pred_label
stringclasses 2
values | pred_label_prob
float64 0.5
1
| wiki_prob
float64 0.25
1
| text
stringlengths 112
978k
| source
stringlengths 37
43
|
|---|---|---|---|---|
__label__cc
| 0.701246
| 0.298754
|
Archive for Orlando
The Look # 5: Tilda and Arno overdo it
Posted in FILM with tags Arno Frisch, Billy Zane, Funny Games, John Landis, Luc Besson, Michael Haneke, Orlando, Sally Potter, Tilda Swinton, Trading Places on August 20, 2016 by dcairns
I like it when actors break the fourth wall, otherwise I wouldn’t be writing this occasional series, but I do think it’s a device that should be used sparingly. It’s clever once, acceptable twice, and more than that can start to seem smug — like the filmmakers are so pleased at coming up with this clever idea, they can’t stop doing it, forgetting that true cleverness usually involves having more than one idea.
One use that irked me slightly was Sally Potter’s film ORLANDO. Tilda Swinton, who plays both male and female in the film, is perfectly cast and perfectly suited to fourth wall breakage, since her presence is often borderline uncanny, especially when she’s not wearing comedy teeth. She knows that we know that she knows… I saw a clip of ORLANDO before I saw the whole thing, and was amused by her look to camera as Billy Zane rescued her from an equestrian accident. The look seemed to say, How can I, an art film character, be caught up in such a corny situation? It perfectly took the curse off the moment, and made me want to see the film.
But Tilda does it all the bloody time. It loses its impact, its humour and its cleverness long before the Zane/horse moment. The fact that Tilda, I believe (it’s been years) also talks to the audience actually helps, since you’re allowed to do that all through a movie — that turns The Look from a spot gag into a full-fledged narrative device. But mostly it’s just the mute look, and it wears out its welcome, rather. If it doesn’t bother you, I say this: imagine how great it would be if s/he just did it three times, evenly spaced. It would pack a wallop each time.
Image from Eye Contact: Look at the Camera, a whole tumblr dedicated to camera-gazing!
FUNNY GAMES is a movie so repulsively self-satisfied and secure in its Important Message that it would be hard to know where to begin, but for the fact that I’m writing about looking at the camera, not about being an arrogant, not very bright prig who wants to give the audience a hard time. But I shouldn’t really be writing about it at all, since I walked out part way through. Michael “Happy”Haneke, the prig in charge, says that people who walk out don’t “need” the film, apparently believing that if you can’t bear FUNNY GAMES you are already cured of your thirst for celluloid violence. You understand that violence shouldn’t be used as entertainment.
I wouldn’t say that. I definitely felt I didn’t need the film, but I didn’t need it because I felt the idea was a stupid one, and not entertaining. Since I’m fully aware that violence in real life is not fun (for the victim), but I’m further aware that movies are not real life, my attitude to movie violence is neither simplistic condemnation (Haneke) nor simplistic enthusiasm (Tarantino). If it works for the film’s purpose and I approve of the film’s purpose, I’ll be OK with it.
Haneke’s failure to accomplish what he thinks he’s accomplishing (teaching us that violence is bad) extends to the people who like the movie as well as those who don’t. One friend praised it for being a dark thriller that tortures the audience along with the central characters, a tough movie you win points for surviving. Others praise the film’s “purity” since there’s supposedly no actual onscreen violence. Which I think is nonsense — in one moment we see a character blown away by a gunshot, though psycho-killer Arno then rewinds the movie so that didn’t happen. But it did happen, in the sense that we SAW it. And does it matter if a deadly blow happens just outside of frame, or offscreen? Do we class the forcible placing of a bag over a child’s head as a non-violent act simply because it doesn’t involve a blow or a gun-blast? This is a violent movie, about as pure as THE PUBLIC ENEMY, the only difference being we’re not allowed to enjoy it.
Arno Frisch’s looks to camera are designed both to alienate and implicate us, to make us more aware of the act of watching. OK: we get it. It’s perfectly clear, and moderately startling, the first time he winks at us. By the time he’s asking us if we think the good guys will survive, it’s old. And from the film’s wearisome, puritanical attitude, we ought to be able to answer the question confidently. To hell with all filmmakers who want the paying audience to have a lousy time.
Oh, I do think John Landis overdoes it a little in TRADING PLACES. He has too many characters do it too many times. I can allow the two leads their moments, but the guy in the gorilla suit? The real problem with this is not the individual moments, but the fact that evidently Luc Besson was taking notes. All Luc Besson knows about comedy is that if you have the characters look to camera in a very deliberate way, or at each other, you can fool the slower-witted or more indulgent audience members into thinking something amusing just happened. Luc Besson actually makes me angrier than “Happy” Haneke, which is inconsistent of me, since Besson I guess DOES want us to have a good time. My problem with him is he doesn’t want to put in the work or thought to make the fun happen, he just wants to create the hollow appearance of fun.
(Also, he’s a plagiarist.)
"This place is... possessed!"
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line7508
|
__label__wiki
| 0.988377
| 0.988377
|
Director Bille Woodruff Inks Overall Deal With 20th Century Fox TV
By Denise Petski
Denise Petski
Co-Managing Editor
More Stories By Denise
‘Evil’: Christine Lahti Joins CBS’ Supernatural Drama Series In A Recasting
‘Dispatches From Elsewhere’: Tara Lynne Barr To Recur In Jason Segel’s AMC Anthology Series
Courtesy of APA
Film, TV and video director Bille Woodruff has signed a two-year overall deal with 20th Century Fox Television.
Known for his distinct visual style and dynamic storytelling, Woodruff began his relationship with the studio directing multiple episodes of Empire and Star, which led to the deal.
“Bille is a fantastic director who has done spectacular work on episodes of both Empire and Star for us, and this deal is about continuing that relationship on an exclusive basis,” said Jonnie Davis, President of Creative Affairs at TCFTV. “We’ll continue to assign him episodes of our current series and potentially have him direct and produce series and pilots down the road.”
Woodruff’s other TV credits include the CW’s Black Lightning, Freeform’s Shadowhunters, TNT’s Claws, BET’s The Game and VH1’s Hit The Floor.
On the feature side, Woodruff made his directorial debut with Universal’s Honey. He then went on to direct MGM’s Beauty Shop; Universal’s Honey 2, Honey 3 and the franchise’s fourth installment Honey: Rise Up and Dance; and Lionsgate’s hit thriller Addicted and romantic comedy The Perfect Match.
Woodruff also has directed videos for artists such as Lil’ Wayne, Britney Spears, Toni Braxton, Enrique Iglesias, Celine Dion, Nas, OutKast, Aaliyah, Missy Elliott, Trisha Yearwood and Usher among many others. He has been nominated for numerous MTV Video Music Awards and won a VH1 Fashion Award.
Woodruff is repped by APA, Greenlight Management and Lichter Grossman.
20th Century Fox TV
Bille Woodruff
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line7510
|
__label__cc
| 0.716729
| 0.283271
|
Govt delays multiple tech FOI requests
news Three major Federal Government departments and agencies have delayed the release of sensitive information relating to controversial technology sector issues under Freedom of Information legislation, citing the need to more closely examine the documents and consult with third parties before the information is released.
In October 24 Delimiter filed three Freedom of Information requests with Federal Government departments and agencies.
The first, filed with the Federal Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy, seeks any communication between the office of Communications Minister Stephen Conroy and any staff of Telstra or Optus regarding the voluntary Internet filtering scheme supported by the Internet Industry Association and the Australian Federal Police, from the dates of 1 July until 24 October, 2011. This FOI request aims to clarify Conroy’s views on the limited Internet filtering schemes which Telstra and Optus voluntarily implemented in July. The filters only block a list of sites allegedly containing child pornography, and are viewed as a stopgap measure ahead of the planned implementation of Labor’s much more comprehensive filter.
The second FOI request was filed with the Australian Federal Police.
In mid-October, Neil Gaughan, the national manager of the Australian Federal Police’s High-Tech Crime Operations Centre, told a Senate Committee that Telstra’s filter had blocked some 84,000 requests for child pornography material online since it was implemented. This FOI request seeks any email sent or received by Gaughan during the period from 1 July to 24 October this year which refers to statistics provided by Telstra with respect to its implementation of the trial.
The third FOI request targeted the Attorney-General’s Department and sought a wide range of information pertaining to a controversial meeting the department has held behind closed doors with representatives from the ISP and content industries over online copyright infringement, otherwise known as Internet piracy.
The Attorney-General’s Department has already declined to release minutes of the meeting, on the grounds that they do not exist. However, a new FOI request filed by Delimiter seeks a list of all attendees at the meeting, personal notes of any and all attendees at the meeting from any government agency and associated internal government correspondence about the meeting.
All three departments and agencies have acknowledged the requests. However, all three have also extended the deadline for the information to be returned, as they are allowed to do under current legislation. In their communications with Delimiter, all three organisations have been polite and courteous.
“It has come to my attention that I will need to consult with some third parties in relation to the potential release of certain documents,” wrote a senior legal officer of the Attorney-General’s Department in a letter to Delimiter on November 17. “Therefore I will need to consult with these organisations in relation to the potential release of these documents. Under the FOI Act I am entitled to a 30 day extension to conduct this consultation (because it appears that the organisation(s) might reasonably wish to make a contention to the release of this information).”
“Please rest assured that I endeavour to turn this around quickly and obtain the views of the organisations as quickly as possible. Although I do not anticipate taking the full 30 days to consult with these organisations I do think it may take longer than the current due date. I will certainly keep you updated as this progresses.”
An AFP representative issued a similar letter, noting: “Upon consideration of your request, the AFP is of the view that your request will take longer than 30 days to process. The delay is regrettable, however, it will not be possible to advise you of a decision by 23 November 2011 due to the time required to consult with the line area and obtaining the relevant documents.” The AFP sought permission for the delay, which Delimiter assented to.
A representative of Conroy’s Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy noted in a third letter that no charges would be levied to process the FOI request lodged with it. However, it noted that it would need to consult with third parties concerning the release of documents with information about “their business affairs” — and so a 30 day extension would also apply.
In May 2010 the Federal Government passed sweeping reforms to its Freedom of Information legislation with the aim of making it easier for those seeking information from government to obtain that information without excessive costs and problems. Currently, I am attempting to take advantage of those changes to seek information that Delimiter previously could not afford as an independent media outlet without significant financial backing.
So far, there are encouraging signs from the process. Not only have I received moderately speedy replies to my enquiries, but already in one major case, charges for the retrieval of documents have been waived.
However, I am concerned that Federal Government departments and agencies such as the AFP are using the excuse of the inclusion of commercial information in requested documents to delay or perhaps ultimately modify or block the release of those documents. How hard or time-consuming, after all, can it possibly be, to do a quick search of one police force member’s email and deliver what would no doubt be just a handful of documents? How hard could it be, in the case of the Attorney-General’s Department, to release a list of attendees at a meeting?
Not hard at all.
The Freedom of Information reforms enacted by the Gillard Government have unlocked the public sector’s warchest of secrets a little further. But the Federal Government still has a long, long way to go before it could, in any sense, be described as transparent. I’d like to see a bigger effort made here. The Government should not withhold information from the public just because it’s potentially embarassing. If the information concerned was so commercially sensitive, it would probably not have been disclosed to the Government in the first place.
Conroy’s department and his office have generally been reasonably transparent over the time that I have dealt with them as a journalist. However, over the past half-decade, I have found it increasingly difficult to obtain information directly from the AFP or the Attorney-General’s Department about sensitive matters. I would not go so far as to say there is a culture of secrecy at these organisations; there are many reasons for them to be wary when dealing with the press. But at the moment, they definitely need to open the kimono a little further on matters of public interest, in my opinion.
Blackout: Govt piracy meeting completely censored
IIA requests “streamlined” piracy controls from Govt
Govt censors secret anti-piracy meeting notes
FOI requests target Section 313 notices
ASIC repeatedly delays S.313 FoI responses
attorney-general's department
australian federal police
neil gaughan
Dean 22/11/2011 at 2:43 pm
Keep up the good work! The fact that they’re all delaying implies that there’s at least something there…
Cheers! I am not confident that we’ll get anything real back from this process. But I at least want the people concerned with these efforts to know that we’re watching.
Glenn 22/11/2011 at 3:46 pm
I was about to say the exact same thing, well done delimiter.
Cheers, much appreciated!
Delay != smoking gun.
Enacting a FOI request against multiple government departments will not be an ove-night thing. Assuming there’s something damning automatically is probably a bit fanciful, instead of the more logical, simple cause — unwieldy bureaucracy.
But, Renai, good to see you “keeping the buggers honest”. :)
I agree delay != smoking gun, but when the info being sought could be found with a 10min search of one guy’s email archives … it does make you wonder.
Hehe I try — it’s more entertaining, at least, that way :)
billy 22/11/2011 at 5:13 pm
why does a delay mean there is something to hide?
it could actually mean they have better things to do than pander to requests from jornalists looking to sell stories.
None 22/11/2011 at 6:44 pm
Because it invariably does.
By the way, there’s no “pandering” going on. The government has a legal obligation to supply information when requested.
Dessy 23/11/2011 at 6:48 am
Yeah, well argued.
Is there a question that the Government has not complied with its legal obligations here? No – They just didn’t provide the information as quickly as the requestor wanted it (which is usually ‘immediately’). Pandering would be putting aside all other tasks and concentrating on getting the information to the requestor as an urgent priority (which, funnily enough, is what most people making FOI requests tend to think their request deserves).
Pete 22/11/2011 at 6:46 pm
Renai, it’s worth noting that the people who respond to your FOI requests actually have jobs to do.
Responding to your request takes time – and for someone who is actually employed for another reason, that time isn’t always available.
The other thing worth noting is that yes, non government entities release information in confidence to the government all the time, and just because they released it to the government, the government doesn’t have the right to release it to you. How would you feel if I did a FOI request on your tax documentation, which you provided to the government, and they released it to me without asking for your consent?
Yes, and part of that job is responding to FOI requests. They may not like it, and they might wish it wasn’t part of their job, but it is.
How would you feel if I did a FOI request on your tax documentation, which you provided to the government, and they released it to me without asking for your consent?
Nobody is saying such information should not be removed from documents released. But how could the list of attendees at a meeting be considered commercially confidential? It’s pretty clear that the reason the government doesn’t want this information to be published is not because it’s commercially sensitive, but because it’s potentially embarrassing.
Actually, the people responding to my requests tend to be that department’s FOI officer — in short, it is their job, and almost only their job, to respond to requests like mine. Actually, it’s more than their job. It’s a little something called “the law”. And it’s on my side :)
Pete 22/11/2011 at 10:15 pm
I may be wrong in this, but as I understand it, the FOI officer in many cases does not make the decision, they only direct it to the appropriate person – in this case it is likely that the FOI officer does not have clearance, or the ability to view the documents in question.
As I said, I could be wrong.
Further – I would like your response to how you would feel if someone placed an FOI request on information you had submitted to the government, and they did not consult you prior to passing that information on to a third party.
“I would like your response to how you would feel if someone placed an FOI request on information you had submitted to the government, and they did not consult you prior to passing that information on to a third party.”
My response to this is:
1. With respect to privacy, I consider corporations different than individuals. I do not believe corporations have an inherent right to privacy. Sure, there can be commercially sensitive information — but in my experience working in corporations, there isn’t a real stack of it that would lead to commercial disadvantage if disclosed.
2. I don’t believe it should take more than a day or so to get that corporation’s consent in any case.
“I do not believe corporations have an inherent right to privacy. Sure, there can be commercially sensitive information — but in my experience working in corporations, there isn’t a real stack of it that would lead to commercial disadvantage if disclosed.”
Really – you’re kidding right? The private sector shares highly sensitive commercial information with the Government all the time for lobbying and other purposes.
FOI is a big hassle/ administrative cost for the Govt. Sure, the occasional request uncovers something semi-interesting, but from my experience, FOI is an area dominated by nutjob conspiracy theorists asking stupid time consuming questions that actually end up costing the taxpayer a huge amount of wasted money for all the resources that are spent in administering the FOI Act. Also by journos wanting stuff yesterday, so they can twist information into commercial property. All that said, Australia has one of the most open Governments in the westernised world.
As for your views on the private sector and secrecy – imagine the FOI Act extend to the private sector – if you think the FOI regime uncovers the occasional public sector mistake; imagine the extent of corruption, deception, deceit and unethical behaviour that goes on in the private sector on a day to day basis.
” I don’t believe it should take more than a day or so to get that corporation’s consent in any case.”
You realise we’re talking about huge companies here,often with bureaucracies that dwarf Government. Also international organisations. There are many layers of clearance. Just because you want to make money out of the information doesn’t mean everyone should rush to get it to you – as long as they stick to the framework of the FOI Act, you’ve nothing to bitch about until the next review of the FOI Act.
I believe your view of this to be a limited one. I’m not just trying to ‘make money’, as you say — I’m trying to hold powerful figures to account, and bring information to light that both corporations and governments would rather the public not know ;)
Pete 23/11/2011 at 9:27 am
What I think would be best Renai, is if you posted copies of the emails/snail mail letters you recieved from the FOI officers/Government departments when a final decision is made.
Of course, when you do that, make sure you redact the signatures of the people who signed them, as they cannot be released by you, and redact your address details from the top of the letter, in addition to the cost details that are included in the letter. Once you’ve done that, let us know how long it took to do that redacting.
Further, corporations have private data, and that data is legaly protected, end of story.
I understand corporations have private data. However, it is important to understand that journalists like myself spend their entire lives trying to get corporations and governments to release sensitive information which the public would be highly interested to know.
Forgive me for not being on the side of corporate privacy — it’s not my role in society ;) My role is informing and entertaining the public, and keeping the bastards honest.
billy 23/11/2011 at 9:36 am
” I’m not just trying to ‘make money’ ”
So what you’re saying is, you’d be doing this regardless of whether you have a commercial interest in publishing the outcomes? Is that right?
billy 23/11/2011 at 10:00 am
wow – a real fricken altruist and defender of the public good. And here I was thinking you were just trying to spin a story to get more hits on your business’s website….I guess I shouldn’t be so cynical.
Journalists don’t get into journalist to get page impressions — they do it because they believe that their writing can help make the world a better place ;)
If I just wanted to get page impressions to the web site I could start posting celebrity galleries with big boobs like the SMH …
PeterA 23/11/2011 at 11:26 am
I certainly would have offered up the money for 1 or 2 of these FOI requests if Renai had asked for donations.
How hard is it to believe that people give a shit how their country is run when their representatives are behind closed doors?
@Renai, @PeterA, +1’s all round :-)
Robbie 22/11/2011 at 9:46 pm
So the government introduces new laws to make “FOI more transparent and accessible”, but the suggestion is delays = conspiracy?
Aryan 23/11/2011 at 12:41 am
You almost restore my faith in journalism, and also demonstrate why independent and critical media is necessary for any democracy to function.
Thank you for your efforts. They are much appreciated.
Baconomy 23/11/2011 at 12:59 am
Well, this is an eye-opener – I never really considered that any individual can file FOI requests beyond their personal information. A brief googling indicates some agencies make it far easier than others.
Does anybody know of a quick guide anywhere about how to go about it – specifically, what kind of information is accessible to a freedom of information request and what phrasing to use/avoid to maximise your chances?
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line7511
|
__label__wiki
| 0.596703
| 0.596703
|
The Importance of Plaintiff Credibility in Determining Causation
A recent Nova Scotia Supreme Court case, Gale v Purcell, 2018 NSSC 319, demonstrates how the credibility of a plaintiff can play a central role in assessing causation in a motor vehicle accident.
On September 19, 2006, the Plaintiff, Angela Marie Gale (“Gale”) sustained injuries in a motor vehicle accident (“2006 MVA”). On March 23, 2010, Gale was involved in another motor vehicle accident in which the Defendant, George D. Purcell (“Purcell”), rear—ended her vehicle (“2010 MVA”). Gale sought damages from Purcell, who claimed that all of Gale’s injuries were originally caused by the 2006 MVA.
In order to address the parties’ claims, the court had to decide whether the 2010 MVA was the original cause of Gale’s injuries or if the 2010 accident merely exacerbated the injuries that were caused by the 2006 MVA.
Whether Gale’s Injuries were caused by the 2010 MVA
Relying on the “but for” test articulated in Clements (Litigation Guardian of) v Clements, [2012] 2 SCR 181, the court held that Gale lacked credibility and as a result, failed to prove that the 2010 MVA was the cause of her ongoing injuries and pain.1
In Gale’s testimony, she took great care in distinguishing injuries that she thought were caused by the 2006 MVA and those that were caused by the 2010 MVA.2 She also downplayed the ongoing effects of the 2006 MVA and emphasized the effects of the 2010 MVA.3 Additionally, Gale contended that the injuries caused by the 2010 MVA rendered her unable to work full-time as a dental receptionist.4
In contrast, Gale’s medical records suggested the following: that all of Gale’s injuries could be traced back to the 2006 MVA, that she was still suffering from physical and mental hardships that were caused by the 2006 MVA, and that she was able to return to work as a dental receptionist soon after the 2010 MVA.5
Although Gale may have believed that the 2010 MVA was the root cause of all her pain issues, the court held that a witness’s belief in what is true is insufficient to establish their credibility. The court relied on a statement made by O’Halloran JA in Faryna v Chorny, [1952] 2 DLR 354, [1951] BCJ No 152 (CA):
The credibility of interested witness, particularly in cases of conflict of evidence, cannot be gauged solely by the test of whether the personal demeanour of the particular witness carried conviction of the truth. The test must reasonably subject his story to an examination of its consistency with the probabilities that surround the currently existing conditions.6
The totality of the evidence suggested that the 2010 MVA exacerbated injuries that were originally caused by the 2006 MVA.
Whether the exacerbation of injuries was a minor injury
After deciding on causation, the court assessed whether the exacerbation of injuries was a minor injury. The court relied on the definition of “minor injury” as it was defined at the time of the 2010 MVA in s. 113B of the Insurance Act, RSNS 1989, c 231 (“Act”). The judicial interpretation of s. 113B in Farrell v Cassavant, 2009 NSSC 233 yielded the following questions that must be answered in determining whether a plaintiff has suffered a minor injury:
Did the plaintiff suffer a personal injury?
If so, did the personal injury result in a permanent serious disfigurement?
Did the personal injury result in a permanent serious impairment of an important bodily function caused by a continuing injury which is physical in nature?
Did the personal injury resolve within twelve months following the accident?7
While Gale’s exacerbated injuries were personal in nature, they did not result in a permanent disfigurement or a permanent serious impairment of an important bodily function. The exacerbated injuries did not interfere with regular employment and her injuries had resolved within 12 months following the 2010 MVA, as evidenced by the fact that Gale was able to travel and work as a dental receptionist soon after the 2010 MVA.
Entitlement to damages
As the court had decided that the exacerbated injuries were minor, Gale’s non-pecuniary and general damages were capped at $2,500, the amount of the minor injury cap in place at the time of the 2010 MVA.8 The court also held that Gale had suffered a direct economic loss by the impairment of her ability to perform household duties and she was awarded $10,000 for the loss of valuable services.9
Lessons for Insurers
Insurers should look at the totality of evidence submitted by a plaintiff and assess whether there are any contradictions therein that could impugn the plaintiff’s credibility. Contradictory evidence can serve to prove that the plaintiff has not established causation, or that the plaintiff’s injuries are minor and are therefore subject to the minor injury cap set forth in the Automobile Accident Minor Injury Regulations, NS Reg 94/2010.
This article was written with assistance from Trevor Wong, an Articled Clerk in Cox & Palmer’s Halifax office.
1 Gale v Purcell, 2018 NSSC 319, at paras 16-20
2 Ibid, at para 149
5 Ibid, at para 82
6 Gale v Purcell, 2018 NSSC 319 at para 170
Amy MacGregor
Damages Arising From Future Loss of Income Determined on Gross, Not Net Basis
MacDonald v MacVicar, 2018 NSSC 272 provides judicial guidance on s. 113BA(1) of the Insurance Act, RSNS 1989, c 231 (“Act”), holding that future loss of income damages for plaintiffs injured in motor vehicle accidents should be calculated on a gross, rather than net basis. Background In MacDonald v MacVicar, 2018 NSSC 271, the court […]
Future Care Costs for Cannabis in Personal Injury Claims
As a result of the Cannabis Act, cannabis was legalized on October 17, 2018. Prior to that, cannabis was regulated under the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act. There was, however, a legal exemption for the medical use of cannabis. Despite the recent legalization of cannabis, a framework for access to cannabis for medical purposes still exists, but under new regulations passed under the authority of the Cannabis Act.
Seasonal Worker Did Not Qualify as “Employed” for Purposes of Loss of Income Payments under Automobile Insurance Policy
In Temple v. Aviva Insurance Company of Canada,1 the Supreme Court of Newfoundland and Labrador determined that the plaintiff, a seasonal worker, was not employed at the date of the motor vehicle accident. As a result, he did not qualify for loss of income payments under Section B of Newfoundland and Labrador’s standard automobile insurance […]
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line7516
|
__label__cc
| 0.712191
| 0.287809
|
CPA CELEBRATES 45 YEARS: HARNESSING THE STRENGTH OF A THOUSAND RIVERS
45 years ago, CPA was founded by Chinatown elders, youth, students, and activists inspired to change the world. We are proud of the last four and a half decades fighting to defend and protect our community, win policies that uplift the quality of life and confront economic exploitation. CPA members, volunteers, and staff have developed the leadership of thousands of people to build power to transform our society.
From the very beginning, CPA and our leaders have fought an uphill battle; today, the challenges are greater than ever. CPA is building a movement of movements that link immigrants, youth, seniors, women, workers, tenants, queer and gender non-conforming people to change the conditions that our communities live in and to chart the path to a society where each of us can be our full and whole selves.
We have nurtured intergenerational and grassroots leadership and built multi-racial, cross-issue, and regional alliances with incredible organizations towards the goal of building a better world where our communities can thrive with our full humanity. We have faith that we will win. We must harness the strength of our communities, of everyday people, to strategize, organize, and build power.
To enjoy pictures and videos of the festivities, please visit: www.athousandrivers.org
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line7517
|
__label__wiki
| 0.521362
| 0.521362
|
Crazy Bookish Love
Celebrating My Love For The Written Word
Rantings of a Crazy Bibliophile
Review: The Broken Girls
Rating: 3.75 Stars
The Broken Girls by Simone St. James is a chilling thriller with a paranormal twist. The central character is a boarding school for girls that used to take in troubled girls who no one wanted, but that has now become an abandoned, decrepit building after being shut down in 1979
In 1950, four roommates became each other’s friends and secret keepers at Idlewild Hall, a depressing boarding school, rumoured to be haunted. All four of them came from different backgrounds, but they formed strong bonds, helping each other survive in a hopeless place. Then one night, it all changes as one of them vanishes and is presumed to have run away.
In 1994, a girl was murdered, her dead body left on the hockey field of the deteriorating ruins of Idlewild Hall. The murder sent a shock through the small Vermont town, resulting in the conviction of the girl’s boyfriend.
Twenty years later, the dead girl’s sister, Fiona, now a journalist, still feels the echoes of the crime that destroyed her family. Try as she might, she is unable to let go of a feeling that something was not right with the investigation at the time of her sister’s murder. This obsession with the past has made it impossible for her to hold on to relationships or lead a normal life.
When Fiona finds out that someone is planning to restore Idlewild Hall and reopen it as a boarding school for girls, she thinks it is the perfect opportunity to write a story about the place, and maybe it will help exorcise her ghosts. But an unexpected discovery leads her to a strange case from the past, and things become more and more entangled as she tries to find out about the history of Idlewild Hall.
The tone of this novel is dark from the beginning. There is nothing light-hearted about this story. From the first page, you know that something dark and sinister is afoot. The scenes from the narrative of the past are deliciously eery, and you can feel a chill while reading about the school in 1950. The four girls are as different from each other as can be, and you can feel their frustration at what is predominantly a patriarchal society where they have to work towards the ultimate goal of acquiring a husband.
The parts about the present are not so impressive. Though Fiona’s character is interesting, and you feel her pain and unease, her interactions with others are rushed, the various other characters seeming one-dimensional and bland. The information that Fiona acquires seems to easy to get, and one thinks that why did it take her 20 years to get to this place.
The climax too was a bit disappointing, and over too quickly. With 300 plus pages, this is by no means a small book, but it is St. James’s gripping writing that made me want more details. The scenes where there is an element of the paranormal are quite spooky and scary, and I just wanted more of the same. The main female characters are all strong and real. I just wish the male characters were the same.
This book is more for fans of spooky books than those of mysteries and crime solving. Still, I had a good time reading it and would rate it higher than average.
Published by T. Akhtar
Book Aficionado. Conquering the World, One Book at a Time View all posts by T. Akhtar
Author, Review, Uncategorized
Author, book reviews, Books, crime, drama, family, fiction, friends, girls, mystery, opinion, paranormal, reading, recommendations, spooky, thriller, united states
Sunday Problem: Recommending Books
Review: Tangerine
T. Akhtar
Book Aficionado.
Conquering the world, one book at a time.
Sunday Dispute: Is It Mid-Life Crisis?
Review: The Hiding Place (The Taking of Annie Thorne)
Review: The Party Worker
Review: The Only Story
Review: Last Time I Lied
Archives Select Month April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018
Follow Crazy Bookish Love on WordPress.com
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line7518
|
__label__cc
| 0.714902
| 0.285098
|
Interview: Gary Golio
Posted on 4 April 2017 Tuesday
Yesterday, I shared a review of Strange Fruit: Billie Holiday and the Power of a Protest Song by Gary Golio and today, I have an interview with the author himself. Gary reached out to share his book with me several months ago and I was immediately curious about the person who would be able to create a book that handles such a dark message in such an inspiring way. It’s always interesting to learn a book’s backstory.
When did you begin writing picture books?
I began writing my first book—what would become JIMI – Sounds Like a Rainbow, on the young Jimi Hendrix—in 2002. My wife, children’s author Susanna Reich, was my inspiration. Even so, she thought I was a little crazy. ; ]
What spurred your interest in jazz?
Jazz is the music of feeling and mind, an older brother of the blues. As a visual artist (landscape painter) for many years, I spent hours and hours listening to jazz station WBGO/Newark in my studio, and it was quite an education. Truth be told, my first “jazz” album was a double-Coltrane vinyl set that I bought when I was 18. John’s music changed my life, and led to my writing Spirit Seeker, about his musical and spiritual journey.
And why share this interest in jazz with young readers?
The stories of jazz are quintessentially American, as jazz is the American art form. I want to inform young readers about the music and the creators because this is their legacy, too, and it speaks to our common humanity.
Your book Strange Fruit really connects Billie Holiday’s life to that song, as if that’s the heartache to which she was saying good morning. What do you want readers to take from this book?
When most people think of Billie, they think of her talents and her troubles. But she was also a very courageous person, and her singing of “Strange Fruit” proves that. She was insulted, assaulted, spat upon and shunned because she championed a song about lynching, and she served the message of that song until the end of her life. The online video of her singing it in London, in 1959 (the last year of her life), is a national treasure. And yes, the power of her rendition derives from her own heartaches.
There is so much in this story from Abel Meeropol to Café Society to Billie Holiday herself. Was it difficult to contain the story?
I originally structured the story this way: The Songwriter (Abel Meeropol), The Clubowner (Barney Josephson), The Singer (Billie Holiday), and The Song. But when I showed it to one of my prior editors, she urged me to rewrite and put Billie at the heart of the tale. She was right—I did just that—and my brilliant editor at Millbrook, Carol Hinz, helped me to create the book we have now. Charlotte Reilly-Webb’s artwork also speaks to the subject and the time.
This is an intense story that captures the racism that Holiday faced and builds on that to validate this strange fruit, these bodies, that hung from trees. How do balance what needs to be with how you say it? How do you still provide hope?
I knew this was a powerful story that could scorch and burn, and the last thing I wanted to do was sensationalize it. So I focused on the Power of Art–of Music–to deliver a message and affect society. The story is about how three people came together to make something greater than themselves, a song that spoke to us then and is just as relevant today. Besides, truth is always under assault, and Billie’s example is hopeful and empowering.
For whom did you write this book?
Well, I always write for myself, since many people think my choice of subjects is a bit far out sometimes. I don’t see it that way, of course—Strange Fruit is a very human story about the power to speak out—and I believe that Billie’s bravery needs to be acknowledged. She was a singular musical artist (producer John Hammond called her a “jazz genius”), but she was also a civil rights pioneer, and that might be a surprise to many.
I’m thankful I was able to connect with Gary and share this story behind the story.
More of Gary’s past and future works:
SMILE – How Young Charlie Chaplin Learned to Make the World Laugh (and Cry) (Candlewick, 2019)
Dark Was the Night – Blind Willie Johnson’s Journey to the Stars (Penguin Press, 2018)
Carlos Santana – Sound of the Heart, Song of the World (Henry Holt, 2018)
Bird & Diz – Two Friends Create Bebop (Candlewick)
Spirit Seeker – John Coltrane’s Musical Journey (Clarion/HMH)
When Bob Met Woody – The Story of the Young Bob Dylan (Little, Brown)
JIMI: Sounds Like A Rainbow – A Story of the Young Jimi Hendrix (Clarion/HMH)
Tagged: african american, Billie Holiday, biography, Gary Golio, Strange Fruit
Posted in: african american, Authors, Interview, Me Being Me
← book Review: Strange Fruit: Billy Holiday and the Power of a Protest Song
Patricia McKissack →
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line7519
|
__label__wiki
| 0.628552
| 0.628552
|
“Boycotting Israel works,” says Rachel Corrie’s dad
Joe Catron The Electronic Intifada Gaza City 27 November 2012
Craig and Cindy Corrie at Gaza’s seashore, 6 November.
Ashraf Amra APA images
A few days before Israel bombed it for eight consecutive days, Gaza hosted a visit by Cindy and Craig Corrie. Their daughter, Rachel, was murdered by an Israeli soldier in 2003 as she tried to prevent bulldozers from demolishing Palestinian homes in Rafah, a city in southern Gaza.
It was the Corries’ first visit to Gaza since an Israeli court ruling in August this year, which rejected a lawsuit they had taken over Rachel’s murder. The Haifa District Court declared that the Israeli state and military were not responsible for her death.
The Electronic Intifada contributor Joe Catron interviewed Craig Corrie on 11 November, the last night of the Corries’ latest visit to Gaza.
Joe Catron: You’ve been here in the Gaza Strip for five days. How have you found it?
Craig Corrie: It’s always kind of hard to take into your head. The last time we were here was in September 2009. That would have been about eight months after the attack on Gaza [Operation Cast Lead]. And we had been here one previous time, in March of that year.
Then, the destruction was obvious everywhere. You could see rubble, people living in the rubble, people living in tents. Every person was shell-shocked. If you talked to them, they all had a family member who was killed or maimed. The fear, of course, affected everybody. In a very real way, it was quite fresh on people’s minds.
As you come in this time, there’s construction going on. It seems to be happening on glossy, sort of big things. Part of that is to show off, I figure. I’m not totally against that. People, even the de facto government, have to have some means of pride.
One of the things we’ve noticed is the shops. Not only are shops open, but they have a lot on the shelves. But somebody pointed out that there aren’t very many people in those shops. There’s still a lot of unemployment. And I’m told that poverty’s actually getting worse instead of better.
We went to the Qattan Centre for the Child this morning, where we had been before, right after Cast Lead. In 2009, they were working vigorously on trying to get children drawing. All of the pictures were full of tanks, bulldozers, soldiers. They pointed out that there was also a sun in most of the pictures: some sort of symbol of something better.
The art we saw today was more sophisticated. So I think it was by older children, although it’s been some time; it might be the same children. But it wasn’t tanks and bombs all over the place this time. So maybe that’s better.
And yet, it was five days, as you said. You can’t get under the surface in five days, particularly when you’re here with a delegation [the Corries were part of an Interfaith Peace-Builders’ group]. And we’ve been very busy. We’ve gone from group to group to group, and that’s just skimming the top of the waves.
I’m really glad to be here. I’m glad to see the people we haven’t seen for so long. I hear their hurt, in so many different ways. A 13-year-old boy was shot and killed the day before yesterday. Seeing his father, with the pain so fresh, he doesn’t know what it is yet.
We couldn’t communicate well through an interpreter; maybe through the eyes. I’ve been there in a way. People here have all been there in some way or another, but it’s different for everybody.
JC: You recently took part in a similar delegation to the West Bank, and attended the verdict of your civil trial in Israel. What similarities and differences do you see in these three divisions of historic Palestine?
CC: One of the advantages of our trial is that my wife and I lived for nine months in Haifa. So we could know people better. We had a number of Jewish Israeli friends, and we couldn’t have done it without them or our Arab friends inside ’48 [present-day Israel].
On the trip we just did, the best day for me was when I skipped out for a few hours in Haifa, ran around, and happened into some of the guys I knew when I was there. They weren’t expecting me; they might have known I’d come back someday, but didn’t think it would be this year.
Those friendships are wonderful. That part I like. But there was so little emotional payback from the trial, it’s difficult. You know how after you burn yourself, as you get close to a hot stove, it starts to hurt more the closer you get to the heat? That’s the way I felt going back to Israel.
We had a little bit of time in the West Bank. But again, we were going from one group to another. So in a way, you normalize all of this. The people we traveled with, who hadn’t seen it before, were outraged and amazed. I’ve been there before.
But it doesn’t have as much impact as coming here does. Well, there’s probably not as much of an impact now. The first time was incredibly emotional, because I knew people had cared for Rachel. That was incredibly important.
When Rachel was killed, one of the messages I wanted to get through to the people of Rafah was to thank them: thank them for being a father to Rachel when I couldn’t be. I know they were because of the way she wrote about the people she met and how much they meant to her. She wrote that the most important thing she ever did in her life was to come to Rafah. And I needed them to know that.
It was her choice to come. Of course it was an unbelievable loss to us when she was killed. But she was doing something important, something she loved.
JC: You mentioned that while you may appeal your civil case, it will no longer require your regular involvement. What will your priorities, and those of the Rachel Corrie Foundation, be now?
CC: We’ve got a lot of ideas, so we’ll have to choose among them. Of course we’ll still stay active in the Rachel Corrie Foundation, and hopefully be a little more active. We have number of thoughts. What’s been great about this trip is getting to talk to some friends here on the ground. They’ve been giving us their ideas about some things we can do. I think it’s most important to listen to the people here.
I think the trial was really important. We went into it looking for accountability and some information. We’re not going to get any more information out of it. Now I think we have to figure out a meaningful way to get some of the information we have out to the world.
The overarching ruling by the judge was that Rachel was killed as part of a military action, and the State of Israel is not responsible for anything that happens in a war.
There are huge problems with that: you can’t be at war when you’re an occupying power, and other things. But having spent 11 months in the army in Vietnam, I know that they are responsible. That ruling alone is far larger than Rachel, and it needs to be challenged.
The verdict was so appalling that I think a lot of the world was appalled. We may have lost in that courtroom, but I think we made the best impression we could on the world. And I think we caught Israel somewhat by surprise with the media [coverage] that came out.
JC: The trial has been your main commitment for a while, but of course you’re familiar with other Palestine solidarity efforts. What are your insights on them?
CC: My wife doesn’t like me to share this part, but I was sort of slow coming to BDS [boycott, divestment and sanctions]. I’ve talked to some people, actually on this trip, who helped me with some of the well-thought-out ways, when you look at the actual call, how targeted it is.
I used to work in insurance, which involved some investing. So in terms of divestment, that to me was a no-brainer. If you own the stock, like in Caterpillar, then you’re profiting from things that are immoral.
It didn’t seem to me that it takes a discussion. It takes a call to your stockbroker to get out. Why talk about it? Especially if you’re a Christian church. You can’t have the values of a church, then go profit from people’s suffering.
What I worried about was group punishment. Israel, as well as the United States, does that sort of thing.
But I’ve had a lot of my questions answered about just how specific the boycotts are. Omar Barghouti, and some people I know, answered them when they were talking to our group.
I had a discussion with some friends who are Israeli academics. Of course they don’t like the academic boycott. One thing I found out is that if they go as individuals, not representing their institutions, they aren’t boycotted. That seems very sane to me.
I told them after dinner, “You know, the one thing I can tell you is that I’ve tried — I, personally, have tried — everything else. This works.”
There are a whole lot of other things my family and I have done to seek justice and change, not just for our family — that’s more symbolic — but for the Palestinian people. It’s not really anything to do with Rachel. We’re trying to work for the children who are here now, the children Rachel was trying to help.
We’ve tried every conventional way I know to do this. We’ve been going to courts in Israel. And we’re trying this, too. It’s one of those examples of things I thought were a little bit nuts, but turned out to work. It’s working.
And it’s getting a lot of pushback. That tells me it’s working, and helps it work, by the way. When somebody’s screaming like that, they bring a whole lot more coverage to it. So, thank you Israel for making it a little easier for us, at least.
JC:After all your recent experiences in Palestine, what’s the message about them you’ll take back to the United States?
CC: It’s hard for me to wrap it all up. What we’ve heard a lot is that the West Bank and Gaza Strip need to be united, and that they’re all one Palestine.
I kept hearing over and over that it’s worse than it’s ever been, more in the West Bank than here. And that seems strange if you’re in Ramallah, where the construction is really booming. But I think there’s a growing realization that they’re losing more and more of the land, and a fear that they’re going to end up in little bantustans.
It would be a two-state solution, but one of them wouldn’t really be a state and not viable at all, just bantustans. Will the world put up with that?
There’s a lot of discussion about one-state versus two-state solutions. I’m not the person to have anything to say about that. But I do think those of us who work on this issue — inside ’48, in the diaspora, in the West Bank, in Gaza — have to think about how we secure the rights of all the people in the area.
It may seem absurd, and most people will think there’s a very low chance Canada will come down and take my home in Olympia, Washington. But if they do, I have a right to it back. That’s my right of return. And it ticks me off that just because some legislator in Congress finds it inconvenient to recognize that for the Palestinian people, he’s going to take away my right.
When it comes to human rights, we all drink from the same well. And if you poison that well because you think it’s going to hurt your enemy, don’t cry to me when it’s your children that get sick.
There are lots of different ways to say that, but it’s a real, immediate thing for me when I come here.
What we’re fighting for here is everybody’s rights, the rights we’re all supposed to enjoy. Palestinians have those rights. They’re just not secured. We need to secure them for everyone in the region.
Joe Catron is a US activist in Gaza, Palestine. He works with the Centre for Political and Development Studies (CPDS) and other Palestinian groups and international solidarity networks, particularly in support of the boycott, divestment and sanctions and prisoners’ movements. He blogs at joecatron.wordpress.com and tweets at @jncatron.
Craig Corrie
Cindy Corrie
Qattan Centre for the Child
Rachel Corrie Foundation
Connecticut arm of million-strong church votes to shun occupation profiteers
Joe Catron 22 October 2014
Israel forces Gaza fishermen to undress in attack violating ceasefire deal
Joe Catron 23 September 2014
Israel tortures prisoners captured in Gaza invasion
Parents of Rachel Corrie seek justice in Jerusalem
Nora Barrows-Friedman 13 May 2014
Statement from the parents of Rachel Corrie
How Rachel Corrie appeal challenges Israel army's dehumanization of Palestinians
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line7526
|
__label__cc
| 0.611879
| 0.388121
|
Elonex to become Official Digital Screen Partner of Barclaycard Arena
Comments Off on Elonex to become Official Digital Screen Partner of Barclaycard Arena
You're BIG! Let Elonex Make You BIGGER!!
One Digital Solutions To Light Up ISE 2015
The Barclaycard Arena, formerly the NIA, has secured the global technology firm Elonex as its official digital screen partner.
As part of the new agreement Birmingham-based Elonex have installed 111 state of the art screens throughout the revamped venue, ensuring the redevelopment will include the most cutting edge technology.
The purpose of the screens is to enhance the customer experience at the Barclaycard Arena. The screens will engage with audiences digitally and broadcast informative and entertaining content.
Elonex have also installed an unmissable 26m² digital screen in to the new glass façade overlooking the canal at the new Barclaycard Arena. The screen is set to be unveiled early in January 2015 and will deliver a high impact display to welcome visitors.
Nick Smith, Chief Executive of Elonex, said:
“We’re delighted to be working in partnership with the Barclaycard Arena, particularly at such an exciting time for the venue. The redevelopment which has taken place is outstanding, and the addition of the high impact Elonex digital screens will serve to enhance the overall visitor experience. The digital screens are designed to engage and interact with customers in order to add to the enjoyment of visiting the new venue, and we’re sure they will prove extremely popular. This new partnership further adds to the Elonex digital network which spreads across the Midlands in the form of digital roadside billboards and digital screens in major shopping centres and sports stadiums, and we’re very much looking forward to playing our part in the Barclaycard Arena becoming world renowned for delivering excellence.”
Phil Mead, Managing Director of Arenas at the NEC Group, said:
“The redeveloped Arena has been purpose built to provide an improved and enhanced experience to meet the changing expectations from audiences and performers alike. The partnership with Elonex, who are leaders in the world of digital technologies, will support and contribute to us providing this experience. The innovative improvements will reinforce our market position and raise our status as a world-class venue.”
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line7527
|
__label__cc
| 0.734587
| 0.265413
|
You are here: Home / Wrongful Death
While we all hope to live a long and full life among family and friends, unforeseen events can tragically take family members from us. Dozier Law Group LLC has over 50 years of combined legal experience working with families who have lost a loved one due to the negligence or wrongful acts of others.
Wrongful death is the legal term for a death caused by someone else’s negligence or a deliberate act. The victim of a wrongful death is referred to as the “decedent.” Wrongful death actions are different from other types of personal injury cases. Unlike other tort claims where the victim files suit against an alleged wrongdoer, the decedent’s estate or a member of the decedent’s family files suit in a wrongful death action.
In Georgia, the surviving spouses, children, parents and other relatives may sue those responsible for causing a wrongful death. The cause of action initially belongs to the surviving spouse. Where there is no surviving spouse, it belongs to the decedent’s children. O.C.G.A. § 51-4-2(a). If there is neither a spouse nor surviving children, the decedent’s parents have the right to file suit. O.C.G.A. § 51-4-2. Where the court awards damages to a decedent’s parents and the parents are divorced or separated, the court maintains the authority to allocate all remedies between the parents as the court sees fit. O.C.G.A. § 19-7-1(c)(6). Relatives can recover the “full value of the life” of the deceased, which may include:
Loss of future earnings, including probable raises
Loss of benefits, including retirement benefits
Loss of the inheritance children may have stood to receive
Funeral expenses and other costs caused by the death
Compensation for the decedent’s pain and suffering
Compensation for the pain of the survivors
Loss of the love and affection of a spouse, child or parent
Punitive damages intended to punish the responsible party
The loss of a loved one can be extremely difficult to bear and can take a heavy toll on the surviving family members, both emotionally and financially. Many people are uncomfortable with the idea of pursuing a lawsuit that seeks to put a price on a human life. After all, life is precious and no amount of money can bring back a loved one. However, families that have suffered an unexpected death often have significant expenses to deal with while they mourn, along with real concerns about their financial futures. In addition to coping with the loss and the prospect of a life without the love and support of the decedent, there may be expensive medical bills, funeral costs, significant lost income and other unanticipated expenses.
A wrongful death lawsuit can help provide for what is or may be required from a financial standpoint on a short-term and long-term basis. It may also have another effect, preventing whatever caused the death from ever happening to another person and family by curing the dangerous condition or drawing public attention to the responsible party’s illegal or unsafe behavior.
Georgia wrongful death laws can be quite complex. They may involve questions of inheritance, apportionment of fault among responsible parties, competing claims among family members, and complex negotiations with insurance companies. For example, where one’s own negligence may have contributed to the wrongful death, his or her right to recover could be effected. Also, where a minor may be entitled to all or part of a wrongful death recovery, complicated rules determine who can pursue the claim on the minor’s behalf, whether a proposed settlement is lawful, and how any resulting award may be managed.
An experienced wrongful death attorney at Dozier Law Group LLC can help you navigate these and other complex and often confusing issues and obtain the best outcome for the decedent’s family or estate. We encourage you not to delay seeking legal representation, as personal injury cases must be brought within the statute of limitations and can be lost forever if not pursued timely.
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line7529
|
__label__wiki
| 0.545728
| 0.545728
|
Home » News » Wine news
UK wine domestic sales and exports up 50%
By Shay Waterworth
Latest figures from the UK wine industry revealed a record-breaking harvest for 2018 and a 50% increase in sales both domestic and international, with more land under vine than ever before.
A survey of the UK wine industry, conducted by Wines of Great Britain, in conjunction with data analysts Wine Intelligence, confirmed that last year 15.6m bottles were produced, 130% higher than the previous year’s crop in 2017.
Acreage of vineyards has tripled since 2000 with a further 2m vines set to be planted in 2019, confirming the wine industry as one of the fastest-growing agricultural sectors in the UK.
Most of the acreage is now planted with Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Pinot Meunier and Bacchus, which between them account for 76% of all plantings.
“Our latest survey acknowledges 2018 as a milestone year for the industry,” said Simon Robinson, chairman of Wines of Great Britain. “Our figures detail the considerable pace of growth taking place here in the UK and what exciting predictions and opportunities lie in the future.
“As a sector we are bringing many developments in agriculture, tourism, education, investment and employment. This is now a thriving and confident British industry in which we can be justifiably proud.”
According to Wines of Great Britain, industry predictions are that at the current rate of growth, the UK will be heading for 40m annual bottle production in the next 20 years.
Currently 2000 people are employed within the industry and over the next 20 years the industry is expected to create between 20,000 and 30,000 new jobs.
The biggest export markets are the US and Scandinavia, which together receive 65% of total exports. Wines of Great Britain says exports may account for 30-40% of the total wine produced in the UK by 2040, yielding a potential value of £350m per annum.
The trend in sparkling wine production continues, accounting for 69% of wines produced. However, still red, white and rosé wines remain strong categories, seeing a marginal rise in its proportion of the overall production.
By 2040, Wines of Great Britain also expect wine tourism in the UK to generate an additional revenue of £658m per annum.
Keywords: Wines of Great Britain
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line7532
|
__label__cc
| 0.560277
| 0.439723
|
Unnamed: Great fires deserve names, not just a number
Editorials Letters to the Editor Editorial Cartoons King Cartoons Opinion Columns
Jerry McBride/Durango Herald
06-12-18- Trees killed by the Valley Fire in 2002 still stand as a reminder with the 416 Fire burning in the backgroun.
The most famous fires in human history would have to include the Great Fire of London in 1666; the Great Chicago Fire of 1871; and the San Francisco Fire in 1906. All were sensibly named for the places they burned.
In a list of infamous American wildfires, you’ll find the Chetco Bar and Eagle Creek fires in Oregon in 2017, the California wildfires of 2007 and 2008, the Yellowstone fires of 1988, and the Mann Gulch Fire in Montana in 1949. Closer to home, there’s the Missionary Ridge Fire in 2002.
What do they have in common besides being fires?
They all had names.
In the Civil War, battle names could be confusing, as the Confederates would call a battle “Shiloh,” for example, and the Union would call it “Pittsburg Landing.”
The more urban Northerners tended to regard bodies of water or a landing as noteworthy, historian Shelby Foote observed, while the more agrarian Southerners deferred to the names of towns, like Shiloh, Tennessee.
Yet, from Leesburg to Fair Oaks to Ball’s Bluff, none of those epic battles suffered the indignity of being dubbed with a number. It would be as though someone stuck out their hand and said, “Four One Six, pleased to meet you.” Doesn’t work.
Numbers are wonderful things. We use them for dates. We use them for area codes. They help us avoid confusion.
Take 416. It happens to be the area code for Toronto. In 1904, before there were area codes, Toronto burned – an event known to posterity as the Great Fire of Toronto of 1904. There are numbers in that fire’s name, but it has a name. It has a place.
Now, the danger has passed and we’re in the beginning of the end of our 416 Fire. Also still burning in Colorado are the Spring Creek and Lake Christine fires. We’re fortunate, of course. But still: They have proper names. Is that fair?
When our 416 was in its youth in the early days of June, it got its designation from dispatchers who took the first report, which was incident No. 000416.
Suppose the God of Genesis had brought a camel to Adam to see what he’d call it and he said, “It’s got the hump, let’s see... Well, it’s the 15th animal you’ve shown me, Lord. Let’s call it a Fifteen!”
There’s a lack of initiative and imagination there, although we’re sure that first responders have other priorities, and that’s a good thing. There’s a story about a man who saw a diner choking, and, wanting to help, said, “What’s that maneuver called again?”
You don’t want action delayed for want of a name. Yet, everything eventually deserves one, doesn’t it?
Numbers can be wonderful. Math and physics are glorious. But numbers alone are soulless. It seems almost unfair that Durango would go through so much destruction for something with no poetry in it. Asking firefighters to put their lives on the line for that feels like asking soldiers in Vietnam to die defending Hill 319.
A number is not a name. Names are memorable. Numbers are meant to be interchangeable. But maybe that’s our silver lining. Because, really, why do we want to recall a disaster like this?
Perhaps we got lucky after all.
Take this thing from my paw
Colorado ICE protests mirror Trump bluster
Have we got a deal for you on the border
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line7533
|
__label__wiki
| 0.564375
| 0.564375
|
European payment order - Romania
FINDING COMPETENT COURTS/AUTHORITIES
The search tool below will help you to identify court(s)/authority(ies) competent for a specific European legal instrument. Please note that although every effort has been made to ascertain the accuracy of the results, there may be some exceptional cases concerning the determination of competence that are not necessarily covered.
Instrument: European cross-border procedures - European payment order
Article 29(1)(a) - Courts with jurisdiction
Article 29(1)(b) - Review procedure
Article 29(1)(c) - Means of communication
Article 29(1)(d) - Accepted languages
The court with jurisdiction to issue a European Payment Order is the court with jurisdiction for hearing the case at first instance:
- the district court (which has jurisdiction to hear at first instance claims for a specific amount of money up to and including RON 200 000) or
- the tribunal (which has jurisdiction to hear at first instance all applications which are not by law within the jurisdiction of other courts, thus including claims for a specific amount of money in excess of RON 200 000) — Article 94 (1), point 1(j), and Article 95, point 1, of the new Code of Civil Procedure (regarding payment orders, see Article 1015 of the new Code of Civil Procedure, which provides that the creditor may submit a payment-order request to the court competent to address the substance of the case at first instance).
- procedure under ordinary law:
- final decisions may be contested by way of an extraordinary appeal seeking annulment where the appellant was not duly summoned and was not present at the proceedings; such an appeal seeking annulment may be lodged within 15 days of the date of notification of the decision, but no later than one year after the date when the decision became final; the grounds for the appeal must be set out within the 15 days referred to above — otherwise it will be null and void (Articles 503(1) and 506 of the new Code of Civil Procedure);
- an extraordinary appeal for review of a decision made on, or referring to, the substance of the case may be requested if the party concerned was prevented, by circumstances beyond his or her control, from appearing at the proceedings and informing the court accordingly; where such circumstances apply, decisions that do not refer to the substance of the case are also subject to review; the time allowed for requesting a review is 15 days, counting from when the preventing circumstances end (Article 509(1), point 9, and (2), and Article 511(2) of the new Code of Civil Procedure);
- a party missing a procedural deadline will be granted a new time limit only if he or she proves that the delay arose owing to duly substantiated reasons; to this end, the party must complete the requisite procedural document no later than 15 days after the preventing circumstances ended, requesting that it be granted a new time limit; in the case of appeals procedures, this time limit is the same as the usual time limit allowed for lodging an appeal; an application to be granted a new time limit will be decided on by the court competent to decide on applications regarding rights not exercised in time (Article 186) of the new Code of Civil Procedure).
- special payment order procedure:
- the new Code of Civil Procedure (Articles 1013 to 1024) establishes a particular procedure for payment orders;
- a debtor may lodge an application for annulment of a payment order within 10 days of its being served or notified (Article 1023(1) of the new Code of Civil Procedure);
- a creditor may, within 10 days (Article 1023(2) of the new Code of Civil Procedure), submit an application for annulment of a ruling provided for in Article 1020(1) and (2) [1] of the new Code of Civil Procedure, or of a payment order provided for in Article 1021(2) [2];
- an application for annulment will be processed by the court which issued the payment order, represented by a panel of two judges (Article 1023(4) of the new Code of Civil Procedure);
- where the court judging the case admits the application for annulment in full or in part, it will annul the order in full or in part, as applicable, and will issue a final decision; where the court judging the case admits the application for annulment, it will issue a final decision imposing the payment order; a decision dismissing an application for annulment will be final (Article 1023(6) first sentence, (7) and (8) of the new Code of Civil Procedure);
- the party concerned may lodge an appeal against the enforcement of the payment order, in accordance with ordinary law; the appeal may only refer to irregularities in the enforcement procedure or grounds for extinguishing the obligation which have occurred after the payment order became final (Article 1024(2) of the new Code of Civil Procedure).
[1] Under Article 1020 of the new Code of Civil Procedure:
‘Article 1020 Challenging the claim
(1) Where the debtor challenges the claim, the court shall check whether the challenge is justified, on the basis of the documents in the case file and the explanations and clarifications provided by the parties. If the debtor’s defence is justified, the court shall dismiss the creditor’s request by issuing a decision.
(2) Where the substantive defence presented by the debtor involves the processing of evidence other than that referred to in paragraph (1) and that evidence would be admissible in ordinary law proceedings, in accordance with the law, the court shall dismiss the creditor's request for a payment order by issuing a decision.
(3) In the cases referred to in paragraphs (1) and (2), the creditor may submit an application to lodge legal proceedings under ordinary law.'
[2] Under Article 1021(2) of the new Code of Civil Procedure: 'Where the court, having examined the case evidence, finds that the creditor’s claims are justified only in part, it shall issue a payment order only for that part and shall also indicate the payment deadline. In such cases, the creditor may submit an application to lodge legal proceedings under ordinary law, with a view to having an obligation imposed on the debtor to pay the remainder of the debt.'
- procedure under ordinary law
- Delivery/communication of writs of summons and other procedural documents must comply with Articles 153 to 173 of the new Code of Civil Procedure. Set out below are some examples of how delivery/communication takes place:
- writs of summons and all procedural documents are delivered ex officio by procedural agents of the court concerned or any other of its employees, as well as by agents or employees of other courts in whose jurisdiction the addressee of the document to be served resides (Article 154(1) of the new Code of Civil Procedure);
- if documents cannot be delivered in the manner set out above, they are sent by post, by registered letter with declaration of content and acknowledgement of receipt, in a sealed envelope to which are affixed a proof of receipt/record of delivery form and the notice provided for by law (Article 154(4) of the new Code of Civil Procedure);
- at the request and sole expense of the interested party, procedural documents can be delivered directly either by bailiffs, who are required to comply with the formalities laid down by procedural law, or by express delivery services (Art. 154(5) of the new Code of Civil Procedure);
- writs of summons and other procedural documents can be communicated by the court registry by telefax, e-mail or other means capable of transmitting the text of the document and ensuring confirmation of receipt, where the party concerned has provided the court with the details necessary for this purpose; for the purpose of confirmation, the court will enclose with the procedural document a form stating: the name of the court, the date of communication, the name of the registrar handling communication, and the documents communicated; the form has to be completed by the addressee, who must state the date of receipt and provide the name and signature of the person responsible for receiving correspondence; it must then be returned to the court by fax, e-mail or other suitable means (Article 154(6) of the new Code of Civil Procedure).
- the order must be served to the party present or be notified to each party without delay, in accordance with the law (Article 1021(5) of the new Code of Civil Procedure).
Applications must be completed in Romanian.
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line7535
|
__label__cc
| 0.68973
| 0.31027
|
Cuyahoga Community College Foundation
View additional image View additional image
Rock & Drama
$75 current bid
FMV: $180
All the world's a stage! Package includes a one-hour behind-the-scenes tour for up to 10 people of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Library and Archives at the Metro Campus, two ticket vouchers to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and Museum, and four tickets to a Tri-C theatre production of your choice during the 2018-2019 season (all shows to be determined).
Value: $180
See item description for details. Where applicable, gift certificates will be mailed after the auction closes. All items requiring scheduling are the responsibility of the winning bidder (unless otherwise noted) and are to be done so at a date and time that is mutually agreed upon by the donor and winning bidder. The Tri-C Foundation reserves the right to disqualify any bids. All sales final; no refunds.
Donated By Rock & Roll Hall of Fame
Hosted By: Cuyahoga Community College Foundation
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line7536
|
__label__wiki
| 0.873445
| 0.873445
|
Freedom Project
Impact Your World
CNN Heroes
Follow CNN
Three Burundi schoolgirls face jail for doodling on President's photo
By Aanu Adeoye, CNN
Updated 1740 GMT (0140 HKT) March 21, 2019
Chat with us in Facebook Messenger. Find out what's happening in the world as it unfolds.
Burundi President Pierre Nkurunziza arrives at Schloss Bellevue presidential palace to meet with German President Joachim Gauck on December 12, 2012 in Berlin, Germany.
(CNN) Three schoolgirls in Burundi spent the weekend in jail and are facing five years in prison for drawing on the President's face in their school books, Human Rights Watch told CNN.
The girls, who are all minors, were arrested last week and were on Monday charged with 'insulting the head of state,' according to the human rights group.
They are on remand while they await trial for drawing on President Pierre Nkurunziza's face during one of their classes, Lewis Mudge, the Central Africa Director at Human Rights Watch told CNN.
4/5 This is not the first time children are targeted with political repression in Burundi. In 2016 authorities also arrested schoolchildren for doodling on images of Nkurunziza.https://t.co/uUQKVElFcK pic.twitter.com/D0uGNTC7KV
— Lewis Mudge (@LewisMudge) March 20, 2019
A 13-year-old girl was released for being below the age of criminal responsibility while four others arrested alongside the schoolgirls were released.
Mudge said textbooks in Burundi's school system are often passed in between classes and it is, therefore, difficult to know who scribbled on the President's image in the first place.
"It's ridiculous that we're at a point where we even have to ask or interject this point in a conversation. These are schoolgirls that are being detained," he said.
CNN was not immediately able to reach the Burundi government for comment on the case.
School children in Burundi have previously been jailed in the past for similar offenses.
Burundi President Pierre Nkurunziza wins third term
In 2016, agents of the National Intelligence Service of Burundi arrested eight secondary school students for allegedly insulting Nkurunziza by writing phrases like "Get out" or "No to the 3rd term" on a picture of the President in a textbook, according to Human Rights Watch.
The same year, hundreds of children were expelled from several schools for scribbling on the President's face in their books.
President Nkurunziza, who has been in office since 2005, was re-elected to a third term in 2015 despite massive protests and concerns over the legality of running beyond his second term.
But Burundi's constitutional court ruled that he was eligible because he was picked by parliament, not elected by people, during his first term.
Scores died in the violence that marred the 2015 vote.
Burundi President registers to run for third term despite clashes
Human Rights Watch said the case was "quickly becoming the benchmark for a crackdown of freedom of expression since 2015."
The organization added that it would apply pressure on the government of Burundi to release the girls.
He said the students in 2016 were released after pressure from the international community following their initial conviction.
"Burundi used to be the benchmark in the region for freedom of expression and association, but ever since the president decided to change the constitution to run for a third mandate," Mudge said.
'When he saw the backlash against that, the response from the president has been to crackdown and limit the space of dissent."
He added: "We're seeing the consequence of that play out and frankly this case is ridiculous."
Just weeks ago, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet said the agency was forced to shut its local office of 23 years under concerted pressure from the Burundian government.
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line7539
|
__label__cc
| 0.711736
| 0.288264
|
You are here: Home → Essay → Health, Medicine, Nursing
Health, Medicine, Nursing
Writers' choice (Essay Sample)
very hard on references on the text and the APA style, she do not play around taking points away. The following are the instructions: 1. Future public health leadership will require a community based perspective and modern skills and competency for future challenges. Discuss a future challenge in public health and include strategies to address this challenge. Identify a journal article that supports your position. Discuss the leadership competencies necessary to address the challenge. 2. Select a public health issue that you would like to see improved. Outline a program and write a proposal for policy change that addresses the issue at the community, state, or federal level. Base your program on evidence and citations from scholarly journals. Include a method of evaluating the program. I am choosing “Mental Health”
Name of Student’s
One of the major future challenges in public healthcare in the fragmentation of public health infrastructure because of governmental roles and responsibilities (Institute of Medicine, 2002). Public health infrastructure as future challenge at the federal, state, and local levels includes lack of adequate preparation of the workforce at the public health sector, poor information systems and inadequate public health laboratories, this includes problems in organizational structures and ineffective management of public health activities (Institute of Medicine, 2002). The government has devised ways of responding to this future challenge through involving governmental public health agencies to achieve their objectives in public health system. The aim is to improve healthcare and provide a set of directions for public health which should attract the support of a broader society. Public health is a local and state function from a historical perspective. Thus the state and local government are charged with important primary roles ((WHO, 2001).
The strengths of the federal governments in tackling public health challenges is based on the availability of resources, professional expertise, and the responsibility to assess public health and to provide better recommendations for improvement. Ensuring an effective and efficient public health infrastructure is an urgent matter, thus, the public, local and federal government should share a responsibility in public health planning (WHO, 2001). Core functions of leaders responsible at all levels of government include assessment, the design of adequate policy, hence public health system must be supported by political will of leaders who commit resources and influence based on evidence and should involve an adoption of a sound public policy designed by policy makers from public health agencies that consider health effects on citizens. A strong and effective governmental public health infrastructure is to respond to future health crises and to address current challenges such as preventing the occurrence of chronic illnesses, controlling the emergence of infectious diseases, and monitoring food and water safety to ensure public health is maintained (Institute of Medicine, 2002).
An important way to address public health challenges at all government levels is to involve all sectors, public health institutions and agencies and the healthcare system through the creation of an efficient and effective inter-sectoral public health system. Past achievement in public health should be reviewed which may be impacted upon by the concerns about falling short in the present and being un prepared to deal with future public health challenges (Institute of Medicine, 2002) . The nature of health as a public asset should be explored since it a fundamental and statutory duty of the government to ensure an appropriate public health. The government should examine the reasons for the current nation’s deficient health care infrastructure in order to predict future ch...
Important Questions In The Treatment Of Ectopic Pregnancy
Description: The question on the possibility of the previous infection or any surgical procedure that may have been done on the patient should provide the background information of the diagnosis...
1 page/≈275 words| 3 Sources | APA | Health, Medicine, Nursing | Essay |
Respiratory Protection Selection
Description: The paper is a discussion concerning the Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA) requirements/guidelines relating to respiratory protection selection....
3 pages/≈825 words| No Sources | APA | Health, Medicine, Nursing | Essay |
Literature Review on Reduction of Admission at Hospital
Description: Over the past few years, there has been a rapid increase in the number of emergent hospital admissions which are unplanned....
3 pages/≈825 words| 6 Sources | APA | Health, Medicine, Nursing | Essay |
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line7544
|
__label__wiki
| 0.517939
| 0.517939
|
Shakespeare's Romeo And Juliet essays
21 results found, view free essays on page:
Shakespeare's Romeo And Juliet
Why Romeo and Juliet was so popular in Shakespeare's time and why even today it is still so popular? William Shakespeare was born on April 23, 1564 in the town of Stratford-upon-Avon, England to Mary Arden and John Shakespeare. He was the third of eight children. He went to a local grammar school, where his studies included Latin and Greek (Debnam). At the age of eighteen he married Anne Hathaway who was eight years older than he. Their marriage was hurried because Anne was already pregnant (The...
Zeffirellis Romeo And Juliet
Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare and Romeo and Juliet interpreted by Zeffirelli are two versions of a classic tale of two young lovers. In reading Shakespeares Romeo and Juliet and viewing Zeffirellis Romeo and Juliet one becomes aware of many differences between them. Although the basic storyline remains the same, the differences are obvious. These differences can be found in the setting, characters and their speeches, and the culmination of the story. These differences between the versi...
Shakespeares Romeo And Juliet
ROMEO AND JULIET AS A TRAGEDY Shakespeares Romeo and Juliet is his eleventh play. It is with no doubt a tragedy. Shakespeare has included all the necessary elements for a tragedy. The play has a tragic hero of high standing who dies. The hero opposes some conflicting force. The hero has a tragic flaw and this flaw will lead to his downfall and the downfall of others. Good is always wasted driving out evil. Indeed, Shakespeares Romeo and Juliet is a tragedy. In Romeo and Juliet, Romeo is the trag...
Shakespeare's Play Romeo And Juliet
Think how boring life would be if all humans only demonstrated one personality trait. In literature, characters are made more interesting by being developed as round characters, people with more that one personality trait. In Shakespeare's play Romeo and Juliet, Romeo demonstrates being lovesick, impulsive, and sneaky. One of the personality traits that Romeo demonstrates in the play is being lovesick. First, when Romeo falls in love with Rosaline, she does not respond. As a result he forces him...
Contrast Essay: Romeo and Juliet Often times people say that William Shakespeare was and still is a legend. The yare correct. It is amazing how Shakespeare's play Romeo and Juliet written centuries ago can be better than Franco Zefferelli's movie production of Romeo and Juliet, which had much better technology to work with only decades ago. Although the movie appeared better, it left out some major parts. The play had better mood and plot details which made it much more dramatic and by far abett...
Romeo Juliet
Shakespeare wrote many entries based on his feelings at that moment. The basis of many of his female characters was brought about by these certain emotions. The women in Shakespeare's writings emphasize many of the characteristics that reflect his own personality. Shakespeare bases many of his plays and poems on his moods. It is often said when writers write of what emotional state they are in, their words form the essence of their works. Shakespeare's moods, whether dark or romantic, have broug...
Zeffirelli's Film Of Romeo And Juliet
Franco Zeffirelli and Baz Luhrmann's Romeo and Juliet Sex, drugs, and violence are usually a potent combination, and only William Shakespeare could develop them into a masterful, poetic, and elegant story. In the play, 'The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet,' all these aspects of teenage life absorb the reader or watcher. It is understood that Hollywood would try to imitate this masterpiece on screen, and it has done so in two films: Franco Zeffirelli's 1968 'Romeo and Juliet' and Baz Luhrmann's 1996'...
Capulet Ball In Shakespeare's Romeo And Juliet
Three Hundred Fifty Years of Blind Love: A Contraposition of Shakespeare and Robbins' Romeo and Juliet Andy Warhol once said, 'They say that time changes things, but actually you have to change them yourself. ' Two hundred fifty years passed between the original Romeo and Juliet and the premiere of West Side Story on Broadway in 1957. However, time did not change the message of the story, simply the creators' unique visions evolved. Shakespeare's delivery of the timeless tale of desperate love i...
Fate In Romeo And Juliet
Bibliography Critical essay - Michelle McNally Romeo and Juliet Do you agree that Romeo and Juliet are star-crossed lovers; that is to say victims of fate or do they contribute to their own demise Two households, both alike in dignity. In fair Verona, where we lay our scene. Form ancient grudge break new mutiny, Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean. From fourth the fatal lions of these two foes. A pair of star-crossed lovers take their life. Whos misadventure piteous overthrows. Doth with...
News Of Juliet's Death To Romeo
The Death Motif in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet Often times, authors use the theme of death throughout their works. This seems to be true of William Shakespeare in Romeo and Juliet. Throughout his play, Shakespeare uses death to move his story along. He does this with actual deaths, which cause problems for the lovers, and through premonitions and dreams of death. Both Juliet and her Romeo exhibit these premonitions / dreams. The use of death is immediately seen in the prologue of the play: "T...
Evident In Romeo And Juliet
Romeo And Juliet: Shakespeare And The Use Of Farce By Jackie Harry Sensuality was a favorite theme of William Shakespeare. Unfortunately, Romeo And Juliet is absolutely witless in terms of Shakespeare's usual conservative politics. In this paper, I will show that Romeo And Juliet is the most brilliant example of reactionary writing ever created. This claim is buttressed by three points: (1) the Surrealist theme of loss of innocence in Romeo And Juliet, (2) Shakespeare's adversarial relationship ...
Romeo and Juliet, Lovers for All Times For: English 442 Purdue University 1998 Christan L Matrix Ever since the publications of the good quarto, published in 1599, Romeo and Juliet, by William Shakespeare, has been one of the classics of Western literature (Evans 1093). In being this, it has been produced many different times, in many different ways. I will be discussing how the production of this great play has changed over time. First, though, I will supply a little background for the play. Th...
The fall of Romeo and Juliet is a culmination of many factors. A controlling father, an ongoing feud and a gullible friar all contribute to this catastrophe, but, for the most part, it was Romeo and Juliet themselves that lent a hand to their own doom. The two lovers were fated to meet and die, but this never could " ve happened without their help. Had they been patient and rational, perhaps the situation would " ve worked itself out, but what can one expect from a couple of thirteen year olds w...
Same Play As Romeo And Juliet
Known as one of the most renowned writers of all time, Shakespeare told the universal truth. Emotions are not something that changes over any amount of time. Some emotions like love, hate, revenge, and envy, are key players in most of Shakespeare's plays. Romeo & Juliet was such a successful play that many other movies have imitated the plot such as the very successful "West Side Story". Even though 400 years has past and the world has changed drastically, the emotions and feelings in the play R...
Apart from the two protagonists, the people of Verona, or rather those that Shakespeare has presented to us, may be arranged in two groups. The first of these, by far the larger, includes all the supernumeraries, such minor characters as Peter and the Apothecary, and a few relatively important figures like Tybalt, the Capulets, and the Nurse, Paris, and Benvolio. These are the static or "flat" characters, who are "by nature" what they are; and their functions are to present the limited range of ...
Romeo And Juliet And Antony And Cleopatra
Love and desire has existed in many forms throughout time. William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet and Antony and Cleopatra, are two good examples of how love can be beautiful and pure yet destructive and fatal. This essay will explore the two plays mainly considering the relationships of Antony and Cleopatra and Romeo and Juliet and how Shakespeare treats the issue of love within each of them. It could be suggested that Shakespeare was influenced by the Italian theatre, 'Characters meet and fall...
Romeo A Montague And Juliet A Capulet
Romeo and Juliet written by William Shakespeare, talks closely about Romeo and Juliet being victims of bad luck. They are victims of an unkind fate, they happen to be in the centre of ill fateful events. This is true because, Romeo a Montague and Juliet a Capulet are from feuding families, Romeo also tries to avoid a fight but two people ended up dying anyway. Romeo and Juliet's secret marriage was also in doubt after Capulet agreed to marry Juliet to Paris. A message cannot be delivered to Rome...
Nurse's Care For Juliet
Romeo and Juliet - The Nurse In Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet the minor but important character of The Nurse can often be viewed by the readers as ridiculous. However, more often than not we find ourselves sympathizing with her in spite of this flaw in her character. Our first impression of the Nurse comes when she is speaking with Juliet and Juliet's Mother, Lady Capulet. From this scene we can clearly see many important sides of the Nurses' character. Immediately we notice that when she is gi...
Act 3 Scene 1 In William Shakespeare's 'Romeo and Juliet', I believe that the major turning point in the play is in Act 3, Scene 1 - the death of Mercutio and following conflict between Romeo and Tybalt. This can be seen to be of great magnitude by looking at the numerous techniques Shakespeare employs to emphasise the importance of the scene. The first of these techniques is through the characters themselves and how they have developed in relation to earlier in the play. Tybalt is seen to be ag...
Six Of Aristotle's Elements Of A Tragedy
Professor Aristotle Jeffrey Bass Professor Willis English 250, Section 1 21 November 2001 According to Aristotle, a tragedy is "an imitation of an action that is serious, complete, and of a certain magnitude; in language embellished with each kind of artistic ornament, the several kinds being found in separate parts of the play; in the form of action, not of narrative; with incidents arousing pity and fear, wherewith to accomplish its catharsis of such emotions' (Nahm 7). Aristotle categorizes t...
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line7545
|
__label__wiki
| 0.630627
| 0.630627
|
Assessment Academy
What is Assessment Academy?
Assessment Lead Programme
Assessment Essentials
In-person Assessment Lead Training
CEM Data
About CEM Training
Training and Support Packages
In-house and Webinar Training
RDE Unit
About EBE
A New Manifesto
It is the role of our influential Advisory Board to ensure that everything we do is focused on the ultimate aim of improving teaching and learning, and subsequently student outcomes.
Interested in discovering how you can tap into the Advisory Board’s wisdom? Click the button below to find out how Evidence Based Education can help.
REQUEST CALLBACK / EMAIL
Mick Walker Chair of the Advisory Board
Mick’s teaching career extended over eighteen years including work in secondary, sixth form and Further Education institutions as well as work in Higher Education as an external examiner. A former acting Director of QCA and Executive Director of Education at the QCDA, he was accountable for national curriculum assessments and supporting the delivery of general qualifications. He was an adviser to the DfE Expert Group on Assessment in 2009 and more recently supported the National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT) Commission on Assessment and was a member of the DfE Independent Teacher Workload Review Group. Mick has acted as an Associate Director of AQA, an Adviser to the Welsh and Pakistan Governments, PwC and FrogEducation and chairs the Assessment Committee of the Institute of Directors (IoD).
Mick holds degrees at masters and bachelor levels and is currently studying for a PhD at the University of Leeds. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and the Vice-Chair and Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Educational Assessors. He is passionate about education and aligning the aims of national high volume assessment and testing systems with the aims and realities of everyday teaching and learning in schools, colleges and the workplace to benefit society and to support each individual learner to reach their true potential.
Dylan Wiliam Advisory Board Member
Dylan Wiliam is Emeritus Professor of Educational Assessment at University College London.
After a first degree in mathematics and physics, and one year teaching in a private school, he taught in inner-city schools in London for seven years.
In 1984 he joined Chelsea College, University of London, which later merged with King’s College London. From 1996 to 2001 he was the Dean of the School of Education at King’s, and from 2001 to 2003, Assistant Principal of the College. In 2003 he moved to the USA, as Senior Research Director at the Educational Testing Service in Princeton, NJ. From 2006 to 2010 he was Deputy Director of the Institute of Education, University of London.
Over the last 15 years, his academic work has focused on the use of assessment to support learning (sometimes called formative assessment). He now works with groups of teachers all over the world on developing formative assessment practices.
Benjamin Fauth Advisory Board Member
Ben is Junior Professor for Empirical Education Research at the Hector Research Institute of Education Sciences and Psychology at the University of Tübingen. His research focuses on teaching quality, teachers’ professional competence, and students’ individual development within classrooms. He has a special interest in measurement issues, particularly regarding the question of how to best assess teaching quality.
An important part of his work is the dissemination of his research in school practice. He works closely together with school leaders and teachers in professional development programs and workshops.
Ben is principal investigator of a research project on adaptive teaching founded by the German Bosch Foundation and a member of the steering board of tabletBW, a longitudinal study on the implementation of tablet computers into everyday classroom instruction. In both projects, he is responsible for the assessment of teaching quality through video observations and student ratings.
He is a faculty member of the LEAD Graduate School & Research Network in Tübingen and a member of the interdisciplinary research center IDeA (Individual Development and Adaptive Education) in Frankfurt, Germany.
Paula Arce-Trigatti Advisory Board Member
Paula is Director of the National Network of Education Research-Practice Partnerships (NNERPP), a recently launched member organization aiming to develop, support, and connect research-practice partnerships in education. NNERPP is housed at the Kinder Institute for Urban Research at Rice University in Houston, Texas. Prior to joining NNERPP, Paula was a post-doctoral fellow at the Education Research Alliance for New Orleans and The Murphy Institute, both at Tulane University. Her research focus while at Tulane broadly centered on the supply side of schools, where she examined school differentiation and the unintended consequences of school or district level policies. More recently, she has turned her attention to better understanding the process of research use and the conditions leading to evidence-based decision making. Paula has bachelor’s degrees in music and business from Florida State University and her Ph.D. in economics from the University of Houston.
Robert A. Bjork Advisory Board Member
Robert is Distinguished Research Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of California, Los Angeles. His research focuses on the interrelationships of forgetting, remembering and learning in the functional architecture of how humans learn and remember, and on the implications of the science of learning for instruction, practice, and training. He has served as President or Chair of multiple scientific organisations, including the Association for Psychological Science, and he is the recipient of multiple awards and honours, including UCLA’s Distinguished Teaching Award and the American Psychological Association’s Distinguished Service to Psychological Science Award. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Morgan Polikoff Advisory Board Member
Morgan is an Associate Professor of Education at the University of Southern California Rossier School of Education. He researches the design, implementation, and effects of standards, assessment, and accountability policies.
Morgan is a co-investigator on the Center on Standards, Alignment, Instruction, and Learning, a five-year project to study the implementation and effects of new “college- and career-ready standards” in the U.S. In that work, he is leading the development of survey measures of teachers’ implementation of new standards. He also has projects funded by the WT Grant Foundation, National Science Foundation, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to study the adoption, use, and effects of textbooks in the core academic subjects.
He currently serves as an Associate Editor of the American Educational Research Journal and on the editorial boards of Educational Research, AERA Open, and Educational Administration Quarterly. In 2017, he was awarded the Early Career Award from the American Educational Research Association.
John Tomsett Advisory Board Member
John Tomsett has been a teacher for 27 years and a headteacher for twelve. He is currently Headmaster at Huntington School, York, where the EEF-funded RISE Project (Research-leads Improving Students’ Education) is being piloted – in conjunction with EBE Director, Stuart Kime.
John has gathered a legion of followers on Twitter, and his blog, This much I know…, has proved a huge hit in the world of education as a result of its pragmatic experience from a lifetime of teaching. His first book, Love Over Fear – creating a culture for truly great teaching, is available in print and as an ebook, and John is also a regular contributor to the TES.
He co-founded The Headteachers’ Roundtable think-tank and is a popular speaker on school leadership. He is a strong advocate of evidence-informed teaching, and brings practical knowledge from the coalface of school leadership to the Advisory Board. He is determined to remain a classroom teacher, despite the demands of headship, and believes that developing truly great teaching is the primary responsibility of all headteachers.
Edward Wright Advisory Board Member
Edward Wright is Physics Teacher and Director of Studies at Eltham College in London. He has been involved in using evidence and evaluation techniques to assess the efficacy of various initiatives run in his College, leading to the completion of a Masters in Science Education from King’s College London. In particular, he is focused on using assessment data appropriately and meaningfully to have a positive impact on all students, not just those at the upper and lower ends of the ability or achievement scales.
Edward has spoken on the use of assessment data generated by the Centre for Evaluation and Monitoring‘s computer adaptive assessment systems. As both a classroom teacher and Senior Leader, Edward brings the best available research evidence and evaluation techniques into his College; he was one of the first teachers to use the Education Endowment Foundation’s DIY Evaluation Guide. He brings to the Advisory Board a keen understanding of the daily life of schools; he ensures that we consider the practicalities of developing teachers’ use of research and evaluation techniques, grounding our work from development to implementation.
Heather C. Hill Advisory Board Member
Heather is a Professor in Education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Her primary work focuses on teacher and teaching quality, and the effects of policies aimed at improving both. She is also known for developing instruments for measuring teachers’ mathematical knowledge for teaching (MKT) and the mathematical quality of instruction (MQI) within classrooms.
Hill is a co-investigator on the National Center for Research on Policy and Practice, a U.S.-based project dedicated to investigating how research is used in school districts’ instructional decision-making. She co-directed the National Center for Teacher Effectiveness and was also principal investigator of a five-year study examining the effects of Marilyn Burns Math Solutions professional development on teaching and learning. Her other interests include knowledge use within the public sector and the role that language plays in the implementation of public policy.
She has served as section chairs for the American Educational Research Association and Society for Research on Educational Effectiveness conferences, and on the editorial boards of Journal of Research in Mathematics Education and the American Educational Research Journal. She is the coauthor, with David K. Cohen, of Learning policy: When state education reform works (Yale Press, 2001).
Evidence Based Education
@EvidenceInEdu
Working memory...What is it? Why is it important to teaching and learning? How can an understanding of working memory inform teaching practice?Hear from working memory expert @tracypalloway in the latest Trialled & Tested podcast!buff.ly/2xUZScE pic.twitter.com/68pK…
8:44 pm · Thu 18th July 2019
Earlier this week @ProfCoe and @CJRauch hosted a webinar on Retrieval Practice:What is it? Why should we do it? How can we implement it in the classroom?If you missed it, or want to see it again, you can do so here:buff.ly/2Y0qVh2 pic.twitter.com/L9NJ…
NEW PODCAST: Working MemoryThe latest EBE / @EducEndowFoundn Trialled and Tested podcast explores working memory and the impact it can have on teaching and learning.Hear from @tracypalloway @HuntingEnglish and @juliewatsonpsy🎧👇 buff.ly/2xUZScE pic.twitter.com/90uN…
@CatScutt Ahhh. I see. Go on then. We shall deliver yours in person.
11:41 am · Wed 17th July 2019
@CatScutt @gilly_partridge @samtwiselton @jpembroke Don't you already have one!?
Follow @EvidenceInEdu
Evidence Based Education is the proud recipient of a 2019 Queen's Award for Enterprise, in the Innovation category. Click here to read more!
Copyright © 2019 Evidence Based Education | View our Privacy Policy.
We use cookies on this website. By using this website, you consent to this use as described in our Privacy Policy Accept
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line7548
|
__label__cc
| 0.640776
| 0.359224
|
Mercury Systems Receives $3M Rugged Servers Order for Army Communications Edge Application
GlobeNewswire• March 14, 2019
ANDOVER, Mass., March 14, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Mercury Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: MRCY, www.mrcy.com) announced it received a $3 million order from a leading defense prime contractor for rugged servers to be used in an Army communications application. The order was booked in the Company's fiscal 2019 third quarter.
A leader in rackmount solutions for defense applications, Mercury’s EnterpriseSeries™ servers have been deployed on over thirteen major Army programs in the last three years. Built for interoperability, longevity, availability, and performance, Mercury’s platforms are employed in numerous Army applications including simulation and stimulation, radar signal processing, secure networking, battle command and control system processing, VICTORY enabled platform communications, and cyber operations.
"We are proud to support our customer and the U.S. Army with solutions that deliver trusted performance while operating on the move," said Scott Orton, Vice President and General Manager of Mercury's Trusted Mission Solutions group. “With a multitude of ground deployments, Mercury continues to develop server solutions that are specifically designed to meet computing, reliability, environmental, and security requirements found on the tactical edge.”
For more information, visit www.mrcy.com/servers or contact Mercury at (866) 627-6951 or info@mrcy.com.
Mercury Systems – Innovation That Matters®
Mercury Systems is a leading commercial provider of secure sensor and safety-critical processing subsystems. Optimized for customer and mission success, Mercury's solutions power a wide variety of critical defense and intelligence programs. Headquartered in Andover, Mass., Mercury is pioneering a next-generation defense electronics business model specifically designed to meet the industry's current and emerging technology needs. To learn more, visit www.mrcy.com and follow us on Twitter.
Forward-Looking Safe Harbor Statement
This press release contains certain forward-looking statements, as that term is defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including those relating to fiscal 2019 business performance and beyond and the Company’s plans for growth and improvement in profitability and cash flow. You can identify these statements by the use of the words “may,” “will,” “could,” “should,” “would,” “plans,” “expects,” “anticipates,” “continue,” “estimate,” “project,” “intend,” “likely,” “forecast,” “probable,” “potential,” and similar expressions. These forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected or anticipated. Such risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, continued funding of defense programs, the timing and amounts of such funding, general economic and business conditions, including unforeseen weakness in the Company’s markets, effects of any U.S. Federal government shutdown or extended continuing resolution, effects of continued geopolitical unrest and regional conflicts, competition, changes in technology and methods of marketing, delays in completing engineering and manufacturing programs, changes in customer order patterns, changes in product mix, continued success in technological advances and delivering technological innovations, changes in, or in the U.S. Government’s interpretation of, federal export control or procurement rules and regulations, market acceptance of the Company's products, shortages in components, production delays or unanticipated expenses due to performance quality issues with outsourced components, inability to fully realize the expected benefits from acquisitions and restructurings, or delays in realizing such benefits, challenges in integrating acquired businesses and achieving anticipated synergies, increases in interest rates, changes to cyber-security regulations and requirements, changes in tax rates or tax regulations, changes to generally accepted accounting principles, difficulties in retaining key employees and customers, unanticipated costs under fixed-price service and system integration engagements, and various other factors beyond our control. These risks and uncertainties also include such additional risk factors as are discussed in the Company's filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, including its Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2018. The Company cautions readers not to place undue reliance upon any such forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date made. The Company undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking statement to reflect events or circumstances after the date on which such statement is made.
Robert McGrail, Director of Corporate Communications
Mercury Systems, Inc.
+1 978-967-1366 / rmcgrail@mrcy.com
Mercury Systems and EnterpriseSeries are trademarks and Innovation That Matters is a registered trademark of Mercury Systems, Inc. Other product and company names mentioned may be trademarks and/or registered trademarks of their respective holders.
Alliance Data Systems Corp (ADS) Q2 2019 Earnings Call Transcript
Should You Buy Uniti Group Inc. (NASDAQ:UNIT) For Its 2.3% Dividend?
Is Altri, S.G.P.S., S.A.'s (ELI:ALTR) ROE Of 36% Impressive?
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line7550
|
__label__wiki
| 0.776712
| 0.776712
|
All Else, Carousel, Economy, Featured, Florida, Florida & Beyond, and All Opinions, Health & Society
Nursing Home Industry Successfully Quashes Residents’ Bill of Rights
FlaglerLive | March 20, 2018
Ominous. (Gavin Clarke)
Saying he didn’t want to make changes necessary to get it passed, Florida Constitution Revision Commission member Brecht Heuchan on Tuesday withdrew a proposal that would have guaranteed certain rights to nursing-home residents and allowed them to sue facilities if those rights were violated.
Heuchan said he met with commission members over the past several weeks to discuss their concerns and discovered that the portions of the proposed constitutional amendment (Proposal 88) that were most important for him were the same provisions that were most worrisome to other commissioners.
“To get this proposal in a place where it could enjoy the support that’s needed would leave it in a place that I wouldn’t want it, to be honest,” Heuchan said in announcing his decision to withdraw the proposal from further consideration.
Though his remarks were relatively brief, Heuchan fought rising emotion in his voice, noting that it was painful for him to concede that the proposal wouldn’t pass. The proposal faced opposition from the nursing-home industry.
“It’s very difficult, but it is life and it is this process and it’s the way things are,” Heuchan said.
Heuchan’s proposed constitutional amendment would have guaranteed residents whose rights were violated the ability to sue — without limitations — for losses, injuries and damages caused to them and their families. The owners, operators, employees and others who care for residents at long-term care facilities could have been liable under the proposal.
The proposal also would have required facilities to have the financial resources or liability insurance to provide compensation for damages, something they are not required to have today.
Heuchan’s proposal was supported by AARP Florida which backed enshrining the rights in the state Constitution. AARP spokesman Dave Bruns said the senior-advocacy group was disappointed that the proposal was withdrawn.
The Constitution Revision Commission meets every 20 years and has the power to place proposed constitutional amendments directly on the November ballot. It is meeting this week in Tallahassee to try to narrow a list of ballot proposals. Ultimately, 60 percent of voters would have to approve any constitutional amendments.
Heuchan is a legislative lobbyist for the Florida Justice Association, which represents plaintiffs’ attorneys, and the Tampa law firm of Wilkes & McHugh, which has long been a major player in suing nursing homes.
Heuchan’s connections led Conwell Hooper, executive director of the American Senior Alliance, to file an ethics complaint against him. Hooper’s group is a member of the Florida Health Care Association, the state’s largest nursing home association, which adamantly opposed the proposal.
But the Florida Commission on Ethics cleared Heuchan, saying nothing in the complaint filed against Heuchan showed he was paid to push the amendment or broke laws.
The Florida Health Care Association issued a statement Tuesday thanking Heuchan for withdrawing his proposal.
“We believe the Legislature is the proper place for these types of discussions and look forward to working together with Florida lawmakers, regulators and other stakeholders on policies that prioritize resident care,” association Executive Director Emmett Reed said in a prepared statement.
LeadingAge Florida, another nursing home group, said it was pleased the proposal was withdrawn.
“As we’ve said from the beginning, the proposal would have done nothing to improve the lives of nursing home and ALF (assisted living facility) residents. Instead, it would only have served to benefit trial attorneys and divert already scarce resources that should be spent on the care of frail seniors,” LeadingAge Florida President Steve Bahmer said in a statement.
While he is withdrawing the proposal, Heuchan said he plans to continue to “fight for the rights of the elderly in our state and would welcome all the help I could get.”
–Christine Sexton, News Service of Florida
1 Response for “Nursing Home Industry Successfully Quashes Residents’ Bill of Rights”
tulip says:
It just goes to prove that nobody really cares about old people who need to be in a nursing home. It’s all about the money. And to think they can’t be sued for bad treatment is unthinkable. How many businesses can get away with that. What a sad situation to be occurring in the USA. No wonder defenseless sick people are treated badly by the staff, they can get away with it. Disgusting. And I also blame our leaders for not pursuing this issue for the benefit of those who can’t help themselves and are victims of the system.
Categories: All Else, Carousel, Economy, Featured, Florida, Florida & Beyond, and All Opinions, Health & Society
Tags: assisted living facilities, elderly, nursing homes
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line7552
|
__label__cc
| 0.578805
| 0.421195
|
Is Tequila Good For Health? Here's Why It's Believed To Be
Tequila is believed to be healthier than other alcoholic drinks and have a number of health benefits, including promoting bone growth. Is it really healthy though?
Sakshita Khosla | Updated: January 11, 2018 18:16 IST
Tequila is considered healthier than other alcoholic drinks.
Tequila is produced from the blue agave plant native to Mexico.
It has been proven to promote bone growth in mice.
Is there such a thing as 'healthy alcohol'? If certain individual studies on the effects of tequila are to be believed, then there sure is! The Mexican alcoholic drink is touted to be healthier than other drinks like whiskey or vodka because of some supposed health benefits that it has. That seems extremely odd because the drink has got a bad reputation as hangover causing liquor.
Tequila is made from the blue variety of Agave tequilana plant that is native to Mexico and is also used to produce natural sweetener called the agave nectar as substitutes for sugar. Although the agave nectar is supposed to have a lot of health benefits and hence, is widely consumed across the world, tequila can hardly be considered a health drink! However, there are people who believe in the health benefits of having a shot of tequila every day. Why is that so?
How is Tequila Made?
Tequila is produced from the blue agave plant that is cultivated, tended to and harvested locally in Mexico, by farm experts, especially for the production of alcohol from them. The juice of the plant is extracted, poured into large wooden or stainless steel vats and kept in them for several days for fermentation. This produces a drink with low alcohol content. This is then distilled twice to produce clear silver liquid that is the finished product.
Tequila Has Health Benefits?
Scientists at Center for Research and Advanced Studies in Mexico have found compounds in the tequila plant that help boost bone growth. They conducted experiments on mice that were fed the plant over a period of eight weeks. The scientists were able to detect a protein that indicates bone regeneration, from the bone sample that was extracted from the mice, after the end of the period. The study was said to be helpful in treating osteoporosis in older humans.
Tequila has been proven to promote bone growth.
Tequila was found to help in bone growth and regeneration by boosting the absorption of calcium from blood. Moreover, the drink has a class of fructans called inulin that are prebiotic in nature. Inulin is low in calories, hence giving the tequila a good reputation with health freaks. It's also a food source for the good bacteria living in the gut, hence promoting the growth of such bacteria. As is with all alcoholic drinks, tequila is also capable of numbing pain. It acts by dilating blood vessels and transporting blood to all parts of the body, hence, lessening physical pain.
Additionally, tequila has been known to act as an appetite booster, if a small amount of it is taken before a meal. If taken after a meal, it may boost digestion too. However, too much of tequila, or any alcohol for that matter, is obviously detrimental to health.
Clinical Nutritionist Rupali Datta says, "For starters, the experiment (in the study cited above) was conducted on animals in Mexico and it has been proven to promote bone growth in them only. The alcohol does have a sugar called inulin that is a probiotic and promotes the growth of healthy bacteria in the stomach. But again, if you take too much of it, the alcohol content will negate all the bacteria naturally found inside the gut. So, one tequila shot after your meals might improve digestion, but if you overdo it, then it's obviously bad for you."
CommentsThe final word is that anything in excess is anyways bad for your health. In case of alcohol, be it wine or tequila, overdosing is dangerous and potentially fatal and hence, never recommended.
About Sakshita KhoslaSakshita loves the finer things in life including food, books and coffee, and is motivated by self-indulgence and her love for words. When not writing, she can be found huddled in the corner of a cosy cafe with a good book, caffeine and her own thoughts for company.
Tags: TequilaAgave PlantAlcohol
Strawberry Snow
Cooking With Alcohol: Pro Tips + A Recipe To Get You Started
What Kind of Alcohol is Gluten Free?
Why Do We Crave Alcohol? Here's The Answer
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line7554
|
__label__wiki
| 0.899396
| 0.899396
|
Agriculture in Scotland
Grain harvest, Bridge of Earn, Perthshire, Scotland
Agriculture in Scotland includes all land use for arable, horticultural or pastoral activity in Scotland, or around its coasts. The first permanent settlements and farming date from the Neolithic period, from around 6,000 years ago. From the beginning of the Bronze Age, about 2000 BCE, arable land spread at the expense of forest. From the Iron Age, beginning in the seventh century BCE, there was use of cultivation ridges and terraces. During the period of Roman occupation there was a reduction in agriculture and the early Middle Ages were a period of climate deterioration resulting in more unproductive land. Most farms had to produce a self-sufficient diet, supplemented by hunter-gathering. More oats and barley were grown than corn, and cattle were the most important domesticated animal. From c. 1150 to 1300, the Medieval Warm Period allowed cultivation at greater heights and made land more productive. The system of infield and outfield agriculture may have been introduced with feudalism from the twelfth century. The rural economy boomed in the thirteenth century, but by the 1360s there was a severe falling off in incomes to be followed by a slow recovery in the fifteenth century.
The early modern era saw the impact of the Little Ice Age, which peaked towards the end of the seventeenth century. The closing decade of the seventeenth century saw a slump, followed by four years of failed harvests, in what is known as the "seven ill years", but these shortages would be the last of their kind. After the Union of 1707 there was a conscious attempt to improve agriculture among the gentry and nobility. Introductions included haymaking, the English plough, new crops, crop rotation and encloses were introduced. The resulting Lowland Clearances saw hundreds of thousands of cottars and tenant farmers from central and southern Scotland forcibly removed. The later Highland Clearances saw the forced displacement much of the population of the Highland as lands were enclosed for sheep farming. Those that remained many were now crofters, living on very small rented farms.
In the twentieth century Scottish agriculture became susceptible to world markets. There were dramatic price rises in the First World War, but a slump in the 1920s and 1930s, followed by more rises in World War II. In 1947 annual price reviews were introduced in an attempt to stabilise the market. There was a drive in UK agriculture to greater production until the late 1970s, resulting in intensive farming. There was increasing mechanisation and farming became less labour-intensive. UK membership of the European Economic Community from 1972 began a change in orientation for Scottish farming. Some sectors became viable only with subsidies. A series of reforms to the CAP from the 1990s attempted to control over-production, limit incentives for intensive farming and mitigate environmental damage. A dual farm structure has emerged with agriculture divided between large commercial farms and small pluralised and diversified holdings.
Roughly 79 per cent of Scotland’s total land area is under agricultural production. Cereals accounted for 78 per cent of the land area, while livestock numbers have been falling in recent years. Around 15 per cent of the total land area of Scotland is forested, most in public ownership controlled by the Forestry Commission. Total income from farming has been rising since the turn of the millennium. Aquaculture production is focused on the West and North of the country. Some farm businesses rely on sources of income other than from farming. Scottish agriculture employs around 1.5 per cent of the workforce and contributes to around 1 per cent of the Scottish economy.
1 Topography and climate
2.1 Prehistory
2.2 Middle Ages
2.3 Early modern era
2.4 Agricultural revolution
2.5 Twentieth century
3 Modern agriculture
3.1 Land use
3.2 Income and employment
5 Environmental protection
6 Rights of way
Topography and climate[edit]
The Southern Uplands around Durisdeer
The defining factor in the geography of Scotland is the distinction between the Highlands and Islands in the north and west and the Lowlands in the south and east. The Highlands are further divided into the Northwest Highlands and the Grampian Mountains by the fault line of the Great Glen. The Lowlands are divided into the fertile belt of the Central Lowlands and the higher terrain of the Southern Uplands, which included the Cheviot hills, over which the border with England runs.[1] The Central Lowland belt averages about 50 miles in width,[2] and contains most of the good quality agricultural land.[3] Scotland is half the size of England and Wales in area, but with its many inlets, islands and inland lochs, it has roughly the same amount of coastline at 4,000 miles. Only a fifth of Scotland is less than 60 metres above sea level.[4]
Scotland's soils are diverse for a relatively small country due to the variation in geology, topography, climate, altitude and land use history. There are very productive arable soils in the east of the country, including some of the most productive for wheat and barley of anywhere in the world. Scotland's soils differ from much of the rest of the UK and Europe and they provide valuable habitats for wildlife and flora. They are largely naturally acidic in nature with high concentrations of organic carbon. They are predominantly coarse textured and often exhibit poor drainage.[5]
The climate of Scotland is temperate and very changeable, but rarely extreme.[6] Scotland is warmed by the North Atlantic Drift and given the northerly location of the country, experiences much milder conditions than areas on similar latitudes. Average temperatures are lower than in the rest of Great Britain. Western coastal areas of Scotland are warmer than the east and inland areas, due to the influence of the Atlantic currents, and the colder surface temperatures of the North Sea.[7] Rainfall totals vary widely across Scotland—the western highlands of Scotland are one of the wettest places in the UK with annual rainfall up to 4,577 mm (180.2 in). In comparison, much of eastern Scotland receives less than 870 mm (34.3 in) annually; lying in the rain shadow of the western uplands.[8] Annual average sunshine totals vary from as little as 711–1140 hours in the Highlands and the north-west up to 1471–1540 hours on the extreme eastern and south-western coasts.[9] Wind prevails from the south-west, bringing warm, wet and unstable air from the Atlantic.[6] The windiest areas of Scotland are in the north and west, with parts of the Outer Hebrides, Orkney and Shetland experiencing over 30 days with gales per year.[6] Vigorous Atlantic depressions, also known as European windstorms, are a common feature of the autumn and winter in Scotland.[10]
Main article: History of agriculture in Scotland
Prehistory[edit]
Map of available land in Medieval Scotland.[11]
Mesolithic hunter-gatherer encampments formed the first known settlements in Scotland around 8500 BCE.[12] These were highly mobile boat-using people making tools from bone, stone and antlers.[13] In the Neolithic period, around 6,000 years ago, there is evidence of permanent settlements and farming.[14] Archaeological evidence indicates that the two main sources of food were grain and cow's milk.[15] From the beginning of the Bronze Age, about 2000 BCE, arable land spread at the expense of forest.[16] From the Iron Age, beginning in the seventh century BCE, there is evidence of hill forts in southern Scotland that are associated with cultivation ridges and terraces.[17] Souterrains, small underground constructions, may have been for storing perishable agricultural products.[18] Aerial photography reveals extensive prehistoric field systems that underlie existing boundaries in some Lowland areas, suggesting that the fertile plains were already densely exploited for agriculture.[17] During the period of Roman occupation there was re-growth of birch, oak and hazel for five centuries, suggesting a decline of population and agriculture.[16]
Middle Ages[edit]
Main article: Agriculture in Scotland in the Middle Ages
Threshing and pig feeding from a book of hours from the Workshop of the Master of James IV of Scotland (Flemish, c. 1541)
The early Middle Ages were a period of climate deterioration resulting in more land becoming unproductive.[19] Most farms had to produce a self-sufficient diet of meat, dairy products and cereals, supplemented by hunter-gathering. Farming was based around a single homestead or a small cluster of three or four homes, each probably containing a nuclear family.[20] The climate meant that more oats and barley were grown than corn (here meaning wheat)[21] and cattle were the most important domesticated animal.[22] In the period c. 1150 to 1300, warm dry summers and less severe winters allowed cultivation at much greater heights above sea level and made land more productive.[23] Arable farming grew significantly, but was still more common in low-lying areas than in high-lying areas such as the Highlands, Galloway and the Southern Uplands.[24] The system of infield and outfield agriculture, a variation of open field farming widely used across Europe, may have been introduced with feudalism from the twelfth century[17] and would continue until the eighteenth century.[25] Crops were bere (a form of barley), oats and sometimes wheat, rye and legumes. The more extensive outfield was used for oats.[17] By the late Medieval period, most farming was based on the Lowland fermtoun or Highland baile, settlements of a handful of families that jointly farmed an area notionally suitable for two or three plough teams, allocated in run rigs to tenant farmers, known as husbandmen.[26] Runrigs usually ran downhill so that they included both wet and dry land. Most ploughing was done with a heavy wooden plough with an iron coulter, pulled by oxen, which were more effective and cheaper to feed than horses.[26] Key crops included kale, hemp and flax. Sheep and goats were probably the main sources of milk, while cattle were raised for meat.[27] The rural economy appears to have boomed in the thirteenth century and in the immediate aftermath of the Black Death was still buoyant, but by the 1360s there was a severe falling off in incomes to be followed by a slow recovery in the fifteenth century.[28]
Early modern era[edit]
Main article: Agriculture in Scotland in the early modern era
A Scottish Lowland farm from John Slezer's Prospect of Dunfermline, published in the Theatrum Scotiae, 1693
As feudal distinctions declined in the early modern era, the barons and tenants-in-chief merged to form a new identifiable group, the lairds.[29] With the substantial landholders of the yeomen,[30] these heritors were the major landholding orders.[31] Those with property rights included husbandmen, lesser landholders and free tenants.[32] Many young people, both male and female, left home to become domestic and agricultural servants.[33] The early modern era also saw the impact of the Little Ice Age, of colder and wetter weather, which peaked towards the end of the seventeenth century.[34] Almost half the years in the second half of the sixteenth century saw local or national scarcity, necessitating the shipping of large quantities of grain from the Baltic.[35] In the early seventeenth century famine was relatively common, with four periods of famine prices between 1620 and 1625. The English invasions of the 1640s had a profound impact on the Scottish economy.[36] Under the Commonwealth, the country was relatively highly taxed, but gained access to English markets.[37] After the Restoration the formal frontier with England was re-established, along with its customs duties. Economic conditions were generally favourable from 1660 to 1688, as land owners promoted better tillage and cattle-raising.[38] The closing decade of the seventeenth century there was a slump in trade with the Baltic and France and changes in the Scottish cattle trade, followed by four years of failed harvests (1695, 1696 and 1698-9), known as the "seven ill years".[39] The shortages of the 1690s would be the last of their kind.[40]
Agricultural revolution[edit]
Main article: Scottish Agricultural Revolution
Crofts at Borreraig on the island of Skye
Increasing contacts with England after the Union of 1707 led to a conscious attempt to improve agriculture among the gentry and nobility.[41] The English plough was introduced and foreign grasses, the sowing of rye grass and clover. Turnips and cabbages were introduced, lands enclosed and marshes drained, lime was put down to combat soil acidity, roads built and woods planted. Drilling and sowing and crop rotation were introduced. The introduction of the potato to Scotland in 1739 provided a crop with a high yield, providing 3 to 5 times more calories per acre than a cereal crop.[42]:13 Enclosures began to displace the run rig system.[41] The first result of these changes were the Lowland Clearances.[41] Agricultural improvement spread north and west, mostly over the period 1760 to 1850 as the Highland Clearances. Many farming tenants were evicted and offered tenancies in crofting communities, with their former possessions converted into large-scale sheep farms. Crofts were intended to be too small to support the occupants, so forcing them to work in other industries, such as fishing, quarrying or kelping.[43] In the 1840 and 1850s Scotland suffered its last major subsistence crisis,[44] when the potato blight that caused the Irish potato famine reached the Highlands in 1846.[45] This gave rise to the second phase of the Highland clearances, when landlords provided assisted passages for their tenants to emigrate in a desperate effort to rid themselves of a redundant population that was dependent of famine relief.
Twentieth century[edit]
Sheep grazing on slopes of Camp Hill, Bowmont Valley
In the twentieth century Scottish agriculture became susceptible to the ups and downs of world markets. There were dramatic price rises in the First World War, but a slump in the 1920s and 1930s, followed by more rises in World War II. In 1947 annual price reviews were introduced in an attempt to stabilise the market. After World War II there was a drive in UK agriculture to greater production until the late 1970s, resulting in intensive farming. More areas of marginal land were brought into production.[46] There was increasing mechanisation of Scottish agriculture and farming became less labour-intensive.[46] The UK membership of the European Economic Community (later the European Union) in 1972 began a change in orientation for Scottish farming. Some sectors, particularly hill sheep farming, became viable only with subsidies. A series of reforms to the CAP from the 1990s attempted to control over-production, limit incentives for intensive farming and mitigate environmental damage.[47] A dual farm structure emerged, with agriculture divided between large commercial farms and small pluralised and diversified holdings.[48]
Modern agriculture[edit]
Land use[edit]
A combine harvester near Loch Leven
At the time of the June 2013 agricultural census the total area of agricultural holdings in Scotland was 5.6 million hectares, equal to 73 per cent of Scotland’s total land area. Just over half of this was rough grazing, with about a quarter taken up by grass, and about ten per cent used for crops or left fallow. The remainder was made up of woodland, ponds, yards or other uses. There was a further 580,000 hectares of common grazing, which if included made the total area 6.2 million hectares, or 79 per cent of Scotland’s total land area.[49] Because of the persistence of feudalism and the land enclosures of the nineteenth century, the ownership of most land is concentrated in relatively few hands (some 350 people own about half the land). As a result, in 2003 the Scottish Parliament passed a Land Reform Act that empowered tenant farmers and communities to purchase land even if the landlord did not want to sell.[50]
In June 2013, of crops grown in Scotland (excluding grass), cereals accounted for 78 per cent of the land area, with nearly three-quarters of that being barley (340,000 hectares). Wheat was also significant (87,000 hectares), along with oilseed rape (34,000 hectares), oats (32,000 hectares) and potatoes (29,000 hectares). Amongst fruit and vegetables, a total of 911 hectares of strawberries were grown, mainly under cover, which was the largest source of income amongst horticulture crops.[49] The major areas of cereal production were Grampian, Tayside, Borders, Lothian and Fife.[51]
Distinctive Highland Cattle. Numbers of livestock, including cattle have been declining.
Livestock numbers have been falling in recent years. The trend began at the turn of the millennium in the case of pigs and sheep and dates to the mid-1970s in the case of cattle. In June 2013 there were 6.6 million sheep, 1.8 million cattle and 308,000 pigs, the lowest numbers since the 1940 and 1950s. Poultry numbers have tended to fluctuate over the last 25 years, but were down to 14.2 million in 2013.[49]
About 13,340 km² of land in Scotland is forested[52] representing around 15 per cent of the total land area of Scotland. The majority of forests are in public ownership, with forestry policy being controlled by the Forestry Commission. The biggest plantations and timber resources are to be found in Dumfries and Galloway, Tayside, Argyll and the area governed by Highland Council. The economic activities generated by forestry in Scotland include planting and harvesting as well as sawmilling, the production of pulp and paper and the manufacture of higher value goods. Forests, especially those surrounding populated areas in Central Scotland also provide a recreation resource.[49]
Income and employment[edit]
Total income from farming (TIFF) has been rising since the turn of the millennium. It was estimated at £700 million in 2012, being made up of £2.9 billion in outputs and £570 million in support payments, offset by £2.8 billion in costs. The initial estimate of TIFF for 2013 was £830 million, an increase largely linked to the improved weather. TIFF per annual work unit increased to £31,000, similar to the value in 2011.[49]
A fish farm near Tarbet on Loch Nevis
Aquaculture production is focused on the West and North of the country. The total output of aquaculture was estimated in 2011 at around £434 million per year, including around £412 million for farmed Atlantic salmon, £14.34 million for rainbow trout and £7.7 million for shellfish. Brown trout, sea trout, halibut and Arctic charr are also farmed in Scotland.[53]
Some farm businesses rely on sources of income other than from farming, including contracting work, hosting mobile phone masts, tourism and recreation and financial support from grants and subsidies. Analysis of the Farm Accounts Survey suggests that, excluding support from grants and subsidies, the average farm made a loss of £16,000 in 2012. However, calculations from TIFF suggest that, excluding support, the sector still made a small profit.[49]
Government figures indicate that in 2013 Scottish agriculture employed around 1.5 per cent of the workforce and contributes around 1 per cent of the Scottish economy.[49] Other studies suggest the employment rate to be around 8 per cent of the total rural population, and in terms of numbers the estimates indicate that around 68,000 people are directly employed or self-employed in agriculture, while around 200,000 people are related to a variety of activities related to agriculture. In the Highlands and Islands, around 10 per cent of the workforce are engaged in agriculture and livestock products contribute around 70 per cent of the output.[54]
Education[edit]
The West of Scotland Agricultural College formed in 1899, the East of Scotland Agricultural College in 1901, and the North of Scotland Agricultural College in 1904; these colleges amalgamated to form the Scottish Agricultural College in 1990.[55]
Environmental protection[edit]
Main article: Environment of Scotland
Scotways sign for a "Public Path"
Site-specific nature conservations began in the UK with the creation of the Nature Conservancy in 1948, which later became the Nature Conservancy Council (NCC). It moved from a research-based advisory group to become a campaigning body. The 1949 National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act excluded Scotland, but introduced the concept of Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI), which were to become a key part of managing nature conservation.[56] A Countryside Commission Scotland (CSS) was established under the Countryside Scotland Act, 1967.[57] The SSSI were strengthened by the 1981 Wildlife and Countryside Act, which for the first time introduced the concept of payments to farmers for inactivity in relation to specific sites and shifted the burden of proof from conservationist having to prove harm, to landholders having to prove that harm was not taking place. The NCC was broken up in 1991 and in Scotland was merged with CSS to produce Scottish National Heritage (SNH), under a UK-wide Joint Nature Conservation Committee. SNH has a remit for both land and nature conservation and a responsibility towards sustainability and to the consideration of the needs of the Scottish people.[56]
Rights of way[edit]
Main article: Right of way
In Scotland, a right of way is a route over which the public has been able to pass unhindered for at least 20 years.[58] The route must link two "public places", such as villages, churches or roads. Unlike in England and Wales there is no obligation on Scottish local authorities to signpost or mark a right of way. However, the charity Scotways, formed in 1845 to protect rights of way, records and signs the routes.[59] The Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003 gives everyone statutory access rights to most land and inland water in Scotland, to non-motorized traffic, making the existence of rights of way less important in terms of access to land in Scotland. Certain categories of land are excluded from this presumption of open access, such as railway land, airfields and private gardens.[60]
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Scottish Agriculture.
Macaulay Institute
National Farmers Union of Scotland
National Museum of Rural Life
Royal Highland Show
Scottish Agricultural Science Agency
Scottish Executive Environment and Rural Affairs Department
^ R. Mitchison, A History of Scotland (London: Routledge, 3rd edn., 2002), ISBN 0415278805, p. 2.
^ World and Its Peoples (London: Marshall Cavendish), ISBN 0761478833, p. 13.
^ J. Wormald, Court, Kirk, and Community: Scotland, 1470–1625 (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1991), ISBN 0748602763, pp. 39–40.
^ C. Harvie, Scotland: a Short History (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002), ISBN 0192100548, pp. 10–11.
^ Scotland's soils: key facts, Scotland's Environment, retrieved 1 June 2015.
^ a b c Met Office: Scottish climate, Met Office, retrieved 1 June 2015.
^ Mean Temperatures Annual Average Archived 2013-08-28 at the Wayback Machine, Met Office, retrieved 1 June 2015.
^ Rainfall Amount Annual Average Archived 2013-07-19 at the Wayback Machine Met Office, retrieved 1 June 2015.
^ Sunshine Duration Annual Average Archived 2006-12-02 at the Wayback Machine, Met Office, retrieved 1 June 2015.
^ Lichens – The Exceptional Scottish climate Archived 2007-01-02 at the Wayback Machine, Scottish National Heritage (SNH), retrieved 1 June 2015.
^ Lyons, Anona May (cartographer) (2000), "Subsistence Potential of the Land", in McNeil, Peter G. B.; MacQueen, Hector L. (eds.), Atlas of Scottish History to 1707, Edinburgh: The Scottish Medievalists and Department of Geography, University of Edinburgh, p. 15, ISBN 0-9503904-1-0 .
^ "Signs of Earliest Scots Unearthed". BBC News. 9 April 2009. Retrieved 15 July 2009.
^ P. J. Ashmore, Neolithic and Bronze Age Scotland: an Authoritative and Lively Account of an Enigmatic Period of Scottish Prehistory (Batsford, 2003).
^ I. Maxwell, "A History of Scotland’s Masonry Construction" in P. Wilson, ed., Building with Scottish Stone (Arcamedia, 2005), p. 19.
^ A. Fenton, "Diet", in M. Lynch, ed., The Oxford Companion to Scottish History (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001), ISBN 0-19-211696-7, pp. 167–70.
^ a b T. C. Smout, R. MacDonald and F. Watson, A History of the Native Woodlands of Scotland 1500–1920 (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2nd edn., 2007), ISBN 9780748632947, p. 34.
^ a b c d I. D. Whyte, "Economy: primary sector: 1 Agriculture to 1770s", in M. Lynch, ed., The Oxford Companion to Scottish History (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001), ISBN 0-19-211696-7, pp. 206–7.
^ R. Miket, "The souterrains of Skye" in B. B. Smith and I. Banks, eds, In the Shadow of the Brochs (Stroud: Tempus, 2002), ISBN 0-7524-2517-X, pp. 77–110.
^ P. Fouracre and R. McKitterick, eds, The New Cambridge Medieval History: c. 500-c. 700 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005), ISBN 0521362911, p. 234.
^ A. Woolf, From Pictland to Alba: 789 – 1070 (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2007), ISBN 0748612343, pp. 17–20.
^ A. MacQuarrie, Medieval Scotland: Kinship and Nation (Thrupp: Sutton, 2004), ISBN 0-7509-2977-4, pp. 136–40.
^ K. J. Edwards and I. Ralston, Scotland after the Ice Age: Environment, Archaeology and History, 8000 BC – AD 1000 (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2003), ISBN 0748617361, p. 230.
^ J. Steane, The Archaeology of Medieval England and Wales (London: Taylor & Francis, 1985), ISBN 0709923856, p. 174.
^ G. W. S. Barrow, Kingship and Unity: Scotland 1000–1306 (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1989), ISBN 074860104X, p. 12.
^ H. P. R. Finberg, The Formation of England 550–1042 (London: Paladin, 1974), ISBN 9780586082485, p. 204.
^ a b J. Wormald, Court, Kirk, and Community: Scotland, 1470–1625 (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1991), ISBN 0748602763, pp. 41–55.
^ J. T. Koch, ed., Celtic Culture: A Historical Encyclopedia, Volume 1 (ABC-CLIO, 2006), ISBN 1851094407, p. 26.
^ S. H. Rigby, ed., A Companion to Britain in the Later Middle Ages (Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2003), ISBN 0631217851, pp. 111–6.
^ R. Mitchison, Lordship to Patronage, Scotland 1603–1745 (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1983), ISBN 074860233X, p. 79.
^ J. E. A. Dawson, Scotland Re-Formed, 1488–1587 (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2007), ISBN 0748614559, p. 331.
^ I. D. Whyte, "Population mobility in early modern Scotland", in R. A. Houston and I. D. Whyte, Scottish Society, 1500–1800 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005), ISBN 0521891671, p. 52.
^ I. D. White, "Rural Settlement 1500–1770", in M. Lynch, ed., Oxford Companion to Scottish History (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011), ISBN 0199693056, pp. 542–3.
^ R. Mitchison, A History of Scotland (London: Routledge, 3rd edn., 2002), ISBN 0415278805, pp. 291–3.
^ J. D. Mackie, B. Lenman and G. Parker, A History of Scotland (London: Penguin, 1991), ISBN 0140136495, pp. 226–9.
^ C. A. Whatley, Scottish Society, 1707–1830: Beyond Jacobitism, Towards Industrialisation (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2000), ISBN 071904541X, p. 17.
^ R. Mitchison, A History of Scotland (London: Routledge, 3rd edn., 2002), ISBN 0415278805, pp. 291–2 and 301-2.
^ a b c J. D. Mackie, B. Lenman and G. Parker, A History of Scotland (London: Penguin, 1991), ISBN 0140136495, pp. 288–91.
^ Devine, T M (1995). The Great Highland Famine: Hunger, Emigration and the Scottish Highlands in the Nineteenth Century. Edinburgh: Birlinn Limited. ISBN 1 904607 42 X.
^ E. Richards, The Highland Clearances: People, Landlords and Rural Turmoil (Edinburgh, Birlinn Press, 2008), ISBN 1-84158-542-4.
^ T. M. Devine. Exploring the Scottish Past: Themes in the History of Scottish Society (Dundurn, 1995), ISBN 1898410380, p. 159.
^ T. C. Smout, A Century of the Scottish People: 1830–1950 (1986), pp. 12–14.
^ a b J. T. Koch, ed., Celtic Culture: A Historical Encyclopedia, Volume 1 (ABC-CLIO, 2006), ISBN 1851094407, p. 27.
^ C. R. Warren, Managing Scotland's Environment (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2002), ISBN 0748613137, p. 90.
^ a b c d e f g Natural Scotland Economic Report of Scottish Agriculture, 2014, pp. 1–2, retrieved 1 June 2015.
^ "Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003". Office of Public Sector Information. 2003. Retrieved 2008-07-10.
^ "Farmland Use – Cereals and other combine crops 2013", The Scottish Government, June 2012, retrieved 13 July 2012.
^ "Forestry facts and figures2005" (PDF). Forestry Commission. 2005. Retrieved 2008-07-10.
^ "Aquaculture Fisheries – Aquaculture Support", Scottish Government, retrieved 10 June 2012.
^ Rural Scotland People, Prosperity and Partnership
^ "Scottish Agricultural College", The Independent, 1 May 2011. Retrieved 4 January 2012.
^ a b C. R. Warren, Managing Scotland's Environment (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2002), ISBN 0748613137, pp. 184–7.
^ B. Cullingworth and V. Nadin, Town and Country Planning in the UK (London: Routledge, 2003), ISBN 1134603029, p. 329
^ Rights of way in Scotland Archived 2015-07-26 at the Wayback Machine Scottish Natural Heritage, retrieved 30 June 2015.
^ Scotsway: The Scottish Rights of Way & Access Society, retrieved 30 June 2015.
^ Outdoor Access Scotland, retrieved 30 June 2015.
Agriculture in the United Kingdom
Economy of the United Kingdom
ADAS (company)
Arla Foods UK
Bernard Matthews Farms
Dairy Crest
Faccenda Group
Farmcare
Frontier Agriculture
Müller Wiseman Dairies
NFU Mutual
Norbrook Group
Vestey Group
Grazing marsh
Hedgerow removal
Rare Breeds Survival Trust
and regulation
Agricultural Land Classification
Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board
Potato Council
Animal Health and Veterinary Laboratories Agency
British Cattle Movement Service
The Country Code
Crown Estate
Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (Northern Ireland)
Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
Institute for Animal Health
Meat and Livestock Commission
Rights of way in Scotland
Rural Development Council
Rural Payments Agency
Scottish Government Enterprise and Environment Directorate
Single Payment Scheme
Agricultural Revolution
British timber trade
Celtic field
Common land
Corn Laws
Dutch barn
Haughley Experiment
Highland Clearances
Highland Potato Famine
Lowland Clearances
Napier Commission
Run rig
Rural Reconstruction Association
Scottish Agricultural Revolution
Swing Riots
Victory garden
Women's Land Army
Foot-and-mouth
Nations and regions
Agriculture in London
Animal breeds
Scottish Crofting Foundation
Tŷ unnos
Non-governmental
Farmers' Union of Wales
National Farmers' Union of England and Wales
National Farmers' Union of Scotland
Ulster Farmers' Union
Young Farmers' Clubs of Ulster
British Egg Industry Council
British Poultry Council
Country Land and Business Association
Fresh Start Initiative
Institute of Biological, Environmental and Rural Sciences
Museum of English Rural Life
National Non-Food Crops Centre
Nottingham Arabidopsis Stock Centre
Rothamsted Research
Royal Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland
Tenant Farmers Association
CAFRE
Royal Agricultural University
Scotland's Rural College
June Gap
Fell farming
Eglu
Farming Today
Employee-owned companies
FTSE 100 Index
FTSE Fledgling Index
FTSE SmallCap Index
Government-owned companies
governance,
Governor of the Bank of England
Competition and Markets Authority
Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy
Debt Management Office
Monetary Policy Committee
Office for Budget Responsibility
UK Statistics Authority
UK Trade & Investment
1659–1849 Navigation Acts
Panic of 1796–97
1815–46 Corn Laws
New Imperialism 1830s–1945
Second Industrial Revolution 1860s–1914
1873–79 Long Depression
1926 general strike
1929–39 Great Depression
1948–52 Marshall Plan
1974 Three-Day Week
1979 Winter of Discontent
1986 Big Bang
1992 Black Wednesday
Late-2000s recession
2008 bank rescue package
Recessions and recoveries
National champions policy
Nationalisation
Nations,
regions,
Atlantic Gateway
Big City Plan
Croydon Vision 2020
Expansion plans for Milton Keynes
List of counties by GVA
East London Tech City
London Plan
M4 corridor
M11 Corridor
Silicon Fen
Thames Gateway
Industrialisation
Silicon Glen
Cardiff (Cardiff Bay)
and labour
Businesspeople
Working Time Directive
Trades unions
Trades Union Congress
Resource and
Energy/Renewable energy
Baltic Exchange
List of banks
List of UK building societies
Royal Albert Dock (future)
Euronext.liffe
Glasgow International Financial Services District
London Interbank Offered Rate
London Metal Exchange
London Platinum and Palladium Market
Alternative Investment Market
Inter-city
Trade and
Business organisations
British Bankers' Association
British Chambers of Commerce
Confederation of British Industry
Co-operatives UK
Industry trade groups
Institute of Directors
UK Payments Administration
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Agriculture_in_Scotland&oldid=904288396"
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line7556
|
__label__wiki
| 0.896866
| 0.896866
|
Amnesty International Ireland
Non-Governmental Organisation
Colm O'Gorman[1]
Parent organisation
Amnesty International Ireland (commonly known as Amnesty and AI) is the Irish branch of the international non-governmental organisation focused on human rights, Amnesty International. The Executive Director is Colm O'Gorman.
1 Campaigns
1.1 Abortion rights
1.2 Controversy over foreign donations
1.3 Refugees
1.4 Other campaigns
Campaigns[edit]
Amnesty operate a number of campaigns focusing on human rights issues.
Abortion rights[edit]
See also: Abortion in the Republic of Ireland and Thirty-sixth Amendment of the Constitution Bill 2018 (Ireland)
The She is not a criminal campaign opposes the Republic of Ireland's abortion law,[2][3] as according to Amnesty, "Ireland’s Constitution and abortion legislation result in violations of the fundamental human rights of women and girls. Ireland has one of the world’s most restrictive abortion laws. Women and girls cannot legally have an abortion in Ireland unless there is a risk to their life. And even where that is the case, access is difficult."[4]
The campaign was prompted in part due to criticism of Ireland's abortion laws by the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR) and the Committee Against Torture. The CESCR has criticised what it described as Ireland’s "highly restrictive legislation on abortion and its strict interpretation thereof", and its "criminalization of abortion, including in the cases of rape and incest and of risk to the health of a pregnant woman." It recommended that Ireland take all necessary steps, including a referendum on abortion, to revise its legislation on abortion. It also raised concerns at the impact on women and girls of the law on access to and information about abortion, and how the constitutional protection afforded to the foetus also impacted on maternity care. Abortion is constitutionally permitted only when a woman’s or girl’s life is at 'real and substantial risk', and carries a possible 14-year prison sentence in all other circumstances.[5]
Controversy over foreign donations[edit]
In December 2017 newspapers reported that the Standards in Public Office Commission informed Amnesty Ireland that this breached Ireland’s campaign finance laws which prohibit foreign donors making donations to groups in Ireland who influence government policy. The George Soros Open Society Foundation funding had previously been publicly reported on its website and 2016 annual report[6]. The Commission had frequently stated in its reports that this provision is overly wide and cannot have been the intention of the legislature, except where groups are involved in campaigning at elections or referendums. Amnesty Ireland stated that they were not going to obey the Commission's instruction to return the funding, as it considered it a violation of its - and other Irish NGOs' - rights to freedom of association and expression.[7][8]
Amnesty initiated a High Court challenge to SIPO's instruction. The case was heard in July 2018 and as part of the settlement agreement, the High Court heard that SIPO now accepts its decision that the donation was for political purposes and must be returned was "procedurally flawed". Amnesty said it was pleased that the decision has been quashed and that it was vindicated in its decision to challenge the decision. Amnesty also said that it hopes the Government will reform the Electoral Act.[9]
Refugees[edit]
Amnesty's I Welcome Refugees campaign supports refugees and asylum seekers.[10] The campaign promotes resettlement policies by Ireland and the international community and focuses on three main areas:
Family reunification – this means refugees can join close relatives already living abroad.
Academic scholarships and study visas, allowing refugees to start or carry on studying.
Medical visas, to help someone with a serious condition get life-saving treatment.
Other campaigns[edit]
Opposition to torture;[11]
Opposition to capital punishment;[12]
A campaign to free Ibrahim Halawa, an Irish citizen imprisoned for four years in Egypt, without proper trial.[13] He was ultimately acquitted of all charges in September 2017, and released in mid-October. He said on his return to Dublin that he would work for other people imprisoned overseas.[14]
^ "National Board". Amnesty International Ireland.
^ "She Is Not A Criminal". Amnesty International Ireland.
^ "Amnesty says Irish abortion laws put women and girls at risk". RTE. 9 June 2015.
^ "She is not a criminal: The Impact of Ireland's Abortion Law". Amnesty International. 9 June 2015. Retrieved 12 February 2017.
^ "Ireland 2015/2016". Amnesty International. Retrieved 12 February 2017.
^ ANNUAL REPORT & CONFERENCE PAPERS 2016, Amnesty International Ireland, 16 April 2016, p. 27, retrieved 22 May 2018, Open Society Foundation funding of €79,200 is also budgeted
^ "Civil society organisations under threat from draconian law and Amnesty could face criminal charges - Amnesty International Ireland". Amnesty International Ireland. 8 December 2017. Retrieved 10 December 2017.
^ Amnesty International ordered to return donation from billionaire George Soros Irish Times December 8, 2017
^ "SIPO decision on Amnesty donation 'procedurally flawed'". RTÉ. 31 July 2018. Retrieved 31 July 2018.
^ "I Welcome Refugees". Amnesty International Ireland.
^ "Stop Torture". Amnesty International Ireland.
^ "Abolish death penalty". Amnesty International Ireland.
^ "Egypt: Free Ibrahim Halawa". Amnesty International Ireland. Archived from the original on 16 January 2017.
^ Henry McDonald (24 October 2017). "Irish man to campaign for prisoners abroad after four years in Egyptian jail". The Guardian. Retrieved 24 October 2017.
Abortion in the Republic of Ireland
Offences against the Person Act 1861
Protection of Life During Pregnancy Act 2013
Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy) Act 2018
Eighth Amendment (1983)
Thirteenth Amendment (Travel) (1992)
Fourteenth Amendment (Information) (1992)
Thirty-sixth Amendment (Repeal of Eighth Amendment) (2018)
Failed amendments
Twelfth Amendment (Remove risk of suicide) (1992)
Twenty-fifth Amendment (Remove risk of suicide etc.) (2002)
X Case (1992)
Services outside the State for Termination of Pregnancies Act 1995
C Case (1997)
D v Ireland (2006)
A, B and C v Ireland (2010)
PP v. HSE (2014)
Mellet v Ireland (2016)
Together for Yes
Irish Family Planning Association
Abortion Rights Campaign
Termination for Medical Reasons
Colm O'Gorman
Peter Boylan
Janet O'Sullivan
Ivana Bacik
Irish Catholic Bishops' Conference
Pro-Life Amendment Campaign
Pro Life Campaign
Youth Defence
Iona Institute
Niamh Uí Bhriain
David Quinn
Cora Sherlock
Maria Steen
John McGuirk
Breda O'Brien
Justin Barrett
Joe McCarroll
Mamie Cadden
Sheila Hodgers
Miss D
Savita Halappanavar
Ms Y
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Amnesty_International_Ireland&oldid=885479508"
Human rights organisations based in Ireland
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line7557
|
__label__wiki
| 0.501681
| 0.501681
|
Beta turn
β turns (also β-bends, tight turns, reverse turns, Venkatachalam turns) are a type of non-regular secondary structure in proteins that cause a change in direction of the polypeptide chain. They are very common motifs in proteins and polypeptides.[1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9] Each consists of four amino acid residues (labelled i, i+1, i+2 and i+3). They can be defined in two ways: 1. By the possession of an intra-main-chain hydrogen bond between the CO of residue i and the NH of residue i+3; Alternatively, 2. By having a distance of less than 7Å between the Cα atoms of residues i and i+3. The hydrogen bond criterion is the one most appropriate for everyday use, partly because it gives rise to four distinct categories; the distance criterion gives rise to the same four categories but yields additional turn types.
1.1 Hydrogen bond criterion
1.2 Distance criterion
Definition[edit]
Hydrogen bond criterion[edit]
Two beta turns, type I above and type II below. Each image shows the main chain atoms of a tetrapeptide excluding hydrogen atoms. Carbons grey, oxygens red and nitrogens blue. The defining hydrogen bond is shown as a magenta line.
The hydrogen bond criterion for beta turns, applied to polypeptides whose amino acids are linked by trans peptide bonds, gives rise to just four categories, as shown by Venkatachalam in 1968. They are called types I, II, I’ and II’. All occur regularly in proteins and polypeptides but type I is most common, because it most resembles an alpha helix, occurring within 3/10 helices and at the ends of some classic alpha helices.
The four types of beta turn are distinguished by the Φ,ψ angles of residues i+1 and i+2 as shown in the Table below giving the typical average values. Glycines are especially common at amino acids with positive Φ angles; for prolines such a conformation is sterically impossible but they occur frequently at amino acid positions where Φ is negative.
Φi+1
ψi+1
type I -60 -30 -90 0
type II -60 120 80 0
type I' 60 30 90 0
type II' 60 -120 -80 0
The main chain atoms of type I and I’ β turns are enantiomers (mirror images) of one another. So are the main chain atoms of type II and II’ β turns.
Type I and II β turns exhibit a relationship to one another because they potentially interconvert by the process of peptide plane flipping (180° rotation of the CONH peptide plane with little positional alteration to side chains and surrounding peptides). The same relationship exists between type I’ and II’ β turns. Some evidence has indicated that these interconversions occur in beta turns in proteins such that crystal or NMR structures merely provide a snapshot of β turns that are, in reality, interchanging.[10] In proteins in general all four beta turn types occur frequently but I is commonest, followed by II, I' and II' in that order. Beta turns are especially common at the loop ends of beta hairpins; they have a different distribution of types from the others; type I' is commonest, followed by types II', I and II.
Asx turns and ST turns resemble beta turns except that residue i is replaced by the side chain of an aspartate, asparagine, serine or threonine. The main chain - main chain hydrogen bond is replaced by a side chain – main chain hydrogen bond. 3D computer superimposition shows that, in proteins, they occur [11] as one of the same four types that beta turns do except that their relative frequency of occurrence differs: Type II’ is commonest, followed by types I, II and I’.
Distance criterion[edit]
Apart from the type I, I’,II and II’ beta turns as identified via the hydrogen bond criterion, non-hydrogen-bonded beta-turns named type VIII often occur. Three other, fairly rare, types of beta turn have been identified in which the peptide bond between residues i+1 and i+2 is cis rather than trans; these are named types VIa1, VIa2 and VIb. Another category, type IV, was used for turns not belonging to any of the above. Further details of these turns are given in turn (biochemistry).
Two websites are available for finding and examining hydrogen-bonded beta turns in proteins:
Motivated Proteins [12]
PDBeMotif [13]
^ Venkatachalam, CM (1968). "Stereochemical criteria for polypeptides and proteins. V. Conformation of a system of three linked peptide units" (PDF). Biopolymers. 6 (10): 1425–1436. doi:10.1002/bip.1968.360061006. PMID 5685102.
^ Lewis, PN; Momany FA (1973). "Chain reversal in proteins". Biochim Biophys Acta. 303 (2): 211–29. doi:10.1016/0005-2795(73)90350-4. PMID 4351002.
^ Toniolo, C; Benedetti E (1980). "Intramolecularly hydrogen-bonded peptide conformations". CRC Crit Rev Biochem. 9 (1): 1–44. doi:10.3109/10409238009105471. PMID 6254725.
^ Richardson, JS (1981). "The anatomy and taxonomy of protein structure". Adv Prot Chem. 34: 167–339. doi:10.1016/S0065-3233(08)60520-3. PMID 7020376.
^ Rose, GD; Gierasch LM (1985). "Turns in peptides and proteins". Adv Prot Chem. 37: 1–109. doi:10.1016/S0065-3233(08)60063-7. PMID 2865874.
^ Milner-White, EJ; Poet R (1987). "Loops, bulges, turns and hairpins in proteins". Trends Biochem Sci. 12: 189–192. doi:10.1016/0968-0004(87)90091-0.
^ Wilmot, CM; Thornton JM (1988). "Analysis and prediction of the different types of beta-turn in proteins". J Mol Biol. 203: 221–232. doi:10.1016/0022-2836(88)90103-9. PMID 3184187.
^ Sibanda, BL; Blundell TL (1989). "Conformation of β-hairpins in protein structures: A systematic classification with applications to modelling by homology, electron density fitting and protein engineering". J Mol Biol. 206 (4): 759–777. doi:10.1016/0022-2836(89)90583-4. PMID 2500530.
^ Hutchinson, EG; Thornton JM (1994). "A revised set of potentials for β-turn formation in proteins". J Mol Biol. 3 (12): 2207–2216. doi:10.1002/pro.5560031206. PMC 2142776. PMID 7756980.
^ Hayward, S (2001). "Peptide plane flipping in proteins". Protein Science. 10 (11): 2219–2227. doi:10.1110/ps.23101. PMC 2374056. PMID 11604529.
^ Duddy, WM; Nissink JWM (2004). "Mimicry by asx- and ST-turns of the four main types of β turn in proteins". Protein Science. 13 (11): 3051–3055. doi:10.1110/ps.04920904. PMC 2286581. PMID 15459339.
^ Leader, DP; Milner-White EJ (2009). "Motivated Proteins: A web application for studying small three-dimensional protein motifs". BMC Bioinformatics. 10 (1): 60. doi:10.1186/1471-2105-10-60. PMC 2651126. PMID 19210785.
^ Golovin, A; Henrick K (2008). "MSDmotif: exploring protein sites and motifs". BMC Bioinformatics. 9 (1): 312. doi:10.1186/1471-2105-9-312. PMC 2491636. PMID 18637174.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Beta_turn&oldid=873293798"
Protein structural motifs
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line7558
|
__label__wiki
| 0.500401
| 0.500401
|
Lakkavarapukota
Find sources: "Lakkavarapukota" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (January 2019) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)
Village in Andhra Pradesh, India
Location in Andhra Pradesh, India
Show map of Andhra Pradesh
Lakkavarapukota (India)
Show map of India
Coordinates: 18°02′00″N 83°09′00″E / 18.0333°N 83.15°E / 18.0333; 83.15Coordinates: 18°02′00″N 83°09′00″E / 18.0333°N 83.15°E / 18.0333; 83.15
• Official
UTC+5:30 (IST)
Lakka-varapu-kota or L. Kota is a village in Vizianagaram district of the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh.[1]
Lakkavarapukota is located at 18°02′00″N 83°09′00″E / 18.0333°N 83.15°E / 18.0333; 83.15. It has an average elevation of 60 meters (200 feet).
Demography[edit]
Lakkavarapukota Mandal has a population of 74,413 in 2001. Males consists of 25,267 and females 25.270 of the population. The average literacy rate is 52%, below the national average of 59.5%. Male literacy rate is 65% and that of females 39%.
^ "Mandal wise list of villages in Vizianagaram district" (PDF). Chief Commissioner of Land Administration. National Informatics Centre. Archived from the original (PDF) on 10 December 2014. Retrieved 23 December 2015.
Vizianagaram district
District headquarters
Revenue divisions
Vizianagaram * Parvatipuram
Mandals
Badangi
Bobbili
Makkuva
Mentada
Pachipenta
Ramabhadrapuram
Srungavarapukota
Census Towns
Chintalavalasa
Gajapathinagaram
Jarjapupeta
Kanapaka
Malicherla
Sriramnagar
Tummikapalle
Mandal headquarters in Vizianagaram district
Mandal Headquarters
Balijipeta
Bhogapuram
Bondapalli
Dattirajeru
Denkada
Gantyada
Garividi
Garugubilli
Gummalaxmipuram
Gurla
Jiyyammavalasa
Komarada
Merakamudidam
Peddabhogila
Therlam
Vepada
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Lakkavarapukota&oldid=879745784"
Villages in Vizianagaram district
Use Indian English from January 2019
All Wikipedia articles written in Indian English
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line7559
|
__label__wiki
| 0.881317
| 0.881317
|
Struggle against political abuse of psychiatry in the Soviet Union
This article is part of a series on the
Politics of the Soviet Union
State Council
Presidential Council
Central Committee
Politburo
Orgburo
Congress of Soviets
(Central Executive Committee)
Supreme Soviet
Soviet of the Union
Soviet of Nationalities
Congress of People's Deputies
1989 Legislative election
Official names
State Committees
First Deputy Premier
Deputy Premier
Administrator of Affairs
Military Collegium
People's Court
Soviet democracy
De-Stalinization
Kosygin reform
Era of Stagnation
Material balance planning
War communism
Phraseology
Censorship of images
Great Purge
Gulag system
Collectivization
Ideological repression
Suppressed research
Political abuse of psychiatry
Political repression
Population transfer
Red Terror
Psychiatry in Russia and the USSR
KGB (managing organ of psychiatry)
Mental health in Russia
Political abuse in Russia
Political abuse in the USSR
Campaign Against Psychiatric Abuse
Working Commission
Cases of political abuse
Struggle against political abuse
Serbsky Center
Bekhterev Psychoneurological Institute
Independent Psychiatric Association
Sluggish schizophrenia
Sulfozinum
Psikhushka
The Serbsky Central Research Institute for Forensic Psychiatry, also briefly called the Serbsky Institute (the part of its building in Moscow)
In the Soviet Union, systematic political abuse of psychiatry took place[1] and was based on the interpretation of political dissent as a psychiatric problem.[2] It was called "psychopathological mechanisms" of dissent.[3]
During the leadership of General Secretary Leonid Brezhnev, psychiatry was used as a tool to eliminate political opponents ("dissidents") who openly expressed beliefs that contradicted official dogma.[4] The term "philosophical intoxication" was widely used to diagnose mental disorders in cases where people disagreed with leaders and made them the target of criticism that used the writings by Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, and Vladimir Lenin.[5] Article 58-10 of the Stalin Criminal Code—which as Article 70 had been shifted into the RSFSR Criminal Code of 1962—and Article 190-1 of the RSFSR Criminal Code along with the system of diagnosing mental illness, developed by academician Andrei Snezhnevsky, created the very preconditions under which non-standard beliefs could easily be transformed into a criminal case, and it, in its turn, into a psychiatric diagnosis.[6] Anti-Soviet political behavior, in particular, being outspoken in opposition to the authorities, demonstrating for reform, writing books were defined in some persons as being simultaneously a criminal act (e.g., violation of Articles 70 or 190-1), a symptom (e.g., "delusion of reformism"), and a diagnosis (e.g., "sluggish schizophrenia").[7] Within the boundaries of the diagnostic category, the symptoms of pessimism, poor social adaptation and conflict with authorities were themselves sufficient for a formal diagnosis of "sluggish schizophrenia."[8]
The psychiatric incarceration was conducted to suppress emigration, distribution of prohibited documents or books, participation in civil rights actions and demonstrations, and involvement in forbidden religious activity.[9] The religious faith of prisoners, including well-educated former atheists who adopted a religion, was determined to be a form of mental illness that needed to be cured.[10] The KGB routinely sent dissenters to psychiatrists for diagnosing to avoid embarrassing publiс trials and to discredit dissidence as the product of ill minds.[11] Formerly highly classified extant documents from "Special file" of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union published after the dissolution of the Soviet Union demonstrate that the authorities of the country quite consciously used psychiatry as a tool to suppress dissent.[12]
In the 1960s, a vigorous movement grew up protesting against abuse of psychiatry in the USSR.[13] Political abuse of psychiatry in the Soviet Union was denounced in the course of the Congresses of the World Psychiatric Association in Mexico City (1971), Hawaii (1977), Vienna (1983) and Athens (1989).[8] The campaign to terminate political abuse of psychiatry in the USSR was a key episode in the Cold War, inflicting irretrievable damage on the prestige of Soviet medicine.[14] In 1971, Vladimir Bukovsky smuggled to the West a file of 150 pages documenting the political abuse of psychiatry, which he sent to The Times.[15] The documents were photocopies of forensic reports on prominent Soviet dissidents.[16] In January 1972, Bukovsky was convicted of spreading anti-Soviet propaganda under Criminal Code, mainly on the ground that he had, with anti-Soviet intention, circulated false reports about political dissenters.[17] Action Group for the Defense of Human Rights in the USSR stated that Bukosky was arrested as a direct result of his appeal to world's psychiatrists, thereby suggesting that now they held his destiny in their hands.[18] In 1974, Bukovsky and the incarcerated psychiatrist Semyon Gluzman wrote A Manual on Psychiatry for Dissidents,[19] which provided potential future victims of political psychiatry with instructions on how to behave during inquest in order to avoid being diagnosed as mentally sick.[15]
Political abuse of psychiatry in Russia continues after the fall of the Soviet Union[20] and threatens human rights activists with a psychiatric diagnosis.[21]
2 Soviet psychiatric abuse exposed
3 Congress in Mexico City
4 First responses
5 Honolulu Congress
6 UN Principles for the Protection of Persons with Mental Illness
7 Review Committee
8 Working Commission to Investigate the Use of Psychiatry for Political Purposes
9 Resolutions for expulsion or suspension
10 Vienna Congress
12 Visit of the US delegation
13 Establishing the IPA
14 Athens Congress
15 Visit of the WPA delegation
16 Russian Mental Health Law
19.1 Archival sources
19.2 Government publications and official reports
19.3 Books
19.4 Journal articles and book chapters
19.5 Newspapers
19.6 Audio-visual material
19.7 Websites
Mass repression in the Soviet Union
Economic repression
Dekulakization
Soviet famine of 1932–33
Holodomor
Kazakh famine of 1932–33
Ethnic repression
National operations of the NKVD
Population transfers
Political abuse of psychiatry is the misuse of psychiatric diagnosis, detention and treatment for the purposes of obstructing the fundamental human rights of certain groups and individuals in a society.[22] It entails the exculpation and committal of citizens to psychiatric facilities based upon political rather than mental health-based criteria.[23] Many authors, including psychiatrists, also use the terms "Soviet political psychiatry"[24] or "punitive psychiatry" to refer to this phenomenon.[25]
In the book Punitive Medicine by Alexander Podrabinek, the term "punitive medicine", which is identified with "punitive psychiatry," is defined as "a tool in the struggle against dissidents who cannot be punished by legal means."[26] Punitive psychiatry is neither a discrete subject nor a psychiatric specialty but, rather, it is an emergency arising within many applied sciences in totalitarian countries where members of a profession may feel themselves compelled to service the diktats of power.[27] Psychiatric confinement of sane people is uniformly considered a particularly pernicious form of repression[28] and Soviet punitive psychiatry was one of the key weapons of both illegal and legal repression.[29]
In the Soviet Union dissidents were often confined in the so-called psikhushka, or psychiatric wards.[30] Psikhushka is the Russian ironic diminutive for "mental hospital".[31] One of the first psikhushkas was the Psychiatric Prison Hospital in the city of Kazan. In 1939 it was transferred to the control of the NKVD, the secret police and the precursor organization to the KGB, under the order of Lavrentiy Beria, who was the head of the NKVD.[32] International human rights defenders such as Walter Reich have long recorded the methods by which Soviet psychiatrists in Psikhushka hospitals diagnosed schizophrenia in political dissenters.[33] Western scholars examined no aspect of Soviet psychiatry as thoroughly as its involvement in the social control of political dissenters.[34]
As early as 1948, the Soviet secret service took an interest in this area of medicine.[35] It was one of the superiors of the Soviet secret police, Andrey Vyshinsky, who first ordered the use of psychiatry as a tool of repression.[36] Russian psychiatrist Pyotr Gannushkin also believed that in a class society, especially during the most severe class struggle, psychiatry was incapable of not being repressive.[37] A system of political abuse of psychiatry was developed at the end of Joseph Stalin's regime.[38] However, according to Alexander Etkind, punitive psychiatry was not simply an inheritance from the Stalin era as the GULAG (the acronym for Chief Administration for Corrective Labor Camps, the penitentiary system in the Stalin years) was an effective instrument of political repression and there was no compelling requirement to develop an alternative and expensive psychiatric substitute.[39] The abuse of psychiatry was a natural product of the later Soviet era.[39] From the mid-1970s to the 1990s, the structure of mental health service conformed to the double standard in society, that of two separate systems which peacefully co-existed despite conflicts between them:
the first system was punitive psychiatry that straight served the institute of power and was led by the Moscow Institute for Forensic Psychiatry named after Vladimir Serbsky;
the second system was composed of elite, psychotherapeutically oriented clinics and was led by the Leningrad Psychoneurological Institute named after Vladimir Bekhterev.[39]
The hundreds of hospitals in the provinces combined components of both systems.[39]
Soviet psychiatric abuse exposed[edit]
Vladimir Bukovsky (b. 1942), a British neurophysiologist, Soviet human rights activist, political prisoner at the Sakharov Congress in Amsterdam on 21 May 1987
"In recent years in our country a number of court orders have been made involving the placing in psychiatric hospitals ("of special type" and otherwise) of people who in the opinion of their relatives and close friends are mentally healthy. These people are: Grigorenko, Rips, Gorbanevskaya, Novodvorskaya, Yakhimovich, Gershuni, Fainberg, Victor Kuznetsov, Iofe, V. Borisov and others – people well known for their initiative in defence of civil rights in the U.S.S.R. This phenomenon arouses justified anxiety, especially in view of the widely publicized placing of the biologist Zhores Medvedev in a psychiatric hospital by extrajudical means.
The diagnoses of the psychiatrists who have served as expert witnesses in court, and on whose diagnoses the court orders are based, provoke many doubts as regards their content. However, only specialists in psychiatry can express authoritative opinions about the degree of legitimacy of these diagnoses.
Taking advantage of the fact that I have managed to obtain exact copies of the diagnostic reports made by the forensic-psychiatric groups who examined Grigorenko, Fainberg, Gorbanevskaya, Borisov and Yakhimovich, and also extracts from the diagnosis on V. Kuznetsov, I am sending you these documents, and also various letters and other material which reveal the character of these people. I will be very grateful to you if you can study this material and express your opinion on it.
I realize that at a distance and without the essential clinical information it is very difficult to determine the mental condition of a person and either to diagnose an illness or assert the absence of any illness. Therefore I ask you to express your opinion on only this point: do the above-mentioned diagnoses contain enough scientifically-based evidence not only to indicate the mental illnesses described in the diagnoses, but also to indicate the necessity of isolating these people completely from society?
I will be very happy if you can interest your colleagues in this matter and if you consider it possible to place it on the agenda for discussion at the next International Congress of Psychiatrists.
For a healthy person there is no fate more terrible than indefinite internment in a mental hospital. I believe that you will not remain indifferent to this problem and will devote a portion of your time to it – just as physicists find time to combat the use of the achievements of their science in ways harmful to mankind.
Thanking you in advance,
V. Bukovsky"
— Bukovsky's 1971 letter addressed to Western psychiatrists[40]
In the 1960s, a vigorous movement grew up protesting against abuse of psychiatry in the USSR.[13] Since 1968, A Chronicle of Current Events, the main organ of Soviet human rights movement, has started publishing systematic information on how dissidents were being committed to psychiatric hospitals and forcibly, and often very painfully, treated with drugs.[41] President of the Independent Psychiatric Association of Russia Yuri Savenko says psychiatric repression was obvious to his circle as early as 1968,[42] and president of the Ukrainian Psychiatric Association Semyon Gluzman states no one of Soviet psychiatrists was going to reveal psychiatric repression until Gluzman revealed it in his report.[43] He was the author of An In Absentia Psychiatric Opinion on the Case of P.G. Grigorenko[44] otherwise known as An In Absentia Forensic-psychiatric Report on P.G. Grigorenko; this document started circulating in samizdat form in 1971[45] and was based on the medical record of Pyotr Grigorenko[46] who spoke against the human rights abuses in the Soviet Union.[47] Gluzman came to the conclusion that Grigorenko was mentally sane and had been taken to mental hospitals for political reasons.[48] In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Gluzman was forced to serve seven years in labor camps and three years in Siberian exile for refusing to diagnose Grigorenko as having the mental illness.[47]
In 1971, Vladimir Bukovsky smuggled to the West a file of 150 pages documenting the political abuse of psychiatry.[15] The documents were photocopies of forensic reports on prominent Soviet dissidents.[16] These documents were attended with a letter by Bukovsky requesting Western psychiatrists to explore the six cases documented in the file and tell whether these persons should be hospitalized or not.[49] The documents were sent by Bukovsky to The Times and, when translated by The Working Group on the Internment of Dissenters in Medical Hospitals, were examined by forty-four psychiatrists from the Department of Psychiatry, Sheffield University.[50] The psychiatrists described the documents in British Journal of Psychiatry of August 1971[51] and wrote a letter to The Times.[50] In this letter published on 16 September 1971, they reported that four of the six dissidents manifested no signs or history of mental disease, and the other two had minor psychiatric problems many years ago, quite removed from the events related to their internment.[50] The group of British psychiatrists concluded: "It seems to us that the diagnoses on the six people were made purely in consequence of actions in which they were exercising fundamental freedoms...".[49] They recommended discussing the issue in the course of the forthcoming World Psychiatric Association (WPA) World Congress in Mexico in November 1971.[49]
Congress in Mexico City[edit]
The Congress in Mexico City was held on 28 November — 4 December 1971. The statement of the forty-four British psychiatrists was circulated to the 7000 delegates in English, Spanish, and French.[52] There were statements from the Soviet Human Rights Committee describing the part played by Snezhnevsky, a head of the Soviet delegation, in the Medvedev case.[52] When speakers demanded that the Congress go on record against the confinement of dissidents in psychiatric hospitals, the Soviet delegation and Snezhnevsky instantly walked out.[52] They said that they could not talk about the issue since the Congress lacked official interpretation into Russian.[52] At this Congress, Western psychiatrists tried to censure their Soviet colleagues for the first time.[53] But the charges of psychiatric abuse were new, the campaign was disorganized, and Snezhnevsky, who headed the Soviet delegation, remained unscathed.[53] He said in rebuttal that the accusations were a "cold-war maneuver carried out at the hands of experts."[53] The WPA General Secretary Denis Leigh said that the WPA was under no obligation to accept complaints from one member society directed against another member society, and he informed Snezhnevsky of the complaints and sent him the "Bukovsky Papers."[49] Leigh proposed to constitute a committee for considering the ethical aspects of psychiatric practice, but also in this instance the issue of political abuse of psychiatry in the USSR was not mentioned.[49]
One of the key apologists of Soviet psychiatric abuse, Soviet psychiatrist Marat Vartanyan, was chosen as associate secretary of the Executive Committee.[49] A day after the Mexico Congress Vartanyan announced publicly that the nature of Soviet system was such that this could not possibly happen.[49] As Robert van Voren wrote, the Armenian Vartanyan was as slick as one could be, and had no problem lying in the twinkling of an eye.[54] He was masterful in his dealings with the WPA and continued to represent the Soviet Union at symposiums and congresses of the WPA.[54] Being in grain hospitable, flamboyant, full of humor and with a Western style, Vartanyan managed to fool one after another.[54] In the end, no action was taken by the Congress.[52] As Psychiatric News reported, it became apparent that the WPA leaders had no desire to take an action which would have alienated the USSR delegation and would quite probably make them "walk out" and sever communications for some time to come.[52]
First responses[edit]
The failure to debate the issue opened the door for Soviet authorities to adjudge Bukovsky to 12 years of camp and exile, and to enlarge the use of psychiatry as a tool of repression.[49] In January 1972, Bukovsky was convicted of spreading anti-Soviet propaganda under Article 70 of the RSFSR Criminal Code, mainly on the ground that he had, with anti-Soviet intention, circulated false reports that mentally healthy political dissenters were incarcerated in mental hospitals and were subjected to abuse there.[55] Action Group for the Defence of Human Rights stated that Bukosky was arrested as a direct result of his appeal to world's psychiatrists, thereby suggesting that now they held his destiny in their hands.[18] In one of his books, Bukovsky attributed his punishment to the timorousness of the WPA Congress in Mexico City in 1972: "… as a result of the timorousness of the Congress, I was given 12 years of punishment "for slandering Soviet psychiatry"."[56]
Semyon Gluzman (b. 1946), a Ukrainian psychiatrist, human rights activist and political prisoner
In 1973, the council of the Royal College of Psychiatrists passed the following resolution:
The Royal College of Psychiatrists firmly opposes the use of psychiatric facilities for the detention of persons solely on the basis of their political dissent no matter where it occurs.[57]
In the same year, the Representative Body of the British Medical Association at its annual meeting at Folkestone passed the following motion:
The British Medical Association condemns the practice of using medical men to certify political and religious dissenters as insane and to submit them to unnecessary investigation and treatment.[57]
In 1973, Ruben Nadzharov, the Deputy Director of the Institute of Psychiatry of the USSR Academy of Medical Sciences, stated that talk in the West of the forced commitment of certain dissident representatives of the intelligentsia to psychiatric hospitals was "a component part of the anti-Soviet propaganda campaign that certain circles are trying to stir up in pursuit of highly improper political aims."[58] In 2013, Robert van Voren, who participated in the struggle against abuse of Soviet psychiatry, confirmed that supporting Soviet dissidents was part of anti-Soviet policy.[59]
In 1974, Bukovsky and the incarcerated psychiatrist Semyon Gluzman wrote A Manual on Psychiatry for Dissidents,[19] in which they provided potential future victims of political psychiatry with instructions on how to behave during inquest in order to avoid being diagnosed as mentally sick.[15] The Manual focuses on how "the Soviet use of psychiatry as a punitive means is based upon the deliberate interpretation of heterodoxy (in one sense of the world) as a psychiatric problem."[60] This work was published in Russian,[61] English,[62] French,[63] Italian,[64] German,[65] Danish.[66]
Protest demonstration of January 1975 in Dam, Amsterdam for Vladimir Bukovsky's release from prison
In December 1976, in his eleventh year of psychiatric hospitals and prison camps, Bukovsky was exchanged by the Soviet government for the imprisoned Chilean Communist leader Luis Corvalán[67] at Zürich airport and, after a short stay in the Netherlands, took up refuge in Great Britain where later moved from London to Cambridge for his studies in biology.[68] Voluntary and involuntary emigration allowed the authorities to rid themselves of many political active intellectuals including writers Valentin Turchin, Georgi Vladimov, Vladimir Voinovich, Lev Kopelev, Vladimir Maximov, Naum Korzhavin, Vasily Aksyonov and others.[69]
The appeal made by Bukovsky in 1971 caused the formation of the first groups to campaign against the political abuse of psychiatry in the Soviet Union.[70] In France, a group of doctors constituted the "Committee against the Special Psychiatric Hospitals in the USSR," while in Great Britain a "Working Commission on the Internment of Dissenters in Mental Hospitals" was created.[70] Among its founding members were Peter Reddaway, a Sovietologist and lecturer at the London School of Economics and Political Science, and Sidney Bloch, a South-African born psychiatrist.[70] In September 1975, there was formed the Campaign Against Psychiatric Abuse (CAPA),[71] an organization constituted as the British section of the Initiating Committee Against Abuses of Psychiatry for Political Purposes and composed of psychiatrists, other doctors, and laymen.[60] In July 1976 in Trafalgar Square, CAPA held a rally against the abuse of psychiatry in the USSR.[60] In 1978, Royal College of Psychiatrists established the Special Committee on abuse of psychiatry.[72] 20 December 1980 saw the formation in Paris of the International Association on the Political Use of Psychiatry (IAPUP) whose first secretary was Gérard Bles of France.[73] Since the Congress in Honolulu in 1978, he has inspired the movement against the use of psychiatry for political ends.[74]
Honolulu Congress[edit]
In 1975, the American Psychiatric Association agreed to host the WPA's sixth World Congress of Psychiatry during 28 August – 3 September 1977, in Honolulu.[75] The request to discuss the Soviet issue during the World Congress of the World Psychiatric Association in Honolulu was made by Americans and the British and was supported by other societies.[76]
On 10 September 1976, Chairman of the KGB Yuri Andropov submitted to the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union his report informing of "anti-Soviet campaign with nasty fabrications regarding the alleged use psychiatry in the USSR as an instrument in the political struggle with 'dissidents'."[76] The report alleged that the campaign was a carefully planned anti-Soviet action in which a noticeable part was played by the British Royal College of Psychiatrists under the influence of pro-Zionist elements and that the KGB was undertaking measures through operational channels to counter hostile attacks.[77] In October 1976, the Ministry of Health constituted a special working group to develop a plan of action for a counter campaign.[77] The working group had among its members leading Soviet psychiatrists Andrei Snezhnevsky, Georgi Morozov, Marat Vartanyan, and Eduard Babayan under the chairmanship of Deputy Minister of Health Dmitri Venediktov.[77] The plans they worked out consisted in, inter alia, compiling documents with counterarguments for being spread before and during the World Congress; actively lobbying the media for explaining the human nature of Soviet medicine; actively lobbying inside the World Psychiatric Association for preventing the issue from being put on the agenda; lobbying the World Health Organization for exerting pressure on the WPA not to allow this unacceptable anti-Soviet campaign; and establishing closer working relations with positively inclined colleagues in the West.[77] In February 1977, representatives of the secret services of the USSR, the German Democratic Republic (GDR), Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria, and Cuba met in Moscow to talk about a common approach to the issue of political abuse psychiatry and the upcoming World Congress in Honolulu.[77] This meeting was mainly chaired by Major General Ivan Pavlovich Abramov, deputy head of the Fifth Directorate of the KGB (which dealt, inter alia, with dissenters), with the support of deputy head of the First Division of the Fifth Directorate Colonel Romanov who, according to the report, would travel with the Soviet delegation to Honolulu as "political advisor".[77] The minutes of the meeting demonstrate that Western preparations for the Honolulu World Congress were under the Soviet concern in which the leading part was played by the KGB of the Soviet Union.[78] Not long before the World Congress, a high-level conference was held in East Berlin, and the Soviet psychiatric leaders met with colleagues from Czechoslovakia, Poland, the GDR, Hungary, and Bulgaria to coordinate their positions.[78] Much to the vexation of Georgi Morozov, the Romanians did not come to this meeting, while both the Hungarians and the Poles openly criticized the Soviet stance.[78]
However, all this activity of the Soviets could not prevent the issue from dominating the Congress from the very outset.[78] At the first plenary session of the Congress, the introduction of the Declaration of Hawaii[79] took place.[78] This statement of ethical principles of psychiatry had been drafted by the Ethical Sub-Committee of the Executive Committee established in 1973 in response to the increasing number of protests against using psychiatry for non-medical reasons.[78] One of the principles stated in the Declaration was that a psychiatrist must not take part in compulsory psychiatric treatment in the absence of mental disease, and the Declaration also included other clauses which could be considered as heaving a bearing on the political abuse psychiatry.[78] The General Assembly accepted the Declaration of Hawaii without difficulty, and without opposition by the Delegation of the Soviets.[78] However, the Declaration was later criticized by Hanfried Helmchen, who found its ethical guideline No 1 to be misleading and stated that when health, personal autonomy and growth—without referring to mental illness—were formulated as the direct aim of psychiatry, the menace of vast expansion of psychiatry would increase and that the renunciation of an illness concept appeared to be an essential source for the 'total psychiatrisation of everybody and everything' which was also deplored by Blomquist in his commentary.[80] At the plenary session, an Ethics Committee was also established under the chairmanship of Costas Stephanis from Greece; among the members was Marat Vartanyan from the USSR.[78]
The Soviet issue passed the General Assembly less easily.[78] The Soviets did all possible to prove their point, and according to the report of the Soviet delegation, Marat Vartanyan had successfully prevented former Soviet political prisoner Leonid Plyushch from being registered as a delegate at the Congress and "anti-Soviet materials" from being spread in the main congress hall.[78] In 1977 at the World Congress in Honolulu, Snezhnevsky again defended psychiatric practices used in his country.[53] Two motions were put to the vote, a British one condemning the systematic political abuse of psychiatry in the USSR and an American one calling on the World Psychiatric Association to constitute a review committee to investigate the allegations of political abuse of psychiatry.[81] The British resolution passed with 90 to 88 votes[81] and only because the Poles did not come and the Russians, having been tardy in their dues payments, were not allowed to cast all votes allocated to them.[53] Some regarded the resolution as a Pyrrhic victory.[82]
On 31 August 1977, the General Assembly of the World Psychiatric Association during its meeting in Honolulu for the VI World Congress of Psychiatry adopted the following resolution:[83]
That the WPA take note of the abuse of psychiatry for political purposes and that it condemn those practices in all countries where they occur and call upon the professional organisations of psychiatrists in those countries to renounce and expunge those practices from their country, and that the WPA implement this Resolution in the first instance in reference to the extensive evidence of the systematic abuse of psychiatry for political purposes in the USSR.[84]
This resolution of the WPA is unprecedented in that it was the first time that an international professional association specifically condemned a great power.[83] This resolution was the climax of a lengthy campaign in the West to expose the Soviet practice of committing some of its political and other dissenters to mental hospitals.[85] The allegations, confirmed by some Soviet psychiatrists who had fled or emigrated to the West, induced the World Psychiatric Association to condemn the USSR for the "systematic abuse of psychiatry for political purposes."[86] Kremlin spokesmen ignored the action as a provocation "by a handful of antipsychiatric and antisocial elements" and began a propaganda campaign to contradict the accusations.[86] The American resolution requesting to set up a Review Committee received a larger majority of votes, 121 votes against 66.[81] Snezhnevsky returned to Moscow wounded, with members of his delegation putting the blame for their defeat on the "Zionists."[53]
1978 saw a public statement made by Soviet psychiatrist Yuri Novikov, who was the head of a section of the Serbsky Institute for six years and first secretary of the Association of Soviet Psychiatrists until he left the Soviet Union in June 1977.[87] In his statement, he said that political abuses of psychiatry took place in the Soviet Union and that it was not the scale of this that mattered, but the fact that it existed.[87]
UN Principles for the Protection of Persons with Mental Illness[edit]
Main article: Principles for the Protection of Persons with Mental Illness
Political abuse of psychiatry in the Soviet Union catalyzed a more general investigation into international psychiatric practices by the UN Commission on Human Rights. In 1977, the Commission created a "Sub-Commission to study, with a view to formulating guidelines, if possible, the question of the protection of those detained on the grounds of mental ill-health against treatment that might adversely affect the human personality and its physical and intellectual integrity." The Sub-Commission subsequently appointed its two Special Rapporteurs the primary task to "determine whether adequate grounds existed for detaining persons on the grounds of mental ill-health."[88]
The UN Principles for the Protection of Persons with Mental Illness and for the Improvement of Mental Health Care was published more than a decade later. The final version of the Principles had been so repeatedly massaged and rewritten by numerous committees dominated by psychiatrists that cross-referencing and other priorities extensively buried the primary tasks of attending to the risks of treatment and involuntary detention. In 1991, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the final document. In the view of Richard Gosden, it is principally designed to protect the rights of voluntary patients, not involuntary patients. The problems of involuntary patients are addressed by the document in a way that tends to undermine their rights rather than protect them.[88] However, Michael Perlin believes the divulgation of the Principles has the potential to be a barrier against the type of governmental malfeasance that is epitomized by the Soviet experience.[89] According to George Alexander, the Principles are far better than other work of the United Nations on the issue but it is unclear what effect they will have.[90] Brendan Kelly says the Principles is a non-binding declaration.[91]
Review Committee[edit]
In August 1978, Americans donated $50,000 for the establishment of the Review Committee and, by doing so, showed their commitment to the project.[92] The President Jules Masserman, when submitting the donation, asked that the Review Committee be established without delay "for the sake of many political dissidents at risk."[92] In December 1978, the Review Committee was set up under the chairmanship of Canadian psychiatrist Jean-Yves Gosselin[81] and, in August 1979, received the first complaints submitted by the British Royal College of Psychiatrists.[93]
The proposed statute read, "The Committee to Review the Abuse of Psychiatry will be appointed by the Executive Committee and shall have the responsibility to review individual complaints. Its activities will not be limited in time."[94]
From the very first day, the Soviets refused to recognize its existence.[81] Originally they attempted to prevent its establishment, maintaining that it would divert the WPA from its major function, namely the exchange of scientific ideas.[81] When the Review Committee was constituted, the Soviet society asserted overtly that they would not collaborate with the Review Committee, and they confirmed their stance in three letters, in which they claimed that the Review Committee was an "illegal formation," that they would continue not to acknowledge its existence and that no cooperation could be expected.[81] That stance would remain unaltered over the years to come.[81] Finally, the Review Committee was largely made powerless when the President and General Secretary of the WPA decided to bypass it and began to communicate with the Soviets directly.[81]
However, later, at the General Assembly during the World Congress in Vienna in 1983, the status and work of the Review Committee were discussed and it was resolved to allow the Committee to become statutory.[95] The General Assembly resolved further to change the Committee scope towards complaints about not only political but any abuse of psychiatry.[95] As it was emphasized, the WPA is not a human rights organization and the Review Committee should only examine complaints about specific acts of abuse carried out by specific psychiatrists against specific persons.[95] The 1999 General Assembly modified the mandate of the Review Committee as follows: "The Review Committee shall review complaints and other issues and initiate investigations on the violations of the ethical guidelines for the practice of psychiatry as stated in the Declaration of Madrid and its additional guidelines in order to make recommendations to the Executive Committee as to any possible action."[95]
Working Commission to Investigate the Use of Psychiatry for Political Purposes[edit]
Main article: Working Commission to Investigate the Use of Psychiatry for Political Purposes
Anatoly Koryagin (b. 1938), a Russian psychiatrist, former Soviet human rights activist, political prisoner, at the Sakharov Congress in Amsterdam on 22 May 1987
In January 1977, Alexandr Podrabinek along with a 47-year-old self-educated worker Feliks Serebrov, a 30-year-old computer programmer Vyacheslav Bakhmin and Irina Kuplun established the Working Commission to Investigate the Use of Psychiatry for Political Purposes.[96] The Commission was formally linked to the Moscow Helsinki Group[96] founded by Yuri Orlov along with ten others including Elena Bonner and Anatoly Shcharansky in 1976 to monitor Soviet compliance with the human rights provisions of the Helsinki Accords.[97] The commission was composed of five open members and several anonymous ones, including a few psychiatrists who, at great danger to themselves, conducted their own independent examinations of cases of alleged psychiatric abuse.[98] The leader of the commission was Alexandr Podrabinek.[98] In 1977, he completed a book titled Punitive Medicine,[99] a 265-page monograph covering political abuses of psychiatry in the Soviet Union[100] and containing photographs of hospitals and former inmates, many quotations from ex-inmates,[101] a "white list" of two hundred of prisoners of conscience in Soviet mental hospitals and a "black list" of over one hundred medical staff and doctors who took part in committing people to psychiatric facilities for political reasons.[102]
The psychiatric consultants to the Commission were Alexander Voloshanovich and Anatoly Koryagin.[103] The task stated by the Commission was not primarily to diagnose persons or to declare people who sought help mentally ill or mentally healthy.[104] However, in some instances individuals who came for help to the Commission were examined by a psychiatrist who provided help to the Commission and made a precise diagnosis of their mental condition.[104] At first it was psychiatrist Alexander Voloshanovich from the Moscow suburb of Dolgoprudny, who made these diagnoses.[70] But when he had been compelled to emigrate on 7 February 1980,[105] his work was continued by the Kharkov psychiatrist Anatoly Koryagin.[70] Koryagin's contribution was to examine former and potential victims of political abuse of psychiatry by writing psychiatric diagnoses in which he deduced that the individual was not suffering from any mental disease.[106] Those reports were employed as a means of defense: if the individual was picked up again and committed to mental hospital, the Commission had vindication that the hospitalization served non-medical purposes.[106] Also some foreign psychiatrists including the Swedish psychiatrist Harald Blomberg and British psychiatrist Gery Low-Beer helped in examining former or potential victims of psychiatric abuse.[70] The Commission used those reports in its work and publicly referred to them when it was essential.[70]
The commission gathered as much information as possible of victims of psychiatric terror in the Soviet Union and published this information in their Information Bulletins.[107] For the four years of its existence, the Commission published more than 1,500 pages of documentation including 22 Information Bulletins in which over 400 cases of the political abuse of psychiatry were documented in great detail.[96] Summaries of the Information Bulletins were published in the key samizdat publication, A Chronicle of Current Events.[96] The Information Bulletins were sent to the Soviet officials, with request to verify the data and notify the Commission if mistakes were found, and to the West, where human rights defenders used them in the course of their campaigns.[96] The Information Bulletins were also used to provide the dissident movement with information about Western protests against the political abuse.[96] Peter Reddaway said that after he had studied official documents in the Soviet archives, including minutes from meetings of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, it became evident to him that Soviet officials at high levels paid close attention to foreign responses to these cases, and if someone was discharged, all dissidents felt the pressure had played a significant part and the more foreign pressure the better.[108] Over fifty victims examined by psychiatrists of the Moscow Working Commission between 1977 and 1981 and the files smuggled to the West by Vladimir Bukovsky in 1971 were the material that convinced most psychiatric associations that there was distinctly something wrong in the USSR.[109]
Royal College of Psychiatrists (building with yellow flag) in Belgrave Square, London
The Soviet authorities responded aggressively.[107] Members of the group were being threatened, followed, subjected to house searches and interrogations.[107] In the end, the members of the Commission were subjected to various terms and types of punishments: Alexander Podrabinek was sentenced to 5 years' internal exile, Irina Grivnina to 5 years' internal exile, Vyacheslav Bakhmin to 3 years in a labor camp, Leonard Ternovsky to 3 years' labor camp, Anatoly Koryagin to 8 years' imprisonment and labor camp and 4 years' internal exile, Alexander Voloshanovich was sent to voluntary exile.[103]
In the autumn of 1978, the British Royal College of Psychiatrists carried a resolution in which it reiterated its concern over the abuse of psychiatry for the suppression of dissent in the USSR and applauded the Soviet citizens, who had taken an open stance against such abuse, by expressing its admiration and support especially for Semyon Gluzman, Alexander Podrabinek, Alexander Voloshanovich, and Vladimir Moskalkov.[110] In 1980, the Special Committee on the Political Abuse of Psychiatry, established by the Royal College of Psychiatrists in 1978, charged Snezhnevsky with involvement in the abuse[72] and recommended that Snezhnevsky, who had been honoured as a Corresponding Fellow of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, be invited to attend the College's Court of Electors to answer criticisms because he was responsible for the compulsory detention of this celebrated dissident, Leonid Plyushch.[111] Instead Snezhnevsky chose to resign his Fellowship.[111]
Resolutions for expulsion or suspension[edit]
On 12 August 1982, in preparation for the World Congress in Vienna, the American Psychiatric Association sent out to all member societies of the World Psychiatric Association a memorandum announcing their intention to organize a forum for discussing the issue of Soviet psychiatric abuse prior to the General Assembly in Vienna.[112] On 18 January 1983, the Ambassador of the Soviet Union to the German Democratic Republic (GDR), Gorald Gorinovich, delivered a message from the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union to the Central Committee of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany in which it said that the abnormal situation which had developed within the World Psychiatric Association put in effect its whole activity in question and that for this reason, All-Union Society took the decision to withdraw from the WPA.[113] On 22 January 1983, the British Medical Journal published a letter by Allan Wynn, the chairman of the Working Group on the Internment of Dissenters in Mental Hospitals, reporting that in consequence of the continued abuse of psychiatry in the Soviet Union the American, British, French, Danish, Norwegian, Swiss, and Australasian member societies of the World Psychiatric Association with the support indicated by many of its other members proposed resolutions for the expulsion or suspension of membership of the Soviet Society of Neurologists and Psychiatrists, which would be considered at the World Congress of the World Psychiatric Association in Vienna in July 1983.[114] On 31 January 1983, the All-Union Society officially resigned from the World Psychiatric Association[113] under threat of expulsion.[16] In their letter of resignation, the Soviets complained about a "slanderous campaign, blatantly political in nature... directed against Soviet psychiatry in the spirit of the 'cold war' against the Soviet Union" and, being especially angry about the memorandum of the American Psychiatric Association of August 1982, charged the WPA leadership with complicity by not having spoken out against this mailing.[115]
According to the reports on hearing before the Subcommittee on Human Rights and International Organizations of the Committee on Foreign Affairs and the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe on 20 September 1983, the national associations justly held the opinion that 10 years of mild public protests, quiet diplomacy, and private conversations with Soviet official psychiatrists had produced no significant change in the level of Soviet abuses, and that this approach had, thereby, failed.[116] In January 1983, the number of member associations of the World Psychiatry Association, voting for the suspension or expulsion of the Soviet Union, rose to nine.[116] Inasmuch as these associations would have half the votes in the WPA governing body, the Soviets was now, in January, almost sure to be voted out in July.[117]
According to the statement made by the chairman of the APA Committee on International Abuse of Psychiatry and Psychiatrists Harold Visotsky at the hearing, the Committee on behalf of certain persons had written hundreds of letters to the USSR, including those to authorities of the Soviet Government, to patients themselves, the families of patients, the psychiatrists who were treating these patients, but only indirectly heard from the families of patients and had never received a response from the authorities.[118] In the statement, he mentioned that 20 cases were referred over to the World Psychiatric Association for further investigation by their committee to review alleged abuses of psychiatry for political purposes and a number of these cases were sent to the All Union Society of Neuropathologists and Psychiatrists of the USSR for clarification and response, but when months and months went by and the World Psychiatric Association had received no response from Soviet colleagues, the American Psychiatric Association and a number of other psychiatric associations across the world carried a resolution which stated:[119]
If the All-Union Society of Psychiatrists and Neuropathologists of the USSR does not adequately respond to all enquiries from the World Psychiatric Association regarding the issue of psychiatric abuse in that country by April 1, 1983, that the All-Union Society should be suspended from membership in the World Psychiatric Association until such time that these abuses cease to exist.
Vienna Congress[edit]
The Seventh World Congress of the WPA was scheduled to meet on 10 – 16 July 1983, at Vienna where heated discussion and a close vote on the resolutions were anticipated.[120] The General Assembly of the World Psychiatric Association in Vienna was likely one of the most tense and disorganized meetings in its existence.[121] Some delegates, especially those from Israel, Mexico, Egypt, Cuba, and the GDR angrily appealed to the WPA Executive Committee not to accept the resignation of the Soviets, whereas others voiced the view that it was a fact of life one had to live with, an opinion supported by the WPA President Pierre Pichot.[121] The debate was preceded by a discussion of various resolutions which had been submitted, but the state of affairs was so perplexing that some delegates did not even know which resolution they were asked to vote upon.[121] Finally a resolution drafted by the British delegate Kenneth Rawnsley,[121] who served as the fourth president of the Royal College of Psychiatrists from 1981 to 1984,[122] was carried by 174 votes to 18, with 27 abstentions.[123] The resolution was strikingly conciliatory in tone:[124]
The World Psychiatric Association would welcome the return of the All-Union Society of Neuropathologists and Psychiatrists of the USSR to membership of the Association, but would expect sincere co-operation and concrete evidence beforehand of amelioration of the political abuse psychiatry in the Soviet Union.
Releases[edit]
The freedoms of the Gorbachev period diminished the human rights movement because many of their decades-long concerns such as suppression of free expression, imprisonment of dissidents, and psychiatric abuse were no longer the main problems facing Soviet society.[125] 1986 saw the discharge of nineteen political prisoners from mental hospitals.[126] In 1987, sixty-four political prisoners were discharged from mental hospitals.[126]
In 1987, the Italian Radical Party organized a conference against political abuse of psychiatry, and Robert van Voren along with Leonid Plyushch were speakers at the event.[127] The large room in a rather posh hotel in Rome was completely empty.[127] "When will people come?" the speakers asked and were given the answer, "They will not come. It is all arranged for radio broadcasts, and we will imagine that there are people here."[127] The speakers alone were in the empty room, after their every speech the sound of applause was added and, as a result, listeners were under the impression that the party held a large successful congress in Rome.[127]
In 1988, hundreds of thousands of persons with mental disorders were removed from the psychiatric register at psychoneurological dispensaries and discharged from psychiatric hospitals to the satisfaction of world public and the World Psychiatric Association.[128]
In early 1988, Chief Psychiatrist Aleksandr Churkin stated in an interview with Corriere della Sera issued on 5 April 1988 that 5.5 million Soviet citizens were on the psychiatric register and that within two years 30% would be removed from this list.[129] However, a year later the journal Ogoniok published a figure of 10.2 million provided by the state statistics committee.[130] In 1990, Zhurnal Nevropatologii i Psikhiatrii Imeni S S Korsakova published almost the same figure of 10 million people registered at psychoneurological dispensaries and 335,200 hospital beds used in the Soviet Union by 1987.[131] At a press conference held in Moscow on 27 October 1989, Gennady Milyokhin claimed that of the three hundred patients named by international human rights organizations, "practically all had left hospital."[132]
Visit of the US delegation[edit]
In 1989, the stonewalling of Soviet psychiatry was overcome by perestroika and glasnost (meaning "policy of transparency" in Russian).[133] Over the objection of the psychiatric establishment, the Soviet government permitted a delegation of psychiatrists from the USA, representing the United States government, to carry out extensive interviews of suspected victims of abuse.[134] They traveled to the Soviet Union on 25 February 1989.[135] The group consisted of about 25 people among whom were William Farrand of the State Department; Loren H. Roth as head of the psychiatric team; psychiatrists of the National Institute of Mental Health, including Scientific Director of the US Delegation Darrel A. Regier, Harold Visotsky from Chicago as head of the hospital visit team, and four émigré Soviet psychiatrists living in the United States.[135] There also were State Department interpreters, two attorneys, Ellen Mercer of the American Psychiatric Association and Peter Reddaway.[135]
The visit was initiated by Soviet government officials, including Andrei Kovalyov, on domestic political grounds.[6] A powerful external impact was needed to have reasons to give a new spurt to restructuring psychiatry.[6] The main thing was to make the decision to develop an effective law that would strictly regulate all aspects of the provision of psychiatric care and prevent new political abuses of the keepers of ideological purity in Soviet community who wore white gowns.[6] No less important task was to release the maximum number of political and religious prisoners from psychiatric hospitals.[6] Something that seemed to Soviet psychiatric leaders to be impossible had to be promised to them so that they agree to conduct such an event.[6] To that end, the government officials played up the need for the visit in every possible way by using the argument that its success, if any, would enable to resume Soviet membership in the World Psychiatric Association.[6] The psychiatric leaders swallowed the bait.[6] Later on, Andrei Kovalyov wrote about the attempts to intimidate him by psychiatric measures during the preparation of the event.[6]
The American psychiatrists were primarily interested in patients who had passed through psychiatric examinations at the Serbsky Institute.[6] Their clinical charts were classified secrets.[6] The psychiatric examinations were conducted by academicians and eminent professors.[6] In the clinical charts, there were monstrous things: for example, one of the patients was refused to be discharged from the hospital until he had renounced his religious convictions, for which he was hospitalized.[6] During their visit to the USSR, the American psychiatrists acquainted themselves with cases that included such "crimes": human rights activism, the Ukrainian Helsinki Group (an outburst of emotion while being inside a social security agency; a visit to the apartment of Andrei Sakharov that was formerly human rights activism; having written a book about poet Vladimir Vysotsky and other anti-Soviet essays; distributing books by Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Alexander Zinoviev, Zhores Medvedev; defending the rights of persons with disabilities, signing appeals, etc.).[6] Of course, among patients surveyed by Americans were also terrorists and murderers.[6]
The delegation was able systematically to interview and assess present and past involuntarily admitted mental patients chosen by the visiting team, as well as to talk over procedures and methods of treatment with some of the patients, their friends, relatives and, sometimes, their treating psychiatrists.[136] Whereas the delegation originally sought interviews with 48 persons, it eventually saw 15 hospitalized and 12 discharged patients.[136] About half of the hospitalized patients were released in the two months between the submission of the initial list of names to the Soviets authorities and the departure from the Soviet Union of the US delegation.[136] The delegation came to the conclusion that nine of the 15 hospitalized patients had disorders which would be classified in the United States as serious psychoses, diagnoses corresponding broadly with those used by the Soviet psychiatrists.[136] One of the hospitalized patients had been diagnosed as having schizophrenia although the US team saw no evidence of mental disorder.[137] Among the 12 discharged patients examined, the US delegation found that nine had no evidence of any current or past mental disorder; the remaining three had comparatively slight symptoms which would not usually warrant involuntary commitment in Western countries.[137] According to medical record, all these patients had diagnoses of psychopathology or schizophrenia.[137]
When returned home after a visit of more than two weeks, the delegation wrote its report which was pretty damaging to the Soviet authorities.[138] The delegation established not only that there had taken place systematic political abuse of psychiatry but also that the abuse had not come to an end, that victims of the abuse still remained in mental hospitals, and that the Soviet authorities and particularly the Soviet Society of Psychiatrists and Neuropathologists still denied that psychiatry had been employed as a method of repression.[138] On 17 July 1989, William Farrand, Peter Reddaway, and Darrel Regier expounded the findings of their report in the TV interview Psychiatric Practices in the Soviet Union broadcast by C-SPAN.[139] The report was published in Schizophrenia Bulletin, Supplement to Vol. 15, No. 4, 1989.[140] The report by the American psychiatrists, who inspected a number of Soviet psychiatric hospitals in March 1989, remained secret for all ordinary psychiatrists of the country.[141] It reached the point of absurdity when the administration of the special hospitals visited by the American doctors sent the WPA a request to send them the report from the USA.[141] The American part has translated the obtained Soviet reply into Russian but even the action has not made the USSR Health Ministry declassify the documents.[141] As far as Robert van Voren could establish, the report was never published in the USSR.[142] Only after twenty years, in 2009, the report was translated into Russian, and its Russian version was published not in Russia but in the Netherlands, on the website of the Global Initiative on Psychiatry.[143]
Establishing the IPA[edit]
In 1989, the Independent Psychiatric Association of Russia (IPA) was created as an association publicly opposing itself to official Soviet psychiatry and its offspring, the All-Union Society of Neuropathologists and Psychiatrists, which was completely under the control of the Soviet government and implemented its political principles.[144] From the very beginning, the IPA and its President Yuri Savenko had to take on human rights functions in addition to educational ones: first, it was necessary to uncover the ideological basis on which the Soviet psychiatry carried out its punitive activities; second, it was necessary to develop legal norms which would forever prevent such abuses; third, it was necessary to show that it is not society that needs to be protected from the mentally ill, but the ill need to be protected from society as a whole, not only from the authorities; fourth, it was necessary to overcome rigidity and inhumane nature of modern domestic psychiatry detached from its old roots and, at the same time, artificially isolated from Western humanistic trends.[144]
In Russia, the IPA is the sole non-governmental professional organization that makes non-forensic psychiatric expert examination at the request of citizens whose rights have been violated with the use of psychiatry.[27]
Athens Congress[edit]
In the months prior to the Eighth World Psychiatric Assembly in Athens, there was substantial dispute about the possible readmittance of the All-Union Society to the WPA.[145] The Eighth World Congress of the World Psychiatric Association was held between 12 and 19 October 1989 in Athens.[132] The Congress was reminiscent of the previous World Congress in 1983 in Vienna, and the one before that in 1977 in Honolulu.[132] The issue of the Soviet political abuse of psychiatry raised its ugly head, and dominated the WPA proceedings.[132]
On 16 October, the Soviet delegation convened a press conference.[132] The panel was uniformly evasive and defensive.[132] After a detailed and lengthy account by Karpov of Soviet psychiatric reforms in which he emphasized the specialities of the new mental health legislation and in particular the legal safeguards for patients, other panellists worked out on what they considered as positive aspects of the new developments.[132] However then, abruptly, this sense of optimism was disrupted by the bluntest of questions posed by Anatoly Koryagin: Had political psychiatric abuse occurred or not?[132] Alexander Tiganov, who played a prominent part in the press conference, answered hesitatingly that "such cases" could have taken place during the period of stagnation "but there was a need to distinguish between psychiatric, legal and political aspects."[132] Koryagin persevered with his challenge and countered that these answers failed to clarify whether an acknowledgment was being made that Soviet psychiatry had been misused for political reasons.[132]
Koryagin stated that the readmission would offer carte blanche to the KGB to continue its repressive practices, that there would be further abuse of psychiatry, and that the plight of prisoners would be hopeless.[146] He proposed the four conditions for the readmission:[146]
Soviet psychiatrists must acknowledge previous political abuses and reject them;
all detainees must be released;
participation in monitoring of future practice must be obligatory;
and representatives of the World Psychiatric Association must be permitted to function freely on Soviet territory.
Several national associations, including the Royal College of Psychiatrists, the Australasian College, the Swiss Psychiatric Association, and the West German Psychiatric Association insisted that the Soviet Society should not be admitted until specific conditions had been satisfied; these included the release of all dissidents unjustifiably detained in psychiatric hospitals, and the dissociation by the authorities from the past abuse and their obligation to prevent its repetition.[132]
The WPA Executive Committee decided to organize the Extraordinary General Assembly for the debate between the Soviet dissident psychiatrist Dr. Semyon Gluzman and the representatives of the Soviet delegation.[147] After that, it was said, by the lips of the President of the Congress, a Greek psychiatrist Costas Stefanis, that the debate could not take place because Gluzman represented nobody, did not officially work as a psychiatrist and was not a member of the Independent Psychiatric Association in Moscow.[141] A few hours later, Gluzman managed to have himself presented by Yuri Savenko.[141] The meeting of the General Assembly turned out to be secret, even the press that was officially accredited under the WPA General Assembly was removed from the room.[141] It was followed by something of the trial against the official Soviet psychiatry.[141] The situation was quite unbalanced, to put it mildly.[147] The six or seven members of the Russian delegation were seated in a row on the stage.[147] As a result, there were no more available seats on the stage, and, thus, Gluzman and his interpreter had to stand at the foot of the stage, at least a meter below.[147] It looked like seven against one and gave the visual impression of a lost battle.[147] However, many members of the Congress sympathized with Gluzman, who agreed to participate in the debate with the Soviet delegation.[147] In addition, the Soviet representatives made a very bad impression, repeating the standard Soviet propaganda that was completely opposing what had already been published in the Soviet press.[147] Gluzman, on his part, was in his best shape.[147] His story was not only sharp and clear but also he even showed compassion to the Soviet representatives who sat on the stage high above him.[147] Perhaps, the WPA hoped that the debate would make opinions change in favour of the Soviets but the opposite happened.[147] It has strengthened the view of their opponents that too few changes occurred in Soviet psychiatry to allow the return of the Soviet Society and that their statements were still dominated by lies.[147]
When it came to the climax, almost all Soviet psychiatrists, including Marat Vartanyan, were ignored by the Congress, and the leading role in the Soviet delegation has been now openly taken by not a psychiatrist but the diplomat Yuri Reshetov, the Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister of the Soviet Union.[147] It is clear that the game is now being played at the highest level with the direct participation of the political elite in Moscow.[147] On the other part, there has been formed the small group of negotiators composed of a British delegate and the President of the Royal College James Birley, a Dutch delegate Roelof ten Doesschate, an American delegate Harold Visotsky, and a German delegate Johannes Meyer-Lindenberg.[147] The situation was unique: the World Congress is continuing, the press is agog, the WPA Executive Committee has been moved to the side, and the four delegates are carrying on negotiations with Yuri Reshetov, who is in constant contact with Moscow, receiving instructions.[147] In this way, the "full independence" of Soviet psychiatry from the state apparatus has once again been demonstrated.[141]
The WPA Executive Committee moved the Soviet issue to the end of the agenda.[147] At first, they conducted long debates about the whole range of procedural problems, small amendments to statutes and other issues, then they went on to the elections of the WPA Executive Committee that led to a stir.[147] Fini Schulzinger, the incumbent General Secretary, decided to run for the presidency.[147] Candidates were asked to submit their nominations and accompany them by a short speech and explanation why they would be the best choice.[147] Schulzinger went first.[147] His speech began quietly, but soon he got excited, especially when it came to the issue of the membership of the Soviets.[147] To the surprise of delegates, he accused his contestants of being funded by the CIA and led by the Church of Scientology.[147] The audience totally went silent, they have never seen anything like this before.[147] To the contestant of Schulzinger, the race has been won: Jorge Alberto Costa e Silva has been elected as the WPA President by the overwhelming majority.[147]
The negotiations with the Soviets continued even during the General Assembly.[147] They were offered the last chance: if they want to return, they have to read out the message that they plead guilty; otherwise, they will not have been admitted.[147] The intensive communication with Moscow did not stop, the negotiations of the statement started, and each word was discussed.[147]
The Soviet delegation to the 1989 World Congress of the WPA in Athens eventually agreed to admit that the systematic abuse of psychiatry for political purposes had indeed taken place in their country.[148] At the Congress, the Soviet Society's International Secretary Pyotr Morozov on behalf of his delegation made a statement containing the following five points, which are quoted in full:[132]
The All-Union Society of Psychiatrists and Narcologists publicly acknowledges that previous political conditions created an environment in which psychiatric abuse occurred for non-medical, including political, reasons.
Victims of abuse shall have their cases reviewed within the USSR and also in cooperation with the WPA, and the registry shall not be used against psychiatric patients.
The All-Union Society unconditionally accepts the WPA review instrument.
The All-Union Society supports the changes in the Soviet law with full implementation relevant to the practice of psychiatry and the treatment and protection of the rights of the mentally ill.
The All-Union Society encourages an enlightened leadership in the psychiatric professional community.
Felice Lieh Mak, just chosen as President-Elect, proposed a resolution which included the statement read by Morozov, and then adding that within one year the Review Committee should visit the Soviet Union and that if evidence of continued political abuse of psychiatry were to be found, a special meeting of the General Assembly should be convoked to give consideration to suspension of membership of the Soviets.[149] In the end, 291 votes were cast for the resolution, 45 against, with 19 abstentions.[150] The Soviets were readmitted to the WPA under conditions[150] and on the ground of having made a public confession of the existence of previous psychiatric abuse and having given a commitment to review any present or subsequent cases and to sustain and introduce reforms to the psychiatric system and new mental health legislation.[145]
There is no question of the morality of the WPA position.[141] The hand of friendship was extended to not thousands of ordinary Soviet psychiatrists but all the same "leading specialists" who had doomed healthy people to the torments of forced treatment.[141] They have been charitably offered to voluntarily reeducate themselves and to lead a new, perestroika-oriented psychiatry; however, what morality can be spoken of when among the members of the WPA were left Romania and the Republic of South Africa, which abused psychiatry for political purposes?[141] On the other hand, they voted not for Vartanyan and Zharikov, not for the sad memory of Lunts but for Gorbachev and rather wanted to help the processes of humanization in the USSR.[141] They hoped that the membership Soviet psychiatrists in the WPA would help to keep them under control.[141]
Deeply shocked, Anatoly Koryagin, who had considered the statement by the Soviets as completely hypocritical and insincere and had not thought that the Soviets would be permitted to return, officially renounced his Honorary Membership of the WPA by submitting on 8 November 1989 to the WPA General Secretary a short letter:[151]
On 17th October 1989 the All Union Society of Psychiatrists and Narcologists of the USSR, which counts among its members criminal psychiatrists, guilty of psychiatric abuses for political purposes, was readmitted to the World Psychiatric Association. As I do not wish to be a member of an organization together with that kind of persons, I renounce the honorary membership of the World Psychiatric Association, which I held since 1983.
The Soviet delegates returned to Moscow jubilantly.[151] At the Moscow airport, they told the press that there have not been and are no abuses of psychiatry in the Soviet Union and that the USSR has been admitted to the WPA firmly and unconditionally.[141] In an interview with a Soviet television crew, Marat Vartanyan replied to the question whether any conditions had been set to a Soviet return:[152]
No, that is wrong information, which you received from somewhere. There were no conditions. We set the conditions. That is, we proposed… eh… the Executive Committee of the WPA to come to us on an official visit to the Soviet Union within a year.
The next day, the government newspaper Izvestiya carried a report on 19 October which did not mention any of the conditions while asserting that the All Union Society had been granted full membership.[151] The dissemination of disinformation on the part of the Soviets had distinctly not yet come to an end.[151] Only on 27 October 1989, Meditsinskaya Gazeta reported the conditions set by the WPA General Assembly.[151] When more than a year and a half has passed since the decision of the Athens Congress to re-admit the Soviets to the WPA, leading psychiatrists in the USSR continued to deny that abuse took place.[153]
The 1983–1989 years with perfect clearness confirmed the fact that psychiatry is politics regardless of whether someone likes the fact or not.[147] The WPA leadership expanded that they tried not to admit politics to psychiatry, but for all that the result of their actions and their secret negotiations with the Moscow psychiatric leadership was exactly opposing: it has given the green light to carefully organized interventions from the Moscow political leadership supported by the active participation of the Stasi and the KGB.[147]
Visit of the WPA delegation[edit]
The WPA team spent three weeks in the Soviet Union,[145] from 9 to 29 June 1991,[154]and saw ten cases, all of which had been diagnosed by Soviet psychiatrists as having schizophrenia.[155] When reviewed case notes and the results of their own interviews, the WPA team confirmed the diagnosis of schizophrenia only in one case and reported that there was still a wide gap between Soviet criteria for the diagnosis of schizophrenia and those used internationally in other countries.[156] Of the six individuals committed to a Special Psychiatric Hospital, four of the cases were distinctly of a political nature and of these four, three had never been mentally sick.[157]
In a letter sent in 1991 to Aleksandr Tiganov, the new chairman of the All Union Society (or, the now called themselves, the Federation of Societies of Psychiatrists and Narcologists of the Commonwealth of Independent States), the WPA General Secretary Juan José Lopez Ibor wrote that the All Union Society made in the General Assembly a Statement that included five items, several of which was not yet fulfilled, and that thereby, the Executive Committee unanimously agreed that it would not recommend continuing membership of the society in June 1993. Less than two months after the visit of the team to the Soviet Union, a coup against Mikhail Gorbachev was carried out. The coup failed and was followed by the dissolution of the USSR. As a consequence, the All Union Society remained without a country to represent. The USSR Federation of Psychiatrists and Narcologists officially resigned from the World Psychiatric Association in October 1992.[158]
Russian Mental Health Law[edit]
Main article: Russian Mental Health Law
In Russia, the enactment of its Mental Health Law took place under dramatic circumstances despite the need for the Law because of an 80-year delay, after which the Law passed by Russia as against all developed countries, and despite dimensions of political abuse of psychiatry which were unprecedented in history and were being persistently denied for two decades from 1968 to 1988.[159] When Soviet rule was coming to an end, the decision to develop the Mental Health Law was taken from above and under the threat of economic sanctions from the United States.[159] An initiator of creating a serious, detailed mental health law in the USSR was a deputy of the last convocation of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, a young engineer from a Uralian town.[160] When asked why he as an engineer needs it, he replied to Semyon Gluzman, "All this democracy will soon run out, guys who will come to power, will start repression, and you, Dr. Gluzman, and I will have a hard time. So let's at least get these guys blocked from this possibility and adopt a civilized law eliminating the possibility of psychiatric repression!"[160] At a meeting held by the Health Committee of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR in the autumn of 1991, the Law was approved, particularly in the speeches by the four members of the WPA commission, but this event was followed by the dissolution of the Soviet Union.[159]
In 1992, a new commission was created under the Supreme Soviet of the Russian Federation and used a new concept of developing the Law; a quarter of the commission members were the representatives of the IPA.[159] The Law has been put in force since 1 January 1993.[159] Adoption of the Law On Psychiatric Care and Guarantees of Citizens' Rights during Its Provision is regarded as an epoch-making event in the history of domestic psychiatry, as establishing the legal basis for psychiatric care, and, first of all, mediating all involuntary measures through judicial procedure.[159] That is a major post-Soviet achievement of Russian psychiatry and the foundation for a basically new attitude to the mentally ill as persons reserving all their civil and political rights and freedoms.[159] In 1993, when the IPA printed the Law in 50 thousand copies for the general reader, quite a number of heads of the Moscow psychoneurologic dispensaries refused to circulate the Law. Over time, these difficulties were overcome. It became obligatory to know the Law to pass the certification exam.[159]
However, article 38, which was once included in the Law as a guarantee of keeping the whole Law for patients of psychiatric hospitals, is still not working, and, as a result, the service independent of health authorities to defend rights of patients in psychiatric hospitals is still not created.[161]
Over five years, from 1998 to 2003, the Serbsky Center made three attempts to submit for the Duma readings of amendments and additions to the Law, but the IPA and general public managed to successfully challenge these amendments, and they were finally tabled.[162] In 2004, proponents of mental health reform could hardly prevent the effort by the doctors of the Serbsky Institute for Social and Forensic Psychiatry to roll back some reforms in Russia's landmark 1992 law on mental health.[163] In 2004, Pavel Tishchenko said that government, with fright in a sense, copied many provisions of Western standards concerning the patients' rights into Russian legislation and included the right to get information, the right to choose a doctor in Fundamentals of Health Legislation.[164] After the embarrassment of the 1990s, when Russian Constitution and many laws have been invested—mainly from abroad—with very good principles that protect the rights of individual citizens, including patients, now a reversal is underway.[164]
In Andrei Kovalyov's words, the main thing is that sufficient success was achieved in stopping the psychiatric oprichnina by political and legislative means during perestroika.[6] Can it be reborn?[6] Certainly.[6] Those who consider themselves "statists" (that is those for whom the state is everything and a person is nothing), at least, would not surely object to this.[6] It took years of intense struggle to eliminate punitive psychiatry.[6] For its rebirth, it is enough to have not even evil will (which though cannot be ruled out, especially on the part of those who would improve their positions in society and get more power in that way) but a simple thoughtlessness, error, blunder.[6]
Political abuse of psychiatry in the Soviet Union
The Protest Psychosis: How Schizophrenia Became a Black Disease
^ BMA 1992, p. 66; Bonnie 2002; Finckenauer 1995, p. 52; Gershman 1984; Helmchen & Sartorius 2010, p. 490; Knapp 2007, p. 406; Kutchins & Kirk 1997, p. 293; Lisle 2010, p. 47; Merskey 1978; Society for International Development 1984, p. 19; US GPO (1972, 1975, 1976, 1984, 1988); Voren (2002, 2010a, 2013a)
^ Bloch & Reddaway 1977, p. 425; UPA Herald 2013
^ Kondratev 2010, p. 181.
^ Korolenko & Dmitrieva 2000, p. 17.
^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u Kovalyov 2007.
^ US Delegation Report 1989, p. 26; US Delegation Report (Russian translation) 2009, p. 93
^ a b Ougrin, Gluzman & Dratcu 2006.
^ Chodoff 1985.
^ Pospielovsky 1988, pp. 36, 140, 156, 178–181.
^ Murray 1983.
^ Gluzman (2009a, 2013); Voren 2013a, p. 8; Fedenko 2009; Soviet Archives 1970
^ a b Fernando 2003, p. 160.
^ Healey 2011.
^ a b c d Helmchen & Sartorius 2010, p. 496.
^ a b c Psychiatric News 2010.
^ Berman 1972, p. 11.
^ a b Bloch & Reddaway 1977, p. 281.
^ a b Bukovsky & Gluzman 1975a.
^ Voren 2013a, pp. 16–18; Pietikäinen 2015, p. 280
^ NPZ 2005.
^ Voren 2010a; Helmchen & Sartorius 2010, p. 491
^ Gluzman (2009b, 2010a)
^ Abouelleil & Bingham 2014; Bloch & Reddaway 1985, p. 189; Kadarkay 1982, p. 205; Korotenko & Alikina 2002, p. 260; Laqueur 1980, p. 26; Munro 2002, p. 179; Pietikäinen 2015, p. 280; Rejali 2009, p. 395; Smythies 1973; Voren (2010b, p. 95, 2013b); Working Group on the Internment of Dissenters in Mental Hospitals 1983, p. 1
^ Adler & Gluzman 1993; Amnesty International 1991, pp. 9, 64; Ball & Farr 1984, p. 258; Bebtschuk, Smirnova & Khayretdinov 2012; Brintlinger & Vinitsky 2007, pp. 292, 293, 294; Dmitrieva 2001, pp. 84, 108; Faraone 1982; Fedor 2011, p. 177; Ghodse 2011, p. 422; Grigorenko, Ruzgis & Sternberg 1997, p. 72; Gushansky 2005, p. 35; Horvath 2014; Joffe 1984; Kekelidze 2013; Khvorostianov & Elias 2015; Korotenko & Alikina 2002, pp. 7, 47, 60, 67, 77, 259, 291; Koryagin (1988, 1989); Kovalyov 2007; Leontev 2010; Magalif 2010; Podrabinek 1980, pp. 10, 57, 136; Pukhovsky 2001, pp. 243, 252; Savenko (2005a, 2005b); Schmidt & Shchurko 2014; Szasz (2004, 2006); US Delegation Report 1989, p. 48; Vitaliev 1991, p. 148; Voren & Bloch 1989, pp. 92, 95, 98; West & Green 1997, p. 226; Zile 1985
^ Podrabinek 1980, p. 63.
^ a b Savenko 2005a.
^ Bonnie 2002; US GPO 1984, p. 5; Faraone 1982
^ West & Green 1997, p. 226; Alexéyeff 1976; US GPO 1984, p. 101
^ Matvejević 2004, p. 32.
^ Hunt 1998, p. xii.
^ Birstein 2004.
^ Metzl 2010, p. 14.
^ Brintlinger & Vinitsky 2007, p. 292.
^ Knapp 2007, p. 402.
^ Helmchen & Sartorius 2010, p. 495.
^ Vasilenko 2004, p. 29; Chernosvitov 2002, p. 50
^ Keukens & Voren 2007.
^ a b c d Grigorenko, Ruzgis & Sternberg 1997, p. 72.
^ Bukovsky 1971; Reddaway (1971a, 1971b); Richter 1971; Bloch & Reddaway 1977, pp. 80–81; see the Russian text of the letter in: Artyomova, Rar & Slavinsky 1971, p. 470
^ Reddaway 1978.
^ Savenko 2010.
^ Watch from 07.47 Boltyanskaya 2014
^ Gluzman 2010b; De Boer, Driessen & Verhaar 1982, p. 180; Schroeter 1979, p. 324
^ BMA 1992, p. 73; Bloch & Reddaway 1977, p. 235; Psychiatrist 1981
^ Schroeter 1979, p. 324.
^ a b Sabshin 2008, p. 95.
^ BMA 1992, p. 73.
^ a b c d e f g h Helmchen & Sartorius 2010, p. 497.
^ a b c Spector & Kitsuse 2001, p. 101.
^ Richter 1971.
^ a b c d e f Spector & Kitsuse 2001, p. 103.
^ a b c d e f Reich 1983.
^ a b c Voren 2009, p. 61.
^ Berman 1972, p. 11; Bukovsky & Reddaway 1972
^ Bukovsky (1981, p. 32, 2008, p. 35)
^ a b BMJ 1973.
^ AAASS 1973, p. 5.
^ Trehub 2013.
^ a b c New Scientist 1976.
^ Bukovsky & Gluzman 1975c.
^ Bukovsky and Gluzman (1975a, 1975d, 1975e)
^ Boukovsky & Glouzmann 1975.
^ Bukovskij, Gluzman & Leva 1979.
^ Bukowski & Gluzman 1976.
^ Bukovskiĭ & Gluzman 1975b.
^ Laird & Hoffmann 1986, p. 79.
^ Voren 2009, p. 7.
^ Shlapentokh 1990, p. 194.
^ a b c d e f g Voren 2010b, p. 150.
^ Bloch & Reddaway 1977, p. 328.
^ a b Calloway 1993, p. 223.
^ Besse 2006.
^ a b Voren 2010b, p. 194.
^ a b c d e f Voren 2010b, p. 195.
^ a b c d e f g h i j k Voren 2010b, p. 196.
^ WPA (1977, 1978a, 1978b). The Declaration with minor amendments approved in 1983 was also published in: Bloch & Reddaway 1985, pp. 233–239
^ Helmchen 1978.
^ a b c d e f g h i Voren 2010b, p. 197.
^ Szasz (1978, 1984, p. 222)
^ a b Merskey 1978.
^ Merskey 1978; US GPO (1982, p. 10, 1984, p. 71); Amnesty International 1983, p. 1; Bloch & Reddaway 1985, p. 47; Yale Journal 1985, p. 354
^ New Scientist 1977.
^ a b Burns 1981.
^ a b US GPO 1984, p. 76.
^ a b Gosden (1997, 2001, p. 23)
^ Perlin 2006.
^ Alexander 1997.
^ Kelly 2015.
^ a b Bloch 1980.
^ Voren 2010b, p. 199.
^ a b c d Kastrup 2002.
^ Americas Watch 1984, p. 67.
^ a b New Scientist 1978.
^ Luty 2014.
^ Scarnati 1980.
^ Bernstein 1980.
^ Brintlinger & Vinitsky 2007, p. 15.
^ a b BMA 1992, p. 153.
^ a b Voren & Bloch 1989, p. 26; Voren 2010b, p. 150
^ Psychiatrist 1980.
^ Moran 2010.
^ Voren 2009, p. 245.
^ a b Levine 1981.
^ Wynn 1983.
^ US GPO 1984, p. 45.
^ US GPO 1984, p. 16; Bloch & Reddaway 1985, p. 185; HRIR 1982, p. 381
^ Khronika Press 1982, p. 62.
^ a b c d Voren 2010b, p. 211.
^ Roth 1992.
^ Voren 2010b, p. 211; US GPO 1984, p. 17; Bloch & Reddaway 1985, p. 218
^ Voren 2010b, p. 211; Bloch & Reddaway 1985, p. 218; Freedman & Halpern 1989
^ Johnston 2005, p. 9.
^ a b Voren 2010b, p. 318; Fitzpatrick 1988, p. 3
^ a b c d Voren 2015.
^ Gushansky 2005, p. 35.
^ Voren 2010b, p. 322; Voevoda, Chugunova & Krivtsov 1989, p. 24
^ Ougrin, Gluzman & Dratcu 2006; Zharikov & Kiselev 1990, pp. 70–74
^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Bloch 1990.
^ Bonnie 2002; Merriam-Webster 2013
^ Bonnie 2002.
^ a b c Voren 2010b, p. 373.
^ a b c d BMA 1992, p. 69.
^ a b c BMA 1992, p. 70.
^ a b Voren 2009, p. 125.
^ Psychiatric Practices in the Soviet Union 1989.
^ Voren 2010b, p. 385; BMA 1992, p. 69; US Delegation Report 1989
^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Gluzman 2011.
^ US Delegation Report (Russian translation) 2009.
^ a b Neprikosnovennyj zapas 2001.
^ a b Appleby 1987.
^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z aa ab ac Voren 2013b.
^ Munro (2000, 2002, p. 32)
^ a b c d e Voren 2010b, p. 437.
^ Voren 2010b, p. 437; Human Rights Watch 1952–2003
^ Weich 1991.
^ WPA 1991.
^ BMA 1992, p. 72; WPA 1991, p. 11
^ Voren 2010b, p. 454; WPA 1991, p. 10
^ a b c d e f g h Savenko 2007a.
^ a b Gluzman (2012, 2013)
^ NPZ 2009, pp. 85–86.
^ Savenko 2007b, pp. 75–77; Vinogradova & Savenko 2006
^ Murphy 2006.
^ a b NPZ 2004.
Archival sources[edit]
Soviet Archives, collected by Vladimir Bukovsky. [http://www.bukovsky-archives.net/pdfs/psychiat/psy70-5.pdf Выписка из протокола № 151 заседания Политбюро ЦК КПСС от 22 января 1970 года [The extract from the minutes No. 151 of the meeting of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union of 22 January 1970]]; 22 January 1970 [Retrieved 6 March 2014]. Russian.
Human Rights Watch Records, Record Group 7: Helsinki Watch, 1952-2003 (Bulk, 1978-1994) HR# 0002. [archived 12 March 2012].
Government publications and official reports[edit]
Abuse of psychiatry for political repression in the Soviet Union: Hearing, Ninety-second Congress, second session, Part 1. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office; 1972.
Abuse of psychiatry for political repression in the Soviet Union: Hearing, Ninety-second Congress, second session, Volume 2. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office; 1975.
Abuse of psychiatry in the Soviet Union: hearing before the Subcommittee on Human Rights and International Organizations of the Committee on Foreign Affairs and the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe, House of Representatives, Ninety-eighth Congress, first session, September 20, 1983. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office; 1984.
Americas Watch. Human Rights Watch. Americas Watch; 1984. p. 67.
Amnesty International. Political abuse of psychiatry in the USSR. Amnesty International; 1983. p. 1.
Amnesty International French Medical Commission and Valérie Marange. Doctors and torture: resistance or collaboration?. Bellew Pub; 1991. ISBN 0947792562.
British Medical Association. Medicine betrayed: the participation of doctors in human rights abuses. Zed Books; 1992. ISBN 1-85649-104-8.
Fitzpatrick, Catherine. Soviet abuse of psychiatry for political purposes: A Helsinki Watch report. U.S. Helsinki Watch Committee; 1988. p. 3.
International Association on the Political Use of Psychiatry, Working Group on the Internment of Dissenters in Mental Hospitals. Soviet Political Psychiatry: The Story of the Opposition. London: International Association on the Political Use of Psychiatry, Working Group on the Internment of Dissenters in Mental Hospitals; 1983.
Psychiatric abuse of political prisoners in the Soviet Union: testimony by Leonid Plyushch: hearing before the Subcommittee on International Organizations of the Committee on International Relations, House of Representatives, Ninety-fourth Congress, second session, March 30, 1976. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office; 1976.
Reform and human rights: the Gorbachev record. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office; 1988.
Review of the 37th session and upcoming 38th session of the U.N. Commission on Human Rights: hearing before the Subcommittee on Human Rights and International Organizations of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, House of Representatives, ninety-seventh congress, first session, November 16, 1981. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office; 1982.
Royal College of Psychiatrists, World Psychiatric Association. Report by the World Psychiatric Association Team of the Visit to the Soviet Union (9–29 June 1991). London: Royal College of Psychiatrists; 1991.
Society for International Development. Development: Seeds of change, village through global order. Society for International Development; 1984. p. 19.
U.S. Department of State, Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe. Report of the U.S. Delegation to Assess Recent Changes in Soviet Psychiatry. Schizophrenia Bulletin. 1989 [Retrieved 5 February 2011];15(4 Suppl):1–79. doi:10.1093/schbul/15.suppl_1.1. PMID 2638045.
Global Initiative on Psychiatry. Report of the U.S. Delegation to Assess Recent Changes in Soviet Psychiatry (Russian translation); 2009 [archived 7 April 2014; Retrieved 5 February 2011]. Russian.
Books[edit]
Artyomova, A.; Slavinsky, M.; Rar, L. [А. Артёмова, М. Славинский, Л. Рар]. Казнимые сумасшествием: Сборник документальных материалов о психиатрических преследованиях инакомыслящих в СССР [The executed by madness: a collection of documentary materials about psychiatric persecutions of dissenters in the USSR]. Frankfurt am Main: Посев [Seeding]; 1971. Russian.
Ball, Terence; Farr, James. After Marx. CUP Archive; 1984. ISBN 0-521-27661-6.
Berman, Harold. Soviet Criminal Law and Procedure: The RSFSR Codes. Harvard University Press; 1972. ISBN 0-674-82636-1.
Besse, Antoine. La psychiatrie française et sa représentation internationale [French psychiatry and its international image]. In: Bokobza, Hervé (ed.). La psychiatrie en péril. En dépit des Etats généraux [Psychiatry in peril. Despite its general condition]. ERES; 2006. French. ISBN 9782749206738. p. 187–191.
Birstein, Vadim. The perversion of knowledge: the true story of the Soviet science. Westview Press; 2004. ISBN 0-8133-4280-5.
Bloch, Sidney; Reddaway, Peter. Russia's political hospitals: The abuse of psychiatry in the Soviet Union. Victor Gollancz Ltd; 1977. ISBN 0-575-02318-X.
Bloch, Sidney; Reddaway, Peter. Soviet psychiatric abuse: the shadow over world psychiatry. Westview Press; 1985. ISBN 0-8133-0209-9.
Bonnie, Richard. Political Abuse of Psychiatry in the Soviet Union and in China: Complexities and Controversies. Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law. 2002 [Retrieved 24 February 2011];30(1):136–44. PMID 11931362.
Brintlinger, Angela; Vinitsky, Ilya. Madness and the mad in Russian culture. University of Toronto Press; 2007. ISBN 0-8020-9140-7.
Bukovsky, Vladimir [Владимир Буковский]. Письма русского путешественника [Letters of a Russian traveler]. Moscow & St Petersburg: Нестор-История [Nestor-History]; 2008. Russian. p. 35.
Bukovsky, Vladimir [Владимир Буковский]. Письма русского путешественника [Letters of a Russian traveler]. New York: Chalidze publications; 1981. Russian. p. 32.
Bukovsky, Vladimir; Gluzman, Semyon. A manual of psychiatry for political dissidents. London: Amnesty International; 1975a. OCLC 872337790.
Bukovskiĭ, Vladimir; Gluzman, Semyon. Håndbog i psykiatri for afvigere. Göteborg: Samarbetsdynamik AB; 1975b. Danish. ISBN 9185396001. OCLC 7551381.
Bukovskij, Vladimir; Gluzman, Semen; Leva, Marco. Guida psichiatrica per dissidenti. Con esempi pratici e una lettera dal Gulag. Milan: L'erba voglio; 1979. Italian.
Calloway, Paul. Russian/Soviet and Western psychiatry: a contemporary comparative study. Wiley; 1993. ISBN 0-471-59574-8.
Chernosvitov, Evgeny [Евгений Черносвитов]. Социальная медицина: Учебное пособие для вузов [Social medicine: a manual for higher schools]. Moscow: Юнити-Дана [Unity-Dana]; 2002. Russian. ISBN 5238003447.
De Boer, S.P.; Driessen, E.J.; Verhaar, H.L.. Biographical dictionary of dissidents in the Soviet Union, 1956–1975. BRILL; 1982. ISBN 90-247-2538-0.
Dmitrieva, Tatyana [Татьяна Дмитриева]. Альянс права и милосердия: о проблеме защиты прав человека в психиатрии [The alliance of law and mercy: on the issue of human rights protection in psychiatry]. Mоscow: Nauka; 2001. Russian. ISBN 5020226645.
Fedor, Julie. Russia and the Cult of State Security: The Chekist Tradition, From Lenin to Putin. Routledge; 2011. ISBN 1136671862.
Fernando, Suman. Cultural diversity, mental health and psychiatry: The struggle against racism. Psychology Press; 2003. ISBN 1583912533.
Finckenauer, James. Russian youth: law, deviance, and the pursuit of freedom. Transaction Publishers; 1995. ISBN 1-56000-206-9.
Ghodse, Hamid. International Perspectives on Mental Health. RC Psych Publications; 2011. ISBN 1908020008.
Gosden, Richard. Punishing the Patient: How Psychiatrists Misunderstand and Mistreat Schizophrenia. Melbourne: Scribe Publications; 2001. ISBN 0-908011-52-0.
Grigorenko, Elena; Ruzgis, Patricia; Sternberg, Robert. Psychology of Russia: past, present, future. Nova Publishers; 1997. ISBN 1-56072-389-0.
Helmchen, Hanfried; Sartorius, Norman. Ethics in Psychiatry: European Contributions. Springer; 2010. ISBN 90-481-8720-6.
Hunt, Kathleen. Abandoned to the state: cruelty and neglect in Russian orphanages. Human Rights Watch; 1998. ISBN 1-56432-191-6.
Johnston, Michael. Civil society and corruption: mobilizing for reform. University Press of America; 2005. ISBN 0-7618-3125-8.
Kadarkay, Árpád. Human rights in American and Russian political thought. University Press of America; 1982.
Knapp, Martin. Mental health policy and practice across Europe: the future direction of mental health care. McGraw-Hill International; 2007. ISBN 0-335-21467-3.
Kondratev, Fedor [Фёдор Кондратьев]. Судьбы больных шизофренией: клинико-социальный и судебно-психиатрический аспекты [The fates of the ill with schizophrenia: clinico-social and forensico-psychiatric aspects]. Moscow: ЗАО Юстицинформ [Closed joint-stock company Justitsinform]; 2010. Russian. The ISBN printed in the document (978-5-9977-0014-9) is invalid, causing a checksum error.
Korolenko, Caesar; Dmitrieva, Nina [Цезарь Короленко, Нина Дмитриева]. Социодинамическая психиатрия [Sociodynamic Psychiatry]. Moscow: Академический проект [Academic Project]; 2000. Russian. ISBN 5829100150.
Korotenko, Ada; Alikina, Natalia [Ада Коротенко, Наталия Аликина]. Советская психиатрия: Заблуждения и умысел [Soviet psychiatry: fallacies and wilfulness]. Kiev: Издательство «Сфера» [Publishing house "Sphere"]; 2002. Russian. ISBN 966-7841-36-7.
Kutchins, Herb; Kirk, Stuart. Making us crazy. DSM: the psychiatric bible and the creation of mental disorders. Free Press; 1997. ISBN 0-684-82280-6.
Laird, Robbin; Hoffmann, Erik. Soviet foreign policy in a changing world. Transaction Publishers; 1986. ISBN 0-202-24166-1.
Laqueur, Walter. The Political Psychology of Appeasement: Finlandization and Other Unpopular Essays. Transaction Publishers; 1980. ISBN 1412838320.
Lisle, Angela. Reflexive Practice. Xlibris[self-published source] Corporation; 2010. ISBN 1-4500-9197-0.
Matvejević, Predrag. Between exile and asylum: an eastern epistolary. Central European University Press; 2004. ISBN 963-9241-85-7.
Metzl, Jonathan. The Protest Psychosis: How Schizophrenia Became a Black Disease. Beacon Press; 2010. ISBN 0-8070-8592-8.
Munro, Robin. Dangerous minds: political psychiatry in China today and its origins in the Mao era. Human Rights Watch; 2002. ISBN 1-56432-278-5.
Pietikäinen, Petteri. Madness: A History. Routledge; 2015. ISBN 1317484444.
Podrabinek, Alexandr. Punitive medicine. Karoma Publishers; 1980. ISBN 0-89720-022-5.
Pospielovsky, Dimitry. Soviet Anti-Religious Campaigns and Persecutions: Vol. 2 of A History of Soviet Atheism in Theory and Practice, and the Believer. New York: St Martin's Press; 1988. ISBN 0312009054.
Pukhovsky, Nikolai [Николай Пуховский]. Очерки общей психопатологии шизофрении [Essays on the general psychopathology of schizophrenia]. Moscow: Академический проект [Academic Project]; 2001. Russian. ISBN 5-8291-0154-8.
Rejali, Darius. Torture and Democracy. Princeton: Princeton University Press; 2009. ISBN 0-691-14333-1.
Sabshin, Melvin. Changing American psychiatry: a personal perspective. American Psychiatric Pub; 2008. ISBN 1-58562-307-5.
Schroeter, Leonard. The last exodus. University of Washington Press; 1979. ISBN 0-295-95685-2.
Shlapentokh, Vladimir. Soviet intellectuals and political power: the post-Stalin era. I.B.Tauris; 1990. ISBN 1-85043-284-8.
Szasz, Thomas. The therapeutic state: Psychiatry in the mirror of current events. Prometheus Books; 1984. ISBN 0-87975-239-4.
Spector, Malcolm; Kitsuse, John. Constructing social problems. Transaction Publishers; 2001. ISBN 0-7658-0716-5.
Voren, Robert van. Psychiatry as a tool of coercion in post-Soviet countries. The European Parliament; 2013a. doi:10.2861/28281. ISBN 978-92-823-4595-5. Russian text: Voren, Robert van [Роберт ван Ворен]. Психиатрия как средство репрессий в советских и постсоветских странах [Psychiatry as a tool of coercion in post-Soviet countries]. Вестник Ассоциации психиатров Украины [The Herald of the Ukrainian Psychiatric Association]. 2013;(5). Russian.
Voren, Robert van. Cold war in psychiatry: human factors, secret actors. Amsterdam & New York: Rodopi Publishers; 2010b. ISBN 90-420-3048-8.
Voren, Robert van. On dissidents and madness: From the Soviet Union of Leonid Brezhnev to the "Soviet Union" of Vladimir Putin. Amsterdam & New York: Rodopi Publishers; 2009. ISBN 978-90-420-2585-1.
Voren, Robert van; Bloch, Sidney. Soviet psychiatric abuse in the Gorbachev era. International Association on the Political Use of Psychiatry; 1989. ISBN 90-72657-01-2.
Vasilenko, N.Y. [Н.Ю. Василенко]. Основы социальной медицины [Fundamentals of social medicine]. Vladivostok: Издательство Дальневосточного университета [Publishing house of Far Eastern Federal University]; 2004. Russian.
Vitaliev, Vitali. Dateline freedom. Hutchinson; 1991. ISBN 0-09-174677-9.
West, Donald; Green, Richard. Sociolegal control of homosexuality: a multi-nation comparison. Springer; 1997. ISBN 0-306-45532-3.
Journal articles and book chapters[edit]
15 лет Независимому психиатрическому журналу [15th anniversary of the Independent Psychiatric Journal]. Nezavisimiy Psikhiatricheskiy Zhurnal [The Independent Psychiatric Journal]. 2005 [Retrieved 24 July 2011];(4). Russian.
17 лет неисполнения закона — цена доверия к власти и киргизский опыт [17 years of failure of the law — the price of trust in the government and the Kyrgyz experience]. Nezavisimiy Psikhiatricheskiy Zhurnal [The Independent Psychiatric Journal]. 2009 [Retrieved 25 July 2011];(1):85–86.
[1]. A Chronicle of Human Rights in the USSR. 1982;(45–48):62.
A new campaign against the political mind-benders. New Scientist. 1 July 1976 [Retrieved 4 January 2011];71(1007):4.
Abuse of Psychiatry. British Medical Journal. 8 September 1973;3(5879):509–510. doi:10.1136/bmj.3.5879.509. PMID 4741600.
Autumn Quarterly Meeting 1978. The Psychiatrist. January 1979;3(1):5–7. doi:10.1192/pb.3.1.5.
Declaration of Hawaii: Declaration adopted unanimously by the General Assembly of the World Psychiatric Association at the Sixth World Congress of Psychiatry, 1977. British Medical Journal. 5 November 1977;2(6096):1204–1205. doi:10.1136/bmj.2.6096.1204. PMID 589089.
Declaration of Hawaii. Journal of Medical Ethics. June 1978a;4(2):71–73. doi:10.1136/jme.4.2.71. PMID 671474.
Dr Alexander Voloshanovich: A Critic of the Political Misuse of Psychiatry in the USSR. The Psychiatrist. May 1980;4(5):70–71. doi:10.1192/pb.4.5.70.
News Items: Dr Semyon Gluzman. The Psychiatrist. February 1981;5(2):36. doi:10.1192/pb.5.2.36.
Psychiatric Official Denies Forcible Commitment of Dissidents. The Current Digest of the Soviet Press. 1973 [Retrieved 27 December 2012];25(32).
Цитатник номера [Quote set of the issue]. Вестник Ассоциации психиатров Украины [The Herald of the Ukrainian Psychiatric Association]. 2013;(5). Russian.
Soviets finally condemned for psychiatric malpractices… will South Africa be next?. New Scientist. 8 September 1977 [Retrieved 4 January 2011];75(1068):571. PMID 11663782.
Soviets Left WPA Under Expulsion Threat. Psychiatric News. 19 November 2010;45(22):11. doi:10.1176/pn.45.22.psychnews_45_22_024.
Soviet psychiatry. The Yale Journal of International Law. Fall 1985;11(1):354.
Swiss and American Psychiatric Associations vote to suspend USSR. Human Rights Internet Reporter. 1982;8:381.
Выступления П.Д. Тищенко, Б.Г. Юдина, А.И. Антонова, А.Г. Гофмана, В.Н. Краснова, Б.А. Воскресенского [Speeches by P.D. Tishchenko, B.G. Yudin, A.I. Antonov, A.G. Gofman, V.N. Krasnov, B.A. Voskresensky]. Nezavisimiy Psikhiatricheskiy Zhurnal [The Independent Psychiatric Journal]. 2004 [Retrieved 14 January 2012];(2). Russian.
Независимая психиатрическая ассоциация России [The Independent Psychiatric Association of Russia]. Неприкосновенный запас [Emergency Ration]. 2001 [Retrieved 18 July 2011];5(19). Russian.
The spread of Soviet suppression. New Scientist. 25 May 1978 [Retrieved 5 January 2011];78(1104):493.
World Psychiatric Association: The Declaration of Hawaii. The Psychiatrist. January 1978b;2(1):12–13. doi:10.1192/pb.2.1.12.
Abouelleil, Mohammed; Bingham, Rachel. Can psychiatry distinguish social deviance from mental disorder?. Philosophy, Psychiatry, & Psychology. September 2014;21(3):243–255. doi:10.1353/ppp.2014.0043.
Adler, Nancy; Gluzman, Semyon. Soviet special psychiatric hospitals. Where the system was criminal and the inmates were sane. The British Journal of Psychiatry. December 1993;163(6):713–720. doi:10.1192/bjp.163.6.713. PMID 8306112.
Alexander, George. International Human Rights Protection Against Psychiatric Political Abuses. Santa Clara Law Review. 1997 [archived 2 February 2014];37(2):387–426.
Alexéyeff, Sergei. Abuse of psychiatry as a tool for political repression in the Soviet Union. The Medical Journal of Australia. 31 January 1976;1(5):122–123. PMID 1263959.
Appleby, Louis. Anatoly Koryagin: what next on Soviet psychiatric abuse?. British Medical Journal. 7 November 1987;295(6607):1164. doi:10.1136/bmj.295.6607.1164. PMID 3120927.
Bebtschuk, Marina; Smirnova, Daria; Khayretdinov, Oleg. Family and family therapy in Russia. International Review of Psychiatry. April 2012;24(2):121–127. doi:10.3109/09540261.2012.656305. PMID 22515460.
Bernstein, Norman. Punitive Medicine. The Journal of the American Medical Association. 21 November 1980;244(20):2354. doi:10.1001/jama.1980.03310200078038.
Bloch, Sidney. The political misuse of Soviet psychiatry: Honolulu and beyond. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry. June 1980 [Retrieved 19 February 2013];14(2):109–114. doi:10.3109/00048678009159364. PMID 6107077.[permanent dead link]
Bloch, Sidney. Athens and beyond: Soviet psychiatric abuse and the World Psychiatric Association. The Psychiatrist. March 1990;14(3):129–133. doi:10.1192/pb.14.3.129.
Bukovsky, Vladimir. Bukovsky appeals to Western psychiatrists. Intercontinental Press. 1971;9:392.
Bukovsky, Vladimir; Gluzman, Semyon [Владимир Буковский, Семён Глузман]. Пособие по психиатрии для инакомыслящих [A manual on psychiatry for dissidents]. Хроника защиты прав в СССР [Chronicle of defense of rights in the USSR]. January–February 1975c;(13):36–61. Russian.
Bukovsky, Vladimir; Gluzman, Semyon. A manual on psychiatry for dissidents. Survey: A Journal of East and West Studies. Winter–Spring 1975d;21(1):180–199.
Bukovsky, Vladimir; Gluzman, Semyon. A dissident’s guide to psychiatry. A Chronicle of Human Rights in the USSR. 1975e;(13):31–57.
Boukovsky, Vladimir; Glouzmann, Semion. Guide de psychiatrie pour les dissidents soviétiques: dédié à Lonia Pliouchtch, victime de la terreur psychiatrique. Esprit. September 1975;449(9):307–332. French.
Bukowski, Wladimir; Gluzman, Semen. Psychiatrie-handbuch für dissidenten. Samisdat. Stimmen aus dem „anderen Rußland". 1976;(Nr. 8):29–48. German.
Bukovsky, Vladimir; Reddaway, Peter. A Letter from Vladimir Bukovsky. The New York Review of Books. 9 March 1972.
Chodoff, Paul. Ethical conflicts in psychiatry: the Soviet Union vs. the U.S.. Hospital and Community Psychiatry. September 1985;36(9):925–928. doi:10.1176/ps.36.9.925. PMID 4065851.
Faraone, Stephen. Psychiatry and political repression in the Soviet Union. American Psychologist. 1982;37(10):1105–1112. doi:10.1037/0003-066x.37.10.1105. PMID 7149424.
Freedman, Alfred; Halpern, Abraham. Soviet Psychiatry: An Exchange. The New York Review of Books. 21 December 1989.
Gershman, Carl. Psychiatric abuse in the Soviet Union. Society. 1984;21(5):54–59. doi:10.1007/BF02695434. PMID 11615169.
Gluzman, Semyon [Семён Глузман]. Это было в Афинах… [It was in Athens…]. Новости медицины и фармации [Medicine and Pharmacy News]. 2011;(383). Russian.
Gluzman, Semyon [Семён Глузман]. Как я писал закон для СССР [How I wrote the Law for the USSR]. Вестник Ассоциации психиатров Украины [The Herald of the Ukrainian Psychiatric Association]. 2012;(1). Russian.
Gluzman, Semyon [Семён Глузман]. История психиатрических репрессий [The history of psychiatric repression]. Вестник Ассоциации психиатров Украины [The Herald of the Ukrainian Psychiatric Association]. 2013;(2). Russian.
Gluzman, Semyon [Семён Глузман]. Украинское лицо судебной психиатрии [The Ukrainian face of forensic psychiatry]. Новости медицины и фармации [Medicine and Pharmacy News]. 2009a;15(289). Russian.
Gluzman, Semyon [Семён Глузман]. Этиология психиатрических злоупотреблений: попытка мультидисциплинарного анализа [The etiology of psychiatric abuses: an attempt at multidisciplinary analysis]. Новости медицины и фармации [Medicine and Pharmacy News]. 2009b [Retrieved 2 January 2013];20(300):18–19. Russian.
Gluzman, Semyon [Семён Глузман]. Этиология злоупотреблений в психиатрии: попытка мультидисциплинарного анализа [The etiology of abuses in psychiatry: an attempt at multidisciplinary analysis]. Нейроnews: Психоневрология и нейропсихиатрия [Neuronews: Psychoneurology and Neuropsychiatry]. January 2010;1(20). Russian.
Gluzman, Semyon [Семён Глузман]. Расширенная судебно-психиатрическая заочная экспертиза по делу Григоренко Петра Григорьевича, 1907 г.р., украинца, жителя г. Москвы (восстановлено на основании копии Самиздата) [A comprehensive in absentia psychiatric opinion on the case of Grigorenko Pyotr Grigoryevich, b. 1907, an Ukrainian, Moscow resident (restored on the basis of a Samizdat copy)]. 2010b [Retrieved 21 June 2011]. Russian.
Gosden, Richard. Shrinking the Freedom of Thought: How Involuntary Psychiatric Treatment Violates Basic Human Rights. Monitors: Journal of Human Rights and Technology. February 1997;1(1).
Gushansky, Emmanuil [Эммауил Гушанский]. Предисловие к книге Анатолия Прокопенко «Безумная психиатрия» [Preface to the book by Anatoly Prokopenko Mad Psychiatry]. In: Taras, Anatoly [Анатолий Tapac] (ed.). Карательная психиатрия [Punitive psychiatry]. Moscow & Minsk: АСТ, Харвест [AST, Harvest]; 2005. Russian. ISBN 5170301723. p. 35.
Healey, Dan. Book Review: Robert van Voren, Cold War in Psychiatry. History of Psychiatry. June 2011;22(2):246–247. doi:10.1177/0957154X110220020802.
Helmchen, Hanfried. Declaration of Hawaii. Journal of Medical Ethics. December 1978;4(4):217–218. doi:10.1136/jme.4.4.217-b. PMID 33270.
Horvath, Robert. Breaking the Totalitarian Ice: The Initiative Group for the Defense of Human Rights in the USSR. Human Rights Quarterly. February 2014;36(1):147–175. doi:10.1353/hrq.2014.0013.
Joffe, Olimpiad. Perspectives on Soviet Law for the 1980s. American Journal of International Law. July 1984;78(3):728–732.
Kastrup, Marianne. The work of the WPA Committee to Review the Abuse of Psychiatry. World Psychiatry. June 2002;1(2):126–127. PMID 16946875.
Kelly, Brendan. Human rights in psychiatric practice: an overview for clinicians. Advances in Psychiatric Treatment. January 2015;21(1):54–62. doi:10.1192/apt.bp.114.013409.
Keukens, Rob; Voren, Robert van. Coercion in psychiatry: still an instrument of political misuse?. BMC Psychiatry. 2007;7(Suppl 1):S4. doi:10.1186/1471-244X-7-S1-S4.
Khvorostianov, Natalia; Elias, Nelly. 'Leave us alone!': Representation of social work in the Russian immigrant media in Israel. International Social Work. 2015. doi:10.1177/0020872815574131.
Koryagin, Anatoly. World psychiatry: readmitting the Soviet Union. The Lancet. 30 June 1988;2(8605):268–269. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(88)92549-4. PMID 11644351.
Koryagin, Anatoly. The involvement of Soviet psychiatry in the persecution of dissenters. The British Journal of Psychiatry. March 1989;154(3):336–340. doi:10.1192/bjp.154.3.336. PMID 2597834.
Kovalyov, Andrei [Андрей Ковалёв]. Взгляд очевидца на предысторию принятия закона о психиатрической помощи [View of the eyewitness to the backstory of the adoption of the Mental Health Law]. Nezavisimiy Psikhiatricheskiy Zhurnal [The Independent Psychiatric Journal]. 2007 [Retrieved 28 February 2014];(№ 3):82–90. Russian.
Leontev, Dmitry [Дмитрий Леонтьев]. Расширить границы нормального [Broadening the boundaries of normality]. Psychologies. 16 April 2010;(47). Russian.
Levine, Sidney. The Special Committee on the Political Abuse of Psychiatry. The Psychiatrist. May 1981;5(5):94–95. doi:10.1192/pb.5.5.94.
Luty, Jason. Psychiatry and the dark side: eugenics, Nazi and Soviet psychiatry. Advances in Psychiatric Treatment. January 2014;20(1):52–60. doi:10.1192/apt.bp.112.010330.
Magalif, Alexandr [Александр Магалиф]. Коготок увяз — всей птичке пропасть [Chickens come home to roost]. Nezavisimiy Psikhiatricheskiy Zhurnal [The Independent Psychiatric Journal]. 2010 [Retrieved 21 April 2011];(1):69–71. Russian.
Merskey, Harold. Political neutrality and international cooperation in medicine. Journal of Medical Ethics. June 1978;4(2):74–77. doi:10.1136/jme.4.2.74. PMID 671475.
Moran, Mark. Former Soviet Dissidents Believed APA Pressure Forced Change. Psychiatric News. 19 November 2010;45(22):11–26. doi:10.1176/pn.45.22.psychnews_45_22_023.
Munro, Robin. The Soviet Case: Prelude to a Global Consensus on Psychiatry and Human Rights. Columbia Journal of Asian Law. 2000;14(1).
Murray, Thomas. Genetic screening in the workplace: ethical issues. Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine. June 1983;25(6):451–454. doi:10.1097/00043764-198306000-00009. PMID 6886846.
Ougrin, Dennis; Gluzman, Semyon; Dratcu, Luiz. Psychiatry in post-communist Ukraine: dismantling the past, paving the way for the future. The Psychiatrist. November 2006;30(12):456–459. doi:10.1192/pb.30.12.456.
Perlin, Michael. International Human Rights and Comparative Mental Health Law: The Role of Institutional Psychiatry and the Suppression of Political Dissent. Israel Law Review. 2006;39:71–97.
Reddaway, Peter. Plea to West on Soviet 'mad-house' jails. Mental Health. 1971a:28.
Reddaway, Peter. KGB Psychiatry. The New York Review of Books. 12 October 1978;25(15):70–71. PMID 11662655.
Richter, Derek. Political Dissenters in Mental Hospitals. The British Journal of Psychiatry. August 1971;119(549):225–226. doi:10.1192/bjp.119.549.225.
Roth, Martin. Kenneth Rawnsley: Obituary. The Psychiatrist. September 1992;16(9):587–589. doi:10.1192/pb.16.9.587.
Savenko, Yuri [Юрий Савенко]. Карательная психиатрия в России (рецензия) [Punitive psychiatry in Russia (review)]. Nezavisimiy Psikhiatricheskiy Zhurnal [The Independent Psychiatric Journal]. 2005a [Retrieved 21 April 2011];(1). Russian.
Savenko, Yuri [Юрий Савенко]. "Институт дураков" Виктора Некипелова [Institute of fools by Viktor Nekipelov]. Nezavisimiy Psikhiatricheskiy Zhurnal [The Independent Psychiatric Journal]. 2005b [Retrieved 21 April 2011];(4). Russian.
Savenko, Yuri [Юрий Савенко]. 15-летие Закона о психиатрической помощи [15th anniversary of the Law on Mental Health Care]. Nezavisimiy Psikhiatricheskiy Zhurnal [The Independent Psychiatric Journal]. 2007a [Retrieved 22 July 2011];(3):9–10. Russian.
Savenko, Yuri [Юрий Савенко]. Дело Ларисы Арап или как можно поместить любого в психиатрическую лечебницу [The case of Larisa Arap, or how one can place any person in a psychiatric hospital]. Nezavisimiy Psikhiatricheskiy Zhurnal [The Independent Psychiatric Journal]. 2007b [Retrieved 14 January 2012];(3):75–77. Russian.
Savenko, Yuri [Юрий Савенко]. Латентные формы антипсихиатрии как главная опасность [Latent forms of anti-psychiatry as a major threat]. Nezavisimiy Psikhiatricheskiy Zhurnal [The Independent Psychiatric Journal]. 2010 [Retrieved 16 December 2012];(4):13–17. Russian.
Scarnati, Rick. The prostitution of forensic psychiatry in the Soviet Union. Bulletin of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law. 1980;8(1):111–113. PMID 7225584.
Schmidt, Victoria; Shchurko, Tatsiana. Children's rights in post-Soviet countries: The case of Russia and Belarus. International Social Work. September 2014;57(5):447–458. doi:10.1177/0020872814537852.
Smythies, John. Psychiatry and the neurosciences. Psychological Medicine. August 1973;3(3):267–269. doi:10.1017/S0033291700049576. PMID 4125732.
Szasz, Thomas. Pharmacracy in America. Society. July/August 2004;41(5):54–58. doi:10.1007/BF02688218.
Szasz, Thomas. Secular humanism and "scientific psychiatry". Philosophy, Ethics, and Humanities in Medicine. 25 April 2006;1(1):E5. doi:10.1186/1747-5341-1-5. PMID 16759353.
Szasz, Thomas. Soviet psychiatry: its supporters in the West. Inquiry. 2 January 1978:4–5.
Voevoda, Vladimir; Chugunova, Nina; Krivtsov, Pavel [Владимир Воевода, Нина Чугунова, Павел Кривцов]. Не боюсь тебя, психиатр! [I do not fear you, psychiatrist!]. Ogoniok [Little Flame]. 15–22 April 1989;(16):24–27. Russian.
Voren, Robert van [Роберт ван Ворен]. От политических злоупотреблений психиатрией к реформе психиатрической службы [From political abuses of psychiatry to the reform of psychiatric service]. Вестник Ассоциации психиатров Украины [The Herald of the Ukrainian Psychiatric Association]. 2013b;(2). Russian.
Voren, Robert van. Comparing Soviet and Chinese Political Psychiatry. The Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law. 2002 [Retrieved 27 February 2011];30(1):131–135. PMID 11931361.
Voren, Robert van. Political Abuse of Psychiatry—An Historical Overview. Schizophrenia Bulletin. January 2010a;36(1):33–35. doi:10.1093/schbul/sbp119. PMID 19892821.
Voren, Robert van. Памяти Леонида Плюща. Человек против карательной психиатрии СССР [In commemoration of Leonid Plyushch. The man is against punitive psychiatry of the USSR]. Новое Время [New Time]. 5 July 2015 [archived 22 July 2015]. Russian.
Vinogradova, Lyubov; Savenko, Yuri [Любовь Виноградова, Юрий Савенко]. Попытка выхолостить очередной демократический закон [An attempt to emasculate another democratic law]. Альманах «Неволя» ["Bondage" Almanac]. 2006 [Retrieved 17 January 2012];(6). Russian.
Weich, Scott. Soviet psychiatry. The Psychiatrist. June 1991;15(6):369–370. doi:10.1192/pb.15.6.369-a.
Wynn, Allan. Imprisonment of Dr Anatoly Koryagin. BMJ. 22 January 1983;286(6361):309. doi:10.1136/bmj.286.6361.309-a. PMID 6402080.
Zharikov, N.M.; Kiselev, A.S. [Н.М. Жариков, А.С. Киселёв]. Психиатрическая помощь в СССР и некоторые её показатели [Mental health care in the Soviety Union and some of its indicators]. Журнал невропатологии и психиатрии им. С.С. Корсакова [The Korsakov Journal of Neuropathology and Psychiatry]. 1990;(90):70–74. Russian.
Zile, Zigurds. Embarrassing in form, promising in substance. Soviet law in theory and practice. Wisconsin Law Review. March/April 1985:349.
Newspapers[edit]
Burns, John. Moscow silencing psychiatry critics. The New York Times. 26 July 1981 [Retrieved 1 January 2011].
Murphy, Kim. Speak Out? Are You Crazy?. Los Angeles Times. 30 May 2006 [Retrieved 7 January 2012].
Reddaway, Peter. Plea to West on Soviet 'mad-house' jails. The Times. 12 March 1971b:8.
Reich, Walter. The world of Soviet psychiatry. The New York Times. 30 January 1983 [Retrieved 12 January 2014]. Russian text: Reich, Walter [Уолтер Рейч]. inoSMI. Мир советской психиатрии [The world of Soviet psychiatry] [archived 2012-02-11; Retrieved 12 January 2014]. Russian.
Trehub, Hanna. Political Madness: Dutch Sovietologist Robert van Voren speaks about Soviet repressive psychiatry and its surviving offshoots. The Ukrainian Week. 22 February 2013 [Retrieved 25 February 2014].
Audio-visual material[edit]
C-SPAN, USA: [TV interview], Psychiatric Practices in the Soviet Union. Guests were members of the delegation which visited Soviet psychiatric facilities and patients in February of 1989 [Retrieved 20 February 2014]; p. duration 01.01.05. English.
Boltyanskaya, Natella [Нателла Болтянская]. Voice of America. Параллели, события, люди: Карательная психиатрия [Parallels, Events, People: Punitive Psychiatry]; 25 April 2014 [Retrieved 10 May 2014]; p. duration 00.15.21 (part 1). Russian.
Websites[edit]
Fedenko, Pavel [Павел Феденко]. The BBC Russian Service. Был бы человек, а диагноз найдется [A diagnosis is quickly found to attribute a person with]; 9 October 2009.
Merriam-Webster. glasnost, n. [Retrieved 28 January 2013].
Kekelidze, Zurab [Зураб Кекелидзе]. Independent Psychiatric Association of Russia. Кому выгоден миф о карательной психиатрии? (Пресс-конференция проф. З.И. Кекелидзе в связи с направлением на принудительное лечение оппозиционера Михаила Косенко) [For whom is the myth of punitive psychiatry profitable? (Press conference of prof. Z.I. Kekelidze in connection with sending oppositionist Mikhail Kosenko to compulsory treatment)]; 22 October 2013 [Retrieved 9 August 2014]. Russian.
Alexeyeva, Ludmilla (1987). Soviet dissent: contemporary movements for national, religious, and human rights. Wesleyan University Press. ISBN 978-0-8195-6176-3.
Alexeyeva, Ludmilla [Людмила Алексеева] (1992). История инакомыслия в СССР: новейший период [History of dissent in the USSR: contemporary period] (in Russian). Vilnius—Moscow: Весть [News]. (The Russian text of the book)
Antébi, Elizabeth (1977). Droit d'asiles en Union Soviétique. Paris: Editions Julliard. ISBN 978-2-260-00065-5.
Bloch, Sidney; Reddaway, Peter (1977). Russia's political hospitals: The abuse of psychiatry in the Soviet Union. Victor Gollancz Ltd. ISBN 978-0-575-02318-5.
Bloch, Sidney; Reddaway, Peter (1985). Soviet psychiatric abuse: the shadow over world psychiatry. Westview Press. ISBN 978-0-8133-0209-6.
Bloch, Sidney; Reddaway, Peter [Сидней Блох, Питер Реддауэй] (1996). "KARTA - Russian Independet Historical and Human Rights Defending Journal N13-14" Диагноз: инакомыслие [Diagnosis: dissent]. Карта: Российский независимый исторический и правозащитный журнал [Karta: Russian Independent Historical and Human Rights Defending Journal] (in Russian) (№13–14): 56–67. Retrieved 1 January 2013. CS1 maint: Multiple names: authors list (link)
Fireside, Harvey (1982). Soviet Psychoprisons. W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 978-0-393-00065-8.
Gluzman, Semyon (1989). On Soviet totalitarian psychiatry. Amsterdam: International Association on the Political Use of Psychiatry. ISBN 978-90-72657-02-2.
Korotenko, Ada; Alikina, Natalia [Ада Коротенко, Наталия Аликина] (2002). Советская психиатрия: Заблуждения и умысел [Soviet psychiatry: fallacies and wilfulness] (in Russian). Kiev: Издательство «Сфера» [Publishing house "Sphere"]. ISBN 978-966-7841-36-2. CS1 maint: Multiple names: authors list (link)
Medvedev, Zhores; Medvedev, Roy (1979). A Question of Madness: Repression by Psychiatry in the Soviet Union. Norton. ISBN 978-0-393-00921-7.
Podrabinek, Alexander (1980). Punitive medicine. Ann Arbor: Karoma Publishers. ISBN 978-0-89720-022-6. Russian text: Podrabinek, Alexander [Александр Подрабинек] (1979). Карательная медицина [Punitive medicine] (PDF) (in Russian). New York: Издательство «Хроника» [Khronika Press]. Archived from the original on 24 March 2014.
Prokopenko, Anatoly [Анатолий Прокопенко] (1997). Безумная психиатрия: секретные материалы о применении в СССР психиатрии в карательных целях [Mad psychiatry: classified materials on the use of psychiatry in the USSR for punitive purposes] (in Russian). Moscow: "Совершенно секретно" ["Top Secret"]. ISBN 978-5-85275-145-4.
Smith, Theresa; Oleszczuk, Thomas (1996). No Asylum: State Psychiatric Repression in the Former U.S.S.R. New York City: New York University Press. ISBN 978-0-8147-8061-9.
Soviet Political Psychiatry: The Story of the Opposition. London: International Association on the Political Use of Psychiatry, Working Group on the Internment of Dissenters in Mental Hospitals. 1983.
Voren, Robert van (2009). On Dissidents and Madness: From the Soviet Union of Leonid Brezhnev to the "Soviet Union" of Vladimir Putin. Amsterdam—New York: Rodopi Publishers. ISBN 978-90-420-2585-1.
ANZUS
Non-Aligned Movement
SEATO
Warsaw Pact
Cold War II
Morgenthau Plan
Hukbalahap Rebellion
Jamaican conflict
Dekemvriana
Percentages agreement
Yalta Conference
Guerrilla war in the Baltic states
Forest Brothers
Operation Priboi
Operation Jungle
Occupation of the Baltic states
Cursed soldiers
Operation Downfall
Potsdam Conference
Gouzenko Affair
Division of Korea
Operation Masterdom
Operation Beleaguer
Operation Blacklist Forty
Iran crisis of 1946
Greek Civil War
Baruch Plan
Corfu Channel incident
Turkish Straits crisis
Restatement of Policy on Germany
First Indochina War
Truman Doctrine
Asian Relations Conference
May 1947 Crises
Marshall Plan
Comecon
1948 Czechoslovak coup d'état
Al-Wathbah uprising
1947–1949 Palestine war
1947–1948 Civil War in Mandatory Palestine
1948 Arab–Israeli War
1948 Palestinian exodus
Tito–Stalin Split
Berlin Blockade
Western betrayal
Eastern Bloc
Western Bloc
Chinese Civil War (Second round)
Albanian Subversion
Papua conflict
Bamboo Curtain
Algerian War
Egyptian Revolution of 1952
1953 Iranian coup d'état
Uprising of 1953 in East Germany
Bricker Amendment
1954 Guatemalan coup d'état
Partition of Vietnam
Jebel Akhdar War
First Taiwan Strait Crisis
Cyprus Emergency
Geneva Summit (1955)
Poznań 1956 protests
Hungarian Revolution of 1956
Yemeni–Adenese clan violence
"We will bury you"
Ifni War
Arab Cold War
Syrian Crisis of 1957
1958 Lebanon crisis
Iraqi 14 July Revolution
Sputnik crisis
Second Taiwan Strait Crisis
1959 Tibetan uprising
1959 Mosul uprising
Cuban Revolution
Kitchen Debate
Sino-Soviet split
Congo Crisis
Simba rebellion
1960 U-2 incident
Bay of Pigs Invasion
1960 Turkish coup d'état
Soviet–Albanian split
Iraqi–Kurdish conflict
First Iraqi–Kurdish War
Berlin Crisis of 1961
Dirty War (Mexico)
Portuguese Colonial War
Angolan War of Independence
Guinea-Bissau War of Independence
Mozambican War of Independence
El Porteñazo
Sino-Indian War
Communist insurgency in Sarawak
Iraqi Ramadan Revolution
Eritrean War of Independence
Sand War
North Yemen Civil War
Aden Emergency
1963 Syrian coup d'état
Assassination of John F. Kennedy
Cyprus crisis of 1963–64
Shifta War
Guatemalan Civil War
Colombian conflict
1964 Brazilian coup d'état
Dominican Civil War
Rhodesian Bush War
South African Border War
Transition to the New Order (Indonesia)
Domino theory
ASEAN Declaration
Laotian Civil War
Argentine Revolution
Korean DMZ Conflict
Greek military junta of 1967–1974
Years of Lead (Italy)
USS Pueblo incident
Dhofar Rebellion
Al-Wadiah War
Biafran War
Protests of 1968
French May
Tlatelolco massacre
1968 Polish political crisis
Communist insurgency in Malaysia
Invasion of Czechoslovakia
Iraqi Ba'athist Revolution
1969 Libyan coup d'état
Goulash Communism
Sino-Soviet border conflict
CPP–NPA–NDF rebellion
Corrective Move
Black September in Jordan
Corrective Movement (Syria)
Western Sahara conflict
Nicaraguan Revolution
Cambodian Civil War
Koza riot
Ping-pong diplomacy
Corrective Revolution (Egypt)
1971 Turkish military memorandum
1971 Sudanese coup d'état
Four Power Agreement on Berlin
Bangladesh Liberation War
1972 Nixon visit to China
North Yemen-South Yemen Border conflict of 1972
Yemenite War of 1972
Communist insurgency in Bangladesh
Eritrean Civil Wars
1973 Uruguayan coup d'état
1973 Chilean coup d'état
1973 oil crisis
Carnation Revolution
Spanish transition
Metapolitefsi
Strategic Arms Limitation Talks
Second Iraqi–Kurdish War
Turkish invasion of Cyprus
Angolan Civil War
Mozambican Civil War
Oromo conflict
Ogaden War
Western Sahara War
Ethiopian Civil War
Sino-Albanian split
Cambodian–Vietnamese War
Dirty War (Argentina)
1976 Argentine coup d'état
Libyan–Egyptian War
Uganda–Tanzania War
German Autumn
Korean Air Lines Flight 902
NDF Rebellion
Chadian–Libyan conflict
Grand Mosque seizure
Iranian Revolution
Saur Revolution
Sino-Vietnamese War
New Jewel Movement
1979 Herat uprising
Seven Days to the River Rhine
Soviet–Afghan War
1980 and 1984 Summer Olympics boycotts
Peruvian conflict
Gulf of Sidra incident
Casamance conflict
Ugandan Bush War
Lord's Resistance Army insurgency
1982 Ethiopian–Somali Border War
Ndogboyosoi War
United States invasion of Grenada
Able Archer 83
Iran–Iraq War
Somali Rebellion
1986 Black Sea incident
South Yemen Civil War
Toyota War
1988 Black Sea bumping incident
Bougainville Civil War
8888 Uprising
Soviet reaction
Central American crisis
People Power Revolution
Nagorno-Karabakh War
Afghan Civil War
United States invasion of Panama
1988 Polish strikes
Tiananmen Square protests of 1989
Revolutions of 1989
Fall of the Berlin Wall
Velvet Revolution
Romanian Revolution
Peaceful Revolution
Die Wende
Mongolian Revolution of 1990
German reunification
Yemeni unification
Fall of communism in Albania
Breakup of Yugoslavia
Dissolution of Czechoslovakia
Dissolution of the Soviet Union
Frozen conflicts
Sino-Indian border dispute
North Borneo dispute
Eisenhower Doctrine
Hallstein Doctrine
Kennedy Doctrine
Peaceful coexistence
Johnson Doctrine
Brezhnev Doctrine
Nixon Doctrine
Ulbricht Doctrine
Carter Doctrine
Reagan Doctrine
Sovereignty of Puerto Rico during the Cold War
Chicago school
Keynesianism
Neoclassical economics
Reaganomics
Supply-side economics
Thatcherism
Naxalism
Ultranationalism
Ethnic nationalism
Guided democracy
Third-Worldism
White separatism
SAARC
Safari Club
Active measures
Crusade for Freedom
Izvestia
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
Nuclear arms race
Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War
List of Eastern Bloc agents in the United States
Soviet espionage in the United States
Soviet Union–United States relations
USSR–USA summits
Russian espionage in the United States
American espionage in the Soviet Union and Russian Federation
Russia–NATO relations
Brinkmanship
CIA and the Cultural Cold War
List of conflicts
Soviet Union topics
Index of Soviet Union-related articles
Russian SFSR
USSR creation treaty
Great Patriotic War (World War II)
Khrushchev Thaw
1965 reform
Stagnation
Post-Soviet states
Republics
Autonomous okrugs
Closed cities
Caucasus Mountains
Ural Mountains
West Siberian Plain
Passport system
State ideology
Congress of Soviets (1922–1936)
Supreme Soviet (1938–1991)
Congress of People's Deputies (1989–1991)
NKVD
Net material product
Ruble (currency)
Communist Academy
Academy of Sciences
Academy of Medical Sciences
Lenin All-Union Academy of Agricultural Sciences
Sharashkas
Naukograds
Soviet people
working class
Stalinist architecture
Soviet dissidents and their groups
Stagnation Era
Fall of Communism
Soviet dissidents
Human rights movement in the Soviet Union: Initiative Group for the Defense of Human Rights in the USSR
Committee on Human Rights in the USSR
Solzhenitsyn Aid Fund
Moscow Helsinki Group
Ukrainian Helsinki Group
Lithuanian Helsinki Group
Working Commission to Investigate the Use of Psychiatry for Political Purposes
Helsinki-86
Mikhail Agursky
Vasily Aksyonov
Lyudmila Alexeyeva
Andrei Amalrik
Chabua Amirejibi
Anton Antonov-Ovseyenko
Gunārs Astra
Mykola Bakay
Anna Barkova
Vasile Bătrânac
Arkadiy Belinkov
Larisa Bogoraz
Alexander Bolonkin
Yelena Bonner
Leonid Borodin
Vladimir Bougrine
Vladimir Bukovsky
Valery Chalidze
Lev Chernyi
Boris Chichibabin
Viacheslav Chornovil
Lydia Chukovskaya
Yuli Daniel
Vadim Delaunay
Andrey Derevyankin
David Devdariani
Ivan Drach
Yuri Druzhnikov
Mustafa Dzhemilev
Ivan Dziuba
Abulfaz Elchibey
Alexander Esenin-Volpin
Eliyahu Essas
Efim Etkind
Benjamin Fain
Viktor Fainberg
Moysey Fishbein
Ilya Gabay
Balys Gajauskas
Yuri Galanskov
Alexander Galich
Sultan Galiev
Zviad Gamsakhurdia
Vladimir Gershuni
Alexander Ginzburg
Yevgenia Ginzburg
Anatoly Gladilin
Semyon Gluzman
Natalya Gorbanevskaya
Pyotr Grigorenko
Sergei Grigoryants
Igor Guberman
Tengiz Gudava
Paruyr Hayrikyan
Ivan Hel
Oleksa Hirnyk
Mykola Horbal
Bohdan Horyn
Mykhailo Horyn
Grigory Isayev
Boris Kagarlitsky
Romas Kalanta
Sofiya Kalistratova
Ihor Kalynets
Iryna Kalynets
Vitaliy Kalynychenko
Dina Kaminskaya
Ivan Kandyba
Ephraim Kholmyansky
Yuliy Kim
Nikolai Klyuev
Lev Kopelev
Boris Korczak
Anatoly Koryagin
Nahum Korzhavin
Merab Kostava
Lina Kostenko
Sergei Kovalev
Zoya Krakhmalnikova
Victor Krasin
Yuri Kublanovsky
Jüri Kukk
Anatoly Kuznetsov
Eduard Kuznetsov
Alexander Lavut
Mikhail Leontovich
Alexander Lerner
Yaroslav Lesiv
Eugene Levich
Veniamin Levich
Eduard Limonov
Pavel Litvinov
Levko Lukyanenko
Nikolay Lossky
Kronid Lyubarsky
Michail J. Makarenko
Vasyl Makukh
Guram Mamulia
Nadezhda Mandelstam
Anatoly Marchenko
Valeriy Marchenko
Myroslav Marynovych
Gregori Maximoff
Roy Medvedev
Zhores Medvedev
Naum Meiman
Mykhailo Melnyk
Alexander Men
Yosef Mendelevitch
Vazif Meylanov
Andrei Mironov
Ion Moraru
Viktor Nekipelov
Viktor Nekrasov
Alexander Nekrich
Valeriya Novodvorskaya
Vasile Odobescu
Alexander Ogorodnikov
Yuri Orlov
Raisa Orlova
Lagle Parek
Konstantin Paustovsky
Gleb Pavlovsky
Yekaterina Peshkova
Viktoras Petkus
Alexander Piatigorsky
Leonid Plyushch
Alexandr Podrabinek
Grigory Pomerants
Vladimir Pribylovsky
Dmitri Prigov
Anatoly Pristavkin
Boris Pustyntsev
Eliyahu Rips
Arseny Roginsky
Maria Rozanova
Mykola Rudenko
Yuly Rybakov
Ain Saar
Valery Sablin
Andrei Sakharov
Dmitri Savitski
Shmuel Schneurson
Efraim Sevela
Igor Shafarevich
Varlam Shalamov
Avital Sharansky
Natan Sharansky
Vladimir Shelkov
Yuriy Shukhevych
Danylo Shumuk
Andrei Sinyavsky
Vladimir Slepak
Victor Sokolov
Sergei Soldatov
Pitirim Sorokin
Vladimir Strelnikov
Aleksandras Štromas
Vasyl Stus
Nadiya Svitlychna
Ivan Svitlichny
Vasyl Symonenko
Les Tanyuk
Alexander Tarasov
Valery Tarsis
Enn Tarto
Lev Timofeev
Valentin Turchin
Andrei Tverdokhlebov
Tatyana Velikanova
Georgi Vins
Georgi Vladimov
Vladimir Voinovich
Michael Voslenski
Anatoly Yakobson
Gleb Yakunin
Venedikt Yerofeyev
Yevgeny Zamyatin
Alexander Zinoviev
Yosyf Zisels
Malva Landa
Yulian Panich
Psychiatry portal
Soviet Union portal
Socialism portal
Society portal
Criminal justice portal
Human rights portal
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Struggle_against_political_abuse_of_psychiatry_in_the_Soviet_Union&oldid=898522160"
Persecution of dissidents in the Soviet Union
Imprisonment and detention
Human rights in the Soviet Union
Human rights abuses in the Soviet Union
Human rights in Russia
Human rights abuses in Russia
Mental health in the Soviet Union
Psychiatry controversies
Ethics in psychiatry
Soviet law
Russian law
United Nations documents
Cold War history of the Soviet Union
All articles with self-published sources
Articles with self-published sources from January 2018
Articles with dead external links from April 2018
CS1 uses Russian-language script (ru)
CS1 Russian-language sources (ru)
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line7560
|
__label__wiki
| 0.944529
| 0.944529
|
Liam Hemsworth bio, Career, Early life, Personal life, Net worth, Facts
Who is Liam Hemsworth?
Liam Hemsworth is one of the attractive looking actors in Australian industry. He is known for his roles in some series like Neighbours and The Elephant Princess. He has also been a part of some American movies like The Last Song, The Hunger Games film series and Independence Day: Resurgence.
In the Early Life of Liam Hemsworth
Born as the youngest of 3 boys to Craig Hemsworth, a social-services counselor and a teacher of English, Leonie on 13th January 1990 in Melbourne, Australia, Liam Hemsworth spent some of his childhood in his birthplace and following the eighth birthday he moved to Philip Island. His nationality is Australian. His maternal grandfather is a Dutch immigrant, and English, Irish, Scottish, and German are his other ancestry. His birth sign is Capricorn and his religion is Christian.
At the period of high school, he appointed an agent as he wanted to enter the acting world. By the age of sixteen, he got the opportunity to appear in one episode of the TV show “Home and Away”. He then did a cameo in “McLeod’s Daughters”. In 2009, Liam flew to the United States with the aspiration of enhancing his career in Hollywood.
In the career of Liam Hemsworth
Fig: Liam Hemsworth in Hunger Games
Liam Hemsworth participated in school plays and started auditioning at the age of 16. His professional career started in 2007 when he made guest appearances in two Australian soap operas, 'Home and Away' and 'McLeod's Daughters'. His first major role was in the show 'Neighbours' in which his older brother Luke acted previously. He portrayed the role of Josh Taylor, an athletic paraplegic, from 2007 to 2008. In 2008, he got a major role in the children's television show 'The Elephant Princess'. For 26 episodes, he played the role of Marcus, the lead guitarist of the band formed by the protagonist.
In 2009, he appeared in a couple of episodes of the television series 'Satisfaction'. The same year, he also got his break in the big screen, acting in the British film 'Triangle'. He also appeared in a short role in the film 'Knowing'. He was cast in the 2010 movie 'The Expendables' by Sylvester Stallone. However, after his character was cut out of the script, Stallone offered him a role in the 2012 sequel 'The Expendables 2'. He got selected for a lead role in 2010 coming off an age drama film, 'The Last Song'; in the movie, he acted opposite his future fiancée Miley Cyrus. He also appeared in one of her music videos titled 'When I Look at You'.
In 2011, he landed one of the lead roles, Gale Hawthorne, in the film adaptation of the best-selling novel series, 'The Hunger Games', by Suzanne Collins. The first movie of the series, 'The Hunger Games', was released in 2012, followed by three more movies in the next three years. He acted in the 2013 war drama 'Love and Honor', which was originally filmed two years earlier. The same year, he acted in the crime drama film 'Empire State'. He also acted alongside Harrison Ford, Gary Oldman and Amber Heard in the movie 'Paranoia'. In 2015, he appeared in the movie 'The Dressmaker', an Australian revenge comedy based on the eponymous novel. In the film, he worked with Kate Winslet and played the character of her lover. In 2016, he was cast as one of the lead characters of the movie, 'Independence Day: Resurgence', which is the sequel to 1996 film 'Independence Day'. Part of an ensemble cast, he played the role of the U.S. pilot Jake Morrison.
How much is the net worth of Liam Hemsworth?
Fig: Liam Hemsworth lifestyle
Best known for Neighbors and The Elephant Princess, Liam has garnered the net worth of $16 million as of 2019. The mainstream of his income is his profession i.e “acting”. His exact salary has not been revealed yet and will be updated very soon but there is no doubt in the mind of his follower that he is earning a considerable amount of salary from his career work.
In the Personal Life of Liam Hemsworth
Fig: Liam Hemsworth with Miley Cyrus
Liam is not married yet and he is still to get married. He is engaged to Miley Cyrus in January 2016. The couple is living together with a happy life and there is no sign of separation between them. The couple is planning to get married soon. There is news that they are planning for a baby. Previously, he has been linked to Laura Griffin from 2006 to 2009, Eiza Gonzalez in 2013.
The handsome hunk was spotted with Nina Dobrev several times and the rumor of them dating hit the media in 2014. Ambassador of a children organization “the Australia Childhood Foundation”, the kind-hearted actor has always been a part of social causes.
Facts of Liam Hemsworth
He was considered to be for the title role in 2011 movie Thor. But later that role went to his older brother Chris.
He gave his first audition when he was 16 (in 2006).
He stars in the music video Colder Weather for the Zac Brown Band.
He has hosted the Nickelodeon Australian Kids’ Choice Awards 2010.
ActormodelMiley CyrusLiam HemsworthLaura Griffin
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line7562
|
__label__wiki
| 0.732386
| 0.732386
|
Fuller Blasts to Leadership Position with Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf
Written by The Editors
Former Johnny Rockets executive assumes leadership position with the coffee and tea-based concept.
The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf introduced John Fuller as the company's new president and chief executive officer. For the past five years, Fuller served as president and CEO of The Johnny Rockets Group, Inc.
Prior to his appointment as president and CEO for The Johnny Rockets Group, Inc., Fuller served as the restaurant chain's chief financial officer. His background includes serving as CFO across a range of companies such as JC Resorts and Rubio's Restaurants.
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line7566
|
__label__wiki
| 0.710979
| 0.710979
|
Kingston College scores celeb endorsement for UK’s first ever women’s football academy
FE Week campus round up
Mon 14th Nov 2011, 11.09
A star footballer was on hand at a college to kick-off the UK’s first-ever women’s football academy.
England international Alex Scott officially opened the new Kingston College Women’s Football Academy in partnership with Puma.
The Alex Scott Academy is the first academy of its kind in the UK and highlights the growth of the women’s game.
Kingston College’s head of school for sport and leisure Jade Mountain said: “I am delighted to be here at the official launch of The Alex Scott Academy. We couldn’t ask for a better figurehead and ambassador for the Academy than Alex. She is an England international and professional player in the USA and she came through an Academy system herself, demonstrating just how effective they are.
“We are proud to be associated with an individual who can offer our players real support and inspiration.”
Scott said: “I am delighted to have officially launched the Alex Scott Academy. To be able to give the girls the opportunity to play and study just like I did is something that I’m very honoured and proud to be doing.”
Andy Taylor, from Puma, added: “Puma is proud to be associated with the Alex Scott Academy at Kingston College. The college is a key partner in education and innovation as it promotes excellence in the classroom as well as on the field.”
The new academy aims to provide players with an unrivalled calibre of training, skills development and match play and Kingston College’s ongoing commitment to offer quality football provision has been recognised with this partnership.
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line7567
|
__label__cc
| 0.594866
| 0.405134
|
No Ifs, No Buts: Torture Should Be Universally Condemned
“He was forced to take medicine. They stuffed the pills into his mouth… After taking the pills he felt pain in his muscles and his vision was blurred… He was beaten. He endured gruelling questioning while being denied sleep for days on end…”
Wang Qiaoling describing the torture of her husband, lawyer Li Heping
“Even our breaths were suppressed. No voices. No texts. No images. No talking. No walking. Our hands, feet, our posture…every body movement was strictly limited. We needed permission for even the most trivial action”.
Lawyer Zhao Wei, the youngest legal assistant detained in the 709 Crackdown
“Prisoners were also put in cages submerged mostly in water, and left inside for seven days, the entire body underwater with a space to breath at the top. As they stood in the water and tried to sleep, rats would scurry about outside the cage, biting their nose and ears.”
Letter to world leaders by ‘709’ Family Members
These are just a few accounts of the torture experienced by human rights lawyers in China. Over 300 lawyers, activists, colleagues and family members were detained, interrogated or disappeared in a sweeping crackdown beginning on 9 July 2015, dubbed the 709 Crackdown. Two years on, most have been released, some on “bail” conditions amounting to house arrest, but with news of their release have come numerous testimonies of physical and psychological torture including frequent beatings, sleep deprivation, forced medication, violent threats, and prolonged isolation.
Use of torture in China
Lawyers and activists are by no means the only victims of torture. Many of the lawyers caught up in the crackdown had defended clients who had been tortured by police or security agents, including those arrested in connection with their religion or belief such as Falun Gong practitioners and Christians associated with unregistered churches, as well as those accused of crimes not related to politics or religion.
Human rights lawyer, Li Heping (right) pictured with his brother Li Chunfu (left) following his release from detention.
Torture in China has long been criticised by the international community. In its fifth review of China’s implementation of the UN Convention against Torture (CAT), which China ratified in 1988, the UN Committee against Torture concluded that China has failed to implement the recommendations made in previous reviews. The committee has ongoing concerns about the lack of legal safeguards to prevent torture, the harassment of lawyers, human rights defenders and petitioners, and accountability for the events in Tibet and neighbouring areas.
China’s own report to the committee states that “China has implemented numerous effective oversight and safeguard mechanisms to prevent the occurrence of torture” (paragraph 57), and points to regulations on administrative and criminal detention which guarantee the rights of detainees.
These claims contrast sharply with testimonies of former prisoners and their lawyers and family members.
China’s secret prisons
The use of “secret prisons” – essentially extra-legal detention facilities – and residential surveillance at a designated location (RSDL) means torture is less unlikely to be investigated and more likely to occur in the first place. RSDL is not the same as house arrest. Under Article 73 of the Criminal Procedure Law (CPL), an individual can be held in a “police-designated” location for up to six months; police have to inform their family members of their detention within 24-hours, but they don’t have to tell them where. RSDL takes the accused off the map: most people detained under this measure have no contact with the outside world and no access to legal representation. For six long months, their families have no idea where they are, what condition they are in, or even whether they are dead or alive. Unsurprisingly, torture is not uncommon.
RSDL takes the accused off the map: most people detained under this measure have no contact with the outside world and no access to legal representation.
The 709 cases also demonstrate how “confessions” written or signed under torture are meaningless. Televised confessions from China show detainees looking haggard and pale, staring vacantly at the camera or unable to lift their heads. Lawyer Xie Yang describes his own ordeal:
“I completely broke down. It got to the point where I was crying as they questioned me and had me write statements. I really couldn’t write anymore. I told them to type something up and I’d sign it, no matter what it said. I didn’t want to go on living. I couldn’t take it anymore—I just wanted to sleep for a little while.”
Interrogators do not only use torture to extract a confession; torture is also an instrument of fear.
Interrogators do not only use torture to extract a confession; torture is also an instrument of fear. It has repercussions not only for the primary victims, but also on their family members, colleagues and wider community. Some of the lawyers released have spoken out publicly about their ill-treatment in prison and have used this to raise awareness of the prevalence of torture in China. However, others have understandably remained silent. It is impossible to estimate how many brave and brilliant lawyers have been forced to abandon their work in this way. It is a tremendous loss to the Chinese people.
So what can be done?
It is vitally important that democratic nations universally condemn use of torture. There is no room here for half-measures and partial justifications. In a statement to mark the International Day for the Victims of Torture on 26 June, UN experts have highlighted that prohibition of torture is ‘absolute’ and can never be justified under any circumstances:
At a time when the absolute prohibition of torture is often challenged in the name of national security across the globe, a group of UN human rights experts strongly reaffirms that the practice of torture is a severe violation of human rights and call on States to eradicate the conditions and circumstances conducive to its practice.
It is also crucial that the international community does not fall into the trap of making exceptions or excuses for governments that have failed to prohibit and protect against torture in areas under their jurisdiction. Put bluntly, Chinese citizens deserve the same protections as UK citizens.
Torture destroys lives”, say the UN experts.
“Torture destroys lives”, say the UN experts. They go on to stress that ending torture requires a renewed commitment from every UN Member State, and that each State has a responsibility to act: “Any tolerance or acquiescence concerning such practices, however exceptional and well argued, will inevitably lead down a slippery slope towards complete arbitrariness and brute force, in disgrace for all of humanity.”
Their message is clear, and the testimonies of torture victims in China speak for themselves. All forms of torture must be universally condemned: no ifs, no buts, and no exceptions. We must challenge torture and the laws, measures and systems that allow it to happen. Only then will the world be free of these horrific stories, and the nightmares they invoke.
By CSW’s China Advocacy Officer
Tagged 709 crackdown, arrest, beating, incommunicado, lawyer, li heping, prison, report, surveillance, torture, un, wang qiaoling
Previous Post UK General Election: an opportunity to reiterate a commitment to human rights
Next Post “Between a Rock and a Hard Place”: the Future of Abyei
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line7573
|
__label__wiki
| 0.669593
| 0.669593
|
Nepal’s criminalisation of conversion seems to protect Hinduism at the expense of other religions.
Three years on from the date that Nepal adopted its new constitution, there are concerns about its ‘anti-conversion’ clause, which seemed designed to specifically protect Hinduism at the expense of other religions.
The clause, in Article 26 (3) of the constitution, states:
“No person shall, in the exercise of the right conferred by this Article, do, or cause to be done, any act which may be contrary to public health, decency and morality or breach public peace, or convert another person from one religion to another or any act or conduct that may jeopardize other’s religion and such act shall be punishable by law.”
These provisions were strengthened in the Penal Code 2017 which came into force in August 2018. Section 158 states that “No person shall convert any one from one religion to another or make attempt to or abet such conversion” and carries a punishment of up to five years imprisonment and a fine of up to fifty thousand rupees.
The criminalisation of conversion is a direct infringement on freedom of religion or belief as it robs individuals of the right to change their religion. These provisions also threaten the right to freedom of expression as they could be used to prohibit a range of legitimate expressions of religion or belief such as charitable activities or speaking about one’s faith.
Fuelling religious intolerance
Similar laws exist in Burma and several states in India, where they have been abused to foster social intolerance and violence towards peaceful religious activities. Recent events appear to confirm initial fears that the laws would have the same effect in Nepal.
For example, in May 2018 four Christian churches were set on fire and one was bombed in just over a week. No-one was killed in the attacks, but these incidents illustrate a worrying increase in hostilities towards Christian groups in Nepal, and suggest that religious intolerance is increasing in the country.
Another indicator of increased religious intolerance in Nepal is the cancellation of December 25th as a public holiday by the Nepalese government. Now, only Christian civil servants are given a Christmas holiday. The decision to cancel this public holiday is considered the result of strong anti-Christian tendencies; the fact that the government gave in to these pressures illuminates the extent to which such tendencies are becoming more prevalent in Nepal.
Nepal has already seen several cases which demonstrate the ease with which the constitution’s anti-conversion laws can be misused.
In June 2016, Article 26(3) was used to charge eight Christians in Charikot with attempting to convert children through distributing a comic book on the story of Jesus. While the accused were acquitted of all charges in December 2016, the Religious Liberty Forum Nepal have since documented multiple similar cases which have taken place this year, these include:
Sonia Chanda Thakuri, arrested along with her six month-old baby on 22 March after being falsely accused with attempting religious conversion and destroying Hindu idols. Sonia has since been released, but her case remains ongoing.
Devi Rai, arrested with her friends in Chitwan on 30 April and accused of attempting to convert a Hindu family and encouraging them to destroy the Hindu idols. They were reportedly released a few days after the arrest.
Sumitra Gauli, Radhika Maharjan and Phuldevi Bhattarai, arrested in their church in Kathmandu on 8 May, falsely accused of attempted religious conversion.
Bhim Br. Pradhan and Nabin Kumar Mandal, arrested in Morang on 19 May for presenting Christian materials on a laptop. They are accused of speaking against Hindu gods and attempted conversion.
It is clear from the above cases that the anti-conversion laws can be used to make false accusations against anyone, which makes them highly vulnerable to misinterpretation and misuse for personal vendettas.
The cases also appear to suggest that the criminalisation of conversion is specifically designed to protect Hinduism.
Although Article 4 (1) of the constitution claims that Nepal is a secular state, the word secular is defined as the “protection of religion and culture being practised since ancient times and religious and cultural freedom,” which has been interpreted as affording special position to Hinduism. The constitution also stipulates that ‘Sanatana Dharma’ (the Hindu faith) will be protected by the state
This continues a long-standing history of protection of Hinduism in Nepal. In a famous case long before the new constitution was introduced, Christian pastor Charles Mendes was charged with ‘creating a disturbance to Hinduism‘ by distributing pamphlets about Christianity and eventually sentenced to six years in prison.
It is important to note that not all Hindus benefit from the anti-conversion laws. The Dalit minority group face severe discrimination in the Hindu caste system, many Dalits therefore change their religion in order to escape this. By prohibiting this practice the anti-conversion laws essentially lock Dalits and other minority groups into positions of subordination within the caste system.
Falling foul of international law
Nepal has made several national and international commitments to uphold and implement acts that will protect fundamental human rights. The country ratified the ICCPR in 1991, which it followed by introducing a national law, the Nepal Act, to fulfil its obligations. The Covenant is legally binding, and Articles 18 and 19 guarantee the right to freedom of religion or belief and freedom of expression respectively. By undermining these two fundamental rights, Nepal’s anti-conversion laws mean that the country falls short of its obligations under the ICCPR.
Nepal has also been elected to be a member of the HRC from 2018 to 2020, which makes these contraventions of international human rights law even more striking. As the country is now supposedly responsible for the promotion and protection of human rights around the world, it must first prioritise the promotion and protection of such rights within its own borders.
Under Nepal’s last Universal Periodic Review Cycle in November 2015, the government chose not to accept recommendations from both the USA and Spain relating to the amendment of the constitution, in order to ensure that freedom of religion or belief was fully upheld.
The misuse of the anti-conversion laws observed in subsequent years demonstrate that this cannot continue: Nepal must amend Article 26(3) of the constitution to prohibit only forceful conversion, and remove any clause prohibiting conversion in and of itself.
As a secular republic, Nepal now has the opportunity to achieve remarkable political, economic and social transformation since it attained ‘independence’ from a Hindu monarchy that ruled for over 200 years. To do so, it must not succumb to policies and practices that pave the way for polarisation of the country’s cultural and religious diversity.
By Ellis Heasley, CSW’s Public Affairs Officer
Tagged anti-conversion law, arrest, attack, bombing, charikot, christians, constitution, freedom of expression, hindu
Previous Post The Special Envoy Mandate: The Litmus Test for EU Policy on Freedom of Religion or Belief
Next Post Long read: Eritreans wonder why their president is “making peace with everyone but the Eritrean people”
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line7574
|
__label__wiki
| 0.5609
| 0.5609
|
GI Film Festival — 2018
Posted 12:42 AM, September 26, 2018, by Josh Board
I hadn’t been to the GI Film Festival in a few years. My wife and I enjoyed that experience and still talk about the documentary we saw on the U.S.S. Indianapolis, and the two young women that made that documentary.
We went to the opening of the Festival Tuesday night in Balboa Park and caught a couple of interesting films. One of them was called The Registry. It dealt with the Military Intelligence Service, which were the thousands of Japanese-American veterans that, while sworn to secrecy for decades later, had many duties (lots of them dangerous) during World War II. It was so heartwarming to watch many of these guys get together, after decades of not knowing what happened to their comrades. The first story of the bunch, has them visiting a family in Lemon Grove. And the interactions these old veterans have with their families, often times, just brings tears to your eyes. An incredibly moving documentary, and it got me interested in finding the first book published in America written by a Japanese American — No-No Boy.
The other movie was a short called American. It’s about a Japanese-American in his early 90s, who volunteers at the Japanese American National Museum, and talks to a mother and daughter about his time in an internment camp. When the woman shows a photo of her grandfather who fought in World War II, the man realizes he served with him. The man in the movie — George Takei. To most people, that would be interesting because he was in Star Trek, and you always see him pop up in a series of hysterical memes. It had a more powerful importance then most probably weren’t aware of. In real life, when Takei was 5-years-old, soldiers showed up at his house and took his family to an internment camp. As he told the sold-out crowd that was lucky enough to see this film on opening night…he initially thought it was fun going to the grounds of Santa Anita and seeing where the horses slept. It wasn’t as fun for his parents, and many other Japanese Americans, who lost everything. Since Takei was mingling with the crowd after the film, I asked him a bit about the short. As we were discussing it, my wife asked a question about how the house he had in the movie could be the same one he grew up in (they show a flashback). He explained to us that not all the people that went to the camps lost everything. He said, “My grandfather had a farm. There was a German immigrant that had a farm next to him, if you can believe that! When they were taking my grandfather, he asked him to take care of the farm. He told him he could keep all the profits from it. He just wanted the land back when he got out. Not everyone was that lucky. That guy was a man of his word.”
There’s always interesting people you meet at these events, too. I was talking to a pilot, who is the President and CEO of The Distinguished Flying Cross Society. I found out there was a documentary made about them that he’s featured in called Distinguished Wings — Over Vietnam. He shared some great stories with us. I asked about what he thinks of war movies, and he had some great takes. He loved South Pacific, Tora! Tora! Tora! and Shane. I told him I wasn’t big into Westerns, but Shane was great. When I brought up one of my favorites — The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, his eyes lit up. When I told him I was surprised Catch-22 wasn’t more successful, he agreed, adding “It was a great book and movie.”
He was also able to explain to me why being colorblind would keep me from being a pilot.
Sweeney earned his wings in 1962, and qualified as an aircraft commander, including 27 combat missions in 1964. The year of my birth in 1969, he was flying attack jets in Vietnam. At one point, I was talking to someone else, and missed the story he told another person at our table about coming back and seeing bullet holes in the bottom of his plane.
He earned three Distinguished Flying Crosses in a one-week period in 1972. I looked him up when I got home and, when it was all said and done, he was involved in 200 combat missions, 4334 flight hours, and 757 carrier landings, garnering 4 individual S/F Air Medals, and 2 Naval Commendation Medals. Yet the biggest kick I think he got was finding out my wife went to his old school — St. Joseph’s College in Philadelphia.
At one point, my wife pointed out a woman in the crowd and said, “She looks much too beautiful and put together to be at a military film festival. She’s the type of person you’d see at the Cannes Film Festival.” I said, “Hey…that’s Rosemary Watson.” She’s a local talent that can sing and do more impersonations than anyone I know (she’s been on Howard Stern, Jimmy Kimmel, The View, and a bunch of other shows). One of the things she’s involved in is called Rosie’s Military Cards (www.Rosiesmilitarycards.com). They make these beautiful 3-D cards that put the ones at Papyrus to shame. They cover all branches of the military, and they’re perfect for that loved one you have that’s serving.
I didn’t get to talk to her boyfriend, retired Marine Colonel Richard Coleman, that much. It seems he’s involved in a lot of military organizations around town. He even invited me to an event they hold at the University Club that aims to have the military be more understood by civilians.
There aren’t just military folks at this festival. I saw a couple of local filmmakers I know. One of them, Lawrence Roeck, wrote/directed the movie Diablo (Scott Eastwood, Danny Glover).
You may have missed your chance to meet George Takei, but you could probably still rock out with Roeck and other filmmakers, and see some interesting military themes movies.
Today, you can catch Never Forget, which also covers the stories of some of the Japanese-American veterans of the 442nd Regiment. There’s Unforgotten, about a grandson discovering the story of his grandfather in the Korean War. The Flashback deals with a Vietnam Combat Veteran suffering from PTSD. It’s a slightly darker and more powerful story that also has a grandson/grandfather relationship.
There’s a movie about the untold story of the pilots that flew F-105 THUDs in Vietnam in the ‘60s. It’s called Thud Pilots, and it might make you realize that flying planes isn’t all just the fun and games Goose and Maverick had here in Coronado.
And speaking of the guys having all the fun, Thursday you can catch The Hello Girls, The Story of America’s First Female Soldiers. Who even realized over 200 American woman were serving overseas during World War I? The other two movies you can see Thursday include Black Jack Pershing, and I Am That Man, about a Navy SEAL that in many ways, will remind you of the movie that put Jeremy Renner on the map — The Hurt Locker.
Friday you’ll get The Last Signal, about a guy who thought he was the last surviving member of a World War Ii navy ship, but his daughter (and Facebook), helped him realize that’s not the case.
There’s Aircraft Carrier: Guardian of the Seas, which I was lucky enough to catch at the IMAX theatre a few hundred feet away from the Museum of Photographic Arts in Balboa Park. If you didn’t see it at the Reuben H. Fleet, see it here Friday night. The other films that day include Coming Out to Grandma, From Baghdad to the Bay, Hotflakes, Satellite Drop, The Dark Resurgence, Safe with Me, G.I. Jose (is that a great name for a movie, or what), Lion in a Box, Let it Go, and Popcorn & Chocolate…my two favorite things to consume while watching movies.
Saturday, you could catch the awards celebration at the DoubleTree, hosted by comedian and former Naval officer Jamie Kaler. And yes, there are still movies showing all day. At the UltraStar Cinemas in Hazard Center, it’s Heroes Dive, Kilimanjaro Warriors, We Are Not Done Yet, The Weight of Honor, and Surviving Home.
Now, at Comic Con, Sunday is known as the boring day with all the kids movies. Sure, there is one animated movie they’ve got that the kids will love (Sgt. Stubby — An American Hero, about an adopted dog and Army soldier in World War I); but the movies the GI Film Festival will have on their closing day are just as strong. There’s Code of Honor: One Soldier’s Stand for Equality, Brooklyn in July, Major Capers: The Legend of Team Broadminded, My Voice My American, Do No Harm, Trauma, and they’re closing things out with When the Smoke Clears: A Story of Brotherhood, Resilience and Hope. It deals with young Israeli soldiers trying to rebuild their lives after serious injuries during service.
For ticket prices, show times, or any other information, go to: http://gifilmfestivalsd.org/2018/
Filed in: At the Movies Blog
At the Movies Blog
Jakob Dylan Sings in San Diego after Echo in the Canyon
‘Lt. Dan’ actor Gary Sinise awarded for military philanthropy
25 years after ‘Forrest Gump’, Gary Sinise talks about his love for veterans, San Diego
Veteran reunites with refugee family 40 years after sponsoring them
Melania Trump’s hometown celebrates her with tree statue
Remembering Michael Jackson 10 years after death
Scripps Ranch — 2nd Annual Falcon Visual Arts Festival
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line7575
|
__label__wiki
| 0.742009
| 0.742009
|
Posted 3:14 pm, June 27, 2019, by Natasha Anderson, Updated at 07:29PM, June 27, 2019
CLEVELAND — The Cleveland Indians’ Carlos Santana will be the first baseman starter in the 2019 MLB All-Star game.
Voting opened Wednesday at noon and ended at 4 p.m. Thursday. Starters for the 2019 MLB All-Star Game, which will be played in Cleveland on July 9, were announced on ESPN at 7 p.m.
There were eight finalists in the National League and nine in the American League, counting the designated hitter. The candidates for the vote were selected during the Primary, which wrapped on June 21.
Santana was the only Indians player on the ballot.
He claimed 49.2 percent of the vote ahead of New York Yankees’ Luke Voit (25.8 percent) and Minnesota Twins’ C.J. Cron (25.0 percent).
Entering the day, he had the best 2019 numbers among AL first baseman finalists leading in average (.290) home runs (18), on-base pct. (.411), slugging pct. (.541) and OPS (.951).
“I’m excited to represent Cleveland alongside the best in Major League Baseball,” said Santana said in a press release. “To be able to start in my first career All-Star Game, and to do it at home in front of our fans, means everything to me.”
Over his 10-year MLB career, Santana has never been named to an All-Star roster. He will be the first Cleveland Indians first baseman to start in an All-Star Game since Jim Thome did in 1999.
Santana will also represent the Indians in the Home Run Derby. The Tribe first baseman and designated hitter said he plans to bat left for the event. This season, he is is batting .291 with 17 home runs and 47 RBIs.
All-Star festivities run from July 5, starting with Play Ball Park at the Huntington Convention Center, and culminate with the Midsummer Classic on July 9 at Progressive Field
More on the 2019 MLB All-Star Game in Cleveland, here.
Topics: carlos santana, cleveland indians, MLB All-Star Game 2019
Get your animal fix with FOX 8’s Pet Place!
Carlos Santana participating in Home Run Derby
All-Star Starters voting opens Wednesday at noon
Indians’ Carlos Santana is finalist for All-Star Game starting spot
Two Indians players on All-Star Futures Game rosters
MLB releases additional tickets to Home Run Derby
Carlos Santana knocked out in opening round of Home Run Derby
Cleveland Indians pitcher Shane Bieber joins American League All-Star team
AL’s Verlander, NL’s Ryu starting pitchers in All-Star Game
Community News Sports
All-Star Legacy Initiative: MLB, Indians reveal Baldwin Wallace’s new student veterans center
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line7576
|
__label__cc
| 0.597992
| 0.402008
|
Community Discussion »
Randomness Lounge »
Topic: Trains in GB and their schedule
Pages: 1 [2] 3 All Go Down
Author Topic: Trains in GB and their schedule (Read 18706 times)
Re: Trains in GB and their schedule
The privatisation of the infrastructure in the 1990s was still to a single monopoly company that did not run trains, and the perverse franchising system was in operation from 1995 onwards.
Whatever one might say about the industrial revolution's timing or the empire, one cannot deny that British railways were run to an extremely high standard for well over a century in private hands, and to a far better standard than they ever were run in state hands. Any suggestion that only the state can run railways properly is therefore contrary to overwhelming evidence.
As to the profitability of railways after the second world war: it was the state that artificially kept ticket prices below inflation in the 1950s and later for political reasons, with the result that the nationalised railways fell into loss from the early 1950s onwards and never made a profit again. There would no doubt have been substantial reductions in the periphery of the network even in private hands, but the Beeching cuts went well beyond that, closing even main line routes, such as the Great Central - routes that now would be of great utility. Further, the fact that private operators were willing to take on closed lines (but for the abuse of state power in preventing them from doing so) is clear evidence that the Beeching cuts went substantially further than market conditions would have demanded.
Oh please. Lawmaking is necessary for society to function. To remove lawmaking functions from the state would allow private companies to abuse power at will. Private companies act in the interest of their shareholders, the state acts in the interest of the wider public via our elected representatives. There are past examples of both abusing power, that's why we have a mixed economy with safeguards to protect the public from either abusing power as much as is practicable.
As to the above, I think that you rather misunderstand the point. The point was not that there should not be law - I don't imagine that Somalia has a particularly good railway system - but that the function of making and enforcing the law ought not be combined with actual economic activity such as running railways. In such a situation, to use a sporting metaphor, the state is both a player and the referee and can abuse its position as both the maker and subject of laws to the short-term political advantage of individual politicians (as in the example that I gave in the previous post the suppression of about post-Beeching re-openings). Where enterprises such as railways are in private hands, the state is in a position to be a genuinely neutral umpire of what law ought to govern them and is more likely to act in the public interest in making and upholding those laws, as indeed it did (more or less) under the auspices of the Board of Trade throughout the pre-nationalisation era.
Unions without whom we'd be working 10 hour days, 6 days a week and with a handful of days off a year.
That is a comment about the general utility of unions. I have not disputed the general utility of unions. That does not mean that it is appropriate for unions to exercise disproportionate influence over government policy in the abusive and corrupt way described in the previous post, or that it it can be right that the conditions in which unions are in a position to do so ought be created or sustained.
Incidentally, this:
Private companies act in the interest of their shareholders, the state acts in the interest of the wider public via our elected representatives.
is the central fallacy of stateism. There is and never has been any real evidence that politicians are more inclined to put aside their personal political interests in favour of the public good than business people are inclined to put aside their personal pecuniary interests in favour of the public good. To take two prominent examples: Gordon Brown is undoubtedly more unremittingly cynical by orders of magnitude than Richard Branson, for instance. Both types of people are subject to feedback mechanisms that incentivise them to do things that are in the public interest at least sometimes: the politician, elections, and the businessperson the choice of customers. The real issue is which feedback mechanism is more effective. Where elections are general purpose affairs dealing with all issues and held every five years, it does not take much to say that the feedback mechanism of the business is more direct, frequent and effective than of the politician.
« Last Edit: August 24, 2012, 11:37:14 PM by jamespetts »
isidoro
There is certainly a paradox here:
On one hand the Government can abuse his power
On the other hand, poor Government is under pressure of Unions and people
The truth is that I fear more the pressure of multinationals and banks that that of those two. If not, just look at the present situation in some countries in Europe that have Governments that are not capable to keep their promises, and certainly not due to 1) or 2).
When you have a public service run by private companies, it is typical that certain parts of the "business" is left apart without service. Why would a company build a copper line to give telephone or Internet to a small village if costs would be much higher than profit?
Governments in the 80's and so on, started to apply some of that ideas to public services in the believe that a train company should not lose money. And that's an error. A public service is not meant to be a profitable business... When you say that train tickets were kept artificially low, I say that train tickets were made accessible to more people,... If, and only if, you consider that train transport is a public service, but that's another discussion...
I have witnessed myself all that process, and things, in general, are now worse and much more expensive, while the benefit of those companies go up and up. The other advantage posed by people supporting all that privatization was the advantage of competition and free market. But, in general, I have not witnessed that at all in all these years: telephony is very expensive in Europe, for instance, and if you want a discount you have to visit a hundred of web pages and find it (and read a lot of contracts, and fine printing...)
The real fact is that some companies or ex-monopolies are given nearly for free to some friends for the State to get some cash, and service gets degraded ipso-facto. Sometimes they have to be given back!
A comment to your edit:
The argument you give against the so called stateism seems sensible if and only if, markets work. But that's not, I would say, generally, the case. At least by what I have seen so far. Not to mention all the things that have happened in the past few years, and are happening now (and happened in the past, btw) that clearly show that free-marketism is another utopia.
« Last Edit: August 25, 2012, 12:05:13 AM by isidoro »
kierongreen
one cannot deny that British railways were run to an extremely high standard for well over a century in private hands
Gauge wars and the blocking competitive routes by building branches aside.... Of course the private companies achieved a lot also, but of the Big Four only one consistently was profitable and that was before the Second World War. Increases in ticket prices if they had not been controlled after the war would have led to an even faster drop in passenger numbers.
I remember the railways in the late 1980s, early 1990s being run by the state to a very high standard myself (Network SouthEast and Intercity were very successful).
Further, the fact that private operators were willing to take on closed lines
It wasn't quite that simple. A number of private operators did take on tourist routes - the problem came with those trying to operate a commercial service. In many ways a major problem was that the government at the time did act as though the railways were still a private company, with the government as it's only shareholder (rather than the concept of providing a socially necessary service). Just as would have been the case in the private sector, there was a duty to return maximum value to the shareholder, even if this meant selling trackbed off for housing rather than to an independent operator. Safeguards that would have been necessary to prevent people buying the land cheaply for transport purposes, then making a profit by selling it for housing would have also probably ruined the business case for such lines (what is the market value for the land in this case, to borrow against to raise money to run the business?).
what does not mean that it is appropriate for unions to exercise disproportionate influence over government policy in the abusive and corrupt way described in the previous post
Unions only have the power of their members, in this case, the railway workers. At the time this was a large number of people, something a government should naturally consider (not just in terms of their votes, but their livelihoods also).
the function of making and enforcing the law ought not be combined with actual economic activity
Where there is a natural monopoly (for example, railways, energy, fixed line telecommunication) private companies will be tempted to abuse this. Heavy regulation can prevent this, but I am much more in favour of the simpler solution of the state taking direct control, giving democratic accountability to these services which are used by everyone. Nationalising the commanding heights (at least) of the economy allows them to be used for the greater good rather than serve the interests of the few.
Ters
Coder/patcher
Languages: EN, NO
Quote from: kierongreen on August 25, 2012, 12:00:30 AM
In many ways a major problem was that the government at the time did act as though the railways were still a private company, with the government as it's only shareholder (rather than the concept of providing a socially necessary service). Just as would have been the case in the private sector, there was a duty to return maximum value to the shareholder, even if this meant selling trackbed off for housing rather than to an independent operator.
Sounds kind of familiar. In Norawy, the government says it's goal is to move freight from road to rail, but they sell off freight yard after freight yard for urban development.
The question is not the absolute question of "do markets work", but rather, "what evidence is there that the incentives on politicians to act in the public interest in a field such as the provision of railway services is greater than that of businesspeople?". It will not suffice to answer that correct question simply to point to examples of market failure (such as the "gauge wars" to which Kieron refers): it is necessary to compare the incidence of market failure with the incidence of state failure and conclude that the former is greater than the latter. That has not been done because that is not the way that the evidence on the subject in fact points.
It is far too simplistic to suggest that an increase in ticket prices would have lead to a faster fall in passenger numbers: any sane railway operator would not charge more than the traffic could bear or price itself out of the market. The point was not that railway ticket prices did not increase above the market price, but rather that they were kept well below the market price for political reasons, sacrificing the long-term future of the railways for short-term political advantage of the superficial appearance of low inflation (in fact, the degradation in the service provided by the railways, and the loss of funds to other areas of government activity caused by the extent of subsidy of the railways means that inflation was not actually affected at all).
As to the unions and tourist lines - tourist lines did not (and were pointedly prevented from) running a useful service for transport purposes, so that is an irrelevance. The unions had a disproportionate influence in that they had a powerful controlling influence on the Labour party, whose government was in office at the time of the Beeching closures and immediately afterwards (leaving office only in 1970 - the year when the Beeching closures came to a rapid halt). Their influence was disproportionate in the sense that it was greater by some considerable margin than the equivalent numbers of individual people not in unions. As to the cost of land, it was not the fact that the land was sold for a market price that prevented independent operators from running the lines (this did not stop tourist lines, after all, who had no interest in making a profit): it was the fact that the state positively prohibited the lines from operating.
As to this:
Nationalising the commanding heights (at least) of the economy allows them to be used for the greater good rather than serve the interests of the few.
This simply repeats what I describe as the central fallacy of stateism, which I have addressed above. When in state hands, organisations such as the railways are used to serve the interests of "the few", being politicians' political careers.
The point about the dangers of the state simultaneously being both player and umpire in the economy remains unanswered.
it is necessary to compare the incidence of market failure with the incidence of state failure and conclude that the former is greater than the latter. That has not been done because that is not the way that the evidence on the subject in fact points.
When in state hands, organisations such as the railways are used to serve the interests of "the few", being politicians' political careers.
This simply repeats what I describe as the central fallacy of stateism
These are your opinions, not a fact. You are repeating it many times, in many guises, but that doesn't make it correct (or incorrect). What counts as a failure is a subjective judgment - high speed steam travel by private companies in the 1930s was loss making, Intercity under British Rail with the HST 125 generate a profit. So what was more successful; Mallard breaking the steam speed record or the HST breaking the Diesel speed record. Not sticking to the UK we could also go abroad and say that the state funded the developement of the TGV, the Bullet Train and ICE. In the UK private companies were already failing in the 1930s, with railways being closed and as I've already mentioned, only the Southern making a profit.
However really it's meaningless to make comparison like this between decades and centuries in completely different economic climates and with different technology and modes of transport available. It is ideological to say that either the state or private enterprise is always the best option. That's not to say it's right or wrong, but that it is an ideological belief.
Looking at this in terms of just the facts we have the following:
A private company exists to provide return on capital to it's shareholders by generating profit.
In 1900 railways were the only effective form of transport over land.
In 2000 railways compete against coaches, airlines and private cars for transport over land.
The Beeching Report was commissioned under a Conservative Government.
In the 1990s a Conservative Government privatised the railways, splitting British Rail into hundreds of companies with a contractual interface between each and the government.
Just asserting that something is "an opinion, not a fact" is not an argument. The whole point of an opinion is that the holder of it believes it to be a fact. If it's not capable of being true or false, it's not an opinion at all. Indeed, you (implicitly) express a very similar opinion to that which you quote in the statement about private companies existing to turn a profit. The point that politicians' interests are in their political careers just as much as business-people’s interests are in their bottom lines is unanswered - I venture to suggest that that is because it is unanswerable.
The whole point that I was making (and it adds nothing meaningful to the discussion merely to label the point "ideological" - it is certainly no more ideological than the rather grandiose notion of there being some inherent public good in the state owning the "commanding heights of the economy" as you put it) is that the interests of the public are best served when the institutions engaging in economic activity are independent from the institutions regulating economic activity. That cannot meaningfully be described as "subjective" - one can specifically measure all the instances of bad things happening that inherently could not happen unless the state was doing both things at once, the example already given being the state's prohibition on commercial re-openings of railways in the immediate post-Beeching era.
It is not, I am afraid, a meaningful approach to any discussion to retreat from engagement with the actual subject matter by claiming that it is all "subjective" and "ideological". The reality is that there are practical decisions that must be made about how things are run that actually have real, consistent and measurable effects on people, and it is meaningful to ask which is the better way of doing things than another. Indeed, if it were not, one might as well replace every government with a quincunx machine and every election with a lottery, and it was to just such an assertion that I was responding in the first place.
As to which political party was in office when the Beeching report was commissioned or when the railways were "privatised" (I use quote marks, as the franchise system that exists and that I have described above is only privatisation in the loosest of senses, and is in any event a thoroughly perverse system - compelled, as I understand it, by the EC directive to which I believe another participant in this discussion referred above), that is none to the point: the point was not about which political party is better, but the extent to which it is appropriate or beneficial for the state to run railways. (I should add for reference that it was the Labour party who implemented the Beeching report).
The advantage of many smaller companies compared to one large is that the effects of moronic leadership/ownership is more limited. A private company can also change leaders and owners more freely than goverments. On the other hand, many companies are harder to coordinate and might make it more difficult to do long distance travel.
The whole point of an opinion is that the holder of it believes it to be a fact.
it is certainly no more ideological than the rather grandiose notion of there being some inherent public good in the state owning the "commanding heights of the economy"
In case this was not clear in my previous posts - this is my political belief, one which has developed over many years. I accept others may not agree, and do not attempt to portray it as being the only "correct" view, but it is mine.
Indeed, you (implicitly) express a very similar opinion to that which you quote in the statement about private companies existing to turn a profit.
Private companies exist to turn a profit (especially ones on the stock exchange). That is why people invest in them. If they did not turn a profit then investors would withdraw their support from the management of the company. This may result in them delivering a good service to increase custom and therefore profit, it may result in short term asset stripping in order to maximise return to shareholders. The profit motive is in itself neither "good" nor "bad", your opinion on this will depend on your ideological perspective.
The point that politicians' interests are in their political careers just as much as business-people’s interests are in their bottom lines is unanswered
This is an opinion, one that is widely shared, but not in my experience generally true. I'm speaking as someone with a rather keen and active interest in politics (google me and find out why I haven't been active in simutrans as much the last few years!).
compelled, as I understand it, by the EC directive to which I believe another participant in this discussion referred above
An EC directive with Britain pushed to be passed to start with under Thatcher. Strangely enough the reason behind this directive is exactly the one you support - preventing conflict of interest. In this case the idea is that an infrastructure owner who gets to decide priority of traffic should also not be running traffic. If it were in this position it would be easy to (subtly) ensure that it's trains got a higher priority than those from other operators.
I should add for reference that it was the Labour party who implemented the Beeching report
It inherited the report and acted on the findings, enacting legislation to make sure that lines which fulfilled an important social function remained open (without which large parts of Scotland would have no railways left at all).
The reality is that there are practical decisions that must be made about how things are run that actually have real, consistent and measurable effects on people, and it is meaningful to ask which is the better way of doing things than another.
People do not agree on the best way, there are arguments both ways on this issue (as with everything else). Therefore objectively there is no better way (otherwise there would be no need for elections). Someone who believes in encouraging a larger private sector will not be convinced by arguments that the state provides democratic accountability, likewise someone who wants a larger public sector will not be convinced by arguments of private sector efficiency. Hence I am not going to try and attempt to change your views, as I believe this will be a futile exercise.
On the other hand, many companies are harder to coordinate and might make it more difficult to do long distance travel.
Economies of scale are also harder to achieve with smaller companies.
It is very interesting to see how this discussion went off track.
Just a commetn: privatisation is not neccessarily bad, but also monopoly could be good.
However, infrastructure is a long term effort. Thus, if you have a company which thinks in 10 year+ intervalls, then everything is ok, and privatisation is successfull. Some could be achieved with heavy regulation, as such markets would be very much defined by regulations and thus long term startegies are needed. However, as soon as you reach the point of abuse (meaning wearing out backbones to save money on the short run) the market will fail.
Despite market bashing, we had some very sucessful privatisation in germany. Especially the telephone market, where modem was banned until the early ninties and a local call was 2 cent per minute, and long distance rather a euro per minute. Now those prices are 1/100th due to innovation which could not have been done by a monoploly (state or private).
Also the railway service in germany is a good example. The service is usually ordered by a region for 7 years with a fixed revenue for predefined service (some many people, some many trains per day, etc.) That way a long term strategy will earn you advantage. (It has the downside that after mistakes could take years to change companies.)
Berlin has even change the operation of traffic lights to a private company. The have a five year contract with a fixed sum of the current cost of operation. Within two years most traffic lights were changed to LEDs and with remote control, which the goverment would expected to take 15 years using the same amount of money.
In teh end there is no clear winner. Private companies can be benefital - within a clever rules. When one fails, the other will fail too. That is the main message free market capitalist do not want to hear. On the other side, generating revenue is a strong incentive for efficiency and innovation - strong than most govermetn run companies can provide. So the statetism is wrong. In the end the more or less european path of state controlled free markets to a stronger or lesser degrees seems the best way to get both.
@James: your disquisition on facts vs. belief is quite a philosophical one. Some facts, specially these ones, are not a question of black or white. Besides, you try to generalize from some particular sector in some particular country. And even then, there's no agreement, as we can see.
@Kieron: these are bad days for politicians, unfortunately. Due to the bad economic situation, people with the purpose of weakening the political structures try to take advantage of the situation and aim in the wrong direction. And that's pretty dangerous. In fact, if politicians have given somewhat up to regulate more everything was because of the influence of the same very people that criticize them now. And that very laxity in control brought us to where we are now. It seems like a bad joke...
@prissi: perhaps the solution is an intermediate one, like the one you propose. It is clear that there should be regulations (and not few) and if pure stateism is not good worse still is pure free marketism (or liberalism), as we can see now.
In the end, the question is as old as man itself. It is only a question of selfishness. The rich don't want a strong state so that it can't collect high taxes and they lose their precious money (liberalism). The poor are also selfish, don't you think the opposite. They want to get as much social services as can be attained. Nothing new under the sun. Sometimes the rich are very rich and the poor are very poor and a revolution is started. But only for the former poor to become the new rich... Of course that you have to dress the revolution in ideology garments. But it the end, it is like that.
To write another example of this path of public-private dichotomy. In the country where I live now, when telephone was invented, it was in private hands. There were many small companies that provided service in small areas (normally a city). It was an absolutely mess. Inversion was done only if profit was expected, and large areas of the country didn't have service. Even different networks couldn't operate among them.
Then came the Government and make the telephone system a public monopoly. That implies that the company has the advantage of no competition and can fix prices and can provide service to everyone... It was good because the network developed and nearly all people could have a telephone. But...
Once the strong inversion was done, prices were not lowered at all. And that company could do all the tricks it wanted (and it invented a lot of them) to earn even more because it was a game of all or nothing, you take or you don't have it.
When privatization winds came, the company is given very cheaply to the friends of some people. And free market would do the rest. The real thing is that that company still owns a very high share and acts as a de facto monopoly. Prices never go down. The only competition you have is that now you receive two or three calls a day from the companies (from telephones in countries with low salaries) offering you 100 products, that at the end are all tricky, and that if you take them, you end paying more than before...
Connect to Skype and see what are the prices of sending an SMS in different countries in Europe. If theories about free market worked, it should be more or less the same. But reality speaks in the opposite direction...
Edit: the only economic sector where I really saw competition was banking! And now I don't know if it was for good or bad. And, btw, the solution they are applying now is to decrease competition in that sector, since they are joining banks together... I don't understand a dime...
« Last Edit: August 25, 2012, 11:37:35 PM by isidoro »
We appear to have wandered into the realms of methodology.
An opinion is defined as:
1. A belief or conclusion held with confidence but not substantiated by positive knowledge or proof: "The world is not run by thought, nor by imagination, but by opinion" (Elizabeth Drew).2. A judgment based on special knowledge and given by an expert: a medical opinion.3. A judgment or estimation of the merit of a person or thing: has a low opinion of braggarts.4. The prevailing view: public opinion.5. Law A formal statement by a court or other adjudicative body of the legal reasons and principles for the conclusions of the court.
1. judgment or belief not founded on certainty or proof2. the prevailing or popular feeling or view public opinion3. evaluation, impression, or estimation of the value or worth of a person or thing4. an evaluation or judgment given by an expert a medical opinion5. (Law) the advice given by a barrister or counsel on a case submitted to him or her for a view on the legal points involveda matter of opinion a point open to questionbe of the opinion (that) to believe (that)
Either the first or third definitions in each list are those that are potentially relevant here, especially the third. What sort of thing do you think that it is possible to have opinions about except those which are capable of being true or false (however difficult in practice that it might or might not be to discover whether they are in fact true or false)? A judgment about the merits of a thing is a reasoned conclusion reached about a subject: such a conclusion cannot be meaningful unless it has a truth value.
What precisely do you think that an "opinion" is if not a belief about the merits of a thing; and what do you think that the merits of anything is other than something that by definition has a truth value?
In case this was not clear in my previous posts - this is my political belief, one which has developed over many years.
What does it mean for something to be your (or anyone else's) political belief except that you think that the world would actually be a better place in some meaningful way if it was acted upon? Indeed, what is a belief other than an attitude towards a proposition, viz. that that proposition is true?
There seems to be some conflation of the possibility of certainty and the possibility of truth. There are many things that are by definition either true or false even if one can never be certain of them, or even have good estimations of them. The number of pebbles on Brighton beach on the 3rd of August 1665, for example, is something that nobody can ever have any sensible idea about even approximately, but is not for that reason "subjective" or "a matter of opinion". That it is difficult to evaluate whether a thing is true (such as whether the merits of policy X are truly better than the merits of policy Y) does not mean that it is not the kind of thing in respect of which there is no truth, nor that the fact that it is difficult or is something about which absolute certainty cannot be achieved does not mean that it is impossible to make meaningful probabalistic judgments ("It is likely that policy X will result in greater benefit to the public than policy Y"). It should be noted that absolute certainty cannot be achieved with anything: we might be a brain in a vat in a universe that is far different from anything that we could imagine. If it was really true that there is no possible way of having the first idea whether policy X is better than policy Y, or even if it was not conceptually possible for policy X to be better than policy Y, then all political discourse would be sterile and worthless and it would do just as well (and be much more cost effective) to throw a die to make every political decision. That you think that there is a specific political standpoint worth arguing for inherently and necessarily means that you really think that it is meaningful to reach a conclusion about which policy is better than another. Given that you have and have expressed such views, and, unless you are totally irrational, must believe that there is some actual reason to believe that those views are in some real and meaningful things better than opposing views (or else why would you adopt them as your views?), it will not do simply to scoff at the explanation of those opposing views and the reasons behind them and dismiss them as mere opinion or subjectivity without providing reasons showing why the reasoning in support of those opposing views is answered by reasons which support the views that you propound. You are of course free to hold any opinion that you like for any reason or no reason at all - but if you purport to engage in argument (in the civilised sense of the word) about the merits of opposing views, you must expect to be criticised for merely dismissing opposing views as "opinion" or "subjective" instead of explaining rationally why you think that they are wrong.
When you write,
I accept others may not agree, and do not attempt to portray it as being the only "correct" view, but it is mine.
do you intend to suggest that there is something inherently different in the way in which I have been explaining the reasons behind the position that I take than the way in which you have done so? If so, I cannot find any such difference, and I should be grateful if you could point out to me where you think that such difference is. Until the recent descent into this methodological discussion, I did not understand any of us to be doing anything other than explaining our respective positions and the reasoning behind them, and, as relevant, explaining the reasons that we do not accept the reasons put forward in support of the opposing view or in criticism of our own. What other meaningful way of conducting such a discussion as this might there be?
Companies are abstractions and do not have motives independently of the motives of those who control them - the directors and shareholders. The same applies to states and governments: they do not have motives independently of the politicians who control them. Businesspeople measure success in profit to the same extent as politicians measure success in election victories (your assertion that some unspecified experience leads you to the contrary view is not an argument).
It is perfectly possible to reach a meaningful conclusion about whether businesses or the state do better at running a railway network: if you thought that it wasn't, you wouldn't have your own view on the subject. The truth of the matter does not depend on one's ideological perspective: that makes no sense at all: that one has a certain belief about a thing cannot by itself cause that thing to be true or false if the belief is about something meaningful in the first place. If alternatively you mean that what one believes about the subject depends on one's ideological perspective, as you put it, then that is obviously and trivially true and amounts to no more than claiming that what one believes about the thing depends on what one believes about the thing.
Whatever the original reasoning behind the directive may have purportedly been, it is nonetheless a wholly perverse instrument: there is a fundamental difference between the sort of possibilities of abuse that arise when the state is both umpire and player and what you describe as a "conflict of interest" between running trains on one's own tracks and letting others do so: the latter issue was dealt with very effectively in the pre-nationalisation days by the Railway Clearing House combined with much less oppressive state regulation. One might also add that it is not an abuse of power not to let competing interests run their services on one's own infrastructure - nobody would sensibly call it an abuse when Gregg's refuses to sell cakes made at competing bakeries in their shops.
It is perfectly possible to reach a meaningful conclusion about whether businesses or the state do better at running a railway network: if you thought that it wasn't, you wouldn't have your own view on the subject.
If it were possible then there would be no need for discussion.
That it is difficult to evaluate whether a thing is true (such as whether the merits of policy X are truly better than the merits of policy Y) does not mean that it is not the kind of thing in respect of which there is no truth, nor that the fact that it is difficult or is something about which absolute certainty cannot be achieved does not mean that it is impossible to make meaningful probabalistic judgments ("It is likely that policy X will result in greater benefit to the public than policy Y").
What sort of thing do you think that it is possible to have opinions about except those which are capable of being true or false
Which is the best way to travel from London to Glasgow? Answers depend upon: the relative weightings of comfort, speed, cost and ecological impact, whether you expect that someone has a car already, how many people are traveling and how far in advance you are planning the journey (and many more). While for one particular journey over this route we might, after some consideration be able to say one mode of transport is best determining which mode is best overall would be impossible.
Which is the best way to operate the railways? Answers depend on: the relative weightings of; lowering/eliminating overall subsidy, carrying more passengers, carrying more goods, retaining existing services, improving speed or frequency and maintaining a national network with connections.
We now go back to:
Given that you have and have expressed such views, and, unless you are totally irrational, must believe that there is some actual reason to believe that those views are in some real and meaningful things better than opposing views (or else why would you adopt them as your views?)
My support for government ownership (and operation) of the railways is based on:
The knowledge that parts of the railway network are not, will not be, and never have been profitable and will therefore require a subsidy.
That this subsidy is paid for by the government using revenue from taxpayers.
That this subsidy should be used to operate the railway, not generate profit for shareholders.
That for protecting the environment it is best to improve the share of transport that uses railways compared to roads.
That a national network offers the best chance of increasing passenger numbers by giving easy connections.
That a single private company operating a national network would abuse this position to inflate profits by demanding higher subsidy.
nobody would sensibly call it an abuse when Gregg's refuses to sell cakes made at competing bakeries in their shops.
Indeed. As to the question why, that is because there is already competition from rival bakers. Even if there were not in a particular town then it would be relatively easy to set up your own bakery there. The situation is different for infrastructure; fixed line telecommunications, electricity, gas, roads and railways. On a national level the cost of providing a rival service is impossibly high. Because there can be no effective competition in providing the infrastructure the owner is required to allow other companies to use their infrastructure for a fair price.
your assertion that some unspecified experience leads you to the contrary view is not an argument
It is not an argument, it is used to support one. What is your experience and evidence that all politicians always act out of self interest?
the latter issue was dealt with very effectively in the pre-nationalisation days by the Railway Clearing House
It worked reasonably effectively for goods, but not for passengers needing to travel over several railway companies to reach their destination.
Companies are abstractions and do not have motives independently of the motives of those who control them - the directors and shareholders. The same applies to states and governments: they do not have motives independently of the politicians who control them.
A more accurate comparison (in my opinion, naturally) would be:
Company->Board->Director->Shareholder
State->Government->Politician->Voter
A company is run in the interests of the shareholders. A state is run in the interests of voters (we could say all citizens, however those who do not vote only indirectly influence policy). Politicians and directors can have their own interests and views, however if they ignore the wishes of voters and shareholders respectively then there will be consequences. To assume that politicians can only act out of self interest is incredibly cynical.
If alternatively you mean that what one believes about the subject depends on one's ideological perspective, as you put it, then that is obviously and trivially true and amounts to no more than claiming that what one believes about the thing depends on what one believes about the thing.
This is what I meant, and I'm glad you find it trivial and obvious.
I think it's matter of choice. Matter of, say, if I can have the power to choose what I can do with my life, or, simply put, if I can control my life so I can feel safe.
The problem starts when I lose the control over my integrity and someone else, who I don't know if they want me well or bad, has gotten the control over me and, to make things look worse, I can't even change it.
About state x private, I have a rule: everything that I don't have control over or power of choice, I prefer the government, at least I can vote. Over things that I can have choice, let the companies and entrepreneurs make their business under a fairly law. For example, sewage and draining system. What if it were private? What if I feel abused because the taxes were too high or the service were very poor, I couldn't say "Hey, I'll disconnect my pipes and reconnect them to another company" because it's just impossible, same goes for electricity, security, transport infrastructure and some natural features such as rivers and underground springs.
To give you an idea, in my country between 1994 and 2002, the telephonic and electricity companies raised the prices in about 10-20% per year, because the "Privatization agreement" stated that the companies could raise the prices to "compensate" inflation. How so? Say, the last year's inflation was 8-10%, then the the companies raised the prices in the beginning of the year in 10%, when the official inflation report came out in the end of the very year, it indicates 12-15% of inflation, mostly caused by same companies (once they didn't have competition and they controlled a big share of the economy, they never lowered the prices), then another "rise" is granted, and so on. On the other hand, to combat the inflation, the State had to pay 20~30% on bonds (it reached 45%!), and we, the people, 300-400% a year (today it's better, it's just ~200%, with inflation of 5% p.y., but still, when the "bank" calls me offering a good "advantage", I simply say "no, thank you").
« Last Edit: August 26, 2012, 06:01:22 AM by IgorEliezer »
Quote from: IgorEliezer on August 26, 2012, 05:52:52 AM
Seems like my view on things. I never have understood the concept of buying electricity from other electricity companies than the one whos wires run to your house, though. That leads to two bills, one for power and one for the wires. (When this became possible, the former prices fell and the latter rose.) And it's probably the nearest power plant that gives me power anyhow. At least with telephones, if the wires to your house don't belong to your operator, then they rent the wires from those that do and you get just one bill.
In my opinion, tracks can never really be privatised. I learned that in Germany the fee for a train on a regional line is 7€/km. With this kind of money you cant do anything, you cant even maintain this track, let alone build new ones.
Vladki
Languages: EN, CS
Quote from: VS on August 24, 2012, 07:03:14 PM
I think nearly all of Czech Railways wagons still do have fully manual slam doors, so head over here for some retro train rides Other than that, I know that all units close automatically, but whether they can't be opened when moving... no idea. I never tried
I think only electric units 460/560 slam the door automaticaly (pneumatically) and it requires rather brute force to open them when blocked. I have seen that long ago. Normal cars don't close automatically, but the door handle is blocked when the car is moving.
This is very interesting and rather philosophical confrontation. Forgive me to write some words in between you two:
@Kieron: this two chains are very different in nature:
Have you ever seen a shareholder with a motivation different from making money? Is there a concept such as ethical investment in the shares market? I doubt it very much.
@James: your contribution is very, very interesting to me. The problem with the realm of politics is that the sentences we are dealing with are not mathematical, statistical, etc. but ones regarding good or bad things. For instance, some of yours in your post:
The world would be a better place
whether businesses or the state do better at running a railway network
Is the sentence Is the flu virus bad? true or false? Everybody would agree that it is true. But what happens if you ask the very same question to the mother of the flu virus?
So those questions are inherently subjective and most frequently they are answered depending on the person's interests.
The problem of being methodological as you suggest is where to stop:
You say that companies don't have opinions, which is true, but individuals have. Are you sure of this? What is my opinion but the result of the firing of millions of neurons? So, I don't have an opinion, but neurons do. But, wait a second, neurons are made of molecules, don't they?
Why you say something inherently different in the way in which I have been explaining... What is the meaning of I? You yourself now, here. Or you yourself tomorrow? Do you control all your thoughts? Even the subconscious? Even all your hidden motivations and feeling you don't even know about?
You speak as being rational as the only way to discuss matters. But in politics, rationality is not the only (I would guess not the main) tool used to decide something. Much on the contrary, you can hear a country to support one thing or the opposite few month apart depending on what other country says it, for instance.
It also happens in our lives. There is love, caring, hate, ... Not that the rational solution is always the chosen or the more human one, and we have plenty of examples in history. What is the rational solution if we both have one loaf of bread in a desert island and each one of us needs exactly one loaf of bread to survive until the people to rescue us arrive? What is the rationality (or not) of eugenics?
I think that Plato's ideas about an absolute Good and Bad have made the most harm to humankind. The problem of having an absolute Good is that as time passes there appears two lunatics thinking that theirs is the absolute Good... And we have the mess prepared... I'd rather say that there's no absolute Good, but just for our own good... But this is only an opinion.
I guess that the only way to answer a question about is this or that good? is to ask concerned people about it. But don't rest on your laurels: what do you do with minorities? Isn't it rightful that sometimes (even very few times) they are given what they want?
The solution to all these dilemmas have been given by people in history not so rational: be a good person, live your life, and do no harm to the other. Live and let live.
My political position is that the well-positioned people in society already get many advantages and, if they are intelligent, for their own selfish good, they should let others have a decent way of life, being generous through taxes. I prefer to be less rich and can have the door of my house open than to be richer and be afraid of riding a plane, going out alone, etc. But I realize that maybe I could think the opposite if I were rich, who knows?
That's the main reason I am against liberalism and free-marketism, if those concepts even exist.
This was actually my point! My point was to make a comparison between the structures, not the motivations behind them. I pointed out that companies exist to make profit for shareholders (and there are ethical investments - these are still designed to be profitable though, just maybe slightly less so).
sdog
tl;dr Good grief got this posting long, i hope you don't read it unless you've got an unhealthily strong interest in my oppinion...
You have to be careful not to confuse privatisation and deregulation, both often happen at the same time. It seems rather difficult to privatize infrastructure without creating private monopolies. This is especially true if one has a couple of boundary conditions not present in the mid 19 century:
(1) a homogenous network for the whole country
-- interconnected with neighbouring countries is desired
-- the tickets can be bought for the same price, at any station for all connections. (Eg buying a ticket from Inverness to Cornwall would cost the same buying in Inverness, Cornwall, or London) even when there are more than one railway companies providing the service.
(2) land cost for new track far outweighs any capital new entrants to a market could raise
(3) no parallel tracks of different companies
(4) competition law prohibits illegal fixing of prices
(5) different timetables have to be coordinated, even with different railway companies
(6) prices per km are the same for customers traveling same distances, regardless if they're taking a train near london or Scotland
(1) and (4) require some regulation for fares and interfacing, this might be necessary for (5) too.
(2) and (3) requires a division of network and operators, with a neutral body holding the network. With (3) also requiring the neutral body also to be price regulated and requiring the
Else the holder of the network could just exclude a railway company from using it's track or raise the price. The operator would be forced to comply else they would lose their investment. If prices are regulated, a new buerocratic problem raises. A government body is to asses the costs of a private company to set a new price, usually very badly.
A question to James, not having a best world, what would be the lesser evil a state monopoly or a private monopoly?
There is one argument in continental europe, that doesn't hold in the UK. Here the states invested taxpayers money into a well working rail-network, with privatisation a private company, and thus the shareholders, would reap the profits of this investment.
Apparently british rail systems got worse when they nationalized and when they privatized. The negative effect of the system change might be so large ("never touch a running system") that it completely obscures differences between both setups. From what i read rail pax service in britain was not very good before, during, and after nationalisation.
A good example for the difficulty of private competition for rail passenger service might be found here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamburg-K%C3%B6ln-Express
The company tries to compete with an express service by DB (German Railways) on the same track and stations. The investments into rolling stock alone was extremely difficult already. (The company is using refurbished decades old cars!) Here's something from german wikipedia
Das Unternehmen hat nach eigenen Angaben bis Mitte 2012 rund 16 Millionen Euro investiert. 2012 sollen zwei bis drei Millionen Euro Umsatz erzielt werden. Nach Unternehmensangaben sei zunächst mit dem Dreifachen geplant worden, da jedoch die zu Grunde gelegten Fahrzeuge fehlten, würde das Unternehmen zunächst Verluste schreiben. [...]
[...] 30 bis 40 Prozent der Erlöse zur Deckung der Infrastrukturgebühren (ohne Traktionsenergie) verwendet. [...]
EUR 16 million invsetment until mid 2012, two to three million total revenue expected in 2012. Previously 3 times the revenue was expected, lack of cars however causes a loss.
About 30% to 40% of total revenue used to cover infrastructure cost, without traction energy.
My personal oppinion on the matter (that means it not really a basis for discussion) is, that this is infrastructure too important to to open a new market for a new markets sake. The question it boils down, can the improved efficiency of a private company outweigh the loss in profits being payed to the shareholders. For two reasons, i would tolerate more loss due to inefficiency than profits by shareholders:
With efficiency i can always demand it to be raised to maximum, while i can't demand the shareholders to have zero profit. This means the former system could in theory be optimized, while the other one not. (to some degree the actual degree of optimization is weighted less strongly than the theoretical one)
Riding a train, paying a ticket, i would have a bad feeling buying it and thinking, now some company get's one Pound of the 20 i payed, while i don't feel that bad accepting this as loss due to bad management. Unlike a consumer product, i might not have the choice, not to use the service. Eg. if i'd have to get from London to Manchester, i'd have to take the train. If i'd buy a new ipod device i'd have the choice to give or not got give apple their share.
There is another aspect where private companies have disadvantages with infrastructure use. Private companies advertise to promote stronger use of their infrastructure! Since this would mean more income. State owned companies in the past tried to discourage unnecessary use. Just one example: German Postal service before privatization put large "Fasse Dich kurz!" ("Be brief!") Stickers on phone boxes (and delivered them with home-phones) before privatization. Today phone companies try to make people spend more money on telecommunication, overall increasing the overhead of a national economy with useless things instead of saving, production, and investment.
« Last Edit: August 27, 2012, 09:24:01 PM by sdog »
Another thing I don't understand is why private companies are supposed to be cheaper and more efficient than state owner companies/agencies? Why is it impossible for the state to do things well? Without the need for giving money to shareholders, state owned companies should have been able to do things that much cheaper.
The problem over here with the partial privatization of the railroad is that the infrastructure owner no longer has any contact with the actual customers of rail services. The companies operating the trains are the ones losing customers and getting all the blame when trains run late or not at all, even when infrastructure is to blame, and there is nothing they can do about it. In the end, road transport wins. There are at least alternative roads one can take if one road is closed. But more heavy road traffic just creates problems for others.
wlindley
Languages: EN, DE
"Gormless" -- a most uncommon British-ism! As an American I shall adopt the word... chiefly to describe the population I see as increasingly both formless and gormless.
But, can one be gormful?
Quote from: Ters on August 28, 2012, 04:52:34 AM
Good in theory, but in practice state run companies have a huge percentage of their managers filled with politicians. At the moment, Germany has a few political topics showing the general public how expensive those managers are. On the other hand, I never understood why Berlin needed an airport to begin with.
Combuijs
Maintainer of maps.simutrans.com
Languages: EN, NL
Quote from: dom700 on August 28, 2012, 03:25:32 PM
On the other hand, I never understood why Berlin needed an airport to begin with.
Well, the planes should land somewhere... A bit tricky to land in the Zoo Garden...
On the question of what it means for something to be the subject of a discussion
The implicit assumption in that statement that there can only be a meaningful discussion of subjects on which no meaningful conclusion is possible is bizarre. What would the function of a discussion on a subject on which it is imossible to reach a meaningful conclusion be? I have already explained why it would not be worth discussing the topic (and, indeed, conceptually, there could not be a topic to discuss) if it were not one on which it was in principle possible to reach a meaningful conclusion. You do not seem to have engaged with those reasons in the assertion of the contrary. It is not clear why.
The important and relevant thing about politics is that one can only adopt one set of policies at a time. Railways cannot simultaneously all be nationalised or all be in independent ownership. There is a choice to be made, and it matters to people's lives which choice is made because the outcomes of each choice will be different and in all probability the outcomes of one choice worse than the other for people overall. If you didn't believe that that were so, it would be irrational to hold a political view on the subject one way or another, and bizarre to be advancing such a view in public. To hold a political view inherently and necessarily means that you believe that the consequences adopting the policies that you favour would be better than the consequences of adopting other policies or otherwise not adopting them. Indeed, in putting forward what you claim are reasons for your views in favour of stateism, you have relied upon claims of what constitutes the public good, for example:
Those affected by state policy can meaningfully ask for, and are properly entitled to, a better explanation than "it's just my opinion that things should be done that way" when subjecting whoever is in office to scrutiny as to the reasons that it acts as it does (and does not act in other ways). It is no more a meaningful retort to the most carefully considered critique of the Beeching axe that it is all just a matter of opinion and it's impossible to reach a meaningful conclusion about whether it was a good thing or not than it is to retort in the same way to my explanation of why there is a unique and specific and very real danger in the state being both regulator and actor in the same domain. If anyone actually in office were, in response to serious criticism of some policy decision that had a serious adverse impact on scores of thousands of people that it was all just a matter of opinion and that one cannot reach a meaningful conclusion one way or another as to whether the policy was a good one or not, one would rightly think that the office holder was being evasive to the point of deliberate dishonesty in purposely failing to engage with well founded criticisms of her or his policy. There is no possible reason to apply a differnet standard to the theoretical discussion of which policy ought be adopted.
Are those questions on which we actually disagree? And, if so, is the disagreement on them relevant to the disagreement in the question of whether railways ought be state owned? If the answer to either of those questions is "no", then entering into those discussions will not be worthwhile in this context. Those two questions are the limiting parameters of the extent to which it is worthwhile discussing methodology in this context: it is worthwhile discussing it if and in so far as differences in methodology account for the differences in views on the practical, applied matter on which we expressed disagreement in the first place.
As to the question of whether there is "an absolute good", as noted above, politicians have to make individual decisions which affect a very large number of people and can only be made in more than one way simultaneously. I am not sure precisely how you intend "absolute" to qualify "good" here, but rather doubt that the concept to which you refer is in fact the one on which I rely when stating that it is possible to reach meaningful conclusions about whether one policy or another ought to be adopted.
Indeed, I can put the question starkly - do you agree or disagree that it is possible to reach a meaningful conclusion about what policies ought to be adopted? If you do, then the methodological discussion is probably an irrelevance. If you do not, why do you think that it matters whether railways are run by private companies, the state or the local rotary club? We could spend a very, very long time indeed discussing the ultimate foundations of ethical philosophy - let's not get into that unless there is a relevant disagreement the resolution of which is requisite to dealing with the ultimate practical issue at stake.
Before leaving methodology, a comment on this:
You speak as being rational as the only way to discuss matters. But in politics, rationality is not the only (I would guess not the main) tool used to decide something. Much on the contrary, you can hear a country to support one thing or the opposite few month apart depending on what other country says it, for instanc
Reason is the only proper way to discuss things. That people are sometimes irrationally motivated does not justify people acting irrationally. By definition, people cannot be justified in acting irrationally (as, if the action had a real justification, it could not be said to be truly irrational). The nature of the discussion is about what can be justified. One might equally say, "You speak as if not murdering people is the only way to live; but, in life, not murdering people is not the only way that people go about their lives...".
In any event, it is not meaningfully possible to argue against reason, for arguing necessarily and inherently assumes the primacy of reason: argument, by definition, is an exercise in reason. Doing something that appears to be arguing but is not, in fact, founded on reason usually amounts to either dishonesty or aggression in one form or another.
On the substantive question of the merits or otherwise of state owned railways
The first three have not held for a majority of the history of railways. There were some parts of the network that were unprofitable in themselves but contributed to the profitability of other parts by being feeder routes, and therefore were worthwhile for private companies to keep. Indeed, ignoring this was one of Beeching's most crass errors. (Interestingly, this principle can be readily simulated in Simutrans)
If you think that there are special reasons in the modern age why a subsidy of some sort that is not provided by the cross-subsidisation of different parts of a coherent but independently owned network (and, if so, you have not explaiend what that reason is nor what empirical evidence that there is in support), why does that subsidy have to come directly from the state? Doing so gives rise to the real danger that the state will (as indeed it frequently did and continues to do repeatedly) abuse its power for the short-term political interest of the politicians making the decisions. If a subsidy of some sort is really needed, and further if that subsidy is of such a level that can only come by way of being forced out of people by the coercive mechanism of the state, why is state ownership of the thing that is being subsidised (and, by implication, all such things, such as to create an almost Stalinist state megalith capable of abuse of power on a vast scale) rather than there being a simple requirement that people give a certain proportion of their incomes to charity (where such charities can include public transport concerns where the service cannot be run commercially), so that there is an effective split between the regulator of economic activity and the economic actors?
The argument about a monopoly provider having the best chance of increasing passenger numbers by providing easier connexions is unsupported. People managed perfectly well before nationalisation (when a far higher proportion of people travelled by train). Nationalisation does not in fact guaruntee this benefit (even when both were in national hands, rail and 'bus ticketing was never integrated), and such benefits can be obtained by measures short of nationalisation, including regulation or the simple co-operation of companies in their mutual interests.
On a national level the cost of providing a rival service is impossibly high. Because there can be no effective competition in providing the infrastructure the owner is required to allow other companies to use their infrastructure for a fair price.
Exactly this aim was achieved long before anyone ever dremt of nationalisation by the expedient of joint running powers in certain locations, although it should be noted that before the Beeching devasation (and, less remembered, but also true, to a greater extent still before the state-imposed grouping) there was in fact far more in the way of parallel rail infrastructure than there is now (although some still exists, for example, between London and Birmingham or London and Southend).
But, throughout its history, the railways' main competitor has not been other railways (although, for long distance routes, this was significant: witness the spread of comfort cascading from one network to the next after James Allport's monumental decision in 1875 to abolish second class on the Midland and convey third class passengers in second class comfort for less than the previous third class fare), but from other modes of transport: canals in the early days, road and air in more recent times. Even in the decades between the demise of canals and the introduction of trams then the motorisation of road transport, where rail held a monopoly of transport in many inland areas, it was recognised that the sort of conflict inherent in permitting railways to be used in the way that canals had been before them (with the owning companies not allowed to run their own services upon them) was impractical. (It ought be noted that the enabling Act for the original Stockton and Darlington Railway did indeed contain such a provision, and even went so far as to permit any local land owner to build private sidings to connect to the railway, but it was soon found that the true efficiency of rail could not be achieved without a single organisation being in charge of both infrastructure and operations, and thus was born the railway company, an institution that faithfully served the public for well over a century). There is far more competition for railways now than there was in what is often regarded as the golden age of railways, on which nationalisation certainly did not improve. The railway companies were, in fact, far more effective in their competition with rival modes than the nationalised railways (after all, they had incentive to promote rail in particular: the government had no such incentive), the Southern's electrification programme in the pre-war period, for example, being far more rapid than that of British Rail(ways) in the post-war period.
I have not claimed that all politicians always act out of self interest. That would obviously be false. What I have written is that there is no reason to believe that politicians are any less inclined to favour their own personal interests over those of the common good than businesspeople. The suggestion that politicians are ultimately accountable to voters and will therefore do whatever is in voters' interests, whereas businesspeople are accountable to shareholders and will therefore always do whatever is in shareholders' (pecuniary) intersts is simplistic to say the least.
First of all, there is substantial and clear evidence (see Fixing the Game by Roger Martin for the research and analysis) that directors of large companies' interests are very often not aligned to shareholders' interests at all, and that measures made popular from the 1970s onwards that seek better to align the two interests have in fact had the opposite effect, with the result that company directors will often, for example, deliberately engineer a fall in the company's share price so as to make it appear that a subsequent recovery was as a result of some ingenious work on their part justifying higher remuneration, or alternatively increase a company's short term profits so as to boost its share price temporarily, resign the directorship, sell the shares whilst they are valuable, and do the same at some other company, leaving the shareholders with a company that has been set up to increase profit in the short term in ways that might very well damage its profitability in the long-term. The posited solution to this issue, incidentally, is precisely the sort of state as umpire regulation by general rules rather than executive fiat discussed above, the very sort that is quite impossible to apply to the state itself as economic actor because of the inherent conflict of interest.
The point is also flawed for quite another reason, which is that the interests of shareholders and the interests of consumers are very often aligned in any event by the processes of basic economics described by Adam Smith with which I assume that you are very familiar. The better that a company serves its customers, the more inclined that customers will be to use its services, and the more revenue that the company will generate. The identity of intersts is not by any means perfect, but there is no reason to believe that it is any more imperfect than the similarly posited identity of interests between politicians and those who elect them; and, further, many of the possible abuses that might arise out of the lack of that identity of interest (obvious examples being false advertising, taking money and failing to provide a promised service in return, delivering a service below the promised standard, etc.) are just the sort of abuses that it is the raison d'etre of the state, in its role as neutral regulator of the economy, to resolve by means of the promulgation of the rule of private law.
Similar considerations apply to politicians' relationship with voters as do with directors' relations with shareholders and direcotrs' or shareholders' relations with consumers: the mere fact of having a general election every five years is not sufficient to cause politicians to be motivated to act only in the interests of all those who are eligible to vote. I have already explained (which explanation I note has not attracted any attempts at counter-argument) that an election on every possible topic of politics once every five years is the most blunt possible instrument to give feedback for something as specific and niche as the running of the railways. Can you think of a single election that you can properly say was won or lost on the performance of the respective political parties on the issue of railways (or even transport in general)? Voters have a single, often binary, choice every five years about a whole range of topics, most of which will be considered to be more important than the railways, and, critically, as the actions of the government in the early 1950s demonstrated with its artificial suppression of fare prices, can be cynically traded off against areas that appear to the voters to be more important, such as the economy. Politicians, just like the errant company directors described in Roger Martin's work, engage in a reckless spending spree to garner popularity for the next election, then have no money left with which to run essential services, resulting in severe cutbacks to whichever of them is least politically sensitive; or alternatively make short-term cuts to services to raise money to spend on other areas which it calculates will make it more popular with voters overall at the next election (no matter what the long-term impacts of such fickle funding end up being - usually disasterous). Such abuses are the daily digest of modern stateist politics, to such an extent that many politicians would not even see them as abuses, but abuses they are, and untold harm has been done to the national interest because of them. They would all be quite impossible were the state constitutionally prohibited from being involved in the economy in that way (which is realisitcally the only safe way of preventing a future government cynically taking things into state ownership with the express intention of such cynical exploitation).
Indeed, none of this requires politicians to be self-consciously cynical in the way that you might imagine: you might, if you had listened to Radio 4 this evening, have heard a very interesting talk by somebody who has conducted research into the physical changes that occur in the brains of people who are given significant power, who increasingly tend to focus solely on abstract ends and care less about the means by which they are achieved, and who can become in some cases quite literally addicted to the biochemical consequences of power, the combination of which two factors can lead to what to an outside observer would be considered enormously cynical behaviour, but which the individual often feels able to justify on the basis that, if he or she is able to retain power for just a little longer, he or she can do more good than whatever harm is done to retain it. More than that, the sort of trading off which I described above is unlikely to be thought of by those who engage in it as abuse, and they are likely to justify it to themselves on the ground that the area that benefits is more worthwhile than the area that suffers (without being able to realise that all areas suffer in the long-term because of the propensity of successive governments to conduct such tradeoffs inconsistnetly and with a short-term outlook governed by election timetables).
All of that goes without even mentioning the point that politicians, in order to retain their office, only need to court the votes of undecided voters in marginal constituencies.
You are perfectly right, that railways have been profitable: Before the dawn of road and air travel. Both are nowadays run without subsidy (well ok, road are state infrastructure, same for airports ... ) But nowadays, railways would either only serve popular tracks and won't serve most places without incentive to do so.
Just look at places with a working infrastructure (like the Swiss Postbus, which serves even remote mountain villages three times a day). No private company will do this. If you want such service, you need either subsidices or a national company.
However, Nationalisation was driven by politicans for military reasons (since most of those happened between 1870 and 1920). NOt for broad coverage.
The question of the possibility of rail profitability in private hands in the modern era is rather untested outside the United States, which has substantially less favourable geography for railways than most of Europe given its much lower population density and particularly well developed road and aviation markets. Rail is generally competitive with air for rail journies of less than three hours and in congested urban areas. Interestingly, one of the things that I am keen to do with Experimental is to make the parameters of car use and rail costings realistic enough that it is actually possible meaningfully to test the extent to which rail networks can be profitable in the era of cars and aircraft. In the last Experimental server game (and the pakset is not yet fully balanced, so this is not a complete indication), when a bug that prevented private cars being used properly was fixed (the game was at this point in the late 1970s), there was a substantial reduction in rail traffic and some more minor lines closed (to be replaced by 'bus routes in many cases), but a good number of lines remained open. I should be very interested to see that experiment re-run when I am finally able to achieve a realistic cost balance (and then modify the public service player to enable subsidies to be simulated accurately). Subsidy, of course, is a very long way from nationalisation, and, as pointed out above, need not be done directly by the state.
It is very interesting to note the driving forces behind nationalisation of railways in other countries: in the UK, it was done in 1948, not for military reasons, but for left-wing ideological reasons, although the railways were to a large extent controlled by the state during the two world wars (without in either case formally being nationalised, and, in the case of the first, subsequently reverted to private ownership, albeit "grouped" into only four concerns). Certainly, in 1948, the railways were profitable and the private companies had all started building new rolling stock and, in the case of the Southern and LMS, experimenting with diesel traction: something that it would take the newly nationalised railway another seven years to realise was a good idea, in which time it had built a vast number of new steam locomotives which were in the end to lead a curtailed life.
Quote from: jamespetts on August 30, 2012, 06:00:43 PM
It is very interesting to note the driving forces behind nationalisation of railways in other countries
In Norway, the state was involved pretty much from day one. Though the first rail line was private, the state was a major shareholder. Afterwards, the state went on to build fully state owned lines. My understanding is that the state started building railroads in order to tie the country together, and stimulate trade and industry. A few fully private lines were also built, some of which were later nationalized. I don't know the reason for doing this, but a socialist agenda is at least a possibility at that time.
About Nationalisation in Great Britain: You are not completely wrong, but
Quote from: wikipedia
The entire network was brought under government control during the First World War and a number of advantages of amalgamation and planning were revealed.
As a result of this meddling, only four companies essentially existed after world war one.
It continues
However, the government resisted calls for the nationalisation of the network. In 1923, almost all the remaining companies were grouped into the "big four", the Great Western Railway, the London and North Eastern Railway, the London, Midland and Scottish Railway and the Southern Railway. The "Big Four" were joint-stock public companies and they continued to run the railway system until 31 December 1947.
From the start of 1948, the "big four" were nationalised to form British Railways. Though there were few initial changes to the service, usage increased and the network became profitable.
Thus these four companies were not profitable, in contrary to the nationalized network!
Another interesting fact (from the same page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_rail_transport_in_Great_Britain) has also a nice graph one the number of passengers-trips per year. This indeed shows that nationalisation stabilized passengers numbers after WWII. However (similar to germany, USA and almost everywhere in the world with the exeption of UdSSR maybe) in the 60ies competition by road made most part of the network a monetary loss. Resulting in the closure of branch lines, and in the US in the foundation of Amtrak to run at least a few passenger services. (Amtrack is subsidiced too, btw.)
This was not dependent on nationalisation, but changing of economy. Same as ship transport declined drastically with the progress of aviation. This is very much independent from private versus state company.
Up to the 1920ies, rail had a monopoly. Then it is difficult to loose money under such circumstances, which applies for private and state companies both. Thus, early rail is not a very good example of state versus private companies. Well, and for late rail several examples are there: Russian rail or the american rail companies handle freight and make money with that. Deutsche Bahn also became proftibale, but is essentially a state company (german goverment holds 100% of the shares.)
As to Norway - that's also interesting. When did that network first come about?
It ought not be forgotten, however, as to the nationalisation of railways that, after the Second World War, the government owed vast amounts of money to all four railway companies in unpaid freight charges that the railway companies had agreed to defer to help the war effort. These remained unpaid for many years after the war, and must be taken into account when considering the profitability of pre-nationalisation railways. Similarly, when considering profitability in later eras, the artificial suppression of ticket prices in order to give the impression of lower inflation must also be taken into account. Simply looking at the profit and loss accounts is not a sufficient comparison.
The first railroad in Norway, which was part state owned, was opened in 1854 and ran from the port and capital of Oslo to the southern end of the big inland lake Mjøsa. From there on, a steam ship service was established. One of the ships from back then is still in service, though now primarily for tourism as both rail and road now run the length of the lake. I don't know how much the state was involved with the ships.
Shortly after, the government started building fully state owned lines. One of them branched from the first line to provide a rail link to the capital of Sweden (which Norway was in union with), which it still does. The other two were initially not connected to each other or the two other, but would eventually become part of a line between Oslo and Trondheim. So the full nationalization of the first railroad line was probably mostly for practical reasons, as it became, and still is, the backbone of the network. A network which by the way is very star shaped, centered around Oslo, with few alternate routes. Historically, there was a standard gauge eastern network and a narrow gauge western network, spreading out from two different stations in Oslo. The line to Bergen was however actually part of the eastern network. The western network was re-gauged and fully connected to the eastern, a connection which is now a major bottleneck. (There is a second connection, actually the first, but it involves a detour and a run-around.)
I have the impression that while the (first) industrial revolution drove the building of railroads elsewhere, it was the other way around in Norway. There probably were no pre-existing transport network, beyond footpaths, short streches of river, fjords and the ocean. As far as I know, the first canals, at least of any significance, date from the same time period.
Are those questions on which we actually disagree? And, if so, is the disagreement on them relevant to the disagreement in the question of whether railways ought be state owned?
But that's not fair. You vote to be methodological up to the point where it comes to your interest. The sentence "Company A took this decision" is perfectly understandable, but you claimed that it should be said that "People inside that company voted and took this decision", which was irrelevant to the point.
The problem here is, as usual, the metrics used. You stick to facts, which can be ok. But you have to measure "the goodness" of those facts, and here comes the problem you can't (or won't) see. Metrics for goodness are very dependent on personal interests. And ultimately, if you want a fact about this, you have to ask people directly about their opinion. There is no "one size fits all" for this, much on the contrary of what Plato said. That's the ultimate reason why many of these political questions are a matter of choice. And all those choices are equally respectable.
All everyone's rational discourse is usually filled with biased opinions, not facts. For instance, the price ticket was low during the period of nationalization (that is a historic fact), but you add: to artificially keep inflation low. That's a biased opinion.
We could spend a very, very long time indeed discussing the ultimate foundations of ethical philosophy - let's not get into that unless there is a relevant disagreement the resolution of which is requisite to dealing with the ultimate practical issue at stake.
Deal. But you started that dangerous way...
Reason is the only proper way to discuss things.
James, that is a pretty unreasonable sentence...
That people are sometimes irrationally motivated does not justify people acting irrationally. By definition, people cannot be justified in acting irrationally (as, if the action had a real justification, it could not be said to be truly irrational). The nature of the discussion is about what can be justified. One might equally say, "You speak as if not murdering people is the only way to live; but, in life, not murdering people is not the only way that people go about their lives...".
The dream of reason produces monsters. You keep on being platonic. In your magic wonderful world full of colors, reason is the Queen of Hearts. But in real life, rational arguments are twisted to suit one's objectives. It's quite common, whether on purpose or not, to first fix the goal and then look for the rational arguments to support it.
You are killing a great deal of human nature that way. Aesthetics, for instance. Many times, the most reasonable thing to do is not done due to that.
But the ultimate foundations on which to support my idea are facts: look at the history of human kind since the Enlightenment... How many crimes have been based on Reason since then? The most dreadful wars have happened... Did Reason give us peace?
Ask two lovers...
But let's go to some other more interesting things:
why does that subsidy have to come directly from the state? Doing so gives rise to the real danger that the state will (as indeed it frequently did and continues to do repeatedly) abuse its power for the short-term political interest of the politicians making the decisions.
Well, I wouldn't like that my welfare depends on the good will of others... That's not rational...
If a subsidy of some sort is really needed, and further if that subsidy is of such a level that can only come by way of being forced out of people by the coercive mechanism of the state, why is state ownership of the thing that is being subsidised (and, by implication, all such things, such as to create an almost Stalinist state megalith capable of abuse of power on a vast scale) rather than there being a simple requirement that people give a certain proportion of their incomes to charity (where such charities can include public transport concerns where the service cannot be run commercially), so that there is an effective split between the regulator of economic activity and the economic actors?
This sentence is also very ideologically biased. You speak about the State as if it were some third party in the game. People are forced to give their money to the State. But the State doesn't live in Pluto. That money comes back to people. Then, they are not forced, the money is there from everyone to everyone. The administrators of that money are elected by that people too... So, I can't see any abuse... And who provided those people of yours with their money? Did they generate it from vacuum?
What would you say if I state that those people got their money based on exploitation, by way of the work of other people being forced out by the coercive mechanism of necessity? This sentence is as biased as yours, I presume.
Talking about why the State is also running some services (it gets the money for itself) is simple: private initiative in general doesn't work. Services are more expensive and of lower quality. That's may experience.
The weak part of your argument is this: there are good and bad companies, good and bad politicians, but if I live in a remote place and providing me with a service is not profitable, with whom I have more chances to get the service, with a good private company or with a bad politician?
Quote from: isidoro on August 31, 2012, 12:27:39 AM
I am not sure why you say that I am "methodological up to the point where it comes to [my] interest". The point about decisions of companies being made by individual directors and decisions of the state being made by individual politicians was relevant, as I explained at the time, in that it is necessary to understand that fact in order to have a proper understanding of the incentives that actually drive those decisions. When properly analysed, the incentives driving the decisions of politicians running services such as railways to act in the public interest are no stronger, and are often weaker and set about by more contrary incentives, than those of directors of private companies running those same services, and the latter especially so where the state establishes and maintains the rule of law effectively. These differential motivations are obscured by the analytically imprecise notion that "the company" or "the state" makes the decision (although that convenient shorthand is sufficient for many other purposes where the distinction is not significant).
You have not answered the question that was intended to determine whether and to what extent resolving this is relevant, being:
[D]o you agree or disagree that it is possible to reach a meaningful conclusion about what policies ought to be adopted? If you do, then the methodological discussion is probably an irrelevance. If you do not, why do you think that it matters whether railways are run by private companies, the state or the local rotary club?
Do you mean by "all those choices are equally respectable" that all individuals' preferences as to what makes them happiest are equally respectable, or all decisions of the state as to what policy to adopt are equally respectable? The distinction is important, for, whilst it is possible for a set of individuals simultaneously to have a plurality of preferences between them (in that it is possible for person A to prefer fish and chips, person B to prefer cake, and person C to prefer steak and kidney pie, etc.), the state obviously cannot simultaneously have a plurality of policies. In simple terms, the state's policies can be good or bad in so far as they might make more or less people happier (taking into account that what makes one person happy is not necessarily the same as what makes another happy). I could post a link to a paper of something in the order of 5-10,000 words if I recall correctly that I wrote on the subject of the nature of value and the relaitonship between the good and the right a number of years ago if it really becomes necessary to resolve this issue, but it is very unclear how it could be relevant in so far as you accept that it is possible for anyone meaningfully to hold a political opinion. A political opinion is inherently an opinion about what the state ought to do given the conceptual impossibility of a plurality of policies. It is only meaningful to conceive of there being such a thing as a political opinion in so far as it is meaningful to conceive of there being things which the state ought or ought not do. By holding a political opinion, or crtiticising others on grounds of their content rather than meaningfulness, you are therefore necesessarily assuming that it is the case that there are things that the state ought and ought not do, and it is incoherent simultaneously (implicitly) to assert that there are things that the state ought and ought not do and expressly assert the contrary. Would you think it an acceptable explanation for the state adopting a policy that causes you serious harm and provides benefit to nobody that it's all just a matter of opinion which policies are right, and that all choices that the state might make are equally acceptable? If not, how is a negative answer to that question consistent with your last sentence above? If so, how can you meaningfully hold a political opinion about anything?
Why do you think that that is not a fact? That is a description of the motivation for the decision. What about that is non-factual?
I don't have a magical world full of colours. There is only the one world, and that is a world that we all inhabit. I don't deny that some people dishonestly pretend to be arguing rationally when in fact they are pursuing an irrational agenda; but it is only rigorous reasoning and the subjecting of arguments to serious reasoned scrutiny that can discover when people are doing this. Those who seek to pretend to be rational when they are not are pursuing the thoroughly insidious goal of trying to suppress or obfuscate truth, and all efforts must always be taken to expose such people as effectively as possible. These sorts of people can usually be identified by their tendency to (1) advance incoherent arguments; and (2) become aggressive and/or evasive when they are confronted with an unanswerable argument (usually arising out of pointing out the incoherency).
Quite the contrary - there is nothing more uniquely human than the ability to reason. There is nothing irrational about taking into account aesthetics - why do you think to the contrary? A pleasing appearance can make people happy, which is the ultimate goal of human reasoning. Aesthetics is not somehow opposed to reason: it is one of many factors that can rationally be taken into account when making a reasoned decision.
No crimes have been "based on reason". It is always irrational to do wrong: indeed, how is it possible to arrive at a justifiable conclusion that any given action is wrong but by the very reason that you seek to depracate? It is incoherent to advance an argument that an action is wrong and simultaneously suggest that it was rational: the two are necessarily opposed.
That is not a meaningful response, I am afraid. People often use the word "argument" to mean the same as "quarrel", but the formal sense of the word, which I have been using here, is quite different. If you mean to do something other than refer to quarrelling, then it is not clear what exactly you mean, I am afraid.
How is this a response to the point about the dangers of the state being both regulator and actor in the same economic domain? Your welfare has to depend far more on the good-will of politicians and civil servants when there are no means of separating regulating activity and conducting that activity than when there is such a separation.
This rather returns to the point discussed at the outset: it is not the state making decisions (as an abstraction cannot actually make decisions), but a individual politicians. As discussed at length above, there is no reason to believe that thier interests are more aligned with voters than company directors' interests are aligned with consumers. You have not provided any counter-arguments to those points (indeed, nobody has so far: I venture to suggest that that is because the points are quite unanswerable). And if you think that taxation is not forced - what do you think happens to people who don't pay their taxes?
I think that you misunderstand the point: the point was not that taxation is wrong: taxation is necessary in order properly to fund the necessary machinary of the state, which is essential for the operation of any civilised society. The point was simply that, if subsidy is desirable in some cases, and further, if the only way of raising that subsidy is by forcing the general population to hand over money, why does the money have to be handled directly by the state? There are many cases where the state collects money from people by way of taxation and, in effect, distributes it to (state run) good causes: things that are desirable but cannot be commercially profitable. This amounts to nationalisation of charity. The only necessity of the state's involvement is the element of coercion: it does not have to be involved in the ultimate distribution. Indeed, by being so involved, it raises the possibility of the sort of abuses that I have discussed at some length above. Why can the state not, instead of requiring a large amount of money in taxes, require a smaller amount of money in taxes, and mandate that citizens donate a further proportion of their income (equivalent to the difference between the smaller and larger amount of taxation) to charities of their choice, which might include welfare for the poor, medical care, uneconomic but socially important transport, and so forth?
This is a generalisation which you have not attempted to support by actual examples or real statistical evidence. In particular, on what basis do you dismiss the prominent example of British railways before 1948?
Neither: see above on the alternative to what is in effect nationalised chairty.
« Last Edit: August 31, 2012, 10:59:08 AM by jamespetts »
Even though this is simutrans, trains after WWII are not the best example, since they went down everywhere in the world as soon as car traffic increased. It did not matter whether those were private or nationalized companies.
Otherwise BOAC should have been unsuccessful too, since it was a nationalized company until privatisation. Again good or bad management is not decided if the money is from the goverment or for shareholders.
Lufthansa did well as a state company and does well as a private company. And Deutsche Bahn did bad as state company, and does today well, with the state still holding 100% of all shares.
Thus nationalisation is neither good or bad. It really depends how is it done and by whom. Usually private companies are fast and cheaper in the short term, but can be more expensive and less sustainable in the long term. To me this question cannot have a conclusive answer.
Pages: 1 [2] 3 All Go Up
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line7577
|
__label__cc
| 0.725283
| 0.274717
|
Pat Robertson to Mom Who Found Son’s Gay Porn: “Somebody’s Trying to Seduce” Him January 10, 2019 Hemant Mehta
Pat Robertson to Mom Who Found Son’s Gay Porn: “Somebody’s Trying to Seduce” Him
A woman wrote to the The 700 Club on Wednesday to ask Pat Robertson for advice about the gay porn she found on her 13-year-old son’s iPad. Because he’s really the expert.
Hello, Pat and friends,
I was doing my weekly technology checkup on my 13-year-old son’s iPad computer when I noticed homosexual pornographic material in his search history. This has greatly shaken my family and my connection to God. How can we stop my son’s homosexual interests?
— Emma
Robertson’s response began decently enough — talking about how boys that age will be curious — and then descended into chaos.
The segment begins at the 47:11 mark.
Well, look. Kids are curious about all kinds of stuff. I mean, you know, 8-, 9-, 10-year-old boys, they’re interested in all kinds of things. So they are exploring stuff.
I think… how can you stop it? I think what you need to do is to cut off that particular avenue that’s coming into him, because somebody’s trying to seduce your son, and they shouldn’t be sending homosexual or any other kind of sexual material on the internet. It shouldn’t be done.
And so, but, is it out there? Yes. How do you stop it? Well, you really need to find some technological way of cutting the cord on that one, because it’s not good for him or you.
Boy views porn on the internet. Pat Robertson thinks boy is being groomed by an actual gay man. Not even in the same ballpark on that one…
But this is what happens when you ask for tech advice from an 88-year-old man.
The problem isn’t the kid looking up sexual material online. I promise you that’s going to happen, and the kid will eventually learn how to clear his browser history.
The problem is that this mother is doing a “weekly technology checkup” on her son that involves going through that browser history. He’s 13. There’s a lot of stuff he’s going to look up that mom’s better off not knowing about.
The other issue, of course, is that the mother thinks she can “stop” her son’s “homosexual interests.” She thinks she can turn him straight if he’s gay. Robertson should’ve told her that’s not possible. He could’ve pivoted, like so many conservative Christians do, to say that there’s a way to be gay and Christian in a way that satisfies God.
Instead, he told the mother to watch out for the creepy old man trying to molest her kid.
I know Christians have a habit of conjuring up things that don’t exist, but that’s one hell of a non-sequitur.
It’s also horrible advice. Which is to say it’s exactly what you’d expect when you ask Pat Robertson a question about computers and homosexuality.
Christian Hate Group Urges GOP to Exclude LGBTQ People from Anti-Lynching Bill
January 10, 2019 FL Democrat Introduces Bill Requiring Public High Schools to Offer Bible Classes
David P. Graf
“The Bachelorette” Trashed Christian Purity Culture ..."
"But when we got tired of the Puritans up here in New England, by the ..."
"The whole story is a myth and never actually happened, so we can start there. ..."
Feminerd
Right-Winger Denounces Asylum Seekers: “God Doesn’t ..."
"Rare? How about "rarely needed"?"
se habla espol
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line7579
|
__label__wiki
| 0.735999
| 0.735999
|
Result of Justice League Xxx An Axel Braun Parody Streaming Online
Fuelled by his restored faith in humanity and inspired by Superman's selfless act, Bruce Wayne and Diana Prince assemble a team of metahumans consisting of Barry Allen, Arthur Curry and Victor Stone to face the catastrophic threat of Steppenwolf and the Parademons who are on the hunt for three Mother Boxes on Earth.
A U.S. Marshal seeking justice for his brother's murder defends a small town from a corrupt Mayor and his henchmen with intents to revive the civil war.
After his wife is assaulted, a husband enlists the services of a vigilante group to help him settle the score.
In this film, we see the world through the eyes of main character Justice, a young African-American poet. A mail carrier invites a few friends along for a long overnight delivery run.
Beings with supernatural powers join together to fight against supernatural villains.
In Justiça, Maria Ramos puts a camera where many Brazilians have never been - a criminal courtroom in Rio de Janeiro, following the daily routine of several characters. There are those that work there every day (public attorneys, judges, and prosecutors) and those that are merely passing through (the accused). The camera is used as an instrument that sees the social theatre, the structures of power - that is to say, what is, in general, invisible to us. The corridors of the Courts of Justice, the design and layout of the courtroom, the discourse, the codes, postures - all the little visual details and sounds become relevant.
Out for Justice
Gino Felino (Steven Seagal) is an NYPD detective from Brooklyn who knows everyone and everything in his neighborhood. Killing his Partner was someone's mistake, because he's now Out For Justice.
Fearing the actions of a god-like Super Hero left unchecked, Gotham City’s own formidable, forceful vigilante takes on Metropolis’s most revered, modern-day savior, while the world wrestles with what sort of hero it really needs. And with Batman and Superman at war with one another, a new threat quickly arises, putting mankind in greater danger than it’s ever known before.
Justice League: War
The world is under attack by an alien armada led by the powerful Apokoliptian, Darkseid. A group of superheroes consisting of Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, The Flash, Green Lantern, Cyborg, and Shazam must set aside their differences and gather together to defend Earth.
An adaptation of Mark Waid's "Tower of Babel" story from the JLA comic. Vandal Savage steals confidential files Batman has compiled on the members of the Justice League, and learns all their weaknesses.
Seagal plays a man with a dark and violent past, who seeks revenge for the murder of his son.
Justice League vs. Teen Titans
Robin is sent by Batman to work with the Teen Titans after his volatile behavior botches up a Justice League mission. The Titans must then step up to face Trigon after he possesses the League and threatens to conquer the world.
Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox
When time travel allows a past wrong to be righted for The Flash and his family, the ripples of the event prove disastrous as a fractured, alternate reality now exists where a Justice League never formed, and even Superman is nowhere to be found. Teaming with a grittier, more violent Dark Knight and Cyborg, Flash races to restore the continuity of his original timeline while this new world is ravaged by a fierce war between Wonder Woman's Amazons and Aquaman’s Atlanteans.
After the events of Justice League: War, Ocean Master and Black Manta have declared a war against the surface in retaliation of the aftermath of Apokoliptian-tyrant Darkseid's planetary invasion. Queen Atlanna seeks out her other son, Ocean Master’s half-brother Arthur Curry, a half-human with aquatic powers with no knowledge of his Atlantean heritage, to restore balance. Living with powers he doesn’t understand and seeing the danger around him, Curry takes steps to embrace his destiny, joining the Justice League, and with his new teammates he battles to save Earth from total destruction.
Brother's Justice
Motivated by Box Office statistics, Dax Shepard has made a decision to leave comedy to pursue his dream of becoming an international Martial Arts action star.
Justice League: Gods and Monsters
In an alternate universe, very different versions of DC's Trinity fight against the government after they are framed for an embassy bombing.
...And Justice for All
An ethical Baltimore defense lawyer disgusted with rampant legal corruption is asked to defend a judge he despises in a rape trial. But if he doesn't do it, the judge will have him disbarred.
Sharpe's Justice
Napoleon has been exiled to Elba, the English have returned from the wars, and Major Richard Sharpe finds himself in a sort of exile to lead a company of Yorkshire Yeomen. His duties include protecting mill owners from restless workers who are on the verge of strike or outright revolt. Meanwhile, Sharpe's faithless wife and her lover fall within range of Sharpe's wrath. Sharpe, with his two of his devoted Chosen Men nearby, must decide whether to continue to protect the mill owners or to take the side of their fiercely downtrodden workers.
Final Justice
Due to his violent past, Deputy Sheriff Thomas Jefferson Geronimo III (Joe Don Baker) has been transferred to a rural outpost. When two thugs kill the sheriff, Geronimo shoots one of them, and the other vows revenge. Unfortunately for Geronimo, that thug turns out to be a mob boss, and the court orders Geronimo to extradite him back to his home in Sicily. When their plane is hijacked, the adversaries find their roles reversed.
Instant Justice
Scott is a US Marine who travels Spain to see his sister Kim, after many years of separation. But she is dead, and there is nothing else to arrive him. Alone in the Madrid's streets, Scott will search for the killers, will try to reveal the reason of the murder of his dear sister, and for revenge for himself.
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line7581
|
__label__cc
| 0.719821
| 0.280179
|
Home » Social Media Graphs • Static » Members of LinkedIn
Members of LinkedIn
Although its members lower than Facebook and Twitter.
But LinkedIn gained massive reputation for its unique advantages to professional and job seekers. From its inception in 2003, the social networking site has attracted millions of users.
Currently around 100 million members use LinkedIn account. And in 2010, around 2 billion people searched the site for recruiting various positions like Vice President of Marketing, Chief Financial Service, Senior Manager, and Vice Director of Operations.
LinkedIn users spread in over 200 countries. Most of them reside out of the U.S. It takes 12 days to own one million users. Earlier it was 494 days to reach a million users in the beginning.
However, when revenue and profit compared with Facebook, striking difference can be seen. While Facebook’s revenues is $ 2 billion and profits $600 million, LinkedIn could get revenues $243 million and profits $15.4 million.
Explore more infographics like this one on the web's largest information design community - Graphs.net.
Categories : Social Media Graphs | Published by : graphs | Date : Aug 2, 2012
Tags: benefits of LinkedIn Account, Comparison of profits of LinkedIn and Facebook, Comparison of revenue of LinkedIn and Facebook, LinkedIn Vs Facebook, Members of LinkedIn, Story of LinkedIn, US users of LinkedIn, what you can find on LinkedIn
Source : http://www.onlinemba.com/
Add missing credits
America’s Most Expensive Buildings – Infographic
Why Freelancing is a Lucrative Option
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line7588
|
__label__cc
| 0.730183
| 0.269817
|
04 Aug Matthew 13:33
33 He spoke another parable to them, “The kingdom of heaven is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three pecks of flour until it was all leavened.” Leaven is often used to depict defilement or evil; however, in this short parable it appears Jesus...
03 Aug Matthew 13:31-32
31 He presented another parable to them, saying, “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and sowed in his field; 32 and this is smaller than all other seeds, but when it is full grown, it is larger than the garden...
29 But he *said, ‘No; for while you are gathering up the tares, you may uproot the wheat with them. 30 Allow both to grow together until the harvest; and in the time of the harvest I will say to the reapers, “First gather up the tares...
24 Jesus presented another parable to them, saying, “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field. 25 But while his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went away. 26 But when the...
30 Jul Matthew 13:22-23
22 And the one on whom seed was sown among the thorns, this is the man who hears the word, and the worry of the world and the deceitfulness of wealth choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful. 23 And the one on whom seed was sown...
18 “Hear then the parable of the sower. 19 When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what has been sown in his heart. This is the one on whom seed was sown beside the...
14In their case the prophecy of Isaiah is being fulfilled, which says, ‘You will keep on hearing, but will not understand; You will keep on seeing, but will not perceive; 15 For the heart of this people has become dull, With their ears they scarcely hear, And...
10 And the disciples came and said to Him, “Why do You speak to them in parables?” 11 Jesus answered them, “To you it has been granted to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been granted. 12 For whoever has,...
26 Jul Matthew 13:4-9
4 and as he sowed, some seeds fell beside the road, and the birds came and ate them up. 5 Others fell on the rocky places, where they did not have much soil; and immediately they sprang up, because they had no depth of soil. 6 But when...
13 That day Jesus went out of the house and was sitting by the sea. 2 And large crowds gathered to Him, so He got into a boat and sat down, and the whole crowd was standing on the beach. 3 And He spoke many things to them...
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line7589
|
__label__cc
| 0.643968
| 0.356032
|
BenchPrep Closes $20 Million Series C
— BenchPrep, the leading provider of an advanced white-label online learning platform for education and training organizations, announced today a $20 million Series C round of funding co-led by leading expansion stage investors Jump Capital and Owl Ventures. Previous investors who joined this round include NewView Capital and Revolution Ventures. This latest round also incorporates debt financing and brings BenchPrep’s funding total to $28.2 million. The funds will be used to fuel the Company’s growth, further enhance its product offering, and extend its leadership position in the education and training industry.
The funding follows a year of record growth for BenchPrep, which tripled its revenue rate and its team in the last two years. In 2018, BenchPrep signed partnerships with world-leading education and training organizations, including Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC), National Conference of Bar Examiners (NCBE), Association of Supply Chain Management (ASCM), American Institute of Architects (AIA), and Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE).
“2018 was a banner year for BenchPrep. We are excited to help the leading education and training organizations modernize their learning programs to serve millions of learners,” said Ashish Rangnekar, co-founder and CEO of BenchPrep. “The professional learning landscape is going through a dramatic shift towards online, personalized learning. BenchPrep is well positioned to lead this shift by helping education and training companies transform their business models and digitize their learning programs.”
Rangnekar founded BenchPrep in 2009 with Ujjwal Gupta, COO.
Continuous learning has become an economic imperative for both professionals and organizations. Education and training organizations are being forced to reevaluate their learning strategies and programs. BenchPrep is proving to be an industry leader in learning program delivery by offering a variety of customized online solutions that drive user adoption and engagement, improve pass rates, and increase revenue.
“We view the acceleration of digital transformation in the professional education and learning space as a large opportunity and we are very excited to partner with an industry leader in BenchPrep,” said Michael McMahon, Managing Partner at Jump Capital.
BenchPrep delivers the most advanced and flexible learning experience for certification, credentialing, test prep, continuing education, and training. Its cloud-based learning platform is designed to help education and training organizations deliver a highly engaging and effective learning experience for users who are trying to advance their careers. The platform also offers the latest in learner-centered technology to deliver personalized, gamified, omni-channel learning experiences that lead to higher engagement, increased learner satisfaction, and improved success rates.
“For many organizations, delivering a modern digital learning experience can be very challenging and costly. By partnering with BenchPrep, organizations can offer a state-of-the-art learning program that generates high margin revenue and strengthens their long-term relationships with their learners,” said Ian Chiu, Managing Director at Owl Ventures. “We look forward to supporting Ashish, Ujjwal, and the BenchPrep team as they bring new and innovative capabilities to professional education and training.”
To learn more about BenchPrep, please visit: benchprep.com.
About BenchPrep
Based in Chicago, BenchPrep enables the world’s leading education, training, and assessment companies to build and deliver best-in-class online learning programs. The Company’s innovative enterprise SaaS learner success solutions incorporate the latest in learner-centered technology, including personalization, gamification, data science, usability and omni-channel delivery. Customers include ACT, Becker Professional Education, AAMC, CFA Institute, ProLiteracy, HR Certification Institute, Hobsons, McGraw-Hill Education, OnCourse Learning, GMAC, and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. More than 3 million learners have used BenchPrep’s platform to attain academic and professional success. To discover more about BenchPrep, please visit benchprep.com.
About Jump Capital
Jump Capital is a venture capital firm specializing in expansion and growth stage investments ranging from $2-$20mm. Jump invests in data-driven enterprise software companies across a breadth of industries. With offices in Chicago and New York, Jump provides advocacy and support through a platform of institutional-level resources for entrepreneurs. Learn more atwww.jumpcap.com or follow on twitter @jumpcapital.
About Owl Ventures
Owl Ventures is a Silicon Valley based venture capital fund that invests in the world’s leading education technology companies. Owl has been a major investor in many of the fastest growing companies in the education market, including Accelerate Learning, Degreed, DreamBox Learning, Newsela, Noodle Partners, and Quizlet. The firm has invested in 24 companies across the education spectrum encompassing early childhood, K-12, higher education and career mobility/professional learning. Owl leverages its deep domain expertise and takes an active hands-on approach to help entrepreneurs scale their businesses into transformative category leading companies. The firm was founded in 2014 and has over $600 million in assets under management. Learn more at www.OwlVC.com.
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line7590
|
__label__cc
| 0.687455
| 0.312545
|
Search Warrants and Exceptions in North Carolina
by Gilles Law | Sep 26, 2017 | Blog Posts, Federal Criminal Defense, NC Criminal Defense
In general, police must have a warrant to search you, your home, or and your personal belongings. To obtain a search warrant, the police officer needs probable, meaning that an officer must have some evidence more than his own inclination that evidence of a crime will be found. Be aware, however, that officers do not always need a warrant. There are several exceptions to the warrant requirement of the Fourth Amendment that make warrantless searches perfectly lawful in certain situations.
The Fourth Amendment
The Fourth Amendment of the United States Constitution prohibits unreasonable searches and seizures by police and other government agents. In this blog, we will be focusing primarily on police searches. In most cases, police must have a warrant to search you, your home, or your personal belongings. In order for the police to get a warrant, they must have probable cause to believe that evidence of a crime may be found. There must be proof of a “fair probability” that contraband or evidence of crime will be found in the area searched. Police officers only need a search warrant when their actions constitute a search under the meaning of the Fourth Amendment.
What is a Search?
A search under the meaning of the Fourth Amendment occurs in one of two ways. First, a search has occurred where an individual has a reasonable expectation of privacy, and a government official invades that privacy in order to obtain information. In order for an individual to have a reasonable expectation of privacy, that individual must have a subjective expectation of privacy that is objectively reasonable. Second, a search has occurred where a government official has physically intruded on private property in order to obtain information.
Warrantless Searches
As mentioned earlier in the blog, police generally need a warrant to conduct a search. However, warrantless searches may be reasonable and lawful. There are exceptions to the warrant requirement of the Fourth Amendment. Police officers are able to justify warrantless searches due to: exigent circumstances; search incident to lawful arrest; consent; inventory searches; automobile exception; plain view; Terry “stop and frisk”. There are three types of exigent circumstances: evidence that would dissipate or disappear in the time it would take to get a warrant, a fleeing felon, and emergency aid for a person inside of the home. Search incident to arrest allows police to conduct a warrantless search of an arrested person and the area within the person’s immediate control. Consent allows the police to perform a serach if you give them permission. Inventory searches typically happen when arrestees are booked in jail and when vehicles are impounded by the police. A terry stop and frisk is a pat down of the body and outer clothing for weapons that is justified by an officer’s belief that a suspect is armed and dangerous.
The plain view exception to the warrant requirement is exactly as it sounds, it allows officers to seize incriminating evidence without a search warrant when the evidence is in plain view. In addition to being in plain view, the nature of the contraband must be readily apparent. To demonstrate the plain view exception, consider the following: if a gun is laying in the front passenger seat of a car, it is in plain view, but if the officer had to look under the seat to find the gun, it is not in plain view. It is important to note that police must be lawfully present at the location that they found the item in “plain view.” For example, if police illegally enter your home (they had no search warrant and no search warrant exception existed), and see illegal drugs in plain view, this would still be an unlawful search because the police were unlawfully present. But, as with most things in law, there is an exception to this rule. If the item would have inevitably been discovered, the search may be upheld as valid even if the officer had no lawful right to be present in the area where the plain view took place.
Does this apply when the police smell something suspicious?
This theory parallels the plain view exception, where smell should be enough to constitute probable cause for a warrantless search. For instance, you’re in your car when an officer knocks on your window and a waft of marijuana smoke hits the officer instantly. The officer then orders you to get out of your car and proceeds to search your car. The officer doesn’t need a warrant in this case to lawfully search your car because he recognizes the smell of marijuana. See United States v. Humphries, 372 F.3d 653 (4th Cir. 2004).
Can police search your cell phone, laptop, and fitbit without a warrant?
Police generally cannot access data on electronic devices without a warrant. However, with a warrant, police will be able to use your Fitbit data (and data from other motion tracking devices) as evidence against you in court.
Special Searches
The special needs exception to warrants covers the “special needs” of law enforcement, governmental employers and school officials beyond a general interest in law enforcement. Some examples include drug testing, parolees, and school searches. For drug testing, a warrantless, suspicionless drug test can occur in a variety of circumstances including the scene of an impact accident, customs agent responsible for drug interdiction, and public school children who participate in any extracurricular activities. For parolees, warrantless, suspicionless searches of a parolee and his home are permissible as a condition of parole. Warrantless searches of the person and the “effects” (purses or backpacks) of public schoolchildren are permissible to investigate violations of school rules, such as the prohibition of smoking on school grounds, provided the search is reasonable at its inception and is not excessively intrusive, in light of the age and sex of the student and the nature of the infraction.
Please feel free to contact us and speak with a criminal defense attorney about any other search warrant related questions.
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line7593
|
__label__wiki
| 0.882921
| 0.882921
|
Exploring London
A blog about London and its history…
LondonLife – King Henry VIII’s lost tiltyard tower rediscovered…
Archaeologists have uncovered the remains of one of five highly ornate towers, luxurious banqueting houses from which the court would view tournaments in King Henry VIII’s walled tiltyard at Hampton Court Palace.
Built in the 1530s, the multi-storey towers were largely demolished by the 1680s and, with the exception of one of the towers which still stands at the palace (and is now a Grade I listed building), their precise location eventually lost.
Until now, that is. The green-glazed tiled floor of one of the ‘lost’ towers were unearthed earlier this month during works taking place as the tiltyard undergoes a family-oriented makeover by award-winning landscape architect, Robert Myers (to be known as ‘The Magic Garden’, it will be unveiled next Easter).
The richly decorated towers – where the king entertained dignitaries and ambassadors – are thought to slightly predate the tiltyard which was apparently laid out in 1537 – perhaps, it’s been suggested, to mark the birth of King Henry VIII’s son, the future King Edward VI.
The first recorded tournament at Hampton Court took place in 1557 when Queen Mary I held one to celebrate Christmas. Her sister Queen Elizabeth I continued the tradition by occasionally holding tournaments there but most days the tiltyard was used to train the young men of the court in warfare.
When tournaments gradually fell out of fashion, the towers were used as multi-purpose storage facilities housing, according to Historic Royal Palaces, everything from pigeons to two Catholic priests in service to King Charles I’s queen, Henrietta Maria, who were spent time ‘quarantined’ there after an outbreak of plague.
For more on Hampton Court Palace, see www.hrp.org.uk/hampton-court-palace/.
Posted in Charles I, Edward VI, Elizabeth I, Hampton Court Palace, Henry VIII, LondonLife, Mary I, News, Tudor, West London | Tagged Hampton Court Palace, King Charles I, King Edward VI, King Henry VIII, King Henry VIII's tiltyard, Queen Elizabeth I, Queen Henrietta Maria, Queen Mary I, The Magic Garden, Tiltyard Cafe, Tudor London | Leave a Comment »
Famous Londoners – Hans Holbein the Younger…
Famed as the court painter of King Henry VIII, Hans Holbein the Younger was one of the greatest portrait painters of the sixteenth century.
Born in Augsburg, in southern Germany, in 1497-98, Holbein was the son of painter and draughtsman Hans Holbein the Elder. Hans, like his brother Ambrosius, followed the family trade which he apparently learnt under the tutelage of his father and uncle until breaking away to make his own mark.
Journeying with Ambrosius to Basel in what is now Switzerland, the two brothers became apprenticed to the city’s leading painter Hans Herbster. In 1517, Holbein went with father to Lucerne where they worked painting murals for a leading merchant. It is thought while there, that he visited northern Italy where he studied Italian frescos.
Returning to Basel in 1519, he quickly re-established his business there, becoming a member of the artists’ guild, and married Elsbeth Schmid, their first son arriving in the first year of their marriage (the couple apparently had four children, two of whom are depicted in a portrait with his wife he painted in the late 1520s).
He was soon completing numerous major projects for the city – including painting internal murals for the Town Hall’s council chamber – and was also involved in creating illustrations for books – the most famous being the series of images known as the Dance of Death – and painting portraits, including his first portraits of the Renaissance scholar, Erasmus. It was these and other portraits that ensured his fame across Europe.
The decline in the production of religious art, thanks to the Reformation which was then sweeping over the continent, apparently led Holbein to look further afield for work and, having first gone to France, in 1526 he went to England.
There he was welcomed by Sir Thomas More, then a key figure in the regime of King Henry VIII, who soon found him some commissions. His works during this period included portraits of More, William Warham, Archbishop of Canterbury, astronomer Nicholas Kratzer and courtiers like Sir Henry Guildford.
He returned to Basel a wealthy and successful man in 1528 and remained there for four years before once again leaving his family and heading to England, this time finding favour with the Boleyn family and Thomas Cromwell.
It was early during this period – he remained in England until his death in 1543 – that he painted portraits of Hanseatic League merchants of the Steelyard (see our earlier post here) as well as The Ambassadors (see our earlier post here).
In 1536, he was employed as painter to King Henry VIII and the following year he painted what is arguably his most famous image – that of King Henry VIII in all his glory in the image known as the Whitehall Mural which pictured the king with his the wife, Queen Jane Seymour, his father, King Henry VII and his mother, Queen Elizabeth of York (the image was lost in the fire which destroyed Whitehall Palace in 1698 but copies were made and a copy is now at Hampton Court Palace).
King Henry VIII was to be his subject on numerous occasions as were other members of the Royal Family, courtiers and prospective wives including, famously, a portrait of Anne of Cleves which may have oversold her beauty to the king who was unimpressed with her in person (there is apparently no evidence the king blamed Holbein himself for this).
While he had successfully navigated his way past the downfall of Sir Thomas More and then the Boleyn family, the fall of Sir Thomas Cromwell did cause significant damage to his standing. Nonetheless he retained his official position at court and it was during this time that he painted some of his finest miniatures including those of the sons of Henry VIII’s friend, Charles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk.
It is believed Holbein may have returned to visit his family in late 1540 before returning to London where he died sometime in October or November, 1543, having made his will on 7th October at his home in Aldgate (plague has been suggested as the cause of his death). The site of his grave is unknown.
Holbein’s legacy is such that the portraits he created in his two stints in London have become a key component in how we view Tudor England – and in particular, the Tudor court – today.
His works can be seen in key locations across London including the National Gallery (pictured above), the National Portrait Gallery (where his bust is one of a series of artists on the exterior) and Hampton Court Palace.
Posted in Hampton Court Palace, Henry VII, Henry VIII, People, Thomas More, Tudor | Tagged Famous Londoners, Hampton Court Palace, Hans Holbein the Younger, Hanseatic League, King Henry VIII, Palace of Whitehall, Sir Thomas Cromwell, Sir Thomas More, Tudor London, Whitehall Mural | Leave a Comment »
10 Questions – Sheila Dunsmore, a State Apartment warder at Hampton Court Palace…
This year marks the 500th anniversary of the building of Hampton Court Palace in Greater London’s south-west. We speak to Sheila Dunsmore, a State Apartment warder at Hampton Court Palace (pictured above in centre on the left)…
1. It’s Hampton Court Palace’s 500th anniversary – who first built the palace and why? “In 1514, Thomas Wolsey came to survey the land at Hampton Court. He wanted to find a suitable place to build a sumptuous country retreat away from the dirt of London, but close enough to the capital to travel back for meetings. It was also to be a place to entertain the important company his position as Archbishop of York provided, of which none were more important than young King Henry VIII.”
2. Where are the oldest parts of the palace today? “The oldest part of the palace is the Tudor kitchens, more specifically the area were the great fire is. This was once part of Sir Giles Daubeney’s original kitchen, and dates back to the manor already on the site when it was acquired by Wolsey. Sir Giles Daubeney was Lord Chamberlain to Henry VII, and acquired an 80 year lease on the property from the Knights Hospitallers of St John of Jerusalem, the then owners. The bell in the tower above the astronomical clock is also said to have come from the Knights Hospitallers’ original manor house.”
3. Hampton Court’s 500 years of history spans a number of definable eras – from Tudor to the 21st century. Which is your favourite and why? “My favourite era is the 1660s when Charles II came back to England to take up his rightful place as king. Although visitors do not really associate Charles with the palace, he did spend time here, most famously his honeymoon!”
4. With this in mind what is your favourite part of the palace? “I love the west front façade – it just looks so imposing and mysterious. Whether you are driving or walking past it it’s guaranteed to draw you in under its spell!”
5. Do you have a favourite anecdote from the palace’s history? “I love the story of Horace Beauchamp Seymour, a dashing military hero who had fought at the Battle of Waterloo. He came to live at the palace in 1827 and, as a handsome eligible widower, he caused quite a sensation amongst the ladies, especially when he joined the Sunday services at the Chapel Royal. It was not long before a series of fainting episodes began, with the strategically placed young lady fainting into the arms of the dashing Horace, who then proceeded to carry the lady out and stay with her until she regained her composure. After a third successive Sunday of fainting’s, the epidemic was brought to a swift halt by the aunt of Mr Seymour, herself also a palace resident. The feisty old lady pinned a sign to the chapel door warning any lady feeling faint that forthcoming Sunday that Bransome the dustbin man would be carrying her out. Needless to say the fainting ceased!”
6. A complex of buildings dating back as far as 500 years obviously requires considerable upkeep. What are the greatest challenges with regard to maintaining the palace? “I think the biggest challenge would have to be generating the money to keep restoring and conserving this historic palace. To do this we have to keep making sure that people want to visit, from international tour groups to local families who might visit again and again. To do this teams right across the palace work to create exciting exhibitions, immersive events and guided tours to ensure we’re offering people a memorable experience.”
7. Are there any areas of the palace which remain unseen by the public? And any plans to open further areas up? “The palace contains over 1,000 rooms, and visitors get to discover about a quarter of these during their visit. Some years ago we held a Servants, Soldiers and Suffragettes exhibition in a suite of rooms on the top floor of Fountain Court (previously unseen). It was incredibly popular so I’d imagine that in the future we’d look for other such opportunities to share other areas of the palace with our visitors. For anyone that can’t wait that long, on one night of the year (Halloween no less), our adults-only ghost tour offers the chance to peek behind the scenes and explore some areas of the palace off the beaten track!”
8. Are there any ‘secrets’ about the palace you can reveal to us? “A palace as old and as large as Hampton Court holds its fair share of secrets…When the fire took hold in 1986 it was devastating, but in a strange twist of fate some good came from it as well. As restoration of the damaged interiors took place little secrets were revealed to us; behind wood panelling in King William’s damaged rooms hand prints were found in the plaster from the palace’s builders, and sketches were found from the architects with designs for the rooms, all worked directly onto the bare walls. Most exciting of all, however, was the object found downstairs. During work to return King William’s private dining room (which had lost its original look over the years and been used as a function room for the grace and favour residents) to its former glory, a gun was found behind some wooden panelling. The gun dated from the late 1800s, and had a regimental dinner menu was wrapped around it. This is so intriguing – what was the story behind this gun? Who did it belong to? Why did they hide the weapon?”
9. If someone has just one day to visit the palace, what’s your ideal itinerary? “This is a tricky one, and depends very much on the individual…and the weather! I would say on a sunny day start by enjoying a historic welcome with our costumed interpreters, which really helps to set the scene. If it’s a bit chilly pick up a cloak to wear – you can choose between dressing as a Tudor or Georgian courtier. Heading inside, I’d start in the Tudor State Apartments to discover the rich opulence of Henry VIII’s Hampton Court, then visit the recently opened Cumberland Art Gallery, which contains masterpieces by Rembrandt, Canaletto and Van Dyck. Next I’d take in the baroque splendour of the Queen’s State Apartments, then explore the maze, East Front Garden and Privy Garden (weather permitting!). After a spot of lunch I’d suggest visiting the Mantegna Gallery, then the Young Henry exhibition which explores the life of the young Henry VIII, before finishing the day in King William III’s apartments.”
10. Finally, Historic Royal Palaces has already commemorated the 500th anniversary in numerous ways – from a spectacular fireworks display to a jousting tournament. Are there any more events coming up? “The beginning of September saw our costumed interpreters back with their own inimitable brand of entertainment, while at the end of September we’re hosting a sleepover inside the palace! As the evenings draw in, our popular ghost tours return for the winter season. Even further ahead we’ve got a series of carol evenings and even an ice rink for our visitors to enjoy!”
WHERE: Hampton Court Palace, East Molesey, Surrey (nearest station is Hampton Court from Waterloo); WHEN: 10am to 6pm until 24th October after which it’s open to 4.30pm); COST: Adult £19.30, Concession £16, Child under 16 £9.70 (under fives free), family tickets, garden only tickets and online booking discounts available; WEBSITE:www.hrp.org.uk/HamptonCourtPalace/.
Posted in 10 Questions, Cardinal Wolsey, Charles II, Hampton Court Palace, Hampton Court Palace 500th Anniversary, Henry VII, Henry VIII, Stuart, Tudor, Victorian, West London, William III | Tagged 500th anniversary of Hampton Court Palace, Hampton Court Palace, Horace Beauchamp Seymour, King Charles II, King Henry VII, King Henry VIII, King William III, London history, Sir Giles Daubeney, Thomas Wolsey, Tudor London | Leave a Comment »
Follow Exploring London via email
Like Exploring London
About Exploring London
Books about London
10 fictional character addresses in London – 5. 17 Cherry Tree Lane...
This Week in London - Exploring the Moon; celebrating London's green spaces; and, Finnish artist Helene Schjerfbeck at the RA...
10 fictional character addresses in London – 2. 'Whitehaven Mansions'...
10 fictional character addresses in London – 4. 186 Fleet Street...
10 fictional character addresses in London – 8. The Darling's House...
10 (lesser known) memorials to women
10 (more) curious London memorials
10 (more) fictional character addresses in London
10 fictional character addresses in London
10 Historic London Garden Squares
10 historic London hotels
10 Historic London Markets
10 Historic Sporting Events in London
10 iconic London film locations
10 London 'Battlefields'
10 London sites associated with Sir Winston Churchill
10 London sites to celebrate Charles Dickens
10 London subterranean sites
10 modern icons of London
10 Most Popular Posts of 2012
10 notable blue plaques of London
10 of London's greatest Victorian projects
10 of London's World War I memorials
10 of London’s most curious (and historic) graves
10 of the most memorable (and historic) views of London
10 Significant Sites in Georgian London
10 sites commemorating the Great Fire of London
10 sites from London at the time of the Magna Carta
10 sites from Mary Shelley's London
10 sites from Shakespearean London
10 sites from Victoria and Albert's London
10 sites of significance in Jane Austen's London
10 small 'secret' and historic gardens in central London
10 Thames islands
1851 Great Exhibition
1951 Festival of Britain
200th anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo
300th anniversary of Hanoverian accession
300th anniversary of the birth of Lancelot 'Capability' Brown
400th anniversary of Shakespeare's death
600th anniversary of Agincourt
8 historic department stores
8 structures from the London that never was
800th anniversary of the Magna Carta
90th birthday of Queen Elizabeth II
950th anniversary of the Battle of Hastings
A Moment in London's History
Areas of London
Beating Retreat
Billingsgate
Blue Plaques
Cardinal Wolsey
Celebrating the Diamond Jubilee with 10 royal London locations
Ceremony of the Constable's Dues
Charles I
David Garrick
Diamond Jubilee 2012
Dick Turpin
Dick Whittington
Doggett's Coat and Badge
Edmund Ironside
Edward the Confessor
Edward VI
Ethelred
Gaius Suetonius Paulus
George I
George II
George IV
Gordon Riots
Great Plague
Grinling Gibbons
Hampton Court Palace 500th Anniversary
Henry I
Henry II
Historic ships
Isambard Kingdom Brunel
Jacobean
Jacobite Rising of 1715
James I
James II
John Evelyn
John Nash
John Soane
Joseph Bazalgette
Kings of England
Literary heritage
London 2012 Festival
London's oldest
LondonLife
Lord Mayor's Show
Lost London
Mary I
Mary II
Mayors of London
Monuments/memorials/gateways
Music heritage
New Year's Day Parade
Nicholas Hawksmoor
Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race
Paralympic Games 2012
Peasants Revolt
Peter the Wild Boy
Queens of England
Royal Parks
Somers Town
State Opening of Parliament
The Championships
The Thames
The Tip
Thomas á Becket
Thomas Coram
Thomas Cubitt
Thomas Wolsey
Treasures of London
Tudor Pull
Underground's 150th
William Hogarth
William II
William IV
William Kent
William Marshal
William Walworth
World War I Centenary
Events at city churches
London City Churches
St Bartholomew the Great
St Brides
St Martin-in-the-Fields
St Paul's Cathedral
St Stephen Walbrook
Tate Modern/Tate Britain
City of London Corporation
Greater London Authority
London Blogs We Like
Ian Visits
London Historians
Pepys' Diary
The Great Wen
Visit London Flickr pool
London Remembers
Plaque Guide
Dr Johnson's House
Foundling Museum
Geffrye Museum
London Transport Museum
Royal Observatory
Soane Museum
Bloomsbury Blue plaques British Library British Museum Buckingham Palace Charles Dickens Chelsea City of London Covent Garden Duke of Wellington Dulwich Picture Gallery English Heritage Famous Londoners Fleet Street Great Fire of London Greenwich Guildhall Art Gallery Hampton Court Palace Houses of Parliament Hyde Park Imperial War Museum Kensington Palace Kew Gardens King Charles I King Charles II King George III King Henry VIII King James I London London Bridge London events LondonLife London photography London place names London pubs Lost London Mansion House Marylebone Mayfair Museum of London Museum of London Docklands National Gallery National Maritime Museum National Portrait Gallery Natural History Museum Piccadilly Prince Albert Prince Charles Queen Elizabeth I Queen Elizabeth II Queen Victoria River Thames Royal Academy of Arts Royal Parks Science Museum Sir Christopher Wren South Kensington Southwark St Paul's Cathedral Tate Britain Tate Modern The Thames Tower Bridge Tower of London Trafalgar Square Treasures of London V&A Victoria and Albert Museum West End Westminster Westminster Abbey Whitehall William Shakespeare World War I World War II
artandarchitecturema… on London pub signs – The S…
Osman Semerci on Famous Londoners – Winni…
Marjolondon on Famous Londoners – Winni…
Maria Holm on Famous Londoners – Winni…
TheRamblingWombat on What’s in a name?……
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line7595
|
__label__cc
| 0.661001
| 0.338999
|
— Main Menu —Home About me Speaking Events Blog Testimonials Gallery My Videos Contact
Clitoral Reconstruction Surgery – HOPE for Survivors of FGM
By: F.A. Cole (April 1, 2018)
As a survivor of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) I am daily reminded of that dreadful eve thirty three years ago. Yes, I will never be the same. However, I am not the girl I was twenty years ago. On August 1st, 1984 my clitoris was forcefully amputated… On September 21st, 2017 (at age 44) I had clitoral reconstruction surgery. Even though the surgery was a success (thanks be to God) I am not as I was before the eve of August 1st, 1984.
Yes, I have been #ReUNITeD with my clitoris (new toy) and I can tell she’s there because she’s been speaking to me in ways I never knew existed because before I could learn about her, she was taken from me… I am thankful to have had this surgery which was sponsored by Global Woman P.E.A.C.E. Foundation. I have been sharing my very personal journey of recovery to sensitize other survivors and eventually raise funds for those who might be interested in reconstruction.
Every woman, born with a clitoris but never had the opportunity to enjoy it, because at a tender age she was subjected to (in my mind) the worse form of sexual violence – FGM should be given the option to: be #ReUNITeD with her “toy”…
According to the AHA Foundation, 19,000 women and girls are at risk of female genital mutilation in Pennsylvania
HARRISBURG, Pa. (WKBN) – Democratic and Republican lawmakers came out in support of a bill that would make the act of female genital mutilation, or FGM, illegal in Pennsylvania.
House Bill 413 would make it a crime to cut or allow someone to circumcise or excise the genitals of an underage girl.
FGM involves the partial or total removal of the external female genitalia for non-medical reasons.
The World Health Organization estimates that 140 million women and children worldwide have been affected by FGM.
According to the AHA Foundation, which came out in support of House Bill 413, more than 500,000 women and girls are at risk of FGM in the United States. Nineteen thousand of them are in Pennsylvania.
Despite bipartisan support, House Bill 413 has been stuck in the Judiciary Committee for years.
“It has been suggested in the past that the aggravated assault statute in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is adequate to prosecute this crime, and that is simply not an accurate assessment,” said State Rep. Tom Murt (R-Montgomery/Philadelphia), who sponsored the bill. “The aggravated assault statute requires a malicious intent, which does not exist here.”
House Speaker Mike Turzai spoke in support of the bill on Monday, encouraging a move to the House floor for consideration.
On May 20, 2017 I had my first (but 2nd annual) Take Back The Power (TBTP) workshop in Freetown, Sierra Leone (for girls). Preparing for this trip was draining emotionally, physically, and financially. At the end of it all however, it was a success and God showed up. The participants were encouraged to discover their purpose and prepare for the challenges they’ll face in life, particularly the professional world. They received empowering tools to help them regain their power and stop living as victims of violence… Seeing these girls weep silently caused me much pain. All I could do was hug those who welcomed my hugs and assured them that things will get better one day.
Three girls were awarded scholarships for the 2018/2019 school year and at the end of the workshop, we awarded every participant a “Certificate of Participation”.
A few people donated their time, money, and prayers as I embarked on this very emotional assignment.
I won’t lie, when God told me to go home I was a bit scared because I wasn’t sure of what awaits me but God proved Himself and He had everything ready for my arrival. He connected me with people who work in the media thus giving me multiple platforms to talk about my work as an activist as well as a survivor of sexual violence.
I met girls who’ve been raped by men as well as the government of Sierra Leone, and this angered me. It saddened me to learn that the handful of women who are working with these girls get zero help from the government. Discovering that there are laws in place to protect children but these laws are not implemented left me livid. What is the purpose of having laws if no one cares enough to implement them? This trip was inspired by an article I read about some girls missing school during their menses because they could not afford the cost of a box of sanitary napkins. Looking in hindsight, I was one of those girls and the “giver” in me refused to shut up until I went on a sanitary napkin drive…
Many thanks to our donors without whom we would not have had a successful workshop.
We ask for your prayers and donations (monetary) as we prepare for our 2018 TBTP Workshop to be held in two cities in Sierra Leone – Freetown and Bo.
Tired of survivors of female genital mutilation being portrayed as broken women, campaigner Leyla Hussein curated an exhibition of portraits at the first FGM summit in the US. While she was there she interviewed her hero F.A. Cole, her Sierra-Leone-American counterpart.
From October 8-10
F.A. Cole will be in Ontario Windsor speaking on surviving rape, female genital mutilation, child sexual violence at the Vigor Awards International 2016
F.A. Cole shares her story of overcoming tragedies while empowering young girls to live a life of PURPOSE on purpose.
Saturday July 23, 2016 at 2:15 P.M.
Greenbelt Library Auditorium
I encourage survivors of female genital mutilation to share their stories. One voice can crack a stone wall but tens of thousands will bring down that wall.
It was an Emotional but Successful Workshop
Faces of defiance: the portrait exhibition celebrating FGM activists and survivors
Vigor Awards International 2016
All Rights Reserved | F.A. Cole
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line7596
|
__label__cc
| 0.738487
| 0.261513
|
Billy Graham’s Life & Ministry By the Numbers
Facts & Trends - February 21, 2018 12 Comments
While we mourn the death of Billy Graham, we can look back and celebrate his life and the impact he has made for the Kingdom of God.
The numbers may seem to be only a small part of his ministry, but they represent much more than that. They point to the millions whose lives were changed because they heard “America’s pastor” deliver a clear gospel message.
2.2 billion – estimated number of people who heard him preach.
215 million – estimated number of people he preached the gospel to at live events.
2.2 million – estimated number of people at his crusades who responded to the invitations to become a Christian.
185 – estimated number of nations and territories where preached.
66 – years his radio program “Hour of Decision” was broadcast.
700 – number of stations around the world that carried “Hour of Decision.”
425,000 – subscribers to Decision magazine.
5 million – circulation of the newspapers which carry his column “My Answer.”
2 million – copies sold of his 1953 best-seller Peace With God.
61 – the record number of times Graham finished in the top 10 of Gallup’s poll of most admired men, that includes making it into the top 10 every year the question was asked since 1955.
21 — percentage of pastors in 2010 who said he was the most influential living pastor. That was the highest percentage of any pastor and three times the second most frequently cited one.
48 — percentage of Protestant churchgoers in America in 2016 who said they watched one of his sermons on TV. More than 1 in 10 said they had attended one of his crusades. Two-thirds had some contact with his ministry, either through his sermons or his writing.
33 – number of books he wrote.
13 – number of U.S. presidents with whom Billy Graham has met—from Harry Truman to Donald Trump.
1918 – born in North Carolina.
1934 – responded to the gospel under the preaching of Mordecai Ham, a traveling evangelist.
1939 – ordained by a Southern Baptist church.
2 – number of earned degrees: a diploma in biblical studies from Trinity Bible College and a B.A. in anthropology from Wheaton.
1943 – married to Ruth Bell, the daughter of Presbyterian missionaries to China. Together they had five children.
6,000 – people who attended his first crusade, held in the Civic Auditorium in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
30 – age at which he became the president of Northwest Bible College in 1947, which at the time made him the youngest person to serve as a college or university president.
1949 – year of the Los Angeles crusade that launched him into national prominence.
8 – the number of weeks the L.A. crusade ran—five weeks longer than planned.
1950 – year the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association was founded.
4 – number of months the 1957 New York City crusade in Madison Square Garden ran nightly.
$5 million – value of the five-year contract NBC offered him to appear on their network. He turned it down.
1963 – year he posted bail for Martin Luther King, Jr. after he was arrested during the civil rights protests in Birmingham, Alabama.
1973 – year he held his first crusade in South Africa and denounced apartheid. He corresponded with Nelson Mandela during the latter’s 27-year prison sentence.
1991 – year 250,000 people attended his crusade in New York City’s Central Park, his largest North American event.
2005 – his last official crusade was in New York City.
2007 – Ruth, his wife of more than 63 years, passed away.
2013 – on his 95th birthday, his last sermon, My Hope America, was broadcast on television stations across the country, including Fox News.
What number meant the most to you?
Was your life impacted by one his 33 books? Did his 63 years of marriage encourage your relationship with your spouse?
Were you one of the millions who responded to the gospel at a Billy Graham crusade?
Share your number and your story in the comments.
On Billy Graham, Calling and Humility: A Tribute From a Former Employee
Flowers Adorn Billy Graham Statue at Ridgecrest
Billy Graham Remains Influential Among Churchgoers
Filed Under: Blog, News
Previous Post: « My Wife Tears Me Down and Talks About Me Behind My Back
Next Post: Super Bowl Parties and Easter Sunday »
William M. McCoy says
I’ve read several publications from BGEA, and as a child growing up, our family watched Graham’s crusade broadcasts on TV. I was a seminary student at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, TX, in 1971 during a time when Dr. Graham was conducting a Crusade in Dallas, TX. During that period, he came one day to the seminary and addressed a standing-room-only Chapel Service. You can imagine the response from that crowd of ministerial, church-music and mission students as well as the faculty itself. We all viewed him as heroic, and many attempted to pattern themselves after him, but with less success. His like will not pass this way again.
Allen Calkins says
My Dad, now 89, was saved as an adult at a Billy Graham Crusade in Denver Colorado in the late 1980s.
Judith Hiller says
In 1968 I watched a Crusade on TV. I lived in the DC area. After the program was over, by my bedside, I knelt and admitted my sinful self, prayed for forgiveness, and felt the burden of sin roll off my back. I had been raised in a Christian home, attended church regularly, my parents were SS teachers and I believed in God and the Christ.
But that night, I claimed Him for my own.committed my life to Christ as a result of watching the program.
I have been a believer now fro 50 years and am thankful to God for that broadcast of the Graham crusade that night.
Ineca says
I had attended church faithfully growing up. In June 1964 I was listening to a broadcast of of one of his crusaders. I knelt down and prayed the sinners pray. I was 19 years old and I have followed Christ ever since. He has been my strength, in times of need. I thank God that he used Billy Graham to show me the way of salvation.
Lanna Cox says
So thankful for the life Billy Graham lived. He has been the very best example for all Christian’s to look to. How he must be seated very close to his Lord and Saviour for the wonderful serving life he lived.
Kenneth Crossman says
I was glad that Franklin used this text today from Matthew 24: “This Gospel of the Kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness to all Nations, and then shall the end come.” No one in the history of the church has done more to fulfil that scripture than our beloved Billy Graham. He has now finished the work that God called him to do. And on February 21, 2018 he had set the stage for the coming of the Lord in Glory. Even so, Come Lord Jesus. We long every day for your imminent return.
Michael Scorgie. says
This unique Preacher, was an inspiration & blessing to people all around the world, with the simple message of God’s Grace & Mercy to those who ask for forgiveness from Sin. As young man at 21 I attended the Manchester Crusade in the UK. This was at a very special YOUTH MEETING on a summers night in June. That Night I felt the message had led me to seek after Jesus, so that Jesus Christ became the centre of my life at such a young age. It was the most important moment in my life, my life was changed for ever, I never was the same again, From that point in my life I began to be blessed in every single area of my life. It has over the years proved to be the best choice that I have ever made, during my 76 years of life
Here’s How America Is Praising Its Best-Known Preacher: Billy Graham – The Reformed Post says:
[…] Graham preach over his decades pioneering radio, television, and online evangelism, according to statistics by LifeWay’s Facts & Trends magazine. The ministry reports that 2.2 million people made […]
Here’s How America Is Praising Its Best-Known Preacher: Billy Graham – Worship Daily – Bible Verse of the Day – Prayer of the Day says:
Five Ways Billy Graham’s Life Changed Mine | The Monday Christian says:
[…] Facts and Trends writes a fascinating article that lists some of the grand accomplishments of Graham in his lifetime. These include: […]
Giving Faith a Tune Up – A New Place For… Faith, Church, Life says:
[…] [1] https://factsandtrends.net/2018/02/21/billy-grahams-life-ministry-by-the-numbers/ […]
Forerunners for Christ – A Faithful Sower says:
[…] [1] LifeWay; Facts & Trends. “Billy Graham’s Life & Ministry by the Numbers.” 21 February 2018. LifeWay. Web. 12 January 2019. Retrieved from https://factsandtrends.net/2018/02/21/billy-grahams-life-ministry-by-the-numbers/ […]
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line7597
|
__label__wiki
| 0.647864
| 0.647864
|
John Kerry Urges Israeli Residents to Not Defend Themselves Against Knife-Attacks
October 19, 2015 by Guns 'n' Freedom
Even after Israeli authorities have recommended that conceal carry permit holders arm themselves when they go out into the public, Secretary of State John Kerry is urging them to not fight back.
We are hearing of more attacks in Israel on a daily basis, most of them involving knives. So much for “evil” guns being the problem. But good luck getting anti-gunners to admit that it’s evil people who want to take innocent life that should be the target of our attention.
According to PJ Media, John Kerry wants Israelis to be sitting ducks and to forget about the “self-help” approach:
Secretary of State John Kerry told reporters today that Israel has a right to defend itself, but discouraged against “self-help” responses to random stabbing attacks from Palestinians.
Israeli authorities have encouraged citizens with gun permits to carry when they’re out and about, as they can possibly stop an attacker before police can get on the scene.
Israel Army Radio reported today that the internal security ministry phone service “collapsed” from citizens inundating the ministry with gun permit requests. They’ve doubled the number of workers at the ministry to field the requests.
Appearing at a press conference in Madrid with his Spanish counterpart, Kerry again used the recent spate of violence in Jerusalem to call for a two-state solution.
“Security and diplomacy go hand in hand. There is not a time for one and then the other, really there is an importance to both. We want to see calm restored and we want to see the violence stop. And I think everybody in Israel and in the region would like to see both of those things happen,” Kerry said.
“We continue to urge everybody to exercise restraint and restrain from any kind of self-help in terms of the violence, and Israel has every right in the world to protect its citizens, as it has been, from random acts of violence. But in my conversations with the prime minister, as well as with King Abdullah and the foreign minister of Jordan, they have expressed the desire to try to see this process be able to find a way of making certain that everybody is clear about what is happening with respect to the Temple Mount.”
Kerry added that “Israel has made it clear to me that they do not intend to and have not changed the status quo, and I think it’s important for me to meet with the prime minister and talk about the road ahead.”
“We have a longstanding, extremely close, very important relationship with respect to Israel’s security, and security will be front and center in our discussion. And obviously, the United States remains deeply concerned about and engaged in efforts to help Israel with respect to its security. But we also share a global interest in seeing the region find a way forward to avoid this kind of confrontation and senseless loss of life. So it is important to have that kind of discussion at the same time,” he said.
“I don’t have specific expectations except to try to move things forward. And it would depend on the conversations themselves as to what it is that we’re able to define in the context of steps that might or might not be taken to help people understand that in fact leaders are leading and making a serious effort to try to resolve the current level of conflict.”
Last week CNN’s Chris Cuomo tried to challenge Netanyahu’s spokesman on guns, charging that “the idea of the police saying to civilians, ‘arm yourselves, that’s how big the threat is, that’s how imminent violence is,’ seems to be, you know, a very severe sentiment.”
Spokesman Mark Regev noted that Israel has tough gun ownership rules, “and so if you pass those tests and you legally have a firearm, the police are suggesting that you carry that firearm, because of the security situation.”
“That’s not for every member of the public. That’s for people who have those licenses,” Regev said. “And I’d remind you, Chris, we, of course, have compulsory military service in Israel. A lot of those people with licenses, if not all of them, have had military training and know how to use that weapon effectively.”
Israel Minister Vows to Ease Gun Carry Laws After Terror…
Democrats Propose to Ban Plastic Guns
Canadian Prime Minister, “Guns Important To Safety,…
Pakistani School Teachers Arm Themselves After Massacre
U.N. Gun Control Coming Christmas Eve, Bringing Concern
FSU Student Shot in Leg Had CCP But Not Allowed Weapon
Filed Under: Gun Politics
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line7601
|
__label__cc
| 0.549723
| 0.450277
|
Hamilton Historical Records
"Learn, Live and Love the World Around You"
Alexandria, Virginia, Allyn Cox, President George Washington, President John Calvin Coolidge Jr., President William Howard Taft, The George Washington Masonic National Memorial
The George Washington Masonic National Memorial
April 1, 2019 April 2, 2019 Hamilton Historical Records
Masonic mural of George Washington painted by Allyn Cox within the George Washington Masonic Memorial in the 1950s.
After George Washington joined the FreeMason Fraternal Order he became members of the Fredericksburg, Virginia and the Alexandria-Washington lodges.
President Calvin Coolidge and his wife at the cornerstone laying ceremony in 1922.
On June 5, 1922, the cornerstone of the George Washington Masonic National Memorial was established. The memorial was built to honor the time that President George Washington spent at the Fredericksburg and Alexandria lodges. President Calvin Coolidge and former President William H. Taft, performed the cornerstone ceremonies in front of thousands of Freemasons.
Presently the temple hosts hundreds of artifacts in relation to former President George Washington. The top tower has stained glass windows and a suit of armor.
There are two additional George Washington Monuments, in the D.C. Metro Area. The first noumena was built in Baltimore and the other wine was built by the National Mall in Washington, D.C.
Published by Hamilton Historical Records
I'm a historian and legal expert from the Silicon Valley of California who is related to founding father George Mason IV and President Theodore and Franklin Roosevelt’s family. View all posts by Hamilton Historical Records
Previous postMount Vernon – The Last Home Of President George Washington
Next postAlbemarle County, Virginia – Birthplace Of Thomas Jefferson
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line7602
|
__label__wiki
| 0.537998
| 0.537998
|
unrighteous
THE UNRIGHTEOUS MAMMON
A Sermon by Rev. Daniel W. Heinrichs
Preached in Boynton Beach, Florida, October 13, 1991
“I say to you, make friends for yourselves of the unrighteous mammon, that when you fail, they may receive you into everlasting habitations. If … you have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches?” (Luke 16:9,11)
Divine revelation has, through all ages, been accommodated to the state of the people to whom it was given. The Writings reveal that the Jews of the Lord’s time were not capable of receiving interior truths, so the Lord told them parables which served as examples which they could follow. An example of this is the parable of the Good Samaritan. A lawyer asked the Lord who his neighbor was. In answer to this query the Lord told this parable, and concluded by asking him: “Which of these three, do you think, was neighbor to him who fell among thieves?” The lawyer answered: “He who showed mercy on him.” To this the Lord replied: “Go and do likewise” (Luke 10:36,37).
Parables, in the letter, appear to be little more than example stories, but they contain Divine truths within them in every particular, for the Lord spoke in correspondences. They contain an internal sense that treats, inmostly, of the Lord’s glorification, next of the progressive states of man’s regeneration, and finally of the successive states of the Lord’s church on earth. In our sermon this morning we shall consider this parable as it relates to man’s regeneration.
The Writings tell us that everyone derives from parents the tendency to love self and the world above everything else. Because this nature is impressed on us from birth, we tend to lapse into the evils which come naturally to us from our heredity. To the extent that we indulge these evil affections, the evil becomes, as it were, ingrafted in our nature. Such evils are altogether contrary to spiritual life and are destructive of it.
Everyone has an internal and external mind, and it is in the external that these hereditary tendencies reside. The internal mind, on the other hand, is created according to order. Thus “man’s external things have been formed according to the image of the world, and his internal things according to the image of heaven” (AC 9279:2).
Because the internal mind is created according to order, we have influx from the Lord through the internal into the external, and therefore the internal can have a perception of the state of the external, “for that which is in the external can be seen from the internal” (AC 10468). It is this relationship between the internal and external minds that makes self-examination possible, and therefore also regeneration. For unless we were able to see from the internal the evils residing in the external, we could have no desire to turn away from, resist, or fight against these evils. Regeneration, then, would be impossible.
In the parable it is said that a certain rich man had a steward who had been accused “of wasting his goods.” He called him, and said to him: “What is this I hear about you? Give an account of your stewardship, for you may no longer be steward.”
The Writings tell us that by a “steward” in the Word is meant the unregenerate external of man. This is called a steward because it has nothing that is really its own; it merely administers the things of the internal of man (see AC 1795). We note that the steward was accused of wasting his master’s goods. That is, the unregenerate external of man wastes the goods which the internal receives by influx from the Lord, who is represented in the parable by the rich man. He is called a “rich man” because spiritual riches are goods and truths, and all goods and truths are the Lord’s.
We see from this that the internal, which is created in the order of heaven and abounds in goods and truths, perceives that the external, born into the loves and pleasures of the world and the cupidities of the body, has been squandering, that is, misusing the goods and truths which inflow from the Lord. The rich man then demands of the steward an account of his stewardship. Since the rich man represents what is the Lord’s in the internal of man, and the steward the external, this indicates self-examination from interior truth, which is from the Lord in the internal. We read: “The interior man can see, as from a higher position, what is going on in the exterior, . . . and . . . the interior . . . has the capacity and ability of chastening the exterior” (AC 5127:2). Note that the master threatens his steward with banishment for having squandered his wealth.
When interior truths from the Word, which reside in the interiors, shed their light on the external, they reveal corrupt loves there. A person then becomes aware of evil lovesthe inordinate love of pleasure, selfish ambition, contempt for others, the evils of deceit and self-justification; and perceiving his unworthiness, and fearful of impending damnation, the person seeks for ways to avert spiritual disaster. The steward said within himself: “What shall I do? For my master is taking the stewardship away from me; I cannot dig; I am ashamed to beg.”
The phrase “I cannot dig” means that the external, in this state of perception, realizes that of himself he is incapable of acquiring truths. The phrase “I am ashamed to beg” means that although he realizes that he cannot acquire truths of himself, still he cannot rely on receiving truths without doing something to acquire them. He must acquire them as of himself.
The steward then devised a plan whereby to assure himself of future employment. He called his master’s debtors to him and inquired as to the amount of their debts to his master. We note that there were two debtors, one owing a hundred measures of oil and the other a hundred measures of wheat.
The two debtors represent the human will and understanding, which owe their existence to the Lord. It is from influx from the Lord through the interiors that man has the faculties of willing and understanding. The Writings tell us that oil corresponds to the good of love to the Lord and to the neighbor. Wheat corresponds to the truths of the church and the wisdom derived from them. A hundred corresponds to what is full and complete. The one debtor’s owing a hundred measures of oil and the other of wheat mean that the hereditary will is totally lacking in good of its own, and the understanding is totally lacking in truth of its own. What they have they owe to the Lord (see AC 977). They are debtors.
The steward then told the debtor who owed the oil to write out a bill for fifty. Fifty in the internal sense also signifies what is full. We read: “In the Lord’s parable of the steward, who said to him who owed the oil . . . ‘Take the bond and sit down quickly, and write fifty’; ‘fifty’ denotes full payment” (AC 2252:5).
Since both a hundred and also fifty signify what is full and complete, we see that even though the will is lacking in anything of the good of love, still the Lord, in His mercy, will accept as full payment any sincere effort that the will may make to do good. The Lord does not demand full payment because we can never return to the Lord all that we receive from Himthe will can never become perfect.
This is evident from the teaching that man “can never be so regenerated that he can in any way be said to be perfect; for there are things to be regenerated that are innumerable” (AC 5122:3). Since this is the case, the Lord accepts as full payment any effort that we make to regenerate.
But the debtor who owed the wheat was told to write his bill for eighty. The number eighty, which is a multiple of forty, signifies temptation (see AC 1936, 4617). The reason the debtor representing the understanding was told to write his bill for eighty measures of wheat is that the understanding cannot be regenerated without undergoing spiritual trials. The Writings teach that “temptations take place to the end that man may be confirmed in truths against falsities” (AC 2272). When a person is undergoing spiritual trials, the delights of evil come to a cessation. The effect of this on the person who is enduring the trial is that he has new thoughtsthoughts of a nature contrary to what he had beforethoughts to which one may afterwards be bent by the Lord.
The master of the steward then commended him on his cunning action, that is, the internal of man perceives that the external acted prudently when it saw its impending ruin. Therefore the Lord said: “The children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light.” Here, “the children of this world” mean the things of the external mind of man. They are referred to as “children of this world” because the external is, by birth, an image of the world. Its being wiser than the children of light means that, motivated by self-love, the external of man in an unregenerate state acts more prudently than it would if it was motivated by genuine love for the neighbor.
More interiorly, this means that the Lord uses our love of selfour love of honor and self-advancement, with its accompanying prudenceto lead us from what is lower to what is higher. Therefore, the Lord said: “If you have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches?”
Considered only as to its literal sense, this parable is perplexing. It seems that the Lord is not only condoning evil, but even commending it by encouraging us to follow the example of the unjust and crafty steward. But when we see its interior meaning, then we see the Lord’s mercy in regenerating us. We see how, in providence, He leads us from evil to good, step by step, providing us with delights in every stage of our progress. We must make use of these external delights even though they are not genuinely good if we are to prepare ourselves for the reception of genuine good and truth.
The unrighteous mammon are the knowledges of truth and good which exist with evil and external people. With such they become falsities, because applied to evil, “but as they continue to be knowledges . . . they are serviceable to use with the good by application to what is good” (AE 700:17).
These knowledges, called the unrighteous mammon, are referred to in the Writings as “mediate goods,” which are said to be absolutely essential as a means in the regenerative process. This process involves a complete reversal of man’s nature.
We read: “Seeing . . . that man’s state of life has to be so greatly changed, it must need be that he is kept in a kind of mediate good, that is, in a good which partakes both of the affections of the world and of the affection of heaven; and unless he is kept in this mediate good, he in no wise admits heavenly goods and truths” (AC 4063:3, emphasis added).
The truths which we first learn are not genuine truths but appear as truths, and serve to introduce us into genuine goods and truths. When genuine goods and truths have been insinuated by means of these, they are separated or dismissed, and the genuine goods and truths are retained (see AC 3974).
In the process of regeneration there is always a gradual progression from what is lower to what is higher, or from what is outmost to what is inmost. If our lives were suddenly changed, so that from being evil we became good, we would be deprived of all our delights. We would be as if dead, for it is in delights our lives consist.
For example: Parents and teachers must frequently appeal to a child’s pride or love of reputation in order to induce the child to do better work. They cannot, realistically, appeal to the child’s love of use, for as yet it does not exist. An employer appeals to a young employee’s ambition and love of self-advancement to encourage greater effort. Again he cannot appeal to the person’s love of use and of the neighbor, for as yet the person has very little of such love, and so it would not prove a sufficiently strong motive to produce the kind of effort desired. The delights which are appealed to are not good in themselves, but by means of them a person may be led to greater effort, and eventually may be led by the Lord to feel delight in that which is genuinely good, true and useful.
Although “mediate goods,” or unrighteous mammon, in the Lord’s merciful providence, serve as a means of regeneration, we must be careful only to make friends of them, that is, use them. We must not become slaves to such delights. The Lord solemnly warns us against this, saying: “You cannot serve God and mammon” (Luke 16:13).
If we make use of natural appetites, affections and delights as a means of attaining genuine delights from the Lord, that is to say, if we are faithful in the unrighteous mammon, we will be entrusted with the true riches, that when we leave this world, we will be received into everlasting habitations. Amen.
Lessons: Matt. 25:14-30, Luke 16:1-13, AC 4063:2-5
Arcana Coelestia 4063:2-5
How the case is with the good signified by “Laban” relatively to the good of truth represented by Jacob may be seen from what has been stated and shown in the foregoing chapter. This may be further illustrated by the states of man’s regeneration, which in the representative sense is also here treated of. When a man is being regenerated, he is kept by the Lord in a kind of mediate good. This good serves for introducing genuine goods and truths, but after these have been introduced, it is separated from them. Everyone who has learned anything about regeneration and about the new man can understand that the new man is altogether different from the old; for the new man is in the affection of spiritual and heavenly things, and these produce its delights and pleasantnesses, whereas the old man is in the affections of worldly and earthly things, and these produce its delights and pleasantnesses; consequently the new man has regard to ends in heaven, but the old man to ends in the world. From this it is manifest that the new man is altogether different and diverse from the old.
In order that a man may be brought from the state of the old man into that of the new, the concupiscences of the world must be put off, and the affections of heaven must be put on. This is effected by innumerable means, which are known to the Lord alone, and many of which have also been made known by the Lord to angels, but few if any to man. Nevertheless, all of them both in general and particular have been made manifest in the internal sense of the Word. When therefore a man from being the old man is made a new one (that is, when he is being regenerated), it is not done in a moment as some believe, but through a course of years; nay, during the man’s whole life, even to its end; for his concupiscences have to be extirpated and heavenly affections have to be insinuated; and the man has to be gifted with a life which he had not before, and of which indeed he knew scarcely anything. Seeing therefore that the man’s states of life have to be so greatly changed, it must needs be that he is long kept in a kind of mediate good, that is, in a good which partakes both of the affections of the world and of the affections of heaven; and unless he is kept in this mediate good, he in no wise admits heavenly goods and truths.
This mediate or middle good is what is signified by “Laban and his flock.” But man is kept in this middle good no longer than until it has served this use; but this having been served, it is separated. This separation is treated of in this chapter. That there is an intermediate good, and that it is separated after it has subserved its use, may be illustrated by the changes of state which every man undergoes from infancy even to old age. It is known that a man’s state is of one kind in infancy, of another in childhood, another in youth, another in adult age, and another in old age. It is also known that a man puts off his state of infancy with its toys when he passes into the state of youth; that he puts off his state of youth when he passes into the state of young manhood; and this again when he passes into the state of mature age; and at last this state when he passes into that of old age. And if one will consider, he may also know that every age has its delights, and that by these he is introduced by successive steps into those of the age next following; and that these delights had served the purpose of bringing him thereto; and finally to the delight of intelligence and wisdom in old age.
From all this it is manifest that former things are always left behind when a new state of life is put on. But this comparison can serve only to show that delights are means, and that these are left behind when the man enters into the state next following; whereas during man’s regeneration his state becomes altogether different from his former one, and he is led to it, not in any natural manner but by the Lord in a supernatural manner; nor does anyone arrive at this state except by the means or media of regeneration, which are provided by the Lord alone, and thus by the mediate good of which we have been speaking. And when the man has been brought to that state in which be has no longer worldly, earthly, and corporeal things as his end but those which are of heaven, then this mediate good is separated. To have anything as the end is to love it more than anything else.
Posted on August 2, 2014 by havau22 | Leave a comment
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line7606
|
__label__cc
| 0.581477
| 0.418523
|
Posts tagged ‘Great Pyramid of Giza’
Either We Evolve or We Perish
I just finished Graham Hancock’s Fingerprints Of The Gods and it left me with an almost overwhelming pall of hopelessness hanging over my head after reading the final chapter “Like A Thief in the Night” and the final sub-headings: “Walking in the last days” and “The end of the world” in which the author recounts his visit to the Hopi Indian Reservation in 1994 up in the high plains of Arizona. Here are Hancock’s last words in his tome:
. . . I had made this journey because the science of prophecy is still believed to be alive among the Hopi: Pueblo Indians, distantly related to the Aztecs of Mexico, whose numbers have been reduced by attrition and misery to barely 10,000. Like the Ancient Maya whose descendants all across the Yucatan are convinced that the end of the world is coming in the year 2000 y pico (and a little), the Hopi believe that we are walking in the last days, with a geological sword of Damocles hanging over US. According to their myths, as we saw in Chapter Twenty-four:
The first world was destroyed, as a punishment for human misdemeanors, by an all-consuming fire that came from above and below. The second world ended when the terrestrial globe toppled from its axis and everything was covered with ice. The third world ended in a universal flood. The present world is the fourth. Its fate will depend on whether or not its inhabitants behave in accordance with the Creator’s plans …
I had come to Arizona to see whether the Hopi thought we were behaving in accordance with the Creator’s plans …
The desolate wind, blowing across the high plains, shook and rattled the sides of the trailer-home we sat in. Beside me was Santha, who’d been everywhere with me, sharing the risks and the adventures, sharing the highs and the lows. Sitting across from us was our friend Ed Ponist, a medical-surgical nurse from Lansing, Michigan. A few years previously Ed had worked on the reservation for a while, and it was thanks to his contacts that we were now here. On my right was Paul Sifki, a ninety-six-year-old Hopi elder of the Spider clan, and a leading spokesman of the traditions of his people. Beside him was his grand-daughter Melza Sifki, a handsome middle-aged woman who had offered to translate.
‘I have heard,’ I said, ‘that the Hopi believe the end of the world is coming. Is this true?’
Paul Sifki was a small, wizened man, nut-brown in colour, dressed in jeans and a cambric shirt. Throughout our conversation he never once looked at me, but gazed intently ahead, as though he were searching for a familiar face in a distant crowd.
Melza put my question to him and a moment later translated her grandfather’s reply: ‘He says, “why do you want to know”?’
I explained that there were many reasons. The most important was that I felt a sense of urgency: ‘My research has convinced me that there was an advanced civilization – long, long ago – that was destroyed in a terrible cataclysm. I fear that our own civilization may be destroyed by a similar cataclysm … ‘
There followed a long exchange in Hopi, then this translation: ‘He said that when he was a child, in the 1900’s, there was a star that exploded – a star that had been up there in the sky for a long while … And he went to his grandfather and asked him to explain the meaning of this sign. His grandfather replied: “This is the way our own world will end – engulfed in
flames … If people do not change their ways then the spirit that takes care of the world will become so frustrated with us that he will punish the world with flames and it will end just like that star ended.” That was what his grandfather said to him – that the earth would explode just like that exploding star … ‘
‘So the feeling is that this world will end in fire … And having viewed the world for the past ninety years, does he believe that the behaviour of mankind has improved or worsened?’
‘He says it has not improved. We’re getting worse.’
‘So in his opinion, then, the end is coming?’
‘He said that the signs are already there to be seen … He said that nowadays nothing but the wind blows and that all we do is have a weapon pointed at one another. That shows how far apart we have drifted and how we feel towards each other now. There are no values any more – none at all – and people live any way they want, without morals or laws. These are the
signs that the time has come … ‘
Melza paused in her translation, then added on her own account: ‘This terrible wind. It dries things out. It brings no moisture. The way we see it, this kind of climate is a consequence of how we’re living today – not just
us, but your people as well.’
I noticed that her eyes had filled with tears while she was talking. ‘I have a cornfield,’ she continued, ‘that’s really dry. And I look up into the sky and try to pray for rain, but there is no rain, no clouds even … When we’re like this we don’t even know who we are.’
There was a long moment of silence and the wind rocked the trailer, blowing hard and steady across the mesa as evening fell around us.
I said quietly, ‘Please ask your grandfather if he thinks that anything can now be done for the Hopi and for the rest of mankind?’
‘The only thing he knows,’ Melza replied when she had heard his answer, ‘is that so long as the Hopi do not abandon their traditions they may be able to help themselves and to help others. They have to hold on to what they believed in the past. They have to preserve their memories. These are the most important things … But my grandfather wants to tell
you also, and for you to understand, that this earth is the work of an intelligent being, a spirit – a creative and intelligent spirit that has designed everything to be the way it is. My grandfather says that nothing is here just by chance, that nothing happens by accident – whether good or bad – and that there is a reason for everything that takes place … ‘
At the millstone grinding
When human beings from around the globe, and from many different cultures, share a powerful and overwhelming intuition that a cataclysm is approaching, we are within our rights to ignore them. And when the voices of our distant ancestors, descending to us through myths and sacred architecture, speak to us of the physical obliteration of a great civilization in remote antiquity (and tell us that our own civilization is in jeopardy), we are entitled, if we wish, to stop our ears …
So it was, the Bible says, in the antediluvian world: ‘For in those days, before the Flood, people were eating, drinking, taking wives, taking husbands, right up to the moment that Noah went into the Ark, and they suspected nothing till the flood came and swept all away.’
In the same manner it has been prophesied that the next global destruction will fall upon us suddenly “at an hour we do not suspect, like lightning striking in the east and flashing far into the west … The sun will be darkened, the moon will lose its brightness, the stars will fall from the sky and the powers of heaven will be shaken … Then of two men in the fields, one is taken, one left; and of two women at the millstone grinding, one is taken, one left …”
What has happened before can happen again. What has been done before can be done again.
And perhaps there is, indeed, nothing new under the sun …
The thread that runs through and connects the pages of Graham’s book weaves a fabric upon which is painted a prophetic picture for our generation specifically that warns of impending disaster for our world and its population based simply on a cosmic clock ticking away the centuries and millennia over the past 12,500 years since a highly advanced civilization was all but wiped off the face of the earth by a cataclysm. That civilization was known as Atlantis and is now believed to be buried beneath a two-mile thick cap of ice. Today that island continent is called Antarctica. Buried with it are the historical records of what this civilization did that brought about its destruction in literally the blinking of an eye – like a thief in the night. It is likely we will never know the secret buried beneath those two miles of ice. An ancient lost civilization frozen in time and preserved till the day the ice melts and reveals its secrets.
Those who survived the cataclysm – the elite wealthy maritime intellectuals of Atlantis who knew what was adrift long before the pendulum struck the hour of doom when the hammer fell – made their way to various parts of the world that had suffered little damage, including the Nile Delta where they built the pyramids of Egypt and the Sphinx as geodetic markers in the Age of Leo the Lion to leave behind a mathematically precise architectural monument showing to scale the geographical points and the shape and size of the earth.
The survivors of the Deluge also left messages carved in stone which point to our day – when the sun rises on the Winter Solstice in the House of the constellation of Sagittarius at the South Gate of the Milky Way Galaxy between 1960 and 2040 AD – and when the pendulum of the cosmic clock strikes the hour when the hammer will likely fall again on the civilizations of man. It is also the dawning of the Age of Aquarius which guards the North Gate of the Milky Way Galaxy. As I wrote about in a previous post, this is also designated in Mayan cosmology as “the place of creation.”
We ignore the myths of our ancient ancestors to our peril. The dawn of a New Day lightens the horizon. It’s time to wake up and face the harvest of our sowing days as it spreads ugly before us. We’ve run into a concrete wall and there’s no way to go forward – only up and over it. It’s the way Gaia is going – up, up and away!
I leave you with this timely video message: “If we do not wish to die, then we must evolve.”
Ancient knowledge, Apocalypse, Astronomy, Cataclysms, Catastrophism, Cosmic Consciousness, Cosmic events, Fingerprints of the Gods, Global Events, New Earth, Planet Earth
The “Jesus of Faith” Vs the “Jesus of History” part 3:1– Initiation and Incubation
“Say, ‘I am a child of Earth and starry Heaven; but my race is of Heaven [alone]’”
I have been sharing a perspective of the eighteen missing years of Jesus’ young adulthood from religious historian Michael Baigent’s book The Jesus Papers – Exposing the Greatest Cover-Up in History. In my last post, we explored a possible scenario that Jesus spent those years in Egypt—possibly living in a community of healers called the Therapeutae. I will continue to share Baigent’s perspective of events in Egypt that Jesus might have know about and even explored experientially.
Pyramids for Soul Travel
The Egyptians saw themselves as keepers of the balance and harmony of our universe. The Pharaoh bore the primary responsibility in this keep and the pyramids were his means of traveling to the Far-World for wisdom from the gods. Michael Baigent gives details of this travel from information gained during several pilgrimages he made to the pyramids in Egypt and other sites of historical interest.
To ALL OF US “PILGRIMS,” it is evident that the Pyramids are more than just the extravagant tombs we have been led to believe they are. Stephen Quirke states bluntly that the Pyramids, along with many other buildings that disintegrated over time, formed part of an ornate complex dedicated to the cult of the pharaoh as a divinity, adding that “they are only secondarily tombs.” The Pyramid of Djoser and other buildings in the complex at Saqqara, he explains, provide “unambiguous evidence” for their ritual use—in this case, for the Sed festival, a great festival held every thirty years or so that aimed to renew the power of the pharaoh.”
The most significant study of the cult of the pharaoh has recently been completed by Dr. Jeremy Naydler and presented in his book Shamanic Wisdom in the Pyramid Texts. He explains that the Sed festival was conducted to allow the pharaoh to bring the physical world and the Far-World into harmony, a balancing that would benefit all of Egypt. The “central rite” of the Sed festival “involved the king crossing the threshold between worlds,” with the aim of bringing himself into a “direct relationship to the normally hidden spiritual powers.” To allow this to happen, during the most secret parts of the ritual ceremony it appears that the king had “an ecstatic visionary experience.” This experience was deliberately induced by those conducting the rites, who well understood the linkage between the two worlds and the importance of the pharaoh as a point of contact between the two.
Naydler is blunt: his conclusion from his study of the Pyramid Texts is that “far from being funerary texts, [these texts] were primarily concerned with mystical experiences of a type similar to those that the living king had during the ‘secret rites’ of the Sed festival, for they can clearly be seen to belong to a genre of archetypal human experiences at the crossing point between this world and the spirit world.”
One of these texts reads: “O king, you have not departed dead, you have departed alive.” Another reads: “I have gone and returned. . . . I go forth today in the real form of a living spirit.” Yet another text is entitled “Ascending to the sky . . . . and becoming an Akh.”
The Akh is “the shining one,” a “being of light,” and is the root of the word akhet, or “horizon.” It describes the end sought by the Ba: to convert into pure spiritual radiance. In terms of the dead, it reveals that the person after death, following a period when he is free of his body in his Ba [soul] form, eventually ascends to enter a state of transcendence and merges with the radiant Source of all. Stephen Quirke explains that “the akh is the transfigured spirit that has become one with the light.” The word used in the texts for this process is sakhu—meaning “to make [the deceased] an Akh … a being of light.”
As Baigent points out, scholars would dispute this experiential approach to texts and rites and relegate it all to “millennia of imaginative speculation” by priests who may have believed what they were writing but didn’t ascribe to the actual possibility of such occurrences Naydler nevertheless suggests that the experiences of crossing the threshold of death while yet alive were indeed possible and real. Baigent writes:
IT IS HERE THAT I am reminded again of the unique term “ahket of Khufu” applied to the Great Pyramid of the pharaoh Khufu at Giza, which I referred to at the beginning of the chapter. Could this name, meaning “to blaze, to be radiant,” and indicating the point of entry into the Far-World on the horizon, possibly suggest that the pyramid was the place from which Khufu passed into the Far-World? And the place from which he returned?
With the responsibility of maintaining Ma’at upon him, could it be that Khufu sought answers from the spiritual beings in the realm beyond on how to ensure harmony in this world? And if he did indeed cross the threshold into the kingdom of gods, how did he do it? What specific techniques were known to the Egyptian priests who assisted Khufu and other Egyptians before and after him?
It is quite possible that Jesus himself visited the Great Pyramid of Giza (pronounced jeeza) and went through the ritual by which he initiated the process of revelation of his radiant divinity, which he revealed later on with three of his closest disciples, as the Gospels of Matthew and Mark both record. Jesus apparently crossed over the threshold between heaven and earth and visited with two great beings, Moses and Elias, with whom he had a conversation. He was “transfigured before them: and his face did shine like the sun, and his raiment was white as the light.” (Matt 17:2) How did he do this? And when and where did he initiate this process of transfiguration and revelation of his radiant divinity? Could it have been inside the Great Pyramid of Giza? Was not his mission, like the pharaohs such as Khufu, to bring balance and harmony back to the relationship between heaven and earth? Perhaps to restore harmony and balance between the planet itself and the solar system – or Solar Entity, as I prefer to call it?
Rites of Initiation
Golden plates were found in graves in Thessaly, Greece, that speak of a celebration or ritual “performance by the ‘blessed ones” that took place underground. The “blessed ones” are written about as being “’The Holy Ones, who understand the mysteries.’ Meaning, it is evident, those who had been initiated.” One plate reads: “O fortunate and blessed one, you are a god, no longer mortal.” Another plate reads: “Say, I am a child of Earth and starry Heaven; But my race is of Heaven [alone]”–advice given to a Far-World traveler to prepare him for any query about who he was.
We cannot avoid it: we are forced to take seriously the idea of initiation in underground chambers, and of initiates sharing with the dead secret rites and knowledge. This is a strange claim for a modern person to take seriously, but we must view the ancients in their own terms: this is how they explained what happens, and there seems to have been little ambiguity or doubt involved. Simply because we find it hard to believe is no reason to think that they misunderstood what was occurring, or worse, that they made it up as part of a “pious fraud.” All the evidence at our disposal leads to the conclusion that those who passed through the initiation ceremonies felt that they had been well served. There are no reports of disgruntled initiates demanding their money back.
Perhaps it is time now to look at how the priests did it—that is, how they helped initiates actually leave their bodies and travel to the Far-World.
There was a ritual performed in underground chambers, facilitated by Egyptian priests, called the “initiation,” which included a process of “incubation,” whereby those who wished to cross over to the Far-World and “be introduced to the divine secrets” could do so and return safely. This was performed in underground sanctuaries accessible by way of tunnels. Baigent relates it to an interesting classic story:
These initiates, as they were called, would enter, take the right-hand path—which was always recommended in the ancient texts—and be rowed along an artificial river to reach the inner sanctuary, which served as the doorway or portal into the netherworld they sought and the kingdom of the gods. To return, the initiates could pass back across the river. In the meantime, the alternative tunnel provided the priests of the site direct access to the sanctuary, where they would wait for the initiates to arrive.
It was all rather reminiscent of the visits to the underworld that classical writers had described. They began with accounts of visitors to the infernal regions being rowed across the River Styx by the silent boatman Charon. Then, after entry into the sacred kingdom, the traveler experienced, as Vergil describes it, “places of delight, to green park land, Where souls take ease amid the Blessed Groves.”!
The author actually visited this site and describes in intriguing detail features he personally saw that are found in Vergil’s Aeneid, a scene where Aeneas visits the Sibyl of Cuma and asks for directions to the underworld. Vergil’s story turns out to be more fact than fiction. Homer also wrote stories about crossing over to the underworld:
THE VERY NOTION of crossing to the realm of the dead has had a long tradition in the Greek world. The earliest report of such a journey appears in the famous book XI of Homer’s great epic The Odyssey. Odysseus, on his complicated journey back to his home after the battles of Troy, is required by a witch, Circe, to descend into Hades, where Persephone is queen, in order to seek advice from the soul of a famous but dead Theban.
As I read Baigent’s description of what was called “incubation,” it sounded very much like what we know and practice today as meditation or contemplation — or even what today is known as a “sweat lodge.” Only this ritual was performed by priests who knew the techniques and how to administer them. The question I am interested in having answered is whether or not Jesus had a personal experience of incubation during his sojourn in Egypt—perhaps as a preparation for his three-days in the sepulcher between his alleged crucifixion and his celebrated resurrection. Baigent alludes to this possibility but leaves us to our own conclusions and speculations.
THESE MATTERS MAY seem far too arcane to have any relevance whatsoever to our story, which, after all, concerns Jesus and the source of his teachings. Yet Jesus, as we shall soon see, also took an experiential approach to his mysticism. Could men like Parmenides have transmitted ideas to the classical world of the time of Jesus? Could they have added to the fertile mix of techniques that found a center in the great city of Alexandria and a Jewish expression in the Pythagorean-influenced group of Therapeutae whom Philo described living in a community outside the city?
Practice of Dying – Near Death Experiences?
Out of body experience
Plato explains through the words of Socrates that those who are involved in following philosophy correctly “‘are practicing nothing other than dying and being dead…truly, then, those who practice philosophy aright are cultivating dying.’” The only difference is that one returns to this world. It sounds very similar to a Near Death Experience.
At the point of death, Themistius informs us, “[the soul] has the same experience as those who are being initiated into great mysteries.”
This definitive assertion can be taken as a true expression of one who had himself been through the great mysteries. This is not just an intellectual belief but something learned from participating in such a journey to the Far-World.
Themistius continues:
At first one wanders and wearily hurries to and fro, and journeys with suspicion through the dark as one uninitiated: then come all the terrors before the final initiation, shuddering, trembling, sweating, amazement: then one is struck with a marvelous light, one is received into pure regions and meadows, with voices and dances and the majesty of holy sounds and shapes: among these he who has fulfilled initiation wanders free, and released and bearing his crown joins in the divine communion, and consorts with pure and holy men.
The Healer-Priests
In 1958 evidence was uncovered among the ruins of the ancient city of Velia in Italy of healer-priests of Apollo who survived the fall of that city. One of these was the Presocratic philosopher Parmenides. The date 446 A.D. was the latest date inscribed on the stone base of a destroyed statue, indicating a time somewhere around the beginning of the Christian period. Baigent describes their ritual practice:
These healer-priests were important: one of their titles was Pholarchos—“Lord of the Lair.” This is revealing, as these priests were specialists in an initiatory technique once well known in the ancient world as the technique of incubation.
In antiquity the best way of actually making contact with divinities of the underworld was through the practice of “incubation”—of awaiting a dream or vision while sleeping, as a rule, either on or even inside the earth.”
The ritual practice of incubation involves lying down in complete stillness and silence in an underground room, or perhaps a cave, in order to have a prophetic dream or to fall into a state of consciousness that is neither waking nor sleeping. It was here in the enclosed dark spaces that the seekers might have experienced passing across to the Far-world, where they could receive a vision from the Divine, the Source of all. The god of incubation was Apollo.”
. . . . The sacred journey was undertaken for healing or for a revelatory experience. These healer-priests of Apollo were experts in incubation and, as Kingsley explains, “used incantations to enter other states of consciousness.”
We can see here that the practices of ancient Greece, using such sites as found at Baia or the deep caves or underground sites that must have existed in Velia, were not so different from the uses made of the crypts beneath the temples in ancient Egypt. Such dark secluded places were chosen by seekers who, after dutiful preparation and appropriate ritual and incantation, lay in the stillness and entered another state of consciousness. We are left with little alternative but to seriously consider that they did indeed leave their bodies in their Ba form (according to the Egyptians) or in their psyche, or soul (according to the Greeks), and travel to the Far-World.
We can also see that by the time of Jesus the two traditions were drawing ever closer together. In fact, during the Greek and Roman domination of their country, the Egyptians despaired of their secrets surviving; the first-or second-century A.D. Hermetic text the Asclepius laments:
“A time will come when it will appear that the Egyptians paid respect to divinity with faithful mind and painstaking reverence to no purpose. All their holy worship will be disappointed and perish without effect, for divinity will return from earth to heaven, and Egypt will be abandoned…. When foreigners occupy the land … a prohibition under penalty prescribed by law (so-called) will be enacted against reverence, fidelity and divine worship. Then this most holy land, seat of shrines and temples, will be filled completely with tombs and corpses…. Only words cut in stone will survive to tell your faithful works.”
And so did it come to pass: Egypt became a land of darkness and stone-engraved mystery simultaneously with the rise of Christianity. This ended the “First Sacred School” initiated by Abraham and cleared the way for the “Second Sacred School” initiated by Jesus. I will leave it there for now. Until my next posts then,
Read my Health Light Newsletter online at LiftingTones.com
Ancient knowledge, Ancient Technology, Catholic Church, Christianity, Easter, Heaven, Interdimensional Science, Jesus, Jesus in Egypt, Jesus' missing years, Mythology, Pyramid Power, Pyramids, Pyramids as Healing Chambers, The "Jesus Papers", The Crucifixion of Jesus, The Dead Sea Scrolls, The Great Pyramid of Giza, The Messiah, Union with God
4th Density Apocalypse 2012—-Part 5: The Healers Are Back
This video clip recently appeared on the Web. I resonate with the tone of the message even though it contains a rather major discrepancy relative to which density Earth is being upgraded to. The message in this clip says Earth is being upgraded to a “fifth dimension” while Ra’s message through Wilcock says we are upgrading to a “fourth density.” The video message also says that Earth is completing four 25,920 Great Year cycles while the Ra material says we are completing three Great Year cycles and entering a fourth. So much for consistency in these channeled messages and prophesies. We are left to our own interpretations and conclusions about what’s really underfoot . . . not that it really matters. I simply enjoy the experience of being open minded as I review these amazing messages and writings. Something new is definitely happening on Earth and in the evolution of human consciousness. __________________________________________________________________
RA’S PROPHETIC ABILITY AND HEALING POWER
Most of Ra’s participation has been through psychic and dream interaction with Earthlings, although in 10,500 B.C., according to the L/L Research data, Ra assisted a priest who had an affinity with the “Law of One.” This priest, never specifically identified by L/L Research, appears to have been Cayce in a previous incarnation, according to Cayce’s own readings. Those readings detailed Cayce’s incarnation as an Egyptian high priest named Ra-Ta in 10,500 B.C., during which period Ra built the pyramids by levitation of rock.
Part of the original purpose of the pyramids was to store the accumulated knowledge and wisdom of Atlantis in the advent of the Great Deluge, when that continent sank into the ocean—an event of which many Atlantians who were living on the island continent of Poseidia (part of Atlantis) were receiving visions. Ra and his mother had been exiled from Sumeria near the Caspian Sea and had made their way to the slopes of what is now Mount Ararat in Turkey. Ra’s prophetic abilities became apparent as he grew up. At twenty-one he foresaw a worldwide cataclysm and pole shift that would inundate that part of the world. He saw Egypt as a safe land to move to.
Much of that knowledge and wisdom from Atlantis had to do with healing and rejuvenation. Ra would enter the pyramid he built in Egypt for periods of time in order to rejuvenate himself. Thus his lifespan was unusually long. Upon the completion of his work here, Ra “ascended into the mount—and was borne away.” Ra-Ta was the same entity recognized in Egyptian Mythology as Ra the Sun God. Ra-Ta is said to have come from the infinity forces or the Sun, and in their ignorance his followers became ‘sun worshipers.'” —Cayce
It was never Ra’s intention to be recognized and worshiped as a god by humankind. “They would define themselves as a partner/friend in assisting us, as a group as well as individually, in the evolution of our consciousness.”
The plans for the pyramids, along with the imparted knowledge of the Law of One, did not work out. The Egyptian priesthoods had. . .
. . . “quickly distorted” Ra’s message and “robbed it of the compassion with which unity is informed” [Law of One, Book One, Session 1, p. 66]. Ra never intended to be worshiped as a god; he was entirely focused on the Law of One, which states that all entities are manifestations of the One Infinite Creator, and hence no entity is above or below any other, regardless of their density of origin. . . .
. . . .Those in power abused Ra’s teachings, as expressed through the high priest, and used them for self-serving purposes. As a result of creating distortions in the evolutionary track of Earth, Ra has felt bound by their sense of honor to hang in with us and make reparations.
Ra apparently manifested a series of bodies in Egypt different from a normal-looking human body; those of Ra were tall, delicate, and had a golden luster.
As the story goes, and ends, Ra’s manifestation in the physical “had been a mistake and did not bring about the intended results.” When those in power, to whom were entrusted the “technical ways having to do with healing of body/mind/spirit complex,” only reserved this technology for themselves, the group soul called “Ra” left the people to their own wiles. In the Law of One, this is written about that event:
This was not intended by the Law of One. We left your people. However, we have never left your vibration due to our responsibility for the changes in consciousness we first caused and then found distorted in ways not relegated to the Law of One.
I feel a certain resonance with this statement telling of a time of mass ascension when the god beings who walked with human beings on Earth returned to the higher realms of light to await a time when Earthlings would be more receptive to them and what they brought in the way of technological knowledge and wisdom. That time appears to be now. We are back to complete the work we initiated some twelve-thousand-five-hundred years ago—not so much as healers of bodies as healers of the connection between humanity and God, between spirit and flesh. (If you think about it, that’s only 125 one-hundred-year cycles—not that long ago, really.)
INTERDIMENSIONAL SCIENCE ?
Perhaps Cayce and Wilcock were and are pushing the envelope of insights linking science and spirituality. These extraterrestrials brought advanced technology to us that would assist us in our evolution of consciousness. Many great minds were influenced by Ra through Edgar Cayce’s readings.
From hundreds of pages of sensational documents and correspondence that have never before been made public, it is now clear that such luminaries as Thomas Edison and Nikola Tesla had trance readings by Cayce, as did engineers at RCA, [computer engineers at] IBM, Delco, and the president and founder of Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company. Inventor Mitchell Hastings credited Cayce with helping him develop FM radio. NBC founder David Sarnoff and his family had secret readings. Remarkable technological and electronic designs provided by Cayce in trance are now used in almost every large hospital and airport in the world. . . . Marilyn Monroe was even using beauty aids that Cayce had recommended. (Sidney Kirpatrick, Cayce, An American Prophet, 2000)
BELIEVE IT OR NOT— IT REALLY DOESN’T MATTER
David Wilcock’s own readings as detailed in Wynn Free’s book have offered clear and accurate future predictions. The author himself admits that this alone . . .
. . .does not constitute proof in most people’s minds that a dimensional shift is occurring. Even with the documented scientific material that he has put together [some of which I’ve presented in this blog series], most people who do not want to believe it will simply never have the patience to read it carefully enough to understand. Hence, the Law of Free Will is still being preserved. Yet whether or not you choose to believe in a coming dimensional shift is not really as important as living each day with an open heart, in joy, and without fear. It is my personal belief and experience that Ra has the ability and wisdom to guide you into that state if it is something you choose for yourself. And if the dimensional shift should prove to be real, then you will have automatically qualified yourself for the higher-dimensional path.
As for my personal take on and experience of the stories and contents of this very provocative book, my consciousness has definitely shifted over the last fifty years, along with friends and associates with whom I’ve lived and interacted over the years. I have personally experienced a frequency shift in the late 1970’s during meditation which changed the vibrational frequency of my body in a profound moment of levitation brought about by a deep heartfelt longing for union with God. The shift lasted for several weeks. When I would sing during those weeks, my body felt like it would float up into the air. The “veil of forgetting” has thinned in human consciousness. Angels are revealing themselves in every corner of the Earth. Apocalypse is NOW.
In Biblical terms, the “Archangel,” the LORD of Lords and King of kings, is returning to take back His Earth. He has sent his angels—you, me and millions of others—ahead of Him to prepare the way. The light of His presence is being felt the world over . . . and He does come from the Sun, bearing the radiance of the Sun as a garment, bringing the warmth of love, the light of truth, and the gift of eternal life. (Is there any other kind?)
Today we celebrate the re-birth of Gaia as she begins her ascension into the Fourth Density. We are in the midst of the dawning of a Golden Age that is dominated, ruled, by the Spirit of Love. Call it what you will. The “Fourth Density” is as good a name as any. The “Kingdom of Heaven on Earth” is another — with the King and Queen present in it. That’s my take. What’s your’s? Share if you like. I would love to share your thoughts and inspirations on all that I’ve presented in these last few posts. I don’t know what’s next. Perhaps an inspiration will come in some of my readers’ comments. Until then,
Visit my Health Light Newsletter blog at liftingtones.com for educational reading on health and wellness. We are presently considering the spiritual or vibrational aspects of the seven endocrine glands, this post focusing on “The Blessings of the Pancreas.”
92 countries visit my blogs:
ALBANIA, ARGENTINA, AUSTRALIA, AUSTRIA, BAHAMAS, BAHRAIN, BANGLADESH, BARBADOS, BELARUS, BELGIUM, BOLIVIA, BOSNIA, BRAZIL, BULGARIA, CAMEROON, CANADA, CHILI, COLOMBIA, COSTA RICA, CROATIA, CYPRUS, CZECH REPUBLIC, DENMARK, ECUADOR, EGYPT, FINLAND, FRANCE, GEORGIA, GERMANY, GHANA, GREECE, GUATEMALA, HONG KONG, HUNGARY, ICELAND, INDIA, INDONESIA, IRAQ, IRELAND, ISRAEL, ITALY, JAMAICA, JAPAN, JERSEY (island), KENYA, KUWAIT, LEBANON, LATVIA, LITHUANIA, MALAYSIA, MALTA, MEXICO, MOLDOVA, MONTENEGRO, NETHERLANDS, NEW ZEALAND, NORWAY, PAKISTAN, PANAMA, PERU, PHILLIPPINES, POLAND, PORTUGAL, PUERTO RICO, REUNION (Island), ROMANIA, RUSSIAN FEDERATION, SAUDI ARABIA, SERBIA, SPAIN, SINGAPORE, SLOVAKIA, SLOVENIA, SOLOMON ISLANDS, SOUTH AFRICA, SRI LANKA, SUDAN, SYRIAN ARABIA, REPUBLIC OF (SOUTH) KOREA, SWEDEN, SWITZERLAND, TAIWAN, TANSANIA (UNITED REP. OF TZ), THAILAND, TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO, TURKEY, UKRAINE, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES, UNITED KINGDOM, USA, VENEZUELA, VIET NAM, ZIMBABWE (South Africa)
Ancient Egypt, Ancient Technology, Apocalypse, Aquarian Age, Ascension, Atlantis, Climate Changes, Cosmic Energy, Cosmic events, Current cosmic event, David Wilcock, Edgar Cayce Reincarnated, Global Warming, Incarnation, Lamuria, Mayan Calendar, Milky Way Galaxy, Pyramids as Healing Chambers, Reincarnation, Resurrection, Transformation
“Pyramid Power” Page 1:The Great Pyramid of Giza
The ancient prophecies do not speak of a worldwide extinction—they foretell a coming Golden Age. (David Wilcock)
THE ARK OF THE COVENANT AND THE GREAT PYRAMID
Not very long ago I saw, on a television program like NOVA or National Geographics, the most intriguing scenario of Moses’s flight from Egypt and Pharaoh’s hot pursuit of him just after he had left Egypt with the Israelites. As the scenario went, it seems that Moses, who was well trained in ancient Egyptian technology, made off with the key piece of technology that converted cosmic solar energy into electricity in the King’s Chamber of the Great Pyramid of Giza. The pyramid itself was an electrical plant that gathered solar energy, and the key mechanism for transforming that energy into electricity and transmitting it was none other than the Biblical “Ark of the Covenant.” The research shows where there were tunnels underneath the pyramid through which water flowed, possibly as a cooling bath for hot equipment or to generate hydroelectric current as well. It also showed that the Egyptians used light bulbs of sorts and even powered industrial and commercial engines to drive machinery and ships remotely. In fact, the entire city depended on this electricity generated by pyramid power and, without the central arc-producing mechanism, Egypt was left in the dark and without power. Thus Pharaoh’s hot pursuit of Moses in the desert to retrieve the Ark of the Covenant.
Now, while I’ll admit this is a preposterous scenario of a well known Biblical event, it’s not nearly as preposterous and unbelievable as what I’m about to present in the next few blog posts. So, hold onto your hats.
THE GREAT PYRAMID OF GIZA
Considered the largest man-made structure on earth, the Great Pyramid of Giza spreads out over thirteen acres and stands forty stories high. It weighs 6.3 million tons, constructed as it is out of 2.3 million limestone and granite blocks that weigh in at between 2.5 to 70 tons apiece. It was originally overlaid with twenty-acres of “gleaming, brightly polished white casing stones—a total of about 115,000 blocks of pure white limestone averaging 100 inches, or 8.3 feet, in thickness,” some weighing as much as sixteen tons. Its blindingly bright reflection of the sun, visible from mountains in Israel hundreds of miles away, earned it the name Ta Khut, or “The Light.”
The technology used to build this structure far surpasses anything known and used today to build skyscrapers. Just the laying out and leveling off of its bedrock foundation required architectural skills unmatched by today’s standards. No corner of the Great Pyramid’s base is more than a half-inch higher or lower than the other. The limestone casings were carved to fit so tightly together on all six sides that the spaces between them measured one-fiftieth of an inch, narrower than a human fingernail, and were filled with a mortar so strong that the limestone block would itself break before the cement would give if one were to smash the casings with a sledgehammer. There is no known cement or method in masonry today that could even come close to accomplishing such a feat.
A series of earthquakes in 1356 that leveled areas of northern Egypt also shook the pyramid so hard that many of the casing stones broke off and slid down into a heap around its base. These pieces were hauled away and used to rebuild Cairo, and what casings didn’t get shaken off by the earthquakes were broken off and hauled away to be used in building mosques and palaces in Cairo and the new capital of El Kaherah.
But that’s just half the story. . .
Strangely, the pyramid is also located at the exact center of the earth’s landmass—the one true axis mundi. Its east-west axis sits precisely on the longest land parallel, covering the greatest amount of land and the least amount of water on earth—passing through Africa, Asia, and America along the way. The longest land meridian, crossing over Asia, Africa, Europe, and Antarctica, also passes right through the pyramid. The likelihood of finding this “perfect location” by accident is 1 in 3 billion. I didn’t know why this location was so important until years later, as we will see—but it has to do with the flow and positioning of natural energy fields from the earth that have remained unknown to mainstream scientists in our own modern times. (Wilcock)
One final unexplained dimensional fact: the height of the Great Pyramid (5,449 inches), is equal exactly to the average height of land above sea level on earth, with Florida as the lowest level and the Himalayas as the highest. With all of these features, one is led to believe that the “ancients” who built this phenomenal structure were beings with a highly advanced knowledge of a technology yet unknown to modern scientists, and were likely from outer space to have known some of the data discovered.
The King’s Chamber, for instance, is made of red granite, which is very hard, and the floor is inlaid with twenty different stones of various sizes and arranged in a series of six different rows, each row having a different width. “In Anatomy of the King’s Chamber, [Bernard] Pietsch presents staggeringly complex and compelling evidence that a variety of measurements from Mercury, Venus, Earth, the Moon, Jupiter and Saturn—including their orbital periods—are encoded in the stones’ dimensions.”
THE “KING’S TOMB” . . . OR WAS IT?
The sarcophagus is also made of the same hard granite, yet it has round holes bored into it by drills that had to have had diamond tips, as soft copper was the only metal available at that time. It is too large to pass through the portals of the chamber, so it had to have been constructed on site. It has groves for a lid but there is no lid in sight, suggesting that it was not built to be a tomb for the king. Perhaps it was used more as a preservative vault to mummify corpses, as experiments with dead animals later proved could be done in pyramids. We’ll talk about this in the next post. Then again, in keeping with the scenario of Moses’s alleged theft of the Ark of the Covenant, the sarcophagus may well have been exactly where the ark was positioned in this strategical “King’s Chamber” of the electrical generating pyramid—in which case the ark had to be small enough to take it through the portals of the chamber.
MEASUREMENTS SPEAK VOLUMES
There are a number of measurements in and around the Great Pyramid that point to future celestial events and record certain planetary dimensions. The calculations made by Colonel Vyse and John Perring in 1840 opened a phase of study known as “Pyramidology.” A skilled mathematician and amateur astronomer in Egypt by the name of John Taylor took Vyse’s data and applied mathematical and geometric formulas he found hidden in the data to planetary and astronomical events. Here are a few of them.
The perimeter of the base of the pyramid in “pyramid inches” correlate with the diameter of the earth from pole to pole as well as the length of a year on earth around its perimeter, 365 days. One “pyramid inch” equals one five-hundred-millionth of the earth’s diameter at the poles. Taylor concluded that “the builders of the pyramid must have known the true spherical dimensions of the planet, and built their whole measurement system off it.”
The measurement of the diagonals of the pyramid, “the distance from one corner, over the top and down to the other corner, comes out to 25,826.4 pyramid inches—remarkably close to modern calculations of the true length of the precession of the equinoxes in years.” In other words, the Mayan “Great Year.”
The “invisible capstone” is suggested to be a message to earthlings that the creation of planet Earth is incomplete. I disagree with this interpretation and will tell why shortly. Here’s Wilcock’s interpretation:
When we remember how well the Great Pyramid preserves the earth’s exact measurements, it is no surprise that Peter Lemesurier, the author of Great Pyramid Decoded, suggested the flattened top meant the earth itself, like the Great Pyramid, is somehow unfinished. It could be that the folks who built the pyramid intended to return at some point—perhaps the end of the Great Year—to finish the job they started. The return of the capstone also transforms the pyramid from a six-sided object . . . to a five-sided object. According to Lemesurier, in Egyptian numerology, six means “imperfection” and five means “Divine Initiation.”
THE INVISIBLE CAPSTONE AND THE PINEAL GLAND
Wilcock’s investigations into ancient symbolism around the pineal gland leads him to suggest that the invisible capstone also symbolized the pineal gland, which is being awakened as the current Golden Age dawns, a “Divine Initiation.” He recalls that the “Sibylline prophecies speak of the coming Golden Age in the Zorastrian tradition, and clearly state that this will be a time where ‘the Golden One shall arise again in the whole earth’—meaning everyone who is here.”
This I resonate with and will expand upon. I would suggest that the Great Pyramid was build complete and that its design purposefully included an invisible capstone to represent Man in his original state of divinity—the Golden One. It may well have represented the LORD of Lords, who incarnated two-thousand years ago in the Master Jesus and whose earth this is, along with “the fullness thereof.” It is reported by some that Jesus visited the Great Pyramid during his so-called “missing years.” It may also and more specifically stand for the Priesthood, to use an archaic term, those divine beings—perhaps the Elohim who created this world—who represent the LORD to this universe in which we live and have our being and, in return, this universe to the LORD. If indeed the six-sided object represented something imperfect to the Egyptians, then perhaps it was only in the sense that without Divine Man’s presence in the Earth, the invisible capstone is absent the Presence of the LORD and therefore the pyramid became imperfect and incomplete with the “Fall,” when human consciousness separated itself from Divine Consciousness and mankind fell from its spiritual identity down into its present state of material identity. This I believe to be the true significance of the invisible capstone.
A SPIRITUAL INITIATION
There is a spiritual renewal of human consciousness in progress today the likes of which has never occurred before. It is virtually invisible, especially to mainstream media. Man is rightly the representative of the Creator to Creation and of Creation to the Creator. Not just material man as we’ve known ourselves to be, but Spiritual Man, male and female, made in the image and likeness of the Creator God. Human consciousness is supposed to be the invisible capstone of the Great Pyramid atop the Earth in the exact location of the center of the planet’s landmass, administering the technology of love as the governing force in human affairs. This technology, hidden in the features of the Great Pyramid of Giza—and there is data indicating that this yet undiscovered technology is present and at least partially active—awaits the return of The Golden One, Spiritual Man, to his ordained position as co-creator of this world. We will explore some of this data in the next post. Until then,
Reference: David Wilcock, The Source Field Investigations—The Hidden Science and Lost Civilizations Behind the 2012 Prophecies, 2011.
Visit my other blog at LiftingTones.com for inspiring meditations on the spiritual essences of your sacred anatomy. The current Health Light Newsletter theme is “Seven Glands for Seven Spirits.”
There are 61 countries visiting my blogs: ALBANIA, ARGENTINA, AUSTRALIA, AUSTRIA, BAHAMAS, BANGLADESH, BARBADOS, BRAZIL, BULGARIA, CANADA, COLOMBIA, CROATIA, CZECH REPUBLIC, ECUADOR, EGYPT, FINLAND, FRANCE, GEORGIA, GERMANY, GREECE, HONG KONG, HUNGARY, ICELAND, INDIA, INDONESIA, IRELAND, ISRAEL, ITALY, JAMAICA, JAPAN, KUWAIT, MEXICO, MALAYSIA, NETHERLANDS, NEW ZEALAND, NORWAY, PAKISTAN, PERU, PHILLIPPINES, PORTUGAL, PUERTO RICO, ROMANIA, RUSSIAN FEDERATION, SPAIN, SINGAPORE, SLOVAKIA, SLOVENIA, SOUTH AFRICA, SYRIAN ARABIA, REPUBLIC OF (SOUTH) KOREA, SWEDEN, SWITZERLAND, TAIWAN, THAILAND, TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO, TURKEY, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES, UNITED KINGDOM, USA, VENEZUELA, ZIMBABWE.
2012, Aquarian Age, Cosmic Energy, Cosmic events, Current cosmic event, David Wilcock, Divine identity, Elohim, Energy, Mayan Calendar, Pineal Gland, Planet Earth, Pyramid Power, Source Field Investigations, The Great Pyramid of Giza
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line7607
|
__label__cc
| 0.748097
| 0.251903
|
Forgotten North Broad Street
« Philadelphia’s Lost Jewish Quarter–SOLD OUT
Pennsylvania Hospital/Washington Square Tour–SOLD OUT »
$15 Hidden City members (become a member here)
$10 Student
North Broad Street is a vein of pure architectural gold, but when was the last time you actually walked from Center City to Temple University (or vice versa)? Well, here’s your chance to give this stretch of the city the attention it deserves!
Among the survivals are a few of the mansions built by newly wealthy industrialists in the late 19th century, and remnants from the 1920s when it was known as “Auto Row.” After years of decline following World War II, investment has returned of late, most notably with the reopening of the Metropolitan Opera House and the Divine Lorraine Hotel. We’ll be talking about the great ones that were torn down, too, including Central High School, the Widener Mansion and the first iteration of Rodeph Shalom synagogue, designed by Frank Furness
We’ll start our journey at Spring Garden Street, then make a beeline up Broad Street, winding things up at York Street. ***Please note that this will be a one-way trip***
Guide Jerry Silverman is a certified member of the Association of Philadelphia Tour Guides. He earned a Bachelor of Hebrew Literature and a Master of Jewish Education, and has taught Hebrew and Judaica at numerous institutions including Gratz College. Jerry served as the High School principal of Temple Beth Sholom in Cherry Hill, NJ, as well as the Educational Director of Temple Beth Zion-Beth Israel. Since 2009, Jerry has been giving tours as part of the Philadelphia Mural Arts Program, including developing a special Jewish-themed tour. He is a founding member of the Museum of American Jewish History and was on the boards of The Little Shul and Congregation Rodeph Shalom.
SE Corner of Broad and Spring Garden Sts
Pete Woodall
pwoodall@hiddencityphila.org
Reservations aren't required but are strongly recommended because most of our tours sell out in advance. Reserving a space is easy! Just click the “purchase tickets” button. If there are still spaces left for a tour, you can show up and pay in person without registering. However, please note: We can’t guarantee you a space if you don’t pay in advance. Payments must be made via cash or personal check. We apologize for the inconvenience.
Hidden City presents tours rain or shine, with the exception of heavy rain or thunderstorms. In the event of a cancellation, we'll notify you by email the night before. You’re welcome to request a refund at that time or register for a future tour.
Refund & Exchange Policy*
You can cancel up to 48 hours in advance by contacting Peter Woodall at pwoodall@hiddencityphila.org. You can also reschedule your reservation, if another date is available, Please provide: 1) full name and the names of any guests 2) whether you’re a member or not 3) date of current reservation and, if appropriate, date of new reservation
*Without advanced notice, we are not able to provide refunds for cancellations. If a walker chooses to leave a tour in progress, Hidden City will not provide refunds.
Prices vary for each tour; see individual event description for details. All members receive 25% off tours and events, and higher level members receive complimentary tickets. Interested? CLICK HERE
Time & Distance
All tours last approximately two hours. We do start on time. We maintain a moderate walking pace, so please wear comfortable shoes and bring water if necessary. We do not stop for bathroom breaks–sorry!
Unfortunately, we cannot provide wheelchairs, although many of our tours are wheelchair-friendly. Additionally, we cannot guarantee that all curbs or building entrances will have ADA-compliant ramps.
Cell Phones & Electronic Devices
We know you’re busy, but please put your phone on vibrate or turn it off altogether. Thank you!
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line7612
|
__label__wiki
| 0.856296
| 0.856296
|
Somalia National Police members gain marksmanships skills while training at a range in Djibouti
By Staff Sgt. Kenneth Norman
Djibouti, October 31, 2016
Members of the Carabinieri and Somalia Police Force train at a shooting range in Djibouti, Djibouti, Oct. 30, 2016. The Carabinieri is in charge of training mission MAIDIT Somalia 6, which is the mission of training the Somali Police Force in order to promote the stability and security of the entire region of the Horn of Africa. (U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Kenneth W. Norman)
Task Force Warrior, Japanese Ground Self-Defense Force meet for combative training
U.S. Army Soldiers assigned to Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa (CJTF-HOA) and Japanese Ground Self-Defense Force soldiers participated in a combatives exchange at Camp Lemonnier, Djibouti, July 1 and July 5.
CJTF-HOA, Aga Khan University Hospital explore future partnership
Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa service members performed an on-site survey and subject matter expert exchange at Aga Khan University Hospital, Nairobi, Kenya, July 2-4.
CJTF-HOA, Kamenge Military Hospital partner for Ebola prevention
The 403rd Civil Affairs Battalion, CJTF-HOA, and military personnel and doctors from the Kamenge Military Hospital conducted an Ebola preparedness subject matter expert exchange as a precautionary measure for personnel near the border of the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Fundamentals of Global Health, Engagement course offered for first time on African continent
Service members from Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa attended a Fundamentals of Global Health Engagement (FOGHE) course at Camp Lemonnier, Djibouti, June 11-13.
CJTF-HOA holds change of command ceremony
Service members assigned to Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa welcomed their new commander during a ceremony, June 12. U.S. Army Maj. Gen. James D. Craig, outgoing commander of CJTF-HOA, transferred responsibility to U.S. Army Maj. Gen. Michael D. Turello. U.S. Marine Corps Gen. Thomas Waldhauser, commander of U.S. Africa Command, presided over the ceremony.
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line7614
|
__label__wiki
| 0.554115
| 0.554115
|
About The Bishop
Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) - On July 14, 2015 the Holy Father accepted the resignation from the pastoral care of the diocese of Ho (Ghana), by His Exc. Mgr. Francis Anani Kofi Lodonu, in accordance with canon 401 § 1 of the Code of Canon Law.
The Holy Father appointed Rev. Fr. Emmanuel Fianu, S.V.D., Secretary General of the Council of the Divine Word Fathers as Bishop of Ho (Ghana).
Rev. Fr. Emmanuel Fianu, S.V.D. was born on June 14, 1957 in Tegbi, near Keta (now the town is located in the diocese of Keta-Akatsi). From 1963 he attended elementary and secondary schools in Tegbi, Ada-Foah and Accra. For three years (1976-1979) he was a student at the Major Seminary in Tamale. He entered the Congregation of the Missionaries of the Divine Word (SVD).
He was ordained a priest on July 14, 1985 in Accra.
Since ordination, he has served in the following academic and pastoral roles: 1986-1990: assistant parish in Togo, Chaplain of the young and in charge of the lay apostolate; teacher in the College d'Enseignement General in Kante; 1990-1994: student of Biblical Theology at the Pontifical Biblical Institute in Rome; 1994-1996: Admonitor of the SVD District in Lome, professor of Biblical Studies at St. Jean Paul II Seminaire and at the Institut St. Paul in Lome, Secretary of the Commission for the liturgical publications Ghana-Togo; 1996-1998: Director of the Divine Word College in Rome; 1998-2000: Admonitor of the Divine Word College in Rome; 2000-2004: Rector of the College of the Divine Word in Rome, professor and formator at St. Victor's Major Seminary in Tamale; 2001-2003: Secretary for the formation of the SVD Provinces Africa-Madagascar; 2004-2006: Coordinator for the AFRAM area based in Accra; since 2006: Secretary of the General Council of his Congregation.
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line7616
|
__label__wiki
| 0.964639
| 0.964639
|
What it's like trying to watch US Genre shows in the UK
Filed to: featureFiled to: feature
Autumn has begun, and that means only one thing: The Fall TV season has started, and we're on the cusp of a very special time for nerdy TV shows. That is, unless you're like me and live in the UK, in which case: The Golden Age will not be Televised... yet.
Are We At The Dawn Of A Golden Age Of Comic Book TV Shows?
There have been TV shows based on comics for decades, but this is the first time it feels as though …
Gotham. Arrow. Agents of SHIELD. Constantine. The Flash. Hell, Star Wars Rebels - there's plenty of shows I'm excited for coming up in the next month, if I didn't live here in England. At the moment, it's sort of like looking into the great unknown. Outside of Rebels, none of the above shows actually have Broadcast dates in the UK yet (and even then Rebels has only been confirmed for its première episode, not the season that starts 10 days after that première in the US), and some like Constantine don't even have broadcast channels yet. American fans of course, know when these shows will be on - Gotham and Agents of SHIELD have already started this week!
It's something UK fans have had to put up with for a long time - Star Trek in its various forms flitted between the BBC and Sky during the nineties, Lost, celebrating its 10th anniversary this week, originally began on terrestrial Channel 4 before being controversially switched to cable-only Sky after two seasons. But what is a UK fan meant to do when all this exciting new Television has yet to reach our shores?
We sit and we wait. But that way, we lose something that makes modern pop culture what it is these days - being part of the big conversation.
Television has always been a social beast, but these days even solitary viewing has become surprisingly public through the rise of Social Media - live-tweeting episodes no longer is in the confines of the public themselves, creators and broadcasters are taking it on themselves to update social media with a play-by-play of an episode as it goes out. The water-cooler moment of a show doesn't need to wait for the water-cooler any more, it's instantaneous, out to millions of voices on the internet. Discussion is crucial to our enjoyment of fiction, we love to extol what we loved and vilify what we hate - and having access to a massive audience to share those opinions with at the touch of a button is addictive. It helps elevate watching something into an event.
So whilst everyone else is off talking about these shows, we have to slam our hands over our ears and hope we don't hear too much whilst Channel 4, Channel 5, Sky One and others hold back broadcast. No one ever wants to be the person who turns up late to the conversation.
So what can you do about it, really? I guess piracy is an inevitable touchstone to turn to in such conversations - there's been plenty enough debate of whether it's justifiably good for a program or ultimately too damaging, and I'm not here to advocate a point one way or the other. Personally I don't, but at times like these when there's a bunch of new shows and there's no sign of them coming across the pond soon, I can see how people get tempted.
But what we can do legally, outside of twiddling our thumbs? Not much - but we can look to other shows that are starting to do it right when it comes to keeping the gap between US and UK broadcasts down on both sides of the pond.
It didn't start out like it back when it was on Syfy, but over the years - especially under Steven Moffat's run, Doctor Who has gotten its broadcasts down to the same day for the UK and the US, something that's really helped propel the series to the world stage. Americans are watching Doctor Who a handful of hours after Brits are, so they're joining the discussion while it's still on. At times it's been even closer than that - The Day of The Doctor was simulcast in not just the US but across 94 countries, the biggest showing of a TV drama ever. I'm not saying every episode of a show should be broadcast like that, but it speaks to the cultivation of a wider, global audience that Doctor Who has developed over the past 9 years that it's now capable of such a thing.
Of course, it's quite simple for Doctor Who, as it's broadcast by the same company in the US and the UK - BBC and BBC America as part of the corporation's Worldwide branch. But it's not just happening with UK-based shows that have that benefit either, the US are starting to get in on it as well. Game of Thrones, broadcast in the UK on Sky Atlantic, has always been relatively close to its US broadcasts - usually the Monday after HBO's Sunday evening airing. But this year it changed for the better: Sky Atlantic kept its Monday 9pm showing of Game of Thrones for Season 4, but at the same time offered a direct simulcast of every episode at 2am for fans who didn't want to wait.
The rise of streaming services in the past few years has already culled the relevance of broadcast schedules on a national level a lot, but it's time for that to start happening internationally and get TV programmes in everyone's hands sooner rather than later. It's great to see that maybe, just maybe, we're on the cusp of better global broadcasting for some of our favourite shows - but for now here in the UK, whilst America tucks into the Fall season, we get back to twiddling our thumbs.
We're honestly quite good at it, at this point.
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line7617
|
__label__wiki
| 0.525997
| 0.525997
|
Africa: Bloggers Differ on Reparations and Apology for Slavery
Posted 28 March 2007 15:46 GMT
The Slave Trade Act was passed in England 200 years ago. The act ended slave trade in the British empire. A number of events such as art exhibits, lectures, church services, and parades have been taking place all over the world to mark this day.
In England, Prime Minister Tony Blair expressed deep sorrow, Mayor Kevin Livingstone made a formal apology. In cyberspace, the Archibishops Dr Rowan Williams and Dr John Sentamu used YouTube to share their reflections on slave trade.
The African blogosphere has marked the anniversary with discussions centred around issues of apology, reparations, and Africa's role in the trade.
Amir Ibrahim, writing at Kenya Imagine, deals with the issue of Africa's role in the trade:
Such scholars point out that few slaves were captured directly by the slavers and that the majority were sold on to them by prominent African states like the Ashanti kingdom. These scholars also maintain that slavery was a social construct already existent in Africa and that European slavers merely took the slaves into new markets. The historical record proves that whereas this may be correct strictly speaking, traditionally African slaves were indentured labourers whose lives and station in society was much higher than was permitted in the New World. The phenomenon of European slaving and the horrors of the slave experience in the new world are unprecedented in documented human history.
Did African empires benefit economically from the slave trade? Amir continues:
While it is true that there were African states Dahomey, Kongo and Ashanti, that profited handsomely from this trade, history indicates that even the wealth that slave-raider chiefs accrued from the trade quickly reverted to the slavers as it was used to buy alcohol and firearms both of which only served to further fuel the trade. In the end the economic benefits of slavery flowed only one way, out of Africa.
Who Should Aplogize for the Roman Empire?
“Brothers sold Brothers,” writes Refined One:
…Slaves from
Africa were sold by there own brothers( Africans)… No matter how hard that maybe for us to accept it is the truth!
This has caused division between Africans and West Indians to date…some feel resentful towards Africans for what was done to there ancestors.
We should not let division in our lives, for the perfect will of God is still to be unfolded…Our dreams will still be fulfilled.
In another post, Refined One had suggested an apology for slavery. She changes her mind:
Why I decided to write this post was because in the post before this I said something about an apology….which I would like to take back.
She prefers forgiveness to an apology:
Brothers on different continents, of different shades, we are all still brothers, as I said before FORGIVNESS is the only way forwarded.
There has been a renewed call for an apology for slavery following the Virginia State legislature's apology for the state's role in the trade.
Khanya finds this idea disturbing. Why should people apologize for other people's sins?:
It seems to me that this shows an inversion of moral values. Tony Blair ought not to apologise for the slave trade, because there is no way he can be held responsible for it. But he can be held responsible for the bombing of Belgrade and Basra, and if he symbolically went and washed the feet of the widows and orphans of those cities, and the stumps of the maimed and the lame who were crippled by British bombs dropped at his orders, then he would be doing something far more significant. The demand that he should apologise for the slave trade is simply grotesque.
Who should apologize for the Roman Empire? He asks:
My wife (and children) are descendants of slaves. I haven’t yet discovered any slaves in my own ancestry, but for all I know there could have been, say under the Roman Empire. Should I therefore demand that the Italian government officially apologise?
Dismissing arguments made against an apology, Amir Ibrahim writes:
It is strange and offensive then that the British Government should hold the descendants of the slave victims of this the greatest crime against humanity in such contempt as not to issue a symbolic apology for the crimes committed against them. The arguments they advance against such an apology are truly specious and offensive. Firstly they claim that these events were committed such a long time ago that apologies are now irrelevant. The Catholic Church's apology for its crimes against Galileo certainly dismisses this idea. The second is the silly notion that an apology would be an act of national self-hatred. The Germans, the Japanese and the French could have taken this childish route, but were more assured of their place in history. Neither does this explain why Tony Blair apologised to the Irish, or how religious organisations like the Vatican and the Church of England have managed to survive their apologies.
Roots, Kunta Kinte, and Snoop Dogg
In a post that is likely to touch some raw nerves, Chxta questions the logic behind the call for an apology:
Slavery (at least the non-covert form) ended in 1865, and I don't think that there is anyone walking the planet now who was around back then, so Chxta doesn't understand this call for an apology, the call for reparations, and more recently, this idea of Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome.
What is this mad demand for an apology? And how do events that ended well before any of us walking around now have a direct bearing on what we do today?
According to Chxta, African slaves were captured by Africans. Therefore, Africans are the ones who need to apologize:
……If you watch the movie Roots, Kunta Kinte was not kidnapped by white guys, he was kidnapped by niggers…..
If there is anyone who should apologise, it is those of us that come from Africa now. We should apologise to those that can't trace their roots, and have no ‘true sense’ of identity, afterall we sold them.
Chxta opposes the idea of reparations for slavery arguing that there is no direct link between the state of African people today and slavery:
Anyway, the main object of this write up is to voice Chxta's opinion that all the calls for reparations, for apologies and the attempt to link the failings of African nations (and African American peoples) today to slavery is utter bollocks, and an exercise in something worse than colonial mentality, slave mentality.
Chxta is yet to fully understand how Kunta Kinte being made to accept Toby as his name at the back end of a lash is responsible for Snoop Dogg claiming to be a gansta. Chxta doesn't understand how the fact that their great great great great great great grandmother was the bed wench of some plantation owner
in Nashville is responsible for the moral laxity we see among African American youths (and their cousins of Caribbean descent on this side of the pond). Chxta doesn't understand how slavery prevents today's African American youth from going to school, instead preferring to rap and do sports in the name of ‘keeping it real’. Chxta doesn't understand how payment of reparations would help African economies to get on their feet when there is almost definitely a cabal in one corner of the room waiting to pocket the reparation money and tell boys that ‘dem no give us shinshin’.
Slave Trade and the Church of England
In “Reparations for slavery?,” Black Looks posts a link to a BBC article about the Church of England considering reparations. The Church of England owned African slaves in the West Indies.
Riviersonderend would like the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, to extend his notion of justice for slavery to gay, lesbian, and transgendered people:
Yesterday, people from all walks of life marched in London in commemoration of the slave trade’s abolition. Our collective “moral conscience” was there as well: the church. The procession was blessed by the Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams. Just a bit ironic, I would say.
As Williams is marching for justice, he is preparing to deny justice to the world’s gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered people and sanction their persecution in Nigeria. Why? Because the Bible says so.
Let us not forget the Bible’s position on slavery, as we celebrate this momentous landmark. Let us not forget the church’s role in the slave trade – the Church of England had slaves on its plantations in the Caribbean. Let us not forget that the Southern Baptist Convention was formed in an effort to preserve the Christian basis for slavery before the American Civil War. Let us not forget that the Bible does not condemn the practice of slavery.
Indeed, in 1856 Reverend Thomas Stringfellow, a Baptist minister, wrote A Scriptural View of Slavery, in which he claimed: “… Jesus Christ recognized this institution as one that was lawful among men, and regulated its relative duties… I affirm then, first (and no man denies) that Jesus Christ has not abolished slavery by a prohibitory command; and second, I affirm, he has introduced no new moral principle which can work its destruction…”
Lastly, Jikomboe posts a link to a video of Burning Spear singing his 1975 song, Slavery Days. Wailing: do you remember the days of slavery?
Next comments
Pearl Duncan
This article, “From Apology . . . to Moral Action,” published by Ekklesia in February 2006, when the Church of England debated whether to apologize for slavery, was republished on March 28, 2007, as “From Apology . . . to Moral Action on Slavery,” now that the Church of England’s leaders voted 238 to 0 to apologize, and is now pondering reparations.
http://www.ekklesia.co.uk/node/4954
28 March 2007, 12:06 pm
Thanks for the mention and the trackback. Interesting range of views.
I challenge anyone to show me any part of the U.S./European economy that is not tied to the slave trade or direct colonialism. Follow the money trail. Prior to the trade in African people Europe was poor, backwards, diseased, oppressed by feudalism, warlike and scary. African nations, the Indigenous peoples of the Americas, Arabs and the Asians were prosperous and healthy. They call it the “dark” ages but this was only in Europe, most others were doing fine–Mali,Songhai, Persia, China, India, the Aztecs, Mayans, Iroquois…
The slave trade and the theft of Africa’s resources, along with genocide against the indigenous peoples and the theft of their land and colonialism around the world: This is what made Europe and the white world rich. Now white people are rich and everybody else is poor and oppressed.
Africa is poor today because of this! Why should anyone in diamond, gold, bauxite, coltan, uranium, oil-rich Africa be living on a dollar a day when the European and American companies are making billions of dollars–taking everything out of Africa!
Africa and all its resources belong to African people everywhere–African working people, not the puppets who front for America and Europe.–people like Kwame Nkrumah and Patrice Lumumba who were overthrown and assassinated for their stand to unite and liberate Africa.
In 700, African armies crossed the Mediterrean and invaded Europe, driving all the way to the outskirts of Paris. Their of the Iberian Penisula (Spain and Portugal) last 400 years. During this time, millions of white slaves were transported for Europe to Africa and Arabia. The formation of European nation states and military forces were a reaction to this invasion and other invasion out of Asia and Arabia.
The Europeans never raided African villages to kidnap and enslave Africans. They purchased slaves from powerful African tribes that ran the slave market.
European military forces did not enter Africa until the late 1800s, after slavery had been abolished in the United States and Europe. Some merchants got rich, but the African colonies proved to be a drain on European treasuries. That’s why the rush to get out of Africa was as urgent as the rush to get in.
The European colonization of Africa virtually ended slavery in Africas, but it is making a strong comeback now that the Europeans have abandoned their colonies. Today, more human beings, many of them children, are trafficked in African each year than at the height of the Atlantic slave trade. Meanwhile, the infrastructure that the Europeans left behind them in Africa (schools, roads, hospitals and industries) is rapidly disappearing through most of Africa. Europeans continue support Africa with foreign air and debt forgiveness, and occasionally sends troops to stop famines and genocidal warfare.
The Europeans did not introduce slavery to the Americas. Both the Aztec and Inca empires, for example, were slave-based societies. The largest slave market that every existed in the Americas was the Aztec slave market outside Mexico City in pre-Colombian times. The minor Native American tribes also had slaves.
In the United States, about 6 percent of whites and 1/6 percent of free blacks owned slaves. (Some of the South’s biggest landowners and slave owners were free blacks.) The other 94 percent of whites worked. U.S. industries not related to slavery, to name a few, include mining, railroading, tool making, light manufacturing, heavy manufacturing, livestock, auto manufacturing, mining, aerodynamics, electronics, radio, television, space exploration, and computer hardware and software. The development of farm machinery and improved horticulture not slavery made the United States an agricultural powerhouse.
29 March 2007, 10:21 am
nafiysa
this editorial questions the validity of this bicentenary commemoration…
may the ancestors be pleased
Efforts of our predecessors must never be underestimated. dialogue is of the sincerest opinion that the struggles of our ancestors can never be trivialised.
Provocative pronouncements recently suggesting modern day human trafficking is worst than Chattel Slavery is but a confirmation of culpability. In fact such insensitive conjecture, (without an apology for this transgression) further compounds complicity for a flagrant abuse of human rights. It is also a direct assault/insult on the integrity of surviving generations across the Afrikan Diaspora.
The world, as we know it today is still reeling from the effects of that human calamity. While many remain unaware that painstaking research- has revealed this so called ”Gentleman’s Trade” was not abolished because perpetrators felt remorse for their victims (of whatever hue or origin) but conveniently abandoned some conduits of this heinous system because of economic expediency.
As indicated in our previous issue, this auspicious anniversary offers all an opportunity to debate, RE-visit and RE-examine the factors that contributed to this sad saga that haunts the present. It is necessary to redress the balance acknowledging the diverse struggles against this grave injustice.
Abolition as legislated (two hundred years ago) resonates hollow as the fate of those who were rescued by British ships were immediately conscripted into the military service (First West India Regiment) to serve in colonial conflicts during the period. The American War of Independence, Boer, Ashanti and Zulu wars are clear examples of this maltreatment. Descendants across the globe still bear the traumatic burdens and anguish of this tragedy.
Need it be reiterated, that the Planters and Slave proprietors in the British Colonies were compensated with Twenty Million pounds while the Afrikan slaves got zilch and were retained in servitude for decades under an ill-conceived Apprenticeship scheme.
dialogue does not condone the insensitive celebration of hailed individuals as Abolitionists when they were oppressors of their own country men/women by way of unjust class partitions, servitude, social deprivation and economic apartheid.
Our Winter/Spring edition is consciously dedicated to our predecessors who relentlessly resisted enslavement via rebellions on the slaver vessels to the first factories (Gold Mines, Cotton, Sugar, Tobacco & Cocoa plantations).
We give formal thanks with libations for the prescience and pains of Ancestors Jacques Dessalines, Harriet Tubman, Henri Christophe, Paul Bogle, Toussaint L’Ouverture, Leonard Parkinson, Julien Fedon, Nat Turner, Cudjoe, Simon Bolivar, Cinquez, Bussa, Kofi, Sam Sharp, Nanny of the Maroons, Chatouer, Zumbi dos Palmares, Daaga and Carlota among many other nameless Herus and Ausets (Horus & Isis).
Pingback: Grandiose Parlor » Blog Archive » Slavery: Does Africa Need an Apology or Reparation?
[…] Hat-tip to Ndesanjo for the blog round-up on slavery and reparations. What the round-up left out are the conversations on Naijablog and Modal Minority (and other blogs) that discussed the interruption of the commemorative service marking the 200th anniversary of end of slavery in London by Toyin Agbetu, a human rights activist and founder of Ligali – an “African Human Rights Organisation that challenge the misrepresentation of African people and culture in the British media”. […]
30 March 2007, 0:01 am
Elliott Joseph
20 years after his abolition, it is time we apologised for Ken Livingstone?
http://elliottjoseph.blogspot.com/2007/03/ken-livingstone-apology.html
laini mataka
It is cruel to ask the most destructive species on the planet to apologize for being who and what they are?
14 April 2007, 22:32 pm
martin oberholzer
please stop and think a bit, although african people have been treated badly in the past and still are, what have they done to eradicate the indigenous khoisan peoples of south africa, otherwise known as bushmen and hottentots
today african rulers are destroying their own people through corruption, incompetence, mismangement and clinging to outmoded ideologies, while at the same time expecting the western nations whom they so readily criticize, to come to their aid at the same time
the world does not work like that, you cannot be friends with china, iran, russia and spew forth communist propaganda, while wondering why the west do not come to your aid and help with aiding in the civil wars, AIDS, hunger and ethnic violence
Read this post in Français, 繁體中文, 简体中文
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line7618
|
__label__wiki
| 0.837118
| 0.837118
|
Good Shepherd School
Faith | Wisdom | Joy
Purcellville, VA
Primary (ages 3-6)
First Grade (ages 6-7)
Lower Elementary (grades 2-3)
Upper Elementary (grades 4-6)
Snow Day Schedule
Support GSS
New Head of School – Press Release
Good Shepherd School in Purcellville, Virginia Hires First Full-Time Head of School
Taps National Leader to Strengthen Flourishing Local School
PURCELLVILLE, VA, June 24, 2019—Good Shepherd School in Purcellville, Virginia has hired Kimberly Martin Begg, Esq., a national leader with more than 20 years of professional experience at educational organizations, as its first full-time head of school. Good Shepherd School (GSS) was founded in 2016, and currently provides Montessori and Classical education for pre-K through 8th grade.
“We are honored to have attracted a candidate of Kimberly’s caliber—with national leadership experience, exemplary character built upon Christ as the center of her life, an excellent track record of building healthy and effective relationships, and a strong commitment to Montessori and classical education,” said Chris McKenna, president of the board of directors. “We look forward to working with Kimberly to strengthen the school and serve more families in western Loudoun County as we enter our next growth phase, which includes a permanent campus and a high school.”
Mrs. Begg served as a vice president and general counsel of Young America’s Foundation, the Conservative Movement’s largest youth outreach organization. For nearly 15 years, Mrs. Begg oversaw YAF’s legal department to ensure continued operation in all areas and the protection of students’ free speech rights. She also built the organization’s planned giving program, from 2004 to 2018, spearheading several innovations and generating significant revenue to help inspire young people across the country with conservative ideas. She continues to serve on YAF’s Board of Directors.
Mrs. Begg has served on the Washington, DC Board of Regents for Thomas Aquinas College since 2014. She helps raise support for students benefiting from the College’s integrated great books program on Catholic campuses on both coasts—in California and New England. Mrs. Begg also serves on the Advisory Board of the Clare Boothe Luce Center for Conservative Women, an organization that prepares and promotes conservative women for effective leadership.
Good Shepherd School is at a critical phase in its growth. GSS has grown at a rapid rate—10 to 75 students in just three years—as its unique model of education (it is the only Montessori and Classical school in Loudoun County in the Catholic tradition) clearly resonated with families living in western Loudoun County. The school plans to expand the classical program to ninth grade by fall of 2020, with a goal of 250 total enrollment through 12th grade, by the year 2025. Currently located at St. Peter’s Episcopal Church in Purcellville, GSS plans to build a permanent campus in western Loudoun County.
Mrs. Begg attributes the rapid growth of Good Shepherd School to its clear educational philosophy and mission, excellent teaching faculty, and relationship-first approach that its founders adopted from day one. “Good Shepherd School is part of a growing movement of Montessori and classical education that recognizes that children at a young age are capable of independent learning, sophisticated intellectual pursuits, and heroic virtue,” she said. “The next few years will be exciting! I’m honored to lead the school as we strengthen the existing program, open a high school, and build a permanent campus, to set more young people on the path to grow in faith, wisdom and joy throughout their lives.”
For more information, please visit https://goodshepherdschoolva.com or contact Chris McKenna at (703) 554-5514 or Kimberly Begg at (703) 507-9999.
37018 Glendale Street (location)
PO Box 430 (mailing)
Purcellville, VA 20134
admissions@goodshepherdschoolva.com
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line7621
|
__label__wiki
| 0.532267
| 0.532267
|
Travel Guide Snippets in Knowledge Graph Cards
Google's Knowledge Graph cards include a lot of information from Wikipedia. Google usually shows a snippet from a Wikipedia article and links to the article. I was surprised to notice that cards for countries and big cities from all over the world no longer quote Wikipedia and now include detailed information from travel guides.
Here's an example for [France]: "France, in Western Europe, encompasses medieval and port cities, tranquil villages, mountains and Mediterranean beaches. Paris, its capital, is known worldwide for its couture fashion houses, classical art museums including the Louvre and monuments like the Eiffel Tower. The country is also renowned for its sophisticated cuisine and its wines. Lascaux's ancient cave drawings, Lyon's Roman theater and the immense Palace of Versailles are testaments to its long history."
The snippet from the corresponding Wikipedia article is less poetic: "France, officially the French Republic, is a sovereign state comprising territory in western Europe and several overseas regions and territories. The European part of France, called Metropolitan France, extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean. France spans 640,679 square kilometres (247,368 sq mi) and has a total population of 67 million. It is a unitary semi-presidential republic with the capital in Paris, the country's largest city and main cultural and commercial centre."
Show Zoom Slider in Google Maps
Are you missing the zoom controls from the old Google Maps interface for the desktop? Mouse over the "-" or "+" button at the bottom of the Google Maps page and click "show slider". You'll get the old zoom slider which allows you to quickly control the zoom level of the map.
If you want to go back to the default interface, mouse over the "-" or "+" button and click "hide slider". The nice thing is that Google remembers your preference.
Labels: Google Maps, Tips
Big Offline Google Maps
I don't know about you, but my Google Maps for Android has just enabled the new offline features. Even if you have the latest version of the app, you still need to wait until these features are enabled because they're gradually rolled out.
My first disappointment is that the new features are still limited. The biggest size for an offline area you can download is 120,000 square kilometers and there are many countries that are bigger than that. I downloaded London's map and checked the size of the map: 332 MB. It also expires in 29 days (maps need to be updated at least every 30 days).
It looks like Google's maps include too much information, they take up too much space and there's no way to download some simplified maps.
Let's try one of the smallest countries in Europe: Liechtenstein, which has an area of only 160 square kilometers. The offline map has 62 MB. New York? 409 MB. Los Angeles? 356 MB. Tokyo, Seoul, Beijing, Bangkok? Not available because of licensing issues.
Forget about downloading the map for an entire country. Google Maps still can't replace the Here app or paid navigation apps.
Labels: Android, Google Maps
Google Star Wars Experience
Google has a new site for Star Wars fans. You can join the dark side or the light side and transform your Google experience across Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Maps, Waze, Google Translate, YouTube, and other Google services.
"We reached out to our friends at Lucasfilm and Disney, and since then we've been working together on building google.com/starwars. It's a place for fans, by fans, and starting today you can choose the light or the dark side, and then watch your favorite Google apps like Gmail, Google Maps, YouTube, Chrome and many more transform to reflect your path. And that's just the beginning. We've got more coming between now and opening night — the Millennium Falcon in all its (virtual reality) glory included, so stay tuned. And we've hidden a few easter eggs, too. So awaken the Force within, and be on the lookout for things from a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away," mentions Google's blog.
There's a new Star Wars theme in Gmail, a new progress bar for the loading page and probably some other changes.
Google Inbox has a Star Wars background image.
Google Calendar adds some Star Wars events like "Star Wars: The Force Awakens in theaters everywhere".
YouTube has a new progress bar for Star Wars fans. Check the player too.
Google's Deals Alerts
Google's mobile search site shows some ads that promote a new notification service. Google's own ads feature a "subscribe" button that lets you "stay up to date on the latest deals, promotions, and updates from popular retailers". Basically, you'll get deals via text messages, just in time for Black Friday.
Tap the "subscribe" button and then you can text "join" to Google's SMS number: +1-646-665-2745. There are multiple alerts for phones, computers, TVs and more.
Chrome Beta for iOS
In addition to the stable channel, there are 3 other Chrome channels you can use to check the latest features before they're released for everyone: beta, dev and canary. Canary builds are only for Windows and Mac, the dev channel is available for Windows, Mac, Linux, Chrome OS and Android, while the beta channel is available for Windows, Mac, Linux, Chrome OS, Android and now iOS.
That's right, you can try out Chrome Beta for iOS. You need to enter your email address and confirm you "understand that Google will share your information with Apple in order to participate in the TestFlight program". Google will send a confirmation email. "Once you have confirmed your e-mail address, you can expect to receive an invitation to join TestFlight within a few minutes."
Install the TestFlight app on your iOS device, tap "redeem" and enter the code from the invitation. If you've already installed Chrome on your phone or tablet, TestFlight will ask you if "you want to replace the current app version with the test version".
Right now, you can upgrade from Chrome 46.0.2490.73 to Chrome 47.0.2526.53. The new version adds support for more Bluetooth keyboard shortcuts (open/close/change tabs and voice search) and adds 3D touch support on iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus (force touch the Chrome icon to open a new tab, a new incognito tab or start a voice search).
{ Thanks, Stefan. }
Labels: Google Chrome, Mobile
YouTube launched specialized mobile apps for kids, gamers and now for music lovers. YouTube Music replaces the music section from the regular YouTube app and provides a better interface for playing music. There are no comments, you can switch between the video mode and the audio-only mode, the autoplay feature is enabled by default and you can't disable it.
"With YouTube Music, you'll get a completely new type of experience, designed to make discovering music on YouTube easier than ever. No matter where you start in the app, the music will never stop. Every song you play or artist you choose will take you on an endless journey through YouTube's music catalog. (...) The home tab will recommend tracks just for you and create personalized stations based on your tastes," informs the YouTube blog.
You can download YouTube Music from Google Play Store and Apple App Store, but only in the US. If you're not in the US and you manage to install the app, you won't be able to use it without a proxy/VPN service.
YouTube Music works even better if you use YouTube Red, so you get the YouTube Red features for free for 14 days. No ads, background audio, offline music.
Labels: Music, YouTube
Google's Timer and Stopwatch Card
Google's timer card added a new feature: stopwatch. You can search for [stopwatch] or search for [timer] and switch to the stopwatch tab. Click start/stop, reset or use the full screen option for an immersive experience. You can't add laps and the "stop" button should probably be renamed "pause".
To start the timer, search Google for [timer 10 minutes], [countdown 5 minutes], [set timer for 30 seconds], [start a timer for 1 hour and 45 minutes], [set a timer for half an hour], [start a timer until 13:00], [start a timer until midnight] and more.
It's worth pointing out that you can use both features simultaneously.
{ Thanks, Jonah Langlieb. }
Google About Me
It looks like Google works on a replacement for Google+ profiles. About Me is a new site that lets you control what people see about you. "Changes you make here show up across Google services like Drive, Photos, Google+ & others," informs Google.
You can change your name, photo, sites, gender, birthday and occupation. If you click the "+" button, you can also add work contact info, personal contact info, education, work history and places.
"You can change what other users of Google products see about you. For instance, when you connect with people on apps like Gmail or Hangouts, you can choose to share certain additional information with them, like your birthday and phone number," mentions Google's help center.
For now, the "view as public" feature doesn't work. "You'll soon be able to see what you look like to other people across Google services in this card. While we are working on it, view your public Google+ profile," suggests the site.
{ Thanks, Elchanan. }
Full-Featured Offline Google Maps
Google Maps has a really cool mobile app for Android and iOS, but most of its features aren't available when you're offline. You can cache maps for small regions and that's pretty useful, but what if you want to cache the maps for an entire country or use navigation and driving directions when you're in a different country? The Here app offers this feature for free and now you can use it in Google Maps too.
"Now you can download an area of the world to your phone, and the next time you find there's no connectivity — whether it's a country road or an underground parking garage — Google Maps will continue to work seamlessly. Whereas before you could simply view an area of the map offline, now you can get turn-by-turn driving directions, search for specific destinations, and find useful information about places, like hours of operation, contact information or ratings," mentions Google.
"You can download an area by searching for a city, county or country, for instance, and tapping 'Download' on the resulting place sheet, or by going to 'Offline Areas' in the Google Maps menu and tapping on the + button. Once downloaded, Google Maps will move into offline mode automatically when it recognizes you're in a location with spotty service or no connectivity at all. When a connection is found, it will switch back online so you can easily access the full version of Maps, including live traffic conditions for your current route."
The new feature is gradually rolling out in the latest version of Google Maps for Android and it will soon be added to the iOS app. 6 years after launching turn-by-turn navigation, this feature works offline and Google Maps can finally replace paid navigation apps.
Labels: Android, Google Maps, Mobile
Multiple Search Results For Google News
When searching Google for [news], the first page shows 9 results and 4 of them send users to Google News. The news site owned by Google is the top search result, but there are also 3 duplicate results that have some additional parameters:
https://news.google.com/?utm_source=buffer&utm_campaign=Buffer&utm_content=bufferdb898&utm_medium=twitter
https://news.google.com/?utm_content=buffer73b38&utm_source=buffer&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Buffer
https://news.google.com/?utm_source=buffer&utm_campaign=Buffer&utm_content=buffer67782&utm_medium=twitter
This is obviously a bug and it's strange to see that Google didn't ignore Google Analytics parameters.
Posted by Alex Chitu at 11/05/2015 10:58:00 AM 1 comment:
Labels: Google News, Web Search
Google News Card
Here's a quick way to find the latest news stories when using a mobile device. Just search Google for [news] and you'll get a card that shows the top stories. Tap the arrow icons or swipe left/right to switch to other Google News sections like world news, business, technology, entertainment, sports, science or health.
Labels: Google News, Mobile, Web Search
Google Updates Search Interface For Tablets
It looks like Google updated the search interface for tablets and switched to the mobile UI. The previous tablet interface was an interesting combination between the desktop and mobile UIs.
Here's a screenshot from Safari for iPad:
And here's a screenshot from Nexus 7:
It's strange to see that Google still shows the "mobile-friendly" label, even though it's not that important for tablets. It's also weird that Google abbreviates long URLs, while there's enough space to display the entire URLs. Google switched to the mobile UI and forgot to optimize it for tablets.
Labels: User interface, Web Search
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line7622
|
__label__cc
| 0.622888
| 0.377112
|
Mining the MOON
Anticipation of lunar living is driving engineering and experimental work to determine how to efficiently use lunar materials to support human exploration.
Artist’s depiction of a moon base with a view of Earth in the distance.(Pavel Chagochkin/Shutterstock.com)
Paul K. Byrne, Assistant Professor of Planetary Geology, North Carolina State University
If you were transported to the Moon this very instant, you would surely and rapidly die. That’s because there’s no atmosphere, the surface temperature varies from a roasting 130 degrees Celsius (266 F) to a bone-chilling minus 170 C (minus 274 F). If the lack of air or horrific heat or cold don’t kill you then micrometeorite bombardment or solar radiation will. By all accounts, the Moon is not a hospitable place to be.
Yet if human beings are to explore the Moon and, potentially, live there one day, we’ll need to learn how to deal with these challenging environmental conditions. We’ll need habitats, air, food and energy, as well as fuel to power rockets back to Earth and possibly other destinations. That means we’ll need resources to meet these requirements. We can either bring them with us from Earth – an expensive proposition – or we’ll need to take advantage of resources on the Moon itself. And that’s where the idea of “in-situ resource utilization,” or ISRU, comes in.
Underpinning efforts to use lunar materials is the desire to establish either temporary or even permanent human settlements on the Moon – and there are numerous benefits to doing so. For example, lunar bases or colonies could provide invaluable training and preparation for missions to farther flung destinations, including Mars. Developing and utilizing lunar resources will likely lead to a vast number of innovative and exotic technologies that could be useful on Earth, as has been the case with the International Space Station.
As a planetary geologist, I’m fascinated by how other worlds came to be, and what lessons we can learn about the formation and evolution of our own planet. And because one day I hope to actually visit the Moon in person, I’m particularly interested in how we can use the resources there to make human exploration of the solar system as economical as possible.
A rendering of a possible lunar habitat, featuring elements printed in 3D with lunar soil.(European Space Agency/Foster + Partners)
In-situ resource utilization
ISRU sounds like science fiction, and for the moment it largely is. This concept involves identifying, extracting and processing material from the lunar surface and interior and converting it into something useful: oxygen for breathing, electricity, construction materials and even rocket fuel.
Many countries have expressed a renewed desire to go back to the Moon. NASA has a multitude of plans to do so, China landed a rover on the lunar farside in January and has an active rover there right now, and numerous other countries have their sights set on lunar missions. The necessity of using materials already present on the Moon becomes more pressing.
Artist’s impression of what lunar in-situ resource utilization might look like.(NASA)
Anticipation of lunar living is driving engineering and experimental work to determine how to efficiently use lunar materials to support human exploration. For example, the European Space Agency is planning to land a spacecraft at the lunar South Pole in 2022 to drill beneath the surface in search of water ice and other chemicals. This craft will feature a research instrument designed to obtain water from the lunar soil or regolith.
There have even been discussions of eventually mining and shipping back to Earth the helium-3 locked in the lunar regolith. Helium-3 (a non-radioactive isotope of helium) could be used as fuel for fusion reactors to produce vast amounts of energy at very low environmental cost – although fusion as a power source has not yet been demonstrated, and the volume of extractable helium-3 is unknown. Nonetheless, even as the true costs and benefits of lunar ISRU remain to be seen, there is little reason to think that the considerable current interest in mining the Moon won’t continue.
It’s worth noting that the Moon may not be a particularly suitable destination for mining other valuable metals such as gold, platinum or rare earth elements. This is because of the process of differentiation, in which relatively heavy materials sink and lighter materials rise when a planetary body is partially or almost fully molten.
This is basically what goes on if you shake a test tube filled with sand and water. At first, everything is mixed together, but then the sand eventually separates from the liquid and sinks to the bottom of the tube. And just as for Earth, most of the Moon’s inventory of heavy and valuable metals are likely deep in the mantle or even the core, where they’re essentially impossible to access. Indeed, it’s because minor bodies such as asteroids generally don’t undergo differentiation that they’re such promising targets for mineral exploration and extraction.
Apollo 17 astronaut Harrison H. Schmitt standing beside a boulder on the lunar surface.(NASA)
Lunar formation
Indeed, the Moon holds a special place in planetary science because it is the only other body in the solar system where human beings have set foot. The NASA Apollo program in the 1960s and 70s saw a total of 12 astronauts walk, bounce and rove on the surface. The rock samples they brought back and the experiments they left there have enabled a greater understanding of not only our Moon, but of how planets form in general, than would ever have been possible otherwise.
From those missions, and others over the ensuing decades, scientists have learned a great deal about the Moon. Instead of growing from a cloud of dust and ice as the planets in the solar system did, we’ve discovered that our nearest neighbor is probably the result of a giant impact between the proto-Earth and a Mars-sized object. That collision ejected a huge volume of debris, some of which later coalesced into the Moon. From analyses of lunar samples, advanced computer modeling and comparisons with other planets in the solar system, we’ve learned among many other things that colossal impacts could be the rule, not the exception, in the early days of this and other planetary systems.
Carrying out scientific research on the Moon would yield dramatic increases in our understanding of how our natural satellite came to be, and what processes operate on and within the surface to make it look the way it does.
Artist’s impression of the collision between the proto-Earth and a Mars-sized object.(NASA/JPL-CALTECH/T. Pyle)
The coming decades hold the promise of a new era of lunar exploration, with humans living there for extended periods of time enabled by the extraction and use of the Moon’s natural resources. With steady, determined effort, then, the Moon can become not only a home to future explorers, but the perfect stepping stone from which to take our next giant leap.
First private spacecraft shoots for the moon
A SpaceX rocket took off from Cape Canaveral in Florida on Thursday night carrying Israel's…
China lands on the far side of moon – here is the science behind the mission
David Rothery, Professor of Planetary Geosciences, The Open University In a spectacular few days…
The science of cells that never get old
What makes our bodies age ... our skin wrinkle, our hair turn white,…
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line7623
|
__label__cc
| 0.58735
| 0.41265
|
Memphis Annual Security Report 2018
Click the title above to access the latest annual Security and Fire Safety Report for the campus at 1000 Cherry Road, Memphis, TN, 38117, as required by law.
Harding School of Theology is a branch campus of Harding University in Searcy, AR. Harding University Consumer Information.
Privacy Rights of Parents and Students
The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974, with which the University intends to comply fully, is designed to protect the privacy of educational records, to establish the right of students to inspect and review their educational records, and to provide guidelines for the correction of inaccurate or misleading data through informal and formal hearings. Students also have the right to file complaints with the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act office (FERPA) concerning alleged failures by the institution to comply with the Act.
Institutional Rights and Responsibilities
The graduate catalog represents the offerings and requirements in effect at the time of publication, but there is no guarantee that they will not be changed or revoked. The course offerings and requirements of the institution are continually under examination and revision. However, adequate and reasonable notice will be given to students affected by any changes. This catalog is not intended to state contractual terms and should not be regarded as a contract between the student and the institution. The institution reserves the right to change any provision, offering or requirement, and its effective date. These changes will govern current and readmitted students. Enrollment of all students is subject to these conditions.
Compliance with Federal Law
Harding School of Theology admits students of any race, age, color, and national or ethnic origin to all the rights, privileges, programs and activities generally accorded or made available to students at the school. It does not discriminate on the basis of race, age, color, or national and ethnic origin in the administration of its educational policies, admission policies, scholarship and loan programs, and athletic and other school-administered programs.
Also, as required by Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, Harding University does not discriminate on the basis of sex in its educational program, activities or employment except where necessitated by specific religious tenets held by the institution and its controlling body.
The Harding School of Theology does not discriminate on the basis of disability in the recruitment and admission of students, the recruitment and employment of faculty and staff, and the operation of any of its programs and activities, as specified by federal laws and regulations. (The designated coordinator for compliance with section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, as amended, is Jim Martin.)
It is the policy of Harding University to accommodate students with disabilities, pursuant to federal and state law. Any student with a disability who needs accommodation should inform the instructor at the beginning of the course. Students with disabilities are also encouraged to contact Dr. Steve McLeod, the Associate Dean, at (901) 432-7733.
Harding School of Theology has been approved for benefits toward the school expenses of veterans. Eligible students should contact the Veterans Administration in their home state for information on educational benefits for veterans and their dependents.
A Certificate of Eligibility from the Veterans Administration must be submitted to HST when the student registers. The school will then certify the student’s enrollment with the Veterans Administration Regional Processing Office in Atlanta. Online courses are approved for veterans benefits, but extension courses are not.
Tennessee Higher Education Commission Information
Authorization Statement
Harding School of Theology is authorized for operation as a postsecondary educational institution by the Tennessee Higher Education Commission. In order to view detailed job placement and completion information on the programs offered by Harding School of Theology, please visit http://tn.gov/thec and click on the “Authorized Institutions Data” button.
Transferability of Credit
Credits earned at Harding School of Theology may not transfer to another educational institution. Credits earned at another educational institution may not be accepted by Harding School of Theology. You should obtain confirmation that Harding School of Theology will accept any credits you have earned at another educational institution before you execute an enrollment contract or agreement. You should also contact any educational institutions that you may want to transfer credits earned at Harding School of Theology to determine if such institutions will accept credits earned at Harding School of Theology prior to executing an enrollment contract or agreement. The ability to transfer credits from Harding School of Theology to another educational institutions may be very limited. Your credits may not transfer and you may have to repeat courses previously taken at Harding School of Theology if you enroll in another educational institution. You should never assume that credits will transfer to or from any educational institution. It is highly recommended and you are advised to make certain that you know the transfer of credit policy of Harding School of Theology and of any other educational institutions you may in the future want to transfer the credits earned at Harding School of Theology before you execute an enrollment contract or agreement.
Criteria for Transfer of Credit to HST
Graduate credit from accredited institutions may be applied toward degree requirements, subject to the approval of the Admissions Committee. Acceptable institutions should have accreditation with ATS and/or regional accrediting agencies. Transfer courses should be equivalent to the HST course for which they substituting and require sufficient work to justify the number of credit hours granted. Courses that are accepted as electives should be similar to courses offered at HST.
Federal Student Cohort Default Rates
To view Harding School of Theology’s Federal Student Cohort Default Rates click here. Using “Search Database” in the site navigation, search for Harding University in Searcy, AR.
Cost of Degrees
These amounts are reduced by scholarships and advanced standing.
Tuition per hour: $659* x hours required for program: 48 = $31,632
Technology Fee per hour: $25 x hours required for program 48 = $1,200
Student Activity Fee per semester $17 x estimated semesters: 7 = $119
Graduation Fee: $125
Total Charges $33,115
Master of Arts in Christian Ministry
Technology Fee per hour: $25 x hours required for program: 48 = $1,200
Student Activity Fee per semester: $17 x estimated semesters: 5 = $85
Total Charges: $33,082
Student Activity Fee per semester: $17 x estimated semesters: 8 = $136
Tuition per hour: $409 x hours required for program: 34 = $13,906
Technology Fee per hour: $25 x hours required for program: 34 = $850
Dissertation Fees: One Bound Copy,
One Microfiche copy $18
$25 = $43
Statement of Institutional Effectiveness
According to data available at the Tennessee Higher Education Commission website for the 2016 graduating class, the percentage of HST graduates who obtain employment related to their degrees within a year of graduation is 87.5%.
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line7624
|
__label__wiki
| 0.801535
| 0.801535
|
It’s Caso versus Miura in the Challenger Trophy
gguiglia1 NASCAR.com September 7, 2018
With six different winners in eight events, the Challenger Trophy will definitely be an highlight of the ELITE 1 Division in the NASCAR Whelen Euro Series playoffs as Dario Caso leads the standings with a 7-point advantage on Kenko Miura entering the Sept 15-16 Semi Finals at Hockenheim, Germany.
Newcomer Mauro Trione emerged from Tours as a potential contender after scoring his first top-10 of the season and sits just 24 points behind Caso, a gap that could be easily filled in the playoffs with double-points paying races.
Credits: NASCAR Whelen Euro Series / Stephane Azemard
The only multiple winner of 2018, Caso is in the hunt for his second Challenger Trophy title after winning it in 2016 and finishing second in 2017. The Italian veteran grabbed the win in the special classification rewarding non-professional ELITE 1 driver a total three times at Valencia, Brands Hatch and Tours and made consistency his main weapon by finishing outside the top-15 just twice.
“The first part of the season was positive. I was aiming at a place in the top-10 but I didn’t succeed yet. I hope to move up in the last four races of the season,” said Dario Caso, who drives the #8 Racers Motorsport Ford Mustang. “With double points on the line, finishing races will be fundamental. We’ll have to finish and get good results too, trying to stay ahead of the competition, but first of all we’ll need to finish. I’d be really happy to grab a top-10 and that would surely help in the Challenger Trophy.”
Caso’s main rival Kenko Miura definitely agrees on the importance of reaching the finish line. The Alex Caffi Motorsports driver is in his first full-time season at the wheel of the #2 Toyota Camry after racing a part-time schedule in 2017. Miura hit trouble at Valencia and Franciacorta, but from there his season went progressing and he finished 11th twice at Brands Hatch and Tours and looks forward to two tracks he already knows to further improve.
“It is my first full season in Europe and it was extremely important to gain valuable experience and that’s what we did with my team in the regular season. This little gap allows us to shoot for the Trophy, but I’m generally aiming at improving my overall results and move toward the top of the ELITE 1,” said Miura. “It will be absolutely fundamental to finish every race and and take the best possible position.”
Caso and Miura faced each other at Hockenheim last year in the ELITE 2 Division and both times it was the Italian who finished ahead of the Japanese.
“Kenko is very good. Maybe he lacks just a little bit of consistency but that will come with together with the experience in this championship,” said Caso. “The battle for the Challenger Trophy against him is very interesting and I think it will go down to the last race of the season”
“Dario has a very aggressive driving style, but even if it doesn’t always work your way, going on the attack is what makes racing exciting. I respect Dario and the way he races.” Miura said.
The 2018 Euro NASCAR playoffs will get underway on September 15-16 with the NASCAR GP of Germany at the legendary Hockenheimring and all the races will be streamed live on on Fanschoice.tv, Motorsport.tv, the NWES Facebook page and Youtube channel and a vast network of websites and social media profiles around the world.
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line7628
|
__label__wiki
| 0.605405
| 0.605405
|
Turkey is holding an American pastor in prison on bogus charges
Jazz ShawPosted at 8:31 am on January 7, 2017
Yesterday we found out about Canadian citizen Ece Heper, who is currently under detention in Turkey for daring to comment on the presidency of Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Facebook. But there’s one other story we should have pointed out earlier which is even more disturbing. Andrew Brunson is an American pastor and missionary from North Carolina who has been living in Turkey and preaching the Good Word for more than twenty years. His services were curtailed in October, however, when he was arrested by Erdogan’s goons and he’s currently in prison facing “terrorism” charges. Throughout this ordeal there has been little to no help from the Obama administration and now the pastor’s family has reached out to the Trump transition team. The Daily Caller has the latest details.
A Christian social activist group has been in touch with the Donald Trump transition team in hopes of freeing an American pastor who has been held in a Turkish prison for three months on bogus terrorism charges, The Daily Caller is told.
“We’ve reached out, and they’re obviously aware,” Jordan Sekulow, the executive director of the American Center for Law and Justice, says of the case of Andrew Brunson, a native of North Carolina who has served as a missionary in Turkey for 23 years.
“We haven’t seen the engagement from our highest level officials. They’re on their way out, and it doesn’t seem like necessarily it’s on their priority list,” Sekulow added of the outgoing Obama administration.
“It’s going to take more action from the Trump administration.”
The American Center for Law and Justice has been following this story from the beginning. Last month they published an extensive summary of the events to date which will bring you up to speed on Brunson’s situation.
Pastor Andrew Brunson – a U.S. citizen from Black Mountain, North Carolina – was summoned to the local police station in Izmir, Turkey on the morning of October 7, 2016. He believed he would be receiving a long awaited permanent residence card. Pastor Brunson, who is a U.S. citizen, has been living in Turkey for 23 years, running a Christian church with the full knowledge of local authorities.
Upon arriving at the station, he was informed he was being deported based on being a “threat to national security,” a common excuse for deportation in Turkey. It became clear that he was being arrested and would be detained until deportation. He was fingerprinted, searched, and had his phone, pen, etc. taken away. He was denied a Bible. But instead of being deported, he was held with no charges for 63 days, during which time he was denied access to his Turkish attorney. He was placed in solitary confinement for part of this time, with his glasses and watch confiscated.
Following that initial period of confinement, things became even more dire for Brunson on December 8th. It had been widely expected that he might be deported at that time. This would have been tragic for his ministry and the Turkish Christians he serves at Izmir Resurrection Church, but at least he’d have been safe back at home. Instead, the judge who could have either ordered his deportation or put him on supervised release decided to take a third route. He falsely charged Brunson with “membership in an armed terrorist organization” and sent him to prison where he has remained ever since.
The excuse the Turks used was the same one we’ve seen employed by Erdogan time and again since the coup last year. It was suggested that Bruson was somehow associated with U.S. based cleric Fethullah Gulen. Every time the regime wants to make someone disappear they accuse them of either being in league with Gulen or tied in with the Kurds.
The fact that more noise isn’t being made about this is disheartening in the extreme. I realize that it’s not the job of the United States to save the Turkish people from Erdogan as the country slides deeper into tyranny, but when Americans and our allies become casualties in this disaster a line has been crossed. Analysts suspect that Erdogan sees Brunson as some sort of a bargaining chip, but we shouldn’t be in a position where we need to make any deals to get one of our own people back from a country which remains, at least ostensibly, one of our allies.
Barack Obama and John Kerry have had ample opportunity to say something – anything – about the deteriorating conditions and impending demise of democracy in Turkey. Thus far they’ve chosen to remain silent. But with an American life on the line, remaining silent is no longer an option. If the White House won’t do anything to resolve this situation as Obama’s team prepares to exit, Donald Trump needs to get on the phone and demonstrate the sort of leadership he has promised the nation. This would be an excellent opportunity to come out of the gate strong on the foreign diplomacy front. Andrew Brunson must be freed and either returned to his ministry or brought home to the United States.
Tags: Andrew Brunson hostage pastor prison Recep Tayyip Erdogan Turkey
A New Gun Control Law In Illinois Leads To An Even Newer Lawsuit
Poll: 57% of Republicans agree with Trump's tweets about the Squad
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line7630
|
__label__cc
| 0.546379
| 0.453621
|
Home » Articles » Baltimore Symphony Musicians Continue to Champion Their Cause
Baltimore Symphony Musicians Continue to Champion Their Cause
In partnership with Baltimore’s American Visionary Art Museum (AVAM), Baltimore Symphony Musicians planned to host an event February 27 to build support among politicians and other civic leaders as the musicians continue their fight for a fair contract. Performing works by Beethoven and Mozart, the members of Local 40-543 will be conducted by internationally acclaimed pianist, teacher, and former Baltimore Symphony Orchestra Resident Conductor Leon Fleisher, who recently turned 90. This event follows other outreach activities undertaken by the musicians—a brass extravaganza at Baltimore’s Basilica in November, a pop-up concert at Penn Station in December, and the delivery of more than 400 pounds of supplies to a food bank in response to the five-week federal employee furlough.
Although their contract extension expired January 15, the musicians continue to work scheduled rehearsals and concerts. Contract talks are scheduled for March and April. Members of the players’ committee have also been lobbying state and local legislators for increased funding.
AVAM, America’s official national museum for outsider art, is located in the Federal Hill neighborhood of Baltimore City. The museum’s director, Rebecca Hoffberger, is showing her strong support for the Baltimore Symphony Musicians by donating the museum’s performance space for the event. She says, “The late Jim Rouse said cities were meant to be gardens, in which to grow beautiful people.” Maintaining the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra will help Baltimore and its environs be that garden.
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line7636
|
__label__wiki
| 0.690359
| 0.690359
|
Evil Doctor – LMN Movie Review
27 Apr 2018 jabberjawreviews Lifetime Movie Network, Movie Reviews 0
THE DOCTOR IS OUT – OF HER MIND!
Evil Doctor aka Snatched (2018). Dr. Natalie Barnes (Dina Meyer – Lethal Seduction, The Magicians) is an OB/GYN in the Los Angeles area. Her new patients are Matt (Coric Nemec, Parker Lewis Can’t Lose, Supernatural) and his wife Aubrey Lewis (Jen Lilley – Twin Betrayal [read my review here], Days of Our Lives) are expecting a child and she was recommended by one of Matt’s co-workers. Matt first meets Dr. Barnes in the lobby, unaware she’s his wife’s new doctor. They exchange hello’s very briefly. It’s in the examining room that Dr. Barnes tells Matt that he reminds her of someone she knows…her father!
NATALIE’S BACKGROUND
Natalie, who was named Cara, was kidnapped from a hospital in 1975 by a lady and her boyfriend. Eight years later she is found and returned to her biological parents. Her kidnapper father really loved Cara (she was Cara with the kidnappers) and called her his Princess. Natalie’s biological father called her Princess, as well, but it was right before he would moleste her every night. The mother would turn a blind eye to everything and did nothing to help Natalie.
It’s not long after the first meeting that Natalie begins to have her sights set on Matt. She methodically plans all her moves in which one causes Aubrey to bleed after she and Matt have sex. Thinking she might be having a miscarriage, they go see Dr. Nutcase, I mean Barnes, who tells them that Aubrey needs to be on bed rest for the rest of the pregnancy, which means she’s out of commission for five months. Dr. Barnes also informs them they can’t have sex and “no orgasms of any kind”. Not only does this keep Matt and Aubrey apart, but makes Matt more vulnerable to Dr. Barnes advances, to which he refuses, for a while at least.
The flow of the movie was perfect. The transition from one scene to another fit perfectly. I’ve witnessed movies, and yes on Lifetime Movie Network, in which scenes seemed out of place. Almost like they were an after thought, either while filming or in the editing room.
The acting was on spot by all involved. I became of fan of Dina Meyer after watching her in Truth and Lies (2014), another Lifetime Movie Network movie in which she played a detective whose daughter is getting threatening messages to expose her secrets and the secrets of her friends. I also became a fan of Jen Lilley after seeing her in Twin Betrayl. You can read my review here.
And my other favorite actress, I’ve recently discovered is Lindsay Hartley (All My Children, Passions, Days of Our Lives). And to get all three of them in this movie was perfect for me. Then add Coric Nemec to the mix, made the movie even better! I grew up watching Coric and remember a very short lived show he starred in 1989 in called What’s Alan Watching which lasted one season, if that. I remember how quirky it was. He would later star in another show called Parker Lewis Can’t Lose, which lasted three seasons (1990-1993).
If I were to rate this movie on a scale of 1 – 5, with 5 being the best, I would give it a 5. The reason for the rating is there were some really bizarre scenes in the movie that I found a bit odd, and that’s saying a lot. I pride myself on welcoming the bizarre, but even these scenes were a bit much even for me. However, this is what made the movie that much more enjoyable and definitely stand out from the rest.
Evil Doctor is currently playing on Lifetime Movie Network.
If you’ve seen the movie, let me know your thoughts in the comments.
Trailer for Evil Doctor
Coric Nemec
Evil Doctor
Jen Lilley
Don’t Believe It By Charlie Donlea – Book Review
Fiancé Killer – LMN Movie Review
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line7640
|
__label__cc
| 0.598717
| 0.401283
|
American College of Cardiology
Drugs, Devices, and the FDA: Part 1
Overview of attention for article published in JACC: Basic to Translational Science, April 2016
One of the highest-scoring outputs from this source (#5 of 251)
23 news outlets
1 video uploader
Summary News Blogs Twitter Facebook Video Dimensions citations
JACC: Basic to Translational Science, April 2016
10.1016/j.jacbts.2016.03.002
Gail A. Van Norman
Over the last 150 years, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has evolved from a small division of the U.S. Patent Office to 1 of the largest consumer protection agencies in the world. Its mission includes ensuring that new medical treatments reach the public as quickly as possible while simultaneously ensuring that new treatments are both safe and effective. In the face of urgent consumer need, the FDA has faced criticism that its processes are too lengthy and costly and that the time to new drug release is significantly longer in the United States than in other Western countries. Calls from the public to loosen FDA regulations to facilitate more rapid approval of drugs and devices have been countered by the occurrence of patient harm and deaths after some approved drugs have reached the marketplace. New drug and device approval in the United States take an average of 12 and 7 years, respectively, from pre-clinical testing to approval. Costs for development of medical devices run into millions of dollars, and a recent study suggests that the entire cost for a new drug is in excess of $1 billion. For investigators seeking approval for new drugs and devices, FDA processes can be formidable. This 2-part series is intended to provide an overview of the steps involved in bringing new drugs and devices through the FDA process. Part 1 concerns the process of new drug approvals. Part 2 continues with approval of medical devices.
United States 10 50%
Argentina 1 5%
Norway 1 5%
Australia 1 5%
Members of the public 15 75%
Unknown 1 5%
The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 155 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.
Unknown 155 100%
Student > Bachelor 31 20%
Student > Ph. D. Student 30 19%
Student > Master 28 18%
Researcher 16 10%
Other 28 18%
Agricultural and Biological Sciences 22 14%
Engineering 19 12%
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology 17 11%
Pharmacology, Toxicology and Pharmaceutical Science 17 11%
This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 197. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 25 June 2019.
Outputs from JACC: Basic to Translational Science
Outputs of similar age from JACC: Basic to Translational Science
Altmetric has tracked 13,210,683 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done particularly well and is in the 99th percentile: it's in the top 5% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 251 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 19.8. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 98% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 263,421 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 98% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 17 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 94% of its contemporaries.
This page is hosted by Altmetric on behalf of American College of Cardiology.
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line7641
|
__label__cc
| 0.743589
| 0.256411
|
My old man, Hall of Famer
My father’s always been very modest about his achievements in sports. If it weren’t for his mother, his sisters, his brother, his friends, and my mom, the rest of us would probably never know the truth. All my life, during my visits back to Hawaii, there would always be one of his buddies, known as Uncle Somebody, patting me on the head and telling me about what a stud my daddy was. Pop would usually just sit there with a shy smile on his face, never arguing.
A reluctant superstar.
I recently learned that Pop’s going back to Hawaii in April to be inducted into the Punahou Athletic Hall of Fame. So now, hey, Pop, YOU GOT NO MORE PLACE TO HIDE, BRAH.
Dad gave me a stack of newspaper clippings the other day, collectively commemorating this significant event. I’ve got lots of scanning to do, with plenty of inevitable blogging to follow. Included in these materials are letters of recommendation from his teammate and fellow inductee Norm Chow, complete with his NFL email address, and Mike Lum (Atlanta Braves, Cincinnati Reds, Chicago Cubs), who was on the California/Hawaii team of 14 that toured and competed in Japan. Mike batted fourth. Dad? Third.
As a teaser to lots more material to follow in the next few months, below is an article from the Punahou Bulletin announcing Pop’s 2008 induction. It wasn’t until today that I even knew Dad led the All League in hitting during the last two years of college. And, only because his big brother told me behind his back, Dad was being looked at hard by the San Francisco Giants before marriage and a baby took him in a different direction than professional baseball.
Part of me entertains the belief that I am personally responsible for preventing at least two San Francisco Giant World Championships in the seventies. Sorry, guys.
Needless to say, we’re all pretty damn proud of him. And that includes is dad and uncles. Grampa must have the hugest smile on his face right now. And he’s giggling, unsurprised.
I’ll be going back to the motherland to be there for the ceremony with camera in hand, there in Honolulu. Where it all went down, where I was conceived, and where I was born. Ain’t no way I’m missing this one. His legacy. Perhaps someday, long after Pop’s gone, I’ll be able to visit the Hall and say I was there the day he walked through the door. And I’ll remember how, unlike his yearbook photo below, he failed to hold back that perfect smile.
Clint Albao ’63
Those who knew Clint Albao ’63 on the field remember him not only for his personal athletic achievements, but for his exemplary leadership skills. He distinguished himself in baseball, basketball and football, garnering nine Varsity letters.
He was a three-year starter in baseball and one of only fourteen players selected from Hawai‘i and California to tour Japan. In basketball, he was a three-year Varsity starter, going to the state finals all three years. In football, he broke the ILH all-time pass reception and yardage record.
Doug Bennett, a member of the Hall of Fame selection committee, wrote, “What stands out most significantly was [Clint’s] impact and leadership in three different prime Varsity sports over three years. Not only was Clint a multiple- year 1st Team All-City/League performer in every sport, but he was also instrumental in leading those teams to multiple and/or undefeated state championships.”
After graduation, Clint continued to play baseball at Whittier College in California. He made the All-League in his junior year and went on to lead the league in hitting his last two years. Clint and wife Nancy Freeman ’63 Albao now live in Temecula, California.
BONUS: Some footage from the football game at a packed Honolulu Stadium in 1961 where Pop had five touchdown receptions. He’s the guy on the blue team doing everything. And my mom is the lead cheerleader. This footage lobs a certain existential trippiness to me personally that can’t really be explained words:
jaced.com September 21, 2009, 12:26 pm
And here’s his great nephew the other day, Alexander LoGuercio, taking it to the house:
=click to view video=
Matt LoGuercio September 21, 2009, 1:12 pm
jace I need that NFL films style music with the video! who has the original film footage of your dad’s game? Alison won’t let me post Alexanders tenacious defense where he takes her down!!
jaced.com September 21, 2009, 4:40 pm
Check out Dad’s video tribute.
Next post: With age
Previous post: The second episode of “Out There”
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line7642
|
__label__cc
| 0.515023
| 0.484977
|
Subscribe to the JAMA journal
Citations 12,125
Special Communication
Clinician's Corner
The Seventh Report of the Joint National Committee on Prevention, Detection, Evaluation, and Treatment of High Blood Pressure: The JNC 7 Report
Aram V. Chobanian, MD; George L. Bakris, MD; Henry R. Black, MD; et al William C. Cushman, MD; Lee A. Green, MD, MPH; Joseph L. Izzo, Jr, MD; Daniel W. Jones, MD; Barry J. Materson, MD, MBA; Suzanne Oparil, MD; Jackson T. Wright, Jr, MD, PhD; Edward J. Roccella, PhD, MPH; and the National High Blood Pressure Education Program Coordinating Committee
Author Affiliations: Department of Medicine, Boston University School of Medicine, Boston, Mass (Dr Chobanian); Department of Preventive Medicine, Rush-Presbyterian-St Luke's Medical Center, Chicago, Ill (Drs Bakris and Black); Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Departments of Preventive Medicine and Medicine, University of Tennessee Health Science Center, Memphis (Dr Cushman); Department of Family Medicine, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor (Dr Green); Department of Medicine and Pharmacology, State University of New York at Buffalo School of Medicine, Buffalo (Dr Izzo); Department of Medicine and Center for Excellence in Cardiovascular-Renal Research, University of Mississippi Medical Center, Jackson (Dr Jones); Department of Medicine, University of Miami School of Medicine, Miami, Fla (Dr Materson); Department of Medicine, Physiology, and Biophysics, Division of Cardiovascular Disease, University of Alabama at Birmingham (Dr Oparil); Departments of Medicine, University Hospitals of Cleveland and the Louis Stokes Cleveland Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Cleveland, Ohio (Dr Wright); and National High Blood Pressure Education Program, National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Md (Dr Roccella).
JAMA. 2003;289(19):2560-2571. doi:10.1001/jama.289.19.2560
Hypertension Guidelines Website
JNC 7—It's More Than High Blood Pressure
Thomas E. Kottke, MD, MSPH; Robert J. Stroebel, MD; Rebecca S. Hoffman, BA
Health Outcomes Associated With Various Antihypertensive Therapies Used as First-Line Agents
Bruce M. Psaty, MD, PhD; Thomas Lumley, PhD; Curt D. Furberg, MD, PhD; Gina Schellenbaum; Marco Pahor, MD; Michael H. Alderman, MD; Noel S. Weiss, MD, DrPH
"The Seventh Report of the Joint National Committee on Prevention, Detection, Evaluation, and Treatment of High Blood Pressure" provides a new guideline for hypertension prevention and management. The following are the key messages
(1) In persons older than 50 years, systolic blood pressure (BP) of more than 140 mm Hg is a much more important cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factor than diastolic BP; (2) The risk of CVD, beginning at 115/75 mm Hg, doubles with each increment of 20/10 mm Hg; individuals who are normotensive at 55 years of age have a 90% lifetime risk for developing hypertension; (3) Individuals with a systolic BP of 120 to 139 mm Hg or a diastolic BP of 80 to 89 mm Hg should be considered as prehypertensive and require health-promoting lifestyle modifications to prevent CVD; (4) Thiazide-type diuretics should be used in drug treatment for most patients with uncomplicated hypertension, either alone or combined with drugs from other classes. Certain high-risk conditions are compelling indications for the initial use of other antihypertensive drug classes (angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors, angiotensin-receptor blockers, β-blockers, calcium channel blockers); (5) Most patients with hypertension will require 2 or more antihypertensive medications to achieve goal BP (<140/90 mm Hg, or <130/80 mm Hg for patients with diabetes or chronic kidney disease); (6) If BP is more than 20/10 mm Hg above goal BP, consideration should be given to initiating therapy with 2 agents, 1 of which usually should be a thiazide-type diuretic; and (7) The most effective therapy prescribed by the most careful clinician will control hypertension only if patients are motivated. Motivation improves when patients have positive experiences with and trust in the clinician. Empathy builds trust and is a potent motivator. Finally, in presenting these guidelines, the committee recognizes that the responsible physician's judgment remains paramount.
Chobanian AV, Bakris GL, Black HR, et al. The Seventh Report of the Joint National Committee on Prevention, Detection, Evaluation, and Treatment of High Blood Pressure: The JNC 7 Report. JAMA. 2003;289(19):2560–2571. doi:10.1001/jama.289.19.2560
Get the latest from JAMA
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line7643
|
__label__wiki
| 0.838982
| 0.838982
|
Hirsh Goodman
Home » Hirsh Goodman
Hirsch Goodman
Hirsh Goodman is a Senior Research Associate at the Jaffe Center for Strategic Studies at Tel Aviv University, where he directs the Bronfman Program on Information Strategy. Prior to joining the Jaffee Center in 2000, Goodman was the Vice President of the Jerusalem Post. In 1990 he founded the Jerusalem Report and served as its Editor-in-Chief for eight years. Between 1986 and 1989 he was the Strategic Fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, where he authored, with W. Seth Carus, The Future Battlefield and the Arab-Israel Conflict. From 1975 until 1986 Goodman was the Defense Correspondent of the Jerusalem Post, a contributing editor to U.S. News & World Report, a contributor to the New Republic, a special correspondent for the Sunday Times of London and a news analyst for CBS News. He continues to write a regular column, “My Word,” for the Jerusalem Report. Goodman lives in Jerusalem with his wife and four children.
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line7645
|
__label__wiki
| 0.563404
| 0.563404
|
The Sinai-Suez Campaign: Statement by President Eisenhower on the Middle East & the Israeli Mobilization
The Sinai-Suez Campaign: Table of Contents|Background & Overview|War Maps
DURING THE LAST several days I have received disturbing reports from the Middle East. These included information that Israel was making a heavy mobilization of its armed forces. These reports became so well authenticated that yesterday morning, after a meeting with the Secretary of State, I sent a personal message to the Prime Minister of Israel expressing my grave concern and. renewing a previous recommendation that no forcible initiative be taken which would endanger the peace.
I have just received additional reports which indicate that the Israeli mobilization has continued and has become almost complete with consequent stoppage of many civil activities. The gravity of the situation is such that I am dispatching a further urgent message to Prime Minister Ben-Gurion.
I have given instructions that these developments be discussed with the United Kingdom and France which joined with the United States in the Tripartite Declaration of May 25, 1950 with respect to the maintenance of peace in the Middle East.
While we have not heard of such large-scale mobilization in countries neighboring Israel which would warrant such Israeli mobilization, I have also directed that my concern over the present situation be communicated to other Middle East states urgently requesting that they refrain from any action which could lead to hostilities.
The Security Council of the United Nations now has before it various aspects of the maintenance of peace in the Middle East. I earnestly hope that none of the nations involved will take any action that will hinder the Council in its efforts to achieve a peaceful solution.
Sources: Public Papers of the President
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line7647
|
__label__wiki
| 0.879775
| 0.879775
|
‘Contract for bullet train may cross Rs 15,000 crore mark’https://indianexpress.com/article/business/contract-for-bullet-train-may-cross-rs-15000-crore-mark/
‘Contract for bullet train may cross Rs 15,000 crore mark’
The contract for the bullet train, to be given out to a single entity, is slated to be floated by next month, decks for which are being cleared on war footing.
Written by Avishek G Dastidar | New Delhi | Updated: February 22, 2019 4:00:37 am
India’s first bullet train is taking 3 acres from a flamingo sanctuary
Got a name? India’s first bullet train is looking for one and you could win a cash prize
Bullet train project — Will consider plea to remove mangroves: Authority to Bombay HC
Only Indian and Japanese construction firms are qualified to apply, as per agreement with the funding agency, Japan International Cooperation Agency. (Illustration)
The country’s first bullet train project is preparing to float what is likely to be the biggest ever civil works contract in India, the value of which is estimated to be in the range of five figures of crores of rupees. The contract, to be given out to a single entity, is slated to be floated by next month, decks for which are being cleared on war footing.
The job involves constructing over 200 km of viaduct for the high-speed line in Guajarat and all installations that come with it, including four stations of the bullet train corridor—Surat, Vapi, Valsad and Billimora. The laying of the high speed track on the viaduct will be a separate contract that will come later.
“We will be floating this tender soon,” Achal Khare, Managing Director of the National High Speed Rail Corporation told The Indian Express.
While it is difficult to put a figure to a tender before it is opened, officials said going by benchmark pricing of works involved, the estimate is in the range of Rs 15-20,000 crore for the whole work.
Only Indian and Japanese construction firms are qualified to apply, as per agreement with the funding agency, Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA). However, unlike the experience in the Dedicated Freight Corridor (DFC) project, which is also being funded by JICA, the bullet train project is free to award the civil construction contracts to Indian firms even without any tie up with Japanese firms.
As per terms negotiated by the two countries, civil works is the domain of Indian companies that may or may not engage any Japanese firms. Viaduct (an elevated carriageway in which the tracks are laid for train operations) for high speed operations has never been made in India, but officials said that as per specifications, they are heavier than the viaduct erected for, say, railways.
Considering the size, Railway officials said that a contract of this magnitude, irrespective of which company bags it, is sure to energise the civil construction sector in India. The total bullet train project will require an estimated 58 lakh tonne of cement.
The stations of the corridor included in the contract are also large standalone projects each with a unique design reflecting the local culture. They are complete with circulating areas, commercial areas, parking et al. There is also a maintenance depot between Valsad and Vapi, part of the contract.
The biggest civil contract given out by the DFC project is for Rs 6,699 crore for the laying of 632 km of lines between Rewari and Iqbalgarh. The joint venture between Japan’s Sojitz and Indian engineering major L&T bagged the contract. The 14.2 km Zojila tunnel in Jammu and Kashmir, which went to IL&FS, is a Rs 6,800 crore contract. “It is definitely going to be among the biggest ever civil works contracts in India,” said a senior official.
Including pre-bid conference and completing all processes, the time taken to award the contract is estimated to be around eight months. It will be a “two packet” tender, where qualification and the financial quote are separate. All the major engineering/construction players in India and Japan are expected to be vying for the job.
The 508-km corridor project is between Sabarmati in Ahmedabad and the Bandra Kurla Complex in Mumbai. The project is navigating land-acquisition issues in parts of Gujarat and Maharashtra and is also said to be making headway at the same time. It is targeted to be completed between 2022 and 2023.
1 Gujarat budget session day 4: Quota war of words as Congress’s Chavda tables EBC reservation Bill
2 DCC seeks turnaround strategy of loss-making BSNL, MTNL
3 Reliance Capital invites Nippon Life to buy its stake in asset management JV
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line7650
|
__label__wiki
| 0.601322
| 0.601322
|
Neuro-Hacking the Mass Mind (II)
Conférence Neuro-Pirates, Neuro-Esclaves partie 1 : Intervention de Lucien Cerise (Neuro-Hackers Conference – Neuro-Slaves Part I: A Talk by Lucien Cerise)
Continuing our exploration of Lucien Cerise’s collection of essays entitled Neuro-Hackers: Reflections on Social Engineering (2016) (Neuro-Pirates Reflexions Sur L’Ingenierie Sociale) published by Kontre Kulture.
Neuro-Hackers provides an overview of a neurological “hacking” that has been taking place in the modern age and imposed upon global populations. It seeks a “maximum efficacy” in the elimination of the seeds of revolt and if such a revolutions manifest they are to be of the Establishment’s choosing – not ours. More alarmingly, since we are no more than cattle or sheep for these self-elected Masters, it is of the utmost importance to their objectives that the collective herd does not awaken to its own power. It seems at the end of every route to true freedom they have prepared for it, anticipated it and created avenues by which we will be “entertained.”
As Cerise states:
In our age of increasing labour automation the master no longer depends on his slave for production and can therefore begin to physically suppress him. But in order not to provoke a reaction, he must do so stealthily, without striking it him thus, by stages plunging him into a globally anxiogenic, pathogenic, depressing and morbid environment where everything is polluted and toxic to the body and mind, from ambient chemical molecules to the ideas and representations disseminated in public opinion. Thus it is that a whole population is murdered by a small fire without being aware of it, as in the manner of the “boiled frog.” * [1]
In other words, the real battle is not external but through our very minds and the plasticity of our brain and epigenetic inheritance. Hence, the Elite seek to extinguish the very spark of a mental condition that might give rise to a genuine individual and collective awakening. The author mentions the role of the neuro-hackers is to induce a collective suicide and the suppression of creativity through such mental illness so that tribalism is invoked and maintained as camouflage for globalist authorities. Further, he has reminded us of a strata of three social engineering applications currently at play in Western societies in particular, each of which emboldens the other. As an illustration to this idea, we might liken this to the stages required for the erection of a prison for the mind: the ground work or foundation is laid, the building blocks or façade erected and finally the roof under which societies are housed is fixed in place, a container for the mind to which we are all subject.
Posted in Establishment / Elite, Mind Control, Police State, Psychology, Psychopathy, Social Engineering, Surveillance Society, Technocracy and tagged Authoritarianism, CoIntelpro, consumerism, Deep State, European Union, France, immigration, Internationalism, left, LGBT, Mainstream Media, Nationalism, NATO, Neo-Liberalism, neuro-hacking, neurology, Official Culture, progressivism, Revolution, right, Social Engineering, statism, surveillance, Zbigniew Brzezinski on March 14, 2017 by M.K. Styllinski. 2 Comments
Smoke and The Moon II: Ignoring the Psychopaths’ World
“Our greatness lies not so much in being able to remake the world … as it is in being to remake ourselves.”
– Mahatma Ghandi
You ever feel like that hamster in the above wheel? An activist, scholar, occultist or journalist getting high on the cause and feeling like you’re making a difference until the spin throws you half way across the cage?
And yet, we seem to just get up and do it all over again, usually because we cannot face the awful truth that what we do makes no difference at all. It’s not that funny really. Though no doubt the cosmic trickster is doubling up with hilarity. This is however the truth. This is the story of humanity for the last two thousands years. Around and around in a loop where soul and spirit are still caught between materialism and religious extremism; where awakening minds are caught between CoIntelpro and more sophisticated paranormal forces of control which as yet, won’t fit inside the collective mind.
I know what you’re thinking. This is wrong. It’s not that bleak. I’m being a major party pooper and unjustly raining on your unique parade.
i.e. Fuck you dude. We CAN change the world.
Perhaps. But maybe not quite in the way that Alex Jones would have you believe.
I actually quite like Nafeez Ahmeds’ contribution to the subject of “changing the world” which is simple and concise: One — Start with you Two — Continue with those around you and Three — Create something new. Seeing the world in all its negative and positive glory doesn’t mean sitting on your arse and navel-gazing about how wonderful / horrific it all is. But the key thing to remember is to educate ourselves regarding how DEEP the darkness truly is and how clever it’s machinations. Without this comprehension we cannot fully realise the light potential within and ignite it in others. It’s like we have too many shutters and buffers to truth. It’s only a logical differential after all.
That said, the object of this article is not to send you into a tailspin of interminable depression. It’s always paradoxical. When you comprehend just how far down in the collective poop we are, this realisation offers an instant candle to light your way out of that stinky gloom. And one way is to observe our emotional reactions in relation to psychopathy and its related pathology that presses in on our minds. By choosing not to engage and by learning the ways of the psychopaths and authoritarian followers within our institutions and how we have allowed them to distort our vision of the world, we gain the ability to divert much needed inner energy so that we may cope with reality – as it is. This economy of energy is akin to a akido maneuver which allows us to dip under the radar of “The Matrix”. This is the first step to true independence.
Posted in 9/11, Abuse, Activism, CoIntelpro, Community, Economics / Economic Collapse, Establishment / Elite, Occult, Police State, Psychology, Psychopathy, Social Engineering, Spirituality / Esoterica, War and tagged Activism, alternative media, CoIntelpro, Narcissism, NATO, spirituality, truth, Wetiko, Wi-Fi on April 19, 2016 by M.K. Styllinski. Leave a comment
Osama and Al-Qaeda I
“The idea which is critical to the FBI¹s prosecution that bin Laden ran a coherent organisation with operatives and cells all around the world of which you could be a member is a myth. There is no Al Qaeda organisation. There is no international network with a leader, with cadres who will unquestioningly obey orders, with tentacles that stretch out to sleeper cells in America, in Africa, in Europe. That idea of a coherent, structured terrorist network with an organised capability simply does not exist.”
– Jason Burke, author, quoted in The Power of Nightmares, documentary
The key to understanding some of the key reasons for the September 11th attacks lies in the history of bin Laden and the creation of Al-Qaeda. The problem is still perpetuated by a common public misconception that there is still a case of “us and them” between government forces and Al-Qaeda terrorism. The American public and some within the 911 Truth Movement and MSM are pressing for culpability for members of the Bush Administration and their part in allowing Al-Qaeda to launch attacks on the United States. So called politicians turned whistleblowers are largely criticising failure of intelligence or incompetence without seeing the root causes which lies at the heart the War on Terror as a piece of large-scale propaganda of which Edward Bernays would have been proud. As author and economist Professor Michel Chossudovsky mentions: “… in a bitter irony, the very process of revealing these lies and expressing public outrage has contributed to reinforcing the 9/11 cover-up. ‘Revealing the lies’ serves to present Al-Qaeda as the genuine threat, as an ‘outside enemy’, which threatens the security of America, when in fact Al-Qaeda is a creation of the US intelligence apparatus.” [1]
Al-Qaeda is more of a mercenary tool of global intelligence than a real terrorist threat. Regime change and resource exploitation are some of its goals. This necessarily incorporates radicalised individuals who serve as patsies and agents furthering the overall geo-strategy. They are a common form of collateral and cannon fodder. There is a wealth of evidence for the interested researcher confirming the myth of Al-Qaeda from the mouths of whistleblowers, ex-Intel operatives, politicians, statesmen, authors and academics.
Leonid Shebarshin ex-chief of the Soviet Foreign Intelligence Service, who heads the Russian National Economic Security Service consulting company, said in an interview for the Vremya Novostei newspaper, that Al-Qaeda was an “all-mighty ubiquitous myth deliberately linked to Islam” in order to target “… the oil-rich Muslim regions.” He further commented: “The U.S. has usurped the right to attack any part of the globe on the pretext of fighting the terrorist threat…” and with military bases in Afghanistan, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan, Shebarshin said, “the United States has already established control over the Caspian region — one of the world’s largest oil reservoirs.” [2]
The Shahada – the Flag of Jihad often seen flying with Al-Qaeda, Taliban and ISIL (Source: wikipedia)
It is here that the Three Establishment Model (3EM) interests converge. They do so from the seemingly innocuous beginnings of the Safari Club which had its relatively humble beginnings in homage to the colonial hunters of the British Elite, Cecil Rhodes and the Round Table.
Russell E. Train (cousin of John Train, the Pilgrims Society member and former financial advisor to CIA-ally John Hay Whitney) was a co-founder of the African Wildlife Foundation set up since 1961. According to Train’s biography his foundation had drifted away from the Safari Club which was in existence before 1958 and coyly described by him as “a newly formed organization set up by a local group of businessmen who had gone on a hunt together in Mozambique.” [3] Although certainly a white man’s big-game hunting troupe for Pan-European and Anglo-American big-wigs, one of these businessmen and founders was Kermit Roosevelt Jr. who had set up the club as an anti-communist outpost, the evolution of which was given the seal of approval by Henry Kissinger several years later. Among other states, Saudi Arabia had a large hand in financing operations in Morocco, Egypt and Iran, with a view to countering Soviet operations in the Middle East and Africa. [4]
The other important founder was Count Alexandre de Marenches, the director of French intelligence services representing Pan-European Synarchism in the region. It would thus represent the next phase in Anglo-American dominance in Africa. The WWF and the 1001 club were involved in its formation via Train, Arthur Windsor Arundel and Sue Erpf van de Bovenkamp [5]
With Nixon booted out over the Watergate Scandal 1974, this saw the arrival of a new breed of psychopaths in power who would preside over criminal rule just as they did on 9/11: Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld; Chief of Staff, Dick Cheney; Vice president Nelson Rockefeller (brother of David) and George H.W. Bush as CIA Director, who joined the Ford Administration and the Kissinger cabal. Under this motley crew, 1976 would see the consolidation of a coalition of intelligence agencies that would begin the comprehensive carving up of Africa. The Safari Club would become the central hub for American intelligence financing; the organisation of an international network of terrorists; the CIA’s role in the global drug trade; the emergence of the Taliban and the origins of Al-Qaeda.
The Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI) formerly a small Pakistani merchant bank was transformed into an ISI/CIA front for the biggest world-wide money laundering enterprise in history. Its job was to accrue a network of banks to finance intelligence in Africa and other nations. Under Bush, the intelligence groups in Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Iran worked closely with the CIA who found could out-source their Intel operations through these nations which otherwise have been logistically difficult not least because French intelligence was still at the helm of the Safari Club.
1977 was the year that the Trilateral Commission were able to exercise their power more actively through Jimmy Carter’s administration, though in truth, the real power was sourced from Zbigniew Brzezinski as National Security Advisor, just one of many Trilaterals which infested the government at that time. Foreign policy would be steered towards Trilateral objectives which saw the colonisation of Eurasia as vital in eroding the power of the Soviet Union, seen as a continuing threat to US supremacy and resource scarcity. Iran would become the fulcrum of revolution which would lead to the destabilisation of Russia and her interests. “There was this idea that the Islamic forces could be used against the Soviet Union. The theory was, [that] there was an arc of crisis, and so an arc of Islam could be mobilized to contain the Soviets. It was a Brzezinski concept.” [6] The same old patterns of interference ensued.
Zibigniew Brzezinski 1977 (wikipedia)
In 1953, the United States’ CIA initiated a coup in Iran under the codename of Operation AJAX, which sought to remove the democratically elected Prime Minister Mohammed Mossadegh. Almost thirty years later the Royal Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the dictator of Iran was suddenly no longer useful and Anglo-American allegiances now supported the fundamentalist Islamic opposition of Ayatollah Khomeini in favour of containment regarding Russia and access to oil. The media propaganda went into full swing for Revolution as preparations for a military coup inside Iran. In 1979, a coup proved unnecessary and Ayatollah Khomeini was smoothly installed as the Ayatollah of an Islamic Republic of Iran.
Much like the kinds of US-NATO-led incursions we saw in Libya and Syria in the last few years, human rights abuses, real and imagined, were floated excessively in the media. As social tensions rose in Iran the Shah’s secret police the notorious SAVAK were encouraged by US diplomats to embark on a campaign: “of ever more brutal repression, in a manner calculated to maximize popular antipathy to the Shah.”
True to form, the Shah fell into the trap laid by Zbigniew Brzezinski who had advised him: “… to be firm” in the face of demonstrations. [7]
After assisting the installation of fundamentalist Islam and just prior to the Iran-Iraq war Brzezinski met with Saddam Hussein and gave his support for the war ensuring that arms would be secured with the support of Arab oil-producing nations such as Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. [8] Though this war provided a bonanza for weapons manufacturers in the US, Britain and Russia it also served the American interests in fermenting continuing radicalism in the region so that pockets of conflict and the background of war would serve as cover for securing economic interests.
Meanwhile, as Islamic fundamentalism had been seeded and watered in Iran, Osama bin Laden had left Saudi Arabia to train the Mujahedeen in Afghanistan which the US government were training, arming, and funding to the tune of $3 billion thanks again to Brzezinski transplanting the Islamic foreign policy over to the “holy War.” Very soon, as the late Robert I. Freidman describes in The CIA’s Jihad: “… young Muslim men from across the Arab world, as well as from the U.S., flocked to Mujahedeen base camps outside Peshawar, Pakistan, where they were instructed in everything from making car bombs to shooting down Russian MiGs with U.S.-made Stinger missiles. Most of these recruits were fanatical Islamic fundamentalists who despised America just as much as they hated the Communist occupiers, but the CIA was willing to overlook that.” [9]
Osama bin Laden’s leadership in Afghanistan was vital in driving out Russia. The pretext used on this occasion was that the incumbent Afghan government was communist, which it wasn’t. The enormous investment handled by the CIA meant the creation and consolidation of bin Laden’s Al-Qaeda terrorist network with the blessing of Saudi Arabia and Pakistan – and American tax-payers’ money. [10] Brzezinski’s strategy to lay a trap for Russia whereby the Mujahedeen’s guerrilla war would embroil the Soviet Union in their own Vietnam was supremely successful, leading to its withdrawal and eventual collapse. [11]
Afghan Mujahedeen,October 1987. By Erwin Lux (Wikipedia)
Now that the Safari Club had managed to send out word through its extensive network of intelligence, numerous new recruits were harvested for the glorious jihad and holy war taking place in Afghanistan. Ahmed Rashid writing in Foreign Affairs explained: “With the active encouragement of the CIA and Pakistan’s ISI, who wanted to turn the Afghan Jihad into a global war waged by all Muslim states against the Soviet Union, some 35,000 Muslim radicals from 40 Islamic countries joined Afghanistan’s fight between 1982 and 1992. Tens of thousands more came to study in Pakistani madrasahs. Eventually, more than 100,000 foreign Muslim radicals were directly influenced by the Afghan jihad.” [12] Islamic fundamentalism provided ample opportunity for martyrdom with a fantasy paradise of umpteen virgins waiting for their courageous warriors should they take up arms against the Russian infidels.
By the time the Reagan Administration took over Vice President George H.W. Bush made sure the BCCI banking funds were on hand for an expansion of operations in Afghanistan and other regions primed for divide and conquer tactics. Journalist Seymour Hersh termed the Safari Club a “private intelligence group [which was] one of George H. W. Bush’s many end-runs around congressional oversight of the American intelligence establishment and the locus of many of the worst features of the mammoth BCCI scandal.” [13]
Australian journalist John Pilger also placed the onus firmly on the Anglo-American intelligence structure: “More than 100,000 Islamic militants were trained in Pakistan between 1986 and 1992, in camps overseen by CIA and MI6, with the SAS [British Special Forces] training future al-Qaida and Taliban fighters in bomb-making and other black arts. Their leaders were trained at a CIA camp in Virginia. This was called Operation Cyclone and continued long after the Soviets had withdrawn in 1989.” [14]
Taliban fighters
In the early 1980’s Osama bin Laden already had firmly established ties between Saudi intelligence agency (GIP) their favourite Afghan warlord Abdul Rasul Sayyaf and the Intel chief, and possible middle man for the Mujahedeen groups – Prince Turki al-Faisal, bin Laden’s friend. Though bin Laden “… did have a substantial relationship with Saudi intelligence,” as journalist Steve Coll stated, he was likely not an agent. The CIA and the Safari Club were both working through al-Faisal and “ISI stooge and creation” war-lord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar in Afghanistan as well as the Pakistani ISI which had now become a powerful adjunct to the CIA thanks to General (later President) Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq’s military coup of 1977 who assumed the presidency in 1978. [15] It was no coincidence that Haq passed pro-Islamic legislation, created Islamic banking systems, and Islamic courts and introduced a new religious tax for the creation of tens of thousands of madrassas, or religious boarding schools. This was an offshoot of US policy to build radical Islam, via education that would indoctrinate generations of future Islamic militants for decades to come. This extended to the Pakistani military where “Radical Islamist ideology began to permeate the military and the influence of the most extreme groups crept into the army…” [16]
In 1984, bin Laden moved to Peshawar, a Pakistani town on the border of Afghanistan, so that he could help set up and run Maktab al-Khidamat (MAK) (meaning “Services Office” in English). This was a front organisation for the Mujahideen which funnelled weapons, money, and willing Jihad fighters from all over the burgeoning militant Islamic network straight into the increasingly ferocious Afghan war. [17] Meantime, Pakistan’s General Akhtar Abdul-Rahman met bin Laden on a regular basis in the city for Intel and financial dealings related to drug profits from the opium fields which by then were totalling around $100 million. By 1985, bin Laden and the ISI – effectively the CIA – were splitting the proceeds. [18]
George H. W. Bush and BCCI
Rahman was a close friend of Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq, who by now, was a CIA asset and recognised as an international drug trafficker at Interpol. A top US official said that Haq “was our man … everybody knew that Haq was also running the drug trade” and that “BCCI was completely involved.” [19] Then CIA Director William Casey and Vice President George H. W. Bush were fully aware of the connection and while meeting Haq in Pakistan allowed him to move his drug money through the BCCI in return for his role in the program which was to provide Intel, keep the radical Islamic factions at fever pitch and finance the war on terror network. On one such secret visit to training camps near the Afghan border in 1984, the CIA director spoke of a strategy to “… take the Afghan war into enemy territory—into the Soviet Union itself. Casey wanted to ship subversive propaganda through Afghanistan to the Soviet Union’s predominantly Muslim southern republics.” [20] It proved easy to do so. However, it would only be 3 years later that the two Generals Rahman and Haq would both be killed in a plane crash in 1988, widely believed to have been sabotage conducted by the MOSSAD who were concerned about Pakistan’s nuclear proliferation instigated by Haq. [21]
Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq circa 1977
In 1990, the blind Egyptian cleric, Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman was travelling to the United States in style – and on a CIA-supported, one-year visa as a reward for his propagandizing lectures in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Much to the confusion and consternation of many intelligence agents he was also on a State Department terrorism watch list that should have barred him from the country. Hand-picked as a spellbinder in order to whip up disaffected Arab immigrants for the required Holy War and in turn, to stir the support for Muslim rebels needed to topple the Soviet-backed government in Afghanistan, Rahman was proving an extremely useful part of a burgeoning Islamist network of agents. There were “Jihad offices” in Atlanta, Jersey City, and Dallas, the most important being the “Al-Kedah” (meaning “struggle”) set up in Brooklyn, New York, as the Al-Kedah Refugee Centre which served as fertile ground for Rahman and others’ spellbinding skills.
However, the winds of “blowback” were beginning to whistle through the ranks of Arab-CIA assets, most of whom gave lectures at Al-Kedah which would eventually be implicated in the World Trade Centre Bombings in 1993. Over $600 million was funnelled to this precursor organisation to Al-Qaeda and from several smaller outfits benefiting from CIA funds along with rich Pakistani and Saudi Arabian donors. [22] It would continue to be the main financial hub for CIA chaperoned, Al-Qaeda terrorists so that they could form the so-called network of cells within the United States, heavily monitored and managed by the FBI and CIA. In the words of private Washington attorney and former investigative counsel for the Senate Foreign Relation, Jack Blum: “We steered and encouraged these people. Then we dropped them. Now we’ve got a disposal problem. When you motivate people to fight for a cause – jihad – the problem is, how do you shut them off?” [23]
World Trade Centre Bombings 1993 – Another FBI entrapment set up?
But it was much more than simply forgetting to switch off a tap. This was adapted to a much larger, long-term objective where Al-Qaeda would come home to roost and serve as the bogeyman for a highly ambitious attack on American soil. The object of the CIA exercise was to keep other US agencies and even certain team members from looking too closely into the various issues related to assassinations and terrorist attacks on the homeland. As a growing number of FBI and CIA whistleblowers have proven – not always an easy thing to accomplish.
Another CIA asset rubbing shoulders with bin Laden was Sheikh Abdullah Azzam, a Palestinian preacher/spellbinder recruited from a small village Jenin, ostensibly as a diplomatic tool for uniting squabbling rebel factions in Pakistan. He became bin-Laden’s mentor persuading him to join the Jihad against the Soviets in Afghanistan. Azzam was asset gold due to his connections the Muslim Brotherhood, Saudi intelligence, and the Muslim World League and the Islamic Coordination Council in Peshawar, which supervised the military activities of the Arab Mujahedeen. Meantime, he could sip martinis and chat with the air stewardesses as he travelled for his frequent lectures in New York, at Al-Kifah and the Al-Farooq Mosque in Brooklyn and the Al-Salam Mosque in Jersey City calling for the “spark” of revolution “… that may one day burn Western interests all over the world.” As Freidman wryly mentions, a fact which drew so many of the CIA assets: “Azzam then asked his audience for donations, made out to his personal account at the Independent Savings Bank.” [24]
Having got too big for his Keffiyeh, Azzam was eventually murdered in a car bomb after accruing many enemies, including Osama bin Laden. No one really knew who had pressed the button but most were glad someone had. As with all allegations of foreknowledge and duplicity the CIA always plays dumb. As a New York investigator observed: “Left with the choice between pleading stupidity or else admitting deceit, the CIA went with stupidity.” [25]
From 1984 onwards, the CIA’s ability to twist itself into a spaghetti junction of lies became tragi-comic. As covert importation of Al-Qaeda terrorist and Islamic militants continued via MAK, one Ali Mohammed came to the attention of the media. A major in the Egyptian army and a US operative he was tasked with training Islamic militants within the US. As yet another visitor to the Al-Kifah Centre and part of the army unit that was responsible for the assassination of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat he was involved in a special training program for foreign officers at the US Army Special Forces School at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, as far back as 1981. Mohammed was apparently purged from the Egyptian Army after the assassination and joined the Green Berets, reportedly travelling to Afghanistan in 1992 to aid the Mujahedeen.
In 1984, US officials told the media that they were forced to remove Mohammed due to his religious beliefs which were considered too extreme. Mohamed found his way to the CIA in Egypt and asked to join as a spy. (It’s as easy as that). CIA subsequently decided that he couldn’t be trusted on account of his associations with Hezbollah. He found himself on a terrorist watch list order to prevent him from coming to the US. However, Mohamed turned up with a brand new visa and moved to America sailing through customs without any problems, with the US State Department choosing not to explain to a thoroughly confused media. [26] Like so many of these stories, they are quickly forgotten.
In 1995, it was revealed at the trial of terrorist Sheikh Omar Abdul-Rahman, that Mohammed had been admitted to the US under a special visa program controlled by the CIA’s clandestine service. A subsequent search of his New Jersey home turned up forty boxes of evidence which had the D.A.’s office and the FBI looked at it more carefully, would have revealed an active terrorist conspiracy about to boil over in New York. In addition to discovering thousands of rounds of ammunition and hit lists with the names of New York judges and prosecutors, investigators found amongst the evidence classified U.S. military-training manuals. They also found a video made at Fort Bragg featuring the Green Beret Ali Mohammed lecturing U.S. officers and officials on the politics of Jihad. On the video, Ali Mohammed sounds oddly like a radical fundamentalist himself, declaring that the Muslim world will never accept the existence of Israel.
The CIA was lying again and not quite getting away with it. Nonetheless, no action was taken and before long, Mohammed had found himself a wife and had settled into the American dream.
The late Robin Cook as UK Foreign Secretary, was outspoken in his resistance to the Iraq war and the lies of the then Prime Minister Tony Blair. Cook was one of the very few who resigned over the issue to become an ordinary back-bencher, stating: “I can’t accept collective responsibility for the decision to commit Britain now to military action in Iraq without international agreement or domestic support.” Cook also wanted to stop the export of aerospace jet fighters to General Suharto’s repressive regime in Indonesia. As he told the Guardian: “we will not permit the sale of arms to regimes that might use them for internal repression or international aggression. We shall spread the values of human rights, civil liberties and democracy which we demand for ourselves”. He was to be a vehement opponent and thorn in the side of the Blair government before his untimely death.
Many insiders believed that Cook was destined for a senior Cabinet post under the Brown premiership but this would have been problematic for the British Establishment who was set on Middle Eastern conquest. As Foreign Secretary, Cook would have had plenty of access to intelligence reports and related operations abroad. He is known to have considerably ruffled some feathers by breaking the official secrets act and discussing policy and future proposals. He was to do this in spectacular fashion by courageously speaking the truth regarding the War on Terror and the nature of Al-Qaeda which was “literally ‘the database’, and in Cook’s words: “… originally the computer file of the thousands of Mujahedeen who were recruited and trained with help from the CIA to defeat the Russians.” [27] The Guardian article appeared just after the 7/7 bombings and the incendiary speeches by Cook. Whatever ball the respected politician had started to roll it was not to last.
Robin Cook’s legacy in standing for truth was corroborated by a former French Intelligence agent Pierre-Henri Bunel, who wrote an article for the World Affairs journal based in New Dehli in 2004 where he repeated so many top level analysts’ conclusions: “The truth is, there is no Islamic army or terrorist group called Al Qaida. And any informed intelligence officer knows this. But there is a propaganda campaign to make the public believe in the presence of an identified entity representing the ‘devil’ only in order to drive the ‘TV watcher’ to accept a unified international leadership for a war against terrorism. The country behind this propaganda is the US and the lobbyists for the US war on terrorism are only interested in making money.[28]
This is where global drugs market comes in …
[1] ‘“Revealing the Lies” on 9/11 Perpetuates the “Big Lie”’ by Michel Chossudovsky – Text of Michel Chossudovsky’s keynote presentation at the opening plenary session (27 May 2004) to The International Citizens Inquiry Into 9/11, Toronto, 25-30 May 2004. http://www.globalresearch.ca 27 May 2004.
[2] ‘Russian Intelligence Chief Says Al-Qaeda A Myth,’ MosNews| March 21, 2005.
[3] p.39; Politics, Pollution, and Pandas: An Environmental Memoir By Russell E. Train, Published by Island Press 2003.
[4] Good Muslim, Bad Muslim: America, the Cold War and the roots of Terror by Mahmood Mamdani, Published by Three Leaves Publishing; Reprint edition, 2005. ISBN-10: 0385515375. (p.84)
[5] ‘World Wildlife Fund: The 1001 Club Mafia dons, intelligence agents, and raw materials executives striving for a sustainable future’ http://www.whale.to
[6] p.67; Road to 9/11: Wealth, Empire, and the Future of America by Peter Dale-Scott, Published by University of California Press, 2008. ISBN-10: 0520258711.
[8] The eight year Iran/Iraq war (1980-1988) is remembered as one of the most shockingly harrowing conflicts of the 20th century. It was reminiscent of the First World War in terms of sheer numbers of dead; territory shifting back and forth between the two sides like bone-dry seas, heavy with the burden of teenage corpses and the endless pain of grieving families. It was a lucrative time for the US, Russia, and various European nations eager to extend this barbarism in order to squeeze out the highest profits from a whole generation of beleaguered youths. Meanwhile, the rest of the Middle East looked on, until the final combined casualty list total reached one million. The combined profit from these arms deals however, is unknown, but we can guess at the obscene sums of money accrued. To further compound the misery and the arrogance of its leaders, nightmarish monuments were erected on the backs of an already broken people: the fountain of blood in Teheran, the soldier statuaries in Basrah and two giant crossed swords clasped by equally giant arms modelled on Hussein himself. They were also cast in a British foundry. It is testament to Zbigniew Brzezinski’s skill as a geo-political tactician and strategist as it is his cold absence of conscience.
[9] ‘The CIA’s Jihad’ By Robert I. Friedman, June 30, 2002. Current View Point -www.currentviewpoint.com
[10] ‘Who is Osama Bin Laden? BBC News, 18 September, 2001.
[11] ‘The Soviets’ Vietnam’. Richard Cohen Washington Post. April 22, 1988.
[12] ‘The Taliban: Exporting Extremism’, by Ahmed Rashid, Foreign Affairs, Issue November-December 1999.
[13] ‘Seymour Hersh and the men who want him committed’, Salon.com by Matthew Phelan, February 28 2011.
[14] ‘Why Good Friends left behind.” By John Pilger, The Guardian, September 20, 2003.
[15] ‘It ain’t over till it’s over’ By Marc Erikson Asia Times November 15 2001.
[16] I Is for Infidel: From Holy War to Holy Terror: 18 Years Inside Afghanistan by Kathy Gannon, Published by Public Affairs, 2005. |ISBN-10: 1586483129. | (pp.138-142)
[17] ‘The Real Bin Laden’ by Mary Jane Weaver, The New Yorker, 2000.
[18] p. 29; Why America Slept: The Failure to Prevent 9/11. By Gerald Posner, Published by Random House, 2003.| ISBN-10: 0375508791.
[19] op. cit. Dale-Scott, (pp. 73-75).
[20] ‘Anatomy of a Victory, the CIA’s Covert Afghan War’ by Steve Coll Washington Post, July 19 1992.
[21] ‘Editorial:Another clue into General Zia’s death’ Daily Times Pakistan, December 2005. […] “former US ambassador to India, John Gunther Dean, suspects that General Zia ul Haq was killed by the Israelis. This is interesting enough but perhaps would not have made it beyond the slew of conspiracy theories that have been cropping up since Zia was killed in a C-130 plane crash if the US State Department had not chosen to ignore Mr Dean and later cashier him on grounds of being mentally imbalanced.
According to Ms Crossette’s account under the title ‘Reflections — Who Killed Zia?’, Mr Dean suspects that General Zia, his top commanders, the US ambassador to Pakistan, Arnold Raphael, and a US brigadier-general were killed by the Israeli secret agency Mossad because Tel Aviv was concerned about Pakistan’s nuclear ambitions following a statement by General Zia in 1987 that Pakistan was a “screwdriver’s turn away from the bomb”.But when Mr Dean expressed his views to the State Department at the time and insisted that the US must thoroughly investigate the Israeli-Indian axis, the Department accused him of mental imbalance and relieved him of his duties; this, despite that fact that Mr Dean was a distinguished diplomat who had garnered more ambassadorships than most envoys. Ms Crossette says that Mr Dean, now 80, wants the stigma of mental imbalance removed and is collecting his papers and is ready to share his thoughts. He lost his medical and security clearance because of his views and was forced to seek retirement in 1988.”[…]
[22] pp. 279-280; Devil’s Game: How the United States Helped Unleash Fundamentalist Islam by Robert Dreyfuss (American Empire Project) Published by Metropolitan Books; 2005 | ISBN-10: 0805076522.
[23] op. cit. Freidman.
[26] ‘The Masking of a Militant’ By Benjamin Weiser and James Risen – A Soldier’s Shadowy Trail In U.S. and in the Mideast The New York Times, December 1, 1998.
[27] ‘The struggle against terrorism cannot be won by military means – The G8 must seize the opportunity to address the wider issues at the root of such atrocities’ By Robin Cook, The Guardian, July 8, 2005.
[28] ‘Al Qaeda: The Database’ By Pierre-Henri Bunel, Global Research, May 12, 2011 | Wayne Madsen Report 20 November, 2005.
Posted in 9/11, CoIntelpro, Establishment / Elite, False Flag, War, Zionism and tagged 1001 Club, Afghanistan, Africa, Al-Qaeda, Anglo-American Establishment, Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI), Bush Dynasty, CIA, Dick Cheney, FBI, Fort Bragg, Fromer Foreign Secretary Robin Cook, George H.W. Bush, Henry Kissinger, Iran, Iraq, Islamic Fundamentalism, Maktab al-Khidamat (MAK), Mossad, Mujahedeen, NATO, Operation AJAX, Osama bin Laden, Pakistani Military Intelligence (ISI), Pilgrims Society, Prime Minister Mohammed Mossadegh, regime change, Revolution, Round Table, Rumsfeld, Russia, Safari Club, Saudi Arabia, Saudi intelligence agency (GIP), SAVAK, Synarchy, Taliban, terrorism, Three Establishment Model (3EM), Tony Blair, Trilateral Commission (TC), World Wildlife Fund (WWF), Zbigniew Brzezinski on March 29, 2015 by M.K. Styllinski. Leave a comment
The Terror Industry (1)
“If you’re submitting budget proposals for a law enforcement agency, for an intelligence agency, you’re not going to submit the proposal that ‘We won the war on terror and everything’s great,’ cuz the first thing that’s gonna happen is your budget’s gonna be cut in half. You know, it’s my opposite of Jesse Jackson’s ‘Keep Hope Alive’—it’s ‘Keep Fear Alive.’ Keep it alive.”
– former FBI assistant director Thomas Fuentes
It took over 35 years for the majority of Americans to realise that factions within their own government assassinated John F. Kennedy. Not exactly a hopeful premise from which to start. It was at this juncture that the ground was laid for a more serious threat to the freedoms of not just the American Republic but to the stability of the whole world. More than 14 years have passed since the September 11 attacks and more people than ever are studying the official story and coming away with many more questions than answers.
Opinion polls on 911 vary greatly, both in terms of the questions asked and the size of the number of respondents. Back in 2006 more than a third of the American public suspected that federal officials assisted in the 9/11 terrorist attacks or took no action to stop them so the United States could go to war in the Middle East. [1] One in seven people in the UK believe the US government staged 9/11 and a recent poll sponsored by the German magazine Welt der Wunder resulted in 89 percent of the respondents saying they don’t believe the US government has told the whole truth about 9/11. [2] Interestingly, for the purveyors of State protection, a 2012 online poll by The Franklin Centre Library revealed that 77 percent thought 11 years after 9/11 that we were all less safe than before. [3]
With 75 top professors and leading scientists claiming 9/11 was ‘inside job’ in 2014, it appears academia is catching up with the public, though at a snails space. A more respectable 2,322 architects and structural engineers have also expressed their disbelief in all or some of the aspects of the official story over at Architects & Engineers for 9/11 truth (ae911truth.org/). There are hundreds of other 9/11 website organisations and non-profit educational charities who take issue with the governments version ranging from grassroots to academic.
The online encyclopedia of Wikipedia, (censored and guarded by suitable official story gatekeepers) provides the best summary of the US government and media-led “conspiracy theory” which has lodged itself in the public mind. The following represents the standard synopsis which is constantly wheeled out from media outlets and taken as the consensus.
“The September 11 attacks (also referred to as September 11, September 11th, or 9/11) were a series of four coordinated suicide attacks upon the United States in New York City and the Washington, D.C. areas on September 11, 2001. On that Tuesday morning, 19 terrorists from the Islamist militant group Al-Qaeda hijacked four passenger jets. The hijackers intentionally flew two of those planes, American Airlines Flight 11 and United Airlines Flight 175, into the North and South towers of the World Trade Center complex in New York City; both towers collapsed within two hours. The hijackers also intentionally crashed American Airlines Flight 77 into the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, and intended to pilot the fourth hijacked jet, United Airlines Flight 93, into the United States Capitol Building in Washington, D.C.; however, the plane crashed into a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, after its passengers attempted to take control of the jet from the hijackers. Nearly 3,000 people died in the attacks, including all 227 civilians and 19 hijackers aboard the four planes. At the time of the attacks, media reports suggested that perhaps tens of thousands might have been killed, and the total number of casualties remained unclear for several days.
Suspicion quickly fell on Al-Qaeda, and in 2004, the group’s leader, Osama bin Laden, who had initially denied involvement, claimed responsibility for the attacks. Al-Qaeda and bin Laden cited U.S. support of Israel, the presence of U.S. troops in Saudi Arabia, and sanctions against Iraq as motives for the attacks. The United States responded to the attacks by launching the War on Terror and invading Afghanistan to depose the Taliban, which had harbored Al-Qaeda. Many countries strengthened their anti-terrorism legislation and expanded law enforcement powers. In May 2011, after years at large, bin Laden was located and killed.” [4]
So, let’s get this straight…
… What we are being told is that a handful of mostly Saudi Arabians without military or intelligence training, acting independently of government or Intel agencies, managed to outsmart the whole Anglo-American Intelligence network, Israel’s MOSSAD and NATO; as well as the National Security Agency with its massive surveillance of connected networks spanning the globe. Let’s add to this the so-called “failures” from the National Security Council; US Airport security; NORAD, Air Traffic Control and the US Air Force. Let’s not forget the world’s most powerful defence system overseen by the world’s greatest superpower which just happened to allow a handful of Arabs with minimal pilot’s training, armed with box-cutters fly two jumbo jet airliners into the financial heart of downtown New York exploding into the most famous icons of world trade, whilst another employed an impossible flight manoeuvre in order to crash into the military defence centre of the most powerful nation on earth. Then, just before Obama’s election time, Osama Bin Laden, a known CIA asset and a former close business associate of the Bush family is conveniently found after over a decade of being “on the run”. Despite being the most wanted terrorist on earth, he is not questioned – like so many in Guantanamo Bay who appear to be mostly innocent yet tortured nonetheless – he is assassinated and promptly dumped at sea. Mission accomplished.
© Rkaphotography | Dreamstime.com – US Wars Are State Sponsored Terrorism Photo
That has to be the worst conspiracy theory ever to insult the intelligence of a sixth grader.
Yet, that is the official story we are expected to accept – without question. Most shocking of all, that’s exactly what so many people do: accept a story that simply cannot be true. Moreover, to add insult to injury and the memory of the dead, no proposal for an independent investigation into why the most monumental “failure” in National Security could have happened has arisen from the President, Congress, the Joint Chiefs of Staff or the MSM; nor has anyone been reprimanded, let alone prosecuted. The reality has been constant resistance, stone-walling, disinformation, propaganda, threats, suicides, and murders. Add to the mix are the corrupted commissions and inquiries whose only remit is to push the official story that must be made to fit into official culture. Of course, such a coup d’état could never have been accomplished if societies hadn’t been suitably tenderized by decades of social engineering. Part of that success has been due to the global War on Terror, or “overseas contingency operations” as Obama likes to call it.
Al-Qaeda and the global war on terror is the continuance of a “Strategy of Tension,” which refers to a period in Italy from 1969 to 1974, which suffered a series of terrorist attacks with heavy civilian casualties. It was an offshoot of what has been called Operation Gladio and their state-sponsored terror teams in Europe. [5] The strategy had its roots in fascist beliefs of Synarchism within government, military and intelligence networks. Their objective was to ruthlessly exploit underlying fears and grievances in European nations so that people would believe that the attacks were carried out by a communist insurgency within Europe. Many of these terrorist organisations went underground and resurfaced to be periodically stimulated by their masters for bespoke objectives. They do not just arise out of the blue. Much like the ebb and flow of paedophile and sex abuse networks, terrorist atrocities are given the required camouflage so that the perpetrators and their handlers remain in the shadows.
There are many populist and academic sources that will prove the phoney nature of Al-Qaeda and Osama Bin Laden. Of particular note is the acclaimed UK documentary The Power of Nightmares by Adam Curtis Top where CIA officials openly admit that the creation and history of Al-Qaeda as a terrorist network is a fabrication. [6] As former French intelligence officer Major Pierre-Henry Bunel confirms:
“The truth is, there is no Islamic army or terrorist group called Al Qaida. And any informed intelligence officer knows this. But there is a propaganda campaign to make the public believe in the presence of an identified entity representing the ‘devil’ only in order to drive the ‘TV watcher’ to accept a unified international leadership for a war against terrorism. The country behind this propaganda is the US and the lobbyists for the US war on terrorism are only interested in making money.” [7]
The CIA has used this ghost to buttress the fantasy that is Al-Qaeda (and the new proxy private army called ISIL), employing fake media reports and video appearances clearly from persons other than bin Laden himself which have fed into the aftermath of the new pearl harbour that was 9/11. [8] Even the name of “Al-Qaeda/Al-Qaida” has produced confusion, even dark amusement in Arab circles as one commentator wryly observed: “You have heard before that ‘Al-Qaeda’ roughly translates into ‘the base,’ but were you aware that ‘Ana raicha Al Qaeda’ is Arabic colloquial for ‘I’m going to the toilet’? Would hardened terrorists hell bent on the destruction of the west name their organization after a euphemism for taking a shit?” [9]
A fair point.
The common tactic that has been referred to before is known as the Hegelian Dialectic, though in truth Hegel described social changes rather than pointed manipulation in this context. However, it serves a suitable framework for the thinking behind state-sponsored terrorism which goes something like this:
1. The government creates or exploits a problem then attributes blame to others.
2. The populace react by asking the government for protection and help.
3. The government offers the solution that was planned long before the crisis.
4. Outcome: Rights and liberties are exchanged for the illusion of protection and help.
This is the geopolitical paradigm of our times largely unknown by the public, though thanks to the internet this is gradually changing. Government and military agencies at the mid to lower levels are equally unaware of this old formula which writer G. Edward Griffin described as: “… not a war on terrorism to defend freedom, but a war on freedom that requires the defense of terrorism.” [10] Meantime, the PR from the MSM and academia is still pushing the idea that America and Europe are overrun with teeth-gnashing terrorists hell-bent in renting asunder the fabric of our Western way of life. Since what is left of any civil rights in Europe and the US constitution has been eviscerated by the very same authorities who peddle these myths then might there be some mileage in the idea that they have something to gain from it all? For anyone who has taken the time to research the genesis of terrorism and the present-day nonsense passing for terrorist laws in the United States it is beyond doubt that the only thing American and European people need to fear is their governments.
According to a basic statistical analysis from 2013 the actual percentage of the US population who may be classified as a terrorist is around 0.00016%, or about 1 in 624,297 people. In this context, the writer Marc Salvo makes a pertinent observation about this topsy-turvy terror game when he said just a few months ago: “We’re not suggesting that terrorism doesn’t exist, but considering that 1 in 1000 Americans in 2010 were the subject of police misconduct ranging from excessive force beatings and murder to sexual assault and false arrest, perhaps the government should turn its surveillance on itself, rather than the 99.9% of Americans who want nothing more than to be left alone.” [11]
That is not to say there are not genuine terrorist plots, but the key issue here is what prevents terrorism from occurring and what actively encourages it? We know that invading Syria or Iraq has provided a massive surge of terrorist cells in those countries as a result and a bleed-through must have occurred in America and Europe. However, like some police trawling and entrapment operations in the UK, the lines between what is a genuine terrorist plot and creating home grown fanatics is more than blurred, it continues to stoke the needed fear and high profits necessary to sustain a terror industry.
As Al-Qaeda is wound down, ISIS takes over, funded with billions of dollars: a new brand with new bloody atrocities to market …
[1] ‘New National Poll: 36percent of Americans Believe 9/11 Was an Inside Job’ By Thomas Hargrove, Scripps Howard News Service Seattle. August 2, 2006.
[2] ‘One in seven believe U.S. government staged the 9/11 attacks in conspiracy’- The belief is more common among younger people, with a quarter of 16 to 24-year-olds subscribing to the theory By Alanah Eriksen, Daily Mail, 29 August 2011 | ‘German Poll: 89percent Question 9/11’ Welt-der-Wunder, January 24, 2011, 9/11 Truth News.
[3] ‘9/11 Online Poll’ The Franklin Center, September 11, 2012. http://www.franklincenterblog.wordpress.com
[4] ‘September 11th Attacks’www.wikipedia.com ( A far better starting point for an alternative “wikipedia” version of 9/11 can be found at wikispooks.)
[5] “Operation Gladio is undisputed historical fact. Gladio was part of a post-World War II program set up by the CIA and NATO supposedly to thwart future Soviet/communist invasions or influence in Italy and Western Europe. In fact, it became a state-sponsored right-wing terrorist network, involved in false flag operations and the subversion of democracy.
The existence of Gladio was confirmed and admitted by the Italian government in 1990, after a judge, Felice Casson, discovered the network in the course of his investigations into right-wing terrorism. Italian Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti admitted Gladio’s existence but tried to minimize its significance.
The main function of the Gladio-style groups, in the absence of Soviet invasion, seems to have been to discredit left-wing groups and politicians through the use of “the strategy of tension,” including false-flag terrorism. … The aim was to instill fear into the populace while framing communist and left-wing political opponents for terrorist atrocities.” – Operation GladioNATO/CIA “Stay-Behind” Secret Armies/ Truth Move / International Truth Movement, http://www.truthmove.org/content/operation-gladio/
[6] A partial listing for your own research follows: The Power of Nightmares BBC documentary by Adam Curtis. This is freely available to watch from various sources on the internet. ‘Al Qaeda and the ‘War on Terrorism’’ By Michel Chossudovsky, January 20, 2008. The Centre for Global Research: http://www.globalresearch.ca/PrintArticle.php?articleId=7718 and read the updated version of his 2005 book: America’s War on Terrorism by Michel Chossudovsky,| ISBN 0-9737147-1-9 2005. wwwglobalresearch.ca.: “…new chapters focuses on the use of 9/11 as a pretext for the invasion and illegal occupation of Iraq, the militarisation of justice and law enforcement and the repeal of democracy. According to Chossudovsky, the ‘war on terrorism’ is a complete fabrication based on the illusion that one man, Osama bin Laden, outwitted the $40 billion-a-year American intelligence apparatus. The “war on terrorism” is a war of conquest. Globalisation is the final march to the “New World Order”, dominated by Wall Street and the U.S. military-industrial complex. September 11, 2001 provides a justification for waging a war without borders. Washington’s agenda consists in extending the frontiers of the American Empire to facilitate complete U.S. corporate control, while installing within America the institutions of the Homeland Security State.” | See also: ‘Divide and Conquer: The Anglo-American Imperial Project’ by Andrew G. Marshall, Global Research, July 10, 2008 and ‘The Myth Of The Palestinian Suicide Bomber’ By Joe Quinn, Sott.net, 29 Jan 2007.
[7] ‘Al Qaeda: The Database’ by Pierre-Henry Bunel, Wayne Masden report November 18 2005. “In yet another example of what happens to those who challenge the system, in December 2001, Maj. Pierre-Henri Bunel was convicted by a secret French military court of passing classified documents that identified potential NATO bombing targets in Serbia to a Serbian agent during the Kosovo war in 1998. Bunel’s case was transferred from a civilian court to keep the details of the case classified. Bunel’s character witnesses and psychologists notwithstanding, the system “got him” for telling the truth about Al Qaeda and who has actually been behind the terrorist attacks commonly blamed on that group. It is noteworthy that that Yugoslav government, the government with whom Bunel was asserted by the French government to have shared information, claimed that Albanian and Bosnian guerrillas in the Balkans were being backed by elements of “Al Qaeda.” We now know that these guerrillas were being backed by money provided by the Bosnian Defense Fund, an entity established as a special fund at Bush-influenced Riggs Bank and directed by Richard Perle and Douglas Feith.”
[8] ‘Researcher: Bin Laden’s beard is real, video is not’ – Digital evidence supports the theory that Al-Qaida is recycling old footage to create new messages. Cnet.com September 12, 2007.
[9] ‘Existence of ‘Al-Qaeda’ Is Crap; Quite Literally’ – Did Osama really choose to name his terror network after potty humor or was it a computer database he used to chat with his CIA handlers? By Paul Joseph Watson, PrisonPlanet.com| October 6 2006: “The origins of the name “Al-Qaeda,” and its real arabic connotations prove that every time the Bush administration, Fox News, or any individual who cites the threat of ‘Al-Qaeda,’ as a mandate for war and domestic authoritarianism, they are propagating the myth that such a group ever existed.
An organization by the name of “Al-Qaeda” does not exist and has never existed outside a falsely coined collective term for offshoot loose knit terror cells, the majority of which are guided by the Pakistani ISI, Mossad, the Saudis, MI6 and the CIA, that were created in response to America’s actions after 9/11 – as the recent NIE report shows. According to the BBC documentary The Power of Nightmares, the infamous footage of Bin Laden marching around with armed soldiers was a ruse on the part of Osama himself, graciously propagated by the lapdog press, in which actors were hired off the streets, given uniforms and guns and told to look aggressive.” […]
[10] ‘The Chasm: The Future Is Calling’ (Part One) by G. Edward Griffin 2003, Revised March 17, 2011.
[11] ‘Odds That You Are a Terrorist: 1 in 624,297’ By Mac Slavo, SHTFplan.com, October 18th, 2013.
Posted in Activism, Establishment / Elite, False Flag, Psychology, Social Engineering, War and tagged 9/11, 9/11 Truth Movement, Afghanistan, Al-Qaeda, CIA, CoIntelpro, Entrapment, FBI, Hegelian Dialectic, Israel, JF Kennedy, Joint Chiefs of Staff, Mainstream Media, Mossad, National Security Agency (NSA), NATO, NORAD, Official Culture, Operation Gladio, Pathology, ponerology, propaganda, psychopath, PSYOPS, Saudi Arabia, September 11th 2001, Strategy of Tension, Synarchy, Taliban, terrorism, War on Terror, Word Trade Centre on March 12, 2015 by M.K. Styllinski. 3 Comments
World State Policies I
“There has been a continuing, albeit concealed, alliance between international political capitalists and international revolutionary socialists – to their mutual benefit. This alliance has gone unobserved largely because academic historians have an unconscious Marxian bias and are thus locked into the impossibility of any such alliance existing.”
— Anthony C. Sutton, Wall St. And the Bolshevik Revolution (1974)
The David Rockefellers of this world have a long history of managing the hoi-polloi of ordinary folk like you and I who consider “auto-determination” a human right rather than a quaint historical footnote. Once we understand that such a perception of smug superiority is not a passing whim but an indelible stamp of elite-thinking that holds normal humanity in absolute contempt, then we will begin to understand that such people seek to bend the world to a singular reality without majority consent. And because they have been practicing this art of modern manipulation for at least 150 years, with access to cutting-edge resources from psychology to technology, history to economics – they have become exceedingly good at it.
So what is the objective of this Plan? We’ll look at a few of the main building blocks of Pathocratic rule such as the relationship between capitalism and collectivism, the role of a peculiar vision of science including eugenics; food as a weapon and advocates of depopulation. Once again, various ideologies, institutions, criminal cartels and political and social movements will be used as tools to achieve those ends. Certain themes can be discerned that will be obvious to everyone, the methods and the effects of which have been briefly discussed in previous posts.
We might call the broad brush changes that have helped to take over the world of normal people as the “4Cs” which can be viewed as both chronological and non-linear in nature whereby each gives rise to the other in an ascending spiral.
1. Commercialisation through deregulated capitalism
2. Consolidation through cartel corporatism and financial warfare
3. Centralisation through the transfer of power from local to global
4. Control and its maintenance once achieved.
Extreme commercialisation has affected every aspect of our lives from the quality of food we eat to the type of education our children receive. We are no longer people but “consumers.” The commoditisation of life and the short-term gains it offers relies on economic disparities, debt enslavement and perpetual war to keep the illusion of choice and economic growth in place. However, most of us are firmly trapped in this economic and materialist model that offers nothing more than a serious reduction in the quality of life for most on the planet. While it is true that capitalism has been the model for the rise of the West and as a result of the present increase in prosperity being enjoyed by Asia, the ecological, social and spiritual consequences of this economic paradigm have been disastrous. Yet nothing is allowed to challenge the concept of this version of cartel-capitalism which still determines the economic machinery of global economics. A widespread acceptance of models that would drastically improve the lives of millions is purposely avoided to maintain the status quo. Not only do alternative modes of commerce and more localised, community-based economies exist they are eminently workable.
Viable alternatives are shackled by a mix of conscious and unconscious conditioning and the beliefs that rise up out of such insecurity. In the face of change at the local level which may be derived from models which go counter to the dominant systems of the 4Cs operating at national and global levels, it is extraordinarily difficult to implement and sustain alternative methodologies no matter how practical or sensible they may be. Opting out of this entrenched system is now no longer possible for most, economically and psychologically as we are completely inside the concept of market demand.
The rise of cartel-capitalism is a gargantuan pathology based on the exact same personality traits of the psychopath. When populations have to fight their way out of poverty and squalor only to be given the chance to inflict the same economic footprint of their eventual capitalist success on others, we see that this system is designed to erode responsibility, increase unsustainability and create a cycle of perpetual boom and bust; where the haves and have nots dance in an eternal cycle of resource competition. All of which, is inevitably and perhaps literally – soul-destroying.
“Globalisation,” “globalism” and “World State” mean the 4Cs. Your personal life and personal goals are unimportant to the planners unless those goals are consistent with the sociological, economic and “religious” goals of their global vision. To be useful to the Pathocrats you must be like a number in an algorithm, to be herded and managed into units of consumption. Is this the real goal of commercialisation: to dehumanize and devalue so that humanity become the products that they covet, so that psychopaths can roam free and increase their numbers finally eclipsing normal humanity completely?
Consolidation has been taking place at an ever faster rate since the Industrial Revolution and represents the move towards greater and greater centralisation. Corporate mergers trans-national entities, mass privatisation, monolithic agribusiness and media empires are all products of this phase of consolidation. In the manipulated economic crisis of 2008 (which is still continuing) JP Morgan, Citibank and Goldman Sacs were among the top mega-companies to make a killing in the wake of the crisis after having used billions of dollars of tax payers’ money given to them by the governments. Trillions were sunk into a “bailout” black-hole to keep the international banking system and its corporate partners afloat while the global economy began its final push towards even greater centralisation. What amounted to a form of financial warfare saw the asset spoils going to the bigger companies who bought up the bankrupted losers thereby consolidating their new positions. What’s more, societies of ordinary people were duped into paying for these “bail-outs” with “austerity measures”. How many of the elite do you think were effected by this imposition? Billions were wiped off social welfare, hikes in taxes, food prices and oil were imposed all of which maintained the financial system that bit longer so that they could extract more dividends and cream off what is left of the old crony capitalism before the final meltdown. In combination with the West’s proxy wars, Homelessness, repossessions, mass unemployment and an immigration exodus were the result.
Meanwhile, the rich are getting richer. The 1 percent of the wealthiest have made more profit from this global recession than ever before. The only ones pulling in the purse-strings are the middle and working classes. Ordinary people are being asked to “tighten their belts” work harder for less pay in the West so that the iniquitous banking model can be allowed to consolidate and centralise their operations still further. This translates into business as usual for countries like Africa which continue to be despoiled and invaded by Western corporations looking for the next consolidated “hit” backed by the same Banks who have been pleading governments to help them “survive.”
None of this is about improving the lot of humanity. It is about maintaining pure, legitimized greed which is then mandated by law. We are so irrevocably enmeshed in the system of the 4Cs that any attempts to jump ship at the national or individual level, creates insurmountable problems. The Establishment must convince its populations that their way is the only way and like good little school children you must obey Teacher. According to the “elected” authorities, we cannot and must not attempt to be the architects of the school itself.
The United States has been the defining inspiration for the capitalist model for over a hundred years. While it has been the source of all that is best in humanity, the country has declined since the Kennedy brothers assassinations and sharply after the September 11th Attacks on the Twin Towers. This deep-seated tendency to authoritarianism has given the American people a perverse rendering of history and an almost indelible stamp of para-moral rectitude. As we have seen, even more shocking is the realization that the form of government that dominates today is National Socialism which was of course, the socio-political ideology of choice for the Nazis. It was Benito Mussolini who suggested that fascism, was corporatism or as author and journalist Jim Marrs points out: “… in countries such as Italy and Germany before World War II the State took over the corporations. In the United States today, the corporations have taken over the State, but the end result is the same.” [1] We may not have the jackboots and swastikas but the suits and ties and thought police work just as well.
In a nut-shell, elite psychopaths can choose to employ past and the present, “traditional” and “progressive” according to their needs. (See below).
Inverted Totalitarianism / Huxleyian
Classical Totalitarianism / Orwellian
State domination of economy and business
Corporate domination of State and economy
Active political mobilisation of the populace
Political apathy and ignorance
Open rejection of democracy
Mask of Democracy
Classical and Inverted Totalitarianism
The ponerisation of the United States of America is what we have likened to a “soft” or inverted totalitarianism. It is because this descent is not obvious that it becomes more dangerous, lying as it does behind infotainment, corporatism and ponerised cultural “norms.” Political philosopher Sheldon Wolin refers to just such an inversion taking place but with distinct differences compared to more classical forms of totalitarianism as seen under Nazi Germany and the Stalinist Soviet Union. [2] Whereas in the Nazi Third Reich’s dictatorship it exercised State power over the economy and its players, with inverted totalitarianism, it is the corporate model which dominates the State. Similarly, where the Nazis were masters of propaganda aimed at mobilising the power of the people the reversal of totalitarian dynamics serves to put the people to sleep under a mass inversion. Here, it is the recurrent theme of sensation, pleasure and ignorance which keeps people in a state of servitude through an official culture founded on narcissism and the consequent open door to a range of mental and emotional addictions.
Finally, whereas democracy is openly rejected under classical forms of totalitarianism, the inverted model hides behind a mask of democracy where democratic principles exist only on paper, soon to be dispensed with altogether with the right “crisis.” This is perhaps the most important distinction between the past and the present. Pathocracy uses an inversion of known totalitarian principles so that it perfectly adapts to both the emerging culture of the Information Age whilst adhering to more Orwellian methods of the past.
“The rules of big business: Get a monopoly; let society work for you. So long as we see all international revolutionaries and all international capitalists as implacable enemies of one another, then we miss a crucial point….a partnership between international monopoly capitalism and international revolutionary socialism is for their mutual benefit.”
– Frederick C. Howe, Confessions of a Monopolist (1906)
The Corporatist-Collectivist Chess board
A key ingredient in the capitalist-collectivist hybrid that currently infects societies today is the rise of Marxism, the important Hegelian tool of choice for Elite objectives.
Preceding World War I, Marxist theory was all the rage but the Zionist / Wall St. funded Communist revolution didn’t quite work out as planned in terms of mass appeal because workers could see that it wasn’t a panacea – it simply couldn’t deliver, and most certainly not in the West. Which is why cultural Marxism and its Fabian agents took gradualism to its heart in order to reshape the mass mind of the West toward Marxist principles by stealth while encouraging corporatism to grow alongside it. In fact, the European Union was founded on exactly the same principles that gave rise to both the U.S.S.R and the Nazi Third Reich. Indeed, the latter was instrumental in the visionary ideas that saw the development of the European Union as we have come to recognise it now. It is no surprise that Germany is its most powerful leader since the back-up plan of the Nazis was precisely this: if they could not win the war logistically and strategically then dominance would come in the future via economic power.
(For more on this see The EU: The Truth about the Fourth Reich How Adolf Hitler Won the Second World War By Daniel J. Beddowes and Flavio Cipollini).
It was this root that the same Synarchist-Fascist impulse was to create the European formation of the Gladio terrorist networks which sprung up in the 1950s and 60s and that saw American conservatives effect massive Cold War witch-hunts against a so-called Communist conspiracy. Their hunches were far more accurate than we realise if somewhat simplistic and to which huge derision was drawn from the liberal left. But they were wrong overall – they did not understand the hybrid of extremes which were attempting to join.
So, what form has this “socialism” in the West actually taken? Simply put, collectivism is the opposite of individualism, where group thought, philosophy, action and principle overrides the needs of the individual. The term can be divided into horizontal collectivism and vertical collectivism. The former is collective decision-making among largely equal individuals, and is therefore based on decentralisation, while the latter is drawn from hierarchical power structures and socio-cultural conformity, and is based on centralisation. [3] While such a drive to group endeavour can bring out the positive aspects of our interdependence and our shared experiences across the planet, the kind of collectivism we will explore is an overreaching form that employs both vertical and distorted horizontal forms into one vast entity – its expression having been ponerised by emerging strains of psychopathy. The onset of ponerogenesis will manifest by whatever channels deemed suitable in order to achieve Pathocracy. Remember that none of these ideologies are evil in themselves, but used in a pathocratic context, they become tools of destruction.
The war between collectivism and individualism continues to rage in the West, while in the Middle East, Asia and Africa a blend of Anglo-American influences amid certain theocracies combine Church and State, compelling citizens to accept a particular religious doctrine set against radical secularism – a fine breeding ground for numerous civil wars. We are all immersed in an array of belief systems from Conservatism to Liberalism, Communism, Neo-Conservatism and Zionism and on and on so that division is the keynote for Establishment leverage. To that end, money is the denominator in all things which goes way beyond simplistic ideas of trickle down. The state-shadowed Communism and corporate capitalism are blood brothers. As the late German historian and philosopher Oswald Spengler remarked in his Decline of the West (1991) “There is no proletarian, not even a Communist, movement, that has not operated in the interests of money, in the direction indicated by money, and for the time being permitted by money–and that without the idealists among its leaders having the slightest suspicion of the fact.”
While many globalists officially discard Stalinism they embrace collectivism and Marxist ideology quite happily. It is collectivism which is ideally suited to the more Huxleyian or inverted form of totalitarianism. If we take a look at the sprawling mess of the European Union we see the same hybrid of totalitarianism at work, this time from a mix of both the Liberal Establishment and European Synarchy. Former Soviet dissident Vladimir Bukovsky warned in a speech that the European Union: “… represents a continuation of the totalitarian vision he had fought against in Russia … The former Soviet president Mikhail S. Gorbachev put it more succinctly when he told the official Russian news agency, Ria Novosti, last week that ‘It is all about influence and domination in Europe.’ ” [4]
Bukovsky is no reactionary. After the Soviets expelled him to the West in 1976 he has offered unique insights into the nature of the Soviet Communist Party drawn from direct experience of the regime. He was the one of the first to expose the use of psychiatric imprisonment against political prisoners in the former USSR and according to journalist Belgian Paul Belien: “… spent a total of twelve years (1964-1976), from his 22nd to his 34th year, in Soviet jails, labour camps and psychiatric institutions.” [5] In 1992 he was invited by the Russian government to serve as an expert at a trial to ascertain whether or not the Communist Party had been a criminal institution, Bukovsky was permitted access to a great many classified documents from secret Soviet archives. Only a handful of people have seen this information. What he managed to scan for his own records has become an intriguing confirmation of the pathology shaping the beliefs of collectivism as a tool for Pathocracy.
The Russian dissident takes up the story:
“In 1992 I had unprecedented access to Politburo Central Committee secret documents which have been classified, and still are even now, for 30 years. These documents show very clearly that the whole idea of turning the European common market into a federal state was agreed between the left-wing parties of Europe and Moscow as a joint project which [Soviet leader Mikhail] Gorbachev in 1988-89 called our common European home.
“The idea was very simple. It first came up in 1985-86, when the Italian Communists visited Gorbachev, followed by the German Social-Democrats. They all complained that the changes in the world … were threatening to wipe out the achievement (as they called it) of generations of Socialists and Social-Democrats – threatening to reverse it completely. Therefore the only way to withstand this onslaught of wild capitalism (as they called it) was to try to introduce the same socialist goals in all countries at once. Prior to that, the left-wing parties and the Soviet Union had opposed European integration…. From 1985 onwards they completely changed their view. The Soviets came to a conclusion and to an agreement with the left-wing parties that if they worked together they could hijack the whole European project and turn it upside down. Instead of an open market they would turn it into a federal state.” [6]
Many of these documents are freely available on a variety of websites on the internet. Interestingly, we see the same power brokers such as the Trilateral Commission and the Rockefellers in the thick of it:
“In January of 1989, for example, a delegation of the Trilateral Commission came to see Gorbachev. It included [former Japanese Prime Minister Yasuhiro] Nakasone, [former French President Valéry] Giscard d’Estaing, [American banker David] Rockefeller and [former US Secretary of State Henry] Kissinger. They had a very nice conversation where they tried to explain to that Soviet Russia had to integrate into the financial institutions of the world, such as Gatt, the IMF and the World Bank…
“…the original idea was to have what they called a convergency, whereby the Soviet Union would mellow somewhat and become more social-democratic, while Western Europe would become social-democratic and socialist…. This is why the structures of the European Union were initially built with the purpose of fitting into the Soviet structure. This is why they are so similar in functioning and in structure.
“It is no accident that the European Parliament, for example, reminds me of the Supreme Soviet. It looks like the Supreme Soviet because it was designed like it. Similarly, when you look at the European Commission it looks like the Politburo. I mean it does so exactly, except for the fact that the Commission now has 25 members and the Politburo usually had 13 or 15 members. Apart from that they are exactly the same, unaccountable to anyone, not directly elected by anyone at all.” [7]
Vladimir Bukovsky’s point is crucial. Rather than revealing a communist conspiracy a totalitarian structure was carefully nurtured and organised by proponents of socialist and capitalist ideologies, the bridge between the two being Pathocratic objectives camouflaged by tailored belief systems:
“When you look into all this bizarre activity of the European Union with its 80,000 pages of regulations it looks like Gosplan … an organisation which was planning everything in the economy, to the last nut and bolt, five years in advance. Exactly the same thing is happening in the EU. When you look at the type of EU corruption, it is exactly the Soviet type of corruption, going from top to bottom rather than going from bottom to top.
“If you go through all the structures and features of this emerging European monster you will notice that it more and more resembles the Soviet Union. Of course, it is a milder version … It has no KGB – not yet – but I am very carefully watching such structures as Europol for example. That really worries me a lot because this organisation will probably have powers bigger than those of the KGB…. Can you imagine a KGB with diplomatic immunity?
“They will have to police us on 32 kinds of crimes – two of which are particularly worrying, one is called racism, another is called xenophobia. … Someone from the British government told us that those who object to uncontrolled immigration from the Third World will be regarded as racist and those who oppose further European integration will be regarded as xenophobes….
“The Soviet Union used to be a state run by ideology. Today’s ideology of the European Union is social-democratic, statist, and a big part of it is also political correctness. I watch very carefully how political correctness spreads and becomes an oppressive ideology…
Look at this persecution of people like the Swedish pastor who was persecuted for several months because he said that the Bible does not approve homosexuality. France passed the same law of hate speech concerning gays. Britain is passing hate speech laws concerning race relations and now religious speech …. What you observe, taken into perspective, is a systematic introduction of ideology which could later be enforced with oppressive measures. Apparently that is the whole purpose of Europol ….
“It looks like we are living in a period of rapid, systematic and very consistent dismantlement of democracy. Look at this Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill. It makes ministers into legislators who can introduce new laws without bothering to tell Parliament or anyone. … This can make a dictatorship out of your country in no time.
“Major political parties have been completely taken in by the new EU project….. They have become very corrupt. Who is going to defend our freedoms?… The most likely outcome is that there will be an economic collapse in Europe, which in due time is bound to happen with this growth of expenses and taxes. The inability to create a competitive environment, the over regulation of the economy, the bureaucratisation, it is going to lead to economic collapse. Particularly the introduction of the euro was a crazy idea….
“Look to the huge number of immigrants from Third World countries now living in Europe. This was promoted by the European Union. What will happen with them if there is an economic collapse? … In no other country were there such ethnic tensions as in the Soviet Union…. This huge edifice of bureaucracy is going to collapse on our heads…. We are losing and we are wasting time.” [8] [Emphasis mine]
So far, with the likely collapse of the euro at some point in the near future and widespread economic hardship in Europe, the above analysis from 2006 has proved quite correct. Bukovsky is no politically motivated dissident on a mission of vengeance against modern Russia, a entirely different animal of the Soviet past. He sees the totalitarian structures, ideologies, plans in much the same way that Łobaczewski sees inevitable expansion of ponerogenic influences to which such bureaucracies are wide open. It is not a coincidence that the Soviet Union’s elimination of nationhood in favour of “Unions” and “blocs” is the same goal of the Anglo-American Liberal Establishment. On this point Bukovsky further observed:
“The ultimate purpose of the Soviet Union was to create a new historic entity, the Soviet people, all around the globe. The same is true in the EU today. They are trying to create a new people. They call this people ‘Europeans’, whatever that means.
“According to Communist doctrine as well as to many forms of Socialist thinking, the… national state, is supposed to wither away. In Russia, however, the opposite happened. Instead of withering away the Soviet state became a very powerful state, but the nationalities were obliterated….” [9]
Bukovsky is convinced that the European Union “cannot be democratized” due to its latent totalitarian structure. So, why are we now so polarised between the myths of socialism and capitalism not seeing the how the web of neo-liberal economics offers the building blocks for a global power structure?
In fact, the idea of eliminating national boundaries and nation states was proposed from all sectors of the Establishment coloured with their respective ideologies. It is a matter of historical record but you won’t find it on most educational curricula. After the Second World War in that frenzied opportunity to build their edifices of future control, there were many voices suggesting blueprints for the elimination of nation states and the formation of vast federal Unions built on top of the NATO military alliance. A European Union did come out of it, even though the original Atlantic Union – as a precursor to an eventual Global Union – didn’t see the light of day – at least in that incarnation. But the Cold War wasn’t just about reflexive paranoia. Underneath Anglo-American and European elites was a persistent wish to see nation states disappear so that a capitalist-collectivist vision could manifest globally.
Journalist Matt Stoller’s article published in salon.com September 20th 2013, placed the Establishment in the spotlight by revisiting history amid the Edward Snowden revelations of NSA surveillance and the attempted invasion of Syria. “The Elites’ strange plot to take over the world” described just one of the influences from those steeped in Cold War paranoia, this time from journalist, Clarence Streit who contributed to the ideologues who were buzzing the honey-pot of the mass mind and waiting to shape it into the required form. Since it was broken it was highly suggestible and easily managed. Now was the time to erect the institutions of future authority.
Streit wrote a book called Union Now (1939) which, according to Stoller:
“… had a galvanizing effect on the anti-fascist youth of the time, a sort of cross between Thomas Friedman’s ‘The World Is Flat’ and Naomi Klein’s ‘The Shock Doctrine.’ Streit served in World War I in an intelligence unit, and saw up close the negotiations for the Treaty of Versailles. He then became a New York Times journalist assigned to cover the League of Nations which led him to the conclusion that the only way to prevent American isolationism and European fascism was for political and economic integration of the major ‘freedom-loving’ peoples, which he described as America, Canada, New Zealand, Australia, South Africa and most of Western Europe. The Five Eyes surveillance architecture was created just a few years later, as was the international monetary regime concocted at Bretton Woods.”
Streit was yet another example of individuals having suffered the effects of war and basted in intelligence training and its tools of PR propaganda. He was present at the gathering together of a large number of social dominators at two of the most important meetings of the 20th Century: Versailles and The Paris Peace Conference which led to the League of Nations organisation and the impetus to reshape the geo-political fortunes of the world. Though Streit’s pitch was to fight totalitarianism wherever “civilised society” found it, ironically perhaps, it was used as a plan for precisely the same, by political and diplomatic leaders of the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, many of whom went on to craft the multilateral institutions and international policies of the Cold War and the push for an Atlantic Union. Though many of these leaders were well-intentioned in their wish to head off a Communist take-over as they saw it, there were others who were equally cognizant of the need for the first phase in a Global Union /World State to expand the principles of world government which would eventually incorporate the Soviet Russia and Maoist China.
The 1970s were full of resolutions and hearings designed to make the Atlantic Union and nation states a thing of the past but firmly under the yoke of an Anglo-American trajectory. Federalism would be the socio-economic and political framework by which countries would be redesigned. Indeed, in 1971, a House Concurrent Resolution 163 was proposed: “… to create an ‘Atlantic Union Delegation,’ a committee of 18 ‘eminent citizens’ to join with other NATO country delegations and negotiate a plan to unite. According to the sub-Committee chairman Donald Fraser, it was to be an: “international convention to explore the possibility of agreement on a declaration to transform the present Atlantic alliance into a federal union, set a timetable for transition to this goal and to prescribe democratic institutions under which the goal would be achieved.”
It was no coincidence that the Establishment presidents and European leaders were on board and ambitious to change society. The mass of politicians were fairly clueless about the underlying psychopathy which was piggybacking such ideological drives for Union. The Two World Wars, the Cold War the Great Depression of 1929 and the rise of corporatism proved that nations were already suffering from exploitation driven by rapacious greed. Manipulation and distortion of otherwise sound principles was becoming the norm. Thus it offered a logical basis upon which the concept of political union, could be rationalised and extended. Though many politicians rightly saw the Depression as a result of failed monetary policies at the domestic level, which it was, they were not able to also see that for the bankers and the industrial powers of the time it was one of the effects of the 4C’s coming home to roost and a significant bonanza which would offer future opportunities to tweak the system in their favour.Though it drastically affected the common man and the fabric of society it only allowed the super-rich families of the day to regroup and start the process all over again.
Leaders assumed that calling for greater union would automatically mean greater economic certainty and stability. Yet, they failed to see that the economic crashes and poverty that were induced were part of a system of boom and bust; a debt-based framework by which a fiat currency could be made to work for the tiniest percentage of the population by exploiting the majority. Union would merely extend the 4C’s and its exploitation through gradual deregulation further afield and limiting self-sufficiency, autonomy and economic independence in a box. The objective was a Global Union of the 4C’s which had nothing to do with a socio-economic equilibrium. This was purposefully or naively lost on persons like Streit.
The same ill-informed romanticism of economic parity fuelled their dreams of an Atlantic Union which was to be grafted onto the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, or NATO. The ‘Structural Adjustment Team’ of the IMF, the World Bank, The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, or GATT and the The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) were all partly inspired by the ideal of an Atlantic Union. The latter organisation was used as a tool by a Anglo-American Conservative-Synarchist drive to establish a European Super-state which could eventually form part of that Union.
Throughout the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s the Cold War provided the incentive and rationale for closer integration and a trans-Atlantic Union to freeze out Communist aspirations. Traditionally, the far right hated the idea on principle, as it was indicative of a socialist coup under cover of liberty and welfare, when in fact it was just another tool for eroding national sovereignty. In the future, the disappearance of the Nation State might arrive as a natural consequence of a family of societies whose psycho-spiritual maturity has come of age, but sadly this is not the reality. We are governed by very different persons whose objectives are clearly not focused on emancipation.
As Stoller mentions, though their intentions were faulty there was an important irony here:
“… as liberals gently chuckle at right-wing paranoia about what they perceive as an imagined plot to create a world government, it is the conservatives who have a more accurate read on history. There was a serious plan to get rid of American sovereignty in favor of a globalist movement, and the various institutions the right wing hates — the IMF, the World Bank, the U.N. — were seen as stepping stones to it. Where the right wing was wrong is in thinking that this plot for a global government was also a communist plot; it wasn’t, it was motivated by anti-communism. The proponents of the Atlantic Union in fact thought that this was the only way to defeat the USSR.”
Though Streit believed that an Atlantic Union would decrease the threat of dictatorship he had not seen that the seeds of an inverted totalitarianism lay within the very antidote he and so many others were proposing and which was doing the job of the Pathocrats so admirably. Federalism under such individuals could only lead one way.
(Thankfully, Vladimir Putin has comprehensively tackled the Russian Oligarchs and apparently outside the one world government ideology. He and his advisors appear to be the only people to whom we can rely upon to halt this reckless Anglo-American-Zionist hegemony. Putin is not perfect by any means, but he is all we have. Russia may yet be the Big Bear of Salvation having gone through decades of ponerisation and come out the other side.)
By the 1980s however, the push for Unions had become more complex and nuanced. The 3EM had clear lines of demarcation when it came to how it envisaged its capitalist-collective hybrid. Nationalist terrorism had a resurgence under the Conservatives and Synarchists while Anglo-American liberalism roared ahead with the Atlantic Unionists, even straddling American Zionism who favoured any kind of integration while extending its own separatism to further its interests. None of these concerns have disappeared. On the contrary, they have adapted and kept pace with the ebb and flow of domestic and foreign policy. Deregulation of the Reagan, Carter and Clinton years ensured that the Federal Reserve and the corporate-banking oligarchical influence dominated through their many varied social engineering interests, which could now take on new vigour.
The quest for global governance, a global economic infrastructure, a “global consciousness” and global ecology” under these terms has infiltrated all societal domains. The double-think ruse of international integration does not mean a furthering of human values but an increase in the 4C’s which leads to further economic slavery, and an unnatural homogenisation since it derives from poverty, mass unemployment, mass immigration and a boom and bust of national destabilisation. World government and the globalisation of an Official Culture of psychopathy already exists but is yet to be formalised and publically acknowledged in an open framework of apparent necessity.
As we have seen, the promise of an Atlantic and Americas Union has been comprehensively dismantled thanks largely to the late Hugo Chavez and other Latin American leaders. We must also not forget the recent BRICS partnership which will surely act as a welcome alternative to the US dollar reserve currency. However, a Global Union is still trying to be born, a gestation that is drawn from the presence of a military-intelligence and surveillance apparatus, where the global economy of the 4C’s is as ubiquitous and damaging as it ever was. This is not something the pathocratic mind will relinquish any time soon.
[1] Jim Marrs, quoted in the documentary “In Lies We Trust: The CIA, Hollywood, and Bioterrorism Produced by Dr. Leonard G. Horowitz 16:04 Jim Marrs – Corporate control of the state. Socialism and Fascism to benefit corporations. “National Socialism” (fascism is corporatism).
[2] Democracy Incorporated: Managed Democracy and the Specter of Inverted Totalitarianism, By Sheldon Wolin, 2008.
[3] Horizontal and vertical dimensions of individualism and collectivism: A theoretical and measurement refinement Singelis, By T. M., Triandis, H. C., Bhawuk, D. P. S., & Gelfand, M. J. 1995. | http://www.ccr.sagepub.com/content/29/3/240.abstract
[4] ‘Former Soviet Dissident Warns For EU Dictatorship’ by Paul Belien, Brussels Journal, February 27, 2006.
Posted in Banksters, Corporatism, Economics / Economic Collapse, Establishment / Elite, Psychology, Psychopathy, Social Engineering and tagged 9/11, Anglo-American Establishment, Atlantic Union, BRICS, Bukovsky, Capitalism, Cold War, Collectivism, Communism, David Rockefeller, democracy, European Union, Europol, fascism, GATT, Gladio Networks, global consciousness, Global Union, Globalisation, group awareness, IMF, inverted totalitarianism, Marxism, NATO, Nazism, Orwellian, pathocracy, Police State, propaganda, Revolution, Russia, Shock Doctrine, Socialism, Soviet Union, Synarchy, Third Reich, Three Establishment Model (3EM), Vladimir Putin, World Bank, World State, World War I, World War II on January 25, 2015 by M.K. Styllinski. Leave a comment
Puppets & Players VIII: Bilderberg Group
Bilderberg group connections (click on image to enlarge)
‘Imporre un governo pro Bilderberg destabilizzando le banche italiane’ (‘Imposition of pro Bilderberg government destabilizing Italian banks’) By Sandro Bulgarella
Arguably the most influential of the bunch, the Bilderberg group was founded in 1954 by handful of the usual suspects with directives from the Royal Institute of International Affairs (RIIA) (formerly Chatham House ) and the Round Table. These founding members included philosopher, economist, communist Poland’s Charge d’Affaires and European union architect Dr. Joseph H. Retinger, international banker Baron Victor Rothschild, industrialist Laurence Rockefeller, U.S. Ambassador to Moscow and CIA Director General Walter Bedell Smith, and the Netherland’s charismatic Prince Bernhard, husband of Queen Juliana of the Netherlands, the richest women in the world at the time. (This was primarily due to her business partnership with Victor Rothschild’s Royal Dutch Shell Oil Co. and substantial stock held in Exxon). [1]
(left) A Young Dr. Joseph H. Retinger; (right) Prince Bernhard
As you can see already, the Rothschilds were in on the act right from the start, once again since it is they who have the overall control over the direction and flow of money.
Though the name “Bilderberg” comes from the Dutch hotel that hosted the first meeting in Oosterbeek, Holland, the German-born Prince had far less innocent beginnings as a card-carrying Nazi and member of the SS. Though he redeemed himself in the minds of many by being a stalwart fighter in the Dutch resistance, it seems he was chosen for his mind-set. Bernhard and his Bilderberg baby is credited with being the cradle of the European Community the ultimate goal of which was – surprise, surprise – a one world government and an Anglo-American empire dominating the globe. [2]
Prince Bernhard was keen to work for British Intelligence during the Second World War and although initially refused he was offered work at the Allied war planning councils. This may have been a cover story. There is little doubt that America’s CIA had a large part to play in the formation of the Bilderberg meetings. In 1952, the agency allegedly financed a trip for Joseph Retinger to persuade Prince Bernhard to form regular, unofficial meetings which would provide a place to solve the problems of the Atlantic community. Dr. Retinger thrashed out the details with his old buddies David Rockefeller, (CFR) Averill Harriman (Skull & Bones) and then director of the CIA Bedel Smith:
“… Retinger explained his proposal, Smith said, ‘Why the hell didn’t you come to me in the first place?’ He quickly referred Retinger to C. D. Jackson, who was about to become Eisenhower’s special assistant for psychological warfare. It took a while for Jackson to organize the American wing of the group, but finally, in May 1954, the first conference was held in the Hotel de Bilderberg, a secluded hotel in Holland, near the German border. Prince Bernhard, and Retinger drew up the list of invitees from the European countries, while Jackson controlled the American list.” [3]
As with most of the above groupings so far, a cross-fertilization of discussion takes place at regular meetings where geo-political policy is planned for the coming years. All the representatives from the usual spheres are present; the only difference being it has a distinctly European flavour, with an emphasis on Euro-banking. NATO representatives, “The Structural Adjustment Team,” of the IMF, World Bank and WTO, the Rothschilds and the Dutch Royal family’s Queen Beatrix are very regular members. Other attendees have included Bill Clinton, former UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown, Angela Merkel and the Goldman Sachs and Federal Reserve cartel as represented by Alan Greenspan, Ben Bernanke, Larry Summers and Tim Geithner. European Central Bank’s Jean-Claude Trichet, and Bank of England’s Mervyn King swap vol-au-vents with Lloyd Blankfein, George Soros, Donald Rumsfeld and Rupert Murdoch as just some of the luminaries who grace the Bilderberg meetings with their divine presence.
According Investigative journalist Daniel Estulin’s research, Steering Committee rules ensure that:
“… the invited guests must come alone; no wives, girlfriends, husbands or boyfriends. Personal assistants (meaning security, bodyguards, CIA or other secret service protectors) cannot attend the conference and must eat in a separate hall. The guests are explicitly forbidden from giving interviews to journalists or divulge anything that goes on in meetings.”
Estulin also states:
“Host governments provide overall security to keep away outsiders. One-third of attendees are political figures. The others are from industry, finance, academia, labor and communications. Meeting procedure is by Chatham House Rules letting attendees freely express their views in a relaxed atmosphere knowing nothing said will be quoted or revealed to the public. Meetings “are always frank, but do not always conclude with consensus.” [4]
There are numerous examples of Bilderberg influence greasing the wheels of progress for those they consider to be potentially useful in the achievement of their aims. Tony Blair was a Bilderberg attendee before becoming UK Prime Minister. Bill Clinton attended a meeting 1991 and made sure the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) took effect when he became President shortly after. NAFTA was a Bilderberg priority and Clinton, Establishment groomed, was considered a good choice to further their agenda. There are many others. Funding for the events is never a problem since several member organisations and companies willingly donate each year. Two of these regular contributors are Goldman Sacs and BP who financially assist the “charity” although since 2008 it has omitted the donator’s names from its accounts. [5]
Estulin is arguably the world’s expert on what is discussed at each year’s Bilderberg meetings. After 14 years of research based on what he calls “… the ‘conscientious objectors’ from inside, as well as outside the Group’s membership,” he has managed to garner a comprehensive picture of the perceptions and plans behind the Bilderberg Group and their aspirations for the world. The True Story of the Bilderberg Group shows convincingly that the suspicions of so-called “conspiracy theorists” are generally correct. Though some will find his breathless: “I’m-about-to bust-their-show-wide open-and-they’re-after-me” pitch a little too much to stomach the author has worked hard to prise open the inner workings of the group and should be commended for that, if not for the English text translations.
Estulin is convinced that the Bilderberg Group and its affiliated nodes are “a shadow world government” who are threatening to take away our right to direct our own destinies by creating “a disturbing reality” which is very far from the public interest. He writes: “Imagine a private club where presidents, prime ministers, international bankers and generals rub shoulders, where gracious royal chaperones ensure everyone gets along, and where the people running the wars, markets, and Europe (and America) say what they never dare say in public.” [6]
It seems at the very start of the Bilderberger project the idea was to build an “Aristocracy of purpose” between Europe and the United States in policy, economics, and strategy.” NATO was to ensure “perpetual war” and “nuclear blackmail” to keep the required fear quota at a premium and for geo-strategic bargaining chips. In David Rockefeller’s Memoirs (2002) he refers to both of these themes, stating: “Some even believe we are part of a secret cabal working against the best interests of the United States characterizing my family and me as ‘internationalists’ and conspiring with others around the world to build a more integrated global political and economic structure – one world, if you will. If that’s the charge, I stand guilty, and I am proud of it.” [7] You can’t fault Mr. Rockefeller for candour when it suits him. Yet, clearly, it much more than merely “a more integrated global political and economic structure” and “one world” as if you imply this is a fuss about nothing and quite natural and benign.
This rare glimpse of “honesty” doesn’t begin to address the institutional secrecy of which he is so “proud”. While these imperatives are set to continue to interfere in global decision-making it is because the Bilderbergers are very aware of both human psychology and the repercussions of the information Age that they will continue to work in secret. They know when information begins to leak progressively into the mass mind dots can be connected and a thinking population is the last thing they want.
In Estulin’s 2007 report – perhaps one of the most pertinent – he offers some possible trends on the energy scene and in particular oil, a resource that is deep interest to the Bilderbergers. He states: “From now on, the only sure thing is that supply will continue to diminish and prices will continue to increase. In these conditions world conflict is a physical certainty. End of oil means end of world’s financial system, something which has already been acknowledged by Wall Street Journal and the Financial Times, two full time members of the Bilderberger inner circle.”
Bilderberg Group leaked attendee list, Ottawa 2009. (click on the image to enlarge)
Whether the “end of oil” is a realistic prediction any time soon, the accessibility of oil reserves is certainly a question which is being asked in the meetings with increasing frequency. Estulin continues: “Goldman Sachs oil report, (another full time member of the Bilderberger elite) published on March 30, 2005 increased the oil price range for the year 2005-6 from $55-$80 per barrel to $55-$105. During the 2006 meeting, Bilderbergers have confirmed that their short range price estimate for oil for the 2007-08 continues to hover around US $105-150/barrel. … No wonder Jose Barroso, President of the European Commission, announced several months ago during the unveiling of the new European energy policy that the time has come for a ‘post-industrial age.’”
Which brings us to the main thrust of Bilderberger designs:
“ To bring the world into the post-industrial age, you first need to destroy the world’s economic base and create another Great Depression. When people are poor, they don’t spend money, they don’t travel, and they don’t consume.” [8]
While the “end of oil” and by implication the concept of “Peak oil” may be another instrument from the propaganda tool-kit, the war for resources from water to mineral deposits, oil to foodstuffs will play a large role in the coming conflicts. The “Order out of Chaos” theme can be seen over and over where society is broken and rebuilt, only to be broken and rebuilt again according to how much and how many can be exploited. Whether it is the First or Second World Wars, the balkanization of Iraq, the creation of Kosovo as a narco-state – all have this strategy in common.
Supreme confidence in the Olympian ideals is drawn from the probable high incidence of psychopathy within their ranks. If we strip away the rationalisations and ideological nonsense all that remains is a framework by which they can exert unlimited power and control.
Estulin’s discoveries regarding their objectives are paraphrased thusly:
““one international identity with one set of universal values;”
centralized management and direction of world populations by controlling world public opinion;
a New World Order with no middle class, only “rulers and servants (serfs),” and no democracy;
“a zero-growth society” without prosperity or progress, only greater wealth and power for the rulers;
The creation of “Union blocks” which will eventually be interlocked into one entity.
using the UN as a de facto world government imposing a UN tax on “world citizens;”
expanding NAFTA and WTO globally;
the world militarization of NATO;
imposing a universal legal system; and manufactured crises and perpetual wars;
absolute control of education to program the public mind and train those chosen for various roles;
“centralized control of all foreign and domestic policies;” one size fits all globally;
A global “welfare state where obedient slaves will be rewarded and non-conformists targeted for extermination.”
What is more, the vast influence that is brought to bear on global power-brokers and their goals is entirely illegal. Under United States law, the Logan Act states that it is against the law for federal officials to attend secret meetings with private citizens in order to develop public policies. (The same principle applies in the UK). Therefore, when US officials have attended Bilderberg meetings, they were breaking federal laws of the United States. As online journalist Jerry mazza reminds us at the 2005 Bilderberg meeting : “… the American government was well represented in Rottach-Egern by Alan Hubbard, assistant to the president for economic policy and director of the National Economic Council; William Luti, Deputy Under Secretary of Defence; James Wolfensohn, outgoing president of the World Bank and Paul Wolfowitz, deputy secretary of state, an ideologue of the Iraq War and incoming president of the World Bank.” [9]
Bilderberg 2013 Conference took place at the Grove Hotel, Watford, UK
The corporate media still refuses to cover the Bilderberg meetings except for the occasional piece by more independent journalists such as the Guardian’s Charlie Skelton. Generally, the meetings remain unknown by the majority. Like the CFR’s total control over the American media CNN, CBS, ABC and other media giants continue to control and filter everything that passes as news to the general public. Many Bilderberg attendees are journalists and newspaper editors who push the required propaganda while agreeing to keep silent about the groups meetings.
The closely aligned Rockefeller family has managed to rapidly exert incredible power over socio-cultural, economic and political discourse in both the US and the UK. It is worthwhile reminding ourselves once again of another example of David Rockefeller’s soul-bearing in this context where he expresses his gratitude to: “… the Washington Post, the New York Times, Time and other great publications whose directors have attended our meetings and respected their promises of discretion for almost 40 years.” And here we have the truth laid bare, when he states: …It would have been impossible for us to develop our plan for the world if we had been subjected to the lights of publicity during those years. But, the world is more sophisticated now and prepared to march towards a world government. The supranational sovereignty of an intellectual elite and world bankers is surely preferable to the national auto determination practiced in past centuries.” [10] It is the self-proclaimed status as demi-God that characterizes the present breed of psychopaths convinced of their own special “auto-determination” outside the destiny of normal peoples. Bilderbergers, Trilateralists and CFR members want an all-encompassing and preferably eternal monopoly over every aspect of our lives – that is the endgame.
The UN is busy doing its level best to provide them with that mechanism under a document called “Geneva Centre for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces (DCAF)” policy paper No. 24. This may as well have been written by the hand of Rockefeller himself for in this little-known paper we can read how “Governance solutions for reasserting the state monopoly on the use of force” and a helpful, altruistic listing of the options available to governments to re-establish “monopolies of force” against their own people:
(Re-) establish state monopoly – Ownership of WMDs – Safety Inspectorates
Prohibit business activity – Justice and Execution – Deadly Force?
Regulate/limit activities – Private defence/security services, Control of financial transfers – Export controls – Transport and infrastructure safety – Environmental impact
What is more: “The legitimate monopoly of force should not be limited to the nation-state but should be based on the local, national, regional and the global levels.” And further: “At the global level no monopoly of violence exists. The UN Security Council already has a monopoly power to authorize the use of force at the global level, although the UN was never given the necessary means to exercise this authority, such as the capacity to implement sanctions, a police force and armed forces… This deficiency in global governance acts as a bottleneck and a barrier to the creation of the democratically legitimized monopoly of violence that is globally required.” [11]
See also: The Dark Green series exploring “Eco-Fascism” and “Eco-Intelpro”.
[1] Queen Juliana: The Story Of The Richest Woman In The World, by William Hoffman, Published by Angus and Robertson, 1980 | ASIN: B000UI94JK.
[2] See: H. R. H. Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands: an authorized biography by Alden Hatch. Published by Harrap, 1962.
[3] The Chairman: John J. McCloy – The Making of the American Establishment, by Kai Bird, Published by Simon & Schuster, 1992.
[4] op. cit. Estulin (p.25)
[5] Applications listed in the Charity Commission annual records: http://www.apps.charitycommission.gov.uk/Accounts/Ends06/0000272706_AC_20080331_E_C.PDF
[7] Memoirs By David Rockefeller, Published by Random House, 1st Trade Ed edition, 2002. ISBN-10: 0679405887 (p. 490).
[8] ‘Bilderberg 2007: Welcome to the Lunatic Fringe’, by Daniel Estulin DanielEstulin.com, May 21, 2007.
[9] ‘I’ll have the Bilderberger, well done!’, by Jerry Mazza Online Journal, Nov 9, 2007.
[10] Quoted from Bilderberg/Trilateral meeting in 1991 in Baden Baden, Germany. (See Daniel Estulin.)
[11] Geneva Centre for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces (DCAF) Occasional Paper – № 24 ‘The Privatisation of Security in Failing States – A Quantitative Assessment’ By Željko Branović, Geneva, April 2011.
Posted in Corporatism, Economics / Economic Collapse, Establishment / Elite, Psychology, Psychopathy, Social Engineering and tagged Anglo-American Establishment, banking, Bilderberg Group (BG), British Intelligence, CIA, David Rockefeller, European Commission, George Soros, House of Rothschild, IMF, Iraq, Kosovo, NAFTA, NATO, Nazism, New World Order, perpetual war, Prince Bernard of the Netherlands, Round Table Movement, Royal Dutch Shell Oil Co., Royal Institute of International Affairs (RIIA), Royalty, Rupert Murdoch, Skull & Bones, Structural Adjustment Team, Tony Blair, United Nations, war, World Bank, world government on January 23, 2015 by M.K. Styllinski. Leave a comment
Puppets & Players VI: Council on Foreign Relations
“The near monopoly of power once enjoyed by sovereign entities is being eroded … states must be prepared to cede some sovereignty to world bodies … Globalization thus implies that sovereignty is not only becoming weaker in reality, but that it needs to become weaker … The goal should be to redefine sovereignty for the era of globalization, to find a balance between a world of fully sovereign states and an international system of either world government or anarchy.”
–– Richard Haas CFR President February 12 2006.
Professor Carroll Quigley described in Tragedy and Hope the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) as “… the American Branch of a society which originated in England [and] believes national boundaries should be obliterated and one-world rule established.” [1]The founding members of CFR were some of the same members involved in the creation of the Federal Reserve System in 1913 and the Round Table movement of Cecil Rhodes and Lord Alfred Milner. Many members were drawn from the emerging Military-Industrial complex, incorporating the fresh young blood of the intelligence apparatus of the US government. The CIA’s Allen Dulles and John Foster Dulles had both been at the Paris Peace conference along with so many other world government enthusiasts and were founding members of the CFR. Allen Dulles became a member of CFR in 1926 and later its president. His brother John Foster, an in-law of the Rockefellers, Chairman of the Board of the Rockefeller Foundation, and Board Chairman of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace was well placed for CFR steerage by the time he was Secretary of State under President Eisenhower. From a 1993 Annual report: “The Council on Foreign Relations is a non-profit, and nonpartisan membership organization dedicated to improving the understanding of US foreign policy, and international affairs through the exchange of ideas.”
This is vague enough to encompass almost any ideological and political persuasion while giving the impression of unsullied innocence. True to its Round Table origins its actual objectives are to forge a centralised system of global government based on an inter-locking financial and corporate architecture policed by a world Army. As Senator Earnest Hollings of South Carolina bluntly put it for the Congressional Record, June 30, of the same year: “If you ever run for President, you get very wonderful, embossed invitations from the Council on Foreign Relations and the Trilateral Commission, and you get the coffee and fine china, and, man, you are really a high muckety-muck. And then what they do is get you to swear on the altar of free trade an undying loyalty and support—free trade, free trade. That is all they want. And they co-opt every one of these young Senators that want to run for President.” [2]
Today, CFR membership is made up of presidents past and present, Secretaries of State, Wall Street investors, Joint Chiefs of Staff, international bankers, executives, ambassadors, think-tank executives, lobbyists, lawyers, NATO officiandos, Pentagon military leaders, Establishment press, media owners, academics, novelists, entertainers, university presidents, senators, and Congressmen, Supreme Court Justices, Federal Judges, and rich businessmen of every creed and colour. An ex-CFR member who seemed to wake up to the reality of what the organisation was promoting was former Judge Advocate General of the U.S. Navy, Retired Navy Admiral Chester Ward who wrote a scathing critique of CFR stating that their objective is the: “… submergence of U. S. sovereignty and national independence into an all-powerful one-world government…” [3]
The overriding principles of a world government that would be based on the Chinese template of communist world state or world government and capitalist economy is still the dream of the CFR globalists as it was with J.D. Rockefeller. In 1962 a study titled, A World Effectively Controlled by the United Nations, CFR member Lincoln Bloomfield states: “… if the communist dynamic was greatly abated, the West might lose whatever incentive it has for world government.” And of course, in order to achieve world government and its interlocking “unions” it is necessary to dispense with the idea of sovereignty, economic or otherwise. The CFR members espouse just such a directive for their brand of globalisation.In April 1974, former U. S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State, Trilateralist and CFR member Richard Gardner published an article in the CFR’s Foreign Affairs entitled: ‘The Hard Road to World Order’ in which he declared: “… the ‘house of world order’ will have to be built from the bottom up rather than from the top down … but an end run around national sovereignty, eroding it piece by piece, will accomplish much more than the old-fashioned frontal assault.”
Screen shots from the film clip: Council on Foreign Relations
The usual suspects crop up again and again …
Since the creation of the Office of Secretary of Defence in 1947, 14 DoD secretaries have been CFR members. Since 1940, every Secretary of State, except James Byrnes, has been a CFR member and/or a member of the Trilateral Commission. Equally, for the past 80 years, almost every key US National Security and Foreign Policy Advisor has been a member. The majority of top generals and admirals and many former presidential candidates were/are CFR, including Herbert Hoover, Adlai Stevenson, Dwight Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter (and TC member), George HW Bush, Bill Clinton, John Kerry, and John McCain.
CIA directors were/are CFR, including Richard Helms, James Schlesinger, William Casey, William Webster, Robert Gates, James Woolsey, John Deutsch, George Tenet, Porter Goss, Michael Hayden, and Leon Panetta. Many Treasury Secretaries were/are also in the Club such as Douglas Dillon, George Schultz, William Simon, James Baker, Nicholas Brady, Lloyd Bentsen, Robert Rubin, Henry Paulson, and Tim Geithner. [4]
Virtually everyone who has held a position at the US administrative level in the US has been a member of the CFR. Some past and present members include: David Rockefeller, Thomas Foley, Jeane Kirkpatrick, Paul A. Volcker, Prince Edward, Prince Charles of Wales, Madeleine K. Albright, Robert S. McNamara, Zbigniew Brzezinski, George H.W. Bush, Donald E. Graham, Henry A. Kissinger, Richard N. Perle, George Soros, Lawrence H. Summers, John D. Rockefeller IV. Bankers, Alan Greenspan, and World Bank President Robert Zoellick. Secretaries of State Henry Kissinger, Condoleezza Rice, Hillary Clinton. MSM CFR includes Katie Couric, Bill Moyers, Diane Sawyer, Tom Brokaw as well as foreign heads of state Mikhail Gorbachev, Benyamin Netanyahu and Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe and even the Dalai Lama. Corporate membership spans most of the Fortune 500 companies such as BP, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, Google, Merck, NASDAQ, Pfizer and VISA.
One only has to take a look at the Council on Foreign Relations website to see that it has developed a sophisticated propaganda machine. Simply read the associated blogs and you’ll get an immediate flavour of what their objectives are all about. Unlike Le Cercle or Skull & Bones and occult groupings, this is indeed an open conspiracy. They are happy to court those in the entertainment business who usually have a very superficial understanding of Anglo-American designs but nevertheless due to their mass appeal and willingness to feed their egos and perceived social conscience, promote highly simplistic “solutions” while admirably serving the hidden interests of their backers.Actors such as George Clooney and Angelina Jolie are a case in point, the latter having become a satisfied CFR member last year and is busy doing her best to promote the organisation’s principles. She has very broad social appeal and represents quite a coup for the media focused think-tank.
To that end, social engineering and “information dominance” through the world’s media is essential part of CFR operations and has always played a major part in the shaping the minds of both old and new members so they may in turn, mould the public mind. As Quigley mentions: “The American branch of this ‘English Establishment’ exerted much of its influence through five American newspapers (The New York Times, New York Herald Tribune, Christian Science Monitor, the Washington Post, and the lamented Boston Evening News).” The RAND Corporation is most closely associated with the group and its expertise in PSYOPS is routinely used by a various members of the American Establishment and their promotional arms; from the internet to carefully stage-managed media press conferences. [5]
Most importantly for the CFR and other groups, the decision to infiltrate the left-wing and liberal leaning political movements as far back as 1917 by Round Table and J.P Morgan agents proved hugely important as the MSM evolved. Wall St. was a vital component in the placing of editors and staff amenable to their vision. A Congressional record verifies this fact from statements made by Congressman Oscar Callaway who stated: “… the J.P. Morgan [banking] interests …. and their subsidiary organizations got together 12 men high up in the newspaper world and employed them to select the most influential newspapers in the United States and sufficient number of them to control generally the policy of the daily press of the US … They found it was only necessary to purchase the control of 25 of the greatest papers. … an editor was furnished for each paper to properly supervise and edit information …” [6] Quigley observes that the“… purpose was not to destroy … or take over but was really threefold:
(1) to keep informed about the thinking of Left-wing or liberal groups;
(2) to provide them with a mouthpiece so that they could “blow off steam,” and
(3) to have a final veto on their publicity and possibly on their actions, if they ever went “radical.” [7]
Sociologist Hadley Cantril wrote in his 1967 book The Human Dimension – Experiences in Policy Research: “Psycho-political operations are propaganda campaigns designed to create perpetual tension and to manipulate different groups of people to accept the particular climate of opinion the CFR seeks to achieve in the world.” They have been supremely successful in doing just that. Their policy of non-attribution where nothing that is said in public contradicts their message of openness and transparency as does their numerous secret meetings not open to the public. Twenty years ago, the CFR was relatively unknown. Now, with the information age, there is much greater awareness, which is why its slick media campaigns are highly sophisticated in order to match the changing times.
See also: Behind the Big News: Propaganda and the CFR and The Mainstream Media (MSM)
[1] pp.951-952; Quigley, Carroll, Tragedy and Hope (1966)
[2] Senator Earnest Hollings (D) of South Carolina, Congressional Record, June 30, 1993, S8315.
[3] CFR Annual Report 1993-1994.
[4] The True Story of the Bilderberg Group By Daniel Estulin. Published by Trine Day, 2nd edition 2009. | ISBN-10: 0979988624.
[5] op. cit. Quigley The Anglo-American Establishment (1981).
[6] Congressman Oscar Callaway statements were included in the Congressional Record, vol. 54, February 9, 1917, p. 2947.
[7] op. cit. Quigley (1966)
Posted in Banksters, Corporatism, Establishment / Elite and tagged Allen Dulles, Capitalism, Carroll Quigley, China, CIA, Communism, Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), Information Dominance, J.P. Morgan, Mainstream Media, NATO, PSYOPS, RAND Corporation, Rockefeller Foundation, Round Table Movement, Skull & Bones, United Nations, world government on January 23, 2015 by M.K. Styllinski. Leave a comment
Puppets & Players I
“What differentiates a sociopath who lives off the labors of others from one who occasionally robs convenience stores, or from one who is a contemporary robber baron – or what makes the difference between an ordinary bully and a sociopathic murderer – is nothing more than social status, drive, intellect, blood lust, or simple opportunity What distinguishes all of these people from the rest of us is an utterly empty hole in the psyche, where there should be the most evolved of all humanizing functions.”
– Dr. Martha Stout, “The Sociopath Next Door”
“To give you some idea of the enormity of the problem that faces us, consider that there are at least 2 million psychopaths in North America; the citizens of New York City have as many as 100,000 psychopaths among them. And these are conservative estimates. Far from being an esoteric, isolated problem that affects only a few people, psychopathy touches virtually every one of us. Consider that the prevalence of psychopathy in our society is about the same as that of schizophrenia, a devastating mental disorder that brings heart-wrenching distress to patient and family alike. However, the scope of the personal pain and distress associated with schizophrenia is small compared to the extensive personal, social and economic carnage wrought by psychopaths. They cast a wide net, and nearly everyone is caught in it one way or another.”
Dr. Robert Hare, “Without Conscience”
Moloch of Totalitarianism – A Memorial dedicated to the victims of totalitarian regimes. Situated at Levashovo, Saint Petersburg, Russia. (wikipedia)
Perhaps all the empires of ancient and modern history were test runs for the psychopath; the ebb and flow of their rule as valuable cycles to hone their skills in understanding the curious majority of humanity who harbour conscience and creativity.
Pathocracy has been fleshed out under a variety of names most notably the New World Order, Globalisation, World State and the Last Great Empire. Total world domination amusingly popularised by James Bond villains and countless mercurial, dark-cloaked figures cackling at their own despotic genius simply harks back to a very real and ancient archetype of evil, tenaciously holding onto the long-term prize of absolute control by the select few.
The question is not whether the psychopath’s dream of ultimate control will succeed because we know it will not since the very nature of entropy means that it must eventually collapse. The concern is how much chaos they will stimulate during their deluded rise to omnipotence and whether or not we can modify and ameliorate the worst of its effects. To outwit the anti-humans we cannot become like them which is what they would heartily wish. We must learn to know their ways just as thoroughly as they know ours. We must start with plumbing the depths of their evil by comprehending that there is literally no limit for the psychopath, no depths to which he will not stoop to achieve his ends and no reasoning which might persuade him to give up.
Our first realisation is that the psychopath blends in with normal human beings in order to fit in. Once this is accomplished the institutional and ceremonial (occult) psychopaths set about subverting them. Meantime, he goes about his business unnoticed and unhindered, often seen as a trusted pillar of the community. As masters of mimicry and manipulation, he can insinuate himself into groups, organisations and institutions. His – or her – charisma, cold efficiency and fearless demeanour can serve to short-circuit the intuitions of his normal associates who might sense that something is “off.” However, when the dopamine and serotonin are flowing, critical faculties are replaced by wishful thinking and the projection of our values and conscience takes place and it is then that psychopath knows that he has us in the palm of his hand.
Official Culture is designed to deify the alpha male and the femme-fatale so that competitive dominance of the lowest instincts continues to appeal to the lowest yardstick of human aspiration. Who could believe that such a dynamic philanthropist and family man could be nothing more than a reaction-machine seeking to feed? Yet, you will find their footprints – known or unknown – in the blood of all the atrocities, genocides, wrong-doings and pointless wars throughout history. No historian will mention such a repeating pattern; no social scientist will attribute this to the presence of the psychopath endlessly doing “what he wilt,” safe in the knowledge of human ignorance.
Nothing is more useful to the psychopath than the mantle of the holy or just. Our incredulity is his most effective weapon for the continuance of emotional and physical carnage. Psychologist Dr. Andrew Łobaczewski mentions that when a suitable ground has been laid for ponerological influences to seed: “… one kind of evil feeds and opens doors for others regardless of any individual or doctrinal motivations.” Once the psychopath has been invited in, due primarily to a lack of psychological knowledge, it is almost impossible to prevent the fulfilment of his desires. Łobaczewski further states: “Since pathological factors are present within the syntheses of most instances of evil, they are also present in its continuum.” [1]
Hence the problem of our hamster-wheel of repeating lessons where the most vulnerable continually suffer.
When psychopaths rule society, their worldview is inevitably expressed to the detriment of us all. And because deceit is the means by which they enforce their will, it appears to be humane and eminently logical because we are not used to encountering such bare-faced lies and deception. In front of the psychopathic personality our ability to think critically is severely curtailed, thus paramoralisms, paralogical discourse and “doublethink” becomes institutionalised so that ethics and morality are steadily inverted eventually signifying the exact opposite of their original meaning. The spread of pathological disease follows the same vacuum, until: “The actions of this phenomenon affect an entire society, starting with the leaders and infiltrating every village, small town, factory, business, or farm. The pathological social structure gradually covers the entire country, creating a ‘new class’ within the nation. This privileged class of deviants feels permanently threatened by the ‘others.’” [2]
This time, instead of the Jews, Poles, gypsies and homosexuals – we are ALL in the psychopaths’ sights.
The Three Establishment Model (3EM)
Frequent mention of the word “Establishment” has been made in this series and it is time to look at its internal constituents. Although differing in methods and ideological roots, there are many groups and sub-factions seeking to herd humanity, all of whom are defined by the principles of neo-feudalism as a common objective. Whether it is Chabad Lubavitch or the Council on Foreign Relations, all believe in an ideal which encompasses occult, religious, corporate and military objectives and which guarantees some order of Elite rule over the mass of humanity. Isn’t that inevitable? Isn’t a certain amount of autocracy necessary? Not one our social systems are pathologically compromised and when both lead to and from each other.
In order to make at least a partial attempt at making sense of where all these players are on the field of psychopathy, talented Dutch researcher Joël van der Reijden of the Study of Globalisation and Covert Politics has made and excellent structural contribution and it is from this that the following information is largely based. (You can find a mirror site now taken on by WikiSpooks here)
Reijden has created the template of a “Three Establishment Model” (3EM) which comprises of three major lines of force dominant in the world today, each of which has an ideology and belief system which stretches back centuries. These are Liberal, Conservative and Zionist each of which has a complex set of sub-groups, linked in common purpose though experiencing varying degrees of harmony or friction. Due to their close religious and political aims the United States and Europe are combined. The category boundaries are more blurred than they may appear, with all the groups and sub-groups working with each other when expedient.
I have used my own template from the same source information and with minor additions of my own below. This is obviously not a definitive version since no one can really know the nature of this occult body as it uses convenient proxy organisations and committees to act as vehicles for its social engineering which then filter into public life, with various degrees of success. It is probable that this upper most occult body has very few members indeed.
Source: M.K. Styllinski PDF notes.
Magnification of Round Table Movement and Rothschild origins within Anglo-American/Liberal Establishment
The Liberal Establishment comprises the Anglo-American / Venetian Nobility with their spheres of influence predominantly focused within banking and commerce. British royalty, The Bank of England, The House of Rothschild, The Federal Reserve cartel, Goldman Sacs, JP Morgan Chase and Rockefeller-Kissinger interests are also to be found in this grouping. Round Table membership, The Royal Institute for International Affairs, Trilateral Commission, Bilderberg Grp. and Council on Foreign Relations are also here busy thinking ahead to the incremental deployment of their plans, perhaps more than 100 years in advance. (Yes, that’s right). One World Religion, New Age CoIntelpro and liberal-collectivist networks which have initiated so much social engineering are also to be found within this section. All have strong links to Freemasonic European occultism. Hundreds of NGOs under the umbrella of the United Nations derive their support and succour from this model with George Schultz’s Bechtel corporatism promoting Arab oil interests as the focus rather than Israeli expansionism. Eco-fascism and the 1001 Club while present, has a stronger connection to the Conservative Model, many of whom hold in disdain the gradualist, progressive and New Age elements.
Diplomacy over pre-emptive strike is preferred but the corporate fascism is exactly the same as the Conservative model. Most of the key members are found within The Pilgrim’s Society. The type of envisaged totalitarianism is Huxleyian / Fabian rather than Leninist / Orwellian in that social engineering is driven by developing a sensate culture that will be “Amused to Death” witht symptoms of Stockholm syndrome, where authority is exercised through dumbing down and Pavlonian pleasure techniques which delivers long-term servitude through proffered lifestyles of leisure and pleasure and which come to define individual and collective reality. The Technocratic-Google-based PR and transhumanist ethos is very much a part of this model and the emphasis on SMART/Sustainable Development.
Although essential psychopathy is clustered across the whole of the 3EM, we might venture to say that there is a predominance of pathological narcissists, schizoidal and aesthenic psychopaths or the more mentally polarized types of psychopathy found here.
The Conservative Establishment might best be summed up by the famous Statement of Dwight Eisenhower who warned against the uncontrolled power of the “defence establishment” or “military-industrial complex.” The military has a large undercurrent of occult and religious fascism sourced largely from the Nazi-nexus of Pentagon-CIA and Vatican influences most notably from Operation PAPERCLIP, ODESSA and the Rat Lines during and after the Second World War. Contained within Vatican and Synarchist objectives is the most secretive group: Le Cercle (The Circle) who represents the most fascist elements within European geo-politics via NATO and CIA–MI6 intelligence. Historically working with many fascist regimes of the past, Le Cercle is known for its protection of European child rape networks to drugs and arms running in Africa and Saudi Arabia. Sir Julian Amery was a powerful intermediary of Le Cercle liaising between 100 Club, the Safari Club, Round Table and Rothschild interests.
The Pan-European Synarchists also have an enormous influence in both politics and freemasonry. The American Security Council, National Security Apparatus, Police State crackdowns, and the emergence of Zionism working with Neo-Conservatism define the aggressive short-term strategies of this model. Due to the predominance of right wing religious authoritarianism there will be a high incidence of essential psychopaths and social dominators on the frontlines. Generally, this is the brutish, Leninist version of collectivism and Mussolini’s definition of fascism as corporatism that uses immediate crushing force to achieve its ends.
The loss of human and civil rights, the rise of Big Brother surveillance within the US and Europe are formulated in this model, though there are obvious ties across the 3EM as a whole. The Cult of the CIA and links to MI6 Synarchist factions are key in the continuation of the “War on Terror” and false–flag attacks with an uneasy assistance from the MOSSAD spy-network. Major child abuse networks of a non-ritual or occult ritualistic nature are found in all models but particularly prominent in Conservatism. Knights of Malta and Opus Dei express their designs within the Vatican Pan-European Networks with the late Otto von Habsburg, a traditional fascist, the last crown prince of the Vatican-allied Austro Hungarian Empire as a key mover and shaker. According to Reijden: “Its primary interest has been the resurrection of the Holy Roman Empire by manipulating the European Union, although this agenda has met with stiff resistance from the Liberal Establishment.”
The Zionist Establishment has a Jewish socio-cultural platform in both Israel and America. It has a most effective 5th column which has been ensconced within successive US administrations (fiscal and defence departments) further complemented by an Israeli Lobby and the Ultra-Right wing, Messianic cult of Chabad Lubavitch at the highest levels of US politics.
Thanks to the advanced techniques and know-how of MOSSAD intelligence and American Zionism channelled through corporate and banking families established since the turn of the last century, the power of Israel’s political and economic leverage is considerable. Propaganda and lobbying are given particularly large teeth through media outlets which are designed to be sympathetic to Israeli policies over Palestinian human rights. Israel is also a destination and transfer hub for drugs and human trafficking via the Jewish-Russian Mafia which has its home in Russia (much to the Chagrin of Putin) the US and Israel acting as the biggest and most extensive International mafia organization. Though with far less think-tanks and organisations, the web of interconnected assets within both MOSSAD and American-Jewish sayanim networks makes the Zionist Establishment models one of the most far-reaching, complex and coercive methods of mass control in the world today.
Of course, the House of Rothschild empire has made its purpose to act as the primary financier of the Three Model Establishment and as such, has an unassailable position with the ever-present, latent animosity toward their Gentile comrades within the ruling Elite branches. They have their fingers in every possible monetary pie with older members of the board liasing with high level members of MOSSAD who is alleged to be involved with an Occult Zionism based on the black magick principles of the Babylonian Talmud and Kabbalah.
The Western tradition of freemasonic Illuminism / Rosicrucianism and its relationship to Occult Zionism is purely in the realms of even more speculation. My hunch is that the two paths are largely separate but come together in some form higher up within the small capstone of the overall pyramid – the Global Occult Body itself.
[1] p. 132; Łobaczewski; Political Ponerology.
Posted in Corporatism, Establishment / Elite, Occult, Police State, Psychology, Psychopathy, Religion, Social Engineering, War, Zionism and tagged 1001 Club, Bechtel, British royalty, Chabad Lubavitch, CIA, Dwight Eisenhower, Federal Reserve, Freemasonry, Goldman Sacs, Henry Kissinger, inverted totalitarianism, Israeli lobby, JP Morgan Chase, Le Cercle, MI6, Mossad, NATO, Orwellian, Pilgrims Society, psychopath, Psychopathy, Rockefellers, Round Table, Russian-Jewish Mafia, Safari Club, Synarchy, The Bank of England, Three Establishment Model (3EM), totalitarianism on May 5, 2014 by M.K. Styllinski. 3 Comments
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line7651
|
__label__wiki
| 0.755444
| 0.755444
|
PDF Reefvts User Manual v2
Diunggah oleh Ngaire Taylor
Information helpful in getting a Boat Licence in Queensland Australia
simpanSimpan PDF Reefvts User Manual v2 Untuk Nanti
Solas 2012 Ammend Ments
Unit 2 Regulatory Agencies.pptx 13.1.15
LT116_2014_11_The Impact of Shipping Accidents on Marine Environment
IMO OPRC Model Training Course
En Iron Mental Risk and Beyond Compliance for LPG Ship Operation
GMDSS Abbreviations
Ross 500dsc Vhf
PSC Checklist
SafetyDigest
Technical Regulatory News No 05 2019 Web8
Form SSCec Bolak Balik
Iims Hnc Hnd Unit13 Version1
Test 3 Traveller B2
Nautical Terms
American P&I Recent Incidents of Piracy in Gulf of Aden and Bab-el-Mandeb 2017_06.pdf
PSC Preparedness and Response Training
Waterway Guidelines 2011_tcm224-320740
jue87 turkısh kullanım.pdf
The mariner is cautioned that information provided by REEFVTS is to a large extent based upon
reports provided by vessels and can be no more accurate than the information received.
REEFVTS may not be aware of all hazardous situations within the region. The mariner can encounter
unreported hazards at any time. Any conflicting situations or hazardous conditions should be
reported to REEFVTS immediately.
The master of a vessel remains at all times responsible for the manner in which the vessel is
operated and manoeuvred, and is responsible for the safe navigation of the vessel under all
Nothing in this manual is intended to relieve any vessel, owner, operator, charterer, master, or
person directing the movement of a vessel from the consequences of any failure to comply with any
applicable law or regulation or of any neglect of precaution which may be required by the ordinary
practice of seamanship, or by the special circumstances of the case.
Contact for enquiries and proposed changes
If you have any questions regarding this document or if you have a suggestion for improvements,
REEFVTS Manager, REEFVTS
Hay Point Operations Centre C/- Maritime Safety Queensland
Tel: 61 7 4956 3581 or GPO Box 2595
Fax: 61 7 4956 3367 Brisbane Qld 4001
Email: reefvts@rcs1.amsa.gov.au Email: neil.trainor@amsa.gov.au
Publishing Details
First published December 2004
Second Edition March 2005
Maritime Safety Queensland & Australian Maritime Safety Authority
REEFVTS User Manual 2
1 User Definitions...................................................................................................... 1
2 Purpose and Intent ................................................................................................. 2
3 Great Barrier Reef and Torres Strait Vessel Traffic Service (REEFVTS) .................... 3
3.1 Introduction...................................................................................................................3
3.2 REEFVTS Area................................................................................................................3
3.3 Competent Authority .....................................................................................................4
3.4 Administration...............................................................................................................4
3.5 Mandatory Reporting Requirements............................................................................4
3.5.1 Ships required to report to REEFVTS........................................................................................... 4
3.5.2 Warships, Naval Auxiliaries and Government ships .................................................................. 4
3.6 Reporting Offences .......................................................................................................5
4 Services Provided................................................................................................... 6
4.1 Ship Traffic Information................................................................................................6
4.1.1 Receiving Ship Traffic Information .............................................................................................. 7
4.2 Navigational Assistance................................................................................................8
4.3 Maritime Safety Information (MSI) ...............................................................................8
5 Communication with REEFVTS................................................................................ 9
5.1 Vessel Operating Requirements...................................................................................9
5.2 Primary Communications..............................................................................................9
5.2.1 Inmarsat C...................................................................................................................................... 9
5.2.2 VHF Communications.................................................................................................................... 9
5.3 Alternative Communications ..................................................................................... 10
5.4 AIS............................................................................................................................... 11
6 Ship Reporting Obligations ................................................................................... 12
6.1 Pre-Entry Position Report........................................................................................... 12
6.2 Entry Report ............................................................................................................... 13
6.3 Route Plan.................................................................................................................. 14
6.3.1 Standard Route Plan................................................................................................................... 14
6.3.2 Mandatory Reporting Points ...................................................................................................... 15
6.3.3 Waypoints..................................................................................................................................... 15
6.4 Mandatory Reporting Points - Interaction with REEFVTS ......................................... 16
6.5 Route Deviation Report.............................................................................................. 16
6.6 Intermediate Position Reports................................................................................... 17
6.7 Defect Report ............................................................................................................. 17
6.8 Final Report................................................................................................................ 18
6.9 Summary of REEFVTS Reports .................................................................................. 19
7 Standard Route Plans........................................................................................... 21
7.1 Ships transiting the Inner Route................................................................................ 21
7.1.1 Inner Route - Deep Draught ....................................................................................................... 22
7.1.2 Inner Route - Moderate Draught................................................................................................ 23
7.1.3 Inner Route - Shallow Draught ................................................................................................... 24
7.2 Inner Route Chartlets................................................................................................. 25
7.3 Vessels transiting the Great North East (GNE) Channel........................................... 29
7.4 Great North East (GNE) Channel Chartlet ................................................................. 30
Edition Page 1
1 User Definitions
AIS Automatic Identification System
AMSA Australian Maritime Safety Authority established by the Australian Maritime
Safety Authority Act 1990
APR Automated Position Reporting via Inmarsat C
AUSREP means the Australian Ship Reporting System established under Division 14
of Part IV of the Navigation Act
Chemical tanker means a ship to which the BCH or IBC Code referred to in Marine Orders,
Part 17 (Liquefied Gas Carriers and Chemical Tankers) applies
Combination carrier means a ship designed to carry either oil or solid cargoes in bulk
IMO International Maritime Organization
IMN Inmarsat Mobile Number
Length of tow means the distance between the stern of the towing vessel and the after
end of the tow
Liquefied gas
means a ship to which the EGC, GC or IGC Code referred to in Marine
Orders, Part 17 (Liquefied Gas Carriers and Chemical Tankers) applies
MSI Maritime Safety Information
MSQ Maritime Safety Queensland
Navigation Act means the Navigation Act 1912
Oil tanker means:
(a) a ship constructed or adapted primarily to carry oil in bulk as cargo; or
(b) a combination carrier when it is carrying oil in bulk as cargo; or
(c) a chemical tanker when it is carrying oil in bulk as cargo; or
(d) any other ship fitted with cargo spaces which are constructed and used
to carry oil in bulk of an aggregate capacity of 200 cubic metres or more.
Overall length in relation to a ship, means the distance between:
(a) a vertical line passing through a point that is the foremost part of the
stem; and
(b) a vertical line passing through a point that is the aftermost part of the
stern; except that if the overall length of the ship cannot be so ascertained,
the overall length is taken to be 110 per cent of the length as shown on
the ships load-line certificate.
REEFREP means the mandatory ship reporting system established by IMO Resolution
MSC.52(66), as amended by Resolution MSC.161(78), and specified in
Marine Orders, Part 56 (REEFVTS) Issue 2.
REEFVTS The Great Barrier Reef and Torres Strait Vessel Traffic Service (REEFVTS)
established by Australia as a means of enhancing navigational safety and
environmental protection in Torres Strait and the Great Barrier Reef.
SEI Ship Encounter Information
STI Ship Traffic Information (includes SEI and MSI)
VTS Vessel Traffic Service
VTSO Vessel Traffic Service Operator
2 Purpose and Intent
This manual is intended to provide users of the Great Barrier Reef and Torres Strait Vessel
Traffic Service (REEFVTS) with information to assist them in optimising the service
provided. For vessels subject to the mandatory ship reporting system within the area, the
manual serves to aid the shipmasters reporting obligations.
This manual is not intended to replace or alter any legislative requirements imposed by the
Navigation Act 1912 in any respect to waters within the REEFVTS Area. Any apparent
conflict between the manual and relevant legislation should be resolved in favour of the
respective legislation.
Vessel traffic services provide the mariner with information relating to safe navigation in a
waterway. This information, coupled with the mariner's compliance with regulations,
guidelines and instructions, enhances the safe passage of vessels through congested
waterways or waterways with particular hazards. Under certain circumstances, a Vessel
Traffic Service Operator (VTSO) may initiate interaction with an individual ship and provide
other information available to REEFVTS that may assist on-board decision-making. This
may include circumstances where information suggests a ship may be standing into
shallow water (e.g. in areas of restricted navigation where there is radar coverage) or
deviating from a recommended route.
The master of a vessel remains at all times responsible for the manner in which the vessel
is operated and manoeuvred, and is responsible for the safe navigation of the vessel under
all circumstances.
Nothing in this manual is intended to relieve any vessel, owner, operator, charterer,
master, or person directing the movement of a vessel from the consequences of any
failure to comply with any applicable law or regulation or of any neglect of precaution which
may be required by the ordinary practice of seamanship, or by the special circumstances of
the case.
3 Great Barrier Reef and Torres Strait Vessel Traffic
Service (REEFVTS)
The environmental and cultural significance of the Great Barrier Reef (GBR) and Torres
Strait region are nationally and internationally renowned. The protection of the
outstanding natural qualities of the region was enhanced with the establishment of the
Great Barrier Reef Marine Park in 1975. It was inscribed on the World Heritage List in
1981, and was designated by the International Maritime Organization (IMO) as the worlds
first Particularly Sensitive Sea Areas in 1990.
In 1996, REEFREP was established as an interactive mandatory ship reporting system
which, in accordance with the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea
(SOLAS) Chapter V regulation 8-1, that was formally adopted by the IMO under a Resolution
of the IMOs Maritime Safety Committee (MSC52.66).
Since that time the Queensland and Australian Governments have established a suite of
measures to assist in enhancing navigational safety, thereby minimising the risk of a
maritime accident and consequential pollution and major damage to the marine
environment from shipping incidents. The introduction of a Coastal Vessel Traffic Service
(VTS) as a means to enhance navigational safety in Torres Strait and the GBR is one of
these measures.
The Great Barrier Reef and Torres
Strait Vessel Traffic Service
(REEFVTS) is comprised of two major
1. A mandatory Ship Reporting
System (the Great Barrier Reef
and Torres Strait Ship Reporting
System (REEFREP);
2. Monitoring and surveillance
systems including radar,
Automatic Identification System
(AIS), Automated Position
Reporting via Inmarsat C (APR)
and VHF Reporting.
3.2 REEFVTS Area
The area serviced by REEFVTS is the
same area as defined for REEFREP
(Figure 1) and includes:
Figure 1: REEFVTS area
a) The Torres Strait between longitude 141 45' E and 144 00' E, including the
Endeavour Strait and the Great North East Channel;
b) The waters of the Great Barrier Reef between the Australian coast and the outer edge
of the Great Barrier Reef, starting from the outer edge of the Reef at latitude 10 44'
S, longitude 144 00' E, and extending southwards to latitude 22 00' S.
3.3 Competent Authority
REEFVTS is operated under joint Federal and State arrangements between the Australian
Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) and Maritime Safety Queensland (MSQ).
3.4 Administration
The system is manned and operated on a 24 hour a day basis by Maritime Safety
Queensland personnel operating from the REEFVTS Centre, Radio Call Identity REEFVTS
Radio Callsign VZQ 641, situated at Hay Point near Mackay.
The VTSOs have completed the minimum competency standards of Certificate III VTS
operations extending to Certificate IV Advanced Vessel Traffic Operations. These courses
and standards have been provided and set by an accredited Maritime Training College and
comply with the IALA Guidelines.
3.5 Mandatory Reporting Requirements
Under the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS, Chapter 5)
Governments may establish a VTS when, in their opinion, the volume of traffic or the
degree of risk justifies such services.
The legislative basis for REEFREP is the general power within the Navigation Act to make
regulations to implement SOLAS (s191), and the related power to make Marine Orders
(s425(1AA)). Marine Order 56 is the resulting source of obligation.
3.5.1 Ships required to report to REEFVTS
The following categories of ships are required to report to REEFVTS:
a) All ships of 50 metres or greater in overall length;
b) All oil tankers, liquefied gas carriers, chemical tankers or ships coming within the INF
Code, regardless of length;
c) Ships engaged in towing or pushing where it, or the ship being towed or pushed is a
ship described in a) or b) or where the length of the tow is or exceeds 150 metres.
Marine Order 56 applies to all ships in the categories set out above, irrespective of
whether they are on overseas, interstate or intrastate voyages. Other vessels transiting the
REEFVTS area are encouraged to report on a voluntary basis.
3.5.2 Warships, Naval Auxiliaries and Government ships
SOLAS regulation V/8-1 does not apply to any warship, naval auxiliary or government
owned or operated ship; however SOLAS does state that such ships are encouraged to
participate in ship reporting systems... adopted in accordance with this regulation.
This approach is fully supported by the Australian Government, and all ships of the Royal
Australian Navy (RAN) are expected to participate in REEFVTS on a voluntary basis, along
with other ships owned or operated by the Australian Government.
3.6 Reporting Offences
Any Master, or Officer of the Watch at the time, who fails to report in accordance with the
reporting requirements, as specified in Marine Orders Part 56, or who wilfully transmits
information which is incorrect, false or misleading, will have committed an offence subject
to a penalty.
Regulation 4 of the Navigation (Orders) Regulations provides:
'4. A person who contravenes a provision of an order made under subsection
425(1AA) of the Act that is expressed to be a penal provision is guilty of an
offence and is punishable, upon conviction:
(a) if the offender is a natural person - by a fine not exceeding $2,000; or
(b) if the offender is a body corporate - by a fine not exceeding $5,000.
Expected STI (EST):
Meet SILVER ZHANG (P) in your area now
Overtake ENDEAVOUR RIVER (P) at 10 1215
Meet FAR EASTERN SILO (P) at 10 1240
Meet GLORIOUS HALO (P) at 10 1325
Light altered Auscoast warning 340 at 10 30s 142 13e
Nardana Patches Buoy replaced by Beacon
4 Services Provided
The objectives of REEFVTS are to:
Enhance navigational safety in the Torres Strait and the inner route of the Great
Barrier Reef by interacting with shipping to provide improved information on potential
traffic conflicts and other navigational information;
Minimise the risk of a maritime accident and consequential ship sourced pollution and
damage to the marine environment in the Torres Strait and Great Barrier Reef region;
Provide an ability to respond more quickly in the event of any safety or pollution
incident.
In support of these objectives the following services are provided to shipping:
1. Ship Traffic Information;
2. Navigational Assistance;
3. Maritime Safety Information.
Much of the information processed by REEFVTS is collected from vessels in the area and
hence mariners are cautioned that advisories based on such information are only as
accurate as the provided information. Further, REEFVTS may not have first hand
knowledge of all hazardous situations that exist in the REEFVTS area. Ships encountering a
hazardous situation, such as a malfunctioning aid to navigation not already included in
Maritime Safety Information should immediately advise REEFVTS.
4.1 Ship Traffic Information
Through the integrated use of AIS, radar, APR via Inmarsat C and route plans provided by
vessels, REEFVTS generates and disseminates ship encounter predictions in the form of
Ship Traffic Information (STI).
Because of the extensive size of the area, REEFVTS does not routinely broadcast STI
across the whole area but rather advises individual ships as necessary. In addition,
REEFVTS will actively contact vessels to advise of any significant changes to STI.
Ships transiting the region receive STI under the following business rules:
Upon entry to the REEFVTS area a ship will receive STI identifying the predicted ship
encounters and Maritime Safety Information (Section 4.3) for the next six hours of
their transit. As shown in the example below (using the Inmarsat C Messaging option
described in Section 4.1.1) the STI identifies the vessel, the time and location of the
predicted encounter.
Meet JAVA SEA (P) at 25 0755
(Changed) pass OOCL ENVOY (P) at 25 0925
(New) meet CHAMPION (P) at 25 1125
Note: The meaning of phrases commonly used when STI is delivered are:
Pass The word Pass is used to indicate that the ship is stopped.
Overtake Overtake means that the ships are heading in roughly the same direction
at the position of the predicted encounter.
Meet The word Meet is used to describe all other situations.
(P) Indicates piloted vessel
(NP) Indicates a non-piloted vessel
(DD) Deep Draught
New/changed traffic information After receiving the STI upon entry to the area
REEFVTS monitors the transit of the vessel to identify any significant changes to the
traffic information previously provided such as a new vessel, a change in ETA due to
an increase or decrease in speed.
Where new or changed traffic information is predicted for a vessel, the vessel is
provided with updated traffic information for the next six hours, identifying the
predicted encounters as either:
- New;
- Changed or;
- Unchanged, that is where information provided previously has not changed.
5 Hour Update Where a vessel has transited for a period of 5 hours without any new
or changed traffic information predicted, the vessel is provided with updated traffic
information for the next six hours as described under Upon Entry above.
The 5 Hour update will also indicate situations where there are no predicted ship
encounters for the next six hours, that is, there is no new STI for the vessel.
4.1.1 Receiving Ship Traffic Information
Mariners have the option to receive STI by one of two methods:
Inmarsat C Messaging
Important Note: Ships who choose to receive STI updates by this method must:
- Provide REEFVTS the ships Inmarsat-C terminal IMN to be used for email.
- Ensure that incoming messages from REEFVTS are read on receipt.
VHF voice communications
Ships are reminded to maintain a listening watch on the appropriate channel frequency for
that section of the REEFVTS area. Refer to section 5.2.2 for a list of channels and
associated reporting points.
Note: Mariners are reminded that:
Updated ship traffic information can be obtained at any time by contacting
REEFVTS;
They should advise REEFVTS if they are not receiving STI to arrange for an
alternative means for the information to be provided (e.g. VHF communications).
4.2 Navigational Assistance
In circumstances where information available to REEFVTS may assist on-board decision
making, REEFVTS may initiate interaction with an individual ship.
This may include circumstances where information available suggests a ship may be
standing into shallow water (e.g. in areas of restricted navigation where there is radar
and/or AIS coverage) or deviating from a recommended route.
4.3 Maritime Safety Information (MSI)
REEFVTS provides vessels with MSI relevant to their location and intended movement.
Should mariners notice a hazardous situation that may impact on the navigational safety of
other vessels, this should be communicated to REEFVTS.
In addition, MSI is issued in the appropriate broadcasts from RCC AUSTRALIA in the form of
navigational warnings (AUSCOAST Warnings).
5 Communication with REEFVTS
5.1 Vessel Operating Requirements
Mariners shall comply with all measures established or directions issued by REEFVTS
subject to the urgent needs or demands of safe navigation. If, in a specific circumstance, a
mariner is unable to safely comply with a measure or direction issued by REEFVTS, the
mariner may deviate only to the extent necessary to avoid endangering persons, property
or the environment. The deviation shall be reported to REEFVTS as soon as practicable.
Mariners must ensure that a listening watch is maintained on the appropriate VHF radio
channel as described in Section 5.2.2 of this User Manual.
The mariner must also maintain a listening watch on VHF radio channel 16 in the
international maritime mobile band throughout the REEFVTS area.
5.2 Primary Communications
The primary means of communication with REEFVTS:
a) Inmarsat C - messages sent to REEFVTS using special access code (SAC) 861 via the
Perth LES (222) will be reverse charged to REEFVTS;
b) VHF Radio - Depending on a ships position REEFVTS can be contacted on VHF
channels 5, 18 or 19 (Radio call sign - REEFVTS) 24 hours a day.
The language to be used when communicating with REEFVTS is English, using the IMOs
Standard Marine Communication Phrases where necessary.
5.2.1 Inmarsat C
Messages sent to REEFVTS will be reverse charged if ships use special access code (SAC)
861 via Perth LES (222). When setting up the Inmarsat C address book, select ASCII, or 7-
bit or IA5 for data presentation or character code.
Note Mariners are requested to ensure that Inmarsat C terminals are logged into the
Pacific Ocean Region (POR).
Alternatively, messages can be sent to REEFVTS at a cost to the vessel to:
telex +7146483
email: reefvts@rcs1.amsa.gov.au
5.2.2 VHF Communications
A VHF radio network is employed along the Queensland coast and on islands in the Torres
Strait to allow mariners to communicate with REEFVTS. REEFVTS maintains a listening
watch at all times on the working VHF radio channels listed below. The relationship
between VHF channels and associated Mandatory Reporting points are dependant on a
ships position in relation to the area of that reporting point (Figure 2).
Edition Page 10
Name of reporting point and
AUS chart designation
Bramble (A) 18 Barnard (Q) 18
Daru (B) 18 Palm Passage (R) 18
Twin (C) 19 Lucinda (R1) 18
Thursday Island (D1) 19 Townsville-Nth (S1) 19
Alpha North (F) 19 Townsville-Sth (S2) 19
Booby (D) 19 Bowling North (S) 19
Alpha South (G) 19 Bowling South (T) 19
Endeavour (E) 19 Blossom (U) 5
Shortland (H) 19 Abbot Point (T1) 5
Hannibal (I) 5 Molle (southbound) (V) 18
Inset (J) 18 Edward (X) 18
Heath (K) 18 Cid Harbour (V1) 18
Pipon (L) 5 Shaw (northbound) (W) 18
Cape Flattery (M1) 19 Creal (Y) 19
Two Isles (M) 19 Mackay (Y1) 19
Gubbins East (N) 19 Hay Point-Nth (Y2) 19
Gubbins West (O) 19 Hay Point-NthEast (Y3) 19
Grafton Passage (P) 5 Hay Point-Sth (Y4) 19
Cairns (P1) 5 High Peak (Z) 18
Mourilyan (Q1) 18
Mariners are reminded of the duty, only if practical, under the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS)
Convention provisions to maintain a continuous listening watch on VHF radio channel 16
while at sea and for a radio watch to be maintained for broadcasts of MSI on the
appropriate frequency or frequencies on which such information is broadcast for the area
in which they are navigating.
5.3 Alternative Communications
If for any reason communication is not possible via Inmarsat C or the appropriate VHF
radio channel, the required information must be passed by alternative means to REEFVTS
using one of the following:
a) Other INMARSAT phone/fax/telex service;
b) Other (non-Inmarsat) satellite phone/fax/ telex service.
Contact details for REEFVTS are:
Facsimile +61 7 4956 3367
Any failure of a ships radio equipment that prevents the communication of required
reports by either primary or alternative communication means is to be recorded in the
ships radio log book or the Official Log Book.
Reefv13 user Manual - 2
Ldition Page 11
5.4 Al3
vessels are requested to ensure that their Al3 information is updated before entering the
RLLlv13 area. when setting a ship's name in an Al3 transoeiver, do not insert M/v or M/1
prior to the ship's name. lollowing this advioe will enhanoe the usefulness of Al3
information at RLLlv13.
ligure 2: Mandatory Reporting Points and assooiated vPl ohannels
6 Ship Reporting Obligations
The following reports must be provided to REEFVTS:
a) Pre-Entry Position Report;
b) Entry Report;
c) Route Plan Report, if route details have not been provided in the Entry Report;
d) Route Deviation Report, where applicable;
e) Intermediate Position Reports;
f) Defect Reports, where applicable;
g) Final Report.
6.1 Pre-Entry Position Report
A Pre-Entry position report must be made in respect of a ship at least two hours prior to:
a) Entering the REEFVTS area;
b) Departing from a port within the REEFVTS area.
The following information must be provided in the Pre-Entry position report:
Line Information Required Example
A Ship name, Call sign and IMO number A/HAPPY SAILOR/
ABCD/1234567
B Date and Time (UTC) B/010200UTC
C Current position (latitude and longitude)
or where vessel is departing a port, the port name.
C/1036S/14144E
H Date, Time (UTC) and Point of Entry to REEFVTS area.
Point of entry can be provided as the name of the first
Mandatory Reporting Point upon entry to the REEFVTS
area, or position (latitude and longitude) if not entering
in the vicinity of a Mandatory Reporting Point.
H/010400UTC/BOOBY
K Date, Time (UTC) and Point of Exit from the REEFVTS
Point of exit can be provided as the name of final
Mandatory Reporting Point, or position (latitude and
longitude) of anticipated exit from the REEFVTS area.
K/041300UTC/HIGH PEAK
M Communication Methods
Primary Inmarsat C details (including Inmarsat C Mobile
Number (IMN), manufacturer and model).
M/450111333/JRC /JUE-
Note: Mariners are requested to ensure that the vessels Inmarsat C terminal is logged into
the Pacific Ocean Region (POR).
6.2 Entry Report
An Entry Report must be made in respect of a ship as soon as it:
a) Enters the REEFVTS area;
b) Departs from a port within the REEFVTS area.
This report covers a ships details, and its intentions and passage through the REEFVTS
area. Where some information has been previously provided to AUSREP the fields
highlighted with an ** are not required.
Ships masters are encouraged to provide a route plan (see section 6.3 for more detail)
when providing an Entry Report. However, it is understood that for some ships this may not
be possible until a pilot boards.
If the required passage details are supplied using one of the methods described in section
6.3, then it will not be necessary to provide a separate route plan report within an hour of
entering the REEFVTS area.
The following information must be provided in the Entry Report:
C Current Position
Name of Mandatory Reporting Point, or position
(latitude and longitude) if not in the vicinity of a
Mandatory Reporting Point.
C/BOOBY
F Speed
Ships anticipated average speed until next report in
knots & tenths of a knot) or estimated time of arrival
(ETA) at next Mandatory Reporting Point.
J Pilot **
Pilotage details including whether a coastal pilot is on
board (indicate Yes or No) and if so, the pilots last
name and licence number.
J/NO
J/YES/BROWN/9876543
L Route Information
Route Plan (see section 6.3) or, if that is not available
name of next two Mandatory Reporting Points or course
if not tracking between reporting points.
L/INNER ROUTE DEEP
L/ALPHA NORTH VIA
VARZIN PASSAGE/
O Draught**
Draught fore and aft (in metres and decimetres).
O/FORE 11.5/AFT 11.3
P Cargo on Board**
If required, may be passed by non-voice means prior to
the first REEFVTS report. Details to include normal
name of the cargo and whether cargo is classified as
hazardous (indicate Yes or No).
P/BULK CHEMICALS/DG
Q Defects, damage, deficiencies or other limitations Include details as required.
U Ship Size and Type**
Ship description details including ship type, length
(metres) and gross tonnage.
U/TANKER/180/28000
X Remarks
Any additional information, which would contribute to
the navigational safety of other shipping in the REEFVTS
area, should also be reported, where possible.
Include details as required.
** These items need not to be reported by a ship that has provided these details
previously in a sailplan report to AUSREP.
6.3 Route Plan
Route plan details are to be provided by one or more of the following ways:
i. Standard Route Plan;
ii. Mandatory Reporting Points;
iii. Waypoints.
If a Route Plan is not included in the Entry Report, then a route plan report must be
provided within one hour of a ships entry into the REEFVTS area, or departure from a port
within the REEFVTS area.
6.3.1 Standard Route Plan
Standard route plans have been developed to enable the communication of intended
routes. Standard routes are based on the name of the route taken (e.g. Inner Route or the
Great North East Channel), vessel draught, Mandatory Reporting Points and, where there
are two or more recommended routes between Mandatory Reporting Points, the names of
the alternative legs between these.
Route plan tables and associated chartlets for the Inner Route and the Great North East
Channel are detailed in Section 7.
For a ship using a standard route plan, the following information must be provided:
Name of Mandatory Reporting Point, or current position
Ships anticipated average speed (in knots and tenths
of a knot) or estimated time of arrival (ETA) at final
Mandatory Reporting Point or position of exit from the
REEFVTS area.
Standard Route: For example, a south bound deep
draught ship entering at Booby and departing via High
Peak can simply provide the route plan as: Inner Route,
Deep draught. Similarly, where it is intended to deviate
from a predefined standard route plan (e.g. transit via
Heath) the route plan can be communicated simply as:
Inner Route, Deep draught via Heath.
And where there are
L/INNER ROUTE DEEP VIA
6.3.2 Mandatory Reporting Points
Route plans can be provided using the mandatory reporting points as a vessel progresses
through the REEFVTS area. When a vessel reports at a mandatory reporting point, the next
two mandatory reporting points need to be provided to REEFVTS. Where there are two or
more recommended routes between mandatory reporting points, the names of the
alternative legs between these are to be provided (eg. Mandatory Reporting Point X to
Mandatory Reporting Point Y via ZZZ).
The following information must be provided when a ship is providing a route plan using the
mandatory reporting points:
(latitude and longitude) at that position if not in the
vicinity of a Mandatory Reporting Point
of a knot) or estimated time of arrival (ETA) at the next
two Mandatory Reporting Points.
Where there are two or more recommended routes
between Mandatory Reporting Points, the proposed
route (for example, Mandatory Reporting Point Booby
(D) to Mandatory Reporting Point Alpha North (F) via
Varzin Passage).
6.3.3 Waypoints
The use of non-standard routes is accommodated, using a list of intended waypoints in the
format of latitude and longitude of the proposed waypoints, mandatory reporting points, or
a combination of both.
The following information must be provided:
B Date and Time (UTC) B/010400
vicinity of a Mandatory Reporting Point.
C/BARNARD
Ships anticipated average speed in knots and tenths of
a knot) or estimated time of arrival (ETA) at the position
(latitude and longitude) of anticipated exit from the
REEFVTS area or at the final Mandatory Reporting Point.
List of intended waypoints for the transit, using actual
latitude and longitude of the proposed waypoints, the
mandatory reporting point names, or a combination of
Varzin Passage.
Include details as required
6.4 Mandatory Reporting Points - Interaction with REEFVTS
The requirement for vessels to report at the Mandatory Reporting Points is dependant on
the type of route plan provided by the vessel. In summary:
If a standard route plan (Section 6.3.1) is provided and intermediate position reporting
is via APR (Section 6.6), reporting to REEFVTS at the Mandatory Reporting Points is not
If a Mandatory Reporting Point Plan (Section 6.3.2) is provided for the entire transit
including alternate sections (if applicable), and intermediate position reporting is via
APR (Section 6.6), reporting to REEFVTS at the Mandatory Reporting Points is not
However, if only partial route information is provided, vessels must report to REEFVTS
at the Mandatory Reporting Points to provide subsequent route information.
Note: The minimum route information that must be provided under the Mandatory
Reporting Point plan (Section 6.3.2) is the current Mandatory Reporting Point and the
subsequent two Mandatory Reporting Points, including any alternate routes.
6.5 Route Deviation Report
Any deviation from a previously submitted route plan must be provided to REEFVTS,
preferably prior to the deviation. However, it is recognised that some deviations may be
made with little notice and in such instances these must be reported to REEFVTS within 15
minutes of the deviation taking place.
The deviation is to be reported and a route plan report provided using one of the reports in
6.6 Intermediate Position Reports
APR via Inmarsat-C is the primary mechanism for ships to provide Intermediate Position
Reports. REEFVTS will generally carry out APR remotely without any intervention by a
ships crew.
Note: Mariners are requested to ensure the vessels Inmarsat C terminal is logged into the
Ships fitted with first generation Inmarsat-C terminals that do not support remote
programming, will be required to be programmed onboard for Intermediate Position
Reports to be sent automatically. Instructions relating to programming of these terminals
can be obtained from REEFVTS. When exiting the area ships fitted with first generation
Inmarsat-C terminals should ensure that Automated Position Reporting has been stopped.
Ships providing Intermediate Position Reports via APR must still comply with the other
REEFVTS reporting requirements of Pre-Entry position reports, Entry report, Route Plan
report (if appropriate), Route Deviation report (if appropriate), Defect report (if
appropriate), and Final report.
If a ship is unable to provide intermediate position reports via APR, brief position reports
must be provided on an hourly basis or as advised by REEFVTS with the following
Name of Mandatory Reporting Point, or current
position (latitude and longitude) if not in the vicinity of
a Mandatory Reporting Point.
6.7 Defect Report
Safety related reports must be provided without delay in the event of a ship suffering
damage, failure or breakdown affecting the safety of a ship, or if a ship makes a marked
deviation from a route, or changes a course or alters speed from that previously advised.
Reports of pollution or cargo lost overboard must also be reported to REEFVTS without
delay using lines Q and R, or special reports as defined by IMO for incidents involving
Dangerous Goods (DG), Harmful Substances (HS) or Marine Pollutants (MP).
Defect reports require the following information:
C/TWO ISLES
C/15252S/145241E
Q Defects, damage, deficiencies or other limitations
Description and details of any damage, failure or
breakdown suffered:
(i) collision, grounding, fire, explosion, structural
failure, flooding, cargo shifting;
(ii) failure or breakdown of steering gear, propulsion
plant, electrical generating system, essential
shipborne navigational aids.
R Pollution / dangerous goods lost overboard
Brief details of type of pollution (oil, chemicals etc.) or
dangerous goods lost overboard. Position to be
expressed as in item C.
the navigational safety of other shipping in the
REEFVTS area, should also be reported, where
This may include details of any Safety Messages
(navigational safety, abnormal weather, unserviceable
aids to navigation) or DG, HS, MP incident reports
using the recognised IMO reporting formats.
6.8 Final Report
A Final Report must be made in respect of a ship:
a) When exiting the REEFVTS area;
b) Arriving at a port within the REEFVTS area.
Upon exiting the REEFVTS area it is necessary to indicate whether the ship intends
continuing to report to AUSREP for the remainder of its voyage and, if so, the time of its
next report or, if arriving at a port within the area, whether this is its Final Report to
AUSREP.
The following information must be provided in the Final Report:
C/HIGH PEAK
Indicate whether the ship intends-
Continuing with AUSREP (indicate Yes or No) and, if
affirmative, date and time (UTC) of next AUSREP
position report.
Arriving at a port within the REEFVTS area, advise if
this report is also an AUSREP Final Report (indicate
Yes or No).
Include relevant details
X/YES AUSREP NEXT
REPORT 051320UTC
X/YES AUSREP FINAL
X/NOT AUSREP
6.9 Summary of REEFVTS Reports
These key fields need to be provided for following REEFVTS Reports:
PER Pre-Entry Report
ER Entry Report
RP1 Route Plan Standard Route Plan
RP2 Route Plan Mandatory Reporting Points
RP3 Route Plan Waypoints
DR Deviation Report (if applicable)
PR Intermediate Position Reports
IR Defect Report (if applicable)
FR Final Report
Line Information Required PER ER RP1 RP2 RP3 DR PR IR FR
A Ship name, call sign and
R R R R R R R R R
B Date and Time (UTC) R R R R R R R R R
C Current Position R R R R R R R R R
F Speed R R R R R R R
H Date, Time (UTC) and
Point of Entry to REEFVTS
J Pilot R
K Date, Time (UTC) and
Point of Exit from
REEFVTS area
L Route Information R R R R R
M Communication Methods R I I
O Draught R
P Cargo on Board R
Q Defects, damage,
deficiencies or other
R Pollution / dangerous
goods lost overboard
U Ship Size and Type R
X Remarks I I I I I I I I I
Where R = Required, I = If appropriate.
A summary of the reporting requirements is provided in Figure 3.
Figure 3. Summary of reporting requirements
Pre-Entry Position Report
Report required 2 hours prior to entering the REEFVTS area or leaving
Lines: A, B, C, H, K, M
Entry Report
Report required when vessel enters the REEFVTS area or departs from
port.
Where a standard route plan is known this can be advised in line L if
known at time of entry.
Lines: A, B, C, F, J**, K, L, O**, P**, Q*, U**, X*
* If appropriate
** Items need not be reported if provided in AUSREP Sail Plan
Route Plan Report
Provide a route plan report, either:
x Standard route plan
x Progressively at Mandatory Reporting
Deviation Report
Lines: A, B, C, F, L
Has Route Plan Report been provided with Entry Report?
Has ship deviated from previous Route Plan Report provided?
Report required when vessel exits the
REEFVTS area or arrives at a port within the
Lines: A, B, C, X
Intermediate Position Reports
Position Reports are required hourly or as
otherwise advised by a VTSO.
Lines: A, B, C, F
Defect Report required
Has ship suffered from any defects or observed an incident?
Lines: A, B, C, F, Q*, R*, X*
* As appropriate or submit special IMO
reports; Dangerous Goods, Harmful
substances or Marine Pollutants reports.
Is the ship sending position reports by APR via Inmarsat C?
7 Standard Route Plans
This section provides a guide to assist ships to communicate standard route plans to
REEFVTS.
The longest possible routes that may be used to transit the Inner Route or the Great North
East Channel are shown in the following figures. They are designed to be multi-directional
with the routes building from the location at which a ship enters and exits the REEFVTS
area. Therefore, the standard route plan can be used to describe a ships entire route plan
or a portion of its transit within the area.
All mandatory reporting points within the REEFVTS area are represented in bold capital
letters (eg BOOBY). Where there are two or more alternatives to the recommended routes
these are represented in italics (eg Via Fairway Channel) and in some cases they may also
be mandatory reporting points (eg Via HEATH).
7.1 Ships transiting the Inner Route
Ships transit the REEFVTS area based on predefined routes that are related to the vessels
draught. Standard Route Plans have been categorised into three draught based routes of
The predefined route for a particular draught is represented by a series of shaded legs
from Booby to High Peak. Where a ship is not varying from a predefined route then the
route can be easily communicated as Inner Route, Deep draught
If it is necessary to deviate from a predefined route, this can be communicated to REEFVTS
by stating the name of the alternative leg(s). For example, a deep draught transit via Heath
would be communicated as Inner Route, Deep draught via Heath.
The standard route plan should be communicated to REEFVTS by stating:
i. Inner Route;
ii. Predefined route by communicating the ships draught of Deep, Moderate or Shallow;
iii. The name of any alternative legs intended to be taken that vary from the standard
route (eg shaded boxes) for that draught category.
When approaching or leaving the ports of Hay Point or Mackay there is a choice of three
Peak will not use these legs unless the ship is approaching or leaving from Hay Point or
Mackay.
Mariners can contact REEFVTS at any time to advise any changes to route plans.
Deep (Figure 4), Moderate (Figure 5) and Shallow (Figure 6).
alternate legs; West of St Bees, East of St Bees or Three Rocks as shown in Figures 4, 5 or
6. These alternate legs have not been shaded, as a ship entering or exiting through High
7.1.1 Inner Route - Deep Draught
The predefined standard route for a deep draught ship entering at Booby and departing via
High Peak is shown in Figure 4.
If it is intended to take the deep draught predefined route, this can be communicated to
REEFVTS as Inner Route, Deep Draught.
Similarly, if it is intended to deviate from the predefined route plan (eg. to transit via Heath)
the route plan can be communicated simply as Inner Route, Deep Draught, Via Heath.
Figure 4 Inner Route, Deep Draught
Via Varzin Passage Via Gannet Passage
Via ALPHA NORTH Via ALPHA SOUTH
Via East of Cairncross Via West of Cairncross
Via Fairway Channel Via HEATH
PIPON
Via Howicks(Nth Channel) Via Miles
Via Palfrey Via Mid-Decapolis Via North of Nymph Via Petherbridge
TWO ISLES
Via GUBBINS EAST Via GUBBINS WEST
Via BOWLING NORTH Via BOWLING SOUTH
Via EDWARD Via MOLLE/SHAW
Via East of St Bees Via West of St Bees Via Three Rocks
Entry/Exit Points Entry/Exit Points
GRAFTON PASSAGE
PALM PASSAGE
HAYPOINT
ABBOT POINT
MOURILYAN
7.1.2 Inner Route - Moderate Draught
The predefined standard route for a moderate draught ship entering at Booby and
departing via High Peak is shown in Figure 5.
If its intended to take the moderate draught predefined route this can be communicated to
REEFVTS as Inner Route, Moderate Draught.
Similarly, if its intended to deviate from the predefined route plan (eg. to transit via
Howicks and North of Nymph) the route plan can be communicated simply as Inner Route,
Moderate Draught, Via Howicks and Via North of Nymph.
Figure 5 Inner Route, Moderate draught
7.1.3 Inner Route - Shallow Draught
The predefined standard route for a shallow draught ship entering at Booby and departing
via High Peak is shown in Figure 6.
REEFVTS as Inner Route, Shallow Draught.
Similarly, if its intended to deviate from the predefined route plan (eg. to transit via West of
Cairncross) the route plan can be communicated simply as Inner Route, Shallow Draught,
Via West of Cairncross.
Figure 6 Inner Route, Shallow draught
Via A Via ALPHA SOUTH
7.2 Inner Route Chartlets
7.3 Vessels transiting the Great North East (GNE) Channel
Vessels transiting the Great North East Channel enter or exit the REEFVTS area in three
main locations. These are Booby, Bramble or Daru.
It is necessary to state the first and second intended leg for transits through the Great
North East Channel. For example, a ship enters at Booby and exits at Bramble, the first leg
is via Varzin Passage and the second leg is via West of Coconut Island. This would be
communicated to REEFVTS as GNE, Via Varzin and West of Coconut Island.
In Varzin and Gannet Passages ships are generally restricted by their draught. As a guide,
deep draught ships normally transit through the Varzin Passage. Moderate and shallow
draught ships normally transit through Gannet Passage.
i. GNE Channel
ii. The first set of alternative legs intended to be taken, and
iii. The second set of alternative legs intended to be taken.
Via East of Coconut Is. Via West of Coconut Is.
DARU BRAMBLE
Figure 7 Standard routes for GNE Channel
7.4 Great North East (GNE) Channel Chartlet
Summary of Reporting Requirements
Kapal
Transportasi Air
Dokumen Serupa dengan PDF Reefvts User Manual v2
vv_naveen
abhishekchhabra362
Crimschi Ionel
maritimepressbox
oladokunsulaiman
Gramma Jo
UFUKKK
Sharmistha Mohapatra
Atreyapurapu Krishna
Goran Jurisic
Pepe Pompin
Sasqia Orina Safitri
nguyentrungdong2004
Donela Pasku
Toheid Asadi
Dnv Bailey
Faisal Rashid
Dursun Korkmaz
Bmmc Presentation General
Pavel Georgiana
Rudolph Kraft, Libellant-Appellant v. Smith & Johnson Steamship Corp., and T. J. Hammill & Co., and Siemund Marine, Inc., Respondent-Impleaded-Appellee, 235 F.2d 760, 2d Cir. (1956)
39. Inter Orient vs Nlrc
pja_14
Kt Kq Curves for Weginengin B Series Propeller
Krishna Chandra
Board Resolution No. 2018-09-01 Series of 2018
Eric Sison
Miskkjh
Farhan Khan NiaZi
Bahasa Inggris Dwiki
Dwiki Fathurohman
176Life.cycle.cost
Rini Mathew
manxxlus.pdf
Omar Sayoumit
Lainnya Dari Ngaire Taylor
Heritage Info Sheet 23 John Charles Von Stieglitz
Heritage Info Sheet 19 Weir State School
Heritage Info Sheet 14 Krait and z Special Unit Force
HERITAGE INFO SHEET 7 Thuringowa Boundary Changes
Heritage Info Sheet 10 Thuringowa Mayors
Heritage Info Sheet 24 History of Bluewater Area
Heritage Info Sheet 3 Isabella Fitzpatrick
HERITAGE INFO SHEET 17 the Gleesons and the Retreat Hotel
Heritage Info Sheet 16 Paluma and the Mt Spec Area
Heritage Info Sheet 13 Upper Ross Suburbs
HERITAGE INFO SHEET 20 Armidale to Rollingstone
Heritage Info Sheet 18 the Range Hotel
Heritage Info Sheet 9 Joseph Hodel
Heritage Info Sheet 21 Paluma Road
Heritage Info Sheet 26 Mt Spec
T150 Education Kit Teacher Kit
Heritage Info Sheet 4 Hervey Range Road
WW1 Education Kit Teacher Kit
PLANNING - aus N D I S.pdf
alee0007
Heritage Info Sheet 5 Ross Plains Airfield
Heritage Info Sheet 8 Thuringowas Water Supply
Heritage Info Sheet 2 Aitkenvale Airfield
How to Use Your NDIS Plan Book 3 Easy Rnglish
Heritage Info Sheet 25 Bohle River Airstrip
HERITAGE INFO SHEET 11 History of Thuringowa City Council
Heritage Info Sheet 1 Pioneer Park
NDIS Participant Booklet 3 Using Your Plan
Heritage Info Sheet 6 Ross River Weirs
Heritage Info Sheet 22 the Alice Hotel
Heritage Info Sheet 12 Townsville Show
Populer di Transport
Supply Source Determination - SAP Retail - SAP Library.pdf
Aryabatta Newton Lokesh
Driving Nc II Cg
Christine Grace Espallardo Jungco
HSAC_RP2013_01 HELIDECK PARKING AREA DESIGN GUIDELINES AND MARKINGS
Pat B
Design of bed block.pdf
ChManikumar
Warhammer 40k - Ultramarine Chapter - Point Costs
Mark Skinner
LOC Draft
Hafizul Rahman
Appication of Gps in Mining
Sohil Bakshi
Cherokee_fuses.htm.pdf
11sajid
011073 Smart Camber Manual
mike_bryner
Benefits of Geoweb Cellular Confinement
prsmed
ATM List India
shahpinkal
Module 17
K M Mosheur Rahman
Delhi-VAT Technical Guide
jaipalme
Enerpac EPH Series Catalog
Titanply
PA0043 Sub Sean Finn.pdf
TheNewChildrensHospital
The Supreme Court Public Information Office
eBooK Law
Tuckct
Converteam Brochure Corporate 2010 p 7e20
Rangarajan Desikachar
SNC Implementation Reccomendation
praty888
USPS price
genhyin
Training Manual for Construction Layout
ariel_120292
Delhi Gov Schemes
rajinibhasker
Design Guide Compactor
Highways Specification for New Developments
KEABETSWE
Julio Corzo
Company Profile 2018
Alam Junaid
NPR Piston Ring Sets & Cylinder Lines.pdf
Imran Mehboob
Damper Basics Seminar
GomishChawla
Check List for Self-Appraisal of Fire Safety in Cinema Theatres Sticky Notes
arvindo28228
TRIP Presentation
Bea Brondial
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line7653
|
__label__wiki
| 0.837007
| 0.837007
|
Gluten Sensitivity is Apparently Bullshit
In an interesting twist, one of the key researchers in establishing the idea of gluten sensitivity has published new papers that say exactly the opposite.
Peter Gibson of Monash University in Melbourne, Australia published a study in 2011 that found that gluten could cause gastrointestinal distress even in those not suffering from Celiac Disease. This led to the rise of the term "gluten sensitivity," and an international wave of gluten-free menus was born.
Gibson, however, wasn't entirely convinced of his own findings; after all, gluten is part of any normal diet, so why would we be reacting so strangely to it en masse? So he led a follow-up study involving 37 self-identified gluten-sensitive subjects to determine whether it really was the gluten causing them to feel icky. The particulars of the study were as follows:
Subjects would be provided with every single meal for the duration of the trial. Any and all potential dietary triggers for gastrointestinal symptoms would be removed, including lactose (from milk products), certain preservatives like benzoates, propionate, sulfites, and nitrites, and fermentable, poorly absorbed short-chain carbohydrates, also known as FODMAPs. And last, but not least, nine days worth of urine and fecal matter would be collected.
What the study found is that ALL of the diets — including even the placebo diet — caused all the negative symptoms usually associated with gluten sensitivity to a roughly equal degree. "We could find absolutely no response to gluten," writes Gibson. A lot of this relates to the so-called "nocebo" effect: because people expected the food to make them feel worse, it frequently did.
It's important to note that this does NOT mean that those who claim to have Celiac are lying about it — that's a real, diagnosable condition, and a potentially deadly one. Further, it ALSO does not mean that those who claim to have a non-life threatening version of Celiac aren't telling the truth — I have a friend who has a lower-severity version of it where gluten doesn't kill her or make her immediately violently ill, but does sap all of her energy and dramatically reduce her quality of life (she wasn't tested for Celiac until she was in her 20's as a result, at which point the tests came back positive). Celiac is still a thing — gluten sensitivity is not.
Further, there's a lot of evidence that "gluten sensitivity" has actually been a misnomer for various illnesses related to disparate wheat proteins (or occasionally even carbohydrates). So even if someone does not have an adverse reaction to gluten, it's still possible their body is reacting badly to something in wheat, even if we're not 100% sure what it is yet. The current single most significant culprit is a protein with anti-pest properties that we've selectively bred for increased prevalence — the downside of which could potentially be that it doesn't just screw with bugs, it screws with a lot of us, too.
One of the biggest reasons why this is important is that it shows first-hand the impartiality of science rather than the school of common sense. Scientists who discover new data that contradicts their earlier findings will frequently, as Gibson did here, publish follow-up papers that basically amount to "my bad, that was wrong." That's actually what the scientific method is designed to do: to keep human beings from their evolutionary tendency to psychologically entrench themselves in ideas. There's thus a certain argument to be made that science is the antithesis of politics (or at least of the modern American conservative movement). There is no degree from the University of It Stands to Reason, after all.
Image via Ari N/Shutterstock.
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line7655
|
__label__wiki
| 0.755694
| 0.755694
|
JVP Chapters host Chanukah Actions Against Islamophobia and racism in 25 Cities
Jewish Voice for Peace 21 December 2016 Press Release
Contact: Naomi Dann| media@jvp.org | 845-377-5745
Fighting Islamophobia & racism, Jewish group & partners rally in 25 cities ahead of Chanukah
Actions highlight opposition to the views and policies of President-Elect Trump, Israeli PM Netanyahu and appointees like David Friedman
December 21, 2016 — Today, Jewish Voice for Peace chapters in 25 cities will lead actions to protest Islamophobia and racism, as part of a national effort ahead of the Jewish holiday of Chanukah. Working with Muslim partners and other community organizations, the actions will take place in small towns and big cities, from Kingston, NY to Chicago, IL. Themed around the Jewish holiday of Chanukah, the goal of the actions are to shine a light on commitments to fighting bigotry, discrimination and state violence, and to build community around fighting injustice in this new political era.
While policies like heightened surveillance of Muslims and U.S. state violence against communities of color, both domestically and internationally, have been a reality for some time, the incoming presidential administration has proposed even more blatantly racist and discriminatory policies, and emboldened disturbing levels of violence against Muslims and those perceived to be Muslim.
“The alarming rise in Islamophobia and racism in the U.S. in past years was exacerbated by the virulent propaganda and rhetoric during the elections cycle and continues to this day,” said Donna Nevel, co-founder of the Network Against Islamophobia, a Jewish Voice for Peace project. “Muslims and other impacted groups have been engaged in powerful organizing in response. It is more important than ever for us at JVP to show up visibly in partnership with Muslim and other communities to stand against Islamophobia and racism in all their forms–from the daily assaults and acts of violence on the streets to state-sanctioned Islamophobia.”
Ahead of the holiday of Chanukah, Jewish Voice for Peace members, partners and allies will come together to commit to challenging the racism, white supremacy, Islamophobia, anti-Semitism and militarism that are increasing in our country and throughout the world.
The 25 actions taking place across the country on Wednesday vary in size and scope, from gatherings on street corners in places like Springfield, Massachusetts, to rallies in places like Sacramento and Miami coordinated with the local chapters of the Council of American-Islamic Relations, which recently recognized JVP with an award for its long term work on these issues. In Chicago, the action will specifically target Governor Rauner for his embrace of a ban on Syrian refugees, while in Washington, DC demonstrators will march from the offices of the Islamophobic hate group The Clarion Project to the White House.
In all of the cities across the country, community members will hold signs in the shape of a menorah listing commitments which include: “We refuse to be silent about anti-Muslim and racist hate speech and hate crimes. We condemn state surveillance of the Muslim community. We fight anti-Muslim profiling and racial profiling in all its forms. We call for an end to racist policing. We protest the use of Islamophobia and anti-Arab racism to justify Israel’s repressive policies against Palestinians.”
As a Jewish organization working towards justice for all people in Israel/Palestine and here in the U.S., JVP is committed to challenging the bigotry, discrimination and state violence both here and there. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, David Friedman, President elect Trump’s newly appointed ambassador to Israel, and many others have laid bare the ways that Islamophobia and racism are central pillars that have been used to uphold and defend Israel’s reprehensible policies towards Palestinians.
Said Rabbi Alissa Wise, deputy director of Jewish Voice for Peace: “We are seeing how Prime Minister Netanyahu and President-elect Trump have found common cause in their demonization of Muslim and Arab communities. This Chanukah, as a Netanyahu-Trump alliance threatens us all, we are strengthened by the light of the menorah that grows each night. Since 2010 JVP has been organizing against Islamophobia and racism in our culture, in deep partnership with Muslim organizations leading the fight. Like the chanukah candles, our commitment to stand with the Muslim community in the US only grows day by day.”
To view information about actions taking place in specific cities, please visit: https://jewishvoiceforpeace.org/network-against-islamophobia/.
IslamophobiaNetwork Against Islamophobia
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line7657
|
__label__wiki
| 0.75796
| 0.75796
|
Gibbs v Gibbs
Contempt of court Committal. The mother was committed to prison for nine months, following breaches of an order prohibiting her from continuing to make unsubstantiated allegations against the father. The Family Division held that, in the light of the mother's continued defiance, unwillingness to change, lack of insight on the impact of her behaviour, not only on the father but on their children too, there was no opportunity other than to impose an immediate custodial sentence which reflected the nature and consequences of the breach.
Re X (A Child) (No 2)
Family proceedings Orders in family proceedings. In circumstances where the relevant local authority had not formulated a properly worked-up care plan for X, who was approaching 17 and detained in a secure unit ahead of her release, the Family Division, concluded that, due to the nature of X's complex needs, it was likely that a care plan would involve a deprivation of her liberty. A plan of action was approved which would lead to the formulation of a properly worked-up care plan that could be put before the court for approval, exercising the inherent jurisdiction, before X was released from the secure unit.
OCC v AB and another
Family proceedings Orders in family proceedings. There were no solid foundation, or reasonable grounds, for a belief that G had been the victim of a deliberately inflicted injury by either of his parents, nor that either one of them might have accidentally injured him then sought to conceal it from each other and from professionals. Accordingly, the Family Court dismissed the local authority's application for an interim care order-interim supervision order, concluding that the threshold for the making of such orders had not been met.
*Welch v Welch
Family proceedings Orders in family proceedings. There was no requirement, under of the Senior Courts Act 1981, that every detail of a contract or conveyance had to be presented to the party refusing to sign it. The Family Court so ruled in granting the husband's application for a declaration that all future contracts of sale and associated sale documentation in respect of a property, which the court had previously ordered to be sold, be submitted to the wife for her signature, without the names of the proposed purchasers or their solicitors (the details) appearing on the documents. The husband argued that the wife had contacted a prospective purchaser and his solicitors, allegedly in an attempt to thwart the sale. The court held that any attempt to obstruct the purpose of the previous court order could be defeated by redacting the details from the documentation, which would not affect the validity of the contract.
*Sharp v Sharp
Divorce Appeal. The Court of Appeal, Civil Division, in an appeal against a decision to divide matrimonial assets on an equal basis held that the appellant wife was correct to contend that the combination of potentially relevant factors, namely, short marriage, no children, dual income and separate finances, was sufficient to justify a departure from the equal sharing principle in order to achieve overall fairness between the parties.
F v L
Minor Removal outside jurisdiction. The Family Division allowed the mother's appeal against the judge's decision, refusing her application to relocate with the child, D, to Italy. The judge had made a fundamental procedural error in failing to resolve the issue of the future care of D prior to considering the application for relocation and had failed to consider or make any finding in respect of complaints of the father's controlling and coercive behaviour, as alleged by the mother.
Re A and another (Children)
Adoption Order. The Family Court determined that the English courts had jurisdiction to hear the applicants' application for an adoption order of two children born in Scotland. It was further determined that there should not be a stay of proceedings in the English court because of the principle of forum non conveniens, on the basis that Scotland, and not England, was the forum conveniens.
Re CD (Notice of care proceedings to father without parental responsibility)
Child Care. The Family Court granted an application by the local authority for the father of a child, who was the subject of care proceedings, not to be provided with a copy of the notice to non-parties form. The relationship between the father and the child lacked the elements necessary to support a finding that de facto family ties had been created such as to entitle him to respect for family life, pursuant to art8 of the European Convention on Human Rights (art8). Further, evidence of domestic violence against the mother had justified an order that the father should not receive a copy of the form had he been entitled to the protection of art8.
*Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children NHS Foundation Trust v Yates and others
Minor Medical treatment. The Court of Appeal, Civil Division, dismissed the parents' appeal against the judge's decision that it would not be in Charlie Gard's best interests to undergo nucleoside therapy overseas and that Great Ormond Street Hospital's application to remove him from a ventilator should be granted. On the basis of the judge's findings, there was no viable alternative treatment for Charlie, such that the parents' argument that there was a new category of child medical treatment cases deriving from Re Aysha King (A Child) () did not arise.
A v London Borough of Wandsworth and others
Practice Family proceedings. The Court of Appeal, Civil Division allowed a mother's appeal against a decision to make a final care order at an adjourned Issues Resolution Hearing. The court found that the instant proceedings had not been fair to the mother or the children. They had failed to accord to the mother her rights under art 6 the European Convention on Human Rights to a fair hearing, and in all the circumstances had fallen short of safeguarding the procedural and substantive rights of the children under art 8 of the Convention.
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line7669
|
__label__wiki
| 0.581477
| 0.581477
|
Home / Election 2018 / Politics
Cagle campaign brings out the big guns
Election 2018, Politics July 16, 2018 , by Natalie Kissel
Lt. Colonel Oliver North was met by large crowds as he hit the campaign trail supporting Casey Cagle in becoming Georgia’s next Governor.
Gainesville, Ga. – “There’s only one candidate who’s been endorsed. There’s only one candidate for Governor’s office who actually meets the standard of what we need and that’s Casey Cagle,” retired Lt. Colonel Oliver North enthusiastically spoke to the large crowd gathered in Gainesville, Ga. this weekend.
Lt. Governor Casey Cagle has been the center of controversy for several weeks after the release of a secret recording in which Cagle speaks candidly to former gubernatorial candidate Clay Tippins about politics over policy.
Regardless of this recent smear on Cagle’s bid to be Georgia’s next Governor, one fact remains and cannot be disputed, Cagle is the only candidate for governor in Ga. to receive the coveted endorsement from the National Rifle Association (NRA).
With this point being perhaps one of the largest differences between Cagle and his opponent, Brian Kemp, Cagle’s campaign decided it was time to bring out the “big guns”.
President elect of the NRA, North, hit the campaign trail with Cagle on July 14 making three stops across the state to share with constituents why Cagle is the only candidate that will uphold the values of the NRA.
“I’m here because there is only one candidate for governor who has been endorsed by the National Rifle Association,” North said explaining his stance on Georgia’s heated gubernatorial race.
According to North, Cagle has “sterling record as supporter of the Second Amendment”. North went on to say that Cagle “is going to make sure that your gun rights and others are going to be defended when he’s in office as your Governor.”
Doting on Cagle’s record of fighting for the rights of gun owners in Ga., North also brought attention to Cagle’s support of firearms manufacturing and the jobs that have created in this field.
“He’s created the best, pushed through the best legislation, I think, in the country for giving you the right to defend yourselves,” North was met with cheers from the large crowd as he presented Cagle’s record on the Second Amendment.
North added, “I’m just reassured by what he’s already done, and what he’s committed to do.”
Constituents also got a peek into the private life of North as he shared personal stories of how the fight to defend the Second Amendment hits close to home threatening a long standing family tradition.
Casey Cagle with wife Nita stand beside North as he addresses the crowd.
North, grandfather to 17 grandchildren, shared this tradition, “I get to give them a present. The only present I get to give them. Everything else comes from Betsy (wife) and me.”
This present given by North when each child turns 14 is a box containing three items, a Bible, a map and compass, and a 20 gauge shotgun.
North labels each box with “There are three things in this box that you have got to learn how to use, and if you do learn to use all three things, you’ll never go hungry, you’ll never be lost and you need fear nothing, but you have to learn to use all three.”
Each child is then told to read Proverbs, one Proverb per day for a month. After this task is completed and understood, North teaches the children how to use the compass and map. The final item that the child can then master is the use of the shotgun.
North told of how each child must learn to take apart, put together and clean the firearm before they can tackle the task of learning to shoot.
A bonding experience for a grandfather and a grandchild, one which his family holds dear, North joked, “The kids call me by my first name…Colonel.”
But according to North this tradition is threatened and he pointed to the fact that a couple of states have already passed laws where it is illegal for anyone under the age of 21 to possess or purchase a firearm.
Speaking of Virginia, the Lt. Colonel’s current state of residence, North said, “If that happens in Virginia, you know where I’m moving? I’m moving right here.”
North concluded his endorsement with a request, “I want each one of you, if you would please, go out and find a family member and a co-worker and a neighbor and a friend. So now you’re talking four of each one that you know that’s not here today and get them to the polls on the 24th of July so that this man….”.
Upon saying this North turned to Cagle and was drowned out by cheers from the audience.
Cagle briefly shared his thoughts on North’s personal endorsement: “I just value, not only what he has done in his life but also what he is doing by standing up for the Second Amendment.”
Referring to North as a good friend and speaking of the encouragement that North has given him, Cagle simply added, “This man is a real patriot.”
Fetch Your News is a hyper local news outlet that attracts more than 300,000 page views and 3.5 million impressions per month in Dawson, Lumpkin, White, Fannin, Gilmer, Pickens, Union, Towns and Murray counties as well as Cherokee County in N.C. FYNTV attracts approximately 15,000 viewers per week and reaches between 15,000 to 60,000 per week on our Facebook page. For the most effective, least expensive local advertising, call 706-276-6397 or email us at advertise@FetchYourNews.com
« Previous Article Sheriff Jarrard thanks public for help in identifying murder victim
Next Article » Georgia Can't Trust A Liar Like Geoff Duncan - Details on Geoff Duncan's Lies
2018 Brian Kemp campaign Casey Cagle Democratic Election Gainesville George Soros Georgia Governor Gubernatorial Hall County July 24 Lt. Colonel Lt. Governor National Rifle Association NRA Oliver North President President Elect Republican Nomination Runoff Second Amendment Secretary of State Stacey Abrams
Natalie Kissel
Natalie@FetchYourNews.com
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line7672
|
__label__wiki
| 0.677679
| 0.677679
|
Climate change threatens commercial fishers from Maine to North Carolina
June 17, 2019 , Rutgers University
The fishing harbor at Matinicus Isle, Maine. Credit: Malin Pinsky/Rutgers University-New Brunswick
Most fishing communities from North Carolina to Maine are projected to face declining fishing options unless they adapt to climate change by catching different species or fishing in different areas, according to a study in the journal Nature Climate Change.
Some Maine fishing communities were at greatest risk of losing their current fishing options, according to the study by Rutgers and other scientists.
"Some communities like Portland, Maine, are on track to lose out, while others like Mattituck, New York, or Sandwich, Massachusetts, may do better as waters warm," said senior author Malin Pinsky, an associate professor in the Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Natural Resources at Rutgers University-New Brunswick. "Adapting to climate change for many communities will require fundamentally new approaches to fishing. Change has become the new normal."
Fishing has been the economic and cultural lifeblood for many coastal towns and cities along the Northeast coast, in some cases for hundreds of years, Pinsky said. But climate change is expected to have a major impact on the distribution, abundance and diversity of marine species worldwide, the study notes.
The researchers, including Kevin St. Martin, an associate professor in the Department of Geography at Rutgers-New Brunswick, studied how climate change will likely affect the fishing opportunities for 85 communities in New England and the Mid-Atlantic. They used 13 global climate models to project how ocean temperatures are likely to change, then examined ocean temperatures and types of bottom habitat to determine where important commercial fisheries species are likely to move. They also looked at whether the species caught by fishing communities are likely to become more or less abundant in the ocean regions where they typically fish.
Lobster boats anchored off Cutler, Maine. Credit: Malin Pinsky/Rutgers University-New Brunswick
While fish species may shift as the climate changes, fishers often have limits on where they can fish based on local ecological knowledge, vessel size or gear type, the distance to fishing areas, management or conservation measures and, in some cases, traditional fishing territories.
For 24 of 33 species studied, habitat was projected to improve in some Northeast regions and deteriorate in others by 2040 to 2050. For example, monkfish habitat was expected to expand in the Gulf of Maine but become less suitable throughout the Mid-Atlantic Bight, including waters off the New Jersey coast, according to the study.
Sixty-four of the 85 communities are projected to face increased risk (fewer fish resources due to changes in habitat) by 2050, suggesting declines in fishing options if current practices continue. Communities of small trawlers in Maine faced the most risk because of their historical dependence on species, such as Atlantic cod and witch flounder, that are expected to lose suitable habitats.
For communities, adaptation will likely require shifting where fishing vessels go to follow their target species or focusing on "winner" species versus losers, the study says.
More information: Shifting habitats expose fishing communities to risk under climate change, Nature Climate Change (2019). DOI: 10.1038/s41558-019-0503-z , https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-019-0503-z
Journal information: Nature Climate Change
Provided by Rutgers University
Effective fisheries management can reduce extinction risk of marine fish stocks
Why North Carolinian boats are fishing off New Jersey's coast
Marine species distribution shifts will continue under ocean warming
Climate change will redistribute tuna
Fish fences across the tropical seas having large-scale devastating effects
Global warming hits sea creatures hardest
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line7675
|
__label__wiki
| 0.799792
| 0.799792
|
Somewhat New
J. R. McNeill and Peter Engelke, The Great Acceleration: An Environmental History of the Anthropocene since 1945 (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard UP)
John McNeill’s Something New Under the Sun, his environmental history of the twentieth century, is one of the Bibles of work on the Anthropocene—most of all among researchers in the physical sciences, I suspect. McNeill is a member of the Anthropocene Working Group, and he’s been publishing with them for a long time. He was the co-author with Will Steffen and Paul Crutzen of an influential early article (influential in the wrong direction, I think, but that’s for another time) called “The Anthropocene: Are Humans Now Overwhelming the Great Forces of Nature?” But Something New Under the Sun deserves its status independently of McNeill’s later collaborations: it’s an extraordinary survey of environmental change in the twentieth century, in ecosystems of practically every kind. As the AWG has focused more sharply in on a mid-C20th golden spike for the Anthropocene epoch, McNeill’s conspectus has got ever more important to them, and to other researchers concerned with what the AWG is up to.
Still, Something New is a decade and a half old now. A lot has changed, both in environmental historiography and IRL. The obvious question, in the context of this blog: does this new book, with “Great Acceleration” and “Anthropocene” right there in the title, supersede the earlier one for researchers working on the Anthropocene? If you wanted to read just one book to give you a survey of the years when (you might be inclined to believe) the Holocene ticked over into the Anthropocene, should it be this one instead of Something New Under the Sun? The answer is… no. But it’s a useful supplement.
One of the pleasures of The Great Acceleration is that it sent me back to Something New, and reminded me just how good it is. It’s beautifully written: witty and vivid, darkly sardonic rather than indignant as it reels off its lists of horrors. I remember being bowled over by McNeill’s surveys of urban air pollution, of industrial fishing, of disease ecology… his great theme is the sheer scale of twentieth-century ecological change, and it’s as complete a survey of environmental consequences as anyone could have managed in under 400 pages at the end of the 1990s, equally good for reading straight through and for dipping into. The bulk of it, including the bits that really stick in the mind, is emphatically synchronic rather than diachronic. It goes theme by theme through the lithosphere and pedosphere, the atmosphere, the hydrosphere, and the biosphere. In each case, it sketches the direction of change over the course of the century, then accumulates telling examples of such and such an environmental transformation, mostly for the worst, from all around the world. The whole thing is based on a stunning (I mean, stunning) quantity of scholarship. The method is scrupulously fact-finding and resistant to hasty generalisation; McNeill’s brilliant at plucking out telling details and remarkable statistics.
There’s far less on climate change than there would be today, and the book rather underplayed the ecological significance of war and militarism. (“Combat had its impacts on the environment, occasionally acute but usually fleeting,” McNeill concluded, p. 347.) Its method is essentially comparative rather than integrative. There’s tremendous value in a study that puts acid rain and pesticide poisoning under the same lens, but what McNeill doesn’t seek to do is to tease out the underlying economic and political coordinates of the century’s ecological upheavals. Something New doesn’t theorise the changes it describes in terms of the global ecology of core-periphery relations, say, or development and underdevelopment, or resource colonialism, or comparative advantage, Kondratieff waves, ecological debts and surpluses, or anything like that.
The last hundred pages are called “Engines of Change,” and it’s there that McNeill sets himself the daunting task of saying something about the “labyrinthine links” between changes in the physical world and “social, economic, and political trends” (p. 267). But everything depends on what trends means. The narratives of city growth and oil production in that section could easily have gone into the other half of the book, and they squeeze the final chapter on “ideas”: three pages of text on post-60s environmentalism, less than two on “imperialism, decolonization, and democratization,” and the hastiest tour through capitalism and its alternatives, including a fleeting verdict on Marx as a promethean uninterested (at best) in ecology (p. 332). The book as a whole is a stupendous documentation of a century of environmental change, but its resistance to a big causal narrative is striking, and obviously deliberate.
So, given all that, how does the new book change the discussion? Probably the crucial thing about The Great Acceleration is that it wasn’t originally a stand-alone book. It’s a spin-off from a thousand-page monster of a multi-authored thing called Global Interdependence: The World After 1945, within which it was originally a single chapter. Global Interdependence is itself just part of a hulking Harvard UP world history series. And The Great Acceleration is co-authored, the work of McNeill alongside Peter Engelke. It’s not a surprise, then, if it sometimes has a bit of a written-to-order feel.
If Something New already preferred synchronic to diachronic analysis, The Great Acceleration takes that preference still further. In part, that’s because of its declared historiographical standpoint. It presents the whole period since 1945 as a single hectic surge, as one “eccentric historical moment,” still ongoing but now visibly running out of puff or undermining itself: “the Great Acceleration in its present form cannot last for long” (p. 5; cf. 208–9). Fair enough, perhaps. But even taking that standpoint doesn’t altogether explain why there’s so little sense of forward narrative. There’s essentially nothing about the Great Acceleration’s notional starting point: World War II and its immediate aftermaths are nearly absent. There’s no attempt at the beginning to say “here are the postwar starting conditions, the trends that were already underway, the changes that were brewing, the apparent certainties that would later be turned on their heads”; and at the end, there’s no attempt to say “here’s what’s changed since 1945.” Gradually, as the book goes on, the 1970s emerge as an important inflection point. But that’s more through repeated allusions to the end of the trente glorieuses and the emergence of institutional environmentalism than to any organised narrative that lays out a thesis about how and why the environmental changes of the 60s were different to those of the 80s.
In that light, McNeill and Engelke’s most telling, and for me least convincing, claim is this one: that “at the beginning of the twenty-first century the global economy operated in much the same fashion as it had since 1945” (p. 154). That’s either a sincere but tremendously strong claim about historical continuity, or a decision to pitch the analysis at a level of distanced abstraction that seems to me definitely counterproductive.
It’s as if for McNeill and Engelke the Great Acceleration can only be grasped as a single whole. I think the opposite. What’s ideally wanted for a world environmental history of the last threescore and ten, I think, is a deep narrative of the tensions that arose and were resolved, the trends that swelled or died away, the struggles that played out through time: an account of the unpredictable historical course of these decades, in which certain configurations of technology and its deployment, resource availability, trade, power, money, military build-up, decolonization and recolonization, etc. etc. eventually turned out to produce a set of ecological outcomes that could have been otherwise. That’s what we need before we can have a robust sense of the specific biogeochemical configurations that operated on the decadal scale around the proposed GSSP for the Anthropocene in 1952.
The other obvious difference between the older book and this new one is in their scope and size. Something New is essentially a survey of the twentieth century, though there are plenty of erudite backwards glances; it comes to 421 densely printed pages. The Great Acceleration is set up as a specifically postwar history, and there are 275 more loosely typeset pages. All this is a bit awkward for the latter book, at least in my imaginary marketplace of Anthropocene-enthusiasts choosing between the two. It’s short enough that it has not much more room for detail about the postwar decades than Something New, but not so much shorter that it makes a readier primer for readers in a hurry.
The Great Acceleration is served up as four chapters, but really there are eight: each of the four contains two more or less discrete halves (“energy and population”; “climate and biological diversity”; “cities and the economy”; “Cold War and environmental culture”). I said above that the book’s a useful supplement to Something New. Specifically, if you’ve read the older book, then what you really want to do is read chapter four of the new one alongside it. Whereas a lot of the best stuff before then is familiar from Something New, the last fifty pages are a brilliant addition to McNeill’s earlier study, and in some respects a rethinking of it. (He’s published a lot about war and ecology in the intervening years.) Compared to Something New, The Great Acceleration offers a much-expanded account of the US and Soviet nuclear archipelagos, especially at Hanford and Mayak; an almost all-new discussion of Mao’s crash programme of military industrialization in inland southwest China and the horrible madness of the Great Leap Forward; and a powerful survey of “environmental warfare” (anti-guerrilla defoliation and the like) in southern Africa and Vietnam. At least as importantly, there’s a much more judicious and generous introduction to environmental thought, putting India centre-stage among the environmentalisms of the poor—though the section on “Environmentalism and Socialism” is just an account of the ecological ills of Soviet and PRC state policy.
Chapter four is a cracker; chapter three is the weakest. Its explication of “the merits of capitalism” (p. 148) seems unnecessarily relentless to me, and whatever you feel about that, a frustrating proportion of it isn’t about (a) environmental history, or (b) the years since 1945. There’s a lot of room given over to surveys of urban planning since Classical Rome, GDP growth rates, and the history of changes in living standards. It’s hard to know what you’re meant to take away from a sentence like “America’s Frederick Law Olmstead, Britain’s Ebenezer Howard, Scotland’s Patrick Geddes, Austria’s Camillo Sitte, and Germany’s Reinhard Baumeister were a few of the iconic figures in the early history of city planning and related disciplines.” I’m not sure who needs to have it explained that “Americanization, it should be noted, is a construct that historians have debated for decades,” or that “like other regions, Africa was and is a heterogeneous place” (pp. 111, 144, 150). Another head-scratcher: the reference to “the integration or reintegration of large parts of the formerly colonized and socialist worlds into the advanced capitalist economy” (p. 129). Surely McNeill and Engelke don’t think that colonies were (are) anything other than an integral part of the capitalist world economy?
There are some points where The Great Acceleration seems to be definitely behind the curve compared to that other big beast in the field of Anthropocene history-writing, Bonneuil and Fressoz’s The Shock of the Anthropocene. When McNeill and Engelke write that “the issue [of anthropogenic climate change] became political for the first time” in the 1980s, or that “before 1950 [the politics of the nonhuman world] was an issue mainly for aristocrats and blue-bloods anxious about birds, game animals, and property rights” (pp. 76, 204)… well, I think that Bonneuil and Fressoz have shown, if it still needed showing, that that just isn’t the case, that in fact “it is impossible without fundamental self-deception to represent the last 250 years as the progressive emergence from an initial unawareness of environmental damage” (B & F, p. 290).
Lastly, what about the thesis of the Anthropocene itself? The Great Acceleration shares Something New‘s emphasis on radical ecological ruptures (“the post-1945 period deserves to be marked off as different from what came before in environmental history,” p. 208). And the new book argues that that emphasis fits neatly with the proposal to declare a new epoch of geological time that begins soon after WW2. I’ve argued the opposite: that fixing the Anthropocene’s golden spike as late as 1952 actually emphasises continuity on the decades-to-centuries scale, because doing so makes it obvious (or it should do) that masses of anthropogenic world-ecological transformation had already happened before the notional start date of the Anthropocene. But here are McNeill and Engelke:
Our best guess is that the Anthropocene, in the fullness of time, will seem worthy both as an epoch in Earth history and as a period in human history, even if geologists and historians understand the term differently. … As we see it, the Anthropocene began when human actions became the main driving forces behind some basic Earth systems, such as the carbon cycle and the nitrogen cycle, and the general human impact on the Earth and its biosphere lurched upward to new levels … only after 1945 did human actions become genuine driving forces behind crucial Earth systems. (pp 207–8)
Fine, fine. But why must the Anthropocene begin when and only when humans get into the driving seat? The Jurassic didn’t begin when the Jura mountains became the driving force behind Earth systems. McNeill’s taste for a solidly empirical emphasis on environmental consequences rather than on causation is inverted here, at just the point where I think it’s most needed. But that’s a lonely furrow I’m ploughing, so far…
Author erinaceusPosted on July 3, 2016 July 3, 2016
Previous Previous post: Lights Out
Next Next post: Thank the Mouse Day
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line7676
|
__label__wiki
| 0.768935
| 0.768935
|
Sophie Turner Reveals What Priyanka Chopra Taught Her About Confidence
posted by Emily Lee - Apr 12, 2019
Priyanka Chopra is sister-in-law goals. Sophie Turner opened up about her relationship with her fellow #Jsister in a new interview with Harper's Bazaar UK, revealing Priyanka gave her a key piece of advice about confidence. Sophie admitted she feels like "nobody really has that much" when it comes to confidence except, perhaps, her sister-in-law.
"I asked her, 'Where do you get all this confidence from?'," Sophie said, "and she said, 'Well, of course I'm insecure about bits and bobs, but if you want to get the reaction that you want to get, you have to walk into that room and be confident, and walk into that room and own it, and make people feel welcome and loved and happy to be there with you.'"
"So that's what I've learned about confidence," she continued. "I think nobody really has that much, but if you own it and pretend to be that person, you'll get a much warmer response, and so I'm trying to do that."
While Sophie and Priyanka aren't officially in-laws yet, they will be soon. Sophie and Joe Jonas are set to tie the knot sometime this summer, but it seems like this family is already as close as can be.
Photo: Sophie Turner
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line7679
|
__label__cc
| 0.509695
| 0.490305
|
Bill H.2751
SECTION 1. For the purpose of establishing a pilot regional transit authority enterprise fund, the regional transit authorities are hereby authorized to create, Regional Transit Authority Enterprise Funds, provided however, the authorities shall receive approval from the secretary of the department of transportation for any projects to be constructed or operated as an enterprise fund project. All revenues and receipts generated by the authority in association with the operation of said approved enterprise fund projects shall be credited to said fund and used in accordance with this section. Expenditures from said fund shall be made for the following purposes: (i) for the payment of the principal, including sinking fund payments of and premium, if any, and interest on special obligation bonds of the authority, as hereinafter described, issued for payment of the cost of construction of said project, (ii) for the maintenance of, or provision for, any reserves, additional security, insurance or other form of credit enhancement required or provided for in any trust agreement entered into pursuant to this section to secure such bonds; (iii) for the operation and maintenance expenses of said project; and (iv) for the study, design, construction and reconstruction of roads, exit and entrance ramps and highways in order to implement a traffic mitigation plan to address the increased traffic flow which may be associated with the operation of any project, provided, that said plan shall be completed in conjunction with the construction of any said project garage, when necessary.
SECTION 2. Notwithstanding any provisions of chapter 161B of the General Laws to the contrary, neither the income nor the expenses allocable to said fund shall be included in the calculation of the authority's net cost of service, nor shall subsection (c) of section 8 of said chapter 161B apply to expenses made from said fund; provided, however, that said subsection (c) shall apply to expenses to be funded by excess revenues, if any, transferred to the authority for purposes not related to said fund.
SECTION 3. Notwithstanding the provisions of any general or special law to the contrary, including without limitation section 60A of chapter 29 of the General Laws, any bonds issued by the authority to finance the construction of said projects shall be special obligations of the authority payable from special receipts to the extent available, and in any case payable from monies credited to said fund together with other pledged revenues, which additional revenue shall not be considered revenue of the fund, provided, that revenues related to projects other that the approved project being financed may not be pledged without the prior approval of the secretary of the department of transportation. Such bonds shall not be general obligations of the commonwealth. Bonds may be issued in such manner and on such terms and conditions as the authority may determine in accordance with the provisions of this paragraph, and, to the extent not inconsistent with the provisions hereof, provisions of general law for the issuance of bonds of the authority. Bonds may be secured by a trust agreement entered into by the authority, which trust agreement may pledge or assign all or any part of monies credited to said fund and rights to receive the same, whether existing or coming into existence and whether held or thereafter acquired, and the proceeds thereof together with any other revenues as the authority may determine to be necessary or desirable to enhance the credit of said bonds as security in order to prevent default.
The authority is also authorized to enter into additional security, insurance or other forms of credit enhancement which may be secured on a parity or subordinate basis with the bonds. A pledge in any such trust agreement or credit enhancement agreement shall be valid and binding from the time such pledge shall be made without any physical delivery or further act, and the lien of such pledge shall be valid and binding as against all parties having claims of any kind in tort, contract or otherwise, irrespective of whether such parties have notice thereof. Any such pledge shall be perfected by filing of the trust agreement or credit enhancement agreement in the records of the authority, and no filing need be made under chapter 106 of the General Laws. Any such trust agreement or credit enhancement agreement may establish provisions defining defaults and establishing remedies and other matters relating to the rights and security of the holders of the bonds or other secured parties as determined by the authority, including provisions relating to the establishment of reserves, the issuance of additional or refunding bonds, whether or not secured on a parity basis, the application of receipts, monies or funds pledged pursuant to such agreement, hereinafter referred to as "pledged funds," and other matters deemed necessary or desirable by the authority for the security of such bonds, and may also regulate the custody, investment and application of monies. Any such bonds shall be deemed to be investment securities under said chapter 106, shall be securities in which any public officer, fiduciary, insurance company, financial institution or investment company may properly invest funds and shall be securities which may be deposited with any public custodian for any purpose for which the deposit of bonds is authorized by law. Any such bonds, their transfer and the income therefrom, including profit on the sale thereof; shall at all times be exempt from taxation by and within the commonwealth. Within three months of the first issuance of special obligation bonds under this section, the authority shall report the results of the sale, including the cost of issuance, the interest rate for which the bonds sold, and the rating assigned by the bond rating agencies, as well as an analysis of how these compare to the authorities most recent bond issuance. Said report shall be submitted to the authorities advisory board, the joint committee on transportation and the secretary of the department of transportation.
SECTION 4. The authority shall incorporate in its annual budget request a report which details the revenues retained by any enterprise fund project, the expenditures made from said fund, and the remaining fund balance or deficit from the prior fiscal year.
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line7681
|
__label__wiki
| 0.644
| 0.644
|
The Schulze Organ at Doncaster Parish Church
In 1997, Mander Organs (then under the name N P Mander Ltd.) was commissioned by the PCC of Doncaster Parish Church to undertake a feasibility study of the restoration of the Schulze organ at Doncaster Parish Church. The study was funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund, which was considering providing funding for a full restoration…
The Restoration of a G.P. England Chamber Organ of 1806
This G P England organ of 1806 was purchased by Noel Mander in 1967 and resided in his music room until he retired. It was then fully restored in our works in 2011 during a quiet period, in the hope that a home would be found for it eventually. This occurred in 2017, when it…
The Organ in St George’s Southall and its Restoration
This report describes the surviving Jordan organ parts and sets out the evidence for the recreation of those parts that were missing and determines the original layout of the of the organ as far as possible. In addition, the report describes how the work of restoring the organ was carried out. The report can be…
The Organ of the Sacred Heart Wimbledon and its Restoration
The 1912 J. W. Walker organ at The Sacred Heart Wimbledon is a rare survivor of instruments in Britain. Unlike most instruments of its era, it remains almost unaltered, retaining its original pneumatic action. Until relatively recently, the treatment of an organ retaining its pneumatic action, would have been for it to be electrified as…
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line7684
|
__label__cc
| 0.660294
| 0.339706
|
Who is St. Maria?
How you can help St. Maria
From the Bishops
About Relics
The Little Saint of Great Mercy
From September to November of 2015 the major relics of St. Maria Goretti made a pilgrimage to the United States. Named the “Pilgrimage of Mercy,” it was the first time that her body traveled to the USA.
While St. Maria is universally known as the Patroness of Purity, her greatest virtue was her unyielding forgiveness of her attacker even in the midst of horrendous physical suffering, a forgiveness that would completely convert him and set him on a path to personal holiness. In March 2015, His Holiness, Pope Francis, announced an Extraordinary Holy Year of Mercy beginning December 8, 2015. This visit of the major relics of St. Maria Goretti was an effort on the part of the Holy See and Treasures of the Church to prepare and catechize the United States for this great celebration in the life of the Church.
While the tour is now over, a second tour of the USA is being worked on which is expected to take place in the spring of 2017. Any announcement pertaining to such a tour will be published on this site.
I am delighted that the Church in the United States will have the opportunity to celebrate the Holy Year of Mercy through the inspiring story of the life and death of St. Maria Goretti! May the opportunity to reverence her relics demonstrate the power of Divine Mercy and forgiveness awaiting everyone of us who takes the message of Jesus seriously to heart.
Cardinal Edwin O’Brien- Grand Master of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem
I recommend the prayerful participation of all the faithful in the visit of St. Maria Goretti’s relics. Saint Maria and her story prepare us for the Year of Mercy. May we be inspired to accept forgiveness and to offer it.
Bishop Timothy Doherty- Bishop of Lafayette-in-Indiana
The Pilgrimage of Mercy is an opportunity for the faithful to venerate St. Maria Goretti’s sacred relics and to begin to experience what the pontiff spoke of in March when he said that through this Year of Mercy the Church would “find in this Jubilee the joy of rediscovering and rendering fruitful God’s mercy.
Bishop Edward Slattery- Bishop of Tulsa
How St. Maria Brought Me Healing…
Pardoning offences becomes the clearest expression of merciful love, and for us Christians it is an imperative from which we cannot excuse ourselves. At times how hard it seems to forgive! And yet pardon is the instrument placed into our fragile hands to attain serenity of heart.
– Pope Francis, Misericordiae Vultus: Bull of Indiction of the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy
While St. Maria is universally known as the Patroness of Purity, her greatest virtue was her unyielding forgiveness of her attacker even in the midst of horrendous physical suffering, a forgiveness that would completely convert him and set him on a path to personal holiness. In March His Holiness, Pope Francis, announced an Extraordinary Holy Year of Mercy beginning December 8th. This visit of the major relics of St. Maria Goretti is an effort on the part of her Basilica Shrine, the Congregation of the Causes of Saints, and Treasures of the Church, to prepare and catechize the United States for this great celebration in the life of the Church.
Copyright © 2015 Treasures of the Church. All rights reserved.
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line7685
|
__label__wiki
| 0.854982
| 0.854982
|
The Friends of the Museum
A LITTLE MORE than 500 days has passed since Orhan Pamuk opened the doors of his Museum of Innocence to the public in Istanbul’s Çukurcuma neighborhood. It has been a lively, intense, and dangerous 500 days, during which time Istanbul witnessed frequent outbursts of violence and the destruction of any trace of innocence it might still have possessed. The loss of Istanbul’s innocence had been a gradual process: on May 1, 2013 (four days after Pamuk’s museum celebrated its first anniversary), the city’s governor abruptly canceled the May Day gathering in Taksim square. When the government had opened the square for the May Day gathering in 2010, after a 32-year-long ban by previous administrations, the move was much praised by the country’s leftists and liberals. Four weeks after the cancellation of the May Day gathering a small group of die-hard environmentalists kick-started the events in Gezi park, struggling to protect one of the last green areas in Taksim, where the government wanted to install a kitschy shopping mall. During the early days of protests, when local youths marched to the park, tourists continued to fill Pamuk’s museum. As the violence snowballed and spilled onto the streets I walked past the museum door, looked at the building’s red facade and tried imagining the silence inside. The museum stands at the entrance of a street that connects Karaköy (which is adjacent to Bosporus) to Cihangir (which is close to Gezi Park) — a neighborhood that had its share of tear gas during the events.
I had first visited the museum in mid-April last year before it had even opened its doors to the public. Pamuk had arranged for me to visit the building for a short piece commissioned by a British paper. Early one morning I knocked on the door and was greeted by the museum’s first curator, who showed me around. After her departure I enjoyed, for more than an hour, being alone among the museum’s fictional objects and sound installations, which had been freshly installed in the building’s three stories.
Listening to Turkish contemporary artist Cevdet Erek’s brilliant sound recordings of a stilettoed woman’s walk among the streets of Nişantaşı was a priceless experience. So was the chance to get a close look at the small bed of the book’s protagonist Kemal and at Pamuk’s manuscript, in which I could see, in the writer’s longhand, the early sketches of Kemal’s character. In another installation I heard Istanbul’s birds as they clapped their wings; leaving the building I felt sure I would come back to the place and to its silent innocence.
Before he allowed writers and journalists like me inside, Pamuk had brought another group of people, a group that must have mattered much more — his neighbors, most of whom are antique dealers. I heard stories about how they had explored the objects of the museum with much pleasure. They were proud to have been the first visitors of the place. It made sense since they had been on that street long before the museum was even an idea in Pamuk’s mind.
In the days I passed by the museum I had paid little attention to its neighbors. When The New York Times had listed Istanbul in a “places to visit this summer” article last year, a picture represented the city that showed those neighbors and their families as they visited the museum. “How can those people represent Istanbul?” one user complained on Twitter. He might have preferred seeing smartly dressed Turkish businessmen on the page instead of those not-so-glamorous locals. But then the neighborhood did belong to those people, in whose eyes we must have been little more than visitors. Some of them shared with Pamuk an impressive devotion to the art of collecting. Their shops, around a dozen of them in Çukurcuma, look like miniature museums of innocence themselves. They are similar products of meticulous labor spent collecting objects.
One morning in August I visited those antique shops. They seemed to me to have been placed there as an extension of Pamuk’s artistic vision, so brilliant was his choice of locale. I visited Esra Aysun, the museum’s new curator, in her office adjacent to the building, and she described it as the museum becoming an “organic part” of a neighborhood those shops had defined for so long. “We didn’t change the neighborhood at all,” she said. “Instead we set up an institution that is looking after its objects just like they look after theirs.”
Çukurcuma’s antique shops (antikacılar in Turkish) had long witnessed the life in the neighborhood. They helped make it safe when Taksim was not so safe a place in 1990s — a time when the tension between the city’s Kurds, Roma people, sexual minorities, and the police force was at its peak. This was also a time when torture in police stations was widespread and street violence a basic fact of life.
Mahmut Gezmez, the owner of Yaşam Antik, seemed like a grave character when I first met him in his dimmed shop filled with many objects made of copper. He described how the number of his customers had dropped after the protests this summer. But when asked to talk about his neighborhood he cheered up. “Our customer profile changed dramatically thanks to the museum,” he said. “Young and beautiful people are now frequenting this street. They are not shopping that much, but you know, one can’t expect young people to shop that much. I totally forgive them.” When I asked him whether he approved of the way Pamuk’s curator displayed the museum’s objects, he said he didn’t feel qualified to answer the question. “Professional architects designed those object cabinets in the museum,” he said, “who am I to criticize them? I think the museum is very nice.” In an even more cheerful mood he told me how his fellow antique dealers learned English to better communicate with new customers. “Me? So far I have not managed to master the language,” he said. “My English consists of two words: hello and welcome.” Gezmez, who had traveled to Istanbul from Adana (a city which the country’s other major novelist, Yaşar Kemal, beautifully describes in his epic books), promised to read Pamuk’s books and improve his English before I left his shop.
I then visited Fikret’in Dünyası (“Fikret’s World”) owned by a young collector named Fikret Bilgin Yılmaz. Yılmaz said he had devoted his life to collecting; he focuses on toys and has been collecting them for the last 15 years. “Orhan Bey purchased many of the toys for his museum from my own shop in Cihangir,” he said. (Everyone I spoke to that day referred to Pamuk in this way, as “Mr Orhan.”) “Orhan Bey is not a collector in the classical sense of the word. He collected stuff in order to create this museum and then he seems to have quitted the habit. Another famous Turkish writer, Sunay Akın, is also a frequent visitor.” Akın owns a museum in the city’s Anatolian side named Istanbul Toy Museum (http://www.istanbuloyuncakmuzesi.com/eng/). “I think Pamuk is the better writer and Akın is the better collector,” Yılmaz opined.
Another shop I visited on the street was virtually empty except for its owner, Haydar Tekin, who said he had lately decided to turn his place into a “transportation facility.” “My family had lived here for more than a century,” said Tekin, whose surname means “deserted place” in Turkish. “The grandfather of my grandfather came here first. Our family witnessed the transformation of this neighborhood over many decades. We know who helped Çukurcuma and who did not. Let me tell you,” he said in a passionate voice, “Orhan Bey is a very good fellow. His museum added energy to our neighborhood! If respectable people are now frequenting these streets it is because of his museum.”
Tekin then complained about the coverage of Gezi events by the international media. “They represented this city as if it was a war zone,” he said. “In fact not much had changed here. All the violence took place around the park. It was peaceful in Çukurcuma.”
Ahmet Ok, who runs a leather shop on the other end of the street, begged to differ. Living in an apartment in Cihangir, Ok experienced firsthand how the tear gas used by the police affected even the residential areas that had nothing to do with the events.
Ok told me how things have changed over the last four years as people from the United States and Europe started renting houses in the neighborhood. He said he had been a tourist guide for more than 25 years; when I suggested whether he was bored sitting behind a desk all day long in his shop he said he had lately become an avid reader of books. (He confessed to enjoying My Name is Red, Pamuk’s IMPAC winning novel, more than the Innocence.) “I heard that Pamuk is about to finish a new book and that it is about a boza seller,” he said. “I wonder whether he will build a museum for the boza seller as well.”
Pamuk has frequented the streets of the neighborhood for the last 13 years. When he is in town (which is not always, since Pamuk is lecturing at Columbia University one semester a year) he visits the shops and talks to their owners. In Turkish we call antique dealers antikacılar, which is a neutral word. Antika insan (an antiquated person), on the other hand, is not so neutral: it means a weird kind of person, which the protagonist of Pamuk’s book arguably is. (Following the death of his lover, he collects everything she left behind.) During my childhood, my relatives told me that writers, artists, and such people were antika insanlar, and that I should keep my distance from them. Seeing how much the Nobel laureate, his antique-dealer neighbors, and the thousands of protestors who had wanted to preserve trees in a public park had in common, I feel glad that I have never taken their advice.
Kaya Genç is LARB’s Istanbul correspondent.
Turkey Is Just a Thread That Ties All These Interesting Ideas Together
Listening to Vampire Weekend in Istanbul
Through the Inverted Telescope: On Pankaj Mishra's "From the Ruins of Empire"
By Drew Calvert
Outside the Zone: Searching for Sarai Sierra
By John Romano
To Better Understand Elizabeth Warren, Try Reading Her Husband
By John F. Muller
Violence Against Women from Ancient Rome to Today: On Mithu Sanyal’s “Rape: From Lucretia to #MeToo”
By Stephanie Sy-Quia
Confronting the Unwatchable
By Maggie Hennefeld, Nicholas Baer
States of Desire: On Lisa Taddeo’s “Three Women”
By Helena Duncan
Identity Shaping on Social Media: On Jia Tolentino’s “Trick Mirror: Reflections on Self-Delusion”
By Maggie Levantovskaya
ADD TO YOUR BOOKSHELF
ADD TO BOOKSHELFCANCEL
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line7686
|
__label__wiki
| 0.520682
| 0.520682
|
Sex, Symbol, and Satire: Day 5
Gulliver’s Travels
“Undoubtedly, philosophers are in the right when they tell us that nothing is great or little otherwise than by comparison.”
Satire is at once funny and uncomfortable. G.K. Chesterton said “A man is angry at a libel because it is false, but at a satire because it is true.”
As Karen Swallow Prior writes in Booked: Literature in the Soul of Me:
While I saw fit to devise an individual moral code suited to me, Swift recognized that real wisdom comes not from the voice within, but from the collective wisdom of the community of humankind over the ages. Yes, from God ultimately, but in our imperfect human understanding and application, strength of heart and mind—wisdom—is built in community, not individually.
In judging the vice and folly of individuals, Swift used the scales of collective wisdom. And since the purpose of satire is to correct human folly and wickedness, it seems that Swift both sought and expected improvements, the very definition of optimism, not the pessimism with which some of his critics charge him because of his biting satire. Swift’s frankness, his realism, his high view of God and humanity, and his belief in the essential nature of community all shed light on one of the funniest and most poignant spins he puts on sex in Gulliver’s Travels, a point he slips in so subtly it’s easy to miss. But once recognized, it is powerful.
Satire is the ridicule of folly for the purpose of correction. Name some examples of satire in film, art, TV, and literature.
Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.
Literature, Liturgy & The Arts
When Gulliver’s Travels was published in 1726, the author’s name did not appear on the book. The title page read “Travels into several remote Nations of the World, by Lemuel Gulliver …” Many people accepted this as fact. Travel books of the time told many tales that were no more strange than the imaginary adventures of Gulliver. One sea captain even claimed that he knew Captain Gulliver well.
Other readers condemned the book as full of exaggerations.Although it became one of the most famous books for children, it was not written for children. It was savage satire aimed at the human race. The tiny Lilliputians are vain, malicious, and bloodthirsty. The king and the court of Lilliput are a parody of the English king and court. The giants of Brobdingnag are amiable, but commonplace and insensitive. Laputa is full of the foolish philosophers and scientists whom Swift despised. The Houyhnhnms are horses who use degraded men, Yahoos, as men use horses elsewhere. Looking at mankind through the eyes of horses, Swift sees people as vicious, greedy, and ignorant.
From its first appearance Gulliver’s Travels delighted its readers instead of shocking them. In spite of his bitterness, Swift took a dry delight in making his narrative sound real even when it was fantastic. Children could enjoy the marvelous adventures of a traveler among pygmies and giants, on a flying island, and in a country where horses talk. Gulliver’s Travels soon became a children’s classic.
A large part of what Swift wrote is made up of pamphlets on political or ecclesiastical affairs and must be read in the light of history. But A Tale of a Tub, a satire on false religion, and The Battle of the Books, a burlesque of literary controversy (both published in 1704), are still read for their comic ridicule of human folly. Drapier’s Letters (1724), written to expose a minor scandal in the government of Ireland by the English, lifts the issue to something universal—the human rights of men against tyrants. The Journal to Stella is a brilliant picture of a brilliant age.
“Swift, Jonathan,” Compton’s Encyclopedia (Chicago, IL: Compton’s Encyclopedia, 2015).
Karen Swallow Prior
Karen Swallow Prior is Professor of English at Liberty University and an award-winning teacher. She is a contributing writer for The Atlantic.com and for Christianity Today, where she blogs frequently at Her.meneutics. Her writing has appeared in Relevant, Think Christian, and Salvo. She is a Research Fellow with the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, a member of INK: A Creative Collective, and a member of the Faith Advisory Council of the Humane Society of the United States.
Booked: Literature in the Soul of Me
Booked draws on classics like Great Expectations, delights such as Charlotte’s Web, the poetry of Hopkins and Donne, and more. This thoughtful, straight-up memoir will be pure pleasure for book-lovers, teachers, and anyone who has struggled to find a way to articulate the inexpressible through a love of story.
Posted in G.K. Chesterton, Jonathan Swift, Karen Swallow Prior
Previous Post Sex, Symbol, and Satire: Day 4
Next Post Philia and Patriotism by Kate Thomsen Gremillion
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line7694
|
__label__cc
| 0.728154
| 0.271846
|
Bluesroute: Arthur Ebeling & Heer Peer
za 19 januari 2019 - 21:00
Zaterdag 19 januari in Café Loburg: Arthur Ebeling & Heer Peer ! Aanvang 21:00 uur. Gratis entree.
Arthur Ebeling is known in Holland as one of the most authentic, awesome and all around rhythm 'n blues guitarists and singer-songwriters. Appreciated for his intricate and divers techniques, conveys an obvious love for his Gretsch-guitar, music and performing. Arthur takes his audience on a journey of unending surprise and delights. Arthur's music is an unique, recognizable, timeless and catching mix between rhythm 'n blues, rock 'n roll, country-blues - in a jazzy sauce. With Ray Charles he shares his soul, with Tom Waits his rawness and with Eddie Cochran his rock 'n roll.
Ebeling-originals are very own, recognizable, varied and just lovely - they sound like you've known them for years. In his song worldly wisdom and romance clash, heartache and and humor meet. His wry lyrics give way to an unconventional vision of life.
Arthur plays solo as well as with one or more members of his band. Solo, playing the guitar like nobody does, becoming one with his Gretsch, and stamping his foot, he sounds like a whole band. With double bass, saxophone and percussion, the Arthur Ebeling Band is out of this world (too). Arthur Ebeling may be from Holland, but if you didn't know, you might think that he had come all the way from New Orleans.
Arthur Ebeling starred in the 1996 tour 'Gretsch on the Road'. He plays in Holland, Europe and the rest of the world. He has toured succesfully in England, the USA, Russia, Brazil, France and Belgium and most recently in Spain. He has opened shows for artists like Taj Mahal, Buddy Guy, Ann Peebles and Joan Armatrading.
Website: http://www.arthurebeling.nl/
Facebook: Arthur Ebeling
DATE: Saturday January 19, 2019
TIME: 21:00 hrs
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line7697
|
__label__wiki
| 0.511845
| 0.511845
|
Back Carson McCullers: The Member of the Wedding: A Play (LOA eBook Classic) Print
Carson McCullers: The Member of the Wedding: A Play (LOA eBook Classic)
Edited by Carlos L. Dews
All-American loneliness and “a universe of yearnings” in The Member of the Wedding
New LOA collection reveals Carson McCullers as “much more than a novelist”
Nick Norwood: What Carson McCullers knew about cotton mills and misery
Celebrated worldwide for her masterly novels, Carson McCullers was equally accomplished, and equally moving, when writing in other forms. The play The Member of the Wedding (1950), adapted from her 1946 novel at the urging of her close friend Tennessee Williams is, like Thornton Wilder’s Our Town, a great American poem for the stage. At its center is tomboy Frankie Addams, a motherless adolescent neglected by her father and utterly bored with life in small-town Georgia until romantic longing is ignited by her older brother’s wedding. A hit on Broadway, running for more than five hundred performances, it won the Drama Critics’ Circle Award and soon inspired a film.
The Member of the Wedding: A Play is also in the Library of America collection Carson McCullers: Stories, Plays, & Other Writings.
Carson McCullers, “The Great Eaters of Georgia”
Carson McCullers, “Home for Christmas”
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line7700
|
__label__wiki
| 0.810044
| 0.810044
|
Back Edith Wharton: Novels Print
Edith Wharton: Novels
The House of Mirth | The Reef | The Custom of the Country | The Age of Innocence
Edited by R.W.B. Lewis
“To read the four novels in this volume is to become impressed anew with Wharton’s powers as a satirist—you could almost say a black humorist—and to be struck, perhaps for the first time, by the cool modernism of her writing.” — The New York Times Book Review
Haunting, powerful, passionate: Martin Scorsese’s The Age of Innocence
Edith Wharton’s full and glamorous life bridged the literary worlds of two continents and two centuries. Born in 1862 into an exclusive New York society against whose rigid codes of behavior she often rebelled, she lived to regret the passing of that stable if old-fashioned community and to appreciate the sense of personal identity its definitions provided. She became a prolific professional writer, author of more than forty published volumes, including novels, short stories (many of them tales of the supernatural), poetry, war reportage, travel writing, and books on gardens and house decoration. An expatriate in France for three decades before her death in 1937, she included among her many distinguished friends men as various as Henry James, Theodore Roosevelt, Kenneth Clark, and André Gide.
The four novels in this Library of America volume show Wharton at the height of her powers as a social observer and critic, examining American and European lives with a vision rich in detail, satire, and tragedy. In all of them her strong and autobiographical impulse is disciplined by her writer’s craft and her unfailing regard for her audience.
The House of Mirth (1905), Wharton’s tenth book and her first novel of contemporary life, was an immediate runaway bestseller, with 140,000 copies in print within three months of publication. The story of young Lily Bart and her tragic sojourn among the upper class of turn-of-the-century New York, it touches on the insidious effects of social convention and upon the sexual and financial aggression to which women of independent spirit were exposed.
The Reef (1912) is the story of two couples whose marriage plans are upset by the revelation of a past affair between George Darrow (a mature bachelor) and Sophy Vener, who happens to be the fiancée of his future wife’s stepson. Henry James called the novel “a triumph of method,” and it shares the rich nuance of his own The Golden Bowl.
The Custom of the Country (1913) is the amatory saga of Undine Spragg of Apex City—beautiful, spoiled, and ambitious—whose charms conquer New York and European society. Vulgar and voracious, she presides over a series of men, representing the old and new aristocracies of both continents, in a comedy drawn unmistakably from life.
The Age of Innocence (1920) is set in the New York of Wharton’s youth, when the rules and taboos of her social “tribe” held as-yet unchallenged sway. A quasi-anthropological study of a remembered culture and its curious conventions, it tells the story of the Countess Olenska (formerly Ellen Mingott), refugee from a disastrous European marriage, and Newland Archer, heir to a tradition of respectability and family honor, as they struggle uneasily against their sexual attraction.
R.W.B. Lewis (1917–2002), volume editor, was professor of English and American Studies at Yale University. He was the author of Edith Wharton: A Biography, The American Adam, The Picaresque Saint, Trials of the Word, and The Poetry of Hart Crane.
This Library of America series edition is printed on acid-free paper and features Smyth-sewn binding, a full cloth cover, and a ribbon marker.
Edith Wharton: Novels is kept in print by a gift from the Helena Rubinstein Foundation to the Guardians of American Letters Fund.
ISBN: 978-0-94045031-8 1328 pages
N° 30 Library of America Series
Subscribers can purchase the slipcased edition by signing in to their accounts.
Edith Wharton: Collected Stories 1911–1937 LOA N°122
Edith Wharton: Selected Poems
Edith Wharton: Novellas and Other Writings LOA N°47
Edith Wharton: Four Novels of the 1920s LOA N°271
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line7701
|
__label__cc
| 0.5914
| 0.4086
|
A hip guide to gay Barcelona: gay bars, parties & clubs as well as gay pride, LGBTQ+ events & queer culture.
lgbt /
TangoQueer
By Ferenz Jacobs
© Maudéa
According to legend, the first tango steps were not invented by a guy in a tight suit and an Argentine beauty in a red dress, but by two men. While waiting their turn in the brothels of a late 19th-century Buenos Aires, so the story goes, men would dance together in a close embrace. Tango became the vertical expression of their horizontal desire, foreplay if you will. It may have been better than the sex itself. According to Borges, women were repelled by the dance’s debauchery.
Flash-forward to Barcelona today, where tango teachers Carmen María Hergos and Dafne Saldaña are gender-bending the rules of this erotic dance once again. Every Tuesday and Thursday they will teach everyone to tango, regardless of gender. Afterwards, El Rouge bar becomes a queer milonga. It doesn’t matter who leads and who follows. It just takes two to tango.
Classes begin at 7pm and run for a about an hour and a half; milongas start at 10pm
September 5, 2016 – December 5, 2016
Inusual Project
C/ Paloma, 5Barcelona
http://tangoqueerbcn.weebly.com/
https://www.facebook.com/tqbcn
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line7716
|
__label__wiki
| 0.60106
| 0.60106
|
About MWCB
Corporate Venturing: growth strategies through startups
Please fill out the form below to request an invitation to Mobile Talks. Within the next days we will confirm your assistance. Thanks
9:30 - 11:30h
Mobile World Centre, Barcelona
In an increasingly globalized and competitive world, traditional innovation methods are insufficient for large corporations to face, quickly and successfully, a global digital transformation process. In this context, collaboration with startups may be key to promoting innovation and gain speed.
But, ¿where to start? Given the variety of models of collaboration with start ups (competitions, hackathons, accelerators, incubators and labs, or pure investment or acquisition strategies), knowing how to choose and use these open innovation tools to achieve defined objectives will be the key to success in the process of digital transformation of corporations.
At Mobile talks, we invite you to learn more about the various options, from the hand of leading international experts
Dr. Jens Pippig
Founder & Managing Director at ProSiebenSat.1 Accelerator
Jens Pippig is the Founder & Managing Director of the ProSiebenSat.1 Accelerator. Before that he was leading the Group’s strategy department. Prior to that, Jens spent eight years at McKinsey & Company in Berlin and specialized in e-commerce, private equity, and retail. He also founded two successful companies in the field of market research and employer branding in Sweden. Jens studied economics at Witten/Herdecke University where he obtained his PhD. He also studied business administration and economics in Stockholm and at Harvard.
Gregor Gimmy
Founder and Head at BMW Startup Garage
Gregor is co-founder and head of the BMW Startup Garage, the Venture Client unit for early stage startups of the BMW Group. The Garage works with startups whose technologies can significantly advance the automotive sector. Prior to the Garage, Gregor helped create BMW InnovationWorks. Before BMW, Gregor started various software startups in Silicon Valley and Europe. Prior to entrepreneurship, Gregor worked at IDEO (Palo Alto) and Roland Berger Strategy Consultants (Germany).
Jonathan Tudor
Ventures Director at Castrol innoVentures
Jonathan is Ventures Director at Castrol innoVentures, the strategic develop and corporate investment team of the BP’s lubricants business. Jonathan joined BP in 2012 after senior roles in venture capital in and outside corporates since the late 1990s. He previously worked for QinetiQ in the UK, Carl Zeiss foundation in Germany and as a partner in UK –US venture firm. His work has covered life sciences, software, sensors and materials. Jonathan graduated sum cum laude with a Doctorate in Chemistry from Oxford University.
Founder & co-CEO at H-Farm SPA
Maurizio Rossi likes to understand people’s lifestyles, their local traditions and the influence of technology in our daily life. Italian pioneer of start-up business and Venture Capital, Maurizio is vice president of H-FARM and has over 10 years of experience in the start-up world. Between the 80’s and 90’s he worked in the fashion-footwear industry leading the internationalization of his family-run business Rossimoda. Between 2003 and 2004 he managed the launch of the Southern Europe and Mediterranean headquarters of yachtworld.com and boats.com, two of the main boat marketplaces in the world. Maurizio is now running H-FARM, a digital platform to help young entrepreneurs launch new initiatives and support the digitalization of traditional companies
Jaime García Cantero
Content Director at El País RETINA
Jaime García Cantero is an independent analyst, mentor at Founder Institute, professor at EOI and advisor at different start-ups. García Cantero was Analysis director at IDC, having worked previously as strategy consultant at McKinsey & Co. He studied engineering at UPM in Madrid and KHT (Stockholm), and has taken postgraduate studies at Stanford University. He is currently Content Director at El País RETINA.
Aleix Valls
CEO and Cofounder at LiquiD Flow to the Digital Age
A mathematician and engineer with a Ph.D. in Fluid Mechanics, Aleix Valls began his professional career in the field of research at the International Center for Numerical Methods in Engineering (CIMNE) at the Polytechnic University of Catalonia (UPC), where he served from 2000 to 2004. During this period he also began his association with Compass Ingeniería y Sistemas, where he worked as project manager until 2006.
Between 2006 and 2012 Valls worked at different companies and on projects related to the field of Strategic Consulting. In January 2006 he joined The NODE Company, a provider of innovation services, as a senior associate. Between 2008 and 2010 Valls worked at LOOP Consultancy where as a senior manager he took on responsibility for the Dubai office and the management of business development for the entire region of Northern Africa and the Middle East. In July of 2010, Aleix Valls became a manager with the consulting firm Accenture, where he headed up Strategic Consulting projects in different sectors.
Carrer de Fontanella, 2, 08002 Barcelona
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line7718
|
__label__wiki
| 0.604784
| 0.604784
|
City of Maple Heights Honors Michael Simens, CEO for Mr. Chicken as Business of the Year
Maple Heights, OH—September 6, 2017— For the first time in this city’s history, a local business was honored in Maple Heights, OH as business of the year. Mayor Annette M. Blackwell made the announcement at the September 6 city council meeting to recognize Mr. Chicken and CEO, Michael D. Simens, for his personal commitment to the community and his restaurant’s generous donations of food, t...
Thank You for Making a Difference for the Sullivan Family
Thank you for contributing to our fundraiser to raise money for the family of Keagan Sullivan. The support that we received from so many people was overwhelming. From businesses and suppliers who donated, to organizations that helped creating, writing and printing materials, to individuals who developed radio and television announcements, to firefighters who came out to our stores to collect don...
Mr. Chicken Supports Local Veterans this Memorial Day
Parma, Ohio, May 14th, 2015 - Mr. Chicken is excited to announce the return of their Memorial Day Program to support the local VFW in each of the communities in which they operate. Mr. Chicken has always been a proud supporter of veterans and current military and to show their support this Memorial Day Weekend (May 22-25), they will donate a $5 gift certificate for every family meal sold at Mr. Ch...
New Rewards Program
NEW REWARDS PROGRAM - SQUARE REWARDS Mr. Chicken is excited to announce that we are implementing a new Rewards program for our customers. This new system will allow you to use your reward on any food item on the menu as opposed to the Belly Rewards where you could only redeem certain items. We feel that this new system will give our valued customers the freedom to use their rewards on whatever it...
Mr. Chicken “Drive-Thru” Visit
NEWLY REMODELED MR. CHICKEN RESTAURANT GETS UNSCHEDULED “DRIVE-THRU” VISIT Parma, Ohio – March 19, 2015 – Mr. Chicken, Cleveland’s landmark family-‐owned and operated fast food chicken restaurant, received an unexpected drive-‐through visitation at its 5451 Pearl Road store in Parma, Ohio this morning. “At approximately 8:00 a.m. today, a car was traveling northbound on Ridge...
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line7721
|
__label__wiki
| 0.811719
| 0.811719
|
You are here: Home / media / The Press – Mid-century design on show in new Christchurch exhib...
Mid-century design on show in new Christchurch exhibition
Ross Morrison, the man behind Mr Mod mid-century furniture store, is displaying the best of his collection in a three-month exhibition at the Centre of Contemporary Art (CoCA), opening on August 24.
Picasso and Van Gogh, Rembrandt and Leonardo da Vinci, names synonymous with fine art and historical value.
But have you heard of Gio Ponti or Carlo Mollino? How about Charles and Ray Eames, or Arne Jacobsen? To many, these mid-century designers stand alongside those lofty figures of art and culture.
At the top of the list of admirers, Ross Morrison, Christchurch-based furniture dealer and collector. Through his shop Mr. Mod, in St Martins, Morrison has become one of the country’s foremost figures in mid-century furniture and design.
The best of his personal collection will be on display at Mid-Century Modern: the Morrison Collection, an exhibition at the Center of Contemporary Art (CoCA), opening on August 24. It is one of several events, shows and exhibitions celebrating 50 years of the gallery.
Morrison said the show including furniture and art works sourced from Italy, America and Scandinavia. He regularly travels the world hunting down one-offs and unique pieces.
“I think furniture is an art form. A lot of people might argue against that, but it is, especially the stuff we have,” Morrison said.
“Because of what’s happening worldwide in the mid-century market, a lot of the things have become so expensive and hard to procure. These things are one offs and you just won’t be able to find them again.”
Morrison’s business restored and repaired furniture from their workshop and warehouse on Wilsons Rd. He had been dealing in mid-century furniture for more than 24 years, before that it was Japanese antiques.
He said his “own curiosity” kept him ahead of the curve. That, and the influence of his own father’s antique store.
“I always had an interest in mid-century design [and] going to CoCA when I was a kid, seeing exhibitions by painters and potters, jewellery makers, that was an influence that led me into this business,” he said.
Morrison’s son Nico had recently joined the ranks at Mr Mod, becoming the third generation to see the value in collecting and dealing in the rare, built art of antique furniture.
Items Morrison said to look out for in the collection were a pair of chairs by Italian designer Gio Ponti, a lounge chair and coffee set by American industrial designer Raymond Loewy, and several pieces by acclaimed Danish designer Hans Wegner.
Mid Century Modern: The Morrison Collection is on at CoCA until November 18
Mid-Century Modern: the Morrison Collection
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line7722
|
__label__wiki
| 0.683081
| 0.683081
|
Picasso at The Cyprus Museum
Cyprus Museum
1 Museum Street - Nicosia
Date(s) 18/06/2019 - 08/09/2019
Time 8:00 am - 6:00 pm
1 Museum Street, Nicosia
Tuesday – Friday: 8.00 – 18.00
Saturday: 9.00 – 17.00
Sunday: 10.00 – 13.00
The Department of Antiquities announces the organization of the exhibition “Picasso at the Cyprus Museum. Works in Clay”
12 June – 8 September 2019
At the mature age of sixty-five, Pablo Picasso developed a passion for ceramic art, which became one of his main forms of expression until the end of his life. In fact, the famous artist’s systematic engagement with ceramics began in 1946 in Vallauris, while on vacation there. In this village in the South of France, Picasso met the owners of the ‘Madoura’ pottery workshop, Suzanne and Georges Ramié. The couple had reopened an old ceramic workshop with a traditional wood-burning kiln. So great was the artist’s excitement with the place and the potential of clay as a material, that a year later he settled in Vallauris together with his new partner, Françoise Gilot. This was the beginning of an extremely fruitful collaboration with the Ramié couple, who actually put both their workshop and artisans at the disposal of the artist. Thus, the ideal conditions were created for Picasso to begin experimenting feverishly with the various techniques of clay.
The ancient art of pottery, the malleability and durability of clay as a raw material, the unpredictable end result, the combination of arts (painting, sculpture, pottery), the usability and transformation of clay objects were all elements that fascinated Picasso. At the same time, the distinctive features of the South of France and Vallauris in particular, such as the ample space, the light, the fragrances of nature and the simplicity of everyday life, all decisively contributed to the opening of a new and important chapter in the life of the artist. Over the next years and until 1971, Picasso created an enormous number of original ceramic works, which exceed 3,500 in number.
Picasso believed that the art of ancient civilizations “is not a thing of the past”. In his ceramic works, the artist evidently uses various shapes, motifs, textures and themes from antiquity and mythology, without copying them, however. Instead, he created a whole new reality. From his preparatory sketches to his final works, one can distinguish influences from the pottery art of ancient cultures, particularly those of the Mediterranean region.
The exhibition, “Picasso at the Cyprus Museum. Works in Clay”, organized by the Department of Antiquities, as part of the Picasso Mediterranée programme and led by the National Picasso Museum in Paris, presents a small but representative part of Picasso’s ceramic creations, with original and unique works. At the same time, the exhibition includes Cypriot antiquities, grouped in such a way as to highlight specific themes, shapes and motifs of antiquity, whose echoes archaeologists discern in Picasso’s works. The visitor is invited to reflect on and sense possible points of encounter and dialogue, but also common characteristics and traits, many of which could have developed randomly.
Indeed, was Picasso aware of Cypriot antiquities? What is certain is that the artist never visited Cyprus. His work, however, entitled “Faces of a Woman”, which was the spark for this exhibition, was inspired by a Cypriot clay composite vessel of the Early Bronze Age (circa 2000 BC), which is exhibited at the Louvre Museum, while similar ones are part of the Cyprus Museum collection. Although in the “Faces of a Woman” the comparison with a specific antiquity is evident, the choice of Cypriot antiquities for the other Picasso works was made in such a way as to bring to the fore the common themes, the similar motifs, the uses and the unchanged techniques that one can distinguish in the works of the anonymous creators of antiquity and those of the 20th century eponymous artist. For this reason, the interest of the exhibition’s curators focused mainly on issues, such as the masquerading and playing with the bull figure, the anthropomorphism and zoomorphism of the vessels, the elaborate and multidimensional handles, the painted decoration, the posture of the body and the pictorial scenes on vessels.
The exhibition will be accompanied by a catalogue in Greek and English
Event Information https://www.cyprusevents.net/events/picasso-cyprus-museum-works-in-clay-2019/
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line7723
|
__label__cc
| 0.703657
| 0.296343
|
For his second full-length, Unorthodox Jukebox, the multifaceted entertainer eschews trends. He follows his unique inner voice on the early hits—which double as the album’s leadoff tracks—“Young Girls” and “Locked Out of Heaven.” Mars showcases his impressive musical range, powerful vocal chops, and innate pop sensibilities throughout, with highlights including a boogie-funk sparkler (“Treasure”), a sorrowful piano ballad (“When I Was Your Man”), a reggae/dub dazzler (“Show Me”), and a doo-wop-inflected burner (“If I Knew”).
Unorthodox Jukebox Bruno Mars
When I Was Your Man
Money Make Her Smile
More By Bruno Mars
Unorthodox Jukebox
Doo-Wops & Hooligans (Deluxe Version)
Locked Out of Heaven (Remixes) - EP
Treasure (Remixes) - EP
Midnight Memories (Deluxe Edition)
Don't Kill the Magic
Bom Bom - EP
Sam and the Womp
Head or Heart
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line7724
|
__label__wiki
| 0.626897
| 0.626897
|
Why Skid Row Abandoned Sebastian Bach Reunion Talks
Skid Row guitarist Dave ‘Snake’ Sabo has revealed why talks about a reunion with classic-era singer Sebastian Bach broke down last year, and described the future chances of the much-discussed move as “slim to none.”
Bach was fired in 1996 and the band have since been fronted by Johnny Solinger, Tony Harnell and current incumbent ZP Theart. However, the question of Bach’s return has been raised regularly over the years, with Bach having tweeted in 2016: “Only way a Skid Row Reunion could happen is if we somehow tried2 bury a 20 year hatchet between us. Would love the chance to do so.”
“There was definitely dialog that was going back and forth and there was talk,” Sabo recently told SiriusXM’s Trunk Nation (via Blabbermouth). “I think everybody was entertaining the idea, and I think, really, what it ended up being was, we realized that whatever it was that tore us apart years ago still existed.”
He added that rumors of a booked tour were no more than that, and admitted they’d been offered “a lot of money” to regroup. But he refuted the suggestion that the final disagreement was over cash splits. “No one was making more than anybody else,” he stated. “It was more about control, I think – other people having a desire to have more control over this thing than we were willing to give. And it was not about anything other than ‘this is our band.’”
“This is not ego-driven, I promise you,” he went on, adding: “I guess it was the personality conflicts that existed before, 20 years ago.” He described himself as “extremely happy” in his life and career and insisted he’d never want to work like Motley Crue reportedly did on their farewell tour, when they traveled on separate buses.
“My life is awesome, my friends are awesome, the people I make music and jam with, they're all awesome. And so, I've gotta say, the idea, the romantic notion of a reunion and the monetary aspect of it is all well and good – but at the end of the day, man, I really enjoy the space that I'm in.
“I just wanna be a good guy, I wanna be a good husband, a good father, a good friend, a good brother. The way that we existed towards the end, after [1995 album] Subhuman Race and when everything fell apart, it was misery for everybody. Not not just me – for everybody."
Next: 5 Crazy Stories from Sebastian Bach's Book
Source: Why Skid Row Abandoned Sebastian Bach Reunion Talks
Filed Under: skid row
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line7726
|
__label__cc
| 0.537626
| 0.462374
|
The Long Paddock is a Queensland Government initiative that has provided climate and pasture information to the grazing community since 1995. With over 17,000 visits per month (on average), the site provides access to rainfall and pasture outlooks and decision support tools to support land management decision making and planning for land holders, education, consultants and extension officers.
In Australian bushlore, the national stock route network is informally referred to as the "long paddock" given its geographic extent - "the longest paddock in the world". In times of severe drought, some graziers take to droving to keep their livestock supplied with pasture, moving their livestock long distances along stock routes, sometimes across state boundaries. So "going on the long paddock" is an Australian way of mitigating drought risk, a unique adventure in its own right, and known for meeting with new people along the way. The Long Paddock website is operated by the Science and Technology Division of the Queensland Department of Environment and Science (DES) with support from the Queensland Department of Agriculture and Fisheries (DAF).
Please use this reference to cite the Long Paddock website:
https://www.longpaddock.qld.gov.au
Barkly Highway at Woroona Creek - Split Rock Bridge (east of Camooweal, NW.Qld.)
Credits: G. Stone 28 June 2015
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line7728
|
__label__wiki
| 0.515748
| 0.515748
|
Conference Papers Presentations Abstracts
Factsheets And Brochures
Other Relevant Publications
Published Papers Journal Articles
Selected Publications Relevant to Long Paddock
This is a list of key references related to past and current projects undertaken by our staff and collaborators. In some cases abstracts of these documents and/or full versions are made available for download.
Zhang B., Carter J. (2018) FORAGE – An online system for generating and delivering property-scale decision support information for grazing land and environmental management. Computers and Electronics in Agriculture, Volume 150, 302-311
Fraser G. W., Stone G. S. (2016) The effect of soil and pasture attributes on rangeland infiltration rates in northern Australia. The Rangeland Journal 38, 245-259.
Fraser, G., Rohde, K., & Silburn, M. (2017). Fertiliser management effects on dissolved inorganic nitrogen in runoff from Australian sugarcane farms. Environmental Monitoring and Assessment, 189(8), 409.
McKeon, G, Hall, W, Henry, B, Stone, G & Watson, I (eds) (2004) ‘Pasture Degradation and Recovery in Australia's Rangelands: Learning from History’ Department of Natural Resources Mines & Industry, Queensland Government
McKeon, G.M., Stone, G.S., Syktus, J.I., Carter, J.O., Fraser, G.W., Crimp, S.J. and Howden, S.M. (2009). ‘Climate change impacts on rangeland livestock carrying capacity: More questions than answers’. Proceedings of the 15th Biennial Australian Rangeland Society Conference. A Climate of change in the Rangelands. 28 September – 2nd October 2008. Charters Towers, Australia.
Paull, C (2002) ‘The value and benefits of using seasonal climate forecasts in making business decisions: A review’ Department of Primary Industries, Queensland Government.
Carter, J., Bruget, D., Henry, B., Hassett, R., Stone, G., Day, K., Flood, N. & McKeon, G. (2010). ‘Modeling Vegetation, Carbon and Nutrient Dynamics in the Savanna Woodlands of Australia with the AussieGRASS Model’. in Ecosystem Function in Savannas: Measuring and Modelling at Landscape to Global Scales. eds. Hill, M.J. & Hanan, N.P. CRC Press.
Jones, P., Silcock, R. and Stone, G. (2008) ‘Grazing land in “A” condition is stable and resilient’. Proceedings of the Australian Rangeland Society Conference. Charters Towers, Australia. The paper is available (PDF, 59K, last updated 01:31PM, 17 September 2009)* on the Long Paddock web site.
McKeon, G.M., Flood, N., Carter, J.O., Stone, G.S., Crimp, S.J. and Howden, S.M. (2008). ‘Simulation of climate change impacts on livestock carrying capacity and production for the Garnaut Climate Change Review’ (PDF)*.
Office of Climate Change (2011) ‘Tropical Cyclone Yasi Factsheet’ Department of Environment and Resource Management. Queensland Government.
Richards, R., Watson, I., Bean, J., Maconochie, J., Clipperton, S., Beeston, G., Green D. and Hacker R. (2001) ‘Australian Grassland and Rangeland Assessment by Spatial Simulation (Aussie GRASS) Southern Pastures Sub-project’ Department of Natural Resources & Mines, QLD
Henry, B., McKeon, G.M., Syktus, J., Carter, J.O., Day, K.A. and Rayner, D.P. (2007) ‘Climate variability, climate change and land degradation’. in Sivakumar, M.V.K. and Ndiang’ui, N. (eds.) Climate and Land Degradation. Berlin Heidelberg. Springer. pp.205–221
Brundell, J., Cobon, D., Stone, G. & Cliffe, N. (2011). ‘Climate Change Risk Matrix: a process for assessing impacts, adaptation, risk and vulnerability’ (PDF, 256K, last updated 11:33AM, 10 February 2012)*. Factsheet, Queensland Climate Centre of Excellence, Department of Environment and Resource Management
Patterson, D., Boswood, P. ,Elias G. (2011). ‘Tweed River Entrance Sand Bypassing Long Term Average sand transport rate’ (PDF)*. 20th NSW Coastal Conference, Tweed Heads, 8-11th November 2011.
Cobon, D.H. and Toombs, N.R. (2007). ‘Practical adaptation to climate change in regional natural resource management: Queenland Case Studies - Fitzroy Basin Report – Part A. Production and natural resource indicators in beef systems under climate change conditions’ (PDF, 1.5M, last updated 01:41PM, 6 April 2009)*. Project EP08. Australian Greenhouse Office, Canberra
Park, S., Howden, M., Higgins, A., McRae, D., Horan, H. and Hennessy, K. (2007) ‘Climate change: informing the Australian sugar industry of potential impacts, possible strategies for adaptation and best-bet options for future R&D’. In the final report of projects CSE019 and SRD011 by Park, S., Creighton, C. and Howden, M., Sugar Research and Development Corporation.
Abawi, Y., Llanso, P., Harrison, M. and Mason, S. (2008) ‘Water, health and early warnings’ in Troccoli, A., Harrison, M., Anderson, D.L.T. and Mason, S.J. (eds.) Seasonal Climate: Forecasting and Managing Risk, NATO Science Series. Berlin Heidelberg. Springer. pp.361–410.
Stone, G., Fraser, G., O’Reagain, P., Timmers, P. and Bushell, J. (2008) ‘A new methodology for the calculation of pasture utilisation for grazing lands’ (PDF, 214K, last updated 01:31PM, 17 September 2009)*. Proceedings of the Australian Rangeland Society Conference. Charters Towers, Australia
Dyer, R., McMahon, K. & Werth, J. (1999) ‘A survey of the assessment of seasonal conditions in pastoral Australia—Part 4: Northern Territory report’ Qld Centre for Climate Applications, Qld Dept. of Primary Industries
QCCCE. (2010). Climate Change in Queensland: What the Science is Telling Us. Department of Environment and Resource Management. Brisbane, Queensland. More information is available (PDF, 4.6M, last updated 03:07PM, 28 June 2012)* on the Long Paddock web site.
Gabriel, M. & Willcocks, J. with additional material by Crimp, S. Brook, K. Henry, H. McKeon, G. Syktus, J. Peacock, A and Day, K.(2004) ‘Climate Change—The challenge for natural resource management’. Department of natural Resources & Mines, Queensland Government
Wong, K.; Syktus, J.; Jeffrey, S.; Toombs, N. & Rotstayn, L. (2011). ‘Climate extremes during the 20th and 21st centuries simulated by the CSIRO Mk3.6 climate model with anthropogenic and natural forcings’. Modelling & Simulation Society of Australia & New Zealand; Perth; 12-16 December 2011.
Henry, B., Johnsson, I., Fraser, G., Carter, J. and Bray, S. (2008) ‘Soil carbon: measurement issues and mitigation options – land use’. Proceedings of the Australian Farm Institute Conference. Gold Coast, Australia. Visit the Farm Institute web site for more information.
Queensland Climate Change Centre of Excellence (QCCCE) (2007) ‘The South East Queensland Drought to 2007’ (PDF, 496K, last updated 11:56AM, 8 September 2009)*. Department of Natural Resources and Water, Queensland Government. p.7.
McKeon, G & Hall, W (2001) ‘Can seasonal climate forecasting prevent degradation of Australia's grazing lands?’ Climate Variability in Agriculture Program. Department of Natural Resources and Mines, Queensland Government.
Tessendorf, S.; Bruintjes, R.; Wilson, J.; Roberts, R.; Brandes, E.; Knight, C.; Dixon, M.; Pocernich, M.; Ikeda, K.; Arnold, C.; Axisa, D.; Hall, W.; Freney, E.; Buseck, P. R.; Towler, E.; May, P.; Peter, J.; Wilson, L.; Manton, M.; Siems, S.; Collis, S.; Richter, H.; Pepler, A.; Craig, I.; Stone, R.; Piketh, S.; Burger, R.; Collins, D. (2011). The Queensland Cloud Seeding Research Project. Bulletin of the American Meteorology Society. Visit the AMS journal web site for more information.
Acworth, C. & Lawson, S. (2011). ‘The Tweed River Entrance Sand Bypassing project – Ten years of managing operations in a highly variable coastal system’ (PDF)*. 20th NSW Coastal Conference, Tweed Heads, 8-11th November 2011.
Scaife A. A., F. Kucharski, C. K. Folland, J. Kinter, S. Brönnimann, D. Fereday, A. M. Fischer, S. Grainger, E. K. Jin, I. S. Kang, J. R. Knight, S. Kusunoki, N. C. Lau, M. J. Nath, T. Nakaegawa, P. Pegion, S. Schubert, P. Sporyshev, J. Syktus, J. H. Yoon, N. Zeng and T. Zhou. (2008): ‘The CLIVAR C20C Project: Selected 20th Century climate events’. Climate Dynamics, DOI 10.1007/s00382-008-0451-1.
Dyer, R., Café, L. & Craig, A. (2001) ‘Australian Grassland and Rangeland Assessment by Spatial Simulation (Aussie GRASS) NT & Kimberley Rangeland Sub-project’ Department of Natural Resources & Mines, QLD
OCC / QCCCE. (2010). Increasing Queensland's Resilience to Inland Flooding in a Changing Climate. Department of Environment and Resource Management. Brisbane, Queensland. More information is available (PDF, 392K, last updated 03:07PM, 28 June 2012)* on Long Paddock web site.
Mahmood, R; Quintanar, A. I.; Conner, G; Leeper, R; Dobler, S; Pielke, R. A.; Beltran-Przekurat, A; Hubbard, K. G.; Niyogi, D; Bonan, G; Lawrence, P; Chase, T; McNider, R; Wu, Y; McAlpine, C; Deo, R; Etter, A; Gameda, S; Qian, B; Carleton, A; Adegoke, J,O.; Vezhapparambu, S; Asefi, S; Nair, U. S.; Sertel, E; Legates, D. R.; Hale, R; Frauenfeld, O. W.; Watts, A; Shepherd, M; Mitra, C; Anantharaj, V G.; Fall, S; Chang, H; Lund, R; Treviño, A; Blanken, P; Du, J; Syktus, J.. (2010). ‘Impacts of Land Use/Land Cover Change on Climate and Future Research’ Priorities'. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 91, 37-46.
Collier, M.A., Jeffrey, S.J., Rotstayn, L.D., Wong, K., Dravitzki, S.M., Moeseneder, C., Hamalainen, C., Syktus, J.I., Suppiah, R., Antony, J., El Zein, A. and Atif, M. (2011). The CSIRO-Mk3.6.0 Atmosphere-Ocean GCM: participation in CMIP5 and data publication. (PDF)* Modelling and Simulation Society of Australia and New Zealand 2011. International Congress: Sustaining Our Future; Perth; 12-16th December, 2011.
Heyhoe, E., Yeon, k, Kokic, P. Levantis, C., Ahammad, H. Schnider, K. Crimp, S.. Nelson, R. Flood, N. and Carter, J. (2007) ‘Adapting to climate change: issues and challenges in the agriculture sector’. Australian Commodities: Forecasts and Issues, Vol. 14, No. 1, 2007: 167-178
Lehmann, J., Skjemstad, J., Sohi, S., Carter, J., Barson, M., Falloon, P., Coleman, K., Woodbury, P. and Krull, E. (2008). ‘Australian climate-carbon cycle feedback reduced by soil black carbon’. Nature Geoscience pp832-835.
Cobon, D.H. and Toombs, N.R. (2008). ‘Impacts of climate change on regulated and non-regulated water systems in Australia. In Multifunctional grasslands in a changing world’. Vol 1. Proc. International Grasslands and Rangelands Congress, Hohhot, China. p. 826. (Eds. Organising Committee of 2008 IGC/IRC Conference) (Guangdong Peoples Publishing House: Guangzhou).
Syktus J., and S. Jeffrey. (2008). ’Stratospheric Ozone Depletion.’ (PDF, 394K, last updated 01:31PM, 17 September 2009)*: The State of Environment in Queensland, Atmosphere. pp. 62-74.
Williams, A.J. and Stone, R.C. (2008) 'An assessment of relationships between the Australian subtropical ridge, rainfall variability, and high-latitude circulation patterns'. International Journal of Climatology’. DOI: 10. 1002/joc. 1732
Klingaman, N.P. (2012): Summary brochure also available on the Long Paddock web site. Queensland rainfall — past, present and future (PDF, 850K, last updated 03:08PM, 28 June 2012)*
Hall, W.B. McKeon, G.M. Carter, J.O. Day, K.A. Howden, S.M. Scanlan, J.C. Johnston, P.W. and Burrows, W. (1998) ‘An assessment of potential climate change impacts on regional beef productivity in Queensland from native pastures’ The Rangeland Journal 20(2) 177-205
Klingaman, N.P.; Woolnough, S. J. & Syktus, J. (2011). ‘On the drivers of inter-annual and decadal rainfall variability in Queensland, Australia’. International Journal of Climatology.
Queensland Climate Change Centre of Excellence: Coastal Unit. (2011). Queensland Coastal Processes and Climate Change. Department of Environment and Resource Management. More information is available (PDF, 2.8M, last updated 03:07PM, 28 June 2012)* on the Long Paddock web site.
McKeon, G., Chilcott, C., McGrath, W., Paton, C., Fraser, G., Stone G. and Ryan, J. (2008) ‘Assessing the value of trees in sustainable grazing systems’ (NBP.316). Queensland Department of Natural Resources and Water, Queensland Department of Primary Industries and Fisheries, Environmental Protection Agency. Published July 2008, Meat & Livestock Australia, NSW.
QCCCE (2010). Chilean Earthquake and Pacific Tsunami (Feb 2010). Department of Environment and Resource Management. Brisbane, Queensland. Visit the EHP web site for more information.
Syktus, J & McKeon, G (2002) ‘Evaluation of Global and Regional Climate Models in simulating spatial and temporal patterns of seasonal rainfall variability in the Australian region (PDF, 7.9M)*’ in ‘Learning From History: Preventing land and pasture degradation under climate change’ (McKeon and Hall, 2002) Climate Impacts and Natural Resource Systems, Queensland Department of Natural Resources and Mines.
Collet, L, Hassett, R, Taube, C, Flood, N, Hall, W (2001) ‘Validation of NOAA Fire Scar Maps in the Laura Basin Using Landsat TM Imagery and Field Data’ Climate Impacts and Natural Resource Systems. Queensland Department of Natural Resources and Mines
McKeon, G.M. Hall, W.B. Crimp, S.J. Howden, S.M. Stone R.C. & Jones D.A. (1998) 'Climate Change in Queensland's Grazing Lands: Approaches and Climatic Trends’. The Rangeland Journal 20(2) 151-176
Stokes, C.J., Crimp, S., Gifford, R., Stone, G., Cobon, D. Ash, A., Howden, S.M., and McKeon, G. (2008). ‘Broad acre grazing. In An overview of climate change adaptation in Australian primary industries – impacts, options and priorities’. (Eds. Stokes, SJ and Howden, SM). Report prepared for the National Climate Change Research Strategy for Primary Industries (CSIRO: Canberra).
de Vries JJ, Waldron J, Cunningham V (2003) ‘Field tests of the new Datawell DWR-G GPS wave buoy’ (PDF)* Sea Technology 44 (12) 50-55
Cobon, D.H., Stone, G.S., Carter, J.O., Scanlan, J.C., Toombs, N.R., Zhang, X., Willcocks J. and McKeon, G.M. (2009) ‘The climate change risk management matrix for the grazing industry of northern Australia.’ A Climate of Change in Australian Rangelands, The Rangeland Journal, Volume 31 Number 1
Paull, C., Cliffe, N. and Hall, W. (2001) ‘Australian Grassland and Rangeland Assessment by Spatial Simulation (Aussie GRASS) Extension Sub-project’ Department of Natural Resources & Mines, QLD.
Office of Climate Change. (2010). ‘Consistent Climate Scenarios’ (PDF, 600K, last updated 03:57PM, 13 July 2011)* Factsheet, Queensland Climate Change Centre of Excellence, Department of Environment and Resource Management, Queensland Government.
Zhang, X., Abawi, Y., Dutta S. and McClymont, D. (2010). 'Developing ENSO-based irrigation water forecast system in a region with limited hydro-meteorological observations to mitigate the impacts of climate variability': a case study in Lombok, Indonesia. In: Climate Adaptation Futures: Preparing for the Unavoidable Impacts of Climate Change, 29 Jun - 1 Jul 2010, Gold Coast, Australia.
Brown, I.W., Scandol, J., Mayer, D., Campbell, M., Kondylas, S., McLennan, M., Williams, A., Krusic-Golub, K. and Treloar, T. (2008) ‘Reducing uncertainty in the assessment of the Australian spanner crab fishery: final report on Project 2003/06 to the Fishing Industry Reseach and Development Corporation’. Department of Primary Industries & Fisheries. Queensland Government. p.92. Final report
Bange M.P., Constable, G.A., McRae D., and Roth G. (2010). Cotton. In C. Stokes and M. Howden (eds), 'Adapting agriculture to climate change: Preparing Australian agriculture, forestry and fisheries for the future'. (CSIRO Publishing, Melbourne, Australia).
Office of Climate Change (2011) ‘Climate change risk management matrix' (PDF, 256K, last updated 11:33AM, 10 February 2012)*. Department of Environment and Resource Management, Queensland Government.
Cobon, D.H. and Toombs, N.R. (2007) ‘Climate change impacts on the water resources of the Cooper Creek Catchment’ (PDF, 1.0M, last updated 01:41PM, 6 April 2009)*. Proceedings of the International Congress on Modelling and Simulation. University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand. pp.483–489.
McRae, D., Bange, M. and Roth, G. (2007) ‘Climate Change in Cotton Catchment Communities – A Scoping Study, Cotton Catchment Communities’ CRC, for the Australian Greenhouse Office, Department of Environment and Heritage, Canberra.
Watterson, I.G. and Syktus, J. (2007) ‘The influence of air–sea interaction on the Madden-Julian Oscillation: the role of the seasonal mean state’. Climate Dynamics. 28 (7–8). pp.703–722.
Lawrence, P (2004) ‘Climate Impacts of Australian Land Cover Change (PDF, 21M, last updated 01:38PM, 5 December 2008)*
Paull, C. & Hall,W. (1999) ‘A survey of the assessment of seasonal conditions in pastoral Australia—Part 1: Queensland report’ Qld Centre for Climate Applications, Qld Dept. of Primary Industries
Cobon, D.H. and Toombs, N.R. (2007). ’Practical adaptation to climate change in regional natural resource management: South-East Queensland Western Catchments Report. Climate change impacts on water resources of South-East Queensland Western Catchments’ (PDF, 3.4M, last updated 01:41PM, 6 April 2009)* (Project EP08). Australian Greenhouse Office, Canberra.
Paull, C. and Hall, W. (1999) ‘A survey of the assessment of seasonal conditions in pastoral Australia—Part 6: National summary’ Qld Centre for Climate Applications, Qld Dept. of Primary Industries
Tupper, C., Crichton, J., Alcock, D. & Mavi, H. (2001) ‘Australian Grassland and Rangeland Assessment by Spatial Simulation (Aussie GRASS) High Rainfall Zone Temperate Pastures Sub-project’ Department of Natural Resources & Mines, QLD.
Day, K & Paull, C (2001) ‘Development and evaluation of reports on seasonal conditions for Queensland’. Rural Risk Strategies Unit, Department of primary Industry, Queensland Government.
Tynan, R. (1999) ‘A survey of the assessment of seasonal conditions in pastoral Australia—Part 3: South Australia report’ Qld Centre for Climate Applications, Qld Dept. of Primary Industries
Tong, S. Maher, P. Fitzgerald, G. Mcrae, D. Verall, K. Walker, D. (2010) ‘Assessing the vulnerability of eco-environmental health to climate change’. Int. Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 7(2) : 546-64.
Paull, C & Peacock, A (2003) ‘Survey of users of the DPI SOI Hotlines’. Department of Primary Industry, Queensland Government.
Cobon, D.H. and Toombs, N.R. (2008). ‘Impacts and adaptation to climate change in beef production systems in central Queensland’. In Multifunctional grasslands in a changing world. Vol 1. Proc. International Grasslands and Rangelands Congress, Hohhot, China. p. 877. (Eds. Organising Committee of 2008 IGC/IRC Conference) (Guangdong Peoples Publishing House: Guangzhou).
Zhang, B. (2008) ‘Climate Risk Assessment Report (prototype)’ Issued monthly. Queensland Climate Change Centre of Excellence, Environmental Protection Agency, Queensland Government.
Cobon, D.H., Bell, K.L., Park, J.N. and Keogh, D.U. (2008). ‘Summative evaluation of climate application activities with pastoralistists in western Queensland’ (PDF)*. Rangl. J. 30, 361-374.
Walsh, K., Cai, W., Hennessy, K., Jones, R., McInnes, K., Nguyen, K., Page, C and Whetton, P. (2002) ‘Climate Change in Queensland under Enhanced Greenhouse Conditions (Final Report 1997–2002)’ a report on research undertaken for Queensland Departments of State Development, Main Roads, Health, Transport, Treasury, Public Works, Primary Industries and Fisheries, Environmental Protection and Natural Resources and Mines, Queensland Rail, SunWater and CS Energy. CSIRO Marine & Atmospheric Research, Australian Government.
Cobon, D.H. and Toombs, N.R. (2007). ‘Practical adaptation to climate change in regional natural resource management: Fitzroy Basin Report – Part B. Climate change impacts on the sediment load for the Nogoa catchment of the Fitzroy Basin’ (PDF, 1.5M, last updated 01:41PM, 6 April 2009)*. (Project EP08). Australian Greenhouse Office, Canberra
Parton, W., Scholes, R.J., Day, K., Carter, J.O. & Kelley, R. (2010). ‘CENTURY-SAVANNA Model for True-Grass Ecosystems’. in Ecosystem Function in Savannas – Measurement and Modelling at Landscape to Global Scales., eds. M.J. Hill & N.P. Hanah,. CRC Press.
Liu, D.L., Timbal, B., Mo, J. & Fairweather, H. (2011). ‘A GIS-based climate change adaptation strategy tool’ International Journal of Climate Change Strategies and Management. 3, 2.
Strand, LB., Tong, S., Aird, R., McRae, D.A. (2010). ‘Vulnerability of eco-environmental health to climate change: the views of government stakeholders and other specialists in Queensland, Australia’. BMC Public Health 2010, 10:441 doi:10.1186/1471-2458-10-441
Cobon, D.H. and Toombs, N.R. (2007). ‘Practical adaptation to climate change in regional natural resource management: Desert Channels Queensland Report. Climate change impacts on the water resources on the Cooper Creek catchment’ (PDF)*. (Project EP08). Australian Greenhouse Office, Canberra
Department of Natural Resources & Mines. Queensland Government (2004). ‘Queensland Climate Change and Community Vulnerability to Tropical Cyclones: Oceans Hazard Assessment (1999-2004)’.
Synthesis Report (2004) | Stage 1 (2001) | Stage1a (2004) | Stage 2 (2004) | Stage 3 (2004) | Stage 4 (2003)
The GRASP Modelling Team. (2007). ‘Improving Grazing Management using the GRASP Model’. NBP.338 Final Report for Meat and Livestock Australia. Pp. 66.
Day, K.A., Ahrens, D.G. and Peacock A. (Issued monthly 2001–2015). Queensland summer rainfall (November to March) in relation to sea-surface temperature in the previous autumn and winter. Seasonal Pacific Ocean Temperature Analysis – 1 (SPOTA–1), www.longpaddock.qld.gov.au. To obtain the password and gain access to the SPOTA-1 reports, visit the SPOTA-1 web site for more information.
Jeffrey, S.J. Carter, J.O. Moodie, K.B. Beswick, A.R. (2001) ‘Using spatial interpolation to construct a comprehensive archive of Australian climate data’ Environmental Modeling & Software 16(04) pp309-330
McKeon, G.M., Stone, G.S., Syktus, J.I., Carter, J.O., Flood, N.R., Ahrens, D.G., Bruget, D.N., Chilcott, C.R., Cobon, D.H., Cowley, R.A., Crimp, S.J., Fraser, G.W., Howden, S.M., Johnston, P.W., Ryan, J.G., Stokes, C.J. and Day, K.A. (2009) ‘Climate change impacts on northern Australian rangeland livestock carrying capacity: a review of issues. A Climate of Change in Australian Rangelands’, The Rangeland Journal, Volume 31 Number 1
Cai, W. Crimp, S. McInnes, K.Hunt, B. Suppiah, R. Collier, M. Elliot, T. Hennessy, K. Jones, R. Page, C. & Whetton, P. (2003) ‘Climate Change in Queensland under Enhanced Greenhouse Conditions (Annual Report 2002-2003)’ ; a report on research undertaken for Queensland Departments of State Devlopment, Main Roads, Health, Transport, Treasury, Public Works, Primary Industries & Fisheries, Environmental Protection, Natural Resources & Mines, Queensland Rail, SunWater, CS Energy. CSIRO Atmospheric Research.
Zhang, X. and McRae, D. (2011). Constructing Regional Climate Change Projections for Queensland: A Methodology Review. In: Greenhouse 2011: The Science of Climate Change. 4-8 April 2011, Cairns, Australia.
Schwartz, R.; Nielsen, K. & Mohoupt, J. (2011). 'TC Yasi: Coastal Inundation Levels'. Proceedings of the Australasian Coasts and Ports Conference; Perth, 28-30th September, 2011.
Lo, F., Wheeler, M.C., Meinke, H. and Donald, A. (2007) ‘Probabilistic forecasts of the onset of the North Australian wet season’. Monthly Weather Review. 135 (10)
Grainger S, Frederiksen C, Zheng X, Fereday D, Folland C, Jin E, Kinter J, Knight J, Schubert S, Syktus J, et al. (2011). ‘Modes of variability of Southern Hemisphere atmospheric circulation estimated by AGCMs’ (PDF)*. CLIM DYNAM. 2011; 36 (3-4):473-490.
Henry, B., Mitchell, C., Cowie, A., Woldring, O. and Carter, J. (2005) ‘A regional interpretation of rules and good practice for greenhouse accounting: northern Australia savannah systems’. Australian Journal of Botany, Vol. 53 No.7 pp 589-605
Stafford Smith D. M., McKeon G. M., Watson I. W., Henry B. K., Stone G. S., Hall W. B., Howden S. M. (2007). ‘Land Change Science Special Feature: Learning from episodes of degradation and recovery in variable Australian rangelands’. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 2007 104 (52). p.20690
Donald, A., Lennox, S., Meinke, H. and White, N.C. (2007) ‘The impact of the Madden-Julian Oscillation : bridging the gap between weather and climate’. Proceedings of the 87th American Meteorological Society Conference. San Antonio, United States of America.
Fraser, G.W. Carter, J. McKeon, G. Day, K. (2011). ‘A new empirical model of sub-daily rainfall intensity and its application in a rangeland biophysical model’ (PDF)*. The Rangeland Journal., vol. 33, pp. 37-48
Rotstayn, L.D., Collier, M.A., Dix, M.R., Feng, Y., Gordon, H.B., O'Farrell, S.P., Smith, I.N. & Syktus, J. (2010). ‘Improved simulation of Australian climate and ENSO-related rainfall variability in a global climate model with an interactive aerosol treatment’. International Journal of Climatology, vol. 30, no. 7, pp. 1067-1088.
Crichton, J., Mavi, H., Tupper G. and McGufficke A. (1999) ‘A survey of the assessment of seasonal conditions in pastoral Australia—Part 2: New South Wales report’ Qld Centre for Climate Applications, Qld Dept. of Primary Industries
Zhang, B., Panjkov, A. and Stone, G. (2008) ‘Guide to using FORAGE (Prototype)’. Queensland Climate Change Centre of Excellence, Environmental Protection Agency, Queensland Government.
Klingaman, N. Woolnough, J. and Syktus, J. (2011). ‘On the drivers of inter-annual and decadal rainfall variability in Queensland, Australia’ (PDF)*. World Climate Research Programme Open Science Conference: Climate Research in Service to Society; Denver, Colorado, 24-28 October 2011.
McKeon, G., Henry, B., Quirk, M., Howden M. and Crimp, S. (2003). 'Climate Impacts on Queensland’s Grazed Landscapes'. Climate Impacts on Australia's Natural Resources: Current and Future Challenges – Conference Workbook.
Syktus, J.; Jeffrey, S.; Rotstayn, L.; Wong, K.; Toombs, N.; Dravitzki, S.; Collier, M. Hamalainen, C. and Moeseneder, C. (2011). ‘The CSIRO-QCCCE contribution to CMIP5 using the CSIRO Mk3.6 climate model’. Modelling & Simulation Society of Australia & New Zealand; Perth; 12-16 December 2011.
Roche, J. and Watson, I. (1999) ‘A survey of the assessment of seasonal conditions in pastoral Australia—Part 5: Western Australia report’ Qld Centre for Climate Applications, Qld Dept. of Primary Industries
Cobon, D.H. and Toombs, N.R. (2007). ‘Practical adaptation to climate change in regional natural resource management: Queensland Murray Darling Basin Report. Climate change impacts on the water resources of the Queensland Murray Darling Basin’ (PDF, 1.1M, last updated 01:41PM, 6 April 2009)*. (Project EP08). Australian Greenhouse Office, Canberra.
Wheeler, M.C., Hendo, H.H., Cleland, S., Meinke, H. and Donald, A., (2009). ‘Impacts of the Madden-Julian Oscillation on Australian rainfall and circulation’ . Journal of Climate, 22(6), 1482–1498. doi: 10.1175/2008JCLI2595.1
QCCCE Coastal Unit (2010). Tropical Cyclone Ului (March 2010). Department of Environment and Resource Management. Brisbane, Queensland. Visit the EHP web site for more information.
Stone, G., Bruget, D., Carter, J., Hassett, R., McKeon, G. and Rayner, D. (2007). ‘Pasture production and condition issue’. The State of Environment in Queensland: Land. Environmental Protection Agency, Queensland Government. More information is available (PDF)* on Long Paddock web site.
McAlpine, C.A., Syktus, J., Deo, R.C., McGowan, H.A., Watterson, I.G., Phinn, S.R. and Lawrence, P.J. (2007) ‘Modeling the impact of historical land cover change on Australia’s regional climate.’ Geophysical Research Letters. 34.
Cobon, D.H., Toombs, N.R. and Zhang, X. (2007) ‘Climate change impacts on the sediment load for the Nogoa catchment of the Fitzroy Basin’ (PDF, 1.5M, last updated 01:41PM, 6 April 2009)*. Proceedings of the International Congress on Modelling and Simulation. University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand. pp.853–859.
Klingaman, N.P., (2012): 'Is the inter-annual variability in Queensland rainfall due to variability in rainfall frequency, intensity, or both? QCCCE Research Report: Rainfall in Queensland. Part 2' (PDF, 2.2M, last updated 03:08PM, 28 June 2012)*. Department of Environment and Resource Management.
Kokic, P., Nelson, R., Meinke, H., Potgieter, A. and Carter, J. (2007) ‘From rainfall to farm incomes – transforming advice for Australian drought policy I: development and testing of a bio-economic modelling system.’ Australian Journal of Agricultural Research. 58 (10). pp.993–1003.
Peacock, A., Flood, N., Ahrens, D., Brook,K., Chilcott, C., Bruget, D., Carter, J., Collett, L., Crimp, S., Day, K., Hall, W., Hassett, R., Henry, B., McKeon, G., McRae, D., Paull, C., and Stone, R. (2002) The Long Paddock Website: Climate Management Information for Rural Australia. (PDF)* Australian Rangeland Society 12th Biennial Conference, Kalgoorlie, Western Australia 2-5 September 2002
Queensland Climate Change Centre of Excellence: (2011). ‘Queensland Coastal Processes and Climate Change (PDF, 2.8M, last updated 03:07PM, 28 June 2012)*’. Brochure, Department of Environment and Resource Management.
Zhang, B., Stone, G., Bruget, D., Carter, J., Day, K., Panjkov, A. and McKeon, G. (2008) ‘Quantifying degradation risk – integrating climate risk into rangeland management’ (PDF, 215K, last updated 01:31PM, 17 September 2009)*. Proceedings of the Australian Rangeland Society Conference. Charters Towers, Australia.
Chu, J.; Syktus, J.; Thatcher, M.; McAlpine, C.; Jeffrey, S.; Katzfey, J.; Zhang, H. & McGregor, J. and Adams-Hosking, C. (2011). ‘Validation of land surface products for modelling the climate impacts of large-scale revegetation in Queensland’. Modelling & Simulation Society of Australia & New Zealand; Perth; 12-16 December 2011.
McKeon, G.M, Stone, G.S., Syktus, J.I., Carter, J.O., Flood, N.R., Ahrens, D.G., Bruget, D.N., Chilcott, C.R., Cobon, D.H., Cowley, R.A., Crimp, S.J., Fraser, G.W., Howden, S.M., Johnston, P.W., Ryan, J.G., Stokes, C.J. and Day, K.A. (2009). ‘Climate change impacts on Australia’s rangeland livestock carrying capacity: A review of challenges’. Report for Land & Water Australia Senior Research Fellowship (QNR46). 69 pp.
Hall, W., Bruget, D., Carter, J., McKeon, G., Yee Yet, J., Peacock, A., Hassett R. and Brook K. (2001). QNR9 'The Aussie GRASS Final Report for the Climate Variability in Agriculture Program’ Department of Natural Resources & Mines, QLD.
McAlpine, C.A., Ryan, J.G., Seabrook, L., Thomas, S., Dargusch, P.J., Syktus, J.I., Pielke Sr, R.A., Etter, A.E., Fearnside, P.M. & Laurance, W.F. (2010). ‘More than CO2: A broader paradigm for managing climate change and variability to avoid ecosystem collapse’. Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability
Kucharski F., Scaife, A.A., Yoo, J.H., Folland, C.K., Kinter, J., Knight, J., Fereday, D., Fischer, A.M., Jin, E.K., Kröger, J., Lau, N-C., Nakaegawa, T.M., Nath, J., Pegion, P., Rozanov, E., Schubert, S., Sporyshev, P.V., Syktus, J., Voldoire, A., Yoon, J.H., Zeng, N. and Zhou, T. (2008) ‘The CLIVAR C20C Project: skill of simulating Indian monsoon rainfall on interannual to decadal timescales: Does GHG forcing play a role?’ (PDF)* Climate Dynamics. DOI 10.1007/s00382-008-0462.
Crimp,S, Flood, N, McKeon, G & Howden, M (2004) ‘Managing Agricultural Systems in a Variable, Non-Stationary Climate: Part II’. Natural Resource Management and Grazing Systems. Department of natural Resources & Mines, Queensland Government
Paull, C., Cliffe, N., and Hall, W. (2001). QNR9 'The Aussie GRASS Final Report:(Extension Sub-project) for the Climate Variability in Agriculture Program' Department of Natural Resources & Mines, QLD.
Tessendorf, S.A., Bruintjes, R.T., Weeks, C., Wilson, J.W., Knight, C.A., Roberts, R.D., Peter, J.R., Collis, S., Buseck, P.R., Freney, E., Dixon, M., Pocernich, M., Ikeda, K., Axisa, D., Nelson, E., May, P., Richter, H., Piketh, S., Burger, R.P., Wilson, L., Siems, S.T. Manton, M., Stone, R.C., Pepler, A., Collins, D.R., Bringi, V.N., Thurai, M., Turner, L., McRae, D. (2011). ‘The Queensland Cloud Seeding Research Project’. Bulletin of the American Meteorology Society.
Helyer, Z., Acworth, C. & Lawson, S. (2011). ‘Acoustic Doppler current profiling from Kirra to Cook Island – field exercises undertaken by the Tweed River Entrance Sand Bypassing Project’ (PDF)*. 20th NSW Coastal Conference, Tweed Heads, 8-11th November 2011.
Klingaman, N.P., (2012): 'A literature survey of key rainfall drivers in Queensland, Australia: Rainfall variability and change. QCCCE Research Report: Rainfall in Queensland. Part 1' (PDF, 2.2M, last updated 03:07PM, 28 June 2012)*. Department of Environmental and Resource Management, Queensland Government, Brisbane, Australia.
Timmers, P., Zhang, B., Panjkov, A., Stone, G. and Day, K. (2008) ‘FORAGE – A web-based framework for generating decision support information for sustainable grazing land management’ (PDF, 354K, last updated 01:31PM, 17 September 2009)*. Proceedings of the Australian Rangeland Society Conference. Charters Towers, Australia.
Klingaman, N.P., (2012): 'Empirical orthogonal teleconnection analysis of interannual-variability in Queensland rainfall. QCCCE Research Report: Rainfall in Queensland. Part 3' (PDF, 3.6M, last updated 03:08PM, 28 June 2012)*. Department of Environment and Resource Management.
Walsh, K. Cai, W. Hennessy, K. Jones, R. McInnes, K. Nguyen, K. Page., C. & Whetton, P. (2002) ‘Climate Change in Queensland under Enhanced Greenhouse Conditions (Final Report 1997–2002)’. A report on research undertaken for Queensland Departments of State Development, Main Roads, Health, Transport, Mines and Energy, Treasury, Public Works, Primary Industries and Natural Resources. CSIRO Atmospheric Research.
Ricketts, J.H. and Carter, J.O. (2011). ‘Estimating trends in monthly maximum and minimum temperatures in GCM’s for which these data are not archived’. Modelling and Simulation Society of Australia and New Zealand 2011 International Congress: Sustaining Our Future; Perth; 12-16th December, 2011.
Rayner D., Wall, C., Willcocks, J., Barley, R. and Prior, K. (2008) ‘Climate and greenhouse’. The State of Environment in Queensland: Atmosphere. Environmental Protection Agency, Queensland Government. pp.48–61. More information is available (PDF, 1.9M, last updated 03:07PM, 28 June 2012)* on Long Paddock web site.
Cai, W., Crimp, S., Jones, R., McInnes, K., Durack, P., Cechet, R., Bathols J. and Scott Wilkinson, S. (2005) ‘Climate Change in Queensland under Enhanced Greenhouse Conditions (Final Report 2004–2005)’ a report on research undertaken for Queensland Departments of State Development, Main Roads, Health, Transport, Treasury, Public Works, Primary Industries and Fisheries, Environmental Protection and Natural Resources and Mines, Queensland Rail, SunWater and CS Energy. CSIRO Marine & Atmospheric Research, Australian Government.
Syktus , J, et. Al (2003) ‘Evaluation of a dynamical seasonal climate forecast system for Queensland’ (PDF, 829K, last updated 01:38PM, 5 December 2008)*. National Drought Forum 2003: Science for Drought
Klingaman, N.P. (2012): The ability of HiGEM to simulate Queensland's rainfall variability and its drivers. QCCCE Research Report: Rainfall in Queensland. Part. 4. Department of Environment and Resource Management, Queensland Government, Brisbane, Australia.
The Part 4/1 report is available (PDF, 1.4M, last updated 03:08PM, 28 June 2012)* on the Long Paddock web site.
The Part 4/3 report is available (PDF, 639K, last updated 03:08PM, 28 June 2012)* on the Long Paddock web site.
Folland, C. Scaife, A. Fereday, D. Knight, J. Kucharski, F. Kinter, J. Jin, E, Bronniman, S. Fischer, A. Grainger, S. Kang, I. Kusunoki, S. Nakaegawa, T. Lau, N. Nath, M. Pegion, P Schubert, S. Sporyshev,P. Syktus, J. Yoon, J. Zeng, N. Zhou, T. (2011). ‘C20C – Climate of the 20th century: Selected twentieth century climate events. (PDF)*’ CLIUAR 2011 Conference: Denver, Colorado, 24-28 October 2011.
Syktus, J., Deo, R.C., McAlpine, C.A., McGowan, H.A. and Phinn, S.R. (2007) ‘Impact of land cover change on regional climate and El Niño in Australia’ (PDF)*. Proceedings of the International Congress on Modelling and Simulation. University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand.
Folland, C. Scaife, A. Fereday, D. Knight, J. Kucharski, F. Kinter, J. Jin, E, Bronniman, S. Fischer, A. Grainger, S. Kang, I. Kusunoki, S. Nakaegawa, T. Lau, N. Nath, M. Pegion, P Schubert, S. Sporyshev,P. Syktus, J. Yoon, J. Zeng, N. Zhou, T. (2011). ‘C20C - Climate of the 20th Century: Selected twentieth century climate events’. World Climate Research Programme Open Science Conference: Climate Research in Service to Society, Denver, Colorado, 24-28 October 2011.
Deo, R.C., McAlpine, C.A. and Syktus, J. (2007) ‘On Australian heat waves: time series analysis of extreme temperature events in Australia 1950 – 2005’ (PDF)*. Proceedings of the International Congress on Modelling and Simulation. University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line7729
|
__label__wiki
| 0.857075
| 0.857075
|
9 Best British Shows on Netflix
Best on Netflix By Irene Doyack
Over the years, Netflix has comfortably established itself as one of the leading providers of subscription service television and movies, both American and foreign. But sometimes the sheer amount TV listings to choose from can be daunting. How to know what you might or might not like? Where to even start looking? And even if you can narrow it down to a specific genre, how can you weed out the winners and losers? Well, if British TV is something you know you are interested in, you’re in luck. See below for a list of some of the very best British TV shows on Netflix right now:
9. Lovesick (2014-)
Release Date on Netflix: April 14, 2015
Writers: Tom Edge, Andy Baker, Ed Macdonald, Mark Grimmer
Directors: Gordon Anderson, Elliot Hegarty, Aneil Karia
Rotten Tomatoes Score: N/A
Streaming on: Netflix US, UK, Canada, Australia, and the rest of the Netflix markets.
One of the best British shows on Netflix, this sitcom stars Antonia Thomas and Johnny Flynn. The series centers around a man recently diagnosed with chlamydia, who is living with two of his friends in Glasgow. In an effort to contact his past lovers, the story is told mostly through flashbacks with these former sexual encounters and how they affected both his life and also his friends. It currently has three seasons.
8. The Fall (2013-)
Writer: Allan Cubitt
Directors: Allan Cubitt, Jakob Verbruggen
Runtime: 1 hour
MPAA Rating: TV-MA
Streaming on: Netflix US, Canada, Australia, Argentina, Brazil, France, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Spain, Germany, India, Japan, Singapore
Gillian Anderson and Jamie Dornan start in this Irish-British crime drama that takes place in Northern Ireland. The show centers around the case to capture and convict a serial killer in Belfast. While there are many common factors between this series and other crime dramas, The Fall flips things upside down by immediately revealing the killer to the audience and using the time previously spent on discovering this to focus on reasons for it. It began in 2013 and there are currently three seasons. The title of the show itself pays home to T.S. Eliot’s poem “The Hollow Men.”
7. The End of the F***ing World (2017-)
Release Date on Netflix: January 6, 2018
Writers: Charlie Covell, Charles S. Forsman
Directors: Jonathan Entwistle, Lucy Tcherniak
Currently one of the best British TV shows on Netflix, stars newcomers Jessica Barden and Alex Lawther. This dark comedy-drama debuted on Netflix in early 2018. It is based on Charles Forsman’s graphic novel which depicts the life of a young high schooler who, convinced that he is a psychopath once he becomes bored with torturing animals, decides that to satisfy this part of himself, he must set his sights higher and murder a young girl in his school. She sees him as a freedom from her own scattered and chaotic home life and suggests they run off together. There is currently only one season and the series has an 8.2 on IMDb and 98% Rotten Tomatoes.
6. Luther (2010-2018)
Genre: Mystery, crime, drama
Writers: Neil Cross
Directors: Sam Miller, Jamie Payne, Brian Kirk, Stefan Schwartz, Farren Blackburn
Streaming on: Netflix US, UK, Australia, France, Germany, Czech Republic, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Russia, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Hong Kong, India, Japan, Singapore
Idris Elba stars in Luther, a British crime drama, as a Chief Detective Inspector. Luther is extremely good at his job, but it’s only because he is fanatical and dedicated (sometimes obsessively) to his work. He deals exclusively with the most violent and dangerous of crimes and their criminals, which frequently leads to him sometimes having to check himself in order to stay in line. One of the best British TV shows on Netflix, Luther began in 2010 and has four seasons.
5. The Office (2001-2003)
Writers: Ricky Gervais, Stephen Merchant
Directors: Ricky Gervais, Stephen Merchant
Streaming on: Netflix US, UK, Australia, Canada
Part comedy, part documentary (mockumentary), one of the best British shows on Netflix is The Office. It stars Ricky Gervais and Martin Freeman, just two of the many employees working at a paper company. The show covers the comings and goings the office and its slew of interesting characters, including the insufferable branch manager, a prank-happy salesman, and an extremely eccentric team leader.
The television was later adapted into an American version starring Steve Carell and Mindy Kaling. Originally airing from 2001 to 2003, there are two seasons.
4. The Crown (2016-)
Genre: Drama, history
Release Date on Netflix: November 4, 2016
Writers: Peter Morgan, Edward Hemming, Tom Edge, Nick Payne
Directors: Philip Martin, Benjamin Caron, Stephen Daldry, Julian Jarrold, Philippa Lowthorpe
Streaming on: Netflix US, Canada, UK, Australia, and the rest of the Netflix markets.
Claire Foy, Matt Smith, and John Lithgow star in this historical drama based on the life and times of Queen Elizabeth II of England. Each season depicts a different point in her life, beginning at her wedding in 1947 in the first season and plans to go to the present day, with different actors and actresses taking over the roles every two seasons. It is intended to go six seasons and currently has two. It has an 8.7 on IMDb and 91% Rotten Tomatoes, and has been hailed as one of the best British shows on Netflix.
3. Fawlty Towers (1975-1979)
Release Date on Netflix: April 1, 2017
Writers: Connie Booth, John Cleese
Directors: Bob Spiers, John Howard Davies
MPAA Rating: TV-PG
Streaming on: Netflix US, UK, Australia
Airing on British television in both 1975 and 1979, Fawlty Towers was written by and starred comedian John Cleese. The slapstick comedy centers around Fawlty Towers, a seaside hotel run by Basil and Sybil Fawlty, one an extremely boorish and stiff man, the other a demanding and nagging woman. The couple, along with their staff struggle to run the hotel, which always seems to be overrun by interesting riffraff. Cleese, already fairly well known at the time was only paid a little over $8000 for his 43 weeks of work on this. One of the best British shows on Netflix, Fawlty Towers has also been voted as one of the best British shows of all time.
2. Peaky Blinders (2013-)
Writers: Steven Knight, Toby Finlay, Stephen Russell
Directors: Colm McCarthy, Tim Mielants, David Caffrey, Otto Bathurst, Tom Harper
Streaming on: Netflix US, Canada, UK, Australia, Argentina, Brazil, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Slovakia, Spain, Norway, Sweden, Poland, India, Japan, Russia, Singapore
Starring Cillian Murphy, Helen McCrory, and Sophie Rundle, this crime drama follows the Shelby family in early 20th century England. Led by the hard and charismatic middle brother, Thomas Shelby, the gangster family takes a no-holds-barred philosophy in Britain when it comes to increasing their rankings and fortunes.
The gang itself is loosely based on an actual criminal gang in the United Kingdom in the early 1890s who were known for hiding razor blades in their hats to use in squabbles. Just one of the best British shows on Netflix, it began running in 2013 and currently has four seasons.
1. Black Mirror (2011-)
Genre: Drama, thriller, sci-fi
Writers: Charlie Brooker, William Bridges, & others
Directors: Owen Harris, Carl Tibbetts, & others
A gritty science fiction series with a catalog of famous actors such as Jon Hamm and Bryce Dallas Howard appearing in episodes, Black Mirror is presented as a standalone anthology with each episode focusing on some time in the future and the influence that our currently rapidly evolving technology has on it. It tackles such subjects as online dating and social media. It started on British television in 2011 and was picked up by Netflix in 2015. Ranked as one of the best British shows on Netflix, there are currently four seasons, all of them streaming on all Netflix markets.
These are just a small sampling of some of the best British shows on Netflix right now. Whether it’s comedy, drama, history or crime that appeals most to you, one of these picks will be right up your alley.
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line7737
|
__label__cc
| 0.534979
| 0.465021
|
Medicare Fraud Strike Force
Government Teams Recovered $4.3B in FY2013 and $19.2B over the Last 5 Years
February 26, 2014 NVRDC
Attorney General Eric Holder and HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius today released the annual Health Care Fraud and Abuse Control (HCFAC) Program report showing that for every dollar spent on health care-related fraud and abuse investigations through this and other programs in the last three years, the government recovered $8.10. This is the highest three-year average return on investment in the 17-year history of the HCFAC Program.
The government’s health care fraud prevention and enforcement efforts recovered a record-breaking $4.3 billion in taxpayer dollars in Fiscal Year (FY) 2013, up from $4.2 billion in FY 2012, from individuals and companies who attempted to defraud federal health programs serving seniors or who sought payments from taxpayers to which they were not entitled. Over the last five years, the administration’s enforcement efforts have recovered $19.2 billion, up from $9.4 billion over the prior five-year period. Since the inception of the program in1997, the HCFAC Program has returned more than $25.9 billion to the Medicare Trust Funds and treasury.
These recoveries, released today in the annual HCFAC Program report, demonstrate President Obama’s commitment to making the elimination of fraud, waste and abuse, particularly in health care, a top priority for the administration. This is the fifth consecutive year that the program has increased recoveries over the past year, climbing from $2 billion in FY 2008 to over $4 billion every year since FY 2011.
The success of this joint Department of Justice and HHS effort was made possible in part by the Health Care Fraud Prevention and Enforcement Action Team (HEAT), created in 2009 to prevent fraud, waste and abuse in Medicare and Medicaid and to crack down on individuals and entities that are abusing the system and costing American taxpayers billions of dollars.
“With these extraordinary recoveries, and the record-high rate of return on investment we’ve achieved on our comprehensive health care fraud enforcement efforts, we’re sending a strong message to those who would take advantage of their fellow citizens, target vulnerable populations, and commit fraud on federal health care programs,” said Attorney General Eric Holder. “Thanks to initiatives like HEAT, our work to combat fraud has never been more cooperative or more effective. And our unprecedented commitment to holding criminals accountable, and securing remarkable results for American taxpayers, is paying dividends.”
“These impressive recoveries for the American taxpayer are just one aspect of the comprehensive anti-fraud strategy we have implemented since the passage of the Affordable Care Act,” said HHS Secretary Sebelius. “We’ve cracked down on tens of thousands health care providers suspected of Medicare fraud. New enrollment screening techniques are proving effective in preventing high risk providers from getting into the system, and the new computer analytics system that detects and stops fraudulent billing before money ever goes out the door is accomplishing positive results – all of which are adding to savings for the Medicare Trust Fund.”
The new authorities under the Affordable Care Act granted to HHS and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) were instrumental in clamping down on fraudulent activity in health care. In FY 2013, CMS announced the first use of its temporary moratoria authority granted by the Affordable Care Act. The action stopped enrollment of new home health or ambulance enrollments in three fraud hot spots around the country, allowing CMS and its law enforcement partners to remove bad actors from the program while blocking provider entry or re-entry into these already over-supplied markets.
The Justice Department and HHS have improved their coordination through HEAT and are currently operating Medicare Fraud Strike Force teams in nine areas across the country. The strike force teams use advanced data analysis techniques to identify high-billing levels in health care fraud hot spots so that interagency teams can target emerging or migrating schemes as well as chronic fraud by criminals masquerading as health care providers or suppliers. The Justice Department’s enforcement of the civil False Claims Act and the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act has produced similar record-breaking results. These combined efforts coordinated under HEAT have expanded local partnerships and helped educate Medicare beneficiaries about how to protect themselves against fraud.
In Fiscal Year 2013, the strike force secured records in the number of cases filed (137), individuals charged (345), guilty pleas secured (234) and jury trial convictions (46). Beyond these remarkable results, the defendants who were charged and sentenced are facing significant time in prison – an average of 52 months in prison for those sentenced in FY 2013, and an average of 47 months in prison for those sentenced since 2007.
In FY 2013, the Justice Department opened 1,013 new criminal health care fraud investigations involving 1,910 potential defendants, and a total of 718 defendants were convicted of health care fraud-related crimes during the year. The department also opened 1,083 new civil health care fraud investigations.
The strike force coordinated a takedown in May 2013 that resulted in charges by eight strike force cities against 89 individuals, including doctors, nurses and other licensed medical professionals, for their alleged participation in Medicare fraud schemes involving approximately $223 million in false billings. As a part of the May 2013 takedown, HHS also suspended or took other administrative action against 18 providers using authority under the health care law to suspend payments until an investigation is complete.
In FY 2013, the strike force secured records in the number of cases filed (137), individuals charged (345), guilty pleas secured (234) and jury trial convictions (48). Beyond these remarkable results, the defendants who were charged and sentenced are facing significant time in prison – an average of 52 months in prison for those sentenced in FY 2013, and an average of 47 months in prison for those sentenced since 2007.
In March 2011, CMS began an ambitious project to revalidate all 1.5 million Medicare enrolled providers and suppliers under the Affordable Care Act screening requirements. As of September 2013, more than 535,000 providers were subject to the new screening requirements and over 225,000 lost the ability to bill Medicare due to the Affordable Care Act requirements and other proactive initiatives. Since the Affordable Care Act, CMS has also revoked 14,663 providers and suppliers’ ability to bill the Medicare program. These providers were removed from the program because they had felony convictions, were not operational at the address CMS had on file, or were not in compliance with CMS rules.
HHS and the Justice Department are leading historic efforts with the private sector to bring innovation to the fight against health care fraud. In addition to real-time data and information exchanges with the private sector, CMS’ Program Integrity Command Center worked with the HHS Office of the Inspector General and the FBI to conduct 93 missions to detect, investigate, and reduce improper payments in FY 2013.
From May 2013 through August 2013, CMS led an outreach and education campaign targeted to specific communities where Medicare fraud is more prevalent. This multimedia campaign included national television, radio, and print outreach and resulted in an increased awareness of how to detect and report Medicare fraud.
To read today’s report visit http://oig.hhs.gov/publications/docs/hcfac/FY2013-hcfac.pdf
For previous years’ reports visit https://oig.hhs.gov/reports-and-publications/hcfac/index.asp
For more information on the joint DOJ-HHS Strike Force activities, visit: www.StopMedicareFraud.gov/.
Health CareAffordable Care Act, Attorney General Eric Holder, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, CMS, CMS Program Integrity Command Center, DOJ-HHS Strike Force, Drug and Cosmetic Act, FBI, Federal Food, HCFAC, Health Care Fraud and Abuse Control, Health Care Fraud Prevention and Enforcement Action Team, HEAT, HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, Inspector General, Justice Department, Medicare fraud, Medicare Fraud Strike Force, ObamaCare
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line7739
|
__label__wiki
| 0.503581
| 0.503581
|
Protecting the Everglades
Great Waters Restoration
There is no place in the world quite like America’s Everglades. These subtropical wetlands once encompassed more than three million acres, from Orlando to the Florida Keys. But today less than half of this unique ecosystem remains.
The Everglades are essential for fish and wildlife, but the system also provides enormous benefits to people, as it:
Provides drinking water for more than 8 million Floridians
Protects communities from hurricanes and floods
Supports Florida’s $1.2 billion fishing industry
Generates $150 million of direct spending annually just in Everglades National Park
Regrettably, human actions have altered the natural flow of water throughout the Everglades. The result is an ecosystem in collapse. Since the 1800s, water diversions and flood-control projects have severed the flow of water between different parts of the Everglades, while large areas of its lands were converted to agricultural or residential areas.
The re-plumbing of the Everglades has resulted in a system where the health of critical coastal estuaries are at risk. At times, too much polluted water is pumped to both coasts from Lake Okeechobee, while too little freshwater flows south to the Everglades and Florida Bay. This unbalanced flow of water prompts outbreaks of toxic green algae that foul Florida’s beaches and damage the Caloosahatchee and St. Lucie estuaries on the east and west coasts. Meanwhile, the lack of freshwater in Florida Bay – an iconic wildlife paradise at the tip of the state – causes salinity to spike and kills seagrass beds, an important habitat that shelters and feeds the bay’s abundant fish and shellfish.
We can solve these problems by recreating natural flows of clean water south to the Everglades National Park and Florida Bay. To restore the Everglades, the National Wildlife Federation works to:
Ensure the implementation of the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan
The Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan (CERP) was approved by Congress in 2000. It includes a suite of 68 individual components that collectively will restore, protect and preserve the resiliency of America’s Everglades for future generations. The key projects – such as reservoirs to store and treat Lake Okeechobee’s overflow and efforts to restore natural flows such as bridging the Tamiami Trail highway – will work together to achieve a lasting, comprehensive restoration for the Everglades.
Support the creation of a reservoir in the Everglades Agricultural Area
A critical piece of restoring the Everglades is to construct a reservoir south of Lake Okeechobee. The Everglades Agricultural Area reservoir is a part of CERP that is designed to relieve the pressure on the St. Lucie and Caloosahatchee estuaries by taking up water from Lake Okeechobee that is currently damaging the east and west coasts. The reservoir will store and treat water before sending it south to the Everglades National Park and Florida Bay, where it is needed most. In 2017, the Florida Legislature passed a bill to accelerate planning and provide half the funding for the construction of a reservoir in the Everglades Agricultural Area. This proposed reservoir has slightly less capacity than the one called for in CERP, but it is an excellent first step on a long-overdue effort to send water south. There is still a long road to the construction of the reservoir and since the cost of CERP projects are split between the state and the federal government, funds still need to be approved and matched by Congress.
Elevate the voices of Americans from across the country
We work hand in hand with our affiliate, the Florida Wildlife Federation, and we utilize our Gulf outreach program Vanishing Paradise.
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line7740
|
__label__wiki
| 0.6072
| 0.6072
|
Red meat could eventually be taxed like cigarettes
By Kari Paul, Marketwatch
December 13, 2017 | 2:51pm | Updated December 13, 2017 | 4:26pm
Your steak dinner may become more expensive soon.
A tax on red meat is becoming increasingly likely in many countries, according to a report from Farm Animal Investment and Risk Return (FAIRR,) a livestock investment education group. Sixteen countries have adopted sugar taxes in recent years, and as most countries, not including the US, work to keep up with the Paris Agreement climate accord, the study showed that the meat industry should expect similar levies.
“It is increasingly probable we’ll see meat taxes become a reality,” said Jeremy Coller, chief information officer of Coller Capital and founder of the FAIRR Initiative. “Countries such as Sweden and Denmark have already looked at meat tax proposals. The continued subsidization of meat is the antithesis of what’s needed as policymakers and countries gear up to deliver on Paris.”
Red meat has been shown to be damaging to individuals’ health — and raising cattle has proven to harm the environment. If animal proteins were cut completely from global diets, more than $1 trillion could be saved in health and environmental costs by 2050, the FAIRR report said. To offset damage their production causes to the environment, beef would have to be taxed at 40 percent and milk at 20 percent, a previous study from Oxford University found. Charging 40 percent more for beef would lead to a 13 percent drop in consumption, it concluded.
Thus far, such policy change discussion has taken place only in Europe, so it is likely taxes would emerge in countries like Denmark and Sweden first, said Elliot Frankal, a spokesman for FAIRR. Although the US does not have a federal sugar or soda tax, Albany, NY, Berkeley, Oakland and San Francisco, Calif., Boulder, Colo., Philadelphia and Seattle, among other cities, have passed their own. “It’s likely that a meat tax would follow the same pattern, with individual cities or states being the ones that are first movers in this,” Frankal said.
The UN called for a tax on meat in 2016, but others say the American tax system is already heavy-handed and the government risks alienating more people from the cause of vegetarianism by forcing it through taxes. In addition, soda taxes meant to target health problems have been called “misguided” and “regressive,” disproportionately affecting low-income individuals.
Still, Americans do not have to cut out meat completely to benefit the environment, other studies have shown: If the US just cut its beef consumption in half, the beef industry could become environmentally stable, a study published Monday by Nature found.
Jenny McQueen, a vegan activist with advocacy group Climate Vegan, said many consumers are already making changes to a plant-based diet. The number of vegans in the UK has risen 350 percent in the last 10 years and the number of Australians who are vegetarians rose to almost 2.1 million (11.2 percent of the population) from 2012 to 2016, from 1.7 million people (or 9.7 percent of the population). Meanwhile, Americans’ meat consumption has continued to rise.
Filed under climate change , meat , nutrition , taxes , vegan
Behold, this season's most pathetic Christmas trees
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line7741
|
__label__wiki
| 0.865863
| 0.865863
|
How a Billion Oysters Are Set to Change New York’s Harbor
The Billion Oyster Project is restoring the harbor, once oyster at a time
By Yissca Schiff • 07/28/16 1:00pm
New Yorkers consume around half a million oysters every week. (Photo: Peter Macdiarmid/Getty)
New Yorkers eat up to half a million oysters in local restaurants every week. However, what most people probably don’t know is that after they’ve shucked and guzzled, those empty oyster shells go on to help the city.
Not only did oysters used to be the native keystone species of New York Harbor, but they also act as water filterers, provide habitat for other marine species and attenuate wave energy. Enter the Billion Oyster Project (BOP), the ever-expanding operation that is spearheading the race to reinstate oysters and reefs to the city’s harbor.
Formally established in 2014, BOP is a non-profit ecosystem restoration and education project that endeavors to restore one billion live oysters to New York Harbor by 2030. By securing would-be discarded oyster shells from top regional restaurants, curing and preparing them for reuse to grow new oysters—up to 20 per saved shell—to build habitat, the aim is to improve the quality of both the Harbor and the city.
“Billion Oyster Project aims to restore a sustainable oyster population and reignite a passion and appreciation for the Harbor by engaging New Yorkers directly in the work of restoring one billion oysters,” BOP director Pete Manilowski, Director of BOP, told the Observer.
Summer interns cleaning oyster shells in the aquaculture lab on Governors Island. (Photo: Courtesy Billion Oyster Project) (Photo: Courtesy Billion Oyster Project)
To date, the Billion Oyster Project has reclaimed and recycled 250,350 pounds of shell, and restored an astounding 17,000,000 oysters. Oysters are ecosystem engineers, helping to clean up the quality of the water—one adult oyster filters 40-50 gallons of water a day. In other words, if you put a billion of them on the bottom of the Harbor, that’s a heck of a lot of water cleanup. According to Samuel Janis, the BOP School Programs Manager, the state of the Harbor, the city’s main natural resource, is currently “much better than it has been probably in the last 150 years.”
“Oysters provide a concrete example of where New York has been, where it is now, and what we can do to get our ecosystem back.”—Elisa Caref, The River Project
Harbor and marine life have suffered disproportionately over the last century, degraded by pollution. However, since the passing of the Clean Water Act in 1971 prohibited the dumping of raw sewage and refuse into the Harbor there has been an emergence of large-scale restoration. BOP is determined to return the Harbor to the most productive waterbody in the North Atlantic and reclaim its title as the oyster capital of the world. Teaming up with organizations from all over the city over the past couple of years, the project has become a yardstick for the state and condition of New York Harbor.
“Oysters provide a concrete example of where New York has been, where it is now, and what we can do to get our ecosystem back,” said Elisa Caref of the River Project, which has been working for 30 years to expand awareness and conservation of the Hudson River Estuary and New York Harbor, and is also one of BOP’s many partners.
Over 50 of the city’s restaurants are now involved in the Shell Collection Program, donating their oyster shells each week for reuse. The OysterHood, another partner of BOP, organizes oyster-related social dining events for the oyster aficionados and “adventurous foodies of New York,” raising a greater awareness of food sources. “[We’re] building stronger connections between consumers, the habitats that support our food production and the producers themselves,” Kevin Joseph, CEO and co-founder of OysterHood, told the Observer.
“People realize that not only can they have fun and eat fancy food,” Manilowski said. “But they can also help restore the environment while they are doing it.”
Referred to as a “lighthouse project,” BOP has captured the imagination of a wide variety of people from all over New York. Something, says entrepreneur and marketer for the OysterHood Rudi Ehrlich, “that the rest of the country should be looking to.”
“We want to be able to eat the fish that swim beneath our boat and to once again pluck oysters out of the Hudson and eat them on the spot.”—Alexander Pincus, co-founder and CEO of Grand Banks
The project’s roots rest with the New York Harbor School, a public, maritime Career and Technical Education (CTE) high school on Governors Island. Surrounded by water that’s utilized as its “living classroom,” its students are “the primary workers and planners” said Susannah Black, Communications Coordinator for the New York Harbor Foundation. They perform an active role in BOP—their six CTE programs, which include aquaculture and ocean engineering and robotics, conveniently represent the six fields necessary for large-scale oyster restoration.
Cris Pupello, 17, is approaching his senior year at NYHS and recognizes the significance of the opportunity. “We built these oyster restoration cages with our own hands. We all help each other out to achieve one goal, it all fits together”, he said.
“[They] have a tight grasp on this complex information and the work they are doing,” Manilowski said. “At BOP, there’s a commitment to involving young people in every aspect of the work.”
Aquaculture interns Anaya and Chris explaining the grow out process (Photo: Courtesy Billion Oyster Project) (Photo: Courtesy Billion Oyster Project)
Now working with 54 different schools the city, BOP is capturing the excitement of students and teachers alike. 320 middle schoolers on June 10 gathered for the annual Symposium, a 50% increase from last year, all presenting their oyster restoration research, and sharing their excitement for the project. Intrinsic to the Billion Oyster Project’s mission of restoration is the ethos of stewardship and the passing on of that care and responsibility for the local environment.
The seasonal floating bar Grand Banks, which serves up oysters aboard an historic wooden schooner, is one of the many restaurants partnering with BOP.
“We want to be able to eat the fish that swim beneath our boat and to once again pluck oysters out of the Hudson and eat them on the spot,” Alexander Pincus, co-founder and CEO of Grand Banks told the Observer. BOP’s work and intention marks a watershed in the history of the city’s environmental efforts, galvanizing students, scientists and foodies alike for a common cause. “Restoring the oyster life, and in turn the overall health, of New York Harbor, benefits everyone in New York,” Pincus said.
Last week, BOP announced they are kicking off a new Community Reefs program, with several new reef sites around the city already getting underway this summer, to join the pilot reef off Governors Island. This intiative will not only accelerate the process of restoring one billion oysters to New York Harbor, but it will also enable more of the public to be involved. The aim is to bring people down to the shoreline and get them involved in the hands-on work of restoration and reef monitoring.
For Black, the future of BOP is in education. “If all we did was restore the oysters, got them all back into the harbor, but without building a culture of stewardship and without building the skills of maritime life and marine science understandings in the next generation of New Yorkers, that wouldn’t be a success,” she said. “So it’s really building the next generation that we’re interested in, as much as building the reefs.”
Filed Under: Economy, Food & Drink, Preservation, New York Harbor, Environmental, grand banks, billion oyster project
SEE ALSO: Cereal Killer: Kellogg’s Must Transform Its Company to Survive—Will It Succeed?
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line7743
|
__label__wiki
| 0.506478
| 0.506478
|
Main exhibition
Exhibition for children
How to get to the Museum
Organised groups
Visiting rules
The Museum's location
The Museum building
Virtual walk
Contact for media
The visit of the Deputy Prime Minister Piotr Gliński to the Museum and Westerplatte
On 3 June 2019, the Museum of the Second World War in Gdańsk was visited by Piotr Gliński - the Deputy Prime Minister and the Minister of Culture and National Heritage, and by Minister Jarosław Sellin - the Secretary of State at the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage. After a short meeting with the Director Mr Karol Nawrocki, Mr Gliński and Mr Sellin went to Westerplatte, among other things, to see the results of the four seasons of archaeological work carried out by the employees of the Museum of Westerplatte and the War of 1939 - a branch of the Museum of the Second World War in Gdańsk. The archaeological excavations enabled the Museum to recover nearly 50 thousand artifacts and to save them from being forgotten. Many of these artefacts were classified as providing significant insights into the history of Westerplatte. The area of the former Military Transit Storage Facility was thoroughly explored by researchers for the first time, even though only a small part of the historical area was examined. Unfortunately, this research cannot be continued, because the city of Gdańsk refuses to grant permission for further work in that area.
Westerplatte is important for every Pole as a symbol of Polish history. In spite of this, Westerplatte was not looked after for 30 years. There is only a small Guardhouse no. 1 with a small exhibition that befits the 1960s. Next to it, outside the area where the fighting took place, there is a monument. Contemporary museums must be interactive and open. In addition, they must be based on artifacts that are valued by museologists. We cannot transform everything into multimedia. We must show people what an authentic relic of the past is, because it is interesting for them. For me, it is an epitome of Polishness, a place and property of all Poles. Why did we, as Poles, fail to take care of this place for 30 years? It must change” – said the Deputy Prime Minister Piotr Gliński in Westerplatte.
Pact for War – International Conference in Gdansk on the anniversary of Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact
Inauguration of the “Museum on Water”
Anniversary of the outbreak of the Warsaw Uprising (1ST August - Thursday)
Museum on Water - cruises with a guide and guided tours of Westerplatte
80th Anniversary of the Outbreak of World War II | Programme of Events
Der vergessene Völkermord. Das Massaker von Wola In Warschau 1944 - German edition of Piotr Gursztyn's book about the Wola Massacre
Meeting with the Mayor of Tsuruga and visit to the Japanese Port of Humanity Tsuruga Museum
Opening of a temporary exhibition “Poles Saving Jews During the German Occupation” in Beijing
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line7745
|
__label__cc
| 0.690094
| 0.309906
|
What Execs Can Learn From Wells Fargo’s Downfall
You could and should blame a company that thinks it’s fine to punish those at the bottom while letting executives at the top walk away with millions.
By Margaret Heffernan • 10/03/16 12:40pm
John Stumpf, Chairman and CEO of the Wells Fargo & Company, testifies before the House Financial Services Committee. Photo: Mark Wilson/Getty Images
What went wrong at Wells Fargo? You can blame the CEO and be grateful you don’t work for him. You can blame the SVP for “community banking” whose division was responsible for setting up credit card accounts for customers who hadn’t asked for them. You can blame the sales team that did that: the 5,300 employees who have been fired. You could and should blame a company that thinks it’s fine to punish those at the bottom while letting executives at the top walk away with millions.
In healthy organizations, the process of creating sales targets doesn’t start at the top with headline revenue numbers. It starts at the bottom, where those on the frontline have a feel for what can be achieved.
But this scandal was driven by sales targets. And we all know how those are set. Here’s the routine: you’re asked what you think your group can achieve next year. You make your estimate and then decrease it by, say, 10 percent. You send that number to your boss who demands that you increase it; you knew that would happen. But the boss wants a 25 percent increase and you are too stunned, cowardly and aghast to say ‘no’ – so it gets written into the plan. Of course the boss demands the unrealistic 25 percent because that’s the only way to hit the overall revenue target that has been set by the CEO, the senior leadership team, the board or the stock market. And revenue targets are increasingly being used to add some appeal to old businesses with little life left in them.
In other words, everyone is gaming everyone else. At no point is there any real truth telling; rather each executive is trying to impress a superior while pushing pressure down to those least able to resist it. With luck and a fair wind, these spurious numbers are sometimes achieved, often due to luck or the sweat and tears of people who were never consulted.
This isn’t just Wells or banks; I’ve seen it happen in media businesses, oil and gas, retail, you name it. Nobody wants to be the chump who says the big heroic number can’t be achieved. Wishful thinking and willful blindness collude in making everyone feel that targets are achievable at no cost.
What should happen? In healthy organizations, the process doesn’t start at the top with headline revenue numbers. It starts at the bottom, where those on the frontline have a feel for what can be achieved. Bosses often don’t want to leave it to the troops – they fear gaming, since that’s what they do. But in my experience, if you ask good people honestly what they think they can achieve, they are loathe to let themselves down. They don’t want to be weak and will set stretch targets because, frankly, work is more interesting that way. You roll these numbers up until you have a plan for the year which is credible and which motivates the best people to out-perform.
In other words, in great companies with honest communication, trust is built by giving people the opportunity to excel. In corrupt companies, trust is destroyed by setting people up to fail—and then blaming (and firing) them when they do. This is a leadership choice, which is why, ultimately, it is the leaders, not the poor sheep, who should be fired.
There’s another culprit here too: silence. For a scandal to occur on this scale means that thousands of people knew what was going on. Yet (apparently) nobody spoke up. No one was prepared to have an argument about what they knew to be going on. This is not only not unusual; it has become endemic in American life. We may disagree with each other – but we rarely say so. Averse to conflict, we lack confidence in our ability to manage it or to learn from it. That’s what programs like PBS’s “Point Taken” and organizations like Intelligence Squared attempt to tackle: to give people the experience of disagreeing with— but listening to—each other. That they’re necessary is just one indicator of how silent most organizations—from families to schools, colleges and companies—have become. But unless we all learn to stop gaming the system and instead to speak up, to dare to disagree, the silence around us won’t be golden. It will be dangerous.
Margaret Heffernan’s most recent book is Beyond Measure: The Big Impact of Small Changes.
Filed Under: Politics, Business, Scandal, wall street, wells fargo bank, banking, John Stumpf
SEE ALSO: Elizabeth Warren Wants to Send CEOs to Jail for Company ‘Mishaps’
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line7748
|
__label__cc
| 0.556562
| 0.443438
|
Alignment of Interests
News & Record, November 21, 2016
Some businesses refer to employees as associates. The workers know they’re still employees.
Greensboro entrepreneur Dennis Quaintance can now use the word “partners” to describe the people who work for his businesses.
Quaintance and his wife, Nancy, announced last week that they will sell their management company to an employee stock ownership plan. Full-time employees are vested in the plan after three years. They accumulate retirement benefits based on annual profits.
“You don’t put any money into it. You gain participation just by working here,” he told them.
The management company owns some of Greensboro’s signature hotels and restaurants. The Proximity Hotel is one of the greenest buildings of its kind. Quality and service distinguish the properties, which depend on committed workers.
“I cannot imagine a situation where our interests could be more aligned,” Quaintance said of his businesses and the new partners who run them.
That’s a progressive attitude that will serve everyone’s interests well.
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line7749
|
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.