s daughter-in-law. The agents put a tape over her mouth as to silence her pleas, and kidnapped her to an undisclosed location.
At the undisclosed location she was put inside a cell, cuffed at hands and feet, with her eyes also covered, and was savagely tortured for a long while. The blows were concentrated on her face and head. Her head was repeatedly hit against the wall. Scars from the beating are evident all over her body. Her gums are torn, teeth broken, swelling of head, wound on her arms and the right foot, and bruises all over her body.
While being tortured the agents kept shouting at: “You have to promise to us if Osanloo is freed from jail, he can’t stay here, and should not do a thing.”
After hours of savage torture, beating and abuse around 9:45 PM, the agents left her shocked body under Sayed Khandan Bridge, and left her. They also emphasized to her that she shouldn’t complain about this to anyone, and if she does she’ll face the consequences.
Although almost 24 hours has passed Ms. Zoya Samadi is still in shock and has not recovered.
For some months now she has been intimated by phone calls from Intelligence Ministry interrogators, she was once even ordered to show up at the 14th District “Islamic Revolutionary” ( read reactionary) Court. When the family showed up in the court they were told that such orders had never been issued. She was also beaten up last year and they attempted to kidnap her back then.”
Update 1: Entdinglichung has more:
“Zoya Samadi also suffered a miscarriage after the attack: http://iranlaborreport.com/?p=967 … and their are reports, that Kurdish political prisoner Zeinab jalalian is in danger of execution: http://www.astreetjournalist.com/2010/06/28/un-must-interfere-to-save-zeynabs-life/“
Tagged with Ahmadinejad, election, fiddled, Human rights, Intimidation, Iran, Trade Unions
William A. White
As if more depressing news is required, just in from Canada:
“An American neo-Nazi who advocated killing an Ottawa activist and overthrowing the Canadian government by force has been acquitted of uttering threats.
William A. White was charged in 2008 after he wrote repeatedly on his website and in his magazine that Canadian human rights lawyer Richard Warman should be assassinated.
Apparently angry at Mr. Warman’s successful campaign against racist Internet sites, White called him an “enemy,” wrote that he “must be killed” and provided his home address.
A jury convicted White of threatening Mr. Warman but this week a U.S. District Court judge in Virginia overturned the verdict, ruling his actions did not amount to threats.
Mr. Warman has launched scores of human rights complaints and lawsuits over Internet postings, many of them by far-right extremists. His complaints have resulted in hefty fines but have made him a target.
White, 69, who heads a Virginia neo-Nazi group, had also written that Canada was a “petty tyranny” and called for parliament to be stormed and the government executed. “Overthrown your government! Put your Jews to the sword,” he wrote. “
Tagged with American, Intimidation, Neo-Nazi, William A. White
Nicely Put.
Read it:
“It concerns the issue of liberty: the liberty to publish well-argued opinions without fearing that the local police will drop by for a “friendly chat” aimed at nudging you towards removing posts from your own blog which may have offended someone else’s cherished self-image. For one thing, finding the police at you door on a Sunday morning is not exactly an image of friendliness conjured up by law-abiding conscientious citizens. For another, the preservation of another person’s cherished self-image should not really be the business of our law-enforcement personnel.
I think this is a very simple principle to grasp and to agree with.”
Tagged with Blogger, Blogging, Freedom of speech, Intimidation, Police attack, Reverend Stephen Sizer, Seismic Shock, Sizergate
The State Of Play and Rev. Sizer.
Hopefully one of my final posts on Sizergate, as I get the impression from Richard Wilson’s blog that Dr. Sizer would like to dampen down matters.
Understandably so, otherwise he might have to answer why did he use an ex-Royal Marine to try to track down Seismic Shock?
I would recommend that readers take the time to study the comments from Rev. Sizer’s associate, Mordechai ‘Motkhe’ Cohen.
The comments are rather nasty, and whilst my memory is faulty it was one of the exchanges that I remember clearly from Seismic Shock’s site, given the ferocity and venom of the remarks.
Richard Bartholomew has put up a spirited defence of Rev. Sizer. A pity, I expected a bit more.
Contrary to Richard’s assertion, we can see the previous blog or parts of it from the google cache, as I highlighted in this post.
Readers might want to re-read Seismic Shock’s old blog and decide for themselves.
[Use these key words in Google, site:seismicshock.blogspot.com Sizer, about 49 entries are return with a fair few of them cached and readable about 18.]
The Leeds University’s student newspaper covers matters too.
Concluding, so what in fact you had was:
1) an Anglican vicar annoyed at criticism of his strongly held views
2) an effort was made to warn off that critic
3) when it failed a ex-Royal Marine’s assistance was sought
4) when that failed the Police were used to intimidate the blogger
5) said Anglican vicar gloated about his apparent success at seeing off a critic, and then threatened another blogger.
Less of a rose tinted view of events than we are often told, and I am sure more will come out, eventually.
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Is Cost Reduction the Goal of TPS?
In a rebuttal to John Seddon‘s latest paper, An Exploration into the Failure of Lean, Bob Emiliani asserts that the original purpose of TPS was to reduce cost. He quotes both Taiichi Ohno and Yasuhiro Monden saying so, and chides Seddon for not reading their works carefully enough. In the context of these documents, however, I think the quotes are misleading. Neither Ohno’s and Monden’s books, nor any other Japanese publication about manufacturing systems that I have seen, contain a discussion of what costs actually are.
By Michel Baudin • Policies • 12 • Tags: Emiliani, Lean, Management accounting, Seddon, Toyota, TPS
Human Resources at Toyota
With Respect for Humanity, bowdlerized as “Respect for People,” made into a pillar of The Toyota Way, you might expect Toyota’s Human Resources (HR) policies to be studied, scrutinized, discusses extensively in the Lean literature, and argued over in numerous forums. But it’s not the case.
By Michel Baudin • Policies • 4 • Tags: HR, Human Resources, Toyota, TPS
EOQ Versus JIT Explained Through Coffee Beans and Raspberries
The “Plan for Every Food” in my household involves different policies for buying coffee beans and fresh raspberries. These simple examples show that thinking in terms of Economic Order Quantity (EOQ) isn’t always wrong, and Just-In-Time (JIT) isn’t always right. You need to set appropriate policies for screws, steel bars, engines, microchips, and all other items you may need, and review these policies periodically as circumstances change.
By Michel Baudin • Policies • 1 • Tags: Economic Order Quantity, EOQ, JIT, Just-in-time
Manufacturing Wordsmanship
What you choose to call objects, ideas, positions, methods, tools, etc., makes a difference in your ability to lead and change the way your organization works. Engineers often believe that it makes no difference what words you use as long as what you do works; marketers know better. They know that “sushi” sells better than “raw fish,” “Lean” better than “TPS,” and “Black Belt” better than “Staff Statistician.” The “Toyota Way” or the “Toyota Production System” sound like appealing approaches; “toyotism,” like yet another plot to enslave workers. Words matter; they engage, motivate, and inspire, or they confuse, offend, and alienate. Following are a few thoughts on Manufacturing Wordsmanship, the art of naming manufacturing improvement tools and concepts:
The contrary body of opinion
How terms are used
Methods of word formation
Borrowing from everyday life
Borrowing foreign words
Combining roots from dead languages
Creating acronyms
Naming things after people
In the TPS Principles and Practices discussion group, Dermot Freeman‘s summarized the engineering perception as follows: “Our (insert customers or clients or bosses or colleagues – whichever is appropriate for you) don’t really care what the tools or methods are called as long as they achieve the correct result.” Further in the same thread, Sid Joynson quoted the taoist philosopher Zhuangzi (莊子, 389-286 BCE), as saying:
Zhuangzi
“The fish trap exists because of the fish. Once you’ve gotten the fish you can forget the trap. The rabbit snare exists because of the rabbit. Once you’ve gotten the rabbit, you can forget the snare. Words exist because of meaning. Once you’ve gotten the meaning, you can forget the words. Where can I find a man who has forgotten words so I can talk with him?”
Sid also quoted Fen Yang, a follower of Zhuangzi 1200 years later, known in Japan as Zen Buddhism founder Funyo Zensho (汾陽善昭, 947-1024 CE) :
“When you are deluded (don’t understand) a thousand books are not enough. But when you have realised understanding, one word is too much.”
Attractive though these pronouncements may seem, in manufacturing, we not only keep the trap, the snare, and the words, but also their models, revision and serial numbers… It is not a world where understanding exists independently of language. Understanding in manufacturing is not a matter of feeling or enlightenment, but of using words, drawings and numbers to turn materials into products with machines and tools. In Training Within Industry (TWI), the system developed in the US during World War II and later adopted by Toyota, being able to do a job is not enough. To be certified as proficient in it, you must also explain it step by step in words. If you have been doing the same repetitive work for a while, you certainly forget the words and go on automatic. But you have to pay close attention to the words to respond to changes that occur, for example when improving an operation, implementing engineering revisions in the product or process, or making custom-configured products.
An effective term serves not only to communicate with others, but also in your own mind as an address in memory to which you attach everything you learn about an object. If you have a name for it, you will notice it when you see it, and you will remember its characteristics. When you learn a new word in a foreign language, you suddenly start hearing native speakers use it in a variety of contexts. Knowing that this object on the shop floor is called a “broaching machine” lets you attach the broaching process, tools, times, and quality issues to this name and remember them. Conversely, terms that are difficult to remember, ambiguous, offensive, or inconsistently used — or sound too much like other terms — sow confusion and impair both communication and learning. What you are trying to achieve on a manufacturing shop floor is free and open communication. Mutual understanding is the primary goal. While a challenge, it is an easier one than the restricted or confidential communication characteristic of many other activities. There, in addition to encoding and decoding for electronic communications you still use code words, cant, or jargon to confuse unintended audiences when speaking to someone next to you.
Different objectives call for different methods in choosing your words. As an example, I am going to focus on the vocabulary used in Japanese for the Toyota Production System (TPS), and its translation into English. To get the translations right, we need words that not only mean the same but resonate with local manufacturing people as well as the TPS terms do in Japanese. The worst we can do in translating TPS is over-intellectualize it. In the US, factory people rarely read the Harvard Business Review. We should not translate TPS terms into words that would fit in this journal. The TPS vocabulary doesn’t include entropy, DNA, or Value Stream.
“Wagon” or “Pirate ship”
To communicate with auto workers, TPS uses concrete words, and sometimes imagery like “spaceships” (宇宙船) and “pirate ships” for different types of fixtures. “Spaceships” hover over workstations, providing tools that hang over it; “pirate ships” are level with the work station and “board” it on its side, moving through the station along with the assembly line. These words are borrowed from everyday language. Kanbans are the shingles stores put out in the street. Andons are lanterns. That “Kanban” is borrowed from shop signs may not make it easier to understand how the system works, but it is a revealing choice in word formation: grab a word from common, everyday language and extend its meaning in a way that sort of makes sense to the people who are expected to use it.
Raku-raku seat
On its own website, Toyota gives “ergonomic seat” as translation for the raku-raku seat (楽々シート). The meaning is accurate, but the connotation different. “Ergonomics” is a word made up from Greek roots; “raku-raku,” in Japanese, is colloquial. Its connotation would have been better rendered by “easy seat” or “comfy seat.”
When borrowing a word to give it a new meaning, make sure it comes from a domain that is sufficiently different to avoid ambiguity and confusion. No one will confuse a Kanban used in production with a shop sign on the street. On the other hand, calling a shelf on which you store parts a “Kanban” creates confusion, because it is like using the same word for a theater ticket and for the seat it is for. You can contrast this with importing foreign words, using acronyms or mashing together Greek and Latin roots. Acronyms are the way to go if you want to create a code that excludes the uninitiated. Foreign words work that way too, but not with native speakers of these foreign words.
TPS also borrowed words that are foreign to Japan, such as:
“Takt,” which is the German word for a musical bar, strokes in car engine or, as David Anderson noted, a regular interval between trains.
Phrases built from foreign words, like “just-in-time.”
Acronyms built from oddly used foreign words, like “SMED.” I don’t recall a native speaker of English referring to an interval of less than 10 minutes as “Single Minutes.” In addition “Exchange of Dies” is wording that is specific to stamping presses, for which the method was originally developed, but you apply SMED to many machines that don’t use dies.
European scientists mashed together roots from Greek and Latin to concoct new words like “entropy” or “isotope” for Greek and “tyrannosaurus rex” for Latin. Sometimes, they even mixed both Greek and Latin in words like “television” or “heterosexual.” Why didn’t they choose words from their own vernaculars? Today, using Greek and Latin roots shows off your classical education and excludes those who haven’t had one…. It is difficult to imagine another reason to refer to a periodic maintenance task as being “isochronal” in the US today. 200 years ago, a European scientist pushing the use of his own language would have been in trouble with foreign peers. Drawing on dead languages that scientists from Italy to Sweden and Portugal to Russia had studied as kids was a safe way to avoid any appearance of cultural arrogance. In Japan, the equivalent of Greek and Latin roots is Chinese roots, and the Japanese have been at it for 1,500 years, thus creating almost half of their vocabulary. In TPS, this has given us words like Heijunka, Jidoka, or Jishuken. Jidoka (自働化) is a case in point, because the Toyota version sounds exactly like the standard word for automation (自動化), but differing by two strokes added to the middle character, changing it from 動 for “moving” to 働 for “working,” the two strokes added being the radical for human (人). This is as brilliant as it is untranslatable.
CHAdeMO charger in action
In Japan, as in the US and Europe, this mode of word formation is perceived as solemn, official, and old-fashioned. It is still done, but not by anyone who wants to be cool. Combining fragments of English words, as in the “CHAdeMO” charging stations for electric cars, is cool. “CHA” is for “charge,” “MO” for “motion,” and the “de” is there to make the whole word sound like a fragment of a Japanese sentence for offering tea. I don’t know of any such words in the TPS lexicon, where coolness is not pursued.
Acronyms in everyday use include OK, laser, snafu, or flak; in manufacturing, JIT, WIP, SMED, TQC and TPM. They are prized as convenient abbreviations but, unlike everyday words used metaphorically, they hurt communication by having no connection with their meaning. Too many sprinkled in a document or speech can make it unintelligible. It is striking how people qualify acronyms to reconnect them with meaning. Instead of “ATM,” they will say “ATM Machine,” even though the “M” in “ATM” already stands for “Machine.” Likewise, in Manufacturing, you hear of “MES Systems,” where the “S” in “MES” already stands for “System.” Acronyms work best when built from words that provide a clear and accurate definition, as is the case, for example with WIP. When creating acronyms, you should also be careful to avoid the following:
Acronyms that are jokes or can embarrass people in any of the languages used in your company. The “Project Information System” (PIS) was unfortunate, and so are the “Semiconductor Equipment Communication Standards” (SECS).
Acronyms in which some letters stand for another acronym. They just take too long to decypher.
Acronyms that are an exact match to an existing word. It is a good idea to make acronyms pronounceable, but an exact match with an existing word creates confusion, particularly in Google searches.
Acronyms that already exist with a different meaning. It is particularly confusing when it is in the same context. In one plant, for example, successive inspection was called “Touch Quality Control,” abbreviated TQC, which outsiders understood to mean “Total Quality Control.” Even when used in different contexts, search problems still occur. “5S,” for example brings up not only items about visual management in factories, but about 5-year old children in kindergartens and about the latest version of the iPhone.
Sometimes acronyms are used as mnemonics rather than abbreviations. TIMWOOD, for example, is a way to remember Ohno’s list of waste categories. It stands for “Transportation, Inventory,Motion, Waiting, Overproduction, Overprocessing, and Defects.” Acronyms are sometimes used to deliberately exclude the uninitiated. When Gus Pagonis, the general in charge of logistics for the first Gulf War, on p, 90 of his book Moving Mountains, discusses the Time-Phased Force Deployment List or TPFDL, pronounced “tipfiddle,” the purpose of using this term is obviously not to be universally understood.
I can’t think of any TPS concepts that are named after people. On this subject, Frederick Stimson Harriman wrote the following:
“The Japanese practitioners that I know won’t even call a Gantt Chart a Gantt Chart. I have often heard Japanese call Gantt Charts 予定表 YOTEIHYOU (“schedule” or “plan”). What is called a “Pareto Chart” in the US among TPS/Lean practitioners is often called simply バーチャート BAA CHAATO “bar chart.” What many people call an “Ishikawa Diagram” is often referred to in Japanese as 特性要因図 TOK– USEI YOUIN-ZU literally “characteristic factor diagram” but “cause and effect diagram” is not an inaccurate translation. The Consultants I have worked with expect it to be translated either as “fishbone diagram” or “cause and effect diagram.” Of course these are all tools that are not specific to TPS, but are often used by practitioners in problem solving, etc. From my experience, Japanese have a general aversion to naming things after people. Note that Americans have no trouble immortalizing Gantt, Pareto, and Ishikawa, and it seems to be something that Japanese feel more comfortable avoiding. Even the name Toyota of “Toyota Production System” is for the company and not the family, which continues to pronounce its name ‘Toyoda.'”
This comment about the Japanese not naming things after people, besides being a challenge to find exceptions, raises the question of whether it is a good practice. Many Japanese companies are named after founders, like Matsushita or Honda. 20 years ago, a Japanese colleague of mine used a system of stickers to make flow charts that was called, as I recall, the Kitagawa method; my son took violin lessons on the Suzuki method; Norman Bodek is promoting the Harada method; and, like everywhere else, Japanese scientific discoveries and theories are named after the researchers who are credited for making them, like the Ito integral. But none of that is TPS. Generally, we can think of several good reasons to name things after people:
It is gratifying to have people use something you invented and call it by your name.
It tells everyone in the organization that they have a chance at immortality.
It connects the thing with the context in which it was invented.
But there are downsides as well:
A person’s name tells you nothing about what the idea is or what the thing does. “Pressure cooker” or “schedule chart” does.
Individual recognition can create jealousy and conflicts about attribution, which discourages teamwork.
People’s names are not always easy to pronounce.
Gantt charts were actually invented by Karol Adamiecki in Poland a few years ahead of Henry Gantt. Adamiecki called them “harmonograms.” So why do we call them “Gantt charts” and not “Adamiecki Harmonograms”? Who has time for eight syllables when two will do, especially when they roll off the tongue like “Gantt Chart”? Adamiecki may have been first, but he had the wrong name.
Karol Adamiecki
Adamiecki Harmonogram
By Michel Baudin • Policies • 3 • Tags: Adamiecki, Gantt chart, Harmonogram, Kanban, Lean, TPS, Wordsmanship
The Purpose of Standard Work in Manufacturing
The articles by Art Smalley‘s and Mike Rother about Standards in The Lean Edge puzzle me, because it seems we all mean different things by “standard.” On a manufacturing shop floor, in particular, I don’t see Standard Work as a basis for comparison, the best way known to perform a task, or a target condition. Instead, it is a set of rules published for the purpose of ensuring that different people perform the same tasks in the same way. This is consistent with the Wikipedia definition of a technical standard.
A process can only produce a consistent output at a consistent pace on different shifts in the same plant, as well as in different plants, if it is performed on the same materials, with the same equipment, and by the same methods. That is what standard work is supposed to accomplish, and it is, for both human and technical reasons, more difficult than meets the eye.
So here are a few thoughts I would like to share on this subject:
Standard Work versus Craft Control
Use of A3 instruction sheets
Avoiding “Lean Wallpaper”
When operators on a manufacturing shop floor remain on the same job for years, they come up with their private tricks on how to perform it. They attach “cheater bars” to wrenches, rearrange parts around their stations, and develop the ability to detect anomalies by sight, sound, touch, or smell. By default, as operators perceive this knowledge to be the key to job security, they make sure it remains hidden away in their heads.
19th-century craftsman
It leads to a situation that economist William Lazonick called Craft Control, in which management leaves the organization of work on the shop floor to the operators. The focus of Frederick Taylor’s “scientific management” was to replace craft control with managerial control, and it entailed the detailed specification of all operations by specialists. For decades after Taylor’s death in 1915, the management of American manufacturing companies engaged in a tug-of-war with labor to put an end to craft control, and ultimately failed, resulting in shelves of binders full of specs that nobody pays attention to, except external auditors.
Human resource policies that involved laying off whenever business slows down were an incentive to retain rather than share information. And leaving operators on the same job for years made the specs unnecessary except to train new operators but, when you tried to use them for this purpose, more often than not you found them to be obsolete.
TPS/Lean pursues managerial control too, but in ways that differ as follows:
Operators are hired for a career in the company and retained through downturns.
They are frequently rotated between jobs and become multi-skilled, which requires them to share what they know.
They participate in continuous improvement, leading to the integration of their private tricks into the shared specs.
Instead of Victorian novels in binders, the specs are concise memory joggers on A3 sheets of paper posted above work stations.
See last July’s post on What are standards for? for examples and details. These differences do not make it easy to implement, but they remove the key obstacles that account for the earlier failure.
A3 instruction sheets above work stations help supervisors notice discrepancies between the standard and the practice of the operators. When there is such a discrepancy, however, the supervisors must investigate it rather than always “retrain” the operator to conform to the standard. The operator may in fact have improved the process; this improvement needs to be documented and the standard updated so as to propagate this improvement to all other operators doing the same process. When walking through a shop floor that has such posted instructions, one should check the signature block to see when it was last updated. If it was five years ago, the sheet is useless. In fact, It should have been updated in the last six months.
In The Birth of Lean (p. 9), are Taiichi Ohno’s own words on the subject:
“…the standard work display panels […] let the foremen and supervisors see easily if the operators were adhering to the standard work procedures. […] I told everyone that they weren’t earning their pay if they left the standard work unchanged for a whole month.”
Changing specs once a month for every operation seems a hectic pace, leaving operators barely enough time to master the new method before changing it. Perhaps it was justified in Toyota’s single machine shop, that Ohno was running in the early 1950s. Managing revisions in a network with dozens of factories worldwide that is Toyota today is a different kind of challenge.
Posting too many instructions, maps, charts, forms, before-and-after pictures, etc., is counterproductive. The result is visual clutter rather than visual management. Producing, posting, and maintaining displays is work, and it should be done selectively, when it has a clear purpose and is worth the effort.
In daily life, we use complex products like computers, cars, or kitchen appliances without posted instruction sheets. We can, because these products have been engineered for usability and mistake-proofed. Usability engineering is the art of designing human-machine interfaces so that users find the right actions to take without prompting or instruction; it is widely applied to household appliances, based on techniques described in Don Norman’s The Design of Everyday Things. In Taming HAL, Asaf Degani expands on these techniques for application to airliner cockpits and ship control rooms, and Chapters 1 and 2 of Working with Machines summarizes them as they apply to production equipment. Usability engineering is about making mistakes unlikely, but not impossible; this is why, whenever possible, it is supplemented by mistake-proofing. The following pictures illustrate one of the usability engineering principles. In Pixar’s “Lifted,” the young alien taking a test cannot tell which switch to press; Don Norman shows an example of a control room in a nuclear power plant where technicians have replaced identical joysticks with different beer keg handles to make them easier to tell apart.
The alien in Pixar’s “Lifted” needs a manual
Don Norman’s example of beer handles to tell controls apart in nuclear power plant
Toyota in recent years has been pursuing a reduction in the amount of information posted on the shop floor. They simplified the tasks to eliminate the need for posted instructions, which also made it easier to train new people. This has been going on in several plants worldwide for several years, resulting in continuing improvements in quality and productivity. Instruction materials are kept off line and brought out as needed, like a car’s owner manual.
By Michel Baudin • Policies • 7 • Tags: Lean, Lean manufacturing, Standard Work, Toyota, Toyota Production System, TPS
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Beyonce and Donald Glover Win Peabody Awards for ‘Lemonade’ and ‘Atlanta’
Sharee Hereford
Columbia, FX
On Thursday (April 20) the Peabody Awards announced their 2017 honorees. Beyoncé took home the prestigious award for her visual album Lemonade. Donald Glover (aka Childish Gambino), was also honored for his debut hit FX series Atlanta.
Beyoncé and Glover were both among 60 finalists for the prize, which focused on the most compelling/empowering stories told using electronic media in 2016. In honoring, Lemonade the Peabody Awards committee spoke highly of the visual album.
“Lemonade” draws from the prolific literary, musical, cinematic, and aesthetic sensibilities of black cultural producers to create a rich tapestry of poetic innovation," the committee stated. "The audacity of its reach and fierceness of its vision challenges our cultural imagination while crafting a stunning and sublime masterpiece about the lives of women of color and the bonds of friendship seldom seen or heard in American popular culture."
The hit series Atlanta also received high praise from the committee.
"Donald Glover’s enchanting series on the struggles of two young black men trying to make it in Atlanta’s rap scene blends vibrant character study and rich socio-political commentary in delivering a detailed and textured exploration of a Southern city," the committee said.
Two music documentaries were also announced as Peabody winners, Hip-Hop Evolution and MAVIS!
Hip Hop Evolution traced the evolution of hip-hop in the 1970s with interviews featuring hip-hop icons like Grandmaster Flash, Afrika Bambaataa, Kool Herc, Melle Mel, LL Cool J and Run D.M.C.
"An entertaining, consummate history of hip-hop music told in a series of interviews with influential MCs, DJs, and moguls who were there at the beginning of the genre’s birth and through its dynamic evolution," the judges wrote.
Mavis! is an HBO documentary about gospel/soul legend and civil rights icon Mavis Staples and her family group, the Staples Singers. The doc features appearances by Bob Dylan, Prince, Jeff Tweedy and many others.
The Peabody winners and finalists will be honored at a gala in New York on May 20 and it will air on PBS and Fusion networks on June 2. Check out a clip of the honorees below.
10 Rappers & Singers Who Will Make You Want to Hit the Gym
Source: Beyonce and Donald Glover Win Peabody Awards for ‘Lemonade’ and ‘Atlanta’
Filed Under: Beyonce, Childish Gambino
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Beyonce Got A Standing Ovation At 'The Lion King' Premiere — Find Out Why
posted by Hayden Brooks - Jul 11, 2019
Beyoncé's star power is unparalleled and it was for all to experience at the Los Angeles premiere of The Lion King on Tuesday night (July 9).
Seth Rogan, who plays the role of Pumbaa in the film, took to Jimmy Kimmel Live! on Wednesday and spoke to the late-night host about the big premiere, which included appearances from the rest of the cast, including the pop superstar. Prior to the film, the director, Jon Favreau, invited each cast member to the stage at the Dolby Theater in Hollywood and Bey's appearance brought the venue to new heights, as per the actor. "Everyone was losing their mind...I've never seen this happen before," he recalled. "Beyoncé was called out and the audience stood up and went crazy. And I was like, 'she's getting a standing ovation for just existing.' Her mere presence was a reason to stand and go crazy, and I totally got it. I was like, 'yeah, like we should be celebrating. We made it. We're all in a room with Beyoncé.'"
Rogan went on to explain that he took the singer's praise and tried to envision what it would be like if he was universally loved. "For a brief moment, I felt what it must feel like to get that adulation. All I was thinking was, 'People do not like me that much. I don't get one iota of this.' I got a smattering at best. They saw her and people lost their God damn sh*t."
Expect more from Bey by checking out the curated and produced accompanying album, The Lion King: The Gift, which is due on July 19, alongside the live-action film, which also stars Donald Glover, Chiwetel Eijiofor and James Earle Jones. On the night of the film's L.A. premiere, the singer dropped a new song from the compilation called "Spirit."
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Check out our latest arrivals section for the latest styles and brands in men's shoes, like Allen Edmonds, Kenneth Cole, Timberland, Steve Madden, Frye, Cole Haan, Bass and DSQUARED2. We feature categories of men's shoes that fit the latest trends and styles, from fashion sneakers to dress boots, so you can always be on the cutting edge of men's shoe fashion.
Check out our latest arrivals section for the latest styles and brands in men's shoes, like Allen Edmonds, Kenneth Cole, Timberland, Steve Madden, Frye, Cole Haan, Calvin Klein, and Bass. We feature categories of men's shoes that fit the latest trends and styles, from fashion sneakers to dress boots, so you can always be on the cutting edge of men's shoe fashion.
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"Coins (money)"
"Violence"
National Museum of African American History and Culture 5
"Riot penny" charred during the 1921 Tulsa race riot
United States Mint, American, founded 1792
Monroe, George, American, 1916 - 2001
Diameter: 3/4 in. (1.9 cm)
3/4 x 3/4 x 1/16 in. (1.9 x 1.9 x 0.2 cm)
Tulsa, Oklahoma, United States, North and Central America
A charred penny from the Tulsa riot in 1921. The penny is black, dark gray, red and brown. The embossing on the front of the penny is still visible. The word "Liberty" is on the left side next to a portrait of President Abraham Lincoln in profile. "1915" appears next to Lincoln on the right side. The back side of the coin is melted with only the word "ONE" visible.
Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, Gift of Scott Ellsworth
A charred penny from the Tulsa riot in 1921. The penny is red and brown. The embossing on the front of the penny is still visible. The word "Liberty" is on the left side next to a portrait of President Abraham Lincoln in profile. "1917" appears next to Lincoln on the right side. The back side of the coin is completely melted and nothing is visible.
A charred penny from the Tulsa riot in 1921. The penny is red and brown. The front of the penny is melted with only the word "Liberty" visible. Some embossing on the back side of the coin is still visible the words "ONE / CENT / UNITED STATES / OF AMERICA" still readable at center. Wheat is on either side of the embossed words.
A charred penny from the Tulsa riot in 1921. The penny is black. The embossing on the front of the penny is no longer visible. The back side of the coin is melted with only the words "ONE / CENT / UNITED" visible.
Defending Freedom, Defining Freedom: The Era of Segregation, 1876-1968
NMAAHC (1400 Constitution Ave NW), National Mall Location, Concourse 2, C 2053
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"Dukes County"
Fraternal organizations 1
Political organizations 1
Professional organizations 1
Sororities 1
United States--History--1969-2001 1
Dade County 1
Fulton County 1
Martha's Vineyard 1
Oak Bluffs 1
369th Veterans Association 1
Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated 1
Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. 1
American Bridge Association 1
Austin, Patti 1
Brown, George Leslie 1
Brown, Otha N. 1
Bunche, Ralph 1
Chisholm, Shirley Anita 1
Daughters of Isis 1
Democratic Party 1
Dixon, Gladys W. 1
Hall, Amos T. 1
Improved Benevolent and Protective Order of the Elks of the World 1
Lambda Kappa Mu Sorority, Inc. 1
MelPat Associates 1
National Alliance of Postal and Federal Employees 1
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People 1
National Association of Negro Business and Professional Women's Clubs, Inc. 1
National Black Political Convention 1
MelPat Associates, American, 1965 - 1986
Patrick, C. Melvin, American, died 1985
New York Giants, American, founded 1925
National Pan-Hellenic Council, American, founded 1930
Prince Hall Freemasonry, founded 1784
Dr. Bunche, Ralph, American, 1903 - 1971
National Newspaper Publishers Association, American, founded 1827
Powell, Adam Clayton Jr., American, 1908 - 1972
National Black Political Convention, 1971 - 1972
Westbrook, Logan H., American
Wilkins, Roy, American, 1901 - 1981
Lambda Kappa Mu Sorority, Inc., American, founded 1937
Tufts University, American, founded 1852
Democratic Party, American, founded 1828
National Insurance Association
National Urban League, American, founded 1910
National Council of Negro Women, founded 1935
Republican Party, American, founded 1854
American Bridge Association, American, founded 1932
Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, American, founded 1920
Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, American, founded 1914
The Drifters, Inc., American, founded 1957
National Association of Negro Business and Professional Women's Clubs, Inc., American, founded 1935
Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, Inc., founded 1922
Austin, Patti, American, born 1950
National Funeral Directors and Morticians Association, Inc.
National Dental Association, American, founded 1913
Brown, George Leslie
Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated, founded 1908
Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc., American, founded 1906
Brown, Otha N. Jr., American, 1931 - 2009
Shriners International, American, founded 1870
Dixon, Gladys W., American, born 1901
Daughters of Isis, American, founded 1910
National Medical Association, American, founded 1895
National United Church Ushers Association of America, Inc., American, founded 1919
Chisholm, Shirley Anita, American, 1924 - 2005
National Alliance of Postal and Federal Employees, American, founded 1913
369th Veterans Association, American
Improved Benevolent and Protective Order of the Elks of the World, American, founded 1898
Hall, Amos T., American, 1896 - 1971
H x W x D: 11 × 8 7/16 × 3/8 in. (28 × 21.5 × 0.9 cm)
Miami, Dade County, Florida, United States, North and Central America
Detroit, Wayne County, Michigan, United States, North and Central America
California, United States, North and Central America
Colorado, United States, North and Central America
Connecticut, United States, North and Central America
Saint Louis, Missouri, United States, North and Central America
Martha's Vineyard, Oak Bluffs, Dukes County, Massachusetts, United States, North and Central America
A 1972 issue of Delegate magazine published by MelPat Associates. The cover of the magazine shows a collage of black and white photographic portraits of men and women printed against a blue tinted band on the top third, a white band in the middle, and a red tinted band on the bottom third. There is an image of four (4) buttons in the top left that read [DELEGATE / 1972]. The buttons are black, green, and/or red with white text. White text in a black box at the bottom right reads [PLEASE TURN TO PAGES DEVOTED TO YOUR CONVENTION].
The magazine’s content opens with an article titled “365 Days of Black Politics or the Awakening of a Black Giant,” about the Black Convention held in Gary, Indiana and the organization of the Black Assembly. There is also a masthead reading [DELEGATE 1972 / The Anthology and Voice of the Black Convention] and a table of contents.
The content continues with articles and profiles of African American business organizations, business leaders, community organizations, sororities, fraternities, doctors, dentists, actors, journalists and politicians. This includes the New York Giants, the National Pan-Hellenic Council, Prince Hall Masons, Dr. Ralph Bunche, Southern Christian Leadership Conference, National Newspaper Publishers Association, Adam Clayton Powell Jr., National Black Political Convention, Logan H. Westbrook, Roy Wilkins, NAACP, Lambda Kappa Mu Sorority, Tufts University, the Democratic Party and the Republic Party, National Insurance Association, National Urban League, National Council of Negro Women, American Bridge Association, Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, The Drifters, Inc., The National Association of Negro Business and Professional Women's Clubs, Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, Patti Austin, National Funeral Directors and Morticians Association, National Dental Association, George Leslie Brown, Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Otha N. Brown, Jr., the Shriners, Gladys W. Dixon, Daughters of Isis, National Medical Association, National United Church Ushers Association of America, Shirley Chisholm, National Alliance of Postal and Federal Employees, 369th Veterans Association, IBPOEW, and Amos T. Hall. There are also short profiles on African American politicians in New York, Miami, Detroit, California, Colorado, Connecticut, St. Louis and Atlanta as well as a feature on Oak Bluffs on Martha’s Vineyard.
There are approximately 220 pages with black and white photographs and advertisements thorughout, as well as a few advertisements in color. The back cover of the magazine features a full page advertisement for Johnny Walker Red Label scotch.
Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, Gift of Anne B. Patrick and the family of Hilda E. Stokely
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Home/Search Results for: Fighting
Search Results for: Fighting
Butch Lewis Net Worth
Ronald “Butch” Everett Lewis was born on 26 June 1946, in Woodbury, New Jersey USA, and was a professional boxing manager and promoter, best known for managing the careers of…
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Tavares Montgomery Williams, Jr. was born on the 8th October 1971, in Fredericksburg, Virginia USA, and is a former basketball player, who played nine seasons in the NBA (1994 –…
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Stuart Scott has earned his net worth as a host of the daily news program ‘Sports center’ on ESPN’s and as a sportscaster. It has been reported that the net…
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Ray Price was born on the 12th January 1926, in Wood County, Texas USA, and was a singer, guitarist and composer of country music. His wide-ranging baritone voice has been…
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Born as Juan Evo Morales Ayma on the 26th October 1959 in Isallawi, Bolivia, Evo is a politician, a member of the Movement for Socialism Party, and best known to…
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Daniel “Dee” Brown was born on the 17th August 1984 in Jackson, Mississippi USA, and is a former basketball player, who appeared in NBA, as well as in clubs based…
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Gerald Rudolph Ford was born on the 14th July 1913, in Omaha, Nebraska USA, and was a politician from the Republican Party, the 38th President of the USA, having previously…
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James Nathaniel Toney was born on 24 August 1968, in Grand Rapids, Michigan USA. He is a professional boxer, best known for being a former three-weight world champion. He won…
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Abdullah the Butcher Net Worth
Lawrence Robert ‘Larry’ Shreve was born on the 11th January 1941, in Windsor, Ontario, Canada, and is a former professional wrestler who, under the name of Abdullah the Butcher, is…
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María del Rosario Mercedes Pilar Martínez Molina Baeza was born on 13 May 1941 (legally subscribed) in Murcia, Spain. She is mostly recognized for her flashy stage appearance, her aggressive…
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Dusty Rhodes Jr. was born Virgil Riley Runnels Jr. on 12 October 1945 in Austin, Texas USA. He was best known as one of the toughest professional wrestlers in WWE,…
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Manti Malietau Louis Te’o was born on the 26th January 1991, in Laie, Hawaii USA, and is an American Football player, who plays in the position of halfback. Currently, Te’o…
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City introduces a new economic strategy
Latest news from Brighton & Hove City Council
Search for more news
What will Brighton & Hove’s economy look like in the next five years? What will it be like working in the city? What opportunities will the next generation of businesses offer to residents?
Brighton & Hove’s new economic strategy to 2024 provides a blueprint for the city and the Greater Brighton region to become one of the UK’s most productive and inclusive economies.
Active business in Brighton & Hove grew by 20% between 2012 and 2017 and there are now 15,840 businesses in the city. The strategy aims to ensure they will be able to take on current challenges and future opportunities.
The strategy urges businesses, entrepreneurs, educators and communities to be bold and build on our local reputation for openness, creativity and innovation.
Councillor Nancy Platts, lead councillor for the economy, said: “The new strategy recognises that the next 20 years will be very different and sets out how the city can be a trailblazer for new business ideas and models. We want to create a low carbon economy and ensure the benefits of our success are shared with all those living here.”
Business sectors such as digital, ‘green’ technology, life sciences, higher education and tourism are strong in the city. In 2018 Brighton & Hove was voted the best place to start a small business and has one of the best qualified workforces in the country, as well as having the highest number of home workers.
What will Brighton & Hove’s economic strategy do?
The strategy was developed by Brighton & Hove Economic Partnership and the council with partners across the city, looking at practical solutions to challenges that affect the city’s performance and growth potential.
Over the next five years the strategy will bring together businesses and communities to test new approaches and take forward business ideas. These include:
Promoting a wider take-up of the Brighton Living Wage to encourage and support sustainable employment
Working towards ensuring social value through procurement and community wealth building
More targeted support for small businesses in the city so they can stay, grow and access new markets
Exploring the potential for the city to become a test bed for innovation in retail using virtual reality to create new experiences in high street shopping. (Digital Catapult Brighton, University of Brighton and Redevco are currently exploring this as part of the Hannington Street development)
Offering training in digital skills to fit in with business needs by creating better links between employers and local creative digital training provision such as the Greater Brighton MET Creative Campus project
Building on the strengths of our universities in clean/green growth, digital media, advanced engineering, quantum computing and life sciences to develop opportunities for growth and innovation
Connecting the resources and expertise of the universities and colleges to ambitious companies large and small, across the city region
Nick Hibberd and Max Woodford from the council’s economy, environment and culture directorate introduced the new economic strategy at a special Brighton & Hove Chamber of Commerce event on 14 March.
View a copy of the economic strategy executive summary, full report and evidence base.
Chinese New Year celebration brings business leaders together
Spectacular show to welcome in the Year of the Pig.
Small Business Saturday Bus Tour comes to Brighton
The Small Business Saturday Tour Bus is coming to Ship Street Brighton between 10am-2pm on 22 November 2018. Small Business Saturday…
Sign up to the Brighton & Hove Living Wage campaign
More than 400 employers have signed up to the Brighton & Hove Living Wage campaign so far, pledging to pay…
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Branching Out: Yao Ming Has Been Hanging Outside GameStop Asking Customers If They Would Be Interested In A Video Game About His Long Legs Having A Big Adventure
SEE MORE: Video GamesSEE MORE: Video Games
Yao Ming
Yao Ming may always be best remembered for his legendary NBA career, but if he has any say in the matter, he’ll soon be recognized for his savvy entrepreneurship to boot. Rather than resting on his laurels, Yao has been branching out and hanging outside a GameStop asking customers if they would be interested in a video game about his long legs having a big adventure.
Looks like this Houston Rockets phenomenon is ready to expand his portfolio!
As of earlier this morning, Yao’s been stopping everyone at his local GameStop to gauge their enthusiasm for a potential video game where users play as his legs going on an epic journey of some kind. Though this may be his first foray into video game development, you’d think Yao Ming was a consummate tech professional by the way he’s painstakingly polled each patron about whether seeing his disembodied legs defeat a monster, fight the Axis powers in World War II, or rescue Mrs. Yao Ming’s legs from Evil Yao Ming’s legs would be exciting to see in a video game.
Wow, video game designers, take note! Ming reportedly even gave a few lucky customers a demo of what the game might be like by rolling up his pant legs, letting the person get a good look at his knees, and walking halfway across the parking lot of the strip mall and back to the sidewalk in front of the GameStop where he’d been since 6:30 a.m. Just incredible.
Eight NBA All-Star games, the Basketball Hall Of Fame, and now this. What can’t Yao Ming do?! Who knows if a video game about Yao Ming’s legs traversing some sort of fantasy universe or saving the world from an evil company run by Shaquille O’Neal’s arms will ever see the light of day, but if it does, we’ll be the first in line to buy it.
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Duke Energy announces pricing of common stock offering with a forward component
CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Duke Energy Corporation (NYSE: DUK) ("Duke Energy") announced today the pricing of a public offering of 18.5 million shares of its common stock at a price per share of $75.00 in connection with the forward sale agreements described below. Credit Suisse, J.P. Morgan, Barclays, Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC, BofA Merrill Lynch, Citigroup, Morgan Stanley and Wells Fargo Securities are acting as joint book-running managers of the offering. The underwriters may offer shares of Duke Energy's common stock in transactions on the New York Stock Exchange, in the over-the-counter market or through negotiated transactions at either market prices or at negotiated prices.
In connection with the offering, Duke Energy entered into forward sale agreements with affiliates of each of Credit Suisse and J.P. Morgan ("forward counterparties") under which Duke Energy agreed to issue and sell to the forward counterparties (subject to Duke Energy's right to cash settle or net share settle the forward sale agreements) 18.5 million shares of its common stock. The underwriters of the offering have been granted a 30-day option to purchase up to an additional 2.775 million shares of Duke Energy's common stock upon the same terms, solely to cover any over-allotments. The offering is expected to close on March 9, 2018, subject to customary closing conditions. If the underwriters exercise their over-allotment option, Duke Energy expects to enter into additional forward sale agreements with the forward counterparties with respect to the additional shares.
Settlement of the forward sale agreements is expected to occur on or prior to Dec. 31, 2018. Duke Energy may, subject to certain conditions, elect cash settlement or net share settlement for all or a portion of its rights or obligations under the forward sale agreements.
The expected net proceeds from the offering are to be used for general corporate purposes.
The offering is being made pursuant to Duke Energy's effective shelf registration statement filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The preliminary prospectus supplement and the accompanying base prospectus related to the offering will be available on the SEC's website at www.sec.gov. Copies of the preliminary prospectus supplement and the accompanying base prospectus relating to the offering may be obtained from the joint-book running managers for the offering as follows:
Attention: Credit Suisse Prospectus Department
One Madison Avenue
Email: newyork.prospectus@credit-suisse.com
J.P. Morgan Securities LLC
c/o Broadridge Financial Solutions
1155 Long Island Avenue
Barclays Capital Inc.
Email: Barclaysprospectus@broadridge.com
Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC
Attention: Prospectus Department
Email: prospectus-ny@ny.email.gs.com
This press release does not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy these securities, nor shall there be any sale of these securities in any state or country in which the offer, solicitation or sale of these securities would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of any state or country. The offering of these securities will be made only by means of a prospectus and a related prospectus supplement meeting the requirements of Section 10 of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended.
About Duke Energy
Headquartered in Charlotte, N.C., Duke Energy is one of the largest energy holding companies in the United States. Its Electric Utilities and Infrastructure business unit serves approximately 7.6 million customers located in six states in the Southeast and Midwest. Duke Energy's Gas Utilities and Infrastructure business unit distributes natural gas to over 1.5 million customers in the Carolinas, Ohio, Kentucky and Tennessee. Its Commercial Renewables business unit operates a growing renewable energy portfolio across the United States.
Duke Energy is traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol DUK.
Forward-Looking Information
This press release includes forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. Forward-looking statements are based on management's beliefs and assumptions and can often be identified by terms and phrases that include "anticipate," "believe," "intend," "estimate," "expect," "continue," "should," "could," "may," "plan," "project," "predict," "will," "potential," "forecast," "target," "guidance," "outlook," or other similar terminology. Various factors may cause actual results to be materially different than the suggested outcomes within forward-looking statements; accordingly, there is no assurance that such results will be realized. These factors include, but are not limited to: state, federal and foreign legislative and regulatory initiatives, including costs of compliance with existing and future environmental requirements, including those related to climate change, as well as rulings that affect cost and investment recovery or have an impact on rate structures or market prices; the extent and timing of costs and liabilities to comply with federal and state laws, regulations, and legal requirements related to coal ash remediation, including amounts for required closure of certain ash impoundments, are uncertain and difficult to estimate; the ability to recover eligible costs, including amounts associated with coal ash impoundment retirement obligations and costs related to significant weather events, and to earn an adequate return on investment through rate case proceedings and the regulatory process; the costs of decommissioning Crystal River Unit 3 and other nuclear facilities could prove to be more extensive than amounts estimated and all costs may not be fully recoverable through the regulatory process; the risk that the credit ratings of Duke Energy or its subsidiaries may be different from what the companies expect; costs and effects of legal and administrative proceedings, settlements, investigations and claims; industrial, commercial and residential growth or decline in service territories or customer bases resulting from sustained downturns of the economy and the economic health of Duke Energy service territories or variations in customer usage patterns, including energy efficiency efforts and use of alternative energy sources, including self-generation and distributed generation technologies; federal and state regulations, laws and other efforts designed to promote and expand the use of energy efficiency measures and distributed generation technologies, such as private solar and battery storage, in Duke Energy service territories could result in customers leaving the electric distribution system, excess generation resources as well as stranded costs; advancements in technology; additional competition in electric and natural gas markets and continued industry consolidation; the influence of weather and other natural phenomena on operations, including the economic, operational and other effects of severe storms, hurricanes, droughts, earthquakes and tornadoes, including extreme weather associated with climate change; the ability to successfully operate electric generating facilities and deliver electricity to customers including direct or indirect effects to the company resulting from an incident that affects the U.S. electric grid or generating resources; the ability to complete necessary or desirable pipeline expansion or infrastructure projects in Duke Energy's natural gas business; operational interruptions to Duke Energy's natural gas distribution and transmission activities; the availability of adequate interstate pipeline transportation capacity and natural gas supply; the impact on facilities and business from a terrorist attack, cybersecurity threats, data security breaches, and other catastrophic events such as fires, explosions, pandemic health events or other similar occurrences; the inherent risks associated with the operation of nuclear facilities, including environmental, health, safety, regulatory and financial risks, including the financial stability of third-party service providers; the timing and extent of changes in commodity prices and interest rates and the ability to recover such costs through the regulatory process, where appropriate, and their impact on liquidity positions and the value of underlying assets; the results of financing efforts, including the ability to obtain financing on favorable terms, which can be affected by various factors, including credit ratings, interest rate fluctuations, compliance with debt covenants and conditions and general market and economic conditions; declines in the market prices of equity and fixed-income securities and resultant cash funding requirements for defined benefit pension plans, other post-retirement benefit plans and nuclear decommissioning trust funds; construction and development risks associated with the completion of Duke Energy's or its subsidiaries' capital investment projects, including risks related to financing, obtaining and complying with terms of permits, meeting construction budgets and schedules, and satisfying operating and environmental performance standards, as well as the ability to recover costs from customers in a timely manner, or at all; changes in rules for regional transmission organizations, including changes in rate designs and new and evolving capacity markets, and risks related to obligations created by the default of other participants; the ability to control operation and maintenance costs; the level of creditworthiness of counterparties to transactions; employee workforce factors, including the potential inability to attract and retain key personnel; the ability of Duke Energy's subsidiaries to pay dividends or distributions to us; the performance of projects undertaken by Duke Energy's nonregulated businesses and the success of efforts to invest in and develop new opportunities; the effect of accounting pronouncements issued periodically by accounting standard-setting bodies; the impact of new U.S. tax legislation to Duke Energy's financial condition, results of operations or cash flows and credit ratings; the impacts from potential impairments of goodwill or equity method investment carrying values; the ability to successfully complete future merger, acquisition or divestiture plans; and the ability to implement Duke Energy's business strategy.
Additional risks and uncertainties are identified and discussed in Duke Energy's reports filed with the SEC and available at the SEC's website. In light of these risks, uncertainties and assumptions, the events described in the forward-looking statements included or incorporated by reference in this press release might not occur or might occur to a different extent or at a different time than described. Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date they are made and Duke Energy expressly disclaims an obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.
Media Contact: Catherine Butler
Analysts: Mike Callahan
Duke Energy increases quarterly dividend payments to shareholders
Duke Energy to announce second-quarter 2019 financial results on Aug. 6
Duke Energy board appoints Nicholas Fanandakis as board member
Corporate, Financial News
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Home World South Asia State-Owned Enterprises Drain Nepal’s Coffers
State-Owned Enterprises Drain Nepal’s Coffers
John Child
Thu October 3, 2013
State-owned enterprises in Nepal were established decades ago to correct perceived problems in the country’s immature markets. Inadequate supplies of basic goods and lack of management skills in the private sector were most commonly cited as reasons for establishing government-run companies.
But conditions in Nepal are very different today. There are many private airlines serving the domestic sector, for instance, and dozens of international carriers flying to Kathmandu. Nepal Airlines, a SOE and flag carrier, has less than five percent market share and is a sinkhole for nepotism. It wavers back and forth between losing money and making a tiny profit.
Likewise the Nepal Oil Company, a SOE and monopoly provider of petroleum products for the country, loses hundreds of millions of dollars every month; many of of its senior officers were arrested last week on corruption charges.
State-owned enterprises generally are inefficient and wasteful, since they can operate without regard to market forces. Nepal Airlines and the Nepal Oil Corporation are just two examples of failed SOEs in Nepal.
Nepal Drugs, a SOE founded decades ago, closed four years ago after the watchdog health agency pulled its license for failing to meet basic health standards. But there are still over two hundred employees drawing paychecks, and the company is seven million dollars in debt.
The Nepal Railway Company has 162 employees and is about $400,000 in the hole. The curious thing is that there are only 18 miles of operational track in Nepal, and the engines and cars are in utter disrepair.
The National Cultural Corporation, which went a half-million dollars in debt last year, recently asked the government for an additional $800,000 to pay bonuses to its 78 staff members. The corporation put its main asset, a large plot of prime land in the center of the capital, on lease for an upscale mall several years ago, but told the Finance Ministry last month that it cannot collect the past-due rent.
The Herbs Production and Processing Company, National Trading Limited, and the Nepal Metal Company have also asked the Finance Ministry for money to pay salaries – about $300,000 in all – despite the fact that they are all loss-makers.
And in a delicious irony, the National Productivity and Economic Development Centre, a SOE intended to promote industrialization, is more than half a million dollars in the red with very little to show for its 39 years of operation.
Nepal’s SOEs are worth little to the nation, and many of them are making losses year after year. Private businesses are well established (and more successful than the public companies) in trade, petroleum, industrial production, transportation and other sectors. It’s time for Nepal to end the era of the state-owned enterprise.
Nepal State Owned Business run huge losses
John Child is The NewsBlaze Nepal Correspondent, a journalist in Kathmandu who writes about goings-on in and around Nepal and her neighbors.
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Home News NCC establishes industry code to regulate internet access
NCC establishes industry code to regulate internet access
Danbatta
The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) says it has concluded plans to establish internet industry code of practice to regulate internet access and services in the country.
Prof. Umar Danbatta, the Executive Vice Chairman of NCC made this known at a Stakeholders’ Consultation Forum on the Establishment of Internet Industry Code of Practice on Friday in Abuja.
Danbatta, who was represented by Mrs Yetunde Akinloye, the Director Legal Regulatory Services (NCC) said that the code would clearly define the rights and obligations of internet access service providers.
He said that the code would also put measures in place to safeguard and protect minors, vulnerable audiences and consumers as a whole.
“This envisioned as a co-regulatory effort between the commission and industry stakeholders, hence the need for extensive public consultation and in the final document, ‘’ he said.
Danbatta said that the establishment of the code was conceived to ensure safety, security and to harness the benefits of the internet for good governance and better user experience.
He said that the Sub-Saharan Africa had lost between seven and 20 per cent of its GDP to cyber crimes as stated by internet society, adding that it was very vital to intensify efforts to secure the country against imminent threats.
He said that NCC also considered other factors including but not limited to online child protection, privacy and data protection, objectionable content and traffic management practices.
“The global perspective is that the internet be open and unregulated creativity and internet access. Propositions are for either self-regulation or government regulation in repressive economies.
“However, both have their advantages and disadvantages. Thus, the drive for a co-regulatory practice as it relates to the internet in Nigeria.
“Consequently, the NCC in accordance with its mandate to regulate the communications sector in Nigeria as expressed in the Nigerian communication Act 2003 sets out to establish Internet Code of Practice.’’
Mr Destiny Amana, the President, Nigerian Internet Group, one of the stakeholders at the event said that internet fraud was one the major problems in the country.
Amana said that there was need to protect the young and old ones online.
“Hence there is need for check and balances, which the commission is trying to put in place,” he said.
Another stakeholder, Mr Adeboye Adegoke, the Programme Manager, Digital Earth, Paradigm Initiative called on the commission to emphasis importance of judicial oversight instead of using phase such as legal authority.
“The importance of judicial oversight is that it creates system of checks and balances,‘’ he said.
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Next Century Cities’ Guide to Pole Attachments
Feb 1, 2017 | Pole Attachments, Resources
Please find the PDF version of the Pole Attachment Paper here.
DISCLAIMER: This document is intended to be a tool for education and information. It offers a list and summary of applicable state legislation that Next Century Cities is aware of. This document is not intended to provide legal advice, or to be a legal analysis or a comprehensive list of all relevant statutes. We offer these links and information for illustration and reference purposes only, as a starting point for analysis by interested parties. We note also that practice in the field can sometimes differ from the language of a statute.
Utility poles have become one of the great battlegrounds in the effort to expand next-generation internet network infrastructure deployment. Pole access determines whether a new provider is able to easily and cost effectively bring broadband infrastructure to a community. This in turn plays a significant role in the level of competition, and the services available to local businesses and residents. However, gaining access to these poles is often a long, difficult, and expensive process, making the barrier to entry incredibly high.
A significant portion of utility poles are not owned by municipal governments, but rather by electric utilities or telecommunications companies. When a new provider enters the market, they must contact the owner of each utility pole to which they would like to attach. Each company with pre-existing wires or attachments on the pole must then be asked to perform “make ready” work. For a pole to be made ready, the owner of each attached wire must separately visit the pole and, if necessary, move its wire to create space for the new provider. Poles must be modified before a new provider can attach its wires if they lack the necessary space for the wires. No new attachments can be made until all incumbents have deemed the pole ready–a process that can take upwards of nine months, and can create recurring traffic obstructions for vehicles and pedestrians as multiple companies must each send a truck to every pole. Furthermore, if delays occur during the make-ready process — even if they are the fault of the existing wire owners — all additional costs must be paid by the new attacher. Unfortunately, incumbent businesses sometimes delay or deny pole access to new providers for as long as possible, which severely delays new providers’ attempts to build out their networks.
One Touch Make Ready
To combat these delays, a small number of cities have taken the initiative to reform the make ready process with One Touch Make Ready (OTMR) legislation. OTMR allows a single contractor or pool of contractors to do all the necessary make ready work that can be done without cutting, splicing, or discontinuation of service. This speeds up the make ready process by eliminating the need to wait months for each incumbent’s individual contractor to visit the pole. The contractors involved must be approved by the pole owner, any companies with attachments, and the new provider.
Advocates of OTMR argue that the current regulations in most states cause needless delays, and that OTMR policies are necessary to facilitate new fiber deployment. Speeding up the pole attachment process eliminates one of the most obstructionist barriers to entry, thus encouraging competition and lowering prices for businesses and residents.[i] Opponents, however, say that these policies do not do enough to take established business practices into account. Each company has its own process and trusted affiliates who are trained to handle its wires, though these contractors may perform the same work for multiple firms. Unions have also expressed discontent with OTMR policies, as it is unclear what their members’ role would be under such a system.
In some cases the municipal utility has created OTMR policies, such as CPS Energy in San Antonio, Texas, while in cities such as Nashville, Tennessee and Louisville, Kentucky the local government passed city-wide OTMR ordinances. However, they face opposition from some of the biggest providers in the market, including AT&T and Comcast, who have filed suits challenging the cities’ authority to enact OTMR. However, in a filing in the Louisville case, the Federal Communications Commission’s General Counsel stated that OTMR is generally consistent with federal policy.
CPS Energy in San Antonio, Texas implemented its OTMR plan in August, 2016. New providers looking to attach to CPS’ poles must select a contractor to perform make ready work from a pre-approved list, and once completed the incumbent providers have 15 days to inspect the work.
Next Century Cities and Support for Our Members
This question of authority is a significant issue because state policies on pole attachments are complex and often differ widely. This may leave many local leaders to wonder how they might improve the local make-ready process. To help our members understand this issue, Next Century Cities has created this in-depth guide to pole authority by state and provided additional resources to support local leaders.[ii][1]
States Deferring to the Federal Communications Commission’s Authority
There is no one universal rule governing pole attachments. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) controls attachments and regulations in 29 states, but the other 21 states and the District of Columbia have each implemented their own regulations.
The FCC currently regulates all activity related to utility pole attachments in 30 states, listed below:
Alabama Nevada
Arizona New Mexico
Colorado North Carolina
Florida North Dakota
Kansas Oklahoma
Maryland Pennsylvania
Minnesota Rhode Island
Mississippi South Carolina
Missouri South Dakota
Montana Tennessee
Georgia Texas
Hawaii Virginia
Indiana Wesxt Virginia
Iowa Wisconsin
Nebraska Wyoming
These states are subject to the regulations issued by the FCC under the authority granted by Section 224 of the Telecommunications Act, which attempts to streamline the pole attachment process in order to more quickly deploy broadband infrastructure while ensuring that pole owners are fairly compensated for their property. Section 224 states the following:
The FCC shall regulate all rates, terms, and conditions of new attachments to utility poles in order to ensure that all rates, terms, and conditions are reasonable and just, and will hear and resolve any complaints by new attaching entities.
Any incumbent owner of a utility pole must allow non-discriminatory access to the pole, and may only deny a request from a new provider to access the pole if there are engineering, space, or safety limitations to adding new wire attachments.
If the incumbent owner of a pole decides to modify or alter the pole, he/she must first provide written notification of intent to any provider with an attachment on the pole.
An incumbent provider with wire attachments on a pole will not bear any of the financial responsibility of rearranging or replacing the wires as a result of a new provider attaching to the pole.
In 2011, the FCC issued a Report and Order that expanded on these requirements by creating rules for both wired and wireless providers. Under these rules:
The timeline for a new pole attachment may take no longer than 148 days, with 45 days for a pre-construction survey, 14 days for an estimate of costs to make the pole ready for the attachment, 14 days for an attaching entity to accept and pay the estimate, and 60-75 days for the make-ready process. In cases where more than 300 poles or 0.5 percent of an incumbent’s total poles are included in the request for access, an additional 15 days for the survey and 45 days for the make-ready process are allowed.
If an incumbent pole owner denies a request for attachment, it must explain why it denied the request, and how its reasoning relates to “capacity, safety, reliability, or engineering concerns.”
A new provider may challenge the lawfulness of the terms of an executed pole attachment agreement when the provider claims he/she was coerced to accept the specific terms in order to gain access to the pole.
In August 2018, the FCC adopted updated OTMR policies that reformed the federal framework governing pole attachments. The ruling went into effect in May 2019, and:
Allows new attachers to elect an OTMR process for simple make-ready wireline attachments in the “communications space” on a pole.
Establishes safeguards in the OTMR process to promote coordination among the parties and ensure that new attachers perform work safely and reliably.
Retains a multi-party process for other new attachments where safety and reliability risks are greater, while making some modifications to speed deployment.
Codifies the FCC’s existing precedent that permits attachers to “overlash” existing wires without first seeking the utility’s approval while allowing the utility to request reasonable advance notice of overlashing.
Declares in no uncertain terms that states and localities are prohibited from imposing moratoria on broadband buildouts.
States Choosing to Exercise Their Own Authority:
Under the Reverse Preemption Provision of Section 224, any state that certifies to the FCC that it has written and executed effective rules and regulations regarding the rates, terms, and conditions of pole attachment agreements may exercise the authority to regulate those agreements within the state. Importantly, the FCC recently wrote that any state which has opted out of the FCC’s authority has the ability to allow OTMR policies.
To date, 20 states and the District of Columbia have opted out of the FCC’s jurisdiction, and each has implemented its own pole attachment regulations. The complete list of states, and information about their policies can be found below. Please click on each state name for more information.
Alaska Massachusetts
Arkansas Michigan
California New Hampshire
Connecticut New Jersey
Delaware New York
District of Columbia Ohio
Idaho Oregon
Illinois Utah
Kentucky Vermont
Louisiana Washington
A new provider must compensate a pole owner for any modifications or adjustments to a pole and for an annual amount calculated by “multiplying the percentage of total usable space on a pole occupied by the attaching utility’s facilities times the total annual cost of the jointly used pole.”
The Regulatory Commission of Alaska will only assert its authority, absent any unusual circumstances, in cases where new providers and pole owners disagree on the terms of a joint use agreement, or if the Commission has reason to believe the utilities are acting outside the scope of the law (set forth in AS 42.05).
Arkansas Public Service Commission (APSC) regulations require that 19 percent of total annual pole cost be allocated to the attaching entity if there are two or more attaching entities, and 38 percent of total annual pole cost if there are two or less attaching entities.
Attaching entities are required to obtain a permit prior to overlashing.
Any complaints made against the owner of a pole or the pole attachment process must be filed using APSC’s internal reporting procedures.
A request for access must be approved or denied within 45 days if it includes 300 poles or less, and within 60 days if it includes between 301 and 3,000 poles. The request may only be rejected on a nondiscriminatory basis where there is “insufficient capacity and for reasons of safety, reliability and generally applicable engineering standards.”
While a pole owner may reserve space on poles for the future provision of its “core utility service,” it must allow new providers to attach to the space until such space is needed.
The California Public Utilities Code gives the California Public Utilities Commission the authority to allow public utilities to access all utility poles, and requires investor-owned utilities and incumbent providers to provide telecommunications and cable TV providers with access to their poles.
All public utilities must grant each other access to their utility poles, and must set rates, terms, and conditions for access.
Municipalities are not covered by Mandatory Access rules[iii][1], but may attach facilities to utility poles through private contracts as either joint owners or renters.
The law governing the Connecticut Public Utilities Regulatory Authority (CPURA) (the pole attachment authority in the state) guarantees all state departments and municipalities the right to use space on all utility poles within the municipal Rights-of Way without payment regardless of who owns the pole.
In 2013 the statute was amended to say that these entities could access the poles “for any use,” which opened the door to municipal fiber attachments.
However, lack of clarity has led to several roadblocks to access, and the Office of Consumer Counsel (which includes the State Broadband Office) have petitioned the CPURA to clarify the rules governing municipal pole access.
Two electric distribution companies serve as the Single Pole Administrator (SPA) to which all pole attachers must report their intent to attach wires to a pole in the hopes that this will result in “lower costs, improved turnaround times and less red tape with respect to restoring lines on poles, regardless of which entity owns any given pole.” The SPA can act as a backstop to approve make ready work where it is not done by the attacher; however, this has not reduced the need for a OTMR policy in Connecticut.[2]
Delaware’s Public Service Commission (DPSC) has the exclusive original regulatory authority over all public utilities, and their rates, property rights, equipment, facilities, service territories, and franchises. The DPSC regulates the rates, terms, and conditions of all pole attachments, except when the attachment is made by a governmental agency acting on behalf of the public’s health, safety, or welfare.
The DPSC considers the interests of all subscribers as well as the interests of the consumer of the public utility service when determining rates, terms, and conditions.
When it is in the public interest, the DPSC may alter its supervision and regulation of some public utility products or services if doing so will promote and sustain adequate service at reasonable rates. Alternatives to supervision include, but are not limited to: “incentive regulation, earnings sharing, categorization of services for the purposes of pricing, price caps, price indexing, ranges of authorized returns and different returns for different services.”
The location and wire-holding structures are not a vested interest, and all removal or modification of poles and structures is paid by the pole owner if the District determines that the public would be benefited by the modification or removal.
The Public Service Commission of the District of Columbia ensures that all rates, terms, and conditions are just and reasonable, and any utility company or service provider that enters into a pole attachment agreement must submit to the DC Commission’s review and approval of placement and rates.
Attachments are only rearranged if the rearrangement will not negatively affect the present or future needs of the utility.
The Idaho Legislature concluded that pole owners have proven through the course of conduct that they are willing and able to make space available on their poles for new attaching entities without government interference.
If a public utility and a telecommunications service provider are unable to agree upon rates, terms, or conditions for a pole attachment, then the Idaho Public Utilities Commission will establish those rates, terms and conditions and the cost of providing the space needed for attachments. In determining the costs, the Commission will consider the operating expenses and the interest of customers.
Illinois law gives local government entities the authority to regulate all utility poles.
Local units of government shall “allow the holder to install, construct, operate, maintain, and remove a cable service, video service, or telecommunications network within a public right-of-way and shall provide the holder with open, comparable, nondiscriminatory, and competitively neutral access to the public right-of-way on the same terms applicable to other cable service or video service providers or cable operators in its jurisdiction.”
If a holder of a State authorization seeks a permit to install, construct, operate, maintain, or remove a telecommunication service network within a public right-of-way, the permit will be granted after 45 unless the local unit of government takes action.
A local unit of government may not discriminate when accepting or denying pole attachment requests, although it may impose reasonable terms.
Local government units may impose permit fees on incumbent cable operators if the fees are equal to or less than the actual, direct costs incurred by the government for issuing the relevant permit.
If any make-ready expenses are incurred, the attaching entity who contracted the expenses must reimburse the local unit of government within 30 days at the same rates as others have paid for similar work.
While the Kentucky Public Service Commission has state authority, it is generally up to the owners of a pole — a municipal electric utility or the Kentucky Power Company, for example — to set their own regulations and rules regarding attachments.
The Kentucky Legislature recognizes the essential nature of telecommunications services, the need for competition, and the importance of streamlined regulation to incentivize market entry.
Municipalities may each establish their own process for issuing construction permits and utility pole attachment agreements. Once these processes are in place, municipalities may oversee the installation, construction, and maintenance of utility pole networks.
Municipalities must provide open, comparable, nondiscriminatory, and competitively neutral access to utility poles in the public rights of way.
The Maine Public Utilities Commission (MPUC) has the authority to regulate just and reasonable rates, terms, and conditions regarding all utility pole attachments.
The MPUC may resolve any disputes between public utilities and non-public utilities that seek to attach wires to utility poles.
When reviewing applications for access to utility poles, the ME Commission shall consider the interest of subscribers of telecommunication services, subscribers of other incumbent attaching entities, and consumers of public utility services.
The Massachusetts Department of Telecommunications and Energy (MDTE) has the authority to justly and reasonably regulate the rates, terms, and conditions of all utility pole attachments, and in doing so must consider the interests of subscribers to telecommunications and utility services.
Any person, firm, corporation, or municipal lighting plant that owns, controls, or shares ownership of utility poles must provide nondiscriminatory access to wireless providers who wish to attach wires to the poles.
If there is inadequate capacity, safety, or engineering concerns, the request may be denied. If the request is denied due to a lack of capacity on the poles, the capacity may be expanded with replacement or relocation of existing wires at the new attaching entity’s expense.
The Michigan Public Service Commission (MPSC) has the jurisdiction and authority to enforce all federal telecommunications laws, rules, and orders and to arbitrate and enforce all utility pole attachment agreements.
If a telecommunications provider is the owner of a utility pole, it must establish just and reasonable rates, terms, and conditions for attachments by other telecommunications providers.
If the new attaching entity is a public utility that provides regulated telecommunications services, the public utility must establish just and reasonable rates, terms, and conditions for attachments.
Rates are considered just and reasonable if they assure the incumbent owner “recovery of not less than the additional costs of providing the attachments, nor more than an amount determined by multiplying the percentage of the total usable space, or the percentage of the total duct or conduit capacity, which is occupied by the attachment, by the sum of the operating expenses and actual capital costs of the provider attributable to the entire pole, duct, or right-of-way.”
The owners of a pole must provide nondiscriminatory access to new attaching entities except in cases when there is insufficient capacity on the pole, there are safety or engineering concerns, or when the pole owner does not possess the authority to allow the attachment.
Pole owners must allow or deny access within 45 days of receiving a request for access. If access is denied, the pole owner must give specific evidence and information supporting its denial in writing.
For make-ready work to commence, estimates must be provided by the pole owner to the attaching entity and prepayments must be made. Make-ready work must be completed within 150 days after the prepayments are delivered.
If the request for access concerns 10 poles or less and no pole replacements, make-ready work must be completed within 45 days of pre-payment.
Attaching entities must get the consent of the governing body of the municipality in which the pole is located before attaching, or replacing, any wires unless both the pole owner and pole attaching entity have a lawful right to maintain the poles independently.
Attaching entities must notify a licensed municipal code official of the municipality in which the pole is located at least 24 hours before any construction takes place to attach or replace any wire.
The New York Public Service Commission (NYPSC) prescribes just and reasonable rates, terms, and conditions for all attachments to utility poles.
These rates are calculated based on the percentage of total usable space on a pole that will be occupied by a new attaching entity.
NYPSC has general supervision of all telecommunication lines and has the power to examine them in order to be informed of their condition, capitalization, franchises, and the manner in which all lines are leased, operated, and managed.
All pole owning telecommunication companies and incumbent local exchange carriers must permit the attachment of any new wires, cables, facilities, or apparatus to its poles with just and reasonable terms, conditions, and payment.
All new attaching entities must obtain necessary public or private authorization to construct and maintain attachments prior to attaching wires, cables, or facilities.
Pole owning telecommunication companies must file tariffs with Ohio Public Utilities Commission (OPUC) containing the charges, terms, and conditions established for attachments.
OPUC has the authority to regulate the just and reasonableness of all charges, terms, and conditions pole owners and attachers are required to pay.
The OPUC will investigate and resolve any controversy between pole owners and attaching entities.
The Public Utility Commission of Oregon has the authority to regulate the fair and reasonable rates, terms, and conditions for attachments by licensees to poles or other facilities of public and telecommunication utilities.
New attachments to a pre-existing pole must receive authorization and execute a contract with the pole owner prior to attaching wires, cables, or facilities to the pole.
Pole owners may accept or deny requests for attachment.
Penalties for unauthorized attachments include, but are not limited to per-pole penalties, and the law provides for notice requirements, and a joint use forum for resolving disputes.
The Public Service Commission of Utah (PSCU) has the authority to regulate the rates, terms, and conditions by which a pole owner may permit attachments to its poles.
The pole attaching entity and the pole owner must enter into a standard or Commission-approved contract in order for a legal relationship to be established.
All applications filed by a potential attaching entity within one calendar month are counted as a single application when calculating the time to complete make-ready work.
For applications of up to 20 poles, the pole owner must either approve or reject the application within 45 days. For applications representing more than 20 poles, but less than 0.5 percent of the pole owner’s poles in Utah or 300 poles, whichever is lower, an owner must approve or reject the application within 60 days. For applications representing a greater number of poles, but less than 5 percent of the pole owner’s poles in Utah or 3,000 poles, whichever is lower, applications must be accepted or rejected within 90 days. For applications for more than 5% of an owner’s poles or 3,000 poles, the timeline for acceptance or rejection must be negotiated in good faith. The owner must inform the attaching entity of the timeline for make-ready estimates within 20 days of the application.
If the application is accepted, a complete make-ready estimate must be provided explaining what must be done, the cost of the work, and an estimate on how long it will take to complete. This estimated time may not be longer than 120 days after an initial deposit payment for the work has been submitted.
A pole owner must allow nondiscriminatory access to its poles at just and reasonable rates. If the owner rejects any application for attachment it must state the specific reasons for doing so in writing.
The PSCUT has the authority to resolve any issues between a pole owner and an attaching entity.
Each pole owner, or joint owners, must file a pole attachment tariff with the Vermont Public Service Board (VPSB) that includes rates, terms, and conditions governing attachment to poles.
Pole owners must calculate a single pole rental rate and include that in its pole attachment tariff.
All owners must provide attaching entities with nondiscriminatory access to poles, support structures, and right-of-ways. A pole owner may not favor itself over any other attaching entity, or deny access based on a reservation of space for the owner’s use.
A pole owner may, however, favor itself when it has a need for space on a pole in order to provide its core service, or if it has a development plan that shows a need for additional attachments to the poles within three years.
A pole owner may not favor itself for more than three years in any ten year period.
Make-ready survey work on fewer than 0.5% of a company’s poles or attachments must be completed within 60 days. Survey work on 0.5% or more but less than 3% of a company’s poles or attachments must be completed within 90 days. For 3% or more of a company’s poles or attachments, make-ready survey work must be negotiated in good faith between owners and attaching entities.
Make-ready work on fewer than 0.5% of a company’s poles or attachments must be completed within 120 days of authorization and payment. Work on 0.5% or more but less than 3% of a company’s poles or attachments must be completed within 180 days of authorization and payment. For 3% or more of a company’s poles, the time frame for make-ready work to be completed must be negotiated in good faith between owners and attaching entities.
All rates, terms, and conditions made or received by a pole owner for attachments to its poles must be just, reasonable, nondiscriminatory, and sufficient.
Attachment space rental rates must be uniform for the same class of service within the same service area
Excluding extraordinary circumstances, a pole owner must respond to applications for attachment within 45 days of initial receipt. Within 60 days of an application being deemed complete, the pole owner must notify the applicant as to whether the application was accepted or rejected.
An application for attachment may only be denied on a nondiscriminatory basis when there is insufficient capacity or there are safety or engineering concerns.
The joint use of utility poles is encouraged in order to promote competition for the provision of telecommunications and information services. To meet these ends, “the legislature intends to establish a consistent cost-based formula for calculating pole attachment rates, which will ensure greater predictability and consistency in pole attachment rates statewide, as well as ensure that locally regulated utility customers do not subsidize licensees.”
[i] See Fiber to the Home Council’s white paper on One Touch Make Ready at page 10.
[ii] For more information on the history of pole attachments, please see Baller Herbst Law Group primer here: http://www.baller.com/wp-content/uploads/BallerHerbstPracticalPrimerPoleAttachments.pdf
[iii] For more information on Mandatory Access rules, and CA pole attachment regulation, visit the California Public Utilities Commission’s “A Brief Introduction to Utility Poles.”
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NYC Carpenters in struggle… against their own union leadership
By oaklandsocialist on July 7, 2019 • ( Leave a comment )
Carpenters in New York City are facing a danger and an opportunity.
NYC carpenters contract proposal. It has a huge concession.
During a nation-wide building boom, the New York Carpenters District Council is proposing a contract with some huge give-aways. Most important, it includes establishing a new classification – “certified journeyperson”. A journeyperson would need 10,000 work hours to become “certified” – something that could take close to ten years. Meanwhile, she or he would be making $11.31 per hour less on wages and over $8.00 per hour less contributed to their pension. For apprentices, it’s even worse. The apprentice program would, in effect, be increased for a year (to five years). Meanwhile, they earn almost nothing towards their pension.
The council is trying to soften the blow by adding in that this new massive cut in pay and benefits only applies to jobs started after July 1, 2019 and that all those carpenters presently working as journeyperson will be grandfathered into the “certified journeyperson” classification. But you don’t have to be P.J. McGuire (founder of the Carpenters Union and a militant, fighting union leader and a socialist) to see where this is headed. What they are doing is establishing a two-tier wage scale, one for the older members and one for the newer ones. And what will happen when the present boom ends (as all building booms do)? Then, with high unemployment, members who qualify for the “certified” classification will feel compelled to accept the regular journeyperson classification.
This is part and parcel of the overall strategy of the Doug McCarron-controlled Carpenters Union. McCarron
Carpenters president Doug McCarron. While his policies dictate that the working carpenter must take pay cuts, he gets the pay of a corporate chief. He looks like one too.
introduced the term “market share” into the union vocabulary. That is a business term that refers to competing for sales with other companies. They compete by cutting prices, among other things. That is McCarron’s view of the union – that the union is a business, marketing a product. (Carpenters here in California used to call the McCarron-controlled union “Carpenters, Inc.”) That product is us, the union members. That is actually what McCarron said – that the union is marketing “a strong product”. According to McCarron, the way to “market” us is to cut our price – that is, our wages.
In 2016, for example, the Western Washington state carpenters union dropped contractor payment into the traditional pension plan in order to keep the contractors happy. This will inevitably mean that that plan will go under at some point. (Of course, the International pension, for full time union employees continues!)
What McCarron is doing and saying has a long history behind it:
This graph from Fortune Magazine, July 1979, shows the growth of nonunion construction. Most of that growth was in commercial construction, which went from a dollar volume of $5 billion in 1968 to $71 bn. in 1979. It’s gone nowhere but up since then.
The building trades used to dominate the construction industry. According to an article in Fortune Magazine (July, 1979), in 1968 nearly 80% of the construction dollar was spent on union construction. By 1979 that figure was down to 40%. So, when we talk about union busting in the United States in the post WW II period, it really started in the construction industry!
At that time, the union contractors went crying to the building trades leaders. “You have to help us compete!” they said. The building trades leadership, who never really thought for themselves and always had a chummy relationship with the contractors, simply accepted their argument. All that meant, though, was that the union building trades workers had to compete with the non-union building trades workers for who could make the most profits for their contractors. First and foremost, it means who would work cheapest. But that destroys the very purpose of having a union, which is to end that competition between workers.
Logic dictates that this strategy cannot work. After all, the non-union contractors more or less peg what they pay to a percentage of the union scale. That’s especially true in areas like New York City, where the union still is fairly strong. So, if the union workers take a cut, then so will the non-union. It’s called the “race to the bottom”, and it’s what’s been practiced in manufacturing and elsewhere also.
If logic isn’t enough, the facts prove it. According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics in 1998, 18.4% of construction workers were represented by a union. Twenty years later, in 2018, that figure had declined to 13.8%. From Seattle to Oakland to New York, building trades workers can see it in the number of large commercial jobs that are going up non-union.
The 1999 SF Bay Area carpenters wildcat strike.
1999 Carpenters wildcat strike – tradition and lessons
In 1999, some 2,000 San Francisco Bay Area carpenters went on a wildcat strike. (See this article for a history of that wildcat strike.) They were facing a situation almost identical to what New York City carpenters are facing today – a contractor-friendly contract in a time of full employment. That strike did not succeed in stopping the contract from going through, but like all worker struggles, it set a tradition of rank and file struggle, and it left some lessons, one of which is that we need to completely transform our union, from the bottom up. (In fact, it’s the same with all the unions!) The carpenters’ fight for better contracts is connected with the struggle to help the non-union carpenters get the same thing – to bring them into the union under the full union contract by forcing their contractors to sign the contract.
“Arrest 10,000 and start a riot?”
This retired carpenter remembers reading about a struggle in Pittsburgh PA in the early 1970s. There, some non-union contractor had started a major job downtown. The building trades called out all their 10s of 1000s of members and totally shut down the city. The chief of police was quoted as saying something like, “what they did was totally illegal, but what are you going to do – arrest 10,000 people and start a riot?” Within a week, that contractor had signed a union contract.
That was then. This is now. Major, commercial non-union construction is a lot more than just one or two jobs here and there. What’s needed is a union leadership that is committed to fighting for top dollar. In order to win it, the membership has to be mobilized to shut down the industry. In the process, we have to go to the non-union sisters and brothers, explain what we’re fighting for and urge them to join us, with the commitment that we will help them keep their jobs shut down tight until their contractors sign the full union contract also. If it takes doing what they did in Pittsburgh, then so be it. And if there is any threat of fines or law suits, then the struggle should be spread even further.
The 1999 Bay Area Carpenters struggle against a poor contract lasted for 3 months overall. During that time, we printed lots of leaflets, almost all with Spanish translation. We needed unity then. We need it now. Update clarification: The strike didn’t last three months; it only lasted 5 days. But what happened was that the Regional Council delegates had to take a second vote on the contract, and they had to give 60 days (I think it was) notice before they could vote. So, during that interim period, we continued the campaign against the contract. If you read this article or watch this video, you’ll see what I mean. One thing should be emphasized though: The campaign against the contract was important, but the only realistic chance of defeating the contract was through the wildcat strike.
Working class unity needed
There’s one other thing that we have to think about: A lot of non-union construction workers are immigrants. Some may be working without legal papers. How can we possibly win them over if we don’t also fight against Trump’s attacks on immigrants? That is part of the struggle also.
Note: If you’re interested in reading a little more in-depth of this history, see our pamphlet “What Happened to our Unions?“
NYC carpenters contract proposal
Census Drama and Trump’s Strategy
Carpenters wildcat strike in NYC?
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Home INDIA & BEYOND SC calls for independent probe into police shootings
SC calls for independent probe into police shootings
New Delhi, Sep 23 :
The Supreme Court Tuesday called for an independent and impartial probe in police shooting cases either by the state CIDs or a police station other than the one involved in it.
It also said that in staged shootout cases, the police officer leading the team must not escape its consequences.
“An independent investigation into the incident/encounter shall be conducted by the CID or police team of another police station under the supervision of a senior officer (at least a level above the head of the police party engaged in the encounter),” the bench of Chief Justice R.M. Lodha and Justice Rohinton Fali Nariman said.
The court said its “guidelines will also be applicable to grievous injury cases in police encounter, as far as possible”.
To guard against police not following procedure as directed by it, the court said: “If the family of the victim finds that the above procedure has not been followed or there exists a pattern of abuse or lack of independent investigation or impartiality by any of the functionaries, it may make a complaint to the sessions judge having territorial jurisdiction over the place of incident.”
“Upon such complaint being made, the concerned sessions judge shall look into the merits of the complaint and address the grievances raised therein,” it said.
To rule out cases where police officers are wrongly decorated or promoted even for non-deserving incidents of police firing or even staged shootouts, the court said: “No out-of-turn promotion or instant gallantry rewards shall be bestowed on the concerned officers soon after the occurrence.”
“It must be ensured at all costs that such rewards are given/recommended only when the gallantry of the concerned officers is established beyond doubt,” it said.
If on the conclusion of an investigation, “the materials/evidence having come on record show that death occurred by use of firearm amounting to offence under the IPC, disciplinary action against such officer must be promptly initiated and he be placed under suspension”.
In such an event, the police officer “must surrender his/her weapons for forensic and ballistic analysis, including any other material, as required by the investigating team, subject to the rights under article 20 of the Constitution”, it said.
The court said the relatives of the victim of a staged shootout would receive compensation as provided under section 357-A of the Code of Criminal Procedure.
Detailing what the team probing the police firing cases had to do, the court said the team would seek the identity of the victim, colour photographs of the victim, recover and preserve evidentiary material, including blood-stained earth, hair, fibres and threads relating to death.
In the event of death, the next of kin of the alleged criminal/victim must be informed at the earliest.
Saying that there should be no delay in sending FIR, diary entries, sketches etc. to the concerned court, the bench said “after full investigation, the report should be sent to the competent court under section 173 of the Code of Criminal Procedure”.
It also directed expeditious trial of the case.
“Whenever police receive any intelligence or tip-off regarding criminal movements or activities pertaining to the commission of a grave criminal offence”, the same shall be reduced into writing in some form (preferably into a case diary) or in some electronic form.
However, “such recording need not reveal details of the suspect or the location to which the party is headed”, the court said.
It also said that six-monthly statements of all cases where deaths have occurred in police firing must be sent to the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) by the state directors general of police (DGPs).
It must also be ensured that the six-monthly statements reach the NHRC by the 15th day of January and July.
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Tag Archives: biblical justification for slavery
“An Institution Sanctioned by God” Southern Religious Support of Slavery
Here is another excerpt from one of my Civil War texts dealing with the role of the Christian faith in justifying Southern Slavery. Once again it is not an easy subject to deal with for many people. Most American Christians of any denomination, Northern or Southern, would prefer that our often less than stellar practice of our faith didn’t exist, or be relegated to the deepest part of the dustbin of history. If they would stay that wouldn’t be a bad thing, but those attitudes, prejudices, and actions seem to always find a way back into current practice, if not in this case against African Americans, with the group du jour. Most of the time now it seems to involve immigrants, both legal and illegal, Muslims, and LGBTQ people. As the evangelical Anglican theologian Alistair McGrath writes: “the arguments used by the pro-slavery lobby represent a fascinating illustration and condemnation of how the Bible may be used to support a notion by reading the text within a rigid interpretive framework that forces predetermined conclusions to the text.”
So have a great day
The noted South Carolina Baptist minister, the Reverend Richard Furman wrote: “The right of holding slaves is clearly established by the Holy Scriptures, both by precept and example.” [1]
Like other people who supported the institution of slavery in the Americas before them, Southerners turned to the Christian faith to buttress their cause. Catholic and Protestant churches of England, France, the Netherlands, Spain and Portugal all provided their theological and ecclesiastical blessing to slavery and the slave trade. When a Catholic priest wrote his superiors asking if the slave trade and all of its components were legal according to Canon Law he received this answer:
“Your Reverence writes me that you would like to know whether the Negroes who are sent to your parts have been legally captured. To this I reply that I think your Reverence should have no scruples on this point, because this is a matter which has been questioned by the Board of Conscience in Lisbon, and all its members are learned and conscientious men. Nor did the bishops who were in Sao Thome, Cape Verde, and here in Loando – all learned and virtuous men – find fault with it. We have been here ourselves for forty years and there have been among us very learned Fathers…never did they consider the trade as illicit. Therefore we and the Fathers of Brazil buy these slaves for our service without any scruple….” [2]
In the American colonies, the Church of England accommodated itself to the plantation system by adapting itself to the ways of the plantation owners and slave traders. This began in 1619 when planters in Virginia and Maryland began to bring in slaves due to their “growing success by growing and exporting tobacco.” [3] To escape the ancient Christian prohibition on believers owning other believers most plantation owners refused to all their slaves to be baptized. However, to allow for some slaves to be baptized a law was passed in 1667 “declaring that baptism did not change a slave’s condition – another indication of the degree to which established religion was willing to bend to the interests of the powerful.” [4] It is interesting to note that this uniquely American Anglican idea that baptism did not change the nature of a person, was also used by the Nazis in regard to Jews who had converted to Christianity.
In light of the threat posed to slavery by the emerging abolitionist movement, slaveholders were forced to shift their defense of slavery away from it being simply a necessary evil to a positive good. The institution of slavery became “in both secular and religious discourse, the central component of the mission God had designed for the South.” [5] Like in the North where theology was at the heart of many abolitionist arguments, in the South theology was used to enshrine and defend the institution of slavery. British Evangelical-Anglican theologian Alister McGrath notes how “the arguments used by the pro-slavery lobby represent a fascinating illustration and condemnation of how the Bible may be used to support a notion by reading the text within a rigid interpretive framework that forces predetermined conclusions to the text.” [6]
Southern religion was a key component of something bigger than itself and played a role in the development of an ideology much more entrenched in the Southern culture than the abolitionist cause did in the North. This was in large part due to the same Second Great Awakening that brought abolitionism to the fore in the North. “Between 1801 when he Great Revival swept the region and 1831 when the slavery debate began, southern evangelicals achieved cultural dominance in the region. Looking back over the first thirty years of the century, they concluded that God had converted and blessed their region.” [7] The Southern political and religious ideology enshrined slavery as a key component of all areas of life. It was a complete worldview, a system of values, culture, religion and economics, or to use the more modern German term “Weltanschauung.” The Confederate worldview was the Cause. As Emory Thomas wrote in his book The Confederate Nation:
“it was the result of the secular transubstantiation in which the common elements of Southern life became sanctified in the Southern mind. The South’s ideological cause was more than the sum of its parts, more than the material circumstances and conditions from which it sprang. In the Confederate South the cause was ultimately an affair of the viscera….Questions about the Southern way of life became moral questions, and compromises of Southern life style would become concession of virtue and righteousness.” [8]
Despite the dissent of some, the “dominant position in the South was strongly pro-slavery, and the Bible was used to defend this entrenched position.” [9] This was tied to a strongly Calvinistic theology which saw slavery in context with the spread of the evangelical Protestant faith that had swept through the South as slavery spread. For many, if not most Southern ministers “the very spread of evangelical religion and slave labor in the South was a sign of God’s divine favor. Ministers did not focus on defending slavery in the abstract but rather championed Christian slaveholding as it was practiced in the American South. Though conceding that some forms of slavery might be evil, Southern slavery was not.” [10]
The former Governor of South Carolina, John Henry Hammond, led the religiously based counter argument to the abolitionists. Hammond’s arguments included biblical justification of blacks being biologically inferior to whites and slavery being supported in the Old Testament where the “Hebrews often practiced slavery” and in the New Testament where “Christ never denounced servitude.” [11] Hammond warned:
“Without white masters’ paternalistic protection, biologically inferior blacks, loving sleep above all and “sensual excitements of all kinds when awake” would first snooze, then wander, then plunder, then murder, then be exterminated and reenslaved.” [12]
Others in the South, including politicians, pundits and preachers were preaching “that slavery was an institution sanctioned by God, and that even blacks profited from it, for they had been snatched out of pagan and uncivilized Africa and been given the advantages of the gospel.” [13] The basic understanding was that slavery existed because “God had providential purposes for slavery.” [14]
At the heart of the pro-slavery theological arguments was in the conviction of most Southern preachers of human sinfulness. “Many Southern clergymen found divine sanction for racial subordination in the “truth” that blacks were cursed as “Sons of Ham” and justified bondage by citing Biblical examples.” [15] But simply citing scripture to justify the reality of a system of which they reaped the benefit, is just part of the story. The real issue was far greater than that. The theology that justified slavery also, in the minds of many Christians in the north justified what they considered “the hedonistic aspects of the Southern life style.” [16] This was something that abolitionist preachers continually emphasized, criticizing the greed, sloth and lust inherent in the culture of slavery and plantation life, and was an accusation of which Southern slaveholders, especially evangelicals took umbrage, for in their understanding good men could own slaves. Their defense was rooted in their theology. The hyper-individualistic language of Southern evangelicalism gave “new life to the claim that good men could hold slaves. Slaveholding was a traditional mark of success, and a moral defense of slavery was implicit wherever Americans who considered themselves good Christians held slaves.” [17] The hedonism and fundamentalism that existed in the Southern soul, was the “same conservative faith which inspired John Brown to violence in an attempt to abolish slavery…” [18]
Slave owners frequently expressed hostility to independent black churches and conducted violence against them, and “attacks on clandestine prayer meetings were not arbitrary. They reflected the assumption (as one Mississippi slave put it) “that when colored people were praying [by themselves] it was against them.” [19] But some Southern blacks accepted the basic tenets of slave owner-planter sponsored Christianity. Frederick Douglass later wrote “many good, religious colored people who were under the delusion that God required them to submit to slavery and wear their chains with weakness and humility.” [20]
The political and cultural rift began to affect entire church denominations. The heart of the matter went directly to theology, in this case the interpretation of the Bible in American churches. The American Protestant and Evangelical understanding was rooted in the key theological principle of the Protestant Reformation, that of Sola Scripura, which became an intellectual trap for northerners and southerners of various theological stripes. Southerners believed that they held a “special fidelity to the Bible and relations with God. Southerners thought abolitionists either did not understand the Bible or did not know God’s will, and suspected them of perverting both.” [21]The problem was then, as it is now that:
“Americans favored a commonsense understanding of the Bible that ripped passages out of context and applied them to all people at all times. Sola scriptura both set and limited terms for discussing slavery and gave apologists for the institution great advantages. The patriarchs of the Old Testament had owned slaves, Mosaic Law upheld slavery, Jesus had not condemned slavery, and the apostles had advised slaves to obey their masters – these points summed up and closed the case for many southerners and no small number of northerners.” [22]
In the early decades of the nineteenth century there existed a certain confusion and ambivalence to slavery in most denominations. The Presbyterians exemplified this when in 1818 the “General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church, while opposing slavery against the law of God, also went on record as opposing abolition, and deposed a minister for advocating abolition.” [23] There were arguments by some American Christians including some Catholics, Lutherans, Episcopalians and others to offer alternative ways to “interpreting and applying scripture to the slavery question, but none were convincing or influential enough to force debate” [24] out of the hands of literalists.
However the real schisms between the Northern and Southern branches of the major denominations which began to emerge in the mid to late 1830s continued to grow with the actual breakups of the major denominations coming in the 1840s. The first denomination to split was the Methodist church. This occurred in 1844 when “the Methodist General Conference condemned the bishop of Georgia for holding slaves, the church split and the following year saw the birth of the Methodist Episcopal Church.” [25] Not all Methodists in the South agreed with this split and a few Methodist abolitionists in the South “broke away from mainline Methodism to form the Free Methodist Church.” [26]
The Baptists were next, when the Foreign Mission Board “refused to commission a candidate who had been recommended by the Georgia Baptist Convention, on the ground that he owned slaves” [27] resulting in the formation of the Southern Baptist Convention. The Baptist split is interesting because until the early 1800s there existed a fairly strong anti-slavery movement in states such as Kentucky, while in 1790 the General Committee of Virginia “adopted a statement calling slavery “a violent deprivation of the rights of nature, and inconsistent with a republican government; and therefore [we] recommend it to our brethren to make use of every legal measure, to extirpate the horrid evil from the land.” [28]
However, in many parts of the Deep South there existed no such sentiment and in South Carolina, noted Baptist preachers including “Richard Furman, Peter Bainbridge, and Edmund Botsford were among the larger slaveholders.” [29] Furman wrote a defense of slavery in 1822 where he made the argument that “the right of holding slaves is clearly established in the Holy Scriptures by precept and example.” [30] After a number of slave uprisings, including the Nat Turner Revolt in Virginia, pro-slavery voices “tended to silence any remaining antislavery voices in the South.” [31]
These voices grew more ever more strident and in 1835 the Charleston Association “adopted a militant defense of slavery, sternly chastising abolitionists as “mistaken philanthropists, and denuded and mischievous fanatics.” [32] Those who met in Augusta Georgia to found the new Southern Baptist Convention indicated that “the division was “painful” but necessary because” our brethren have pressed upon every inch of our privileges and our sacred rights.” [33] Since the Baptist split was brought about by the refusal of the Triennial Convention to appoint slaveholders as foreign missionaries the new convention emphasized the theological nature of their decision:
“Our objects, then, are the extension of the Messiah’s kingdom, and the glory of God. Not disunion with any of his people; not the upholding of any form of civil rights; but God’s glory, and Messiah’s increasing reign; in the promotion of which, we find no necessity for relinquishing any of our civil rights. We will never interfere with what is Caesar’s. We will not compromit what is God’s.” [34]
Of course, to the Baptists who met at Augusta, “what was Caesar’s” was obviously the institution of slavery.
The last denomination to officially split was the Presbyterians in 1861 who, “reflecting the division of the nation, the Southern presbyteries withdrew from the Presbyterian Church and founded their own denomination.” [35] The split in the Presbyterian Church had been obvious for years despite their outward unity. Princeton’s eminent Charles Hodge tried to be a peacemaker in the denomination warning of the dangers of disunion. He wrote, “If we are to be plunged into the horrors of civil war and servile insurrections, no tongue can tell how the cause of the Redeemer must suffer throughout our whole land.” [36] But like many conservatives of his time Hodge was misguided in thinking that moderates could prevail and that a sentimental attachment to the Union would prevent secession and war.
Some Southern pastors and theologians were at the forefront of battling their northern counterparts for the theological high ground that defined just whose side God was on. James Henley Thornwell presented the conflict between northern evangelical abolitionists and southern evangelical defenders of slavery in Manichean terms, a battle between Christianity and Atheism, and he believed that abolitionists attacked religion itself.
Robert Lewis Dabney, a southern Presbyterian pastor who later served as Chief of Staff to Stonewall Jackson in the Valley Campaign and at Seven Pines and who remained a defender of slavery long after the war was over wrote that:
“we must go before the nation with the Bible as the text and ‘Thus saith the Lord’ as the answer….we know that on the Bible argument the abolition party will be driven to reveal their true infidel tendencies. The Bible being bound to stand on our side, they have to come out and array themselves against the Bible. And then the whole body of sincere believers at the North will have to array themselves, though unwillingly, on our side. They will prefer the Bible to abolitionism.” [37]
Southern churches and church leaders were among the most enthusiastic voices for disunion and secession. They labeled their Northern critics, even fellow evangelicals in the abolition movement as “atheists, infidels, communists, free-lovers, Bible-haters, and anti-Christian levelers.” [38] The preachers who had called for separation from their own national denominations years before the war now “summoned their congregations to leave the foul Union and then to cleanse their world.” [39] Thomas R.R. Cobb, a Georgia lawyer, an outspoken advocate of slavery and secession who was killed at the Battle of Fredericksburg, wrote proudly that Secession “has been accomplished mainly by the churches.” [40]
The Reverend William Leacock of Christ Church, New Orleans declared in his Thanksgiving sermon of 1860: “Our enemies…have “defamed” our characters, “lacerated” our feelings, “invaded “our rights, “stolen” our property, and let “murderers…loose upon us, stimulated by weak or designing or infidel preachers. With “the deepest and blackest malice,” they have “proscribed” us “as unworthy members… of the society of men and accursed before God.” Unless we sink to “craven” beginning that they “not disturb us,…nothing is now left us but secession.” [41]
The fact that so many Protestant ministers, intellectuals, and theologians, not only Southerners, but men like “Princeton’s venerable theologian Charles B. Hodge – supported the institution of slavery on biblical grounds, often dismissing abolitionists as liberal progressives who did not take the Bible seriously” leaves a troubling question over those who claim to oppose issues on supposedly Biblical grounds. There were many such men in the North who spoke out for it and against Christian Abolitionists “in order to protect and promote interests concomitant to slavery, namely biblical traditionalism, and social and theological authority.” [42] The Northern clerical defenders of slavery perceived the spread of abolitionist preaching as a threat, not just to slavery “but also to the very principle of social and ecclesiastical hierarchy.” [43] Alistair McGrath asks a very important question for modern Christians who might be tempted to support a position for the same reasons today, “Might not the same mistakes be made all over again, this time over another issue?” [44]
[1] Furman, Richard Exposition of the Views of Baptists, Relative to the Coloured Population in the United States May 28th 1823, In Communication the Governor of South Carolina, Second Edition A.E. Miller, Charleston SC 1838 retrieved from http://faceweb.furman.edu/~benson/docs/rcd-fmn1.htm 15 July 2016
[2] Ibid. Zinn A People’s History of the United States pp.29-30
[3] Ibid. Gonzalez The History of Christianity Volume 2: The Reformation to the Present Day Harper p.219
[4] Ibid. Gonzalez The History of Christianity Volume 2: pp.219-220
[5] Gallagher, Gary W. The Confederate War: How Popular Will, Nationalism and Military Strategy Could not Stave Off Defeat Harvard University Press, Cambridge MA and London 1999 p.67
[6] Ibid. McGrath Christianity’s Dangerous Idea p.324
[7] Ibid. Daly When Slavery Was Called Freedom p.69
[8] Ibid. Thomas The Confederate Nation 1861-1865 p.4
[10] Ibid. Varon Disunion! p.109
[11] Ibid. Freehling The Road to Disunion Volume One p.29
[13] Ibid. Gonzalez The History of Christianity Volume 2: p.251
[14] Ibid. Daly When Slavery Was Called Freedom p.54
[15] Ibid. Thomas The Confederate Nation p.22
[19] Ibid. Levine Half Slave and Half Free p.116
[22] Ibid. Rable God’s Almost Chosen Peoples p.14
[23] Ibid. Gonzalez The History of Christianity Volume 2 p.251
[26] Ibid. McGrath Christianity’s Dangerous Idea p.324
[28] Ibid. McBeth The Baptist Heritage p.383
[33] Shurden, Walter B Not a Silent People: The Controversies that Have Shaped Southern Baptists Broadman Press, Nashville TN 1972 p.58
[34] Ibid. Shurden Not a Silent People p.58
[39] Freehling, William. The Road to Disunion Volume II: Secessionists Triumphant 1854-1861 Oxford University Press, Oxford and New York 2007 p.460
[41] Ibid. Freehling The Road to Disunion Volume II p.462
Filed under civil rights, civil war, ethics, faith, History, Political Commentary, Religion
Tagged as alistair mcgrath, american slavery, biblical justification for slavery, calvinism, church of england, emory thomas, frederick douglass, john henry hammond, northern southern baptist split, richard furman, robert lewis dabney, second great awakening, southern religious support for slavery, William Leacock
December 12, 2014 · 20:00
Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory: Religion, Ideology and the Civil War Part 2
This is part two of a very long chapter in my Gettysburg Staff Ride Text. Part one was published last night and can be found here: https://padresteve.com/2014/12/11/mine-eyes-have-seen-the-glory-religion-ideology-the-civil-war-part-1/
The chapter is different because instead of simply studying the battle my students also get some very detailed history about the ideological components of war that helped make the American Civil War not only a definitive event in our history; but a war of utmost brutality in which religion drove people and leaders on both sides to advocate not just defeating their opponent, but exterminating them.
But the study of this religious and ideological war is timeless, for it helps us to understand the ideology of current rivals and opponents, some of whom we are in engaged in battle and others who we spar with by other means, nations, tribes and peoples whose world view, and response to the United States and the West, is dictated by their religion.
Yet for those more interested in current American political and social issues the period is very instructive, for the religious, ideological and political arguments used by Evangelical Christians in the ante-bellum period, as well as many of the attitudes displayed by Christians in the North and the South are still on display in our current political and social debates.
I will be posting the final part tomorrow.
Henry Clay argues for the Compromise of 1850
The Disastrous Compromise of 1850
The tensions in the aftermath of the war with Mexico escalated over the issue of slavery in the newly conquered territories brought heated calls by some southerners for secession and disunion. To preserve the Union, Henry Clay and Daniel Webster, supported by the new President Millard Fillmore were able to pass the compromise of 1850 solved a number of issues related to the admission of California to the Union and boundary disputes involving Texas and the new territories. But among the bills that were contained in it was the Fugitive Slave Law, or The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. The act was the device of Henry Clay which was meant to sweeten the deal for southerners. The law would “give slaveholders broader powers to stop the flow of runaway slaves northward to the free states, and offered a final resolution denying that Congress had any authority to regulate the interstate slave trade.” [1] which for all practical purposes nationalized the institution of slavery, even in Free states by forcing all citizens to assist law enforcement in apprehending fugitive slaves and voided state laws in Massachusetts, Vermont, Ohio, Connecticut, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island which barred state officials from aiding in the capture, arrest or imprisonment of fugitive slaves. “Congress’s law had nationalized slavery. No black person was safe on American soil. The old division of free state/slave state had vanished….” [2]
That law required all Federal law enforcement officials, even in non-slave states to arrest fugitive slaves and anyone who assisted them, and threatened law enforcement officials with punishment if they failed to enforce the law. The law stipulated that should “any marshal or deputy marshal refuse to receive such warrant, or other process, when tendered, or to use all proper means diligently to execute the same, he shall, on conviction thereof, be fined in the sum of one thousand dollars.” [3]
Likewise the act compelled citizens in Free states to “aid and assist in the prompt and efficient execution of this law, whenever their services may be required….” [4] Penalties were harsh and financial incentives for compliance attractive.
“Anyone caught providing food and shelter to an escaped slave, assuming northern whites could discern who was a runaway, would be subject to a fine of one thousand dollars and six months in prison. The law also suspended habeas corpus and the right to trial by jury for captured blacks. Judges received a hundred dollars for every slave returned to his or her owner, providing a monetary incentive for jurists to rule in favor of slave catchers.” [5]
The law gave no protection for even black freedmen. The created a new office, that of Federal Commissioner, to adjudicate the claims of slaveholders and their agents and to avoid the normal Federal Court system. No proof or evidence other than the sworn statement by of the owner with an “affidavit from a slave-state court or by the testimony of white witnesses” [6] that a black was or had been his property was required to return any black to slavery. Since blacks could not testify on their own behalf and were denied representation the act created an onerous extrajudicial process that defied imagination. The commissioners had a financial incentive to send blacks back to slavery. “If the commissioner decided against the claimant he would receive a fee of five dollars; if in favor ten. This provision, supposedly justified by the paper work needed to remand a fugitive to the South, became notorious among abolitionists as a bribe to commissioners.” [7]
Frederick Douglass said:
“By an act of the American Congress…slavery has been nationalized in its most horrible and revolting form. By that act, Mason & Dixon’s line has been obliterated;…and the power to hold, hunt, and sell men, women, and children remains no longer a mere state institution, but is now an institution of the whole United States.” [8]
On his deathbed Henry Clay praised the act, which he wrote “The new fugitive slave law, I believe, kept the South in the Union in ‘fifty and ‘fifty-one. Not only does it deny fugitives trial by jury and the right to testify; it also imposes a fine and imprisonment upon any citizen found guilty of preventing a fugitive’s arrest…” Likewise Clay depreciated the opposition noting “Yes, since the passage of the compromise, the abolitionists and free coloreds of the North have howled in protest and viciously assailed me, and twice in Boston there has been a failure to execute the law, which shocks and astounds me…. But such people belong to the lunatic fringe. The vast majority of Americans, North and South, support our handiwork, the great compromise that pulled the nation back from the brink.” [9]
The compromise had “averted a showdown over who would control the new western territories” [10] but it only delayed disunion. In arguing against the compromise South Carolina Senator John C. Calhoun realized that for Southerners it did not do enough and that it would inspire abolitionists to greater efforts in their cause. He argued for permanent protection of slavery:
“He understood that slavery stood at the heart of southern society, and that without a mechanism to protect it for all time, the Union’s days were numbered.” Almost prophetically he said “I fix its probable [breakup] within twelve years or three presidential terms…. The probability is it will explode in a presidential election.” [11]
Of course it was Calhoun and not the authors of the compromise who proved correct. The leap into the abyss of disunion and civil war had only been temporarily avoided. However, none of the supporters anticipated what would occur in just six years when a train of unexpected consequences would throw an entirely new light on the popular sovereignty doctrine, and both it and the Compromise of 1850 would be wreaked with the stroke of a single judicial pen.” [12]
Religion, Ideology and the Abolitionist Movement
In the North a strident abolitionist movement took root and with each failed compromise, with each new infringement on the rights of northern free-states by the Congress, Courts and the Executive branch to appease southern slaveholders the movement gained added support. The movement developed during the 1830s in New England as a fringe movement among the more liberal elites. One wing of the movement “arose from evangelical ranks and framed its critique of bound labor in religious terms.” [13] The polarization emerged as Northern states abolished slavery as increasing numbers of influential “former slave owners such as Benjamin Franklin changed their views on the matter.” [14]
Many in the movement were inspired by the preaching of revivalist preacher Charles Finney who “demanded a religious conversion with a political potential more radical than the preacher first intended.” [15] Finney and other preachers were instrumental in the Second Great Awakening “which rekindled religious fervor in much of the nation, saw new pressure for abolition.” [16] In fact the “most important child of the Awakening, however, was the abolitionist movement, which in the 1830s took on new life, place the slavery issue squarely on the national agenda, and for the next quarter century aroused and mobilized people in the cause of emancipation.” [17]
The evangelical proponents of abolition understood this in the concept of “free will” something that the pointed out that slavery “denied one group of human beings the freedom of action necessary to free will – and therefore moral responsibility for their behavior. Meanwhile, it assigned to other human beings a degree of temporal power that virtually guaranteed their moral corruption. Both master and slave were thus trapped in a relationship that inevitably led both down the path of sin and depravity” [18]
Finney’s preaching was emboldened and expanded by the American Anti-Slavery Society founded by William Lloyd Garrison “which launched a campaign to change minds, North and South, with three initiatives, public speeches, mass mailings and petitions.” [19] Many of the speakers were seminary students and graduates of Lane Seminary in Cincinnati, who became known as “the Seventy” who received training and then “fanned out across the North campaigning in New England, Pennsylvania, New York, Ohio, Indiana and Michigan” [20] where many received hostile receptions, and encountered violence. Garrison used his newspaper, The Liberator to “pledge an all-out attack on U.S. slavery.” [21] Likewise other churches such as the Presbyterians founded new educational institutions such as “Oberlin College in Ohio” which “was founded as an abolitionist institution” [22]
Theodore Parker, a Unitarian pastor and leading Transcendentalist thinker enunciated a very important theological-political analogy for many in the religious wing of the abolitionist movement which concentrated less on using chapter and verse but appealing to “the spirit of the Gospel,” [23] in as Parker’s analogy: as Jesus is to the Bible, so is the Declaration to the Constitution:
“By Christianity, I mean that form of religion which consists of piety – the love of God, and morality – the keeping of His laws. That Christianity is not the Christianity of the Christian church, nor of any sect. It is the ideal religion which the human race has been groping for….By Democracy, I mean government over all the people, by all the people and for the sake of all….This is not a democracy of the parties, but it is an ideal government, the reign of righteousness, the kingdom of justice, which all noble hearts long for, and labor to produce, the ideal whereunto mankind slowly draws near.” [24]
The early abolitionists who saw the issue framed in terms of their religious faith declared slavery a sin against God and man that demanded immediate action.” [25] For them the issue was a matter of faith and belief in which compromise of any kind including the gradual elimination of slavery or any other halfway measures were unacceptable. “William Lloyd Garrison and his fellow abolitionists believed the nation faced a clear choice between damnation and salvation,” [26] a cry that can be heard in much of today’s political debate regarding a number of social issues with religious components including abortion, gay rights and immigration. Harrison wrote that “Our program of immediate emancipation and assimilation, I maintained, was the only panacea, the only Christian solution, to an unbearable program.” [27] The abolitionists identified:
“their cause with the cause of freedom, and with the interests of large and relatively unorganized special groups such as laborers and immigrants, the abolitionists considered themselves to be, and convinced many others that they were, the sole remaining protectors of civil rights.” [28]
The arguments were frequently and eloquently rooted in profoundly religious terms common to evangelical Christianity and the Second Great Awakening. One of the leading historians of the era, Henry Wilson of Massachusetts, a Radical Republican and abolitionist who served as a United States Senator and Vice President in Ulysses Grant’s second administration provides a good example of this. He wrote in his post war history of the events leading to the war explaining basic understanding of the religiously minded abolitionists during the period:
“God’s Holy Word declares that man was doomed to eat his bread in the sweat of his face. History and tradition teach that the indolent, the crafty, and the strong, unmindful of human rights, have ever sought to evade this Divine decree by filching their bread from the constrained and unpaid toil of others…
American slavery reduced man, created in the Divine image, to property….It made him a beast of burden in the field of toil, an outcast in social life, a cipher in courts of law, and a pariah in the house of God. To claim for himself, or to use himself for his own benefit or benefit of wife and child, was deemed a crime. His master could dispose of his person at will, and of everything acquired by his enforced and unrequited toil.
This complete subversion of the natural rights of millions…constituted a system antagonistic to the doctrines of reason and the monitions of conscience, and developed and gratified the most intense spirit of personal pride, a love of class distinctions, and the lust of dominion. Hence a commanding power, ever sensitive, jealous, proscriptive, dominating, and aggressive, which was recognized and fitly characterized as the Slave Power…” [29]
The religious abolitionists took aim at the Southern churches and church leaders who they believed only buttressed slavery but “had become pawns of wealthy slaveholders and southern theologians apologists for oppression.” [30] As the abolitionist movement spread through Northern churches, especially those with ties to the evangelicalism of the Great Awakenings, and for “Evangelical northerners, the belief in individual spiritual and personal rights and personal religious activism made such involvement necessary.” [31]
For Baptists the issue created a deep polarization with northern Baptists mobilizing around abolitionist principles which came out of their association with English Baptists who had been at the forefront of the abolitionist movement in England where the Reverend William Knibb, who also led the fight to end slavery in Jamaica “became an impassioned defender of the human rights of blacks….his flamboyant speeches aroused the people against slavery.” [32] The Baptist Union in England sent a lengthy letter to the Baptist Triennial Convention in the United States on December 31st 1833 in which they condemned “the slave system…as a sin to be abandoned, and not an evil to be mitigated,” and in which they urged all American Baptists to do all in their power to “effect its speedy overthrow.” [33]
In 1835 two English Baptists, Francis Cox and James Hoby, who were active in that nation’s abolitionist movement with William Wilberforce came to the United States “to urge Baptists to abandon slavery. This visit and subsequent correspondence tended to polarize Baptists.” [34] In the north their visit encouraged faith based activism in abolitionist groups. In 1849 the American Baptist Anti-Slavery Convention was formed in New York and launched a polemic attack on the institution of slavery and called southern Baptists to repent in the strongest terms. They urged that the mission agencies be cleansed from “any taint of slavery…and condemned slavery in militant terms.” They called on Southern Baptists to “confess before heaven and earth the sinfulness of holding slaves; admit it to be not only a misfortune, but a crime…” and it warned that “if Baptists in the South ignored such warnings and persisted in the practice of slavery, “we cannot and dare not recognize you as consistent brethren in Christ.” [35] Such divisions we not limited to Baptists and as the decade moved on rose to crisis proportions in every evangelical denomination, provoking Kentucky Senator Henry Clay to wonder: “If our religious men cannot live together in peace, what can be expected of us politicians, very few of whom profess to be governed by the great principles of love?” [36]
The abolition movement aimed to not only stop the spread of slavery but to abolish it. The latter was something that many in the North who opposed slavery’s expansion were often either not in favor of, or indifferent to, became an issue for many after the passage of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. So long as slavery was regulated to the South most northerners showed little concern, and even though many profited by slavery, or otherwise reaped its benefits their involvement was indirect. While they may have worn clothes made of cotton harvested by slaves, while the profits of corporations that benefited from all aspects of the Southern slave economy paid the wages of northern workers and shareholders, few thought of the moral issues until they were forced to participate or saw the laws of their states overthrown by Congress.
Uncle Tom’s Cabin and the Popularization of Abolitionism in the North
It was only after this act that the abolitionist movement began to gain traction among people in the North. The movement was given a large boost by the huge popularity of Harriett Beecher Stowe’s 1852 novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin “a vivid, highly imaginative, best-selling, and altogether damning indictment of slavery” [37]
Harriet Beecher Stowe
Stowe was a well-educated writer, the daughter of the President of Lane Seminary, Lyman Beecher and wife of Calvin Ellis Stowe, a professor at the seminary. She and her family were deeply involved in the abolitionist movement and supported the Underground Railroad, even taking fugitive slaves into her home. These activities and her association with escaped slaves made a profound impact on her. She received a letter from her sister who was distraught over the passage of the Fugitive Slave Law. He sister challenged Stowe to write: “How, Hattie, if I could use a pen as you can, I would write something that would make this whole nation feel what an accursed thing slavery is.” [38]
One communion Sunday she:
“sat at the communion table of Brunswick’s First Parish Church, a vision began playing before my eyes that left me in tears. I saw an old slave clad in rags, a gentle, Christian man like the slave I had read about in American Slavery as It Is. A cruel white man, a man with a hardened fist, was flogging the old slave. Now a cruel master ordered two other slaves two other slaves to finish the task. As they laid on the whips, the old black man prayed for God to forgive them.
After church I rushed home in a trance and wrote down what I had seen. Since Calvin was away, I read the sketch to my ten- and twelve-year-old sons. They wept too, and one cried, “Oh! Mamma, slavery is the most cursed thing in the world!” I named the old slave Uncle Tom and his evil tormenter Simon Legree. Having recorded the climax of my story, I then commenced at the beginning….” [39]
The Auction, engraving from Uncle Tom’s Cabin
Many of Stowe’s characters were fiction versions of people that she actually knew or had heard about and the power of her writing made the work a major success in the United States and in Britain. The abolitionist movement gained steam and power through it and the play that issued from it. The publication of the book and its success “raised a counter indignation among Southerners because they thought Mrs. Stowe’s portrait untrue and because the North was so willing to believe it.” [40]
But despite the furor of many southerners the book gained in popularity and influenced a generation of northerners, creating a stereotype of Southern slaveholders and it caused people “to think more deeply and more personally about the implications of slavery for family, society and Christianity.” [41] The book drew many previously ambivalent to the writings of the abolitionists, and who did not normally read the accounts of escaped slaves. The vivid images in Stowe’s book “were irredeemably hostile: from now on the Southern stereotype was something akin to Simon Legree.” [42] But those images transformed the issue in the minds of many in the north as they “touched on all these chords of feeling, faith, and experience….The genius of Uncle Tom’s Cabin was that it made the personal universal, and it made the personal political as well. For millions of readers, blacks became people.” [43] One northern reader said “what truth could not accomplish, fiction did” [44] as it “put a face on slavery, and a soul on black people.” [45]
George Fitzhugh, a defended of benevolent paternalistic slavery noted Stowe’s book “was “right” concerning the “bitter treatment of slaves….Law, Religion, and Public Opinion should be invoked to punish and correct those abuses….” [46] However, such thoughts could not be spoken too openly for fear of other slaveholders who “could not calmly debate internal correction…while outside agitators advertised their supposed monstrosities.” [47] The inability to debate the issue internally made the southern visceral response to Uncle Tom’s Cabin look petty and impotent.
But others too had an effect on the debate, even escaped former slaves like Frederick Douglass. Douglass became a prominent abolitionist leader was very critical of the role of churches, especially Southern churches in the maintenance of slavery as an institution. His polemic against them in his autobiography reads like the preaching of an Old Testament prophet such as Amos, or Jeremiah railing against the corrupt religious institutions of their day:
“Indeed, I can see no reason, but the most deceitful one, for calling the religion of this land Christianity. I look upon it as the climax of all misnomers, the boldest of all frauds, and the grossest of all libels. Never was there a clearer case of “stealing the livery of the court of heaven to serve the devil in.” I am filled with unutterable loathing when I contemplate the religious pomp and show, together with the horrible inconsistencies, which every where surround me. We have men-stealers for ministers, women-whippers for missionaries, and cradle-plunderers for church members. The man who wields the blood-clotted cowskin during the week fill the pulpit on Sunday, and claims to be a minister of the meek and lowly Jesus. The man who robs me of my earnings at the end of each week meets me as a class-leader on Sunday morning, to show me the way of life, and the path of salvation. He who sells my sister, for purposes of prostitution, stands forth as the pious advocate of purity. He who proclaims it a religious duty to read the Bible denies me the right of learning to read the name of the God who made me. He who is the religious advocate of marriage robs whole millions of its sacred influence, and leaves them to the ravages of wholesale pollution. The warm defender of the sacredness of the family relation is the same that scatters whole families, — sundering husbands and wives, parents and children, sisters and brothers, — leaving the hut vacant and the heart desolate. We see the thief preaching against theft, and the adulterer against adultery. We have men sold to build churches, women sold to support the gospel, and babes sold to purchase Bibles for the poor heathen! All for the glory of God and the good of souls.”[48]
Poet Walt Whitman was radicalized by the passage of the act and in his poem Blood Money he “used the common evangelical technique of applying biblical parables to contemporary events, echoing in literary form William H. Seward’s “higher law” speech.” [49]
Of olden time, when it came to pass
That the Beautiful God, Jesus, should finish his work on earth,
Then went Judas, and sold the Divine youth,
And took pay for his body.
Cursed was the deed, even before the sweat of the clutching hand grew dry…
Since those ancient days; many a pouch enwrapping mean-
Its fee, like that paid for the Son of Mary.
Again goes one, saying,
What will ye give me, and I will deliver this man unto you?
And they make the covenant and pay the pieces of silver…
The meanest spit in thy face—they smite thee with their
Bruised, bloody, and pinioned is thy body,
More sorrowful than death is thy soul.
Witness of Anguish—Brother of Slaves,
Not with thy price closed the price of thine image;
And still Iscariot plies his trade. [50]
The leaders of the Abolitionist movement who had fought hard against acts the Fugitive Slave Act and the Dred Scott decision were now beginning to be joined by a Northern population that was becoming less tolerant of slavery and the status quo. For abolitionists “who had lost their youthful spiritual fervor, the crusade became a substitute for religion. And in the calls for immediate emancipation, one could hear echoes of perfectionism and millennialism.” [51]
But there was resistance of Northern theological circles to abolitionism. Charles B. Hodge, the President of Princeton Theological Seminary “supported slavery on biblical grounds, often dismissing abolitionists as liberal progressives who did not take the Bible seriously.” [52]
With the formation of the Republican Party in 1854, a party founded on opposition to the expansion of slavery in the territories found a formidable political voice and became part of a broad coalition of varied interests groups whose aspirations had been blocked by pro-slavery Democrats. These groups included “agrarians demanding free-homestead legislation, Western merchants desiring river and harbor improvements at federal expense, Pennsylvania iron masters and New England textile merchants in quest of higher tariffs.” The abolitionists also made headway in gaining the support of immigrants, “especially among the liberal, vocal, fiercely anti-slavery Germans who had recently fled the Revolution of 1848.” [53] One of those German immigrants, Carl Schurz observed that “the slavery question” was “not a mere occasional quarrel between two sections of the country, divided by a geographic line” but “a great struggle between two antagonistic systems of social organization.” [54]
Southern Religious Support of Slavery
In light of the threat posed to slavery by the emerging abolitionist movement forced slaveholders to shift their defense of slavery from it being simply a necessary evil. Slavery became “in both secular and religious discourse, the central component of the mission God had designed for the South.” [55] Like in the North where theology was at the heart of many abolitionist arguments, in the South theology was used to enshrine and defend the institution of slavery. British Evangelical-Anglican theologian Alister McGrath notes how “the arguments used by the pro-slavery lobby represent a fascinating illustration and condemnation of how the Bible may be used to support a notion by reading the text within a rigid interpretive framework that forces predetermined conclusions to the text.” [56]
Southern religion was a key component of something bigger than itself and played a role in the development of an ideology much more entrenched in the culture than the abolitionist cause did in the North, in large part due to the same Second Great Awakening that brought abolitionism to the fore in the North. “Between 1801 when he Great Revival swept the region and 1831 when the slavery debate began, southern evangelicals achieved cultural dominance in the region. Looking back over the first thirty years of the century, they concluded that God had converted and blessed their region.” [57]The Southern ideology which enshrined slavery as a key component of all areas of life was a belief system, it was a system of values, it was a worldview, or to use the more modern German term “Weltanschauung.” The Confederate worldview was the Cause. As Emory Thomas wrote in his book The Confederate Nation:
“it was the result of the secular transubstantiation in which the common elements of Southern life became sanctified in the Southern mind. The South’s ideological cause was more than the sum of its parts, more than the material circumstances and conditions from which it sprang. In the Confederate South the cause was ultimately an affair of the viscera….Questions about the Southern way of life became moral questions, and compromises of Southern life style would become concession of virtue and righteousness.” [58]
Despite the dissent of some, the “dominant position in the South was strongly pro-slavery, and the Bible was used to defend this entrenched position.” [59] The religiously based counter argument to the abolitionists was led by the former Governor of South Carolina, John Henry Hammond. Hammond’s arguments included biblical justification of blacks being biologically inferior to whites and slavery being supported in the Old Testament where the “Hebrews often practiced slavery” and in the New testament where “Christ never denounced servitude.” [60] Hammond warned:
Others in the South, including politicians, pundits and preachers were preaching “that slavery was an institution sanction by God, and that even blacks profited from it, for they had been snatched out of pagan and uncivilized Africa and been given the advantages of the gospel.” [62] The basic understanding was that slavery existed because “God had providential purposes for slavery.” [63]
At the heart of the pro-slavery theological arguments was in the conviction of most Southern preachers of human sinfulness. “Many Southern clergymen found divine sanction for racial subordination in the “truth” that blacks were cursed as “Sons of Ham” and justified bondage by citing Biblical examples.” [64] But simply citing scripture to justify the reality of a system that they repeated the benefit is just part of the story for the issue was far greater than that. The theology that justified slavery also, in the minds of many Christians in the north justified what they considered “the hedonistic aspects of the Southern life style.” [65] This was something that abolitionist preachers continually emphasized, criticizing the greed, sloth and lust inherent in the culture of slavery and plantation life, and was an accusation that Southern slaveholders, especially evangelicals took umbrage, for in their understanding good men could own slaves. Their defense was rooted in their theology and the hyper-individualistic language of Southern evangelicalism gave “new life to the claim that good men could hold slaves. Slaveholding was a traditional mark of success, and a moral defense of slavery was implicit wherever Americans who considered themselves good Christians held slaves.” [66] The hedonism and fundamentalism that existed in the Southern soul, was the “same conservative faith which inspired John Brown to violence in an attempt to abolish slavery…” [67]
Slave owners frequently expressed hostility to independent black churches and conducted violence against them, and “attacks on clandestine prayer meetings were not arbitrary. They reflected the assumption (as one Mississippi slave put it) “that when colored people were praying [by themselves] it was against them.” [68] But some Southern blacks accepted the basic tenets do slave owner-planter sponsored Christianity. Frederick Douglass later wrote “many good, religious colored people who were under the delusion that God required them to submit to slavery and wear their chains with weakness and humility.” [69]
However the real schisms between the Northern and Southern branches of the major denominations began to emerge in the mid to late 1830s with the actual breakups coming in the 1840s. The first to split were the Methodists when in “1844 the Methodist General Conference condemned the bishop of Georgia for holding slaves, the church split and the following year saw the birth of the Methodist Episcopal Church.” [74] Not all Methodists in the South agreed with this split and Methodist abolitionists in the South “broke away from mainline Methodism to form the Free Methodist Church.” [75]
However, in many parts of the Deep South there existed no such sentiment and in South Carolina noted Baptist preachers including “Richard Furman, Peter Bainbridge, and Edmund Botsford were among the larger slaveholders.” [78] Furman wrote a defense of slavery in 1822 where he made the argument that “the right of holding slaves is clearly established in the Holy Scriptures by precept and example.” [79] After a number of slave uprisings, including the Nat Turner Revolt in Virginia, pro-slavery voices “tended to silence any remaining antislavery voices in the South.” [80]
The last denomination to officially split was the Presbyterians in 1861 who, “reflecting the division of the nation, the Southern presbyteries withdrew from the Presbyterian Church and founded their own denomination.” [84] The split in the Presbyterian Church had been obvious for years despite their outward unity, some of the Southern pastors and theologians were at the forefront of battling their northern counterparts for the theological high ground that defined just whose side God was on. James Henley Thornwell presented the conflict between northern evangelical abolitionists and southern evangelical defenders of slavery in Manichean terms. He believed that abolitionists attacked religion itself.
“The “parties in the conflict are not merely abolitionists and slaveholders,…They are atheists, socialists, communists, red republicans, jacobins, on one side, and friends of order and regulated freedom on the other. In one word, the world is the battle ground – Christianity and Atheism as the combatants; and the progress of humanity at stake.” [85]
Southern churches and church leaders were among the most enthusiastic voices for disunion and secession. They labeled their Northern critics, even fellow evangelicals in the abolition movement as “atheists, infidels, communists, free-lovers, Bible-haters, and anti-Christian levelers.” [87] The preachers who had called for separation from their own national denominations years before the war now “summoned their congregations to leave the foul Union and then to cleanse their world.” [88] Thomas R.R. Cobb, a Georgia lawyer, an outspoken advocate of slavery and secession, who was killed at the Battle of Fredericksburg, wrote proudly that Secession “has been accomplished mainly by the churches.” [89]
The Reverend William Leacock of Christ Church, New Orleans declared in his Thanksgiving sermon “Our enemies…have “defamed” our characters, “lacerated” our feelings, “invaded “our rights, “stolen” our property, and let “murderers…loose upon us, stimulated by weak or designing or infidel preachers. With “the deepest and blackest malice,” they have “proscribed” us “as unworthy members… of the society of men and accursed before God.” Unless we sink to “craven” beginning that they “not disturb us,…nothing is now left us but secession.” [90]
The Religious Divide Becomes Political
The breakups of the major Protestant denominations boded ill for the country, in fact the true believers in their cause be it the abolition of slavery or the maintenance and expansion of it were among the most strident politically. “For people of faith these internecine schisms were very troubling. If citizens could not get along in the fellowship of Christ, what did the future hold for the nation?” [91] Both of the major political parties of the 1840s, the Democrats and the Whigs found themselves ever more led by religion as the “fissures among evangelicals, the conflicts between Protestants and Catholics, the slavery debates, and the settlement of the West placed religion at the forefront of American politics.” [92] Of course it was slavery that became the overriding issue as decade moved forward and the divisions among the faithful became deeper.
A Cincinnati minister who preached against secession “citing Absalom, Jeroboam, and Judas” as examples, argued that the “Cause of the United States” and the Cause of Jehovah” were identical…and insisted that “a just defensive war” against southern secessionists is “one of the prominent ways by which the Lord will introduce the millennial day.” [93] In the South many ministers became active in politics and men who at one time had been considered moderates began to speak “in the language of cultural warfare.” Mississippi Episcopal Bishop William Mercer Green denounced the “restless, insubordinate, and overbearing spirit of Puritanism” that was destroying the nation.” [94]
Some political leaders who had worked to craft compromises like South Carolina Senator John C. Calhoun were concerned and observed that the evangelical denominations which were splitting had “contributed greatly to strengthen the bond of the Union.” If all bonds were loosed, he worried, “nothing will be left to hold the Union together except force.” [95] Jefferson Davis and Abraham Lincoln, both who would be considered moderates on the issue of slavery in the late 1840s and early 1850s came to sharply different philosophical and theological understandings of the unfolding dissolution of the country. Davis as early as 1848 was defending slavery as “a common law right to property in the services of man; its origin is in Divine decree – the curse on the graceless sons of Noah.” But Lincoln condemned the expansion of the institution did so in decidedly theological terms, noting that “Slavery is founded in the selfishness of man’s nature…opposition to it is in his love of justice…. Repeal all past human history, you cannot repeal human nature. It will still be the abundance of man’s heart, that slavery extension is wrong.” [96]
God’s Chosen People and the Confederate Union of Church and State
Perhaps more than anything the denominational splits helped prepare the Southern people as well as clergy for secession and war. They set precedent by which Southerners left establish national organizations. When secession came, “the majority of young Protestant preachers were already primed by their respective church traditions to regard the possibilities of political separation from the United States without undue anxiety.” [97]
One of the most powerful ideological tools since the days of the ancients has been the linkage of religion to the state. While religion has always been a driving force in American life since they days of the Puritans in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, especially in the belief about the destiny of the nation as God’s “Chosen People” it was in the South where the old Puritan beliefs took firm root in culture, society, politics and the ideology which justified slavery and became indelibly linked to Southern nationalism. “Confederate independence, explained a Methodist tract quoting Puritan John Winthrop, was intended to enable the South, “like a city set on a hill’ [to] fulfill her God given mission to exalt in civilization and Christianity the nations of the earth.” [98]
Religion and the churches “supplied the overarching framework for southern nationalism. As Confederates cast themselves as God’s chosen people” [99] and the defense of slavery was a major part of this mission of the chosen people. A group of 154 clergymen “The Clergy of the South” “warned the world’s Christians that the North was perpetuating a plot of “interference with the plans of Divine Providence.” [100] A Tennessee pastor bluntly stated in 1861 that “In all contests between nations God espouses the cause of the Righteous and makes it his own….The institution of slavery according to the Bible is right. Therefore in the contest between the North and the South, He will espouse the cause of the South and make it his own.” [101]
The effect of such discourse on leaders as well as individuals was to unify the struggle as something that linked the nation to God, and God’s purposes to the nation identifying both as being the instruments of God’s will and Divine Providence:
“Sacred and secular history, like religion and politics, had become all but indistinguishable… The analogy between the Confederacy and the chosen Hebrew nation was invoked so often as to be transformed into a figure of everyday speech. Like the United States before it, the Confederacy became a redeemer nation, the new Israel.” [102]
This theology also motivated men like the convinced hard line Calvinist-Presbyterian, General Stonewall Jackson on the battlefield. Jackson’s brutal, Old Testament understanding of the war caused him to murmur: “No quarter to the violators of our homes and firesides,” and when someone deplored the necessity of destroying so many brave men, he exclaimed: “No, shoot them all, I do not wish them to be brave.” [103]
In effect: “Slavery became in secular and religious discourse, the central component of the mission God had designed for the South….The Confederates were fighting a just war not only because they were, in the traditional framework of just war theory, defending themselves against invasion, they were struggling to carry out God’s designs for a heathen race.” [104]
From “the beginning of the war southern churches of all sorts with few exceptions promoted the cause militant” [105] and supported war efforts, the early military victories of Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia and the victories of Stonewall Jackson in the Shenandoah Valley were celebrated as “providential validations of the cause that could not fail…” Texas Methodist minister William Seat wrote: “Never surely since the Wars of God’s ancient people has there been such a remarkable and uniform success against tremendous odds. The explanation is found in the fact that the Lord goes forth to fight against the coercion by foes of his particular people. Thus it has been and thus it will be to the end of the War.” [106]
This brought about a intertwining of church and state authority, a veritable understanding of theocracy as “The need for the southern people to acknowledge God’s authority was bound up with a legitimation of the authority of clerical and civil rulers. Christian humility became identified with social and political deference to both God and Jefferson Davis.” [107]
Jefferson Davis and other leaders helped bolster this belief:
“In his repeated calls for God’s aid and in his declaration of national days of fasting, humiliation, and prayer on nine occasions throughout the war, Jefferson Davis similarly acknowledged the need for a larger scope of legitimization. Nationhood had to be tied to higher ends. The South, it seemed, could not just be politically independent; it wanted to believe it was divinely chosen.” [108]
Davis’s actions likewise bolster his support and the support for the war among the clergy. A clergyman urged his congregation that the people of the South needed to relearn “the virtue of reverence- and the lesson of respecting, obeying, and honoring authority, for authority’s sake.” [109]
Confederate clergymen not only were spokesmen and supporters of slavery, secession and independence, but many also shed their clerical robes and put on Confederate Gray as soldiers, officers and even generals fighting for the Confederacy. Bishop Leonidas Polk, the Episcopal Bishop of Louisiana, who had been a classmate of Jefferson Davis at West Point was commissioned as a Major General and appointed to command the troops in the Mississippi Valley. Polk did not resign his ecclesiastical office, and “Northerners expressed horror at such sacrilege, but Southerners were delighted with this transfer from the Army of the Lord.” [110] Lee’s chief of Artillery Brigadier General Nelson Pendleton was also an academy graduate and an Episcopal Priest. By its donations of “everything from pew cushions to brass bells, Southern churches gave direct material aid to the cause. Among all the institutions in Southern life, perhaps the church most faithfully served the Confederate Army and nation.” [111] Southern ministers “not only proclaimed the glory of their role in creating the war but also but also went off to battle with the military in an attempt to add to their glory.” [112]
Sadly, the denominational rifts persisted until well into the twentieth century. The Presbyterians and Methodists both eventually reunited but the Baptists did not, and eventually “regional isolation, war bitterness, and differing emphasis in theology created chasms by the end of the century which leaders of an earlier generation could not have contemplated.” [113] The Southern Baptist Convention is now the largest Protestant denomination in the United States and many of its preachers are active in often divisive conservative social and political causes. The denomination that it split from, the American Baptist Convention, though much smaller remains a diverse collection of conservative and progressive local churches. Some of these are still in the forefront of the modern civil rights movement, including voting rights, women’s rights and LGBT issues, all of which find some degree of opposition in the Southern Baptist Convention.
But the religious dimensions were far bigger than denominational disagreements about slavery; religion became one of the bedrocks of Confederate nationalism. The Great Seal of the Confederacy had as its motto the Latin words Deo Vindice which can be translated “With God as our Champion” or “Under God [Our] Vindicator.” The issue was bigger than independence itself, it was intensely theological and secession “became an act of purification, a separation from the pollutions of decaying northern society, that “monstrous mass of moral disease,” as the Mobile Evening News so vividly described it.” [114]
The arguments found their way into the textbooks used in schools throughout the Confederacy. “The First Reader, For Southern Schools assured its young pupils that “God wills that some men should be slaves, and some masters.” For older children, Mrs. Miranda Moore’s best-selling Geographic Reader included a detailed proslavery history of the United States that explained how northerners had gone “mad” on the subject of abolitionism.” [115] The seeds of future ideological battles were being planted in the hearts of white southern children by radically religious ideologues, just as they are today in the Madrassas of the Middle East.
While the various theological and ideological debates played out and fueled the fires of passion that brought about the war, and provided great motivation, especially to Confederates during the war, that their cause was righteous, other very real world decisions and events in terms of politics, law and lawlessness further inflamed passions.
The Deepening Divide: The Dred Scott Decision
As the 1850s wore on the divisions over slavery became deeper and voices of moderation retreated. The trigger for the for the worsening of the division was the political battle regarding the expansion of slavery, even the status of free blacks in the north who were previously slaves, over whom their owners asserted their ownership. Southerners considered the network to help fugitive slaves escape to non-slave states, called the Underground Railroad “an affront to the slaveholders pride” and “anyone who helped a man or woman escape bondage was simply a thief” who had robbed them of their property and livelihood, as an “adult field hand could cost as much as $2000, the equivalent of a substantial house.” [116]
In 1856 the Supreme Court, dominated by southern Democrats ruled in favor of southern views in the Dred Scott decision one pillar of which gave slavery the right to expand by denying to Congress the power to prohibit slavery in Federal territories. The decision was momentous but it was a failure, but it was a disaster for the American people. It solved nothing and further divided the nation:
“In the South, for instance, it encouraged southern rights advocates to believe that their utmost demands were legitimatized by constitutional sanction and, therefore, to stiffen their insistence upon their “rights.” In the North, on the other hand, it strengthened a conviction that an aggressive slavocracy was conspiring to impose slavery upon the nation, and that any effort to reach an accommodation with such aggressors was futile. While strengthening the extremists, it cut the ground from under the moderates.” [117]
The decision in the case is frightening when one looks upon its tenor and implications. The majority opinion which was written by Chief Justice Roger Taney was chilling, not only in its views of race, but the fact that blacks were perpetually property without the rights of citizens. Taney wrote:
“Can a negro, whose ancestors were imported into this country, sold as slaves, become a member of the political community formed and brought into existence by the Constitution of the United States, and as such become entitled to all the rights, and privileges, and immunities, guaranteed by that instrument to the citizen?…It is absolutely certain that the African race were not included under the name of citizens of a state…and that they were not included, and were not intended to be included, under the word “citizens” in the Constitution, and therefore claim none of the rights and privileges which that instrument provides for and secures to citizens of the United States. On the contrary, they were at that time considered as a subordinate and inferior class of beings, who had been subjugated by the dominant race, and, whether emancipated or not, yet remain subject to their authority, and had no rights or privileges but those who held the power and the Government might choose to grant them” [118]
The effect of the ruling on individuals and the states was far reaching. “No territorial government in any federally administered territory had the authority to alter the status of a white citizen’s property, much less to take that property out of a citizen’s hands, without due process of law or as punishment for some crime.” [119] Free slaves were no longer safe, even in Free States from the possibility of being returned to slavery, because they were property.
Chief Justice Roger Taney, Author of the Dred Scott Decision
But the decision had been influenced by President-Elect James Buchanan’s secret intervention in the Supreme Court deliberations two weeks before his inauguration. Buchanan hoped by working with the Justices that he save the Union from breaking apart by appeasing slave owners and catering to their agenda. “The president-elect wanted to know not only when, but if the Court would save the new administration and the Union from the issue of slavery in the territories. Would the judges thankfully declare the explosive subject out of bounds, for everyone who exerted federal power? The shattering question need never bother President Buchanan.” [120] In his inaugural address he attempted to camouflage his intervention and “declared that the Court’s decision, whatever it turned out to be, would settle the slavery issue forever.” [121]
But Buchanan was mistaken, the case made the situation even more volatile as it impaired “the power of Congress- a power which had remained intact to this time- to occupy the middle ground.” [122] Taney’s decision held that Congress “never had the right to limit slavery’s expansion, and that the Missouri Compromise had been null and void on the day of its formulation.” [123]
The Court’s decision “that a free negro was not a citizen and the decision that Congress could not exclude slavery from the territories were intensely repugnant to many people in the free states” [124] and it ignited a firestorm in the north where Republicans now led by Abraham Lincoln decried the decision and southerners basked in their judicial victory. Northerners quite rightly feared that an activist court would rule to deny their states the right to forbid slavery. As early as 1854 Lincoln posed the idea that the Declaration of Independence was “the standard maxim of free society …constantly spreading and deepening its influence,” ultimately applicable “to peoples of all colors everywhere.” [125]
But after the Dred Scott decision Lincoln warned that the Declaration was being cheapened and diluted. Lincoln noted:
“Our Declaration of Independence was held sacred by all, and thought to include all” Lincoln declared, “but now, to aid in making the bondage of the Negro universal and eternal, it is assaulted, and sneered at, and construed, and hawked at, and torn, till, its framers could ride from their graves, they could not recognize it at all.” [126]
Not only that, Lincoln asked the logical question regarding Taney’s judicial activism. How long would it be, asked Abraham Lincoln, before the Court took the next logical step and ruled explicitly that:
“the Constitution of the United States does not permit a state to exclude slavery from its limits?” How far off was the day when “we shall lie down pleasantly thinking that the people of Missouri are on the verge of making their State free; and shall awake to the reality, instead, that the Supreme Court has made Illinois a slave State?” [127]
Lincoln discussed the ramification of the ruling for blacks, both slave and free:
“to aid in making the bondage of the Negro universal and eternal….All the powers of the earth seem rapidly combining against him. Mammon is after him; ambition follows, and philosophy follows, and the theology of the day is fast joining the cry. They have him in his prison house;…One after another they have closed the heavy doors upon him…and they stand musing as to what invention, in all the dominions of mind and matter, can be produced the impossibility of his escape more complete than it is.” [128]
Lincoln was not wrong in his assessment of the potential effects of the Dred Scott decision on Free States. “In 1852 a New York judge upheld the freedom of eight slaves who had left their Virginia owner while in New York City on their way to Texas.” [129] The Dred Scott decision brought that case, Lemon v. The People back to the fore and “Virginia decided to take the case to the highest New York court (which upheld the law in 1860) and would have undoubtedly appealed it to Taney’s Supreme Court had not secession intervened.” [130]
In response to the decision the advocates of the expansion of slavery not only insisted on its westward expansion in Federal territories but “in their must exotic fantasy, proslavery expansionists would land several dozen or several hundred American freedom fighters on Central or South American shores.” [131] Their targets would include Panama, Nicaragua, and Cuba as well. In 1855 one of these adventurers was William Walker who “sailed with about sixty followers (“the immortals”) to participate in a civil war in Nicaragua. Within little more than a year, he made himself President, and Franklin Pierce recognized his government.” [132] In 1857 Jefferson Davis further provoked northern ire when he insisted that “African Slavery as it exists in the United States is a moral, a social, and a political blessing.” [133]
Southern leaders poured political, human and economic capital into the struggle for the imposition of slavery on the Kansas Territory following the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act. For the South a pro-slavery victory in Kansas meant “two new U.S. Senators for the South. If a free labor Kansas triumphed, however, the North would gain four senators: Kansas’s immediately and Missouri’s soon.” [134]
To be continued tomorrow….
[1] Ibid. Guelzo Fateful Lightening p.68
[2] Goldfield, David America Aflame: How the Civil War Created a Nation Bloomsbury Press, New York, London New Delhi and Sidney 2011 p.71
[3] ______________Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 retrieved from the Avalon Project, Yale School of Law http://avalon.law.yale.edu/19th_century/fugitive.asp 11 December 2014
[4] Ibid. Fugitive Slave Act of 1850
[5] Ibid. Goldfield America Aflame p.71
[6] McPherson, James. The Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era Oxford University Press, Oxford and New York 1988 p.80
[7] Ibid. McPherson The Battle Cry of Freedom p.80
[9] Ibid. Oates The Approaching Fury p.94
[10] Ibid. Guelzo Fateful Lightening p.71
[11] Ibid. Goldfield America Aflame p.64
[13] Ibid. Levine Half Slave and Half Free p.93
[14] McGrath, Alister Christianity’s Dangerous Idea: The Protestant Revolution A History from the Sixteenth Century to the Twenty-First Harper Collins Publishers, New York 2007 p.324
[15] Ibid. Freehling The Road to Disunion Volume One p.289
[17] Huntington, Samuel P. Who Are We? America’s Great Debate The Free Press, Simon and Schuster Europe, London 2004 p.77
[19] Ibid. Egnal Clash of Extremes:pp.125-126
[20] Ibid. Egnal Clash of Extremes p.125
[24] Wills, Garry Lincoln at Gettysburg: The Words that Remade America Simon and Schuster Paperbacks, New York 1992
[27] Oates, Stephen B. Editor The Approaching Fury: Voices of the Storm, 1820-1861 University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln and London 1997 p.36
[28] Stampp, Kenneth M. editor The Causes of the Civil War 3rd Revised Edition A Touchstone Book published by Simon and Schuster, New York and London 1991 p.23
[29] Ibid. Stampp The Causes of the Civil War p.29
[32] McBeth, H. Leon The Baptist Heritage Broadman Press, Nashville TN 1987 p.301
[35] Ibid. McBeth The Baptist Heritage pp.384-385
[37] Ibid. Catton Two Roads to Sumter p.94
[39] Ibid. Oates The Approaching Fury p.120
[48] Douglass, Frederick. Life and Times of Frederick Douglass: His Early Life as a Slave, His Escape From Bondage, and His Complete History. New York: Collier Books, 1892. Retrieved from http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/primary-resources/lincolns-inconsistencies/ December 9th 2014
[50] Whitman, Walt Blood Money March 22nd 1850 retrieved from the Walt Whitman Archive http://www.whitmanarchive.org/published/periodical/poems/per.00089 11 December 2014
[53] Catton, William and Bruce, Two Roads to Sumter: Abraham Lincoln, Jefferson Davis and the March to Civil War McGraw Hill Book Company New York 1963, Phoenix Press edition London p.123
[55] Gallagher, Gary W. The Confederate War: How Popular Will, Nationalism and Military Strategy Could not Stave Off Defeat Harvard University Press, Cambridge MA and London 1999 p.67
[57] Daly, John Patrick When Slavery Was Called Freedom: Evangelicalism, Proslavery, and the Causes of the Civil War The University Press of Kentucky, Lexington KY 2002 p.69
[58] Thomas, Emory The Confederate Nation 1861-1865 Harper Perennial, New York and London 1979 p.4
[62] Gonzalez, Justo L. The History of Christianity Volume 2: The Reformation to the Present Day Harper and Row Publishers San Francisco 1985 p.251
[93] Ibid. Rable God’s Almost Chosen Peoples pp.39-40
[97] Brinsfield, John W. et. al. Editor, Faith in the Fight: Civil War Chaplains Stackpole Books, Mechanicsburg PA 2003 p.67
[98] Faust, Drew Gilpin The Creation of Confederate Nationalism: Ideology and Identity in the Civil War South Louisiana State University Press, Baton Rouge and London p.27
[99] Ibid. Gallagher The Confederate War pp.66-67
[100] Ibid. Daly When Slavery Was Called Freedom p.145
[102] Ibid. Faust The Creation of Confederate Nationalism p.29
[103] Fuller, J.F.C. Grant and Lee: A Study in Personality and Generalship, Indiana University Press, Bloomington IN 1957
[104] Ibid. Faust, The Creation of Confederate Nationalism: Ideology and Identity in the Civil War South p.60
[105] Ibid. Thomas The Confederate Nation 1861-1865 pp.245-246
[106] Ibid. Daly When Slavery Was Called Freedom pp.145 and 147
[110] Foote, Shelby, The Civil War, A Narrative. Volume One: Fort Sumter to Perryville Random House, New York 1963 1958 p.87
[111] Ibid. Thomas The Confederate Nation p.246
[113] Ibid. McBeth The Baptist Heritage pp.392-393
[116] Goodheart, Adam. Moses’ Last Exodus in The New York Times: Disunion, 106 Articles from the New York Times Opinionator: Modern Historians Revist and Reconsider the Civil War from Lincoln’s Election to the Emancipation Proclamation Edited by Ted Widmer, Black Dog and Leventhal Publishers, New York 2013 p.15
[117] Ibid. Potter The Impending Crisis p.291
[118] Guelzo Allen C. Fateful Lightening: A New History of the Civil War Era and Reconstruction Oxford University Press, Oxford and New York 2012 p.91
[119] Ibid. Guelzo Fateful Lightening pp.91-92
[120] Freehling, William. The Road to Disunion Volume II: Secessionists Triumphant 1854-1861 Oxford University Press, Oxford and New York 2007 p.115
[121] Ibid. Freehling, The Road to Disunion Volume II: Secessionists Triumphant 1854-1861 p.109
[123] Ibid. Levine Half Slave and Half Free p.210
[125] Ibid. Catton Two Roads to Sumter p.139
[126] Ibid. Guelzo Fateful Lightening p.93
[129] Ibid. McPherson The Battle Cry of Freedom p.181
Filed under civil rights, civil war, History, Political Commentary, Religion
Tagged as abolitionism, abraham lincoln, benjamin franklin, biblical justification for slavery, blood money poem, charles finney, compromise of 1850, Deo Vindice, dred scott decision, edmund ruffin, evangelical protestantism, Francis Cox, frederick douglass, god's chosen people, harriet beecher stowe, henry clay, henry wilson, James Hoby, jefferson davis, john brown, leonidas polk, Nelson Pendleton, northern southern baptist split, Reverend William Knibb, richard furman, roger taney, second great awakening, slavery, sola scriptura, southern churches and slavery, The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, the liberator, theodore parker, trancendentalism, uncle tom's cabin, walt whitman, William Leacock, william lloyd garrison, william seward, william wilberforce
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Done Worm? Checking in and wondering what’s going on?
Pact, my second web serial, has drawn to a close, sitting at about 950,000 words. You can see my thoughts on it here.
I’ve now moved on to the writing of Twig, with the first chapter released just fourteen hours ago. Those who read the sample story Boil between the writing of Worm and Pact may see familiar elements – critiques of Boil often said they liked the world but weren’t grabbed by the character, who was perhaps a little similar to Taylor. In Twig, I’ve aimed to keep what worked and rework what didn’t, and early reception seems positive.
The editing on Worm continues, and my original estimations seem to be pretty on target. It’s slow going, generally harder than writing is on its own, but I’m making headway. Unlike the writing of a serial, there isn’t a defined finish line, but I’ve been cleaning up the language and tightening things up in regular sweeps of the work, and making notes on the major aspects of Worm that I just want to redo altogether, ideally keeping all the good and rewriting the rougher or outright bad stuff.
For those who haven’t seen my sentiments and thoughts elsewhere, it’s probably going to be a self-published venture, though I’m leaving the door open for other opportunities. No less than 15 individual startups and small publishers have reached out to me in the past year, but it’s a bit of a minefield, and while some have piqued my interest, I’ve committed to nothing. To assuage the inevitable worries – I fully intend to talk to lawyers and other professionals before jumping on board with anything.
My preference is to avoid making promises I might not end up keeping, so any dates or times are entirely up in the air, but I’d like to think that by the close of Twig, you’ll be hearing some noise from me about moving onto the next phase of things with a Worm ebook series, complete with some rewritten sections and new additions, and also possibly starting (or raising funds for) a print run.
Thanks for your continued support.
This entry was posted in Stories (Arcs 1-10) by wildbow. Bookmark the permalink.
36 thoughts on “Moving On…”
Maurício Fagundes on March 10, 2015 at 14:56 said:
Thanks for the update, Wildbow. I already said how I felt about Twig’s start, but like many others, I’m liking the setting you are crafting, which seems to be already pretty well thought out.
I think you are right in being open to all possibilities regarding publishing, but I believe your work is worthy of being distributed by an established publisher.
D. D. Webb on March 10, 2015 at 15:29 said:
Precisely. The hardest part of getting something conventionally published through a major house is getting their attention and cooperation. Worm has legions of fans already, and the fact that you’ve been approached by smaller publishers is, itself, very attractive. Pitch these facts to a literary agent, have them carry it forward to the big houses, and soon enough I may find myself unpacking boxes of Worm in my bookstore.
If, of course, you feel that avenue is what’s right for you. At the end of the day, what’s most vital is that you be true to yourself and your story.
prometheus163 on March 10, 2015 at 17:13 said:
If that happens, you’ll be unpacking a lot of boxes! Cause lets be honest, you could probably fit about 1 copy of Worm per box
I’m assuming it would be in multiple volumes! Come on, Worm is twenty books at minimum.
That might be an argument for the self-publishing route, though. There aren’t a lot of series that size which are planned as such from the outset. A publisher may not know what to do with it.
evanbob420 on March 27, 2015 at 15:08 said:
Here’s hoping that you manage to get a print version out there; I’d totally buy your entire series for my library.
jon reeve on March 10, 2015 at 15:20 said:
That’s great news! I have a thing about unfinished works, so I haven’t even read the whole first chapter of Pact at this point. Of course, now I plan to… as soon as these pesky math classes are over. Wait, I’m a Math major, so they’ll never REALLY end 0o.
Whatever, I’ll get around to it. Overall, I loved Worm, and I’m sure Pact will be a good read as well. Thanks for letting us take this journey with you. I feel like: in years to come I’ll be bragging about being there towards the beginning of your print publishing. Seeing the start of actual books is crazy good for a bibliophile such as myself.
Precisely my thoughs regarding being a pre-publication reader. But I do wish I’d heard about Wildbow way back in 2011. Worm was already finished and Pact already more than half done when I was presented Wildbow’s work.
Wow, I had to search my email to check, it really has been that long. Nearly a year and a half since Worm finished…
Hey, all that matters is that you’re here now. It really is an experience to see all the bend and bumps in the road of progress, isn’t it? There will probably be a piece of me that will regret not reading along with everyone else for Pact… Oh well: boogie on.
Yeah, it is an experience. In particular, the reactions, speculations and debates that spawn from each update.
pharmadan on March 10, 2015 at 18:50 said:
Ah man. I completey missed Pact. kept putting off starting it unitl I had more time and now… Oh well I’ll be better about this new one and I still intend to read pact.
Question are you going to keep track of what you end up changing? One of the things I liked the most about another webserial (John dies at the End) was that I could look at both versions and see what was changed between them.
Dragon on March 11, 2015 at 01:12 said:
Congrats Wildbow. I’d buy your book for Worm. The best parts (though sometimes tiring even if they were interesting) were the interludes where you told the stories of other characters, especially like the Travellers’ arc. I hope those aren’t removed in the books. 🙂
Some of them are kind of tiring to read and tough to follow, though, especially without the comments section like we have here that would dissect and predict each and every movement. 😀 It was a fun run, both in Worm and Pact (though Pact was considerably shorter and had an open ending, which I absolutely hate but don’t mind here).
I wish you the best of luck.
on March 11, 2015 at 02:56 said:
so before he updates and obliterates the original version(like the witness/evil tattletale interlude) anybody manage to archive worm?
Several folks already have. There’s even a few who made ebook versions for their own personal use, but thankfully aren’t posting them willy-nilly and ruining publication chance because of Wildbow’s request that they don’t.
Simplest way to get your own backup would be to go and file – save page as – each story page as a webpage/document thing. Its a standard feature in most all browsers.
Doug on March 11, 2015 at 18:59 said:
It was serendipity that I stumbled upon Worm on March 3rd, having just finished the final arc minutes ago, feeling heartbroken and lost to have devoured such a rich world, only to see a ray of hope; the author updates us that Worm’s editing process has been and continues to be well underway only a day ago.
It was truly enjoyable to see Taylor (as well as the author) grow and mature over 20something novels worth of material. I am leery of picking up Pact or Twig for I am currently in the honeymoon phase with the author and am worried I won’t be as fond over his next works. I’m sure I’ll break down soon.
I am very grateful that this was shared with the world and I wait on bated breath for the next novel in this universe, however long that takes to arrive.
Parrakarry on March 14, 2015 at 07:16 said:
There’s some conflicting opinion over whether Pact or Worm is better. Personally I think Worm is simply an outstanding work of art (minor issues aside, such as the timeskip/slaughterhouse 9k arc); Pact is really amazing, but it’s hard to compare.
bigfatcat on April 18, 2015 at 17:45 said:
Overall I’d say Worm was the better work, Wildbow himself admitted that there were some problems with Pact. Pact is still excellent though, and while its early segments didn’t measure up to Worm, its later chapters were just above and beyond. If Twig is written as well as the second half of Pact, it’ll surpass the (unedited) Worm easily.
Oliver on March 12, 2015 at 20:03 said:
I’m glad you’re still continuing to edit Worm, and I’m excited to see how it’ll turn out in the end! I’m considering doing a third-read through now… It’s so goood ❤
Feast on March 19, 2015 at 21:16 said:
It is my fondest wish that your works get the attention they deserve, and that you become a household name, Wildbow. To me Worm is without any exaggeration, hands down, by far the best piece of writing I’ve ever read(and I’ve read a lot). I actually got a little teary-eyed when I saw this post, because I knew there would be more to come. I hope to see more wonderful things from you soon.
By the way, have you considered allowing a couple of bonus interludes? Nothing happening after the epilogue of course, just maybe something from the perspectives of the peripheral characters from Taylor’s Undersider days. I’ve been curious about Night and Fog’s relationship, and Leet’s feelings about his limited powers.
Now then, I’ve been waiting for Pact to end so I could read the whole thing at once, so…
“To Paaaaaaaaact!”
*sprints away, shrieking with joy*
Nine on March 20, 2015 at 21:19 said:
Let us know here or on SB/SV when you’re done with the edit job.
So I can pay cash money for it.
bludflag on March 22, 2015 at 16:56 said:
https://parahumans.wordpress.com/2011/12/03/hive-5-9/
I put up a comment here noticing two mistakes(I only posted the one about aikido,not the one with grammar).Congrats on possible future publishing.I shall probably try to reach you by e-mail(if you posted it here) for this because I do not know whether you shall see this or not and best of luck with said publishing 🙂
t4nky on March 23, 2015 at 20:41 said:
For the publishing, some sites like Outskirts Publishing and Lulu offer good services. Outskirts, however, doesn’t let you keep the rights.
For this reason, and because it appears to be free, Lulu seems to be the best deal. Now, this is just what I’ve found out in my research. There may be better options.
The nice thing about both services is that they handle the distribution for you. I suppose all self-publishing companies do that, though.
Iain Fortune on April 4, 2015 at 21:44 said:
Editing… *Flees in terror from own one time nano project…* All the best man and thanks for reminding me to, Just.keep.plugging.
By just keep plugging, I meant carrying on with it. belated realisation, it could be taken as me plugging me.. So apologies for not catching that context to begin with (facepalms at self)
KOL on April 16, 2015 at 03:09 said:
I would totally buy all the eBooks and reread Worm in all its polished glory. Worm has a lot of rough edges, but it’s a diamond underneath.
Nope on April 20, 2015 at 19:29 said:
You’ve certainly set yourself up with a monumental task. How long is Worm again? It’s over 3 million words right? Like, it’s crazy to think of editing that while at the same time writing a whole other story. I don’t have the headspace for that myself, I can barely stay focused on keeping a single story going for just a 100k.
I would definitely partake in a purchase of cleaned up Worm. There are some rough spots. And then there are some spots that make me want to avoid re-reading the whole thing altogether! I guess the ending is just too crushing for me. You invest so much time into a story, only for Skitter to not quite get what I think she deserved… But can you even make significant changes to Worm? It feels like you’d surrender your integrity as an author, to do that. I mean, there’s no way I couldn’t resist giving Worm an alternate ending, or hell, an alternate Part 2 all together! Doesn’t seem right to tell you to do that, so I don’t even know how I’d edit this monstrosity without butchering it to hell. But that’s neither here nor there, your story’s definitely got a lot of potential for money making even in its current state! It’s damn good and makes me wish there was more.
axle on May 8, 2015 at 22:44 said:
I really want to see a paper back version of this series, I’d like to introduce it that way to some friends. I’m sure a literary agent could help you find a good publisher, which would probably give worm more publicity then if it were self-published.
Ultimately, I’d like to see Worm as a graphic novel (like maximum ride) and then an anime-like show on television. Have you considered hiring an artist to create a comic book? Mcrilly has an amazing art style and I’d love to see how he’d draw the series worm.
*Mark Crilley, not Mcrilly
Disloyal Subject on May 10, 2015 at 15:47 said:
Good to know. Took me around a year of off/on reading, but I finished Worm. Pact is up next… I’ll catch up eventually!
I’m glad you’re going back through Worm and editing it; I noticed a fair number of minor errors that slipped through the cracks. I’m very much looking forward to seeing Taylor’s story in print.
Deathsprings on May 16, 2015 at 10:46 said:
I would pay 200+ dollars for a set of worm books if they were ever published. I need them to feel whole after dumping like 100+ hours of time into this story. By far the best ive read since hitchhikers guide.
DrBlort on June 2, 2015 at 13:26 said:
Glad to know that the editing of Worm is still ongoing. I really enjoyed it, and I came back today thinking about starting a second reading.
If I may give a personal opinion, as long you are editing, the only flaw I saw in worm is that its stakes always seems to “go up”, all peaks and no valleys, to give my poor mind a rest from stress 😉
Maybe there were slower parts that I didn’t realize, because I read it like there was no tomorrow, so take it with a grain of salt.
Other than that, it was one of the most entertaining novels I’ve read, and that includes most sci-fi from the 50’s to the 80’s, Tolkien, G.R.R.M., and then some.
Thanks for the ride, Wildbow!
Tom on June 24, 2015 at 09:56 said:
I can’t wholly remember which arc (specifically) I disliked, but the one where Skitter joins the Wards and fights the Enbringers is too quickly paced, in my opinion, when compared to the other arcs (Drone? Crushed?) I know the intent of the arc is to jump forward 2 years – but it feels super rushed. Perhaps if the entire arc was written with interludes? Use the prison warden or another prisoner, the wards, perhaps even a villain that butterfly-Weaver defeats, etc. It would mask the timecuts.
wildbow on June 24, 2015 at 17:28 said:
Already written for the edited version.
Rail on June 2, 2017 at 07:58 said:
Finally finished. I enjoyed Worm a lot. So much so, in fact, that it started affecting the way I thought and dreamt. (Seriously, my dreams during the last arc were bizzare, as I was thinking the same way I thought taylor was).
Gonna start Pact now.
Daan on October 6, 2017 at 09:53 said:
As I spoke to people about your story, I put it up the same iconic pedestal (for me) as LMS. If this ever were to be published, I will buy it. This took me a little less than a week to read, day in day out reading. And I would instantly do it again. I can only hope to be contacted if you publish, but I will find it anyway. Great story, once again, and thanks for the ride.
TheCelestialEquation on September 29, 2018 at 14:08 said:
Does anyone else get to to end of worm and feel like it’s like hearing the Simurgh’s song? Like as amazing and heartwrenchingly beautiful each readthrough is, you also leave with more and more reasons to put humanity down? For its own good? XD
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Henrico Doctors' Hospital performs 100th procedure that brings relief to patients suffering from acid reflux
Newsroom /
Henrico Doctors' Hospital performs...
Parham Doctors' Hospital June 26, 2019
Richmond, Va. -- HCA Virginia's Henrico Doctors' Hospital today performed its 100th procedure to implant a device that brings relief to patients with acid reflux.
Clifford Smith, M.D., of Henrico Doctors' Heartburn and Acid Reflux Center of Richmond, has been performing the minimally-invasive, laparoscopic procedure, since 2017, when the hospital completed the first ever case in Central Virginia.
Smith says that the device is an innovative alternative to traditional surgery and has shown favorable results. The device also provides added strength to the underlying muscle with less dissection and ultimately offers relief from medications. He adds that while medications remain a popular choice for patients suffering with Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease (GERD), the symptoms and side-effects can be painful.
"It's rewarding to see a patient after surgery share that they are now able to eat certain foods that they have had to avoid for years," said Smith. "We are pleased to see that our patients are experiencing an improved quality of life with relief from reflux and heartburn. Most importantly patients are able to discontinue the use of antacid medications."
The device is designed to treat patients with severe heartburn or GERD and augments the lower esophageal sphincter, preventing stomach acid from escaping.
The procedure uses a camera and involves the laparoscopic implantation of what is known as a Linx device made up of magnetized titanium beads connected by titanium wires. It is placed around the lower esophagus just above the stomach. The magnetic beads constrict to prevent acid from escaping out of the stomach while allowing the patient to eat and swallow normally.
Find out more information on GERD and the Heartburn and Acid Reflux Center of Richmond.
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Book review: “Lincoln at Gettysburg: The Words That Remade America” by Garry Wills
The nine best books of 2017
Book review: “One Crazy Summer” by Rita Williams-Garcia
Make no mistake: Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address was a refounding of the United States.
A redefinition of the nation — a revolution, if you will.
It was the substitution of the Declaration of Independence with its clear, direct, unequivocal statement that “all men are created equal” as the country’s central document, in place of the U.S. Constitution with its acceptance of slavery and, in consequence, a lesser ideal.
It was a clear commitment to the principle of equality after a half century of intellectual muddiness.
And, as Garry Wills explains in his 1992 book Lincoln at Gettysburg, it was a revolution that was carried out in the space of three minutes and in the speaking of 272 words.
A revolution carried out, peacefully, through logic, political genius and language that has resonated ever since through American history and culture — a revolution in thought and spirit, conveyed in what were billed simply as “remarks” at the dedication of the new cemetery for the Union dead from the Battle of Gettysburg, the turning point of a fiercely fought civil war in which body counts reached into the hundreds of thousands on both sides.
“To clear the infected atmosphere of American history”
Lincoln sought, Wills writes, “to clear the infected atmosphere of American history itself, tainted with official sins and inherited guilt.” Those sins and guilt were the practical compromise that had been reached in the creation of the Constitution which accepted slavery as part of the American way of life.
Lincoln’s entire life had led him to this moment, his thinking about the political foundation of the nation refined in public debates and private musings. His Gettysburg Address was a political tour-de-force, a literary masterpiece and a channeling of what was — and still is — best, most hopeful and most decent in the American spirit.
In the seeming modesty of simple remarks, Wills writes, Lincoln “performed one of the most daring acts of open-air slight-of-hand ever witnessed by the unsuspecting. Everyone in that vast throng of thousands was having his or her intellectual pocket picked.”
“A different America”
What Lincoln had done was to redefine the Constitution in light of the Declaration of Independence.
True, the Constitution — for the moment — still accepted slavery. But, in Lincoln’s view and in the view he now imposed on the nation through force of logic and language, the Constitution’s acceptance of slavery was only temporary.
It was something bad that would need to be excised sooner or later. It was not, as previous generations had gladly or sadly accepted, an unchangeable element of the country’s character.
The crowd departed with a new thing in its ideological baggage, that new constitution Lincoln had substituted for the one they brought there with them. They walked off, from those curving graves on the hillside, under a changed sky, into a different America. Lincoln had revolutionized the Revolution, giving people a new past to live with that would change their future indefinitely.
“How dare he?”
Not that people didn’t realize what Lincoln had done. Certainly, there were voices raised immediately, calling the speech and its refocusing of the national ideal a betrayal. The Chicago Times fulminated:
“It was to uphold this constitution, and the Union created by it, that our officers and soldiers gave their lives at Gettysburg. How dare he, then, standing on their graves, misstate the cause for which they died, and libel the statemen who founded the government? They were men possessing too much self-respect to declare that negroes were their equals, or were entitled to equal privileges.”
And voices have been raised down the decades. Some have tried to pretend the Gettysburg Address was simply a banal assortment of commonplace ideas, nothing special. Others, though, have recognized its revolutionary nature, especially given the reverence that has been — and still is, and probably always will be — accorded to the speech as a core statement of the American idea.
Willmoore Kendall, a mid-20th century conservative who, with his former student William F. Buckley, Jr., founded the National Review, asserted:
“Abraham Lincoln and, in considerable degree, the authors of the post-Civil War amendments, attempted a new act of founding, involving concretely a startling new interpretation of that principle of the founders which declared that “all men are created equal.”
“What can rebuttal do to incantation?”
Wills argues that those such as Kendall who seek to refute Lincoln’s radically new interpretation of the nation — now, not new at all; indeed, part of the basic understanding of most Americans of their nation and its bedrock principle — have a difficult time because they are working “against the values created by the Gettysburg Address.”
Think about it: Lincoln at Gettysburg created values. He expressed the value of “all men are created equal” in such a way that, instead of one of the nation’s principles, it became the nation’s core value.
Ideas have weight. Language has power. Lincoln’s idea — presented in words and phrases of beauty, clarity and revelatory insight — created this new value.
It is a value that has become, for most Americans, part of their sense of the nation and its promise. The foundation of the nation. Indeed, Wills writes:
Lincoln distilled the meaning of the war, of the nation’s purpose, of the remaining task, in a statement that is straightforward yet magical. No wonder the Chicago Times chafed impatiently at the Gettysburg Address. Lincoln argues, but he also casts a spell, and what can a rebuttal do to incantation?
“Those fateful 272 words”
The value that Lincoln created has resonated through American discourse ever since. It has been at the heart of waves of civil rights movements for equality — for blacks and Hispanics, for those of any sexual orientation, for women, for the disabled, for the poor.
[The Gettysburg Address’s] deceptively simple phrases appeal to Americans in ways that Lincoln had perfected in his debates over the Constitution during the 1850s. During that time Lincoln found the language, the imagery, the myths that are given their best and briefest embodiment at Gettysburg….
Without Lincoln’s knowing it himself, all his prior literary, intellectual, and political labors had prepared him for the intellectual revolution contained in those fateful 272 words.
Transcendent idea, incandescent language
To understand the impact of those 272 words then and now, Wills examines a variety of factors:
The tradition of funeral oratory, going back to the Greeks
The role of cemeteries in mid-19th century America, as beautiful parkland and as inspiration for moodily and somewhat enjoyably somber musings about death.
The impact of Transcendental thinkers as well as his political opponents on the development of Lincoln’s thought and language.
The Gettysburg Address as a revolution in thought.
The Gettysburg Address as a revolution in style.It is clear that, for Wills, the idea that Lincoln was able to express at Gettysburg is transcendent. At the same time, he finds Lincoln’s language incandescent in its combination of poetic compression and soul-stirring clarity.
It is clear that, for Wills, the idea that Lincoln was able to express at Gettysburg is transcendent. At the same time, he finds Lincoln’s language incandescent in its combination of poetic compression and soul-stirring clarity.
“A new lean language”
He calls the address an “astringent speech,” one “as chaste and graven…[as] an Attic frieze.” It is one that has a “telegraphic quality — the omission of most coupling words.” {Compare the speech to the best of the telegrams Lincoln sent to his commanders and that U.S. Grant sent to Lincoln.]
Yet, the address, as short as it was, featured many techniques that inter-locked its sentences and ideas, and made it easy for the listeners that day — and readers down the decades — to take in without confusion.
For instance, Wills notes that one such linking process took place almost subliminally,
by the repeated pinning of statements to that field, those dead, who died here, for that (kind of) nation. The reverential touching, over and over, of the charged moment and place leads Lincoln to use “here” six times in the short text, the adjectival “that” five times, “this” four times.
The spare vocabulary is not impoverished because of the subtly interfused construction, in which Charles Smiley identifies “six antitheses, six instance of balanced sentence structure, two cases of anaphora, and four alliterations.” “Plain speech” was never less artless.
Lincoln forged a new lean language to humanize and redeem the first modern war.
The linkages Wills finds
Particularly telling are the linkages that Wills finds throughout the speech, as the text below illustrates:
Lincoln’s great political sermon
What Wills has done here is to make clear for readers the skeleton and tissue of Lincoln’s great political sermon. That’s the work he carries out in his chapter on Lincoln’s revolution in style, and the work he carries out in Lincoln at Gettysburg.
His book, which won the Pulitzer Prize for non-fiction in 1993, is itself an important document of American history.
It is a book of deep understanding, craft and insight into what was and remains the most important speech in American history.
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Facts Don’t Interfere With Propaganda Blitz Against Venezuela’s Elected President 861 readings
Justice News
By: Joe Emersberger
U.S. Senator Marco Rubio poses for a photo as he awaits the arrival of U.S. President Trump to speak about Venezuela at Florida International University in Miami. | Photo: Reuters
U.S. Senator Marco Rubio poses for a photo as he awaits the arrival of U.S. President Trump to speak about Venezuela at Florida International University in Miami.
Dismantling Propaganda Against Venezuela’s Elected Presid...
by Joe Emersberger
A child wearing U.S. flag runs under a Venezuelan flag where humanitarian aid for Venezuela is being stored in Cucuta, Colombia Feb. 10, 2019.
From Vietnam to Venezuela: How US Manipulates Media Narra...
by Scott Patrick
U.S. President Donald Trump is pursuing a policy of intervention in Venezuela.
Donald Trump's War of Recolonization Against Venezuela
by Samuel Moncada
Portraits of Simon Bolivar and Venezuela's late President Hugo Chavez are seen during a news conference, Venezuela Jan. 24, 2019.
Trump's Only Goal: To End Chavismo
by Alex Anfruns
Guaidó, anointed by Trump and a new Iraq-style Coalition of the Willing, did not even run in Venezuela’s May 2018 presidential election. In fact, shortly before the election, Guaidó was not even mentioned by the opposition-aligned pollster Datanálisis when it published approval ratings of various prominent opposition leaders. Henri Falcón, who actually did run in the election (defying US threats against him) was claimed by the pollster to basically be in a statistical tie for most popular among them. It is remarkable to see the Western media dismiss this election as “fraudulent,” without even attempting to show that it was “stolen“ from Falcón. Perhaps that’s because it so clearly wasn’t stolen.
Data from the opposition-aligned pollsters in Venezuela (via Torino Capital) indicates that Henri Falcón was the most popular of the major opposition figures at the time of the May 2018 presidential election. Nicolás Maduro won the election due to widespread opposition boycotting and votes drawn by another opposition candidate, Javier Bertucci.
The constitutional argument that Trump and his accomplices have used to “recognize” Guaidó rests on the preposterous claim that Maduro has “abandoned” the presidency by soundly beating Falcón in the election. Caracas-based journalist Lucas Koerner took apart that argument in more detail.
What about the McClatchy-owned Herald‘s claim that Maduro “continues to reject international aid”? In November 2018, following a public appeal by Maduro, the UN did authorize emergency aid for Venezuela. It was even reported by Reuters (11/26/18), whose headlines have often broadcast the news agency’s contempt for Maduro’s government.
It’s not unusual for Western media to ignore facts they have themselves reported when a major “propaganda blitz” by Washington is underway against a government. For example, it was generally reported accurately in 1998 that UN weapons inspectors were withdrawn from Iraq ahead of air strikes ordered by Bill Clinton, not expelled by Iraq’s government. But by 2002, it became a staple of pro-war propaganda that Iraq had expelled weapons inspectors (Extra! Update, 10/02).
And, incidentally, when a Venezuelan NGO requested aid from the UN-linked Global Fund in 2017, it was turned down. Setting aside how effective foreign aid is at all (the example of Haiti hardly makes a great case for it), it is supposed to be distributed based on relative need, not based on how badly the U.S. government wants somebody overthrown.
Venezuela Confronts US-backed Right-wing Coup
But the potential for “aid” to alleviate Venezuela’s crisis is negligible compared to the destructive impact of U.S. economic sanctions. Near the end of Wyss’ article, he cited an estimate from the thoroughly demonized Venezuelan government that US sanctions have cost it $30 billion, with no time period specified for that estimate. Again, this calls to mind the run-up to the Iraq invasion, when completely factual statements that Iraq had no WMDs were attributed to the discredited Iraqi government. Quoting Iraqi denials supposedly balanced the lies spread in the media by US officials like John Bolton, who now leads the charge to overthrow Maduro. Wyss could have cited economists independent of the Maduro government on the impact of U.S. sanctions—like US economist Mark Weisbrot, or the emphatically anti-Maduro Venezuelan economist Francisco Rodríguez.
Illegal US sanctions were first imposed in 2015 under a fraudulent “state of emergency” declared by Obama, and subsequently extended by Trump. The revenue lost to Venezuela’s government due to US economic sanctions since August 2017, when the impact became very easy to quantify, is by now well over $6 billion. That’s enormous in an economy that was only able to import about $11 billion of goods in 2018, and needs about $2 billion per year in medicines. Trump’s “recognition” of Guaidó as “interim president” was the pretext for making the already devastating sanctions much worse. Last month, Francisco Rodríguez revised his projection for the change in Venezuela’s real GDP in 2019, from an 11 percent contraction to 26 percent, after the intensified sanctions were announced.
The $20 million in US “aid” that Wyss is outraged Maduro won’t let in is a rounding error compared to the billions already lost from Trump’s sanctions.
Latin American Left-Wing Parties Call for Peace in Venezuela
Former US Ambassador to Venezuela William Brownfield, who pressed for more sanctions on Venezuela, dispensed with the standard “humanitarian” cover that US officials have offered for them (Intercept, 2/10/19):
“And if we can do something that will bring that end quicker, we probably should do it, but we should do it understanding that it’s going to have an impact on millions and millions of people who are already having great difficulty finding enough to eat, getting themselves cured when they get sick, or finding clothes to put on their children before they go off to school. We don’t get to do this and pretend as though it has no impact there. We have to make the hard decision—the desired outcome justifies this fairly severe punishment.
How does this gruesome candor get missed by reporters like Wyss, and go unreported in his article?”
Speaking of “severe punishment,” if the names John Bolton and Elliott Abrams don’t immediately call to mind the punishment they should be receiving for crimes against humanity, it illustrates how well the Western propaganda system functions. Bolton, a prime facilitator of the Iraq War, recently suggested that Maduro could be sent to a US-run torture camp in Cuba. Abrams played a key role in keeping US support flowing to mass murderers and torturers in Central America during the 1980s. Also significant that Abrams, brought in by Trump to help oust Maduro, used “humanitarian aid” as cover to supply weapons to the U.S.-backed Contra terrorists in Nicaragua.
In the Herald article, the use of US “aid” for military purposes is presented as another allegation made by the vilified Venezuelan president: “Maduro has repeatedly said the aid is cover for a military invasion and has ordered his armed forces not to let it in, even as food and medicine shortages sweep the country.”
Calling for international aid and being democratically elected will do as little to protect Maduro’s government from U.S. aggression as being disarmed of WMD did to prevent Iraq from being invaded—unless there is much more pushback from the US public against a lethal propaganda system.
Last Updated on Saturday, 09 March 2019 20:30
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Syria Refugee Crisis
Emergencies /
Syrian Refugee Crisis
Getting life-saving aid to children fleeing Syria’s brutal conflict
The five-year-long Syrian civil war has triggered a massive humanitarian crisis with four million people fleeing the country, seeking refuge in neighbouring countries and across Europe.
A quarter of those seeking refuge in Europe are children. More than 300,000 people risked their lives trying to cross the Mediterranean Sea in 2015 and at least 2,600 have died in the attempt.
Our relief work focuses on helping Syrian refugee children go back to school, settle into their new lives in Egypt, and recover from the trauma of war.
With nowhere else to go, desperate families are heading to Europe, causing the continent’s worst refugee crisis since the Second World War. Those children who survive the perilous journey arrive physically and mentally exhausted. Due to their age and vulnerability, children continue to face extreme challenges once they settle into safer grounds; the displacement has severe impacts on their health, education, and wellbeing.
In Egypt, we’re currently helping Syrian refugee children and their families with safety, education and psychosocial needs. We’re also aiming to renovate and furnish 40 public schools and provide other educational services in Greater Cairo, Alexandria, and Damietta, for Syrian refugee children - benefiting nearly 60,000 children over the next two years.
We’re also working in Syria, Lebanon and Iraq. Since 2013, we have helped 9,629 people through education and training programmes and psychological and rehabilitation support in Syria.
Our work to help Syrian refugees
15,000 refugees
from Syria supported to date
in Syria supported through education programmes and psychological support
4,100 children
received psychological support
"I had to Leave Everything Behind"
“I made a decision that I would not wish on anyone: I left Syria – left behind my family, friends, history and everything I cherished”
Along with her son, Asmaa attended Plan International’s emotional support sessions in Egypt for Syrian refugees. She tells us how the sessions helped her to make new friends, making her and her son’s new life in Egypt to feel less lonely.
Asmaa's story
Help children recover from emergencies
Donate to our latest appeal
The world's toughest mums
We pay respect to the mums caught up in some of the world’s biggest crises
Adjusting to Life in Egypt
Syrian refugee children in Egypt are living a life of misery, despair and challenging school conditions
Nada's story
Inside Syrian Refugee Camps
Steve has just returned from a visit to the Syrian refugee camps in Lebanon, read his story
The Syrian refugee crisis in Egypt
Difficult living conditions in Egypt are forcing Syrians to seek a better life elsewhere
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WMO (9) Apply WMO filter
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29 contents match your search.
WMO verifies 3rd and 4th hottest temperature recorded on Earth
Weather, Climate
The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) has officially evaluated temperature record extremes of 54.0 °C at two locations, one in Mitribah, Kuwait, on 21 July 2016 and a second in Turbat, Pakistan, on 28 May 2017.
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Multi-Hazard Early Warning Conference confronts cascading impacts of extreme weather and other natural hazards and of climate change
Climate change, Environment, Weather, Water, Climate, Floods, Disaster risk reduction
Publish Date: 9 May 2019
Climate change, population increase, urbanization and environmental degradation are amplifying the impact of extreme weather, water and climate events such as tropical cyclones, floods and extreme heat on growing numbers of people. Improved early warning systems and more coordinated disaster risk reduction are more important than ever before.
new-climate-statement-infographic_2018.png
State of the Climate in 2018 shows accelerating climate change impacts
Climate, Climate change, Natural hazards, Agriculture and food security, Public health, Environment, Oceans
Publish Date: 28 March 2019
The physical signs and socio-economic impacts of climate change are accelerating as record greenhouse gas concentrations drive global temperatures towards increasingly dangerous levels, according to a new report from the World Meteorological Organization. The WMO Statement on the State of the Global Climate in 2018, its 25 th anniversary edition, highlights record sea level rise, as well as exceptionally high land and ocean temperatures over the past four years. This warming trend has lasted since the start of this century and is expected to continue.
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World Meteorological Day celebrates the Sun, the Earth and the Weather
Weather, Climate, Water
The Sun, the Earth and the Weather is the theme of this year’s World Meteorological Day. It highlights the role of the Sun in delivering the energy that powers all life on Earth, and drives the weather, ocean currents and the hydrological cycle.
gmt_pre.png
WMO confirms past 4 years were warmest on record
Climate, Climate change, Greenhouse gases
Publish Date: 6 February 2019
In a clear sign of continuing long-term climate change associated with record atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases, 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018 have been confirmed as the four warmest years on record.
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WMO climate statement: past 4 years warmest on record
Climate change, Climate services, Climate
Publish Date: 29 November 2018
The long-term warming trend has continued in 2018, with the average global temperature set to be the fourth highest on record. The 20 warmest years on record have been in the past 22 years, with the top four in the past four years, according to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). Other tell-tale signs of climate change, including sea level rise, ocean heat and acidification and sea-ice and glacier melt continue, whilst extreme weather left a trail of devastation on all continents, according to the WMO provisional Statement on the State of the Climate in 2018. It includes details of...
climateimpacts.jpg
WMO addresses UN Security Council for first time
Climate change, Climate, Disaster risk reduction
Publish Date: 25 January 2019
For the first time in its history, the World Meteorological Organization has addressed the UN Security Council on the risks to international peace and security posed by climate change and weather-related disasters.
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Montreal Protocol assessment reveals healing ozone, untapped potential for climate action
Ozone, Climate
The latest Scientific Assessment of Ozone Depletion reveals a healing ozone layer, global warming reduction potential, and options for more ambitious climate action.
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Exceptionally strong El Niño has passed its peak, but impacts continue
El Niño / La Niña, Climate
Publish Date: 18 February 2016
The powerful 2015-2016 El Niño has passed its peak but remains strong and will continue to influence the global climate, according to the latest update from the World Meteorological Organization. It is expected to weaken in the coming months and fade away during the second quarter of 2016. Eastern and central tropical Pacific Ocean surface temperatures were more than 2 degrees Celsius above average in late 2015, providing evidence that the 2015-16 El Niño is one of the strongest on record, comparable with the 1997-98 and 1982-83 events. It is too early to establish conclusively whether it was...
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Findlay Media Network
Oiler Nation Represented at Women’s March
Be First!
by February 3, 2017 News, Pulse on Politics
By Mac Williams
@m_williamsm2
Williamsm2@findlay.edu
On Friday Jan. 20, Donald J. Trump was sworn in as the 45th President of the United States of America. During the Inauguration, hundreds of thousands of people came out to watch the proceedings. Some however, decided to exercise their First Amendment right to protest.
Jake Sarver, a senior Public Relations major at The University of Findlay, attended the Inauguration, but did so to protest the incoming administration. According to Sarver, there were groups of protesters who blocked an entrance to the Inauguration. However, some became violent.
“I was one of those who helped block one of the entrances, but there were probably ten to fifteen people who became violent and began throwing things at the police,” Sarver said. “After they threw a couple things. That is when we started getting tear gassed.”
According to Sarver, he heard someone yell out that police had deployed the tear gas, and then he began to run away.
“I heard someone say ‘tear gas’ and then everyone started running away covering their mouths,” he said. “At that point I covered my mouth and ran out of the area.”
According to Sarver, the violent incident was very disappointing to him.
“For 99 percent of the protest it was peaceful and people were just there to make their voices heard,” he said. “It is really a shame that a few people decided to get violent because that defeats the entire purpose of the protest.”
The day following the Inauguration, millions of protestors filled the streets of cities across America and in 32 other countries. Protestors voiced their concerns on topics ranging from equal pay for equal work, pro-choice, and other women’s rights issues. According to ABC News, the women’s march in Washington D.C attracted more than 500,000 people. ABC News also estimates that 3 million people across the country and around the world took part in similar protests.
According to Sarver, who also attended the women’s march, the protest was about more than the president.
“We were there to protest the president yes, but it was more about letting people know that we are not going away, we will not be silent on these issues,” he said. “At the women’s march we started a movement to continue the discussion in this country about women’s rights and issues that they face.”
According to Sarver, the women’s march was peaceful and even felt like a family atmosphere at times.
“I saw people from all walks of life during the protest. I saw people who were in their 90s who wanted to come out and make their voices heard. I also saw families who brought their children, so it was definitely a diverse crowd for sure,” Sarver said. “We were not there to start riots or incite violence. We were they to send a message of equality.”
Sarver returned to campus the following day and says that he is glad that he took part in the march.
“I’m definitely glad I went because it was something that is a once in a generation type of thing,” Sarver said. “I think it is important to speak out if you disagree with something no matter which side of the issue you are on, because then that leads to an open dialogue on the topic.”
The importance of getting help on campus
International Night is 50 and fabulous
Jungle-themed Relay for Life a success
Findlay students spend their spring break in Ecuador
Previous UF Students head to Cincinnati
Next Newswriting students weigh in on the so-called Immigration Ban
Early results for SGA elections
Archives Select Month April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 April 2014
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Black Friday Unofficial 2018
Unofficial 2018 rsd releases
FREE SHIPPING ON ALL DOMESTIC ORDERS OVER $50
SAIGON, INSPECTAH DECK & BEKAY
The Raw Default Title
Event: RECORD STORE DAY 2019
Format: 7" Colored Vinyl
Label: Coalmine Records
Release type: RSD Limited Run / Regional Focus Release
Fourteen years after dropping the single as their first-ever release, Coalmine Records celebrates Record Store Day 2019 with a limited vinyl rerelease of “The Raw” featuring hard-hitting verses from Saigon, Inspectah Deck, and Bekay. Back on April 12, 2005, the single’s initial release marked the beginning of a storied run of no-nonsense Hip-Hop from the Brooklyn-based label. In addition to boasting razor sharp verses from the three NY spitters, “The Raw” also boasts ill piano-laced production supplied by Philly’s Street Orchestra, complimented with the slick turntable work of DJ Dutchmaster. And that’s just on the A-side. The single’s B-side reimagines the track with a synth-forward, sci-fi vibe, courtesy of a then-freshman beatsmith, !llmind, who’s gone onto become one of Hip-Hop’s most influential producers. For this very special rerelease, Coalmine Records is paying homage to the pioneering indie label, Delicious Vinyl, in remembrance of their co-founder, Matt Dike, who sadly passed in March 2018. The single’s label artwork includes a clever flip of their iconic logo, while the record itself is pressed on blood-red vinyl to play off the track title. This limited edition rerelease is manufactured exclusively for Record Store Day 2019, where it will be available through various participating record shops.
Woodstock Sunday August 17, 1969
Woodstock Mono PA Version
TINDERSTICKS (FEATURING ROBERT PATTINSON)
THE PIETASTERS
Where The Action Is! Los Angeles Nuggets Highlights
Weezer (Teal)
1500 Adams Ave #104-B
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EBOLA: A Worldwide Problem-Reaction-Solution Strategy?
ppjg families, HEALTH, no fake news, The PPJ Gazette deadly bacterial microbe, deception, Ebola, Ebola Virus, fake crisis, families, flase flags, fraud, HEALTH, hemorrhagic virus, imaginary biological weapon, no fake news, pre-planned solutions, pubic health, The PPJ Gazette, vaccination 2 Comments
By NoFakeNews
The few that control the majority like to use fraud and deception to misinform the general population.
One of the oldest tricks that’s been used repeatedly by the powers that be on the general public was the introduction of a fake crisis of some sort followed by the mass reaction of the same general public to that fake crisis which was then followed by the implementation of an already established solution to the original problem. This entire scenario is commonly known as a problem – reaction – solution strategy.
Let’s pretend that the powers that be wanted to launch a worldwide vaccination campaign on the general public. How many people do you believe would stand in line, roll up their sleeves, and stick out their arms to receive said medicine? Not too many!
Now let’s pretend that a very nasty hemorrhagic virus that is not well understood by laypersons and medical specialists alike was reported to be the next great world pandemic. Keep in mind that this hemorrhagic virus had been portrayed by the mass media and perceived by the general public as something that could bring about the deaths of many innocent people worldwide.
Finally, let’s pretend that a certain pharmaceutical company had an already patented vaccine waiting to be unveiled in a laboratory that could supposedly neutralize or prevent the spread of the nasty hemorrhagic disease.
How many people in the general public do you think would demand that health officials make available this miracle vaccine? Oh so many!
Could the Ebola Virus be a worldwide problem – reaction – solution campaign in progress? Is it possible that the Ebola virus is not even real?
Will a vaccination campaign be announced and prepared for worldwide distribution in the future?
It’s important to observe and understand the game being played. It’s been used repeatedly throughout history by the few controlling the many. There’s always some big, bad monster hiding in a vault, waiting to be unlocked and unloaded on society.
It could be a hemorrhagic virus, a , an imaginary biological weapon, an imaginary nuclear weapon. Take your pick; the monster always serves the same purpose. It pushes or influences the people to move in a direction those in control desire. All of these deceptions are nothing more than smoke and mirrors and sleight of hand theatrics; it’s an incredible magic show.
What do you think about this subject?
Obama’s Reckless Refugee Program Mirrors his Ebola Policy
ppjg Government constitutional government, corruption, Ebola, Government, impeachment, Obama, refugees” from Syria, Richard Amerling M.D, Syrian refugee crisis Leave a comment
Contributor & Author: Richard Amerling, MD (New York City) Associate Professor of Clinical Medicine and Academic Nephrologist at the Mount Sinai Beth Israel Hospital in New York City. Dr. Amerling is also President of The Association Of American Physicians And Surgeons: (see bio at the bottom of this release)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Preview: Like the response to Ebola, this is another instance where Mr. Obama is acting in flagrant disregard for the safety of Americans and the homeland. And let us not forget that his precipitous withdrawal from Iraq, betraying the sacrifice of thousands of our best and bravest, led directly to the rise of ISIS. Let us also not forget his utter disregard for border security and for federal immigration law.
We cannot wait for an election still a year away, the outcome of which is obviously uncertain. There is an overwhelming case for immediate impeachment of the enemy in the Oval Office. The safety and survival of the Republic is in jeopardy.
Our feckless president’s reckless push to bring “refugees” from Syria, who are 97% Muslim and mostly men of fighting age, into the United States is analogous to his open border policy regarding potential Ebola carriers.
A little over a year ago, an Ebola-infected African immigrant was admitted to a hospital in Dallas with full blown Ebola. His stay at that hospital transformed it to the front line in a crucial battle. Two nurses who treated this man became infected. Miraculously, both survived and the disease didn’t spread further (though one of the nurses traveled in a jet with a fever, after being cleared by the CDC!).
Shortly thereafter, a young doctor, just back from treating Ebola patients in Africa, traveled around New York City with early symptoms of Ebola before being transported and isolated at Bellevue Hospital. Again, miraculously, no one else was infected by this individual.
I wrote in an op-Ed in November of last year, “There is simply no dispute that Ebola needs to be contained in West Africa. This clearly means limiting travel from this region to the United States, and requiring adequate quarantines when U.S. citizens return. Nigeria has done this and has successfully contained their outbreak. Australia became the first of the so-called developed nations to impose a travel ban…. Instead of travel restrictions, foreign health workers afflicted by Ebola may be airlifted into the U.S. for treatment. This is the opposite of containment.”
The Obama policy placed Americans at risk. Even one death from Ebola brought in from Africa would be one too many. The infected nurses were fortunate to survive, and went through an ordeal. A handful of infected people arriving in a city such as New York would place an enormous burden on the health system, and would have the potential to create a serious outbreak with many infections and deaths. This nightmare scenario did not materialize because Brussels Airlines, which has nearly complete control over flights from Ebola endemic regions, instituted an effective screening program. More
TOP OF THE EBOLA VACCINE NEWS
ppjg HEALTH, martial law Chuck Frank, Ebola, Ebola vaccine, federal mandates, Glaxo-Smith-Kline, HEALTH, HHS, Light of the Nation, martial law 5 Comments
Chuck Frank
lightofthenation.us
IT’S NEARLY ONE MINUTE TO MIDNIGHT
As human trials continue to be analyzed, scientists are saying that an experimental Ebola vaccine manufactured by the British drug giant GlaxoSmithKline appears ‘promising’. BBC 11/26/14.
Further Ref: New England Journal of Medicine
However there are other shadowy and political factors that also fall into place when looking at the big picture. Taking notice, there are competing vaccines which are still being researched by companies in Canada and also by America’s Monsanto, but one must be critically aware of the evil “powers that be” who believe a good crises or even a fabricated profit-led one should “never go to waste”.
Why the alarm?
Fast tracking an unsafe Ebola vaccine which may be mandated could open up a Pandora’s Box. The vaccine could be dangerous but also include the real potential of an implanted mircochip-GPS-surveillance tracker for every man, woman, and child in America and beyond!
If this happens the party is over. Intrusion will reign, while centralized government and massive surveillance will rule. Roadblocks set up by the police will be in order while nurses nearby in medical vans administer the Ebola injections to those who show no proof of being vaccinated. Those who refuse may be taken away and placed in isolation. It is very possible that this could transpire, in the not so far distant future, while many nations belonging to the U.N. would also join in, but fully unaware of a dreadful New World Order plan being ushered in on the wings of the Ebola crisis. More
The ‘Cross-Your-Fingers’ Public Health Strategy
ppjg Border security, HEALTH border security, Centers for Disease Control, chikungunya virus, Dr. Jane Orient, Ebola, HEALTH, public health, public health strategies 1 Comment
By Jane M. Orient, M.D.
Maybe the country that claims to have the “best healthcare system in the world” can get away with ignoring basic public health strategies that have worked for centuries. Perhaps we can say, “It can’t happen here.” After all, Ebola seems to have gone away, as epidemics do—sooner or later.
Some apparently even think that we can save the rest of the world by providing a safety valve for hot zones, right into American airports and schools.
Yet we may not be all powerful. Here is the word from top public health officials about some 400,000 cases of chikungunya, which is sweeping through the Caribbean and Latin America: “We can only keep our fingers crossed—painful as that might be for many people infected with chikungunya—that the Caribbean epidemic will decline and the virus will depart from the Western Hemisphere.” So write David M. Morens, M.D., and Anthony S. Fauci, M.D., of the Arboviral Diseases Branch, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), in the Sept 14, 2014, issue of The New England Journal of Medicine. Dr. Fauci’s name is familiar from his pronouncements on Ebola. More
ppjg DOMESTIC TERRORISM, HEALTH Chuck Frank, DOMESTIC TERRORISM, Ebola, Ebola vaccine, HEALTH, Light of the Nation, Police State 2 Comments
Author, Chuck Frank
www.lightofthenation.us
Further Ref: New England Journal of Medicine However there are other shadowy and political factors that also fall into place when looking at the big picture. Taking notice, there are competing vaccines which are still being researched by companies in Canada and also by America’s Monsanto, but one must be critically aware of the evil “powers that be” who believe a good crises or even a fabricated profit-led one should “never go to waste”.
Fast tracking an unsafe Ebola vaccine which may be mandated could open up a Pandora’s Box. The vaccine could be dangerous but also include the real potential of an implanted mircochip-GPS-surveillance tracker for every man, woman, and child in America and beyond! If this happens the party is over. Intrusion will reign, while centralized government and massive surveillance will rule. More
Ebo-Lie…from the Bolen Report
ppjg corruption CDC, CDC violates procedures, corruption, Ebola, ebola patent, federal agency immunity, HEALTH, KP Stoller MD FACHM, Level 4 containment procedures, The Bolen Report, vaccine safety 1 Comment
The Bolen Report website
Here’s What I Think…
by: Kenneth P Stoller, MD, FACHM
Thursday October 16th, 2014
With so much misinformation floating around about the latest viral scare, it is hard to know what is real and what isn’t.
Tim Bolen asked me to write this post after I posed a question to him… “When is a Federal agency, such as the CDC, no longer protected by the immunities a Federal agency normally has because they are engaged in activities that are not consistent with their own regulations and procedures?”
The CDC is responsible for vaccine safety and yet they own patents on, for example, the Ebola virus and could potentially profit from an Ebola vaccine – a vaccine that would not be needed if the virus doesn’t spread far and wide. Yet if the CDC helps control the spread of the virus they would be working against their own financial interest.
Not only that, they have potential martial law like authority to order citizens take interventions that they financially profit from. That sounds just like any other corporation. In fact, it sounds like regular, everyday corporations would drool to have the ability to create a problem, be positioned to profit from it, and be able to order people, or scare people enough to take what you have to sell. More
Medical Bureaucracy (and FDA Regulations) Also Stymie Efforts to Halt Ebola
ppjg HEALTH, Social Engineering Alliance for natural Health, Ebola, Ebola treatments, FDA, FDA red tape, FDA regulations, HEALTH, Nanobiosym, Social Engineering, The Life Extension Foundation 1 Comment
Ebola Test
The current dearth of treatment options for Ebola is not from a lack of options, but from a zealous protection of current medical monopolies together with an overabundance of red tape.
In a related article, we discussed government hostility to natural remedies that are both cheap, effective, and more readily available. In this article, we’ll look at the FDA roadblocks to more conventional treatments.
The FDA is paid by drug companies and is generally friendly to them. Even so, getting a new drug or device approved is a torturous and insanely expensive process. The minimum cost these days is several hundred million dollars spent over many years. The average cost is in the billions.
Technology like Nanobiosym’s “iPhone-sized device,” which can be used to detect Ebola and other diseases in less than an hour, is being delayed by needless FDA red tape. The Dallas hospital that treated three patients with Ebola had a similar device, one that could detect Ebola with high degree of confidence within a few minutes, but were prevented from using it because of FDA regulations. More
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Sister Kenny Comes to Minnesota
Stassen Becomes Governor
Gordon Parks’ Career Begins
Pipestone National Monument Established
Benson Becomes Governor
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20th Century, Anti-Semitism, Fundamentalist, History, Minnesota, Uncategorized
William Bell Riley and Fundamentalist Anti-Semitism?
February 22, 2019 PrayThroughHistory1936, Abyssianian, Arabian, black market, Bolshevist, Catholic, Christian, Communist, Darwin, El Roi, Establishment, Euphrates, evolution, First Baptist Church Minneapolis, Great Purge of Mongolia, Guilford and Liggett, Hyman Berman, Isadore Blumenfeld, Jesus, Jewish, Kid Cann, Marxism, New Deal, Northwestern Bible School, Palestinian, Polska Organizacja Wojskova, progressive, Protestant, Red Terror, Republic, Scopes Monkey Trial, Scopes Trial, Silver Shirt, Syrian, Tigris, Torah, transference, unionism, University of Minnesota, University of Northwestern, WFCA, William Bell Riley, William Jennings Bryan, Yezhovshchina Leave a comment
William Bell Riley, pastor of First Baptist Church of Minneapolis, founder of the World Fundamentals Christian Association (WFCA), and president of Northwestern Bible School advocates against socialism of New Deal, the black market, and unionism. His outspoken belief that Jews within the Bolshevist (Communist) movement were committing acts of conspiracy and treason labeled him an “Anti-Semite”.*
“It cannot be understated. Bolshevism was the greatest human slaughter of all time.” Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
(The following text is transcribed from the original scans available at the Riley collection at the University of Northwestern).
The Jew and Communism
For three successive Sunday nights I have been giving a brief dissertation on Communism, the first of these – “Shivering at the Sight of a Silver Shirt,” the second – “The Red Shirt of Russia and a Shirtless Russia”, the third – “Is There Danger to America in Communism?”, and now tonight,- “What Has the Jew to do with Communism?”
A Paper entitled “Anti-Semitism in America”, a Jewish defender says:-
“Until the last few years it has been the Fundamentalists and Premillennialists who have been noted for teaching kindness to the Jews and for persistently promoting the preaching of the Gospel of the love of Christ to the Jews.”
This is absolutely true! I have been a member of the boards of the two Jewish Missions of this city; I was for years on the Board of Councilors of a New York Mission. As a Fundamentalist and a Premillenialist I accord to the Jews not only a great place in past history, but also a major place in prophecy, or history to come. But I also agree with another statement to be found in that same Jewish Defense Paper, namely,
“The Word of God offers no quarter to individual Jews who may be criminals. There is no warrant for dealing gently with an offender against the peace of society, because he happens to be a Jew.”
“Anti-Semitism” is a sadly misapplied term. If it means anything, it means “opposition to Abyssianians, Arabians, Palestinians, Phoenicians, Syrians, and the countries of the Euphrates and the Tigris;” and everybody knows there is no such opposition. The term adopted covers entirely too much, and in some cases is intended as a cloak against all conceivable crimes.
For instance Guilford and Liggett were brutally and cowardly murdered. They were murdered in the same way and in all probability by the same man (Minneapolis- based Jewish gangster Kid Cann a.k.a. Isadore Blumenfeld), and in each instance by a shotgun. But, when two people, witnesses to the second murder, testified as to the man they saw do the deed, it is very poor taste to cry “Anti-Semitism” and try, thereby, to prejudice the public against the justice that should have been meted out to a liquor vendor Jew!
The same principle applies when Jews are found leading Communistic meetings,- as in Chicago heading Communistic parades,- as in Minneapolis, directing Communistic banditry,- as in China, and murderous revolutions,- as in Russia.**
William Bell Riley, like many religious leaders of the 1920-30’s, was known as a vigorous advocate for his worldview. It was his organization, the World Christian Fundamentals Association that wired William Jennings Bryan urging him to act as counsel for the association in the Scopes Trial.*** He saw the movement of evolution as a force to dilute and delude people from the Word of G-d and His sovereignty over all creation. Academically, he resisted evolution education on the basis that it was neither sound science or necessarily observational. As an example, the fossil records did not record trans-species mutations that would be physical evidence of Darwin’s theory.
For these reasons, he battled and debated evolution in the public arena, and in proposed law.
“…the University of Minnesota, of which the students and president, Lotus Delta Coffman (1875-1938), provided the most effective opposition to Riley’s proposed anti-evolution law. Their resistance, based on the issue of academic freedom, together with lack of support for Riley’s campaign from denominations other than the Baptists and from the general public, doomed the anti-evolution measure. Nevertheless, Minnesota came closer than any other northern State to passing such a law.” ****
This could contribute to Riley’s distrust of academic culture, but how is failure to support evolution as part of the curriculum of the University of Minnesota an act offensive to Jewish culture of the era? Perhaps it can be better explained by the life experiences and fears of both the Fundamentalists’ and the Jewish political Progressives in Minneapolis? At the risk of over generalization, the author will nonetheless cite in broad terms the movements of these camps within the North Star state to further ponder motives.
Often, those in the Fundamentalist camp were Mid-Western in values, and saw life through a spiritual filter first, and one of politics or citizenship secondly. They were distrustful of the Eastern “Establishment” and the powerful influence it had already wielded on their lives. Their issues related to a sense of loss and control of Minnesota’s: farming, railroads, mining, land use, taxation, finance, culture, and a combined faith heritage of mostly Protestant and Catholic Churches. In short, an outsider changes the rules of the game, and picks winners and losers.
In a similar way, religiously observant Jews from Eastern Europe sought shelter in Minnesota, and viewed life through a spiritual filter first, and a political lens secondly. They had survived pograms of Russia, corruption and prejudice against their way of life in Poland, and wanted a place to be free. In many senses, their values aligned with the Mid-West, though their collective memory was longer, and more international in scope.
Conversely, when politically Progressive Jews had arrived here, usually from the East Coast, they exerted a considerable influence on the laws of this time period. They, in a general sense, sought the redemption of humanity not through the law of Moses or the acts of YHWH, but through mostly secular and political means. They also had survived the pograms of Russia, and the suppressions of Polish Catholic Nationalism, and these painful memories rightfully pushed them to distrust “Christian” leadership or the benevolence of the “Church”. For many, Marxism became a new Torah that could overcome the obstacles and stagnancy of the old world, and bring a new way through collectivism and faith in humankind.
It seems, in hindsight, that these Progressives and the Fundamentalists were designed to grind: one valued private property and the other the collectivization of all property, one espoused self-government as a virtue and the other the primacy of the state, and finally, one camp held G-d as the ultimate source of authority and the other deified man. Perhaps Riley actually believed that the political motives of these Progressives were the enemy of our Republic, and not their Jewish identity whether aligning with the religious or non-theistic expressions?
Having explored this premise as a backdrop, we return back to the saga of W.B. and the shirt sermons. Famed University of Minnesota Professor Hyman Berman believed that Riley displayed anti-Semitic behaviors during this epoch. In his book, “Anti-Semitism in Minnesota during the Great Depression”, he uses an example of Riley’s sermon, “Shivering at the Sight of a Silver Shirt” as evidence of the pastor’s bias. While Riley’s word use would make any modern, politically-correct scholar bristle, did they convey in context and intent a heart bent on anti-Semitism? **** Did they convey honest intellectual disagreement, or pass over into advocating hate, violence, and crimes against the Jewish citizenry of Minnesota?
Let’s take a look at Riley’s actual words from a 1936 reprint of the sermon.
“This series of articles is not in defense of capitalism, nor is it written in defense of the Silver Shirts. We speak because we have noted of late a disposition to attack immediately and almost mercilessly any company of men who are known to stand four-square for the constitution of our land, and vigorously against communism. That is why we speak now of ‘shirts'” p2.******
Is it possible that this great local historian read meaning into the life and work of W.B. Riley that was not expressly noted in writing or implied verbally? Let’ explore the background of Berman to see what, if any conditions, may have filtered his perceptions.
“Berman’s childhood (the son of radical Jewish workers in the garment industry), his acquaintance with union leaders, leftist theoreticians, and writers, time in the U.S. Army, and studies at the City College of New York and Columbia University provided a textured backdrop to his move to the North Star State. In 1961, Berman claimed that he didn’t know Minnesota from Montana and that family members seriously wondered whether there were sidewalks in Minneapolis. Those perceptions changed quickly.” ****** https://cla.umn.edu/history/news-events/story/hyman-berman-1925-2015
So, we learn in this article that his family had radical leanings, he was immersed in unionism and leftism, his perceptions were shaped by CCNY and CU, and that he didn’t know much about the culture of Minnesota upon arrival. Is it possible that Berman “jumped the shark” with his powerful post-humous charges against Riley? We at least record that his educational and cultural backdrop was “designed to grind” against Fundamentalism apart from any offense taken by his faith, culture, or ancestry.
(Note: The author met with Berman twice before his death, and found him a brilliant, engaging, and liberally-minded thinker. A reasonable man in agreement or disagreement. Also, my parents had first hand knowledge of Dr. Riley and First Baptist Church of Minneapolis. They found no evidence of alleged Jewish bias, rather the simple gospel of its’ most famous congregant; Billy Graham. His gospel, in short, is that as we know the Christ, the Living Torah, we are enabled to fulfill Deuteronomy 6:4,5, Psalm 78:5, Zechariah 14:9, Matthew 22:37, Mark 12:30, and Luke 10:27.
Good Father, we give You thanks that You see beyond the biases of human-beings, and our one-word characterizations of our fellow man! We remember to You the success and failures of Israel and the Church throughout time. We have hated too much, and loved too little. We have bludgeoned each other to death figuratively and literally. We have stolen from our brothers and sisters and dishonored our parents and heirs. We have allowed the laws of men to usurp Your eternal words. Will You have mercy on us?
Today, we bless the justice W.B Riley stood for in his passion for fundamentalism. He truly sought and pursued to know You, to love Your laws, and love Your Word. Yet, those as strong as him in the letter of the law often stumble in that they miss the spirit of the law. Will You forgive him, the WCFA, and his followers where he may have missed and mislead others from the spirit of Your Laws into religious pride? We disavow where he rejected and spoke evil of his Jewish brothers; will You take these curses up, out, and onto the Cross of Christ? Will You forgive the transference of his fears for the civic well-being on his congregation, and the state of Minnesota? Will You forgive any bitterness against Israel that came from clashes with Jewish advocates of: unionism, collectivism, Marxism, liberalism, and politicalization of science through evolutionism?
Will You forgive observant Jews any judgments made towards Dr. Riley, the Church, or toward Fundamentalists of this era? Will You forgive any transference from them that may have tainted the present, or threatens to skew our common future? Will You graft the Church more tightly to the Olive Tree? We haven’t yet recognized that we need each other to survive.
Will You forgive those who identify as Jews, but believe in the Messiah of Progressivism? Further will You forgive the atrocities of humanistic atheism in their age: the Revolution of 1917, Red Terror Bolshevism, the forced collectivization of the Ukraine 1931-32, Yezhovshchina, Polska Organizacja Wojskova, the Great Purge in Mongolia, and the Katyn Massacre? While these Progressives did not likely participate in these crimes, their worldview had damaged millions by 1936. Will You forgive their denial of this portion of reality? Will You forgive the counter-judgments of Jewish Communists towards: observant Jews, Dr. Riley, the Church, or towards Fundamentalists of this era?
Some of the fears of W.B. Riley have come true within our lifetimes. Our universities are dominated by viewpoints that are considered “secular, non-ideology”, yet are belief systems. The worship of political correctness is exactly like any world religion with all the attributes of a religion; its own vernacular, cultic objects and ceremonies, and a yearning for a future utopia where everything is submitted to tolerant uniformity. Can a student be an Orthodox Jew or Orthodox Christian and make it through a graduate program at the University of Minnesota in the sciences without being forced to publicly betray their faith or even the possibility that You are our First Cause?
Dear Lord, we still find ourselves at an impasse of relationship; perhaps not of religion. We broad-brush the motives of those whose we disagree. We assume that we can fit an entire people or culture or movement under our neatly defined labels. This is wrong and is sin against You, and Your image within those whom we disagree. Have mercy on us!
Oftentimes, Progressive thinkers seek an external solution to an internal problem. I.E. “Others must change their beliefs, behaviors, and actions for me to be O.K., because I am not secure in my worth and identity.”
Meanwhile, the seekers of G-d search for an internal solution to an external problem.
I.E. “Because G-d has called me O.K., I am worthy and secure, therefore I can accept others’ beliefs, behaviors, and actions.” Similarly, religious fundamentalists of any stripe can exhibit the same external solutions to inherently spiritual problems. I.E. “My problems can only be solved by legalistic observance to religious knowledge of G-d because I am not secure in in my relational knowledge of G-d.” Finally, sometimes atheists are more in tune with their heart than the members of a strict faith community. I.E. “I don’t care who gets the credit, I just want to see the naked clothed, the hungry fed, and to share with the poor ones.”
So we turn to Your Word, and to You as the Living Word for wisdom!
“A person is not a Jew who is one only outwardly, nor is circumcision merely outward and physical. No, a person is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is circumcision of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the written code. Such a person’s praise is not from other people, but from God.” Apostle Paul in Romans 2:28,29
Further we see examples of Almighty G-d’s benevolently weighing humanity on the dual scales of internal and external justice!
“The LORD your God will circumcise your hearts and the hearts of your descendants, and you will love Him with all your heart and all your soul, so that you may live.” Deuteronomy 30:6
“Circumcise yourselves to the LORD, remove the foreskins of your hearts, O men of Judah and people of Jerusalem. Otherwise, My wrath will break out like fire and burn with no one to extinguish it, because of your evil deeds.” Jeremiah 4:4
“Behold, the days are coming,” declares the LORD, “when I will punish all who are circumcised yet uncircumcised…” Jeremiah 9:25
“The one who is physically uncircumcised yet keeps the Law will condemn you who, even though you have the written code and circumcision, are a lawbreaker.” Romans 2:27
Lord, help our unbeliefs and lack of relationship to those we perceive as enemies, or those who genuinely oppose us. May we love our enemy in Minnesota. May we love the enemies of the Jewish faith. May we love the enemies of the Christian faith. May we love the enemies of the Progressive faith. Put us in right relationship so we can listen to each other. Give us Your worthiness so we have something to offer our neighbor. May we find all solutions in El Roi, may we receive “I Am” and live in the present! Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on this broken relationship! Will You bless our future with real chesed; right relationship with G-d and all people?
* P.T.H. cites timeline formerly at this URL: mnhs.org/about/dipity_timeline.htm
The Minnesota Historical Society Web site, http://www.mnhs.org, is fantastic! Check it out! Images are from https://images.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl; again, an amazing resource!
** Pulaski, Clement., “William Bell Riley and Fundamentalist Anti-Semitism”. July 14, 2017. Cited in http://faithful-nation.com/2017/07/14/william-bell-riley-and-fundamentalist-anti-semitism/
*** Numbers, Ronald L. “Creationism in 20th-Century America”., Science 218 (5 November 1982): pp 538-544
**** Szasz, Ferenc M., “William B. Riley and the Fight against Teaching of Evolution in Minnesota.” Minnesota History 1969 41(5): 201-216.
***** Berman, Hyman. “Anti-Semitism in Minnesota during the Great Depression”., New York : 1979.
****** Riley, W.B. “Shivering at the Sight of a Silver Shirt”. Publ. L.W. Camp: Mpls., MN. 1936. https://www.worldcat.org/title/shivering-at-the-sight-of-a-shirt/oclc/59759935
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What is addiction? There are many definitions, but one of the most basic features of any addiction is that there is a compulsive repetition of behaviors that are known to be harmful—no matter how good they feel initially—but are chronically engaged in nonetheless. The tools for harming oneself might be alcohol, drugs, cutting, overeating and unsafe sexual practices (amongst others) but the result is the same.
One of the more promising therapies for addiction, Dialectical Behavioral Therapy, or DBT, was developed by its inventor, Dr. Marsha Linehan to help treat compulsive patterns of self-harm with simple, practical, and effective techniques. For Linehan, DBT is anything but an exercise in abstraction. As she only recently revealed, its methods come from insights gained, at a huge personal cost, from her own struggles with mental illness. Though Linehan was never a substance abuser per se, she was nonetheless, like many substance abusers, trapped in a downward spiral of shame, self-loathing, psychic pain, and self-harm from which there seemed to be no escape.
Linehan originally developed DBT as a treatment for highly suicidal patients often with a compulsion to injure themselves. Such patients are now often diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder, a psychiatric illness characterized by sometimes lifelong patterns of violent mood swings, unstable relationships, poor self-image, and a tendency to act impulsively. Often, there are also persistent feelings of abandonment and the majority of those with a BPD diagnosis harm themselves, as well as make repeated suicide attempts. Dr. Linehan believed that if these individuals could be taught skills to better deal with emotional and life issues and thus lessen psychic pain, then the desire to be dead or harm themselves would be greatly diminished. The goal of DBT is to acquire skills to deal with the mental anguish the sufferer experiences and create a life worth living. The tools offered in DBT are meant to aid in the achievement of these goals.
Dr. Linehan was, at first, diagnosed with schizophrenia at the age of 17. As a teenager she was, according to an in-depth look at her struggles with mental illness published in the New York Times in 2011, “precocious” but also dangerously violent towards herself. “The girl,” wrote Times correspondent Benedict Carey, “attacked herself habitually, burning her wrists with cigarettes, slashing her arms, her legs, her midsection, using any sharp object she could get her hands on.” In the same story Linehan said, “I felt totally empty, like the Tin Man; I had no way to communicate what was going on, no way to understand it.” She was “dosed with Thorazine, Librium, and other powerful drugs, as well as hours of Freudian analysis; and strapped down for electroshock treatments … nothing changed, and soon enough the patient was back in seclusion on the locked ward.”
In 1967, Linehan had what can only be described as an epiphany: she had been regularly praying at the Cenacle Retreat Center in Chicago, and had suddenly felt transformed. “It was,” she told the Times, “this shimmering experience, and I just ran back to my room and said, ‘I love myself.’ It was the first time I remember talking to myself in the first person.'”
“The high,” Carey writes, “lasted about a year, before the feelings of devastation returned in the wake of a romance that ended. But something was different. She could now weather her emotional storms without cutting or harming herself.”
Quite simply, she accepted herself as she was. She referred to this as “Radical Acceptance”—acceptance of life as it is, not as it is supposed to be; and the need to change, despite that reality and because of it. These seem to be opposites: on the one hand, you have to take life as it is; on the other hand, that change is essential for survival. But for real change to happen, both self-acceptance, and acceptance of the need for change have to come together. This blending of two seemingly opposite views is called a dialectic—and it’s the vision behind the name of Dialectical Behavioral Therapy.
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Home » The Archive » 2005 - 2006 » The Way We Conceptualize Identity Affects African Americans
Claire Bolding
Writer’s comment: Every time I write an essay, it’s like pulling teeth. The satisfying reward is in figuring out what to say and then finally, several drafts later, saying it. The struggle through this essay was unique for me because, rather than trying to draw a grand conclusion based on the sum of all of the articles that I read for this class, African American Studies 172, I tried to engage in a conversation that emerged through the readings. I approached writing this way because I had already written a page summary for each of the articles that I refer to, as Bettina Ng’weno required for the class. These summaries were tangible and helped me approach the abstract concept of identity somewhat rationally. AAS 172, “New African Diaspora Identities,” was a fun, discussion-based class in which we all developed our own ways of approaching and analyzing contemporary identities. Many thanks to Bettina, Raquel Scherr, Gary Goodman, and Pamela Demory for coaching me in logical thinking and writing.
-Claire Bolding
Instructor's comment: Writing a social science research paper requires the development of a research question, the collection of primary and secondary data, an analysis of this material, a discussion of this analysis in light of social theory regarding the general and specific topic, and all these things need to build to a convincing logical argument in an original and imaginative way. In AAS 172, “Diaspora and New Black Identities,” students developed their research papers on new Black identities building from the other assignments in the class: a book review of Barak Obama’s autobiography, a genealogy of a relative’s identity formation (Claire chose her father) and a set of response papers to theoretical articles. The book review and the genealogy give students tangible examples and data upon which to apply the theories they read. Being deeply committed to discovery, Claire Bolding searched for answers in her paper even when they proved uncomfortable. At the same time she presented her work in a creative artistic style allowing her passion for the subject to come through. The wonderful thing about Claire’s writing for this class is that she not only wrote a solid research paper, but she took both an intellectual and a stylistic risk.
-Bettina Ng’weno, African American Studies
"What’s your major?” (Not an unusual question in this environment, a party full of students.)
“African American Studies,” I answer. “It’s funny—” I continue; I want to say how funny it is that every time I tell anyone what my major is, I start to explain my blond-haired blue-eyed self. But I am interrupted.
“Four hundred years of oppression isn’t funny,” my Irish-descent companion asserts self-righteously and walks away.
Yeah, I think sarcastically, African American Studies classes are such riot . . . “they” are just natural entertainers.
While exploring African American Studies, I have discovered more than what I originally sought. One byproduct of my studies is the unusual range of reactions that I get when I talk to people in my social circle about African American Studies. To me, these experiences reinforce that we live in a segregated society and when we step out of our assigned roles, others feel threatened: we face resistance and marginalization, not to mention imposed, ignorant, and sometimes ridiculous assumptions. The way people identify themselves and are identified by others affects who we befriend, what we think is appropriate (or inappropriate) to say to whom, who we vote for, where we spend our money, the clothes that we wear, the values that we assign, the way we perceive the human world.
Although society is a web of chosen and imposed identity, identity classifications are imagined categories. To social scientists, an imagined thing with real consequences is a construct. Some people construct categories around themselves that others do not imagine them in and vice versa. The categories that we use every day are unreliable, inconsistent, illogical even; they are applied unequally and are falsely posited as comparable categories. Globalization complicates identity matters with the rise of transportation and communication technologies, the demographic changes of immigration, the cultural exchange and ideological blending that immigration causes, and the rise of transnational communities. Black Americans are significant in this discussion because they are an imagined category at one end of an imagined spectrum. Black Americans inhabit the end of the spectrum that has historically served as the scapegoat for society’s ills. This spectrum is constructed by the media, the government, popular culture, and academia. We must regard the constructed categories of the spectrum critically, logically, skeptically. We can resist imposing, perpetuating, and experiencing the oppression of the racist identity spectrum by confounding traditional identity categorization and choosing to use these imagined categories as alliances in the struggle for social justice.
In this paper I question the nature of traditional identity categories in order to start to decode the biased subtext of identity assertions and generalizations. Although humanity will always have its cruelties, I believe in cultivating human empathy through relationships, reason, and education. With the ability to decode the subtext of identity, a person can make educated choices of which narratives to identify with, rather than absentmindedly perpetuating past injustices.
The Inconsistency of Identity Classifications
Although identity categories seem naturally fixed, they are constructed. This is evident in the inconsistency with which we classify and apply group identities: language classifications get confused with racial categories; cultural experience is required for membership in heritable ethnic groups; people whose world views are informed by ethno-specific narratives do not necessarily self-identify ethnically; and each society has its own set of rules for identity classification. Furthermore, the rapid changes of globalization are making identity classifications ever-slippery.
Juan Flores, in “Triple Consciousness? Afro-Latinos on the Color Line,” an adaptation of W. E. B. Dubois’s early 20th-century concept of “double consciousness,” reveals the inconsistency in our concept of race. He reasons that Afro-Latinos in the U.S. must negotiate a triple consciousness. Like other black people in the U.S., they are placed in the racial binary of black/white: they must function as black people (one consciousness) in a white-dominated world (second consciousness) (82). Furthermore, as Latinos, they carry the legacy of Latin America’s racial ideology, which clumps people of any race into the “Hispanic” classification, a pseudo-race (81). Thus Flores gives one example of an inconsistent group identity classification: By designating a shared language as a racial category, nationalist ideologies and the popular imagination have created a category, race, with incomparable sub-classifications: speaking Spanish does not preclude a person from being black, white, or anything else.
Senator Barack Obama reveals inconsistency in a different way. Obama, the third black Senator in U.S. history, writes in his autobiography of how he came to see himself as a black man, of gaining entry into a genetically classified group through experience. As he grew up, raised by his white mother and grandparents, he recognized similarities between his experiences and those of his black peers, but he did not fully identify as a black man until he actively participated in the black community in Chicago: living in a black community, going to black churches, learning and sharing the elders’ concerns for the youth of the community. Until then, he thought that he did not have the experiences to legitimately consider himself a part of Black America. Although Obama inherited the physical traits from his African father that some would argue constitute him as “Black” or “African American,” he did not identify with African Americans—even though he wanted to—until he gained experience. Through experience, Obama gained entry into a group classified by heritable traits.
My dad’s self-identification illustrates another layer of inconsistency in individual and group identity classifications: if everyone has an ethnicity, why doesn’t everyone identify ethnically? As a warm-up question for a report on personal identity, I asked him, “What do you think the American Dream is?” He answered, “My American Dream is to live in peace and security, free from judgment, or at least unconcerned about how others perceive me,” and he later added, “. . . and to enjoy good health.” This dream matches the European-dominated narrative, presented to me in school as U.S. History: Pilgrims/Puritans came to America to escape the judgments of a religiously intolerant England. The extended Euro-dominated narrative holds that people also migrated to America for freedom of trade; many historians would argue that this was the primary motivation for the American Revolution. This may be true, but the Revolution decidedly advanced the interests of Americans of western European descent; obviously, not all people migrated to this continent for these reasons or even by choice. Although ethnicity does not appear to play a significant role in my dad’s self-defined identity, his vision of the American Dream could be considered ethno-specific.
Benjamin Bailey, in his study, “Dominican-American Ethnic/Racial Identities and the United States Social Categories,” shows that identity classifications, themselves, vary from nation to nation. Bailey’s study reveals that the Dominican concept of “race” is more flexible than that of the U.S. The U.S. conceptual framework emphasizes fixed unitary categories of phenotype (observable physical attributes) and genetic inheritance (679). The Dominican framework, however, allows for flexible racial identity categories. “White” people enjoy privilege in both the U.S. and the Dominican Republic; the degree of whiteness in the Dominican Republic, however, is determined by the individual’s economic class, not necessarily by their genetic inheritance (680). According to Bailey’s study, second-generation Dominican-Americans self-identify in terms of cultural (Dominican) and linguistic (Hispanic) connections and choose not to identify within the U.S.’s racial categories (680).
Identity classification is, thus, inconsistent and imagined. It is also constantly changing. With the rise of transportation and communication technologies, these changes are happening very quickly. With this rapid globalization, it is becoming increasingly difficult to classify people by the physical space they inhabit, or by the geographic location where their ancestors originated. Many people in the U.S. (Italian-Americans, Dominican-Americans, etc.) identify based on their national origins. In casual conversation, origin, race, and ethnicity can all mean the same thing. For example, African American, for many people, conjures origin in Africa, a dark skin color, and perhaps the cultural narratives of specific ethnicities as well. Yet origin is another category that is difficult to clearly define. Migration, trade, and cultural exchange complicate our ability to trace genetic and cultural origins. If we went back far enough, anthropologists and theologians agree, we would all trace our origins to the same place: Africa (Harrold, 1).
In this changing world, many migrants root their identity, not in geographical origins, but in lifestyle and shared experience. According to Alejandro Portes, the rise of transnational communities, which are networks created through immigration and trade that cross national borders and are not based in one location, confounds traditional notions of identity classification as based on country of origin (229). These small-scale networks—the “byproduct of improved communications, better transportation, and free trade laws” (228)—are an unexpected element of globalization, which was originally geared towards the interests of multinational and transnational corporations (231). The to-and-fro migrants of these networks, Portes writes, do not identify with the populations of any grounded space; rather, they identify with others in their networks, who share their lifestyle and experience (230).
Another byproduct of globalization, increased immigration, changes the way people identify in the U.S. Most of the second generation Dominican-American participants in Bailey’s study identified along linguistic and national origin lines, as opposed to the white/nonwhite U.S. categorization (677). These differing perspectives on race categories suggest that the growing second-generation immigrant population in the U.S. challenges American assumptions about identity. Considering that second-generation immigrants comprise 10% of the U.S. population, and an even higher percentage of youth, the historically dominant, linear black/white racial spectrum cannot possibly maintain supremacy (679). Although the U.S. is a nation of (mostly) immigrants, the impact of immigration to the U.S. has changed since the 1965 Immigration Act. One reason is that post-1965 immigration policy favors highly educated professionals, who have more of a chance of overcoming the challenges of economic assimilation (Bailey 679). Many post-1965 immigrants also bring with them a broad range of perspectives on a post-colonial world. Second generation immigrants since 1965 are even more likely to change American society because they are able to blend elements of their parents’ global perspectives with their American socialization.
The Purpose of Identity Classification: Highlighting Contrast
In the U.S.’s dominant black/white racial spectrum, identity categories highlight contrast and create the false neutrality of whiteness. They always express more than their face value. Identity categories can express nationalist bias and assert implicit assumptions about groups of people.
Among second-generation Dominican-Americans, for example, self-identifications express the Dominican racial ideology (Bailey 679). The Dominican Republic, which shares the Caribbean island of Hispaniola with Haiti, has very few “black” citizens, but just across the border, everyone is “black.” This segregation is more ideological than what we might think of as “racial.” The national ideology of race in the Dominican Republic is very anti-Haitian, a sentiment that stems from Haiti’s successful slave rebellion, which abolished slavery in Haiti in 1803,when it was declared an all-black nation. This revolt threatened all of the slave-holding societies in the Americas, because those in power feared that the slaves’ revolutionary fervor would spread. This was particularly threatening to the Dominican Republic because of its proximity to Haiti. In Haiti, black is not dependent on skin tone; it is, by definition, a black nation. In the Dominican Republic, consequently, only Haitians are considered black. This nationalist ideology of race manifests in a social stigma against Haitians, and therefore, “black” people. This explains why, in Bailey’s study, second generation Dominican immigrants in the U.S. actively choose to identify as other-than-black.
Obama’s experience suggests another way identity is a tool for emphasizing contrast. His white grandparents, Gramps and Toot, portrayed his absent black father in mythological proportions. Through the stories that they told, they insisted that Obama senior was a larger-than-life paragon of virtue, in contrast to their image of other black people. The stories were “compact, apocryphal, told in rapid succession in the course of one evening, then packed away for months, sometimes years, in [his] family’s memory” (8). Although they had an intelligent black son-in-law, and although they had a black grandson to whom they were obviously devoted, Gramps and Toot still perceived old stereotypes, manifesting in fear and simplicity. This is evident when Toot, upset by an aggressive panhandler, explains that he was particularly frightening because “He is black” (88).
My dad’s narrative provides another angle of identity-as-contrast. Ethnicity is supposedly universal, yet in the U.S., people of European descent are not usually considered, nor do they tend to consider themselves, ethnic. If identification is a tool for highlighting contrast, I think that my dad does not identify ethnically because he sees little ethnic contrast to highlight: most aspects of his life are white-dominated, or serve the interests of a white-dominated society. Because he rarely feels different ethnically/racially, he is not generally aware of his own ethnicity/race. This false sense of white-as-neutral in a white-dominated society suggests that identity, as a tool for highlighting difference, is economic and political because those with more economic and political advantage serve as the seemingly neutral reference point, to which everyone else is compared.
Black People in the U.S. and Identity
The black/white polarity in U.S. culture is complicated by yet another commonly drawn distinction—that between native-born black Americans and black immigrants. This distinction has been made—by individuals, the media, and academia, largely to distance immigrants from the legacy of American slavery. Yet it ends up perpetuating the negative connotations of blackness by suggesting that black immigrants are not as strongly affected by the history of racialized slavery in the U.S. However, black immigrants actually face the same institutionalized violence and discrimination that native-born blacks have confronted for generations. Making distinctions between native-born and immigrant blacks does not absolve anyone from imposed oppressive baggage; rather, it divides people who face the same institutional problem.
Many black immigrants want to dissociate themselves from native-born African Americans, as Carolle Charles explains in “Being Black Twice”:
Historically in the United States, blackness has been the central metaphor for otherness and oppression. Meanings of blackness are associated with a subordinated place. This is notwithstanding the significant differences in the socio-economic positioning of different segments of the black population . . . . This informs prevailing practices out of which the social inequalities affecting a great number of blacks in the United States are produced. These inequalities are especially evident in the inner cities, which are marked by poverty, drug infestation, and violence. Blackness remains the signifier through which dependence and degradation are measured. (172)
As a Haitian immigrant to the U.S., Charles is uniquely aware of the connotations of black in the United States: in Haiti, blackness is a matter of national pride, but in the U.S., it seems to be a matter of national shame.
The media also draws distinctions between native-born and immigrant blacks. In her article, “Black Immigrants in the United States and the ‘Cultural Narratives’ of Ethnicity,” Jemima Pierre illustrates this phenomenon with the story of the “brutal assassination of 22-year-old Amadou Diallo by four New York police officers” (141). “The Black community,” Pierre writes,
correctly read this heinous crime as one in a long line of systematic racially motivated abuses. On the other hand, the mainstream media, while minimally acknowledging the racial character of the crime, indirectly undermined such recognition by emphasizing instead the victim’s immigrant status . . . could his immigrant status have allowed him to be implicitly understood as ‘innocent’ in contrast to the African American often assumed to be guilty of criminality? (142)
The story of Amadou Diallo, as Pierre places it in the context of hundreds of years of “systematic racially motivated abuses,” indicates that black people in the U.S., native-born or not, are all subject to the consequences of blackness as (in Carolle Charles’s words) “the central metaphor for otherness and oppression” (Charles 172).
Pierre argues that social scientists who explore the reasons for black immigrants’ relative economic success, as compared to native-born African Americans, actually perpetuate a racist ideology. She writes of social scientist Mary Waters, among others, who claims that the best hope for African immigrants is to maintain their “cultural distinctiveness” and not assimilate into American society. Waters claims that assimilating into society would force African immigrants into downward mobility, as they would exhibit the stereotypical behaviors associated with native-born African American society, which, supposedly, prevent them from gaining upward mobility. Waters justifies the relative success of African immigrants by claiming that their culture and immigrant status give them better attitudes towards working and white culture (another incidence of “white as neutral”), as well as a “strong, patrifocal” family structure and intolerance for racism. This argument tries to deny the racist structure of society: if some black people can succeed, lack of success must be the individual’s own fault, not racism. But Waters actually reinscribes the racist structure by asserting generalized, negative stereotypes of African American society (which, Pierre notes, have already been debunked several times over).
In social science this is known as the “Culture of Poverty” theory, which holds that African Americans who live in poverty continue to do so as other minorities gain upward mobility because their “cultural practices,” such as poor attitudes towards work, prevent them from rising (147). The Culture of Poverty theory blames African Americans (and other minorities) and does not investigate what F. Nii-Amoo Dodoo calls “demand-side factors,” meaning, the level of acceptance in American schools, employers, government, and individuals (542).
The Culture of Poverty theory, as demonstrated in Waters’s argument, also ignores the demographic of immigrants to the U.S.: African immigrants are the most highly educated group in American society. In “Assimilation Differences among Africans in America,” Dodoo compares the economic success of native-born African Americans, African immigrants to the U.S., and Caribbean immigrants to the U.S. By statistically controlling for level of education, that is—by comparing individuals with equal levels of education—Dodoo discovers that African immigrants to the U.S. face an economic disadvantage in assimilating, as compared with African-descent Caribbean immigrants and native-born African Americans. In the three groups, she finds that Caribbean immigrants are most rewarded by the U.S. economy for their education, and African immigrants are not rewarded for degrees earned in African universities, which are actually reputed to be more rigorous in math and science than American schools. “What has for long been interpreted as a result of relatively superior (inferior) traits associated with Caribbean immigrants (African American),” Dodoo writes, “may largely be a result of differential acceptance by American society” (542).
Is making a general statement about black immigrants implicitly reinforcing an opposite notion about native-born African Americans? Although differences must obviously exist between native-born African Americans and African and African-descent immigrants, the recurring theme is that people want to make the distinction so that immigrants do not suffer from the stereotypes that have been associated with black people in the U.S. for centuries. But, as the tragic story of Amadou Diallo illustrates, black immigrants do face the same institutional violence as native-born African Americans. To combat this violence and the stereotypes that, though debunked again and again, still recur, political unity is required.
People Move and Ideas Change
Identity excludes no one: everyone has a self-identity that they consciously choose and everyone experiences imposed identity categorization (albeit sometimes unawares)—ranging from the government census to everyday interactions. Race, ethnicity, and other identity categories are political; no category is neutral (especially not if it seems neutral). How does one respond to these imagined categories that have such real consequences? I think that confounding the current racial/ethnic identity categories is a step towards removing the destructive identity connotations that burden black people and other minorities in the U.S. and trap white people in the role of—often unwitting—oppressor. White Americans can participate in changing constricting identity concepts, as preliminary steps, by identifying and questioning the neutrality of whiteness, recognizing their (our) role, and acknowledging white privilege.
Pedro A. Noguera and Benjamin Bailey offer some insightful, seemingly contradicting thoughts on how we might tackle this problem. Noguera points out, in “Anything but Black: Bring Politics Back to the Study of Race,” that, although race is a social construct, it has political and social realities. Recognizing the inherent politicality of race, he claims, helps one maintain skepticism about racial categorization, but also reveals the potential for political unity. He describes his own racial/political identity formation as a kid, largely influenced by his 11-year-old cousin, Ronald Frazier:
. . . [U]nlike me, Ronald had figured out the politics of racial identity fairly quickly, and he readily shared his insights. Having grown up amidst the racial violence of the East Bronx, Ronald had drawn the conclusion that racial identity had very little to do with national origin or even color. He explained, ‘Pedro, there are only two races—black or white. It’s not about what color you are or whether or not you’re West Indian; it’s about which side you’re on.’
He went on to explain that there were some whites and Puerto Ricans who sided with blacks, and some blacks who sided with whites . . . . He assured me that race was a political stance, and that it was possible to maintain our Caribbean identity, which we associated largely with the music we listened to and the food we ate at home. The public face we wore to the outside world demanded utter clarity. (195-6)
Noguera’s explanation of race is enlightened and interesting, but will all people wear a face of “utter clarity” when it comes to the politics of race? I agree with Noguera that this type of unity against oppression would be very effective, but Bailey’s prediction seems more realistic. Based on his study of how second-generation Dominican-Americans identify, Bailey thinks that the influences of post-1965 immigration challenge the U.S.’s dichotomous racial paradigm. As more and more second-generation immigrants come of age, Bailey implies, the black/white dichotomy will splinter.
For this black/white dichotomy to change, both >blackness and whiteness need to be challenged. Fair-skinned immigrants with different notions of identity are unlikely to challenge whiteness, because, as many scholars have noted, the process of assimilation for fair-skinned immigrants into the U.S. has been a process of “becoming white” (Pierre 144-5). It is the people who identify as white, and those who don’t necessarily identify as white but still benefit from the construct of whiteness, who must confront the concept of whiteness. This is definitely happening to some degree in corners of academia (whether or not it’s happening outside of academia would be the topic of another paper).
For me, taking African American Studies classes is a way of challenging whiteness, by way of challenging blackness. As Carolle Charles, a Haitian immigrant, points out, the American concept of blackness is an American stigma, not a universal truth. Sometimes, if I’m feeling self-conscious and different, I feel as if I represent whiteness in the classroom. I imagine a psychic message coming my way, pulsing, “You don’t belong here!” Whether or not anyone in my classes actually thinks this, I now know what it feels like—to some degree—to appear to represent a whole race, which is undoubtedly a valuable experience. However, I have realized that I cannot personally bear the burden of the violence and oppression that the construct of whiteness—not the construct of blackness—has created. The best I can do is listen, speak often and honestly, and if there is misunderstanding, maintain the integrity of my voice.
Bailey, Benjamin. “Dominican-American Ethnic/Racial Identities and the United States Social Categories.” International Migration Review 35.3 (2001): 677-708.
Bolding, J. W. Personal interview. 8 May 2006.
Charles, Carolle. “Being Black Twice.” Problematizing Blackness: Self-Ethnographies by Black Immigrants to the United States. Ed. Percy Claude Hintzen and Jean Muteba Rahier. New York: Routledge, 2004.
Dodoo, F. Nii-Amoo. “Assimilation Differences among Africans in America.” Social Forces 76.2 (1997): 527-46.
Flores, Juan. “Triple Consciousness? Afro-Latinos on the Color Line.” Wadabagei 8.1 (2005): 80-5.
Harrold, S., Hine, D.C., & Hine, W.C. African Americans: A Concise History Combined Volume. New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 2006.
Noguera, Pedro A. “Anything but Black: Bring Politics Back to the Study of Race.” Problematizing Blackness: Self-Ethnographies by Black Immigrants to the United States. ed. Percy Claude Hintzen and Jean Muteba Rahier. New York: Routledge, 2004.
Obama, Barack. Dreams from My Father. New York: Three Rivers Press, 2004.
Pierre, Jemima. “Black Immigrants in the United States and the ‘Cultural Narratives’ of Ethnicity.” Identities: Global Studies in Culture and Power 11 (2004): 141-70.
Portes, Alejandro. “Global Villagers: The Rise of Transnational Communities.” The American Prospect 7.25 (1996): 74-7.
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Bitcoin Reaches 5-Month High
The cryptocurrency has been maintaining a stable bullish trend. over the last few days, the market cap has exceeded 185 billion dollars. According to CoinMarketCap, the market cap used to be 179 billion dollars on Tuesday. Over the last few days, the cost of all the cryptocurrencies circulating in the global market has grow considerably.
The analytic department of FortFS reports that on Tuesday, Chile was the biggest news maker for the global crypto market. To be more specific, the local government initiated a draft bill for the local legislators to consider the opportunity to regulate the crypto market. For now, the details are missing.
On top fo that, international investors are focused on the news coming from Japan. The thing is, a major Japanese crypto-exchange named Zaif has recently resumed its work. Around 7 months ago, the exchange was hacked. The damage was estimated at 60 million dollars. So, the exchange had to suspend its work until the security mechanisms are improved.
In the meantime, Bitcoin, which is the world's first and most popular cryptocurrency, keeps on gaining value and setting new highs in 2019. On Tuesday, Bitcoin managed to overcome the threshold of $5500 per coin. The weekly gains exceeded 10%. The domino effect pushed other cryptocurrencies higher as well. By the way, Tuesday's BTC performance was the strongest one among TOP10 cryptocurrencies.
However, FortFS experts say that Tuesday's performance of Binance Coin was strange. It lost around 4% of its value on that day despite the positive news background. Binance was reported to launch a decentralized platform called Binance DEX. Still, the experts assume that the token will recover and continue its way to new highs in the near future. Over the past 7 days, the coin has gained over 24%.
When trying to increase the amount of new clients, many brokers start massive ad campaigns online. Most of the time, you can see or hear those brokers call themselves the leading players in the industry, the best of the best, which is obviously not true because all of them cannot be as good as they claim to be. This actually makes it really difficult for the common trader or investor to make up their mind when choosing the next broker to go with.
The brokerage company NordFX took part in the specialized Forex Traders' Fair-2019 which was held in the capital of the Philippines, Manila, at the end of May.
Central banks all over the world are loading up on euros, yuans, and yens while getting rid of their dollar reserves. The IMF's report for the 4th quarter of 2018 confirms that. They say this has to do with the redistribution of currency reserves in the Russian Federation.
Publication date: 31 May 12:59 PM
Complaints and sometimes even moans have been heard everywhere in the last months about the low volatility of this pair. The same is true about last week, until the second half of Thursday, the maximum range of its fluctuations did not exceed 45 points.
Roman Boutko, an analyst for NordFX, has come up with another consensus forecast for the forex and cryptocurrency markets for the forthcoming trading week starting on May 20, 2019.
U.S. Sanction Trap For Russian Rouble
It's not a secret that the amount of sanctions against Russia has been growing over the last few years. At the same time, experts are losing faith in the stability of the Russian Rouble. Washington is discussing more and more variants to impose even more sanctions on Russia to undermine its economy and national currency.
Facebook articles contest from FortFS
FortFS offers you to show off your writing skills and compete with other traders for a prize fund of 1000 USD, which will be distributed among the authors of the most interesting articles about our company!
BTC Market Will Set New Highs In 2020
Tom Lee, Chief Analyst for Fundstrat Global Advisors, has recently shared his optimistic view on the future of Bitcoin (BTC). In early May, he said that the BTC exchange rate is undervalued and, given some fundamental factors, it should be somewhere around 14K dollars per coin. At this point, he thinks that the current all-time highs may well be renewed this year. This means BTC prices above $20K per coin and market cap well over 830 billion dollars within the next 20 months.
U.S. Unemployment Rate Drops To Nearly 50-Year Low
The U.S. Department of Labor has released another unemployment reports. For the first time in over 49 years, the unemployment rate dropped all the way down to 3,9%. For the most part, this has to do with a considerable decline in the economically active population.
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Quintessential Equity named 2019 Property Fund of the Year second year running
Quintessential Equity is proud to have been named the 2019 Property Fund of the Year at the RICS Oceania Awards, picking up the accolade for a second year in a row.
The awards are held every year in major cities around the world to recognise world-class achievements and demonstrate the upholding of the highest standards of professionalism and ethics by individuals and teams.
Hosted this year by RICS President Chris Brook and comedian Tommy Little, the evening served to highlight the inspirational initiatives and developments in land, real estate, construction and infrastructure this year.
The Property Fund of the Year award was based on the criteria of outstanding professionalism, teamwork, outcomes, innovation and sustainability.
The winning entry was also supported by testimonials from a range of partners including engineers, tenants and investors, who have worked in collaboration with Quintessential Equity.
In Geelong, Quintessential Equity helped deliver a world-class office building for WorkSafe Victoria at 1 Malop Street. At the global forefront of sustainability and wellbeing, the project brings social, economic and environmental benefits to the region.
Peter Murenu, Technical Director at engineering consultants Aurecon Australia, says the project was an example of what can be achieved through collaboration.
“Quintessential Equity set itself apart by their collaborative approach and their willingness to push the boundaries on energy and WELL targets.
“From the outset, Quintessential Equity’s directors were adamant that the building would achieve excellent sustainability and energy outcomes,” he said.
While Quintessential Equity’s now-sold Canberra asset at 14 Moore Street, delivered excellent investor returns thanks to an innovative leasing strategy and a commitment to our ‘love the tenant’ philosophy.
The prestigious award was accepted by Shane Quinn on behalf of the Quintessential Equity team at a dinner at the Plaza Ballroom in Melbourne on Thursday night.
Quintessential Equity’s Chief Executive Officer, Russell Bullen, says the award is a tangible recognition of the team’s focus on achieving strong social, environmental and financial outcomes.
“At Quintessential Equity we’re not just driven by delivering strong returns for our investors.
“We’re also passionate about providing world-class office spaces that look after the tenant, the community and the environment. We’re delighted with this award as it recognises the contributions we make in all these areas.”
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Home » Discover Rackham » Student Spotlight: Vivian Truong
Student Spotlight: Vivian Truong
Sheila Waterhouse, Alumni Engagement Officer, Rackham Graduate School
Apr 25, 2016 | Student Spotlights
Like many undergraduates, it took some time for Vivian to find her bearings. Fortunately, once she discovered her passion, she didn’t look back. “I thought about marine biology and my dad wanted me to be a doctor, but when I took an ethnic studies class, things clicked for me there. I was able to learn about social and cultural forces that were shaping the world around us. I am a first generation college student, and I didn’t know what ethnic or Asian American studies was. I was starting to understand how race and gender are huge forces in shaping experiences of communities I’ve grown up in, and I started to understand the world through that kind of lens.” she recalls.
Toward the end of undergrad, she realized she wanted to give other students the same experience and began the road toward a career in academia. “I hadn’t learned about my own history: my parents were refugees from Vietnam, but I hadn’t explored what that meant. I wanted to provide the kind of learning experiences I had in Asian American studies classes for others who were seeking that kind of history and connection.” she explains.
After graduating from Brown, Vivian worked as community organizer back home in New York City on a youth campaign against the stop and frisk policy there. That led her to think about connections between academia and broader communities. An important part of her work, Vivian is continuing her passion for community activism as graduate student, with an eye towards the idea that “knowledge produced in academia shouldn’t stay within the ivory tower but flow outside of it to create broader change.” She also believes in recognizing and respecting the forms of knowledge that have already been developed in marginalized communities outside of the academy.
Vivian chose Michigan because of the faculty and funding. “I was offered a lot of support, and U-M had a strong ethnic studies program. “Unfortunately, Vivian says, the university has lost several faculty in ethnic studies, especially in Asian/Pacific Islander American studies, over the years. “That’s one of the reasons it is so important to maintain robust programs to draw grad students here. I’ve had a lot of really supportive faculty and mentorship that I’m appreciative of, and I’m thankful for the sense of community I’ve found among graduate students in the American culture, English, and history departments.”
She was also drawn to U-M because of the vibrant changes going on in Detroit, specifically the community organizing models put forward by Grace Lee Boggs, who encouraged building alternative institutions rather than protests based on making demands of existing institutions. She is grateful to have had the opportunity to meet Grace Lee Boggs before she passed away last October.
She’s engaged in Detroit by getting involved in a new youth program through APIAVote in Michigan, where she facilitated workshops on Asian American identity and community issues.
Vivian participated in Rackham’s Institute for Social Change two summers ago and started to think about a community project that would dovetail with her research. She found one and applied for an Arts of Citizenship grant to fund it. The Committee Against Anti-Asian Violence (CAAAV), a non-profit organization working to empower low-income Asian immigrants and refugees, is soon to celebrate their 30th anniversary. Vivian is planning a public history project to document the history of the Asian American community around CAAAV’s work. She describes, “I’m working with the documents archive – really boxes in the back of a closet – and going through the process of digitizing and organizing them in addition to completing an intergenerational oral history project. The grant would cover this research and an exhibit or presentation on the archive and history project for the 30th anniversary event.
Narrowing her ideas for her dissertation proposal, Vivian plans to research the history of Asian American community organizing around broken windows policing issues in New York in the 1990s. This topic would help her dive into CAAAV’s history working with black and Latino communities to hold police accountable, combining her research with her community activism.
As Vivian continues to chart her course, she’s holding one ideal above others – the dedication to maintaining a connection between academia and the community outside of it. “There is this push and pull where we get some small victories, then they get undone, but I can’t hold onto that kind of pessimism. Part of doing the work that I have done as community organizer and continue as a researcher and scholar activist is rooted in persistent belief that change can happen. Often things look really grim but activism and mobilization are really inspiring. I want to trace how the work we see now has this longer history, thinking about how current movements can understand and learn from this history.”
program in public scholarship
Institute for Social Change
Barbour Scholars
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The New York Times: A Shakespeare Festival Presents Modern Translations. Cue the Debate (Again).
Originally published on April 3, 2018 by Jennifer Schuessler in the New York Times.
Four years ago, the news that the Oregon Shakespeare Festival had commissioned modern English “translations” of all of Shakespeare’s plays drew headlines, and no small alarm, from purists who saw it as a kind of literary vandalism.
Now, the public will have a chance to judge the full fruits of the effort for itself.
The Play On! Festival, to be held at Classic Stage Company in New York from May 29 to June 30, will feature readings of all 39 translations. While some have previously had public readings, or even full productions, this is the first time the full Shakespeare canon will be presented.
[Read more about the Oregon Shakespeare Festival’s project.]
The purpose of the project, Lue Morgan Douthit, the longtime head of dramaturgy and literary development at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, explained at the time, was not to “improve” or junk Shakespeare’s language, but to challenge a diverse group of playwrights to engage deeply with it, line by line.
More than half of the playwrights — who include Marcus Gardley (“King Lear”), Ellen McLaughlin (“Pericles”), Lloyd Suh (“Henry V”) and Mfoniso Udofia (“Othello”) — are women or people of color. They were charged with considering meter, rhyme and rhythm, and conveying Shakespeare’s meanings and metaphors in accessible and contemporary (but not slang-y) English. The first rule was “Do no harm.”
“No one felt they’re going to out-Shakespeare Shakespeare,” Ms. Douthit said in a statement announcing the festival. “Instead, the project asked what would happen if we weed and weave the language a little bit? If anything, I think we have even more respect for Shakespeare than we had when we entered this.”
[Check out our Culture Calendar here.]
One thing the playwrights were absolutely not supposed to do was “fix” problematic aspects of the plays, inject political critiques, add or subtract characters, or adapt the story to new settings and situations, though participants may go on to do that on their own.
The playwright and performer Taylor Mac translated “Titus Andronicus” for the project, but declined to have his work in the reading series, according to the festival. Separately, he has written “Gary: A Sequel To Titus Andronicus,” which opens April 21 on Broadway. (A spokesman for “Gary” did not respond to a request for comment.)
Instead of Mr. Mac’s translation, the festival will feature a “Titus” from Amy Freed, who also translated “The Taming of the Shrew.”
As for the impact of the project on the playwrights more broadly, Ms. Douthit, in an email, said it was too soon to tell, and also hard to untangle the various strands of influence.
“It has been an interesting couple of years for some of the writers — at least six of them are deeply engaged in writing for television,” she said. “That will certainly affect their playwriting too, I suspect.”
She added, “One of the most moving aspects of the project has been watching playwrights and actors dive into the machinations of these large scale plays.”
View Month Calendar
View Week Calendar
7:00pm - Two Gentlemen of Verona
Two Gentlemen of Verona
Translated by Amelia Roper
More InfoBuy Tickets
2:00pm - Taming of the Shrew
7:00pm - Titus Andronicus
7:00pm - King Henry VI, Part 1
King Henry VI, Part 1
Translation by Douglas P. Langworthy
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Mariah Carey – All I Want for Christmas Is You
Mariah Carey – All I Want for Christmas Is You Mp3 Download
Mariah Carey All I Want for Christmas Is You
Mariah Carey’s Song ‘All I Want for Christmas Is You‘ Breaks The spotify record for the most streamed a day. According to Spotiy’s official charts, Mariah’s holiday song scored 10,819,009 streams on Christmas eve (Dec. 24th), breaking the earlier record held by XXXTentacion’s ‘SAD!’ — it earned 10.4 million Spotify streams on June 19th, 2018, one day after his death.
If you have a look at the most streamed songs on Dec. 24th in the screenshot below, each one of them is Christmas themed. Mariah wrote and produced the song alongside Walter Afanasieff, releasing on November 1, 1994 as the lead single from her fourth studio album and first holiday album, Merry Christmas. ‘Thank U, Next’ had earlier broken Spotify’s global, single-day streaming record for a female artist on Nov. 5, earning nearly 8.2 million streams. Mariah has now broken both overall and female-specific records.
RELATED: Chromeo ft French Montana & Stefflon Don – Don’t Sleep
Download Mariah Carey All I Want for Christmas Is You Mp3;
Download Mp3: Mariah Carey – All I Want for Christmas Is You
Tatianna Manaois – Sweeter
Saweetie – Tip Toes Ft. Quavo
YONGZOO YEZI – In Your Eyes
Lil Peep – Runaway
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Step Right Up: Lady Tigers Take Turns as Championship Heroes
Falling behind 5-0 in the first inning and a half of a district championship game means someone is going to have to be a hero. Republic had plenty of volunteers for the job.
The Lady Tigers overcame a 5-0 deficit, posting their 11th come-from-behind win this season, in a 7-6 walk-off win over Webb City for the Class 4 District 11 championship Saturday. Megan Weis drove in the winning run with a line drive into the gap in left-center field, scoring Riley Laub.
But it was Laub who may have struck the big blow of the day for Republic six innings earlier. In the bottom of the second, with Republic trailing by five, Laub crushed a home run over the center field fence with two runners aboard, cutting the lead to 5-3 and giving Republic new life. It was the first home run of her career. She’s the seventh player to hit a home run for the Lady Tigers this season.
Julia Higgins tied the game in the bottom of the third with a two-run homer of her own. It was her 14th home run of the year, setting a new Republic school record. The two RBIs gave her 60 for the season, placing her second all-time on the Missouri single-season RBI list. She’s six short of the single-season state record. Higgins’ 14 home runs are tied for ninth all-time, and her 32 extra-base hits are tied for fourth all-time in Missouri.
After Republic fought back to tie the game, Webb City retook the lead in the top of the sixth. Keira Jackson slapped a triple to right field with one out. Darcy Darnell tried to lay down a bunt, but she popped it to first baseman A.J. Fenske for an out. But Fenske’s throw to Kaitlyn Ragsdale to try to double off Jackson sailed off the tip of Ragsdale’s glove and into left field. Jackson scored on the error, and it was 6-5.
In the bottom of the sixth, it was senior Megan Thorne’s turn to step up. Thorne turned on a pitch and skied it over the fence in left field for a solo home run, evening the score at 6-6 and setting up Weis’ big hit in the bottom of the seventh.
Laub led off the final inning with a single, and Emma White sacrificed her to second. Ragsdale grounded out sharply to shortstop, with Laub advancing to third. That’s when Weis stepped to the plate and jumped on the first pitch, slapping it over the drawn-in outfield to deliver the district championship.
Avery Romans worked through several defensive mistakes to keep Republic in the game. After the first two batters of the game reached base for Webb City, Haidyn Berry hit a three-run homer. An error also factored in the scoring in the top of the second, when Webb City tacked on two more. For the game, Romans pitched seven innings and allowed just two earned runs.
Ragsdale, Weis, and Laub each had two hits for Republic, which advances to the state sectionals to face Lee’s Summit West or Raymore-Peculiar.
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