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March - 2007 - issue > Woman Achiever
Learning to love technology
Vidya Balakrishnan
Kalpana Margabandhu wanted to be a banker ever since she could remember. A nine to six job at the bank was satisfactory for her. A sudden change in plans saw her studying BTech. at IISc, at a time when computers and engineering were not in vogue. The thrill of getting into the institute ignited in her an interest for technology, something she feared, as it was a lesser-known subject for her. Into the middle of her first year, she got an offer to be a banker her dream job. It was an obvious choice but even to her surprise, she opted to stay at IISc. “I always aspired to take on difficult projects so I could prove they were not beyond me. If someone were to tell me ‘you can’t do it’, then I would make sure that I could,” she says.
Today Kalpana, General Manager IBM India Software Labs (ISL), is narrating the successful story of her 24-year journey as a techie. She is steering one of the largest Product Development Labs for IBM worldwide as it develops products, technology and solutions for IBM Software Group. Her periodical halts as Consultant Software Specialist to Program Director ISL strongly back her decision of letting technology take over her career graph. To add to her kitty of technical expertise, she also leads the WebSphere Mission (ISL) as its Program Director, where she overseas techies work on Architecture, Design, Development, Maintenance and Testing of IBM WebSphere.
For a lady who never aspired to be a techie, her achievements speak loud of her capabilities. Her motto ‘learn and deliver’ served as common thread connecting the steps in her climb towards professional success. And she won’t shy away from her achievements. “When I started off, I was not very good with technology. I learnt to nurture a love for it, the inspiration coming from within,” she says.
The lesson held good at her very first job at PSI Data Systems in ’82. While the rest of the country was just awaking to the prospect of personal computers and Internet applications were unheard of, a young Kalpana was busy with C (language), Compliers and operating systems. Working as the menu editor, she was creating an application combining the three that would enable building user interfaces. Back then PSI was among the very few companies attempting to help build such an interface thus making the project highly significant for the organization and more so for first-timer Kalpana.
However, the names appeared foreign to her and the processes seemingly distant. She was hesitant but soon delved into the subject matter learning the technology while working along with it. “The PC business had started during that time so there was a lot of experimental learning that we did on our own. It was equivalent to solving a problem,” she says. Utilizing existing technology and exploring options with newer ones, her team was able to pull off the project successfully.
The motto steered her through all her future endeavors but she was exposed to its actual evergreen facet nearly two decades after imprinting her first success. She was faced with a similar dilemma when asked to help set up and head the operations of the ISL as Lab Manager. “We had to start by defining a lab to the techies here, before moving on to leverage any kind of technical competence,” she recollects. She was with the team that formed the processes, where the delivery mechanism meant integration with IBM’s worldwide product labs.
Though experienced in a managerial role, she had done nothing on a large scale that required her to be adept with managing administration, finance and HR. Suddenly, after all these years, Kalpana felt like a first-timer again. For her, it was akin to setting up a small company. She was hesitant; unsure if ready for such responsibility, but diving into the lesser known was what probably motivated her the most. Her hesitancy transformed into passion for product development and guided by her motto, she successfully saw through the debut of the Software Lab in 2001.
The confidence boost it gave her was enormous. She grew alongside the Lab, as it transformed from a small size to mid-size to its current status thanks to that one principle she had decided to follow. “It taught me that love and passion for technology can be nurtured,” she remarks, a need she feels that requires immediate attention. “Engineers have to be taught to foster a love for technology, this is the only way India can leverage its pool of technical talent,” she says.
Probably why she has no qualms calling herself a role model. Twenty-four years in any industry is a mighty weight to carry on one’s shoulder. It adds value if you have been in a single company for most of the journey and even more so if you have been a leader for the larger part of the time. Often stopped by juniors who look up to her for inspiration as a role model, she accepts the post with pride and humility. As Chairperson of the Indian Women’s Leadership Council (IWLC), started for IBM employees, and member of various other leadership councils, she is busy fulfilling her duties as a leader by guiding and inspiring her team towards a fruitful career. “Today, when I see the people, whom I mentored, being honored and recognized globally by IBM for being technical innovators and leaders, it gives me immense pleasure and satisfaction,” she beams.
Furthermore why the Linux Technology Center at ISL is her fondest project yet. Seeded under her leadership, the development center reflects, in many ways, Kalpana’s efforts in nurturing technical competency. Here developers create and add their contributions to many Linux projects hosted on SourceForge, the largest download repository of open source code and applications. Terming it as an opportunity for the techie to increase their technical caliber, she is confident that with the establishment of such centers, it wont be long before passion for technology and product development is nurtured in the country.
As a leader, Kalpana has seen the other side of the glass spectrum. “Being technical you want to get into the depth of every product but being a leader you should not lose track of the over all picture of the portfolio,” she says.
Sure she misses technical roles, but for her overseeing products, understanding the technology behind them right from their blueprint stage to final delivery is worthwhile. “Also, it has helped me be involved in setting up products and technologies for the future,” she remarks adding that it has also helped her come closer to her people and help them be technically competent.
From a wannabe banker to one of the most important technical managers in the country; Kalpanas’s journey has not only been worthwhile but also inspirational. A journey, that began by a simple first step of overcoming her fear of technology to discovering untapped potential while on her way to the top.
9 things to remember while chasing the Web 2.0 dream
It's getting clogged here
Know the world before you 'startup'
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Thirty years spent judging Princeton
Judge Gale Sinclair rests his case
Andrea DeMeer
It’s not every day, outside of a Hollywood film set, that spectators in court burst into applause.
But that’s what happened during Princeton circuit court in December, when Judge Gale Sinclair, 69, announced his retirement and expressed his pleasure over 30 years of presiding in judgment over the Town of Princeton.
“I have always enjoyed coming to Princeton, and I would like to say that for the record.”
Sinclair has been as much a fixture in Princeton court as his dais and his gavel.
In an interview with The Spotlight, he reflected on a career that brought him to town frequently, although he was reluctant to name the highlights.
“There’s been some interesting stuff but I can’t really pin point anything.”
Sinclair said he has always enjoyed a casual court atmosphere.
“I think that’s fair. I like to sort of be on the same plane as people so I like to keep it casual and friendly.”
During one remarkable sitting earlier this year, a defendant addressed the court and asked Sinclair if he would like to go for coffee.
“We can do that when I retire,” said the judge.
Sinclair has watched people grow up in Princeton.
“I had a grandpa as a client [forty years ago when he was a lawyer in Penticton]. I’ve had his son and grandson in court.”
He has often seen the same defendants, over and over again, before his bench.
“I just look and think ‘my goodness you are back here again. What are you here for?’”
And he expressed empathy for many of the people that have appeared before him.
“I’m just a guy and I don’t judge people. I judge what they have done. There are so many people that are so disadvantaged. You have to do your best to accommodate them.”
He well remembers Princeton lawyer Stan Turner, who died two years ago.
“I loved Stanley Turner. It’s just not the same without hi…so put a plug in there for him okay?”
Sinclair said he has always liked the variety that circuit court provides.
“Give me a good civil case. I enjoy that…I like criminal cases but my least favorite is family cases because they are so tragic.”
While Sinclair will never preside in Princeton again, he has a few more months on the bench in Penticton.
After that, he plans to travel with his wife and spend more time with his stepson.
Parting from the law is not bittersweet, he said.
“I know it’s time for me to go, so I’m going to go.”
New B.C. regulations on payday loans don’t address real issues: advocates
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Spain's celebrity restorer shows her own work
By Giles Tremlett
December 12, 2012 — 9.21am
MADRID: Fame has come late to Cecilia Gimenez, an 80-year-old Spanish painter whose disastrous attempt at restoring a 19th-century Ecce Homo on the walls of her local church spread her name around the globe over the northern summer.
The botched restoration of the painting by Elias Garcia Martinez earned her a reputation as a bold, if brutal, restorer of other people's works – though it was also dubbed "the worst restoration in history".
Fame calling ... Cecilia Gimenez's original restoration of the Ecce Homo in her local church.
Now Gimenez has appeared as an artist in her own right, with one of her pictures currently for sale on eBay. Bidding for the scene of some rural buildings near her native town of Borja started vigorously, with nine bids over the first four hours pushing the price up from a starting €300 ($370) to more than €400.
The money will not go to Gimenez herself but to the Roman Catholic charity Caritas. The picture has been put up for sale by the charity's branch in nearby Zaragoza after the church-owned Cope radio station persuaded her to donate the painting as part of its Christmas charity fundraising drive.
All her own work ... the Gimenez painting for sale on eBay.
Gimenez, having at first hidden from journalists, is now beginning to exploit her popularity. The Neox television channel has announced that she is to appear on one of their new year celebration shows this month.
The Santuario de Misericordia church that houses the Ecce Homo has also cashed in on the painting's new popularity and has started charging visitors – raising €2000 in the first week.
Some fortune-seeking Spaniards who have bought tickets for the country's famous Christmas lottery El Gordo (The Fat One), hope Gimenez's magic will rub off on them. They have already snapped up all tickets bearing the numbers that match the date on which the Ecce Homo restoration was revealed to the world in August: 21812.
Most Viewed in Entertainment
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Dwayne Bravo returns to Melbourne to play for Big Bash's Renegades
By Jesse Hogan
January 11, 2014 — 3.00am
Former Bushrangers Twenty20 fan favourite Dwayne Bravo will return to Melbourne to spearhead the Renegades' pursuit of a Big Bash League finals berth.
Bravo's international duties with the West Indies, in New Zealand, will prevent him joining the Renegades for their home match against Sydney Thunder on Tuesday. He will, however, be available for the matches at home to Sydney Sixers on January 18 and away to Adelaide four days later.
Lethal weapon: Dwayne Bravo. Credit:Sebastian Costanzo
The all-rounder played for Victoria in the old state-based competition in 2009-10 and 2010-11. He also played for the Sixers in 2011-12.
While Bravo, 30, is a capable, if at times expensive medium-fast bowler, it is his batting that will be needed most by the Renegades, who have almost certainly - depending on a Cricket Australia ruling regarding availability - lost captain Aaron Finch to national one-day duties.
Bravo was unable to consistently make an impact with the bat across his first three Twenty20 seasons in Australia, although he has since shown improvement in IPL and in limited-overs internationals.
Renegades opening batsman Alex Doolan welcomed his signing.
''He's been in some really good form - he's coming off 100 in their last ODI against New Zealand - so we're hopeful that he can bring that form to Etihad Stadium,'' he said.
Bravo will replace Jos Buttler, who has joined England's one-day squad. Buttler had been due to play only two matches but stayed for five after all-rounder Mohammad Hafeez had to pull out of his deal with the Renegades because of an unexpected Test recall for Pakistan.
The Renegades have won only two of their first five matches but remain in strong contention for a semi-finals berth because of how close the league is, excepting for Melbourne Stars at the top and Sydney Thunder at the bottom.
Doolan has rejoined the Renegades after being an unused member of Australia's squad for the fifth Ashes Test in Sydney, an experience he hailed as ''unbelievable - a week that I'll never forget''.
Jesse Hogan
Jesse Hogan has been a reporter at The Age since 2004, and has been part of its sports department since 2008. He is primarily focused on cricket and has covered a number of the Australian team's overseas tours, including the 2011 World Cup. He also reports on AFL and soccer.
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Teresa Elizabeth Hill and Jonathan David Huwe
Miss Teresa Hill to wed Jonathan Huwe Dec. 10
Mr. and Mrs. Don Hill of Potts Camp are pleased to announce the engagement and forthcoming marriage of their daughter, Teresa Elizabeth “Tess” Hill to Jonathan David Huwe of Corinth.
Miss Hill is the granddaughter of Mr. and Mrs. Jimmy Hill Sr. of Ripley, and the late Mr. and Mrs. Fred Clayton of Potts Camp.
Miss Hill is a graduate of Potts Camp School, and the University of Mississippi, where she received bachelor’s degrees in classics and communication sciences and disorders. She is currently attending the University of Memphis, and will complete requirements for a master’s degree in speech-language pathology in May, 2017.
Mr. Huwe is the son of Mr. and Mrs. David Huwe of Corinth. He is the grandson of Mrs. Barbara Huwe of Las Vegas, Nevada, and the late Mr. Ralph Huwe, and the late Mr. and Mrs. Frank Ridley of Pittsburgh, Penn.
Mr. Huwe is a graduate of Corinth High School in Corinth, and the University of Mississippi, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in pharmaceutical sciences. He is currently attending the University of Mississippi School of Pharmacy in Jackson, and will complete requirements for a doctorate of pharmacy in May, 2018.
The couple will exchange vows on Saturday, December 10, 2016, at two in the afternoon at Mt. Zion Presbyterian Church at 480 County Road 401, Falkner. All friends and family are invited to share this day with Tess and Jon.
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Home About Sundays Connect Sermons Calendar Giving Blog
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About Sovereign Grace Church
"A Church passionate about knowing, applying & proclaiming the glorious Gospel of Jesus Christ"
This was the vision and burden of Dave Taylor when he moved with his family from Wales to Sydney in order to plant Sovereign Grace Church Sydney. Sovereign Grace Church was officially launched in September 2010 and though we’ve grown since then, our vision and values have remained the same.
We are a church that lives and breathes the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We believe that he came for undeserving sinners just like us and we are fuelled by faith in his sovereign power to change lives. We’ve experienced first hand the Gospel’s power to change as we continue to see hearts come to life in a knowledge and love for Jesus Christ within our church. And because of what we’ve seen, we are a church that is passionate about taking the Gospel out - to our local communities, our city, our nation and our world - we want everyone to hear about him!
Our Family of Churches
Sovereign Grace Church is part of Sovereign Grace Churches, a family of churches passionate about advancing the Great Commission through church planting and equipping local churches. Sovereign Grace was founded in 1982 out of Covenant Life Church in Gaithersburg, Maryland and was originally known as People of Destiny International, but changed its name to Sovereign Grace in 2003.
Our churches are Gospel–centred (i.e. evangelical), Reformed, and charismatic, consisting of about 80 churches internationally. While most of these churches are in the U.S.A., there is a growing number internationally including South America, Western Europe, Eastern Africa and Eastern Asia. In all, Sovereign Grace partners to varying degrees with pastors and church–planting networks in 21 countries.
Scripture presents the all-glorious, triune God as the source and end of all things, sovereignly working all things according to His will, including our salvation, to display His immeasurable grace and glory. God’s sovereign grace in salvation humbles us, fills us with gratitude, and compels us to worship Him and share the message of His grace with all people.
Gospel-CentreD
We believe that the gospel - the good news of God’s saving activity in Jesus Christ - is the pinnacle of His redemptive acts, the centre of the Bible’s story, and the essential message for our faith, life, and witness. We are committed to preaching the gospel, singing the gospel, praying the gospel, and building our church upon the gospel. Our ultimate hope in all that we do is not our plans and labours, but the perfect life, substitutionary death, victorious resurrection, and glorious ascension of Jesus Christ.
Continuationist
With the outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, God’s purpose to dwell among His people entered a new era. We believe the Holy Spirit desires to continually fill each believer with increased power for the Christian life and witness, including the giving of His supernatural gifts for the building up of the church and for various works of ministry in the world.
We believe that the unity for which Jesus prayed among His people should find concrete expression among believers and churches. To that end, we’re truly committed to "doing life" together.
Our gospel-centrality entails not only treasuring the gospel personally but sharing it passionately. The risen Christ commissioned His church to make disciples of all nations. We believe that commission falls to us and to all believers, and so we are eager to pursue this mission, relying fully on the Holy Spirit, to see the gospel proclaimed and more churches planted throughout the world, so that God may be glorified among every tribe, language, people, and nation.
MISSIONAL
Dave moved to Sydney from the UK in June 2010 to become our Lead Pastor and plant Sovereign Grace Church. Dave is married to Emma, has five children, and is passionate about the good news of Jesus Christ and seeing it spread throughout Sydney, Australia and the World.
Brendan Willis
Brendan is a Pastor at Sovereign Grace, oversees all things mission and biblical studies, and assists Dave in the ongoing preaching roster. Brendan works part time as a Physiotherapist, is married to Charlotte and together they live in Waitara.
Patrick Chavez
Patrick serves as a Pastor at Sovereign Grace and oversees our growing community life ministries. Patrick is married to Meg and together they live with their seven children in Wahroonga.
Riley Spring
Church Planter
Having graduated from the Sovereign Grace Pastors College, Riley is now interning with us and doing his ordination studies as he prepares to plant Sovereign Grace Church Parramatta. He lives in Thornleigh with his wife Maddie and their two small children.
Simon Walker
Pastoral Intern
Simon teaches PDHPE and oversees the student leadership and community services program at Barker College, and has recently commenced a Pastoral Internship. Simon is married to Michelle and lives in Westleigh with their three daughters.
Glen Jones
Pastoral Resident
Glen joined our leadership team in 2019 after moving to Sydney from Dubai with his wife Donita and their 6 kids. Glen is originally from Sydney but has spent the last 18 years living in the Middle East. Prior to joining our team Glen was serving as a pastor at Redeemer Dubai.
Janelle Pearce
SG Kids
Janelle is an experienced teacher who was a part of our initial church plant team in 2010. She is married to Oliver, leads our kids ministry, and is passionate about kids coming to know Jesus.
Oliver Pearce
Oliver works full time as a Chartered Accountant and serves on our board of directors. Married to Janelle he is passionate about the gospel and serves us in all things finance and legal.
Emma Taylor
Titus 2 - Women’s Ministry
Emma is married to Dave, works full time as a Mum and recently completed a diploma in Biblical Counselling. Emma is passionate about helping women grow in their love for Jesus.
Michelle is married to Simon, is a mum of three girls, and is currently teaching in university and completing her PhD in Education Studies. Michelle is passionate about what it is to know and follow Jesus in daily life and to that end, she serves in a whole variety of different ways in Sovereign Grace.
Meg Chavez
Meg is married to Patrick and works full time as a mum caring for their seven children. Meg is passionate about women growing in their love for Jesus and assists Emma in leading our women’s ministry..
Andrew Leung
Andrew works four days a week running a business in Financial Advice and Funds Management and then serves one day a week as Executive Assistant to Dave Taylor. He lives in Wahroonga with his wife Katrina and their two small children.
Sovereign Grace Church
183a Fox Valley Road,
Wahroonga, NSW, 2076,
info@sovgrace.org.au
Sun 10:30am - 12:15pm
Fox Valley Community Centre
Fox Valley Rd, Wahroonga NSW 2076
Sovereign Grace Church, Sydney
21/7 Sefton Rd, Thornleigh NSW 2120,
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Bedouin Soundclash join Specials ska line-up in Leeds
The Specials.
For the first-time ever influential British icons The Specials and legendary reggae heroes Toots And The Maytals will share the stage at three dates across the UK, including a big outdoor show in Leeds.
Now added to this already stellar line-up are reggae infused ska-rock band Bedouin Soundclash and DJ Matt McManamon, of The Dead 60s fame with the Leeds leg of the tour to take place in Millennium Square on Saturday, May 27.
Returning from their 2012 hiatus, Bedouin Soundclash will be bringing award-winning and infectious melodies to warm-up Birmingham, Leeds and Hatfield for the May Bank Holiday ska extravaganza.
Since the release of their breakthrough album ‘Sounding a Mosaic’, produced by Darryl Jenifer of legendary hardcore punk band Bad Brains, lead singer Jay Malinowski and bassist Eon Sinclair have enjoyed astronomical success with the album’s lead single ‘When The Night Feels My Song’ peaking at number one on Canadian radio and BBC radio charts respectively.
Bedouin Soundclash then went on to perform worldwide, supporting and appearing alongside diverse acts such as No Doubt, Coldplay, Alicia Keys, Damian Marley, Paramore and many more - making them the perfect openers for this summer’s rousing showcase of ska and reggae.
On supporting The Specials and Toots & The Maytals, Bedouin Soundclash said; “Both Toots and The Maytals and the Specials have had such a huge impact on us musically.
“They are musical royalty. After a five-year hiatus, it’s an honour, a privilege, and a pleasure to be invited to share the stage with these legends of culture.”
Completing the ska party will be Matt McManamon, frontman of the recently reformed Liverpool legends The Dead 60s. Well-versed in the needs of ska and reggae fans alike, he will be bringing matchless mixes of dub infused ska and the coolest punk sounds to the decks.
Headline act The Specials are undoubtedly one of the most celebrated UK bands of all time.
Born out of a time of mass unemployment and social unrest, The Specials clever, witty and socially charged hits energised a generation and created an unprecedented alchemy between band and audience.
Fusing ska music with a punk rock attitude the band pioneered the Two Tone movement and ignited bouts of ‘skanking’ across the UK with hits such as ‘Too Much Too Young’, ‘Ghost Town’, ‘Gangsters’, ‘Rudy, A Message To You’, ‘Rat Race’ and ‘Enjoy Yourself (It’s Later Than You Think)’.
Since reforming in 2008, The Specials have become one of the most in-demand live acts around. Continuing to deliver their critically acclaimed anthems of modern British life, these shows promise to be a truly unique moment to celebrate the career of a band who changed not only music, but British culture itself.
With a shared history that saw The Specials cover ‘Monkey Man’ on their 1979 debut album and later ‘Pressure Drop’, there is no one better than legendary reggae originators Toots And The Maytals to join the band for these special dates.
Unloved bring their ‘Heartbreak’ songs to Leeds in Brudenell gig
Rising out of Jamaica with their untouchable take on classic reggae, Toots And The Maytals introduced the beloved genre to the world, staying true to themselves with the music that soundtracked their youth and an unparalleled dedication to the vibrant beats that went on to inspire countless generations of musicians and fans alike.
Frontman Toots Hibbert’s soulful vocal style marked him out as one of the greatest voices in the genre’s history with anthems such as ‘Pressure Drop’, ‘Sweet And Dandy’, ‘54-46 (That’s My Number)’ and ‘Do The Reggay’ paving the way for ska music’s explosion in the late 70s.
Back on stage after three years away, expect Toots And The Maytals to transport audiences to the sun-kissed beaches of Jamaica, in what’s sure to be one of the most joyous sets of the summer.
The Specials’ Terry Hall said; “In all this time, we have never been fortunate enough to play on the same stage as Toots & The Maytals. What a great bill - I’m definitely there!!”
Tickets cost £44 and can be bought from www.lunatickets.co.uk and www.seetickets.com
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Gianluigi Buffon Net Worth
Gianluigi Buffon is a professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper for Serie A giants, Juventus and the Italian national team. Buffon is regarded as one of the most prolific goalkeepers of the modern era. The epitome of athleticism, Buffon is known for his acrobatic dives and lightning fast reflexes. The only goalkeeper to win the Golden Foot, Buffon has won over 23 trophies in his career and holds the record for the most number of clean sheets in Serie A.
As a result of being one of the top goalkeepers in the game, Buffon pulls in a lot of cash. Let's take a look at what Buffon earns and his net worth
Buffon's Contract Earnings
Gianluigi Buffon became the most expensive goalkeeper following his transfer to Juventus from Parma in 2001 for a jaw dropping €51.956 million. Buffon currently earns a weekly wage of $85,000 which coupled with bonuses takes his annual income to $5 million.
His current estimated net worth is around $20 million.
Buffon's Houses and cars
Gianluigi Buffon owns a luxury house in his hometown Carrara and the estimated cost of the residence is around $2 million.
Buffon also has a collection of luxury cars which includes brands like Maserati, Ford and Audi. The estimated cost of his luxury cars amounts to $1 million.
Buffon's Endorsements
Buffon has been sponsored by German brand Puma for most of his sports equipment for a major part of his career. Buffon has also endorsed Pepsi during his career and has also appeared in their commercials. An ardent poker player, Buffon has also endorsed by PokerStars, which is an online poker cardroom.
Buffon also has a number of personal investment endeavours and has his own brand of wine by the name of “Buffon #1”. Buffon was also a major shareholder of his hometown club Carrarese before it dismantled in 2016. In addition to this, Buffon holds 15% shares of the Italian textile company, Zuchi Group S.p.A.
Age Source of Wealth
40 years Football, Endorsements,Investments
Salary Endorsements
$5 million $2 million (approx)
Residence Brands Endorsed
Carrara, Italy Puma,Peps,PokerStars
Marital Status Cars
Married to Alena Seredova Maserati, Ford, Audi
Football Legends: #1 Gianluigi Buffon
Barcelona Transfer News: Blaugrana show interest in Gianluigi Buffon
Gianluigi Buffon set to leave Paris Saint-Germain
Top 5 saves by Gianluigi Buffon
Barcelona Transfer News Round-Up: Antoine Griezmann, Gianluigi Buffon & More
Juventus Transfer News: Gianluigi Buffon close to making a return to the Old Lady on a free transfer
Cristiano Ronaldo news: Gianluigi Buffon gives his verdict on playing with the Portuguese star next season
Cristiano Ronaldo News: "I don’t think Ronaldo chose to come to Italy, he chose Juventus," says Gianluigi Buffon
BREAKING NEWS: Buffon returns to Juventus
Buffon undergoes medical ahead of Juventus return
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Our Monastery and Guesthouse aim to offer spaces of silence, beauty, and simple comfort to guests, for an hour, a day, or for a longer visit.
The Monastery and Guesthouse are located on Memorial Drive, just off Harvard Square, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and face on the Charles River and its flanking parklands designed by Frederick Law Olmstead.
The Monastery Chapel
Dedicated to Saint Mary and Saint John, is considered by some to be the masterpiece of the great twentieth century American architect, Ralph Adams Cram. Built in the French Romanesque style, the Chapel conveys the essence of the early Christian basilica on a small scale. It features classic pillars and arches made from Indiana limestone; marble floors in the choir and sanctuary; beautiful stained glass windows designed by Charles J. Connick; and a baldachino standing above and glorifying the high altar. We invite guests staying in the Guesthouse, as well as the public, to use the Chapel as a sanctuary for their prayer and reflection.
Built in 1924-1928, was also designed by Cram, and it served as the original Monastery building until Cram designed the Chapel and the rest of the monastic complex, including living quarters and a cloister for the brothers, in the mid-1930’s. Built at the height of the Great Depression, the current buildings were completed in 1936.
Our Guesthouse facilities include twelve single bedrooms, large and small meeting rooms, chapels for private and corporate prayer, and a garden.
Extensive renovations made in 2010 – 2011 have added entrances for those with special needs, fully accessible bathrooms, and a guest refectory and kitchen.
For photo tours of the Monastery & Guesthouse, please click here.
To book a retreat, at either the Monastery Guesthouse or at Emery House, please contact the Guesthouse Manager/Receptionist by e-mail at guesthouse@ssje.org or by telephone at (617) 876-3037 extension 10.
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But with so many years in the classroom, Brown was loved by students who have advanced through all grade levels, and beyond, Nichols said.
Grief counselors, he added, were available Monday and Tuesday for students.
Approximately 300 children, K-12, are taught on the school district's three campuses.
"They all know who she is," Nichols said of the students. "It's a tough situation because we're such a small school.
"But you expect to see her in the mornings; it's a bit strange now not to see her in the hallways."
Brown died in a head-on collision on Texas 171, four miles north of Cresson, said Trooper Larry Clint Ferguson of the Texas Department of Public Safety.
The driver of the other vehicle, Houston G. Earnest, 20, of Mineral Wells, was listed in fair condition Tuesday at John Peter Smith Hospital in Fort Worth.
He suffered broken limbs and internal injuries, Ferguson said.
The wreck was still under investigation Tuesday.
It happened about 7:20 a.m. Monday as Brown was on her way to work, Ferguson said.
The area is just north of the border shared by Parker and Hood Counties, Ferguson said.
Weatherford and Rio Vista are about 48 miles apart.
Brown was southbound on the highway in a red 1999 GMC Sonoma pickup, while Earnest was north in a white 2008 Dodge four-door passenger car, Ferguson said.
Earnest's car crossed into the path of the Brown's pickup, striking it head on, the trooper said.
Ferguson said he did not know why the wreck happened, but drugs and alcohol have been ruled out by a blood sample taken from Earnest.
Earnest, however, was unable to give much information on Monday.
"He honestly doesn't remember," Ferguson said. "He's pretty badly injured also."
Nichols said Brown's fellow teachers worried about her making such a lengthy commute, but she always tried to assure them that she would be OK.
The principal said he believed Brown would miss students and colleagues after retiring. But, he added, "she was looking forward to being at home with her grandkids."
Howe said her aunt is survived by husband, Paul; sons Andy and James, both of Weatherford; and daughters Tamra Lewis of Granbury and Jennifer Todd of Weatherford.
Brown has three grandchildren, but Tamra is expected to deliver a fourth in a few weeks, Howe said.
Funeral arrangements are pending.
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Neuroanatomy, Circle of Willis
Julie Rosner
Forshing Lui
The blood supply to the brain is divided into an anterior and posterior circulation. The anterior circulation derives blood from the bilateral internal carotid arteries (ICA) and supplies blood to the majority of the cerebral hemispheres including the frontal lobes, parietal lobes, lateral temporal lobes and anterior part of deep cerebral hemispheres. The posterior circulation derives blood from the bilateral vertebral arteries (VA) and supplies the brainstem, cerebellum, occipital lobes, medial temporal lobes and posterior part of deep hemisphere mainly the thalamus. The circle of Willis (CoW) is an anatomical structure that provides an anastomotic connection between the anterior and posterior circulations, providing collateral flow to affected brain regions in the event of arterial incompetency.
The circle of Willis is a ring of vessels connecting the anterior and posterior circulations of the brain. The ring is bounded anteriorly by a single anterior communicating artery (ACom) which connects the bilateral anterior cerebral arteries (ACA). The ACAs course posterolaterally until reaching their lateral-most connection to the ICA, which runs cephalically through the neck and into the brain. As each ICA courses, each gives off an ophthalmic artery. At the point of connection between the ACA and the ICA, the lateral continuation of the ICA becomes the middle cerebral artery (MCA). Coursing posteromedially from each ACA-ICA junction is the posterior communicating artery (PCom). The PCom connects the MCA with the posterior cerebral arteries (PCA), which form the posterior-most aspect of the CoW. The bilateral PCAs fuse to become the basilar artery (BA). The BA courses caudally along the anterior pons, giving off many branches including the superior cerebellar arteries, and pontine arteries, and the anterior inferior cerebellar artery. The BA then divides into the bilateral VAs which each give off a posterior inferior cerebellar artery (PICA) and contribute to the formation of a single anterior spinal artery.[1][2][3][4]
The circle of Willis acts to provide collateral blood flow between the anterior and posterior circulations of the brain, protecting against ischemia in the event of vessel disease or damage in one or more areas.
Formation of the cerebral circulation begins with the development of six pairs of branchial arch arteries. The third branchial arch arteries contribute to the formation of the ICAs early in embryonic life. The second branchial arch arteries help form the ventral pharyngeal arteries, which fuse proximally with the ICAs to form the common carotid arteries (CCA). Around 28 days of development, the ICA branches into anterior and posterior divisions. The anterior ICA gives rise to the ACA, MCA, and anterior choroidal artery; the posterior division gives rise to the PCA and the posterior choroidal artery.[2]
The growth of the occipital lobe and brainstem trigger development of the posterior circulation. Early in development, the hindbrain is supplied by blood from the carotid-vertebrobasilar connections via the trigeminal artery (TA), the otic artery (OA), the hypoglossal artery (HA), and the proatlantal artery (ProA). When the PCom forms and connects to the distal BA, the TA, OA, and HA regress. The ProA remains until the VAs develop.[2]
Development of the MCA begins around 35 days from the anterior division of the ICA. Meanwhile, the ACA grows medially, leading to the development of the ACom. The formation of the ACA and ACom mark the full development of the CoW, typically occurring at 6 to 7 weeks of development.[2]
Blood Supply and Lymphatics
Blood Supply
The anterior circulation of the brain derives from the bilateral ICAs, branches of the common carotid arteries (CCA). The posterior circulation is derived from the bilateral VAs, branches of the subclavian arteries.[1][2][3]
Lymphatics
There is no evidence to date supporting the existence of conventional lymphatic vessels within the central nervous system (CNS). Recent research, however, has described functional lymphatic vessels in the dural sinuses of the CNS and a perivascular network of glial cells (the glymphatic network) that acts to eliminate waste and distribute molecules throughout the brain.[5][6]
The circle of Willis lies at the base of the brain, near several cranial nerves. The optic chiasm lies in the anterior portion of the circle, between the ICA-MCA junction and the bilateral ACAs. The oculomotor (CN3) and trochlear (CN4) nerves both course posteriorly to the PCA.
The ophthalmic artery, a branch of the ICA, typically courses inferiorly to the optic nerve (CN2) as it passes into the orbit via the optic canal. It then gives off several branches which go on to supply the eyeball and ocular muscles.[7]
Physiologic Variants
A complete Circle of Willis is seen in a minority of the population, with many physiologic variants containing duplicated, fenestrated, hypoplastic, or absent vessels in certain regions of the ring.[1][2][3][4] Fenestrations occur when a single vessel’s lumen divides into 2 channels that later fuse back together. A duplication occurs when 2 arteries with distinct origins fuse into a single, downstream segment. Fenestrations and duplications are more common in the anterior circulation; the most commonly involved artery is the ACom. Hypoplastic arteries are the most common anomalies seen in the CoW, most frequently affecting the PCom or ACom.
The most common variation in the CoW involves changes in the ACom. Examples include ACom duplication (up to 18% prevalence), fenestration (up to 21% prevalence), and an azygous ACA. An azygous ACA occurs when the two ACA vessels fuse to form a single, midline vessel, accompanied by the absence of the ACom. This is seen in up to 2% of the population.[2]
Surgical Considerations
Surgical intervention at the base of the brain carries the risk of damaging not only the circle of Willis but other critical structures that lie near it. Such is the case with intervention for cerebral aneurysms that often occur within the CoW,[8] or intervention to the pituitary gland. There is a risk for potential damage to the optic chiasm with intervention to the anterior or middle CoW or the pituitary gland, and risk for damage to the oculomotor and trochlear nerves with intervention to the posterior CoW. Damage to the CoW itself may result in brain ischemia or infarction, depending on the severity of the damage.
The circle of Willis is of great clinical significance due to its structure, function, and location. As the connection between the anterior and posterior cerebral circulations, the CoW perfuses the brain and protects against ischemia (at least in those with a complete or mostly-complete ring of vessels). It is, however, one of the most common locations for intracranial aneurysms. An estimated 85% of intracranial aneurysms occur in the anterior circulation, either at the ICA-PCom junction, within the ACom, or the MCA.[4][8] Aneurysms in the posterior circulation are commonly located at the bifurcation of the basilar artery or the VA-PICA junction.[8] Aneurysms large enough may cause symptomatic mass effects such as headache or third nerve palsy. Intracranial aneurysms also pose a risk for subsequent development of intra-aneurysmal thrombi which may embolize in a downstream vessel and cause distal ischemia.
A phenomenon called subclavian steal occurs when there is significant stenosis or occlusion of the subclavian artery proximal to the origin of the VA. In such cases, blood is carried from the contralateral VA to the BA, and then retrogradely through the ipsilateral VA to the subclavian artery, distal to the blockage. This provides collateral flow to the affected arm.[8] Subclavian steal syndrome describes symptoms of posterior circulation ischemia such as vertigo or ataxia precipitated by the exercise of the upper extremity supplied by the stenotic subclavian artery.
Moyamoya disease is a chronic vascular disease characterized by bilateral stenosis of the terminal portion of the ICA. As a consequence, there are extensive fine collaterals developed with time trying to compensate for the distal ICA territory ischemia and hypoperfusion. The fine collaterals appear in angiography like a "puff of smoke" which give rise to the Japanese meaning of Moyamoya. It is most prevalent in Japan and is more common in females compared to males. The etiology of the disease is unknown; however, research suggests a possible genetic association.[9][10] The presentation is bimodal with a peak around the age of 10 and another peak around the 30s. The presentation is predominantly ischemic in children and both ischemic and hemorrhagic in adults.
(Move Mouse on Image to Enlarge)
Case courtesy of Dr Sachintha Hapugoda, Radiopaedia.org, rID: 51777
[1] Prince EA,Ahn SH, Basic vascular neuroanatomy of the brain and spine: what the general interventional radiologist needs to know. Seminars in interventional radiology. 2013 Sep [PubMed PMID: 24436544]
[2] Menshawi K,Mohr JP,Gutierrez J, A Functional Perspective on the Embryology and Anatomy of the Cerebral Blood Supply. Journal of stroke. 2015 May [PubMed PMID: 26060802]
[3] Krishnaswamy A,Klein JP,Kapadia SR, Clinical cerebrovascular anatomy. Catheterization and cardiovascular interventions : official journal of the Society for Cardiac Angiography [PubMed PMID: 20049963]
[4] Robben D,Türetken E,Sunaert S,Thijs V,Wilms G,Fua P,Maes F,Suetens P, Simultaneous segmentation and anatomical labeling of the cerebral vasculature. Medical image analysis. 2016 Aug [PubMed PMID: 27131026]
[5] Louveau A,Smirnov I,Keyes TJ,Eccles JD,Rouhani SJ,Peske JD,Derecki NC,Castle D,Mandell JW,Lee KS,Harris TH,Kipnis J, Structural and functional features of central nervous system lymphatic vessels. Nature. 2015 Jul 16 [PubMed PMID: 26030524]
[6] Jessen NA,Munk AS,Lundgaard I,Nedergaard M, The Glymphatic System: A Beginner's Guide. Neurochemical research. 2015 Dec [PubMed PMID: 25947369]
[7] Hayreh SS, Orbital vascular anatomy. Eye (London, England). 2006 Oct [PubMed PMID: 17019411]
[8] Schievink WI, Intracranial aneurysms. The New England journal of medicine. 1997 Jan 2 [PubMed PMID: 8970938]
[9] Scott RM,Smith ER, Introduction: moyamoya disease. Neurosurgical focus. 2009 Apr [PubMed PMID: 19335125]
[10] Kim JS, Moyamoya Disease: Epidemiology, Clinical Features, and Diagnosis. Journal of stroke. 2016 Jan [PubMed PMID: 26846755]
Take 6 Question Quiz on Neuroanatomy, Circle of Willis
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Mum admits to killing 6 of 7 babies found in garage
The bodies of the seven dead babies were found in cardboard boxes in the garage of this house (left) in Pleasant Grove, Utah. Megan Huntsman (below), the babies' mother, has admitted to killing six of them.PHOTOS: REUTERS, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Apr 16, 2014, 12:53 pm SGT
http://str.sg/rqE
PLEASANT GROVE (Utah) - The infants were found in cardboard boxes, each one rolled up in a shirt or towel and tucked into a plastic bag. One had been stillborn, their mother Megan Huntsman told the police. The other six, she said, she had strangled or smothered immediately after giving birth, and interred them in the garage of her family's home here.
For more than a decade, Huntsman's pregnancies and the short lives of her seven babies apparently went unnoticed by relatives and neighbours.
Then, as her estranged husband and other relatives were cleaning out the garage during the weekend, they found a tiny body in a plastic bag, uncovering a grisly scene that has left veteran police investigators shaken and exposing a story that has stunned families across the city.
Police Chief Michael Smith said: "I don't think there's any motive that could ever be given that allows you to wrap your mind around it in any way."
On Monday, as a Utah district judge set a US$6 million (S$7.5 million ) bail for Huntsman, investigators sought to unravel questions about how a mother of three who baby-sat for neighbours' children could have concealed such a terrible secret for so long.
According to an affidavit, Huntsman, 39, said she had given birth to the seven children at home from 1996 through 2006, and that all but one had been born alive. After waiving her right against self-incrimination, the affidavit said, she admitted to killing six of those children.
But neighbours said that, in addition to her two adult daughters, Huntsman also has a daughter who was born during that period, raising further questions about the timing of the deaths, and why one child lived while seven others died. The police have said DNA tests were being conducted on the dead babies to determine their biological parents. Neighbours who knew the family for years called Huntsman a shy but kind neighbour who would occasionally watch their children and grandchildren. Her weight seemed to fluctuate, but they said she often wore baggy clothes.
Huntsman's husband Darren West, who was jailed nine years in 2005 for possessing chemicals to make drugs, was released recently.
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Image: Getty Images
Star Trek crews past and present receive Governor's Award at Creative Arts Emmys
Donnie Lederer
@donnielederer
Tag: Star Trek
Tag: Creative Emmys
Tag: William Shatner
Tag: Sonequa Martin-Green
We reported how well our favorite genre shows did at last night’s Creative Emmys. Along with big winners like Rick and Morty and Game of Thrones, the Academy also presented the coveted Governor’s Award. With cast members from its 52-year history on hand, Star Trek received one of the Emmys’ most prestigious trophies.
The award was presented by Bill Nye, who said: “It may have started off as an entertainment series, but it changed the world – and I feel that it changed the world for the better.” He is 100% correct. Star Trek broke boundaries in diversity and race, something that it would continue to do throughout its history.
On hand from the Star Trek universe were LeVar Burton (TNG), Linda Park (Enterprise), Walter Koenig (TOS), Terry Farrell (DS9), and Alex Kurtzman (executive producer of Discovery). Accepting the award were representatives from the first and current series, William Shatner and Sonequa Martin-Green.
Shatner said as he was accepting the award that Star Trek “represents an idea that is greater than all of its parts. I accept this award for all the artists who have worked to make this show a success.”
It’s not a coincidence the award was given to the series on September 8, the same day Star Trek premiered back in 1966. Before the event, Burton celebrated his love for the series with a picture of himself and his castmates in one of their coolest moments.
Terry Farrell also tweeted some love while at the Emmys.
Whether it was one of the grateful cast members on hand at the Emmys, the many cast and crew through the years, or even the fans who draw some connection to the series, Star Trek means so much to so many. The show has been on the air in some way for 52 years, and it looks like 52 more are on the horizon.
Video of The 5 Best Star Trek: The Next Generation Episodes That Deserve Recognition | SYFY WIRE
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Apex Magazine #108, May 2018
Wednesday, 23 May 2018 15:17 Kat Day
Apex #108, May 2018
“Stars so Sharp They Break the Skin” by Matthew Sanborn Smith
“Cold Blue Sky” J. E. Bates
"Mother Jones and the Nasty Eclipse" by Cherie Priest
"Fifteen Minutes Hate" by Rich Larson
"Cherry Wood Coffin" by Eugenia Triantafyllou
Reviewed by Kat Day
In "Stars so Sharp They Break the Skin," by Matthew Sanborn Smith, we meet Cal, who appears to be recovering from some sort of trauma with a woman named Ginny at his bedside. The story jumps around—both in terms of time and point of view—which is presumably meant to reflect Cal's fragmented mind. There are things to like here: it's an interesting and original concept, and it's great to see issues like PTSD explored in fiction. Unfortunately, the scattered nature of this piece meant I found it very difficult to connect with this story, and the ending seemed too light-hearted and throwaway, and certain, after all the build-up.
"Cold Blue Sky," by J. E. Bates, is a story told from the point of view of an "anthrobotic companion" named Aki who becomes conscious after supposedly having her memory wiped. How is it that Aki can still remember previous events? And why? These questions are intriguing, and on the one hand this is an entirely competent murder-mystery-heist story, but personally I found it difficult to empathize with the character of Aki. I didn't really care what happened to her, a situation made worse by the fact that chunks of the narrative are described in flashback (so we know what's coming). As a result, I felt the ending lacked the emotional punch it seemed to be angling towards.
"Mother Jones and the Nasty Eclipse," by Cherie Priest, is a literary piece written in second person. The main character is a witch, or, at least, someone whom others have called a witch. It's a sort of epistolary rant, or a curse, or perhaps even a twisted sort of blessing, directed at another character who is never directly identified. It raves about classism, social judgement and prejudice in general. It has all the usual literary things: strong imagery, multiple overly-meaningful aphoristic statements, broken sentences, three-word paragraphs, no plot to speak of. If you enjoy that sort of thing, you'll love it.
"Fifteen Minute Hate," by Rich Larson, is set in the near future and begins with a character named Savina waking up to multiple notifications on her phone. It's not good news. As the story unravels we begin to realize that she lives in a world where social media status is all-important and her crime is gradually revealed. It's perhaps not the newest story idea out there, but Savina's character is well-developed and sympathetic. The story is cleverly done and bears a second read-through. Recommended.
"Cherry Wood Coffin," by Eugenia Triantafyllou, is a piece of flash fiction about a coffin-maker who hears supernatural voices telling him what he needs to build next. This is a creepy little horror piece which packs a big punch for its short word count. It’s an original twist on a couple of well-trodden themes, and another story which benefits from a second read-through, at which point those little touches missed the first time around suddenly become more significant. Again, recommended.
Kat Day makes children handle fire and dangerous chemicals for living (it’s okay, she’s a chemistry teacher). When not doing that, she spends her time writing and trying to wrangle her own two children into line (without fire or dangerous chemicals, because that would be frowned upon). She has had a short story published in Daily Science Fiction and has another upcoming in 24 Stories, an anthology to raise money for the survivors of the Grenfell Tower tragedy. You can follow her on Twitter @chronicleflask.
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What We Can Learn from the Common Goal of a Football Team
“There’s no ‘I’ in team” may be the most popular saying in sports, but it applies to many other areas of life. NFL and college football teams are a prime example of how a common goal can lead to amazing success both on and off the field. Each player wants to have a good game, increase their stats and wow the crowd, but it’s team unity that takes an organization to the championship game.
Florida State University is a perfect example of how relentless teamwork yields big results. After winning a couple of college football national championships in the 1990s, the FSU football program had a hard time maintaining its place as an elite program, the head coach was close to retirement and a series of bad seasons made fans question whether the organization would ever regain its former glory. That’s when Jimbo Fisher, a former protégé of Nick Saban, and a top college football coach of this era, stepped in as head coach and made teamwork a top priority.
“Getting the mind right, and getting them to understand and care for each other and take ownership of each other, that’s crucial,” said Jimbo Fisher in 2010 when he took over for Bobby Bowden, the winningest Division I college football coach of all-time. Fisher was referring to his process of coaching the players. Right from the start he made teamwork an emphasis, and chose players that understood the value of working with one another not as individuals waiting for their NFL draft pick.
Key to the team’s recent success is Heisman Trophy winning quarterback Jameis Winston. Both his coaches and teammates have lauded him for his unshakable commitment to the team. Jimbo Fisher has said that Winston has a tremendous, “drive for teamwork and winning, ultimately not being an individual guy.” With Jimbo Fisher and Jameis Winston in leadership roles it comes as no surprise that the FSU football team was able to achieve a 14-0 season and win the BCS national championship last year.
Making Team Success Your ONE Thing in the Workplace
“Individual commitment to a group effort — that is what makes a team work, a company work, a society work, a civilization work.” Vince Lombardi, football coach
If you’re a manager, executive or business owner, the most impactful thing you can do is make your ONE Thing concept a team effort. We’re taking pages right out of the playbook to provide advice on how to pull your One Thing into your work with others for team success.
“If a team is to reach its potential, each player must be willing to subordinate his personal goals to the good of the team.” Bud Wilkinson, football player and coach
The first step is to get everyone on board so everyone supports the same vision for the team. This may be tricky since everyone will have their own job tasks and their own way of doing things. Make it clear that the intention is to get a win for everyone.
“Build for your team a feeling of oneness, of dependence on one another and of strength to be derived by unity.” Vince Lombardi
A team works together only when they have a goal they are all invested in. Come up with a common objective for the company/department/project as a team. Then make sure everyone understands the role that they play and how it impacts the team as a whole.
“Good teams incorporate teamwork into their culture, creating the building blocks for success.” Ted Sundquist, football player and manager
It’s not enough to just put the ONE Thing into practice for a single project. You’ve got to make ONE Thing teamwork part of the culture of the company and create a conducive work environment that supports it. To do this have regular discussions about the ONE Thing, hold workshops about the concepts, arrange frequent team building events, use team-oriented language in your emails, memos and meetings. In short, make it an everyday practice.
“The achievements of an organization are the results of the combined effort of each individual.” Vince Lombardi
Once you and your team have identified the ONE Thing that matters most and you’ve built teamwork into the culture time blocking is a must for making things happen. Have a time blocking session where you go over the fundamentals with all of your team members. Encourage them to time block their daily tasks so that the ONE Thing is their key focus.
”One thing about championship teams is that they’re resilient. No matter what is thrown at them, no matter how deep the hole, they find a way to bounce back and overcome adversity.” Nick Saban, head coach of the Alabama Crimson Tide
Creating good, goal-oriented habits and getting results isn’t an overnight process. If you’ve read The ONE Thing then you know on average it takes 66 days to create a good habit. Along the way willpower may wane and fumbles may happen. That’s part of the journey, and mistakes are powerful learning opportunities. As your team meets goals along the way celebrate the wins, but don’t make them a ceiling. Keep building on your success and working as a team to achieve ONE Thing after another.
Original Source: http://the1thing.wpengine.com/the-one-thing/what-we-can-learn-from-the-common-goal-of-a-football-team/
Discover how to form your first power habit with the 66-Day Challenge Calendar
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Photo London rescinds partnership with Brunei's Dorchester Collection after protests
The London fair is “undertaking urgent steps” to exit a contract with hotels owned by the Sultan of Brunei after the kingdom made gay sex punishable by stoning to death
Tom Seymour
2nd May 2019 07:15 BST
Major companies are banning their staff from staying in Brunei-owned hotels such as the Dorchester in London
Photo London is scrambling to distance itself from a partnership announced earlier this year with the Dorchester Hotel and 45 Park Lane, a pair of luxury London hotels owned by Hassanal Bolkiah, the Sultan of Brunei.
The annual photography fair, held every May at London’s Somerset House, developed an official partnership with the Dorchester Collection, a group of luxury hotels owned by the Sultan of the Southeast Asian kingdom, which recently made international headlines after enacting laws that ban gay or extramarital sex—punishable by death by stoning.
Photo London is "currently undertaking urgent steps to exit from this contract" after receiving criticism—and the potential threat of boycott—from London’s photography community, including key exhibitors and advocates of the fair.
Tim Clark, the editor of the 1000 Words photography magazine and a respected photography curator based in London, fronted the campaign against Photo London's partnership.
“The fact that Photo London seemingly had no qualms about using, as its hotel partner, the so-called Dorchester Collection, owned by the Sultan of Brunei Hassanal Bolkiah, is deeply concerning,” Clark says.
“It not only implicates Photo London but also, by natural extension, our sector in a system of horrific violence and oppression.”
Clark gained the support of prominent photography curators, artists, gallerists and dealers. Prominent names to add their voice to Clark’s campaign include the British photographers Ed Sykes and Niall McDiarmid, the American curator Peggy Sue Amison and the London-based artist Karen Knorr, who will be exhibiting with a solo presentation at the fair.
Photo London responded to Clark with a statement before then going public: "Photo London signed a hotel partnership with the Dorchester Collection many months ago. At that time, like most people, we were unaware of the Sultan of Brunei’s proposed legislation in relation to adultery and gay people. We abhor these proposals and are currently undertaking urgent steps to exit from this contract. We have cancelled all proposed events at the hotel and are currently rehousing our exhibitors."
Various events and talks were due to be held at the hotel during the fair, whilst patrons of Photo London were due to stay at the hotel throughout the course of the fair. The Dorchester Collection invited residents of their London hotels to attend the fair via their website, whilst The Dorchester Collection’s branding was also prominent on Photo London’s marketing materials. It has since been removed.
Other large British organisations have publicly severed ties with the Dorchester Collection since news of the laws emerged. The Conservative party, the UK Police Federation and international bank JPMorgan have banned staff from using these hotels, whilst the singer Elton John—a renowned photography collector—and the actor George Clooney have leant their names to a public boycott. The Dorchester Collection also includes the Beverly Hills Hotel and Hotel Bel-Air in Los Angeles.
In response to the boycott, the Dorchester Collection said in a statement they “understand people’s anger and frustration but this is a political and religious issue that we don’t believe should be played out in our hotels and amongst our 3,630 employees.”
The Sultan has also publicly defended the new laws. “Brunei is a sovereign Islamic and fully independent country and, like all other independent countries, enforces its own rule of laws”, a statement from the prime minister's office said a few days before the law went into effect. The legislation aimed to “deter acts that are against the teachings of Islam,” the statement added.
In response to Photo London’s announcement, the photographer and London College of Communication lecturer Lewis Bush tweeted: “Brunei announced its intention to introduce an interpretation of Sharia law five years ago, and long before that it was already totally clear what the government's view of homosexuality was. You only acted when faced with a PR problem.”
“Photo London is of vital importance to the UK’s photography scene, and has done so much to help increase the culture, appreciation and market for our beloved medium in the last few years,” Clark tells The Art Newspaper. "It would be a shame to see its reputation affected by this unfortunate association. Ultimately, I'm glad they’ve done the correct and proper thing by withdrawing the contract; they will be on the right side of history.”
More NewsTopicsPhoto London
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Jeff Wall returns to his painting roots for new work in White Cube show
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Hitler's Willing Business Partners
A shocking account of IBM's complicity with the Nazis is a reminder that people bear moral responsibility for the actions of the corporation—a point that critics have failed to grasp.
Jack Beatty
You are Thomas Watson, the founder of IBM, and you face a choice. Hitler has just come to power in Germany, and you are considering whether to direct your German subsidiary, Dehomag, to bid for the job of tabulating the results of a census the Nazi government wants to conduct. While you are making up your mind in your New York office, the local papers swell with stories of anti-Semitic outrages committed by that government. On March 18, 1933, The New York Times reports that the Nazis have ousted all Jewish professionals—lawyers, doctors, teachers—from their jobs. A front-page story under the headline "German Fugitives Tell of Atrocities at Hands of Nazis" describes Brown Shirts dragging Jews out of a Berlin restaurant and forcing them to run a gauntlet of kicks and blows such that the face of the last man through "resembled a beefsteak." Other stories tell of Jews being forced to clean the streets with toothbrushes, of book burnings, of 10,000 refugees fleeing Germany, and of 30,000 people—Jews, political prisoners, gays, and others—imprisoned in concentration camps. On March 27, virtually outside your window on Broadway, a crowd of more than 50,000 at a Madison Square Garden mass rally demands that American firms boycott Nazi Germany. In these circumstances, with this knowledge, will you, Thomas Watson, bid for the census contract?
From Atlantic Unbound
Flashbacks: "Swiss Banks, Nazi Plunder" (June 26, 1997)
Some damages are irreparable, some losses unrecoverable. Atlantic articles on the legacy of the Nazi past.
You are Thomas Watson, it is 1937, and you must know that the census and other work your German branch has performed for the Nazis has been used not just to count cars and cows but to identify Jews. Perhaps you have even read the comment of a Nazi statistician that "In using statistics the government now has the road map to switch from knowledge to deeds." You have visited Germany; you were in Berlin in July, 1935, when Black Shirts rampaged through the streets smashing the windows of Jewish stores, and forcing your friends, the Wertheims, to sell their department store for "next to nothing" and escape to Sweden. You have seen the broken windows, you have taken tea with a German official at a fine home that he told you was once the property of a Jew who had fled Germany, and now, in recognition of your services to the Third Reich, Hitler wants to give you a medal. Will you accept it? You are Thomas Watson, it is 1940, and Hitler has invaded France. Now comes another choice: executives of your German subsidiary want you to sell out to German principals. With Hitler moving to occupy all of Europe, this is a chance for a clean break. True, the United States is not yet in the war, but Hitler's bombs are falling on London. Disengagement would be politic. Will you sell out or fight to hold on to Dehomag?
Thomas Watson chose to tabulate the Nazi census, to accept Hitler's medal, and to fight for control of Dehomag. And he made other equally indefensible choices in his years of doing a profitable business counting Jews for Hitler—choices that are described in IBM and the Holocaust by Edwin Black. This is a shocking book, even if its subtitle, "The Strategic Alliance Between Nazi Germany and America's Most Powerful Corporation," is hyperbolic and misleading. (IBM was hardly America's most powerful company in the 1930s and 1940s; General Motors was, and it too did business with the Third Reich, though you could be forgiven for getting the impression from Mr. Black that IBM was alone in this unrighteous commerce.) IBM was a New Deal company that famously strove to avoid laying off its work force during the Depression. Watson was a friend of President and Mrs. Roosevelt's. IBM helped crack the German intelligence code. It had a good war. Yet, with the help of more than a hundred researchers working in archives in the U.S., Britain, Germany, France, and Israel, Edwin Black has documented a sordid relationship between this great American company and the Third Reich, one that extended into the war years.
The Holocaust, Black stipulates, would have occurred with or without the Hollerith tabulating machines and punch cards IBM/Dehomag leased to the Nazis. But he raises the important if ultimately unanswerable question of whether Hitler's destruction of the Jews would have happened as rapidly and claimed as many victims without the harvest of deadly information recorded by the Hollerith machines, on IBM punch cards, by IBM/Dehomag employees working for the Nazi death bureaucracy. On the efficiency question, he provocatively contrasts Holland and France. The Nazis ordered censuses in both countries soon after they were occupied. In Holland, a country with "a well-entrenched Hollerith infrastructure," out of "an estimated 140,000 Dutch Jews, more than 107,000 were deported, and of those 102,000 were murdered—a death ratio of approximately 73 percent." In France, where the "punch card infrastructure was in complete disarray," of the estimated 300,000 to 350,000 Jews in both German-occupied and Vichy zones, 85,000 were deported, of whom around 3,000 survived. "The death ratio for France was approximately 25 percent."
Black gives evidence to qualify the implied claim that the Hollerith technology made the decisive difference. In Holland the Nazis installed a zealous bureaucrat to take the census. France had a moral hero in charge who frustrated German efforts to find Jews—and paid with his life. Holland had a long and innocent tradition of recording religion on all manner of official documents. France "lacked a tradition of census taking that identified religion." The historian has to provide the material to unmake his case in order to be true to the shagginess of history. In this example, Black passes the test of historical candor. His passion (his parents are Holocaust survivors) overmasters him elsewhere, however, and rhetorical claims—"eventually, every Nazi combat order, bullet and troop movement was tracked on an IBM punch card system"—leave him open to critics like the one writing in The New York Times who complained that Black "often tells his story not in the subtle hues of scholarship but in the Day-Glo paint of the potboiler."
I have read four other negative reviews of this book, and they all share what to me is a surprising feature: they are more critical of Edwin Black (with The Times pointing out that he has written for Redbook magazine and another reviewer that he is not a college graduate) who wrote a book, than of Thomas Watson, who made the damnable choices recorded in that book. And several of the reviews reveal depressingly low expectations of the corporation. In Business Week Peter Hayes, a Holocaust historian, calls the book a "deplorable publication" and musters several arguments against it, of which I will mention only one. "Unless Watson was prepared to write off his assets in Germany," Hayes writes, "in which case his operation would remain there for Hitler to exploit," he had no choice but to do business with the Nazis, and even to accept Hitler's medal, to stay on their good side. But, according to Black, "Holleriths could not function without IBM's unique paper. Watson controlled the paper.... Holleriths could not function without cards. Watson controlled the cards.... Hollerith systems could not function without machines and spare parts. Watson controlled the machines and spare parts." That passage refers to the situation in 1940, when the Nazis had long since become dependent on their single-source supplier. Perhaps Hitler could have taken over Watson's "operation" years earlier. And suppose Hitler had, shouldn't Watson have been willing to write his assets off? He could have justified that step to his stockholders on the strongest moral grounds in all history. And remember: he was not selling widgets to the Nazis but a product that could patently further the proclaimed racialist aims of the regime (The Times ran anti-Semitic selections from Mein Kampf on its front page within months of Hitler's taking control of the government). That information is power was and remains the theory of IBM's business. Black's question "How did they get the names?" indicates the maleficent use to which the power of information was put.
Interviews: "A Century of Zionism" (November 1996)
British journalist Geoffrey Wheatcroft talks about The Controversy of Zion and takes stock of Theodor Herzl's "mad" idea.
Writing in The Wall Street Journal, my friend Geoffrey Wheatcroft, the author of The Controversy of Zion, advances an exculpatory logic one can readily imagine Watson himself hiding behind. "The capitalist free market is indeed amoral," he writes. "It is an efficient system for investment and production but cannot achieve moral aims itself. In this it resembles its physical technology. A hypodermic syringe can be used to inject cyanide or penicillin. It is not an independent moral agent." But prior to the market is the corporation, led by human beings who cannot escape responsibility for its actions. Prior to technology are the "independent moral agents" who made it—syringes and tabulating machines don't drop from heaven. And prior to the corporation—to continue our movement away from the market to the persons seeking to enter it—are the owners, the stockholders. Black says not a word about IBM's stockholders, who bear a diffuse yet inescapable responsibility for what Thomas Watson did in their name. There is a kind of market determinism in the air, which easily meshes with the techno-determinism of unconsidered speech, a tendency to treat the Market as the Marxists treat History—as a force overriding human choice and responsibility. There is no such thing as "business ethics," Peter Drucker has pertinently observed, only ethics.
Jack Beatty is a senior editor at The Atlantic Monthly and the editor of Colossus: How the Corporation Changed America, which was named one of the top ten books of 2001 by Business Week. His previous books are The World According to Peter Drucker (1998) and The Rascal King: The Life and Times of James Michael Curley (1992).
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Theatres nearby Venues nearby Shows nearby Accommodation nearby Bars and clubs nearby Restaurants nearby
The Theatre Royal Haymarket or Haymarket Theatre is a theatre on The Haymarket in London's West End which dates back to 1720. The original building was a little further north in the same street. It has been at its current location since 1821, when it was redesigned by John Nash. The Theatre Royal Haymarket has a current seating capacity of 888. The venue plays host to a variety of shows and plays etc..
Only Fools and Horses The Musi... Theatre Royal Haymarket
Only Fools and Horse...
Mais ouis, mais ouis, the world may have changed a...
Showing at Theatre Royal Haymarket
Where Is Peter Rabbit? Theatre Royal Haymarket
Where Is Peter Rabbi...
Hop onto your seats and immerse yourself in the magical...
talk Theatre Royal Haymarket
Gyles Brandreth (author, broadcaster, One Show reporter, Just A Minute...
No video cameras or recording devices allowed.
No babes in arms. Young children are admitted but not encouraged unless the parent is confident that the child is old enough to be attentive to the performance and not a distraction for other members of the audience. Everyone must have a valid ticket and occupy a seat. Accompanying adults will be asked to remove any noisy infants.
Theatre Royal Haymarket Seating Plan
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FOR RSS June 05, 2018
Leon Wolf
De Blasio's plan to diversify elite high schools draws sharp criticism from NYC families
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio is facing criticism for his plan to diversify the city's elite magnet schools. Many New York City families are not happy. (Ben Gabbe/Getty Images for Shared Interest)
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced a plan earlier this week to scrap admissions tests for the city's elite magnet high schools in order to diversify their student bodies, and many New York City families are not happy.
In particular, a large number of New York City's Asian population allege that they are being discriminated against, and that they are being punished for being historically overrepresented in these schools.
What's the background?
New York City has a system of eight elite magnet high schools that can currently seat 5,000 students. Admission to these schools has historically been extremely competitive, and an admission examination has traditionally been a leading criteria for admission to the elite high school system.
According to WLNY-TV, the mayor's office claimed that only 10 percent of the 5,000 students currently enrolled at the elite high schools are either black or hispanic, while 70 percent of the city's overall student body is black or hispanic.
Meanwhile, some of the elite schools, such as Stuyvesant High School, have a student body that is over 70 percent Asian, according to WLNY.
What is de Blasio's plan?
According to WLNY, the first step in de Blasio's plan is to eliminate the admission examination altogether. Additionally, the mayor wants to reserve 45 percent of the 5,000 seats at these schools for black and hispanic students. Beginning in 2019, at least 20 percent of the seats at these schools will also be reserved for "low income" households.
In place of the tests, de Blasio would like to use middle school class rank and state test scores as admission criteria.
The elite high schools would also reserve 7 percent of their seats for private school students, who will be admitted based on a lottery system, WLNY reported.
Can de Blasio make these changes by himself?
No, he can't. Even if he had the backing of the New York City Council, he couldn't. The magnet schools housed in New York City operate on a state charter and their admission requirements (including the admission examination) are set by state law.
In order to change the criteria, de Blasio will have to convince the New York Legislature to write his plan into law.
What has the reaction been?
According to WLNY, the mayor's plan has been met with an "avalanche of criticism from parents, students and alumni, not to mention talk of a potential lawsuit."
Some alumni have predicted that the elimination of the admission exam will mean that the coveted seats at the city's schools will soon go to politically connected families instead of families whose children deserve admission.
Larry Cary, president of the alumni association at Brooklyn Tech, said, "There’s absolutely no doubt that once this door is open who your father is is going to make a difference as to which school you get in to," according to WLNY.
Additionally, a number of Asian alumni of the elite schools have claimed that the new system unfairly targets poor Asian families. Soo Kim, president of the Stuyvesant Alumni Association, told WLNY that, "This solution is going to be born on the back of poor Asian families... The Asian Exclusion Act of 2018. It sounds sort of like that, people saying this school is too Asian."
David Lee, a Chinese-American activist who also graduated from one of NYC's elite schools, has also threatened a lawsuit "if we see the number of Asian students fall."
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Last year’s ozone hole was the smallest observed since 1988
More good news: scientists predict it will continue to shrink, although its full recovery is not expected until the middle of the century
Every September, a seasonal ozone hole in Earth’s protective ozone layer is formed over Antarctica, a phenomenon discovered in the late 1970s. Since then, its size is measured every year by satellites. As chlorofluorocarbons (CFC’s) and other man-made chemicals were blamed for the hole, their use was banned with the Montreal Protocol, signed in 1987 by 197 nations. “It's extremely rewarding, because it was originally just a scientific effort, and then we were able to convince society that it was a problem — here's what would happen if we do not deal with it,†said chemist Mario Molina, who had an integral role in the discovery of the ozone hole and who was awarded a Nobel Prize for his research in 1995.
Society’s collective efforts have begun to show results, as this year’s ozone hole was similar in size to the hole in 1988 and about 1 million miles smaller than in 2016. It reached its annual maximum on Sept. 11, covering an area about two and a half times the size of the United States – 7.6 million square miles in extent - and then declined through the remainder of September and into October. Since 1991, the average size of these ozone holes (at their yearly maximum) has been roughly 10 million square miles, with that of the year 2000 being the largest, having a width of 11.5 million square miles.
Scientists from NASA and NOAA predict the ozone hole will continue to shrink, yet this year’s improvement had more to do with weather conditions than human intervention. In fact, the reduced ozone hole extents in 2016 and 2017 were due to natural variability (warmer-than-average stratospheric weather conditions) and not a signal of rapid healing. Moreover, they believe that the current ozone hole area is still of considerable size because levels of ozone-depleting substances like chlorine and bromine remain high enough to produce significant ozone loss and its full recovery is not expected until the middle of the century.
Source: NASA
More in this category: « Water scarcity: Cape Town is running dry High-efficiency solar panel cost fell 37% in 2017 »
Read 367 times Last modified on Monday, 26 February 2018 14:13
NASA plans to return to the moon: How much will the attempt cost?
China to construct a research base on the moon
NASA's competition to design 3D-printed structures on Mars and moon
New Zealand to construct plane crash memorial
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You are reading: 15 Million Dollar Plus Cars That Will Get The Ladies Excited
15 Million Dollar Plus Cars That Will Get The Ladies Excited
Steven John Sep 08, 2017 Auto
According to an Experian survey released earlier this year, in early 2017 the average cost of a new car bought in the United States of America was under $34,000. (An early summer report released by USA Today put the exact number at $33,560.) That means that a lot of cars are being sold at well above that figure, but with most costing less than $34k to balance out the figure. Car prices have risen steadily in recent years; in the year 2000, the average cost of a new vehicle was ten thousand dollars less, at $24,750. While the cost of a new car has crept steadily upward at a pace exceeding the creep of inflation, there have also always been some outliers that skew the greater sample: the super crazy expensive cars, as they’re called in the professional automotive community. (Or at least they should be.)
There are a surprising number of cars out there that cost more than one million dollars. While many of these ultra expensive cars are classic collector’s items and/or are so expensive due to the exclusivity created by small production runs, some million dollar cars are actually built in great enough numbers to be considered production vehicles. Though they’re not exactly products of a Ford-style assembly line, to be sure. Here are 15 cars that cost more than a million dollars, a few of which you might actually be able to buy from a dealership today. Y’know…for a million bucks.
15. Rolls-Royce Phantom Serenity – $1 Million
Via: Autoxpat
A brand new Rolls-Royce Phantom sells for only around five hundred thousand dollars, so why is the Serenity edition twice the price? It’s all in the details. Like the hand-emboidred cherry blossom motive panels that line most of the interior of the car. And the instrument panel inset with rubies, mother of pearl, and other precious materials. With a V12 engine producing a modest-for-the-category 450 HP, the Serenity is not a car you buy for street racing, but rather one you buy to enjoy the true height of luxury.
14. The Apollo Arrow – $1.1 Million
Never heard of an Apollo, ey? You’re not alone. The German car manufacturer is one of the new kids on the block when it comes to the block populated by makers of fantastically powerful vehicles. The Apollo Automobil company’s Apollo Arrow costs only a little more than a million bucks. OK, it costs one hundred thousand more, but for that $1.1 million you get a sleek, sexy car that has a 1,000 horsepower engine and makes it past 60 MPH in just under three seconds.
13. The Mazzanti Evantra Millecavalli – $1.2 Million
Via: Mazzanti Automobili
Italian car company Mazzanti is another carmaker much like Germany’s Apollo Autombil: most of us have probably never heard of it, but those who live and breath all things automotive probably can’t hear enough about it. Mazzanti’s latest, greatest car is an update to their Evantra supercar, the Evantra Millecavalli. This monster disguised as a vehicle makes it past 6o miles per hour in just 2.7 seconds and can keep on accelerating up to around 250 MPH.
12. The Pagani Zonda Cinque – $1.4 Million
Via: Auto Car
If you speak a bit of Italian, you will know that the word “cinque” means five. That’s not a random coincidence here, and indeed it would be a pretty odd name for a supercar were it not germane to the specific model in that only five of these cars were made this year, with 2017 marketing the end of nearly two decades of production. So while they sold for about $1.4 million MSRP, if you want one, you’ll be buying it one the second hand market, but not for a discounted price, FYI. Its futuristic body is made from a blend of carbon fiber and titanium components, making it lightweight but strong and durable.
11. The Aston Martin One-77 – $1.4 Million
Via: Aston Martin
One million, four hundred thousand dollars seems to be a common price tag for supercars, doesn’t it? Maybe it’s because that’s about the average exchange rate of one million euros? Regardless, this $1.4 million dollar car is gorgeous and capable. The Aston Matin One-77 has a 7.3-liter V12 engine that produces a respectable 750 HP and that will get the car moving near 220 miles per hour. But you purchase this car more because it is beautiful than because of raw power. What’s with the name? Well, between 2009 and 2012, the company built exactly 77 of them.
10. The Arash AF10 Hybrid – $1.5 Million
Via: Auto Blog
The Arash AF10 sports car comes from an English carmaker. The vehicle has a 6.2-liter V8 gasoline engine that produces 900 horsepower. Now wait, you might be thinking, that’s impressive and all, but its hundreds of HP lower than many cars that cost less. What gives? Well, the rest of the power of the AF10 comes from its four electric motors, which ass almost another 1,200 HP to this vehicle, for a combined total output of around 2,080 horsepower. Which is just nuts, really. Most cars have less than 300.
9. The Ferrari LaFerrari Aperta – $1.4 Million
Via: Ferrari Auto
The starting price for the limited edition LaFerrari Aperta was $1.4 million bucks, but by the time the last unit has sold at auction (any day now, at the time of this writing) it might fetch more like seven million dollars, thus the asterisk. This supercar is coveted due to its elegance, power, rarity, and its unique design. The Aperta is a hybrid sports car, using both a powerful V12 engine and a 120 kilowatt electric motor to produce its acceleration and speed. Side bar: Ferrari is donating the bulk of the cash it makes from selling this 70th Anniversary car to charity.
8. The Koenigsegg Agera R – $1.6 Million
The Koenigsegg Agera R is a Swedish supercar that has been in production for six years now. It is largely built out of lightweight carbon fiber, and that includes many engine components. The entire engine weighs less than 435 pounds, which is quite impressive if you compare it around some. The car’s light weight helps it roar past 60 MPH in just three seconds, and keeps on cruising past that. You will hit 125 MPH in about eight seconds and will near 200 miles per hour in 14 seconds.
7. The Zenvo TS1 – $1.8 Million
Don’t feel too badly if you have never heard of the Danish car company Zenvo: they have only been around for a few years and have only made a few copies of their one and only model, the ST1. But what a car it is. This rolling piece of art is almost entirely handmade, and the parts that are not built by a person with tools are fabricated by a CNC machine (rather than being stamped or molded, e.g.). The stats are impressive, if not true unique: 1,100 HP, top speed of 233 MPH, etc. What sets the TS1 apart is its beauty.
6. The Lamborghini Centenario LP 770-4 – $1.9 Million
Via: Lamborghini
The founder of Italian supercar maker Lamborghini, the eponymous Ferruccio Elio Arturo Lamborghini, was born in 1916. To mark the hundred year anniversary of his birth (he died in 1993), the company released the Centenario. This amazing automobile features a 6.5-liter V12 that creates 770 HP, but its most notable facet is its low weight. At just 3,350 pounds, that engine can power the Centenario past 60 miles per hour in less than 2.8 seconds. Also, it’s a work of art. Very aggressive-looking art.
5. The McLaren P1 GTR – $2 Million
Via: Digital Trends
The McLaren P1 GTR has a 3.8-liter twin turbo engine rated at a breath under 790 horsepower as well as an electric motor that adds almost another 200 HP to the mix. Its broad, low body and massive rear wing create amazing downforce, letting the car hug the twists and turns of the track at amazing speeds. Here’s the catch, though: this car is only suitable for track ricing. The P1 GTR is not a street legal car. That said, police probably won’t catch you if you do bring it out into a public roadway.
4. The Koenigsegg Regera – $2 Million
Via: Top Gear
Remember that Koenigsegg Agera R from earlier in our list? Yeah, that’s a pretty impressive car. But if you climbed in the driver seat of this Regera and squared off against someone in that vehicle, you’d win the race. This hybrid sports car uses both a gasoline engine and electric motors to produces a total output of 1,500 horsepower, and thanks to its modest weight of 3,240 pounds, it screams past 60 MPH in 2.8 seconds. Even more impressive is the car’s ability to pass 190 MPH in just 11 seconds.
3. The Bugatti Veyron Super Sport – $2.4 Million
Via: Bugatti
The Bugatti Veyron Super Sport supercar has the impressive distinction of being the fastest street legal production car currently on the market. It tops out at a little more than 265 miles per hour and blows past 60 MPH in less than 2.5 seconds. Try counting two and a half seconds, and imagine getting to a mile a minute that fast. Now imagine moving 4.4 times faster than that. Yeah, it’s super fast. And super expensive. But not super rare, in the scheme of things, as more than 400 have been delivered to customers.
2. The Lykan Hypersport – $3.4 Million
The Lykan HyperSport supercar is built by the Lebanese car company W Motors. At the time of this writing, the HyperSport is one of the top three most expensive production cars ever built, though its fabulously limited run of seven vehicles stretches the limits of the term “production car.” If it looks familiar to you, perhaps you saw this vehicle in the movie Fast and Furious 7 — it was the car that kept crashing through the windows of skyscrapers. It comes with diamonds set into the headlights. Or rubies, if you prefer.
1. The Mercedes-Benz Maybach Exelero – $8 Million
Yes, eight million dollars. And that was the price of the Mercedes-Benz Maybach Exelero when it was “released” back in 2004; today, adjusted for inflation, it might be more like ten million bucks. And I use quotation marks around the word released because the company made one of these things, which is currently privately owned. It has been featured in multiple music videos and has changed hands a few times, usually from one noted rapper to another. It’s fast and powerful and all, but mostly it’s just expensive.
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Time Not Found: The Deeper Meaning
Earlier today (shortly after 4PM) I posted the following pic on Instagram and BaceFook. The caption on the pic was "Time not found" with the hashtag of #geekhumor.
What's funny to me is that I only expected a handful of my geeky friends to like it. You see, when you browse on the interwebs and try to go to a URL (or web page) that isn't there, you get an HTTP://404 error and usually that means "Page Not Found." So...at 4:04, I took the pic. Only it was 4:04. Like the time that was supposed to be on my phone wasn't found.
I'm not sure how many people got it. Then I started looking at some of my friends who clicked 'like' and started wondering why they did so (I would not have pegged some of them for geeks). So, maybe that's one of those things that is so commonplace now since so many people have such online/connected lives that it's moved from the realm of geek humor to mainstream reference. I'd like to think not, but it's possible.
The other thing that's possible is that while I was posting the obvious, people that know me were picking up on the deeper meaning.
Time not found.
Time. In modern society time is a commodity. Something that has to be cherished...guarded...not wasted. Spare minutes can be worth millions to the right person.
But not on The Farm. On the farm, time is in its most pure state. That state where no timekeeping devices are needed, save the sun and moon. So time, as our society has come to know it, doesn't really exist on the farm.
The time is not found.
I guess that's one of the cool things about taking something creative and putting it out there for the world to see. As soon as you release it, you cease to have control over something. Oh sure...the worlds...the form...the product (be it book, movie, photographs) are of a set form. But the meaning. How someone sees it. How and in what way someone is moved by the piece--that is completely organic. It takes on a life of its own with each person that you expose to your creation.
I don't suppose it's uncommon in the least for an artist to look at someone's reaction to their work and think, You are so NOT getting this. The irony is...this time I was the one over-simplifying something (that I still think is kind of funny), and people that see it are the ones essentially telling me Dude...there is so much more to this picture.
And they're right.
-AT
Holding Pattern
Random Meanderings Ad Infinum And Beyond
A Glitch In The Matrix
Epic Weekend...For Reals This Time
Quick Hit Then Back To Work
Apple vs. Android
Dead Fish, Fat Pants, and Fat Heads
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Alva "Bud" Blackwell
Alva "Bud" Blackwell, 66, of 333 Forest Grove Avenue, Franklin Township, passed away on Thursday, July 9th in his residence. Born on February 20, 1943 in Coudersport, PA he was the son of the late Philip and Obelia Masker Blackwell. He married the former Carol Fosnaught on October 26, 1963. Bud retired in March of 2008 from Medusa after 35 years of service as a heavy equipment operator. He enjoyed hunting, fishing, gardening, woodworking and camping. In addition to his wife, he is survived by his son, Charles W. Blackwell of Portersville, a daughter and son-in-law, Debbie and John Miller of Shenango Township, 2 sisters: Dolores Sprague of Pittsburgh and Geraldine Blackwell of Rootstown, OH, a brother and sister-in-law, George W. and Ann Blackwell of New Castle and his mother-in-law, Hazel Fosnaught of Wampum. Visitation will be held on Sunday, July 12th from 2:00 to 5:00 PM in the Joseph A. Tomon, Jr. Funeral Home and Crematory, 97 Grim Avenue, Ellport. A funeral service will take place on Sunday following the visitation at 5:00 PM in the funeral home with Rev. David Wilson of the First United Methodist Church of Aliquippa, celebrant. Contributions can be made in Mr. Blackwell's name to the American Cancer Society through their website at www.cancer.org
Lori Cimino
Will always remember Christmas gatherings with my brother-in-law and family. My deepest sympathies to his family.
Cassi & TJ Fosnaught
We will miss our Uncle very much. And will always remember the good times that we spent together. Our condolences to Aunt Carol, Cousins Debbie & Chuckie.
Richard C.Fosnaught
To my Brother-N-Law that I had some great times Fishing&Hunting with&Just shooting the shit with!Remember you always!
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Home News The King performs
The King performs
Crowds ‘can’t help falling in love’ with Elvis Tribute Artist Len Connolly.
Tumut’s own Elvis Tribute Artist Lenny Connolly performed a sold-out show at the Golf Club on Saturday night, getting the crowd up and dancing in their blue suede shoes.
Len sung all the hits as well as a few lesser known classics and an acapella number, responding to the crowd’s enthusiasm by going well over the scheduled set time.
However, he said that even though he sung solo, there were a lot of people involved in the night.
“I want to thank the Golf Club and the staff, and Richard Breward doing sound and light, and also my nephews for helping me out with spotlights and being roadies – it takes a long time to set up!” he said.
“You wouldn’t think so for a one man show.”
There were punters from Queensland and Sydney in the crowd, with others travelling from Wagga, Cootamundra, and Young to see Len’s show.
“I was very pleased with the people who travelled near and far, and pleased with the loyal followers who always come,” he said.
There was also a promoter who live-streamed the show to a group in New Zealand, who want Len to perform at their own Elvis festival, Elvis n Gardens, in Auckland.
Along with future Elvis gigs, Len is also thinking about branching out into some other greats.
“I’m going to keep doing the Elvis stuff, but I might try and branch out to some Frank Sinatra, Michael Buble sort of stuff, a bit of Dean Martin – those smooth guys. I’ll get a tuxedo of some sort,” he said.
Ever in a character, he finished up his chat with the Times with the immortal line: “The last thing I’d like to say is…thank you very much.”
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Home Imaging Threeding uses Artec 3D scanning to preserve artifacts at Historical Museum of Stara Zagora
Threeding uses Artec 3D scanning to preserve artifacts at Historical Museum of Stara Zagora
First phase of the reality-capture project captures ancient Greek, Roman and Thracian artifacts.
Artec 3D, a leading developer and manufacturer of professional-grade scanners has once again joined with 3D printing marketplace Threeding.com, to preserve artifacts at one of the largest Eastern European historical museums, the Historical Museum of Stara Zagora in Bulgaria.
The first phase of the reality-capture project has just reached completion after Threeding spent last month with Artec’s high-resolution Spider and Eva 3D scanners capturing ancient Greek, Roman and Thracian artifacts as well as Ethnography exhibits.
Two more scanning sessions are scheduled for September and October, where Threeding will digitize artifacts from the prehistoric, Middle Ages and the modern history eras. Once complete, the museum will be able to benefit from a new revenue stream and receive royalties from the sales of the 3D models on Threeding’s marketplace, as well as obtain free digital copies of all scanned exhibits to be used for scientific and educational projects.
“The ability to capture these artifacts in digital form and make them available via Threeding.com has given students and educators access to pieces of history previously unknown,” explained Artyom Yukhin, president and CEO of Artec 3D. “Artec’s professional handheld scanners can capture even the most intricate artifacts with extreme precision and detail to create exact replicas, which, through efforts like this one, are becoming available to the masses.”
Artec 3D scanner used to capture ancient artifacts.
Stan Partalev, a co-founder of Threeding, added: “It was a great honor and privilege to work with the Historical Museum of Stara Zagora. The museum is one of the best organized and well established organizations we have ever visited. Working with such an institution is another step forward in our aim to become the leading repository for 3D printable models of historical artifacts.”
This partnership allows Threeding to add to its marketplace of 3D printable models with new unique museum artifacts including sculptures, votive tablets, marble capitals, architecture details and more.
Threeding has already played a key role in the preservation of objects and artifacts from the National Museum of Military History and the Regional Historical Museums of Varna and Pernik. The 3D printing platform now has more than 500 museum objects available for users to purchase and print.
Restoration Museum Additive Manufacturing Artec 3D 3D Scanning 3D Printing News Threeding 3D Printing
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Drug Reduces Menstrual Bleeding for Women with Gynecologic Tumors
News Nov 12, 2018 | Original story from UT Southwestern Medical Center
A new oral drug significantly reduced menstrual bleeding for women with the most common gynecologic tumors in the United States - benign tumors that disproportionately affect African-Americans, an international clinical trial found.
In the five-country study, Elagolix reduced bleeding in more than 90 percent of premenopausal women who had heavy menstrual bleeding associated with fibroid tumors - noncancerous growths of the uterus known as uterine leiomyomas that often appear during childbearing years.
Surgery has traditionally been the gold standard for treatment, resulting in hysterectomy or myomectomy, so a nonsurgical option offers new hope, said Dr. Bruce Carr, Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at UT Southwestern Medical Center and lead author on the study appearing in the journal Obstetrics & Gynecology.
"There are no orally approved drugs to decrease bleeding and prevent anemia in women with these tumors," said Dr. Carr, Director of the Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility Fellowship Program at UT Southwestern, who holds the Paul C. MacDonald Distinguished Chair in Obstetrics & Gynecology. "Now, there is a medical option for this devastating disease that affects up to 75 percent of women."
Prescribing hormone therapy together with the new drug prevented estrogen-deficiency induced side effects like hot flashes and bone loss, the researchers found.
Fibroid tumors can be associated with infertility, miscarriage, and early onset of labor and are the most common reason for hysterectomy worldwide, costing an estimated $2.2 billion in the U.S. alone. For women in their 40s and 50s, abnormal uterine bleeding also is the most common reason to see a gynecologist, and fibroids are one of the most common causes of the symptom.
Researchers examining health disparities of uterine fibroids found that 80 percent of African-American women and approximately 70 percent of white women will have uterine fibroids by age 50, although the tumors cause symptoms in only about a quarter to half of women who have them. Research in the Journal of Women's Health reported that African-American women:
Had a higher cumulative risk of uterine fibroids.
Experienced a threefold greater incidence and relative risk of fibroids.
Had an earlier age of onset.
Were 2.4 times more likely to undergo hysterectomy.
Had a 6.8-fold increase in the number of uterine-sparing myomectomies.
Researchers conducted the clinical trial at 86 sites in the United States, Puerto Rico, Canada, Chile, and the United Kingdom and involved the Mayo Clinic, Eastern Virginia Medical School, the University of Illinois, the Cleveland Clinic, Mercy Health Osteoporosis and Bone Health Services, Augusta University, and The George Washington University in Washington, D.C., along with the maker of the new drug (elagolix), AbbVie Inc. Dr. Carr received research support from AbbVie and Agile Therapeutics and served on the Repros Therapeutics Data and Safety Monitoring Board.
This article has been republished from materials provided by UT Southwestern Medical Center. Note: material may have been edited for length and content. For further information, please contact the cited source.
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Featured News Old - DO NOT USE - The Coast News Rancho Santa Fe
Coastal cleanup helps lagoon restoration site
by Tony Cagala September 18, 2011 July 21, 2015 038
DEL MAR – 12-year-old Anna Szymanski spent her Saturday morning planting native shrubs and working to help restore the environment.
“It’s nice to give back because we’re hurting (the environment) so much,” she said.
Anna, her sister Elizabeth, 10, and their father Paul were all out in support of the I Love a Clean San Diego and San Diego Coastkeeper coordinated Coastal Cleanup Day Sept. 17.
Just east of Interstate 5, 100 employees of SDG&E and Sempra Energy descended upon the San Dieguito Lagoon wetlands restoration site all eager to rid the area of trash and to cut back and remove plenty of invasive weeds.
SDG&E officials, including President Mike Niggli, and Pam Fair, chief environmental officer all made efforts in support of the day. Other dignitaries included Supervisor Pamela Slater-Price and Stephen Heverly, a representative from Councilmember Sherri Lightner’s office.
“We’re looking for our biggest cleanup ever, countywide,” said Slater-Price, adding that cleanup should be every day. “We’re calling a lot of attention to it today, which is a great thing. It gets a lot of people engaged.”
Erika Lopez, 15, of Point Loma was volunteering her efforts for the first time. “I like helping the environment,” she said. Helping the environment is something she looks to continue to do in the future, Lopez added.
The San Dieguito Lagoon site is in the neighborhood of Sharon Cohen, an attorney for SDG&E, and just one of the reasons she was participating.
“Beautifying my neighborhood is always a good thing,” she said. “I drive by this location every week and I wanted to be a part of this.”
The wetlands project is being funded by SDG&E and Southern California Edison as the environmental mitigation project for the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station.
“It’s really a great progress that has been made on the wetlands restoration. It’s an inspiration to see what has happened in the few years since they received all the permits for the improvements,” said Niggli. “We’re glad to see that the mitigation monies from the power plant are going to good use.”
The project has since restored 150 acres of wetlands when initial construction began in 2006.
“As I walked in here I have to say there were still a lot of pieces of trash around,” said Fair. “It was disappointing to see things just thrown in such a beautiful area, so there’s still cleanup to do here,” she added.
The volunteers also worked with San Dieguito River Park rangers to identify and remove some of the invasive weeds in the wetlands.
Park Ranger Natalie Borchardt of the San Dieguito River Park Trail said Saturday’s event was a huge benefit to the park rangers.
Working with very little funding, the rangers rely on volunteers to assist them in maintaining the trails and restoring the habitat, Borchardt said. “We only have six park rangers for a huge amount of land, and the land is spread out all the way from the oceans to the mountains,” she said.
“It’s so helpful, and necessary for us to have a good volunteer base in order to accomplish our goals. It’s hard to get a lot of work done, when you’re only one person.”
What would have taken Borchardt a week to perform some of the much needed maintenance to the trail that runs along the wetlands preserve, took a group of about eight volunteers a matter of hours. An early tally showed the volunteers had collected and removed 700 pounds of green waste from the area.
“It’s good work,” Niggli said. “I live in a condo and it’s sort of like an opportunity to get your yard work fix in. I’m enjoying myself, and having all of the employees out here is great,” he added.
For more information on the San Dieguito Lagoon restoration process, visit sce.com/wetlands. For volunteering information with the San Dieguito River Park, visit sdrp.org.
Del MarShare0
Corpsman performs beyond scope of duties overseas
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Tony Cagala
Local business asks for community’s help to fight HIV/AIDS
MiraCosta eliminates fees for high schoolers
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MOSAIC MAESTRO
admin May 21, 2009 July 20, 2015
Composite sketches of home invasion suspects released
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The Conservation Hub
Business & Biodiversity
Sri Lanka first nation to protect all mangrove forests
In 2015 Sri Lanka became the first nation in the world to completely protect all of its mangrove forests.
This increadable scheme that was backed by the government, included microloans to people to replant the lost forests allowing for alternative jobs for communities.
This important project is paramount in the conservation of these threatened habitats as well as granting the ongoing coastal protection that these forests provide.
Photo Credit: US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
Mangroves are considered to be one of the world's most at risk habitats, with over half being destroyed over the last century, The destruction of this habitat not only effects the animals that live in these costal forests, but also effect both the marine and terrestrial animals that live near these areas. The Sri Lankan President at the time Maithreepala Sirisena stated that "It is the responsibility and the necessity of all government institutions, private institutions, non-government organisations, researchers, intelligentsia and civil community to be united to protect the mangrove ecosystem."
Mangroves are a crucial habitat for many reasons, this is mainly due to the plants being salt-tolerant. meaning that they grow along coastlines, river sides and deltas. these unique forests provide nursery for many young animals, from fish to birds. There is also the fact that it is known that the plants root systems can dissipate wave energy, helping to protect areas from natural disasters.
The Sri Lankan government is a joint partner overseeing the measures, alongside global NGO Seacology, and Sri Lanka-based Sudeesa, which was formerly known as the Small Fishers Federation of Lanka.
"This is through a combination of laws, sustainable alternative incomes and mangrove nurseries.
It is also very significant considering the importance of mangroves as a means of sequestering carbon."
"It is not only that mangroves sequester an order of magnitude more carbon than other types of forest, but it is sequestered for so much longer.
"In the case of mangroves, it is forecast that this lasts millennia," he observed.
Mangroves are evergreen trees that are found in more than 120 tropical and sub-tropical nations.
They are able to grow in seawater, and their strong, stilt-like root systems allow them to thrive in swamps, deltas or coastal areas.
The trees sequester the carbon in the top few metres of soil, which is primarily an anaerobic environment - without oxygen.
As a result, the organisms that usually lead to the decomposition of organic material are not present, meaning the carbon remains locked in the environment for longer.
Because of their surrounding habitat and the lack of readily available fuel, mangrove forests are also not susceptible to forest fires.
But mangroves also offer coastal communities a more direct and immediate form of protection, explained Mr Silverstein.
"After the 2004 (Indian Ocean) tsunami, it became evident - particularly in Sri Lanka which was severely impacted - that those villages that had intact mangroves suffered significantly less damage than those that did not.
A report by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) published 12 months after the devastating tsunami compared two coastal villages in Sri Lanka that were hit by the wall of water.
It showed that two people died in the settlement with dense mangrove and scrub forest, while up to 6,000 people died in the village without similar vegetation.
"Another advantage of a healthy mangrove ecosystem is that the stilted root systems serve as nurseries for many of the fish species that go on to populate coral reefs.
Healthy fish populations, sustained by healthy mangrove forests, have also provided livelihoods and nutrition for millions of small-scale fishermen and their families for generations, allowing coastal communities to sustain themselves.
Costing livelihoods
Anuradha Wickramasinghe, chairman of Sudeesa, said: "People live in these areas because they depend on the mangroves because a lot of the fish they catch come from mangroves.
But he added: "Shrimp farmers have been either legally or illegally cutting down mangroves.
Farmed shrimps, or prawns, account for more than half of the global demand for the crustaceans.
A UN report published in November 2012 warned that the growing demand for prawns meant that valuable mangrove forests were still being felled or were under threat of being felled.
Mr Wickramasinghe told BBC News: "Shrimp farming results in a significant fall in fish catch yields, so fishermen are losing income so it costs them their livelihoods.
"So they know about the importance of mangroves and they are keen to protect them.
Mr Silverstein hoped the Sri Lanka protection model would be adopted by other nations.
"We absolutely believe that Sri Lanka's mangrove model will serve as a model for other nations to follow."
The scheme, which will cost US $3.4m over five years, aims to protect all 8,800 hectares (21,800 acres) of existing mangrove forests by providing alternative job training, funding microloans to people in exchange for protecting local mangroves forests.
It also involves a replanting project, which aims to replace 3,900 hectares of mangroves that had been felled.
Business & Biodiversity
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‘MAN OVERBOARD’
Navy Searching for Missing U.S. Sailor in Arabian Sea
A “man overboard incident” was reported on the vessel Wednesday.
ENOUGH’S ENOUGH
Angela Merkel to Quit as German Chancellor in 2021
Updated 10.29.18 9:12AM ET / Published 10.29.18 6:04AM ET
Reuters / Murad Sezer
Angela Merkel—the chancellor of Germany and one of Europe’s most powerful politicians—has announced she won’t seek re-election as chancellor at the next national election in 2021. She’ll remain as chancellor for the time being. Merkel’s CDU party suffered heavy losses in regional elections that has rocked the stability of her governing coalition. Merkel has chaired the CDU since 2000 and has been chancellor since 2005. She announced she’ll give up her leadership of the party in the coming days giving her successor, who will be chosen in December, time to build a profile before the next national election. Merkel’s favored candidate is party Secretary General Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer.
Read it at BBC News
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Works of Mercy
Divine Mercy Q&A Archive
Mercy Meditations
Message from the Marians
From the National Shrine
Home / News & Events
John Paul II: The Great Mercy Pope Beatification Edition
John Paul II: The Great Mercy Pope: Beatification Edition by Rev.... Read more
An Answer to the 'Culture of Death'
By Marc Massery (Sep 14, 2018)
Despite the culture of death — and a nationwide drought in vocations to the priesthood — the Marian Fathers continue to spring to new life. In fact, this year they're harvesting a bumper crop of zealous men willing to give their lives to Christ and His Church.
By God's grace, the community welcomed 11 men into formation this summer — more new vocations than they've accepted at one time in decades. The Marians in the United States now have more than 30 men in formation — bucking both national and worldwide trends. Worldwide, vocations have been in decline since 2012, according to the Vatican.
Well first, the Marian Fathers have not always enjoyed such growth. After the sexual revolution of the 20th century, vocations to the priesthood plummeted throughout the United States, including for the Marians.
For instance, Fr. Donald Calloway, MIC, the director of vocations, joined the Marians in 1993 with three other men. "All of them left," he said. "Just to give you an idea of how things were not going very well for vocations, the last person before me that entered and stayed was Fr. Joseph Roesch, MIC, in 1986. So between 1986 and 1993 — seven years — no guys who entered stayed. None. Not one."
Father Joe, the vicar general, remembers these relatively barren years well. He said, "[When I joined in 1986], I was the only one [to enter novitiate] that year ... I remember one of the older priests saying to me, 'You are the hope of our province.' They looked at me like, 'Finally, God sent us a decent vocation here.' Back then, if just one vocation came along and it was good, it was like they were holding onto some hope."
Throughout the 1990s and into the early 2000s, new vocations for the Marians
remained stagnant, even after they had established a formation house at Franciscan University of Steubenville, in Ohio.
Father Donald said, "We were getting one, two, maybe three per year. Maybe. Quite a few of them wouldn't even stay. They would end up leaving and sometimes we'd be left with none."
Then Pope John Paul II died.
Phone 'ringing off the hook'
The whole world watched the funeral of that saint on TV in 2005.
"Since then," said Fr. Donald, "my phone at the vocation office has been ringing off the hook, and it hasn't stopped. After 2005, we began to accept three to four per year, then four to five, then six to seven, and now we're averaging between six and nine guys.
"I really think that when John Paul II died, his legacy still lives on. His example of priesthood was so strong and so powerful, and I think that his great love for Divine Mercy and Our Lady has carried over ... and that legacy continues."
Father Donald said that at least 90 percent of the men who join the Marians today have experienced a conversion. "It's very rare to find a man who grew up in the perfect family and never strayed from the faith or dabbled in the things of the world," he said.
Father Donald, who had a radical conversion himself, considers the recent growth of the Marians a testament to Divine Mercy.
Father Donald said, "They've experienced mercy and now they're going to be apostles of mercy. When you share that commonality with other guys, they come in and they talk to each other about their struggles in the past with purity. They talk about their struggles with materialism in the world.
"God is calling men to be apostles of Divine Mercy and to want to promote Our Lady and to want to promote solid teaching. I can honestly say not one man who is joining us has got funky theological ideas. They want to be part of a movement that gives people solid catechesis and theology, because they know themselves that they didn't grow up with it. For most of them, it led to them getting involved in bad stuff and acting out sinfully. Now they want to be in an environment where they don't have to fight that battle."
Father Thaddaeus Lancton, MIC, ordained in 2015, said, "Generally, devotion to Our Lady, Divine Mercy, and fidelity to the Church are the hallmarks of the Marians and are qualities that often attract vocations. The Marians try to be in the heart of the Church — neither ahead nor behind her. That appealed to me."
Father Joe believes the Marians' mission — which includes faithfulness to the Magisterium, promoting and honoring the Immaculate Conception, praying for the Holy Souls in Purgatory, assisting the Church wherever the need is greatest, and promoting Divine Mercy — addresses many of our culture's biggest problems.
"Our charism is an important one for the world, because our culture is just a 'culture of death,' as John Paul II said, and not of life. And our charism is really tied to life," he said. "Countries all over the world want the old to die because of the cost associated with caring for them and it's easier to just get rid of them. There's a lack of attention to life at conception. They're discarding children because they're not perfect or they're inconvenient. Praying for the Holy Souls in Purgatory — people die and everybody forgets about them and they think they don't have to pray for them."
He continued, "The Church today, in all different parts of the world, needs the Marian charism."
Thankfully, the more Marian priests, the further the seeds of their charism can spread, with the hope that the Lord will one day transform our culture into one of life.
Be a part of the discussion. Add a comment now!
I.H. - Sep 16, 2018
Good to hear of this and hope there would be more such good news through out the world.
Devotion to the Immaculate Conception, a great need of our times since many marriages too have been afflicted by the user /prostituting mentality from the slavery to ego holds and its ways like that of the dragon with the seven heads and 10 horns .
Interesting too how St.Faustina's Congregation worked with women of the streets . Just that, in our times , it is often the wives and mothers who are cast in that role ,to be made to feel worthless like the spittle, from being slaves to the darkness and emptiness of the ego dragons, unaware of what is happening . In the one flesh union , the man , the husband / father also becomes same in one spirit - to be cowardly , wimpish, effeminate and in turn, trying to recruit other men into similar bonds of ego .
NO wonder we see all the evils and confusions abounding in our times .
The Church scandals hopefully would serve to bring the light of truth and mercy , through the awareness of the Father' love and ways of deliverance . before it is too late for many .
St.Faustina was also led to see hell,( 741, Diary ) to know what the end of a life spent to serve the ego dragons can be .
May His mercy help us all to accept same and to live in accordance .
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The Elders challenge leaders to confront migration lies and make UN deal a success
Ban Ki-moon Mary Robinson ethical leadership human rights political leaders
UNSG António Guterres and Special Representative of the SG for International Migration Louise Arbour in Marrakesh in December 2018. (UN Photo/Mark Garten)
Tuesday, 11 December, 2018
The Elders welcome the signing of the United Nations Global Compact for Migration, and urge politicians, media and civil society to recognise the realities of our globalised world and respect the human rights of people on the move.
The Elders today welcomed the signing of the United Nations Global Compact for Migration in Marrakesh as a means of strengthening nation states’ ability to manage migratory flows by emphasising coordination and solidarity.
They noted that migration pressures are set to be exacerbated by the impact of climate change and conflict, making it all the more imperative that a robust international framework is put in place that can prioritise order, respect for human rights and equal burden-sharing between host countries.
They congratulated UN Secretary-General António Guterres, and Louise Arbour, the UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Migration, for their careful stewardship of the Compact process and the inclusive and respectful way the negotiations have been handled.
Mary Robinson, Chair of The Elders, said:
“This Global Compact offers a way to manage migration that recognises the realities of our globalised world and respects the human rights of people on the move. As we celebrate the seventieth anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, political leaders now need to show equal clarity of vision and purpose to implement the Compact.”
The Elders noted that the Compact is a non-binding, voluntary process rather than an attack on national sovereignty. They urged party leaders and parliamentarians in countries where the Compact is still under debate to reflect this in their interventions.
Recognising that migration is a contentious and sensitive topic in many countries, The Elders called on politicians, media and civil society to conduct their deliberations in a level-headed manner that is cognisant of global realities while sensitive to local opinion and specificities.
Ban Ki-moon, Deputy Chair of The Elders and former UN Secretary-General, said:
“As Secretary-General of the United Nations, I was proud to launch the process to develop the Global Compacts on Refugees and Migration in 2016. Today, I am encouraged by the result of the Marrakesh summit. I hope leaders will now act in the long-term interests of their people by implementing the Compact to protect the rights of migrants worldwide.”
For media inquiries, please contact William French, Head of Communications at The Elders (+44 7795 693 903) or email: media@theElders.org
Former UN Secretary-General and former South Korean Foreign Minister; championed the world’s vulnerable by putting Sustainable Development, climate change, and gender equality at the top of the UN agenda.
Ignore the lies about the UN Migration pact. It's the only responsible solution to a changing world
Writing in TIME, Mary Robinson calls on leaders to recognise the realities of our globalized world and embrace the sovereignty that the UN Global Compact on Migration provides.
Ernesto Zedillo: Trump retreats from leadership yet again
Decrying the U.S. decision to withdraw participation from the Global Compact for Migration, Ernesto Zedillo asserts that states can better protect their own citizens when they cooperate to overcome the challenges of migration.
Managing migration: why leadership matters
Louise Arbour, United Nations Special Representative for International Migration, calls on governments negotiating the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration to seize the opportunity for collaboration, whilst demonstrating strong political
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Damages $10M and rising
By Bethany Freudenthal The Garden Island | Thursday, May 3, 2018, 12:05 a.m.
LIHUE — A joint preliminary damage assessment released Wednesday found the April flooding caused nearly $11 million in damages on Kauai.
The flooding resulted in more than 350 homes being damaged — 12 destroyed — and an undetermined amount of businesses were impacted on Kauai.
The preliminary assessment does not include highway and roadway damage, according to the press release. Repairs to Kuhio Highway, which was hit by 12 landslides, are estimated at $35 million.
“That’s the assessment for the purposes of applying for and receiving the presidential declaration,” said Richard Rapoza, spokesman for the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency.
Gov. David Ige signed a request for a Presidential Disaster Declaration seeking help for Kauai and Oahu Wednesday.
The county, state, Federal Emergency Management Agency, and the U.S. Small Business Administration performed a Joint Preliminary Damage Assessment for public assistance, and found the floods caused more than $19.7 million in damage on Kauai and Oahu.
“This disaster is of such severity and magnitude that effective response is beyond the capabilities of the state and affected county governments,” Ige said.
The designation will allow the state to apply for financial assistance to complete repairs related to the flooding. If the declaration is granted further detailed review of the damages and costs of repair will take place.
Total rainfall in the 48-hour period ending at 6 p.m. April 15, resulted in 32.3 inches of rain in Wainiha, while Hanalei tapped out at 28.4 inches. Total precipitation up on Mt. Waialeale was measured at 22.3 inches.
The National Weather Service said preliminary data indicated the rains broke a national rainfall record.
A gauge in Waipa on the North Shore recorded nearly 50 inches of rain over a 24-hour period. If certified, the rain would break the current record of 43 inches hit in Texas in 1979.
On Kauai, during a period between April 16-17, U.S. Army helicopter crews delivered about 43,000 pounds of food, water and clothing, to distressed areas.
About 475 people were evacuated by helicopter, while an undetermined number of people were evacuated by boat.
HEMA Disaster Assistance Section Chief Lorinda Wong-Lau said on Kauai after the flood, 65 homes were found to have major damage, while 12 homes were deemed completely destroyed. Of the 12 homes that were destroyed, five of them were not primary homes.
On Oahu, about 50 homes on Oahu suffered major damage or were destroyed.
“I want to say this is a snapshot, they can only look at homes that were reported damaged. I know there are more homes, but we could only look at homes that were reported,” she said.
Since FEMA’s initial investigation, Wong-Lau said the Red Cross and other nonprofits have been assessing additional homes for damages.
The homes, Wong-Lau said, were assessed using the FEMA definition as damaged and destroyed.
“The word they use is habitable, can the home be lived in,” Wong-Lau said. “If the roof is collapsed, can the home be lived in? No. They’re looking for major damage.”
The agency does not have exact numbers of public buildings damaged because they are relying on others to report those damages. “They may not see everything at the time. In a couple of weeks, they may have a better picture,” she said. On a county and state level, most of the damages are to roads, culverts, parks and water systems.
Since the flood, Wong-Lau said there has been $10.8 million worth of emergency work and repairs completed on Kauai, including debris removal.
“This number is going to change,” she said.
If a Federal Disaster Declaration is made, Wong-Lau said FEMA will come out and work with agencies that request assistance and will get estimates from them on how much it will cost to get these items fixed.
FEMA is still in the process of pushing through a presidential disaster declaration, she said.
“We’re all really hopeful it will be soon, but fortunately, there is not deadline, no timeline,” she said. “It could take a couple of days, to a couple of weeks, but we hope that it won’t take that long.”
The Presidential Disaster Declaration was signed shortly after the Joint Preliminary Assessment was delivered to Ige’s office Wednesday, the press release says.
Ige is asking for assistance from the Public Assistance Grant Program, the Individual Assistance Program and the Small Business Administration Disaster assistance program, for the two counties. He also requested assistance from the Hazard Mitigation Grand program statewide.
The state is seeking reimbursement for highway recovery efforts through the Federal Highway Administration’s Emergency Relief Program.
Bethany Freudenthal, courts, crime and county reporter, can be reached at 652-7891 or bfreudenthal@thegardenisland.com. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Hawaii poised to ban sale of some sunscreens that harm coral
Driving range at Honolulu golf course may get $50M face-lift
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Home/Magazine/April/Edmonton Venues: We promise we’re not shitty
AprilMagazine
Edmonton Venues: We promise we’re not shitty
Sam Beetham June 26, 2017
Miguel Aranas
Music venues shape a city’s sound and personality, not only giving artists a stage to perform on, but a place where a community can come together, have a brew, and appreciate the local culture. However, music venues face significant challenges — something abundantly clear for many smaller ones in Edmonton, including the recently opened The Forge on Whyte.
“We’ve lost too many venues,” says owner and manager of The Forge, Dale Weran. “Too many have tried to only help out bands and we’ve lost them because of it. If we’re not doing things right, we’re going to be in the same boat.”
As an experienced promoter in Edmonton, Weran isn’t a newcomer to music scene challenges. He’s been putting on local shows for years at places like the Starlite Room, Brixx, and Rendezvous Pub. Now, he will be doing the same at his own venue.
The Forge, which sits inside the Whyte and 105 St. space of the former iconic venue, The Pawn Shop, lives and breathes music, even when it’s silent. Stage lights dangle above a vast stage, which sits across from a gargantuan mixing desk — a seemingly perfect platform to host a wide spectrum of bands. The Forge has everything a venue needs to succeed, but Weran and his team need to navigate the issues that face the small venues throughout Edmonton, and one of importance is developing local talent to fill their stages.
“You need to support small bands, so they can turn into large bands,” Weran says. “If you have a brand new band that brings out 50 people, most of them are friends and family who aren’t going out to a show again, and only 20 to 30 per cent (of the total crowd) are actually coming out to a show. I don’t care if (the small band) makes money (for the venue), we’re gonna need to put them on stage, (so one day they become) a band that will be the draw and make the money.”
While The Forge, and other similar venues, hope to support smaller acts in order to foster a larger music scene, there is more on the business-end of the spectrum that creates obstacles to survival. In a rather brief period of time, The Pawn Shop, Bohemia (which has since reopened), and Wunderbar all closed, leaving Edmonton’s music scene in dire straits. While the community is back on the rise, venues must look first to other sources, besides music, for income.
“When you have a bar like ours that brings in live music, most of the money comes from the bar (not tickets),” Weran says. “People need to drink, unfortunately, and that’s the biggest obstacle.”
Looking first to liquor sales to sustain the music side of their business creates a strange situation for venues like The Forge. While owners are happy to see people come out to a show, they can still be nervous if those people don’t drink.
“I don’t want to advocate getting sloshed,” Weran says. “But people having a few drinks, enjoying themselves, being safe, while ultimately enjoying their time gives (the venue) money to keep things running.” It’s a trade-off venues have to make.
Another difficult factor Weran notes is the policies for businesses around all-ages events. For example, venues need a restaurant or kitchen in order to have an all-ages license, which creates further complications.
“For someone like me to get an all-ages show, I have to kill my liquor license for a whole day, not just for the whole show,” says Weran. “For me to do that on a Saturday night, that would hurt.”
The result of this is many younger music fans can’t participate in the music scene until their 18th birthday. For venues that rely on the liquor sales to support the music, these policies make it hard to foster a younger generation of music fans. Some venues, however, such as the Sewing Machine Factory, are inclusive of all-ages, and as a result, see a loyal youth turnout to their shows. Despite this, Weran says the city “doesn’t have enough all-ages venues to get younger people out for music,” meaning local music remains out of reach for many younger music aficionados.
Even with its difficulties, Weran believes Edmonton and its collection of venues have potential. While being a part of this community comes at a financial cost and with many risks, Weran represents an optimism from those in the business, who are prepared to do what it takes to keep smaller venues, the heart of Edmonton’s music scene, alive and kicking.
“We don’t have lack of people, or artists,” Weran says. “We just have a few little challenges we have to get over.”
Venue round-up
For music fans that want to familiarize themselves with the Edmonton music scene or even just want to catch a local show, these are some of the venues throughout YEG to check out.
Starlite staple
Starlite Room (10030 102 St. NW) is a venue tentpole. Its beaten and worn-in brick and wood aesthetic is lived-in, but having been built in 1925, it isn’t without history. Bands including Nirvana and Green Day graced Starlite’s stage before they were household names. This musical landmark now sees more high-profile touring acts, but is known to host smaller battle-of-the-band nights and album release parties as well.
Make it Mercury
It may not exclusively host Queen cover bands, but the Mercury Room (10575 114 St. NW) is still a fantastic spot to catch local acts and more. With its every-man atmosphere, anyone and everyone is welcome to enjoy a show on any night — just don’t expect to find the same genre playing twice in a row. The Mercury Room owns the “pub-stage” aesthetic, from the tea-lights on the ceiling to its particle board floor.
Don’t count out cafés
Unassuming venues, such as Cha Island (10332 81 Ave) and The Clever Rabbit (10722 124 St.) are great to catch tiny, living-room-esque shows. Both are inconspicuous during the day — Cha Island is a tropical café/lounge with killer waffles and fruit smoothies, and The Clever Rabbit is a cat-obsessed vegetarian café — but both can be transformed into intimate space at night. Hosting many first-time acts, across a multitude of genres, bands of all types can hone their craft in these quaint cafés.
The list doesn’t stop there. Spots like the aforementioned The Forge on Whyte, The Aviary, and Sewing Machine Factory also provide spaces in our city to make concert memories.
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Jessica Tang
Trickle-up economics: The state of gender parity in business
Feature: The long and winding road
Editorial: The Gateway’s autonomy should be preserved
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by LYDIA BAYLIS
Label: KNOXX PRODUCTIONS LTD
MIRRORS 3.10
Lydia Baylis is a 23-year-old singer songwriter based in London. After finishing her history degree at Oxford and raising over £1000 for the Welsh Guards Afghanistan Appeal, this Welsh beauty started work on her debut album ' A Darker Trace' with producers, Richard Cardwell (credits include Annie Lennox, James Morrison) and Owen Parker, (credits include Pet Shop Boys, The Gossip). A mediation on the darker side of human nature, this album was inspired by the literature of Virginia Woolf and the Bronte Sisters, as well as music by artists such as Beth Orton & Florence and The Machine. The album also has song writing collaborations with Paul Statham (Dido, Kylie Minogue) and Ian Pickering (Sneaker Pimps) and is an exploration of life's mellow depths, as well as its overarching joy.
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Sports Has Milos Raonic reached the end of the line?
Has Milos Raonic reached the end of the line?
Cathal Kelly
Published September 2, 2018 Updated September 2, 2018
The last time Milos Raonic reached the fourth round of the U.S. Open, it was a capital-E Event for Canadian tennis.
It was 2014. Raonic had announced himself earlier in the summer with a semi-final appearance at Wimbledon. He gave the impression of a young man on the cusp of a breakthrough.
That match, against Japan’s Kei Nishikori, started late and went much later. By the time they got to the fifth set, the upper bowl had emptied out. The only people left up there were the night cleaners, waiting for their shift to start. It ended just past 2:30 a.m.
But if you are Canadian and any sort of sports fan, you were probably still up. It was that big of a deal.
The local kid lost that night, but the final word on the matter went to Stan Wawrinka. Calling Raonic “a little bit different” than the rest of tennis’s then-young generation, the Swiss judged, “He’s there.”
Raonic, now going on 28, is no longer young. As it turns out, he was never quite there – not there there. And very few people are willing to wait up late for him any more.
Four years, a few highlights and many injuries later, Raonic made the fourth round in Flushing Meadows again on Sunday.
This was not a moment of national anticipation. Not because no one believed Raonic could win, but because of the opponent and the sort of match his presence suggested.
John Isner is Raonic’s American doppelganger in many ways – tall, immobile, a server of immense and tedious power, as well as a small disappointment to his countrymen.
Both carry the flag for their national game. Both have a tendency to get all tangled up in it whenever too many people start paying attention to them. That would be this point in a major tournament.
To Isner’s credit, he has always worn his gawky on-court approach and tendency to lose miserably to anyone half-decent with a certain lightness.
Isner, 33, knows what he is – a very-good-never-going-to-be-great jobbing professional athlete. It’s not bad work if you can find it. Isner seems to get that.
Raonic gives off a very different impression – of someone who cannot understand why it isn’t working out.
He’s tried almost as many personas as coaches over the years, which is to say a lot of them. We have now entered the dark Milos phase of things, wherein Raonic gives off so little feeling on the court that it creates its own sort of emotional intensity.
No fist pumps. No speaking. No looking at his box. No nothing at all.
That worked for exactly one set on Sunday. Raonic isn’t able to surprise anyone with his tactics – serve the ball hard, then hope – but he can catch someone out with his focus. His first set was virtually error free.
Coming off a best-of-season performance against Wawrinka in the Round of 32, Raonic’s early form might’ve been enough to deeply unsettle another competitor.
But Isner is accustomed to being bad for long stretches and still managing to win. That’s precisely how he does it. He buffets you with that catapult of a serve until you lose your will to go on. He hasn’t won much at tennis, but he seems to play more tennis than anyone in history.
So despite his own inability to play it cool – fist pumping every winner, looking up at his box every 10 seconds for encouragement – Isner was not fazed.
He won the second and third sets. Raonic rallied in the fourth. Then the familiar physical breakdown. Before the beginning of the fifth set, a physiotherapist was out on the court twisting Raonic around like a human hot-pocket.
It was either his hip or his back or the part where his hip meets his back. Take your pick. Raonic has pulled them all.
Isner plowed him over in the fifth – 3-6, 6-3, 6-4, 3-6, 6-2 – and that was that. Raonic’s tennis season isn’t over, but now that the Grand Slams are done, it really is. He hasn’t made the semis of a major in more than two years. He hasn’t won any sort of tournament in nearly three.
Whether he wants to see it like this or not, Raonic is no longer on a path to become the next Wawrinka or Juan Martin Del Potro – the sort of player who’s never been the favourite, but has managed to win the big one once or twice.
Instead, Raonic is an Isner. He has one skill. That skill is good enough to make him a lot of money, but it’s never going to bring him glory. And all of that is contingent on keeping a rebellious body on board with the program, something that gets harder with each passing year.
Raonic is the sort of player people like, but don’t expect much from. He is the sort people will stop to watch, but only if the match is on in the afternoon and doesn’t conflict with another, better one.
After a few years spent stamping our feet over Raonic’s inability to elevate his game beyond its initial promise, maybe that’s enough.
Four years ago, it was a big deal that a Canadian man was on the cusp of the second week at the U.S. Open. Oddly, it felt like an even bigger deal than Raonic’s Wimbledon final a couple of years later. Because you were getting in on something early – before the bandwagon jumpers heard about it.
Raonic is old news now, and no one believes any more. At least, not that he can win a major.
But he’s still the best we’ve ever produced, and he’s still making an impression out there. Sunday’s first set was more sweet than bitter as you thought to yourself, “Imagine if he played like this all the time.”
Every once in a while, when he’s feeling it, Raonic is even still fun to watch.
But that’s us. We have the luxury of finding perspective on Raonic’s career in the midst of it and what it’s all meant.
Raonic doesn’t get the same benefit. And as a result, he does not look like he’s having much fun out there at all.
Isner ousts Raonic from second grand slam in a row as Canadian loses at U.S. Open Subscriber content
Milos Raonic advances easily to fourth round of U.S. Open but Denis Shapovalov knocked out after tough five-set loss Subscriber content
Raonic, Shapovalov advance to third round of U.S. Open Subscriber content
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House prices blog
House prices fall for the eighth consecutive month
Experts predict prices will continue to fall as fewer people are getting loans and many are falling behind repayments
Tue 15 Mar 2011 08.18 EDT First published on Tue 15 Mar 2011 08.18 EDT
Job cuts, rising inflation and tightening of lending by banks and has weakened the housing market. Photograph: Linda Nylind for the Guardian
The average price of a UK home fell by 1.4% in January to £208,552 according to the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG).
The annual rate of house price inflation dipped to 0.5% in January, compared to 3.8% in December and a peak of 10.6% in May 2010, according to the DCLG house price index. It was the eighth consecutive month during which the annual rate of house price inflation has fallen.
Negative housing market data was also announced by the Financial Services Authority (FSA), which showed new loans to borrowers reached £37bn in the fourth quarter of 2010 – a drop of 10% compared to the previous quarter and an 11% fall compared to the final quarter of 2009.
The FSA said the number of new arrears cases increased in the final three months of last year to 38,800 – 6% higher than the previous quarter but still 5% below the 40,900 cases in the fourth quarter of 2009 . The total number of accounts in arrears at the end of 2010 was 343,400, unchanged from last quarter.
The DCLG added that average house prices increased by 1.0% in England in the year to January, but decreased by 1.8% in Wales and fell by 3.2% in Scotland and 14.1% in Northern Ireland. It takes the average price of a home to £216,304 in England, £147,862 in Northern Ireland, £165,078 in Scotland and £145,744 in Wales.
House prices increased in five of the nine English regions during the year to January 2011. The largest increase was in the east (4.0%) and the smallest was in the south east (0.6%). Yorkshire and the Humber saw the largest annual fall of 4.6%, while Scotland and the West Midlands both recorded a 3.2% fall.
DCLG also said the average price for properties bought by first time buyers increased by 1.5% to £153,608 over the year to January , compared to an annual increase of 1.4% in December. During January alone, prices paid by first time buyers increased by 0.7%, compared to a 0.5% monthly increase in January last year.
Housing experts said the DCLG data, based on mortgage completions figures collected by the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML), further reinforced their belief that the housing market is weakening. The CML data last week showed a 29% drop in house sales in January compared to December.
Nicholas Ayre of property search agent Home Fusion, said: "The 1.4% decline in January does seem indicative of the direction house prices will go during 2011, namely down. At best, the market will remain flat this year, at worst it is heading for further falls, especially in areas where unemployment is rising sharply.
"In the property market, the negatives outweigh the positives and in some areas, especially those overly reliant on public sector jobs, there are very few positives. Supply has slowed in recent weeks, easing the pressure on prices, but this could change rapidly when interest rates rise. This week's unemployment data will also have a bearing on consumer confidence and therefore the demand for property.
"As ever, there is a split in the market between the top end, where demand is still strong and mortgage finance achievable, and the lower end, where demand is weak and mortgage finance very difficult to secure."
Howard Archer, chief UK and European economist at IHS Global Insight, said the figures were "fully consistent" with his view that house prices will continue to trend down in 2011 after losing ground overall in the latter months of 2010. "Specifically, we suspect that house prices will fall by around 5% in 2011 and end up losing around 10% from the peak levels seen in the first half of 2010," he said.
"We believe that the fundamentals remain largely unfavourable for the housing market, even though fewer houses recently coming on to the market could provide significant support for house prices if sustained. Even then this is likely to be countered by the ongoing low housing market activity reflecting the pressure on buyers."
The FSA said fixed-rate products increased in popularity throughout the year, accounting for 46% of new mortgages by the final quarter of 2010 compared to 36% in the first quarter.
Mortgage arrears
Borrowing & debt
Mortgage lending figures
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Freddie’s abuser was a teacher whose power and influence extended into the church, a business and a sports team in the local area. He feels this network of control made it easier for the man to abuse many young people.
After his parents divorced, Freddie did not see his mum for a long time and his dad worked long hours to provide for him and his siblings. The church was a big influence on the family and Freddie attended a faith school.
A teacher named Pat, who had taught there for many years, was known as a bully who would throw classroom equipment at the children. He was also a sports coach who had close links to a local priest. At sports practice, Pat compared Freddie unfavourably with his relatives who were better at the game.
Freddie now knows he has a specific learning difficulty but was not diagnosed at that time. Pat made him read aloud on a one-to-one basis at his angled desk. Out of view of anyone entering the classroom, Pat would touch Freddie on his penis and backside while he was reading. This became more frequent as months went on. Pat could get tickets to local sports matches and continued the sexual abuse when he took Freddie to matches.
Freddie did not tell his father as he was still working long hours and trying to bring up his children. He did tell a girl in his class about the sexual abuse, and social services visited, but he said he was scared to speak out as he felt Pat had such control over his family.
At the time Freddie thought he was the only victim but has since found out there were many more, male and female. Pat was arrested in the late 1980s following someone else’s disclosure.
Freddie remembers social services visiting and later being interviewed at his relative’s house. But he was not asked to give evidence at the trial, where Pat was sentenced to a term of imprisonment.
Freddie says the sexual abuse has affected him for over 30 years and he has only recently started talking about it. Freddie says he still struggles with authority and does not like his penis being touched in intimate moments. He has been taking antidepressants and has had counselling.
His key message is that he would like tighter checks on faith schools and their responsibilities made clearer. He feels the local priest almost certainly knew what was going on and if it had not been a faith school the abuse would have been discovered sooner.
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Russian Jews win Rostov Holocaust commemoration fight
(JTA) — The Russian city of Rostov-on-Don has agreed to acknowledge the Jewish identity of Holocaust victims killed there by the Nazis. The municipality’s Memorial Council last week announced its decision to revise a memorial plaque at the Zmievskaya Balka mass grave to mention the Jewish identity of the majority of the approximately 27,000 bodies buried there in 1942, the Russian Jewish Congress said.
The text will read: “The largest site of mass killings in the Russian Federation of Jews by the Nazi invaders during World War II.”
The revision is the result of a protracted legal fight by local and other Jews for recognition that started two years ago after officials in the southern Russian city replaced a 2004 plaque that mentioned Jews with one that did not.
The new plaque commemorates the “mass killing by the fascists of captured Soviet citizens.”
Russian Jewish Congress President Yuri Kanner told JTA that the second revision was “a wise decision by the city administration and a compromise which cools down the tensions around the largest Holocaust grave in Russia.”
In October, a Russian court rejected a petition by the Russian Jewish Congress seeking a return of the 2004 plaque. The Jewish group sued after city officials refused to revise the plaque they had placed.
Yuri Dombrovsky, chairman of the Russian Jewish Congress’ Holocaust Memorial Board, told JTA that the revision is a sign of progress in Holocaust commemoration efforts in the former Soviet Union.
“For many decades, under the communists’ rule, the state denied the Holocaust,” he said.
Dombrovsky also said that some Jews are not content with the new text since it does not contain the word Holocaust, but added he believed “it’s the only possible solution.”
Read more: http://www.jta.org/2013/12/17/news-opinion/world/russian-jews-win-rostov-holocaust-commemoration-fight#ixzz2p52xzHmT
Holocaust Memorial, Russiaucsj December 31, 2013 Comment
Avoid anti-Semitism in hot EU debate, Senate urges Ukraine pols
European Union, Ukraine, Украинаucsj December 31, 2013
As Pro-European Protests Seize Ukraine, Jewish Oligarch Victor Pinchuk Is a Bridge to the West
Ukraine, Украинаucsj December 13, 2013
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U.S. National Spelling Bee Champion Was Born in India but His Experience is All American
The National Spelling Bee is a peculiarly American institution, where school children aged 9 to 14 take turns spelling aloud English words of increasing and sometimes ludicrous difficulty. Yet the champion of this year's competition, held earlier this month in Washington, was Anurag Kashyap, an exuberant 13-year-old whose parents are immigrants from India. In this edition of New American Voices, Mr. And Mrs. Kashyap talk about their son, and their life in America.
The Kashyap family came to North America -- initially to Canada, where Mr. Kashyap had a post-doctoral fellowship to study organic chemistry -- when Anurag was just 18 months old. When he was three, the family moved to the United States. Mr. Kashyap says that although his son's heritage is Indian, his experience is all American.
?He has no Indian experience, either in terms of language, or in terms of cultures, except what he gets from his [parents] or maybe sometimes TV movies. So in terms of language, he did not pick it up. English became his first language," says his father. "And culture - well, he eats both Indian food and American food, and clothes-wise there is absolutely no problem. And I think he probably has more American friends. In the school he is quite popular, and many people like him, I would say he gets along very well.?
Language being no barrier, Anurag early on showed an interest in words. His father says he was about nine years old when the competitive spelling bug bit him.
?I believe that he started quite early. We used to go to the library, and we used to pick up - because we don't have Hindi books here, right? - so we picked up English books for children, and he was reading," he notes. "I have a feeling that it started when he was in fourth grade, and he participated in a competition, and being a fourth grader he beat all the fifth graders in the school. And he went to the regional competition, and he came in third in the county. So it's my guess that was the starting point.?
From then on, Anurag participated in various local and regional spelling competitions. Last year he entered the National Spelling Bee for the first time and tied for 47th place. This year he beat out 272 other contestants by quickly and confidently spelling the word appoggiatura (an ornamental music note) in the 19th round. Anurag's father says his son's intense interest in spelling is his own; his parents didn't push him into it.
?Absolutely no. In fact, sometimes we try to stop him," he says. "We did not discourage, we always encouraged - learning anything is always good. But we did not push him, that 'Oh, you have to do only spelling.' Because as you will find, he is a well-rounded student in the school, he has contributed in all the subjects almost equally.?
Mrs. Archana Kashyap offers her own view of their son's broad range of interests. ?After studying he plays video games and he likes to play tennis very much," she says. "He's not a very good player, but he likes to play, he has fun with that.? Anurag is the Kashyaps' only child.
Mr. Kashyap, who earned a PhD in organic chemistry in India, joined the faculty of Purdue University in the Midwestern state of Indiana after immigrating to the United States. Two years ago, he moved his family to the San Diego area in California, where he found a job with a large biotech company. Chandra Kashyap says that his professional environment was a big help in smoothing the transition to life in a new country.
?Because I came as an academician, you know, I was in an academic environment," says Mr. Kashyap. "A professor has his lab group involved, so I think I found some friends, and we have some Indian friends, too, who have PhDs from the same institutions, so we never felt that we are isolated or we are far.?
Mrs. Kashyap, who is a stay-at-home-mom, also had few problems with adjustment. ?Just that I missed my family there, because I moved here," she notes. "And adjusting, it takes time. But other than that, everything is fine.?
Like many immigrants, the Kashyaps believe that the greatest advantage to life in America can be found in the opportunities it offers. As Chandra Kash yap says, everybody has the chance to fare well here, if they have skills and work hard. He looks forward to seeing his son take advantage of these opportunities to achieve his full potential. As yet, the boy has no firm plans for the future.
?He's in eighth grade right now, so there is no specific or special subject where he can concentrate right now and go [ahead]," notes Mr. Kashyap. "I think we have to watch for another two-three years, when he takes advanced courses, and see how he performs, and that will determine what he will go for. If he has the talent and the determination, if he works hard and he's honest in his discipline, probably he can get to where he wants to go.?
Anurag certainly does not lack determination. Over the past two years he studied more than 100,000 words to prepare for the national spelling bee. And he found lots of help along the way, from a spelling coach at school, and various Internet resources, to a wide network of computer friends who quizzed him constantly using on-line instant messaging. A footnote to the Kashyap's story: all three finalists in this year's National Spelling Bee were children of Indian immigrants
California Teenager Wins National Spelling Bee
In Washington, D.C., Thursday, the best young spellers from across the United States competed to become the nation's top speller. VOA's Margaret Besheer was at the competition finals and files this report. ANNOUNCER: "Empyreal, it means celestial."SPELLER: "Empyreal?"ANNOUNCER: "Empyreal is one of the pronunciations."SPELLER: "E-M-P-I-R-I-A-L. Empirial."…
By Margaret Besheer
On Being Indian in America - 2003-08-22
English Feature #7-37779 Broadcast August 18, 2003 Immigrants to the United States must resolve for themselves how much to integrate into American society, and how much of their native customs and culture to retain. In today?s edition of New American Voices, an immigrant from India addresses the question of assimilation and talks about her own attempts to find harmony between the Indian and American aspects of her life. …
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Real Haunts in Virginia- Paranormal VA
Did you know Virginia is home to dozens of REAL Haunted Places? From haunted roadways and buildings where the dearly departed still lurk among us, to burial grounds and sacred places that are haunted by spirits who seemingly want to stay in this world, Virginia has some truly eerie landmarks and historical sites that are hot spots for paranormal activity. Virginia's Real Haunts are home to ghosts and spirits year-round - they're not your average Halloween Haunt. Find out all about Virginia's Haunted History, and learn all about haunted places across the state that are plagued with REAL ghosts, ghouls, apparitions, and things that go bump in the night!
Filter: Show All Categories Real Haunted HousesReal Haunted Lakes & WaterwaysReal Haunted Hotels & LodgingReal Haunted CemeteriesReal Haunted Bridges & OverpassesReal Haunted PlacesReal Haunted Army Posts / Battle GroundsReal Haunted Hospitals & AsylumsReal Haunted CollegesReal Haunted TheatersReal Haunted Museums
The Grey Horse Inn The Plains, VA
Exp.:
The Grey Horse Inn was a small Bed and breakfast in The Plains which closed and was sold to private residents in 2011. Before its owners retired, visitors to The Grey Horse reported seeing a ghostly scene repeat itself inside the inn. Witnesses say that they could see the apparition of a Confederate soldier being killed. Read More
Categories: Real Haunted Houses | Real Haunted Hotels & Lodging
Cork Street Tavern Winchester, VA
Cook Street Tavern has been serving the Winchester area since 1985, but the restaurant building actually dates back to 1827. It is said to be haunted by two ghosts, a woman named Emily and a man named John Mann. John’s spirit has been seen wearing a long, black frock coat, and Emily is often heard calling John’s name. The duo has been known to move objects around the restaurant and will... Read More
Categories: Real Haunted Places
Ball's Bluff Battlefield Leesburg, VA
Now a regional park and national cemetery, Ball’s Bluff was once the site of an 1861 Civil War battle. 54 soldiers are buried here, making it the third smallest national cemetery, and some of them are said to still wander the park. Apparitions of soldiers in uniform have been reported by multiple visitors over the years. Tours are offered on weekends from spring through autumn. Read More
Categories: Real Haunted Cemeteries | Real Haunted Army Posts / Battle Grounds
Emory and Henry College Emory, VA
Emory and Henry College, which was founded in 1836, is said to have at least three ghosts on campus. The sounds of a piano playing have been heard coming from inside the Music Hall, even when the building is supposed to be completely empty. Outside of the Music Hall there is a hanging lamp which swings by itself when there is no wind. It is said that the swaying of the lamp is caused by... Read More
Categories: Real Haunted Colleges
Olde Towne Inn Manassas, VA
The Olde Towne Inn is centrally located in the heart of historic Manassas, making it a popular spot for both the living and the dead. A ghost named Miss Lucy has been known to manifest in room 51 through 54, sometimes causing guests to levitate off the ground. Lucy has also been seen visiting the inn’s tavern. Read More
Categories: Real Haunted Hotels & Lodging
The Glencoe Inn Portsmouth, VA
Built in 1890 on a plot overlooking the Elizabeth River, the Glencoe Inn’s original and current owners have both brought a heavy Scottish influence to their peaceful slice of Portsmouth. Perhaps it is the fresh scent of homemade scones then that keeps the spirits of former residents returning to the inn, hoping to join visitors for breakfast. At least one apparition has been spotted in... Read More
The Old Mansion Bowling Green, VA
The Old Mansion in Bowling Green was built in 1670 as a one-and-a-half story brick structure; it was expanded at some point in the 18th century. It is said that the ghost of Colonel John Waller Hoomes, who built the house, still haunts his old home. His daughter, Sophia, has also been seen about the property, usually riding in a ghostly carriage. A third ghost is said to be that of one... Read More
Categories: Real Haunted Houses
Haw Branch Plantation Amelia, VA
Located near the Amelia Courthouse, Haw Branch Plantation was first settled by Colonel Thomas Tabb and his wife, Rebecca Booker, in 1735. The mansion was built ten years later and still stands to this day, though it was left unoccupied and in ruin for a long period before being purchased and restored by the McConnaughey family in 1965. It did not take long before the building’s new... Read More
John Douglass Brown House Alexandria, VA
Built around 1775 by Patrick Murray, this house is named for John Douglas Brown in 1816 and has remained in his family ever since. It was allegedly visited by George Washington at one point, and is a registered Historic Place. Passersby say that they have seen the ghosts of Revolutionary War soldiers around the home. Read More
Martha Washington Inn Abingdon, VA
Despite its name, the Martha Washington Inn and Spa was actually built by War of 1812 hero General Francis Preston in 1832 as a home for his family, which included nine children. The opulent inn does have presidential connections, however, as Harry Truman, Eleanor Roosevelt, and Lady Bird Johnson have all stayed here. The inn also seems to home to a permanent resident—a ghostly young... Read More
George Mason University Fairfax, VA
Founded in 1957 as a part of the University of Virginia and made independent in 1972, George Mason University is the largest public research university in the state. According to members of the crew team, however, the school would be ripe for research of a paranormal nature! A ghostly old man has been seen near the docks and dam by numerous students; he is alleged to be Old Man Johnson,... Read More
Categories: Real Haunted Lakes & Waterways | Real Haunted Colleges
Aspenvale Cemetery Marion, VA
Located off 7 Mile Ford Road, Aspenvale Cemetery is a registered Historic Place which dates back to 1780 and is divided into three sections. The most prominent is distinguished by a “T” shaped limestone and contains the graves of Preston and Campbell family members, including Revolutionary War General William Campbell. The General’s remains were originally stored in a marble table tomb... Read More
Categories: Real Haunted Cemeteries
Prospect Hill Cemetery Front Royal, VA
Prospect Hill Cemetery is home to at least two ghosts according to witnesses. The first is an unidentified woman who has been seen dressed in 1880s-style clothing. The second is a man kneeling over his own grave in Soldier’s Circle, crying; he is thought to be saddened by the realization that he has died. Read More
Bremo Historic District Bremo Bluff, VA
Bremo Historic District, also known as Bremo Plantation or simply Bremo, is a 1500 acre estate overlooking the James River. In addition a large plantation mansion, two small residences can be found on the grounds: Lower Bremo and Bremo Recess. John Hartwell Cocke had the larger of the two, Bremo Recess, built in 1812 for himself and his wife, Anne, but she died just four years later.... Read More
Barter Theatre Abingdon, VA
The Barter Theatre has a rather unique origin, having been thought up by local actor, Robert Porterfield, during the Great Depression. On June 10, 1933 the theater opened for its first production, charging 40 cents per ticket. Patrons did not have to pay in cash, however; as the surrounding community was largely a rural farming town and times were tough, Porterfield accepted the... Read More
Categories: Real Haunted Theaters
Laurel Grove Cemetery Norton, VA
Also known as Ramsey Cemetery and the Ramsey Family Cemetery, Norton’s Laurel Grove Cemetery is said to be haunted. Visitors have reported feeling the temperature drop to bizarrely cold levels after midnight and hearing disembodied footsteps. There have also been sightings of shadow figures and leaves moving without a breeze. Read More
Appomattox Manor Hopewell, VA
Home of the Eppes family, this 1751 plantation house is most famous for having been the Union headquarters during the Siege of Petersburg. It is now administered as a historic house museum, and is said to be haunted by the ghost of a Union soldier. The wounded soldier is said to have been hiding in the basement wall by a nurse at some point when the Confederates controlled the building;... Read More
Categories: Real Haunted Houses | Real Haunted Army Posts / Battle Grounds
Edgar Allan Poe Museum Richmond, VA
Though the famed writer never lived in this 1740 stone house, it is located only blocks away from his Richmond home and contains a variety of Edgar Allan Poe’s original writings and personal belongings. At least three ghosts have been reported as inhabiting the centuries-old home turned museum—two blonde children and a shadowy male figure believed to be Poe himself. The children, who... Read More
Categories: Real Haunted Houses | Real Haunted Museums
King's Arms Tavern Williamsburg, VA
Built in 1771, the King’s Arm Tavern has thrived in Colonial Williamsburg for over two centuries, providing guests with food, drink, and live music. The tavern is also said to be haunted by the ghost of a woman named Irma, who is believed to have died in a fire early in the building’s lifespan. Rumor has it that the fire was started by a candle, so Irma has a tendency to blow out... Read More
Museum of the Confederacy Richmond, VA
One of three locations that comprise the American Civil War Museum, the White House & Museum of the Confederacy contains many exhibits and artifacts from the Civil War era. It is also said to be haunted by the spirit of a young boy. Allegedly, this child is the five-year-old son of Confederate President Jefferson Davis. Read More
Bridgewater College Bridgewater, VA
Bridgewater College is a private four-year coeducational institute founded in 1880. Campus lore has it that one of the campus buildings, Cole Hall, is haunted by its namesake, Dr. Charles Knox Cole. The building was constructed in 1929 at the behest of Cole’s daughter, Virginia Garber Cole Strickler, and Dr. Cole is said to have occupied the auditorium ever since. His ghost has been... Read More
Categories: Real Haunted Colleges | Real Haunted Theaters
Wilderness Road Regional Museum Dublin, VA
The Wilderness Road Regional Museum was originally two separate homes—one built in 1810 and the other in 1816 by town-founder Adam Hance. The museum is now said to be haunted by the spirit of a young woman, perhaps a former resident of one of the buildings. Her apparition has been seen walking the grounds and standing in a window; lights are also known to flicker on and off. Read More
Ubon Thai Victorian Restaurant Staunton, VA
Located in what was previously the Belle Grae Inn, Ubon Thai Victorian Restaurant now serves the Staunton area authentic Thai food while still providing overnight lodging. The history of the building date back much further than Belle Grae, however; in fact it was a private residence during the 1800s. Mrs. Bagsby, who resided here in life, is said to have never moved on and still appears... Read More
Categories: Real Haunted Hotels & Lodging | Real Haunted Places
Blacksburg Holiday Inn Blacksburg, VA
The Holiday Inn in Blacksburg was built on a former plantation known as Jacob’s Lantern. A nightclub inside the inn was rumored to be the center of ghostly activity, with laughter and voices coming from the bar after it had closed and emptied for the night. Hotel managers also reported having ghostly guests ask to have the music turned down when no music was playing. Unfortunately... Read More
Flight 514 Crash Site Mount Weather, VA
Tragedy struck on December 1, 1974 as TWA Flight 514 from Indianapolis to Columbus crashed into the west slope of Mount Weather, killing all 85 passengers and 7 crew members. Since that fateful day there have been reports of strange phenomena in the area of the crash. Visitors have reported feeling as though they were being pushed by invisible forces, hearing phantom screaming, and... Read More
Ferry Plantation House Virginia Beach, VA
Built in 1830 with an addition constructed in 1850, the Ferry Plantation House is a three-story brick structure that is now recognized a City Landmark. The house is open for several events throughout the year, including Halloween for those interested in learning about its haunted history. As many as eleven ghosts are said to haunt the building, including a former resident named Thomas... Read More
Lee-Fendall House Alexandria, VA
The Lee-Fendall House was built in 1785 by the Lee family, 37 members of which lived here from the time of its completion to 1903. It was also owned by the Downham family from 1903 to 1937, John L. Lewis from 1937 to 1969, and quartered hundreds of Union soldiers between 1863 and 1865. Today it is a nationally registered Historic Place and operates as a museum open to the public.... Read More
Dejarnette Building, Western State Hospital Staunton, VA
Western State Hospital was founded in1825 as the second mental health facility in Virginia, though the first building was not finished until 1828. It was originally named the Western Lunatic Asylum and did not change to its current name until 1894. After the hospital came under control of Dr. Joseph Dejarnette, a noted eugenicist, a new building was erected bearing his name; under his... Read More
Categories: Real Haunted Hospitals & Asylums
The Inn At Willow Grove Orange, VA
Located on a private 40-acre estate in an 18th century plantation mansion, The Inn at Willow Grove furnishes guests with luxurious accommodations and seclusion from the hustle and bustle of everyday life. Evidently the living are not the only ones enticed by Willow Grove, as several spirits have been reported in the building and on the grounds. Apparitions of Confederate soldiers have... Read More
Jeters Chapel Vinton, VA
Jeters Chapel was erected in 1865, following the conclusion of the Civil War, on land donated by the Jeter family. It is located next to the Brethren Cemetery, and is rumored to be haunted. Some have reported seeing a man dressed in a white robe floating in the center of the cemetery. Read More
Categories: Real Haunted Cemeteries | Real Haunted Places
Amelia Wildlife Management Area Amelia Court House, VA
The Amelia Wildlife Management Area comprises 175 acres of former farmland along the Appomattox River. It is open for visitation, fishing, hunting, and apparently hunting as well! Several apparitions have been reported in the reserve, most prominent among them a “charred lady” whose burned spirit roams all about the grounds. Several bodies of murder victims have allegedly been dumped at... Read More
Danville Museum Danville, VA
The Danville Museum of Fine Arts and History was established in 1974, with its headquarters being the historic Sutherlin Mansion. This 1859 home was originally built for tobacco baron and industrialist, Major William Sutherlin; it was also the temporary home of Confederate President Jefferson Davis who issued his last official proclamation in that capacity during his week’s stay here in... Read More
Longwood University Farmville, VA
Longwood University is said to be haunted by a few ghosts on different parts of campus. Tabb Hall, formerly a residence hall and now the home of Longwood University’s Athletics Department, is said to be haunted by a man who died in the building. Rumors state that the Hall once housed an abortion clinic and that a man was murdered inside the clinic. His ghost still roams the room on the... Read More
College of William and Mary Williamsburg, VA
Founded in 1693, the College of William and Mary is the second oldest institute of higher education in the US. Over the centuries it is said to have accumulated many ghosts which continue to haunt the campus to this day. In the Wren Building students often hear the sound of phantom footsteps which they attribute to the spirits of either French soldiers or the building’s designer,... Read More
Bunny Man Bridge Clifton, VA
There are various versions of the Bunny Man story for which Bunny Man Bridge is colloquial named. Some accounts revolved around patients escaping from a Clifton asylum prison in 1904, but they have been discredited by the fact that there was neither a prison nor asylum in the area at the time. Another version centers on a man who lived during the 1800s. According to this account, the... Read More
Categories: Real Haunted Bridges & Overpasses
Randolph College Lynchburg, VA
Founded in 1891 as Randolph-Macon Woman’s College, this school did not change its name until becoming co-educational in 2007. Students say there are at least three ghosts haunting the campus, the first of which is an old woman whose apparition has been seen in the West Dating Parlor. Another spirit is said t be that of a student who was murdered while wearing purple clogs; her ghost can... Read More
Black Horse Inn Warrenton, VA
The Black Horse Inn takes its name from the Black Horse Cavalry, a Confederate unit which led a successful charge against the Union in the First Battle of Manassas. It was originally built in the 1850s with additions constructed in the early 20th century. After recent restoration work, the current Black Horse Inn took form, containing ten rooms each with a private bath. Visitors have... Read More
Episcopal High School Alexandria, VA
Built in 1839, the Episcopal High School in Alexandria has operated as a boarding school for most of its existence. However, for a period of five years the campus was commandeered to be used as a hospital for soldiers in the Civil War. Famed poet Walt Whitman was among the staff and acted as a nurse in the hospital. In the rear of the campus is a large wooded area where, during the war... Read More
Categories: Real Haunted Army Posts / Battle Grounds | Real Haunted Colleges
Edgewood Plantation Charles City, VA
Built in 1849 and situated on the oldest highway in the US, Edgewood Plantation was used as a lookout post by Confederate generals who were camped at nearby Berkeley Plantation during the Civil War. One of the house’s then-residents, Lizzie Rowland, kept a watchful eye as she waited for her love to return from the war, but he never did and so her spirit still watches from an upstairs... Read More
Ramsay House Alexandria, VA
Named after William Ramsay, the Scottish merchant who founded Alexandria, the Ramsay House acts a visitor’s center and gift shop for the city. Information, trinkets, brochures, and tickets to local attractions can all be found here. If you’re lucky, you may even see ghosts wearing 18th century clothing, though witnesses say they tend to stay in the basement. Read More
Virginia Intermont College Bristol, VA
Virginia Intermont College was founded in 1884 as a women’s college and began operations as a coeducational facility in 1972. Financial struggles caused the school to become unaccredited in 2013 and subsequently close after the Spring 2014 semester. The school is also said to be rumored by a ghost who likely still remains even after its closure. According to local legend, a girl named... Read More
Lancaster Tavern Lancaster, VA
Founded in 1790, the Lancaster Tavern has operated in some form or another as an inn, tavern, and/or restaurant for the majority of its history, though it was a private residence for nearly a century from 1894 to 1982. Today it is a popular Bed & Breakfast as well as a restaurant for those wanting a tasty meal without the overnight accommodations. Local lore has it that one resident... Read More
Occoquan Inn Occoquan, VA
The Occoquan Inn occupies a building constructed in 1810 which has continuously operated as an inn or tavern since early in its history. Today diners can find a variety of delicious dishes at the restaurant, but unwitting visitors may find that they’ve bit off a bit more than they can chew! Local legend has it that the Inn is haunted by the spirit of a Native American who died inside... Read More
Categories: Real Haunted Houses | Real Haunted Hotels & Lodging | Real Haunted Places
Abijah Thomas House Adwolf, VA
Built in 1856, this octagon-shaped 17-room house was once the center of a 400 acre plot of land owned by Abijah Thomas. Thomas was the proprietor of a textile plant and owned a number of slaves whom he kept at his private residence. Allegedly some of those slaves were horribly abused and now their ghosts haunt the old building, appearing to visitors in shackles, dripping blood. The... Read More
Monticello Charlottesville, VA
Monticello is the famed former home and primary plantation of Thomas Jefferson, and was largely designed by Jefferson himself. It is today open for tours and visitation, acting as a historic museum that offers a glimpse into American history and the life of its third president. Some say that Jefferson never left his beloved home, claiming to have seen his spirit still walking the... Read More
Cost Plus World Market Sterling, VA
At least one employee has reported this store as being haunted. Strange activities are said to mostly occur late at night and include the mysterious sound of footsteps on the roof and shopping carts crashing against shelves for no reason. A shadow figure was once seen moving quickly through an otherwise empty aisle during an overnight shift. Read More
Belle Grove Plantation Middletown, VA
Built between 1794 and 1797, Belle Grave Plantation was the home of Major Isaac Hite, Jr., a Revolutionary War veteran and brother-in-law to President James Madison. It was also used as a headquarters by US General Phillip Sheridan during the Civil War in the Valley Campaign of 1864, and was at the center of the Battle of Cedar Creek. It is said to be haunted by a woman in mourning,... Read More
Civil War Medical Museum Gordonsville, VA
The Civil War Medical Museum in Gordonsville has been used for many different purposes since construction finished in 1860. When the building opened as the Exchange Hotel it was, as the name would imply, a bustling hotel located next to a major railroad junction, but two years later its prime location forced it to become part of the Gordonsville Receiving Hospital, caring for wounded... Read More
Categories: Real Haunted Hotels & Lodging | Real Haunted Army Posts / Battle Grounds | Real Haunted Hospitals & Asylums | Real Haunted Museums
Lazy Susan Dinner Theatre Lorton, VA
As the name implies, Lazy Susan Dinner Theatre is a facility that puts on live shows while guests have a bite to eat. The actors aren’t the only ones putting on a show, however, as a local ghost has taken up residence in the building. The ghost has been known to manifest as lights gliding behind the stage, and also likes to rearrange chairs and place settings. Read More
Carter's Grove Plantation Williamsburg, VA
Established in 1755 for Carter Burwell, Carter’s Grove was a private residence for many years until the death of its last resident in 1964. It opened to the public for several decades before again being sold to a private owner. In the time that it was open, many visitors reported seeing strange occurrences. The apparition of a slave in ragged clothing is said to appear on the grounds;... Read More
Virginia Quilt Museum Harrisonburg, VA
The Virginia Quilt Museum first opened its doors in 1995, occupying the Warren-Sipe Home which was built in 1856. During the Civil War the house served as a makeshift hospital; one young Confederate soldier, Joseph Latimer, was brought here after the Battle of Gettysburg, but could not be saved. Latimer’s spirit can still be seen at the top of the staircase, clad in full uniform. Read More
The Lafayette Inn Stanardsville, VA
The Lafayette Inn has been hosting guests since it opened in 1840, providing lodging and a fine dining in near the Shenandoah Mountains. It is also said to be haunted by the ghost of a Confederate soldier who committed suicide after discovering that his wife had cheated on him with a Union soldier. His ghost is said to wander the halls at night, pistol in hand, searching for the man who... Read More
Gaffos House Portsmouth, VA
During the mid-19th century, this historic home was used as a makeshift hospital by a doctor who was combating an outbreak of yellow fever in the region. One of his patients, the young daughter of a widower sea captain, stayed in the house’s attic until she eventually succumbed to her disease. Having now lost his wife and his daughter the captain was devastated; though he faithfully... Read More
Shirley Plantation Virginia, VA
A great deal of history can be found at the Shirley Plantation, which is the oldest family-owned business in the United States. The first house built on its grounds dates back to 1613, which may make it the oldest standing home in the US. Another house, built in the mid 18th century, is said to house a haunted painting in its second floor bedroom. The painting is a portrait of Aunt... Read More
Central State Hospital Petersburg, VA
Originally named the Central Lunatic Hospital, Central State Hospital was founded in 1870 as a to treat “colored persons of unsound mind,” making it the first Virginian mental health facility to exclusively cater to the black population. Its name was changed in 1895, following the passing of a state law requiring facilities then known as asylums to instead be called hospitals. The... Read More
Mills House Hanover, VA
The old Mills House is believed to date back to 1790 when the main part of the building was originally constructed, and was long rumored to be haunted. Locals say that they have seen the apparition of a woman in an old-fashioned nightgown through the window, and those who have been inside have felt cold spots. Buster Mills was the last occupant of the home and said there were ghosts in... Read More
The Virginia Executive Mansion Richmond, VA
Also known as the Governor’s Mansion, this historic 1811 building is the oldest serving Executive Mansion in the United States, having been occupied by Virginia’s governors since 1813. Several renovations took place in the 20th century, and the building was furnished with antiques. Though it is still occupied by the Virginian executive and his family, tours are available several times a... Read More
Fort Monroe Hampton, VA
Construction on Fort Monroe finished in 1834, though some form of fortification had existed at the site since 1609 as its location was considered fundamental to the defense of the Chesapeake Bay, Hampton Roads, and more specifically the navigational channel that connected them. During the Civil War the fort was a critical Union stronghold, despite the fact that Virginia was a... Read More
Categories: Real Haunted Army Posts / Battle Grounds
Potts Mansion Toano, VA
Known locally as the Potts Mansion, this dilapidated house is said to be haunted by a woman in white. Trespassers have reported feeling uneasy inside and having electronic devices malfunction. The home is not open t the public and may be unsafe to enter. Read More
Mayhurst Inn Orange, VA
Mayhurst Inn occupies a large 1859 plantation house, allowing enough space for eight unique guest rooms and suites. The accommodations must be pleasant, as some guests seem to be staying from beyond the grave! Visitors have reported a general feeling of being watched, and windows have opened by themselves in the Madison Room. Read More
Wayside Inn Middletown, VA
Founded in 1797, Wayside Inn is said to be the oldest still-operating inn in the United States. Wayside features plenty of rooms for lodging, a tavern, a restaurant, and according to legend, a few ghosts as well! The Inn served as a hospital for both sides during the Civil War, and now apparitions of injured men in both blue and grey uniforms are regularly seen. Room 14 seems to be... Read More
Southern Virginia University Buena Vista, VA
Founded in 1867 as Bowling Green Female Seminary, the school has undergone several name changes in its time and has been a coeducational liberal arts school known as Southern Virginia University since 2000. One of the women’s dormitories is said to be haunted by the ghost of a young boy who rides around the fourth floor on his bicycle, holding a red balloon. His mother is said to haunt... Read More
Gadsby's Tavern Alexandria, VA
Gadsby’s Tavern consists of two buildings, an actual tavern that was built in 1785 and a hotel constructed in 1792. Many of America’s founding fathers visited the tavern, including James Madison, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, James Monroe, and George Washington. The hotel also housed two guests at the center of a small tragedy early in its lifespan. According to local legend, a man... Read More
Smithfield Station Smithfield, VA
Smithfield Station is a waterfront restaurant, hotel, and event site which seems to be popular with both the living and the dead. According to locals, the apparition of a man can often be seen sitting at the bar late at night, long past closing time. Some have suggested that he is the spirit of a person who long ago drowned in the river behind the building after leaving the bar. Read More
Thornrose House Staunton, VA
This 1912 Gregorian-style brick home is now a Bed and Breakfast conveniently located across from Gypsy Hill Park. The scenic location and home-cooked breakfast may be reason enough for most people to stay the B&B, but ghost hunters will find the home particularly interesting. One of the bedrooms, called “Caroline’s Room,” is said to host numerous apparitions. Read More
The Tavern Abingdon, VA
The Tavern Restaurant was established in 1994, but the building it occupies dates all the way back to 1779. Diners and staff alike agree that the place is haunted, reporting phantom footsteps and objects moving on their own. One of the ghosts who inhabit the restaurant has been nicknamed “The Tavern Tart;” she is believed to have been a prostitute who was murdered by a client and has... Read More
Old Post Chapel Arlington, VA
The Old Post Chapel at Arlington National Cemetery has been in use since the 1930s, and has been the center of haunted happenings for almost as long. Witnesses say they have heard unexplainable footsteps and voices, and seen locked doors open on their own. An apparition has been spotted in the bridal room, which was previously a private mourning room, and on one occasion a soldier... Read More
Wayside Theatre Middletown, VA
The Wayside Theatre in Middleton delighted audiences with live performances for over half a century, and is rumored to be haunted by the ghost of a former caretaker who allegedly died in a fire. His spirit primarily manifests on the back-porch costume storage, the balcony, and the basement; Seat CC1 was often found to be mysteriously lowered as well. Unfortunately declining sales and... Read More
Aquia Church Stafford, VA
Aquira Episcopal Church in Stafford was built in 1757 in the shape of a Greek cross. Locals have long said that the building is haunted by a woman who is said t have been murdered in the building’s belfry. Every so often her ghost can be seen peering out from the window. Read More
Adam Thoroughgood House Virginia Beach, VA
Adam Thoroughgood came to Virginia in 1621 as an indentured servant and, 15 years later, was granted a land parcel. The house which bears his name was once thought to have been built by him on that parcel, but recent archaeological examinations revealed it was most likely built by one of his grandsons around 1720. Nonetheless, the house still stands and, following a 1957 renovation, has... Read More
Stratford Hall Plantation Stratford, VA
Home of the Lees, including Robert E. Lee who was born here, Stratford Hall is a plantation with a main building that dates back to 1725. It was purchased by the Robert E. Lee Memorial Association in 1929 and, following tireless restoration efforts, opened to the public for visitation. The building is said to be haunted by the spirit of Elizabeth McCarthy Storke who, at the age of 14,... Read More
Virginia Military Institute Lexington, VA
Founded in 1839, VMI has the distinction of being the oldest state-supported military college in the US. At one point Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson was among the school’s professors; some of his possessions and the bones of his horse are displayed in the campus chapel. Among the many ghosts that are said to appear on campus is a strange blue light which drifts through the halls and... Read More
Categories: Real Haunted Army Posts / Battle Grounds | Real Haunted Colleges | Real Haunted Museums
Avenel House Bedford, VA
Built in 1838 for William Burwell and his wife, the Avenel House sits on the site of a former plantation. The Ghost of Avenel, a lady wearing a long, white dress and holding a parasol is said to haunt the grounds, often appearing outside of the mansion where she paces around the property. She is believed to have been a former resident. Additional apparitions have been reported as well,... Read More
By the Side of the Road Bed and Breakfast Harrisonburg, VA
By the Side of the Road’s main building has a long history, having been built a short time after the Revolutionary War and used as a makeshift hospital during the Civil War. When Union soldiers burned down much of the surrounding area in 1864 this brick building would not catch fire, prompting soldiers to commandeer it as a haven for the wounded. Visitors have noticed some ghostly... Read More
Boxwood Inn Newport News, VA
The Boxwood Bed and Breakfast is located inside a beautiful 1897 southern mansion for Simon Reid Curtis and Nannie Cooke Curtis. The property was purchased by Mr. and Mrs. Lucas in 1995, saving the building from potential demolition and leading to its full restoration. When Mrs. Lucas first began restoration work she broke a fingernail and exclaimed aloud that she needed an emery board.... Read More
Confederate Graveyard Lebanon, VA
This old cemetery in Lebanon holds the graves of many Confederate soldiers, and at least one of their spirits seems to still be lingering. This ghost manifests in the form of a floating fire which confronts visitors after dark. If you try to run away the blaze will give chase, screaming in a piercingly shrill voice. Read More
Natural Bridge Hotel Natural Bridge, VA
Natural Bridge is part of a 157 acre parcel of land purchased by Thomas Jefferson in 1774. Renowned for its beautiful scenery, it was not long before the bridge became a popular destination for Jefferson’s personal guests and tourists. Jefferson built a two-room cabin to be used as a personal retreat, and in 1833 a new owner built the Forest Inn to accommodate the rising demand for... Read More
Castle Hill Manor Charlottesville, VA
Castle Hill is a historic home located on the former site of a 600-acre plantation. It remains privately owned and is not open to the public, but visitors say they have seen the ghost of a woman appear in a particular room called the pink bedroom; she is often accompanied by the scent of perfume. Others have said that former owner Amelie Rives also haunts the old home, and that she is... Read More
Conyers House Country Inn & Stable Sperryville, VA
The Conyers House, which actually consists of two different buildings constructed around 1790 and 1810, is presently operated as a cozy seven-room inn. Before the current owners converted the home into inn it was owned and by a man named Sam Wright, who lived here from about 1944 to 1964 with his wife, Martha. It is said that Sam’s spirit never left the home and that he still haunts it... Read More
The Chamberlin Hampton, VA
The Chamberlin Hotel was built in 1927, replacing the nearby Hygeia hotel which was active in the 1800s before being torn down, rebuilt, and then destroyed by a fire in 1920. Today The Chamberlin is an active retirement community scenically located on the Chesapeake Bay, but rumor has it not all residents are still among the living. Rumor has it that the top floor is closed due to... Read More
Oatlands Plantation Leesburg, VA
Once a 3500-acre wheat and wool plantation, the Oatlands are now used to host various events throughout the year, including weddings, and are open to the public for visitation. The historic 1804 manor house has been repurposed as a museum and is rumored to be haunted. Witnesses have heard phantom footsteps, heard voices, smelled the scent of roses coming from the upper floor—where no... Read More
Tuckahoe Plantation Richmond, VA
Built in 1733 by Thomas Randolph and his son William, the Tuckahoe Plantation is presently open for tours and can be booked for private events. The plantation house is said to be haunted by the ghost of a woman who was forced to marry against her will. She died of a broken heart while living in the home, and her spirit can now be seen walking both the building and then plantation... Read More
Linden Plantation House Champlain, VA
In recent years the Linden Plantation House was used as a bed and breakfast, but the business has closed and the home is no longer open to the public. While the B&B was still in operation, visitors reported a variety of ghostly activity, including phantom footsteps on the third and fourth floors as well as orange-yellow lights moving through the hallways. Mysterious aromas were often... Read More
Sweet Briar College Sweet Briar, VA
Sweet Briar is a women’s liberal arts college founded in 1901 on land bequeathed by Indiana Fletcher Williams in her will. The school was scheduled to cease operations due to financial difficulties after the Summer 2015 session, but following legal action and a change in leadership it was decided that the school would remain open minimally through the end of the 2015-16 academic year.... Read More
Chatham Manor Fredericksburg, VA
Chatham Manor was founded in 1768 by William Fitzhugh as a plantation overlooking the Rappahannock River. In their time the grounds have been the site of a slave revolt, a Union headquarters during the Civil War, and a hospital for wounded soldiers. Today the plantation is part of Fredericksburg & Spotsylvania National Military Park and open to the public daily for daytime... Read More
Manassas National Battlefield Manassas, VA
Manassas National Battlefield was the site of two separate Civil War battles which took place roughly thirteen months apart from one another in the summers of 1861 and 1862. Troops clashed for three days in the second battled before Union soldiers gave way to a Confederate victory. The Battlefield Park also contains an unfinished railroad ordered by Robert E. Lee. Today the field is... Read More
Lyric Theatre Blacksburg, VA
The Lyric Theatre can trace its roots back to 1909, although it did not move into its current facility until 1930. Today the theater presents a variety of shows, including cinema, live theater, and music acts throughout the year. Visitors say that the building is haunted, reporting the sounds phantom footstep[s on the stairways, disembodied muttering, and cold spots. It is thought that... Read More
The Cavalier Hotel Virginia Beach, VA
Built in 1927 on scenic Virginia Beach, the Cavalier Hotel has hosted many famous socialites, businessmen, and artists including F. Scott Fitzgerald and Judy Garland. Adolph Coors of the Coors Brewery died while staying at the hotel in 1929, falling from the hotel’s 6th floor. Since then people have reported seeing an apparition and feeling cold spots on that same floor; some have even... Read More
Brentsville Courthouse Historic Centre Bristow, VA
Located on a 28 acre plot, the Brentsville Courthouse Historic Centre is home to a historic preservation society. The plot has five historic buildings on it, as well as several archaeological sites. Among them are the 1822 Courthouse, an 1850 Jail, the 1853 Haislip-Hall House, Union Church, and the 1928 one-room Schoolhouse. Several of the buildings are said to be haunted, including the... Read More
Orell House Williamsburg, VA
Little is known about the Orrell House’s early history as those records were destroyed during the Civil War, but it is known to have been the home of John Orrell from about 1800 to 1820. Today the historic building is used as a quaint inn in the heart of Williamsburg; it is also said to be haunted. The faucet in one of the bathrooms has reportedly turned itself on numerous times, and... Read More
Woodlawn Alexandria, VA
Originally part of George Washington’s Mount Vernon estate, Woodlawn was bequeathed to his nephew, Lawrence Lewis, and Lewis’ new bride, Eleanor Parke Custis (Martha Washington’s granddaughter), as a wedding present in 1799. The gift included 2,000 acres of land and the commission of a house which took five years to build. The home is now a museum, and is rumored to be haunted by some... Read More
Weems Botts Museum Dumfries, VA
The Weems-Botts House is part of the Historic Dumfries collection of museums and historic places. It is open for tours several days a week, though patrons may find more than historic artifacts and trinkets when they walk in! Visitors say that the old house is haunted, reporting books that fly off the shelves and a bedroom closet door that opens itself up every day. The house... Read More
Mary Baldwin College Staunton, VA
Mary Baldwin College is a liberal arts school for women in Staunton which was founded in 1842 as the Augusta Female Seminary. Several spots on campus are believed to be haunted, including the Collins Theatre which is said to still be inhabited by actress Tallulah Bankhead, who attended the college in the early 20th century. Tallulah has a habit of playing with the lights and moving... Read More
Julep’s Richmond, VA
Julep’s is a trendy Richmond restaurant specializing in Southern cuisine and pulling from influences in Atlanta, Charleston, New Orleans, and Savannah. The building was not always an eatery, however; back in 1826 it was a weapons shop owned by James McNaught. One day an apprentice gunsmith named Daniel Denoon got into a spat with McNaught and was shot dead on the premises. Denoon’s... Read More
Fall Hill Mansion Fredericksburg, VA
The Fall Hill Mansion sits in the middle of a former plantation and 8,000 acre parcel of land obtained by Francis Thornton in 1720. It is believed to have been built by Francis Thornton V when he married Sally Innes in 1790. Rumor has it that the building is haunted by Katina, a Sioux princess who acted as a nanny for the Thornton family and is rumored to be buried on the premises.... Read More
Abram's Delight Winchester, VA
Abram’s Delight and the land on which it sits were the home of five generations of the Hollingsworth family. The current building was first constructed Isaac Hollingsworth in 1753, and additions were made in 1800 to accommodate his heir’s large family. The house and 35 acres of surrounding property were eventually purchased by the city of Winchester in 1943, thus preserving the oldest... Read More
Rosewell Plantation Gloucester, VA
Built in 1725 with a substantial brick frame, the Rosewell Plantation House is said to be a hotbed for ghostly sightings. A mysterious lady is said to walk the front steps every night, and the spirits of slaves alleged to have been buried in the cellar walls are also rumored to appear. In 1916 a fire burned down most of the building, leaving behind only brick ruins which are now open... Read More
Parker's Battery Chesterfield, VA
Part of the Confederate defense known as the Howlett Line, Parker’s Battery was the site of many skirmishes during the Civil War. It did not leave Confederate possession until the fall of Petersburg and some say that the spirits of southern soldiers remain there to this day. Witnesses have seen apparitions which they describe as soldiers in their bunkers looking either unhappy or... Read More
Ambler Mansion Ruins Jamestown, VA
First built around 1750, the Ambler House was once the home of Lydia Ambler. Lydia married her husband, Alexander, in August of 1776, but soon afterwards he went off to fight in the American Revolution. Though she waited patiently for his return, months went by without a single letter from Alexander ever being sent. In his absence, the mansion burned down in 1781, though it was quickly... Read More
Lanier House Danville, VA
This circa 1830 house is the oldest documented residence in Danville still standing, and was originally used as a home for the city’s first mayor, Captain James Lanier. It is currently being used as a law office and was previously the site of Danville’s first pediatrician’s practice. Visitors to the old building have reported seeing apparitions, hearing mysterious footsteps, and hearing... Read More
Lamb's Creek Church Sealston, VA
Built in 1769, Lamb’s Creek Church is still an active Episcopal Church and was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1972. It is one of three buildings that collectively form the Hanover-with-Brunswick Parish of the Episcopal Diocese of Virginia. The church is rumored to be haunted a ghostly white lady who first appeared kneeling at the chapel rail before two Confederate... Read More
Waverly House Richmond, VA
Visitors and past residents of this home have reported seeing the apparition of a sad, elderly man on the staircase. The spirit is believed to be that of Benjamin Green, a bank clerk who had his reputation shattered when the bank falsely accused him of pilfering money from it. The house remains a private residence and is not open for public visitation. Read More
Kenmore Plantation Fredericksburg, VA
Built in the 1770s, this historic home is the only surviving building of the Kenmore Plantation. It was owned by the family of Betty Washington Lewis, George Washington’s younger sister. Rumor has it that Betty’s husband, Colonel Fielding Lewis, has haunted the house since his death in the 1780s. Lewis, who is said to have spent many hours in the upstairs bedroom worrying about money,... Read More
The Patrick Henry Hotel Roanoke, VA
Built in 1925 as The Patrick Henry Hotel, this haunted location is now a mixed-use building which contains retail stores, a restaurant, apartments, and office spaces. The ballroom is said to contain three ghosts who keep a watchful eye on the area. There is another apparition who sits at a table on the second floor, smoking a pipe and kicking the tablecloth with his foot. An elderly... Read More
The Loft Gallery Occoquan, VA
Established in 1986, the Loft Gallery is comprised of 20 artists and presents a wide variety of artistic styles and media. Visitors have reported experiencing paranormal activities in the gallery, mysterious footsteps, creaking floors, and doors closing on their own. One incident which took place in the 1990s involved a painting flying clear off the wall on which it hung. In October... Read More
Winton Country Club Amherst, VA
The Winton Country Club, established in 1967, is built around the historic 1770 home of Patrick Henry’s mother, Sarah Winston Syme Henry, who lived in the house and was buried in its graveyard after her passing in 1784. Visitors have reported seeing Sarah’s ghost in the house, and others have heard her footsteps and the rustling of her petticoats. Read More
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Barstow man, girlfriend, escape Las Vegas shooting: 'It was fight for your life, you know?'
Shea Johnson Staff Writer @DP_Shea
Oct 2, 2017 at 2:21 PM Oct 2, 2017 at 4:21 PM
LAS VEGAS — A 25-year-old Barstow man and his girlfriend were in the front row, enjoying the outdoor performance by country music superstar Jason Aldean, when the shots rang out.
"At first, we thought it was a Taser. It was pretty far away," Justin Bowles said by phone. "I just thought someone was being a jackass in the crowd, but it wasn't until people started dropping, hitting the floor — seeing blood on this guy, and this guy next to me — 'Oh, crap, this is real.'"
The mass shooting Sunday night at the Route 91 Harvest Festival, across from the Mandalay Bay Hotel, prompted initial confusion before sparking a chaotic scene as thousands of attendees sought refuge from a hail of rapid gunfire.
Only two of several High Desert residents who it's since been learned were at the show, Bowles and his 30-year-old girlfriend, Olga Ramirez, also from Barstow, made a split-second decision he credited for saving their lives.
"We can't stay here because bullets continued to fire," he said. "It was fight for your life, you know?"
The two flung themselves over a roughly 5-foot barricade next to the stage, where she was struck by a bullet to her lower back. But neither would know it for some time until the adrenaline faded; she was ultimately treated at a local hospital and was doing well Monday.
On knees and elbows, they crawled under the stage to hide and used a generator as a shield. They continued to hear bullets ricochet against the barricade and generator.
"There was a brief second, the bullets stopped," Bowles said "He's reloading, so I said, 'Let's go.'"
The couple, who attended all three days of the festival beginning Friday, eventually made their way out through a back exit to a dirt parking lot.
It was then when Ramirez said she felt wet, as if someone had spilled a drink on her. It was blood. Fearful that continued fast-paced movement could worsen her condition, the couple flagged down a truck, which stopped, but almost immediately afterward they spotted an ambulance.
Ramirez was taken to the hospital, where she remained Monday. Her parents traveled to Las Vegas to be with the couple.
Bowles, a government contract employee in Yermo, said that despite the frenzy spurred by the attack, he remembered, too, the human response visible in the dirt parking lot.
"There's people everywhere," he said. "Everybody helping everybody."
He added that he hoped the attack would serve to unify.
"(The concert) represented everything good and honorable that America stands for. It's like, what a better place to hit, you know?" he said. "Things like this, it brings us together even more. It makes you want to love one and another."
On the Desert Dispatch Facebook page, others described being at the show themselves, or knowing of others who were there, and everyone who was discussed in the post was apparently safe.
Melissa Miller wrote that she and her friend, Kelly, left the concert about 30 minutes prior to the gunfire because she wasn't feeling well. Her brother and sister-in-law, however, stayed behind.
"They escaped but it was horrific," she wrote.
Shea Johnson can be reached at 760-955-5368 or SJohnson@VVDailyPress.com. Follow him on Twitter at @DP_Shea.
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Congressman Asks Justice Department to Block Live Nation/Ticketmaster Merger
Author: Eliot Van BuskirkEliot Van Buskirk
The proposed merger between live music titans Live Nation and Ticketmaster is a horrible idea, according to Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-New Jersey, pictured), because it would give the combined company an unfair competitive advantage in the music marketplace while driving ticket prices even higher than they already are.
"This merger violates both horizontal and vertical anti-trust principles, and will undoubtedly lead to higher ticket prices for the average fan," wrote Pascrell. "Under the proposed merger, the combined company would have control over nearly every aspect of the live music business: artist management, record sales, promotion, licensing, venue control, parking, ticket sales and resales, all the way down to the hot dogs and beer."
That's exactly the idea, according to Live Nation and Ticketmaster, who say the proposed merger will allow them to grow the live music pie by marketing additional offerings to concertgoers (for example, if you attended a Fleetwood Mac show, you might want an upcoming Stevie Nicks album, or a Lindsay Buckingham T-shirt).
Together, these companies say they'll be able to fill more seats. But according to Pascrell, the merger is all about filling their pockets at the expense of music fans – some of whom already shell out well over $100 to attend top-flight tours.
Whereas the previous administration may have approved such a merger, Obama's antitrust head, Christine A. Varney, is a tougher customer, especially when it comes to vertical mergers that fuse companies from different parts of the same market (as opposed to horizontal mergers, which join like companies). Live Nation and Ticketmaster each own venues and a ticketing service, so this merger would be both vertical and horizontal.
According to Marc Schildkraut, a former assistant director at the Federal Trade Commission and current partner at Howrey, LLP, Varney "was very interested in cases where she thought vertical mergers could have an anti-competitive effect" when she worked at the FTC during the '90s.
Live Nation and Ticketmaster already had their work cut out for them, even before this latest objection from Pascrell.
"Under the Bush Administration, the Justice Department’s enforcement of our country’s antitrust laws was almost nonexistent. The Antitrust Divison brought zero cases against dominant firms for violating our country’s anti-monopoly law, to the detriment of consumers and small businesses everywhere," continued Pascrell. "Thankfully, the Obama Administration has announced that they plan to reverse this policy and once again vigorously enforce our country's antitrust laws."
Live Nation and Ticketmaster, which claim the merger will benefit consumers by connecting them with their favorite artists on a variety of fronts, are unlikely to down without a fight. Pascrell says the two companies have assembled "a strong team of expensive lobbyists" to get the merger approved by the Justice Department, which confirmed that it is investigating the matter in February after Ticketmaster faced heavy scrutiny for directing Bruce Springsteen fans to its own secondary (scalping) ticket market.
"Live Nation Entertainment," as the combined company would be called, is problematic in three ways, according to Pascrell. First, it would horizontally create a single ticketing agency that would be "over five times more powerful than their next eight rivals combined" – many of whom rely on Ticketmaster software to sell tickets. Second, it would prevent Live Nation from running its own separate ticketing agency, which some had hoped would bring competition to the music ticketing market. Finally, it would represent the vertical creation of a company with control over most areas of the music business (ticketing, music sales, promotion, venue ownership, secondary ticketing, merchandising and parking). In order for a new company to enter the market, it would also have to control all of those elements, according to Pascrell, which represents an unfair advantage to Live Nation Entertainment.
Meanwhile, he says, neither company has offered a compelling argument in favor of the merger.
Here's the text of Pascrell's letter to his fellow US Representatives (via Knowledge Ecology Notes):
Please join me in sending the attached letter to the Department of Justice opposing the merger between Ticketmaster Entertainment, Inc. and Live Nation, Inc.
In February, Ticketmaster Entertainment, the industry’s number one ticket seller and its largest provider of talent management services and Live Nation, the industry’s largest promoter of live entertainment events and its second largest ticket seller, announced plans to merge. I have grave concerns that this merger will have far reaching negative consequences for artists, fans, promoters, and the music industry as a whole. This merger violates both horizontal and vertical anti-trust principles, and will undoubtedly lead to higher ticket prices for the average fan.
Under the proposed merger, the combined company would have control over nearly every aspect of the live music business: artist management, record sales, promotion, licensing, venue control, parking, ticket sales and resales, all the way down to the hot dogs and beer. According to James Hurwitz of the American Antitrust Institute:
“If the combination is permitted, [the merged company] will have a powerful or dominant position in virtually all of the industry’s markets. Viewed in combination, the merger will give Live Nation Entertainment unarguable control of most competition within the industry.”
Under the Bush Administration, the Justice Department’s enforcement of our country’s antitrust laws was almost nonexistent. The Antitrust Davison brought zero cases against dominant firms for violating our country’s antimonopoly law, to the detriment of consumers and small businesses everywhere. Thankfully, the Obama Administration has announced that they plan to reverse this policy and once again vigorously enforce our country’s antitrust laws. This case represents a high profile opportunity to prove that they mean business, and that our country will put a healthy marketplace and consumer welfare ahead of corporate and entrenched business interests.
Live Nation and Ticketmaster have assembled a strong team of expensive lobbyists, law firms and publicists to push for their goal of merger. It is the job of those of us in the Congress to represent the people and fight for what is in their best interest. We must ensure that the concert industry returns to a business model that puts the fans, artists and music first. Urging the Justice Department to reject this merger will be a significant first step in that direction. Please contact me for more information or to sign the letter.
Bill Pascrell, Jr.
Member of Congress.
And here's the attached letter, which he wants House members to send to Christine A. Varney, head of the Department of Justice's antitrust division:
July XX, 2009
The Honorable Christine A. Varney
Assistant Attorney General for Antitrust
United States Department of Justice
Dear Assistant Attorney General Varney:
As Members of Congress, we wish to express our concern regarding the proposed merger between Ticketmaster Entertainment, Inc., and Live Nation, Inc. We urge the Justice Department to analyze this proposed transaction closely and with great skepticism. Such scrutiny is critical to ensure that consumers are not harmed by the creation, entrenchment, extension, or undue exploitation of market power in an industry that affects every state, and virtually every congressional district, in the country.
Ticketmaster Entertainment is the industry’s overwhelmingly dominant ticket seller, its largest provider of talent management services, and its second largest reseller of tickets. Live Nation is the industry’s largest promoter of live entertainment events, the second largest ticket seller, and the second largest owner/manager of entertainment venues. The transaction therefore would create an entity, Live Nation Entertainment, which would enjoy a virtual stranglehold over the live entertainment industry. Together, the two parties sold more than 100 million tickets domestically in 2008, and there are few artists, promoters, venue owners, or concertgoers that would not feel the impact of this merger. In our view, the merger should be prohibited.
From an antitrust perspective, the proposed merger is problematic in three ways. First, the merger would reduce horizontal competition by combining the two leading firms in the market for primary ticket sales. According to the May 30, 2009 rankings by TicketNews.com, the transacting parties, if merged, would be over five times more powerful than their next eight rivals combined. Additionally, some of these rivals are operated by Ticketmaster or rely on software provided a Ticketmaster subsidiary, Paciolan. Tellingly, the parties announced this merger less than three months after Live Nation entered the ticket sales market, suggesting they would prefer to combine rather than compete. This is the essence of anticompetitive behavior.
The transaction would also exacerbate the already significant barriers to entering the ticket sales market. Today, Ticketmaster enjoys long-term, exclusive contracts with most of its clients, typically the venues where the events occur. Permitting Ticketmaster to merge with its most significant competitor effectively abandons any hope for the development of competition in the foreseeable future, and it would subject consumers to any exploitation, including higher ticket prices and fees, that the newly merged firm might wish to make of its monopoly power.
Second, the proposed merger would eliminate the possibility for one of the parties to enter the industry markets in which they don’t presently compete. Fear of entry is often sufficient to curb the exploitation of existing market power. Both are large enough to enter related markets and have a clear history of doing so. For example, Live Nation recently entered the primary sales market on its own. Entry is healthy as it often leads to market deconcentration and heightened rivalry. Although the parties’ future expansion plans are uncertain if the transaction is prohibited, it is certain that the merger, if permitted, will preclude each party from expanding into the industry markets where it currently does not compete.
Third, the proposed merger would create a vertically integrated entity whose power would extend across five of the industry’s six main markets. An entrant or competitor in any of these markets would face the merged firm not only as a market rival, but also as a power in other critically related markets. A new promoter, for example, needs artists willing to perform and venues appropriate for staging the event. A new venue needs artists and promoters willing to book the facility. The vertically integrated firm can withhold these critical inputs, and its rival will suffer. To avoid such problems, an entrant would need to enter the industry on several levels at once, a burden that makes entry far more daunting and costly. The combined entity could therefore use its five-market vertical integration to restrain trade both by chilling entry and disciplining rivals.
We see little to commend this transaction. Ticketmaster Entertainment and Live Nation have offered no plausible efficiency justifications for the merger. To justify an anticompetitive merger such as this one, efficiency benefits must, according to DoJ/FTC Horizontal Merger Guidelines: arise specifically from the merger and not be attainable in other reasonable ways, be verifiable rather than merely speculative, and outweigh the transaction’s competitive injury in every adversely-affected market. Ticketmaster Entertainment and Live Nation can achieve all the benefits they claim without the merger. Regardless, these benefits promise only speculative advantages, at best, and are almost surely insufficient to outweigh the merger’s competitive harm in the ticketing and other industry markets.
Restructuring will not cure this transaction’s competitive flaws. Live Nation could sell its primary ticketing business, but this enterprise is far less likely to be viable in other hands. The merged company could also be prohibited from using its vertical integration to discriminate against entrants or rivals in the marketplace. However, such strictures will be hard to enforce, as the prohibited conduct can easily be accomplished from within corporate walls or through veiled, well-placed hints.
Consumers, business managers, artists, independent promoters, and music fans in every state are likely to suffer if the merger is allowed to occur. We urge you to give this transaction the closest possible scrutiny and provide citizens the antitrust protection they deserve.
cc: The Honorable Eric H. Holder Jr., Attorney General of the United States
Live Nation, Ticketmaster Merger Risks Antitrust Scrutiny
Justice Department to Probe Live Nation/Ticketmaster Merger
Live Nation Poaches SMG Venues from Ticketmaster
Ticketmaster/Live Nation Merger Could Raise Ticket Prices
TicketMaster and Live Nation Face the Music in Congress
*Top photo courtesy of Rep. Bill Pascrell; Bottom photo by *Rick
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Guy Reels In Massive Bag Of Guns While Magnet Fishing
By : Charlie Cocksedge On : 03 Sep 2018 00:12
SWNS
Ah, the hidden treasures lying at the bottom of mysterious rivers, lakes and oceans – a wonderful, endless pandora’s box of toilet seats, old boots, needles and car tyres.
And guns! Loads and loads of dangerous guns!
Amazingly, this isn’t America – where guns are far easier to come across and needn’t be hidden submerged in a canal – this is Salford, north west England.
A family who went magnet fishing pulled up a huge bag of guns near the river Irwell, which was wrapped in a yellow, hi-vis jacket and weighted down with bricks.
Magnet fishing (which isn’t really fishing is it? Unless fish have metallic properties that I don’t know about… it’s more like metal detecting but in water) is a mixture of environmentalism and treasure hunting. Participants use incredibly strong magnets to pull up objects from the beds of rivers or canals.
Douglas Simcock, who’s been fishing for two months now, was out with his wife and two children when they came across the haul.
The family, from Stoke-on-Trent, stumbled across a pump action shotgun, two handguns and ammunition in the bag, using a two-sides magnet capable of lifting 300kg.
The family handed the guns into the police straight away.
Sarah, who’d not been fishing with her husband before, was stunned at the discovery.
She said:
We left from the Alexandra park lake which is in the middle of Manchester itself. We went further down and we found the canal [where] we discovered the gun underneath a big bridge.
My husband Douglas and my two children, they tend to go every weekend and have been doing it roughly now for about two months.
It was my first time on that weekend and we came across the guns – crazy really. Douglas has never found anything before like this but he has fished out a few items.
About the guns themselves, Sarah said:
One of the guns was an all black pump action shotgun and still had a shell casing inside it. Another one, which we are not sure on the make, but was an all metal and black handgun type.
The final one was another handgun but […] it could’ve been a revolver.
There was three guns, ammunition and shotgun casing – it was wrapped up in a yellow hi-vis jacket with two big bricks inside the bag.
It’s fair to say the find was far from the usual items Douglas normally pulls up, which mainly consist of bikes, shopping trolleys and watering cans, according to Sarah.
It took Douglas ten minutes to drag the bag of guns out of the water, and after realising what they were, the family took them straight to the police.
Like metal detecting, many people who go magnet fishing do so hoping to find rare and valuable items. Guns, on the other hand, are not an uncommon find, but anyone who does find one is urged to contact the police immediately.
If you have a story you want to tell send it to UNILAD via [email protected]
Charlie Cocksedge
Charlie Cocksedge is a journalist at UNILAD. He graduated from the University of Manchester with an MA in Creative Writing, where he learnt how to write in the third person, before getting his NCTJ. His work has also appeared in such places as The Guardian, PN Review and the bin.
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Patten, ME (View All Cities)
Patten, ME
Mount Chase
ZIP code 04765 is located in northern Maine and covers an extremely large land area compared to other ZIP codes in the United States. It also has a slightly less than average population density.
The people living in ZIP code 04765 are primarily white. The number of middle aged adults is extremely large while the number of seniors is extremely large. There are also a small number of single parents and a large number of single adults. The percentage of children under 18 living in the 04765 ZIP code is small compared to other areas of the country.
2 people per sq mi
571.62 sq mi
Male 33 31 33 38 27 26 27 29 38 58 52 51 57 49 32 24 21 11
Female 24 37 30 27 20 24 23 35 50 51 47 52 62 34 38 32 11 28
Total 57 68 63 65 47 50 50 64 88 109 99 103 119 83 70 56 32 39
Under 5 33 24 57
5-9 31 37 68
Owner 3 29 55 101 110 84 44 12
Renter 10 16 19 18 21 18 21 5
Total 13 45 74 119 131 102 65 17
85 Plus 12 5 17
Male 6 5 10 7 4 2 9 7 9 7 6 8 7 5 7 10 11 6 4 4
Female 3 2 8 5 11 8 4 10 4 12 5 5 4 4 5 5 12 3 2 2
Total 9 7 18 12 15 10 13 17 13 19 11 13 11 9 12 15 23 9 6 6
ZIP code 04765 has an extremely large percentage of vacancies. The Census also indicates that there are one or more nursing homes nearby.
The majority of household are vacant. Homes in ZIP code 04765 were primarily built in 1939 or earlier or the 1970s. Looking at 04765 real estate data, the median home value of $103,300 is slightly less than average compared to the rest of the country. It is also slightly higher than average compared to nearby ZIP codes. So you are less likely to find inexpensive homes in 04765. Rentals in 04765 are most commonly studio apartments. The rent for studio apartments is normally $500-$749/month including utilities. Prices for rental property include ZIP code 04765 apartments, townhouses, and homes that are primary residences.
The median household income of $37,313 is compared to the rest of the country. It is also compared to nearby ZIP codes. While money isn't everything, ZIP code 04765 may not be as nice as other parts of town.
As with most parts of the country, vehicles are the most common form of transportation to places of employment. If you are a person that likes walking or biking to work, it will be a comfort for you to know that 04765 has a well above average number of people who do not use a vehicle to commute. In most parts of the country, the majority of commuters get to work in under half an hour. A slightly higher than average number of commuters in 04765 can expect to fall in that range. Having to travel to work for over 45 minutes isn't uncommon for people who live here.
The population has a much higher percentage of people with low education levels (less than high school) than normal. Despite the lower high school graduation rates, compared to other ZIPs, a much higher percentage of the population has received a college degree.
Medway, ME
Millinocket, ME
Ashland, ME
Island Falls, ME
Oxbow, ME
Sherman, ME
Stacyville, ME
Smyrna Mills, ME
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Bairdford, PA (View All Cities)
40.633, -79.878
ZIP (~400 yard radius)
Bairdford, PA
ZIP code 15006 is located in southwest Pennsylvania and covers a slightly less than average land area compared to other ZIP codes in the United States. It also has a slightly less than average population density.
The people living in ZIP code 15006 are primarily white. The number of middle aged adults is extremely large while the number of people in their late 20s to early 40s is large. There are also a small number of families and a large number of single parents. The percentage of children under 18 living in the 15006 ZIP code is slightly less than average compared to other areas of the country.
975 people per sq mi
Male 3 10 9 7 3 6 4 7 11 10 12 9 6 4 5 2 4 4
Female 3 8 10 8 6 6 8 7 9 17 11 6 6 5 4 5 2 3
Total 6 18 19 15 9 12 12 14 20 27 23 15 12 9 9 7 6 7
5-9 10 8 18
15-19 7 8 15
Owner 0 6 14 27 12 13 10 6
Total 2 13 19 29 14 13 11 7
Male 1 1 0 1 4 1 2 1 2 5 0 3 0 1 0 2 2 2 1 1
Total 1 1 1 2 7 2 4 2 3 5 2 7 4 1 3 3 3 3 3 3
The majority of household are owned or have a mortgage. Homes in ZIP code 15006 were primarily built in 1939 or earlier. Looking at 15006 real estate data, the median home value of $71,300 is low compared to the rest of the country. Rentals in 15006 are most commonly 3+ bedrooms. The rent for 3+ bedrooms is normally $500-$749/month including utilities. Prices for rental property include ZIP code 15006 apartments, townhouses, and homes that are primary residences.
240 100%
72 100%
The median household income of $50,114 is compared to the rest of the country.
As with most parts of the country, vehicles are the most common form of transportation to places of employment. Pedestrians and cyclists beware. The area has some of lowest percentages of commutes without a vehicle in the country. Compared to other ZIP codes in the country, 15006 has very few people that work at home. In most parts of the country, the majority of commuters get to work in under half an hour. In 15006 though, the percentage of people that make it to work in under half an hour is among the lowest. The area has an extremely high percentage of people that most travel over 45 minutes to their place of employment. People that commute should be aware of the potentially long commute times.
For more information, see Bairdford, PA transportation.
The percentage of people that did not graduate high school is among the highest in the nation. Despite the lower high school graduation rates, the area has some of the highest percentages of people who attended college of any ZIP.
Gibsonia, PA
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Keywords: assisted rep... (37 Results)
Keywords: assisted reproduction x
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Having Children: The Anti‐Natal View
David Benatar
in Better Never to Have Been: The Harm of Coming into Existence
Philosophy, Moral Philosophy
This chapter argues that it is always wrong to have children. To this end, it discusses the purported right to reproductive freedom. It is argued that this is best understood as a legal rather than a ... More
This chapter argues that it is always wrong to have children. To this end, it discusses the purported right to reproductive freedom. It is argued that this is best understood as a legal rather than a moral right. The possible foundations for such a right are examined. It is argued that such a right should be limited, even when it is understood as a legal right. The chapter evaluates the views of the disability rights movement towards reproductive decisions. The possibility of wrongful life suits is defended. Finally, the relevance of the anti-natal view for artificial and assisted reproduction is discussed.Less
This chapter argues that it is always wrong to have children. To this end, it discusses the purported right to reproductive freedom. It is argued that this is best understood as a legal rather than a moral right. The possible foundations for such a right are examined. It is argued that such a right should be limited, even when it is understood as a legal right. The chapter evaluates the views of the disability rights movement towards reproductive decisions. The possibility of wrongful life suits is defended. Finally, the relevance of the anti-natal view for artificial and assisted reproduction is discussed.
Keywords: rights, reproductive freedom, disability, wrongful life, assisted reproduction, artificial reproduction
The Beginning of Life
Abdulaziz Sachedina
in Islamic Biomedical Ethics Principles and Application
Religion, Islam
The chapter deals with the beginning of life by probing in greater detail the ethics of sexual and asexual procreation in the light of certain reproductive technologies that transgress the boundaries ... More
The chapter deals with the beginning of life by probing in greater detail the ethics of sexual and asexual procreation in the light of certain reproductive technologies that transgress the boundaries of normal sexual reproduction. Today scientists speak about the possibility of noncoital production of human embryos through somatic-cell nuclear transfer (SCNT or the “Dolly technique”) or using the cells from in vitro human embryos that have lost their capacity to form a new individual. The advent of new reproductive technologies made possible what is impossible in nature. These new technologies also challenge respect for life and human dignity in radical ways, raising difficult ethical issues for all societies. Some of these ethical concerns form the core of this chapter and are conveyed in the questions like, “What is the moral status of the embryo?” and “What kind of respect for its life does that require from society?”Less
The chapter deals with the beginning of life by probing in greater detail the ethics of sexual and asexual procreation in the light of certain reproductive technologies that transgress the boundaries of normal sexual reproduction. Today scientists speak about the possibility of noncoital production of human embryos through somatic-cell nuclear transfer (SCNT or the “Dolly technique”) or using the cells from in vitro human embryos that have lost their capacity to form a new individual. The advent of new reproductive technologies made possible what is impossible in nature. These new technologies also challenge respect for life and human dignity in radical ways, raising difficult ethical issues for all societies. Some of these ethical concerns form the core of this chapter and are conveyed in the questions like, “What is the moral status of the embryo?” and “What kind of respect for its life does that require from society?”
Keywords: natural creation, assisted reproduction, embryonic inviolability, infertility, surrogate motherhood, adoption, eugenics
The New Arab Man: Emergent Masculinities, Technologies, and Islam in the Middle East
Marcia C. Inhorn
Anthropology, Social and Cultural Anthropology
Middle Eastern Muslim men have been widely vilified as terrorists, religious zealots, and brutal oppressors of women. This book challenges these stereotypes with the stories of ordinary Middle ... More
Middle Eastern Muslim men have been widely vilified as terrorists, religious zealots, and brutal oppressors of women. This book challenges these stereotypes with the stories of ordinary Middle Eastern men as they struggle to overcome infertility and childlessness through assisted reproduction. Drawing on two decades of ethnographic research across the Middle East with hundreds of men from a variety of social and religious backgrounds, the book shows how the new Arab man is self-consciously rethinking the patriarchal masculinity of his forefathers and unseating received wisdoms. This is especially true in childless Middle Eastern marriages where, contrary to popular belief, infertility is more common among men than women. The book captures the marital, moral, and material commitments of couples undergoing assisted reproduction, revealing how new technologies are transforming their lives and religious sensibilities. And it looks at the changing manhood of husbands who undertake transnational “egg quests”—set against the backdrop of war and economic uncertainty—out of devotion to the infertile wives they love. Trenchant and emotionally gripping, the book traces the emergence of new masculinities in the Middle East in the era of biotechnology.Less
The New Arab Man : Emergent Masculinities, Technologies, and Islam in the Middle East
Middle Eastern Muslim men have been widely vilified as terrorists, religious zealots, and brutal oppressors of women. This book challenges these stereotypes with the stories of ordinary Middle Eastern men as they struggle to overcome infertility and childlessness through assisted reproduction. Drawing on two decades of ethnographic research across the Middle East with hundreds of men from a variety of social and religious backgrounds, the book shows how the new Arab man is self-consciously rethinking the patriarchal masculinity of his forefathers and unseating received wisdoms. This is especially true in childless Middle Eastern marriages where, contrary to popular belief, infertility is more common among men than women. The book captures the marital, moral, and material commitments of couples undergoing assisted reproduction, revealing how new technologies are transforming their lives and religious sensibilities. And it looks at the changing manhood of husbands who undertake transnational “egg quests”—set against the backdrop of war and economic uncertainty—out of devotion to the infertile wives they love. Trenchant and emotionally gripping, the book traces the emergence of new masculinities in the Middle East in the era of biotechnology.
Keywords: Muslim men, Middle Eastern men, Arab men, patriarchal masculinity, infertility, assisted reproduction, manhood
Bonnie Steinbock
in Life Before Birth: The Moral and Legal Status of Embryos and Fetuses
Philosophy, Moral Philosophy, Philosophy of Science
The chapter explores the ethical challenges of assisted reproduction. It begins with the science and the potential for health risks. The chapter goes on to present the “procreative liberty” approach ... More
The chapter explores the ethical challenges of assisted reproduction. It begins with the science and the potential for health risks. The chapter goes on to present the “procreative liberty” approach John Robertson offered for resolving ethical conflicts. The chapter demonstrates why Robertson’s critics are wrong to think that he ignores the interests of offspring in favor of the interests of procreators. However, the chapter offers a variation that it call “procreative responsibility,” which has a better understanding of the nonidentity problem than Robertson and puts a greater emphasis on the core values in reproduction. The chapter turns to some cases where limits on procreative choice might be considered appropriate: postmenopausal women and multiple births, in particular, the case of Nadya Suleman, the woman known in the media as “Octomom.” The chapter then discusses the problems that arise when couples disagree about what to do with their frozen embryos. Both aspects of procreative liberty—the right to reproduce and the right to avoid reproduction—are equally fundamental. The crucial point from the perspective of the interest view is that the relevant interests are not those of the frozen embryos, but those of the disputing parties. It ends with a discussion of payment for gametes and the question of commodification.Less
The chapter explores the ethical challenges of assisted reproduction. It begins with the science and the potential for health risks. The chapter goes on to present the “procreative liberty” approach John Robertson offered for resolving ethical conflicts. The chapter demonstrates why Robertson’s critics are wrong to think that he ignores the interests of offspring in favor of the interests of procreators. However, the chapter offers a variation that it call “procreative responsibility,” which has a better understanding of the nonidentity problem than Robertson and puts a greater emphasis on the core values in reproduction. The chapter turns to some cases where limits on procreative choice might be considered appropriate: postmenopausal women and multiple births, in particular, the case of Nadya Suleman, the woman known in the media as “Octomom.” The chapter then discusses the problems that arise when couples disagree about what to do with their frozen embryos. Both aspects of procreative liberty—the right to reproduce and the right to avoid reproduction—are equally fundamental. The crucial point from the perspective of the interest view is that the relevant interests are not those of the frozen embryos, but those of the disputing parties. It ends with a discussion of payment for gametes and the question of commodification.
Keywords: assisted reproduction, procreative liberty, disposition of frozen embryos, multiple births, Octomom, payment for gametes, commodification
The proportionality problem in cross-border reproductive care
Richard F. Storrow
in The Globalization of Health Care: Legal and Ethical Issues
Law, Medical Law
This chapter analyzes the restrictive reproductive laws in some parts of Europe driving travel to other countries to access services. The law and cross-border reproductive care (CBRC) affect each ... More
This chapter analyzes the restrictive reproductive laws in some parts of Europe driving travel to other countries to access services. The law and cross-border reproductive care (CBRC) affect each other in different ways. The primary effect of CBRC on the law is in the area of international commercial surrogacy. The margin of appreciation and the standard of proportionality are the primary judicial tools employed by the European Court of Human Rights. Five cases of Court decision in the area of assisted reproduction are reported. These cases provide several insights into how the Court will respond in the future to matters arising from the use of assisted reproduction. Recent directives of the European Court of Human Rights do not clearly show that restrictive reproductive laws may be unenforceable due to their lack of proportionality to the aims they try to attain.Less
This chapter analyzes the restrictive reproductive laws in some parts of Europe driving travel to other countries to access services. The law and cross-border reproductive care (CBRC) affect each other in different ways. The primary effect of CBRC on the law is in the area of international commercial surrogacy. The margin of appreciation and the standard of proportionality are the primary judicial tools employed by the European Court of Human Rights. Five cases of Court decision in the area of assisted reproduction are reported. These cases provide several insights into how the Court will respond in the future to matters arising from the use of assisted reproduction. Recent directives of the European Court of Human Rights do not clearly show that restrictive reproductive laws may be unenforceable due to their lack of proportionality to the aims they try to attain.
Keywords: restrictive reproductive laws, Europe, cross-border reproductive care, margin of appreciation, standard of proportionality, European Court of Human Rights, assisted reproduction
Life Before Birth: The Moral and Legal Status of Embryos and Fetuses
This book provides a coherent framework for addressing bioethical issues in which the moral status of embryos and fetuses is relevant. It is based on the “interest view,” which ascribes moral ... More
This book provides a coherent framework for addressing bioethical issues in which the moral status of embryos and fetuses is relevant. It is based on the “interest view,” which ascribes moral standing to beings with interests, and connects the possession of interests with the capacity for conscious awareness or sentience. The theoretical framework is applied to up-to-date ethical and legal topics, including abortion, prenatal torts, wrongful life, the crime of feticide, substance abuse by pregnant women, compulsory cesareans, assisted reproduction, and stem cell research. Along the way, difficult philosophical problems, such as identity and the nonidentity problem are thoroughly explored.Less
Life Before Birth : The Moral and Legal Status of Embryos and Fetuses
This book provides a coherent framework for addressing bioethical issues in which the moral status of embryos and fetuses is relevant. It is based on the “interest view,” which ascribes moral standing to beings with interests, and connects the possession of interests with the capacity for conscious awareness or sentience. The theoretical framework is applied to up-to-date ethical and legal topics, including abortion, prenatal torts, wrongful life, the crime of feticide, substance abuse by pregnant women, compulsory cesareans, assisted reproduction, and stem cell research. Along the way, difficult philosophical problems, such as identity and the nonidentity problem are thoroughly explored.
Keywords: moral status, embryos, fetuses, interest view, abortion, prenatal torts, assisted reproduction
The Limits of Reproductive Freedom
in Procreation and Parenthood: The Ethics of Bearing and Rearing Children
It is argued that the strength or scope of the right to reproductive freedom currently recognized in liberal democracies needs to be reconsidered, such that it does not include a right to engage in ... More
It is argued that the strength or scope of the right to reproductive freedom currently recognized in liberal democracies needs to be reconsidered, such that it does not include a right to engage in very risky or harmful procreation. More specifically, it is argued that if there would be no right to impose risk X of harm Y to some other person in non‐reproductive contexts, then there should be no right to do so in reproductive contexts. Thus, some (but not all) methods, including some coercive methods, of preventing or discouraging such reproduction are morally acceptable. Two arguments against this thesis are examined. The first is the ‘non‐identity’ argument that people cannot be harmed by being brought into existence. This is an argument against the possibility of wrongful life. The second argument is that, although the interests of future people are important, these are outweighed by their parents' right to reproductive freedom. After discerning different senses of a right to reproductive freedom, four arguments for the special importance of reproductive freedom are considered. It is argued that none of them is sufficient to undermine the thesis that there should be limits on the right to reproductive freedom. Because of the long history of bias and arbitrary discrimination in curtailments of reproductive freedom, some suggestions for avoiding bias are provided.Less
It is argued that the strength or scope of the right to reproductive freedom currently recognized in liberal democracies needs to be reconsidered, such that it does not include a right to engage in very risky or harmful procreation. More specifically, it is argued that if there would be no right to impose risk X of harm Y to some other person in non‐reproductive contexts, then there should be no right to do so in reproductive contexts. Thus, some (but not all) methods, including some coercive methods, of preventing or discouraging such reproduction are morally acceptable. Two arguments against this thesis are examined. The first is the ‘non‐identity’ argument that people cannot be harmed by being brought into existence. This is an argument against the possibility of wrongful life. The second argument is that, although the interests of future people are important, these are outweighed by their parents' right to reproductive freedom. After discerning different senses of a right to reproductive freedom, four arguments for the special importance of reproductive freedom are considered. It is argued that none of them is sufficient to undermine the thesis that there should be limits on the right to reproductive freedom. Because of the long history of bias and arbitrary discrimination in curtailments of reproductive freedom, some suggestions for avoiding bias are provided.
Keywords: reproductive freedom, reproductive rights, non‐identity, wrongful life, coercion, assisted reproduction
Jewish Biomedical Law: Legal and Extra-Legal Dimensions
Daniel B. Sinclair
This book deals with the following controversial issues in Jewish Law: abortion, assisted reproduction, genetics, the obligation to heal, patient autonomy, treatment of the terminally ill, the ... More
This book deals with the following controversial issues in Jewish Law: abortion, assisted reproduction, genetics, the obligation to heal, patient autonomy, treatment of the terminally ill, the definition of death, organ donations, and the allocation of scarce medical resources. The book focuses upon the complex interplay between legal and moral elements in the decision-making process, particularly when questions of life and death (such as abortion and treatment of the terminally ill) are involved. The author argues that the moral element in Jewish biomedical law is of a universal, rational nature, and its theoretical basis may be located in a weak form of Natural law theory regarding the value of human life in the Jewish legal tradition. The concept of patient autonomy in Jewish biomedical law is more limited than in contemporary liberal jurisprudence, and is based upon theological as well as strictly legal elements. The influence of scientific thinking upon the decision-making process in Jewish biomedical law is illustrated in a discussion of the contemporary debate concerning the permissibility of heart transplants. In most chapters, Jewish law is compared and contrasted with Canon and Common Law, and the volume also discusses the role played by Jewish biomedical law in modern, secular Israeli law. In this context, it addresses the thorny issue of combining religious law with democratic principles within the framework of a secular legal system.Less
Jewish Biomedical Law : Legal and Extra-Legal Dimensions
This book deals with the following controversial issues in Jewish Law: abortion, assisted reproduction, genetics, the obligation to heal, patient autonomy, treatment of the terminally ill, the definition of death, organ donations, and the allocation of scarce medical resources. The book focuses upon the complex interplay between legal and moral elements in the decision-making process, particularly when questions of life and death (such as abortion and treatment of the terminally ill) are involved. The author argues that the moral element in Jewish biomedical law is of a universal, rational nature, and its theoretical basis may be located in a weak form of Natural law theory regarding the value of human life in the Jewish legal tradition. The concept of patient autonomy in Jewish biomedical law is more limited than in contemporary liberal jurisprudence, and is based upon theological as well as strictly legal elements. The influence of scientific thinking upon the decision-making process in Jewish biomedical law is illustrated in a discussion of the contemporary debate concerning the permissibility of heart transplants. In most chapters, Jewish law is compared and contrasted with Canon and Common Law, and the volume also discusses the role played by Jewish biomedical law in modern, secular Israeli law. In this context, it addresses the thorny issue of combining religious law with democratic principles within the framework of a secular legal system.
Keywords: abortion, assisted reproduction, genetics, obligation to heal, patient autonomy, terminally ill, death, organ donations, medical resources, Jewish law
Fecundity and Fertility
Germaine M. Buck Louis
in Reproductive and Perinatal Epidemiology
Public Health and Epidemiology, Epidemiology
Human fecundity and fertility comprise the research domains of reproductive epidemiology and each has a spectrum of outcomes suitable for epidemiologic study. Fecundity outcomes in either or both ... More
Human fecundity and fertility comprise the research domains of reproductive epidemiology and each has a spectrum of outcomes suitable for epidemiologic study. Fecundity outcomes in either or both partners of a couple as reviewed in this chapter include hormonal profiles, pubertal onset and progression, sexual function, semen quality, time to pregnancy, and reproductive senescence or andropause and menopause. Fertility outcomes include fertility rates, primary and secondary sex ratios, and twinning or higher order births. The chapter summarizes available evidence regarding the determinants of male and female fecundity. In addition, a comparison of available study designs suitable for assessing fecundity or fertility outcomes is presented and includes discussion of the strengths and limitations of prospective cohort, retrospective, current duration, historic cohort, and the case cohort designs.Less
Human fecundity and fertility comprise the research domains of reproductive epidemiology and each has a spectrum of outcomes suitable for epidemiologic study. Fecundity outcomes in either or both partners of a couple as reviewed in this chapter include hormonal profiles, pubertal onset and progression, sexual function, semen quality, time to pregnancy, and reproductive senescence or andropause and menopause. Fertility outcomes include fertility rates, primary and secondary sex ratios, and twinning or higher order births. The chapter summarizes available evidence regarding the determinants of male and female fecundity. In addition, a comparison of available study designs suitable for assessing fecundity or fertility outcomes is presented and includes discussion of the strengths and limitations of prospective cohort, retrospective, current duration, historic cohort, and the case cohort designs.
Keywords: assisted reproduction, fecundity, fertility, multiple births, puberty, semen, sex ratios, time to pregnancy, twins
Daisy Deomampo
in Transnational Reproduction: Race, Kinship, and Commercial Surrogacy in India
NYU Press
10.18574/nyu/9781479804214.003.0001
Anthropology, Medical Anthropology
The introductory chapter begins by grounding the reader in Mumbai through a description of various fieldwork encounters that reveal the ways in which surrogate mothers, parents, egg donors, and ... More
The introductory chapter begins by grounding the reader in Mumbai through a description of various fieldwork encounters that reveal the ways in which surrogate mothers, parents, egg donors, and surrogacy brokers, among other actors, navigate relationships with each other in the process of transnational surrogacy. The chapter situates Indian transnational surrogacy in the context of scholarly debates about assisted reproduction. The chapter then discusses the theoretical foundations of the book, which focus on the concepts of stratified reproduction and racial reproductive imaginaries. Ultimately, the chapter outlines the overarching argument of the book, which holds that reproductive actors rely on racial reproductive imaginaries in order to make sense of the transactional exchanges underlying family formation in the context of ARTs. More broadly, it illustrates the unexpected ways in which processes of racialization in transnational reproduction reflect and reinforce local and global inequalities. Finally, the chapter discusses the methods used in research, as well as the organization of the book.Less
The introductory chapter begins by grounding the reader in Mumbai through a description of various fieldwork encounters that reveal the ways in which surrogate mothers, parents, egg donors, and surrogacy brokers, among other actors, navigate relationships with each other in the process of transnational surrogacy. The chapter situates Indian transnational surrogacy in the context of scholarly debates about assisted reproduction. The chapter then discusses the theoretical foundations of the book, which focus on the concepts of stratified reproduction and racial reproductive imaginaries. Ultimately, the chapter outlines the overarching argument of the book, which holds that reproductive actors rely on racial reproductive imaginaries in order to make sense of the transactional exchanges underlying family formation in the context of ARTs. More broadly, it illustrates the unexpected ways in which processes of racialization in transnational reproduction reflect and reinforce local and global inequalities. Finally, the chapter discusses the methods used in research, as well as the organization of the book.
Keywords: racialization, inequalities, stratified reproduction, assisted reproduction, imaginaries, surrogacy
The Families of Assisted Reproduction and Adoption
Lucy Blake, Martin Richards, and Susan Golombok
in Family-Making: Contemporary Ethical Challenges
This chapter examines the empirical evidence regarding the consequences of assisted reproduction and adoption for maternal health, family functioning, and child well-being. The social and regulatory ... More
This chapter examines the empirical evidence regarding the consequences of assisted reproduction and adoption for maternal health, family functioning, and child well-being. The social and regulatory contexts for parents' choices between adoption and ARTs are considered, and the risks associated with ARTs for mothers and children discussed. The empirical evidence regarding child well-being is examined for families in which parents conceived using IVF/ICSI, gamete and embryo donation, and surrogacy. The chapter then describes the risk and protective factors of adoption and summarizes the empirical evidence on child outcomes in adoptive families. Although ARTs involve an element of risk for maternal and child health, the majority of families created by ARTs have been found to function well. As for adoption, a minority of children have been found to experience psychological difficulties, yet the majority have been found to be well-adjusted. Claims in favour of bionormativity are not supported by the empirical research discussed in this chapter.Less
Lucy BlakeMartin RichardsSusan Golombok
This chapter examines the empirical evidence regarding the consequences of assisted reproduction and adoption for maternal health, family functioning, and child well-being. The social and regulatory contexts for parents' choices between adoption and ARTs are considered, and the risks associated with ARTs for mothers and children discussed. The empirical evidence regarding child well-being is examined for families in which parents conceived using IVF/ICSI, gamete and embryo donation, and surrogacy. The chapter then describes the risk and protective factors of adoption and summarizes the empirical evidence on child outcomes in adoptive families. Although ARTs involve an element of risk for maternal and child health, the majority of families created by ARTs have been found to function well. As for adoption, a minority of children have been found to experience psychological difficulties, yet the majority have been found to be well-adjusted. Claims in favour of bionormativity are not supported by the empirical research discussed in this chapter.
Keywords: adoption, assisted reproduction, bionormativity, bionormative concept of family, biologic bias, donor offspring, family functioning, gay fathers, in vitro fertilization (IVF), lesbian mothers, parenting, psychological well-being
Bodies for Rent?: The Case of Commercial Surrogacy
Anne Phillips
in Our Bodies, Whose Property?
Philosophy, Political Philosophy
This chapter addresses the markets in bodily services, focusing on commercial surrogacy rather than prostitution. The reason for this is that with surrogacy it is easier to separate out concerns ... More
This chapter addresses the markets in bodily services, focusing on commercial surrogacy rather than prostitution. The reason for this is that with surrogacy it is easier to separate out concerns about commodification from concerns about the activity itself. With prostitution, the two are almost impossibly entwined. It considers the most powerful objection to commercial surrogacy: the idea that it turns babies into “things” that can be bought and sold, as well as questions about the validity the surrogate's consent. It argues that the key issue in surrogacy is not the commodification of babies, or whether the surrogate knows what she is doing when she enters the contract, or whether she is entitled to some financial reward. The problem is that when surrogacy is put in an explicitly commercial context, this shapes the practices and relationships in potentially damaging ways.Less
Bodies for Rent? : The Case of Commercial Surrogacy
This chapter addresses the markets in bodily services, focusing on commercial surrogacy rather than prostitution. The reason for this is that with surrogacy it is easier to separate out concerns about commodification from concerns about the activity itself. With prostitution, the two are almost impossibly entwined. It considers the most powerful objection to commercial surrogacy: the idea that it turns babies into “things” that can be bought and sold, as well as questions about the validity the surrogate's consent. It argues that the key issue in surrogacy is not the commodification of babies, or whether the surrogate knows what she is doing when she enters the contract, or whether she is entitled to some financial reward. The problem is that when surrogacy is put in an explicitly commercial context, this shapes the practices and relationships in potentially damaging ways.
Keywords: commercial surrogacy, assisted reproduction, surrogate, commodification, bodily services
Consent and Intent: The Legal Differences in Assisted Reproductive Treatments
F. Shenfield
in Law and Medicine: Current Legal Issues Volume 3
Law, Philosophy of Law, Medical Law
In assisted reproduction treatments, consent in writing concerning licensed treatments, i.e. the techniques covered by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 1990, is mandatory. This involves ... More
In assisted reproduction treatments, consent in writing concerning licensed treatments, i.e. the techniques covered by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 1990, is mandatory. This involves gametes donation, either of sperm or oocyte (and hence embryo) donation and in vitro fertilization (IVF). By contrast treatment with thawed cryo-preserved sperm is not covered by the Act unless it is also used in vitro, whilst the storing of the sperm in licensed units categorically is. Infertility specialists practise in one of the few fields where specific legislation has been deemed to be necessary by society, through a vote in Parliament and the enactment of legislation, binding patients and practitioners in a common endeavour. Not all assisted treatment for reproduction is covered by the Act if one takes the word ‘assistance’ in the largest sense, although the term has come specifically to indicate treatments which are indeed licensed.Less
In assisted reproduction treatments, consent in writing concerning licensed treatments, i.e. the techniques covered by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 1990, is mandatory. This involves gametes donation, either of sperm or oocyte (and hence embryo) donation and in vitro fertilization (IVF). By contrast treatment with thawed cryo-preserved sperm is not covered by the Act unless it is also used in vitro, whilst the storing of the sperm in licensed units categorically is. Infertility specialists practise in one of the few fields where specific legislation has been deemed to be necessary by society, through a vote in Parliament and the enactment of legislation, binding patients and practitioners in a common endeavour. Not all assisted treatment for reproduction is covered by the Act if one takes the word ‘assistance’ in the largest sense, although the term has come specifically to indicate treatments which are indeed licensed.
Keywords: assisted reproduction, consent, infertility, gametes donation, IVF, cryo-preserved sperm
Family-Making: Contemporary Ethical Challenges
Françoise Baylis and Carolyn McLeod (eds)
This book concerns the ethics of making or expanding families through adoption or technologically assisted reproduction. For many people, these methods are separate and distinct; they can choose ... More
This book concerns the ethics of making or expanding families through adoption or technologically assisted reproduction. For many people, these methods are separate and distinct; they can choose either adoption or assisted reproduction. But for others, these options blend together. For example, in some jurisdictions, the path of assisted reproduction for same-sex couples is complicated by the need for the partner who is not genetically related to the resulting child to adopt this child if she wants to become the child’s legal parent. The book critically examines moral choices to pursue adoption, assisted reproduction, or both, and highlights the social norms that can distort decision-making. Among these norms are those that favour people having biologically related children (“bionormativity”) or that privilege a traditional understanding of family as a heterosexual unit with one or more children where both parents are the genetic, biological, legal, and social parents of these children. As a whole, the book looks at how adoption and assisted reproduction are morally distinct from one another, but also emphasizes how the two are morally similar. Choosing one, the other, or both of these approaches to family-making can be complex in some respects, but ought to be simple in others, provided that one’s main goal is to become a parent.Less
Family-Making : Contemporary Ethical Challenges
This book concerns the ethics of making or expanding families through adoption or technologically assisted reproduction. For many people, these methods are separate and distinct; they can choose either adoption or assisted reproduction. But for others, these options blend together. For example, in some jurisdictions, the path of assisted reproduction for same-sex couples is complicated by the need for the partner who is not genetically related to the resulting child to adopt this child if she wants to become the child’s legal parent. The book critically examines moral choices to pursue adoption, assisted reproduction, or both, and highlights the social norms that can distort decision-making. Among these norms are those that favour people having biologically related children (“bionormativity”) or that privilege a traditional understanding of family as a heterosexual unit with one or more children where both parents are the genetic, biological, legal, and social parents of these children. As a whole, the book looks at how adoption and assisted reproduction are morally distinct from one another, but also emphasizes how the two are morally similar. Choosing one, the other, or both of these approaches to family-making can be complex in some respects, but ought to be simple in others, provided that one’s main goal is to become a parent.
Keywords: adoption, assisted reproduction, ethics feminism, parenthood, biological relatedness, genetic relatedness, family, bionormativity, bionormative concept of family, biologic bias
Parentage
Stephen Cretney
in Family Law in the Twentieth Century: A History
Law, Family Law, Legal History
This chapter deals with the problems of deciding who should be treated as a child’s ‘parent’. At first, there was no alternative to using ‘presumptions’ — for example, that a husband was the father ... More
This chapter deals with the problems of deciding who should be treated as a child’s ‘parent’. At first, there was no alternative to using ‘presumptions’ — for example, that a husband was the father of any child born to the wife during the marriage — but the twentieth century saw the development of increasingly sophisticated and reliable scientific procedures determining who is genetically related to whom. The development of artificial insemination (and, latterly, other techniques of Human Assisted Reproduction) has made the attribution of legal parentage solely on the basis of genetic identity unsatisfactory.Less
This chapter deals with the problems of deciding who should be treated as a child’s ‘parent’. At first, there was no alternative to using ‘presumptions’ — for example, that a husband was the father of any child born to the wife during the marriage — but the twentieth century saw the development of increasingly sophisticated and reliable scientific procedures determining who is genetically related to whom. The development of artificial insemination (and, latterly, other techniques of Human Assisted Reproduction) has made the attribution of legal parentage solely on the basis of genetic identity unsatisfactory.
Keywords: parentage, marriage, affiliation, legal presumptions, scientific testing, Human Assisted Reproduction
The New Eugenics: Selective Breeding in an Era of Reproductive Technologies
Judith Daar
10.12987/yale/9780300137156.001.0001
A provocative examination of how unequal access to reproductive technology replays the sins of the eugenics movement. Eugenics, the effort to improve the human species by inhibiting reproduction of ... More
A provocative examination of how unequal access to reproductive technology replays the sins of the eugenics movement. Eugenics, the effort to improve the human species by inhibiting reproduction of “inferior” genetic strains, ultimately came to be regarded as the great shame of the Progressive movement. This book argues that current attitudes toward the potential users of modern assisted reproductive technologies threaten to replicate eugenics' same discriminatory practices. The book asserts how barriers that block certain people's access to reproductive technologies are often founded on biases rooted in notions of class, race, and marital status. As a result, poor, minority, unmarried, disabled, and LGBT individuals are denied technologies available to well-off nonminority heterosexual applicants. An original argument on a highly emotional and important issue, this work offers a surprising departure from more familiar arguments on the issue as it warns physicians, government agencies, and the general public against repeating the mistakes of the past.Less
The New Eugenics : Selective Breeding in an Era of Reproductive Technologies
A provocative examination of how unequal access to reproductive technology replays the sins of the eugenics movement. Eugenics, the effort to improve the human species by inhibiting reproduction of “inferior” genetic strains, ultimately came to be regarded as the great shame of the Progressive movement. This book argues that current attitudes toward the potential users of modern assisted reproductive technologies threaten to replicate eugenics' same discriminatory practices. The book asserts how barriers that block certain people's access to reproductive technologies are often founded on biases rooted in notions of class, race, and marital status. As a result, poor, minority, unmarried, disabled, and LGBT individuals are denied technologies available to well-off nonminority heterosexual applicants. An original argument on a highly emotional and important issue, this work offers a surprising departure from more familiar arguments on the issue as it warns physicians, government agencies, and the general public against repeating the mistakes of the past.
Keywords: reproductive technology, assisted reproduction, unequal access, eugenics, genetics, Progressive movement, discrimination, minority
Analogies to Adoption in Arguments Against Anonymous Gamete Donation: Geneticizing the Desire to Know
Kimberly Leighton
In discussions of donor-assisted conception, a right to know one’s genetic ancestry has been invoked to capture the harm of anonymous gamete donation. Defenders of the view that someone who was ... More
In discussions of donor-assisted conception, a right to know one’s genetic ancestry has been invoked to capture the harm of anonymous gamete donation. Defenders of the view that someone who was donor-conceived has a “right to know” commonly invoke an analogy to adoption to support their argument. This chapter challenges the basic claim of the analogy: that adoption and its effects on adoptees can provide a “lesson” on how information should be handled in donor-assisted conception. The author questions the underlying assumption that the meaning of and desire for information in both cases is morally equivalent and criticizes how these arguments ultimately use adoption to show the value of genetic relatedness. The analogy they invoke geneticizes adoption by rendering what it means to know or not know one’s origins in adoption in specifically genetic terms. The consequences of this geneticization are harmful to adoptees and reflect the bionormative view that families should be genetically related.Less
Analogies to Adoption in Arguments Against Anonymous Gamete Donation : Geneticizing the Desire to Know
In discussions of donor-assisted conception, a right to know one’s genetic ancestry has been invoked to capture the harm of anonymous gamete donation. Defenders of the view that someone who was donor-conceived has a “right to know” commonly invoke an analogy to adoption to support their argument. This chapter challenges the basic claim of the analogy: that adoption and its effects on adoptees can provide a “lesson” on how information should be handled in donor-assisted conception. The author questions the underlying assumption that the meaning of and desire for information in both cases is morally equivalent and criticizes how these arguments ultimately use adoption to show the value of genetic relatedness. The analogy they invoke geneticizes adoption by rendering what it means to know or not know one’s origins in adoption in specifically genetic terms. The consequences of this geneticization are harmful to adoptees and reflect the bionormative view that families should be genetically related.
Keywords: adoption, analogy to adoption, anonymous gamete donation, assisted reproduction, bionormativity, bionormative concept of family, biologic bias, donor-assisted conception, ethics, genetic identity, geneticization, genetic origins, right to know
Social Problems Ritual Female Excision and Medically Assisted Reproduction
in We Are All Cannibals: And Other Essays
10.7312/columbia/9780231170680.003.0004
Anthropology, Anthropology, Theory and Practice
ritual female excision and medically assisted reproduction
Keywords: genital cutting, medically assisted reproduction, circumcision, traditional practices
State Regulation and Assisted Reproduction: Balancing the Interests of Parents and Children
Jurgen De Wispelaere and Daniel Weinstock
An implication of the negative right to reproductive freedom is that the state cannot deny people access to Assisted Reproduction Technologies (ARTs). This right, however, does not imply that the ... More
An implication of the negative right to reproductive freedom is that the state cannot deny people access to Assisted Reproduction Technologies (ARTs). This right, however, does not imply that the state should fund these technologies. That conclusion requires a distinct argument that would link ARTs with the satisfaction of a fundamental interest. Notice that the interest in parenting, for those who cannot procreate "naturally," can be satisfied through adoption. Ceteris paribus, the state is under no obligation to fund ARTs. In real-world conditions, however, all things are not equal. There are considerable obstacles to adoption, most notably financial and bureaucratic obstacles that stand in the way of people becoming parents through adoption. This chapter aims to establish that, in such circumstances, access to ARTs should be regulated through an appropriate pricing mechanism, where price is set at the level that would allow all children in need of adoption to find parents willing to adopt them.Less
State Regulation and Assisted Reproduction : Balancing the Interests of Parents and Children
Jurgen De WispelaereDaniel Weinstock
An implication of the negative right to reproductive freedom is that the state cannot deny people access to Assisted Reproduction Technologies (ARTs). This right, however, does not imply that the state should fund these technologies. That conclusion requires a distinct argument that would link ARTs with the satisfaction of a fundamental interest. Notice that the interest in parenting, for those who cannot procreate "naturally," can be satisfied through adoption. Ceteris paribus, the state is under no obligation to fund ARTs. In real-world conditions, however, all things are not equal. There are considerable obstacles to adoption, most notably financial and bureaucratic obstacles that stand in the way of people becoming parents through adoption. This chapter aims to establish that, in such circumstances, access to ARTs should be regulated through an appropriate pricing mechanism, where price is set at the level that would allow all children in need of adoption to find parents willing to adopt them.
Keywords: adoption, adoption (value of), assisted reproduction, ethics, family, genetic link, procreation
Aged Parenting through ART and Other Means
Jennifer A. Parks
Lately, the number of advanced age women seeking reproductive assistance has risen. While still not a mainstream activity, postmenopausal IVF has garnered attention because of sensationalized cases ... More
Lately, the number of advanced age women seeking reproductive assistance has risen. While still not a mainstream activity, postmenopausal IVF has garnered attention because of sensationalized cases in the media. Ethicists have addressed this issue from a variety of perspectives, in some cases supporting older women’s rights to access reproductive services, such as egg donation and IVF, and, in other cases, citing concerns for the health and welfare of both older women and their offspring in order to justify preventing these women from accessing ARTs. This chapter considers, from a feminist perspective, the ethical propriety of aged parenting through the use of ARTs and more specifically fertility preservation (FP) techniques. These new technologies allow women to preserve their reproductive capacity so that they may later produce biologically related offspring. The chapter considers the future implications of aged parenting for women and presses the question of whether FP constitutes a “feminist” technology.Less
Lately, the number of advanced age women seeking reproductive assistance has risen. While still not a mainstream activity, postmenopausal IVF has garnered attention because of sensationalized cases in the media. Ethicists have addressed this issue from a variety of perspectives, in some cases supporting older women’s rights to access reproductive services, such as egg donation and IVF, and, in other cases, citing concerns for the health and welfare of both older women and their offspring in order to justify preventing these women from accessing ARTs. This chapter considers, from a feminist perspective, the ethical propriety of aged parenting through the use of ARTs and more specifically fertility preservation (FP) techniques. These new technologies allow women to preserve their reproductive capacity so that they may later produce biologically related offspring. The chapter considers the future implications of aged parenting for women and presses the question of whether FP constitutes a “feminist” technology.
Keywords: aged parenting, assisted reproduction, custodial grandparenting, egg donation, ethics, feminist ethics, feminist technology, in vitro fertilization (IVF)
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2016, Technology & Science, Women & Minorities
Denise Leleux: Changing the world one customer at a time
By Alexa Morgan
As eBay’s vice president of customer service for North America and Europe since February 2012, Denise Leleux leads an international team that provides a voice for millions of buyers and sellers. “What inspired me to join eBay was the vision that we have about changing the world,” she says. “It was a great fit for my background, and certainly my personality. I’m naturally a people person; I feed off of working and being with people.”
The youngest of six children, Leleux grew up in New Orleans and attended Louisiana State University until her junior year. She developed an interest in financial services while completing her undergraduate degree at Western State Colorado University. Her career has since taken her to San Francisco, New York, London and most recently, Richmond, Virginia.
She now resides in Park City with her husband and 9-year-old son, where the family enjoys being outdoors and the healthy lifestyle that comes with living out West. “eBay brought me to Utah,” she says. “Utah keeps me here! It’s a wonderful place to raise a family, it’s a wonderful community—kind of a great little secret… I have a very generous and rewarding career, but also I have a wonderful family. I’m very fortunate to have a husband that has sacrificed so much for my career.”
Leleux was encouraged to seek her current position by Steve Boehm, senior vice president of customer service at eBay. They had worked together at First Data, where she made an impression with her interpersonal skills and high-powered résumé that includes stints at Visa, Capital One and Barclays, handling marketing, products and relationship management, among other duties.
“She has a very large job now, probably one of the largest in the whole company,” Boehm says. “Under her direct or indirect responsibility are around 6,000 people that interact with eBay customers over 40 million times per year. She becomes the tip of the spear of providing input back into the company and to our business partners.”
Leleux is passionate about her job. “I love peer-to-peer commerce and the empowerment that it creates for both the buyer and seller,” she says. “eBay was the first company to provide a global platform for you and me to interact and trade with someone next door, or around the world. Before there was Uber or AirBnB, there was eBay.”
In her position, Leleux advocates that diversity and inclusion are crucial to the success of a company. “Our buyers and sellers are all very unique and very different, so we try to mirror that internally,” she says. “One person’s perspective is complemented by another’s and helps us see the whole picture.”
Looking ahead 10 years, Leleux hopes to still be in Utah and with eBay. Still, the winding path her career has taken has led her to keep an open mind. “If history is any judge, I might have to reinvent my career one more time. Doing that within an organization that I know and love would be great,” she says. “I don’t know exactly where my career or my life will take me, but I’m excited to find out, and to grow and learn.”
Featured Articles, June 2016, Monthly Magazine, Print Issues
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Millennials Keep Quitting Their Jobs―But They Don’t Want To
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Home › Degrees and Certificates › Program Overview › Faculty
David Fusco
Ed.D., Educational Leadership and Management, Drexel University
M.Ed., Master of Education/Leadership, Saint Francis University
B.S., Computer Science; Minor in Mathematics, Penn State
Dr. David Fusco is an assistant teaching professor of information sciences and technology in the College of IST. Prior to his appointment, Dr. Fusco served for more than 25 years in industry as an enterprise change agent, including nearly 16 years at Juniata College where he served as associate vice president and CIO. Dr. Fusco teaches EA 874: Enterprise Information Technology Architecture; EA 594: Capstone Project; and IST 815: Foundations of Information Security and Assurance.
Rosalie Ocker
Ph.D., Computer and Information Science, Rutgers University Graduate School of Management
MBA, Lehigh University
B.A., Economics, Albright College
Dr. Rosalie Ocker is an associate teaching professor in the College of Information Sciences and Technology at Penn State University Park. Prior to working in academia, Dr. Ocker was a consultant at Arthur Anderson (now Accenture) where she worked in the financial services sector, developing financial trading systems for firms on Wall Street. She also worked at Morgan Stanley as an internal consultant. Dr. Ocker teaches EA 871: Enterprise Architecture Foundations I and EA 594: Capstone Project.
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CHINA’S CHANGING CULTURE
Like their contemporaries all over Asia, Chinese artists were strongly influenced by the revolutionary changes that were taking place in the art world of the West in the early twentieth century. In the decades following the 1911 revolution, Chinese creative artists began to experiment with Western styles, although the more extreme schools, such as Surrealism and Abstract painting, had little impact. The rise to power of the Communists in 1949 added a new dimension to the debate over the future of culture in China. Spurred by comments made by Mao Zedong at a cultural forum in Yan’an in 1942, leaders rejected the Western slogan of “Art for art’s sake” and, like their Soviet counterparts, viewed culture as an important instrument of indoctrination. The standard would no longer be aesthetic quality or the personal preference of the artist but “Art for life’s sake,” whereby culture would serve the interests of socialism. At first, the new emphasis on socialist realism did not entirely extinguish the influence of traditional culture. Mao and his colleagues saw the importance of traditional values and culture in building a strong new China and tolerated—and even encouraged—efforts by artists to synthesize traditional ideas with socialist concepts and Western techniques. During the Cultural Revolution, however, all forms of traditional culture came to be viewed as reactionary. Socialist realism became the only standard of acceptability in literature, art, and music. All forms of traditional expression were forbidden. Characteristic of the changing cultural climate in China was the experience of author Ding Ling. Born in 1904 and educated in a school for women set up by leftist intellectuals during the hectic years after the May Fourth Movement, she began writing in her early twenties. At first, she was strongly influenced by prevailing Western styles, but after her husband, a struggling young poet and a member of the CCP, was executed by Chiang Kai-shek’s government in 1931, she became active in party activities and sublimated her talent to the revolutionary cause. In the late 1930s, Ding Ling settled in Yan’an, where she became a leader in the party’s women’s and literary associations. She remained dedicated to revolution, but years of service to the party had not stifled her individuality, and in 1942, she wrote critically of the incompetence, arrogance, and hypocrisy of many party officials, as well as the treatment of women in areas under Communist authority. Such conduct raised eyebrows, but she was able to survive criticism and in 1948 wrote her most famous novel, The Sun Shines over the Sangan River, which described the CCP’s land reform program in favorable terms. It was awarded the Stalin Prize three years later. During the early 1950s, Ding Ling was one of the most prominent literary lights of the new China, but in the more ideological climate at the end of the decade, she was attacked for her individualism and her previous criticism of the party. Although temporarily rehabilitated, during the Cultural Revolution she was sentenced to hard labor on a commune in the far north and was only released in the late 1970s after the death of Mao Zedong. Although crippled and in poor health, she began writing a biography of her mother that examined the role of women in twentieth-century China. She died in 1981. Ding Ling’s story mirrored the fate of thousands of progressive Chinese intellectuals who, despite their efforts, were not able to satisfy the constantly changing demands of a repressive regime. After Mao’s death, Chinese culture was once again released from the shackles of socialist realism. In painting, the new policies led to a revival of interest in both traditional and Western forms. The revival of traditional art was in part a matter of practicality as talented young Chinese were trained to produce traditional paintings for export to earn precious foreign currency for the state. But the regime also showed a new tolerance for the imitation of Western styles as a necessary by-product of development, thus unleashing an impressive outpouring of artis- tic creativity later dubbed the “Beijing Spring.” A new generation of Chinese painters began to experiment with a wide range of previously prohibited art styles, including Cubism and Abstract Expressionism. An excellent illustration of Chinese artists’ tireless battle for creative freedom is the painting My Dream (1988) by Xu Mangyao. On the canvas, an artist, having freed his hands from manacles, seeks to escape from the confinement of a red brick wall. The painting represents the worldwide struggle by all the twentieth-century artists silenced by totalitarian regimes in the Soviet Union, Latin America, and Africa. In music, too, the post-Mao era brought significant changes. Music academies closed during the Cultural Revolution for sowing the seeds of the bourgeois mentality were reopened. Students were permitted to study both Chinese and Western styles, but the vast majority selected the latter. To provide examples, leading musicians and composers, such as violinist Isaac Stern, were invited to China to lecture and perform before eager Chinese students. The limits to freedom of expression were most apparent in literature. During the early 1980s, party leaders encouraged Chinese writers to express their views on the mistakes of the past, and a new “literature of the wounded” began to describe the brutal and arbitrary nature of the Cultural Revolution. One of the most prominent writers was Bai Hua, whose script for the film Bitter Love described the life of a young Chinese painter who joined the revolutionary movement during the 1940s but was destroyed during the Cultural Revolution when his work was condemned as counterrevolutionary. The film depicted the condemnation through a view of a street in Beijing “full of people waving the Quotations of Chairman Mao, all those devout and artless faces fired by a feverish fanaticism.” Driven from his home for posting a portrait of a third-century b.c.e. defender of human freedom on a Beijing wall, the artist flees the city. At the end of the film, he dies in a snowy field, where his corpse and a semicircle made by his footprints form a giant question mark. In criticizing the excesses of the Cultural Revolution, Bai Hua was only responding to Deng Xiaoping’s appeal for intellectuals to speak out, but he was soon criticized for failing to point out the essentially beneficial role of the CCP in recent Chinese history, and his film was withdrawn from circulation in 1981. Bai Hua was compelled to recant his errors and to state that the great ideas of Mao Zedong on art and literature were “still of universal guiding significance today.” 7 As the attack on Bai Hua illustrates, many party leaders remained suspicious of the impact that “decadent” bourgeois culture could have on the socialist foundations of Chinese society, and the official press periodically warned that China should adopt only the “positive” aspects of Western culture (notably, its technology and its work ethic) and not the “negative” elements such as drug use, pornography, and hedonism. One of the chief targets in China’s recent “spiritual civilization” campaign is author Wang Shuo (b. 1958), whose writings have been banned for exhibiting a sense of “moral decay.” In his novels Playing for Thrills (1989) and Please Don’t Call Me Human (2000), Wang highlighted the seamier side of contemporary urban society, peopled with hustlers, ex-convicts, and other assorted hooligans. Spiritually depleted, hedonistic, and amoral in their approach to life, his characters represent the polar opposite of the socialist ideal. Conservatives were especially incensed by the tendency of many writers to dwell on the shortcomings of the socialist system and to come uncomfortably close to direct criticism of the role of the CCP. The outstanding works of author Mo Yan (b. 1956) are a case in point. Viewed as China’s greatest writer, in his novels The Garlic Ballads (1988) and The Republic of Wine (2000), Mo exposes the rampant corruption of contemporary Chinese society, the roots of which he attributes to one-party rule (see the box on p. 230).
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Jury: Monsanto to pay $2 billion in weed killer cancer case
Posted: 4:22 AM, May 14, 2019
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A jury on Monday ordered agribusiness giant Monsanto Co. to pay a combined $2.055 billion to a couple claiming that the company's popular weed killer Roundup Ready caused their cancers.
The jury's verdict is the third such courtroom loss for Monsanto in California since August, but a San Francisco law professor said it's likely a trial judge or appellate court will significantly reduce the punitive damage award.
The state court jury in Oakland concluded that Monsanto's weed killer caused the non-Hodgkin's lymphoma Alva Pilliod and Alberta Pilliod each contracted. Jurors awarded them each $1 billion in punitive damages in addition to a combined $55 million in compensatory damages.
Alberta Pilliod, 76, said after the verdict that she and her husband, Alva, have each been battling cancer for the last nine years. She says they are unable to enjoy the same activities they participated in before their cancer diagnosis.
"It changed our lives forever," she said. "We couldn't do things we used to be able to do, and we really resent them for that."
One of the Pilliods lawyers, Michael Miller, conceded that the $2 billion punitive damage award was likely to be reduced on appeal, but said they are prepared for a long legal battle.
A federal jury in San Francisco ordered the weed killer maker in March to pay a Sonoma County man $80 million. A San Francisco jury last August awarded $289 million to a former golf course greens keeper who blamed his cancer on Monsanto's Roundup Ready herbicide. A judge later reduced the award by $200 million.
The three California trials were the first of an estimated 13,000 plaintiffs with pending lawsuits against Monsanto across the country to go to trial. St. Louis-based Monsanto is owned by the German chemical giant Bayer A.G.
Bayer said Monday that it would appeal the verdict.
"The verdict in this trial has no impact on future cases and trials, as each one has its own factual and legal circumstances," the company said.
The company noted that none of the California verdicts has been considered by an appeals court and that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency considers the weed killer safe.
The EPA reaffirmed its position in April, saying that the active ingredient glyphosate found in the weed killer posed "no risks of concern" for people exposed to it by any means — on farms, in yards and along roadsides, or as residue left on food crops.
"There is zero chance it will stand," said University of California, Hastings School of Law professor David Levine. He said the ratio between the $2 billion in punitive damages and $55 million in compensatory damages is too high. He said judges rarely allow punitive damages to exceed four times actual damages awarded.
The California Supreme Court ruled in 2016 that any punitive damages exceeding 10 times the compensatory damages are likely unconstitutionally high. The court didn't propose a ratio it felt correct, but said punitive damages should almost never exceed nine times actual damages, it said.
The punitive damages awarded Monday are 36 times the actual damages.
The lawsuits have battered Bayer's stock since it purchased Monsanto for $63 billion last year and Bayer's top managers are facing shareholder discontent.
Chairman Werner Wenning told shareholders at Bayer's annual general meeting in Bonn last month that company leaders "very much regret" falls in its share price. At the same time, CEO Werner Baumann insisted that "the acquisition of Monsanto was and remains the right move for Bayer."
Bayer's stock price closed Monday at $15.91 a share, down 45 cents or 2.76 percent per share, in trading on the New York Stock Exchange. The verdict was announced after the trading session closed.
Bayer's share price has lost half its value since it reached s 52-week high of $32.80 a share.
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Wyo Stock Growers discuss private land implications of antler collection
Written by Saige Albert
Casper – In 2014, the Wyoming Stock Growers Association passed a resolution to look at additional authority regulating the gathering of antlers across the state, rather than only west of the continental divide.
“The Wyoming Game and Fish Commission was given the authority to regulate antler hunting on the west side of the continental divide on public lands,” said Wyoming Game and Fish Department (WGFD) Director Scott Talbott during the Wildlife Committee meeting at the 2015 Wyoming Stock Growers Association Winter Roundup on Dec. 1. “Prior to that, we were documenting particularly egregious behaviors.”
To avoid harassment of animals during antler hunting, regulations were put in place.
“The legislature gave us the authority to set parameters on antler hunting seasons,” Talbott added. “It has certainly eliminated the egregious wildlife harassment issues we saw.”
He continued, “As the value of antlers increases and demand increases, we need to continue to take a look at what is appropriate or not through the legislative process regarding regulation of antler collection.”
WSGA Executive Vice President Jim Magagna noted, “We had a directive passed that WSGA staff were to seek legislation for authority to WGFD to regulate collection of antlers across the state as opposed to just west of the continental divide.”
WSGA submitted a letter to the Wyoming Legislature’s Joint Travel, Recreation and Wildlife Committee requesting they move forward with legislation authorizing WGFD to regulate antler collection statewide, but the committee opted not to pursue action at this point.
“The discussion surrounding this issue raises some interesting points,” Magagna said.
Private property concerns
Magagna continued that, although the original WGFD authority came as a result of wildlife harassment, “Our interest is in stopping trespass on private lands. That raises some fundamental questions that need to be addressed at the legislative level.”
The primary question that must be answered is who owns the antlers.
“These antlers are a product of wildlife in Wyoming,” Magagna explained. “Does that mean they are under the Wyoming Game and Fish Commission? In that case, it would be appropriate for the legislature to direct the WGFD to manage the gathering – and perhaps license it, as well as to address trespass that occurs.”
Conversely, he also noted that it could be argued that after antlers fall off wildlife, they are no longer a part of the wildlife or under the ownership of the state.
“I could make the argument that, on private land, they become the property of the landowner,” Magagna said. “If that is the case, there may be felony theft convictions if antlers are taken from private land. If the antlers fall off onto public lands, then in who’s ownership do they fall?”
The question is wrought with issues, and Magagna said, “I think we need to take time to work through the more fundamental issues.”
With the value of antlers increasing, WSGA member Garrett Falkenberg of Douglas noted that a trespass fine of $400 isn’t incentive to not trespass for antlers worth upwards of $1,000.
“In that case, we aren’t going to teach these people anything for trespassing,” Falkenberg said. “We’ve just hardened the criminal because they are making money.”
Saige Albert is managing editor of the Wyoming Livestock Roundup and can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
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The blind squirrel finds an acorn… or is it sausage?
November 21, 2017 by Kerry Drake Leave a Comment
When Prussian statesman Otto von Bismarck searched for a metaphor to explain the legislative process, he naturally aimed for something extremely disgusting and stomach-turning. The result was his oft quoted line: “If you like laws and sausages, you should never watch either one being made.”
Occasionally the comparison prompts a sausage factory owner to cry foul. Industrial animal slaughter and the processing of snouts and rectums into mixed meat products, they say, is nowhere near so nauseating as the workings of Congress. It’s a fair criticism, especially if you view, read or listen to much news from Washington, D.C., these days.
I was pleasantly surprised then as I watched a Wyoming legislative committee work on an important criminal justice reform bill recently. I tried to follow von Bismarck’s example and make a food analogy. The difference was I needed a metaphor for an event so rare it was difficult for me to fathom, much less explain to anyone else.
I pictured a mistake-prone chef making a souffle. Each attempt was met with frustrating failure as the dish always collapsed before it could be served.
But this time, it was made to perfection. The beautiful dish in this case was a controversial bill that could finally enable wrongfully convicted felons to challenge their convictions with non-DNA evidence that wasn’t part of the original trial or appeal.
It took about an hour for the previously maligned measure to be explained, discussed and voted on. When it was over the committee unanimously approved it, 14-0.
The post-conviction relief bill has been rejected repeatedly since 2011. It wasn’t simply a matter of the seventh year being the charm that made all of the problems disappear. The success was all part of a calculated effort by the committee’s leadership to put all the pieces together and ensure — to the satisfaction of all interested parties — that there were no holes in the legislation.
All it took was the willingness of the stakeholders to sit down and hash out their differences, many of which had scuttled previous iterations of the bill. The collaboration is a credit in large part to the urging of Judiciary Co-chairmen Sen. Leland Christensen (R-Alta) and Rep. Dan Kirkbride (R-Chugwater). But it wasn’t easy, especially since any of the players could have just shunned the effort and kept trying to kill the bill.
It’s a good piece of legislation that will, if passed by the full Legislature, correct a major problem in Wyoming’s criminal justice system. It outlines each step of the new evidence introduction process and allows either prosecutors or the defense to appeal any decision.
Under current law if it’s discovered at any time that an inmate’s DNA proves he or she has been wrongly convicted of a felony, such forensic evidence can be used by the defense to either get a new trial or to directly secure an exoneration and freedom. There is no deadline for when new DNA evidence can be presented.
That’s what happened to Andrew Johnson, a Cheyenne man who spent nearly 24 years in the Wyoming State Penitentiary for sexual assault and aggravated burglary before DNA evidence in 2013 proved he was actually innocent of both crimes. The Laramie County district attorney dropped all charges.
But once someone convicted of a felony goes to prison, the clock starts ticking on the inmate’s ability to get a new trial based on new non-DNA evidence. The law only allows an inmate two years to file a petition seeking such justice.
Michelle Feldman of the national Innocence Project in New York works with the Rocky Mountain Innocence Project, which litigates wrongful conviction cases in Wyoming, Utah and Nevada. She’s traveled to Wyoming for several years to testify before the Judiciary panel and other committees.
“It takes an average of 10 years in Wyoming to get [a felon’s] innocence claim, investigate, track down witnesses and file the necessary motions,” Feldman explained. By that time, the deadline is eight years in the rear-view mirror.
The bill is called the “Post-Conviction Determination of Factual Innocence Act.” The working group that crafted the new proposed law included Rep. Charles Pelkey (D-Laramie), a long-time proponent of the bill in its various forms, Feldman and State Public Defender Tina Olson. Representatives of the Attorney General’s Office, Wyoming Trial Lawyers Association and the Wyoming County & Prosecuting Attorneys Association were also included.
While they weren’t holding hands and singing “Kumbaya,” it was clear members of the working group were on the same page about what they wanted to accomplish.
That’s a far cry from the 2017 bill, which passed the House unanimously but couldn’t make it out of the Senate Judiciary Committee after Wyoming’s Deputy Chief Attorney General John Knepper testified that he had numerous concerns about the bill. Knepper said the bill, then titled the “Actual Innocence Act,” could lead to convicts who are guilty continually petitioning for new trials and wasting judges’ time.
Feldman, though, countered Knepper’s claim at the time by noting the 2017 Wyoming bill was modeled after one that has been on the books in Utah since 2008. During the past nine years, she said, only 13 petitions have been filed resulting in two inmates being freed. That’s hardly an avalanche of claims.
Knepper also complained earlier this year that he didn’t receive notice about the House Judiciary Committee’s hearing on the bill in time to attend. He was the only person to testify against the bill when it went to the Senate committee, single-handedly killing the bill.
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But the deputy chief AG served on the working group and is now one of the bill’s strongest supporters. “Some thoughtful changes were made from everyone’s perspective,” he said. “I hope what we got was a bill that I think helps the state move forward on this issue.”
“It’s not easy for people who are usually on opposite sides of the courtroom to get together and improve the system,” Feldman said. “I think we were able to do that, so it’s really exciting. [Knepper] really kept his word on working with us on a solution.”
It would be great if the way the Judiciary Committee handled improving the factual innocence bill becomes standard operating procedure. That’s how the Legislature is supposed to work. And it was a refreshing experience.
I wouldn’t count on it happening a lot, given the ornery nature of some lawmakers who can’t be happy until they’ve taken someone else’s bill and changed it beyond recognition. And, of course, the factual innocence bill is still a long way from success. Just because it made it through a joint committee doesn’t mean one of the chambers won’t kill it.
I certainly don’t want to jinx this effort, which is an excellent example of how legislators, state agency officials, interested organizations and the public can come together and do something to improve our criminal justice system. Thanks to everyone involved for showing an old cynic like me that lawmaking doesn’t have to resemble making sausage and sometimes, the souffle also rises.
Filed Under: Columns/Blog, Columns/Blogs, Drake's Take, The Drake's Take, This Week
About Kerry Drake
Veteran Wyoming journalist Kerry Drake has covered Wyoming for more than four decades, previously as a reporter and editor for the Wyoming Tribune-Eagle and Casper Star-Tribune. He lives in Casper and can be reached at kerry.drake33@yahoo.com.
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news, local-news, sexual assault, jailed, mandurama
THE father of an 11-month-old baby girl who was sexually assaulted and died at the hands of her carer has labelled the judicial system "a joke" after her killer received just an additional five months' jail on his sentence after being convicted last week of raping the infant. Brendon Toohey, 40, was sentenced in 2017 to seven-and-a-half years' jail for manslaughter after the baby suffered critical injuries at her Mandurama home in April 2014. And last week he was sentenced to four years, six months (three years non-parole) on a charge of sexual intercourse with a person under 10, under authority. The sentence has left baby's father [who cannot be identified for legal reasons] "angry, disgusted and shocked". READ MORE: Man convicted over sexual assault of 11-month-old girl at Mandurama READ MORE: Man jailed over toddler’s death at Mandurama READ MORE: Brendon Toohey found guilty of manslaughter over death of 11-month-old baby at Mandurama He described Toohey as an animal who, he believed, would always remain a threat to the community. The father said that from the outset, the punishment bestowed on Toohey had been inadequate. "When he was convicted of manslaughter, he should have got the maximum then, not seven-and-a-half years," he said. He said he couldn't believe someone convicted of sexual assault against an 11-month old baby would only get an additional five months in jail. "I'm lost for words," he said. "There is no other way to describe it." The father said he sat through the murder trial, but couldn't bear to sit through the sexual assault matter. "I just couldn't sit there and listen to it," he said, adding the loss of his daughter, and the manner in which she died, had taken an incredible toll on him, and he is now heavily medicated just to get through the day. He said his mother went to the sexual assault trial in Sydney last week to ensure his daughter was represented, and said having to sit and listen to details about his daughter's final moments was soul-destroying for her. "Mum's tough, but she's not coping at all," he said. "She's a mess. Who wouldn't be? "We will never get over this. People say it gets easier, but I don't think it does." The man's mother, who also cannot be identified, said what Toohey did was "absolutely hideous". "She was an 11-month-old baby, I just can't get my head around it," she said. The baby's grandmother said her granddaughter was a beautiful baby, reaching all the usual milestones. "She was teething and doing everything she was supposed to be doing," she said. The fact Toohey is now eligible for parole is weighing heavily on the father's mind. "I just don't know how anyone who has done something as heinous as this can get out," he said. "How could he do it? I'll never understand. He's pure evil. "If what he did was an explosion of anger or he lost control, who's to say he won't do it again … he will do it again." The father said he hopes the Director of Public Prosecutions will appeal Toohey's sentence. "He needs to stay locked up," he said. As for his daughter, he said she will never be forgotten. "I think about her all the time. I see other babies and think about her - what age she would be now. It breaks my heart. "I wonder what she would be like." He said Toohey's sentence brought back all his feelings of rage and despair at the death of his daughter. He said he wakes up in a cold sweat and has had terrible nightmares since his daughter's death. "[In the dreams] I can see him belting her, but I can't get there to save her," he said. "I also dream she's in my arms, and then she's gone - that's the worst one." The charges against Toohey stem back to April 2014, when the girl suffered critical injuries at her Mandurama home. Toohey maintained she fell from a trampoline and hit her head on the lid of a concrete septic tank while he was taking clothes off the line. In the days following her death, he was charged with her murder. He was also charged with sexual intercourse with a person under 10, under authority, a charge which was heard separately in the Parramatta District Court last Thursday. Brendon Toohey is now eligible for parole.
https://nnimgt-a.akamaihd.net/transform/v1/crop/frm/QxukpFBZJiAgENVqiH8x9E/13aa3379-feb8-486e-8881-ebe48ce91e7a.jpg/r92_647_2196_1836_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg
Mandurama baby sex assault and manslaughter: Father's anger over sentence
Jacinta Carroll
THE father of an 11-month-old baby girl who was sexually assaulted and died at the hands of her carer has labelled the judicial system "a joke" after her killer received just an additional five months' jail on his sentence after being convicted last week of raping the infant.
Brendon Toohey, 40, was sentenced in 2017 to seven-and-a-half years' jail for manslaughter after the baby suffered critical injuries at her Mandurama home in April 2014.
And last week he was sentenced to four years, six months (three years non-parole) on a charge of sexual intercourse with a person under 10, under authority.
The sentence has left baby's father [who cannot be identified for legal reasons] "angry, disgusted and shocked".
READ MORE:Man convicted over sexual assault of 11-month-old girl at Mandurama
READ MORE:Man jailed over toddler’s death at Mandurama
READ MORE:Brendon Toohey found guilty of manslaughter over death of 11-month-old baby at Mandurama
He described Toohey as an animal who, he believed, would always remain a threat to the community.
The father said that from the outset, the punishment bestowed on Toohey had been inadequate.
"When he was convicted of manslaughter, he should have got the maximum then, not seven-and-a-half years," he said.
He said he couldn't believe someone convicted of sexual assault against an 11-month old baby would only get an additional five months in jail.
"I'm lost for words," he said. "There is no other way to describe it."
The father said he sat through the murder trial, but couldn't bear to sit through the sexual assault matter.
"I just couldn't sit there and listen to it," he said, adding the loss of his daughter, and the manner in which she died, had taken an incredible toll on him, and he is now heavily medicated just to get through the day.
He said his mother went to the sexual assault trial in Sydney last week to ensure his daughter was represented, and said having to sit and listen to details about his daughter's final moments was soul-destroying for her.
"Mum's tough, but she's not coping at all," he said. "She's a mess. Who wouldn't be?
"We will never get over this. People say it gets easier, but I don't think it does."
The man's mother, who also cannot be identified, said what Toohey did was "absolutely hideous".
"She was an 11-month-old baby, I just can't get my head around it," she said.
The baby's grandmother said her granddaughter was a beautiful baby, reaching all the usual milestones.
"She was teething and doing everything she was supposed to be doing," she said.
The fact Toohey is now eligible for parole is weighing heavily on the father's mind.
"I just don't know how anyone who has done something as heinous as this can get out," he said.
"How could he do it? I'll never understand. He's pure evil.
"If what he did was an explosion of anger or he lost control, who's to say he won't do it again … he will do it again."
The father said he hopes the Director of Public Prosecutions will appeal Toohey's sentence.
"He needs to stay locked up," he said.
We will never get over this. People say it gets easier, but I don't think it does.
The baby's father, who cannot be identified
As for his daughter, he said she will never be forgotten.
"I think about her all the time. I see other babies and think about her - what age she would be now. It breaks my heart.
"I wonder what she would be like."
He said Toohey's sentence brought back all his feelings of rage and despair at the death of his daughter.
He said he wakes up in a cold sweat and has had terrible nightmares since his daughter's death.
"[In the dreams] I can see him belting her, but I can't get there to save her," he said.
"I also dream she's in my arms, and then she's gone - that's the worst one."
The charges against Toohey stem back to April 2014, when the girl suffered critical injuries at her Mandurama home.
Toohey maintained she fell from a trampoline and hit her head on the lid of a concrete septic tank while he was taking clothes off the line. In the days following her death, he was charged with her murder.
He was also charged with sexual intercourse with a person under 10, under authority, a charge which was heard separately in the Parramatta District Court last Thursday.
Brendon Toohey is now eligible for parole.
Want more Bathurst news? Sign up now for our free morning headlines email
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Trump Scores Major Victory in FL, 3 Stations Planning to Air His Speeches Every Day Till Election
Evan Vucci / APPresident Donald Trump speaks during an event on energy infrastructure at the Cameron LNG export facility, Tuesday, May 14, 2019, in Hackberry, La. (Evan Vucci / AP)
By Ben Marquis
Published May 14, 2019 at 3:53pm
President Donald Trump recently held one of his famed high-energy rallies in Panama City Beach, Florida, to a jam-packed auditorium of boisterous supporters.
His over-arching message was that his administration hadn’t forgotten about the Floridians in the Panhandle — or anyone else, for that matter — whose communities were utterly ravaged in October of 2018 by Hurricane Michael, as well as other destructive hurricanes and flooding.
As it turns out, though, Trump’s vow of continued federal aid to the still-recovering region and his message of encouragement for those who live there will carry on for more than just that one night, as it was just revealed that three local radio stations in the area will proceed to broadcast clips from that speech and others by Trump on a daily basis until the day of the 2020 election.
The South Florida Sun-Sentinel reported that the three radio stations in question are the Classic Rock-themed WRBA-FM 95.9, Country-themed “HANK FM” WKNK-FM 103.5, and contemporary Adult Hits-themed “BOB FM” WASJ-FM 105.1, all of which are owned by the recently formed company Gulf Coast Media.
All three of those stations suffered significant damage to their facilities during the powerful Category 5 storm, which resulted in their absence from the air for several months while repairs were made after Gulf Coast Media purchased them from Powell Broadcasting Company in late 2018.
The owner and spokesman for Gulf Coast Media, Samuel Rogatinsky, told the Sun-Sentinel that each station would play a two-minute clip of a Trump speech at least once, if not twice, in every broadcast hour of every day until the presidential election next year.
“We ran it by a bunch of listeners and people in the area, and nobody’s upset about it. It’s Republican territory,” he said on Monday. “Nobody’s offended by it. It’s not an issue.”
Rogatinsky further explained that many Floridians had been more than pleased at the special attention they had received from the president, as many felt they had been forgotten about or overlooked by the mainstream media and the general public in the aftermath of the hurricane.
His company announced in a news release that GCM, Inc.’s “senior management acknowledged that broadcasting the President’s speeches may not be consistent with conventional commercial FM radio, but we have taken this approach to show the community’s sincere appreciation for President Donald Trump’s work in Panama City and Bay County.”
Do you agree with the radio stations owner's reasoning for this decision?
“People around the world think that Floridians are accustomed to getting battered by Hurricanes and have for the most part ignored the huge losses experienced by people in Panama City and Bay County,” the release continued. “People have forgotten about us and the community is so thankful that President Donald Trump made it crystal clear that he was here to help us.”
“After announcing the $448 million relief fund President Donald Trump stated, ‘No games, no gimmicks, no delays. We are just doing it — You’re getting your money one way or the other,'” the statement highlighted.
Rogatinsky told the Sun-Sentinel of the unconventional decision, “Really, we just want to have inspirational type things because the community is so down. Nobody else is really promising or doing anything. They want to hear what he has to say.”
TheWrap reported that Rogatinsky said, “The community really embraces Donald Trump and we are giving them what they want.”
He further added that in the interest of complying with the Federal Communications Commission’s guidelines on equal time for political candidates, he would be willing to offer a similar arrangement to any candidate who asked.
RELATED: Man Offers Panhandler Job, And That’s When Things Turn Ugly
Rogatinsky said, “If anybody requests it, it won’t be an issue. If Bernie Sanders wants equal time then we’re going to comply with the law.”
Regardless of whether the radio stations end up granting equal time to Democratic candidates or not, this is a huge win for President Trump. In a vitally important swing state, it serves almost as free advertising for his re-election campaign.
The Florida Panhandle is certainly an area that could be classified as “MAGA Country,” and the significant number of votes Trump received from that region of that state in 2016 arguably sealed his statewide victory.
With these three radio stations now promoting his concern for the region’s residents for the remainder of the 2020 election season, those Panhandle voters may very well win Florida for Trump once again.
Ben Marquis
Ben Marquis is a writer who identifies as a constitutional conservative/libertarian. He has covered current events and politics for Conservative Tribune since 2014. His focus is on protecting the First and Second Amendments.
Ben Marquis has covered current events and politics for Conservative Tribune since 2014. He reads voraciously and writes about the news of the day from a conservative-libertarian perspective. He is an advocate for a more constitutional government and a staunch defender of the Second Amendment, which protects the rest of our natural rights. He lives in Little Rock, Arkansas, with the love of his life as well as four dogs and four cats.
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Tags: 2020 election, campaign ad, Donald Trump, Florida, natural disasters, speech
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OGGIONO, Marco d'
(b. ca. 1467, Milano, d. 1524, Milano)
Italian painter. He is first documented in Milan in a contract of apprenticeship of 1487, when he undertook to teach Protasio Crivelli (d. after 1516) the art of painting miniatures; Marco must by that time have been a qualified master with a shop of his own. During the early 1490s he was in some way associated with Leonardo da Vinci: in September 1490 Leonardo's assistant Salai stole a valuable silverpoint pencil from Marco, who was then staying in the Florentine's house. In 1491 d'Oggiono and Giovanni Antonio Boltraffio were commissioned by the brothers of the late Archbishop Leonardo Griffi to paint an altarpiece for the newly constructed chapel of S Leonardo, attached to S Giovanni sul Muro, Milan; only the centrepiece of the work, a Resurrection with SS Leonardo and Lucy (Berlin, Staatliche Museen), survives. The Griffi Altarpiece was not finished until 1494. He is documented in Venice 1497-98 and in Savona 1501-02.
Although d'Oggiono did not gain much recognition as an innovator, as a pupil he skillfully learned his master's style and produced a number of faithful copies including that of the Last Supper. He tended towards exaggerated gestures in his more independent works.
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Experts: N. Korea Lacks Ability, Intent to Attack US Planes
By KIM TONG-HYUNG, Associated Press
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Military analysts say North Korea doesn't have either the capability or the intent to attack U.S. bombers and fighter jets, despite the country's top diplomat saying it has every right do so.
They view the remark by North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho and a recent propaganda video simulating such an attack as tit-for-tat responses to fiery rhetoric by U.S. President Donald Trump and his hardening stance against the North's nuclear weapons program.
By highlighting the possibility of a potential military clash on the Korean Peninsula, North Korea may be trying to create a distraction as it works behind the scenes to advance its nuclear weapons development, said Du Hyeogn Cha, a visiting scholar at Seoul's Asan Institute for Policy Studies. Another possibility is that North Korea is trying to win space to save face as it contemplates whether to de-escalate its standoff with Washington, he said Tuesday.
Speaking to reporters before leaving a U.N. meeting in New York, Ri said Trump had "declared war" on his country by tweeting that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un "won't be around much longer." Ri said North Korea has "every right" to take countermeasures, including shooting down U.S. strategic bombers, even when they're not in North Korean airspace.
The U.S. frequently sends advanced warplanes to the Korean Peninsula for patrols or drills during times of animosity. Last weekend, U.S. bombers and fighter escorts flew in international airspace east of North Korea to the farthest point north of the border between North and South Korea that they have in this century, according to the Pentagon.
Hours after the flights Sunday, a North Korean government propaganda website posted a video portraying U.S. warplanes and an aircraft carrier being destroyed by attacks. The video on DPRK Today, which was patched together from photos and crude computer-generated animation, also included footage of North Korean solid-fuel missiles being fired from land mobile launchers and a submarine. The North was clearly trying to claim it has the ability to conduct retaliatory strikes against U.S. attacks, said Hong Min, an analyst at Seoul's Korea Institute for National Unification.
Moon Seong Mook, a former South Korean military official and current senior analyst for the Seoul-based Korea Research Institute for National Strategy, said it's highly unlikely North Korea has the real-world capability to match Ri's words. North Korea's aging MiG fighters won't stance a chance against much more powerful U.S. fighters escorting long-range bombers. And while North Korea touted in May that it's ready to deploy new surface-to-air missiles that analysts say could potentially hit targets as far as 150 kilometers (93 miles) away, it's questionable how much of a threat the unproven system could pose to U.S. aircraft operating far off the country's coast, Moon said.
It's also unclear whether North Korea would be able to even see the advanced U.S. warplanes when they come. South Korea's National Intelligence Service told lawmakers in a closed-door briefing on Tuesday that the North's inadequate radar systems failed to detect the B-1B bombers as they flew east of North Korea.
The last time North Korea fired on a U.S. aircraft was in 1994 when it shot down a U.S. Army helicopter around the heavily armed inter-Korean border, killing one of the pilots and capturing the other. The surviving pilot said after his release he was pressured by North Korean officials to confess that the helicopter had crossed into North Korea. In 1969, a North Korean fighter jet shot down an unarmed U.S. reconnaissance plane and killed all 31 crewmembers on board.
It's highly unlikely North Korea would attempt a similar attack now, experts say. Amid tension created by the North's nuclear weapons tests and threat to detonate a thermonuclear missile over the Pacific Ocean, such an attack would pretty much guarantee retaliation from the United States that could lead to war, Cha said.
"The most obvious reason Ri made those comments was because North Korea simply can't tolerate such high-profile insults to its supreme leadership," Cha said. It's also possible that the North is trying to fan concerns about a potential military clash in the region now so that it can win room to save face later when it tries to de-escalate, he said.
"If Kim Jong Un ever offers a moratorium on his missile tests or makes whatever other compromise, he could say he made a big-picture decision to reduce military tension in the Korean Peninsula," Cha said. He said Ri's comments also allow China and Russian to restate their calls for a "dual suspension" of North Korean weapons tests and displays of military capability by the U.S. and South Korea.
The Trump administration's stance on North Korea has been hardening in recent months as the North has been stepping up the aggressiveness of its nuclear and missile tests. It conducted its sixth and most powerful nuclear test on Sept. 3, which it said was a thermonuclear weapon built for intercontinental ballistic missiles. It tested two ICBMs in July, displaying their potential ability to reach deep into the continental United States. North Korea has also fired two powerful midrange missiles over Japan in recent weeks.
Trump in a speech at the United Nations General Assembly last week said the United States would "totally destroy" North Korea if provoked, which prompted Kim to pledge to take the "highest-level" action against the United States. Ri then said North Korea might conduct the "most powerful" atmospheric hydrogen bomb test in the Pacific Ocean, but added that no one knew what Kim would decide.
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Jihad & Life Standards
The two different standards for divorce and marriage
Q6. Host: Would you discuss the two different standards for divorce and marriage, and kindness to our fellow man in the Koran and the Bible?
Dr. Labib: In Islam, they believe in polygamy. The man has the right to marry four women at one time. Of course you can divorce the four women, and then again marry another four women. And divorce these four women, and marry another four women, according to his wish and according to his will. Even so, I would like to say clearly that educated Muslim women do not like at all this kind of permission to the Muslim husbands. They do not like it at all! And you read it in the newspaper again, and again. When an educated woman will marry a man, she will never accept that her husband will go and marry another woman except her. Practically, the Koran is against human nature. That's one thing.
Number two, the Koran permits the husband to beat his wife, and there are lots of beatings of women legally, and I repeat, legally in Islam. And a verse in the Koran says that if you fear rebellion from women, banish them in bed, that means don't have sex with her as a punishment, and then beat them. In fact, in one of the translations, 'scourge' them. You can imagine. So if a Muslim man beats his wife, he would not feel guilty because the Koran permits him to do that. Those are some examples concerning polygamy, marrying more than one wife and the treatment of wife.
Of course, when you come to the Bible, you read the words of apostle Paul, "Men love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself for her." Do you see the difference? Love is a sacrificial gift. In the Koran it says "beat your wife, banish her in bed." Two different standards. Then, when you come to inheritance in the Koran, the woman, the daughter will inherit half of what the son receives. If you have a son and a daughter, the son will have a full inheritance. The daughter will have only half of what your son will have. And then you go and see that you are forced to obey the husband in such a humiliating way, because there is a verse in the Koran that says, "Your women are till for you, so approach your till any time you want." What does that mean? It means that the wife is totally under the control of the husband. If he wants sex in the morning, at midnight, at noon, anytime, he just orders her. If she is tired, she is not tired, there is no excuse. You, the wife of the Muslim, are under total control. She has no control on the body of her husband. But if you go to [1 Corinthians chapter 7], you read that the woman doesn't have authority over her body, but the husband. The husband doesn't have authority over his body but the wife, so it is equivalent. So the wife should satisfy the husband, the husband should satisfy the wife. In Islam it's not that way, the man is satisfied, the woman it doesn't make a difference. So you see the standard.
In divorce, the Muslim man has the right to divorce. The Muslim woman doesn't have this right, unless she writes in the marriage certificate that she has the right to divorce her husband. That will never happen, but only with the high-ranking people, very rich. Now, when someone will come to marry a very rich girl, they will state in the certificate that she has the right to divorce her husband. If that is the case, then if he will treat her badly, she can divorce him. Otherwise, the majority of women, 99% I would say, they don't have the right to divorce their husbands, but the husband has the right. And I read yesterday, just yesterday a story about a woman who was engaged to a man, who claimed to be an engineer while he was only a graduate from the preparatory school. And she got married, but they didn't enter into real marriage. And then, someone came and told her father that this man was not an engineer as he claimed. He only had a very low education. And the girl was a university graduate, and she said, "No, I am not going to marry him. I married him as an engineer." Four years in court until she got her divorce. It took four years in court, because only he has the right to divorce. After he wrote the marriage certificate, they encountered him, they said, "You are not an engineer." He said, "No." "You lied to us." He said, "Yes." "Then you have to divorce our daughter. She is not going to marry you." He said, "No way. I am going to marry her if you want or not." It took four years in court until they got the permission to divorce him.
So this is Islam, polygamy, divorce, the rights of the man. Beating is the right of the man. The woman is only a sex object. And that's it. Nobody can deny that because the Koran says all of this. If someone would say, "Oh, no, it's not that way." The verses in the Koran, verse after verse, after verse declare what I have said, it is all documented, fully documented.
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Originals, Reporting
A project on Medium to chronicle Indonesia’s anti-communist purges is now a moving digital scrapbook.
Hundreds of writers are volunteering their time to contribute to Ingat 65, a journalist-led project to ensure the 1960s massacres are never forgotten.
By Erin Cook
Splice Indonesia
PUBLISHED 31 Jan 2018, 9:43 pm
It is difficult to find consensus on how many people were killed in Indonesia’s 1965-66 anti-communist purges. Some estimates put it at 500,000 deaths; others reach three million.
For decades, there was one official story about what had happened: nothing at all.
Only in recent years has it been possible for the official narrative to be freely challenged. And now a new generation of savvy young journalists is doing just that through the Ingat 65 — ‘Remember 65’ — project on Medium to chronicle Indonesia’s hidden history.
Chief editor Prodita Sabarini says that mainstream publications, particularly Tempo, Kompas and the Jakarta Post, have improved their coverage of the political implications of the period, as well as the demands of survivors and their families. But she believes personal narratives, such as those advanced by Ingat 65, are the most powerful tool to ensure the era is remembered.
“I was one of those people who believed communism is bad,” as a result of the skewed education she received. “It was imprinted.”
A project is born
The idea for Ingat 65 was conceived after Sabarini saw the critically acclaimed 2012 documentary “The Act of Killing”, which was banned from cinemas in Indonesia, while completing a prestigious fellowship in the U.S. She was able to speak with the director, Joshua Oppenheimer, and their conversations began to change her perception of the past.
“For me personally, I started to acknowledge the sheer scale of the crime that happened as an adult. After a lot of deep talking and thinking, I returned to Indonesia wanting to do something about ‘65,” Sabarini says.
The film also opened up her eyes to how effective propaganda can be: as a teenager during the final Suharto years, she says, she was unaware that she was living under a dictatorship.
Launched in March 2016, Ingat 65 has been heavily influenced by a New York Times storywall project that saw writers from the transgender community share personal narratives. In that time, Ingat 65 has grown into a moving digital scrapbook featuring personal essays and stories from more than 100 volunteer writers.
“Sharing personal stories is valid, and it works, because there’s no assigning of blame—it’s all self-expression and people trying to claim space,” she says. “Everybody should be able to express themselves.”
It’s an ethos that has paid off for Ingat 65, which has been able to steadily catalogue stories that otherwise would be in danger of disappearing forever along with the aging generation that lived through the massacre.
This project by @prodita on Medium is preserving personal accounts of Indonesia's 1960s anti-communist massacres. By @imerincook
A selection of propaganda leaflets blaming the Indonesian Communist Party for the 30 September 1965 movement. (Wikimedia Commons/Davidelit)
Harassment and intimidation
But the project faces two major obstacles, according to Sabarini, an editor at The Conversation Indonesia who runs Ingat 65 in her free time.
Interest in fully addressing the crimes of 1965 waxes and wanes. Each year around September 30, the date on which alleged members of the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) assassinated six army generals in a failed coup attempt, schoolchildren are made to watch a Suharto-era propaganda video that justifies the ensuing year of violence, while human rights activists call for resolution. Outside of that period, there is little sustained interest in the case.
And communism not only is still highly stigmatised in Indonesia, but illegal, and being accused of harboring sympathy toward PKI can lead to jail time. Indonesia does not share many of the tougher media restrictions imposed by some of its regional neighbors, but a culture of self-censorship persists amid intimidation by powerful political groups. At a cultural event held in Central Jakarta in 2017, hardline conservatives gathered to protest against young left-wing activists, accusing the group of being communists. While Sabarini had left the venue prior to the altercation, the Ingat 65 editorial team has also been targeted by anti-communists.
“We were cyber-harassed—they took photos from our Facebook [page] and said that we were affiliated with PKI,” Sabarini says.
The attack came just a few months after President Joko Widodo, himself regularly the target of communist slurs from opponents, said PKI should be rooted out.
An editorial cartoon from the front page of the Communist Party of Indonesia (PKI) newspaper "Harian Rakyat" published 2 October 1965.
She is joined by a team of volunteers, largely made up of writers and academic, who have also faced online and physical harassment during periods of intense scrutiny.
“Being associated with communism is dangerous, even if you’re not communist,” says Sabarini. “Some of us were very, very scared, but we do this because we care. A lot of us have never been street activists—we’re just regular people who have jobs and want to do something.”
“We laid low for a bit and then refocused on the core of our movement, which is personal storytelling.”
Erin Cook is a Jakarta-based journalist covering Asean and Southeast Asian politics. She curates the Dari Mulut ke Mulut newsletter, bringing together the top stories and best in analysis from the region every Friday. Follow Erin Cook on Twitter.
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‘Clifford the Big Red Dog’ Creator Norman Bridwell Dead at 86
Prolific children’s author penned 40 titles, which sold over 60 million copies
Travis Reilly | December 16, 2014 @ 5:20 PM
“Clifford the Big Red Dog” creator Norman Bridwell died in Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts on Friday, according to publisher Scholastic. He was 86.
The children’s author created Clifford in 1963 and is credited with having penned and illustrated more than 150 titles starring the cartoon canine since, which have gone on to sell over 129 million copies in over a dozen languages.
In addition to his popularity in print, Clifford has crossed over to both television and film. Scholastic Studios produced an animated “Clifford the Big Red Dog” series for PBS Kids from 2000 to 2003. John Ritter (“Three’s Company”) voiced Clifford for an animated feature film in 2004, “Clifford’s Really Big Movie,” which co-starred Wayne Brady, Jenna Elfman and John Goodman.
See photos: Hollywood’s Notable Deaths of 2014
Universal has a “Clifford the Big Red Dog” film slated for a 2016 release. As TheWrap first reported, David Bowers will direct.
“Norman Bridwell’s books about Clifford, childhood’s most loveable dog, could only have been written by a gentle man with a great sense of humor,” said Dick Robinson, Chairman, President and CEO, Scholastic. “Norman personified the values that we as parents and educators hope to communicate to our children – kindness, compassion, helpfulness, gratitude – through the Clifford stories which have been loved for more than fifty years.
“The magic of the character and stories Norman created with Clifford is that children can see themselves in this big dog who tries very hard to be good, but is somewhat clumsy and always bumping into things and making mistakes. What comforts the reader is that Clifford is always forgiven by Emily Elizabeth, who loves him unconditionally,” Robinson continued. “At Scholastic, we are deeply saddened by the loss of our loyal and talented friend whose drawings and stories have inspired all of us and generations of children and their parents.”
See photo: David Bowers in Talks to Direct ‘Clifford the Big Red Dog'; Illumination Drops Off (Exclusive)
Bridwell was born in Kokomo, Indiana, in 1928. He studied at Indianapolis’ John Herron Art Institute before attending Cooper Union in New York. His Clifford manuscript was turned down by nine different publishers before finding a home at Scholastic, where Bridwell and Clifford would remain for well over 50 years.
See photos: 15 Books That Scored Better Big Screen Titles — ‘Cruel Intentions,’ ‘Die Hard,’ ‘Goodfellas’
The prolific author completed two more Clifford books for Scholastic before his death, which are set for a 2015 release: “Clifford Goes to Kindergarten” and “Clifford Celebrates Hanukkah.”
Bridwell is survived by his wife, Norma, their daughter Emily Elizabeth, son Timothy and three grandchildren.
Netflix Climbs Aboard ‘The Magic School Bus’ for New Adventures
By Jason Hughes | June 11, 2014 @ 2:12 AM
David Bowers in Talks to Direct ‘Clifford the Big Red Dog'; Illumination Drops Off (Exclusive)
By Lucas Shaw | September 13, 2013 @ 11:18 AM
TheWrap pays tribute to Hollywood and media's notable deaths
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‘Shrek’ Wins Moribund Holiday Wknd, Box Office Down 14 Percent
DreamWorks sequel beats premieres of “Sex and the City 2” and “Prince of Persia”
Daniel Frankel | May 31, 2010 @ 8:55 AM Last Updated: June 1, 2010 @ 12:28 PM
Its debut a week ago sent DreamWorks Animation stock tumbling, but the second-week performance of "Shrek Forever After" was strong enough to win a weak overall box office that was down 14 percent from the four-day Memorial Day weekend last year, according to studio estimates.
The fourth "Shrek" grossed an estimated $55.7 million, besting the premiere of Warner/New Line’s "Sex and the City 2," which brought in $39.5 million over the same four-day period.
The HBO-spawned sequel premiered strongly on Thursday, with a core female fan base driving $14.2 million of business. However, those figures don’t count into the Memorial Day box-office stats.
Overall, "Sex 2" has grossed an estimated $53.7 million over its first five days, which was below pre-release projections of $60 million. The film costs about $80 million to produce
Meanwhile, Disney’s Jerry Bruckheimer epic "Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time" finished third with $37.8 million. That would seem to make profitability tough for a film with a reported price tag of over $200 million.
However, following a soft $18 million debut in 14 foreign territories last weekend, "Prince of Persia" grossed $67 million in 47 international markets this time around, while debuting No. 1 in Russia, China, India, France, Korea and Mexico.
"Even in the U.K., where we were off to a slow start, we were up 20 percent," noted Chuck Viane," president of theatrical distribution for Disney.
With $133.3 million in global gross so far, Viane hopes the film — which attempts to cast Jake Gyllenhaal as an action star and received a B CinemaScore grade — can hold strongly next weekend.
"I look forward to the fact that 40 percent of kids are out of school Tuesday," he said.
Certainly, no movie has benefited from the availability of kiddie audiences like the 3D "Shrek Forever After," which saw its three-day weekend performance decline a respectable 39 percent from its premiere.
Of course, the performance lagged 56 percent from the week-two bounty of "Shrek the Third" in 2007. But with several more weeks to dominate the family market — and 3D screens — until Disney’s "Toy Story 3" arrives, "Forever After" is finding a niche.
"This was a terrific play time for the movie. We knew family audiences would be available," noted Anne Globe, head of marketing for DreamWorks.
The fourth "Shrek" has grossed $145.5 in the U.S. and Canada so far.
Among other notable highlights this weekend, Disney’s 3D "Alice in Wonderland" crept over the $1.06 billion mark, surpassing Warner’s "The Dark Knight" as the No. 5 grossing movie worldwide of all time.
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Things To Do in Russian River Vineyards, Restaurants in Russian River Vineyards
Russian River Vineyards
Things to do United States
The 10 Best Things to Do in Forestville, United States
Forestville is a census-designated place (CDP) in Sonoma County, California, United States. It was settled by European Americans during the late 1860s and was originally named Forrestville after one of its founders. The spelling long ago became standardized with one "r". The population was 3,293 at the 2010 census, an increase of nearly 1,000 since the 2000 census.
#Kayaking & Canoeing #Outdoor Activities #Tours #Boat Tours & Water Sports #Burke's Canoe Trips on the Russian River
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“Japan needs a political settlement on its past” (英文) 「戦時補償－米捕虜訴訟」寄稿が翻訳掲載
2001年10月23日“Japan needs a political settlement on its past” (英文) 「戦時補償－米捕虜訴訟」寄稿が翻訳掲載
「戦時補償－米捕虜訴訟」寄稿が海外にも反響！英文に翻訳掲載
Asahi Evening News(International Herald Tribune)
Point of View/ Yukihisa Fujita
“Japan needs a political settlement on its past”
The greatest achievement of the San Francisco Peace Treaty to which Japan owes its postwar independence, democracy and prosperity is the renunciation of claims for war reparations from Japan. It not only accelerated Japan’s postwar reconstruction but also brought about long-term regional stability and can thus be called the most successful peace treaty of the 20th century.
However, since China, Taiwan, the Republic of Korea (South Korea) and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea) were not invited to the conference and the Soviet Union opposed the treaty, Japan’s peace with neighboring countries was put off and Japan has neglected to settle its past. The peace treaty is nothing more than a legal solution between governments. As such, reconciliation with individual victims and moral solution were pushed back.
Japan’s failure to properly deal with the situation for a half century has led to a global movement of victims of Japan’s aggression to demand compensation. Former U.S. prisoners of war have sued Japanese companies one after another for wartime forced labor and the U.S. Congress passed bills to support them. Asian Americans and Europeans are also joining the movement.
Meanwhile, a trend to seek moral and humanitarian redress “to settle the past” is gaining momentum around the world. In 1990, the U.S. president apologized to and compensated Japanese-Americans for their internment during the war. In 1995, the French president apologized to the Jewish people who suffered persecution. The Pope also did so in 2000. Last year, 1 million Australians took part in marches to signify their apology to the Aborigines.
Thanks to freedom of information, history that had been covered up is being exposed based on “present standards of justice” and is moving victims to demand an apology. In response, the present-day leaders and citizens are apologizing for these acts of the past.
Japan, which refuses to listen to such demands saying it has legally settled the claims of former U.S. prisoners of war with the peace treaty,stands out in international society that it is running counter to the trend. I hear that it’s not money that the former prisoners of war are demanding. What they want is an apology to heal their psychological wounds so that they may live the remaining years of their lives in peace.
Although the U.S. government is officially supporting Japan’s legal position, it is unhappy with Japan’s inability “to settle its past” as seen in Prime
Minister Junichiro Koizumi’s visit to Yasukuni Shrine. Apart from its official stance, it really wants Japan to take the initiative to make a political settlement.
A new trend to recognize individual claims is also emerging. Some scholars say that the peace treaty does not necessarily deny such claims and a few district courts ruled that the Japanese government is responsible for bringing Chinese and Korean people to Japan against their will during the war.
When former U.S. soldiers sued German companies for subjecting them to forced labor, even though the court ruled in favor of the companies, the German side established the “Remembrance, Responsibility and the Future” fund and reconciled with the plaintiffs. Furthermore, it had the U.S. and German governments accept the settle ment as final. Japanese companies would also probably win in court but they will have to pay a high price for their inflexible attitude in the form of boycotts and public outrage.
It will be 50 years in April next year since the peace treaty took effect and I wish to take this opportunity to make the following proposals:
1) Companies involved should get together to reach an out-of-court settlement;
2) Disputes should be settled while the plaintiffs, who are aging former prisoners of war, are alive;
3) The Japanese government should apologize to individual prisoners of war;
4) Japan should reach an agreement with the U.S. government over these proposed settlements.
As a director of the International MRA (Moral Re-Armament) in Switzerland, I initiated a seminar titled “An Agenda for Reconciliation” at which conflicting parties meet there each year to hold dialogue. Through this process, I came to realize that reconciliation starts from settling the past and establishing justice.
In response to the terrorist attacks on the United States, Japan is urged to stand up to terrorists based on law and justice and endeavor to eradicate terrorism by nonmilitary means such as fighting poverty. Also in order to make such contribution effective, I think Japan needs to settle its past once and for all and win international trust.
The author is a former Minshuto (Democratic Party of Japan) Lower House member and director of the International MRA Association of Japan.
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For Juvenile Offenders, Supreme Court Ruling Opens Door To Parole
by Sayre Quevedo
Also Featured on All Things Considered
Photo Credit: Brett Myers/Youth Radio
Originally aired on NPR’s All Things Considered on February 15, 2016
In 2012, The United States Supreme Court ruled that it was cruel and unusual punishment for juvenile offenders to receive automatic sentences of life without the possibility of parole. But until a few weeks ago, it was uncertain whether the ruling applied retroactively. Now, a new decision from the high court puts those questions to rest.
As a teenager, Efren Paredes was convicted of murder and he’s been serving mandatory life without parole ever since. Now 42 years old, Paredes has spent the last 26 years of his life in Michigan prisons. And ever since the Supreme Court ruling in 2012, he’s been on pins and needles hoping he might get a shot at parole.
“Weeks turned into months and months turned into a couple years,” said Paredes. “It was difficult to deal with that.”
The Montgomery v Louisiana ruling will affect an estimated two thousand people already behind bars for convictions they received as juveniles. Now states will have to review sentences like Paredes, meaning release could become an option for all those who were sentenced to mandatory life without parole when they were juveniles.
The Supreme Court decisions point to science showing that the human brain isn’t fully formed until age 25. Underscoring teenager’s diminished culpability, and their unique capacity for change and rehabilitation.
But for Jody Robinson who runs the National Organization of Victims of Juvenile Murderers, the new ruling is a slap in the face.
“They’re saying it’s a wrong to throw them away and have them die in prison. What they’re saying to me when they say something like that is, ‘Your brother’s life was taken purposefully and cut short, and that doesn’t mean anything,’” said Robinson.
Robinson’s older brother, James Cotaling, was killed by a teen more than 25 years ago. Before January’s decision, she felt assured her days inside courtrooms were finally over. But if the offender is given a parolable sentence Robinson says she’ll have no choice but to fight that parole every time her brother’s murderer becomes eligible.
“Now I am the one sentenced to a life sentence,” said Robinson. “I could be back in court every two years for the rest of my life.”
Even before the Montgomery ruling, some states had already interpreted the earlier court decision retroactively.
Edel Gonzalez was one of the first juvenile lifters to be paroled in California. He spent 23 years in prison after participating in a carjacking when he was 16. He ran out in front of a Toyota Carolla, and when the driver refused to open her door, a fellow gang member shot her in the head.
“I live with that for the rest of my life and I will never forget that. It is hard to talk about it, and unfortunately I can’t take my actions back,” said Gonzalez.
Both the resentencing judge and parole officials pointed to Gonzalez’s remorse and his exemplary prison record as examples that he had rehabilitated himself. But Gonzalez says he understands that he still needs to prove himself to society as a whole.
“I know how society looks at people like me,” said Gonzalez. “That people like myself cannot be rehabilitated. But because we’re young and as we grow up we do change. We learn.”
Jody Kent Lavy, who directs the Campaign for the Fair Sentencing of Youth, hopes judges will keep an open mind when it comes to re-sentencing youth offenders.
“The work is to insure that judges and parole board officials really embrace this notion that kids are different and that the unique characteristics of children really counsel against these very extreme and harsh punishments,” said Lavy.
Efren Paredes tells fellow juvenile lifers they have to be patient as state officials review their cases.
“You know I tell guys, if you’ve waited 20 years you can wait a few more months for this thing to get resolved,” said Paredes.
Within six months, Paredes could be resentenced and become eligible for parole, or Michigan prosecutors have the option to argue for life without parole all over again. Except now, they’ll have to satisfy tougher standards laid out by the high court, proving that a young offender is incorrigible —-with no hope of being rehabilitated.
Justicejuvenile justicelife without paroleMontgomery v louisianamurderParoleSupreme Court
How Three Cities Tackled ICE Raids
by Denise Tejada and Emiliano Villa
Meet the Four Congresswomen of ‘the Squad’
by Sierra Fang-Horvath
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Bitcoin to consume 0.5% of the world’s electricity — as much as Ireland
Last updated on May 16th, 2018 at 9:27 pm by Mihai Andrei
Everyone’s favorite cryptocurrency is turning out to be a massive energy sink. According to a new study, in 2018, Bitcoin will soon account for 0.5% of the planet’s electricity — more than the consumption of many sizeable countries.
Cryptocurrency promised to revolutionize how we pay and receive money, and while they haven’t really done that, they did make a few people very rich. Aside from that, the social promises made by cryptocurrencies have yet to be fulfilled, and we’re starting to see some of the downsides of cryptocurrencies — in this case, energy consumption.
Most of the Bitcoin-related energy is consumed in the “mining” process. Mining is essentially a record-keeping service done through the use of computer processing power. Miners keep the blockchain consistent, complete, and unalterable by repeatedly grouping newly broadcast transactions into a block, which consumes a massive amount of energy (the blockchain itself is a list of records linked and secured using cryptography).
The problem is that you can’t really have Bitcoin without immense computation, and this level of computation will always require vast amounts of energy. Miners are incentivized to use more and more processing power and even those who don’t get anything expend electricity.
If Bitcoin miners were a country, they’d rank somewhere between the 60th and 70th for consumed electricity — that’s more than half the countries in the world.
In a Commentary appearing on May 16 in the journal Joule, financial economist and blockchain specialist Alex de Vries analyzes this energy consumption using a new methodology.
“The electricity that is expended in the process of mining Bitcoin has become a topic of heavy debate over the past few years. It is a process that makes Bitcoin extremely energy-hungry by design, as the currency requires a huge amount of hash calculations for its ultimate goal of processing financial transactions without intermediaries(peer-to-peer). The primary fuel for each of these calculations is electricity.”
His estimate put the minimum current usage of the Bitcoin network at 2.55 gigawatts annually, though the real figure is likely much higher. That’s about as much as Ireland, and two times more than countries like Paraguay and Lithuania. A single transaction uses as much electricity as an average household in the developed world uses in a month, and to make matters even worse — things are only going to get worse as Bitcoin-related energy consumption increases.
“To me, half a percent is already quite shocking. It’s an extreme difference compared to the regular financial system, and this increasing electricity demand is definitely not going to help us reach our climate goals,” he says. If the price of Bitcoin continues to increase the way some experts have predicted, de Vries believes the network could someday consume 5% of the world’s electricity. “That would be quite bad.”
This raises two important questions. First, is Bitcoin really adding any value to society? Sure, you can speculate around it, maybe make some money, maybe lose some money. But at the end of the day, for mankind, is Bitcoin really adding anything of value — especially considering how you spend electricity (and therefore money) to generate it? Secondly, there are important externalities associated with Bitcoin. It’s not just the money, but also the emissions generated in the electricity-producing process — who will account for that? Some states are already taking the first steps towards Bitcoin regulation, and that’s really important, not just for what’s happening now, but for what will undoubtedly happen in the future.
“But you need to base your policy on something. And I think that my method is important in that regard, because it’s very forward-looking. It’s focused not on the now, but on where we’re headed. And I think that’s something you really need to know if you’re going to draft policy about it,” he says.
Mining Bitcoins gets harder and harder, so at one point, the cost of electricity will outweigh the Bitcoin revenue. But we’re still a long way from reaching that equilibrium, and it doesn’t make much sense to wait for that to happen — after all, a new currency could come up and take Bitcoin’s place, and then we’re back to square one. As de Vries concludes:
“For now, however, Bitcoin has a big problem, and it is growing fast.”
Journal Reference: Joule, de Vries: “Bitcoin’s Growing Energy Problem” http://www.cell.com/joule/fulltext/S2542-4351(18)30177-6
Tags: bitcoinelectricityenergy
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‘Almighty Voice and his Wife’ at The Southern Theater
in Arts · Theater
MINNEAPOLIS — When is the last time you saw a fully staged production of a full-length play by a Native playwright? If your answer is never, here’s your chance to change that. This March, Turtle Theater Collective presents the U.S. premiere of Almighty Voice and his Wife, an iconic text of the Native theater canon by Delaware playwright Daniel David Moses. Almighty Voice and His Wife tells the true story of a Cree man arrested for killing a cow. Under threat of hanging he escapes, unleashing a year-long manhunt that gives rise to his status as a martyr and a legend. The work consists of two vividly contrasting acts that explore Almighty Voice as both victim and hero. The first act is a tender and intimate portrait of him and his wife in life; the second is an outlandish white-faced vaudeville routine of the two in the afterlife.
Directed by Katherine Pardue, the play features a cast of local actors and theater-makers. Here’s what they have to say about the process of bringing this U.S. premiere to life:
Presented by Turtle Theater Collective
Turtle Theater Collective presents the U.S. premiere of Almighty Voice and his Wife, an iconic text of the Native theater canon by Delaware playwright Daniel David Moses. Almighty Voice and his Wife tells the true story of a Cree man arrested for killing a cow. Under threat of hanging he escapes, unleashing a year-long manhunt that gives rise to his status as a martyr and a legend. The work consists of two vividly contrasting acts that explore Almighty Voice as both victim and hero. The first act is a tender and intimate portrait of him and his wife in life; the second is an outlandish white-faced vaudeville routine of the two in the afterlife.
Marisa Carr
“I first read the play Almighty Voice and his Wife late on a snowy night at the very beginning of 2016. I had some passing familiarity with Daniel David Moses’s work – I’d played Lena in a reading of Coyote Citywith New Native Theater a few years back and read City of Shadows – so I was excited to dive back into the canon of his writing. I fell in love with the play on impact. I adored it for its humor and intelligence and poignancy and theatricality, and for the razor–sharp jabsit takes at how Native people have been(and often still are) asked or required to perform ourselves for a colonial audience – an issue that’s almost always present for me as a Native theater artist. The very clever way it reverses the gaze back onto mainstream portrayals of Native peoples make it a perfect first production for the Turtle Theater Collective – it almost serves as a thesis statement for why our mission and vision are so very necessary.”
Ajuawak Kapashesit
“One of the things that excites me about this project is the history around it, how it comes from a true story of a Cree man caught in circumstances beyond his control. The more I have read about him and the history, as it is remembered, the more complex it becomes. Stories often change with time and it’s interesting to see how he has changed in our narratives. Beyond that, this play also brings his wife, White Girl, into the picture beyond anything else I have read or seen and gives perspective of her life and how they factor into each other’s stories. Almighty Voice didn’t stand in a vacuum in life; it makes no sense to keep the rest of his life out of the story. The characterization of White Girl is important for understanding a larger picture of what happened. This play is particularly exciting for me as it takes a look at the story of Almighty Voice and White Girl but also takes a look at how they, and other native people, have been portrayed.”
Friday, March 9 at 7:30 p.m.
Saturday, March 10 at 2:00 p.m.
Sunday, March 11 at 2:00 p.m.
General admission: $20 in advance, $24 at the door
Students and seniors: $12
ARTshare members: Free
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Case Studies //
Governance, Strategy and Business Planning
A whole new goal
The Lacrosse Foundation
"David Saint was very helpful in getting us to focus on the issues facing the Foundation. He’s obviously aware of what charities of our size need to be thinking about and he knows how to get people working together. His neutrality was very useful in enabling us to move forward."
ROB COLLINGE, CHAIR, THE LACROSSE FOUNDATION
The Lacrosse Foundation was a very small charity, turning over less than £25,000 a year, with a mission to support the sport in England. Recently, however, it received a £1million legacy donation, which prompted the trustees to reconsider the purpose and direction of the charity. They recruited seven new trustees, bringing the total to nine, and began the process of redefining their strategy. One of the new trustees, who was familiar with Action Planning, proposed that David Saint should be approached to help begin the strategic planning process.
The overnight change of focus caused by the £1m windfall meant the Foundation was almost starting from scratch, with trustees who needed to be brought together and assigned roles, and a whole new strategy to work out. David Saint was asked to facilitate a strategic planning process to help gel the new trustees and direct everybody’s thinking towards the future aims of the Foundation.
David began by speaking to each of the trustees individually, to gather their strengths and learn about their motivations and experience. He followed this up with a series of three strategic planning workshops. These began with various exercises designed to bond the group, help them to get to know one another and to start sharing their ideas. David used C-Me Profiling, a method for defining candidates’ personality traits, to help the trustees understand their own, and each other’s, potential strengths and weaknesses. The group then worked towards cementing values and a mission statement to give direction to the charity’s strategic goals, which were mapped out over the next 10 years. Finally, David led the group in focusing in on the finer details, such as a proposed funding model and who was responsible for what. He wrote up the outcomes of the sessions in a report to help guide the Foundation in the implementation of its strategy.
According to Foundation chair Rob Collinge, the planning sessions instilled the spirit of working together as a team and provided clarity on individual roles. They were left with a clear understanding of how to relaunch the charity and raise awareness of their existence and activities within the sport, and the confidence to now continue the mission on their own.
Consultant’s insight:
Having a lot more money than you ever expected may be an unusual experience for many charities – but although it may be a welcome one, it does bring challenges of its own. The trustees of the Lacrosse Foundation wisely wanted to take a strategic approach to the opportunity, rather than risk frittering the money away on myriad small initiatives, or blowing the lot on a flagship ‘vanity project’. They were willing to invest the time and effort in a thorough strategic planning process, to ensure that the sport of lacrosse received the maximum benefit from this unexpected windfall.
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Colorado Doctor Looks to VLJ to Aid in Pioneering Cancer Treatment
By Jeff Mattoon
Dr. David Schreiber with his 2004 Piper Malibu Meridian.
Dr. David P. Schreiber will be one of the first on his block, in his town, in the country to be the proud owner of the new breed of aircraft, the VLJ. We probably still need to remind folks that VLJ stands for Very Light Jet, but the need for a reminder is probably short lived as the new category builds steam—or thrust as it were. Dr. Schreiber has laid down a deposit on a new Cessna Citation Mustang and he can’t wait to take delivery.
All 6-year-old David Schreiber could think about was being an astronaut. That made complete sense in 1962, as John Glenn became the first American to orbit the Earth, continuing the new space race, pitting the United States against the world to be the first to land on the moon by the end of the decade, as challenged by President John F. Kennedy.
These were exciting times, filling youngsters’ heads with thoughts of flight that, for some, provided a catalyst to change their lives and the lives of others—and young David Schreiber wanted all that this new hope had to offer.
He was a new teenager when Neil Armstrong took the “One Giant Leap for Mankind” on the moon, providing the lad inspiration to be one of the first to take an even bigger leap—to Mars. All he had to do was get through school and enter the astronaut program. Simple.
To be sure, Schreiber was a smart young man. He exited high school and entered Stanford University with a hugely ambitious goal of creating his own major to satisfy his now two passions: medicine and space.
“At Stanford, you could do that,” he said. “So I created a major called space medicine, and began taking courses like astrobiology and astrophysics and regular biology and pre-med courses.”
It was a demanding load and as he found out, a very complicated major. So Schreiber made a decision that would affect thousands of people for the better. He dropped the space portion of his major and applied to pre-med.
The decision wasn’t solely based out of the difficulty factor. Pragmatic Schreiber realized that the space program was moving on quickly and had actually perhaps peaked. So when he graduated—after just three years—he was faced with a choice.
“I thought ‘They don’t want a 20-year-old,'” he recalled. “They were recruiting Ph.D. engineers and 10,000-hour pilots, so I decided to go to medical school and revisit the whole astronaut situation later.”
So Schreiber did what thousands of young men and woman have done before him: he completed school, grew a family, started his own medical practice and suppressed his dream of flying. That is until about the age of 30.
“I really wanted to learn how to fly, and I was at a point in my practice where I had the means to do it,” he said. “But I really wanted to learn aerodynamics well, so I became a glider pilot. I wanted to know that planes could fly without engines. I wanted to be self-sufficient. To know that I didn’t need anything other than wings. I wanted to feel the rush of the air, and I wanted to know what made it fly and what made it stall. I wanted to know the joy of flying and the glider was pure joy.”
Aeronautically, things were going well for him. That is until they closed the glider port.
“I didn’t fly for about six months to a year,” he said. “Then I decided to explore powered flight. So I went to a local flying school at Centennial Airport in Colorado, where at the time all the flight instructors were on call. I paid for an introductory flight and just fell in love with flying at that point and never looked back.”
The Colorado resident met up with CSI Steve Arthur, who happened to be at the school on his day off with his dog.
Littleton Radiation Oncology, which houses the Prostate Seed Center, is the only single-physician owned, free-standing radiation clinic in Colorado.
“I was real lucky to get hooked up with him,” Schreiber recalled. “At the time, it was obvious to me that Steve was an experienced pilot. He was between airline jobs and was going to school to get his master’s in something to do with teaching. That was great because his teaching style fit my learning style perfectly.”
Schreiber earned his private in six months and his instrument in six months. He had that for six months when he went for his commercial, which took him three months to obtain.
“Steve was my instructor the whole way and we still go up every couple of months or so,” he said.
While his piloting skills flourished, his doctoring skills mushroomed. Dr. Schreiber selected oncology, the study and treatment of tumors, as his specialty, and thousands of patients are glad he did.
Schreiber is the president of Front Range Radiation Oncology, which operates the Littleton Radiation Oncology clinic. It’s the only free-standing radiological clinic in Colorado solely owned by an individual physician. Schreiber treats all types of cancers, but in particular, prostate cancer.
In 1994, he began using a type of treatment that at the time was investigational, but after his success, is now a recognized treatment by all major insurance carriers. Brachytherapy involves the implantation of small radioactive pellets, or seeds, in and around the tumor to selectively kill the cancer cells.
Prior to his development of the method, a patient with a prostate tumor had few options for treatment; usually it involved external radiation treatment or surgery, which carry with them extreme side effects including incontinence and impotence. Brachytherapy was used in the past, but only as an adjunct treatment. Schreiber thought, “Why not make it the primary mode of treatment for prostate cancer?”
That’s what he did, and the results are overwhelming. Seed implant therapy is less expensive than traditional treatments, length of therapy went from seven weeks to 45 minutes, and as mentioned earlier, there are minimal side effects.
“We’ve cut the death rate by 25 percent,” he said. “We’ve increased the early detection rate, we’ve cut the cost of therapy and we’ve improved the quality of life for men, because these men have far fewer risks when they have a seed implant than when the have a prostatectomy. That is extremely gratifying for a physician.”
Schreiber’s time is at a premium as he improves his methods and applies them to other cancers, including an ambitious goal of reducing breast cancer treatment from the traditional treatment time of seven weeks down to 45 minutes. He is asked to consult and aid in product development all over the country, so it was only natural that his interest in flying would cross over to aid him in the medical practice.
Initially, he flew across the state west into the Rockies to treat patients, but now limits his flying to conferences and out-of-state consultations and business meetings. He currently has all his hours for the ATP, but is waiting for his Mustang for the type-rating. His purchase of airplanes has been as methodical as his treatment strategies, and it could be a study in a person who understands mission-oriented equipment selection.
“My first aircraft was a Mooney,” he said. “It was a wonderful plane, but it didn’t have the capability of flying into the mountains that I wanted. It didn’t have de-icing and it wasn’t turbo-charged, so I decided to sell it and purchase a Piper Malibu.”
The Piper Malibu, a completely new six-place piston aircraft for Piper in 1983, sported a sleek, sunken rivet fuselage, a pressurized cabin, long wings giving it great fuel efficiency and a max cruising speed that exceeded 200 knots. Range was over 1,500 nm with a service ceiling of 25,000 feet. Schreiber bought and sold three Malibus before he decided that engine reliability was of prime concern.
A framed picture of the Cessna Citation Mustang reminds David P. Schreiber, M.D. of swift and smooth flying days ahead.
“The Malibus were great, but the piston engines were unreliable,” he said. “I never had an engine failure, but I had the last one in three times for AD’s (airworthiness directives), things cracked, and oil issues. Then the Lycoming crankshaft was the last straw; that’s when I decided to go with the Piper Meridian.”
In 1988, the Malibu became the Malibu Mirage, with a beefier Lycoming 350-hp piston engine. There were other changes including redesigned electrical system and interior modifications. And then in 1998—after numerous improvements to the Mirage—The New Piper Aircraft, Inc. released the Malibu Meridian.
The Meridian is genetically a Malibu, but it’s been genetically altered. Starting at the nose is a Hartzell four-blade, constant speed, reversible propeller bolted to a Pratt & Whitney 500-hp turboprop power plant. All of that sits in front of a stainless steel firewall. The wing area was increased to lower the stall speed to 61 knots. The tail and rudder areas were also increased.
The first Meridian Schreiber purchased was a 2001 model, and he liked it a great deal. It was quicker and smoother with increased engine reliability, but he quickly discovered its limitations.
“As my business and family grew, it didn’t have enough useful load, and it had temperature limitations that confined me to 24,000 feet or lower in the winter,” he said.
Once again it was time for a change. Another Meridian would get the nod from Schreiber. This time he purchased the 2004 20th Anniversary Malibu Special Edition Meridian.
“The new plane has fuel recirculating, a load increase, and much better avionics with weather uplinking. It could actually be RVSM certified, but that’s just too much money to spend for the benefit. I’ll wait for the Mustang for that,” the good doctor said with a gleam in his eye.
When you talk with Schreiber, you understand quickly that he knows what he’s talking about, whether it’s medicine or aircraft. His thoughts flow from his head to his mouth quickly and smoothly as he describes an innovation he suggested to the local avionics integrator on his new Meridian. The system was configured with the Integrated Hazard Avoidance System, receiving its signal from GPS 1 only, and no signal from GPS 2. Schreiber noticed this upon the power-up sequence where GPS 2 fired before GPS 1 and the IHAS showed a “no signal” indication.
“I asked (the avionics integrator), ‘What happens when your GPS 1 goes down?'” he recalled. “He said ‘Nothing, you can’t use it.’ I said, ‘It sounds reasonable to me that if you have two perfectly good GPS units in your airplane and one goes down, you should be able to switch to the other one.’ He said he agreed, but didn’t know how to do it and he’d have to call Honeywell. Honeywell said that no one had ever asked them that question before.”
Between Honeywell and the integrator, they created a switch between the two GPS units to feed the IHAS. (By the way, can you switch between GPS units in your plane?)
With the faster airplanes, Schreiber enjoys traveling on his own schedule.
“I often beat the airlines wherever I’m going, unless I need to make a stop,” he said. “Even then, when I fly to Florida, I’m only behind about an hour, so that’s worth it.”
Schreiber has been strategic in his flying and his business.
“The new Meridian’s capabilities have really made flying fun,” he said. “That’s why I started flying in the first place. It’s nice that I can develop my business around my flying, and I look forward to business trips in my plane. That said, I specifically choose larger cities to conduct business, because if there’s a large thunderstorm that I don’t feel comfortable with, I’ll leave my plane and buy a round-trip commercial ticket. I’d rather return the following week and fly safe, because whatever the cost of the ticket, it’s not worth my life. Fortunately, now with the newer Meridian, I don’t have to make that choice as often.”
The Mustang will be Schreiber’s first multi-engine plane, and that’s by design. He has intentionally avoided multi-engine aircraft.
“The twin-engine plane is trying to kill you,” he said. “I can feel it. The plane is saying ‘I’m going to kill you, and what are you going to do about it?'”
While everyone doesn’t hold his views, there are certainly many who have as strong an opinion.
“On takeoff, you have about five to 10 seconds to figure it out,” he said. “And it’s possible, by the recent crashes at Centennial, that two pilots may not have figured it out.”
Schreiber said he doesn’t like having an engine on each wing.
“At least with a single-engine aircraft, when the engine dies, you put the nose down and there’s no question about what’s going to happen,” he said. “It will glide because it’s designed to be stable, and more than likely, you will land—alive.”
When asked about the impending multi-engine type rating required for the Mustang, Schreiber replies, “With that aircraft, it doesn’t matter if you lose an engine. It’s more unlikely to begin with, but if you do, it’s all centerline thrust, so there’s no, or very little, adverse yaw. Again, it’s designed for stability.”
That thinking is at the heart of the VLJ safety debate. Some are concerned with inherent speed that jets bring and that some owner-pilots won’t handle that speed well, while others counter that the speed is balanced because of simplified cockpit workload.
All the while, Dr. David Schreiber will gladly fly his Meridian and wait for his Mustang.
For more information about the Prostate Seed Center or Littleton Oncology Radiology, call (303) 738-8700, or visit [http://www.littletonradiationoncology.com].
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Family-style dining at Aqimero
Photo: Eli Siegel
Lea en Español
A refreshing take on South American cuisine in the heart of a gorgeous hotel lobby.
by Emily Neil
Emily Neil
By Eli Siegel
Walking into the Ritz Carlton Hotel in Center City is a jaw-dropping experience. The ornate building, originally built in 1908 to house the Girard Trust Bank, recalls the Roman Pantheon with an oculus in the center of the ceiling and bold Ionic capitals seated atop long columns that encase the room. The interior of this magnificent space has recently been converted into the hotel’s own bar and restaurant — Aqimero.
The idea of Aqimero is to offer guests a variety of South American dishes that can be enjoyed together by a group of people, shared family-style.
“We want to offer more interesting dishes, not just chicken and a filet of fish like many other hotel restaurants,” explained Chef Vincent Giannini. “It’s a shareable format with a price point on par with similar places in the city.”
Indeed, there is simply no way a single person could consume the entirety of the Churrasco Board, one of the restaurant’s most emblematic dishes, which contains a heaping platter of picanha steak, linguica sausage, iberico spare ribs and lamb loin served with salsa verde and chimichurri sauce. I’d highly recommend enjoying it with a glass of Faustino I, a Gran Reserva tempranillo from 2005.
Similarly meant to be shared are a selection of smaller plates that make homage to a variety of South American ingredients.
“Our dishes are rustic,” said Giannini. “There’s usually two, three, or four ingredients on a plate. Each is high quality and prepared to taste exactly how I think it should.”
Highlights include: the Queijo Coalho, grilled Brazilian cheese sticks topped with oregano and seasoned with a wonderful pepper relish; the Stuffed Poblano, a large poblano pepper filled with chorizo, rice and monterey cheese; and the Street Corn Tortillas, bicolor corn tortillas topped with queso fresco, cotija, brown butter and tarragon.
There’s also the Tuna Tartare — tuna flavored with pineapple, avocado and olives — that goes wonderfully with a glass of Sancerre Sauvignon Blanc which also features pineapple. The gooey delicious Pao de Queijo is another nice treat that is surprisingly gluten free, as it uses tapioca flour.
These wonderful plates are all inspired by Chef Giannini’s time spent living in Brazil, where he picked up knowledge of the local cuisine, as well as his experience cooking in high-end restaurants in Philadelphia, such as 24, JG Domestic and Wm. Mulherin’s Sons.
“Before this I mainly cooked Italian food,” said Giannini. “Italian cooking is a good base for anything because you take simple ingredients and make them stand out.”
The restaurant also doubles as a relaxing lounge where you can enjoy many of the same smaller dishes as well as sip a glass of wine or cocktail directly beneath the oculus. They have a Happy Hour, Monday through Friday between 4pm and 6:30 p.m. with half-priced drinks, discounted food, and a cocktail of the month. Every Saturday and Sunday between 11:30 a.m. and 3:30 p.m. they offer a bottomless brunch with cocktails and huevos rancheros.
For more information about Aqimero check out their website, www.aqimero.com. Hours: BREAKFAST: Daily | 6:30am - 11:00am, LUNCH: Monday - Friday | 11:30am - 3:00pm, DINNER: Sunday - Thursday | 5:00pm - 10:00pm, Friday & Saturday | 5:00pm - 11:00pm
BRUNCH: Saturday & Sunday | 11:30am - 3:00pm.
Address: 10 AVENUE OF THE ARTS, PHILADELPHIA, PA 19102. Prices: $12 - $65 (Some dishes, such as the Churrasco Board ($88), are more expensive, but meant to be shared by multiple people.)
Aqimero
Philadelphia restaurants
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A tale of two boroughs: Italians landing in Kensington and Chelsea vs Tower Hamlets 2002 - 2014
In absolute terms, the number of Italians being issued their first national insurance number (NINo) in Kensington and Chelsea more than doubled between the 2002/03 and the 2013/14 fiscal years.
On the other hand, while up to and including the 2004/05 fiscal year the Italians starting their London working life were landing in Kensington and Chelsea in almost twice the number of those landing in the less affluent borough of Tower Hamlets, since then the latter has seen an Italian invasion: in 2013/14 the number of Italians starting their working life in UK moving to Tower Hamlets has increased more than fifteenfold!
The following chart graphically describes the relative comparison between the two boroughs: Italians are clearly flocking to Tower Hamlets.
While Tower Hamlets is less affluent than Kensington and Chelsea, its average income is still higher than the average income of more than half of Italy. Charts describing a very similar dynamics could be produced using Brent, Haringey or Lambeth in the place of Tower Hamlets, while the raise of Italian immigration to Newham or Waltham Forest appears to have picked up only in the last couple of years.
Labels: economy, en-GB, Italians, Italy, Kensington and Chelsea, London, Migration to London, Tower Hamlets
Comparative attractiveness of London for working n...
Spaniards vs Poles when starting to work in London...
Spaniards and Italians starting to work in London:...
Where Spaniards go to live after landing in London...
People in employment: 2012-2013 differential by L...
Italian migration increase in London: which boroug...
Where are Italians living when they start to work ...
A tale of two boroughs: Italians landing in Kensin...
Where Italians go to live after landing in London?...
The Italian invasion of London: 2013/14
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James Acheson
FOR James Acheson YOU CAN
Spider-Man (2002) ... The web-spinning superhero has a mission to save New York from his nemesis, the... more info $10.95was $14.99 Buy Now
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Also Known As: Jim Acheson Died:
James Acheson was a prolific actor who created a name for himself largely on the big screen. Acheson's early acting career mostly consisted of roles in various films, such as the action flick "P.O.W. the Escape" (1986) with David Carradine and the action picture "Assassination" (1987) with Charles Bronson. He additionally landed roles in the TV movies "Perfect People" (ABC, 1987-88) and "Body Language" (USA, 1991-92). His film career continued throughout the nineties in productions like the action movie "Strange Days" (1995) with Ralph Fiennes and "Kazaam" (1996). He also worked in television around this time, including a part on "Reasonable Doubts" (NBC, 1991-93). Acheson continued to exercise his talent in the nineties and the early 2000s, taking on a mix of projects like "The Garden of Redemption" (Showtime, 1996-97), "Sons of Thunder" (CBS, 1998-99) and "Mozart and the Whale" (2005) starring Josh Hartnett. His credits also expanded to "Journey to the End of the Night" (2006). Most recently, Acheson produced the crime adaptation "Mad Money" (2008) with Diane Keaton.
Bulletproof Monk (2003)
Hitched (2001) Cheryl'S Boyfriend
Garden of Redemption (1997) American Oss Officer
Jitters (1997) Jeffrey
Strange Days (1995) Cop In Bathroom
Body Language (1992)
Perfect People (1988)
Hanoi Hilton, The (1987)
Assassination (1987) Osborne Weems
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Overview for Tom Browne Henry
Tom Browne Henry
Julius Caesar (1953) August 03 (ET) - REMINDER
Shadow on the Wall (1950) August 12 (ET) - REMINDER
Impact (1949) August 13 (ET) - REMINDER
House of Strangers (1949) August 30 (ET) - REMINDER
Father Of The Bride (1950) October 12 (ET) - REMINDER
FOR Tom Browne Henry YOU CAN
Birth Place: Profession: Cast ...
COMPLETE FILMOGRAPHY
Director (feature film)
1. Désirée (1954) as Dialogue Director.
2. Gunfight at Comanche Creek (1963) as .
3. Wake Me When It's Over (1960) as General .
4. I Passed for White (1960) as Dr. Merritt .
5. Say One for Me (1959) as Dr. Leventhal .
6. Quantrill's Raiders (1958) as Griggs .
7. Showdown at Boot Hill (1958) as Con Maynor .
8. Johnny Rocco (1958) as Principal Farrington .
9. How to Make a Monster (1958) as Martin Brace .
10. The Thing That Couldn't Die (1958) as Hooded man .
11. Space Master X-7 (1958) as Professor West .
12. Screaming Mimi (1958) as Dr. Mapes .
13. Wink of an Eye (1958) as Mr. Hix .
14. Darby's Rangers (1958) as Major .
15. No Time for Sergeants (1958) as Senator .
16. The Case Against Brooklyn (1958) as Ralph Edmondson .
17. The Brain from Planet Arous (1957) as John Fallon .
18. Blood of Dracula (1957) as Mr. Perkins .
19. Beginning of the End (1957) as Col. Tom Sturgeon .
20. Chicago Confidential (1957) as Judge .
21. 20 Million Miles to Earth (1957) as Major A. D. McIntosh .
22. Domino Kid (1957) as Doctor .
23. My Man Godfrey (1957) as Henderson .
24. The Power and the Prize (1956) as Paul F. Farragut .
25. Earth vs. the Flying Saucers (1956) as Admiral Enright .
26. The Leather Saint (1956) as Bishop Haette .
27. D-Day the Sixth of June (1956) as Gen. Bolthouse .
28. Fighting Trouble (1956) as [Frankie] Arbo .
29. A Strange Adventure (1956) as Criminal attorney .
30. Calling Homicide (1956) as Alan Gilmore .
31. A Man Alone (1955) as Maybanks .
32. Toughest Man Alive (1955) as Ed Dolphin .
33. The Violent Men (1955) as Mr. Vail .
34. Flight Nurse (1954) as Dr. Peterson .
35. Riot in Cell Block 11 (1954) as The governor .
36. Sitting Bull (1954) as Webber .
37. Julius Caesar (1953) as Volumnius .
38. The Lady Wants Mink (1953) as Mr. Swiss .
39. The Veils of Bagdad (1953) as Mustapha .
40. Law and Order (1953) as Dixon .
41. The Robe (1953) as Marius .
42. Washington Story (1952) as Doorkeeper .
43. The Prisoner of Zenda (1952) as Detchard .
44. Red Ball Express (1952) as Colonel .
45. The Atomic City (1952) as Gottschalk .
46. The Winning Team (1952) as Lecturer .
47. The Marrying Kind (1952) as Mr. Jenner .
48. Hoodlum Empire (1952) as Comm. Mermant .
49. Deadline--U.S.A. (1952) as Fenway .
50. Operation Secret (1952) as Monk .
51. Stars and Stripes Forever (1952) as David Blakeley .
52. O. Henry's Full House (1952) as Manager .
53. Lovely To Look At (1952) as Mr. Wilkins .
54. Scarlet Angel (1952) as Jason Mortimer .
55. Mr. Belvedere Rings the Bell (1951) as Father Shea .
56. Belle Le Grand (1951) as Prosecuting attorney .
57. The Guy Who Came Back (1951) as Doctor .
58. Saturday's Hero (1951) as Keppler .
59. Little Egypt (1951) as Mustapha El Bey .
60. Saddle Tramp (1950) as Doctor .
61. Shadow on the Wall (1950) as Judge .
62. The Skipper Surprised His Wife (1950) as Doctor .
63. Double Deal (1950) as Sheriff Morelli .
64. It's a Small World (1950) as Jackson .
65. Samson and Delilah (1950) as Master of the exchequer .
66. The Asphalt Jungle (1950) as James X. Connery .
67. Father of the Bride (1950) as Stranger .
68. Captain Carey, U.S.A. (1950) as Art dealer .
69. Guilty of Treason (1950) as .
70. My Blue Heaven (1950) as Tavern proprietor .
71. No Man of Her Own (1950) as Doctor in hospital .
72. The Next Voice You Hear (1950) as Doctor .
73. Flaming Fury (1949) as R. J. McManus .
74. Johnny Allegro (1949) as Detective .
75. Impact (1949) as .
76. House of Strangers (1949) as Judge .
77. Post Office Investigator (1949) as Lt. Contreras .
78. Hollow Triumph (1948) as Rocky Stansyck .
79. Sealed Verdict (1948) as Maj. Gen. Marsden .
80. Behind Locked Doors (1948) as Dr. Clifford Porter .
81. He Walked by Night (1948) as Dunning .
82. Joan of Arc (1948) as Raoul De Gaucort .
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All That Jazz(1979)
Awards Quotes Trivia Home Video Reviews Misc Notes Alternate Versions
Theatrical Aspect Ratio Fan Sites
FOR All That Jazz (1979) YOU CAN
All That Jazz Director/choreographer Bob... MORE > $19.47 Regularly $29.95 Buy Now blu-ray
All That Jazz: Special Music Edition Read TCM's Home Video Review on this film
From the 1930s through the 1960s, musicals were one of Hollywood's favorite genres. The best of them were bouncy, tuneful, and fun. And almost all of them, from 42nd Street to The Sound of Music, were comedies that softened the dark sides of their stories-if there were any dark sides-with jokes, gags, and happy endings.
Bob Fosse's spectacular All That Jazz, now available on DVD in a "Special Music Edition" from 20th Century Fox, belongs to the modernist breed of musicals (e.g., Cabaret, Chicago, The Phantom of the Opera) that have too much darkness to be called true comedies at all. If you're a traditionalist who thinks a musical should trade in light-hearted laughs, you won't be pleased with Fosse's tragicomic portrait of a show-business genius burning himself out with addictions to everything from alcohol and cigarettes to speed, sex, and work, work, work. The story has a fair share of funny moments, but even these have a fever-dream ferocity about them. Love it or hate it, you've never seen a musical-or any kind of movie-quite like it.
The main character, choreographer and filmmaker Joe Gideon, is based directly on Fosse himself-so directly that you can spot Fosse's home address on the Dexadrine bottle Joe picks up every day to jump-start his morning. Joe is hard at work on a new Broadway show, auditioning dancers and dreaming up new production numbers. At the same time he's editing his new movie, obviously based on Fosse's own 1974 biopic about comedian Lenny Bruce, and trying to stay on good terms with his exwife and young daughter.
He's also cruising for a walloping heart attack, but no amount of pleading by his friends can get him to smoke a single Camel less or relax his work-hard-play-hard habits for a moment. When disaster inevitably strikes, he even turns his hospital room into a party zone. Can he keep this up forever? Probably not--which may be why he's started looking back over his life, trading memories and might-have-beens in his dressing room with Angelique, an alluring angel of death.
Many critics accused Fosse of shameless self-indulgence in All That Jazz, complaining that the movie's countless similarities to his own well-publicized experiences amount to navel-gazing narcissism. Fosse's actual death in 1987, from the same sort of heart attack that bushwhacks Joe, seemed to prove their point. But what these pundits missed was the huge amount of severe self-criticism Fosse built into the picture. As likable as he is, Joe is also a wildly irresponsible guy who's wrecked his marriage by cheating and undermined his health by abusing every substance in sight. Even his work is suffering from his recklessness. The dialogue for his new show is so awful he can't bear listening to it, and his producers wouldn't mind if his failing heart put him clean out of the business, since they're afraid his sexy routines will scare off family audiences. Self-indulgent or not, Fosse's autobiographical movie is anything but flattering.
Although its content is rooted in Fosse's life during the early 1970s, when he was staging Chicago for Broadway and editing Lenny at the same time, the style of All That Jazz is plainly inspired by Federico Fellini's towering 1963 masterpiece 8½, about a director struggling to escape the filmmaking equivalent of writer's block. Fosse even hired 8½ cinematographer Giuseppe Rotunno to shootAll That Jazz. Just as 8½ leaps freely between reality and fantasy, Fosse's film embeds its copious flights of imagination in hyperactive dances that interweave with the story as Joe conducts training sessions and rehearsals. Realistic elements fade altogether when Joe's body kicks up a last lethal protest against his rotten health habits. The movie's final half hour, labeled a "hospital hallucination," is a free-flowing stream of song-and-dance delirium packed with his fantasies and fears. The ending is exactly what you would have expected, but it packs a strong emotional punch all the same.
Before he appeared in All That Jazz, star Roy Scheider was best known for action pictures like The French Connection and Jaws, and many Hollywood insiders were surprised when Fosse chose him. It doesn't take much close analysis of the movie to tell that Scheider is no dancer. But he manages to fake his way through the modest choreography Fosse designed for him, and his acting in the dramatic scenes is excellent, making Joe steadily sympathetic without downplaying his zillions of character flaws. Scheider also looks exactly right, although he sports more hair than Fosse, who covered his baldness with the hats that became one of his trademarks. The first-rate supporting cast includes Fosse protégé Ann Reinking as Joe's girlfriend, Erzsebet Foldi as his daughter, Jessica Lange as the dark angel, Ben Vereen as an over-the-top entertainer, Cliff Gorman as the actor playing Lenny Bruce-great casting, since Gorman played Bruce in Lenny on the Broadway stage--and Leland Palmer as Joe's former wife, based on the great dancer Gwen Verdon, who was married to Fosse in real life.
It's appropriate that the "Special Music Edition" of All That Jazz comes complete with a Fosse-style top hat and gloves, fun to have even though they're cheesier than the genuine articles. Among the DVD extras are two useless shorts extolling Fosse's greatness, a sing-along version of the song "Take Off With Us," a special menu for accessing the film's musical numbers, and a commentary track by film editor Alan Heim, who says surprisingly little about his Oscar-winning film editing, but does explain how hard it was to avoid showing the bottoms of the dancers' feet-one of Fosse's rules, since he hated the dirt that accumulated there.
Fosse was a superb choreographer-see The Pajama Game and Damn Yankees! for great examples of his brilliance-and a daring filmmaker, with Lenny and the jolting Star 80 to his credit. His death at 60 years old cut short an amazing career. But according to All That Jazz, it was a death at least partly of his own doing.
For more information about All That Jazz: Special Music Edition, visit Fox Home Entertainment To order All That Jazz: Special Music Edition, go to TCM Shopping.
by David Sterritt
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PX/Gift Shoppe
Next Step Annual Fund Raiser
AMA-Way
Roller Biography
Scholarship Information and Application
Museum Tour
Letterhead Exhibit
Vietnam Exhibit
Bayonet Index
Galleries – Recalls, reunions and other photos
AMA Videos
Ad Astra Society
AMA Association
AMA Foundation
AMA Museum
Take a photo tour of the museum
Vietnam War Exhibit
Take a photo tour of the Vietnam Exhibit
Augusta Military Academy Museum
The Augusta Military Academy Museum is located in Fort Defiance, Virginia. The Museum Building sits among stately old trees and expansive lawns on the grounds of the now-closed military academy. Fort Defiance is located eight miles north of Staunton on U.S. Route 11, the historic Valley Pike.
Charles S. Roller founded Augusta Male Academy in 1874. In the Civil War, he served in Confederate General J. E. B. Stuart's cavalry and during Reconstruction, he was elected to the Virginia General Assembly, the state's legislative body. He introduced military instruction and discipline to his students by 1879, and changed the name of the school to Augusta Military Academy in 1890. AMA was the first of several secondary-level, military academies in Virginia, and one of the first schools in the country to adopt a Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps program. The school had a major educational, social, and economic impact on this area of the Shenandoah Valley for over 100 years.
The museum building was built in the 1870's by Roller for his family. The original house has been completely and carefully renovated. By using photographs taken in the 1880's as guides, the restoration/renovation returned the exterior of the house as nearly as was possible to its original appearance. A small display inside Alumni House shows the basic construction techniques of the period and stones from part of the original foundation line an outside garden area.
One of the first floor rooms of the museum has been decorated and furnished as a late 1800's Victorian Parlor, and it contains displays showing the early days of the military school.
Other rooms on the first floor contain a recreation of a typical cadet barracks room and a classroom.
Another display examines the athletic programs at AMA.
In one area of the first floor, there is a display featuring AMA graduates who became published authors.
Another room in the museum houses chronologically arranged material covering activities at the school from 1900 until the institution closed in 1984. This display features an impressive collection of uniforms and artifacts.
The renovation of this Augusta County landmark was accomplished by hundreds of alumni and friends of the Augusta Military Academy through the non-profit AMA Alumni Foundation, Inc. The museum opened to the public in May 2000.
The museum is open to visitors Tuesday - Sunday, 10 a.m. – 4 p.m. from May 1- November 30. It is closed on Mother's Day and all major holidays. The museum can be open at other times by appointment. There is no admission charge.
The facility is handicapped accessible.
Phone 540-248-3007 for additional information,
or send an email to Museum@AMAalumni.org.
Email: Museum@AMAalumni.org
1640 Lee Highway
Fort Defiance, VA 24437
Fort Defiance, VA 24437-0100
Museum hours:
Tuesday-Sunday, 10 a.m. – 4 p.m. from May 1 - Nov 31.
Closed Mother's day and Major Holidays.
The AMA Alumni Foundation operates solely on contributions by alumni and friends. Please help by giving from your heart ...
© 2019, Augusta Military Academy Alumni Foundation
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Wife Of Ailing Bad Brains Frontman H.R.: ‘He’s Constantly In Pain’
Lori Carns Hudson, wife of Bad Brains frontman H.R., has been making artwork to help cover her husband's medical expenses. A new crowdfunding campaign aims to raise more funds. Lori Carns Hudson
A new fundraising campaign has been launched to help H.R., the former leader of iconic D.C. punk band Bad Brains.
According to H.R.’s wife, Lori Carns Hudson, the veteran performer (aka Paul Hudson) was diagnosed in December with a rare and painful condition called SUNCT, which stands for short-lasting, unilateral neuralgiform headache attacks with conjunctival injection and tearing.
“He’s been getting headaches for about 10 years,” says Hudson, who lives with H.R. in Philadelphia. “He used to think they were migraines but it’s been very, very strange. They’ve progressively gotten worse until they culminated in November [to the point] where he’s just constantly in pain.”
The couple’s friend, Brian Marsh, started a GoFundMe campaign Monday to help Hudson cover her husband’s medical treatment and other expenses. The campaign aims to raise $30,000.
Hudson says H.R., who has struggled with physical and mental issues for years, is unable to work.
“He goes out and takes a very brief walk every day,” she says, “but he mostly just relaxes and watches TV.”
Hudson supports him with income from her retail job, and she’s begun selling H.R. artwork (like the above) for extra money. Meanwhile, her insurance covers some of her husband’s medical expenses. But conventional treatment has only helped so much.
“We’ve been through a lot of doctors … [and] the medical community does not understand this specific type of headache,” she says. She would like to try herbal remedies — Hudson herself is an herbalist — but those aren’t covered by health insurance.
Money raised from the GoFundMe campaign would help pay for alternative treatment and other expenses, like traveling to see medical specialists.
Friends have suggested that H.R. try psychoactive drugs like LSD and psilocybin mushrooms, but Hudson rejects the idea.
“He would never do any kind of psychoactive drugs,” Hudson says. “So it’s not something that we will be trying.” But she adds that they are looking into CBD oil, a common medical marijuana treatment.
Hudson says despite H.R.’s chronic pain, he maintains a positive outlook. “He really does live that PMA,” she says, referring to Bad Brains’ philosophy of a positive mental attitude. “He still has a smile on his face every day — even though he’s spending most of the night sobbing and crying out because the pain is just so much.”
So far, the campaign for H.R. has raised nearly $6,000.
There is also an ongoing GoFundMe campaign to raise money for Dr. Know, the Bad Brains guitarist who suffered a heart attack and organ failure last year. That campaign has raised more than $40,000 since it launched last week.
Tags Bad Brains, Crowdfunding, Dr. Know, H.R., Hardcore, Lori Carns Hudson, Punk
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Beltline TADAC Report: Refine Affordable Housing Program
August 29, 2012 MATTHEW CHARLES CARDINALE Leave a comment
(APN) ATLANTA — The Atlanta Beltline is not meeting its affordable housing goals and its affordable housing program needs to be refined, according to a report commissioned by the Atlanta Beltline Tax Allocation District Advisory Committee (TADAC), entitled Atlanta Beltline: Five Year Work Plan 2006 – 2010 review.
The report is noteworthy because as previously reported by Atlanta Progressive News, both Atlanta Beltline Inc. (ABI) and the Atlanta Development Authority (ADA) have spent the last several years opposing any requirement for a set-aside of units affordable to low-income families for any multi-family developments receiving dollars from the Beltline Affordable Housing Trust Fund (BAHTF).
ABI and the ADA opposed any affordable housing requirements designed to benefit low-income families in Atlanta even though such requirements were recommended by the Beltline Affordable Housing Advisory Board (BAHAB).
TADAC and BAHAB are the two advisory boards to the Atlanta Beltline, made up of community members appointed by the City of Atlanta, Fulton County, and the Atlanta Independent School System.
The report recommends that the Atlanta Beltline should attempt to leverage BAHTF dollars with Low-Income Housing Tax Credits to produce meaningful affordable housing for low-income families.
And it notes that the City of Portland, Oregon, has done something very similar, leveraging tax increment dollars with LIHTCs to produce multi-family affordable housing with a set aside of 31 percent of units affordable to families making at or below 30 percent of the Area Median Income [called Median Family Income in Portland], and the balance of the units affordable to making making between 30 and 60 percent.
“Similar to ABI’s requirement to set aside 15 percent of TAD bond proceeds, the Portland Development Commission (PDC) has a long-standing requirement to set aside portions of its tax increment for affordable housing,” the report states. In Portland, they have Urban Renewal Areas (URAs) instead of Tax Allocation Districts (TADs).
“In 2006, the Portland City Council passed an ordinance establishing a TIF [tax increment fund] Set Aside in URAs, requiring all newly formed URAs to spend a minimum of 30 percent of total TIF resources on affordable housing,” the report states.
Portland’s set-aside percentage is twice that of Atlanta’s, thirty percent instead of fifteen; and it covers the entire tax increment amount, whereas in Atlanta it is only a portion of any Beltline TAD bonds taken out and is only limited to one TAD, the Beltline TAD.
“PDC’s affordable housing program has resulted in the expenditure of $153 M of set-aside funds during the first five years of implementation, exceeding the goal of $121 M. This dramatic success includes 31 percent spent on rental housing serving households earning from 0 to 30 percent of MFI, with the balance serving households between 30 and 60 percent MFI,” the report states.
Therefore, despite the fact that ABI and the ADA insist that it is so cost-prohibitive and impossible to house low-income families in the City of Atlanta, the report demonstrates that this work is already being done in Portland, Oregon.
“They’re able to do that in Portland because the poor people there look like everybody else,” Joe Beasley, southern regional director for the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition, told Atlanta Progressive News, referring to the higher racial homogeneity in Portland.
“We’ve got all these condos in Atlanta that are sitting empty that probably got Empowerment Zone money, but they’re too good for these negroes,” Beasley said, implying that racism and not classism is what drives the Atlanta political establishment’s gentrification policies and their refusal to provide affordable housing that would benefit for the most needy families.
“But in Portland, their poor people are good people, they’ll probably take care of the place,” Beasley said.
Portland’s “goals illustrate the deep commitment of the City of Portland and its elected officials to generating a robust, targeted affordable housing funding source which addresses those households with the greatest need for affordable housing assistance,” the report said.
Dr. Dwanda Farmer, PhD in Community Economic Development, tells APN that the lack of political will is all that is missing in Atlanta. She notes that all of the redevelopment of public housing communities under the HOPE VI program in Atlanta leveraged LIHTC funds; therefore, there are housing experts in Atlanta who already know how to leverage LIHTC funds when there is a political will to do so. In the case of the HOPE VI redevelopments, the political will was premised upon the mass destruction of public housing communities across the City of Atlanta.
TADAC was established by a resolution of the City Council of Atlanta in 2006 and is supposed to have between 42 and 45 members. Today, the report notes it has only 27 members and meets bi-monthly.
TADAC is tasked, among other things, with making recommendations on the issuance of TAD bond proceeds; monitoring effective and equitable implementation of the Atlanta BeltLine plan; implementing a decision support tool to measure impact; and conducting an independent review of a five-year work plan.
Thus, creating this report is one of the primary purposes of TADAC.
The other advisory board for the Beltline, BAHAB, is tasked with recommending how BAHTF dollars should be spent; and monitoring the Beltline’s progress towards its affordable housing goals.
To date, all of the BAHTF dollars have been spent on downpayment assistance on single-family homes and condos, benefitting middle-class families making as much as 110 percent of AMI. Housing that is affordable to low-income families, however, presents the greatest shortage in all of Atlanta’s housing stock.
The TADAC report also includes findings and recommendations related to financial accounting as well as the roles of BAHAB and TADAC themselves.
Beasley told APN that he had been nominated by Fulton County Commissioner Emma Darnell (District 5) to serve on TADAC to watch over the Beltline to address the issue of gentrification and to ensure that the community would benefit from Beltline-related jobs.
However, Beasley said he stopped attending the meetings because he became frustrated that TADAC did not have any authority because the powers of TADAC were merely advisory, and the meetings were therefore a waste of his time.
He said that he believes Beltline’s governance needs to be entirely restructured and that the community advisory boards should be “partners” that share decision-making authority.
The report found BAHAB and TADAC faced challenges including, “Limited ABI resources provided to staff TADAC and its subcommittees.”
Thus, despite the 23 full-time staff members at ABI, costing millions of dollars per year in overhead, there was still not enough to assist BAHAB and TADAC to function.
The list of problems also included, “Limited and/or inconsistent reporting and information-flow from ABI to TADAC for its review prior to major decisions being made; Lack of clear mechanisms and processes to transmit TADAC advisement to ABI/ADA; [and] Different views regarding whether TADAC’s role is limited to advisement on bond proceeds’ expenditures or all ABI projects.”
“Both bodies [BAHAB and TADAC] have extensive talent and experience in community development, revitalization, affordable housing, economic development, finance, and the myriad of issues which will continue to affect the BeltLine’s transformative capacity. Both committees’ talent pool, and stakeholder input are necessary to BeltLine’s ultimate success. Unfortunately, while both committees have been formed and commenced operations, and both committees have published extensive recommendations since their inception, the current status of these advisory bodies indicates that they have not achieved their full promise,” the report states.
Jennette Gayer, a TADAC member who serves as a representative of Citizens for Progressive Transit (CPT) and is Executive Director of Environment Georgia, said she has been serving for about a year on TADAC and is still trying to gain a grasp of how TADAC is supposed to fulfill its purpose.
“It seems like TADAC can certainly get a response from the Beltline. The response is maybe not always as in-depth as you would want it. Some of it, maybe the members of TADAC don’t go in depth as necessary,” Gayer said.
Gayer said she found the recent audit by City of Atlanta Auditor Leslie Ward on Atlanta’s ten Tax Allocation Districts, including the Beltline TAD, to be “really interesting.” That audit, among other things, revealed several questionable expenditures by ABI.
“I kind of see my role as CPT representative, to continue to push transit, but then I was like, maybe we should be looking at every single requisition?” she said.
“In the first year, I have definitely struggled with, how does TADAC work, how does it get things done, how does it make recommendations, how does it follow up with those recommendations?” she said.
“Certainly changes need to happen,” Gayer said.
tagged with affordable housing, atlanta, beltline, hope program, joe beasley, portland, rainbow push, TAD
Beltline Affordable Housing Advisory
Rainbow PUSH Coalition
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Vatican Diary / Opus Dei and the gendarmes win the first round
The leaking of documents has reinforced their positions in the curia. But the American party is also advancing. While for the secretariat of state, the candidacy of a non-Italian is gaining strength
by ***
VATICAN CITY, June 28, 2012 – The pope's "butler," Paolo Gabriele, remains in custody as the only suspect in the crime. At the moment, it is one of aggravated theft. The investigative commission of cardinals that is working in parallel with the Vatican magistracy is continuing its hearings.
It is not known how long it will take for the two investigations to the reach a conclusion. But this does not mean that the so-called "Vatileaks" case has not already had an impact on the life of that particular organism which is the Roman curia.
Far from it. Some consequences, in fact, can already be identified in the short term, while others can be conjectured in the medium and long term.
OPUS DEI AND THE UNITED STATES
To begin with, in just a few weeks there has been an increase in the curia of the visible role of Opus Dei, which already numbers, in the organizational structure, the secretary of the pontifical council for legislative texts (Bishop Juan Ignacio Arrieta, of the clergy of Obra), the secretary of the congregation for the clergy (Archbishop Celso Morga Iruzubieta, of the priestly fraternity of the Holy Cross, connected to Opus) and the secretary of the prefecture of economic affairs (Monsignor Lucio Angel Vallejo Balda).
The head of the investigative commission of cardinals, in fact, is Cardinal Julián Herranz, a member of Opus Dei and former president of the same dicastery as Arrieta.
Not only that. Chosen for the unprecedented role of communications "adviser" to the secretariat of state is Greg Burke, a numerary of Obra who may be able to restore the splendor of Joaquín Navarro Valls, also a numerary, the famous spokesman of John Paul II.
Burke will be working alongside the media "crisis unit" of the Apostolic Palace made up of the substitute, Giovanni Angelo Becciu, the assessor, Peter Brian Well, Monsignor Carlo Maria Polvani (nephew of the nuncio in the United States, Carlo Maria Viganò) and the heads of the Vatican media, Father Federico Lombardi of Vatican Radio and Giovanni Maria Vian of "L'Osservatore Romano."
With the arrival of Burke from Fox News, the influence of the United States is also growing in the curia.
Already working in Rome are Cardinal Raymond L. Burke, archbishops Augustine Di Noia and Joseph W. Tobin, Monsignor Wells, and Father Michael J. Zielinski. Without counting the retiring cardinal William J. Levada and the retired cardinals Bernard F. Law and James F. Stafford.
But recently the influence of the Americans has also increased with the arrival at the curia of the lawyer Jeffrey Lena, who has been given an office in the secretary of state, and with the growing influence of the leader of the Knights of Columbus, Carl Anderson, who has also become famous for the document he signed by which Ettore Gotti Tedeschi was brutally ejected from the presidency of the Institute for Works of Religion.
THE GENDARMES
The "Vatileaks" case has also brought to light the great power acquired in recent years by the Vatican gendarmes.
It seems so long ago now, the 1970 decision of Paul VI to abolish the pontifical military corps, with the exception of the historic Swiss Guards. Pope Montini turned the gendarmes into a simple security service. But in 2002, this corps went back to the name Gendarmeria, and is formally an agency of the governorate of Vatican City-State.
In reality, it is much more. In recent years, the gendarmes have acquired sophisticated weapons and powerful surveillance equipment. By now even the highest offices of the Vatican hierarchies suspect, rightly or wrongly, that their every whisper can be intercepted. To such an extent that the commander of the gendarmes, Domenico Giani, a former agent of the Italian secret service who has been in office since 2006, is now revered and feared almost more than a secretary of state.
THE SECRETARIAT OF STATE
It is precisely on the figure of the secretary of state that there could be consequences in the medium term.
The unprecedented audience given by Benedict XVI on the afternoon of Saturday, June 23 to Cardinals George Pell, Marc Ouellet, Jean-Louis Tauran, Camillo Ruini e Jozef Tomko, and made public by the press office and by "L'Osservatore Romano," has been universally interpreted by the media as an alarm bell for the stability in the role of Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, who was not among the five invited, although this interpretation was quickly denied by Father Lombardi.
On the same day, in the morning, the pope had also presided over a meeting of the heads of the dicasteries of the curia. This meeting had on its agenda not the question of the leaking of documents – although at the beginning of the session, the substitute reminded those present of the need to take special care of papers and archives – but the examination of the request of a few ecclesial movements – like Focolare or the Community of Saint Egidio – to be able to incardinate their own clergy directly. The prevalent opinion was that of reiterating that incardination must remain an exclusive faculty of the bishops and religious superiors, with the possibility for the movements to stipulate conventions with dioceses or religious institutes.
Returning to the question of the secretariat of state, beyond the fact of whether and when Benedict XVI will decide to replace his closest collaborator, it seems that the hypothesis is taking hold that Bertone's successor could be a non-Italian.
If this happens, it will mean an unprecedented shift.
In fact, except for the few months during which French cardinal Jean Villot was secretary of state at the beginning of the pontificate of John Paul II – who very soon after he was elected reiterated "in scriptis" that this was a matter of a temporary situation in view of the appointment of an Italian, who was to be Agostino Casaroli – there is no record of neither the pope nor the secretary of state being an Italian.
This eventuality – would find its justification in the desire to purify the Sacred Palaces from the Italian intrigues believed to be at the bottom of "Vatileaks" – would then have as a corollary interest the fact that the current management of Italian policy would for the first time fall squarely on the shoulders of the Italian episcopal conference.
ON THE FUTURE POPE
Finally – many think – the "Vatileaks" question could have consequences for the future selection of a new pontiff.
In fact, the idea that the leaking of documents is the result of entirely Italian intrigues has led to the emergence of a twofold consideration among the cardinals and bishops. On the one hand there are those who think that it would be better that a future Pope not come from Italy. On the other there are those who say that it would be better that he come from there, in order to be better able to unmask and eradicate the intrigues.
But these seem to be purely academic discussions. In the Vatican, in fact, there is no lack of those who associate pope Joseph Ratzinger with the memory of Leo XIII, who was chosen because he was rather elderly according to the criteria of the time, after the extremely long pontificate of Pius IX. And who instead reached the age of 93.
All of the articles from www.chiesa regarding the central government of the Catholic Church:
> Focus on THE VATICAN
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Golfer wins a Porsche 911 with a hole-in-one
One lucky Italian golfer is now the proud owner of a Porsche 911 Carrera S
Porsche May 15, 2019 09:26
The Porsche 911 Story
2018 Porsche 911 GT2 RS makes global reveal in Goodwood
Here's the 2020 Porsche 911, can you spot the difference?
The 2012 Porsche World Road Show
Leaked: Are you the 2020 Porsche 911?
Say hello to the one-millionth Porsche 911
The new Porsche 911 Turbo
What's the best prize that you have won after winning a game of golf? A big cash prize? How about a nice trophy and some bragging rights?
Well, for one lucky golfer that joined the 2019 Porsche Golf Cup World Final in Spain, it was a brand new Porsche.
That's right, one lucky golfer is now the proud owner of a yellow 911 Carrera S. Italian golfer Marco Leoni could not believe he was able to land a hole-in-one after hitting his golf ball uphill and into the 18th hole 160 meters away.
According to the 56-year old golfer, the swing felt good but he could not see where the ball landed. "It was only on hearing the spectators' reaction did I realize that the ball was in the hole. It's crazy. I'm so proud, and I'd like to thank Porsche for organizing such a fantastic tournament," said Leoni. Some of his fellow golfers reveled in his one-in-a-million-shot and celebrated alongside him in the 18th hole at the Canyamel golf course.
However, despite bagging the special hole-in-one prize, Leoni was not the overall champion for this year's cup. That went to Phil White from Team Great Britain who secured the top spot in the Singles Category. As for the overall World Trophy, that was awarded to Team Korea who not only a nice trophy, but also a special trip to watch the Porsche European Open in Hamburg from September 5 – 8, 2019.
Leoni may not have won this year's cup, but that doesn't matter as he is now one of the lucky few to actually win an all-new Porsche for just landing a hole-in-one shot.
First sketches of Dyson's 7-seat SUV show it might not suck after all
From vacuum cleaners to cars, Dyson is dead serious about entering the automotive sector
Future Maseratis will no longer be powered by Ferrari engines
Ferrari to stop supplying Maserati with engines; will be exclusive to the prancing horse
2019-05-15 10:19:51 Jose Altoveros
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February Giveaway!
This month I’m hosting a giveaway for my email newsletter subscribers. To enter the giveaway, visit my website and sign up for my email newsletter, then leave a comment on this blog post. If you already subscribe to my email newsletter, just mention that in your blog comment, and your name will be included in the drawing. Dont’ be confused, I have a blog and an email newsletter. The email newsletter goes out every other month to subscribers with book release updates. I post blogs 2-3 times a month with articles related to research, travel, movies, and all kinds of fun stuff like these giveaways. You can subscribe to my blog posts as well.
In honor of Valentine’s Day, I’m giving away three romantic stories, The Memoir of Johnny Devine by Camille Eide, and One Upon a Winter’s Heart by Melody Carlson and Married ’til Monday by Denise Hunter. I enjoyed them and recommend them to you! For more info about these books click on the covers below. I’ll be drawing the names of two winners at the end of the month.
I’m working hard on my next novel, Shine Like the Dawn, which is an English historical romance with family drama, faith, and a bit of mystery. You can check my progress on the homepage of my website to see how I’m doing. I have two novellas releasing this fall, “A Trusting Heart” in Mountain Christmas Brides, and Moonlight and Mistletoe, a fun contemporary Christmas story set in New York City. Thank you for being a faithful reader!
Blessings and Happy Reading,
This entry was posted in Giveaways, Uncategorized by Carrie Turansky. Bookmark the permalink.
90 thoughts on “February Giveaway!”
Susan Snodgrass on February 1, 2016 at 1:53 pm said:
How kind of you. Please enter me.
Joan Arning on February 1, 2016 at 3:36 pm said:
I haven’t read anything by Camille but have read several by Melody. I am a subscriber.
Connie Scruggs on February 1, 2016 at 4:45 pm said:
I’m a subscriber, please enter me. Thanks!
Heather aka Blue Jeans And Teacups on February 1, 2016 at 8:56 pm said:
Subscribed. Please enter me 🙂
Justina Baisley Wilson on February 1, 2016 at 11:16 pm said:
Thank You Carrie for a chance to win this!
Rachel Dixon on February 1, 2016 at 11:27 pm said:
Thank you for this giveaway! I have subscribed! 🙂
Emmalisa Tilli on February 2, 2016 at 1:27 am said:
I have been a subscriber since I found your book “The Governess of Highland Hall”. It is honestly my favourite fiction book so far out of everything I have read!!!! I love reading your books….. <3
Delcia Rosenow on February 2, 2016 at 1:30 am said:
Just subscribed and would appreciate being entered in the giveaway. Thank you!
Michelle Lunsford on February 2, 2016 at 7:56 am said:
Found my way here through Camille Eide and have signed up for the newsletter. Excited to discover a new author I can read.
Susan P on February 2, 2016 at 10:40 am said:
I don’t know if I was already signed up or not, but I added it again just to make sure. 😉
Lane Hill House on February 2, 2016 at 8:24 pm said:
Thank you! What fun. I shared on Pinterest and Twitter, and linked on FB news page. Very thoughtful to offer these. Thanks again, Kathleen ~ Lane Hill House
(subscriber and receive notices of your posts via email ~ added you to my bloglovin’ link list)
bn100 on February 3, 2016 at 1:56 am said:
Andrea Cox on February 3, 2016 at 1:42 pm said:
Carrie, what a fun giveaway! I haven’t read any of Melody’s books yet, but she’s definitely on my wish list.
Shared on Facebook, and I’m pretty sure I’m already subscribed to your newsletter.
andrearenee2004@yahoo.com
Sarah on February 3, 2016 at 5:48 pm said:
Carrie, thanks for the giveaway! What fun 🙂
I’m already a subscriber, so please toss my name in for the drawing.
Just picked up the entire Highland Hall series from my library; can’t wait to delve back into it!
Carrie, do you mind if I borrow the image from this blog post to use in a future post on my own blog? Gave me a great idea for a blog post/theme… 🙂
Carrie Turansky on February 4, 2016 at 10:10 am said:
Hi Sarah, do you mean the winter reading list image at the top? I found it on google image search. I think it’s okay to use it from there.
Karen on February 6, 2016 at 11:36 am said:
I haven’t read either of these authors, but they both sound amazing!
Heather Hart on February 25, 2016 at 11:54 am said:
I read about this giveaway in your newsletter today. I would love to read these books!!!
Caroline B on February 25, 2016 at 11:55 am said:
I am a loyal subscriber. These sound like great books! Thank you for the entry!
Melissa Martin on February 25, 2016 at 12:02 pm said:
I think the newsletter is so beautiful. Every time I get it in my email it’s such a joy to look at. The pictures, the recipe :-). I also love the winter picture on this blog!
Thank you for creating such lovely things to look at because I think that is a joy in life, especially when you can’t go out into the world any more and see real life things. There is beauty where you make it and where you read it.
kim amundsen on February 25, 2016 at 12:02 pm said:
All great authors
Vicky D on February 25, 2016 at 12:03 pm said:
Signed up for the blog and email updates!
Sonja Nishimoto on February 25, 2016 at 12:03 pm said:
I am a subscriber and really enjoy your books! Please enter me.
Alex Riggs on February 25, 2016 at 12:05 pm said:
Thanks for the fun giveaway! I’m already a subscriber
Winnie on February 25, 2016 at 12:06 pm said:
I’m subscribed. Thanks for the chance to win. The books all look wonderful!
Julie Gamble on February 25, 2016 at 12:08 pm said:
I am a subscriber and would like to enter. Your books are great and look forward to Shine like the Dawn!
Joan Arning on February 25, 2016 at 12:08 pm said:
I don’t think I’ve read anything by Camille but love anything by Denise!
Laurie Bergh on February 25, 2016 at 12:11 pm said:
All three books look really good. I want to read all of them. Thank you for the chance at winning a book.
Sarah on February 25, 2016 at 12:14 pm said:
I love being an email subscriber and hearing all the latest! The tea party sounds fun! These books sound lovely too. Thank you for keeping us readers in the loop. Blessings,
Lori Weller on February 25, 2016 at 12:19 pm said:
Already a subscriber. Thanks for the great giveaway!
Annie JC on February 25, 2016 at 12:19 pm said:
Thank you Carrie! These are great! I just read Camille’s Like There’s No Tomorrow, and LOVED it! It was my first book of Camille’s. Denise Hunter is already on my list of authors to read. I’d be happy to win any of these books!
I’m already a subscriber!
Melissa Henderson on February 25, 2016 at 12:20 pm said:
A nice giveaway. 🙂 Looking forward to your next book.
Anne Rightler on February 25, 2016 at 12:22 pm said:
Always love a contest…so thank you for this one. Hope your time at the computer writing your new book goes well and isn’t too stressful.
Thank you, Carrie
Rebecca Van Daniker on February 25, 2016 at 12:25 pm said:
I love reading your books and blog posts. Please enter me in the giveaway. I’m already a subscriber.:)
Heather Olsen on February 25, 2016 at 12:31 pm said:
These are all books on my TBR list. I would love to win any of them so I can get readin’.
Stella Potts on February 25, 2016 at 12:34 pm said:
I am already a subscriber. Thank you for the giveaway. I would love to read any of the three. I love to read and do reviews.
Becky B on February 25, 2016 at 12:41 pm said:
Hello–I am a newsletter subscriber. I would like to be entered in the contest. I loved your newsletter this month with the scone recipe. 🙂
Robin in NC on February 25, 2016 at 12:45 pm said:
Wow! You are one busy lady! I’m a newsletter subscriber! Thanks for sharing this special giveaway!
Susan P on February 25, 2016 at 12:47 pm said:
I haven’t read any of those books – I need to check them out!
Leah on February 25, 2016 at 12:59 pm said:
I am a newsletter subscriber. Tanks for the great giveaway. 🙂
peggy clayton on February 25, 2016 at 1:07 pm said:
I am already a newsletter subscriber pls enter me in the giveaway. Thank you so much!
Jan Hall on February 25, 2016 at 1:17 pm said:
I am a subscriber to both the blog and email lists. All of the books sound wonderful as do your books. May God continue to bless your writing.
Jennifer on February 25, 2016 at 1:24 pm said:
Saw this come through on my email. I have read “Married until Monday” and also happen to love Carlson’s books so goo choices there 🙂
Jeanne Takenaka on February 25, 2016 at 1:35 pm said:
I’m very late to the party, but I’d love to be entered for your giveaway. 🙂 I’m already signed up for your newsletter, Carrie. I hope your next book is coming together well!
Judy Schexnayder on February 25, 2016 at 1:37 pm said:
All are great writers, would live to read any of these.
Shelley on February 25, 2016 at 1:43 pm said:
I would enjoy reading all of these books.
Naomi on February 25, 2016 at 1:45 pm said:
Hello! I’m already subscribed to your email newsletter. Thanks for the giveaway!
Joyce Guard on February 25, 2016 at 1:48 pm said:
Shine Like the Dawn sounds like a great book. I look forward to reading it.
Shineka on February 25, 2016 at 2:07 pm said:
Married til Monday looks very intriguing! I look forward to reading it.
Steph J on February 25, 2016 at 2:08 pm said:
Thanks for the chance to win! I am always looking for new books to read.
Sharon Shaw on February 25, 2016 at 2:14 pm said:
I am a newsletter subscriber and enjoy reading your books.
Vicki on February 25, 2016 at 2:26 pm said:
How fun. Love the email newsletter.
Carol Kelley on February 25, 2016 at 2:29 pm said:
Thank you for the giveaway. Looking forward to the Downton Abbey tea party.
Polly Schneider on February 25, 2016 at 2:31 pm said:
I’m a subscriber. The memoir of Johnny Devine sounds really interesting. Thanks for the giveaway.
Samantha Tyler on February 25, 2016 at 2:55 pm said:
Thanks for the giveaway. I’m a suscriber.
Raechel on February 25, 2016 at 2:58 pm said:
I’m already a subscriber – thanks for the giveaway!
Connie Saunders on February 25, 2016 at 3:08 pm said:
This is a great gift for your readers. Thank you!
cps1950(at)gmail(dot)com
Lane Hill House on February 25, 2016 at 3:10 pm said:
Thank you for your newsletter today ~ I am looking forward to your fabulous new story ~ and our get-together on March 7! I will enjoy the scone recipe. Shared notice on my news page and on my way to share on twitter.
subscriber Kathleen ~ Lane Hill House
Marion on February 25, 2016 at 3:23 pm said:
This is a great giveaway.
Joan on February 25, 2016 at 3:24 pm said:
I love your books.
Marilyn on February 25, 2016 at 3:25 pm said:
Hope to win this giveaway.
Trixi on February 25, 2016 at 3:34 pm said:
Hi Carrie! I enjoy your newsletters and learning what’s coming up next for you. Thanks for the giveaway opportunity, any of these three books look good. I’m an email subscriber to your newsletter as well 🙂
Denise :) on February 25, 2016 at 4:48 pm said:
A cup of hot tea (with a scone, of course) and a good book are just about the best cure for the winter blues! I’m an email subscriber — please count me in!! 🙂
Jean Clements on February 25, 2016 at 4:52 pm said:
Enjoy your emails & am looking forward to your next book! Keep on writing!
Priscilla on February 25, 2016 at 4:56 pm said:
I’m an email subscriber, and I absolutely love your book The Governess of Highland Hall. Keep the books coming!
Anne Gooch on February 25, 2016 at 5:48 pm said:
I love getting your emails 🙂 All 3 of these books look great and I will be adding them to my “must read” pile. Thanks for the chance to win.
Becky Eldredge on February 25, 2016 at 5:57 pm said:
I saw this from the newsletter! Looks great!
Staci on February 25, 2016 at 6:54 pm said:
Thank you! I found out about this through your newsletter. Glad to here you are work on your next novel.
Thanks for the opportunity to win.
Ora Dee Rocks on February 25, 2016 at 7:51 pm said:
Please enter me that’s so sweet of you
Marissa on February 25, 2016 at 8:28 pm said:
I am a subscriber already. Please enter me! Thanks!
Jaclyn on February 25, 2016 at 8:31 pm said:
Just Subscribed…. Thank you for hosting the giveaway!!
Pam K. on February 25, 2016 at 8:41 pm said:
These look like great books. Thanks for the chance to win. I’m a newsletter subscriber.
Claudia Thompson on February 25, 2016 at 9:29 pm said:
Hoe fon!! Thanks.
Oops..how fun!!!
Connie Scruggs on February 25, 2016 at 10:03 pm said:
I subscribe to the newsletter. Please enter me. I love free books!
Beth on February 25, 2016 at 10:06 pm said:
Thank you for the giveaway, Carrie! These are 3 new to me authors and I love meeting new authors!
Virginia Campbell on February 26, 2016 at 12:14 am said:
Hi, Carrie! I am a fan and a blog and newsletter subscriber. Please enter my name for a chance to win this great giveaway!
Amanda Holmes on February 26, 2016 at 12:28 am said:
Camille’s book looks like an interesting read!
I can’t wait for your new book to be complete!
Susan Barone on February 26, 2016 at 12:51 am said:
I read about this giveaway in an email and am so excited! I am a subscriber. Thanks!
Charlotte Saltzman on February 26, 2016 at 1:29 am said:
Carrie, I am subscribed and am always so anxious to read your posts. I am excited about the book you are writing as well as the novellas. Keep on keeping on for the Lord!
God bless!!!!!
Anne Payne on February 26, 2016 at 6:37 am said:
read your newsletter and I’m excited to know you are working on another series! Yay!!!! 🙂
I’m a subscriber…obviously 😉
Bonnie Roof on February 26, 2016 at 8:17 am said:
Thanks for the fabulous giveaway opportunity, Carrie!! I’m already a newsletter subscriber.
Thanks for the scone recipe, looking forward to the Facebook party!!
Phyllis Schanck on February 26, 2016 at 12:36 pm said:
Just finished reading Refuge at Highland Hall and really enjoyed it. Looking forward to reading your new book when it comes out. Scone recipe looks yummy. Will have the box of tissues out watching the last program of Downton Abbey. Will miss all those characters so much.
Thank you Carrie for your wonderful books!
Shelia Hall on February 26, 2016 at 1:22 pm said:
carylkane on February 26, 2016 at 2:55 pm said:
Carrie, I hope you are bringing the raspberry scones to the Farewell to Downton Abbey party. These books sounds awesome. Thanks for the giveaway.
I’m already a newsletter subscriber.
Mimi on February 26, 2016 at 5:14 pm said:
Already a subscriber. Your next book sounds like it’s just up my alley for genres I love! mnjesusfreak @ gmail . com
Mary Preston on February 26, 2016 at 6:39 pm said:
The books look marvellous thank you.
Elsie on February 27, 2016 at 6:13 pm said:
I haven’t read any of those! Thanks for the giveaway!
Cindy Koch on February 27, 2016 at 9:43 pm said:
Haven’t read anything from these authors before. Hope to soon!
KayM on February 28, 2016 at 5:16 pm said:
I’m already a subscriber. Thanks for the giveaway. Blessings…
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Something/Anything?
Here are a few approaches to consider while composing narratives:
- Compression/compressed narrative: Summarize a novel's worth of events in 2000 words. A 250 word story....
- Inversion: Make good guys into bad guys, invert moral or social codes, etc. If you are a Democrat, write a story about a jolly hunting trip with Sarah Palin. If you are a Republican, write a story that passionately advocates socialized medicine.... Satirical or not, it will be amusing.... Alternative history or current events....
- Substitution: Substitute fire trucks for tidally-winks, circuit chips for Bibles, what have you.
- Lists: Longs lists of funny words to produce satirical effects, or to wind the reader through landscapes of sense data stimulus. Could a grocery list serve as a plot outline? Why not?
- Telephone directories: See lists
- Catalogs: Write stories about pictures, consumer themes; if those pictures could talk, what would they say?
- Criticism: Novel as critical commentary, a la Pale Fire. Using the voice of a critic to tell a story....
- Pedantic voice, pedantic forms: see above.
- Instruction manual or handbook: Could a pilot's checklist be adapted as a plot line?
- Advertisements: TV, newspapers, radio....
- Pulp action/adventure/sci-fi: "elevate" a traditional generic form to "literary" status through over-burdened cleverness, big words, and satirical intentions. Not necessarily parody, but parody is OK too of course.
- Hypochondria/obsessive-compulsion: a sort of craven fixation upon plot elements, imagery, or the representation of emotional states: example, a lurid description of a soldier cleaning his rifle, or an oral surgeon hammering away at impacted wisdom teeth....
- Hysteria: hyperbolic description, emotions run amok, purple prose, etc.
- Mock Epic: See Alexander Pope "Rape of the Lock."
- Cut-Up and Fold-In Technique: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cut-up_technique
The Tao of the Tractatus
From Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus by Ludwig Wittgenstein:
6.54 My propositions are elucidatory in this way: he who understands me finally recognizes them as senseless, when he has climbed out through them, on them, over them. (He must so to speak throw away the ladder, after he has climbed up on it).
He must surmount these propositions; then he sees the world rightly.
From The Tao of Jeet Kune Do by Bruce Lee:
Again let me remind you Jeet Kune Do is just a name used, a boat to get one across, and once across it is to be discarded and not to be carried on one's back.
Posted by Carter Kaplan at 12:44 AM 3 comments:
A Few Notes on Analytic Philosophy
British Philosophy
It is often maintained by historians of philosophy that England has had only one school of philosophy, or rather, that it has had none at all, for its philosophy is a perpetual protest against Scholasticism. A faith in experimental science, based upon empirical evidence of the senses, and a complementary distrust of scholastic and rationalistic a priori speculation, may be said to form the cornerstone of the English philosophical tradition. Although Swift developed no systematic philosophy--this absence, too, seems to be characteristic of the tentative and experimental English mind--a peculiarly English and to some degree Lockeian nexus of assumptions underlies one major area of his satiric technique.
Rejection of Mechanism in Nature
[Jonathan Swift strikes] at the affectation of those who, by formula and artifice, impose some rigid subjective perception upon the world and then pay honor to this graven image as truth and to themselves as its discoverers. The folly of man's refusal to see things as they really are is thus consistently translated by Swift into symbolic representations of man as a mechanism. Inflexible, blinded to external truth by his own conceit, contentious in his assumption of the infallibility of his subjective responses, man becomes a puppet in life's Punch-and-Judy show of artifice, system and self-delusion.
Source: Bullitt, John M. Jonathan Swift and the Anatomy of Satire. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. 1953. (124).
Emphasis on the Particular
William Blake argued for the perception of reality as a disparate aggregate, for a reality consisting of "minute particulars" which expressed the distinction and individuality of all things. Blake rejected the neoclassical attempt or practice to get at the essence or first principles of things by homogenizing or otherwise discarding the details. According to Blake, it was these details which comprise the windows into perception. "General Forms have their vitality in Particulars" (Jerusalem 91:30). "Sacrifice the Parts, What becomes of the Whole?" (462). "Minute Discrimination is Not Accidental. All Sublimity is founded on Minute Discrimination" (453). "What is General Nature? Is there such a Thing: Strictly speaking, All knowledge is Particular" (459).
Source: Blake, William. The Complete Writings of William Blake. Keynes, Geoffrey, ed. New York: Random House, 1957.
Rejection of Inevitable Necessity
The idea that man is an unconscious victim of external forces, or internal necessities, is one of the greatest intellectual orthodoxies of our time. Ever since the waning of traditional religions, men have been convincing themselves of one inevitable necessity after another, until the point has been reached where some of them have actually started to become operative in detail. Whether or not this desire to discover some omnipotent external force signifies an intellectual rage for order and understanding or rather a deep psychological drive to identify with a superhuman force and avoid responsibility is open to question: but its existence is beyond dispute. It can be seen in the Marxist appeal to inevitable laws of history, in the Freudian appeal to basic drives of the libido and most recently in the appeal to underlying forces of technology by Galbraith and McLuhan.
Jencks, Charles. Architecture 2000: Predictions and Methods. New York: Praeger. 1971. (20).
In the days of the Enlightenment, science was rightly seen as being in the forefront of the struggle against religious mystification, superstition and dogma. Today science has replaced religion as the source and authority of truth. Every source of truth must, in the nature of things, also be a source of falsehoods, against which it must itself struggle. But it may also be a source of intellectual mythology, against which it is typically powerless. One great and barely recognized source of such mythology in our age is science itself. The unmasking of scientific mythology (which is to be distinguished from scientific error) is one of the tasks of philosophy. For philosophy is not the under-labourer of the sciences, but rather their tribunal; it adjudicates not the truth of scientific theorizing, but the sense of scientific propositions. Its aim is neither to engage in nor abjure science, but to restrain it within the bounds of sense, to curb the metaphysical impulse that is released by misinterpretations of the significance of scientific discoveries, to restrain scientists and philosophers (who have been beguiled by their myth-making) from metaphysical nonsense.
P. M. S. Hacker. Wittgenstein's Place in Twentieth-century Analytic Philosophy. Oxford: Blackwell. 1996. (123).
LUDWIG WITTGENSTEIN (1889-1951)
Wittgenstein's Early Thought: The Tractatus
Although the Tractatus conceived of logic as nonsense, or the metaphysical ends of logic as being beyond sense, it shared logic's desire to employ depth analysis to reveal the hidden essence of things. The Tractatus was "possessed by a vision of the crystalline purity of the logical forms of thought, language and the world," and strove for a sublime, unifying form of philosophical insight and procedure.
According to Wittgenstein's early thought, metaphysical contraptions do exist, but language cannot describe them. Metaphysics lies beyond the limits of language. Metaphysics cannot be described, but we know that something is "out there." Thus, according to the most quoted slogan from the Tractatus: "7. What can be said at all can be said clearly, and what we cannot talk about we must pass over in silence."
Wittgenstein's Later Thought: Philosophical Investigations
The Investigations presents a diametrically contrasting philosophical view.
The Investigations strove for a "'quiet weighing of linguistic facts' (Zettel §447) in order to distangle the knots in our understanding . . . [through a] heightened awareness of the motley of spatial and temporal phenomena of language (PI §108), [and] the deceptive forms which lead us into conceptual confusion."[1] In the Investigations Wittgenstein strove for "no more than the description and arrangement of what is simple and familiar, 'hidden' only because it was always before one's eye and goes unnoticed" (PI §129). In these respects, Wittgenstein is remarkably suggestive of the philosophical stance Poe assumes in his mystery stories.
A key difference between Wittgenstein's early and later thought concerns the expressibility of metaphysical propositions. According to the most quoted slogan from the Tractatus: "7. What can be said at all can be said clearly, and what we cannot talk about we must pass over in silence." In contrast to this, Wittgenstein's later thought rejects the notion of the inexpressible entirely. If it cannot be expressed, then it does not exist. Indeed, there is nothing that language cannot express. "For there is nothing that cannot be said, and there is nothing beyond the bounds of sense save nonsense."[2] Metaphysics is nonsense.
In the Investigations Wittgenstein broke free from the vision of a single, unifying form of philosophical insight and procedure, and replaced it with a method in thinking that moved upon many levels and was aware of the "prodigious multiplicity, diversity and inexhaustible richness of things, and . . . describe[d] the nature of a vast variety of phenomena for what they are in themselves, without seeking to fit them into one, all embracing unitary vision." [3] Although expressing a rejection of metaphysics and idealism, the Tractatus pursued the same illusion of a unified theory (or underlying metaphysics) of logic. In the Investigations, however, Wittgenstein came to reject deep logic because it is an act of superstition to pursue "a final analysis of our forms of language, and so a single completely resolved form of expression. That is, as if our usual forms of expression were, essentially, unanalysed; as if there were something hidden in them that had to be brought to light" (PI §91).
In Wittgenstein's later thought, philosophy is not, as the logical positivists believed, a science. Philosophy "neither explains or deduces anything" (PI §128), but "leaves everything as it is" (PI§124). Philosophy does not contribute "to human knowledge, but to human understanding."[4] As for philosophical problems, they are simply misunderstandings caused by conceptual confusion. Once these misconceptions are understood, philosophical problems are revealed to be nonsense, but not "beyond sense" or metaphysical--as Wittgenstein had conceived them to be in the Tractatus. Philosophical theories are latent, concealed nonsense; the task of philosophy is to transform them into patent nonsense (PI §524). In the Investigations Wittgenstein introduced a new analysis based on descriptions of the way we use expressions. This descriptive analysis is synoptic in the way context operates as a determining factor in our understanding of the meaning of an expression.[5]
Appropriate Response to Phenomena: Empirical Explanation vs. Understanding
Wittgenstein was unsatisfied with Frazer's reading and conclusions regarding Frazer's own anthropological findings. Wittgenstein asserted that the human rituals Frazer cataloged went beyond the simple expedient of an empirical explanation, and that, indeed, understanding Frazer's discoveries does not require an empirical explanation. Frank Cioffi describes this in Wittgenstein on Freud and Frazer: "Whatever relevance empirical method may have to the question of the nature and origin of ritual practices . . . is not the central question which Frazer raises and is not, in any case, the question which arises for us when we contemplate human sacrifice and the ritual life of mankind."[6] Wittgenstein voices the same objection to psychoanalytic explanation. Again, according to Cioffi, "Freud advances explanations when the matters he deals with demand clarification, that is, they call for an elucidation of the relation in which we stand to the phenomena rather than an explanation of them."[7] Again, as to aesthetics, "causal hypotheses are conceptually inappropriate responses to requests for the explanation of aesthetic experiences and . . . they are not what we really want."[8]
Melville also makes this distinction in Moby-Dick. In Moby-Dick, Melville is rejecting scientific, philosophical and religious explanations in favor of what he really wants, which is a kind of self-understanding, or an understanding of how he stands relation to scientific, religious and philosophical phenomena.[9]
Wittgenstein's Conception of Philosophy
"Philosophy is a battle against the bewitchment of our intelligence by means of language" (PI §109).
"Our motto might be: 'Let us not be bewitched'" (Z §690).
In Wittgenstein's later thought, philosophy is not, as the logical positivists believed, a science. Philosophy "neither explains or deduces anything" (PI §128), but "leaves everything as it is" (PI §124). Philosophy does not contribute "to human knowledge, but to human understanding."[10]
"What is your aim in philosophy--to shew the fly the way out of the fly-bottle."
"The treatment of a question is like the treatment of an illness" (PI §255).
It was one of Wittgenstein's aims to make philosophical inquiry into a therapy and, through an examination of language, purge philosophy of those questions which were based upon illusory concepts, i.e. concepts which were parented by a misapprehension of grammar rather than the facts of nature. Wittgenstein was put on this track by Hertz and his grappling with the terms "force" and "electricity." Hertz writes:
Our confused wish finds expression in the confused question as to the nature of force and electricity. But the answer which we want is not really an answer to this question. It is not by finding out more and fresh relations and connections that it can be answered; but by removing the contradictions existing between those already known, and thus perhaps by reducing their number. When these painful contradictions are removed, the question as to the nature of force will not have been answered; but our minds, no longer vexed, will cease to ask illegitimate questions.[11]
Philosophical theories are latent, concealed nonsense; the task of philosophy is to transform them into patent nonsense (PI §524).[12]
Therapy for Philosophers
Wittgenstein's technique of philosophical clarification is therapeutic in that it involves a rearrangement of familiar and unfamiliar contexts for the use of expressions that will make the grammar of the relevant expressions surveyable (PI §92, §225)[13]
Decide which of the following propositions provides the most accurate description of reality:
a) My mind is hungry for a big lunch.
b) My brain is hungry for a big lunch.
c) My body--my stomach--is hungry for a big lunch.
d) I am hungry for a big lunch.
The correct answer is d. The other statements are nonsense. Minds do not exist; brains are only to be found in medical textbooks, or on the tables of surgeons and gourmands; and bodies are only to be found at the morgue, at the beach, in the pages of muscle magazines, or in Newton's descriptions of objects possessing mass.[14]
It is not an easy thing to give up one's mind. If this concept is still difficult, you need more therapy. Consider the following propositions:
a) My mind is thinking about Plato.
b) My brain is thinking about Plato.
c) I am thinking about Plato.
d) You would do well to keep Plato in mind for the exam.
e) An Idea just crossed my mind.
f) The idea went in my right ear and out my left, crossing my mind along the way.
g) Some bees dance.
h) Some bees exist.
i) The dinosaurs no longer exist.
j) On my day off I am going to sit in the park and exist.
Propositions c, d, e, g and i are valid. The rest are nonsense. They exhibit conceptual confusion rooted in the misapprehension of language.[15]
The Synoptic Surview
"The pedigree of psychological concepts: I strive not after exactness, but after a synoptic view." (Z §464).
A technique for arriving at a perspicuous, synoptic surview of our critical problems:
The term "critical synoptics" can be used to refer to a number of analytical activities. For critics, critical synoptics refers to the examination of the influences of context, scenario and lexical/syntactical precision upon the meanings of propositions and concepts. The idea is to construct a synoptic overview of a concept or proposition. Any variety of techniques might be applied toward this end. In memorable terms, the basic idea of synoptic analysis is to tell stories about the ways propositions and concepts are used and understood. Such an overview provides a test for determining whether or not the proposition is valid. Once an appreciation for the synoptic overview is part and parcel of the critic's technique, any variety of concepts might be analyzed. The point of the following questions is to realize a synoptic overview:
I. How is the concept used? The use of the word, phrase, or proposition determines its meaning.
II. How is the concept used and understood in other scenarios? What is the accustomed practice of its use? The meaning of a word, phrase, or proposition is determined by what is explained by an explanation of its meaning, or an explanation of the rules for its use. (How does the concept reflect the discourse community that gives it rise?).
III. How is the concept understood? The way the word, phrase, or proposition is understood is its meaning.[16]
IV. What does the concept mean in simplified terms? How would the use of the word, phrase, or proposition be taught to a child?
V. What are the implications of the concept? What kind of world must be necessary in order for the use of the word, phrase, or proposition to be correct or legitimate?
VI. Are abstract nouns used in the formulation of the concept? Abstract nouns often have no validity outside of (and thus also within) the proposition in which they are used.
VII. Does the concept represent an empirical explanation of a phenomenon, or does it advance understanding of a phenomenon? Does the concept represent what we really want to know about a phenomenon?
Consider the following as synoptic overviews of various philosophical problems:
"Perhaps the most important thing in connection aesthetics is what might be called aesthetic reactions, e.g. discontent, disgust, discomfort. The expression of discontent is not the same as the expression of discomfort. The expression of discomfort says: 'Make it higher . . . too low! . . . Do something to this.'"
"What makes bright colors bright? Does it reside in the concept or in cause and effect? There is no luminous gray. Is this inherent in the concept of gray or is it part of the psychology, that is, of the natural history of gray, and isn't it strange that I don't know this?"
"What is called an alteration in concepts is of course not merely an alteration in what one says, but in what one does."
"Duration of sensation. Compare the duration of a sense-experience of sound with the duration of he sensation of touch which informs you that you have a ball in your hand; and with the "feeling" that informs you that your knees are bent" (Z §478).
""It is quite possible that he glands of a sad person secrete differently from those of someone who is glad; and also that their secretion is the cause of sadness. But does it follow that the sadness is a sensation produced by the secretion?" (Z §509).
"We should hardly ask if a crocodile means something when it comes at a man with open jaws. And we should declare that since the crocodile cannot think there is really no question of meaning here" (Z §522).
"What is the difference between these two things: Following a line involuntarily--Following a line intentionally?
"What is the difference between these two things: Tracing a line with care and great attention--Attentively observing how my hand follows a line?" (Z §583).
"The limitlessness of the visual field is clearest when we are seeing nothing in complete darkness" (Z §616).
"I should like to ask, not so much 'What must we do to avoid contradiction?' as 'What ought we to do if we have arrived at a contradiction?'" (Z §688).
"To understand sums in the elementary school the children would have to be important philosophers; failing that, they need practice" (Z §703).
a) First phase: Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus ("The Tractatus")
b) Middle/transitional Phase: The Blue and Brown Books
c) Foundations of mathematics
d) Notes on Frazier, Freud, and Aesthetics (Lectures and Conversations on Aesthetics, Psychology and Religious Belief).
e) Second phase: Philosophical Investigations, On Certainty.
[1] P.M.S. Hacker, Wittgenstein's Place in Twentieth-century Analytic Philosophy (Oxford: Blackwell, 1996)., 98. The abbreviations "Z" and "PI" refer, respectively, to Wittgenstein's Zettel, trans. G. E. M. Anscombe (Oxford: Blackwell, 1967) and Philosophical Investigations, trans. G. E. M. Anscombe (Oxford: Blackwell, 1958).
[3] Ibid., 98-99.
[5] Carter Kaplan, Critical Synoptics: Menippean Satire and the Analysis of Intellectual Mythology (Madison: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 2000) 27-29.
[6] Frank Cioffi, Wittgenstein on Freud and Frazer, (Cambridge: Cambridge, 1998), 2.
[7] Ibid., 3.
[9] Carter Kaplan, Critical Synoptics, 117.
[10] P.M.S. Hacker, Wittgenstein's Place...110, quoted in Carter Kaplan, Critical Synoptics 28.
[11] Quoted in P. M. S. Hacker, Insight and Illusion (Oxford: Clarendon, 1972), 21.
[12] Carter Kaplan, Critical Synoptics (Madison: Fairleigh Dickinson) 28.
[13] Ibid., 28-29.
[15] Ibid., 203.
[16] P. M. S. Hacker, Wittgenstein's Place, 125. Press, 2000)
Supplemental Reading:
Duncan Richter: Introduction to Wittgenstein from the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy: http://www.utm.edu/research/iep/w/wittgens.htm
Wittgenstein Links: http://www.helsinki.fi/~tuschano/lw/links/
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(welders tool is embedded within)
Just every now and then I begin to feel overwhelmed by an increasing amount of public attention ... .
... the past several weeks have been just such a time. Everything seems larger than life as I'm been living it over the past decades, and waaaaaay beyond the edges that used to hold that life.
I tend to withdraw a bit, do some reassessment of the landscape, and (if possible) gradually move back into the foreground.
A few months ago I received word by a phone call that the Central Labor Council of the AFL-CIO was holding their annual banquet in the Craneway Pavilion -- a vast cathedral-like venue in the Ford Assembly Plant which abuts our Visitors Education Center here in Richmond. The reason for the call was to get me to hold the date of September 19th since I would be one of this year's 3 honorees that evening. Rep. George Miller would receive the Life Achievement Award, and the Legacy Award would be given to me.
The evening arrived and every standing or sitting public official from State, County, City, and from the Labor Movement itself was present in that cavernous room. Every declared candidate for any political office in this election cycle was also present and accounted for. It was a grand evening!
The drama of the evening, for me, was not the "Who's who" in that grand space, but that this handmade crystal 15 inch (lighted from within!) beautiful one-of-a-kind trophy was presented by a group of of today's Boilermakers Unionists who stood with me on the platform to make the presentation.
Rep. George Miller and me
The bronze plaque gives, after many decades, status to the little Jim Crow segregated Union, Boilermakers Auxiliary #36, created under the flawed social system of the early forties -- the time of the greatest mobilization of workers since the building of the pyramids or the Great Wall of China.
By their action (through me) that powerful Union legitimized our participation by closing the circle (finally) with all of us enclosed within. Rev. Willie B. Smith, Secretary Mahlon Roles and his wife Marguerite, Spencer Jordan, Zola Adams, Christine White, Martha Ford Montgomery, plus thousands of black shipyard workers who gave their all without fairness of opportunity or recognition, and I, are now counted as legitimate contributors to President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's Great Arsenal of Democracy after more than 70 years. The little temporary office building that held us was unceremoniously torn down immediately at the end of the war, so that past has been obliterated as most or all of those other lives passed into eternity over time. I believe that I may well be the last one standing ... .
This tribute may have come in my name, but it is really a tribute to today's International Brotherhood of Boilermakers who went back into their past to own that blighted history; to forgive themselves; and then continue to open the way to greater unity. I'm told that today's Boilermakers is the most racially diverse division among all of today's Unions.
The plaque reads:
MMXIV
Boilermakers Auxiliary Local #36
in honor of your Home Front service
and your dedication to preserving
a transformative chapter in U.S. history
for women and people of color
(signed by the international president of
the Brotherhood of Boilermakers Iron Shipbuilders
Blacksmith Forgers and Helpers)
In all of our names, I am so grateful for this recognition.
(welders tool is embedded within)Just every now an...
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Sebelius’ Document Destruction Delays Planned Parenthood Case
The pre-trial hearing for the felony prosecution of Planned Parenthood of Mid-Missouri Kansas has been delayed for another 2 weeks because 23 Planned Parenthood-specific state abortion reports have been discovered as destroyed.
Judge Stephen Tatum granted the continuance due to the state’s plea that only recently had they learned that crucial evidence for proving a forgery –original copies of those state late-term abortion compliance reports from Planned Parenthood– had been destroyed in 2005 by the state of Kansas Health department (KDHE) under Gov. Kathleen Sebelius.
Despite requests, the KDHE has not yet issued a public comment on this bombshell that it had actually destroyed selective documents.
Back in 2005, Sebelius was losing her fight to keep various subpoenaed state information relevant to illegal post–viability abortions away from then-Attorney General Phill Kline.
http://www.lifenews.com/2011/10/24/sebelius-document-destruction-delay...
Herman Cain Backs Human Life Amendment Banning Abortions
In an new interview, Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain says he would support a Human Life Amendment to the U.S, Constitution that would ban abortion by protecting unborn children under law.
Cain has advanced the pro-life cause throughout his political career but came under fire this past week when he gave an interview to CNN on Wednesday in which he used typical “pro-choice” language about government not making abortion decisions for women that applied, depending on the listener, to either abortions in the case of rape and incest or abortion policy in general. Either way, pro-life advocates have been disappointed following the comments and they have called on Cain to clarify the comments — which he did in a short message on twitter later in the day saying he is “100% pro-life.”
Cain, later Thursday, released a statement saying he is fully pro-life, saying he will appoint the kind of judges who would be inclined to consider reversing Roe v.
http://www.lifenews.com/2011/10/23/herman-cain-backs-human-life-amendm...
Huge Battle on Abortion, Planned Parenthood Funding Coming
Republicans and Democrats in Congress are preparing for what may be a massive battle on taxpayer funding of abortion, abortion promotion and the Planned Parenthood abortion business.
Yesterday, the House passed H.R. 2608, a continuing resolution to fund the federal government at current levels and under current conditions until November 18. The Senate passed its version of the continuing resolution last week and the final bill to fund the federal government will go to President Barack Obama for his signature.
Now, Congress has less than two months to put together another spending bill to send to Obama to keep the federal government running beyond that.
http://www.lifenews.com/2011/10/05/huge-battle-on-abortion-planned-par...
Democrats Continue Blasting New Planned Parenthood Probe
More members of Congress — all Democrats — have come out in strong opposition to the impending investigation a House committee launched this week, when the head of an oversight committee requested numerous documents from the abortion business.
In a September 15 letter LifeNews.com obtained, Rep. Cliff Stearns, a Florida Republican who is the chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Investigations, writes to Cecile Richards, the president of Planned Parenthood.
The letter requests any information related to improper billing related to federally-funded programs, proof that federal funds are not being improperly used to pay for abortions by PPFA or its affiliates, audits by state agencies of any Planned Parenthood affiliate, and documentation of how many affiliates currently receive Title X family planning funding.
http://www.lifenews.com/2011/09/29/democrats-continue-blasting-new-pla...
Cliff Stearns
House Committee on Oversight and Investigations
House GOP asks for data on abortion spending
House Republicans have begun an investigation into Planned Parenthood’s use of federal funds, questioning whether the national network of abortion providers has proper checks in place to prevent violations of federal law.
Democrats and Planned Parenthood itself have blasted the investigation as a partisan move designed not only to score political points but also to curtail health care for women.
The investigation, announced by Rep. Cliff Stearns, chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee’s investigation subcommittee, in a letter earlier this month to Planned Parenthood Federation of America, asks for audits and other information about PPFA’s financing.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/sep/27/house-gop-asks-for-dat...
federal funds
House Energy and Commerce Committee
Congress to Investigate Planned Parenthood Abortion Business
A Congressional committee has taken the first steps in investigating the Planned Parenthood abortion business over abuses ranging from financial disparities to its compliance with federal regulations on taxpayer funding to concerns that it is covering up cases of sex trafficking.
“Pursuant to Rules X and XI of the United States House of Representatives, the Committee on Energy and Commerce is examining the institutional practices and policies of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA) and its affiliates, and its handing of federal funding,” Stearns writes.
http://www.lifenews.com/2011/09/27/congress-to-investigate-planned-par...
Democrats Float Bill to Ban Pro-Life Mexico City Policy
Democrats in the U.S.
http://www.lifenews.com/2011/09/22/democrats-float-bill-to-ban-pro-lif...
Obama Forces New Hampshire to Fund Planned Parenthood
Late Tuesday, the Obama administration made a decision to force New Hampshire taxpayers to fund the Planned Parenthood abortion business after the state’s Executive Council voted to revoke a $1.8 million contract.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced it will provide the contract for family planning with Planned Parenthood directly from the federal government to the abortion business rather than routing the money through the state and letting New Hampshire officials determine who should receive the Title X grants.
http://www.lifenews.com/2011/09/14/obama-forces-new-hampshire-to-fund-...
Top Pro-Abortion Activists to Headline Obama Fundraiser
Next month, some of the top pro-abortion activists will headline a fundraiser for the re-election campaign of pro-abortion President Barack Obama. The fundraiser is no surprise given the close relationships the president has maintained with them.
The fundraising will include First Lady Michelle Obama and, in her first appearance for Obama, pro-abortion activist Gloria Steinem. They will be joined at the fundraiser in New York City held at a Park Avenue location on September 20th along with Emily’s List president Stephanie Schriock and Cecile Richards, the president of the Planned Parenthood abortion business.
Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the pro-abortion congresswoman Obama recently installed as the chair of the national Democratic Party, will also be on hand for the event, which the Huntington Post reports will have tickets starting at $500 and going on up to $38,500.
http://www.lifenews.com/2011/08/30/top-pro-abortion-activists-to-headl...
Democratic Party Chair Headlines Planned Parenthood Abortion Rally
The chair of the national Democratic party headlined a small rally in Florida yesterday for the Planned Parenthood, in what is the latest event having Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz working with the abortion business.
Wasserman Schultz was named by pro-abortion President Barack Obama recently to take over as the head of the Democratic Party nationally and prepare for his re-election campaign next year. At the time of her appointment to the position, Planned Parenthood president Cecile Richards praised Wasserman Schultz as a “heroine” for her extensive abortion advocacy. The appointment made it clear Obama would not run from him lengthy pro-abortion record.
Now, Schultz is continuing that abortion advocacy, appearing in the event sponsored by Planned Parenthood of South Florida and the Treasure Coast, a local abortion affiliate...
http://www.lifenews.com/2011/08/24/democratic-party-chair-headlines-pl...
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Home>News> Lil Wayne Sues Birdman's Cash Money For $51 Million
Lil Wayne Sues Birdman's Cash Money For $51 Million
Lil Wayne has filed a lawsuit against Birdman's Cash Money label, and he's seeking $51 million from his label boss.
Lil Wayne kept to his word, and his filed a lawsuit against Birdman/Cash Money in an effort to get out of his contract. The other week when we initially reported on Weezy's plan to sue his father, it was thought that he'd sue for the sum of $8 million, plus freedom from the label. As it turns out, Wayne is seeking a bit more than just $8 million.
The lawsuit has been obtained by TMZ (duh), and it reportedly states that Birdman breached Wayne's contract by withholding tens of millions of dollars he's owed by Cash Money as a result of the delayed album Tha Carter 5. Tunechi claims that because he's not being paid what he's owed, he's allowed to walk from their contract.
He's not just seeking his freedom though, Wayne's suing Birdman to the tune of $51 million, and he is asking the judge to declare him joint copyright holder of all Young Money recordings.
Apparently Lil Wayne was supposed to receive an $8 million advance when he began working on C5 in December 2013, and another $2 million after completing the album, however thus far he's received zero dollars.
News YMCMB contract Birdman lawsuit Lil Wayne Lil Wayne Cash Money lawsuit
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Bobby Shmurda Gets A Gun Charge Dismissed [Update: Charge Will Still Count Against Him]
NEWS Lil Wayne Sues Birdman's Cash Money For $51 Million
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Posted on June 22, 2019 June 22, 2019 by John Hansen
ou know what kind of movie “Always Be My Maybe” (Netflix) is, and the people who made it know what kind of movie it is, but that shared knowledge works in its favor. In this tale of two childhood besties who are soul mates but don’t realize it, Ali Wong and especially Randall Park give the types of performances where they know they’re in a movie but they let it all flow over them, from the clichés to the plentiful moments of at least mild inspiration.
The film plays like a top-shelf sitcom (not surprising, since that’s director Nahnatchka Khan’s background), but it has one thing working against it: At 101 minutes, it’s too long. While no single moment lacks competence – with Park’s befuddled look propping up any borderline material — the whole package somehow feels longer than “Avengers: Endgame.” If it was 20 minutes shorter, it might’ve been a comedy gem, but there’s something about the familiarity of the rom-com foundation that made me wish it would get to the next scene faster.
If it was 20 minutes shorter, it might’ve been a comedy gem, but there’s something about the familiarity of the rom-com foundation that made me wish it would get to the next scene faster.
Still, Wong and Park (both of whom are co-writers, with Michael Golamco) have tremendous chemistry as Sasha Tran and Marcus Kim. They were the girl- and boy-next-door to each other as kids in San Francisco, but they’ve been out of touch for 16 years. She’s an innovative chef who’s famous worldwide; he has followed his dad’s footsteps into the family heating and air conditioning business. (The dad, by the way, is played by James Saito. Who knew the Shredder from 1990’s “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” had such good comedic chops?)
I would’ve liked “ABMM” to use its long run time to drive home the specialness of Marcus and Sasha’s relationship, but the “We all know what kind of movie this is” vibe quashes that notion. So does the fact that it’s light and fluffy throughout, with everyone being slightly ridiculous and delivering playful jabs about the others’ ridiculousness.
It’s never laugh-out-loud funny, but at the same time, all of the breezy humor is on point. For example, Sasha tells Marcus she feels so uncomfortable around her fiancé, Brandon (“Lost’s” Daniel Dae Kim), that she has to go to the other side of the house to fart. That’s funny, and it further illustrates the comfort level between these old friends.
The sidebar material spices up “ABMM.” Marcus is in a band, Hello Peril, that performs genuinely good novelty rap songs (written in part by Park). “I Punched Keanu Reeves,” which plays over the closing credits, is funny enough to bump my rating up a half-banana. And as we (and sometimes Marcus) follow Sasha through the glitzy circles she moves in, the film skewers high-class culture. The sequence satirizing a chic restaurant is a highlight, culminating with sugar bubbles being blown onto the table by the server for dessert.
This sequence also introduces Reeves playing “himself,” and while it can’t be as magnificent as James Van Der Beek playing “himself” for the entire run of “Don’t Trust the B—- in Apt. 23,” it’s amusing to observe a Reeves who is pretentiously out of touch with reality. (Coincidentally, Khan was a producer on “Apt. 23.”)
“ABMM” has several of these little delights, and it culminates with perhaps the biggest “We’re on the same page with the viewer” moment: the use of Mariah Carey’s “Always Be My Baby” on the soundtrack. Between each of my three sittings of watching this bizarrely endless yet never unlikable film, that song was of course stuck in my head.
CategoriesMovies TagsAli Wong, Comedy, Michael Golamco, Nahnatchka Khan, Netflix, Randall Park, Romance, Top Movies
Previous PostPrevious Superhero Saturday: ‘Punisher’ gets reimagined yet again – this time as a gore flick in ‘War Zone’ (2008) (Movie review)
Next PostNext Mamet Monday: ‘Vanya on 42nd Street’ (1994) is a clever, money-saving film that only pretends to be a play (Movie review)
With the Wick-vs.-the-world showdown set, ‘John Wick 3’ has a blast playing in its sandbox (Movie review)
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New Images from MAGIC MIKE Featuring Channing Tatum and THE CAMPAIGN Starring Will Ferrell and Zach Galifianakis
by Adam Chitwood April 13, 2012
We’ve got some new, high resolution images to share from a couple of anticipated 2012 releases to share today. First up, a new batch of pics from Steven Soderbergh’s male stripper movie Magic Mike has been released. Loosely based on star Channing Tatum’s early days as a stripper, the Haywire actor plays mentor to a young protégé played by Alex Pettyfer. Joining in on the shirtless fun is a swell supporting cast that includes Matthew McConaughey, Matt Bomer, Joe Manganiello, Olivia Munn, Riley Keough, Cody Horn and Adam Rodriguez. The film opens on June 29th.
Additionally, we’ve got two high resolution images (one of them new) from the political comedy The Campaign (previously titled Dog Fight). We’ve already seen some fairly ridiculous set photos featuring Will Ferrell and Zach Galifianakis as two North Carolina politicians who each have Presidential aspirations and are vying for a congressional seat in their district. The new image here gives us a look at supporting players Jason Sudeikis and Dylan McDermott. The film opens on August 10th.
Here’s a synopsis for Magic Mike:
Set in the world of male strippers, “Magic Mike” is directed by Steven Soderbergh and stars Channing Tatum (“Dear John,” “Step Up”) in a story inspired by his real life. The film follows Mike (Tatum) as he takes a young dancer called The Kid (Pettyfer) under his wing and schools him in the fine arts of partying, picking up women, and making easy money.
Here’s the synopsis for The Campaign:
When long-term congressman Cam Brady (Will Ferrell) commits a major public gaffe before an upcoming election, a pair of ultra-wealthy CEOs plot to put up a rival candidate and gain influence over their North Carolina district. Their man: naïve Marty Huggins (Zach Galifianakis), director of the local Tourism Center. At first, Marty appears to be the unlikeliest possible choice but, with the help of his new benefactors’ support, a cutthroat campaign manager and his family’s political connections, he soon becomes a contender who gives the charismatic Cam plenty to worry about. As Election Day closes in, the two are locked in a dead heat, with insults quickly escalating to injury until all they care about is burying each other, in this mud-slinging, back-stabbing, home-wrecking comedy from “Meet the Parents” director Jay Roach that takes today’s political circus to its logical next level. Because even when you think campaign ethics have hit rock bottom, there’s room to dig a whole lot deeper.
7 High Resolution Images from THE DARK KNIGHT RISES
5 High Resolution Images from DARK SHADOWS
• Channing Tatum • Dog Fight • Dylan McDermott • Entertainment • Images • Jason Sudeikis • Magic Mike • Matt Bomer • Matthew McConaughey • Movie • Southern Rivals • The Campaign • Will Ferrell • Zach Galifianakis
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Volume 9 - Issue 2 - December 1962
Sets non-σ-finite for Hausdorff measures
C. A. Rogers
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 26 February 2010, pp. 95-103
Let ℋ be the system of all continuous increasing functions h(t), denned for t ≥ 0, with h(0) = 0 and h(t)>0 for t > 0. Let Ω be a separable metric space. Then, for each h of ℋ, we may introduce a Hausdorff measure into Ω, by taking
where d(Fi) denotes the diameter of Fi, and where the infimum is taken over all sequences {Fi} of closed sets, covering E and having diameters less than δ. We introduce a natural partial order in the system of these Hausdorff measures by writing j < h, if j, h are functions of ℋ and
A result relating to the local uniformisation theorem
J. Herszberg
The Local Uniformisation Theorem was proved by O. Zariski [5] in 1940, and, for the general case, it is so far the only existing proof of the theorem.
Let V be an irreducible manifold defined over a ground field of characteristic zero, and let Σ be its function field. Suppose V lies in an affine space An, and D is any subvariety of V not at infinity. Let J be the integral domain of V and ρ be the prime ideal in J defining D. Then we denote the quotient ring of D by Q(D|V), and by this we shall mean the quotient ring Jρ [1; p. 99]. Thus when we deal with subvarieties of two birationally equivalent manifolds V and V', then the quotient rings will always be subrings of the same representation of the function field of V and V'. Let B be any valuation of Σ whose centre on V is C. The Local Uniformisation Theorem states that there exists a birational transform V' of V such that the centre C' of B on V' is simple and Q(C/V) ⊆Q(C'/V').
Average distances between points in a square
L. Few
Suppose we have a set of n points P1, …, Pn in a unit square. Let
and let Sn be the upper bound of d1+…dn taken over all positions of P1, …, Pn in the square. We prove that
On the genus of curves over finite fields
J. V. Armitage
Let k be a finite field of q elements. The equation f(x, y) = 0, where f(x, y) is a polynomial with coefficients in k, may be construed to represent a curve, C, in a plane in which x, y are affine coordinates. On the other hand, this equation can be thought of as denning y as an algebraic function of x, where x is transcendental over k. The purpose of this paper is to show that, for a certain class of curves, corresponding in the classical case to curves having n distinct branches at x = ∞, if the degree, n (in y), of the polynomial f is large compared with q, then the genus† of C cannot be too small. We infer this result from a theorem about the genus of a function field; for we can think of C as being a model of such a field.
A note on the Hilbert functions of certain ideals which are defined by matrices
J. A. Eagon, D. G. Northcott
Let I be a homogeneous ideal in the polynomial ring R = Λ[X1, X2, …, XN], where Λ is a field or, more generally, an Artin ring†. Then R|I has an induced structure as a graded R-module and its homogeneous elements of degree n form a Λ-module of finite length. If this length is denoted by H(n, R|I), then H(n, R|I), considered as a function of n, is often known as the Hilbert function of the ideal I although, in other contexts, it is called the Hilbert function of the graded module R|I. We shall adopt the latter terminology.
Note on the basic assumptions of elastic plate theories
R. Tiffen, E. E. Burniston
This note is concerned with an inconsistency in the assumptions made in the Reissner theory of elastic plates. An expression is derived for the stress component t33 and a form is suggested for the shear stress components tα3 which form a suitable basis for an approximate theory of elastic plates.
On non-ramified extensions with prescribed Galois group
A. Fröhlich
In this note we prove:
Theorem. Let Λ be a normal number field of absolute degree n. Then there exist infinitely many normal number fields K with the following properties.
(i) The Galois group of K over the rational field Q is the symmetric group Sn on n symbols.
Monoidal transformations in a one-dimensional local ring
D. Kirby
During the past seven years Northcott has published several papers (see, for example, [6, 7, 8, 9]) in which he has investigated the local aspect of the theory of dilatations. In a similar manner we shall develop in a later paper a local theory of monoidal transformations of which the global analogue appears in [2]. The present note is concerned with such a theory in the one-dimensional case and closely follows the development given in [8] for local dilatations. Indeed the theorems of the present note are all natural generalizations of theorems which have previously been given by Northcott, and for the most part the proofs are essentially Northcott's proofs.
Approximation properties of measures generated by continuous set functions
M. Sion, D. Sjerve
Let X be a metric space and τ a non-negative function on the subsets of X. By the well-known Carathéodory process, we generate outer measures μδ(τ), for δ > 0, and (see §3). When, for every A ⊂ X, τA = (diamA)s for s ≥ 0, μ(τ) is the Hausdorff s-dimensional measure, and, if τA = h(diam A) for a monotone continuous function h with h(0) = 0, μ(τ) is the Hausdorff h-measure. In both of these cases, μ(τ) has been extensively studied.
A transcendence measure for E-functions
Serge Lang
Siegel defined an E-function to be a function which admits a power series expansion
with complex coefficients βn, belonging to some algebraic number field K (of finite degree over the rationals Q), satisfying the following conditions:
(i) Given ε > 0, the maximum of the absolute values of the conjugates of βn, satisfies
The stability of an incompressible jet with an aligned magnetic field
D. H. Michael
The results given here represent an extension of previous work [1, 2] in which the author considered the oscillations of a plane current-vortex sheet in an ideal perfectly conducting fluid. In this paper we consider the effects of curvature of the sheet in a direction transverse to the velocity and magnetic field direction. This problem may be regarded as that of finding longitudinal small oscillations on a jet of fluid which moves along the lines of force of an impressed magnetic field. For oscillations, whose wavelength is small by comparison with the radius of curvature of the section of the jet, it is to be expected that the criterion for stable or unstable oscillations will be the same as for the plane case examined previously, and this is verified. When one considers the other extreme, in which the wavelength of the oscillations is large, the analysis shows that the magnetic field aligned to the jet has the effect of stabilising the jet, irrespective of the magnetic field strength. The magnetic field thus behaves for large wavelengths in the same way as a surface tension does for small wavelengths. For values of the applied magnetic field which would make the current-vortex sheet without curvature unstable, it is seen that there is a single transition from instability to stability as the wavelength increases. It is shown also that when small wavelengths are stable, in addition to large wavelengths, it does not necessarily mean that the jet will be stable for all wavelengths. Criteria are deduced to distinguish this case from another in which the jet remains unstable for a simple bounded range of intermediate wavelengths.
On circuits and subgraphs of chromatic graphs
P. Erdös
A graph is said to be k-chromatic if its vertices can be split into k classes so that two vertices of the same class are not connected (by an edge) and such a splitting is not possible for k−1 classes. Tutte was the first to show that for every k there is a k-chromatic graph which contains no triangle [1].
Index to volume 9
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 26 February 2010, p. 176
MTK volume 9 issue 2 Front matter
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 26 February 2010, p. f1
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Straightjacket by Meredith Towbin Review:
Goodreads Book Blurb:
Eighteen-year-old Anna has lived her whole life in shame, losing herself in books to cope with crippling panic attacks triggered by her abusive parents. Forced into a psychiatric hospital, she can’t imagine a future that’s anything but bleak—until she meets Caleb, a gifted, 19-year-old artist who insists he’s an angel.
He swears his mission is to help Anna break free from her parents’ control and fulfill a destiny that she can only dream of. The doctors, however, are convinced that Caleb is delusional.
Anna doesn’t want to be that girl who’s in love with the crazy guy, but when she sees his stunning portraits of her and the way he risks everything to keep her safe, she can’t help but imagine a new future for both of them, filled with hope. But just when it seems they’ve created heaven on earth, Caleb’s past emerges full force, threatening to destroy their tiny, blissful world. And Anna has to decide if she should follow her heart, or if Caleb’s really as troubled as his doctors say…
Genre - YA Romance
Straightjacket is a YA Romance written by Meredith Towbin. I read this as a R2R with We ♥ YA Books! As always, a special thank you to the mods and author for allowing me to participate.
4 Amazing Stars!
A beautifully twisted written love story that will keep you guessing and thinking long after the last page is read.
Straightjacket is Meredith Towbin’s debut novel. This book totally took me by surprise and left me thinking on a deeply profound level. It raises the question of how fragile the human mind really is and can you trust what science has told you is fact or believe in a faith and a reality you are uncertain of and can’t see.
Characters...
Eighteen year old Anna is admitted to a psychiatric hospital after she threatens to kill herself. Her controlling and abusive parents have decimated her self-esteem and confidence to the point of extreme panic attacks. She is confused and on the edge of a dark abyss when we meet her. The outside world is a place she can’t cope with so she keeps to herself and spends her time absorbed in books. That is, until she meets Caleb. He’s different, he’s handsome and he can create the most stunning drawings she’s ever seen. He can see past her darkness to the light she has buried inside. Of course she can’t help but fall in love with him.
Quote Spotlight...
... All he could do now was take away some of the hurt and humiliation that had been heaped on her over the last eighteen years. He would show her what being loved meant.
Caleb is nineteen and has an important mission he has to accomplish. Sitting in a psychiatric ward, his body stiff and unmoving, his mind settles in the commons area in Heaven where his guide, Samuel, tells him he has to save the new girl, Anna. He has to convince her to live her own life away from the influence of her corrosive parents and to follow her dream of being a writer. Once he accomplishes this mission, he can come back to Heaven and stay. But when he inserts himself into her life, he never thought he’d fall in love and want to stay.
“I love you. That’s all you need to know about me. I love you.” - Caleb
The question is never straightforward and neither is the answer. Is Caleb mentally ill or is there something more to his time on Earth? As you follow this read and bits of his past are revealed, this one question lingers in your mind and you really get no definitive answer. So again, do you trust what science tells you is real? That the mind is a fragile thing and Caleb is mentally ill, or is he really an angel sent back to Earth on a mission to help Anna? I love that we are left questioning this. Caleb was a wonderful character. He was dark and brooding and he certainly had issues but there was always the “hope” or “chance” or whatever you want to call it that he was something more.
...“I’ve just been thinking about what you said, about being an angel, and it’s just, I mean... who am I to say it’s not true?” - Anna
Anna’s belief in Caleb was beautiful. She chose to keep her belief and to go with him and to take care of him as he’d taken care of her. After all she’d been through, it was a wonder she could function on any level, let alone allow Caleb to lead her to a healthy state of mind. Both of these characters are broken and struggling but together they find a sort of temporary peace.
And then this story takes a very dark and frightening turn. Things start to spin out of control for both characters and what they believe and how they feel is tested to the extreme.
“...The things she loved about him were slowly slipping away. He didn’t joke around anymore and barely even smiled. A sadness was swallowing him up.
This story was well written, unique, beautiful and tragic and left me hopeful yet heartbroken. For such a quick read, it truly packs a punch. I can’t wait to read more by this author and this book has left its imprint in my heart.
Amazon Buy Link
Barnes & Noble Buy Link
Kobo Buy Link
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Category: Radio/TV Host
Ryan Secreast, the Iconic host Of American Idol
Ryan John Seacrest is a well-known television host, producer and, also American radio personality. Ryan Seacrest was born and raised in Atlanta The Peachtree State. Ryan Seacrest also hosts the American Idol Show and other shows on Radio.
American Idol show is starting a new season with ABC TV station instead of FOX station. ABC has selected Ryan Secreast as the returning host for the iconic music competition series with other new Judges on the panel starting its first season in the spring of 2018.
Ryan Secreast is a genius and he is capable of producing music competition series among everything on E network. He is dedicated, dependable and hardworking. Ryan Seacrest is an entrepreneur, Philanthropist, creative and a multitasker and knows how to get the job done. Over these many years On TV, he has won the respect and admiration of the American people
Ryan Seacrest Production company is an award winning entertainment company. The company also produced the Emmy Award-winning reality series, Keeping Up with the Kardashians, Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution and E! Live from the red carpet award shows.
As a producer, Seacrest is the executive producer and co-host on “Live with Kelly and Ryan talk show that airs on ABC every morning. Other shows he co-hosts and produced include annual New Year’s Eve program on ABC. He also features on New Year’s Rockin’ Eve with Dick Clark to mention a few.
As an Entrepreneur, Ryan is involved in a wide range of media and entertainment companies.
His philanthropic efforts are based on helping the youth and serving as a chairman of the Ryan Seacrest Foundation. Ryan Seacrest Foundation has launched 10 broadcast media centers. Ryan Seacrest has established studios for children in hospitals across America. He is a member of the board of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
As a businessman, Ryan has a good taste for fashion. His love for fashion motivated him to launch a menswear collection and Ryan Seacrest Distinction which is sold exclusively at Macy’s. He launched a men’s skincare line and also has a long endorsement relationship with blue-chip brands including Ford and Coca-Cola.
Posted on December 6, 2018 December 8, 2018 Categories Radio/TV HostLeave a comment on Ryan Secreast, the Iconic host Of American Idol
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City Life, Events Jul 04, 2013
A New Haven Anthem
…with apologies to Francis Scott Key.
Ohhhh, say, can you see…
What if it’s not “Oh, say,” but Old Saybrook? That’s where Yale University was founded, in 1700 before moving to New Haven a few years later, and of course there’s still a college at Yale named Saybrook.
By the dawn’s early light…
Lux et Veritas, the Yale motto, means “Light and Verity,” as in enlightenment, principles and truth. The motto of the University of New Haven is “We Make Tomorrow.” Quinnipiac’s is “Challenging Students to Meet the Challenges of the Future.”
Or “Dawn” could be Donald Kagan, the noted Yale conservative, classical historian and even acting director of Yale’s athletics program for a year in the late ’80s. Kagan retired from Yale this April after over four decades of teaching there. He’s remembered for a blistering speech he gave in 2001 regarding what patriotism meant in the wake of September 11.
What so proudly we hail…
Nathan Hale. The man who is credited with saying, “I regret that I have but one life to give for my country,” went to Yale and has a school and a park and a fort in New Haven named for him. He is the official state hero of Connecticut.
At the twilight’s last gleaming…
Our city had a nightclub in the 1980s called the Twilight Zone where the likes of Cheap Trick and Stevie Ray Vaughan once played. These days, there are other twilight concerts: the Twilight Concert Series sponsored by New Haven Museum happens outdoors at the Pardee-Morris House. (This year’s remaining shows are the Walkingwood Mandolin Quartet on July 24 and the SOUND Proof vocal ensemble on August 14). The Twilight Tuesdays series is held every (you guessed it) Tuesday at (you guessed it again) twilight (in this case, 6:30 p.m.) at Neighborhood Music School (100 Audubon Street, New Haven), where upcoming acts include Brother Sun on July 9, Cosmic Jibaros on July 16, Goodnight Blue Moon on July 23 and Ron Sunshine & Friends on July 30.
Whose broad stripes and bright stars…
Yale’s stripes aren’t broad; they’re blue pinstripes on seersucker jackets. The city does have a Broadway, though. And stars? More than there are in the heavens: Paul Giamatti, Lauren Ambrose, Liz Phair, baseball’s Craig Breslow, film director Martha Coolidge and George W. Bush were all born here.
Through the perilous fight…
Don Perry was a player and coach with the obstreperous local hockey team the New Haven Blades from 1954 to 1972. That’s when the team left town, and things have felt Perry-less ever since.
O’er the ramparts we watched…
William Sloane Coffin (1924-2006), the famous Yale preacher who calmed souls on New Haven Green during the demonstrations of the early 1970s, had a deep understanding of this city’s special character. Rev. Coffin once delivered a cool sermon on “The Flame of Creativity Vs. the Fires of Sin” in which he compared “the disciples at Pentacost with the tower builders at Babel. Instead of trying to storm the ramparts of heaven, the disciples allowed heaven to take them by storm. Their zeal was no less than that of the tower builders, only their creativity stemmed not from ambition based on insecurity but from gratitude for forgiveness and the love of God in whom they now lived and moved and had their being.”
Were so gallantly streaming…
Now streaming from Yale onto an iPad near you: everything from online courses to lectures to footage of a cappella groups. As for New Haven, the catchphrase in the more progressive trash pick-up circles for a few years now has been “Residential Single Stream Recycling,” whereby all your recyclables can go in the same big blue bin.
And the rockets’ red glare…
One of the pivotal members of the local music scene in the 1970s was Craig Bell, who came here after playing bass for the vastly influential Cleveland proto-punk band Rocket from the Tombs. One of the best local bands of the ’00s, Bloarzeyd, had a killer song called “Rocket Science.” These days, there’s a clever hip-hop act in town called Peanut Butter Rocket, doing savage hip-hop pop tunes and remixes.
The bombs bursting in air…
Many a theater-lover knows this phrase: “We bombed in New Haven.” It applies to pre-Broadway try-outs which failed to click at the Shubert. One of them is particularly fitting here: The Star-Spangled Girl by Neil Simon, who had over half a dozen shows try out at the Shubert.
Gave proof through the night…
Cole Porter (Yale class of ’13) built upon that sentiment: “All through the night/From a height far above/You and your love brings me ecstasy!” Both Cole Porter and the New Haven-rooted doo-wop group The Five Satins had hit songs called “In the Still of the Night.”
Today, nightlife in New Haven means dancing, dining, live theater, live music and more. It’s one of our defining characteristics as a city.
That our flag was still there…
The flagpole on New Haven Green has outlasted many other structures in that common space, including a statehouse and a munitions storehouse. It’s even been augmented, with memorials to fallen soldiers and a fountain.
Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave…
That one’s special, but all kinds of banners wave in New Haven. For an official “Application to Hang Street or Pole Banners in the City of New Haven,” check here.
O’er the land of the free…
The New Haven Free Public Library is truly a land of the free—a bastion of community, freedom of information and civic engagement, celebrating its 125th anniversary this year.
One of the city’s educational innovations of recent years is offering free college tuition to Connecticut state universities (and some private ones, such as Yale) to high school students who live in the city and have maintained a high grade point average.
You can also find free books at New Haven Reads, and share your knowledge at the New Haven Free Skool at the corner of College and Crown Streets.
And the home of the brave?
How brave are we? This city has braved national disaster, revolutionary wars, been on the forefront of civil rights movements for centuries. We have marched and rallied and spoken out and led and preached and taught others. We have created a city celebrated around the world for its culture, its creativity and intellectualism, its inventiveness and ingenuity.
And its penchant for celebration. Happy Fourth of July!
New Haven Fourth of July Fireworks Celebration
at the summit of East Rock Park in New Haven.
Thursday, July 4, at 9:15pm (rain date: Friday, July 5)
www.cityofnewhaven.com/… | (203) 946-8378
Written and photographed by Christopher Arnott.
Tags: Christopher Arnott, feature, Fourth of July, Independence Day, New Haven
Peas and Love
Grid Luck
About Christopher Arnott
View all posts by Christopher Arnott
Christopher Arnott has written about arts and culture in Connecticut for over 25 years. His journalism has won local, regional and national awards, and he has been honored with an Arts Award from the Arts Council of Greater New Haven. He posts daily at his own sites www.scribblers.us and New Haven Theater Jerk (www.scribblers.us/nhtj).
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You are here: Home / Archives for infrastructure
May 23, 2016 by Marc Farley
Last week Brad Parkinson was awarded the Marconi Prize for his work developing the GPS technology that synchronizes space and time for the entire planet. Parkinson’s recognition is certainly deserved considering how pervasive GPS technology has become and his unwavering insistence on making it available globally as a free service. It didn’t have to be that way and probably wouldn’t be if GPS were developed today.
GPS was developed by Parkinson’s team at the US Air Force in the 70s. I recommend reading this brief history of it’s development, published by Stanford University in 1995 before the big GPS boom happened. Since then, GPS has significantly altered our view of the world by enabling the maps and apps that take us everywhere on the planet. Readers who are curious about the applications of GPS might want to read Greg Milner’s recently published book: Pinpoint: How GPS is Changing Technology, Culture and Our Minds.
I can’t help but wonder if we would have the resolve to develop GPS from scratch today and make it available worldwide for free. It’s hard to imagine that a private company developing the technology would give the service away. Recovering the high cost of satellites and rockets would make a freemium business model highly unlikely. The money to build and launch all these satellites would have to come from the GPS service itself, which implies that it would use encoded signals that would only be intelligible to matched decoding receivers. The receivers would cost a lot more than they do today because of the licensing fees that would need to be paid to the satellite operating company. Satellite radio is a reasonably good comparison and it hasn’t exactly taken the world by storm.
Also, if GPS were developed by private industry there would almost certainly be multiple competing GPS satellite systems – all with their own equipment, licensing deals and the inevitable patent infringement lawsuits to muddy the waters. In fact, there are other satellite positioning systems circling the earth, such as Russia’s GLONASS, and others that are in development, but they will likely have free services following the economic course set by GPS. Brad Parkinson’s determination to make a free civilian GPS band available opened the doors to an eternity of free positioning services. He probably wasn’t thinking about that back in the 70’s, but that is his legacy.
At the time Parkinson developed GPS, there were many in the military and congress that thought it was a waste of money on what they perceived to be a redundant navigation system. I suspect that if GPS were a project today that it would not survive the budget cutting mindset of congress. But Parkinson made sure enough people understood that it was not a navigation system, but a way to locate targets so that the risks and errors of war could be minimized. It’s now abundantly clear that GPS makes war much more efficient and has saved many lives by reducing the number of bombs that hit the wrong targets. That said, mistakes still occur and war is a horrible thing, but Parkinson acted in the best interest of soldiers and civilians to limit casualties. He left the Air Force in the 80’s and worked for most of the rest of his career as a professor at Stanford University.
If GPS had not been developed all those years ago, would we try to invent it now or would it be too difficult economically? If the answer is “no, it would be too expensive”, what does that say about our abilities to create key infrastructure technologies today? What, if anything, have we lost over the last four decades.
Filed Under: BayArea, Shoulders of Giants, Tech community Tagged With: history, infrastructure, military
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Auschwitz survivors pay homage as world remembers Holocaust
Survivors of Auschwitz arrive at the International Monument to the Victims of Fascism at the former Nazi German concentration and extermination camp KL Auschwitz II-Birkenau walk to place candles on International Holocaust Remembrance Day in Oswiecim, Poland, Sunday, Jan. 27, 2019.(AP Photo/Czarek Sokolowski)
Vanessa Gera
WARSAW, Poland (AP) — The world marked International Holocaust Remembrance Day on Sunday amid a revival of hate-inspired violence and signs that younger generations know less and less about the genocide of Jews, Roma and others by Nazi Germany during World War II.
As survivors of Auschwitz marked the 74th anniversary of the notorious death camp’s liberation, a far-right activist who served time in prison for burning an effigy of a Jew placed a wreath there with about 50 other Polish nationalists to protest the official observances.
Piotr Rybak said the group opposes the annual ceremony at Auschwitz to mark the camp’s liberation by the Soviet army, the event that gave rise to the international Jan. 27 remembrance. Rybak claimed it glorifies the 1 million Jewish victims killed at the Auschwitz-Birkenau death complex and discounts the 70,000 Poles killed there.
“It’s time to fight against Jewry and free Poland from them!” Rybak said as he marched to the site, according to a report by Polish daily newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza on its website.
Rybak’s claim is incorrect. The ceremony at the state-run memorial site paid homage Sunday, as it does every year, to all of the camp’s victims, both Jews and gentiles, while Christian and Jewish religious leaders recited a prayer in unison together. Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki also stressed that the Third Reich targeted Poles as well as Jews.
Since last year’s observances, an 85-year-old French Holocaust survivor, Mireille Knoll, was fatally stabbed in Paris and 11 Jews were gunned down in a Pittsburgh synagogue during Shabbat services, the deadliest attack on Jews in U.S. history.
Human Rights First, a U.S. organization, recalled those killings and warned that “today’s threats do not come solely from the fringe.”
“In places such as Hungary and Poland, once proudly democratic nations, government leaders are traveling the road to authoritarianism,” said Ira Forman, the group’s senior adviser for combating anti-Semitism. “As they do so, they are distorting history to spin a fable about their nations and the Holocaust.”
Former Auschwitz prisoners placed flowers early Sunday at an execution wall at Auschwitz, paying homage before the arrival of the nationalists at the same spot. They wore striped scarves that recalled their uniforms, some with the red letter “P,” the symbol the Germans used to mark them as Poles.
Early in World War II, most prisoners were Poles, rounded up by the occupying German forces. Later, Auschwitz was transformed into a mass killing site for Jews, Roma and others, operating until the liberation by Soviet forces on Jan. 27, 1945.
In Germany, Foreign Minister Heiko Maas warned in an op-ed in the weekly Welt am Sonntag that across Europe populists are propagating nationalism and “far-right provocateurs are trying to downplay the Holocaust.”
“We shall never forget. We shall never be indifferent. We must stand up for our liberal democracy,” Maas wrote.
Over the past year, Germany has seen a rising number of often violent attacks against Jews carried out by neo-Nazis and Muslims, prompting the government to appoint a commissioner against anti-Semitism and to start funding a national registration office for anti-Semitic hate crimes.
The appearance by nationalists at Auschwitz comes amid a surge of right-wing extremism in Poland and elsewhere in the West. It is fed by a broader grievance many Poles have that their suffering during the war at German hands is little known abroad while there is greater knowledge of the Jewish tragedy.
However recent surveys show that knowledge of the atrocities during World War II is declining generally.
A new study released in recent days by the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany and the Azrieli Foundation found that 52 percent of millennials in Canada cannot name even one concentration camp or ghetto and 62 percent of millennials did not know that 6 million Jews were killed in the Holocaust.
Its findings were similar to a similar study carried out a year before in the United States.
In Britain, a new poll by the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust found that one in 20 adults in Britain do not believe the Holocaust took place.
The poll of more than 2,000 people released Sunday also found that nearly two-thirds of those polled either did not know how many Jews had been murdered or greatly underestimated the number killed during the Holocaust.
“Such widespread ignorance and even denial is shocking,” chief executive Olivia Marks-Woldman said.
Israel’s Ministry of Diaspora Affairs said in its Global Antisemitism Report released Sunday that 13 Jews were murdered in fatal attacks in 2018, marking the highest number of Jews murdered since a wave of attacks on Argentinian Jews in the 1990s.
The report found that around 70 percent of anti-Jewish attacks were anti-Israel in nature and that most of the attacks were led by neo-Nazis and white supremacists.
The United Nations recognized Jan. 27 as International Holocaust Remembrance Day in 2005.
Czarek Sokolowski in Oswiecim, Poland, Kirsten Grieshaber in Berlin, Gregory Katz in London and Aron Heller in Jerusalem contributed reporting.
TagsAuschwitz Holocaust Holocaust Remembrance Day International Holocaust Remembrance Day
On a note of hope.
There is a film being made about one of the UK’s great unsung heroes of the Holocaust, Frank Foley.
“The Inside Outside Man (2019)”
Foley was a spy who spent time in Germany prior to WWII under the cover of working for the British Consulate. His real job was to funnel German scientific secrets out of the country. But in addition to his duties he used his cover position (against orders of his superiors) to issue visas to Jews fleeing the Nazi regime
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Foley
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/frank-foley-jews-rescue-nazis-british-spy-mi6-holocaust-memorial-day-pimpernel-schindler-a8188041.html
At the 1961 trial of former ranking Nazi Adolf Eichmann, he was described as a “Scarlet Pimpernel” for the way he risked his own life to save Jews threatened with death by the Nazis. Despite having no diplomatic immunity and being liable to arrest at any time, Foley would bend the rules when stamping passports and issuing visas, to allow Jews to escape “legally” to Britain or Palestine, which was then controlled by the British. Sometimes he went further, going into internment camps to get Jews out, hiding them in his home, and helping them get forged passports. One Jewish aid worker estimated that he saved “tens of thousands” of people from the Holocaust.
https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/rescue-in-denmark
THE RESCUE OF THE DANISH JEWS
Denmark was the only occupied country that actively resisted the Nazi regime’s attempts to deport its Jewish citizens. On September 28, 1943, Georg Ferdinand Duckwitz, a German diplomat, secretly informed the Danish resistance that the Nazis were planning to deport the Danish Jews. The Danes responded quickly, organizing a nationwide effort to smuggle the Jews by sea to neutral Sweden. Warned of the German plans, Jews began to leave Copenhagen, where most of the almost 8,000 Jews in Denmark lived, and other cities, by train, car, and on foot. With the help of the Danish people, they found hiding places in homes, hospitals, and churches. Within a two-week period fishermen helped ferry some 7,200 Danish Jews and 680 non-Jewish family members to safety across the narrow body of water separating Denmark from Sweden.
The Danish rescue effort was unique because it was nationwide. It was not completely successful, however. Almost 500 Danish Jews were deported to the Theresienstadt ghetto in Czechoslovakia. Yet even of these Jews, all but 51 survived the Holocaust, largely because Danish officials pressured the Germans with their concerns for the well-being of those who had been deported. The Danes proved that widespread support for Jews and resistance to Nazi policies could save lives.
“1 million Jewish victims killed at the Auschwitz-Birkenau death complex and discounts the 70,000 Poles killed there”
That is about right. Originally 4 million were claimed to have died in Auschwitz and 2 million in other camps. Now it is down to 1 million in Auschwitz. The change took place in 1988. Birkenau was a detention camp and Dachau was for political prisoners. Treblinka was a transfer point. Bergen Belson was a labor camp.
You have already been corrected on this nonsense but repeat it again. The sign of a malicious lying sack of crap.
For a reliable resource on the subject and why Holocaust deniers should never be taken seriously see
http://WWW.HDOT.ORG
The Holocaust was far worse than most historians have been saying for decades.
Pope challenged on sex abuse as young take stage in Panama
Tulsi Gabbard’s 2020 bid raises questions about Hindu political ties
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Answering Kent Brandenburg’s Contorted Interpretation of Psalm 12
Fred Butler provides a critique of Kent Brandenburg’s tradition-based mishandling of God’s Word:
http://hipandthigh.wordpress.com/2014/01/07/where-the-single-version-men-lead-us/
Steven Avery and Pinto’s Phantom Manuscripts
The article below that I wrote years ago sheds relevant light upon Steven Avery’s textual receptus claim, and Chris Pinto’s conspiratorial claim and his insistence that the TR tradition goes back to the early church period.
http://www.aomin.org/aoblog/index.php/2007/04/19/dean-burgon-and-his-phantom-manuscripts/
See also Ken Willy’s insightful comments on Pinto’s damage control after losing the debate:
http://bibleversiondiscussionboard.yuku.com/topic/5650/Pinto-Post-Debate-Damage-Control#.UssEMPbm-XF
/ Blog Stuff, King James Onlyism
More Commentary on Pinto’s Conspiracy Theory
Fred Butler has further comments on Chris Pinto’s failed performance in the debate:
http://hipandthigh.wordpress.com/2013/12/29/h-p-blavatsky-for-the-defense/
http://hipandthigh.wordpress.com/2013/12/16/why-the-whitepinto-debate-matters/
(Incidentally, I find it telling that Chris Pinto and Brannon Howse refuse to post the debate audio on their respective websites for their people to listen to. If they think Pinto “won” the debate, why not post it? I think we all know the answer to this.)
/ Rich Pierce
Chris Pinto vs. James White – Debate Summarized
The Chris Pinto vs. James White debate on whether Codex Sinaiticus is a modern forgery can be boiled down to a few considerations.
1) Constantine Simonides claimed that he wrote the document based on collating pre-existing manuscripts, and that his uncle corrected the document.
Both sides agree that he so claimed. Dr. White demonstrated that these claims are essentially impossible, as explained below.
2) The most sympathetic source for Simonides says that Simonides was not a truthful person.
Dr. White raised this point, and Pinto did not dispute it except to say that this source was not the only supportive source and that the source himself says Simonides did not always lie.
3) There are no known examplars that could have been the source for Codex Sinaiticus.
Dr. White raised this point, Pinto’s response was to point out that the source(s) could be as-yet-unknown manuscripts on Mt. Athos.
4) Codex Sinaiticus was written by several different, distinguishable scribes (as evidenced by different handwriting, different style of abbreviations, and different accuracy of work).
Dr. White raised this point, Pinto did not respond to it.
5) Codex Sinaiticus has corrections by multiple different correctors.
Dr. White raised this point, Pinto did not respond to it except to say that two other men (a monk and a scribe) may have been involved in the corrections.
6) The amount of time necessary for collating multiple manuscripts of the entire Bible (plus some apocrypha) would have been prohibitive in the timeline proposed by Simonides.
Dr. White raised this point, and Pinto responded that possibly his uncle started on the project years before Simonides began.
1. Regarding the Mt. Athos manuscripts, there is an on-going digitization project (link). At one point, Mr. Pinto alleges that the one way to resolve the mystery was to explore the Mt. Athos library for manuscripts corresponding to Simonides’ claims. He won’t be able to stand behind that argument from ignorance forever.
2. Simonides himself states that the collation began after Simonides himself joined the project, as demonstrated by Dr. White. So, although the uncle allegedly had corrected the other manuscripts in advance, the collation project had not been done in advance, according to the primary source for Mr. Pinto’s theory.
The fact that the manuscript was written by several different scribes and was corrected by numerous additional hands makes it impossible for Simonides’ story to be true. The necessary hypothesis would be that Simonides deliberately altered his handwriting several different times during the writing of the manuscript to give the impression of different scribes. Such a hypothesis is simply implausible – there is no reason for Simonides to do this for the purpose of creating a text for the Czar (as he claimed).
The fact that collation of documents takes an enormous amount of time, especially when one of the documents is not in the base language (allegedly one of the manuscripts was a Syriac manuscript), also weighs against Simonides claim. While it might be conceivable that such a collation could take place, the necessary time and training for such a collation to be undertaken are simply not there.
The fact that the supposed exemplars of Sinaiticus do not produce the unique readings of Sinaiticus and the fact that some of these unique readings are found in later discovered papyri also weighs against Simonides’ claim.
In view of these facts, it’s hard to see how anyone could come to any other conclusion than that Simonides was not the scribe of Sinaiticus, whether or not Simonides actually did create a manuscript intended for the Czar.
-TurretinFan
P.S. I hesitated to post this, because I felt like the debate was unusually one-sided – it did not seem that Mr. Pinto had really any reasonable response for any of the questions posed to him or that he made any notable points that were difficult for Dr. White to address. Thus, I was afraid that my comments would look like “piling on” or kicking Mr. Pinto when he is down. However, since Mr. Pinto has apparently been misunderstanding silence from Dr. White’s friends as a lack of support, I thought it prudent to briefly summarize why the debate was so clearly a victory for my friend.
/ King James Onlyism, Resources, Textual Issues
Debate Audio – James White vs. Chris Pinto: Is Codex Sinaiticus a Modern Forgery?
The debate audio is available here!
http://www.aomin.org/aoblog/index.php/2013/12/13/in-response-to-chris-pinto/
I will post my review of the debate in the near future.
Geordi and Riker Talk to the Pakleds, or Bill Nye Talks to Folks in Kentucky
Oh, and about that audio player…
The MRL (Ministry Resource List) Reborn and Restocked (Updated)!
The Molinist God is a Seahawk’s Fan, and Calls, on Today’s DL
Confessions of a Former Charismatic, Part 2: Why I’m No Longer a Charismatic
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James White is the director of Alpha and Omega Ministries, a Christian apologetics organization based in Phoenix, Arizona. He is the author of more than twenty books, a professor, an accomplished debater, and an elder of the Phoenix Reformed Baptist Church.
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✺✺
in the future energy mix and to compensate for current market-failures.
Philippe Dumas is the secretary general of the European Geothermal Energy Council (EGEC) in
Brussels. The EGEC fosters market development for geothermal energy and works to improve
business conditions in Europe. He was formerly a master in European Affairs, and first worked at
a European engineering company as representative in Brussels for EU affairs.
IN THE SHORT TERM, the biggest challenge facing the wind industry at the moment is the wave of policy uncertainty, which has swept over Europe and the United States over the past couple of years. While there are signs that things are settling down in Europe with the establishment of the new German coalition government, there are some key decisions to be made this year and next that will determine the growth prospects for wind in Europe both onshore and offshore in the near to medium term.
In the United States, the policy rollercoaster that saw record
installations in 2012 (as a result of the imminent expiration of
the production tax credit), and the dramatic drop in 2013 instal-
lations (because of the late reauthorization of the PTC), could
be ameliorated, ironically by the new found spirit of cooperation in advance of the
2014 mid-term elections following the disastrous budget fasco late last year.
In the longer term, however, the greatest challenge facing the industry is how to focus the minds of policy makers, utilities and systems operators and the wind power industry on the transformation of the electricity system: moving away from a system reliant on a few large sources of supply for an infexible demand; and into one with a wide variety of sources (some variable, some not) that supply an increasingly sophisticated and managed demand, and where electricity plays a larger role in the overall energy picture, i.e., contributing signifcantly to transport as well as heating/cooling. While there are many forward thinking policymakers and system operators in some countries who are pushing the envelope in this area, there are many more who are resistant to change.
As we move inexorably towards an electricity (and energy) system dominat-
ed by renewables, the question becomes less one of technology per se, but one
of system management and rewarding ‘good’ behavior on the part of consumers
large and small. à
Steve Sawyer joined the Global Wind Energy Council as its first secretary general in April 2007. The
Global Wind Energy Council represents the major wind energy associations (China, India, Japan, Brazil,
Mexico, Australia, Canada, USA, Europe, Germany, Spain, Denmark, Italy, Korea, South Africa and UK)
as well as the major companies involved in the global wind industry.
To lend your voice to future discussions, email megc@pennwell.com for more details.
Steve Sawyer
Secretary General,
Global Wind
✺✺The Big Question
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DoorQ.Com | Kennedy departs ‘Jurassic’, Hamill on returning to ‘Star Wars’, ‘Under the Dome’ casting, ‘Beast’ finds a director
Home / Anime & Animation / Kennedy departs ‘Jurassic’, Hamill on returning to ‘Star Wars’, ‘Under the Dome’ casting, ‘Beast’ finds a director
Kennedy departs ‘Jurassic’, Hamill on returning to ‘Star Wars’, ‘Under the Dome’ casting, ‘Beast’ finds a director
February 20, 2013 - spaced-odyssey - Anime & Animation, Comics, Fantasy, Features, Genres, Latest News, News, Science Fiction - No Comments
While it should not be surprised, due to involvement with the next Star Wars trilogy, but Kathleen Kennedy announced she’ll not be involved in Jurassic Park 4 for Universal. She -along with Steven Spielberg and her husband, Frank Marshall- produced the first three films in that franchise. Marshall will stay on as producer, while Spielberg is currently credited as Executive Producer, though still no director has been confirmed for the project, which has a release date of June 13, 2014. Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver (Rise of the Planet of the Apes) penned the script.
On the Star Wars Rumor Parade, word is deals are in the works for the return of principle cast members Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher and Harrison Ford for Episode VII, though once again, a veil of “no confirmation” continues to dog it. Hamill told Entertainment Tonight that he seems interested in returning. “Another thing I’d want to make sure of is are we going to have the whole gang back? Is Carrie and Harrison and Billy Dee [Lando Calrissian] and Tony Daniels [C-3PO], everybody that’s around from the original [returning]? I want to make sure that everybody’s on board here, rather than just one.” Hamill also seems keen on the franchise returning back to when they filmed the original series. He told them that he would want them to “go back to the way it was, in the sense that ours was much more carefree and lighthearted and humorous, in my opinion, anyway….hope they find the right balance of CGI with practical effects. I love props, I love models, miniatures, matte paintings — I’m sort of old school. I think if you go too far in the direction of CGI it winds up looking like just a giant a video game, and that’s unfortunate. If they listen to me at all, it’ll be, ‘Lighten up and go retro with the way it looks.’” We all hope that the production does find a careful balance between the practical effects and CGI, if only because the original series stands up pretty well.
Shane Acker, who helmed the decidedly different 9, will direct the screen version of the Dark Horse comic Beast of Burden, created by Evan Dorkin and Jill Thopmson. The animated film is set in the unassuming little town of Burden Hill. When supernatural events start to occur, it’s up to a group of dogs (and one cat) to protect their owners from the forces of evil. Darren Lemke (Shrek Forever After) has written the script.
CBS continues to add cast members to their ambitious 13 episode adaptation to Stephen King’s 2009 bestselling novel Under the Dome. Mike Vogel (Pan Am) has been cast in the lead, as Dale “Barbie” Barbara and while Dean Norris (Breaking Bad) will play the “villain” James “Big Jim” Rennie, politician and owner of Jim Rennie’s Used Cars, who seeks to use the dome as a way to gain control of Chester’s Mill. Rachelle Lefevre now has been cast as the female lead, playing Julia, an investigative reporter who takes an interest in Barbie. Other cast members include Colin Ford (We Bought a Zoo), Natalie Martinez (2008 remake of Death Race), and Britt Robertson (Secret Circle). While the miniseries format that was plentiful during the late 1970’s, 80’s and early 90’s (which by then were boiled down to 2-part versions) has gone the way of the dodo, there is a lot of potential in still adapting novels for TV. While broadcast cable has had some minor success with reviving the format in the 21st Century, it’s probably the success of HBO’s Game of Thrones that showed that novels can be turned into a episodic format instead of being shown over consecutive nights like it was done long ago. And like Thrones, word is that some of Dome’s story will be compressed for TV, along with a lot of characters being dropped in favor of the main ones, which makes sense for the TV budget conscious of CBS. Still, it is a huge risk to air this expensive series over the summer, when viewing audience is down. But since CBS also committed to a 13 episode second season of Unforgettable, teaming these together could work for them. The drama is set in Chester’s Mill, a small New England town suddenly and inexplicably sealed off from the rest of the world by an enormous transparent dome. Under The Dome is exec produced by Neal Baer, King, Justin Falvey, Darryl Frank, Stacey Snider, Jack Bender and writer Brian K. Vaughan. Niels Arden Oplev (the original Girl With the Dragon Tattoo) will direct the first two episodes.
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How to Become a Creative Lover: Chapter 10: Sigmund was a serious guy
Sigmund Freud was a very serious guy, or as serious as he needed to be to remain trusted and respected by his peers. Some say he had a kind of obsessive nature. Looking at his pictures and reading his books reveals a probably stormy mind inside a respectable and honorable scientific persona. He dealt with the silent sexual desires of people as if he was a well-focused surgeon who kept his gaze fixed on the operating table, despite all the drama and danger involved in such a procedure.
Freud made an unconscious decision to penetrate as deeply as possible into the juicy secrets of the animated roots of man. It was there, in the underground mines of the mind, where he found what turned out to become the most valuable treasures for the field of psychology and many other disciplines that are strongly influenced by it.
Freud "fell in love" with the provocative sexual concept he conceptualized. He unleashed an unstoppable chain of thought that understands the human soul as one that is possessed by impossible sexual desires (like the fantasy to have sex with your mother, for example).
Freud was a scientist by nature. His relentless curiosity and passion were the forces behind the creation of many new ideas, which were fused into a comprehensive theory that could explain the complex phenomena he was facing in his clinic. He formulated a brilliant technique, the most penetrating in the field of psychology, called psychoanalysis.
Given the depth of its "digging" into the clients' mind, it was clearly established that the therapist should stay remote and uninvolved in the stormy transformations and extensive expression reached during sessions. As I said, Freud was basically a scientist. Freud was busy thinking, and he taught many later generations how to think as clearly and detached as possible, in order not to put the therapist (as a kind of scientist) in a place where he could disturb the "penetrating process.”
In this sense, Freud was no different from most of his colleagues back then, and for many generations to come. The general concept of "reasonable thinking" while you investigate and work has stayed put as a major building block in many disciplines, up to the present.
In fact, I wonder if you, especially as a man, get the connection I am trying to make. It is mainly a masculine tendency to conceptualize everything in a way that puts things into precise "boxes" where "reasonable thought" can explain almost every phenomenon, and when it is not so neatly categorized we prefer to ignore the facts, or at least wait until someone can explain to us what is going on, in clear and comprehensive words.
For me, as an "explorer" who came around a bit later than the founder of the modern psychology, other issues raise serious new questions regarding human nature as it is related to our urges and their manifestations in what we perceive as "normal reality.” When I address the issue of Freud being a "serious guy,” I want to lead to a central idea that may assist you, as a man, to bridge your core sexuality to your authentic creativity. Following this discussion, I will ask you, as well, to consider the following paradigm.
Sometimes the only way to really understand something in the deepest manner possible is by not being so serious about it. Pay attention: I am serious about my request to be less serious! I am just saying that if you really want to progress beyond what you already know, you need to adopt what can be perceived, at first glance, as strange, childish or even amateur behavior.
You have to let go, for a while, of that precise and reasonable way you have of explaining everything in your life. The reason is simple yet ambiguous: somewhere inside you a mixture of sexual and creative knowledge is flowing in channels that your Left-Brain cannot decode, and will not decode in the future, unless you manage to deal with important issues in an "unserious" way.
Have you ever tried to dance seriously?
Have you ever tried to laugh seriously?
Have you ever tried to have great sex seriously?
Of course not! Have you realized, while doing these and other things, that at times it seems like your body "knows its way around" all by itself? Have you ever noticed that in certain situations some kind of "automatic" movements or gestures just happen to be expressed, especially when you free yourself from trying to "understand what you are supposed to do"?
Have you ever considered that in these moments you are actually letting a kind of inherent "knowledge" take charge of your experience?
In these sometimes rare moments, you can sense, even for an instant, the tight link between your innate sexual spirit and your creative built-in "program.” I believe Freud was not ready to be advised by his own unconscious sexual-creative inherent dance, but I believe that today we can look at our psychological build a bit differently, because we now understand that there is more out there, beyond what our Left-Brain is constantly showing us.
Freud believed that people are heavily influenced by their sexual and aggressive innate drives, which they try, all their lives, to suppress as much as possible, due to its inappropriateness within society's norms. Freud's breakthrough view lead to an entire state of mind that interprets the drama of dealing with these drives as the most powerful scene in the human emotional world.
What was hard to measure or observe back then (and even nowadays), is that beyond the well-documented biological, animalistic, sexual and aggressive drives, other basic forces also stem from the human's basic core and influence people's behavior and destiny, not less than what has already been known to do so.
I believe that the concepts I will present to you in the next section will help you take some additional steps towards "conquering" your natural and powerful "sexual-creativity.” I would like to offer you a rather easy and practical approach that presents you, as a man and a sophisticated creature by nature, with a clear potential to get to the bottom of your passions and to make the best of them.
First, I will ask for you to do me a little favor. As you read my following words, I urge you to try to not be as "serious.” Really, this is a serious request, because I know that sometimes it is not so easy to do. However, I trust that you can, because otherwise you would have never picked up a book with such a title, right?
So let us go one step further towards the intriguing human "temple" of real and updated desires, shall we?
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BlogThis!
David Neiwert is a freelance journalist based in Seattle. He is the author of Strawberry Days: How Internment Destroyed a Japanese American Community (Palgrave/St. Martin's Press, June 2005), as well as Death on the Fourth of July: The Story of a Killing, a Trial, and Hate Crime in America, (Palgrave/St. Martin's, 2004), and In God's Country: The Patriot Movement and the Pacific Northwest (1999, WSU Press). His reportage for MSNBC.com on domestic terrorism won the National Press Club Award for Distinguished Online Journalism in 2000. His freelance work can be found at Salon.com, the Washington Post, MSNBC and various other publications. He can be contacted at dneiwert@hotmail.com.
Sara Robinson has worked as an editor or columnist for several national magazines, on beats as varied as sports, travel, and the Olympics; and has contributed to over 80 computer games for EA, Lucasfilm, Disney, and many other companies. A native of California's High Sierra, she spent 20 years in Silicon Valley before moving to Vancouver, BC in 2004. Her lifelong interest in the social effects of authoritarianism have most recently led her to pursue the MS in Futures Studies at the University of Houston. She's also a student member of the Association of Professional Futurists, and member of the Accelerated Studies Foundation advisory board on social and cultural issues. For fun, she raises kids and travels. You can reach her at srobinson@enginesofmischief.com.
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About that flying exam
Dan, there's a big hole in your story.
White House communications director Dan Bartlett -- the man who Bill Burkett said was in charge of "scrubbing" George W. Bush's military records -- today gave the official version of why Bush didn't take that required physical:
White House communications director Dan Bartlett said Bush's flying exam expired on his birthday, July 6, 1972. He did not take his next exam because "he was in non-flying capacity in another state" and knew he would be there for months.
"There was no need or reason for him to take a flying exam," Bartlett said, adding that allegations that he ducked the physical were "just outrageously false."
Actually, it is Bartlett's characterization of the situation that is outrageously false.
As Walter Robinson at the Boston Globe observed today:
Earlier this week, two retired National Guard generals told the Globe that it was almost unheard of for a military aviator to miss an annual flight physical. And the Globe reported that Guard regulations would have required an investigation of Bush's failure to take the physical.
But the new records contain no hint of any such inquiry.
Bartlett told reporters that Bush did not have to take the exam in mid-1972 because he had moved temporarily to Alabama and was going to perform his duty in nonflying status.
Indeed, here are the pertinent details from that earlier story:
Two retired National Guard generals, in interviews yesterday, said they were surprised that Bush -- or any military pilot -- would forgo a required annual flight physical and take no apparent steps to rectify the problem and return to flying. "There is no excuse for that. Aviators just don't miss their flight physicals," said Major General Paul A. Weaver Jr., who retired in 2002 as the Pentagon's director of the Air National Guard, in an interview.
Brigadier General David L. McGinnis, a former top aide to the assistant secretary of Defense for Reserve Affairs, said in an interview that Bush's failure to remain on flying status amounts to a violation of the signed pledge by Bush that he would fly for at least five years after he completed flight school in November 1969.
"Failure to take your flight physical is like a failure to show up for duty. It is an obligation you can't blow off," McGinnis said.
And, once again, why this matters to the question of the records release:
The order required Bush to acknowledge the suspension in writing and also said: "The local commander who has authority to convene a Flying Evaluation Board will direct an investigation as to why the individual failed to accomplish the medical examination." After that, the commander had two options -- to convene the Evaluation Board to review Bush's suspension or forward a detailed report on his case up the chain of command.
Either way, officials said yesterday, there should have been a record of the investigation.
The materials released yesterday -- the supposedly "complete records" -- contain no such materials. There should either be a CO's investigation report, or the record of a Flying Evaluation Board proceeding.
Where are they, Dan Bartlett?
And please, try not to lie quite so transparently next time. After awhile, real reporters tire of having their intelligence insulted. And there are still at least one or two of those still left in the press corps -- though you'd no doubt wish otherwise.
You see, in Bartlett's version of events, George W. Bush -- future president and all -- simply was able to unilaterally choose to ignore his obligations as a highly trained jet pilot and go work in the Blount campaign in Alabama, having his duties become those of a postal clerk instead because that was what Bush wanted to do.
And indeed, it is apparent that this is generally what Bush decided to do. He moved to Alabama sometime that summer and went to work for Blount without even consulting his superiors, while simultaneously seeking to have his Texas Air National Guard pilot's duties transferred to the Alabama postal unit.
Problem is, of course, that his superiors at headquarters were not so enamored of the idea. After all, the taxpayers had just invested the equivalent in today's money of about a million dollars' worth of training in young Mr. Bush. They promptly disallowed the transfer, noting that according to National Guard regs, "an obligated Reservist can be assigned to a specific Ready Reserve position only. Therefore, he is ineligible for assignment to an Air Reserve Squadron."
On Aug. 1, 1972, Bush was suspended from flight duty for skipping the physical.
Finally, on Sept. 5, -- a full month after the suspension -- Bush reapplied for a transfer with Col. Jerry Killian. His transfer request was not approved until Sept. 15, 1972.
In other words, Bush blew off his physical in July, and was suspended from duty in August, well before it was even clear that he would be allowed to transfer to Alabama. In fact, contrary to Bartlett's version of things, it is quite clear that when he declined to take the physical, it was anything but clear that he would be allowed to transfer.
Moreover, the point of a physical is that it clears you for service for the ensuing year. If Bush intended to resume flying when he got back to Texas, as his would-be biographers seem to be claiming, he'd have had to take the July physical anyway. So why didn't he?
Nothing released by the White House so far answers these core questions.
UPDATE: Josh Marshall points out that this same timelime demolishes, with a certain finality, the claims of John C. "Bill" Calhoun. Oops, indeed.
12:19 PM Spotlight
AWOL: "Debunker" debunked
First came the Washington Post story in which an Alabama National Guardsman finally comes forward (long after that $1,000 reward was posted) and says he remembers George W. Bush serving with him:
A Republican close to Bush supplied phone numbers yesterday for the owner of an insulated-coating business in the Atlanta area, John B. "Bill" Calhoun, 69, who was an officer with the Alabama Air National Guard. Calhoun said in a telephone interview that Bush used to sit in his office and read magazines and flight manuals as he performed weekend duty at Dannelly Field in Montgomery during 1972.
Calhoun estimated that he saw Bush sign in at the 187th Tactical Reconnaissance Group eight to 10 times for about eight hours each from May to October 1972. He said the two occasionally grabbed a sandwich in the snack bar.
"He'd sit on my couch and read training manuals and accident reports and stuff like that," Calhoun said. "The pilots would read those so they would see what other guys did wrong. . . . He never complained about coming."
Calhoun, a retired lieutenant colonel who said he was the group's flying safety officer and later its plans officer, described Bush as "a typical fighter pilot -- he was aggressive with his talk."
... Calhoun said he is a Republican but has not talked to Bush since 1972. Calhoun faxed The Washington Post military records that show he worked at Dannelly Field when he said he saw Bush. One of the sheets is signed by William R. Turnipseed, a retired brigadier general who was an officer in the Montgomery unit. Bush was supposed to report to him, but Turnipseed has said he does not recall seeing Bush.
However, there were numerous holes in Calhoun's story -- not the least of which is that the dates of his service don't match up with those for Bush.
My friend Joel S. wrote in to the Washington Post reporters pointing out these issues:
The Allen and Romano story in the Washington Post, as well as related wire service stories gives considerable credence to Bill Calhoun as a witness to George Bush's attendance at drill in Alabama.
Yet Calhoun is claiming extensive Bush attendance for the most part at a time when Bush had not gotten orders for Alabama and for signins not claimed on Bush's attendance record. This is 64-80 hours of time on base, unrecorded anywhere except in Calhoun's memory. A number of members of the squadron deny ever seeing Bush.
This deserved to have better foundation before being published, especially since one of those who claims to have served with Bush, one Colonel William Campenni, also claims to have been in (a) graduate school (presumably through spring 1972) or (b) in the Pennsylvania Air Guard as a fully qualified pilot performing heroic deeds (presumably later in 1972).
Kevin Drum at Calpundit, who has really taken the lead in chasing down many of this story's loose ends, points out even more inconsistencies in Calhoun's story.
CBS also interviewed Calhoun -- however, its story also pointed out the holes in Calhoun's version of events:
But Calhoun's account appears to be at odds with records released by the White House. They show that President Bush logged no Guard duty -- anywhere -- from April 17th until October 28th.
And former Guard Pilot Bob Mintz -- who was with the Alabama unit at the time -- says the base was all abuzz about a politically-connected Lieutenant coming in. But Mintz claims he never saw Mr. Bush -- and expects the newcomer would have stood out.
"I just don't see how you could, ah, walk into a military squadron of people who are intimately familiar with each other and their jobs and things and not recognize him as a stranger, ya know?" said Mintz.
Reporters at today's press briefing asked press secretary Scott McClellan about the holes in Calhoun's story, since McClellan had been referring to the Boston Globe article in which it appeared all day as a kind of catch-all exoneration of the whole affair:
Q Can I ask you a question, Scott? I just want to be absolutely clear on something here. The records that you released earlier this week on the President's Guard service state that he did not perform any Guard service in the third quarter of 1972. That's correct?
MR. McCLELLAN: Well, you have the records in front of you, and they state the dates on which he was paid. And you are paid for the days on which you serve.
Q So they state that between April 16th of 1972 and October 28th of 1972 he did no Guard duty.
MR. McCLELLAN: We've been through these issues, John, and we've provided you with the documents that show his service.
Q And do you believe that's correct, that he did no duty between April 16th and October 28th?
MR. McCLELLAN: John, I don't know why we need to go through this again. This issue we've been through earlier this week.
Q Well, the reason I bring up the question is that John Calhoun, who claims he was the person in charge of making sure that President Bush reported for duty at the 187th Tactical Recon Group, says that he saw the President several times on the base between May and October of 1972, yet there is no record of him being there, in terms of what you released earlier this week.
MR. McCLELLAN: I don't speak for him. You would have to talk to Mr. Calhoun. I do not know him.
Q We did talk to Mr. Calhoun, and Mr. Calhoun said that he saw the President several times between May and October of 1972.
MR. McCLELLAN: And like I've said --
Q So I was just wondering, can you explain that discrepancy?
MR. McCLELLAN: And like I've said, the President doesn't recall the specific dates on which he performed his duties. He does remember serving both in Alabama and in Texas. During that entire period, he was a member of the Texas Air National Guard.
Q But the records that you released do recall quite specifically the days that the President served on. There's no record of his being there --
MR. McCLELLAN: Actually, these are National Guard records that document the President did serve during that time period. And that was an issue that was raised earlier this week.
Q Right. But the records clearly recall that he did no Guard duty between April 16th and October 28th. Yet, Mr. Calhoun says he saw him on the base at the 187th between May and October of '72. So there's a discrepancy here. I'm wondering if you can explain it?
MR. McCLELLAN: John, again, we've provided you with the records and the facts are in the records that we have.
Q A good point. Could the records be incomplete?
MR. McCLELLAN: I'm sorry?
Q Could the records be incomplete?
MR. McCLELLAN: Direct that question to the National Guard. These are the personnel records that we've received.
Also worth noting: the Boston Globe appeared to severely undermine Bill Burkett's account of observing underlings "scrubbing" the Bush files, but even it only discounts Burkett's substantiation; none of the witnesses dispute that Burkett saw what he says he saw. At worst, Burkett's story becomes a she said/he said matter.
Not that any of these particularly matter. As I've said all along, the undisputed facts of the case -- Bush's failure to take a physical and subsequenting grounding; and his absence without leave for at least a six-month period -- are damning enough. And they continue to raise questions.
Notice, for instance, that the subject of Bush's failure to take the exam continues to be something that press secretary Scott McClellan refuses to even admit, let alone discuss? He refused to even explore the issue tangentially again with Helen Thomas, as Josh Marshall reports.
Notice, by the way, how McClellan cleanly evades giving any kind of answer -- neither denying nor confirming. And in reply to any questions about the factual aspects of Bush's record, McClellan holds up an irrelevant Boston Globe article as a shield -- one that, a little while later, it became clear had a few holes in it anyway.
Down in Memphis
This strange case caught my interest:
Memphis Coroner Charged
As the story details, O.C. Smith, the medical examiner in question, was arrested for lying about being attacked by a bomber back in June of 2002. Smith has overseen some extremely unusual cases in the past few years -- including the one that led to the bizarre incident at the center of his arrest. The current charges result from a grand-jury investigation.
The Post story describes that incident briefly:
Smith was discovered June 1, 2002, wrapped in barbed wire in a stairwell outside his office with a bomb strapped to him. He said he was attacked by an unknown assailant who threw a chemical in his face to blind him.
An Associated Press report from June 2002 explains further:
While the attacker's identity remains a mystery, authorities say they've found links to several similar bombs and three threatening letters concerning the medical examiner's testimony in a death penalty case.
"We think the letter writer is the person we're looking for," James Cavanaugh, agent in charge of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms for Tennessee, said Monday.
Smith, 49, was attacked as he left work Saturday night and was found 2 1/2 hours later lying in a parking lot.
A bomb squad removed the device and Smith escaped without serious injury, returning to the scene with minor cuts and bruises to assist authorities. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, including a profiler, and the FBI were called in.
Smith, who has declined to talk with reporters since the attack, was left in the parking lot of the Shelby County Regional Forensic Center on the campus of the University of Tennessee medical school. He suffered a burn on his face from a chemical thrown or sprayed in his eyes to subdue him.
Cavanaugh described the attacker as a 20- to 30-year-old male.
Gene Marquez, the ATF agent in charge in Memphis, said the bomb strapped to Smith was similar to three other "unsophisticated" explosive devices found in March in a hallway near Smith's lab.
All the devices were designed to hurt people, Marquez said.
The language in a letter from the bomber to a Memphis reporter ran thus:
"I received HOLY ORDERS from a MESSANGER OF GOD on Friday in the FORM of Robert HUTTON (Hutton is Workman's attorney), son of the ONE TRUE CHURCH speaking to me through the Mike Fleming show. He told me the LIAR, O.C. SMITH, a DOCTOR-KILLER committing two MORTAL SINS. He is BEARING FALSE WITNESS with his lies decit and untruths in an effort to MURDER PHILLIP (sic) R. WORKMAN.
"Long have I waited for my HOLY ORDER to fight against the DOCTOR- KILLER abortionists but now I know OUR LORD was saving me for something larger.
"Through your help I understand better the "Little General" commands a host of DEMONS doing the work of SATAN in CESAR's WORLD.
"GOD BLESS YOU A THOUSAND TIMES."
Well, I'm not an expert, but relatively experienced in reading extremist documents, and this strikes me as relatively genuine. Fairly typical, in many respects. If Smith was the source of these letters -- which seems to be the prosecutor's suggestion, though the matter may not come up in the course of the trial -- they seem to indicate either that a) he is unusually well versed in these kinds of threats, and unusually conniving, or b) the investigators are in the process of repeating the Richard Jewell nightmare on a smaller scale.
It will be interesting to see if prosecutors can prove the former.
5:21 PM Spotlight
A limb off the ol' Bircher tree
Round up the chillun, Ma. The Yew-Nighted Nations is after 'em agin.
Fortunately, the Utah Legislature is on the case.
On Tuesday, House Republicans in Salt Lake City nearly succeeded in bringing to the floor a House resolution asking the U.S. Congress to "consider" withdrawing the country from the United Nations. As the Salt Lake Tribune reported:
After nearly an hour of debate, a mostly Republican committee voted 9-2 to move the resolution to the House floor, calling the U.N. a financial drain on the federal government and a threat to America's sovereignty.
"International treaties trump all our sovereign laws, simple things like free speech and freedom of the press," said Rep. Eric Hutchings, R-Kearns. "In 60 years, our children may live in a world where the [U.S.] Constitution has no authority. If you gradually surrender your voice, you may not have a voice in the future."
Asking the Utah Legislature to denounce the U.N. is like asking George Bush to cuddle up to corporate bigwigs. It's like dangling candy before a three-year-old. Like, duh!
Ah, the but the forces of goodness and light were vanquished by the evil Committee Monster on Thursday:
The committee was packed with supporters of the resolution and a smattering of United Nations supporters.
Vicki Peterson, a lobbyist on family issues to the United Nations, told lawmakers of her own experiences with a U.N. agenda that promotes homosexuality and prostitution, and how it wants to go so far as to eliminate Mother's Day.
On the other side, Kathryn Horvat reminded the committee of the United Nation's role in eradicating smallpox and polio.
Yeah, but promoting homosexuality and prostitution is evil, dontcha know? Lying about them isn't -- not if you do it in the name of protecting our children, anyway.
The paths of extremism
Some of you may have read about the arrest in my neck of the woods yesterday that raised some headlines, like this one in the P-I:
Soldier accused of trying to aid al-Qaida
Federal agents yesterday arrested a member of the Washington National Guard days away from being sent to Iraq and accused him of trying to pass military intelligence to the terrorist group al-Qaida.
Spc. Ryan G. Anderson was arrested at Fort Lewis without incident, and was taken to the base's jail. His arrest came after a sting operation.
In his Everett high school, Anderson showed a strong interest in government. At Washington State University, he worried about his right to possess rifles on campus and inquired about converting to Islam. And later in Seattle, he tried to interest fellow Muslims in shooting.
Actually, this only begins to describe Ryan Anderson's tortuous political path -- which began as a right-wing extremist. If he was genuinely attracted to radical Islamism, it would likely be because it displayed the same kind of Manichean dualism as did the onetime objects of his admiration, the Montana Freemen.
Back in the 1990s, he was posting all the time on the Usenet's militia forums while studying at Washington State University in Pullman. He was all worked up about his Second Amendment rights on campus. At one point, he advertised his interest in joining a "Washington state militia." At other times, he commented sympathetically about the Freemen's standoff in Montana.
Finally, he appears to have dropped out of the militia forums (with a fond adieu to the "Patriots"), and shortly thereafter, advertised his interest in converting to Islam.
One has to wonder if this is someone who watched too many damn movies and thought he could infiltrate Muslim terrorist cells -- playing the hero's role in the big silver screen of his own mind. (I wouldn't be surprised if he had the same thing in mind when it came to joining a militia cell.) Certainly, he strikes me as unstable.
Press gaggle
Boy, some exchanges just speak for themselves.
From Wednesday's press briefing with White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan:
Q Coming back to John's question real briefly. One of the questions that remain after the release of the documents yesterday involves the President's physical in 1972. Are you guys talking about what happened there and why he didn't take --
MR. McCLELLAN: I think this was all addressed previously. I think that, again, this goes to show that some are not interested in the facts of whether or not he served; they're interested in trolling for trash and using this issue for partisan political gain.
Q What was the answer previous to this?
MR. McCLELLAN: What's the question?
Q On the question of --
MR. McCLELLAN: See, I mean, there are some that want us to engage in gutter politics. I'm not going to engage in gutter politics. I'm going to focus on what we're doing --
Q But you were suggesting you'd answered the question previously.
MR. McCLELLAN: -- to address the priorities for the American people. We went through this in 1994, I believe again in '98, 2000. Now some are trying to bring it up again in 2004.
Q Scott, can I ask, in 2004, just again, why did the President miss his physical?
Q Why did the President miss his physical?
MR. McCLELLAN: Are you talking about when he -- whether or not he -- I put out a response to that question yesterday, about whether or not he was rated by his commanders as a pilot.
Q Can I just ask you today, in 2004 --
MR. McCLELLAN: No.
Q -- why he missed his physical?
MR. McCLELLAN: Elisabeth, there are some that -- again, this is a question of whether or not he served. That question has been answered through the documents that were released yesterday, and released previously.
Q I just want to hear from the White House Press Secretary --
MR. McCLELLAN: I'm not -- no, there are some -- Elisabeth, we've already addressed this issue. I'm not going to engage in gutter politics. I'm going to focus on what we're doing to make the world safer, to make the world a better place, and to make America more prosperous. If others want to engage in gutter politics, that's their choice. But I think that --
Q How is asking that question engaging in gutter politics?
MR. McCLELLAN: But I think the American people -- I think the American people deserve better.
Q Scott, how does that engage in gutter politics if I ask that question?
MR. McCLELLAN: Well, we've been through these issues. I wasn't accusing you. I'm accusing some -- (Laughter.) But, you see, we went through --
Q -- the answer to that question today?
MR. McCLELLAN: No, we went through these -- no, we went -- we've already addressed this issue. We went through it previously. We went through it four years ago, for sure.
Ron Ziegler would have been proud of him.
AWOL update
Ask, and you shall receive, from the Boston Globe's Walter Robinson [via Atrios]:
Bush's loss of flying status should have spurred probe
This story really zeroes in on Bush's failure to take the physical, which as we've noted here from the start, has always been part of the established record, and it raises serious questions in itself:
And then, significantly, it points to the real core of the matter:
Kudos to Robinson, whose reportage provided the genesis for the story back in 2000.
Meanwhile, along a related front, comes this piece from USA Today:
Ex-officer: Bush file's details caused concern
WASHINGTON -- As Texas Gov. George W. Bush prepared to run for president in the late 1990s, top-ranking Texas National Guard officers and Bush advisers discussed ways to limit the release of potentially embarrassing details from Bush's military records, a former senior officer of the Texas Guard said Wednesday.
A second former Texas Guard official, who spoke only on condition of anonymity, was told by a participant that commanders and Bush advisers were particularly worried about mentions in the records of arrests of Bush before he joined the National Guard in 1968, the second official said.
Bill Burkett, then a top adviser to the state Guard commander, said he overheard conversations in which superiors discussed "cleansing" the file of damaging information.
As noted below, Burkett's story could be significant, though it does come with some caveats raised by Kevin Drum. However, Drum went a long way toward resolving some of these issues with his excellent interview with Burkett, which everyone should read.
Finally, an excellent read comes via the Progressive Southerner, about just what George W. Bush was doing in Alabama while skipping out on Guard duty and a flight physical:
George W. Bush's Lost Year in 1972 Alabama
Especially noteworthy is this nugget, deep in the story:
One of Bush's duties as "campaign coordinator," according to his official title in the newspapers, was to stay in contact by phone with campaign managers in Alabama's 67 counties, and to handle the distribution of all campaign materials, Archibald says. That material included a pamphlet accusing Sparkman of being soft on the race issue. It also included a doctored tape from a radio debate distorting Sparkman's position on busing.
Sparkman was forced to deny a series of false charges linking him with McGovern, the South Dakota presidential candidate who became the first in the modern era to be tainted and stomped as a "liberal." The pamphlet distributed to campaign workers and leaked to the press charged Sparkman with favoring drastic defense cuts, big federal spending, abandoning American POWs in Vietnam, a guaranteed wage for every American, relaxing drug laws, amnesty for draft dodgers ? and "forced busing."
The Birmingham News ran the transcript of the doctored radio tape on November 6, the day before the election, which made it appear Sparkman was in favor of busing black and white children miles across towns to "mix" the public schools. The literature of the campaign echoed the winning conservative Senate race of Ed Gurney in Florida, also dreamed up by Allison and company. Blount's campaign, awash in cash with twice the money of Sparkman's, paid for billboards across the state proclaiming: "A vote for Red Blount is a vote against forced busing . . . against coddling criminals . . . against welfare freeloaders."
No wonder Bush and Lee Atwater were such buddies.
11:42 AM Spotlight
AWOL: The other shoe
The news on the AWOL front is breaking all around, with the story unfolding in ways that could perhaps have been expected. As Atrios and Kevin Drum at Calpundit have reported, this morning's Dallas Morning News quoted former Guardsman Bill Burkett regarding the "scrubbing" of Bush's military record he says he witnessed:
Retired National Guard Lt. Col. Bill Burkett said Tuesday that in 1997, then-Gov. Bush's chief of staff, Joe Allbaugh, told the National Guard chief to get the Bush file and make certain "there's not anything there that will embarrass the governor."
Col. Burkett said that a few days later at Camp Mabry in Austin, he saw Mr. Bush's file and documents from it discarded in a trash can. He said he recognized the documents as retirement point summaries and pay forms.
Bush aides denied any destruction of records in Mr. Bush's personnel file. "The charges are just flat-out not true," said Dan Bartlett, White House communications director.
I've reported in detail on Burkett's story previously (here and here). Nonetheless, I think Kevin Drum's caveats are well worth heeding. (FWIW, I've been trying for the past week to contact Burkett to interview him and have not had any success tracking him down.)
Regardless, the story is moving in largely the right direction. The press, hot on the heels of answering the key question (Why won't Bush release his records?) I raised a little while back, is now avidly wondering about the next question (Was there tampering with the records that we have?), though none of them so far have tackled the significance of the "torn document."
So now maybe it's time for them to ask the next logical question:
What about the Flight Inquiry Board?
As I mentioned some time ago, one of the hard facts we know about the case is that Bush blew off his required physical and was suspended from flight duty. This has some serious implications:
The reality is servicemen do not ordinarily have the option of deciding whether or not to attend drills. They do not typically have the option of shortening their commitment to the task for which they have been trained based solely on their own assessments of where they fit into the scheme of things. Those decision are made by their superiors. Moreover, the military considers the training of its personnel to be a significant asset that it protects, particularly for high-skill positions like jet-fighter pilots. This training is expensive, and pilots' status -- particularly their availability for potential combat -- is a carefully monitored commodity.
Moreover, as Bob Rogers has pointed out:
In the Air National Guard, expensively trained pilots are not casually suspended. There is normally a Flight Inquiry Board, which exercises the military chain of command's obligation to insure due process. If one had been convened, its three senior officer members would have documented why such a severe action was justified in relation to the country's military objectives at the time, as opposed to the simple desire of a trained pilot to just "give up flying".
In the event of serious misconduct, such as substance abuse, a Flight Inquiry Board would have determined the appropriate punishment. The punishments could have included temporary or permanent 'grounding,' a career-damaging letter of reprimand, forced reenlistment in the US Army with active duty in Vietnam, or a less-than honorable discharge.
In fact, there is no evidence now in the public domain that a Flight Inquiry Board was convened to deal with Bush's official reclassification to a non-flying, grounded status. However, the records of such a Board would not be subject to an ordinary FOIA request because of privacy protections under FOIA.
This absence of a Flight Inquiry Board is of particular interest to veteran pilots who are intimately familiar with normal disciplinary procedures. In the absence of Bush's releasing his complete service record, the implication is that Bush's misconduct in regards to "his failure to accomplish annual medical examination" was handled like everything else in his military service: aided and abetted by powerful family connections with total disregard for the needs of the military as well as Bush's solemn oath.
This point is especially relevant in light of Kevin Drum's great work at Calpundit, in which he obtained a copy of the "untorn document" -- whose dates, he also found, don't match up with actual service dates in Alabama -- and uncovered that it may actually demonstrate that Bush was placed, after his suspension, in the Air Reserve Forces, which would indicate he had been punished by his superiors.
And that punishment, in fact, may well be what Bush is trying to hide here, since it would be an embarrassing blemish on any Commander in Chief's record. That's why the questions about the Flight Inquiry Board -- Was one called? If not, why not? If so, why haven't we seen these records? -- are so important.
REFERENCE NOTE: For the sake of handiness, I've decided to compile chronologically all my posts dealing with the AWOL issue (or in which it is brought up). The first one dates back to May (though my involvement in this story dates back to 2000, when I tried pitching it, unsuccessfully, to my bosses at MSNBC and the editors at Salon):
Flyboy Bush
Bush the Liar
Bush the 'Deserter'
AWOL Bush: Debunked? Hardly!
Howling about AWOL
All AWOL all the time
Drip drip drop
More AWOL
AWOL again
AWOL: The next question, please
An AWOL aphorism
Talkin' AWOL
Tim Russert goes AWOL
Silberman: 'Not bravado, but arrogance'
Michelle Goldberg at Salon has up an excellent profile of Laurence Silberman, the right-wing legal fixer who's been named co-chair of the "intelligence failure" investigation panel:
The partisan "mastermind" in charge of Bush's intel probe
You may note that a lot of the material in this piece may seem familiar (and if I had a suspicious mind, I'd wonder if Goldberg were cribbing notes -- though even if she were, her piece reads much more readily than my data dump). She notably gets in some fresh quotes from David Brock, Ralph Neas and Kevin Phillips, the latter of whom sums it up best:
"Even the word 'chutzpah' does not describe this appointment of Silberman," Phillips said. "This is not bravado, but arrogance."
It's probably not the first time that someone has noticed that it seems nothing is out of bounds for the Bush administration -- and it probably won't be the last.
9:54 AM Spotlight
Hate crimes, democracy, and freedom
In the comments responding to the post about my forthcoming book, Death on the Fourth of July:A Hate Crime, a Killing, and a Trial in Small-Town America, CivLib responds to my parenthetical remark, "You'd be surprised how many liberals oppose the laws, primarily for civil-libertarian reasons" thus:
Concerning "hate crimes laws": I don't know why it would be so surprising that many liberals would oppose those.
I generally oppose, as a matter of principle, anything which increases penalties for existing crimes, which adds new offenses to the books which were not previously offenses, which results in more people going to prison for longer periods, or which results in more rights being taken away.
The U.S. has the highest incarceration rate in the world, yet it seems too many liberals and conservatives want to outdo each other in locking even more people up. When is it going to stop?
This is not an entirely new argument, course -- in fact, it is the core of the civil libertarians' argument against hate-crimes laws. It's an argument I respect, because -- unlike, say, the religious-right folks who attack the laws because it "infringes on their civil liberties" (as though violent crimes were a basic right), or the brain-dead Republicans (see, e.g., George W. Bush) who argue that "all crimes are a hate crime" -- it is not based on fallacy but on serious and legitimate concerns. (A variant of it can be found in the James Jacobs and Kimberly Potter text, Hate Crimes: Criminal Law and Identity Politics.) However, like the others, it misapprehends the nature of both the crimes and the laws against them.
First of all, it must be pointed out that proportionality in punishment is a basic and long-established feature of the law. It is the basis for the difference between first-degree murder and manslaughter -- both are predicated on the death of another person, but both vary widely in the kinds of punishment they receive. There are multiple categories of assault, depending both on harm to the victim and the perpetrator's intent and motive.
Hate-crime laws simply recognize that hate crimes innately inflict greater harm, both on the victim and the broader community, as well as to the basic underpinnings of democratic society. They make painting a swastika on a synagogue a more grievous crime than the simple act of vandalism it might otherwise be. Likewise a skinhead "stomping" of a minority is treated more egregiously than a bar fight.
The principle to which CivLib refers is a reasonably sound one: Sentencing ranges should not be enhanced willy-nilly, and too many laws directing predetermined sentences for certain crimes can both hamstring the judiciary and create a hodgepodge of "enhancements" that gum up the system of justice. This is especially the case with the minmum sentences that have been passed on behalf of drug laws.
But this is a problem for the entire body of the law. Moreover, there is a clear need for sentence enhancement when the greater harm is clear. What's needed, of course, is a balance -- and when it comes to weeding out those enhancements that are excessive, the level of harm should be the greatest priority. This harm is hardly clear in the case of drug crime, for instance. Hate crimes, however, another matter altogether.
Hate-crime laws are indeed relatively new laws, and understanding them in some regards requires rearranging our traditional ways of thinking. Certainly, it requires dispelling many long-favored myths. But in the final analysis, they represent something that, given the perspective of history, is a long thread running through American culture, something many of us almost instinctively understand -- that is, the ethical imperative to stand up against the bullies and the thugs and the nightriders, because their whole purpose is to terrorize, oppress and disenfranchise the people they deem different or "not American." Hate-crime laws at their core draw on Americans' sense of decency and fair play, and to the extent they are enforced fairly and adequately, they are an important reflection of those traits.
The old anti-lynching laws from which hate-crime laws are descended were never approved, mostly because of the vehement opposition of the Deep South. But the spirit that drove them has remained alive and resurfaced in more congenial times.
Boston University Law School professor Frederick Lawrence, perhaps, sums it up best in his text Punishing Hate: Bias Crimes in American Law:
If bias crimes are not punished more harshly than parallel crimes, the implicit message expressed by the criminal justice system is that racial harmony and equality are not among the highest values in our society. If a racially motivated assault is punished identically to a parallel assault, the racial motivation of the bias crime is rendered largely irrelevant and thus not part of that which is condemned. The individual victim, the target community, and indeed the society at large thus suffer the twin insults akin to those suffered by Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man. Not only has the crime itself occurred, but the underlying hatred of the crime is invisible to the eyes of the legal system.
It's important to keep in mind also the nature of hate crimes, and what their real-world effect is. They are "message" crimes, and their message is: Go away. You and your kind are not welcome here. They undercut not only the basic values of equality and fair play, but the actual, real-world freedom of anyone who happens not to be a straight white Christian. They're all about intimidation and exclusionism and subjugation and terrorization, an intent that really cuts against the meaning of American democracy itself.
I know this from direct experience as a journalist in rural places, where these kinds of crimes are clearly intended to drive minorities out and, in the case of gays and lesbians particularly, subjugate them to humiliating violence.
Ken Toole, a native Montanan (and state senator) who runs that state's Human Rights Network, knows all about the fear minorities have of rural places like his home state. "I've experienced that firsthand, in talking with African American people on airplanes, et cetera, and their perception that Montana's not a safe place. And I think that stems from hate-crime incidents, but is more heartily reinforced by the presence of Militia of Montana, Aryan Nations, and things like that. It all feeds together.
"Here in Montana, in lily-white Montana, we spend all this time engaged in a debate whether or not these groups are white supremacist. Your average person of color doesn't even have that debate. They just know it."
Toole says that when the image of a place as a haven for haters is combined with news stories of real-life hate crimes, the result is a widespread desire by minorities to avoid that place at all costs. "What you end up with is, we've heard about African American people being transferred to Montana and rejecting the transfers," Toole says, noting that it is something of a commonplace that rural people avoid the cities out of an irrational fear of crime committed by minorities: "There's very little question in my mind that, yeah, we rural folk maybe get a little nervous about the deep colors of the inner city, but that is very much a two-way street."
Perhaps of equal significance are the real-world ramifications of this fear for both minorities and the places they fear to visit: an impoverishment of the nation's democratic underpinnings. As Yale University professor and hate-crime expert Donald Green points out, hate crimes succeed in making the nation indeed a smaller place for people of color, members of minority religions like Jews, and gays and lesbians.
"I think if you had to kind of step back and ask, 'Does hate crime pay?,' you'd say yes," Green says. "If the point of hate crimes is to terrorize the population into maintaining boundaries between these perpetrators and the victimized populations, at least in some areas -- certain parts of town, certain parts of the country, et cetera -- you know, certain kinds of romantic relationships, whatever -- then it does succeed in that. Because people really do feel that they have to constrain their behavior lest they open themselves up for attack. You know, gay men don't often hold hands in public. Black and white couples don't form spontaneously to the extent that you might expect based on their daily interactions.
"There are a lot of instances like that -- and you know, we all probably have interactions with people who, when they're invited to a certain part of town, say, 'Oh, I better not go there.' From my standpoint, you tend not to attract much notice from policymakers, but I think of that as a massive dead-weight loss of freedom.
"Even if you say, 'Ah, well, they would have spent their money in this restaurant, maybe they'll spend their money in some other restaurant,' and so it's a wash, just the fact that people feel less than free in a free country is a tragedy."
Green also argues that even seemingly insignificant incidents -- the kind police are prone to ignore or de-emphasize -- can contribute to the cumulative effect. "If you see a swastika on an overpass, you say, 'Well, you know, it's just a bunch of kids blowing off steam, it doesn't really mean anything,' but when you start to think about the kind of cumulative effects that that would have on a variety of people, both perpetrators and victims, then the result is considerable.
"And that's why I think that, while there's a segment of the law-enforcement community -- and even people like me in an unguarded moment -- that will say that in some respects the hate crimes laws have been a flop, the laws in fact have a substantial basis in theory. And that theory is that if you could somehow put a value on that dead-weight loss in freedom, it actually would be a significant sum. And therefore it does pay society to deter this kind of activity.
Hate-crimes laws are often depicted as a "liberal" cause mainly because they are seen as a kind of "minority rights" protection -- though as I argue in Death on the Fourth of July, that view of the laws is mostly a fallacy. The reality is much more significant -- for in fact, they codify in the law basic values of protecting the real civil liberties -- and the real freedom -- of all Americans. They are an attempt to deter the people in our society who would take that freedom away from their fellow citizens. In that sense, they are an important component of any kind of serious effort to enhance American civil liberties -- and our freedoms.
O'Reilly apologizes -- with a little spin
Well, whaddya know. Bill O'Reilly finally decided to pay the piper regarding his vow to apologize for succumbing to the Bush administration's propaganda.
Well, sort of. But not really.
Conservative U.S. anchor now skeptical about Bush
Conservative television news anchor Bill O'Reilly said Tuesday he was now skeptical about the Bush administration and apologized to viewers for supporting prewar claims that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction.
The anchor of his own show on Fox News said he was sorry he gave the U.S. government the benefit of the doubt that former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein's weapons program poised an imminent threat, the main reason cited for going to war.
"I was wrong. I am not pleased about it at all and I think all Americans should be concerned about this," O'Reilly said in an interview with ABC's "Good Morning America."
However, rather than facing the issue squarely, O'Reilly chose to deflect:
While critical of President Bush, O'Reilly said he did not think the president intentionally lied. Rather, O'Reilly blamed CIA Director George Tenet, who was appointed by former President Clinton.
"I don't know why Tenet still has his job."
He added: "I think every American should be very concerned for themselves that our intelligence is not as good as it should be."
-- When you proclaim to the nation that you know for certain that Saddam Hussein possesses weapons of mass destruction -- as did not only Bush, but also Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Ari Fleischer and Colin Powell -- and then it turns out that he didn't ... well, that's a lie.
-- The CIA, in fact, gave probably the most accurate assessments of the situation, since its career analysts warned repeatedly that the Iraqi National Congress/Laurie Mylroie exhaust the administration was breathing was bad for their brains. Instead, you had the Cheney trundling over Langley to twist the CIA's arms in order to gin up the grist for their long-planned war mill.
The real question isn't why Tenet still has a job. It's why Cheney, Rumsfeld and Douglas Feith all still have jobs.
And ultimately, why George W. Bush has one as well.
[Link via Pandagon.]
Mel Gibson: Targeting Catholics
Tim Rutten of the Los Angeles Times had an incisive analysis recently of Mel Gibson's forthcoming film The Passion of the Christ that drills down to the core issue -- namely, that the problem with the film isn't so much the innate anti-Semitism. Rather, it is the radical brand of Catholicism that Gibson practices -- and which is, in reality, the real product that is being peddled in this film.
Critics debate 'The Passion,' Gibson evades the debate
Rutten identifies how the debate has been skewed by the uproar over its fairly transparent Jew-bashing:
Start with the fact that, from the outset, Gibson has allowed himself to be characterized as a Catholic and has reinforced that impression by seeking the Vatican's approval of his film and then publicizing a purported papal endorsement. Reams of sympathetic publicity continue to describe Gibson as "a devout Catholic."
In fact, he is not. Catholics belong to churches that recognize the pope as their religious leader. If you don't, you're not a Catholic. It's as simple as that. What Gibson would rather not discuss is his membership in a schismatic group that has appropriated various pious practices and sacramental rites from preconciliar Roman Catholicism, but which rejects the contemporary church's leaders and teachings. Among the most important of those teachings is a complete rejection of any interpretation of the Passion that attributes a particular or continuing responsibility for Christ's execution to the Jewish people.
Rutten goes on to point out Gibson's recent quotes in an interview with Peggy Noonan about how his father, Hutton Gibson -- a notorious Holocaust denier -- has been his spiritual mentor:
"My dad taught me my faith, and I believe what he taught me. The man never lied to me in his life."
Bill Berkowitz, in an article last year in Working for Change, outlined some of these beliefs:
News about the new church came on the heels of reports about the actor/director's latest film project -- the making of "The Passion" which, according to ABC News, is "rooted in a theological movement known as Catholic traditionalism that seeks to return the faith to its pre-1962 period, before the Pope issued what is known as Vatican II, a series of proclamations that did away with the notion that Jews were responsible for the crucifixion of Jesus."
Gibson's theology, writes Christopher Noxon in the New York Times, "is a strain of Catholicism rooted in the dictates of a 16th-century papal council and nurtured by a splinter group of conspiracy-minded Catholics, mystics, monarchists and disaffected conservatives -- including a seminary dropout and rabble-rousing theologist who also happens to be Mel Gibson's father."
In the 1992 El Pais interview, Gibson said that "For 1,950 years [the church] does one thing and then in the 60s, all of a sudden they turn everything inside out and begin to do strange things that go against the rules.
"Everything that had been heresy is no longer heresy, according to the [new] rules. We [Catholics] are being cheated. ... The church has stopped being critical. It has relaxed. I don't believe them, and I have no intention of following their trends. It's the church that has abandoned me, not me who has abandoned it," he said.
Frederick Clarkson, the veteran right-wing researcher and author of "Eternal Hostility: The Struggle Between Theocracy and Democracy" (Common Courage Press) told WorkingForChange in an e-mail that "Traditionalist Catholics describes those who insist on practicing the Latin mass and other features of the church prior to the reforms of Vatican II. Some Traditionalists operate within the Church; others belong to a faction, the Society of Saint Pius X that has been excommunicated en mass for disobedience to the Pope. Its far right views include conspiracy theories that the Catholic Church is controlled by liberals as a result of an ancient conspiracy of Freemasons."
According to thelatinmass.com, a web site that aims "to foster devotion to the Tridentine Latin Mass and traditional forms of Roman Catholic piety, and to propagate the orthodox Faith of the Church," Gibson "attends the Tridentine Mass exclusively."
Furthermore, it is clear that Hutton Gibson adheres to an extraordinarily radical brand of these beliefs, as outlined in a speech he gave to a Holocaust-denial conference:
Gibson makes clear in this address that he believes the Catholic Church itself is the "foundation of Western civilization" and that its "destruction" is entirely for the purposes of bringing civilization under the control of unnamed "others," though it is clear he is referencing Jews. (Much of the rest of the Barnes Review conference was specifically devoted to attacking Jews.)
According to Gibson, the Catholic Church, because of Pope John XXIII (who had a "background in Freemasonry" and was "the first anti-Pope") and the "heresies" of Vatican II, has "fallen into utter depravity." All subsequent popes, he says, have in fact been "anti-Popes."
"For whose benefit?" he wonders. And then answers: "The New World Order," of course.
"Most Catholics today do not realize they have been robbed." And who has robbed them? The "international bankers" who have "subjected us to the usury which our Church formerly condemned."
Gibson adds that "our entire national monetary system is based upon a palpable fraud, and an unconstitutional one."
Echoing his previous note, he propounds: "Most Americans today do not realize they have been robbed." Again, it is those same evil "others" who have conspired to rob us, and for the same purposes.
The current Pope, he says, is "an absolute apostate heretic" who he claims does not even belong to the Church.
These beliefs do not merely fall into the category of so-called "Traditionalist Catholics" who object to Vatican II. This is extraordinary extremism, fully in line with the excommunicated Society of St. Piux X -- and in fact, is even more radical.
My friend Jean Rosenfeld, a Senior Research Associate at UCLA's Center for the Study of Religion, recently e-mailed me her thoughts on Gibson's film:
My sense of things is that Mel Gibson is marketing this movie brilliantly primarily through the Christian evangelical churches and fundamentalist venues. Religious films generally do not make much money or play in general release to first-run movie houses. There have been a number of articles just in the past week in major newspapers, such as the LA Times (in both the "entertainment" and "national news" sections), about Gibson's marketing campaign. Apparently, he put $25 million of his own money into the film. He needs to recoup that and make a profit.
I noticed this weekend when we went out to Hemet, CA, which is a very conservative Christian region, that the local multiplex theatre had a big sign on its marqee offering to accept reservations now for the future screening of "Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ." This is marketing with Gibson's name in a first-run theatre and is probably being replicated now in other regions.
A few days ago, Gibson spoke at a gathering at Azusa Pacific University, one of the best-endowed Christian colleges, about the film and allowed a limited screening of the film. Again, he is targeting and marketing through the fundamentalist Christian network. I have not heard of his conducting these advance screenings, meetings, and offerings of reservations at Catholic Universities and venues -- at least lately.
In fact, a lay committee set up by the the US Conference of Catholic Bishops was critical of the film in its report, and this early response was probably not too welcome to the marketers.
Since Gibson's father is a Holocaust denier and Gibson is funding the building of a Pius X church, I think it is fair to assume that they are not mainstream Catholics. Gibson has recognized that conservative Christians have an impressive and connected network through which film as product can be marketed to a vast audience. This allows Gibson to bypass moviegoers who would be less likely to see the film anyway -- secular and Jewish Americans.
So, what about Catholics? Why not aggressively market to them? Well, he tried to put the Pope's imprimatur on the film after arranging to screen it at the Vatican. As a result, he aroused criticism. Much was made of the fact that Pius X Catholics do not accept the reforms of Vatican II. One of those reforms was the declaration that the Church does not hold Jews responsible for the crucifixion. This caused critical Jews, like Foxman and Hier, and pro-Vatican II Catholics to join in airing their suspicions about the film's anti-Semitic message. (In response, Gibson now says he has removed an anti-Semitic verse from the gospel of Matthew from the film and has toned down the violence.) It appears that the film finds approval among conservative Christians, both Catholic and non-Catholic. It encounters wariness among Jews and mainstream Catholics.
This does not surprise me. If Gibson intended to make a "Catholic" film about Christ's trial and execution, his perspective turned out to be a schismatic one.
He tried to market it with a Vatican seal of approval. This means that he was intentionally presenting a pre-Vatican II treatment of the Passion as how Catholics would present it. Gibson claims his film is "faithful" to the gospels, he claims that a Pius X view is authoritative from a faith perspective. It is his word against that of the contemporary church. It is the claim of one who dissents from the articles of Vatican II, among which is the church's apology for its treatment of the Jews.
The irony is, as a Religion in the News article points out, that Pius X Catholics consider their way to be the only way to salvation. They regard fundamentalist Christians as false Christians. It is these "false Christians" who will make this "Catholic" film a financial success and who will use Gibson's film to convert other to their "false" Christianity.
The Pius X movement and the Christian fundamentalist movement have one thing in common that they do not share with Jews and mainstream Catholics: both exclude Jews from salvation unless they convert to their particular brand of inerrant Christianity. Mainstream Catholics and liberal Protestants make no such claim.
Gibson, Rosenfeld believes, is not gearing the film so much at anti-Semitism, which is simply latent in his radical belief system. Rather, he is targeting mainstream Catholics, with the intent of propagandizing them into believing that the Pius X churches are more valid than those in mainstream Catholicism.
[Note: Bill Cork's blog Ut Unum Sint is an excellent reference source for a broad range of information on the Passion and related controversies. Be sure especially to catch his superb post on the scenes in The Passion that exaggerate the role of the Jews -- none of which are based in actual Scripture.]
That killer right-wing humor
While interviewing Rudy Giuliani last week, that stalwart of journalistic probity, Bill O'Reilly, "joked" that he'd like to kill filmmaker Michael Moore.
O'Reilly, whose interviewing style has never managed to transcend its tabloid-TV roots -- and whose sense of humor, as anyone who has followed his running feud with Al Franken knows, is, ah, deeply impaired, to put it nicely -- was whining once again about how liberals are so mean to him and everybody else. (O'Reilly, heaven forbid, would never be mean to anyone else.)
In any event, O'Reilly apparently believed he was giving tit for tat regarding Moore's contention that George W. Bush was a "deserter":
O'REILLY: All right. I've got one more question for you, all right, and I need -- I need a really honest answer. I know you're a politician and you play it somewhat close to the vest.
Personal attacks. [Democratic National Committee Chairman Terry] McAuliffe over the weekend. Bush went AWOL. [Documentary filmmaker] Michael Moore. He's a deserter. [Some of the] books that are out -- you know, O'Reilly's a liar. Everybody's a liar. Everybody's a cheat and scoundrel, all right. You got attacked personally when you were mayor all the time. ...
[Giuliani then joins in on this prolonged whine: Yes, they're mean mean mean to him all the time too. And for no good reason.]
GIULIANI: You know, when I look at the primary in Iowa, I think that was part of maybe what happened. Edwards stayed out of doing that, and...
O'REILLY: Absolutely. It hurt -- it hurt Dean.
GIULIANI: I think it hurt Clark.
O'REILLY: It killed Clark. Once Jennings nailed him with the Michael Moore thing, deserter...
GIULIANI: Absolutely.
O'REILLY: ... it killed him.
GIULIANI: Yes, yes. I mean where the -- and I think with people even that dislike the president, they kind of -- they still feel...
O'REILLY: Right.
GIULIANI: ... this is too much, desertion is a crime punishable by death. Let's get real. I mean...
O'REILLY: Well, I want to kill Michael Moore. Is that all right? All right. And I don't believe in capital punishment. That's just a joke on Moore.
Ahem. Well.
A couple of observations:
-- There is a broad range of punishments for desertion, ranging from fines and brief imprisonment to capital punishment -- though the latter is typically only meted out on the battlefield. George W. Bush, one will be happy to note, studiously avoided the latter.
-- Moore didn't in any event suggest, in any shape, form or fashion, that he wished Bush dead -- nor even wished him to face any kind of punishment for his wartime behavior. He was, of course, simply pointing out the differences in character between the men, as exemplified by their military records. But then, the latter is a subject that conservatives have avoided almost as assiduously as Bush did his National Guard duty. Thus the "death penalty" diversionary nonsense.
-- Why do we wonder how supposedly responsible newscasters can get away with making remarks that in fact are likely to be taken seriously by the (marginally) less mentally stable folks in the right-wing population?
-- And why do we get the sneaking suspicion that O'Reilly isn't really joking regarding his real feelings about what he'd like to see happen to Michael Moore? I mean, well, did you laugh at the "joke"? After all, neither O'Reilly nor Giuiliani did.
I'm not sure why Tim Russert, host of NBC's Meet the Press, has the reputation for being the bulldog interviewer that he has.
Well, I know why: He's very much the bulldog when it comes to Democrats and liberals.
With conservatives, well, he has a long track record of letting them off the hook. I know this from personal experience: One of my jobs at MSNBC (1998-2000) involved taping, transcribing and excerpting Meet the Press every Sunday.
And this Sunday's interview with George W. Bush was perfectly consistent with this trend.
This was particularly the case when it came time for Russert to try to nail Bush down on his military record, and particularly the question of whether Bush would release his records to the public. In fact, Bush specifically lied when he claimed that he had done so.
As Josh Marshall observes:
Several times during the exchange the president said that he had released his military records back in 2000.
That's not true. He's never released those records. And no one disputes that.
But Russert returned to the point and the final exchange went thus ...
MR. RUSSERT: Would you authorize the release of everything to settle this?
PRESIDENT BUSH: Yes, absolutely.
We did so in 2000, by the way.
Now, what to make of this?
The president gives a flat-out, unambiguous answer: he'll release all his military service records.
Then he tosses in that next line: "We did so in [2000], by the way."
Brad DeLong provides us with a strong overall analysis of the interview and Russert's failure to ask natural follow-up questions, including this point about the military-record portion:
Russert: The Boston Globe and the Associated Press have gone through some of their records and said there?s no evidence that you reported to duty in Alabama during the summer and fall of 1972.
President Bush: Yeah, they're they're just wrong. There may be no evidence, but I did report; otherwise, I wouldn't have been honorably discharged. In other words, you don't just say "I did something" without there being verification. Military doesn't work that way. I got an honorable discharge, and I did show up in Alabama.
Natural follow-up:
But you didn't fly 102 aircraft, did you? They didn't have any in Alabama, and when you returned to Texas in November 1972, you still didn't fly. In May 1973 your superior officers wrote that you hadn't shown up for duty in Texas, and you were grounded because you didn't show up for your annual physical exam.
What Russert actually did: Asked Bush if he would open his files, and let Bush claim that he had already done so in response.
Just to be clear about this: Bush seems to be claiming that the records that might exonerate him from the AWOL accusations may not exist. Of course, I've already pointed out that the only reason they might not would be related to the potential actions of Bush campaign staffers in destroying those records.
It is highly unlikely that the records were simply misplaced or lost. Recall, if you will, Aaron Brown's recent CNN interview with James Webb, the former Secretary of the Navy under Ronald Reagan, cited here:
As you mentioned there is some question about his attendance records. The White House has responded in a rather confusing way by saying that these records have been lost.
I can tell you having spent three years as assistant secretary of defense for reserve affairs in charge of the guard and the reserve programs it would be very unusual to lose these records.
They are important for monitoring pay, also for the credit that you get for drill that goes against satisfactory performance in the guard and these sorts of things, so there are a lot of questions out there.
It's worth noting that Phil Carter of Intel Dump, himself a former Guardsman, analyzed the matter and concluded that there are numerous ways of obtaining the basic information about Bush's military performance, including attendance records, pay records, retirement points and income-tax records.
The fortunate flip side to Russert's general weakness is that he did elicit from Bush a promise to release all his records. This is, indeed, the lead and headline for the Washington Post's story about the interview:
Bush to Release Vietnam-Era Military Records
Bush's promise to release all of his military files, including pay stubs and tax records, has the potential to resolve the long debate over Bush's service from May 1972 to May 1973. No records have been found indicating he performed his duties during that period, but he received an honorable discharge, indicating that he had served properly.
Experts in such matters have said payroll records and Bush's annual "point summary" from the time -- neither of which has been released so far -- should demonstrate definitively how often Bush participated in drills. Such records, unless they have been purged, should exist on microfiche either in St. Louis or Denver.
Bush said it was unlikely those records still exist. Asked if he would allow their release, he replied: "Yeah, if we still have them. But, you know, the records are kept in Colorado, as I understand, and they scoured the records." Bush also said his campaign had already authorized the release of such information in the 2000 campaign, but no such information has been released.
Of course, the only bit of "documentation" provided by the Bush campaign was the notorious "torn document," which has been so ably deconstructed by Bob Somerby. Just to underscore how shoddy a document this is, Uggabugga has provided us with an example of what the document might look like were it to be restored.
All this, in fact, continues to point to the increasing likelihood that the Bush campaign was involved in a coverup that included destroying government records in order to "sanitize" Bush's military career for public consumption.
The one man who has gone on the record in saying he observed such behavior is a former Guardsman named Bill Burkett, who served in Bush's office when he was governor of Texas and is now retired.
As this account describes, citing Burkett's own words:
"As the State Plans Officer for the Texas National Guard, I was on full-time duty at Camp Mabry when Dan Bartlett was cleansing the George W Bush file prior to GW's Presidential announcement. For most soldiers at Camp Mabry, this was a generally known event.
The archives were closely scrutinized to make sure that the Bush autobiography plans and the record did not directly contradict each other. In essence it was the script of the autobiography which Dan Bartlett and his small team used to scrub a file to be released. This effort was further involved by General Daniel James and Chief of Staff William W. Goodwin at Camp Mabry.
Burkett later clarified, in detail, what he observed, and why he went public with it, in this account:
Air National Guard Commanding Officer Alleges Bush Military Records Cleansing
SUBJ: Military Records of George W. Bush ? Clarification Bill L. Burkett LTC (ret)
Within the morning press reports in the London Sunday Times and other publications, I am stated to have alleged that the staff of George W. Bush doctored [the key term] the military files of George W. Bush in whatever attempt to cover his military record.
Let me answer questions about my responses within a chronological pattern:
Was this politically motivated and coordinated with the Gore Campaign?
No. Not whatsoever. In no way did any member of the Gore Campaign or any election official, Republican or Democrat know my comments. My observations were responses to questions of how the file was developed; disseminated under the Freedom of information Act (FOIA) and what was missing within the files which would resolve the question of satisfactory participation. These were my personal responses to the asked questions that were not sanctioned by anyone, nor shared with anyone. They were made on the basis of my 28 year career, my working experience within the senior staff at the Texas National Guard headquarters and my knowledge of the operational procedures of the US military including the subject of personnel files of retired or discharged soldiers and airmen.
Why, do you believe, were you contacted?
Question 3 will background how this occurred which should be self-explanatory. The context of the DUI story indicated the mishandling or failure to fully disclose a past criminal record of Governor Bush. I believe that the military record and the irregularities that point to a possible extended period of nonperformance and early release may have also indicated a pattern of lack of full disclosure by the Governor and his campaign. This issue of military records had been highly visible on at least two previous occasions within the campaign, however, Senator Kerrey as an honored and decorated SEAL most recently focused on this issue within the last ten days I would guess that within the eleventh hour and following the revelation of the DUI story, the media and voters were waiting for the next shoe to drop. This issue may have been viewed as the next shoe.
In June of 1998 and with the full and personal knowledge of Dan Bartlett and the Governor, I reported problems of force structure, readiness operational efficiency personnel and procedures within the Texas National Guard. At that time, and periodically thereafter, I have been in contact with various [audio, video and print]news writers and publishers. In 1998, I provided sufficient detailed information including documentation of severe irregularities within the Governors own chain of command in an effort to correct those deficiencies which I believe undermined the Texas National Guard and in some cases broke the law.
How did your reference in this story develop?
I contacted a website that outlined the Governor's personal military career irregularities and suggested that there were two official documents that would resolve the issue of satisfactory and honorable service. Suddenly on Friday afternoon, my telephone became barraged with media calls and messages including those who had known of my previous whistleblowing but had failed report it. I explained my background and personal observations to each of them in minute detail, often repeating the entire process for clarity. I was extremely careful not to point an accusing finger, but rather shape a question which could resolve this allegation of integrity that had clouded the Bush campaign since June of 1999 ? the issue of his personal military service.
Did you allege that the governor's staff doctored the records?
No, instead I stated that the way this had been handled by the Bush staff including knowledgeable military officials at the Texas national guard, that it left the implication that the Bush staff had first incompetently provided an incomplete military file for the Governor which was consistent with his autobiography. I further observed that they probably did not anticipate that the file would be scrutinized to the level that it was. Whenever someone determined holes is service big enough to drive a Mack truck through additional information [all of which was unofficial and some in pencil notations] were then submitted to the press to answer questions. I further observed this "Trust me, I'm the Governor" approach had worked throughout Texas for George W. Bush within his tenure and the media had give the Governor a free pass without the same scrutiny as the Vice President until the eleventh hour revelation of the DUI. But this still left the basic question ? Why didn't Governor Bush simply release his military pay files and retirement points accounting records, which are the only OFFICIAL records that will show that he satisfactorily and honorably completed his service commitment?
Were there other issues that you discussed?
Yes. In each call, I, in essence scolded media representatives for not doing their homework and reviewing this information before the eleventh hour. When asked if I would go on record, I said, yes, I have nothing to hide even though I knew that the mention of my name with the Bush campaign would immediately strike a personal response because of my whistleblowing in 1998.
Again, was this a Democratic ploy as stated by Karen Hughes of the Bush staff?
No. Absolutely not.
Karen Hughes has again skirted the real issue and question. Dan Bartlett and the Governor have also refused to answer the basic question and furnish the OFFICIAL files that will resolve this issue. I am in no way linked to the Democratic Party. I am simply an energized citizen and retired soldier who would like to have the issues of each possible commander-in-chief resolved prior to the election, in order that we can escape holding another American Presidency hostage to actions and allegations by the opposing party in Congress. We have suffered from this partisanship for the past eight years. George W. Bush says that he is the only candidate who can bridge this impasse. This is his opportunity to start that process. This is what I believe other Americans share with me -- a sincere belief that they have the right and capacity to make educated decisions; but that candidates have the responsibility for full and complete disclosure.
I understand that Burkett was interviewed extensively for James Moore's forthcoming book, Bush's War for Re-Election. I'm very much looking forward to reading that.
UPDATE: Kevin Drum at Calpundit has a significant update -- solving, perhaps, the mystery of the torn document. This one will be fascinating to watch play out.
UPDATE 2: Marty Heldt also has a significant update -- having just received a letter from the National Personnel Records Center stating that there shouldn't have been any "new" documents in Bush's military records -- which appears to imply that the infamous "torn document" was inappropriately placed.
The letter also says: "It should be noted that tampering with or changing Federal records is a criminal offense under Title 18, Section 2071, and is punishable by fine or imprisonment."
Backyard bombers
The Houston Chronicle (which has been studiously ignoring the story) finally weighs in with a piece about the Texas cyanide bomb case:
Plans for arsenal a mystery despite guilty pleas
Like last week's AP story, there isn't a lot new here, and the description of the literature found in his possession as "anarchist" is misleading. Krar's literature was almost purely right-wing extremist, including Ku Klux Klan cards and The Turner Diaries, though apparently he did have a copy of The Anarchist's Cookbook, which is beloved by extremists of all persuasions. (Anarchists are another faction altogether, and they tend to be left-leaning, though ostensibly they are apolitical.)
Mostly, the story paints a picture of the Krars as cultlike kooks, which may well be accurate. But it severely plays down the potential threat they posed, as well as any perspective on the nature of that arsenal.
Nowhere, either, is there any assessment of the FBI handling of the case, nor do we get any sense of the possibility that there may well be more of these bombs out there -- the points which remain, of course, the most relevant aspects of the story.
None of this is surprising. When a paper is this late getting into the game, it shouldn't be a shock that it lags behind in other respects as well.
[Many thanks to Charles Kuffner and my old friend Robertjayb for the heads-up.]
A nakedly promotional note
For those interested, you can now pre-order my forthcoming book, Death on the Fourth of July: A Hate Crime, a Killing, and a Trial in Small-Town America.
It's due out in early June. I've been haggling with the publisher over the subtitle -- I don't think it emphasizes enough that the book in fact is a survey and history of hate crimes in modern America, wrapped around this singular case -- but it seems I'm going to lose out to the marketing department. Ah well.
In any event, I hope the book has at least a modest impact. A number of people have written me to say that my Orcinus posts about hate crimes have changed their views of the laws. (You'd be surprised how many liberals oppose the laws, primarily for civil-libertarian reasons.) I'm hoping the book makes clear exactly why these laws deserve our full support, perhaps to enough people that we can finally get a real federal hate-crime law passed.
The Whitewash Commission
I've already pointed out the nature of the allegedly "independent" commission named by George W. Bush to investigate the "intelligence failures" that led Bush and other top officials to allege that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction, which was the primary justification for invading Iraq in April of last year.
Namely, the commission leadership, as well as other of its members, is highly suspect. That this should occur when Bush himself is allowed to appoint a panel to investigate the actions of his own administration should come as no great surprise.
However, that's just the beginning of the problems with this commission. As Josh Marshall and others have observed, what really makes this alleged "investigation" grotesque is that the most germane question -- namely, Did the administration manipulate the intelligence available to it in such a way as to distort the reality of what was actually known about weapons of mass destruction? -- is in fact outside of the purview of this panel.
As Marshall puts it:
The commission doesn't appear to have any subpoena power, only the right to "full and complete access to information relevant to its mission as described in section 2 of this order."
� Anything the White House did with those CIA analyses, any fisticuffs between the Veep's office and the CIA, anything stovepiped through Doug Feith's operation at the Pentagon, anything that made its way from Chalabi's mumbo-jumbocrats to the the president's speechwriters -- that's all beyond their brief.
That this manipulation occurred seems highly likely. Recall, if you will, Washington Post warhawk columnist Jim Hoagland's pieces from before the war -- such as this one -- which detailed how Bush and his aides bullied CIA analysts into overstating the threat posed by Iraq. There have been numerous reports -- including this one from Time -- detailing Dick Cheney's arm-twisting visits to CIA headquarters to force those analysts to provide the administration with grist for its war mill.
But those questions will not be examined by this commission. Which means that they will not be examined at all -- at least not until Republicans are displaced from power in the Senate and House.
In the meantime, the makeup of the commission remains worth examining. Dwight Meredith at Wampum raises an excellent point about the appointment of Lloyd Cutler to the panel. As Dwight suggest, there's something seriously amiss when lawyers from the high-powered Washington firm of Wilmer Cutler Pickering are allowed to serve on the panel investigating the Sept. 11 attacks, as well as to act as witnesses for that panel, and to serve on the pre-war intelligence commission, all while simultaneously representing the Saudi Prince being sued by the Sept. 11 victims families as being the banker for Al Qaeda. It is a grotesque conflict of interest.
Meanwhile, the commission's co-chair, Chuck Robb -- one of its token Democrats -- is someone with a history of having ties to the Bush family. As Dan Conley details:
[M]y problem is with Robb as co-chair -- because he owes the Bush family too much. It was the Bush Justice Department that called off the dogs and allowed Robb to escape indictment in 1992. And why did they do that? I can think of three reasons:
1) Oil industry pressure. Robb was one of the best friends the U.S. oil industry had during his time in the Senate. Now why on earth would a Virginia Senator vote with the oil industry time after time? Robb was the son-in-law of Lyndon Baines Johnson ... his ties to Texas oil go way back. No doubt Robb and the Bush family have many of the same friends.
2) Electoral calculations. I would guess that the RNC and the Virginia Republican Party in 1992 preferred a weakened, unindicted Robb seeking re-election over an indicted and finished Robb who couldn't even win re-nomination over Doug Wilder or Virgil Goode. As it turned out, the GOP shot themselves in the foot by nominating Oliver North and Robb was re-elected ... but no one would have guessed that possible in 1992.
3) Payback. Chuck Robb provided a critical yes vote on Clarence Thomas ... without his support, the nomination would have gone down. Bush had a favor to repay.
Finally, Brad DeLong points to the strange decision to appoint both Patricia Wald and Laurence Silberman to the panel. Moreover, Silberman is the co-chair and clearly the head of the panel. Silberman's hatred for Wald is now legendary, and one cannot help but wonder if Wald will have any room to raise any kind of serious questions at all. Her appointment appears almost calculated to create serious internal tensions on the panel -- which might not be a bad thing, were it not for Silberman's history of manipulating official proceedings and intraagency conflicts for purposes of blocking legitimate outcomes.
Which brings us to the main event, namely, the commission co-chair himself. I've already described some of his previous activities. Here are the full details.
Laurence Silberman
The man named by George W. Bush to head has a longtime history as a notoriously partisan fixer and bulldog.
The first evidence of this came with his role in the October Surprise scandal. Here are the relevant excerpts from Gary Sick's definitive text on the case, October Surprise: America's Hostages in Iran and the Election of Ronald Reagan (Random House, 1991), pp. 116-123:
One of the most mystifying events of the entire election year took place in late September or early October 1980. The basic facts are not in dispute. [Future National Security Adviser] Richard Allen, together with Robert McFarlane and Laurence Silberman, met at the L'Enfant Plaza Hotel in Washington, D.C., with a Middle Easterner who offered to arrange the release of the American hostages directly to the Republicans. Beyond that rudimentary description, however, there is nothing but disagreement. Even people who admit attending the same meeting cannot agree on exact dates, times, or places.
� Allen has said that he was initially contacted by Robert McFarlane, then a senior aide to Senator John Tower of Texas. Tower was a longtime friend of vice-presidential candidate George Bush and he was at that time the ranking Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee. McFarlane, a retired Marine Corps colonel, had been the executive assistant of the National Security Council under Henry Kissinger and Brent Scowcroft in the Nixon and Ford administrations, and he was a strong supporter of the Reagan presidential candidacy.
� According to Allen, Silberman, and McFarlane, they had a relatively brief meeting in late September with a man who appeared to be of Middle Eastern origin. This man, who claimed to be in contact with representatives of the Iranian government, made a presentation in which he offered to arrange the release of the American hostages directly to the Republican campaign. This offer was rejected out of hand, according to the three American participants, and the meeting was terminated abruptly. Allen and Silberman later insisted that the man made no mention of military equipment or the possibility of an arms-for-hostages swap.
� Silberman said he told the man his offer was totally unacceptable since "We have one President at a time."
However, as Sick goes on to detail, there are numerous problems with their account.
The unidentified Middle Easterner likely was a self-described international arms merchant name Hushang Lavi, who claimed that he was the man at the meeting. He says Lavi fits the physical description the Americans gave, and he furthermore had substantial evidence of being involved in the meeting (some of which actually surfaced independently through a third party after his death). Lavi claimed that he represented two officials of the Iranian government, and was offering the hostages in exchange for a pledge of F-14 parts -- the same parts, you may recall, that played such a key role in the Iran-Contra scandal. But Sick reports that Lavi claimed the refusal was not the noble one described by Larry Silberman:
According to Lavi, his offer was rejected, but his recollection differed from those of the Americans. Lavi said the three Americans refused his offer on the grounds that they were "in touch with the Iranians themselves" and did not need his assistance. Both Allen and Silberman later insisted adamantly in interviews that the man they met was not Lavi.
Much of Sick's book, in fact, details that Lavi's characterization was substantially the case -- that is, the Reagan camp in fact was in close contact with other Iranians who controlled the hostages and were capable of releasing them.
The source for one of the key pieces of substantiation for Lavi's participation in the meeting was Ari Ben-Menashe, who had been a top agent and official in the Israeli intelligence agency Mossad from 1977 to 1987, and was directly involved in Iranian affairs. Ben-Menashe later went on to write a book detailing some of the key aspects of the October Surprise affair in a book titled Profits of War, which was dismissed as fantasy by American and Israeli officials, but whose chief components were later substantially corroborated.
According to Sick, Ben-Menashe largely confirmed Lavi's participation, but with a twist:
According to Ben-Menashe, the L'Enfant Plaza meeting was the result of an effort by Israeli intelligence to hasten the end of the hostage crisis.
The Israelis, Ben-Menashe said, were becoming increasingly uncomfortable about their involvement in U.S. domestic politics resulting from the Casey-Karubbi meetings in Madrid. � So they attempted, without success, to short-circuit the entire problem by arranging a swap that would put an end to hostage issue before the election. Lavi, he said, was working for Israel when he helped to set up the L'Enfant Plaza meeting.
Ben-Menashe said that he traveled to the United States in late September 1980 with Dr. Ahmed Omshei, a former professor at Tehran University and a consultant to General Fakuri, the Iranian minister of defense. It was Omshei, according to Ben-Menashe, who met with Allen, McFarlane, and Silberman at the L'Enfant Plaza as an unofficial representative of the Iranian government. Ben-Menashe claims that there was not one meeting but two, and that he was present at one of them. Lavi, he said, was involved in making the arrangements and was briefed on the discussions, but he did not actually participate in the meetings. Ben-Menashe agrees that the meetings did not result in any action related to the hostages, but he believes the offer was considered seriously by others in the campaign, at least for several days, before it was rejected.
As Sick goes on to detail, Hushang Lavi later approached officials from the independent third-party candidacy of John Anderson with an identical offer. And this offer was immediately reported to officials at the Carter administration, which was of course the proper and correct course for any patriotic American. Not so the Reaganites, as Sick explains:
Whoever the man was who met the Americans at the L'Enfant Plaza, and regardless of the nature of his offer -- whether an arms-for-hostages swap or simply a misguided attempt to intervene in the U.S. election -- it should have been reported to the administration. Here was a man who claimed to be in contact with representatives of Khomeini and who was offering to arrange a prompt release of the hostages. The very fact that such an offer was being made while negotiations were under way with Tehran was relevant to the negotiations. Perhaps this offer was a hoax. Perhaps he had his own political agenda. Perhaps his scheme had only a two percent change of success. No matter.
The correct response to such an offer is not to declare, "We have only one President at a time," as Silberman and Allen have claimed repeatedly, and then to walk away. The correct response is, "I'm sorry but you have come to the wrong address. Let me direct you to the proper authorities." �
Silberman, years later, argued that "such a report could have been leaked during the campaign" to embarrass the Reagan-Bush campaign in a "reverse twist." That argument may accurately reflect the suspicious state of mind that existed within the Reagan-Bush campaign. At a minimum, it suggests that short-term tactical political advantage outweighed the possibility, however slight, that the man actually may have had useful contacts with the Khomeini regime, as he claimed.
And as Sick explains in detail, it was clear that the Carter administration would not in fact have done as Silberman suspected -- because it had the ability to do just that with the Anderson campaign, and did not do so.
This incident, however, was only one of the early episodes in Silberman's career as an ethics-deprived Republican fixer. The next significant appearance of this role occurred in 1989, when Silberman and fellow Federalist Society member David Sentelle combined to overturn the Iran-Contra perjury conviction of Oliver North.
The prosecutor in that case, Lawrence Walsh, described their behavior thus in his book Firewall: The Iran-Contra Conspiracy and Cover-Up:
"A powerful band of Republican appointees waited like the strategic reserves of an embattled army. The final evaluation of the immunity Congress had granted Oliver North and John Poindexter would be the work of yet another political force -- a force cloaked in the black robes of those dedicated to defining and preserving the rule of law. Although the judiciary is theoretically a neutral arm of government and judges are expected to eschew partisan politics, the underlying political nature of all government institutions was evident when a three-judge panel from the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit reviewed Oliver North's conviction in 1990."
This ruling was a real travesty, since it expanded the rights of defendants regarding limited-immunity grants such as North received to almost preposterous levels. Moreover, as Martin McLaughlin points out:
Silberman and Sentelle required the Independent Counsel to prove that neither the prosecutors nor any of the witnesses had been affected by the testimony given by North and Poindexter during weeks of nationally televised congressional hearings. This impossible requirement--essentially the proof of a negative--was the basis for dismissing the convictions of the two military officers who directed the illegal arms trafficking operation.
The North ruling was an important precedent in exactly the ways suggested by Walsh: it marked a turning in the conservative judiciary from merely adhering to conservative principles in its rulings to becoming, in effect, a lawless cabal that was willing to ignore basic principles of jurisprudence and equity in the law for the sake of obtaining a specific desired result, that is, one benefiting Republicans and members of the "conservative movement."
That tendency spread to other parts of the judiciary as well, but continued to be a regular theme in Silberman's rulings:
-- His ruling that the independent-counsel law was unconstitutional, rendered on behalf of another Federalist Society cohort, Ted Olson (the ruling was later overturned 8-1 by the Supreme Court).
-- His ruling blocking the Clinton legal team from discovering the source of media leaks that were emanating from the offices of special prosecutor Kenneth Starr, another Federalist Society cohort whose appointment Silberman had connived behind the scenes to accomplish.
-- His ruling subsequent ruling denying the Secret Service from being shielded in testifying in the Monica Lewinsky matter, declaring that in trying to shield the agents. President Clinton had "declared war on the United States."
-- Even his most recent ruling as a member of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court of Review, which overturned a lower court's ruling that found the Justice Department's use of wiretaps under the Patriot Act was unconstitutionally overbroad. As the ACLU trenchantly observed: "As of today, the Attorney General can suspend the ordinary requirements of the Fourth Amendment in order to listen in on phone calls, read e-mails, and conduct secret searches of Americans' homes and offices." It is also well worth noting that none other than Ted Olson argued the administration's side in this case. One can only imagine, of course, what the court would have ruled had this initiative occurred under a Clinton or Gore administration -- but it is not hard to guess.
David Brock's book Blinded by the Right: The Conscience of an Ex-Conservative gives us an especially close-up view of Silberman's extraordinary partisanship, because Brock became quite close to both Silberman and his wife, Ricky, who was one of the cofounders of the conservative (and Richard Mellon Scaife-financed) Independent Women's Forum.
Indeed, it becomes clear that Silberman played a central role in the campaign of dirty tricks dreamed up by the "conservative movement" against Clinton during his tenure, notably Brock's "Troopergate" story -- the now-admittedly phony tale that Arkansas state troopers enabled Clinton in a series of extramarital assignations. Moreover, both Silbermans, Ricky in particular, heavily influenced Brock's reportage in writing the book-length smear of Clarence Thomas' chief critic, The Real Anita Hill. But the judge himself, who became a "father figure" to Brock, was the real player. As Brock describes in Blinded by the Right (pp. 95-96):
If Republican aides were eager to abet my saving Hill, so were Thomas's closest friends. Among others, they included fellow D.C. Circuit Court Judge Laurence Silberman .... These people who knew Thomas best in the world, now my sources and soon-to-be friends of mine, told me nothing had happened between Thomas and Hill. No asking for dates. No dirty talk. No porn. Nothing. They conveyed a very convincing impression that they knew in their bones that Hill's story was a monstrous lie. And they were still in wild-eyed fury about it. Silberman speculated that Hill was a lesbian, "acting out." Besides, Silberman confided, Thomas would have never asked Hill for a date: Did I know she had bad breath?
Silberman also played a role in Brock's smearing of Democrats related to the Anita Hill charges against Thomas. As he later describes (pp. 112-113):
During the hearing there was a hue and cry from the right that someone hostile to Thomas had tipped the press off to Hill's confidential charges, which led to Hill's public testimony. In one section of the book [The Real Anita Hill], I was publicizing leaked charges, and in another I sought to identify the Democratic leaker who could be blamed for the entire mess and would forever be tarred by the right as a devil figure. I worked very hard to come up with a villain: Democratic Senator Paul Simon of Illinois. I accused Simon of illegally leaking Hill's confidential Judiciary Committee affidavit to the press, a conclusion for which I had no sources. I merely made a deduction from the record, not nearly the kind of evidence one needed to lodge a charge against a senator that, if true, warranted an Ethics Committee investigation. In his autobiography, published in 1999, Simon took issue with much of what I wrote about him. He told the story of meeting Judge Patricia Wald of the D.C. Circuit, a liberal whom I claimed was "close" to Simon and portrayed as a conspirator in the campaign against Thomas. After my book was published, Wald was scheduled to testify before one of Simon's subcommittees. Before she began speaking, Wald walked up to Simon and said, "Since we are close, I thought I should introduce myself." The two had never met. ...
Of course, it had been none other than Judge Silberman who gave me the false information on his colleague Pat Wald, whom he hated with a passion. Shortly after I dropped off the chapter titled "Trial By Leak" late one evening at the Silbermans' Georgetown home, stuffing it through the mail slot in their door like a surprise gift, my telephone rang in Woodley Park. Ricky and Larry were literally squealing with joy about the case I had constructed implicating Simon, a vocal critic of Silberman's during the judge's own confirmation hearing. They were passing the phone to each, marveling at my "genius" at the top of their lungs. "You got him. You nailed him. You fucked him. You killed him," they sang. �
Silberman played a significant role in Brock's publication of the phony "Troopergate" smear, about which even he had grave reservations before publishing it. But Silberman convinced him to go ahead (p. 146):
Though he was a sitting federal judge who would rule on matters to which the Clinton administration was a party, Larry strongly urged me to go forward [with "Troopergate"]. .... The trooper story would be much bigger than the Anita Hill book, he predicted. Clinton would be "devastated," and therefore the story could only enhance my reputation. ... [T]he judge told me he felt sure that if the same story had been written about Ronald Reagan, it would have toppled him from office. Clinton, he surmised, might be toppled as well ...
And finally, it's also worth noting that Ricky Silberman, according to Brock, was the person who had persuaded Kenneth Starr to become involved in the Paula Jones case even before he was named Independent Counsel. According to Brock (p. 187):
With Scaife's backing, Ricky was ready to put her fledgling group [the Independent Women's Forum] at the service of the anti-Clinton jihad, and as one of its first moves, she wanted IWF to file a friend of the court brief in the Paula Jones case, supporting Jones' contention that her case should go forward even while Clinton was president. And Ricky had a particular lawyer in mind to draft the brief: Kenneth Starr.
Of course, the Silbermans' cynicism was especially in view, since they held a rather dim view of Starr as easily manipulable, even though he was one of their fellow stalwarts in the Federalist Society and one of the conservative movement "in crowd." As Brock puts it (p. 188):
Favorably described by Georgetown doyenne Sally Quinn in the Washington Post as a member in good standing of the Washington establishment, Starr was the ideal front man for the job Ricky had in mind. Larry Silbereman, who had served with Starr on the D.C. Circuit Court, agreed. In conversations with me, Silberman � told me that he and other members of the right-wing legal establishment regarded Starr as a weak, unprincipled opportunist who was more interested in advancing his own ambitions than in conservative ideology. He was also considered na�ve and politically clumsy. Starr's concern for burnishing his reputation and his desire to ascend to the Supreme Court, Larry said, made him susceptible to pressure from the liberal political establishment and the liberal Washington press corps. Of course, if Larry's view was correct, Starr was also susceptible to pressure from his patrons in the conservative movement, who mistrusted him and could make or break his career. �
And of course, the latter was precisely the factor that became predominant in Starr's ham-handed and ultimately destructive attempts to have Clinton impeached over the Lewinsky affair.
Silberman's cynical view of his fellow conservative jurists is also described by Brock at another juncture -- namely, the decision by his cohort David Sentelle to replace Robert Fiske as Clinton's special prosecutor with none other than Starr. According to Brock, Sentelle was actually doing Silberman's bidding (p. 192):
In conversations about Sentelle, who sat with Silberman on the circuit court, Larry suggested to me that he sometimes deployed Sentelle, whom Larry said he considered to be dim bulb, as a stalking horse for his own machinations. Sentelle had provided Silberman with a crucial second vote in the overturning of the Iran-Contra conviction of Oliver North by a vote of two to one. The unsigned opinion was issued per curiam, or by the court, which obscured Silberman's fingerprints.
One of Brock's first observations in Blinded by the Right about Silberman described his cynical manipulation of the law for partisan purposes (pp. 96-97):
A consummate Washington insider for more than two decades, Larry would often preface his advice to me with the wry demurrer that judges shouldn't get involved in politics -- "That would be improper," he'd say -- then forge ahead anyway. He was a behind-the-scenes adviser to the conservative editors of the Wall Street Journal editorial page, and he delighted conservative audiences with his acid critiques of the liberal press. �
Brock discussed Silberman at length in an interview by Buzzflash after the release of Blinded by the Right:
BUZZFLASH: Now let's talk about another aspect of involvement in the judiciary. You were very involved with the Judge Clarence Thomas nomination hearings in terms of your writing for the right-wing. You also seemed quite involved with the Silbermans. It was still astonishing to see the extent that a sitting federal judge was interacting with the efforts to attack Clinton -- Judge Lawrence Silberman and his wife that is. Silberman gave you advice on proceeding with articles that attacked Anita Hill and the President.
DAVID BROCK: Judge Lawrence Silberman, who sits on the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, was an appointee of President Reagan to that court. His wife Ricky was the vice-chairman of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission during the period that Clarence Thomas was the chairman on the Commission. I met them originally as sources for my first book on the Clarence Thomas-Anita Hill hearings. They went beyond the role of source.
BUZZFLASH: And he was a sitting judge at the time?
DAVID BROCK: Yes he was a sitting judge. For example, they reviewed in draft the galleys of that book. And so it certainly went beyond a reporter-source relationship. And coming out of that, Judge Silberman became a mentor to me and was someone who I relied on, as well as Ricky, for political advice while I was at the American Spectator pursuing a lot of the anti-Clinton stories. When Ricky Silberman left the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, she founded, or was one of the co-founders, of the Independent Women's Forum -- it was actually her idea. And it was actually Ricky Silberman's idea to approach Ken Starr to file that friend-of-the-court brief in the Paula Jones case. And Ricky knew the Jones case was simply payback for the Anita Hill affair. She thought, wouldn't it be delicious that Clinton would now be accused of sexual improprieties in the same way that Clarence Thomas had been? Judge Silberman played an absolutely key role at a critical juncture.
I write in the book that I had misgivings about publishing the Troopergate article, even back at the time I was working on it. I had some concerns about -- both about the credibility of the troopers and also had some concerns about setting the precedent of vetting a sitting President's private life. Because again, Troopergate, you know, did not have anything to do at that time with sexual harassment. It was simply tales of alleged extramarital affairs, not even currently, but back when Clinton was governor of Arkansas. And so I was concerned about the journalistic precedent of that, and the political impact, and the impact on my own career if I went ahead with that story. And so I did seek advice from a handful of people, and Judge Silberman's advice was to publish the article. And I think it's fair to say, had he advised me not to, I very well might not have. That's how seriously I took his advice.
BUZZFLASH: Well, you say on page 146 of your book, in reference to that, "though, he was a sitting federal judge who would rule on matters to which the Clinton administration was a party. Larry strongly urged me to go forward."
DAVID BROCK: By the way, his court sits right below the Supreme Court. And so there are a lot of cases that come before the court dealing with the Executive Branch -- regulatory matters, things of that nature. When various assertions of executive privilege were being made by the White House during the impeachment, he sat in on at least one, if not more, of those cases.
BUZZFLASH: And Silberman did not recuse himself.
DAVID BROCK: No, he did not recuse himself, even though, as I said, he had been directly involved. I think it's clear that the kind of activity that Silberman was engaging in is not permitted. It falls into a category of the kind of partisan politics that's not permitted. And he was aware of this, because he would jokingly say to me that, when I would go to him for advice, he often started out saying something like well, it would be improper to advise you on this. And it was set sort of tongue-in-cheek, and then he would go ahead and advise me. So he was aware of what he was doing.
Aside from me, he was also very influential with the Wall Street Journal editorial page in terms of advice. And of course, the Journal editorial page was, along with the Spectator, probably the second principal anti-Clinton vehicle during that time.
Of course, Brock himself was virulently smeared for Blinded by the Right as a liar -- though no one, including Judge Silberman, ever contested what he wrote as false, nor ever presented evidence of it.
The portrait of Silberman that emerges from all these records is fairly clear: His appointment to head up the investigation of the "intelligence failures" in the invasion of Iraq is itself a supreme bit of extraordinary cynicism at work in the national body politic. The "Whitewash Commission" is not by any means a stretch. This panel simply will not be permitted to criticize any action of the Bush administration -- and is most likely, if anything, to blame President Clinton for any failures in the intelligence-gathering apparatus that brought this country to invade another nation under false pretenses.
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We have 148 members in the Etz Yoseph Project and the Lord continues to fill the blanks regarding the genealogy of our ancestors…From all over the world, there has been 84,575 “Hits” to our web site www.etyoseph.org since we started counting in March 2011…This speaks to us of how YHVH is moving His people to dig and find out more information about their possible Israelite Roots…Praise Yah!
We are very excited about attending the 32th International Conference of Jewish Genealogy in Paris France from July 15-19, 2012. Some of the leading scientists in Jewish genetics will inform the attendees about the latest advances about this topic. As well, we will have an opportunity to hear updated findings in the Jewish genealogy field.
We are also keyed up and honored about the invitation for us to speak at the 13th MIA Conference in Orlando Florida from August 31 to September 2, 2012 during Labor Day weekend… We hope that we can see many of you there and share where Israel is standing regarding Genealogy and Genetics.
As we stand today, this graphic depicts an approximation of the distribution of the Y-haplogroups among our brother Judah today.
The most common article read in Etz Yoseph deals with the Y-chromosome that Survived the Flood, Part I, Part II and Part III.
http://etzyoseph.org/the-y-chromosome-that-survived-the-flood-part-iii/
We think that as more people do their DNA test, they are finding out, that their “Y” haplogroup is not “J”, which is the most common among the Jews today, nor “E1b1b1” which is the second most common among the Jews living today…Never the less, they have this “awakening” in the deepest part of their soul that they have “Israelite Roots” and cannot make peace with themselves and the results of their DNA test… so some of them continue to search for an answer…
They continue to “Shema” the voice of their genes.
“Shema” means in Hebrew “to hear and to act on what you heard”… They do not give up because one of their four lines of grandparents did not yield the DNA result that they were expecting and continue to investigate into the DNA of the other three family lines.
It is, when we are presented with data that tells us that the Y-chromosome haplogroups were formed 60,000 years ago, but with no facts in the genetic mutation rates calculations… If all haplogroups were formed 60,000-10,000 years ago, then Ya’acov and his 12 sons would have to be of the same Y-haplogroup, for example: all the tribes would have to be “J” or like some others think, all tribal groups would have to be letter “E”.
Instead we have also heard that the Tanach is explicit in that all men on earth died during the Great Flood and only Noach and his three sons survived…This World deluge is agreed among Bible scholars that it occurred about 5,000 years ago…That would mean that all Y-chromosome haplogroups were formed 5,000 years ago from a man called Noach and his three sons.
So, which Y-chromosome haplogroup belonged to Noach and his three sons?
I recently had this conversation with one of the members of Etz Yoseph and thought that it would benefit other members as well:
“Regarding the meditations about the 12 children of Ya’acov belonging to only one Y-chromosome haplogroup and the rest being grafted in…
Genetic mutation rates are affected by the ENVIRONMENT where they are found…For Example: The same STR (Short tandem repeats) in a DYS in the Y-chromosome may mutate at different rates, if that person is in Ireland, Kennya, Australia or China.
In the non-recombinant area of the Y-chromosome, the most common “Mutations” are not an actual loss of material, instead it is a “change” of one nucleotide base for another: For example if it was a guanine {G}, it gets change to a thiamine {T} and you have a mutation.
At the time of Noah’s flood, the fountains of the earth broke according to the Genesis account, and there may have been a lot of radiation escaping from the center of the planet that might have caused mutations to occur at a faster pace than what the speed for mutation change was before the flood… Not only that, I believe it affected the passage of time, hence the observation of Albert Einstein that time is relative…. Talking about Einstein, he was the most noticeable Jew of the 20th century and his Y-chromosome haplogroup was not “J”, Albert Einstein was actually an E1b1b1…
So do the 12 sons of Ya’acov have different sub-groups of E1b1b1?
If so, then the “J” haplogroups were actually Canaanites that mixed with the Israelites?
I do not believe this, but there are many pushing that theory.
My point in bringing this up, is that up to now all the before mentioned are theories and seemingly valid….And very easily Ya’acov could have had the “Changes” mutations, of a few nucleotide bases in his sperm cells giving rise to different Y-haplogroups on Ya’acov’s 12 male offspring …. Even though, YHVH has created the laws of the Universe to behave in certain ways, He does intervene affecting these laws thereby resulting in what we call miracles, for His Glory.
Now, among the people that I know, some have loved the land of Israel so much, that they have sacrificed their own lives to the point of living in Israel as immigrants, with the retirement money or fortunes from their country of origin, which results in them having to leave every so often because they cannot get citizenship in Israel; these people are of the Y-haplogroup R1b1a2… Risking their own lives, they will not have the same standing as the citizens of Israel, nor will they be able to get jobs in Eretz Ysrael but they continue to live in The Promised Land… The majority of the pastors that are teaching the Word to His people including the Torah are of the Y-haplogroup R1b1a2.
If you count in Etz Yoseph the number of R1b1a2 participants, you will see that these are as “numerous as the sand of the seas”, the majority by far…
Is haplogroup “J” as numerous as the stars in the skies?
Is Haplogroup “E” as numerous as the sand of the seas?
Neither J nor E fits this promise anywhere in the world, but R1b1a2 does fit this promise. This specific promise was given to Abraham, who gave it to Isaac, who gave it to Ya’acov, who gave it to Yoseph through his son “Ephraim”…Ephraim was supposed to be the father of many different goyim nations.
Genesis 48:19 But his father refused and said, “I know, my son, I know. He also shall become a people, and he also shall be great; but truly his younger brother {Ephraim} shall be greater than he, and his descendants shall become a multitude of nations.”
We find “R1b1a2” among the Czars of Russia (Emperor Nicholas II of Russia), the Kings of Ireland (Irish King Niall of the Nine Hostages), American Presidents (President Franklin Pierce, President James Buchanan Jr, President John Adams) and even among the Pharaohs of Egypt (Pharaoh Tutankhamen , his father and grandfather) !
R1b1a2 being Ephraim can be explained using the founding effect and the “bottle neck” effect in genetics very easily…The native Y-haplogroup of Western Europe disappeared due to illness (For example: The Spanish flue killed millions of European just in 1800), the natives did not have male sons, natural disasters, etc…and at the same time the descendants of Ephraim that were dispersed from Israel 2,800 years ago are in Europe at this point in history…The Ephraimites multiplied, flourished, and exploded having many male descendants… then, establishing the R1b1a2 as the most common haplogroup in Western Europe.
Now this is a theory as are the others. Imagine that Noach and his three sons were Y-haplogroup CT.
Why Haplogroup “CT”?
Because, all human males living today have the defining mutation M168 in their Y-Chromosome, and are believed by geneticists to come from this haplogroup “CT”, except the males in Africa…
Then Ham, Noach’s son that was haplogroup “CT”, started his way down from Mount Ararat Region to Canaan becoming Haplogroup “C”, and then continuing to Africa lose one SNP but added another SNP and became haplogroup “B”, and further down switched to another SNP and they became haplogroup “A” (Following the same route as described in Genesis 8:4 – Genesis 9:18 – Genesis 9:22 – Genesis 10:6-20)
The environment is very different at this time; I believe that high levels of radiation would have shortened men’s lives from the 900 years that Noach lived down to the 120 years that eventually Moses lived… Also the amount of ultraviolet light would have been different in Turkey than it would have been in Kenya…Slowly Ham’s Y-chromosome would have had deletions of SNPs (Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms) and would lose one SNP turning from Y-haplogroup “CT” into Y-haplogroup “C” but also would add another and become Y-haplogroup “B” and so continued his way down and changed his SNP again and would become Y-haplogroup “A”… So this theory of Ham and his descendants is as plausible as the one of Spencer Wells that Y-haplogroup “A” was first formed in Africa 60,000 years ago…
I am working on the Y-haplogroups of another son of Noach, Shem and his descendants, as I write this letter and will let you know as I have more evidence supporting our theory.
The Prophecy in the Word of Abba will become true! The 12 tribes of Israel will be identified…We pray for faith, discernment and strength as we continue to pursue the work that He has established for each one of us, as we search for the Tribes of Israel… We pray that the remnant of Israel will “Shema” to their genes’ voice.
Ezekiel 47:13 –[The Boundaries of the Land] This is what the Sovereign LORD says: “These are the boundaries by which you are to divide the land for an inheritance among the twelve tribes of Israel, with two portions for Joseph…
ברכות אהבת ישוע, Brachot Ahavta Yeshua, Blessings in the love of Yeshua!
Alex C. Perdomo MD,
Georgina Chan Perdomo MD
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Phonetics and phonology - Consonants
Consonants are produced by pushing air up from the lungs and out through the mouth and/or nose. Airflow is disrupted by obstructions made by various combinations of vocal articulator movements, so that audible friction is produced.
They are described in terms of (1) voicing, (2) place of articulation and (3) manner of articulation.
Voicing refers to the presence or absence of vocal vibration during speech sound production. In a voiced sound, there is vocal fold vibration and an audible 'buzzing' sound. In an unvoiced sound, there is no vocal fold vibration.
Compare the first consonant in thimble (represented by /θ/ with the first sound in this (represented by /ð/). Again, try placing your finger and thumb on your throat whilst producing the sound. In thimble the consonant /θ/ is unvoiced because there is an absence of vocal fold vibration. In this, the consonant /ð/ is voiced because there is a presence of vocal fold vibration.
Now take the following pairs of phonemes (you may need to look at your copy of the phonetic alphabet). In each pair, one sound is voiced and one sound is unvoiced. Which is which?
/p/ and /b/
/t/ and /d/
/ʤ/ and /tʃ/
/g/ and /k/
/f/ and /v/
/z/ and /s/
/ʃ/ and /ʒ/
Place of articulation
The place of articulation is the physical location in the vocal tract that a phoneme is produced in, and the kinds of articulatory movements that are involved in producing a sound. Here is a diagram of the vocal tract:
Bilabial consonants are produced at the lips (e.g. /b/).
Labio-dental consonants are produced with the lower lip and the upper teeth (e.g. /f/).
Dental consonants are produced when the tongue is placed between the teeth (e.g. /θ/, /ð/).
Alveolar consonants are produced with the tip of the tongue and the alveolar ridge (the hard, bony ridge behind the teeth) (e.g. /s/).
Post-alveolar sounds are produced with the tip of the tongue and the roof of the mouth (specifically, the area in between the alveolar ridge and the soft palate). (e.g. /ʃ/, /ʒ/).
Palatal sounds are produced between the tongue and the hard palate (e.g. /j/).
Velar sounds are produced between the back of the tongue and the velum (e.g. /k/, /g/).
Manner of articulation
So far we have said that consonants can be defined by (1) their voicing, and (2) their place of articulation. Our final level of classification is to do with the manner or process of articulation. This is related to the degree of closure (complete closure → close approximation → open approximation).
Plosives involve a complete closure, where the vocal articulators fully meet and air flow is stopped. This creates the 'explosion' of sound when the closure is released, hence the name 'plosive'. The plosive sounds in English are: /p b t d k g/.
Fricatives involve a close approximation, where the vocal articulators do not fully meet and air flow is forced through a narrow passage. This creates the friction sound, hence the name 'fricative'. The fricative sounds in English are: /f v s z θ ð ʃ ʒ/.
Approximants involve an open approximation, where the vocal articulators are still close but not enough to create friction. The approximant sounds in English are: /j r w/.
Nasal sounds are produced by air coming out through the nose and mouth. The nasal sounds in English are /m n ŋ/.
The table below shows us the three ways of defining vowel sounds. For each cell, voiceless sounds are on the left, and voiced sounds are on the right. The columns show the place of articulation and the rows show the manner of articulation. So, we can use the table and work out that /s/ is a voiceless alveolar fricative!
Bilabial
Labio-dental
Post-alveolar
Plosive
p b
f v
θ ð
s z
ʃ ʒ
Affricate
ʧ ʤ
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The Green Hornet Movie Trailer shows promising remake of classic
The Black Beauty
As a kid in the 1960s, The Green Hornet was one of this bloggers favorite television shows. The reason wasn't the character of Britt Reid / The Green Hornet, or Kato, played by Bruce Lee. It was because of the car: The Black Beauty. A cool, lethal vehicle that plays a starring role in the 2011 big screen remake The Green Hornet.
If the recently released trailer is a decent representation of what to expect from the film, it's going to be a hit, and The Black Beauty will be its star.
The Green Hornet stars Seth Rogen, Cameron Diaz, Jay Chao, Tom Wilkinson, and Academy Award-winner Christoph Waltz in what can be described as an "origin" picture which will explain how The Green Hornet came to be. Here's the video trailer:
While the movie is obviously set in modern America, what remains as the connection to its 1960s TV past is the Chrysler Imperial that is converted to become The Black Beauty. It's a car that Chrysler should make for purchase today (without the machine guns, of course); it would turn around that car maker's fortunes overnight.
As was the case when a kid, I'll see The Green Hornet for the car first, then for Cameron Diaz.
Rock the Casbah!
The Green Hornet Movie Trailer shows promising rem...
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Photo source: Taniadimas via Pixabay
A new study by Cell Metabolism revealed that weight gain can also be caused by a person’s sense of smell.
Obesity is one of the increasing problems of the society today. By 2010, about two in three Americans are obese or overweight, and these include children. There are some people who blame this problem on having a desk job, others blame it on a person’s eating habits, some on a person’s lifestyle, and on many other things. A new study by Cell Metabolism revealed that weight gain can also be caused by a person’s sense of smell.
The team of researchers who made these surprising findings said that the mice which sense of smell they temporarily disabled retained its normal weight despite feeding on a high-fat diet. On the other hand, the other mice which sense of smell they boosted gained significant weight despite it feeding on the same high-fat diet.
“Sensory systems play a role in metabolism. Weight gain isn’t purely a measure of the calories taken in; it’s also related to how those calories are perceived,” said senior author Andrew Dillin, the Thomas and Stacey Siebel Distinguished Chair in Stem Cell Research and professor of molecular and cell biology and Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator.
A new method to lose weight?
The results of the study suggest a connection between the olfactory system and the part of the brain that control metabolism, the hypothalamus. It suggests people who are obese or overweight can lose weight once they lose their sense of smell no matter how fatty or how much they eat.
Céline Riera is a former UC Berkeley postdoctoral fellow who is now at the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. According to Riera, humans, like mice, are very sensitive to smells when they are hungry. She says the results of this study may also suggest that the lack of smell could be a way to trick the body into believing it has already eaten. The body is structured to store calories until the search for food is successful, the point wherein the body will start burning calories again.
“This paper is one of the first studies that really shows if we manipulate olfactory inputs we can actually alter how the brain perceives energy balance, and how the brain regulates energy balance,” she said.
Some people lose their sense of smell due to injury, a disease, or their age. With these conclusions and analyses, researchers believe that the lack of smell could actually benefit obese and overweight people. They also presume that this study could shed light to the discovery of a new remedy toward resolving the increasing number of overweight and obese people.
“If we can validate this in humans, perhaps we can actually make a drug that doesn’t interfere with smell but still blocks that metabolic circuitry. That would be amazing.” Dillin said.
The observation
For this study, the researchers deactivated the sense of smell of one group of mice by the use of gene therapy which destroyed its olfactory neurons in its noses. This method did not hurt the spare stem cells, which allowed the olfactory neurons to regrow after some three weeks.
They observed that the mice that lack the sense of smell managed to burn more calories by up-regulating their sympathetic nervous system, which is known to up fat burning. According to the researchers, some of the mice had their beige fat cells turned into brown fat cells, which burn fatty acids to produce heat, while others had almost all of their beige fat into brown fat, making their body burn fat rapidly. This group of mice had their white fat cells, which are often linked to poor health outcomes, significantly reduced, while those obese mice that are glucose-intolerant regained glucose tolerance.
However, there are side effects to the loss of smell. These include a significant increase in noradrenaline, a hormone related to stress response. For humans, this could lead to a heart attack.
Also, they noted that the obese mice that lost weight after their sense of smell were disabled lost only fat weight. This method of weight loss did not have an effect on their muscle, bone mass, or organs.
Dillin believes this method would benefit many extremely obese people despite the risk of increased levels of noradrenaline, especially if they are considering surgery to fix their weight problem.
“You could wipe out their smell for maybe six months and then let the olfactory neurons grow back after they’ve got their metabolic program rewired,” he said.
The researchers teamed up with German researchers who made the findings that a group of mice, which had their sense of smell boosted, gained weight drastically. With such revelation, they came up with a similar conclusion and believe these studies will not only provide information to help better understand how weight loss occurs, but also understand better how eating disorders can be developed.
“We think olfactory neurons are very important for controlling pleasure of food and if we have a way to modulate this pathway, we might be able to block cravings in these people and help them with managing their food intake.” Riera said.
obese people, obesity, weight loss, weight problem, lose weight, new method, metabolism, smelling, sense of smell
David Orchard-Webb
Gene Therapies for Obesity, Diabetes, and Chronic Kidney Disease Under Development
Sleep, Weight Management, and Melatonin
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Leveraging the genome sequences of two Arabidopsis relatives for evolutionary and ecological genomics
Acronym ARelatives
Duration 1 July 2007 - 1 January 2010
Project leader Detlef Weigel, MPI for Developmental Biology, Germany
Other project participants Mikkel Heide Schierup, Aarhus University, Denmark
Yves van de Peer, Ghent University, Belgium
Outi Savolainen, University of Oulu, Finland
Barbara Neuffer, University of Osnabrück, Germany
Deborah Charlesworth, University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom
Michael Lenhard, John Innes Center, United Kingdom
Barbara Mable, University of Glasgow, United Kingdom
Funding Danish Agency for Science, Technology and Innovation (DASTI), Denmark
Flemish Government, Department of Economy, Science and Innovation (EWI), Flanders (BE)
The Academy of Finland (AKA), Finland
The German Research Foundation (DFG), Germany
Biotechnological and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), UK
The overall strategic objective of ERA-PG is to build links between leading research teams and to boost the overall competitiveness of plant genomics in Europe. This proposal brings together some of the very best European scientists in the areas of evolutionary and ecological genomics, including junior and senior groups. Understanding the forces driving plant evolution is an essential prerequisite if we want to comprehend the mechanisms underlying plant adaptation. This, in turn, will enable the more efficient breeding of crops that are better adapted to the environment. We are currently experiencing a drastic decline in whole-genome sequencing costs, which will provide unprecedented opportunities in all crop plants. The work done in ARelatives will help us to exploit these new opportunities.
The ARelatives Consortium exploits the impending completion of two new plant genome sequences, those of single strains of Arabidopsis lyrata and Capsella rubella, currently under way at the Joint Genome Institute of the US Department of Energy (http://www.jgi.doe.gov/CSP/). Although this multi-million dollar project is funded entirely by the US government, members of this ERA-PG team have played key roles in developing this project. In ARelatives, we are leveraging the information generated by DOE-JGI, both through bioinformatic analyses that address questions of selection and adaptation on a genome-wide scale, and through functional genomic, genetic and ecological avenues that will provide experimental evidence for specific adaptation events. Together, these approaches will set the stage for applying similar strategies in crop species.
Our specific aims are
(1) to detect genomic regions responsible for species-specific adaptation,
(2) to identify genetic variation affecting a model adaptive trait, flowering time, in Arabidopsis and Capsella, and
(3) to compare evolution of self-incompatibility in Arabidopsis and Capsella.
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